#rent 20th anniversary

[radiant-reid]

I love the hot wife blurbs so could you do one where reader and spencer go to a hightschool reunion

Spencer loathed high school. They were some of the worst years of his life when he felt completely alone.

So it made sense that he'd refuse to go to high school reunions, seeing kids that were 5 years older than him and much further ahead in their lives. The last and only time he went- a five-year reunion- most of his graduating class had spouses, and some kids, and he was still the young weirdo dedicated to school. So he left fifteen minutes in.

This time, for the 20th anniversary of their graduation, Y/n had seen the e-vite before Spencer could delete it and she wraps her arms around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder and her body against his back. "Come on." She pleads. "We've got to go."

"But I hate reunions." He complains. "Everyone uses them to brag."

"Yeah, and?" She prompts. "You've got lots to brag about since you last went. Husband, dad, profiler." He's proud of all those things, immensely, but he still shakes his head. "Even if it's horrible and we leave five minutes into it, we'll have a weekend alone in Las Vegas." She tries to persuade him. "No baby, no BAU. Just us with alcohol, casinos, and hookers."

Spencer snorts with laughter. "I've never solicited a prostitute."

"Morgan tells a different story." She mumbles.

"It was a lapdance." He reminds her with a groan. It's a story Morgan's been twisting for years. "Which he paid for, too, by the way... she just offered more."

"We're going." She affirms. "And we're going to have so much fun. Pinky promise." She holds out her pinky finger in front of him and he kisses it.

~

It's at a private backyard space with a bar, probably somewhere designed for weddings, and she picked out the best dress she owns. She can tell he's a little nervous, squeezing her hand tightly. "Hey, it'll be fine, Spence. You've done more than enough to be proud of." She reminds him.

He's grateful for it, especially when he notices some of his tormentors from years ago while they're getting drinks. Unfortunately, they notice him too even though he looks very different from how he did at 12 or 18, and one's brave enough to walk over, offering out his hand to shake Spencer's.

Spencer accepts it even though he: one, hates handshakes, and two, hates Carlton Williams. "Spencer, right? How are you doing, man? I feel like we haven't seen you in years."

Spencer's shocked he bothered looking for him, but someone who peaked in high school is bound to want to see and laugh at the successes of his victim.

"Yeah, I've been busy with my work at the FBI," Spencer states factually, although it sounds like bragging.

"You?" Carlton scoffs like he can't believe it. It's jealousy, ugly jealousy. "In the FBI?"

Spencer shuts down at the insecurities, and Y/n steps up. "I'm Y/n Reid. His wife." She introduces herself.

"No shit? I thought you were just someone he rented for the night." He replies. "Was going to ask for the agency."

She keeps her cool despite how rude his comment is and holds out her hand, displaying the big rock. It's hard for anyone not to gawk at it. "Yeah, it pays to not peak in high school." She informs him.

After Carlton decides he's been humiliated enough, he leaves the couple alone.

"I'm sorry he's such a dick." Spencer apologizes.

"We can always frame him for murder, you know?" She offers. "Or get Penelope to put his house on Craigslist for way below its value."

Spencer laughs, nodding slightly. "Yeah, let's."

[mlleclaudine]

Meagan Good Reunites With ‘D.E.B.S.’ Co-Star Sara Foster & Director Angela Robinson For 20th Anniversary, Jordana Brewster Calls For Sequel

by Glenn Garner - Deadline, June 23, 2024

After 20 years MIA, the D.E.B.S. (Discipline, Energy, Beauty, Strength) are back together again and teasing a potential (not-so-secret) mission.

Meagan Good and Sara Foster, who starred together in 2004’s D.E.B.S., reunited Saturday night with writer and director Angela Robinson to celebrate the sapphic cult classic’s 20th anniversary with a Cinespia screening at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in partnership with LA Pride.

“This film, for me, was an opportunity to do something different,” said Good as they introduced the film. “And then it became something where, now when people come up to me and they say, ‘Oh, I loved this movie’ or ‘this movie really inspired me’ or ‘made me feel seen,’ it wasn’t just an opportunity to do something different. It was an opportunity to be a part of something that’s important and fantastic.”

