#film fund fuzz

[major-comet]

The Music in RvB: Restoration Kinda Sucks. Here's how I'd fix it.

I gave this as a presentation the other night after my first re-watch of the finale, and it was a major hit so I thought I would share it with other people who think too hard about Halo fanfiction.

Red VS Blue has some truly fantastic music in it's 21 year history, and I think that the music here was pretty weak. Obviously this post has major spoilers for RvB19 / Restoration, so be warned.

So, under the Read More is a typed up and fleshed out version of my powerpoint presentation where I will dive in and not just bitch about the musical choices, but explain how I would fix things. This is...really long, but I hope you all enjoy my thoughts :)

This will be best enjoyed if you listen to the songs I'm talking about as a refresher. For your convenience, I have input links to the songs on Youtube when necessary (ETA: and barring one instance, the song links have all been updated to work again while the official uploads are down.)

So what's the problem?

Since the development of the finale overlapped with Rooster Teeth getting shut down, it's very likely that they had minimal funds. (EDIT: Yes, the finale itself was done by the time the announcement rolled around. However, the decision was almost certainly already in the works at WB. RT was shut down in part for financial reasons. It’s all connected.) I personally think this was part of why Burnie/RT was/were [reportedly] so insistent on using stock music for part of the season rather than a whole soundtrack done by Trocadero - I'm not sure they had the money to properly compensate for a full soundtrack. And maybe it was just a stupid / dick move, and had nothing to do with money at all, but that's what I choose to believe if only because it makes me feel slightly better about it.

This means that besides the stock music, the new score by Carl Thiel, the Zero song for that cameo, and Waning Moon (the Barenaked Ladies song), all we have are four re-used songs from earlier RvB - these songs being the Trocadero Grifball theme, I Say Ooh and Round One by Jeff Williams, and Vale Deah by Trocadero. There's also a David Levy composition in there somewhere according to the credits, R U Ready, but I have no idea what it is or where it plays. It's bothering the hell out of me because it does not appear to be a reused piece as far as I can tell - at least not reused from RvB. If anyone has any leads on this please reach out, because it seems crazy that there's one random possibly original David composition mixed in there. I've checked Apple Music and Soundcloud, nothing by that name.

In this very Meta focused film, neither of The Meta's themes play in any shape or form - [When] Your Middle Name is Danger by Trocadero or Plagam Extremam Infligere by Jeff Williams.

Nor do any of the character themes, really. Most of the series' iconic recurring tracks are completely absent. Tex's various themes, Carolina's theme - hell not even Blood Gulch Blues or the iconic intro music.

Were there any highlights?

Of course there were!

Considering I was going into the finale having only been spoiled on Vale Deah, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Jeff tracks! That was totally unexpected, and really lovely.

Speaking of, I thought the use of Vale Deah was a really lovely touch. Fun fact: that song was used for the end credits of the Season 1 DVD, so it really felt like a sweet full circle moment.

I think that using a Barenaked Ladies song for that very sweet scene of Caboose, Grif, and Simmons reminiscing about Blood Gulch by the fire was a very lovely choice, and quite honestly it was my favorite scene in the whole thing. The BNL have been close to RvB and RT since damn near the beginning, and it was very nice to hear them attached to the finale in that small way.

I should also point out that the composer for the season is Carl Thiel - known for his work on Hot Fuzz and the second and third Spy Kids movies. I think he did a totally fine job. I liked the bugles that were under Sarge's death, but the rest doesn't really stand out much. Perfectly serviceable.

So, now that that's out of the way, let's break down those four returning songs a bit more - shall we?

Grifball Official Theme - Trocadero

This was a really funny choice. It's such a quick bit, but I respect Burnie's dedication to get in one last Grifball joke. Obviously, I would have preferred to hear a different song for something else, but this was totally harmless.

Vale Deah - Trocadero

Lo-fi Hip-hop beats to get divorced to.

God that scene was heartbreaking. I love this song a lot - I think a lot of Trocadero's strongest stuff is the stuff that just feels kind of melancholy. It's something Nico does really well, and I think Vale Deah is one of my favorite examples of that. Like I said above, I think this song was used really well - if I had to pick a different track for that same scene I would probably choose Half Life. While it was written during the Blood Gulch era, it wasn't really used in the show until Seasons 12 and 13 - notably, a version of it plays under Kimball's rally speech to the troops after Doyle's death. I just really like it, tbh. There's absolutely other songs that could work, but I think having it be a BGC-era track served the scene really well.

I Say Ooh - Jeff Williams

My feelings about this are pretty similar to Grifball. It was cute, it was nice to hear, but I wish they had used a different Jeff track somewhere else. Ultimately, it's pretty harmless. It is kind of an odd choice though - I'm pretty sure Jeff didn't write it for RvB. This was a song that he composed that was used in two RT Shorts (live action sketches that RT used to do). I think it would have been nicer to use one of his RvB tracks for the introduction of Niner - could have been a cute spot to use a track like I Am The Best or Forge World or hell, Come on Carolina would have been cute.

Round One - Jeff Williams

...Actually, I have a lot to say about Round One, so let's get everything else out of the way first.

Other Scenes that *should* have had returning tracks before I talk about Round One for a billion years

Sarge's death should have been scored with a version of Rally (Sarge's Speech). My vision is a version of it that's just the string section - familiar, but not enough to be distracting, and absolutely soul crushing if you do recognize it.

The scene with Wash and Dr. Grey in the hospital needed a hint of what Nico so lovingly calls the "Wash Trauma Theme" - which is closely related to the Trocadero Meta theme, fun fact. I think Limited Duty from the scene in Season 16 where Carolina tells Wash about the brain damage could have worked pretty well there.

The scene at the end with Wash and Carolina talking about Doc and the Freelancers really needed something. I think one of the variations of the Shisno trilogy Carwash theme could have worked very well. (EDIT: So i would have a link for Carwash, but there is No Trace of that song on youtube anymore. I think it's one of the songs that plays in the season 16 credits, and there's variations of it in 17 as well. so sorry!)

Obviously the big scene with Tucker and Sigma on the ship would have really benefited from [When] Your Middle Name is Danger or one of the many themes that incorporates it, but I'd also throw Soul Clef XI into the ring! I think it's so interesting that the work around they came up with for not being able to get Elijah Wood back was to have epsilon!Sigma take on a more Felix-y type of voice. Partly because Felix was an incredibly ambitious villain so he fits it pretty well, but more importantly that was a very smart voice to pick to fuck with Tucker in particular! I think that was really smart, and I think having Felix's theme playing during that scene would have been really cool.

Bolt by Trocadero was never used in the series proper. However it was used in this ten year retrospective that they released alongside Season 10. I highly recommend giving it a watch, because watching it now that it's Over - RvB, RT, all of it - it's honestly kind of heart breaking. They're all filled with this deep optimism about the future of the company, and hindsight is a bitch on this one. They use it in a really sweet sequence at the end where they're showing a bunch of old photos. Anyways I think this should have played in the credits after Vale Deah finished. "We only want to have a good time."

Miscellaneous Trocadero Songs I would have liked to see them find a place for that I haven't already / will not mention elsewhere

Steady Ride (Gunmetal Green) - this is THE Grimmons song ever to me. I love it so much. Also fun fact: as of the interview Burnie did with Nico on the season 10 (I think?) dvd/bluray, this was Burnie's favorite Trocadero track. And you can tell when you watch the DVD cuts of the first 6-ish seasons - it plays all the time.

I like Good Fight a lot, not sure there was a great spot for it? but still would have been nice - It's used a few times as a Wash theme, I believe.

No One is my favorite Trocadero song and I wish it could've been there Somewhere. It was the elevator-music type song that played behind Vic in BG once or twice, I think was in the season 4 credits, and also played during the weapons demonstrations in the Meta VS Carolina Death Battle. I just like it a lot, lol.

Okay let's get back to Round One.

Why they shouldn't have used Round One for the big fight in RvB Restoration

AKA: The actual bulk of the presentation

Okay so we've got some pros and cons to this track. Starting with the Pros;

It's a song from an iconic scene - the 3v1 training room fight from Season 9

Tex and Maine are both in the fight

Was a great "Oh FUCK yeah" moment for the fans

Great track

Cons;

Not really a song for Carolina or the Meta (or y'know. Tucker. He's there too), and only kind of a song for Tex

Honestly the fight makes me think about York more than anyone else, since that's the fight where he gets hurt

Not a cool thematic moment besides just Tex being a badass

Started too late into the fight - it's sad that Carolina got a cool track when she (finally!) showed up, but Tex just got generic music. Show my girl some respect :(

So what would be better?

It has to be something that makes you think of at least one of the fighters. A track that's good for multiple would be better, but not required.

I think it should start when Tex first shows up, not when her armor changes. that’s a cool moment, but it still means most of the fight is working with Thiel’s score.

It should be something with a note of thematic relevance - for example, the big moment right at the end of the fight is Tex reminding epsilon!Sigma that she's not based on the Director's memories of her failure this time; she's based on the memories of Grif, Caboose, and Simmons. And she Always kicked their asses.

Still needs to be a big "Oh FUCK yeah" moment.

While incorporating Carolina's theme would be nice, I think it's more important to get at least one of the others - but we'll do our best here. I think this is moreso a Tex v meta!Tucker fight in my heart than it is a Carolina fight.

So let's look over a few options, shall we? These are in no particular order.

Spiral - Jeff Williams

This is the song that plays during the Season 9 car chase when Maine gets shot. It incorporates Carolina's theme, because in PFL her theme is never too far behind whenever a Maine/Meta song is playing, which has always been interesting to me. It has all that freaky choral stuff that Jeff loved to use, and generally is just a great track.

Fragments - Jeff Williams

This plays during the Freelancer break-in in Season 10, and it just rocks so hard. Anything from the break-in would be cool because that was the last time Tex, Carolina, and Maine/The Meta were all in the same place, and of course was when The Meta was properly created. I think it was so sad that they used the instrumental of Round One, because the vocals are part of what makes the Jeff era of RvB soundtracks so iconic, and god this song delivers! Also this song has a kickass trumpet solo at the end.

Slingshot (from the Death Battle) - Trocadero

Man this song rules. This of course plays in the Meta VS Carolina Death Battle from Season 14. It's a very different energy from the Jeff picks, but it rocks so fucking much. This is a fight between Carolina and The Meta, and would of course be a callback to a (marginally) more recent - and extremely popular - episode of the show. If you haven't watched the Death Battle in a while you really should, it still kicks just as much ass now as it did back when I was in high school.

Literally any other song from the 3v1 Training Room Fight - Jeff Williams

This includes;

Round One (feat Lamar Hall)

Just the Bullfight part

On Your Knees

I just think the instrumental to Round One is the weakest choice from this fight tbh! Bullfight is my favorite out of the three, because it sounds the most Tex-y. The guitars are very her, and it incorporates part of her Agent Tex motif. And On Your Knees would have had the biggest "Oh FUCK yeah" factor. But honestly even just using the version of Round One with the vocals would have been way better.

EDIT TO ADD: a quick note - while it’s listed in the credits as Round One/Bullfight, that’s just how the instrumental is packaged on the OST. As far as I could tell in my two watches of it, they never actually make it to the Bullfight part of the track.

A Girl Named Tex - Trocadero

hold on, walk with me on this one.

I had a vision of Tex fighting meta!Tucker set to the "Yellow rose of Texas clad in black, lonely star tattooed upon her back. Double Tex she'll hit you like a truck. Double Tex and she'll mess you up." bit right after I watched 19 the first time and it's been haunting me ever since. (That bit starts at about 02:19)

This is her theme for the first chunk of the show - which just so happens to be the time period Grif, Simmons, and Caboose were primarily reminiscing about. It would have been cool as hell, and I can See the beginning of the fight in my head - the opening strums (what my brother so lovingly calls the Out of Mind music) when caboose is saying his line about how he brought back someone even worse than church, and then the fight starts! I can see it in my mind, it would have been so cool!

I just think there should have been more Blood Gulch era music in here.

100 Tex Battle - Jeff Williams

This doesn't get you any Meta points, but obviously it incorporates little bits of Tex's, and a lot of Carolina's theme. Twisting a Tex vs Carolina fight - obviously, Carolina vs all the Tex bots in Season 10 - into one where they're fighting alongside each other would have been really lovely and a cool full circle moment.

This song is really cool, it's such a good fight. I do think it maybe sounds a bit goofy at points for this fight, but still a cool option.

Okay so now let's go over my top three-ish picks

Ice Fight (or maybe the revelations suite?) - Jeff Williams

Jumping to the end of Season 8, we have a fight that involves Tex vs The Meta! And Wash, Doc, and all the Reds and Blues (barring Donut and Lopez. Hmm. Doesn't that sound familiar.) are there! Ice Fight rules so hard, it's so good.

And it has some of that narrative theming I was looking for! While yes, Tex does technically lose this fight - so does The Meta. And how does she lose it?

By going into the recovery unit.

The main reason I suggest the Suite instead of just Ice Fight is because I think having a touch of Red Vs Blue would have been really nice.

