#and in the kirby verse forming in my head i do want it to be a bit more than that and the ''one is kinda rude the other is sweet!''

[vaugarde]

in my kirby verse im trying to figure out how taranzolor can work (because i cant get over ships i liked when i was 14 lmao) since in this taranza finally makes progress in moving on after the events of TKCD (which is a LARP session gone wrong here) and in that game and star allies they bond while magolor is trying to improve himself as a person and i imagine it was initially formed on a shakier foundation? bc magolor was a better person by TKCD albeit traumatized from the events of RTDL, but yknow he still was a fuckhead and liked to mess with people and a part of him did still crave to be something more and felt aimless and meaningless without something like the master crown to run after, and i think taranza would have seen sectonia parallels in that and basically just went “i can fix him”. and its like taranza trying desperately to keep his new friend/crush from destroying himself with power and greed and an outside force tearing his body apart like sectonia did (even though ironically he is also carving out his own destruction by focusing so hard on the past).

except they both need to be fixed they both need a therapist but like AFTER they get the therapist magolor learns to be satisfied with where he is and how to cope with what happened, taranza learns to move on and not punish himself constantly for what happened with sectonia and not focus so hard on the past when he has his whole life ahead of him. and they realize they still have their futures and decide... maybe they can figure it out together if they don’t have much else (at that specific point)

[desultory-novice]

hi dess, I was thinking about drawcia and her siaters last night and was curious if you ever thought about a connection between her and adeleine and noir. because of the... art theme, and because her sorceress form has some glaring similarities to dark matter blade. and/or perhaps some relation to the painter and mysterious brush mentioned in paintra/DX's boss descriptions? the subject of 2 siblings being separated is something adeleine/noir and paintra/drawcia seem to have in common

Oooh, D00p... >w< 

I hate to say that while I've been passively aware of some of the visual similarities/glaring connections between Drawcia and Dark Matter Blade, I have never really thought hard of doing anything with it/come up with anything particularly HC-y for them. Kinda goes for Drawcia and Nightmare too, who also share some concepts.

(There's just too much Dark Matter in Kirby! Keeping them all straight yet connected in a way that makes sense is difficult, darn it! No wonder Shimazaki left! "Figure the rest out for yourselves!" XD) (1)

I do know that, for Apologies, it's canon that Noir and Adeleine's family are 'people upon whom the rest of the planet does not look too fondly on.' That is why, while it would already be hard for two kids to survive there, it has been especially hard in their case...

:Dess still in deep consideration whether she wants to finish drawing the content warning-required Noir backstory chapter or not, even though it keeps poking its head into other stories:

Ahem! But I do remember thinking that if the Dark Matter Blade is Lab Discovera's first cursed af attempt at trying to make or recreate, I dunno, Galaxia maybe(?) That Ado's Paintbrush is probably the same for the Magic Paintbrush in Canvas Curse.

So, they are tied into the lore of this somehow... And you're right that their story echos the separated siblings. In fact, I was talking with thecrashman a little about some Apologies spoilers related to the above mentioned sidestory and witches made of paint did dance through my head for a second... but I still don't have anything concrete as to how the four (five, counting Vividria) are related.

-

(1)

Speaking of, I saw someone post that another Japanese guidebook supposedly made it "clear" that the Dark Matter you fight in DL 3 is the same as Blade which made me gulp because in Apologies, I wasn't necessarily going to make the Dark Matter in 3 the same as Noir and I was pre~tty sure the Japanese wiki backed me up on the possibility that they were, or at least, could be different!

...God, making Blade be the same Dark Matter that's in both 2 and 3 in Apologies-verse would have even ME crying and screaming?!?

It was bad enough that he's just a shadow of himself in 2. Flickering whispers of fading memories fighting a losing battle against the all encroaching darkness, but now, in Dream Land 3, he's LITERALLY a thrice-dead soulless husk?! Made to repeat the same task he failed at before by a heartless tyrant who only demands of the boy:

"Again." How...many...more...times...? "Again until you succeed."

Noir was gentle enough to keep Dedede asleep the whole time he was possessing him. Noir only captured Kirby's friends, not hurt them, mildly inconveniencing Kirby. But Zero? Zero resurrects his dead pawn, rips open Dedede's stomach and shoves Blade inside the king like he was a prison made of flesh within which Blade can only gnash his "teeth" (...rattle the bars...) and shed tears of darkness...

Zero then parades him out before Blade's own BABY BROTHER as a meat shield and an "example" - to fill both Gooey and Kirby with despair and hopelessness at the inevitability of that which they face.

"...You thought you had ended this one's suffering?" "This is the fate of all who defy EYE."

What is this True Arena Noir Soul I have accidentally invented?

[abyssembraced]

I've mentioned this in private before, but it's also important to have this "officially" on the blog, so!

Ghost's height is kinda fluid between universes, and changes a little bit depending on the crossover!

On average though, they usually tend to be somewhere around 1 to 2 feet tall (30 to 60cm), measured from the bottom of their feet to the flat part of their head (so, not including their horns. Those would add a bit of extra height).

