#has three previous solo efforts

[creampuffqueen]

Amphibia Band AU Playlists

remember that poll i posted five million years ago about my amphibia playlists? no? well i finally remembered i did that, so here are the playlists, as well as some details about the band AU!

this is the entire 'discography' of the band, from all the albums they made.

this is the first album the girls made - Heartstomper! in the AU, Sasha, Anne and Marcy created a garage band called Sasha and The Sharps and played together often. eventually they were discovered and offered a record label, with Andrias Leviathan as their manager. Heartstomper was a rousing success, but unfortunately at this point the girls' relationship is pretty toxic. Sasha is very controlling, and writes most the songs herself, not letting Anne and Marcy have much input. this leads to the girls deciding to split after the end of the Heartstomper tour.

Sasha decided to go solo, splitting off from Andrias's management and writing her own album all by herself. this album is by far the longest, as Sasha became a little obsessed with the breakdown of her relationship with her friends, and spent a lot of time writing about it. at first many of the songs are very angry, but eventually she begins to realize she was also at fault for the breakup, and the later songs reflect this new understanding. the end of the album is almost an olive branch extended out to Anne and Marcy, asking for their forgiveness.

Anne and Marcy stayed signed with Andrias, becoming just The Sharps (as there was no longer a Sasha involved). with more creative freedom than Sasha used to allow them, they had a lot of fun writing the first half of this album. it has a very different sound to their previous album, with more folk music vibes. however, halfway through writing, Sasha dropped her solo album. the girls picked up on what Sasha was trying to say, but Anne was having none of it. the final half of the album is almost entirely written by Anne, and they are a lot more angry sounding. although Sasha was ready to try and repair things, Anne certainly was not. it ended up being Marcy who got them talking to one another again, after the end of the Curses tour.

after the girls joined together again, they decided to rebrand as The Calamity Trio. they also broke off from Andrias, realizing he was a terrible manager who was only in it for the money. the girls all had equal parts in writing this album, though Marcy's songs are especially prominent. with their rejoining, there are also some feelings being kindled between the three of them. however, all three are too nervous to say anything, worried about the tentative peace of their relationship. this album is an amazing success, and the newly reformed Calamity Trio is more popular than ever.

as they begin to write their fourth album, the girls finally admit their feelings to each other! (this one is my personal favorite). the songs are all about their feelings for each other, and how each of them is navigating this new relationship. at this point they are not publicly dating, but the sheer amount of pining in these songs makes a lot of fans speculate.

this album has a pretty specific theme; it's advertised as a 'blast from the past', with lots of songs in that more rock style than their past album. they also sing a lot about their pasts and their struggles, helping each girl personally make peace with themselves. now that they're older, they're able to look back on their past experiences more objectively, which makes for an incredible album. after this release, the Calamity Trio publicly come out as being in a relationship together!

i am super proud of these albums, and i've put a whole lot of effort into putting them together. i'd love if y'all would give some of them a listen! as well, i have extra details about almost all the songs, like which girl 'wrote' it, how the lyrics relate, etc. please feel free to send me some asks about the albums and songs, or just the AU as a whole! there's tons more i have to say, but i'm trying to keep this post relatively short.

but there you have it; the Amphibia Band AU! six albums altogether, as well as a massive playlist containing all of the songs for a very fun listening experience. seriously, this is my go-to roadtrip playlist; there's so many awesome songs to scream in the car! i'm also in the very very very beginning stages of yet another album, and if/when i finish that, i will post it here.

reblogs appreciated!

[irontragedyreview]

Do you still consider Horikoshi to be a bad writer after this chapter or think you were wrong in your judgment before the manga end?

Hi anon, I don't understand if your question is intended to be a genuine ask or you’re trying to mock me for my previous opinions were wrong or something like that. However, I was thinking of writing about the chapter and your ask is a good trigger.

To begin with yes, I still consider Horikoshi to be a mediocre writer, especially because this chapter doesn’t prove my previous opinions wrong, at the moment I’m not seeing anything more than a chapter that follows the last chapters where Izuku and Tomura were treated like shit for the plot.

At what point in this chapter are any of the complaints I raised in previous posts taken up again? Do we have something that gives a satisfactory closure for Tomura and fixes how rushed his fight with Izuku was? Is Izuku finally able to show some kind of feeling? Now don't take me the wrong way, the chapter has the potential to not be as shit as the previous ones, in the same way we don't know if the manga will end in volume 42 or be extended longer. However, if this happens it would mean that Horikoshi could had been more careful with Tomura and Izuku's confrontation and decided simply not do it. In the same way this is only an introduction so, why I have to retract or consider myself wrong? at least Horikoshi shows a real effort in not being a mediocre writer and giving some care in writing his mc.

If I have to make a summary of this chapter we have:

1. The graduation of the big three and Mirio's speech that follows Nighteye's thoughts.

2. Aoyama leaves UA and Shinso takes his place.

3. The 2nd and 3rd year courses will be in charge of helping in reconstruction and patrolling in disaster areas.

4. Midoriya looks sad, but that's the same for the vast majority.

5. Dabi is alive from what can be assumed and from what I saw from the unofficial translation of the chapter, it is most likely that the Todoroki family will be the next chapter.

6. Toga nor Spinner are named.

7. A random guy injured on the street.

Of these points the most interesting are those from 3 to 7.

Point 3 is interesting because it means that we can have chapters of different characters, because they are in different geographical locations and deal with their own problems. Point 4 would mean that Horikoshi stops treating Izuku like shit and gives him moments that let us know what his thoughts are. Since the end of his solo arc, Izuku's thoughts have been scarce, to the point that during his confrontation with Tomura, those are non-existent and that even the vestiges make the decisions during that fight, then we have a mediocre "conversation" between him and Tomura and when Izuku began to talk to All Might about the outcome with Tenko/Tomura, AM's words feel like a simplistic way of not addressing the problem and then bk started crying, while Midoriya, the one who failed in his mission of save Tenko, committed  murder and finally lost OFA just didn’t say anything. You literally have bk crying when the one who lost his dream or who has to think about it differently is Izuku and yet the emotional part belongs to someone else?

In this chapter we only have a sad Midoriya, nothing more. There is still no introspection, we still have nothing, just because Horikoshi has enough common sense not to show him simply smiling doesn’t mean that he still didn’t give us anything about Izuku, especially if we consider that the whole confrontation with Tomura was rushed and everything happened out of screen for a damn year. So no, I’m not going to congratulate Horikoshi for doing the minimum. If he isn’t  mediocre, he has to show me and lets his character express himself. For now you only have potential, Horikoshi has shown that he can but it would be the first time he just throws Izuku under the bus (bk abuse as comedy, his quirkless past, the loss of his quirk, his insecurity, etc)

Point 5 also has a lot to offer, especially since I already said it at the time but that Touya alive is still the minimum point. It's great for Shoto that he was able to keep Touya alive during their fight, but I always said that the relationship between Shoto and him still feels empty and that's because Touya's interest in Shoto has its origins in Endeavor. I know many are talking about hc where Touya rejoins the Todoroki family and forms a relationship with Shoto, Natsu, Rei, etc. However, a decent closing is long because we don’t know what Touya's feelings for Shoto are, we must not forget that in his mind he visualized himself as he would have been and among those around him, Shoto wasn’t in the picture because at the end of the day they never managed to build a relationship and we still have to know what will happen with Endeavor because beyond all Touya's feelings for him are an important factor. Point 6 has the question of what happened with Toga and Spinner. On the one hand, Toga and Ochako had the most satisfying confrontation, however there is something that Toga shares with Tomura and that is that neither of them were willing to just stop, don't get me wrong Ochako was the only person who tried to reach Himiko and understand her. Toga is willing to give the last drop of her blood to keep Ochako alive and in a way her words sound like a farewell but happy because she could like Himiko, without masks or containing herself to fit in. None of this means that Toga is dead but there is still some closure on what happened to her and on all the things beyond Ochako's understanding, does she have a place in the world? a place where she shouldn't pretend to fit in? This is what the LOV gave her.

With Spinner everything is even more complicated, because his arc is also mixed with heteromorphic discrimination and here Horikoshi abandoned the plot in a worse way than Izuku and Tomura. On this topic we only have the initial confrontation and I'm sorry but Shoji's words for me didn’t solve the problem because the only thing we saw of this fight was him telling Spinner that what they were doing would only be a setback for the acceptance of heteromorphs. I'm sorry but it’s a simplistic way of looking at discrimination because even in hero society we have heteromorphs like Nezu who are in positions of power, but these are the least while on the other hand we have heteromorphs without power or influence suffer much more, Shoji's response is that discriminated people have to prove that they deserve basic respect, but this should be a minimum bar and not a question of "show me that you aren’t dangerous and that I have no reason to fear you and therefore respects you and gives you dignity." Spinner's plot has been very neglected and there is still a lot to tell to make it satisfactory.

Point 7 gives a lot to interpret among those interpretations and theories that I saw, I can name the following:

It's Tenko, I know that this is a possibility that is being considered, I’m not entirely convinced, I’m not interested in Tenko/Tomura living just to live, because at the end of the day for me the important thing is what will happen with Tomura's convictions , one of the few redeeming things from the previous chapters was that at least Tomura's convictions ended up intact, so bringing Tenko to life means erasing Tomura? I don't know and I guess if this ends up being true we'll have to see how Horikoshi develops it.

2. Another explanation is that this man appears right after Todoroki's phrase about how AFO was created in a world like that, with chaos and destruction, in this case it can be a resource to imply that if the heroes don’t deal with this situation and leave many to sink into misery, we will be seeing the creation of new villains, who the fallen of the system with no chances for another life.

Well anon, I hope my answer helps you, I still consider Horikoshi to be a mediocre writer, what he has in this chapter is the potential to do something, I don't think he can fix what he already did but I don't know what he can do now, I will continue reading because I want to know how it ends, but my faith in him no longer exists.

[waklman]

Double Take

Chapter two: Rumor has it

synopsis: the hard-deck believes their prized solo artist needs to boost her social presence before a long awaited album release, with the help of a manager (babysitter). yet, you manage to ditch or chase away every artist manager that gets assigned to help you. as a last resort, the label contacts the only manager who was able to tie you down, the now retired Pete Maverick Mitchell, asking for a referral. lucky for you, the one person that comes to his mind is Bradley Bradshaw—who’s in need of a new job.

warnings: no use of y/n, mature themes 18+, explicit language, mentions of drinking/smoking. reader is 21 and bradley is 23.

word count: 3.2k.

previous chapter | next chapter | double take masterlist.

“What are you still doing here?”

You don’t mean for it to come off so harsh, but it does. “I know you’re lying about not being tired, Bradshaw,” you sigh, unsure of how you can usher him out of your apartment. “..it’s three in the morning.” 

By the other end of the couch, Bradley is wrapped up in one of your knitted blankets, fighting a losing battle. “Oh is it? I couldn't tell.” His speech is slurred and gruff, suggesting that he’s been up for longer than he should. 

This conversation has already repeated itself multiple times throughout the night. Bradley had been especially unrelenting today—not willing to admit to his clear exhaustion. He's been in your apartment ever since he 'overheard' you wake up this morning, the sound of your bed creaking apparently bled through the thin wall that binds your bedrooms.

And while you were in the middle of brushing your teeth, Bradley was already clawing at your front door, asking you to let him in. It was nearing 6 in the morning when you opened the door for him today. 

With pursed lips, you close the notepad you’ve been jotting ideas on, letting it gently drop into your lap. You considered yourself a great multitasker, but dealing with Bradley while drafting album concepts was no easy feat. He requires all your attention. 

Seeing that you’re now solely focused on him, Bradley slowly reaches for one of your throw pillows that lay by his feet, pretending to closely observe it while he slips out a not so discreet yawn. 

“Just because you're hiding behind a pillow, doesn't mean I can’t hear you yawning.” 

