#i like doing the vaporwave one more but i like the original one as well

[kenandeliza]

Captain Marvel and Billy Batson

Original and vaporwave version

Yeah i forgot to write my name in the original version and too laxy to do it lol.

[randomstranger24]

I’m certain a lot of people think I’m some deranged lunatic and will be skeptical and or just won’t believe anything I have to say. I totally get it and if it were me on the other end, I think I’d draw the same conclusion as well. It’s more than reasonable, but I promise there is a much bigger picture and I think you deserve to at least know another perspective. 

Not sure where to begin. I’ll start off first by saying I won’t be referring to anyone’s names or occupations to conceal anyone’s identity including my own.

I owe a big apology not just to the BoC fans, but also to Mike and Marcus, not that they would even give a shit, but if so, I’m sure they’d hate my guts. Yes, I am the original creator of the “Thrift Store Tape" and no, I am of no relation to the brothers, (no surprise there). I do feel spiritually connected to their music though if that’s of any consequence? (no surprise there either) I’m sure they’ll never see this, but I realize I could be viewed as an untalented hack and a giant piece of shit. This, I understand and I accept it. I never had bad intentions, I promise that, but it’s like they always say, “The road to Hell is paved with good ones”. 

Here’s how this entire thing got started. Regardless of what anyone might assume, I never in a million years set out to intentionally deceive people into believing this was some long lost BoC record. Hear me out and let me explain from the beginning. 

For years prior to all of this, I have been experimenting with recording my musical creations onto VHS and cassette tapes in attempts to capture those warm fuzzy lofi aesthetics, but Sometimes the final product is actually disappointing because you’d be surprised how good VHS tapes actually hold sound. So, fast forward 2018, one of my housemates at the time, who was actually the one who helped manage a Red White And Blue thrift store. This was the catalyst of what sparked this idea in my head after my housemate mentioned all the blank VHS tapes that were being donated.  

I Purchased a whole bin of tapes and started dubbing my music, (both old and new) onto the donated VHS tapes to send back to the thrift stores to be re-donated in efforts of someone finding them. Kind of like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it out to sea in hopes someone finds it. I would donate several of these VHS tapes and would leave my dubbed mixes over top of older shitty movies. I had the idea of rummaging through and curating all of my “Old Tunes” sound-alikes and Vaporwave tracks or anything sounding adjacent and placing them on several tapes.  

I probably dubbed well over a hundred tapes over the years since 2018, both used and blanks

I ended up donating most of them to several different thrift stores. Mostly old generic shitty “dollar-bin” movies that nobody really wants and generic kids cartoons. I would never destroy a collectible VHS or anything of value, so no worries there, but I doubt anyone will ever find the ones sent out and even if they do, they’ll most likely throw it away or something. I have a few tapes that escaped that were made with music that accidentally got deleted years ago and I would pay top dollar to get back, but that’s another story for another day. 

Anyway, So, my other friend (Not housemate), who, (we’ll just say, is an independent filmmaker of sorts) had the idea which kind of spawned from mine to do a found-footage VHS horror film project also known as “Analog Horror” or the genre at least. Now, keep in mind, this is the spring of 2020 during the height of the pandemic lockdown. So, time is all we had. 

I had the idea of using an ARG for people to solve to lead them down a “Rabbit Hole” as part of an interactive movie project. It would start off pleasant and would progressively get more sinister and darker and even more disturbing the further down you went. My main intention and goal was to hopefully have this project be the subject of topic on a big name youtube channel like “Nexpo”. I figured the music and aesthetic would all be “Old Tunes- BoC-inspired” and would give it a more suitable twist. I figured any fans that would ever come across it would take notice instantly that it was “BoC-inspired” or at least the music. I also figured the BoC cover tracks would add a few disturbing layers to the mystique of this “Rabbit Hole” mystery.  especially since we wanted to catch those "Backrooms" "Liminal Space" vibes.

I’m sure folks will be skeptical and that’s okay, but just hear me out on this and yes, I’d be thinking the same way too, so I certainly do understand any skepticism. 

Originally, the inspiration for the name “Strange Soup” Mixtape was used in the original upload in efforts to connect ties to this twisted bizarrely disturbing video titled “Blank Room Soup (Dark Web Video)”.

Now, you can do a google search about this video. It was a strange mysterious viral sensation for quite a few years after emerging on 4chan and has been a part of other “Rabbit Holes”. We ended up deleting the original video so that another one could be uploaded in place of it. 

The idea was to incorporate it as part of this story, but we needed to scratch other ideas altogether because the numbers did not properly equate to the letters we needed to start the ARG and time was running out. We also needed the upload date to fall in line with the project. The creation of these ARG’s are not easy to create. Believe me when I tell you. I’m just some uneducated moron, so figuring this stuff out took trial and error. Even with the help of my friend.    

Now, if all would have gone as planned, we would have opened another account uploading another tape in connection with the thrift store tape. We were in search of materials to craft out costumes like the one’s seen in the “Blank Room Soup” video and wanted to utilize the office space at my friend's school.  

Originally, this is how this should have all played out in order for this horror project to have worked. We needed The first video to be uploaded at a certain date in order to maintain validity for the ARG storyline so it could be incorporated into the film project. The goal from the start was never to deceive people into believing this was a “long-lost BoC record”. I’ll explain more below.  

The next step, after a week or two, was to have all of us post the link to the video in “thrift store finds facebook groups” in order to drum up the mystery. He and I shared the link on a few of the forums online such as Reddit and so on. The forums had absolutely nothing to do with music or ARG’s. Just thrift store finds and VHS collector’s groups. We wanted to build the mystery up and clue people in eventually. The original video sat on youtube for quite some time. It had like maybe 60-75 views after a month. That view count just stayed stagnant. Then one day in, I think late March out of nowhere, I got the messages in the comments. They were friendly at first with some people just mentioning it was “Boards of Canada”. I thought to myself, “Oh shit, they found the video”. Soon the view count just kept on climbing and Soon enough some folks started becoming hostile. I convinced my housemate to make a response video explaining everything. We all thought this was the best course of action because of how unbiased he’ll be for the simple fact, he has no idea who BoC is (Well, he does now lol) and he is not a musician, like, at all haha. 

Me and my filmmaker friend were excited at first that at least we had an audience now and could run with it. So I figured the response video my housemate put out would quell any outrage and save our project in order to move forward but, boy, was I dead wrong.

The views kept climbing up and the comments kept coming. People were becoming hostile and outraged. Things got way too real and I started to panic slightly. I have a bad anxiety disorder and it triggered it for sure. I just had all these thoughts like, “What if I get sued by the band?” I had nightmares of the brothers coming after me and them telling me how much of a piece of shit I am.  

BoC fans are some of the craftiest people you’ll ever come across, lemme tell ya lol.

They had somehow figured out the metadata from the original deleted video that was uploaded months prior. After it was confirmed and revealed to me they could dig this info up, I was in a full blown panic attack. I started hyperventilating. I messaged my buddy and told him what was up. He was against it at first, but I told him, “hey I have to delete this whole channel, they’re going to find out where I live next and who I am!” I just had the worst thoughts imaginable. 

So, I hit the “Killswitch” button and within minutes it all vanished like a bad dream. I was genuinely worried at first that I could potentially face legal backlash, but my friend explained to me that I wasn't out there putting any BoC label on it or even labeling the tracks and attempting to make any money from it.   

Some time had passed and the dust settled a little bit. I was kind of shocked to see people had ripped the original audio from the video and were sharing it to facebook and reddit and soon uploaded to Youtube. The “Dan Fingerman” channel was the first to reupload as I read through the comments and to my surprise they were all mostly positive. Some people thought for sure the music was BoC and others were skeptical, but most of them didn’t believe for a second, but yet still they kept talking about how much they enjoyed it. Even “David Firth” the creator of “Salad Fingers” left a comment at some point stating he liked the music, but didn’t care for the BS backstory. I was so happy that this music that had been sitting around for years on end had finally found a home somewhere. 

