#its not even my favorite song by them its in my top 10 at number 10 but i still have to support her bc no one else will

[k2ntwo]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

A bunch of writers that I follow have already been tagged and responded @helloliriels @khorazir @7-percent @discordantwords @totallysilvergirl to name just a few. Now I have a few new things to read that I somehow missed the first time around as well as a bunch of old favorites to go and re-read. So much good fic is out there by so many talented writers!

In the spirit of adding to folk’s ever growing MFL list I’ll just pile onto the bandwagon with my answers as well.

 1.  How many works to you have on AO3?

56 although there are several collections of snippets that technically could be counted separately. On AO3 I'm KtwoNtwo.

2.  What’s your total AO3 word count?

496,860

3.  What fandoms do you write for?

Primarily Sherlock Holmes (most all iterations from ACD to Sherlock) and James Bond.  However, I dabble in a good number of other fandoms upon occasion.

4.  What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Metamorphosis

Conversations from Q-Branch

50 Reasons (The Q-Branch Edition)

A Rare Breed

Brothers Three

5.  Do you respond to comments?

Yes, even if its just a “I’m glad you liked it.”  The only ones I don’t respond to are the generic solicitations to join some random contest or fic publishing website.  Those get blocked and reported.

6.  What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Well, I don’t really write major angst but The Four Riders has got a bit as does the poem Gun in the Drawer though they both end on a hopeful note.

7.  What’s the Fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics have happy endings but probably A Toast to the Science of Deduction resolves the happiest of the lot.

8.  Do you get hate on fics.

Nope.  Only got one anonymous troll alleging trademark infringement due to a title.  I fired back a factual rebuttal: basically "there is no book by that name by that author, there is no lawyer by that name, you didn’t provide contact information and btw trademark doesn’t work the way you allege" then added a set of quotation marks to the title.  Never heard anything more about it.

9.  Do you write smut?

I have but I’m not terribly good at it.  Most of the time the characters look at me then politely, or not so politely, shut the bedroom door in my face.

10.  Do you write crossovers?

Oh God Yes!  Technically I think I write fusions, where both fandoms end up in the same universe, as opposed to crossovers but I’m rather unclear on the difference between same so I tend to just call 'em crossovers and leave it at that. 

11.  Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I could find or prove.  I did have a couple of strange search results pop up with my use name and some fic titles attached but the websites all seem to be defunct now.

12.  Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge.

13.  Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No.

14.  What’s your favorite ship?

Sherlock Holmes/John Watson

15.  What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

There’s a fic based on a song by Abney Park that I’ve got an outline for but it never seems to go anywhere.

16.  What are your writing strengths?

I can merge and/or crossover all sorts of different fandoms. 

17.  What are your writing weaknesses?

Typos and punctuation.  Being slightly dyslexic I can’t spot the former and I never know if I’m using commas correctly or not.

18.  Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I actively avoid doing so because I’d butcher it badly.

19.  First fandom you wrote for?

Emperor’s Edge by Lindsay Buroker.  I will admit that I wrote in my head, but never got around to put on paper, a number of Star Trek stories when I was significantly younger.

20.  Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I like all of them for different reasons.  The one I’m most proud of however is The Emerald Falls my Study in Emerald inspired ACD Fic.

I'd love to have some of the artists/podcasters respond to this with whatever modifications are necessary to fit the medium involved. Hours of podcast or number of artworks as opposed to number of words for example. @podfixx @bluebellofbakerstreet if you haven't responded to this thing already and I just missed it.

[user-needs-new-hyperfixation]

For the character ask game, how about Fay D. Fluorite! (Or maybe Qi Rong lol whichever you prefer).

Send Me a Character & I'll Tell You✨️

Fai D Flourite (Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle)

(please excuse my spelling variant, I've been using this too long lmao) (I might do Qi Rong tomorrow but alas I havta go to bed)

My first impression: tragically, I have no idea. It's simply been too long. This man has been living in my head so long that my love of him could get its driving license.

My impression now: I feel like Fai is the foundation of all my blorbos. The horribly traumatized self-hating little guy who pretends to be strong and cheerful for the sake of those around him and has strong Mom energy is basically the template all my other blorbos are variations of.

Favorite thing about that character: he's so good, for all that he thinks he's so bad. He cares so much in spite of himself. He loves his children so fiercely. He's also just hella clever.

Least favorite thing: No notes, 10/10, all of his bad traits are Important to the makeup of what makes him special.

Favorite line/scene: the infamous punch signalling the end of the divorce arc is great and probably my favourite happy bit, and for sadness that part in Acid Tokyo when Kurogane jerks away from him and he slides down the wall and sits there with his hand over his face. Oof. Lovely pain.

Favorite interaction that character has with another: that moment in World Chronicle where Syaoran launches himself at Fai and Fai sort of stumbles back against Kurogane and stays there looking up at him all adoring and beautiful with Kurogane's arm around them both? Life-changing.

A character that I wish that character would interact with more: Yuuko, for the entertainment value

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character: so many characters I've loved. William James Moriarty, Xie Lian, Dani from Bly Manor, even freakin' Dean fookin' Winchester. They've all got a little something that reminds me of him.

A headcanon about that character: Does not only bottom, in spite of the obvious Yaoi Dimorphism 😂😂

A song that reminds of that character: pretty sure I first heard this song in a Kurofai amv a decade+ ago and it's stuck ever since. Also this for some reason.

An unpopular opinion about that character: see headcanon 😂 (actually I've seen a fair number of fics with him topping. I'm not in touch with this fandom enough to know what is and isn't popular.)

Favorite picture: since I'm already talking about it --

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #43: 1992

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Boyz II Men, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Kriss Kross, Vanessa Williams, TLC, Eric Clapton, En Vogue, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Color Me Badd, Jon Secada. End description]

More information about this blog here

Now in 1992, we're seeing the true force of Seattle's music scene making its way to the charts. By that of course I'm talking about the Hot 100 debut of The Emerald City's own Sir-Mix-a-Lot. I'm not even being cheeky (ha.) about that. Not only has Sir-Mix-a-Lot been successful in the rap scene prior to this year (including a platinum record), but with Baby Got Back we're finally seeing rap music officially represented in these polls (along with Kriss Kross). Yesterday, I talked about Miami bass and the obscenity trial surrounding 2 Live Crew. Baby Got Back may not have reached that level of litigation, but the track was incredibly controversial, with the music video being banned by MTV.

This year is also notable for featuring the R&B group, Boyz II Men, and this won't be the last we see of them. End of the Road beat the record at the time for holding the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. This record was later broken by Boyz II Men again with the releases of I'll Make Love to You and One Sweet Day (two tracks we may discuss in the future...). The group dominated the charts, with a cumulative 50 weeks at the number one spot. As we get to the latter half of the decade and the boy bands start flooding in, it's clear to see where the direct line of influence was drawn.

But anyone who knows even the most basic facts about music history from this time may notice that something seems to be missing. It's interesting coming at this from a 2023 perspective, because the absence of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit just feels wrong. It's hard to find a music retrospective that doesn't mention it. As the song that helped grunge find a mainstream audience, rock's shifting image, the changing attitudes and priorities of a new generation of young listeners, the commercialization of the PNW working class lifestyle, the final nail in glam metal's coffin. But on the Billboard Year-End chart, Smells Like Teen Spirit only reached number 32 (which is still an accomplishment for the pop charts). Will we ever see grunge truly featured on these polls? Probably not. At least not until we get to the genre's descendants in the 2000's.

[wheeboo]

— bias tag game *ੈ✩‧₊˚

rules: you're going to pick 10 of your biases (or as many biases as you have and then fill in the rest of the spots with idols you like) and number them 1-10. then answer the questions below! try not to look at the questions before you make your list!

thank you @fairyhaos for the tag <3

🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

rania's bias list:

seungkwan (svt)

wheein (mamamoo)

jeonghan (svt)

wonwoo (svt)

hoshi (svt)

jun (svt)

seulgi (red velvet)

yunjin (le sserafim)

soobin (txt)

lee know (skz)

🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

1. between 7 and 5, who did you bias first?

i biased my girl seulgi first :> i started stanning red velvet in between peek-a-boo and bad boy era and i literally love her sm i gay panic whenever i see her and she's so cute and quirky i fell in love instantly !!!

