#at least V's definition of -his- vaporwave

[chevvy-yates]

[ヴェイパーウェイヴ-SERIES]_00001727 mercs_night_steyr_portraits_vaporwave_01.file ///core:_spiced_paprika.file\\\

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⚠️ READ: Please do not repost/reupload any of my and my friend's art here or to any other platform, or I will be forced to do anything to get it annihilated.

Vijay belongs to me. Arki belongs to @nervouswizardcycle. ♥️ Also pics of him by her (I have permission).

click that link for fitting ambient music: コンシャスTHOUGHTS - ＳＬＯＷＬＹ

[radramblog]

Radiohead Retrospective Part 4: We’ve got heads on sticks

Your name is Thom Yorke. You’ve just released what is considered one of the best albums of the 90s, if not of all time, and you’ve achieved a level of fame that at least one band member considers akin to the Beatles. Through the release of OK Computer, you’ve proven that even if people are pretty much over Oasis at this point, British rock bands still rule the airwaves. You’re also stressed the fuck out over just about all of this, and having a very hard time accustoming to the life of a celebrity- let alone the usual mental health issues.

What will you do?

Apparently, the answer was to write the fourth album to be as far away from the previous few as possible, seeking influence from IDM groups like Aphex Twin, jazz stuff, and just some bizarro instruments and experimentation and leaving a lot of the “rock” stuff behind. The primary genre listed for Kid A is usually Electronica or Ambient, with various off-kilter rock subgenres lagging behind, crying “you’re still gonna do guitars and stuff, right?”

Well…not as much anymore. But this era of Radiohead, this career-suicidal swerve, still proved monumentally successful, and showed that the band still had it, and that sometimes artistic risks do pay dividends.

A side note: I usually link music videos for the tracks I discuss as part of each post, as you’ll have seen in previous parts of this series. Kid A, however, doesn’t have any singles, and it sure doesn’t have any music videos. So…maybe just listen yourself. I’m probably in over my head here anyway.

I think the first 5 notes of Everything In Its Right Place are some of the most iconic in all of music.

Some personal background- Kid A was the first Radiohead I ever listened to. A particular cool and good mate of mine was a fan in high school, but I’d never listened to them at all, and I trusted his opinion musically, so I went to buy one of their CDs the next time I was at the shop. And for whatever reason, the cheapest one was Kid A at 10 bucks, and I didn’t want to gamble more than that, so that’s the one I got.

So the opening notes of Everything In Its Right Place were the first Radiohead I ever heard. And considering how much I obsessed over this band, in high school and beyond, it’s no surprise that this song is one of my favourites.

Not only did this song introduce me to Radiohead, it was effectively a gateway track for electronic music in general. This was the early 10s, and the majority of what I knew as electronic stuff was the EDM that was drowning the airwaves at the time. I hated that stuff out of principle, because being a hipster like that was definitely a personality. I don’t think I would ever have gotten into Vaporwave, into IDM, or into any electronic music the way I eventually would were it not for Everything In Its Right Place.

Now that I’ve spent 250 words talking about myself and not the actual song, we should probably stop that. Everything In Its Right Place is defined by this steady build of layering vocals and effects onto the relatively calm synth line, distorted vocals and word salad lyrics and manipulated noises growing and getting more chaotic before it just stops- the vocals fade out, the effects drop, and you’re left with the synth line- except it’s been slowly changing itself the whole time, and you don’t realise because you’ve been distracted by everything else at the same time.

It’s worth noting (and I don’t know if this was the case with OK Computer, because I don’t have an original copy of that one) that this was an album without liner notes, without the lyrics in the cover booklet. But at least in this case, the lyrics don’t matter as much as the v i b e. At least, that’s what I think.

On the topic of unintelligible lyrics, Kid A has a title track! I believe literally two Radiohead albums do this, the other being The Bends (though Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows do appear as lyrics). The song itself is an ambient, quiet piece that feels something like a twisted nursery tune- incredibly affected vocals, a syncopated (?) percussion, and a synth (I think???) that…I don’t know how to describe it, but it feels nursery-rhyme-y. If you’ve heard this song a few times, or you know what to listen for, you can piece together the lyrics somewhat- and they are, frankly, kind of unsettling. What is standing in the shadows at the end of your bed, can it please leave? And imagery of the Pied Piper is always either extremely silly or extremely unnerving, with this clearly leaning towards the latter. There’s a lot going on here- especially for a track most probably wouldn’t listen to outside the context of the full album. I know I generally don’t- not the kind of thing I generally am in the mood for.

 We’re at 850+ words, and we’re only up to The National Anthem? Fuuuuck. Well, anyone who wasn’t on board the IDM train can at least appreciate this one more, it’s got an actual bassline. A killer one, at that, that drives the whole track. Well, you know, that and the B R A S S. Seriously, it sounds like they invited a marching band to this bad boy. The combination ends up sounding mostly like controlled chaos, a jazz band traffic jam wound together by that B A S S. But the bass can’t hold it forever, and eventually that shit breaks free and just, it just honks all over the place.

I’m frustratingly running out of things to say about this song I really like, as opposed to the other songs I really liked. Unfortunately, ya boi forgot to take his neurotypicalification pills today, and so I’m getting very distracted. Hopefully, that slightly unhinged nature suits the album somewhat.

The next song, How To Disappear Completely, is a Big Mood with a fun story attached. The main lyrics- I’m not here, this isn’t happening- were allegedly something none other than Michael Stipe from R.E.M. told Thom to help him deal with that massive stage fright that came with Getting Big. Fun trivia aside, this song is gorgeous, luscious with massive strings, an acoustic bend, aethereal vocals, and a background drone running through the thing that makes sure your hair is always a little on end through the thing. It’s a song whose lyrics are an attempt to escape anxiety, whose instrumentation serves more to reinforce it- a calm, melodic piece that builds into nervous swells and threatening strings. A song about fighting your fear, and losing.

Fuck me it’s a bit depressing isn’t it. It’s potentially the most emotionally revealing song the album has- a lot of the lyricism on other tracks is more metaphorical, or subtle, but the meaning in How To Disappear Completely is evident even just from the title. You get lost in the strings and they go from calming, to imposing, to downright menacing (and then back again) in the song’s final minute.

Treefingers, on the other hand, has a lot less to say, and by that I mean it’s an instrumental. A very atmospheric, ambient one, and thereby one I don’t have a lot to say about. I’m not sure I’m particularly good at commenting on regular music, but this kinda thing is a whole different animal. I have no idea how to interact with discussing this. I like it? I will say, that one note right at the end, that echoes for a bit, the one piece of clarity in this muddled, reverbed sphere, feels especially poignant, for reasons I cannot describe.

We go from ambient instrumental to arguable the most rock-song-like track on this album, Optimistic, certified banger that it is. Some might argue that it doesn’t fit here, but like, did they even hear the lyrics? The bridge? It more that deserves its place on one of the best albums around. The little way the guitar scales up during the chorus is excellent, the proggy drums and riffs are glorious, it’s just a very good rock song.

Also this is the first song with the lyric “dinosaurs roaming the earth”, which, aside from being a bit of a non-sequitur, would return two albums later. And I’m really looking forward to that one.

In Limbo is a song I kind of always forget exists until I hear it again. It’s antimemetic, the way the song goes slipping from my mind until I hear those opening notes again. I’m going to be honest, it’s probably because it’s also the most mid song on the album. Far from bad, but it isn’t doing anything that How to Disappear Completely or Optimistic aren’t doing better. If I had to remove any track from this album, it might be this one?

Watch me get fucking lynched from the fandom for that one, if I ever post this to r/Radiohead or whatever. Which I might, though as much as I’d like more people to read my things I’m also extremely anxious about the potential response. Like the album I’m discussing today, I’m terrified of fame.

Incidentally, In Limbo is also the shortest track on the album (Treefingers beats it by 11 seconds), though this isn’t initially obvious online at least, because people keep messing with Motion Picture Soundtrack. But we’re not there yet, hang on.

We go from the forgettable (to me) In Limbo to the utterly mesmerizing Idioteque. Anxious but danceable, confusing but emotive, messy but tightly controlled. I love this fucking song to death. The reason I got the particular Radiohead poster that I did was because it has lyrics from this on it.

I’ve heard that lyrics for this album were largely pulled from a hat, and nowhere is that more clear than here (or maybe Everything In Its Right Place). Despite this, there’s a pretty clear theme in them, a continuation of some of the themes of this and the last albums. A condemnation of wealth and cowardice in the face of ecological disaster. In the form of an apocalypse disco.

