#neil also solves a lot of problems to be fair | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dubiouslynamed · 9 months

Text

Alright, this idea has been giving me a hard time for weeks. Out into the void it goes! Sorry it's so long. There's more under the cut, believe me.

CURTAIN/ NIAT RUC

The Bentley's license plate, NIAT RUC, has been visible from the beginning of this show and it's been nagging at the back of my head just as long. Why is it 'curtain' spelled backwards? What does it mean? And what is the overall story about? Crowley asks the question at the beginning of Season 2. What's the point of it all? Angels, demons, heaven, hell? Is that license plate a Clue? Obviously, I think it is.

Good Omens is about friendship and love, certainly. But there's more going on. The book and show both deal with huge moral and ethical questions-often in the flashbacks, but not always. Why is the universe the way it is? Why do bad things happen to good people? How do you choose between two bad options? Why should you have to, sometimes? Is it right to harm one person to save another (Or many others? Or all the others?). What's the point of it all?

I think that's part of why this particular story, in whatever medium it's told, is so compelling. I love the characters and the writing and the direction and the production-clearly all the work of many very committed people who also love the story and have the skill and talent to bring it to life. But the best stories, and for me this is one of them, examine the *really* big questions. Good Omens asks those questions and somehow (Maybe by using an angel and demon as protagonists? I don't know. It's a mystery!) manages to be hugely entertaining while doing so.

Curtain is Agatha Christie's last Hercule Poirot mystery. She wrote it in the early 1940s, partly worried she might die in the Blitz and leave her detective without a satisfactory ending, and locked it up to be published over 30 years later in the 1970s. In it, a dying Poirot solves the mystery of the identity of a serial killer who has mastered the art of psychologically provoking other people to commit murders without ever being found out as the person who persuaded them to kill. There isn't enough evidence to charge this indirect murderer with anything and Poirot believes he will continue his crimes uncaught. Poirot murders the serial killer himself (by deceiving his friend Hastings to a fare-thee-well and then arranging the evidence to look like the killer committed suicide). He then stops taking the medicine that has been keeping him alive. Poirot's solution is what he sees as the lesser evil of murdering the killer followed by atonement in the form of his own death. In short, Poirot has chosen among the bad options available to him while retaining the moral sense that his choice is itself evil. Some Christie fans won't read Curtain and I don't blame them.

The Metatron looks a lot like the manipulative serial killer in Curtain, though a writer as skilled as Neil Gaiman doesn't borrow entire characters or plots. The Metatron is certainly in a position to have influenced or even caused some of Heaven's morally outrageous actions by representing them as the word of God. Poisoning the angels against humanity bit by bit over millennia until they have no problem with the idea of destroying all of creation. They're even enthusiastic about it. Heaven is arguably worse than Hell at this point because, in fairness, Hell seems to look at humanity as a recruitment opportunity more than anything else.

In the first series of Good Omens, we see Crowley propose murdering the Antichrist to stop the Apocalypse and Aziraphale come close to doing it (he is only stopped by Madame Tracy's good sense from firing the thunder gun at Adam). You have to wonder what would have happened to Aziraphale if he'd managed to succeed. Something like Poirot's death? Do even good-hearted angels have to choose between bad options?

I believe that authors, being deeply concerned with words and their meanings, should be taken seriously about what they call their stories. An omen is a portent, for good or for evil, of events to come. So the name Good Omens essentially means 'this is a story about good things that will happen in the future'. Perhaps, perhaps, then, Good Omens is a story about finding and removing a source of evil in the universe without having to commit a moral crime to do it and, as a consequence, getting things more on track to a happier ending for everyone, our characters included. Not to a place where too often there is only a choice among bad options but to a place where there are more good options. More reason for the dealer in God's metaphor to be smiling all the time. Not Curtain, but its reverse.

#gos2 #good omens #good omens meta

40 notes · View notes

lady-hammerlock · 3 months

Text

So back in the day... (a quick search informs me it was 1994) there was a little point and click adventure game called Beneath a Steel Sky. I wasn't a gamer at the time so I didn't play it then, but I did play it later and fall in love with it. I bonded with a previous romantic partner over it, we commissioned art of it, and I bought and played it again when it was re-released for Android/iOS.

It has only recently come to my attention that a sequel, Beyond a Steel Sky, was released in 2020. How I didn't find out about it over the last four years is a fucking mystery but it probably has something to do with how fucked the last few years have been, both on a global and personal scale.

Why should you care?

Because Beyond A Steel Sky is beautiful. I know I have a lot of followers that appreciate a good story-based game, and if you miss the old style of point and click then this does a wonderful job without having quite as much trial and error or wonky logic as a lot of old point and clicks.

It also has the following:

- The setting is a part post-apocalyptic, part dystopian Australia, with a lot of Australian in-jokes for the Aussies and an interesting setting for everyone else.

- Positive representation for plus-sized women and women of colour, most notably Australian First Nations.

- A great sense of humour, both in terms of how you solve problems and just general dialogue.

- The ability to cause absolute chaos and fuck around beyond what is just required of you to progress the story.

- A surprisingly deep and thought-provoking story (I should warn that the first game was light-hearted until about 80% of the way through when it suddenly became much more dark and horrific. The sequel does something similar but is a bit more gradual about it.)

- A great dynamic between the two main characters. Is it a romance? A bromance? Whatever you decide it is wonderfully complex, incredibly codependent, and both heart-warming and heartbreaking at the same time. It should be noted that it is not quite canon, and it is definitely not going to be to everyone's taste considering it is Human/AI and considering some of the things that go down in both games, but I am shipping it so hard right now and absolutely fascinated by the possibilities.

- Neil Newbon. He plays a baddie and is as fabulous as always.

- A robot that writes poetry. And has some of the best lines in the game. I just love Tarquin okay?

- Joey. I know I already listed his dynamic with Foster above, but he is such peak blorbo to me right now that he is his own entry. I mean look at him in one of his many bodies here. Don't you just wanna hug it?

Friend shaped.

To be fair the games aren't perfect. I think you can still play Beneath on GOG, but it is definitely a product of it's time. The character animation in Beyond isn't great, but the art style is cartoony enough that it isn't too distracting.

Now, for the reasons I'm making this post. Obviously I want more people to find and fall in love with these games. If you're into them already, great! Come scream about them with me. If not, the sequel is on sale on both Steam and Playstation at the moment for only a few dollars.

I am also opening up fic requests specifically for Steel Sky right now because there are 0 fics on A03 at the moment. 0. I need to change that. Anything Foster/Joey will be an immediate yes (even if it's Savior Joey) but I will be open to other prompts as well.

#beneath a steel sky #beyond a steel sky #robert foster #bass Joey #fic requests open #game recommendations

6 notes · View notes

samnyangie · 3 years

Text

Since people liked rsl interview on dps, I’d like to share one of my favourite interview by him. I think it’s one of those rare interview where he wasn’t joking around that much but discuss acting quite seriously haha

So enjoy:DD

(Credit)

____________________________

1990 New York Times

Young Actor's Life Has the Makings of a Movie

by Lynn Mautner

New York Times

May 20, 1990

It would make a good movie. A 15-year-old sophomore at Ridgewood High School is playing the Artful Dodger in the musical ''Oliver'' with the school's theater group, New Players, when he is discovered by a casting agency secretary and whisked off to Broadway and the movies.

That's exactly what happened to Robert Sean Leonard, now 21, and a star of the 1989 film ''Dead Poets Society,'' which received an Oscar for best original screenplay.

''My mother took me to New Players' summer performances when I was 10,'' he said, ''and I loved the camaraderie of people, rehearsing and singing. I began spending more time there, painting signs and moving furniture, and soon became an element of the company, with small roles in 'The Miracle Worker,' 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,' 'Barnum.' ''

Starting as an understudy for three roles at the New York Public Theater (he never got on stage), Mr. Leonard amassed credits that include ''The Beach House'' with George Grizzard for the Circle Repertory Theater, television movies, ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'' and ''Breaking the Code'' on Broadway, plays at the West Bank Cafe on 42d Street and the recent ''When She Danced'' at Playwrights Horizons.

He has just completed a part as Paul Newman's and Joanne Woodward's son in the movie ''Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,'' filmed in Kansas City, to be released in August. ''I age from a 15-year-old Eagle Scout to 22, coming home from World War II with a mustache,'' Mr. Leonard said.

Mr. Leonard, who received a general equivalency diploma when he was 17, lives in New York City and attends Fordham University between performances. Soon to return from the Cannes Film Festival with his fellow actors in ''Dead Poets,'' he is next scheduled to go into rehearsal for the film ''Married to It,'' a romantic comedy.

Q. Do you remember when you decided on an acting career?

A. I never decided to pursue an acting career. It just has happened. I still think it's going to stop and I'll have to get a real job soon, but I'm afraid to question it because if I do, it will disappear.

Q. How do you think your theater experience in high school has helped you?

A. It was a great teaching experience that prepared me in a lot of ways. We did 10 shows in 10 weeks, so there was no time to think about method. It was running for the stage, hoping you'll make it in time for your entrance. In Steven Soderbergh's new book of his diaries when directing the film ''Sex, Lies and Videotape,'' he said that on a film set there should always be a chain of command, but never a chain of respect.

At New Players, those three to four years, everyone was given the same respect. You had to, because you'd be the lead one week and painting sets the next. That's a luxury that is not available in New York, unfortunately, because of the unions. You're an actor and that's it.

Q. Have you taken any acting lessons? Do you recommend them for others?

A. I've taken two classes - a video acting class to help me get from stage to film, with Marty Winkler, currently my manager, and an acting class at H. B. Studios.

Acting classes are tricky. It's like asking someone in therapy if they'd recommend going to a psychiatrist. For some people it's great; for some it's not necessary; for some it's harmful. The best way to learn acting is just to do it.

There's a danger to the classroom, because it's safe, and you can get addicted to it. The clique of people are there, and you might tend to remain with them and never go out on your own. So it can give you the safety net which can eventually strip away your courage to go out and really try. On the other hand, you can get a wonderful teacher who brings out the best in you and gives you the courage to go out and dazzle everybody.

Q. You went from high school to Off Broadway. What were your feelings and fears during your first professional performance?

A. The first time I performed in New York - in ''Sally's Gone, She Left Her Name'' - I played Michael Learned's son. I think I was too young. I wasn't even aware of reasons to be afraid. I was just there for the fun of it. Fresh out of New Players, I knew it to be fun. I've never worried about lines. In ''Brighton Beach'' I should have been tense, because it was Broadway. I was nervous, but not racked - more excited.

Q. What do you enjoy most about acting?

A. The people, and opportunities to learn, to travel, both physically and emotionally. To look at people other than myself and try to figure out what makes them tick.

Olivier said you never play a villain; you play a man considered to be a villain; that you have to justify everything he does first; you have to know that what you are doing is right and find a way to make it right - even murder.

I just played a conceited piano player in ''When She Danced,'' and I had to figure out what would make a person be conceited and make that O.K. with me. I learned where conceit comes from - from confidence and talent.

Worst thing you can do is play someone and judge him at the same time, saying: ''Here I am. I am so conceited.'' First you have to understand why you're that way so that people interpret you as conceited.

Q. Do you consider acting an escape?

A. I don't look at performing as escaping, as really becoming another person and leaving my problems for two hours, so I don't have to deal with me, because I don't become another person. I work, so that when I am working, in a way it is me at my best. I'm not leaving myself; in fact, I'm more focused on myself than ever. I don't become that person, but I fully understand him, fully explore him, as to why he does what he does and justify it.

You can't play a fool to play Bottom, who's the opposite of fool in Shakespeare's ''Midsummer Night's Dream.'' What makes people fools is that they're completely confident in what they're doing. They don't think they're fools; they think they're right on track, which makes them so funny and makes them look like fools.

Q. Who influenced you the most?

A. I have not had one person or experience that stands out that's a turning point. Every step in acting relies heavily on the one before. Everything I've learned colors everything I have known before, and suddenly changes it.

I have learned a little bit from everyone I have known, whether about acting itself, or living and working as an actor. Like a good detective novel, for every clue that is solved, two more appear. Every time I learn something, it opens two other doors. In ''Dead Poets,'' the rooftop scene, where I throw the desk set off, was improvised. Are instincts then a part of acting?

