#not because i specifically hate spotify (i do actually pay for it lol)

[sonicenvy]

so I found about this cool website that @annieversary3 created that displays a recommended album submitted by anyone each day, and i got a little excited about submitting some cool stuff from bandcamp that i like. i also thought i'd share them here, because, well, why not? what else is having a blog for anyways?? lol so, here are the albums that i (sorry) spammed annieversary3's website with that you all now also have to see.

From the top, left to right:

Puberty 2 Mitski (2016) ❀ Fav track: A Burning Hill

Carrie & Lowell Sufjan Stevens (2015) ❀ Fav Track: Should Have Known Better

Top 25 Austin Bands of 2012 [comp] Sonic Vault ❀ Fav Track: 7 Mile Creek Blues

You Had Me At Goodbye Samantha Crain (2017) ❀ Fav Track: Antiseptic Greeting

On Oni Pond Man Man (2013) ❀ Fav Track: Deep Cover

Narrow Stairs Death Cab For Cutie (2008) ❀ Fav Track: Talking Bird

stray ikea graveyard (2014) ❀ Fav Track: Parker

The Birds & The Beats M.anifest (2009) ❀ Fav Track: Ghana, 52

Easy Way The Cactus Blossoms (2019) ❀ Fav Track: Got a Lotta Love

sidenote, to find more cool tunes 🎵, in addition to annieversary3's awesome website, y'all should also check out:

❀ birp.fm (download and listen to a monthly 100+ track playlist of new, old, and emerging indie music)

❀ radio.garden (Find and listen to online streams of FM/AM radio stations from everywhere in the world on a cool 3d globe)

❀ radio paradise (ad free internet radio 24 hrs per day.)

❀ @despite-everything's radio station & spotify (just good stuff 😊)

❀ 90.9 FM WDCB (Jazz, Blues, and Classic Radio Shows)

❀ streamfinder (find internet radio stations)

❀ 8tracks.com (yes, it still exists)

❀ boilthefrog (generate a playist on spotify to get you from one random artist to another)

❀ lofi-fi hip hop beats to study to infinite stream on YT (all instrumental)

❀ NPR Tiny Desk Concerts

❀ Streema (find more internet radio stations)

❀ egoisticalgoat.de (clone of turntbl, pop in anyone's tumblr url to get a playlist of all of the songs they've shared on tumblr)

❀ musicmap (type in one artist to see artists that are related/similar to that artist)

❀ classical wfmt (for all your classical music needs)

[plvtosun]

blanca has a playlist now!

it’s a little over an hour long, + i made one on youtube for anyone who wants to listen but doesn’t use spotify. there’s 18 songs, about half of them are in spanish. i couldn’t find any spanish/english lyric videos so sorry about that </3 but i did put in some mvs that i thought were cool on the youtube playlist. (except for the pretty woman one lmao the message at the end is good but it’s uhhh… kinda weird lol so feel free to ignore it and just listen to the song)

background for the songs below the cut if anyone’s curious!

songs 2-11 are basically just blanca and her experiences that made her who she is + her personality.

songs with [*] are the ones i recommend watching the music videos for cause i think they’re pretty cool :b

i’m from LA - self explanatory right?? lol

son mis locuras - blanca’s inner monologue while she’s still living with her family, i guess? nothing super deep. i like the line “me dicen ‘nena, te pareces a tu abuela’” (“they tell me ‘baby, you look like your grandma’”) because blanca’s named after her maternal grandma, so that’s a fun coincidence with her story and the song that i didn’t even think of when i added it to her playlist at first tbh

maría la curandera - it’s like her favorite tía in mexico teaching her about doing limpias (spiritual cleansings) for herself when she visited as a kid. cozy comforting vibe overall

cumbia feminista, mujer moderna, whore - these are grouped together because they deal with purity culture, which is something blanca had to deal with her whole life and it felt like it got worse the older she got. people trying to dictate what she wore, how she expressed herself, being catcalled and shamed, all that fun stuff :))) whore specifically relates to her dynamic with someone from her past who tried to put his idealized image onto her and got mad when it didn’t line up with who she actually is. she blares that song when she’s reminiscing and she looooves shouting “you love me for everything you hate me for” at the top of her lungs.

crumbling down → recuérdame → la llorona* - things are rough, but she’s alright for the most part now that she’s living on her own finally. → death of the tía she was close to, she struggles with it a lot because she felt like no one else really understood and accepted her fully. → remembering the time she was visiting said tía and how she and her cousin saw la llorona! the song comforts her because it’s a reminder and again, she thought la llorona was kind of pretty. (she wonders if la llorona scared the shit out of her cousin on purpose, to make him drop her instead of tossing her into the river to fuck with her…)

la vida es un sueño* - she lives life how the hell she wants! she’s over people trying to take advantage of her and tell her how to act. she’s angry and tired and done. side note, my favorite lines are “corazón sangrado, me has abandonado / necesito una limpia, que ando embrujado” (“bleeding heart, you abandoned me / i need a cleansing, because i’m cursed”)

songs 12-18 are the mushy toca (toki/blanca, coincidentally this means “touch” in spanish!) songs LOLLL i think the lyrics are pretty obvious so i won’t go into detail too much. i’ll add in (b) and (t) to show whose pov the songs are from

can’t get you out of my head (b) - “…shit i have a crush.”

oh, pretty woman (t) - HAHA he has one too you shy tsundere loser deal with it he likes you >:) pay attention to him dammit!

afraid (t) - ohhh she’s scared. but why? hm. alright

your sweet six six six (t) - the LET ME IN eric andre meme. he’ll be nice :( give him a chance don’t pass this up c’mon

sour candy (b) - give her a second to thaw out, she’ll get there

mary on a cross (t) - another nudge. he’s not scared off at all.

love song (b) - :)

[dojae-huh]

MBTI chamber

Video

Johnny at first forgot Doyoung was in Ravenclaw uniform and reacted to his "Spotify" with a Slytherine ridicule, then he realised his mistake and talked badly about Ravenclaws as well, heh.

I got several angry messages regarding me calling Jungwoo "attention-seeker" in the past. Well, here it is coming from the man himself and his friend Sungchan.

OK, I think Woo's "empathize?..." was honest, not a jab. Jungwoo and Doyoung meant different things, so they disagreed. Do does take care of others and empathize very well, but he doesn't sacrifice himself and drop everything to fix other people's problems. Doyoung comes first.

Did Doyoung not congratulate Johnny with something that he got jealous over a cake for a choreographer? His tone wasn't very praising. Regardless, neos agree Doyoung remembers anniversaries well.

Heh, so I was right about Doyoung holding grudges. Hehehe, it's nice to be so often right. Even Kun laughed, and he isn't a part of 127.

Kun and Doyoung keeping it real with the friends/money question. They suffer enough with the friends they have.

OK, yes, Johnny is ignored by Do and complains about it. His "do you even text me" was specific. Or Doyoung wouldn't have replied with "I do in a groupchat". He wouldn't need to object to a logical rebuttal if it wasn't an emotional one.

So remember how I said that Doyoung limits his close friends circle. It is because he is "I give all of my heart" to close people. He is so popular because people like the feeling of being paid 100% attention. Was it Johnny who wanted 5 Doyoungs? A Doyoung for every neo, heh. However, Doyoung doesn't have time nor energy for everyone, so he limits the chosen ones to keep sane. He can't dedicate to everyone so much of himself as he does to Taeyong, for example. And Johnny argues "but I give you energy in return!".

Lol, Doyoung liked to pay for others and he is a hyung to Jungwoo, so he doesn't actually mind (he smiled at the end), but he made his point. I have a feeling Doyoung is talking about being taken for granted (as he did in the past). Tae, Jae, Hyuk and Johnny all remember to thank him for his efforts.

"Why won't you come and see your friend?" was a direct quotation of Johnny. Do even imitated his intonation, and Johnny reacted with "so upsetting".

I think I get JohnDo problem. I discovered I joked even back in 2019 about Johnny's quest to make Do his bff. Johnny wants personal attention, constant reminders he is loved and remembered, he needs to be valued. While for Doyoung it's "I do think of you as a friend, I do like you, why is it not enough for you? I can't send you texts with "Good night" every evening, I have no time". On the other hand, for Doyoung he needs to sacrifice for close friends, so he isn't ready to commit, while Johnny tries to tell him his point of view, that what he needs is companionship, connection. Extravert vs introvert dillema, heh. A friend is a responsibility for Doyoung.

Also, I suspect Jungwoo intervened between JohnDo and took attention from Johnny on himself to stop the escalation. And Do got his plan a few seconds later.

Doyoung again demonstrated how image is important to him and how concious he is of the public opinion.

Johnny, hate to tell you, but eggs come from cloaca which is the bird's ass.

Jisung and Doyoung being real introverts with the "bring a friend" question, heh. Also very Korean, I guess, they cared more about not being told in advance.

I feel like Johnny's talk about different types needing each other was also addressed to Do, he explained his point of view with an example.

This content was good. Maybe due to the members but the programme managed to make neos talk truthfully instead of acting up for variety. Jungwoo comes off better when he isn't pressed to be funny and isn't alone to do so, he is more himself and shows his good sides.

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

Per the post I last reblogged, I just want to clarify...

With Pearl Jam’s version of “Last Kiss,” whenever I hear it, it makes me think ‘People would buy an audio recording of Eddie Vedder coughing up a lung.’ Not that he sounds terrible in PJ’s cover of it, but it’s SO BORING!!!! IT DRAGS ON AND ON and whenever I’m forced to listen to it (because it comes up on shuffle on my playlist, not because I specifically choose to listen to it which is obviously different) I’m always checking my imaginary watch like ‘OH MY GOD IS IT OVER YET.’

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t hate it. It just bores me, so I want it to hear it like...3 times a year, maybe, and that’s it.

Also, just to admit that sometimes I can be a wee bit of a hypocrite, but generally speaking I would probably also be one such person to pay money just to hear Eddie Vedder reading the morning news or something (in other words, doing something mundane. But probably not painful like I originally suggested above, LOL. It’s just that painful to me to hear that song). So I don’t misunderstand the appeal. Oh, I understand the appeal perfectly. But with a song like that, where the band’s instrumental is similarly lacking in anything imaginative - for Pearl Jam or for the cover, to make it more interesting OR, I DON’T KNOW, TO MAKE IT ACTUALLY SOUND LIKE A COVER AND NOT JUST A DUPLICATE OF THE ORIGINAL VERSION - it fucking bores me and I cannot for the life of me understand why it’s PJ’s fifth most listened-to song on Spotify. Gag me with a spoon.

[thirsthourdemon]

Headcanon on their online platforms but mainly on Twitch, onlyfans stuff, patreon, tumblr

Includes: Demon bros + undateablesss

Genre: Crack, Fluff and slight smut

Warnings: NSFW mentions

||Lucifer

-He didn’t have a big online presence because he was active, no no

-He had an online presence cause everyone always sees him on Diavolo s pictures and such so for a time they shared an audience

-One time Diavolo and Barbatos were doing a thing where they read a book aloud for some sort of game

-Diavolo kind of recorded that for a little bit

-ASMR I TELL YOU

-People liked it so much they suggested for “the one with the deep cold voice”, luci, to do asmr on youtube or something

-He doesn’t know what an Onlyfans is however he does have a patreon.

-Diavolo was interested in the idea and discussed it with him

-HE BLEW UP CAUSE EVERYONE WAS FREAKING OUT OVER HOW AMAZING HIS VOICE WAS OF COURSE! 😡

-His fandom consists of either people who are interested in what he reads or...Horny people who get off at how proper and low his voice is

-His profile picture is a picture of him with his head cropped out where he’s fixing his gloves

-Luci isnt like super famous but he has a loyal fanbase that appreciates him a lot also lots of simps with daddy issues

-He was confused as to why someone would ask him to be their father

-He gets the daddy kink but why???

-Last post: A picture MC took where he’s holding a whip cause mammon fucked something up 🙂

||Mammon

-Bold of us to assume he didn’t already have one

-You already know why he’s on here.

-He has random content but he mainly got his audience since he kind of tried modeling thing for a while. It was for a big brand on their new jock type jackets

-Mammon really wanted cash at that time and he got the thing over and done with making him a couple more grims richer

-The photographers told him they could transfer the pictures though! So he just saved his pictures because “Who wouldn’t want a picture of THE mammon?”

-That gave him the idea

-His audience? Whoreknee

-They even accept the fact that his captions for some pictures are “You should be honored you get pictures of me”

-He posts that with a blushing face half of the time HAHAHAHA

-Levi found it and just laughed at the pictures

-Surprisingly enough the pictures were actually well taken because MC was forced into em

-His most popular picture was the one with him was actually a picture that the brothers took of him tucking in what appeared to be goldie on a seperate MINI BED WITH A SMALL TOY LAMP BESIDE IT

-He did a QnA for his followers to celebrate on his instagram

-PFFTT He got so many questions about Goldie

-Was dubbed “Goldie’s Daddy” after that

-Last post: A picture of him wearing the new Luxury brand jacket he got and his keys in front of his car with the caption “Daddy’s going for a ride”

||Leviathan

-I’ve always head canon that Levi knows how to draw digital emotes. Like he just picked it up cause he wanted to make fanart of him in henry together 😔

-Also has a red bubble or an etsy where he sells some prints and stickers of fanart 👀

-He went on twitch since there were so many TSL streamers there who just played games while they discussed theories as well

-Levi is an emote artist and while he draws he sometimes just discusses the theories with his fellow Yucky Otakus

-He’s the type to really interact with everyone even though he barely does that in real life

-Sometimes though when he gets packages that fans sent or ones that he ordered he’d stream unboxing them.