Foster echoed her co-star’s sentiments. “I will say that in 20 years, a lot of good things have happened to me in my life,” she said. “And to this day, one of the best things is people coming up to me and saying, ‘D.E.B.S. made me feel comfortable being who I am. D.E.B.S. made me realize who I am, who I want to be.’

“And it’s happened consistently for 20 years. So, I’ve done a lot of really shitty movies and a lot of shitty TV shows, but this is a movie that made a difference, probably the only thing I ever did that made a difference, at least in the movie business,” added Foster.

Foster starred in the action comedy — based on Robinson’s 2003 short of the same name — as Amy Bradshaw, a gifted recruit at a top-secret women’s paramilitary academy. During a mission to take down the illusive super criminal Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster), Amy develops an attraction to the enemy and finds her loyalties tested.

Although the movie’s marketing watered down its LGBTQ themes and it ultimately grossed less than $100,000 at the box office, D.E.B.S. has gone on to cult status among its intended fanbase.

“We made this so long ago, and my goal, our goal collectively was, I just wanted to see a teen movie that I wish I had when I was a teenager,” recalled Robinson. “And we had such a blast making the movie, and we had a great premiere at Sundance. And then the movie came out and totally flopped.

“But here’s the thing, I was so bummed out because I was like, ‘It’s not gonna get to the audience that I wanted to see this movie.’ And then you guys went and found it. Then somebody would tell me ‘yeah, I rented it in the video store.’ And I was all mad at the time … that they weren’t advertising it as a gay movie. But then it became this kind of underground thing where people would tell me they rented it at the video store or passed it or watched it on TV or something like that. And then it’s grown into this today. So, I want to say thank you so much.”

Robinson also thanked her wife of 25 years, Alexandra Kondracke, “who told me not to take the script and stick it in the drawer like I was going to,” as well Sony Screen Gems’ Clint Culpepper and Stacy Kramer, “because I can’t believe anyone gave us money to make this, but you did, and it’s amazing.”

“But mostly, I want to thank all of you for coming and being here and supporting D.E.B.S. because a bunch of people have come up to us collectively, and they said, ‘D.E.B.S. changed our lives,'” added Robinson. “And that’s incredibly gratifying to see all these years later.”

Although Brewster was in New Zealand and unable to attend the reunion, she graced her friends and fans with a video message, in which she imagined an “older, wiser Lucy Diamond. Has she learned her lesson? I don’t know… Probably not.”

“Have fun. I love you guys. I’m with you in spirit,” added Brewster. “And bug Angela about making a sequel, please.”

[stealth-liberal]

So, it's that time again, the anniversary of 9/11. Two years ago, on the 20th anniversary, I wrote an essay about the Twin Tower jumpers and how we as a society have refused to look their fear and pain in the face and hold it.

Now, it's been 22 years since that day and my thoughts go elsewhere. Now I am thinking about legacy and remembrance. Honoring the dead. How do we fully honor the 3,000 people who were killed that day? Because I have some serious issues with how that has played out over the last 22 years.

I was in my 20's when 9/11 happened, and I was in the Marine Corps, so, as you can imagine, it changed my life, and not a single one of those changes was positive. Right now though, it's not what I want to talk about.

We say never forget, always remember, but how are we doing that. By dooming ourselves to what was 20 years of unending war? That doesn't sound like a good memorial.

I never had an issue with the war in Afghanistan. We were attacked Pearl Harbor style, and that was always going to end the way it did. But the war in Iraq? It made me an angry liberal. I had never been conservative, and I joined the Marine Corps to pay for college, we had been at peace for So Many Years that I guess I didn't really think that could change. The war in Iraq was criminal, though. Dubya and his cronies whipped our pain and our grief into a storm and used it to help him LIE to Congress (both sections) so he could get his war. Afghanistan had no natural resources besides poppies for opium that would benefit the war profiteers. They were strategically placed, but that was it. Iraq? Iraq had oil and Haliburton, Chaney, Dubya, Condoleezza Rice, and the rest made So Much money. Billions were made, and billions were "misplaced." Congress was given false intell reports so they would vote for the Iraq War. The fact that no one went to jail for that scarred me. They lined their pockets, and my friends came home in body bags because they SOMEHOW didn't have the money for proper body armor. I will never forgive them for that.

