#feminist legato

[falling-star-cygnus]

if i ever see anyone trying to tell me Legato is not for the girlies it will be on sight

This skinny little music man killed an entire bar of men for the safety of three women

Not to mention, given his backstory, it would make so much sense for him to respect ladies??

I firmly believe if tristamp Legato saw what Old Man Nebraska did to Rosa and all the other ladies, he would throw hands

Legato is for the girlies, this is the only truth i accept {i am hopelessly desperate for his gender-}

[needle-noggins]

(CW for SA, suicidal ideation) Here we go. My favorite and simultaneously least favorite panel of Vash and Knives.

I've seen a few interpretations of this scene and before we dive into the one that really struck me, let's start with the more... chill one. We're finally introduced to the third gun of Trigun, Vash's angel arm. And the way we're introduced to it involves Knives forcing him to pull the trigger. Of course, since no one knows anything about Knives, the people of Noman's Land blame Vash for Fifth Moon, and Vash likewise blames himself (this is kinda a spoiler but if you've been paying attention, it's just par for the course). However, he's not the one who pulled the trigger, Knives is. It brings up an interesting moral question of blame - do we blame the gun (and Vash, who is being used/objectified as a weapon here), or the person who wanted it to happen? Guns don't kill people, genocidal twins do!

Now for the awful interpretation, the one that makes me cry and wish Vash was real so I could hug him and pay for his therapy. And really highlights how awful Knives is and how far he'd go for his brother in his own, fucked-up way. I touched on this in a previous post about Legato and the Murder Cafe, and the whole time I was thinking about Fifth Moon but didn't want to say anything for the sake of spoilers.

So. Pay attention to the way Vash and Knives are standing. Knives, when he first grabbed Vash's head, was standing in front of him. He moves behind him to better control him and yeah, he's still controlling him via hand on head, and now he's got his other hand gripping Vash's chest, where feathers/wings are manifesting. Knives is assaulting him. If you wanna get crazy with it and say that the angel arm is kinda phallic, you could say... yeah. This is rape. I heard that specific interpretation once and while I accepted it I also don't know if that would be generally accepted or if I'd be called out for it, so I'm trying to tread lightly here.

It also doesn't escape me that of course the angel arm has feminine features like the plants - the plants that, again, humans are exploiting for their ability to create. There's a lot of feminist commentary to be made here but many people have said it better than me. Specifically I'm thinking of this one post I saw about gender fuckery and Tristamp Vash. Anyway.

Also, the atomic bomb/black hole/sun/whatever that is in the middle... It's just so powerful. It's terrifying. The eldritch body horror here is a punch to the gut. What the fuck, Trigun? I thought this was a funky space western!!!

Oh, and here's more commentary on the following few panels:

Vashussy shot, Knives is still right behind him. Yeah, I wasn't kidding about how bad this pose is for them. Knives, you sick fuck.

Vash shoots himself in the leg (a key difference from '98 trigun, lol), because of course he does, but it doesn't free him from the arm.

The arm's getting darker/the light inside is getting lighter! Stampede did an awesome job with their interpretation of the angel arm and I don't think I would have understood it without that. Also, on my first read I didn't notice that Vash is literally levitating, which is cool, but also terrifying because ?? he's not in control of that either??

Finally. A super painful, minimalist, double-page spread. Nightow loves 'em. Vash thinks he's dying (maybe?) and he wishes he had never existed. It's not suicidal ideation per se, but he wishes he didn't exist at all because he's already caused enough suffering. This is a low for him, because he believes so strongly in the concept of the Blank Ticket. (Come on, soupy brain bitch boy, get it together!) He's a monster, it's just how he was born, and he's not in control. Very specifically too, he says "we", and then changes it to "I"... he doesn't blame Knives at all, and that's very him. I want to shake him! Stop playing the martyr, Vash!

[multifandom-girlie]

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝´𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧

Summary: The training that Elijah and Gia had in episode 2x04 ‘Live and Let Die’ but Hayley doesn’t walk in, so it gets steamy.

Pairing: Elijah x Gia

Warning: Smut

Words: 1444

A/N: this is for my babies in the group chat and @njeancastro316 💞.

Gia started with an inept punch, from the warrior stance she was preparing herself in. Elijah easily cages her fist in his hand and speaks up.

"As a devout feminist, I refuse to say that you hit like a girl."

She brings her arm back in an frustrated fashion and turns around. Elijah begins to unbutton the sleeves of his shirt and roll them up to his elbows. He walks around in small circles.

"Let's try this again shall we."

Gia turns back around looking up from the floor to Elijah's back, with her hands on her hips. Whilst Elijah paced steadily, he removed his watch from the soft skin of his wrist. He placed the watch in his pocket as Gia spoke.

"Tell me again, why I don't get to be outside with everybody else ? You know with the nice teacher."

Elijah finishes fixing the roll of his sleeve and removing his tie to better move.

"You are my responsibility."

Gia looks away from Elijah, the view being too much for the thoughts running in her mind. One of her hands had fallen from her hips and she looked into the distance whilst replying.

"Says the feminist."

He looked up with a toothy smirk on his face.

"Fighting is rhythm. There is a music, there is a meter, there is a pattern. Let that beat within you. Again."

Gia fixed her stance once again and prepared herself. She throws a punch at him but his right hand came down in time and caught her wrist before throwing it downwards and letting go. Gia clearly trying was looking at Elijah so composed.

"Legato.

She throws two more punches to allow her to feel some kind of victory but just like the last time, he blocks them. She aimed her left fist for his stomach and her right to his face but still no damage. Since he ducked her head shot, so she missed. They both quickly reposition before Gia goes for an elbow to the face quickly blocked by the side of his hand and a stern look on his face. She then uses the same arm to go for another head shot before Elijah uses his right to push it out of aim and holds his left arm to block the elbow coming his way once again. She looks at his arm and closed her eyes, huffing in frustration.

"Ostinato."

