#emphasis on not all fun music has to be poetic to be good

[jewishbarbies]

“not all music needs to be analytical or poetic, it can just be fun, and that doesn’t make it inherently mediocre.” needs to be learned again. you can just listen to music because it’s fun. not all fun music has to be poetic or a Shakespearean monologue with background music for you to listen to it or call it good. learn to be secure in your music taste and understand that it’s okay and not an insult to you if someone else has different preferences.

[dojae-huh]

‘Does anyone listen to Korean pop-rock and soloists?’

Hmm imo for the songs with rock genre in the album, they do have doyoung colors except for little light. Little light brings a lot of lucy’s vibe (a bit too much? Haha) and jpop-rock. Dallas love field and lost in california could be the one that has doyoung’s color the most. I don’t think there are a lot of similar songs like dlf and lic before in k- rock/ k-band and they fit doyoung very well. For ballad and rnb, I don’t listen to them much but beginning should have doyoung colors right? Hehe idk.

But te whole album does show doyoung signature. Should i say, the writing, storytelling or massage is the strongest in this album. It feels complete. The way he arrange the list and the way he tells the story of each song, that is what i see most prominent in this album. The poetic lyrics, like not a lot of korean knows the word ‘pomal’. The sound is maybe not strongly doyoung yet, but the writing, yes.

Of course, that’s just opinion based on first impression because he never revealed his music before. I think for me to really see his color, i need to wait 2nd or 3rd release. And doyoung has never really revealed a lot about the kind of music he wanna do before this album right? We only caught a glimpse from his song recommendation. Hmm doyoung’s sound is still quite hard to grasp for me compared to jaehyun.

oh btw. I might be biased when i say little light doesn’t sound strongly like doyoung cuz i also listen to lucy quite a lot😅. After a while, it sounds a bit more like him. But first listen definitely sounds like lucy minus string instrument sound (lucy has a member who plays viola/ violin? I can’t remember which)

---------

Thank you for the answer.

Doyoung was afraid that the fans won't accept the shift in his image easily, the first solo album was a dare on itself to begin with, so I wouldn't expect a completely new sound anyway. Do doesn't risk like that. However, Doyoung recently said he would like to stand out, bring something of his own to the table, and he always said he strives to be remembered years later and be recognised right away. So the motivation to have unique sound is present. It will take time to find it, however. Doyoung is not Taeyong, not a fountain of creativity. The way he described why Beginning was accepted when his previous lyrics were denied by SM tells me he uses logic, not feelings to come up with ideas. Concept - first, needed emotions and words - second. If Tae presents his feelings, Doyoung presents his thoughts. I guess it's also why he is good with arrangement of music. It's a similar way of adding to and bettering something that already exists.

People like what's familiar, it's risky to present something that needs digestion right away. Both songs you found in "Do's style" were placed at the end, after the more Disney and Korean style songs.

I think one thing is already can be written as Do's signature - the addition of his own backvocals. Few artists do it (it's a separate skill, plus additional recording time). And on this album all songs had them.

Doyoung always talked about liking band-music, Korean music and putting emphasis on lyrics and storytelling in songs. And he likes transitions to big notes. Almost all his covers with MVs have them. He also likes "fun" songs, playful ones, with sause, but he seldom covers them (one can tell by how giddy he gets singing those).

[solarissantaella]

2023 Update

I don’t want to make any big, sweeping promises about what I’m going to do with this blog moving forward because odds are, I won’t follow through with them, but I did want to give y’all an update on where I’m at writing-wise and in life. 

I recently got accepted to Western Colorado University’s publishing master’s program, and I start classes this summer, which I’m super excited about! It’s a very new program (I’m going to be in the fifth cohort), and it puts a lot of emphasis on practical experience, meaning I’ll get to jointly edit an anthology and independently publish a reprint of a book in the public domain while I’m there. I think that second project in particular will give me really useful experience in terms of self-publishing. While I think I could have some success via traditional publishing, I’d love to self-publish some smaller projects, like a chapbook, maybe. It could be a fun experiment, if nothing else. 

I more or less took December off in terms of original writing (filling out grad school applications as well as completing NaNoWriMo burnt me out pretty hard), although I did work on some smaller projects. The only ones worth mentioning would be the two songs I wrote for Csillo-Alexandra Domingue, an indie pop artist and good friend of mine. (The song I linked to here uses lyrics I wrote around a year and a half ago since the ones with the lyrics I wrote last month are still being produced). 

Her music deals with themes of mental health and alienation in an ultimately uplifting and affirming way, which makes writing for her a bit of a challenge, as my natural creative impulses tend to draw me in darker directions. I would say they’re more in line with the tone of Francisca and the Forgotten rather than Lemon Squares in All Dimensions or the chaotic, fragmentary poems I’ve shared here before. I actually wrote a poem for a friend who suffered a recent tragedy just last night, but since I’m waiting to share it with her until she’s in a better place, it doesn’t seem right to share here just yet. 

I’ve been meaning to get back to finishing Lemon Squares in All Dimensions, which still has a ways to go, even with what I accomplished during NaNoWriMo. Most of the major scenes are there, but they’re missing the connective tissue necessary to hold them together. I’ve been putting off filling in the gaps because what I really need to do is read through the whole thing and find out which parts, exactly, I need to go back and add in, and I’m kind of dreading having to confront my own writing. I’m worried I’m going to get too caught up in that to actually complete a draft before going in for a more thorough edit, but we’ll see. 

As for this blog-- I’ll try to update more, but who knows. I at least want to get back in the habit of sharing quotes that I like from whatever I’m reading-- if nothing else, I like having a little virtual archive for myself-- and I’ve been in a more poetic mood lately, so I might share some smaller things here and there while I put off dealing with Lemon Squares in All Dimensions.

[stefankarlfanblog]

Looks aren't everything

Original article written for Dagblaðið by Halldóra Friðjónsdóttir on the 28th of December 2001: https://timarit.is/page/3026234?iabr=on#page/n0/mode/1up

It is just over 100 years since Edmond Rostand shot to stardom in France with his play about Cyrano from Bergerac, which premiered at the National Theater on Christmas Eve. The work is to some extent true, because Cyrano the Great-Nosed and the Warrior was actually alive and well at the same time as Rostand's work, or in the first half of the seventeenth century. The play was very well received and its popularity was remarkable in light of how different it was from the realistic works that were considered the most remarkable at the time. An attempt was made to dissect the contemporary in the most natural speech, but Rostand captivated the audience for centuries and drew a picture of a hero who was ready to sacrifice everything for love.

The play is restricted and the text is considered romantic, poetic and hilarious at the same time. Kristján Árnason discusses all of this in his successful translation, and it must therefore be considered somewhat unfortunate how poorly the text performs to the audience. It did not help that in some places he was almost suffocated in music. Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson has composed beautiful and moving music that still sounds inside you when the show is over, but obviously the music should not compete with the lyrics to the attention of the audience.

In fact, the whole setting of this installation is exceptionally beautiful, whether it is music, costumes, set design or lighting. Finnur Arnar Arnarsson uses the circle in a fun way and the bridge, which is the center of gravity in the play, changes role in each scene, as does the ever-changing background. The carpentry of an otherwise simple set makes Björn Bergstein Guðmundsson's mysterious lightwork, which could have been brighter in parts.

Cast list

Most of the actors perform with great splendor, but it was clear that the style of play played in their mouths differently. in some cases the emphasis on the rhymes became embarrassingly noticeable, but fortunately the main actors got a good grip on this difficult text. The first to be mentioned is Cyrano himself, played by Stefán Karl Stefánsson. The role is tailored for Stefán because he is particularly good at interpreting characters who show emotion with great dexterity. Cyrano is imaginative but also pitiful and comical and Stefán gets this well across to the audience. Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir played the lead role in the role of the romantic Roxana, who discovers far too late that she has directed her love at the wrong man. What she sees in Christian, who is rather colorless and dull in the treatment of Rúnar Freyr Gíslason, is actually difficult for me to understand, but that is a different story.

He has the wits - She has two very different suitors - He has the looks Stefán Karl in the role of Cyrano - Nanna Kristín Magnúsdótti in the role of Roxana - Rúnar Freyr Gíslason in the role of Christian (Photos credited to Hari)

Other actors include Sigurður Sigurjónsson who created a fun-loving type for Ragueneau the master baker, Linda Ásgeirsdóttir who made a considerable assessment of the role of the maid of Roxana and Pálmi Gestsson who played the jealous and vengeful Antoine de Guiche. Other actors were in many roles and all had their good runs. The group scenes were particularly well executed and it is safe to say that Hilmar Jónsson did well in this first project at the National Theater. It is again a question of what message this romantic love story has for us, but perhaps the message that appearance is not all necessary and is a reminder of the age of youth and beauty worship.

Halldóra Friðjónsdóttir

The National Theater performs on the big stage: Cyrano from Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Translation: Kristján Árnason. Music: Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson. Music performance: Rússíbanar. Fencing: Seppi Kumpulainen. Lighting: Björn Bergsteinn Guðmundsson. Costumes: Þórunn María Jónsdóttir. Casting: Finnur Arnar Arnarsson. Directed by: Hilmar Jónsson.

Upcoming to DV

The man behind the nose

in Helgarblaði DV tomorrow is a detailed interview with Stefán Karl Stefánsson who plays the large nosed Cyrano de Bergerac in the National Theater's Christmas play. Stefán has become one of the nation's most popular actors in a surprisingly short time and shares with readers his views and experiences of love. The paper also includes an interview with Árni Sigfússon about his new projects in the field of politics, but he will probably be the next mayor of Reykjanesbær. Furthermore, the year that is passing is discussed in detail and its various events are recounted in words and pictures, fun and real.

(Note: you can read that interview here)

[itscinnafox]

STORY NOTES [akafuri] : By The Next Sunrise

Because I had sooooo much fun doing this with a friend (@miss-cactus) :] (also being the first collab' work that's posted) and had a lot of messy notes and drafts, it's just so precious to me not to ramble about it >w< also plenty of fun times in just 2 and half months despite life biting my ass at the same time, totally my stress relief lol. Also, this story really isn't just some cheesy stuff for the sake of romance. It's genuine love (੭ ˃̣̣̥ ω˂̣̣̥)੭ु⁾⁾

Read the story here in AO3 Summary: On the way to his brother’s house, the spring showers had begun again. With an open palm, he let it collect the cold showers and let it flow out from the cups of his palm. They were chilly despite the warming sun, he looked up at the sky, and wondered what the rain would be like in other parts of the world. Furihata smiled. He would find out. Perhaps by one of the next sunrises.

.☆ﾟ.☆ﾟ.☆ﾟ.☆ﾟ.☆ﾟ.☆ﾟ. Rambles undercut ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭✧ .☆ﾟ.☆ﾟ.☆ﾟ.☆ﾟ.☆ﾟ.☆ﾟ.

FIRSTLY, @miss-cactus has all my gratitude ♡(ŐωŐ人) without her; AkaFuri will be stranded in France LOL! Seriously, I'll just dump them in some random village in France and just maybe not even finish this story at all even. The time she took to find me a place, translate, edits and also judging me for my description of the place LOL yep... total life saver. With her help it really motivated and inspired me a lot! She's the oil to my car............. you get the idea :] .

BONUS, she's also a translator and translated many amazing works, basically a deity, breathing life back into them. Also, she has original works too :D check 'em out, it's cute! It's in French, but they're easily translated, she's that good! (๑>◡<๑) her AO3

WEIRD FACT, I also had a short break up with my boyfriend of 7 years while writing this. LOL. I was so upset but I got motivated by the similarities, that when he asked for us back I was like 'But-but the similarities though!' but I love him....bleeegh. So I said yes, and we're better than before. YAY!

๑ Story Base ๑ The idea popped when I was listening to 'The sun after washed by spring rain' by Wang Lee Hom on a rainy day on my day off, and florist Akashi just looks so beautiful lol and the rest just came up.... and I really wanted this vibe for AkaFuri something incredibly soft and warm~ just cozy >w< huehue~

This story sets in Spring, spring here, spring there~ Spring is the breath of new life, basically Furi's story lol.

I was also aiming for this story to be short and a bit poetic...... LOL then 11k words later I just gave up and was like: well, if AkaFuri wanna romance then who are we to say no? (Akashi will shave my hair in my sleep lol)

๑ Playlist ๑ Play on Youtube The playlist is by order according to each part within the story. I really love to ramble about this since music is my inspiration for a lot of things and the vibe of the whole premise, section of their development and perspectives.

☆ 11 : 11 by Taeyeon Introducing Furihata's little sob lol and Furi's perspective. After Furihata breaks up with his girlfriend (who again, have no significant in his life what so ever), he goes through the phase on moving forward. It really isn't him moving forward with his feelings for her though, it's just him moving forward from the familiarity of being with her in his life. With her gone, he finally reconnects with who he is, like in this passage : "However, somehow with just a fling of his bag onto the island top threw him years back. He has not always been this tidy and clean." Furihata had basically lived his life to accommodate to those around him. (I wanna stress that Furi wasn't forced into a relationship or was it abusive. It was just a relationship with someone whom Furi had no infatuation for. It just so happens she wanted to date him after the wintercup, and Furi is just like 'yea ok?' but really he didn't exactly thought it through.)

So this is where Furihata moves on from the familiarity. He cries because they dated lol, but really he's just confuse.

☆ The Sun After Washed By Spring Rain by Wang Lee Hom Exactly one year after Furi's break-up. The source of this story idea lol. Also, Furi's perspective. The title and the song is literally what it meant; the sun after the spring rain which brings in new beginnings. I present you, this passage of the story: "Instead, with an open palm, he let it collect the cold showers and let it flow out from the cups of his palm. They were chilly despite the warming sun, he looked up at the sky, and wondered what the rain would be like in other parts of the world."

☆ Reunite by Jordie Power I present you, when Akashi appeared and Furihata's crush on Akashi just awakened and go haywire LOL! In this AU, Furihata has genuine feelings for Akashi. They were long time friends, and there were even a few emphasis of their friendship through high school but because Furihata has a girlfriend and Akashi respected that (although most times, in my brain, is just Akashi crying to Kuroko LOL!)

☆ Passage by Miyano Mamoru Furihata and Akashi's similarities. The song is basically about finding yourself as you age, the experiences you go through as you age (i'm 27 and i'm still confuse lol) Even though this story focuses on Furihata a lot and little less on Akashi except for little hints here and there, Akashi was just as lost as Furihata.

Random thought (as I type this), my boyfriend had told me this before "Even though we don't need each other, and do well on our own. We have friends but it's so different. Is just something different to have someone you love around, so to an extend, I really do need you and to share everything with you, it really makes me happy." it really is something different to have someone by your side especially when you found someone. (p/s: you definitely don't need to be in a relationship to feel complete. you complete yourself okay? :3) Furi and Akashi have been in-love since high-school, they have accomplished a lot on their own but in a passage, they both felt lost and felt like something was 'empty' that was because they were still in-love, and they met each other and truly want to spend their life together and share everything.

☆ Moonlight by Miyano Mamoru Mmmmmm~ the juice. This is Akashi's perspective when he wants to romance Furihata (∗ᵕ̴᷄◡ᵕ̴᷅∗)՞ and of course, sneakily confesses to him. OH MY GOODNESS! THIS IS LITERALLY THE PART THAT I'VE BEEN DYING FOR! and wrote it sooooo many times. I wanted it steamy and a little desperate after their long pent-up-frustration unprofessed love, without making it 'explicit' kind of way. So I hope I captured it right lolol.