Their Shade/Void form does look a little taller than regular Ghost, however! This is because one, their Void tendrils are actually a fair bit longer than their "cloak" is, and extend past their legs. So, while they would be the same height if you continued to measure them starting from their feet, when Ghost is in the air and those legs are pretty much completely obscured by their Void tendrils, you'd be more inclined to measure from the bottom of those tendrils instead, which adds a couple inches. Secondly, their ability to float probably also throws off others' perception of their height, since you wouldn't be looking down at them from on the ground and instead they can better match the eye level of whoever they're speaking to.

Some height examples are below, for those who are interested:

For their regular Hollow Knight verses, I really don't care about specifics. We have their canonical height compared to all the other characters in the game, so I just base it off of that instead of coming up with specific measurements n shit. If my writing partner views the characters as being literally bug-sized, sure, whatever, we'll do that. If they think of them as being human-sized, that's fine too! Personally I'm a little inclined to think of Hallownest as being kinda like the Kirby universe, where everything is pretty small compared to the real world (since Kirby is canonically 8 inches tall, so we can base all of the other measurements off of that), but isn't at a microscopic level or anything. But overall I still don't care too much. And for OCs, you can just tell me, like, are they roughly Hornet-sized? Hollow-sized? Ghost-sized? Etc.

For crossovers like Smash Bros., where there's a lot of height variation among all the characters, Ghost is roughly Kirby-sized. So here, they'd be closer to the one foot mark. Tiny little Void god babies go brrrrr :). They're a little taller than Kirby though, even without the horns (since Kirby is a lot rounder than Ghost, so their extra height balances things out). I'd say Kirby reaches up to Ghost's eyes, but I haven't decided if that's the top of their eyes, just below them, or somewhere in between.

In Pokémon, Ghost is also closer to one foot, being somewhere around the height of a Phantump and a Mimikyu. Since that way, it'd still make sense for trainers to potentially mistake them as being one of those Pokémon (or at least some sort of variant of them). They'd be pretty big for a Mimikyu, but. Shhhh dgdgsh

Cookie Run is the main reason for Ghost's height changing so much asgshs. Here, they're closer to two feet tall, because when I'm writing primarily with an absolutely gigantic character, I don't really want tiny one-foot-tall Ghost to be nearly the size of the other muse's hand SGHSDGSF. So! Their height gets doubled here. I don't really see myself writing with too many other Cookie Run blogs, since I'm not actually in the fandom myself, but if I did, then maybe Ghost's height would vary a bit from mun to mun?? But I dunno.

With Hades, I'm still a little conflicted. I do think it'd be really cute if Zagreus could put Ghost on his shoulder or head, though. Like Pikachu in the Pokémon anime! So yeah, somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, maybe a little closer to two feet..?

I do think it would be neat to throw Ghost into the Undertale universe, especially since lately I've had more Thoughts about it than I have in years, but I'm not certain how tall I want Ghost to be there. I think some of my struggle comes from not knowing the heights of the canon characters. Like, I'd like to say that Ghost is between Frisk and Flowey's height, but if Flowey is as tall as a regular tiny flower, then that doesn't really mean anything. Maybe they'd be roughly half of Frisk's height? Since I can't imagine Frisk being more than four or five feet tall, and even then maybe less. And if we say Flowey is at least roughly one foot tall (or more), then yeah, I imagine Ghost would be slightly taller than him. So yeah, maybe 1.5 to 2 feet here? I dunno if they'd be the same height for Deltarune too, but. Probably.

[popculturebuffet]

Goof Week: House of Mouse: Super Goof or Wish I Could Fly Like Super Goof (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

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Hello all you happy gorshers and welcome back to Goof Week, my week long celebration of Goofy’s 89th Birthday. And today I take my once a month trip down to the house of mouse as part of my patron kev’s yearlong celebration of the show’s 20th anniversary. And since I had this theme week in mind I asked him if it’d be okay if he strictly randomized goofy episodes, he said yes and here we are. 

Luck was on my side as I got what I remembered was one of my faviorite episodes of the show. But before I can get if it lived up to the hype or not a brief word on Super Goof. 

Super Goof is actually from the comics, first debuting in a story where Goofy thought he had super powers and fought the Phantom Blot in a cowboy hat. 

This concept was a hit so in 1965 Goofy was made a superhero for real with Super Goof #1. This dosen’t suprise me: this was the height of the silver age: The Lee and Kirby age of Marvel was in full swing and DC was still doing gangbusters. So there was market for a superhero spoof comic starring one of Disney’s best and brightest characters, who was given a bunch of super peanuts called super goobers to give him superman powers.  What DOES surprise me is the series lasted 74 issues from 65-84. And what’s more insane and wonderful? It didn’t get canceled because of low sales or anything. That was simply when Gold Key shut down... and Gold Key was FOUNDED three years before it meaning this book lasted the company’s ENTIRE lifespan. I’ll say that again, a book about goofy eating peanuts that started because of a story where goofy thought he was a superhero and fought a cowboy phantom blot, lasted 74 issues and only ended because the publisher shut down. That... is one of the most amazing things I have ever heard in my life. I’m genuinely impressed... this isn’t even a bad concept, I likes it and wish Disney would give it a full series. Farmer could do wonders with it. I’m just amazed that this odball little comic took off like it did. And as one final fun fact much like Superman, Super Goof set off the trend of Disney’s classic characters becoming heroes, with Donald’s own Papernik/Duck Avenger following in his footsteps. I REALLY want a Disney Superhero Verse in animatoin now, I know there was a mini series like that. And I will have to visit these comics at some point I just simply didn’t have room in the week with a movie review tomorrow. . 

