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jacksgreysays · 5 months

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Extremely late, completely unnecessary opinion of the Watcher situation, (2024-04-24)

So this is a relatively belated post — several days after the initial “Goodbye Youtube” and one day after the “An Update” videos — and surely by this point there are more interesting/insightful op-eds (both in written form and video form, especially penguinz0’s fairly objective POV as, essentially, a YouTube expert) but there is something about the Watcher situation that made my brain itch. Thus, I wanted to write about it in order to make sense of it all as well as get into a philosophy that seems to be haunting me in recent years and which I think applies greatly here.

This may seem completely out of left field considering 1) definitely not fanfiction and 2) about Watcher Entertainment, a YouTube channel which—as far as this tumblr is concerned—I’ve not engaged with whatsoever, but I don’t know where else I would put this, and weirdly enough I think the general tumblr response to this whole predicament is maybe the… if not objective… then at least, most thoughtful?—or, perhaps, least immediately reactive?—amongst the various social media platforms, that I think some people might appreciate this anyway.

In terms of my relevant background: I majored in Management Science (which is just a fancy way of saying Economics + Business + Accounting because they are, weirdly enough, separate things) and minored in Film Studies in school, I am currently working in the stage tech industry (which, I know, is obviously different from film/video industry), and I like to think I am a fan/consumer of a wide variety of independent creators, some of whom I am lucky enough to be able to afford being a patron/subscriber. I won’t go into all of them—because it is a lot—but there are four in particular whose business models I want to analyze in comparison to Watcher’s admitted blunder:

A) RocketJump (known for Video Game High School and Anime Crimes Division; the core group which turned into the podcast Story Break, then became Dungeons and Daddies) B) Dropout (formerly College Humor, we’ll get into their discography later) C) Drawfee (previously an offshoot of College Humor, now fully independent) D) Corridor Digital (used to be mostly behind the scenes of how VFX studios work, have since become a mostly original content creator)

I will say, right off the bat, I am a patron of Drawfee as well as Dungeons and Daddies, and I am a subscriber to Dropout. I am not subscribed to Corridor Digital’s streamer, which I will get into why later. I understand that being able to sustain those two patronages and one subscription is a luxury that not everyone can afford and so my point of view is already skewed by being such a person who could theoretically afford another streaming service if I so chose. I also acknowledge that many fans of Watcher are not in similarly financially secure places as I am and that regardless of the business model, any monetization that comes from fans would have been a rough ask. However, I wanted to go into this essay in a way that accepts Watcher’s statement—that they needed more funding—in relatively good faith rather than assuming the worst (although that is another point I’ll get into later, largely related to the philosophy I brought up earlier.)

All four of the above listed content creators started or, at least, hit their stride on YouTube:

RocketJump and College Humor were, if not household names, then the digital equivalent of it in the “early days of YouTube.” They were part of the wave of content creators that made YouTube seem less like a bunch of eccentrics with cameras making videos on the side and more like a viable way to support yourself/your team with the art you create.

RocketJump’s Video Game High School went from short (less than 10 minutes) minimal location episodes in season one, to 30 minute plus episodes with full on fight scenes and car explosions by season three thanks to a Monster Energy brand deal. They also had two seasons of Anime Crimes Division, a literal TV quality show, thanks to a Crunchy Roll sponsorship. Unfortunately, RocketJump shut down not long after (their videos are still up on YouTube but they obviously don’t add anything new) but the core creative team behind that have been involved in several projects outside of YouTube (Dimension 404 on Hulu being one of the biggest ones so far) including the podcast Story Break (part of the Maximum Fun network) and now the independent podcast Dungeons and Daddies, the episodes of the main campaigns which are free with ads or, for patrons, ad-less along with additional mini-campaigns and other benefits.

I will say, during RocketJump’s decline, they did try their best to keep going. The partnerships with Monster Energy and Crunchy Roll were the big swings to get the funding to make those TV quality shows they wanted. I believe they lucked out with those brands in particular, or, at least, those brands didn’t seem to inhibit the creative process or ask too much of them that it felt like “selling out” but I also don’t have insight into why they didn’t pursue this model of, essentially, very weird but interesting season long commercials. Maybe they just couldn't find the right brands or maybe they did feel like it was too stifling. Regardless, before they shut down completely, they did also downsize—moving out of the actual city of Los Angeles over to Buena Park. Which is in Los Angeles county, and basically counts as LA still, but is way cheaper than literal Hollywood real estate. (I should have added to my relevant background that I’m born and raised LA county, and have relatives and friends in the film/movie industry, so trust me when I say literal Hollywood/city of Los Angeles is so overrated and unnecessarily expensive. There is a reason why LA traffic is the worst and it’s because everyone is commuting INTO the city. Respectfully and with affection, no one should live there. No one’s start up should be located there.) Obviously the downsizing didn’t necessarily work for RocketJump, but they also didn’t have multiple successful revenue streams the way that Watcher currently does.

In contrast, College Humor was acquired by InterActiveCorp and was turned into CH Media which was three pronged: College Humor, Drawfee, and Dorkly. In 2018 they made Dropout, which had exclusive content separate from their YouTube videos which involved all three prongs. Then some financial shenanigans happened early 2020—IAC withdrew their funding—and there were a bunch of layoffs right before the pandemic which extremely sucked. It has been stated by multiple people involved that it was basically a miracle that Dropout survived through all of that, but there were definitely some sacrifices along the way to make that happen. Currently, Dropout seems to be thriving with mostly exclusive content with the occasional “first episode of a season” posted to YouTube, OR if Dimension 20 is doing a “sequel season” in an already established campaign they will put the entirety of the previous season on YouTube.

IAC withdrawing their funding did put CH Media in a bind. They had to layoff a lot of people right before pandemic and, understandably, a lot of trauma was had. There were also weird issues with who controlled certain IPs/brands/digital assets (I mostly come at this from a Drawfee POV, it took several years for them to own the Drawga series and be allowed to host all of the episodes on their YouTube, and there was also something about the sound file for their opening animation?) but mainly the difference is what kind of content they generate. Originally Dropout had multiple scripted shows with high budgets and pretty cool effects/animations/stunts (Troopers, Kingpin Katie, Gods of Food, Ultramechatron Team Go!, Cartoon Hell, and WTF 101) whereas now almost all of their shows are variations of improv comedians being put into different scenarios or given different prompts. I’m not just talking about Game Changer and Make Some Noise, because Dimension 20 and Um, Actually also technically fall under that description as well. Which is not to say that these shows are worse than the scripted shows—I subscribe to Dropout, so clearly I’m a fan of their current shows—and the budgets for them have since increased to resemble, if not match, those early shows, but it is a noticeable shift in their content creation strategy as a response to the lack of IAC funding. And I will say: Dropout releases at least three videos a week if not more and at least two of those are long form at 30 minutes plus (Dimension 20 being the longest, of course.)

So, these first two business models are not really the most applicable to Watcher Entertainment considering their origin was to get away from Buzzfeed—they’re probably not keen to be partnered with or purchased by a larger company—but there are some aspects to both that I believe are valuable in at least showing the strategy in how these former YouTube creators could successfully extract themselves from YouTube or how they still utilize YouTube even if it is not their main hosting platform or revenue stream.

Then there is Drawfee and Corridor Digital, both of whom are currently—if not primarily—on YouTube, whose situations are more comparable to what I believe are Watcher’s goals.

Drawfee had to rebuild themselves like a phoenix from the ashes of the CH Media layoff during the beginning/worst of the pandemic. Side note: I’m happy that Nathan (one of the four main artists of the current Drawfee team) at least has forgiven(? or let bygones be bygones) Dropout enough to be on an episode of Game Changer (although I will say that this happened after Drawga was “returned” to Drawfee, and after Dropout officially split from College Humor as a brand.) All that being said, Drawfee was a team of four artists plus their editor who wanted to stick together but basically had all of their support system taken away from them. They took a bit of a break to assess their goals and options, announced a patreon with several tiers with great perks, and stuck to their upload schedule. In addition to two videos a week, they also stream on Twitch weekly, have a patron only stream once a month, and a draw class (for one of the higher tiers) once month. After asking their patrons on the relevant tiers if they were okay with it, they began releasing the patron only stream and the draw class to the general public for free after a month. The patreon perks also include things like merch discount codes, high quality PNGs of the final rendered art, access to the draw class with live interaction/critique, and a commission from the artist of your choice. The only “ads” they run are for their own patreon and merch store and, even then, they’re usually at the end of the videos with a credit scroll of the patron names during their exit banter.

Admittedly, they only have MAYBE eight employees—that’s including their video editor(s?) and their discord mod(s?)—with the main four artists doubling/tripling up duties as additional video editors, CFO, and marketing/merch leads. It’s a very streamlined crew and their production costs are not very high since it’s mostly screen recording of their drawings with their audio recording overlayed onto that footage. Although the video editors do sometimes have clever cuts to relevant images depending on their vamping. Sometimes they will have a guest artist but, again, since it’s screen and audio recordings, there’s no travel/housing costs. So, very minimal expenses due to low production costs and small crew but, again, their only revenue source is the patreon/merch, they don’t do outside ads and they very rarely do live shows.

