#more behind the times than when it was made... the 90s was far more obviously queer than 400 years in the future is what

[002yb]

No pressure, but I can't stop wondering about what happens in the Secretary AU when Bruce needs to travel for work--does he take Jason, having him act as his PA, or does Bruce go insane while tasking someone to look after him in Gotham while he's gone? And if he DOES tag along, what happens with Damian?

Oh! This is such an interesting idea to ponder. It's not something I'd considered before, but let's explore all the options!

In which Jason goes with Bruce:

It's 10% business, 90% Bruce wants to take Jason to all the places Jason never got to see before, but had always made passing comments about

Bruce wants to give Jason the world. Whatever tries to get between him and that dream will rue the day.

Only that 'whatever' is Damian. The boy that Jason cares for and works his schedule around.

Cue Bruce stewing as he plots on how to pawn off the child so that Bruce can have his babygirl Jason for a few days. Bruce will make this venture happen. Where there's a will, there's a way, and his will is unyielding.

Just as unyielding: Damian

Their first (unbeknownst to them) father-son meeting would be a standoff over Jason and it sets the tone of their future together so well ahahaha. Just Damian hating Bruce on principle for taking Jason away from him. And Bruce relenting because 'he's the adult,' and assuring Damian that he'll take care of Jason while they're away. And Damian clicks his tongue at him, scowling the meanest scowl and Bruce's eye twitches because what a little brat. But also? Those are Jason's habits through and through, damn it. How endearing.

More endearing is how Jason kneels down with Damian and chides him even as he offers sweet comforts. Touches fleeting because Jason is fretting over this boy. It's sweet. Gentle in a way Jason always was at heart and still so clearly is.

('Don't be mean to my boss, it's not his fault. Once we finish working I'll be back. I'll bring a souvenir, huh?' To which Alfred would give Bruce a look, because this 'business' isn't particularly pressing. It's entirely fabricated, one might say. Bruce.)

Jason parting with a press of their foreheads and an earnest request for Damian to mind Mr. Pennyworth and that Jason will come back to him as soon as he can. ;3;

And yes, Alfred is thriving because finally he gets to spend time with his grandson (though at this point no one would know just how true that sentiment is lol)

Damian? Not so much. But he plays it tough for Jason even if his face is pinched and his eyes are glassy and ahhhhhhh little baby sniffles that breaks Jason's heart because he's a parent walking away from their kid for the first time fffffffffff

Anyway, Bruce and Jason get as far as sitting in the car, parked in the driveway. Because Bruce can't in good faith drive off while Jason looks so distraught. There's something more going on than simple anxiety of leaving a child for some days, so with a rare show of compassion and grace, Bruce waits

And Jason gets embarrassed because he's worked up. All anxiety and uncertainty and not wanting to go but knowing he has to. Shaking hands and short breaths. Scrubbing his eyes in frustration before laughing pitifully and apologizing because it's stupid.

But it's not. Not if it's upsetting his boy so much. And Bruce has learned this from his mistakes before, so: 'Talk to me.'

Cue: amnesia reveal!!

Jason admits that for him, there's nothing before Damian. So to leave him is to leave behind the only comfort and security he's ever known. ;3;

And it breaks Bruce's heart because oh. To have tried to force Jason to walk away from something so important when his boy isn't ready. Obviously there's something there to talk about, but Bruce won't push. Not when even this was given in desperation.

Heartstrings tugged, Bruce leaves the car without a word

And Jason hits his head against the back rest and contemplates how he just got himself fired for being a hot mess

Only then Bruce returns with Alfred and Damian because they'll all go together, how about that? ;U;

Extra to the above:

When Bruce tries to force Jason's hand and Jason protests because he has an actual child that he can't leave, Bruce proposes that Alfred look after him. Which, damn. Jason has no argument for that; not really. Still, he has to float it by his other employer first!

Which Bruce is eager to speak with them. Put him on the phone if that will help. To which Jason snickers and snarks that there's no way Bruce could charm this lady. Nor buy her out. Jason's got this, chill.

(Meanwhile, Jason. Secretly hoping Talia will say no and being OTL when she agrees. Because little does Jason know that Talia is very charmed by Bruce lol).

Also, something with Bruce making guilty eye contact with Tim from across the office after Bruce unintentionally manipulates Jason into attending a 'business trip' with him when Bruce's attempts at vacationing goes rebuffed.

Just the deadpan judgment in Tim's eyes and the way Bruce would OTL because he knows, go away.

Bruce got flustered and panicked when it looked like Jason was about to turn him down, okay??

Also, Tim grumbling under his breath about Bruce and his HR violations and being the greatest HR risk to ever grace corporate America.

The other route, where Bruce goes and Jason stays:

Hands down, Tim is responsible for watching over Jason

Dick isn't allowed within a mile radius of him

Don't think Batman won't call in a favor to get back to Gotham the moment Dick pings past Bruce's stupid security. He's watching.

Pffft, the way Superman would ??? because it's not like Bruce to call for him? Especially for something so...trivial?

Only there's nothing trivial about Dick and his shenanigans, Clark. His babygirl's virtue is not trivial, CLark. D:<

But also Bruce overlooking the glaring error of his ways because Tim is essentially with Jason 24/7 between WE and staking patrol outside of Jason’s apartment ahahaha

Bruce seriously comes back and all of a sudden everything between these two is electrically charged and he’d brood over it so hard, forever stewing behind the steeple of his hands because ffs

One more bit with brotherly shenanigans bonding ft dickjay and timjay:

Where Tim and Jason have playful bants while the boss is away

Tim leaning against the doorframe of Bruce’s office to chat at Jason since Bruce had Jason’s desk moved as close as possible without actually being in Bruce’s office lolol

Or Tim leaning over Jason from behind as they review some correspondence that needs to go out

And Jason sitting on Tim’s desk to make sure he eats the food Jason brought him

Tim being all sorts of pleased and relieved because Jason acts as his PA since Tim takes over all of Bruce’s work while he’s out of office and wwwwww lighthearted flirts about poaching Jason for himself

A fireable offense, surely, given Bruce is Bruce

But yeah. Just timjay having a chill time together and it’s sweet. //u///

As for dickjay—

While the bat is away the robin will play, as it goes

So Dick keeps up with his usual visits of course. But one day he shows up incognito, dressed so smart and dashing for business. Slacks and a button down and hair done, looking good and feeling cheeky lol

And Jason freezes up because omg

Corporate kink awakened?

Jason, rosy cheeked and trying not to stare but very much 👀, tongue tied and too warm under the collar telling Dick that he looks nice

And Dick laughs a bit under his breath and tells Jason he looks nice, too ;////;

The occasion? Tim taking them out to a nice lunch at some fancy restaurant ahhhhhhhhh and they send Bruce a pic of all of them on their little date fffffff 💖

Meanwhile Bruce is in some business meeting, very blatantly looking at his phone beneath the table and being equal parts >C (because he’s gonna beat these punkasses off his babygirl with a stick when he gets home) and ;u; because those are his boysssss together at last as they always should have been!!

[lockandkeyhyena]

Pokémon is a very large and popular game I think we can all agree, but just the things surrounding it as a long time fan sort of. exhaust me? Pokémon designs have hits and misses, generally nothing new— back in the day they made literally just a crocodile and literally just a sparrow. These days I can sort of appreciate that even if a design is just a worm they try to make it visually interesting. Not everything can be a Lucario or a Garchomp. Some Pokémon fill their niches respectfully, and sometimes those niches just aren’t appealing to some people. That’s the overall appeal of Pokemon. There’s Pokémon for everyone.

Where I am annoyed as a long time fan is when, since we have decades upon decades of these games, there is a game similar to it. Now, generally they’re called ‘copycats’. I do not think this is the case.

Monster Catching is a GENRE. It’s in the same manner people make soulslike games. Pokémon gamers are just really gatekeepy to the formula for generally no reason, Nintendo doesn’t have a copyright license on Anubis or the concept of an electric fucking fish. Or a dolphin. I see games I have fallen in love with and have stellar story (EX: Monster Hunter Stories 2) be called and wittled down to nothing but a Pokémon knockoff. Which it isn’t!!!! The only thing it really has in common are “types” and the fact it’s a creature collector. It has a unique rock-paper-scissors battle formula and all monsters you have in your party have unique ride abilities and specialize in element and one of the three battle types (Technical, Speed, and Strength.) you don’t even catch them. You take the eggs and raise them alongside you. It gets on my nerves every time.

I am especially heated about this because it’s my favorite kind of game, and generally I admit I have a skill issue where I can’t play many “harder” games and if a game makes me too stressed I put it down for an indefinite period of time. Even if it is a Pokémon parody, I don’t care. I think the genre of Pokémon should be expanded so Nintendo has actual competition and everyone can have multiple games they can enjoy. I don’t think catching and loving critters should be kept behind one company with like a 60$ paywall.

Now, I think it must be stated I think Palworld is generally just like, OKAY. I don’t hate it or love it. Digimon was the original Pokémon with guns (or more accurately, Pokémon just took the digimon and removed the guns.) and I will not rest until digimon makes a creature collector similar to that of its business rival who won the metaphorical space race. Back to the topic at hand.

I find certain designs far too alike to Pokémon, sure. But ultimately I don’t think a humanoid Anubis dog is kept to gamefreak alone. I recognize the owners are sketchy but this isn’t new to the game industry. Poppy Playtime devs got into NFTS, Friday Night Funkin developer allegedly spent kickstarter money on drugs. nothing new. it can be glitchy as hell, sure. but honestly I think it has enough unique features to get a green light to me as a game. They work with you, they have unique abilities and for every “copycat” there’s an honestly pretty solid creature design. They have an eevee knockoff but some of their mythical designs are pretty. Again, not a fan. not generally my cup of tea. but I recognize an okay game. I know it’s also in a non finished state but considering the amount of content in it already, despite its game history, I have a little hope for it.

Just, sort of, generally as a Pokémon fan other Pokémon fans can be insufferable. I think we as a community need to start recognizing Pokémon shouldn’t have a monopoly on this sort of thing, and just because they make up 90% of the genre that doesn’t mean every game is a knockoff. Ooblets is a creature collector, does that make it one? Obviously not. It’s more akin to stardew valley than an actual Pokémon game. even if a game is more alike to Pokémon, we have plenty of games that have been made similar to another before and seen as a good thing. Hence my “soulslike” mention here. I have never seen such behavior from any other game community. Yeah guys let’s let the multimillion dollar company completely have ahold of this beloved type of game and let them charge any price they want because no one else is gonna make games like that.

And there’s also how some people act with Pokémon designs. Now, I can fully recognize some just don’t work (Skeledirge being supposedly drawn from a different culture although somewhat similar, but still very different) but you can still just sort of enjoy them as a Pokémon existing. Totadile is my favorite starter but I can recognize thematically it doesn’t work well and it’s overall strange what they do to it in the final stage. But I still love it. I fully understand wanting more grown Pokémon on four legs, don’t get me wrong. However starters have a bad habit of this because they’re supposed to grow like you and be similar to you somewhat with the bipedal stance along other things to solidify that sort of connection and friendship.

I just sort of get tired of the “oh god put that thing on four legs, imagine what the FURRIES will do!!!!” argument. I don’t care much for it. I don’t know why we’re giving people strays. What people want to kiss is none of my business and frankly I have no room to speak (the alien from alien isolation is hot) and even then it’s like, I don’t think we should let that dictate a design. Just say you think the two legged market is over saturated and it’s time for a change.

