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liliaeth · 5 years

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Man, I’m way too busy at work, so I’ve been delaying this post for days...

Now the first thing I’m gonna have to say, is that I’m one of those people who when they get nervous, they start talking, and I do mean talk as in ramble on and on.

So keep that in mind...

On Sunday I went to Dutch Comic Con. I found out on I think Tuesday that Tyler was going to be there, and the first thing I did was call my best friend, and ask him if he wanted to go with me. Timmy thankfully agreed. (even if I still haven’t gotten him to watch Teen Wolf beyond the pilot ;-) )

So I woke up at 4am, got myself ready, (I’d been worrying about my outfit for the con in the days before it), drove to the trainstation at 6am and caught the train at 6:30. Met Timmy in Antwerps around seven, and then we caught an international train, which along with two more transfers would get us to Utrecht.

Timmy thankfully can handle me being excited as hell, and we talked about what else we could do at the con, timing, checking the floor plan, you know the kind of stuff you do when you’re on a train for two hours.

Thankfully the train station was right next door to the convention hall where the comic con was held, right next to the hall rented by a Sinterklaas celebration. Meaning a whole bunch of kids were dressed up for their party along side all the teens and adults dressed in cosplay for our fun ;-) All walking the same way to the same building.

I’d bought a photo opp, and a Meet and Greet with Tyler Posey in advance, but I wasn’t sure on how it would work with autographs. That one is apparently handled on site. There was a meeting space, where the Guests were present to meet people, take selfies and give autographs. Timmy thankfully understood immediately that that was a line up I wasn’t going to miss.

Now the thing is that I’d been trying not to work myself up, not to get too... over the top excited, or to have too high expectations. Having those often leads to disappointments, cause it’s incredibly hard to live up to hopes and dreams of people.

But instead of lowering my expectations, I got them build up even more, as right before me, there was this girl wearing a T-shirt of some band I’d never heard her. (saw her post something on twitter in response to Tyler, so I got the chance to ask her, and apparently the band was called WSTR)

This is relevant, promise.

So Tyler sees this shirt the girl is wearing, and he’s like totally excited about it. Turns out they’re one of his fave bands. And he starts singing his fave song of said band, like right there; He didn’t get it quite right, but he was clearly into it.

I’d gone to these autograph things before, since they’re usually cheaper than the photobooths (let out the meet and greets) But with Tyler it was different.

He doesn’t just go ‘thanks for coming, here’s your autograph’ kinda way, instead you get the feeling that you get an actual conversation with him. Which is just plain awesome

I brought two drawings that I’d commissioned a while back (see the two pics above and below, and was still hesitating on which of the two I’d have Tyler sign. The first one was a single pic of Scott in the middle of a fight, instants before he’d attack back. While the second one, was a sceo au. Basically a ‘what if Scott was a costumed superhero, and Theo the evil minion. (not too far a stretch, I know)

So I ended up showing him both, still thinking on which one I wanted him to autograph. Cause you know, me being indecisive, and he utterly loved both of them. But especially the second one. I told him how it was sceo, which he thought was cool, and then he literally told the girl handling the money part how awesome it was, and that that was him as a superhero, and that he wanted to play that character. He was so happy about that, that I ended up giving him the sceo pic, and asked him to sign the other one. He asked if I was sure, but I told him I had another one. (which I will, as soon as I print the digital version again )

Anyway, both of these were made by @svetanda who is an awesome artist, whose work I utterly love. It was just great to be able to tell him how much I loved Scott, and to get him to enjoy Scott fan art, and if that had been my entire day, it would have already made the trip worth it.

Luckily for me, it wasn’t.

So after he gave me a hug, I got to tell Tyler, “I’ll see you later”, since I’d already had the photo opp arranged., and went off with Timmy to go eat something, check some vendors, go play some lego...

took some pictures of some cosplayers.

You know the usual con stuff... All while waiting for the things we’d actually come to Utrecht for, ...

Now Timmy didn’t spend his money on photo ops, let out on the meet and greet, so we arranged that he’d go check out some more vendors for some manga or anime, while I waited in line.

I got talking to some of the other Teen Wolf fans waiting for a picture with Tyler, and yes, i started rambling, cause by this point I was almost shaking in excitement.

Hoping I didn’t annoy these strangers too much. But I just get embarrassingly rambling at times like that. (you’d think that It would have gotten better since I’d already met Tyler, but honestly, the authograph session only made it worse. Since now he’d actually lived up to my hopes. Making it hard to keep from shaking at just the idea of seeing him again.

The lines thankfully weren’t too long, cause well, he only got announced like five days before the con, and I’m sure lots of people either found out too late, or didn’t have the money to go to a con at such short notice... But that didn’t seem to bother Tyler, who was all excitement and hyperactive.

From what I saw, Tyler was really nice to everyone who came for a picture, made it personal, gave all of us a choice of pose, a hug... he just made you feel special, and that just made the whole experience so damn worth it.

So that got me my second Tyler hug of the day...

I’ll talk about the Q&A and the Meet and greet tomorrow, cause his post is long enough as it is. And I have to leave for work in seven hours or so... (you know after going to bed ;-))

#dutch comic con #tyler posey #cosplay #lego #personal

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kidgezine · 5 years

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FAQ

General Questions

Are these the same mods that did [insert failed zine here]? No. None of our mods have ever run a failed zine. Some of us have been contributors for them though so we know your pain. We are doing everything we can to be sure that doesn't happen to us. All our mods have access to the zine email and socials as well as contributor submissions so if one of us were to disappear the rest would be able to pull it together. Finances are being handled by our head mods (umbraja and kdxart) who are both professional graphic designers with experience in small business management and print publications. The rest of the mods are being given updates and could take over finances if the head mods were to die in a firey laptop explosion.

Are these the same mods that did last year's Kidge Zine? Yes. Most of us anyway. We lost a few but also added some new faces and learned a whole lot - mostly about the horrors of shipping and taxes. We did a good job last year and hope to do even better this time around! We've also padded our schedule so there shouldn't be as many delays.

I'm so excited - when will the zine come out? As of right now we are shooting for a delivery date of early June, 2020. We may have an early (kickstart) round of preorders in the new year (with Valentines Day merch) for those who are super dedicated to getting this thing made but that's not set in stone. We may modify the schedule if we fall behind or need to take more orders to reach our stretch goals. See our Tentative Schedule for more information.

OMG I NEED this, how can I help make this zine a thing? The best thing anyone can do is reblog our posts to help get the word out. If you want to do more you could make a money donation to help cover costs (and enter to win a Limited Edition Bundle). Just buy Pidge some coffee on Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/kidgezine.

Zines are usually self-financing so why are you talking about money donations? Because it lets those of us who have extra money subsidize the cost for those that can't afford it so we all get a better product. A self-financed publication has to price itself to cover the full cost of production but that severely limits the number of artists and writers we can put into it and what merch we can sell alongside it. Last year we had over 50 contributors create a 200 page full color book with lots of merch and priced it all considerably under cost so that our community could actually afford to buy it. We still lost money in the end but it was less than our finance officer had put aside to cover it and that is thanks to the many, wonderful people who were willing to kindly donate.

How do I go about donating to help cover costs? First, thank you so much for the willingness to help out. All you need to do is buy Pidge some coffee on Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/kidgezine. This will also enter you for a chance to win a Limited Edition Bundle when the zine comes out.

Are profits from zine sales going to a charity of some kind? No. Unless you would consider next year's Kidge Zine a charity, then sure. Truth is we don't expect to make money. We hope it does better than last year so we don't end up covering a loss but we're pretty sure it's not going to profit. In the very unlikely event that we do turn a profit the funds will stay in the Kidge Zine account for use next year.

Contributor Questions

Will contributors be paid for their work on the zine? We would love to pay our contributors but, due to legal and logistical concerns, the staff voted that no one should get paid for this endeavor - not even the staff. We are giving contributors a free digital copy of the zine and a discount on buying the physical copy and merch. The discount amount will depend on stretch goals so we can't provide specifics at this time.

I want to give you content for this zine, how do I do that? Read over the Requirements and fill out the applications listed there.

What kind of content is allowed? We're pretty chill but we do have a few Requirements to follow. Check that link for specifics but the short of it is pretty much anything featuring Keith and Pidge in some sort of fantasy situation. It doesn't have to be romantic, AUs and canon are both allowed, so long as those two are together in some way. We're not even going to limit it to the usual digital art and narrative writing so if you want to do something unusual give it a try. We'll accept: cosplay photos, sculptures, journals, poetry, songs, schematics, editorials, things I can't even think of right now - pretty much anything Kidge related is welcome.

I want to write but English is not my first language, is that OK? Some of my favorite authors don't speak English at all and some of my favorite fanfics are written by people who only know it as a second or even third language. So long as you can get your writing translated to English our staff will work with you to get it polished and sounding natural. You just have to be willing to go through that editing process with us.

Will everyone who applies be accepted as a contributor? We're going to try and include everyone but since the zine is a print publication it's going to cost real money for every piece we include. If we get too many submissions and put all of them in the book it would end up costing too much for most of y'all to afford. Nobody wants that. So we might have to leave some things out of the book itself but will be more than happy to include any work that gets left out in the pdf version so long as it follows all the rules. This will allow us to produce a better product while not excluding anyone from participation.

How will contributors be chosen? Our staff will use the samples provided in your application to judge your average quality of work so be sure to give us good examples. We will be looking at your work only, not your popularity or participation in the fandom, so don't worry if you're new to the ship or just don't know anyone. Some of our staff don't know many people and our production designer hasn't even seen the show (she just does very good work). Art will be judged on overall aesthetic, perspective/proportions appropriate for the style, composition/balance, and technique. Writing will be judged on overall readability, characterization, plot, style, and flow. We will not judge grammar because we want to include non-native English speakers. Just be ready for an editing process where we'll help you get the grammar fixed before publication.

When will I know if I'm accepted as a contributor? Acceptance emails will be sent out November 1st. Everyone should get an email so if you don't get yours then ask a mod to see what's up. We had trouble with emails getting lost in junk filters last year so be sure to check for that.

Do you have a deadline for submissions? We have multiple deadlines to keep y'all on track but the finished work should be turned in by February 15th. See the Tentative Schedule for more information.

Is this canon only or are AUs allowed? We're not gonna limit setting so canon or any other universe is allowed. Have fun with it.

What if I don't want to write/draw something Fantasy themed? Fantasy is such a broad theme that we are going to be strict about it this time but we're certain y'all will be able to find something you like that fits. Pretty much anything that's not limited by real world physics is, technically, Fantasy. So canon universe is Fantasy. So are superheroes, any sort of mythology, folklore, most horror, sci-fi, steam punk, supernatural, occult, and way too much else for me to list.

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hello-language-that-is-all · 6 years

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hisokasasss

Sup guys, Tenka (Aka Ponzorz) here - I said I’d write a post about how I self studied Japanese, sooooo I guess this is it. I learnt Japanese from Zero to Fluent in about 2.5 years, and this is my method. It’s probably not the most interesting (I didn’t watch any anime… lol… I only started watching Anime these past 1, 2 years - back then I only read a few Manga, and that was in English) and it’s hard, but maybe it can shed some light on to a study regime you can set up for yourself.

Before reading, keep in mind that there is never a single best way to study Japanese, and the most important thing about studying a language is not what textbook you have or what shows you watch - it’s always that you keep yourself going and push yourself to carry on.

I had a pretty set way I studied Japanese, so I’ll talk about that here, and since I gained proficiency I have found a lot of other methods to help people who are learning Japanese - and I’ll draw on those experiences too to inform people in this post.

Ikuzooooo.

[ Learning the Writing System ] This is step one. Japanese has three sets of difference characters. Most people don’t get it at first, but I’ll just try to explain each one below.

Hiragana （あいうえお - this is the Japanese vowels a-i-u-e-o in Hiragana） - This is the most basic one, you can use this to write everything you need to - but only knowing this one would be like some ponyo/sousuke level writing… aka like a five year old. As a person learning Japanese for a second/third/fourth/99th language though, Hiragana is definitely a solid start.

Katakana　（アイウエオ - this is the Japanese vowels a-i-u-e-o in Katakana） Everything that can be written in Hiragana can be written in Katakana - it’s like two different versions of the same alphabet.

However, Katakana is mostly used for ① Foreign vocabulary/Proper nouns that can’t be written in Kanji, and ② Emphasis/Nuance. ① is “Borrowed Words”, ie. Words in Japanese that originated from another language, will be written in Katakana.　For example, Camera (“Kyamera” キャメラ), and “Naruto” is ナルト <- This is Katakana. The second situation of emphasis/nuance is more difficult to explain, but just think of it this way: Writing “Baka” in Katakana, can give off a different feel to if it were written in Hiragana.

Kanji - Kanji is very, very, very, important. Most people beginning their Japanese studies won’t know very much Kanji, which is totally normal - and they will probably hate it at some point. But, writing Japanese without Kanji islikereadingenglishwithoutspacesinbetweenthewords. It kills the reader and if you are serious about studying Japanese, learn yo’ Kanji. Kanji are chinese characters that make up portions of a verb in Japanese, or a lot of nouns can be written completely in Kanji. Hiragana is used to support Kanji and used to fill particles and prepositions and subject markers etc, in a sentence, as those things do not have a designated Kanji - or it is not commonly used. It probably sounds confusing as hell right now but you’ll get it really quickly once you start learning. Every Kanji has a reading, so it may be hard to learn the different readings for each Kanji but it gets easier as you go, I swear.

Originally posted by studiotrigger

I started learning the writing system slowly and piecemeal, just writing the seperate kana on paper and getting more or less used to them and memorising the readings. I talk about how I learnt this in the next section, but in the meanwhile… I thought of another method.

This may be off topic but I learnt how to read Korean Hangul in like an hour by playing an online “drill” game, so I think from that experience it may be a lot faster to learn Katakana and Hiragana that way.

I found some drillers where you see the kana and just type in the romaji (ie. english version of Japanese lol):

http://kana.icann.se/

http://kagan.mactane.org/software/kana-drill.html

Try those!