☆ Make Me Love You by Taeyeon Furihata's feelings towards Akashi. I was pondering on a song that would fit Furihata's pull towards Akashi and how Akashi makes him feel every time. No other songs seems to feel like then I was randomly humming to this song while I was working and this is perfect! Also, a wonderful vibe.

I think it has been emphasised a lot on how Furihata reacts to Akashi, how he blushes like crazy, how he also subconsciously wants Akashi to make him fall in love with him. Because deep down, as again, Furihata genuinely loves Akashi but he was never daring enough to do it and since Akashi had never showed any indication, so Akashi had to confess in order for Furihata to be brave enough to smack their lips together to confess too.

☆ Je Fais De Toi Mon Essentiel by Emmanuel Moire Infinitely bless @miss-cactus (and her naughty brother lol) for this! This is song is seriously sooooo beautiful ;w; I don't care if reader's don't listen to the playlist, but OH MY GOD! If nobody had listened to this, is seriously missing out. (just as a song in general is beautiful) and the lyrics are just akjsfhakjsfhaf AKASHI'S WORDS! In Akashi's perspective and the song that Akashi sang to when they were in the car, and Cactus chose the perfect line for it ;w;

This song basically concludes everything!!! From their feelings for each other since high-school and all the way until the day they die! It's basically everything I wanted this story to be about, just their pure love for one another and to share their happiness together ;w;

Also, I want to point out in regards of Furihata's decision on staying in France. It's really not just a spontaneous and reckless decision lol. As stated and shown in the story, Furihata is somewhat a successful person with a career, but Furihata has other passion and interest which he seemed to enjoy doing which is photography and Akashi notices this. Even though with a career, at a time some will have a change of heart. So if Furi wants to stay in France with Akashi, he has thought it through enough, and can afford to even live by even without Akashi's money lolol. ๑ Premises ๑ Cactus, without her, AkaFuri will be hobos. I . AM . NOT . KIDDING ! She just whip out the map of France and pin point me to everything! I didn't ask for that but her soul is made from angel clay and she showed me this beautiful town, and I am floored! I didn't feel that much motivation and inspiration before o(≧∇≦o)

So why not Paris? XD 1, I didn't want Paris, I wanted a natural, country/cottage vibe and not the city. 2, proven by Cactus, "actual paris : if you want a cup of coffee you have to give up your wife and your 2 children bc it's way too expensive" (XD actually there's more but those parts are only between us lol) 3, I want to pull Akashi from his usual portrayal of rich and luxurious life style. I mean.... he's still rich, just not lavish in that lifestyle. In here, Akashi's basically bare as a canvas, and painting it on his own. 4, I google mapped Paris.... and if anything, Akashi and Furihata will probably get run over by traffic LOLOL! 5, we hate the crowds lolol and we'd do anything to drown the citizens for AkaFuri to be alone. I'm not even gonna be discreet about this xD.

☆ Mornac-Sur-Seudre This main village, is the most beautiful town picked by Cactus. It's not so 'in the face' although not so splashed in a lot of colours (except for the oyster huts), it is a very vibrant village. We totally fell in love with it. It's quiet, and not a lot of villagers, so it's perfect for AkaFuri to have their stroll hand in hand (人 •͈ᴗ•͈) They're also very famous for their oysters LOL! So yeah..... Akashi fed Furi oysters.... because....it's yummy.... LOL! Video reference here. There's another beautiful video but I can't find it no more. ;; Other references; here, here and here.

☆ Seagull Train Furihata loves train (and so do I) and since the train exists here! WHY THE HELL NOT?! I really love writing this part! I fell in love with the department Cactus picked and everything was so perfect and beautiful. Pictures and videos of it was just so breath taking ;w; and it's a steam train! I've never ride one before, but I have been into exhibits in the train museum. The smell is amazing lol. It's like sniffing my humidifier......but bigger.

This is the train I had saw mostly from it. the 030 T 3 from 1891. It's still operational so choo-choo!!! they go!

Video reference ; here Train reference; here, here Other references; here, here, here and here.

☆ Saintes & Royan These two towns are what's closest to Mornac. I didn't have much on Royan because Saintes had a beautiful charm, so this is where they would have their wonderful date <3 and talk a little bit about their feelings.

Cactus correcting me on the description on the city as I just woke up from my sleep, is seriously a way to wake up in the morning at 5am XD LOLOL!!

There's a few churches too, and has an interesting history from the Roman empire :D really intriguing.

The bridge where they have their little confession in high-school (◡‿◡✿)

This video here, absolutely pretty!

☆ Akashi's Floristry; Fleurs d’acacia Cactus picked out the most beautiful name! "So either L’acacia (just the tree) or Fleurs d’acacia (acacia flowers)" The Acacia because it rhymes with Akashi's name : Aca - as in 'Aka' in Akashi. Ci - as in sea...because they're near the ocean. A - as in....... h(a)m because Cactus said so... and I can't even disagree because it's where Furi getting some of those..... meat....because Akashi's ham.....like his meat.......y'know..... We're very dignified ( ᵘ ᵕ ᵘ ⁎)

The design of Akashi's 3 story shop/studio/apartment..... I really don't have any reference, it's all in the head LOLOL! Akashi basically lives in simplicity, his shop all on the ground floor, and the second floor is his art studio where paints and do whatever he wants. Finally the third floor is where he stays, it was wasn't very detailed but it's very spacious and cozy >w<!

☆ The Drive-in theatre Bruuuuuh......the confession is the thing! Akashi sneaking in his opportunity to confess. What more is there need to be said? AkaFuri : mlemlemlemlemlemlemlemlem~

Ohh~ Akashi's pretty Bentley of course.

☆ The Landes The finale of their romance ❀.(*´◡`*)❀. I think we all know what a Volkswagen van looks like LOL! And they had the funky in the van and Akashi took Jean's advice with the bamboo charcoal.

Cactus showed this pretty place and I'm just ヽ(；▽；)ノ

Of course I'd really like to say it again. Furihata's decision to stay with Akashi was really not for the sake of a 'happy ending' or so. They've had deep feelings for each other since high-school and bonded closely, but Akashi didn't show any indication of romantic interest out of respect for Furihata's relationship, and Furihata knowing nothing about Akashi's mutual feelings just kept his feelings to himself. As told by the story, Furihata has a career and stable income. But even though his life is dandy in Tokyo with his job, that doesn't mean it's something he wants to keep pursuing or maintain, as we age, we search for something else to add into our experience. Not to say that we're forever unsatisfied, it's just how life is. We accomplish something, and we move on to another thing, and then another and another. It's really something beautiful about it, and life's just us exploring :] In Akashi and Furihata's case, is that they've already have what they wanted, a life of their own, choosing their own path and what they don't have was each other and now that they've bonded and opened up themselves, they can finally pursue another beautiful life together (>*^▽^*<)

๑ Book, Night on the Galactic Railway by Kenji Miyaza ๑ This is a real book. Also, my favourite! There is an anime as well, but if anyone wants the PDF feel free to drop me a DM and I'll give it to ya'.

In here, the story of the galactic railway impacted their lives a little bit differently. With Akashi the loss of his mother and Furihata to live the last adventure before death.

It is shown they have extreme love for this book, and it really is a beautiful book and there's just endless things to talk about, as it is place in an infinite travel of the train through the galaxy, meeting new people, seeing new things, the mysteries of stories and making meaningful relationship despite never being able to see them again.

The sentiment of Giovanni and Campanella is also similar to Akashi and Furihata. Before anything else, they want to have their adventure together before eventually parting their ways (and i really mean, until death do them apart.)

๑ Other Juices ๑ There some nitty stuff that aren't just there for show xD Well, kind of but there's some sentiments and stuff so...

☆ The Sunflower Maybe because I'm bias to sunflowers LOL! But Furihata is pretty with yellow! Sunflowers with darker brown florets are absolutely beautiful. The pendent I had in mind was literally the one I had when I was a kid (but I donno it's gone now lol). I googled other sunflower pendent but it's ugleh...

It associates with the theme of this story which is 'Sunrise' as in new beginnings, Furihata's fresh start to pursuing the person he actually loves.

Sunflowers also grow towards the sun. They radiate pure joy and positivity. They also symbolise unwavering faith and unconditional love; which is AkaFuri's undying love here despite the years.

Sunflowers are also given to show their deepest to the person, so Akashi gift him a sunflower :3 also because Furi looks pretty in yellow, fight me.

In chinese myth, sunflower are best for business... So with Furi around, Akashi's business will bloom LOLOL!

Funfact: In greek myth, a nymph named Clytie fell deeply in love Apollo, god of the sun. Although Clytie was beautiful by nymph standards, Apollo did not reciprocate her feelings, or acknowledge it. (except Akashi appreciates Furi's love okay?) After days of hopeless devotion, the nymph then transformed herself into a sunflower and constantly turned towards the sun so she could always be with the one she loved (Furihata's chasing sunrises because Akashi is there ok?).

☆ The Happy Street Cats :D This is actually a real book I have, a gift by my teacher before I leave S.Korea. The passage idiom is extracted by this page as well.

The front cover of the book is also yellow.

Yellow : Sunrise + Sunflower.

There's so much yellow in this story LOL!

☆ The Movie Cactus : Idol movie Me : *internal screaming* I swear we are always soooooooo close to making this whole thing crack XD

This scene is a real brain wreck lololol. (Still contemplating if it was romantic enough)

☆ Akashi's Florist number I extracted that number from an oyster restaurant LOLOL! Thankfully Cactus changed it.... we were planning on a crack bonus in which, Furihata orders oysters before calling Akashi.

It didn't happen. But if it did.

Furihata will order some oysters. And not regret it.

*Akashi judging*

☆ French Dialogues + Akashi teaching Furihata French Bless Cactus, she's my happiness now. I have no idea how many weird noises were coming out from our mouths just to understand how the French consonant 'R' sounds like to put it into words LOL! XD Without her, it'd be a disaster.

We were looking at other romantic phrases and found the perfect one ;w;

“Je suis ton bonheur.” means "I am your happiness" (oh god, google translate voice just keeps playing in my head LOLOL! help) Which, what else can be said? LOL Akashi's happy ok? Since this story is from Furihata's perspective, I really wanted to put him into the spot of being a foreigner (he speaks english and mandarin lolol just clueless in French, because Akashi is supposed to guide him). So while Cactus work her magic, being the Akashi to my Furihata. I tried to emphasis a lot on the characters expression etc, at least to indicate of what was going on....tbh even I forgot what they were saying. *just as clueless as Furi and Cactus cackling somewhere.

Everything in here is just Cactus being amazing ;w; and pure patience LOLOL!

๑ Side Characters ๑

☆Shérine ............ We butchered the original female side. Her name was Camille.... but I was sooo tempted to name it after *coouugh* :] because it's pretty. Also her hair was blond with hazel-green eyes.... yea we buried her.

Shérine wins now... Shérine is life.

Shérine will be in their wedding.

☆Jean Kirstein (of AOT) It's JEAN! ...........someone gotta tease Akashi with no filter.

(ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ FINAL NOTES

The last section when Furihata wakes up and makes his decision, believe it or not, I was in the bus. While typing to Cactus, I was literally shaking in the bus and my eyes stung because of dust and I was in tears. I was between crying and laughing. Finished it at home ;w; Cactus was such a darling through it all.

I really had fun writing this with Cactus ;w; she's the best!!!!!!! And hopefully we'll make some crack stuff because we're hooligans like that XD.

:D BYE!

[theelliottsmiths]

Could you please liveblog the making of Amerika?

Yes

I'm anticipating complaining about the penis zip guy already

Did you know that for a long time as a child I thought the English version was the real version? Cause I did

The bit where they're putting the paint on their faces is weirdly cute even though Richard looks kind of silly

Flake grow out your long hair pleaseee just like. A cute little bob again. I would listen to him talk for hours honestly I like the way he pronounced the words and his tone language doesn't matter

You can always tell by how he holds his face vs his eyes when he's joking "that's what this song is for: to sneak ourselves into their hearts" i feel like they have done that pretty well. For some reason it seems like most of the American fans are from the Midwest but maybe that's just coincidence

Rammstein saying they have no message except "Fleisch, Fleisch" or "ja" or "ich will" I forgot this entire thing is ceaseless dunking and sarcasm

i like the sounds he makes like the. There's a name for them what is it. The noises you make between words for emphasis etc? Those

"America was so fucking annoying we felt the need to call them out on it"

Oli talks a little like he's trying not to yawn. Them saying the war was on while they were in the practice room is strange considering how long the various wars had been going on just from like a born in the late 90s living in 2020 perspective

Ah yes you really were. So subtle. It's very. Clever many double meanings

"sehr gut, Till". :).

The sehnsucht thing tickles me so much he starts off by saying yes it's better to leave things up for interpretation and naturally my brain assumes he means the well thought out probably not true but poetic stuff, right, and then he goes on to say Americans thought sehnsucht was chainsaw and I cannot

The knife also is good.

In a way Amerika as a video is a precursor Ausländer and I like seeing how it compares because its

AS I WAS TYPING THAT OLI SAID THE WORD AUSLÄNDER

Oli does not seem happy to have his words captured At All

I wonder how many people did the Deutschland thing and went straight to saying it's racist without thinking through the reasons behind what they were doing (at least in part criticising American racism) I'm pretty sure l've seen someone complain about it somewhere like it was serious, I think on Reddit around the time the Ausländer Making of came out? Which is why I bring it up

"we wanted to make it clear that it wasn't a love song so these lyrics are perfect" Till: literally just saying this is not a love song

I would like to see them perform a cheer in proper cheerleader costumes instead of the uncomfy stickman Deutschland dance that makes me cringe my skeleton right out of my skin in 2021 please

The juxtaposition of Richards pro-america comments and flakes sarky comments about how nice the urinals are is so reminiscent of that post that's like America where freedom is the choice between thirty kinds of bread that you can't afford to buy

I was going to make a Regan's grave joke but I do prefer to keep that one for Margaret Thatchers grave

I like schneiders hair at this length

Schneiders capacity to oscillate so wildly between being a vacant dumbass and saying intelligent and thought out things is ceaselessly amazing

Saying it's hard because "it's like a punk concert for them" Jörn my guy my dude almost all of them were in punk bands I just checked and this was 2004 Feeling b only broke up in the 90s do you literally just mean Oli (I do not remember if there was any punk going on in the Inchtabokatables) or

Schneider is making it look so easy was he truly just so -_- about feeling b that he can be completely calm in the face drumming that fast? Cause we know usually his fast drumming involves screaming faces and or actual screaming I swear he does and it's just not hearable under the music sidenote he sings along sometimes and if he does it out loud I NEED to hear it

Richard when it's slowed down looks uh. Looks like he's eh. Hm. Is that the real reason people are so into guitarists?