And I do have skin in the game!!! I remember being like 5 and playing Pokémon Pearl on my DS. I’ve been a long time fan. And I truly believe there’s no hell deeper than dedication to a company. Because they no know matter what, you’re going to buy that game. They shut down emulators so you have to buy games they don’t even make anymore. I truly recognize this is a skill issue, but this is why I think we need to expand the genre as a whole. So this sort of thing becomes less insufferable and make people less demanding overall about a Pokémon game yearly and Gamefreak would have a reason to lock in and try to make their games the best they can be.

I don’t care that cow has udders, I care about the multimillion cooperation making its fans think no other game should be like it ever and dismiss it if it links to catching or having monsters as a core part of gameplay and then buying the next 70$ yearly slop. (said as a person who enjoyed the violet story and enjoyed the POTENTIAL of it more.)

damn u needed that off your chest anon, glad to be a place u can put ur emotions haha

[run-aled]

RED VALLEY: WHILE YOU WERE HYPERSLEEPING 2

(transcript)

GORDON PORLOCK, AT HIS DESK IN THE RECORDS ROOM. IT IS LATE, HE IS ANXIOUS. BUT QUIET, BUT TONED DOWN. HE IS TRYING TO REMAIN CALM.

GORDON: Gordon Porlock, personal log. So, it turns out I'm not alone. Aubrey Wood is outside. Hiding in a camper van. We spoke a couple of hours ago over the comm Warren left her.

GORDON: I have no idea if I can trust this person. I've listened to the recording Warren gave me over and over but...I don't know. I can't think of any reason you'd go through what she's now going through unless you were sincere about trying to put something right. But then, my only friend is an amnesiac criminal whose fake wife threatened to cut my skull open with a bone saw the other week. There's a chance I'm not a great judge of character.

GORDON: We didn't talk very long. We weren't sure what to say to each other. Weird thing is that we haveactually spoken before. A lot. Online, a few years ago when I first heard the rumours about Red Valley. It was Aubrey. She was the source who first started getting me information. I think she thought telling me that would break the ice...If anything it made it more awkward to talk over the comm. I sound much cooler when you can't hear my voice.

GORDON: Aubrey told me a lot of wild stuff about Overhead back then. It's what got me hooked on Red Valley, on cryonics, in the first place. The utter madness of it all. The man who started it all was one of the founders of the company in the 70s, Malcolm Landry. He was the first head of R&D. To begin with it was all above board, boring cryogenics work on plants and amphibians. Aubrey's convinced he's behind everything that happens after that, but his name is nowhere near any of it. He's still at the company now though, on the board of directors.

PAUSE.

GORDON: It didn't take many years for Overhead's work to get grisly. Testing extreme temperature endurance on the homeless in the 80s. Igniting a vat of hydrogen sulphide that blew up an entire cohort of test subjects in North Wales in the 90s. And then…this place. So, I thought, I've finally got the whole archive here. Going through all this is what Bryony asked me to do anyway. And if I can corroborate what Aubrey told me with what's in here, then maybe that's a step closer to trusting her. I mean...I assume half of it isn't true.

CUT. TIME HAS PASSED. GORDON DUMPS A BUNCH OF DOCUMENTS DOWN ON THE TABLE HARD.

GORDON: Nope. It's all true. All of it. Here's a cutting of Malcolm Landry in 1972 barking on about suspended animation and how we're doomed to repeat our mistakes unless we 'harness the wisdom from past generations'. Here's a note from the lead scientist of those experiments on the homeless. Oh, good God. 'The vagabonds are a surprisingly cheerful bunch, which has made the liquid nitrogen immersion far less tedious than one might have anticipated.' Fuck.

A QUICK GULP OF TEA AS HE RIFLES THROUGH MORE DOCUMENTS,

GORDON: Photos of the burned down research station in Wales. The guy in charge of that one was so desperate to protect his work, he shot five members of the local volunteer fire service with a hunting rifle as they tried to put out the blaze and then injected himself with his own infusion.

HE TOSSES THE PHOTOS BACK DOWN.

GORDON: Here's my take on why cryonic preservation has been such a total bust (until Warren, obviously). It's not because the concept is ridiculous. Fringe science begets fringe scientists. Narcissists, control freaks, God complexes. Those are your entry level traits. It's not a long walk to get to sociopathy, psychopathy, and well, straight up Dark Lord of the Sith. In the end, it doesn't matter how gifted they are or what results they get. Maniacs gonna maniac.

PAUSE AS GORDON SEES SOMETHING IN THE PHOTOS. HE SCATTERS OTHER PAPERS OUT OF THE WAY AS HE SCRUTINIZES SOMETHING.

GORDON: Wait. Is that - no fucking way-

CUT TO: GORDON PACING THE SPACE, SERIOUS, TRYING TO REMAIN CALM.

GORDON: Here's a fun wrinkle. So, the brazen shithead running the homeless experiments disappears from the story once the project yields no decent data. Until you look at the photos of the victims in the Wales station fire 10 years later. He is one of the bloody test subjects. They turned the lead scientist on one project into a Guinea pig in the next.

HE STOPS. GOES BACK TO THE DESK, LEAFS THROUGH MORE PAPERS ANXIOUSLY.

GORDON: Which begs the question, what happened to the guy with the hunting rifle? Wait, what was his name? Umm... Hansmann. Alexander Hansmann. Where did I see that -

CUT AS GORDON MARCHES BACK TO THE ARCHIVE. CUT TO GORDON BACK AT HIS DESK, NOW STILL AND REFLECTIVE AFTER HIS EVENING OF NERVOUS ENERGY.

GORDON: So… here is where the past arrives unpleasantly at the present. At my present. To Red Valley being active as the new home of cryonic research. Before any Teddy Bears, before Warren Godby. Some dissection and analysis carried out on a selection of frozen internal organs. All clearly labelled. See… I thought Hansmann was the name of the physician who harvested them. No, he's the bloody subject. Their analysis was the first duty of the newly appointed cryonics lead. Doctor Bryony Halbech.

HE TAKES A BEAT.

GORDON: It's hard not to look back at Malcolm Landry's words about being doomed to repeat yourself and think, yeah, no shit. You hire lunatics, expect lunacy. I guess recycling your lead scientists is economical. Creates a tidy little closed loop. Once you've started cannibalising your own staff though, where does that leave you? Where next can you turn?

PAUSE. GORDON THINKS.

GORDON: Bryony knows everything I learned here tonight. She knows how Overhead treat their own people. Does she even need it archived, or did she just want to show me? To show me who she is. Show me what she can do.

ANOTHER PAUSE. GORDON SNAPS OUT OF HIS REVERIE AND STARTS SCOOPING UP DOCUMENTS AND PUTTING THEM BACK IN A BOX.

GORDON: Aubrey's stories match up at least. And if all of this is anything to go by, she might be the only person involved in this research that's ever managed to escape it. And she's come back. She's come back to stop it. I guess...I guess that's not nothing.

HE SEALS A LID ON THE BOX.

GORDON: Warren, I hope they wake you up soon. We need to talk.

END.

[popcornforone]

JUNE

From the Marcus Pike Fan Fic Diary

Master List

May

I’ve written (well I say written) I actually spoke this because I wanted it to properly sound like an audio recording that had been converted into word for the diary. It was really random to do, so it’s not my best writing but I think it works for this situation.

Synopsis:- your on a girls holiday, when one night your trip takes an unexpected turn.

Word count:-1000

Warnings:- DONOT READ IF YOU ARE UNDER 18! Swearing fingering public displays of affection, piv sex, lots of moaning, alcohol.

Yea this isn’t my usual style & I don’t think I will do it again but It was a good learning curve. Thanks for the read peoples

Audio description for diary when I return home from the girls holiday in Florida, day 5.

One of the girls called me out today. Clare realised I’m sneaking off once every couple of hours to record this for my diary. She asked

“you doing a diary?” & I was like

“yes well you know why not?”

“How long has it been going on all year?”They went.

oh but at least we’re gonna find out how good this time of our lives was I mean this is month five so far

Oooh Tara got off with Sam from that other bar & Vicky well you didn’t want to see Vicky this morning oh my God.

But yes, so far it’s going good. The tan is topping up. & I am on my second cocktail of the day as I lie by the poor reading the girl on the train.i can’t wait to see what happens next in the book, it is so full of suspense.

Oh God we are going to Michaels tavern tonight apparently it’s a 90s bar oh that means fancy dress doesn’t it? I’m not looking forward to it. I don’t do fancy dress unless it’s Halloween. Well I guess I just gotta make the girls happy & it is laylas night to pick what we do & she loves a bit of Backstreet Boys so I’m not gonna argue.

my nights coming up on night seven. I’m looking forward to that. That will also mean that there will probably be no more hangovers after night seven & then on night 12 we return home I get to get into my comfy bed & not have to share it with a girlfriend with cold feet & random snoring.

& I’ll have my Marcus to spoon me all night. oh I miss Marcus so so so much. I miss his kisses. I miss Little hugs

oh I should probably get out of the bathroom now, the girls are gonna wanna get in there next aren’t they? & I’ve got an outfit to prepare.

Wow. That was a right turnabout for the books oh my God

I am on a turning dancefloor busy reaching for the stars like S Club 7 all those years ago & suddenly I see this group & in they walk these lads, I say Lads men obviously, but they are all busy flirting their way through bar & I recognise one of them. It’s Jackson. I just shake my head. No I’m hallucinating I’ve had too much drink, oh God.

I’m saying this in the bathroom of the bar phone I’m sure you can hear the drum & based behind me. I went to the bathroom put some water on my face & head back to the bar & I go to the bar and I asked for 10 slushpuppy vodka shots in hope. that’s when I felt his arm go around my shoulder, I recognise that hand, so soft & large & it stroked my bra strap down & I just looked up at him & he looked down at me & we did the five shots each in unison & got to the last one & then the words escaped his Lips

“I miss you and I love you baby. “

Oh, you’re here & you ravaged me, the way your tongue flowed through my mouth hands caress my hips the way you held me close as my friends all cheered as we made out at the bar & they even turned on the sprinkler above us which the barman does when people are getting a little bit too intimate to break it up but didn’t Obviously. your hands went underneath my schoolgirl T-shirt & the way you made sure that I was being more than satisfied, damn, every single kiss every single toungue that invaded my own my tonsils feeling every inch oh Marcus oh Marcus. (Someone bangs on the bathroom door & Marcus shouts go away).

Waking up to you kissing my neck knowing that I ached knowing that you wanted some morning sex even though it was already noon. No way am I gonna be heading to the beach today because you are here in Florida spur moment with your friends because they got bored because we weren’t at home & now now you’re just… (muffled noise not picked up) Marcus, Marcus please oh you wanna you want some (gasp) oooh fuck yes oooh more baby oooh you missed this? Fuck oooh fucking fuck baby, more please please fuck baby, more (unable to detect the moaning) fuck yea like that just like ooooh fuck like that baby…

Marcus has just put on his shirt on, his holiday shirt obviously, they literally have come down here for Saturday & Sunday to make sure that we all remember all our boyfriends are like it’s a bit awkward for Tara but I’ll oh I never wanna leave Marcus side again the way in which he just made me cum so hard three times in a row he knows I’ve not bought anything with me to look after myself. oh, I’m gonna be thinking of nothing but his cock & the way in which he came, & the way that he sucked my nipples for the rest of the holiday I’m really looking forward to ripping my underwear when we get back next week & the way in which I will be laid on that bed & I won’t be able to go to work for next morning even though I should be there after having a few days off on holiday because I won’t be able to walk. Marcus it was a nice fly by drop in to make me feel good but now I’m lining for you more.

Yea diary that was last week when he arrived to make my trip memorable, I can’t believe it picked up some of our moans from the sex we had.

July

[reogan]

Clean Slate

(Jenny Timeline Project Song-by-Song Analysis #1) (The Jenny Timeline Project is my attempt to figure out more about this album by doing casual literary criticism at it. It started with a post about the viewpoints of songs. The tag to follow or block if you care is Jenny Timeline. I welcome feedback if you see any of the holes in my interpretation.) This is a LONG post, fair warning.