This music is only meant for a small niche audience. Most folks will not appreciate it. I think where I really fucked up, was becoming addicted to the excitement of seeing people enjoy the music that I had accumulated over a decade. Believe me when I tell you, there is more where that all came from. It is ridiculous the hundreds of unfinished or hidden tracks I have stored on several harddrives, VHS and cassette tapes, but I am happy to finally put it all to bed today.

Here’s where I need to really step up and take accountability for my ignorance and selfishness. 

Again, I was truly happy that people were actually enjoying the music so I did a foolish thing and ran with it like an idiot. All the hate and backlash that I will receive after all of this is all well deserved. Yes, I’m a giant loser, I'm an idiot, a talentless hack with no life. I’ll take the “L”. I just wanted to purge the last of this music and put an end to all of it once and for all. I think this was much needed and I can now move on with my life and stop obsessing over creating music that sounds like BoC. I can go back to writing and producing dark progressive black and death metal like I once used to lol.     

The day I discovered BoC’s music is the day it changed my life forever and how I saw the world through a new lens. I became obsessed with wanting to replicate their sound. I think it is more than relevant to talk about it to help illustrate my madness. 

Growing up in my teen years I was an extreme metal fanatic. I listened to a lot of black and death metal bands and played in many metal bands as a guitarist. My biggest influences were bands like Slayer, Immortal, Death, Opeth, Dimmu Borgir, Gorgoroth, Deicide, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. You name it, If it was extreme, I was probably into them. I wanted nothing to do with any music that wasn’t extreme metal. I was very narrow-minded back then. That’s not to say I’m no longer a fan of metal, I’m just not as closed off as I used to be. 

As the years went on, I would watch my favorite front men from the most prolific metal bands give interviews and mention their musical influences and would always be blown away by how far away from metal their influences actually were. One of them would mention Radiohead in multiple interviews and naturally I got curious and started trying out “Radiohead" and soon fell in love with Thom Yorke’s experimentations. I think this is where my taste began to shift. I started getting into the “chill trip-hop’ genres and bands like Portishead, producers like DJ Shadow, Flying Lotus, and J Dilla. So pretty much the recipe for being receptive to BoC was already in the making. 

Eventually I stopped playing in bands after I learned how to play every instrument: Bass, Piano, drums and so on. It just got too hectic with everyone’s schedules to keep the dedication. I wanted so badly to learn how to write, record, and produce my own music. At the time I had a friend who used “Frooty Loops” to make Industrial beats, but that was about it and he would never teach me how to use the program. I wanted so badly to make my own black metal album and perform and record all the instruments as well as sing vocals.            

“Opeth’s” front man Mikael Akerfeldt influenced me in other directions from the metal genre and 

I eventually outgrew those desires and over time I became more interested in collecting vintage things like vhs camcorders, tape players, and record players. This really set the stage for me. Some years later, I was surfing Youtube in 2008 in search of videos on the drug `DMT" and a slideshow video of psychedelic imagery started playing and that’s when I was introduced to BoC's "Roygbiv" for the first time. As I was listening, it was like something inside of me was born. I’ll never forget that day. 

Now, I grew up in the 80’s and I distinctly remember “PBS” and the shows that would air back then like Reading Rainbow and Sesame Street. As I’m listening to Roygbiv, I was in this state of disbelief. How did they manage to pull that off? These sounds of rich warm vintage analog tones of the mid 70’s TV bumpers on public broadcasting networks. It took me right back to my childhood and unlocked this part of me that had been missing my entire life. I had shivers down my spine. From that moment, I instantly fell in love. I just had to find out who the creator of this music was. I did some digging and one comment read the band name and I sought out more of their music. The next track I listened to was “Bocuma" and it buried into my soul even deeper. I had both tracks on repeat all day. It took me back to the simple days of my childhood of the early 80’s. I just had to find out what software they were using. I wanted to learn how one could possibly recreate something of the past with such an unreal haunting aesthetic.  

I eventually found out this music was released in 1998 and that, of itself blew my mind as well.

I was so certain the music was from the present day using “present-day-computer-technology”.

Eventually, I got my hands on a computer and started to dabble in music production and also learned how to convert analog to digital and vise/versa. I had read on multiple forums and interviews of how they could achieve their signature sound and naturally I followed.   

I would damage and degrade tapes to record on them and I had some incredible results and as mentioned before, a lot of disappointment because VHS has such a good HIFI sound. Almost better than any digital. 

I would fall asleep and dream of melodies and try to figure them out. It got to a point where it plagued everything I did musically. Everything I would make would always end up sounding similar to their music. This is why I am happy today, to purge the last of it and move on with my life.  

Am I mentally ill? Perhaps? Am I a lunatic? Far from it, but I needed to get all this out of my system. I am sorry for everything and I hope you can just enjoy the music for what it is. It was never about clout or recognition. I'm not here to profit financially. All I ever wanted was it all to find a home. Thank you so much for even listening and giving it the time. I owe so much to them. They opened my eyes to a whole other artistic realm. Special thanks and gratitude all goes to the brothers for all the inspiration over the many years. Thank you Mike and Marcus. Your music has settled deep within my heart and I will take it to the grave. Thank you so much and Thank all of you for all your kind words that I probably don’t deserve. Thank you for taking the time to read. I am so grateful. 

[shadowaj]

Heya! Welcome to our creepy studio filled with oddities!

Hi and good mourning, it’s me Aj! I’m also referred to as ShadowAj, Shady and RealShadyGhost. I’m a spooky yet silly ghost who draws and such. Here, you’ll mainly see me post fan art of my favorite series, commissions, and OC content (scroll down for more info on this!), as well as memes probably. Most of the drawings I post here will be 2D digital art, but occasionally I may post 2D traditional. I hope you enjoy your visit here!

(Small content warning, although I won’t post anything NSFW, I may post drawings with blood and/or light gore, body horror, and disturbing imagery, so beware.)

Things I Enjoy!

Ok so here I’ll just list off some of my interests so you can get to know me better. Ghosts have interests too!

- General Interests -

Spooky things, which includes horror movies and games, the occult, Halloween, urban legends, things like that.

Mysteries (I love murder mysteries, detective stories, strange and bizarre internet mysteries, and stuff like that)

Coffee (I’m a big fan)

Video Games (I’m bad at them but I still enjoy them…)

Movies (I enjoy going to theaters and watching movies, especially animated films.)

Listening to music (I am a fan of Metal/Rock (Metallica, Pantera, Ghost, etc.) music, as well as Synth. I do also listen to OSTs of my favorite series. A band I recommend checking out is ‘Dance with the Dead’, they are an indie band and mainly do horror synth and synthmetal. (Well, then again, I like any music that sounds nice or is spooky so)

Anime (Which ones? I’ll list them later give me a sec!)

Drawing (This should be obvious I mean I post drawings here but ima include it anyway)

Character Design (this is kinda an extension of drawing but I do enjoy looking at different designs and taking notes on what I can do differently with my own designs.)

Writing (Mainly my OC lore and such)

Collecting Plushies (I have an addiction help)

Theme Parks and Roller Coasters (I love roller coasters)

Cooking (I’m well known for my evil pancakes)

For aesthetics, I am a fan of spooky aesthetics (Wow!), steampunk, gothic (i love gothic architecture…), vaporwave, neon, and others.

-Anime and Games that I really enjoy-

Soul Eater

Danganronpa

Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE

Zero Escape

AI The Somnium Files

Ace Attorney

Mob Psycho 100

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

Gurren Lagann

Persona (I’m a fake fan I’ve only played the P5 games and I still haven’t finished P4G)

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Nichijou

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Pokémon

Sonic

Chainsaw Man (Again, fake fan, I haven’t been keeping up)

And others that I didn’t list here whoopsie

Original Content!

As I said before, I’ll be posting drawings of OCs, mainly from the webcomic series I’m working on titled ‘Shadow Realm’. I do have other original series and ideas as well, so here’s a little info…

Shadow Realm

Shadow Realm is a 4-part action horror urban fantasy series starring Sophia Alvarado, a Cuban teenage girl who lives in Miami who one day ends up in a different and strange world from our own, and ends up encountering ghosts and gaining powers of electricity. With her occult and coffee-obsessed friend Violet Bellerose and a friendly ghost she meets on the other side dubbed Shady, they encounter different ghosts and supernatural occurrences all across Miami. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s the basic gist of it for now. (It gets very complicated from part 2 onward…)

Kendall Convenience

A small game project that has the player take the role of one Katrina Diaz, a convenience store worker in Miami who works the graveyard shift. This takes place in the same universe as Shadow Realm.

