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shysublimecoffee · 4 months

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I prefer not to sound harsh, but Miraculous has become a fandom where I find more enjoyment in reading fanfics than watching the show. It feels like there's a lack of effort or an attempt to justify and rearrange elements, often ignoring past seasons and assuming the audience won't notice. The handling of Derision is a notable example, with more astute critics than me delving into their dissatisfaction and the evident retcons.

I didn't anticipate the show going to such lengths as portraying Gabriel as someone deserving of a statue, and it left a sour taste in my mouth to see the hero endorsing it. Adrien/ChatNoir's portrayal has become quite pitiful, with a peculiar shift where Ladybug takes on a significant role in the Agreste Saga despite her absence from that narrative. Ladybug, who isn't even part of the Agreste Saga, is the one delivering heartfelt moments. The decision to sideline Adrien and put him out of commission is disappointing. It's his story yet she the one who has to make it about her. She gets to shine along with a cool costume to boot.

There's a palpable bias from Astruc against Chloe, evident in the show's treatment of her character. Despite her being manipulated by Gabriel Agreste, the narrative blames her for becoming mayor, and the absurdity of the situation is magnified when everyone in the story goes along with it. The inclusion of a scene in Revolution where Chloe is crying is perplexing and frustrating, as it seems to perpetuate the negative and irredeemable image the show consistently paints of her. The added layer of her mother being horrid to her intensifies my annoyance, especially when sympathetic scenes are presented in a seemingly contradictory manner.

I mean you want her to be the worst but yet she has scenes like this? Why not go all the way wtf. Why give her depth only to take it away and then make her be so demonized in s5 and act like she was like this from the start. When she's been a joke

I hate to be critical, but seriously, it's hard to ignore how the Miraculous universe is just dripping with untapped potential. Five seasons in, and the movie outshines the show effortlessly. It makes you wonder about the writers' team and their approach—seems like they're just coasting on low effort for profit, and somehow, it's working, thanks to Miraculous inexplicable popularity.

The show's been beating the monster-of-the-week horse for five long seasons, lacking any creativity in crafting interesting villains. Gabriel, honestly, feels like a starter villain, and if they're going to make him the big bad, can we at least get some villains with a bit more pizzazz? You know craft creative interesting villains? KNDS, Original PPG, Totally Spies they got it so why not Miraculous. It's so damn tiring seeing the same old song and dance with Gabriel 24/7 monologuing to his wife and releasing the akuma I thought Mayura would be important but she's barely there.

It's not even an excuse kids do deserve better entertainment so why should Miraculous lower its standards. Marinette is very weird to me as the protagonist because her lovelife is more focused over everything I gauged her well enough to know about her that the rest of the secondary needs more of a spotlight to be cast on them. I like her but am I the only one who just skips when she starts the whining about Adrien and her plan to again get together it was cute at first now I fast forward to the more interesting part of the episode because it irks me i'm tired okay... what other facet of her character do the writers focus on besides her love life? I hope I don't appear to salt on her but Imma tag it just in case. I think she's in neutral treading to dislike because how can I come back from her gaslighting her boyfriends I'm sorry I can't.

You know what I'm afraid of that if Lila gonna be the next big bad they'll just recycle everything from Gabriel onto her. We'll have the same akumatizations same monster of the week formula only this time it's Lila.

I trust more in the fanfic community to come up with a better substantial plot than Miraculous could ever be. I know romance is a big part but the lore is so damn little it's season 5 are they ever going to expand more in the later seasons lol.

I'm tired from writing this long. Imma go to bed now.

#miraculous salt #miraculous critical #miraculous ladybug #marinette salt

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socksjinie · 9 months

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✿ crime 101 — obsessions and taunts in red ink | taehyung

synopsis. blossom's life goes into a spiral when she discovers who she has been obsessing over all these years.

genre. powerpuff girls au ; taehyung!brick ; fluff ; angst

pairing. taehyung x blossom

wordcount. 2952

warnings. mentions of fights, beatings, and lots of unresolved angst

a/n. to celebrate the birthday of this really special girl, who is actually bubbles of my real-life ppg's friendship gang. have the happiest day, deo, i love you more than acing my grades, going for my morning runs, and keeping up with my schedule~ෆ

contact with the Rowdyruff Boys had never been the same for Blossom as it had been for her sisters.

while Bubbles viewed life and people from very early on with positivism that could blind her sometimes and Buttercup had always been one to know how not to mix business with pleasure, Blossom had continuously struggled with both approaches.

she couldn’t remember Taehyung or his brothers much from when they were little, apart of course the trouble their dad caused around the city—something that she was always responsible for taking care of. her memories of him from that time to middle school were always tainted by the position both he and she occupied.

they were leaders, even when still children. and while she definitely tried her best to lead her sisters to exemplary behavior, always doing their best to save the city and fight crime, Taehyung did everything opposite with his brothers, so it wasn’t a surprise she didn’t want much to do with him.

in school, they were rarely paired in the same class. she remembers having more shared teachers with Jimin than Taehyung himself. if she were honest with her priorities, fighting Mojo and his kids was just a side thing for her, her grades and social position came always at number one.