-He hates showing his face? Oh dont worry He’s wearing a facemask and all that

-His fandom is genuinely into him. Like they actually like him as a person but kinda once got into a scandal on gatekeeping

-He took a break for a bit but he kind of said sorry and everyone just forgave him because he isn’t really the type to do drama and it was just that one instance-

-Overall loved by the community due to how chill he is and how invested he is on fan theories

-He has a twitter btw and lemme tell you it’s just threads and threads of discussions

-Whenever he does stream unboxing videos though and he shows his shelves everyone freaks out how he has EVERY FUCKING VOLUME OF EVERY ANIME AND GAME

-People sometimes ask him personal questions and he tries his best to try to answer them but he shows a face where he looks uncomfy

-Everyone just bullies anyone who makes him uncomfy giving his fanbase a very protective reputation

-Last post: “Unboxing fanmail L8er @ 10pm LOL CYA GUYS XD”

||Satan

-He has a tumblr. You cant tell me he doesn’t have one.

-He had tumblr like back in the old day though like when porn was still available here.

-Get this...He’s known all through out the academia blogs. He INVENTED Academia

-Satan has 1 blog and that’s it. It’s his main blog and he just posts pictures of the book cover and does essays, reviews or sometimes he writes the ending he wanted to happen.

-Dont get me wrong he has a patreon but only because people loved getting more exclusive takes of stuff like his book notes on certain pages or sometimes his notes and thoughts on Artistic Erotica

-Probably has a Ko-Fi because he though he needed it after most of the blogs he followed had it

-He thinks it should be “Table of Content” and not “Masterlist” so he uses just that

-Profile picture is him wearing his signature washed out green grandma sweater while he has a book in hand and a cup of earl grey on his table

-People go to him falling in love with his aesthetic and Book reviews but they stay in love with him because he is big on one on one discussions actually

-He goes for one on one voice calls where he just...He talks to you about any book of your choosing

-Fans send him tea but he knows better than to eat something a stranger gives so he makes beel take a taste first sometimes but ultimately scolds the boy when he takes too much

-He wasn’t supposed to have merch but everyone liked the idea of small packages (More like letters) that really do look old and vintage

-He usually only give those to the people who pay for the top tier stuff

-It usually contains 1 type of tea, a letter he wrote for them himself and a bookmark with his name stamped on it

-He got the stamp custom made ❤️

-Last post: (Insert 5k word essay)

This is what I thought of Edgar Allan Poe’s “A cask of Amatillado”

Playlist: (Insert soft classic Music playlist on Spotify)

Tea: Black Currant

||Asmodeus

-ONLY FANS THROUGH AND THROUGH

-Is a brand influencer as well

-The brand ambassador of this pretty well known semi-luxury skin care brand

-His devilgram? Perfectly made by his PR team which is just him and solomon

-Before I move onto the NSFW stuff I want to emphasize how Beautiful his instagram is and his aesthetic

-His aesthetic is romantic/sexual tension/Unparalleled beauty

-Also a make up brand influencer and has his own make up line

-something along the lines of “The Devil’s box of charms 🖤”

-The type to DG live whenever he’s just showing off the make up look he did or the outfit he got

-The house of lamentation may have PR packages stacking up due to how most of them have an online influence but out of 10 boxes 7 of them would be for Asmo

-OKAY NOW ONTO NSFW STUFF

-Lemme tell you this...He has a specific drawer and space in his closet just for the sexy outfits he has.

-The demon’s onlyfans has pictures of him just teasing his audience where he’s wearing a black skintight get up and his bulge is showing

-Nudes are for mid and top tiers

-His fandom loves seeing in stocking and chokers

-“The choker is from etsy and here’s the link to their shop~”

-He doesnt completely show his body but...Him in suggestive clothing gets everyone pre cumming

-His fandom is just filled with simps 😔

-He loves them and blows a kiss towards the camera everytime he ends a live

-Probably has had a scandal or 4

-Posted an Ahegao once and everyone lost it

-Has been the face for Ahegaos ever since

-Belle delphine who?

-Definitely tik tok famous too 😎

-Has memorized all of Doja Cat’s songs

-Last post: “Hope you guys are ready for tonight’s session~ 😈” With a picture of him in an Fuchsia and black themed lingerie set. A collar with a bell on it.

-Bonus: One time Solomon summoned him while he was taking pictures and he was still in his lingerie set. 😛

||Beelzebub

-Was originally inspired by Mukbangs Channels so he did them on youtube too

-You get his Mukbangs on your recommended, You subscribe because of his cute and funny reactions whenever someone in the backgrounds is astounded to how much he’s eating

-Everyone knew beel as a cute guy who just does Mukbangs and loves to eat

-He once did a fridge raid and ended up eating everything in the fridge

-That was THE MOST CHAOTIC VIDEO on his channel cause you can just see luci and MC trying to make him stop

-He eventually got a patreon because mammon told him people will give him more money for food like that and to be honest he made a patreon but mammon takes care of it from time to time

-Oh you knew him as this sweet beautiful boy who just likes eating? hERe HavE sOmE WorKOUt pICs

-His body got everyone thirsty or may I say Starving

-S I M P S everywhere

-His patreon content is just him making small videos eating or pictures of him being all sweaty from the gym 😛💦

-“DADDY BWDONMXMSKC PLEASE FEED US”

-“Eh? You should feed me instead” *opens his mouth*

-Fans send him lots of boxes of weird food to see his reaction sometimes

-Did the fire noodle challenge a bit late but everyone is surprised to how he isn’t giving the reaction like they expected him

-Spice tolerance? Unmatched

-His fandom is either “UwU Beel please eat try this!” Or “Daddy Please FEED US WITH YOUR DELICIOUS THIGHS! 😩🥵💦💦💦”

-He does the service where he sends you his body building pictures except he isn’t sending them, Mammon is.

-Manager Mammon 😎 Gets a half of the profit

-Can I just...BeelProbablyHasnevergottenintoanyscandalbuthasalotofhaterssayingthefansonlylikehimforhishandsomefaceandgreatbodyandnicevoicebutlikewhatiswrongwithlikinghimbecauseofthosethings?Itisntbadtolikethatstuffatall

-Last post: “🍙 Thank you to @(Your Username) for the Onigiri! I finished the whole batch! Please send more food”

||Belphegor

-Sleep Guru

-Im sorry but I cant see him having any other social media aside from tumblr, twitter and Devilgram

-Belphie barely checks his phone but he has tumblr because apparently there’s a thing called the SandMan’s Box Community

-It’s like LootCrate, a subscription service that gives you stuff like Comfy Pillow sheets and tea for better sleeping

-This even gives you something like sleeping masks or ear muffs.

-The community is well...nocturnal

-His ask box is always full of his 100+ mutuals who just discuss stuff with him

-Whenever he actually does try to type online he makes articles about the best sleep positions or stuff like that

-His fandom is just loving mutuals who sleep and take care of each other

-They have a discord server where it just plays soft music to help everyone sleep

-Last post: “Humans aren’t so bad when they’re asleep”

||Luke and Simeon

-He has a big following on twitch where he just bakes sweets in his cute little hat and-

-Clearly you can tell I follow him on twitch

-The type of twitch streamer that no one hates on because why would you? He is literally just baking and cute comments

-Sometimes he streams with Simeon and everyone loves both of them

-When people give money they dont give “money” no no...they call donating headpats

-Luke is just so adorable that everyone just...

-“Angel Lulu’s Protection Squad⭐️”

-He got famous when he...He doesnt want to call it a collab but He made a lot of sweets and gave them to beel so everyone freaked out and thought

-THE SWEET BOY THAT EATS A LOT AND THE ANGELIC CHILD THAT MAKES SWEETS A LOT ARE FRIENDS?!

-He is now pissed that everyone thinks they’re friends 😠

-Basically his fans started making dishes and candy inspired by him

-Sometimes they send it in and Simeon has to confiscate some because

-“Im sorry, guys. You are all really sweet and I know that you mean well but Luke isn’t allowed much sweets yet”

-No one ever EVER lewds luke

-Fortunately Luke’s fandom has the least amount of pedophiles because everyone drives them away the moment they try something

-Whenever luke does fan mail/unboxing videos people just adore how Simeon places a glass of water at the table below the camera and the scissors or cutter he uses is child proof

-Even though Luke is the main person on his account everyone also notices Simeon.

-How couldn’t they? He looked like he wanted to make everyone in the audience live a better life

-Add that with luke’s wholesome baking and BOOM! You are now ready for a better life🌟

-Last post: It’s a picture of Luke shyly showing of his new batch of sun and moon shaped sugar cookies. “Sun and Moon. Tune in later at 3 pm to see how we made these!”

||Solomon

-He barely posts but he helps asmodeus with his stuff

-Too busy with anything else but helps out when things get interesting

-Proposes Ideas for Asmo sometimes when the demon doesn’t know what to wear for a live or a story

-Laughs at Asmo sometimes when he gets into scandals and drama

-Happy cameraman ❤️

-People follow him because 1.) He’s hot 2.) The fans ship him with Asmodeus

-Last Post: “When will you learn 🙂”

||Diavolo

-He is a vlogger~ Not a very active vlogger but a vlogger nonetheless

-He films anything he can but he’s more known on tik tok and devilgram rather than twitch or youtube

-People have been thirsting for him ever since and no one can convince me that they dont just shamelessly call him daddy whenever he goes on live

-Barbatos makes sure however that whenever it isnt appropriate anymore that he would tell diavolo to turn the camera off

-Wranggled Luci into his mess and now everyone knows the face of that one dude who just reads documents

-Everyone lowkey ships them

-Diavolo is the type to take a picture of a big meeting or a retreat out of instinct to just document his life

-He actually didnt know about vloggers before but he just liked the thought of documenting it

-Everyone picks up “Master” vibes as they say from him hehehe

-He doesnt have an Onlyfans or patreon 😔😔😔

-I honestly would have subscribed to his services

-Last post: “Barbatos made a delicious meal for us at the retreat today” Along with a picture of the Beautiful Demon Delicacy Spread in the table.

Taglist: No one yet (Please be part of the taglist for more content like this ☹️ It’s getting really discouraging)

[eldritchsurveys]

945.

When did you wake up today? >> I woke up at like 4a at first, and then finally fell back asleep sometime after 6a, and woke up for good at a little after 8a. IDK why this happens, but it’s really annoying when it does.

Are you a breakfast person? >> I don’t know what a “breakfast person” is. I do eat a meal in the morning...?

How often do you exercise? What type of exercises? >> I don’t exercise. It’s difficult for me to find something engaging and fun enough for me to stick with it. When the weather cools off a bit I will probably take up morning walks again, but right now I’ve reached my limit with summer conditions and can’t be motivated to willingly drench myself in sweat.

Any favorite TV shows? >> Plenty. Here are three: Person of Interest, The Dragon Prince, Hannibal.

Do you pay attention to the news? >> I read news articles sometimes, when the subject matter is of interest to me or I want to get the full story behind something. Also, I get daily emails from The Flip Side, so that’s a bit of news every morning.

Do you ever donate a dollar to fast food charities? >> Not usually. I also am rarely at fast-food restaurants, so.

What type of books do you like to read? >> I like a wide variety of books -- genre matters less to me than whether the content is written in an engaging manner and whether I care about either the characters or the subject matter presented.

Have you ever enjoyed a reading assignment for school? >> ---

Did you get to decorate your own bedroom? What's it like? >> As a child? No. Now? Yes, because I’m an adult and I pay rent here so I can do whatever I want with my own room. It’s not really decorated in a specific manner, though, like it doesn’t have a ‘theme’.

What size bed do you sleep on? >> Twin, because that’s what fits in my room. Fortunately, I am a relatively small person.

Do you wake up easily to alarms? >> I would if I used them.

Do you stay up unnaturally late at night or do you get to bed early? >> I don’t think I go to bed particularly early or late. Ten PM seems a pretty neutral bedtime.

What are you usually doing if you're up late at night? >> If I’m up late at night, it’s most likely because I couldn’t get to sleep no matter what. It’s definitely not on purpose.

Do you keep anything on like a fan or the TV while you sleep? >> I have the fan on in summer because otherwise the heat would kill me. But I don’t like the noise, I prefer silence when I’m in bed.

Do you procrastinate with deadlines? >> I don’t usually have deadlines.

Do you put a lot of effort into school? >> ---

What food could you absolutely live off of? >> I don’t think I could live off of any food (barring survival situations, of course). I require an array of nutrients just as much as anyone else.

What do you get when you go to the movies? >> An alcoholic beverage, sometimes. Otherwise I don’t usually buy concessions, they’re too expensive. I’ve definitely sneaked many a snack or beverage into a theater and I’ll do it again.

Where do you like to sit at the movie theater? >> Back center.

If you're just lounging around the house, what are you wearing? >> PJ pants or shorts and an undershirt or t-shirt.

Do you like wearing heels? >> An inch or two is fine. I’d prefer not to wear anything higher than that.

Would you prefer a night in or a night out? >> A night in usually suits me, but depending on the kind of night out, I wouldn’t say no to that either. Definitely been getting nostalgic for dinner-and-movie outings lately.

Do you enjoy being alone, or does it make you feel lonely? >> I do enjoy being alone. It’s nice to just veg out in the apartment doing whatever I want, and I don’t feel like I’m being scrutinised every time I move.

Obsessed with any songs at the moment? >> Not any that I can think of.

Do you enjoy showers, or do you take them cause you need to? What about baths? >> Showers are a bit triggering for me for a tangle of reasons, I don’t enjoy them at all. I never take baths, those are a hard limit for me.

Shower robe or towels? >> I just get dressed immediately after drying off and moisturising.

Do you have routines for waking up and going to bed? >> I clean my face and take my Pill before going to bed. I usually read for an hour after waking up, before getting up for bio stuff.

Do you remember your dreams often? >> Not often.

Do the dreams you remember make sense? >> I usually only remember ones that have some kind of connection to waking life. The more esoteric ones are difficult for my brain to hang onto, I think. They come through less frequently.

How is summer going so far? >> I’ve had my fill of summer and now I am looking forward to fall. That’s the thing about summer -- it’s short enough that by the time I’m tired of it, it’s almost over anyway. By the time I’m tired of winter, the worst months haven’t even hit yet.

Do you spend a lot of time tanning? >> I don’t spend any time tanning.

What would you say occupies your time most? >> The Internet, I guess.

Do you keep your room clean, or are you not phased by mess? >> I try to keep my room clean, although the size and how everything is set up makes it look a little more cluttered than it actually is, which drives me batty.