What a lot of people don’t know about this track is that it actually samples an extremely old electronic music piece- one written in 1973, on a particularly old computer. The track, mild und leise, is a very interesting track considering its age- I’m reminded of Selected Ambient Works by Aphex Twin- not so much musically, but about how that reason was as influential as it was because it was the first time songs had sounded like that, because it was the first time songs could sound like that- I suppose it’s somewhat similar in that way, if older. These pieces and their composers inexorably linked by the allure of technology, and how that could be used to define new eras in music history- in Radiohead’s case, it certainly defined the next few albums in their lifespan.

Jesus mild und leise is long, it’s still going as I write this. I need to get back to Kid A, man!

Idioteque leads directly into Morning Bell, admittedly another less memorable song. Largely percussion lead, plenty of falsetto, and with a very unsubtle theme if you listen to the lyrics. I recall seeing someone saying that “cut the kids in half” was a really surprising and spooky line, and, yeah, sure, it sort of is, but it’s only particularly bad if you don’t pay attention for the rest of it. It’s about divorce, dude, it’s not subtle.

Or apparently not, according to one interview, but Thom said the interpretation isn’t invalid, so haha still winning baybeeeee.

I think the only part of this I really can’t do without is the outro, because the last minute and a half of this song is really cool. The mumbled lyrics go really well with the rising percussion and eerie effects that end the track.

Our final song is Motion Picture Soundtrack, or, Exit Music (for Walt Disney’s Depression Nap). This and Street Spirit I think are what really cement Radiohead’s reputation for brutal closers, both of them being tragic but hauntingly beautiful in different ways. In this case, it’s the instrumentation- glittering harps attempting the echo 50s Disney. There’s actually a version of this song from the OK Computer era with extremely different instrumentation, piano rather than organ, and no harps (and a third verse that is utterly brutal). Regardless, this is the song they chose to close the apocalypse that Kid A is on- the final lyric being “I will see you in the next life”, as the glittering echoes into the night. Poignant and tragic, but a little hopeful- the next life hopefully won’t have the struggles and pain of this one.

And then, of course, there’s the hidden track. Nicknamed Genchildren by some (that’s just the username of the dude who uploaded it to Napster back in the day), officially known as Untitled, and the true closer to the album. With Spotify slapping it right at the end of Motion Picture Soundtrack, it’s not clear the true nature of this song- it’s actually hidden on the original album, after several minutes of silence, just long enough that you’ve forgotten you left the player running (or you’re still crying from Motion Picture Soundtrack). I don’t think there’s a real word for what this sounds like other than heavenly, and incredibly brief piece I’ve heard compared to the pearly gates. After all, if we end on “I will see you in the next life”, then what can this be but that?

 Thus closes Kid A, a gorgeous and powerful album, yet an insane swerve for any rock band to pull, not just Radiohead. A bold strategy, and yet it paid off for them- Kid A would not only be massively influential, it was also massively successful both critically and commercially- but not to the standard of OK Computer before it. But they obviously weren’t trying to do OK Computer part 2, just as that album was deliberately not The Bends part 2.

Kid A would pretty much get a Part 2, though, less than a year later. And it’s that album we’ll be discussing next week, obviously. Until then.

[bxkrug]

Copyright - The “Real” Death of Vaporwave

Vaporwave has been called dead more times than Stan Lee, and yet still it is a popular music genre and aesthetic. Vaporwave, to someone not very heavily immersed in the culture, makes almost no sense. Vaporwave as a music and design genre is hard to define. Nonetheless it is an aesthetic style and musical movement that I adore. In simple terms vaporwave is a subgenre of chillwave, that is easy to listen to (darkvapor excepted), easy to relax to, while also being oddly nostalgic. The genre generally utilises heavy sampling and when it doesn’t it uses stylistic pastiche. These two techniques are ways that vaporwave recontextualizes older musical styles, motifs and tracks. Vaporwave is hard to describe due to many factors contributing to its aesthetic and artistic success, such as its background in internet forums and culture, the cultural impact of the tracks and styles the sampling and pastiche is taken from and the way in which the various samples are manipulated.

Vaporwave as a genre is unendingly fascinating, partly because it couldn’t exist without the internet, and because it couldn’t exist without the ability to take existing works and manipulate and re-release them. The influences vaporwave takes from plunderphonics is well documented, but I would argue is a hypothesis born mostly out of reading too far into a very simple history. While the founders of the musical style many today would call vaporwave, namely James Ferraro and his contemporaries, definitely took some kind of inspiration or at least were creating in the footsteps of plunderphonics, the subsequently popularised vaporwave genre and its corresponding design aesthetic, has more roots in internet memes and culture then any obscure experimental music genre. The use of post-ironic capitalism, post-ironic marxism, and post-ironic japanophilia is evidence enough of this relationship.

Post-irony being a very common characteristic of both mainstream and underground meme culture in which a joke or statement is made ironically, but the essence of the joke or statement still has some essence of truth or sincerity. The abundance of post-irony in the vaporwave community has led the genre to be called a meme in its own right, and its design aesthetic to be called a meme format. Memewave, and vapormeme are sub-genres of vaporwave with more layers of irony than anyone with an IQ below 400 could possibly understand.  

Vaporwave simultaneously mocks and embraces free-market capitalism. It takes songs made for capitalistic gain and essentially steals them and subsequently uses them for the basis of an entire track. The essence of remix is used, but the amount to which the new works are transformative is controversial. I will refrain from inputting my opinion until later, but it is an important  issue of debate. The idea here being that they are themselves utilising a free market ideology in order to create their works, while also mocking the system that both allows them to do this, and had created the work they are commandeering. This may sound like cognitive dissonance, but in online terms this is a very good example of post-irony, but there is another layer to this. The essence of this cognitive dissonance and post-irony, vaporwave fans find quite funny, hence why they partake of the culture and genre. They also, however, tend to unironically enjoy the music and the various image edits. The cognitive dissonance of finding the self-contradictory ideological motivations ridiculous and laughable, while also unironically loving it for those same aspects, is the very nature of internet age post-irony. The vaporwave community similarly makes fun of, while it embraces marxist criticisms of capitalism and japanophilia.

I hope this has conveyed how vaporwave and memes are heavily related, and how the culture of remix, sampling and pastiche is necessary for the genre to exist by definition. Vaporwave without the ability to take existing music and recontextualise it is just odd sounding chillwave. 

Vaporwave’s use of sampling is undoubtedly transformative, in my opinion. The act of recontextualizing someone else’s work, and changing the feeling, sound, and intention for the music to such a degree as vaporwave artists do is an artistic one. I would argue the same thing about taking someone else’s piece of art and altering it to convey a new meaning and tone, or taking a film and making an edit which alters the meaning in a different way. Memes exist solely on this one assumption, meme edits could not exist in a system that does not allow this kind of remix.

As far as I am concerned, the current state of copyright could potentially get bad enough that vaporwave could become impossible to make and distribute, even for free. EU copyright law already sets precedent for certain memes to be illegal under certain interpretations of the law. Certain vaporwave artists have had to distribute music on underground forums, bandcamp, and other free distribution services where copyright is less strictly upheld. Some artists who could plead the defense that their work is transformative have made homes of lucrative platforms such as spotify and itunes, that being artists such as 2814 and Blank Banshee, but other vaporwave artists have not made such a move. This is due to a number of reasons, some of which involve the fear for litigation.

When costly lawsuits can be filed for things as minor as similar chord progressions or even a similar function those chords play within a progression (even if no such lawsuits are successful) it is understandable that certain artists are too careful to end up with their music being too well advertised.

This fear for the loss of one’s wealth and work due to the overstepping of government regulation is, in my honest opinion, already in a shameful state. With YouTube, the EU and the US copyright regulations being too restrictive to creative freedom. An artist should not fear for any legal repercussion for any work that utilises another in any way, as long as some creative input is exerted by the second artist in order to express something new. With the tightening of copyright regulations as has recently been made by the EU parliament we could see the death of vaporwave in the future. This would be a future not devoid of creative potential, but one where the ability to express that creative potential is severely limited. It is a future I wish to avoid in entirety. Government regulation of a free market is necessary to ensure the stability of the market, but such regulation must be much looser on the creative industries, if we wish for new and innovative works to be created. 