( A bit about watching Anime - I think if Anime/dramas is what you’re interested in, definitely watch it. Just gonna put it out there, doing that alone probably won’t get you fluent. But it’s important because it keeps you interested, and it’s about immersion and keeping in contact with the language. :D Don’t spend 90% of your “Japanese study” in anime, but if it’s what you enjoy, go for it and it will help.

I recommend Slice of Life anime over Shonen - why? Because you’d use SoL anime dialogue more. FYI No one seriously uses “Dattebayo/-ttebayo” in Japanese, ever, “Bankai” is zero help if you want to make conversation, and most Shonen protagonists and villains speak in such an informal/brash way I’d only recommend if you want to get in to a fight. ;9 <3 )

[Actually studying the grammar and the vocab]

Because there is not much point in knowing the writing system without actually understanding what all those squiggly characters mean, it’s best to press on and learn some vocab and grammar.

First, I’ll talk about the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). JLPT is a benchmark exam for Japanese, it has 5 levels from 5 -1. 5 being the easiest, and 1 being the hardest. You don’t have to worry about sitting the exam or anything, but it’s just a really solid curriculum to base your Japanese studies off.

I started studying off

Tim’s Takamatsu -

this website is practically my godsend. I printed out everything, had it bound in to a book - you’ll see that most of the tutorials here are in Romaji. How I studied was I scribed in the Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji (Where applicable) under the Romaji. This helped me memorise and write Hiragana and Katakana really fast, get used to using basic Kanji, and learn all the basic grammar and vocab up till around N3 level. This took me about 3 months. Then I’d say it’s all downhill once you hit N3 level.

Even after I was through with Tim’s Takamatsu, I bought Schaums Outlines of Japanese Grammar just to help me solidify stuff. It’s not the best book nor the most interesting book, but it helped.

http://www.tanos.co.uk/ is a fantastic website to look at all the vocab/grammar you need for each JLPT standard, and strive to learn them and gradually progress from 5-1. I printed off the grammar lists from Tanos, and learnt all the ones I wasn’t sure of.

I also listened to a lot of podcasts, like Japanese 101. This helped me with listening skills, and I also learnt a lot of vocab and grammar. I find the stuff you learn from podcasts really memorable, compared to what you’d learn by reading off grammar books all the time. It’s a nice change.

Extra Materials for Basic Grammar etc - these are awesome, kudos to the people who made these - print it, stick it up in your room! I wish I had found them when I was studying. (T_T) http://cheatsheets.nihonshock.com/sheets/basic-japanese/

http://cheatsheets.nihonshock.com/digital-cheat-sheets/cool-japanese/

http://www.tofugu.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/japanese-particles-cheatsheet1.pdf

There links below are more explanatory stuff rather than “cheat sheets”. It’s like Tim’s Takamatsu - so I would use them to supplement each other.

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/grammar_guide.pdf

http://thejapanesepage.com/grammar.htm

http://www.japaneseverbconjugator.com/JVerbList.asp

This is probably one of the most important parts of my Japanese studying journey. Don’t give up if you’ve made it this far! :D You can do it!

Originally posted by toctocpiopio

[Advanced Japanese]

Okedoke, so how do you get from N3 to N1? You’ve gotten yourself this far, so just keep doing what you’ve been doing the whole time and don’t give up. Keep referring back to the JLPT standards to see what you need to still learn, in terms of grammar, and go for it.

N2, N1, levels require a lot of Kanji readings and Vocab Knowledge. How I tackled this, was by flashcards. I played a game on my phone called “Japanese Flash” (on iOS) and it was the only “game” I had on my phone for almost a year. Anki, or any other flashcard system will work the same. I find flashcards the most effective way for me to pick up vocab/kanji readings the fastest - the hardest thing about it is persevering. I’d play the flashcards on the bus, at home, in bed, in the shower jks , some days I felt like I was going to throw up from flash carding… but it’s a bump you’ve gotta get over. It gets better as you pick up more readings, and you’ll find you’re able to correctly guess heaps of Kanji combinations as you go.

I had the book “A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar”, and the beginners version of that book, to help me through all the difficult grammar. Plus google.

http://www.imabi.net/ is a fantastic website too, with basic - advanced Japanese grammar. I wish I found this earlier as well. (T_T)

[Notes about my particular circumstances] So hitting N1 took me about 2.5 years. I do realise this is probably not what most people want to do - spend so much time manically studying Japanese, I had tunnel vision for a long time and it was literally what I spent my spare time doing, so hear me out.

Originally posted by opioide

I think at that point in my life, I was a stupid teen and I really hated my own situation, resented it, and I wanted to leave my city so bad and go somewhere - anywhere. In short, I was pretty desperate. For a lot of rebellious and otherwise personal reasons, I decided to go to Japan. (Eg. My family is Chinese, and I’ve been fed loads of nationalistic shit since toddlerhood about how Chinese people hate Japan blah blah don’t go there blah blah all Japanese are bad blah blah which I refused to believe and I wanted to see Japan with my own eyes since I was sure I would be able to make friends since I think there are nice people, as well as terrible people, eeeeverywhere in the world in any place.)

I needed a scholarship in Japanese, so that’s why I studied madly. Otherwise, I’d never be able to have the $$ leave and I felt like I’d have been trapped in a city I don’t belong in, forever. Yeah… >_> I had serious attitude issues, pls don’t judge me. I love my city now that I’m back, and I ought to have given the people around me more credit. .___.

Originally posted by galaxymoonbird

That aside though, I want to talk about Kanji. I realise in this guide, I never talked much about learning to familliarize with or write Kanji. I suppose the easiest way to explain this would be, well I’m Chinese in origin so that wasn’t much of an issue to me, but that would not only be misleading, but discouraging to a lot of people who don’t have a chinese background. There is no easy way learning how to write Kanji, you have to put in the legwork - that’s all there is to it. I never had an education in Chinese, English would be my first language as I passed my years from toddler onwards in Middle Earth and various other places, but I suppose one could say that I did my Kanji learning prior to learning the rest of my Japanese. Strict parents = learning at least X amount of Kanji/day before I could leave the house to go run around outside, and I distinctly remember one summer when I was around 11, my Kanji knowledge sky rocketed as a result of being forced to stay inside and learn it all summer.

I wrote a Kanji 20+ times till I memorised it, and that’s probably how I got my foundation. Once I’d started studying Japanese, I still had to get used to how Kanji was used in the Japanese language system - a lot of stuff is written differently, and my Kanji wasn’t perfect to begin with so I had to learn a heap of new ones, and since all the readings were completely different to what I was used to, I had to learn those too (hence flash carding). I think my Chinese probably got better as a result of studying Japanese, lol…. I’m serious. >_>

Originally posted by ghibli-forever

#anime #Kanji #Japanese #Japan

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orbyssarchives · 6 years

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A Brief tl;dr

This is probably a lot to say for 20 unfinished webcomic pages and I know I can be fairly long-winded so if you just wanna skip ahead and click through the pictures I’ve put up, I understand.

The TL;DR is

Hello and welcome to Mage Punk Archives! My name is Tables and this is some of the work that I’ve done over the last few years and what I’ve been up to in my little corner of the world. This is the third and last of a series of posts, outlining a number of updates that I completed on the site.

Included are some of my inspirations and a little of what I’ve learned so far about myself as an ever growing artist up to this point.

After this, I want to keep the content more focused on the actual art and story.

I’ll post to this site as often as I am able.

Thanks for reading!

***

Long Ago, Before the miracle of handheld internet searches and Instagram

When I was but a young, internet webling, I was heavily into shitty online flash games and looking for anything even remotely related to my interests at the time. From Mario and Sonic to various comics, videos games, anime and things never to be said aloud (pornpornporn). My love of the likes of Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog (big fandoms for me at the time) would later lead me to sprite comics. Today, my feelings for the little hodge podge collage strips of old video game sprite sheets and backgrounds are a little mixed.

(They were beautiful and I’m gonna make one someday)

Then, in Highschool, I took a basic Web Design class. It was a VVoid World Web of Notepad and Internet Explorer where a kindly old crone passed on to those of us there, some knowledge of the ancient runic language which forms the foundations of the World Wide Web: HTML. Tables, frames, css, oh my! This knowledge would eventually prove invaluable.

Throughout our studies we were occasionally allowed to venture out into the Wider World Web. It was during these little adventures and travels across the Web that I happened upon the magical land of Webcomics. It was also during this time that I began break free of the enchantment of sprites. Even though I would probably never return to them, they would always hold a special place in my heart.

The Internet is for [Comics]

Webcomics – Synonymous with “Masochism”

At first, I had no idea just how grueling webcomics could be. Most webcomic artists pump out pages one to three times a week. At the time I got into them, MegaTokyo, then still partially a video game webcomic, was just releasing its third printed book; 2-3 updates a week with a loosely set schedule. Evan Dahm was wrapping up his surreal fantasy epic, Rice Boy; with updates consistently going up Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The various sprite and drawn webcomics that I was following at the time were updating all the time. Seeing all the great work going up, I felt encouraged to try it myself.

I drew these closer to the end of my junior year of high school.

Desu

Taking major inspiration from a lot of the manga and anime that I was enjoying then, I used pen and ink to make my comic pages. I liked working in black and white because it felt direct and skipping on color made it easier to finish faster. I figured I could work faster if I didn’t have to worry about the extra step. When I did want to use color, as is typical for the early pages of a new manga, I used markers.

At the time, I had no idea that mangakas used assistants. That’s messed up.

Not to say that it was completely unrealistic, but back in the real world I could only average one black and white page a week. If even. The spider webs I was drawing all over were so that I wouldn’t have to use a ruler to draw my panel proper borders. I thought it gave the comic an “old archive”. In the end, I concluded that the spider webs should have their place and not be all over.

This time, I decided to work a little more carefully and deliberately.

Moving Forward

It was going pretty well but by the time page 7 rolled around, it was time for midterms and I had become too self-conscious and uncomfortable with the way I was drawing my comic pages then. Then, it was time to take finishing high school seriously and before I knew it, I was a freshman at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. I did a lot of growing in the next four years that I attended there. Unfortunately, I never revisited those pages. Instead, near the end of my sophomore year, I took a Sequential Art class where the Final was a full-color, 5-page comic.

These are the ink-wash versions of the 7-page Final that I submitted. I’d originally colored them digitally to meet project requirements but I don’t want to post those just yet..

In the End

I wasn’t satisfied. The truth was that I waited until the last minute, rushed it, and over-reached on a re-draw that wasn’t much fun for me to work on. During the course of that Sequential Art class my professor turned my attention to artists like Moebius and Mike Mignola. I also came across Katsuya Terada’s stuff around this time.

And school went on…

I worked on Mage Punk when I could between assignments.

Between thinking I could possibly work on a for-print comic…

…and a webcomic at the same time.

The End was Near

Most of these were actually made towards the end of my four years at Ai. Those of us graduating were tasked with compiling our work from the years past in accordance with the requirements for obtaining our degrees. I believe that we were given two semesters to gather our pieces and do any revisions to previous works to get them up to date with the rest of the portfolio piece. Illustration Graduates at AiFL were typically required to gather a required selection of their work into an on-demand printed book. The year that I graduated, my department decided to change things around a little. Specifically, we were given the option to collect the requirement work into a plain black binder portfolio and make the printed book more geared towards our pursuits. I opted to make a Mage Punk/Orbyss Archives “Zine” as my main portfolio piece.

And Then College was Over

I drew a few more pages of the comic until I became employed full-time. These days, there aren’t enough free hours in my days for me to keep up with any typical webcomic’s update schedule so for a long while I stopped working on the comic altogether. I’m squeezing as much work out of every second that I’m not there; with whatever energy I can muster. This includes planning, writing, sketching and drawing. Before I got back to work on the site, I was posting fairly regularly to my Twitter and Instagram; those posts took time to do as well.

Most of this post was written in separate sessions on my commutes to work.

“Shortcuts”

Even though I always wanted to present Mage Punk as a webcomic, I always worked on it like it would go to print eventually. This created a confusing mindset for me when working on the comic, where I had to work on a whole book, but I have to rush to finish every page. If I wanted to put out pages more frequently I took shortcuts at any point I could to be done with them. Even if I created a good buffer of finished pages, I’d still run into that same pitfall eventually. I wasn’t enjoying my project because of a pressure I applied on myself to finish it in a way I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with. I didn’t even get that much done in the end.

It’s important that I work on it at a pace that lets me show the best of my ability. I would love it if I could be properly finished with the pages before I post them but if I wait before it’s all good and done I’ll just never get around to posting anything, forever floating, aimlessly, throughout creative internet limbo.

Instead, if I have to work on my comic in piecemeal, I’ll just post it up in piecemeal. Mage Punk will still be presented as a webcomic but, until the end of the book is done, certain changes are still a possibility. Editing is an important part of producing any book and I’m going to make its presentation reflect that.

Cue Rhidiculous shouting “I told you so!” from some nearby bushes.

A Webcomic in Presentation Only?

Those Two Images are the Same Page

Instead of trying to finish things at breakneck speeds, I’m going to work on the comics at a more reasonable pace. I’ll try to work on it mainly Chapter to chapter instead of page to page like how a webcomic normally is done (buffers aside) This gives me the opportunity to take a step back and get a broader look at the story while still putting out content in enjoyable chunks.

It’s difficult for me to wrap my head around drawing a comic on a start-to-finish, page-by-page basis. While I was working on the later pages in the chapter I kept finding myself jumping around and making changes to previous pages to make some things more consistent with later parts of the story. Instead of working page-by-page, I was editing the chapter as a whole to try to strengthen the narrative I’m trying to tell.

To that end, I still want to present it on this site as a webcomic; if only in name and archive.

The Process

At the VERY longtime behest of my editor, I’ll be presenting the comic as a work in progress at various points in the following production stages.

Writing

I’ll post dialog excerpts here and there. Nothing that can spoil the story too much.

This step will be kept largely behind the scenes.

Thumbnails

I do these on index cards in ballpoint pen to figure out the sequence of events that I most prefer.