They relax their stances and shake off a little. Gia runs her hands through her hair in thought and irritation. Then quickly reposition's, she punches him for it too be quickly blocked and then went to kick him before Elijah moved out of the way to her original space. She goes for another punch before like the others it's blocked. Elijah Straightens himself.

"Crescendo."

Gia then goes for a punch but when found out she quickly changed to an elbow. Whilst holding her arm and looks deep into her eyes.

"And then, once you've established your cadence—"

Gia takes the opportunity to spin out of his grip, kick him and presses him against the wall whilst he's distracted. She holds her left arm on his chest and her right hand just under. She smiles and bites her lip a little.

"—you change the key."

He looks at her whilst lightly panting.

"Very nice."

He looks around a little and grips her elbow, looking at her deeply in the eyes.

"Now—"

He presses her hand more onto his chest.

"the head, or the heart?"

Gia hesitates.

"None of this matters if you cannot make the kill."

She drops her hand from his chest and looks at his chest instead of his eyes.

"What if I can't do it ?"

He grabs her hand, forcing her to look into his eyes once again and presses her hand against his chest.

"You will. To survive. Now— the head, or the heart?"

He smirks at her. Gia looks at him terrified, but she shoves her hand into Elijah's chest and grabs his heart. Elijah visibly winces in pain-but looks at her proudly.

They look at each other deeply in the eyes and smile at each other. Her grip loosens and her hand falls out of his chest. The eye contact not failing to make her pants slightly damp. Her hands fall from his chest and he smirks at her whilst unbuttoning his shirt due to the blood. She noticeably gazes at his naked upper torso and couldn't help the dirty thoughts from earlier race around her mind again.

They both notice the blood on her top to, so she decided to follow his actions with copying him. Her's fell to the floor where his shirt was thrown. He races over to her and grips her face, still inches apart. Temptation levels high, he gave in and kissed her lustfully. He gripped her hips tightly whilst doing that and gradually slid his hands down to her bottom and gripped it before lifting her and wrapping her beautifully long legs around his narrow waist.

They speed to the bedroom and he gets thrown on the bed by Gia. She pins his arms down and kisses him deeply before ripping his belt and throwing it across the room. Not long after she did the same to at the clothing on his bottom half. The leather of his exorbitant belt and cotton of his dress shirt strewn across the pine floors of the loft. Elijah twisted the honey coloured beauty until she was laying at his mercy underneath him. He stood from the bed and stripped his boxers off in a show like fashion making her blush and bite her lip. He smirked back at her and pulled her up and clutched the back of her neck, making her ebony eyes stare at him fervidly and her swollen bottom lip pop out from behind her teeth and her soft black hair fall over her honey coloured complexion.

His lips found her's as he lowered her on the bed and stared back at her lovingly. Strands of his chocolate brown hair falling over his eyes as well. The pads of his fingers trailed down the soft skin of her arm making her breath hitch and gradually moved to her stomach, arriving at her pants. He pulled them down whilst kissing her thighs and travelling up her body to her lips, where he placed a light kiss. He looked in her eyes with love and plunged into her. Making her moan loudly. Her hands clutched his back and he pulled them off and pinned them to the bed, gripping them with his own.

Unable to keep the mass of pleasure he was feeling himself from just her in general. Being inside of her have him a newfound sense of power he hadn't felt before. Not with Tatia, Celeste or even Hayley.

His thrusts got heavier, his pubic bone brushing her's showing him how well she took his large shaft. He'd never been able to go as deep or feel as pleasured with anyone before, not that he intended to before he did. Her knuckles were going white from how strengthy her grip on his hands were. His hips quickened and the sound of her sweet moans, his deep groans and skin slapping together were the only sounds heard, echoing throughout the apartment. The creamy white liquid started to run out of her pussy, smothering his cock in her sweet juices. He pulled out to taste her which overwhelmed her unsurprisingly. His tongue running over clit and his lips brushing her pussy whilst his fingers were pumping into her hitting her g spot with every movement. She'd never felt over-stimulation before but God she was feeling it now, She came all in his mouth and went to stand up before Elijah pulled her back turned her around so she was laying on her stomach. He positioned his dick again and thrusted inside of her...hard. His hands gripped her waist and his hips snapped against her behind and hers gripped the silk sheets of the bed, causing them to rip. He pulled her upright which she was too weak too do so she ended falling into his lap. He decided to grip her harder and move her up and down instead, her hair tickled his chest but he couldn't bother about it at all because he was cumming and he was cumming hard.

He pulled out and she immediately fell to the bed and passed out with exhaustion. He chuckled a little and covered her with a blanket before cuddling up to her pulling her back against his chest and falling to sleep himself.

MASTERLIST

[domesticatedantelope]

fluency

Pairing: Colt x MC

Rating: E | NSFW 18+

Word Count: 2150

Summary: The one where Colt’s had just about enough of being left out.

Or, @brightpinkpeppercorn speaks magic, and I get the honor of writing it into being.

@choicesarehard @desiree-0816 @leelee10898 @client-327 @zaffrenotes @octobereighth @liamzigmichael4ever @navigatorholmes @sibella-plays-choices @lovehugsandcandy @dr-casey-lahela

They’re doing it again.

Colt sets his wrench down, popping his stiff knuckles with a swift clench of his hands. Caged under the body of a car is not the place to lose his head; he repeats this to himself as the first hot licks of anger creep steadily up the back of his neck. He cracks the muscles there as well for good measure, but the tension lingers.

He can hear their voices drifting over from the front room, just barely audible above the din of static fuzzy music from the beat-ass radio against the wall. Damn thing is almost older than he is, but his pop insists on keeping it around, and normally that godforsaken crackle on the high notes is the most offensive auditory torture gnawing at his nerves, but -

Logan says something soft and susurrant, and Mercy laughs, that sugar taffy laughter Colt so covetously wishes he could keep just for himself. Against his will he strains to listen, but the words slip uselessly against his brain, a thousand tiny locks he lacks the keys for. He can’t tear into what he doesn’t understand, and the deficit infuriates him. 

