#its why every style of cover for the ultimate show works the motif is just that versatile

[timogsilangan]

[letticetweedie]

For my Final Major Project, my chosen subject area is dance, specifically its relationship to the individual and how we use it to communicate. Because I want to explore the very anthropological side of dance, my starting research area was the way in which it’s technically explained, such as Keith Rose’s Crib Dance diagrams and the textbooks which depict the individual steps to the Waltz. This contrast between the more monotonous and organised side of dance compared to the more philosophical areas I know I want to investigate, will help me identify what it is I’m trying to pin down. Having done this, I have also done a lot of contrasting research on catharsis, and what it is to feel catharsis in everyday life. While often used in literature, a sense of catharsis is something I personally feel when I dance, and having spoken to a number of people, they agreed that they felt a feeling of “release” when they too were dancing.

It’s this research into the idea of psychological release and emotional freedom that led to looking at freedom as a whole, and how far we can ever truly be free. One fact I remember being told is that every person in the UK will see on average 5,000 advertisements. This bombardment of consumerism and marketing suggests that we are in fact never free, consistently influenced by what we’re told to want and arguably losing any sense of independence or free will. In one article written by J. Krishnamurti, he stated that “freedom implies being completely alone…You are never alone because you are full of all the memories, all the conditioning, all the mutterings of yesterday”. While this is a more conceptual way of putting it, Krishnamurti backs up this point of never being free, as we’re constantly weighed down by our own personal experience and emotion. However, if dance is considered to bring about such a sense of release and catharsis, is that why it’s so often resorted to in times of intense emotional strain? The intuitive and natural motion of moving to a rhythm or beat could arguably be the closest thing we can ever get to being completely free. Is dance used merely as a distraction from the problems we face in reality, or is it legitimately a means for exercising a sense of psychological wellbeing? This is a key point I want to explore within this project.

Another area I want to explore is that when we do dance, how far is our movement a completely natural response, independent of external influence. The history of dance suggests that trends and styles are common in society and that more often than not, we naturally imitate those around us. However, while eras of disco, street dance and raves show this trait, what I’m interested in is the nuances that separate us, the ways not only our individual experience and emotion dictate the way we move, but how our subconscious state also influences this. Furthermore, I also want to research into the aesthetics of dance – the motifs, colour and imagery we associate with dancing and how individual experience means these will never be exactly the same for any two people. For me, I associate positive memories of dancing with large rooms of people, of which at least 90% of the people immediately next to me are close friends and with a sense of glamour and fun. However, how far does this individual experience translate onto a subjective viewer? My personal relationship to dance, and how elated it makes me feel is a major factor that influenced the decision to study dance for this project. Additionally, I know that many others are familiar with this relationship to dance, therefore this project will hopefully be something that can be largely accessible and relatable. As the cathartic nature of dancing is something I relate to really strongly, when I’ve fully explored the area, and successfully pinned down what exactly it is that makes dancing so important to us as a species, I’ll know.

The cultural context of dance is something that I want to explore thoroughly – dance itself is such a social act, it’s impossible to ignore the cultural impact its had. As noted by Marusa Pusnik in their article on the “Cultural Practice” of dance, “dance occupies an important place in the social structure of all human cultures throughout history. Dance is most commonly defined as a way of human expression through movement”. The natural affiliation to dance as a means of communication has resulted in dance being the base of a multitude of cultures. For example, originating in Bharata Natyam, India around 400 years ago, Japan’s Kabuki dance is still practiced in homes today. While research and videos are hard to find, the dance still forms a significant part of the life of those who follow it. This is just one example of the hundreds, if not thousands of different forms and styles of dance that are used around the world. Consequently it’s clear that not only is dance a matter of an individuals response to music, but a group affiliation to a shared culture or origin, something that possible aids any feeling of displacement or isolation.

Additionally, the history of dance shows a close relationship between culture and society, how groups have used dance as a way of either rebelling or affiliating themselves with the ever-changing circumstances around them. As written in an article by the BBC, (‘6 ways disco changed the world’), The 1970s craze of disco for example was in response to Nazi regulations, limiting live music and allowing only records to be played. Following on from this, disco became a massive influence on later dance trends, as it was the first time someone could join the dance floor as an individual (prior to this you’d often need someone of the opposite sex to dance with). For the first time, individuals could be part of a larger crowd, a singular mentality of just wanting a good time. This also brought about the ability for something as simple as two men being able to dance together, as this was illegal until 1971, disco therefore acting as a form of social liberation.

For me, the subject of dance is interesting because of the impact it has on our mental state, rather than its literal use in art as a medium. In terms of artistic references and contexts, the artists I’ve been researching are less to do with the act of dancing itself, but more the themes they investigate and how they relate to my own practice. For example, Cildo Meireles and Andy Warhol are two artists I’ve looked at as part of my research into consumerist art. The way both these artists responded to the increase in consumerist culture and advertising reminds me of the way in which dance is used in rebellion or affiliation to the same things. Using motifs such as Coca-Cola bottles and technology (more specifically in his piece ‘Babel’), Meireles emphasises the theme of excess in the material world, the ways in which we’re constantly subject to and influenced by what’s being forced into our consciousness. Similarly, Warhol explores this excess in the form of colour, again looking at the ways the artificial world around us is almost inescapable. It’s these themes that I want to explore in relation to dance, how we use it to escape the very things these two artists are highlighting in their work and how I can reference this in my own work. Furthermore, both these artists strongly use motifs as a method of inspiring such themes, something I want to include within this project. Artist Marc Camille Chaimowicz does this in his work ‘An Autumn Lexicon’. Using items such as disco balls, coloured lighting and text, he creates an environment that is immediately reminiscent of a nightclub or party, and in turn, dancing. In relation to this, I want to further explore dance in its modern social and cultural context - how now, coloured light immediately carries undertones of some kind of party or performance. More specific references as well, such as bathrooms covered in crazy graffiti, weirdly lit corridors, glitter and neon are all motifs that I want to explore in relation to their social connotations. Again, similar to Warhol and Meireles, these things all inspire a theme of excess, something that dance seems to naturally attribute itself to. Dance has become a means for not only emotional release and excess, but also a medium in which we associate being our most self, allowing personal style to manifest itself, in turn leading the modern club-scene to be associated with excess of all kinds (for example glitter and neon). Ultimately, that is what I want my project to become. I want it to manifest itself as one large, crazy, fun collection of work – something that in itself is reminiscent of the overflow of emotion we have when we dance.