So... It's not a very good way to remember the 3,000 who died on 9/11. Perhaps the worst memorial of all time. Dubya shackled us to pain and grief, and no one was allowed to recover. Least of all the families who lost people. They were paraded for the cameras to be used, and looking back on it, it was sickening. How could they do that to families and the survivors? Why?

I mean, intellectually, I know why. Emotionally, I will never understand it. The survivors and the families deserved to recover. We, as a nation who witnessed the horror, deserved to recover. But recovery meant no profit. Recovery meant no Iraq War. Recovery meant Halliburton might not make quite as much money. So we all stayed traumatized, unable to move forward.

And here it is, 22 years later. How should we honor the 9/11 dead and the survivors? Well, I have a few ideas.

1. 3,000 people died that day, but it could have been less. Why? Both the Twin Towers and the Pentagon had structural and safety issues that made something catastrophic even worse. The Twin Towers did not have enough emergency staircases for it's size. All skyscrapers were supposed to have 4 staircases in case they ever needed to be evacuated. Both Towers only had 2, and the why of that is rage inducing.

You see, 4 staircases meant less floor space, which meant less desk space, which meant less ability to charge businesses higher rents. So money changed hands when the towers were built, and the number went down to 2 emergency staircases. This was a decision that was heavily criticized at the time, and many in the trades predicted disaster.

When the 1993 bombing of the Twin Towers happened, the towers stayed standing, and the 2 missing staircases weren't a problem. Everyone thought all was good. To be fair, NO ONE ever thought a terrorist group would fly a jumbo passenger jet into each tower. No skyscraper was built with that eventuality in mind. They are now, though.

When the planes hit the towers, each tower lost access to elevators and 1 staircase each. Now, both towers had to be fully evacuated with just that one staircase. It wasn't enough, and survivors have all spoken about how everyone was jammed into the stairwells going down those stairs one at a time at a snail's pace. It's a miracle as many people actually survived as they did.

The South Tower was hit more on the side, so some people above the impact zone were able to get out. The North Tower was not so lucky. It was hit head on, everyone above the impact zone was doomed, and they knew it. It's why so many of them chose to jump once faced with what was no real choice to begin with, burn, or jump to their deaths.

Had there been enough staircases, had there been 4 instead of 2, many more people would have survived. So I think a suitable way to never forget the people who died in The Twin Towers is to enact legislation so that never again can a skyscraper be built without proper emergency egress/staircases in case of an evacuation. Any skyscrapers without enough staircases are brought up to code so that if the worst happens, as many people can be saved as possible. That seems a fitting memorial.

The Pentagon was built like a fish trap, the idea was if an enemy somehow got in, they would never get out. No one ever factored in the notion of a jet being flown into the building, most of the inner ring collapsing and massive explosion damage and fire racing through everywhere. There are many stories of people pounding on the glass and not being able to get out.

Thankfully for the people at the Pentagon, they were not in a skyscraper, and first responders were able to find ways to get to them. But they couldn't and didn't get to everyone. So I think a fitting memorial to the Pentagon dead that day would be to make sure no building is so secure that you can't get out, can't truly evacuate, if the catastrophic happens. When a building is on fire, everyone deserves the best possible chance to get out and get home alive.

2. The first responders of 9/11 were the heroes of that day. I think we can all agree that the very definition of heroic is running back into a collapsing and/or burning building determined to save just one more life. So many first responders died that day doing the best they could to save lives. The ones who survived were harrowed to their bones.

The people who worked the wreckage of both sites, who collected what was left of human remains. Who bit by bit picked up the wreckage and tried to heal two cities with the labor of their hands. These people were also heroes, and anyone who says differently is just wrong.

They were told it was safe, and they were told we would take care of them. However, it wasn't safe. Both of these groups of people have had massive health complications ever since from the toxins they were immersed in for days, weeks, months, and even years. The dust alone caused so much lung damage.

Then, to add insult to injury, a Republican congress tried to take away their health benefits, to leave them twisting in the wind. These ghouls left the ACTUAL heroes of that terrible time in chronic illness, terrible pain, and in many cases tried to let them die. Why? Because they were too cheap to spend a dime on these people. John Stewart basically had to retire from The Daily Show to shame Congress into taking care of these people.

On the 17th anniversary he gave a blistering speech to them and I paraphrase here: "17 years ago, they acted heroically and did their jobs. They did their jobs! NOW DO YOURS!"