Mystères de Lenoir

Mysteres de Lenoir is a series that follows the protagonist, Stella Auclair, a fresh detective who takes place in steampunk and gothic France during the Belle Époque era. Stella works with André Dupin, at the Dupin Detective Agency, and they solve a series of mysteries, most of which are murder cases.

I have two other series, but those are a secret for now… I will say though that one of them is a western, and the other is a single volume (One-Shot) comic.

Closing thoughts

If you read through all that wow good job you’re super cool and spooky methinks perchance.

Oh yeah, you can find me on other platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Pixiv, and Twitch

Even if you don’t have an account there you should still check them out!!!!

ask me anything you have questions about or if you're bored and want to talk!

another thing, i speak English and i can understand Spanish (I'm hispanic and i still can't speak this language it's embarrassing i know )

(also i may reupload this post in the future to add custom graphics, update interests, etc.)

[northwest-cryptid]

Do you want to share any of the jazz and funk artists or songs you have been listening to lately?

I hardly ever share music since throughout my whole life I've been basically judged for my taste in music, with people going so far as to literally get into my car and say "do we have to listen to this crap?" Before just turning off my radio, which has as you can imagine; done a number on my confidence in sharing music I enjoy.

That being said I don't mind sharing some stuff. I will say though that I don't think it's sorta, "for everyone" in that a lot of the stuff I listen to is kinda experimental and while I might enjoy it I don't think everyone will. Which is fine, just ya know; don't go shitting on me for it.

Anyways I also don't think I'm any kind of snob who's better than others because I like weird shit or whatever, I like what I like.

I've been listening to a lot of Cosmo D's(?) work, they made the Off-Peak series which is a set of games I've enjoyed for some years now, aesthetically they're just funny and neat to me. However the music introduced me to more atmospheric experimental vibes like this:

I'd argue it's weird to me that the song doesn't even start proper until about 2 minutes into the nearly 8 minute song. However I genuinely love how each instrument or sound slowly joins in to make the song feel more full.

Now full disclosure I actually don't know if Cosmo D and Archie Pelago are the same person, because as far as I know Cosmo D is a solo dev for the games, so they'd also do the music? However the music for Off-Peak (the first game) is credited to Archie Pelago (which I believe is Cosmo D, but I could be wrong).

One of my favorite tracks from Off-Peak is Mortified by Faith. It's literally just an atmospheric experimental jazz track that goes on for like 9 minutes but it's really neat to me.

Now a big thing with me is that outside of a specific few genres I'm actually shit about following like, artists and such. A lot of the times I will find music through videos like this that have collections of music from a specific genre; and admittedly they tend to be a bit hit or miss with me as a whole but some of the stand out tracks I do like are genuine bangers to me

I found this track via one of those collection videos and it just really stuck with me. I don't even know why I like it so much it's just a great chill vibe, if a little repetitive.

I've also found a ton of artists people might associate more with various other genres like Vaporwave or Future Funk but I enjoy them as Jazzy Funk music all the same.

This is one I often play in the background when I'm working:

I find it generally non-intrusive to my brain when I'm trying to focus.

And now coming out of left field without any warning, this fucking absolute banger collection from Funk Fiction:

I have been listening to a lot of old Dreamcast music and such which has lead my youtube algorithm to recommend stuff like this and while I may not be a fan of sonic stuff these days, I grew up with the original games (as well as SA 1 and 2) so a lot of these tracks being made into chilled out jazz or funk songs really hit home with me when I'm sitting around drawing or vibing and working on 3D modeling/avatar work.

I listen to a lot of stuff depending on my mood, and I find that even within loose genre umbrellas I listen to a lot of different styles. So I hope this wasn't super disappointing lol

[thisworldisablackhole]

Man, this is definitely one of the books of all time.

Snow Crash was recommended to me by a friend as “essential for Gibson heads”, and while I can see the similarities in the worlds both Gibson and Stephenson have depicted, the writing styles they employ are almost polar opposites, or perhaps two sides of the same coin. While Gibson’s writing is gritty and realistic, Stephenson’s writing is plain cartoonish. It’s hard to describe if you haven’t read it, but there are many passages in this book that read just like the front page of a 90s text book; a radical skateboarder doing a melon grab over a pool of geometrical vaporwave shapes with the words “WOW!” and “SCIENCE!” blasted over head in a jagged sound bubble. That’s pretty much the gist of this book. One thing I kind of prefer about Stephenson is his sense of coherence. The plot of Snow Crash is far more outrageous and unbelievable than anything in the Sprawl Trilogy, but I never felt like I was lost or confused. It's impressive considering the amount of shifting between characters and real world vs metaverse happenings.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed the bold writing style and the imaginative world building, but the pacing and character development left a lot to be desired. Hiro went from being a slacker hacker pizza delivery guy living in a storage unit to being a Jason Bourne level action hero in the span of a few chapters, and by the end of the book it felt like he simply became a vessel for the author to carry out his will. Apparently (after discussing the book with friends) this was intentional, as it was supposed to be a “parody” of cyberpunk literature, but it really didn’t read that way to me, and that context doesn’t change the way I feel about it at all. I actually much preferred Y.T.'s character. In fact, my favourite parts of this book in general were the parts that fully gave in to the futuristic skateboard fantasy of Y.T. surfing traffic by harpooning vehicles as if they were wild animals.

Where this book really took me by surprise was how deep it went into language and religious philosophy. While the curious side of my brain actually enjoyed these chapters where Hiro was essentially just getting history lessons, they felt a little shoehorned in and unnecessary. The story would have been just as good if the Snow Crash virus was just a regular ass computer virus. Having to go back in time and get a college degree to explain the origin of the virus did not actually make the plot any more interesting. Alas, the way the book switched back and forth between these very grounded history lessons and then back to pure techno fantasy was amusing to say the least. So, despite the choppy character development, semi poor pacing and a plot that was just all over the map, this was still a highly entertaining read that was well worth the time.

3.5/5

[emilyzone]

emily reviews the GG sonic games

over the past few months i beat the GG sonic games with all chaos emeralds. well, here are my thoughts!

Sonic the Hedgehog What a sweet game. Forgiving but satisfyingly challenging, and with a sense of style the others really can't match. in many ways this game's presentation is actually more polished than its 16-bit counterpart. It makes me feel more within the World established by ancillary media in JP of the time than the main game does. The role this game has in the story of its developer, Ancient, also adds to the appeal. I would give this game a smooch.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 This is such a contrast with 1 that it's a bit of whiplash going in. the art is raw and unpracticed, and the gameplay is aggressive toward you in the way old platformers frequently will be. But after giving in and switching from GG to the MS version (after beating Mecha Antlion once on GG to prove myself), i was able to meet the game where it wanted me to. The challenge became fun, and it was satisfying to make it through to the end. Making the 'special stage' a true final zone with vaporwave stylings based on the 16-bit special stages is an inspired use of limited rom space, and was really fun to play too. they haven't made a zone like Crystal Egg before or since. oh yeah and toot toot sonic warrior originated here - what a landmark tune for this game to have to its name. scrappy game altogether, but in a way where you're happy to see it succeed :)

Sonic and Tails ('chaos') Feels like Aspect is trying to establish their own voice as a sonic dev here. The portable and motobug springs are smart ideas that lend themselves to new puzzle structures, and the rocket shoes are just kind of silly. The experimental special stages are interesting, but it was definitely a miss that when you unlock one, it takes you out of an act without the opportunity to go back and finish it later. The premise that Eggman has an emerald and that's why you only need to get 5 is funny, but I respect it as a way for them to rebalance the challenge in a way they were happy with, without sacrificing the established lore that there must be 6 altogether. Aqua Planet feels weirdly prescient of Hydrocity. Electric Egg feels like someone wasn't finished with Scrambled Egg from the last game, and needed another attempt. I enjoy the tube puzzles so that's fine.

