#and oh my god some of the music quality is so bad so I might have to redownload LOL

[pissbabysupreme]

Got an iPod classic lately and I’m trying to see if I like it or not

[laundrybiscuits]

“Eddie,” Robin says, eyes wide in a way that means trouble. “Edward Munson, I sincerely hope your last will and testament is in order, because you are going to completely and totally die when I tell you who just got hired at Scoops Ahoy.”

Eddie groans. “Don’t tell me Tammy Thompson is giving up on her Nashville dreams.”

“No, I hate you, shut up forever, you’ll never guess.” Robin pauses, then in a dramatic whisper she’s definitely picked up from Eddie himself, says: “Steve Harrington.”

“Jesus. No shit?”

“Yeah, I have to train him. Oh my god it’s the worst. He’s so bad at, like, everything.”

She shoves at his shoulder until he moves out of the doorway of the trailer, and flings herself backwards onto his couch. “Like! Okay! I showed up to my shift thinking it would be a completely normal day in which I would be bored out of my skull distributing frozen dairy products to the flotsam and jetsam of Hawkins, and Ned’s like, hey Robin, you’re showing the new guy the ropes today. And then that freaking jackass has the freaking nerve to say—” Her voice drops a full register. “Uhh, nice to meet you, I’m Steve. Nice to meet you! God!”

Eddie cringes sympathetically, sucking air between his teeth. There’s a special kind of indignity to being so completely and utterly below the radar of Hawkins High royalty, even former bearers of the crown. It’s not as if Hawkins is a big town; Eddie’s pretty sure he could pick every single person in the graduating classes of ‘84 and ‘85 out of a crowd. He’ll probably be able to do it for ‘86 too, though he’s trying not to think about it too hard. So he’ll be a senior again (again) this fall, whatever. It’s fine. It’s whatever.

Once in a while, he wastes some time really, really wishing he’d gotten to know Robin earlier in the year. Maybe even last year. For undying friendship reasons, yeah, but also because with her in his corner, he might’ve actually passed enough of his classes to fucking graduate on his second fucking try.

But he’d only actually met her, like actually met her for real instead of passing her in the hall sometimes, when he’d let himself get suckered into rejoining band. It wasn’t like he could’ve brought his guitar in, but he let it slip to Miss Genovese that he could read music and keep time, and they needed someone to wallop the bass drum, and he figured a little experience fucking around with percussion might be the one thing he could salvage from the year. He’d just…been so goddamn tired of feeling stuck, spinning his wheels. Music was something he could actually handle; something he could actually get better at. Something he could master. He's man enough to admit he needed a win.

The actual songs were all stuffy Holst and Sousa numbers, but they’d had some fun technical bits he spent his evenings hammering out for a couple weeks. And then right around the point when he’d gotten good enough to get bored and think about quitting like last time, it had somehow wound up that shooting the shit with the gangly weirdo in the trumpet section was one of the best parts of his day. Unfortunately, by the time they’d gotten close enough for her to start bullying him about homework and shit, it had been way too late to save his chance at walking that ‘85 stage with assholes like Steve fucking Harrington.

Not that Harrington would’ve even noticed, apparently.

“Anyway, the one singular saving grace about the entire situation is that he looks even dumber in the sailor costume than I do, so at least that will make me feel better about my life until he gets fired for burning down the ice cream freezer or something like that. Eddie, I cannot stress this enough: he is so bad at this job.”

Eddie very tactfully does not bring up the litany of screw-ups that Robin’s admitted to over the last couple weeks since she started at Scoops; he just says, “Buckley, it sounds to me like you might be in need of some quality relaxation time this fine evening. I can offer you a nice cold beer, some herbal refreshment…or a fiendishly weird new song to learn with an intro riff that'll make you cry.”

Robin, inveterate nerd of his heart, sits up immediately and chirps, “New song, please!” just like he knew she would. She’s going to run off and elope with his acoustic one of these days, and he’s not even mad about it.

“Coming right up, m’lady,” says Eddie. “I promise this entire Harrington situation will be over before you know it, and neither of us will ever have to think about him again.”

(ETA: First chapter of this fic has been edited/expanded and posted on AO3)

[utilitycaster]

What are some of your favourite podcasts / podcast recs?

It's hard to pick a favorite though I will say at the moment Midst is the one I think I look forward to the most, so I'm just going to go through basically all podcasts I currently or relatively recently previously listened to and sort them by rough genre. Note that as with all recommendation requests it helps to know the vibe of what you're going for and what's important to you (I know I just was like hey I'll take most music recs but the commitment for music is like the length of a song, whereas podcasts/books/movies/tv are a bit more time put in)

Actual Play:

Longtime listener of NADDPod and TAZ which I'm guessing if you follow me you are broadly aware of but if not feel free to ask more; I also post about Worlds Beyond Number enough that you might know what it is. I checked out Burnt Cookbook party a while ago both because I liked Jenna Stoeber's work with Polygon and because someone asked me for Actual Play podcast-only recs with more than one woman or nb player that weren't RQG and I was like oh I should find some. Anyway it's quite good! it's definitely lower production values than bigger podcasts but the plot is highly original and really good, the vibes are fantastic, the characters are a lot of fun, and all in all worth checking out. I also do listen to the Re-Slayer's Take which I've really enjoyed! Everyone's good but while I was familiar with (and a fan of) Jasmine Bhullar and Jasper William Cartwright's work, Jasmine Chiong as Farah speaks to the Grouchy Old Hunter Woman fan in me and has been a personal standout. It is very heavily edited, which does take some getting used to. Also, I mentioned RQG (Rusty Quill Gaming). It comes with the caveat of "very good but slow to start and then doesn't really stick the landing, imo, though the epilogues help" but I can recommend with that warning.

Scripted Fiction

Camlann. Modern post-apocalyptic Arthuriana/Folklore of the British Isles, with some hints of other folklore as well. 1 season; hoping they get funding for a second because it was very well done and also I want Gwen and Morgan to kiss.

Midst. Hard to describe but if you follow me you've seen a lot of posts that might help. Extremely good! About to finish in a bit over a week's time! Check it out and I advice you check out the first 3 episodes at once to get a feel for it; the three-narrator thing is also "get used to it and it will be fine".

The Penumbra Podcast. Originally envisioned as an anthology podcast but then two specific settings (noir-y space opera and medieval court monster hunters) were very popular. Also nearing its end.

The Silt Verses. Quite literally everything on this list would be described as "New Weird" and "has queer characters" and this is maybe the New Weirdest. Anyway, set in a world where gods are real, require human sacrifice to live, and society is both very complicit and also uses the gods to sell shit. I think people who are mad about D20 or CR not being explicitly political enough should listen to it. Extremely good. Also in its endgame, but they've had a very drawn out schedule as of late.

Welcome to Night Vale. You are on Tumblr; presumably you know the drill. I can't say I'm like...super following what happens but it's one of those things that's been a constant in my life for over a decade and takes up a very pleasant hour-ish per month. This feels like damning with faint praise but the earlier stuff was great and it's still strong, it's just, you know, the inevitable slowness of an indefinitely long slice-of-life-ish show vs. the more plot-driven ones above.

Within the Wires. By one of the Night Vale Creators. I have a post about it but it's set on an alternate history Earth where a cataclysmic war/plague/various other bad things absolutely destroyed the population in the early 1900s, leading to a very different global society. Some people say the seasons are very uneven in quality. They are incorrect. The seasons follow different people and all are in the form of found audio, so they are all quite different, but it's entirely a matter of personal preference if you like a season or not; it's not that some are Objectively Better.

Wolf 359 finished a long time back and I haven't relistened since my original listen in like...2018, but of "podcasts that have finished" it's worth it. Weird space stuff.

Informative(?)

Home Cooking by Hrishikesh Hirway and Samin Nosrat; was a pandemic project that now only airs yearly, really, but worth checking out if you like cooking.

I found out about Home Cooking via Song Exploder, which is just Hrishikesh Hirway talking about songs. Great podcast; the editing is fascinating and I have found a lot of good music from it!

I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats. Has only two seasons but they are both very good if you like The Mountain Goats as a band.

No Such Thing as a Fish: the QI (British quiz show) (if you're British you know this better than I do) researches talk about weird facts and riff on them.

Sawbones: Justin McElroy and his wife Dr. Sydnee Smirl McElroy talk about weird medical history and dumb wellness trends on tiktok. This is one of the earliest podcasts I subscribed to back when I did not drive nearly as much.