2. between 2 and 6, who are you more attached to?

umm,,, how dare u give me this question rn. wheein has been my ult for the past 5-6 years and i feel like i can declare us as a v chill married couple lmfao and i love her w all my heart. but tbh jun has grown so much on me and finally putting him in my bias line is just ugh <3 <3 got my heart flippin and feet kickin (it doesn't help i have like,, a lot of ideas for him in terms of wips)

3. if you were to spend the day with either 3 or 1, who would you choose and what would you do?

again... what the hell U R MAKING ME CHOOSE BETWEEN MY TOP BIASES IN SVT?? absolute insanity. ugh,, okay jeonghan ily babe but i gotta go with my fav boy seungkwan <3 i feel like he'll take me out of my comfort zone n just take me out to places n just be the most supportive person ever. like i can imagine our arms locked together while walking down the avenue or sum idfk

4. what is your favorite physical feature about 9?

his MF DIMPLES OFC. i have such a thing w dimples on my biases its actually so funny

5. what is your favorite part of 6's personality?

i just,, i love jun's quirkiness and awkwardness sometimes i always swoon over him <3 he may be quiet at times but he's such a big source of strength for not just me but for all his members. i get why they all love him sm

6. if you were to tell 8 anything you wanted, what would you tell them?

my gf yunjin KEEP BEING YOU MA'AM. do whatever you want that makes you happy. you're such a big inspo to me and so funny and talented and beautiful and all those synonyms i cannot grasp how much i love her

7. between 1 and 2, whose closet would you raid?

ohhhhh definitely wheein. our styles r very similar and honestly she's the reason why my style is like this to this day!! she has such unique fashion taste and omfg i'd love to raid clothing stores w her. altho i'd rlly love to steal some of seungkwan's sweaters,,,,...

8. what is a style that you want to see 3 try?

omfgomfg uhhh honestly jeonghan can literally pull off any damn style he wants, and im too scatterbrained rn to think of a specific style. i love his soft boy looks tho n the style/clothing he wore in berlin got me feeling some type of way yk IT SUITS HIM SO MUCH

9. between 5 and 4, who are you closer to in height?

hoshi LMAOO even tho there's barely a difference between him and wonu. they'll both still tower over me tho im only like 158cm fml

10. between 10 and 9, whose music do you like the best?

soobin n txt! i love their discography so much. some of skz songs r just not my style and i can rlly only listen to them when i'm feeling that kind of energy yk. still love them tho ofc

🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

tagging (no pressure!): @slytherinshua @itadorins @hannyoontify @wqnwoos @icyminghao @etherealyoungk @blue-jisungs @mirxzii @yeonjuns-redhair @rubywonu @ylliris-hanniehae @rubyreduji @toruro @weird-bookworm @planetkiimchi

[carladuquette]

I was tagged by @dragonsoftheeast to write about my writing - thank you!!! If you know me, you know I love to go on about this, so be prepared, this is a long one.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

15

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

312,657

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Elite Elite Elite, baby. I have one Money Heist fic (Nairobi, la puta madre para siempre 🔥) and one Class fic, but that's an Elite remake, sooo… I'm pretty much a one-trick pony haha.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Close your eyes, count to ten (duh); The ties were black, the lies were white (next chapter coming soon!); Midnights in October; Summer state of mind; It's the most wonderful time of the year

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I'm so grateful for comments and love chatting with people about their thoughts, the characters, my interpretation of them, etc.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, I don't know that I really do angsty endings. Lots of angsty stories and chapter endings, for sure. But the ending-ending is usually at least hopeful, or perhaps melancholy. Maybe Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Fics like Midnights in October or Best Friends Forever are sad, but I wouldn't say the ending is angsty.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Close your eyes, count to ten! No way was I going to give Lu anything but the happiest ending after everything I put her through ❤️

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No! Honestly surprising considering I write so much VaLu and they're a little controversial, but I guess I got into Elite fic when the fandom was already pretty small, so not that many people were around to care anymore, haha.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Only very brief scenes.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Midnights in October is a ghost story (that's really a story about friendship) inspired by The Haunting of Bly Manor. And, uh, 12 points go to… is kind of a crossover with the Eurovision Song Contest? But my only real crossover is I put a spell on you, Hocus Pocus with the Elite characters.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Not yet.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Lu and Valerio will always have my heart.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I have a laaarge number of story ideas that only exist in my head, but I don't have any unfinished WIPs right now. I'd like to think I'll end whatever it is I started, even if it may take me forever 🙃

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm good with plotting- I have good ideas that I can turn into fairly good stories, I'd like to think. I give different characters room to grow, or at least give them little moments to shine, too, not just my favorites/ main characters. With characters I know well, I can make them "make sense"- dig into their motivations, their character traits, how they've been treated and have it be clear (maybe not for the characters around them, but for the reader) why they act the way they do and why they make certain decisions, even when they're bad decisions.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

There are some physical reactions people have that I repeat too often. I love angsty drama and in longer stories, I put in so much sometimes that it loses its effect a little, I think. I'd like to be able to write more lyrically, but I can't, so most of my stuff is pretty straight-forward. And I can't write good smut to save my life.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I personally don't believe in it. The occasional pet name or whatever thrown in is fine, but apart from that it a) doesn't make much sense to me; whatever language you write it, to me it's implied that this is the characters' mother tongue- like, I write in English, but the Elite characters live in Madrid, so the assumption is that they all speak Spanish, which would make switching to actual Spanish weird. And b) it's more work for readers then having to use online translators to figure out what people are saying.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I started to put down a Grey's Anatomy fic about Izzie and Denny yeeears ago that didn't go anywhere.

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Obviously Close your eyes, count to ten will always be my baby. I spent close to three years with the characters and I'm proud of the story. But depending on the day and my mood I have other favorite fics, too.

I tag @dhyanshiva and @cangse-sanren, two incredibly talented Class fic writers. I can't think of any other mutuals who write, but if you do and that has escaped me (apologies), PLEASE DO THIS TOO! I'm serious- all fic writers, feel tagged!

[luvmagician]

Ok, I'll be the one, Fubuki!!

you didnt say which number so i answered all 30 of them

1. My first impression of them

me and GX really had an enemies to lovers arc i could barely sit through the first episode after finishing DM the guitar stings were too much. i did not care much for any of the characters. it grew on me though we are besties now obvs

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

i think i realized how much i liked S1 nightshroud first bc i love campy and ostentatious femme villains and then my love spread to regular fubuki around the time i got to s4 and then he graduated to a proper Blorbo and well the rest is history…

3. A song that reminds me of them

go fish by cub (ask me no more questions / ill tell you no more lies / about my sweet little trip to the other side) also obligatory fubuki playlist link

4. How many people I ship them with

off the top of my head 4 (ryo yusuke reggie manga!jim) but my interpretations tend to stretch the definition of “ship”

5. My favorite ship of them

idols hehe ^_^ lh4wds couple (lighthouse 4 wine dark sea)

6. My least favorite ship of them

theres not any i particularly dislike to be honest. hes a charismatic guy.

7. A quote of them that you remember

WHEN STAGE LIGHT HITS YOU THAT WHICH IS BEHIND YOU IS SACRIFICED TO SHADOW ! 🌟

8. Your favorite outfit of them

first i have to come out as an turn 60 austin powers cosplay enjoyer so sue me the purple looks nice on him secondly HIS LADY OSCAR OUTFIT!!! I WISH I COULD PICK THE BRAIN OF THE ANIMATOR WHO PUT HIM IN HER OUTFIT SOOO BAD ITS EVERYTHING TO ME

9. Your least favorite outfit of them

nightshroud outift but only when its lit by cool lighting and looks gray thats when its ugly when its lit warm and looks brown its flattering!! see theres a stark difference here!!

10. Describe the character in one sentence

11. What's the first thing you think about when thinking about the character?

“BUKI!!! :)” <- too happy to formulate coherent thoughts

12. Sexuality hc!

little bisexual weirdo

13. Your favorite friendship they have

manjoume and him are so sweet and funny thats his little guy. thats the chihuahua to his valley girl

14. Best storyline they had

season 4 makes me screammm its about absence as a presence its about how running from something only gives it more power over you its about confronting the horrors and chosing to live with them instead of dying to escape them…

15. Worst storyline they had

the jokes around his treatment of asuka in the show proper arent Great but i have a thick enough skin to slough through it… that being said the flanderization he endures in the spinoff games especially cross duel SUUCCKKK the “trying to marry off my bitch sister” jokes werent funny in 2004 they arent funny now STOP TRYING TO BRING THEM BACK. even more of a bummer bc i think his love for love and romance are such endearing parts of his character seeing them flattened down into bad jokes makes me -___-

16. childhood headcanon

regularly held concerts for an audience of his stufffed animals drew flyers to hand out and everything it was a whole production.

