#at least k/da has cool music videos

[ohnoitstbskyen]

The Heartsteel splash art is very bad, and here's why

I am not a fan of the collective Heartsteel splash art, and in fact, I think it's kinda s***ty. Not on a technical level, mind you, it is every bit as well rendered and nicely drawn as most other Riot art is, but as a way to introduce these characters? As a pitch to get us excited about them? This is genuinely kind of f***ing terrible. First of all, it's copying the original K/DA splash arts, which also had each band member copy pasted in different positions in each splash, with a different character in the spotlight. And that's not a great place to start from, because it feels like a total lack of confidence in the product, like some suit-wearing executive saying "just copy whatever worked the first time!" The splash art should be an opportunity to introduce what's new and unique about the band, and copying K/DA like this completely fumbles that opportunity and invites really unflattering comparisons. Second, the copy pasting is a problem. For two reasons: First, it looks cheap. It just does. There is no way to put out six splash arts with the exact same pixels copy-pasted into different positions that doesn't, on an instinctual level, feel cheap. All that says is "we didn't want to pay for more than one splash art." It looks like corner cutting. Second, it forces every character in the art to be completely separate from one another. A big part of the band's charm in their excellent music video is the interaction and camaraderie between the boys as they get into frat boy shenanigans shooting their music video, but since every character has to be able to be copy-pasted and moved independently in the splash, they can't interact or pose together in any way, making them seem completely disconnected from one another. One of the simplest ways to add a bunch of character and charm to these splash arts would be to have one character up front doing their cool pose, and then the other five boys dicking around in the background, armwrestling or hugging or, I dunno, giving each other piggyback rides. Instead, we just get sterile clip-art of each of them that don't even seem to be aware that the other guys are there. And when they are up front, the poses they do are also… mostly kinda lame? Sett is supposed to be this tough-guy with a heart of gold rapper with a big attitude and he's just, like, vaguely flexing, kinda. K'sante is supposed to be this imposing, powerful vocalist and he's just… standing there. Yone looks bored, Aphelios looks like an emo kid who's being forced to be in a family photo by his mom, and Kayn, who's supposed to be this rowdy chaotic bad boy, is just… doing a peace sign and sticking his tongue out? He gets completely overshadowed by himself: his Shadow Assassin and Rhaast forms in the background, which DO get to interact, which DO get to play with each other, and who are more charming than everything else these splash arts do. It genuinely baffles me that Riot couldn't be bothered to spend the money to get each of them unique splash arts, give these characters an opportunity to show off their costumes and their personality, or at least spend the money to have them drawn a little bit different in each of the six versions of this thing that they put out. This splash art, to me, feels like an active discouragement from investing in Heartsteel, because looking at this, looking at all the corners that are being cut, even Riot doesn't feel committed to them as a project. And like yeah, the music video is great and it's doing a lot of heavy lifting for them, but this splash art is an actual liability, it makes the whole project look worse.

[matoitech]

i love that the whole metaverse thing keeps thinking its like, inventing VR and inventing virtual pop stars, and they definitely did not invent this stuff or even remotely do it better than anyone else

[takerfoxx]

Arcane, Season 1, Episode 1, "Welcome to the Playground," First Impressions!

Because YOU demanded it!

I have heard a lot about Arcane. When it came out, people were RAVING in a way I haven't seen people rave for a new fantasy/sci-fi show since, I don't know, early Game of Thrones or Stranger Things. It became the new watercooler genre show, i.e. the one everyone watched and was talking about, and the fact that it's an animated show for adults only make it all the more intriguing.

So of course I had to at least give it a google, and I have to admit, I was surprised that it was a League of Legends show, but that was mainly due to the cliche of anything cinematic being made from video games almost never being good. But upon some reflection, I shouldn't have been surprised.

Look, say what you will about Riot as a corporate entity or the reputation of League's fanbase, but when it comes to them branching out into other mediums to promote their game, they do not skimp on the quality. All of their cinematic trailers are top notch and often tell way more interesting stories for something that's basically a bunch of really colorful characters kicking the shit out of each other, and their music forays have just been fantastic. And I don't just mean the image songs (though those are great too), I mean them defictionalizing their in-universe musical groups K/DA and Pentakill and having them release actual music. They hired REAL stars in their respective genres for the vocals, put in the work to create REAL songs that unironically slap, coupled with some really cool and creative music videos. Like, I'm not a League fan. I've never played the game and never will. But I'm always excited for a new K/DA or Pentakill or even a True Damage drop, because their stuff is just that good. So it shouldn't be surprising that when they decided to make an actual show detailing the backstories of some of their characters, they would go all out (see what I did there?) and throw real money into hiring real talent with real passion to make something that's not only a good adaptation of a video game, but just a great show in it's own right.

And honestly, that's how I'm coming into it. Like I said, I respect League and the effort they put into everything, but it's not my thing, it's not my genre of video game, so I've never played it and never will. I only know a small handful of the champions, and that's mainly those that show up in the musical projects, plus a very small handful of the more famous ones. So anything referencing League stuff will mostly go over my head. I'll point out the stuff I do catch, but mostly I'll be reviewing this show on its merits as a fantasy/sci-fi story.

And the hype don't lie: though I've only seen one episode, it was fucking great. And you guys were right. This is very much up my alley. I mean, an animated fantasy/sci-fi show for adults taking place in a super-cool steampunk city starring a bunch of street kids pulling heists just to get by? Fuck, I must have been a good boy this year, because Santa has come early!

Of course, that's going to change as the show goes on, and I will get to that, but putting all the League stuff aside, I would totally watch a show just about these kids pulling jobs and growing as friends.

So, what do we got for our set-up? Well, after being orphaned in a horrible war thingy that I'm sure we'll learn more about (and how was that for an opening scene?), sisters Violet and Powder are taken in by career criminal Vander, who raises them as his own. Now, years later, along with a pair of boys Mylo and Cragglor, they've formed a small gang of petty thieves determined to follow in Vander's footsteps and make their own place in the world. But when Powder pokes around something she ought to have left alone during their first real heist, it brings the attention of the rich and privileged Piltover onto the scrappy undercity of Zaun in a big way, and now Vander much choose between protecting the kids he's come to love as his own versus the good of Zaun as a whole, while our gang of misfits has to decided how to approach being wanted criminals in a big way, and Powder especially, who not only caused the explosion but also lost all their loot and apparently has a habit of screwing up jobs, is feeling the weight of her failures. Meanwhile, a sinister figure known as Silco is preparing a deadly mutagen and is looking to take advantage of the chaos to further his yet unknown agenda.

Kick.

Ass.

Okay, so this was absolutely top notch, and it held my attention all the way through. I totally got invested in these kids, in this world, and genuinely became afraid for their safety during the chase and the ensuing fight with Deckard. I've always been a fan of the Lost Boys set-up (a bunch of kids banding together to survive, especially in a fantastical world), so this was very much my drug. And like I said: they did not skimp on anything. The writing, the voice acting, and the direction are all top notch and creative.

And okay, there weren't exactly a lot of surprises how everyone was characterized or the conflicts between them. These are all very familiar character tropes and roles, but they're common because they work. Vander is exactly what you'd imagine when I say aging criminal mentor looking after a gang of scrappy kids. Violet is what you'd expect, Mylo is what you'd expect, Powder is what you'd expect, Cragglor is what you'd expect, and the list goes on. But they still worked, and I still grew very fond of all of them, and want to see what happens to them going forward.

And on that note, I was genuinely surprised that Mylo wasn't voiced by Jack De Sena. He just feels like a Sokka, you know what I mean?

And oh man, the world was fucking beautiful. Piltover kind of reminded me a little of Dinotopia, to be honest. And Zaun was exactly what you would want from a crime-filled undercity.

Anyway, the chase scene was a thing of beauty, but I liked the brawl with Deckard's gang even more. These are obviously kids used to fighting for what they have, and their respective fighting styles reflect that, from Violet taking advantage of her agility to Mylo's crafty opportunistic style to Cragglor's just chucking motherfuckers about. And honestly, I know that Mylo is kind of an asshole, and I do feel for Powder, but he kind of...wasn't wrong, you know? I know the smartmouth dude pointing out the obvious but getting smacked down for being insensitive is used so often for a reason, but c'mon. Was he wrong?

And I'm always here for a sophisticated crime boss with an intimidating voice who enjoys the finer things in life while ordering acts of horrible brutality! So yes, give me more Silco.

Okay. Now, let's talk about...that.

Like I said, I don't play League, so I recognized basically no one right off the bat, and since no K/DA characters show up this season apparently, I expect that to continue. So after watching this episode, I got curious and checked to see who showed up.

Okay, so Silco's mad scientist is a dude called Singed, so that's neat I guess. And hey, the little kid sweeping the floor at the pawn shop is Ekko, the teleporting dude from True Damage, so that's cool!

Wasn't surprised that Violet is also a champion, and I expected Powder to be one as well. But like I said, I'm not familiar really with the game or its lore, so you can imagine how hard my jaw hit the floor when I found out that Powder is...JINX?!

That Jinx?

I know Jinx; of course I know Jinx! And I had heard that Jinx was in the show, but I expected her to show up in a supporting role later on! I didn't think that this was her origin story!

So of course I hopped onto TV Tropes to see what the deal was between her and Violet, and...

Oh.

Oh, all of my yes!

Yes, I like that a lot. Yes, I would like to see this story play out, thank you very much. Oh, I am very excited for this.

Strap in, my dudes! This is going to be fun!

[mleighsquickspot]

Het there, hi there, ho there my fellow InterWorld travelers. I hope you've recovered from any and all New Year's festivities. I love the fact that this is no longer a day falling within the realm of 2020 aren't you 😎. So let's grab this day give it a kiss and smile as much as we can.

Do me a favor and check out my YouTube channel as well as becoming at least a $1.00 patron on my Patreon. To begin the new year this month's them is "Year a New". So come on over and receive a special gift, the links will be down below. Also as you can see I have new profile and question icon pics that I hope you enjoy. Okay enough with my rambles and real quick here are my thoughts on last week's questions...

Tuesday, to start of light have you seen the updated Animaniacs cartoon? I haven't watched it yet but it looks good. I've heard that they don't have all the original character's which to me is a bummer, but I'm sure it's fine with who they do have as well as with any new characters.

Thursday, music from last year was a hit and miss to me. Yet I did stumble into 3 songs I really liked. 1. Sigma - Find Me ft. Buddy, 2. Billie Eilish - Future and 3. K/DA - Gillian ft. Madison Beer and Kim Petras. I like all of them for the songs yet surprisingly songs 2 and 3 also had very good video's.

Sunday, the final seen in season 2 of the Mandalorian was freaking epic. My brother has gone back and watched both seasons and I plan too soon. I was in shock watching that seen and once again finally came back to the awesome feeling Star War's used to give me. Also I wonder how much money or really why Hayden Christensen came back to play Darth Vader. I hope he actually makes a statement on it because when he left he did say he would not come back to the franchise. Also I love that Mark Hamill himself commented on the final Mandalorian scene, so cool.

Let me know what you think and pass the thought along my love's ❤.

Stay well and safe Inter World 💗.

Check out my YouTube Channel and show me some Much Love over there. Go to https://youtube.com/channel/UCUrikZnQVMiP-ZMdEtlBwVw

Become a $1 patron and get access to exclusive work, special offers and monthly gifts. Go to http://www.patreon.com/mleighsquickspot for more.

[jvnghxope]

I put a spell on you (m)

drabble/short story

◦ pairing: Jimin | reader (ft. Namjoon)

◦ genre: halloween themed, smut

◦ word count: 3.7k 

◦ warnings: sexual themes, dry humping, dirty talk

◦ abstract: Your best friend managed to convince you to go to the Beta Tau Sigma Halloween party and things get an interesting turn...

Never, in your most crazy dreams, you’ve imagined you’d fell in love with Park Jimin. The greatest playboy in town.

This is going to sound cliché, but you are a normal girl. You have good grades. You never break the curfew. You enjoyed going to parties (although you hated crowds) but never got wasted enough to do indecencies. You were good. But that didn’t matter when Jimin allured you to not fuck him not once, but twice. Like you were under a spell. Maybe that’s the same reason you accepted being his fuck buddy for the last 3 months until feelings got in between and you decided to end things for good.

"You are crazy if you think I'll go to that party."

"Oh, come on!"

"No," you repeat, glaring at your best friend, Lisa.

"Please, ___. It's just one party. It's The Halloween party. You know Beta Tau Sigma throws the best parties. You can't let a certain blonde guy affect your social life!"

"He has nothing to do with it. I’m just not in the mood..."

“Right,” she gives the ‘I don’t believe your bullsh%t look’.

“Okay, fine. I don’t want to see him.”

She tsks. "You can't just avoid him your whole life," she points out. She dishes up the scrambled eggs she made for breakfast and hands you your cup of coffee. 

"Not my whole life. Only until we graduate and I don't need to see him again." Yeah, you know you sound kind of pathetic.

"Sweetie, it is a Beta Tau Sigma party. There will be hundreds of people. You could meet a cute guy, dance a little, have some booze and get laid. You'll forget that blonde by the end of the week!"

Lisa has a point. Since you ended things, he is the only thing you could think about. You are a breakdown away to go nuts. After the ‘breakup’, you kept yourself busy with a personal project. But now that you have finished it, you desperately need a distraction. The party indeed offers it, but then again it is a party at his frat house. He will be there and you are not sure if you are ready to see him again. In the end, you accept, because no one says 'no' to Lisa and you need to forget Park Jimin.

It took you all morning and half of the noon to find the perfect costume. You and Lisa arrive at the Beta Tau Sigma frat house around eight. You are not surprised it is already packed with people. Seeing many people having fun and the music blasting from the inside makes you buzz with both excitement and anxiety. 

“What are you wearing again?” Lisa asks you and you do your best not to roll your eyes. You both are walking towards the main entrance.