You want to know the very best way to remember the first responders who died in 9/11? Take care of their brothers and sisters who survived, their brothers and sisters who spent years working The Piles. None of these people should EVER pay so much as a dime for their health care ever again. For the rest of their lives. Period.

This is how we should memorialize them, this is how we never forget. Not chaining us to a never ending cycle of pain, despair, and anger. Not lying to us to get a second war that no one needed. Not war profiteering and then calling it patriotism. Not terrorizing our Muslim citizens. Not taking away our rights, not trading our civil rights for the illusion of safety.

This is how we make peace with the horror of what happened. This is how we move forward and let the memory of the dead be a blessing.

[prettygoododds]

Thank you @roomwithanopenfire @thewholelemon @hushed-chorus @cutestkilla @blackberrysummerblog @artsyunderstudy & @nightimedreamersworld for the tags.

I’m so late to seeing all the tags because I was massively irresponsible the previous night and paid for it most of today. Happy 20th Anniversary hubby, sorry you had to put my drunk ass to bed last night lol.

Upside tho is we rented a cabin in the middle of nowhere and it started snowing so I got a bunch of pictures to make more banners!

It’s the little things.

Finally feeling better tho so here’s a little spice as a Sunday nightcap.

“Use your words, Basil.”

My mind can’t make sense of all the things my body is reacting to. How has this man stripped me of everything I thought I knew about myself? How did he pull this unknown soul from the depth of my sexual repression and get him to beg below him?

“Your mouth. My cock.” I’m unnerved by how he’s reduced me to monosyllabic words.

It’s late, so the tags are the most no pressure tags to ever exists : @ic3-que3n @dohrnaira @facewithoutheart @imagineacoolusername @shemakesmeforget @ivelovedhimthroughworse @wellbelesbian @rimeswithpurple @aristocratic-otter @nausikaaa @supercutedinosaurs @valeffelees @iamamythologicalcreature @shrekgogurt @ileadacharmedlife @martsonmars @you-remind-me-of-the-babe

[muppetjackrackham]

Lion I was singing Joanna from Sweeney Todd cuz I’ve been hearing the josh groban version all over tiktok and now I’m contemplating fully getting into it. Where do I start??

(insert public apology for using boomer meme templates to get the point across)

would that i had finished the deranged comic sans powerpoint 101 for sweeney todd by now i would link it here but as it is it still needs a lot of work before i'm even remotely comfortable posting it hOWEVER that doesn't mean i can't still be of some assistance

(disclaimer: i am about to throw a LOT of information at you and you are by no means obligated to try and digest it all at once please instead do so at your leisure/your level of interest instead)

sweeney todd 101 cliffnotes version for people who want to get into sweeney todd by someone who is way too invested in this show

sorry to anyone who doesn't like the office this is the only cold open that matters to me in this particular stage of life rn

so for those who aren't already familiar with sweeney todd (or have a passing familiarity with it either via sweeney todd related tiktok content or other similarly related content consumption) one of the first things i would recommend starting with is the 2007 tim burton film since it's a pretty good place to start (and also easily one of the best film adaptations of a musical imo). you can find it on hbo max or on youtube for 3.99 if you don't have and/or want to pay for an hbo max subsciption. (you can also 🏴‍☠️ it because capitalism sucks. remember to sail the seven seas* responsibly!)

johnny depp and helena bonham carter in sweeney todd (2007) dir. tim burton

now if you're interested in other productions (and/or not particularly interested in the film) there's the 2014 half concert half staged proshot starring emma thompson as mrs. lovett and christian borle as pirelli that you can find on youtube for FREE (here is a link to act one and another link to act two AND a link to the opening on it's own because it is absolutely PHENOMINAL i genuinely can't recommend it enough).