17. What do you think their first word was?

he needs attention. something attention grabbing like “HI” or “HEY!” or “ME!” something like that

18. How do you think they were as a kid? (Like, were they shy, noisy, wild, etc)

he was just as outgoing and chipper but also.. yk he was an emotional feminine kid with long hair who didnt like conflict and kids are mean.. but i think asuka looked out for him a lot and beat up his bullies

19. The most random ship you've seen people have with them

fubuki/shoji (manjoumes older brother) is so funny. i love it btw i think its such a serve and there are interesting ways you can spin it like yess fubuki chase the childhood you barely got to live by hooking up with a man who looks eerily like your highschool protege and maybe gold dig while your at it

20. A weird headcanon

i think him and asuka grew up in the middle of bumfuck nowhere (nowhere near the ocean he just picked up surfing really fast his freshman year) and them and the marufujis have a lil country mouse city mouse thing going on. and i draw him with rubber bands on his fingers to help with his memory issues :)

21. When do you think they were at their happiest?

freshman year of duel academy he was on top of da world baby

22. When do you think they were at their lowest?

the almost two years he spent in the nihilism nightmare depression hell dimension or the day he found out Prince died

23. Future headcanon

he does acting and entertainment dueling and shows up on variety shows and keeps teasing his album but refuses to release it until he he can get asuka to feature on a song. if he did ever release music all his music videos concepts would have a rich interlocking story ala the loonaverse

24. What do you think is a secret they have that they never told anyone?

he dodges questions about the darkness BIG TIME and even lies about like the time he lies to judais face about how oh im fine :) the darkness isnt in me anymore :) he really doesnt want to worry people i think he goes to his grave with just how much his time there sucked and how he suffered afterward. i dont think he would ever tell ryo or asuka how bad it really was

25. When do you think they acted the most ooc

this is hard hes on screen like 4 times

26. When do you think they were being "themselves" the most?

fubuki is always himself even at the absolute height of his performance and apparent detachment from reality because the act of performance is so baked into his character he would not be truly “himself” without it. he is both the mask and the wearer.

27. If they could meet a character from another show/movie/etc, who would be the most fun for them to meet?

HE SHOULD MEET JOEYYY i think joey wheeler is his personal hero… also him and ryan akagi from infinity train book 4 could absolutely kick it. two dudes who want to become rock stars and were trapped in hell/purgatory for a while

28. The most unnecessary thing they ever did?

the pensive ukulele strumming to punctuate his revenge monologue to kagemaru

29. How do you think they would be as a parent? (and if they are a parent, how do you think they would be if they weren't?)

I THINK HED BE A GREAT PARENT !!! a bit overbearing and doting but only bc he loves so so much.. hed be so good with young kids until they grow into teens and realize hes cringe

30. The funniest scene they had?

gotta be dropping down from the ceiling to call gay people “taboo and thrilling” and his sister homophobic

if you made it this far.. thank you for indulging my craziness 💖

[twistedtummies2]

The Price May Be Right - Number 10

Welcome to “The Price May Be Right!” I’ve been counting down My Top 31 Favorite Vincent Price Performances & Appearances! The countdown will cover movies, TV productions, and many more forms of media. We’ve officially reached the Top 10 for this countdown! Today we focus on Number 10: His Appearance on The Muppet Show.

It may seem odd to put this appearance in my top ten, since it’s essentially Vincent just playing himself in the most literal fashion, and it’s…well…the Muppets. Not exactly the land of complex layers of performance. But for some reason, as time has gone one, I’ve come to love Vincent’s appearance in the Muppet Show more and more than I already always did. In my opinion, it’s not only one of his best appearances in anything ever, it’s also probably my favorite episode of The Muppet Show. So, strange as it may seem, I see no reason not to. The Muppet Show usually didn’t have any specific PLOT to its episodes, but a lot of episodes did have certain motifs and themes in them. Sometimes it would be a case of the Muppets trying to do some sort of story, like “Alice in Wonderland” or “Robin Hood.” Other times, it would be more focused on whoever the guest was. Vincent is the latter case. With Vincent Price as the special guest of the evening, Kermit and the gang decide to put on a spooky-themed show, with jokes and sketches that parody various tropes of horror films. Vincent, naturally, appears in several of these sketches, and all of them are hilarious, largely because it’s Vincent in charge of the jesting. If there was ever a guest on the show who could out-Muppet the Muppets, it was probably this glorious ham. In one sketch he plays a werewolf who visits Fozzie and Gonzo in a haunted castle. In another sketch, the Muppets satirize Vincent’s culinary hobbies as a great chef, with Vincent appearing in a talk show segment with Kermit, a Muppet Chef…aaand a Muppet Monster, Gorgon Heap, who – with Vincent’s encouragement – devours the other two Muppets involved. Probably the ost famous sketch, however, is one where Kermit asks Vincent to teach him how to act like a vampire. I find that one especially funny, because Vincent, surprisingly, didn’t actually play vampires that often at all. In fact, I can think of only one or two occasions beyond the Muppet Show where he did! And those occasions weren’t very good! But whatever: I’ll take Vampire Kermit and Vampire Vincent over anything in the bloody Twilight Saga any day. Vincent also, in the original release of the episode, had a song sequence, where he and a bunch of the Muppet Monsters sang a ghoul-themed version of “You’ve Got a Friend.” It’s a pity that sequence is actually edited out of most modern releases (I think because of copyright issues, but I’m not sure), because honestly, after hearing Vincent Price and a gaggle of Muppets sing that song with a pipe organ, it’s hard to hear that song any other way since. XD Tomorrow, the countdown continues with Number 9!

[omegaremix]

25 Vinyl Records That Influenced My Vinyl Collecting Habits.

‘Top ten’ lists - they were so commonplace on social media before the pandemic that half of the people you knew participated in them. Your friends involuntarily posted lists of their top ten favorite albums, songs, movies, sports moments, video games, books, or whatever came to mind. Then they’d nominate you to do the same if you even cared. All of a sudden they stopped and for a few months everyone did tournament brackets. These days no one does either. Now, tag a band and see if they acknowledge you exist, solve a simple math problem where everyone with a Facebook diploma in mathematics are out to prove you wrong, or answer some useless questions to find out what your new gang initiation name is by removing your first and last letter and any surviving vowels.

But I don’t care about childish entry-level entertainment that everyone will forget about five minutes later. I’d watch Fox News for that. Longtime Ω+ followers know our ‘top tens’ are much more than that: they are playlists, mixtapes, end-of-year finds, and best-of decade results. That’s what I’m into. I’m into what’s important and that’s identifying with people. It’s not a contest or a be-all-end-all game of right-or-wrong. It’s all fully subjective. Without personal results, how special or unique would these lists be?

The last survey I was nominated to do was from WUSB’s Mister Edison, the station’s only cylinder aficionado in its’ 45-year history: top ten vinyl records that influenced your collecting habits. I did volunteer to do it and I was halfway there, then somehow along the way I deleted it. Now, here it is. But, instead of a top ten, we’ll do a top twenty-five because I’m compulsive and 10 is not a square number. All records shown here regardless of size, speed, color, or print run are those that have changed not only my record-collecting habits but also have shaped my musical tastes to an extent.

The record that started it all? KMFDM’s “Power” 12”. It was the very first vinyl record I bought with my own money, just mere months after purchasing most of its discography in one shot at my local record store. I ordered it from the TVT / Wax Trax mail order - my very first mail-order to be exact - numbered to 3,000 copies as a single-sided etched vinyl record in a clear plastic silk-screened jacket. That also came with Underworld’s “Rowla”. Shizuo’s High On Emotion e.p. was my third. Found at what was Port Jefferson’s Music Den, that’s a record I had to have at first sight because I knew it was extremely rare. Glad I made the right call because I never saw it again. Even though I didn’t have a turntable, I bought them anyway thinking I could hold on to them until I finally got my hands on one. Turned out my ma’ and dad had one: a wooden box smaller than the records it played. It literally had no sound and was deemed almost unplayable, so a close “friend” of mine gave me his father’s 1972 Panasonic and a copy of Autechre’s We Are R Y 12”. I was now in business.