Mental Meta Metal - Jeff Williams

Genuinely my favorite track from season 10. If you let the song play the whole way through, it has Jeff's themes for The Meta, Carolina, and Tex in it. This plays the first time we see Maine in a fight in Season 10, and is also Sigma's first time in the field after we see him pondering Meta-stability in the classroom.

It incorporates elements from both Spiral and Plagam Extremam Infligere, which is kind of Jeff's theme for the Meta that he established back in Season 8. It also plays during the Freelancer Break-in when he's tossing Carolina off the cliff. The Latin on that translates to “to inflict an extreme blow”.

It also has a very strong statement of Carolina's theme, which could have been a great opportunity to bring her in with her theme!

Now, before I go over my final pick, let's go over what we need again;

We need a song with thematic relevance to the fight, that’s from an iconic scene, has a good energy to it, and would give fans a big “OH FUCK YEAH” moment.

Well, isn’t it obvious?

Agent Tex (/ Tex vs Tank / Hell's Angel) - Jeff Williams

The first instance of Jeff Williams’ Tex motif, later used in Hell’s Angel and Tex vs Tank, etc. I would add the opening strum commonly heard in the later iterations, but keep it generally the Agent Tex version which was used in the S8 Warehouse fight, as seen above.

This is like. The RvB scene ever. So many people saw this before they watched the show, and many more never even watched RvB - just this fight, since RT uploaded it separately from the episode because they knew it kicked so much ass. It also helped draw in folks who may have been fans of Monty Oum's other work. Fun fact: This was RT’s outro music for a really long time, too. So it really has history with the company.

Part of why I think this pick would work so well, beyond it just being Tex's theme for the Jeff Williams era, is that it would be so interesting in terms of narrative theming. The Season 8 warehouse fight was Tucker, Grif, Simmons, Sarge, and Caboose against Tex.

This whole sequence was Grif, Simmons, Caboose, Carolina, and Tex against Tucker.

This was one of the other scenes being reminisced about around the fire - you can see it as one of the clips shown during the scene. I think it would have been a really powerful moment, and a fantastic "FUCK YEAH" moment for everyone whose stuck around this long. This track is so good, and I really do think it would have been the perfect choice for this fight.

It's not even my favorite, if I was just choosing favorites I'd have picked Mental Meta Metal or A Girl Named Tex.

What have we learned? Why Were We Here?

Red vs Blue is a show with a lot of really fantastic music in it's book, and a really strong history of musical callbacks - particularly with the Meta's theme and how it's so closely tied to the motif Trocadero liked to use as "Wash Trauma" music. Making a clever callback to a song you've used before can help strengthen the thing you're trying to get across to your audience. I think it's somehing that Restoration really struggles with, which is pretty sad. But I hope you found my deep dive / analysis of what could have been interesting.

I'd really like to dive in and do a long reflection about the series as a whole, but as it stands this is around 3,000 words and if I get started on that, this post will never end. I'll probably work on that once i've actually Finished this rewatch.

Thank you for reading all of that!

[infectiouspiss]

Sorry to say but f***** is a TERF dogwhistle

what word? sorry what word is that ?? you've censored it too much what is it?? how am i meant to understand this?

is it faggot? or is it one of these?

family, future, Friday, Father, forest, Friend, famous, flower, finger, fiesta, faking, flying, figure, fourth, fringe, flange, frozen, forget, Fabian, filter, France, flight, fallen, famine, female, fiscal, fierce, French, feline, fridge, fiance, fetish, finish, Foster, factor, fluffy, fiddle, fusion, follow, farmer, flirty, feeder, facade, felony, fuller, fisher, fright, failed, flavor, falter, finale, fabric, falcon, fedora, fungus, frosty, fumble, feeble, forces, fester, floral, fondle, filthy, fellow, feisty, fetter, floppy, freeze, finder, frying, facing, Fatima, frenzy, finest, finals, fondue, fuming, fibula, fuhrer, frizzy, fruits, fossil, faucet, faster, floozy, folded, fodder, fabled, flossy, footer, fandom, fiasco, furrow, formed, fading, flagon, flurry, firing, frayed, frigga, foible, frappe, frugal, fruity, foodie, frilly, filmed, futile, funnel, frolic, formal, fueler, filled, fluent, Fresno, fibber, feared, fillet, fueled, fickle, Franco, fixing, fascia, fouled, fuzzed, format, fuddle, freely, filing, fraise, facial, fenian, flimsy, fecund, faller, Fijian, folate, ferret, fleece, feeler, foment, fledge, fasten, fennel, fabler, freaky, favism, funded, floats, footed, forced, favour, Fulton, folder, Faisal, frisky, flakey, faille, flawed, flabby, Frisch, froggy, frigid, flitch, farrow, feller, feuder, Fungia, fathom, Freyja, fizzle, frater, foetus, farina, flatus, fatten, flared, facies, fomite, Fields, flaunt, faulty, foully, famish, fipple, feudal, fibrin, forage, fences, filler, fowler, frowzy, fender, fracas, facile, fresco, fixate, folium, friary, fanion, faired, flyers, fidget, Fulica, frowsy, frothy, flinch, fusser, forego, furled, fakery, falsie, fugler, flocks, Fornax, flukey, fitful, fervor, foaled, forint, fusing, fillip, fasces, Frazer, fellah, forged, flinty, Fukien, frieze, fallow, footle, forbid, flacon, fluted, funder, flavin, felled, funest, fungal, fervid, florid, formic, forger, flanch, ferlie, former, filial, flicky, Fatiha, flyboy, Fenrir, fugato, fulfil, Fulani, finely, fatism, fantan, framed, finery, finnan, fornix, fondly, facula, fescue, fanned, foison, firmly, fetich, fulmar, faisan, flatly, Fawkes, funker, faucal, flashy, Fortaz, flyway, Faunus, fealty, frivol, Florio, facund, feebly, frijol, ferine, faerie, fairly, fardel, furred, foeman, foetal, firkin, flexor, firsts, Friuli, formol, fecula, flicks, foetor, fooler, fucoid, faeces, Frisia, fleshy, fundus, foiled, frumpy, festal, furcal, featly, furane, flamen, frumps, framer, Fugard, ferial, floret, Fallot, fusain, fussed, filago, fanged, floury, farcer, Fennic, floaty, furore, frazil, folksy, Ferber, forked, ferule, frills, forrad, finial, felloe, fulgid, flaxen, foozle, Frunze, fawner, ferned, fencer, fettle, feijoa, ferric, faecal, fauces, Flagyl, Faroes, fakeer, fleecy, fibril, filmic, foxily, fogged, funrun, furfur, FinCEN, friesz, flunky, fatwah, fallal, Fermat, fenced, fulgor, forcer, Fergon, Feifer, Finnic, Fenusa, felted, Florey, feodal, feodum, flexed, frypan, Feosol, Franck, fringy, foetid, fugain, fusers, Fafnir, fulham, fylfot, funada, faquir, futons, fumier, fedish, fuerte, fowled, fizgig, fuling, or furors?

[sluttysnails334]

South Park characters college/university majors head cannons

Stan - he would either not go to college at all, and try to purse a career in music by playing at dive bars & gigs, OR he go into college probably undecided then major in veterinary science or marine biology but then realizes it’s not just loving on animals all day so he’ll drop out & go back to music but still volunteers at the humane society & has like a bunch of pets.

Kyle - pre law with entertainment business minor, wants to work in entertainment/film but was too scared to major in film out right, but is in the film club, and makes movies with them all the time. He’s also in SGA, and fights the board of trustees to give the arts more funding.

Cartman- He went to college for a semester majored in business but then flunked out but still tells people he has a degree, bc he “knows how to run a business” and works as a sleazy used car salesman, has to skip town a lot to avoid the fuzz.

Kenny - he goes into the military to afford college, and once he gets there he majors in finance & accounting so he can afford to care for his siblings. He went into the Air Force, because wanted to learn how to fly a plane lol.

Butters - Business & then gets his MBA, and starts up some sort of pyramid scheme. Think like Cutco Knives (iykyk) OR he majors in elementary ed, and minors in psychology to be a counselor at South Park Elementary. He tried to rush a frat, but wouldn’t make it past pledging.

Tweek- Double majoring in music and education, and technically says he is minoring in business just so his parents are happy but he really isn’t. He wants to become a music teacher. I think he’s in a music frat and takes Craig to their formals & date parties.

Craig - Mechanical Engineering for undergrad and then goes to get his masters in aerospace engineering, wants to build rockets and shit for NASA. He is so swapped with assignments, he practically lives in the library, he rlly doesn’t have time for clubs or greek life, so he just studies and when he isn’t studying he’s with Tweek or sleeping , when he parties which is rare, he almost always gets blacked out drunk. Everytime.

Tolkien - pre law with a minor in sport’s management, wants to become a sports agent. He’s in a frat but isn’t a total douche bag abt it, and in SGA with Kyle, overall really popular. Still plays bass and jams out with Stan from time to time. Ideal golden child college experience.

Jimmy - Acting, but drops out and moved to LA to pursue his comedy career. He liked college but decided it was a waste of money. When he could be getting more a real life experience. Still will go a frat party though

Clyde - Physical Education, he didn’t get any sports scholarships and decided that this was the best career route for him, he also ends up working at South Park elementary. He is a BIG frat guy lol, parties everyday. He is trying to get Craig to rush his frat. He is failing at this task.

Wendy - Pre Med with a minor in psychology, wants to be a children’s psychiatrist, and she SLAYS. She also joins a sorority but in an Elle Woods sort of way. I feel like she did her residency in San Francisco, and then sort of adapted that as her full personality.

Bebe - Journalism, wants a to be a news anchor. She is ur classic sorority girl, probably president, it’s giving Chanel vibes from Scream Queens but she way nicer, but will cut a bitch to further her career.

SGA = Student Government Association ( for my high school & Non American friends )

I’m currently in undergrad so these head-cannons are straight from my real life ahaha

[arabellaflynn]

I went down a few rabbit holes while researching the Advent Calendar last year, that didn't make it into the queue because they got too long or went too far afield. Here's one of them!

One thing you notice when you watch a bazillion videos about old games consoles is how the design of circuitry has evolved. If someone says 'circuit board' today, you think a light piece of leafy green board, filled with parallel lines of copper at 45° and 90° angles, dotted with lots of tiny inscrutable plastic and metal doodads. But it took a long, long time for them to get that way.

If you look at really old circuit boards -- and I mean really, really old circuit boards, like from the beginning of the transistor era, they look completely different. They're brownish, for one thing. And kind of... wiggly?

Apologies for the transfer quality. It's not your connection, it just sucks. This piece appears to be some sort of promo-tainment thing from Tektronix themselves, from 1969. The rounded corners and bluish fuzz at the edges is an effect called 'vignetting', and it means this is originally from a 16mm film reel. There's no earthly reason for film to look this terrible. The uncentered picture means someone copied it by pointing a camera at a projection screen instead of bothering to get a proper kinescope setup, and the fact that it only goes up to 240p makes me feel like it was originally transferred over two decades ago for RealPlayer and nobody bothered to fix it for YouTube. VHS is about 240 lines, but if this were a crap transfer from a VHS tape you'd also see scanlines. It's possible there's a better copy at VintageTek, a museum dedicated to the history of Tektronix; they are an all-volunteer institution, and they probably have more important things to funnel funding to than updating their YouTube channel.

Point being, it looks like porridge and I'm sorry, but at least the content is interesting.

The brownish color, which is actually from an evolutionary stage earlier than what's covered here, is because many early boards were milled of bakelite rather than electrodeposited onto a glass or fiberglas backplane. If you want to see some of what that might have been like, you can hop over to Usagi Electric. He uses CAD to mill boards, rather than the photochemical process described by Tektronix, but it's pretty much the same idea. He does a lot of it in pursuit of his mad obsession with building a vacuum tube computer here. (If you're curious, his logo says うさぎ電気, "Usagi Denki". "Usagi" is Japanese for rabbit or bunny -- there is one who appears at the end of some videos -- and the spelling of "denki" here specifically means electrics, as opposed to 電機, which is usually rendered electronics. It still pops up in the names of some engineering or technology firms, but generally only the really old ones.)

The wiggly nature of early boards is neatly explained by watching the drafting process, starting about three minutes into the video. It was originally done by hand. The rest of the half-hour video goes through the whole multi-stage process, but the gist is that when you lay out the board, you draw dark lines where you want the conductive traces to be on the final product. To get a consistent size, tape is used for "holes" and tape lines are uses for the traces. If you've ever used stripe tape in nail art, it was apparently something like that -- vinyl tape with a bit of stretch, so you could curve it around. It was a methodical sort of art form. Ever solved one of those "connect the same-color dots without crossing lines" puzzles? It's basically that. If you can't find a topologically-appropriate solution on a single plane, you can produce boards with traces on both the front and the back, as Tektronix does here, and these days you can actually bury traces in internal layers as well. It's just a pain and makes the cost go up exponentially. 

