loveresus02

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

THANK YOU!! I've literally grown so annoyed with pjms lately because all they do is whine and whine and whine. LC is a good song, but the truth is that it never left the kpop bubble. The GP doesn't know that song and frankly, im shocked that people are expecting LC to get a grammy nom over Seven. This isnt me being biased either because i would say the same about 3D if it was jungkooks debut song, because 3D never made it out the kpop bubble either.

Do you feel like the Fandom has started to resent Jungkook? I've seen the same pattern lately. Someone praises Seven, and someone mentions another person's release. For example, people were talking about how seven deserves to win best music video and someone comments "what about Haegeum?" Or "haegeum deserved it." It just feels like they want any other member to win other than JK. I already Nov 10th is going to be filled with so much drama

I disagree that 3D never made it out of the kpop bubble. Jungkook's very much out of the kpop bubble as a soloist, and Jack Harlow was never in the bubble. 3D's doing well on Spotify too, given the fierce competition and the fact that it's obviously not as good or as well promoted as Seven (the alternate version is almost on the same level as Seven to me, but Harlow is unbearable and 3D's not as replayable).

Anyway, 3D will never get a Grammy nom, but Seven should. The Grammys are all about popularity. Igaf about "quality", at the end of the day, of all the artists voters know, they choose the songs they like best (or get paid to like). It's simple: if you're not popular/influential, at least in those circles, no one will hear your song. Seven deserves at least the pop group/duo nom since it's going to become the fastest song to hit 1B streams on Spotify, was loved by the GP, had impact, and because it's a good song. Imo it's actually better than Dynamite and on the same level as Butter. I don't like Latto much but her part is admittedly fun and catchy once I stopped being annoyed at her feature (Seven would be miles better without it though). The clean lyrics are good enough for me too, and Seven also has longevity. I've heard it a million times already but it doesn't really become annoying - the opposite, actually. Now I can understand why people liked it.

Anyway, I'm not sure if the "fandom" resents Jungkook. I mean, what is the fandom? There are millions of us. Solo stans for sure resent Jungkook because, obviously, neither Jimin nor V can compete with Jungkook's power and global popularity right now, Jimin stans are mad at Hybe for sabotaging LC in the radio, and Hyung line stans are often mad at the maknae line for being more popular. When it comes to the Grammys and other award shows, it's like all of a sudden fans don't know how the game works... Seven not getting a best MV nod when (although I didn't like it) it was high budget, cinematographic, well shot, had a story, had impact, served visuals, etc. would be at least a bit unfair unless all other nominees have better MVs. But why would Haegeum be nominated? Just because it's good? Again, it's not about quality. It's about being known (or buying your way in). Not many Grammy voters know Agust D or watched Haegeum. It's not like YTC, when the Grammys clearly just wanted to nominate BTS so fans wouldn't accuse them of racism again and maybe tune in to the show. Agust D is not BTS. People don't know him as much. They know BTS, but not Suga individually for the most part. But a lot of people know Jungkook individually now, and he's the member people are most likely to know. They could nominate him just to throw kpop some crumbs. That's what all these award shows do anyway.

There's a lot of discourse about Jungkook now. Jimin and the rap line wrote their songs and produced their albums, so they're better than Jungkook. V sang in Korean and paired up with a pedophile artistic genius, so he's better than Jungkook. Blah blah. The audience doesn't care. There's popularity/sales/streams/engagement and then there's artistry/quality/whatever. Those two dimensions intersect but that's it. Fans know this... That's why Dynamite is BTS's best performing song...

Anyway, don't even know what I'm saying, but, yeah, thanks for the ask!

[coinsofmcguffin]

So I watched Netflix's Matilda the Musical today...I have...thoughts.

Spoilers ahead...

Ok so firstly the singing, acting, dancing, choreography and costumes are top notch. Not a fault to be had!

Tim Minchin is a great song writer and the tunes are catchy as anything. The actors do an amazing job, especially Aliesha Weir as Matilda and Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull who is obviously having the time of her life playing the villain.

If you are a fan of musicals or Ronald Dahl you will really love this.