References & Further Reading

Copyright Trolls. (2018). Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.eff.org/issues/copyright-trolls

What is a Copyright Troll? - Plagiarism Today. (2018). Plagiarism Today. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2018/04/12/what-is-a-copyright-troll/

(2018). Andrewtholl.com. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from http://www.andrewtholl.com/uploads/9/0/8/6/9086633/plunderphonics_literature_review.pdf

The History of Avantgarde Music. (2018). Scaruffi.com. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.scaruffi.com/avant/cpt15.html

Vaporwave: A Brief History. (2018). YouTube. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdpP0mXOlWM

Vaporwave: Genre Redefined. (2018). YouTube. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJwqp0IByto

The music theory of V A P O R W A V E. (2018). YouTube. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdVEez20X_s

Vaporwave — Down the Rabbit Hole. (2018). YouTube. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_T1nkER3vA

Urban Dictionary: post-ironic. (2018). Urban Dictionary. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=post-ironic

Post-Irony Is the Only Thing Left in the World That Gets a Reaction. (2014). Noisey. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://noisey.vice.com/da/article/6vm4md/the-past-explains-our-present-wave-of-post-irony

What Is Post-Irony?. (2012). Postirony.com. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from http://postirony.com/blog/?p=2371

Why the incoming EU copyright law will undermine the free internet. (2018). The Conversation. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from http://theconversation.com/why-the-incoming-eu-copyright-law-will-undermine-the-free-internet-99247

Article 13 Passed. (2018). YouTube. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISyiTcA6RIw

EU approves controversial Copyright Directive, including internet ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’. (2018). The Verge. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/12/17849868/eu-internet-copyright-reform-article-11-13-approved

Sweney, M. (2018). EU copyright law may force tech giants to pay billions to publishers. the Guardian. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/law/2018/sep/12/eu-copyright-law-may-force-tech-giants-to-pay-billions-to-publishers-facebook-google

Everything is a Remix Remastered (2015 HD). (2015). Vimeo. Retrieved 26 November 2018, from https://vimeo.com/139094998

[some-flyleaves]

for “no particular reason” some thoughts on stuff I’ve watched/read lately

spoilers ahead but most of these have been out for a while by now

Beauty and the Beast remake

overall entertaining and well-animated, though I still prefer the original

some of the story tweaks were neat and I especially liked the subplot about the cursed servants becoming less sentient(?) as time went on

others were kinda unnecessary imo, the whole opening scene being a glaring example. also giving the Enchantress a bigger role is neat in theory but kinda definitely raises a few Questions

not fond of the autotuned lead singer which is even more obvious comparing soundtracks

the furniture designs cannot grow on me They Simply Can Not, you can’t get nearly as many lines of action or squash & stretch out of a hyperrealistic CGI teapot

on that note the original’s beast design is still the best design, shout-out to my family for calling the live-action prince a “surfer dude”

at the end of the day idk what to make of the LeFou Discourse(TM) but shout-out to the little bit where Potts was like “you’re too good for him [Gaston]” and all things considered I thought it was a biiit more than what those cynical meme posts suggest. mind I’m not sure what I would’ve thought if I didn’t know about the whole shebang beforehand

it was apparently enough to get the film banned in a few countries, which doesn’t equal Instant Representation Pinnacle obviously but ehhhh that’s another topic for another time

Maleficent is still the best live-action “remake” of the films disney’s been churning out lately imo my onion, but I can’t say any of them have really disappointed me? (unless the first Alice counts; all I remember is that it was weird, which I guess is a given considering the source material but idk live action loses so much charm. definitely haven’t watched the second and have no interest in thereof)

anyway Mulan is one of my favorites so fingers crossed...!

Moana

very predictable but heck if that oscar bait song hasn’t been intermittently stuck in my head since

big earworm shout-outs to “You’re Welcome” and “Shiny” too but this website has ruined the latter sequence to an extent because I’m half convinced someone in production there has a vore fetish

in any case that was way too good a villain song for a one-scene show-stealer wtf the fuck

Moana’s voice & overall expressiveness fuels my soul

also it was GORGEOUS, more than compensates for another ~coming of age~ plot with fantastic colors

I have a lot of questions about the sentience of the ocean

what do you mean the Obligatory Animal Companion was a chicken and not the pig

okay ngl I didn’t quite catch the angry volcano spirit woman also being the green lady? I don’t think...? aw heck it’s been a little while by now but the ending was neat

how fucking old is Maui

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle - if you recognize that name it’s because, as I found out after reading, he’s the guy who leads the band responsible for a song I had on repeat hell for at least a couple months after discovering it via this wonderful, wonderful "lyric.. comic... thing” </ungodly run-on>

if this seems completely out of nowhere it’s because it is. I’ve jacketed and shelved a lot of new books, and while a good handful catch my interest, few compel me to check it out before heading home for the day

off the top of my head the other most recent book this happened with was No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale (heads up for a non-graphic image of hanging on the cover), which was... oh holy shit that was over three years ago I don’t read often enough nowadays x_x

that one started strong but, around if not at the point where the protag was making out with the secondary dude, took a sharp turn towards the cliche & general What Is This Fuckery. but I digress

seriously no image on the internet can do this cover justice, the vaguely vaporwave-lookin part is actually very dark and the whole thing shines like one of those rain puddles mixed with.. gasoline? oil?? whatever makes it rainbow-y at a certain angle

I only skimmed the inside flap description before diving right in the night I took it out, and I realized a good chapter or two in that I’d unintentionally picked up a horror novel.

well. kinda? horror-ish?? despite there being no killer on the loose, no supernatural monster on the prowl, not even an invasion of alien farmers federally paid to invade your small town, basically no imminent looming dagger above the protagonist’s head, it’s VERY unsettling for the most part and I gotta give it major kudos for that

<SPOILER class=“mild”>also huge shout-out to the subtle switch to first-person at a key moment, then scattered throughout from there on.</SPOILER> it was at that point I had to reread the description to see what I’d actually gotten myself into and decided I was gonna read this sucker in one sitting or I wouldn’t be able to sleep

(skip this bullet point if you don’t like vague ending spoilers) despite that it manages to leave off on a somber, even sentimental note. pretty darn satisfying, though upon further thought there are a few big questions left unanswered that probably should’ve been addressed. (/vague end spoilers)

overall I’d recommend it if you’re looking for an interesting little read that might send a few chills from atmosphere alone but also makes you think*. just don’t start reading expecting a chapter or two before bed will do help you fall asleep.

*yeah yeah I know “makes you think” is something of a meme phrase at this point, but screw it I like my media when it actually engages the viewer/reader for more satisfying payoff. I’m not a fan of the “lol intellectualis” thing anyway V: but I digress.

Kubo and the Two Strings

ftr the record I called Beetle being the dad from his debut

my god Laika really likes their bugs and creepy hands (based on this and Coraline at least, I’ve seen ParaNorman but don’t remember much). this is absolutely a compliment.

voice acting didn’t thrill me, with the exceptions of the old lady & spirit sisters, but got dang those facial expressions

magic worldbuilding left a lot to be desired but it took place in fantasy China(/Japan? as with The Last Airbender I think we’re looking at another fictional Asian blend) and I for one am a sucker for that so I can let it slide

climactic fight felt kinda shoehorned, when the moon spirit dude showed up looking like a nice old man I almost thought they were gonna go for a less confrontational ending sequence - which I guess it kinda did but also the obligatory “join me and we can rule forever” stuff came up. I dunno I liked the spirit fish form ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

don’t get me wrong here I did enjoy it, I guess I was just expecting a lot more from all the talk about kids being able to handle mature themes and whatnot? ah well the conflict wasn’t quite Good Versus Evil so that was neat

was the moon spirit just a regular old dude all along though? is the moon going to rise again even with him hanging out among mortals? is he mortal now?? how does the Plot Amnesia work???? can someone tell him who he really was even if it’s not flattering??????

idk for some reason I feel like I’m being harsher here than anything else so far, really did enjoy it though. LOVED the 2d animation in the credits and I absolutely must emphasize how fucking awesome the animation is, being primarily stop-motion and all. they set a very high standard with Coraline and cartwheeled over it with Kubo holy hell

also I have a new desktop background

Wings of Fire Book 1: The Dragonet Prophecy - Iiiii actually haven’t finished reading this one just yet, saving the last part for when I finish at least one mcfucking assignment, but here goes nothin:

if you take a shot for every blatant violation of Show Don’t Tell you’ll be dead three chapters in, not sure if that’s because this is a middle-grade book or what

that said I find the plot & its overall direction intriguing enough to continue and, much as I may internally groan at the repetitive characterization and disney villain dialogue, I thought it was worthwhile and already have the next book checked out ;V

what can I say there are dragons there’s a war and it’s a very interesting take on the whole “because you are the Chosen Ones we will raise you here for hero training” deal

there’s also some intriguing worldbuilding with regards to the “scavengers” and “the Scorching,” not sure how much those are covered in this book but a friend who recommended the series in the first place says it’s some kind of post-apocalyptic thing?? nice.

