#especially with twitter collapsing. not to say i get no enjoyment just not as much (and ironically too much at times) as i'd like

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

.

[avephelis]

so... that halloween stream sure was... something. arginnit? argbur?? i am losing my mind.

figured i'd ramble about what i noticed, because god knows this won't be leaving my brain for a good while.

ARGINNIT THEORY TIME

(EDIT 8/11/2021: Yea now Wilbur has confirmed it wasn't an ARG but I'm still keeping this up. Just think about it as speculation or a cool au. I think regardless of whether it was an ARG or a bit the art and theories and conversation about it were really cool and fun!)

"Tommy quotes are in quotations" "Wilbur quotes are bold" "Everyone else is italic"

chellepop's transcript of the Wilbur call from twitter (godsend)

This is in reference to Tubbo's "HALLOWEEN STREAM w/ Tommy Ranboo Aimsey Badlinu & Billzo" [YOUTUBE and TWITCH vod links]

Theories below cut!

Tommy is acting... off, even during the apple bobbing. On his second attempt for a minute it seems like he's trying to drown himself, and even for Tommy the level of his struggle seemed a little ridiculous

Theres a couple of comments about the cold (a la argbur), but i dunno how much that counts considering it's autumn over there and water generally does that to you. though, it is notable considering Tommy continues to keep piling on more warm layers, even when inside...

Tommy says he's had a "premonition", and Ranboo asks if they're going to die. It was definitely in reference to the apple bobbing vote, and probably a bit, but still notable

This interaction; "How was it drowning?" "Well it was uh- You know, I'll- I'll- I'll- I'll- ahh- I'll um be honest-" "I think you should've stayed for longer" "I saw-" [interjection] "I- I saw- I kinda saw my life flash before my eyes, I thought about all my memories, and then I thought, 'I haven't done enough, this sucks!' uhh- and then i got transcended back to the real world" - (again, probably a bit, but notable)

Throughout the stream, it's questioned as to why Tommy is even there. It's difficult to tell whether that's just teasing, or another indicator.

And then. ah yes. Wilbah phone call. Very spooky very cool (Tommy's acting is so enjoyable to watch). Just a couple notes because no way in hell am I breaking all of that down.

Wilbur sounds.... definitely off. Almost like an announcer/stereotypical horror movie antagonist (considering his history of using different voices and tones for different characters, this seems another indicator of an ARG)

Even considering the fact that Tommy is acting off, his single-minded focus on getting Wilbur to the camera/microphone is strange, but he seems almost skittish about the others being involved in the conversation

There are several references from Tommy about being forced to "do weird shit", "saying things [he doesn't] wanna say". Does this imply coercion? Possession?

Tommy and Wilbur's focus on "beating the hell out of Williams" was maybe a little bit suspicious... (y'know, with Will/Wilbur being derivative of William and all, especially given Billzo's frequent denial of of the name)

What the fuck is this Lamborghini shit

Obviously theres the part where Wilbur seems to be instructing Tommy to fight/harm/possibly kill one of his friends, sizing them up, trying to determine what weapons Tommy has experience with.

"The knives are out right now" "A knife's not gonna tear into it" "a knife's not gonna penetrate anyone" Probably talking about a human body, possibly talking about something... else (if this is going to involve spooky stuff like possession n shit, it could involve the paranormal)

"Can they get out, by the way, can they-" "No, no, they can't." "Okay, good, good" is... yeah. It's also interesting when considering that Tommy later seems to panic at the suggestion of being let back in/having doors unlocked when he's outside

Tommy seems very willing to put himself in harm's way, especially at Wilbur's suggestion (the drowning, threats of fighting, collapsing as soon as Wilbur says "Collapse down there.", etc.)

"The collapse went-" "It looks like it's on your friend, Will" "I can't anyway, I'm pinned down from the fall" ....???

Why did Wilbur want Tommy to unplug things/switch them off so badly? What happened during the blackout?

Why aren't you having a good Halloween Wimbly Scoot? What's going on? Huh?

And then there's the whole part where Tommy goes outside.

The first time, when he's outside the window, apart from being... generally weird, the whole breathing bit seems very off. Not sure whether there's something to decode there or just Tommy Shenanigans

When Tommy goes out a second time, there's a whole struggle with doors being locked and keys and whatnot

When Tubbo suggests to let Tommy in, he starts panicking immediately, yelling out protests, aggressively finger-pointing and banging on the window, running his hands through his hair, etc. Is it because he wants to keep them in, or keep something else out?

Tommy then disappears for about 6 minutes, in which Aimsey can't find him, before returning, covered in mud and leaves, and acting dissociated, disturbed, and near-catatonic.

I've seen loads of people saying the mud is possibly from digging a grave (which does seem like a likely scenario), but it is curious that Tommy has leaves in his hair, and looks otherwise dishevelled. Could this be a sign of a struggle? A scuffle? Can't be sure.

And a last couple of notes

I've seen several people talking about a point at which Tommy's blinks create the Morse Code for "stop", but I'm not sure which point it is, and am not familiar enough with morse to check it, unfortunately

The theory of Tommy/arginnit being controlled or possessed by Wilbur/argbur seems likely. Obviously, Tommy is acting off, Wilbur is commanding him, etc, but also in the sense that Tommy seems to be attempting to fight back, somehow? Between letting everyone hear the call, the "stop" blinking, and his panic at being let inside, at least. Perhaps the leaves and dirt, attempted drowning, and so on, weren't just instructions from Wilbur, but perhaps some rather violent/extreme attempts to stop himself/whoever it is from hurting everyone else...

If Tommy's resisting Wilbur somehow, it could also explain why Wilbur's Halloween don't seem to be going so great.

obviously this is all speculation, i don't claim to own anything lol, and it's too early to know anything for sure. but goddamn.

all tommyinnit and wilbur soot know is make personas, traumatise teenagers, eat hot chip and lie 😔

[oh-boy-me]

If I had to summarize my review of season 2 of obey me into one thought, I think it’s that the story was pretty dang good but the pacing messed it up.

--Entirety of Season 2 Spoilers Below--

The concept was really interesting: MC is a human, of angelic descent, with seven incredibly powerful demonic pacts, and the three realms literally can’t handle all of that.  We spend time with our beloved boys, while everything slowly mixes together into a perfect storm, where when you look back (almost) everything either was a hint or tied into the big picture.

And the flow got really nice by the end of it--Levi’s time loop game led right into the reaper plot, which didn’t directly cause Lucifer to collapse, but the transition still felt natural.  It stopped feeling like events, with 2-chapter isolated stories that have nothing to do with each other.  Obviously, it was revealed that most of them were connected in some way later on, but at the time we had no way to anticipate this.

The characters (well, most of them) got really interesting development, with Lucifer softening up, Mammon being more open, Asmo learning some self love, etc., etc.  Obviously it wasn’t perfect, like I think Satan got super overlooked, though I’m glad the Anti Lucifer League gave him some good moments.  And yes, I feel like Asmo’s second arc was a direct result of us complaining about a lack of screen time and development, which would explain why it feels kind of separate from everything else.  BUT, I can’t call that a bad thing, because it means they listened to us.

There were some really funny points too, like Solomon insisting that everyone needs to try his udon to the point where they’re pretty sure they’re going to die that evening.  And some really emotional ones too, like the brothers giving gifts to MC (especially Satan’s and Mammon’s, I LOVE how they called back something that old).  And thought provoking ones, like when Asmo had so much trouble saying something genuinely good about himself and had to face his shallow interpretation of his self worth.  Or when they strongly hinted that the name “undateables” might be outdated soon 👀.

But... like I said, it was slow.  It wasn’t until lesson 37 or so that I started to understand what was going on, and not knowing what the big picture was for so long really messed with my enjoyment of the middle of the season.  I started putting off reading the new chapters, something that never happened in season one, because I couldn’t be bothered to catch up.  Once chapter 36 ended the delay dropped from weeks down to only a day or so, and I wish my investment could have been that high the whole time.

I think this could have been fixed with one change: we should have known about the ring’s problems much sooner.  It doesn’t feel right that this issue that had been building up for 16 lessons got resolved in only two.  Solomon and Diavolo knew about it for ages, it’s not like the information was unknown.  Lucifer collapsing could still be the catalyst for things, but maybe it would put them in a code red situation, rather than being the thing that let’s you know there’s a situation at all.

Season one worked as well as it did despite its many cliches and mini-arcs because from lesson 5 on we had an overarching goal: get 6 pacts and free Belphie from the attic.  Even when we were on a retreat, or solving a murder case, or ending up in a video game, that goal was still there to drive us forward.  The goal stayed with us for 11 lesson, getting slightly revised and then resolved.  This time, we don’t have any real conflict/goal to look towards until 17 lessons in, and I think that’s the root of most of the problems I’ve had with this season.

There are some smaller things too, like the trip to the Celestial Realm being underwhelming and unfulfilled even with the connection to the big picture.  I also kind of have trouble remembering the play existed even though it was the main focus for like eight lessons.  And this is personal, but I kind of wish some of the brothers wouldn’t come on so strong before you choose a romantic answer.  Maybe I just feel guilty for turning them down too easily though, haha.

But!  I think it ended really strongly, and that the characters and world grew from where they were before.  (And technically I finally got my cultural festival so.)  And like I said, pacing aside, they really did bring cool ideas to the table.

I hope they’ll take a little more time planning things out, and maybe space things out a little better than once a week (honestly I think two every two weeks felt better? idk).  And if we don’t harass them to get the new season out and then immediately turn around and complain that content is coming out too fast (looking at you, Twitter), I think we’re still on an upwards path of interesting stories.

I’m looking forward to what they come up with next!

[scoundrels-in-love]

can i just say how much i loved your take on kissing + overt physical intimacy in kdramas? i've long thought about the consequences that those kinds of scenes have for actors--especially women--because they then have to deal with people harassing them for showing affection to colleagues, weird rumors, and then mass nitpicking. plus, if they aren't comfortable, it makes it even more difficult. there's also something icky about forcing western media norms onto korean entertainment. something's off

Ahhh, thank you so much for this message! It means a lot, because I did/do have some anxiety over posting this. And oh boy, looking back, do I have about this as well!

I almost ended up emitting that strike through, admittedly, because I feel like I am not knowledgeable enough to make these assessments and claims that might sound judgemental, but I had to say something and I will try to expand here a little. I do not wish to come across as ignorant, but I am aware that I don’t know enough to make this in full fledged discussion as it ought to be.

It’s honestly so wild that while we’re watching this drama where Eun Bi is literally about to be cancelled for having put her hand on a married man’s hand and then asking for this very free depiction of sexual intimacy, while fans that ship the actors are running rampant on twitter and having hard time seeing the line between acting and real life. Netizens and regular watchers alike have such notoriously hard time distinguishing these details and nuances and while it’s not necessary for a show to step around these things just because people like to jump to conclusions, I also don’t know... Why it would be necessary to do this in this specific context.

Plus, I don’t know a lot about filming industry, but I do know there are intimacy coordinators/consultants and when I think about how unexplored this could be in Korean movie industry and how iffy it could turn, when I think about all the scandals surrounding Korea, from the cameras in women changing rooms to Burning Sun and more and more, just every glimpse of how women and their bodies are treated in the society by the looks of it... I’d rather not think that about having to make actresses (and actors) go through more than they already do, put themselves at emotional and physical risk (I’ve seen real life horror stories where such things turn into genuine assaults on movie sets, although I would have to dig around to find sources, because my brain is one big cheese hole) just so part of the watchers can get their enjoyment of watching them go at it on screen. (Like, even the comparison of these scenes to porn literally kinda makes me shudder uncomfortably and it’s coming from the watchers/fans!)

As for your final point... Oh boy, do I have thoughts on that and if it wasn’t 3am, I probably wouldn’t kick the hornet’s nest, but here we go.

I have complained in secret (aka to my friends) about how Netflix is impacting the way kdramas are told by bringing influx of season 2s, which is something that I dreaded from way before Netflix era while youtube and even tumblr was full with ‘season 2 when!! We need it!!” although the story is complete and wrapped up with a pretty bow. One of the reasons I fell for kdramas are that they told beautiful story that we saw from start to end in 16 episodes, without need to be stretched over seasons and seasons and collapsing in on itself. And while kdramas don’t have to pander to me (or anyone else) as a genre, there is something about this particular way of storytelling that their writers have created and maintained for years now (with the subgenre for a longer makjangs), so why must they change it to become more Westernized?

Someone on my original post did comment about how tiring is the sexless asian stereotype and I hope I come across clear in that post and this that I am not against the concept of there being sex and intimacy in these stories. I just also don’t think the only way to show the characters are mature and engaged in full-fledged relationship and even sexual one, by actually us having to WITNESS it from start to finish.

Again, I’ve not minded the upgrade from typical fisheye kisses where height of girl’s enthusiasm is her feebly clutching to man’s jacket that kdramas have seen in latest years, there’s been some truly beautifully shot hot kisses! I just don’t think that anything less than getting undressed on bed or full-out makeout should be a mark against the couple and the drama, especially if a shyer kiss is in line with characters and the moment Especially with a show like Run On that thrives on saying so much in the spaces between lines.