Corridor Digital is, I think, the most applicable to what Watcher would ideally do, which I suppose is somewhat ironic for this essay in particular considering they’re the only one of the four that I don’t financially support. They have two YouTube channels: their main one being where they show the “final product” videos, but I believe their Corridor Crew channel which started primarily as behind the scenes type of videos is where most of their views come from. Especially their React series (VFX artists, Stuntmen, and Animators React etc.) On Corridor Crew they usually upload two videos a week — one which is a React and the other which goes into fun projects/challenges (involving VFX or not) or using VFX to explain scientific concepts — as well as the first episodes of their exclusive content on their streamer. Also behind that paywall are longer and ad-less versions of the videos on YouTube. They also have merch. All of them have merch, I don’t know why I’m stating that. They don’t have a patreon as far as I know, but I also don’t know if their subscription to their website comes with similar perks like discounted merch or something similar.

Anyway, their studio seems to be about 15 to 20 people — not all of them are VFX artists, of course. I believe they have higher equipment costs than Watcher since, understandably, Corridor has to be on the cutting edge of video editing technology. They do occasionally travel for shoots, but it doesn’t require big teams, and that’s only when the local locations available to them don’t match the requirements for the “final product” videos. Otherwise most of their videos are set in the studio or in the alleyway outside their studio in Los Angeles (the city itself, not just the greater county, though they are in a rougher and thus probably cheaper part of Los Angeles). I personally don’t subscribe to their website primarily because their exclusive shows don’t appeal to me—either they’re too technical or a little too dry; to be fair, most of them are VFX artists first before they are performers—and I don’t particularly feel the need to see the extended cuts of the videos uploaded on YouTube. Also I sometimes get a little bummed out by their lack of diversity.

All of this to say, from these four different business models, a bespoke Frankenstein business model for Watcher could be cobbled together. But also, even with that bespoke Frankenstein, there are some changes that Watcher would have to make: primarily their upload schedule. As of right now, I think they do MAYBE one video a week if not, perhaps, one video every TWO weeks. If they want a monthly subscription model, their rate of content generation would ideally be higher to double/quadruple their current upload rate. Obviously they want to create videos with higher production value, but at that rate of generation, something’s got to give: supplement their TV quality shows with either a behind the scenes type series or an increase of “we get four episodes out of Shane and Ryan get increasingly drunk in someone’s backyard” or something similar. Leaning into shows like Worth A Shot (the first season in which Ricky Wang makes cocktails based on a random ingredient, the second season threw in some competitive aspects which I didn’t really find necessary) or the Beatdown which has relatively low production costs (no travel, one location, maybe two cameras at most therefore smaller crew requirements) but a higher polished look. Otherwise, for a separate streaming subscription service, 2-4 videos a month is not going to cut it.

As of right now they probably can’t back out of the separate streaming subscription service because those set ups usually require some level of contract/paying for servers for the website and whatever is hosting their videos for a set amount of time. However, what really strikes me is that I literally didn’t know they had a patreon until I scrolled through the comments of the first Goodbye Youtube video. Maybe it’s been linked "tactfully" in the descriptions of videos, but considering they claim to be lacking in funds, the fact that they weren’t plugging their patreon at the end of every video is not just strange, but also irresponsible considering they do have 25 employees that they don’t want to layoff.

Additionally, I understand artists needing to be in a space that promotes creativity, but there are cheaper places that must be comparable that aren’t in literal Hollywood. It’s an unnecessary expense. On top of that, other people have already brought up that it was fairly crass to introduce this paywall, attributing it to the increased production costs, when the next planned “new series” is a reboot of an old Buzzfeed series in which people travel and eat expensive food. I’m not even talking about the personal expenses of Steven, Shane, and Ryan; what kind of car they drive or the cost of their wedding venue doesn’t matter on a business model basis.

But getting back to the patreon: again, I literally didn’t know they had one. I’m looking over their tiers— they have $5, $10, $25, and $100 — and for the most part they seem okay, although I think they have more to offer that wouldn’t necessarily cost them more. Ie, something that has baffled me for a while: the fact they don’t sell the mp3s of the Puppet History songs; they already exist and it doesn’t cost them anything additional because they don’t need to put it on physical media. Or maybe they do and they’re not marketing it similarly to how they weren’t overtly marketing their patreon?

And, okay, maybe they didn’t want to seem desperate — in the early days of Dropout and independent Drawfee, they both were very blatant in getting people to subscribe/join their patreon. As they should be. Desperation maybe doesn’t look cool and sexy, but it is earnest in a way that conveys equal effort that fans who can afford it would want to see. The fact that we weren’t getting rotating ten second clips of Steven, Shane, and Ryan asking people to join the patreon at the end of every video — even if its the same clip every three videos — is wild. And yes, the $25 tier includes a shoutout every 3 months on Watcher Weekly+ (which I don't quite understand what that is,) but the fact that they weren’t doing a quick post movie credits scroll of all the patreon names is, again, wild. Once you have that initial list, it’s not too difficult to add any new names that join and put that title overlay on top of, again, those nonexistent ten second clips of the three.

As others have already stated, it seems like an extreme mismanagement of their existing successful revenue streams, if they are actually struggling to pay all of their employees. Which goes into the philosophy part of this essay: don’t assume malice when it might just be incompetence. It’s something that I have to remind myself of often because I do get paranoid about people’s intentions sometimes and I have to check myself. Am I being overly suspicious of what might be just an honest mistake? Am I assigning ill will to an action just because it inconvenienced me?

Yes, of course, a lot of this situation could be misconstrued as straight up greed. But, also, Watcher is a relatively young company, helmed by three people who certainly don’t have experience running their own company:

They like to travel. They like to bring a full crew around with them. They’re renting out a shiny office in the heart of Hollywood where everyone knows is where real show biz happens. They’re adding more employees to the team because surely more people means better. And they want better productions values because the prettier the videos the more people will like them right?

It’s naive. It’s a level of inexperience combined with giving responsibility to officers whose main priority is to entertain. And if that means entertaining themselves and their staff, then they might not know the difference. It’s the kind of mistake that first time managers make—trying to prioritize fun over getting the job done. Prioritizing making friends with their employees rather than making sure the work the employees put in is equal to (or greater than) what you spend on them whether that is in paycheck or bringing them to cool locations for fun shoots. It’s a mistake anyone can make, it's just unfortunate that they made this mistake in front of millions of people. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s solely a greed induced cash grab.

But then comes the catch-22 of the philosophy—is it worse to assume incompetence than it is to assume malice? Or, in this case, greed. Especially for the heads of a company that holds the livelihoods of 25 employees in their hands. At what point does it not matter if it’s incompetence or greed if the end result is the same?

Is it better to think that Watcher knew about the various other business models of independent creators and just ignored the efforts put into achieving those successes or is it better to think that they didn’t know and just stumbled into one of the worst moves they could have done. Again, other people have mentioned that Great Mythical Morning—which Watcher has had multiple collaborations with—has managed to make the YouTube subscription/tier system work to the point that they can sustain themselves as well as spinoff channels. Is it incompetence or greed that led to Watcher thinking they could bypass that completely in less time and with less content?

I’ve been at this mess of an essay for several hours when I should have been asleep. Ultimately I want to say, regardless of incompetence or greed… yes, Steven is CEO and yes he is ultimately the one who makes the final call but it is disheartening to see the pointed vitriol at Steven specifically and the infantilizing of Shane and Ryan in comparison. Either they’re all silly uwu boys who are messing around not knowing how to run a company, or they’re all complicit in a crass cash grab in an extremely busted economy.

I think what’s most frustrating to me in all this is that there were so many other channels and creators who have literally walked this path before them and, again, whether through incompetence or greed or arrogance, for them to just ignore it… It’s not betrayal because I don’t know them and so there’s no relationship to betray, it’s just so inefficient and convoluted that I don’t understand. Or, no, even if it was greed, it’s an incompetent greed because at least pure greed would have been pushing that patreon every second they could. Their ratio of YouTube subscribers to patreon members is less than 1% and I bet that’s because a lot of their audience, like me, literally didn’t know they had a patreon. I probably would have become a patreon member of theirs had I known earlier, ESPECIALLY if it included access to those Puppet History songs. Drawfee has half as many YouTube subscribers and nearly double the patreon members as Watcher. I’m just baffled, is all, and maybe by this point sleep deprived.

Anyway. That’s my extremely late, completely unnecessary opinion of this situation.

Edit (several hours later after some sleep): I forgot to mention, because they did walk this back almost immediately, even before their "An Update" video, but I believe the original plan was to put EVERYTHING behind that paywall and pull their content from YouTube entirely. Which is, again, extremely baffling, because if ALL of their content is behind a paywall, how would they possibly gain new fans? Even if all of their current fans were able and willing to pay for their separate subscription streaming service, how would a brand new person even stumble on their content enough to want to subscribe if there wasn't a significant amount of "proof of value" free content on YouTube? Again, extremely baffling, and a level of incompetence that overshadows a "cunning" greed. But, like I said earlier, they did walk this decision back almost immediately. If I've misunderstood this and that was never their plan, please let me know, I don't want to be spreading misinformation in a situation that is already so convoluted.