not really related but shout-out to that one commenter in Script Frenzy who told me it was jarring or weird or something to have my dragon protags straight-up eat a few human researchers. I mean they weren’t wrong and it’s not like the WoF good guys have eaten any people (onscreen, at least) but still. I don’t read dragon stories for the humans >:T

in any case, sorta wondering if that one surviving scavenger will come back in any way later...? chekov’s human.

but seriously we don’t need to be beaten over the head with exactly why each dramatic plot twist is indeed dramatic, I could practically hear the manufactured gasps

despite that there are also descriptive passages of fun events like characters getting their necks snapped or screaming in agony as poison seeps through their scales! and we've barely scraped the surface of the Horrors of War!! >:Dc

conclusion of sorts for this disorganized mishmash of bullet points: why yes I am one of those unrelatable fucks who doesn’t buy the whole “I will defend a shitty shebang of a plot if the characters connect” thing how are you. what can I say, even if I don’t have any particular fandoms right now, I still have Thoughts On Media and no one can stop me from throwing a good ~90 minutes into typing ‘em up despite having other responsibilities ;’V

tune in next time for... well honestly I dunno if this is gonna become a regular thing, but whatever thanks for readin feel free to like reply and follow and see you next time on a-flyleaf dot tungler dot corn~

[circlesofts]

Please don't hate me... from the "Get To Know Me" questionnaire: All of them? Or at least all that you choose to answer. You don't have to answer those that you don't want to

Thanks for asking! Don’t worry about it, no hate, i’m happy to do it (Sorry it’s a day or two late, mobile Tumblr doesn’t give me notifications for messenger. Luckily I remembered to check…)

1. What is your middle name? Claire

2. How old are you?20 years old

3. What is your birthday?6th of Feb, the 20 years old thing is fairly recent

4. What is your zodiac sign?Aquarius

5. What is your favorite color?I quite like green/turquoise/purple (#339933, #008060, #990099 for an idea)

6. What’s your lucky number?I don’t really have one, probs 6 or 2

7. Do you have any pets?Used to have lots of pets, currently just a dog and cat, they’re p cute

8. Where are you from?I’m from the North West of England, around the Fylde Coast

9. How tall are you?5″5

10. What shoe size are you?I’m a size 4.5-5 for shoes

11. How many pairs of shoes do you own?There’s 10 pairs with me at uni (including slippers) but I have an extra 5 or more pairs at home I think

12. What was your last dream about?I can’t remember my last dream

13. What talents do you have?Umm, I don’t really have any talents, I can sort of do things but nothing I’m really good at? 

14. Are you psychic in any way?I don’t really believe in psychic stuff, but I sometimes really vividly dream stuff before they happen? Then a strong sense of Déjà vu

15. Favorite song?I have too many favourite songs, from too many genre. A few good ones that I listened to recently, Vectors by Area 11, Boy With A Coin by Iron and Wine, Salad Days/My Kind Of Woman by Mac Demarco and finally, the hot new meme Bag Raiders by Shooting Stars

16. Favorite movie?Again, there’s a lot. Anything Ghibli is a hit, also Your Name is a banger. Rogue one was p fantastic, Amélie, Fight Club, Animatrix, so many more

17. Who would be your ideal partner?Idk, someone who tries to understand me I guess, who never stops trying and always want to find out more. Also patience is key, I’m not the easiest person to live with

18. Do you want children?I do want children, but also the idea of it terrifies me

19. Do you want a church wedding?I’ve never been super fussed about marriage but a church wedding does sound appealing in some ways.

20. Are you religious?None Religion with Left Beef

21. Have you ever been to the hospital?I’ve been to the hospital a few times

22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law?Nah, never been caught

23. Have you ever met any celebrities? Met Alfie Boe, his aunt or mum or smth lives v close to me

24. Baths or showers?Showers for sure

25. What color socks are you wearing?No socks lad

26. Have you ever been famous?I’ve been in the local newspaper a few times, wouldn’t exactly call it famous tho

27. Would you like to be a big celebrity?Yes and no, like the idea of being remembered and being influences. Also kind of a poor background so the money would be nice. But also too much pressure

28. What type of music do you like?Cliché as it is, I like a bit of everything. Although preferences for rock, indie, folk. Although I’ve been on a vaporwave jam recently

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping?nah

30. How many pillows do you sleep with?2 usually, sometimes 3

31. What position do you usually sleep in?On my front or side I think

32. How big is your house?My uni flat is p small, my parents house is 3 bedroom, small but not super small

33. What do you typically have for breakfast?On the rare occasions I have breakfast, toast w/tomatoes on. Although I did just treat myself to a box of cereal which is very rare.

34. Have you ever fired a gun?Air rifle at scouts, I wasn’t half bad

35. Have you ever tried archery?Again, at scouts

36. Favorite clean word?Altruism

37. Favorite swear word?It has to be cunt

38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep?3 days, it was during exam period as well

39. Do you have any scars?2 on my face

40. Have you ever had a secret admirer?Umm, not in the super romantic sense with surpise gifts and shit. More like people have had crushes and told me months/years later, doesn’t end well usually

41. Are you a good liar?Yes

42. Are you a good judge of character?I’d like to think I am, but probably not. Sometimes tho

43. Can you do any other accents other than your own?Poorly

44. Do you have a strong accent?North-west doesn’t have any particularly strong accent. That being said, some people at uni can tell I’m not from the south

45. What is your favorite accent?Italian probs. Although for comedy, it’s gotta be Somerset (think Hot Fuzz)

46. What is your personality type?Quiet probably, I’m not really sure

47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing?I own some Dr Martens boots, that or a shirt I got in a sale that turned out to be heckin expensive

48. Can you curl your tongue?Ye

49. Are you an innie or an outie?Innie

50. Left or right handed?Right

51. Are you scared of spiders?Definitely house spiders

52. Favorite food?Burgers or chocolate.Although red peppers.

53. Favorite foreign food?I really like Indian curry, not spicy tho. Although there’s nothing more British than going for an Indian, unless it’s a Chinese.

54. Are you a clean or messy person?Kitchen is always clean, bedroom is always messy.

55. Most used phrase?Soft boy, Ayy lmao, That’s gay, it’s chill, It’s a banger. I have a lot of stock phrases I just kinda say without thinking, I don’t remember all of them

56. Most used word?Probably soft, or dickhead

57. How long does it take for you to get ready?if I’m late and I don’t have to look nice, I can be ready in 10-20. However for most things I’m late because I take too damn long59.  Do you have much of an ego?Not really, but it’s easily bruised

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops?Bite

60. Do you talk to yourself?Sometimes

61. Do you sing to yourself?Yes, a lot

62. Are you a good singer?Average

63. Biggest Fear?Forgetting things, memories, smells, how something felt. That and things like aneurysms and strokes, I’m really afraid of them.

64. Are you a gossip?Definitely. If it’s not v important or a secret I’m gonna be all over it

65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen?Little Miss Sunshine

66. Do you like long or short hair?All hair is good hair

67. Can you name all 50 states of America?Nope

68. Favorite school subject?Sociology, Philosophy, Art

69. Extrovert or Introvert?A shy and anxious extrovert

70. Have you ever been scuba diving?Nah

71. What makes you nervous?People with any authority to judge, people judging, being alone, loud people and loud noises. Laddish people

72. Are you scared of the dark?Nah

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes?Depends on the mistake, but usually

74. Are you ticklish?Very

75. Have you ever started a rumor?Kinda, yeah. In high school. My friend put his newts in the bathtub while he was cleaning their tank. We were all having a laugh in maths about it and I made a joke about him bathing with his newts and then it became A Thingl. It wasn’t super bad, mostly funny.

76. Have you ever been in a position of authority?Yeah

77. Have you ever drank underage?Ye

78. Have you ever done drugs?Ye

79. Who was your first real crush?One of my online friends from back in my Deviantart days

80. How many piercings do you have?None,

81. Can you roll your Rs?Not really, with great effort

82. How fast can you type?Very fast on my phone, average on my laptop

83. How fast can you run?Not sure, I don’t do a lot of running anymore, probably not v fast. Used to be p fast tho

84. What color is your hair?Currently brown

85. What color is your eyes?Hazel

86. What are you allergic to?Nothing

87. Do you keep a journal?Nah

88. What do your parents do?My dad is a welder fabricator, my mum is currently unemployed

89. Do you like your age?Not really? I don’t feel 20 but it makes me anxious, I wanna be a teenager again

90. What makes you angry?injustice, being tricked, when people make me feel stupid

91. Do you like your own name?Ye

92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they?Nah man

93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child?Gender or sex isn’t important

94. What are you strengths?I’m a good listener, and I always try and be as kind as thoughtful as I can be. Although sometimes salty, I am usually p good at moving past things and forgiving people, although sometimes a weakness.