The mention of "holes" is interesting. Early circuit boards were nothing but holes. Everything had legs and was soldered on from the underside. Today these are known as "through-hole mounted" components; the alternatives are "surface-mount" components, which are generally smaller and fiddlier to solder on by hand, but considerably easier to lay down and solder in place by machine. Surface-mount technology has been around since before this Tektronix piece, but remained NASA-grade esoterica until the automated assembly process became cost-effective in the 1990s. Today the conductive holes are referred to as "vias" and the little medal dots surface-mount things are soldered to are "pads".

I'll also note that they show the automatic soldering process for these boards late in the video. It involves skimming the boards across the surface of a pool of molten solder. Solder in the 1960s contained a lot of lead. I would not personally like to be in that room. Today a machine places little surface-mount doojiggers in place along with solder beads, and then melts it all very gently in a very hot oven until it all melds together, not unlike a pan of slightly too-runny cookies. If you do it right, the surface tension of the solder keeps it on the pads and out of the traces. This is particularly useful for placing CPUs, whose myriad tiny pins in a tight grid would be far too difficult to solder by hand, and the origin of "reflow" repairs for electronics that are exhibiting symptoms of flaky solder joints.

The "silkscreening" process here does not use silk, but originally it did -- it was invented in Asia, logically enough. The gist of it is that you take a piece of finely woven mesh, traditionally light silk but in modern times also metal or synthetic fiber, and you plug up all of the little holes in it in the areas where you don't want ink to get through it, usually with some sort of water-repellent substance. In the days of yore, you painted on some kind of sap or wax, but nowadays it's usually a light-sensitive plastic that's scraped across the whole mesh, topped with a stencil that is opaque where you want ink to flow, and exposed to UV light that sets the substance. The unset areas that were in shadow are rinsed clean, leaving the mesh permeable in those places. The ink emulsion is then applied to the printing surface beneath in the reverse process: Ink is spread across the mesh, then squeegeed through with enough force to push it through the holes in the weave and onto the surface beneath. The dots of ink bleed just enough to flow into one another, producing a solid area of pigment. The circuit board designs were originally drafted in black on a white background, then photographed and reduced to 1/4 their original size, and the film used as the stencil for the silkscreen.

Holes are drilled mostly by hand(!) in this clip, which is an error-prone process, as you can see from the Usagi Electrics guy. The worker uses what's called a pantograph drill. A pantograph is a device that translates motion from one place to another, often with a change in scale. Typically pantographs are mechanical in nature, based on the complimentary motion of opposite corners of a parallelogram, but you could make a pretty good argument that modern systems that accept movement inputs from a user and translate them elsewhere by computer are also members of the class. Robot-assisted surgery comes to mind. If you cared to have an even longer argument, you could also consider systems that scan items with laser photons in order to reproduce them on a lathe or CNC machine pantographs in spirit, if not in fact. 

A visual or optical comparator is just a device that projects a magnified view of something up on a screen, along with a point, grid, or profile it needs to match, not unlike a microfiche viewer with a targeting reticule. They're still used in some areas, although software image processing is steadily gaining ground. 

You'd be amazed at how many things still need a look-over by a human with a brain. The lack of human brains is how we got the sharply-angled board traces we have today, in fact. Computer-aided drafting was developed to a usable level in the 1980s, and predictably the people using it were mostly engineers. The kind of route-finding you do in those connect-the-dots puzzles, and that the electronics engineers did when drafting the boards, is one of those very slippery human things. You want to find the shortest path, to save on the precious metals you use as conductors, but the absolute shortest path (with reasonable tolerances) is often a very snaky curve that would require a large number of points to define. It's much simpler to work on a grid, hence the 45° and 90° angles -- this ensures that all trace paths can be defined exclusively by where their corners lie on a square coordinate system, and is much less calculation-intensive. This was a lot of what early graphics tablets (or digitizers) were used for, and some light pen systems. 

Having watched my father do a lot of this as a kid, I gather that at least in modern CAD software, you can just pick things up and put them wherever you want, but that the autopathing gets very confused if you do it too much -- mostly it's better to let the computer figure out where the traces go and tell you if you want something impossible in 3D space. And if you screw up anyway, there's always blue wire.

Circuit boards don't have to be the ubiquitous green, either. That's just the color of the solder mask, a lacquer painted all over the parts of the board you don't want solder to stick to. It's mostly tradition at this point, but you can get boards in pretty much any color you like -- the second most common I've see is a dark navy blue, probably because copper traces and white silkscreening stand out best on those two colors. You're welcome to get neon purple, if you can find anyone offering it.

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[thesickestfuckr]

i know that there are so many more important issues in the world. however, i would like to have a little pop culture/capitalism bitch session.

so first off, right now, i'm kinda horny for simon pegg. i love the show spaced and i think he looks very cute, despite being a hateful, bitchy little fuck. which sucks, since he looks like such a sweet old man, but then he opens his mouth and all of that adorableness goes straight out the window lmfao. so, out of curiosity, i watched some clips from mission impossible. i like action movies, but i heard these were cia-funded propaganda, which obviously, i'm not a fan of. and JESUS CHRIST were they bad. it was so... stupid, unfunny, cringeworthy, everything. it has a very corporate, marvel movie feel to it. capitalism has absolutely wrecked havoc on cinema, as evidence by these car crashes. and simon pegg sold his soul to tom cruise.... for this?? what? although i will note, he did definitely peak with spaced, shaun of the dead was a mess (who the fuck thought nick frost saying the n-word was a good idea?) and hot fuzz was copaganda (although, somewhat less known, copaganda for the uk police, which i feel isn't nearly as infamous as, of course, usamerican copaganda, which i feel like everyone knows because so many famous films, think like die hard, rush hour, and bad boys, are copaganda for us police).

although, this did make me think, after the worldwide communist revolution, how will writers and movie-makers incorporate propaganda to help maintain support like the capitalists have been so successful in doing? or, to put it more bluntly, move out of the way james bond, i only want badass communist spies (as the good guys)! oh my god, imagine all the crazy communist action movies that could be made after the revolution... fuck, i can't wait!

in the mean time.... damnit i hate that so many of the crazy soviet action movies do not have english subtitles. should i learn russian so i can learn from one of the most powerful socialist nations in history? ah, fuck, but then i also want to learn mandarin (since china is the current most powerful socialist nation). ack but then i also want to learn german because i'm half german so i want to get in touch with my heritage and because of karl marx. i just want to get hooked up to a robot and get knowledge of a shit tonne of different languages put into my brain.

[rantsofajerk]

Seriously youtube, WTF?

(Pictured L-R; The GLORY HOLE star Philip Richardson, cohost Ruttegar Mannequine and show creator Dave O’Shea, seated and plotting revenge. Photo credit: Kerry Doss)

SERIOUSLY, youtube. What the F**K?

Hi, kids! Haven’t posted on here in a while but, well, something came up.

For those who don’t know me, I’m Dave O’Shea, an independent filmmaker and artist in San Francisco. VERY independent. I've written, produced, directed, edited and occasionally acted in dozens of self-funded microbudget productions over the past 15+ years, including an award winning horror feature (DAY JOB), numerous short films and a late night public access sketch comedy series called The GLORY HOLE which has been airing in San Francisco and various Bay Area cities for the past six years and counting. 

Like most underground filmmakers striving to gain a broader audience, I've been posting many of my creations on youtube for well over a decade. Trailers for my films, clips and ads promoting my TV show, cultural mini-documentaries, music videos I've shot, random comedy and animated shorts, anything and everything. Not only is it the most visible platform out there, it's easily the best way for artists like myself to put our work out there--to be seen, enjoyed and possibly even to get us discovered by the ‘gatekeepers’ and advance our careers. Nothing I’ve posted has gone ‘viral’ per se, but I’ve accumulated tens of thousands of views over the years, which ain’t bad for a virtual unknown.

As a purveyor mainly of horror and dark comedy, much of the content I create is confrontational, subversive, provocative, political and deeply satirical. The intent with my current project, The GLORY HOLE, is to blend the most ridiculously absurd premises with topics that I'm genuinely passionate about, both pro- and against. There's a recurring bit throughout the series where our host (Phil Richardson) complains about some insane situation currently going on in the country and he stares right into the camera and chastises, "Just Stop It, America! You're Embarrassing Yourself!" Targets frequently include racism, religious fanaticism, disposable fads, nationalism, police brutality and good ol’ American stupidity in general. No shortage of any of the above to throw artistic stones at in 2023, sadly.

On the absurdism side, the show's cohost is a mannequin named Ruttegar who speaks exclusively in static fuzz and random bleeps, yet the host always knows exactly what he's talking about. He's a drug addict, a shameless womanizer and sometimes murderer. And a mannequin. I did mention he's a mannequin, right? Okay. 

The show, which airs uncensored late at night (Fridays at 11pm in San Francisco on SF Commons Channel 29 and Hayward on Chabot TV Channel 28, streaming online at www.bavc.org/sfcommons), occasionally includes brief nudity or sexual situations (99% of which involve crudely produced cartoon animation or the aforementioned mannequin) and mild comedic violence--always for a laugh, never remotely what anyone in their right mind could consider pornographic or in any way harmful to any consenting adult viewer. That said, whenever I've posted a clip from the show on youtube involving anything sexual or with, for example, an exposed butt cheek or (gasp!) a female breast, I've always gone out of my way to cover them with either a censor bar or blur them out. Seemed pretty simple to me; youtube doesn't allow nudity. Got it. No problem. Moving on.

Over the past year but in rapid succession over the past few months especially, I've been randomly receiving notifications saying youtube had flagged a video, adding an '18+ Age Restriction' on it. Their notification reads, in part: "We have reviewed your content and determined that it may not be suitable for viewers under the age of 18, per our Community Guidelines... We haven't applied a strike to your channel [remember this part, it's important]... This means it will not be visible to viewers who are logged out, are under 18 years of age, or have Restricted Mode enabled."

While sometimes I felt the restriction was arguably fair, other times they were objectively wrong, and clearly applied by an AI bot. But, so as not to rock the boat, I just let it go. Never argued with them.

The real downside is these restrictions cause much lower viewership and engagement. I liken it to a shadowban on instagram, they don’t delete the content, but they keep just about anyone who isn’t actively engaged with your page or sent a direct link from seeing it. Even still, I'm a 'pick your battles' kinda guy, and these didn’t seem all that big a deal. After all, youtube's own policy states that a user’s page would only be at risk of termination after receiving 3 strikes for violating their rules, and right there in black and white in my notifications, they said they had not applied any strikes. None. Never once.  

Back to The GLORY HOLE. Production on the upcoming second season of the show began in June of 2021 and wrapped in June of this year. To put it mildly, it was quite an undertaking, as all microbudget productions tend to be. As of the time of this writing, 11 of the 12 new episodes are complete and one just has some minor tweaking to finish up. And it’s a huge step up from the previous season in every imaginable way; the storytelling, performances, music, animation and editing, everything. Safe to say everyone involved is super proud of what we’ve accomplished and can’t wait to share it with our beautiful “fans” and hopefully earn lots of new ones. 

In preparation for launching this new season, I spent much of this past June through mid-July combing through the first season of the show, editing more than thirty 2-3 minute ‘Best Of’ clips to share on youtube to send to the press, podcasts, etc., and to share with loyal fans who may enjoy a refresher before diving into the new material. On July 13th I uploaded the final handful of these bite sized videos, a couple of which were immediately flagged as Age Restricted/18+ (clearly AI-bots doing the flagging, as they hadn’t even finished uploading), but again, nothing out of the ordinary and seemingly no big deal. I repeat, per youtube’s own wording, Age Restricted videos do NOT put your channel at risk of termination.

So when I found the notification that they HAD, in fact, terminated my page in my email the next morning, without warning, claiming I had violated their community guidelines involving nudity, I immediately knew it was not a human who decided this. Why? Because I have never, ever posted anything involving exposed nudity whatsoever on the public youtube page. As I mentioned, I’d spent countless hours over the years animating censor bars to make sure nothing that could be considered nudity ended up on their public platform. Yes, even on the mannequin. I was that ridiculously careful.

After immediately filling out and submitting an appeal (the first of THREE thus far), I reached out on my social media to see if anyone knew someone who worked at youtube that I could be put in contact with. Having heard a bit in the past about how dismissively youtube treats small independent creators, I knew it would be wise to get some help. 

A good friend put me in touch with someone there and I messaged him on one of his socials. 

To his credit, this gentleman spent over a week reaching out to others within the company, attempting to initiate some sort of correspondence with whichever department may be able to assist. It should also be noted that youtube has virtually NO WAY to contact an actual human on their website, which is clearly by design. At one point, he asked for my personal email so he could add me in on an email thread with his manager. Seemed almost promising at this point...

Then a few more days passed. Then the weekend. No email received. I messaged again the following week, asking when I might expect to hear from the manager so we can begin to discuss how to fix this situation. All I wanted was to have a conversation and was totally open to whatever compromises we could agree on, even if that meant deleting some of the videos off the channel.