“I told you earlier, I am K/DA Akali. You know, from the videogame.”

“Right, I’m sorry,” she giggles. You know Lisa is not very fond of video games.

“Why didn’t you put on the angel costume? You look bomb with that.”

You blush a little with that, “Thank you but I used it last year…”

Your friend is dressed as Gamora. It was a pain in the ass to help her paint her upper body green, but she looks stunning.

Your friend’s inquisitive eyes scan you one last time, “Well, you look bomb with this one, too.”

“Well, I am not using it because I look bomb; I am using it because she is my…. Nevermind.”

Your friend stopped paying attention to your conversation the moment the both of you entered the front door and saw Jung Hoseok, a mutual friend, waving at you. She isn’t even trying to hide her crush on him. Not a little. She flew immediately to greet him. You couldn’t blame her. Hobi looks handsome dressed as Leon Kennedy. With a smile, you follow after her. 

A bunch of your friends are hanging out near the kitchen and Hoseok gently poured drinks for you and Lisa. Then, he kidnapped her to the improvised dance floor with the biggest of smiles. They look cute together. You like Hoseok. He is one of the fewest boys at the frat who is genuinely gentle and friendly. Before leaving, Lisa winks at you as if saying 'It's your turn to look out for your man" and she runs holding Hoseok's hand before you could even glare at her.

You glance at your male friends. First, there was Seokjin. An art and theater major. He is really, really handsome. The type to make your knees weak every time he smiles at you. The bad thing is he has the tendency to date his co-stars and has an ego bigger than this house. So, he was a 'no'.

Then, there is Yoongi. A music production major. He is the mysterious handsome; the type to not let anything out (or anyone in) until he trusted you enough. He's been dating one of your closest friends for over a year.

And there is Hoseok, of course.

For the next couple of hours, you hang out with your friends; chatting, drinking, even having a couple of rounds of Beer Pong. Nothing out of the ordinary. After a while, Lisa dragged you to the dance floor. You are not very good at dancing but you don't care. It is fun and you are with your friends.

You are already a little tipsy and maybe that is one of the reasons you accidentally bump into someone, spilling the contents of his cup in the process, thirty minutes later.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry!"

"Nah, don't worry. This is probably a sign to stop drinking tequila," he jokes and you can't help but laugh. He's cute. The dim light of the room doesn't let you see how he looks like but his voice is deep and sultry. "I'm Namjoon. Are you all alone in here?"

Your eyes go slightly wide and you just hope he didn't notice. How you managed to meet the leader of the fraternity beats you. Then you remember Lisa's words and the whole purpose of coming to this party in the first place.

"I'm ___ and no, my friends are…" When you turn around, Lis and Hoseok are gone. "...nowhere to be seen."

He chuckles, "Do you want something to drink?" He offers with a smile.

What’s the worst that could happen?

You shrug. "Yeah."

10 minutes later, you are both in the kitchen.

"So, let me tell you: I admire how you manage to lead 30 young men where many of them only care about how many times can they get their dicks wet,” you wiggle your brows and lean your arms against the counter.

Namjoon laughs out loud and your chest swells with pride.

"Yeah, it is hard most of the times but they have become my family. My brothers. I’ll do anything for them."

“That’s so sweet,” you comment with a smile. Now that you can look at him properly, you notice how handsome he is: tall, ashy brown hair, dimpled smile…

“What about you? What is your major?” he asks as he poured another drink for you. “Do you want tequila? or do you prefer something else?”

“Tequila is fine,” you reply. “I’m majoring in graphic design. My biggest dream is to design and create video games.”

“Wow! That’s so cool!” he exclaims, displaying his dimples. He handed you your drink and you take a small sip. “I hope you can achieve your dream.”

You look at your hands so you can hide your blushing. “Thank you. What about you?”

Suddenly, the kitchen gets packed with people looking for something to drink. Namjoon, to your surprise, notices your discomfort right away.

“Do you want to go someplace quieter?”

You nod and follow him out of the room. He leads you through the house. You've been a lot of times at the frat house, but Namjoon leads you through a hallway you've never seen before. He opens a pair of mahogany doors and what you see inside surprises you.

It looks like what you've imagined a secret society room would look like. Inside, you visualize a decent amount of people. Between 20 and 30 in comparison to the hundreds of people outside. There is a pool table in the corner and enough liquor in the minibar to satisfy everyone in the room.

"I couldn't help but notice your costume. Is that… Akali?"

Wait...

Your face illuminates as a Christmas tree. "You recognized it."

He chuckles and takes a sip of his drink as he takes a sit in one of the many couches.

"Well. One of my frat brothers is obsessed with video games. So I knew I saw her somewhere."

You nod. You know exactly who he is talking about.

"Jeon Jungkook. My Nemesis. Smart and talented, but he is not going to get my scholarship."

He laughs at your outburst and god, you love his laugh. It is then when you notice he is wearing a costume too. You were too busy drooling over his good looks earlier.

"And you are…?"

He is dressed like a Victorian boy but you don't recognize if he is supposed to be a famous character or not.

"I am Shakespeare! Or at least, I am supposed too."

You face-palm internally.

"Is that weird? I wasn't planning on showing at the party but my roommate convinced me. This was the only costume I had…" He scratches the back of his neck.

"No! You look good!"

He smiles shyly, "Thank you."

For the next hour, you discover it is so easy to talk to him. The conversation flows smoothly as if he is an old friend you’ve not seen in ages instead of a stranger you just met. It is like you could tell him anything. It turns out Namjoon majors in Literature, which explains the choice of his costume. You could discuss with him any topic. Literally. First, you start to talk about movies, and it ends deciding each other's top five based on argument, character, actors, and directors. Then, the topic changes to music and Namjoon confesses his biggest dream: being a lyricist. Then, the topic changes to Global Warming (god knows why), which leads to a Namjoon's speech about how we help the planet more not having kids rather than just recycling.

Another thing Namjoon was really good? Kissing. You know it the moment your lips attached to his. Or his lips attached to yours? At this point, you don't know who kissed who first and you don't care.

He starts slow, tasting the waters. There is no rush. You are content with the way his lips brush gently against yours. He is intoxicating. He tastes bittersweet, the combination of liquor and soda.

You are merely conscious about the song playing in the background but you swear you'll remember the lyrics forever.

But darling just kiss me slow, Your heart is all I own…

At some point, you end up sitting on his lap. The mood between you two changes. You start to caress the nape of his neck, running your fingers through his soft hair from time to time. He starts to massage the exposed skin of your thigh, sending tingles all over your body.

"Do you want to take this to somewhere more… private?" He asks, his voice deeper than before.

"I'd love that," you already feel the excitement starting to feel your veins. But of course. Your body also has to embarrass yourself in front of the handsome man. "Don't laugh, okay? But I need to go to the bathroom first."

Of course, your body chooses this exact moment to pee.

He starts chuckling, his whole body vibrating underneath you. "I swear is not just an excuse to run away," you promise him. Your cheeks are burning.

"You are sure something else," he murmurs against your neck. "Okay. I'll wait for you here."

Once you finished your business inside the bathroom, something really strange happened. Just as quickly as you opened the door, someone enters the room (as if they were waiting for the perfect opportunity to do so) and avoids your escape.

Your heart starts hammering rapidly inside your chest.

“Wait!” you yell. “Let me out first you perv!”

The newcomer doesn’t pay any attention to you and closes the door.

“I am going to call the police, you-! ... Jimin!?” you can’t believe what your eyes are seeing. “You scared the hell out of me, you idiot!” You punch him in the arm with all the force you can muster.

"Ouch!" He exclaims as he rubs his arm. "I wanted to talk to you but you have had company all the time!"

"Why you didn't come to me in the first place like normal people do!" You yelled again.

"I don't know. I panicked, okay? You've been avoiding me since summer and I didn't know what else to do…"

You sigh, trying to calm your nerves. You take the opportunity to look at him. He looks handsome on his pirate costume. With his leather tight jeans, white shirt, and boots. But that's something Jimin always does –he will always look handsome.

"What do you want, Jimin?" You finally ask him.

"I miss you," he confesses looking straight to your eyes and making you gulp. “I miss us. I miss what we had… Why did you leave?”

He takes a few steps forward, dangerously close to you. Instinctively, you take a step back. If he touches you, you are doomed. You are weak when it comes to him.

“I-I wanted something more and we both know you can’t and don’t want that. Compromise. Strings.”

Your words sound bitter and you don’t know with whom you are angrier: with Jimin because he made you fall in love with him or with yourself because you fell with a player in the first place.

“Didn’t you miss me?” his voice is low.

“No,” to your surprise your voice doesn't quiver. He knows you are lying. He knows you too well.

“You are lying,” a little smirk appears on his lips. He is so used to be desired. He takes another step closer to you. To your misfortune, your back is already pressing the wooden door of the bathroom. There’s no escape and he is so so close. His face is mere inches away from yours. His breath brushes the skin of your lips.

“I’ll ask again. Did you miss me?”

He doesn’t wait for your response though. He is already kissing you. Jimin is good at this. He knows how to brush his lips against yours with enough force to make your head spin and your knees turn to jelly. He knows the amount of time he needs to wait before he can leak his way inside the crevice of your sweet lips, taking your breath away.

“You look stunning with your costume,” he whispers against your lips. To prove his point, his fingers caressed the exposed skin of your abdomen. You shudder at the sensation. His hands snake down your legs and he lifts you. You instinctively place both legs around his waist and you both sigh when his half-hard member touches your clothed core. 

“Ah, I can feel you are already wet. Is it for me only or you’ve been having fun with another man?” He tugs your earlobe with his teeth.

“What I do or don’t do with other people is not of your business.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

He squeezes your ass with both hands as he thrust his hips hard into yours. You tug the locks of his blonde hair as you moan softly against his lips. You hate the control he has over your body. He drives you crazy.

“Then why are you here with me instead of going back with your friend?” You hate to admit it but right now the only thing you can think of is Jimin and how good he is making you feel.

“Shut up,” you say before tugging him by the neck and attaching his lips with yours.

This time, the kiss is more sloppy. Hungry. Teeth clashing, tongues fighting over dominance. Licking and biting. His hips keep rolling into yours.

“I’ve missed this so much,” he whispers against your neck, biting and kissing the spot that makes you moan loudly. “I miss how your sweet and wet cunt feels against my cock. How you moan underneath me when I hit spots inside of your no one else can. How hard your walls squeeze my dick every time I make you cum. I bet you’ve missed that, too.”

He builds a merciless pace, rubbing his member against your core hard and fast. It doesn’t matter you both are still with your clothes on. You can feel everything. Until now, you’ve never thought you’d be into dry humping. You didn’t see the point in that. But Jimin is good at anything and he exceeds any expectations.

“Moan for me, baby. I want to hear you,” Jimin murmurs as his lips start a trail down your neck. Jimin knows you are not that vocal. That’s why he loves every time he makes you scream his name.

He pushes your jacket aside to expose your shoulders. He licks and bites the skin there before arriving at your chest. With one finger, he moves down your top so he can have some fun with one of his favorites of your body.

You are so wet right now that your underwear is ruined. At some point, you start to meet his hip-thrust with yours midway. He is hitting all the right spots. Even your clit is having some delicious friction. Your hands find purchase on his hair, tugging the locks hard every time he bites hard your sensitive nipples.

His warm hands are resting on your waist, his fingers caressing the soft skin. His hips rolling against yours. His lips and teeth attacking your chest. Everything is making the knot inside your belly get tighter and tighter.

“Jimin, please don’t s-stop. I-I’m going to cum soon…” you manage to say between ragged breaths. 

He kisses you hungrily one last time, putting all his energy on his hips to make you fall over the edge. It only takes another hot minute before you do so. Spams overtake your body as you see starts behind your eyelids. You dig your nails into his scalp and he grunts. Jimin rolls his hips harder against your own. You bite your lower lip to avoid moaning too loud. You are in the frat bathroom where anyone could here you. And you didn’t lock the door! You stay in the same position while you calm down. Then, Jimin helps you until you can stand properly. Your legs are still shaking with the aftershocks of your orgasm. You even sit in the toilet to regain your breath. 

It takes the rest of the toilet paper and half an hour to clean yourself up. You look yourself in the mirror. Your pupils are still blown, your cheeks are flushed and your lips bruised with so many kissing. Your hair is a mess and your hat is somewhere on the floor.

“The reason I wanted to talk to you is…” Jimin starts behind you, rather shyly. “I want to be with you.”

His voice is too low you don’t think you heard him right. You stop arranging your makeup to turn around and look at him with wide eyes.

“What?”

“I want to be with you,” he repeats, louder. You haven’t seen him like that before. He seems… worried that you’d turn him down. Men like him don’t deal with rejection many times in his life.

“Why?”

"B-because I can't stop thinking about you. About us. And I-" he's having a hard time getting the right words to say. "You are not going to help me with this, do you?" Jimin runs a hand through his hair, frustrated.

You shake your head and lean against the sink, giggling. It is something new seeing him like this. Park Jimin, a man of words, is speechless in front of you. It is kind of cute. You clear your throat. You need to get serious.

“Jimin, a relationship is not a game. You can’t run away when things get difficult; or when you find a prettier or hotter girl. A relationship is a commitment.”

He takes your hands in his, “I understand that. Call me crazy, but I feel like what we had was everything but just physical. I felt like I could talk to you about anything and you wouldn’t judge. Like I could be myself in front of you instead of the persona I built for other people. I liked how that felt. I am willing to stop the games, the lies, and the one-night-stands if that means I have an opportunity to be with you.”

“Are you talking seriously? You want that?”

“Yeah.”

You try to look at any sign that could tell you he’s lying. But you find any. A part of you feels like you’ll end being heartbroken. But another part of you is willing to take the risk. Brave ones probably don’t live that long, but cautious don’t live at all.

You just hope you won’t regret your decision.

“Okay.”

“Really?”