Q. Are there desirable qualities to have as an actor?

A. Concentration, perseverence, lack of inhibitions. There's no room for self-consciousness on stage. Also, there is an element in acting that is not fair. Whatever talent is, part of it can be learned and part can't. There are people that audiences like to watch or don't. In Soderbergh's book, he says that talent plus perseverance will equal luck. But I don't know what talent is; it is beyond definition.

Q. Do you learn by watching other films and plays? Your own? Other people?

A. Sometimes I watch for directing; sometimes for performing. There are lines in ''Dead Poets'' I would do differently, if given the chance. For example, Todd said: ''You talk and people listen to you, Neil. I am not like that.'' I answer, ''Don't you think you could be?'' I think I could have made it clearer. I don't get much from observing strangers, because although I see what they do, I don't know where they're coming from.

Q. What are the main differences between stage and film work?

A. I feel that as an actor, you should start in theater, to learn the process of creating a character, in rehearsal. Film is an arena for people who already know that, because on the set they expect you to know the character inside out.

Film work is harder, because this tangible part has to happen in your head before filming takes place. And it's more solitary. You create your character alone, without the give-and-take of other actors.

Q. What tips would you give young, aspiring actors?

A. Read plays aloud with friends at home; do any work you can do in high school. Hang out with jocks, leatherheads, and see what makes them work. Don't be a theater rat and only talk to actors. Read a lot. You really have to feel it; really want it; then take it. Don't take no for an answer. Seize the day.

___________________________

There’s another one I really want to share as well, I’ll bring it with me at some point:))

#robert sean leonard #rsl #theatre #acting #interview #I love how he ended the interview with seize the day

35 notes · View notes

pataphorical · 3 years

Text

Beltane

Dear Hera,

Today, I celebrate the maiden within you. We’ve always loved flowers, unicorns, and beautiful things…. But not at the sake of compassion or love. As you get older and have children… priorities change. You learned how to survive as a child, and it’s a lesson you’ll never let your kids be destroyed by. You were destroyed. Just for a moment. One breath. Hold.

There are these pots in a faraway land that are made of shattered clay. They fill those spaces with gold, and the way they blend and contrast together make a more beautiful art piece. You are filling your blood with gold. Grace, Honor, and Truth. Together those things will always make a beautiful spirit. Together your intention will flow with golden light.

Tonight I gathered the family together, made a beautiful meal in your name. It was too windy for a fire, but we all lit candles. We smiled. I let everyone just do what they want. We enjoyed each other, and laughed, and played. I got these long ribbons on sticks that the children twirled with, dancing with the wind and their own innate magic.

I never knew…. Peace like this. Love like this. I’ll name my next child Iris. It’s a name loved by both my husband and I. I loved the name Lilac, but my husband loved Iris. While Iris is like the Lilac, a graceful burst and flow of color and scent, it is also the Goddess of the rainbow, and her older sister has always prayed for a sister. A friend. Her room is a shrine to the rainbow. Iris, like Hermes, is a messenger god, though I feel she has a tendency to pick the sweeter messages to deliver. That will be my Iris. Fiona’s Iris. Orpheus’ Iris. Oh, Hera, it is my fondest wish for myself and my husband.

Also, Hera, please accept the sacrifice of my body, for a fucking fourth time, to add the dream sparkle to this marriage. I hate being pregnant. I’m keeping that opinion until I actually get knocked up and the magical baby hormones kick in. Sweet bio drugs, but I’m giving up a lot of things I love that help me cope and stay the beautiful creature you made me. Also, four just makes sense. Also, maybe this time we can work of some ridiculous hair growth. Maybe just a tad wavier? Do I get some choices in the DNA magic pregnancy swap?

In all fairness, I wouldn’t change a thing in my life. You, Hera, gave me everything I could of wanted, and now I’m daring to dream just outside the dream I never thought I’d make it to. You’ve given me a beautiful, clever mind that can solve most problems, adapt quickly, and process more efficiently. I will keep this mind sharp for you, and my heart will always be in the name of Persephone. She can venture into the darkness for a short while, thrive, but she does need to work most of the other times. Sweet job. Let’s see what I can do to get there.

But, tonight I simply smile, sigh, and breathe in everything I have intentionally created for myself and my family. Tonight, I am proud of myself. I am grateful to have so many clever Gods to learn stories from… I’m finding those stories I learned in school weren’t just for a few laughs. Took me a bit to get here, but everything often does. Do I get to blame you for making me that way? I hope that got a little smile at my cheekiness.

Orpheus has held my hand through everything, and I promise that I will never stop learning. He had to learn so many dark truths about the world, and that’s a steep price to pay for loving me. He did it. Sometimes he grumbles a bit, but I can also be a bit slippery when I want to get away with something.

Neil Gaiman once wrote a comparison between the slick of a girl’s vulva, and that of a minnow. A minnow doesn’t have the scent of a bigger fish, and as a child I remember trying to catch them in the creek with a dark haired girlfriend of mine. I loved her. I loved her so much. She was wild, and confident, and when she laughed the whole world laughed with her. I got leeches that day. We were in the shower, and I thought it was a bit of dirt on my toe. It stuck. It was sucking the life out of me! I fainted. I remember everyone thinking I was being dramatic. Everyone thinks I’m dramatic. You’ve seen history, Hera. You know that drama is more than losing your mind at the sight of a creature that sucks the very flow of your body from you. Without consent. I hate when it’s without consent.

Athena, for that I pray to you sometimes. You gave me this quick mind, and three very clever kids. You want me to keep learning, understanding, absorbing… while these clever little foxes nip at my heels, sabotaging every moment. To be fair, though, they are all magical, beautiful creatures, and my life is lit from within as I watch them journey down this path of life. The kindness of Orpheus and his love gave me everything I needed to become the better self I am today. As usual, I did most of the work, but you made we dryads complex beings. Thanks.

I need to make you an altar. All of my books and I haven’t put any of them in a bookcase. They are strewn around the basement like… memories I don’t want to pick up. I hate picking things up. I’m flexible, I do yoga, but like Cinderella, I want to stab a bitch with a broken glass slipper when they imply I don’t do enough. I do everything. I love doing everything. Worship me like the fucking goddesss I am.

Time to put these wee foxes to bed. Orpheus is a bit tired, and has all the energy drained out of him. If there’s a bit of favor left in my pot, I’d pray for good night for all of us, and whaever sweet dreams we can muster.

#druidess #pagan #lgbt pagans #greek myth memes #greekmyth #greek myth retellings #beltane #dryad #adhdrayd

1 note · View note

spookytomatoetuesday · 4 years

Text

Project Wolf´s Cove

One – Tumbling towards catastrophe

The road ahead was winding, following a cliff´s edge. It was summer and therefore a bright day even though it was still early in the morning. It was definitely summer and the radio kept reminding its listeners of that fact. For the moment, however, the summer hits where too distracting. Becky turned the car radio off. She then returned to the conversation she had with her friend Rose who was sitting in the passenger seat. “The film wasn´t a period piece.”, Becky insisted. “It was set in a period in the past.”, Rose gave back. “No! The film is not on the nose about it, but it was set in the future. The future from when it was produced anyway.” Rose frowned at this just to reiterate: “Yes, and this means that it was still set ten years ago. That is the past. I cannot remember ten years ago, not with a living memory. It might as well be a chapter in a history book. Plus that it is a time ten years ago as imagined by people living 40 years ago. So this is like a page in a fictional history book from a freak dimension.” Becky laughed. She gave in: “Okay.” “Well, that is not my point anyway.”, Rose continued in a mockingly serious voice. “The man issue I wanted to raise was that the protagonist was absolutely alien to me. Not because he lived in a different time, mind you. I had issues with him because of how he acted.” “You mean how he dealt with a world full of isolated people and ravaged by a virus?”, Becky injected. “Yes! The illness is obviously transmitted from person to person. So you keep away from the next best person. Problem solved. The so-called protagonist, on the other hand, did it all wrong, sacrificing not only his life but also the one of his gal-pal.” “She was severely underdeveloped as a character. That was more scary then their fate actually.”, Becky observed. “True. There was just one reason the dude did dude around with her, mouthing about and ruining it all.”, Rose summarized. “Even if he made decisions for others that were not his to make, I think his motivations where understandable. You can’t be alone for all eternity.”, said Becky, while she turned on to the parking lot of Wolf´s Cove High School. “There needs to be a sense of community. If you can’t interact with the ones you actually spent time with, how do you know that you even exist and that you are not just an idea of a person that might be easily forgotten? Apart from that, loneliness hurts if it is not voluntary.” “Okay, fair. You raise some good points as well. I see a use for people in the plural there.”, Rose conceded. “Still, there is a danger to closeness that is not always only down to emotions.” She was quiet for a moment while she and Becky got out of the car, took their backpacks, and went towards the school entrance. “The thing is…”, Rose continued right before they climbed the four steps to the grand double doors. “You get only to take a limited number of breaths on this crummy planet. So you might as well be selective as to who you spent them with.” Becky smiled at her friend. “I thought I was.”