Then, I suspect prompted by his manager, he asked a very telling couple of questions about my terminated account: 

a) How many subscribers did I have?

and b) Was I a youtube business partner/did I run ads on my videos? 

And right then it clicked. 

What they were really asking was:

-Am I famous or important enough to have a conversation with?

-Do I make them money? 

When I expressed that I had a small but loyal fanbase (couple hundred subscribers at best) and no, I did not run ads on my videos, the manager suddenly didn’t have time to discuss anything with me. Shocking, right? 

Couple more days of radio silence again and finally he wrote back saying he’d heard through the grapevine that my page was terminated for being “too edgy” for their platform, but was given no details beyond that. 

I’m sorry, but how is being “edgy” a violation of youtube’s community guidelines? Forgive me for pointing out their blatant hypocrisy, but a platform that proudly showcases sexually graphic music videos with titles like “Wet Ass Pussy” and SNL skits like “Dick In A Box” (not to mention fully uncensored anal waxing videos, countless videos of police murdering unarmed people of color, brutal street violence, endless bullying, misogyny and bloody war footage, etc, etc, etc.), somehow my COMEDY videos with the sarcastic host and the mannequin sidekick is where they draw the line? Sure thing, youtube.

It’s crystal clear what they meant was they don’t like my material since I don’t generate ad revenue for them. This performative morality horseshit from a platform which literally gave rise to the mainstreaming of the American alt-right, let thousands of unhinged users to spread deadly misinformation during the covid 19 pandemic and continually allows harmful propaganda and racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic material, is nothing short of laughable.

[Side note: Alex Winter’s brilliant new documentary, The Youtube Effect, is essential viewing for those interested in how little they care about anything beyond raking in BILLIONS off the backs of its creators while fanning the flames of hatred and division. The recurring theme of the film is youtube simply does not care about who they harm. And why would they?]

In the weeks since this all started, I’ve done quite a bit of poking around online and I’ve seen a ton of evidence that my situation is not at all unique. It seems that the past couple of years in particular, youtube has been on a performative witch hunt of sorts, using any excuse to terminate channels that don’t perform for them, financially. Especially those with “edgy” content that may offend the religious right or other groups who organize and complain about whatever doesn’t fit into their puritanical, bigoted view of what constitutes acceptable material. They even took down legendary independent film studio Troma’s page just a few weeks before mine. Below is what they posted on instagram when it first happened:

Key sentence: “We have received a response from the Youtube team, and they have made it quite clear that independent art has no business on their platform.” Troma eventually got their page reinstated but only after weeks of thousands of their fans taking to twitter and an online petition DEMANDING they give it back. Which only highlights that youtube CAN do the right thing, but likely only will when it’s convenient or if too many people are pointing out their fully transparent hypocrisy in a public forum. It's now been a full month since my channel was effectively banned from youtube. I've submitted 3 separate appeals, ZERO of which have garnered anything beyond an automated 'received, thank you for your patience' response. Besides the unofficial correspondence with the employee, the only official interaction I've received from what *could* be an actual human has been on twitter. Seems pretty interesting to me that I've had to go to another platform to actually hear back from anyone. But still, they just say be patient and wait for the decision. 

And upon further inspection of the @TeamYoutube twitter page, their responses all appear to be cut and paste, so it’s most likely AI bots responding there as well. They claim in their automated responses that a decision whether or not to reinstate a suspended/terminated channel “should take 1-2 business days.” Well, it's been four weeks... and counting.

SERIOUSLY, youtube. What the F**K???

If you’d like to support me and my work going forward, please follow:

instagram.com/diabloshea for all the latest updates and happenings

vimeo.com/diabloshea where you can watch some of what youtube unjustly deleted RIGHT NOW!

The GLORY HOLE returns with ALL NEW episodes Fridays at 11pm pacific, starting in September! Watch HERE 

Thanks for reading,

DO

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Jorja Smith has unveiled a standout new video for latest track ‘By Any Means’. The powerful video (directed by Otis Dominique and Ellington Hammond) shines a spotlight on communities across the UK, complimenting the track’s vital message around social issues and the civil rights movement. As noted by Jorja about the track: "The inspiration behind 'By Any Means' really came from going to the Black Lives Matter protest and leaving thinking, what can I do to keep this conversation going? It’s not just a post on social media, it's life.” ‘By Any Means’ is the first track to be unveiled from a new project titled ‘Reprise’, curated by the team at Roc Nation with the sole aim of bringing awareness to social justice issues. A portion of proceeds will go to funding organisations that support victims of police brutality, hate crimes, and other violations of civil rights. [via Dork]

Madison, WI-bred and Chicago-based band Slow Pulp recently announced Moveys, their self-produced debut album, and shared its first single 'Idaho.' Now the band shares another song off of the forthcoming record, entitled 'Falling Apart.' The track, featuring Alex G collaborator Molly Gemer on violin, is accompanied by a fantastical music video about feeling lost in a familiar landscape. Director Jake Lazovick, places Emily in a transient world, surrounded by flying objects and missing pieces. The clip features nostalgic animations, body doubles for social distancing purposes, and an homage to Massey's background as a ballet dancer. Read more about the song from Massey below: "As we were finishing up writing the album my parents got into a serious car accident and I came back home to help take care of them. A couple of weeks later COVID-19 started getting worse in the US, and quarantine began. Life felt completely surreal, everything had drastically changed and at such a rapid pace. It was especially strange because everyone was experiencing the same thing at the same time, but couldn’t be physically with each other to support each other. I felt like I couldn’t process any emotions I had about the whole ordeal because I had to keep it together to take care of my family. It became easier to stay numb, and create a facade that I was doing ok, than it was to release any type of healthy emotion for a long time. Luckily I did allow myself to have a full on breakdown induced by a stubbed toe and confusion over taxes, sometimes it’s the littlest things that finally get you."

Soap Detox met a party, and somehow their friendship sustained during the lengthy hangover that followed. A frisky Swedish three-piece with a lust for melody and good times, their raucous garage-pop is already making waves in their homeland. A full EP is incoming, with Soap Detox trailing this with their irresistible new single 'Give Me Gore'. A three minute fuzz pop wonder, it's a clanking, cheeky, subversive statement from a group who thrive on such things. The video features their shorn-headed lead singer in full form, accompanied by her band mates. Directed by Evelyn Del Carmen and Ebba Sylvan, you can check it out above. [via Clash]

It’s been a decade since we’ve heard from multi-hyphenate musician and producer The Angel, who last made a splash as a musician in 2009 with her single 'Ultra Light,' which featured the singer/producer Jhelisa on vocals. Focusing more on her career in film/TV composition and music production in recent years, she’s planning to return to recording her own music later this year with a new LP entitled Xtra Sensory Goodness. Now we’re getting the first taste of this project, which is yet another collaboration with the vocalist Jhelisa. “Jhelisa and I have become close friends over the years,” she explains. “There’s a lot of sisterly love and mutual respect between us, so Jhelisa already understood the mournful weight of the track before I asked to feature her. I’m always grateful that she’s willing to experiment with me because it’s not something she does lightly. Jhelisa beautifully channels the essence of whatever emotion needs to come through in the most evocative and visceral way.”  The song arrives beautifully packaged with an entrancing video directed by none other than Mark Pellington (along with co-directors Sergio Pinheiro and Sweeten), known for his concert docs for Pearl Jam, INXS, and The Flaming Lips, as well as an extensive music-videography including iconic visuals for Public Enemy, Nine Inch Nails, and plenty more artists. “I wanted the song to sound like a memory, like you’ve entered someone else’s dream space,” The Angel continues, noting how the video perfectly syncs to the song’s mood. “The emotion is contained, very internal, so I juxtaposed a vocal vulnerability against a driving, incessant rhythm, where you can feel the underlying tension at the same time as experiencing the gentle plea, ‘Where’s my shelter…?’” [via Flood]

A few weeks ago, Ciara gave birth to her son Win. Last night, she shared a video that she evidently recorded while she was very, very pregnant. Ciara’s new song 'Rooted' is a statement of Black pride, a clear statement of solidarity with the protest movement that’s swept across America and the rest of the world these past few months. It’s a hard, kinetic track with vocals from the songwriter Esther Dean. But the song, at least right now, feels more like a vehicle for the video. Like a lot of Ciara videos, the 'Rooted'” clip is built around bodies dancing. In this one, though, one of those bodies belongs to Ciara, who dances with her belly exposed and who looks like she’s about to give birth any second. To watch someone dance this hard while that pregnant is an actual marvel, a near-superhuman feat. The 'Rooted' video is full of Black iconography, and it features the faces of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. All throughout, Ciara presents an image of motherly strength. Annie Bercy directs. [via Stereogum]

Hazel English releases the new video for her single ‘Five And Dime’ taken from her debut album Wake UP! which is out now on Marathon Artists. ‘Five and Dime’ is a woozy, idyllic view into Hazel’s world, which is built on timeless-sounding melodies, retro-tinged soundscapes and a knack for resonant lyrics. The mid-tempo number is reminiscent of the playful love songs of ’60s pop, as Hazel frustratedly muses on a love interest who is consuming her thoughts and detracting from her focus, “Gotta get away cause you’re taking up all of my time / You know I need my space so I’m heading to the Five and Dime.” Speaking about the new video, Hazel says: “'Five and Dime' is about longing for escape and freedom so I thought it would be fun to create an idyllic beach vacation, constructed from a set with cardboard cut out waves and fake palm trees. The idea behind it is that while I'm fantasizing about escaping to a tropical place, it's clear I'm just kind of stuck in this pretend version of it. I wanted to evoke the nostalgia of Hollywood musicals from the '50s and '60s, complete with dance choreography and bright colourful costumes.”

Katy Perry has released her second video for 'Smile,' featuring the pop star playing a video game version of herself as she battles giant spiders, circus trapeze acts and more while dressed as a clown. Much of the video is in CGI, with a live-action Perry playing the video game in her house (while also dressed as a clown). [via Rolling Stone]

Global superstar, Miley Cyrus has unveiled 'Midnight Sky,' a track that showcases a new direction for the always evolving artist.  The song, which was inspired by the past year of her life, is accompanied by a video that Miley self-directed.  In creating the song and video, Miley drew from strong female musical icons, like Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett, and Debbie Harry, who have always been so generous, and have been her greatest allies and inspiration.  The video showcases Miley as her true self: unapologetic, diverse, sexy, confident, experimental, and strong. The video takes viewers through Miley’s creative vision which displays her complete control of the narrative often told through the mouths of the media. Miley is at peace with who she is and has nothing to prove. As a musician she continues to push boundaries and experiment with her sound and look. Miley has proven to be many things, but boring is not one of them.

Chelsea Collins is nonconformist pop singer with a vision. For the captivating new 'Water Run Dry,' a collaboration with rapper, singer and fellow Bay Area-native 24kGoldn, Collins's infectious pop melodies glide over a hypnotic beat. Relatable lyrics about a faltering relationship reveal a depth of experience for the 21-year-old, with a wistful chorus lamenting, "there's no good in goodbye." The Roxana Baldovin-directed visuals for the track are an eyeful — Collins and 24kGoldn play house in an oversized, colorful California dollhouse, interspersed with images of a little girl playing with literal Barbies. The message? "I wanted this song and video to execute the world that's inside of my head — somewhat similar to a weird vintage rom com where at first the drama of love is so toxic, passionate and thrilling but eventually my lover and I have a happy ending," Collins tells NYLON. "Unfortunately reality isn't as fun and it kinda feels like some cranky dude is controlling your path, who's lowkey salty whenever something feels too amazing," she continues. "My intuition will tell me to run, but I'm notorious for acting like a Stepford wife, trying to recreate my past feelings yet they're all super robotic. Maybe one day I'll get lucky and love won't have to be so bittersweet, but until then I'll learn to smile even when things blow up in my face." [via NYLON]

Kali Uchis shared the visuals for her latest single 'Aquí Yo Mando' on Monday. Featuring a verse in Spanglish by Rico Nasty, the single is Kali's first release since her TO FEEL ALIVE EP from earlier this year. The Phillipa Price-directed clip finds the pair on a weapons-filled rampage, dropping bodies in underground parking lots and filming each other along the way. With co-production by reggaeton hitmaker Tainy, the booming track sees Uchis assertively laying some ground rules over trappy 808s. "Haces todo lo que diga (You do everything that I say)," she raps. “Si estás conmigo solo mando yo (If you’re with me, only I call the shots).” [via The FADER]

[lightningstruckitselfrp]

The Department of Communications is slowly gaining control of the media through hiring (and firing)  processes, financial sway, and thinly veiled threats. This department serves as the eyes and ears of the Ministry (and through departmental ties, the Death Eaters, to a degree). Within the Ministry, the Department of Communications seeps into other departments through public relations measures (ex: Making sure sports broadcasters keep in line with Ministry ideals. Keeping Department Heads briefed with proper responses to reporters.). 

Outside of the Ministry, the Department of Communications funds media projects such as music, wixen film, and news media. There’s no outright censorship, but think of it as “Hays Code” era Hollywood in America. It’s unlikely that wixfolk will find controversial art in the mainstream.