I don't know which part of the sentence Glasses Paul says in that louder voice (schossen? Is he saying that/shot?) but I do like it if I knew more German I would take on way more Rammstein things as echoes you have no idea how much time I spend saying es reicht wenn hier so 'nen fleischfarbenen Draht lang legst which If that's wrong it's exactly what I was told he said so please correct it but it's not my fault unless you consider it my fault for not knowing enough German in which case it is my fault

But anyway yes hes Talking like its a museum tour and in his little glasses and shirt and everything he is totally playing the part of unhinged historian which is the best kind of historian honestly if you're going to be academic in nature you might as well be fucking mental

I want to know what vibes his speech gives off in German because to me he in English and German seems very theatrical in the way he talks? Including how much he rolls his rs it's very... Showy? But maybe not actually?

I forget how many videos Jörn has shot with them honestly

What do you do with this ash sand once your finished with? Some of them had kids I'd have taken it home and pretended it was real moon dust or something

They really go for it when they decide to do something like this and it really is admirable. It's rare they'll half-ass something and even when if feels like their director has they don't themselves

Richard looks very handsome in his space suit before they hang him up

Pretti

He looks like a marionette now nevermind

THIS FUCKER

I just. Do. Not. Enjoy this man I'm sorry to you and the mullet man I'm sure he's great but for fucks SAKE man he

TILL LITERALLY SAYS DONALD SUTHERLAND POINTS TO HIS DICK AND MIMES ZIPPING YOU KNOW WHAT HE'S FUCKING TALKING ABOUT SO WHY DO YOU LOOK SO CONFUSED

YOU TOLD HIM THE STORY YOU KNOW WHY HES SAYING DONALD SUTHERLAND AND POINTING TO HIS PENIS WHY ARE YOU SO GORMLESS

Look. I have nothing against Americans individually B is American Nick is American i love them dearly i know also other Americans a lot of you guys are Americans and I love you lots but here's the thing why are Americans like this

If it's not in English the brain turns off even if the context is obvious it's like when English people see Welsh/English signs and are so anti-welsh that they don't acknowledge that they're also in English and get angry that they don't know where they are

The sweetest little face though!

Softest boy ever besides Rosenrot Till

Till gets bored of the guy and decides to tell a story about a dick it's very him

This is the hair I think of when I think of Till this is the quintessential till haircut no?

God I do dislike this man

Tills voice is so so high here I adore him so completely it's so soft and high and the song is Not

If you're trying to learn how to say L sounds like a German I feel like richard is the easiest one to copy? Unless they're all weirdos and no other German says L sounds like that. Him and flake.

Flakes smile is more cheerful than Paul's there I said it

I know it's not foreshadowing but Jörn foreshadowing Ausländer

Richard talking about America's tendancy to exaggerate is really interesting since that's something the community as a whole seems to agree is a personality trait of his. They didn't fight, they almost broke up. He hates touring and yet he loves touring. Is that why he likes it there or is living there why he's like that?

Can you casually buy ten litres of orange juice? The boys are busy they cannot confirm and Google does not understand what I'm asking

Yeah Richard and Till, get closer

Knife

Schneiders handprint

I forgot about "there was a rumour in the DDR that America didn't exist" what is it with Germany and conspiracies about places not existing I'm there are tears in my eyes I genuinely I never watch this one flake is so fucking funny

Till talking pictures of the others

It's better than I give it credit for in my memory is there anything they've made that is in not a single way entertaining? I feel like no

Thank you for asking for this one it was every fun actually

[aiph-daicerandomstuff]

Da-iCE ARTICLE: [natalie] Da-iCE × HIGEDAN Fujiwara × s**t kingz, released a “contest song” to the world with a solid lineup (4/23/19) | CGM

With implied and literal translation. PM me for mistakes/errors. Please put proper credits if you use.

Da-iCE × HIGEDAN Fujiwara × s**t kingz, released a “contest song” to the world with a solid lineup

Da-iCE will release a new single "FAKE ME FAKE ME OUT" on April 24th. For their 5th anniversary of their debut, they have spent their days in 2018 busy with CD releases and touring nationwide. To certainly improve their skills and experience, they took their “next move” through the new song written by Fujiwara Satoshi (vocal, performer) of the Official HIGE DANdism. The 5 members, performing this contest song “FAKE ME FAKE ME OUT”, singing the story of an attraction between two people, in which the 4 members of the group s**t kingz that has overseen Da-iCE’s choreography many times before, have done the choreography altogether for the first time, demonstrate a dramatic dance performance using mic stands.

At the time of the release of their new piece that causes a lot of excitement everywhere, music natalie has conducted an interview with the 5 members of Da-iCE. We asked about the group’s current mood, and the strong feelings they put into the music.

1 Step Up BET Tour

--- Looking back, how does it feel going through the tour, releases, and Da-iCE 5th anniversary all at once?

Kudo Taiki: Last year, it was our first attempt to set the annual schedule in advance. I think it was a very interesting experiment. It was fun.

Hanamura Sota: However, the release of our third single (“Kumo o nuketa aozora”) was extended beyond schedule. It is a wedding song, and that’s why we released it before the good date for couples [to marry] (November 21)…

Taiki: It came out all right.

Wada Hayate: I think it was great.

Iwaoka Toru: Well, we planned it from the beginning… that’s because!

All: AHAHAHAHA (laughs)!

--- While you had encountered such unexpected thing (laughs), you had your nationwide tour FINAL “Da-iCE 5th Anniversary Tour -BET-” held in Osaka-jo Hall in January, at the start of the year. It was a long tour. What have you achieved from this?

Taiki: I think “the feeling of challenging new things” is the best I can think so far.

Ohno Yudai: As a group, I think it’s like “1 step up” for us. Since there are matured and sexy contents in our songs, the LIVE performances became natural as well.

Taiki: It suits our age.

Toru: It is also thanks to our director. But I think for me, the tour had the most solid concept we had so far. As for what has been done to the stage, to experience to stand on stage arm in arm for real, I think there were a lot of things that was changed from what everyone has thought about. Because it was a tour in which we had experienced a lot of hardships until the stage curtain opened, it caused us a lot of joy when it started. We had felt such drive from there. And so, it is such a lengthy moment for me, but it is also a tour, when it ended, I felt it right away.

Taiki: Toru also produced and went to the meetings with the filmmakers. He had never gone to that extent before. This time, he really talked with them immensely.

Toru: Well, I realized how difficult it was to describe in words the images I had in mind. I would say “I want to do this” but then I would think, even if I say it 100 times, I wonder if I had really delivered well what I wanted to say (laughs). I find it very difficult to do such things. That’s why, again, I realized that I have attained something and felt a sense of accomplishment when it was all made into reality.

It had made me stronger when I returned to Da-iCE

--- Having finished your 5th year anniversary with such a wave, with the announcement of the new single, first BEST album, and the next tour, it seems like you have experienced such busy days going to all places without having a break…

Taiki: It’s not exactly “to all places” (laughs). But there’s no kind of feeling “ah, finally the tour is over!”.

Toru: There’s no such feeling, yes. It’s just, before we know it, we have the next tour already.

Taiki: For now, we’re full of meetings for various activities.

Sota: Since we were allowed to do individual works at the start of this year, although we are busy with things during the production of our new projects; from here, we will not just give it a shot, instead, we will restart the engine once again as a 5-member group, Da-iCE. That’s the mode we’re all in now.

--- Does having each personal activity motivate you?

Sota: I think it does. To the extent,  we can now listen to Yudai-kun’s SOLO album (“Kono michi no saki ni”), Toru-kun is also doing something new, Hayate too, and then there’s this another project that Taiki-kun is doing in a difficult setting, such as being an older brother and being a little brother…

Taiki: Don’t call it a setting.

All: AHAHAHAHA (laughs)!

Sota: I want to check everything to have a comment on everything. All the four of them came to see my stage play (PHANTOM WORDS), and I want to thank them for that. They told me that “(at the time of the performance) Because it’s a long way run, don’t overwork yourself”. I was happy then.

Taiki: After all, I discovered something. When I was able to see Sota’s stage play, I learned about the difference between stage plays and LIVE performances. I guess, there are lots of things you won’t be able to understand without seeing those things for real.

Hayate: I think it was quite fun and enjoyable having to do the things we want to do as individual. I took it as a source of maturity within myself. I think it had made me stronger when I returned to Da-iCE.

 As when we got HIGEDAN-san, we felt “100% OKAY!”

--- Then now, please tell us about your new piece “FAKE ME FAKE ME OUT”. About the matter that this current piece is written and composed by Fujiwara Satoshi-san (vocal, performer) of Official HIGE DANdism, why did you do a collaboration with Fujiwara-san?

Taiki: Everyone likes HIGEDAN-san. And then, various opportunities came. Like the time when they came to my radio program (TBS Radio “TALK ABOUT”), or when we met in a LIVE event, something like that. Under those circumstances, they agreed to our offer, “We would like to work together”. It means so much. I didn’t expect it to come to reality.

--- So far, Da-iCE has many choices, selecting songs through competition. So, this time, is this your first time approaching the writer?

Yudai: As we were searching for new things and challenges, it just happened we felt like asking for one.

Taiki: And, much better if we could ask for the writings of HIGEDAN-san.

--- What are the points that made you like HIGEDAN-san?

Sota: The vocals, the lyrics and melody they make, and their performances are cool. They are beyond genres. I really like their music. Also, I feel honesty and soul in their songs. I feel at ease listening to them. Their R&B style, their refreshing band, their catchy songs, and lyrics are very poetic. I just like everything.

Taiki: When we were talking on the radio, I discovered that the music they’ve been listening to are similar to what I like. HIGEDAN-san is a band, but they also come with R&B, hip-hop, and such, and so, we were also able to talk like “This song is a tribute to that song by Michael Jackson”. They said that it might be different to be in a dance and vocal group. I told them, it is not that different, there are many things in common as well.

--- I see.

Taiki: When we decided to ask someone for a song, there were a lot of factors we put in consideration. We don’t know if it would really work well, but we all wanted to do it because it seemed interesting, and so we went for it. As when we got HIGEDAN-san, we all felt “100% OKAY!” We’ve been given a song that has perfectly hit all the factors we laid. At the end, we got that song. I am truly grateful.

With my all, I will do it even if it is difficult

--- How did you feel when you first listened to the song?

Taiki: It was great listening to its DEMO.

Sota: I was like “I’m speechless here”.

--- For Yudai-san and Sota-san, how was it when Da-iCE vocals were put into the song in the recording?

Yudai: I can usually imagine how the song would be with my voice on it, but when I listened to the DEMO, I couldn’t imagine my voice that much. I found the climax of the song difficult to imagine. When I was singing, I tried paying attention to the parts I felt a bit being superseded, such as sexy and act-cool parts. I couldn’t process the ending “straight” and “clean”. It’s a little difficult to express it in words. It was difficult to imagine my voice in my head.

Sota: I focused on the rhythm. I told myself to make it short, to sing it one by one, and bring out the rhythm firmly. Since Fujiwara-san sings with emphasis on the rhythm, I was careful, telling myself that “If I stretch it too much it would break the song”. I used staccato while putting intonation and formed the song with that style.

--- It gets more exciting towards the end and gets more interesting on the last part, with Sota-san’s high-pitched tone which rose up to 3 levels.

Sota: The staff instructed me to “to put fake [to improvise a melody line, especially on high-pitched challenging passage] on the last climax”. When I tried it for a while, I was told, “It was nice, but we want a little more impact”. Therefore, for that, I have no choice but to give my all!!”

--- Delivering it would be extreme.

Taiki: It’s great to give your all, although you should always give your all, but it would be hard since you must do it in one shot every time from now on (laughs).

Sota: I agree. From now on, I must give my all!

Taiki: Yes, on that song which you will sing a hundred times in the future, you will give your all in one shot EVERY SINGLE TIME (laughs).

Sota: Yes, I would have to. When I was recording, I stood up and sung, so that I could reach it. Even when I sung it about 3 takes, it felt like it’s all good, but when I tried it while dancing, it was kind of difficult. The staff said to me, “It’s okay to change the way you sing on LIVEs”. But, if I don’t do it during LIVE for real, I think the fans would say “Why so?!”, wouldn’t they?

Toru: We want to listen to them.

Sota: With my all, I will do it even if it is difficult (laughs).

I want to yell out and say, “That is really amazing!?”

Yudai: It is difficult, really. For the recordings, of course, I prepared my throat. To spice up and make it good, I stood up and sung. When I listened to the takes, I knew that it was something the fans would look forward to. I knew it myself that it was a good one from that point…

Sota: You wanted to do it.

Yudai: Yes, I would like to give it a go if I could.

Sota: On the part “Yeah, yeah, yeah, ohohoh”, I was singing the extreme way I was singing the highest note in “Koigokoro”; on this part, Yudai-kun was faking the outro. But why was it easy for him? Even though it was a difficult part, it was hard to distinguish because it sounded the same…

All: AHAHAHAHA! (laughs)

Sota: I wanted to yell out and say, “That is really amazing!?”

Taiki: And yet, we were dancing that part in oto-HAME [moving to the rhythm and beat, as precise as the sound dictates] …

Sota: I can’t change the way I sing! (laughs)

All: AHAHAHAHA! (laughs)

Yudai: No, I told the staff about it, on the day the dance was introduced to us. They also said to me, “You may change the way you sing on LIVE shows.”

Toru: There are various things to be considered such as physical conditions.

Yudai: I was thinking of a different strategy to use on LIVEs.

Taiki: It’s faking you see.

Yudai: If we try to put the dance, you’d discover that the oto-HAME dance is truly synced!!

Toru: He doesn’t want to change it forever (laughs).

Taiki: This is a disadvantage for a dance and vocal group. It has been 8 years since we have been associated with these kind of “happenings” (laughs).

Hayate: It has been tough.

Yudai: Conversely, if everyone’s movement is still in sync with that sound, even if I don’t sing, that would be cool, right?

Sota: To “dance without singing”? Stop it (laughs).

Taiki: I won’t say no to that (laughs).

--- Anyways, it’s a thing that goes with vocals who are extremely motivated even up to doing fakes.

Sota: I guess so.

The dance gods have gathered

--- Speaking of, the choreography is also better…

Taiki: Yes. “Shitenno [4 heavenly kings]” were all in full swing making it.

Toru: The dance gods gathered in one.

--- This time, all four members of the group s**t kingz, who are already overseeing some of your choreographies up to now, made the choreo together. Why did these dance gods gather this time?

Sota: It’s a contest (victory or defeat) song! We were deeply hoping and wanting “to get the choreography of the 4 members for this song by all means.” And so, we took their schedule early at once.

Toru: And didn’t let them go (laughs).

Taiki: We also wanted to intensify the songs HIGEDAN-san wrote and create more impact.

Sota: This is s**t kingz we’re talking. We were planning to have it choreographed, thinking that “this cannot be done by one member only”. For it was agreed by everyone, it was made possible.

Hayate: Every member posted the dance practice on their Instagram, and the words that they wrote with it were really nice.

Toru: We were truly happy. They wrote “brothers” on their posts. So, from now on, I will call them “big brothers”!

All: AHAHAHAHA! (laughs)

Taiki: Funny and strange. That seems not right.

Sota: But for us, s**t kingz are really like our masters. It has been that way ever since the beginning of our formation. And so, knowing the dances that s**t kingz have made for us, we’ve gotten used to their steps. Still, this current song is difficult. On our first day, I couldn’t even remember the steps.

Taiki: The formations were too difficult!