But also a thought: how much of this relentless thirst for sexual content in these stories could actually be a subset of fetishizing of POC because a lot of these thirsty people are white?

[recentanimenews]

ESSAY: Kiki's Delivery Service: Not Just For Kids

  Adulthood is hard. The things that we all joke about, like taxes and having a ton of paperwork to go through, are tough to deal with, but that's not all there is to it. I’m years out of high school, out of college, and I still don’t feel like I know everything I need to be a "good adult." And it’s very likely that I never will. For the most part, I think I’m doing pretty okay, but there’s always a nagging feeling that I’m not doing everything I’m supposed to do or should have accomplished more, and I'm not alone in this. It's the pressure of having to do everything for yourself, by yourself, and that can get very lonely. I recently rewatched Kiki's Delivery Service with a friend of mine after having not seen it since I was a kid. I remembered some specific scenes, but not much on the story itself. Rewatching it again wasn’t just fun, but was also a great surprise. Kiki is heralded as a coming-of-age story, so I thought it would be something I would simply enjoy — not something I would end up resonating with. 

  Image via GKIDS

  Kiki starts out by leaving her family and home behind due to a custom that young witches set out into the world at age 13 and ends up going to a new town far away from anything she’d ever known. Moving out is frightening. The idea of packing up and moving away, sometimes to a different country, is a terrifying one, and one that people have to do all the time. Leases expire, roommates come and go, and it is harder and harder for young adults to afford to buy a home. Being in transition, whether it’s for location or financial reasons, is extremely common, but doesn’t become easy. A home is a home, and having to pack up and move on, no matter how many times you do it, is still hard. 

  While Kiki is very quickly given a place to stay and run her business in the bakery, she still doesn’t know anyone. As the only witch in town, she is isolated from a potential community. She finds comfort in the baker couple, who provide a home for her and readily welcome her into their family, and Tonbo, who often seeks her out. Later, after a botched delivery, she stumbles upon the painter Ursula, who she ends up bonding with as mutual outcasts. Those people become not just her friends, but her support network. Her family isn't around, so she needs to find people that will not just help her when she's in need, but also make life more enjoyable. The people you surround yourself with from day to day can truly make or break an environment, and seeking out a good group of people to support you is key. 

  Image via GKIDS

  The main thing that causes Kiki to start losing her powers is her fading confidence in the world itself. She is hired by an old woman who wants to make herring pie for her granddaughter, and Kiki decides to go past the role of delivery person to help the woman finish her bake. Kiki powers through a storm to deliver the food on time and makes it all the way to the granddaughter’s home — only for the granddaughter to answer the door and say that she never wanted the pie to begin with. This is a lesson that people tend to learn very early on, but it stings even more as an adult, when you have to deal with the reality that sometimes putting effort in and working hard at your job won’t always reward you. Kiki doesn’t become misanthropic, but she is overcome with a heavy melancholy because of it. The scene of her just collapsing into bed and not wanting to talk, see anyone, or even get up — I’ve been there before. Work is hard, and dealing with people is harder, and it's very easy to get bummed out after a bad day. Sometimes, it changes you, but you have to keep moving forward. 

  Image via GKIDS

  In a transcription from the official art book, Miyazaki mentions that the problems that Kiki struggles with are the problems that some of the young members of the Ghibli staff has as well — they are universal issues. The struggle against isolation, anxiety, and loneliness isn’t just for children growing into adults, but for adults who have to exist in the world around them — a world that is not always so nice. And yet, a thing I greatly appreciate about the movie, especially as an adult, is that there is a happy enough ending. Not everything is resolved; Kiki will never be able to hear Jiji again, the granddaughter is never shown making up with her grandmother, and it’s unclear whether Kiki is able to deeply connect with Tonba’s friends. However, her experiences don't change who she is at the core, that no matter what the world throws at her, she will continue to keep doing her best. The world is complicated and filled with unexpected things, and it's easy to get bogged down by them — but that's not all there is to the world. To power through regardless and make your place, now isn't that what adulthood is about?

  Have you connected with Kiki's story? Let us know in the comments!

        Noelle Ogawa is a contributor to Bubbleblabber and Cup of Moe. She can be found on Twitter @noelleogawa.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[incarnateirony]

Something has been eating at me for a while.

“Meta and speculation are different” yes, they are. But speculation without any meta foundation is like throwing a dart at a board with a blindfold on after being spun in circles. Meta that fails to supply valid speculatory direction and ends up being dashed by upcoming events means the wrong things are being focused on at the wrong angles and, if you continue to build on the premises of that old meta, you will continue to veer left.

Also if you write a 10 page thing and the vaguiest vague blogging general parts of it are right, or indirectly right, that doesn’t indirectly validate the rest of the meta; EG if someone writes between the lines that X symbol and Y color means Z thing is going to happen, like, a specific color coding meaning a character is going to be possessed by specific character, but then it turns out some random ghost did it -- or the other way around -- don’t wave that around. Like congrats you got a fragment of it right but if the rest was framed as connecting these two things and these things weren’t connected the way you thought don’t use one of the things to keep framing other things when that has been proven wrong?? but you wanted to say it was almost-right-ish if you turn it sideways?

When people talk about the meta community bragging about irrelevant shit, that’s it. When anyone assumes the most basic, adjacent, indirect thing being almost-right validates everything else, it’s like procedurally setting up broken foundations that, whether anyone actively speculates from, people build their lenses from, and then by the end you’re confused and don’t understand why it’s gone where it’s gone.

Similarly, assuming a given ring of your few chosen friends that agree with everything you say makes a bad echo chamber. Especially when meta continues to crumble into the aether but is just sort of brushed under the rug, but after 15 years of rug brushing, that rug’s pretty lumpy right now and people just sit on the pile like, nothing to see here, folks.

I say this because in the final season, there’s so much built up fanon -- formerly pleasing meta ideas, fanfictions, and other concepts -- that people have started taking to heart, and never really addressed that it was brushed under the rug and pretend the rug is fine, and then when the rug gets pulled out from under them, they land in a big pile of meta rubble and because they hoarded it and never released it, are prone to feeling like the show has betrayed them.

For reasons I will pretend are magical and mystic(TM) that hasn’t happened to me but happens to a great deal of people that have become reliant on fandom Thinkers, and we have one year left. Make sure everything adds up. Look back at the history of their work and see how well it’s played out if you rely on anyone’s framing to understand things. Did they truly understand and predict things as they were coming forward, or did they pull a random ticket with some extreme Reach afterward to save digital clout or their own pride -- are you allowing yourself to get knotted up by someone inconsistent?

Hell, there’s people I’ve seen around here that are like “Speculation is dumb I never” and then write entire pages long speculation posts literally pulled out of the air from the most random directions or like “other social media platforms are for plebs so if you go anywhere but this platform you are implicitly intellectually inferior to me” like tumblr is some hotbed of academia foremost rather than a collapsed porn vat. And then like, turn around and say all the bad hot takes that happen on twitter are dumb but then whip up bad hot takes here.

Read between the lines, make sure you aren’t letting anyone fabricate and malign the angle you’re taking in the final season to enjoy it with. If you have someone you reliably follow that genuinely seems to predict and forecast in complete framing ways to enjoy, that’s fine. But if they talk both ways, pull penny receipts of indirect vagueries, and are rarely if ever right, *please* make sure for your own enjoyment folks that you don’t let this last season hang on expectations someone else pulled literally out of thin air. 

[goatyuzuru]

Thoughts on 2018/2019 Season

Actually, I am supposed to be on a figure skating fast because I want to take a break, take a step back, and remove my feelings from this sport. It’s helped me a lot this week. But I think before I refast, I want to say I’m just so glad this season is finally over. The way the corruption of this sport escalated was beyond what I even expected. I knew about the corruption, the politicking, the amusement of the way judges score skaters, however, I didn’t think it took less than 1 season for it to get to a new level. I see skaters getting low 80s to mid 90s throughout 1 season. I see robbing everywhere. I see selective calls. I know it will not change even after this season ended, but having this off season will allow me to breathe.

Over the past weeks of grieving about World Championships 2019 Men’s event results, I am now in a mix of stages among bargaining/depression/acceptance. I think I ranted too much on twitter and Planet Hanyu last two weeks that I don’t think I need to talk about my denial or anger stages. 

Bargaining

There were many what ifs that went through my mind during these couple of weeks.

“What if Yuzu was never injured? not at cor 2018, not at nhk 2017, or not even his many other injuries that he’s decided to never share with the public? He would probably have been invincible by now.” But that is such an unrealistic and greedy expectation for an elite skater. Also, Yuzu is a human who simply makes the most out of what he has. I don't want to think of him as invincible or superhuman. We are all human who think we are subhuman trying to be superhuman. Yuzu is already inspirational by being his full potential. He allows me to love both the weak Yuzuru and the strong Yuzuru.  

“What if I never discovered Yuzu in 2016? What if I never discovered figure skating in 2010? When I first came to know Yuzu I thought because he won so much, the sport actually rewards talent. After a while I slowly discovered the ugly truth that even when he did win a lot in his life, he’s been robbed and underscored chronically. It was he who earned those titles, snatched those scores off from the judges’ dirty hands, challenged the system, and fought his way to be above the scoring corruption and above the sport. So when I found out the truth about what this sport really is, I really wished I never knew about it.” But then to know Yuzu is also one of the best things that happened to me. He inspired me as a person in so many ways. And to know Yuzu means I have known what true figure skating is. There is real figure skating in Yuzuru Hanyu and the figure skating that ISU is promoting. 

“What if he never won at PyeongChang? That might have been better for me to quit watching figure skating at that time." But that would be super selfish and stupid. The gold medal is one of the best compensations that happened to Yuzu throughout his competitive life as a skater.

“What if he retired after PC? The sport doesn’t deserve him. Everyone benefited from his presence except the man himself.” But I am not Yuzu and I can’t walk his journey. I can’t feel his pain or happiness so how would I know he won’t still enjoy his difficult road ahead. 

“What if Yuzu changes the way he skates? What if he tries to go with Nathan’s or Vincent’s strategy? The system doesn’t judge program components correctly or penalize incorrect techniques, so why bother following the rules when you’re not rewarded? Or "what if he changes his nationality to Canada, Japan doesn’t deserve him anyway?” But I realize from Yuzu’s interviews that while he hates losing the most, he would never change himself in order to win. I realize that it is as hard for Yuzu to empty his program for the jumps as Nathan delivering a complete program. Likewise, it is as hard for Yuzu to cheat his techniques as Vincent trying to correct his. And even if Yuzu did all of these things Nathan or Vincent did, he isn’t an American to get this treatment. Yuzu isn’t the one who should change, should lower his standard. It is the ISU, the judges, the tech panelist, the federations. Yuzu does not need a new passport to win. He did it before to be beyond the corruption, he can possibly do it again. 

After bargaining so much, I realized none of the what ifs will do any good for Yuzu, for the other skaters, for the sport, or myself. I was led to a stage of depression.

Depression 

I guess to many spectators, the scoring discourses on social media and among fandoms seem very silly or “not that deep”. But as someone who thoroughly invest my time, energy, and emotion as a fan for it, I find the necessity in having these voices so that even if the scores don’t stand or the system collapses, the true figure skaters can be remembered, the message of unfairness can be reached to new fans. Seeing myself, who is this much invested into the sport just as a fan, I wonder how much more the many figure skaters, who’ve gone through such pressure and discipline, financial hardship and injuries, emotional breakdowns and sacrifices, have been robbed of their potential titles/scores/sponsorships.

The problem I’m seeing is not only the skaters who don’t benefit from the corruption are negatively affected, the skaters who benefit from the corruption also get hate from many people. Look, I don’t hate the American skaters like Nathan/Vincent/Bradie or the Russian skaters from Eteri camp/Samarin...etc. When I don’t like someone’s skating I am usually just indifferent to them, meaning I don’t bother following them. That’s simple; if you don’t like something, you stop watching it. The problem is these skaters are being shoved into my faces and the way they are being overscored robbed me of my enjoyment for the sport because I find it unfair. That’s also very simple. So I hate to see people generalizing all of the rants are coming from a place of biasness or antis. That is not true. Also, as soon as you are a fan of certain skater, in my case a Yuzuru Hanyu’s fan, you are automatically being labeled as a sore loser or hater. The thing is, many fans who truly study figure skating would agree that the scores don’t match with what are being seen. But it happens that they might be a smaller part of a fandom and don’t get too vocal about this. So instead of seeing everyone as an obsessive fanyu, perhaps the reason many of them fight so hard is to see someone like Yuzuru Hanyu, who is the epitome of a figure skater, gets rewarded deservedly. Perhaps it’s because we value great technique and great skating and the skaters who won happen to not have those? I think it is fair to say a lot of people would get hurt because their favorite skaters did not win and the initial reaction could be a bit overwhelming. That’s normal. But if what they are witnessing in the sport that led to their criticism are fair, they should have the right to vocalize their criticism in order for justice to be heard, especially the rulebook to back their criticism. 