This is the step where I’m prone to overloading a page with information.

First Drafts

Full size roughs of the earlier thumbnails. This step helps me get a better sense of how crowded or unbalanced a page might be early on.

This step also helps to prune out any strenuous scenes or dialog that could otherwise have their own pages.

If it isn’t working visually at this point, it’s not going to work in the next step.

Pencils

This is where the real drawing happens. Drawings in this step are made by either digital or traditional means depending on when or where I’m working.

Inking

This step is exactly like the drawing step but in pen and ink. Despite my affinity for real pen and ink, I’ll mainly be working this step digitally.

Color

This step is wrought with indecision but it also one of the faster, more fun steps to do.

Lettering

I’ve removed the dialog from all the pages currently up, opting to keep that out until a chapter is completed; it’s the thing I’m likeliest to change the most frequently until the end.

All lettering is currently done digitally but I’m considering the possibility of hand lettering.

Drawing dialog can be quite fulfilling but it takes a lot of practice.

Editing

This part will be happening all throughout. Page re-orders, panel redraws, changes in dialog.

Until the book is done.

Here We Are

I’ve already made some revisions to a handful of the pages that are already up; if you browse through the comics you can see the revisions noted in the comic descriptions. I’ll make blog posts for any major revisions or series of revisions that I do. I have a few ideas for some smaller projects that I can work on while I work on Mage Punk. Whether they be illustrations, stories, or even mini-comics like this silly thing down here.

Moving on

I might have also mentioned before that I have a few other drawings that I wanted to make for the site. In particular I have a neat idea for some social media icon illustrations. I wanna make something that takes advantage of what I’ve learned with using CSS. It’s nothing too fancy.

All that said, future posts will be a bit more brief than these last three were. I’d much rather write and post about the work itself, but I feel like I’ve hit a personal milestone and felt the need to ramble on about it a little.

Until next time,

Thanks for reading!

The Big Site Update (Part 3) A Brief tl;dr This is probably a lot to say for 20 unfinished webcomic pages and

#Comics #Process #Social Media #Website #WIP

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andy-clutterbuck · 7 years

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WSC Atlanta 2017

I just tried to eat pineapple with a knife so I’m not sure how coherent this will be. I don’t think the majority of it has sunk in yet and it’s like I’m in some sort of con AU version of my life but I wanted to get it out while it’s all fresh.

I have to say first and foremost that no matter how I feel about TWD(and how this con is run) TWD cast is full of gems. I don’t have any heart eyes to spare but maybe Andy can lend them out every other weekend or something. Yeah I know they get paid to do this but some of that sincerity and warmth just can’t be faked, actor or not. Secondly, the lighting in my hotel room is god awful. Thirdly, this weekend wouldn’t have been what it was without my TiTTD fam.

Friday:

I met Ross that evening when I went to check out the layout. He immediately stepped around the table to hug me before he even said anything. ❤️ He was so sweet. He’s very genuine and super easy to talk to. Plus he asked to hold my Pikachu phone case.

Saturday:

The first full day. I met Khary first and what really struck me is that he stands in front of his table like he just gets right out there to talk to you and again he immediately came in for a hug. The warmth just radiates off that dude. He is so full of life. He gave my Pikachu phone case more love.

I went to meet Norman because I promised @peggy-steve that I would get his autograph for her. Again, came right at me over the table for a hug. He was incredibly sincere and very soft spoken despite the utter insanity that constantly surrounds his booth.

I met Lennie next! He immediately wants to know about you and engages you in conversation. I think it would pretty impossible to be nervous around him because he just puts you at ease and he’s so lovely. So lovely.

I met @oldmangrimes // @mdgart !!!!!!!! 🙌🏻 I walked up to her booth and said something to the effect of “If I told you the trash was here would you know who you’re talking to?” She surprised me with this big, gorgeous, glittery print of the Andy art she did for me for my birthday last year. I came back on Sunday before I left to get a print of this because how could I not? It has two of my most favorite things: a curl curving around his ear and CHEST HAIR. FYI she’s just as lovely in person as she is on tumblr. 💖 💝

The last thing I did on Saturday was pop by to see Jon Bernthal for @bernthalus-christ so I could get him to hold up a birthday sign for her. Success! Her post is here 💙

*I was planning on meeting Danai and Lauren but the scheduling didn’t work 😒

Sunday:

Did you scroll past everything else to get here? I don’t blame you. Holy early day, Batman. The panel was great I think everyone knows that. We were sitting in the 5th row! The first thing I did when Andy came out on stage after saying “That’s a good shirt.” was notice that my hands were shaking. My eyes were also sporadically welling up with tears which was aggravating. I love that Andy is 44 years old and still listens to his mom and dad about not swearing. 😂

@ricky-grimes took some A+ Andy photos that I will be editing once she uploads them 😻 😛

Andy op time. Mess™ Like a legit mess. And when the dude who runs the whole damn con comes strolling in like a douche and doesn’t tell a fuck ton of exasperated people what’s even going on.....ANYWAY ops are super fast so luckily you don’t really have time to freak out you just have to move. So I just opened my arms to him and he opened his and went “Yeaaaahhhh!!” Now let be trash for second but his body is hard. I didn’t expect him to be squishy but the dude is solid. Also the Santa beard is soft, it touched the side of my face and I didn’t even feel any roughness at all. He’s so beautifully proportioned...sorry moving on. We both said thank you and off I went. Here I am internally screaming legit 😂 : My digital download is MIA so terrible lighting and the reflection of my hand is all I can do right now. We’re not gonna talk about that 4th Freddy Cougar that happened just before I got in there ok....Andy legit wore 87 hats though.

@packt and I finally met up before Andy’s autograph! She had these gorgeous coins created for the cast and was I’m super honored that she wanted to give me because they’re amazing and I’m going to treasure it forever. 💜 💙 ❤️ I’m truly amazed by the wonderful people I’ve met through running this blog.

Andy’s autograph. I got in line and when @mamagrimes6 found me she was going to just go back so she wasn’t cutting in line but I wasn’t having that 😂 I very vocally stated that no I needed her and @ricky-grimes with me I wasn’t doing this alone. I was going to fight someone if they gave us shit but they both got in line with me without an issue. 🙊 We were at the very front of the gold line so the panic set in pretty damn fast. I couldn’t even look at him for the short amount of time that we could before we got up there. It legitimately felt like staring at the sun, that’s the only way I can put it, like it stings so you flinch away. Or a really handsome version of Medusa. I imagine that’s not a totally uncommon thing but when you spend as much time as I do staring at his face in photoshop it’s pretty amusing. I actually texted my friend and told her it was like I was just seeing him for the first time, I was legit shook. 😖 I could feel my heart beating in my chest and I got really short of breath, I wasn’t even sure that I was going to be able to say anything without sounded winded or something. I gave him my silver fox hat to sign and I managed to choke out some version of thanking him for all the goodness he puts out into the world because it’s really helped me, I don’t really remember exactly what I said, and he said “Oh wow.” and that he’s just trying to spread a love bomb to the world 😂 which is such and Andy thing to say and it’s so true. He put his hand up for a highfive so I gave him one and he held onto my hand for a moment. Said our thank yous again and I proceeded so quickly out of the curtain the volunteer chuckled at me.

If you were at WSC you may have several silver foxes around because it was a thing we did.

I finished my day/con experience with the Kingdom panel and it was a great choice. Cooper, Lennie, and Khary were just wonderful and hilarious, it couldn’t have ended on a more upbeat note.

It’s sporadically sinking in. I think I’ve teared up two or three times tonight. It may sound silly but I just want to thank everyone for their support. Just to have so many people understand the way I feel and be happy and supportive has been so amazing. Also I cannot stress enough how utterly gorgeous Andy is ok? Like no picture, no video, nothing truly matches the real thing in the flesh. That’s my bean and I can’t believe i actually met him 😖

#blarg #wall of text #i hope i didn't forget anything im running on little sleep #i also got super lost in a massive parking garage that looked like a twd set but #it's late now but whatever :]

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kelmcdonald · 6 years

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A Year in Review 2017

New Post has been published on http://sorcery101.net/news/a-year-in-review-2017/

A Year in Review 2017

Hi everyone,

So it’s the end of the year. I have been looking back over the year to make my goals for next year. Last year I posted my goals on Patreon for the highest backer level. It’s a level that no one ever backed at. I don’t know if the price was too high or just general lack of interest. But I liked writing those posts so as long as I have time, I think I’ll start posted some edited versions of them free on my site each month. Before I started doing that I thought I’d post a public behind the scenes wrap up.

2017 was rough and exhausting. That’s true for a lot of people.

I tried to stick to my professional and personal goals anyway. I also tried a few experiments to see how things would work out.

Last year, I had a few business/income related goals. I wanted to focus on building my Patreon, my newsletter, and my store. I wanted to get rid of ads and do less cons. Ads are ugly and hard to track down bad ones. Cons I want to do less of because they are exhausting to me. I don’t think I’ve ever got creative burn out but I definitely get hussle/promo burn out. It’s been taking me longer and longer to recover from cons. So anywhere that I can get money which isn’t from cons if great.

A lot of my site redesign was to push those things.

My newletter is I think the most successful of those goals. I got a good few hundred folks signing up from my website and a bunch of folks signing up after my kickstarter. Next year I’m gonna try to focus on making it better. I few people asked for highlights from the blog here as well as promo. But I’m still taking suggestions if anyone wants to leave them in the comic. Right now it’s just promo but if I don’t have promo that month I end up not knowing what to write.

The shop getting pushed more, I think it did better than last year but I haven’t crunched the numbers yet.

Patreon didn’t go very well this year. I wanted to get more patrons there to mostly get rid of ads. I ended up making less money on patreon than before. I used to charge weekly and thought switching to monthly would help get more people on board, but I never ended up attracting enough people to make up for the difference. I tired a few different things like business posts like this one, sketch requests, and streams. At first I was posting my early comics in a big PDF but then was told more frequent posts get peoples attention more. I also tried to post more art on there. None of those really enticed people to jump on. I don’t know if people just don’t like my stuff. If I’m just not cut out for promoting a long term thing rather just doing a focused push for one big project. Either way I’m feeling pretty discouraged and after last weeks debacle with the fee change is leaving me kinda sour on Patreon. In 2018 I’m gonna try to focus on other stuff that might pay off more.

I was looking for more work from publishers and companies in 2017 too. Or more working smarter not harder with companies. That didn’t pay off in 2017 but it get me some cool stuff lined up for 2018.

But for now it looks like I’m gonna still be hitting up 10 or more cons a year.

On the somewhat creative goal and somewhat personal, I spent a lot of of this year making sure I kept up with my comic reading. It can be easy to not keep up with reading new comics and know what is out there when you are busy trying to make comics. I buy most of my comics at conventions but I got an ipad pro to be a portable digital drawing tool so I’ve been reading a lot of manga on that. But here’s some high stuff I really enjoyed and will probably write about on my blog over the coarse of next year. I read them this year but they didn’t all come out this year. The webcomics I’m just gonna link cause they are free to read but I usually just read the print collections when it comes to webcomics. So when I say I read them this year I mean the print collection.

Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas

Agents of the Realm by Mildred Louis

The Meek by Der-shing Helmer

Feywinds by Nicole Chartrand

Check Please by Ngozi Ukazu

O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti

A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Ōima which is about a guy trying to get forgiveness from the deaf girl he bullied in elementary school. It’s very intense and grips with complicated questions about who gets forgiven and who decides who gets that forgiveness.

Monstress by Marijorie liu and Sana Takeda. It’s a fantasy epic that is set in a matriarchal setting where magical humanoid creatures and sorceresses are at war. The main character is trying to learn more about an elder god type thing that has taken over her arm. It’s gorgeous and complicated and female focused. This might be my favorite comic right now.

Fun Family by Ben Frisch. I picked this up because I went to college which Ben. Fun Family is a fictional behind the scenes of Family Circus. It kinda odd but I liked it because it explores how a simple wholesome comic like Family Circus can be comforting when your home life is falling apart.

Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama. I don’t got to tell you all what Dragon Ball is about. But I read it for the first time and really liked it. I had only seen the anime before this. It was interesting to see the source material. I thought it was a lot of fun.

Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaki. Most anime fans know about this one too but again I read it this year. For you none anime fans alien parasites take over human hosts and replace their heads. The main character gets his hand taken over instead and he has to work with the parasite to hide from both humans and parasites. It’s an interesting mix of body horror and exploring morality.

My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi. It’s about a superhero school in world where more people have superpowers and being a superhero is partly being a celebrity and partly a government job.

Space Battle Lunch Time by Natalie Riess. It’s about a cooking reality tv show in space. I was a lot of fun and very cute. It does a good job of having multiple rounds of cooking contests without getting repetitive. The main character is super charming.

Moonlighters by Katie Schenkel and Cal Moray. An all ages comic about werewolves doing magical odd jobs on their college campus.

Soupy Leave Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimenta. I picked this up because I introduced Cecil and Jose to each other. Their book is really good. It’s about a girl who disguises herself as a boy so she can run away to ride the rails as a hobo during the great depression. It’s bitter sweet and does an excellent job showing the relationship build between Soupy and her mentor on the rails.

I also liked Castoffs by MK Reed, Brain Smith, and Molly Ostertag and Letters for Lucardo by Noora Heikkilä but those both are only at volume 1 and I feel like the stuff that I’ll really want to talk about will probably happen in volume 2. My reading list is organized shortest to longest and so some have been on there for awhile. For 2018 far it’s:

As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gilman

Not Drunk Enough by Tess Stone

The Fifth Beatle by Vivek Tiwary, Kyle Baker, and Andrew C. Robinson

Vattu vol 2 by Evan Dahm

The Last Halloween by Abby Howard

East of West year 2 by Jonathan Hichman and Nick Dragotta

Drive by Dave Kellet

The Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal by EK Weaver

I Am Hero by Shinsuke Sato

If you all got recommendations I’m open to em. I think it’s important to read comic if you want to improve. So while I am gearing up for my next big project I wanted to make sure knew what was out there. I have been writing about them on Patreon but I’m gonna start posting them publicly. Writing about the stuff I like is just to help me articulate what I’m looking for in stories and be more deliberate in the future. I’m intentionally not reading Marvel and DC though. So if you suggest stuff from them I’ll probably pass.