He pulls you to give you a soft peck as a big smile spreads across his face. The type that makes his eyes turn into beautiful crescent moons.

“Really.”

He holds you tight. “What you have done to me?”

“I put a spell on you,” you joke and you both chuckle.

You give him a peck before opening the bathroom door.

“Wait! Where are you going?”

“I need to apologize to someone first,” you answer. “But we can meet at your room in 20... for round two.” You wink.

His bright smile is the last thing you see before you close the door behind you.

TO BE CONTINUED?

[symeraid-s]

My 2020 Awards (Music & Anime)

Music

Song of the Year: xaa-xaa – Horror This is the most played song on my playlist this year and it’s deserved. It’s just a really great song with one of the best intro’s of the year. Kazuki’s voice is perfection.

Honourable Mentions:

SID – Siren This one could technically be considered SOTY, but I thought that Horror deserves it a bit more. Still, Mao’s vocals give me chills

Taemin – Criminal It’s definitely one of his best songs and one of this year as a whole. And you know… it’s Taemin.

MY FIRST STORY – Underground Has a cool beat and great vocals. I also adore the lyrics.

QUEEN BEE – BL Probably has the best beat/Bass-line of this yea. Also showcases Avu-chan’s range.

Artist of the Year: xaa-xaa (Horror, Happy Wedding, Reito Ningen) I love this group. They constantly put out Bangers only and yet always end up under my radar. But this year, with the rest of the J-Rock scene being kinda dead, they really stood out. All of their songs landed on my playlist this year, so they really deserve it.

Honourable Mentions:

Kenshi Yonezu (KANDEN, Campanella, Canary) This guy is just one of the most interesting Japanese artists currently active. His Stray Sheep album is also really good.

Stray Kids (gods menu, Back Door) This year, Stray Kids really took me over. They had two very well directed Comebacks with amazing Music Videos.

TWICE (More & More, I Can’t Stop Me, Cry for Me) I didn’t really care for them in the past years, but they really delivered good music.

Super Junior (2YA2YAO, Burn the Floor, the Melody) TIMELESS was my favourite album of the year and the tracks we already got for the Renaissance sound really good. The Sub-Units (especially D&E) also had good comebacks.

Best Music Video of the Year: Stray Kids – gods menu This music video is a piece of art. There are no unclean cuts or weird jump-cuts, the Transitions are really fluid and the editing in general is just genius. Even if somebody doesn’t like Stray Kids, they can appreciate this video.

Honourable Mentions:

Stray Kids – Back Door Has the same great editing as gods menu, but there is one(!) unclean Cut. But it does have my favourite shot of the year.

Xaa-xaa – Horror It’s really well made and basically a Horror movie in cue with the music.

QUEEN BEE – BL Has a really creative production design and colour scheme and some really nice transitions.

BUMP OF CHICKEN – Acacia This is just a Music Video straight out of Nostalgia. And it’s animated by Studio BONES, so your argument is invalid.

Dance Performance of the Year: Taemin – Criminal First of all: It’s Taemin. This man can make everything look effortless, no matter how hard it actually is. And dancing with your hands tied is really f**king hard! Let’s just cut this short before I actually get into a five page long analysis about why this choreo is so amazing and just say: It’s one of the best K-Pop choreos of all time.

Honourable Mentions:

Super Junior – Burn the Floor Probably has one of the coolest concepts of this year, but isn’t perfectly executed. The combining of classical and modern elements is really interesting though.

Stray Kids – Back Door It’s energetic and has one of my personal favourite choreo elements of the year. 

BTS – Black Swan A cool choreo, but appears to be a bit overproduced. Still, that MMA performance blew me away. It’s also sad, that it got overshadowed by Jimin’s solo dance in the MV.

Dreamcatcher – Scream It’s one of the coolest Girl Group choreos and one of the few, that actually reserved a spot for a missing member, by replacing her with a masked dancer (take notes, EXO!)

Rookies of the Year: E’LAST (Swear, Tears of Chaos) They had one of the most interesting debuts this year, but got massively overlooked. The Comeback they had a few months later was definitely better executed and actually great, but was still overlooked. E’LAST really deserves more attention, please listen to them. If you don’t, them you could at least watch one of their dance covers of Black Swan, gods menu or Criminal.

Honourable Mention:

GHOST9 (Think of Dawn, W.ALL) They also had a really interesting debut concept, but their Comeback was a bit weaker.

Most Underrated Comeback of the Year: E’LAST – Tears of Chaos It’s a really amazing song with great styling, but was overlooked, because the group is from an unknown label and the stages were partly cut, since they couldn’t afford full promotions. Still, please check it out.

Honourable Mentions:

CIX – Jungle People somehow didn’t like this song and I can’t understand it. It definitely had one of the best breakdowns this year.

ONF – Sukhumvit Swimming This song needs more than one listening to like it, but it’s honestly one of the funniest/ most nonsense Comebacks of the year.

Super Junior D&E – No Love D&E is probably one of the best subunits and the song just slaps.

ONEUS – TO BE OR NOT TO BE It has an amazing build up, but the refrain is a bit weak. The Breakdown is the best of the year though.

Most Underwhelming Comeback of the Year: BTS – Dynamite Honestly, the Instrumental of Dynamite is really great, the execution of the rest is just… questionable. I still don’t understand, why this couldn’t be a Korean Comeback. About a year ago, they insisted that they were Korean artists and that they would not release and English song, but look were we are now. And I don’t even want to start on the Autotune. Jimin sounds like a chipmunk and I wasn’t able to pick out the difference between the rest of the vocalists. This could have been a Jungkook solo for all I know. With a better execution, this could have been a good song, but how it is, it’s just a stale earworm.

Honourable Mentions:

BTS – Black Swan It’s kinda the same problem. The Autotune is obnoxious and makes the song too forgettable. Without it, it could be great.

Super M – 100 It could have been better, but sounds a bit phoned in. There’s also a lot of questionable styling.

VAV – Made for Two Similar to Dynamite it also has a great instrumental with a weak execution, but it’s still a nice send off for Baron to the Military.

EVERGLOW – La Di Da The chorus and bridge are really good, especially the chorus, I love this chorus. But sadly the verses and rap fall flat. The rap-part is also slightly obnoxious.

Worst Comeback/Song of the Year: BLACKPINK – HOW YOU LIKE THAT I’m sorry, Blinks, but I really don’t like this song. The lyrics are all over the place, it rehashes the same formulas musical and video wise and the worst part is: It sounds like four songs stitched together. I kinda like the bridge, but the rest of the song is actively obnoxious.

Honourable Mentions:

BTS – Respect The entire 7 Album isn’t really good, but this song is just annoying. The way it starts really grates my nerves and, come on guys, this is basically a Cypher, when did you forget how to do this?

BLACKPINK feat. Selena Gomez– Ice Cream Whoever green-lit these lyrics deserves to be fired. Selena Gomez also sticks out like a sore thumb.

TREASURE – MMM Just… just… No! YG, go home, you’re drunk!

IZ*ONE – Secret Story of Swan The chorus is probably the most obnoxious one, I’ve heard all year. The Music Video is also a technicolour nighmare.

Anime

Anime of the Year: Jujutsu Kaisen This Anime has just really amazing Animation, some of the best animated fights of 2020 and, damn, the characters are engaging. Sukuna really seems like he could be one of the new greatest Manga/Anime antagonists. Park Seonghoo really proofed himself to be a really great director, so now it’s pretty clear, that Crunchyroll is to blame for the train wreck God of High-School turned out to be.

Honourable Mentions:

Attack on Titan the Final Season As a Manga-reader, I really appreciate that MAPPA is not censoring anything from the Marley arc. They really proved, that they can hold the torch from WIT.

Fugou Keiji: Balance Unlimited It’s just a really well made Mystery show, with interesting main characters, but not for the reasons Tumblr says.

ID:_Invaded A really interesting Sci-fi original Anime, with probably one of the coolest protagonists this year.

Moriarty the Patriot One of the most underrated Animes of the year, but Saito Souma really gives an amazing performance.

Opening of the Year: Fugou Keiji: Balance Unlimited (SixTONES – NAVIGATOR) It’s just a really cool song, with a very nice verse. The full version also has a really cool rap-part. It’s just a really well made OP and, even though the Animation isn’t the best, it really hits all the right notes. I also like how in sync with the Song the Animation is.

Honourable Mentions:

Moriarty the Patriot (Tasuku Hatanaka – DYING WISH) Just has a really nice intro and build-up, as well as good high-notes.

God of High-School (KSUKE feat. Tyler Carter – Contradiction) It certainly is the best animated OP of the year, but goes a bit too hard with the Techno for me.

Attack on Titan the Final Season (Shinsekai Kamettechan – Boku no Sensou) It fits the new tone of the season surprisingly well and yeah, it’s basically a banger.

Jujutsu Kaisen OP 1 (Eve – Kaikai Kitan) The song is pretty standard, but it looks really pretty and there is a panda running on a rooftop, so…

Ending of the Year: Jujutsu Kaisen ED 1 (ALI feat. AKLO – LOST IN PARADISE) This is one of the few Anime songs that actually gets me to stand up and dance. The Animation is pretty adorable and, damn, the final chorus hits way too hard in the full version, holy shit. I liked ALI fine for Wild Side (the Beastars OP), but this song really knocks that out of the park. This really is a band I’ll keep an eye out for.

Honourable Mentions:

Fugou Keiji: Balance Unlimited (OKAMOTO’s – Welcome My Friend) This was my ED of the year, before we got LOST IN PARADISE. It has a great intro and I really just adore the song.

ID:_Invaded (MIYAVI – Other Side) It’s really boring Animation-wise, but the Cologne Cathedral may be in it, so that’s a plus. On the other side, the song is really awesome and hits way too hard. I swear, this entire Anime is just a MIYAVI fan convertor.

Haikyuu!! To the Top!! 2 (SPYAIR – One Day) It’s a really nice song, certainly one of SPYAIRs best, there is only one problem: You just don’t hire SPYAIR for an Ending!

The Great Pretender (Freddy Mercury – The Great Pretender) I mean, it’s Freddy Mercury! How can you not like it? Also, the Animation is cute.

[karliesbuzzcut]

When art really speaks to you, pt. 2: probably just a coincidence but idk

Disclaimer: all these theories are rabbit holes on their own, so trying to explain them in a couple of paragraphs is, automatically, doing them a disservice. Especially since I’m only going to be primarily addressing the part of the theory that focuses on the artist communicating with their public through their work.

Since I’ve already dedicated paragraphs to the introduction in part 1, let’s just jump into it.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s fuckton of theories.

Let’s start with the daddy of all conspiracies. After all, not many can gloat about their reachings becoming a movie starring Tom Hanks.

The thing with Da Vinci’s conspiracies is that there are so many of them, and they range from “maybe this is also a painting made by Da Vinci but he wasn’t credited because of reasons” to ALIENS. Which, I think, shows how different our interpretations of art can be, and how much it depends on an already established worldview.

But the most interesting part isn’t the conclusions, but how people look for clues. For example, just like people say Taylor Swift is obsessed with numbers or oranges (depending who you ask, I guess), Da Vinci was supposedly a big fan of reflections. So, if you want to decode his paintings you must mirror them... and then move then a little bit... there you go, you’ve just found yourself an alien...! Or a daemon...! Or someone wearing a funny hat! And that’s totally what he wanted us to find, right? Why else would he had shown any sort of interest in reflections if he didn’t want us to reflect everything!!

Shakespeare is an illusion... kinda, but yeah.

Personally, I think Kaylors would love to dig into this one. Sure, it doesn’t have many lesbians playing political spies. But it does involve a lot of literature analysis. Just like Kaylors don’t think a heterosexual woman could’ve written Taylor’s songs; some people (referred as anti-Stratfordians, thank you very much) don’t think someone from a lower class could’ve written Shakespeare’s plays. 

Here’s the tea... the very cold tea: because Shakespeare was the son of a glover, anti-Stratfordians say he couldn’t have had the knowledge to write his plays. They, instead, come up with a list of “more suitable” writers that could’ve worked together. But they decided to keep their identities a secret because being a play writer, at that time, wasn’t respectable. Here, we will start noticing a trend with Conspiracy Theories: society, as a whole, can’t handle the truth, only a selected few. That’s where Francis Bacon comes in.

Francis Bacon was a very smart dude. He, also, worked for the state - giving him the credentials to be worthy of writing Shakespeare calibre plays. And also, also, he developed a method to conceal messages in the presentation of a text. To be able to do this, you would need to use two typefaces. Guess what has more than one typeface? Shakespeare’s plays.

I have to say - while I don’t believe either theory we have seen, they are somewhat understandable. We barely know anything about Shakespeare and Da Vinci beyond their work, so it’s normal that people are trying to figure out who they were; what did they believed in; where did they get all of their knowledge. We like theorising about the answers to these questions, knowing we’ll never get a confirmed truth. Not so the case with our next conspiracy...

Lewis Carroll was Jack the Ripper - someone had to be, right?

Now, allow me to fangirl all over this one. It combines my interests for conspiracy theories, true crime and pop-culture.

I’m assuming everyone here knows about Jack the Ripper: a serial killer who murdered at least 5 people (mainly prostitutes) in London, between the years 1888 and 1891. Well, someone looked at this and thought “you know what this murder-mystery is missing? Famous people”. Well, this theory says that the author of Alice in Wonderland did it He was the only celebrity living nearby at the time of the killings, so... 🤷‍♀️

This becomes a case of “I have already made up my mind about this issue, so I’m going to go ahead and search for proof that confirms it”. Authors and, now, internet sleuths went through his books, selected this random-ass excerpt from the nursery version of Alice and decided it was an anagram. And a crappy one at that. Supposedly, if you arrange the letters you get a detailed and gruesome confession. You, however, have to take away some letter and add others. Listen, I’m not an English major, but I’ve heard that’s cheating.