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. Has also completed and there's a book that's basically covering the same ground. It's not like, purely informative; it's very anecdotal (as is I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats) but I learned a lot from it.

Honorable mention: I just didn't have the time or energy to keep up with Ologies by Alie Ward but what I listened to was fun and interesting and my sibling is a big fan.

Comedy and Miscellany:

Beef and Dairy Network: also British, on the Max Fun network with the McElroys. Fucking weird. I debated putting this in the scripted fiction because it's basically "what if Welcome to Night Vale was a little less story focused but still had throughlines and was specifically about the cattle industry in some absurdist alternate version of our world" but stuck with comedy bc the absurdity outstrips the plot. It's weird!

My Brother, My Brother, and Me: you probably know this one; either you love it or you don't.

My Dad Wrote a Porno: also British and from what I understand a bigger deal over there. Has uh. reached completion, in that they decided they were done, but the books apparently go on (sorry Rocky I'm not buying them). A guy and his two good friends read and roast his father's self-published erotica e-books about Belinda Blumenthal, Pots and Pans saleswoman, ft. bad accents, corporate espionage, and, of course, The Duchess.

The Empty Bowl: Justin McElroy and Dan Goubert of Cerealously's ASMR podcast about cereal. legitimately has helped me calm down when anxious at night. I am not even a big cereal eater it's just entertaining and chill.

Anyway any other podcasts I have listened to I've either forgotten, weren't good enough to recommend, just disappeared without any conclusion [*cough* king falls am] or involve way more reservations than I am willing to go into without knowing more about what you are looking for.

[feelo-fick]

Phio I’m so curious about the fairy brothers

OH MY GOD UHHH WHERE DO I BEGIN... okay basically, general overview :

the fairy brothers are two highschool students trying to get by - meg (they/them) and diji (he/him).

meg is a theatrical wannabe diva and ghost hunter who can be a little ignorant if not arrogant. they only have one simple goal in life - to make it big, be famous, and be known and loved by everyone on the block! because of this, they highly value their image, doing comedically drastic things just to reach their goals. you could convince them of almost anything by putting the prospect of money and fame on the line. think mickbell-adjacent, but more showy and extravagant. they're also really passionate about their belief in ghosts, and they want to prove their existence through recording vlogs while trespassing abandoned buildings (with the help of their brother, of course).

diji is a meek and overly polite guy just trying to survive. if you met him he might seem a little boring at a glance, other than his outfit. he likes baseball and crafts and that's all he'll tell you. he doesn't want much, just to live peacefully and normally without many worries (ha, imagine that). really nice fellow though! sometimes he'll get excited and accidentally slam his tail into something, but overall he's got a very even disposition. he's like... happy ena and wirt kinda. diji's also just a liiiitle judgemental of the people/environment around him, and sometimes it slips out without him thinking, but he makes sure to correct himself unless it's unnecessary. dont get me wrong, he is genuinely a nice person and he's not faking all his kindness to cover up some evil personality — he just doesnt like attracting attention and is generally wary as an unofficial guardian to his brother. he's really protective of meg, and joins them on their ghost hunts to make sure nothing bad happens.

they're both broke and don't have a stable source of income, but they both have jobs. diji works several part-time jobs at convenience stores and cafes and it's... well, it's a living. he tries his best not to complain about it. he gets free though, so win! meg has the ghost hunting vlog channel, but as you can imagine it's not doing too well (i mean, the video quality is Quite Iffy) AHHAHA but yknow, they're dead-set on it succeeding, so A for effort.

diji makes most of the money, cooks most of the food, buys most of the essentials, etc etc. he wants to provide for meg since theyre the youngest of the two of them. not by much, probably around 3-4 years or so, but they've only got each other, so someones gotta take up the mantle of caretaker, right? meg haaates this though, they hate feeling coddled and they're in that stage of life where they're determined to prove themselves. they've both had a lot arguments about it.

but they still love each other, of course.

i'm planning on opening an ask blog for them and their story, so i'm trying not to share too much! i feel like this is a pretty good summary of them though :] also their designs aren't final... they're originally fandom ocs for the webcomic musical pipers and those are their designs in that universe, but i want to change them for this personal plot to make them more of my own :D thanks for the ask about them, i have sooo much to say but well... gotta keep it under wraps for now sadly, didnt want to clog the post with a big lore dump and give too much exposition.

[eternalwritess]

Hey! I would love to request a romantic or platonic Hazbin matchup, if you're still doing them, that is.

I'm pansexual, with no preference for gender in a partner. My pronouns are she/her/hers. My love language is quality time and acts of service. I love just sitting with my partner and doing nothing, but still spending time together. I also love when my partner goes out of their way to do something for me, even if the smallest thing. It just shows that they notice and listen.

I'm 5"2 with medium dark brown wavy hair. I have dark brown eyes and freckles across the bridge of my nose. I'm curvy, with a mix of an hourglass and apple shape. I dress in comfortable casual clothing. I like my clothes to feel like pajamas, but look like I'm dressed up. I've been told that I have pug energy. As for an aesthetic, other than comfy casual, I love cottagecore and whimsigothic styles.

I love dogs and would die for each and every pup I see! I'm introverted, stubborn, organized, creative, perfectionistic, sarcastic, determined, kind, and intuitive. I'm loyal and protective of those I care about. I love to read and write mostly. I'm trying to teach myself how to crochet, but that hasn't been going very well tbh. Nature walks are cool too, especially with some music or a podcast to listen to. I also love to watch movies! I would have a movie marathon everyday if I could. I love to cook, mostly Italian meals tbh. Wish that I was a better baker though(oh, well. That's Betty Crocker is for, I guess).

I like sweet treats, rainy days, big blankets, checking things off of my to-do list, and psychology. I'm very much a homebody. I dislike being talked down to. I also really dislike bad drivers and slow walkers(I got places to be!). I hate feeling rushed.

As for a type....? I guess someone who can hold a conversation and is interested in possibly talking about abstract ideas. I want someone who can keep up with my banter and jokes, but also make me laugh.

No preference on anything else. Thanks Hun💛🍯

𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕕 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙…

𝓛𝓾𝓬𝓲𝓯𝓮𝓻!

Quite honestly I feel like Lucifer would fit you pretty well

You're kinda short... just like him- actually he might even be slightly taller than you and would try and hold that over your head

But Charlie wouldn't let him

Lucifer would always give you gifts, mostly ducks and along with some random things that he noticed that you liked. He is the king of hell after all. You stare at a necklace for too long? He's already got it wrapped up in a tiny box with your name on it

He loves treating you to things and will always spend time with you (hes kinda clingy :) )

"Do I have time today? OH HELL YEAH I DO!"

He would drop everything just to spend some time with you even on the smallest things

You wanna go shopping but there's an important meeting? Fuck it he's dropping it for ya

Ngl your aesthetic probably reminded him a little of the Garden of Eden and he got nostalgic

He's very confused about how a kind soul like you ended up in Hell but thanks God that he met you

"You're... one of the kindest souls I've ever met,"

He loves your creative side, I'd imagine you'd both creative a ton of things together

You guys probably have some sort of dog... he noticed you liked dogs so one day he just showed up at your doorstep with one

He probably has a library full of books for you to read from :)

He'll probably try to learn to crochet with you ngl and will try and hire someone from Hell (probably Rosie) to teach you both

"Oh my god, thank you so much Rosie,"

There ain't much nature in Hell but if there was I'd bet it'd be in Lucifer's house. Probably some random creations that never got put on Earth though so it may be a little weird but he's more than willing to show it to you

Movies?... He'd binge watch everything with you. Probably just have a week set aside for you guys to just chill out and watch stuff

He'd cook for you all of the time just for fun :)

"You'll never guess what I made!!"

I don't think Lucifer would ever talk down to you (he'd need an ego to do that-)

He'd fly you everywhere with his wings so uh-

No need to worry about traffic :D

[project1939]

200 Films of 1952

Film number 173: The Man Who Watched Trains Go By

Release date: December 1952 

Studio: Eros Films 

Genre: crime drama 

Director: Harold French 

Producer: Josef Shaftel, Raymond Stross, David Berman 

Actors: Claude Rains, Marius Goring, Märta Torén 

Plot Summary: A meek and lowly bookkeeper finds himself in the middle of an embezzlement and murder case, giving him the opportunity to flee his boring life for the traveling and romance he’s always dreamed of. Escaping the crime might be a hopeless cause, however. 