From there, another one-time pressing of theirs, the “Keynell” e.p., introduced me to the panic of now-or-never buying. Booth & Brown collectors know how insanely rare their limited edition e.p.’s are and also how they and Warp divided up their Cichlisuite and Envane e.p.’s in two parts. And that was nothing to when Aphex Twin released not one, not two, but eleven e.p.’s as the Analord series through his Rephlex label. Ten regular platters and two versions of Analord 10: either you got the Aphex logo picture disc or, if you were really lucky (we mean that in a literal sense), one that came with the Analord binder which is fetching impossible prices right now. Some of them even came with the mythical Analogue Bubblebath 5. We’re just happy to have purchased all eleven editions for regular price when they first came out. Amazingly in that same year, I did my first-ever label run and purchased $300.00 worth of vinyl and disc releases from DHR.

The first hardcore record I got my hands on - Kill Your Idols’ This Is Just The Beginning - was also the very first music purchase I made at any show. Three years after one of my close friends introduced me to Sick Of It All and hardcore / punk in general, This Is Just The Beginning flung the doors wide open for crushing similar-styled tough-guy finds. Most Long Island record stores sold them when they came in, and places like Hicksville and Centereach’s Utopia (when they did sell them) offered many easy one / two / three-dollar bargain bin purchases of many 7” records, 45’s, and 12” LPS. The Howards & Checkerboard Charlie split is one example of that and one of many local acts I possess. Jemini The Gifted One’s “Funk Soul Sensation” is the only hip-hop record on the list. Ten years ago I re-discovered golden-era hip-hop and realized there was a treasure trove of white-label and 12” singles I never heard of from that time. Those hip-hop / rap singles can be found on the cheap in the same manner as those discount hardcore records. I’ll be on a life-time hunt for them as at this point I don’t have enough of them.

It’s no surprise to see that more than half of this list is made up of Seventies’ jazz / fusion records. If not for Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes Astral Traveling, I would not have the size of vinyl library I have now. One of our former hip-hop dee-jays at the station played “Expansions”, “Aspirations”, and “Colors Of The Rainbow” and those three cuts literally changed my life. It opened up an avenue for me to re-discover who I was and revisit a certain era of time I missed out on. From that point on, it was all about that era’s sounds, sampling, and personal favorites. John Tropea’s A Short Trip To Space, Les McCann’s Music Lets Me Be, and Roy Ayers’ A Tear To A Smile - those three records define my final years at Stony Brook. Phil Upchurch’s 1979 solo outing, Stuff’s self-titled debut, Emily Remler’s Firefly, Steve Khan’s The Blue Man, Ramsey Lewis’ Tequila Mockingbird, Eric Gale’s Multiplication, and Ronnie Laws’ Pressure Sensitive tie me in and keep me connected to those years.

Karla Bonoff’s Restless Nights and Urbie Green’s The Fox influenced my collection in an amusing way. I had no idea who both artists were until I pulled them out of the bins. What had me purchase them? I bought Restless Nights and The Fox solely based on the year of release (1979 and 1976 respectively). One listen of each and I knew I made two right calls.

Remember when we posted our entry about our close friend Syke who rescued a pile of old records from being thrown out to the curb? Of the 500+ he found, he gave us 50 and we still have most of them. We selected Pete Shelley’s “Telephone Operator” as a reminder of that free giveaway.

I could list both volumes of the original Dirty Dancing motion picture soundtrack which my ma’ had, her only surviving childhood vinyl record of Disney’s Cinderella, or The Pac-Man Album 12″ picture disc written by Patrick McBride and Dana Walden. But those three mentions aren’t influential; just early Atari-youth memories. My first-ever childhood memories I still remember (not photographed) are also vinyl-related: J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” and The Cars’ “Shake It Up”; the latter which I have in my possession and are the markers of all classic rock records I own around that era. (Think Dire Straits and Donald Fagan’s The Nightfly to name a few.)

Another Atari-youth moment I remember is The Chambers Brothers’ A New Time, A New Day. My dad cut out the album sleeve and used it as a paper holder in our garage. That very record made me think of whatever few platters I remember him having before he sold his entire vinyl library and our library of Atari 2600 games…for a paltry $50.00. “He needed the money” he told me; which is always a pathetic man’s answer to everything. Had he’d seen how enthusiastic I was into music collecting, he would’ve handed his entire collection to me. Roberta Flack’s Quiet Fire, Kiss’ Rock & Roll Over, and The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers and Their Satanic Majesties Request were the four in his collection he parted with and I have three of them, not including The Chambers Brothers release. He tried to make it up to me, however, by bringing home two separate piles of records he rescued from the curb. One heap was full of polka records which I donated to WUSB’s resident polka lady before she died the same year. The other heap? Since you didn’t ask: loads of classic hippie rock records, showtunes, and celebrity albums. Jim Nabors on wax? Stop before I deactivate this account.

Finally, Boulders’ Rock & Roll Will Never Die. Look it up and you’ll see it’s a near total obscurity only confined to hipster circles who know what’s up. A five-track Wharf Records release picked up for less than $3.00 is the one 12" that may as well get me into the Discogs purchasing game for all rare releases (not found in stores) I’ve been looking for in the past seven years. I’ve played many of them on Omega WUSBand soon after bought a substantial chunk of their discographies in one shot (three Happy Meals / Free Love LP’s and three Black Marble discs, for example). As a nice side effect, it’ll be the the same for cassettes as well such as Believer/Law’s Matters Of Life And Death and JS Aurelius’ Machines Water The Plants Now - if the seller’s price is right, that is.

Notice how we went from KMFDM to Boulders? You can’t get any more disparate in styles and worlds between the two. The first purchases, public library finds, donations, record fairs, mail orders, samples, jazz-fusion and soul, hardcore and hip-hop buy-outs, record-store victory tours, and many other moments I might have missed…that’s 25 years of buying vinyl records spanning many different collecting eras and genres for me. That’s only one format, and also not counting acquiring music by other means such as radio and downloads which also shaped my collection. The bingo board jumble you see is only a tiny pinch of my musical tastes and not the whole story of my listening habits that’s usually broadcast on Omega WUSB or always posted here on Ω+.

After making this list, I’m reminded that I’m the most diverse person I know. I’m proud that my low-lying threshold for accepting and liking sound and concept allowed me to make that diversity into a science and have that mind-blowing knowledge I have of it. I’m as consistent, thorough, and far-reaching as I possibly can while hitting as many targets as possible. Would there be more bingo boards like this? Only if I make sure of it.

Phil Upchurch: self-titled

Lonnie Liston Smith: Astral Traveling

Karla Bonoff: Restless Nights

Steve Khan: The Blue Man

Chambers Brothers: A New Time, A New Day

Emily Remler: Firefly

Boulders: Rock And Roll Will Never Die

KMFDM: “Power”

John Tropea: A Short Trip To Space

Les McCann: Music Let’s Me Be

Shizuo: High On Emotion

J. Geils Band: “Centerfold”

Aphex Twin: Analord 10 picture disc

Jemini The Gifted One: “Funk Soul Sensation”

Roy Ayers: A Tear To A Smile

Ramsey Lewis: Tequila Mockingbird

Pete Shelley: “Telephone Operator”

Autechre: “Keynell”

Kill Your Idols: This Is Just The Beginning

The Cars: Shake It Up

Ronnie Laws: Pressure Sensitive

Stuff: Stuff

Eric Gale: Multiplication

Urbie Green: The Fox

Checkerboard Charlie b/w The Howards split

[fleshsigil]

census designated - review

//content warning: discussion of depression/suicide/self-harm/dysphoria

census designated is in my top 3 albums of all time. i would give it a 10/10, but i think that rating music with numbers is stupid.

census designated is the sophomore album of jane remover, an artist who had originally broken into the music scene in 2021 with the seminal hyperpop EP, teen week. she then proceeded to release frailty later that year, a face-melting and depressing emo/hyperpop/edm fusion, which is another one of my favorite albums of all time.

needless to say, census designated is a pretty large departure from her source material, but one of the most positive changes i've seen in an artist's material ever. it trades in frailty's twinkly, edm-inspired vibe for a more acoustic and shoegazey style, while still retaining all of the things that made jane's music amazing in the first place. it features crackling, wailing walls of noise and basslines interlaced with screams and similar digital glitching effects to frailty; the hip-hop style drums used in frailty are swapped out for more acoustic, natural-sounding drums and the synths are much more warm and organic, fitting perfectly into the atmosphere of the rest of the album.