So with all that out of the way how does Super Goof do on screen and does the episode hold up? Join me under the cut to find out. 

As usual for HOM I’ll be doing the shorts and overarching story seperate soooo

How To To Take Care of Your Yard:

Look anyone whose read my stuff or even just my goofy shorts special  will know how much I love the How To Shorts and how this series is responsible. This admittedly isn’t one of the BEST of them.. but it’s still fun to watch. Even a forgettable How To Short is still GOOD. It’s abotu Goofy taking care of his yard over the four seasons and has some decent gags but nothing really standout.  I Honestly DO wish I had more to say but this one’s just okay and it woudln’t stick out as much if both the wraparound and the other short weren’t so spectacular. Speaking of which. 

Locksmiths: This is one of the few shorts I VIVIDLY remembered from childhood and for damn good reason. This is THE best short i’ve seen so far for House of Mouse this year and for good reason. The premise is simple enough: The Golden Trio are locksmiths.. who end up getting locked inside their own office just after Minnie calls with something urgent to tell them. 

The results are comic gold, with the standout bits being Goofy’s keys which is just such a wonderful hurricane of puns with some great visual gags to start it off that I can’t help but love it

There’s TONS of other good stuff too: The boys fishing for the key, Mickey opening a ton of doors in a sequence MST3K would be proud of and the finale with the boys falling out the office. This is a true , hilarious classic and my words can’t really do it justice. Seek this one out on it’s own or in the episode you will not regret it. A true classic for Disney Shorts period. 

Super Goof:

So onto the main story. Goofy asks Clarabelle out and she’s not only incredibly receptive but simply asks to check her schedule.. which he interprets as no.  I would make a joke here but i’ts clear from previous episodes HOM goofy has Low Self Esteem: he was utterly crushed not having a valentine and by his friends all wishing he could be less Goofy. So him overreacting like this is in character and comes off as endearing: it’s not that he thinks so low of her he’d think sh’ed pull something like this.. it’s that he’s so doubtful of someone liking him for who he is deep down he self sabotages something I can PAINFULLY relate to as that’s one of my biggest personal issues hands down. 

So outside presumably on break...

Not THAT kind of break. Though since I bring it up: they both were wrong. They WERE on a break, and it was wrong of tweedle dee and tweedle dum there to keep needling it ESPECIALLY since their the ones who TOLD HIM to hide his sleeping with the waitress and took NO responsibility for that. Rachel treating it like an affair constantly when she’s the one who wanted space and didn��t give him any paramerters for said is fucking terrible. It’s telling that in the reunion trailer everyone but Matthew LeBlanc, who was clearly just having some fun agreed they were.  That being said Ross still slept with someone five seconds after being on said break, still listneed to the two of them on hiding it when it was a bad idea, and STILL caused said break by being a clingy asshole to such a degree even his previous history of being cheated on does not justify or excuse how badly he treated Rachel. What i’m saying is they both sucked, and thus deserved each other, and by the end NEITHER was remotely likeable, with both having done terrible things both in said will they or won’t they hellscape and outside it, with Ross dating a student and Rachel dating her assistant. 

Anyways after that thing I clearly needed to get off my chest, we get a narration informing us a METEOR IS COMING and it strikes the peanuts Goofy’s depression snacking on, as a result he becomes SUPER GOOF! And after a display of his powers with various disney characters (finding Gepetto and Pinocchio in a whale, saving the dalmations from cruella , lifting the giant from the littlest tailor) and finds he has a narrator. No really Goofy notices and is not happy about it despite all superheros having one. I mean he’s not wrong, look what the X-Men’s did to  Cyclops:

But regardless he has him and Goofy flies through the air with the quickest of ease through the house of mouse impressing everyone who has no idea he’s goofy. This gag is a carry over from the comics and a transparent parody of the superman clark kent thing. But it works because Goofy still uses his name in costume, still has his hat and really changes nothing about his appearance. It’s simple but sometimes you just need a very simple gag to work and overxplaning it spoils the whole thing. Trust me I know as a certified experinced fuck up. 

So after the first cartoon Super Goofy guest stars, and we get some neat gags with the disney movie characters, though my faviorite is Peter Pan’s reactoin of “He Can fly he can fly he can fly, big deal. Anyone can do that”. It’s both perfectly in character and utterly hilarious. 

Goofy however starts to feel disheartneed as everyone compliments him.. and Minnie says he’s better than a regular goofy as do the others minus Mickey because he’s a good egg. And Clarabelle but he misinertperts her like of super goof as her liking him better as that. 