My Rating (out of five stars): **½  

Damn! I really wanted to like this one- when I heard it was a noir-ish drama starring Claude Rains and Marta Toren, that was all the convincing I needed to watch it. The film was promising for about the first 30 minutes... but then it went totally off the rails (see what I did there?). If not for Rains, there would be very little reason to like this film, much less watch it. It was somehow both too melodramatic and too cold at the same time. It was the kind of film that sounds good in theory but fails in execution. 

The Good: 

Claude Rains. Duh. He was bound to be good in this, and he definitely was. It was very interesting to see him play a humble everyman kind of role. He most often played rich or regal characters, and his range here was impressive. At the beginning of the film, he broke my heart as a pathetic “little guy” whose life was falling apart. As he slowly became more and more deranged, it was painful to see. 

The set up and story were interesting and entertaining- it was filled with suspense, intrigue, and psychological drama. I was never bored. 

There was some good location shooting in Paris. I especially liked that it showed a dirtier seedier side of the city, rather than a romantic postcard. 

Goring and Toren were both competent and looked the part, even if they weren’t outstanding. 

The Bad: 

The music. Oh my god, the music! It was way way too much- some of the most noticeably overwhelmingly melodramatic I’ve seen over the last 173 films! It was at turns humorous and distracting. It really affected my enjoyment of the movie. 

The melodrama in general. By the time the third act came around it was so histrionic I lost any empathy or connection I had with the characters. 

It also had a cold standoff-ish feel to it, despite the melodrama. None of the characters were really fleshed out and humanized, even Rains as Popinga to some degree. I felt a kind of disconnect, especially as the film went on. 

How did he just leave his wife and children like that? It was horrible. 

The insanity of the end! The final lines of dialogue had me laughing, “No! Oh my god, no!” 

Visually it was pretty pedestrian. With a noir-like tone and a grimy view of Paris, there was a lot of wasted potential. 

The Technicolor looked awful. Awful! I don’t know if it was the print I saw, because it wasn’t the highest quality, but the color was so bad it often reminded me of a “colorized” movie. Some of it could have been the fact that not enough lights were used on sets and locations, because Technicolor always looks best under bright lights. 

The title! It’s clunky and... just bad. It got renamed for the American release as The Paris Express, which is just boring and no better. 

[syn4k]

Open mic night

Requests are closed. Please do not send any in.

One warm spring night, all of the emperors were invited around Oli's campfire on the Olipelago.

"Now," he said, leaning towards the flames, "we have an evening of storytelling and music, drama and mystique!" He leaned back and raised his arms. "Welcome to the Olipelago's Open Mic Campfire Night!"

There was polite clapping from all sides. "Ooh, it rhymes," said Joel to Jimmy, who was sitting next to him and nodded.

"As your host, I'll go first," said Oli, taking out his lute and experimentally strumming a few chords. "I've been practicing this one for a while, and I think you'll all like it." He grinned, and couldn't keep a small snicker out of his voice as he went on. "Anyways, here's Wonderwall."

Jimmy had to be physically restrained from jumping over the fire and beating the lute into the ground, but otherwise, the performance went as smoothly as could be expected. Fwhip kept his head in his hands, Gem looked anywhere but her neighbor, and Pix kept a neutral expression on his face, trading marshmallows to roast with Sausage nearby and quietly showing him how to get them onto s'mores. A couple people clapped halfheartedly when Oli finished his performance.

"I'll go next," announced Jimmy loudly as soon as the last note had wavered out of the air. He stood up on the log he was sitting on. "In the mesa, we have a long tradition of telling scary stories at night to keep ourselves busy while out at outposts," he said, voice lowering. "One of the most popular tales, and the one that I'll be sharing with everyone here tonight, is that of the Forgotten Horseman."

A few people around the fire gasped, but quieted down as Jimmy went on. The Forgotten Horseman, he explained, was a long-lost fifth spirit of the mesa that had been separated from her brothers when she forsook her station to do good for mortals upon the world. She had once been known as Fate, but she stayed entirely neutral. Legend had it that she was still wandering around the mesas at night, keeping guard over the town. But if you ever said a bad thing about her, she would hear and cause misfortune and havoc in your household.

The campfire was very quiet when he finished. "You're right," said Oli. "That was scary."

"Thank you," said Jimmy in a cheerful tone much different than the more solemn one he had used for the stories. "Anyone else?"

"Uhhhhh, I might have something," mumbled Joel. Everyone looked at him, and he shifted in his seat. "It's not a very long story," he said quickly. "I don't think many people would be interested in-"

"Any stories are worth sharing," said Pix. Several people nodded, and Joel sighed and went on haltingly.

"It's about the ocean," he said. "Some people say that because the rivers go into the ocean and because it drips into the caves and goes into the air and all that, the ocean knows everything. That's why sometimes people sail across it to other places and learn things."

"Oh, that's a thing I've heard too!" exclaimed Joey. "At my seaside town, we have a saying. It goes something like 'the sea is a knowledgeable mistress, but her tempers are dangerous.' Out on the open ocean, things can change like that." He snapped his fingers.

"Well, that's not ominous at all," said Lizzie.

"Anyone else?" asked Oli. Everyone but Pix shook their heads.

"I was going to go last," he said. "I have a yarn to spin, if anyone would like to hear it."

"The history man tells a history story?" asked Oli. "How surprising!"

"Well, I wouldn't say it's history," said Pix. "More of a legend."

"Pix tells the best stories," whispered Jimmy to Sausage, who nodded. "Go on."

"Well," said Pix, voice taking on a mysterious and solemn quality, "it's been said that in another land long ago, there was a man who tangled with a Creator.

"Back then, the gods and the more common players mingled freely and shared space more often than they did now. The world was smaller back then, you see. But this man was so powerful that eventually one of the gods decided that something had to be done to stop him."

Everyone leaned in, and Pix laughed a little. "Oh, yeah. Apparently, this guy was so powerful that one of the Creators decided he had to do something about it himself.

"So he walked up to this guy like normal, but instead of talking like they usually did, the god took out an axe and chopped off his arm."

Everyone around the fire gasped. "Is he alright?" asked Oli.

"Oh, yeah," said Pixl. "Apparently he just made himself an arm out of metal and wire to replace the old one and became even more powerful."

Gem squinted at him. "This sounds familiar," she said.

Pix shrugged and gave her a smile. "You might have heard it somewhere before," he said. "It's an old legend, but not a very popular one, and as time goes on I'm seeing that it's fading into obscurity."

"Thank goodness you're here for that, then, Pix," said Fwhip. He lifted his small glass of water. "Three cheers to the story man!"

[airenyah]

on analyzing acting: ohm pawat as an example

attention: read my additions to this post first for some more context as it might help you understand a little better what i'm on about here...

ok so this post was born out of me wanting to give an example of what i mean by "actors perceiving something" bc you can see that really well in bad buddy ep 3 [3/4] in the music shop scene where they're hiding and pat smells pran. however, i realized i actually have a lot more to say on this moment and that i can also use it to try and showcase what i mean with "(having) thoughts"/"creating images" as well as what "directions" are supposed to be (i'm struggling the most with explaining directions in english lmao). i ended up having so much to say that it absolutely is worthy of its own post, so here it is

so this here is the moment in question that i'm going to analyze and i'm going to look at ohm specifically:

[sorry for the image quality of this gif, i had to compromise it in order to get the file size down]

before i say anything, here's a little disclaimer: obviously i have absolutely no idea what was going on in ohm's head in that moment when he was shooting that take. so whenever i make a mention of a specific sentence that the actor or the character could be thinking it will be my very own interpretation of what i personally am seeing or getting out of it. there are many thoughts and emotions one can read out of an actor's performance (often multiple at once!) and there are many ways of putting all of this into words. i will try to keep everything as technical as possible but sometimes i do need to say what i think is going on in the actor's/character's head in order to explain my point

ok so let's go and break down some of the acting things that ohm is doing here

[gif 1]

this is a wonderful example of an actor actually and actively perceiving something. at this point pat hasn't actively smelled pran yet, he hasn't reacted to that smell yet. in fact, up until this point pat is more focused on not being caught by chai. what ohm is doing here is showing us the process of going from "don't get caught" to "pran smells good af". and it starts right here. in order to do so, in order for this change of topic to work smoothly pat has to become aware of pran's smell first. and ohm is acting it out for us: he really is perceiving and noticing that smell as the actor and we can see the controls in his brain going "oh my nose is sensing something"

another thing i want to point out here is his "spielrichtung" (god i GOTTA figure out a word for this in english) aka this is where i talk about his "directions" even though it's difficult for me in english bc it sounds rather clunky. (for those who didn't read my original reblog where i talk about acting concepts: the literal translation of this german term is "direction of playing" or "direction of acting". this direction can refer to many things, such as where the focus is directed, or an action, a thought, etc...)