He tells himself it’s just the nature of Spanish as a language, legato sounds the two of them bounce back and forth like old friends, soft syllables all looped together into something sensual and secret and locked beyond his understanding - that a romance language sounds romantic, and it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s Logan.

Still, the echo of their conversation from the other room stings between his teeth like a cavity, hollow and sour. He grinds his jaw to stamp the feeling out.

Colt’s roamed the streets of LA since his feet could carry him. Spanish is no stranger to his ear, but Mercy rockets through the sounds like she could ride them to the stars, all rapidfire sibilants too fast to parse apart. Then there’s a verse of whispered giggles while Logan drawls through his response, and the whole thing is altogether too fond and too familiar and something feels like fucking fire in the cavern of his chest. 

The creeper squeaks on timeworn wheels when he rolls out from underneath the car. “All right, that’s it.”

He nearly brains himself against the side of the car when Mona’s voice chirps knowingly from behind him. “I was wondering how long you were gonna put up with that.” 

“Jesus, Mona, how long’ve you been…?” He staggers to his feet, wipes down his hands and casts a withering glare in her direction. “Shut up.”

She barely glances up from her nails when he storms past, but the smug curl of her laughter carries after him. 

Jealousy propels him into the next room in three long strides, reckless energy that tenses in his fists and the edges of his vision. They’re hunched together over Mercy’s phone as she swipes through her photos, but their heads both lift in tandem when he steps into the doorway. She blinks at him across the room, dark eyes flaring wide and round as he stalks toward her, and recognition dawns across her face only moments before he hooks an arm around her waist and hauls her bodily over his shoulder.

“What - Colt!” Mercy gasps, curling two tiny fists into the back of his shirt for balance. 

Logan’s already on his feet, reaching out as it to stop him. “Hey, you can’t-!”

“Say it in Spanish, asshole.”

“Colt Kaneko! Put me down!” Her voice scales a few octaves higher as she struggles against his grip. “I’m a feminist, for Christ’s sake!” 

When he snorts a laugh, her knee swings in to deliver a swift kick toward his chest. He’s faster, catching her thigh against the palm of his hand, saving himself a blow that might have knocked the wind from his lungs. Smart little brat. “You’re gonna make me drop you if you keep that up.”

“Then put me down.”

“Mercy…?” Logan’s voice wavers somewhere behind them.

“It’s fine,” she seethes back, hardly reassuring, upside down over Colt’s shoulder and still trying to play nice. Logan’s earned her ire throwing punches in the past, but Colt wonders with a dark twist of delight where that puppy dog loyalty will fall when it’s Mercy on the line and not his pride. Might be fun to kick his ass. Certainly not as fun as what he wants to do to Mercy, but he likes to think that he’s prepared for every avenue of action that might cross his path.

In the end, it seems like Mercy’s no more fistfights rule has Logan’s hands tied, and Colt carries her alone into the break room, where he kicks the door shut behind him, dropping them into a heavy silence.

“I can’t believe you.” She hisses the words into the space between his shoulders. “Carried me out of there like an absolute barbarian.”

Colt props her down onto the rail of the pool table and insinuates himself quite pointedly into her space. His hand shapes a firm grip around her chin, pinning her under the full force of his glare. 

Mercy glares back, but she doesn’t fight his grasp. Her chest heaves with heated breath, muscles tensing like she might still make a break for it until the first soft trace of pink rises telltale across her cheeks. There it is. 

Long dark lashes frame her gaze and cast the faintest shadows down over her cheekbones, and some niggling, incessant urge to kiss the delicate shape of them coalesces with reckless abandon, tempting him across the empty space between them. The angry part of him bares teeth and digs its heels in; the aching in his heart suggests it’s far too late for that.

He firmly ignores both, clipping the words through his teeth when he speaks. “What have I told you about that?” 

Something twitches at the corner of her lips, the first half of a smile barely bitten down. “You know I grew up speaking Spanish, right?”

“Mercy.” 

“So unless you’re gonna learn it and speak it with me -”

He kisses her, claims her mouth and all the storming words there, and only the brief second between heartbeats passes before Mercy softens to his touch, breathing a gasp and kissing him back with equal urgency, hooking her fingers into fistfuls of his shirt. He toes the line of too rough, but she tugs him closer, arching to bare her neck when his mouth scales her jaw and descends the soft stretch of her throat, her eagerness versed out in little actions he’s relieved to understand with perfect comprehension; this, at least, they can speak together.

The first latch of his teeth into her skin sets off a shiver that leaps down her spine. Mercy breathes out softly - oh - her thighs twitching around his hips as he bites down and sucks and scores a mark that will fast bloom and become insurmountably difficult to hide. Her fingers travel up his neck to curl through the roots of his hair, his name barely there on the sound of her breath, and his body sings with satisfaction: yes, please, more of that, right fucking now -

His mouth scours a scatterplot of love bites down her skin, slipping her shirt aside to mark the curves of her breasts and the soft, bronze skin over her ribs. She squeezes at his hair as he shoves her skirt up and continues his determined path down her thighs. Her voice breaks when he bites her there, fraying into tortured little gasps that almost vaguely shape his name.

Colt drags in a steadying breath and drinks in the sight of her before him, love-drunk and blushing, flustered from his kisses. The calculated network that he normally maintains among his thoughts quickly unravels, scattered out into a jumbled mess of need and Mercy and now. He wants to watch her fall apart right here on the fucking pool table, wants her against his mouth, to feel her come undone around his fingers -

Irked, he glances down at the oil stains still streaked across his hands, and reluctantly he sets his fingers to her thighs instead, leading them apart for the further progression of his mouth. He doesn’t need hands, he decides; his mouth is more than capable of purging every last remaining word of spoken language from her mind.

He doesn’t bother removing her panties. His teeth tug those dismissively aside, and then he has his mouth against wet heat and Mercy is so ready for him, sobbing when he runs the length of silky folds beneath his tongue and starts to hint at suction. Her hips jerk, oversensitive; she staves the harshest of his strokes away with the fist clenched in his hair, and he eases off, chasing her white-knuckled lead. 