--- You couldn’t follow the flow of formations.

Toru: I couldn’t follow.

Taiki: The center position changes rapidly, so are the standing positions, they adjust quite fine. It was like we needed to cut ourselves into pieces (laughs).

Sota: Also, this time, we’re using mic stands, in the intro, interlude, dance parts, and outro, where we don’t usually use mics when we’re dancing. Isn’t that great? We’re even putting mics on the stands. It’s exciting.

Taiki: More than just doing the choreography, it feels like we’re doing an art work. It feels like it’s close to what s**t kingz do on their stage. More than just dancing, with the idea of moving the mic stands as we are moving from here to another, it has become something we’ve never seen yet.

--- It’s not just a dance using mic stands.

Taiki: I guess it’s more like how one moves around the mic which is normally set standing.

Toru: Usually, we don’t lift the stands.

Taiki: We don’t usually lift or carry them or move around it (laughs).

--- One mic stand is on the floor at the beginning of the song.

Taiki: Looking at it at the beginning, one would think “What did you do? Did you forget to clean up?” (laughs).

It seems catchy but not really catchy

--- For Hayate-san, what have you felt working with all the members of s**t kingz?

Hayate: I thought these geniuses are really geniuses. It was kind of personal for me but, while it’s another choreography, the steps were formed within me on the very first day. But, the choreography of s**t kingz is not that easy. It’s very difficult actually.

Sota: That’s a first coming from you.

Hayate: There were times the dancing did feel simple but the formations were always difficult. I should say, that makes it great and cool. With that, I am happy it has been brought up to Da-iCE.

Taiki: I agree.

Hayate: This has served as a challenge to Da-iCE and has served as a goal.

--- The dance at the climax of the song seems catchy (easy to learn) at first glance…

Sota: Maybe. It’s hard to tell unless you try. It seems catchy (easy) but it’s not really catchy (laughs).

Toru: The dance part of the climax is the most difficult, actually.

Hayate: Somehow, I can’t make it appear cool!

Toru: It appears strange instead.

Sota: But s**t kingz only taught Yudai-kun those steps once.

Toru: He was impressive then.

Yudai: That was the case. Thinking it now, I guess it’s a bit funny. The truth is, in the beginning, I really didn’t know what was considered as ‘good’ to s**t kingz.

Toru: He got it already from the first time he started doing it.

Sota: Sure, when we were just new to the steps, I had no idea if “someone was doing good” or in “what step they were doing great”.

Taiki: That’s what this dance is like. Nevertheless, with the s**t kingz-san’s choreography and composition, dancers would really think, “What on Earth is this?!”. Still, I am thankful our songs are the ones most handled by s**t kingz.

Toru: They handled about 80% of our singles.

Taiki: That’s why, even if we ask for a different choreography occasionally, knowing the quality of the choreographies s**t kingz has given to our songs makes us give our all strength. That’s why we have no choice but to work so hard (laughs), but for me, that’s also a great honor. I feel like I want to have that kind of thinking even in the future, to get to face people and think, “If you guys can do it, we can do it as well.” Because I know in the end, some people would think, “Because these 5 people can’t do it anymore, we have to make it easy”. I want to maintain this standard, even until we’re old.

I think more “feelings towards work” came out

--- The music video of “FAKE ME FAKE ME OUT” contains a story, and it felt quite new to us because we do not see your acting quite often.

Taiki: Yes, we did act a little bit. But I think my act was funny (laughs).

Yudai: It was a fun shoot. The lip-syncing is different from the usual of doing it while moving. At the part of the climax, the band would have to enter and there were a lot of extras. It was kind of new to us.

Taiki: It was wonderful.

Yudai: We were able to do it with the help of a lot of people, and so I think more “feelings towards work” came out from there.

Sota: Those who are directing our LIVE shows, also came on that day and directed our solo parts. The shots to be taken for melody A and melody B were also thought by shoji-kun (s**t kingz) on the spot, and so it was as if we’re doing LIVE as well there.

Yudai: On the first cut, everyone was acting cool. Sota was dancing and was carrying a drink. Toru-kun took the drink and drunk a little.

Taiki: A little to my part as well, I must move with unusual cool vibes. Well, Hayate too.

Hayate: My part was to take a lady’s hand.

Taiki: It had a nice ambiance.

Toru: It had a great camera work. Well, what was Yudai-kun’s part again?

Yudai: I just stood before the bar counter and passed the drink…

All: AHAHAHAHA! (laughs)

Taiki: No, it was a great picture (laughs).

Sota: But on the second cut, everyone was assigned to just dance coolly, and so I just walked there and acted cool.

Taiki: In the set, that is always being assigned to this guy. And he would say, “It’s because I know it already” (laughs).

We want to make a “new WELCOME song”

--- Your coupling song “WELCOME!” is being played on air as a CM song for “HOMEMATE”, for this, there are many opportunities to hear it.

Yudai: I still remember so well the first time I listened to the CM. Since. they immediately asked for it to use after recording, right then, I was not yet familiar with its structure. So, when I watched the TV, I was like “this is something I heard before,” and then I realized after, “Oh, this!” (laughs).

Hayate: This was before my parents got to listen to the song. All of us in the house didn’t even notice (laughs). I always say “This, this, this is Da-iCE’s,” but right then, because I didn’t recognize the song, I didn’t get to pin-point it.

--- I see (laughs). This song was written by Sota-san.

Sota: Yes. Since, I was given an offer, “Please make a cheerful new-life song”, I made that song with that theme. However, I would like to put a personal Da-iCE meaning into that song as well.  I want to put significance to the new fans, to those who are now supporting Da-iCE. I wrote the song with (co-author) GASHIMA-san (WHITE JAM), saying that “I want to make a new WELCOME song” with the thought of wanting to have the 6th side (name called to Da-iCE fans) welcome the new fans, saying “let’s be friends!”. On the first part, the lyrics were written from the point of view of people welcoming a new life, but on the second part, I made the elements darker, in Da-iCE-like manner… I tried putting an impression of a LIVE and quoted the lyrics that Taiki-kun has written about LIVE (“Live goes on”).

Taiki: You entered a phrase, I see. Regarding the line “Human emotions… [Kidoairaku…]”, you must pay me a little for that (laughs).

Sota: For that one phrase alone? (laughs)

Taiki: Yep.

Sota: Well then, I better just pull out that phrase.

All: AHAHAHAHA! (laughs)

Sota: Anyways, I want to show the meaning of LIVEs. Now that I said it, it became “brighter” (laughs). At the end of our LIVE shows, Yudai-kun always leads and says, “thank you for your hard work!”, right? And so, I want Yudai-kun to sing the last part of the second climax, “At the end let’s take each other’s hand and say, “thank you for your hard work!” [Saigo ni wa te o totte OTSUKARESAMA! Tte]”. I wrote it while thinking about such things.

Yudai: Because the melody moves quite complicated and there are many lyrics, I thought it was pretty “hectic” when we were recording. But, when the dance steps were added, the song became solid. It’s such a fun song, performing it LIVE. Naturally, tension will come up. Applying the arrangement, if we do LIVEs 100 times, I think we will have 100 different feelings as well.  Even on the stand of the music, it is like a song that is “fun to perform, fun to watch and to listen to”, such as “TOKYO MERRY GO ROUND”. I think it has become our new material, that is easy to convey.

I don’t care no matter how bad the future will be

--- And, “Isshou no onegai” is the theme song of the drama “Hana ni kedamono ~Second Season~”. Sota-san and Toru-san oversaw the writing of the lyrics. Doesn’t it feel like it is following the perspective of the song “Waruguchi”, which is the theme song of the previous season of “Hana ni kedamono”?

Sota: Yes, it does! Although the composers are different from the composers of “Waruguchi”, deep inside, I wrote the song, connecting its concept to “Waruguchi”. At first, when I was writing the lyrics for the first part, I was also thinking, “What should I do for the second part and so on?”. I wanted to make it more romantic. Toru-kun’s “hitofuyu” (solo song written by Toru) has very romantic lyrics. I thought that if I add those feelings, I could add up more matured feels compared to what was in “Waruguchi”. And so, I asked Toru-kun, “Would you like to work together?” As a result, I think we had successfully chosen words that are suitable for student love and even for adult love.

Toru: For me, it was very easy to write because the theme was already fixed when he asked me. It wasn’t abstract anymore, but a solid path instead. We worked along the themes of “graduation” and “a lifetime request”.

Sota: Singing this song “Isshou no onegai”… It wasn’t about using “a lifetime request” for the first time. I wanted to express something like, “My past life doesn’t matter, I want to spend my life with you. For that reason, I don’t care no matter how bad the future will be.”; like, one would even “borrow in advance” a “lifetime request” for the next life. I continued composing using that theme, I think that the mood of making a hopeful wish was firmly put into the melody. I am satisfied with the result.

It is likely our turning point

--- The new single containing 3 songs in which we heard the stories about, has an impression that it is a work that seems to have raised your gear once again, as Da-iCE 5th year anniversary ended. What do you think is likely your current position in this?

Taiki: For me, it is likely our turning point. For now, we have only done several LIVE shows, but looking at the people’s reactions about our LIVE broadcast and dance practices, we have received opinions, which we’re thankful for, from people who we never thought would have known about us; opinions such as “your songs are good songs”. I had not thought we would get such reactions from such people, considering where we are now. It feels like a new door is opening. What I am very happy about is that HIGEDAN-san’s fans also say that it is “good”. We were rated as a group through our “dancing, good vibes, and good vocals”. It’s something we’re very thankful for.

Sota: Up to the end of the year, perhaps.

Taiki: Right.

--- I see you have enough spirit to even aim for “Kouhaku Uta Gassen” [annual contest between male and female popular singers on New Year’s Eve, sponsored by NHK]

Sota: Yes. The songs and choreography are cool. What’s left for us to do is to deliver what is suitable to this high-level song.

From: https://natalie.mu/music/pp/daice08

Note: I am sorry, this is so so late. This is the longest article I have ever translated.

[thequietestnoiseonearth]

Manifesto for Concrete Poetry (1952-55)

By Öyvind Fahlström, Sweden

1. Starting Point

The literary fashion for 1953 was dictated by Sigtuna [where a literary conference was held]. One rejected the psychoanalytically marked bust line and hop line, pulled down the skirt length and lowered the neck line. Since fantasy is to be stressed this year, flounces and butterflies in the hair, everyone Sings with Setterlind (Swedish "court" poet).

All this is well-known. But what lies behind these general recommendations, how shall we realize them? It has been said that we should interpret modern myths (at the same time that Freud has been accused of myth-making); and that we should not bury ourselves in the situation of our time, but should concern ourselves with timeless symbols.

Myths: does this mean to construct a complicated apparatus of symbolic and mythological contacts a la Joyce, Gösta Oswald [Swedish novelist], etc. "who did the same thing with Shakespeare or Virgil"?

Or to give up the precise complexion and to be satisfied with single ideas, most often only single words, floating around without definite contexts? The risk is that the impression will be less timeless and less related to our timeless humanity, quite simply that it will be looser and more general; since the eternally valid word-symbols (if there are such animals) have become faded by much rubbing on the washboard. To some, Lorca, for example, they have been quite useful in new contexts. Also for the surrealists, but on another level, for them it has been valid not to create eternal myths, but myths useful for the future.

At Sigtuna they also talked about the structural analysis of the new criticism. But no one claimed freedom from preoccupation with the self in connection with the claim of interest in poetical structure.

Poetry can be not only analysed but also created as structure. Not only as structure emphasizing the expression of idea content but also as concrete structure. Say good-bye to all kinds of arranged or unarranged private, psychological, contemporary, cultural or universal problematics. It is certain that words are symbols, but there is no reason why poetry couldn't be experienced and created on the basis of language as concrete material.

That the word has symbol value is no more remarkable than that in art representative forms have symbol value over and above their Superficial representational value, and that non-figurative forms, even if it is the white square on the white tablecloth, also have symbolic value and further suggest associations over and above the experience of the play of proportions.

The Situation: since the war a long beer housesad-doomsday-mood, the feeling that all the experimental extremes have been arrived at. For the person who refuses to soar in the worlds of vodka and ambrosia, it remains only to analyze

analyze

analyze the misery with the given means.

Today when the rough symbolic cryptogram, "beautiful" romantic jargon, or desperate grimaces outside the church gate appear to be the current alternatives, the concrete alternative must also be presented.

Starting Point: Everything that can be expressed with language and every linguistic expression on an equal basis with another in a given context that heightens its value.

Therefore Dostoyevsky problematics do not appear to me as anything more essential and human than to consider whether the voices of men are more beautiful in värder [host] or in världar [worlds-pronounced the same as värder]. Motive for drama can be for the poet, as well as for the dictator situated in time, the fixed fact that a certain sound can never be repeated. Experimental psychological results can be taken as starting points for a novel as well as for psychoanalysis. I describe certain people: Bobb, Torsten, Sten, Minna, Pi, without the slightest interest in them as people. Literature won't be inhuman for all that. Ants should only write books about ants, but man, who has the ability to look around himself and objectify, need not be that one-sided.

2. Material and Means

What is going to happen to the new material? It can be shaken up as you like, and after that it is always unassailable from the "concrete" point of view?

This can always be said at the beginning. But the circumstance that the new means of expression have not found their norms of value ready-made, does not prevent us from testing them, if their value is ever to be clarified.

One way is that as often as possible we must break against the path of least resistance, Mimömolan [minsta mötstånders lag]. This is no guarantee for success, but it is a way to avoid sitting in the same spot. To use the system as well as automatism, mostly to use them in combination, but not in such a way that the system becomes other than an auxiliary means. So no ambition whatsoever to reach the purest "poetry" with automatism; even the surrealists do not pay homage to that any more. But do not criticise the systems: if you choose them yourselves and do not follow the rules. Therefore the question is not whether or not the system is in itself The Only Right One. It will become so because you have chosen it and if it gives you a good result.

In that case I can construct, I say construct, for example, a series of 12 vowels in a certain succession and make tables accordingly, even though a twelve vowel series as such does not make the same sense as the series of the twelve-tone chromatic- scale.

It is said that our time longs for stable norms. It is clear: when we tire of regular meter and at last tire also of rhyme, we must find something else that will give the poem that general effect. Nowadays the connecting element has a tendency to be content, both descriptive and ideational content. But it is best if form and content are one.

It remains, therefore, to give form its own norms again. This is already being done in punktmusik. The possibilities are uncountable. In the case of poetry strophes can be broken up into vertical parallelisms in such a way that content determines form by placing the word exactly below the word above it, which it repeats, or vice versa so that when you have a fragment of line vertically parallel with the one above, it brings with it the content of the line above. Identical strophes aided by filling out a line with rhyme on the last word in the line, or with agreed syllables, words, etc. Marginal strophes beside the principal strophes. Framed-form strophes with a kernel strophe within: the possibility for more readings corresponding to the free movement of sight when you look at abstract art. Thus the strophes can be read not only from left to right and from above to below but vice versa and vertically: all the first words in every line, then all the second, the third, etc. Mirroring, diagonal reading. Change of lines, particularly of short lines. Free emphasis and free word order as in classical literature (that we don't have the same linguistic conditions is no reason not to make these experiments).

Therefore a richness of possibilities for reaching greater complexity and functional differentiation so that the different elements of content in a work of art can assume their own shape.