And then here are more general personal goals and experiments.

I got really unhealthy while working on Misfits of Avalon because juggling two comics isn’t super smart when when has a hard deadline. There were a few months while working on it where I basically drank ALL THE REDBULL to finish on time. I also gained 20 lbs while working on it. So a lot of 2017 was me trying to undo the damage caused by overworking.

I don’t pay a lot of attention to my weight and mostly noticed because I got faced with the choice of lose weight or buy new clothes. Excising takes more work but is cheaper. So I started biking 3 times a week and used the biking version of couch to 5k to improve. I mostly stuck with it because MK Reed was my biking buddy. We fell off a few times when con season got hectic. Then because of con season I tried to think of something that is easier to do while away. So in October after all my cons were done I gave jogging a try. I wanted to die and my throat was closing up. I couldn’t finish even half of what couch to 5k tells you to do the first day. I thought maybe I’d improve. But after no improvement for a month I went to the doctor. Turns out my lungs are all fucked up and I just didn’t know it because that was how I always breathed. Doctor gave me an inhaler which helped with running so now I can completely the first day of the program, but my none running breathing is still not as good as it should be. So I just got a different inhaler that is supposed to help with that. Otherwise I might have some expensive medical tests coming up. So fingers crossed that everything is fine.

I also tried to do some push ups at the beginning of the year. I started by doing them off my counter and then moved lower to the arm rest of my couch. But I was apparently doing them wrong so I never successfully got to doing push ups off the floor. Building muscle strength might be something I need more help with than cardio.

And while running sucks honestly the hardest thing to do was fix how bad my caffeine addiction got. I mentioned above that I drank a lot of Redbull when Misfit of Avalon deadlines got tight. Well, when I went to C2E2 last year, the time it took me to wake up, go to the airport, fly to Chicago, and get to where I was staying gave me a withdrawal headache. So less than 24 hours. I still had 2-3 months of work to do on Misfits but I made a self note that this is a problem I needed to deal with once finished. So I turned in my pages that June. Then I quit caffeine cold turkey because I’m very bad at cutting back on things. It was a miserable two weeks. But by the time SDCC rolled around I could get through a con day with only one cup (as opposed to like 6 cups).

So for health stuff in 2018, I’m gonna try to keep up the jogging and biking. Figure out what is up with my lungs. And try to get help on the upper body strength that I am lacking.

#business stuff

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neioo · 7 years

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Here it is! The second edition to Are We Humans? no one ever asked for!!

As a kind of thank you—I’m currently giving away some FREE COPIES. Message me if you’re interested, and we can work out the details. I can afford to give about 5 away (all gone! if you want to pay cheaper than the $11 listing price, just message me and maybe we can work something out)

Pictured above: me holding the book awkwardly and hoping my roommate won’t ask what the hell I’m doing, my hand, the book up against my dorm window so everyone can see the dumpsters right outside of it, and my shameful bookshelf (where the rest of my hetalia DVDs are hidden *coughs*)

THE BOOK is available for purchase (HERE), and it can be read for free on AO3 (HERE)

SUMMARY: Nation Avatars. They’re immortal beings who represent a country. They look human, feel human, but are they really? That’s the question they strive to answer after faced with extreme cases of dehumanization during the Second World War. Just when they think the worst is over, the Cold War strikes, and they’re challenged with new obstacles. It’s these obstacles that lead them on their own paths of self-discovery. Are they their own person or their country? Most would say their country. Others would disagree…

RATING: Mature

SHIPS: rochu, ameripan, frying pangle, fruk, hints of spamano

TAGS: Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Dehumanization, Torture, Warfare, Gore, Mafia, Cold War, World War II, Slow Build, Eventual Romance, Platonic Relationships, Historical Hetalia, Asexual Characters

Thanks so much for everyone’s continued support o//

UPDATES AND MORE RAMBLING UNDER THE CUT

What prompted this? Well…Don’t Forget Us is going to be in a different format from the first printed version of AWH, and I just couldn’t stomach the thought of having the two next to each other

(Like…you know when you get a book series and suddenly the fucking cover design just. changes and then the spines don't line up??? I couldn't have that.)

Also, there are some other minor changes:

I deleted over 200 uses of the word ‘fuck.’ I wish I were kidding. There’s still profanity, but now it’s…better limited

I deleted two cringey conversations that have been haunting me for a while now (one in the beginning, one towards the end).

Minor, minor plot adjustments to some scenes to better sync up with Don’t Forget Us

Also! I added some goodies at the end. I included some of my OC works and a bit of commentary :o

And any edits I did to AWH are always reflected on AO3

But basically, I’m giving away the free copies because I won a $50 Amazon gift card for a contest I didn’t enter, and I didn’t know what to spend the money on.

It was my brother who came down and gave me the brilliant idea with:

So yeah…

MORE STUFF

Don’t Forget Us

I have finished the first read-through, which involved heavy formatting and adding relevant plot points. (Also deleting excess profanity) All the changes are reflected on AO3

Plot points include: fragrant kimchi stuff, Robert and Kazimir tweaks, more fleshed out relationship between Juhaina and Dalia

(so nothing major, but the changes I did make do improve flow A LOT)

I’m currently on the second read through, which involves heavy grammar editing. I first print out a chapter and do paper edits, then transfer those digitally. I also listen to the entire chapter

(But I’m also doing small plot points as well)

It…still looks like it’s going to take 6 months for me to finish. I would like it to be quicker, but this semester I’m taking one more class than I did the last, so…

But there’s a preliminary cover design!

(Prussia, South Korea, Kazimir, Robert, and Juhaina)

*jazz hands*

What Do We Want?

Whelp, this is going to be a thing

After deliberation, I have a solid plan on how to tackle the entire story. A main feature will be a lot of time jumps, and also POV switches. I’m 90% certain it’s going to be Prussia, England, Japan, and Russia now

Though Romano and Hong Kong’s POV were fun to play around with, I really want to explore Russia and Japan’s characters by themselves without the context of America and China’s relationship with them. Also, I just…don’t know enough history about Italy for Romano’s POV to really work.

What I currently have on AO3 will probably be deleted when I’m ready to write and post chapters of this

…Which won’t happen until Don’t Forget Us is finished, meaning a minimum of 6 months. I’m also going to China this summer for a study abroad program, so that could severely hinder my ability to write during the summer.

Which means, look for it next school year if you still like hetalia

But at this point, who knows what’ll happen in the future. In the meantime, I’ll just keep daydreaming about it

Things to look forward to that’ll be in it: D-Day, France being broken out, the Allies’ month in London, the situation in Asia, Russia pining after China (heavily)

Yeah so in terms of ships, there’s going to be basically no ameripan content. Rochu, however—if you like fics where someone’s developing a massive crush on the other person, that’s what you’ll get here. There’s…going to be hints to usuk in order to keep the plot consistent, but there’ll also be hints of fruk. In terms of frying pangle, pruaus is going to be more of a thing, but there’ll be little pruhun and aushun (for obvious reasons). Fragrant kimchi and hongtai are obviously a no. And spamano…

I…don’t ship spamano as much as I once did (which is another reason why I’m scrapping the Romano POV) so I’m kind of going to glaze over it…

Other things.

OC’s will not be a big part like in Don’t Forget Us. It’s going to be like AWH again—they’ll play small but important roles. Frank, Kazimir, and Aida will make appearances—Aida especially

Also, I’m not gonna try to do a commentary on racism in this like I was trying to with the first attempt, but I’ll still include important elements of it

In addition, I’ll try to dial down…Scotland, but still keep him an asshole. (There’ll also be redeeming scenes with him, especially in D-Day, but also…some not great scenes with him.)

Hong Kong’s ‘story’ or what I was trying to originally write will be shown in flashback scenes.

The whole fic is gong to be very spliced up like that—no two POV will really coincide at the same time (but fret not, every chapter will be marked with a date)

So yeah. That’s p much it

Here’s the song that will play in the final scene

I’m thankful for all those who’ve offered to help with this stupid thing when I ranted about it in the beginning of Don’t Forget Us. My biggest issue was that I didn’t know enough historical wise, so basically I’m fixing that by just…not writing about those historical things *finger guns*

I know a fair amount on Japan and Prussia as countries. My knowledge on the UK and Russia is…more iffy. WW2 and up? Yeah, I know the basic details. Things before that? Lmao. No. My interest area is East Asia, not Europe…But I’ll try my best

#back to me trying to figure out how to tag shit like this #hetalia #hetalia fanfiction #historical hetalia #ameripan #rochu #fruk #frying pangle #aph #um #this is long i apologize #Miscellaneous

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freudensteins-monster · 7 years

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Bella Notte

@cinnaatheart said: Heya! For the promt meme! Enamour me, with either Darcy x Natasha, Darcy x Bucky or Darcy x Sam :D :D up to you what you wanna do ❤️❤️❤️

I defaulted to Wintershock because I don't feel like my Natasha or my Sam are up to snuff. Hope that's okay. Also... it's definitely not a drabble per the original fic prompt post :/

** In this fic, instead of JARVIS or FRIDAY, I have used an AI called TADASHI. During Age of Ultron, when Stark is rebooting his suit's AI following the creation of Vision/loss of JARVIS, Tony is seen to have a number of AI programs on his desk. He picks FRIDAY as his new AI but there was also one called JACOSTA and one called TADASHI. And being the Big Hero 6 fan that I am I really wanted to use that one, not that he's got much of a personality in this fic. :/ Maybe next time. **

Bucky was happy to learn upon waking that the Sokovia Accords had been dissolved, pending a major overhaul, and that Steve and Stark were on speaking terms again (nothing like another alien invasion to get everyone on the same side) but he was still surprised to be invited to join the Avengers at Stark’s upstate facility. It wasn’t until the man himself called and told him ‘to get your ass over there already. Rogers won’t stop sulking,’ and ‘No, we don’t have to talk about it. You’re sorry, I’m less sorry. Let there be no further talk of feelings,’ that Bucky finally agreed to return stateside.

Per an agreement his Wakandan lawyers had made with the UN, and various military bodies around the world, Bucky would be on house arrest at the facility, unable to step outside the boundaries of the property until such time as his prolific assassination record had been sifted through and he was finally cleared of all charges (his lawyers were optimistic and very, very good). Bucky hadn’t minded as he was tired of running, and the glorified prison would be bearable if he got to properly reconnect with Steve, but when he landed the punk was nowhere in sight.

Bucky blinked in the sunlight as he walked down the quinjet ramp, his grey- blue eyes quickly scanning the large hanger for a familiar face.

“Sergeant Barnes?” a female voice called out. Bucky turned and saw a young woman with wavy brown hair and black-rimmed glasses making her way over to him. “Hi, I’m Darcy,” she smiled, offering him her hand. He took it hesitantly, his eyes still darting about to locate Steve. “I’m sorry, Captain Rogers isn’t here right now. The call came in to save the world early this morning, you know how it is,” she rambled apologetically.

“Not really,” Bucky murmured.

“Okay, well,” the girl, Darcy, sighed. “Since my time is the least valuable of anyone here I have been tasked with showing you around,” she said with a hint of bitterness, though not directed at him. “Do you want the full tour or just the CliffNotes version?”

“I don’t wanna waste your time, doll.”

Darcy’s mouth quirked at the outdated endearment as her eyes dropped to the tablet in her hands.

“You’re not,” she assured him. “Stark is. He thinks I ate all his blueberries, so this is my punishment.”

“Did you eat all his blueberries?”

“That’s between me and my legal counsel,” she replied vaguely, a smile playing on her lips. “Speaking of… I’m supposed to go over the terms of your house arrest, but I’m sure you’ve already read this,” she said, holding up the tablet to show him a screens worth of fine print.

“Basically don’t go anywhere and don’t kill anyone.”

“That does seem to be the jist of it,” she nodded, closing the document. “Come on, I’ll show you where the food is,” she said, leading him away from the hanger to the main building. Along the way she described the function of the other buildings and showed him where the Avengers trained. The residential building was definitely designed by Stark, far too sleek and minimalist to feel homey, but he had been welcomed to stay – free of charge – and it was a hell of a lot nicer than most of the places Bucky had ever laid his head, so he wasn’t about to turn his nose up at it.

“So this is the common area, communal kitchen and dining area. Help yourself to anything in the fridge, and let TADASHI know if we’re running low on anything.”

“Who’s Tadashi?”

“TADASHI is an AI that Tony set up for the facility. JARVIS was absorbed into Vision, and FRIDAY has her hands full looking after Tony, so he left TADASHI with us. But he’s just a baby program, he’s still learning and definitely isn’t at JARVIS’s level yet, not that means anything to you, because you never met JARVIS,” she added, waving a hand dismissively. “Hello TADASHI,” she called to the ceiling and Bucky couldn’t help but follow her gaze.

“Hello Miss Lewis,” replied a stilted voice through the ceiling speakers. The voice spoke English with the slightest Japanese accent, but it was most definitely a digital creation.

“Yeah, he’s a little creepy at the moment,” Darcy whispered, seemingly reading his mind. “But don’t worry, before the year is out I’m gonna have him sounding like George Takei.” Before Bucky had a chance to confirm who that was (pop culture knowledge had not been a priority during his time under HYDRA’s thumb) Darcy had turned her attention back to ceiling. “TADASHI, this is Sergeant Barnes. Sergeant Barnes, this is TADASHI.”

“You can call me Bucky,” he advised both of them.

“Welcome Sergeant Barnes. I’m afraid I cannot update your name in my system without an administrator’s assistance.”

“Thank you, TADASHI,” Darcy said to the ceiling before turning her attention back to Bucky. “Don’t bother,” she advised. “Only Tony can update Avenger files, and if you bring his attention to it he’s going to change it to something stupid. Steve’s only just got Tony to get TADASHI to stop calling him ‘Capsicle’.” Bucky smirked. “So, unlike JARVIS and FRIDAY, TADASHI can’t really predict our needs. His main function is to monitor the security systems and the energy readings from the arc reactor that powers everything. He can relay messages across the facility, and if you let him know when we’re out of milk or if you need a new pair of shoes or something, he can place the order you.”