This theory also has that characteristic we mentioned: the “I don’t want to admit it out loud, so I’m going to come up with convoluted ways for my audience to figure it out” - which almost borders on psychotic behaviour. But at least it, somewhat, works with the serial killer narrative, you know? Not very much with Taylor, a woman who simply wants to chill with her girlfriend.

The moon landing was fake and directed by Stanley Kubrick.

I’m not going to dig into the moon landing conspiracy, this post is going to be long enough already. Just know that, when the USA government was planning to fake the whole thing, they had just watched ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and they were all like “that’s so cool! That’s how we want our fake moon landing to look!” So they contacted its director, Kubrick.

According to the theory, Kubrick felt really guilty afterwards but he couldn’t say anything about it because he signed an NDA? it would be dangerous, I guess. So he did the same thing Taylor would do decades later: he “spelled it out” for us on his work, under the excuse of “I didn’t explicitly said it, did I? My most intelligent and attractive fans just happened to figure it out for themselves”. 

The movie ‘The Shinning’ has been analysed to shreds. Think ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ music video, but 2 hours and 26 minutes instead. There are many theories about its underlying theme, but we’re only focusing on the moon landing one. The biggest piece of evidence, according to believers, comes from that famous scene in the hallway. Basically, the kid, Danny, is on the floor playing and wearing an Apollo 11 sweater. He stands up = the rocket launches. He walks to Room N.237. Which is almost an anagram for MOON - but actually, a perfect anagram for MORON - I didn’t come up with that joke, I’m just sharing it. Anyway. In the book, the room number is 217 but Kubrick changed it to 237 because there are 237,000 miles between the Earth and the Moon... except that’s not exactly true, but this is their Kissgate, you see? 

“Paul is Dead” aka “the granddaddy of Kaylor is Real”

Now, this is THE conspiracy theory. Kaylors would love to have the amount of evidence this theory has. Give them 50 years, they’ll get there. 

Our story starts in 1966, Paul McCartney dies in a car accident. The British Government panics, “this will drive our teenagers into a massive suicide!” So they cover it up. They find this guy who looks like Paul and hire him to replace the original. 

You might’ve only heard about those stores where pop-stars get their beards. But there’s also a branch that focuses on celebrity look-a-likes.

The rest of The Beatles went along with it (because that’s how these artists seem to operate, they’re always the victims of their circumstances) but they did not like it. So - you guessed it - they used their music, artwork, photo-shoots, etc. to communicate the truth. Faux-Paul might’ve felt a bit awkward about it, but he’s a nice chap and let the other guys work through their grief. 

Kaylors might have agreed on blue being the colour of breaks up and yellow is for Karlie-Sunshine; but the Paul-truthers concluded white is the colour of heaven, jeans are for gravediggers and black for morticians... oh! And not wearing shoes means you’re dead. Taylor being near a door symbolises her leaving the closet; Paul being near an open trunk symbolises him being in a coffin. Is the letter K, for Karlie, surrounding Taylor? Well, there’s a 28IF in the plaques of a car, for Paul being 28 IF he hadn’t died. People hear a phantasmagorical “she” in ‘Call It What You Want’; just like people heard “I buried Paul” in ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.

If you have never looked up this theory, I seriously recommend it. There are so many parallels with Kaylor. Here’s a 30 minute video, if you’re interested. It summarises the theory neatly while discussing the effects that these, seemingly innocent, conspiracies have on the way we absorb information.

Paul might be dead but 2pac is very much alive.

If I haven’t made it clear by now, I think it’s very deceptive to use a musician’s lyrics to back up your alternate version of events. As confessional as these verses can be, they’re still a form of art. Which, in terms of music lyrics, they need to follow certain parameters, as well as a desired sound. And, as many other forms of art, they might focus a bit more on transmitting a feeling, rather than an accurate portrayal of reality.

Why am I stopping to say all of this now? Well, because this specific theory relies a lot on Tupac’s lyrics.

A bit of context: In 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot 4 times while at a stoplight. He died from his injuries days later. While there are theories, to this day, no one knows who killed him. Unless you believe one of those theories, which claims no one did.

The believers of this theory cite Tupac’s lyrics to argue that he was explicitly telling his fans that he was going to fake his own death. Here are two examples:

I’ve been shot and murdered, can’t tell you how it happened word for word but best believe that n*****’ gonna get what they deserve. - Richie Rich’s N***** Done Change

I heard rumours that I died murdered in cold blood, traumatised pictures of me in my final states — you know mama cried. But that was fiction, some coward got the story twisted - Aint’ Hard 2 Find

Just like anti-Kaylors don’t necessarily oppose the idea of Taylor being gay; I bet the “antis” of this theory aren’t happy Tupac died and weren’t against his existence on the first place. It’s more of an argument about confusing your feelings with facts, just because they can be more comforting or exciting.

“Avril Lavigne is dead”... or “every artist you think is alive is, actually, dead and, the ones you think are dead, aren’t” I guess.

After everything we have seen, this one isn’t that interesting. The real Avril died in 2003, right after her first album. Her record label bought a new one. Proof? She says ‘dead’ in ‘My Happy Ending’, blah, blah. A poor man’s “Paul is Dead”.

I added it, mainly for the lulz, after the last entry, I needed them. But also because it all started with a blog. What’s hilarious is that the guy who created it admitted he only did it to show how gullible people are but, at that point, he had already convinced people about. The conspirators didn’t need him anymore. So they discarded him but not the Theory... which just reminds me a little too much of how TCG, HBH, Jennyboom &co. have been excommunicated from the Church of Kaylor.

Beyonce and Jay Z are members of the sexy sexy Illuminati.

I did not save the best for last. But maybe I’m just biased because the Illuminati theory bores me to death. However, if you allow me a bit of social criticism... remember how the Shakespeare Conspiracy started because a bunch of classicist people didn’t believe a lower class citizen could write such good plays? I think this one has a bit of that. I’d bet my life that this one started when a bunch of white dudes got super uncomfortable by black people being so talented and earning their successful.

What this Conspiracy shows, too, is the amplifying effect the internet has had on the proliferation of such theories. Most of the conspiracies I’ve mentioned were huge... but how were you supposed to communicate your ideas and add to the old ones, before the internet? You could publish a book. Talk about it at parties. And, at some point, there were internet forums but, still, you can’t compare that to how widespread Social Media is nowadays. 

Today, we can watch someone ramble for 2 hours on YouTube about how Beyonce looks like a robot if you watch Single Ladies in reverse; read someone’s dissertation of ‘Apeshit’; or spend all night looking at those pictures where someone has drawn a red circle around anything that resembles a triangle. 

It might look like a lot of evidence but that’s only because there are a lot of people very attached to this theory. Wanting - for whatever reason - for it to be true (perhaps because it would confirm that their fears about the world were well founded). And all those dozens or hundredths of people were working together to form as many patterns as possible.

Unfortunately we are going to keep talking about the Illuminati in Part 3 but also about Taylor, so that should be nice. Because - to the surprise of absolutely no one - there’s a bunch of people who also think they understand Taylor better than the rest. That they have figured out her secret codes and her ultimate message. Only, not all of those theories involve lesbian supermodels, so they aren’t as popular on Tumblr.

[gift-of-orzhova]

Favorite Music 2020

As usual I made a playlist with my top 10 favorite songs, you can find that here. I’ll also be linking each song or album as I go. It was a weird year but at least there was some good music to help us through.

Favorite Album The Grand Mirage - Robotaki I’ve been a Robotaki fan for a bit now, he’s previously released some EPs which I enjoyed, but this is his first album, and there are a lot of stand out songs. His production has a lot of fun texture to it, although a lot may fall into the future bass / pop genres, his sound is very distinct. His style is jazz inspired melodies with clean drums and just the right amount of crunch dropped into the mix. The album has a great diversity in the tracks from the future bass instrumentals to more straight forward pop and hip hop tracks. The album feels very organic, and not just in the instrumentation but also in the delivery, There’s no force here, just flow. Can’t wait to hear what he has in store for us next, and also to go see him live (again) when he is able to tour for this album.

Favorite EP ALL OUT - K/DA I want to preface this pick by saying that I hate Riot as a company and refuse to play League of Legends. But man there is something so cool about the premise of “league characters made a kpop group” and holy shit does the Riot music department knock it out of the park. Two years ago when POP/STARS came out I remember being an instant fan. I always hoped they would do more (pun intended), but didnt know if or when that might happen. Apparently this year was the answer. This EPs production is clean as hell, and the K/DA sound font is probably one of my favorites. Although I did have to warm up to this EP a little, I found myself playing it on repeat for a couple weeks. I think some of the lyrics feel a little forced, or maybe like they’re trying to hard to be hip but I also this it works really well. Looking past the facade of league characters, I think it’s also worth noting that the vocal performances across this album are incredible. Props to everyone involved. I’ll talk about the music video later.

Other Notable Albums and EPs The Making of a Paracosm - Kasbo Kasbo is back at it again. Great album, although I found myself liking the first half the album a lot more than the second half. There’s a couple songs on here I dont really vibe with, but there’s also some seriously incredible ones. I overall like Places We Don’t Know better, this album still definitely deserves some recognition. Pure - Glacci Glacci is so underrated. He makes this super energetic UK garage kinda stuff. The sound is super unique and I really love it. I’ll never get tired of that lead and the catchy melodies it plays. Moon Tear - Raito My favorite techno to come out this year for sure. Raito is just so good. Techno had a lot of good stuff this year from Raito, i_o, and Calvin Harris so this was a close call. Brave - Joyryde I always love hearing the combination of hip hop and edm. Joyryde really set the standard with this album, and I hope there is more at some point in time. If you like this one definitely check out the new UZ album as well. Dreamland - Glass Animals Really great pop album. The lyric “big dicks and bigger titties on the side” is honestly just a whole mood. AM 444 - i_o, Lights I felt the need to include this one in particular. i_o had some good releases this year with this one and revolution being my favorites. Wish I would be able to hear more of him in the future. This goes without saying I think but if you ever feel suicidal please talk to someone. And please check in on your friends from time to time, you never know what they’re struggling with. Rest in peace friend, I’ll always love your music.

Top 10 Songs 1. Holding On - Dabin This one came out right at the beginning of the year, not too long after he released an album. Caught me a little by surprise, I actually felt hesitant to listen at first because his album left such a sour taste in my mouth (even though I really liked some of the songs on it). But damn am I glad I checked it out. Played this song on repeat for like 2 weeks (including a trip to NYC early on in the year where this song was the only thing I played on the entire drive lmao). Can never go wrong with huge melodic chords and a good female vocal.

2. Something Comforting - Porter Robinson Oh man I am excited for Nurture to be released. I wasn’t huge on Get Your Wish (it did grow on me though), but this song fucking slaps. I love this shit. Can’t wait to go to the first Porter show within 300 miles of me after vaccines are widely distributed and shows start back up.

3. MORE - K/DA This is one of those songs where I feel like you have to talk about the music video with it or you are missing a big piece of the work. And holy shit the music video is fucking sick. They must have spent the whole fucking budget on this video. The animation is so good, the aesthetic was absolutely nailed. Pair this with a catchy song with clean production and there you go.

4. No More (Devault Remix) - DJ Snake, Devault Holy fuck Devault, this shit slaps

5. Limitless - Glacci My favorite Glacci song this year wasnt even from his album, it was from a random 2 song EP he dropped. Anyway this song is just super fun.

6. Play Pretend - Kasbo The first single from the album and also my favorite song from it, although Shut the World Out is a very close second. This song makes me happy.

7. Hollow Tips - Effin Sable Valley is such a good label, they just consistently have the best new trap music around. This is not the song off their Summer Vol. 1 I thought I was going to be obsessed with but with the amount of quality music they released I shouldnt be surprised it’d be something brand new.

8. Something From Nothing - Robotaki This song is so good, the long instrumental part at the end makes me transcend every time.

9. 1000 Miles - Machinedrum, Sub Focus I really need to listen to more liquid dnb. This song and Get Through by Rameses B are really good and I need to find more stuff like them.

10. Can’t get you out of my mind - Dreamcatcher This song sounds like a classic from 2005 but it actually came out this year and it’s so good. I have distinct memories of jumping around my apartment at 3 am listening to this song.

That’s all for this year, but if you like these pics and want more of the stuff I really like, here is another playlist that I fill with all of my favs. Here’s to a good 2021 for music.

[eramia]

Mostly because I wanna know your least favorite thing about her (??) Kai'Sa. *eye emoji*

favorite thing about them: she’s so well traveled!! she’s learned a lot about different cultures and i love imagining kai’sa having gone to brazil!

least favorite thing about them: honestly?? not much. even outside of k/da, i think kai’sa is really cool! the fact that her ultimate is basically an empowered YEET scares me and its why i’ve never played her (even though i’ve been maining ahri a lot lately lmao)

favorite line: "You know that feeling when your skin crawls? Like a thousand needles poking through every pore? Blood pounding through every vein? That's just an itch compared to what lives on me." It’s so chilling, I feel like her and Werewolf Akali would get along. (Also any quote having to do with peaches :’> )

brOTP: maybe Kai’sa&Ahri? I could see them both chatting about their hopes and dreams while snacking on a mid-spring afternoon

OTP: Kai’Sa/Sivir is definitely up there, but i love to multiship so Kai’Sa/Ahri is also very interesting

nOTP: Kassadin is basically her dad i believe?? so yeah, that’s a no(tp)

random headcanon: Kai’Sa has visited Brazil and LOVED it: the churrasco, samba, carnaval, etc. Check out some samba videos and then come back and tell me kai’sa wouldn’t do that

unpopular opinion: I know that Kai’Sa is afrikaans, but I love the thought of a Brazilian Kai’Sa (even though it’s super biased bc im brazilian haha)

song i associate with them: Be Natural by Red Velvet (go watch the music video, the dancing is AMAZING)

favorite picture of them:

I know this is SO self-indulgent but I still have my friend’s Fairy Kai’Sa drawing in my school folder and??? i love her??? so much??????