and boy, being number one made her act crazy…

that was all she needed to do from the moment she was born. be the number one at fighting crime, be the one setting the example, be the smartest you can be… the list goes on and on, so it wasn’t a surprise that she took that perspective to her personal life too. the only problem was that contrary to her heroine side, in school, she always had the same exact rival to compete with. and that made her want to yank her hair off.

while Buttercup most times came home with teacher’s notes to their dad, saying she was once again fighting or disturbing class because of Jungkook, and Bubbles would confess at night that maybe Jimin was different or that he wasn’t so bad like his brothers, Blossom had nothing to say. or to worry, really.

none of the boys was a problem for her, the only thing she needed to sort out was why the hell she wasn’t always number one with her grades in school.

she knew she had a perfect score, she was the leading student in her own class, but then every time the month ended and she passed by the official board, her student number was second.

the frustration was consuming her, and it lasted a long while. Buttercup was always making fun of her, most often than not joking about siding with the star of the school as she nicknamed the mystery student to be. Bubbles laughed and went along with the jokes. and Blossom did everything she could to uncover who the number one person was. it became her side project, but to her dismay, one with zero results.

no matter how she tried, begged, and even baked a full batch of her infamous chocolate cookies to give to her favorite teacher as bribery, no one ever gave in. “it’s against privacy regulations” was what everyone seemed to say when she approached the subject.

by the end of middle school, she almost lost her head and went through with Buttercup’s plan to steal the information from the school’s office. thankfully that same night they got a call from the Mayor and fighting crime became once more her priority, leading her astray from breaking the rules.

but then, her prayers were magically answered.

Blossom loved routines, and every day since she was old enough to handle her own money, she stopped by the Cherry Pop. she came to know it almost fatefully, due to a robbery that happened at the store many years ago. at the time a couple of records had been stolen, as well as some of the cashier's earnings, and of course, she found the money with the leader of the Rowdyruffs. it was to expect, but deep down she still thanks Taehyung for introducing her unknowingly to what became to be her favorite store in town.

and now, here she was, going downtown right after classes to pay the store a visit. it was almost the end of the school year, summer was knocking on the door and the sun's rays were already litting up Townsville. Blossom decided to stop by Cherry Pop’s and listen to the new records she knew had come for the summer when it happened.

it was a rule Professor—their dad—always insisted they followed: their powers were only to be used when needed. and right at that moment, she didn’t need to hear conversations with her super hearing ability. but she still did.

right before coming out of the store, she spotted two of her teachers across the street, talking while pointing to something inside a dossier. it seemed like a harmless encounter between the two of them, that later developed into something school related. it was almost the end of eighth grade which meant the final results were about to be hung on that stupid board, and curiosity got the better of Blossom. so she perked her attention to the two of them and begin hearing everything.

“... Ugh, he’s such a good student… And I bet if it weren’t for that misleading monster they call father he would be such a nice kid too.”

she watched attentively as Miss Margaret sighed as she agreed. “I know… I wish there was more I could do for them. Somehow, giving him my dusty record player for saving me doesn’t seem quite enough.”

that piece of information has Blossom’s eyebrows knitting so bad they almost merge together.

“I just don’t know how he keeps it. Every time – His grades are always up there… I mean. When does he study if he’s always doing his father’s evil deeds and covering up for his brothers when the cops show up? I feel like they are constantly down in the station– At least that’s what Sharon says, you know, her husband works there.”

Blossom has always been quick with her thinking, and by this alone, she thinks anyone would be able to figure out they are talking about Taehyung. no one apart from the Rowdyruffs has an evil dad in Townsville or goes around doing evil deeds like Mr. Clarkson described. and it has to be him because Jungkook can’t even be discussed when it comes to his grades as he doesn’t care enough, and although the covering up part seems like a Jimin thing, she had been in his class last year, she has seen his grades and it doesn’t come without much effort on his end. what shocks her, however, is the part where Taehyung saves Miss Margaret. that isn’t a thing villains do, and she would know, she has been fighting crime ever since she was born.

“He’s just… Gifted, I reckon.” Miss Margaret’s statement has her snapping out of her thoughts. “He isn’t much of a reader, but I noticed that if he pays enough attention he’s able to remember about the subjects… You must notice it too. Explaining it once to him is enough. That kind of annoying student that comes once in a lifetime, I guess!” she chuckles as Mr. Clarkson agrees.

“Well, too bad he got that suspension for the graffiti thing… Otherwise, he would definitely come first on the board, once again. And he deserves it. With everything the kid has to go through… I can’t even imagine!”

suddenly, Blossom isn’t able to focus on the conversation anymore. her world starts to spin in a way she didn’t deem possible.

Taehyung, the leader of the Rowdyruffs, son of Mojo Jojo, a criminal to heart that she has been fighting ever since… ever, is apparently the star of the school. the student she has been most ardently trying to unmask. the person that she viewed as her most formidable opponent and if she was brave enough to admit, the person she at some point began admiring from a distance.

it was like suddenly discovering the earth was flat all along.

that night was hell for Blossom. she had trouble digesting the discoveries and bumping into the protagonist of them later at dawn wasn’t the best option for her fiery angst. the Powerpuffs had received a call about some troublemakers causing a ruckus in the middle of the night, and the cops were adamantly fixated on taking them to the station at any cost, even if said troublemakers had fled the scene of the crime—a graffiti pig dressed as a cop in a brick wall by a well-known bar.