#jacksgreyson #writing #nonfiction #essay #watcher #op-ed #youtube #drawfee #corridor digital #dropout #rocketjump #dungeons and daddies

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loosesodamarble · 28 days

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Welcome to the Black Bird Part 10: Christian the Sinister

Summary: Introducing Zora as Christian, Black Bird's sassy and sadistic butler. Watch out, he bites. Genre: general Word count: ~850 A/N: @cringeyvanillamilk is to thank for the commission of Zora.

..........

“I’ve got it!” Zara laughed when he burst into the kitchen. “I’ve got a name for the business! ‘The Ideale Place’!”

Zora blinked a couple times before sarcastically remarking, “That sounds like home realty and not a restaurant, Dad. Maybe you should change it to ‘The Ideale Plate’ instead.”

“Ha! That’s genius!” Zara dashed up to where Zora sat and ruffled his hair against Zora’s protests. “What would I do without you, little man?”

The man in Zora’s memories and the man passed out on the living room couch seemed like two different people. But Zora knew they were the same, mostly. One still had a dream burning in his soul. The other had the dream stamped on and snuffed.

“Hey Dad…” Zora set a plate of food—oven-roasted vegetables and a pan-fried chicken breast— on the coffee table. He nudged Zara’s shoulder.

“Huh…” Zara groaned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Yeah? Wassup, Zora?”

“I made dinner.”

“Aw, thanks.” Zara sat up, grunting as he did so. While by no means an old man, his body must’ve ached from being overworked. He smiled and nudged Zora’s arm. “What would I do without you?”

“Dunno…” Zora rubbed the back of his neck. Then, he shuffled back to the kitchen. Maybe if I wasn’t around… Zora’s eyes drifted from his own serving of dinner on the counter to a thick binder, a cookbook compiled by Zara, from which the recipe for dinner came from. Then you would’ve been able to live your dream instead.

…..

If there was one thing that Zora enjoyed about his job, it was that he didn’t have to worry about his customer service skills. At least, not as much as other people in the industry had to worry.

Zora sauntered up to the table he would be serving while tapping his server booklet against his shoulder. A familiar woman with coffee brown hair sat with a man with dark auburn hair and an eyepatch over his left eye. They looked to be dressed for a date, wearing clothes that would’ve been too nice for a casual outing between friends.

“Oh? You’re back again?” Zora asked while eyeing the woman up and down. “What a persistent little insect you are, Mistress Erika.” He sneered at her, making Erika giggle behind her hand.

“Sorry, Christian, I can’t help but find my way back here,” Erika remarked bashfully. “Plus, I promised Gilbert that I’d bring him here for our date.”

“Tch. I don’t need your excuses. Just apologize and get it over with,” Zora said brusquely.

“Better stop it right there, buddy,” the man, Gilbert, finally spoke up, a sharp gleam in his eye. “I know she’s playing along, but I’d never forgive myself if I let you torment my cute date.”

Erika’s eyes went wide and she blushed redder than a tomato. “G-Gilbert…”

“Don’t be so surprised,” Gilbert chuckled then grinned softly at Erika. “And I keep telling you just ‘Gil’ is fine.” To his reminder, Erika squeaked and nodded.

“Hnn… Right. If we’re done with the mush…” Zora sighed. “Christian’s the name and I’ll be your butler this evening. Better be good little customers, Master Gilbert and Mistress Erika, or I’ll make you regret my service,” he said with a practiced smirk.

Gilbert raised his brow and his own grin seemed to challenge Zora. Good to know that even if he wasn’t the target audience, this Gilbert fellow was able to go with the flow of the cafe. Because as much as he liked his freedom to throw typical customer service out the window, he still prided himself with entertaining the cafe’s guests.

…..

Fiend’s Firework Stew. Beef stew with a punishingly strong spice to it. The heat is thanks to being made with the country's spiciest pepper.

It was a dish that Zora adapted from one of Zara’s recipes. Zara used a combination of jalapeno, sweet heat, Korean chili peppers, and cayenne to give his pepper stew a medley of vegetal, smokey, and lightly sweet tastes. He would swap in other peppers for different flavors, such as cascabella for nuttiness or firecracker peppers if he was looking for fruitiness.

For the stew served at the Black Bird, Zora knew he had to turn the level up as the cafe’s sadist butler. There was cayenne and habanero used in the new recipe. The real star of the stew, though, was the shinigami pepper, a new breed of pepper cultivated by a farm right outside of the city.

I wonder what Dad would think of the stew, Zora mused as he de-seeded a pile of peppers to turn into a paste for the stew. While he mainly served as a butler, he did work in the cafe’s kitchen too. I wonder what he’d think of all this. I hope he’s happy, that he’s proud.

All of Zara’s skill, knowledge, and passion, Zora learned from them and built off them. He did it to honor his dad, to give back to the man that gave Zora everything.

Zara’s dream would come true.

Zora swore to himself that he’d make it so.

His vow was all that kept him going.

#black clover #black clover fanfic #zora ideale #black clover au #butler cafe au #welcome to the black bird series

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mychlapci · 2 months

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okay so i did quite a few cleaning/grooming headcanons during the last celibacy week so i figured i’d start it off with some more!

one thing i’ve been debating is how cybertronians clean their plating when my continuity has a completely mechanical cybertron. think about it, most human supplies used to clean cars and/or other machinery is quite soft to avoid scratching or otherwise damaging the exterior plating.

so i have two solutions to this!

number one! the high pressure washer. this is basically just a normal car wash but more widely available to the public and utilised by more than just mecha with transportation altmodes. these showers would provide high powered jets of water that could blast either out of the floors, walls, or ceilings depending on the type of stall. they would probably look similar to gym showers in our world, very utilitarian in design. these would also be outfitted with vents that blast warm air over the plating in order to quickly dry off the user. i imagine these would be common among the labour classes and there would likely be many that are pay to use throughout the city. perhaps expensive ones have oil and solvent bathes that are meant for soaking rather than cleaning.

my secondary solution is metallic fibres. i’m not entirely sure if it would work particularly well but the way i think of it is metal sheets flattened and then cut into extremely fine and flexible wires which can then be woven into something that might be a reasonable approximation of cloth. again i’m not entirely sure if it would work well because with cloth there isn’t the possibility that it could scratch the plating but i think with enough stretching and flattening, one could get a “softer” thread that could be used to make blankets and washcloths. these would likely be kept only for touch ups and smaller jobs since washing the entire frame would take a lot of time doing it by hand, hence the popularity of the above option.

now onto the actual ideas revolving around grooming/cleaning habits.

i think that manual classes are far more likely to develop communal grooming habits than scientific or racing classes. this is very several reasons. for one it’s far easier to get clean faster when there is more than one individual involved and in an industry such as mining or transportation, time is everything. additionally many of these jobs foster a strong sense of community between workers and in a work place where the wash racks are public, trust is crucial in regards to exposing oneself in front of others.

army mecha, like seekers, tanks, and other such warframes also tend to display these communal grooming habits, with seekers in particular displaying intricate and complex rituals of grooming in regards to their wings. of course this varies from individual to individual and just as many mecha prefer to handle cleaning their frames on their own rather than seeking assistance or parting in community activities.

in regards to actual cleaning products i think the manual classes would be supplied with the basics of a wash rack and if their employers are feeling particularly generous, cheap waxes and oils to relax the cables and touch up any plating that may have gotten scuffed or damaged. though many companies do not provide such things due to the prevalence of workers being replaced and/or becoming dirty from their jobs. it’s simply not worth the cost.

those ranked higher in the caste system and who actually receive a paying wage would likely purchase waxes, buffers, and the above mentioned cloths to polish and wax their plating to a shine. even wealthier mecha who have shanix to burn might even buy scented oils, waxes, and extra paint in the event that they want to switch up their scents or paint colours. these bots would most likely include high ranking members of the government, like senators or elected officials, as well as the primes, diplomats, and entertainers.

oOooh inch resting... I do like it when big robots groom and preen each other I think they should do it more often. It makes sense. There's some bits you just can't reach with your own hands, and no one wants grime in the plating seams of their back, or on the back of their wings...

#i wish i could wax a cybertronian's playing. i bet it would be really satisfying #texty #tf hc's

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intoloopin-archive · 5 months

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for @ofmanycol0rs !!!

Love had sent an ask about J.J's blonde party guy era but Tumblr tricked me into deleting it, so here is it my second attempt to talk about it as a post. I hate this Hell site mechanics more than anything, BUT! I am very passionate about this one topic as you can see by the size of THIS.

GIO.

I am making a little tangent here because this is a great opportunity to talk about J.J's blonde era as a general phenomenon, as well as do a little character deep dive into how Jiahang's mind works when the subject is his public appearance, because I'm yet to fully communicate just how business savvy and attention seeking he is at his core. These two characteristics were very integral to his nightlife downfall.

