#mainly bc their supports just weren't interesting

[soahbee]

HII GIRLS I brought the update! <3 First of all, I want to tell you how much I love you girls, that you always wait for my little stories. 💕 luv u all

So, like every year, there are university events for high school students where they can get a comprehensive picture of the universities. I also participated in this event and together with a couple of my fellow students I helped at the school's stand and handed out flyers, etc. It was damn tiring, but R was also there, so I'm not complaining, bc I could see him all day. Of course, I liked it less that we couldn't talk much, bc he was constantly talking to students or parents. (I would add that mainly women went to him, pff) but I understand that he has a strong charm that enchants people.

But it gave me a very good feeling that I could be around him and help him with his school affairs + when I brought him a coffee, he looked at me so gadly and our hands touched for a moment when he took the cup from me. AHHH

Also, I was able to meet a couple of old friends who also participated in the event representing their own university! :3 So the whole thing took quite a long time, everyone was quite tired and bored, of course nothing was mandatory, so a few students left earlier and I felt that R didn't appreciate this.

He so care about school events and the students' further education, development, etc. were always important to him. But I love and respect this person so much, I couldn't let him down, so I distributed the papers and promoted the school twice as enthusiastically, hoping that it would go well for him.🙆

So at the end I sat down on the chair dead tired but I was satisfied, I hope that our school has piqued the interest of many students and the little artistic souls will enroll with us! Since these "open days" are several days long, luckily we only had to pack a few things, but the rest of the people who stayed with us did that.

Just imagine, here comes the cute part of my story! Because while I was packing my things, R came up to me and pressed a soft drink into my hand and said:

"You haven't been drinking all day, have you? Drink it!"

It's a small thing, but his care made me so happy, so I accepted the refreshment with a smile, which I'm sure I won't throw away and will keep as a memory haha

After that, when there weren't many people around, I thought I'd talk to him a little before I left and I told him that I think many students were interested in our university today and I hope He and our school will do well on the other days as well. (unfortunately, I was only present on this day) I saw that he was also tired, but he could still smile at me so kindly that it made my stomach tingle. After that he said:

"Yes, I hope so too, I saw the potential in many students and I would be happy if I could give them something with my classes"

do you know what I said right away??

"Because of your classes, I would enroll at the university a second time"

Honestly, it just slipped out of my mouth and I was surprised, I hoped he wouldn't take it as a flirt, because I didn't mean it that way, but then I calmed down when he just grinned at me. AND!!! now comes his sentence, after which I screamed inside:

"You're sweet, thank you, it's time to go, can I take you home?"

He asked so naturally, while picking up his things, that I couldn't even react properly, I just said that if it wasn't a problem for him, I would thank him.. SO GIRLS THAT'S HOW IT HAPPENED!!! I sat in his car and I felt like a "passenger princess".

My heart was honestly racing the whole way, seeing him driving, sitting in his car, smelling his scent everywhere…it was just..I don't know, it was magical. We had such good conversations the whole way and I really feel that we have become good friends, he understands me, supports me and always makes me laugh. And now he officially knows exactly where I live (I won!!!) I felt special at that moment, because after all, he was taking me home and not others! When we arrived, I gratefully thanked him for bringing me and wished him a nice evening, but before I got out, his last words to me were:

"Thank you for being there with me all today and helping me! You did a good job. I'll see you next week! Good night"

So I barely slept all night, just tossing and turning and grinning like an idiot that he complimented me and dealt with me.

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 820: Nomeansno 0 + 2 = 1

Nomeansno began in 1979 as the rhythm section two-piece of Rob and John Wright. They added Andy Kerr on guitar in 1983, a year after releasing their debut album Mama. While Nomeansno always retained a heavy focus on the interplay between bass and drums, Kerr found a spot to insert his wiry, jagged guitar lines without undermining the low-end force of the Wright brothers. Kerr wound up with another crucial role: nodules on Rob's vocal cords meant that he had to step back from lead vocals, allowing Kerr's snotty timbre to outweigh Wright's booming baritone on the remainder of their '80s output.

Nomeansno closed out the '80s with the most popular album of their career, 1989's Wrong. The band's rising profile across North America and Europe allowed (or perhaps forced) them to quit their day jobs, and by the beginning of the '90s the band was touring full-time. When it came time to record the follow-up to Wrong, the band was in a very different position. They were no longer practicing several times a week and slowly stockpiling new material---they'd been on tour non-stop and were now having to quickly cobble together another studio album so they would have something new to tour on. The band had become a job.

Such realities weren't generally considered cool back in the '90s. Being a career musician in a punk band wasn't heroic to anyone. Professional musicians didn't take you seriously and the punks considered you a sell out. The irony was that Nomeansno were phenomenal musicians and staunchly committed to the underground.

If anything, Nomeansno could've benefitted from playing the industry game a little more. Their press photos were always confusing and never clearly featured all three members. They championed younger bands and even started their own label, but they also avoided opening for bigger bands, even as they watched the younger bands they'd supported eclipse them in popularity. Nevermind had come out just two months prior to 0 + 2 = 1 and Nomeansno could've easily capitalized on the global interest in the Pacific Northwest underground rock scene, but instead they were content to continue touring squats in Europe. At a time when it seemed like Nomeansno should've gotten even bigger, they instead saw the first dip in album sales.