The simplest of all systematizations of formless material is, as always, the change between the contrasts, the contrasts within all thinkable aspects of the work of art. The play between difficult and easy sentences (respectively texts or words), rich and poor, normally syntactic and primitively added, such with and such without context in the environment, lofty, porridgy, knotty, gliding, sounding, and representing.

Not only simple changes but also augmentations -and rhythms. Everything except the lazy stumbling forward according to Mimömolan [the law of least resistance]. (It is something else, of course, if amorphous pieces are put in with intended, directed effect.)

Above all I think that the rhythmic aspect contains unimagined possibilities. Not only in music is rhythm the most elementary, directly physically grasping means for effect; which is the joy of recognizing something known before, the importance of repeating; which has a connection with the pulsation of breathing, the blood, ejaculation. It is wrong that jazz bands have the monopoly of giving collective rhythmic ecstasy. The drama and poetry can also give it. Even in art with its limited time dimension it can be done, Capogrossi has shown that.

It is only to break loose from the grinding of the new, new, new; not to leave behind oneself a kitchen mess of ideas for every step in the work one takes: instead of biting oneself to stick with the motifs, to let them repeat themselves and form new rhythms; for example one works at filling out rhythmic words as a background for principle meanings, which can be bound or unbound by the background rhythm. Independent onomatopoetic rhythmic phrases, like those which the African or East Indian drummer forms to represent his melodies of rhythm. Simultaneous reading and above all-readings of several lines of which at least one has rhythmic words. Of course metrical rhythms also; rhythms of word order, rhythms of space.

Another way to have unit and connection is to widen the logic by forming new agreements and contrasts. The simplest way is to go to the logic of primitive people, children and the mentally ill, the intuitive logic of likeness, of sympathetic magic.

This logic applied to language: - words which sound alike belong together, the fun comes from that. Rhyme has had a similar effect. Myths have been explained like this: when Deukalion and Pyrrha had to create new people after the deluge, they threw stones and people grew up: the name for stone is lias, for people laos.

When the fire has gone out [släckts], I am less sure that it has stopped burning than that the family [släckt] have gone on their way. The fire can both burn and be extinguished [släckt] and be related [släkt] to the family [släkten] or be extinguished [släckt] with the family [släkten]. Laxar [salmon] has to do with laxcring [laxatives], and taxar [dachshund] with taxering [tax assessment], and not vice versa. Homonyms provide great possibilities. Zeugmabinding also belongs here: to connect words, meanings and fragments, for example, poetry is poetry is poetry, where the middle poetry is both end and beginning. And the whole work may be valued for the word put in here and there, always inflexible, a binding cord for structure as realized thought motive. Always the precious repetition for the joy of recognition.

It is valid, particularly in the larger forms, epic,

drama, the film, also, to create happenings of the same

firmness of structure as that of reality. To give the

elements new functions and then certainly, to make

use of them instead of the comfortable improvisations of floating inspiration. To knit the net of relations tightly and clearly. To be bound by conventions you develop yourself but not by those of others.

With such possibilities for richness, ordinary, interpretations and antitheses such as tragically- and comically must be oversimplifications. The whole value in the connection tax-taxering [ dachshund-tax assessment] does not lie in the humorous effect which can result from the unexpected connecting.

Another form of magic with linguistic means is the conventionally seen arbitrary dictation of new meanings for letters, words, sentences or fragments: let us say that in this table all the "I's" represent "sickness," the more "I's" the more difficult-or in this fragment the word "sickness" represents "all sounds, prize stones"-or all words devoid of their own meanings represent "coldness."

You can also go one step in this direction by putting well-known words in such realized strange connections that you undermine the reader's security in the holy context between the word and its meaning and make him feel that conventional meanings are quite as much or quite as little arbitrary as the dictated new meanings. This is no more remarkable than is the case with Povel Ramel Swedish actor: the man who suffered from stage fright among other things and told us that his temperature taken rectally was from the stage of himself [rampen/rumpan], so that-hearing both through the situation and the similarity between the words-we discover a new meaning for the word ramp [stage].

You can't say that the well-known in the strange connection arouses fertile insecurity about the identity between word and apparition in everyone- it may arouse a quite fertile interest in the form itself, if the meanings for the reader are meaningless and he has such a great appetite that lie goes on looking for values. At first many meanings will sound meaningless, particularly amusing or touching, neither forbodingly meaningful nor diffusely sonorous.

Not least because they contain unfairly dealt with words. The unfairly, dealt with words are those which, despite the enormous expansion of the poetic vocabulary during the last century, are not yet considered able to keep themselves dry on the poet's copy sheets. "Salesmen," "excitement," "Clubs," "mine," "horribly," "whisk," "men," "dozen," "glands." These words can, of course, be found, but how often when compared with the old guard. Reading the dictionary is quite as exploratory for the language artist as is turning the pages of a handbook about insects, car motors, or tissues of the body is for the artist.

Meanings can also sound meaningless because they have been constructed in another way. It is valid not only to mix the word order, but to meet the necessities in terms of all the habitual mechanics of sentences or grammatical constructions; and as thinking is dependent upon language, every attack aimed at valid language form will be an enrichment of the worn-out paths of thought, a link in the evolution of language -of thinking, which always occurs on the every day, literary and scientific levels.

Ideas to renew grammatical structures are bound to emerge if you make comparisons with foreign languages, with Chinese, for instance, with its classless words and meaning derived from word order, or with the unexpected and shaded possibilities for expression in the languages of many primitive people. Perhaps it is more important and in any case easier, because of its accessibility, to examine the language of the mentally ill. If, for example, you examine the tests of manic-depressives, you find effects-certainly not meant to be artistic-the connecting of logical resemblances (contaminations), pure soundlikeness associations, modeling with the material of words (neologisms) and more or less rhythmical repetitions (perseverances).

Another way is to see what there is to keep in language found purely mechanically without the use of reading directions or a series system of words and meanings. This will be to break through the frontiers, very slowly to that which means something to you. We can obtain unexpected values from-as we -now see it-the most amputated and kneaded (fragmentized) word elements and phrases.

SQUEEZE the language material: that is what can he titled concrete. Do not squeeze the whole structure only: as soon as possible begin with the smallest elements, letters and words. Throw the letters around as in anagrams. Repeat the letters in words; lard with foreign words, gä-elva-rna [djävlarna = devils]; with foreign letters, ahaanadalaianaga for handling, compare with pig latin and other secret languages; vowel glissandos gäaeiouuåwrna. Of course also "lettered," newly--discovered words. Abbreviations as new word building, exactly as in everyday language, we certainly have Mimömolan [the law of least resistance]. Always it is a question of making new form of the material and not of being formed by it. This fundamental concrete principle can be most beautifully illustrated by Pierre Schaeffer's key experience during his search for concrete music: he had on tapes seconds of locomotive sounds, but he was not satisfied only to connect one sound to another, even if the connection itself was unusual. Instead he extracted a smaIl fragment of the locomotive sound and repeated it with a change of musical pitch; he then went back to the first again and so to the second, etc. so there was a change. He had created a n interference with the material itseIf by means of separation: the elements were not new: the newly-formed context yielded a new material.

From this it will be clear that what I have called literary concretion and non-figurative art is not a style-it is partly a way for the reader to experience word art, primarily poetry-partly for the poet a release, a declaration of the right of all language material and working means. Literature created from this starting point stands neither in oppositional nor parallel relationship to lettrisme or dadaism or surrealism.

Lettrisme: usual "representing" and the "lettristic" words can be experienced as both form and content, "representing" giving a stronger experience of content and a weaker experience of form, "lettristic , vice versa; a difference of degree.

From the standpoint of the result itself, surrealistic poetry can be seen to share certain resemblances with the tables. But there is a difference of starting point which must ultimately influence the results: the concrete reality of my tables does not stand in any kind of opposition to the reality of environment: neither as sublimation of dream or as myth for the future but as an organic part of the reality in which I live with its potentialities for life and evolution.

The coquettish or desperate grimace and even more dadaistic nihilism can be fertile if you see the artistic result, again it is the starting point that separates: I can find no reason to talk about grimace and denial, I have no feeling of fuss, of exceptional condition, that is the normal thing. A constructive dadaism and so none at all.

Having used the word concrete in these contexts, I have related it more to concrete music than to art concretism in its narrow meaning. In addition the concrete working poet is, of course, related to formalities and language-kneaders of all times, the Greeks, Rabelais, Gertrude Stein, Schwitters, Artaud and many others. And he considers as venerated portal figures not only the Owl in Winnie the Pooh but also Carrol's Humpty Dumpty who considers every question a riddle and dictates impenetrable meanings to the words.

Tr. Karen Loevgren, Mary Ellen Solt

From Bord-Dikter 1952-55

top

[theinvinciblenoob]

I dig on my employer Oath, and then Tencent Music notes and a major loss for the NYC ecosystem and what it means for open source.

TechCrunch is experimenting with new content forms. This is a rough draft of something new – provide your feedback directly to the author (Danny at danny@techcrunch.com) if you like or hate something here.

My three word Oath? I’m with stupid

It goes without saying that this piece about my employer is my work alone, doesn’t reflect management’s views, and is done under the auspices of TechCrunch’s independent editorial voice. No usage of internal information is assumed or implied.

This is a piece about TechCrunch’s parent company, formerly known as “Oath:” (okay just Oath, but who am I to flout a mandatory colon?) and now ReBranded as Verizon Media Group / Oath (See what they did there? They literally slashed Oath. Poetic).

Oath is essentially the creature of Frankenstein, a middle-school corporate alchemy experiment to fuse the properties of the companies formerly known as AOL and Yahoo into the larger behemoth known as Verizon. You can feel the terrible synergy emanating from the multiple firewalls it takes to get to our corporate resources.

Oath has a problem:* it needs to grow for Wall Street to be happy and for Verizon not to neuter it, but it has an incredible penchant for making product decisions that basically tell users to fuck off. Oath’s year over year revenues last quarter were down 6.9%, driven by extreme competition from digital ad leaders Google and Facebook.

The solution apparently? Drive page views down. If that logic doesn’t make sense, well then, maybe you should fill out a job application.

The kerfuffle is over Tumblr, which is among Oath’s most important brands, in that people actually know what it is and kind of still like it. Tumblr, which Yahoo notably acquired under Marissa Mayer back in 2013, has been something of a product orphan — one of the few true software platforms left in a world filled with editorial content like TechCrunch and HuffPost (Oath sold off Flickr earlier this year to SmugMug — which also seems to be going through its own boneheaded product decision phase).

All was well and good — well, at least quiet — in the Tumblr world until Apple pulled the plug on Tumblr’s app in the App Store a few weeks ago over claims of child porn. Now let’s be absolutely clear: child porn is abhorrent, and filtering it out of online photo sharing sites is a prime directive (and legally mandated).

But Oath has decided to do something equally obnoxious: it intends to ban anything that might be considered “adult content” starting December 17th, just in time for the holidays when purity around family gatherings is key.

In Tumblr’s policy, “Adult content primarily includes photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content—including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations—that depicts sex acts.” You’ll notice the written legerdemain — “primarily” doesn’t exclude the wider world of adult-oriented content that almost invariably is going to be subsumed under this policy.

Obviously, adults (and presumably teens as well) are pissed. As users are starting to see what photos are getting flagged (hint: not the ones with porn in them), that’s only making them more angry.

Oath is attempting to compress the content moderation engineering and testing of Facebook down to a span of a few weeks. And Facebook hasn’t even figured this one out yet, which is why people are still being murdered across the world from viral messages and memes it hosts that incite ethnic hatred and genocide.

I get the pressure from Apple. I get the safety of saying “just ban all the images” à la Renaissance pope. I get the business decision of trying to maintain Tumblr’s clean image. These points are all reasonable, but they all are just useless without Tumblr’s core and long-time users.

What flummoxes me from a product perspective is that it’s not as if banning all adult content is the singular solution to the problem. There is an entire spectrum of product, policy, legal, and product cultural ingredients that could be drawn upon. There could be more age verification, better separation of “safe for children” and “meant for adults content,” and more focus on messaging to users that moderation was meant to help the product and focus audiences rather than to puritanically filter.

Or you can just kill the photos, the somehow still loyal core user base, a safe space for expression via nudity and sexuality and, well, traffic along with it. And then you look at -6.9% growth and think: huh, I wonder if there is a connection.

*Mandatory colon

Tencent Music reintroduces its IPO

Tencent Music. Photo by Zhan Min/VCG via Getty Images

Maybe the IPO markets are thawing a bit after the crash of the last few weeks and…tariffs. From my colleague Catherine Shu:

Tencent Music Entertainment’s initial public offering is back in motion, two months after the company reportedly postponed it amid a global selloff. In a regulatory filing today, the company, China’s largest streaming music service, said it plans to offer 82 million American depositary shares (ADS), representing 164 million Class A ordinary shares, for between $13 to $15 each. That means the IPO will potentially raise up to $1.23 billion.

My colleague Eric Peckham wrote a deeper dive behind the lessons of Tencent Music for the broader music industry:

At its heart, Tencent Music is an interactive media company. Its business isn’t merely providing music, it’s getting people to engage around music. Given its parent company Tencent has become the leading force in global gaming—with control of League of Legends maker Riot Games and Clash of Clans maker Supercell, plus a 40 percent stake in Fortnite creator Epic Games, and role as the top mobile games publisher in China—its team is well-versed in the dynamics of in-game purchasing.

Tencent Music has staked out a very differentiated business model from Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, etc. It has used an engagement-based product model to make live-streaming and virtual gifts huge business lines, without dealing with the product marketing logistics of subscription. Where the West always asks you to pay for access, Tencent is asking you essentially to pay to have fun and be part of an experience.

Eric asks I think a deep question: why hasn’t this model (which seems particularly obvious in music given the overall events component of that business) been back-ported from China to the Western world? He sees a world where Facebook buys Spotify (I don’t) but I think there is absolutely a gap in the market for a music platform to really own this model.

NYC loses an open-source superstar

Photo: Amanda Hall / robertharding / Getty Images

Wes McKinney is a major open-source star and the engineer behind pandas, which is one of the fundamental Python data libraries, as well as a founding engineer of Apache Arrow, which is an in-memory data structure specification.

So it is big news that he has decided to decamp from New York City, where has has lived for ten years, to Nashville. Writing on his personal blog:

I’ve increasingly felt that open source development is at odds with the values that are driving a large portion of the corporate world, particularly in the United States. Many companies won’t fund open source work because there is no “return on investment”. This is deeply frustrating, and being surrounded by people whose actions align with profit-motive can be pretty discouraging. It’s not necessarily that people who work in NYC or SF are greedy or amorally concerned with making money. In many cases they are just responding to incentives coming from pretty low on the hierarchy of needs.

And

Full-time open source developers in many cases will make less money than their peers who work at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, or another major tech company. If we are to enable more people to do open source development as a full-time vocation, we need to grow supportive tech communities in places that are more affordable. (emphasis his).

I think this is a very interesting trend to watch in the coming years. It’s not just the small business and art types who want to move to lower cost locales to match their lifestyle spending to the (economic) value of their work. Software developers who want to work on more meaningful projects outside of advertising and finance will also increasingly need to consider these sorts of geographical adjustments.