Biking to school always seemed like a good idea when the weather was clear and bright. That was until the last part of the road served as stark reminder that it was more sweaty than fun to bike upwards the serpentines leading to the cliff top where the school was located. John remembered that now. “This was not a good idea.”, John managed to say while slowing down despite putting all the more effort into cycling. His legs started to hurt. Neil nodded: “Fnaf.” “What?” “Fair enough.”, Neil pressed out. “Should it not be fen then?”, John wondered and had to slow down to do so. Neil shrugged and both continued their track up towards the high school in silence. Finally they made it to the big main parking lot and chained their bikes to a lantern there. They noticed Becky’s car as the only one parked here at this early hour. “Oh boy, if I’d known Becky would be here this early as well, I’d have asked her if she could pick us up on her way. Maybe next time. She’d surely do it.”, said Neil shaking his head. John just grunted and then decided to say defensively: “I do not think she is here that early regularly. No one but you is.” “And you, fellow friend and confidant. However, someone has to man the commissary and make sure that it is open when all the breakfast-skipping students arrive hungry from the long way up.”, said Neil. The two made their way to the side entrance of the main building. “I am not a fan of that name. When you say it, I can almost hear boots and trumpets.”, John commented. “The food stall then. After we’ve got rid of the old and truly awful name, we have no official title for it. I’ll still call it commissary on my CV. Universities and prospective employers like that kind of entrepreneurship and lexical knowledge. You should get an activity like this too. They expect this.” “I thought it is the point to stick out, to be so unique that others are interested in you. How does doing what everybody does the same, because that is what everybody has to do, help there?”, John asked while Neil unlocked the foods stand and went into the back where the wares were stored. Neil pointed at some packages of soft drinks. “Need to unpack those and put them into the fridge first.” While they both got to it, Neil added: “So we both understand the system. There is what they say and there is what they want. Still, I think my way to deal with that could pay off in the end. Maybe even more so than yours.” John nodded when Neil reached out for another soda can. They finished the work in silence. Afterwards, Neil put on his work apron and took up his place behind the counter. Above him on the wall painted in a fresh white there was the faint shadow of a mascot which had fallen out of time. In front of him, there was the tip jar while the cassette with the change was hidden under the counter. Neil seemed a little tired but content. John waved to him. “I will try to get some more sleep in on one of the lounge sofas before class. See you later.”, John said. “See you.” The most comfortable couches stood in the lounge of the Science Building that was still missing an S. So John went directly there after leaving the food stall. Once in the lounge, he noticed a movement coming from the astronomy room. Through the large windows in the double door he could see Becky and Rose working on something inside. He hesitated. Beyond the doors was the opportunity for a nice conversation with his friends. He should say hello. He was sure that would be nice. Still, he hesitated. For no reason and yet he still did not jump at this possibility. On the contrary, he had to push himself even though it was a push towards people he liked. For a moment, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and back again. This was a warm-up and a collecting of resources. Then he knocked on the window in the door. They noticed him and he had to go inside now. “Good morning.”, John greeted. Becky answered with a “Hello, how are you?”, while Rose waved and nodded. “What are you doing?”, John asked to avoid an awkward break. Becky was still looking at him. “We got permission to use the school´s telescope to track the asteroid tonight.”, Becky explained. “It has a projector and with this camera here, we will be able to record the passage of our little friend while it passes through the night sky. We just set it up now before class.” “Interesting.” John strolled closer to the telescope while being careful not to touch anything. “Yeah.”, Rose added, “I hope the asteroid breaks open and reveals a truth about the nature of nature that is so unexpected, belittling, and unsettling, that it drops us into sheer horror.” John looked at her decisively unsurprised. “Or maybe it is just a cool image of an asteroid. Astronomy rocks and space is great.”, Rose more pretended to emote than said. But then she paused and added sincerely: “There is beauty among the stars.” “With some luck…,”, Becky added, completely serious, while finishing up with some adjustments, “We will get another glimpse at the vastness that surrounds us. How could not look at the sky with curiosity.” “Tonight you say?”, John inquired. “Yes.”, Becky answered. “Around midnight, it should be dark enough and we should be able to see it even with the naked eye.” “Will you be here and watch it?” “No.”, Rose said, stretching the o maybe a bit more than it was called for. “They do not want us here at night. So we have to set this up and hope for a great recording.” “Well… hope it works out.” John smiled at Becky and nodded at Rose. Then he excused himself and headed for the couches. He did not want to sleep just outside the astronomy room. So he went to the relatively lumpy couches in the Art building, named after local celebrity Burton Art. Becky and Rose continued to set up the telescope until the doors closed behind John. Rose peeked over the telescope and through the windows in the doors. When she saw that John was beyond earshot, she nodded as if she was part of a secret ring of spies. “Nice nice.”, Becky uttered in lieu of anything more substantial to say and tried to look even more busy. “Yeah. Nice how nice you two still are with another.”, Rose probed. “Almost as if it did not hurt.” “Hm…”, Becky answered. “It still does hurt a little. But it just was not… Well, it does still hurt. There´s a scar now on the heart. Maybe it´s healing, sometimes it feels like that. So it won´t hurt in the future or only when the weather is about to change. In any case, I feel that it´ll stay in some form.” “Sounds at least like it was real.”, Rose concluded and duck back down behind the telescope. The day that had begun so early dragged on in the middle. Biology class was turned into self-study by the absence of the regular teacher and the lack of a qualified substitute. John flipped through the textbook with his right, while his head rested on his left. There were not going to be any more test or quizzes or projects this year. Knowing that, John did not pay much attention to the contents of the pages and let his thoughts wander. “Do you think you would notice it as different when you were a duck?”, he quietly asked Neil who sat next to him. “Up until now I thought this self-study was even less useful than sex ed last week.”, Neil moaned loudly instead of giving an answer. Nearby, sitting at a bench next to Becky, Rose snickered. Some other students laughed, most were indifferent and bored. The moment passed. “Like, if you woke up tomorrow and were a duck. Would you remember how it was to be a person? Would you want to remember?”, John continued. “All I can say to this is: I hope not – on the duck thing. My uncle hunts those. This would make for super awkward Thanksgivings.” Meanwhile Becky read the newspaper, searching out the reports on the asteroid. “You cannot pretend to do biology while actually doing some work on another science.”, Rose insisted as she noticed. “That is like cheating. A weird way of cheating, but still… You should at least cheat on biology with social studies, or history. English or a foreign language would work as well, I guess.” “What are you doing?”, Becky asked back, looked up from the paper and at her friend. Rose pointed to her sketch pad. “Take it in. These are the initial drawings of the cycle of Solomar. You see them here as first mortal before they conquer the world by storm.”, Rose exclaimed. “Looks great.”, Becky said, studying the drawings. “I like this lone heroine. Looks a bit like a barbarian, like as if she was about wrestle with a dragon.” “How do you know that she is a lone heroine?”, Rose asked. “She’s one of yours.”, Becky said. At some point, the time for self-study officially ended. The students packed their things quickly into their bags and were in the midst of storming out. Neil strolled over to Rose and Becky, braving the current of leaving classmates. “Rose, you have a minute? There is something we should talk about. Something important.”, Neil announced. “Important like art, or just like life and death?”, Rose inquired while stuffing her textbook in her backpack. “Or like love?”, Becky added with a side-glance at Rose. Neil hesitated, clearly thinking about a reply. “Super important. This is about the social studies project we did together.”, he explained. “The one we handed in and got a grade? I thought the circle was completed, the fate sealed.”, Rose answered. She then waved Becky a short goodbye as Becky was leaving for English less prepared than she could have been. “Yeah, let´s see about that. I don´t think that it should be sealed. We should talk to Ms. French about the grade. -See you Becky.- Fran agrees with me on that. Let´s meet her now and go to Ms. French.” “Ok. But afterwards it is lunch time. Actually, I think it is lunch time now – but if you insist, I will postpone my meal. I hope you will use this chunk of my life time gifted to you to a proper end.”, Rose stated and grabbed her bag. “Of course. Have I ever wasted my or anybody else’s time?”, Neil replied. Both they then left the classroom and made her way to the Art building and Ms. French´s office. The cafeteria was emptier than usual. Rose and Neil had no problems finding an empty table. “Told you that it would go well. We just had to highlight the amount of work that had gone into the project.”, Neil repeated. “Hm.”, Rose replied and then decided to dig into the pasta instead of expanding on that. “I mean, your contribution was obvious. The illustrations were both bloody and really good. They might have distracted Ms. French a bit. It was her fault, though, as she gave us this particular topic. Thanks for showing up with Fran and me anyway. Now we can be satisfied with the grades.”, Neil said, a fork with food hovering close to his mouth. Rose nodded. “It was a fun project. We should hang out more often. Like we used to in the golden days of our youth. Like, like we used to up until a few weeks ago.”, she added. “Yeah.”, he put down the fork again. “Only… weird without the other two and weird with them now. That was easier before.” “True.” She eyed a suspicious lump in the red sauce. “There is one group-thingy I like and now it is that… weird. I wonder if they thought about what they are doing to us when they… did what they did. Now we are like a family, divorce and all.” “Hah, true.”, Neil exclaimed and then finally took a bite. “Maye we can educate the others and reduce the awkwardness.” “There’s only so much time before everybody moves away for college next year.”, Neil said in a low voice, leaving it open if this was unclear if this was an argument for or against. “Oh.”, Rose grunted. “Maybe we should not have sought to improve our grades then. And we should find a way to drag the ones of the others down. Then we can repeat a year or two or more. Stupid maybe, but happy.” “Yeah… no. Not sure if this would even work.” Neil decided it was time to go over to the dessert. “So this remains an issue for future me an you. It is also for future Becky and John, of course.”, Rose suggested. She discovered that the lump was just an oddly shaped noodle and ate without concern. “Future me and future you, future us, and them too.”, Neil repeated. Both he and Rose lifted their heads, smiled, and listened in anticipation. Instead of music, Becky arrived with a food trey and sat down next to Rose. “Hi. How are you two?”, Becky asked. “We are doomed due to our feelings and the feelings of others.”, Rose declared. “Of course we are. But who are the others this time?”, Becky wondered. Rose sighed theatrically and Neil smirked before shaking his head. After lunch, Rose and Becky had some time before the next class that was not already assigned to any task or activity and went outside. Rose walked directly to one of the battered blue payphones and punched in a number. “Hello, I would like to talk to the Ericsons, please. Yes, whoever of them is available right now… I am their daughter. The other one. Yes… thank you Mr. nurse.” While Rose talked to the bodiless voice in a strange city, Becky settled in the corner made by the phone and the concrete wall of the main building. There was a pause as Rose waited for her parents. Becky imagined how now their names would be called out over PA, how one of them would move through the hallways of the hospital, looking for the next available phone. While she imagined this, Becky looked across the school parking lot and then beyond its chain-link fence at the town across the small straight. It was nestled on that small ragged island with curved bays and towering cliffs with sharp edges. It was a rugged place between the ocean and the mainland. It was as if the town was clinging to a rock among the waves. There were a lot of houses with great views as they were built close to the cliffs. Even greater must have been the view for the cedars. The trees filled still the spaces people had left for them. Some crept very close to the edges and others even hang out a bit over the ocean, just barely hanging on to the rock. And yet they did. They even managed to reach out to the sky. Some storms were strong enough to break them and take them away. But a number of them was still left. Becky had some favourites among these cedars. Old and brave ones she always sought out when she had a minute to look out over her home town. Faster than expected, Rose was connected. She exchanged individual words with one of her parents. By the sound of this, it was her mother. No, Becky decided after three more words, probably it was her dad. “Well but that is good… like, given the situation. Hugh her from me… if, if this is possible. …Yeah. Bye.” Rose hung up. “Well that was… yeah, good. At least she is fine. For the moment at least she is fine. That is a win.” Becky turned towards her friend and nodded, then laid an arm around her shoulders. “Yes it is, Rose. I´m glad she’s doing ok.” John stood, his bike and himself ready to leave, already on the parking lot, a few steps away from the main building. Neil, on the other hand, still fiddled with his padlock, aiming to free his bike, but as of yet unable to make that plan a reality. Then he stopped suddenly in mid-fiddling. “Shit… should take a look and check if Pete has locked the commissary. I guess I should.” Neil wavered a bit. “Yes, should do that.” He let the padlock be for the moment and sprinted back to the main entrance. “Maybe go ahead without me. We can meet at my place. One of my parents is probably home. They´ll let you in. And if it´s my dad, you might get some chocolate milk while you wait.”, Neil said to John over his shoulder. “No. It´s ok.”, replied John. “I´ll wait. Let´s go together.” Neil gesticulated vaguely but then nodded. When he passed the doors and went into the main building, he passed Rose, and both gave each other high fives in passing. Rose then made her way to John. She stopped beside him on the parking lot under the warm sun. “All done for the day?”, Rose inquired. “Yes, all done.”, he reported. “Not just for today even. There is nothing going on tomorrow, right? Besides getting on the bus, I mean.” “True. So you are good and settled for the whole year then. Great!” “You?” “I am done as well. Done and done. Except for the asteroid business, but this is more of an extra credit and in any case something I do more to give a hand to Becky.”, Rose replied. “Look at us. We got all taken care of. So if we were to die now, we leave nothing behind that can further bind us as wraiths to this plane of existence.” “Lucky us.”, John smiled. “Could be an interesting experience to be a wraith, though.” “Nah.” Rose shook her head. “Probably not. Besides, that is something that you can try in the far-away future after dying of old age.” She mustered him. “How is our story going?” “It is going well… I hope. Maybe a few more weeks of work and then it is ready to be rejected like the other ones.” Rose nodded gravely before cocking her head and smiling a bit mischievously. “Well if this is not something to live for.” She was about to add something, but in this moment, Becky drove towards the two. She stopped the car and let the passenger side door swing open for Rose to get in. “Have a good one.”, John said. “See you.”, Rose gave back. “And remember: Always create something that, if aliens from the future would find it as only surviving artefact of our civilization would understand us at least a bit. Picture mankind naked and write about it.” “Will do.”, John said and laughed. Then he and Becky exchanged a smile and a wave, before the girls got into the truck and drove off. John was not alone for long, though. Neil returned right afterwards. “Oh, should have asked her to give us a lift.”, Neil exclaimed. “She’d have done it.” “Of course Becky would have done it.”, John said flatly. “Her pickup even has space for bikes in the back. That would have been great.” “We are not really going in their direction.”, John replied. Neil just shrugged and then went to unlock and unchain his bike. “Could transport at least one caged dinosaur on that truck. God, how I miss that old rusty lady.”, Neil exclaimed. After a brief pause, he added: “I mean the truck. With old lady, I mean the vehicle.” He then finally was able to open his rusty lock and free his bike. He went over to John and both took to their saddles and started to bike down to town. “Think Becky is going to sell her car when she moves for college?”, Neil wondered aloud and very eager to move the conversation forward. “Ask her. But do not take it for free.” As everything failed, there was nothing left but drifting into the cold darkness. All that while the mind raced and tried to imagine the end. A whole world was about to lose itself in the eternal night. The end and the way there would be lonely. Soon it would end, but the time until then was still long. Too long not to fear madness before the darkness. But then there was a little blue spot shining in all the darkness. Maybe this one was hospitable enough, close enough to save a life.