Yet over and over, no matter how reasonable many people have been. No matter how much effort in putting up videos to compare skaters’ programs or to explain the discrepancies in the way the tech panel called or didn’t call certain elements, the ISU and general public decide to be ignorant about it. They create their own narratives or put up media play to benefit themselves. They take down videos to remove the evidences. I even think of proposals on how to change the scoring system/format. Maybe the skaters shouldn’t get the scores right after they skate? Maybe we should only have 1 panel of the same judges? Maybe the judges/tech need more time to review the elements and program components? Maybe ice scopes should be inplemented for all jumps and in all countries. Every single element will be put into video cuts for the judges and tech to review and mark the bullets accordingly so the GOEs will autopopulate? The definitions in the rulebooks need to be given more objective, quantative metrics based on collective data or stats? Maybe the scores should be temporarily announced 2 hours after the competition (if the scores get announced later, the competition will be shortened) and the public can vote for what scores need to be reviewed. They can ask the judges to write a review at the end of the day on why they score the elements/PC and if the public do not agree they judges will get a strike. After 3 strikes in their career, the judges will be banned from judging? If any fed decides to bribe the public, at least someone can report it? I thought about all of these possibilities...

And I realize the products are not going to change as long as the creator isn’t willing. There will always be some loopholes.

Acceptance

I am slowly accepting all of this, what I cannot do and what I can do. Accepting neither means that I am agreeing with the results or scores nor normalizing the way the sport plays out. I only know that I cannot change the way ISU/feds politicking or how the general public’s view about certain skaters/achievement stans bandwagon on the glory of its beneficiaries' achievements. But what I know is I will not give them what they want: my attention/money/support. I don’t want to give attention to the undeserving skaters whom I feel like they try to promote. Rather than giving these skaters attention through my ranting, instead, I can just go back to how I should, which is stop watching them. It will be hard since Yuzu will be competing against some of these skaters and that I will follow his career as long as he allows me to, which makes it inevitable that I would see other skaters somehow. But if I would just really ignore, it would allow me to stop feeding on my hatred/bitterness toward other skaters, who aren’t bad people and are pretty talented per se, and just support Yuzu as his fan. I want to spread the love so that even if he perhaps might not always win or get the highest scores on paper, his greatness could still be felt and seen. Because of the love that is spread for Yuzu on twitter, Olympic Channel acknowledges him as the biggest star. Laureus twitter now actively tweets about him. Figure Skating is such a low profile sport but Yuzu is often compared to other greats like Rogers Federer or Tiger Woods (lol) or even Ronaldo by commentators. That shows how he really beyond this sport.

At the end of the day, I console myself that whatever Yuzu has achieved does not even define everything about how great he is as a skater. So I will just try my best to enjoy his career when I can. 

[noescapevg]

“Politics? In MY Video Games? It’s more likely than you think.”

Welcome to No Escape, a video game writing blog by me, Trevor Hultner. I’m a 27-year-old human person on the internet who thinks writing about video games will somehow bring me joy still, in 2019. I should definitely know better, but here I am!

Earlier this week, video game media Twitter started buzzing about an op-ed by Russ Pitts, the Editor-in-Chief over at the “New” Escapist Magazine, which was relaunched late last year. In this op-ed, Pitts took the “branching paths” approach to essay-writing, going down many different avenues of conversation regarding “ethics in games journalism” toward an overall point of... and I quote:��

“To be honest, I don’t know [where this leaves us]. The last time we all tried to have this conversation it … didn’t go well. But the industry, the media, and you all deserve more, and the only way we’ll get there is if we can try again.”

Pitts has taken the old post down (a copy of which you better believe I’ve saved) and put an apology up in its place. He apologizes for potentially instigating remnants of GamerGate to go after their old targets yet again, but... 

I think I’m getting too far ahead of myself. There’s a time and place to critique Pitts’ post and his apology, and that time is coming soon, but why are we here to start with? 

Entertainment is not exempt from politics

There seems to be a widespread belief among people who are not outwardly far-right ideologues that the things we enjoy - music, movies, books, video games - are not inherently political. A book is just a book, a game is just a game, and so on. And these things we enjoy should be convergence points: places where people from everywhere on the socio-cultural-political spectrum can come together and share in the enjoyment. 

The thing is, games - as well as books, movies, music, etc. - are made by people, and people can’t help but be shaped by the world around them. Our influences are most of the time very expressly political, even if we’re not picking up on the messages right away. 

Here’s an example. Destiny and Destiny 2 are two highly popular post-Halo FPS games from Bungie. The franchise’s overarching story is exceedingly simple: You play a reborn and functionally immortal “Guardian” of the remnants of humanity. Your franchise-long mission, given to you by your Ghost, is to defend humanity and something called the Traveler, which is also the source of your new supernatural powers, from the forces of the Darkness. The easiest way to carry out your mission is to defeat hordes of enemies by shooting, punching and superpowering your way to victory. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy. No politics at all, right? 

Well.

As you play the games, and especially the campaign for Destiny 2, you catch glimpses of a heavily-stratified class society, with the essentially-divinely-chosen Guardians on top and mortal humanity below them. The Guardians have built a massive wall around the Last Safe City on Earth with the functional purpose of keeping humanity’s enemies at bay, but we hear from one character how the walls also serve to keep humanity in, essentially forming a prison state. 

Then there’s the moral quandary of your stated mission: kill everything that wants to kill the Light. While there are at least two very evil alien factions in the game (the Vex and the Hive/Taken), two more exist with more ambiguous motives, or at the very least, a much less well-defined alignment with the Darkness. The Fallen (whose actual species is called the Eliksni) and the Cabal are two alien armies the Guardians face off against where our acts of killing them seem more... genocidal than with the former, more markedly “evil” enemies. 

The Eliksni in particular sits in a tragic position: their mission is to simply reclaim the techno- and morphological blessings the Traveler bestowed upon them, and to rebuild their society after their own collapse (known in the lore as The Whirlwind). The Cabal don’t seem super interested in the Traveler, at least not at first, and their incursion on Earth doesn’t actually take place until Dominus Ghaul brings the Red Legion planetside. Why couldn’t we negotiate with them instead of fighting? It’s questionable. 

“Okay, fine, Destiny is political. But not every game has to be!” You might be muttering to yourself. And that’s true! Not every game has to be political. But that doesn’t stop many games from being expressly political, and that doesn’t stop developers from having political views that shape the way they do business, at the very least.

And for that matter, that doesn’t stop the game’s audience from being political, even if they think they’re not. Misogyny, transphobia and homophobia, racism, ableism and other bigotries have expressly political and ideological roots. And I hate to break it to you, but when people who share ideologies group together to collectively organize around those ideologies, a la GamerGate, that’s a definitively political act. When “gamers” decried the gleeful Nazi-punching in the latest Wolfenstein edition, that was a political act. 

There is No Escape

I always find myself at a disadvantage when I decide to start talking about politics, because of the deep ideological gap between myself and my interlocutors most of the time. I’m an anarchist with roots in punk rock music, which has deeply effected the lens in which I view the entire world. I’m used to the idea that everything is political. You might not be. That’s okay. Be open to new possibilities. Just realize that there is no escape. 

I’m starting this blog partly out of spite for folks like Pitts at the Escapist, but also because I think it actually is possible to spark conversations about the nature of ethics in video games as a whole, and that these conversations don’t need to be led by the same tired media voices. By embracing politics the way politics has embraced us, there might actually come a day where people don’t have to rehash the same six tired discussions over and over again.

The image at the top of this post is a screenshot from HBomberguy’s massive Donkey Kong 64 marathon livestream. He raised $340,000 out of spite for transphobic washed up comedy writers, and in the process, got Chelsea Manning and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the same chatroom for a little bit. He got John Romero to say “Trans Rights” on stream. That’s some wild stuff, and it was absolutely expressly political.

There is no other kind of situation where something like that could happen.

So what is there to do?

Well, that’s a broad question. This blog will examine video games through a political lens, that much is for sure. Ideally, like really “pie in the sky” stuff here, this blog would be a resource for people wanting to know more about issues in the video game industry as a whole and wanting something to “do” about those issues. But as for you? 

Get used to the idea of politics in your games, and get acclimated with the problems facing the people in the industry who aren’t collecting fat checks from their labor. Support efforts to unionize games workers, and support indie devs when you can. Hopefully, over time, we can all be organized for a better games future.

Thanks for reading!

[atthevogue]

“Tony de Peltrie” (1985)

The basics: Wikipedia

Opened: A landmark piece of computer animation, the Canadian short was part of the 19th Annual Tournee of Animation anthology that showed at the Vogue Theater in March and April of 1986.

Also on the bill: At least one Saturday in April, it was programmed in the 9:00 slot after Chris Marker’s Akira Kurosawa documentary A.K. and Woody Allen’s Sleeper, and before a midnight showing of Night of the Living Dead, which sounds to me like a very good eight-hour day at the movies. Otherwise, you could have had a less perfect day seeing it play after Haskell Wexler’s forgotten Nicaragua war movie Latino and the equally forgotten Gene Hackman/Ann-Margaret romantic drama Twice in a Lifetime.

What did the paper say? ★★★1/2 from the Courier-Journal film critic Dudley Saunders. Saunders described the Tournee as “a specialized event that shows signs of moving into the movie mainstream,” correctly presaging the renaissance in feature-length animation in the 1990s generally and Pixar specifically, whose Luxo, Jr. short was released that same year. Of Tony, Saunders singles it out as “one of the most technologically advanced,” and that it featured “some delightful music from Marie Bastien.” He then throws his hands up: "Computers were used in this Canadian entry. Don’t ask how.” Saunders was long-time film critic for the C-J’s afternoon counterpart, the Louisville Times, throughout the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. In the late 1980s, he would co-found Louisville’s free alternative weekly, the Louisville Eccentric Observer.

What was I doing? I was six and hypothetically could have seen an unrated animation festival, though I'd have been a little bit too young to have fully appreciated it. Although, who knows, I’m sure I was watching four hours of cartoons a day at the time, so maybe my taste was really catholic.

How do I see it in 2018? It’s on YouTube.

A four-hour-a-day diet of cartoons was probably on the lower end for most of my peers. I grew up during what I believe is commonly known as the Garbage Age of Animation, which you can trace roughly from The Aristocrats in 1970 to The Little Mermaid (or The Simpsons) in 1989. The quantity of animation was high, and the quality was low. Those twenty years were a wasteland for Disney, and even though I have fond memories of a lot of those movies, like The Black Cauldron, they’re a pretty bleak bunch compared to what was sitting in those legendary Disney vaults, waiting patiently to be released on home video.

Other than low-quality Disney releases, the 1980s were highlighted mostly by the post-’70s crap was being churned out of the Hanna-Barbera laboratories. Either that, or nutrition-free Saturday morning toy commercials like The Smurfs and G.I. Joe. Of course there’s also Don Bluth, whose work is kind of brilliant, but whose odd feature-length movies seem very out-of-step with the times. Don Bluth movies seem now like baroque Disney alternatives for weird, dispossessed kids who didn’t yet realize they were weird and dispossessed. (Something like The Secret of NIMH is like Jodorowsky compared to, say, 101 Dalmatians.) Most of the bright spots of those years were produced under the patronage of the saint of 1980s suburbia, Steven Spielberg. An American Tale or Tiny Toon Adventures aren’t regarded today as auteurist masterpieces of animation (or are they?), but they were really smart and imaginative if you were nine years old. Still, the idea that cartoons might be sophisticated enough to be enjoyed by non-stoned adults was probably very alien concept in 1985.

In the midst of all of this, though, scattered throughout the world were a bunch of programmers and animators working out the next regime. Within ten years of Tony de Peltrie, Pixar’s Toy Story would be the first feature-length CGI animated movie, and within another ten years, traditional hand-drawn animation, at least for blockbuster commercial purposes, would be effectively dead. That went for both kids and their parents. Animation, like comic books, would take on a new sophistication and levels of respectability in the coming decades.

I love it when you read an old newspaper review with the benefit of hindsight, and find that the critic has gotten it right in predicting how things may play out in years to come. That’s why I was excited to read in Saunders’ review of the Tournee that he suspected animation as an artform was showing “signs of moving into the movie mainstream.” His sense of confusion (or wonder, or some combination) at the computer-generated aspects is charming in retrospect, too.

Tony de Peltrie is a landmark in computer-generated animation, but its lineage doesn’t really travel through the Pixar line at all (even though John Lassetter himself served on the award panel for the film festival where it was first shown, and predicted it’d be regarded as a landmark piece of animation). The children of the 1970s and ‘80s grew up to revere the golden era of Pixar movies as adults, and the general consensus is that not only are they great technical accomplishments, but works of great emotional resonance.