Blossom had suggested to her sisters they should swipe town apart to cover more terrain, and now that she straight up bumped into Taehyung down an alley next to the Cherry Pop she regretted her decision thoroughly.

“You!” she grits through her teeth and watches how he turns his head, his side profile shining under the moonlight.

“What about me?”

Blossom doesn’t know what frustrates her most. from knowing he is the one she wanted to find so badly to his nonchalant attitude as he turns back once again and proceeds to draw on the alley with his red canned spray, every little thing seems to poke at her somewhat short fuse.

“It’s you!” she exclaims frustrated, partially embarrassed for not having a grip on her confused emotions or a better thing to say.

Taehyung looks back at her, a crooked smile adorning his features as he shakes the canned spray, “Uhm, it’s me…? Unless you’re seeing someone else, Red, I’m pretty sure it’s just me –”

“No, idiot! It’s you as in you’re the student I have to compete with!”

The boy was about to paint another stroke but halts completely. Under Blossom’s furious gaze, he crouches down to place his canister on the floor before facing her again.

“You don’t have to compete with me, you want to compete with me. It’s a bit different, Red.”

“I don’t want to compete with you! Up until fourth grade I didn’t even have competition. I was always first! And then –Suddenly you are always there in that fricking board! It’s my board, my first place!”

“Your first place?” He asks amused as he crosses his arm. “Didn’t seem like it this whole year… Or the one before.”

Blossom bites the insides of her cheeks as she feels her pink eyes turning hot. the last thing she needed was to burn everything to the ground, including her favorite store, with her laser eyes just because of him.

“It’s not so fun when people shove it to your face is it?” Taehyung adds.

“That’s the difference between you and me,” she scoffs bitter, “I would never do such a thing.”

“Oh, really? You seem to forget that I share the same powers you have, Miss Perfectly Right.”

there is something hidden in his eyes that Blossom can’t quite figure out. he steps closer to her, and for the first time in her whole life, she views him as daunting, dangerous even. “And I remember quite clearly when you referred to me as a brainless kid to your friends on the patio, nothing but a pebble in your shoes. Guess I’m just fulfilling the description of the job.”

Blossom’s eyes fall to the damp concrete ground, searching for her past memories and balling her fists to the possibility of her being unjust with someone. but he was a Rowdyruff. they were the bad guys… so what if she called him an airhead?

“You don’t even remember, do you?” Taehyung searches for her eyes as he scoffs. there is no ounce of anger in it like she expected it to be. he was just… disappointed.

gulping down and sticking to her pride, Blossom shrugs. she did remember the moment now that he talked about it, and she did indeed make less of him but that was how she felt at the time, and at the moment she is still too reluctant to acknowledge he is any different than that.

“Whatever. I guess it serves you right.” he kicks the spray canister he had been using to paint, “Good luck trying to be first from now on.”

leaving no room for response, he flees the scene with a swoosh.

Blossom’s shoulders sink and her world doesn’t stop spinning. just like that she is faced with the feeling that perhaps she is being the villain in someone else’s story.

she hears the cops’ sirens from a distance and quickly retrieves the canister that had rolled up to the sidewalk, taking it with her as she flies home.

for the months to come, Blossom keeps to herself. Taehyung isn’t in her class, again, and she is somehow relieved by it. the only time she sees him is whenever they have to fight each other and it always ends up being a rollercoaster of emotions for her. she takes the opportunity to release her pent-up anger toward him, but then, every time he ends up being arrested or badly hit by herself, her chest stings differently and she ends up returning home with a bad taste in her mouth.

his good grades never stop coming nevertheless, which frustrates her to the point that even though she rarely bumps into him in school, she begins having trouble focusing on her studies. which is a first—one that she wished had never happened.

and after the first half of ninth grade of her watching her world collapse around her, Taehyung decides it would be fun to poke at her wound a bit more and so he starts leaving badly drawn doodles of her face around school with words such as “wuss” or “loser”.

at first, it was in her locker, which bothered her but not so much. a wet tissue resolved the problem pretty fast. but then when later on Patty Conklin started making a fuss for seeing it behind the gymnasium, the whole school started making funny faces as Blossom passed by in the halls.

Buttercup threatened everyone with her looks as she started more and more coming to Blossom’s side in the hallways. and Bubbles was always turning the tables with reversible psychology or as she called it “leverage gossip”. but that was bothering Blossom more than Taehyung’s little revenge.

she didn’t need people coming to her rescue.

and so something in her blossomed. for the rest of ninth grade she fought harder, focused more, participated in more activities, studied better, and by the end of it not only did she come as a top student with several acclamations that their dad was sure to hang in their fridge but she also found her first boyfriend—Dexter.

throughout the entirety of summer, she was able to put past her the whole Taehyung graffiti incident. she had managed to bump into him only twice, both being part of her job as he was once again involved with crime. and for the rest of it, she enjoyed going out with her sisters, or hanging with Dexter as they strolled around savoring milkshakes or the new records arriving at Cherry Pop. life felt normal again, the world was once more round and it spun her way.

but then came the beginning of tenth grade.

for the first time in years, she and Taehyung shared classes. not only that but someone in the secretariat thought it would be better for the students to have lockers placed near the classes they would be going to, and suddenly she had to see Taehyung’s annoying grin every morning before the first bell rang. their lockers being right across from each other.