Of course, with media codes comes propaganda. The propaganda in Minchum-era Wixen London can be obvious messaging (think: socialist realist art of the early 20th century), an example: Ministry-approved posters of popularized images of happy, wix families shown to further insist that things are “fine as they are'' while promoting ideals such as the wixen nuclear family. On the other end, there are “subtler” means of influence, some examples being: heroic law enforcement in wixen programming, what defines a villain in modern wixen storytelling, etc. Overall, the subject matter in much of Ministry-approved media leans towards neutrality and loyalty towards the state. 

Wixen Media Outlets:

THE PROPHET

The Prophet as an unbiased news source is part of a bygone era of wixen journalism, though some (such as the Prophet itself) will claim otherwise. Right-of-center and peppered with advertisements, the Prophet has become more sensationalist in the last five years. Similar to the muggle world, the wizarding world, warring aside, is seeing the rich getting richer, newspaper and media owners included. It’s not as hard as it used to be to buy out the paper, to put a story to rest, etc. Other press seek to combat this, but the power of the Prophet is hard to overcome.

WIXEN WIRELESS NETWORK

WWN, in contrast to the Prophet, sees less of the same. Having been DIY for decades, the entity as a whole is scrambling to keep up with staff-changes, news regulations, culture divides, etc. Since Minchum’s rise in 1982, the WWN finds itself under new management (that there was management to begin with is up for debate). The new owners insist on maintaining a “neutral” stance, hoping to appear left-of-center. Unfortunately, neutrality comes with a price. As a result of “keeping the peace”, shows have been sanitized. Some are looking to save WWN from its untimely demise while others are jumping ship.

Pirate Media:

Sick of toeing the party line a group of individuals have found alternate ways to have their voice heard. A small, secret media collective takes the message that the Prophet and the WWN refuse to disseminate and concentrates it somewhere where it can’t be poisoned by the government censorship or dulled by sponsorship. Inspired by independent muggle media this collective produces a weekly radio show and a monthly zine with an anti-authoritarian message. Word has spread quickly and both have quickly become favourites of resistance leaning wixen youth.

PIRATE RADIO (STUPEFY FM)

Starting at 5pm on Wednesday and Thursday Nights chaos rules the airwaves as various pirate radio hosts take to the mic to say whatever is on their mind and play whatever the radio won’t let them play. Due to overlapping show schedules the station can lack clear segmentation and is known for its free for all attitude putting it in stark opposition to the rigidity of WWN. However, in amongst the jokes and guitar fuzz rings through a very clear message: the ministry can try to control the narrative but it's impossible to control the voices of dissent. Knowing that their radio station is… well, illegal certain security measures are taken to ensure the safety of those running the station: Stupefy FM changes its frequency weekly and has the hosts go by their show name(s) to avoid detection from the powers that be. It has been said that sometimes coded messages are being disseminated throughout the broadcast.

PIRATE STREET PRESS (STUPEFY MAG)

Taking its cues from hand-produced muggle fanzines, Stupefy Mag serves up a mishmash of war news, anti-authoritarian art (read: crude cartoons), and conspiracy theories to its readership on the first Sunday of every month. The Mag is exclusively available by owl order service to those who can produce a password heard on the Stupefy FM radio show the week before. The magazine has been ridiculed for being silly or outlandish in an attempt to discredit it but the fact remains that it is the premiere source of war information that the ministry does not want the wider public to know. Stupefy Mag, when viewed with Spectrespecs, has been known to reveal important information for Order members who may not be able to receive information in less covert ways, not dissimilar to how muggle spies have been known to use classifieds to receive intel. 

[dudeandduchess]

I love and hate you so much for this, Biz. 😂✨ 

But here, the product of my brain at 3 AM. The gold llnes like “I’ll squirt in your fucking eye” are Biz’ brain children, so I can’t give y’all golden one liners like she can. 😂

***

Shinjurō x F!S/O: Harsh Revelations (Teletubbies AU Part 2, Slight NSFW Scenario): 

Warnings: Crack, Language, Smut (?), Adult Themes

“Shin! Can you come up here for a second?” (Y/n) asked as she peered over the banister of the stairs inside hers and her husband’s expansive home.

She didn’t even wait for him to reply, nor did she wait for him to come up the stairs— because she knew that he would heed her request no matter what. It was either he obeyed her, or he suffered the consequences of being celibate for the next week.

So whatever (Y/n) wanted, she always got. Always.

And so, with the best poker face that she could muster, she walked back into the master bedroom— where she had laid out the items she’d accidentally stumbled upon in her husband’s ‘work bag’.

“What is it, baby?” Shinjurō asked around a yawn, only to stop dead in his tracks when he saw the vibrant red costume laid out on their bed. Right next to it laid a thick sheaf of scripts; all with his name on them, so he couldn’t lie his way out of his predicament.

He’d tried to keep his means of earning a living as secret as possible— by telling his wife and and everyone else that he had gone into the entertainment industry with his son.

Everyone assumed that he meant producing small-time movies and funding indie films; but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth. It was just a miracle that (Y/n) had never made the connection between him and that Teletubbies character he played.

Then again, she wasn’t one to watch any TV shows— even when she was a kid. He’d been doing the same thing for 18 years, and with her being barely 30, there was a possibility that she had skipped watching Teletubbies; what with her already being 12 when it first came out.

“I think I should be asking you that. What’s this, Shin?” (Y/n) asked with a quirked eyebrow, as she motioned to the heap of red felt on top of their crisp, white duvet.

“That’s my...” The older man sighed, as his hands twitched with the need to light a cigarette. He was so stressed out that he couldn’t even think straight. “My work... costume.”

“I thought you went into the entertai- oh, you play Tipsy in the Teletubbies.” At that, (Y/n)’s gaze flickered between the costume and her husband, just as a sly smile curled the corners of her lips.

Without preamble, the young woman grabbed Shinjurō by the collar of his shirt and pushed him down on the bed— where he landed right beside the felt atrocity that was his work costume.

Then slowly, she straddled his hips and held the headpiece in her hands. “Can you put this on? So that I can use your antenna as a dildo?”

Shinjurō’s heart felt like it had seized in his chest at her words; and he could do nothing but stare wide-eyed at her. His mouth fell open and closed, as he floundered around for what to say; only to come up with, “No! You absolutely cannot!”

A scowl immediately crossed (Y/n)’s face at his reply, which made him flinch— especially when her upper lip curled in blatant distaste. “I’m your wife. If I want to use your antenna as a dildo, then I’ll use your antenna as a dildo.”

“You can’t, (Y/n)!”

“Tell me I can’t one more time, Shin,” (Y/n) warned. “I’ll squirt in your fucking eye.”

“But... baby!” Shinjurō tried to protest, only to be cut off when his wife reached into his back pocket to get his wallet. And once the monogrammed leather was in her hands, she reached inside and pulled out one of the two condoms he kept there.

At that moment, he would have preferred to have had her take all of the money in his wallet— rather than a condom.

“Hush, Shin. Put your headpiece on, and put a condom on it... I don’t want fuzz balls in my pussy,” (Y/n) demanded with a laugh, as she flung her shirt off her body and exposed her naked chest to him.

And against his better judgment, he felt himself get hard at the pretty sight that his wife’s boobs made.

“This is payback for keeping this from me for years.”

***

“Dad! You’ve been gone for days!” Kyōjurō yelled frantically as he raced towards his father— whom had just reappeared on set after going MIA for three days.

In response, Kyōjurō merely huffed a sigh and rolled his eyes. And then, in one smooth move, he flipped his eldest son off before walking away.

He would be damned if he told anyone that the reason he’d taken a few days off was to wait for the damn costume to get dry cleaned... after his wife had left so many cum stains all over the headpiece.

“Dad! There’s a huge stain on the back of your costume! It looks like... oh... I didn’t know that (Y/n) was into that sort of stuff.”

[writerkenna]

The Lights of Stars and the Glitter in Your Eyes Chapter 5

GUESS WHO'S BACK, BACK AGAIN

KENNA'S BACK, and she's really sorry she has been gone for so long and she hopes her readers will still care about this story after like a month gap.

Seriously y'all I'm sorry. I just really lost motivation for this and I didn't want to publish something bad so I just wanted to wait until I felt like I could publish something I liked.

I'm . . . mostly happy with this. Enjoy!

Thor was on his back with eyes fuzzed up on the metal ceiling arching over head for an unreasonably long time. The realization of his love for Bruce was a shock to his system, maybe literally, he thought he might have sparked right at the moment the image of Bruce filled up his head and heart.

He didn’t know why, but he felt a wave of laughter stir up in his stomach and catapult out of him. He was in love. Bruce, with his too gentle fingertips poised and prepared, had reached into Thor and took a careful hold of his heart. He laughed again in two bursts, clutching his gut, still aching from Valkyrie’s slam to it. It had been too long since he had been in real, warm, hearty love. Thor had forgotten how rapturously joyful it was.

“Um, you getting up any time soon?” Valkyrie asked. Thor righted himself into a sitting position and shook out his shoulders. He gave Valkyrie his doopiest grin.

“I’m in love with Bruce,” Thor repeated. It was good to feel it on his tongue, Bruce’s name flexing across his lips and pricking a blush on his cheeks.

“Yeah, well. That’s nice.” Valkyrie stared at him from above, tone tight and unrevealing, but Thor could tell, with the edging up of her lips, that he was infecting her with his bubbling over smile.

“I-how did I not know sooner? Bruce is . . . he is the most tremendous mortal I’ve ever known. Did-has he told you about his work on black holes? It’s beautiful. He’s beautiful.”

The words were coming out without consideration, thoughts grabbing others and growing and sprouting bigger as they left Thor’s mouth.

“Does that mean you’re going to talk to him again?”

“Oh, I-”

Thor’s shoulders slumped and, like a wisp of air as he exhaled, the giddy fever he had been absorbed in phased out of him. Thor might have loved Bruce without complications in the sanctity of his head and the fog of this gym, but outside of these spaces, he had ignored Bruce for four days straight. Thor had slipped up and soiled their potential love before its start, betrayal ingrained in its roots the moment Thor had buckled to Hulk’s whims.

He didn’t think Valkyrie should know this.

“Ah, yes,” he replied, after a long gap in his own head, “I . . . I’ll be wooing him from now on.”

Valkyrie pushed a laugh out her nose and shook her head. Thor doubted himself just as much as she did. He couldn’t imagine pulling his old moves on Bruce, his demure and toying seduction, his waxing poetic to the point of meaninglessness, his flexing and fawning till his subject of affection was swooning into the crevices of the muscles of his arms. It never would have worked anyway, but especially not after Thor had fumbled so poorly. His methods had been foiled and his plan was fraught with flaws.

“Or, well, I don’t know, maybe not wooing, but I’ll talk to him,” Thor mumbled.

“You are a ridiculous king. Are you aware of that?” Valkyrie leaned in towards Thor, eyes squinted in a bit of a challenge, an invitation for another bout. Thor tried to take it as a distraction, but Bruce and Hulk and feelings for both were all formidable forces on his thoughts.

He excused himself away to his quarters to Valkyrie’s disgruntlement, and when Bruce was not there, decided to extend the avoidance for a bit longer, at least enough for a shower to settle himself.

Bruce, when Thor found him and when Thor felt mentally organized enough to handle conversation with him, was in the middle of a debate with the newly elected leader of his treasury. Thor appreciated Bruce’s dedication to his mostly undefined chancellor position even when Thor himself was being sort of an ass.

“Malfjor, Bruce,” Thor greeted with a nod to each. Malfjor was the one old, tried and true staple of the old Asgardian government in his parliament. He was huffy and red on the tip of his nose, which was his state often, a firm holdover of Odin’s rule.

“This Midgardian is telling me you’re moving my funding for the historical upkeep of ancient buildings to education?” Malfjor asked like the very notion of defunding was an atrocity. Thor’s eyes gave a momentary slip to Bruce, whose fingers were clutching onto one another as his face rattled between contained indignancy and a growing regret. Thor gave him a flick of the side of his lip turned away from Malfjor and Bruce’s lips spread into dimples, his shoulders releasing from around his ears.

“Well, yes, my chancellor is very well informed. The funding will be moved,” Thor said. He was mimicking Odin’s voice, or rather, what he remembered the voice sounding like when he was a boy and every political speech or decree made Odin look even more like the god he was. He let the tone move in to his shoulders and chest, puffing like a lion to his pride. Malfjor, easy to master, took the bait and settled just enough.

“I . . . if you think that best, King,” he grinded out of his teeth. Thor steadied his eyes onto him as the final step in his king performance.

“I do. I have the utmost confidence in Dr. Banner.” Thor smirked that bit out and, in the corner of his vision, he could see Bruce’s eyes go soft and happy, lids looking so comfortably heavy. Malfjor ruffled with a sigh and pushed off from both of them without so much as a goodbye.