Do you get hassled to keep a clean room? >> Who would hassle me...? I’m grown, I’m responsible for my own damn room for better or worse.

Do you do your own laundry? >> Sparrow does the laundry.

Do you think graffiti is art or vandalism? >> It’s both. Art from the perspective of me, a passerby who likes pretty colours and funky lettering. Vandalism from the perspective of a building owner or law enforcement official.

How do you like your marshmallows roasted? >> Until they’re crispy? Is there any other way, lol...

How do you get rid of hiccups? >> I don’t do anything, mine go away pretty quickly.

How about brain freezes? >> I don’t do anything for that, either, it’s over in a few seconds.

Do you have any healthy addictions? >> That’s... that’s an oxymoron??? What do you think “addiction” means?

Are you old enough to vote yet? >> Yes.

Is voting important to you, or are you uninterested by politics? >> I am uninterested in politics and yet I still participate in the voting system. I didn’t used to, but I’ve come to understand the importance of participating and so I do my best.

Are you alright at world geography? >> I’m pretty abysmal at world geography. I know where some countries and geographical features are, and I can figure out the general area of where other countries or geographical features would be, sometimes... but mostly I just never put much mental energy into that sort of thing and I’m often wrong.

How about navigating your city? >> I can navigate this city pretty well. I’m good with cities.

What part of history interests you most? >> What part of history doesn’t interest me, at least marginally?

Do you keep your cell phone on you all the time? >> Not necessarily on me, but it’s usually somewhere nearby. ... *looks around* ...Well, right now, it’s all the way across the room, but hey.

Do you answer it when it rings or do you screen your own calls? >> I don’t answer my phone at all. Every call I get is spam or a misdial / someone thinking this number belongs to someone else entirely.

Are you big on the texting? >> I don’t text much because there’s no one to text except Sparrow, who I see every day in person anyway.

Do you like chewing gum or eating mints? >> I like the cognitive effects of gum-chewing. But Orbit changed the formula of my favourite gum so I had to give it up.

Do you use dental floss much? >> I don’t floss.

If you're biking do you wear a helmet? >> I hate the way helmets feel on my head but I understand their importance so I just avoid biking at all, basically.

What is your favorite outdoor activity? >> I’m not sure. Hiking, maybe? I do miss hiking.

Do/did you enjoy living with your parents? >> I did not enjoy it.

Do you have any favorite clothes? >> If I still have an article of clothing, one can assume it’s a favourite of mine. Otherwise I’d just... get rid of it. I don’t like keeping things I don’t enjoy.

How about a favorite pair of shoes? >> I only have two pairs of shoes and I like them both for different reasons / purposes.

How many different types of ID do you have? >> Well, I have a state ID, and a Social Security card somewhere (... I should really figure out where that is, I always seem to misplace those), and a birth certificate. I think those are the major forms in this country (I don’t have a passport, which would be another major form).

Do you always remember your license when you're driving? >> ---

Do you pay much attention to speed limits while driving? >> ---

What do you listen to when you're in the car? >> Sparrow’s iPod, usually. But she got a new dongle for the car and it’s Bluetooth, so now I can play my Spotify sometimes too. I have a playlist specifically for the car that’s my Liked Songs with all the metal and hard rock removed (which is, like, three-quarters of my likes, lmao).

What do you spend most of your money on? >> Rent.

Do you take advice when it's given to you? >> I don’t usually receive advice.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic under the shield of "realistic"? >> I feel like that’s not the whole picture. Some people are plainly pessimistic, some people are pessimistic and call themselves “realistic”, and some people are realistic. Whatever. I think my viewpoint depends on what kind of day I’m having, not some innate preference.

Do you avoid arguments or do you go out of your way to express your views? >> I avoid arguments but not to the point where I never express myself. Sometimes my trauma-inspired aversion to perceived conflict can get in my way, but I try not to let it win every time.

Are you looking forward to the future? >> I don’t usually think about the future. I’m busy enough with the present.

[whatadaze]

shan writes another long ass post no one asked for: 

so unless you’ve been living under a rock, you MIGHT have heard about skam nl + its recent decision to remove the geoblock on its youtube videos. if you have never watched skam nl or am on the fence about it pLS PLS PLS keep reading okay!? PLEASE 

I’m not the best at articulating my thoughts and suck at writing but i’ll try my best so PLS read :-) 

1. THE CAST

skamnl’s girl squad has a WOC playing noora (liv), a bisexual chris (janna), the least problematic vilde (engel), an AMAZING eva (isa), and even though their sana (imaan) could only be in the show for one season PLEASE do not let that deter you from watching. the actress left due to personal reasons and they left her character’s storyline open ended so if there ever was a chance for the actress to return, she could! i know there are many people who want a sana season with muslim representation but skam nl introduces another character, esra, who is also a muslim woc and FUCKING AMAZING. that aside, the cast members have great chemistry with one another. the way the characters interact + talk feel so real and genuine, largely because of the fact that the cast members are very close irl. one thing that i love about skamnl is the way they portray the friendships within the girl squad. i’d even go as far a saying that they are the best girl squad (even surpassing og) because they are so open and honest with one another + actually TALK to each other when problems occur. i don’t want to get too into specifics because you just need to watch the show but UGH i love how the show promotes POSITIVE girl/girl friendships without all that unnecessary catty drama we usually see in teen shows. 

2. THE WRITING + PRODUCTION 

so season 1 follows isa (eva) and i’m not going to lie, season 1 was always the season i didn’t care for as much but i was drawn to isa from the very first clip. she is just SO relatable and i would’ve loved to have watched a show with a main character like her when i was a teen. the dialogue feels so raw and real—the writing isn’t cringey or sound forced/straight from a script. and let me tell you, the PRODUCTION IS OFF THE CHARTS. skamnl has a unique way of telling its story through eVERYTHING. what the camera chooses to focus on, what colors are included in the scene, the song they choose for certain scenes, EVERYTHING has a purpose and i love when people analyze clips because it just shows how genius the skamnl team really is. they all work so hard on this show and it’s truly a shame that they don’t get the recognition they deserve. 

3. THE SOUNDTRACK

i’m not sure how it is with other remakes, but the spotify playlist for skamnl gets updated after each episode and that will tell you how long an episode will be. it’s actually one of my favorite parts of the show—waiting for the next group of songs to drop, listening to them, and trying to figure out what might happen in the next clips. they have introduced so many songs that i listen to on the regular from all over the world. in season 1, they had a song by kpop group TWICE and as a korean person myself, i was s h o o k when that happened! if you love music and discovering new songs, you’d love what skamnl has to offer because their soundtrack is A++++++ 

4. THE CHEMISTRY 

i touched on this in my point 1 but i just need to delve a bit more into it. so i mentioned that the cast members hang out outside of filming and they are genuinely all good friends. this makes their acting feel more genuine and real, their dialogue sounds more natural, and as a viewer, you really feel like a fly on the wall when you watch the show. it feels like you’re watching a real group of friends hanging out, going through typical problems you might be facing yourself, and for those of you who aren’t in high school, watching them really takes you back to your own high school days. i always get this warm, nostalgic feeling i just can’t really explain whenever i watch season 1. 

right now, it’s liv’s season and i know that many people who watch skam+remakes don’t like william or noora/william or think it’s just a season where two het couples making out all the time but IT’S NOT. first of all, season 2 has so many important themes that people (especially teen girls) need to be aware of: sexual assault, eating disorders, relationships, and like season 1, touches on the importance of friendship. also, noah IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE LEAST PROBLEMATIC WILLIAM. you just have to watch to understand but I PROMISE YOU you will not be disappointed. i have talked to so many people who HATED william and now they hate themselves for loving noah so much. not to mention, zoe (liv) + monk’s (noah) chemistry is INSANE. these two dorks are friends irl and in order to prepare for their season, they spent a lot of time getting to know each other and building a relationship so that their interactions on screen feel more natural. the cast just goes above and beyond to deliver an authentic performance and it FUCKING SHOWS

5. THE FANDOM 

this will be the last thing i touch on + may be the most controversial so pls don’t hate lol :-) one positive thing about skamnl being underrated is the small fan base. i’ve gotten pretty familiar with the regular group of people who frequently post in the tags and they are some of the sweetest and talented people i know. it may sound cheesy as hell, but the people in this fandom feel like a small family + i LOVE THAT. there’s no drama, there’s no hate, and we all just love discussing the show, promoting the show, and freaking out over clip drops, hiatuses, social media posts, and sharing theories. the fan base is one of the main reasons i enjoy watching skamnl so much, and i’d say it’s the least problematic as well. and that’s not me saying other remake fandoms are toxic or horrible, because for the most part, THEY AREN’T. i enjoy watching other remakes as well + am familiar with people in those fandoms as well but the environment seen in the skamnl fandom is just so.......different. i’ve developed genuine friendships with people from all over the world through this show and i think that’s just SO amazing. we’re small, but we’re a warm, inviting bunch and would love to have more and more people join us! 

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW? 

skamnl has removed its geoblock from all their youtube videos which is how they gather data on viewership and all that so it’s SUPER important that if you decide to watch this show, you do it through their official youtube channel. the clips are usually subbed within 30 minutes of being dropped by the amazing @skamdutch team, social media posts are translated within 15 minutes, BASICALLY waiting for translations has never been a problem okay? they are released super fast so don’t let the waiting deter you. 

i personally love watching it the first time without subs and use that time to freak out and let all my excitement out of my system + once the subs are released, i watch it again and actually pay attention LOLOL 

but anyway, i know a lot of people didn’t want to watch skamnl because it was geoblocked so if that was your excuse, you LITERALLY have no excuse now. and we don’t know how long this will be going on for but i have a feeling they will block it again soon so THE TIME IS NOW. the cast have spoken out about it, the production team have spoken about it, so go go go and watch it!!! 

even if you can only watch one or two clips a day, do it! anything and everything helps at this point! this show deserves to have its season 3 and many many more in the future. 

ok all of this probably didn’t make any sense because like i mentioned before i suck at writing and articulating my thoughts BUT if you actually read all of this then THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU and please click HERE for a surprise.

byeeeeeeeeeee

love, shan

me after writing this post: 

[iwbfinterviews]

Jake Brown Interview

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? Is there a particular reason you chose to write about music, singers, etc?

I didn’t actually, lol.  I’m a songwriter/producer first, I grew up playing and writing music but always wrote as a way to kind of get through school because I was terrible at math, sciences, tests, etc.  I think there’s alot of people in the music business who started out like that.  It kind of happened accidentally, I was working for a record label right out of college and started writing copy for their catalog titles, press releases, etc and it just expanded from there.   I met a literary agent through that who suggested I try to write a book, and we sold the Suge Knight memoir to Amber Books, who gave me my start.  Another big early foot in the door moment was when I had the opportunity to write books with Ann and Nancy Wilson & Heart in 2007 and in 2009 with Lemmy Kilmister and Motorhead.  Then the book nearly 10 years into my career that really kind of made me appreciate this career was the opportunity to work with legendary guitar player Joe Satriani on Strange Beautiful Music: A Musical Memoir.  I’d also started specializing in anthology-style books that feature LOTS of exclusive interviews in one book in chapter profiles so you could tell a bunch of people’s live stories at once, including the BEHIND THE BOARDS series, which began 10 years ago as a Rock & Roll producers’ series, the aforementioned In the Studio series with Heart, Motorhead, and others, and then finally about 10 years into living in Nashville I began working on the NASHVILLE SONGWRITER book series and most recently the BEHIND THE BOARDS: NASHVILLE book.  SO: the long answer to that question is, because I love telling the behind-the-scenes stories of both the hits and those who make them, be it songwriters or producers or drummers in the case of the BEYOND THE BEATS rock drummers series, or Hip Hop producers with the DOCTORS OF RHYTHM audiobook and upcoming physical version in 2021.  I’ve also been fortunate to write memoirs with some interesting characters like Kenny Aronoff, country rapper Big Smo and upcoming Freddy Powers The Spree of ’83 book which features Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson.  So it's been an interesting run.

How long does it take you to write a book?

I work on several at once usually, that’s kind of my process, half day on one, a day on another, but for BEHIND THE BOARDS: NASHVILLE, I spent 4 straight months day in and out writing this book exclusively as it was over 600 pages.  I was reading the audiobook for Blackstone as I was writing it too, which was the first time I’ve ever done that.  Usually the audiobook is read after the book is completed.  Then it’s about a month of editing before its handed into the publisher.  So this was a real push, but it was worth it because of the feedback I’m getting first from the producers I worked quite extensively in many cases with on their individual chapters, and collectively in the book being a first of its kind for country music fans where they can read about how their favorite hits by country’s biggest stars were made while listening along on Spotify, iTunes, Tidal, etc.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

Oh, I don’t know... I write every book thinking from the outset before I’ve even started putting words down to paper thinking about how that book will be marketed and promoted upon release.  There’s no point in writing something no one is going to read because when you get to the finish line you don’t have a gameplan on how to make readers aware of it.  Publishers, to be honest, can only do so much in that arena, every publisher’s publicist is usually like a social worker with 30 cases on their desk, so yours can only get so much attention.  So for instance, I always recommend to a writer to hire a great publicist and know that while that’s a considerable expense, it may be the best money you spend in getting the word out about your book because that publicist is working for YOU, not for 30 authors at once.  It's just a fact of the business that I think should get more light shed on it because you’re competing with that number I  mentioned above of 60,000+ books a YEAR coming out.  I also negotiate the right to press my own promo runs of 100 if needed because if not, you’ll wind up with a paltry 10 copies from the publisher, who for their own budgetary reasons, might not for instance be able to service all the physical review copies you’ll have to give away during the book’s promotion, whether to a disc jockey interviewing you on the air or the listener he or she is giving away a free copy to during that broadcast, as just one example.  If you don’t plan ahead for that, you’ll wind up paying that publisher $6 or $7 per promotional copy, which is something I’m SURE some of my own publishers would hate for me to pull the curtain back on, but its true.  Writers are paid LAST usually in the royalty chain, especially early on, but you move up in that order as you build a value into your name as a writer, which only comes with people hearing about you and your book.  So again, HIRE A PUBLICIST, HIRE A PUBLICIST, HIRE A PUBLICIST!  Your agent can be helpful too, but its typically up to you as an author to maintain your own social media presence and look for every available avenue to spread the word about your book so it has a chance to be read.  This is equally important for newer or more established writers, because there’s always a new generation of equally-as-talented new wordsmiths knocking on those publishers’ same doors... 