emma thompson and welsh opera singer sir byrn terfel jones in sweeney todd: the demon barber of fleet street in concert 2014

there is also the original 1982 proshot starring some of the original cast such as angela lansburry (unfortunately len cariou, the original sweeney does not reprise his role BUT george hearn does a phenominal job in the role). you can find this one on amazon for 3.99 to rent or it and a plethora of other musical proshots on BroadwayHD for 11.99/mo but unless you're interested in watching other musicals and plays on BroadwayHD i would suggest renting it on amazon or 🏴‍☠️ it for free if you know where to look (i honestly don't know what pirating musicals looks like outside of yt bootlegs and i am still very very new to actual bootleg trading so you'd have to ask someone else)

the late dame angela lansburry and george hearn in the 1982 proshot version of sweeney todd

and finally, my personal favourite, the 2023 broadway revival. unfortunately we only have five singles that have (officially) been released (which you can find here on spotify) but we also have the official ballad of sweeney todd performace from this year's tony awards AND there IS a way to watch it if you are like me and can't afford to fly to new york and see it at the lunt-fontanne theater (just dm me for the details). this is quite possibly my favourite version of this story and if great comet wasn't already an indicator that josh groban is a great fit for broadway this DEFINITELY is imo.

josh groban and annaleigh ashford in the 2023 broadway revival of sweeney todd that i am definitely very normal about

other recommendations include sideway's video essay on the music in sweeney todd, christine baranksi's version of worst pies in london (and her criminally underrated version of a little priest with kelsey grammar in a 20th anniversary concert version that i would give my left kidney to see in full), imelda staunton and michael ball's version of a little priest from a 2012 revival, patti lupone as mrs. lovett playing the tuba in the stripped down 2005 broadway revival, lin manuel miranda's sweeney todd themed hamilton parody for broadway cares featuring the funniest jonathan groff cameo i've seen in my life (and the recent ham4ham version performed by the current 2023 revival cast) and my last braincell when confronted with literally any sweeney todd related content these days.

[digi-mancer]

Ray 01 from Custom Robo on the Nintendo GameCube.

I am late to this, but I didn't know we passed the 20th anniversary of this game's release. It has a lot of sentimental value to me, and I remember first getting this game rented just because of the game cover. I didn't know what it was about, but when I played it, I was hooked. It got to the point where my dad just bought it because I rented so many times, LOL. The story, the environment, the characters, and the art of this game are amazing (to me, I don't know if anyone else agrees). Ray 01's design has made it one of my favorite robot characters.

I can't even remember how many times I completed the story, and I'm currently playing through it again. This game has a somewhat niche audience, and it would be really cool if this franchise was brought back to life.

[thelovelyghostwriter]

Ugh waiting for the day I have enough motivation to edit my "Neon is a Popstar AU" fanfics to fit the 2000s pop culture because I think it'll be more interesting. HxH manga also debuted in the late 90s which makes Neon a teen in the late 90s to early 2000s.

Also the nostalgia!!! Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Linkin Park, Evanescence, Eminem and Avril Lavigne. All the rom-com and chick flick movies?? Mean Girls just had their 20th anniversary. Paris Hilton was the OG "famous for being famous" nepo baby. 💅💞

And the technology last time... The computer screens were bulky with the speakers not working. Burning the CDs, renting DVDs and downloading stuff overnight. Screaming at the family computer because Runescape needs to load. When the internet is down, solitaire and that pinball game is there. The flip phones and texting in short forms (pressing the buttons and missing the letter then pressing again). Going on MTV to see the latest hits and playing with the antenna of the radio. I think it'll be fun to research and look back on how things were 20 years ago.

[jules-has-notes]

collaboration spotlight — Seasons of Love by AJ Rafael & VoicePlay

To (slightly belatedly) celebrate the 20th anniversary of Rent's debut on Broadway, these five musical theater nerds teamed up for a gorgeous a cappella rendition of one of the show's most well-known songs. Just as the original tune opens the second act of the play, this video was VoicePlay's first music video released after the announcement of Tony's departure from the group, and the start of a new chapter in their history. It was also their first release of the year, even if it wasn't on their own channel.

Details:

title: Seasons of Love

original performers: cast of Rent (1996)

written by: Jonathan Larson

arranged by: AJ Rafael & VoicePlay

release date: 17 January 2017

My favorite bits:

those unmistakable opening harmonies

Layne starting simple with just body percussion for the first verse

AJ's smooth, warm timbre to kick things off

passing the lead vocals around the group

that moment of contemplative silence between the repeated questions of the verse and the answering chorus

AJ, Eli, and Earl's precise, coordinated diction when the first ♫ "sea-sons of love" ♫ hits

Earl's laserbeam tone at the start of the second verse

the powerful crescendo on ♫ "he diii-IIIED" ♫

the lovely little bell chord in the second chorus

those drum fills as the song reaches its greatest intesity

ending on a satisfying harmonic resolution

Layne refusing to let Earl leave the frame during the outro, and Earl just giving in and staring intensely into the lens

Trivia:

A portion of this song was included in VoicePlay's "Aca Top 10 – Broadway" countdown, which they also performed on the 2015 Sing-Off tour.