[patricksilvrrozartistry]

Current Music Obsessions: November 16 - 30, 2018

Wow. We have a super long list. I'm sorry, I'm not sorry. Starting out with the honorable mentions as always.

Jinjer - Ape Eyes of Eden - When Gods Fall Amaranthe - GG6 Arkdown - Wake Up Bring Me Eternity - Immersed The Anix - Wasteland Blackbriar - Arms of the Ocean Poppy - Play Destroy feat. Grimes K/DA - Pop/Stars Clean Bandit - Baby feat. Marina and Luis Fonsi Dark Sarah - Pirates Allamedah - 4 AM Sirenia - In Styx Embrace The Modern Age Slavery - The Silent Death of Cain feat. Tommaso Riccardi (ex-Fleshgod Apocalypse) In Dreams of Reality - Oni Cellar Darling - Insomnia Levinia - Push and Pull Blackbriar - Cry of a Banshee Mother Feather - Shake Your Magic 8 Ball Sirenia - Desire Sirenia - Queen of Lies Elitania - Templos de Cristal Porselain - Hiraeth Promethee - Witness The Loudest Silence - Wake Up in My Dream Warkings - Sparta feat. The Queen of the Damned (Melissa Bony (Evenmore, Rage of Light) Divine Ascension - Bittersweet Divide Since Ever - Following

I have A LOT of main obsessions, because November ended so close to when I generally find my favorites for the week. So let's just get this over with and look at all those main obsessions.

Kim Petras - Turn Off the Light feat. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

I learned about Kim through a guy I follow on Twitter. He kept going on about her, so I decided to check her out. Her music really isn't my thing, but I really liked this track. I love Elvira's cameo in the bridge and how spooky the choirs are after that cameo. It's just a really cute Halloween song. Can't really go wrong with it.

Haken - A Cell Divides

This is an amazing prog track. I love how djenty and proggy this track gets. The lyrics have a bit of a sci-fi feel to them, but it's more sciencey than sci-fi. The lyrics are cool is what I'm getting at. Definitely a great driving song and a wonderful song to just blast in general.

Exilia - Feel the Fire

This is their newest single and I love it. I've been a fan of these guys for many years now. I discovered them during my angsty edgelord days and have kept up with them and witnessed them evolve into the band they are today. I love the vibe of the track and you get a great feel for just how powerful their front woman's voice is.

Tillian - Black Holes

I found these guys through a Facebook ad one day. This is some really nice prog right here. I'm really digging their sound and am gonna have to check out more from them. They're on the softer side of progressive metal, but it's still some proggy goodness, and you can't turn that down.

Meg Myers - Jealous Sea

After finding and falling in love her song Numb, I had to check out more from her. So I decided to give this song a listen since it was a music video. Best decision ever. I love the play on words with the song title and the song over all. This song alone made me listen to her new album, which is amazing. There's something about this song that I just absolutely love and I just can't get enough of it.

Marcela Bovio - Roardin (No One is Born a Hero)

I'm really liking the direction Marcela's new album is going in. I love how it features both the strings and the piano. I also love how she describes her sound: chamber prog. Anyways, this song is so pretty. It packs a really empowering message that we all need to hear sometimes.

Blackbriar - I'd Rather Burn

I wasn't planning on listening to the We'd Rather Burn EP, but after hearing Cry of a Banshee, I had to. I fell in love with the EP as a whole, but this song was constantly in my head afterwards. The chorus is really catchy and I just love the lyrics so much. A witch being burned at the stake who reminds the people who are burning her that she'll be back to torment them. What isn't there to love?

Poppy - Am I A Girl?

After hearing that she experimented with metal on her new album, I had to check it out. Shockingly enough, I really dig the album. This song though is my favorite. The vibe is so fun and the message behind it (or at least how I interpret it) is a non-binary anthem. It's so much fun and I love the pre-chorus a lot.

Dimlight - Into the Thrice Unknown Darkness

This track really shows off just how beautiful Mora's voice is. She takes the lead here on the softest song on the album. I wouldn't call it a ballad track, so we're calling it a softer track. It's also great to be able hear just how powerful she is. This song gives off this overwhelming vibe of uncertainty and melancholy. I love it.

We, the Bones

Yes, I have two songs from Dimlight that I obsessed over. This song is definitely more on the aggressive side compared to Into the Thrice Unknown Darkness. I love the orchestrations on this track so much. It might be a rather simple track, but those orchestrations really sell it for me.

Piqaia - Parable

If you're into atmospheric progressive metal, check this track out. It's so pretty. I love their singer's voice so much. He's got a really pretty range and you can really tell just how beautiful it is here on this track when those harmonies kick it. This song stood out so much on the Artifact album. The vibe is just so different for some reason and I absolutely love it.

Amaranthe - Dream

This song really stood out to me on Helix. It's such a pretty track and really shows off the pretty side to Nils' voice. Not only that, but it shows off Elize's vocal range. Mariah Carey who? Homegirl can hit some really high whistle notes.

Sick N' Beautiful - New Witch 666 (The Rising)

This music video is absolutely everything. The visuals are so beautiful, but in a very spooky kind of vibe. The colors and the looks their front woman turns out in this video are to die for. The song is so catchy and fun. I'm so glad that their front woman liked a photo of mine on IG a while back, because if she didn't, I wouldn't have discovered this powerhouse of a band. Such a great jam.

Amazonica - Don't Fear the Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult cover)

I found this artist one day a while back when trying to see if the singer featured in Cradle of Filth's cover of Temptation had any other material out there. I completely forgot that Harry was the singer here. This is a pretty decent cover of this song. It's a very different take on it, like a new wave/synthwave kind of vibe. I'm really digging it.

Black Tongue - Second Death

I don't really keep up with these guys, but I might change that soon. This is the second or third track I've ever heard from them and I really dig it. It has a really meaty sound to it. Doomcore is such a strange way to describe your sound, but it really suits them.

Within Temptation - Firelight feat. Jasper Steverlinck

Holy shit. This song is literally a lovechild between Within Temptation and My Indigo (Sharon's solo project). Sharon said that this song was too dark for My Indigo and decided to release it under Within Temptation. This song is so gorgeous. It's so different and really stands out as a Within Temptation track. And Jasper. Dude. His voice is stunning.

Phildel - The Deep

I discovered Phildel many years ago through one of my og beauty gurus, Klaire de Lys. I've always really loved her voice, but back in those days I wasn't really into ambient music as much as I am now. It's like rediscovering her. This song is so gorgeous and pretty. And I adore the video. The animation is so pretty and cute. I'm definitely am gonna go through and listen to her music again and fully rediscover her.

Veil of Mist - The Flute and the Blade (The Archangel of Terror pt.1)

I don't remember subscribing to their YT channel, but I'm glad I did. This track is a powerhouse. If black metal, prog and power metal all had a baby, you'd have the sound and vibe of the instrumentals. The singer has such a strong and interesting voice. I don't know what it is about it here, but I really love her voice. This song has such a dark vibe to it that I absolutely love. I'm definitely am gonna check out more from them.

Soundgarden - 4th of July

I recently picked up a copy of Superunknown and while listening I was instantly drawn into this song. I'm not too familiar with them, so when I heard just how doomy and sludgy they got on this album, and especially on this song, I knew I made a good purchase. I love how doomy and sludgy this song is. Such a great track to chill to. I really need to listen to more grunge music.

Qveen Herby - Beverly Hills

This is my second favorite off EP 4 (Alone is my number 1). I love the trap beat and the overall vibe of the track. It's so chill, but also pops off. Definitely a great track to chill, drive, and jam to. I hope they do some touring soon, because I need to see Amy perform this shit live one day.

Levinia - The Fall

The Liberation EP is absolutely amazing with so many wonderful tracks, but this one really stood out to me. It's so beautiful, but is still really heavy. You get a really good feel for Court's range. My favorite parts are when she sings "and I remember" during the bridge and especially during the exit. It's so pretty and for some reason makes me feel slightly nostalgic of the 90's. Don't ask me why, it just does for some bizarre reason.

And that's it for this month! Hope you guys have fun enjoying all (or at least some) of these tunes.

[mi4014alishiasmedberg]

3D Animation History & Inspo

The origins of 3D animation before computers lie with stop-motion/Claymation where the clay shapes would be moved slightly, a picture would be taken, repeat and then all of the images together would form the animation. Films like sculpteur modern (1908), The Sculptors Nightmare (1908), Creature Comforts (1989), Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out (1989), Chicken Run (2000) and ParaNorman (2012). However, 3D animation as we know it is credited to William Fetter an employee of Boeing that made 3D images of pilots back in 1964. Fredric Parke and Edwin Catmull made faces and hands that were used to in the first film to use CGI technology, Futureworld (1976), Catmull would go on to be one of the founders of Pixar.Pixar Animation Studios created the 3D short films Luxo Jr. (1986), Tin Toy (1988) and Knick Knack (1989) and with their first all CGI film Toy Story (1995).

Certainly a blast from the past and related to one of my artist inspirations moomin! It got a 3D animated reboot a few years back and it is absolutely adorable. I really love the way they translated the 2D characters in 3D, the designs haven't strayed but still feel refreshing and new and hopefully has introduced one of my childhood comforts to a whole new generation! It's really cool getting to also see the really recognisable areas of moomin valley in a different format. It's detailed in the right areas (still not overly so) which makes it pretty and more life like but without causing an uncanny valley effect with the characters or making the chsracters look off/out of places by not being detailed enough compared to the environment, definitely a fine balance. The moomins' have certainly had a strong influence on the type of environments I like having characters occupy and my creature designs.

A 3D animation I tend to go back to watch a lot is the K/DA POP STARS animation from tje League of Legends team! The way the characters move in the music video is so stunning, the effects with the glowing parts are really cool and I like to replay them a lot, definitely my favourite parts. Colour palette and lighting in it is just stunning and none of the movement feels cluncky or weird it all just flows very naturally even with the characters being very stylised which makes them feel so real regardless.

Demon Slayer is done by Ufotable and I was really blown away with how cool and pretty much seamless the use of both 3D and 2D is amazing and really interesting to look at. There's 3D scenes done as well as backgrounds that the characters are the animated into but from what I've read the really detailed individualised haori ('kimono' styled coats I guess is the best way of explain them) that each important character has was meshed onto the garment to keep the patterns consistant.

Not completely linked to 3D but there's an English interview on a youtube podcast with one of the animators for the Demon Slayer movie where he discusses his work and the animation industry (and how it works in Japan). He went to a French animation school but really wanted to work on anime in Japan and is very honest about the realities of it, definitely worth watching during your spare time.

(Warning for the following animation as it uses profanity)

I absolutely LOVE this person's animations because they're an absolute brain melting trip to watch. The level of detail is always very cool plus there's a lot of internet pop culture references. This specific animation was made about a left wing political streamer I watch on Twitch called Hasanabi. A lot of inside jokes and sound clips from his actual streams and interviews he's done, for example an exaggerated joke from the community that he has a massive body but tiny head, his watchers are typically referred to as frogs as his community uses a lot of frog emoticons in his livestream chat and usually he will get "stunlocked" at least once per stream where he spots a bad opinion from one or more chatters who he will go on a frustrated tangent correcting or just getting mad at in general. The room is ridiculously spot on of what his streaming room looks like. I just really love how funny, surreal and detailed their work is and would love to try to create a similar animation one day once I get more accustomed to working with 3D programs.

[airadam]

Episode 139 : Safe & Sound

"Give your mama enough money to bury ya."

- E-40

We've just about dragged ourselves to the end of the year whose name shall not be spoken, and we're not out of the woods just yet. The winter is drawing in, and so we have not a festive selection, but one which in many parts sonically fits the season. There are some deep album cuts, B-sides, and mixtape tracks here, making it one of those months where pretty much everyone is going to learn at least one new tune! Get those headphones connected and let's go...

Twitter : @airadam13

Twitch : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

E-40 : I'ma Teach Ya How To Sell Dope

The title of this track from "Revenue Retrievin' : Day Shift" wrong-foots you, because this is A-grade "B-side of the game" material, as Ice-T would say. If you ever thought the drug game was glamourous, E-40 lets you know that it's a dangerous, paranoid, and depressing dead-end - even for the few who live long enough to make a bit of money. 

The Cool Kids : Tires (Instrumental)

This had just the right slow pace, boom, and space to form a bridge between the tracks on either side. The vocal version appropriately comes from the 2009 "Merry Christmas" EP and features Boldy James, but this instrumental is available as part of the "Gone Fishing : Instrumentals" mixtape (despite not being on the "Gone Fishing" album, so far as I'm aware!)

Jane Child : Loot$ville

Take the rhythm section alone and you could imagine someone like Above The Law or The Dogg Pound getting busy on this track. It's been a very long time since the release of the "Surge" LP, the last from Jane Child, but it still stands up! Child's production and playing skills, alongside those of Cat Gray have this instrumental growling along at the low end, and then her vocal elevates the whole package into a quality song.

Jay-Z : Where I'm From

A clear standout from "In My Lifetime, Vol.1", this is one of the tracks for the streets, and a stark contrast to the many songs on the album that were obviously aiming for mass appeal. Jay lays down the facts of life in Brooklyn's Marcy Projects over a menacing beat from D-Dot and Amen-Ra, with DJ Premier contributing the cuts.

Scarface : The Fix / Fixed

I decided to blend the opening and closing tracks from Scarface's "The Fix" LP here, since both are excellent, but also very short. Scarface and Mike Dean handle the production, and it would surprise many to know that Scarface is also the singer here! This musical motif was re-used by the great Pimp C for UGK's "Still Ridin' Dirty", which also featured Scarface - another track to check out.