The continued exploration of the theme of experience is definitely something that is still present in this project, however the one difference in this work from what I’ve done before is that I want to explore how personal experience and intuition influences the way we move and the reasons for this movement. Rather than looking at the emotional response to the world around us, I’m more interested in the ways we translate this conscious experience and emotion into natural and intuitive movement, usually as a way for us to make sense of the mess that’s in our heads. In terms of the mediums and techniques I’ll be using, I hope to still be able to work very materially, only this time using materials that more directly relate to the subject area itself. The abundance of imagery and motifs, such as the disco ball, gives a lot of opportunity to work sculpturally, something that’s become really integral in my practice so far. Print on the other hand, while another method I’ve become increasingly confident in, is a medium I want to approach differently - dance is such a time-based, physical form, I’ll have to think about how I translate this onto the printed page.

[borisheavyrocks]

The Art Of Heavy: An Interview with BORIS // PUREGRAINAUDIO

This week, two metal titans – Boris of Japan and Amenraof Belgium – embark on a co-headlining tour of Europe. Both are bands known for their intense music and equally intense live shows – albeit in different ways – with a wealth of material behind them and a core of dedicated listeners. Boris celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary last year with the album DEAR, a celebration of all things Boris, and a glorious final statement from the band. Amenra, too, are approaching their second decade as a band, maintaining a steady and consistent creative output through personal turmoil and band member side-projects. Last year’s Mass VI is as emotionally heavy and soul-bearing as any of the project’s works; more than any band, Amenra channel their strength through hardship. With the first date of the tour on the horizon, Takeshi of Boris and Colin H. van Eeckhout of Amenra kindly took the time to answer questions I had for them about their bands’ legacies, creative processes and their relationship with each other.

Full article via Pure Grain Audio. 

The marriage between the two bands may seem all too obvious for heavy music listeners; though the bands are not wholly familiar with each other’s music on a personal level, it was evident that both bands had a mutual respect for one another’s art; “Both bands have a vision that is remarkable.” Colin van Eeckhout of Amenra remarks “Boris’ free will is something intriguing to me. They write the music they want to in total freedom,” a mutual respect shared by Boris too, as Takeshi says “Amenra have their own style and idea, I respect what they are doing and am very looking forward to playing with them. It is exciting to see what chemistry between them and Boris is made during the tour.” Eeckhout added “Both bands have a crossover audience, yet bring two worlds within heavy music together. That’s what it is all about for Amenra, bringing people together.”

Boris' DEAR is their twenty-third album and dropped on July 14, 2017 via Sargent House.

Despite a quarter of a century behind them now, Boris show no signs of stopping for reflection; “We won’t slow down for new sound and music at all, that is our main goal.” From drone metal classics like Absolutego (1996) and Feedbacker (2003), to 2005’s shoegaze and noise rock-influenced Pink, to experiments in new genres with albums like New Album and Attention Please in 2011, Boris’ output has always been as varied as it has been prolific. However, the band themselves have never considered these albums so disparate; “I know lots of people are saying Boris have numerous musical styles, but to us all styles are deeply connected at the bottom end.” Whatever sonic territory Boris tread, they have an ability to remain unmistakably ‘Boris’. With the band now standing at 23 studio albums, as well as numerous EPs and live albums, it can be difficult to know where to start, something which the band themselves are well aware of; “We usually don’t look back at what we have done in the past, but also do understand we should maintain our catalog and archive for our fans in order to show them appropriately.” Even though they are an unwaveringly forward-thinking and experimental band, Boris understand the need to preserve their past works and for accessibility to new listeners.

For many, the quintessential setting for Amenra’s music is live, with their music described as bordering on ‘spiritual’ and their shows as entrancing and communal [1], something Amenra acknowledge themselves; “The religious nature of our music has grown from personal experience” Eeckhout explains. Whether the allusions to religious ceremony are intentional or not, “I believe you cannot ‘construct’ a spiritual aspect for other people, I would not know of a blueprint to that in music making…” Amenra’s ‘masses’ can be seen more as a communion for personal introspection and healing. From the accounts of fans, an Amenra show can be as cathartic for them as it is for the band themselves; “The religious nature of our music has grown from personal experience, and outsiders also talking about its “healing” nature, [this] only confirmed what we suspected, or felt ourselves… A lot of people share their testimonies why Amenra means so much to them. Or they come up to us after shows and sometimes have pretty deep conversations about it.”

The cover art for Amenra's Mass VI. The album dropped on October 20, 2017 via Neurot Recordings.

For Amenra, the experience of a live concert is first and foremost something to experience viscerally; “People can really dive into our music or ‘the moment​'​ live, mostly they look into themselves. and let the sonic wave hit them.” Their live spectacle is aided by the usage of projected visuals on-stage; unlike many frontmen, Eeckhout performs with his back to the audience, a move that ultimately directs the focus to the band as a whole and the accompanying images rather than simply the vocalist. For Amenra, each performance is so much more than a ‘rock show’; the imagery and music, as well as each individual member of the band, are of equal importance; “The images are an aid to lose yourself within the moment. They reinforce the music, and make it easier on each member of the crowd, to forget where they are, the concert venue, the stage, the people around you, etc..”

Now approaching their twentieth year as a band, Eeckhout contemplated on how the group has changed over their time together; “It has evolved like all humans evolve in 20 years. Our friendships and lives have grown stronger. Our lives more difficult, we’ve lived through more adversity.” Indeed, while Amenra’s music and performance can be theatrical and ear-splitting, it has always looked inwards to personal hardships for inspiration; this kind of catharsis is paramount to the band’s creative process “…our direction will always be our own lives, and sentiment; our stance and views in, and on, life… We had never set goals, we just did what we felt we had to do, for ourselves and nobody else.” There’s a kind of palpable urgency and frustration in Amenra’s music, a deep and natural rage, their music a vessel through which to channel it. Even with side-projects like Oathbreaker and Wiegedood within the eponymous ‘Church of Ra’, with Amenra the centrepiece in the collective, Eeckhout believes “I think there is no other band than ​Amenra​ that discusses as much; the what and why of everything.”

Oh, dear. Stream and hear Boris' DEAR right here.

<a href="http://boris.bandcamp.com/album/dear">Dear by Boris</a>

While Amenra draws directly from hardship and adversity to create their art, Boris embrace the spirit of improvisation more so than many metal bands. The band has always maintained a spontaneous approach to music writing, evidenced in early pieces like Flood and Feedbacker which slowly evolve across repeating motifs and riffs; “Basically, we don’t write songs, just go into the studio and jam together, then we have some idea and that will lead us to a specific direction.” Even when preconceived ideas are brought into the mix, the band enjoy leaving the songwriting process open to whatever comes to them; “I wouldn’t rule out any strategy. Whatever the case the song will lead us where we should go.” Understandable, when one considers the many sonic faces Boris have worn over the years.