⤴️↪️ A MOMENT IN TIME: J.J's BLONDE ERA PITIFUL FINAL AESTHETIC. He is currently recovering from it successfully, but still. The horrors.

One thing that is key to understand about Jiahang is that he is NOT a team player, he wasn't raised by his social climber pageant mom and his millionaire movie director dad to be one. His long term goal is to stand on his own as an 'icon' - notice the use of 'icon' instead of 'musician' or 'artist' or even 'idol'. He wants everyone to see two Js put together in a sentence and immediately associate them with him (as in J.J Xu, not LOOPiN's J.J, and definely not as J.J from That Once LOONA Sibling Group), but he is realistic with his limitations: Jiahang is not a musical prodigy like Zhiming, or obsessed/respectful with the craft as Minwoo, or has the mental discipline to train himself to greatness like Haegon, and when you're in a group with people like that with ambitions like his, you're always in a competition.

To put it very bluntly: Jiahang is too clumsy to ever become more than an average dancer, he doesn't have an easy voice for singing and he can barely call himself a rapper. Artistic kills can't be the base of his brand, because that's what he sees his J.J stage persona as, a brand. He's not an artist. And if conventional talent can't be his selling point, he has to use what's naturally available to him - personality, a face widely considered to be attractive, a shitton of money, and an extremely sharp eye for business.

Seriously, the amount of marketing stunts he has pulled for and come up with for LOOPiN alone is NO JOKE. Jiahang understands the inner workings of the entertainment industry more than any of his bandmates, and that's his head start.

Now, on the hair. Jiahang has a very deep and sentimental history with his hair, a bit too extense to fully explain with this one post, but he's been wearing it very long since he was a child, because he loves it, and he was picked up on for it constantly. Keep growing it out despite everything what his first real way of asserting himself, and it's the one thing Jiahang is authentic with throughout - integrating it into his branding was essential to him.

He went about it very strategically: J.J never had a defined clothing style, instead, he goes out of his way to wear almost anything to prove that his hair doesn't automatically put him on a visual box, and there is no reason for him to sacrifice it for any gig. He won't be a long haired male Idol until someone tells him time's up, he will be The Definitive Long Haired Male Idol (and in canon he has succeed! Like, K-Pop knows he's the final boss).

A lot of iNSYNCs consider him one of LOOPiN's fashionistas for this plus all the design shit he has, side by side with Seungsoo and Haruki, but that title doesn't fit Jiahang at all. Haruki and Seungsoo have a genuine interest in fashion, while Jiahang has none, it's all performance. He simply wants a stable signature attached to him, something he can have the ultimate control of, and that he won't get bored of maintaining. Alas: his very, very adored long hair.

⤵️➡️ A DISSECTION OF J.J's BLONDE ERA (FEBRUARY 2022 - SEPTEMBER 2023)

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: (1&2) J.J's 'Punch' teasers, a shocking blonde debut. | (3&4) The overall lengths and colors Jiahang kept transitioning between in his day to day life. | (5&6) 'Mess' peeking through near the end, but integrated into his presenting style. | J.J's 'Beatbox - Street Beat Ver.' and 'Internet War - Tell Me What To Do' teasers.

(1&2): I can't even begin to describe how iNSYNCity completely STOPPED when the 'Punch' teasers started rolling out and J.J appeared not only fully blonde, but with these polarizing face covering bangs. The styling came fully out of his own brain, of course, and he wanted all the controversial attention right out of the gate to plant the seeds of the 'elevation' of his stage persona. He wanted 2022 to be his year SO BAD;

(3&4): Up until that point in his career, Jiahang had his hair straight, ironed out to perfection even when he dyed it anything else than his usual black and brown, but while blonde he always kept it very wavy to drawn an even bigger contrast with his former Idol branding;

(5&6): Oh, mid 2023... The roots showing... The messy teeny tiny ponytails... The color... You can clearly see a lack of polish that is very unusual of him. Jiahang wore a lot, and I mean A LOT of hair extensions during this era right here, mostly to cover up how fucking fried his hair was starting to look due to low maintenance (Dongwook and CIA made fun of him if he showed up Too Put Together at the clubs, and after a while it really started to get to him). He adopted a very edgy Y2K style to try to make it all seem intentional, even had stylized black highlight for a while, but Jiahang felt like he wasn't fooling anyone - it didn't appear as such to the public, lucky him. This is pretty much how he looked until he fully cut off his nightlife circle of "friends" in September, and dyed his hair back to black;

(7&8): Ah, his last blonde official teasers... What a way to go. Blonde J.J had such a dramatic styling but that was very well translated into all the eras he was on, he never looked out of place. That's why even the general public now considers this run to be very iconic, as he wanted. But at what personal cost, Jay?! AT WHAT COST?!

I am still debating on how his 'clean era' looks like. I'm not sure if he would just dye his hair black and cut off the bits that look Horrible (J.J!Bayi) or if this whole experience fucked him up so bad that Jiahang would cut it pretty short and grow it back from the begging, for the healings (J.J!Didi), but anyways! He is doing better <3 currently <3 not for long <3 like at all <3 he is about to get very fucked up by the narrative <3 but on the bright side (????) that means that he'll have another very Intense hair moment, and spoiler alert, it'll look a lot like this (in Vibes, the length is still something I don't know 😁)

#&& ⠀ [ . . . ] hound on a hunt ⠀⸻ q&a .#&& ⠀ [ . . . ] hound on a hunt ⠀⸻ development .#&& ⠀ [ . . . ] hound on a hunt ⠀⸻ j.j .#fictional idol community #fake kpop group #kpop au #kpop fanfic #kpop oc

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justastrugglinghotchocolate · 6 months

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Yall the 80s rock au has not left my brain so here’s some random ideas:

Dorian is a rising pop star (possibly even moving away from being a child star) who meets Basil in the same way he does in the book. Basil paints him and then introduces him to Henry. The only difference is that Basil does this out of the belief that Henry might be able to talk Dorian out of becoming a full pop star. Obviously, that doesn't happen. Henry becomes Dorian's producer/songwriter while also taking on a more mentor-like figure for Dorian. A lot of the songs Henry has Dorian perform are much more provocative and explicit than what Dorian used to do.

Basil is still an artist, just with a small expansion from portrait painting. He still does that, but now he also doubles as sort of a talent scout/Henry’s designer/muse (he doesn’t know, but all of Henry’s songs are complaints about/odes to him and their relationship).

Henry was specifically a punk rock star in the 70s, in lieu of the Sex Pistols and the Clash. Henry was popular because he was controversial, charismatic, and pretty, all things that captured the hearts of the UK. However, much of popularity was contained in the UK, though he had like one or two world wide hits. Still his name is still considered legendary for the time.

By the time Dorian meets him through Basil, Henry has long stopped performing his own songs, more or less writing and producing them for other stars. He despises Pop as a genre but since that is what sells now, he has had to pivot away from punk. Dorian becomes a sort of new hope for him because Dorian, being pretty and charismatic, could be the mix for the two genres.

Also this AU/Adaptation would take more of a focus on the complicated rivalry/relationship between Dorian and Henry. Because Henry, despite being hopeful of what Dorian could be, is also very resentful for the fact he is basically making his own replacement. I am using the “Henry as a bitter ex” characterization, so, along with that whole thing regarding Basil, now Henry literally has to watch Dorian reach higher heights in the same career he had. I think that conflict would take mainstage in the third act, replacing the Hetty Merton thing.

Dorian's corruption is a mix of the og book’s and 80s entertainment industry. While some stuff is definitely Henry’s fault, a whole lot of it is also just the entertainment industry being an exploitative place in general. Dorian grows worse as the years go by and Basil’s portrait of him does its usual thing.

CW: for mention of false accusations and grooming

Also, I think I figured out a way Basil doesn’t die! So England in the 1980s also had a moral panic regarding the LGBTQ+ and grooming (exactly like the ones of today). When Basil finds out about the portrait, Dorian doesn’t get the chance to murder him (for reasons) so instead, he outs Basil and falsely accuses him of grooming him, Basil’s rep is shot to pieces and he has to flee from his home country because no one is willing to believe his side of the story (except Henry, but at this point he is far too involved with Dorian to make a difference. Maybe this is the point where Henry’s dream breaks or something else which transitions into the third act.)

#the picture of dorian gray #80s rock au ig #idk what to call this #i am giving it to the world because there is no way in hell I am writing this fanfic too---I have too many lol #dorian gray #basil hallward #henry wotton #80s au #music industry au #feel free to add other stuff too!

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alatismeni-theitsa · 1 year

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Hi,

Can I ask your opinion? There is one YouTuber who is lives Spain and USA and he sounds quite basic. Thing that makes me think is that he says that ottoman and Arab slavers weren't as bad as Atlantic slave trade. Reason for that was because slaves can earn their freedom and their children weren't slaves and after they get free they lived part of society etc. He says that best way to find information treatment of slaves is people who own them. What is your opinion of this? Like I know how Balkans they tattooed girls to keep the safe and captured young boys were convert to islam and rise soldiers.