“Morning, Red.” he would say like a well-programmed clock as he leaned in his metal cabinet, red cap boyishly back, arms defiantly crossed.

“Mind your business, Jojo.” she would hear Dexter approach like a knight in shining armor, scowling at the Rowdyruff, before she could snap at the boy herself.

in return, Taehyung would send him a sly smile, not at all bothered by his presence. “Your panties already twisted, Dex? So soon? Sheesh.”

and of course Dexter balled his fists annoyed, Taehyung knew how to get under his skin. Or everyone else’s for that matter. but Dexter also knew he was no opponent for a boy who could conjure fire with his hands, therefore his threats were just that... threats.

“Go find yourself a wall to paint, airhead.” Blossom would come to the rescue and between her remarks and the way Dexter always kissed her cheek, placing his arm around her neck as they walked away, the smile would fade from Taehyung’s lips.

although exhausting, it was a routine that Blossom was used to. she could even say that every time he would get into heated arguments with her while in class due to different points of view or better, due to pure spite, it was the fire she needed to boost her throughout the day. she wouldn’t change it.

but it was only when he began missing classes the week after the Halloween party that she realized how much she didn’t want to change it.

weeks turned to months, hatred turned into longing, and the heart she thought belonged to Dexter had always been in the hands of another. it had all been there, kept in a forgotten drawer much like the red paint spray canister with a cherry doodle that she looked at resentfully every now and then. on its bottom, the words that taunted her for the years to come in his absence. Taehyung wuz here.

[ back to masterlist ]

#bts imagines #taehyung x oc #taehyung fluff #taehyung scenarios #taehyung fanfic #bts taehyung #bts blurbs #bts fluff #bts ff #kim taehyung #bts fanfic #bts soft hours #taehyung smut #taehyung drabble #socksjinie.doc

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lonestarbattleship · 2 months

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February 18, 2024 Update from the Battleship Texas Foundation

"BATTLESHIP TEXAS UPDATE

Battleship Texas at Sunset.

The last Dry Dock Tour date has been announced! They are filling up fast -book now for before this once in a lifetime opportunity is gone! https://battleshiptexas.org/plan-your-visit/

A quality control check was conducted on January 30th, 2024. Leaks were expected and the team has successfully located them. Several of the leaks were under the starboard after docking keel. To fix it requires removing the docking keel, fixing the hull, and installing a new docking keel. For structural support symmetry we are replacing the two after most docking keels. At this time we are only replacing the after two docking keels. We have a procedure for safely removing these blocks that will not structurally damage or compromise the ship.

Work will continue to ensure that Battleship Texas is leak free, right up until she goes back in the water. And keep working after that to keep Texas as internally dry as possible.

Starboard docking keel removed and doubler plating being installed, after original steel was blasted and painted.

Partially removed starboard docking keel.

Cross section of docking keel -they are supposed to be hollow structures with a frame every four feet and their bottom is made of a heavy channel beam with teak in the channel. This docking is filled with mud from San Jacinto.

The teak "shoe" of the docking keel -the teak is amazingly good condition. That's San Jacinto mud above the the teak.

The first restored 5"/51 gun has been returned to the shipyard. This is 5"/51 mount #13. The mount was successfully reinstalled on Saturday and the gun will be reinstalled Monday. The rest of the starboard side guns will be reinstalled over the next week or so, with the port side guns following.

The gun for 5"/51 mount #3 being landed back on the dry dock, in preparation for reinstallation.

The stand and carriage of 5"/51 mount #3 being brought into the air castle. All 9,000 lbs of it.

The carriage and stand for 5"/51 mount #3 back in place, awaiting its gun and final bolting down. Yes those are the threaded rods that holds the mount -they are 24"-30" long.

Repairs to the ship's Aft Fire Control tower are ongoing. The windows, which were removed years ago, will be replaced.

The pipe mullions and window frame strips are fitted in place and awaiting final weld out.

The deck drains on the port side of the foremast have largely been reinstalled, ensuring that water drains properly off the ship.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

WHAT’S NEXT? - Battleship Texas will remain at Gulf Copper Shipyard for until her new home is ready for her. Additional steel work, removal and replacement of the ship’s deck, and superstructure/aft fire control restoration will continue. Painting the topsides!

SPLASH! - The ship will be put back into the water in early March.

PAINT! - Battleship Texas was painted in the Measure 21 camouflage scheme prior to deploying to the Pacific Theater during World War II. At this time Battleship Texas is the ONLY museum ship painted in this camouflage scheme and only one of two battleships in their WWII measure. Yes, the rest of the ship will receive a new coat of paint prior to leaving the shipyard.

HULL NUMBERS/NAME - The new hull numbers and name board have been extensively researched so each number and letter is not only the correct font, but applied in the appropriate position as it was in 1945. The numbers have been applied to both bow and stern.

ANTIFOULING! - The ship’s hull has been coated with PPG SIGMASHIELD 880 GF. Historically the ship would be coated with an anti-fouling coat that is red in color, but that coating is no longer needed as the ship is stationary and antifouling is not need to keep the hull free of marine growth for efficient movement through the water.