Boris’ improvisational nature is becoming more and more reflected in their live performances, too; “All songs are living things, they will show us very different mood and sound whenever we play them live. Our songs have undescriptive silence, tempo and mood, so we will add another texture every time.” Between this, their prolific catalog and genre experimentation, Boris continue their tradition unpredictable and free-spirited creation twenty-five years deep into their career, and clearly have no plans to stop working any time soon; “I can’t thank enough to our fans and their endless support is driving force of the band, I really appreciate it. Boris are feeling we have something like responsibility to our fans and that feeling is getting way stronger than before.”

Amenra and Boris began their co-headlining tour of Europe on February 14th starting in Bristol (UK) through to Haarlem (Netherlands) on March 4th.

[chelseawolfemusic]

Chelsea Wolfe interview ahead of GIRLSCHOOL performance // Lenny

photo by Kristin Cofer // words by Dianca Potts

Last January, GIRLSCHOOL, an LA-based collective dedicated to supporting women in music, celebrated its inaugural music festival at Bootleg Theater. Featuring acts like Gothic Tropic and Maria Taylor, GIRLSCHOOL's first festival confirmed that powerful things can happen when women collaborate for the greater good. This year, founder Anna Bulbrook and co-founder Jasmine Lywen-Dill hope to conjure a similar spirit of solidarity and community. "It's my ultimate dream to have a nexus of incredible women thinkers and doers around us," Anna says. This year's lineup is not only intersectional but also sonically diverse. "In today's political climate, it especially matters to have these outlets that unify and celebrate women," Jasmine says. "I hope [we] can be a vehicle for change and for raising awareness of girl-positive organizations in the arts." Set to kick off this Friday, GIRLSCHOOL's weekend extravaganza is exactly what we need right now. I was lucky enough to catch up with the festival's headliner, the forever busy and immensely talented Chelsea Wolfe. Best known for haunting dirges like "Dragged Out" and hypnotic ballads like "Mer" and "Feral Love," Chelsea's fusion of folklore, Jungian theory, and gothic motifs is as beautiful as it is brooding. A week before the festival, I chatted with Chelsea — who's currently working on a new album — about the importance of taking credit for your work and why darkness isn't always a bad thing.

Dianca Potts: What did music mean to you when you were growing up?

Chelsea Wolfe: When I was a kid, my parents divorced, and my mom was always a creative person herself, making clothes, drawing, and painting, and she'd listen to great music like Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt. On the weekends I'd go to my dad's house, where he had a home studio for recording and practicing with the country band he had with my stepmom. Hearing them harmonize and work on Fleetwood Mac covers was my first inspiration to write my own songs.

I really connected with Lindsey Buckingham's voice. I think I took some vocal styling from him back then that I still use today. Over the years, I've been drawn to singers and bands with androgynous voices — Nina Simone, Placebo, and bands who go to extremes musically, like Sunn O))) and Swans. I find some comfort in things that aren't easy to define, maybe because I always felt like I was an in-between myself.

DP: In a feature for Under the Radar, you mentioned that in the past you haven't given yourself enough credit for the work that you do. I feel like this is something that a lot of creatives, especially women, struggle with. What advice would you give to younger creatives who feel hesitant to celebrate their accomplishments in fear of coming off as prideful?

CW: I'm glad you're bringing that feature up. I spent a lot of time doing a full interview about "sexism and misogyny in the music industry" and they only used that one line from it, of course. I do think there's kind of an unspoken societal thing where we're not supposed to talk about our accomplishments very much. I always felt like my work spoke for itself, and I wanted people to be able to relate to it in their own way, without everything being over-explained. But as I slowly gained more of an audience, someone's gonna be offended by what you're doing, and there was a person who tried to start a campaign against me, making false claims of what I was inspired by or what my music and videos meant. I didn't fight back publicly because, well, I'd rather spend my time on music than Internet drama, but all my friends in real life and in the music industry who knew about this reached out to me with messages of love and support and reminders that they know I've always followed my own path and been true to myself. That was really heartening when I was bummed about being attacked like that. I learned that I need to take credit for my work more publicly, and be a little more outgoing with what I share about myself and my music.

My advice to younger female and nonbinary artists is this: take credit for your work, always and rigorously, otherwise some jerk might come along and try to take the credit for you, or they'll say that a man wrote your songs for you. Fuck that. I think Grimes is a great example of someone who makes sure it's known that her work, ideas, and production are her own. Follow her lead.

DP: Your music is often described as dark. What do you feel is the value of exploring the dark side of emotion and human experience?

CW: From a young age, I wanted to know both sides to every story. I used to have these recurring nightmares of macro and micro. I would be in a white room with an object in the middle, like a book or a telephone, and the object would grow really, really large and fill the room, smashing me against the wall, and then the object would grow small again, back and forth. It was maddening, but I think it kind of represents how I approach writing songs. I'm hyperaware of the macro, the world as a whole, and all the fucked-up things that are happening at the same time: bombings, rapes, suicides. That is all really dark stuff to write about, but it's not like I'm making it up. At the same time, I'm also able to focus in on my own life or community and write a song that comes from there. It's all a contrast of the hideousness of life and the beauty of life. My first album, The Grime and the Glow, was kind of the beginning of this exploration in contrasts.

DP: How did you get involved with GIRLSCHOOL?

CW: Through the Echo Society, which is a group of composers who put together this great night of original music with an orchestra and guest collaborators each year. They reached out to me to compose a piece, which I did with the help of my bandmate Ben Chisholm, since he's a master of arranging string samples and percussive elements. Anna Bulbrook was running the Echo Society show in LA. On day one of the rehearsals, I was in the wrong place at the right time, and Anna was so kind as to relocate me to the place I was supposed to be.

On the drive there, we got to know each other a bit, and she told me about GIRLSCHOOL. I had heard of it before and was blown away to be talking with the person who started it. My drummer Jess Gowrie and I had just been talking about how inspiring it is to see women musicians onstage when you're a young, aspiring female musician, and we were hoping that we could help do the same for the younger generation. So when Anna said there was a festival involved, I was like, "If you'd ever want my band to play, I'd be honored."

DP: What makes organizations like GIRLSCHOOL so vital?

CW: They normalize the idea of an instrument in a young woman's hands, or a woman being the leader of a band. And of course they encourage young people to explore music and the arts and gain confidence and self-acceptance through that. I know I grew up feeling the pressure to be society's typical, subdued definition of "feminine," even though I never felt that way inside, and my body type has never represented that either. It was difficult for me to assert myself as an artist when I was starting out. I'm here representing for the late bloomers. Nowadays I think a lot of younger folks are moving past all those antiquated gender restraints much quicker than I did, which is great to see.

(via Lenny)

[ihfsttinuf]

Screw It, I’m Making a Webcomic

So, as I made it abundantly clear on Twitter mere moments ago, I have a real honest-to-Glob New Year’s Resolution for 2017.