“That was pretty fun, actually,” Thor said to Bruce under a twitching grin and heavy blush. Malfjor had lorded over him for so long as a quasi uncle who had been as distant and frigid to children as Odin was. It was cathartically cleansing, as were Bruce’s eye crinkles. “

Yeah, um,” Bruce, though still fuzzy in his eyes, had begun to chew up his lip. Thor frowned, “so, ah, you haven’t been talking to me, and that’s pretty weird.”

Thor’s cheeks went even warmer and he issued a laugh that stunk of guilt.

“Yeah, ah-”

“You know, the only people I know on this ship are you, Val, and Loki. And Loki and I sort of hate each other, so, it really sucks for me if we’re not talking.”

“I know,” Thor sighed. The pit of his stomach was empty and wanting looking at Bruce and, despite himself, he decided he could allow himself this, “I’ve been under stress and thinking poorly. I . . . it won’t . . .”

Thor halted. It had been immeasurably easier to talk to Bruce before Thor had realized the interconnection between the brewing of heat that cropped up in the middle of his chest and the batting of Bruce’s deep black lashes. He gulped in and composed himself as well as he could.

“Let’s go back to the room,” Thor said, catching the double entendre soon after he did. He hadn’t the time yet for deep consideration of Bruce in sexual terms, but giving it only a moment’s thought, well, he did want that, to grab Bruce’s hand in his own, rush them into the secret sanctuary of their room, and show Bruce exactly what a god can make him feel like, with masterful fingers on skin and confessions and secrets and primal needs whispered into his ear. Though, since Thor was still deep in the trenches of his Hulk/Bruce related guilt and couldn’t really think how he’d manage to present a request like that, those ideas would have to wait.

“Okay, sure. We are, like, three movies behind on our watch list, which I will not stand for,” Bruce breezed a laugh and Thor echoed too quickly and too loud, halfway to a yelp. Bruce pulled his face back as wrinkles folded between his brows, “Are all gods this odd, by the way, or is it a you thing? Cause, as an interested human, I’d like to know.”

Thor shrugged and his lips went lopsided. He pressed out a fit of giggles that resembled something like a schoolboy on drugs. He snapped his mouth shut after they were released, sucking in his lips to contain anymore ridiculously pathetic emissions, and walked chest forward to the room with a bemused Bruce trailing behind.

They put on a film Bruce told Thor was called Dazed and Confused. Thor was grateful for the noise and distraction and took it readily as a chance to figure out how he was supposed to continue on talking to Bruce without his mouth launching open and confessing all the small and large details of his heart. The movie was one of Thor’s more favorited, it turned out. The exploits of the wild cast stirred in him memories of the far too long gone warrior feasts after battle and holiday festivals that Thor adored and longed for again, though, this film contained a few less dead goats and sword fights than he was used too.

As one of the teachers in the movie harped on some freshman boys, Thor set out a deck of Asgardian cards, both desperate to occupy his hands and mind and determined to teach Bruce how to play this game properly.

“Here,” he muttered, issuing out a hand of seven cards to Bruce, “I’ll make a skilled cardsman out of you yet.”

Bruce snarked a chuckle and sent an ‘okay’ back Thor’s way. He flipped a card with an ethereal woman wrapped in leaves and branches down onto the metal floor between them. Thor groaned, mostly in jest as he found Bruce’s lack of skill sort of sweet, a reminder of his great amount of humanness, and handed the card back to Bruce.

“Very bad play.”

“What? Why?” Bruce brought the card up close to his eyes, as if the woman’s painted visage would tell him where he failed, “I needed to get rid of that card.”

“Yes, but you've given me the perfect chance to wipe my hand and win. Come on now, strategy, Bruce!” Thor’s hands clamped onto Bruce’s shoulders and rustled them as a sort of call to action, though, as Thor landed fully onto the firm ground of Bruce’s slumped shoulders and his palms tingled as they were flooded with energy, it came to his mind that it might have been too close to his Bruce related revelation to have physical touch. He yanked away as Bruce jolted.

“Ah, fuck, I just-”

“Sorry,” Thor grimaced.

“Control yourself, man,” Bruce chuckled, tossing his side against Thor’s. Thor beamed, which he promptly hid behind his cards.

“Well, play your card, then.” Thor’s voice was rigid, contained. He was overdoing it, he knew, but his body was lighting up and he could hardly hold back waves of extreme and likely terrifying love. Bruce slammed down a card, better this time, made Thor pause and consider his move, and Thor bristled with pride.

The movie thummed on in front of them. Thor’s eyebrows scrunched together as Slater lit up a rolled bit of paper.

“What is that? That Slater is doing?”

“Uh, smoking weed?” Bruce said. He put down three cards in one go. Thor grunted, good move. He stalled. Bruce grinned, lips tucked in on each other like a child with a toy. Thor really liked that, liked that too much.

“What’s that?” Thor asked. Bruce guffawed and Thor felt mildly insulted. Bruce stopped.

“Oh, yeah, you probably don’t have it on Asgard. It’s, um . . . do you know, like, drugs or medicinal herbs, something like that?”

Thor nodded. Herbs were fairly commonly used in both medical and recreational situations on Asgard. Earth shouldn’t differ too much. It clicked, then, and, given the rest of the movie, made sense.

“Oh, so sort of a . . .” Thor gestured out with a hand, a wave motion, and spacey expression, “perception altering, then?”

“Ahh, yeah, perception altering indeed,” Bruce mumbled with a grin on his breath.

“Do you use it?” Thor asked. Bruce’s eyes darted to the screen, red fluttering across his cheeks. Thor’s mouth shot into a smile on its own accord and he tucked it down as Bruce went more twitchy.

“Y-yeah, I do. More often since Hulk came into my life, cause, uh, the . . . weed helps, with the anxiety and anger and stuff,” he stopped himself and Thor gave him a moment as he worried his fingers at the back of his neck, “Is that, like, okay? I don’t know what the sort of, um, culture around recreational drugs is, or if you even have them, I-”

“No,” Thor cut him off, smiling. Many a late night had been spent in his youth with Asgard’s own take on ‘recreational’ drugs, “It’s fairly common on my world, too. Perhaps, when we land back on earth, you and I could partake in this weed together?” A breeze of a giggle simmered out of the corner of Bruce’s mouth and he nodded against his chest.

“Yeah, if you want.”

Thor’s cool burst at even the vaguest concept of sharing another experience with Bruce. He wanted weed if Bruce wanted it. He wanted to comprehend the intricacies of supernova death spirals and watch all the movies on Bruce’s list just so they could make another and find out the secrets that only he could know. All that Bruce was, Thor determined he would discover.

“So, when we land, you guys are going to see if you can find land in Norway, right?” Bruce asked. Thor frowned. Earth, which was coupled inseparably with the true weight of ruling and a wave of changes to follow, was something Thor was trying to place as far in the back of his mind as possible. Not to mention, Bruce following him to Norway didn’t seem to have much of a chance.

“Yes, we should draft a proposal for the Norwegian government soon. And you? Where will you go?” Bruce shrugged, eyes drifting back over to the screen, and Thor used the moment to wince his eyes shut. Bruce would probably go back to New York, secluded in his lab until he could forget Sakaar without the reminder of Thor. Maybe, if Thor was lucky, or unlucky he supposed, someone would try to blow up the world again and they would be forced into a reunion.

“I . . . dunno, I-maybe just back with Tony, if he’ll let me. I-I’m not sure where honestly. I don’t know if I have anywhere to go.” Thor’s brows shot up and then, as they fell, a well of sympathy filled in his chest.

“But, what about Romanoff? You and her were . . . lovers, yes? Maybe you could live with her. If she lives somewhere, I’m not sure.” Natasha hadn’t entered Thor’s head for a long time, but that was not to say Thor had forgotten her, especially not then. Midgardians were so hung up on relationships, on commitment and the who’s with who and men or women. A drip of anxiety tracked it’s way down his throat, chances dwindling.

“Oh.” Bruce slumped down against the bed, hand rubbing against his temple. Thor’s chest thumped. Oh faen, what if Bruce loved her?

“You two were together, right?” Thor tortured himself further.

“Well, ah . . . sort of? I-I don’t, we were something, yeah. But, it’s been two years. I’ve been gone. I . . . Nat’s moved on, I’m sure,” Bruce mumbled, going sickly around his eyes, “I can’t live with her, no.”

“Sorry,” Thor said, with a cautious dip of his shoulder to Bruce. Bruce leaned in a little to it. Thor sighed. His leg scooted over to Bruce’s, thighs pressed together.

“We were never serious. I thought maybe, just for a little bit, that we could have something and we were, like, gonna run away together, which was so dumb, but . . . I don’t think it was real. It was more like play dating or something.”

Thor nodded. Bruce’s head fell heavy onto Thor’s shoulder. Thor didn’t say a word, too tricky of a balance to test.

“Can . . . can I just come with you to Norway? I think I could be a really good political help and there’s a lab there where-”

“Yes!” It jumped out of Thor as an electric flush touched at the back of his neck. He laughed, catching the outburst and quieting himself, “You should come, that’s wonderful.”

“Okay, I’ll-awesome, I’ll come.”

Thor thought, if he could read auras, his would be reaching across the whole room. Briefly, Thor almost went for a kiss, because Bruce’s eyes were under folded lids scrunched into warm creases of irises and his full cheeks were resting under them. Thor stopped, though, on the edge of starting. Kissing then seemed ill-timed, too rushed, too rash.

As Bruce turned his eyes from Thor to his feet, a half grin on his face, Thor realized, with a start, that he hadn’t seen Hulk today. No pounding heads, no green tinted temples. Thor took it as a sign. He had to, he needed to actually, because Thor couldn’t do another four days without Bruce.

Let the wooing begin.

If you comment, I'll dm you my favorite recipe for meatballs (they are dope y'all and I also have a vegetarian version)

[agrimscythe]

Review: Skjult (2009)

Review: Skjult (2009) #horror #movies #review #foreignfilms

Synopsis:

With his mother’s passing, KK returns home after nineteen years to settle her estate. But with his heritage come dark and deadly secrets. Having spent the last two decades trying to forget his cruel mother and his past life in the creepy house in the woods, KK finds that there are some things you just can’t run from.

Via Shudder Review:

Every now and then I like to watch a foreign…

[ameryth74]

Louis **** Title Generator Tool

** **** it 

LOL.... go!

Two letter words:

There are 107 acceptable 2-letter words listed in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 6th Edition and the Official Tournament and Club Word List:

AA, AB, AD, AE, AG, AH, AI, AL, AM, AN, AR, AS, AT, AW, AX, AY, BA, BE, BI, BO, BY, DA, DE, DO, ED, EF, EH, EL, EM, EN, ER, ES, ET, EW, EX, FA, FE, GI, GO, HA, HE, HI, HO, ID, IF, IN, IS, IT, JO, JU, JY, JZ, KA, KI, KO, LA, LI, LO, MA, ME, MI, MM, MO, MU, MY, NA, NE, NO, NU, OD, OE, OF, OH, OI, OK, OM, ON, OP, OR, OS, OW, OX, PA, PE, PI, PO, QI, RE, SH, SI, SO, TA, TE, TI, TO, UH, UM, UN, UP, US, UT, WE, WO, XI, XU, YA, YE, YO, ZA

Two letter contractions: I’m, I’d

Four letter verbs:

abet, abut, abye/aby, ache, alit, ally, ante, arch, aver, avow (10).

baby,  bach, back, bade, baff, bail, bait, bake, bald, bale, balk, ball, band, bang, bank, bant, barb, bard, bare, barf, bark, base, bash, bask, bate, bath, bauk, bawl, bead, beam, bean, bear,    beat, beck, bede, beef, been, beep, bell, belt, bend, bent, bere, best, bias, bide(archaic usage), biff, bike, bilk, bill, bind, bird, birl, birr, bite, bitt, blab, blat, blaw, bled, blet, blew, blip, blob, blot, blow, blub, blue, blur, boak, boat, bode, body, boff(vulgar usage), boil, boke, bomb, bond, bone, bong, bonk, boob, book, boom, boot, bore, born, boss, boun, bowl, brad, brag, bray, bred, brew, brim, buck, buff, bulk, bull, bump, bung, bunk, bunt, buoy, burl, burn, burp, burr, bury, bush, busk, buss, bust, busy, butt, buzz (117).

ca-ca, cage, cake, calk, call, calm, came, camp, cane, cant, card, care, carp, cart, case, cash, cast, cave, cede, cere, chap, char, chat, chaw, chid, chin, chip, chop, chow, chug, chum, cite, clad, clam, clap, claw, clay, clew, clip, clog, clop, clot, cloy, club, clue, coal, coat, coax, cock, code, coif, coil, coin, coke, comb, come, comp, cone, conk, conn, cook, cool, coop, cope, copy, cord, core, cork, corn, cosh, cost, coup, cove, cowl, crab, cram, crap, crew, crib, crop, crow, cube, cuff, cull, curb, curd, cure, curl, curr, cuss (90).