So fed up with everyone liking him better, Goofy throws away the peanuts, which he kept in his hat.. though one did fall in his waiter’s uniform. Remember that. The narrator questions if this is really the end and what if there’s peril but Goofy’s stubbornly instiant he won’t do it no matter what. 

Cue the what: another MUCH LARGER metor heading straight for Mainstreet

Goofy refuses to summon super goof despite the danger... Mickey has an apt response for him

This is the one scene I don’t really like: Goofy has a righ tto be upset they all prefer someone who just showed up hours ago over him, especially beceause it IS him, to the point Daisy was upset she got a picture of goofy instead of super goofy because J Jonah Jameson’s not going to pay for pictures of his next door neighbor. But Mickey has a right to not want to die horribly in a cataclysm of fire. 

So Goofy mopes off like his son to go save the world, fine whatever. Only as is cartoon law, the trash has been picked up meaning he dosen’t have any goobers.. except the CHEKOVS GOOBER. With it he chews it, flies up and has a truly impressive display holding it back while it’s just over clarabelle before dispoising of it. he hits on her in super form but she says she already has  date with regular goofy. Goofy’s confidence is restored, he’s probably getting laid tonight and we close on a Mike add for a school for Goofy’s. How much is tution.. asking for a me. 

Final Thoughts: This wraparound was great, a few small flaws but it has a great, engaging charcter driven story with some delightfully silly jokes that are right up my ally. It’s easy to see besides my love of superheroes why this one stood out to me: It’s funny, heartwrenching and stars one of my faviorite character.

The shorts are also good, one that’s okay , a bit too long but not bad, and one that’s an utter masterpiece. In fact the only reason the first short feels so long is you really want to get back to the main plot fast,  and that’s not a bad problem to have. This was an excellen tepisode and I recommend seeing it out. 

Before I get to my whole patreon speil, i’d like to say that House of Mouse STILL is not avaliable on Disney+ for reasons that haven’t been made clear. As such it’s on my Not Streaming List, a list I keep and update reguarly of shows that SHOULD be streaming on a particular service and have no clear reason NOT to be such as musical rights issues like the ones likely keeping shows like Drew Carrey, Northern Exposure and Murphy Brown off streaming. So check that out if your curious, link is on my main page and hit me up if you have any suggestoins for it. 

So thank you for reading and if you liked this review give it a like and consider joining my patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet. As a patron you’d get access to exclusive reviews, the patreon’s discord and to pick a short each time I do one of these shortstaculars. Donald’s comnig next month and the deadline is in only a few days to join up for said month so the clock is ticking. Even a dollar a month helps me reach my stretch goals so please i fyou can sign up today and if not, I understand and i’ll see you at the next rainbow

[davidmann95]

All-Star Superman Annotations: Smash Mouth

In the late 1990s, Grant Morrison legendarily met ‘Superman’ in a self-described shamanic encounter outside the San Diego convention center at 2 in the morning and questioned him. His answers and general demeanor inspired his take on the character in his 1998 Superman 2000/Superman NOW pitch alongside Mark Waid, Mark Millar, and Tom Peyer, and later his seminal All-Star Superman alongside Frank Quitely, Jamie Grant, Phil Balsman, and Travis Lanham.

The year after that initial pitch - whether out of the transcendent synchronicities Morrison has written on underlying the seeming arbitrary mundanity of day-to-day life, or significant behind-closed-doors dealings - Smash Mouth released its equally seminal All-Star.

The superheroic associations are immediately evident. But Mystery Men (very fun movie) and Steve Harwell lifting a bus are but the tip of the iceberg. Or perhaps more appropriately the edge of a cliff, for when you peer within, the connections here go deep.

Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed She was looking kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb In the shape of an "L" on her forehead

The opening of the song is obviously an evocation of the underlying rivalry between longtime nemeses’ Superman and Lex Luthor, with the latter mocking his erstwhile opponent on his idealistic shortsightedness in Lex’s mind, as well as that by poisoning him via solar radiation overdose he has at last triumphed. Of course, as the narrative remains on Superman’s side, Luthor’s worldview is exposed as self-aggrandizing solipsism, rendering him looking kind of dumb. That the figure of the song is referred to as ‘she’ is curious; perhaps this is in fact Nasthalsia ‘Nasty’ Luthor. Or it may refer to a sort of conceptual malleability of identity referring to Luthor’s eventual transformation via rehabilitation and time-travel into Leo Quintum, a decidedly more flamboyant and effeminate figure than the decidedly machismo-poisoned Luthor.

Well the years start coming and they don't stop coming Fed to the rules and I hit the ground running Didn't make sense not to live for fun Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb So much to do, so much to see So what's wrong with taking the back streets? You'll never know if you don't go You'll never shine if you don't glow

‘Hit the ground running’ is an apt choice of words when the title of the first chapter is Faster...; the progression of time and defiance of rules, going down the backstreets, can be read as his reaching beyond the typical rules and structures that have fenced him in over decades of continuity and tradition in the face of his pending mortality, such as revealing his identity to Lois (his realization of his mistreatment of her and their relationship as his intellect increases corresponds neatly to his brain getting smart but his head getting dumb), freeing Kandor, and entrusting humanity and Quintum/Luthor specifically with his genetic legacy.

Hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play Hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid And all that glitters is gold Only shooting stars break the mold

Morrison referenced in his All-Star Superman exit interview with Newsarama his initial frustration with the All-Star brand going on his definitive Superman text, seeing it as an intrusive corporate logo (not knowing that it would ultimately come to be associated predominantly with that one story) when he wanted his story to be seen simply as ‘Superman’. Choosing to work with what he had, his story finds Superman becoming a literal golden glittering all-star shooting across the sky, pure information, an untouchable incorporeal living myth sprung from a man as akin to the ‘rock star’ image formed around ordinary people (such as Morrison himself in his younger days with his band The Mixers). The subject of payment will be returned to at the conclusion.

It's a cool place and they say it gets colder You're bundled up now, wait till you get older But the meteor men beg to differ Judging by the hole in the satellite picture The ice we skate is getting pretty thin The water's getting warm so you might as well swim My world's on fire, how about yours? That's the way I like it and I never get bored

This verse at first appears to be in reference to the coming of the freezing All-Night of the Bizarro Underverse, and Superman’s return as a ‘meteor man’ crashing into a travelling circus. However, while this is a neat narrative transition it is in fact in reference to metaphorical coldness and figurative meteor men, in the form of Bar-El and Lilo, and Superman’s reckoning with his Kryptonian heritage (though the opening lines also evoke the emotional coldness and grappling with mortality that define #5-6: it is this central 6-issue chunk that make up the night side of the archetypal journey into the underworld and rebirth that Morrison has commented formed the mythical structure of the series). The ‘hole in the satellite picture’ is interesting; it could be seen as a roundabout reference to the Kryptonian couple’s conquest of human culture as seen in Metropolis both architecturally and in Jimmy’s adoption of Kryptonian overpants and belt, culminating in the literal hole in the moon (symbolic of dreams, as all culture is the product of) patched up with human cultural artifacts such as the Golden Gate Bridge. More pertinently however, it evokes General Zod’s command of the airwaves in 2013′s Man of Steel, where he not only inhabits a colonialist view of planet Earth evocative of Bar-El and Lilo, but mentions that Superman “could have built a New Krypton in this squalor”, a direct line lift from the issue. Either the time-bending syncronicities go further than initially realized, Morrison played an extremely long game while consulting on the film, or Zack Snyder is not only in fact in possession of the deep understanding of Superman and his source material that his apologists claim, but himself figured this all out a very long time ago and adjusted his work accordingly. In any case, the Kryptonian astronauts’ belief in the “uncontested superiority and grandeur of Kryptonian culture” is impotent in the face of their own failing bodies and ultimate realization that Superman is right; their time has passed, the ice getting thin, and Superman’s kindness and willingness to engage human culture on its own terms - to swim - must carry the day. Per Morrison, “In mythic terms, if Superman is the story of a young king, found and raised by common people, then Krypton is the far distant kingdom he lost. It’s the secret bloodline, the aristocratic heritage that makes him special, and a hero. At the same time, Krypton is something that must be left behind for Superman to become who he is - i.e. one of us. Krypton gives him his scientific clarity of mind, Earth makes his heart blaze.” (Bolding my own)

(Chorus repeats)

Somebody once asked could I spare some change for gas? I need to get myself away from this place I said yep what a concept I could use a little fuel myself And we could all use a little change

The final non-repeating section of the song represents a final struggle between Luthor’s materialistic outlook, only able to see ‘change’ and ‘fuel’ in crass physical, monetary terms, while the enlightened Superman - transformed by his own process of personal growth and forthcoming elevation to solar deity - is capable of discerning a deeper meaning. That this is framed as an exchange, and more specifically an education, hints at Lex’s lesson at the hands of his senses in the worthwhile of the immaterial, divine unity of humanity that will prompt his transformation into Quintum, tying the story in a neat loop. Incidentally, the prospect of ‘change’ as monetary value while not a prominent factor in All-Star Superman will go on to have significant roles in both his major subsequent Superman works, Action Comics and Multiversity (the latter of which by his own admission evokes All-Star in its Thunderworld Adventures chapter, going on to reckon with the capitalistic give-and-take of commercial storytelling aiming for the type of enlightenment Morrison seeks to provide in its concluding issue), advancing the connections of the song to All-Star’s post-release impact as well as its text.

(Chorus repeats, concluding the song)

A final note: but the Meteor Men beg to differ is not only the most Jack Kirby-ass line that dude never wrote, but always reminds me of the 1993 Robert Townsend picture The Meteor Man, which I apparently viewed as a child and which I have always misremembered as having a direct connection to the 1978 Superman. I could swear I recall a bit of a picture being shown of a man with a meteor that’s the same picture of the man who found Kryptonite in the Donner film, the latter of which of course was a tremendous influence on All-Star Superman.