I am going to create a webcomic.

I am going to write a sequential art narrative which I will draw and provide various artistic accoutrements to and post it on the Internet. This is going to happen by the end of this year. I am doing this.

Perhaps this sudden outburst and declaration of artistic intent seems a bit out of left field, both in its overtones of grandiosity and relative lack of context given what most of you guys know about me. So let me provide some of that much needed context, both to show you why I am doing this and what I am really saying, which is probably even more ambitious (and maybe pretentious) than you think it is.

I’ve been writing weird little stories and drawing accompanying illustrations for them since I was a wean, as most of us did at that age, but since that point I’ve never really stopped. At a very young age I encountered not only excellent children’s books ranging from the charming and heartwarming to the downright mind-bending—Peter Sís and Henrik Drescher were big in my household—but also illustrated works whose contents and subtext were far too old for me yet entranced me nonetheless, particularly the works of the great New England illustrator and satirist Edward Gorey. By the age of six or seven, I had memorised “The Gashlycrumb Tinies” and would recite it with morbid glee to anyone who would ask (or didn’t). I discovered books through Gorey’s cover illustrations, first accidentally discovering the alternate history genre through his work on Joan Aiken’s Dido Twite series, and was only drawn deeper into John Bellairs’ junior Gothics when I discovered that Gorey had provided the frontispiece and dust jacket to every one of the entries in the series he’d written up to his death—which I mourned, with a mix of vague incomprehension, sorrow, and creeping disappointment. I was eight at the time.

Parallel to this, I spent a lot of time at my town’s local art centre, which provided free classes in all sorts of artistic endeavours. I took most to theatre and improv in particular—I was a wee ham; now I am a large ham—but what stuck with me was drawing and, to a lesser extent, animation. As I fixated on Gorey’s superficial techniques and aesthetics, the simple sunken eyes and odd little triangular noses, I’d also more subtly acquired his less obvious techniques: The way he used cross-hatching and simple, intense linework to suggest different textures entranced me, and indeed still does. I am told that a very strict art teacher, who I thought disliked me and of whom I was somewhat afraid, freely admitted that a sketch I’d done of a horned figure playing a flute on a rooftop by the light of the moon had taken her breath away.

Which is not to say that I was, or am, some prodigy of form, or that I lacked for more prosaic influences. The former, I will get to, but the latter is best expressed in the fact that a recurring scene which I have since revised and transfigured many, many times began life as... well, thinly veiled Darkwing Duck fanfiction, minus the duck part, given a sound twist of Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter”. I was maybe eleven or so at the time.

It was in one of these classes that this weird little scene deep beneath a ruined graveyard was born. It was also there that I made plans for an elaborate series of beast fables, set in a world quite unlike our own.

It is perhaps worth noting that one of the handful of these early sketches which sticks in y mind to this day was a tale of two young male lizards falling in love only to be torn apart by a disapproving society. Even at an age when I was functionally unaware of homosexuality and bemused or outright repulsed by what I knew of sex, a queer romance was perhaps the most emotionally intense thing that I had conceived of up to that point. But I digress.

The setting in question and certain characters in it would perennially re-emerge in my other writing, which I was quite certain would be my career path throughout late elementary and middle school. In seventh grade, I was part of an experimental programme where middle and high school students were allowed to enrol in a creative writing course at a nearby university. Only two students wound up attending: Myself, and a classmate of mine who had skipped a grade and would later become known in my high school as something of a mad and insufferable genius. (We got on pretty well.) After several semesters of studying poetry and short fiction, there was a presentation. One of the selections I made for my reading was a list-poem, from the perspective of an older character trying to live day by day with the memory of his deceased wife hanging over him, with the distinction that the final entry was a reminder to keep his claws neatly filed.

It was around that time that I began to come under the influence of Thomas Ligotti, and it was with this exposure to the refiner’s fire of such elegant horror—the kind that brought the same sort of visions into my mind that Gorey brought to the page—that I realised what form my true opus should take, at least in plot. I took it with me into high school, and beyond into the wilderness of these past six-and-a-half years of confusion. The polestar of this mad endeavour formed here.

I had been thinking a lot about epic high fantasy at the time—I was eleven when The Return of the King hit theatres, and I had read enough in the genre and in styles adjacent to it to be aware of the tropes—and it occurred to me that the moral framework and cosmology of a lot of such works rang a bit hollow to me, not because right and wrong did not exist, as certainly people do good and bad things to one another all the time, but because there was always this sense of certainty that the side one was meant to root for was indubitably in the right and some great objective force of Good deemed it so, blessing their struggle against a force similarly ordained by some great objective Evil. It was that last dimension which particularly irked me. It felt reassuring in the most painfully reductive and philosophically trite way possible. And so often the battles were so... literal. I never much cared for war films to begin with, and by putting such struggles in a fantastical framework, you subtracted the one thing that made war films kind of neat: The recognition that these were people doing the fighting and the killing. Not symbols, people.

Very middle school analysis, yes, and unfair to some things I quite enjoy, Tolkien included, but the ultimate conclusions were the important part.

Which is where Ligotti comes in. Much has been made of his non-fiction opus The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, but in terms of his philosophy and its influence on my thinking at the time, I’d rather stick to his fiction, as that was what I was reading and that is what made me. In brief, Ligotti is not a reassuring writer. The universe of his stories reflects his views of our own, which are, in essence, a wholesale rejection of the commonly held notion that human consciousness and life in general are good things that we should all be even remotely enthused about, instead proposing that the very idea that we are aware of ourselves and that we should think of ourselves as individuals for whom some higher power might just be watching out is more likely an obscene and sadistic joke on that hypothetical power’s part or else, more likely, a horrible accident. His stories are filled with personal totems and surreal motifs, the fates of his characters determined by blind chance or the detached malicious prankstery of a party with whom they cannot bargain or reason, the sadistic frenzies of Poe’s maniacal villain-protagonists writ large, often on a cosmic scale. There is the feel of a nightmare and yet also of the sleepless hours after, alone in the dark, thinking, where wakefulness and dream bleed between one another and all the world is a nightmare to which the hells of sleep might well be preferable.

If I’ve lost you, well, I’m sorry; but you and I probably have something to talk about if your first reaction to all this was, “I’ve certainly had *those* days.”

And if you’ve had enough of those days, the rest probably follows easily enough.

Wouldn’t it be interesting, I thought, if one took that quest narrative key to so many epic fantasies, and put it through a world where the rules of the game were so utterly reversed? If our well-meaning hero—of course, as in Tolkien, basically some poor backwater schmo, by no means stupid nor necessarily naïve but very, *very* far from the classical man of virtue—were to bear with him some artefact of power that could, perhaps by its very existence, rend the veil of normalcy that should keep all of the sane and happy citizens of this world from confronting what writhes beneath all that they see, what might he choose to do with it, particularly if he were, say, by some inexplicable invisible bond, *tied* to it?