“Amazing,” Bucky murmured as he glanced up at the ceiling, trailing behind Darcy as she continued the tour.

“Down there is a conference room and some offices, Steve and Maria are the only ones who really use those though. And these here are the apartments,” she announced, rattling off the Avengers names, tapping on the doors, as she passed by. “And this is your room,” she said, pushing open the door. “Steve is just across the hall.”

Bucky stepped inside, surveying the generous if bland space, unconsciously noting access points, defensible positions, and decent hiding places for a go bag or weapons cache. Not that he was permitted any weapons outside the firing range, per his agreement.

“Do you live on site?” he asked conversationally, trying to take his mind off the slightly claustrophobic feeling the empty space was giving him.

“Yeah, downstairs on the south corner. Closer to the science building so I don’t have to walk too far after a science bender.”

“What exactly is it you do here?” Bucky asked, his brow creasing in confusion.

“Umm, I’m kind of like the manager of the science department,” she supplied awkwardly, averting her gaze.

“You run the science department?” Bucky asked, her answer surprising him.

“Not really… sort of…” she mumbled, hugging her tablet to her chest.

“You’re what? Twenty? And you’re running the science department of the Avengers facility? That’s pretty damn impressive,” he added sincerely. “How’d you end up here, if you don’t mind me asking?

“I’m twenty-five, first of all, and, um, I actually majored in Political Science,” she winced, expecting further questions, but Bucky just let her talk. “I was interning for Doctor Jane Foster to earn some hard science credits when Thor crash landed – you know Thor, right?”

“Not personally.”

“Yeah, well, he’s amazing, and his arrival kind of revolutionised Jane’s research. I stuck around after I graduated, because where the hell else would I go? I mean, Asgardians, aliens, portals to other worlds… that’s not the sort of thing you can just forget about, you know?”

“Sure…” Bucky nodded. He had always been a bit of a geek, and not even all the time he spent as a science experiment could dull his interest.

“So when Tony asked Jane if she wanted take up some lab space here, I tagged along. I was supposed to be Jane’s assistant but Tony found her a few lab tech’s who actually understood her work, so I focused on the caretaking aspects of the job, because Heimdall knows that Jane and scientists like her can totally forget about basic human needs when they’re in the zone. Before I knew it I was looking after half the building, making sure they all ate regularly, got some shut eye, and socialised with other humans – I couldn’t get them to talk about anything other than science, but I tried,” she smiled. “And then Pepper Potts herself came up just to talk to me about giving me an official job. So now I look after the entire science department and have a few assistants of my own to help me feed and water the scientists. I also work with TADASHI to keep all their research secure, field correspondence from outside parties, and ensure they have all the resources and equipment they need to do their work.”

“That’s… that’s amazing. It sounds like it’s a huge job… and I’m keeping you from it,” he realised, rubbing his hands against the pockets of his jeans self-consciously.

“It’s fine, really,” Darcy waved dismissively.

“No, it’s not. I’m really sorry, Darcy. Please, you can go back to work. I’ll be fine.”

By the look on Darcy’s face she didn’t believe him but she decided to take him at his word and began backing out of the room. She turned back at the doorway, her expression softening as she watched Bucky fidget nervously, unsure what to do with himself in the strange space.

“Hey, did you… Did you want to maybe come with me?”

“To the science building?”

“No, to the moon,” she teased. “Yes, to the science building. I mean, I’ll be pretty busy but you can check out some of the work going on and I can introduce you to some people.”

“Uh, yeah,” Bucky replied bashfully. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

When Steve and Sam returned to base later that night they trudged wearily to the residential building. Well, Sam trudged. Steve bounded towards it like a puppy, excited to see his friend again.

“Bucky!” he called the moment he stepped into the building. He was about to ask TADASHI to locate him but the smell wafting from the kitchen held his tongue and made his mouth water. “Bucky?”

“Hey punk, took you long enough,” Bucky smirked from his position in front of the stove, stirring something that smelled absolutely delicious.

“Buck… what are you doing?” Steve wondered aloud. “That smells like…”

“Your mom’s stew?” he smiled. “That’s what I was aiming for. I think I remembered the recipe correctly,” he mused.

“What brought this on?” Steve queried, unable to wipe the smile from his face as he pulled Bucky in for a hug.

“Well, I was helping out in the cafeteria, peeling potatoes and what not, when I remembered my mom’s cooking, and your mom’s cooking, and I thought it’d be nice,” Bucky said with a shrug.

“What smells so good?” Sam asked, appearing behind Steve.

“Bucky’s cooking,” Steve answered.

“No kidding. Barnes,” he nodded in greeting.

“Wilson,” Bucky replied, the oven timer distracting him from the urge to start bickering with the man. “That’d be the bread,” he said, pulling the tin out with his metal hand.

“You made bread too?” Sam asked in amazement.

“I had time,” Bucky shrugged again.

“Buck, what were you doing helping out in the cafeteria?” Steve pestered, still not quite getting his head around what he was seeing and smelling.

“Darcy was showing me around the science building, but she was busy so I thought I’d help out her assistants with the lunch run. And I noted that Michel, the chef, was understaffed so when I was finished in the science building I offered my services.”

“That’s… Buck, we don’t expect you to earn your keep, you know. Tony’s not going to kick you out,” Steve assured him.

“Let the man cook!” Sam chided, eying the bowls Bucky was spooning stew into hungrily.

“What was I supposed to do? Wait quietly in my room for you to come back?” Bucky asked irritably, passing a bowl to Steve. “Sit down, punk. Enjoy your meal. You too,” he added, placing a bowl into Sam’s grabby hands.

Bucky cut several slices of bread and placed most of them on the table between the two Avengers, along with a tub of butter. He took the third bowl and two slices of buttered bread and put them on a tray and made to leave the room.

“You’re not going to eat with us?” Steve asked, almost felling Bucky with his puppy dog eyes.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” he promised. “Just going to take this to Darcy.”

“Darcy?” the pair asked, amused smiles playing on their lips.

“Only here a day and you’ve already found yourself a girl,” Steve laughed, shaking his head in disbelief.

“It’s not like that,” Bucky griped, ignoring their teasing. “She’s working late, and it’s my fault; she wasted her morning showing me around. I wanted to apologise… and thank her,” he said, turning to leave the room.

“I’m gonna be best man at your wedding, right?” Steve called after him.

“Make sure there’s an open bar,” Sam added before the pair burst out laughter.

Bucky dropped off the meal to a very grateful Darcy and then reluctantly returned to the dining room to endure another half hour of mockery while he ate his own dinner. Once Steve and Sam had stopped laughing they called it a night, both in need of a shower and a good night’s sleep. Bucky did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen, taking his time as to delay returning to his empty room.

He sat on the end of the bed, deliberating about what to do next. He didn’t want to sleep, not that he was tired, and wasted several minutes inspecting his room from top to bottom. The wardrobe had been stocked with some basics, and when Bucky spied the pair of running shoes in his at the bottom of it he changed into some sweatpants and pulled them on.

He’d been running laps around the facility for about an hour when he slowed to a jog and made his way back to the residential wing.

“Bucky?”

“Hey, Darcy…” he puffed.

“What are you doing? It’s late.”

“I could ask you the same thing?” he deflected.

“I had work to do. Got caught up and then got a head start on tomorrow. What’s your excuse?” she asked, deliberately putting the spotlight back on him. “You don’t like your room?” she ventured cautiously as they headed into the building.

“It’s nice… but it’s just… It’s too empty, too bland,” he admitted, ducking his head. “It reminds me of every other empty room I’ve been stuck in… just waiting for orders.”

“I’m sorry,” Darcy murmured, rubbing his arm in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. “Just… try and get through tonight and tomorrow you can decorate it however you like, make it a home.”

“With what?” Bucky asked bitterly. “I ain’t got nothing to make it a home, doll.”

“You’ll think of something,” she said soothingly. “And I’ll help you out on the weekend. We can do some online shopping.”

“Don’t put yourself out on my account, doll. You don’t need to go wasting your free time on me too.”

“I want to,” she swore. “Besides, I’m an excellent interior designer,” she declared, throwing open a door that Bucky hadn’t been aware they’d stopped in front of. Darcy walked in and flicked on a light, ushering Bucky inside.

Bucky’s jaw dropped. It was a mess. The unmade bed was a mess of colour, the floor was a mess of clothes, the walls were covered in posters, and books littered every other available surface.

“Well,” Bucky swallowed. “It definitely looks lived in.”

Darcy laughed, “I know, right? Does that mean you’ll let me help?”

Bucky closed his mouth, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “Sure, doll. I’d appreciate it.”

“Alrighty then. Sunday, 11am. You make brunch and I’ll bring Tony’s credit card.”

“It’s a deal,” he smiled, shaking Darcy’s outstretched hand.

He smiled all the way back to his own room, but delayed sleep just that little bit longer by taking a long shower. Eventually he ran out of excuses and lay down on the bed. Immediately he noticed that something wasn’t quite right with his mattress and after a quick search he discovered a housewarming present from Natasha, who was away on a mission in parts unknown; a Glock 26 and an anodized Gerber Mk II knife. Bucky put them back, ensuring they were still in easy reach, and eventually drifted off to sleep.

Bucky kept himself busy the next day, which was easy between catching up with Steve and helping out in the cafeteria. When the end of the day drew closer Bucky got a bit anxious but then Vision and Wanda returned from their own mission and Bucky decided to make dinner again (lasagne and garlic bread). Afterwards Wanda and Vision excused themselves but Steve and Sam invited him to join them in the common room where they spent a few hours watching movies from Steve’s “things I need to see” list. Eventually they called it a night as well and Bucky reluctantly headed to his room. It was too late to go for a run without looking like a complete weirdo, not to mention worrying Steve, but there was always the gym downstairs, he mused as he reached his door.

He flicked on the light and froze. His plain white bedding had been replaced with a dark blue duvet and light grey sheets, and a silver and grey knitted blanket had been draped over the end. On the wall beside the light switch was a poster from the 1943 Stark Expo, on his bedside table was a framed photograph of him and Steve, and hanging over the bed was a huge photograph of the night sky. He wandered over in a daze, peeling off a folded piece of paper that had been taped to the corner of the frame.

Hey Bucky!

We’re still on for Sunday, I swear, it’s just this was so much more fun than doing a stocktake of lab supplies. :P I hope you like it and I really hope that I didn’t overstep. :(

P.S. Jane printed this out for me. She assures me that this is what the stars looked like the night you were born.

P.P.S. I put your weapons in the top drawer of your bedside table. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to put them back without hurting the mattress, or myself. :P

See you Sunday, if not sooner.

- Darcy

Bucky smiled, turning in a circle to admire the new additions to the room and huge difference they made.

“Uh, TADASHI?” he asked the ceiling, hoping it worked and that he wasn’t just talking to himself.

“Yes Sergeant Barnes?”

“Can you tell Darcy ‘thank you’?”

“Of course, Sergeant Barnes. … … Miss Lewis asked me to tell you, ‘You’re very welcome’.”

Over the next couple of days Bucky developed a comfortable routine, splitting his time between helping out in the cafeteria and the labs, training with the Avengers, and hanging out with Steve. Sunday came around quickly and Darcy stumbled into the common area in plaid pyjama pants and a band t-shirt, tablet in hand, just as Bucky was plating up a frittata.

“That smells amazing,” Darcy murmured as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

“If you had a late night, doll, you could’ve slept in. I would have understood.”

“It wasn’t that exactly,” she mumbled, practically worshipping her coffee cup. “My assistants were having trouble getting Jane out of her lab so I went down to try and drag her out. All it took was a promise to split a tub of Ben & Jerry’s and a bottle of wine with her.”

“This is you after half a bottle of wine?” he teased, herding her towards the dining table.

“It might have been a bottle each. Or a bottle and a half, I’m not sure. Shut up,” she whined as Bucky laughed at her. “I’m not hungover. Just… blah.”

He went to sit across from her but Darcy insisted he sit next to her so they could browse websites together. The smell of the frittata drew out the rest of the residents and soon a quiet discussion on desks and armchairs turned into a very loud discussion on the merits of record players and lava lamps. Lava lamps had been Scott’s suggestion, the fledgling superhero had turned up early in morning to steal something from storage - his words - which rubbed Sam the wrong way for some reason and made him determined to win the argument. Bucky couldn’t properly remember the last time he’d had such a great time. He particularly enjoyed the moment when Darcy had almost climbed over him to steal her tablet back from Sam before he ordered a set of overpriced vintage action figures, deeming them utterly essential. Steve had noticed, of course, and broached the subject as they walked to their respective rooms that night.

“So… Darcy’s nice.”

“Shut up.”

Days turned into weeks and with a fully furnished bedroom the facility was feeling more and more like home. The only thing that made him doubt it was when the Avengers were called out, reminding Bucky that he was still on house arrest and a verdict on his many crimes was still pending.

“The mission shouldn’t take more than a week,” Steve assured him, as they walked out to the quinjet together.

“Yeah, yeah. I ain’t a kid, Steve. Just go already, I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

“I swear to God, Steve. I will strap you into that damn plane myself. Go.”

Steve smirked, his eyes looking over Bucky’s shoulder.

“Hey, here comes Darcy. Maybe you can ask her to keep you company while I’m gone,” he teased, hightailing it to one of the waiting quinjets before Bucky punched him in the face with his metal fist.

“…and you’ll email Eric about-”

“The readings from Hawaii. Yes, Jane.”

“And make sure that Dr Walcott calibrates-”

“The thingamabob in Lab 3. Yes, Jane.”

“Oh! And water the plant in my office.”

“Jane, honey, I replaced your dead husk of a plant with a plastic one six months ago.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, Jane. When is the last time you remember watering it?”

“Uhh…”

“Exactly. Now, hurry up and get on the plane. Your pilot wanted to leave ten minutes ago and you’re going to hold him up for another fifteen while you do your pre-flight safety check to make sure all your doodads are secure.”