Sean Price ft. Buckshot and General Steele : Apartheid

This tune from "Imperius Rex" is the exact kind of darkness and coldness that matches the current season, especially in a year like this. Crummie Beats provides the score, and Sean is accompanied by two of the absolute foundation BCC members to go all the way grimy with it. Check the video - as well as all the artist guests, Sean's wife Bernadette and daughter Shaun both make appearances.

Mad Cobra ft. The Geto Boys : Dead End Street (Instrumental)

From the early 90s, when all sorts of Hip-Hop groups were trying to add a little Jamaican flavour (to wildly varying effect), there were a few artists from JA with the budget to cross over the other way. This 12" had multiple versions of the GB-featuring gun tune headed by dancehall don Cobra, and this is the thumping instrumental to the main mix.

Bronx Slang : Copy That

Jerry Beeks and Ollie Miggs are back with a new single, which just had to be shared here. Beeks has been doing his thing for a long time and continues to tweak and refine his approach - his flow here is alternately conversational and then more dense, and shows a real level of comfort expounding on serious subject matter on the mic. Grab this either as a single or on the "Bronx Kill" mixtape!

Ghostface Killah ft. Trife : Be Easy

The horns on "Copy That" brought this track to mind, and it's a worthy follow-up. One of the big singles from "Fishscale", it's a triumphant Pete Rock blast flipping "Stay Away From Me" by The Sylvers (this info is already out there), and Ghost leading the charge over the top with an assist from Trife in the hypeman role.

Phat Kat ft. T3 and Black Milk : Danger

All the Detroit on this cut, which has appeared in a few places - Phat Kat's "Carte Blanche" LP, Black Milk's "Sound Of The City", and even the "Saint's Row" soundtrack. As "SOTC" was released two years before the Phat Kat album came out in 2007, I guess that kind of makes it Black Milk's track and may explain why he's on the first verse - although Phat Kat is a beast on the third verse cleanup. Black Milk is on the beat, of course.

Dilated Peoples : Clockwork

I'd somehow forgotten that DJ Premier had done this beat for Dilated, but it's a great bi-coastal collaboration between him and this LA crew! The "Expansion Team" LP, their second, is full of heavyweight production, with Alchemist, Da Beatminerz, and JuJu from The Beatnuts among the boardsmen on the project. This track bumps but has a kind of thriller film soundtrack energy at the same time, and Rakaa and Evidence do it justice on the mic.

Fingathing : You Fly Me

The pairing of bassist Sneaky and world-class turntablist DJ Peter Parker was not the kind of thing that was at all common when they started out, but their original concept went from sensational live performances to quality recorded output. This number comes from the first full album, "The Main Event" (which was preceded by the "2 Player EP"), and is a glorious mix of bass and strings with some jazzy drumming action.

Zo! ft. Phonte : Everything She Wants

Now this is how you do a cover version! The last track recorded for "...just visiting three", this was a left-field idea from Zo that Phonte loved, as he'd always loved the original Wham track and wanted to remake it himself! It's much slower than the original, and as Zo points out, it helps to maintain the focus on the lyrics, which were some of George Michael's best from that era. The multi-talented Phonte kills it on the lead vocal (as well as some choice ad-libs), and Zo has the beat sliding and slumping, with a great switch-up at the end if you go and get the full version... 

Freeway & Jake One : The Product

I hadn't played "The Stimulus Package" for ages, but it's still really good. When this was released, it seemed like an idea from a bygone era to pair one MC with one producer for a whole album, but one that was very welcome. Philadelphia's Freeway's addiction-themed lyrics are pretty much timeless, and as is usually the case, Jake One's beat nods to tradition while not being bound by it.

Sadat X & El Da Sensei ft. Bumpy Knuckles : 3 Rounds To Spar

Wall-to-wall rugged MCs right here, with the pairing of Sadat and El joined by the king of the third verse, Bumpy Knuckles for a pure mic workout over some heavy boom-bap (which is never a perjorative round here) by Divine Drummah - a producer I could only find this one credit for, but who definitely cooked up a track with the appropriate weight for the MCs on it. If you check the full version from the "XL" album, you can enjoy the intro where you hear the main sample in a more open form before the chops and drums come in.

Boot Camp Clik ft. Twanie Ranks : Smile In Heaven

This one probably snuck past most of you, as it was buried on the end of the Black Moon "Rush" 12" and didn't appear anywhere else except the "Collect Dis Edition" compilation in 2003. It turned up when I was digitising vinyl and I thought it was a fitting one to play mood-wise, with the contemplative street lyrics and the sombre vibes of the Beatminerz' instrumental underscoring it all. Twanie Ranks adds to the whole with his reggae-styled vocals at the end of the hook sections.

K-Def : The Final Thrill

One of those guys you could describe as a producer's producer, New Jersey's K-Def quietly has an amazing discography! I went back to his "Willie Boo Boo" album for this one, which is so short I had to loop it up a bit to make it long enough to work here - that said, there's no downside to hearing a beat like this for a little longer :)

Tribeca : Charlie Hustle (Pony Express)

With a sample that almost everyone will recognise, even if you can't name it, Tribeca does double duty as MC and producer on this 2003 12". On the mic, he takes on the persona/viewpoint of the former baseball player Pete Rose, who was banned from the major leagues for gambling, and as such is also excluded from the Baseball Hall of Fame (the "Cooperstown" you hear mentioned). When it comes to the production, he pounds the MPC in his characteristic fashion to supply the low end to complement the piano track. 

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[kpopgerapitico]

Song of the Week

SM saw the end of the year and was like “All the releases? All the releases”

And a cut, because I go on a rant.

Honorable Mentions:

I’m making a small detour to a place I went in 2018, because one of my favorite K-pop adjacent tracks from that year, well it’s had a bit of a big month, and I was waiting for them to (I think) finish releasing the videos to talk about it. And that’s K/DA, which is the brainchild of a section of Riot Games to promote League of Legends, and specifically Worlds, via music. In 2018, POP/STARS hit hard and fast, with the combination of Western artists and two members of (G)-IDLE, for a pretty great song. This year has had 5 more tracks, starting with More 3 months ago, and ending with I’ll Show You today. Drum Go Dum and Villain have no Korean, but are still pretty solid tracks (the dance video style of Drum Go Dum is pretty great and Villain has such a cool video). The other three include 2 (G)-IDLE features and one Twice feature. The newest, I’ll Show You, features Twice, and feels the most upbeat pop of the trio. And the Twice vocals are bright and cheerful. The Baddest replaced everyone that wasn’t (G)-IDLE from the original lineup, and while the verses hit pretty hard, the chorus isn’t quite as addictive as their other tracks, in that it still sticks in your head pretty hard, but not quite as much. And finally, More has the original lineup, with a new Chinese addition. It is my favorite of the new releases (new-ish at this point), but still doesn’t hit quite as hard as the debut for me. Anyways, its all pretty solid music, especially since this is literally run by a game company. They don’t have any right to be dropping these good of tracks.

Back to your regularly scheduled K-pop

There is a pair of NCT U tracks. 90s Love is over half made of people not alive in 90s, but does have some of the hits from the era in terms of what’s happening musically, and I’m so amused by the oversized clothes, and decision that somehow hockey represents the 90s? I guess The Mighty Ducks had a bigger reach internationally than I thought. Work It is a much harder hitting dance track. Neither are particularly interesting to me, as has been true of the whole current era of NCT. Hopefully it isn’t quite over with, and we will get something iconic to finish it out.

Watch Breath for the camera work. The song is fine, and sweet and cute and all, but I’m pretty sure it’s shot on plates, with incredibly consistent indoor lighting, faking outdoors, and everyone at some point on separate plates. And some may be cut out of other plates to make it work . . . It’s a really nice video for editing and cuts, like holy cow, so many of the transitions are on hidden cuts of some sort, and I don’t think there is a single shot hand held throughout. And I have a minor conspiracy theory that Jackson was never on set with any of the rest of the boys (and his hair is so pretty, but that’s beside the point). Anyways, GOT7 has me excited for their comeback.

I haven’t tended to like BOL4 because their tone is so high, but when combined with WH3N as a deepening element, and a driving ballad, the combo seems to get me. New York, feels exciting and hopeful and happy, and is a lovely combination of voices that alone I often pass over.

If you have historically liken UP10TION, you should also enjoy Destiny, which seems like it at least alludes to their sound, or at least the one I associate with them. It doesn’t stick in my head any more than any of their previous stuff.

Let’s talk about the track of Hyolyn’s Spell first. It is sexy and driving and mystical and compelling. It is very different than the rest of the solo work she has put out. I’m not sure totally what I think about it. I like it, definitely, but it is such a departure from her summer dance track roots, that I don’t know how I feel about the 180. Now, let’s talk about the more important part, which is this mildly bonkers video of Niel playing a playboy, badboy pop star. I have so many questions: why Niel? Why does he have such nice cars? why have him doing pullups when he has a nice body but isnt all that impressive? am i attracted to niel doing shots like they are nothing? red hair and red car? why niel? how niel? So many questions, and no answers to be had. also the floating in a pool shot is everything, as is pretty much any time he has red hair. I have decided to give it the win for pure interest factor. I doubt I will be forgetting these questions soon (Niel, really?)

[lbat1901]

2019 Review

I’ve never posted an end year review on Tumblr. I only post on either Facebook and DA, buuuuut it’s time for a change.

Also I couldn’t decide whether or not to separate it into two parts. I decided to say f**k it and post the whole thing.

Anyway, welcome to the first ever year end review where I recap 2019. Just a side note, I am doing this so you won’t have to. Also there a lot of ranting in this.

Quick thing to know is that I can become very brutal when comes to ranting. Trust me they’re not pretty. Oh and I tend write these things like at either towards the end of June and mid July about the stuff that just happened before coming back to it in late October and early November while adding even more information. That’s how things work.

Anyway with that out of the way, I present to you, Lbat1901’s review of 2019 broadcasted worldwide on this day of December 31st (or either the 1st of January and/or December 30th depending on your timezone).

2018 was a good year despite a few thing here and there. Now 2019 was a tad bit better but we lost the OG actor of Chewbacca from Star Wars. Well this isn’t a bad thing, there’s another actor to play the part.

If deaths weren’t always there to make a year bad, then it would be a person’s own downfall. I’m talking about the downfall of the one and only ProJared. Oh god….when I heard the news that he and his wife were filing for a divorce, it wasn’t good at all. Well it was bad at first, but it got worse when his ex-wife stated that he cheated on her. That took me by surprise, but I was all like: “Ah well. Things can’t get any worse than that, right?”. Unfortunately things did got much much worse.

ProJared was reported for doing some sexual activity on Tumblr. He actually DMed a minor and said some explicit stuff to them. Oh boy….that was a shocker. Due to this, everyone and his fans couldn’t find it in their hearts to forgive him. By the way ProJared at the time reached the milestone of 1,000,000 subscribers. That…later went down. A couple of months later, ProJared posted an apology on Twitter which didn’t make any sense. In reality doing that kind of stuff like that could land you in some legal troubles and you won’t be able to recover from it.

It really sucks and it hurts me a lot when it should be considered that ProJared is one of my favorite gaming channels on YouTube and one of my inspirations for all that sweet comedy gold. His videos are so good along his random commentary and jokes. Plus him working together with PeanutButterGamer, another YouTuber that I like, gave out some great positive vibes of collaboration. It’s going to take me a very long time to get over this and find it in my heart to accept his apology, but for now, I’m taking a break from ProJared.

…Aye I’m just kidding! It turns out that in late August, he uploaded a video explaining what really happened which means I can forgive him. I rate ProJared’s explanation video: “a fixed reputation out of 10.”

Another thing that happened was the suicide of another well known YouTuber that I like, that goes by the name of Etika. You see Etika is known for his reaction video especially when it comes to stuff like Nintendo such as Smash Bros. His DLC reveal reactions were priceless and hilarious. At the time, I never knew he had mental issues since it wasn’t clear onto why he always acts up giving off this destructive behavior. I’ve always believed that he did this for to be funny, but now I look back at it, his reactions were a bit too much. Shockingly before his death, he was went to some mental place and even came out from suffering from depression.

Soon afterwards, his family and his fans all reached out to him, but Etika pushed them all to the side. After that, he released a video saying how sorry his was shortly before he took his own life out. When I first heard about it from IGN, I didn’t believe it. But after awhile it turned out to be true. Etika really did killed himself.

I’ll say this once: killing yourself isn’t an option. Sure it maybe a solution to end your problems but in reality it makes everyone around you fall in deep despair. This is coming from a person who had depression in the past along with some forms of PTSD and schizophrenia. If you’re suffering from depression don’t turn down help. There’s always a light at the end of tunnel waiting for you to go towards it. Don’t stop waking to it. And Etika if you’re reading this, from wherever you might be, I hope you’re doing better than you were before since your now considered to be free from your troubles. All of us are going to see you again. Even though I haven’t meant you in person, you’re still a cool guy to me. Stay awesome.

Okay enough of the heavy feels. You all know what’s coming up next. It’s the part where I rant about the things that have happened this year. And hey, new people, you get to have a front row seat for this. The ranting part always gets my reviews a whole lotta views, making them somewhat popular. Here we go!

Alright…I’ll get this part out the way. Is it just me or was it that January 2019 was a very painful month to get through? No? If you’re living in a part where it’s warm everyday for the full entire year, good for you. You don’t have to suffer. But….can we like trade places? I want 90 degree weather all year long. Why you such lucky things. January, according to parts of the world that snow, is considered to be one of the slowest yet worst months of the year. Plus it doesn’t help that fact that it’s still winter and it’s the first month. I have always believed that January is a very slow month, but January 2019….oh my lord, it was brutally slow. Also January is also known to be the month of severe depression since nobody can hold onto their New Year resolution.

January 2019 felt like a drag. Plus I was still lingering to some of my depression after trying to recover from it after November 2018. It was a really bad time for me even though November is usually fast, but it felt I was being stabbed repeatedly. January 2019 was no different. Oh and don’t come to me stating that February comes after January and that it’s a fast month. That is true, but 2019 had to drug up February with depression pills making that a month of total despair. At least once it hit March 2019 things got better and much smoother.