The People: Obviously to those who know the earlier album, this song very directly overlaps with Color In Your Cheeks (All Hail West Texas). In that song, we specifically get a Woman from Taipei, a Man from Mexicali, and (less detailed) Folks from Zimbabwe, Soviet Georgia, East St. Louis, Paris, and Across the Street.

In Clean Slate, we see a Man from East St. Louis; a Breakaway Republic Dude; someone from Copiah, Mississippi; "You" from "home" with a plane change in Taipei. There may also be an additional person encapsulated in "This will be the last time that I do this, I'm pretty sure."

Overlap is clear in East St. Louis. The Woman from Taipei is likely "You" who changes planes in Taipei, though this fascinatingly opens up her/your origin point to be elsewhere ("skin the color of a walnut shell" (Color, AHWT) can narrow it down a little, but that's so hugely wide still that I wouldn't begin to try). Interestingly, the Breakaway Republic Dude is marked on the map in the official lyric video somewhere in Latvia or Lithuania (hard to tell with the size of the dot and the spinning globe), which broke away from the USSR in 91/90, but not Georgia, as referenced in Color.

The Place: In Color, "She" comes in on the red eye to Dallas-Ft. Worth (which is in East Texas, not West Texas as the album title would suggest). How far between that airport and "here" is completely untouched. "He" drives in from Mexicali, which means he first reaches Texas in the west.

In Clean Slate, the lyrics allow the house to be anywhere, but the bandcamp description does say it's Jenny's house in West Texas*. It's worth noting that a later song is Going to Dallas, which suggests that the singer does not begin in Dallas, despite the Woman from Taipei flying into that airport.

Color doesn't mention what "here" is. Personally, I used to hear it as a tavern-inn-heck-even-cafe place. Clean Slate is somehow more opaque. But liner notes and bandcamp make clear that it's Jenny's southwestern ranch style house.

The Time: Describing a Baltic state as a "breakaway republic" suggests that the USSR is still relevant, if failing or gone. This would be a Weird description in 2020. It would be Weird in 1960. Later evidence will place things somewhere after '85, and I like that. Give it a decade's wiggle room here, 1985-1995 where "breakaway republic" would still be apt. It helps that, though Georgia was next, Baltic states were the first to declare independence from the Soviet Union, making them stand out as breakaways.

Since Color mentions Soviet Georgia, that'll place it pre '91. The Song(s): Unusually, I think this analysis needs to include a second song beyond Clean Slate (Color, of course) given it's mighty parallels. We have no proof they're telling different facets of the same story, but I think it's not egregious if I suppose they are.

More than Color does, Clean Slate very explicitly makes it clear that these people are leaving behind everything. There's the leaving under the cover of night ("It's never light outside yet when they climb into the van"), the itinerant, brief stay ("rest until you're rested / climb back onto the caravan).

I would like to raise a reading to which I don't subscribe and which doesn't mesh perfectly with comments John has made, but which I find interesting. I think there's room to suspect that the Woman from Taipei is the Lodger. The use of the second-person pronoun in Clean Slate ("The house was almost full that day / We made a space for you"), which is the final person introduced before "this will be the last time that I do this I'm pretty sure" could suggest that the Lodger is this woman. This will also be a fun toy for the Lesbian Jenny squad. I don't buy it, chiefmost of all because John refers to the Lodger as "he" multiple times, though Death of The Author etc. etc.

In various interviews and in this album, we learn this place is a place for people to rest, hide, and catch their breath. The little epigraphs on the vinyl call it a "safehouse" which is such a beautiful thing. That adds a dimension of mutual don't-ask-don't-tell to the line "We let the silence that's our trademark / make its presence felt" (Color). A nice 'hey man, we don't know what you've been through, we don't know what you're going to do, but while you're here, you're cool.'

Later on, in From the Nebraska Plant, the narrator (Lodger?) says that "it wasn't in [Jenny's(?)] nature / taking in the strays" which I think is entirely wrong. He's very much mythologized her because that is her role. But in this song, I think it's Jenny's conviction which says "This world is sad and broken / gotta fix a crack or two." She is compelled to give aid. Given the references in this work to Seven Against Thebes, I'm interested in seeing whether we can apply the concept of hamartia to Jenny, and this compulsion is already a candidate for her tragic flaw. Let us name it Justice and deify Jenny as Nemesis in our further analyses.

The final refrain of Clean Slate says "Every endpoint fixed forever on the day its arc began." This is in line with oracular proclamation in Greek tragedy. We know what will happen. Oedipus was fated to marry his mother and kill his father, and we can be sure of that result. When Tiresias tells Creon his actions will doom his son, we can already plan Haemon's funeral. We are now entering the Tragic Zone, and it's going to be as the Oracle proclaims. *In the interest of being transparent to those who choose not to click the link, technically, it says it's Jenny's house and that a West Texas town is uncomfortable in it, but I don't consider it a grave liberty to then assume that her house is in that West Texas town rather than, say, Bergen County, New Jersey or something.

[decisivelyindecisivelibra]

Character Playlists: BAU Edition:

Not what they’d listen to necessarily, but songs that I think apply to them.  BLANKET STATEMENT: I assigned what I did and regret some nothing.

First of An Untold Number: Reid

Cringe by Matt Maeson

Initial Inspiration: I said I’m just tired/she said “you’re just high”. .  ./ Do I make you cringe?  

Explanation: Tied for 1st place for Prompted Me To Do This.  I couldn’t get over how well the questions encapsulated the entire BAU’s reactions/non-reactions every time drugs, addiction, or Reid’s squirrelly behavior came up in late S2/early S3. 

King by Years & Years

Initial Inspiration: Don’t wanna have to lose/all that I compromised to feel another high. . . I was the king under your control/I wanna feel like you let me go, so let me go

Explanation: Tied for 1st place in what kickstarted this.  If Cringe was the BAU’s outsider reaction, this was Reid’s insider reaction.  

30/90 from Tick Tick Boom! (Andrew Garfield)

Initial Inspiration: This was almost Quarter Life Crisis by Taylor Bickett; no specific line so much as Vibes.  

Explanation: True Genius had a significant hand in this.

Dear Reader by Taylor Swift

Initial Inspiration: Can I just say the entire chorus?  “Bend when you can/snap when you have to.”  Sure, definitely.  “The greatest of luxuries is your secrets” I’m dying over here.  “When you aim at the devil make sure you don’t miss.”  Ah.  

Explanation:  Even the title sounds like it’s addressed to Reid, I don’t know what more you want.

Never Love An Anchor by The Crane Wives  {Actually about Diana and William Reid)

Initial Inspiration: On some level, I think I always understood/That these hands of mine were clumsy, not clever.   And I tried to do the best that I could/But try as I might I couldn’t bring myself to hold you.  

Explanation:  This is Diana and William regarding Reid, with admittedly a more sympathetic reading of William.  I love complicated family dynamics & these three more than fit the bill.

We Are the Champions by Queen

Initial Inspiration:  I’ve paid my dues/Time after Time. I’ve done my sentence/But committed no crime.  

Explanation:  Needed something not wholly depressing, and this really includes the whole BAU when you think about it, just. . . Some more than others.

I Miss You by Blink-182

Initial Inspiration:  Don’t waste your time on me/You’re already the voice inside my head (I miss you)

Explanation:  Do I really need to enumerate the revolving door of more-or-less important people in Reid’s life?  

Cough Syrup by Young the Giant

Initial Inspiration:  I’m losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control

Explanation:  Although accurate for Dilaudid Reasons, considering the prevalence of mental illness and emotional turmoil Reid has, it also fits those.

Magic by B.O.B. 

Initial Inspiration:  No specific verse per se, but how could i pass up the title?  

Explanation: This list was too depressing and despite everything, Reid is pretty cheerful.  At least, when nothing’s happening.  Besides, he’s Mister Magic Tricks, and Intellect-Wrought Pseudo Miracles, it seemed appropriate.

Still Breathing by Mayday Parade

Initial Inspiration: “Cause I’m standing here alone/Trying to make this life my own

Explanation: I feel like this is reasonably accurate throughout many of Reid’s early endeavors.  Going to Caltech?  Sure.  The FBI?  Absolutely.  The way he comes into his own over the course of things?  Yeah.  

Migraine by Twenty One Pilots 

Initial Inspiration: Waging my wars behind my face and above my throat/ . . But I know we’ve made it this far, kid.

Explanation:  Like Magic, the title says a lot, but also, the words my god.  The chorus obviously fits, and a decent amount of the rest, but the vibe and the fact “Kid” is still one of Reid’s nicknames from the BAU, even towards the end.  I can’t.

That’s all for now folks, we’ll see when the rest come together. Feel free to do as you will, criticism will be received and ignored.

[thestupidhelmet]

i know you must get this a lot of times but where was it said that jackie and hyde were meant to be endgame in s7 plans? this has always bothered me and news about that 90s show just makes it worse lol

Unfortunately, it would take me days I don't have to find the links to the specific threads on the That '70s Show message board at Fan Forum, threads that are buried by sixteen years andmore of other threads. That being said, i read every single thread on the message board once I became the co-moderator, and I found many fascinating links and interviews and discussions about the behind-the-scenes goings-on at the show.

(I posted a lot of this information on here as I found it. But those posts are also buried by many years of other posts. I should've made a tagging system to make finding those posts easier. Alas.)

In discussions that took place on the message board during seasons 7 and 8's production and airing, had by folks either connected to the show (one or two degrees of separation; several of whom an now long-defunct T7S fan websites), the original series finale screenplay -- which was the original season 7 finale -- was talked about. As were how the season 7 arcs and episodes were altered to accommodate the fact season 8 was greenlit halfway through season 7's production (episodes were already airing at the time).

In an interview with DM on TRL (Total Request Live on MTV) before season 7 aired, he was asked by Carson Daly if this was the last season, and DM confirmed it. The cast, the crew, the showrunners all believed season 7 was the last season because it was. That's how season 7's story arcs were planned. The scripts, including the finale, were written. Then halfway through production, they learn they have another season, and alterations must be made to the remaining scripts that hadn't yet been produced. Quickly.

The Office had an adjacent situation. Jim and Pam were not supposed to reconcile until the series finale. But John John Krasinski (like the rest of the show's actors) was tuned into the fandom. He was also a producer on the show. He went to Greg Daniels (showrunner of the last season) and told him that keeping Jim and Pam apart until the finale would put a bitter taste in fans' mouths. Long story short, scripts were rewritten. One episode was reedited in a frenzy -- the one where Jim and Pam reconcile -- with new footage shot.

Back to T7S. Jackie and Hyde's two breakups in season 7 is an example of a story arc alteration. They were not supposed to reconcile in season 7 until the end of the season / series, when Jackie gives Hyde the ultimatum -- she's leaving for Chicago but she still loves him, and if he loves her, he'll propose and she'll stay -- and he chooses to propose to her at the end.

Their reconciliation in "Down the Road Apiece" (7x17) was a scramble (as might be obvious by how badly that reconciliation is written) so that viewers would get a few more J/H episodes before the end of the newly-written cliffhanger in the lasst episode of season 7.

The Filgos (T7S's showrunners from season 5-7) were not returning for season 8 because they'd already taken another job for a new show. So new showrunners had to be found. The Filgos, understanding the show far better than the who eventually was hired for the job, set up a ready-made story arc for who would replace them.

They probably believed whoever was hired would understand the importance of Jackie and Hyde's relationship to the show's fans. The cliffhanger about that relationship's fate was obviously created at the end of season 7 to lead into season 8's first main arc: Jackie and Hyde's ultimate reconciliation and -- likely to the Filgos' mind -- a marriage proposal so that we'd have stories about Jackie and Hyde dealing with being engaged during season 8. That could have been the arc if ...