the tracks on census designated are on the longer side, ranging from 4 and a half minutes to almost 9. normally, seeing lots of long tracks on an album worries me as sometimes it can result in a lack of substance; this was most certainly not the case for this album. the long playtime makes room for bleaker, quieter moments building up into ear-splitting, astronomically cathartic breakdowns and climaxes. census designated effortlessly weaves together bedroom pop, shoegaze, and harsh noise into a varied and oppressive but beautifully blended soundscape for the entirety of the album. walls of warm synths and glitchy audio makes way for droning, feedback-riddled guitar melodies and minimal basslines.

the way that this album is able to convey the bitterness, desperation, anger, and hopelessness that are present in mental illness and dysphoria is something that i have seen in few other pieces of media. akin to uboa's the origin of my depression and giles corey's self-titled, census designated paints a visceral and vivid picture of depression, suicidal ideation, and struggling with one's identity, through both its lyrical content and sound. as someone who personally has struggled and is struggling with these things, this album has been unbelievably cathartic for me. all of the desperation and anger that jane funneled into this album is made into this palpable, dreamily vivid experience. a great example of this is the first ~20 seconds of video, a deafening wall of guitar, screams, frantic drums, and synths. during moments like this, jane also used a noisy sort of glitching effect to convey this complete collapse, this almost inability for the music to even stay within its bounds, breaking down into a messy, roiling sea of noise; a feeling that a lot of people who struggle with mental illness can relate to. this is then followed up with a bleak and soulful buildup until the eventual climax towards the end. despite this being a common song structure and theme throughout the album, it's re-engineered and done in a different way in each song, fully different from all the others; each song also discusses different topics, such as toxic relationships, going unnoticed in life, self-harm, hopelessness, the music industry, among other things. the lyrical content is vague enough for the listener to project their experiences onto it, but still personal enough for them to relate to jane's own experiences. there's this dark twinge of body-horror/cannibalism-themed metaphors for intimacy/sex/attraction ("biting chunks out of my face", "arm candy falling into his lap / take a bite") which jane herself said was inspired by horror movies that she had been watching at the time. anyone who has ever been in love, in a shitty relationship, or been ignored by the people around them will find the lyrics immediately relatable and impactful, although it's still enjoyable regardless.

the fact that jane remover was able to transition from terminally- online, attention-deficit digicore and hyperpop (which i still love, don't get me wrong) to one of the best shoegaze/noise rock projects i've heard in years is amazing and really shows her unfettered creativity, musical ability, and capacity to blend together multiple genres into a beautiful, cohesive project.

overall, i highly recommend that anyone who enjoys this style of music gives this album a listen. in my opinion, it's a masterpiece, and if you give it a try, you might think so too.

LINKS TO ALBUM ON BANDCAMP AND SPOTIFY BELOW

(i post music reviews sometimes, if you want more of that kind of thing, you should follow me)

[sweepseven]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

Another post in a seemingly unending series of posts in which I talk about writing to make me feel like I've accomplished any actual writing. Results so far are middling.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

53! How and when?? (The answer is "Kà and a pandemic.")

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

228,456

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Just Cirque du Soleil at the moment, but a long running rp is soaking up the majority of my creative thoughts just now. That's its own whole thing with a blog and fics and AUs upon AUs.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Wing Dust (Miraculous Ladybug, T, perpetually bemused that I wrote this in the first place and yet here it is at number one)

Downpour (Mad Max Fury Road, G, my first for a fandom that did so much for me as an author)

War Song (Mad Max Fury Road, T, strong contender for favorite fic I've ever written)

Idle in Neutral (Mad Max Fury Road, G, I forget I wrote this one all the time and whenever I get kudos for it I'm like whom??? I love that it has a life all its own.)

Mantle (Mad Max Fury Road, G, another one I continually forget about lol)

That's the curse of writing for tiny fandoms! The ones I have loved most, that have mangled my brain for months on end are destined to have like a dozen readers total. On the other hand it's very gratifying to know I'm writing for a small handful of people extra extra psyched to find content. And in the meantime I have these, many of which I've let myself forget, that have found their audience anyway. It's a very rewarding feeling, like I could make the effort, move on, and still leave people happy years later.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Most times yes!! And I'm so so lucky to get the most thoughtful comments of all on my most niche fics. Makes it all more than worth it.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Walkabout and I love it. Cirque du Soleil Kà, T.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Tea Series by a mile. Didn't know I had it in me until pushed by @studiokawaii , and I'm so glad they did. Cirque du Soleil Kà, T.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Honestly so few people are aware of them that it's not really a risk. What is hugely embarrassing is the confirmed knowledge that Cirque artists know about and have read some of them. But there's nothing I can do about that, lol.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes! Somehow I feel like I'm always writing it, and then I look at my total body of work and am like "...where is all of it." Historically it was mostly M/M, but Kà got me actually writing F/M for the first time. Most common themes are experience vs. inexperience and tense power dynamics. I'd love to write more dub con.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Only ever one. Decree, another for Mad Max Fury Road, in which the Vuvalini are each granted one single potentially worldshaping wish à la Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I know why people don't click on it, but I'm fond of it!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No and tbh I can't imagine anyone would bother.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but I'd be open to it if anyone cared to take on the project! I love translated fics. What a nice thing to do, granting someone else's work the opportunity for new eyes.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but again @studiokawaii and I have had some great fic/art collaboration in the past couple years with inspiration coming from both directions.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Snape/Harry. I never talk about it, I've never written it myself (I think?? maybe in high school I did), but honestly it's been so long that I think there's no unseating it now. The amount of care, dedication, creativity, and talent coming from that group, even after so long, is truly unique and remarkable. All time favorite ship to write has been Counselor's Son/Twin Sister by a landslide.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

It pains me, but I think I'm kidding myself if I try to claim The Shape of Things To Come doesn't qualify. I love the idea, I know exactly where I want it to go, but something about the enormity of the ground that needs to be covered in order to get there has spooked me.

I also have two highly embarrassing WIPs - one for Shadow & Bone and another for fucking Teen Titans - that I doubt will ever be finished. I just adore both ideas and it's fun thinking they've at least taken some kind of shape somewhere, even if they never make it out into the world.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Creating believable characterization and distinctive voices from very sparse source material. At least that's what I've been told, which I take as an immense compliment. I also think I write tension rather well, whether it be sexual, conflicting emotions, or threatening hostility.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Well right now my ability to finish anything feels pretty fuckin weak. I struggle with action scenes, like physical fights or scenes in which a lot is going on in multiple places at once. Hitting a natural rhythm with them is very difficult for me. Pacing for longer fics doesn't come easily to me either, and I always worry if my longer work reads like a bulleted list of stuff I knew needed to happen rather than an actual story with a true and natural flow. That's part of what's bogging me down with Shape of Things.

I also love commas too much.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Depends. You can't just throw it in there imo - it's a great opportunity for mindful characterization and shouldn't be treated like checking a box, or worse, a reminder to your audience that the source material doesn't match the language you're writing in. I'm not multilingual so the most you're likely to see from me are vague hints at certain dialects and accents in Kà, for instance, since they're not speaking any real language anyway.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Teen Titans. It's still out there somewhere, likely a somewhat embarrassing blip on the radar of some long forgotten LJ community. I got some early encouragement there that put me where I am today. Nurture and welcome new writers, people!!

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Borderline Suspect. I put so much into it. It was a real milestone fic for me, unlike anything I'd ever written before, and it stands so apart in my memory that I just can't choose any other. At the time I thought it was everything I could possibly want to say about Ka and CS/TS, but when it was through I found myself more motivated and inspired than ever.

Some of the most valuable and rewarding feedback I've ever gotten came from this fic, and the intensity of the response, however contained by the size of the fandom, has made me feel incredibly lucky. People came out of nowhere to talk to me about it, send art for it, push me through writing lulls with comments that turned entire days around. I made new friends because of it. I don't see myself writing anything quite like it ever again. Even if I did, I couldn't dream of a more gratifying response. Cirque du Soleil Kà, E.