As much of an outlier as it makes me: I just don’t know. I haven’t really thought so. I think most Pixar movies are really, really sappy in the most obvious way possible. The oldest ones look to me as creaky as all those rotoscoped Ralph Bakshi cartoons of the ‘70s. Which is fine, technology is one thing -- most silent movies look pretty creaky, too -- but the underlying of armature of refined Disney sap that supports the whole structure strains to the point of collapse after a time or two.

Film critic Emily Yoshida said it best on Twitter: she noted, when Incredibles 2 came out, she’d recently re-watched the first Incredibles and was shocked at how crude it looked. "The technoligization of animation will not do individual works favors over time,” she wrote. “The wet hair effect in INCREDIBLES, which I remember everyone being so excited about, felt like holding a first generation iPod. Which is how these movies have trained people to watch them on a visual level...as technology.” There’s something here that I think Yoshida is alluding to about Pixar movies that is very Silicon Valley-ish in the way they’re consumed, almost as status symbols, or as luxury products. This is true nearly across all sectors of the tech industry now, but it’s particularly evident with animation.

One of my favorite movie events of the year is when the Landmark theaters here in Minneapolis play the Oscar-nominated animated shorts at the beginning of the year. Every year, it’s the same: you’ll get a collection of fascinating experiments from all over the world, some digitally rendered, some hand-drawn. They don’t always work, and some of them are really bad, but there’s always such a breadth of styles, emotions and narratives that I’m always engaged and delighted. They remind you that, in animation, you can do anything you want. You can go anywhere, try everything, show anything a person can imagine. Seeing the animated shorts every year, more than anything else, gets me so excited about what movies can be.

And then, in the middle of the program, there’s invariably some big gooey, sentimental mush from Pixar. Not all of them are bad, and some are quite nicely done, but for the most part, it’s cute anthropomorphized animals or objects or kids placed in cute, emotionally manipulative situations. I usually go refill my Diet Coke or take a bathroom break during the Pixar sequence.

Yeah, yeah, I know. What kind of monster hates Pixar? 

I don’t hate Pixar, and I like most of the pre-Cars 2 features just fine. The best parts of Toy Story and Up and Wall-E are as good as people say they are. But when you take the reputation that Pixar has had for innovation and developing exciting new filmmaking technology in the past 25 years, and compare it to the reality, there’s an enormous gap. And it drives me nuts, because if this is supposed to be the best American animation has to offer in terms of innovation and emotional engagement, it's not very inspiring. Especially placed alongside the sorts of animated shorts that come out of independent studios elsewhere in the U.S., or Japan, or France, or Canada. 

Which brings us to Tony de Peltrie, created in Montreal by four French-Canadian animators, and supported in part by the National Film Board of Canada, who would continue to nurture and support animation projects in Canada through the twenty-first century. A huge part of the enjoyment -- and for me, there was an enormous amount of enjoyment in watching Tony de Peltrie -- is seeing this entirely new way of telling stories and conveying images appear in front of you for the first time. Maybe it’s because I have clear memories of a world without contemporary CGI, but I still find this enormous sense of wonder in what’s happening as Tony is onscreen. I still remember very clearly seeing the early landmarks of computer-aided graphics, and being almost overwhelmed with a sense of awe -- Tron, Star Trek IV, Jurassic Park. Tony feels a bit like that, even after so many superior technical accomplishments that followed.

Tony de Peltrie doesn’t have much of a plot. A washed-up French-Canadian entertainer recounts his past glories as he sits at the piano and plays, and then slowly dissolves over a few minutes into an amorphous, impressionistic void. (Part of the joke, I think, is using such cutting-edge technology to tell the story of a white leather shoe-clad artist whose work has become very unfashionable by the 1980s.) It’s really just a monologue. The content could be conveyed using a live actor, or traditional hand-drawn animation.  

But Tony looks so odd, just sitting on the edge of the Uncanny Valley, dangling those white leather shoes into the void. Part of the appeal is that, while Tony’s monologue is so human and delivered in such an off-the-cuff way, you’re appreciating the challenge of having the technology match the humanity. Tony’s chin and eyes and fingers are exaggerated, like a caricature, but there’s such a sense of warmth underneath the chilliness of the computer-rendered surfaces. Though it’s wistful and charming, you wouldn’t necessarily call it a landmark in storytelling -- again, it’s just a monologue, and not an unfamiliar one -- but it is a technological landmark in showing that the computer animation could be used to humane ends. It’d be just as easy to make Tony fly through space or kill robots or whatever else. But instead, you get an old, well-worn story that slowly eases out of the ordinary into the surreal, and happens so gradually you lose yourself in a sort of trance.

As Yoshida wrote, technoligization of animation doesn’t do individual works favors over time. To that end, something like Tony can’t be de-coupled from its impressive but outdated graphics. These landmarks tend to be more admired than watched -- to the extent that it’s remembered at all, it’s as a piece of technology, and not as a piece of craft or storytelling.

Still, Tony is the ancestor of every badly rendered straight-to-Netflix animated talking-animals feature cluttering up your queue, but he’s also the ancestor of any experiment that tries to apply computer-generated imagery to ways of storytelling. In that sense, he has as much in common with Emily in World of Tomorrow as he does with Boss Baby, a common ancestor to any computer-generated human-like figure with a story. When Tony dissolves into silver fragments at the end of the short, it’s as if those pieces flew out into the world, through the copper wires that connect the world’s animation studios and personal computers, and are now present everywhere. He’s like a ghost that haunts the present. I feel that watching it now, and I imagine audiences sitting at the Vogue in 1986 might have felt a stirring of something similar.

[100dad]

Coronavirus is Why I'm Debt-Free...

CORONAVIRUS IS WHY I STOPPED BORROWING MONEY!

It’s playing out right now. I’ve been saying the same thing for years. I don’t want to have the burden of debt when things go bad. I want to be debt free and cash flush so the next panic is just an inconvenience. In 2008 the economy collapsed, the stocks tanked, and real estate dropped like crazy. Lots of people lost their jobs, businesses were disappearing, and gas was four dollars per gallon. No one could get loans and cash became king. A lot of good and smart people got in big trouble because they were leveraged, and “leverage” is the highly intelligent way of saying “in debt”. Debt is great when you need cash to grow and the economy is booming. It sucks when things go wrong… and lots of times it’s not the borrower’s fault when things go wrong. Often it's outside influences and just plain bad timing.

We get a bit of amnesia on these things, but if you really think about it or watch the news, we are mere moments from the apocalypse every single year. Really go back and think about it. The news and politicians are always feeding us fear because that’s what masses pay attention to. Fear manipulates the economy. Watch the stock market. Those guys are the biggest scaredy cats in the world. If a politician hiccups during a speech they all sell and the market drops, but if that politician sounds confident they all buy and the market goes up. With an economy so volatile with things we can’t control why risk having the burden of debts? This year it was the coronavirus. Regardless of your opinion on the virus and the response around the world, it is crushing the economy and really hurting a lot of businesses and people financially. The tide is going out and bills still have to be paid. This is what I have been preparing for. (Side Note: While I think this gets bad, I also think it recovers quickly simply because the only driving factor is the virus. I think the government will inject cash, provide loans to businesses, and we will get back on course pretty quick. I don’t see a years-long collapse like in ‘08.) My house has been paid off for almost three years now. Zero debts. Everything is owned. Plenty of cash. Now this economic catastrophe is simply irritating, but not crushing us in our home. So to everyone who said it was not possible and even the few who said it was irresponsible this is what I was trying to prevent. I have zero fear and anxiety. I’m not concerned. I feel great considering the alternatives! This is why I tell dads to get debt free. This is why I tell dads to pay cash for their trucks. This is why I tell dads to have a nice, fat emergency fund of cash and to never use it (because buying concert tickets is not an emergency, the coronavirus shutting down the country is). The feeling of having your income halted while still having to pay bills does not feel good. Again, it's not your fault. But it almost never is. These are outside forces affecting our lives for which we have no control. This is why guys, this is why! Next time it won't be a virus, it will be something else, but this always happens. Life is simply more enjoyable living this way. The lack of pressure and worry is really nice. The lack of anxiety about your future is great. Knowing nothing is going to be taken away from you is just peaceful. However, there are downsides to living this way.

1.) It takes time depending on your income level. It took me almost 10 years to get to a point where I had no debts, no mortgage, and a nice, fat emergency fund.

2.) If you’re a business owner it sucks. You have to intentionally keep yourself from growing too fast and as a driven, motivated person it was my biggest struggle.

3.) People are always telling you you’re wrong. They tell you that you can afford the payments. They are always telling you how much you are missing out on. Leverage is how you build wealth. Those people are loud when things are good. Now that things are scary—they wouldn’t dare say a word. They’re scared about losing everything. Also, they are calling me asking for loans.

4.) It requires sacrifice. Especially for the smaller income dads. You don’t get to do certain things. You sacrifice eating out and drinking. You don’t get to buy the things you want. Because your long-term future is more important than those things you want now, but don’t need. Let this coronavirus be for you what 2008 was for me: an eye opener. It doesn’t matter if you're smart, talented, and/or lucky. Debt lets you buy stuff before you can afford it. Debt seems fine until it's not. Smart, talented, good people go broke in times like this because of their debts. Debt will crush you when things go south. Don’t carry that weight above your head. Get out! Make the sacrifices now to give yourself security in the future. If you're reading this in debt today with all of this hanging over you, then this is my recommendation. If you are not working right now because of coronavirus, find work. Do yard work for neighbors,  work as a handyman, or go find some temp work. If you’re near an Amazon warehouse I hear they are in desperate need of workers. It's temp and manual work, it’s possibly even degrading to you, but it's cash. You need cash. Stay legal, stay within your morals, but find any work that pays. It's temporary. Delivery services are booming. Online services are booming. There are options out there. Aside from finding a way to make some cash. Prioritize what you spend on. You need food and necessities, a roof over your head, and utilities. That keeps you alive and able to fight another day. There is probably some relief coming. A lot of companies are allowing you to delay payments on things. So work with that the best that you can, but make sure you are providing the necessities. I would rather you get a few harassing calls and a lower credit score than see your family go hungry or homeless. If you’re a dad that’s debt free and has cash, we are in a fantastic buying opportunity. A lot of deals are to be had. Stock market is on clearance. People are going to be selling nice things very cheap because they need cash fast. Businesses are going to have great deals because they just need any cash coming in their doors. Businesses may go up for sale because this was a scary wakeup call. They might get liquidated because they were over indebted. There will be opportunity in any downturn. This could be a great time to make some moves. I hope this is a wakeup call for a lot of families. Debt free is nice and comforting. If you really think about what you have bought on payments, did you really end up NEEDING it?

When this is all over, work hard, pay off those debts, build an emergency fund, and don’t borrow anymore money!

Follow 100% DAD on Social: Instagram: @100Dad Facebook: @100Dad TikTok: @100Dad YouTube: 100% Dad Twitter: @The100Dad

[sambart93]

2017.09.24 Ensemble Stars Stage: Jadge of Knights Review!

Before y’all say anything(!) I wrote it as ‘Jadge’ on purpose xD

The Live Stream video is already available (here) so I assume most people are going to watch it (one way or another) so I’m not going to do my usual in-depth review; I KNOW everyone loves EnStage, I KNOW everyone’s going to watch the LV, I KNOW everyone’s going to buy the DVD, I KNOW the fans already know the story and stuff, I KNOW everyone’s going to love it, SO I’m just going to write my: this was so beautiful and I cried and here’s my fav parts and why etc. Sound good? GOOD!

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Video Coverage 1, 2, 3, Ritsu’s Making Rating: 9/10

Because this isn’t really a structured review, I don’t really know where to start but... I’ll try and be as structurally accurate as possible.

PRE-LV STUFF

BEFORE I aw the LV, I had kept track of some fan reports and stuff.The infamous; Shohei (Hashimoto who plays Reo) getting a nosebleed in the middle of the show and running of staged and adlibbing it so well that no one was worried and causes the rest of KNIGHTS to laugh so much they couldn’t get through the (what should’ve been a) serious scene. I also heard other random stuff like TakaChan (Takasaki Shouta who is Izumi) pulling MakiChan down the stairs but hopefully no one getting hurt and other stuff. And then there’s the infamous Shouta “accidentally” kissing MakiChan at one point xD Also, in MakiChan’s latest live stream, he talked about one time he kind of did fall asleep and his mic fell out of his hand and started going down the stairs xD he also mentioned another time where TakaChan was dancing in front but he got the moves wrong and he cracked up laughing. Another higawari was apparently a yelling contest between KNIGHTS while walking around the seating area and MakiChan cracked up so hard because the audience found it totally hilarious too. Thanks to fans, there were a lot of fanart thrown out too which caught the higawaris and stuff which you can find on twitter under the あんステ tag.

And THEN there’s the going and trading outside the venue for two days; the first day I felt pretty hopeless because MakiChan was THE desired bromides and everything but luckily through amazing friends and luck I manged to haul quite a bit of his stuff.