The people who were hired as showrunners for season 8, in their own words (albeit somewhat paraphrased, from an interview before season 8 aired), didn't understand Jackie and Hyde's [romantic] relationship and never liked it. So they were bringing Jackie and Hyde back to their season-1 roots as antagonists because, in their estimation, that was their proper dynamic.

They didn't pay that much attention to Jackie and Hyde's dynamic in season 1. They were oblivious to the major shift that occurs between Jackie and Hyde in "Prom Night" (1x19), not seeing what they wished not to see.

The season 8 showrunners did away with the Filgos gift to them, a ready-made story arc that could practically have written itself for season 8's first three or four episodes. Instead, they brought in Samantha as Hyde's wife. To be fair, however, they also to contend with WV's contractual demand that Fez end up with one of the principal female characters of T7S. Whoever negotiated that contract did a terrible job and should have offered WV another way to assuage his fears of being pigeonholed to playing characters post-T7S like the Fez of seasons 1-7.

Because the season 7 scripts were rewritten hastily, remnants of the original Jackie/Hyde ending (and original series finale) still exist within them. When Hyde says, "No, I've decided," peacefully to Eric about whether or not he would propose to Jackie, the original series finale is peeking through. Hyde doesn't say what he's decided, but the subtext isn't all that buried.

In the original scripts, Jackie may well have still left town before Hyde can propose. She might have, however, actually left. Not pretended to leave. That part seems tacked on for another conflict between Jackie and Hyde and to set up Kelso being in the motel room with Jackie a the end of the season.

More than likely, Jackie does go to Chicago in the original script (on her own, without Kelso). Hyde is miserable and furious about it. The scene among him, Eric, and Donna where Donna realizes Hyde was going to propose is probably in the original. The tension would have derived from if Hyde was willing to lose Jackie or not, if he could get over his anger at her ultimatum and her leaving before the deadline she set.

The answer, of course, was yes. In the original, from what I read on the message board, he would have gone to Chicago, knocked on the motel room door. Jackie would've been surprised and nervous to seem him because she didn't expect Hyde drive to Chicago after a) him taking so long to decide to propose and b) the fact she left before the midnight deadline.

The following is pure speculation, based on the characters and that Hyde proposes to Jackie in the original series finale.

After Jackie's surprised reaction, she might have said, "So, what, you drove all the way to Chicago to tell me you weren't gonna propose?" Hydes goes down on one knee.

Jackie: What are you doing?

Hyde: I'm gettin' ready for a football play. What's it look like I'm doing?

Hyde takes out a ring box from his denim jacket and opens it.

Jackie [covering her face]: Oh, my God.

Hyde: I was gonna let the Camino make this choice for me, but then I thought about what a future without you would look like. Turns out, not good. You can be annoying and frustrating as hell, but bein' without that -- and everything else you are -- the last few months has driven me nuts. Which is why I'm askin': wanna get hitched?

Jackie stares down at the ring. She's in shock, but she recovers.

Jackie: Steven, you can be so annoying and frustrating that is drives me crazy, but the last few months without have been miserable. Of course, I want to "get hitched"!

Hyde slides the ring onto Jackie's finger. She and Hyde kiss.

Later, we see the two of them together in the basement with their friends. It's the circle. Jackie is sitting on Hyde's lap with his ring on his finger. Their friends tease both of them about the fact they're engaged. Their friends also congratulate them.

END

[messrmoonyy]

can we have a snippet of the new one shot 👀

You can. And it’s a nice big chunk because I love you guys 😌

This one shot will be posted at some point this week. It’s about 90% finished and then I have to proof read. Looking at about 10k words of prawn with plot unless I cut some stuff out

You trailed a little behind her as she walked, simply so you could get a better look at her. Even there when there was no one else around, no one she needed to look tough for. She still oozed confidence. The way she walked. The way she kept her head held high. No attempts to shrink away. To hide. To walk in the way Ellie had done when you first met her, like she was too afraid to take up space.

Tess wanted to take up space. She wanted people to know who she was and what she was about. She wasn’t afraid… of anything it seemed.

In fact. You knew she wasn’t.

You’d heard the stories. The rumours. The things that Ellie had told you. That Tess and Joel weren’t… good. They didn’t do good things. They hadn’t. But a twisted part of you liked that. Wanted to know more. Details. Wanted to hear about what she had done and all she was willing to do to stay and alive and to protect the people she loved.

You wanted to be one of those people. Wanted her to do sick things to protect you, to prove all she was willing to do to keep you safe.

You craved a love like that. A desperate and all consuming kind. A kind you knew she could give you.

If she would just stop holding herself back.

“ got some runners “ she said looking over the ridge to one of the towns in the distance. They were pretty far out, looking almost like little ants dashing around the place from so far away.

You watched as her hands moved into a comfortable and familiar position with her gun, pulling the trigger and taking down the strays with ease. You were fixated. On her face, the way her eyes narrowed as she aligned her shot through the scope, the way her lips parted slightly as she steadied her breath. Ammo was precious and she made every shot worth it. You watched her fingers, how long and slender they were. You wanted to melt between them. Wanted to feel what it was like to turn to mush beneath her finger tips.

You had spent many nights dreaming of how they felt. How they’d feel in your hair, trailing across your back, wrapped around your throat, curled up inside of you.

You felt your cheeks flush with heat.

“ alright. Let’s keep moving “ she snapped you out of your daydreaming as she lowered the gun, one look over now showing the little ant like runners were motionless on the ground.

“ that was impressive “ you said, clearing your throat lightly in some attempt to distract your thoughts.

“ it’s practice “ is all she said, carrying on along the track. You wondered if this was some old hiking trail or something. If people had come through there years ago, walking that same path for fun. Not to shoot infected. Though you weren’t entirely sure how anyone could find trekking through the woods fun. But maybe that was because your idea of it was so tainted.

It was pretty. You couldn’t deny that. The morning sun in the mountains and the flowers in full bloom. But you had a much better view.

As you watched her you wondered if she ever thought things like that about you. You had caught her watching you before. Many times. And she wasn’t sheepish about it either. She didn’t immediately look away if she saw you had caught her, would hold it another second or two and then look away.

It did make you think.

She came to a stop again looking out at a town slightly futher out than the last. She pulled some binoculars from her pack and looked though them for a moment.

“ wanna take ‘em? “ she asked, lowering her binoculars and looking over at you. The sun was catching her just right, enveloping her in golden light like the goddess you so often heralded her as. You were very obviously staring but you couldn’t bring yourself to stop. Maybe it was because she could clearly see that you were. And were certain you saw her lips quirk into a smile. Just a subtle one. But a smile “ hello? Are you suddenly mute? “

She waved a hand in front of your face and you shrugged, not even a sliver of embarrassment in your face. You wanted her to see you. Wanted her to know you were looking.

“ my gun doesn’t have a scope “ she held out her own gun to you, swapping it with your own

“ have at em “

“ alright “ you moved to stand closer to her, looking through the scope at the small group of runners aimlessly wandering around across the way.

You were a pretty decent shot. Better than others in town for sure. But you were no one if not an opportunist. So you missed your first two shots. And then your third. Repressing your smile when you heard her slightly frustrated sigh.

“ I’m getting there im getting there “ you said, missing a fourth shot.

“ you’re wasting all my fuckin ammo that’s what you’re doing. Come here “ she moved to stand behind you, her hands falling over yours to readjust your hold, her chest pressed firmly against your back. You didn’t hold back your smile that time, unable to hold onto the giant grin that spread across your face at her closeness “ now try “ she said, stepping back but holding her hands to your shoulders.

You made the shot. Of course you did. Even if it did take a second longer than normal to steady your aim, Tess’ hands on you throwing you off.

“ that’s it “ she praised “ good girl keep that up “ that threw you again, freezing a little at the term of endearment. The praise. From her. God you were fucked.

You cleared the ridge of infected and turned your head to look at her with a beaming smile.

“ pretty good huh? “ she was much closer than you’d thought, so close you could see the individual lashes on her eyelids, the freckles that sprinkled across her nose.

“ pretty good “ she confirmed, she had a slightly quizzical look on her face as she looked at you. Her eyebrows slightly furrowed.

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Alrighty I finished watching the 2012 Jesus Christ Superstar, the one that people on tumblr like to gif the most

Thats not meant to be an insult btw, honestly this might be my favorite version Ive seen so far overall

I initially had pretty mixed feelings about the actors they got for Jesus and Judas, like, they werent bad but I felt like Judas especially wasnt putting enough emotion into it and their delivery was kinda off at times but then we got the last supper scene and I thought they were great from that point on. Judas was good, I didnt like him as much as 73!Judas but honestly after watching the 2000s movie Im just glad he was portayed in a sympathetic way at the very least. I actually really liked Jesus in this one too, which is pretty surprising because Ive found him pretty unlikable in the previous versions and also Ive been translating the german versions of these songs which made me realize that a lot of that unlikability is kinda baked into the script as well. Usually I tend to dislike Jesus for about half the show until it gets to that bit after the last supper where everyones sleeping and hes looking around like "wont anyone be with me now 🥺" and Im like, aw thats just a sad little man, a lost littol guy, I cant dislike him when hes like that

I really liked the way they modernized this story here, it felt a lot less anachronistic and like there was a more cohesive vision behind it. While I usually like anachronistic settings and think itd be especially fitting for JCS, I felt like the execution was kinda lacking in the previous version and Im glad the 2012 version basically just went full Modern AU with it

Pretty much everything else I have to say applies to either the costuming or specifoc songs/scenes so in the interest of having a better structure than I had in my previous review-post-things I think Im just gonna talk about costuming and then each song in chronological order. Also I will be comparing this version both the 73 and the 2000s movie because thats how I do things babeyyyy whyd you think my review of the 2000s movie was so much longer and more articulated its because I do better when Im comparing two things

Costuming

Right off the bat, I dont think this technically has anything to do with the costuming, this would probably fall under casting actually, but Im so glad Jesus was brunette in this because him being blonde in the previous two versions was weirdly upsetting to me. Like, obviously he usually gets whitewashed in popular media and thats gross and almost definitely inaccurate but because it happens so frequently and has been happening for such a long time I barely even register it beyond maybe going "hm. thats wrong" at the very start whenever they show Jesus as the whitest guy on earth in anything, but I usually see him portrayed as brunette at the very least so seeing him get portrayed as blonde on top of the whitewashing was just too much man. Also he looks like Lin Manuel Miranda but Im like 90% sure thats not him

I like that they modernized Jesus' clothes for this as well because in the 2000s movie he wore a white tanktop and like, jeans probably in the very first scene but in every other scene hes wearing these long flowing white robes, so I like that they put him in a normal white shirt (and black jeans) even though it doesnt really have that same vibe of divine purity if its not a long flowing robe or a dress. Like, he literally just looks like the most normal guy ever wearing that and I really like that tbh

He also wore a brown scarf a few times and I kinda wish it was red instead because I did some research and found out that hes pretty heavily associated with that color. I mean, I also found out that a whole bunch of figures in the bible are associated with red, like if someone tried to quiz you on this you could probably get 50% of the answer if you just said red everytime, but still.

Speaking of red, I think I said at some point that Judas not wearing red irked me, and it still does just to be clear, but Ive thought about it a little and I actually quite appreciate the thought that went into the color coding here, for lack of a better term.

Like, instead of red being Judas' and Marys color like in the previous films (i dont actually remember what color Mary wore in the 70s movie but im going with it anyway) its essentially the color that the antagonists or people who are in some way against Jesus but who werent really directly involved in his death. Herod is probably the most obvious example, hes completely decked out in red but Simon is also wearing it and hes characterized as someone coopting this message of Love and Acceptance and whatnot in order to spread hate, Im pretty sure Peter also wears it and he ends up denying Jesus.