95. What are your weaknesses?Anxious, sometimes way too defensive. Because I hate being tricked I have a very bad reaction to pranks. I’m also really forgetful and have poor motivation.

96. How did you get your name?My Grandma is Irish and there’s a river Shannon, also my older bro is called Shaun. Shaun and Shannon is a good name combo.

97. Were your ancestors royalty?Don’t know, don’t think so

98. Do you have any scars?question 39

99. Color of your bedspread?Green and White

100. Color of your room?Room at home is red, room here is white and pale blue.

[aaronmaurer]

Music I Liked in 2019

Every year I reflect on the pop culture I enjoyed and put it in some sort of order.

2019 was a great year for music, at least among the pop-leaning alt and indie rock I enjoy. Several favorite bands came back and knocked their latest efforts out of the park and I gained new appreciation for some artists that I’d never really connected with before. In fact, there was so much good music this year, I stretched my self-imposed Top 15 to get a few more records in. Of the three lists I write up each year, music is easily the most subjective because there’s a lot more of it out there and it’s even more fragmented, so I definitely don’t make any claims that these are the best albums of the year; they’re just my favorites and come highly recommended.

15. Better Oblivion Community Center – Better Oblivion Community Center

Phoebe Bridgers and Conner Oberst teamed up for this surprise release which merges both of their styles. The record is more electric/grungy than Bridgers’ solo output and though I’m not a big Oberst fan, there is still much to like here, especially the lovely ode to musical discovery “Chesapeake.”

14. Native Tongue – Switchfoot 

Switchfoot have established a pattern of alternating records I adore (Hello Hurricane, Fading West) with records that do almost nothing for me (Vice Verses, Where The Light Shines Through). Native Tongue swings back to the positive column with a mix of shiny anthems and contemplative balladry. Maybe the next one will break the cycle and stay in the “win” column?

13. New Jersey EP – Geographer / Let’s Try the After EPs – Broken Social Scene

The digital-age trend of artists dropping EPs rather than full-lengths continued in earnest this year with a lot of decent short-form offerings. Geographer’s New Jersey EP is my favorite thing he’s done in years and Broken Social Scene’s two Let’s Try The After releases continue the revitalized kick begun with 2017’s Hug of Thunder.

12. (I Am) Origami Pt. 3 – A Catacomb Hymn – John Van Deusen

Former Lonely Forest frontman Van Deusen released the third in a series of solo records last year, this one reconciling the alt-rock angst of Pt. 1 and the spiritual introspection of Pt. 2. There’s a lot to dig into here, but I’m especially fond of “Fly Away to Hell,” an appeal to finding hope through the natural world’s beauty in the midst of despair.

11. Without Fear – Dermot Kennedy

Kennedy’s first full-length record comes on the heels of a series of EPs and includes several tracks cherry-picked from those yet still coheres as a whole. Mixing singer-songwriter guitar folk with modern pop production (including vocal distortion effects and massive percussion) yields a sound that is simultaneously raw and polished – and immediate. Highlights include “All My Friends,” “Moments Passed,” “Lost” and “Dancing Under Red Skies.”

10. Everyday Life – Coldplay / Hyperspace – Beck

The latest albums from these two alt-rock luminaries were released on the same day and both have a lot to recommend them, even if they don’t quite reach the heights of the artists’ best work. Everyday Life is an interesting grab bag of ideas that doesn’t quite gel, but it is far better than anything on the prior A Head Full of Dreams. Tracks like the quietly pretty “Èkó,” the Owl John-interpolating “Champion of the World” and the Afrobeat breakdown “Arabesque” are peak Coldplay. Hyperspace is Beck doing vaporwave, a mostly chill dive into existentialism that finds a medium between the neon pop of Colors and the mellow beauty of Morning Phase.

  9. Rattlesnake – The Strumbellas 

While even Mumford & Sons have tired of the banjo-rock trend they re-popularized, there are still some terrific folk-leaning bands keeping the tradition alive. The most recent record from the Strumbellas is a collection of upbeat anthems that celebrate life and hope with an honest tinge of existentialism. This is perfectly encapsulated on closer “All My Life,” an ode to the paradoxical nature of love (whether divine or romantic) as both heart-breaking and life-giving force.

8. I Am Easy to Find – The National

I Am Easy to Find is the National at their more gorgeously languid. With the inclusion of a chorus of female vocalists (one of three in a trend on this list), the music here expands in new directions. As a sister piece to a short film by artist/designer Mike Mills (Beginners), this record has the feel of a curated museum piece – in the best possible way. “Not in Kansas” references my favorite R.E.M. album, “Where Is Her Head” is all propulsive stream-of-consciousness, and the closing sequence from “Hairpin Turns” through “Light Years” is as strong as anything else in the band’s catalog. (If you like this record, I strongly recommend “Think You Can Wait,” their earlier collaboration with Sharon Van Etten for the soundtrack to Win Win.)

7. Surviving – Jimmy Eat World

2016’s Integrity Blues marked a return to form for Jimmy Eat World after a couple uneven efforts and Surviving sets the bar even higher. Zach Lind’s percussion comes through as clearly and strongly as the robust guitar riffs, making this one of the best rock records of the year. The album’s middle stretch – from the synthy staccato of “555” to the quiet-loud dynamism of “One Mil” to the Futures-esque “All The Way (Stay)” to the soaring immediacy of “Diamond” – may be my favorite 4-song sequence of any album this year.

6. In the Morse Code of Break Lights – The New Pornographers

Another dose of shimmering power-pop from the Canadian collective, In the Morse Code of Break Lights finds A.C. Newman at his most lyrically direct, confronting the current political landscape with comparisons to fallen empires of antiquity on the likes of “Colossus of Rhodes” & “One Kind of Solomon.” Standouts include those tracks as well as the rhythmic pulse of “Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile” & “Opening Ceremony” and Simi Stone’s dynamic violin flourishes on “Dreamlike And On The Rush” & “Leather On The Seat.

5. Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey

I’ve been on the fence about Lana Del Rey to this point, appreciating some of the singles I’ve heard but never fully engaging with her brand of arch romanticism. Whether her casually profane and resigned lyrics are authentically her or an ironic persona, NFR! is undeniable, reflecting the fatalism of young adulthood in Trump’s America with excellent songcraft. Jack Antonoff’s production floats her dreamy vocals over spare but lush instrumentation, creating a hazy atmosphere of malaise with maybe some glimmers of hope flickering through.

4. My Finest Work Yet – Andrew Bird

Another reflection of the times from an artist I’ve never quite connected with before, Bird’s wryly titled My Finest Work Yet focuses his droll wit on deconstructing American exceptionalism and imperialism. The wordplay throughout this record is ingenious, but it’s the compositions that really sell everything, with hooks a-plenty and warm jazz orchestration to counterbalance the heavy subject matter. And yes, there is some whistling.

3. NINE – blink-182 / Strange Love EP – Simple Creatures

If 2016’s California was preoccupied with recapturing the bratty pop-punk rush of Enema of the State, then NINE is blink-182’s return to the more experimental emo leanings of their self-titled 2003 release. While not quite as adventurous as that record, it’s definitely their best work since, featuring introspective lyrics, plenty of Whoa-Oh-Oh sing-a-longs and full integration of newest member Matt Skiba (who is deployed as much more than a Tom DeLonge surrogate this time out). Personal favorites include “Heaven,” “I Really Wish I Hated You,” “No Heart To Speak Of” and “Hungover You,” but this is a solid front-to-back listen.

2019 also saw Mark Hoppus team up with All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth for two EPs under the moniker Simple Creatures. Strange Love is the stronger of the two and leans into synthpop territory with bright choruses, providing a nice complement to NINE.