#horror #spooky #monster #fiction #writing #story

1 note · View note

soupncrackwrs · 4 years

Text

Okay so I had an idea for an AFTG fic but again I’m horrible at anything that isn’t hc’s so here we are (feel free to make this into a fic if you want just credit me) *Also all pairing in this are platonic besides andreil and mattdan soo, don’t like get out*

This spawned from that fact that one of my 3 PTP’s (platonic trust pairing) in AFTG is Kev and Neil

This is probably my PTP that has the most popularity in the fandom I’d say (my other 2 are Renee/Andrew/Neil and Neil/Dan which are both *really* hard to find ((at least on ao3)) so that sucks) but you’d be surprised how little it gets like actually focused on

Most times, platonic wise, Neil gets shown bonding with The MonstersTM, Allison, or Matt

wHICH IS FINE IM TOTALLY OKAY W/ THAT

I just happen to enjoy neil/dan, kev/neil,and renee/andrew/neil more

So I wanted a fic that really showcased kev and neils relationship

BUT IM ALSO IN LOVE WITH OUSIDER POV SO THIS HAPPENED

Now onto the actual headcanon

So neil and kevin are like best friends

They've been like that for a while

but they also like fucking despise each other

like they love and care deeply for each other and would probably die for the other if the situation called for it

but will that stop them from almost killing each other 24/7?

HELL NO

so they go to college together

along with all the upperclassmen (so matt+dan+allison+renee+seth) but not the monsters

andrew and neil have been together for a bit

they met around the same time kev and neil did so they've been together for a while (also while we're talking abt relationships, i don't ship renison ((am i the only one who believes that renee is a strong aro gal who don't need no man/lady/person)) but if you wanna make this renison, go ahead)

andrew goes to a different college tho ( for some reason i dunno)

and neil doesn't really like sharing stuff abt his personal life

we all know this

but a lot of the stuff he's done in his life involves andrew

so drew is brought up a fair amount

but when the upperclassmen ask who he is neil kinda just smiles and then moves on so they ask kevin and he's like

oh andrew is like one of my bffls he's a ride or die

(obviously not phrased like that)

and the upperclassmen r like 'ok he can be trusted he's a friend'

(little do they know hehhehhe-)

sO ONE DAY

kev is tryna forget all his issues

so he decides to get hella pissed

wasted like he's never been b4

probably cause thea broke up w/ him last week but we don't talk abt that okay shhhhhhh

so he goes to the next party alli throws and

let's say it together kids

gets wasted like he's never been b4

to the point where the upperclassmen don't really know wht to do with him????

so they call up neil like yo pick up kev he's drunk off his ass like always but we think he's doing it cause he's sad this time'

so neil, being the good and sweet angel (not) that he is

goes to pick up kevin

and like he finds him on a coach almost catatonic just rambling to himself

so neil picks him up and drags him away to his car

and ofc all the upperclassmen r trying to help

so while neil is putting kevin into his car kev randomly just stops talking

(which is weird cause he's kept rambling this entire time)

and he looks neil in the eyes and goes

'i love you neil'

and neil just like takes a second

pAuSeS

because he's not used to people showing him love even tho so many ppl rlly do love him (this boy is2g-)

and then quietly says

'love you too kev'

and finishes buckling him up

all the upperclassmen have been watching this going on the entire time and they read into in the exact wrong way

(they're trying their best, my baby dumbasses, but they're just wrong)

and think this is a romantic love confession between frenimies *instead* of the declaration of mutual respect and affection between 2 bro's that it is

matt is the first one to voice this after kev and neil leave and he is

PUMPED

he is super excited that his bro has found someone to love just like he found dan and is super excited to like talk abt love and go on double dates n stuff

and every one else agrees

which is why they're all super disappointed that by the time a week goes by, nothing has changed between them

so dan matt and allison decide to do something about it (renee+seth ducking out because'it's rude to meddle' and 'why tf would i care abt jostens love bullshit')

they try to set up kevin and neil a bunch of different time s

once with the offer of a study session that they all say they can't make it to, leaving neil and kevin alone

another time with the offer of kevin and neil going to the movies w/ matt and dan

(neil ends up busy w/ a skype date with andrew that he can't pass up cause they're always so busy and he has to see his boyf so kevin just ends up 3rd wheeling matt and dan)

and once with allison straight up just telling neil that he and kevin should get coffee some time

which neil respond to with

'we already get coffee together?'

so dan matt and alli are stumped

they don't know what to do with these 'lovesick' idiots

they're problem gets solved tho don't you worry

so the next weekend, andrew is gonna come over to psu and stay for like a week

neil is oVER THE MOON

HE IS SOO HAPPYYYYY

And kevin is really happy too

so the upperclassmen take this to mean that these boys have finally gotten the hint and asked each other out

so imagine they're suprise when the next time the group goes to get lunch (which they do with each other every wednesday )

a super short blond emo joins them

and no one really acknowledges it?!?!?!?!?!?

until renee is just like 'hello andrew, how are you?' knowing smile on her face

and the upperclassmen are just like 'oh it's the famous andrew, that makes sense' but then they're like 'wait how does renee know andrew?!?!'

they ask and renee is just like 'neil gave me his discord. he thought we'd get along well'

-and then they're just like okayyy renee totally has a crush but well let it slideee

uNTIL

at the end of lunch neil is just like 'oh wait i never properly introduced him-' -cause you're a mess, junkie' -fuck off andrew' then just turns to the upperclassmen and says

'guys this is my boyfriend andrew'

and the foxes just silently freak out

because neil is in love with kevin? it's so clear? why did neil go and get a boyf when he has his love right in front of him??????

so after lunch, matt dan and alli ask to talk to neil privately

(andrew, kev,and renee all talk together while seth like, looks at his phone)

and they're like 'neil why'd you get a boyf??'

and neils like 'wdym?'

and alli says 'why'd you get a boyf if your so obviously in love w/ kevin?!'

and neil just LAUGHS at them

straight up cackles

and then the upperclassmen are like whaaaaattttt????

we saw your declaration of love at the party??

and you're both really close and seem to genuinely like and be interested in each other??

what gives????

and neils like

'me n kev are besties

that was a platonic declaration of love

also

i'm demi and me and drew have been together for like 3 years now'

and the upperclassmen are just like 'ooooooooooooooooohhhhhh sorryyyyyyyyy'

it's the first time alli has ever lost a bet (it was w/ seth abt neils feelings for kevin)

neil tells andrew abt it and the shortie just snorts and is like 'kevin would fuck a racket quicker than he'd fuck you'

neil is like 'i'm basically exy personified tho, soooooo'

drew tells him to shut up

(he does when andrew asks yes or no, just nods his head and smiles)

renee knew all along and is happy for her friends

kevin just wants to play exy he's been deprived the entire post

So yeah that's the entire headcanon. If you want some music to listen to while you write or just in general i recommend "I lost a Friend" by FINNEAS and "Corduroy Dreams" by Rex Orange County. they don't really have anything to do with the story, they're just real good :) Thanks for reading. see y'all later

#Spotify #aftg fandom #aftg au #andreil #psu foxes #outsider pov #headcanon #fanfic #sorry for the long post #thanks for coming to my ted talk #im gonna stop now #aight peace

3 notes · View notes

shivamgumber50 · 4 years

Text

How To Get Started With Email Marketing

As a savvy marketer, you’ve probably seen the reports that show email has the highest ROI of any marketing channel available. And you’re probably keen to start using it to drive sales and revenue for your business. But How To Get Started With Email Marketing? What are the steps you need to take to get up and running with email and ensure your campaigns are a success?

Did you know there are 3 times more email accounts than Facebook & Twitter accounts combined? Or that you are 6 more likely to get a click-through from email than on Twitter?

There are 3.8 billion email users worldwide. So if you’re looking for a way to reach your customers, email is the perfect place to find them. On average, email generates $38 for every dollar spent, which is a 3,800% return on investment.

I’ve already talked on Why use Email marketing? in my last post. If you haven’t read it yet make sure to check out and see how amazing and vast possibility is email marketing.

Before you get overwhelmed with the vast possibilities of email marketing. Let’s break down this post into and see what we will learn today.

Purpose of Email marketing

How To Get Started With Email Marketing

Create Strategy

Building Email list

How To Design Your Emails

Type Of Campaigns

Final Note

Purpose Of Email Marketing

Build Relationships: Build connections through personalized engagement.

Brand Awareness: Keep your company and your services top-of-mind for the moment when your prospects are ready to engage.

Content Promotion: Use email to share relevant blog content or useful assets with your prospects.

Lead Generation: Entice your subscribers to provide their personal information in exchange for an asset that they’d find valuable.

Product Marketing: Promote your products and services.

Lead Nurturing: Delight your customers with content that can help them succeed in their goals.

How To Get Started With Email Marketing

Email marketing is the single most powerful channel to reach your audience, and it can be used to achieve a number of different objectives, so it’s worth spending some time thinking about what you want to achieve with it before jumping in.

Create Strategy

It can be tempting to simply sign up for an email marketing tool like Campaign Monitor and start sending your first campaign. But first we need to consider these:

1. Define Your Audience

An effective email is a relevant email. Like everything else in marketing, start with your buyer persona, understand what they want, and tailor your email campaign to your audience’s needs.

2. Establish Goals

Before you come up with your campaign goals, gather some context. Research the average email stats for your industry and use them as benchmarks for your goals.

3. Create a Way for People to Sign Up

You need people to email, right? An email list is a group of users who have given you permission to send them relevant content. To build that list, you need several ways for prospects to opt in to receive your emails. This is the most important part of How To Get Started With Email Marketing. Don’t be discouraged if you only have a few people on your list to start. It can take some time to build. In the meantime, treat every single subscriber and lead like gold, and you’ll start to see your email list grow organically.

4. Choose an Email Campaign Type

Email campaigns vary and trying to decide between them can be overwhelming. Do you send a weekly newsletter? Should you send out new product announcements? Which blog posts are worth sharing? These questions plague every marketer. The answer is subjective. You can start by learning about the different types of email campaigns that exist, then decide which is best for your audience. You should also set up different lists for different types of emails, so customers and prospects can sign up for only the emails that are relevant to them.

5. Make a Schedule

Decide how often you plan to contact your list, inform your audience upfront so they know what to expect, and stick to a consistent schedule to build trust, and so they don’t forget about you.

6. Measure Your Results

This should come as no surprise. As marketers, we measure everything. Being meticulous about every key metric will help you make small changes to your emails that will yield large results.

Build Email List

Now that you have established your goals and what you want to achieve from email marketing, it’s time to build your email list so you can start sending campaigns that those goals.

There are a couple of different ways you can build your email list.

Import a list Of Known Contacts

If you plan to use email to keep in touch with existing customers, then your email list can be built largely by importing your existing customers details into your chosen email marketing tool.

Before you import any contacts though, ensure you have adequate permission to email these subscribers. If you’re not sure, check out our Permissions guide or contact our support team as they’ll be happy to chat with you about permissions and uploading your list.

Build a new list from scratch

If you plan to use email to communicate with an audience whose email address you might not have yet, then you’ll need to start capturing email addresses and building your list from scratch.

Fortunately for you, there is a 2-part formula for building your email list that is followed by many of the most successful email marketers around. The formula is:

A valuable incentive + simple subscribe opportunities = large email list

Some incentives you could use to entice people to join your email list:

1. Make your offer solution-oriented and actionable.

Provide practical information that solves a problem and create a realistic way to achieve the solution.

2. Ensure that the asset is easy to consume.

Lead magnets should be delivered in a digital format. Whether it’s a PDF, a webpage, a video, or some other format, make it easy for your new lead to obtain and consume it.

3. Create your offer with future content in mind.

There’s nothing worse than signing up for a great offer only to be disappointed by the content that follows. Make sure your offer is aligned with the value that you will provide throughout your relationship, otherwise you risk damaging trust.

4. Treat your lead magnet as a stepping stone to your paid solution.

The point of your email list is to eventually guide subscribers to a paid offer. You offer free content to demonstrate the value that you provide as a company, and those free offers should eventually lead to your product or service.

5. Create offers that are relevant to each stage of the buyer’s journey.

Every new lead will be at a different stage of the buyer’s journey, and it’s your responsibility to know which. Segment your list from the beginning by providing separate opt-in offers that pertain to each stage of the buyer’s journey. You can tell a lot about a prospect’s mindset by the content they consume.

How To Design Your Emails

Let’s see How To Get Started With Email Marketing and design your email.

Header Bar

The Header Bar sits at the very top of your website and contains a call to action encouraging people to join as well as a form to input your email address.

Slider

A slider is small box that ‘slides in’ to the bottom corner of your website and contains a call to action encouraging people to subscribe along with a field for visitors to enter their email address. An excellent tool for setting this up on your own website is Scroll Box . This simple tool makes it easy for you to customize and insert a Slider into your website. And integrates directly with Campaign Monitor to feed any email addresses you capture into your list.