Now, what makes a fitting antagonist for such a tale? What sort of character provides the ideal foil for a kind-hearted soul confronted with all the horrors of what may be in a neat little package? Rather than some cosmic sadist intent on throwing us all under the bus, why not something a bit scarier: Another kind-hearted soul. Someone who has seen behind the veil their whole life. Someone who has seen the truth and the agony of this world and seeks nothing less than perfect closure

And there it was.

And then it began to get complicated.

For every character that I created to flesh out the story, another came into being, and I wanted to know more about them. A side-plot salvaged from some other silly project merged seamlessly into the new whole, and suddenly there were whole new plots, full of new characters with motives that I wanted to understand. Characters grew, changed, lightened and darkened as my thoughts steeped. Exposure to other writers through classes and forums and variably disastrous shared writing projects made me realise what I did and did not know, what I could and could not do.

It was also in high school that I began taking music seriously, first toying around in Garageband and singing in the school choir and then as part of a band with several close friends. I wrote a lot of poetry, and I sang a bit, so we had lyrics; I still drew sometimes, so we had art when we needed it, although we rarely needed it. I was always ambitious with my lyrics: One of our most successful songs was structured to simulate one character murdering another during a snowstorm in a glade where they had played and hidden as a child. Morbid character studies were common; I was always taking grim little vacations in people’s heads, my own or otherwise. Informed by my middle school studies of haibun and my lyrical adventures, my prose grew more experimental, collapsing into poems or switching into strange persons and tenses. My mind was full of images, yet where to go with them?

My path to sequential art was an odd and rocky one. As mentioned, I loved picture books and illustrated stories as a child, and while I failed to touch upon them earlier (mea culpa!), Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side were pretty important in their own right. I even attempted to create something of a running series at around the time I was in that poetry programme, mainly for the amusement of myself and a very affable art teacher who found the premise amusing. It was only a year or two later that I would read Doom Patrol—the first superhero comic that I would ever admit to liking, and still one of the chosen few—and realise that Grant Morrison, the bastard, had stolen my idea before I’d even been born: Of killing one’s own imaginary friend, only to be tormented by their vengeful spectre years after the fact at the least appropriate of times.

But the comic idea sort of fell by the wayside for the longest time, for the simple reason that I am, to my own mind, an atrocious draughtsman. I cannot reproduce figures to save my life. Hilarious, seeing as I can draw you a teeming alien cityscape, or a perfectly detailed mosquito in flames, but in terms of doing the same thing twice, I’ve spent years hanging my head in shame and self-loathing.

The secret is, though, not that I couldn’t learn this, but that for such a long time, pride had kept me from allowing myself to be bad at things until I was good. As someone to whom a lot of fairly complex ideas just come naturally, someone who just absorbs information like a souped-up Dyson vacuum, the idea of having to draw the same damned thing ten thousand times just to get decent at drawing that same damned thing was a horrifying prospect. It still is.

I got pushed into it. My own fictions put a knife to my throat and told me, “This is what needs to happen.” But it took two different interconnected experiences to understand how, both courtesy of my boyfriend being a huge dork.

The first was his recommendation that I read LAMEZINE 02, at that time the latest salvo from the wonderfully deranged comic artist Cate Wurtz, then going by the moniker Partydog; the second was his use of a Bec Noir avatar on a forum we’re both on, which got me to finally bite the bullet and read Homestuck.

Wurtz’ Lamezone comics are a trip. Her art style is by most technical standards fairly primitive, but it’s a very *refined* jankiness, part and parcel to her overall embrace of scuzzy punk ‘zine aesthetics, immediately recognisable and all-around immediate. Her approach to story and tone is just the same, at once surreal and ridiculous and incredibly emotionally potent, ranging in tone from giddy B-movie absurdity to crushing Carver-esque sorrow, composed of as many little side-stories that flesh out what sort of world these characters live in as of its “meat” and all the better for it. The way that her comics are often framed only adds to the ambience: DVD menus of hit TV series that never existed, tales from the everyday lives of people living on the precipice of madness (and/or suburban Kansas), the wild Lynchian adventures of a man who talks to the spirit of the good ol’ USA through Twitter while traipsing through other people’s comics and the comment sections on furry porn sites. She was even working on a video game at one point about a woman trying to battle her way through deformed iterations of her past selves while maintaining a sufficient ganja supply. I have no idea if that’s still happening. It looked awesome.

Homestuck has already had much said about it, so I’ll keep it brief. Comparisons to Pynchon are not unwarranted. It takes the hypertextual potential of the webcomic to the next level, and is longer than many novel series. The art is, quite intentionally, all over the place, and uses collage surprisingly effectively. The story is a beautiful mess that is, fundamentally, about the process of storytelling and how “things that happen” become “stories” in the first place. It’s very oblique about this, and generally quite funny.

And so I looked to the story I was writing.

I looked at the multiple plotlines growing out of one another, intersecting, snakes devouring their tails, thematic parallels on parallels, spirals of mental imagery with bits of torn wallpaper making the fabric of waistcoats and cathedrals made out of lines of scripture and trees bearing watches like fruit, and I went: “This should be a comic! A hypercomic, in fact, McLuhan-style! This should be a wondrous blend of visuals and text and...

“I...

“I can’t draw. Fuck me. I should stick to prose, like a good loser. Get rejected that way instead.”

So I waffled. For months. And then for years.

But you know what?

I’m done waffling.

Limitation is power in its own right. Ever since I learned of Oulipo in that long-ago three-person poetry class, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of innovation through defining what you cannot do, or what you must do, no matter what. Of forcing yourself to start from a set place or end at one, no ifs, ands or buts.

I am limited. Within that, I am omnipotent.

I am going to draw this comic. I am going to write it and I am going to draw it even if it starts out looking like total shit and the process drives me half-insane. If things that I love, in sequential art but also in music and painting and writing and animation and all sorts of other forms, can make a perceived deficit into a key strength, I can do it, too. Even if I can’t be a classical master, I can be the best at that crazy thing I do.

I guess this is also my grandiose way of saying “fuck last year,” where I made so much progress that felt so thwarted by external circumstances and my own failings, and where so much went wrong for so many of us. So I’m embracing this year as a year of progress. Even if everything else sucks, I’ll be running up that hill.

And just so there’s no mistaking it, I will still be making music and probably writing at least a smidgen of prose fiction and poetry on the side. In the former category, I might even start a band.

Oh, wait. We’re not doing half-measures any more.

I’m starting a band, too.