dado, daff, damn, damp, dang, dare, dark, darn, dart, dash, date, daub, dawn, daze, deal, deck, deed, deem, defy, deke, dele, demo, dent, deny, dial, dice, died, diet, dike, dine, ding, ding, dint, dirk, disc, dish, disk, diss, dive, dock, doff, dole, dome, done, doom, dope, dose, doss, dote, dove, down, doze, drab, drag, draw, dray, dree, drew, drip, drop, drub, drug, drum, duck, duel, duet, dull, dumb, dump, dung, dunk, dupe, dusk, dust, dyke (75).

earn, ease, echo, eddy, edge, edit, emit, envy, espy, etch, even, exit (12).

face, fade, fail, fake, fall, fame, fard, fare, farm, fart, fash, fast, fate, fawn, faze, fear, feed, feel, fell, felt, fend, fess, fete, feud, file, fill, film, find, fine, fink, fire, firm, fish, fist, fizz, flag, flap, flat, flaw, flay, fled, flee, flew, flex, flip, flit, flog, flop, flow, flub, flux, foal, foam, foil, foin, fold, fond, fool, foot, ford, fork, form, foul, fowl, frag, frap, fray, free, fret, frig, frit, fuel, full, fume, fund, funk, furl, fuse, fuss, futz, fuze, fuzz (82).

gaff, gage, gain, gait, gall, game, gang, gaol, gape, garb, gash, gasp, gast(obsolete), gate, gaum(US), gave, gawk, gawp, gaze, gear, geld, gibe, gift, gild, gill, gimp, gird, girt, give, glad(archaic), glom, glow, glue, glug, glut, gnar, gnaw, go by, go on, goad, golf, gone, gong, goof, gore, gown, grab, gray, grew, grey, grid, grin, grip, grit, grow, grub, gulf, gull, gulp, gush, gust, gybe, gyre, gyve (64).

hack, haft, hail, hale, halo, halt, hand, hang, hare, hark, harm, harp, hash, hasp, hast, hate, hath(archaic), haul, have, hawk, haze, head, heal, heap, hear, heat, heed, heel, heft, held, helm, help, hent(obsolete), herd, hewn, hide, hike, hill, hint, hire, hiss, hive, hoax, hock, hoke(slang), hold, hole, home, hone, honk, hood, hoof, hook, hoop, hoot, hope, horn, hose, host, hove, howl, huff, hulk, hull, hump, hung, hunt, hurl, hurt, hush, husk, hymn, hype, hypo (74).

idle, inch, iris, iron, isle, itch (6).

jack, jade, jail, jape, jazz, jeep, jeer, jell, jerk, jest, jibe, jilt, jink, jinx, jive, join, joke, jolt, josh, juke, jump, junk (22).

kayo, keek(Scots), keel, keen, keep, kept, kern, kick, kill, kiln, kilt, kink, kiss, kite, knap, knew, knit, knot, know (19).

lace, lack, laid, lain, lair, lake, lamb, lame, land, lard, lark, lase, lash, last, lath, laud, lave, laze, lazy, lead, leaf, leak, lean, leap, lech, leer, left, lend, lens, lent, levy, lick, lift, like, lilt, limb, lime, limn, limp, line, link, lisp, list, live, load, loaf, loan, lock, loft, loll, long, look, loom, loop, loot, lope, lord, lose, lost, loup(Scots), lour, lout, love, lube, luck, luff, luge, lull, lump, lure, lurk, lust, lute, lyse (74).

mace, made, mail, maim, make, mall, malt, mark, marl, mart, mash, mask, mass, mast, mate, maul, maze, mean, meet, meld, mell, melt, mend, meow, mesh, mess, mete, mewl, miff, milk, mill, mime, mind, mine, mint, mire, miss, mist, moan, moat, mock, moil, mold, molt, moon, moor, moot, mope, moss, move, muck, muff, mull, mump, muse, mush, muss, must, mute (59).

nail, name, near, neck, need, nest, nick, nigh, nill(obsolete), nock, nose, nosh, note, nuke, null, numb (16).

obey, ogle, oink, okay, omen, omit, ooze, open, oust, over (10).

pace, pack, page, pain, pair, pale, pall, palm, pang, pant, pare, park, part, pash(Austral), pass, pave, pawn, peak, peal, peck, peek, peel, peen, peep, peer, pelt, pend, perk, perm, pick, pike, pile, pill, pimp, pine, ping, pink, pipe, piss(vulgar), pith, pity, plan, plat, play, plod, plop, plot, plow, plug, pock, poke, pole, poll, pond, pool, pore, port, pose, post, pour, pout, pray, pree, prep, prey, prim, prod, prog, prop, puff, puke, pule, pull, pulp, pump, punt, purl, purr, push, putt (80).

quad, quip, quit, quiz (4).

race, rack, raft, rage, raid, rail, rain, rake, ramp, rang, rank, rant, rape, rase, rasp, rate, rave, raze, razz, read, ream, reap, rear, reck, redd(dialect), rede(archaic), redo, reed, reef, reek, reel, rein, rely, rend, rent, rest, re-up, rice, rick, ride, riff, rift, rile, rill, rime(archaic)/rhyme, ring, riot, rise, risk, rive, roam, roar, robe, rock, rode, roil, rolf, roll, romp, roof, rook, room, root, rope, rose, rout, rove, ruck, ruff, ruin, rule, rush, rust (73).

sack, said, sail, sale, salt, sand, sass, sate, save, sawn, scab, scam, scan, scar, scat, scud, scum, seal, seam, sear, seat, seed, seek, seel, seem, seen, seep, sell, send, sent, sewn, shag, sham, shed, shim, shin, ship, shit, shoe, shog, shoo, shop, shot, show, shun, shut, sick, side, sift, sigh, sign, silk, silt, sing, sink, sire, site, size, skew, skid, skim, skin, skip, slab, slag, slam, slap, slat, slay, sled, slew, slid, slim, slip, slit, slog, slop, slot, slow, slub, slue, slug, slum, slur, smut, snag, snap, snip, snow, snub, snug, soak, soap, soar, sock, soil, sold, sole, solo, soot, sorb, sort, soup, sour, sown, spae(scottish), spam, span, spar, spat, spay, spec, sped, spew, spin, spit, spot, spud, spur, spurn, stab, stag, star, stay, stem, step, stet, stew, stir, stop, stow, stub, stud, stun, suck, suds, suit, sulk, sung, sunk, surf, swab, swag, swam, swan(brit), swap, swat, sway, swig, swim, swob, swop(brit)/swap, swot, swum, sync (155).

tabu, tack, tail, take, talc, talk, tame, tamp, tang, tank, tape, tare, task, taut, taxi, team, tear, teem, tell, tend, tent, term, test, text, thaw, thin, thud, tick, tide, tidy, tier, tiff, tile, till, tilt, time, tine, ting, tint, tire, toil, toke, told, tole, toll, tomb, tone, tong, took, tool, toot, tope, tore, torn, toss, tote, tour, tout, tram, trap, tree, trek, trim, trip, trod, trot, trow(archaic), true, tube, tuck, tuft, tune, turf, turn, tusk, twig(Brit), twin, twit, type (79).

undo, urge (2).

vade, vail(archaic), vamp, vary, veal, veer, veil, vein, vend, vent, vest, veto, vide, view, vine, visa, vise, void, vote (19).

wade, waft, wage, wail, wait, wake, wale, walk, wall, wane, want, ward, ware(archaic), warm, warn, warp, wash, waul, wave, wawl, wean, wear, weed, ween, weep, weet, weld, well, welt, wend, went, wept, were, wert(archaic), wham, whap, whet, whid(Scottish), whip, whir, whiz, whop, wick, wile, will, wilt, wind, wine, wing, wink, wipe, wire, wise, wish, wisp, wist, wite, wive, woke, wolf, wont, wood, woof, word, wore, work, worm, worn, wove, wrap, writ(archaic) (71).

x-ray (1).

yack, yank, yard, yarn, yaup, yawn, yawp, yean, yell, yelp, yerk, yeuk, yock, yoke, yowl, yo-yo(informal), yuck (17).

zero, zest, zinc, zing, zone, zonk, zoom (7).

IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT

(yes there are 28 ITs)

[mawpheen-and-sizzuhs]

Doc Roe has been letting his moustache grow out whilst he was in Belgium. Why? Because he's agreed to film a porno with the reader when they next get on leave, and it's being funded by the boys. Cant be a pornstar without a moustache, and the fuzz just tickles the reader the right way when he goes down on them.

If Doc having a stache is the price I have to pay for getting to shoot a porno with him, i will gladly pay the price

[armory-rasa]

Long tutorial time: How to Take Product Photos That Don’t Suck

If you’re trying to sell your handcrafted work online, then your photos matter so much -- I daresay almost more than the work itself.

“Upcycled” items that are literal trash (but attractively photographed!) can sucker people into paying actual money for them. And on the flip side, the best-quality leatherwork in the world is going to look dubious af when the product shots were obviously taken in someone’s kitchen, lit by fluorescent lights and a camera flash.

You will get more sales and you will be able to charge more for your work if you have professional-looking product photos -- not fair, maybe, but true. So today I am going to show you how to create decent-looking stock photos, ie, a picture of just the thing itself on a backdrop.

(The cat is unrelated -- clickbait, really.)

I’ll admit upfront that I am very, very far from being a photography expert, and I'm sure an expert could do better than me, but I can't afford an expert and probably neither can you. And this isn’t about the mechanics anyway, it’s about the setup, and just making these small changes can seriously up your game.

Step one: camera

Unless you've already got a good camera, your best bet is going to be a smartphone -- and make no mistake, smartphones are a close second, not a distant one. Modern smartphones are phenomenal, they’re far better than even slightly-dated digital cameras. They can't get you the soft-focus background that an actual, professional camera can (the lens simply isn't long enough), but you can approximate that effect with photoshop if you want to, and the set-up I'm demonstrating here doesn't need a fuzzed background anyway.

The only critical feature is that your camera can take sharp, in-focus pictures.

If you don't have a good smartphone, find a friend who does and beg/wheedle/blackmail/bully them into letting you use it for a bit.

Honestly, I've got a good camera, and half the time I still wind up using my phone because I’m too lazy to bust it out.

Step two: backdrop

There are a lot of artistic things you can do if you're taking pictures of a product in situ -- action shots, still lifes, pictures of it worn by models -- and all that will help your customers visualize themselves using the item, but it's also vital to have pictures of JUST the thing, pictures that cleanly and clearly show exactly what the customer is going to be receiving in exchange for the money they throw at you -- aka stock photos.

And for stock photos, you don't want to get creative with your background. In fact, if you can use the same background for many/most of your images, it will contribute to an attractive, coherent look for your shop. That means finding a neutral-toned backdrop that will work with any color item you put on top of it -- white, black, grey, beige, basically.

White can mean a lightbox...

(And there are a million tutorials online for how to rig up your own DIY lightbox)

...or another popular alternative is a white table pushed up against a white wall; the seam between the two is visible, but discreet enough that the eye glides right over it.

Black, you can do with cleverdick manipulation of the settings on an expensive camera, or you can find a non-reflective black backdrop -- which is easier said than done. Fine, dense, matte black velvet (think theatre curtains) is the go-to black backdrop, just make sure you run a lint roller over it before taking pics.

Any other color is going to depend on the backdrop you choose -- I personally have had excellent luck with some warm-grey velvet (?) yardage that I picked up for pennies at a goodwill a million years ago. (I’m not sure what it is -- it has the pile of velvet, but shorter?) I didn’t buy it for that purpose, but it’s since proven to be an incredibly versatile backdrop, and I’ve taken to using it for everything:

etc.

And even if you’re not stumbling onto a super-good-deal at goodwill, a yard or two of your chosen fabric will generally do you fine.

What I don’t recommend is:

- shiny fabric (anything shiny is overall more difficult to photograph -- and shiny spots will draw attention to themselves, rather than your product)

- vivid colors (limits what color items you can display on it; will often clash if the item is close-but-not-quite-the-same color (and what looks fine to your eye may not look fine on film); can distract from the item you’re showcasing)

- patterns (again, distracts from the centerpiece; draws attention to the background; moreover, is hell to clone-brush)

Here is all three of them being the perfect storm of not-a-good-stock-photo:

Which is not to say you can’t do something artistic with it...

...but it’s not very versatile, and it’s not exactly “stock photo” anymore.

One of the reasons I really really like velvet for a backdrop is that there’s nothing in the world easier to clone brush. Which happens, for instance, if I get my roll of photos transferred to the computer and realize there’s some lint I neglected to brush off, or if I was too lazy to iron my backdrop so it’s got wrinkles/creases in it, or if the angle I had to take the photograph from clipped the edge of the backdrop--

--it is super fuckin’ easy to clone all that out. (It also takes the burn tool really well, to darken the edges and point the viewer’s attention toward the middle of the picture, see above.)