“Colt-!” Mercy bites his name into the back of her hand, splayed out against faded green baize and fighting desperately not to make a noise; he can feel the tension of it in her muscles as she writhes under his mouth. He works his tongue in greedy, seeking spirals, and it doesn’t take him long to get soft broken noises past the border of her self-control, whining echoes of his name compressing down into a splintered chant as her hips lurch against him. 

The urge to touch her itches in the tips of his fingers. He grips them hard against her skin and redoubles his efforts, jaw aching and sweat stinging down the back of his stiff neck and every atom of it absolutely worth it when she gasps and arcs and falls apart. The muscles in her thighs sweep in tight around his head, and he eats her through the high, past the point of whimpers and shivers, until she’s nudging him away with the heel of her hand and a strangled whine of protest, legs falling weakly away from his face.

He swipes an arm over his mouth, curling in against her chest while she recovers, feeling the rise and fall of her ribs as she starts to catch her breath. His cock is cramped and unbelievably hard behind his jeans, but the satisfaction of making Mercy come and the soft stroke of her fingers through his hair have soothed the sharpest of the edges from his anger. He wraps himself around her and listens to the slowing rhythm of her heartbeat, tiptoes his fingers gently over burgeoning bruises, the dark blossoms where his teeth have shaped the same word on her skin: mine and mine and mine.

“Hey,” Mercy croaks eventually. “Hey. Kaneko.”

“Castellano.”

She tugs him by the hair until he rises to meet her gaze, those delicate brows furrowed above her eyes. “This was fun, but…” Her cheeks darken. “No more carting me off like an animal when I’m just speaking Spanish with Logan.”

“No more doing it where I can hear.”

“Seriously?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

She tweaks the shell of his ear, just hard enough to hurt. “Don’t be mean.”

A scowl tugs across his face, but he dips his mouth to a faint outline that his teeth left at the base of her throat, pressing the softest apology there. “You could be a lot less flirty about it.”

Mercy blinks then, taken aback. “It’s really that bad?”

“Oh, my god, it sounds like you two are gonna fuck each other right there.”

Her cheeks wash with pink, but she pinches her lip between her teeth, considering. Then she nods. “Okay. That’s fair. Business-casual Spanish only.”

Against his instincts, he actually laughs; and he still wonders deep down what it is about her that lifts so much of the weight from his shoulders. “Mercy.”

“I’m only joking a little... It makes you uncomfortable, so I won’t do it anymore.” She shrugs, shaping her shaking fingertips along the tense line of his jaw. The flush of pleasure is still warm across her face and throat when she offers him a coy half-smile. “I might have been teasing you a little. To see what you would do.”

“No shit.” Colt rolls his eyes, but his lips are gentle when he kisses the pulse in her throat. “And?”

She laughs, that sweet tooth sound, roughened in the wake of coming and entirely for him. “Aside from being thrown over your shoulder like a sack of rice, no complaints.”

“Noted.”

While he fixes her clothing lazily back into place, she watches him with lidded eyes and reaches out to catch his hand, threading their fingers together. “Would you prefer I speak it to you?”

He answers at once. “I thought that’d be obvious.”

“Even if you don’t understand?”

“I don’t need to.” He soothes his thumb at the back of her hand, follows after with his lips against her knuckles, pressing a kiss there that he hopes will translate right. “I understand you.” 

[jdiep95]

Mariah Carey: Top 10 Remixes

In continuation of celebrating Mariah season, and “All I Want For Christmas Is You” finally becoming a #1 single, I am sharing with you my “Top” lists of MC songs every Monday and Tuesday up until the 25th. After talking about the Top 10 Most Iconic Mariah Carey songs, it’s time to move on to the Top 10 MC Remixes. Come back next Monday for the Top 10 Underrated MC Bops. All songs mentioned these lists can be found on streaming services (e.g. Spotify, Apple Music). That means deeper cuts, but fan favourites, like the “Someday (New 7” Straight)” remix, the “Never Too Far/Hero” medley, and “H.A.T.E.U.” remix ft. OJ da Juiceman, which aren’t available, aren’t included; the aforementioned remixes are, however, available on YouTube, and they definitely deserve a listen.

You’ve listened to remixes where they’ve brought in a guest rapper, something that Mariah popularized in 1995 as you’ll see below. You’ve also listened to remixes where they’ve brought in a featured singer, something that Mariah had also done in 2000, when she re-released the “Against All Odds (Take A Look at Me Now)” single with Westlife. But you’ve never heard a remix until you’ve heard a MC remix. Somehow we’ve gotten the perception that Mariah is lazy because she doesn’t perform the choreo or doesn’t sing the song — point them in this direction. Up until the 2010s, Mariah insisted doing remixes her way. She’s not just pulling in DJs, or rappers, or featured singers to do all the heavy lifting in remixes, Mariah incorporates new elements, sometimes practically changing up the genre of the song. And she re-records, sometimes new vocals, sometimes the entire track.

Is the list TL;DR? No worries. I compiled each list into a respective playlist, starting from No. 10 and ending at No. 1, so you get to listen to the Top 10 MC Remixes while on the go.

https://open.spotify.com/user/jdiep95/playlist/6UfiZPeq4yA1fq4i87CUwq?si=iHpF9-BAThW8m26GKSKyiA

10. A No No ft. Shawni

Year: 2019

“A No No” is an underrated bop off of Mariah’s most recent studio album, Caution. Caution, like many of Mariah’s comeback, is a testament that she’s still got it; however, unlike the couple of albums before it, Mariah ditches most of the post-production, and delivers one of her strongest albums. “A No No” uses a sped-up sample of Lil’ Kim’s "Crush on You”, with the original mix using excerpts of Biggie’s rap. The remix featuring Shawni drops Biggie’s rap. This isn’t the first time Mariah opted for a female rapper for the remix: In 1999 for the “Heartbreaker” remix, MC dropped Jay-Z for Da Brat and Missy Elliot. “A No No” is a feminist song about cutting off liars and cheaters, and enjoying the single life; Shawni’s contributions add to the latter, admitting: “To all my exes need to tell you that I’m sorry/That I didn’t leave you sooner/I settle for less, and that is exactly what I been getting.” This remix isn’t perfect — the melody and the structure remains the same, and Mariah only records a couple of additional inflections. The best part about this remix, that’s absent from the original mix, is the addition of a series of ascending melismatic whistles near the end. You can’t help but feel like something’s missing from the original mix, and MC lets you know it in the remix.