Tell your friends.

Happy 2017, everyone, and have a lovely rest of your night.

[recentanimenews]

Every Opening in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Ranked!

A new year is upon us, and with it comes an all new season of anime. The transition from one season to another is an exciting time for every seasonal anime viewer. As we say goodbye to our favorite shows either ending or going on break, our thoughts turn toward the continuing shows and the promise of all new openings for them. While we know we’ll miss the openings we’ve come to love for 90 seconds every week so far, we always hope the next one will be even better than the last.

As for myself, I can’t tell you how excited I am for the upcoming season’s worth of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind we have in store for us. What we’ve seen so far is nothing short of some of the best action that 2018’s anime had to offer, and all of it was preceded by “Fighting Gold,” its stellar opening. If recent entries in the JoJo’s anime are enough to go by, we can expect Golden Wind to receive another spectacular opening any time now. Not only that, I know for a fact that it will be spectacular, because every single JoJo’s opening is. We’ve seen eight openings now over the course of the show and there isn’t a bad one in the bunch. All of them deserve a spot in my personal list of all time favorites, but in what order? I know which one is my all time favorite, but I’ve never sat down to compare them all to one another. So, without further ado, here’s every opening in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure ranked from best to bestest.

8.) "JoJo Sono Chi no Kioku ~end of THE WORLD~" by TOMMY, Coda, and Jin Hashimoto

I know I’ve already said it, but given that I’m starting from the bottom it needs to be reiterated. Every single opening in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is incredible. Some just happen to be more incredible than others. A common thread I found among openings in the bottom half of this list is that either the visuals couldn’t quite match the quality of the music or vice versa. Usually there just isn’t enough there to compete with the best openings on this list. This one is different. This one just has way too much.

Visually there’s a lot to love about it. The opening is done in the extremely attractive 3DCG style that dominates all of the show’s openings through the first three seasons. Of particular interest to me is just how much foreshadowing takes place in this opening. The first shot is of the inner workings of a giant clock, alluding to the yet unknown Stand powers DIO possesses. Clockwork imagery continues throughout the opening amidst recreations of famous moments from this particular arc. Many of these moments are innocuous enough to one watching for the first time, but the seasoned JoJo’s fan will recognize them as moments taken right before a major character death (or supposed death). There’s even an incredible alternate version of this opening run later in the season where DIO uses his newly revealed time stop powers to literally pause and manipulate his place in the opening.

Its dedication to fanservice is ultimately the reason this opening places at the bottom of this list, though. The opening’s accompanying single is performed by TOMMY, Coda, and Jin Hashimoto, all of whom individually performed the show’s three prior openings. They’re all incredibly talented vocalists in their own rights, but they don’t quite gel together as well as anyone had hoped. As much as there is to love about this opening, it unfortunately ends up being less than the sum of its parts. Which, to be fair, is still better than most openings can aspire to.

7.) "chase" by batta

You know, there was once a time where I didn’t like this opening. Going back and watching it again while constructing this list taught me a few things. One, past me was a complete and utter fool for not liking this opening. Two, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a really silly series.

Okay, so maybe I knew that one already, but I still had to realize it all over again when figuring out why “chase” shouldn’t place higher in these rankings. After all, everything about it is superb. The carefree daily life of Josuke and his friends is cleverly undercut by the washed out palette and unsettling framing of each character’s actions. A crowd of feeding pigeons is disturbed by a single fingernail, taking to the skies in a Hitchcockian swarm. Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu chat about their day as the camera glares down at them from above, watching them. Blood drips from suitcases packed in tight corners and a clawed hand emerges to crush the protagonist’s signature anchor pin. A serial killer is lurking in Morioh, and no one is yet the wiser. The accompanying song is frantic and pained, almost as batta’s Tatsu Hoshino himself is desperately trying to warn the characters that Kira is coming for them.

It’s simply spectacular all around, which is why it pains me to say that it’s just too dark. It just doesn’t fit the tone of Diamond is Unbreakable at all. If I was judging it entirely on its own, it’s a top three opening for sure. I simply can’t do that, though. A show’s opening sets the tone for what’s to come, and the tone that “chase” sets is not at all the one that Diamond is Unbreakable provides. Yes, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure can be dark and disturbing, but it’s also very lighthearted and fun. As we’ll see soon, the best of the best JoJo’s openings convey both.

6.) "Fighting Gold" by Coda

“Fighting Gold” may not be one of the most visually inventive openings on this list, but I’d be remiss to rank it any lower than it already is. While it is easily the most conservative on this list in that department, what it has to offer is still quite good. Its opening shot depicting Michaelangelo’s statue of David in one of Giorno’s poses from the original manga and covered in chains sets the stage for a tightly composed opening. These chains binding David are a common motif throughout the opening, symbolizing the chains that bind the members of Passione to their respective fates. That is, until they’re shown calling out their Stands, at which point Gold Experience turns the chains into vines and we see one of the best Stand summoning montages of any JoJo’s opening.

The real standout part of this opening, however, is the music. “Fighting Gold” is Coda’s third appearance in a JoJo’s opening and a surprising one at that. In the songs climax his sultry crooning turns into a loud and throaty cry as the members of Passione break free of their chains. At the same time the music’s accompanying strings swell and you begin to forget you’re listening to a rock anthem. That is, until the very end when one final strum rings out on the electric guitar and Coda sings out the song’s titular line in his most gravelly voice yet. That one moment alone fills me with emotion and makes me pumped to watch a new episode of Golden Wind every single week.

5.) "Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town" by THE DU

If there’s any single testament to the sheer quality of all of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s openings, it’s that “Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town” is only ranked fifth on this list. Seriously, this song is pure unbridled FUNK. It was the first JoJo’s opening to not be done in the distinctive 3DCG style seen before, which disappointed me for about the first five seconds watching it. It’s impossible to feel anything other than joy and happiness while watching this opening. This song is easily the JoJo’s single I go back to listen to the most. Not even the show’s own cast of characters can resist dancing to it at one point! It’s bright and colorful and couldn’t fit the opening arc of Diamond is Unbreakable any better. I love it so much. God, JoJo’s has great openings.

4.) "JoJo ~Sono Chi no Sadame~" by TOMMY

I gotta admit, it had been a long time since I’d last seen this one. For awhile all of the early 3DCG openings ran together in my head as all being very similar stylistically. In analyzing them deeper for this article, though, I began noticing some stark differences. This one, the one that started it all, is actually among the most unique. This opening is a love letter to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as a whole.