Sonic and Tails 2 ('triple trouble') I initially bounced hard off of this one. The special stage entry restrictions felt too restrictive - 50 rings PLUS find ONE monitor hidden somewhere in the stage. It combines the mainline S2 and S3 concepts into a double challenge. Once you're comfortable enough with the game though, its actually very manageable to plot your route. The visuals do great work translating the S3&K style into 8-bit, probably the prettiest of these aside from 1 (although thats obviously subjective). knuckles piloting a boss vehicle is funny. Fang is funny. I wish they hadnt taken away his gun. Big props to this game for committing to its own core mechanics for sonic - they put in some great challenges making use of balling-up-from-spring and the strike dash.

Not sure if i'll bother with Sonic Blast, at least for the time being. on the whole though these games are fun if you don't expect them to be exactly like the mega drive games.

[monsterhighalumni]

natm 4 thoughts/reaction

late to the game but you already know [major spoilers ahead]

i love how feral they allowed every character to get in this movie (ESPECIALLY sacajawea), them working together to gaslight gatekeep girlboss the night guards into leaving was (chef's kiss)

also love how this canon basically completely ignores the (terrible) ending of natm 3, love that larry's still involved with the museum, amazing, perfect, no notes

unpopular opinion, i love that nicky's a lil dweeb full of anxiety now. that feels more like the natural progression of his character than becoming a kind of jerk-y frat bro. OG!nicky doesn't make his own mixes and pre-records his sets, NATM4!nicky is a music nerd, loves vaporwave, and accidentally reinvents electro-swing. slay king

[sees the bisexual flag on nicky's notebook] [sonic voice] woah he's bisexual! i didn't know that!

larry is like. such a good dad here. good for him, he's much more supportive than he would've been in the originals. OG!larry probably would've insisted on shadowing him the first night and stood like two feet away making comments about how nicky should be doing things the whole night lmao i love him but this is true

I'M SO GLAD THAT THE EXHIBITS BRING UP THAT NICKY IS LIKE FAMILY AND WAS PRACTICALLY RAISED IN THE MUSEUM cause in the 3rd film nicky just. doesn't seem to care about them that much that boy just wants to LEAVE

i love joan i don't even care that much that she was shoehorned in, she's a lil unhinged and a badass and FINALLY wea has another female friend

BUT WHY DOES SHE LOOK LIKE TAYLOR SWIFT SKREEEEE

laa die challenge. should've been eaten by the crocodile.

it would've been so cool and amazing to explore the basement and the archives and the idea that it's the "deep ocean", dark, fucked-up part of the museum is amazing. but it's also funny that they were just. fucking with nicky jfghfjh

"KAMENRAH THE DISAPPOINTING SON" KDJFGHDKFHJGLKGDFHB

kamenrah thinking nicky was larry giving big "rose quartz steven universe" vibes but also would've been funnier if he then proceeded to call him "nicky daley from daley devices" as a callback to natm 2

i feel like it diminishes the impact of not ahk not seeing his parents for 60+ years that sentient images of his dad, merenhakre are just. everywhere.

speaking of which, i don't even need to say it. everyone's already said it. ahk should've been in this movie and we all know it, but also he wasn't even acknowledged and no one bring him up?? not even kamenrah?? this makes me feel like there's a copyright or licensing issue going on here or SOMETHING cause damn

seth die challenge. stupid little jackal man

the epic highs (using the tablet like a musical instruments to unlock a tomb and playing the squares like chords) and lows (TIME TRAVEL WE'RE REALLY DOING THIS NOW HUH) of the tablet's canonical magic

hnnnnnnn i really dislike the time travel

i think my biggest problem with natm 4 is that the best part of the original movies was getting to explore the museums and meet all the fun new historical characters and the adventures were constrained by the environment therefore THEY SHOULD'VE STAYED AT THE MET

although it is SUPREMELY funny that not only do the met egyptian mummies know of kamenrah, they just decide to fuck off from the narrative cause they just don't want to deal with him JFKDHG

everyone is complaining about teddy's characterization idk man i actually thought that his main bit was pretty funny. of course he just talks about himself, he's mr. the museum

didn't love jed though maybe it was the new VA trying to sound like owen wilson, maybe he felt dumbed down, but the jedtavius moments were very good like everyone said they were

you ever see a couple so married and so divorced at the same time, i love them

overall i'm not mad with the new designs, i think they capture the energy of the original and cartoonify them well — the fight scenes were animated well too, i love that it was 2D and it was charming without FEELING explicitly low budget

yeah yeah i feel similarly that i didn't love the rehash of natm 2, the door, the summoning the minions of the underworld, etc — if it were up to me the movie's main conflict should've been kamenrah versus all the OTHER egyptian pharaohs and mummies at the met vying for power

BUT!!! IT ENDED WITH A DANCE PARTY!!! THAT'S ALL I CARE ABOUT THAT'S WHAT I WAS HOPING FOR AND IT HAPPENED!!!!!!

overall it was cute and fun and i hope it converts into a tv series and also tumblr is way too mad about it for what it is. 6/10

[declanlikesmusic]

Today's Listens: Episode 006

August 11th & 12th, 2023

I'm sure you might be aware that my last episode was a delayed bummer by the end of it, so I'm really just gonna start writing these episodes on the days once again to hope for a better outcome with them. My days without work are already over as soon as they began and because of work yesterday and a knockout bout of hayfever today, I'm gonna have to turn this into another double episode because I've hardly listened to enough on both days. Still though, let's have fun with these

We got some more content warnings on this one, albeit they're minor in comparison: Do watch out for a short but immediate mention of suicide as well as a reference to sk*nning that even I can barely tolerate most of the time.

ℍUM♥ℕIGHTM♥RE – 宇宙の認識 (2016)

Do pardon the unicode that comes packaged with this artist's name, but this is HUMANIGHTMARE, a once young & up-and-coming vaporwave producer who tragically lost to suicide in 2020. I caught ear of this particular album during a commemoration livestream on Vapor Memory and it allured me enough to want to seek out and check it out back then. I thought it was a very good album at the time and to this day, I still think the same way, though it leans very much into greatness at a good handful of points. This was a super meditative take on the growing slushwave sound of the time along with some hypnagogic drift tunes and I think the results should not go overlooked by fans of those genres. Tracks like the opener 宇宙の誕生 as well as 脳の網 are absolutely gorgeous, while the track that hooked me in the first place, 宇宙との関係、is so captivatingly strange to me in a way that I can only adore and fascinate about. If you're already deep into vaporwave, I highly recommend this one.

7.5 / 10

Highlights: 宇宙の誕生、宇宙の盛り、宇宙との関係、宇宙の夢、脳の網、復活

SURFING – Emotion (2019)

Up next on the trans agenda is the third and most recent album by vapor & chillwave duo SURFING. Their 2012 debut is one of the most iconic works of the genre and rightfully so, because it perfectly blends original instrumentation & singing with dense, hazy and deeply nostalgic vaporwave samples. So I have no idea what brought in them the need to forgo that entirely, as 2018's Incubo was still sample-based but nowhere near as dreamy and this one fully submerges into the stylings of chillwave & indie rock with none of what made them so excellent before. That said, with that expectation in mind, while this is still their least good album, it was at least better than what I was anticipating after the first couple of tracks. Visions is the song everybody turns to and for good reason, because it does bring a newfound energy to the band, but my favourite moments were still where they leaned back into their dreamy & hazy sonic roots. It's still a good album and if you're a fan of dream pop, I'd give it a shot. Just don't expect anything particularly dense.

6.9 / 10

Highlights: Visions, Crazy, Hearts, Enough, Give You Up.