As I wrote a few months ago about digital nomads:

From cryptocurrency millionaires in Puerto Rico to digital nomads in hotspots like Thailand, Indonesia, and Colombia, there is increasingly a view that there is a marketplace for governance, and we hold the power as consumers. Much like choosing a cereal from the breakfast department of a supermarket, highly-skilled professionals are now comparing governments online — and making clear-headed choices based on which ones are most convenient and have the greatest amenities available.

Economic migration — whether from cost-of-living, ecosystem or governance culture, or just for new horizons — is the watchword of this century. It’s a huge loss for NYC that people like McKinney can no longer find their work compatible with the city.

What’s next

I am still obsessing about next-gen semiconductors. If you have thoughts there, give me a ring: danny@techcrunch.com.

Thoughts on Articles

Imagined Communities – a major classic book of social science thought, it’s amazing how well it has held up, and the lessons it holds for us in the cyber age. Intending to write a review of it for this weekend, so expect more notes later.

Quietly, Japan has established itself as a power in the aerospace industry – I love industrial policy and national economic development, and Eric Berger has done a great job on both fronts with his dispatch in Ars Technica. Japan is roaring back into space, increasing its launch capabilities and also preparing to deploy its own GPS infrastructure. An important contextual read for those who follow SpaceX.

Why we stopped trusting elites — a compelling deep dive by William Davies in The Guardian into how populism is animated by the failures of elites. Couldn’t agree more that elites have lost significant trust over the last few decades, mostly from hubris, corruption, and outright fraud (the financial crisis being just the largest). Elites need to hold themselves to much higher standards if we want to ask our fellow citizens for their support.

Reading docket

What I’m reading (or at least, trying to read)

Huge long list of articles on next-gen semiconductors. More to come shortly.

via TechCrunch

[fmservers]

Why Oath keeps Tumblring

I dig on my employer Oath, and then Tencent Music notes and a major loss for the NYC ecosystem and what it means for open source.

TechCrunch is experimenting with new content forms. This is a rough draft of something new – provide your feedback directly to the author (Danny at danny@techcrunch.com) if you like or hate something here.

My three word Oath? I’m with stupid

It goes without saying that this piece about my employer is my work alone, doesn’t reflect management’s views, and is done under the auspices of TechCrunch’s independent editorial voice. No usage of internal information is assumed or implied.

This is a piece about TechCrunch’s parent company, formerly known as “Oath:” (okay just Oath, but who am I to flout a mandatory colon?) and now ReBranded as Verizon Media Group / Oath (See what they did there? They literally slashed Oath. Poetic).

Oath is essentially the creature of Frankenstein, a middle-school corporate alchemy experiment to fuse the properties of the companies formerly known as AOL and Yahoo into the larger behemoth known as Verizon. You can feel the terrible synergy emanating from the multiple firewalls it takes to get to our corporate resources.

Oath has a problem:* it needs to grow for Wall Street to be happy and for Verizon not to neuter it, but it has an incredible penchant for making product decisions that basically tell users to fuck off. Oath’s year over year revenues last quarter were down 6.9%, driven by extreme competition from digital ad leaders Google and Facebook.

The solution apparently? Drive page views down. If that logic doesn’t make sense, well then, maybe you should fill out a job application.

The kerfuffle is over Tumblr, which is among Oath’s most important brands, in that people actually know what it is and kind of still like it. Tumblr, which Yahoo notably acquired under Marissa Mayer back in 2013, has been something of a product orphan — one of the few true software platforms left in a world filled with editorial content like TechCrunch and HuffPost (Oath sold off Flickr earlier this year to SmugMug — which also seems to be going through its own boneheaded product decision phase).

All was well and good — well, at least quiet — in the Tumblr world until Apple pulled the plug on Tumblr’s app in the App Store a few weeks ago over claims of child porn. Now let’s be absolutely clear: child porn is abhorrent, and filtering it out of online photo sharing sites is a prime directive (and legally mandated).

But Oath has decided to do something equally obnoxious: it intends to ban anything that might be considered “adult content” starting December 17th, just in time for the holidays when purity around family gatherings is key.

In Tumblr’s policy, “Adult content primarily includes photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content—including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations—that depicts sex acts.” You’ll notice the written legerdemain — “primarily” doesn’t exclude the wider world of adult-oriented content that almost invariably is going to be subsumed under this policy.

Obviously, adults (and presumably teens as well) are pissed. As users are starting to see what photos are getting flagged (hint: not the ones with porn in them), that’s only making them more angry.

Oath is attempting to compress the content moderation engineering and testing of Facebook down to a span of a few weeks. And Facebook hasn’t even figured this one out yet, which is why people are still being murdered across the world from viral messages and memes it hosts that incite ethnic hatred and genocide.

I get the pressure from Apple. I get the safety of saying “just ban all the images” à la Renaissance pope. I get the business decision of trying to maintain Tumblr’s clean image. These points are all reasonable, but they all are just useless without Tumblr’s core and long-time users.

What flummoxes me from a product perspective is that it’s not as if banning all adult content is the singular solution to the problem. There is an entire spectrum of product, policy, legal, and product cultural ingredients that could be drawn upon. There could be more age verification, better separation of “safe for children” and “meant for adults content,” and more focus on messaging to users that moderation was meant to help the product and focus audiences rather than to puritanically filter.

Or you can just kill the photos, the somehow still loyal core user base, a safe space for expression via nudity and sexuality and, well, traffic along with it. And then you look at -6.9% growth and think: huh, I wonder if there is a connection.

*Mandatory colon

Tencent Music reintroduces its IPO

Tencent Music. Photo by Zhan Min/VCG via Getty Images

Maybe the IPO markets are thawing a bit after the crash of the last few weeks and…tariffs. From my colleague Catherine Shu:

Tencent Music Entertainment’s initial public offering is back in motion, two months after the company reportedly postponed it amid a global selloff. In a regulatory filing today, the company, China’s largest streaming music service, said it plans to offer 82 million American depositary shares (ADS), representing 164 million Class A ordinary shares, for between $13 to $15 each. That means the IPO will potentially raise up to $1.23 billion.

My colleague Eric Peckham wrote a deeper dive behind the lessons of Tencent Music for the broader music industry:

At its heart, Tencent Music is an interactive media company. Its business isn’t merely providing music, it’s getting people to engage around music. Given its parent company Tencent has become the leading force in global gaming—with control of League of Legends maker Riot Games and Clash of Clans maker Supercell, plus a 40 percent stake in Fortnite creator Epic Games, and role as the top mobile games publisher in China—its team is well-versed in the dynamics of in-game purchasing.

Tencent Music has staked out a very differentiated business model from Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, etc. It has used an engagement-based product model to make live-streaming and virtual gifts huge business lines, without dealing with the product marketing logistics of subscription. Where the West always asks you to pay for access, Tencent is asking you essentially to pay to have fun and be part of an experience.

Eric asks I think a deep question: why hasn’t this model (which seems particularly obvious in music given the overall events component of that business) been back-ported from China to the Western world? He sees a world where Facebook buys Spotify (I don’t) but I think there is absolutely a gap in the market for a music platform to really own this model.

NYC loses an open-source superstar

Photo: Amanda Hall / robertharding / Getty Images

Wes McKinney is a major open-source star and the engineer behind pandas, which is one of the fundamental Python data libraries, as well as a founding engineer of Apache Arrow, which is an in-memory data structure specification.

So it is big news that he has decided to decamp from New York City, where has has lived for ten years, to Nashville. Writing on his personal blog:

I’ve increasingly felt that open source development is at odds with the values that are driving a large portion of the corporate world, particularly in the United States. Many companies won’t fund open source work because there is no “return on investment”. This is deeply frustrating, and being surrounded by people whose actions align with profit-motive can be pretty discouraging. It’s not necessarily that people who work in NYC or SF are greedy or amorally concerned with making money. In many cases they are just responding to incentives coming from pretty low on the hierarchy of needs.

And

Full-time open source developers in many cases will make less money than their peers who work at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, or another major tech company. If we are to enable more people to do open source development as a full-time vocation, we need to grow supportive tech communities in places that are more affordable. (emphasis his).

I think this is a very interesting trend to watch in the coming years. It’s not just the small business and art types who want to move to lower cost locales to match their lifestyle spending to the (economic) value of their work. Software developers who want to work on more meaningful projects outside of advertising and finance will also increasingly need to consider these sorts of geographical adjustments.

As I wrote a few months ago about digital nomads:

From cryptocurrency millionaires in Puerto Rico to digital nomads in hotspots like Thailand, Indonesia, and Colombia, there is increasingly a view that there is a marketplace for governance, and we hold the power as consumers. Much like choosing a cereal from the breakfast department of a supermarket, highly-skilled professionals are now comparing governments online — and making clear-headed choices based on which ones are most convenient and have the greatest amenities available.

Economic migration — whether from cost-of-living, ecosystem or governance culture, or just for new horizons — is the watchword of this century. It’s a huge loss for NYC that people like McKinney can no longer find their work compatible with the city.

What’s next

I am still obsessing about next-gen semiconductors. If you have thoughts there, give me a ring: danny@techcrunch.com.

Thoughts on Articles

Imagined Communities – a major classic book of social science thought, it’s amazing how well it has held up, and the lessons it holds for us in the cyber age. Intending to write a review of it for this weekend, so expect more notes later.

Quietly, Japan has established itself as a power in the aerospace industry – I love industrial policy and national economic development, and Eric Berger has done a great job on both fronts with his dispatch in Ars Technica. Japan is roaring back into space, increasing its launch capabilities and also preparing to deploy its own GPS infrastructure. An important contextual read for those who follow SpaceX.

Why we stopped trusting elites — a compelling deep dive by William Davies in The Guardian into how populism is animated by the failures of elites. Couldn’t agree more that elites have lost significant trust over the last few decades, mostly from hubris, corruption, and outright fraud (the financial crisis being just the largest). Elites need to hold themselves to much higher standards if we want to ask our fellow citizens for their support.

Reading docket

What I’m reading (or at least, trying to read)

Huge long list of articles on next-gen semiconductors. More to come shortly.

Via Danny Crichton https://techcrunch.com

[brisbanecollection-blog]

The Harp in the South review: No way out, so coping becomes ambition's crown

Mulvany's ultimate triumph lies in preserving Park's ability to weave Shakespearian detachment into a suburb-sized blanket spreading warmth to all her characters; to eschew judgment upon this hotchpotch of people from the grimy houses and grubbier streets of Surry Hills after WWII. Their flaws may be wounds that won't heal, but they seldom turn septic with evil, and they are bandaged with good intentions, strips of kindness, wads of love and, when those qualities are scarce, with resilience. Mulvany has adapted the first two novels, Missus and The Harp in the South, so astutely that they barely feel condensed. The third, Poor Man's Orange, is less successful, to which we shall return. While maintaining the episodic lows and occasional highs of the Darcy family across three generations, the play excavates the hearts of people who know just how mean and narrow their lives are, but who can find no exit signs. Their tragedy is the nexus between this narrowness and their incapacity to express adequately all it engenders. Coping is the zenith of ambition, while leaning on a community as tight as a wet knot. Before the play slinks between the back-alley prostitutes and abortion-hawkers, however, it roars into action in the two-bit town of Trafalgar, where John and Rowena Kilker (Bruce Spence and Heather Mitchell) pour their passion into making babies, one of whom, Margaret (Rose Riley as a girl; later Anita Hegh), falls for Hugh Darcy (Ben O'Toole; later Jack Finsterer). Spence, who plays five roles, effortlessly conjures five eccentrics, and Mitchell is magnificent in unleashing a guarded Irish heart and an unguarded fury that could tame a continent, let alone a household. Trafalgar does have an exit, and Hughie sweeps Margaret off to a Surry Hills he promises is paved with romance and wealth. Between them Mulvany and Williams have charged the production with many moments of heightened theatricality (whether poignant or uproarious), such as the women's chorus weaving flowers into Margaret's bridal veil, the young Margaret and Hughie confronting their older selves and, later, the participation by Margaret and Hughie's younger daughter, Dolour (an engaging Contessa Treffone) in a radio quiz. Among Mulvany's departures from Park are an increased weight in Margaret's unflagging grief over the abduction of her first born, Thady (Joel Bishop), a feistier Dolour, and an emphasis on music that further heightens the theatricality, and imbues Park with faint echoes of James Joyce. Indeed ordinary lives are subtly imbued with the mythic, even in the Darcys' address: 12Plymouth Street. In lockstep with the work's Irish core comes a fierce brand of Catholicism that is as real for the likes of Margaret and Dolour as any tears or dirt; as optional for Hughie as kicking a can down the street. This devoutness breeds an essential tension between chastity and love outside of which lies sexual commerce, with Helen Thompson offering a wildly entertaining Delie Stock, the madam who spreads more largesse among the needy than does the church. Rose Riley beautifully catches a sense of "otherness" implicit in Roie: an ethereality, softness and even poeticism that makes her hover just above the squalor. The character that Mulvany, Williamson and actor Guy Simon have had more difficulty in fully realising is Charlie, and part of the problem lies in Poor Man's Orange seeming excessively condensed, so that Charlie's grief for Roie and his evolving feelings for Dolour are too rushed. In fact just when Park's book is at its most compelling the play begins to drag, with cliches appearing like weeds in the dialogue even as the narrative is wildly accelerating. Similarly David Fleischer's set initially endlessly malleable (allowing Williams to maintain a bustling action) has a more impersonal stasis for the final instalment, just when we needed to zoom in like a close-up in cinema on the heartbreak, guilt and lies. Yet, even as the play loses focus in one regard, Anita Hegh's performance as Margaret intensifies: Hughie's offer to take her through the fun-fair house of horrors all those years ago was a trip that never truly ended. Until October 6. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/theatre/the-harp-in-the-south-review-no-way-out-so-coping-becomes-ambitions-crown-20180826-h14imx.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

[netunleashed-blog]