And then sortof complementary to that we have black as the color of people who were more directly involved in Jesus' death, like Caiaphas and his guys, Pilates and of course Judas. The crowd that gathers and calls for Jesus' crucifixion at the end is also wearing black so could see them partaking in his death as well

And then we obviously have white for Jesus and Mary as basically his closest follower who seems to understand him the most and also probably embodies his message of acceptance the best. Judas also has a white scarf to still tie him to him visually even though he does end up betraying him which I find neat

The fact that he didnt get to wear white for the last song again is crime honestly, cmon man do it for the visual cohesion if nothing else. They threw in a few singers who were also wearing black so Judas wouldnt be the only guy in black surrounded by a bunch of angels in white but ehhhhh, it only kinda works imo. I mean atleast its not as messy and thematically confusing as whatever they tried to do at the end of the 2000s version but still, just let my guy wear white

Also, before I move on I wanted to compliment the sets, or stage, since it was mostly just a pretty empty stage with few props and just a really big screen. I think they utilized the screen really well, just consistently having that illusion of The Media there really helped modernize this musical. I also liked the portayal of Jesus n gangs hideout as this little encampment and the implication that they had the last supper in basically their home. Idk what its like in the bible but from both of the other versions i watched I got the impression that they had the last supper somewhere else and while that didnt bother me at all, i think theres something nice about it being more mundane

Thats pretty much it I think, now its Song Time babey

Overture(/Prologue?)

I paused within like the first 40 seconds and wrote a post because they just immediately hit you with fictional news reports about protests and police brutality and then they just keep going for like 3 minutes and Im just sitting there, mouth agape because its like. first of all, these made-up news reports were so similar to ones that Ive seen throughout the summer of 2020 when the George Floyd and related protests were happening that I had to do a double take and make sure that yes, this is from 2012 and literally nothing has changed. Alternatively, they were actively trying to portray an unrealistically horrifically tyrannical government police state only for the creators visions of a horrible dystopia coming true only 8 years after. I dont know which one is more upsetting and Id rather not think about it too much and find out

Second of all, Andrew Lloyd Webbers musicals tend to be pretty safe, like theyre known to be more spectacle and melodrama than substance, atleast the ones that Im familiar with and while I certainly wouldnt call this musical subtle or even particularly profound, I really wasnt expecting something this politically charged within the first minute. And just to be clear, Im not saying that JCS is bad because its not that subtle or profound, I really love this musical and think its really good it just isnt those qualities and thats fine

Heaven on Their Minds

I dont have a lot to say here, Judas is pretty weak. His voice lacks emotion and because of that it feels more like a pop-cover than a musical theater song and I wasnt a fan. His actual singing voice is good and he definitely gets better as the musical goes on but this was quite disappointing after that overture

Also, the camera was obviously focusing more on Judas at this point but Im pretty sure I saw Jesus and Simon having some kind of argument while his followers are all surrounding him and Judas is singing, I thought that was a neat detail

What's the Buzz/Strange Thing, Mystifying

Im gonna be real with you, saying those two songs are part of the same one doesnt seem right to me but thats what Genius and youtube do and I dont think I really have too much to say about Whats the Buzz on its own so yeah

Honestly, I feel like Whats the Buzz is just gonna make Jesus seem kinda weird and unlikable regardless of who plays him, the good thing about this version is hes not musically moaning and going "ohhhhhhhh~ Mary thats so nice~~" like he is in the german 70s version which i forced myself to listen to approximately 600 times

I have the same criticism of Judas as I did in the previous song, not enough emotion. Jesus isnt great here either, I feel like neither version after the 73 one really managed to capture his anger at his followers the same way, the delivery has been weaker and not as impactful and snappy in the 2000s and 2012 versions.

And I just wanted to say again that I like the setup of their hideout being a bunch of these little tents, I think its really fitting

Everything's Alright

Jesus and Judas are still not giving me enough and its just gonna be like this until the last supper I guess

I really like Mary's voice, theres something soft and kinda vulnerable about it and its nice to listen to

This Jesus Must Die

Musically this is probably my favorite song because of course it is, its the villain song

I like that in this production Caiaphas seemed to really struggle to reach that low tone lol. Like, he sounded great but his face looked like he was struggling, thats about as well as I can describe it. I also liked Annas, he seemed so smug and obnoxious and I liked his leitmotiv-melody-thingy that he would sing its very catchy

I really appreciated that white-grayish lighting, it reminded me of like sterile office building lighting and contrasts nicely with the more yellowish-golden lighting they had for Hosanna. They didnt do anything as crazy or evocative as the 2000s film but Im also not sure how feasible doing something like that on a live stage would be so whatever, I still enjoyed it and thought it looked really good

Hosanna

This might be my favorite song in terms of how they adapted it for this modern AU-thing. I love that Jesus seems a lot more involved in this which makes sense since its been reframed as a protest whereas Im pretty sure it was originally something closer to a parade or something similar. I like that hes singing along to the "Hosanna, heysanna" parts, I dont think he did that in the other versions and it makes him seem less detached and above-it-all which definetly makes him a lot more sympathetic in my eyes

I absolutely adore the way Jesus' verse is framed with him like, looking into a camera with his followers huddled around him idk I think its nice. Speaking of framing and stuff, I havent mentioned the camera work at all yet and its really good for the most part, I do have some complaints but they dont apply to this song so I shant mention them right now

Really the only negative thing I have to say is that usually when the crowd sings "Hey JC, JC, wont you die for me" they cut to Jesus horrified/weirded out reaction and I think its a real highlight but I dont think they directed him to make any kind of facial expression at that part or maybe the actor forgot, so that was a little disappointing ngl. Speaking of that verse, I have Genius open rn so I know which order the songs are in and apparently that verse/line wasnt originally in the song??? Bro thats such a good and simple line how did you not come up with that right away. I mean, better late than never but still

Simon Zelotes/Poor Jerusalem

Again, I dont really think these two songs make that much sense as a package deal but who am I to disagree with genius dot com

I really enjoy the contrast between the two songs and I think they did a great job highlighting it even further via the lighting, with the stage being bathed in this red light during Simon Zelotes and the lights changing to deep blue for Poor Jerusalem. The staging and choregraphy were also great, I like that Jesus is mostly down at the front of the stage during Simon Zelotes with his followers being sort of scattered behind him as they were doing this high energy group dance number while hes up at the back of the stage during Poor Jerusalem with his followers almost huddled together in front of him, it highlights that emotional dissonance between Jesus and his followers really well

I actually liked Jesus performance too, I think the actor did a good job conveying his discomfort and at this point I felt like he was a lot better at projecting quiet vulnerability than loud anger or anguish at this point

Pilate's Dream

I dont really have anything to say here, the song isnt great but its short so its like, fine whatever.

The main thing I have to say here is that I did not Get Pilate at all the past two times I watched this but at the end of this song he puts on a powdered wig and I went "ohhhhhhh hes like a judge" and that made me finally kinda understand what his deal is somehow. Idk man Im a little stupid sometimes

The Temple

I think the first half of this song is fine, but I definitely prefer both of the other versions. I feel like having the people at the temple crowd around a camera as theyre singing about all the sinful shit theyre offering just makes for more effective framing and does a better job at putting you in Jesus' shoes and making you feel uncomfortable

Im not a fan of those weird moving neon shapes they show on the screen during this bit. At the very start of this scene they have this colorful neon text saying stuff like SEX and NUDES and honestly, I think they shouldve had that for the entire song. Like, I get why they might not want to have a whole scene with the word SEX flashing in the background in bold neon letters but it wouldve fit more and been less weird than abstract moving lines. I also dont think they shouldve had any of the 'sinners' wear white just to make Jesus stand out a bit more, but thats a nitpick.

I absolutely ADORE the second half with the beggars though. I mentioned before that I have this fascination with portrayals non-consentual non-sexual touch and this scene, in all three versions Ive watched, really manages to tap into that in a way thats pretty personal and hard to describe. This scene in this version is probably my favorite but Im not sure I can properly describe why. It just feels so intense, the way everyones grabbing onto him and practically lifting him off the ground like some uncomfortable perversion of crowd surfing, I love that

I also like the detail at the start of the song where Judas picks a fight with the bodyguard guy while Jesus goes inside

Everything's Alright (Reprise)/I Don't Know How To Love Him

These two songs arent actually lumped together like some of the other ones, but i have nothing to say about the reprise on its own and its really short so

I really like I Don't Know How To Love Him because its the song that made me realize that Jesus being the son of god is actually pretty ambiguous in this musical which makes this story way better and more interesting imo. Like, I rewatched Jenny Nicholsons video on easter plays after watching the 70s movie and i realized that the focus on Jesus as the literal son of god and his resurrection actually takes away a lot of the impact this story could have as yknow, a story, when its being told by people who are actually christian. And Im not religious myself but I get why that is, for a christian audience the resurrection is the most important part because its essentially proof of Jesus being the son of god rather than 'just' a prophet and/or important spiritual leader, which is kind of the basis of the entire religion. I also feel like theres a tendency in media made by christians about Jesus (or Jesus-stand ins) to avoid portraying any flaws in its main character because thats your god, and you wouldnt wanna portray that guy in a bad light and while I understand that too, it makes for a far less interesting story for non-christian audiences

I dont really know where I was going with this ngl, in conclusion; the reason I enjoyed this play about Jesus Christ so much is probably that it wasnt made by christians

Also Im going back to this after being done writing the post, I dont like that they made Mary ungoth herself on stage like cmon man, let my gal be goth. The only good thing about that was that Mary has muscles and I liked looking at them now that the jacket wasnt in the way

Damned for All Time/Blood Money

Finally a package deal song that actually works as one

Im gonna honest, while I think this song is good I dont really. understand it? Even after watching three versions of this musical and looking at some of the genius annotations. I understand that Judas is feeling guilty about the betrayal and trying to justify himself (although thats only after reading the annotations lol I feel like the lyrics are really weird and contradictory ngl), I dont really get why hes betraying him? Like yeah, he doesnt like what Jesus is doing now and is afraid that he's putting himself and other jewish people in danger but on an emotional level I dont really get why he thought betraying him would be the best course of action. Maybe because he came to realize that he cant get Jesus off the path hes on but idk, that wouldve been nice to actually see that onstage

But enough about that, lets move on to the things I really liked. For example they added this small bit where Judas is walking over to Caiaphas and his guys and you can see him walk into their office building or whatever through the security cameras, I thought that was a really neat detail.