[thepaperthrones]

When To Walk Away Pt. I

Preview to The Long Goodbye

***This blog was originally  written by Koncepts and featured as documentary comment on Cocaine Blunts appearing in 2009. Since then the trolls have made it less inspiring for the homie Noz to keep the blog up so I thought I would recreate it here for the sake of background*** 

“Fundamentals consisted of me – Koncepts – and Karma. We met each other at Berkeley High, 1992. All I remember was being introduced to this dude who was into rap, and had a little bit of game to him - he knew all the different cats around school, kept good weed, knew how to talk to girls. Quickly we started hanging out, going to parties. We formed The Fundamentals in early '93, long before the crew Kemetic Suns came about. At that time, the crew we made was called "Ascension": in addition to us, we brought in a group called Hijinx (Peekaboo and Embassy), rappers Malignant and Level Z, and Anthony/Ayentee. Before I got with Karma, I was in an awful band that played funk-rock-jazz-rap-fusion a la Alphabet Soup or the Mo'Fessionals – interesting sidenote, playwright Itamar Moses played keyboards in that group. But I wanted to do something that was more straight up Hip-Hop. I was DJing already and I played the guitar. I fell off with the guitar lessons but started making primitive beats. Hanging out at Anthony’s house in north-west Berkeley I started to get hip to funk and latin and freakier jazz music all courtesy of his father’s record collection.

We all hung out and got busy together, either at Anthony's house or at my house. Anthony’s house was like a constant spot – there would be any number of kids there, from the graf crew DOA down to West Side Berkeley dudes, friends of his dad, relatives. I was granted use of a narrow boiler room underneath my mom’s house – the “Bomb Shelter” – to record in, and all of the material featured was made there. The beats here were made either on an Akai S-01 (a cheap version of the 950) and a Roland R8 Human Rhythm Composer, or the Ensoniq ASR-10, which I stuck with. Kids would come through, I would throw together a beat or have one I had already worked up, and they would record. Anthony, who made beats as well, occasionally helped out engineering things. I’d do arrangements, hooks, whatever. I wanted people to write songs, not just lay down rhymes, so I tried to focus their talents and that’s how a lot of this stuff came to be. A lot of guys didn’t have any idea how to write songs – like, verse/hook/bridge, or whatever. Some dudes just wanted to spit for like 6 minutes. Off the head. It was a mess.

Most of us were from Berkeley or Oakland. Karma spent some time up in Sacramento early on. Malignant had one foot out in Richmond I think. Around the beginning of 1994 I moved to the Mission neighborhood in San Francisco to go live with my father, but continued attending Berkeley High and hanging out with the crew every day. It was a regular thing to go from school to my mom’s basement where the makeshift studio was, record until 7 or 8, ride the bus back into San Francisco and wash up somewhere around 10 at my dad’s apartment. Peek lived out by Eclipse, in the Union City area, and they were friends, so that’s how we got down with the Mixed Practice crew. Eclipse tells me now that he got real tight when Peek played him some of my stuff, like “who is this other young dude out here with beats??” Karma’s brother Wayne knew Corey/BFAP from the Mystik Journeymen, so we got down with them around ’94 or so, but I think they probably saw us as like, young’uns in the game. We met Kirby around then as well, up at UC Berkeley at KALX – Karma had gone up there with BFAP from the Journeymen. While BFAP was kind of cool on the kid, it was obvious he had incredible talent. Kirby, originally from East Oakland, had spent many years in Stockton prior to coming to Berkeley… had kind of a checkered past, but it turned out he and Karma knew some folks in common from up that way. We would hang out and freestyle in his dorm room but we hadn't really clicked up in a formal way yet, like we would later.

Even though our style was more on the “backpack”/”houser” thing, a lot of the cats in the crew had street ties, we just didn’t really put it out there like that. It was more a thing you wanted to get away from, if you had ever been close enough to see it. The one exception was The Mental Patients – featured here on “Mental Anxieties” – who were some real street cats from South Berkeley, North Oakland, and East Oakland. But they’d come through, we’d smoke, lay down some music, no drama ever. They weren’t really a part of the crew per se but they showed love, would share smoke or even muscle if it was needed (which, on a couple of occasions, it was). Good dudes. Any time there was beef you had an assemblage of dudes from West Side and South Side Berkeley as well as North Oakland and parts of the east as well. We rolled deep.

The Ascension crew only lasted but so long, though, and at a certain point, friendly competition turned into beef. Dudes started talking behind each others’ backs, trying to create little allegiances and whatever… just childish stuff but you know we were, at the time, anywhere from 14-18 years old. Embassy and Karma, long rivals in the cipher, came to blows and everyone went their separate ways. I spent several months recording my own material, thinking I’d record my own demo/album, maybe sell it like the Journeymen and Mixed Practice and the other guys I was meeting around the scene at that time. That stuff never got released anywhere, with only one track turning up on 30 Days; much of it is featured here.