Nine amazing British acts that America never understood

http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=20671 Nine amazing British acts that America never understood - http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=20671 Make way for a hot new beat combo all the way from England! You're gonna love 'em! As a great man once sang: “Oh oh oh – oh! There’s trouble in America.” Well, there was for these artists, given that they enjoyed great success in their native Britain, but bottomed out when it came to cracking the prestigious (and lucrative) American market. What went wrong? For whom, and why? Readers, you’ve come to the right place: here are nine amazing British acts that America never understood. Dizzee Rascal Dizzee’s terse, paranoid, brilliantly abrasive 2003 debut ‘Boy In Da Corner’ was clearly not made with the American mainstream in mind, but the Bow rapper’s later records almost certainly were: 2013 album ‘The Fifth’, for instance, was a brazen attempt to court American audiences with bash electro-house beats and super-producers from across the pond. Biggest UK successes: Five number one singles, five albums that broke the top 10. Biggest US successes: One appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 – a feature spot on Shakira’s ‘Loca’, which reached number 32 in 2010. What went wrong: Grime has never really found much of an audience in America, despite Drake’s attempts to break the genre stateside. Yes, Dizzee moved into mass-market pop, but, side-by-side with fellow Bow native Wiley, he also helped create grime – and his roots in the musical movement run deep, as last-year’s return to form ‘Raskit’ proved. The Kinks The quintessential ’60 example, perhaps, of a massive British band that just never caught on with the Americans. British invasion? Pah! Not for the Davies brothers. Biggest UK successes: Three UK number one singles, five UK top 10 albums. Biggest US successes: ‘You Really Got Me’ reached number seven in 1964, and ‘Lola’ climbed to number nine in 1970. What went wrong: When Ray Davies was inducted into the American Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2014, he remarked that it was “a big deal because it means that America has finally accepted the Kinks”. The Kinks were banned from touring America from 1965 to 1969 – in many ways, their heyday – because of their fearsome reputation for fighting at shows. Talking to the Irish radio station NewsTalk, Davies summed the situation up pretty well when he put the controversial ban down to “bad luck, bad management, bad behaviour”. Blur Damon and the lads embarked on an infamously disastrous American tour in 1992, a ill-fated trip characterised by infighting and empty venues. It was so relentless and grim that the band took to punching each other for fun to relieve the monotony. Biggest UK successes: Two number one singles, six UK number one albums. Biggest US successes: Two tracks broke the Billboard Hot 100 – ‘There’s No Other Way’ and ‘Girls & Boys’, which scraped in at number 59 and 82 respectively. What went wrong: That experience in 1992 may have put them off the land of opportunity, as they never seemed to make any major attempt to crack the US afterwards. However, Gorillaz, Albarn’s band of cartoon misfits, who returned this year will stellar album ‘The Now Now’, have been more popular in America, sneaking into the Billboard Hot 100 top 20 with 2005 single ‘Feel Good Inc.’ The moral? Life is long and strange, and sometimes you succeed the most when you become a cartoon. Girls Aloud A band brazenly manufactured – on bloody television – for success! A prototype for One Direction! What could possible go wrong? Biggest UK successes: Four UK number one singles, two UK number one albums. Biggest US successes: Zip! What went wrong: Why did Girl Aloud, one of the UK’s most fondly remembered pop groups, never make it Stateside? Perhaps they were too real – theirs was an early incarnation of reality pop, where the stars looked and, crucially, sounded like everyday Brits, with little showbiz razzle-dazzle. In fact, the band’s record label, Polydor, didn’t even release their albums in America until 2015. Girls Aloud split up in 2013. Robbie Williams Ah, the Pope of Stoke, the King of swing, the buccaneer from the end of the pier. Robbie always was, and remains, a peculiarly British phenomenon: part cabaret act (inspired by his dad, Pete), part Norman Wisdom (Google him, or ask your granny), part Freddie Mercury (yes! really!). Is anyone surprised that America, home of actual pop stars, wondered what the fuck we’d sent them? Biggest UK successes: Seven number one singles, 12 number albums (that’s almost literally every album he’s ever released, including two greatest hits compilations; it’s only 2009’s ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’ that missed the top spot, coming in a number two). Biggest US successes: Two tracks on the Billboard Hot 100: ‘Angels (number 53) and ‘Millennium’ (72), and both of those were re-releases. What went wrong: His heart wasn’t in it, really. Pretty much the entirety of journalist Chris Heath’s 2004 biography Feel is concerned with Robbie’s conflicting feelings about America – should he try and crack the country, or enjoy his anonymity over there, given that his life in the UK had become a tabloid circus? In the end, he opted for the latter, refusing to commit to the kind of sprawling, gruelling extended tours that are required to become a household name in the US. Last year, Robbie told NME: “I made a decision in 2000 to not promote there, not work there, not do anything there and go and just live there. So I haven’t done anything to jeopardise that.” The Stone Roses The band headlined Coachella in 2013, which could be read as an indication that they’re massive in America – but, in fact, the show was surprisingly sparsely attended, with reports relaying the fact that “one could easily walk to the front of the nearly empty field”. Biggest UK successes: Four albums in the UK top (including a greatest hits compilation and their debut, which charted no less than three times between 1989 and 2009). Biggest US successes: Two albums that charted in low positions on the Billboard 200 – debut ‘The Stone Roses’ and follow-up ‘The Second Coming’ staggered in at number 86 and 47 respectively. What went wrong: Self-sabotage, intentional or otherwise. Frontman Ian Brown insisted that “America doesn’t deserve us yet.” The band stipulated that they didn’t want to tour in America until they could fill the enormous Shea Stadium in New York, so didn’t tour the first album. Simon Spence, author of the book The Stone Roses: War and Peace, told vanyaland.com: “When ‘Second Coming’ came out, it had been five years; they went to L.A. and did promotion and it went badly. They liked to be loved in America but it was, ‘Fuck you if you don’t like us.’” That’s right: they wanted to be adored. Elastica Initially, Justine Frischmann’s band achieved greater fame their her then-boyfriend Damon Albarn’s group, Blur. She told The Sunday Times last year: “I think it was hard for Damon when Elastica started getting some success in America, It’s funny because we both thought we were too evolved for classic gender roles, but looking back he thought his band more important because he was the guy. And on some level I did, too.” As we’ve seen, though, Damon finally wooed the Americans with his cartoon bands of misfits (and Gorillaz!). Biggest UK successes: The band’s self-titled debut album went straight in at number one in 1995 and became one of the defining records of the Britpop era. Biggest US successes: Two 1995 singles in the Billboard Hot 100. ‘Connection’ and ‘Stutter’ crawled to numbers 53 and 67 respectively. What went wrong: Sort of like The Stone Roses, Elastica’s hearts weren’t really in it. There was was a five-year gap between their debut and 2000 follow-up ‘The Menace’, and the band split in 2001. Frischman has spoken of her apathy towards the music industry – she is now a visual artist based in New York – and last year told The Guardian: “I got to go all over the world and have a real snapshot of the planet in ’95, ’96, and I got to meet a lot of my heroes. One of the most valuable lessons was to realize that success isn’t necessarily enriching or enlivening. We live in a culture where there’s so much emphasis on celebrity and we all grow up feeling like being famous must be really great.” The Libertines Oi oi guvnor! Let’s stick on our nanny goats, head up the apple and pears, give the dog a bone and – look the point is that The Libertines are a bit mockney, okay? Biggest UK successes: Two top 10 singles, one number one album – 2002’s ‘The Libertines’, the band’s second, sweat-slicked LP. Biggest US successes: That same album was their biggest hit in America, too, though, in contrast, it limped in at 111 on the Billboard 200. What went wrong? In certain circles, the received wisdom is that Pete had too much of a taste for crack to actually – ahem – crack America. The reality is probably a little more complex, given that much of The Libertines’ self-mythology is concerned with sailing ‘The Good Ship Albion’ – a poetic term for Britain – to ‘Arcadia’, a concept Pete has described as “the realm of the infinity … It’s not a cult or a religion – it’s an awareness of your surroundings; you’re not going to force yourself on anyone and, equally, no one’s going to force themselves on you.” Given that The Libertines were so steeped in British culture, it’s perhaps not so surprisingly that their music meant less to American music fans. Cliff Richard The quintessential British artists that made America go, ‘What’s this guy all about?’, Cliff was our version of Elvis Presley. So no wonder they weren’t arsed – they literally had Elvis Presley. Case closed! No, please, keep reading – we’re nearly done. Biggest UK successes: Deep breath. In the red corner, weighing in at a fairly unremarkable 155 pounds according to an extremely dubious website I just checked, it’s the Peter Pan of pop, with a whopping 14 UK number one singles, 68 top 10 singles, seven number one albums and 44 that stormed straight into the top 10. No wonder he’s always on a summer holiday. Biggest US successes: 19 tracks that entered the Billboard Hot 100; three that shimmied and shook their way into the top 10. Not bad by a mere mortal’s standard, but chicken feed in comparison to Cliff’s five-decade success in his own country. What went wrong? Cliff had a minor American hit with ‘Living Doll’ in 1959 (it reached number 30 in the singles chart) and made a few dents in the top 40 between the 1950s and 1980s, but failed to truly set the US alight. When he first launched his career over there, Cliff adopted a rebellious, surly persona, but this softened over time; soon he was middle-of-the-road as a well-placed traffic cone. Source link

[90s-to-now-blog]

The Alternative Sound: a far-reaching rebellion in the music industry

By Janelle Dos Santos

Rebellion: What makes Alternative music loveable and everlasting

Being an uncultured swine for many years, I had no desire to explore different genres of music.  Around 2010, music was meaningless without pop. During car rides, I only wanted to listen to pop music or I’d rather sit in silence. The song had to have a catchy melody and a repetitive tune with lyrics that no teenager could relate to, but it’s what we all sang along to it anyway. Then, there were artists who became rebellious to the music industry. They didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. They put an alternative twist on genres of music we had no idea could be sung in any other way. But, what is so popular about alternative music? The overall sound is different and multiple genres are incorporated into one song. This was effective in making a song enjoyable to listen to over and over again.

The Technology Behind the Sound

Artists have been blessed with technological advances that have allowed them to produce new melodies and beats. They have vocoders, synthesizers, and harmonizers and other machinery that can provide various sound effects to their advantage. They serve you much like a team of virtual sound engineers, vocal coaches and backup singers, all packed in one unit (GearRank, 2017). Not all of them were innovative with their sound. Some artists decided it was easier to copy and paste an older backing track, from another artist, along with their own lyrics to create a “new song”. Many artists, especially the newer faces in the music industry, don’t tend to sound like other artists as they are in the make it or break it period of their careers. Sounding different is refreshing and alternative music does just that, if not more. It redefines all these genres of music that we are so familiar with and makes us wonder what category to truly associate it with because of the individuality of these new songs.

The Middle by artists Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey incorporate a techno-disco sound with an upbeat tempo and a vocoder effect to produce an alternative pop song. Although the vocoder is not used with the singer’s voice, the effect gives the impression that it is being produced when she sings. With modern day music, songs are always changing, so how are people confused on what exactly makes it alternative? Take Sia’s song, The Greatest for example. Sia’s vocals are put over a track, and she uses male background singers occasionally on a couple lines of the song. That’s what’s considered your average joe song. Just because her voice sounds unique with a couple of people harmonizing in the background doesn’t necessarily mean she’s an alternative pop artist. It’s how an artist provides their song with different technical aspects that make the sound of a song itself stand out from the rest. Background singers don’t produce that alien-like sound that technology would easily do. In a comment on Reddit, a user that goes by Shahooster stated, “Alternative/indie are more poetic, more cryptic, more complex musically, and less formulaic than pop and rock” (Reddit, 2016).

The Sound Through Genres

Nowadays, songs we hear on the radio are pop songs that stay true to one genre while others may include another, such as, a short Rap/ R&B segment that is sandwiched somewhere towards the second half of the song. “Good To Be Alive” by Andy Grammar incorporates country pop and pop rock into his song with the use of a fast tempo and a country style rhythm. Immediately, the song starts off upbeat and constantly changes from fast, dynamic beats to a clapping sound. This effectively transitions from one genre to the next. It also slows down and speed up in certain places during the song to help build up the opening of the next genre. Although he does not use anything to distort his voice, the beats in the song are what differentiates the sound from being a regular pop song to an alternative pop song. In another comment on Reddit, a user that goes by Animal Professor stated, “Music does not have strict definitions, it is implicit. You know it when you hear it, and you can usually identify pop music by catchy, simple lyrics, non-offensive broad ideas often concerning topics of love or happiness/having fun, usually with guitar, drums, and clean synthesized melodies” (Reddit, 2016). Furthermore, the message behind songs have changed drastically. It is not about meeting your crush and falling in or out of love anymore, now people incorporate suicide, mental illness, depression, and addictions into their songs. You will also hear song lyrics talking about sexual fantasies or things out of this world, such as, monsters, souls, and spirits.

Alternative Through My Eyes: Successful or not?

Alternative music breaks barriers by being absolutely perfect in the way it incorporates different beats and tunes. It does not stick to the same beat through the entire song like most other genres do. This creates a fun, sick beat that keeps all of us listeners engaged and wanting to hear more and more of the song or artist. By talking about more current events or issues, more people can actually relate to a song or lyric more than if it was just about a generic life. By generic life, I mean the songs that talk about your typical teenager or adult life. Alternative music that abides by the rules of whether it sounds like it can be popular or not. Artists that put out alternative music clearly do not care if they are playing it safe or not. For example, Lady Gaga turned the music world on its head by having a different style in music and dances to go along with it. She holds the standard for not playing it safe in alternative music whether it’s in dance-pop or pop-rock.

Popularity in Music

Looking at Billboard’s Top 100 songs, I scaled it down to the top 10 songs of the year so far. There are three Alternative pop songs high the charts, two include, “The Middle” (as mentioned earlier), and “Finesse” by Cardi B and Bruno Mars. Some of these chart-topping songs collaboratively use the ideal pop and rap combo. If you were to not include solely rap songs on this top 100 hit list, there would be more alternative songs on the charts than any other genre. Why is this? Look at their messages and the sound of the song. The public makes it clear that different sounds are wanted and unless people are still fangirling on that one favored male artist that annoyingly sings about the same concepts or experiences with a girl over and over, like Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes or Justin Bieber, then that room for other artists to be recognized on the top of the charts aren’t as likely.

I remember when X Ambassadors came out with their song “Unsteady”. The radio wouldn’t stop playing it, and high-grossing movies kept using it for background music or to promote their commercials. “Unsteady” has an alternative indie rock and alternative pop twist to it. There’s a lot of emphasis and clarity on the instruments used. Usually the instruments act like a background piece to the song. Instead, this song uses instruments as a function as equally as the singer has. There’s also an almost static sound. It’s harsh and gritty but also deep. It functioned as a useful background noise to fill the space where there would’ve been a plain instrumental. The tempo consistently follows the pace of an average heartbeat rate throughout the whole song.

In conclusion, alternative music is seen throughout many genres of music. Alternative music is now making its way to the surface of much of music we hear today. Alternative music used to be seen as an umbrella term used to describe music that is not played on mainstream radio or consumed by the mainstream audience (Yourdictionary, 2018). Since many people now favor the alternative style of music, we see hear it more in songs in different aspects on a technical level. We tend to not know how much of an impact alternative music really makes on current artists we listen to currently. From artists, such as, Soundgarden and Nirvana to Lorde and Lana Del Rey, the continuation of alternative music still moves through these singers and songwriters today (AllMusic, 2018).

References:

https://www.allmusic.com/style/alternative-pop-rock-ma0000002422

http://www.yourdictionary.com/alternative-music

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3slm3k/eli5_what_makes_alternative_music_different_from/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100

https://www.gearank.com/guides/vocal-effects-pedal

[nofomoartworld]

Art F City: This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Bollywood Musicals, Music for Dogs, Zines at the Pool

This might feel like a slow week, but you’ll need to plan wisely. This weekend is packed with big events that span all day or more.

Friday, celebrate NYCxDesign (and Tom Dixon’s first New York showroom) with Dezeen at a block party in SoHo. Then rush to Williamsburg for the opening night of the Brooklyn Art Book Fair. They have programming scheduled all day Saturday too. But you’ll probably want to spend Saturday visiting all the idiosyncratic locales Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin’s …Circle Through New York intersects. Alternately, head to the other side of the city for open studios in Sunset Park, which run until 6 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

There’s plenty more to do all over town this week, and even an excuse to catch the PATH to Journal Square if you’re local wanderlust can’t be sated by four boroughs of art events.