HOWEVER

As a child who suffered bullying for a lot of his childhood both from kids and some adults and as someone who didn't like the original because of this I was hesitant to watch the movie but I preserved because of the afore mentioned good points. But I really found it difficult for three reasons:

1. Why doesn't Matilda tell someone?

It is established early on there is at least one adult who Matilda trusts she could tell about her abusive parents and teachers. The librarian Mrs. Phelps played by Sindhu Vee not only offers advice and is genuinely concerned for Matilda's welfare but we see that she would call the police if she thought something was amiss as demonstrated when Matilda was telling part of her story. Matilda actively lies to her yet is willing to do things that would arguably having bigger consequences (such as gluing the hat on her dad). It just doesn't make sense to me. If she didn't do anything I would understand but the show goes out of the way to show how clever this girl is and how she will stand up and be heard

2. Miss Honey and the other teachers are the real villains

Yes Trunchbull is obviously Satan incarnate but that is the character. We need to hate her that much so our hero can shine brighter. The problem is though is by doing this you have made the other teachers including our lovable Miss Honey part of the problem. In one scene Trunchbull is about to do something nasty to a child and the teachers leave the room so they don't see it. They are nameless and very old so we aren't meant to think about them but miss Honey watches it being done. I don't care how scared you are of someone, you can report it to the police. That school alone has so many health and safety violations I'm surprised @osha-official-the-sequel haven't bitten through the clipboard. Miss Honey could have done literally anything. She couldn't go toe to toe with Trunchbull but telling the police, school board, parents, child services, hell even the Mafia (which is established to be in this town) could have yelled better results than asking the kids to keep their head down.

The old say is true: evil triumphs when good men do nothing.

3. What kind of ending for the Trunchbull is that?

So we have established the Trunchbull is a child abuser in every sense of the word. It is also heavily suggested that SHE KILLED PEOPLE. Not too mention most likely commuted vast fraud. She is also very strong and probably has experience using weapons or at least weilding heavy objects as weapons.

So we are all going to believe she runs off because she got a little scared. Give up her house, legacy, job and power?

Look, there are some bullies you give them a talking too, have the punch out, or just outsmart them and they will leave you alone. But they are the rookies, the kinds who aren't truly bad people, just jerks. But the really bullies, the ones like Trunchbull...there is no talking, no beating them once and walking away. No these are the ones you need to put an end to in a more permanent manner. These are the ones you need to break bones or make it so messing with you will literally cause more trouble. These are the ones where jail or a bullet is sometimes the solution. These are the ones who even if they know doing this thing will most likely cause them pain will STILL do it because in their mind hurting you is more important than future consequences.

Guess which category Miss Trunchbull falls into.

She would be back within 24 hours with murder in her heart and as established she probably would follow through.

So why do they give her this run away ending. Its bullshit and wrong and honestly what pissed me off the most. I know it's a kids film but there still could have been ways to show it. Maybe she runs off a cliff? Maybe she runs into the mob and goes for a drive? Maybe she runs into the woods and some wolves follow after her? Get creative people!!

And yes I know it's based on Dahl's work and this is how the story goes but there is even a song about changing your own story and if the character can be self aware maybe the writers could have too?

So TL:DR

Matilda the Musical is a great musical

Acting, singing and dancing top notch

This film will trigger you if you suffered from abuse or bullying

If you give this film more than a moments thought you will find the plot problematic

Fuck bullies and abusers and thank any God you believe in that I was never granted psychic powers because you would have been wearing your organs on the outside.

[autistic-autumn]

Music Ramblings No.5

Shorter one because I am currently away and haven't listened to much. Been a few days longer than I often would like to leave between these too. Only three pieces here and probably not stuff most people care about either. Still interesting enough to listen to.

Georges Bizet - Suite No.1 from L'arlesienne - 16 Minutes I always fine Bizet nice, but he never particularly stands out to me honestly. Good to listen to every now and then though. The melody of the overture surprised me by being a tune I recall from when I was fairly young. It's a very catchy and pleasant melody. I appreciate all the saxophone in this piece. The whole suite has a lot of very nice movements in it and is generally a very pleasant listen. Nothing really strikes me as outstanding or uniquely interesting, yet everything is well done and very nice to listen to. Perhaps just very characteristic of this era of late romantic music. Overall a pleasant piece of music.

Serge Prokofiev - Symphony No.6 Op. 111 - 43 Minutes Been trying to work through a bunch of the Prokofiev symphonies because I do enjoy Prokofiev. I listened the third symphony recently but in the waiting room of some place so I didn't write that one up. I didn't anticipate this piece only having three movements so each movement felt strangely long. There is still an overture, slow movement and fast movement, with the finale being jammed together with the fast movement.