9. Fantasy (Bad Boy Fantasy Remix) ft. O.D.B., Sean “Puffy” Combs

Year: 1995

Why the “Bad Boy Fantasy Remix” is so iconic was already discussed in the Top 10 Most Iconic list: It introduced the featured rapper formula to pop music, and paved the road for its successors like Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” or Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, both of which features Jay-Z. The remix features rapper O.D.B., who, by the time the remix was released, had started a solo career separate from the Wu-Tang Clan. The release of the "Fantasy" remix is entrenched in racial politics. Columbia Records and Sony Music feared the inclusion of O.D.B. would jeopardize the squeaky clean, family-friendly, racially-ambiguous image they had built for Mariah. In the remix, a lot of the pop production is stripped away, leaving the bass beat as the foundation of the song; Mariah sings on top of this. "Fantasy" sampled “Genius of Love” by the Tom Tom Club, and in the remix, the sample is echoed in the bass beat. The bridge of the original mix, which also samples “Genius of Love”, became the remix’s chorus. The structure changed, and “Fantasy” itself became slinkier, less saccharine. The producer, Sean Combs, better known as P. Diddy, recalled working with O.D.B. all through the night to record the rap; O.D.B recorded sentences at a time, whenever the inspiration hit, or whenever he was awake. Regardless, Mariah’s insistence to collaborate with O.D.B, and to release the remix was an industry-changing move.

8. Honey (So So Def Remix) ft. Da Brat, Jermaine Dupri

Year: 1997

The “Fantasy” remix, despite it being iconic and timeless, was mostly work in post, especially trying to piece together O.D.B.’s individual recordings to form an actual rap. The So So Def remix of “Honey” was a completely different affair with the song reworked and re-recorded. The bass line of the original mix of “Honey” samples “The Body Rock” by the Treacherous Three, while the tinkling piano line uses a sample of “Hey DJ” by the World’s Famous Supreme Team. The So So Def Remix foregoes “The Body Rock” sample, and also samples a different excerpt from “Hey DJ”. The accompaniment itself sounds like a midi file off of a video game, but it’s actually the hook from the Jackson’s 5 “It’s Great to Be Here”, Mariah’s first time sampling a another pop song. This “Honey” remix is a novelty. As a critic, you would expect another dance remix or something that really leans into the hip-hop, and instead you receive a feat that reduces the original dance track to 8-bit music with MC’s vocals as the main attraction.

7. My All (Classic Club Remix)

Year: 1998

Have you seen Dreamgirls? In the stage performance, Effie sings “One Night Only” and it shifts immediately into the disco version sung by Deena. I imagine the remix of “My All” draws inspiration from that, especially when they chorus starts chanting, “Just one more night.” In the Classic Club Remix, MC sings on top of a dance beat but it’s a slow burn before it becomes that full on club anthem. The remix isn’t completely re-recorded; it’s her original recording that’s fixed on top of the dance track produced by David Morales, but it’s the last five minutes that she adds on new elements, and finishes out with new vocals, a solo for the latin guitars, and a chorus. Sam Smith might be able to sing any dance song as a ballad, but Mariah is the master of rewriting any torch song into an upbeat track. Try not dancing when Mariah starts going off with the “Feel your body”’s.

6. Through the Rain ft. Kelly Price, Joe

Year: 2002

“Through the Rain” is Mariah’s first comeback single. It hails from Charmbracelet, Mariah’s comeback album after the entire Glitter fiasco. It’s Mariah’s first leading single that failed to crack the Top 5, even “Loverboy” off of Glitter peaked at #2. The inspirational track, which encourages the audience that they will “Make it through the rain”, stalled at #81. The original mix is a slow R&B ballad, one that even I rarely listen to since I almost always opt for the live version she performed at MTV Presents. The remix is more upbeat as a result of changes lyrically and melodically, and by infusing gospel elements, there’s more of a sense of hope than in the original mix. “Through the Rain” didn’t chart well, so why does this remix rank so high among the other remixes? A decade and a half before Kanye decided to bring everyone to church, Mariah brought her listeners to church instead of the club with this remix. For a remix, the sound was new and gutsy, especially for a song that didn’t fair too well, granted she did also release a dance remix. With the remix, MC proved that a song didn’t have to be wildly popular for her to breath new life into it.

5. Unforgettable (Acoustic) ft. Mariah Carey, Swae Lee

Year: 2017

You might be quick to catch that "Unforgettable” is actually a French Montana song, but you might be less familiar with this Mariah Carey remix. The inclusion of MC on this track, and the decision to replace the track with a guitar makes it sound more like a R&B-inspired country song with a rap section than it does dancehall; nonetheless, the remix is incredibly cross-genre. Chances are French Montana didn’t re-record his lines, which is standard, but then some very stylistic choices were made that makes the remix sound like a Mariah duet rather than a MC-guest appearance. These decisions, however, may not exactly be MC-mandated, so let’s talk about two things that were within her control: (1) MC sings throughout the entire track. She doesn’t appear for just one verse then disappears; she injects herself throughout the song by harmonizing with French Montana. (2) MC brings her whistle notes. MC fans stan Mariah’s whistle notes for one very good reason: Mariah uses them with much musicality. It’s less of a garnish where MC goes, “Hey, look, I did that!” because we know she can do those whistle notes. In the “Unforgettable” remix, MC uses her whistles as a base, a broth if you may; in this way, her high notes are instrumental, and she strings them together in a series of legato to create the backing track for which French and her sings on. Mariah’s contribution to this song really makes it ever more unforgettable.