The first images shown in the opening are animated manga panels of the first six protagonists of JoJo’s (you’ll have to wait a few years to understand why the seventh and eighth ones are excluded) counting down until finally we get to Jonathan, the first, who transitions from his panel seamlessly into the 3DCG style. The rest of the opening recreates panel after panel from the very first arc, acting as a near-complete retelling of Phantom Blood in the space of a minute. SFX blast onto the screen, panel borders move in and out of frame, and colors wash away into monochrome as Phantom Blood finally transitions from the page to the screen in front of our very eyes.

The whole opening feels is a 90-second love letter to Phantom Blood and the legacy it’s left behind. While it may not be the first time it was ever translated to the silver screen (it received a movie adaptation in 2007 that ran in few theaters and was never brought to video), this animated iteration of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure was many longtime fans’ first time seeing one of their favorite series done so well. For most international fans (such as myself), it was our first time experiencing the series at all. If this opening can get me feeling nostalgic and emotional for this series, I can only imagine what it’s like for someone who’s been a part of the now three-decade ride.

3.) "STAND PROUD" by Jin Hashimoto

“Ohhhhh, ‘STAND Proud.’ I get it now.”

--My dumb ass like three days ago.

Hard rock and Stardust Crusaders go together like a hat and Jotaro’s hair; you can't have one without the other. Classic rock and metal are, as we all know, referenced heavily in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, so it was only a matter of time until they tapped into those influences for an opening song. And boy do they ever knock it out of the park with this one. “STAND PROUD” shreds, rips, and rocks in every way you could conceivably like it to. It’s a hard anthem that goes perfectly with the arc that gifts us Jotaro Kujo, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's hardest dude.

If all it had was a killer sound, though, it wouldn’t be near this high on the list. Suffice to say, this opening’s visual direction and animation have the chops to back up everything the accompanying single lays down. This opening is chocked full of references to past arcs. Both Jonathan and young Joseph are shown multiple times, including one sequence harkening back to moments when each one either passed on their resolve or inherited the resolve of another, ending with Jotaro inheriting both. Eagle-eyed fans will also recognize a sequence in the opening where Jotaro confronts DIO face to face that coincidentally mirrors a scene of Jonathan confronting Dio in the very first opening.

There are so many great moments in this opening I could keep pointing out. I love the scene full of action shots of everyone using their Stands amongst a backdrop full of the series’ signature SFX. I love the intimate shots of quiet time where they wander through the desert or lounge together underneath the stars. I love the beautiful art depicting Holly being overtaken by her own Stand, and the shot of it all rushing into Jotaro as he summons Star Platinum. I also love the final sequence where we get a dynamic camera shot rotating around Jotaro as Star Platinum attacks the reflected visage of DIO. The 3DCG these openings became known for has never looked better than it does in that one shot. “STAND PROUD” is incredible.

2.) "BLOODY STREAM" by Coda

Ask any random JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fan what their favorite opening from the show is...I mean it. Go ahead, do it. I’ll wait…

...Oh, you’re back. That sure took a while. Is it because they immediately screamed “BLOODY STREAM” and forced you to watch it with them for an hour? In the time I’ve spent among other JoJo’s fans, this opening is the fan favorite by a wide margin, and for good reason too! It’s fantastic! It’s everything Battle Tendency condensed into one 90-second sequence. Despite the show’s first few openings being known for their heavy use of 3DCG, “BLOODY STREAM” actually foregoes it for much of the opening in favor of 2D silhouettes, line-heavy action, and low-movement recreations of famous panels from the manga. All of it is overflowing with bounciness and color. The entire opening simply oozes style out of every orifice. It’s as cheeky and fun as Joseph Joestar and still manages to pull an emotional gut punch at the end alluding to a major character death late in the arc. And all of this is perfectly backed up by the legendary sultriness that is Coda in the first of his three appearances in an opening for the series.  Honestly can’t find a single fault with this opening. It was my number one for a long time, that is, until...

1.) "Great Days" by Karen Aoki and Daisuke Hasegawa

Is there anything more perfect than perfection? There is; it’s called “Great Days.”

I can’t stress enough how much I love this opening. I’m bursting at the seams waiting to tell you about how good it is. It’s 90,000 milliseconds of everything that is good and just in this world delivered directly to your eye holes. Imagine 90,000,000 straight microseconds of pure, unadulterated good vibes being auditorily injected into your mind and you get “Great Days.”

This might very be the most detailed opening in the history of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Blink past the very first frame and you’ll already have missed a wealth of cool artwork that absolutely no one realized they needed. Did you notice that at the beginning the big “JOJO” is spelled out using the figures of the main cast? That the symbol you see between each “BREAKDOWN” represents a different one of Yoshikage Kira’s powers? You may have noticed that the number one in “1999” is Heart Father, but did you also notice that the other numbers were Janken Boy, Highway Go Go, and Misterioso? Everything in this opening just looks so good. The frame by frames of all the characters moving through town are incredible. I wish I had the technical art and animation knowledge to talk more in-depth about the tracking shot through Rohan’s doorway or the sequence focusing on the fracturing of Kosaku Kawajiri’s family. The moment where everyone points to the sky in unison up at their friends who died at the hands of Kira is an emotional gut punch rivaling that of Joseph donning Caesar’s headband, and my god the music! The beat changes up so much throughout this song, and it lands perfectly each and every time. It’s a roller coaster of emotion befitting of what I consider to be the high point of the entire series so far.

I am grabbing you by the collar and shaking you now. How can I possibly expect to explain to you the depths of how great this opening is? What if I tell you that there’s an entirely different version of this opening that reflects the main antagonist’s newly discovered ability to completely undo the past? Not only is the entire opening undone, but an alternate cut of the song plays too! No one asked for them to deliver something so perfect to us, but they did it anyway! It’s incredible!!! I literally have to stop myself now before I ramble on for another thousand words about it. It is without any doubt in the world the single best opening in the entirety of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

If one thing’s obvious by now, it’s that I care a lot about an anime’s opening. There’s something so uniquely integral about them to the anime experience. Pretty much every show around the world has some kind of an opening, but you’d be hard pressed to find ones that place as much emphasis on them as anime does. With so many incredible ones out there, it can be hard to really stand out among the pack. It’s an awesome feat that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s openings consistently stand head and shoulders above the pack in their style and quality. I’d have been remiss to let the opportunity pass me by to not recognize each one’s greatness, and I’m sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the next one Golden Wind has to offer.

Which JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure opening is your favorite? How would you rank them all? Break down (BREAKDOWN) your thoughts in the comments below!

-----

Danni Wilmoth is a Features and Social Videos writer for Crunchyroll and also co-hosts the video game podcast Indiecent. You can find more words from her on Twitter @NanamisEgg.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[webdesign6325-blog]

Web Design Frederick MD: 45°24′S 72°41′W Web Design...A Good Present For Friends

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This is why when you create a professional site for your specialist online service you feel lots of stress on your shoulders which could only be raised as soon as a top-notch web design is produced. Fee must not make your decision, specifically if the difference is just a numerous hundred bucks, other than you can not spend for it, nevertheless you on the exact same hand should not be anticipating your Web Developer to create a massive business web site for $100 either.