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Tue

Marlborough New York

40 West 57th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava’s smaller sculptures often lack the sheer drama his buildings convey based on scale. Nevertheless, fans of the Spanish architect should check this show out. It’s always interesting to see how architects and designers work out ideas in other media (remember Zaha Hadid’s sci-fi-looking paintings at the Guggenheim?). Here we can likely look forward to Calatrava’s signature balance of organic and geometric forms, deployed and experimented with at a smaller scale than a bridge or metro station.

Wed

EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop

323 W 39th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Website

Kenny Rivero: Hear My Dear

Kenny Rivero’s work has a sort-of dark comic/pop sensibility while remaining painterly. I’m curious to see how that translates to printmaking. Here, he’ll be showing recent monotypes and lithographs. If the image above (Black Panther logo?) is any indication, they’ll be as lovely as his paintings.

Thu

Asya Geisberg Gallery

537B West 23rd Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Jasper de Beijer: The Brazilian Suitcase

Dutch artist Jasper de Beijer’s latest body of work is a fictionalized series of travelogues spanning nearly a century. The images are a mix of staged photography and computer simulations, imagining a series of anthropological expeditions to the Amazon and contact with isolated tribes. The series looks to be a biting commentary on colonialism, but it should be interesting to see how this is received. I wouldn’t be surprised if this became one of the most controversially-debated shows of the week.

yours mine & ours

54 Eldridge St. New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Esther Ruiz: Static Limit

The first time I saw Esther Ruiz’s work, I was blown away by her dreamy neon and mixed-media sculptures that feel world-building no matter their scale. In Static Limit, editions of her oddly-shaped neon-and-plexiglass black mirrors will orbit a freestanding sculpture in the center of the gallery, recalling the “static limit” at the edge of a black hole’s gravitational field. That sounds heady, but trust us, the result will be something beautiful and sleek that still feels playful and idiosyncratic.

Fri

Howard Street

New York, NY 5:00 p.m.Website

Dezeen & Tom Dixon's NYCxDesign Block Party

To celebrate the month-long NYCxDesign festival, Dezeen (one of our fav blogs) has partnered with British designer Tom Dixon and other retailers on SoHo’s Howard Street for a good ol’ fashioned block party.

This one will, naturally, have an emphasis on design, including an installation of Dixon’s light fixtures spilling out into the street. In a month jam-packed with design events, this might be the best to go rub shoulders.

Mccarren Pool

776 Lorimer St. Brooklyn, NY 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Brooklyn Art Book Fair

The world has too many art fairs, but could never have enough art book fairs. That’s because the publications fair is the opposite of its stuffy distant cousin: accessibly priced, inherently democratic in nature, and generally just more fun.

This past month we’ve check out Open Space’s Publications and Multiples Fair and the Brown Paper Zine Fest (both in Baltimore) and are happy to report that many of the same names will be showing their wares in Brooklyn this week. The Brooklyn Art Book Fair, Hosted by BHQFU and Endless Editions, looks like it will be a blast (although, for logical reasons I have never heard of a book fair at a pool before) with performances and readings Friday night and Saturday afternoon. No running.

Vendors: 3 Dot Zine, Audrey Ryan, Belladonna*, Birds LLC, Black by Maria Silver, Mactaggart Jewelry, Brooklyn Arts Press, Brooklyn Poets, Carrier Pigeon Magazine, Christina Martinelli, Cory Siegler, Desert Island Comics, EOAGH, Elijah Wheat Showroom, EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Elliott Jerome Brown Jr, Endless Editions, Eyelevel BQE, Inpatient Press, Leslie Lasiter, Lorelei Ramirez, Lost & Found: the CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, Memefrito, MFU: New York, Molly Soda, Monk Books, Nandi Loaf, Pegacorn Press, Potatoe Press, Press Press, Printed Matter, Quimby’s, Ruth Stone Foundation, Slow Youth, Small Editions, Soft City Printing, Sorry Archive, Third Man Books, Txt Books, Unity Press, UpSet Press, Wonder, Zebadiah Keneally

Sat

Various (Guggenheim Museum, et. al...)

1071 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Website

...Circle Through New York

What do music for dogs, a Felix Gonzalez Torres installation, a Punjabi television show, and an institution dedicated to ancient studies have in common? These are but some of the attractions in the sprawling circus known as …Circle Through New York from ringmaster artists Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin.

The project, as its title suggests, involved the artists drawing an arbitrary circle that connected Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx (sounds like a Robert Moses freeway!). They identified points of interest along its route, from the Guggenheim Museum, to the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, a pet store in the Bronx, and various other locations such as churches.

The project all these venues will be collaborating on? Reinterpretations of the so-called “oldest song in the world”, according to scholars at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. This old-ass song will be reborn as music for dogs in the Bronx, a Bollywood-style musical in Queens, and performances by church choirs in Harlem and Upper East Side museum staff. This should be extremely weird, and a great chance to take lesser-travelled corners of the city.

Here’s a list of all locations

Loew's Jersey Theatre

54 Journal Square Jersey City, NJ 8:40 p.m. - 10:15Website

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

The Jersey City Great Movie Sequels Weekend is such a good idea. The standout feature: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. This is definitely the type of movie my friends and I would dress up to go see. If my recent visit to art school was any indication, the post-apocalypse is trending hard with young artists right now, and it’s easy to see why.

At any rate, this film offers the most glamorous take on what Australia will be like whenever the insane leaders of the USA and DPRK, respectively, turn the Pacific Rim into a nuclear wasteland. So see it while it still feels like a fantasy!

Sun

Industry City Studios and Trestle Art Space

254 36th Street and 850 3rd Ave, Suite 411 Brooklyn, NY 12:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Website

Sunset Park Open Studios

This event begins on Saturday from noon to six, but we recommend heading out Sunset Park on Sunday so as not to compete with all the other stuff happening this weekend.

For now, Sunset Park is a hotspot of artist studios. That might change, given the Mayor’s ill-conceived economic development plans for the area. But before the “Made in NY” scheme displaces everyone, come see what’s been being Made in NY without the help of a megaproject, thank you very much.

Over 100 artists will open their doors at Industry City Studios, and a few blocks down 3rd ave at Trestle Art Space’s open studios, the following artists will be showing their goods:

Sara Brooks, Cynthia Brown, Melissa Capasso, Ronit Levin Delgado, Joan Di Lieto, Abigail Groff Hernandez, Kristen Haskell, Meredith Hoffheins, Lehna Huie, Rhia Hurt, Jessica Rose Jardinel, Richard Kessler, Myra Kooy, Taeko Kuraya, Younghoo Lee, Jessica Lipsky, Mary Malcolm, Sarah Malcolm, Dexter Miranda, Michela Muserra, Tony Mosca, Steve Nedboy, Jen Nista, Mari Renwick, Scott Robinson, Aima Saint Hunon, Rachel Scharly, Myla Seabrook, Carlos Torres-Machado, Annie Trincot, Koren Volk, Chris Weller, Gerry Wolk, Harold Wortsman, Heidi Yockey, Cindy Zaglin

from Art F City http://ift.tt/2qpcPbQ via IFTTT

[ricardosousalemos]

Glenn Gould: Bach: The Goldberg Variations

The press release began: “Columbia Masterworks’ recording director and his engineering colleagues are sympathetic veterans who accept as perfectly natural all artists’ studio rituals, foibles, or fancies. But even these hardy souls were surprised by the arrival of young Canadian pianist Glenn Gould and his ‘recording equipment’ for his first Columbia sessions. … It was a balmy June day, but Gould arrived in a coat, beret, muffler and gloves.” The rest of the bulletin detailed the other peculiarities that Gould had brought along with him when recording J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations for the label.

These were many. Instead of nobly holding his head high with a proper recitalist’s posture, Gould’s modified piano bench allowed him to get his face right near the keys, where he would proceed to hum audibly while playing. He soaked his arms in hot water for up to 20 minutes before takes and brought a wide variety of pills. He also brought his own bottles of water, which, for 1955, was still something that seemed like only Howard Hughes would do. It was these initial, broadly trumpeted peculiarities that helped shape the Gould myth throughout his too-short life, the audacious genius who slightly unsettled everyone around him. Fittingly, throughout the 20th century, there would be no more audacious and initially unsettling act of musical reinterpretation than Gould’s debut studio recording.

With his 1955 recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the young pianist made a compelling case for a work that, at the time, was considered an obscure keyboard composition by an otherwise imposing master of Baroque music. Gould made his counter-argument for the piece’s rightful prominence by taking wild liberties with the source. In addition to playing the work on a piano instead of on the 18th-century era-appropriate harpsichord, Gould rushed tempos and varied his attack with aggression. His body flailed up and down his creaky chair, displaying melodramatic physical gestures—the very cliche of a young genius at work. But instead of seeming like an impudent youngster, Gould’s innovations signaled a clear love for the source material. He took the piece’s unusual status—a theme-and-variation work so varied that it could be hard for a lay audience to follow—and realized that it could be performed with modernist vigor, full of wild twists of character.

Gould drilled his famous technique over time, using an obscure practice known as “finger tapping” to produce muscle memory in his fingers—thereby allowing for dizzying flurries of notes with astonishing control and minimal physical exertion. And at a time when the future members of the Beatles were still obsessing over British skiffle bands, Gould was pioneering the use of the studio as an instrument by splicing together different takes: finding startling collisions of mood that could help drive his conception of a work.

In its fervor for relating Gould’s peculiar behaviors, Columbia’s first press release neglected to mention all the substantive ways in which the pianist was revolutionizing the art of interpretation. The critics, however, did notice. Gould’s Goldbergs received a raft of rave reviews from the New York Times, Newsweek, and Musical America, among others. Even writers who were unsure if his was a respectable way to approach Bach’s sublime music counted themselves impressed by Gould’s array of approaches—including his dancing sprightliness, a dashing top-gear of speed, and swooning sense of drama. And Gould proved a forceful advocate for his own ideas about the piece.

In erudite liner notes that accompanied the first LP issue in 1956, Gould writes about the strangeness of Bach’s theme-and-variation work: “...one might justifiably expect that … the principal pursuit of the variations would be the illumination of the motivic facets within the melodic complex of the Aria theme. However such is not the case, for the thematic substance, a docile but richly embellished soprano line, possesses an intrinsic homogeneity which bequeaths nothing to posterity and which, so far as motivic representation is concerned, is totally forgotten during the 30 variations.”

It’s a fascinating read of the piece—even if it seems trollish to accuse Bach’s Aria for adding “nothing to posterity.” (At least Gould was consistent in his dislike of obvious, top-line melodies. He didn’t much care for Italian opera, either.) Still, it’s true that the power associated with the culmination of Gould's Goldbergs—when the Aria returns—has something to do with how far the listener has traveled since the opening. If you want to make that Aria really floor people at the end, why not blow out the contrasts between the variations as you play them?

Gould makes an argument for his own radical vision of how the piece should be played. He sees his own jagged cadence not in defiance of but as a requisite to Bach’s score. Even listeners who put the Goldbergs on as background music are likely to sit up and pay attention when Gould pours it on during Variation No. 5. With that one far edge of intensity established, his ruminative way of handling Bach’s “Canons” is far more seductive. Gould’s lightning-fast runs tend to get all the press, but they cast into sharp relief his poetic handling of the so-called “black pearl” Variation No. 25. The power of Gould’s 1955 Goldbergs comes from the contrasts that Gould chooses to emphasize.

Gould’s first version of the Goldbergs reportedly sold 40,000 copies in its first five years: A considerable amount for any classical recording at any time, but particularly notable at the dawn of the LP era. The pop-cultural primacy of Gould’s first take on the Goldbergs also fostered some detractors, among them some Bach specialists like Wanda Landowska who were also interested in rescuing the piece from its relative obscurity. Late in life, Gould joined their ranks, offering some withering criticisms of his 1955 recording. In 1981, the pianist told the critic and biographer Tim Page that the 1955 handling of the “black pearl” variation had become particularly unwelcome to his own ears: “It seems to say—Please Take Note: This Is Tragedy. You know, it just doesn’t have the dignity to bear its suffering with a hint of quiet resignation.”

The idea of judging his famous 1955 recording on the basis of those criteria seems like a category error—or a set-up destined to prompt a negative assessment of his first record. The latter possibility is at least plausible, since when Gould offered this self-criticism to Page, he was doing so as part of a new publicity campaign. After being so closely identified with the Goldbergs for decades, Gould had made the rare decision to re-record a work already in his repertoire.

His 1981 recording of the Goldberg Variations is still recognizable as Gould: the strutting precision and emphasis on counterpoint apparent. So too is Gould’s famously divisive practice of humming along with his playing (a natural trait of Gould’s that seemed to flower into a deliberate affectation sometime between 1955 and 1981). But in the interim, much else has changed. There’s less swing in Gould’s playing; even when he turns up the tempi, it feels considered and autumnal.

Variation No. 5 is played in 37 seconds, the identical span of time Gould needed to burn through it in 1955. But in the 1981 variations, Gould makes good on his desire for dignity. The 1955 rendition of No. 5 has a compelling, nervy energy; the 1981 version takes a greater sense of self-possession. The ability to find that much expressive room inside a similar tempo resulted in Gould’s second masterstroke with the Goldbergs.This range of musical investigation signals something profound. Two different approaches to the same notes can say a great deal about how one ages and how tastes can move over time.

Gould died just days after Columbia released the second Goldberg set. His death enhanced the idea of this being a grand, final statement—as though touching the work again had created a fateful resolution for his startling debut. But even if Gould were still with us, the 1981 Goldberg performance would sound necessary. Here, Gould luxuriates in the stately character of the “French” overture (No. 16)—and its pivot away from the prior, minor-key canon—with greater pomp than on his first try. It’s just that the fun never spills over into abandon, as on Gould’s first pass. For all his eccentricities, Gould’s most striking trait may have been his ability to revise his own carefully considered understanding of a work that was important to him.

Both interpretations have their uses. Along with Bob Dylan’s “Love and Theft”, which I’d purchased at 12:01 am on Sept. 11, 2001, at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square, Gould’s 1981 Goldberg set was the album I played most often in the days that followed. With the ashen smell still in the air, and the streets south of 14th Street devoid of car traffic, most who lived inside the perimeter established by the National Guard spent some portion of each day balancing requirements of mourning and anger with the search for a new equilibrium—a way to feel less anxious that didn’t also involve pretending that something traumatic hadn’t just taken place.

I owned both versions of Gould’s Goldbergs because I had been told by guidebooks that this was a prerequisite for caring about classical music (it is.) Until that week, I’d spent most of my time with the 1955 recording—identifying with its direct access to youthful exuberance. Now, however, the high energy of that edition seemed a poor fit to the mood. The dignity Gould had intended to emphasize in 1981 came through clearly.

Record collecting and music appreciation often turn on arguments about rankings, peerlessness, and the greatest-of-all-time. Classical fans play this game as aggressively as anyone—so hard that they occasionally seem to rule out the possibility of any worthy new music being made for traditional classical instruments. And we do this with Gould’s Goldbergs, too. Think fast: 1955 or 1981? Sometimes that’s fun. But these recordings’ mutual portrait of variations held in a single mind—one capable of such deliberate differences of opinion with itself—seems not just like something you’re well advised to have in a music collection, but instead like an approach to life worth exploring and emulating.