"that best way to find information treatment of slaves is people who own them." oh, really? Let's go read old WASP's accounts of their Black slaves. I'm sure they will be very reflective of the truth, right? 😂😂 It's all "please look at the perspective of the slaves!" until the slaves are European, apparently.

I think this whole discussion of "Arab slavery wasn't that bad" is a way to minimize an extremely wide and despicable slave trade that lasted for more than A THOUSAND YEARS (and still hasn't ended). In comparison, slavery in America lasted from the 17th to the 19th century. (400 years if we are generous)

Also, I'm sure they would change their tune once they learned that "Brown" and "Black" people too were taken as slaves in this slave-trade. Especially "Black" people were taken a lot and in rural areas they were forced to work in the hardest of conditions, often not living more than 5 years.

I will link videos below that mention all the countries where slaves were taken from, reviewed by Black African women. But I will focus here on Europe because that's what USians have in mind when they say "it wasn't that bad".

Whole villages were taken. Villages. For centuries on end. The sheer amount of people who were taken is scary. We are talking about large populations that changed the genetic makeup of certain areas. And we have veeery few accounts of these people earning their freedom. Just because they legally could, it doesn't mean their "masters" let them.

Families were separated. They were killed when they were trying to escape. They could be beaten and lashed at any moment, for any minor inconvenience they created for their "lord". Yes, there were house slaves, too, like in transatlantic slavery, but they were also made to work under extreme conditions (e.g. extreme heat). They were working in plantations and in mining, things that the free people wouldn't do themselves.

They were castrated. They were raped and often carried the child of their rapists. Through these rapes, many children were born and mothers tried to hush this fact and hide it from future generations. Being seen as an "exotic commodity" isn't the flex these people think it is. Being a "white breeding mare" the pirates went all the way to Norway to capture, isn't a flex.

A White woman cost higher than a Black woman (racial discrimination against Black people that spread in other areas too) but that meant that European women were hunted down intensely and they had almost no chance of escaping captivity through ransom. It was more profitable to be sold, than to be returned with a ransom paid by their families or foreign countries. Arabs "preferred" non-Black slaves, and so many non-Black slaves were taken for many centuries. A double-edged sword, because you don't exactly want a slaver to "prefer" your "race" for any reason.

And if you think that highly sought enslaved women in the "entertainment" industry weren't frequently abused or raped, you can look at the abuse numbers of free women in the entertainment industry today...

People born from rape during slavery were much more than we think. Having to "ruin yourself" with tattoos (according to your tradition) and raise your child as another gender, speaks volumes of the lengths people went to avoid a very frequent phenomenon. The Greek revolution against the Ottomans clearly stated "we don't want to be taken as slaves anymore! We prefer one hour of freedom over 40 years of slavery!" In many cases, the slaves were outright called "chattel"!

Taking the male population as children is also looked by the outsiders as "good" because "they lived in good conditions and they were educated" but please go tell that to the mothers who never saw their children again. These children were also stripped of their culture and religion and language, and were often employed to oppress and kill their own people. Many Balkan countries have songs about this phenomenon.

This slave-trade was totally legal and acceptable within the Ottoman and Arab empires but it was also pirating activity that supplied the slave traders. It was mostly the Beber nations but many Africans, and West Asians and Arabs in the Arab peninsula benefited from it. They often took part in the "stealing people" operations. For example, the most exposure to Black people Greeks had was when they saw them as pirates in Arab ships. That's why the slur for a Black person in Greece historically is basically "Arab".

Europeans were building WALLS toward the sea to prevent these attacks. (Ironically, some were built by the same government that took their subjects as slaves) Thessaloniki had these walls, for example. Like, I'm not sure if the USians who often compare the slave trades ever thought of having a wall towards the sea as a normal thing. Some European nations still have sayings like "there are no Moors at the coast" as another way to say "all is safe". That's how much the trauma has stuck.

In the video linked below, there's also mentioned a revolt towards an Ottoman leader because "why won't you let us have slaves from Europe??" Does this conflict ring a bell, fellow US-ian friends? 😂

European nations and the US had created TREATIES with African states (which didn't stop the attacks in many cases) as an effort to basically say "ok, stop taking our people! we will pay you!" The amounts paid were extravagant but they were still small in comparison to how many people (and profit lol) would be lost otherwise.

There were a few cases where a slave could free themselves in the Arab slave trade but this was the case in the American slave trade too! Legally slaves in the Americas could be freed if their master wanted it, if they paid off their master, or if they were illegally enslaved. They could also have court cases to win their freedom, or serve in the military in exchange for freedom. Some were allowed to have side businesses and earn their own money (and eventually pay for their freedom).

We know there were such cases but, as I mentioned above, just because it is the law, it doesn't mean that it happened a lot.

An American would tell you "noo! Despite some legal protections it was still horrible!" and I'm asking, why don't you say this for the millions and millions of slaves in the Arab slave trade when it comes to laws VS actual treatment?

"their children (the children of slaves) weren't slaves". The recorded history shows that they usually were slaves, though. A minority, if lucky enough, could gain freedom while being born a slave. But slaves were often lumped together in certain areas so they had children with other slaves. And even children by free men often were considered slaves, unless the free male master decided to recognize them.

Just because it isn't Louisiana weather and just because the slaves (usually) didn't die on the way to their destination, it doesn't make it less atrocious. There was a reason our traditions speak of people killing themselves before they could get captured into slavery.

Like a gay Greek man said the other day "we are not supposed to be thankful just because you're not dragging us on the streets and stoning us". The laws saying "Provide shelter, and healthcare and don't mistreat your slaves" doesn't mean this was followed. "Shelter" could be a dirty shed. "Medical attention" could be splashing some water on the wounds from the lashing. "Don't overwork them" could be "I work them too much but not to death, so it doesn't count."

The video speaks more about the white slave-trade of US people but it's good to note how this looks "mild" (for lack of a better word) to what was happening in Europe. I'm not saying this as "these slaves had it better compared to the European ones". No. I'm simply saying that the danger and frequency were much larger for European people, mainly those who lived in coastal nations.

youtube

This video focuses on other areas, mainly in Africa, where slaves were frequently taken from.

youtube

#answered #slave trade #greek history #balkans #slavery #xenoi doing bs #arab slave trade

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lizziempress · 7 months

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Bulletproof Yourself from Feast or Famine

A career in Illustration is often portrayed as a risky journey rife with highs and lows. There is a path that will help you revel in feasts rather than endure a life of famine. Become a chameleon.

Chameleons get work. As an illustrator for entertainment advertising, I am required to switch styles on a dime (often multiple times in one day). This ability keeps me busy even when client needs vary widely. Being able to work efficiently in a variety of styles and mediums may come at the price of being an all-star in one particular method. But, your drawing muscles will be well developed, your mind will be sharp, you’ll discover new ways of problem-solving (which increases speed), and you’ll be working. Developing mastery of one style has its own merits, and you’ll always be stronger in one or two naturally. If you’ve targeted a particular industry, medium, or even company as your holy grail, then by all means go for broke. If your primary goal is to develop into the strongest, fastest, most employed illustrator you can, read on.

Collect Books & Stay Inspired

Great artists have come before us, and our contemporaries are generating impressive content at an incredible pace. Bring their work home with you. Stay abreast of what is out there both traditionally and currently. Keep a Pinterest collection of your favorite illustration work, and several folders of reference. Learn from observation. Why do you love this work? Is this digital color laid over pencil sketches? How many heads tall are the characters in this children’s book? What would you have done differently as the artist?

Every so often, stop by a second-hand bookstore to load up an arm full of illustrated material that you find inspirational. Maintain a personal library of cherished books. At any moment, you may walk the shelf and be re-engaged by a comic, concept art, or a picture book that you haven’t glanced at in a year. Flip through, and it will tell you old tells in a new way. Your mind will absorb a portion of the technique without picking up a pencil (or stylus).

Study Anatomy & Build an Écorché

If you are serious about working as an illustrator full-time, a solid understanding of the human form is a must. Human faces and anthropomorphic characters grace nearly every advertisement, film, and animated feature. Constructing an écorché model from clay over a wire base (or drawing the bones, muscles, then surface detail of the human form) will significantly improve your understanding of human anatomy. When you are assigned to draw several figures at various angles with little reference in a hurry, the task won’t be as staggering. You will better understand how muscle connects to the bone, where to plot boney protrusions, the angle of the wrist. If a leg is hidden in the reference but you must draw it for the assignment, you will have the mental power to invent the mystery leg.

Attend Figure Drawing Sessions

Photographs will only get you so far when it comes to learning how a real person moves, breaths, and exists in natural light. Nothing beats a live figure drawing session. Zoom figure drawing is valuable too. Whenever possible, attend drawing sessions that feature models of every gender, height, weight, ethnicity, and age that you can. Humans are diverse, and that is a beautiful thing. Immortalize all types of people on the page. You’ll be rewarded with artwork that is relatable, believable, and stronger. The more figure drawings you produce, the larger your mental library will become, and the more accurate and graceful your strokes will be.