I also like the way Judas sings the very last line about the gardens of Gethsemane, his delivery was really good

The Last Supper

I already mentioned this a few times earlier but I thought Jesus' and Judas' performances were fine for the most part, they just lacked emotion and felt more like flat radio covers because of it, but this is the song where they get really good and even stay really good. Thats not. great. But you know what they say, better late than never

I also liked Judas like, poking Jesus basically when hes yelling at him and I liked Jesus shoving him. Maybe its just me but I feel like the physical contact is way more intense in this version, for lack of a better term, and Im a big fan of that I think that rules, I love watching guys touch each other

I also mentioned earlier that I like how the last supper is just happening at their camp because it makes it feel more mundane and the other non-apostle ensamble members still being there in the background really adds to that vibe as well. I also feel like it made everyone going to sleep after the supper make more sense. Like, in the previous two versions I thought it was kinda weird that they all just fell asleep at the table after that big dramatic shouting match and Jesus predictions but in this one it reads more like the apostles are all going "okay. i think i need to leave." and just crawling into their tents bc what else are they supposed to do

Another thing I liked was that Jesus was like, kinda freaking out and lashing out in this scene. Idk the way Ive been taught about these events made it seem like Jesus just calmly explained this shit to his guys at dinner because he knew gods plan or whatever, so I appreciated this more dramatic and more human version

Gethsemane

oughhhhhhh this song is really good but I dont have a lot to say about it because its mainly an emotional ballad where Jesus is just kinda standing there singing while engulfed in blue light and I already talked about how I like that the existence of god is never confirmed in this musical and why i think that makes the story way stronger

I did want to mention this lyric-change I noticed and didnt like. So originally there was this line towards the end of the song that was like "God thy will is hard/Something something card probably" idk the only reason I remembered that line is because when I heard it in the 73 version I immediately went on tumblr to make an untagged 1 note flop of a post that went like this: "Call my penis thy will the way its hard". But in this version the line is "God thy will is done/Take your only son" and I just dont like that

The Arrest

It took me watching this musical thrice to realize that the music for this song is literally just the music for the beggar part of The Temple, eventhough there were some very obvious visual parallels in the 2000s movie on top of the music being the same but hey, Im a little stupid sometimes and also better late than never

Similarly to the temple scene I just dont think its as effective when you dont have the camera surrounded by these people to both put you in Jesus' shoes and to evoke claustrophobia. The reframing of these guys being like news reporters rather than ? disillusioned followers? jewish people who dont agree with him? I think? is really good and makes a lot of sense. I just didnt like that they had those guards holding them all back I think they shouldve gone all out and just fucking grabbed him

Peter's Denial

This is a pretty short qnd unremarkable song and I dont have much to say, I liked both Peter and Mary (Mary has been consistantly really good throughout the entire musical I think i forgot to mention thst until now) and I weirdly enjoyed Peter being so unecessarily hostile towards that old lady

Pilate and Christ

This is the song I keep forgetting about even though its actually really good lmao

I am just baffled by the decision to have Pilate working out in this scene. Thats kind of it honestly, like whyd they do that. whyd they do that huh. Literally the only reason I can think of is like, they wanted to show off how dismissive he is of Jesus but. there are other ways

Anyway I really liked Pilates vocal performance though and I like this actor, he has a very legal-professional kinda face and tone of voice which makes sense if we're interpreting him as some kindof judge guy, great casting

King Herod's Song

I really love this song, its so catchy and fun and ended up liking the talk show setup for this scene more than I anticipated. I think the reason I was kinda wary of how they would approach this scene was because King Herod is 10000% gonna be the guy who gets played by James Corden when they inevitably decide to turn this into a proper movie (again) but since this is 2012 and also a stage production, James Corden is nowhere to be found and this song is still really enjoyable. Theres really nothing to dislike here, I liked the guy who played Herod, I liked the backup dancer women (although I will say that I prefer their outfits from the 2000s), I liked the way they used the screen to further this whole talkshow thing, I liked Jesus being spun around in that chair, its great

My one small complaint is that during that line where hes like "Cmon man, turn my water into wine" hes given this water bottle and then the water turns red and even with the camera focusing on the effect it just kinda looks pathetic, maybe they couldve done something with the screen instead like they did for the "walk across my swimming pool" line but idk

Judas' Death

Man I cant even properly describe how much I love both the song and execution of it, its so wonderfully visceral and tragic and oughhhhhhh

First of all, I adore Judas' performance hes so good here and he does a great job at letting the emotion bleed into his voice and make it sound like hes sobbing without his singing suffering from it like in the 2000s movie. Do I prefer the performance here over the 73 version? Ehhhhh I think Id need to directly compare the scenes before I feel comfortable making a statement about that and I dont feel like doing that right now.

The lighting is pretty simple here, its pretty much just red, but its really atmospheric and helps underscore Judas' anguish and you know me babey, I love watching this guy suffer

I was gonna write something about the suicide being done well before ending this section here but I just remembered something and immediately forgot what I was going to write, so heres the thing I remembered:

When I was watching the 73 movie and Judas committed suicide, I was like mouth-agape shocked, not because it happened suddenly or because it was edited in a particular way but because I didnt know he was going to kill himself. Ive had religious education as a class for the entirety of my school career, the only time we ever actually talked about the easter story in any kind of detail was when I was like 6 years old in the first grade. The teacher told us about all the most basic beats, Jesus had a bunch of buddys he took out to dinner one night, he tells them about how one of them will betray him, Judas betrays him for money, Jesus gets crucified and then Judas lives in disgrace and shame until the end of his days. What she didnt tell us is how those days end and like. I mean i guess she didnt lie did she

And after that the topic of The Easter Story never really came up and also I thought religious education was the most boring and pointless shit on earth so I never bothered looking into any of it at any other point in my life and thats how I managed to avoid spoilers for this 2000 year old story

I was gonna end the section here but I just remembered something else that I wanted to share, I promise this is thematically relevant

A few days after I watched the 2000s film I thought to myself "hey, this is a popular musical that was originally english but since its been around for like 50 years I wonder if theyve since made a german version" so I looked it up, found the german wikipedia page and yes, theres a german version that came out on vinyl in the 70s but its unfortunately missing a song (two if we're counting Then We Are Decided as well but that one was added for the movie and not originally in the musical). Since Im already on wikipedia I decide to just read the entire article and I find out that orthodox christians didnt like the musical because it paints Judas The Traitor in a sympathetic light and I do a bit of a double take because Im like. I thought Judas was generally seen as sympathetic??? Because again, the only time i was ever taught about this story in any detail was when I was 6 in first grade religious education class and I havent really thought about it since. I only vaguely remember that class but Im pretty sure the way my teacher explained the apostles was that they were like Jesus' closest buddies and when I heard that Judas ended up betraying his good friend Jesus I was really sad and felt really sorry for him ? I dont remember my exact emotions or thoughts but it was either "I really love my friends and one of them died I'd be so upset even if it was my fault they died" or "I would never rat my friends out and cause them to be killed for no reason so he mustve had a really good reason we're just not being told about" or a combination of those and then I never paid attention to christianity ever again so I just never changed my thinking

So yeah, youre looking at a lifelong Judas Iscariot apologist Im so glad to finally be reunited with my fellow men in my natural habitat which is the Jesus Christ Superstar Fandom

Trial Before Pilate

Funfact, someone on youtube uploaded the entire JCS german soundtrack and there they called it "Pilate's Interrogation (39 lashes included)" and idk I think thats mildly amusing

I gotta say this is definitely a little bit disappointing after the 2000s version which had that absolutely mental illness inducing (affectionate) part where every time hes meant to get whipped one of the people in the crowd runs up to him and strikes him and leaves a bunch of blood on his body until hes all wet n grimy from it. Its alright but idk it feels a bit less intense physically and Im not just talking about the lashings, Im also talking about Pilates coming down to Jesus at the very end and being like "Im holding your life in my hands". I dont remember what the 2000s movie did here but I know in the 70s movie hes actually cradling him in his arms and it makes this bit hit way harder, but in this version hes just kinda kneeling next to him like hes the gym teacher and Jesus is the unathletic kid who just somehow sprinted like 50 meters in order to not come in last for the race around the local playground theyre doing for PE and embarass himself in front of the class and is laying on the ground panting afterwars and feels like hes going to die.

While I dont think its as effective as it could be, those faceless silhoutte people standing outside that fence arguing with Pilate are decently menacing and Ive already talked about black as the color of the people involved in Jesus death and how you could see this as The Masses or The Public or whatever also being complicit in his death in some way. Also I think I remember seeing some red garments in that crowd as well which I also appreciate

Also, the makeup for his bloody back was really good

Superstar

Ive said it before I'll say it again, why wont they let my guy wear white for this part? Was that the tradeoff for having him look all cool as he descends down with the stagelights? Is this their attempt to placate those christians who disliked Judas being sympathetic so much they banned the musical in Belarus?

Anyway, I enjoyed it well enough despite that and I think it executed the concept of Jesus carrying his cross being filmed and broadcasted a lot better than the 2000s movie, simply by not having the guys doing the filming be Judas' guys and having them as well as the angels. That being said, the way this was filmed or the way this was cut together or maybe it was a combination of both, just made this really confusing and disorienting to watch. The camerawork is really good for most of this production so I have absolutely no idea whats going on here but its kinda bad ngl. And whenever there was a wideshot you could see that Judas and the angels were dancing and taking up most of the stage and then on the left corner there was Jesus and the people filming him all huddled together and I honestly cant imagine it looking that great on stage either but I guess I wasnt there so I may never know for sure

The Crucifixion

I cant adequately describe what I felt when I realized they were going to crucify him on the lighting fixture so I'll just say I think its sick as hell and move on

This is less of a song and more of a short monologue but I still felt like I had to talk about it because the actor who plays Jesus is absolutely amazing, I was a bit worried if he could pull this off at the start because he was kinda weak there, but he crushed it. I was also a bit worried that he wouldnt be all wet with blood since he already got lashed and was pretty dry at that point but then he bleed a bunch from his head wounds from the crown of thorns and I was satisfied. And the modern crown of thorns was a crown of barbed wire I love that

Thats it I think its about to be midnight and I spent like 2 days writing this and my head is just mush. Sorry if the last few segments seemed a bit disorganized, my head is just mush. I actually had a few more thoughts I was gonna put in this conclusion-thingy but my head is just mush so I'll just say this gets an 8/10 from me. I gave both of the previous versions a solid 7/10 because while I still thoroughly enjoyed them in their weird quirks and think theyre kind of charming in their occasional bouts of kinda bizarre shit on top of being good, this one felt more competent and like it had a stronger vision behind it. Thats it, thank you for reading my very long post

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Glassine

Glassine is the musical moniker of Baltimore-based producer Danny Greenwald. Greenwald’s most widely known release to date is probably 2015’s No Stairway, an album crafted out of field recordings taken inside the retail chain Guitar Center. His most recent release is Radial,a collaboration with Horse Lords drummer Sam Haberman, reviewed in last month’s Dust. Tim Clarke wrote that Radial “veers between malfunctioning electronica (“Up, Together, Reach”), throbbing ambient drone (“St. Pete”), clattering percussive workouts (“Brushes in Woodstock”), and what could almost pass as vaporwave (“Behind a Seatbelt”).” For Greenwald’s contribution to Listed, he chose 10 things that have inspired him other than Nirvana.

Pink Floyd — “Bike”

I used to hang out with this guy in high school who ate a lot of acid. Now he is a Hasidic Jew. We were close. He made high-quality iron-on decals with a fancy printer he had sent to a church across the street because he bought it with a stolen credit card. He made a t-shirt that said on the front, “I’ve got a mouse and it hasn’t got a house, I don’t know why I call him Gerald.” And on the back, it said, “he’s getting rather old but he’s a good mouse.” When I first heard the song “Bike” I thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever heard. It’s obviously brilliant and I was a dumb kid and Syd Barrett is my favorite guitarist. Watch him shred.

Jason Urick — Husbands

Husbands by Jason Urick

The first show I ever enjoyed that only used a laptop was Jason Urick performing in some warehouse in Baltimore. I would go see him play in various other venues with unclean floors, but I’d usually lie on my back toward the front. Everyone would stand kind of far back from Jason and his laptop in the way you’re probably picturing, but I would lie down. His seamless textural transitions are a guiding light. I listened to Husbands on headphones 1,000,000 times lying on my back. In bed, usually.

The Microphones — Mount Eerie

When I first heard this album, it blew my mind. I knew all of Phil Elverum’s previous albums, but this was on some whole other trip. It’s my favorite Microphones record. Me and my friend Brian would listen to it in its entirety in his driveway in his small Toyota Yaris in Pikesville, Maryland, at like 3am. I LOVE the line that goes, “you’re soccer balls on knees.”