Bradley sighs defeatedly, not able comprehend how you’re not on the brink of sleep. The warm fairy lights sprinkled across your living room and the plush cushions swallowing his body were enough to send him into a sleep induced coma for the next ten years, yet you’re wide awake, trying to busy yourself with work as if you haven’t been doing it all day already. 

He’s sure it’s the relentless dating rumors he sparked—that keeps you up. Gossip about the alleged photo had spread like wildfire in the last few days, even with Andi and Graham’s feeble attempts at damage control. And Bradley knows that if the Hard-deck hadn’t wired “keep this under wraps” money to publishers, there would’ve been a swarm of baited articles posted about you two by now. 

Since then, he’s suspected you have been barely sleeping. Bradley’s even unsure of what time you go to bed—or if you do at all, because he’s been falling asleep to the sound of you shuffling around your apartment late at night. Not to mention, he hadn’t seen you attempt to rest once during the countless hours he spent around you either, which also means he hasn’t gotten much shut eye lately. 

“Why aren’t you tired?” he asks, using his forearms to push himself to sit up straight. 

You shrug. “I’m just not tired.” but your answer doesn’t suffice him. 

This was another thing Bradley managed to clock too–your loose-end responses. It usually didn’t take him much effort to get under your skin—Bradley remembers learning this through the one time he thoughtlessly drummed his fingers on your head, forcing Maverick to witness an squabble ensue from the simple exchange–with you blowing a fuse while Bradley’s grin just stretched wider at your displeasure. 

But now, your reactions to his provocations have diminished to either an uninterested face or zero acknowledgement. You must be angry with him for accidentally posting the photo–there’s no other explanation.  

Bradley pauses, roughly rubbing his lids to keep himself awake. You grimace at the way he has no regard for the sensitive skin around his eyes. “Can you just…let yourself be angry? I know you’re a polite little thing, Mouse, but you’re allowed to bitch me out. I know I fucked up, I can admit it.” he shrugs. 

“What?” You take a moment to grasp his sudden concern. “Why would I ‘bitch you out’, if I’m not upset with you?” his lingo sounds weird coming from your mouth, but you ignore it. 

Bradley’s more confused than he was before. He expected you to take the chance to lash out on him. Bradley knows he’s not the easiest person to be around–earning him endless complaints about being too exuberant or too clingy. But to his surprise, you don’t make a peep. 

“Why aren’t you sleeping then?” he asks, still not believing you. 

You suck in a breath, looking at him in the eyes to exhibit honesty, hoping it’ll subdue him. “Bradshaw, I have insomnia.”

He juts his chin at you. “How about you ignoring me?” The question catches you by surprise. 

“I’m just–a bit distracted, by this whole thing–it’s new to me, so..” you profess hesitantly. 

Bradley’s eyebrows knit together, confused by your answer, but he doesn’t voice his uncertainty–not in the mood to squeeze a long-winded explanation from you. If anything, a lengthy breakdown might just lull him to sleep, so he sticks to his straightforward questions. 

“You sure, you’re not mad at me?” he questions, eyes narrowed into slits to discern your answer. 

“Bradshaw, I’m not mad.” you state clearly. 

“What about the rumors?” 

“They bother me a bit, not because of you. I just–it threw me off guard.” You bite your tongue, slightly rattled by how easily the truth slips from your mouth. 

Your logical brain tells you it’s because you don’t really care about him, making his opinion of you void of importance. If anything, there wasn’t a point in lying to him– because he won’t be around for long. Especially once you get the chance to enact your ploy to get rid of him. 

Bradley gradually nods his head, accepting your answers for now. “Okay,”

You roll your eyes towards the direction of his apartment, silently suggesting he go back to his place and sleep. 

Bradley untangles himself from your blanket, understanding your gesture. But right as he’s about to get up, he stills and looks at you from the corner of his eye. “Will you sleep, if I leave?” 

“No, I said I have insomnia.” 

“Is he always like this?” you grumble into the phone. 

Natasha hums, pondering what you mean. “Like what?”

“You know..” You try to find the right word, staring off at Bradley who dragged you to the gym with him, watching him obnoxiously rack more weights onto his barbell. “..he doesn’t leave me alone for one second Nat. He’s like Bobby’s ratty dog–the one with separation anxiety.” 

It’s almost like he can hear the analogy you made about him–because now, Bradley’s trying to sneak a peek at you, lining his body up with the swole man next to him so you can’t see him.

But it’s no use, because as soon as he has his sights set on you, you’re already dryly returning his stare–catching him in the act. He shoots you a cheeky smile, trying to play it off. “..I hope you know–I’m sitting in a gym right now–he said paparazzi will never go looking for me in here.” you plainly report. 

Natasha lightly laughs from her end of the line. “Yeah, he’s pretty clingy.” Hearing you groan at her confirmation, she finds herself trying to defend Bradley’s behavior. “That idiot...he just–only remembers growing up with Mav.” Natasha begins. “And you know the old guy, he’s been breathing down Bradshaw’s back since his parents—y'know. I guess, it’s just learned behavior,” She pauses, recalling his usual demeanor. “..he’s like this with all his friends.”

“Friends? Yeah, right.” you reply cynically, watching as Bradley now makes conversation with the man he was previously hiding behind–enthusiastically pointing towards the protein shake that he made you try this morning, probably running his mouth about the new flavor he’s been raving about. It wasn’t even that good.

You listen to her clear her throat, trying to hide her amusement–but you know that tone all too well. “Aren’t you Bradley’s friend now?”

“He’s only my manager–for now.” you establish, coldly. You’d only been around him for a few days–not by choice. And Bradley’s already made himself at home with you, but you don’t plan on reciprocating. 

“I forget you’re no fun.” She says flatley. “Hey–you know you can be friends with your manager, right? Plus it’s not like you just met him recently.”

“Okay? Wait—Bradshaw’s done with his set, bye.” you lie to dismiss her, unconcerned as you end the call.

“Did she just..” Natasha whispers under her breath.

Bob’s makeup team all withdraw their hands from his face, letting him turn around in his wardrobe chair to face Natasha who pulls the phone from her ear, scoffing in disbelief at her screen. “She hung up on you?” he asks, curiosity piqued from listening in. 

Natasha nods, unaffected by the actor’s now bloodied face. “Like always.”

“Now turn back around Nosey Nancy, they’re filming your girlfriend’s death scene next.” she points an accusing finger at him. 

Bob’s grins at her affectionately. “She’s not my real girlfriend, you know.” 

“Yeah..whatever, turn around Floyd.” 

“Won’t you look at who it is, the infamous couple.”

You let out a huff, already recognizing the booming voice that calls out to you and Bradley. Getting called down the Hard-deck again was never a good sign, but for some reason–that being Bradley Bradshaw, you find yourself here for a second time in a span of a week. 

And seeing that Graham was sent down to speak to you two, there should be an impending storm of teasing comments, rather than a lecture lined up for today. All you can do is slump in your seat, deflated by your conclusion.

Next to you, Bradley is entirely lost in some other dimension–Graham making a show by the door doesn’t even exist in his sphere of awareness.

His jaw hangs loose–fully engrossed with the window view of a father and his son, eating ice cream across the street.

He’s most likely hungry, since you two weren’t able to grab a bite after his workout–being forced to abandon your quest for poke bowls when a group of teenage girls attempted to sneak unsolicited photos of you two standing in line together. 

“How’s the lovely couple doing this fine afternoon?” Graham sings, clapping two hands down onto Bradley’s shoulders. 

Bradley’s muscles tighten under his touch, startled by the sudden contact. But he’s quick to recover, grinning humorously at Graham who’s already pulling your frown into a smile with his hands as he makes his way over to the desk in front of you. 

“We’re doin’ great man” he gladly answers, unaware of the scolding look you’re giving him. Bradley licks his lips, wondering why you two have been called down today. “And don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it’s just you buddy–but why are we here exactly?”

You knowingly sigh. “..Media training.” Graham shoots finger guns in your direction, enlightened by your observation. “Ding Ding Ding! Three points to the main funder of the Hard-deck.” 

“Can I use my winning points to get out of here?” you suggest, making Bradley sputter out a loud laugh. Graham shakes his head, walking around to the front of the desk to sit on its cold surface, entertained by your remark as well.

You miss it but Graham eyes you curiously. You’re turning your head away from Bradley–hiding the faint smile generated by Bradley’s spurt of laughter. 

“This is great guys. Let’s keep this energy for the next two hours.” he sits up tall, puffing his chest. 

“What?” When did going through the manual take two hours?!” you squawk. 

“You see..” Graham scratches the back of his neck, beginning to laugh nervously. 

Bradley moves to the edge of his seat, oblivious to the impending bad news. His innocence to Hard-deck’s schemes causes you to pinch the bridge of your nose.

“We’re actually here to discuss a couple more things,” he stiffly smiles, knowing you won’t take this well. “Penny told us she wants you guys to play into the rumors just a wee bit.” He pinches two fingers together in display, trying to minimize your terror. But his failed effort is met with two horrified looks. 

“Hey! But guess what? You don’t even have to confirm anything.” He aimlessly flaps his hands around, breaking it down for you two. “..Just make a few public appearances together–so it keeps attention on you until the album release–it's great for press!” he finishes off, clapping his hands together–waiting for a response. 

Bradley swipes his mouth, trying to grasp the information thrown at him. After quick consideration, he figures that he doesn’t mind the idea–it wouldn’t affect him as much–but for you, it would probably cause a multitude of problems.

Out of curiosity, Bradley looks to his right, scanning for your reaction, but he can’t tell what you’re thinking. You’re absentmindedly staring ahead, with something unrecognizable glazing over your features. 

“..Let me know when my favorite duo is ready to go over their new schedule with little ol’me.” he shimmies, attempting to kill the tension in the office. 

Bradley tears his eyes off you, giving Graham a weary look. “Just give us a moment bud..” he nods once, offering him a curt smile.

“I know you’re nervous about this after party–but do you really have to make that face? You’re giving me anxiety too.” Bradley rambles, swapping his attention between you and the evening traffic. 

You’re not even that nervous for the party, because you plan on ditching it. But you can’t exactly tell him that since you’re too busy fighting off the bile that’s rising in your throat again. 

With clammy hands, you blindly paw at the interior of the door, trying to roll down the windows, unbuckling your seatbelt right as the glass slides down enough for you to fit through. 

Bradley tries to sneak a quick look at you, alerted by the ruckus going on beside him. He does an immediate double take, because he's greeted by the view of your butt in his face, with half your torso thrown out the side of the car. The glimpse of your white underwear peeking through the bottom frill of your dress, causes him to look away.

If Bradley had half the mind—which he clearly doesn’t, he would’ve realized you’re on the verge of throwing up the lazy sandwich he packed you for lunch—but to no one’s surprise, Bradley thinks you got the bright idea of turning yourself roadkill to escape the lousy event. 

“What do you think you’re doing?!” he shouts, flustered. In a stream of panic he tears one hand off the steering wheel–trying to stay in lane as he roughly pulls down the back of your dress, tugging at the fabric, insisting you sit back down, but you begin to protest. “Would you just—Bradshaw let go!” you complain, bringing back an arm to swat his hands away.

Bradley panics even further, alarmed by the truck driver honking behind him. “Can you just–behave.” he asks through clenched teeth, eyes still trained on the road. 

After finally ripping his large hands off your dress, you throw yourself back against the car seat again, roughly. “Behave?” you snarl, eyes twitching at his ignorance. “Yeah, behave.” he spits back. 

“I was feeling carsick.” you say–matter of factly, still coming down from your nausea. “So you throw yourself out the window?” he retorts, agitated. You whip your head to look at him. The skin of his cheeks are splotched in rosy patches and he’s trying to catch his breath–his shoulders moving up and down as his lungs expand. You click your tongue. “I needed air. It’s suffocating in here.” You look out the window, letting the cool breeze hit your face. 

“Is it my cologne?” His annoyance with you is quickly forgotten. Bradley frowns, concerned by his choice of fragrance. He should've never chosen today to try the new scent Jake bought for him. 

“Yeah, and your horrendous driving.” you bite.