Chat Pile – Remove Your **** Please (2019)

I'm going to say it now, this is among the worst EP titles I have ever read. I know that this band was deadset on making intensely dark & grim stories through noise rock & sludge metal, but if it wasn't for me keeping an open mind, I would've steered clear of this record entirely even despite the loving reception this got back then and even now. Which is a complete shame because I ended up enjoying this one more than any other Chat Pile record so far, even God's Country (which warrants a relisten at this point). I even found my current favourite Chat Pile song through this record in the form of Davis, weirdly enough. The drums just sounded much better on this record than I had previously heard, sounding way less blurrier and more burrowing, though that might just be attributed to my headphones being replaced months ago. Couple that with the noise, the energy, the vocals and especially Davis's melodies and despite the horrible name, I'd recommend this one to fans of dreadful rock music. I still don't love them as a band, but this gives me hope that whatever they cook next, I might be able to start clicking with them.

7.2 / 10

Highlights: Mask, Davis

netbooks.WRLD – loosies '19-22 (2022)

Speaking of EPs, I don't know how many y'all heard this up-and-coming talent named netbooks.WRLD? Dude's pretty local in the online vaporwave & electronic music communities and his discography is about as fresh as the next lemon you will ever buy, but real talk? I think he's by far one of the most promising artists to pay attention to! I was initially a dumb stupid dumb skeptic back when his debut album ENDLESS STAIRCASE popped up in 2021, but upon the last couple of months, revisiting that album, tuning in to his brand new single, checking out his Skylive performance and now coming over to this EP of loose cuts, I have fully turned into a believer! The dude makes some downright excellent post-industrial plunderphonics and vaporwave tunes all over his catalogue and I think I found some of my favourite tracks he's ever made through this EP. Sure, they were mostly featured in other places and that's counting the bonus tracks, but god, I've been hooked to them completely in the 24 hours since hearing this. My only sticking points against it are the volume of the high frequencies being a little too harsh for my personal headphones, but I know that's by design considering his aesthetic. Other than that, holy shit, go check out ENDLESS STAIRCASE and this EP at your earliest convenience.

8.3 / 10

Highlights: pipes song, shook shook, RAGDOLLS

Vįr+üål Åįrßñß – ▚ ▛ ▜ ▟ ▞ (2021)

It's the second day and one of the best discoveries I've made last year was this random but completely ethereal-looking and unpronouncable album by a young Virtual AirBnB and I thought to relisten to it for the morning. Spoiler alert: This might just be one of my favourite vaporwave albums. This record is compact, but it is so gorgeous and stunning! It flawlessly blends together elements of mallsoft, new age music, I believe sophisti-pop R&B vocal samples and just overall aesthetics of beauty, nature and the future. Almost every single cut here is downright heavenly. Listening to them all from front to back is one of the most soothing, relaxing, beautiful and often transcendent experience I've personally had with the genre and it's so criminal how overlooked this album is so far. High recommendation to the absolute heavens. Just put your headphones on and let the rivers drift you away.

9.3 / 10

Highlights: ⿴ ༄ ℣ ₪ ℣ ༄ ⿴, ••• ❒︎ ❒︎ ᵒ ᴼ ᵒ ▫ 𐊔 ▫, | ⟗ ☱ ☲ ☳ ☵ ⟗ |

サイバー '98 – RENDERED FANTASY

Saiba '98 is an enigma to me. I don't think, even in the vaporwave scene, this short-lived alias got any of the credit it honestly deserves. The music's not excellent, but for a vaportrap artist, this guy managed to craft some of the unique, jarring and abstract material in this form. Upon relistening to DIGITAL FOREST for instance, I found it absolutely fascinating in how the tempos are sporadic and unformed, the beat instrumentaion is basic and minimal and the backing ambient atmospheres are ghostly and dark. This culminates into his last album under the project, RENDERED FANTASY, and while I can't tell you in good conscious that I love it or that it's completely great, this is honestly the best release of the few still publicly available. More than any other album I've heard from them, this album is glitchier, darker, more ominous, eerie and experimental than ever before. I almost completely admire the way he was seeing through his vision on this one. If you're curious, I can't guarentee you'll love it, but if you're a fan of vaportrap or experimental music, I'd give it a fair shake.

7.3 / 10

Highlights: b e n z a i t e n , Love Translator (self care), Hospital Flower, Kingdom_$lave, Life is a Constant Double Helix

crt paralysis – "Slideshow" (2022)

I'm about neck deep with vaporwave again these past couple of days, so next I threw on this project that got me very curious. Known for making some great vaporwave & DnB as dotnds, CRT Paralysis is a broken transmission side-project of theirs that I'm not fully enamoured with but still greatly appreciative of, especially with their Winter Paralysis series of albums. This "Slideshow" caught my eye though as it looked to center completely around the nostalgia of 2000s office computers and Windows 95 styled corporatism. However, not exactly in the way that I viewed it as a child, which is a little disappointing, but I still found this to be a very good time. The presentation was what drove this home to me the most, it's pretty off-kilter, even for Bandcamp standards. If you're curious for some late 2000s vaporwave nostalgia in a format that I could see INTERNET CLUB doing back in the day, I'd recommend this one.

7.0 / 10

Highlights: "Newlife" 2008/04/02, "Screenshot" 2006/08/17, "Evening" 2008/07/03, "Email" 2008/07/04, "Lounge2" 2008/07/09

RAWINTHEVOID – Alphalord (2018)

How do I go about this one? This was the third album from a then very young RAWINTHEVOID. RAW is a talent in post-vaporwave & plunderphonics that I've been looking forward to seeing his growth for a few good years now. His two latest albums MD (Manifest Destiny) and NOTINTHEMOOD are especially great and, even with some very rough patches, they still shine in comparison to his very, very humble beginnings. I've been going through his catalogue backwards and it's fascinating to see how rudimentary & borderline regressive their sample-based works were back in the day. Even on Alphalord, currently my least favourite of theirs (but only barely behind Double Couple), I still found a wealth of fascinating ideas for its alphabet-long tracklist. For example, I would've never thought that speeding up a whole ass noise rock album down to less than six minutes in a song would've sounded any good. To spoil you, it doesn't sound good, but I'm glad someone tried it anyways. I don't recommend this one. If you're curious, go through his latest albums and his live sets, but don't go digging through the back catalogue. Trust me.

4.4 / 10

Highlights: c3, m13, o15, q17

VHS Head – Persistence of Vision (2014)

To close off this post, I went with the sophomore album from one of the most "Dude, how come you've never heard of this guy" artists in the realm of electronic music. VHS Head is a producer of IDM & Glitch Hop beats that are constantly punchy, sporadic and memorable, all thanks to his incredibly persistent sampling of found VHS tapes. He's growing a cult following overtime but it's not exactly helped by his sparse release schedule. This album came out less than five years after his first and he only thought to put out a followup just a few months ago. I can't wait to try that out, but I would shoot myself in the foot if I didn't go for this album first and I'm very glad that I did. I guess when I heard it, I was a little unenthusiastic in a way? But only the way that still made me love this album in the end, like my thought process was "Of course this album is great." The beats are still punchy, the constantly shifting sample flips are more memorable this time around, I think it's even better and more consistent than his debut! Highly recommend this one, with no doubt.

7.9 / 10

Highlights: Enter the Devil, Don't Look in the Closet, Camera Eyes, Red Ocean Apocalypse, Dead to Morrow, Frozen, Body Magic, Angels Never Sleep

Finally, another episode in the books! You'll notice I'm committing to these a little less and less, but I'm honestly not sure if I can keep doing these daily. I'll keep 'em up for as long as I like, but I think it's time to finally admit that I might skip days proper. I'll find a way to still make them work though, because no doubt, every day, I find something new that I want to talk about. Maybe I could make it more of a highlights thing than an outright journel, but we'll see how that shapes up. Until then, I'll see you next time!

[kenandeliza]

Cyberpunk Majora's Mask

Original art from 2 years ago:

I used the vaporgram app for edits

[ultravioletfuture]

ULTRAVIOLET VISIONS: Back To You Pt. 1

Hello UVF and happy Friday!! I wanted to focus this week's blog on 2 major topics: the new Lunar Data Garden single, and my thoughts on the way that Vaporwave is represented in the eyes of the general online audience. First let's get into the new track!