here in this moment ohm's directions are both downwards and very inwards. as in: his focus goes downwards to where the smell is entering his nose while his thoughts are very much directed inwards. this is a private moment for pat and ohm shows us this by acting towards the inside (ohm/pat is completely inside his own head in this moment) ("by acting towards the inside" – sorry, this sounds so clunky in english, i mean to say "indem er nach innen spielt")

alright, moving on. so in real life, once a person has perceived something and the brain has processed and determined it... what happens next? the person is going to react to it and have one or the other thought. in real life we go through a process of perceiving - processing - (re)acting and the same thing should happen in acting:

[gif 2]

first ohm showed us that pat has perceived something, now ohm shows us that whatever pat has perceived causes some thoughts/feelings inside of pat

(quick side-note on his directions: he's still very much inwards in his direction, the private moment in his head is continuing. and despite his eyes going to the side, the focus of his actions is still directed downwards because again, that's where the smell is)

(edit: i had my mom read this post and on the topic of directions in gif 2 she pointed out that you can actually split it up in three directions even: everything is happening on the inside, then you have the sensory direction that is going downwards because that's where the smell is, while he's sending his thoughts sideways)

i can't read minds, nor can i time travel so i have absolutely no idea what thought was crossing ohm's mind in that exact moment, but it has to be something along the lines of "i gotta smell that again". ohm/pat has perceived the smell, he considers it for a moment and whatever he's thinking here leads to the next moment where pat smells pran on purpose (note: i do love how his head is subconsciously moving slightly down towards the source of the smell again even before he's actively taken the decision to sniff pran):

[gif 3]

(edit: another thing that my mom said is that in gif 2 it's like his thoughts aren't quite focused yet, they're not quite formed, while in gif 3 his thoughts are very much focused. it's like his thoughts went from a subconscious level in gif 2 to a conscious level in gif 3. anatomically speaking you could even say that in gif 1 and 2 he percieves the smell emotionally and in gif 3 it goes over into a cognitive perception of the smell. because he percieves the smell subconsciously in the beginning and the very first thing that happens when you perceive a smell is that it goes to the emotional center of the brain. then the smell goes on to the cerebral cortex and only then you get the cognitive perception of the smell. ohm's performance here really is FLAWLESS. in the words of my mother, a trained nurse: "he plays that EXTREMELY WELL because you can analyze it anatomically even, and use his performance to showcase how the sense of smell works")

and now we have arrived at the point where pat is sniffing pran. what i really like about this is how subtle ohm portrays this. he doesn't stick his nose into nanon's back and we don't even see him breathe in. and yet we still know that pat is smelling pran here, all bc of ohm's body language where he moves his head down to the source of the smell and the thoughts that ohm is having in his head in that moment. you can just see that ohm is really and actively smelling something here. and by that i mean not only just the motion of him moving his head down, but rather that again he is actively perceiving a smell as his head is filled with thoughts (his thought process goes from something like "what was that smell" to "ok i'm smelling, i'm checking this out")

and now we're back to the point where we were earlier. once again our character is perceiving and processing something, our actor is acting it out for us and so what has to happen next? exactly, a reaction to the new information the character's brain has just processed:

[gif 4]

and again we can see that ohm's head was filled with actual thoughts in that moment (probably something along the lines of "wow he smells really good" or "oh what a nice smell". and it looks kind of unexpected to me, as if there's also some surprise coming with it along the lines of "oh i wasn't expecting to like his smell so much" or "i didn't think he would smell this nice")

i keep going on and on about thoughts, and it's because that was hammered into me by my fave monologue teacher. he kept going on about "getting your thoughts straight" and "having thoughts" ("die gedanken haben") and whenever we students had no idea what to do with our bodies he'd tell us that if we know exactly what we're thinking in that moment we shouldn't worry about our body because our body will follow our thoughts automatically. we can see that beautifully in gif 2 where an underlying thought (and i don't necessarily mean thought as in an actual thought or sentence inside the mind, but thought kind of in the sense of an emotion or feeling, if that makes sense), anyway in gif 2 there's an underlying thought along the lines of "this smell is good i want to get close to it i want to keep smelling it" and ohm's/pat's head is already moving slightly downwards towards the smell before ohm/pat has taken a conscious decision to take a purposeful sniff. the power of thought y'all. thought is a powerful tool when it comes to acting. and it's really obvious when an actor is in no-thoughts-head-empty mode. unfortunately i don't have an example of a thought-less actor on hand, or i would show you. ok, that's a lie, actually. i do have some examples, but they either don't work as a tumblr post (once again i wish i could do this one acting analysis project i did with my uni friend with online people as well) orrrr i don't want to share them publicly bc i don't wanna hurt anyone's feelings and i want to avoid angry anons in my ask box or getting into arguments with random internet users (i quite like my quiet, peaceful tumblr life where i'm a nobody, thanks)

okay, now back to bad buddy and ohm:

in the other post where i talk about acting i mention that while my monologue teacher would talk a lot about thoughts, my mother instead likes to talk about "creating images". my mom likes to think of it as a flipbook where you have individual pictures that make a moving image when going from one picture to the next at speed. personally i think you can also think of it as individual panels of a comic book that together tell a narrative arch. if we look at the first part from this perspective, as if if were a comic, we can see that ohm provides the audience with these clear images:

image 1: perceiving a smell, becoming aware of it, noticing it

image 2: reacting to that first whiff, something along the lines of "is this pran's smell? i gotta smell pran. for science. to see if that nice smell is him"

image 3: smelling on purpose, there is an aim to the action, it is motivated by thought and by what happened previously

image 4: another reaction to the perceived smell, this time it's a realization and/or a conclusion (the realization could be something like "oh i like the way pran smells" and the conclusion would be "yes what i sensed earlier was in fact pran's smell")

in full:

[gif 5]

it has only been three (3!!) seconds (yes i went and checked the duration of that clip on premiere pro) and ohm has already told us an entire story arc. god, i LOVE it when actors do actor things

alright, let's continue with part 2:

so now we get to the part where pran (nanon) comes in with an impatient "what now?" and pat (ohm) reacts

[gif 6]

since ohm is a good actor he once again presents us with that split second where we can see that he was actively listening to nanon's line, we get to see the moment where pat's brain is processing pran's comment and comes up with a reply. once again ohm is acting this all out for us. this is also what helps make it look like everything is spontaneous: as if the character didn't know pran was gonna say something and what he was gonna say, even though the actor, having memorized the script and likely having discussed it with his co-star and/or the director, definitely knew about it

now let's look at his directions again before we move on to the next gif: he's still in inwards-mode, but pran's line distracts him and snaps him away from the downward focus and now it's going to the side instead, towards nanon/pran

remember what happens after the processing? that's right, a (re)action. pat reacts to pran's comment with the action of saying "you smell good"

[gif 7]

what i find particularly interesting here are ohm's directions. before i sat down to gif these 10 seconds of scene i distinctively remembered ohm's spielrichtung (fuck it, i'm going with the german word bc "directions of playing" or "direction of acting" just doesn't sound right – quick german grammar lesson: spielrichtung = singular, just one single direction; spielrichtungen = plural, two or more directions) being very much towards the inside. and i had assumed that pran's comment would snap him out of it, that nanon's line would trigger a jump in his spielrichtung. but looking at it now? this... is not quite what i'm seeing. what i'm seeing instead is actually fascinating to me

you see, his actions and his line definitely have an outward focus, to the side where nanon is. however, it looks like that outward focus hasn't quite reached his eyes (it's in the way his eyes travel towards nanon, but they're not really focusing on anything in particular, he looks very distracted instead, as if his mind is somewhere else)

to reiterate: his words are traveling outwards while his eyes look like they're still in inwards-mode. outwards and inwards – two opposing sides. this creates conflict and it's exactly what makes me as a viewer sit up in curiosity and go "huh? what's this? what's going on here?" it fills me with a lot of questions about the character: why can't he snap out of it? did pran's smell really affect him this much? so much that his mind is still on it even when pran starts talking to him? why is it affecting him so much? what's going on inside him? aww does he have feelings? (yes. yes he does 🤭) it's these little subtle things that make me start caring about a character, that make me want to keep watching in order to find answers to my questions. (also! this would be an example of what i meant in the reblog from the other post when i talked about actor's showing conflicts that aren't in the plot/the script)

to be honest, i'd love to double check ohm's spielrichtungen during this line with my mom, but unfortunately it's gonna be another two weeks until i go home for semester break. because this is one of those moments where i realize that i still need to practice my acting analysis skills a lot, because to be quite honest i'm having a moment of is it just me or...? where i'm not entirely sure if i'm seeing this "right" (not that there's much of a right or wrong here...)

alright, moving on... once he finishes talking?