In the summer of 1995, Karma and I were both working in San Francisco. He was interning at Polygram - Polygram had an office in San Francisco! We patched up and started working on what would become 30 Days & A Plane Ticket, our first “real” tape – the title owing to the fact that I was moving to New York City 30 days from when we started. Karma’s style, originally an old school, laid back flow, and at one point a bone of contention amongst the more east coast-influenced crew, had developed into a this tripped out, cerebral scattershot of politics, hood slang, conspiracy theories, and 5% math. A cat he rolled with called Bay-Bay came up with the name Kemetic Suns. At that time, though, it was basically just a loose affiliation of folks we rolled with, some of whom didn't make music at all. It was just a crew in the loosest sense. Kirby was down at that point, but I don’t recall meeting Hypnotic (another crew member) until 1996 or so, beyond the point at which this comp comes to an end.

Honestly I don’t know what people will think of this stuff. I’m opening myself up which is always a risk. I think we had some talent. We never made a huge mark, despite being really prolific – due mostly to my ability to record. I had the good fortune to hold onto most of my old sessions. I’m sure there’s a ton of amazing stuff out there that has disappeared… I’ve certainly been met with that response as I’ve sought out material by other groups of the time. We wore our influences on our sleeves – but as kids, that’s just part of developing your own style. Back then, it wasn’t about features, or placements, or even tape sales really – just a bunch of cats doing music. That’s what the underground tape thing was really about. I can think of no better way to illustrate that.”

Return To The Bomb Shelter DOWNLOAD

Part II 

[auburnfamilynews]

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome back, Tiger fans! Hope everyone has enjoyed their time over the Christmas holidays and is ready to get a head start on those New Year’s resolutions today by...sitting somewhere comfortable with a tasty beverage in hand to watch what is hopefully (but probably not!) excellent football that’s not involving Auburn today (NO STRESS YET!).

With that in mind, let’s dive right in, shall we?

Peach Bowl - LSU vs. Oklahoma - 3:00 PM God’s time zone

Today is a tough edition of the Index to write for yours truly. See, a lot of folks have some very deep, real feelings of hate for the fanbase of Louisiana State University. I myself have been told that “Auburn ain’t sh*t” by a kid who had to be less than 10 years old before the 2005 John Vaughn game in Baton Rouge. I offered to go to jail with a Louisiana gentleman during the game by way to beating his ass for running up to my father and screaming in his face after a Skylar Green punt return for a TD (WHY DOES THAT HAPPEN SO MUCH NOW I’M DEFEATING MY OWN POINT HERE BECAUSE I’M THINKING BACK TO 2017 WHY GOD WHY). I was sober. The gentleman declined.

What I’m saying is that I get it. They can be awful. “But Josh, every fanbase in the SEC has fans like that!”, people might say. Which is total crap. There’s no other fanbase in any stadium I’ve ever been to that the fans have spit on me aside from those in red and black. There is only ONE fanbase in America that would have a fan have his entire personal identity so wrapped up in a football program that after a loss he would wait a few days then drive to Auburn’s campus and poison historic and cherished trees. Show me anything close to that at Auburn. Maybe we do have some of that, but from a sheer volume perspective, it’s hard to find any orange and blue needles in crimson, white, red, and black haystack.

Which leads me back to LSU. Why don’t I include them in above haystack? Especially after some of the crap I’ve had to put up with down there? Because I’ve gotten to know a fair amount of these people. When I think about LSU’s fanbase, I think about the Valley Shook crew and their tailgate, led by Zach Rau, and how truly welcoming they are. I think of how much I love getting a group of my friends in Baton Rouge to go to Juban’s or Adrian’s and have a Hallelujah Crab the night before a game.

@JoshBlack Instagram

Hallelujah Crab - Apologies for the NSFW nature of this picture

I also kinda love the nature of this LSU team. They are so engulfed in state pride, which is a legitimate, non-confederate thing for that region of the southern United States. They have an underdog Cajun head coach who I would want to run through a brick wall for if I played for him. They have a quarterback in Joe Burrow that Ohio State didn’t want, who went down to LSU and earned where he is today. And the only time they really had the hell scared out of them this year was against us, and have actually shown a decent amount of respect to us in my corner of the twitter-verse over it.

And let’s talk about one other thing that pushes me towards LSU in this game...Jalen Hurts. Sure I like the kid fine. His story is a great one. But you know who is pulling for Jalen Hurts today? Tide fans. Because they need to identify with some form of greatness out of their own insecurities instead of just sitting back and enjoying the day. Oh yeah sure, we’ve all been happy for Jalen to have success away from Alabama this year. But now that they’re irrelevant, they’ve got to find a way to feel relevant. Jalen Hurts is the avenue to that for their psyche.

But you know what? The Index doesn’t give a damn about my feelings or yours. There’s not one damn thing to gain for our Auburn Tigers by LSU winning today. LSU having another national championship trophy in Baton Rouge actually hurts Auburn in recruiting. It doesn’t “enhance” the SEC at this point. It doesn’t make us look any better. Our record in 2019 is our record. But give a recruiter like Ed Orgeron a national title to show rings to 5 Star recruits in Mobile, AL? No thank you.

And don’t give me the, “But Josh, a strong LSU and Auburn means a weaker Alabama!” No. Auburn doesn’t need help from anyone in the SEC West in weakening Alabama. The SEC East is another story (YEAH TENNESSEE I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU and also LOL Georgia you have BLOWN the literal best shot you’ve had in 40 years because you seemingly CAN’T beat Alabama thanks to not getting out of your own way).