Other backdrops that can work are fur (or faux fur):

The great outdoors: mulch, leaves, dirt, sand, etc--

(That was taken at my shitty old apartment complex, so I had to carefully remove the cigarette butts from the shot first. -_-)

(I admit I’ve mostly stopped using these kind of outdoor backdrops -- they’re harder to pull off than wood/concrete/fabric -- but in the hands of someone with an eye for composition, they can definitely be used to good effect, so I’m including them here anyway. You just want to make sure that the background isn’t distracting from the item, which you can sometimes do in post by darkening/fuzzing the background relative to the focal object.)

Concrete:

And wood:

In short, there are many things that are (1) unobtrusive and (2) neutral-colored that will make excellent backdrops.

Professional photography backdrops (essentially, the velvet I have) are close to true neutral, not affecting the “feel” of the picture at all, and there are tons of tutorials online to make your own DIY photography backdrops.

Conversely, you can also use a specific backdrop to help create the mood you want to convey for the piece -- concrete for gritty and urban; fur to evoke a rich and sumptuous feeling (or a primitive one, depending on what you’re selling); wood or rough-spun cloth for something rustic; dirt and leaves to take it back to nature.

I’m not going to say the sky’s the limit, because we’re talking stock photos not ARRRRT!!, you gotta rein it in a bit, but you do have a lot of options -- anything that’s not going to clash with the mood or distract from your product.

Step three: lighting

USE THE FUCKING SUN.

Don’t ever, ever use a flash for product photography, seriously, are you some kind of SAVAGE?

Cardinal sin right there; go straight to hell, do not pass go, etc. Lighting like that, your product looks like it’s drunk at a frat party.

Moreover, unless you are a wildly over-funded professional, and possibly not even then, there is no light source superior to the sun. Sure, if you finish your project at midnight and can’t wait to share it, take some snapshots in your shitty studio light and send them to your friends--

--but do not make that your product listing photo. You can do so much better.

(And notice the color difference too -- natural light tends to be much better at capturing color that is true-to-life. The second picture is far more accurate to the actual item.)

*

That said, direct sunlight is a HELL NO go. The shadows it casts are way too stark, and details can get lost because the camera has trouble navigating the gap between the super-dark parts of the picture and the super-bright parts.

And it turned out that I’d never bothered to keep any of the photos I took in direct sunlight (because they sucked), so for the purposes of this tutorial, I had to take a couple of my WIPs outside and go make some.

Direct sunlight:

The glare and the obvious shadows make these photos look strikingly amateurish. It draws attention to the background, highlights the fact that the bracers are just sitting in some lame dead grass. These photos look like someone finished making the bracer, carried it ten feet out into their backyard, and snapped a picture.

Which, yeah, is what we’re doing, but it doesn’t have to look it.

By contrast, indirect sunlight, when I move it four feet over into the shade of the house:

Right away, the diffused light (sort of soft-focus?) is more in line with what you see in professional photos. They still need editing before they’d be ready to roll out -- fiddling with contrast/saturation/white balance; clone-brushing out some of the distracting elements in the background; darker shading around the frame to center attention on the product -- but they have the potential to be decent photos now, instead of being critically flawed from the get-go.

When you’re using sunlight as your source, you’re usually going to be setting up either outside in the shade, or inside next to a window.

The context for some of these shots can also be hilariously un-sexy when you zoom out:

*

Sunlight tends to be much better at retaining the textural details of your work too, because more light means your camera can take a much quicker shot (low light = camera compensates by leaving the lens open longer to collect more light = blur).

If you want to really capture the fine texture of an item, natural light coming from one side (like through a window) is perfect, because of the shadows it casts:

On that note: if you’re trying to use a window as your light source, you may have trouble with the far side of the object being completely lost in darkness:

Which can be artistic, but doesn’t make for a great stock photo.

The solution is not to use another light source, but to use a reflector -- my go-to is white foam-core posterboard:

Which can fill in the shadows that are obscuring parts of your work:

Mirrors or foil can work for this too, but they tend to cast stark/uneven light, whereas the white board diffuses it, and diffusion is pretty much always what you want.

*

On the subject of diffusion: overcast days are your BEST FRIEND. They basically turn the whole sky into a lightbox for you. You get soft, beautiful light from all directions, muted enough to reduce glare, but there’s still more than enough light to keep your camera happy and your details sharp. 

(Man I wish there were more clouds where I lived.)

Here’s an interesting little contrast -- this one was taken on a sunny day, but in the shadow of my house, using a white reflector to move light around:

And then the very next day we had rain, and I was like, hell yeah, and took it outside for more pics:

Obviously both have had the contrast increased to bring out the details, but the mood difference between the two is 100% the weather.

*

And that is FAR from everything there is to say on the subject of photography lighting, but for the purposes of amateur product photography, those are the important bits.

TL;DR:

- Natural light

- Diffused light

*

Step 4: post-production

This is also not something I’m an expert in, I’ve learned just enough to get by and called it good enough. (It’s why I lean on overcast days whenever I can, because it eliminates a lot of the lighting problems that I don’t know how to fix in post.)

But here are some of the things that you will find yourself needing to know, and should be looking up how-to’s on for your graphics editor of choice:

White balance/saturation

Light comes in different colors, but the human eye automatically compensates for it, so often times something looks good to your eyes, but then comes out way funky on film.

Indoor lighting tends to be yellow-hued, because that’s what feels warm and comfortable to humans, but it looks nasty in photographs:

Natural light tends to be white (which is why it gives you more accurate colors), getting more blueish as it heads toward evening:

You can compensate for both by adjusting the white balance, in which the program figures out what white is supposed to look like, and then calibrates all the other colors in the picture accordingly.

Brightness/contrast

Is it bright enough to see the details? Is the contrast high enough to make the details POP, instead of blending together into a muddle?

You can apply brightness/contrast adjustments to the full image, and then (if necessary) go in by hand with the burn/dodge tool (brightness up/brightness down) and add extra highlights.

(Don’t go overboard on this though -- this isn't art, this is a product photo, and if you take it too far from the real object, you are lying in your advertising.)

Blur/sharpen

Are the focal points sharp? Sharp areas of an image are what draws the eye, so if your photos are blurry, they’re no good and there’s no fixing them -- grab your camera and go take some more.

Is your background less sharp than the foreground? A too-sharp background will distract from the central point, so sometimes you can put a very subtle blur on it to trick the eye into ignoring it. (Dropping the brightness and the contrast are also both ways to make the background less eye-catching.)

Clone brush

Basically a mini copy-paste tool, you grab parts of the image and copy it onto other parts. This is good for tidying up your background -- coloring in corners that your backdrop didn’t cover, or removing distracting irregularities.

Again, this is one to be used sparingly, because this is product photography, it needs to be accurate, not idealized. You don’t get to scrub off the imperfections and make it look like you’re better at [whatever] than you are.

The only time I consider it acceptable to use the clone brush tool on the actual product is for editing out flaws in the leather itself. It’s a stock photo; customers are not going to be getting the exact item shown in the photo. I’ll be making a new one for them, one that’s not going to have those exact flaws. (It’ll have excitingly new and different flaws! Such is the nature of organic materials.)

Edge gradients

A subtle shadow around the edge of your picture brings the whole thing together, makes the background recede a bit, and directs the eye toward the centerpiece. Too heavy a hand with this will still look nice, but more staged; it alerts the viewer that you’ve been photoshopping and kills the “I woke up like this~” illusion.

Relatively natural:

Dramatic!

Watermarking

You want people to be able to find their way back to you when your work inevitably gets cross-posted without the source (fuck you in the face, pinterest), so it’s not enough to put your initials or abstract logo or illegible signature on it, you need your google-able name or company name.

At the same time, people have been known to crop out (or clone-brush out) watermarks that are big and tacky, so it’s in your best interests to make your watermark tasteful and inoffensive. (Also: ugly watermarks just bring down your whole image, seriously.)

Some of the pictures above are old enough that they’re sporting my older & less professional-looking watermarks, but what I use at the moment is this:

(But, y’know, smaller.)

Best way to do watermarks is usually to create another layer over your image and blend the two. For dark logo/light background, the settings for the new layer are 1) blend mode: multiply, 2) opacity: 85% (adjust as needed). For light logo/dark background, the blend mode is probably going to be “soft light.” And then just paste your logo in the corner of the new layer -- the blend mode means your logo doesn’t have to be transparent, the program just ignores the parts that are lighter/darker than the background.

*

And that, I believe, is the end. o_O I had no idea I had so many opinions on the subject of product photography.

Again -- I’m not a pro. I don’t know how to use 99% of my camera settings or 80% of my graphics program. (For fuck’s sake, my go-to graphics editor is the bootleg version of Paintshop Pro that I acquired in 1997.) This post represents the sum total of my knowledge on the subject.

But it just goes to show that you can do a lot with only a little, and that your composition and sense of aesthetics are far more important than what gear you’ve got.

[shoessalesis-blog]

Golden Goose hems

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[amperage]

DFBRL8R and Zhou B Art Center present a Tiny Garage production:

LIKE A VILLAIN

featuring Holland Andrews | Ree-Yees | no.no.no.NO

FRI 05 OCT | 7-10PM | FREE!

R A W Space  | The alley at W 33rd Place, just east of Morgan Street | 60609

Tiny Garage is when Defibrillator Gallery amplifies artists who hold sound at the center of their practice. Beginning in the garage behind our Chicago Avenue location in 2017, this eclectic sonic series has generated a strong following and is an important platform for artists working in a variety of aural forms.

no.no.no.NO will have t-shirts + buttons + music available for purchase. All proceeds will benefit Project Fierce, who create affirming transitional housing for LGTBQIA+ youth in Chicago.

R A W Space is an alternative exhibition venue in a large garage curated by DFBRL8R. Find it near the intersection of W 33rd Place and South Morgan Street in Bridgeport.

    b i o g r a p h i e s

HOLLAND ANDREWS | LIKE A VILLAIN

Holland Andrews is an extended technique vocalist, composer, and performer based in Portland, OR who combines delicate vocal layerings to create dissonant and cinematic soundscapes. Andrews is a musician whose influences include contemporary opera, musical theater, as well as experimental genres such as ambient and noise music. Andrews also performs under the stage name, Like a Villain. In addition to creating solo work, Andrews frequently collaborates with artists for dance, theater, and film. Their vocal style is known to traverse a vast terrain of textures ranging from opera to distorted vocalizations. Their composition style is marked by multitudes of dense vocal layers and textures woven together to become a sprawling emotional tapestry – commanding spaces for both discord and intimacy. Touring worldwide, Holland Andrews is based in Portland, Oregan, and has received recognition from the New York Times, Le Monde, and La Republica, among others.

> Andrews is in Chicago to perform at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Unwanted, a choreographic work by Dorothée Munyaneza.

NO.NO.NO.NO

no.no.no.NO draws #resistance from the kinetic energies of riot grrrl, punk, funk, R&B, industrial, and hip hop. We follow those who #resisted and #disrupted before us with their music like Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, MC5, Black Flag, The Clash, Patti Smith, The Plasmatics, Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Sly and the Family Stone, Syl Johnson, The Staple Singers, Baby Huey, Public Enemy, Body Count, NWA, and Rage against the Machine.

We say no to those who spread xenophobia, homophobia, and Islamophobia.

We say no to those who systematically marginalize and disenfranchise any individual or community based on race, religion, ability, or gender.

We say no to leaders who attempt to defund programs that encourage, enrich, and preserve our understanding of diverse human experiences.

We say no to a government that interferes with scientific investigation and exploration.

We say no to any systematic attempt to limit the press and curtail the right to assemble in protest.

We say no to those who disseminate #AlternativeFacts.

We say no to sexual predation and legislation that strips women of bodily autonomy.

We say no to any attempts to normalize the unconstitutional increase of authoritarian state power.

We say no to a government that criminalizes, punishes, and shames poor people.

We say no to the increased militarization of a police state that is grounded in anti-blackness.

REE-YEES

Ree-Yees comes from Kansas: a sentient rhythmic vibe reborn into human body hosts every generation. This generation Ree-Yees has selected Eric Ratzel and James Wetzel as its host. Manifested through their bodies, Ree-Yees operates on the bleeding edge of Electronic Dance Music, Jazz, and Brazilian/West-African tonal and rhythmic qualities. Here improvisation renews its connection to musicianship and dance usurps the recording as music’s crowning achievement. With fuzz, ruckus, groove, and joy, Ree-Yees seeks in every generation to dissolve the disparate multitude of named egos into the univocal being of the vibrating plane and its serene anonymity.

Tiny Garage is made possible with support from The Zhou B Art Center, a private non-government funded complex that facilitates the exchange of contemporary art between Chicago and the international art community. Founded in 2004 by the Zhou Brothers in Chicago’s historic Bridgeport neighborhood, The Zhou B Art Center has a mission to engage in cultural dialogue through contemporary art exhibitions and international programming.

Defibrillator is made possible with support from The Reva and David Logan Foundation; Apis Mellifera Fidelity Charitable Grant; Elizabeth Morse Genius Charitable Trust; Martha Strutters Farley and Donald C. Farley, Jr. Family Foundation; Zhou B Art Center; DFBRL8R Board of Directors; and generous contributions from our loving community.