Maybe folks just weren't as excited by 0 + 2 = 1. Maybe it was written in too much of a hurry. But I don't buy that. I'll admit that i don't love "Everyday I Start to Ooze" (some of the vocals tread a little too far into theatrics) and that I mainly get my fix on Side 1. But jeezus... can we talk about those first five songs?? "Now" is an electrifying album opener. "The Fall" is classic Nomeansno power. "0 + 2 = 1" is like a nightmarish mashup of Ginsberg and Burroughs prose sent against a lurching Man Is The Bastard riff. "Valley of the Blind" reasserts their classic punk vigor before "Mary" comes crashing down with its monolithic bass-driven weight. And Side 2 is packed with punches too. Whether it's the vitriolic attack of "The Night Nothing Became Everything" and "I Think You Know" or the blueprint for Unwound's future blend of guitar dissonance and mid tempo bass throb on "Ghosts," the songs are solid enough for the album to be held on the same pedestal as its predecessors.

But Andy Kerr would leave the band at the end of the album cycle, officially capping off the classic era of the band. Grunge was having its moment in the spotlight. Pop-punk would follow on its heel steps. And the two weird old guys from Victoria, BC that looked like Phil Donahue's long lost siblings and sounded like Dead Kennedys and Rush had a baby would continue to avoid the limelight while cranking out records and living in tour vans.

[caatws]

Hi there! I have just seen gotg vol 3 and stumbled upon your blog and a few of your comments about Gamora and Nebula. I am enjoying reading your thoughts so much! I have been feeling like I'm in a pretty lonely minority because I went to see vol 3 spoiler free with an open mind and walked out more disappointed than I was expecting. Mainly because of the female character side of things. Gamora and Nebula's relationship has been a constant thread from vol 1 thru EG and vol 3 had the most amount of material to work with and yet vol 3 has the least amount of focus on their relationship out of all the movies. I have felt similarly about Mantis too. She spent 4 years with Gamora and having a certain vibe on the team. I was expecting at least some exploration of what a huge shift change Gamora being gone would bring. Or even being someone Nebula could confide in. But generally the women's relationships seemed to get shortchanged in ways that weren't a problem before from what I remember.

I admit I don't keep up with the entire MCU so maybe lack of female dynamics is an ongoing problem. I just didn't expect it from gotg with the set up they had coming from vol 2 and EG. At the end I was kind of sad to see Mantis going off on her own, Nebula staying on Knowhere and Gamora going back to the male dominated ravagers. I wanted all three of them to go on a road trip or something. Or even have Gamora stay on Knowhere to get to bond with her sister more. I don't want to come across as being pessimistic about the whole movie. It really wasn't bad. It's just vol 2 and EG seemed to be building up to an even more inclusive female character story with 3 women on the team getting to become closer and that didn't really happen. I'm actually kind of frustrated Gamora and Nebula didn't get to spend much time being guardians together. That seemed like the direction they were headed in and very important for both of them.

That said I'm going to go read your Gamora and Natasha fic! I'm glad to see someone playing with ideas for them and their sisters. I think they could have had some interesting interactions on screen if given the chance.

aw thank you anon! i hope you enjoyed the fic hehe 🫶🏼 your ask made me think of a lot of different things that i wanted to talk about so sorry in advance for the long response 😭

but yeah i totally agree with you! the shift in focus away from gamora and nebula's relationship in vol 3 was kinda sad for me too, esp bc i don't think that vol 1 thru eg rly fully resolved their storyline at any point? like it was clear that gamora and nebula grew closer in the 4 years between vol 2 and iw, but we didn't rly get to see much of that beyond gamora and nebula's reactions to each other being in danger or killed. like the trauma from that hello???

i must say though, i think nebula's overall arc from vol 1 all the way to now has shocked me the most, in a good way. i never would've thought nebula would've gotten the focus and chances to be central to the narrative in the ways she has in her appearances—in fact, i was afraid she was gonna be killed off in iw to "resolve" her arc, so to see that at least she got to live beyond that and find a home within the gotg even without her sister is actually pretty fucking awesome and i love it.

and with mantis in general, i feel like there was more i wanted for her too! in addition to more of her relationships with gamora and nebula (though it was fun watching mantis and nebula yell at each other at times but also </3 it's brutal out here being a mantis/nebula shipper), i feel like canon rly underutilized her being peter's bio sister after the holiday special made it canon. if mantis had to leave the team at the end of vol 3, i almost wish she just went with peter, not just to support him but also so they could continue getting to know each other better as brother and sister, especially since peter seemed so happy to find out mantis was his sister in the holiday special!

now i'm just going beyond what your ask was about specifically haha but i think in general, i don't usually love endings where the main cast of characters has to split up, unless it feels necessary or earned by the narrative. i feel like an example of this type of ending done well was the end of my little pony: friendship is magic where, after 9 seasons, the protagonist has to move onto a completely different job/lifestyle and break away from the friend group, but the finale is entirely focused on the emotional fallout of that and shows how the group also makes an effort to stay in touch regularly so that we know they aren't split up for good.

with gotg, i think this ending would've worked better if it had been built up more from the beginning of the film—maybe i missed some foreshadowing since i only watched once, but sowing some seeds of Wanting To Leave Or Retire within some of the characters in the first act (an example of this sorta happening was mantis talking to peter about his grandpa)—and if it felt like we'd gotten more time with these characters.

like, bc vol 1 and 2 take place within months of each other, and then 4 years passed off screen between vol 2 and iw, and then 5 years passed off screen for rocket and nebula in eg, and then another 2 years passed off screen between eg and the holiday special/vol 3, it feels like we only got the core gotg together for like, a few months tops lol. and then to go from that straight to their finale where they split up 10 YEARS LATER is just crazyyyy

[dmclemblems]

the fire emblem gods have fed me so good with all the new rodrigue content