2. Father of the Bride – Vampire Weekend

Aside from the stellar “Harmony Hall,” the pre-release singles from Vampire Weekend’s latest didn’t really wow me and I worried that this record (the first without Rostam Batmanglij as a full member) would end their unimpeachable run. However, in the context of the album, everything works brilliantly, a clear case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Ezra Koenig is at both his most experimental (see “Sympathy” and “Flower Moon”) and most traditional (see “Unbearably White” and “We Belong Together”) here, to great effect. Danielle Haim contributes vocals to several songs (two of three of the trend), tying everything together and adding a new dimension to the sound, which is still recognizably VW while expanding in new directions.

1. American Football (LP3) – American Football

Though I missed American Football’s initial late-90s run, I was glad to catch up with the band upon the release of their 2016 reunion album. Their music lives somewhere at the nexus of emo, post-rock, shoegaze and jazz, with instrumental motifs that call to mind Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity opus “Goodbye Sky Harbor.” 2019 brought a third LP (fortunately without a 17-year wait) that I believe is their best yet. Featuring female vocalists on several tracks (three of three of the trend), this set of songs has more immediate hooks without sacrificing lush guitar cascades or meditative polyrhythms. A perfect record to get lost in on a quiet morning drive – or any other time, really.

You know what’s better than reading about music? Listening to it. Here’s a sampling of songs from each of these records if you want an easily-digestible mix:

Bonus! Reinterpretation Albums:

Reworked – Snow Patrol – For Snow Patrol’s 25th year, they put out this album of new recordings of some of their greatest hits (and a few new songs for good measure). These reinterpretations aren’t drastically different from the originals, but they share a consistent coffeehouse vibe that makes for nice Sunday morning listening and a fresh approach to a typical “Best Of” record (which, to be fair, they have done before).

Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ – Various Artists – One of the final projects Scott Hutchison was involved with before his death, Tiny Changes bucks the trend of reissuing a landmark album on its anniversary. Instead, to commemorate 10 years of their breakthrough release, Frightened Rabbit tapped some of their favorite artists and friends (including the likes of Ben Gibbard, Manchester Orchestra and Julien Baker) to record cover versions of the whole thing. While nothing can touch the raw emotion of the originals, these interpretations reveal new dimensions to many of the songs, especially Daughter’s hauntingly beautiful and gut-wrenching take on “Poke.”

[spacecharr]

Black Rose Sesh Report V

i think it’s number five at least.

Here we go again:

fuck having a bum shoulder. again. seriously, fuck it. right in the asshole.

ok

the trip back wasn’t an odyssey so much as it was a revelation-filled romp.

also chillhop music makes me seriously so lyrical. it’s... it’s like I’m helpless, but I’m also scared that people might see me as a pretentious bitch or something, but I also recognize that maybe this is just my anxiety or some shit? 

thought looops, like frooot loops

oh yeah!

revalations

one: holy fuck I am so fucking bi.

there was this couple heading back -- WAITTTTT

how could I almost forget Oliver?!

ok

People I met on the romp back:

(wait tags)

(ok, back to here - but ow, fuck)

Eric, Lisa, and Oliver the Dog.

amazing neighbors who’ve lived in the area for a long ass time. also Oliver is cleverly named due to the location.

the black cat that I thought was a little girl twin of my handsome boy? nope! He’s an adorable little psychopath named Merlin! he loves people, is adorable, vocal, cuddly, his owners are this amazingly punk rock lady and this guy who could be like a secret badass punk nerd from accounting or something. And he’s a bit psycho ‘cause he does the whole “snuggle up to your leg to purr and cuddle you, ask for belly rubs, then will attack your hand”. My Zi doesn’t do that at all. He will give you maaaaaany warning bops with his back legs, no claws, before he begins to lazily warning bite you.

Alright, ok. 

Revelations.

one: I am so fucking bi.

there was this couple heading home from a run. both of them were HELLA FINE. I mean, of the two I’d prefer the dude, but if I could have both of ‘em, then hell yes I would.

I have the preference namely because the lady was wearing matching pink shirt and scrunchie - and that get up on a wavy blonde made me think of that character from the Arnold the Armadillo show and I don’t like her as much.

they were wearing matching running tights, the girl was wearing pink and the guy was wearing orange (my favourite colour).

Both probably within my age range, maybe in their 30s.

The guy was super in shape, bony, broad, muscled shoulders and a runner’s taper. 

Gal was thicc and had a face that looked like Denaerys Targarean (idk how the fuck to spell that name rn)

two: I’m living in my dream neighborhood, basically, and living my dream.

where I’m at, I just went out for a walk to a park - it felt like I was at a lake. 

there’s dogs everywhere, and friendly people who own those dogs. people with stories to tell, who are happy to sit down and chat.

there’s beautiful people where I live. All sorts of beautiful people. (see revelation one: I am hella bi - and for any biphobes out there, remember that bi means i find more than one gender attractive. think about that for a sec, I’ll wait.)

there are couples in their 30s with no kids, so this place is fairly childfree.

there are people leading alternative lifestyles all around me, mixed in and living side by side harmoniously with neighbors who are more traditional. including couples even who are made up of a “normal” looking person and someone visibly living that alternative lifestyle.

today has been filled with so many LGBTQ encounters of other LGBTQ people living visibly out - whether they’re living out to prove a point, living out because it’s right for them, living out despite the fear, living out because it’s fun to, etc, etc. - that it makes me so happy to see.

there was a dude in this really fancy sports car - likewise somewhere in this 30s - which almost everyone at the intersection had to turn their heads to appreciate

there was this guy with a beard (beards are so attractive) balancing on this fancy looking road bike (god, I love bikes) - makin’ that choice for whatever his reason is, but it’s one I love because we need more bikes and less cars

on my way home, and this ties into the point below, I passed under a balcony where several ladies where having a girl’s night and discussing things.

and it turned into this awesome look on feminism in a way because they were talking about I think female genital mutilation (these are all ladies in their late 30s or older - lots of talk of husbands, etc) and how there’s so many women still having it done to them.

one of the ladies mentioned how some man in her life somewhere (she mentioned how she knew, but there was a dog I was distracted by when she explained, so I didn’t really catch it) was talking about how less girls get mutilated than boys or something. And she was like “well i don’t know the numbers for boys, but even if it is higher, that’s still six--(some ridiculously large number like 600 million or something, or 600 thousand...) and then that means there’s even more children being mutilated than that because the boys get mutilated more often.” 

like, holy shit, a man engaging in “oppression olympics” when a woman was just trying to express her shock that any children are being mutilated - and that he was being excited for winning a gender competition for “whose gender is mutilated the most as young, helpless babies?!”!

anyways, that little aside aside

holy fuck my shoulder hurts

I was thinking I could do this part as part of the stream of conscience further down, but I don’t think I can hold out that long.

So ok, I separated the AC joint (or something like that) in my right shoulder from some bungled board breaking I did during a parade with my karate club. Boards got rained on and my student and I still broke them.

I bungled this break only in that the first two elbow attempts didn’t work - the board was way too wet and it bounced both the elbows back. So I resorted to  hammer fist to break it and boooooo. I wanted to elbow it.

But yeah, turns out I’m hurting.

But I’m not sure if I am or not. Again, this is probably anxiety? or maybe another revelation.

But like, I’m confused. Would a separated shoulder take 48hrs to fully onset in terms of the pain and symptoms? Cause I felt like I was sore, but still able to do thinsg. Then when I went in yesterday to see my chiro for a scheduled appt from way before the parade, I mentioned my shoulder pain.

he ran two quick assessments on me and diagnosed me with a separated AC joint. it’s on the mild side, but it’s still a separated shoulder he said. and since them I’ve been way more conscious of it and I wonder - is it because he told me something’s wrong and I’m “pretending” because I’m hyper-aware of any sensation in the area? Or did it really just take until now for it to start being so bothersome?

--- another aside within aside within aside: I’m starting to feel suuuuper sleepy.

but then also, I’m high. I’m high on 50mg edible THC and 1/2 a 210mg joint. I should be pretty medicated by now, we can all agree. And I do feel a familiar stoner feel from the indica. Nice heavy body feel. But through it all, my neck, shoulder and lat are just screaming at me occasionally.

Especially my neck. 

And my shoulder when I go to use my right arm - reaching, etc. OHHHHHH!!!! It hurts more today than yesterday because I did karate this morning!!!!! And I pushed (but didn’t hurt) myself a bit because I wanted to train with our guests.

ok.

I get it now.

I’m not crazy, it legit hurts. I’m not being a wuss, I’m being realistic. Okay.

SEE!?! WEED! REVELATIONS!

Dammit, guys, weed really is a therapist. 