"Back To You Pt. 1" by Lunar Data Garden

Last night was the premiere of the brand new Lunar Data Garden single "Back To You Pt. 1" on the LDG youtube channel as well as the new bandcamp page. The track should also be available on all streaming platforms sometime later today. We decided on making "Back To You Pt. 1" the single track for Perfect Dawn since it's probably the most recent track we finished and felt fully complete to us. The original mix for "Back To You Pt. 1" was a lot more bare bones as one of the first demos I sent over to Truman during the inital Lunar Data Garden brainstorming sessions. Over the months, this track eventually led to a second part rendition of the track that felt much more full and polished. We knew that we needed to completely overhaul the original Pt. 1 version to match the feelings and sounds of the new Pt. 2 that comes later on in the Perfect Dawn tracklisting. We sat on the original mix until about a month ago when I finally sat down and sent over a newly structured Pt .1 to Truman. It was within that day that the two of us ping-ponged wav files back and forth until we struck gold with "Back To You Pt. 1". It was one of those instances where Truman and I felt perfectly in sync and ideas were flowing without much hesitation. This new version felt way too good to be true and became an instant favorite for the both of us. It reminded me of when I had sent the first Lunar Data Garden demo to Truman for "Secret Place", which was just laying down the chops from this Danity Kane sample, and then Truman sending back his additions that just worked seemlessly and filled all the gaps we were looking for. "Back To You Pt. 1" felt like our whole production cycle for Perfect Dawn coming full circle and definitely made the two of us feel like we had something really special in our hands, just like "Secret Place" made us feel when we worked on it 9 months ago. I think my favorite portion of the song is when the drums fully kick in on the 2nd half. I don't think I've listened to the track a single time without uncontrollably banging my head as soon as those drums come in.

I hope you all enjoy the track so far and shoutout to Truman for putting together those insane visuals for the music video! The full album, "Perfect Dawn", will be available September 29th with CDs and Minidiscs by ULTRAVIOLET-FUTURE

I've been super preoccupied with getting Perfect Dawn ready to drop later this month on UVF so I haven't been able to be as in depth with these blogs as I want, but I do have a particular topic that I want to tackle for next week's blog. Until then, here's a couple music recommendations I'll leave you all with before I see you again next week <3 -portal from UVF

The legendary electronic music producer, Oneohtrix Point Never, has recently announced a brand new album along with a single track. This new track titled, "A Barely Lit Path", is this bitcrushed, distorted electronic masterpiece. OPN starts the track with this beautiful vocal excerpt that is a mix between vocoded, autotuned, and natural vocals. The end result is something right on the borderline between feeling human and robotic at the same time. The track is filled with lush string sections accompanied by OPN's famous synth work that give the whole thing a perfect balance of natural and digital sounds in harmony.

"[USA]" by Anamanaguchi is an album I've been going back to a lot recently and has had a huge influence in my side of the production for Lunar Data Garden. The album is a fusion of Chiptune, VGM, Electronic, with a hint of Rock influences on the drums. Tracks like Lorem Ipsum (Arctic Anthem) have been some of my all time favorite tracks by them and have been held in a special place in my heart. I love the use of Vocaloid throughout the album like the Hatsune Miku feature on "B S X". Alot of the glitchy electronic elements have been a huge influence on my music in the past year and the album has become very nostalgic to me.

"how i'm feeling now" was Charli XCX's quarantine release back in 2020 and the album definitely reflects that. Everytime I listen to tracks like "forever" and "claws", I can't help but remember being stuck at home listening to this record and playing the new Animal Crossing game. The album features production from Dylan Brady of 100 gecs fame and is mainly produced from Charli's home during a one month period back in May 2020. For an album that took a month to produce, the album is incredibly forward thinking and insanely catchy. If you haven't already listened to this record I highly recommend it if you are a fan of any kind of hyperpop or experimental pop music in general.

[midnightrecording]

One Day Murun Buchstansangur Was Repeated For The Last Time, And He Got Very Depressed Over It

Out of nowhere, I suddenly found myself wondering something - when was the final repeat of Murun Buchstansangur, Channel 4's almost uncategorizable miserabilist 1980s cartoon? (If you haven't a clue what the holy hell I'm talking about here, read this. It's worth it.) I decided to take a quick trip to the British Newspaper Archive's website, where I could search all the TV listings of various national and local papers.

So: the show's last air date (as far as I can tell) was on Tuesday July 30th 1996, at five minutes to six in the evening. That feels way too far into the nineties for such an incredibly eighties-ish show, and it was "eighties" in a very real life / lived experience way that's the polar opposite of yer usual vaporwave 'n' VHS nostalgia. (Not that I'm against that sort of thing, of course. It's just that living through it in real time as a kid was very different, particularly in the UK...)

Murun's final outing followed the airing of a Terrytoons cartoon, perhaps further emphasising that Channel 4 probably never bothered watching a single episode of it themselves. (See the entry for Episode Seven at the above link.) The mid-nineties also marked the point where you'd start to have a tough time arguing that Channel 4 was still "Channel 4", in the sense of it being a TV station that would do something in the spirit of the Red Triangle season of films from the previous decade. There would still be some notable highlights for a few more years, but the rot had set in by now. (Stuff like Jonathan Glazer's 2015 idents were a nice throwback, though ultimately didn't amount to much when they were used to introduce programmes like fucking Gogglebox.)

By this point the schedules were changing. Despite Murun being followed by a repeat of The Avengers (as in Mr Steed and Emma Peel, not Marvel), which also graced the fourth channel in 1982, another programme that had been on earlier was Ricki Lake's talk show. The following morning would feature Nickelodeon imports Rocko's Modern Life and The Secret World Of Alex Mack, plus of course The Big Breakfast.

And something else that blows my mind in a way very few people can understand or appreciate: Chris Morris's Brass Eye was in production during this time, originally due to air later that year (the first show got pushed back to 29th January 1997 due to legal concerns). The fact that the final repeat of Murun Buchstansangur and the first episode of Brass Eye are separated by a period of time just shy of six months feels impossible, but there you have it.

If you're still reading this, you may be interested to know that the first series can be streamed from here, albeit in a weird semi-official way that's intended for TV production companies to view as potential stock footage they can use. (There's a bloody great watermark in the corner of every available episode, and there seems to be no way to download any of it.)

They all seem to have production clocks at the start as well, which is more thrilling than sex. Spot the deliberate error by an exasperated IBA technician:

[burnt-kloverfield]

Happy New Year! Just dropping links to some of my sideblogs, because hey, why not? I think they’re pretty neat. Anyways, there’s a bunch of random things, some aesthetic stuff, a Reylo sideblog, I mean, you might find some more stuff you just love, right? And likes come from me, this is my main, but I might reblog the stuff I love to my sideblogs. That’s how that works. Anywho, links below the read more:

Aesthetic Blogs

@darkspringaesthetic​  If you’re looking for cottagecore, classical paintings, green countrysides, purple flowers, stormy skies, etc. you’ll find it all here. Perhaps most regular of my sideblogs. It really started before cottagecore took off. It’s that feeling of a rainy spring day, where there’s new life everywhere, but it’s dark and rainy. 

@feverdreamsummer This is a vaporwave aesthetic blog. "VaporWave Americana It's the feeling you get, when you're on a road trip, and you've just woken up from a nap, and your face is hot from the sun coming in through the window, and you might have just missed the Hollywood sign, but you're catching sight of the most beautiful sunset you'll never see again."

@royalwinterkingdom Wintry, snow, velvet. It's gotten a tad pink/purple/pastel, but it was originally meant to feel like you're royalty in all your fur and velvet looking over the pine forests of your snow covered kingdom.

Fandom Blogs

@pulltothelight Reylo sideblog, need I say more? Okay, well, I do write Reylo fanfic, and you can find that there. It's a mix of classic Reylo stuff, new Reylo stuff, Star Wars, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, etc.

@buildingverse I'm going to catch up one day, I promise! "The center of Multidimensional Chaos caused by AsheRhyder's Roommates and all the Buildingverse Fandom. A fanblog who went on hiatus and then never caught up but will, eventually. " I mainly reblog Labyrinth, Phantom of the Opera, and Pirates of the Caribbean here. Like I reblog all of those on my main, too, but here is specifically for that kind of stuff. I never finished the comic, but I am going to sit down and completely binge it, one, day! I swear!!!