Practice Drawing in Several Styles

Now that you’ve assembled a treasure trove of beloved style samples, and built your mental library of human (and maybe even animal) anatomy, it is time to experiment. Try everything from realism to extremely stylized animated characters. Flexible artists get work. One week you may be sketching black and white storyboard panels for a vehicle AD spot, the next you will be painting a vintage pin-up style character for a wine label, then the following week you’ll be asked to design a cute Twitter emoji of an animated sloth, and so on. Yes, there are artists who maintain one signature style that lands them tons of lucrative projects. But, when you are starting out and building your reputation as an illustrator who shows up and produces great work on time, you may not yet enjoy the luxuries of being a sought-out all-star yet. By having the ability to switch gears multiple times a week, even multiple times a day, you’ll not only work — you’ll discover what you really love to draw, and what styles you excel at. Think of it like a style buffet (with a paycheck)!

Now that I’ve mentioned money, never work for free. Let me repeat that, never work for free! Developing art muscles that can spring effortlessly from one style to the next, is a valuable skill. Your time, and the years you spent learning leading up to this gig, are precious. Get paid. Get paid fairly, and if you aren’t sure what to charge, ask another artist. Check out a guide book, forums, do your research. The health of our industry relies on it. Future you, will be oh so glad that you did! Now that you’re networking regarding rates…

Stay Connected

Other illustrators are your most valuable resource. Seek out mentors and friends within the industry for guidance and support. Your first gigs will likely come from a more experienced artist who has an overflow of work, or who knows of a project (or company) that you’d be a great fit for. Join groups and collectives such as Girls Drawin’ Girls, The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, or Freelancers Union. Take small boutique classes with industry professionals, in which you’ll get to actively speak with the teacher.

Most importantly, make actual friends. Some of your best memories will likely come from figure drawing with other artists, attending museums and shows, collaborating on projects, or even surviving intense deadlines together. Share your knowledge freely with others, and listen when your fellow illustrators have advice for you. Cutthroat competitiveness isn’t a good look, it isn’t pleasant, and it won’t get you far anyway. Skip it. Build a community. You chose drawing as a career path because it is fun. Enjoy being an illustrator!

#illustration #art career #figure drawing #freelancing

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anneapocalypse · 1 year

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1, 6, 8, 22 👀

For the 🔥choose violence 🔥 ask game!

Disclaimer: provocative name aside, I am not actually trying to be mean here, these are just my opinions offered for Entertainment Purposes™️, and I'm not mad at anyone who has a different opinion.

1. the character everyone gets wrong

Trick question, it is not possible for everyone to be wrong about anything in Dragon Age fandom because that implies that there's something everyone agrees on. 😉

jk jk that's a cop out. But seriously, for any question that says "everyone" just assume I'm making a wobbly-hand gesture next to it and we all understand hyperbole. Okay.

I think at this point I'm probably at least somewhat known for spreading the good word of Sera. 😉 And at this point I really don't think most misconceptions about her are malicious--I remember a day when Sera was much more widely hated, but she isn't anymore, which is nice! I think some of the more out-there takes on Sera (and about the Friends of Red Jenny) just come from that fact that she actively deflects personal questions until she trusts the Inquisitor, and not everyone looks past the surface-level answers she gives to realize there's more to it. My go-to example is the idea that she magically knew archery from birth and no one ever taught her anything (she didn't, and someone did). Between her dialogue, and World of Thedas, it's possible to put together a fair amount about the timeline of her childhood, when Lady Emmald died, the history of Red Jenny, etc.

But it does take some close attention and some digging and some math (ugh), and let's be real, none of us can know everything about every character! I'll just keep writing about her, because I love her.

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

Honest to god, for me personally: no one. Maybe that'll change one day, but I hang with a lot of people who ship a lot of ships and none of them bother me. I have like one NoTP in the vast canon that is Dragon Age and you probably don't even know who it is because I don't care enough to talk about it. Hell, I have mutuals who ship it, and it doesn't bother me. You guys are cool.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

This isn't like One Opinion, but a more overarching Thing: in general I think it would be great if there was more understanding of like, How Video Games Are Made, in general. I think it would lead to more focused and productive criticism of games better targeted at where the problems in development actually are. I feel like I see a lot of things that are almost certain attributable to Process Issues attributed instead to Active Malice. On the flip side, it's frustrating to point out something cool and have people always respond with "Well Bioware is too stupid to have done that on purpose," like there aren't writers and designers in this industry who are incredibly passionate about their work and the themes they can weave into it even at the level of chaos they're forced to work within.

idk. I think perspective is a good thing. Read Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier. Check out Mark Darrah's YouTube channel.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

I think because they're such wonderfully complex and well-developed characters, and because romances, the companions are always the juggernauts in the fandom and they always will be. And I love those characters, too. But one of my favorite things about the Dragon Age universe is the many wonderful minor characters where we get to see just enough of their story to make me feel like they do have a whole life they're living just offscreen somewhere, and set my imagination off running. CAN I HEAR IT FOR MY BOY SLIM COULDRY AND HIS FIFTEEN COUSINS 💖

#ask meme #choose violence ask game #ask anne #breninarthur #dragon age stuff

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9w1ft · 2 years

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thanks 9wing! i fully respect your interpretations of those songs as kaylor anthems - in fact, i'm reconsidering my stance on mastermind now 😅 it always felt like blank space 2.0 to me, but your analysis has helped me to see it in a different way. i am someone who is always open to multiple interpretations of the same song, so i hope our thoughts can co-exist if they're different or even contrary! instead of blown out analyses, let me share what parts of each song made me interpret it as bearding songs.

blank space -

"i can make the bad guys good for the weekend" — image control. taylor can make swifties hate or love anyone with the snap of a finger. her beards are benefitted from being with her by gaining popularity to support their works and/or to hide their own gay rumors too. once they're 'exes,' however, they're back to being the bad guys in swifties' eyes. (exceptions excluded)

the entire "cherry lips, crystal skies" verse, to me, feels as if she's trying to impress the general public with their theatrical relationship, and not quite her beau himself.

the main line "i've got a blank space baby and i'll write your name" itself, coupled with the typewriter beat, provokes imagery of bearding contracts. fun song!

cowboy like me -

her beardin' beau is hustling for the good life with stars in his eyes. "perched in the dark" makes me think that he's pretty much a very underground celebrity if we compare fame to light (another name goes up in lights - i can still make the whole lights shimmer - flashing lights). he doesn't want love, he wants a fancy car - a materialistic perk of being a well known entertainer or celebrity. taylor herself is also ambitious and she's at a point of her life where she wants to be taken seriously, so she really needs to display herself as someone with a stable love life. that's how they show 'forever' as their sweetest con.

"now you hang from my lips like the gardens of babylon" — i can't remember who, but another gaylor pointed out that this lyric provokes the imagery of a literal facial beard.

invisible string -

now this one's a bit sad, i always had a soft spot for this song and i hate to taint its innocence! anyway.

she pretty much shows how different their lives and motivations are in the industry - she wants love, he wants money. she thinks how pretty things could be if the universe aligned them, but really, she knows all too well that's very much not the case. all of this was arranged.

however, i like to interpret the "bad was the blood" verse could be a hint at karlie and their relationship, since karlie was the first person who heard 1989. although i do not know if it would make sense, but hey! that verse actually shows similarities, whereas the first verse did not.

lavender haze -

"staring at the ceiling with you" — business meeting, sitting in those formal black spinny chairs. they're both just kind of bored and staring at the ceiling, since they could technically have that employer-employee relationship.

"you don't ever say too much" — the interviews. they're sooooooo private. he's sooooo magnificently charismatic.

"you don't really read into my melancholia" / "you weren't even listening" — i could get how this could be interpreted positively, but i'm a negative nancy so i predominantly interpreted this as him not giving a shit 😅

"talk your talk and go viral, i just need this love spiral, get it off your chest, get it off my desk" — 'for the love of god, my dude, please say something a little bit more and be more convincing, i need us to be trending and to be seen as the industry titans. got it? cool, now go practise that smiling for photos exercise tree gave you and leave my office, i now need to combat the foot fetish allegations and wipe my desk clean before tree gets here.' i have a very wide imagination as you can see.

"no deal" sounds like her rejecting a (business) proposal. i also get the vibe that her team is shutting down the marriage rumors while his team is trying to boost them? not sure, just a hunch

thanks for this! i appreciate that songs can be interpreted in different ways. i vibe with a lot of what you wrote.

i did a little thinking and in my mind here are the lines i find kaylory about these songs, along with a few additional comments

invisible string

- i just want to add to what you’ve written by saying that to me the song sings like she’s listing up all this trivia that points to joe, some of which (the yogurt shop job) was cleverly planted in an interview of joe not long before folklore was released, and she sings in the chorus “isn’t it pretty to think” that there’s some connection between us that’s actually not there.