“Oh really now? How about you get behind the wheel then?” he retaliates.

There's a pause of silence as you uncomfortably shuffle in your seat, “I can't drive.” you mumble under your breath. 

“Exactly, so–behave.” You can practically hear his smirk grow, without even having to look at him. 

“Maybe I should throw myself out the window.” you murmur to yourself.

You can’t remember the last time you attended an after party–almost forgetting how flashy these events were. Bob and Natasha were usually at these occasions with you, especially since Bob had been booking job after job this year–his career has been at an all time rise, thanks to Nat’s hard efforts.

But today, you’re accompanied by Bradley–who lingers closely behind you, fingers shielding the top of your drink in his hands. He’s supposed to be here as your date–under Graham’s clear instruction.

You start to feel queasy again, profusely sweating under the stream of purple lights being haphazardly casted across the venue, shooting from one corner to the other. The night club visibly shakes from how loudly the DJ blasts his dreadful music, and the mix of cigarette smoke and vape clouds fogging your vision doesn’t help either. 

Currently, Bradley’s talking to some big-time actor next to him—too starstruck to notice your discomfort. It’s disorienting seeing how everyone has to yell over the music to have a conversation. 

And though you’re dressed like everyone here–body lined in some overly expensive designer piece, you can't help but to feel like you stick out like a sore thumb.

Everyone in the industry can be found at this party, the ones close to your age essentially ignoring your presence as they group together in their respective circle of friends, swaying to the music together. You want to get out of here–eyes desperately scanning for an exit, not wanting to be reminded of your inability to socialize. For some reason, it bothers you more than usual tonight.

Finally, your eyes lock on an exit by the VIP section. You look over your shoulder, to see Bradley still buttering up the older man. Taking your chance, you quickly stalk across the dance floor, arms protectively wrapped around your own body–heading towards the exit. 

“Shit–yeah. I’m here with her right now actually. Say hi, she’s nice.” Bradley leans in, practically shouting in the established actor’s ear. He directs the man to look where you’re standing, pointing with the cup in his hand–but you’re nowhere to be seen. 

After a succession of rapid blinking, Bradley’s eyes shoot towards the exit he made note of earlier. 

You somehow snuck across the club, politely smiling at one of the venue’s security guards, as the massive man opens the door for you to leave.

"Shit."

note: thank you reading! please tell me your thoughts on double take so far, i would love to hear! :) that being said, reblogs are very greatly appreciated!

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[for-yoongi0309]

SUGA | Agust D ‘D-DAY’ world tour report

A liberation journal of SUGA, Agust D, and Min Yoongi

SUGA became the first in BTS to go on a solo world tour with “SUGA | Agust D TOUR D-DAY” (We will refer to it as “D-DAY” from now on). Just as the title suggests, the tour showcases the Agust D Trilogy, consisting of Agust D (2016), D-2 (2020), and D-Day released in April this year. The concerts serve as a record of SUGA’s life over the past seven years or more. It is a page that transparently reveals his current self and also “a very honest performance” according to his words. With only the encore shows remaining, we have drawn up a “D-DAY” tour report including detailed behind-the-scenes and comments from SUGA about how he put his concert together.

SUGA kicked off his tour with a two-day concerts in New York on April 26 and 27. He successfully completed 11 shows in 5 cities across North America before returning to Asia to hold 12 more shows in Jakarta, Kanagawa, Bangkok, and Singapore. The tour concluded with two shows in Seoul June 24 and 25, successfully completing a total of 25 shows in 10 cities. Despite the tight schedule involving flying between multiple cities in a short span of time, SUGA added an additional show in both Bangkok and Singapore, managing to perform three shows per week in each of his tour stops in Asia. About the demanding schedule of touring ten different cities in a limited time, BIGHIT MUSIC’s head of Performance Directing Team 1 Lee Byung Eun, who directed the show’s performance and choreography, said that it reflected “almost 90% of [SUGA’S] will” to “continue on with the flow.” The tour holds significance as it marks SUGA’s return to arena-sized venues after a long period of performing in stadiums as a BTS member. Ha Jung Jae, Lead Professional at the HYBE 360 Concert Production 1 Studio, the group that directed the concert, said the main advantage of performing in an arena is being able to get closer to the audience, adding that, “indoor arenas with a ceiling allowed for a different type of performance (compared to previous BTS performances). “The arenas I’ve visited during the tour are places I’d been to at least once before, so it brings back a lot of memories.” says SUGA, adding, “I felt a strong sense of how well we’ve been doing for a long time”. The grand finale of this long journey will be the encore shows scheduled for August 4-6 at Seoul’s KSPO Dome.

“Through this performance, SUGA aims to eliminate all the different personas that exist in the world he created and be reborn. In that sense, “D-DAY” can be interpreted as the end of everything, or the beginning, like a birthday”. According to Ha Jung Jae, “D-DAY” is where “the end and the beginning coexist”. The second VCR “Kill Them All” scenes depict the intertwined relationships between SUGA, Agust D, and Min Yoongi, leading to their killing each other, symbolizing the end of the “Agust D Trilogy”. On the other hand, in the “Thanks to” letter section of the album D-DAY, SUGA writes, “The intense struggles I had in my head had no clear answers, and after a long time, I am reborn as the present me, on that D-DAY.” This is why Ha Jung Jae named the last VCR “Re Born” and strategically placed “D-Day” as the next song.

“I wanted to make a two-hour show that flowed organically from start to finish like a single, cohesive entity,” says SUGA. Ha Jung Jae says he put in efforts to select only the “absolutely necessary songs” and arrange them densely together in the setlist. BIGHIT MUSIC’s A&R 1 Team Leader Shin Daye, who planned the arrangement direction of the setlist, explains “although it was his first solo concert, he had enough repertoire to perform because he had already released three albums,” adding that the arrangement was directed to “make all songs flow organically” following the dramatic development. Ha Jung Jae said that the setlist composition from “Haegeum” to “The Last” represents a process of reaching from D-100(%) to D-0(DAY), explaining that “if the opening act is at 100%, as in it is perfectly produced, things get closer to “zero (O)” towards the end of the show.” According to Lee Byung Eun, this is why spectacular and eye-catching performances like “Daechwita” are placed at the beginning of the show, “to keep the tension as high as possible without giving the audience a break.” As the performance heats up with the second VCR “Kill Them All” and “after the stage created for the show and the many personas that SUGA had created in the past all burn down,” the flow transitions into the one that showcases his voice and determination. After performing “AMYGDALA”, the last song before the encore, SUGA collapses on stage and is carried away by his dancers. According to Ha Jung Jae, this signifies being reborn after erasing everything and dying, with the last VCR “Re Born” as the turning point. This is also the reason why the following encore performance, consisting of “D-Day”, “INTRO : Never Mind”, and “The Last”, primarily feature songs where the reborn SUGA “can share his personal stories of what’s on his mind with just a microphone”.

“Whether it’s SUGA, Agust D, or Min Yoongi, I think this performance embodies the essence of who I am as a person.” SUGA refers to the show as “the integration of all the data I’ve accumulated since I first stepped on the stage 15-16 years ago.” Considering that Agust D’s music is based on documentation of SUGA’s personal life, the show had to start out from the “person” SUGA is. “While preparing for the concert, I had many conversations with SUGA. It was a process of synchronizing myself to SUGA as a person. We talked about past memories, current thoughts, and the future.” says Ha Jung Jae. According to Lee Byung Eun,“It was impossible for the stage setting, production, and direction to move separately” and that is why the entire staff, including SUGA, “had to work together from the very beginning.” Before the first song “Haegeum” starts, SUGA is supported by the dancers as he ascends to the stage, and after “AMYGDALA”, he collapses and is carried offstage

According to Ha Jung Jae, “It all started with wanting to break the mold.” The tour itself was a process of constantly breaking the mold. Ha Jung Jae explained the intention behind the stage production, stating, “In BTS concerts, there is an unspoken rule that the stage should have a 17-meter-wide and 10-meter-long space to accommodate a minimum of seven members and 20 dancers. So this time, we thought we’d eliminate the performance area required for synchronized choreography.” Starting with “give it to me”, a portion of the stage panels becomes entangled with wires and begins to ascend to the ceiling, and as the show progresses, more panels disappear. By the end of the show, there is only enough space for SUGA to stand still. Lee Byung Eun says, “Limitations in using the stage space made the performance design not very easy, but I saw the space under the stage as available, considering that the audience had a 360-degree view.” That is why during “Interlude : Shadow”, the dancers use the floor beneath the stage to perform and create a mirage-like backdrop around SUGA during “People Pt.2 (feat. IU).” All of this is part of the journey toward liberation. When asked about his intention of designing the stage in a way that exposes its rustic steel structure that gives an impression of being built crudely without a graceful or flashy appearance, Ha Jung Jae said, “I wanted to build a conceptually driven stage, a stage born out of necessity. By the time the show reaches near the end, I wanted everything to be destroyed, burned, erased, and reduced to the primordial stage of “zero (O).” He also explained that the staff’s action of seemingly dismantling the stage as “The Last” performance comes to an end is intended to make the audience perceive the stage devices as “unnatural, created elements” and convey the desire to “eliminate everything unnatural.”

“A production trying to break with the past”, as Lee Byung Eun says, is a reflection of the intention of SUGA’s voluntary elimination and liberation of all the personas created by SUGA himself. This is why Ha Jung Jae compares the storytelling of the VCRs where SUGA’s many personas kill each other to a potter “repeating the process of making and breaking the pottery.” For example, the hand with chains in the visual playing behind SUGA during “give it to me” belongs to the 3D-modeled SUGA that appears on the screen during “Agust D,” implying that another SUGA is watching over the performing SUGA from outside the stage. This is to convey the message that everything offstage and onstage are done by SUGA himself. As for SUGA’s calm exit without any ending remarks or farewells immediately after performing “The Last”, Ha Jung Jae says, “the moment the song ends, we cut off everything even before SUGA exits the stage. So, there’s no background music, and lights are turned on immediately, cutting off any lingering emotions from the performance. And as SUGA turns around and walks away at that moment, those three seconds show the real SUGA. We wanted the audience, staff, and SUGA to just be themselves for that fleeting moment.” The “fleeting moment”, as described by Ha Jung Jae, seems to embody the liberation from the obligation to show and convey something in a performance. By the end of the performance, which shows SUGA’s present self through the beauty of empty space, SUGA finally reaches a moment of liberation where he breaks free from the names he has created in the past and is reborn. “Through this ‘D-DAY’ tour, I was able to release my pent-up passion and love for performing, which have been suppressed during the three years of the pandemic. And I feel that this tour itself is a ritual and act of forgiving all my past selves.”

“Bringing back the music from seven years ago and performing it on stage again was made possible thanks to the love and support from so many people who have been waiting for me. It’s all because of them.” As SUGA says, the songs in the setlist “Agust D”, “give it to me”, and “The Last” are from his 2016 mixtape Agust D and they were given a new life through the tour. “This tour has been a long time in the making, so all I could think about was how much I wanted to actually start the tour,” said SUGA, recalling his anticipation before his first show in New York. “It’s been so long since the last tour. One reason I started a music career was because I loved performing on stage. So, I wanted to put the stage before anything else,” says SUGA on why he chose a tour as the main promotion for his new album, D-DAY.

For “Life Goes On”, SUGA plays the “brown piano” with a calm expression and sings, “Fortunately, our relationship hasn't changed all along / Let's greet each other, not with a bye, but hello.” The “D-DAY” tour is the moment of SUGA’s reunion with ARMY that he longed for in BTS’ “Life Goes On” and Agust D’s “Life Goes On.” “People who love his music still came to see him even though it’d been a long time since SUGA had performed there last time. It was sort of proof that ARMY was alive and well,” said Ha Jung Jae, recalling the atmosphere of Jakarta. “Thinking how much fans must have wanted to see me perform, I wanted to show them everything they wanted to see,” said SUGA. He tirelessly moved around the stage, interacting with the ARMY, and played the guitar signed by BTS members while singing “Trivia 轉 : Seesaw.”. “I wanted to show how much I’ve transformed over the last three years”, says SUGA, by playing “the guitar I took up during the pandemic.”