[gif 8]

right before ohm says his next line he falls back into inwards-mode again and once again we see that there are actual thoughts going through his head. what those thoughts are exactly i can't say, but to me it comes across as if pat is reflecting his statement of "you smell good", it looks like pat is lost in thought about pran smelling good (to be honest? at the end of the day it doesn't actually matter what ohm's exact thought process was, the important thing is that he had one at all, because now i as a viewer get to have fun with interpreting it)

and now we're finally coming to the end of the sequence i've decided to analyze. after a short moment of reflection pat adds "you smell so damn good" and goes to sniff pran one last time

[gif 9]

and what's ohm's acting choice here? this time he goes for an exaggerated sniff, he points his entire nose at pran and breathes in loudly (which we can't hear in a gif, of course, but we can definitely very clearly hear that sniff in the episode itself). and delights me very much because this sniff right here? in comparison to the ones in the beginning? is very much for show

the first two times pat/ohm smelled pran was very "quiet", rather small and subtle, and very much for himself. it was a private moment. this sniff now? it's loud, it's exaggerated, it's big with ohm bending his entire face down in order to almost shove his nose right into nanon's back. and of course he sniffs extra loudly, to make sure pran can hear it (and yes, i'm specifically referring to the character now, bc ofc nanon should hear the sniff, but more importantly pran should hear it bc pat is about to be a little shit to annoy him)

the reason why this big sniff delights me so much (especially with regard to how the scene continues after the excerpt that i have chosen for this analysis) goes away from the technical aspect of it and is much more about my own interpretation, but i'll tell you anyway: again, in the beginning it was a private moment, pat was smelling pran just for himself. but this causes him to fail to react to what pran just said about chai being gone now and that pat can get up. having that little story arc where pat notices pran's smell and goes to check it out causes pat to linger and that makes pran suspicious. pran more or less catches pat in his own private moment, and so pat turns sniffing pran into a full on show. "you smell good" he says, "do my laundry", he says. pat was nearly caught having feelings for pran (bc we all know this is why he's so affected by the smell) (fun fact: in german we have this idiom that goes "jemanden nicht riechen können" which translates to "not being able to smell someone". it means that you don't like someone and that's why you can't or rather don't want to smell this person. this idiom actually showcases how important the sense of smell is interpersonal relationships) pat was nearly caught and now he deflects. he gets annoying on purpose (by shoving his nose into pran's back and loudly insisting that he likes the smell) to keep pran from asking more questions, he jokingly demands that pran does his laundry bc obviously pat likes the smell of the detergent, it's definitely not the smell of pran that he likes, okay? yes, exactly, pat likes the detergent, not pran, and him sniffing pran definitely had a heterosexual reason and there were definitely no romantic feelings involved. that's the story pat is putting out into the world, that's the show he's pulling off here. ohm goes from quiet and inwards to loud and outwards (spielrichtungen!) and it just delights me because there is so much i can get out of it when it comes to my interpretation

alright, so i've now reached the end of my chosen excerpt and now that we've gone through the entire thing i just want to talk about one last thing: changes.

in the reblog of the other post i mention that when i analyze acting i look out for whether anything changes. (i didn't explicitly say it in that reblog, but it gets boring when an actor keeps doing the same thing over and over again). in the reblog specifically i take emotions as an example, but also make a note that changes can apply to things other than emotions as well. in this scene of bad buddy ohm provides us with a beautiful example of what changes look like when it comes to a specific action

in this 10 second excerpt that i have chosen, pat smells pran 3x in total:

do you see how each time the action of pat smelling pran is different? each time when pat smells pran it's motivated by a different thought, each time there's a different reason behind it:

the first time is all about pat noticing the smell in the first place, becoming aware of it at all. at this point it's rather accidental: pat never made a decision of "i'm going to smell pran now". no, it just happens. he percieves the smell on an emotional level. sniff one is all about the thought of "oh, i'm sensing a smell".

the second time is where the active decision to smell pran comes in. now he starts perceiving the smell on a cognitive level: this time pat is smelling pran on purpose, it's no longer accidental. pat has a reason to smell pran, he has a goal and it's to investigate that smell that he has just sensed. and as i've already said, he is in his own head and it's a private moment. his thoughts are kinda unfocused and he almost gets a little lost in these thoughts, in the smell. and it's a quiet, subtle action, he only slightly moves his head down to be a little closer to the source and get a better whiff, but that's it, no big loud breathing in, no exaggerated head bending. that sniff right here is for pat. that sniff is between pat and that smell, no one and nothing else. what ohm is doing here is creating a relation between pat and pran's smell

the third time the sniff also comes from an active decision. and again, it has a purpose behind it. this is also what happens in sniff no. 2, so in theory the same thing is happening twice, right? except no, bc the way ohm sniffs nanon for the 3rd time is completely different. while sniff no 2. was quiet and small, now sniff no. 3 is loud and big. it's exaggerated and it's for show. this sniff is no longer only between pat and pran's smell, no, now pran himself is involved too (whether pran likes it or not)

i've said it before and i'll say it again: i LOVE it when actors do actor things

alright, i really am done now. to be honest, i wish i had the time to go to my hometown and go through this whole analysis with my mom first before i post it. despite 3 full years of drama school and 2.5 years of intensely analyzing asian drama with my mom i still don't feel confident in the knowledge i've gained so far and i feel like i need someone with more experience to check my thoughts before i can go publish them for the whole internet to see. but i guess it's time for me to become a big girl that doesn't need to rely on her mommy's opinions. i guess it's because i feel like there is still so much more that i need to learn and there is so much more that i don't notice yet and so i'm afraid that what if what i'm saying is wrong? what if i'm talking bullshit here? but i guess it's time i trust the skills that i have gained so far. besides, when it comes to this there often isn't necessarily a right or wrong but rather a what do you see and how does that make you feel? so i'll go and post this anyway without having anyone look over it, because this is what i see right now at this point in time as i'm writing this. and if at some point in the future i realize i disagree i can always write an update (or another post)

all in all i had fun with this not so little analysis. and i hope you too had fun reading it <3

(edit: as you could already see from the previous edits, well, i actually did have my mom read this whole post at some point after all. she was very impressed and said my analysis is extremely well written. she had almost nothing to add. it's truly about time i start trusting my own skills fklslkkdlsf)

[arcplaysgames]

didn’t you keep saying you didn’t even like p4g when playing? how is p5r worse? genuine question. is it the pacing/characters/story?

cw: P5R negativity, fans might wanna skip this

I think you missed my final round-ups on P4G because outside very specific criticisms (Izanami being bad writing, the P4MC being an anchor around the throat of the game, and JESUS FUCK THE MUSIC WAS SO BAD) I was overall pretty positive on P4G. It has ups and downs, but the ups far outweigh the downs. I think if you check this blog with /tagged/p4 you'll find my two big Final Thoughts posts. I honestly think P4G gets a bad wrap. I'd give it a final score of, like, 7 out of 10.

It's just not Persona 3 Portable Girl Route, which I still maintain is the best scenario writing and some of the best character writing of the series, and I think the structure is much more solid. Also the music is the best I've heard yet.

P5R, I am currently doing the Kaneshiro Arc and I have recruited Makoto. My issue with P5R is probably three-fold.

One: I think that the cast is dramatically weaker than P4 and P3. Like, I'm kind of shocked at how weak the cast is. So far I like Morgana the most, but I think it was my friend Bane who pointed out that Morgana tends to be a very divisive character because he's such a strong character compared to everyone else. Me, I need this. I desperately need this because I think Ryuji and Ann feel incredibly weak, and while I am thrilled to have Yusuke, he's.... like mid-tier. For P5 he's godtier but he's mid-tier for P4 or P3.

I was talking to a friend and basically said that this game fails the Homestuck Rule of Writing, honestly. Like, when you are writing really distinct characters, one of the best shortcuts is to just.... make them passionate in uncool ways. Give them weird hobbies your audience probably will not share, but let the level of passion they have make them feel stronger.