Have I even told you guys I’m a relatively new stoner? Like, just since it got legalized in Canada, and like, in November? So a lot of those like random “crazy-ass” stoner stereotypical phrases that I used to make fun of and think were like “oh, hurr durr, only stupid stoners who can’t think straight think like that” - they’re TRUE!!!! holy fuck, guys.

Hm, also, I think I am definitely going to be able to ride along and let the shrooms take me where they will next weekend. I’m ready for it. I’m excited for it. I feel like there will be so many more breakthroughs.

OH! yes, returning.

So, those ladies and talking about not even feminism, but just out in the open, within earshot of people on the street (fair, they’re just having an open air convo on their own personal balcony - everyone else is on the public sidewalk, the acoustics in this area are just very conducive), talking about statistics about women.

It’s so awesome that I live ina  place where that can happen.

That I live in a place where a trans woman and her lesbian girlfriend can walk through the park. Where an openly lesbian couple, an openly gay couple, two best dude friends (and or maybe another gay couple, it’s not like they were dressed in rainbows or held hands or anything), a single dad with two kids, a single stoner, and all sorts of straight couples can just all exist alongside each other without anyone feeling pressured or attacked or anything.

It’s awesome.

Ok. My shoulder is really hurting. I know I’m not being a wuss with this now.

Though I have to say, as much as this fucking sucks, I still wouldn’t trade it for my experience as a martial artist. Now I know for next year, and I can protect my younger students now since I know that wet boards are so harsh on even my body - it’d tear out the shoulder of some of our younger kids. And I can experiment with drying the boards a bit more so they’re more brittle and won’t bounce back. 

I think if I had been doing a single break in a controlled setting like a dojo instead of needing to set up in as few steps as possible and break and move on quick so you don’t hold up the route, I could have broken it. But as it was, it’s not possible for me to courteously summon up the concentration for a break like that on a parade route.

I’m gonna just relax for a while. Probably find some anime to watch. I wanted to draw, but I don’t think my shoulder’s up for it. I’ll have to try to remember the imagery.

It’s like, space-sci-fi dystopia future-wave sort of thing but with lower tech and more slum-like. cartoony. cel shaded. primariy colours: orange-brown, blue/purple like vaporwave, red, orange-orange, maybe some yellow/yellow-white.

guys, weed is magical. I love weed. I mean, I’m a highly functioning member of society. I live a frugal lifestyle, but I kill it at work, I’m becoming highly involved in my community, etc. 

it’s crazy how there’s that stoner stereotype, but honestly I’d say that’s just the entertaining minority. the minority we all like to smoke along with. XD

ok, that’s a wrap on this part. maybe more, maybe not. dunno.

in anycase, fuck bum shoulders, stay chill, and see ya in space.

...srsly should I do audios?

[nichemusicexploration-blog]

Genre of the Week: V A P O R W A V E

Welcome back, folks, this week we’ll be chatting about V A P O R W A V E.

From here on out I’ll be typing out vaporwave in the normal fashion (as it’s significantly easier to do it this way), but the strange, spaced-out method (which is actually called fullwidth) of typing is a huge facet of vaporwave, as it’s a largely aesthetics-based genre. Originating in the 2010′s, it sits at the juncture between pure meme and actual artistic medium. Vaporwave uses a combination of 80′s and 90′s computer sounds, elevator music, and lounge music to create an often slowed down sound experience. It’s often paired with bizzare, surreally paired images from the computers of 80′s and 90′s. A lot of vaporwave is a sort of satirical take on consumerism, both evoking nostalgia and mocking the place it takes it’s roots from, but most of the time it stays vague. Vaporwave led to a proliferation of other, equally weird genres, like chillwave and seapunk. Vaporwave is largely enigmatic, but since a huge amount of memes have come out of vaporwave (to the point of vaporwave being a meme itself at this point) it’s worth the look just to figure out what those darn kids are talking about these days with their hover boards and vapor waves.

Side Note! I just wanted to mention simpsonwave, which is one of the weird offshoots of vaporwave I mentioned. Simpsonwave mashes up edited visuals from the Simpsons (often giving them VHS-esque filters and altering backgrounds or glitch effects) and pairing them with vaporwave music. Here’s a simpsonswave video featuring music by Blank Banshee (who we’ll be talking about some more). At the very least the video will give you a good idea of the aesthetics that vaporwave employs, if you feel so inclined to look into that particular rabbit hole.

Now! On to the artists.

1. JAMES FERRARO

New Yorker James Ferraro started making music around 2004, making him one of the original vaporwave artists. Originally he was part of the group the Skaters, but he’s really shined in his subsequent solo work and he’s still making music currently. His albums are largely conceptual, often to the point (as is by and large the case with vaporwave) of being almost off-putting in their scope, but it’s more than possible to enjoy his music while ignoring the more ambiguous parts of vaporwave.

The song Global Lunch is bright and friendly, a little faster paced than most vaporwave, and it’s accented with electronic twangs. It’s a cute little song, ending with the sound that skype makes when you’re clicking to shut down, which I warn you about ahead of time so you don’t worry that you’ve accidentally shut your skype off.

2. 2 8 1 4

2 1 8 4 is a British collective group between t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 and HKE. Starting in 2014, they’ve since released three albums. It’s been argued since 2 1 8 4 is more a creative group than a sampling group, that they’re not “true vaporwave,” but considering both that this seems a natural transition for the genre and the ridiculousness of claiming something isn’t part of a genre that exists mostly because of memes because it’s more original it’s sort of a moot point.

Eyes of the Temple, off of the album Rain Temple (their most recent release) is slow and builds slowly, but never really hits a beat drop of any kind; it just keeps reaching further and further, creating a multi-layered sound before slowly fading back into quiet.

3. ST. PEPSI/SKYLAR SPENCE

Skylar Spence of Brooklyn, NY, switched his stage name from St. Pepsi a while back (around 2014 to be specific) as he sort of moved away from vaporwave, but his early work held strong to the slowed down samples from the 80′s and 90′s that the genre originated from. He started creating music back in 2012 and as Skylar Spence is still making music.

I include a link to the music video for Better, if it can be called that (it’s a surreal looping gif that stacks upon itself), since the aesthetics are very vaporwave but the song itself is another fun one: pop-ey with a strong funk base. It’s worth a listen, even if it’s just an “ironic” one.

4. BLANK BANSHEE

Perhaps the most meme-driven artist so far, the image on the cover of Blank Banshee’s first album (pictured above) become it’s own meme for a time. But Blank Banshee stands out in it’s more experimental sound, as Banshee’s music is genuinely very good. Banshee, a Canadian, released their first album in 2012 and their latest album was released in 2016. If you have a minute I’d recommend clicking around Banshee’s website, as it’s an experience all of it’s own.

Blank Banshee’s song Dreamcast,  is haunting, with a deep, sweeping base sound. The distorted vocals layer and loop at times. It’s spellbinding and vaporwave at its some of it’s less accessible but it’s also some of the best of the genre.

5: DEEP DIVE: Vektroid

Vektroid, who online is occasionally referred to as the originator of vaporwave, started making music in 2005 and has been ever since, with a new release due this very month. She’s released music as Vektroid but occasionally uses psuedonyms which have included dstnt, Laserdisc Visions, New Dreams Ltd., Macintosh Plus, Virtual Information Desk, and PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises, all of which give you a good idea of what kind of sound Vektroid will be offering here.

Operating out of Portland, Vektroid’s real name is Ramona Andra Xavier, and music from her album Floral Shoppe features as the example on the wikipedia page for vaporwave, which is fitting for the proclaimed originator of the genre. Vektroid is prolific in her work, with over 40 releases under her usual stage name among some of the others we’ve listed.

The song リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (which translates to Lisa Frank 420/ modern computer, in case you’re wondering) which she released as Macintosh Plus, is slow and sweeping. It’s borderline elevator music but the strange glitches and alterations she’s made to it make it almost unsettling while still being listenable. Vaporwave often feels like more of an experience than music sometimes, and this definitely rides a weird line. It doesn’t get more vaporwave than this.

I’ll close us out with Neo Cali, a beat-heavy and spiraling song that fluctuates and grows upon itself. More relaxing than Lisa Frank 420, it’s slow and thoughtful, and a nice closing of our thought here today.

Well, that’ll do us for this week. Hope you enjoyed V A P O R W A V E, or at least feel like you can reference a meme better now. See you again next week!