@kloversims I play sims, and I used to post more. Now, I guess this is cc or something, IDK. Pretty dormant? Maybe I'll start up a new legacy or something *shrugs*

Random Blogs

@cringydashboard This one is pretty much me digging through the depths of my ancient dashboard (I just figured out a way to see how my dashboard would look in like 2011, etc) and I'm reblogging old, classic, funny, interesting, truly cringy tumblr posts. It just feels like time to dig back into the past and relive why we all love tumblr.

@dollchronicles Look, I love cute things, games, toys, childish things. I personally have a tag about wanting to live with the muppets. This blog though is about toys and cute games. Originally for Toca Boca, but now it's mainly Tsuki Odyssey.

@becominglolitaprincess Speaking of cute things, You wanna follow my selfie blog?

@autismwehaveaproblem I'm autistic, I love autism, I post enough about it to really have a whole blog for itself, right?

[artsyfyro]

Artfight 2023 Collection

This year’s Artfight has come and gone, and it was a pretty active year all things considered. Sent out a lot of attacks, and even got a lot of defenses, especially for Kilua this year. Since a lot of work went into the pieces I did this month, here’s each of the pieces I did for people.

Keep in mind that I was on Team Vampire, so next to the title of the piece, i’ll have a number that corresponds to the person it was for, attributed to near the bottom of the post, and in parentheses, a indicator on which type of piece it was, friendly fire, attack, revenge, etc. Without further ado... here’s what I did this year!

#Piece 1 - 20th Century Boys (Attack) Ft. Clarenze and Liam Signhson

#Piece 2 - Sweeping Blade of Grass (Attack) Ft. Parsley

#Piece 3 - Ballin’ (Attack) Ft. Slim Ridland (Ft. Daily Pyoro)

#Piece 4 - An Unlikely Trio (Attack) Ft. Ivy, Josie, and Wynne

#Piece 5 - Reaper in the Rain (Revenge) Ft. Drizzle

#Piece 6 - Salty Vaporwave (Revenge) Ft. Jewel

#Piece 7 - Hat Trick (Friendly Fire) Ft. Ferris and Mochi

#Piece 8 - Flower-Tailed Forest Dweller (Attack) Ft. Matcha

#Piece 9 - Sunflower Chu (Attack) Ft. Poppet (PMD ver.)

#Final Piece - Fluffy Aeromancer Dragon (With a Battleax) Ft. Aero

Credits:

1 - @clarenzesinghson 2 - @honeycrud 3 - @rachaelpyofren 4 - @madadrawing 5 - @dibblesdoodles 6 - SaltedGlaceons on Artfight 7 - @startistdoodles 8 - sweirde (Kira/Kemoki) on Twitter 9 - @snoofins Final - @noodlebean

Last Thoughts of the Event:

This year’s artfight I think was one of my favorites i’ve had so far (and i’ve only been around since 2021), but not without some added anxiety.

Some of that anxiety was expected stuff from artfight, like not being able to hit a couple people because I ran out of time and energy, and also dealing with artist burnout a couple time. But some other stuff was personal life stuff, and well... twitter becoming more and more of a trashfire.

That all being said, this year was also really fun. One of my favorite things to do over an artfight is find some way to improve on or just experiment with my art since I don’t really do “big colored pieces” very often, and this year certainly helped push that a little further. I experiment a lot with shading and backgrounds, and I think in hindsight, things like Pieces 2, 5, 6, 8, and Final ended up being my favorites to look at just because the colors and background all just work.

Some of them also allowed me to think up a couple ideas of scenarios to put the characters in that added to how I went about the piece. Pictures 4 and 7 especially clarify that, considering they depict a scenario or even a potential group dynamic that’s pretty fun to think on. 

Though what also was crazy was that I got attacked a lot more than I was expecting to going into this year. Like I expected at least a couple if I was actively participating, but I got hit with... well 7 technically, but one was a mass attack Volt was included in, not directed at me, so 6 officially. It was a neat surprise to keep waking up to a few of them, and a lot of them focused on Kilua, she got a lot of love this year. (dw, Volt got a couple too actually). I’m really happy about that, and I love all the drawings people did, they all capture something about the original designs that I love, while translated into their own styles. Dibnibs in specific went and even added backgrounds to them after the event passed, and they (not just mine but a couple of the others I saw) look awesome.

Whatever the case though, the event went really well. I got quite a few pieces sent my way, and I was able to put out a lot of pieces, and a lot of those pieces I really like how they came out. I was on Team Vampire this year, but I think I can say i’ll win either way because I only was on there because a lot of my mutuals were going werewolf, and I wanted to have opposition. That and, I just like Werewolves more. 

If anyone has questions for me about anything related to their art, my dms are open. And with that, thanks for a really fun year to everyone who participated. 

[insanity-is-brewing]

SPIDER SONAAAAAA

My Spidersona has been released! Their name is Adrian Nakamura, their pronouns are They/Them and they are 16 years old! They come from a dimension where Japan is the dominant society kind of like Pavitr's world and it's completely original and I'm the first person to think of this kind of concept. Totally. im being sarcastic

That's all you really need to know if you're just passing through, but if you want to know more, lots of details and pictures under the cut!

Cw for mentions of death, major injuries, & mild deception. If there's anything in here I missed, please let me know! I'm not the best at doing this.

Okay, so now that the normal people are gone, here is a detailed description of the dimension, character, and events!

Dimension 46007:

A world where Japan is the dominant culture, basically swapping out America with Japan.

The year is 2155.

Everything has this sort of aesthetic to it

Pastel during the day, neon at night

Everything has a sort of vaporwave blend to it, but I couldn't find any good pictures

It's kind of like Gwen's dimension in a way

Lots of Kawaii culture

Homophobia wasn't even a thing and Adrian had to learn about it

Adrian Nakazawa

They/them/his, 16 years old

Organic Web Shooters

Has been Spider-Tect for a little under a year

Autistic

Canon Event: Just 13 hours after the bite, their girlfriend, Gwen Stacy (Stacy is a placeholder name), died from an attack on the city from their dimension's Doc Oc (I'll come up with another name for him)

Alias is Spider-Tect.

Spider Bite have him a huge boost in agility

like matrix levels

but only a little in stamina and barely anything in strength

so he built a tech umbrella to compensate

Spider-Tect's Suit

Blend of traditional Japanese clothing and modern streetwear

Wears everything on top of a skintight suit that has nanotech capabilities

Mask can read brainwaves, Adrian takes full advantage of this fact by making it the thing that controls everything about his suit

Adrian's umbrella is the main aspect of his suit, and helps Adrian round out his weaknesses, particularly in stamina.

The umbrella can act like a helicopter, hover, carry Adrian and one other person, shoot webs from the tip and the ends, and can temporarily fuse with the nanotech suit so Adrian doesn't have to grip it so tight to hang on when it's hovering.

Surprise! Adrian has a younger brother, and his name is Kai Nakazawa.

Kai Nakazawa

He/Him, 14

Synthetic Web shooters

Chem genius, doesn't know much about tech

The first person to find out about the spider bite, found out when Adrian was another three inches taller overnight.

The first thing he did was get DNA samples and try to figure out what was different, then made a synthesized version of the spider bite that can be ingested orally.

Basically, he made spider man gummy bears

The synthesized version gave Kai a more well rounded boost, but a little extra in stamina, so Kai usually keeps villains

Miguel hates Kai because there aren't supposed to be two Spider people in the same dimension, but he let it slide until Kai stopped a canon event to save one of his best friends. He ended up paying the price for it by getting covered in lacerations that were particularly bad on his left side.

Had to fake his death when Miguel accused Adrian of doing it.

Dramatic, but effective.

Suit has a similar setup to Adrian's.

Sword can be used as a sword or as an extendable whip

That's... pretty much it. Here are some bonus doodles, more coming your way!

Thanks!