By following the email list building formula mentioned above and coupling a valuable incentive with prominent subscribe opportunities. You’ll find it easy to build a new audience to send your email marketing campaigns to.

Top of Sidebar

If your site uses a sidebar, typically used in blogs and article segments, this is an ideal place to embed an opt-in for your subscriber list. Ideally, you want the opt-in to be above the fold in the uppermost space of the sidebar for maximum visibility, ensuring it’s seen first.

This is most effective with a right-aligned sidebar as it takes advantage of users who scan content in an ‘F’ pattern, putting your opt-in CTA front and center as soon as they land on your site or blog/article.

End of Post

When a visitor reads your content all the way to the end it’s fair to assume they enjoyed the read. So, why not ask them to sign-up to ensure they never miss out on upcoming content?

End-of-post opt-ins are a great place to grab subscribers in a space where brands otherwise rarely include a call-to-action other than telling readers to comment and share. Instead, include a visual call to action with your newsletter opt-in.

You’ll definitely see an improvement in conversions if you have a content upgrade offered in context (on topic) with the post in question.

Lightboxes

While pop-ups may be seen by some as intrusive and annoying, countless studies and tests have shown they can be effective. There a few things you need to get right to create an effective pop-up opt-in that doesn’t run off your audience:

The right value offer

A strong call to action

Timing

Timing is one to pay attention to. A pop-up opt-in that shows as a reader finishes an article, or around 3/4 of the page scrolled, is far more likely to convert than one that triggers on every page of the site as soon as a visitor arrives.

Some sites only show lightbox opt-ins that trigger when a user shows exit-intent (moving the mouse cursor outside the browser area). New York Times best-selling author, Neil Patel, tested opt-ins with exit-intent and was able to increase conversions by 46%.

Experiment with the message and timing of lightbox opt-ins to find what brings the highest conversion of new subscribers.

Type Of Campaign

There are a number of different types of email campaigns marketers like you can send to subscribers.

Let’s take a look on How To Get Started With Email Marketing at the different types of campaigns and how they can help you achieve your email marketing goals.

Newsletter

An email newsletter is a regularly distributed email campaign that is generally about one main topic of interest.

If your goal is to keep in touch with a list of people you already know (i.e. existing customers), then a newsletter is the perfect type of campaign to send. It will keep your business and your products top of mind and drive people back to your website.

Marketing Offer

A marketing offer email is essentially any campaign you send with the goal of driving a direct response.

This can take a number of different forms, including:

A campaign showcasing some of the latest stock and encouraging people to purchase.

A campaign offering a discount or special promotion on your products or services.

The marketing offer email is effective if your goal with email is to directly drive sales. It presents a product or discount offer and includes a direct call to action for people to click-through to your website and make a purchase.

Announcement

An announcement campaign is an email sent to your subscribers announcing a new product, feature, or service.

The announcement email is perfect if you want to keep an engaged audience (i.e. existing customers) up-to-date on your latest products or features. While the sharing of information is the primary goal, the email may have the added benefit of driving people back to your store or website where they can make a purchase.

Event Invitation

An event invitation email is a campaign designed to increase awareness of your event and encourage people to attend.

If you’re looking to drive direct sales. Then sending marketing offer and announcement campaigns are going to return the best results. However if you are simply looking to keep your existing customers up-to-date on the latest projects, products or developments at your company. Then sending a regular newsletter is going to be the best way to achieve that.

Final Note

While there are many rules to sending a marketing email, the most important is this: Treat your subscribers like humans.

Your subscribers want to hear from you, and they want to relate to you. Be a genuine resource, and they will look forward to opening an email from you just like they would any friend of theirs.

In this post we’ve simply discovered Email marketing or How To Get Started With Email Marketing in next post I will breakdown complex stuff about email marketing.

My Digital Tomorrow - Blog

mydigitaltomorrow.com

1 note · View note

djhedy · 4 years

Note

3, 15, and/or 24 for the fic ask meme?

from end of year asks post

thank you anon

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

2019 is the year i rejoined fandom! i grew up reading and writing harry potter fanfic, took many-years break, and came back in january 2019, post-break-up, for the raven cycle and all for the game. so it’s really been a year of learning how to write again, learning how i like writing. it turns out i really like one-sentence paragraphs. here are some examples i can think of, i guess i do this style a lot, which i do unapologetically.

from (trc) alive, alive alive

Something tugged inside Ronan and he stomped outside. He made his way towards the first field and just started walking, jacket forgotten, boots sliding easily through wet grass, skylight dimming, his breath coming out in shudders like smoke, and at some point Opal had come running out of a hedge or a tree or a rock, had run rings around him, had shown him all the stones she’d found that she thought looked like her opal, and he’d nodded, had accepted a stone in cold dry fingers, had felt it in his palm all rough texture against rough texture, had watched her bobbing head as she exhausted herself against the day, had looked at the wet grass curled around his boots, at the line of trees curling at the foot of the hill, at the dissipating clouds in the paling orange sky.

from (trc) sunlight feels good now don’t it

When Adam woke up it was to tight skin and dreams of his father towering above him, Adam on the ground, please stop please stop please stop and his left ear ringing – he touched it, vacant, elsewhere; it was to loud warring voices in his head and him, frowning, and not opening his eyes as he thought I overreacted, Gansey wasn’t saying – but also – I am broken and he knows he knows he doesn’t want me to break him too – and he swung a leg out of bed, and then the other, eyes still closed, and thought – I really don’t think that’s what he meant, this isn’t fucking logical Adam – but also – but ok we do know I’m manipulative and selfish and weren’t those the exact qualities Gansey’s afraid of – and then he opened his eyes and his skin was crawling and his father was walking towards him and he just wanted it to stop and he imagined smashing a glass into a wall and wished for a split second it was his father’s face, no, he wished it was his face – it was a little your fault, wasn’t it Adam? – and then he opened his eyes, stared, a little stunned, blood on his knuckles and the bathroom mirror shattered, glass dripping into the sink, and from somewhere far away Daniel’s voice, “Adam?”

from (aftg) hold me close

“I don’t need protecting, and you promised to stop that bullshit a long time ago. Do you understand or do I need to repeat myself?”

There’s a couple of birds flying overhead, their calls to each other just loud enough to filter through the pounding in his head, and it sounds like the sky is singing, and then he can hear waves too, crashing against the sand he’s standing on, and it’s like he’s trapped in a soundscape that he hadn’t been listening to before – or maybe wasn’t able to hear – but suddenly it snaps back to him with a jolt of colour, and noise, and the understanding that he’s barely awake, that he’s standing right where his mother died, screaming at someone he doesn’t want to live without.

so, yeh, there’s that. but also here is a favourite single line i can think of, from (trc) sunlight:

This speech had been made to the sky, and Adam spent a while after he’d finished speaking wondering at the appropriateness of that. That someone the scale of Ronan could only fit into something as infinite and wondrous as the sky.

15. something you learned this year

ah man. idk. i spent a lot of this year digesting my own mental health / general life woes by reading and writing fanfic. so something i’ve learned. maggie s said in a writing seminar you can’t write about a problem you have if you haven’t solved it yet. i think about this a lot. i think about writing adam parrish grappling with the concept of anger, thinking of himself as a monster he can’t escape; neil josten unable to admit something’s wrong, unable to take the first steps in fixing what’s wrong in his brain chemistry. idk. maybe i was able to write these stories because i have, at least partly, dealt with my own issues with the concept of anger, with taking a step forwards in seeking help. maybe it’s because i’m in fandoms where we fucking love talking about our problems. which i think is a really really good thing. or maybe il reread these two stories in a few years’ time and think “hoo boy she really was still in the thick of it and had no idea eh”.

this was supposed to be what have i learned. i have learned that:

it is ok to use writing fanfic as a way to learn about yourself; but it can’t be everything

it is ok to use reading fanfic as a way to feel your emotions safely; but it can’t be everything

be yourself! that is what i have learned. the rest will follow.

24. favorite fic you read this year

my gosh well that’s not fair because i’ve read essentially the entire backlog of the trc and aftg top hits this year and then some. however, these are the ones that stuck out, that i’ll keep going back to (ignoring like the five you’ve all already read anyway):

(the raven cycle) Like Storms: this fic man… selectively mute adam meets gansey and ronan at college, and they in turn meet ghost!noah in a church and… i dont know my heart just Did Not Cope. i don’t know how to explain how special this one is, except to really emphasise that i spent this year really only reading fanfiction, and this is the one i’m choosing to recommend.

(harry potter) Away Childish Things: this broke me. it’s basically an excuse to have harry and draco deal with their traumas by meeting the younger version of each other, and figuring out shit they should have figured out already. it’s, genuinely, one of the most beautiful things i’ve ever read.

(all for the game) we might be hollow: im going to cheat and very quickly give you this, possibly my favourite long fic? neighbours au, and, stunning, i just remember the pacing was perfect and i felt like *a lot*. BUT im sorry can i also just very quickly shove this in your face. paper skies: favourite short, hands down, no contest. absolutely gorgeous short piece about andrew’s favourite colour, and how he uses it to search for meaning in his life. i’ve read this one so many times.

---

ok that’s all. ask me more questions if you can stand such long answers.

#aftg #trc #fanfic #w r i t i n g #and reading!#and answering questions too #ao3 #is just the best place #dont you think #hp #harry potter #a lil bit

1 note · View note

auroral-melody · 5 years

Note

Do you know any good book suggestions for people who liked Neil Gaiman and Pratchett ? Sorry for bothering you again :D

Not bothering me at all! :DDD Love me some book-sharing!

Well, I don’t know about specifically for people who like Gaiman and Pratchett. But I can tell you some books that I like! Some of my favorites! Typically sci-fi or fantasy, comedic but also serious is the theme here...

Just in general Douglas Adams. I like The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Various gods being chaotic. Thor not understanding passports.

The Stainless Steel Rat (Harry Harrison) -- this has been my favorite series for YEARS. It’s a bit, well, dated, since it was first written 1961, but it’s HILARIOUS. Fun space romp. It’s essentially about a mass criminal in the space age who teases the police. PLEASE READ IT,

Here’s a quick excerpt from when he’s trying to set up a band for...god, I don’t remember. Reasons. Anyway, bagpipes have long since been forgotten....

The Martian (Andy Weir) -- I love comedy and I’m a physics major, I legally have to love this book. It’s SO GOOD.

“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.”

“Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.”

“As with most of life's problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation.”

If you don’t know, it’s about a guy who gets stuck on Mars, and it’s written mostly journal-entry style. I like the book better -- the movie actually skipped like, 2-3 Major Plot Points that cause a lot of fun horrible things to happen!!! I love this book so much.

The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis) -- It’s about a demon, Wormwood, whose job is to tempt a specific human to damnation. The book is written p much entirely from letters that Wormwood’s uncle/mentor(?) Screwtape sends him to advise him. It has its funny moments (the “accidentally turned into a centipede” bit is ICONIC), but it’s a fairly theologically thoughtful book. It’s almost creepy to read, because Screwtape gives such good advice on how to tempt people. I don’t know, I like this book a lot.

Silverwing (Kenneth Oppel) -- Tbh, I don’t remember the series That well, I need to reread, but it’s about a bat named Shade and his interactions with humans (and human warfare), as well as larger, more frightening vampire bats Goth and Throbb...

The second book, Firewing, takes place in a version of Hell. That version of Hell has actually always been influential to how I think of/write/draw Hell -- there’s a whole story arc involving the stone sky and chipping away at it to try to reach the surface...it’s fascinating.

I loved His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman) (fighting god, cool animal partners) although I have exactly 0 memory of the 3rd book where all that happens. I also liked a lot of Eoin Colfer books including but not limited to Artemis Fowl (fair folk, centaurs, fun science/magic, boy genius), The Supernaturalist (cyberpunk), and The Legend of the Worst Boy in the World (just a fun ol’ realisticish comedy). A lot of them are considered YA/kids, I bet, but they’re honestly just fun and really good. Also Half-Moon Investigations I remember fondly and have no idea what it’s about except it’s a mystery.

(If you’re more mathy like me, I’m plugging Flatland. I know a lot of people found it boring but I loved it a lot. As far as I remember it’s “capitalism fucks up even basic geometric shapes! also, what if the world were 2D?”)

If you’re into comics, may I recommend:

Out from Boneville (Jeff Smith), a fantasy comic involving a few odd creatures called “Bones” coming across humanity, as well as a couple of rat creatures Stinky and Smelly (who loves quiche). I unfortunately am missing most of the middle books, so I’ve never read the whole thing, but it’s really good okay, I adore this series.