[dichromaticdyke]

🗣 - still struggling with Bookklok BUT I did buy the complete box set so I can watch it without ads now! (Plus got some Special Features bonus vids 🤗 sad that it doesnt come with all of them :()

Anyway, been thinking about Number 1 Toki Fan Skwisgaar Skwigelf (Not mutually exclusive to HM!Toki but I'm thinking of it in that universe)

Like, Toki being a huge Skwisgaar fan is the worlds worst kept secret. Everyone knows that Toki loves/obsesses/fans over Skwisgaar. It's in interviews, it's in photos, it's in the merch. Its like the fan communities running joke that Toki is Skwisgaar's biggest fangirl before she's a guitarist. But what they don't know is that Skwisgaar is an even bigger fan of Toki but that secret is sealed tighter than the nuclear codes for every country. You know that fanart of Toki listening to Skwisgaar's solo #1,697 or something like that and it's Toki's favorite? That's Skwisgaar on an old walkman with all of Toki's "failed" takes on various guitar parts of different albums and songs. They aren't the polished, practiced pieces she can play, it's something completely raw and different. She can't get enough of it and goes to sleep listening to them when no one is with her (AKA Toki). She has some of Toki's old guitar picks in a locked jewlery box. She watches Toki compilations on Youtube (Specifically "Toki being a cutie pie for 15 minutes", "Toki being better than your man for 15 minutes", "Top 10 best Toki's performances (Not Solos)", and "Toki Wartooth Interviews Compilation" She's replaying her favorite parts and blushes like shes spying on her high school crush. It's all very cringe but it puts Skwisgaar to sleep feeling giddy every time.) She has to hold herself back when she hears other people say Toki is bad at guitar because SHE is allowed to say that; she works, lives, and fucks her but other people? And especially if they don't play guitar? She'll give you the ol' one-two but she cant let too much out, otherwise people might ~speculate~. Toki may love watching her practice but when it's reversed, Skwisgaar WILL find a way to record it and spend hours obsessing over it even after the practicing is done.

On the flipside of this, Toki absolutely has scrapbooks solely dedicated to cut out pictures/interviews/advertisements/promotional stuff of Skwisgaar that she keeps under her mattress and pulls out when she wants to oogle.

OH that’s so cute. yes yes i love it! i definitely do feel like skwisgaar would have that mindset, not just because of their complicated relationship, but-

sigh. you haven’t finished the whole show yet. GRRR okay i’m putting spoilers under the cut for DSR and AOTD, but i’ll try to get out my non-spoilery thoughts first.

there was an interview where brendon was asked who toki’s and skwisgaar’s favorite guitarists were. brendon said toki’s favorite was skwisgaar, and skwisgaar loves “every shredder who’s ever lived,” reinforcing skwisgaar’s absolute passion for guitar in general.

that “favorite” would include toki. toki’s a shredder, and her ability to keep up with skwisgaar makes her the second fastest guitarist alive. so behind several layers of jealousy and fear that toki will get better than her has to be admiration of some kind. skwisgaar’s just too proud and probably sees this exact admiration as a weakness. skwisgaar is the god, not toki—toki should be the one idolizing skwisgaar, not the other way around. she could easily hide her admiration under the veneer of criticism, but these are criticisms that only skwisgaar can make, which, in my opinion, is for one very spoilery reason:

SKWISGAAR DISCOVERED TOKI. skwisgaar has the mindset of “i can criticize toki but no one else can” because of THAT. skwisgaar is extra hard on toki because she knows what toki is capable of, but no one else does. even though the rest of the band was at that audition, none of them could possibly understand what it was about toki’s playing that moved skwisgaar so much as to make her go back on her proclamation of them being a one-guitar band.

and then there’s AOTD, the only time in the show we see skwisgaar actually encouraging toki to be good. skwisgaar has ALWAYS thought of toki as talented, and that’s the exact reason skwisgaar is so hard on her. it’s not to be a bitch, it’s because skwisgaar wants the band and every musician in it to reach their full potential. it’s why she practices basically 24/7 (that and her guitar being her ultimate comfort and stim object) and why she gets so mad at the band’s laziness—they’re the most beloved band in the world, they’re all talented. she doesn’t want that talent to go to waste.

but to anyone else who might criticize the band or toki? they’re peons who don’t understand music the way skwisgaar does. they should be lucky to even hear this music.

[a-moth-to-the-light]

Comeback Celebration: Revisiting The Book of Us: The Demon

So, this was the album that made me pay attention to Day6! Though it was their next album, Negentropy, that put them on my favorite artists list, The Demon is definitely a standout album from 2020. After that album, I became enough of a fan to start exploring their past tracks--during which time I experienced, of course, the obligatory listening to "Shoot Me" for three days nonstop phase.

The Demon was a huge emotional statement that met a lot of people exactly where they were at in 2020, I think, and I was one of those people. I'm super picky about albums--though I love lots of songs every year, not many albums are cohesive enough for my taste. The Demon, though, was an album I loved listening to all the way though. It managed to be both a bitter, exhausted blur & a collection of wildly catchy songs that could each stand on their own. In celebration of Day6's return, let's take a look at The Demon again--it's been a while since I've heard some of these tracks!

1. Day and Night

This isn't my favorite Day6 song, but it's definitely top five. I think it was my favorite track from this album right from the beginning--though "1 to 10" was tough competition--and it's definitely still my most-listened track from The Demon. Actually, I bet it's my most-listened track from Day6 as a whole.

Listening again, it's wild just how comforting I find the melodies. Two lines in, and I already feel like I'm coming home from a long trip. The harmonies are wonderful, and I'm obsessed with Sungjin's performance here. I think what I love most about "Day and Night" is that, even as it manages to be genuinely sonically cheerful, pulling itself together into a friendly, upbeat mask, the signature Day6 angst still shows through. (Come to think of it, that's also what I love most about my actual favorite Day6 song, "everyday we fight".) The vocals seem all-to-frequently on the verge of bursting into a full-on wailing ballad, but they're always reined back in, as if the speaker is reminding themself--no, you're singing a cute pop song, you can't be sad. Maybe it's that push-and-pull I find comforting--there's just enough overwhelming emotion hidden in this song that my own emotions can find an outlet, without really having to delve into how crappy I feel. It's like the perfect amount of escapism? Though, at this point, it might just be that I know this song like the back of my hand, and that's what I find comforting--I really did live off this one for a couple of years.

2. Zombie

This is the least exciting track off the album, but I think that's kind of the point. Day6 songs are big and dramatic, like, all the time (which is, of course, why I stan them). So the most impactful emotional statement of this comeback was just... making the title track this kind of dull, soft number. Don't get me wrong, though, because I do actually like this song! The chorus is iconic--I would recognize it anywhere--and that Coldplay-esque electric guitar is gorgeous. Funny enough, I remember "Zombie" being softer & quieter than it actually is. Maybe I remember singing it to myself, a half-whisper without the instrumental, more than I remember the actual song?

3. Tick Tock

Now this is what exhaustion sounds like. This song has a bunch of beautiful vocal moments going on--I think they're what makes this album so listenable, even in its darkest moods. When the vocals aren't there, though, and you're just left with that plodding guitar? And that incessant drum, too, forcing you into a pace just slow enough to be uncomfortable? That's atmosphere, that's for sure. No wonder I loved this song in my junior year of high school--it totally understood me in my silence, silence and barely getting by, dreading every day that I had to put one foot in front of the other.

4. Love me or Leave me

I was not expecting this, of all things, to be Day6's #3 song on Spotify. Like, I listened to it as much as the next guy for all of 2020... and a lot of 2021... but I don't know, it was never my favorite from the album? And I definitely don't like it more than "Better Better" </3

... Okay, I did forget how delightful this instrumental is. The house influences are meshed in so perfectly, especially in the prechoruses. It's fun because it's dance music, but it's also fun because it's inventive in some very exciting ways, and the melodies make my heart feel like it's going to explode!! Yeah, I guess I kind of get it...

5. STOP

The only thing I remembered about this song is that the guitar tastes like dirt--which I was definitely right about, like damn that's an interesting texture! The instrumental is... unpleasantly exciting? (Shoutout to the video-game-shooting noises, whatever those are.) "STOP" is also super singable--I'm surprised I didn't remember how delightful these vocal parts are! I've developed more of a taste for rock music over the years, which might be why I'm enjoying this one so much on revisiting--it might be my new favorite from the album, actually!

6. 1 to 10

This remains a classic, straightforward angst track! There's plenty of lovely belting in the verses and the chorus, reminding me that I'm human and need to breathe.

7. Afraid

Isn't there a Reddit poll somewhere that says this is the best Day6 song ever? I see why it sticks with people--it's loud, but all the layers don't turn the sadness to anger, instead they turn it to this all-consuming, desperate hope instead. The chorus is this expansive, energetic, living thing, and some of its life rubs off on me--what am I going to do with all this sadness? Make it into courage, I guess.

Overall...