KEEL BLOCKS - Yes, the keel blocks supporting Battleship Texas can be moved. Each block is moved so the area atop of them can be blasted, repaired (if need be), and coated.

WHAT ABOUT THE RUDDER? - The rudder will remain where it is. Funding is best spent elsewhere.

WILL THE SHIP RUN AGAIN? - No, the ship will never be able to run under its own power again.

TOURING? - The Battleship Texas Foundation is working on new touring opportunities before the ship reopens.

REOPENING? - There is a lot to be done before the ship is ready for touring at its new home in Galveston, Texas. Reopening is projected to happen sometime in the later half of 2025.

Come on Texas!

To donate to the preservation and operation of Battleship Texas, please visit: https://battleshiptexas.org/

Support Battleship Texas by making a purchase through the ship's store: https://store.battleshiptexas.org"

Posted on the Battleship Texas Foundation: link

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dms-a-jem · 3 months

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Depeche Mode - Interview with Alan and Martin

International Musician and Recording World - Nov. 1984

Leaving their beginnings as wide-eyed Popsters behind them, Depeche Mode have become masters of the art of noise and the science of the studio. Adrian Deevoy had a rewarding chat with the Basildon-to-Berlin boys, Les Drennan took some great pictures.

Somewhere, off one of the corporate corridors in the labyrinthine complex we affectionately term Broadcasting House, a woman sits alone. Her job is to create emotion, tension and atmosphere. Her key to this process is a PPG system. Although this is heartbreakingly unromantic it is the ultimate argument for machines in the Machine vs Human debate. It’s also quite a nice little story.

Depeche Mode like this story.

“All the sounds for Life Of Earth,” declares Alan Wilder.

“All those little animals,” beams Martin Gore.

After four years Depeche Mode are pretty bogged off with being told that they make inhuman music. They quite rightly believe this accusation to be untrue. They might accept that their first two albums weren’t cataclysmic – catchy, melody blip-bops if you like your lager warm but nothing to telex home about – but they remain adamant that last year’s LP, Construction Time Again, this years singles People Are People and Master And Servant, and their latest album Some Great Reward are anything less than stirring. For in the last 18 months Depeche Mode have discovered, embraced and subsequently immersed themselves in sound. With the aid of producer Daniel Miller’s matchmaking Synclavier a strange love affair has developed between the band and sampled noise.

Alan Wilder and Martin Gore, the songwriters, seemed most smitten to a meeting between themselves, and a micro-Walkman was promptly arranged in a horrendously loud video wine bar where they both bawled unashamedly of their love for sound.

“I’ll take you through all the sounds on People Are People,” says Martin, eyes glazed, sparing the machine no blushes. “The bass drum at the beginning was just an acoustic bass drum sampled into a Synclavier then we added a piece of metal to that – just a sampled anvil type sound – to give it a slight click and make it sound a bit different. That’s the beauty of the Synclavier, you can edit sounds together to make what we call combination sounds. The main synth sound is the actual ‘synth’ sound on the Synclavier, that’s the one that plays the bass riff. But the bass sound is a combination sound too with part of it being an acoustic guitar plucked with a coin, which sounds very interesting when the two sounds are sequenced together.”

“There’s very little playing going on in People,” adds Alan, “virtually everything is sampled into the Synclavier. With the guitar sounds we altered them slightly once they were in the Synclavier because you sample in one note and then you can alter the length and dynamic of every note in the sequence for the guitar part so it will give expression, but it will still be completely in time. You can justify all the rhythms, you see, so that you can have articulation but it’s all in time.”

Getting back to the People Are People breakdown Martin unveils a short sampling anecdote: Love on a plane.

“I took a stereo Walkman when I was going on a plane from England to somewhere,” he begins. “I originally brought it along to take the takeoff but while the air hostess was doing her safety speech at the start of the flight I decided I’d tape that as well. But as she was telling everyone to ‘Check the instruction cards under your seat,’ the door flew open and all this air rushed in which made a real loud noise and everyone laughed. Anyway I looped the end of what she was saying and the laughter so it goes, ‘…tion cards ha ha ha ha …tion cards ha ha ha ha,’ which sounds funny but I used it in conjunction with a choir sound and it added a really nice texture to the bridge on People.”

“There’s a Synclavier harp sound in the verses,” contributes Alan, “and an ARP sequencer playing very fast in the chorus and there’s some Emulator sounds that we used for adding a few frills here and there.”

The three throaty clunks at the end of each chorus is in fact Martin’s throat.

“That was a combination sound,” says Alan. “First of all we sampled Martin going, ‘Unk Unk Unk,’ with his throat then we added a bell sound and a timpani to give it depth.”

“I felt a bit of a berk doing that,” admits Martin. But love’s a bit like that.

The vocal line, “It’s a lot… like life,” at the beginning of Master and Servant was yet more fodder for the Synclavier. As Alan explains.

“Firstly we got a lot of people singing the high, ‘It’s a lot,’ and then a low, ‘Like life.’ You don’t have to play one slower or faster than the other to get the octave either because you make a patch on the Synclavier keyboard for each part and then you play the parts in their natural pitches and both at the same speed which is very handy.”

The lead vocals on People Are People and Master and Servant (or M&S as us Depechies call it) on the 7” mixes at least, were pretty well the only sounds that weren’t sampled.