4. We Belong Together ft. Jadakiss, Styles P

Year: 2005

Kelefa Sanneh, a former music music critic for The New York Times, called the “We Belong Together” remix “springier”; I had to quote him because there’s no better way of putting it. The original mix is tear-jerking, but the remix has a bounce to it that captures the hip-hop vibe that MC was looking for. The remix gets pretty close to demonstrating what a perfect balance looks like, and inevitably Mariah sometimes misses the mark — remixes sometimes reduce Mariah to the featured artist, despite it being a Mariah song. She sings along while Jadakiss and Styles P trade lines, emphasizing certain phrases. The remix continues to sample Bobby Womack’s “If You Think You’re Lonely Now”, and uses a longer lyric sample from “Two Occasions” by The Deele. On this list, we’ve seen MC skillfully use instrumental samples, but she is masterful in picking lyrical samples as well. The “Two Occasions" sample, “I only think of you on two occasions/That’s day and night”, contributes to the message of yearning in “We Belong Together”, making it fit perfectly with the mood and the scheme of the song. MC finishes the remix in a way only she could, by showcasing a series of vocal acrobats for the last minute-and-a-half of the song.

3. Always Be My Baby (Mr. Dupri Mix) ft. Da Brat, Xscape

Year: 1996

I know diehard fans prefer Mariah’s Butterfly era, where you had songs like “Honey” and “My All”, but my favourite would still have to be the Daydream era, when MC decided to gift the world with “Fantasy” and “Always Be My Baby”. The Daydream era featured prime Mariah vocals, amazing album cuts, and two of Mariah’s coolest remixes to date. Both the “Fantasy” and “Always Be My Baby” remixes are timeless; the former is so stripped down, but it is the latter that we really need to talk about. It’s timeless in such a sophisticated way that’s so rarely seen in pop music. Don’t agree? But Mariah seems to agree. In the Caution World Tour, Mariah’s most recent tour, she performed this remix instead, when “Always Be My Baby” had almost always been performed unaltered in the original mix. The foundation of the Mr. Dupri Mix samples “Tell Me If You Still Care” by the SOS Band, a slow jam itself which gives the remix its sleek, quiet storm sound that was so popular in the 1980s. MC is an understated music genius: She takes a page from TLC, who had just released their critically-acclaimed hip-hop album CrazySexyCool the year before, by recruiting a female rapper, Da Brat for the remix; this marks the first time MC collaborated with a female rapper. And the rap practically merges with the track; it’s neither out of place nor distracting as Mariah riffs while Da Brat raps. She also melds two supposedly conflicting genres, since younger Black audiences had shifted their attention from quiet storm to hip hop since the beginning of the ‘90s. Whereas the “Fantasy” remix had almost no re-recorded vocals, the “Always Be My Baby” remix received an almost complete makeover, save the melody. Mariah really thins out her voice for the remix and introduces her airy whisper, something she’ll really master in her subsequent albums, which gives a new feeling to the happy-go-lucky vibe on the original mix. The remix is more mature, reflecting Mariah’s real-life desire to bridge pop, R&B and hip-hop.

2. All I Want For Christmas Is You (So So Def Remix)

Year: 2000

As we’ve seen in the Top 10 Most Iconic list, Mariah has released several versions of “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. Certainly, the original mix reigns supreme, but the So So Def Remix comes awfully close, and I will argue that none of MC’s other versions or any other cover of this song, ballad, acoustic or otherwise, comes close to this remix. You might have heard the disconnected intro and skipped the rest of the song, which meant you missed Mariah and producer Jermaine Dupri reworking the song in ways no one else can. The So So Def Remix is an extremely smooth R&B and hip-hop remix, and although this is nothing out of the ordinary for MC, it’s such a smart remix because it’s a Christmas song for anyone who’s tired of listening to Christmas songs; essentially it’s an escape from the original mix. This remix has as much spring as the “We Belong Together” remix, but this bounce is a result of sampling “Planet Rock” by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force. The whistle notes that are seen in the main melody of later versions derives from this remix, and arguably, the whistle notes in the remix’s successors are nowhere as melismatic. You can’t beat a Mariah original, but you also can’t beat a Mariah remix.

1. Anytime You Need A Friend (C&C Club Version)

Year: 1994

“Anytime You Need A Friend” is a deeper cut itself off of Mariah's best selling album Music Box. It’s Mariah’s first US single not to enter the Top 10, peaking at #12. It’s equal parts a love song and a song of encouragement, especially the remix. The original mix of “Anytime You Need A Friend” is a slow ballad, at least “My All” had something sexy about it, so you wouldn’t except Mariah, and producers David Cole and Robert Clivillés to be able to work it into a dance track so well. But without a doubt, it is definitively Mariah’s best remix. The 10 minute song is essentially an abridged version of Mariah’s résumé; you get a glimpse at everything from Mariah’s vocal talents to her songwriting abilities to her musicality. “Anytime You Need A Friend” is a torch song that’s been repackaged with a pounding dance beat. Even if it's from 1994, there’s a certain timelessness to it. Another great thing about most of MC’s remixes is that it doesn’t cut the song short; in the C&C Club Version, the entire song is there. Mariah reworks the part of the original melody, but it’s the last six minutes of the remix, when Mariah goes off, where you can really observe how well she knows music. Can you write this down on sheet music? Or was it improv? To me, the last six minutes was literally a playground for MC to do her thing, whatever she wants. There’s no guest singer or featured rapper, just Mariah. But then this allows her to do something she’s almost never done before or since. At the eight minute mark, the remix enters a jazz breakdown, and Mariah scats, dipping into her lows, belting, and hitting those whistle notes. Simply, this remix is remarkable and breathtaking.