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

In a studio making music or writing books for the various publishers I work for, or recording audiobooks for Blackstone Audio, so it’s pretty time-consuming.  I did just sign a worldwide music publishing deal for my songwriting catalog with Streets Music and David Gresham Company.  So I’m lucky to stay busy, to be honest, you have to too make a living in the entertainment business.  I have a wife and a dog too, so I spend what time I have left with them. ☺ 

Your 50th book is coming out June 23rd, “Behind The Boards: Nashville”. Can you give us insight on what it will be about? 

First, I exhale deeply every time I get asked that because it's finally DONE!  I spent 2 years collecting extensive, first-hand – many for the first time in a book – interviews with 30 of country music’s biggest producers, and in some cases, that meant waiting for a break in their busy studio schedules to talk, in others it meant multiple conversations over a couple years as we wanted to make sure we had all their current hits as they kept banging them out, and in other cases, because of the sheer volume of their catalog – some of these guys have been in the business since the early 70s – it took that long to chronicle it all.  That’s just the interview process too, then I had to write it and I write everything in one shot vs. a chapter here and there.  Its to me like staying in character as an actor throughout an entire performance, and when you’re writing a book like this, you’re in a headspace that never lets you sleep because creative narrative is CONSTANTLY hitting you about specific hits, and there’s over 300 # 1s in this book.  Additionally, there’s an EXHAUSTIVE amount of research I do to source out certain critical quotes of praise, for instance, from way back in the 80s, 90s, early 00s, etc from magazines that aren’t even in print anymore, as well as supporting quotes from the actual superstars these producers work with in the studio, which also takes a great deal of time.  So after all of that prep, once you begin writing, there’s another 3-4 months before the manuscript comes to life as a finished product.

As a result of that, country music fans here are given arguably the MOST definitive to date book chronicling the stories behind the making of their favorite hits in the studio, again how those artists specifically and uniquely work at their craft – i.e. does George Strait sing each hit over 3 or 4 vocals or 25 or 30 takes, etc – as well as how specific # 1s within those individual catalogs of Greatest Hits were created in the studio.  Then from the other side of the boards, so to speak, you get the producer’s first-hand recollections of their own personal journeys from the time they could first crawl and walk and started discovering music to their teenage bands and first tape-recorder or 2-inch reel to reel or 4-track or laptop home recording sessions all the way up through their rise to become the biggest names in the business working in country music today.  

Collectively, BEHIND THE BOARDS: NASHVILLE features Dann Huff, James Stroud, Jim Ed Norman, Dave Cobb, Justin Neibank, Ross Copperman, Zach Crowell, Chris Destefano, Jesse Frasure, Norbert Putnam, Josh Osborne, Luke Laird, Clint Black, Frank Liddell, Shane McAnally, Jimmy Robbins, Josh Leo, Nathan Chapman, Paul Worley, Jeff Stevens, Jody Stevens, Bobby Braddock, Michael Knox, Don Cook, Frank Rogers, Joey Moi, Ray Baker, and Buddy Cannon, who did the Foreword, which was a TRUE honor.  Frankly, it was an honor to have every one of these legends speak to fans so candidly and openly about both their personal and professional lives in the music business.  Their stories are inspiring, ear-and-eye-opening, exciting, insightful, and hopefully educational for those kids growing up on their records now hoping to break into the same business.  So hopefully, there’s something for everyone who opens the book.

What were the methods you used to get ‘the’ interview with all the big names you’ve written about?

When you’ve been around this long, fortunately you can get in touch with just about anybody, whether they say yes or not to the interview is another story! (laughs)  But I’ve been pretty lucky, especially for instance with my NASHVILLE SONGWRITER book series, which has TWO volumes and 50 of the biggest songwriters in country music in the first two volumes, and a THIRD volume with another 30 legendary songwriters coming out at the end of 2021, and especially with BEHIND THE BOARDS: NASHVILLE, which has 30 of the most legendary record producers in country over the past 50 years, guys like Norbert Putnam, who ran Quad and produced Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville,” Jim Ed Norman, who produced Hank Williams Jr’s Born to Boogie album, Ray Baker, who produced that whole 70s Honkytonk soundtrack including Moe Bandy, Whitey Shafer, and Merle Haggard and Freddy Powers among others.  Then you have the Millennial generation’s biggest names like Joey Moi, Dave Cobb, Dann Huff, Jesse Frasure, Ross Copperman, Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, Ray Riddle, and on and on.  

What do you think makes a good story?

Well, for this book, the most common thread woven throughout many of the chapters/live stories of these producers were the long-term working relationships they’ve  maintained with many of country music’s biggest stars throughout their entire careers or the majority, for instance, Jeff Stevens and Luke Bryan, Byron Gallimore and Tim McGraw, Buddy Cannon and Kenny Chesney, Michael Knox and Tony Brown, Frank Rogers and Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert and Frank Liddell, the list goes on and on as long as the Greatest Hits track listings do.  Equally as importantly for a book like this, is the fact it takes the reader quite literally inside the studio and pulls back the curtain on how their favorite country music stars record their biggest hits, and almost literally re-creates their recording from behind the boards by the producers interviewed.  Then on a totally separate front, from the academic side, its a 600-page book full of tips about how the recording process works from all sides, points of views, approaches, ages, and technologies, old and new, from analog to digital and the hybrid of both in the “in the box” generation of record making.  Hopefully, we’ve covered all sides of the process, that was the aim anyway so readers get a 3-D look, so to speak, at how the recording business really works.  

How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

I sold my first book to my first publisher, Amber Books, in 2001 and Tony Rose gave me my start in the business and I wrote for them almost exclusively for the first 5 years and 10 books of my career from 2002 to 2007.  So having a stable and still exciting publisher willing to take chances on you and equally-as-importantly, the kinds of books you might approach them with, is KEY for any new writer because writers must remember EVERY time a publisher takes a chance on their book, they’re putting real money behind it before they ever see a dime back.  It's a big leap of faith, and carries with it alot of obligations for the author, where it doesn’t just end with handing the book in, but also helping promote it and building a brand for your name so it can become more and more reliable for both readers and new publishers, as any writer’s goal should be to eventually build a catalog where they write for as many publishers as possible throughout their career.  But be prepared to start out writing for one, or anyone for that matter, who you can verify has a good track record as a publisher, or if they’re new to the game, doesn’t just want to put out an e-book, which anyone can do without a publisher, and is willing to commit to a physical pressing, and promotion of that pressing.  I wouldn’t go looking for advances on your first or even necessarily second book out, but start asking for them as soon as possible as its an important piece of the income stream for any working author, as much as royalties are later on down the road.  An advance lets an author know a publisher first can afford to put money into their book, and values them, vs. Alot of these starter deals that promise big back-end but nothing up front.  You have to be able to afford to take that hit once or twice out of the gate, but its not a career model any writer should plan on if they want to make a living as a working author.  The other reason I mention all this is because being a working writer is not just about the creative side of the process, but the entrepreneurial one too, because you have to be a self-promoter, and not be shy to doing interviews or promotion on social media, etc, as you’re competing with a THOUSAND new titles a week minimum these days between all the digital e-books and print books out there. I think the statistic was to be something like 60,000 books published in 2018 alone, so that tells you the competition you’re up against to even get a book sold to a publisher, let alone compete on bookstore shelves for the reader dollar.

What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?

Of my own books, I wouldn’t say any are underappreciated, I’m grateful for the fact that people still read my books after 20 years and 2 or 3 generations of teenagers (which are a primary part of my reading audience) still buy my stuff.  I try to give them consistently interesting reading subjects, either in the personalities I co-write with – like country rapper SMO, whose memoir My Life in a Jar: The Book of Smo, was released in 2019, or the Freddy Powers Spree of ’83 memoir, which is presently in film development and that I co-wrote a screenplay for with Catherine Powers last year, that was also something different, and say something like legendary R&B producer/artist Teddy Riley’s forthcoming memoir Remember the Times, which we’ve been working on for the past 6 years off and on and is looking like it might be heading to Teddy’s fans’ hands in the next year.  One key thing I tell new writers when asked for input into starting a career in the current climate for our business is be prepared to commit as much time to a book as the artist needs, its similar to an album – if the publisher wants it on a deadline, be prepare to deliver, but getting an artist to open up in depth about their life takes time, both to build trust and to physically take the time to do the interviews not only with them in principle but also with the huge list of supporting cast members between peers in the band and business and family members and friends, record executives, peers, etc that usually wind up on those lists.  It's a process you should NEVER RUSH yourself, only move at the rhythm of the people you work with and for, and you’ll wind up working alot longer in the business than those who are in a hurry.  

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

Haha, I actually have a folder called “Projects That Probably Won’t Happen” and its filled with all kinds of “famous” bands/musicians books that just never got off the ground for one reason or another, but they’re all under contractual deals where I can’t talk about them in case they want to put a book out in the future, and I hope they all do.  Sometimes you encounter someone who is thinking about writing a book but is really 10 years before they’re ready to, or they aren’t really committed yet past the concept, so you do some sample chapter interviews but it never gets past that starting line.  I’ve thankfully left on good terms with the majority of those names, but with 50 published books in my catalog, most of what I have committed my time to has thankfully made it to store shelves.  That’s important for any new writer to remember, because with every new book project you take on, you’re committing a year to two years of their life to that process from the start of interviews through the completion, handing it into the publisher, editing, etc.  Anyone in a rush usually isn’t going to get anywhere is what I’ve found, it takes time, even if your mind is moving a million miles a minute, and your ambition even faster, pace yourself and you’ll last a lot longer in the race I’ve found anyway (cheesy sports metaphor aside ☺).  

Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

Haha, I’ve had some good and bad experiences there over the years.  I have NO problem with a consumer buying my book and then reviewing it one way or the other on say Amazon or Audible, etc, because that’s part of the business, but as far as book reviews from other writers, I just have to hope they like it and write fairly about it as it does matter impressionistically what readers then think of it as a potential product to buy and read themselves.  Sometimes, in walking the fine line I have to be between the technical and the creative in a series like this or Nashville Songwriter or say my In the Studio series, which has over 10 books in it alone, so you never know.  Its something I don’t pay alot of attention to as well because by the time a review comes out, the book has been out a couple months usually and we’re on the back-end of a promotional push, so if its a good review, it's a nice 4th quarter boost of coverage, and if it's not, then it's pretty buried vs. hurting the book’s launch on the front end.  I’m just being honest, sorry, but book reviews play a very MINIMAL role in most books’ launches if they’re properly promoted via author interviews, premier placements as we’ve done with American Songwriter, CMT, SoundsLikeNashville.com and others coming up, and for any newer writer, accept ahead of time that you’re GOING to get a bad review here or there, it's just part of the subjective review process, and doesn’t speak for your larger reading audience.  

Do you believe in writer’s block?

Not when you write for a living.  It's not a luxury I think any of the writers I know who work professionally writing books can afford, that’s why you have to follow the simple rule of A.B.W. (Always Be Writing) ☺.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Probably doing the same thing, writing is how I make a living, so it's will be with me until arthiritis set’s in, but I’ve got 2 screenplays in development and hope to have at had at least one of them produced into a film.  I’m not unrealistic to think that it will go to theatres, but I’d be happy to see a streaming service selection with my name on it as a screenwriter, there’s 3 or 4 of my books fortunately in that cycle right now so we’ll hope one or two of them make it that far.  Beyond that, I’m in the studio every week as I have been the past 20 years making music and will continue doing that, hopefully to a greater degree with these new publishing deals I’ve signed as I have over 200 released songs in my own catalog, none in Country lol, but I just try to keep putting out new creative product across multiple mediums at as prolific a pace as the muse allows without the quality of the end-product being compromised.  That’s the point at which I’d stop I guess, if the quality of the writing lessens to where people don’t want to read my stuff anymore.  Thankfully, I have built up a pretty loyal reading and retail-buying audience over the past 2 decades, and hope to keep putting out books that help music listeners understand how hard and still rewarding a business the record business is.  It's an amazing world to wake up working in every day, and I love helping musicians tell their stories on paper, so we’ll just have to see.  I hope to have hit 60 books by then, although my ultimate goal is another 50 over the next 10 years! (laughs)  Thanks again for your time and support of this latest project!    

[ltjlily17]

The truth about vampires

Let’s start off with some basics. What’s your name? Rachel How old are you? 35 What’s your hair and eye color? Green eyes, brown to teal hair. How tall are you? 5′6″

What’s your relationship status? Married Alright, enough of that. Let’s move on to the random shit. What’s your favorite song? Mayonaise by the Smashing Pumpkins, Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton and In Your Atmosphere by John Mayer. What does that song mean? What is the message behind it? They are all pretty different theme wise, but all three really evoke a feeling. Is it your favorite because you relate to it, or do you just like the beat? They’re all more guitar heavy than having a beat, the lyrics and overall feeling the songs provide are what really get m, though. Have any pets? If so, what are they and what’s their names? I have a dog named Finn, and a cat named Mateo. Have you ever met your idol? If so, were they nice or were they kind of an ass? I don’t have an idol. What’s your favorite method of gaming? (PC, Xbox, Playstation, etc) Either the Switch or my laptop. Xbox is fine, but I guess I prefer a handheld type device.  If you’re in college, what’s your major and why did you pick it? I am not in college. My major when I attended varied between visual communications, education and IT. I didn’t choose nor graduate. How’re you doing today? Meh, theres a lot going on around me with people I care about. I was talking to a friend earlier about how most people are stressed or unhapy this time of year, which is really not my experience. I love buying gifts for others, decorating and baking, so this is generally a good time for me. What color are your bedroom walls? Ugh, like a pastel yellow. I really dislike the color. I have painted some grey paint splotches on one wall to see which one I liked most, but I’ve never gotten around to actually painting. Describe your favorite shirt. I don’t know that I have a favorite. I typically wear a shirt I got from John Mayer’s last tour the most- its got a cool fish and cat graphic on it. Use this space to tell someone off. I’ve no one to tell off. What’s your view on smart watches? Cool or a waste of money? I have one. I like it. I really like watches in general, though and I feel a little sad I don’t wear the analog ones anymore, but I’d miss the functionality of the smartwatch. What is one poster that you have hanging on your bedroom wall of? I don’t have anything hanging on the walls in my room. We have slanted ceilings, so there isn’t even enough space for a poster. My room was covered in band posters as a teenager, though. How many times have you moved in your life? I lived at home til 20, lived with my first roommate til 25, a townhouse with a friend and my now husband for a year, an apt with my now husband for 4 years and now our house for 5 years. If you moved, do you like where you are now better than where you were? I’ve stayed in pretty much the same area, but living in our house is definitely better than the one bedroom apartment we were in. What’s your favorite color and why? Grey. Darker earthy tones. Do you have a calendar? If so, what’s the theme? Nope. Just use my watch/phone. Have any famous person’s autographs? I do on some concert tickets from when I was younger. Do you draw well? Depends on your perspective, to my non-artistic friends, they think I’m amazing. The artistic friends, probably just roll their eyes lol. What type of cell phone do you have? iPhone X. Should you be doing anything else right now or are you just bored? I finally finished the wedding I had been editing and the only other project I have right now is the paint by number of our dog I got for my husband as a gift, but he’s here, so it has to wait. Finishing that wedding was a huge weight off my shoulders.