Look how beautiful he is ^_^

Also, I’m the type of person who’s very much like ‘well I might as well keep this rather than try and sell it because I paid for it anyway’ so I ended up trading and getting other whole character sets too! Which I’m glad I did because I ended up falling for quite a few of them during the LV and glad I got their stuff.

Who’s your favourite out of these guys?

---

The LV

I LOVE how they played the Manner video (here) while we were waiting for it to start xD the girls next to me were absolutely hilarious and knew all the words to this video and were saying all the lines - it was brilliant. I was trying not to die laughing next to them. Especially Wataru and Izumi’s parts xD

So Shouta being the ultimate troll and the fact that Marv’s directors always allow TakaChan and MakiChan to have so many “coincidental” scenes together xD so we had:

☆TakaChan dragging MakiChan down the stairs and MakiChan acting fast enough to use his hands to save himself from getting hurt. ☆Takachan getting ontop of MakiChan when trying to wake him up. ☆Takachan slapping Makichan’s butt and him automaticaly going ‘ita! Ouch’ . << in fact there were a few butt slapping moment.. Nazuna/Tomoya slapping Mitsuru’s butt(?)

Other higawari-like stuff that I loved was:

☆ All the puns with the tea! Hajime accidentally froze the tea and was like ‘ocha ga occhaimashita!’ and then Eichi got on board while MakiChan/Ritsu had to turn away to stop himself from laughing but he was laughing hard and then Eichi asked him to join in and he was like ‘ocha ga ochatta ne’ and Eichi immediately went ‘that’s not right! Say it again’ and MakiChan was just dying. Then he got really concerned that the teatpot’s lid wasn’t on properly xD MaeChan is always amazing at keeping in character and serious during hilarious moments. ☆Shohei was trying to remember Nazuna/Eichi’s name and he was like ‘A...a-’ and Tsukasa said ‘ari!’ (< MaeChan’s laugh at this moment was gold) but that was wrong so Shohei started yelling out names and finally he went ‘...ALEX!’ and he ended up doing a french double cheek kiss greeting - I died from two things; them somewhat ‘kissing’ and the fact that my name came up! I couldn’t help but think ‘Did MakiChan... mention me?’ but that’s probably NOT what happened, I know that xD ☆ In one scene, KNIGHTS are in the seating area, and Makichan asked to sleep on someone's lap but as he went to do so, there was a ‘HAI! ARASHI-CHAN STOP!’ from Arashi. Good Arashi teaching Ritsu about consent xD

☆ Kanzaki brings his damn turtle out at one part and puts him on the floor so they can do for a walk but Kanzaki just takes steps closer to him but is like ‘yeah you did great! okay a little more! Yeah! *turns to audience* doesn’t look like he moved right? But you’re wrong!’ xD ☆ When Tsukasa asks Ritsu for help and Ritsu is like ‘oh yeah THAT dance’ and then does a completely different dance and so Tsukasa tells him it’s the wrong one; Ritsu is like ‘oh yeah this one! Dubidubidoo~!’ and Tsukasa is like ‘NO!’ xD ☆ Also in this same scene as the bullet point above, Izumi and Arashi check in one the rehearsal, and before going in they’re like ‘we can dance’ and started off by doing a secret hand shake and then jumped into (bent) splits, BUT THEN they couldn’t get up from them xD

--

Also I am very happy most of these boys are of age because I was having nosebleed heaven; especially with MakiChan and all of Ra*bits. *does a quick search* PHEW they are all legal and over 20... okay I can carry on now...

SO MUCH HIP AND WAIST AND TUMMY FLESH!! I WAS DYING! 

EVERYTIME MAKICHAN ROLLED AROUND ON THE GROUND! EVERYTIME THE RA*BITS PERFORMED, THEY HAD RAISEY ARM MOVEMENTS SO THEIR TUMMIES AND WAISTS WERE EXPOSED AND IT WAS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL TO WITNESS! *dead* even my eyes are bleeding thinking about it.... DAMN boys. I’m gunna be screencapping the SHIT out of these moments.

I am such a Ra*bits fan after this stage cos of all this sexiness from them... also their crying scene was hilarious.

And speaking of sexy, can we talked about Toori’s fucking thighs and butt when he’s in his Live Outfit!!! - DAMN they’re so nice! I was like ‘damn I wish my legs and butt looked that good!’

--

Extra things I wanted to mention:

☆Stop making my Hajime cry!!! It breaks my heart! He’s too precious! Also I’m pretty sure Keito was dying to cry during the curtain call - either that or he was still super in character. It was freaking adorable. But yes, stop making my Hajime cry! ☆ I absolutely loved when, during Akatsuki’s live, Akatsuki - all THREE of them - pulled out swords! I was like YESSS!!!! It was so cool! ☆ Also Kanzaki smacking his chest a bit too hard in front of Keito ☆ I found it hilarious that Nozaki plays Yuzuki exactly the same as his female character in Banchou Boys (vid here). It’s totally adorable and I loved seeing Nozaki act like that xD ☆ Speaking of Nozaki; when he span Toori around! That was cool! ☆ I wasn't sure if it was a higawari or not but it’s been confirmed it wasn’t; after Eichi collapses, Keito flies/jumps down the steps and rolls to get to and aid Eichi. It felt very out of character so I felt like it was a mistake, but it wasn’t. ☆ ALL the Ra*bits members being mental (especially Miyazaki/Tomoya) and trying hard not to cry during the curtain call was both hilarious, adorable and I too wanted to cry. But I didn’t cry until Toori, MakiChan and Shohei spoke. Especially when Shohei spoke <3 his soeech was just so... good. And I love the way Yuzuki presents and speaks, t was so prim and proper <3 ☆ I am SO proud of MakiChan and his dancing <3 he made me a proud mother! I didn’t think he could really sing or dance but he proved himself in this; I can’t wait to see him improve from now ^_^

☆ I am very thankful to the director this time who handled the lives and how often and close together they are this time around. I felt like the first 30 minutes of the second stage were such a waste of time because it was just song after song of group introductions and just chunking it together at the beginning. But this time, they handled the lives much differently, spaced them apart, gave each group equal time almost (exception of KNIGHTS of course), and I’m thankful for it! It was so much more enjoyable this time around.

☆ I don’t really have any complaints about this stage except, I need more and I feel Shohei always plays the same type of character. I want to see him... not like this - any recs anyone? Also, he just drains energy from me. His energy when he’s in character always feels forced and it just takes the energy out of me watching him trying to be this over-genki character. 

--

Compulsory MakiChan Spam

---

This and Nanbaka and Yume Stage has made my year this year! Seriously, go watch all these of these stages. All of them have been phenominal and stayed in my heart and been amazing!

I am SO happy with this stage and so completely satisfied and it was enjoyable and had heart and the story was great and the visuals and everyone’s acting and the dancing and just goddammit this EnStage was A-MA-ZING!

I’m off to buy and watch the shit out of the live stream now.

[mygoodlifeme-blog]

Dancing With The Stars 2009 Outcomes

It's clear that during Period 9 of Dancing with the Stars, which starts on Sept. 21, the use of Twitter and Facebook by the show's dancers has already enhanced the way its 20 million fans get their information. Yet the guy has bodily capability. He effortlessly does a standing backflip. He could consider on navigate to this web-site if he learns the moves and it clicks in his thoughts and muscle tissues.

Results show: Alicia Keys will be there, as nicely as a bunch of other performances. Melissa Rycroft will return as well! Tune in tomorrow night to see who tends to make it to the finals of Dancing with the Stars Period 9.

Aaron Carter Lizzie Mcguire

The final two elements of the night were "relay dances," in which four pairs of partners at a time competed, with the judges naming initial via fourth place winners and awarding points according to placement. In the salsa relay, it was Donny Osmond, Ashley Hamilton ,Louie Vito and Chuck Lidell. Osmond obtained the greatest from the judges.

Post-an additional break, Chuck Liddell and companion Anna Trebunskaya, Melissa Joan Hart and partner Mark Ballas, and Kelly Osbourne and Louie van Amstel were proclaimed safe, whilst Louie Vito and Chelsie Hightower had been relegated to the dreaded danger zone. Oh no, not my pup dog boy! By the by, the Hazard Zone is my personal terminology. I'm throwing myself a bone here and making my own DWTS vernacular. Heck yeah. "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr. The theme song to the well-liked movie hit #1 in 1984 and stayed there for 3 weeks. It's nonetheless a popular song for Halloween festivities and parties.

Aaron Carter Shirtless

This is my plea to the producers to get their act back together and give the viewers what they want - - fun, drama, intrigue, comedy - - and, of course, fantastic dancing. Deny us what we want and we will gladly capture "So You Believe You Can Dance" instead. It never disappoints. What happened on Dancing with the Stars season nine's 3rd week of competitors? Who carried out "the Samba from zombietown"? Who endured an injury throughout the 7 days, casting a shadow of doubt more than his ability to carry on on with the DWTS season 9 competition? Read on for the DWTS details! The initial group to carry out was Group Paso, consisting of, Mark Dacascos, this content, Mya and Michael Irving, alongside with their Dancing with the Stars professional companions. The judges praised Team Tango and scored each 24 points.

Aaron https://www.hatewait.com/aaron-carter-without-makeup/ Carter Meth

Karina Smirnoff is always a enjoyment to view on the dance flooring. There is no denying that she is one of the very best pros in the bunch. Nevertheless, putting up with the daggers she throws the judges and the audience when issues don't go her way is just too much to inquire. Louie Vito, the champion snowboarder who is in training for the 2010 Olympics is a lesser-recognized star this season. He appears extremely young, especially subsequent to his dance companion, Chelsie Hightower. Louie confirmed a honest quantity of grace and good type. The couple experienced a complete rating of 27.

Aaron Carter Aaron'S Party

DeLay had to toss a joke about politics in there, saying that it is "simply outrageous for him to go left." His "Wild Factor" dance was described as "surreal," and his dancing was really much better than I thought it would be. He was goofy, and that was likely a fantastic idea to get the voting public to believe of him as a polarizing determine. Mark Dacascos and Lacey Schwimmer threw on their own into the jitterbug with frantic flips and frighteningly higher kicks. The Iron Chef America star kept up with the creative choreographer from his partner and the work paid off. Mixed in with the required jumps and snaps were some extraordinary stunts from Mark, including a back flip and the splits. The entire routine was super adorable - with Lacey dressed as a feisty feline - all the way to the end when Mark collapsed on the floor. Host Tom Bergeron used his "golf announcer" voice to call out the scores, which helped make the 4-minute marathon remarkably fun to watch. The partners stepped, shook and shimmied their way about the dance floor-that is till the judges decided otherwise. It came down to Joanna and Mya but a last minute costume twirl by Joanna illustrated her combating spirit, Carrie Ann stated.

[weirderaph]

ANOTHER UNNECESSARY BEST OF 2016 LIST; QUICK RECAP OF HIGHLIGHTS; NARCISSISTIC PREDICTIONS AND A MEGALOMANIAC’S CALL-TO-ARMS

A recap/rant/recommendation/repellant/re-animation/reference/reproduction/”re(-)view” by Dominic Zinampan

WHY MOST LOCAL “BEST OF (INSERT YEAR)” LISTS ARE UNNECESSARY OR TOO FLAWED TO FUNCTION:

-Relies mostly on timeliness/trendiness; there seems to be no convincing reason to confine (and consequently, sacrifice thoughtful insight) releases within one whole year

-Encompasses too diverse of a spectrum of genres; styles are subjected to a totalizing scheme that forces the writer to disregard the differences in modes of listening/appreciating per genre for the sake of some semblance of comprehensiveness

-Blurred idea of “Filipino” or “local”; does this refer to ethnicity, nationality, or geography? What about emigrants or expats? What about those without a Filipino citizenship? Do we really need to verify the ethnicity of an artist and if so, how?; Re: geography- it appears as though not all bases are adequately covered and there is an inherent bias for Metro Manila

-Lack of clear significance of format; how do we differentiate between songs/EPs/albums especially in the age of Soundcloud and Bandcamp (e.g. sets of 7 or 8 tracks, 4-minute EPs, single files that appear to contain multiple songs, etc.)? What’s the point in selecting it as a parameter for a list?

-Pointless utilization of some rigid yet arbitrary number (e.g. “Top 100���” or “20 Essential…”, etc.) that results in the acquiescence to the inclusion of undeserving material

-The absence of any reason in publishing a retrospective list

-Credibility; who grants one the authority to declare the cream of the crop?

WHY THIS LIST IS NO DIFFERENT:

-The author lacks credibility and knowledge (i.e. barely knows any music outside of Metro Manila)

-Clear nepotism

-Willfully disregards a strict idea of “local” or “Filipino”

-Declares several releases, produced within a particular area, as “The Best” of a certain year despite not having heard a substantial amount of music

-Author’s reluctance to shell out cash severely limited possible entries to, with a few exceptions, the freely downloadable

-Attempts to cover different genres regardless of expertise and personal taste

-No reason/concept behind selecting “EPs” and “albums” as the focus of the list

-Got really lazy around the middle of the list

WHY 2016:

-Most recent complete year

-This blog didn’t exist prior to 2016

-I only began writing last year

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2016:

-Not much

-Long-anticipated albums from The Strangeness, Ang Bandang Shirley, Musical O, and The Geeks were postponed

-The bands that I like either broke up, declared hiatus, or just stopped accepting gigs

-The sudden germination of unknown or previously-unheard-of bands (Fresh Filter, Wanderband, etc.)