Wow, this was fantastic--I remembered The Demon as a solid album, but not this compelling. I remember this album as The Burnout Album; in my memory, it's static, forever in quarantine. Revisiting The Demon, though, I was fully invested in lipsync karaoke for at least half of these tracks. I think it's the vocal performances that fill each song with energy and motion, and they give the album its cohesiveness, too--they make The Demon's world flow together into this strange pop-rock landscape that's consistent, if only in that it can't seem to settle comfortably anywhere. Pop-rock usually tries to find a happy medium between the two genres, taking the most compatible parts of each, but The Demon seems to pick the least compatible parts and pull them together (quite impressively, I think) by sheer force of will. I'm really in love with all the creativity in this album, the variety of influences it draws from; and, looking back, I definitely see that chaotic spark in it, the one that got me sooo obsessed with Negentropy in 2021, even if The Demon's mood is a lot darker.

My Ranking: STOP >> Day and Night >> Tick Tock >> Love me or Leave me >> 1 to 10 >> Afraid >> Zombie

[brightbeautifulthings]

The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar by Robin R. Means Coleman & Mark H. Harris

"Black horror's triumph is its ability to reflect more deeply on the ways in which Black history has been and continues to be Black horror. Black horror points a finger at evil because those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, just like those who forget the rules of horror are just plain doomed. When the twenty-four hour news cycle moves on to some Insta-influencer, and names like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Atatiana Jefferson, and Botham Jean become fading memories for some, Black horror steps up to remind us that, like the vengeful dolls in Tales from the Hood, the past is never 'history.'"

Year Read: 2023

Rating: 4/5

Thoughts: It took me all damn year to read this book, through no fault of its own. I received an invitation from the publishers to read it through NetGalley, got about a third of the way through, and decided I couldn't take the kind of notes I wanted on my Kindle. By the time my ordered copy arrived, enough time had passed that it seemed best just to start over. Then cue the Great Summer Reading Slump of 2023! I refused to start over again, and it still took me until December to finish. May I reflect on this before I decide to accept nonfiction again, even if it is about horror. But then, as my favorite professor always liked to say, "Struggling is productive."

This is all no reflection on the book itself, which is an in-depth look at the history of Black horror cinema. I'm an avid horror fan, and I still learned a hell of a lot, including where to fill in the gaps in my viewing (although… I'm still probably going to skip Spider Baby (1967), sorry. Even my boyfriend, Lon Chaney Jr., can't make that sound appealing). Seriously, adding films to my watch list was some of the most fun of this book, and I've already started chipping away at those by continuing with The Purge series. I gave up after having lukewarm feelings about the first, but in a weird twist, the series actually gets so much better. I'm planning to watch Event Horizon (1997) and Spiral (2021) at some point too, among others.

The writers are incredibly knowledgeable about the topics, one a scholar in the field and the other having had a hand in a number of popular culture projects centered on horror film. I think this combination is what really sets this book apart from others of its kind and gives it a more unique voice. The two of them balance the in-depth theoretical and social commentary with witty, sardonic asides. Horror has a long history of going hand in hand with comedy (horror hosts like Svengoolie are case in point), and they go well together here. Despite the fears in the acknowledgements section that the book comes over "too complainy," I didn't get that impression in any sense. A critique by definition should be critical, and it is. It spares no feelings in calling out the hugely racist film industry which, despite major strides forward, still has a long way to go. However, it's also clear throughout that the writers really love the genre, and there are points of borderline gushing over films like Get Out (2017), which had a revolutionizing effect on social-political horror in general and Black horror specifically.

The chapters are neatly broken up by Top Lists on various topics, from Frequent Dier Awards and Terrible Hip-Hop Theme Songs From Horror Movies to 10 Horror Movies About Black-White Race Relations Not Named Get Out. These work better than the sometimes long lists of films inserted into paragraphs, and are often quite funny. The first half of the book is very strong on the history of Black horror film, even to the point of feeling a bit repetitive at times, which I think is a byproduct of the essay-ish/doctoral thesis quality of some of the chapters. (We can credit academia with a lot of things, but being concise is rarely one of them.) It expertly links Black horror trends with long-held racial stereotypes and charts the often dismal numbers of Black actors, actresses, writers, and directors in horror film, and the (again, often dismal) quality of that representation.

The second half dips into the intersection of Black women and Black LGBTQ+ representation, and it's not quite as comprehensive there. In part, this is because there just isn't as much rep out there to write about, but my sense is that this is more like an overview of these topics. A dedicated scholar could spend an entire book delving into each one of those and still have more to write. The final chapter pulls together a moving rumination on how Black horror, like most media, is ultimately a reflection of the world we live in. Any minor quibbles aside, this is extremely well-done and a must-read for anyone with an interest in the history of horror film.

[dealbrekker]

For the Album thingy, Mirotic ^^

Y'all I hissed when I saw this ask 😭

I pulled the album up this morning to remind myself what was on it and was like, oh, just all the songs I had on repeat in college cool cool cool.

I'm breaking this into 2 lists. My instinctive choices, and then the revised one after I listened to the album completely on the way home today. Fun fact, it's exactly the length of my commute excluding the second play of Mirotic. Also, I did the regular album version, not the special edition.

Initial ranking without a playthrough (admittedly I didn't remember what some of them actually sounded like because it's been a hot minute):

1. Mirotic

2. Love In the Ice

3. Wrong Number

4. You're My Melody

5. Hey! Don't Bring Me Down

6. Picture of You

7. Are You a Good Girl

8. Crazy Love

9. Rainbow

10. Paradise

11. Forgotten Season

12. Flower Lady

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After playing, and with explanation:

1. Mirotic (this one I may as well technically exclude from the list because it's its own entity). I know this song is scoffed at lately even by Cassies, but idgaf. It was my first music video of theirs, it's what made me fall in love with them, it was my first look at Yunho and the ruination for my standard for men everywhere. Mirotic means too much to me to ever hate.

2. Love in the Ice. She's my favorite tvxq ballad. She's everything. I slowed down to the speed limit near the end of my drive today so she could finish, that's how much I love her. She never fails to make me sob, and today was no exception. Probably the only tvxq song I don't really want to hear a re-recorded duo version of, and that is saying a ton.

3. Wrong Number: classic, iconic, sexy. Suits!!!!!!! I don't have the Yunho focus mv version saved on a hard drive what are you talking about????.....

4. You're My Melody: this one and Picture of You were in a fight before I even listened to the album, but this one did indeed hit me a little bit more. I think I just connect it more to college days.

5. Hey! Don't Bring Me Down: more iconic moves. I seem to recall camo pants and black tank tops. It was always on my work out playlists back in the day. A jam.

6. Picture of You: I think Hey! beat it out only because I lean more toward upbeat intense songs in general. Still a lovely, nostalgic song

7. Are You a Good Girl: the last one I was right about in my instinct choices. Similar to Hey! in that I want to jam. Diggidumdum.

8. Paradise: This one started and I was like OH RIGHT YESSS and immediately pushed it up in my brain. I think the top 7 are just so intrinsically a part of my kpop awakening and college experience, that that's why the last 5 are where they are. So many tvxq songs are basically written on my bones, though.

9. Forgotten Season: when this one started I was like hmmmm I kind of remember it? But I'm ambivalent. And then I was like, oh okay. Jae solo. And then as usually happens when I listen to Jaejoong sing, he hit a note that made me go OH MY GOD FINNNNEEEE 😭😭😭 and rank it higher. Still one of my fave voices in all of kpop.

10. Flower Lady: I remembered this one better than I thought I would. Very pretty and sweet.

11. Crazy Love: I heard this one for the first time IN AGES the other day, so I thought it would be higher out of nostalgia. But it's just okay for an upbeat song.

12. Rainbow: no shade, bb. I'm a firm believer that tvxq, whether as 5 or 2, don't have a bad song to their name. But this one isn't one of my faves. Pretty standard filler imo.

There it is. The ranking. It HURT but also I'm kind of cool with my instinctive choices being pretty accurate. It's a king of albums situation, and I love it so.

[misslauwie]

Support Jimin til The End

I dont want to be labeled as Solo Stan but the recent sabotages and twitter feeds have been making me feel sad for Jimin. I feel that Face album face a great injustice with Hanteo, YT views, Spotify splitting the English and Korean version, & the sheer short period that it was allowed to air. Not to mention BB Hot 100 chart.