- by contrast when the music goes quiet, and she sings in a different pace and cadence, the part that begins with all the run ins, she mentions the dive bar from delicate, past mistakes and chains, changing weather, all of which is imagery that comes up in what we consider kaylor songs. plus, she closes off the line with one single thread of gold tied me to you which i believe is both in contrast to an invisible string, and illustrative of a color very often associated with karlie. this one section of the song feels like the truth hidden within the story.

cowboy like me

- eyes full of stars (this carries over from starry eyes sparking my darkest night, from the song call it what you want, where “call it” sounds like “karlie” a lot)

- the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up (this really feels applicable to taylor and karlie’s situation as we all have a sense of the skeletons in their closets, whereas i don’t really have a read on what skeletons joe could possibly have in his)

- that was all before i locked it down (there is a recurring theme of taylor and karlie putting their public relationship on lockdown starting in fall 2016, the thing with the gold heart locket, the love lock bridge in paris etc)

-idk man, the gardens of babylon line conjures up a… different kind of garden 🙈 in a sort of wear-you-like-a-necklace sorta way, if you catch my drift

lavender haze

- talk your talk and go viral (karlie has had more than a few viral moments in recent years, whereas i cant recall a single time joe has ever said anything memeable)

- i get the bearding interpretation of this song for sure because of lyrics like all they keep asking me is if i’m gonna be your bride which point to the you being who the public assumes taylor will marry. and the points you bring up work with this interpretation well, i think it’s a solid way to listen to the song and i’m not opposed to it,

-what makes it kaylory for me is taylor’s explanation of the song as a part of album promo. how she talks about how it’s been hard for her and her lover dodging weird rumors since 2016, and how lavender haze is about wanting to do anything to protect a love. she also references a mad men episode where john hamm’s character talks about wanting to have a relationship with ‘betty’ — a name kaylors have associated with karlie for some time now (karlie’s middle name is elizabeth). there are other things about the song that fit into a particularly kaylor interpretation i have but i get the feeling it’s my own little silly interpretation so i think i’ll keep to myself.

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taengoonim · 2 years

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[TRANS] 15 years that was harsh for the ‘young girls’—The touching return of Girls’ Generation and KARA

(Written by FLAT Team of Kyunghyang Shinmun)

Original article link: https://v.daum.net/v/20221220152535440

Do you remember the heyday of K-pop around 2009? Have you ever had colorful skinny jeans in your closet? Do you feel like shaking your butt just by looking at the overalls? Do you get teary-eyed when you hear the intro of <Into The New World>? Whenever things don't go well, do you say "You think I did it for myself? for myself?" and want to stamp your feet?

If so, 2022 will be considered more special than ever. This is because Girls' Generation and KARA, who celebrated their 15th anniversary this year, made a comeback, marking a milestone in the history of girl groups.

On August 5, 2022, Girls' Generation made a full team comeback after 5 years. SM Entertainment's girl group Girls' Generation made their debut on August 5, 2007. At that time, it was a multi-member group that felt unfamiliar, but then the group can be said as the origin of expressions such as the ‘flower bouquet effect’ or ‘a pretty girl next to a pretty girl’. Girls' Generation, who debuted with <Into The New World>, has since gained explosive popularity and has topped the league as national girl group. Girls’ Generation, who led the golden age of girl groups along with Wonder Girls and KARA, expanded the scope of their fandom, and around this time, the phrase of ‘uncle fan’ and ‘aunt fan’ were born.

Girls' Generation has always been at the top, but when the members reached their mid-twenties, ridiculous articles saying, "they are not a girl anymore" began to appear. K-pop is an industry where young age is the capital, and girl groups in particular have stricter standards. In many cases, group activities cannot continue beyond the maximum of 7 years, which is the standard established in accordance to the Fair Trade Commission's standard contract. Girls' Generation's group activities were also unclear for a long time as some members moved to other agencies and focused on individual activities.

The members then continued their activities without letting go of their identity as Girls' Generation and made a comeback in celebration of their 15th anniversary, rewriting the history of the longest running active girl group. With their skilled performances and unwavering support from fans, they proved that simply being young is not the competitive edge of a female performing artist.

The girl group, which is loved passionately, was also hated just as fiercely. Collective attacks on 'young and pretty' women have been persistent (of course, that doesn’t mean that it is lesser than it used to be now). Women's contempt and ridicule were as severe as men's violent sexual objectification and rude consumption of the media.

The act of labeling a member as ‘a fox that pretends to be a bear that pretends to be a fox’ and labeling them with the name ‘XX woman’, or thoroughly analyzing and ‘stripping off’ their faces, bodies, makeups, etc., was a popular act within the female community. The ‘ten minute incident’, in which the boy group’s fandom turned off their lightstick during Girls’ Generation’s performance at the ‘Dream Concert’, is a representative example of ‘boy group fans bullying girl groups’, a long-standing genealogy. No matter how thrilled I am to see Girls' Generation's comeback, I cannot erase this obvious fact as if it never happened.

Among the occasions when feelings toward Girls’ Generation reached a new phase, the 2015 feminism reboot and the 2016 Ewha Womans University campus protest cannot be left out. The scene was widely talked about as a symbol of the sensitivity and political personality of a new generation, as the students who were confronting the police at the time sang <Into The New World> together to overcome their fears. It became an opportunity to reinterpret Girls' Generation group and songs in a feminist way. For a long time, girl groups have been regarded as passive entities that reproduce and practice the image of women demanded or idealized by society.

There was a deep-rooted perception that had a detrimental effect on women, like sayings of, “You should be like this,” and that women were treated as an object dedicated to men as “things to see.” However, as Girls' Generation has been active for a long time, accumulated years of experience, and each of their ability value met with dignity and experience in the industry to exert synergy, their identity and capabilities have been re-evaluated. In addition, through the popularization of feminism, the public realized how closely the misogyny or attacks suffered by girl groups were closely related to real misogyny, so they began to sympathize with the grievances and struggles of those involved.

One of the remarkable phenomena in Girls' Generation and KARA's comeback is the change in perception of girl groups. They are being accepted as independent performing arts and culture experts, not just as a group of girls who are ‘simply pretty and young’ (in fact, we don't know why this is even considered something worth criticizing). They focus on individual members' ability and teamwork, and they also enjoy the sense of change they feel as a great senior in the industry. This atmosphere is largely credited to the SBS web entertainment <MMTG> hosted by Jae-jae, who also known as the ‘half-celebrity’. Jaejae and the <MMTG> team recognized the professional characteristics of idols which were somehow always bound to seen as ‘B-ranked’, and reflected the critical mind and self-reflection derived from it in the programs they produced. The fact that Jaejae is a fan of Girls’ Generation is quite symbolic. The experience of loving someone passionately is also to consider other beings in the same situation and expand the possibility of making better choices.

Girls' Generation and KARA are groups that project the ideals desired for young women by combining patriarchal desires and company's spirits. At the same time, their achievements are also the result of the female members' ability, effort, collaboration, and fans' support. Their existence is multi-layered and three-dimensional like that. Girls’ Generation Sunny posted “KARA is the best!” on her Instagram when KARA made a comeback, expressing her affection, saying, “So pretty, cool, shiny.. It's nice to see you. I respect you, admire you, thank you. I missed you.” In the narrative of the activities of the two groups that have passed through a difficult time, there are touching and bitter things that cannot be expressed in words.

Hopefully, Girls' Generation, KARA, and many other female performing artists will continue to promote safely and happily for a long time. May the harsh world be a little kinder to them, may we learn enough to love shiny women tenderly, may no woman stumble upon unjust accusations.

#snsd #girls generation

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hemingway-papers · 2 years

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on one hand calling miyazaki the "disney of anime" is a horrible misnomer that completely undermines and reduces his artistic integrity to a false comparison.

on the other hand I completely understand why his work was pitched that way to american general audiences in the early 2000s.

being a kid in that decade i remember how allergic people were to foreign film and how limited and stigmatized our view of anime was at the time. in the 90s and 2000s anime was immediately and exclusively associated with either loud and juvenile children's entertainment or weird pervert fodder.

-partly out of xenophobia & racism. and partly in fairness because otaku pandering really did start its massive take-over of the anime industry at the time. and because the only mainstream household-name anime series broadcast in america then was for young children (pokémon), or tween boys (DBZ), or tween girls (sailor moon). other than that, some quality anime would air late at night on adult oriented comedy channels where any kind of animated debauchery, weirdness and offensiveness ran wild. so cowboy bebop and such made a huge impression on rebellious teens and edgy young adults but was still grouped under pervy and or offensive nerd stuff by general audiences because of how when and where it aired.

-AND partly because the US dubbing industry was extremely primitive at the time (as i said americans are allergic to foreign language film and the supply and demand for dubbed film was minuscule before anime craze hit). so the dubbing for those kids shows was notoriously irritating to most adults since the amateur dub voice actors were often kind of obnoxious in those early days in a way that made regular cartoon voice actors seem mature and sophisticated lmfao.