-Indie veterans are getting older and the then-young bands of the past few years are slowly burning out

-A large crowd—unprecedented in number—attended the Fête at Green Sun

-Indie’s ecosystem/infrastructure appears close to completely ossifying: radio (Fresh Filter), online (Vandals on the Wall, Indie Manila, Pinoytuner, Alternatrip), TV (MYX), physical spaces and venues, established fairs/festivals/events (Wanderband, Satchmi Vinyl Day, JD Indie Fest, Fête de la Musique) and presence in print media and news outlets (Rappler Live Jams, ANC, CNN Life, PhilStar)

-Influx and revitalization of, and renewed interest in noise acts (Maldoror, Local Disk (C:), Promote Violence; Hibernation, Kamuning Public Radio, Expert Trip Mental Music) as well as some sort of horrorcore/witch house/dank meme/cloud rap/(post-)vaporwave movement building up (Virtual Barangay, NoFace Records, Calix, Den Sy Ty)

-Appearance of music scene commentator personas like Kupal on the Wall (R.I.P.) and Flying Lugaw

-Twitter skirmishes: topics include perceived misogyny (Sud’s appearance on the cover of PULP Magazine and practically their entire oeuvre; Soil and Green’s MV for “Hello Sunrise”), music criticism or “gonzo journalism” (KOTW, Flying Lugaw, Vernon Go), Grammar Nazis, the death of indie (CNN Life’s feature article on Manila’s only grunge band Yūrei); bands fighting with other bands, members fighting with other members, website managers fighting with other website managers, etc.

ASSESSMENT OF 2016:

-Lukewarm (if not stagnant and boring) year; it was less animated and barely produced anything fresh; it felt like the trail end of an echo

-Possible intermezzo to some drastic renovation, alteration of atmosphere, or reconfiguration of mechanisms

-Stale acts have firmly established themselves as the dominant players in the scene

THIS LIST’S RAISON D’ÊTRE:

To cite several noteworthy EPs/albums of 2016 that I found either personally resonant or that they embody trajectories for the future, bearing the most potential to effect transformations hopefully many of us would help cultivate

THE ACTUAL LIST HOWEVER GROUPED INTO AD HOC TRENDS

THE OVERDRIVE-GUITAR MACHINE CONTINUUM

Yūrei - Random Schizoid Godhead Generator If there’s any EP/album that would prove itself, in the years to come, as a monumental work that came out 2016, it would be this. Random Schizoid Godhead Generator reveals Yūrei’s metamorphosis: emerging from the chrysalis of self-reflexive Nirvana-grunge to explore stranger territory. Cryptic and opaque verbal phrases are married with fuzz-drenched guitars, eerie synth blips, agile melodic bass, and the intense seismic pounding of drums; the band often plays with density, frequently adding/subtracting elements, prodding at the fragility of what makes a song. We consequently witness them slither into post-punk, noise/musique concrète, hyper-grunge, and minimal/skeletal indie pop. Only time will clearly, and more completely, validate RSGG’s potential widespread relevance.

https://yureiph.bandcamp.com/album/random-schizoid-godhead-generatror

Grows - Go, Glow, Grows The debut album of Grows. This relatively new act can be seen as a sister act of noise terrorists Pastilan Dong! (both acts share two members) but whereas Pastilan Dong!’s style is defined by an ear-splitting and architectonic brute force barrage of noise, Grows emphasizes conventional song structures and easily likable melodies while similarly embracing 90s Gen X guitar-centrism. However, this is not to say that, upon comparison, Grows is regressive; the band exhibits more finesse and thought with regards to songwriting and what we receive in turn is a collection of enjoyable alternative rock.

http://shop.beattherobotrecords.com/album/go-glow-grows

Ced Concepcion - Age Minus Ced Concepcion’s first solo release (he has had numerous projects before such as Ursa Minor, Lochness, and Hey Johnny Wolf, and is also a producer/audio engineer at Crap Studios). Same with Go, Glow, Grows, this is straight-up alt-rock/college rock, a testament to the fact that there is a slow but steady and continuous outpour of similar material. Can be categorized as tito rock as long as said tito listens to The Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr., The Replacements, and Superchunk. Don’t expect any of these 90s throwback acts to completely vanish.

http://cedconcepcion.bandcamp.com/album/age-minus

The Buildings - Cell-O-Phane This is my list and I can do whatever I want.

http://thebuildingsph.bandcamp.com/album/cell-o-phane

LO-FI LONE WOLVES

Eggboy - The Spotlight Effect The Spotlight Effect features what I’d call “Eggboy 2.0”; it still retains the lo-fi sensibility for it to be an Eggboy release, it features slacker thrasher tracks like “Wait for Me”, signature Diego Mapa bittersweet melodic pop tunes (think “Nagsasawa Ka Na Ba?” but in this case “Sana Di Mo Ako Iniiwasan”), and analog electro/techno jams (“Beat Matsing”). A key difference is the discernible use of contemporary technology/techniques; the EP sounds more tonally expansive compared to past releases (i.e. the low-bass rumble in “I Feel for You”). Additionally, this isn’t as thin or scattered as 98-05 and is in fact a lot more cohesive and dynamic  (perhaps due to the shorter format?).

https://eggboymanila.bandcamp.com/album/spotlight-effect

The Juliens  - Boyish The Juliens are a severely underrated band. Their latest EP trades in the synthpop of past releases in favor of fuzzed out, lush and liquefied dream pop. All songs display a keen sense of melody and a characteristic yet charming drum machine. Their music video for “Winter’s Flight” is equally amusing and I find it definitive of who they are as a band: laidback and lackadaisical. All of their releases on Bandcamp can be downloaded for free so go check them out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4mDFjkYYuk (The Juliens- “Winter’s Flight” MV)

https://thejuliens.bandcamp.com/album/boyish-ep

routine protein - strong world I like routine protein not only because his music reminds me of K Records/Flying Nun-type stuff but also because it is “lo-fi”/”twee” that jettisons the saccharine veneers espoused by many traversing similar paths. This is “twee” that seems to get annoyed by the cheerful glow of the sun, it is reclusive rather than bubbly. The songs on strong world are incredibly catchy in their simplicity, and it conveys the paradoxically naïve yet cool and aloof aura typical of Beat Happening and pretty much every interesting indie pop act.

http://strong-boy.bandcamp.com/album/strong-world

Yuji - Inimitable Livers Grabe tinatamad na talaga ako magsulat in English. Basta sobrang ganda nito. Imagine niyo parang Lou Reed-Jandek hybrid tapos demented slacker rock na sobrang lo-fi. Medyo dream pop pero di siya gentle at all so “bangungot pop”? Inimitable Livers proves that there is an alternative to all the cutesy Scout Magazine/berlin-artparasites bedroom twee pop solo projects; you can, under the same circumstances, create something simultaneously frightening, intense, and magnetic.

https://soundcloud.com/yujidetorres/sets/inimitable-livers

Also worth checking: Daydreams - Teenage Feelings

COLLAPSING WALLS OF SOUND

Beast Jesus - In Various States of Disassembly Never mind their recently-released, self-indulgent and conceptually gimmick-y although technically impressive, 16-minute Name-That-Genre-of-a-track “Eros Obfuscate”. In Various States of Disassembly however will come down as an EP that will be talked about by succeeding generations. Beast Jesus’ most admirable quality is their elusiveness to being pigeonholed by genres—the typical categories just don’t apply to their output. In their debut EP, they disassemble genres such as shoegaze, indie pop, noise rock, and post-metal to form some hybrid sonic arsenal suited for their needs.

https://beastjesusmanila.bandcamp.com/album/in-various-states-of-disassembly

Disquiet Apartment - Little Infinities Shoegaze that jettisons hallucinatory comfort for indefatigable momentum. It is dreamlike and intense, angelic and ethereal without ever sacrificing energy. Undeniably one of my favorite EPs last year.

https://disquietapartment.bandcamp.com/album/little-infinities

VOYAGES INTO VIOLENT VORTICES AND THE CESSPOOLS OF CULTURE

Den Sy Ty - #MANILACIRCLEJERK A collection of violent and brutally honest tracks, introspective and at times political, swirled into one heady and disorienting mix.

http://densyty.bandcamp.com/album/manilacirclejerk

Calix - Breakout Satirist Blatantly political and unrepentantly wrathful. Opts for the stark and straightforwardly vicious rather than the woozy. Grime-y tracks that try to match and level with its targets in malevolent intensity.

https://soundcloud.com/calixph/sets/breakout-satirist-2016

帰宅します， Ａｍａｄｏ - 帰宅します， Ａｍａｄｏ   Extremely dusty vaporwave minus Arizona and Tron-like VHS graphics, only motifs handpicked from propaganda posters. Neither is there any weeaboo traits, only sympathies with Communist China. 80s synthpop and video game music is ignored for contemporary pop songs and a good dose of Manila Sound classics. This is vaporwave that flaunts its indebtedness to Marxism, without neglecting humor, and it is “distinctly Filipino”. Including this mostly because of “Walang Drama….”.

https://virtualbarangay420.bandcamp.com/album/--2

Also worth checking: 帰宅します， Ａｍａｄｏ- Ｔｈｅ Ｗｒｅｔｃｈｅｄ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ Ｅａｒｔｈ

THE SOLE PRISTINE ARTIFACT

Moon Mask - Irreversible I lack the appropriate referents to paint a lucid description of this EP but it is enjoyable, danceable, and it doesn’t come across as cheesy or lazy; it contains well-crafted and unashamedly contemporary-sounding pop tunes that seem to draw from 80s New Wave/synthpop and video game OSTs; it undermines all boneheaded suggestions of a dichotomy between pop and “good” music breaks the staid dichotomy of pop and “good” music

https://soundcloud.com/moonmask/sets/irreversible-ep

CYBORGS, KNOB TWIDDLERS, CIRCUIT BENDERS

Local Disk C:- Dyson / System / Temperament This trilogy is a must-hear so as to experience the polar opposite of bombardment, to witness music at its most skeletal. Tones stand autonomously not in support of one another. This is an exploration of our exploration to musical elements like rhythm, melody, and texture. Its intensity and density contracts and dilates. At times, extremely sparse but can also swell into a cacophonous assemblage.

https://localdiskc.bandcamp.com/album/dyson

https://localdiskc.bandcamp.com/album/system

https://localdiskc.bandcamp.com/album/temperament

John Pope - Halocline Contains traces of grime, early dubstep, and musique concrète. I’d like to think there’s an affinity in approach between this and Local Disk (C:)’s trilogy (to explore and emphasize the potential of different tones, their diversity and multidimensionality) but for a wholly different purpose, which is to hook people with its groove.

https://johnpxpe.bandcamp.com/releases

MALDOROR - THE UNIVERSAL BASIS OF Similarly, a tour-de-force of an individual’s experiment with tones. It is multilayered electronic noise, digital glitches, and found sounds/musique concrete. MALDOROR explores a wide range of timbre and utilizes schizophrenic loops that intersect/interlock/overlap/interweave.

https://mldrr.bandcamp.com/album/the-universal-basis-of

Also worth checking: MALDOROR - BASTARD ORGAN; MALDOROR - STATELESSNESS; Similarobjects - Rara Avis

CAN’T RESIST INCLUDING A FEW STANDOUT TRACKS:

Tall Ice Lung - “How I Wish I Met You Sooner in My Life”

https://soundcloud.com/diagnostic-records/tall-ice-lung-how-i-wish-i-met-you-sooner-in-my-life

fisherfolk - “Trial By Fire (feat. Teenage Granny)”

https://soundcloud.com/fisherfolk/trial-by-fire-ft-teenage-granny

Musical O - “House Tea”

https://soundcloud.com/musicaloph/musical-o-house-tea

Ang Bandang Shirley - “Umaapaw”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pXZCO3A_8w

Sour Cheeks - “Anymore”

https://soundcloud.com/sourcheeksmusic/anymore

Mellow Fellow & Clairo - “How Was Your Day?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAV8X7lviVw

SONGS THAT I THOUGHT WERE RELEASED IN 2016 BUT ARE TOO GOOD FOR ME TO LEAVE OUT:

Musical O - “Lips”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAP6pNzMQUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAMINoZbgg4 (Labio)

Joee & I - “Teknobalat”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GYh7Zn1JNg

http://iandjoee.bandcamp.com/track/teknobalat

NOSTRADAMUS’ COLUMN (EFFECTIVE 2017):

-90’s-emulating guitar-centric rock will be “phased out” for a couple years to give way to the tried-and-tested and more palatable genres like (but not limited to) “big band soul” and conyo rap

-A counter-movement marked by abrasion and self-aware vulgarity will continue to brew steadily in the margins as a response to the sanitized and lackluster acts in the spotlight

-More bands active in the indie circuit will cross over to the mainstream

-MYX-tailored/geared bands will pop up with more frequency

-New scenes/zones/circuits (which may or may not overlap with existing ones) will be generated; an almost complete change of terrain

AN UNNECESSARY CALL-TO-ARMS (OBLIQUE STRATEGIES FOR AN OPTIMISTIC CODA): continue to stage disruptions, interrogate relentlessly, re-open wounds, leap into and/or form new dimensions, morph ceaselessly, don’t merely break ground rather engineer tectonic shifts

MAKE 2017: BIZARRE, WILD, IRREVERENT, STRANGE, JAGGED, SPIRAL, DOPED UP, FLUID, SPECTRAL, FRACTURED/FRACTAL, DISCORDANT, FEED()BACK, (IN)TENSE, PULSATE, ORGIASTIC, ACCELERATE, INFERNAL, SONOROUS, GLACIAL, ELASTIC, DYNAMIC, IMMACULATE, PRISMATIC, AMORPHOUS, RELENTLESS, INTERTWINE, IMPLODE, ZIGZAG, GENERATIVE, UNPREDICTABLE, VICIOUS/VISCOUS/VIRULENT/VIRAL/VITRIOLIC/VISCERAL/VIBRANT/VIRTUAL/VITAL/VIOLENT

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 15th April 2018 -- Extended Super Deluxe Version 3 & Knuckles

Holy busy week on the charts-ioli! There are nine new arrivals this week – two of which sample the exact same Lauryn Hill song - so let’s just get on with it, shall we?