Loki: Agent of Asgard (Al Ewing) This is one of the few Marvel comics I’ve read (I’m currently reading a bit of Journey into Mystery). It’s fun and it’s a lot of good Loki characterization, and a lot of nonbinary Loki!!!!

Hope you have a chance to read some of these sometime!

#books #recommendations #asks #answers #to read #:D #currently reading Snow Crash and Wyrd Sisters #Anonymous

8 notes · View notes

binkywinky · 5 years

Note

hi! Comics rec anon here! to answer your question, I'm not entirely new to comics, have read a few but not enough to say I have a specific type. The first series I read was all the jessica jones comics which I really liked, also the miles morales series which i enjoyed and the spidergwen series which was cute but the art was kinda annoying lol. i also like a couple of dc ones like mister miracle. so i think i prefer a general rec from you since the comics world is so big. thanks in advance!

Got it. Hmm… let’s see. It’s probably easiest to break it down by publisher then. I’ll try to give a mix of ongoing, finished, and “classic” stories.

Fair warning, I read a lot of comics (probably about 60 per month, and that’s not including manga), so even though this may feel like a long list, it’s short for me.

Marvel

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man - Relatively new series, and it’s been fantastic so far. Great art, and a bit more grounded than the Amazing Spider-Man run (which is also great). Stellar art, too.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man - A little YA-ish at times, but overall enjoyable. You get to see a lot more of Miles’ personality in this one, which is always fun.

Superior Spider-Man - Because nothing is more fun than seeing a semi-reformed Otto Octavius try to be a hero.

Captain Marvel - Kelly Thompson does a phenomenal job with this series. She has a great hold of Carol’s voice. Would highly recommend Kelly Sue Deconnick and Margaret Stohl’s previous runs to give context (Captain Marvel 2012-2017, Mighty Captain Marvel, and The Life of Captain Marvel).

Jessica Jones - Not sure if you’ve read Kelly Thompson’s recent run or just Bendis’, but hers is definitely worth a read.

Avengers (2019) - actually a solid run. I would check this out if you’re more into crossover, large-scale storytelling. They’re in the middle of War of the Realms, though… so maybe wait until like August or September?

Immortal Hulk, Daredevil, and X-23 - also good. I read them off and on (not really my fave characters to read on their own, I enjoy them in ensembles), but the stories are solid.

Rogue & Gambit - mini series that I absolutely love by Kelly Thompson (she does great character work) that came out last year. Mr. & Mrs. X is a follow-up to it and also tons of fun (nearing its end as well).

Runaways - I fell off of this when Brian K. Vaughn left, but I can say up through his run ended is well worth the read.

As far as classic stories, Infinity Gauntlet, The Dark Phoenix Saga, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, Secret Invasion, and Secret Wars would be my first recommendations.

I would’ve recommended Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider, but maybe wait on that. It’s about to end soon and transition to just Ghost Spider (where she leaves Earth-65 and comes to Earth-616 where Peter and Miles are). Same for X-Men. I’m currently reading Uncanny, but X-Men is about to be overhauled soon. So probably hold on that front.

DC/Vertigo

Honestly, not the biggest DC fan (I lean more towards Vertigo actually), but there are a few that I enjoy.

Action Comics (starting at #1000) - I am not a Superman fan, but I enjoy this series, which says a lot. I enjoy what Bendis is doing with him in this run.

Naomi - a new series, also by Bendis, following the story of a young Black girl who is investigating the circumstances around her adoption. Don’t want to give too much away, but probably my fave DC run at the moment. And Jamal Campbell’s art is fucking gorgeous.

Dial H for Hero - it’s fun. It’s weird. Not for everyone, but maybe give it a shot.

The Flash and Batman, New 52 runs - New 52 gets shit from fans a lot, but I thought these runs were awesome. Very good story-telling.

Dark Nights: Metal event - Probably one of the best things DC did in a long time. It’s a massive event that pretty much reworked the DC universe and all the characters. Enjoyed it immensely.

Heroes in Crisis - this miniseries ended very recently. It’s a story focused on a major event that happens at Sanctuary, a rehab for superheroes suffering from mental health issues (e.g. PTSD after doing something that nearly killed them). Not your usual superhero story, which I liked.

American Carnage - very gritty story focused on a white-passing Black man who infiltrates a white supremacist organization. It’s really fucking good.

High Level - I picked this book up randomly because the cover looked cool. I’ve been reading it ever since. I would say it’s weird sci-fi/fantasy/cyberpunk adventure. A little strong on the language, but very interesting story and great artwork.

Birds of Prey - awesome series with the DC women. A little shaky sometimes, but Gail Simone does really good character work. Her run is probably the only one I’d bother reading.

Deathbed - miniseries by Vertigo that ended maybe a year ago. It’s so bizarre and hilarious and out there. I loved it.

Batwoman (J.H. Williams run) and Batwoman: Rebirth - Kate Kane, my favorite lesbian superhero. Williams did a great job in his run (and the art is to die for). Don’t read the back half, they change writers and it’s a goddamn mess. But then Marguerite Bennett (a queer woman) picked it up in Rebirth, and it got awesome again. Also, shout-out to Greg Rucka for officially making her queerness canon in 52.

Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman’s my fave of DC main characters (along with Martian Manhunter and Wally West I & II), and my favorite run for her is Greg Rucka’s. He does a surprisingly good job of writing women. The run is over at the moment, but I’d check it out. Good stuff there.

For classic stories, Kingdom Come, Watchmen, Flashpoint (precursor to New 52), and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman are some of my faves.

Image

Image is probably what I read the most. Definitely has the most diverse pool of comics to choose from.

Saga - My favorite comic series of all-time. I’ve gotten so many people to read this and they love it. It’s weird - really weird, actually - but the storytelling is phenomenal. And it’s on hiatus right now, so plenty of time to get caught up.

Ice Cream Man - This series is so fucking weird, but I love it. It’s sorta like… Tales from the Crypt? Different stories (mostly horror) that all feature this demon ice cream man.

The Weatherman - This series is such a goddamn delight. I don’t want to ruin the plot but just… yeah. Read the first issue and it just goes crazy from there.

Man-Eaters - Sort of a niche story. Basically, this takes place in a society where when women get their cycle, they turn into giant cats and maul men, so they’ve given them pills to keep them from menstruating. Sounds weird? Wait until you read it. Probably a highlight series of the year for me.

Black Science - You might not like the art in this one, but maybe give it a shot? These scientists are trying to solve the problem of limited resources on Earth by hopping across dimensions for new ones (infinite dimensions, infinite resources). Only problem is, their machine got damaged so now they hop uncontrollably to whatever dimension it chooses for however long it decides. It’s a wild ride.

Middlewest - An interesting take on parent/child relationships and how the consequences of abuse, anger, and depression can manifest in dangerous ways. Sounds more bleak than it is - the story actually has quite a bit of humor.

Excellence - Very new series, but with a PoC lead, about PoCs, with mostly PoC creators. A story about a secret society of Black magicians and a son whose next in line to take on the mantle, and it’s pretty fucking cool. Issue 2 comes out this week - check it out!

The Walking Dead - I don’t think I have to explain this one, do I? Zombies.

Lazarus and Lazarus: Risen - Sci-fi story set in a dystopian society where the world is ruled by like 15 or so families, and they each have a Lazarus to fight for them. This is told from the perspective of the Carlyle family’s Lazarus, Forever.

Die - If Dungeons & Dragons and Jumanji had a baby, it would be this book. Sounds weird, but once you read it, you’ll find the description to be accurate.

Anything from Brian K. Vaughn - I have yet to read something from Brian K. Vaughn that I don’t like. Saga, Paper Girls, Y: The Last Man, Runaways, Barrier… his shit’s always good.

Independents / Not Marvel, DC, or Image

Some of these are nostalgia-based, so fair warning.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BOOM Studios) - very new series that’s out. Great art. If you were a fan of the show, I think you’ll like it. It’s a re-imagining of sorts. There’s also an Angel series that just started.

Nancy Drew (Dynamite) - Listen… I could not stand Nancy Drew as a kid. Never got into it and thought it was boring as hell. But I really loved this miniseries (another Kelly Thompson run). It’s maybe 5 issues?

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and Go Go Power Rangers (BOOM Studios) - Honest to God, if you had told me 3 years ago one of my fave comics would be a Power Rangers one, I would have laughed in your face. Both of these series are really good and provide the continuity, nuance, and characterization the show lacked. Fan of the show or not, I’d say it’s worth checking out if you enjoy the teenage superhero genre. Also, just some really amazing art and world-building.

Anything from Jinxworld - This is Bendis’ own publishing company. He’s put out Cover, Pearl, Scarlet, and United States vs. Murder, Inc. All of them are really good.

Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse) - This is the series the Netflix show is based off of. Right now, they’re doing Hotel Oblivion in the comics, but start with Apocalypse Suite and Dallas.

So, there you go anon. There are FAR more I would recommend, but I tried to give a good range of books for you to choose from without (hopefully) overwhelming you. And if you have any questions, I’m more than happy to talk about any of them.

#binky answers anons #binky talks comics

5 notes · View notes

pastor-dj · 5 years

Text

Modern Science and Modern Evangelical Christianity: Strange Bedfellows

Many bloggers and media pundits seem to suggest that “science” and “religion” (and by “religion” they usually mean Christianity) are opposite forces that are at complete odds with each other. Well-known celebrity science advocate Bill Nye’s new TV show is all about promoting science and “defending” it from the “anti-scientific claims of religious leader.” As a Christian myself, not only do I believe that there is no contradiction between scientific fact and Biblical truth (as opposed to scientific theory vs. speculations about Scripture), I also believe that the quest for truth – whether through scientific exploration or theological study and reflection – is always something God delights in. All truth is God’s truth, and both 2+2=4 AND John 3:16 are equally valid, even if the methods for discovering the truth are different. But I find it fascinating that there are two big issues in which both scientists and evangelical Christians seem to be stuck together in the same boat.

The first is this: (1) who speaks for either group? The Roman Catholic Church has a big advantage over the rest of the Christian family, as they have the Pope who is the only one authorized to speak on matters of theology, doctrine or practice. But for evangelical Protestants, who speaks for them? Pat Robertson? Franklin Graham? Joel Osteen? Rick Warren? Paula White? All of them are people the media will go to for a quote. But while there is a broad consensus among Christians on the main issues of the faith (salvation, Lordship of Christ, etc.), when it comes to secondary issues (baptism, interpretation of Revelation, speaking in tongues, etc.) or hot-button political/social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, there are many different answers you might get to these questions. No one person speaks for all Protestant evangelical Christians. And when the media reports that Christians disagree on some things, it leads a lot of people to believe that Christians don’t agree on ANYTHING. Now, if you can get past the profanity, crude sex jokes and unrelated tangents, watch John Oliver’s show from last season on “Scientific Studies” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rnq1NpHdmw) and you see the same dynamic at play. Every week, there is a report in the media on a new “scientific study” about a food or some product that will either (a) give you cancer, (b) prevent cancer (c) help you lose weight, (d) make you fat, or (e) any combination thereof. It’s no wonder, as Oliver notes, that so many people distrust “science” when it all seems so contradictory. At one point, he angrily berates Al Roker for suggesting that people “just pick the scientific study that works for you” (in all fairness, Roker probably said it in jest) by shouting: “No! In science, you don’t get to cherry pick the parts that justify what you were going to do anyway!” That’s what religion does!” And he’s right! – or at least, he’s right about how many humans approach religion (i.e., cherry picking the parts of the Bible that they already agree with while ignoring the others). So, if science is not this big monolith, with all scientist moving in lockstep, who “speaks for science”? Well, just like evangelical Christianity, people like Bill Nye, Neil DeGrasse Tyson and others are jockeying for position, trying to get the most media face time, and hoping to be the official spokesman. But, both sides are facing an uphill battle.