SUGA talked about the joy of “having a strong connection with the audience during a performance.” “During this tour, I realized that the audience should always have fun and enjoy themselves. And for that, I have to do my best on stage.” Lee Byung Eun says that it was “a performance that both the audience and SUGA enjoyed,” noting that he could sense SUGA’s happiness, joy, and freedom even from below the stage. “Before the show, we had concerns about performing tracks from Agust D that contain personal stories and unfiltered expressions. But after seeing the audience from different countries and regions enjoying the performance in their own way, I realized that more than half of the show is created by the audience.” As Shin Daye says, during the show, SUGA sings the music of Agust D, an alter-ego he created to express his inner anxiety and anger, but with a smile and together with the audience. He passionately sings songs that contain his extremely personal stories throughout the two hours, yet there is no longer a sense of sadness or anger in his demeanor. Today’s SUGA taps lightly on his shoulder, sings, “my shoulder shattered thanks to the accident I met during my part-time job as a delivery guy” (“The Last”) and casually walks out of the stage as if nothing has happened. When asked in Suchwita about which part of his life “D-DAY” represents, SUGA replied, “I think it��s about now.” His subsequent comments about his current state of mind suggest that the “D-DAY” world tour is perhaps the clearest representation of SUGA’s “now.” “I feel more content and carefree than ever before. I’m just so happy to be able to relax and have fun during the show as if I’m going to hang out and have fun with the audience.”

To ARMY for coming to the concert SUGA: In many ways, I’m glad I decided to do this tour. I remember every moment vividly. I always try to remember every single moment when I perform, but this time, in particular, no matter which city or country I visited, the audience was so welcoming and greeted me with loud cheers. I tried my best to match that energy. Whenever the instrumental for “Haegeum” comes on and the band starts to play, and the audience screams, I get so much energy to sing that I feel like I’m almost a new person. I think that’s why every moment stands out in memory. Thank you so much for your love and support for the tour. I felt and learned a lot through this tour. I can’t wait to go on a tour again with all seven of us. Maybe if I just close my eyes and open them, the seven of us will be on tour together. (laughs) Please wait a little bit, holding on to the good memories and positive feelings from this tour. I would appreciate it.

Article. Song Hooryeong

Design. paperpress.kr

Visual Director. Jeon Yurim

[hanzaikyou]

Ikkei Yamamoto Range Analysis

I'm back with another installment of this absolute rabbithole, this time focusing on Ikkei. Now, noone's made any massive claims about the range of his vocals yet, so let's figure this out before anyone does, shall we?

The Verdict

Based on what we've seen through various stages and musicals, Ikkei has a range of C3-Ab4, roughly one and a half octaves. The upper end is more rarely heard though, with most of his songs landing at a high of F#4-G4.

The Evidence

Again, I used every possible musical I had featuring the man to analyse this, and as such there's a large concentration of Morimyu, as well as his Tenimyu run as part of the 7th Seigaku. It was a little interesting, as many of his songs in Tenimyu are group songs, so I didn't have all that many to go off there. I also had a copy of ENStars Track to Miracle, which I didn't realise until looking it up that he was in. The more you know. Instead of looking for an upper or lower in specific areas, I simply collected the highest and lowest notes in each song I analysed this time.

Lower Limit (C3)

So, I did start with Tenimyu, but the two I'd narrowed down for him (Unseen Thread and Fight&Win) both seemed on the high end of what I've heard him do, so I focused my efforts towards Morimyu.

This turned out to be a good idea, presenting me with lovely examples of his lower register. The songs were consistently hitting lows of D3 (Emotion and his duet with Fred in OP4) and Eb3 (Devotion and the Three Brothers' Secret), so I knew I was close.

But there was one final solo I wanted to look through, being OP1's A Hero's Qualification. Turned out to be a great idea - Ikkei hits his lowest note in there, at C3. Very impressed. 10/10.

Higher Limit (Ab4)

Okay, this one I was able to use the Tenimyu songs as a guide of how high to look for - Unseen Thread came in at an E4, and Fight&Win at an F#4, both of which aligned with what I had heard from him previously.

This was the point that I figured out his ENStars appearance, and managed to track down at least one of his songs - his first, which I believe was called Heartbeat by Trick Star (starting at 7 minutes in) came in at an F4, supporting my previous theories. Also the silver ponytail guy has me in a chokehold, if anyone cares to educate?

It was then I turned back to Morimyu, which gave us some higher ones. First to exceed it was Devotion (which was first because please let's be honest That's My Favourite), where he hits a G4 as part of his higher harmony at the end.

The next to exceed it was The Three Brothers' Secret, giving us our highest note at Ab4, hit as they commit arson basically ehe. It is beautifully done, and rather strong, and I'm kind of curious as to whether he could go further, given the opportunity. But that's all I have evidence for as yet, so Ab4 is to be considered the highest proven limit of Ikkei's range.

What did surprise me is the sheer similarity between Shogo and Ikkei's possible ranges - Ikkei often seems just that much lower, and he's... not? That being said, he has a very rich lower register, and as he's often paired with people who can take the higher harmony (Eiji in the Tenimyu's, Shogo... always) he gets a lot of chances to show it - I also think Ikkei's lower tone kicks in earlier than Shogo's, though I'd have to check for that specifically to back it up. Was interesting in Kokoro wo Daite, though, because by putting his solo part between Hide and Izawa, he sounds rather high pitched; same thing happened in Devotion, where he took the high harmony against Hide's lower harmony... perception really is everything with this, and I mean, he sounds lovely either way slkdf.

With two of three brothers down, I kind of want to do Kubohide next - again, I'll have a fair bit to draw on between Morimyu and Tenimyu, and I could have sworn I had something else with him in there. We'll see I guess ehe. But thankyou for reading, and see you next time~

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday James “Midge” Ure born October 10th 1953 in Cambuslang.

Born to a working class family Ure attended Cambuslang Primary School and Rutherglen Academy in Glasgow until he was 15 years old. For the first 10 years of his life he lived in a one-bedroom tenement flat. After leaving school Ure attended Motherwell Technical College and then began to work as an engineer, training at the National Engineering Laboratory (NEL), in nearby East Kilbride.

Midge started playing music in a Glasgow band called Stumble in 1969, before joining Salvation, a Glasgow-based group that became the bubblegum band Slik in 1974. Upset in the change of direction, Ure left the band to join the Rich Kids, a punk-pop group led by former Sex Pistol bassist Glen Matlock. The Rich Kids only released one album, 1978’s Ghosts of Princes in Towers, before breaking up later that year. Ure spent a brief time with the Misfits (not the American band) before forming Visage with drummer Rusty Egan and vocalist Steve Strange; he left the group to replace Gary Moore in Thin Lizzy, who had left in the middle of an American tour. After the tour was finished, Ure fulfilled an agreement to join Ultravox as the replacement for John Foxx.

Once he joined the band in 1980, Ure helped make Ultravox a mainstream success; during this time he also worked as a producer, making records with Steve Harley and Modern Man. In 1982, Ure released a solo single, a cover of the Walker Brothers’ hit “No Regrets”; it climbed into the U.K. Top Ten. Ure and Bob Geldof formed Band Aid, a special project to aid famine relief efforts in Ethiopia, in 1984. The two wrote the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and assembled an all-star band of musicians to record the single; it sold millions of copies over the 1984 holiday season.

In 1985, Ultravox was put on hiatus and Ure began to pursue a full-time solo career. Recorded entirely by Ure, his 1985 solo debut, The Gift, launched the number one single “If I Was,” as well as the minor hits “That Certain Smile” and “Call of the Wild.” The following year, he recorded the final Ultravox album; in 1987, the band broke up and he began recording his second solo album. The resulting record, 1988’s Answers to Nothing, was less successful than The Gift in the U.K., yet it charted in the U.S., which is something Ure’s previous album failed to do. Three years later, Ure released his third album, Pure; while it didn’t do any business in America, the album featured the Top 20 British hit “Cold, Cold Heart.” He attempted a comeback in 1996 with Breathe, which went ignored by both the American and British markets. Four years later, his score for the Jon Cryer drama-comedy Went to Coney Island was issued by the Evenmore label.

Ure’s recording activity during the 2000s began with Move Me, which featured some surprisingly hard rocking material. A few years later, he published an autobiography, If I Was, and then, with Geldof, arranged the Live 8 concerts.

Following the release of the covers-oriented 10 IN 2008, Ure participated in an Ultravox reunion and continued to record as a solo artist. Fragile was issued in 2014, and featured the Moby collaboration “Dark, Dark Night.” In 2017, he collaborated with composer Ty Unwin on the album Orchestrated, which featured orchestral reworkings of Ultravox songs, as well as songs from his solo career.

In 2020 Midge released an album Soundtrack 1978-2019, he was one of the lucky artists to have completed his tour promoting this in February that year.

Midge has recently revealed why he turned down an offer to join the Sex Pistols, telling The Telegraph that he considered that taking up the invitation from the band's manager Malcolm McLaren would have been like "joining a slightly edgier Bay City ­Rollers". He received the offer to join the fledgling punk band back in 1975, while on a visit to McCormack’s instrument hire shop in Glasgow.

In an interview published in the Telegraph he said;

"I was stopped in the street by the Clash’s manager, Bernie Rhodes, who then introduced me to Malcolm McLaren, I didn’t know who either of them was, but they literally asked me to join the Sex Pistols without even asking what I did. To me it would have been like joining a slightly edgier Bay City Rollers, so I turned them down.

On 4th October he celebrated seven decades of music with a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. He is married with four daughters and lives in Somerset.

[starlene]

Analysing every song on the Änglagård original cast recording

I understand this is extremely niche content, there are probably four or five people besides me who have seen and/or are interested in this musical on Tumblr... so of course I'm going to post it.

The new (and super successful!) Swedish musical Änglagård has bothered me ever since I saw it for the first time – because in my opinion, at the same time, it's very badly written but also very enjoyable.

Under the cut is my futile attempt of getting to the bottom of this enigma of a show.

Before I start, please note that I haven't seen the movie the musical is based on. However, I think the number one mark of a successful musical adaptation is that you don't need knowledge of the source material to understand and enjoy it, and that's the point of view I approach this show and cast recording from.

Now, let's go. Änglagård the musical. Music and lyrics by Fredrik Kempe. Book by Edward af Sillén and Daniel Réhn. Cast recording produced and orchestrated by Fredrik Kempe, Dan Sundquist and David Kreuger. Analysis by me.

1. Prolog

A very standard musical theatre overture/prologue: it introduces a couple of reoccurring motives and the general musical tone of the piece. Some of the string parts (the orchestration is mostly strings) remind me of Kristina från Duvemåla. Nothing special in my opinion, but no complaints either.

[Edited to add: okay, one complaint. The whole thing kicks off with the "Änglagård Burning" motif that we'll come back to later, which I think is not a good choice because nothing much ever comes of that whole plot thread. But yeah. Put a pin in that, we'll come back to it.]

2. Upp

An extremely bog-standard musical theatre cabaret song about having a good time and being able to be who you are.

That said, I give the song a lot of bonus points for the tacky orchestration (on the album at least, I can't remember how it's done live). It has a very obvious synthesized sound, you can just imagine a three-person band in the back corner of some dingy early 90s nightclub playing this on their keyboards. The beginning especially is so deliberately bad it makes me laugh.

So actually, this song sneakily does a very good job setting up the world Fanny and Zac inhabit, and acts as a great musical contrasts to...

3. Farfars händer

In my opinion, this is the most beautiful song of the whole musical. Just... very beautiful, very powerful. Lovely lush full orchestra sound, amazing vocals by Fredrik Lycke. Some of the lyrics are a bit clunky ("och att få göra det för oss var meningsfullt" is, uh, not great) – but in general, I'm a sucker for this exact type of musical song, where some melancholy middle-aged man sings his heart out and the music just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

That being said, dramaturgically, this song is SO confusing.