“But it’s important-”

“I know, Jane. Get on the plane, Jane,” Darcy begged, pushing her former boss towards the second quinjet, loaded up with her homemade equipment and two nervous assistants. “Bye Jane!” Darcy waved as the loading ramp closed behind the astrophysicist.

Bucky watched as the first quinjet took off but waited beside Darcy while the second one idled on the lawn. He watched as Darcy’s exasperated expression softened into one of longing and Bucky repressed the urge to reach for her.

“Are you okay, Darcy?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah. Just one of the drawbacks of my new position; I don’t get to go on fieldtrips anymore,” she lamented. “But I don’t miss it, not really,” she said unconvincingly. “Even when we weren’t living out of her van, we were still living on top of each other. My diet consisted of poptarts and coffee, and I threw my back out hauling Jane’s equipment around. And let’s not forget the couple of times I almost died,” she added dramatically.

“But you miss it.”

“Yeah,” Darcy sighed. “I miss the nights when we’d camp out - no beeping machines, no results to record. Just me, Jane, a couple of drinks, and an entire galaxy over our heads. I miss the stars. I mean, out here it’s pretty great, there’s not that much light pollution, but it’s nothing like being out in the desert or Tromsø. Have you ever seen the Northern Lights?”

“A couple of times.” He’d seen them numerous times in fact, travelling in and out of the HYDRA base in Siberia, but he’d never been in a state of mind where he was able to appreciate them. Not that Darcy didn’t need to know that.

“Jane and I got sent to Norway for an ‘urgent consult’ before the Battle of New York, for our own protection or some bullshit. When Thor appeared on the news Jane was angry, worried but angry. And the longer she watched the news the more angry, worried, and determined to get drunk she was. I left her to sleep it off and took a walk outside. There were just all these green lights dancing across the sky. It was so beautiful,” Darcy whispered, gazing up at the sky as if she could still see them despite the sun at her back. It made Bucky’s heart ache. “Anywho,” Darcy muttered, shaking off the daydream as the quinjet engine roared into life. “Back to it, I suppose. See you ‘round, Bucky.”

“See you…”

Bucky wandered back to his room, deep in though. He stood at the end of the bed, glancing up at the stars above it. His mouth curled into a smile as an idea occurred to him.

“TADASHI?”

“Yes, Sergeant Barnes?”

“I need your help with something.”

Darcy headed back to the residential building at a respectable hour. Without Jane corrupting the other scientists with her obsessive hours shutting down the labs for the night was a lot easier. She was still plagued by nostalgia but Darcy was sure it was nothing a bubble bath and her emergency bottle of tequila couldn’t fix. Until she flicked on her bedroom light and screamed.

“Um… TADASHI?”

“Yes, Miss Lewis?”

“Who the hell has been in my room?” she demanded, glancing about the spotless space like she’d just stepped into the Twilight Zone.

“Sergeant Barnes took the liberty of cleaning your room.”

“Why?!”

“I cannot say. Though he did leave an envelope on your desk.”

Darcy crossed her room, which was so much easier now that the clothes had been cleared from her floor. A quick glance at her wardrobe showed that they had been laundered and hung up. She tore open the envelope and tipped a small remote into the palm of her hand. On the back of it, in Bucky’s precise handwriting, were written the instructions, “Turn off your light and then press me.”

Curious, and more than a little freaked out, Darcy did as she was told. She turned off the lights, pressed the button, and gasped as ribbons of green light were projected onto her ceiling. She moved to the centre of the room, staring up at the dancing lights in complete awe. When her neck began to ache, snapping her out of her reverie, she pulled the duvet off her bed and spread it out on the floor so she could comfortably lie back and enjoy the light show.

“TADASHI?”

“Yes, Miss Lewis?”

“Would you ask Sergeant Barnes to join me?” she smiled.

The Avengers arrived back at the base six days later in the predawn light. Steve paused outside his apartment, worn out from the mission, but still alert enough to notice that Bucky’s door had been left ajar.

“Buck?” Steve called, peering into the darkness, but no answer came. He flicked on the light and found the room empty and the bed unmade. Steve tamped down the instinct to worry and asked for help. “TADASHI, do you know where Bucky is?”

“Yes, Captain Rogers. He is currently located in Miss Lewis’s rooms.”

“Oh really?” he grinned, flicking off the light and moving across the hall.

“Would you like me to contact him?”

“Nope,” he replied quickly, unable to wipe the smirk off his face. “Definitely not.”

73 notes · View notes

sheilacwall · 5 years

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Velvet Negroni is Trying to Make Music That’s Built to Last in an Ethereal Digital Age

When we chat his most recent record, NEON BROWN (via 4AD), has been out for less than a full week. But it’s already beginning to add layers to an increasingly mythological narrative. It’s not just Nutzman’s background being gradually woven together with each new review and published blurb, but it’s also the behind-the-scenes contributions that penetrate larger swaths of popular culture. The track “Waves” from Velvet Negroni’s previous release T.C.O.D. was played by Justin Vernon at Kanye West’s famously rural writing camp in Wyoming, resulting in a contribution to opening track “Feel the Love” on Kanye and Kid Cudi’s collaboration album, Kids See Ghosts. More recently, he’s lent vocals on both “iMi” and “Sh’Diah” from Bon Iver’s new album, i,i.

READ: First Look Friday: Meet Donavon — the Soul of the Algorithm & Disciple of D’Angelo

These high-profile contributions aren’t just Wiki-friendly Easter eggs and fine print liner notes; they’re a clear indicator that both Nutzman’s voice and creative direction possess a unique resonance that is parting the seas of an oft-impenetrable musical kingdom.

NEON BROWN offers an accessible entry-point to hear Jeremy Nutzman’s evolving artistry at work. Album highlight “Wine Green” is an instantly recitable, dancehall-esque anthem awash in peppy adlibs and ascending jabs of bass. “Poster Child” showcases a catchy, iridescent love-song-hook that glows vividly while the downtempo “Feel Let” spins out soft, palatable utterances that feel as if they’re being belted from a woozy, late-night cab ride home.

We talked with Velvet Negroni to explore the album, his creative inspiration, and a rapidly changing music landscape.

Title: Girboix Carmelo Artist: Velvet Negroni

Can you walk me through your contributions on Bon Iver’s album and Kids See Ghosts?

Justin Vernon played [Kanye West and Kid Cudi] “Waves” and it was the first thing that perked their ears that day so they got into it a little bit. There’s a part of the song that goes, “I can feel it in my bones!” I think it was basically just that little snippet that they just took that energy and vibe into “Feel the Love.”

So the inspiration was more cadence than lyrics or production?

Yeah, there wasn’t a sample. While Justin was in Wyoming, I was at his crib working, I was there rehearsing to perform a couple of dates with him. He had helped to work on the record a little bit previously.

How did you two originally link?

I play in a band with a couple of cats that he grew up with essentially and so that’s how that intro went long ago. It was kind of fun. We were just around sometimes, and we got to know each other a little bit. And then my friend Ryan Olsen had played what I had so far of the record for him, he was really excited by it and the next time he saw me he kind of just opened up his place as a base, like “If you need somewhere to finish this or work on it you should come out.”

Source: Artist

Can you tell me about the recording process and what went into your new album, NEON BROWN?

A lot of different things but mostly just good vibes, a good schedule and good hours. We would at least kind of sketch out one or two tracks, at least two things every day. Then after a little bit of that, circle back to one that we had worked on previously. The ones with real potential kind of just flowed out of the fucking mess and felt kind of obvious-ish, I guess. It’s like sifting for gold, eventually you keep whittling it down into a body of work that’s ready.

How do you feel now that it’s out?

It’s just exciting that people are listening to it. The album has been done for a pretty sizable chunk of time, that happened long ago it feels like, but now it’s just, knowing that people can listen to it…that’s exciting.

There’s a wide range of sounds on the album, some heady and stirring but also lighter notes. It’s interesting to see you do both.

It’s a natural thing in the songwriting process. Especially when I’m working with Elliott (Tickle Torture) and Simon (Psymun), there’s no off-limits. There’s that many more influences, like each person has a toolbox. Then there’s that added onto the writing process. So, we’re taking from a pretty wide range of shit just in everybody’s own mind and then putting them together. I don’t think any of us think about the style of the song as it relates to the album until after the fact.

youtube

What new artists inspire you right now?

I’ve been excited about Yves Tumor on Warp and listening to this cat Mk.Gee. I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head that I’ve really been jacked on. I’m kind of just stepping back into remembering that I can listen to other people’s music you know, like on my own, really just listen to music. Usually, I’m just in such a creative mode in my headspace, or I’m not listening to anything, or I’m working on my shit.

When you were first discovering music at an early age, finding discarded records on a neighbor’s lawn, which albums were especially formative for you?

In that pack of CDs that I found, I remember some 311, Soundgarden, some Metallica, Lords of Acid. I think there was a Crime Mob CD, some Tupac and even Marilyn Manson. Those were my youngest memories of having music that wasn’t church music.

That was huge for me. But I was so young that when I was playing music, I wasn’t coming at it from a composing aspect at all. It was beyond me how you could even make something like that. I didn’t have any of the experiences that I have now to desensitize me to the wonderment of music in general.

Photo Credit: Rachel Kauffman for Okayplayer

What was the original intention of keeping you from being exposed to that music?

I mean those were just my parents’ rules. They were religious and didn’t think that anything else was worthwhile except for Christian music. I was practicing playing piano for at least one hour every single day and my mom would sit on the bench next to me, there was no getting out of it really.

We’re now living in a totally digital age. How do you feel the streaming era is changing music?

Oversaturation is a real thing, but there’s also so much more of a platform. I think that, eventually, for the most part, good stuff will be discovered. Like there’s too many people listening, seeing and talking amongst themselves deep in the Internet at all times that I think that the good stuff, the truth will prevail. It’s just a different style with music in general, because it used to be the furthest thing away to just go to a bedroom somewhere and record. Most people couldn’t afford to even rent studio time, let alone rent a studio and then then take their time writing songs in the studio as they go. People used to write a song, arrange a song, figure it out, get really good at it and then go record it. Now, it’s pretty much the norm to write a song as you’re playing and then you have the ability to manipulate audio. It changed the format.

When I first got into recording on my own, an amazing feature of it was that it moved so fast and I found myself making a couple of happy accidents. It was really exciting. Like, wow, what happened there? It went from writing songs and then finding happy accidents to just showing up and relying on happy accidents, rather than really spending time with the chord progression of the arrangement ahead of time.

youtube

I think from the critic or audience’s perspective, you also have less time to win over an audience with a shrinking attention span. Not everyone is even really around for a full album to listen from front to back.

That’s huge, yes. You can grab your albums out of thin air. There was no way to pirate an album unless you stole it from a store. So, it was physical, and I think it meant more just inherently then. It meant more on a tangible level. Like, I paid eleven bucks for this album, I’m not sure if I like it yet, but I’m gonna listen to it and keep listening.

The attention span is so fast that I think there’s more people trying to just jump on a wave or catch a wave and make stuff that’s relevant right then, instead of thinking like a whole album. Instead of maybe making a piece of work that is supposed to stand the test of time.

What’s it like to be a musician in 2019? Especially considering it’s increasingly rare to make a living off your art.

You’re correct with that being a rarity, it also depends on what one person’s definition of living and what you’re satisfied with. I’ve been making music for a real long time, but only recently have I even taken into consideration, oh yeah, I guess there’s a chance I could make some money from this. Really. I can only try and imagine what it was like doing what I’m trying to do right now when the Internet wasn’t the Supreme Being.

Photo Credit: Tim Saccenti

Adam Isaac Itkoff is a freelance writer living in New York City. You can follow him (and us!) on Twitter.

The post Velvet Negroni is Trying to Make Music That’s Built to Last in an Ethereal Digital Age appeared first on Hip Hop World Music.

from Hip Hop World Music https://hiphopworldmusic.com/velvet-negroni-is-trying-to-make-music-thats-built-to-last-in-an-ethereal-digital-age/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=velvet-negroni-is-trying-to-make-music-thats-built-to-last-in-an-ethereal-digital-age from Hip Hop World Music https://hiphopworldmusic.tumblr.com/post/187545891383

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sleepymarmot · 6 years

Text

Twilight Mirage liveblog 3/5 (episodes 28-54)

28-35

I'm very excited for a series of solo episodes!

Don't know how I feel about the new Grand Magnificent tbh… This concept feels more conventional than the original one, and I'm worried the aspects of his character I found interesting won't be in focus anymore.

I had my problems with the previous system and how it flattened down emotions into inaccurate categories, but so far I'm not excited about the switch… Blades in the Dark's mechanics were kinda hard for me to follow by ear, and being unable to keep track of the gameplay by myself is unpleasant; and the new classes sound really dull compared to the ones in The Veil.

Iota's speech is strange… It sounds more like a simple copy-paste of real-life colonialism than the invasion described previously in the story. “They will ask you to give them a name like ours, they will ask to touch your bone” etc sounds nothing like Independence and its followers' modus operandi was, and, judging by the future tense, hasn't actually happened with the present time settlers yet – so where did that come from, in-universe? In fact, shouldn't her people have a relatively positive outlook on non-hostile outsiders, since they brought on the planet's golden age? Hopefully the following episodes will elaborate on this, because I've made peace with needing lore or plot points explained to me several times, but I need more clarity on big ideological question like this.

Gig is such a Chaotic Good!!

Buying sex is legal, normal & common in the utopia and Signet is a regular customer?! Fucking seriously?! I couldn't even focus on the episode for the next half hour and eventually turned it off because my thoughts kept returning to this and I kept seething with anger. Way to ruin the episode after I was so moved and intrigued by the intro…

They've been pretty careful with past spoilers this season, here's I think the first example: talking at length about the Hitchcocks, plural. Sure, it was only an episode three spoiler, but it was such a good reveal!

So, who actually printed out the ancient Quire people? Was it a political move from one of the sides?