Timelessness is the key word here with MC’s remixes. You may think that the incorporation of samples would date these remixes significantly, but personally it does it complete opposite. Mariah’s remixes transcends eras because of the use of samples. Not only are her remixes cross-genre, they’re also cross-generational. Mariah doesn’t just push out remixes and waits to capitalize on them. If you’re looking for a place to find Mariah’s artistry, look no further than her remixes. She adds new elements and new life to the songs, rewrites them, reworks them, re-records them. Who’s done this recently? In the last twenty years, which artist has consistently given their remixes this kind of treatment?

[baeowulfisbae]

A review of Jesse Raccio’s Beowulf

This week, we discussed modern interpretations and adaptations of Beowulf. I read the dragon chapter of Grendel, which was really perfect--and I watched Jesse Raccio’s and Buffy Sharpe’s operatic adaptation of the poem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo02DllRRFo). The opera was exactly what I expected: young singers deconstructing voice pathos over minimalistic, repetitive triads. It was disappointing, initially, but I warmed up to it and I think this team did a lot of things very well with their adaption.

In his studies on fairy tales, Jack Zipes distinguishes between duplication ("produc[ing] a lookalike") and revision ("creat[ing] something new that incorporates critical and creative thinking of the producer and corresponds to changed demands and tastes of audiences") (9). Zipes says that, "a result of transformed values, [revisions] alter the reader's views of traditional patterns, images, and codes" though such alterations are not necessarily "improvements" or "progressive" (9). As far as adaptations go, Sharpe's reading of the Beowulf story is progressive in its deconstruction of harmonic form and voice pathos, but slightly regressive, in its characterization of some figures in the story.

What this opera does well: Voice pathos gesture to the binaries within the text. We have spoken of pairs of binary oppositions, in class, and Tolkien addresses this, to some degree, in his Monsters and Critics essay, noting that the poem is “essentially balance, an opposition of endings and beginnings. In simple terms, it is a contrasted description of two moments in a great life, rising and setting; an elaboration of the ancient and intensely moving contrast between youth and old age, first achievement and final death" (5).

When I speak of voice pathos, I am referring to the roles and melodies composers write for particular voice types. I am a dramatic soprano, for example, and the last two roles I played were Delilah and Salome. My voice has weight to it and women with weighted voices never play love interests. I will always be cutting off someone's head, because weighted voices are powerful voices and powerful women, prior to the 20th century, were always disruptive figures. As far as general rules for pre-20th C voice parts go, the heroes are always tenors, the love interests are always lyric sopranos, the servants are generally basses (or mezzo-sopranos, for teenage boy servants), the wise, older male figures are baritones, the grandmothers are contraltos, the strong female figures are dramatic sopranos or coloratura sopranos. Raccio's voices her opera as such:1. Aeschere: counter tenor 2. Grendel's mother: dramatic soprano 3. Hrothgar: baritone4. Beowulf: tenor  5. Wealtheow: Lyric soprano

The voicing was the first component of the opera that impressed me, since Aeschere is--at the first listen--seemingly misvoiced. In the Beowulf story, of course, Aeschere doesn't speak at all, but Sharpe writes him into Grendel's mother's entrance and Raccio uses a counter tenor (or a tenor trying to sing a counter tenor's range). It's disconcerting, hearing a dramatic soprano paired with a counter tenor; there's too much power on stage and the melodic lines are jagged, the melody never going where my ear tells me it should go. It's unpleasant and symbolic: a lot of power on stage, but misplaced power, out of range and out of key, like Grendel's mother bursting into the safety of the Hall.

By contrast, Hrothgar has very simple, musically-logical melodic lines that move within a more traditional, Western harmonic structure (C-F-G-C sorts of progressions, overall). Beowulf tends to get the soaring heroic tenor melodies and there is really no better way, musically, to signify boasting than to write a heroic tenor melody. The wonderfully creative revision that Raccio makes, with the boasting, is that--while Beowulf's melody is less jagged and sounds properly-voiced, the text, "Fear not," (as in--Fear not. I will go after Grendelkin) is sung on a minor second. In music theory, the minor second is always used to denote tension (the two repeated notes from the Jaws theme constitute a minor second, for example), so that while Beowulf is voiced from a place of musical stability, there is an element of tension, to the scene, also. Raccio is not the first composer to play with a story that has some of its basis in Norse mythology and it is really nice to see her playing with the kinds of conventions Wagner does. Wagner's well-known leitmotifs--symbolic chords--are structured on a premise of nothing resolving the way that it is meant to, in the way of chord progressions. I sense that Raccio's playfulness with musical tensions may be a nod to Wagner, especially when she moves from epic or heroic chords to...improperly resolved chords. (Stephen Fry discusses Wagnerian leitmotifs and musical tension, in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWLp7lBomW8)

What the opera does not do well:

The librettist, Sharpe, writes Grendel's mother in a way that devastated me, to some degree, as a dramatic soprano. Grendel's mother is a siren--which gestures back to some of the critical writings we've discussed on epics--but she does not need to be a siren. In the Grendel opera, adapted from John Gardner's book, the mother is strictly physically powerful. She's threatening because she's physically threatening. I know that there are many good feminist essays on this subject--and on the subject of Beowulf's sword melting in Grendel's mother's body--but it seems lazy to me to automatically eroticize her power. I'm not opposed to erotic power outright, but there are so few moments, in literature, in which women have an outright physical advantage and Raccio and Sharpe have written that out of the text just so that this singer has a more legato aria. Putting this this woman's powerful voice to good use is understandable, but, reasonably, they could have also written her a reflective/solitary aria(or lullaby) of grief, and then broken the melody into a more recitative-style (with conversation-like snippets of sound), as she enters the hall to avenge her son's death. Composers don't like to put weighted voices into faster melodies, but it can be really effective when they do (case-in-point: Norman, 30 seconds into this aria--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H9LTixHHug). Hearing Aeschere say, "She's a siren. She's a minx. She is not as she appears to me," then, is a bit irritating, especially given Aeschere’s age. On the other hand, though, the slow seduction leaves affective space for a slow exit from the Hall. In that moment, she cradles Grendel's arm in hers and it is actually quite moving. 