In many musicals (and Disney princess movies), this spot near the beginning is reserved for the protagonist's big "I Want Song", and this certainly sounds like one: Axel wants to continue the work his grandfather started, and for that, he needs to buy the Änglagård estate for himself. So he's one of the protagonists, right, and the show is going to be about his efforts to do just that? Not at all. His struggles are a C plot at best, he has no character arc, and he doesn't get to sing again until the end of the 2nd act.

In short: dramaturgically, a song of this calibre shoud absolutely not be given to this character. Interestingly – and maybe this proves my point – they've used it a lot in their marketing (which makes sense both because it's gorgeous and because it's practically the title song), but the first version they released didn't feature Lycke at all.

All that said, musically, this does a great job setting up the world of Änglagård/Yxared and contrasting it with the German cabaret world of the previous song. Fanny and Zac come from a completely different world than this guy.

4. Minnet av dig

Helen Sjöholm's first big solo. What can I even say, apart from that this slaps. I love these types of songs that let an outwardly very withdrawn characters express all the anger and resentment they're hiding... and Rut has been hiding a lot of anger for a very long time.

9/10. My only criticism is that I think doing the "going full volume, dropping to a calm/quiet part, then going full volume again" thing twice during one song is a bit much. The latter instance almost feels like the remains of a cut dialogue break, but what do I know.

5. Barnet som försvann

An I-Want-ish song for our real protagonist Fanny – it's mostly about what she wanted but didn't have as a child, but we can infer that even as an adult, she wants to find a place to call home and everything that entails. It's pretty nice, with great vocals by Tuva B. Larsen, but not especially memorable.

6. En enkel gubbe

Comic relief funny men song #1. Succeeds in its most important task right away: the ending of the first stanza ("du är min lillebror / och du vet jag älskar dig / men varför i helvete / sa du inte nej") makes me laugh out loud.

It's a simple ditty and has a somewhat traditional/old-fashioned sound (especially at the beginning when the orchestration is just a couple of instruments; I think it grows too bombastic near the end, tbh), which of course fits the characters of Ivar and Gottfrid. Besides being fun to listen to, it sneakily sheds some light on the brothers' dynamic and their developing relationship with Fanny... if you're able to pay attention to any of that with the male ensemble doing a silly knee-slapping dance to this while the audience goes ecstatic. 10/10.

7. Sticka, sticka

The ladies of this sewing group really give the Mormon missionaries in Uganda a run for their money when it comes to repressing one's emotions! It sheds a light on why Rut is the way she is, surrounded by all these other women who have very unhealthy ways of coping with their troubles and insecurities.

That said, I think it's a little bit weird to place two comic songs right after each other, even if this one is a very dark sort of comedy. But then we have...

8. Åh herregud

Comic relief funny men song #2!

Everything I know about musicals says this song shouldn't be here. The comic relief duo's second song belongs in the second act, and it definitely doesn't belong right after two other comic songs... but I guess the plot demands they put it either here or nowhere, and they couldn't resist giving the old men another duet.

It's pretty fun, though, so I'm not protesting too hard. Tommy Körberg's little riff near the end makes me laugh.

9. Leva min dröm

This is... heaven's sake, this song is atrocious. This character does not need a solo. This song does not need to exist within this musical. This song doesn't need to exist within any musical.

I mean, this is the most clichéd musical theatre song I've ever heard! It feels like a parody, really. The lyrics are vague drivel about being able to dream, and musically, it just sounds like you put ABBA and Wicked in a cocktail shaker.

And of course I absolutely love it and have already listened to it many times.

What can I even say? Martin Stokke Mathiesen gives such a sincere and heartfelt performance here, I can't help enjoying it. And even though I stand my ground that this character does not need a solo, I have to admit a clichéd Broadway banger with ABBA-esque vibes is exactly the kind of song a character that wants to become the next Benny Ulvaeus (but is really not quite there yet) would sing.

Simultaneously, 0/10 and 10/10.

10. Jag är jag

Tensions are starting to build and we get Fanny's mission statement: you can't smoke me out or change me, I'll stay here exactly as I am and you'll have to learn to accept it.

It's a good song, and somehow, I think it has a very similar stubborn/angry energy as Rut's songs. Maybe that's intentional and we're meant to pick up on the two of them not being so very different in many ways?

11. Min plats i solen

This song is rather different on the album than it is in context. On the album, it sounds like a straightforward song about becoming a better person – but really, it's about how Rut almost psychs herself up to do the right thing... and then slips right back into her old toxic ways when she sees the Germans having an orgy at Änglagård, which is just too much for her repressed sensibilities. It's a bit of a silly moment onstage tbh, though I get where Rut is coming from. In any case, it's a powerful song.

The strings (especially during the instrumental break near the end) sound extremely Kristina från Duvemåla-esque. Maybe that's intentional, a little nod to Helen Sjöholm's big breakthrough? There's a little throwback to the phrase "jag är jag" in the lyrics, which confirms my thought about the music intentionally highlighting Rut and Fanny's similarities.

12. Kött och blod

I think this has too much dialogue to be a very enjoyable cast recording song... but Helen and Tuva are both so good, so it's nice to have an angry duet like this with them, even though it's interspersed with a lot of talking.

I like how the lyrics subtly shed light on what Rut's real problem with the Germans is: "och först i kön är gubbarna / som tagit av sin vigselring" – her anger is really insecurity, and it's all stemming from the trauma she went through when her husband cheated on her with her best friend, a trauma that she hasn't processed at all. Gah. The more I listen to this album, the more I feel for Rut and the more interesting I find her!

The "Änglagård Burning" theme at the end is very powerful, but... yeah, we'll come back to this later.

13. Poor Little Rich Girl

This song is also bogged down by too many spoken parts. I enjoy how Lindy Larsson performed this live, but it doesn't have a similar impact on the recording, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I like the orchestration with its slightly haunting melancholy sound, and "vi var lek vi var kitch / sedan blev du en perfect bitch" is a super catchy lyric, I'll give it that!

14. Ljusa minnen

As far as I can tell, dramaturgy-wise, this song has no reason to exist. It's framed as a moment for Fanny to learn some life lessons, but it's not really, because the stuff in this song is so far removed from her situation – actually, if anyone needs to hear this, I think it Rut, not Fanny.

In short, to me, this song feels like Molokov's sad solo at the end of Chess på svenska. We do not need to hear about this old man's trauma.

But of course, this show is a Tommy Körberg vehicle, so they needed to give him a proper solo. And it's pretty and it made me cry when I heard it live for the second time. So, uh. I guess just cut this one if you're ever doing a production without someone as beloved as Körberg in the role.

15. Utan Änglagård

Here's where the "Änglagård Burning" theme comes back big time. This is such a good song about a character having a complete mental breakdown. It's like you rolled Fleur-de-Lys and Frollo into one, it's super creepy and gives me the chills.

The problem here? It's in the wrong musical. As a part of this story and this particular character's arc, it's absurd. While I love a good musical mental breakdown, I think this doesn't fit with the realistic tone of the rest of the musical. Instead, it feels like someone has inserted Hellfire into Next to Normal, sung by Henry.

I mean, Eva, girl... I get you're upset because your boyfriend is leaving you, and has probably never seen you as anything more than a friend-with-benefits anyway. In a situation like that, you cry a lot, maybe go slash his tires at most. Literally trying to burn down his new crush's house is the overreaction of a century (and also makes me very worried about your mental health, which the musical doesn't address at all.)

And what really makes this song/scene weird is how little impact it has on the rest of the story. The fire is immediately put out and the whole incident is quickly waved off and never mentioned again. Why was this included at all?

But, again, the song is very good. Sofia Pekkari gives a suitably creepy performance, I especially enjoy the understated ending. The staging is very good, too, with just the right amount of fire projections to make an impact. Man, in some other musical, this would be the highlight of the evening, but here, it's just very confusing.

16. Skuldkänslor och skam

It's really just an intro to the next song, so I don't have an awful lot to say about it – but I'm glad they included it, especially seeing how the other reprises weren't included.

It's a short reprise of Minnet av dig with a tiny little bit of Farfars händer thrown in during Axel's part, which might hint at Axel already thinking of Fanny as family, seeing how Farfars händer is all about family connections. A great little musical detail, if you ask me.

17. Moln av vita lögner

Music-wise, I don't have much to say about this one. It's a beautiful duet and I enjoy it a lot.

Dramaturgy-wise, though... a while ago, I wrote a little post about people subconsciously looking for catharsis in musicals. That's something you're definitely not getting with this song and these two characters.

Here, Rut and Axel get to the point where they can admit their relationship is built on lies – but even so, I'm worried they'll just go on as they always have. The song is a sort of a half-apology. With Rut's reaction to Fanny telling them who her father is, I get the feeling Rut and Axel are never going to open that can of worms again... but it's going to keep bothering them. It's realistic, and it's also a frustrating ending to Rut's character arc. I'm not sure she's coming out of all this much happier or more content than she was at the beginning of the story.

In short, I think this is a weirdly melancholy song to have at this point of the show, but I guess I see where they're coming from with it.

18. En del av något större

The finale and the answer to Fanny's I-Want-ish song from the first act: she has found her place in the world.

I feel emotionally manipulated by this song/scene. I don't think it's a very good or memorable finale, tbh, I feel like I've heard circa seventy other musical songs with this same exact vibe and message... but live, it still made me cry. Of course onstage, they give the very last word to the funny old men, and it's just. Ugh. It's so clichéd, but it hits, and then you're crying and clapping.

I guess that summarises a lot about this musical, really.

So that's it for my analysis! I could also write about how in some ways, I think this musical is uncomfortably close to Så som i himmelen... but I guess that is a post for another time.

And in the end, no matter its faults, I really enjoy listening to Änglagård. It may be a bit of a mess at times, but it's the sort of mess I tend to like, and I'm really glad I've gotten the chance to experience it. May Fredrik Kempe write a dozen more musicals for us to enjoy! <3

[morkofday]

a mystery tag game huh? thanks for tagging me deanna @leonpob ♥

Current time: 0.28am

Current activity: am listening to music and trying to calm down enough to prepare for bed. it's been a big day today and tomorrow we continue :'D

Currently thinking about: how we get to see jimmysea and marknamtan in school rangers tomorrow! plus i had plans to order some food and watch the lol concert dvd now that i finally have it ^^ am excited for the behind the scenes plus i wanna see how they merged the two days together.

Current favourite song: following in your footsteps deanna and choosing 5! in no particular order.

I. chasing that feeling - txt II. unsaid - 4ever falling ft. auram III. yes - the rose IV. tamagotchi - ieuan V. apollo 13 - hrishi

Currently reading: stephenie mayer's midnight sun :'D this is for uni bc i am apparently continuing my analysis of twilight in my master's thesis. it's actually quite interesting to see these events unfold from edward's perspective (which probably tells a lot more about how bella has been written rather than the series and its plot)

Currently watching: last twilight and my journey to you. i still cannot believe last twilight is real even if i've now watched the first ep twice. with my journey to you, i only have the last two eps left. should finish it soon! after that i have some shows on my list to check out, most of those ones that recently started airing.

Current favorite character: mork. after today it's 1000000% mork. obsessed with this man. he's so freaking hot. i am having a mental breakdown about it. like damn p'aof put so much effort into making jimmy look like this and somehow managed to make him ten times sexier, that's insane. just look at him:

what the actual fuck. i am going to put him back in jail bc this is criminal.