So with that in mind, and with a heavy heart for the good people of Louisiana, I say...

BAH GOD...

Photo by Jackson Laizure/Oklahoma/Getty Images

...BOOMER SOONER!

Fiesta Bowl - Clemson vs. Ohio State - 7:00 PM God’s time zone

We are all so sick of Dabo and his bellyaching about undervaluing Clemson. Their schedule sucks. I mean when you’re toughest test is against a Kellen Mond led Texas A&M at home, you don’t have a lot of room to talk in terms of resume.

Where you do have room to talk is having a death machine program that flips a switch every November without looking back and is primed and ready to get the credit they deserve in the College Football Playoff. I mean, we see it every single year. This is a loaded team that no one is talking about that may end up winning the whole dang thing.

On the other side we are all enjoying Justin Fields play quarterback for someone other than the University of Georgia. If we’re being honest, Fields should be at Auburn. Kirby Smart is a real asshole when it comes to negative recruiting, telling Fields that we would move him to another position if he signed here. Fields was extremely interested in Auburn after decommiting from Penn State prior to signing with Georgia. So yeah, it’s an absolute pleasure watching Justin Fields do the thing away from Georgia while they legitimately ponder if they will be able to score enough points to beat Baylor.

But here’s the thing about Ohio State...there’s always this...

Oh God ew gross

Those three people deserve disappointment. Why? Because why the hell not? There’s also the whole thing of the fanbase at large defending Urban Meyer for keeping an abusive husband on his staff while arrogantly thinking he could be part of the solution instead of the law. That’s beyond shameful.

But you know what? The Index is only biased towards the benefit of our Auburn University Tigers. I recognize the need for Ohio State to feel pain and agony, but there’s potential for that to happen on a larger stage in a week. This boils down once again to recruiting for the Index. We’re going head to head against Clemson for kids in Georgia and even Alabama at times. 3 titles in 5 years puts them on a level all by themself and serves to harm Auburn’s efforts on Signing Day.

So with that in mind let’s get this over with because I think I’m gonna be sick...

Go Bucks.

Oof that was gross. Let’s not ever do that again. I don’t ever want to be on the same side of an argument as folks that see fit to pour chili over spaghetti noodles. Anyways, there it is folks, a terrible national championship game with no southern flavor in New Orleans. This is the best outcome for Auburn based on who we recruit against. It’s awful. It’s ruined. Which makes it perfect.

WAR EAGLE!

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/12/28/21040244/rootability-index-college-football-playoff-edition

[thenightling]

Marvel / DC and horror fans of comics...

Fact:  In the 1950s until the 1970s Parental groups discouraged supernatural content in comic books (and comic books in general) because they deemed them violent, a bad influence on children, and even a "gateway into dabbling with the occult."  This is what killed EC Comics (Publisher of Tales from the Crypt).   DC's House of Mystery (which was their version of Tales from the Crypt) had to drop all supernatural stories and make them all murder mysteries (Because somehow that's better...) and some science fiction like experimentations and aliens and they only discretely / sneakily started to returned to supernatural horror in the late 60s / early 70s. 

  I'm seeing the same thing happen now but because of corporate greed in Hollywood.  That's why Marvel has depleted Doctor Strange's powers to be reflections of the infinity stones powers, removed his ability to open portals at will, removed all reference to ghosts and the afterlife (why we don't see The Ancient One's astral form after death), and why the Asgardians are no longer actual Gods (and no, kids.  They're not aliens in the orignal comics.   Jack Kirby wanted to use actual mythology. The alien thing was started in the Ultimate comics).

There are Marvel fans who don't even realize Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster exist in the Marvel universe.  Even the writers aren't familiar with Marvel's horror side.   Man-Thing is reduced to a comedy character, Dracula is only dusted off for Halloween.  And Frankenstein's Monster (and even Living Mummy) are portrayed as simple minded now when they used to be intelligent and articulate in the original Frankenstein novel.   They even give the Frankenstein Monster a flat head to match the pop culture archetype instead of the original and their own older comics.

This is why Marvel is starting to lose me to DC.   Back in the 1990s I got into Marvel because THEY were the ones embracing their Gothic Horror side while DC downplayed it, now the roles have reversed.   Now Marvel downplay it and it's mostly to market their Cinematic Universe in China, where Western depictions of the afterlife and anything that can be seen as religious (including mythology) is not allowed.  Yet DC has the balls to not bother with that. 

And no, Marvel fans, stupidly and repeatedly reminding me how bad Batman vs. Superman is doesn't suddenly make this okay.   "Oh, Zack Snyder is mentally a twelve-year-old who likes dark for the sake of dark and can't comprehend hope?  I did not know that.  Gosh, that makes what Marvel's been doing to it's supernatural horror fans perfectly all right then!" No!  That's not now this works!   I miss what Marvel used to be but for now the DC comics and TV verse (and SOME) of their films have my attention the way Marvel used to.  A of bad films from a man who no longer works for DC doesn't suddenly make these things okay.