Overall then, this opera has its strength in Raccio's experimentation with sound and harmonic form, in the moments in which Heorot has been compromised. The libretto, though, has far too much seduction and romance and we don't get the engagement with the community, that we see in the original text and I don’t like reading this story without it. 

Tolkien, J.R.R. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” Beowulf: A Verse Translation. Ed. Daniel Donoghue. New York: Norton, 2002. 

Zipes, Jack. Fairytale as Myth/Myth as Fairytale. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994. 

[recentanimenews]

The 5 Most Loved and Hated Psychics in Anime

Whether mental freaks or gifted mediums, psychics in anime have it surprisingly rough. Reading the thoughts of everyone around you or the power to control minds may make it difficult to build meaningful friendships or a shady government entity might be looking to gather you up for a lifetime of experiments. Safe to say it's hard to live a normal life. Your powers may be convenient, but at what point is there no going back?

Love them or hate them… they can MAKE you love them. Our friends over at Anime-Planet spend day and night cataloguing these unique features and leaving it to the fans to vote on the best and worst characters with psychic powers in all of anime. A note before we begin, these are the result of popular votes that I can and will disagree with. Only your democratic will can determine who makes it on this list. With that out of the way, below are the 5 most loved and most hated psychics in anime!

Loved

5. Staz Charlie Blood - Blood Lad

Coming into this I guess I assumed the list would all be psychics rather than people with psychic powers resulting from weird stuff. I’m not sure if Staz’s abilities really count because they’re due to him being a vampire (vampowers?) but I guess I can work with this. I don’t really have much to say about Staz, but I feel sorry for Fuyumi getting stuck with him, which probably means I don’t like him. Sorry.

4. Accelerator - A Certain Magical Index

Are brooding, misunderstood malcontents obsessed with sex and violence (maybe at the same time?) gonna dominate this list? What’s the association? Have I made a terrible mistake? I guess I can understand the appeal. Everybody loves a good blood knight and Accelerator sure knows how to enjoy himself. It just occurred to me he laughs a lot like Zack in Angel of Death. Oh dang, they’re both Nobuhiko Okamoto. Ok, he’s cool.

3. Hiyori Iki - Noragami

Another one I’m not quite sure is exactly psychic but I’m gonna give this to you because you actually PUT NORAGAMI ON A LIST. You people are alright. Even better, you picked Hiyori! I have a soft spot for girls who are secretly martial arts otaku (you can guess who my favorite Prison School character is). I’m probably never gonna stop laughing about how she got her power either.

2. Yin - Darker Than Black

I’m actually so genuinely happy to see Yin on here. Darker Than Black had its day, but discovering a personal fave I believed to be obscure actually has a considerable fandom is a good feeling. Yin’s cool aesthetic and supercool ability using water as a medium for clairvoyance made her one of my favorite characters and I was super happy to see her get some character development later on rather than the series keeping her an emotionless doll. Yin’s cool. Watch Darker Than Black.

1. Mikoto Misaka - A Certain Magical Index

Where Accelerator’s vector abilities require some mental hoops to fully appreciate, Misaka’s are simple and satisfying. It’s not often you get to see electricity powers used to their fullest by taking advantage of electromagnetism so her fighting style is viscerally satisfying to my inner nerd. If you literally don’t care about stuff like that, she’s also a kind-hearted, awkward kid who does her best and would give you the clothes off her back or her precious DNA to cure muscular dystrophy.

Hated

5. Accelerator - A Certain Magical Index

For real though yeah this guy sucks. I’ve never been in love with “attaining ultimate power” as a reason for villainy. I don’t really buy his spiritual rehabilitation about him only wanting to reach Level 6 so no one would hurt themselves fighting him again since he killed over 10,000 people to achieve it. Even if you don’t consider clones people, that’s pretty messed up. There are plenty of bad guys who have switched sides already.

4. Tornado of Terror - One-Punch Man

This is just poor taste This is IN poor taste. How could you hate this sassy lost child? Tornado is one of the coolest of the A rank heroes and I’m honestly not sure what could even draw any ire toward her given the way some of her peers act. She's also likely the single most powerful psychic on this list, so maybe you shouldn't be putting in bad votes, if you know what I mean? Lotta Genos fans didn’t like her turning him into a wall ornament, I guess.

3. Kuroko Shurai - A Certain Magical Index

Nobody likes a third wheel, I guess. Kuroko’s goofy and her teleportation powers are cool so I’m assuming she’s here because she has a habit of getting “in the way”. Nevermind that most of the most epic non-combat scenes in the series are all starring hers truly. Pretty surprised, to be honest. Figured more people would be into her, uh, type...

2. Legato Bluesummers - Trigun

I feel this so powerfully. How can anyone love a nihilist whose only purpose in life is to robotically carrying out his task of emotionally scarring Vash for the temerity of having basic human compassion? I wish we’d gotten more time with the Gung-ho Guns. They had great aesthetics and abilities but you never really got to learn about why they were working for a punkass who called himself Knives and maybe possibly wanted to kill all humans because something about spiders and butterflies.

1. Chiaotzu - Dragon Ball

Don’t talk to me or my precious pasty unicorn son ever again.

What a sour note to leave off on. Gotta say, I have a new respect for the Index fandom. My only other takeaways are that I’m surprised that some names I was SURE were gonna make it on this list didn’t appear anywhere. Lucy from Elfen Lied, Mob from Mob Psycho, Hitomi from Escaflowne? Where are all the psychic icons? Oh well. Anyway...

Didn’t see your favorite psychic on the list? Are you sure you actually loved them or were they just making you think that? Want to know where they appear among the most loved and hated mismatched irises of anime? Head over to Anime-Planet’s list of characters with psychic powers to see where they rank, or comment below with your favorite! Tune in next week, where we will be exploring the most loved and hated characters with freckles!

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Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com