“The vocals,” explains Alan, “were recorded in a big room. That is the vocals were sent down through a PA into a big, live room so we could not only get a great big sound but so we could put effects on the vocal while it was being recorded and afterwards on the disk.

“Although we sample all the snare sounds,” he adds as an afterthought on live rooms, “we always record the initial sound in an ambient space. We like to vary the snare sounds a lot so we record all different acoustic snares in various rooms and we close mike them or mike them from a distance depending on the width of the sound that we require. Simmons pads? No, I don’t like them. After you’ve done all that fiddling around to get away from that factory preset sound you might as well have got a really good sound on the Synclavier. Simmons pads just remind me too much of that Howard Jones factory preset and Drumulator syndrome. Really boring ‘synth’ sounds. They’re just not interesting, they sort of scream ‘DX7!’ and ‘JP8!’ at you.”

The latest Depeche album boasts a myriad of sounds, less overtly metallic than the socialist sentiments that they reflected on Construction Time Again but just as fascinating. Love is all about contrasts.

“We don’t think that we overdid the metal-beating idea on Construction Time,” says Martin, “but we wanted to make this one less obviously metal sounds. We wanted a little more subtlety…”

So instead of belting skips they belted concrete.

“Yeah, on one of the tracks on the album, Blasphemous Rumours,” elaborates Alan, “we sampled some concrete being hit for what turned out to be the snare sound. All that entailed was us hitting a big lump of concrete with a sampling hammer…”

“…I’m sure they’re not actually called sampling hammers,” interjects Martin giggling.

“Anyway,” continues Alan, “the engineer / producer we use, Gareth Jones, has got this brilliant little recorder called a Stellavox which we use with two stereo mikes and it’s as good as any standard 30ips reel-to-real but this is very small and therefore very portable. So we just took the Stellavox out into the middle of this big, ambient space and miked up the ground and hit it with a big metal hammer. The sound was… like concrete being hit. I can’t really put it any other way.”

“Professional Walkmans are good for sampling too,” claims Martin. “Gareth has always got his out. On trains… at home. They’re good because they get a very impure sound that can often be really interesting. But if we want a very pure sound then we’ll take the thing, say a bit of scaffolding, into the studio and mike it up in the proper conditions and get a clean sound.”

If an equipment list had been included in the mentions on Some Great Reward, apart from pavements, buildings, bottles and old people being stapled together it would have incorporated a long list of toy instruments which Martin divulged as he became more intoxicated; by love of course.

“One morning me and Andy (Fletcher) went down to Hamleys, the toy shop in London, and bought as many toy instruments as we could find. Pianos, saxophones, xylophones and we took them all back to the studio and sampled them. One we used a lot was a Marina (?), a toy one, very strange, but after we’d sampled it, it was great. It sounded pretty terrible as a toy but when we took it down a couple of octaves it sounded really good.”

“People tend to think that if you’re using toy instruments then they have to sound whacky,” complains Alan, “but we put some to very good use because as soon as you sample them they take on a whole new quality and when you transpose them it puts them in a completely new context. Like the noises Martin was making with his throat, we only took those down a tone and it was unrecognisable as someone going, ‘Unk’, with their throat.”

But sampling, like love, isn’t all happiness and although Depeche have learnt to take the rough with the smooth, they found out the hard way. Alan breaks off in the middle of another ‘good combination sound’ story to tell how they were stitched up by a sussed, sampling percussionist.

“We were doing this combination with Martin doing his Indian voice combined with a bassoon type sound.”

“It was pretty ethnic,” says Martin launching into his Indian voice.

Alan ignores him. He has something on his mind that he’s not sure if he should tell us.

“I’m not sure I should tell you this,” he tells us, “but we got this percussionist in for the afternoon to sample his drums and the different techniques of playing them. We didn’t try to hide the fact that we were sampling him. We said, ‘We hope you don’t feel r*ped,’ and he agreed to be sampled literally just hitting one drum, once at a time. Anyway we sampled all his drums once, maybe twice. Now, the Musicians Union haven’t really caught up with sampling and this bloke had obviously contacted them when he got home because he gave us this bill for about 50 different sessions, plus sampling time plus a consultation fee. It was enormous and the stupid thing was that most of the sounds weren’t even as good as that (bangs two pint glasses together) and we only used about two for maybe two seconds each on a couple of songs.”

Another problem came when the band had to divide their recording time between Music Works in England and the 56-track, Solid State luxury of Hansa Mischraum in Berlin.

“There were all these builders in next door at Music Works,” moans Martin, “and we’d have the track running with us hitting skips and concrete and they’d be next door tearing a wall down and we couldn’t tell which was which. It was very confusing at times.”

Like love and marriage, sampling and timing tend to go together like the proverbial horse and jockey.

“Although it makes the whole process even longer, when you get into one you can’t really help but get into the other,” says Alan. “You can’t help, after you’ve been involved with sequencing for a while, noticing three millisecond or five millisecond discrepancies. So you end up time-shifting every sequence until it’s perfect. Then we got into consciously putting things slightly out of time. Like, for example, the choir sound on People again we used a combination sound of different choir sounds on different synths and then put them slightly out of time with each other. Like we took one sound from the Synclavier, one from the PPG and one was on the Emulator. Are you familiar with the Friendchip? It’s a time code reading clock that can monitor every single click output from all your drum machines and all your synths so when everything is going via the Friendchip you can adjust the feel by pulling something, say five or six milliseconds in one direction.