Like, Chie is obsessed with kung fu, Akihiko and Shinjiro have a running fight about protein vs vegetables that's really funny, and Kanji just keeps a sewing kit on him and will fix people's hems on the street. Remember when Junpei met a gothic lolita girl by the train station who was making art in her own blood and was like "haha awesome you seem cool! Wanna hang out?"

God, I miss Junpei every day.

So far, honestly? No one in P5R passes the Homestuck Test. I keep complaining I need some weirdos and that's what I mean. I am kind of just "ugh" on this idea of "oh so and so gets better" but like. No one in P3 and P4 needed to "get better" (okay except Yukari but her arc fucking rocked).

Two: The technical quality of the writing of this game is so much worse than P3 and P4 imo. It's something i have a hard time explaining and I'm to a point I have just given up on even cataloging it because it feels like I'm complaining about something small, but it's a small thing that keeps happening over and over and over and over, until it's just this overall severe lack of polish to the entire game. Which, when I am dealing with a game that feels as overproduced and maximalist as P5R, having the actual script be this rough in a way that was easily fixable with another pass is just a rock in my shoe.

Three: I am severely fucking torn on the entire concept of Joker. In a way, Joker feels like a direct answer to my biggest criticism of P4G, that the MC was such a non-character, a complete void with nothing to balance the story on, a problem so severe that by midway through, P4G was about Yosuke instead of P4MC. And that sucks. Having a MC with no impetus, only reaction, just didn't suit the structure of P4G.

Now, we have Joker, who frankly is a great character who addresses those complaints perfectly. He has an easily detectable personality, he has more frequent and more interesting dialogue choices, he has quirks and oddities, and he has a compelling backstory that lends itself to the core themes and mysteries of the game.

Except: the Gay Options have been removed.

I was able to play P4G as a homogay from start to finish, which frankly softened some of my anger about the entire experience. Not to be flippant, but Reverie The Fourth's only traits were "calm dude" and "fuckin GAY".

After how queer P4G was, the complete absence of that in P5R is.... isolating and disappointing. It's something I am pushing through but the game's repeated calls for rebellion and pushing against what people think of you feels trite with how relentlessly cishet it all is.

At the end of the day, at the moment, I consider P5R easily the weakest of the Big Three. Maybe my opinion will change! But at the moment it's really not getting better.

I was talking to a friend and I think that the Perfect Persona Game would be

fully gender neutral protagonist, just don't refer to their gender at all, don't gate anything around gender, just don't

the setting of P5R

the cast of P4 or P3

Frankly if you gave me the same game, Persona 5 Royal, but inserted SEES or the Investigation Team, you would have the fucking greatest modern Persona game.

[gemsofgreece]

Some complain that we should make a Greek song for Eurovision but we already had one in 2018, but we were disqualified even though it was a pretty song. Maybe because it a soft ballad or something but it was something to send a song in our native language.

But i think we should start first...voting for the candidates who will represent us and second mix both traditional and modern rhythms.

Bre make a Pontiac song and see how much on top we would be, would make the whole crowd dance 😉

Oh my God Anon 😂😂😂 You are young, right? Or started watching Eurovision recently? This is not condescending, I just want to cheer you up. I am asking because Greece retains a honorary title of being a Eurovision powerhouse due to its mostly consistent success throughout 2001- 2013. In all those years, almost all the songs that succeeded had either Greek music or both Greek music and lyrics. The 2014-2019 dry spell had mostly entirely English songs except for two, which had very bad performances. The 2021-2022 successes made people hopeful that Greece was coming back but long time fans complained that Greece should also return to its authentic sounds.

When it comes to the 2018 song, have you watched the stage performance???? I think even Victor two days ago was better than Yanna, and that says a lot! It had nothing to do with the song or the language or it being soft. She sang terribly and supposedly her whole freaking equipment for the staging was stuck at the customs and never arrived at Eurovision (that’s what she said)!!!Have you ever heard of such an occurrence before? 😂 One more suspicious person would say there were barely any ideas for the staging at all and she had no better way of excusing it.

Despite all that, the public did keep her in, albeit barely, and gave her the 10th place. She was murdered by the juries who gave her the 16th place and disqualified her. Here’s the thing though: Yanna accused the juries and the production in general of a sabotage. This might sound crazy but something shitty DID happen. There is a point in the song, during the chorus, where fireworks pop. However, inexplicably during the jury show, the technicians chose to randomly shoot the fireworks during the very calm verse. This was so out of place it was visibly wrong, it wasn’t like a detail you won’t even notice. The Greek team requested that the performance should be repeated, since it was the crucial jury show and it was the technicians’ fault, but the production refused and asked the juries to vote based on what they saw, a decision that was criticised by Greeks and other fans of the song alike.

So as you see here not only the singing is atrocious but as if this was not enough, they really just randomly shot the fireworks to her face. I honestly have no idea what happened but this was the unluckiest song we have sent. It was a gorgeous song that did not deserve either Yanna’s live vocals and her lousy team or the problematic production there. And the fact the audience tried to keep it in was solely the song’s and the language’s achievement as there is not any other redeeming quality in this participation unfortunately.

This is a topic I feel strongly about because I loved this song and I had a lot of faith in it and it still hurts. But also - regarding the language thing - it’s a myth, not only for Greek but for all languages I think. It was true in the past, when only English or French songs would win, but ever since 2010s people want diverse songs and more languages. The juries are worse on that but the public does want the ethnic element.

And to prove it, I once made a very passionate analysis on how Greek entries performed and the conclusion was that on average a song that was either fully Greek or at least in a Greek music style performed better than a totally English song. Again, on average. Here’s the link to the analysis:

And then I saved for last a stab to your heart… We have sent a song in Pontic Greek… and it is the third one that flopped 😅😅😅😅😅😅 The notorious Utopian Land by Argo, fam! But it was a bad song, even though I see on You Tube it has developed something like a cult following.

But in stark contrast, Alcohol is Free was a totally Greek song in everything (with freaking rebetiko) and it finished 6th (and 2nd in its semi) . And the reason it didn’t make it to the top 5 was that some hysteric people were clutching their pearls at the title, whining “how they would allow their kids to watch Eurovision now”. I have some very deep into esc stuff friends from Europe and I know for a fact that this was the case with some people. And yet it ended up sixth and some considered it an injustice, which it was, because it should have won, seriously. Oh yeah, I forgot, it would make it in the top 5 in spite of all that, had it not been for the juries. The public voted it 4th and the juries 14th and it ended up 6th. Similarly, Watch My Dance by Loukas Yorkas was half in Greek and it ended 7th (and notoriously 1st in its semifinal, ahead of the Eurovision winner of the year, Azerbaijan, which does raise questions about the final results - see the link above with the analysis). Interestingly, the only criticism I saw the song ever receiving was by people complaining that the whole song should be like the Greek laiko in the chorus and diss the English rap in the verse. Another example, OPA by Yorghos Alkeos, which was also entirely in Greek and finished 8th.

Now an ethnic Greek entry and a cheerful one at that will certainly be butchered by the juries, like they did with the Ukrainian Shum or the Finnish Cha Cha Cha and our own Alcohol is Free. But who cares? Better be butchered by the juries and be loved by the public, than going with bland and bad English ballads that only the juries might like and nobody else. The people have made clear what songs they want from Greece. And in any case, I would rather suck by sending something from my culture that others may simply not get than suck by sending something that doesn’t even represent me in any way.

I know you agree by the way, you just touched a sensitive chord in my heart and I went full rant mode 😇

[eldritch-elrics]

top 10 fnaf fansongs, as decided by someone who's never played fnaf

well, i promised i would make this post. so after listening to quite a few of those "pov: you were in the fnaf fandom" type playlists, i have discovered...... goddamn, a lot of these songs actually go really hard!

i've narrowed it down to 10, but definitely check out my playlist where i added all the songs i enjoyed in some way.

"i can't fix you" - yeah this one fucks. the beat!! oh my god!! also idk if i should count the video as part of the experience but this one has a really fun and dramatic video. what the hell goes down in sister location?

"break my mind" - i'm obsessed with this one it's just. silly as hell. couple awkward lyrics/rhymes but it goes SO hard it's like a really dramatic electronic sea shanty??

"you can’t hide" - i really like the production on this one. it’s funky and cool-sounding without being over the top

"never be alone" - lyrics flow really well! and that main melody is so fun and catchy!!

"join us for a bite" - whimsical in a good way. not my preferred music style, but it feels really unique and i love the vibes and lyrics. it may not be my very favorite but you could make a great case for this being the best fnaf song

"it's been so long" - god it's fucking iconic. bad but also good. you know?