Current WIP: currently i have three fics i am actively working on/juggling but idk if any of them will be finished any time soon. the first one would be my puentalay fic which i've been working on for over a year now. i love it to bits but it hates me. another one is my waitalay soulmates fic that started well but then got stuck somewhere bc am just a horrible perfectionist when it comes to writing wai. it's fun tho bc wai is so messy (and i get to throw him together with pat, pran AND korn. he's not having fun tho, sorry buddy). and the last one would be my morkday reincarnation "quick fic" where the main idea was to just have morkday have random conversations about these dreams day is having about them as different ppl in different lives. those lives would include mekpangpond (in the world of 55:15), waitay (in the world of bad buddy), and puentalay. this was mainly inspired by jimmysea's new solo roles in ploy's yearbook and the trainee which seemed to slot well with their previous solo roles. let's see if that ever comes to an end tho. i have a clear vision but writing is hard.

thank you so much for reading if you so did!

tagging: @daymork @jimmysea @forcebook @stormyoceans @celestial-sapphicss @icouldhyperfixatehim @dimpledpran @taeminie @raypakorn @snimeat ♥

[sarahlizziewrites]

Just a Grey-Sky Lark excerpt

A little scene I started writing a few weeks ago and the rest this evening. I am a straight-up sucker for a dance scene.

A rare sunny day traps us inside, and Matthew spools out in restlessness. He has picked up at least a half a dozen books and placed them, spine up, on every surface in his apartment.

"I wish we could go dancing," he announces, spreading his arms wide, shirtsleeves loose and dangling.

"We could go, tonight." I rise from the writing desk, and step towards him, pulled into his space like a hovering honeybee. If I have the opportunity to cheer him up, I will take it. "Two problems though, the way I see it."

"Oh, yes?"

"One," I croon, sliding a palm up the front of his shirt to his collar. "I would have to share you with the young ladies of Halifax."

"You'd get me back."

"Still." The frisson of attraction between us in moments like this never fails to excite me, even after all these years. His fingers trail up my arm, absentminded in our proximity, but still tender. I lean into him a little more. "Two - perhaps more importantly - I can't dance."

Matthew pulls back, appraising me. "I'm shocked. My mother's efforts at educating you didn't stretch to teaching you the art of the ballroom?" One virtuosic arm stretches out, held aloft with a palm towards the ceiling. "She always told me it was vital for the young gentleman's skill set. I suppose times do change."

Reaching up, I grab that offered palm. "Perhaps you could teach me."

The sunlight from behind thin yellow curtains almost seems to make his eyes glow.

"Would you like that?"

"Since you seem to think it's so important."

With a renewed eagerness, he scoops me towards him, one arm below my shoulder blades. "I'll lead," he purrs, his mouth suddenly at my ear, and dropping the hand in high hold to drape my other arm along his shoulder. The hand on my back taps against my spine. "Shoulders back, knees a little bent…that's right." Warmth floods him - old and half-faded memories from his old life; the feeling of a previous lover against his body, dancing together, just like this. It is comforting; familiar. I sigh into it.

“A waltz is danced in a three beat rhythm, like so.” I feel the buzz of his voice humming a rhythm with no particular tune; I feel it in my cheek where it rests so close to his collarbone. His body undulates with the rhythm of his song, and he explains the steps: a long stride, followed by two smaller steps to collect the feet together. “Simple enough.”

“If you say so.”

A soft chuckle. “See? Not so hard, is it?”

To his hummed rhythm, we are moving as one, rising and falling with each trio of beats. His cheek brushes against mine, and I can feel his smile. I can feel the joy and ease that suffuses him from a simpler time. A time long before we had met.

The faded rug and loose floorboards become a grand ballroom floor; the narrow gaps between the furniture become our path through a crowd of fellow dancers. His soft hum becomes a symphony. I let him lead; I bask in his joy, for a moment almost feeling what sunshine must have felt like. 

Then, his tune changes a little. The sun outside falls behind a cloud. He edges in - his hand slumps to my lower back. Sorrow leaks into his thoughts; insecurity. The feeling of sinking claws into something so deeply so it can’t escape, and, in turn, the tips of his fingers scraping against my skin through my shirt.

I can only fathom a fraction of what he’s lost, but I can feel it in his thoughts. He was doted on - to his mother, a miracle. To his classmates, all moxie. We turn together by the foot of the bed, more slowly now, his symphony decrescendoing to a thin solo. 

The room is near-silent, the sound of our feet percussing the floorboards the only accompaniment to his tune. But in his head, I hear a plea, falling out like a sob:

Never, ever, ever leave me.

We are close, pressed together in our slow turn. His lips are against the skin near my collar, a feather-touch. My eyes close, eyelashes fluttering against his neck. His song stops.

“I won’t,” I reply.

[bizarrequazar]

GJ and ZZH Updates — July 24-30

<<< previous week || all posts || following week >>>

This is part of a weekly series collecting updates from and relating to Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan.

This post is not wholly comprehensive and is intended as an overview, links provided lead to further details. Dates are in accordance with China Standard Time, the organization is chronological. My own biases on some things are reflected here. Anything I include that is not concretely known is indicated as such, and you’re welcome to do your own research and draw your own conclusions as you see fit. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or additions. :)

[Glossary of names and terms] [Masterlist of my posts about the situation with Zhang Zhehan]

07-24 → Hunan Satellite posted a preview for the episode of Back to Field that would air on 07-29, which Gong Jun briefly guest appeared on. Fan Observation: Gong Jun wore pajamas by BEAST that have a little French bulldog on them.  Addition 08-22: The blanket seems to be his own, as the same one was visible in the background of a vlog he did while filming Word of Honor.

→ #ProtectZZH trended, the hashtag having been made by Instagram-believers.

→ QuelleVous made a post showing evidence that another Weibo account showing support for the Instagram / brand is actually someone with professional connections to CAPA. 

People / accounts promoting the Instagram / brand who by this point are known to have professional connections to CAPA:  1.  Xie Yihua  2.  Sophie   3.  Lao Ahyi  4.  Umbrella  5.  Li Tianshi  6.  Lu Hejing  7.  Zhou Yan Is that enough to show it’s not a coincidence?

→ Efforts rose on Twitter to increase discussion about CAPA since they can’t stop us on international sites. CAPA trended.

→ Dragon TV posted a group promo image for Go Fighting! episode 5. They later posted solo promo images as well. 

→ The Instagram posted five photos of “Zhang Zhehan” working out that look different enough from him that I started laughing when I saw them. Caption: “Good morning 🌅 good afternoon ☀️ good evening 🌠”

→ Bluebird posted a thread discussing the narrative spread over the previous few days claiming that skeptics were saying the recent Zhang Sanjian videos are holograms. 

→ 361° posted a douyin where someone is pinched by a crab, then the transition makes it look like the crab is being stepped on. (Xie Yihua is referred to as a crab by those who don’t believe the brand.) 

→ Gong Jun posted six photos of himself from Go Fighting! episode 5. Caption: “Shallowly guess my true identity 😎” Fan Observations: There has been a trend I was not aware of where Gong Jun has been frequently including 浅 (shallow) on personal posts since 05-21, I’ve gone back and added these in. There’s a half-joking theory based off “nine shallow, one deep” that something will happen after the ninth one. From what I was able to find, this is the eighth altogether, sixth only including Weibo posts.

→ Gong Jun’s studio posted ten photos of him from Go Fighting! episode 6. Caption: “The extreme intelligence team assembled, and the ‘Nirvana Operation’ officially started. Today at 20:30, together with boss @Gong Jun Simon, we will uncover the layers of fog and look for the mysterious ‘pretender’.” Fan Observation: The photo of him blindfolded was not present in the episode itself, nor has any footage been released of it yet. 🤔 It’s the 8th picture.

→ 20:30 Go Fighting! episode 5 aired. [subbed episode]

07-25 → Gong Jun and #WordOfHonor trended on Twitter.

→ Gong Jun has been nominated for four awards in the Weibo TV and Internet Video Summit: one for himself independently, and three for The Flaming Heart, Go Fighting!, and Chinese Restaurant.

→ Tiffany & Co. posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ Kangshifu posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ Mengniu posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ MUJOSH posted a teaser image for their limited edition product with Gong Jun that later released on 07-29. The tagline reads, “I will love you till the end of time. I urge the trees, flowers and grass to go against nature, and be immortal for you.” They also posted three photos of Gong Jun from Go Fighting! episode 4 to their Instagram, [here] [here] and [here].

→ LockNLock posted winners of a giveaway, using a promotional image featuring Gong Jun.

07-26 → Colgate posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ A general meeting was held by the Culture, Art and Audio-Visual Communication committee of the China Federation of Radio and Television Associations, a state-run entity. During this meeting Li Xuezheng was elected as one of the committee’s vice presidents.

07-27 → 361° posted a drawing of a border collie with a caption that includes, “I sent the dog Xiu to stand guard for me today.”

→ Tiffany & Co. posted another cut of their commercial featuring Gong Jun.

→ A Zhang Zhehan lookalike was seen wandering around a mall in Shanghai. This is a new tactic by Xie Yihua and co., it is not him; other similar sightings have occured. At this point don’t believe any news you hear of him being seen in public, even ones that seem to be candy or that come from seemingly trusted sources. 

Remember that they are ramping things up for August. People within chatgroups have also heard Instagram-believers say they’re going to target those of us posting clarifications. If something seems questionable—even if it comes from me or QuelleVous or whomever—verify it for yourself if you are able, or at the very least make a mental note and keep questioning it. People can lie, people can be paid off, accounts can be hacked. Trust no bitch.

→ Tangle Teezer (which I mistakenly thought Gong Jun had already finished his contract with, whoops) made a post which included a photo of a pug. Caption: “What kind of bad thoughts can you have for puppy Xiu?” Toxic solos who mistook the dog for a French bulldog flamed the comments until the post was privated.

→ Kangshifu posted three photo ads featuring Gong Jun.

→ Dragon TV posted four gifs of Gong Jun from Go Fighting! episode 5.

→ YOUKU announced that Gong Jun’s upcoming drama Legend of AnLe will begin airing at the end of the year.

07-28 → People’s Daily made a post about water armies, the dangers they pose, and the need for an official unified effort to stop them.

→ Two additional stills of Gong Jun from Go Fighting! episode 5 were leaked.

→ Back to Field’s Weibo posted the episode preview that had been shared by Hunan Satellite at the beginning of the week.

→ Fans found that Zhang Zhehan’s name cannot be used in an e-card for a drink company, with the error message saying the “content contains sensitive words.” When customer service was asked, they cited that it was because he had “visited the shrine.” Fans tested the site and found that only other names from CAPA’s immoral artists lists are blocked. In case you need a reminder of why it’s vital that Zhang Zhehan is able to clear his name, here it is: he and the two thousand people who share his name aren’t able to do even something this simple. He cannot “move on and live a normal life” like the Instagram is claiming. And unfortunately...

→ The Instagram uploaded seven photos of “Zhang Zhehan” and “Zhang Mama” at a pilates studio together. Caption: “The best companion is to bring your family to exercise together 💪” [Here] is an interview from 2019 where Zhang Zhehan mentioned the topic of his mother’s attitude towords working out. An additional video was later also posted to the Douyin account of the pilates studio.

It has been found that this pilates studio, along with many of the other businesses that the imposter(s) have been doing photoshoots at, have professional connections to Songcheng. This does not appear to be a coincidence.

→ MUJOSH posted a photo from their new ad campaign featuring Gong Jun. MUJOSH also made a post with the additional tagline “I will love you as much as I can” on their blog and announced that these new glasses are a limited edition with 1150 products available. Sir. Fan Observation: The glasses are hexagon-shaped. SIR.

→ Danny (basketball player) submitted a video of himself and his family to the official Chinese Basketball Weibo. Interspersed in the video are two short clips of Zhang Sanjian doing sports that have been released over the last month. The song used in the video is Numb Little Bug, the same one Gong Jun used in a douyin on 06-14 that had a lot of us worried, which frankly feels very pointed.

→ Zhehan trended on Twitter.

07-29 → Downy posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ Tiffany & Co. posted a behind the scenes video of their ad campaign with Gong Jun.

→ KFC posted a photo ad of Gong Jun announcing winners of a prize draw.

→ QuelleVous posted that Songcheng approached Zhang Zhehan for a collaboration last year and he turned them down. This is unsubstantiated at this time. If it is true, it’s possible that this was part of the motive for at least some of what has happened, whether it had something to do with 813 itself or simply the fact that they are now using his image to advertise their businesses.