“The thing is so many things can’t play in perfect time anyway,” reveals Alan, “the Linn isn’t in time when it’s meant to be playing ‘drum machine’ perfect time without human error programmed in. It can go out by 20 milliseconds. We set an oscilloscope on several things to see how well they kept time. The one that came out best was the TR808 which only as a two millisecond shift. That’s better than the Synclavier. Rotten sounds though. But we actually ended up triggering stuff from the 808 just because it’s so tight within itself.”

“We always thought the 808 had a good feel,” chips in Martin before adding a bitchy, “even though Alan has a grade eight piano his playing is still incredibly out of time compared to the Synclavier sequencer… and even that’s out!”

All this and the Emulator II?

“Yeah,” admits Martin realising that his love has almost turned him into a technocrat, “the sampling time is about 17 seconds now, I think, and you can get more sampling across the keyboard, it gives better quality than the Fairlight and it only costs about seven grand which is a lot but it will be a big help to us live.”

And there’s a pianillow ballad, Somebody, to be sung love. Martin promises some. Kinda wonderful.

“We’re going to go for a completely human feel on that one. Just a piano played by Alan and Dave singing and Andy playing tapes on the Fostex X15. It’ll be very different.”

So the love for sound can take you backwards but what of the future?

“I don’t know,” confesses Martin, “the Synclavier can already go further than your imagination and they’re thinking of getting new software for that. Then there’s re-synthesis which might happen in a couple of years where you can take a sampled sound and change just tiny parts of it. It’s really impossible to say. Maybe we’ll just get the guitars out and make a Rock ’n’ Roll album. Who knows?”

…and somewhere, within the folds of Auntie Beeb’s ageing skin, a woman sits alone wrestling with a similar emotional predicament. Is she really in love with her PPG system is has it been David Attenborough all along?

Adrian Deevoy, November 1984 (some of the text is hard to read so transcribed to the best of my ability. Apologies for any typos)

#depeche mode #alan wilder #martin gore #my passionate little synth nerds🤓

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bugeyedfreaks · 5 months

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Alright, here’s something for everyone to discuss… what’s your favorite PPG episode that your favorite villain is in?

For me as a Mojo fan it’s suuuuper super difficult to pick a favorite. In the past, I’ve said that Forced Kin is my all-time favorite episode of the series (at least if I had to pick from S1-S6, otherwise it’s still The PPG Rule!!!) because it’s such a great episode that shows just how powerful Mojo could be if he’s pushed to his limit (like, almost PPG levels of power since he beat up an all powerful omniscient space being with only his fists and a loaf of bread). From rewatching the series lately though, Just Another Manic Mojo is such a classic, silly episode that showcases his grouchy, weird personality so perfectly. He also makes breakfast! He goes to the grocery store! He gets pissed off at everyone! Soooo relatable! Maybe that’s my fave? I still don’t know! It’s so hard to choose! 😩

…anyway, discuss! You don’t have to talk about Mojo, pick whoever you like the best.

#powerpuff girls #ppg #mojo jojo #villains #I fully expect reblogs only about the ggg but I enjoy reading people’s opinions about their episodes #actually would not mind going through my opinions about the other mojo eps buuuuut #I don’t want to bother everyone with a 200 page essay on them 🤣

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ppgrrbxteam · 2 months

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Painting my world with colors of love 🎨💕, and with Boomie by my side, every stroke feels like magic! 🌈✨ #ArtisticLove #BoomerAndBubbles

#sims 4 #superheroes #as time goes by #powerpuff girls #rowdyruff boys #painting #boyfriend #bubbles #bubbles utonium #teenagers #creative inspiration #artisticjourney #ppg bubbles

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lordofshitposting · 1 year

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I just remembered the ff "as time goes by" by carriedreamer, which I dropped a month ago and remembered that brick describes blossom's eyes as 'bubblegum eyes' so I thought that it must be because they are big and pink and OML this is so sweet and priceless 🥴👏🏻

#powerpuff girls #blossom ppg #brick jojo #rrb #powerpuff cw #as time goes by

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witherdiritos · 6 months

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I remember, back in mid 2010’s when I’d see fanart of characters from X show interacting with characters from Y movie, and it always threw me off, because most of the time it didn’t make any sense, or the characters were completely mischaracterized and self indulgent to the artists. I think I understand the appeal of it now! I bet younger me would be horrified—It’s sooo much fun to imagine what their dynamics would be! Take this in the most light-hearted, humorous tone.

Anyway, think about the Lawndale-Townsville-Drama High where it’s basically the characters from Daria, the PPG, and TD having to co-exist. Daria is the least fantastic of the three shows, but I could easily incorporate their realistic and witty humor. TD became crazier towards season 3 and onwards so powers for the girls would still fit. Take in consideration that the girls and boys are basically molded to my headcanons and enjoyment, imagining a world where they are aged up.