No Austin you definitely have not mentioned Earth building a giant Dyson spehere around themselves!!! What the fuck :D

Everyone got a nice inconsequential vignette and Fourteen's scene had actual high stakes…

I really, really don't get what Seneschal looks like

After half a season of two separate parties and seven solo episodes it's so nice to hear everyone together!

Signet's look is absolutely not the kind of thing I imagined her wearing…

Please tell me someone has made an animatic about Even's hair tendril high-fiving Gig's eye

36-45

It's always cute when the first words after the intro are in that specific tone of voice that makes it obvious that at least 5-10 minutes before were spent in a lively conversation about some nonsense that finally was put to an end no more than two seconds ago (and then they talk about nonsense for ten more minutes lol)

I love this show's dedication to describing everyone's outfits in extreme detail at every opportunity

50k+ years later it's Art and Jack's turn to be the half of the party who walks right through the door and charm their way in lol. I hope they don't get shot or buy a bunch of torch units or something

I really like “finding a way to help a teenage community fit in the world” and “reconnecting a family and acquiring infrastructure for travel between planets” as the first projects; it really does convince you that these people have set out to make the world a better place (even if a lot of the time is actually spent pulling heists or fighting mechanical tigers).

Okay, the scavenger faction leader is literally a vulture, I get it.

What I don't get is why we are supposed to dislike that faction. There was some general “eh, they suck” said OOC during setup but we haven't actually seen them do anything bad! Show, don't tell! They need to, like, raid Big Garage and try to steal Gumption's arm if you want me to see them as an enemy.

Remember that nonsense I wrote about T. Rex in my C/w notes post? I can't believe they're doing basically the same joke on the actual show!

But how about… not capture or kill… but befriend the Axiom and/or release it into the wild… I know, I know, they can't travel far enough to move it to a safe distance from humans. But it just offends me on principle that after all that talk of diversity etc, when the characters actually meet a truly alien, unique species, they only consider the options of killing or capturing and exploiting them, and nobody even tries to ask “hey, shouldn't these creatures have rights, even if we are forced to disregard them in self-defence for the moment?” You know who I need to appear on screen ASAP? Bounty. Ask it everything! Does it remember being an Axiom? What did it feel like? What does it think about its transformation and new role?

I thought Grand's special gun was just Even's gun?

Did Janine just call Belgard Signet's “robot wife”? Hell yeah

Me for an hour straight, not having read the description: Blease Do Not Kill My Alien Child I guess that's at least postponed now though… The situation did immediately get mildly creepy again, which makes me concerned. Is this just a different reason to kill a different Axiom – to Free Innocents from a Lotus Eater Machine? I'm getting serious September flashbacks. Honestly, between this, the other team's arc which felt like a crossover about the Chime in Marielda, and everyone getting a personal mech, this half of the season is starting to feel like Counter/weight 2, which is sad because at the beginning the atmosphere was much more original. Also I miss Primary and Satellite's correspondence, it was such a good framing device and a touching relationship at the same time!

Polyphony's powers and way of thinking are more similar to Quire than anything else

I feel very relieved and vindicated by the direction this story took!

Hell yeah finally more about the Waking Cadent!! I've been waiting for that for how many episodes now? Now that we've seen her in person I hate her actually Amend that, I hate both Cadents. A plague on both their houses!

46-54

Good on you Even, what's even the point of a military background if you don't pull rank on some jerks

Am I glad to hear from the Rapid Evening again! Bold of Austin to assume we could forget who Primary and Satellite were Okay, I first had this question a ton of episodes ago, but now it is relevant again: does Grey know the contents of the previous Satellite's final message? She knows about its existence because the numbers match up (yeah I went back and checked), but does she know that Crystal Palace either made a colossal miscalculation about Independence's route or lied on purpose for some reason?

Wait, characters still have beliefs? I don't remember this coming up since the game change

I completely forgot about Tender's cyborg legs and also misheard “I have a fake leg” as “thick leg” and was like “Uh good for you but how's that gonna help?!”

Once again, Team Exploration goes ahead and leaves Team Heist without resources lol. What do you mean they're using our ship for an orbital drop? What do you mean they've taken all axiom scanners? :D Seriously though, it's a shame that the sessions were played in this order because in-universe I see no reason why they wouldn't say “Hey before you go after Acre Seven, let's fly over Terncage and do a scan real quick” (the range on the scanners is far enough for that, right?)

I don't get how Ache works. For Quire, it made what it wishes it could be, but for everyone else it just made evil clones vaguely themed after their regrets?

TENDER IS A GAY DISASTER I haven't heard such a spectacular meltdown since Calhoun probably, holy shit

TENDER IS A DISASTER SQUARED she starts talking to a woman and just doesn't stop! This is a great episode

I like how Gig immediately says no to the devil's bargain

Oh Signet disregarding the digital Blooming, you clearly haven't seen/read (the future version of) Solaris :D

Oh no, it's the Smiling God! Came to visit another podcast that used to have a personification of capitalism as a big boss evil god

A crit at the last possible moment, after a long string of 1s… Ali's dice see through the fourth wall!

I… didn't fully understand the reveal of how it was all connected

Okay, so the Dark Day could have been prevented by keeping the gun dealer priest alive and allowing him to arm the NEH so that it could take over Twilight Mirage and wouldn't need to activate plan B i.e. come here and block signal from the Crystal Palace? Correct? It makes sense now, but Our Profit seems to be from such a far future that I just can't imagine how this plan was created and put in place

O….k… I actually expected Grand to leave the team and go off on his own (or become an NPC) as a consequence of the holiday special if he was the sacrificed character instead of the Chthonic. But now that's kind of strange to hear after all that talk of redemption and second chances?

You get a status! And you get a status! Everyone gets a status!

Wow having a near death experience out of the blue is so relaxing for Fourteen! :D NEVER MIND HOLY CRAP I'm glad that at least Fourteen kept their signature move from The Veil. I was wondering what it would be like, and honestly expected it to be just thrown out

Excuse me, “Omega in Mass Effect 2” and “cool place run by trustworthy people” are literally opposite concepts, have we even played the same game

Grand: Who likes Fourteen Fifteen? Tender, not even letting him finish: ME!!!

Welp, my first guess about the Waking Cadent's identity was correct

Holy crap! I never realized Independence was in that one flashback episode of Counter/weight

#friends at the table #blah blah blah

0 notes

samuelfields · 6 years

Text

How To Copyright A Song And Earn Royalties: Introducing Cutie Baby

As a new parent, a lot of your time is spent trying to soothe and get your baby to sleep. Besides providing a constant rocking motion, one of the best ways to soothe a baby is to sing to him or her, regardless of whether you have a lovely voice or not.

Eventually, everything you say becomes a song because a pleasant melody is what babies love.

For example, instead of speaking, I will sing to my wife, “Wheeeeen was the last time he aaaaate?” Or, “Did we forgeeet to change his diapeeeeer? lalala.” It’s a right of passage that parents speak parentese or sing-songy.

Over the first three months of my son’s life, I came up with a number of songs that helped him stop crying or actually pass out within five minutes. However, given my previous voice training was back in elementary school, I’m a terrible singer. Fortunately, my little one doesn’t know that. All he knows is that hearing the sound of my voice makes him feel safe.

I have three goals for this post:

1) Share how musical dreamers can copyright a song.

2) Help new parents get their kids to go to sleep with a brand new lullaby that can be easily sung.

3) Highlight the many different ways you can early royalty income once you’ve copyrighted your song.

How To Copyright A Song

Under international law, copyright is the automatic right of the creator of a work. All you’ve got to do is record your song, write out the lyrics, and voila! It’s copyrighted. Given I own FinancialSamurai.com, a copyrighted website, I just have to publish the lyrics and the song here for worldwide distribution and I’m good to go.

Ah, another great reason to start your own website.

Alas, most of you will refuse to plant your own flag online and thus enable other internet companies to get rich off you. No problem. In order to enforce the copyright without a website, you just need to be able to prove your ownership.

In the US, the main way to prove your ownership is by registering your beautiful song with the U.S. government’s copyright website.

For all you creatives out there, here are seven simple steps to copyrighting your song.

1) Record your song. The easiest way to do so is through the voice recorder of your iPhone or Android device. Or you can record your song via your laptop. Make sure you write out the lyrics or e-mail them to yourself. As soon as your song is recorded, it’s copyrighted.

2) Go to https://www.copyright.gov/. Click on the Electronic Copyright Office, where you can make an online copyright filing. The whole process takes about five months to process.

3) Register a free account. Click on “new user” to open your account. You’ll need to give your name, address, country (if not from the USA), phone details, and preferred contact method.

4) Complete your online copyright application. Click on “Register a New Claim” under “Copyright Services,” located in the left-hand column of your account. Be prepared to answer questions about yourself, the work you’re seeking to copyright and where you’d like the copyright certification to be sent.

5) Pay the $35 fee. You can pay via credit or debit card, electronic check, or a copyright office deposit account.

6) Upload an electronic copy of your work. Many types of files are accepted, but check the Copyright Office’s complete list to ensure that you’re not sending in an incompatible file.

7) Wait for your copyright application to be processed. You can log back into your account at any time to check the status of your claim at any time. Overall, it took me five months to get my copyright in the mail.

A Samurai Lullaby: Cutie Baby

We’ve all heard the all-time classics such as, Rock-a-bye Baby, Ba Ba Blacksheep, Brahm’s Lullaby, and Twinkle Twinkle Star. But for those parents who want some variety, let me introduce a new lullaby that will resound in households everywhere from this day forward: Cutie Baby!

Cutie Baby was constructed in such a way that you can use your little one’s name in the lyrics. All you’ve got to do is replace the word “Cutie” with your child’s name and you’re good to go. If your little one’s name is longish or doesn’t rhyme with baby, that’s OK. All you’ve got to do is truncate the name and add an “a” or a “y” suffix so it does.

For example: David becomes Davy. William becomes Billy. Katrina becomes Katey. Susan becomes Susy. Yolanda becomes Yolandy. Samuel become Sammy. Pretty neat huh?

For those who also write and sing but are too afraid to share your work with the world, I say who cares. The worst that can happen is nothing. But the best that can happen is someone discovers your work and pays you to feature your song in the next Apple iPhone commercial and makes you rich!

Here are the lyrics to Cutie Baby with the sheet music below. You can listen to the simple melody by listening to the podcast down below (song starts at 5:28) or clicking this page which is my official Cutie Baby page with audio.

Cutie Baby (Copyright # SR0000800220)

Cutie (replace with your little one’s name) baby Mama’s here for you Cutie baby Is there anything Papa can do? Cutie baby You look so sweet tonight Dream away baby Everything’s gonna be alright Little dragon baby Grow up to be so mighty Cutie baby Everything’s gonna be alrighty

Cutie baby Papa’s here for you Cutie baby Is there anything Mama can do? Cutie baby We’re so blessed to have you Yawn away baby We’ll always be there for you Little muffin baby Is there anything more we can do? Cutie baby You’ve made our dreams come true

Sweet dreams little one.

We love you.

If you are a gay couple or a single parent, you can simply change the lyrics.

I’d love for readers to e-mail me their versions of Cutie Baby using your child’s name. All you’ve got to do is open up the voice recorder on your mobile phone, record, save, name, and e-mail it to me. I’d like to put your version up in this post or on the Cutie Baby page.

Here is the sheet music to Cutie Baby as composed by my wife. It’s really easy to play on the piano or guitar.

Building Passive Income With Royalty Income

The only passive income stream I’ve yet to try and build is royalty income, largely because I have no musical talent. But what I’ve since realized is that I don’t need to have a great voice to make royalty income. I can simply license out the lyrics and have great songsters sing for me.

Further, my lyrics and melody are basic. This enables every parent to sing the song, regardless of musical talent.

According to TuneCore.com, a website that allows you to sell your music on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, & more, here are the 13 different ways to earn money through royalties. They are:

1) “Analog” Public Performance Royalties

2) Synchronization License Royalties

3) Mechanical Synchronization Royalties

4) Print Royalties

5) Digital Download Mechanical Royalties

6) Streaming Mechanical Royalties

7) Digital Non-interactive “Streaming” Public Performance Royalties

8) Interactive “Streaming” Public Performance Royalties

9) Digital Synchronization License

10) Digital Print

11) Mechanical Royalty For A Ringtone/Ringback ToneDescription

12) Mechanical Royalty For A Ringtone/Ringback Tone

13) Public Performance Royalty For A Ringtone/Ringback Tone

I had no idea there were so many ways to make money from music, and I bet neither did you. I don’t plan for Cutie Baby to make me any royalties. But just like how The LA Times picked up one of my posts about an umbrella policy back in 2010 that helped put Financial Samurai on the map, you just never know what will happen if you put yourself out there.

Be Unapologetically Fierce About Pursuing Your Dreams

Ranking The Best Passive Income Investments

Usage Inquiries: For those interested in using Cutie Baby for a commercial, TV show, movie, podcast, blog post, or any sort of production, please shoot me an e-mail from my About page. Cutie Baby copyright registration number is SR0000800220.

Readers, are there any musicians or artists out there who earn royalty income? If so, how hard is it to generate a decent royalty income stream? Again, I’d love to hear your version of Cutie Baby if you want to shoot me an e-mail.

https://www.financialsamurai.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/How-to-copy-write-a-song-and-earn-royalty-income.m4a

The post How To Copyright A Song And Earn Royalties: Introducing Cutie Baby appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from Finance https://www.financialsamurai.com/copyright-song-earn-royalties-samurai-lullaby/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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ronaldmrashid · 6 years

Text

How To Copyright A Song And Earn Royalties: Introducing Cutie Baby

Eventually, everything you say becomes a song because a pleasant melody is what babies love.

I have three goals for this post:

1) Share how musical dreamers can copyright a song.

2) Help new parents get their kids to go to sleep with a brand new lullaby that can be easily sung.

3) Highlight the many different ways you can early royalty income once you’ve copyrighted your song.

How To Copyright A Song

Ah, another great reason to start your own website.

In the US, the main way to prove your ownership is by registering your beautiful song with the U.S. government’s copyright website.