→ KFC posted an illustrated commercial drawn by 微微不早起, a CPF artist.

→ Back to Field posted a group promo image featuring Gong Jun. They also later posted individual stills of the cast members.

→ LockNLock posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ MUJOSH posted another photo ad, shortly followed by a promotional video spoken by Gong Jun announcing the limited edition glasses.

→ We Are The Champions posted a group promo image featuring Gong Jun.

→ Kangshifu posted three photo ads featuring Gong Jun.

→ Xie Yihua made a post admonishing fans for feminizing and creating NSFW content of Zhang Zhehan. This resulted in huge backlash from all sides as well as some fighting.

→ Dragon TV posted a still from Go Fighting! episode 5 featuring Gong Jun.

→ Fresh posted a promotional video spoken by Gong Jun.

→ 361° posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ Mengniu posted a promotional video spoken by Gong Jun. 

→ Hsu Fu Chi posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ Gong Jun’s studio posted four photos of him from Back to Field. Caption: “The warm food healing journey will also have exciting moments 😎”

→ Back to Field aired the second episode of Gong Jun’s guest appearance.

07-30 → Instagram-believers held an #AlwaysWithZhangZhehan hashtag event.

→ Gong Jun trended on Twitter.

→ The Instagram posted a video of “Zhang Zhehan” practicing boxing. Caption: “Wake up 🥊” Not long after, the account replied to a comment from a rude skeptic who criticized Xie Yihua, saying “Hope you growing a brain isn’t just to make you look tall.”  Fan Observation: A reminder that when Zhang Zhehan was being actively attacked by antis last July, he said nothing until he had put together enough evidence to sue the worst of them. A lot of Instagram-believers have been leaving recently because they believe he has really become this kind of rude and careless person, while many of the ones who are left were celebrating this comment. Also note that this was just over 24 hours after the backlash against Xie Yihua, whom the comment the account replied to was “concidentally” targetting.

→ Hsu Fu Ci posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ Gong Jun posted six photos of himself from We Are The Champions to his personal Weibo. Caption: “Shallowly guess who the champion is going to be" Fan Observation: Ninth 浅, seventh only including Weibo.

→ Gong Jun’s studio Weibo posted an additional nine photos from We Are The Champions. Caption: “In the canyon duel, the battle is fierce.”

→ We Are The Champions episode 8 aired and is available with VIP, episode 7 is now available for free.

→ Xie Yihua made a post threatening fans with legal action, posting a forged letter (illegal) and a censored lawyer’s license. The lawyer’s name was still able to be discerned through the censoring and was identified as one working for a lawfirm with connections to CAPA. 

→ We Are The Champions posted a video announcing that Gong Jun had won the title of Solo King. They followed this up with a promo image of him.

→ Gong Jun’s studio posted another photo of him from the filming of the We Are The Champions episode holding the ring he won. Caption: “Dare to challenge, courage and strategy to support together. Congrats to boss @ Gong Jun Simon for winning solo king~”

→ Two hashtags about Gong Jun’s win got on Weibo’s entertainment hotsearch.

→ Kangshifu posted an illustrated ad featuring Gong Jun. The caption includes, “In the summer that heats up as soon as you go out, the highest standard for testing friendship is probably not pigeons. Baking through the heat wave and making appointments on time is simply the pinnacle of friendship.”

→ We Are The Champions posted solo promo images of several contestants including Gong Jun. 

→  Addition 08-02: A rumor was spread online originating from a supposed staff member of Back to Field that one of the guests used to be a sex worker (“duck”). This led to slander against Gong Jun, connecting it to slander previously spread by Sophie and co.. Back to Field did not post any official statement about this other than to say they were disappointed that people were more preoccupied by this than the show itself.

Additional Reading: → Flora’s daily fan news thread → I’m organizing a Zhang Zhehan is Innocent hashtag event on Twitter for next Saturday, please check it out if you’re interested in participating!

<<< previous week || all posts || following week >>>

This post was last edited 2022-08-22.

[gaymer-hag-stan]

I love 9muses but I know very little about their history because I only started listening to them a few weeks ago, what's up with the three members you said wouldn't/were less likely to come back? Was there some tension when they were departing? Thanks in advance for enlightening me, have a nice day :)

Hi!

I'm always glad when people start stanning older or straight up inactive groups. I myself got into KARA after their initial hiatus in 2016.

So yeah, about the Muses.

Eunji is a mother and housewife nowadays and back when they released their infamous documentary that was filmed during their first couple months of activity she made a comment about only being in the group in hopes of launching a solo career later on, which is something a lot of idols do and think but none of them really say it out loud so it rubbed some fans the wrong way. But most importantly I think she's just done with the entertainment industry in general, she even seems to have deleted her social media or made a new account that I don't know of.

Lee Sem created some tension back in 2021 when seven of the Muses (Kyungri, Hyemi, Keumjo, Sojin, Minha, Hyuna and Euaerin) joined forces for a TV show where a bunch of other idols (After School was there but other than them and 9MUSES I don't remember who else) regrouped to perform some hit songs one more time. Lee Sem said that while she knew about it she was never properly informed about preparations for it or invited and she felt that, since they performed Dolls, a song the group released while she was still a part of it, they should have made a better effort to reach out to her and include her. She strongly hinted that it was Hyuna and Euaerin specifically who she thinks were actively gatekeeping her off this performance, she never mentioned them by name but fans figured out she must have been talking about them. Fans felt she was unnecessarily stirring the pot and trying to ruin the performance and that she "abandoned" them on her own will and was now trying to get attention while the other girls stayed in the group until the end (which I feel is a bit unfair because at the end of the day only four out of a total of fourteen girls stayed in the group by the time she disbanded and out of said four only Hyemi never left the group) She eventually said that she talked with the Muses and they squashed the beef but then she went off social media again. I hope there's truly no ill will there but I feel like both parties would be more apprehensive about Lee Sem joining the upcoming comeback.

A bit of a trigger warning as I will be discussing mental health issues and thoughts regarding s*****e regarding Sera's part

Sera is on YouTube and I think she either outright said that she was never even considered from the previous reunion performance or at least strongly hinted at it and she wasn't too happy about that. Furthermore she has been quite open about the severe mental health issues her time as a 9MUSES member has caused her, from depression to social anxiety and even thinking of ending her own life. She did clarify that she is getting treated for all of her mental issues and that she is getting better but even if the other girls properly invite her this time, I'm not sure if she would be willing to join. I hope she does but, obviously, only if she is certain she can handle it because she clarified that 9MUSES emphasis on sex appeal on many of their stage outfits made her constantly question her height, weight and looks compared to the rest of the Muses was a constant source of anxiety for her. On top of that the Muses were promoted from day one as "modelsols" as in models who are idols because all of the initial and most of the subsequent girls had either worked as models or had the height and respective measurements associated with runway models and that made a lot of people online actively jealous and hateful towards them. A lot of people seem to retroactively think that the main reason 9MUSES never really took off was that the general public at large was jealous of a group of tall, beautiful women that could sing and dance and released feminine and bold music on top of that. Ultimately, a lot of fans consider Sera an integral part of the group. She was their most competent vocalist and was their leader pre debut, lost the position due to too much stress being put on her but assumed it again after the other girl left, was actively interested in making music and didn't see it as just a way to gain enough popularity to later do something else in the idol business, actively carried them forward through their tough times and her voice was instantly recognisable in their tracks up to her departure. A lot of people felt like the group lost a big part of its identity with Sera's departure and therefore a lot of people want to see her back, but only if she's ready.

Lastly, Sungah was the other member I talked about that may or may not join them. She was absent from their reunion because she's also a mother now but she seems to be more in touch with the members than either Sera or the other girls so maybe she'll join this time? Korea has a really hard time accepting married women and mothers as idol singers so there's this negative perception each time one of them attempts to rejoin the industry after starting a family. It's also why Hyuna may skip this one too but she was among the seven that were present in the last reunion so I think her chances are higher.

There's also Jaekyung, Rana and Bini, three of the original nine, but they left almost immediately after their debut so I don't think any of them are either interested or at all in touch with the rest of the Muses

I hope I didn't skip any important details, I'm not a hardcore stan myself, I just really love their music and follow the 2013 Muses on Instagram so if any other fan has anything to add or correct please do

[yesthatssadirichardslove]

Bruce Springsteen returns to the stage in Phoenix after health issues postponed his 2023 world tour

PHOENIX

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band returned to the stage Tuesday evening at the Footprint Center in Phoenix in a triumphant reboot of the Boss’ postponed 2023 world tour.

In September Springsteen, 74, announced his tour would be delayed until 2024, citing doctor’s advice as he recovered from peptic ulcer disease.

“The Boss” arrived on stage to an audience chorus of “Bruuuuce!” Wearing dark jeans and a rolled up red plaid flannel shirt, he had the energy of a man half his age. His signature “One, two, three, four” was the only thing that separated most songs, showing no signs of his illness from the previous year. Once he shouted, “Good evening, Arizona” the show was off and running.

Springsteen spoke to the crowd briefly about his illness prior to playing his final song “I’ll See You In My Dreams” solo on stage. “Phoenix, first I want to apologize if there was any discomfort because we had to move the show last time. . . . I hope we didn’t inconvenience you too much.”

The 29-song show came in just under three hours, but “The Boss” hardly broke a sweat while showing off a strong voice, all the while dancing, tearing into guitar solos, playing the harmonica and even ripping his shirt open near the end of the show.

On stage with Springsteen was the legendary E Street Band which features drummer Max Weinberg, bassist Garry Tallent, keyboardists Roy Bittan and Charlie Giordano, guitarists Stevie Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren, saxophonist Jake Clemons — nephew of original and still missed sax man Clarence Clemons who died in 2011 — guitarist and violin player Soozie Tyrell, a full horn and brass section and four backup vocalists. The only missing member of the band was Springsteen’s wife, singer and guitarist Patti Scialfa.

Springsteen performed most of the hits in his vast collection, minus “Born In The U.S.A.,” but he added covers “Nightshift” by the Commodores, “Because The Night” by Patti Smith Group, and a surprise: “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles. Fans went wild for “No Surrender,” “Born To Run,” “Rosalita,” “Dancing In The Dark,” “Glory Days” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" that left the rocker grinning from ear-to-ear as he conducted fans singing along like his own chorus.

This year has been particularly challenging for Springsteen. In addition to his health issues, in January his mother, Adele Ann Springsteen, a fan favorite who could frequently be seen dancing at his shows, died. She was 98.

Two days after her death, Springsteen performed at the 2024 MusiCares Person of the Year event, which honored Jon Bon Jovi for his musical achievements and philanthropic efforts.

The 2024 edition of the tour kicked off in Phoenix and ends Nov. 22 in Vancouver, Canada. It hits 17 countries across 52 dates, including a special performance on Sept. 15 where Springsteen will headline the Sea.Hear.Now Festival in his hometown of Asbury Park, New Jersey.