“I know you’re out there, You’re lanterns on lakes / I know you’re out there, You’re soccer balls on knees... through your skirt I see... your legs gracefully / I know you’re out there, you’re swaying and pleased / I know you’re out there, you’re vultures in trees / I know you’re out there In mountainous peaks.”

Cass McCombs — “AIDS in Africa”

This song taught me an incredible lesson about the usage of metaphor and allusion in songs. Listen to the entire song — then do some research — then think about the line, “Survivor cells are chanting ‘Ali, Bomaye.’” I used to write a lot of words; however the lesson has very much crossed over into how I go about textural arrangements, field recordings, samples, and what have you.

My mom, Donna Greenwald

Outlook, “Anthem Annie”

My mom sang the National Anthem at every Major League Baseball stadium. I’m not a big fan of the song, however I was able to travel across the country on a train because she was able to wrangle corporate sponsorships in the ’90s for her “National Anthem Tour.” Only an amazing lady could pull off something like that. Self-PR in the days of phone books and small-town newspapers. Learn more about Donna Greenwald by listening to this podcast episode I made about her.

Horace Andy — Dance Hall Style

Once when I was 15 or so I walked into The Sound Garden, a record store in Baltimore, and asked what I should listen to. The person walked (almost urgently) to the reggae section in the back of the store and handed me Dance Hall Style on CD. Horace Andy looks so cool on the cover. Also, I intrinsically had a lot of trust in the person who helped me because he also looked very cool. Lyrically, the album is very heady. And his voice is so expressive. The production sounds like outer space in the mind of an extremely sensitive man.

MF DOOM and all of his monikers/collaborations

Daniel Dumile was the cleverest person to walk the earth. He was an insanely talented and underappreciated producer. He was an immense talent and the world is less enjoyable without him. He felt like the most distant stranger that I kind of knew from someplace. He helped me get through some really difficult times.

Own his own throne, the boss like King Koopa On the microphone he flossed the ring (“Super!”) Average emcees is like a TV blooper MF DOOM, he’s like D.B. Cooper

Grateful Dead — Dark Star, Rotterdam Civic Hall, Rotterdam, Netherlands 5-11-72

I grew up on the Dead. Here is a 48-minute version of one of my favorite songs. I don’t have anything more to say about it.

“Shall we go, you and I, while we can through the transitive nightfall of diamonds?”

Panda Bear — Person PItch

Also a great non-album track recorded at The Ottobar in 2007

Person Pitch was a game changer for me. I was already into atmospheric and druggy music that sounded like waterbeds, but this record utilized discernible samples, like skateboards and infants crying. Panda Bear turned all his samples into clay and treated them like weather patterns. I saw him perform at The Ottobar when the album came out. He used two SP303s (which were actually used to record the entire album) and a small mixer on stage with a very organized row of SmartMedia cards. Here is the tour poster hanging in my studio. I colored parts of it because I was working at a summer camp and had unfettered access to an array of markers. Also, I love his voice and Person Pitch is a play on Pet Sounds. That’s cool. Also, WZT Hearts opened and Jason Urick was in that band.

CELESTIAL WHITE NOISE | Sleep Better, Reduce Stress, Calm Your Mind, Improve Focus | 10 Hour Ambient

I fall asleep to this every night.

Björk — Unravel

This is one of my favorite songs. Everything about it. Heartbreaking. The End.

While you are away My heart comes undone Slowly unravels In a ball of yarn

The devil collects it With a grin Our love In a ball of yarn

He’ll never return it So, when you come back We’ll have to make new love

[aethernightmare]

The next time I record and stream I'm gonna run some temperature checks on my PC to get some benchmarks. (I really could use more screens for this, but they won't fit in here).

So far what's considered "bad" temperatures for this AIO coolant is supposedly around 60°C. So far just running Hoyo games by themselves for my daily grinds, with some YouTube and other tabs in the background, my temps have peaked at 34.20°C. Though it's also slightly cooler at night, I have a floor fan running nearby (unlike when I'm recording because it's very loud), and I'm not simultaneously running OBS at the moment either, so all of these are likely also factors.

If it turns out that gaming, recording, and streaming simultaneously runs my PC too hot, I may need to choose between tasks, or sadly, limit the amount of time I commit to each of them. So I would have to either only stream and download the VOD later, or only record offline. But we'll see.

For both recording and streaming too, it's worth noting that I offload some of the processing off to my GPU since I have an Nvidia card, as to not over-stress the CPU, so it can focus more on games. I also cap all of my games, recordings, and streams at 1080p/60fps, because I neither have the proper screens nor bandwidth to handle anything above that, as nice as it may be. My screens are 1080p and 720p respectively, so 4K is kind of pointless on my setup. And as is, uploads take forever on my rural internet, and so I'd rather not push beyond my current 4000kbps streams with 15,000kbps video uploads. Anything more than that, and a 2 hour video will easily take between 6-10 hours a piece to upload.

The only other process that could be problematic would be editing (which I also partially offload to the GPU), though I try to stick to a livestream format so that I don't have to edit very often anymore. I don't know what temperature that process runs at, though I know it can force the PC to run hot for at least an hour sometimes. For which it's not uncommon for me to temporarily take the top mesh off, turn a floor fan on full-blast to circulate the room, or even open a window if it's cooler outside just in case.

And that's the thing too. It's just sort of been a hot ass summer, and even with air conditioning, there's just not much I can do about it. As my room temperature averaged between 80-85°F (26-29°C) all summer. Since this bedroom gets shit for circulation based on the cramped room layouts, and it averaged between outside lows of 90°F and highs of 120°F (32-49°C) all summer this year. With 40-80% humidity too.

I tried not to run the PC too hard when it was was already so hot in here, but also I play a lot of live-service games that have deadlines for content. And thanks to OBS giving me 6 months of scuff last year, I'm super behind on a lot of projects, and having to rush through things to barely keep up some days.

And lastly, I could have just gotten a crappy AIO cooler that has already worn out its welcome. Apparently a lot of stuff made over pandemic, even by reputable brands, was several degrees crappier than usual. A streamer who I follow had her RTX 2080 GPU fan completely fall out last night as well (it's a similar sort of magnetized fan). So at least I'm not completely alone in this. The situation still sucks, and I'm not quite sure how to go about fixing it yet, as I've yet to pinpoint whether it's a fan or a lack of coolant in the AIO forming bubbles, but will see. Knowing I'm not the only one having issues still somehow reduces my anxiety a bit.

So far, this is what section of the AIO I'm having issues with, in case anybody has any ideas:

(Keep in mind this image is technically also flipped, as my radiator is on my case ceiling, the fans are beneath it (which is currently the side facing us in this pic but I needed a decent example to scribble on), and my ports obviously run down to the pump below it, which is also obviously on my CPU. As is I also can't seem to pinpoint the exact location of the sound, which is why I'm having trouble figuring out if it's the fan or an air bubble trapped in the radiator. I can just tell it's approximately in this spot when it acts up, and causes that section of the PC to mildly vibrate.)

I also don't know of any tech repair workshops nearby either, so am looking into that as well. I'd like an experienced second opinion, and possibly where to go from here, but that's hard to come by when you don't know anyone nearby that fits the bill. So behind the scenes I'm also networking for (paid) help with potential repairs. We have a service we use for work, but I don't know if they'd be willing to do individual level repairs on non-business PC's, if any of the employees are willing (or allowed) to do private commissions, or if they can give me some other local recommendations. But I can at least try.

And of course if anybody has any suggestions as to what might be the issue, or tests I should run, feel free to leave me a comment either here or on Twitter, or deposit your thoughts in the Ask Box at the top of the blog.

[orlandospride]

appreciate being called the most rational uswnt fan lol, i promise it won't inflate my ego. a lot of it, i think, comes from the fact that soccer breached containment in the US last world cup. so a lot of people who've literally never played soccer and who don't really know anything beyond "US good" are suddenly commentating like they've got 30 years of experience. i played for 12 years, and watched soccer constantly in my down time. i can't comment on other countries but i feel like a lot of people who follow women's soccer in say Europe have similar experiences to mine. US fans were at least a bit more rational to a point while i was growing up watching, because you only knew about the league if you played. even then, a lot of people didn't know. around 2011, things started to take a turn to where we are now (i'm not getting on my shipping high horse), but it was still mostly focused on the soccer. now, the block button is my best friend lol.

in terms of vlatko, i don't really know what to say. i kind of avoid talking about the coaches because 90% of coaching is what we don't see. obviously, the subs thing is an issue, but i honestly don't know. i had coaches growing up who coached us through seasons where we lost everything. but that didn't mean they were bad coaches. one season, we literally only had 11 players, and that wasn't his fault. one season, our goalie got injured and we didn't have a back up. i also had shit coaches who coached us to a championship. the first thing i told this guy was that i was left footed, and it wasn't until our final game when he realized, in shock, that i was left footed. there's lots of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. everyone clowned on jill but she somehow won two world cups. we don't have any wingers right now. that's a problem. we don't have trained central defenders. that's a problem. i don't know what will happen to his job. on the one hand, US Soccer has made it very clear that you either win or you get the boot (see Tom Sermanni). on the other hand, they've also refused to fire coaches when players complained (see Jill Ellis). they also refused to pay Dawn Scott who was single-handedly the reason why we were dominant for so long in what i refuse to believe wasn't a political move (this happened during the second lawsuit). it's completely a toss up.

as you said, this is a positive for the US and soccer at large. i'm so excited to see new styles of soccer develop, i'm excited for a new team to win the cup. upsets are genuinely exciting. while losing to sweden wasn't necessarily an upset, there's been so much growth and new teams breaking records, this is so fucking exciting. the US has never been a super tactical team. we've had tactical players, but never as a team. for the longest time, our strategy was to just kick the ball as far down the field as possible and have alex morgan chase it down. simply put, the reason why we've been dominant for so long is because we were always bigger, stronger, and faster than the other teams but we can't do that anymore (see Dawn Scott). the US have never played the most beautiful or advanced soccer, we suck at passing, we don't defend properly at all, and we don't take proper first touches. i hope that this is the push that we need in order to move towards turning into the beautiful game. for now, i'm just hoping and praying that Nigeria beats England. every world cup that Jamaica has been a part of, i've wanted them to do well, and it's finally happening.

all i ask of US fans right now is to choose a team, follow that team, and watch the rest of the cup. after the cup, choose a club team or two, and follow that team. historically, women's soccer has had issues keeping viewership after the world cup and i'm really concerned that it's going to happen again. the US has one of the largest (or at least loudest) fan bases. please keep that energy going forward, i don't think that i can take another league collapse. when teams from other countries are fighting for their rights, be loud, don't let their federations steam roll them. you're allowed to be sad, i'm sad too, but please don't let women's soccer die out. also, please join me in my campaign in rooting for the US men to lose at the next man soccer world cup, and for Canada to win, simply because i think that it would be funny.

it probably is a little weird if you’re a (fairly) recent uswnt fan or don’t keep up with football outside of the us because the us has always been so successful. losing isn’t really in the vocabulary and we probably have all overestimated the amount of pressure it’s put on players for, literally, decades. expectations have always been sky high regardless whether it was realistic or not, and the bigger they are the harder they fall, etc. it sucks the us team will be going home to such hate though, especially since most of it is nothing to do with football at all

i don’t personally agree the us can’t really defend or pass, even if they could be better, but i do agree that fitness has been a major factor in success. they haven’t always been better, but they have always been able to run faster and for longer. so they were able to wear teams down…eventually. that’s not so much the case anymore

(i’m pretty neutral on jamaica, but it’s a cool story with the fundraiser and that, so hopefully it inspires them regardless. i hope nigeria beat england too)

i don’t think there should really be a concern for the state of women’s football overall though, right? women’s football post 2019 wwc has exploded, at least from my own experience in the u.k, it’s gone from strength to strength here. there’ll always be a drop off post wc, but there will also be those who stick around. every international tournament (generally) has a net gain. if doesn’t keep all viewers, but it does usually increase them from the pre-tournament. plus… women’s football is resilient 👊

[itswavelengths]

Dragon Quest V at 30

Marc Normandin writing for Paste:

Why it was never localized for the SNES was shrouded in some secrecy for a time, but over the years, hints and evidence have emerged. In a 2014 interview at Gaming Moe with Robert Jerauld, a producer for Enix of America in the early ‘90s, he recalled that it was deemed “ too expensive” by Enix of Japan to localize Dragon Quest V—in fact, they were so sure it was never happening that the planned Dragon Warrior V in North America would have actually been Dragon Quest VI in Japan, but the closure of Enix of America kept that from occurring, despite it, per Jerauld, actually being localized and ready to go. What made Dragon Quest V more expensive to localize than the four preceding NES titles, and the other SNES one that did get the localization treatment? Apparently, it was something in the game’s programming itself that was causing problems.