[fashiontrendin-blog]

5 Trends From The 1980s That Still Look Great Today

http://fashion-trendin.com/5-trends-from-the-1980s-that-still-look-great-today/

5 Trends From The 1980s That Still Look Great Today

When historians look back on turn-of-the-millennia style, they’ll mark the last few years as the point went things got fuzzy, when the pace at which menswear trends cycle in, then out, then are reappropriated, has accelerated into an indistinguishable blur. Blame the internet, blame irony, but it used to be that a look spent two decades in the wilderness before it was re-evaluated. Now, everything’s up for grabs all the time.

At last count, every style since the war has permeated modern menswear in some way. The ’40s, in Kent & Curwen’s spin on the Austerity Olympics’ sports kit. The ’50s, in Cuban collar shirts and pleated trousers. The ’60s, in Easy Rider Americana. There’s Gucci’s spin on ’70s fashion, everyone’s take on the ’90s and, in some quarters, even the ghosts of 2000 have been summoned. And now the ’80s are back. But even stranger, so is the decade’s take on the ’50s, and the noughties take on the ’80s, a self-consuming kaleidoscope of acid jeans, boxy blazers and swept back hair.

“It feels like the ’80s have been in-and-out of fashion for about 10 years now,” says Simon Chilvers, men’s style director at MatchesFashion. “The mashing up of various decades simultaneously just seems to be part of the way fashion operates right now.” Which could be exhausting. Or, if you embrace the madness, could lend your wardrobe an anything-goes energy in which stylish sits alongside so-ugly-it’s-stylish, where the delineations between smart and casual collapse and style becomes equal parts forward-thinking and nostalgic. In other words, where we’re going, we don’t need rules. So strap in and swot up on these five trends from the 1980s that still look great today.

The Hair

Think ’80s hair and you probably think perms, mullets and flat tops. All of which are coming back, with varying degrees of irony. But all of which are also tricky to pull off.

You could slick it back Michael Douglas-style, or bleach it in homage to ’80s Kiefer Sutherland. Rather easier is the look of a man whose style would define the ’90s, but who fomented his look in the decade before: Kurt Cobain. “Grunge is definitely making a comeback,” says Denis Robinson, creative director at barbershop mini-chain Ruffians. “Think Kurt when he founded Nirvana in 1987, and for a modern update, the surrealist R&B Kiwi Connan Mockasin.”

Other long hairstyles, whether you find your inspiration in Queer Eye‘s Jonathan Van Ness or a samurai topknot, tend to demand a lot of upkeep. The great thing about grunge hair is that it mostly takes care of itself.

“Ask your stylist for a shattered bob with perimeter length layers,” says Robinson. “For the ultimate version, don’t wash it too often. To style after washing, apply salt spray and dry until it’s still a bit damp, with the hairdryer pointing top to bottom so as to dry flat.” Work through a little matte paste with your fingertips until you get that authentic Cobain stringiness, then tie your check shirt around your waist and forget about how your hair looks.

The Sportswear

The 1980s was the year leisurewear first went mainstream, driven by the explosion of gyms, fitness videos and a growing sense that the body inside was at least as important as the clothes that covered it up. Not so different from today.

Of course, back then the divide between sportswear and the rest of your wardrobe was still stark – you could wear a full tracksuit, as hip hop’s pioneers did, but best not try to pair your joggers with a blazer. Today, those distinctions have largely disappeared. In fact, mixing up with down is the best way to avoid looking like a Run DMC tribute act.

“You want to wear something that’s both modern and relevant,” says Andrew Brines, a buyer at designer menswear e-tailer Oki-Ni. “For instance… a bucket hat would be a good shout.”

It’s also good to update your references. “Pull the ’80s look off by wearing something that’s not directly grounded in the ’80s,” says Brines. That means looking to new brands rather than leaning on the ones that defined the look first time around. Your look should be inspired by the ’80s, not from the ’80s.

The Suits

After the heady days of #menswear, athleisure and its many offshoots, suits ended up at the back of most wardrobes. But the 1980s was dominated by tailoring, of the dominant sort, which means right now’s ripe for dusting off the two-piece. Although if all you’ve got hanging up is the kind of skinny suit that was de rigueur a few years ago, you’ll need to update your silhouette.

“The oversized blazer trend feels very emblematic of the 1980s,” says Chilvers, who points to the countless brands and designers channeling Richard Gere in American Gigolo for their latest collections.

You don’t necessarily need to go high-end, but it’s a trend that’s worth investing in. “It looks set to have a few seasons in it,” says Chilvers, “and once you get your head around it, it’s not actually that hard to wear.

Chilvers’ advice? Just think of it like a big coat. “You can layer a knit underneath. It looks good with jeans or just a pair of plain tailored trousers. You can whack a football scarf over it, finish with basic sneakers or heavy soled plain shoes. Basically, don’t overthink it.”

The Shirts

It was long a style rule that short-sleeve shirts were for lorry drivers, and short-sleeve, tropical-print shirts were for your weird uncle Dave. But then along came Prada, and reinvented the Magnum P.I. and Club Tropicana favourite, by digging back into its 1950s roots.

This decade and the 1980s were about flamboyance, which is why both chime perfectly with a generation that shares its every moment on social media. And in which the Cuban collar shirt is suddenly inescapable.

According to Brines, the ’80s trend is in part inspired by TV shows like Narcos and The Assassination of Gianni Versace, which both star bold printed shirts throughout. But since we can’t all pull off eye-popping Prada, the easier way to wear this trend is to keep your prints subtle and floral – plant motifs are never tacky, but hula girls inevitably are.

Take the same less-is-more approach with colours; dark bases with an accent or two, ideally in colours you’d be comfortable wearing in a block. Avoid at all costs the neons so beloved in the actual ’80s – Screech Powers is on no mood boards.

The Jeans

Dark, slim denim has had its day. Now, the jeans du jour come in all matter of fits and finishes, from high-waist spray-ons to loose and pleated.

“Acid and bleach washes are the best way to tap into the ’80s trend,” says Brine. Both which helpfully tie in with club menswear’s current predilection for distressed denim. “Just avoid anything too punk,” he adds.

If you prefer to stick to your standard slim-or-skinny cut, make sure your jeans look lived-in. Ripped jeans or heavy washes will tip things into post-punk, particularly if you throw one of those tent-like blazers on top – the top-heavy silhouette was an ’80s classic. “If in doubt, see Jeff Goldblum,” says Brine. “In the ’80s and today.”