If you’re in school/college, what’s your favorite subject and why? Not in school. Maybe now that I’m done with the wedding I’ll start exploring some learning opportunities. Are you a cat or a dog person? Why? I would’ve always said cat until I got a dog. There are a lot of things about dogs I was really not into, but I love my dog so much. Personality wise, I’m more of a cat person, but in practice I like dogs. Tell me about the plot of your favorite book. I have several. One has a ghost that rings a bell around a mounted moose’s head. Do you wear glasses or contacts? Glasses. What do you think about horror movies? I like them. I’ve seen a lot of old ones. Back in the day, my mom and I would go to Blockbuster and I’d get a different horror movie every week. If you love them (I do), what’s your favorite? Nightmare on Elm Stree is a classic for me. It Follows is probably the one that fucked me up the most. Got any cool Christmas presents picked out for family or friends yet? I’ve got all my gifts purchsed except for the hub. He sent me a ridiculous wish list that included a suit of armor and a castle and then decided he didn’t want any gifts this year. I’m running out of time to figure something out. Do you do Black Friday shopping or wait for Cyber Monday? Neither. I’m definitely not going to go out on Black Friday and deal with all those people for junk I don’t need. As for Cyber Monday, I don’t really pay much attention to any of the deals and don’t really buy more on that day than I would on any other. Have any mental illnesses? Not encompassing enough to get any kinda of diagnosis. What’s your favorite word and why? No idea.  What is the most expensive thing you own, and what is it? My car? I mean, I don’t outright own it yet. Singular item, my MacBook or iMac, I guess.  Did you buy that item yourself? Yes, I bought the macbook and iMac after I left my job at Cassano’s and needed a new laptop since my previous one was owned by the company. Where do you work and what is your position? *I am currently unemployed. How often do you cuss? A fair amount. Maybe just a little bit more than whomever I’m talking to. What type of car do you drive, if any? I have a 2012 Volvo s60. Are you happy with it? If no, what’s your dream car? I prefer to drive my car than my husbands, but I’m like 50/50 on liking it. Right now, my dream vehicles are the new Land Rover Defender or an Audi Q8. Do you have a lot of social media accounts? Which ones? I have Instagram, Facebook LinkedIn and Tumblr. I very rarely post on any of them. I use snapchat a lot, though, if that counts. What is your favorite genre of music? My Spotify year end review said I listen to Pop, Rock, Indie, Folk and Emo the most. In that order. Does your family have holiday traditions? If so, what are they? Nope. My fmaily just barely cobbles themselves together for major holidays. If you’re in a relationship, are you happy with it? Sure. People are breaking up around us, and it really makes me appreciate the relationship my husband and I have, even if it doesn’t always feel like its going as well as it is. How long have you been with your significant other? Just hit the 10 year mark. Do you like psychology? (It’s my college major). Nah. Never really been something I’m too interested in. What is something your state is popularly known for? College football I guess.  Do you like to do craft projects? If so, what’s the coolest thing you made? I do. I recently drew a bunch of Dungeons and Dragons monsters to use as ornaments on a tree in my dining room where my husband and his friends play Dungeons and Dragons on Sundays. I’ve made some painting as house warming gifts or nursery art for friends children that they’ve hung up and thats nice to see. Do you watch sports or do you think they’re overrated? Nah. Not really a fan. What’s one occupation you think gets paid too much and doesn’t deserve to? Meh, I don’t know that I want to hate on any specific occupation. The extremely rich do bother me, however, with how much money they make, often at their employees detriment. Do you straigthen your hair? Not usually. I have more lately, since its getting long again. I’m more likely to do the loose waves thing, though. Ever dyed your hair a color that isn’t natural? (blue, pink, etc) Yes, it is currently teal. How’s your relationship with your parents? Relationship with my mom is okay, none with my dad. Do you still live with them or do you have your own house? I live in my own home. What’s something you are currently saving money for to buy? Hmm, nothing. The couple of items I want at the moment, I asked for on my Christmas list. Do you smoke/vape? If so, what brand do you smoke/what device do you use? Nope, I’ve never smoked. Ever done drugs? Nope. Tell me one of your worst habits. Picking at my cuticles? What’s a weird quirk you have that no one else you know does? No idea, I kind of doubt that theres something I do that no one else ever does. If you game, what type of headset do you use? I don’t ever need a headset. What type of computer do you own, and do you like it? I have a MacBook Pro. I used to have an Air and I loved it, but my husband talked me into getting the Pro instead and I regret it.  What’s the thing that annoys you the most? When my husband asks google to make his cellphone ring at max volume without even trying to look for it. Today, it was in his pocket. What brand of TV do you have? Samsung. Are you excited for Christmas? (It’s December 1st today when I made this) Kind of? I love how cozy my house feels with all the decorations.  Tell me about your favorite vacation you’ve taken. We went to New York for my birthday/anniversary/Halloween 2 years ago. Tell me something cool about yourself. I am not cool? Did/do you get good grades in school/college? Not in my middle school/high school years. What’s your ringtone on your phone? Vibrate. What’s your favorite store to shop in? The internet. If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would buy and why? I have no idea. I’d probably sit on the money for a long time and then once I finally broke the seal, buy a bunch of stuff. How long have you had a Bzoink account? Don’t have one. Ever been to Field of Screams? If so, what’s your favorite attraction? Nope. Do you own a Polaroid camera? I have an Instax camera. Do you have hardwood floor in your room or carpet? The two bedrooms upstairs have carpet, but the rest of the house is hardwood. It’s a Saturday night, what are you typically doing? Relaxing at home, most likely. Doing a crossword puzzle, probably. Do you have a lot of friends or do you not have any at all? I have a couple. What’s your all time favorite movie and why? I don’t know, really. I watch the Iron Man movies and Thor Ragnarok the most these days. How many blankets do you sleep with at night? A sheet and comforter. What’s the last TV show you watched? Did you enjoy it? The Mandalorian. I do enjoy it.  Do you prefer cable TV or do you use Netflix? We have cable, but never really watch it. Everything we want to watch is only Netflix or Disney+. What is your dream job and why? I have no idea. Need to get to thinking on that. Do you think you would be a good therapist? I do. I think I can listen to people and help them come to their own answers pretty well. What’s your favorite brand of clothing? I don’t know that I have a favorite. Anything that fits well and has a lot of sales lol.

[booabug]

Tagged by @nattikay and since this is a get to know me post imma swear aight

Name: Bernie (im only 1 sander at most tho)

Star sign: Pisces

Height: 4′10″ pls help w top shelf

Middle name: Abila

Put your music on shuffle. What are the first four songs? uhhHHHH ALL OF IT? Sheeeit, give me a moment. I’ll do what’s on Spotify at least. Watch these all be feel good acoustic romance songs because of my love square playlists lmao

Kiana Luna - What We Love (see? lol)

Sam Cooke - Lonely Island (YEAH play it Sam)

Queen - It’s A Hard Life, Live in Rio 1985 (Freddie... ; ~;7)

Jeremy Passion - Lemonade (extremely love square :3c)

Grab the book closest to you and turn to page 23. What’s line 17? The actual nearest is a textbook and it’s just ‘Release).’ lmao

Nearest novel: ‘“There is no saying, indeed!” replied Harriet rather sol-’

Have you ever had a poem or song written about you? Not that I know of.

When was the last time you played air guitar? I’m not sure I ever have? That’s not... that’s never been an actual thing with me or anyone I know, metalheads included.

Who’s your celebrity crush? I don’t pay attention to celebrities, so I don’t have one. I’ve never gotten crushes anyway, squishes at most. Hmm... I’m p sure I’m not aro. You’ve seen this blog, right? I am extremely ro. I’m so fucking ro I could row a boat violently up the stream, but I guess I have to know a person first. I don’t trust like that. ಠ_ಠ

What’s a sound you hate+a sound you love? OH BOI Y’ALL ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD.

The only specific sound I hate is my tinnitus, cause it gets in the way of other sounds. In this house, we love and appreciate our auditory environment.

I don’t want to make my 'a sound I love’ answer purring cause that seems too obvious, but I gotta mention it. I love my dumb trash boy too much and hearing all his garbage rumbling.

REAL ANSWER   This is why I chose to link that video of Lonely Island: the crackles, pops, and little skips on old records. I... I harbour so much resentment against hipsters for making it ‘ironic.’ I’m real sentimental (IDK IF YOU’VE NOTICED) and they’re creating a barrier for true appreciation of something that’s really fucking cool.

See, what analog audio is to me is a physical record of music displaced in time, and you know, you hear that time displacement through what happened to the record or cassette or whatever in the interim. It’s inextricable from the music itself. The physical medium is record of both the music it contains and the damage it’s taken. Whether that detracts from the music or adds to it is up to the listener, but the music is still there and it’s still beautiful.

You get a damaged flac file, something went wrong in milliseconds of encoding/decoding, and it’s probably completely fucked. Cacophonous. I love the digitalization of music, but whether it’s reached you intact is 0 or 1.

You get a (not too) damaged record, it’s things like the scratch from a particle of dust in someone’s home 50 years and 5000 kilometers away. How goddamn wild is that? That tiny scratch, the crackle it makes, is a connection between you and someone you’ll never know—hell, they’re probably dead— but you’re listening to music you both like from the exact same source. It’s gotten a little fucked up along the way but it still, if you let it, delivers the performance of more than a lifetime. (I have this whole thing on how sound is like physical touch transmitted but I’ve subjected you to enough here lmao)

Do you believe in ghosts? Only in that there’s a non-zero possibility for anything.

What about aliens? As much as I can without actual proof. The cosmos is just too big.

Do you drive? No, but I’m intending to learn.

If so, have you ever crashed? 

What was the last book you read? How to use Hand and Power Tools by George Daniels. (Popular Science book from 1968, has info on older tools and techniques which aren’t covered anymore.)

Do you tend to hold grudges against people who do you wrong? No. That would be giving them free estate in my head and they don’t deserve that.

In a relationship? Nah, I don’t get out in any way that would let me meet someone so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ One day. One day I’ll meet the Ladybug to my Chat Noir and they will have to live with my inappropriately timed jokes.

QUESTIONS 4 U (but only if u want 2 ok) @my-name-is-tom-dupain @lawbreaker13 @miracu-less @ladyblargh @buggachat

[starrywriting]

favorite boy

billy hargrove

spotify link  youtube link

summary: billy wants you to care for him, love him. he wants to be yours and vice versa… but he also wants to break your heart. (lowkey based off of ‘best friend’ by rex orange county) linked above ^

disclaimer: me writing this is not me excusing is abusive, racist and impulsive behavior.

warnings: swear words, implied sex

an: my friend introduced me to rex orange county and im in love!! i am working on requests and part two or starstruck, it just takes a bit because i write out the plot for each of my imagines before i start. Send me some of your fave songs! I need more music to listen to! Or send me a song and a character! (tbh im not sure im happy with this imagine lol)

words: 2.4k

Your name: submit What is this?

You had met her on Monday. It was raining and you saw her skating past you. Her red hair looked like a fire losing its rage in the rain, her face was pale, her nose was cold. You told yourself to be kind to everyone, so you pulled over and stepped out of your car, umbrella in hand to cover yourself from the rain, “Hey! Do you need a ride? It’s freezing out!” You called out, hoping your voice wasn’t getting drowned out by the rain and wind.

Her head whipped around, watching you carefully. You could see the hesitation, and it almost seemed like she was a deer in the headlights… she looked afraid, but of what? “Uh... No.” Was all she called back to you, causing you to frown. You could see the obvious chatter in her teeth. Her fingers were red and her clothes were dripping.

You quickly ran out towards her, hoping she wouldn’t skate away before you got to her, she didn’t. “Take it..” You breathed out, extending your umbrella. The cold air around you causing your bones to shiver. She hesitated again, her hand reaching for the umbrella. She wrapped her hand around it, sending you a small smile. You nodded happily, quickly taking off your leather coat and placing it on her shoulders. You could see the protests in her eyes, and her lip was quivering.

“I can’t take this. You’ll be cold! The umbrella is enough!” She tried, extending your coat back towards you, but you took a step back, pushing her hand back towards her.

“I have a car, I’ll be okay.” You smiled, taking a few steps backward before you turned around and ran back towards your car. You stayed parked on the side of the road until you saw the girl skate off, and you followed suit in your car. Your music playing lightly as you drove and pulled into the parking lot of the school.

You found it quite comedic to watch all the girl and boys scurry towards the school, trying to get away from the rain. It was just water, after all, it would dry off. You had a theory that the girls and boys at school were all witches and warlocks, so if they got water on them, they would melt. It made sense since everyone but yourself seemed to have a wicked side.