"dance to forget" - i think the ballerina might be the most compelling fnaf character so far. this has such fun lyrics, especially the way that the chorus uses repeating words!

"afton family" - REALLY good creepy vibes. i love the unnerving quality of the vocals

"die in a fire" - also just so iconic - this & "it's been so long" were the only fnaf songs i'd heard before i began this project. also WHY is this song so violent. good for her?

"the show must go on" - another that tells a story in a really fun way… i love the ones where the animatronics treat the human characters as defective robots who they’re legitimately trying to help

and some honorable mentions that i had thoughts on:

"no more" - ok i'm not gonna lie: natewantstobattle's style is so nostalgic for me. also i love how this sounds like a very specific type of 2000s pop rock

"daddy's little monsters" - what the hell happens in sister location? this story is intriguing

"you belong here" - i'm a sucker for this specific kind of fan-rap. idk if they're "good" per se but they're incredibly fun

"follow me" - that "follow me see a nightmare in action" hits tbh

"don’t hold it against us" - really interesting beat/noises, plus, once again, what the fuck happens in sister location

tagging @tijuanabiblestudies @wolffyluna @xerxestexastoast @rinjaespurr because you guys asked for this

[magic-hcs]

Alrighty I am here for a matchup if that's alright! (⁠｡⁠ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠)

Appearance: adult cis woman, she/her, 178 cm tall (5'10"), slight hourglass shape. I'm white, freckled, and I have medium-ish dark brown hair. I have blue/green/gray eyes depending on who you ask and I wear glasses ✧⁠◝⁠(⁠⁰⁠▿⁠⁰⁠)⁠◜⁠✧

My style is very colorful, pastel femme, I wear a lot of jewellery, and I have a few piercings in my ears (4 in one ear, 2 in the other).

Likes: all animals, colors, musicals, romance (I love love), cuddles and hugs, baking (don't do it enough to be considered a hobby), math! Also emojis, they help me show what I'm feeling so I don't sound rude over text, though that might just be my anxiety thinking that, haha!

Dislikes: spiders, loud noises, crowds (I get overwhelmed •́⁠ ‿⁠ ⁠,⁠•̀ )

Hobbies: sewing, drawing, reading, fitness, crochet, DIYing in general.

Personality: I'm generally optimistic and light-hearted, though I tend to speak before I think.

I'm not very self confident, the only thing about me that I'm truly confident about is my ability to sew. My only flex in life is that my eye measurements are accurate to the milimeter ᕦ⁠༼; ل͜ ;༽⁠ᕤ

I'm a bit awkward and apologetic, as I get very anxious about being too much or being annoying, and I don't wanna be in the way, so I apologize and say thank you a lot.

I'm pretty sensitive, and I can't read people or situations very well, and I get very overwhelmed by crowds and a lot of impressions at once. I'm also honest, sometimes a bit too honest, but I do try to phrase it kindly! If someone were to ask me the cliché "do I look bad in this?", and I think they could look better, I tell them just that. It's gotten me into trouble before haha,,,

When I'm focused, or excited/happy, I tend to make little noises and flap my arms OR hum songs I'm listening to atm, but I try not to in public for obvious reasons lol (⁠＾⁠∇⁠＾⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♪

I get very flustered and a bit stuttery when talking to people I like (at first, that is), but I swear to god I'm trying my best in life, I'm only a very slight trainwreck!

Also, my love language is physical touch and quality time if that helps! (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠❤

Oh! And I don't mind multiple matches or poly at all, it's all good, though I do see the Tale, Fell and Horror Papyruses as friends or brother figures, so I'd love it if I didn't get matched with any of those babbis romantically.

Sorry it got so long, and thank you so so much! (⁠*⁠＾⁠3⁠＾⁠)⁠/⁠～⁠♡

Of course it’s alright! Thank you for being patient. I hope you’ll like it and are comfortable with this boy you can also see it as platonic.

Matchups are closed!

~~matching…~~matching~….~matching~~…~DING~

You match with Thatch!

✨✨

(HF Papyrus) Thatch:

First off, you have to crane your neck to look up to him. Thatch is a whopping 250 cm tall boy.

We're gonna assume you guys meet when Thatch has been on the surface for over a decade so he’ll have gotten some help and is on a semi steady road of healing and recovery because this boy went through worse than hell.

Thatch likes your bright colors, it’s a subtle reminder that it is safe enough to afford being able to make yourself more colorful. He’ll end up donning some brighter colors like yellows and soft reds.

Thatch isn’t used to touch (touch starved boy alert) but hugs and the like aren’t unwelcome in the least, he just tenses up and flinches slightly when it happens before relaxing into them. He finds your use of emojis in texts to show what you’re feeling very endearing. Thatch finds himself smiling softly often at the emojis you send.

Thatch needs some positivity in his life so your optimism is very appreciated. He doesn’t mind your talk before thinking thing.

Thatch doesn’t like crowds either and it’s good that you’re honest. He has a dislike for people who sugarcoat stuff and hide behind a mask of politeness.

He thinks you excited flaps and noises are absolutely darling. At first he thought you were so stuttery because you were intimidated by him. But when he found out it was because you liked him it was his turn to be shy.

✨✨

I hope you enjoyed!

[mlobsters]

supernatural s13e9 the bad place (w. robert berens)

kept shoving my earbuds into my head thinking i just wasn't hearing the mix right but now this weird recap the music is just not mixed at the right level? it starts out okay but then it's just too quiet, maybe because the recap is so dialogue heavy? i dunno. could i bitch about the music any more? and it just keeps going. and we're not even including missouri in the recap to explain about patience. whatever. is she part of the wayward sisters situation?

good thing quote unquote apocalypse world has these nice distinctive spikes

JACK I didn't know if it would work, but it did. He dreamwalked and I joined him… in Apocalypse World.

snorted. okaaaay

so mary's in the iron maiden-ish thing now. of course.

right up in dean's face to appreciate his universe tilting moment

i dunno if it was the editor or what but whoever was um, making some stylistic choices this episode. patience's little vision was very... not like how this show usually looks. i guess season 13 you can just start tryin shit

JACK I was scared. I was upset. But… why would I look for him? He's no one to me. You, Castiel– you're my family. DEAN Yes, we are. Finding Mom, you… You did a good thing, kid. You did a real good thing.

trying to remember where cas even is right now 😬 oh right, something something angels...?

JAMES Patience, don't. You go now, you choose that life, you don't come back.

are you kidding me??? pulling a reverse john winchester. what the fuck, bro. you cut out your mom from your life and you're gonna threaten to do the same to your daughter?!

god, searching for the line for john and

4x22 lucifer rising

DEAN No, damnit! No. I gotta face the facts. Sam never wanted part of this family. He hated this life growing up. Ran away to Stanford first chance he got. Now it's like déjà vu all over again. Well, I am sick and tired of chasing him. Screw him, he can do what he wants. BOBBY You don't mean that. DEAN Yes I do, Bobby. Sam's gone. He's gone. I'm not even sure if he's still my brother anymore. If he ever was. BOBBY You stupid, stupid son of a bitch! Well, boo hoo, I am so sorry your feelings are hurt, princess! Are you under the impression that family's supposed to make you feel good?! Bake you an apple pie, maybe? They're supposed to make you miserable! That's why they're family! DEAN I told him, "you walk out that door, don't come back" and he walked out anyway! That was his choice! BOBBY You sound like a whiny brat. No, you sound like your dad. Well, let me tell you something. Your dad was a coward. DEAN My dad was a lot of things, Bobby, but a coward? BOBBY He'd rather push Sam away than reach out to him. Well, that don't strike me as brave. You are a better man than your daddy ever was. So you do both of us a favor. Don't be him.

what i was looking for

1x20 dead man's blood

JOHN (Yelling in SAM'S face) You walked away!! DEAN Stop it, both of you. SAM You're the one who said don't come back Dad, you closed that door not me. You were just pissed off that you couldn't control me anymore!

ugh. quality miserable stuff back then.

it's a cool effect and all but this business just went on for way too long

i couldn't with the weird extra shaky cam and jumpy zooms on the outside scene so i'm including the weird vision too. look and feel is all over the place

really don't like dean yelling and pulling his gun on this poor girl. well as i mentioned when i was watching 4x14 cold open never know when something might poke the DV history button. men yelling is a real life trigger thing.