[tillinghastcorporatemedia]

Often Dystopia (And how its gonna affect my art)

As much as there are some seriously good dystopian fiction. (yes im enamored with sci-fi) personally to me it almost feels tired but i understand the appeal and popularity

But how does this effect my art, and turn TillinGhast Corporate Media

Well first let me explain what TillinGhast Corporate Media is

TGCM was and is me taking what little part of my previous project that never took off and i never made it very far with, Tillinghast

Tillinghast was my outlet for my anger and isolation, and originally began after the death of my grandfather and the falling out of the people i had tried to gather for a band

I had written an ep dealing with my loss and an album that was inspired by election day 2016 and the amount of anger that i felt towards the establishment that i was already growing increasingly tired of

I ended that project after 2-3 years of trying to find vocalists/funds/and start making art

after that died i didnt touch any project and just wrote shitty electronic again, much like everytime i get bored with writing metal, but this time i had much more fun making just beeps and boops with no expectation of vocals and just making basic looping music

So where did TillinGhast Corporate Media come from?

If you notice i did keep the tillinghast name, as i found out when i first started this solo shit, isnt wasnt in use by any active musicians, and i only found one band that hadnt been active in over 8 years

But i wanted something new

something different

So i kinda let my focus on music, the thing i had been doing for over 10 years, go to the side to try and create elsewhere, right at the beginning of 2020

the first thing i thought i would try?

Writing a book

Which as a lot of people on here know, is really really really really really fucking hard to do, especially when you start this shit working a 9 hour overnight shift and writing on days off while everyone else you care about is asleep

And in figuring out what i had wanted to write then, i decided to not go big, but to try and keep me entertained, i needed more than just a few characters

So using a small chunk of info i had written down when i was trying to get into dnd and make my own scifi version of the game, i created a few planets, each with different species and histories and lore and economies

and i made a decision

Each planet would have different stories

to try and keep me entertained

which worked for about a year, and i havent updated since because i have trouble making myself create anything other than music, but i dont wanna get too recent or on a tangent

But why the name TillinGhast Corporate Media?

Well, because it sounds cool as shit. I used to love vaporwave and alternative genres and anything i could find that was "weird"

but also at some point i decided that if i do ever blow up, i want to hire other creatives and actually pay them well, and give them a place to really get out a message for the future

But its just me

So i get to have all the say

at least for now

But why a universe you ask? Why is this so damn long? Get to the point?

well at least for two of those im trying to be verbose and explain myself, and honestly if you read this far i love you and hope that youll stay here on this journey with me

I've always wanted to be part of a group, art creative, touring band, etc.

Ive gotten close only once or twice, but ive always been diy and taught myself shit so i figured i wanted to combine all of my loves into one thing, one giant sandbox where i can be creative in my decisions

And once again, i didnt want it to be just me. So TillinGhast Corporate Media will always be changing and evolving as i learn more about this giant world im having to navigate

I will say there will probably errors or fails, but i want this to be inclusive and open and loving so other people can use this as a means to escape, if even for a little bit, the harsh reality we all face.

Much like i got an escape in music and books as a kid and teenager

So why a universe? because a universe is big and can hold many stories and many perspectives, much like a library can hold many different pieces of knowledge

So to get to the final point, for those of you who actually made it this far based on the title

TillinGhast Corporate Media both as myself and as a future idea or brand

at least for now

Will not ever be a dystopia story

I have not forced myself to change and grow and evolve and continue to sit in my negativity and apathy and just general poopy pants view of the world

To not try with all my might to maybe write something that while not a utopia, is not dystopia and imagines a brighter, better, future where people maybe dont have to worry about as much, because they learned from our awful horrible past and actually refuse to repeat any of it

To try and make this more about characters and stories and music and the things that make myself and others smile, instead of regurgitated dystopias where even basic life is rough

does this mean everything will be all flowers and butterflies and my little pony?

absolutely the fuck not

Truth is often stranger than fiction and anything can happen even in a shiny place, but the point is to not be a negative nancy and have a bunch of shitty stuff going on all the time

One of the planets is a floating colony with what little remains of the human race

One planet is basically in the middle of an uprising of an exiled group

The book im writing (kinda spoilery but idk if ever ill finish this damn thing) literally has an act of terrorism being planned from someone who was radicalized by a really bad group that is basically space religion and its many parallels

All of my short stories are slice of life stuff that happens in a few scenarios where each character reacts to an outside force

But this wont ever be some dragged out for purely entertainment type angsty or edgy or anything like some books do with trauma

i want to look at stuff like we're building to something better, not something worse. optimistic but not utopia or something like that

(honestly this point ive already kinda gotten myself choked up so im gonna wrap it up)

But TillinGhast Corporate Media is basically my idea for a better future

and maybe im wrong and my stuff sucks and i need to change it

i have no idea because no one really follows my shit

so i just do what i want within the dumb boundaries and expectations i place on myself

but it is has been better before and it will get better again, and i am tired of that place being only in my head

so im creating this big huge universe with aliases that i call "artists" so it looks like there is actual musicians in this universe, i at one point started on a medium length animation series, and im trying to use my shitty computer to learn 3d shit

So stick around, at least you'll get some music out of it

and on that note i will mention i do have a few singles and 2 albums out, all of which is on youtube and streaming sites (its on spotify but i fucking hate spotify both as a company and some of the people they sponsor stream on any other site please you'll give more money to your favorite artists)

[yuminpa]

can't sleep because my brain is bombarding me with ideas for petunia's mental world. let me jot some down

themed after a dead mall from the 80s. lots of eerie liminal space vibes and vaporwave music

raz and otto go in together at petunia's request-- raz has been through enough as is but he's still adamant about helping so petunia's like "at least bring someone along so you're not doing this alone"

mental petunia is looking for parts of her trombone so she can perform again after years of not doing so. backstory there is that she used to be a band kid along with her girlfriend magnolia but after the breakup she stopped playing

you may be asking why she's performing at a dead mall. well when i was in high school the local dying mall invited music programs from the school district to do performances at the mall, probably to get more foot traffic and keep it from dying. that mall is demolished now but anyways!

ahem. anyway. psychonauts usually does things in threes so i'm thinking they have to search for three parts- main body, inner slide, and outer slide, and then for the boss they have to find the mouthpiece- more on that later

raz and otto have to platform through a few different locations for petunia's trombone parts and then the usual "mental world enemies spawn and you can't progress until they're all defeated" thing happens. it's a bit like an escort mission but otto actually helps with combat and stuff

when the two are just kind of roaming the mall outside the stores, they see flashbacks of significant parts of petunia's life that she keeps dwelling on. mostly her dad leaving and her girlfriend/longtime best friend magnolia dumping her. there are some good rosy memories intertwined with a lot of bad stuff, but they tend to fade to static rather quickly

once they've found three of the trombone parts, they come to an empty department store at the end of the mall and the mouthpiece is just kind of There. they find it and are about to give the full trombone to petunia... but then a second petunia shows up and begs them not to? and they're like fuck who's the real one here. and then petunia 1 (fake petunia) turns really low poly and steals the trombone and impales petunia 2 (actual petunia) with the slide. actual petunia falls over and starts "bleeding" some weird goop that's patterned like tv static, and the static goop then encompasses fake petunia and turns her into some kind of horrifying abomination (still working the specifics of her design out) and then boom! boss fight

after the boss fight, fake petunia (who was a manifestation of petunias self loathing) fades to static and actual petunia regains consciousness and is like "whuh..." and the boys have to play it cool like they didn't just see her get stabbed and "bleed" out.

once she gets it together a little more the three of them exit the mall and end up in a little sunset beach area. petunia has a heart to heart with otto about how she's afraid to lose him and also about how she wishes her psychic abilities were strong enough to help him in times of need. otto assures her that he's "in it for the long haul" and also admits that he's been trying to replicate the same psychic enhancing technology that's on his pendant for her. so at that point they all exit her mental world and otto tinkers with petunia's belt buckle (it was originally gonna be a ring but belt buckle fits better with her design + i am enjoying the idea of a visual gag where otto gets down on one knee to work on the belt buckle and petunia thinks he's proposing)

there's a really fancy marble statue of otto with the body of a greek god somewhere in this mall as an allegory for how she puts people she trusts on pedestals

thats all i got so far dsdkdkdl oh my god i need to sleep GOODNIGHT