Max carried her bag in her arms, placing the umbrella inside along with her homework and books. She was still wearing your coat, she liked it. It was warm and made her look badass. She had no idea who you were, but she thought you were pretty. It had been a while since she met someone kind, so meeting you brightened her day, even if it was raining throughout most of it. “Where’d you get that?” Billy questioned, pulling Max towards him by the cuff of the leather.

“From this girl..” Max mumbled, trying to pull away from him as he scowled out into the crowd of kids in the parking lot. It wasn’t raining anymore, thank the gods. Billy hated the rain. It ruined his vibe, and most importantly, his hair. He also thought the rain made the girls at school look like dead, cold cats rather than their already hideous cow look he saw every day while he walked down the halls.

“What girl? Was she pretty?” Billy joked, a smirk growing on his face as he shoved her away from him.

“Yeah actually, she was!” Max called out annoyed, opening the car door, “She’s the girl with ripped jeans, red chucks, and a bun!” Max continued, flicking Billy off before she shut the car door with a slam, slumping against the car door as she scowled at the glove compartment.

“What the fuck…?” Billy growled under his breath, watching you carefully with an almost dead cigarette in his mouth. Billy knew you, surely. Everyone knew you. You were the definition of high school popularity. Your title was higher than Queen. You were Billy’s ‘competition’, at least he thought you were. You were popular, pretty, kind and smart. You had everything going.

Everyone knew who you were. Your popularity was undeniable, but you were as humble and sweet as anyone else. You weren’t sure why so many people saw you as ‘popular’. You saw that as an empty label, but with so many people pegging you as so, you just started to continue with your life and ignore it. You were always kind to everyone, making sure to not let the others words bend your personality. That was something that bugged Billy so much so that his eyes narrowed every time he saw you. He was jealous.

“Hey! (y/l/n)!” Billy called out, a new cigarette in his mouth as he jogged towards you with a set jaw. You opened your car door, placing your backpack on the passenger seat before you turned towards him, leaning against the car.

“Hargrove.” You nodded, watching him carefully. He was really the only person that grinded your gears. His personality was too conflicting with yours. He was too stubborn, and he thought too much with his fist and dick rather than his head; that made you cringe.

“Who the hell do you think you are? Don’t talk to Max, ever.” He hissed, his nostrils flaring as he held the cigarette between his fingers.

“You mean your sister?” You smirked, keeping your cool as you walked towards him, “She’s cool,” you shrugged, grabbing his wrist, “I think I might just keep talking to her..” You smiled, a glint catching in your eye when you noticed how his eyes kept falling on your face and then down to your hand on his wrist. You used your free hand to pick the cigarette out from between his fingers, dropping it to the ground, you stubbed it out with the bottom of your chucks. “No smoking in school, bud.” You winked, patting his chest with your palm before you let go of him, opening your car door and turning on the ignition.

He was beyond furious when he walked back to his car, his voice echoed in the car and his music blared, almost popping the speakers. His voice was hoarse from the yelling. Max should have been scared, she should have flinched multiple times at his voice getting progressively louder, but instead, her head was leaned against the glass of the window, and a smirk was on her lips as she remembered just how speechless Billy was at the sight of you.

He slammed his bedroom door, making sure he put a chair under the doorknob. He didn’t know why his blood was boiling so much. He didn’t know why his heart was racing so much, and he specifically didn’t know why a low fuzzy feeling was settling into his body.

He growled, looking at his reflection. His eyes were dilated and his veins were prominent in his arms. He was tense, no doubt about it, so he did the logical thing. He hopped out his window, car keys in hand, drove off, his car ending up at the front of the house of Tina, the girl who had eyed him since his first day. Maybe he could get you off his mind if he saw her.

She was quick to open the window for him, and he was quick to get to what he came for. Moans and groans filled the room and he could feel his shoulders relax. He needed a distraction, and a girl like Tina was the perfect distraction by the way she threw herself at him. Everything about the sex was great, he was pleased, and she was sure to pay close attention to his pleasure more than her own, but with every groan and moan that fell from his lips, all he could think about was you. He wanted you. He wanted you in any and every way he could have you. Your name was on the tip of his tongue, and he was more than ready to say it out loud in the same way he was groaning Tina’s name.

The next week, Billy was quick to notice the change in Max’s behavior towards him. She wasn’t afraid, she wasn’t ashamed, and she was always late. Almost as if she knew someone would be waiting for her if he ended up leaving her. He knew who that someone was, so instead of letting Max flee towards you, he stayed late and waited for her. He slowly started feeling like a lapdog. Following your every move when you weren’t looking, waiting for you to make a move so he could follow suit. He felt pathetic. He was entranced in your smiles and giggles that he heard from afar in the halls.

He was wrapped around your finger. He wanted you. He wanted to be yours and he wanted to be able to walk up to you and kiss you until the only word you knew was “More”. But something in the back of his mind made him want to see you cry. He wanted to break your heart for making him look pathetic and weak. He wanted revenge.

It wasn’t until you walked into school one day, your head hung low, that he felt his gaze stay on you until you turned to corner, and even then, he started following you. His steps were quiet behind yours, and he made sure to keep a distance so you wouldn’t hear him. Your body was hidden in a big, knitted sweater and tight, black jeans. Your demeanor seemed tired, and every time someone would come up to you, you would brush past them without even acknowledging a single word they called out towards you.

Billy was smirking, crossing his fingers in hopes that the reason why you were so glum was because you were finally going to give up and let him become superior. 

Once you had turned right into an empty, Billy happily called out to you, “(y/n).. baby..” He teased, his tongue flicking out to lick his lips before getting caught between his teeth. “Babygirl…” He grinned, walking faster to catch up to you.

He reached out, his hand grabbing your wrist, pulling you back, “Cat got your tong-“ He started, his smirk falling immediately when he saw your tear-stained cheeks and puffy eyes. His lips parted in surprise and without any hesitation, he pressed you into his chest, wrapping his arms you as you cried. He wasn’t sure what had happened, he was supposed to hate you, he was supposed to laugh at your vulnerability but instead, he was in the middle of an empty hallway, already 20 minutes late to first period, not that it really mattered to him, with the girl that was meant to be his enemy. He was supposed to make you his and break your heart afterward, but now that you were crying in his arms to the point where you shook with sadness and choked on your tears, made him realize that he was insane. He was insane for wanting to hurt something as beautiful and bright as you. It was then that he realized that the reason everyone loved you so much was because you were so strong, you were there for everyone, but when you needed someone, everyone seemed to turn a blind eye. You were heartbroken and he was going to fix it.

He led you out towards his car gently. You were rubbing your eyes, tears free falling from your lashes and dotting your cheeks like freckles, but unlike the sun-kissed dots that sprinkled peoples skin, yours were full of sadness and remorse. When he opened his car door for you, you looked up at him in quiet gratitude before slipping in; hugging your knees to your chest. He started his car and drove. He drove all over Hawkins, and he continued to drive until nightfall, and your sobs diminished, and all that was left was the sticky imprints of your tears from earlier.

He parked his car on the edge of a small hill, the edge looking down on a small field. He had no idea where they were, but he didn’t have any reason to rush home. He leaned back in his seat, letting out a sigh before he squeezed your shoulder reassuringly and stepped out of the car. He was confused and angry at the world. Why were even his own bloody emotions so damn complicated? Everything in his life was hard, he felt like he would never catch a break.

His eyes danced across the stars, and his breaths were shallow. He only pulled his eyes away when he felt you lean against his shoulder. He was leaning on the hood of his car, his arms crossed over his chest. You leaned into his side, keeping your eyes forward. Your breaths were small and your cheeks were glazed over with crimson from the cold. He watched you carefully and felt his stomach drop. He was finally next to you, he was finally able to see you the way he’s been wanting to see you for weeks, months even. He thought you were absolutely beautiful.

He pulled away from you, taking in a deep breath before he turned to face you and your doe eyes. He gulped softly, his lip catching between his teeth. He could feel his heart beating against his chest, and his cheeks were growing hot, but under the light of the stars, he was positive you wouldn’t notice.

He stepped towards you, his hands landing on either side of you, entrapping you against his car with his arms around you. You didn’t pull away, and rather, you leaned towards him, resting your forehead against his. Your eyes fluttered shut and you let a small sigh escape your lips.

Billy watched you closely, his eyes wide with overflowing emotions. He trained his eyes all over your face before looking at your lips. They looked soft, and he wanted his to be against them, so very badly.

He leaned down, feeling your breath tickle his bottom lip, and when you didn’t pull away, he dove in, kissing you harder. It was slow, passionate and hard. His hands were gripping your waist tightly and yours were in his hair, holding him against you. He was quick to get addicted to the feeling of your lips, so when you pulled away, he was already leaning in for another kiss. Peck after peck, you both began to smile, your kisses becoming sloppier and funnier, and in that moment, Billy knew what he wanted. He wanted you, flaws and all. Sadness and happiness. He wanted more nights like this, he wanted you as a best friend and a lover, and he wanted to kiss you at all hours of the day and night, no matter where.

[ivis-00]

I’m bored so here

Credits got to @booknrd and @redqueenfandom

Tag is here: https://booknrd.tumblr.com/post/169439591221/this-is-the-most-unique-one-ive-seen-please-yes

1)I don’t have iTunes so I just played my daily mix on Spotify on shuffle:

Body Gold by Oh Wonder

I Still Wait For You by XYLØ

Down in Flames by Ella Vos

We Won’t by Jaymes Young

Superstar by Broods

Phase Me Out by VÉRITÉ

2)My nephew. It’s been a year or so since he was born and I still have yet to see him in person.

3)Book: Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems, Short Story: ‘The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaaall’, Quote: “April 8th.”

4)That’s a bit of a tough question. I guess it’s usually either my future (I’m a high school senior) and whether or not I’ll ever amount to anything, or about the state of the world (all the things going wrong, how we could have prevented or fixed them, etc.).

5)Lol no I’m not that special

6)Is being scared of just dragonflies a phobia? Like I know it’s pretty silly especially since dragonflies aren’t aggressive or anything but idk it’s a childhood trauma thing that I never got over. I’m less scared of them as the tears go by but still it gives me the creeps.

7)Don’t have one, but I’m very interested in learning about other’s religions.

8)Chilling. Just enjoying the fresh air. Maybe reading. But since it’s always hot here, I rarely go outside of my own accord. I hate the heat.

9)I’m just going to assume this means Western band: Panic! at the Disco

10)That I was gonna go back to sleep but I actually stayed up until 4am.

11)Yes and no. It’s a bit weird. Sometimes karma works magic, and other times it’s nonexistent. I don’t know whether to really believe it’s a thing or not.

12)It’s literally just my middle name and ‘the-fangirl’ written after it. It’s pretty self-explanatory. 👍

13)Greatest weakness is self-doubt. It’s stops me from doing a lot of the things I want to do. Strength is my stubbornness. I know that’s really contradictory, but once my mind is set on something, it’s very hard to convince otherwise.

14)I’m supposed to choose just 1? Cause that’s basically impossible. I’m just gonna day Jungkook from BTS cause he’s my ultimate bias (I know, how basic of me). Gotta represent my man y’all. But if I were to choose a female celebrity crush, for sure I’d say Halsey. Like damn.

15)For me, I always feel like taking out my anger physically through hitting and breaking objects (so that I don’t harm a anybody), or through screaming at the top of my lungs. It helps dispel all that energy so I’m too tired to even think about what I was mad about. But my Hispanic household is very strict on these types of things and I’ve pretty much had to force myself to adopt a passive-aggressive method of dealing with my anger. Just thinking of this makes me mad cause there’s so many things I’ve had to put up with in my family because I can’t express my anger to a figure of authority (since it’s seen as disrespect).

16)I used to have a seashell collection, but now I just collect books and like little memorabilia from different places and events that I feel have left some sort of mark on me.

17)No. I haven’t exactly accomplished any of my long-term goals. I’m pretty stuck since I don’t have complete control of my life with my mother always breathing down my neck.

18)I hate loud talking in quiet spaces, or even just senseless yelling. Many of my family members tend to yell as they’re “talking” on the phone whether they people involved in the conversation are hard of hearing or not. But I’m the bright side, I love the sound of rain and luckily for me, it tends to rain pretty often here (unfortunately that also means it gets really humid).

19)What if all my efforts amount to nothing?

20)I’ve never really seen any conclusive evidence that ghosts exist, so for right now it’s a bit of a middle point for me. Since we don’t exactly knows what happens after death either, there’s still the chance that ghosts can exist. Aliens is something I’m more open about. In a universe so big, I find it difficult to believe we’re the only living things in it. Aliens exist, but we just haven’t found them and they might have not found us. That’s just my personal take on it.

21)Right arm: my nightstand; Left arm: air

22)Coffee.

23)Any one of my family parties (except the one where I ended up winning 8 consecutive games of domino, that was awesome). Or even just a party with people I don’t know. Just parties.

24) 1-Brendon Urie. I just think he’s such a beautiful and genuine person. You don’t find many people that give off the good vibe he does. I admire is vocal skills like crazy, but I’m mainly drawn in by his personality. You can see that he really does care about his fans and appreciates everything they do for him. And he’s not bad on the eyes either. 2-Troye Sivan. He’s another individual that I find beautiful inside and out. His voice is so soothing and he has such a relaxing aura about him that I really like. And the blonde hair works for him like wow, end me. 3-Patrick Stump. Now some people (I’ll fight you), might disagree with my opinion since he’s put on some weight. I’m the kind of person that can find anybody attractive so long as they have a great personality. Patrick, to me, is a gorgeous human being and the fact that he’s chubby doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I find his cheeks to be adorable (which is odd coming from someone younger than him, but bear with me). It’s also comforting seeing someone that’s like me: not your everyday image of a perfect celebrity/person. He’s just an amazing person and I really admire him.

25)To become the best version of ourselves we can possibly be, and to serve others.

26)I’ve finally got my learners permit but I have yet to actually sit in front of the wheel. I’m a bit terrified considering the area I live in isn’t the safest place to drive.

27)I don’t remember the name but I know it was a movie about two lonely elderly people (a man and woman) who find comfort in each other’s company. It was really cute.