For all you creatives out there, here are seven simple steps to copyrighting your song.

2) Go to https://www.copyright.gov/. Click on the Electronic Copyright Office, where you can make an online copyright filing. The whole process takes about five months to process.

3) Register a free account. Click on “new user” to open your account. You’ll need to give your name, address, country (if not from the USA), phone details, and preferred contact method.

5) Pay the $35 fee. You can pay via credit or debit card, electronic check, or a copyright office deposit account.

6) Upload an electronic copy of your work. Many types of files are accepted, but check the Copyright Office’s complete list to ensure that you’re not sending in an incompatible file.

A Samurai Lullaby: Cutie Baby

For example: David becomes Davy. William becomes Billy. Katrina becomes Katey. Susan becomes Susy. Yolanda becomes Yolandy. Samuel become Sammy. Pretty neat huh?

Cutie Baby (Copyright # SR0000800220)

Sweet dreams little one.

We love you.

If you are a gay couple or a single parent, you can simply change the lyrics.

Here is the sheet music to Cutie Baby as composed by my wife. It’s really easy to play on the piano or guitar.

Building Passive Income With Royalty Income

Further, my lyrics and melody are basic. This enables every parent to sing the song, regardless of musical talent.

According to TuneCore.com, a website that allows you to sell your music on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, & more, here are the 13 different ways to earn money through royalties. They are:

1) “Analog” Public Performance Royalties

2) Synchronization License Royalties

3) Mechanical Synchronization Royalties

4) Print Royalties

5) Digital Download Mechanical Royalties

6) Streaming Mechanical Royalties

7) Digital Non-interactive “Streaming” Public Performance Royalties

8) Interactive “Streaming” Public Performance Royalties

9) Digital Synchronization License

10) Digital Print

11) Mechanical Royalty For A Ringtone/Ringback ToneDescription

12) Mechanical Royalty For A Ringtone/Ringback Tone

13) Public Performance Royalty For A Ringtone/Ringback Tone

Be Unapologetically Fierce About Pursuing Your Dreams

Ranking The Best Passive Income Investments

https://www.financialsamurai.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/How-to-copy-write-a-song-and-earn-royalty-income.m4a

The post How To Copyright A Song And Earn Royalties: Introducing Cutie Baby appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from https://www.financialsamurai.com/copyright-song-earn-royalties-samurai-lullaby/

#Financial Samurai

0 notes

useful-music-resource · 6 years

Link

Though I’m sharing this, I find that it is not as worthwhile as many of the other articles I have read. This article goes over some of the most bare bones, super general rules for using compression. While I found most of them to be true (all be it borderline insulting to the reader due to the list being a copy paste job of every compression mistake listicle), I found his number one mistake to be quite ignorant.

“1. You’re Stuck in the Past If I see another shootout comparing a dozen 1176 plugins, I might retire.The 1176 was released 50 years ago. Sure, it was great for its time. But are there no better tools available today? Has no one improved upon this design over the last 50 years? No other industry romanticizes the past to such a great degree. Publishers don’t do shootouts to find the best version of the Guttenberg printing press. Sure, it was great for its time. But today, we have the internet.

If you’re trying to find the best replica of an ancient compressor, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Many modern compressors blow the classics out of the water. They’re more versatile and sound better.

Are you looking for them?”

This is particularly aggravating to me for several reasons.

One is his false comparison with “new printing methods vs old printing methods”. In print, our focus isn’t on the quality of the words on the page, but the page itself. In music, there’s nostalgia associated with the use of the ancient equipment. Do you prefer reading on off-white pulp paper reminiscent of a young adult novel from the library with times new roman font that can change into a different font as a different character speaks? Or is plain white printer paper and helvetica good enough to convey the story? In music, the equipment isn’t the printing press, the DAW is, the vintage equipment we use is the paper, ink, and design of the page in order to illicit a response from the user of the end product.We use them because so many recordings that mean so much to us used them too, and we just want to add that special sound to our records for the next generation to hear, while getting to add a new perspective to the story.

The second issue I have with this opinion is that after saying that explanation that there are a multitude of better compressors out there and you should use one of those instead of an 1176, he then goes on to talk about a primary issue with compression being cutting off the transients, a problem that didn’t exist to the extend it does in this day and age because pretty much every vintage compressor has a vastly slower attack time when compared to the digital equipment we use these days. My reading of this first point was essentially, “Don’t get hype around the most well built equipment prior to the digital age, in the digital age, we’ve rendered these pillars useless. Now lets talk about how new equipment works too well, creating more problems.” I agree that using classic equipment isn’t gonna get you to the place you wanna go all the time, I love some of my more modern compressors more than some of my analog based plugs for different things. However, when something works (like a compressor that doesn’t cut off transients because it physically can’t), don’t pretend its not worth using.

My final issue is with this line, “If you’re trying to find the best replica of an ancient compressor, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Many modern compressors blow the classics out of the water. They’re more versatile and sound better.” This is quite insulting to the people at Universal Audio who’ve used plug in technology to immortalize almost every piece of popular analog equipment that recording has ever used, so that every person who wants to, can find a piece of equipment from something that they enjoyed, and they can use it themselves for a song they made! This opinion also undermines the beauty that a lot of these records have because of the imperfections from their equipment. Brian Eno said of imperfection:

“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit — all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”

I don’t mean this entire post to be saying that analog modeled plug ins are the only way to go. I believe that any equipment should be used if it works for you. Its the matter-of-fact nature in which this author says that using that sort of equipment and seeking that perfect one is not a worthwhile endeavor. I think it is, because you may find THE SETTING you like to have on your snare because its the setting that was on the snare from your favorite song by your favorite band, and you want to share that magic with others.

#music production #lessons in music production #audio engineering #engineering tips #music producer

0 notes

faeuniblog · 7 years

Text

Official Script For Visual Essay

Page 1

Hello there fellow melons, I’m gonna be educating you guys on the joys that are the publishing industry!

So, Melon Sandy, I see you have your book there!

If you’re a writer that’s just written the best story ever, you’ll probably want to share said book with the world so you can make lots of money and be really famous, right?

But almighty voice in the sky who sounds super amazing and cool - like it really sucks that this is a written visual essay and not an audio one - I here you cry!

How do I go about share my creation with the world?!

Well, you have two options little Melon Sandy. You can go to Publishing Company or Self-Publish your work.

Page 2

Now let’s talks about what a Publisher is and does.

Publishing Company – Basics, Pros and Cons.

If you decide to go with the Traditional method and get published by a big publisher, you’ll need to have your work accepted by a literary agent first. Once you get an agent, they will take care of selling your manuscript to the big publishers (2).

Literary agents take 15% of your total income from the first sale. (1)

By going through an agent you’ll be paid an upfront advance for your work. The advance could range from £1,000 to over £100,000 (2).

Having an agent take care of shit is nice, but its damn hard to get an agent to take your work and even then, there’s no reassurance that they’ll even be able to sell your manuscript to a publisher (3).

If you're lucky enough to get a publisher interested.

The publisher will take care of editorial, copyediting, and design work, as well as invest in sales and marketing (3). Depending on whether you’re with a small or large publisher, the budget on these things can range from £15,000 to £50,000 (2).

However, one down side is that Publisher might make you edit you story in ways you don’t agree with. (3).

You probably won’t get a moving or TV deal but you stand a much higher chance by going with the traditional method (2).

Your book will be released both in physical and digital shops (2).

So, you get a load of support from a Publisher and Agent but in return you will have to give up a percentage of your earnings and control (2).

Page 3

Let’s look at J.K. Rowling as an example for publishing with a Company!

The first Harry Potter book was rejected by the first literary agency she applied too, and to add insult to injury, they didn’t give back her folder! (4)

She would luckily be accepted by the next literary agency, Christopher Little. Little sent the manuscript to 12 different publishers (who all rejected it!) before finally ending up with Bloomsbury (4) (5).

As when you go to a publisher, J.K was told to change the title of the US version from ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone’ to ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone’ as they didn’t think America’s would know what a ‘philosopher’ was would think it sounded boring (6) (7).

Hopefully, Melan Sandy, you won’t have a much trouble getting you book published as J.K. Rowling did.

Page 4

Self-Publishing – Basics, Pros and Cons

If you decide to go with Self-Published, there are two types of self-publishing: Digital and Old-fashioned (2) (3).

Anyone can be an artist or writer with the internet around.

Amazon charges nothing for you to upload your work to its worldwide audience, and websites like Tumblr give you a place to post your art and stories for free (2) (3).

By Self-publishing, you have complete creative control over your work, meaning it can be about anything with no one to stop you!

And all the money you make, is your money, no sharing with a big company!

With online shops like Amazon, you won’t get a money advance like you would if you’ll with a publisher (2).

Your book won’t be in bookshops and you’ll still have to face some costs like editorial and copyediting (2).

Remember, Amazon has over 5,000,000 e-books in its store and your book will simply be one of them, so it might be hard to get attention (2).

With free websites like Tumblr, you’re not going to make any money unless you go to separate sources such as Patreon or ko-fi but you have basically no limitation on what your work is about.

Page 5

An example of the Old-fashioned method would be making, printing and selling Zine, at conversions or online.

A zine (short for magazine or fanzine) is a small self-published work made up of text and images and is usually reproduced via photocopier (8).

They can be made by a single person, or a small group. An example of some popular zines are ‘Aint-Bad Magazine’, ‘Home Zine’ and ‘Record Culture Magazine’ (9).

Examples of people who have done shit with Self-Publishing

The Martian is a science fiction novel written by Andy Weir in 2011. Weir started writing the book in 2009, and was rebuffed by literary agents when trying to get prior books published. Weir decided to put the book online on his website in a serial format (10).

Fans of his book later requested him to make an Amazon Kindle version for 99 cents (the minimum allowable price he could set). The Kindle version sold 35,000 copies in three months, quickly rising to the top of Amazon’s best-selling science-fiction list (10).

Podium Publishing an audiobook publisher, signed for the audiobook rights in January 2013 and in March 2013 Weir sold the prints rights to Crown for over US$100,000 (10).

Homestuck is a webcomic written, illustrated and animated by Andrew Hussie and published on MS Paint Adventures. The comic is a combination of static images, animated GIFs, instant message logs and games made with Adobe Flash (11).

Homestuck arguably has the largest fan community out there, which has said to reach in the millions. Unlike the other authors on this list, Homestuck never got involved with publishers, this may be because it’s the only one on my list that’s a comic (11).

If you go almost any conversion, you are likely to find a Homestuck fan there either cosplaying or selling zines or art (11).

Page 6

By going with a publishing house, they will bear the costs, such as editing, marketing and paying advances, but they also take a substantial share of the profits can take control away from you to better suit their ideas of what is best (2) (3).

The changes the published made you do could arguably be for the better, but they could also be for the worst.

While is you self-published, if you want help for advice, you’ve going to have to pay for it with your own money.

With Self-Publishing, the author bears all of these costs but gets the benefit of all profits being exclusively theirs.

I think another one of the appeals of self-publishing is the control you get to keep over entire process. The writer decides the price, distribution, marketing, and public relations, they can also outsource these tasks if they want guidance or support (2) (3).

A lot of people who go for Self-Published end up with a Publisher anyway, but with a lot more control and say over what your product is then you would normally have.

Is this detour into Self-Publishing this just an extra, unnecessary step to get a Publisher?

Page 7

The method you decide to go for should depend on what type of story you are publishing.

For someone like J.K, the internet wasn’t a viable option while she was writing and she wouldn’t be able live off the slow money that comes from publishing on the internet.

She didn’t have the means to advertise her book by herself either, going to a Publisher was the only option.

Andy Weir tried the publishing root first, but they weren’t interested, so he started writing his book in a format that worked well with the internet (10).

Homestuck, could only really be a digital comic, there might be a physical one somewhere down the line but the original could only ever exist on the internet.

Both methods have the negative and positives.

But hey, whatever method you decide.

Good Luck

By Fae-Jinni & Melon Sandy

Ending

Page 8

So Melon Sandy have you decided how you’re going to publish your awesome book? (I turn to look at Sandy)

(There is a crushed Melon in the floor)

“Melon Sandy?” (Confused)

(It have bow like Melon Sandy)

(I look down to see a knife in my hand with Melon blood on it…)

(Camera movies to show my face. It is coved in Melon juice…)

References

(1) Staff, W. (2017). How Literary Agents Get Paid: Standard Commission Practices And Payments For Literary Agents - Writer's Relief, Inc.. [online] Writer's Relief, Inc. Available at: http://writersrelief.com/blog/2014/02/standard-commission-practices-payments-literary-agents/ [Accessed 18 Nov. 2017].

(2) Writersworkshop.co.uk. (2017). How to publish a book: a guide | Writers' Workshop. [online] Available at: http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/How-To-Get-Published.html [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

(3) Here!, S. (2017). Pros And Cons Of Traditional Publishing vs Self-Publishing. [online] The Creative Penn. Available at: https://www.thecreativepenn.com/self-publishing-vs-traditional/ [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

(4) Flood, A. (2017). JK Rowling says she received ‘loads’ of rejections before Harry Potter success. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/24/jk-rowling-tells-fans-twitter-loads-rejections-before-harry-potter-success [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

(5) Kennedy, M. (2017). JK Rowling posts letters of rejection on Twitter to help budding authors. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/25/jk-rowling-harry-potter-posts-letters-of-rejection-on-twitter [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

(6) En.wikipedia.org. (2017). J. K. Rowling. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling#Subsequent_Harry_Potter_publications [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

(7) Theguardian.com. (2017). Why the name change from "Harry Potter and the Philosopher''s Stone" in the UK to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer''s Stone" in the United States ? | Notes and Queries | guardian.co.uk. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-18387,00.html [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

(8) En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Zine. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

(9) Format.com. (2017). 11 Cool Artist Zines You Need to Own. [online] Available at: https://www.format.com/magazine/galleries/art/11-cool-artist-zines [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

(10) En.wikipedia.org. (2017). The Martian (Weir novel). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(Weir_novel) [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

(11) En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Homestuck. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestuck#frb-inline [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

#Visual Essay

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