SAM So now what? We get Kaia to the Wind Caves, and then what? Force her to dreamwalk at gunpoint? DEAN We get Mom back, no matter what. Remember?

le sigh. why are we doing this to dean

woof this episode is.... not great.

nexus on a boat

lol okay. mega dino world!

[ninthwav]

feb new listens so far babey

xandria - the wonders still awaiting (2/3)

i feel that xandria comprises both the best (2013 neverworld's end) and the worst (this stinker) of generic symphonic metal. like i put on the album while walking back from campus and found myself putting serious effort into not openly laughing as i listened. this album features some of my least favorite things such as children's choirs, weird production (the actual band is buried under their symphonic shit half the time), and general overblown ugliness. reminiscent of epica's the holographic principle but without any of the charm inherent in epica's worst shit. i rate this a I Didn't Even Bother Adding It To My Library/10

in flames - foregone (2/10)

these bitches are so lucky that i forgot i had apple music on shuffle because the track order on shuffle front-loaded the better songs. what this also meant was that i got the shit i hated in a single block. so i got ~4 tracks that i enjoyed and then got hit with meet your maker, which features the purest version of that pop-punk style clean vocal shit on the most obnoxious lyricism you can get out of this particular style of music ("at the ENd of the MASquerAAaAAAADE" etc. side note i hate (exceptions for my beloved kamelot) the life is a masquerade i.e. hollow and meaningless and false thing that you see all over the place. like a masquerade IS a party. i bet a masquerade is a dope experience.) and i was just like oh god ew ugh ow the song BIT me. i'm gonna probably go back and pull out the tracks i actually like and figure out what the melody from their intro track sounds like (it's beautiful i just KNOW IT from somewhere) and then never think about this again. comments on bandcamp are praising the clean vocals on this album and some of them are fine but other times they hurt my feelings. someone on bandcamp called in flames their "comfort band" which i think sums up the kind of taste in metal u have to have to like this. but i don't like being whined at or with.

theophonos - nightmare visions (2/15)

AWESOME! i have to go back and relisten because here's what happened. usually i don't listen to stuff direct from bandcamp bc the streaming quality is in my experience pretty garbage? like to the point where i put on the album and maps of the future sounded really thin and unimpressive (wow, not very brutal with a v of you, i said to myself) but near the end there's this gorgeous repetitive guitar that feels like . sorry. getting your head repeatedly slammed into the wall, and this convinced me to stick with the album. and then i went and relistened on apple music and the entire track sounded awesome! so that immediate bump in quality might have really swayed my enjoyment. so really my listening thotz on this album thus far are less about the album itself and more about how actually lossless streaming is so good but also has allowed me to be a terrible horrible no good very bad snob in ways which cannot be good for me. and so on

[project1939]

100 Films of 1952 

Film number 100!! Lovely to Look At

Release date: May 29th, 1952 

Studio: MGM 

Genre: Musical 

Director: Mervyn LeRoy 

Producer: Jack Cummings 

Actors: Kathryn Grayson, Red Skelton, Howard Keel, Ann Miller 

Plot Summary: Al, Tony, and Jerry are three buddies struggling to find financial backers for their Broadway show. When Al discovers his recently deceased aunt has left him a dress shop in Paris, he thinks his money woes are over. In Paris, he meets his cousins Stephanie and Clarisse, who tell him the shop is nearly bankrupt. Is there any way to save both the shop and the show? 

My Rating (out of five stars): *** 

I would describe this as a pleasant confection- far from perfect or substantive, but not a bad way to spend 100 minutes. It’s lovely to look at while it lasts (see what I did there?), but afterward much of it will probably fade from memory. 

The Good: 

Marge and Gower Champion. Oh my god, I fell in love with these two! They are so adorable, they have lovely chemistry, and they dance beautifully. I wish they were the stars of the film- I smiled whenever they were on screen. 

The big fashion show at the end. All hail Vincente Minnelli! He directed the final 15 minutes of the film, and it was stunning. The cinematography and design were ten times more interesting than what came before. 

Ann Miller. Ann Miller’s legs. She’s ga-ga- gorgeous. I love the old 1940s/50s Hollywood body ideal. The women are allowed to have curves and some fleshiness. Ann Miller actually has thighs, and it’s glorious. 

The music. Jerome Kern wrote the music for the original play and film Roberta, which this is a loose adaptation of. Songs like “I Won’t Dance,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” and “Lovely to Look At” are all very good. 

There were a lot of songs in this- comedy numbers, ballads, dances and jazzier numbers... I always like musicals with a lot of music, and this fit the bill. 

The Technicolor. Of course, of course, I have to mention the Technicolor! I always love it, and MGM was especially skilled at utilizing it. 

The overall MGM quality. Even though this isn’t a great film, it has the incomparable look of an MGM movie. Here we are given all the advantages of the immense talent of MGM’s different departments- wardrobe, art direction, makeup, orchestra, etc. It looked and sounded beautiful. 

Adrian gets a name drop. The famous fashion designer who worked at MGM was mentioned by Keel’s character as they sat at a French cafe. 

A quote I loved- “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow is Thursday!”

The Bad: 

Grayson and Keel were kinda boring. They were ostensibly the stars of the movie, but they weren’t very interesting. Both have pleasant voices, but their characters were pretty bland.  

Why did they give Grayson that horrible, short, tightly curled 50s hair cut?! She looks so much nicer with long hair. 

Red Skelton’s schtick gets old at times. 

There was a running joke about a malfunctioning elevator that wasn’t funny the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth time. 

Howard Keel’s character is delighted to keep making romantic moves on a woman who is so drunk she can barely stand up. She has to pass out on his shoulder for him to stop trying to kiss her. Yeah, gross. 

The plot wasn’t exactly threadbare, but it was pretty loose at times. It might have been improved if it were tightened up a bit. 

The musical numbers and comedy bits were very uneven- some were great, some were kind of boring, and some just didn’t work. 

[irl-kaeya]

Genshin Diary Entry #13

Welp, it official. The last act in the Summer chapter is by far the best part of Genshin right now, though I might be biased.

This whole act, from beginning to end was so fun and interesting!!! The build up was great and I'm glad they took the time with it cause the last few scenes are PACKED and deserve all the set up they need. God where do I start!? This entry is probably going to be brief and like, not analytical at all, because I'm thinking of doing a more in depth post about the whole chapter as a whole.

Firstly, I really enjoyed the little episodes with each character to prepare everything for the plan. I've already talked about Cyno and Dehya, but I was also excited to see Nilou and that you get walk around with her a bit!

Alhaitham's "betrayal" actually had me fooled for a while, but probably because I didn't trust him at all until this point lol. The scene where he uses the divine knowledge capsule was so... violent?? It felt more violent and realistic than anything else we've seen I think. Sumeru in general has really upped the quality and viscerality of these cutscenes. Either way, it was super cool and Alhaitham is a smart cookie 👍

Mini thing to point out, but I was super happy how much Aether talked while he was reaching out to Nahida!! Sumeru has blessed me with more traveller voicelines and for that I'll treasure it.

And now of course; the big bad. Scaramouche fight was fucking epic dude. The dialogue before it started, his mecha suit, the music..... I'm actually excited to relive it. Although, it's possible that my game bugged. Please let me know if that's the case: in the seconds phase during the first part when the mech stands up, isn't there supposed to be a section where you get up on a platform and attack his chest? It's possible I misunderstood the screen shots I've seen in the past, but I just thought it was weird that I was in that phase of the fight for like, 5 seconds and then it just took me into another cutscene. Thank you!

Scaramouche is already the most interesting character in the game, from his story, personality and relationship with the traveller. I'm pretty sure the interlude quest is about him? So I'm bouncing off the walls excited to get to know him.

Finally I did want to mention Nahida and the ending to this chapter. I'm serious, this arc made me actually cry. She has so quickly become one of my favourite characters and ahhhhhh, I have so many thoughts and feelings. I will be talking about her A Lot. Apparently it's effecting me more than I thought, because this morning while I was walking to work and listening to some of the genshin demo songs, I started tearing up to Nahida's theme. I've got it bad man.

OH YEAH AND HIGHLIGHT OF THE WHOLE EVENING OF ME FINSIHING THIS PART??? KAVEH IS HERE!!! he's all that matters actually. That one scene single handedly obliterated any respect I was building up for alhaitham lmao, what an asshole /j

Hhhghghough lots of feelings rn, so I think I'm gonna take a slight break and just farm for a while. I recently became obsessed with making character building tables for myself, so I might as well put them to good use. Thank you to anyone and everyone that has been reading my silly little thoughts <3