January and February 2019, umm…what the f**k happened to you? January, I don’t expect anything magical about you, but February 2019, my god, you were supposed to be a better month. You had one job and failed at it that’s for sure.

This year’s review would like to take the attention and put it on Venezuela for once. During the first half of the year, many countries around the world has talked about the crisis in Venezuela. Venezuela is known to be a country in South America to have an oil industry which helps the country be successful. The current president is Nicolás Maduro and let’s be honest here, he’s a horrible person. Why? It’s because all of the things that he has done were quite questionable and he has said some controversial things mostly being related to storages. So far there has been several riots, people getting killed in some of those riots, nobody can get any food or medication due to power outages. It continues to get worse as time goes by. Most Venezuelans fled the country because it becoming a sh*thole and I don’t blame them. I would be fleeing from the country too if I can’t get anything. As I said before, countries around the world have been talking about the issues happening in Venezuela. There are some countries that support Maduro while other countries such as the US supports Juan Guaidó who vows to oppose Maduro. This kinda triggers the 2019 presidential crisis in Venezuela; however Guaidó has been given support by 54 countries as of June 2019. Although there is some competition, nobody should be getting in the way since this is Venezuela’s fight and it’s basically their freedom of speech. They must fight the powers that be.

What’s coming up next is something that I refuse to ignore. Article 13 getting passed. You heard that right folks, they did it. They actually f**king did it. In March 2019, the EU were having a debation on whenever or not to pass Article 13. If you don’t know, the EU created a whole bunch of rules for each country in Europe to follow. Some are good and some are just plain stupid. Article 13 is kinda like Europe’s version of Net Neutrality…only if it were on steroids. Article 13 has some tight restrictions but the most controversial thing to come from is that it kills off anything that has to do with copyright. Anything like music, video games, and of course memes won’t exist and guess what? Those motherf**kers in the EU actually said “f**k it!” and let the thing pass and all thanks to this lovely son of a b*ch, Axel Voss

*sighs heavily*

Axel Voss…why? Why? Just why? Why would you say yes? Months before the voting in March, you were supposed to be hope. I trusted your word. I thought you knew what to say, but you had to say the complete opposite. And do you want to know what my reaction is? Do you really want to see it? Oh I’ll give it you you. Here is goes. All I have to say is….wow, you really f**ked everything up big time and here’s my message towards you all:

F**k the EU! F**k Article 13! F**k everyone who allowed to let this thing get approved and have it take effect two years later! And finally, f**k you Axel Voss! F**k you all! I hope all you will burn in hell for this.

Now it’s time for the star of the show and the main topic I talk about every year, Trump.

Oh my where I do even begin? 2019 was the year on how low Trump can go as a president and as a person. Well he already is low.

I know that there’s a huge like and dislike ratio with this man. If you support Trump and would like to dismantle any argument that I make that is totally against everything he says and does, then that’s great! Now do me favor: GO F**K YOURSELF!!!

I had enough of this man and I am sick of this nonsense! Hell I’ve been sick of it already. He’s done way too much and he’s been tripping all over the place as well.

Why are there still people out there supporting this guy? Like seriously, what is wrong with you people?

I have a feeling that you’re going to say this: “What makes him bad to you? He basically done a lot in the past three years. He lowered my taxes so I won’t have to pay that much”.

Um excuse me? Does it look I f**king care if you don’t have to pay that much for taxes? Abso-f**king-lutely not. I don’t give a sh*t if you’re paying less in taxes along with telling me that it’s raining tacos. Must I remind you that this man ordered a government shutdown for the first part of the year which, bear in mind, lasted 30 days all because he wanted a wall to be built between the Mexican and American borders? Let’s not forget that the president of Mexico already said no to paying that wall.

So yeah, Trump was throwing a tantrum over it. Why not you just build a wall of Legos? It’s cheaper.

The more I think about this, the more I pay attention to the audience in Trump’s rallies. What do I see, I hear you ask? Nothing but basic white people and that’s exactly my point. In most of Trump’s rallies, you don’t see any black, Hispanic, Asian, or Somalian people in the stands. That’s because would they support Trump? All you see is just white people and the majority of them have blonde hair and blue eyes.

They’re not just any white people, they are the ones with the guns, Trump hats, the pick up truck, and the Confederate flag. They are also known as those die hard rednecks that love to spread hatred and racism. I do have to admit that I love rednecks with their Southern accents and charm (expect for the racism), but not the rednecks that love an orangutan that cares about himself and money.

This orangutan is also businessman who seems to have an obsession on running a business to the ground which is exactly what he’s doing to America. Plus he doesn’t think that global warming is real. Uh huh, you might want to tell that to California and its many wildfires, the farmers who had so much rainfall this year and can’t sell their crops due to tariffs, and pretty much to the entire world or you can just act like an idiot which leads into me calling you, and say it with me, a whiny little b*ch.

Oh Trump honey, you and you’re little friends are in so much trouble when it hits January because you’ve got impeached and you were basically whining on Twitter about it. All I heard was doom and gloom and the sounds of a baby crying. Awww….does little Trump want his nappy wampy? Might as well tell your queen Mike Pence that you need one, because you’re losing this chess game.

I can’t get the image of Trump showing off a map on where Hurricane Dorian was going to hit out of my head. He may got the part on where it was going to hit Florida right, but he pointed out that it was going to hit Alabama. Technically that map was outdated and Hurricane Dorian didn’t hit Alabama, but he didn’t say that he was wrong. Instead he just circles on where the hurricane was going to hit with a white sharpie and had a proud look on his face saying “Look what I did, daddy. I’m smart”. He pretty much made the entire state of Alabama fall into a panic.

He was so proud of himself that he phone called his best friend Putin about it. I swear that Putin has something on him and the reason why he wanted Trump to win is so that he can get Trump to do whatever he wants. Trump is basically Putin’s b*ch.

Plus Putin rewrote the Russian constitution which Trump doesn’t even seem to care about America’s own constitution at all. Even his own party members don’t care about it. They seem to care about the 2nd amendment more and it’s a dying shame that all of them will be voted out of office when 2020 hits. Can’t wait for it.

Unfortunately, when there’s a new president, there’s going to be a lot to fix since no one trusts America anymore since Trump ruined everything especially getting out of that deal with Iran. That had to be the most dumbest thing that he’s ever done. Big mistake, Trump.

All he did was claim that Obama gave them money? No he didn’t. The agreement was to see what America was giving to Iran along with unfreezing their money just so they feed their people. But no, blame everything on Obama because why not.

Honestly the current Republican party blame things that happened on former presidents and the Democrats. People also say that the Democrats have gone way too far onto the left, but here’s the thing, the Republicans were the party that actually had the balls of steel, but now they’ve gone completely off the rails allowing their own president to break the constitution just get information on a political rival from a foreign leader which is a violation and illegal. Do the Republicans seem to care about rules being broken? Of course not. What are these people on exactly? Dope? I would sure love to have some of that just so I won’t have to deal with crap.

Most of my year end reviews on what Trump did is hard. Why? It’s because he doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. Again, why is there people out there who support this man? He’s a crook. You might argue with me that he’s a businessman. And? You’re point is? Listen, how can he be a businessman when filed for bankruptcy several times? That’s not a good businessman, that’s a bad one. When are you people going to get that through your thick skulls?

Can you imagine if it were Obama doing the crap that Trump had some so far? Oh god, the Republicans would have his head. The Republicans now? Nah, they don’t want to bother since they don’t want to lose their power. Ahh….that’s too bad, you’re going to be losing that during the senate trail next year.

Speaking of Alabama, they were the first state to pass an anti abortion law, but guess what? Women don’t know if their pregnant in six weeks so why bother. Oh wait, I keep forgetting that the American government is being run by old white men that like taking a giant step back in time where woman didn’t have any rights. Back in the 1960s, doctors wouldn’t tell women about their health but only told it to their husbands. Yeah that’s right, women weren’t treated as as people and it was pretty messed up. Now a few decades before that time period, women couldn’t walk around unless they were with their husbands. Can you imagine that being written in law in this current time period? It would be f**ked up even though it was back then and it still exist in other countries to this day. What’s even worse is that women weren’t taught how to read or weren’t sent to school. That was centuries ago mind you.

2020 is going to be the start of whole new decade. The 2010s weren’t that bad, but it was till the near end were it got bad. 2020 is going to be the year of adios Trump.

Anyway, this has been Lbat1901 reporting last time in 2019. See you in 2020.

[neoraven]

NWA TNA Episode 1, June 19th 2002

17 years ago NWA TNA started the weekly PPV experiment. I went to every single one. Now I'm going to watch them for the first time since I was there.

(this review brought courtesy of Toby Keith and the red white and blue)

In 2002, I was a teenager set adrift by 9/11 and the alienation from starting high school. For better or worse, every week I started going to National Wrestling Alliance - Total Nonstop Action shows on Wednesday night. I loved WCW and was bitter about the botched invasion going on, and here was a new WCW in my backyard.  It looks like there were 111 weekly PPVs, I'm not sure exactly how many taped ones / clip shows ended up happening, but I never missed one for injury, illness, or even vacation for the better part of two years. It was basically my ECW, for someone who was too young to follow ECW when it first aired.

I'm not really sure what the format of these is going to be. It's kind of a recap + live blog + review,  I'll give matches the standard 0-5 star ratings with 1/4*'s possible, so it's really a 20 point scale. I'm going to hopefully figure out a better way to get screen captures going forward. Also, these first couple were taped in Alabama, not at the TNA Asylum in Nashville. Hopefully if my memory holds up, I'll be able to give some live notes and memories from being there for some of these. I have an old hard drive of pictures taken that I hope I can recover. I won the "Best Fan of the Night" and "Best Sign" contests a couple times to get to go backstage, and I also generally hung out before the shows and after the shows to talk to the wrestlers coming and going like a groupie. Later on, I was even on the TNA "Street Team" helping to market TNA and hand out flyers/ads during Smackdown tapings.  I was also the moderator for the brief TNA Online Message Board, which I truly wish I had screencaps/archives somehow of all the…wildness there.

NWA TNA #1 June 19th 2002

Don West is the first person out of the gate, introducing Ed Ferrara after pyro and a brief introduction. Ed's all about TNA and introducing the girls dancing in cage as some sleazy music plays. Appropriately, he throws it to Mike Tenay, all business at ringside. TNA chants kick us off. Don West's hawaiian shirt is a thing of legend, and it's distracting me from Tenay's long explanation of the "Gauntlet For The Gold".

Jeremy Borash eventually is in ring announcing a parade of legends. Harley Race, Dory Funk, Jr, Jackie Fargo, Bullet Bob Armstrong, Corsica Joe & Sarah Lee, Bill Behrens, Ricky Steamboat. "All Our Base Are Belong To Us" shirt spotted in the stands. The Dragon compares the belt to every major championship in pro sports, the Stanley Cup, etc. He will special referee the finals of the match, and that brings out the one and only - Jeff Jarrett. His TNA theme "My World" is a lowkey banger that nevertheless completely haunted my life for 2 years. His big mouth earns him the first spot in the match. Ken Shamrock is here after that, and he joins Jarrett in burying the Battle Royal match. Finally, Scott Hall saunters through the crowd in a strip club(!!!) t-shirt as his awesome theme "Marvelous Me" plays. To round up, Ken Shamrock's theme wasn't great. "Hey Yo" sign spotted.

Goldylocks is backstage with Total Nonstop Action and the original midget killer "Puppet the Psycho Dwarf". Oh no. He's gonna spill some midget blood. Jeff Jarrett angrily kicks over a tiny music stand in the background hilariously. Then we go to the girls in cages and honest to goodness our first wrestling match -

6 Man Tag Team X Division Showcase AJ Styles, Low Ki, and Jerry Lynn vs The Flying Elvii (Sonny Siaki, Jimmy Yang, and Jorge Estrada)

An X Division showcase awaits. The legends surround a tiny monitor backstage. The generic faces' intro music is bland. The flying Elvii have a nice little knockoff theme at least. Siaki has Big The Rock Energy while the other two mug. The Elvii refuse handshakes and all hell breaks loose. Triple dropkicks and flying splashes to the outside. Styles reverses a back suplex into a phenomenal forearm, and I'm not going to attempt to catch every move. As an aside - Total Nonstop Action has taken a full 18 minutes on air before someone punched someone. Siaki and LowKi is a pretty appealing matchup. The former does a crisp Samoan Drop. Styles and Yang get in and have a very crisp, quick flurry of moves together. Jerry Lynn crushes a cradle Piledriver, and Siaki runs in and hits his neckbreaker finisher. LowKi accidentally brains AJ, and Yang capitalizes with the Yang Time for the pin. Considering who went on to hold the X Title, this is an odd result, but commentary was generally putting over how the mismatched team was going to compete in the X Title Round Robin coming up.

The Flying Elvii in 7 minutes, Yang Time pins AJ Styles **3/4

Midget Showcase Teo vs Hollywood

Hollywood starts it before the bell. From the promo, I thought this was a triple threat with Puppet. Hollywood kicks out of the "Tadpole Splash" from the top rope. Ed Ferrara says in response to Teo's claims to be a ladies' man - "He's the right height". Teo finishes Hollywood with an ugly swanton.

Teo in 3 minutes, Swanton?, 1/2*

Now West and Ferrara are in the ring hyping the Lingerie Battle Royal next week. The New Francine, Miss Joanie, Shannon (Daffney?), Alexis Laree (Mickie James!), The Incredible Sasha, Erin (Baltimore Cheerleader?), Elektra from ECW, Miss Taylor Vaughn, Darisa Da?? I didn't catch her name as Ed starts rambling about a kid in a candy store. Maybe I'll catch all the names if they're introduced with title cards next week. Francine grabs a mic and calls Ed "pudgy" and says none of the women compare to her. Elektra stands up to Francine and starts a catfight.