Top 10

Drake... Thank you. Thank you for being such a streaming Cookie Monster that your new track, “Nice for What”, debuted at the top. Please stay. I don’t want the dreck one space below it to even see another week in the top ten, let alone at the top of the charts.

What is that dreck, you ask? Well, unfortunately to you and fortunately to me, I shall refuse to repeat its name until it exits the top 40. Google it! I won’t waste any more space in my show to talk about this trash.

At number-three, we have our second new arrival in the top five, “One Kiss” by infuriatingly hit-and-miss producer Calvin Harris and the latest of many of his pop girls that he can just grab out of a bucket for a quick smash (hit, for all you people with minds in the gutter), Dua Lipa.

Sadly, that means that “These Days” by Rudimental featuring Jess Glynne, Dan Caplen and the return of the Macklemore, has dipped down two spaces to number-four.

“Paradise” by George Ezra also took a small one-position hit to number-five, but if you care about that song’s existence, you’re a terrible liar.

“Friends” by Marshmello and Anne-Marie won’t budge at number-six. Good for them, I suppose.

“This is Me” by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman Ensemble streams down (no pun intended) four spaces to number-seven.

“Feel it Still” by Portugal. The Man, the most unlikely sleeper hit of this year – and that’s only because it was a hit LAST year in the US – has been taken down a notch or two... or three, to number-eight at its thirty-seventh week in the chart.

“Lullaby” by Sigala featuring Paloma Faith at number-nine won’t go away!

Although the saddest drop here is Post Malone’s “Psycho” featuring Ty Dolla $ign, dropping two spaces to number-ten. Am I the only one who wanted this to hit the top, especially after it got a video and noticeably an increase in radio play? No? Well, let’s just get on with the climbers.

Climbers

“Love Lies” by Khalid and Normani grows on both me and the charts, where it took a five-space jump to #18... but that’s it in terms of anything notable. I could talk about Bebe Rexha and B Young possibly getting a top ten hit as they creep up into the top 15, but they’re not really having immense leaps so I’ll decline.

Fallers

She says, “do you love me?” I tell her, “only partly. This forced meme couldn’t give my song boosts while it’s charting.”

Talking about forced memes, I apologise for possibly the cringiest passage I’ve written on this show thus far, but the content still rings true, as Drake’s “God’s Plan” just kind of cannonballs from its

number-one spot it had just two weeks ago, dropping five spaces to #16. The Weeknd sees some falls too, as “Call Out My Name” drops ten spaces to #17, and “Wasted Times” takes a 12-space drop to #30. The biggest story here, however, is Mabel’s “Fine Line” featuring Not3s, just nosediving 20 spots to #35. Damn, these new arrivals really shook the charts, huh? Talking about losing songs too soon...

Dropouts and Returning Entries

We have a whole lot to mourn here, with some damn good songs like “Havana” by Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug, “Tip Toe” by Jason Derulo featuring French Montana, “Blinded by Your Grace, Pt. 2” by Stormzy featuring MNEK as well as “Mine” by Bazzi (which still might rebound next week due to the album) all dropping out from #34, #40, #39 and #27 respectively. We also have the not-as-sad losses of “Never be the Same” by Camila Cabello from #20, “New Rules” by Dua Lipa from #37, “Let Me Go” by Hailee Steinfeld and Alesso featuring Florida Georgia Line and Watt from #38, and “Strangers” by Sigrid from #35. We also have some absolute collapses for “Try Me” by The Weeknd from #17 and “Check” by Kojo Funds and RAYE from #32, both of which are not even in the top 75 anymore. Rest in peace to all of you, but good riddance to some.

“Pray for Me” by The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar also returned to #32. I don’t know why but I really don’t care – this song doesn’t really deserve the attention.

NEW ARRIVALS

#40 – “I Like It” – Cardi B featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin

People who follow me on Twitter know that I listened to Cardi B’s album, Invasion of Privacy, and wasn’t too big of a fan. This track, however, was definitely one of my favourites out of the bunch. Some part of me just absolutely loves that delicious Pete Rodriguez sample, providing Cardi with a Latin-infused trap beat that matches her bombast and simple yet effective flow. Those horns are just beautiful, and I love how the vocal samples play into Cardi’s hook and her “woo!” ad-libs that are just injected with fun. Bad Bunny’s deeper growl is entirely different from his sadboi moaning on his last single, “Amorfoda”, but damn, if it doesn’t still impress, with a melodic flow and Daddy Yankee inflections. Oh, yeah, J Balvin is here with some Lady Gaga references, but his autotuned bounce is completely drowned out by this crazy instrumental. Cardi, don’t do anything else. I like it like this.

#39 – “Mad Love” – Sean Paul featuring Becky G and David Guetta

Why does David Guetta get a featuring credit? Sure, he produced the track but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t give you free range to a feature, especially when producers usually (should) get credited for their work anyway. Well, is the song any good? No. I can tell you that. The watery synths that introduce the track are just kind of... pathetic? As are Becky’s attempts at Jamaican inflections, and Sean Paul’s as-always infuriatingly mediocre bars, coupled with his hilariously careless “singing” on the pre-chorus. Don’t give me “Fake Love” flashbacks. All that, however, can’t really distract me from the fact that maybe Guetta deserves his featuring credit, as his dancehall-influenced beat has some buzzing synths and clattering drums on the chorus that just make everything so much more exciting and... “mad”. Despite by enjoyment of Guetta’s instrumental, I can’t dig Becky or Paul here, so I think I’ll give it a skip if you can’t look past the vocals.

#38 – “Dancing” – Kylie Minogue

Man, it’s hard to believe that Kylie Minogue of all people has a song that takes ages to get to the top 40 after bubbling under for weeks on end, but yeah, I can understand why, because this track has an identity crisis. Is it country? Is it just some of what Minogue does best, bubblegum dance-pop? Who knows? Who cares? Well, Minogue does, obviously, as she tries to pull off a country twang and a melody that I don’t think she can really handle anymore on the chorus. The instrumental is the least notable thing here, especially with that weak drop – well, that is, if you ignore the pop-by-the-numbers writing. That one line as the hook – “when I go out, I want to go out dancing”. Yeah, maybe, you should stay home tonight, Minogue, as if you’ve lost your touch on making damn good pop jams, you’re probably not too great on the floor, either. Sorry.

#37 – “I See You Shining” – Nines

I feel like Patrick Star when I see these nobodies creep into the top 40 on this show sometimes. Who are you people? This one bothers me especially, mostly because of how terrible the name of this act is. Nines? What, are there bands called Sevens and Eights that just couldn’t blow up? Are you going all Timberlake on us and being dressed up the nines? Actually, looking at this dude, I don’t exactly think he is – no shade and he doesn’t look bad, particularly, but the dude’s not wearing a suit and tie or anything. Apparently, he also goes by Nina with the Nina. I see... Well, since I’m supposed to be talking about the song here, I suppose I should mention how it sucks. It’s just some more generic braggadocios faux-reggae faux-grime nonsense with a nice vocal sample, if anything. Nines has very little of a presence. It reminds me of the trap-rap you poor Yankees get oversaturated with, but with a bit more energy and more cluttered instrumentals. I’m just getting sick of this new brand of bore-hop, with the stale reggaeton drum patterns and the uninterested MCs.

#27 – “Be Careful” – Cardi B

Yo, Cardi, why’d you have to be so brutal on Offset? What did he do except be somewhat homophobic, possibly a cheating jerk and a terrible liar...? Yeah, maybe, I get why she had to go in on this dude, and I can buy her aggression with the Wii Shopping Channel synths and the occasional reverb-soaked shrieks of some person saying “yeah”, which I assume is a twisted sample of the classic “yeah! Woo!” break, but I’m not entirely sure. Cardi’s singing doesn’t totally impress, but it does its job at making elevator music somehow threatening (despite her insisting that it’s NOT a threat) and pretty awesome, which it really shouldn’t be. Sure, it does feel monotonous, but it’s a pretty nice love-on-the-rocks track, with a catchy hook to boot. However, it’s not the best song to sample Lauryn Hill’s “X-Factor” that debuted this week.

Fun fact: Lauryn Hill’s song also samples a Wu-Tang Clan song which samples a Barbra Streisand song, so I imagine Marvin Hamlisch and his team, writers of “The Way We Were”, is getting royalties upon royalties for the decades of use his song had. That also means that “Be Careful” has like seventeen credited writers, but that’s besides the point. The song’s decent.

#25 – “Answerphone” – Banx & Ranx and Ella Eyre featuring Yxng Bane

I’ve heard of these artists before several times in passing, mostly because Ella Eyre is one of UK’s favourite feature-pop girls, Yxng Bane has charted last week and Banx & Ranx did a few Gorillaz remixes last year. I didn’t really know how they’d mesh, but I did know what to expect – a boring dancehall track with some autotuned rapping from Bane and serviceable vocals from Ella Eyre.

Yep, I was right. Eyre has a slightly smoky voice here, which can sound croaky and unfitting against the bouncy dancehall production and looping melodies on the keys, along with an ugly synth tone and a stale but notably somewhat garage-influenced drum pattern that speeds the song up enough for it to not become boring. Yxng Bane has like 20 seconds of the song, and I’m glad, because he’s not very interesting here at all, and I wouldn’t want this song to be longer than the three minutes and eleven seconds that it is, otherwise it’d be pretty gratingly snooze-worthy. If you have insomnia, I recommend this instead of ASMR or whatever you find on the Internet, because this will definitely send you to sleep.

Well, now we have our three big ‘uns, starting with...

#14 – “Dreams” – Ruti

Who? What? Where? When? How? Let me repeat that first one, who? That’s the problem with these reality shows – they have much more of an effect on the UK charts and honestly, I couldn’t care less for who wins; I just watch the auditions. Ruti here is the winner of The Voice UK this year, and on her debut single, she covers a Cranberries song that I hadn’t heard prior, “Dreams”. Hence, after listening to this decent enough albeit bland piano-lead rendition with a shaky vocal performance from Ruti, I listened to the original version and realised that I really could have gone without knowing Syco put their turn-songs-to-snoozefests hands on it.

#3 – “One Kiss” – Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa

Calvin and Hobbes bring us some by-the-numbers slightly tropically-tinged EDM-infused electropop, with a decent synth melody and some interesting vocal samples, as well as experimentation on the drop that is just kind of all over the place and balls to the wall, with its deep samples of Dua singing “one”, brief blips of a horn riff, a reversed percussion pattern and a whole lot of pointless synth noise.

That’s really all I can say about this. For the first time from Dua Lipa and the seventy-eighth time from Calvin Harris, all I can say is that it exists and I’m entirely indifferent on it. Sorry.

#1 – “Nice For What” – Drake

So, this is the biggest debut, because of course, it’s Drake, and, yeah, guys, as much as I hate this dude’s lack of charisma and overall just boring flow, writing and even beat choice, he’s won me over on this one. Big Freedia starts the track with a few drum fills and distorted shouting, before the pitched-up Lauryn Hill sample (I told you it’d come back) enters like a Kanye track from 2004, and the percussion hits heavy as with nearly all of Drake’s singles. Then Drake starts spitting with delivery I’ve never heard from him before – a Kanye-like melodic hook as well as a repetitive but effective flow in the verses as he talks about this girl that “hits them motherf***ing angles”. Big Freedia then comes back to break it down into the chopped sample hook as Drake chops his own verse up, creating a weirdly jerky experience. If she hits them angles, you’re hitting the gym because this is the strongest single I’ve heard from Drake in years. Congratulations, my man, you deserve this number-one! It’s probably the best I’ve heard for a long time.