[marcelsmusicjournal-blog]

Arca, WWWINGS, and the rise of Post-Bass

Still taken from KABLAM’s music video for “CLOSE(D)”

Thanks to a refreshingly brilliant new wave of producers, an exhilarating, abstract style has crept its way into the contemporary experimental electronic underground. Mixing post-industrial themes with elements of UK bass, glitch hop, wonky, grime, and sound collage, this growing trend gloriously reinvents conventional dancefloor motifs by using club sounds as a vehicle for left-field, mechanical, and often highly surreal sonic exploration.

Atmospheric synths and jittery, hip hop-influenced percussion remain staples of Post-Bass, a style ostensibly pioneered by Venezuelan-born, London-based producer Arca. Two of his releases, 2013′s &&&&& mixtape and 2014′s debut Xen LP, are some of the earliest examples of the genre. On “Knot,” distorted drums serve as the backdrop to the song’s jumpy, psychedelic synth squeals. Other instances of Alejandro Ghersi’s intoxicating sound design include Xen’s gorgeous, layered opener “Now You Know” and Mutant’s absolutely phenomenal title track. 

Ghersi’s style can also be heard in the works of experimental artists such as Elysia Crampton, WWWINGS, Swan Meat, Lotic, Rabit, M.E.S.H., and Why Be. All of these producers share a distinct, alluring sound, often incorporating loud, bass-heavy percussion, melodic and sometimes complex synth arrangements, looped/glitched samples assembled in a collage-like fashion, and a sonic aesthetic that commonly takes inspiration from Latin electronic, R&B, industrial, and rap. Songs like Kablam’s stunning M.E.S.H. x Future mashup serve as infernal pieces that aim to bring abrasively surreal reverberations to the dancefloor, while spacier tracks such as Elysia Crampton’s “Axacan” and WWWINGS’ “CHIMERA” are heady slices of futuristic sound art.

Essential labels include Berlin imprint PAN, Genome 6.66 Mbp, digital collective NON Worldwide, and Rabit’s rising Halcyon Veil, all of which have contributed some of the scene’s most memorable singles and releases. NON--a netlabel founded by Chino Amobi, Nkisi, and Angel-Ho--operates as a “collective of African artists, and of the diaspora, using sound as their primary media, to articulate the visible and invisible structures that create binaries in society, and in turn distribute power.” Their first ever V/A comp, released back in 2015, is Post-Bass at its most grimy and club-oriented. RudeBoyz’ aptly named “Gqom Originators” takes heavy influence from South African House music, using tribal rhythms and hypnotic drone loops for its eclectic musical forefront. NON would later drop Why Be’s ambient Lumapit Sa Akin Paraiso OST mix and Dedekind Cut’s excellent $uccessor album in 2016. Both of these releases saw bass music (or at least the next step in its evolution) heading into ethereal, almost new age territory.

Similar to the mark artists like Burial and The Bug left on its parent genre, the leaders of Post-Bass are crafting an invigorating sound of tomorrow that’s currently influencing countless up-and-coming beatmakers and collagists, both from and beyond the post-internet electronica sphere. If vaporwave attempted to produce a unique brand of stark futurisim by using pop culture references in its visual art and samples in its music, then Post-Bass is taking those arresting themes of bleak postmodernism and advancing them even further. Samples are definitely not uncommon in the works of Arca, Crampton, ssaliva, Swan Meat, and Lotic, but they’re often used as exotic sonic flourishes or brief, fragmented loops, rather than the foundation for a song.

Appearing seemingly out of nowhere on SoundCloud, Viancy’s Attic is an anonymous figure who explores the ambient, more drone-heavy side of the genre with his/her two tracks “Gods Favorite” and “Jjjj Chord.” Dexter and Zac’s “gassed” also remains a cult anomaly within Post-Bass circles, yet it’s one of the best songs the genre has to offer. The three-minute piece’s murky synth riffs, club percussion, and stuttering loops are on par with tracks from more established producers such as Kablam, Exit Sense, Dexter Duckett, Ptwiggs, Oil XL, and Coucou Chloe.

Once you listen to a few mixes from JEROME (or the equally amazing O FLUXO) or fall down the rabbit hole that is SoundCloud’s “related tracks” feature, it quickly becomes apparent that this is one of the most rapidly growing and wonderfully diverse scenes happening right now. The enthralling, mind-bending, and innovative sound design of this sizable group of experimentalists is vastly dissimilar to any Internet-born microgenre we’ve seen in the last five years, which makes a song from Bygone or Diego Navarro all the more engaging.

Below you can stream The Cement Garden, a mix we made which collects some of the genre’s greatest tracks:

Tracklist:

Arca - Alive [0:00] WWWINGS - MEMORY GATE (FT. KID SMPL) [3:32] Swan Meat - REQUIEM TORSO [8:25] Embaci - Flight and Destruction (Prod. Elysia Crampton) [10:22] Dexter Duckett & Bridget Docherty - THE TWILIGHT OF THE SPECTACLE [13:45] IVVVO - Love [17:15] Angel-Ho - Inside the Flux of the Mind [19:23] Elysia Crampton - Cumbia Tornado [Remix] [23:43] Arca - En [27:40] Ptwiggs - Clarity [30:34] WWWINGS - If There Is No You, Then There Is No Me [33:48] Arca - Excerpts from Entrañas mixtape [44:05] WHY BE - WHALIN (TERMINATOR REMIX) [47:35] WWWINGS, SWAN MEAT & ssaliva - BACKLASH [49:53] M.E.S.H. - Infra-Dawn [53:32] WWWINGS - AHEAD OF THE GAME [58:15] Arca - Sever [1:02:23] Viancy’s Attic - Gods Favorite [1:04:28] TCF - 54 C6 05 1C 13 CC 72 E9 CC DC 84 F2 A3 FF CC 38 1E 94 0D C0 50 5C 3E E8 [1:07:30] Dexter Duckett - SNOWFLAKE [1:11:48] Rabit - Bloody Eye [1:13:37] KABLAM - CLOSE(D) [1:16:08] Amnesia Scanner - AS Chingy [1:19:05] SILKER - weak [1:21:05] Arca - Extent [1:23:45] Arca - Soichiro [1:26:06] Rabit & Elysia Crampton - After Woman (for Bartolina Sisa) [1:30:34]

[chevvy-yates]

STEYR TWINS OUTFIT COMPARISON

[NC_RES]_00002727 mercs_steyr_twins_outfits.file ///core:_bi-runners.file\\\

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Please do not repost any of my art.

No special VP, just me wanting to see how different and at the same time similar both of them are.

They didn't know of each others existence for almost all their lives. V not until 2078. Jay knew earlier he's got a brother but only found him in 2078. So they grew up in entirely different surroundings: Vijay at a beautiful ocean side at first, in Monterey, then his teens in Portland, only coming to Night City in 2070. Jaysen grew up in Night City since he can remember. He never really left the place except for some visits in the badlands.

As adults, Vijay is the more reserved one while Jaysen is the rowdy one. And looking at least at Vijay's already written backstory, V had been a rwody teen/young adult while Jaysen hasn't gone this path bc his foster dad is a police officer who looked after him and brought him into the police (yes I somehow picture that Jay worked at the NCPD for a few years). Only when Jaysen went patrolling in the streets his more rowdy character seemed to have awakened. well he was quite stubborn as a kid already, tho.

I don't know very much about twins and their same or different interests but I like that they have some similar clothing taste yet it is still different. Jay is definitely more of a rocker boy type whilst Vijay is living in Vaporwave. But both like to listen to nu metal tunes for example.

V obviously shows openly he's bisexual through his clothing style. You do not see it on Jaysen, but he is bi as well (I thought about him being straight since I do not have a straight OC but something inside me says, nah he's also bi — maybe it is also only bc I am bi as well and tastes and likes do flow into your own OC's quite often).

Another funny thing I just realized is:

What Jaysen is now I had originally intended for Vijay to be at first. Like when I was still on PS4, I wanted him to look similar like Jaysen is pictured now. Not a cyberarm tho, but e.g. I was struggling hard when I created V if I choose the eye cyberware or the one on the neck. I decided for the neck in the end. Also 2071 V had same hair as Jay now. I intended to give Vijay some cowboy vibes since he's based of Clint's Blondie from the Dollars Trilogy, but when Vijay hopped onto the Vaporwave train thanks to me being able to start using mods, the cowoby thematic shifted further away from him. Now that I have Jay, I can give him that cowboy theme while V is continuing to immerse in his vaporwavy 80s dreamland. :P –

off topic: I don't know why but since I startd using that coole Vesnelle's hair for Vijay the original vanilla copper color from the game is gone on him. It looks way too bright and therefore unnatrual, but I wanna keep that hair on him. :/ I mostly edit the hair color in post processing, so it fits again.