Their personalities stay somewhat the same. I sprinkled a little bit of crack shipping cuz it’s silly and fun. I am open for any ideas or suggestions :P

Tiffany is an implied crackhead so maybe she’d bond with Butch over that; then there’s Kevin who can drive any person with common sense mad, even Boomer; a flustered bi Brick, maybe they were playing truth or dare or something; for the next one I was thinking about the episode where BC goes with this sensei to deal with her issues, so maybe she’d partake on yoga next, thinking that it would give her a minute of silence and peace; I recently watched the episode where Brittany attempts to dye her hair, maybe she’d spiral and Bubbles would feel bad but not too sure about what to do; and lastly, Blossom and Gwen, maybe they’re reading something goth and Blossom is open to expanding her horizons in literature!

#cartoon network #the powerpuff girls #rowdyruff boys #ppg fanart #total drama #tdi fanart #daria mtv #fanart #crackship #powerpuff girls #ppg #rrb

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volleypearlfan · 1 year

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Boys Like Girl Leads Too

Recently, an animated adaptation of the comic strip Phoebe and Her Unicorn was cancelled by Nickelodeon, who claimed that boys won't watch cartoons with female protagonists. This incident shows how out of touch TV executives are with the audiences of their shows.

Contrary to popular belief, gender doesn't matter. A good show is a good show, and if it's good, then anyone, including boys, can watch it, and history has proven that time and time again. Here are just a few examples:

Winsome Witch is a series of Hanna-Barbera shorts that aired during The Secret Squirrel Show. Even in the 1960s, Hanna-Barbera knew that boys can watch shows with female leads. Winsome Witch is about a witch named Winnie, and the magical mishaps she gets into. She's just as clumsy and hilarious as any other male H-B character, and she doesn't have a sidekick. While she is obscure nowadays, that's just because the various backup segments in Hanna-Barbera shows aren't very well-known in general.

Also from Hanna-Barbera is The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, a spinoff of Wacky Races, featuring one of the most popular characters, Penelope Pitstop. She dresses in pink and is often a damsel in distress, but she's still able to save herself, and sometimes even saves the all-male Ant Hill Mob. If there's one thing H-B was good at, it was keeping in touch with their audience. If you look at the Amazon reviews for the complete series DVD, you'll find a lot of male reviewers praising the show, if only because they found Penelope to be hot. Guys WILL watch your cartoon if it has an attractive female character.

Speaking of which, there are a whole bunch of anime starring cute girls (known as 'moe' or 'bishoujo') and guess what? They're targeted at male demographics (such as shonen, young boys, or seinen, adult men). Shows such as Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star, and K-On! are popular with boys and men not just because of their cute girl characters, but because they're funny and relatable. In particular, Konata Izumi from Lucky Star behaves a lot like the average otaku.

Going back to Nickelodeon, they don't have very many Nicktoons with female leads. Just one of them is The Mighty B! It's a show about a young girl, Bessie, and is just as absurd and slapstick-filled as SpongeBob. Though short lived, it was a big hit for the network, getting 1.92 million viewers in the 2–11 demographic AND beating out Bakugan, a male-oriented anime, in the ratings.

Another short-lived 2000s female-led cartoon is Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. At the time it premiered, it was the Cartoon Network's top-rated hit for kids 6–11. It has a cult following today, a good chunk of which are guys who think the characters are cute. Again, guys WILL watch your cartoon if the girls are cute.

A much more notable Cartoon Network show is The Powerpuff Girls. Admittedly, the pilot didn't do well with a test group of 11 year old boys, but the actual show became a huge hit with everyone including boys. Everyone can enjoy watching little girls beat up bad guys.

Lauren Faust, who worked on PPG, would go on to create My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And we all know how the story goes: it was bashed for being "the end of creator driven animation" and "smarts-shaming" by people who hadn't even watched the show. A certain image board watched the show to see what all the fuss was about, and thus, Bronies were born. It's important to note that Faust deliberately made the show in such a way that everyone, from boys to adults, can enjoy it. And did she succeed. Once again, guys like to watch cute girls kick ass.

Exactly ten years ago, a spinoff of Avatar: the Last Airbender premiered: The Legend of Korra. Nickelodeon was hesitant with the show at first. They thought that boys wouldn't like the show because Korra is a girl. They were dead wrong - the boys in the test audience didn't care that she was a girl -- they thought she was awesome.

Despite all of these girl-led cartoons being popular with guys, TV executives still seem to believe that boys don't want to watch cartoons about girls. In a Discord server I'm in, someone noted that The Casagrandes was forced to shift its' focus from Ronnie Anne to her cousin, Carl, so that boys would watch the show (I don't watch the show, so I wouldn't know). Compare that with its' parent series, The Loud House. We have one boy and ten girls, but boys still like it, even after the sisters got just as much, if not more, focus than Lincoln. Despite all of that, Lincoln still gets over-promoted and put in the title cards, even if he doesn't appear in the episode. Nickelodeon is so out of touch, it's not even funny.

Cartoons transcend gender. Whether its' cute girls doing cute things or girls in action, a good show is a good show.

#cartoons #animation #anime #phoebe and her unicorn #nickelodeon #hanna barbera #winsome witch #penelope pitstop #the legend of korra #azumanga daioh #mlp fim #the mighty b #lucky star #k on #Cartoon Network #the loud house #the casagrandes #long post #my animation essays

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