Conclusion

Damn, Drake really takes the cake with “Nice for What” running with Best of the Week, with tied Honourable Mentions for both of Cardi B’s debuts. Worst of the Week... I can’t really say anything here is outright bad, but I suppose Kylie Minogue takes it with “Dancing” while Dishonourable Mention goes to “Dreams” by Ruti for taking all of the excitement out of an excellent song. See ya next week!

[andimallouttabubblegum]

It was 20 years ago today…

Album: Be Here Now Band: Oasis Release Date: 21st August 1997 Produced by: Owen Morris and Noel Gallagher Label: Creation

Track Listing: 1.  D’You Know What I Mean? (7:42) 2.  My Big Mouth (5:02) 3.  Magic Pie (7:19) 4.  Stand By Me (5:56) 5.  I Hope, I Think, I Know (4:22) 6.  The Girl In The Dirty Shirt (5:49) 7.  Fade In-Out (6:52) 8.  Don’t Go Away (4:48) 9.  Be Here Now (5:13) 10.  All Around The World (9:21) 11.  It’s Gettin’ Better Man(!!) (7:00) 12.  All Around The World (Reprise) (2:08)

What’s the most hyped you’ve ever been for something? Did you binge watch 6 seasons of Game of Thrones for the new episodes? Perhaps you watched The Avengers a dozen times in the cinema because your favourite Marvel heroes were actually on the big screen together? Or maybe you queued up for the midnight release of one of the latter Harry Potters or Call of Dutys. Well, add all of that together and you get some idea of how much a young James was looking forward to Be Here Now in 1997. So, on the twentieth anniversary of its release, I’ve decided to give it another listen, and to give you my thoughts.

First, just a little bit of background first for those who didn’t experience Britpop in the flesh. I’m not going to do the full history of Oasis or 90s British music, but the release of Definitely Maybe in 1994 had marked out Oasis as something very special, becoming the biggest selling debut album in the UK. Anthemic songs like “Supersonic”, “Cigarettes and Alcohol” and “Live Forever” crossed over to capture a bunch of fans who connected with the Gallagher brothers and the motley crew of Mancunians – if that isn’t too patronising to say! Then, a “feud” with Blur caught the imagination of parts of the media, and the release of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? moved them into the mainstream, going to number 1 in the album charts for 10 full weeks. Although the music press didn’t particularly like it, as Paolo Hewitt said in the sleeve notes “In this town the jury is always rigged but the people know. They always know the truth. Believe. Belief. Beyond. Their morning glory.” This was an album of the people.

The Gallagher boys’ rock star antics (Noel quiting the band and Liam missing the start of an American to buy a house with Patsy Kensit)  just built Oasis’ popularity, and a couple of concerts at Knebworth saw them play to 250,000 fans over 2 days in August 1996. So when it came to the release of Oasis’ third album, Be Here Now, anticipation was at fever pitch. Songs like “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and “Wonderwall” had become instant classics (still being played by annoying guys at parties to this day), but what could Noel Gallagher produce this time?

The first single from Be Here Now was “D’You Know What I Mean?”, released on 7th July 1997, was a huge number 1, selling 370,000 copies in its first week, one of which was to me. That’s right, this was the first single I ever bought.

“D’You Know What I Mean” is a very good song… that is about three and a half minutes long. It sounds very different from anything that Oasis had done before, yet still had the familiar hallmarks of a big chorus and Beatles references. But mainly, it had an ambition which further fueled my excitement for the upcoming album, which arrived on Thursday 21st August 1997 and was bought by yours truly at about 10am on that day, which for me, in the middle of the school holidays, was a huge achievement.

Obviously, 14 year old me loved the album. I didn’t listen to anything else for weeks. I taped it on cassette to listen to it on my Walkman (look it up in a museum). I learned all words, tried work out which bit of guitar was Johnny Depp (I didn’t know what “slide guitar” was), and bought the follow up singles. I read every review I could find – which were mostly incredibly positive – and couldn’t comprehend why anyone didn’t think it was the best album ever. But…

Over the coming months, I realised there was other music outside Oasis. Actually listening to Blur’s album Blur (released earlier that year) showed that they were never really competing with Oasis, they were on totally different musical levels. I’d originally ignored the Manic Street Preacher’s Everything Must Go even when it won best album at the ’97 Brits, but when I did, it was a revelation. And although I can’t remember for sure, I think it was Urban Hymns, Richard Ashcroft’s masterpiece return with The Verve, that was the first album I listened to after Be Here Now. And although I would argue that each of these contemporary albums are better, the thing that I learned most from listening to them is that an album, even an ambitious one, shouldn’t be 71 minutes long.

It was a strange thing to learn at fourteen that sometimes less is more. Take the second single “Stand By Me”:

Again, it is a very good song. But it is nearly 6 minutes long. And when you are listening to it on the album, you are TWENTY MINUTES into Be Here Now despite it being only the fourth song. There was simply no-one to rein-in the band’s, and specifically Noel Gallagher’s, excesses. There are just loads and loads of guitar laid on top of simple acoustic songs, with no-one in the Oasis camp able (or willing) to tell Noel to ease off. The lyrical content is more meaningless than ever, but that was never really an issue for Oasis, it’s just that the songs collapse with the layers of guitar tracks piled on them. Liam Gallagher does his best on vocals, but it is buried in the mix – although the 2016 remastered version does treat him a bit better. Allegedly “My Big Mouth” has 30 guitar tracks on it. No song should have 30 tracks of anything unless you are making something cosmically groundbreaking. “My Big Mouth” is just a very average rock song.

For a band who had been so Mancunian, so Northern, so British, all of a sudden the tracks are from a different era. While in the past he nicked riffs from bands in the past, it was still in an Oasis style. Now Noel Gallagher’s output sounded like bland, middle of the road soft rock. “Don’t Go Away” is a ballad that owes more to the dreaded American “AoR” radio than their first two, vital-sounding albums. Listening to it now feels very strange, especially when Noel Gallagher’s solo output sounds so different to what he produced on Be Here Now.

And there was just no, for want of a better word, editing. Song after song repeat their choruses and bridges over and over, leading into noodlely guitar outros. “Be Here Now” should be a 2 and half minute punky blast… instead it is over twice that. “The Girl in the Dirty Shirt” should be a brief love song like “Married With Children” from Definitely Maybe or “She Is Love” on Heathen Chemistry. “I Hope, I Think, I Know” is the closest to a normal length song, yet it comes in at 4:22. That first single, “D’You Know What I Mean?” – Noel himself thought that someone would tell him to take two minutes off it. No-one did, so there’s a long intro then a needless backwards bit at the end. It was the first song on the album! It doesn’t need that much of an outro!

And take the second last (proper) song on the album is “All Around The World”, which was the third and final single, is over 9 minutes long. It’s a song that makes “Champagne Supernova” sound restrained and focused.

And then it has a two minute reprise as the last track. For me, “All Around The World” proved that Oasis weren’t The Beatles, they were just a band that sometimes wanted to sound like The Beatles. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s a quote from Noel: “imagine how much better “Hey Jude” would have been with three key changes towards the end.” Oasis genuinely thought they were making an album to put them in with the all-time greats. Instead we got a very long, overblown, overloaded mess of an album. Buried somewhere in there is a 45 minute classic – I think the songs are better than the hungover Standing on the Shoulder of Giants – and if you pick single songs out of it, there are enjoyable to listen to.

But in 2017, as a whole, listening to Be Here Now is a tiring, head battering affair. It’s a testament to excess and… there’s just too much guitar. And coming from me – that is saying something.

(In case anyone thinks for whatever reason I am lying about my love for Oasis and this album on its release, here are my well-worn copies of the album and singles. I genuinely did love it, but it really doesn’t stand up now. It will always have a special meaning for me – like any first love – but the memory is better than reality, like most teenage obsessions!)

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Oasis: Be Here Now Review It was 20 years ago today...

[gradecmediafan]

Vlog – What Is A Vlog And How To Become A Vlogger?

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What Is a Vlog?

So you’ve heard the term “Vlog” and you want to know what Vlogs are all about. Well you’ve come to the right place. In this series of articles we will take you from wondering what a Vlog is to having all the knowledge you need to start your very own Vlog and go on to leverage that Vlog into a real business that makes you money.

Over the years I have used Youtube as a platform of choice for sharing  thoughts,challenges and even breakthrough in my line of work, literally with hundreds or thousands of readers to promote myself, business or a cause and the best part is Iam even earning a full time living from  my Vlog.

A Vlog also known as video blog is the chronological video publishing of content where video itself is the main center piece of content thereby creating  rich multi media that google search engines loves. More and more people are turning to video content now than ever. This trend for multimedia content has propelled what was seen as a small segmented form of blogging into a multi billion dollar industry.

While there are a section of Vloggers who have been vlogging for years, the latest explosion of Vlogs in recent years has a number of factors which includes the rising of super-rich kids who are making money online through Video blogging.

Why Start A Vlog

If money is your main motivator in starting a Vlog, maybe Vlogging isn’t the best choice for you. However if your goal is to leverage You tube Channel to build a brand or simply you just want to do it to gain experience and for the enjoyment of vlogging then you are in a good place.

I see this pretty much every day,some people jump at setting up a You tube channel with no plan or strategy on how their vlog will evolve into a business that makes money. Eventually after a few tries on video vlog postings they realize that making money on You tube is not easy.

As a vlogger, making money doesn’t really happen on You tube. There is a recipe for this sh***t guys! And yet many people who dream of becoming a vlogger keep making the same mistakes. So how about we take the curtain down and show you how some of the smartest marketers are using their You tube channels couppled with their vlogger status to crush it on the market.

Whether intend to build an ecom store on shopify, write a book and get published or run your business as a service, You tube is the perfect platform to help you build your brand.

If I had to give vlogging tips to beginners today, I would say not to get caught up or swamped in the competition that’s so prevalent on You tube. The Internet of things can be a noisy place sometimes, especially when every one is gagging for attention. It’s hard to get heard! With over a billion people thronging on You tube, you better have a btter trick up your sleeves to stamp your authority at anything.

How Can I Use a Vlog To Build A Brand Or Business?

With an impressive three billion daily views, You tube is not your average platform. This video-sharing platform stakes its claim as the world’s second-largest search engine (behind Google) and is considered the third most-visited website in the world. If you thought that  YouTube is only for funny cats video fans then think again!

As an internet marketer myself, I know the potential that You tube has for an average vlogger.  There’s an absolutely incredible potential with YouTube for every business or individuals who are on the look out for better ways to leverage online assets to drive their business interest, but you only need to understand that there is a process of setting up a successful vlog  into brand recognition.

In his recent post, Gary Vynerchuk said ” if you don’t have a video marketing strategy for the biggest video platforms, you are going to lose.

Being a business owner , I understand that the single most important strategy in content marketing today is video. For many of you reading this article you probably think that this is an overstatement, but if I could choose which horse to bet on today on this subject of using You tube to grow your brand, Gary Vynerchuk would be my guy!

And here is why?

For those of you who are new to vlogging, you probably know Gary Vynerchuk as the internet Marketing Genius, but frankly speaking, Gary Vynerchuk got his break through a vlog about wine he created on You tube.

Whether it’s video on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Youtube, the content you need to be thinking about creating and marketing on social for your business is video. That is where things are standing now.

No matter what you’re selling, no matter what your company does, if you don’t have a video marketing strategy for the biggest video platforms, you are going to lose. And in case you haven’t noticed, the platforms of distribution for video content online have shifted drastically over the last few months. Facebook is getting more daily minutes watched than YouTube, Snapchat’s daily views are now in the billions, and video on Twitter has taken listening and one to one branding to a whole new level.

Clever marketers know way before stepping into limelight on You tube that building brand awareness and creating “celebrity status” are inevitable with the correct strategy, but translating You tube views into real hard cash is not everyone’s cup of tea.

So you need the sort of expertise that can help you achieve exactly that. At the end of the day, if you are contemplating of getting your feet wet on You tube then you should understand that there is no “video bank” that you can trade in your views for dollars.

Instead, you need to strategically leverage your videos to perform one very specific function: drive traffic to your website.

How to Become a Vlogger and Start Vlogging On Youtube

Becoming a vlogger will require a vlogging camera and other tools for you to quickly get setup for a successful vlog on You tube. But as mentioned before, if you want your vlog to become your full time income earner, you gonna have to do more than just acquiring the best vlogging camera.

It is very easy to get things wrong with vlogging on You tube and this is simply because majority of You tube vloggers tend to be casual about covering the basics of a traditional business that is built at the back of diligent market  research and mapping out of  their You tube money making train.

While in the naked eye of a lay man, a vlogger camera may look like the only thing you need, it is fair enough to point out that a great deal of video blog owners failed making money on You tube due to lack of insight in ways of making money on You tube.

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