[ridley-was-a-cat]

What I Watched This Week – 1/21 – 1/27

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill – When the nominations were announced for the r/anime awards, I had only seen one out of the eight nominations in the slice of life category: Skip and Loafer. I’ve since watched Onimai, and tried to watch Masterful Cat, so this makes three completed. It had a steep uphill climb for me, as one of the things that annoys me the most about modern isekai is the tiresome obsession with Japanese food, and this is an isekai centered around a man sent to another world and given the magical ability to order food from a Japanese online grocery. I just can’t get past the arrogance required to imagine that the Japanese equivalent of Little Debbie and Hormel would be so mind-blowingly delicious to alternate dimension beings that a monster strong enough to solo a dragon for funsies would make himself your servant. The adventure part of the story was entertaining (and it is an adventure story, I have no idea why this is in slice of life, but it’s hardly the only title that doesn’t belong here) and I liked the characters enough to plan to watch the sequel. The cooking part of the story, though, where he just drowns everything in name-brand sauces, doesn’t really do it for me. 6/10

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 2 – For years people have talked up this particular season of the series as some kind of marvel, but I ended up liking it less than I did season one. Centered on Team Spica members Toukai Teiou and Mejiro McQueen, this season deals heavily with getting injured, rehabbing from injury, and attempting to make a comeback after time away, and I did not like how they handled it. Sports anime in general has a fairly unhealthy tendency to romanticize overtraining as evidence of a strong work ethic and dedication to a sport or team, and that was on display here as well, with multiple frustrating montages of horse girls overworking themselves and neglecting rest. Additionally, when recurring injury or more chronic conditions leads some of the characters to consider retirement, it’s labeled as “quitting” or “giving up”, and they’re pressured by the people around them, who make emotional pleas for them to continue racing. The total disregard for athletes’ well being was really frustrating. I still find the idol performance segments a little insulting to both women athletes, whose sports performance should be entertainment enough, and idols, whose efforts and talent should not be belittled by the suggestion that anyone can do it. It wasn’t a chore to sit through, despite all my complaints, but it was less fun than the previous season. 6/10

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby – Road to the Top – The only reason I started watching this series was to watch this particular entry, which was nominated by the r/anime jury for Anime of the Year. To its credit, it’s fairly different than the first two entries. It’s only four episodes long, it focuses on three racers not on Team Spica, and it’s a serious step up visually. I thought the color palette for seasons one and two was kind of oversaturated, whereas this series had a more sophisticated look to it. The animation was never bad in the series, but it was straight up good here, with lots of movement and fun distortions. I was pretty neutral on the series cast up to this point, with the exception of Team Spica’s Gold Ship, whom I adore, and this series added one more to the adore column, with the introduction of T.M. Opera O, who was fantastically overdramatic in everything she did. I liked that the story was more than girls professing to each other to be the fastest or promising to race each other, and that two of the three main characters got extensive backstories. There was a still a frustrating amount of overtraining, and those damned idol performances still exist, but this was easily the best entry in the series, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. 7/10

Tsurune S2 – In all my bellyaching about the AOTY nominations this year, I’ve mentioned Tsurune as one of the shows I wished got nominated, so I figured I should rewatch it to make sure it was as good as I remembered it being. It was. The production is just solid all around; the soundtrack, the sound design, the animation, the cinematography, and the art are all excellent. It manages the large cast incredibly well, giving all three teams the right amount of depth and backstory to lend the archery matches emotional stakes. The fight between the two cousins on the main team in episode five might be the best single episode from last year with how it perfectly captured the way only a very close friend can push your buttons before resolving it with a pitched battle that ends in a fit of the giggles. How this got left off the shortlist in favor of Road to the Top or basically anything else just mystifies me. 9/10

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday James “Midge” Ure born October 10th 1953 in Cambuslang.

Born to a working class family Ure attended Cambuslang Primary School and Rutherglen Academy in Glasgow until he was 15 years old. For the first 10 years of his life he lived in a one-bedroom tenement flat. After leaving school Ure attended Motherwell Technical College and then began to work as an engineer, training at the National Engineering Laboratory (NEL), in nearby East Kilbride.

Midge started playing music in a Glasgow band called Stumble in 1969, before joining Salvation, a Glasgow-based group that became the bubblegum band Slik in 1974. Upset in the change of direction, Ure left the band to join the Rich Kids, a punk-pop group led by former Sex Pistol bassist Glen Matlock. The Rich Kids only released one album, 1978’s Ghosts of Princes in Towers, before breaking up later that year. Ure spent a brief time with the Misfits (not the American band) before forming Visage with drummer Rusty Egan and vocalist Steve Strange; he left the group to replace Gary Moore in Thin Lizzy, who had left in the middle of an American tour. After the tour was finished, Ure fulfilled an agreement to join Ultravox as the replacement for John Foxx.

Once he joined the band in 1980, Ure helped make Ultravox a mainstream success; during this time he also worked as a producer, making records with Steve Harley and Modern Man. In 1982, Ure released a solo single, a cover of the Walker Brothers’ hit “No Regrets”; it climbed into the U.K. Top Ten. Ure and Bob Geldof formed Band Aid, a special project to aid famine relief efforts in Ethiopia, in 1984. The two wrote the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and assembled an all-star band of musicians to record the single; it sold millions of copies over the 1984 holiday season.

In 1985, Ultravox was put on hiatus and Ure began to pursue a full-time solo career. Recorded entirely by Ure, his 1985 solo debut, The Gift, launched the number one single “If I Was,” as well as the minor hits “That Certain Smile” and “Call of the Wild.” The following year, he recorded the final Ultravox album; in 1987, the band broke up and he began recording his second solo album. The resulting record, 1988’s Answers to Nothing, was less successful than The Gift in the U.K., yet it charted in the U.S., which is something Ure’s previous album failed to do. Three years later, Ure released his third album, Pure; while it didn’t do any business in America, the album featured the Top 20 British hit “Cold, Cold Heart.” He attempted a comeback in 1996 with Breathe, which went ignored by both the American and British markets. Four years later, his score for the Jon Cryer drama-comedy Went to Coney Island was issued by the Evenmore label.

Ure’s recording activity during the 2000s began with Move Me, which featured some surprisingly hard rocking material. A few years later, he published an autobiography, If I Was, and then, with Geldof, arranged the Live 8 concerts.

Following the release of the covers-oriented 10 IN 2008, Ure participated in an Ultravox reunion and continued to record as a solo artist. Fragile was issued in 2014, and featured the Moby collaboration “Dark, Dark Night.” In 2017, he collaborated with composer Ty Unwin on the album Orchestrated, which featured orchestral reworkings of Ultravox songs, as well as songs from his solo career.

In 2020  Midge released an album Soundtrack 1978-2019, he was one of the lucky artists to have completed his tour promoting this in February that year. 

Midge is currently in the middle of doing his  Voice & Visions tour and is currently in Germany, he has a night off for his birthday but is playing Berlin and Leipzig tomorrow and Wednesday before hitting  Sweden, Benelux, italy, Austria and Poland.  Gigs next year include nights in England and Wales as well as The Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Glasgow Barrowlands and Aberdeens Music Hall in May.

[anyways-wonderwall]

Album of the Week #71

Psy 9th

(2022)

by Psy

Overall Rating: 6/10

TL;DR: This album is just lacking the magic that his previous hits had, and he’s left hanging on to the magic of his guests. 

(I have to say though, this is a pretty gnarly album cover, 9/10)

Overall Thoughts

Speaking of old kpop stars, have you ever wondered what happened to Psy? Man comes out with one of the greatest songs of the century, makes kpop a household name, releases a followup that does not do as well, then he isn’t heard from again. That isn’t from a lack of effort, since 2012 he has released three albums, and done songs with will.i.am (?),Snoop Dogg (??), and Ed Sheeran (??!!?) and tons with super big name kpop stars. In this album though he collabed with a member of BTS which means we’re now reminded he exists. 

This album was a clear attempt to come back into the public consciousness and this time it worked. The big song (“That That”) with Suga from BTS shows the fun Psy that we know with great horns and a super infectious melody. The only thing its lacking for me is a super good chorus, this one is just too stagnant and simple, lacking something that would push it into being a song I would actually seek out. 

He spends the rest of the album collabing with different big artists, many of which have recently joined the label he started as a kind of safe haven from the harshness of the big 3. The songs with Crush and Sung Si Kyung are pretty boring examples of what I call “Chinese Supermarket Music,” a crawling ballad that seems to never end and is sung by someone that is giving a little too much. “Sleepless” with Heize left a lot to be desired for me as I absolutely love her as an artist and was annoyed he used her (like almost every other guest artist in this album) as just someone to sing the chorus while he raps the verses. “GANJI” featuring Jessi thankfully breaks this pattern, with a “screw the haters” song that’s kind of funny to imagine Psy singing. Especially when you add the fact that Jessi is the most stereotypically New Yorker you can imagine, with all of her English words in the song toting a New York accent. The song is a little abrasive but if that’s your thing then it’s pretty good. 

My favorite off of the album is “Now” with Hwasa (one of my favorite kpop artists of all time) which I applauded for being so authentically 80s, with period perfect synths and a sense of drama that can only be possible in the early 80s. While it turns out it was TOO authentically 80s, as its a cover of “When the Rain Begins to Fall” by Jermaine Jackson, and the only thing they changed was the language of the lyrics. I mean I’m glad they introduced me to the better original version, but that’s the thing, the original is better! C’mon Psy!

Now there are Psy solo works on this album obviously, but honestly none of them are that good. All of them seem to call back to a 2010s era of pop that we’ve all moved on from, with “Hello Monday” just sounding like a 2015 hit that everyone moved on from a week later, and “Everday” being a song that would be playing over a lasertag game from my 12th birthday. The only song that is memorable is “Celeb” but its too simple and is just lacking the substance to be a single.

Listen, I write this all as a Psy lover. Someone who measures their time as BGS and AGS (Before and After Gangnam Style) and listened to this album the day it dropped. This album is just lacking the magic that his previous hits had, and he’s left hanging on to the magic of his guests. 

Next week's review: ダンサブル (2017) by Rhymeste

[linuxgamenews]

Experience Men of War II in Beta: Faster Loading and Even Better Graphics

Men of War II multiplayer RTS game to release a Beta weekend for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Which is the result of the work and effort of developer Best Way. Due to make its way onto Steam and Humble Store in 2024. Let's get into this exciting news about Men of War II, the multiplayer RTS game that's making waves in Linux gaming. There's a big event happening for Men of War II – a Beta weekend! It's due to start on November 16th until the 21st on Steam. This is not just any test run; it's also a chance to see all the updates the developers have working on.

What’s New?

Better Experience: Men of War II now runs smoother with quicker loading times, and the graphics look even more amazing.

New Mode - Officer Mode: This is a tough challenge where you have to protect a very important character in the game. If the enemies get him, you lose. Since it's all about using your tactics and being quick to make the right moves.

More to Play: There are two new missions to try out, one for the USA and one for Germany. These missions are due to be like stepping into a history book about World War II, but you're in control. Plus, the Soviet campaign is back too!

Maps Galore: Four new maps, making it a total of ten. Each map is a different playground for your strategies.

Feedback Matters: The Men of War II developers have listened to what thousands of players feedback about the previous versions. Now making a bunch of improvements.

Men of War II | Open Beta Trailer

Beta Content:

Different Ways to Play Against Others (PvP): You've got three styles - PvP, Combined Arms, and Classic. Each one offers a different way to compete against other players.

Game Settings: Choose between Competitive or Realism. Since it's all about how challenging you want your experience to be.

Modes to Play: Four modes where you can face off against other players or even AI bots. These are Front Line, Assault Zones, Combat, and Incursion.

Solo or Team Missions: There are three missions you can play alone or with friends - Towards Freedom, Convoy, and Through The Snow.

Lots of Maps: Ten different maps in total, including Witch's Vale, Village, Champagne, Polesie, and more.

What’s Improved?

Matchmaking and Leaderboards: You can also see how you rank in the Classic mode and in Combined Arms.

Faster Load Times: No more waiting around; the Men of War II loading times are much shorter.

Better Rewards: In PvE, completing tasks gets you new battalions and supply points.

Smarter Vehicles: Vehicles in Men of War II move around smarter now.

Balancing: Based on players feedback, the title's balance has been tweaked for a better experience.

More Realistic Battles: In Realism mode, battles feel even more lifelike.

UI and Sound Upgrades: The user interface and sounds see an improvement for a better overall feel.

Important Note: Remember, whatever you do in the Beta won't carry over to the final build when it launches on Linux. Launch Date: Men of War II is due to be fully available in 2024 on Linux, Mac, and Windows PC via Steam and Humble Store. So, that's a lot happening with Men of War II. The Beta weekend is a perfect time to jump in and play the new features and improvements. It's a multiplayer RTS title that's not just about action; it's also about thinking fast and making smart decisions. Make sure to jump into the Beta Weekend on Steam.