The second issue that both groups are facing is this: (2) when either science or Christianity gets in bed with politics, the search for truth becomes secondary. Politics is all about, as Charlie Sheen used to say, WINNING. It’s all about your side winning the debate, shouting down your opponent, and making your side look good and the other side look bad. And that unfortunately is what both evangelical Christians and scientists have been doing for the last several decades. Early on in the history of the Church, Christianity was outlawed by the Roman Empire but despite its suppression, it grew exponentially even though the followers of Jesus risked their lives by doing so. But then, the emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the state, and overnight, Christians went from persecuted to favored status. Suddenly, Christian leaders and teachers were members of the emperor's court, and got caught up in palace intrigue and king-making instead of sharing their faith -- something we've struggled with in many Western countries ever since. So many evangelical Christians give their blind allegiance to either the Democrat or Republican parties hoping that the trade-off will be more power and prestige (regardless of whether or not the party fully espouses Christian virtues). And in the same way, many scientists have aligned themselves with political movements and given them their full allegiance without taking into consideration other studies and other potential conflicting data. Many scientists, having been goaded into support global warming as a political issue rather than as a scientific inquiry, are now so fully immersed in their political position that they won't stop to consider any conflicting data (as we saw from the “Climategate” scandal several years ago). Rather than searching for scientific truth and trying to educate the public about the dangers of damaging the earth’s ozone layer, instead it's all about proving that “Al Gore was right and his Republican opponents were wrong!” and shouting “DENIER!” at anyone who questions them. But when you try to ask these scientists “what can we do help stop global warming?” it's like they don't care about what we can do to fix it. All they seem to care about is being right and winning the debate.

Personally, I don’t know if the scientific data available has convinced me that every time there is a record high temperature somewhere in the world it is the result of man-made global warming as opposed to circular weather patterns. But, I also don't need for the former to ultimately be true for me to be convinced that pumping lots of fluorocarbons into the atmosphere is bad and it's going to wreak havoc on the environment. I also don't know if I believe that either the Democrat or Republican Party is “more Christian” than the other and deserves our full allegiance. But, I believe that even if we don't choose sides, we could still work together to make a huge difference in this world. It would be great if both scientists and evangelicals could put down their guns and knives and poison pixels on the internet and start listening to one another and working together the solve some of the bigger problems in this world. Because when it comes down to it, we are both pursuers of Truth.

1 note · View note

djrokymanson · 5 years

Photo

Los Angeles Times Sunday Calendar March 5, 1989

The Thelonious Monster Mash What’s L.A.’s maverick rock group doing recording Tracy Chapman?

by Robert Hilburn

Thelonious Monster is as irreverent and fiercely independent a rock band as any to come out of Los Angeles in the ‘80s. The group’s live shows early in its career were so unruly that I twice left clubs assuming the group had just broken up. If lead Monster Bob Forrest wasn’t battling with his own bandmates, he was causing havoc with club owners or sound men.

“We’ve got four managers,” Forrest once said. “And they don’t do anything except tell club owners, ‘I’m sorry for the way the band acted.’ “

The title of the group’s first album underscored the satire and sarcasm in the band’s themes: “Baby…You’re Bummin’ My Life Out In A Supreme Fashion.”

So what are these rock mavericks doing performing “For My Lover,” a song by establishment darling Tracy Chapman on their new “Stormy Weather” album?

It’s got to be a gag, right?

“No way,” growled lead singer Forrest, his right hand wrapped around a bottle of beer in a Fairfax area Mexican restaurant that is a favorite of local rock musicians.

“I like Tracy Chapman,” he continued. “I never realized someone might think [doing the song] was a gag until people started asking us about it. A lot of our fans seem defensive about the song. I guess it’s the fact that she’s so popular, but we were doing that song before anyone knew who she was. I saw her in Washington D.C. a year ago.”

The explanation shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who have been paying close attention to Monster’s music—as opposed to the band’s chaotic behavior and Forrest’s eccentric appearance (with his long, stringy hair and mischievous grin, he often looks like someone who just stepped off the set of a British comedy).

As a writer and singer, Forrest has shown a sharp and original vision in his own songs, and an integrity and imagination in his choice of outside material, which has ranged from Bob Dylan to Public Image Ltd.

In “Sammy Hagar Weekend” from the new album (released by Relativity Records and produced by X’s John Doe). Forrest writes with a satiric edge worthy of Randy Newman.

On one level, the song can be taken as a straightforward celebration of rock’s live-fast, love-hard, die-young syndrome. The scene is a hard-rock/metal concert at Anaheim Stadium. Sample lines:

‘We’re going to drink some beer We’re going to smoke some pot We’re going to snort some coke And drive, drive over 55”

Yet there is a slightly sad—or weary—tone in Forrest’s voice and arrangement that, when coupled with the irresponsibility of the behavior depicted, gives the song different coloring.

“I lived that song. I went to Anaheim Stadium when I was in high school to see what I thought was a great lineup: Hagar, Van Halen, Black Sabbath and Boston. The show didn’t start until Sunday, but we go there Friday night and waited in the parking lot. It was the first time I ever drank whiskey.

“I’m trying to make fun of what we all thought was cool. It’s also a hope we all grow up and find out how stupid it is to be like that. When I was 16, I thought cruising and boozing was what people did. So what did it get me? Two 502s…One of the themes of the new album is growing up, and that song is part of all that for me.”

Thelonious Monster’s “Next Saturday Afternoon” was one of the neglected rock gems of 1987: a look at post-teen alienation that explored questions of identity and self-worth in tough unflinching ways that recalled the passion and purpose of some of rock’s most biting collections. Think of Neil Young’s “Tonight’s The Night” meets the Replacements’ “Tim”.

The themes came easy to Forrest, a Southern Californian who was adopted by a couple that he later learned were really his grandparents. The woman he thought was his sister had given birth to him when she was 14.

Forrest, 28, says he has never met his real father—a fact that contributes to the poignancy of “My Boy,” a song on the new album. It was written a year ago when Forrest still hadn’t held his year-old song. (Forrest said he and the son’s mother weren’t married and no longer saw each other at the time.)

Far from the sweetness of father-child songs like Dylan’s “Forever Young,” this one speaks of the day when the boy will grow up and resent the absence of the father. It’s a song of pain and, in Forrest’s words, “history repeating itself.”

In the past year, however, Forrest has begun to spend time with the boy and says other aspects of his personal life are more stable.

Rather than repeat the alienation of “Next Saturday Afternoon,” “Stormy Weather” is a step into adulthood—a grappling with relationships and the world outside.

Though still far from the smooth or dance-happy edges preferred by mainstream radio, the album is more accessible than its predecessor. There are some winning melodic touches amid the occasional all-out, slam-bam rock ’n’ roll.

About the changes, Forrest said, “I thought ‘Saturday Afternoon’ was good for what it did, but you can’t keep writing those songs. That album was all about what I did and thought and felt. I remember going up to Mike Martt, our guitar player, on day and told him I had a new tune. He looked at me and said, ‘Oh, who is it about? You…or you?’

One of the first songs he wrote in a “outward” vein was “Lena Horne Still Sings ‘Stormy Weather.’” He had seen a TV profile on the celebrated singer and was impressed by how she had battled against various challenges, especially racism, in the personal and professional life.

“The world needs that attitude, that resiliency,” Forrest said. “Things are in awful shape…More homeless people, more gang violence, less and less people graduating from high school. I love this city, but what’s it all going to come to? Are they going to put up a fence between Crenshaw Boulevard and the Westside?

“The problem is everyone starts feeling helpless. They don’t realize that a lot of other people share the same concerns and that they can do something if they pull together. The song encourages people to think that the problems can be solved. Even after all she’s been through, Lena Horne DOES still sing ‘Stormy Weather.’ “

Forrest needed some resilience himself after “Next Saturday Afternoon” was largely ignored by both radio and the public.

“There was a lot of excitement around town when the record came out and I got into thinking I was going to be this next big deal,” he said. “But we were our own worst enemies on that tour. I’ve said that in the past, but this time was really bad.

“We weren’t just screwing up at some little club around town, where people knew us and thought it was just us partying again. Here people came to see a show and I was drunk most of the time, insulting people—even the people from our own record company. By the end of the tour, I was just like an emotional basket case. Suicidal…weird…I couldn’t figure out what was going on, why we weren’t getting anywhere.”

Dejected, he returned home and thought about the future.

“One day I woke up and realized that most of the problems were because of me. I realized, and the band did too, we almost made it with the last album. We almost got to a point where we can live in houses and have cars.

“That’s all I ever wanted. We don’t want to ruin it. I still have a drinking problem, but I try to control it. I don’t drink anymore on the the day of the show until I get on stage, for instance. I’m proud of the band and I want the music to be the show—not my [behavior].”

Yet the head Monster—who is joined in the band now by guitarists Martt and Tony Malone, drummer Pete Weiss and bassist Rob Graves—may find it hard to keep his behavior from being an issue.

Last weekend at the Green Door in Montclair, Forrest appeared clear-eyed at the star of the set, letting the music speak for itself. Gradually, however, Forrest, himself, became the focus. Taking big swigs of beer, he grumbled between songs about everything from club equipment to the band’s fortunes.

This tension may be an integral part of Forrest’s creative process, but the danger is it will camouflage the excellence of the Monster’s music. There are lots of unruly band in rock, but too few with the ability to make music as enthralling as that found on “Stormy Weather.” The band tries it again Friday at Fender’s in Long Beach and Saturday at the Country Club in Reseda.

“Put it this way,” Forrest said, during the interview at the restaurant, summarizing his frustration good-naturedly. “If Bon Jovi can make $42 million or whatever last year, I thought Bob Forrest ought to be able to make $1,000 a month. That seems fair—and the public would get to hear some better songs.��

#TheloniousMonster LATimes BobForrest RedHotChiliPeppers MikeMartt RobGraves PeteWeiss RobertHIlburn PunkRock Hollywood

1 note · View note

sophieakatz · 6 years

Text

Thursday Thoughts: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Coming-of-Age Stories, and Where The Heck Are The Adults In This World

Recently, I finally watched all sixty-one episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) - a show that literally every friend I’ve ever had has been surprised to learn I never watched as a kid.

(Returning readers will already know that I never watched most TV shows as a kid. I’m making up for lost time now.)

Overall, I enjoyed ATLA. It’s an emotional adventure with complex morals and strong positive themes like the power of friendship and family. I had a lot of fun finally discovering the contexts for all the memes I’ve become familiar with because of Tumblr (like “Sparky Sparky Boom Man” and “That’s rough, buddy”).

But I also felt uncomfortable while watching, for one specific reason: how young everyone is.

Aang is twelve years old. So is Toph. The other protagonists, and several major antagonists, aren’t much older. It hit me in the middle of the second episode that I was watching kids play at war – a thought that I know wouldn’t have occurred to me if I had been watching as a twelve-year-old myself, but one that stuck with me for the rest of my watch-through. ATLA is a story about kids in a world of absent or incompetent adults, with the fate of the world in their hands. And that kind of weight just plain doesn’t belong on the shoulders of twelve-year-olds.

The show makes some ventures towards confronting the topic of the kids’ age, and how circumstances have forced them into adult roles far too soon.

Aang was taken away from childhood play because of his destiny as the Avatar and the monks’ fear of the impending war.

Sokka and Katara’s mother died when they were little, leaving Katara as the only “mother” Sokka can remember. Their father left to fight the war after that, leaving Sokka as the only “man” of their village.

Zuko’s father treated him not as a preteen son, but as an adult inferior, and physically tortured him in public over a perceived slight.

The show points at these situations as unfortunate, and in Zuko’s case outright states that it was wrong. But then it keeps going, as all stories about child heroes do, and shows that it’s necessary for the kids to save the world. It’s unfortunate that Aang and Zuko and the others were taken out of childhood so soon, but even when they do go to adults for help, they are turned away and told that only they can solve the problems. It is their plot-driven destiny to be adults before their time.

ATLA also gives us a supporting cast of children whose too-adult qualities are portrayed in a completely uncomplicated, even praiseworthy way.

Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors, Princess Yue, and Jett and his Freedom Fighters all are treated by the narrative as though in being responsible “adult” figures they are as they should be, even though none of them could possibly be older than fifteen.

Toph’s entire character arc revolves around her hatred at being treated like a child by her overbearing parents, and the narrative unquestioningly supports her – the only moment in which it seems her parents might actually support her (the letter from her mother) turns out to be a lie, and leads to Toph achieving her destiny as the world’s first metal-bender. There is no middle ground, and we never actually see or hear from her parents again.

And the villainous Azula, though she displayed a frightening level of competence in every other episode of the show, is finally defeated when she starts behaving in an age-appropriate childlike way. I might be reading too much into this (I am an English major, after all), but the four-episode finale arc left me with the impression that the show was condemning childhood. When push comes to shove, no matter how old you are, you better grow up, or else.