The first movement is quite long, but has a number of good moments in it. Whenever the piano comes in is very nice and there is particularly good section with held chords while percussion and horn have some slow interjections. I did like the little hints of celeste in the second movement, although not a lot else captured me about this. The third movement was very fun and energetic and probably my favourite of the three. It started out with the main theme sounding very 'classical', although there was some nice shifts Prokofiev put in there to keep it from sounding too old. The orchestration here was unsurprisingly phenomenal, as is often the case with Prokofiev. There were plenty of interesting composite textures and interesting sounds produced. A lot of things to like in this piece overall.

Samuel Barber - Andromache's Farewell Op. 39 - 12 Minutes Continuing my binge of everything I can find by Samuel Barber in the local library with this piece. The story is about a child who has to be killed following the battle of Troy for one reason or another before the women is taken of as a slave. The melodies are nice and the harmony is fascinating with how it flicks in and out of ambiguous tonality. A lot of interesting orchestral colors and sounds throughout, and it was also nice to see a well notated percussion line that fits modern standards. An interesting piece overall and among the better pieces I've found by Barber probably, particularly for some of his later works.

[theghostpinesmusic]

Alright, so this is my last Euro tour write-up, from the last show of Euro tour! I've had a lot of fun doing these jam write-ups over the last few weeks, which kind of surprised me at first, to be honest. Once I share my thoughts on a few of the jams from December's Goosemas run, I'll probably keep doing these, but do less of them (at least until the band starts touring again). Maybe I'll pick some favorites from earlier in 2023? Maybe I'll pick some favorites from shows I've personally attended? If anyone has a request, send it! I can't guarantee I'll get to it, but it would be fun to have audience participation.

Some relevant history: way, way back in the day, I had a Phish show review blog where my stated mission was to listen to and review every show of "Phish 3.0" (basically every show they've played since 2009). I wrote reviews in the blog from 2013 until 2018, and covered most shows up through the band's 2017 summer tour. It was a lot of listening and writing about one band. Maybe obviously in retrospect, what ended up happening was that the constant hyperfocus on Phish and essentially listening specifically to rate each show relative to the others ruined the music for me. I'd been seeing as many Phish shows as I could afford from 2009 through 2016, but by 2017 the music all sounded same-y to me (hint: it wasn't), and so I only saw one run apiece in 2017 and 2018 and then didn't really listen to anything from the band again until 2021. Nowadays, I'm enjoying the band that was my lodestar musical obsession for fifteen years of my life in moderation, but for a long time there I'd sabotaged my own enjoyment through hyperfixation and an insistence on comparing every song and show to every other song and show.

Long story short, for a guy who was born way too late too the Grateful Dead in their prime and slightly too late to see Phish in their prime, over the last four years Goose has become the band I was actually born at the right time for (if that makes sense). As such, I've always been really careful to not "burn out" on them by listening too much, by writing too much about them, and/or by endlessly comparing songs, shows, jams, etc. I was a little worried when I started writing these posts that I was taking the first step down a counterproductive path, but so far, like I said above, it's been fun. I've been trying to approach particular jams instead of entire shows or tours, and to write focused not on the question of "Is this good or not?" but instead on the question "What do I like about this?".

I think that might be a good change to make in areas of my life outside of my Goose fandom, too, but I digress...

Anyway, today's jam/video is a two-parter because that's how the person who posted this video on YouTube chose to do it (in case you didn't figure this out yet, I don't post the videos to YouTube myself, I just find them and write about them). It's a bit like the "The Whales"/"Butter Rum" Thekla post I already did, except this time around the jam comes out of the first song ("Hungersite" while it's the second (and third?) songs that are almost entirely composed rather than improvised.

So, "Hungersite" first. This tune is probably the closest thing Goose has had so far to a radio "hit." They even made a live-action, Office Space-themed video for it, like it's the 90s! It is a catchy-ass song, but it's also chock full of the weird, abstract lyrics and (post)modernist imagery that Rick likes to write so much (and that I like to hear so much).

"Hungersite" has been a jam vehicle for the band basically since it was introduced (2/26/22 first time played), but I feel like it started getting really out there frequently in 2023. The version from the Capitol Theater run in March was an early introduction to the (in my opinion) new tier of improvisation the band discovered this past year, and pretty much every version for the rest of the year that wasn't played at a festival show (fourteen in all!) was incredible in its own way.

I'd say this London version is actually one of my least favorite "Hungersite"s from this year, actually, and that's saying something considering how good it is. Maybe I'll cover some of the others some other time...

Now that I've done such a good job of selling the London "Hungersite," let's get into it!