28)A broken arm when I was like a couple months to a year old. Not gonna get into details but just know that it was a long ass time ago and I haven’t severely injured myself since.

29)Webtoons

30)Not really.

31)Takes too much energy so no. Doesn’t mean I forget, though.

32)Pisces

33)A ticket to my school’s lip sync battle (students vs teachers). It was definitely worth it.

34)Why not both? 😉 (I lean slightly more towards love, but eh.)

35)No

36)A real, genuine relationship? One.

37)For guys and girls it’s different for me. I’m more shy around guys that I have a real interest in and tend to avoid them at all costs. So I’ve never actually been in a relationship with a guy. I’m slightly more forward with girls. In the end, I’m not too sure what kind of “secret weapon” I have since I’m pretty socially awkward and not typically seen as dating material.

38) My best friends are at their houses being just as unproductive as me.

39) Watching YouTube videos. I can’t even remember which ones.

40) If you’re looking for somebody that’s very spontaneous and blunt, I’m your gal. If not, keep walking. I like to think I’d be friends with me since I find similar qualities that I have in my friends (though that’s not to say I want my friends to be just like me; I need people with differing views to keep me grounded).

41) Fuck the job, I’m saving the dog. And if my boss had even the slightest bit of compassion, he’d understand why I was late.

42) I would tell the people closest to me (my mom, select friends, etc.). But I’d insist they not treat me any differently than if I were completely fine and not dying. I’d spend my remaining days just having fun and doing all the things I’ve ever wanted to do. If I have a month to live, I’m not gonna waste it moping and crying over my mortality. I would like to think that I wouldn’t be scared. Everyone dies at some point, some sooner than others. As long as I am willing to live my last days to their fullest, I’ll be fine with dying.

43) Heavy by Oh Wonder

44) Proper communication. If you don’t talk, then how are you going to work out problems and get anything done?

45) Just be genuine. I hate fake people. That being said, if your genuine self is disrespectful and mean-spirited, I want absolutely nothing to do with you.

46) I like to think it does since you’re in a state of mind that few people have been in.

47) I’d like to say becoming vegan. I feel happier with myself for it.

48) Died from meme overload. I just can’t take myself too seriously.

49) A beating organ. If you were expecting something cheesy, sorry to disappoint.

50) Black, white, gray, green (none of that neon bullshit).

51) The phases of the moon.

52) Tonald Drump (for those specific individuals, it’s Donald Trump)

53) Depends in whose asking me, it could be any question. If my mom were to ask me if I’m straight, I’d hesitate. Still, I would probably tell the truth.

54) Idk, money making power? (gotta pay that college tuition)

55) My time in the Colosseum. It was awesome.

56) Anything to do with my biological father.

57) If we’re talking sex, I’m inclined to not answer since I’m still a minor (*cough* Jungkook/Halsey*cough*), but if it’s like legit sleeping, I want to say Lana Del Rey. Idk why but these are the people that popped up.

58) My bitch ass is headed to South Korea. ✌️

59) Yes.

60) Not even gonna explain:

Jungkook

Halsey

Marina Diamandis

Hayley Kiyoko

Brendon Urie

[amazinggraciegurl]

Spotify, SoundCloud, or Pandora?   Pandora

is your room messy or clean?  Pretty clean

what color are your eyes?  Brown 

do you like your name? why?  Yes because I like the meaning, which is “graciousness” or “God’s love”

what is your relationship status? Madly in love with somebody I can never have

describe your personality in 3 words or less--Intelligent, creative, darkly humorous (according to my mom)

what color hair do you have?  Brown 

what kind of car do you drive? color?  Well, I don’t have a car. My parents’ car, though, is a Toyota, and it’s beige. 

where do you shop?  Target, Kohl’s, Raley’s/Bel-Air, Trader Joe’s 

how would you describe your style? Artsy casual, I guess? 

favorite social media account--Facebook

what size bed do you have?  Twin

any siblings?  Yes (4) 

if you can live anywhere in the world where would it be? why?  Australia because my favorite childhood show H2O: Just Add Water was filmed there, and I want to be a mermaid! :)

favorite snapchat filter?  I’m a loser who doesn’t have Snapchat, so I don’t know...

favorite makeup brand(s)  I don’t really know. I just put on whatever my mom has and never really pay attention to the brands. 

how many times a week do you shower?  Like 4?

favorite tv show?  Dance Moms :D

shoe size?  10

how tall are you?  5′7″

sandals or sneakers?  Sneakers 

do you go to the gym?  Nope 

describe your dream date--Gosh, that’s hard. Maybe going to an amusement or water park? Just somewhere where we can do something, so we don’t have to make too much conversation. (My small talk skills are literally nonexistent). 

how much money do you have in your wallet at the moment?  I don’t have a wallet, or money...

what color socks are you wearing?  I’m barefoot, at the moment. :)

how many pillows do you sleep with? Usually one (two when I have a cold). 

do you have a job? what do you do?  Nope. 

how many friends do you have?  Like 3. Does family count? Lol. 

whats the worst thing you have ever done?  I don’t know. Told a member of my family that I hated them, maybe???

whats your favorite candle scent?  I don’t know. I don’t really like candles (they literally always give me a sore throat). 

3 favorite boy names--Edward, Oliver, August

3 favorite girl names--Rosie, Alice, Penelope

favorite actor?  Leonardo DiCaprio

favorite actress?  Anna Kendrick (she’s literally the most amazing human being on this planet)!!! :) :D

who is your celebrity crush?  Anna Kendrick (again, most amazing human being ever)!!!

favorite movie?  Pitch Perfect (predictably...)

do you read a lot? whats your favorite book?  Yes, I do read a lot. The Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series is my favorite. :)

money or brains?  Brains, for sure.

do you have a nickname? what is it?  Yes. Gracie and Amazing Grace (which only one of my uncles calls me). 

how many times have you been to the hospital?  For myself? Once (I was 3 and I busted my chin open).   But inside a hospital to visit somebody? Lots of times. 

top 10 favorite songs--Don’t You Forget About Me (Simple Minds), Don’t You Want Me (The Human League), 500 Miles (The Proclaimers), My Immortal (Evanescence), Burn It Down (Linkin Park), Somebody That I Used To Know (Gotye), Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day), Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day), You And Me (Lifehouse), Hey There Delilah (Plain White T’s) 

do you take any medications daily?  Yes.

what is your skin type? (oily, dry, etc)  I’m not really sure. Pretty normal, I guess.

what is your biggest fear?  Death/loss of a family member

how many kids do you want?  3-6

whats your go to hair style?  High ponytail

what type of house do you live in? (big, small, etc)  Medium-size, I guess.

who is your role model?  My mom. :) 

what was the last compliment you received?  I have no idea. 

what was the last text you sent?  To my mom: “I don’t think so. :(”

how old were you when you found out santa wasn’t real?  10. :(

what is your dream car?  I don’t really know which specific brand, but shiny and blue. :) 

opinion on smoking?  It’s extremely unhealthy for people and the environment. 

do you go to college?  Nope. I’m still in high school. 

what is your dream job?  I don’t really have a dream job, but something I fantasized a lot about when I was younger and I actually still kind of do is being a world explorer.

would you rather live in rural areas or the suburbs?  A rural area. 

do you take shampoo and conditioner bottles from hotels?  No (but I don’t judge people who do). :)

do you have freckles?  Yes. 

do you smile for pictures?  Mostly. 

how many pictures do you have on your phone?  73.

have you ever peed in the woods?  Yes. 

do you still watch cartoons?  Yes. :D

do you prefer chicken nuggets from Wendy’s or McDonalds?  I’ve never ate at Wendy’s, so McDonalds, I guess. 

Favorite dipping sauce?  Ketchup. :)

what do you wear to bed?  Pajamas. 

have you ever won a spelling bee?  No (but to be fair, I’ve never participated in one). :)

what are your hobbies?  Reading, writing, playing violin, listening to music, procrastinating, staying up WAY too late. :D

can you draw?  I can, but I’m not extremely talented at it. 

do you play an instrument?  Yes. I play the violin. 

what was the last concert you saw?  A classical concert at a high school.

tea or coffee?  Tea. 

Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts?  Starbucks.

do you want to get married?  Yes (but not for a long time). :)

what is your crush’s first and last initial?  EV.

are you going to change your last name when you get married?  Yes (I don’t like my last name).

what color looks best on you?  I’m not sure. Black? 

do you miss anyone right now?  Yes.

do you sleep with your door open or closed?  Usually cracked.

do you believe in ghosts?  Yes (but I’m not obsessed). 

what is your biggest pet peeve?  When people interrupt you while you’re speaking.

last person you called--My mom. 

favorite ice cream flavor?  Strawberry. 

regular oreos or golden oreos?  Regular. 

chocolate or rainbow sprinkles?  Rainbow! :) :D

what shirt are you wearing?  A long-sleeved black shirt that says “More than all the stars in the sky.” :)

what is your phone background?  A picture of me. :D

are you outgoing or shy?  Shy. 

do you like it when people play with your hair?  No.(nobody ever does, though). 

do you like your neighbors?  Yes. 

do you wash your face? at night? in the morning?  Depends 

have you ever been high?  Nope.

have you ever been drunk?  Nope.

last thing you ate?  Does a cough drop count? If not, yogurt. :)

favorite lyrics right now--”My shadow’s the only one that walks beside me. My shallow heart’s the only thing that’s beating. (Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day). 

summer or winter?  Summer. :D

day or night?  Night.

dark, milk, or white chocolate?  Milk.

favorite month?  July.

what is your zodiac sign--Scorpio Sun, Aries Moon, and Gemini Ascendant. 

who was the last person you cried in front of?  My mom, of course. 

[lexiewrites]

2016 Meme

1:What did you do in 2016 that you’d never done before? I tried a bunch of new things in 2016 - went to a bunch of YA book events alone, which was a big deal for me. Mostly, I just tried to get out of my routine and rut. Explore and enjoy that I live in the city.

2:Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Nope, I’m done with idea of resolutions, that you can only improve yourself at a certain time. I’m embracing the idea that I can start something new whenever I want. 

3:Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope.

4:Did anyone close to you die? Nope, I fear 2017 is the year that I’ll be losing some people, though.

5:What countries did you visit? Didn’t leave Australia.

6:What would you like to have in 2017 that you lacked in 2016: Better health, mental and physical. Weightloss. A degree, lol. A path forward doing something I love. 

7: What dates from 2016 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I can’t think of any specific ones. 

8:What was your biggest achievement of the year? I absolutely smacked like 5/6 of my classes out of the park with really good marks. I’m so happy my marks are finally beginning to reflect the work I put in and the lessons I’ve learnt. 

9:What was your biggest failure? My weight is still bad. My anxiety is off the charts. That really sucks. 

10:Did you suffer illness or injury? Does fucking up my neck/shoulder to the tune of 1k in treatment count, due to uni stress? And the crippling anxiety? 

11:What was the best thing you bought? I’m pretty stoked by some of my Gorman purchases on FB and eBay. Unless you’re ‘into’ Gorman, it doesn’t sound like much, but I snagged most of the pieces from the Walala collab that I didn’t buy in Summer 15/16 in-store through eBay and FB and that made me very happy; I think I ended up paying less than retail for all but two pieces. I also got an ottoman that folds into a bed for guests that I named Otto from the Ottoman Empire that I’m very fond of. 

12:Whose behaviour merited celebration? No one I know. 

13:Whose behaviour made you appalled? Lots of family members, almost every politician I can think of, and a few celebrities. 

14:Where did most of your money go? Food, physio for my neck/shoulder, Gorman. 

15:What did you get really, really, really excited about? YAFest, Civil War, Avengers Academy App XD

16:What song will always remind you of 2016? Maybe ‘Youngblood’ from the Jem and the Holograms movie? Wait, according to Spotify, it was ‘Upside Down and Inside Out’ by OK Go

17:Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? © richer or poorer? Sadder, the same, richer in that I’ve leant my parents a lot of money they’ll pay me back - it’s like a savings account ;)

18:What do you wish you’d done more of? Exercise and write. 

19:What do you wish you’d done less of? Worried. 

20:How did you spend Christmas? At home. My father brought my grandparents over for lunch. It’s not a particularly festive or memorable way to spend the holidays, tbh. 

21:Did you fall in love in 2016? Not with people. 

22:What was your favourite TV program? Well, Archer has to be up there because I discovered that, watched all the episodes in like 3 days, and then watched it on a loop for like 4 months. And Agent Carter’s second season was awesome, and I enjoyed most of Luke Cage. 

23:Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No one specific. I have a general ‘people irritate me’ policy at the best of times, but no one agitated me enough for me to devote the energy to ‘hating’ them. 

24:What was the best book you read? Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake. Girl knows how to world build. 

25:What was your greatest musical discovery? I don’t think I really made any artist discoveries, just kind of curated a good collection of songs. 

26:What did you want and get? Good marks at uni; Gorman x Walala Rice Dress, Arcade Raincoat & Shorts, Rice Tote; Gorman Harlequin Rice Dress; Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake; and an adorable hair cut.  

27:What did you want and not get? A slim body, rainbow hair, a bedside table, a puppy, freedom from mental illness, Gorman Circus skirt, and one of Massimo’s mini black forest cakes. 

28:What was your favourite film of this year? A few. Deadpool was amazing, I actually really liked Alice: Through the Looking Glass, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. 

29:What one thing made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Finally getting the marks that I knew I could get at uni, and not suffering because of a shit computer or a breakdown in communication between departments. 

30:How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2016? Neat, practical and feminine. 

31:What kept you sane? Archer on a continual loop and fan fiction. 

32:Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Sebastian Stan or Chris Evans. I’m not even embarrassed anymore.

33:What political issue stirred you the most? Any time an Australian politician tries to take on mental illness or the publishing industry, I get pretty riled. I don’t talk about Australian politics much, simply because I think all of the parties are fairly despicable and impractical (at best), and a lot of people I know are incredibly strong supporters of a certain party. 

34:Who did you miss? I miss times and places, but none of the people who are necessary were absent from my life, which was good. 

35:Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2016. Everything looks better in an InDesign presentation.

36:Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. Is there ever a time when this question isn’t the worst-sounding cliche?

If I can light the world up for just one day Watch this madness, colorful charade No one can be just like me any way

- Pink, Just Like Fire

[eldritchsurveys]

604.

What do you do for work? >> I don’t.

What would you ideally like to do for work? >> Ideally, I’d like to do something constructive -- as in, something that directly contributes to the care and maintenance of the community -- that doesn’t require me to keep unnecessarily long hours (necessarily long hours are a different story) and where my time, energy, and mental health are respected. Typing that made me feel silly because I could already hear the socialised inner voice chastising me for being so ~grandiose or whatever. That inner voice is probably exactly why corporations and employers get away with treating their workers like wage slaves who should be grateful to be employed at all.

What are you doing in order to achieve this? >> Anyway, yeah, I’m not doing anything to achieve that. I’m not even sure how I would, in this society. But in the meantime, I’ll be grateful that I still have a government income and my life partner appreciates and supports me despite my unemployment.

What is the meaning of your life? What is it that you really live for? >> I’ve put the search for meaning on hold. I live for the sake of living, for now, because that’s as good as anything else.

Have you ever REALLY thought what it means to have children? >> Yeah. It’s pretty daunting (understatement of the year, but I can’t think of a better, clearer word right now).

Are you planning to have children anyway? >> I am not.

What is the most awful thing about the world today? >> I don’t know.

What do you think is the worst being on the planet? >> I don’t think anyone is the worst being on the planet.

Have you ever been arrested? If so, what for? >> No.

Have you ever been in court? If so, in which role? >> Yes. Defendant. (I’ve also been to civil court, a much less dramatic process.)

Which do you think is a more valuable being, a human or an animal? >> I personally place more value on the humans in my life than I do the animals in my life. 

What, in your opinion, will cause the end of the world? >> I don’t have any opinions about “the end of the world”.

What does your mother do for work? If she's a homemaker, any specific reason for this? >> ---

What about your father? What does he do? >> ---

How do you like your coffee? >> Black.

If you're of age, what's your favourite alcoholic drink? >> I have so many.

If you're under-aged, what is your favourite soft drink? >> ---

Do you smoke? If so, did you start when you were 18 or were you younger? >> I don’t smoke anymore, but I started when I was in my mid-20s (I stopped at around 30).

Did your parents approve of your smoking/alcohol use before you turned 18? If you started before the age of 18. >> ---

Do you have siblings? If not, skip the next few questions.

Are you eldest, in the middle or youngest?

How big an age gap is between you and your siblings?

Do/did your siblings cause trouble?

If your siblings are old enough, what do they do for work?

Have you ever been jealous of your siblings? If so, why?

Do you still live with your parent/s or do you live alone/with a partner? >> I live with a partner.

What do you think about growing up? >> I don’t really understand the concept, aside from learning to take responsibility for oneself and stuff like that.

What about having responsibilities? >> I think it’s important.

Do you know how to cook? If so, what's your favourite thing to cook? >> Sure. I don’t have a favourite thing.

What about baking? >> I don’t bake.

Do you ever drink tea? >> Yes.

Have you ever followed any of these fad diets that go around? >> No.

What do you usually order at your favourite restaurant? >> ---

Do you prefer a proper restaurant to a fast food place? >> I definitely do.

Is there an arcade anywhere near where you live? If so, have you ever been there? If you have, what's the game/s you usually play? >> There’s a Dave and Buster’s not too far away. I’ve never been there, though.

Have you ever played pinball? If so, an actual machine or on a computer? >> Yes. Both.

Have you ever taken part in a pinball tournament? If so, what has been your highest position? >> No.

What's your dream vehicle? >> ---

What about your dream house? >> ---

What is the biggest dream of your life? >> ---

If you could travel to another country right now, where would you go? >> It doesn’t matter.

What is a country you'd never ever visit? >> I don’t know.

Are you good at taking care of your finances? >> Sure.

Have you ever had any trouble paying your bills? What about your rent? >> Sure. I’m on a fixed income, it’s bound to happen at some point.

What do you think is the best thing about being an adult? What about the worst? >> I think the best thing is having agency -- being completely responsible for myself, for better or worse. It was all I wanted when I was a minor, to be able to make my own decisions and deal with whatever consequences occurred. The worst thing is, you know, coming to terms with mortality and banal shit like that.

Is there a person in your life, who wastes their life somehow? If so, how are they wasting their life? >> I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to say that someone is wasting their life.

What is something you need to do, but you keep postponing it? >> ---

Do you think life should just hand things to you? >> No.

Or should you earn the things you want and need with hard work? >> I think that’s exactly how it should go. But I think despite the fact that the society I live in claims that’s exactly how it goes, it... doesn’t always. Plenty of people work very hard but don’t reap the rewards of that work -- someone else, in an office, high above the earth, reaps the rewards instead. I don’t think actual work is truly valued in this society.

Would you rather live off government benefits or earn your own money? >> I don’t even have a preference at this point. I’ve seen what you have to do to earn money in this country. I’ll deal with the stigma of disability.

When you take a survey, do you skip questions? If so, what kinds of questions? >> Yeah. Questions I can’t answer.

What type of a survey do you skip altogether? >> Anything that doesn’t look interesting to take.

Why, do you think, people write lyrics as the title for a survey? >> Because it’s fun, dawg.

If you have a Facebook, what do you use it for? >> So people can contact me. I really don’t do anything on it.

If you have a Twitter, what do you use it for? >> ---

If you have a Tumblr, what do you use it for? >> Entertainment and indulgence, mostly.

If you have an iPhone, why? >> ---

If you have an iPad, why? >> ---

If you have the latest electronic gadgets, did you pay for them yourself? If not, then who did? >> I don’t have “the latest” anything. But yes, I often do pay for my own electronics, except when Sparrow buys them for me.

Do you always put your litter in a trashcan? If not, why not? >> Yeah. I’d rather carry my trash than litter.

When you walk/ride your bike/drive your car, are you careful? If not, why not? >> Well, I mean... yes????

What is the rudest thing a person could do or say to you? >> I don’t know.

Have you ever been that rude to someone else? >> I’ve been rude enough, I’m sure.

Do you think your parents are proud of you and what you do with your life? >> No. I know for a fact he is not.

Which would you rather be, famous or a "nobody"? Why? >> I would much rather be a nobody. Because it means I have the most freedom.

Do you need to have the latest fashion in clothes and accessories? >> No.

If you have a job, do you get along with your co-workers? >> ---

What kind of hobbies do you have? >> Just your average ones.

Would anything in the whole world make you give up any of those hobbies? >> I really can’t imagine why I would have to.

Have you had/do you have any pets? >> Yes.

Do you even like animals? >> I like them a whole lot more when they’re out in the wild, but we all make sacrifices, huh.

If you aren't already, would you ever get married? If so, what for? >> ---

If you are already married, what was the ultimate reason for the marriage? >> Legality. For instance: I have no family, so who else is going to be able to advocate for me at the hospital if I am incapacitated and unable to advocate for myself?

As a child, did you do anything really bad? If so, what was it? What were the consequences? >> Not to my knowledge.

As a teenager, did you do anything really bad? If so, what was it? What were the consequences? >> No, but I sure had a lot of bad things done to me.

Do you have a problem with authority? >> Sometimes.

What's your favourite comic strip? >> I don’t read comic strips anymore.

Is there a piece of clothing you absolutely must wear every day? >> Underwear, like, in general...

Has a doctor ever told you to lose weight? >> No.

Have you ever been diagnosed with a lifelong disease? >> No.

What is something you absolutely hate? >> Meh.

What about something you absolutely love? >> Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. (A song from the soundtrack is playing on my Spotify right now, lol.)

[eldritchsurveys]

308.

What song by your favorite group/artist would you recommend to somebody who has never listened to them? >> I avoid recommending things to people in general. I think people should make their own choices about what media to consume, especially in this era where you’re bombarded left and right with the overbearing opinions of other people. Any influence I have on people tends to be indirect -- they see me talking about something that I really enjoy, and they become curious enough to check it out for themselves. That seems the most acceptable kind of influence, to me.

What is your least-favorite song by your favorite group/artist? >> I don’t have a favourite group or artist.

What was your favorite band when you were 14? >> Pretty sure I was fully entrenched in my obsessions with Fuel and Creed at that age.

Have you ever gotten up early to watch a performance on a morning show? >> No.

Have you ever counted down to the release of a song or album? >> That definitely seems like something I would have done when I was younger, though I can’t remember any specific examples.

Have you ever thought a group/artist was trying to copy a different one? Examples/why? >> Maybe, but I wouldn’t remember anything like that now.

Do you look up who writes all the songs you like? >> No.

Or do you just assume the artist wrote it themselves? >> I generally assume at least one member in the band was responsible for the writing. Although I know with a lot of modern artists, that’s probably untrue.

Does it bug you when an artist doesn't write their own songs? >> No.

What about songwriters who don't sing? >> No.

Isn't a singer who can't write& a writer who can't sing a good partnership? >> Sure, provided they work in harmony.

Is Bohemian Rhapsody really the greatest rock song of all time? >> I don’t know. It’s a really fun and unique song, though.

Do you like any of the many covers of Bohemian Rhapsody? >> I have actually never heard a cover of Bohemian Rhapsody. Maybe later I’ll look some up, because now I’m curious.

'The kids call it music, but I call it noise!' < Does this sound like you? >> Nah, I tend to sound like the opposite. I’m always interested in new trends in music.

Which bands (if any) have you had posters of? >> I don’t have any band posters.

Which bands (if any) do you have T-shirts of? >> Let’s see if I can remember them all off the top of my head... David Bowie, Amon Amarth (two), Behemoth, Cradle of Filth, Wovenhand, Blaqk Audio... I think that’s it?

Were you mad when Harry Styles released Sign of the Times? (Some were mad bc there was already a Prince song, Sign O' The Times) (Others said he was 'trying to be David Bowie', like, what? Lol) >> This is all news to me, because I don’t listen to Harry Styles.

What is your favorite David Bowie song? Why? >> This is very difficult to choose. I’m sweating just thinking about it. 

Ziggy Stardust VS. Thin White Duke? >> Oof. I think I slightly prefer Ziggy, but there’s something immensely, darkly compelling about the Thin White Duke. 

What about your favorite song by The Beatles? Why? >> The only Beatles song I like on its own is I Am the Walrus. Oh, and I guess Hey Jude is pretty catchy. There’s a cover of Tomorrow Never Knows that I really like, and I enjoy the lyrics, but I’ve never heard the original and I’m in no hurry to.

Any favorite music videos? >> I have a lot of favourite music videos. I eventually made a Youtube playlist for them all, because there are so many.

Group/artist that was big when you were a teen but you didn't like: >> I don’t even remember who was big when I was a teen aside from Evanescence and Linkin Park (and I liked/like both). 

One that was big when you were a teen that you DO like: >> Oh, already mentioned.

Group/artist you enjoy from before you were born: >> The Temptations.

Group/artist the kids like these days who you think has potential: >> I don’t know.

Did you hate Despacito, or did you think it was catchy? >> I only heard it a couple of times, but it sounded all right to me.

Can you enjoy a song if the lyrics are in a language you don't understand? >> Sure.

Do lyrics always have to be meaningful? >> Well, all lyrics mean something. They just don’t necessarily have to mean anything that matters to you or me. Which is fine.

Have you ever made friends because you had the same taste in music? >> Yeah, in high school.

When a group goes on hiatus, do you actually expect them to come back? >> I don’t really think much about it.

Any solo work from former band members you love? >> I know I have examples of this but I can never remember them on command...

Have you ever ruined a song for yourself? (Listened to it too much) Which ones? >> Nah.

Are you usually in a better mood after listening to music? >> Yeah, usually.

Do you actually know anybody who DOESN'T love music? >> Probably. I’ve definitely met a few people who seemed completely indifferent to music, and it blew my mind.

Are there any groups/artists whose music you have heard all/most of? Which ones? >> Yeah, there are quite a few like that. My Chemical Romance is one, and Pearl Jam, and Coheed and Cambria, and Volbeat... and so on.

A few songs that give you goosebumps? >> I don’t know. I don’t think I pay much attention to whether a song gives me goosebumps or not.

A few songs that bring back happy memories? >> Can’t think of any right now.

Any songs you didn't like at first, but grew on you? >> There are a few songs like that, yeah. There are whole bands like that, in fact. I hated Metallica and Guns N Roses when I was a teenager.

Some covers you liked? >> Oh man, there are so many covers I like. I’ll give two examples just to keep it short: Dream Theater’s cover of Rainbow’s Stargazer, and Alex Boyé’s cover of Adele’s Hello.

Artist with the best fashion sense? >> *shrug*

Artist with the best hair? >> *shrug*

Group/artist you think has improved over time? >> I don’t know, I generally just think bands and artists evolve over time -- whether that’s an “improvement” or not isn’t something I think about. Either I like it or I don’t, but that’s it.

Group/artist you think was better when they first started? >> *shrug*

List some of your favorite male vocalists: >> Eddie Vedder, James Labrie, Warrel Dane, Andy Kuntz (he of the unfortunate name), Hozier, Sam Cooke.

Some of your favorite female vocalists: >> Floor Jansen, Skin, Alissa White-Gluz, Whitney Houston, Céline Dion, Amy Lee.

Have any of your favorite groups broken up? >> Oh, absolutely.

Do you wish they would come back? >> No.

Do you like live recordings? >> Not usually.

Any artists you find entertaining to watch performing? >> Trans-Siberian Orchestra, always.

Are there any groups/artists you would like to meet? >> At this point, I can take it or leave it. I’ve met a lot of bands and it’s been fun. I feel pretty satisfied with my level of band-meeting experience.

Do you ever actually look up music people recommend to you? >> If I’m actually interested, sure.

Have you discovered any favorites through recommendations? >> Yeah, I remember I got into The pAper chAse because one of my longtime tumblr mutuals wouldn’t shut up about them for a while a few years ago, lol.

Any groups/artists you plan on checking out soon? >> Just whatever I run into thanks to Spotify’s algorithmic playlists. I’ve gotten into a lot of new songs because of them.