To be fair, this is a coming-of-age story. Naturally it’s pro-adulting. Also, twelve-or-so is the normal sort of age for these stories. That’s when Gregor enters the Underland in Suzanne Collins’s Gregor the Overlander, and when Lyra and Will’s daemons settle in Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass

For a twelve-or-so-year-old reader, as I once was for both these books, it feels perfectly natural. As Neil Gaiman said about his book Coraline:

Reading audience number one is adults. Adults completely love it and they tell me it gave them nightmares. They found it really scary and disturbing, and they're not sure it's a good book for kids, but they loved it. Reading audience number two are kids who read it as an adventure and they love it. They don't get nightmares, and they don't find it scary. I think part of that is that kids don't realize how much trouble Coraline is in -- she is in big trouble -- and adults read it and think, “I know how much trouble you're in.”

A kid reading these coming-of-age stories sees “someone like me saving the world” and goes along with it, not having the external perspective necessary to stress about whether or not the child hero will be able to save the world.

But me? I’m twenty-three. I’m too old to see Aang and company as “someone like me.” I don’t connect with Katara or Toph nearly as much as connect to Uncle Iroh, the closest thing this story has to a constant responsible adult figure. I look at the child heroes and I think, “Where the heck are the adults in this world?”

The adults are gone, as is necessary for the plot. In order for a “kids save the world” story to take place, the adults must be absent or otherwise incompetent, as nearly all the adults in ATLA are. They’re dead, or they’re off fighting another part of the war in a distant land, or they don’t understand their children, or they’re just plain stupid. It puts me in mind of the make-believe games the next-door-neighbor children I babysat in high school would create: in those stories, their parents were always dead.

In her book Good Girls and Wicked Witches: Changing Representations of Women in Disney's Feature Animation, 1937-2001, Amy Davis examines the tendency of parents in Disney films and other fairy-tale kinds of stories to be either absent or otherwise unable to protect their children. This lack of adult guidance is what creates the circumstances for those children to go on an adventure. Grown-ups can’t solve the world’s problems, so kids must step up and solve it.

Or rather, the kids must step up and be grown-ups, and solve it.

But take it from a twenty-three-year-old: a twelve-ish-year-old is not a grown-up, no matter what they’ve been through.

When I was sixteen, it suddenly hit me that it’s ridiculous that Lyra and Will’s daemons settle at age thirteen. Settling indicates that their personality is done changing, that they are who they are and they’ve finished growing up. But at sixteen, I could tell that I wasn't the same person that I had been at thirteen. At twenty, I wasn’t the same person that I had been at sixteen. I’m different again now, though less dramatically. I’m still figuring things out, and there are still adulting steps that I haven’t yet taken, but I’m much more a grown-up than I’d ever have called myself at thirteen.

I can see the value in “kids act like grown-ups and save the world” stories. They’re not written for me, who’s beginning to find them troubling. They’re written for kids, who don’t find them troubled, because they don’t see the dangers that the child-heroes face. They see that the child-heroes succeed.

My mother doesn’t like The Lion King because it’s about a child being told his father’s death is all his fault. She told me so when I was little, and my response was that it’s okay, because we know Scar is lying and that Simba will defeat him in the end. I’m closer now to my mother’s perspective than to my younger self’s response in regards to how I watch ATLA.

We do need to tell kids that they can and will grow up to do great things, and the best way to do that is to show them people their age that they can relate to doing great things – even if it makes adults feel uncomfortable. While the adult behavior of the children might be unrealistic, the ideal that it encourages in them, to become people who save the world, is absolutely realistic.

ATLA is not a story intended for me, though it might have been if I’d watched it then. I’m content to recommend it to children Aang’s age, and to derive an entirely different kind of enjoyment from it by over-analyzing, critiquing, and otherwise completely picking it apart. As I said, I am an English major, after all.

By the way, I highly recommend Amy Davis’s book. It was an instrumental piece of my thesis research and a super interesting read.

Come back every week for a new Thursday Thoughts!

Got a suggestion for a topic? Send it my way!

Like what you read? Consider tipping the writer!

#thursday thoughts #avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla #tumblr originals #reviews

2 notes · View notes

philosophiums · 7 years

Note

“I’ve tried. You can’t cut the string. I’ve tried, trust me, I’ve tried.” Can you just imagine our boy Neil Self Sacrificing Josten saying this?? Because i am and I’m destroyed.

hmmmmmmmm

I would first like to start by saying: I’m the worst, but I’m not sorry. I would also like to follow that by saying sometimes life fucks up and you just need to learn to roll with the punches.

…anyway

The last person Neil expected to find at the court is Andrew, and yet there the man sits, holding a knife and glaring at the red string banding his arm like it’s a cancer he so desperately wants to just carve out of himself.

“I’ve tried,” Neil says, to cut the silence and to force himself to stay. He’s the reason Andrew’s in this mess, the reason that string is so tightly wrapped around Andrew’s wrist and working like vines up his forearm. “You can’t cut the string. I’ve tried, trust me, I’ve tried.”

Andrew turns slowly, body rotating as if it’s too much effort for his neck or his head or his eyes, and looks Neil down and up. “Oh? Been so busy in the last few days, have you?” Oh. Andrew’s sober. That’s interesting.

The smile Neil gives is tired. Andrew’s an asshole, but he’s not worth fighting right now. “I’ve had my string since I was ten. My mother tried cutting them off first, and then, years later and desperate, I tried again. They don’t cut, they don’t burn. But you do.” Neil rolls up his sleeve and brandishes his forearm to Andrew, shows him the ropes of burn scars and the silver streaks from knives and bolt cutters. “They’re not real, Andrew. Not in any way that matters.”

“So it’s not…” Andrew is a different person when he’s crashing and moments away from shaking and vomiting. Timid isn’t the word for it, but he’s not as confident.

“Me?” Neil finishes, poking himself hard in the chest. “I don’t know, but you’re not mine. The fucked-up part is that mine isn’t… I’m not his.” Neil shakes his head, circular expanding thoughts pulling a crease between his brows. “I would have known. He wouldn’t have let me leave.”

———————

“How many lies have you told me, Neil?” Andrew asks, pacing the edge of the roof and not watching his feet. He’s stupid. He’s going to fall - and Neil’s going to let him.

“A lot,” Neil says, a safe distance from the edge, too close to Andrew’s anger.

Andrew veers from the roof and grabs Neil buy the collar, pulling him in too close too fast, and their noses bump. Andrew’s knuckle brushes the wobbling column of Neil’s throat. “Riko’s your soulmate! That shouldn’t have been one of them.”

Neil shrugs. He’s had eight years to live with this as a fact of his life. Riko doesn’t know, and Riko’s not to find out. If he does, Neil won’t get to keep this anymore. He’ll be Nathaniel again, forever. “I’m not his,” Neil says, less a clarification and more a reminder, an anthem on repeat to keep him sane. “I don’t belong to him. And he’s nothing to me. It doesn’t matter. It’s just a stupid red string that’s ruined my fucking life. Why do you give a shit?” Neil shoves both hands into Andrew’s chest, and Andrew releases him.

“I don’t,” Andrew says, and it’s the first lie Neil’s ever heard from him.

———————

Neil returns from Evermore with his arm in a sling and without the strength to drag himself out of the airport. Andrew comes out of Easthaven in one piece, and that’s the only thing that matters.

He’s afraid that he won’t be able to play again with the layers of scars fucking up his arm, tightening the skin and making it oh, so tender. The sling is too much, but Neil can’t breath if his arm is hanging at his side.

Andrew finds him at the court the next day, and it feels like coming full circle, but he knows they’re both just cutting through the middle trying to clear their own path. “I hate you,” Andrew says.

“I get it.” Neil stares at the floor and wonders how he’s supposed to go on living now that he’s ruined everything, now that all of his lies except the ones with mortality limits are spilled on the floor and tracking on his shoes. “Riko made me tell him who my soulmate is. He thought I was lying at first. And then realized I wasn’t. I wouldn’t have survived that when I was ten; I’m glad my mother took me away before he found out.”

“Why did you go?” Andrew asks, and this quiet Andrew is new, intriguing and terrifying and so like a void that Neil just wants to fall into.

Neil shifts and doesn’t hide his wince when his arm moves uncomfortably in the sling, when he’s reminded of how serious the burns are. “He said… Riko put you in there. He said he would make it worse if I didn’t go. That a doctor, Proust -”

“Stop talking.”

Neil stops, mouth still hanging open on the murdered syllable. He failed, then. All this pain for nothing. His only reward a collar garnered from red string fastened tight around his neck.

———————

Neil knows that Andrew stops the first kiss because of Neil’s string, because it’s not for Andrew, because Andrew has demons in his past that are always trying to drag him down. Neil expects it to stop there. He would have been alright if that kiss - fire and tornados and exquisite drowning - had been his last.

He’s surprised when it’s not.

Andrew touches Neil somewhere between reverent and bruising, cherishing and disbelieving.

“I’m real,” Neil whispers, and Andrew bites his lip hard enough to bleed.

“You’re made of lies,” Andrew says, and Neil drops his head back with a moan, his whole body strung to the tune Andrew’s playing. Neil’s hand tightens in Andrew’s hair, and his mouth dangles open on a moan, and he’s never been more honest in his entire life, never been so open and vulnerable and completely, entirely at Andrew’s command.

And Andrew knows exactly how to play him, how to steer his body into a shaking inferno and turn him into a drowning man desperate for an inhale of water and the sweet release it would bring. Andrew kisses him like it hurts to touch Neil but he doesn’t want to stop, like he can’t stop, and something in Neil’s chest hurts at the thought. Maybe it’s the strings after all.

Maybe Neil is the one dragging Andrew down. Maybe Andrew’s demons got to Neil first.

———————

Motels remind Neil of his mother. Or at least they used to. Like most everything else, Andrew is dissolving that association.

Andrew’s furious, which Neil thinks is fair. A sorry won’t cut it, but Neil says it anyway.

“Say it again, and I will kill you.”

Neil would have taken that punch and so many others. He deserves them all for dragging Andrew and the rest of the Foxes through this. “There are still a few things I haven’t told you,” Neil says, and then switches to German when he notices the close attention of the FBI. “I didn’t tell you because… well, you’ve wanted me gone since day one. If I’m gone, the string is gone, and then you won’t… I won’t… you won’t have to feel compelled to put up with me just because of a cosmic fuck up.”

Andrew’s mouth opens and then closes and then tries again. “What are you talking about?”

But there’s movement, and Neil is only the personification of fear, taken over by the knowledge that there’s someone at his back who could be a threat.

Andrew grabs him by the nape and pulls him close, glaring over Neil’s shoulder with a menacing, “Get away from us.”

The lava disintegrates in Neil’s chest.

———————

Neil should have realized bullets would solve his problems. Two of them took his father down, and now one at close range has ended Riko. The string dissolves from Neil’s arm, but he doesn’t look to make sure it’s gone, to relish in the absence and the freedom that’s risen from Riko’s death. He remains professional and silent and smiling until he’s dismissed.

But he pulls up his sleeve to his elbow as soon as he’s in the elevator, returning to his Foxes, his family, his home. There’s nothing but scars on his arm. The brilliant red is gone. He’s a free man.

Except that’s not entirely true.

He finds Andrew waiting for him in an empty locker room. The black walls and ceiling suite Andrew the way the color always has, enhancing his pallid complexion, his starlight hair, his fools gold eyes. Those eyes meet Neil’s with solidity and uncertainty, and Neil staggers, clutching his arm to his chest.

“Neil?” Andrew is in front of him, not touching him but ready to offer support, to haul Neil back onto his feet. Andrew is the rock-solid foundation Neil has been craving his whole life.

Neil drags in a breath and tugs up his sleeve. “Riko’s dead,” he says, staring down at the blossoming string, the threads that vine out like veins until they’re graphed into his skin. “I forgot how much getting this hurts.”

Andrew takes a step back, and for a moment he looks… afraid. And then he rushes Neil, and Neil’s letting himself get swept into the hurricane, saying yes against red-hot lips and a desperately searching tongue.

#the foxhole court #hi i didn't proofread this let me live #i'm just really tired and i don't care #this is so grossly not fleshed out #but i don't give a shiiiit #tfc #fn #mine #tothoseinterested #my fics

377 notes · View notes