I am a baby army myself hence I was quite perplexed on how Hybe / BH could bungle Jimin solo debut badly. And thats an understatement from my part. Face to me is a masterpiece. From the concept, music, vocals, emotions transmitted by the lyrics, and the flow of the album itself. Its like Jimin is a story teller but his story is so relatable that it resonates to the General Public not just army. Hence the short period it was allowed to languish is just a TRAGEDY.

Some may say that lets be an adult here. Good music will last and eventually reach GP (general public). But we are currently living in a fast moving environment where news changes in the speed of light. Just take FED stance on US interest rates. They can change within weeks. My point being here is that if there is a way to put on more promotions to hype Face so it can reach GP then why not. Some may also argue that army is too fixated with charts and ranking. I would argue that for an artist song to trend and be pushed towards GP feeds / fyp, they need to trend. For that song to trend, statistics matter. Number of views matter. Number of plays matter. And I think the most basic description of a fan is basically spreading good music of their artist towards non fans.

So when wk 2 happened and Jimin was on an isolated basis booted off top 10 of BB hot 100.. I put on my investigative hat to determine whether Jimin was really sabotaged either by the industry or by his own Company.

I think we wont beat the dead horse with regards to being discriminated upon on BB charts because it didnt happen only to Jimin. But also BTS. So I started facts checking about the discrimination within Hybe / BH that was insinuated by many. And when Suga album dropped I can see discrepancy with regards to Hanteo chart as well as YT views. Hanteo didnt freeze for x hours and erase c. 700k of Jimin's album. YT also didnt delete as many views. So I admit I was a bit ticked and thought wow this narrative of him being sabotaged by his own Company must be true.

But then ... on my Twitter feed I came across PJM account twitting their playlists being reported because they solely have Jimin's songs in it and not Suga too. Please refer to pic below.

Now the dots starting to connect for me. I was having trouble believing that Jimin was singlehandedly discriminated against at Hybe. Just because the set and cinematography they put out for Set Me Free Part 2 is BTS level and not B-side level. It must have cost a pretty penny for them to even involve so many dancers for SMF pt 2 not to mention the built up set.

Hence I came to the conclusion that its not so much a sabotage from Hybe / BH but a matter of prioritization. Hybe / BH is in a catch 22 situation where if they push or champion Jimin too much then they risk angering another part of BTS fandom; the toxic part of the fandom that is.

Eventhough Im a Jimin bias, I love many of BTS discography. Jimin recruited me during ON era and I came to love JK and Jhope. But the fandom need to understand that being human means that you will have your own preference / favorites. Liking 1 member more than the others does not equal to a collosal sin. OT7 or Nothing. I can be Jimin bias and still love on the street and put it on repeat because that genre is easy listening to my ear. Do I love all of Jimin's solo? Honestly serendipity never resonates within me but I put Promise, Filter and With You on repeated playlist.

I think some of the members have realized that Army is becoming so big that there are some solos that are toxic. This is why most of the members always hype the OT7 principles. But the message may be lost in translation. The members themselves said that if you are an army you would love all members. On the flipside of it is Jimin saying him cutting off friends who talked badly about any members of BTS. But in essence what they are trying to promote I think is "dont hate any of the members".

By now Im sure these nearing 30s boys are well verse in human relationship and its complicated dynamics. They themselves have members whom they are closer to as compared to the others. And this might change as they grow. Because people grow and change. Suga and Jimin himself said that human relationship is complicated but needed in life. Suga also stated that he is comfortable being in the back during performances because he believes in the 3Js delivering stunning performances. Remember what he said is that BTS works because they respect each other for the skills that each member has.

Healthy competition is good to keep them on their toes; striving to be the best, to be the trendsetter. But I believe they are also very much aware of their own specialities (edge) and shortcomings. Suga / RM are composers / producers. They have many credits on songwritings. They are set in life and I believe they know it too; especially Suga.

Would argue that even though I love Jimin but he coddled the army too much in the sense that he thinks army is teenage girls / boys. Well I wouldnt completely blame him with the way they are behaving currently. But I think the OT7 message that they are trying to deliver got lost in translation and they need to come up with a new way of delivering the true OT7 meaning; no hates just love. Fortunately with Chapter 2, seems like we are moving in the right direction where we see Suga breaking down the smoking stereotype, Jimin dancing to a more risque coreagraphy and RM calling out fans during his lives.

Army comes from different geographies and backgrounds. While some seems more well to do than others given that BTS concerts which is very costly always sold out, some stream members' song using prepaid data. Meaning its not even wifi or broadband internet. They are using quotas to stream songs. Hence its not fair to ask everyone to support all members' projects equally.

I wish Army will reflect and gather to spread positivity / love rather than hatred.

We certainly need a better game plan for PJM2. But in the meantime I will continue to stream Face.

With Jimin til the End.

[fagdykefriendship]

my top 5 albums of this year, ranked, and with some commentary + favorite tracks. under the cut because this was longer than i thought it’d be! but i love to talk about music :)

5. I WENT TO HELL AND BACK by AS IT IS

I’ve been a huge fan of As It Is since around 2018. This album was their first without guitarist/secondary vocalist ben langford-biss, which made me nervous, but it ended up being good even without him. the singles off this album were definitely its weak point, with i miss 2003 being my least favorite in terms of how nostalgia-bait-y it was. However, the album overall leans into a heavier sound that i absolutely adore. Patty Walters does more screaming on this album than previous albums, and I really enjoyed the intensity of it. My favorite songs were i’m sick and tired, i wanna see god, and the title track i went to hell and back. this album is a solid 9/10 from me.

4. Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain

Ethel Cain is an artist I knew nothing about before listening to her album. I stumbled across American Teenager as a recommendation on spotify, which led me to her whole album. Preacher’s Daughter is definitely a deviation from the genres I typically listen to, but the lyricism and vocals are just incredible. i will say there are points where the songs blend into one another, and the lack of variation in sound knocks this one down a bit, but it is a fantastic album. favorite songs are definitely American Teenager and A House in Nebraska.

3. Supernova by Nova Twins

Nova Twins are such a unique and powerful band. their sound is incredibly energetic and strong. I first discovered them around 2020, and have been hooked ever since. everything from their fashion to their music is so in your face and flashy and amazing, this album was no different. I absolutely loved this album, it was such a strong continuation and improvement of what they started with their first album Who Are The Girls. The music videos were also a highlight of this album, i absolutely adore their visual style as well as their musical style. this album is just good genre-smashing punk. my favorite songs were K.M.B. and Choose Your Fighter. This album is a solid 10/10, I have nothing but praise for it.

2. Laurel Hell by Mitski

With Mitski as my top artist this year, it’s not surprising that this album was one of my favorite and most listened to in 2022. Laurel Hell is sonically beautiful, like all of Mitski’s music. It also serves as a response or rebuttal to her skyrocketing fame after Be The Cowboy with songs like Working for the Knife and Everyone. Mitski is just an incredible musician, lyricist, and visual artist. similar to Nova Twins, the music videos off this album left a huge impact on me. Her storytelling through song is so clear and the shifting energy across the tracks on this album easily put it at number 2. my favorite songs were there’s nothing left for you, stay soft, and love me more, but i honestly can’t say anything bad about any song on this album.

Honerable Mentions:

All Girls Go To Heaven by Mint Green

this was Mint Green’s debut album. It was somewhat hit or miss for me, but the hits were huge and I really liked the soft, acoustic vibe of this album. The repetitiveness of some of the songs meant that it didn’t make my top 5, but still a very good album.

Unwanted by Pale Waves

some songs on this album were just forgettable, but others have become some of my absolute favorites by Pale Waves. There’s a couple of skips on this record, but I find that’s often how I feel about Pale Waves’ albums.

Also, a few EPs that weren’t full albums but i nevertheless enjoyed a lot this year:

The Difference by Daya

Poetic License by J. Maya

honey catching season by KiNG MALA

and now, without further ado,

1. Love Me Forever by Pinkshift

This album was everything i hoped for from Pinkshift and more. I discovered Pinkshift back before their EP Saccharine had come out, and seeing how far they’ve come in two short years is extraordinary. Love Me Forever exceeded my expectations. It’s energetic, angry, unapologetic. The combination of riot grrrl, mcr-style pop punk, and grunge gives this album such a unique and appealing musical sound. Ashrita’s voice is an absolute highlight on this album, with screaming and gorgeous low vocals that just check all my boxes. the songwriting is also improved and if this is just their first album, I can’t wait to see what comes next. My favorite songs are cherry (we’re all gonna die) and love me forever, but there are truly no misses on this entire album.