While I won't wax poetically at length about the song proper here, I particularly love Jeff and Trevor's contributions to the composed parts. All the parts are well thought-out and it really feels like a great indie rock song that stands just fine on its own without a jam.

At the 3:45 mark, the song has a neat, built-in, very Phish-y guitar peak that I (and most people in the crowd on any given night) always look forward to, though now it's hard for me to hear it without thinking of Trey playing it at Radio City.

We return to the chorus one last time after this (love Peter on the organ here!), and then we get a reprise of the song's main riff at 5:25 that leads into the jam proper 5:55.

I might be hearing things here, but in this version it sounds like Rick changes the key of the jam right away, rather than staying in the song's key for any length of time. Regardless, the rhythm section drives things here initially, while it feels like Rick and Peter are both kind of circling each other, feeling things out.

Rick asserts himself a bit more starting at 7:30, and if you listen enough to actually hear Trevor (obligatory mix complaint!) you can hear him and Rick playing off each other here.

Right as things are starting (to me) to sound a little rote, Ben shifts up the beat to something more driving, and that pushes everyone to reconfigure a bit. Some tasteful shredding from Rick ensues. I love the blues riffing at 10:15 in particular.

Rick backs off at 11:05, and we quiet things down a bit. Peter jumping over to the clav over this driving beat is a perfect move, sending the whole jam into a much murkier space. I love how the lighting changes here to suit the sound, too.

The wall of sound that Peter is kicking up between his clav playing and his synths really starts to take center stage around 13:30. I feel like a lot of the jams I write about here feature Rick front and center (and, to a degree, that's because most of Goose's jams do feature him front and center), but I think this is a great example of how he can play rhythm and/or add effects to someone else taking the lead (Peter here, but Trevor too at other times). In fact, a lot of my favorite Goose jamming tends to have Rick in this "support" role, mostly because he's really good at it, but also because it usually means that they're heading somewhere weird and new.

Somewhere around 15:00, this jam turns into a full-band collaboration on a level that all of the best jams do, and then the shit that Rick starts playing at 16:00 just melts my brain and I die.

Okay, I'm being a little hyperbolic here, but this is what I often refer to in my setlist notes as "that baroque shit" and I am fully a sucker for it.

He returns to this riff a few more times (a la the Manchester "Thatch"), and the rest of the band rides the absolute groove they have going into the ground in the meantime. You know it's a good jam when the back-of-the-house camera is visibly shaking up and down.

Rick hits the riff one more time at 20:16 and then it's full steam ahead to an absolutely enormous peak. Unlike a lot of the other jams I've covered recently, "Hungersite" jams tend not to return to/reprise the song proper at the end, so we just crash to a triumphant halt at 21:10 and softly transition out of the noise and reverb into "Seekers On The Ridge Part One."

I don't want this post to get obnoxiously long, but I want to write a short thing about "Seekers." If you don't already know, Goose has a whole pile of songs that contribute to a larger mythology/legendarium (think Phish's Gamehenge, but less goofy). Of the ones I can think of off the top of my head, most of the songs that fit into this sub-oeuvre tend to be more prog-rock-style in their composition, and the lyrics vague, mysterious, and more than a little Joseph-Campbell-esque. I don't write about most of these tunes because, with the notable exception of "Elmeg The Wise" (which I'm sure I'll get to someday), they aren't typically songs that get jammed out. That said, "Seekers" is included in this video, and it's one of my favorite non-jammed things the band plays regularly, so I thought I'd share.

There are two "parts" to the song, and they have almost always been played back-to-back, though they've been separated on a few particularly memorable occasions. There's no long-form improvisation in either part, so everything you're hearing (except for the occasional, brief solo) is entirely composed. I don't have much else to say other than that if you've come this far in reading, you should give the rest of the video a listen!

I absolutely love the chorus to the first part. Peter's piano chords and Trevor's bassline just make it absolutely epic-sounding, especially in person. In fact, I'm tempted to say that Trevor is the MVP of the "Seekers" songs in general. I also never get sick of hearing the transition between the two parts (happens here at 27:30). Peter's Vibe tone at the beginning of the second part (similar to what he plays on "Red Bird") really makes it work.

Rick takes one solo during "Seekers," at in this version it's at 29:55. Sometimes this solo is kind of muted and sometimes he just rips it, presumably depending on his mood. This time, he chooses violence.

And that's all I'm writing about (for now, at least) from Euro tour. It feels like a nice, contemplative note to go out on. Next time, it's Goosemas: In Space!