Goldylocks is in the back with Mortimer Plumtree. His character peaks with his name. He manages a tag team that bullied him in high school for reasons that are never explained. He leaves to walk "The Johnsons", Richard and Rod, to the ring.

Tag Team Match The Johnsons w/ Mortimer Plumtree vs Psychosis and James Storm

The latter is an odd pairing for a few reasons. I honestly didn't remember James Storm started off without Chris Harris and America' Most Wanted. He even has the prop guns firing blanks in the ring, which was always a nice touch. I feel like this is where I mention that the Johnsons are in full body suits and masks that make them look like walking penises. In other news, Psychosis is going without his trademark horned mask. Alicia from WCW is on the stage scouting the match. There's a fella in an XFL jersey in the stands. What year is it? "Buff your(sic) still the stuff" sign spotted. Ferrara "These Johnsons just look good". They hit simultaneous clutching suplexes to take control of the good guys, but Mortimer interferes to let one of the Johnsons hit their finisher on Cowboy. Post match, the ref pays off the lady watching the action.

The Johnsons in 4 minutes, Samoan Drop into Neckbreaker, *

Stan and Bo Dupp harass Goldylocks in the back until they run into the brothers' shared girlfriend in a quick nothing segment.

Borash introduces 1993 Rookie of the Year and Winston (yes, cigarettes) Cup Points Leader Sterling Martin. K-Krush is out to save us from the race car drivers. He's getting booed, but this would be a face promo anywhere other than Huntsville Alabama. K Krush "Damn you, and Damn Alabama" Brian Lawler is out to save the NASCAR dopes from the angry black man. He cuts an angry promo about "your kind" while the crowd howls in racist jeer. It's a pretty ugly segment considering "Grandmaster Sexay" Lawler is still clad in his Too Cool black rapper cosplay outfit.

Backstage, Jeff Jarrett is choking Jackie Fargo.

Tag Team Match Christian York & Joey Matthews vs The Dupps w/ Fluff Dupp

For better or worse, now I know their girlfriend/cousin's name now. After the crowd roared for the pasty white NASCAR duo, commentary is really going in on how these two wrestlers are completely fucking stupid and southern. The Dupps' intro is very boring twangy banjo crap, and they're not much better in the ring. Matthews hits a move called the Virginia Necktie that looks pretty nice. I think the non-Dupp team is working face, but it's hard to tell who the crowd is popping for. The Dupps win with some cheating and Fluff interference.

The Dupps in 4 minutes, Crotch shot, 1/2*

Before the Gauntlet For The Gold, we get a Toby Keith music video. He is singing "Angry American". Jeff Jarrett walks out and pushes Toby Keith off his little stupid stool and the crowd goes wild and honestly, I screamed in joy and Jeff Jarrett turned face for my money when he says "Nobody wants to hear that damn song, and take your Angry American Ass OUTTA HERE".

The Gauntlet For The Gold 20 Man Battle Royal for the NWA Heavyweight Championship Of The World

Buff Bagwell runs down for number 2 and the bell rings. Maybe it was for the main event finally starting but honestly the crowd goes pretty wild for Buff Bagwell laying hands on Double J. Buff hits a couple signature moves, but gets tossed before the next entrant. Ragin' Cajun Lash Laroux Is 3. He falls victim to The Stroke and is eliminated fast. "Somebody pissed in Jeff's Cheerio-s this morning!" Here comes Screamin' Norman Smiley at 4. The second largest pop of the night so far comes for the Big Wiggle. Jarrett tosses him anyways. Apolo comes down at 5, getting more offense than the previous entrants combined. K-Krush is 6. His signature axe kick gets tremendous boos, they hate him. Slash w/ James Mitchell is 7. Del Rios is 8. He is some kind of bodybuilder and it shows. Slash bites his way out of a belly to belly suplex as the announcers stress everything is legal. Justice is 9, I think this Is the future Abyss, but I can't swear to it. He hits a Black Hole Slam and now I'm 99% sure. Konnan is 10, yelling "Arriba La Raza" on his way to the ring. Abyss sells Konnan's facebuster a la HBK vs Hogan and I love it. 11 brings out Joel Gertner "I'm gonna be with 5 girls in Huntsville because I don't settle for less" He gives an X-rated introduction for the man they call Bruce of the Rainbow Express, led out by Lenny Lane. I'm not gonna bother listing all of the homophobic euphemisms the announce team runs through explaining who the Rainbow Express are. Rick Steiner is 12. He dumps Slash and Abyss with a couple impressive shows of strength. Malice is 13, dealing out chokeslams. Bruce, K-Krush, Del Rios,  Konnan, and Steiner go out quickly thereafter. Scott Hall is 14. Toby Keith? is 15. He suplexes and tosses Jarrett. Not that anyone cares, but Toby Keith leaves through the middle rope to chase Jarrett and is never officially eliminated. 16 brings Wildcat Chris Harris. Vampire Warrior, former Gangrel, runs down seemingly early as an entrant with no music? The on screen countdown timer disappeared during the Toby Keith situation. Dangerous Devin Storm, aka Crowbar, is probably 18. Steve Corino comes in at 19, the only former NWA Champ. Ken Shamrock is out at 20. "Hall was framed" sign spotted. Brian Christopher/Lawler is number 20 and I realize now that Toby Keith was not an official entrant. Brian clears out Chris Harris, Vampire Warrior, and Crowbar mostly by holding the top rope down when they ran by. He dumps Corino shortly after. Christopher and Apolo get dumped by Malice next. Then the cameraman somehow misses Malice back body dropping Scott Hall over the top, leaving Malice vs Ken Shamrock to go to a  pinfall or submission.

Malice vs Ken Shamrock, Special Referee Ricky The Dragon Steamboat

Malice gets some advice from Father James Mitchell at ringside.  After going back and forth, Shamrock gets an awesome cross arm breaker reversal of a choke slam. After a long tease of tapping, he gets the rope, maybe with James Mitchell pushing it a little toward his client. A big boot leads into the Ankle Lock and Shamrock refuses to break it on the ropes, after even a 7 count, leading to heated words with Steamboat. Shamrock wins with a Belly to Belly to a big pop despite his heel tactics. Cue pyro, and hoisting the tiny gold belt.

Ken Shamrock wins a 5 minute match following a 33 minute battle royal, Belly to Belly. **

The match was a little too long, even with Jarrett speeding up the beginning by tossing the opening entrants as fast as possible. Speaking of Double J, he fights with legends and security backstage before emerging with a microphone. He punches the legends after moaning about the battle royal until Toby Keith and Jackie Fargo come back out to book Scott Hall vs Jeff Jarrett next week, the show ends with them brawling up the ramp.

That wraps up episode 1! They have some marquee singles matches next week in addition to crowning the first X Division champ, I'll see you then to wrap up the two first Alabama shows before settling into The Asylum.

[aceofstars16]

Lots of tags!

So, I was tagged twice for two different meme things so I thought I’d do both of them in the same tag thing haha xD

Tagged by @book-and-comic-fangirl

Birthday: May 16th

Gender: Female

Relationship status: Single

Hogwarts house: Hufflepuff!!!! 

Time right now: 8:20 (guys, it’s 9:03...it took me forty minutes to do this...xD)

Lucky Favorite number: 16

Last thing I Googled: “feel again lyrics” I though it could apply to one of my OCs so I had to look up the lyrics...xD

Nicknames: Ace, Aceo, Swaya, Spammy (though no one has used Aceo or Swaya in YEARS xD)

Siblings: Yup! I’m the youngest of three, four if you include my sister-in-law. It goes my brother, my sister, then my other brother and his wife then me! (we are like the Pevensies in birth order, though not personality as much, though I’ve always related to Lucy...)

Height: Like 5′6 or 5′7, I have 5′7 on my permit so...I go with that xD

Favorite color: BLUE!!!!

Pets: Three cats, Alex, Ginger, and Juliet

Wake up and sleep time: Ha....hahah....ummm...it’s really bad right now...like...it changes every day but usually in between 12-2 am and then I get up like...between 10-12....hehe...*flops*

Average hours of sleep: I try to get at least 8, but I prefer 9 or 10

Love or lust: Love always

Coke or Pepsi: Both are pretty....eh...so Dr. Pepper or Root Beer or Sprite...like any of those, if I have to choose, Pepsi...but eh...not my favorite...xD

Day or night: Night usually, but I do like the daytime a lot too, at least when it’s not like freezing xD (but it’s been pretty warm recently so, both? xD)

Text or call: TEXT, calling is stressful...

Make up or natural: Natural, I only wear makeup on very rare occasions xD

Met a celebrity: Depends on your definition of celebrity? I’ve met Barlowgirl, Coach K, Penny Chennery, Ronnie Turcotte, John Flanagan, and Marissa Meyer...so??? And I’ve seen Rick Riordan, but I didn’t actually get to like...talk to him xD

Smile or eyes: Smile ^^

Light or dark hair: Both, I mean maybe lighter hair? But I don’t mind dark hair either?

Shorter or taller: Taller

Intelligence or attraction: Intelligence 

Chapstick or lipstick: Chapstick, I put on Burt’s Bees every night cause chapped lips are not fun xD

City or country: Hmm, I like both? Like, the city is nice because you are close to things, but I love the calmness of the country...but I also don’t like the bugs so...? Where I live is a good balance cause we live next to a greenbelt but we are like ten minutes away from downtown xD

Blankets I sleep with: Depends on the season, anywhere from one to like four (also depends on the kind of blanket xD)

Last song I listened to: Uhh, well “Live Forever” by Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors is playing right now (it’s such a calming song <333)

Favorite bands/artists: I like a looot, NEEDTOBREATHE is one of my faves but recently I’ve been listening to lots of Moana and Hamilton xD

Dream trip: Probably a road trip/just country trip to meet a lot of my friends! Though, I’d also love to go to Iceland, and Argentina, London, Italy, Ireland, and Switzerland...(okay but my list grew from last time because my family was actually talking about going to Europe so...yeah, but I REALLY want to go to Iceland...like...really, AND I want to go to the place where they filmed the last scene in TFA because my brother told me it was like in Scotland and I geeked out a little xD)

Favorite fictional character: HA! One? You want me to pick one??? Haha nah...that’s not happening...I have wayyyyy too many....here’s a few...there are like...a ton more tho...Obi Wan, Kanan, Ezra, Hera, Sabine, Ahsoka, Anakin, Rey, Finn, Jyn, Cassian, Bodhi, Chirrut, Chopper, BB8, Steve Rogers, Scott Lang, Peggy Carter, Edwin Jarvis, Sokka, Bolin, Percy, Leo, Neal Caffrey, Peter Burke, pretty much all of the Parks and Rec characters, Cinder, Thorne, Cress, Kai, Halt, Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon, Wally West, Felicity Smoak, Sophie, Dex, Fitz, Kefee, and Biana...Okay I’m stopping now! (okay but Alden too...and Elwin...and like...okay I love a lot of KoltC characters...xD)

What I’m wearing right now: Umm, my church shirt, khaki pants, fuzzy purple socks, and my brown jacket

When I made this blog: October 20th, 2013, I only know cause I made a post the day I made it xD

How many blogs I follow: 132

Posts:....206,009....dude...I don’t even...that’s a lot...xD

What do I post about: Lots of stuffs! Most recently Star Wars, but all of my fandoms really, and then some nature and faith things too ^^

When did your blog reach its peak: *shrugs* a few months ago I was getting like a lot of new followers but I don’t know? xD

Why did you choose your URL: I watched a movie called Ace of Hearts, I thought Aceofstars sounded cool, so that was my username on howrse and mweor. When I joined dA, that username was already taken, I added the 16 cause it’s my favorite number, and now I use it for like...everything...xD

Bonus question: If you are transported to the world of the book you are reading now, where would you be? Keeper of the Lost Cities world yaaass!!!! I mean technically it’s still our world? But with like, lots of cool lost cities and elves with cool powers and HEY I could be friends with Sophie and her friends! Even though I’m older than all of them....I SHALL PROTECT Y’ALL! Even though...they would do a better job of protecting themselves then I could...xD

Okay...that was long....NEXT TAG! xD

Tagged by @buurd

1. How old are you? 20, but I feel like I’m still 16ish...xD

2. What’s your current job? Ummm, student, occasional petsitter and fanfiction writer...even though I don’t get paid for that last one...xD

3. What are you talented at? Drawing and writing? 

4. What is a big goal you are working towards (or have already achieved)? I don’t know, finish school I guess? I also want to finally rework my novel and write a rough draft for it and one day publish it. And I have some longer fanfics I want to write and stuff, and continue to improve my writing and drawing? Also, get my license....you know why I’m adding this Buurd...xD

5. What’s your aesthetic? I love a looot, but my main ones are the stars, the ocean (particularly pictures inside waves as they are starting to fall), autumn, and anything blue, but I like a lot of other things too xD 

6. Do you collect anything? DUDE I collect movie tickets too! (though I may not have a place to keep them if I get a new itouch case cause that’s where I’m keeping them all...or a lot of them atm) And also stickers and socks...xD

7. What’s a topic you always talk about? Star Wars Rebels...and other various fandoms and my OCs

8. What’s a pet peeve of yours? I know one, I thought of another one a while ago...but I can’t remember...so, when people just stand behind me and watch when I’m on the computer...xD

9. Good advice to give? Go to sleep when you are tired...like...really, I was exhausted yesterday and I just kept not going to bed...also try your best not to procrastinate, reward yourself when you get something done if you need the motivation (even if it’s something small). I need to like...take my own advice..xD

10. What are three songs you’d recommend? “How Far I’ll Go” by Auli'i Cravalho (because MOANA), “Little Do You Know” by Alex and Sierra (I blame that SWR music video for my love of this song...xD) and “Be Here Long” by NEEDTOBREATHE (or “Great Night” if you want something super upbeat)