I honestly think the disney comparison was a desperate attempt to get people to shed that VERY pigeonholed impression of anime and trying to say "this animated movie by studio ghibli is a fun and NORMAL. it is not the anime you know that is generally creepy & off putting, annoying or boring, it has some artistic merit, it is engaging for children but you won't hate it. you know like when you take you kids to see something by disney?? and it's always pretty good? this is like that. ghibli is like disney" and tbh i get that.

i remember the early 2000s and i can promise you, most american adults did not think anime could be normal. they didn't realize it was a medium just like anything else and not an extremely narrow genre of weird foreign nerd shit. the actual scope of anime was literally was unheard of.

so the comparison to disney actually was fair under those extreme prejudices. it was accurate enough in the mere sense of its quality control and genuine all-ages orientated material, two simple things that literally no other anime in america was widely known for yet. that did convince a lot of people to give miyazaki & studio ghibli a chance. for what it's worth, that's why people were saying that. it just said far more about the culture in america at the time than saying anything about miyazaki's own work.

although now that anime understood in america as a completely normal animation format that is pretty widely accepted it's a really reductive and kind of insulting comparison

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vivo0805 · 2 years

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[TRANS] 15 years that was harsh for the ‘young girls’—The touching return of Girls’ Generation and KARA

(Written by FLAT Team of Kyunghyang Shinmun)

Original article link: https://v.daum.net/v/20221220152535440

#snsd #girls generation

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natehoodreviews · 2 years

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2022 Year End Compilation

The Ancient Minstrel, Jim Harrison

Hm. A meandering, unfocused disappointment. In the introduction Harrison admitted that he surrendered to fictionalizing his autobiography. I wish he hadn’t. His fictitious flourishes only detract from his usually gorgeous prose.

Eggs, Jim Harrison

Hmmm! Considerably drier than I expected. It feels like he abandoned his usual poetic prose in favor of a more traditional―dare I say Russian―psychological study. The result is surprisingly staid.

The Case of the Howling Buddhas, Jim Harrison

HMMM!!! This was dreadful. Harrison has never been embarrassed by sex, but this novella feels like he wrote it with his penis.

Brida, Paulo Coelho

I have no idea if the magical system Coelho presents here is his own invention or not, but personally I don’t really care. I adored this book and its bizarre yet gentle syncretism of paganism and Christianity. I know many find Coelho’s books unbearably twee, but so far all the ones I’ve read have hit the sweet spot between sentimentality and sincerity.

Undermajordomo Minor, Patrick deWitt

At a certain point this book started to feel like deWitt wrote it solely to surprise and outguess himself. That’s the only explanation I can think of for a book that takes so many surreal and thematically nonsensical turns. I enjoyed a good deal of it, but I can’t help but wish deWitt had settled it all on a central point or two. That said, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to forget the most bizarre secret aristocratic orgy this side of Eyes Wide Shut.

The Running Man, Stephen King [as Richard Bachman]

Deliciously, succulently furious. I had no idea King had this kind of fury in him. It made an already lean thriller absolutely propulsive. This was the pulpy palate cleanser I’ve been looking for for a long, long time.

The Far Cry, Fredric Brown

This was...very much not what I was expecting. When I picked this book up, I expected a decently entertaining crime thriller. Instead, it’s a slow-burn psychological drama of a man investigating a murder and becoming obsessed with the dead victim. So much of it predicts Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. The first chunk of the book is a bit dry, but once the obsession begins to really take hold of the protagonist it becomes quite engaging.

Reality Check, Peter Abrahams

Apparently, this book won a Young Adult literary award when it was published. All I can say is that if books this dull were considered industry exemplars at the time, then losing an entire generation of young readers to Twilight and dystopian death games suddenly makes much more sense.

Roadwork, Stephen King [as Richard Bachman]

This book makes an interesting counterpoint with Pet Sematary: both films are, in their own ways, about dealing with grief. But whereas Sematary reacts passively with resignation, Roadwork reacts actively with rage. It’s a bit bloated, but the whole thing still vibrates with the anger that makes King’s Bachman books so compelling.

Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson

A brisk and snappy work of young adult historical fiction. Would be fascinated to see what this book would’ve been if it’d been written in the shadow of our current pandemic and its plague of misinformation and anti-vaxx sentiment.

The Thing Around Your Neck, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie’s short stories all, in one way or another, see people trapped between the push and pull of different identities and cultures, whether they’re racial, ethnic, or geopolitical. The opening story, the ghastly and sad “Cell One,” even extends this to see a young man incapable of adapting to the us vs. them mentality of prisoners and prisoner guards after getting arrested over suspicions of murder. It’s a fantastic collection of stories, even if all of them don’t hit equal heights. A personal favorite is “Jumping Monkey Hill.” I could’ve easily read a book-length version of that one.

Patrimony: A True Story, Philip Roth

Knowing that I’ll probably go through something similar with my own father, reading this book was like placing my hand on a hot skillet.

A Lost Lady, Willa Cather

The elegiac downfall of a man, a house, a woman, a nation, a myth. Lovely, sad, and rich with Cather’s unmistakable sense of place.

Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson

“I had a moment’s glory that night, though. I was certain I was here in this world because I couldn’t tolerate any other place.”

The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O’Connor

Only someone with a devout faith could write a book with such venom towards organized religion.

The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon

Perhaps choosing this as my first novel to read while mentally burnt out after finishing a semester of seminary wasn’t the best idea.

Mao II, Don DeLillo

Terrifyingly prescient in its vision of a future where terrorism replaces the written word as the most effective means of mass communication. However, the book itself feels inherently disjointed, even within the context of DeLillo’s usual chronological and POV flourishes. Only the prologue and epilogue at the mass Moonie wedding and the revolutionary unrest in Beirut told from the perspectives of the book’s two central women seem to actually engage with DeLillo’s thesis of “the future belongs to crowds.” The middle clump of the book is mostly—both figuratively and literally—tortured writer porn.

Running Dog, Don DeLillo

Migraine-inducing in its byzantinism. This novel’s first half where it was just a pulpy spy thriller was more fun than the philosophically nihilistic second. The actual content of Hitler’s home movie was a brilliant coup, but it did little to relieve the overall turgidness of the overcomplicated narrative.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, Flannery O’Connor

An essential Catholic corrective to the current of gloomy Calvinism that infects so much of American literature. The title story, “The River,” and “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” are sad and beautiful while “Good Country People” and “The Displaced Person” are deliciously nasty.

The Magic Barrel, Bernard Malamud

I enjoyed the modern Jewish parables well enough, but the “American Jew in Italy” stories sapped almost all of my enthusiasm out from reading this book.

The Pale King, David Foster Wallace

Somehow, simultaneously, one of the dullest, most thrilling, most banal, and most touching novels I’ve ever read. Wallace delves into the nature of boredom, proving that the ability to navigate mundanity and monotony is just as central to the human experience as the capacity to comprehend beauty. Parts of this novel lodged into my mind like a splinter, none more than the first chapter which might be one of the single most gorgeous pieces of prose in American literature.

A Really Big Lunch: Meditations on Food and Life from the Roving Gourmand, Jim Harrison

Possibly the finest book I’ve ever read about food, eating, the love of both, and how they all inform the act of living as a bodily human being. You can taste the marrow in this book’s bones.

The Book of Daniel, E. L. Doctorow

The fact that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were later proven guilty as sin by declassified Soviet documents does nothing to lessen this book as a chilling portrait of how America scapegoats and lynches its poor, dispossessed, and racially marginalized. Also, I could read Doctorow’s descriptions of NYC crowds, streets, neighborhoods, and markets forever.

Homer & Langley, E. L. Doctorow

Oh, how I wish Doctorow had stretched his imaginary history of the Collyer brothers to include 9/11. Also, I feel like Doctorow might have fumbled a possible creative flourish by not revealing that the book itself was a copy of Langley’s fabled newspaper which, upon completion, managed to speculate on the future.

World’s Fair, E. L. Doctorow

Pleasant enough as a childhood autobiography of growing up in early twentieth century New York City, but at times it felt more like Doctorow was writing a laundry list of sense memories than he was the story of his youth. Also, it’s kind of cringy how much of it was recycled from The Book of Daniel.

The Ponder Heart, Eudora Welty

The rare Southern Gothic comedy that’s genuinely clutch-your-side funny, not the sardonic, wince-through-the-tragedy “comedy” of Flannery O’Connor.

Delta Wedding, Eudora Welty

**heavy sigh** You know what this book reminds me of? Those awful late 70s Robert Altman films where he filled his casts with too many damn characters all with barely anything to do.

As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner

As amazing as everyone says it is. I was a Faulkner agnostic after reading The Sound and the Fury which I admired only on a technical level and Light in August which I didn’t like at all. But this novel was a tour de force portrait of Southern decrepitude writ large with the imagery of the Old Testament and the tragedy of the ancient Greeks.

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Delightfully morbid, thrilling, and disgusting. Was not expecting this book to go in the direction of weird science, but I’m glad it did.

Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

It was around the halfway point of this book—right when Saleem and Shiva were about to meet for the first time—that I heard the news that Salman Rushdie had been attacked and stabbed in New York. What a testament for how little has truly changed since his literary career started.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce

Statler: “What was this book called again? A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?”

Waldorf: “More like Portrait of the Reader as Bored Senseless!”

Both: “D’oh-ho-ho-ho!!”

#2022 in Review

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