Those of you who listen to Into the Aether have heard Stephen and I evangelize for Dragon Quest as a franchise, specifically for Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride. In the process of playing over 150 Nintendo DS games in the year-long lead-up to our episode about the handheld it became clear that Dragon Quest V was not only one of the best games on the system, but might also be one of the greatest games of all time — at the very least in the realm of RPGs. Normandin's piece for Paste about the game's 30th anniversary¹ specifically shines a fascinating light on why it received such a limited release outside of Japan and is absolutely worth a read.

While Dragon Quest V was eventually released globally for the Nintendo DS, that specific port has also been ported to, and is currently available for, iOS and Android. As of right now the mobile ports are the only legal and reasonably-priced ways of playing the game, for better or for worse. I'm obviously thrilled to be able to share a game I love this dearly with others I love just as dearly on the devices they already own, but it would be nice to see Square Enix revitalize their classics in ways that don't always end up as HD-2D ground-up remakes. I was hopeful we might see some kind of collection come to Switch after the release of Dragon Quest I, II, and III launched in 2019, but it appears that subsequent entries will remain in limbo for retro resellers to price at frighting rates for the foreseeable future, effectively locking many out of experiencing some of the series' best until Square Enix makes a move.

I did enjoy the Live A Live remake and I'm sure the upcoming Dragon Quest III remake will be spectacular, but I just want to play these games at all more than I want to play them as new and shiny mid-budget rereleases. To quote Normandin again:

Could Dragon Quest V be far behind with its own HD-2D remake? Will it finally get the moment it deserves in the spotlight? It won’t — can’t — because the moment where it could have been the game that helped make Dragon Quest hugely popular in North America, too, is now three decades past.

For now Dragon Quest V will continue on as a relic for those who seek it out, and when they do they'll be rewarded with one of the most earnest and moving stories the medium has ever told. In the meantime, I wonder how well that fan translation for the PlayStation 2 version runs on the Steam Deck...

⏆

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¹ I also turned 30 this year. Coincidence??? Follow the money, dear reader.

[a-stitch-in-time-and-space]

WRITERS!!! WRITERS IM BEGGING YOU!!!! STOP MAKING JULIAN LOVE-SICK OVER JADZIA SHE’S BEEN WITH WORF SINCE LAST SEASON AND IT WAS NEVER BROUGHT UP UNTIL THE LAST FEW EPISODES IT’S TAKING AWAY FROM ALL OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT WITH EACH OTHER WHY ARE THE STRAIGHTS LIKE THIS??? DO THEY NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR OWN CHARACTERS DO THEY NOT CONSIDER THAT THERE’S MORE THAN FUCKING ROMANCE TO KEEP BONDS BETWEEN PEOPLE TOGETHER DO THEY ONLY KNOW LIKE... ONE PERSON AND IT’S THEIR SPOUSE????

(on that note I am dreading Ezri/Julian, I know it’s coming and I don’t want it)

[the-fo0l]

DBD Pyramid head x reader

Notes: this is the first fic I've ever published so hope it's okay??????? otherwise i might cry

Warnings: none, just ph being ph

Once you catch the executioner's attention it's pretty much impossible to get rid of

He never really thought much of the survivors, he didn't think much of anyone really. Just because the entity made him be there doesn't mean he'll care

Yet something about you, the newest survivor, caught his eye

He couldn't see you as sinful or worthy of punishment no matter how hard he looked

He wanted to get closer but the barrier around the survivor camp wouldn't let him through, even though for once he didn't have ill intentions

Luckily for him, one of your first trials happened to be with him

You managed to get the hang of the game pretty quickly. You'd heard a lot about the executioner, that he was a merciless killing machine, just about the last killer you'd want to cross.

Naturally hearing these rumors gave you even more pre-trial anxiety than usual.

Thus you decided to keep a low profile for this one. The whole trial you never got close enough to properly see him, you just tried to get the generators working as fast and safe as possible

He didn't seem to be bothering you though, instead, while you were doing gens by yourself, he was picking of your teammates one by one

You only had a couple gens left to go after you finished this one, only when the loud sounds of the engine stopped did you notice how eerily silent it had become

No footsteps, no screams, not even the sound of a large sword dragging across pavement

Where is everyone, they can't all be dead already can they? You become more anxious by the second as the silence somehow gets louder

You're still new to this whole thing, is this normal? No it can't be

With no better idea coming to mind you decide your best option is to hide for a bit

You begin to quietly sneak toward a building in hopes that you'll find a closet to hide in, maybe you'll find one of your teammates, you can only hope

Once in the building you find a couple of closets, as you're about to open the closet door you hear an oh so familiar sound behind you, metal dragging across the floor accompanied by heavy breathing

You freeze in place as you realize he somehow managed to sneak right behind you

As you start to make your move to run he grabs you by the waist and effortlessly hurls you over his shoulder

You try to struggle as hard as you can but it's futile against pyramid's solid grip

For pyramid head this may as well be the best day of his long and wretched life. The first time he gets to be this close to you, holding you feels better than he thought it would. He could get used to this

Your struggles pick up again when you notice you're approaching the hooks but cease when he walks straight past them

'Okay ??????' you think

"Let go asshole! Wh-where are you taking me?" you ask, as if pyramid head could answer

He simply continues to walk and eventually sets you down on the ground, being uncharacteristically gentle

You look up at him, not understanding how you're still alive, you take a look around and see that he's dropped you off right next to the hatch

Pyramid looks down at the cute confused expression on your face and feels an array of emotions he's never known before. He doesn't want to let you go, but doesn't want the entity to get you either so he chose to let you go

From here on out every trial with him is like this and every time your trust for him becomes stronger

Unfortunately, every trial can't be this easy, so 90% of the time the killer hunting you wants nothing more than to flay you alive

And poor pyramid head can't bear to hear you cry the way you do after particularly hard trials so it's time to use a bit of intimidation

Without meeding to speak he gets the point across to the other killers to not mess with you. Pyramid is by far the most feared in the realm. Obviously killers like Michael and Huntress are hard to scare so PH resorts to comforting you instead of seeking revenge

Your fellow survivors are totally jealous of these privileges

Thanks to the kindness he shows you during trials you don't feel the need to be afraid of him when he's watching you from behind the barrier around the survivor camp

He was watching you again. And much to the protest of your friends you felt daring enough to approach

The whole time you were walking closer to him you could feel him looking at you, what you didn't notice was his breathing quickening in anticipation

Maybe this time he could finally touch you?

You stand face to face(?) with him, even though you have to look up at his hulking figure

You hesitantly stick your fingers out beyond the barrier and are pulled into this chest before you even know it

For a moment he simply hugs you while you and your friends are shocked silent

But soon enough he pick you up off the grown and starts carrying you away in his tight hold

"Where are we going?" even though you hadn't expected this you weren't afraid, why would he hurt you now when he's had plenty of chances?

Once he feels far enough away from prying eyes he sets you down and sits beside you, pulling you into his lap where he'll keep you for as long as possible

It's weird, but it's also comforting

Leaning into his warm chest, having his strong arms around you, listening to his steady breathing- it's the most comfortable you've felt since arriving in this hellscape

And hey, his heartbeat is awfully fast huh?

Only for you though, dear reader, only for you

[volarenelcieloinfinito]

Euphoria 2x03 Thoughts

Ok let’s see how Cal’s backstory made him all repressed and fucked up

Oh so his dad is more than likely an abusive asshole

Oooh Derek is def jealous

Omg why is them dancing at the gay bar so cute?!

Goddamnit why did you have to make me sympathize with a character I can’t stand?! This is giving TLOU Pt. 2 feelings all over again.

Lmao Rue’s solo is AMAZING! That was so fun to watch!

Fuckin’ A Rue, lying to and gaslighting the people that actually love you ain’t it

Yo but why am I enjoying this Rue/Jules/Elliot dynamic so much? 😂

Elliot is hilarious and serving some excellent banter right now!

No but Rue getting so offended that Jules and Elliot negotiated a secret right in front of her 🤣

Ok so I guess Cal knows who Rue is, which I can’t remember if we knew before now

Oooh Rue & Jules out here getting spicy 🌶

God I hate that they are so cute together but such a recipe for disaster

YES! I am here for Lexi pursuing something she’s passionate about! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

The use of the HBO sounder had me cracking up

Cassie I’ve been trying to defend you but FUCK you are killing me here. He does not care about you. S T O P!

Yup the RJE dynamic is going to be gold until it is not, and then it’s going to get ugly.

Also Elliot wtf did you think was going to happen?! Scat play OMG 😂😂😂

Lmao damn you two, right in front of Elliot’s salad? 😜

Hi Fez! I love you! Thank you for not giving in to Rue’s crazy!

“Hey Rue-Rue” “Hi Cass” idk why but it was cute

Lmao yo has “Oklahoma” ever been said this many times in 30 seconds ever before?

Ok I love how concerned all of them got when Rue said yes to being on drugs.

“Bitch, you better be joking!” The delivery had me rolling!

CASSIE FOR FUCK’S SAKE! LOVE?!

Ah ok that was a fake out but she still obviously feels like that’s real

Theo!

Nate: I love how sick you are. Me: 🤮

Oh man poor Kat, that may have been the most awkward thing I’ve seen in a long while

Rue what in the holy fuck are you doing?!

Is Drug Lady serious? Does she seriously think giving this kid 10k in drugs is good idea? There is no way that bitch doesn’t know Rue’s an addict.

This whole scene with Fez, Ash and Cal has me DYING

You’re right Fezco, Nate is a fuckin bitch

Ash is such a gangster holy shit! 😂

“Dial bitch!” I am H O W L I N G!!!

“You tellin me you had sex with Jewel?”

“You didn’t know that you were recording?”

“I fucked up” “Obviously man!”

“Your son? The one that’s in love with Jewel?” Fez is out here serving comedic gold AND tea!

“What kinda weird-ass father-son shit is going on around here bro?” Omg this scene is killing me in the best way!

“You’re confused? I’m fucking confused bro!”

Fez you are officially my favorite character and that was the best scene of this episode. Hell, it may have been the best scene of this show. That was a Gen Z Who’s on First and it was fucking hysterical.

Wow, I knew Elliot was going to get between Rue and Jules relationship but not like this

Elliot is written so well though. He’s def growing on me.

Oh fuck

That scene with Ali legit made me sad

From what I’m seeing so far, Rue is going to end this season completely alone and either in jail, overdosing, badly hurt because of Drug Lady Laurie, or dead.

Ugh of course we’re back with Nate and Maddy. 😒

As an ending side note, in the behind the episode the costume designer basically said the opening with Cal in the 90’s was a period piece and I died a little inside.