This video was filmed in early October during VoicePlay's swing through California. It was quite unusual for them to have such a long wait between recording and release, but collaborations are always a little more complicated than their usual workflow in which they do everything themselves.

They subsequently added this arrangement to their setlists for live shows, starting with the 12th annual Napa Valley A Cappella Extravaganza.

A fan was inspired to draw some fanart of Layne and Eli.

AJ was one of the YouTubers invited to the 2015 #DisneySide All-Star Creator Conference at Disney World, at which VoicePlay were part of the local entertainment. While there, he teamed up with Roxy Darr to film a very cute video of a date day for the official Disney YouTube channel.

AJ has also done a couple collaborations with his fellow Filipino-American singers, The Filharmonic, who were on The Sing-Off season 4 and the subsequent 2014 tour with VoicePlay.

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2023-10-09

Somehow bionicle is in this one

Listening: I looked at the date on my oven yesterday and it was 08-10 and I was like hey isn't that Bionicle Day. The answer is no, because it's Americans and Bionicle Day was the tenth of August. Anyway turns out that this year some fans got the original voice of Vakama to do a tribute video? And also Cryoshell dropped a new song.

Cryoshell is one of the funniest bands I know. They had little success until they got contracted in by an ad agency to do music for Bionicle, they did Creeping in My Soul for the Voya Nui arc in 2007 and ended up getting contracted in basically every year after that to whip up some music for Bionicle. They remain to this day extremely closely associated with the Bionicle fandom, like, you know, releasing their latest track on Bionicle day.

They are, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, and with all the love in my heart, the Evanescence we have at home. Bionicle had just saved Lego less than a decade earlier and the media effort around Bionicle was very well designed, which included making the perfect AMV soundtrack for 13 year olds to set their stop motion Bionicle fight scenes to. Of course I don't know anything about using a webcam and extremely dubious stop motion software to produce extensive Bionicle fanvideos. What are you talking about.

I am going to leave it here but there is so much to say about Cryoshell. Seriously just go look it up. Their music is actually very good if you like that particular symphonic metal alt rock style that was so emblematic of the 2000's.

Reading: Ended up on a research dive about small towns, because I now live in a country with a lot of small towns. Attempting to do and find a comparative anatomy of how small towns are administered around the world and what drives their success or failure. There is a lot of stuff from the Trump years when he apparently made some gestures towards the idea that people should just move out of doomed towns.

As always in the USA, housing affects everything, both in that homeownership ties people to their towns and that moving to a new city requires paying often prohibitively expensive rents. There are a lot of conservative blogs taking on this question and doing some dubious interpretations of mostly good data.

I am teasing at the thread of "limits of local government in small towns" which seems to be leading somewhere but it's still not well supported. There's a lot of factors.

Watching: the Loading Ready Run 20th Anniversary Subathon is on until this Friday. Since I was mostly watching during American night I caught primarily their watchalong of old videos, which is cute but not exactly that novel. I do like LRR.

Making: More 3D printing, trying to get the hang of modelling off a photo to make a nozzle adapter for my vacuum cleaner. Also made a little stand for my temperature and humidity sensor so I can see it when I'm sitting down or standing up more easily.

Playing: Beat Breath of the Wild finally. It was so long.

The final fight was kind of anticlimactic, between the assists you get from the divine beasts and all your power-ups I feel like I didn't have to puzzle it out as much as I did for some of the blight Ganon fights. I have kind of accepted that I just don't like the endings of most video games.

I did first go around and do the Champions' Ballad DLC quest because I stumbled into it, it's a nice set of little challenges plus some vignettes of the champions to help characterize them some more. I kind of wish you could walk around the world post-endgame and like, talk to some of the people you've met and see what they have to say. Eh.

Tools and Equipment: I have been storing my butter at room temperature the past few weeks, because it makes it much easier to spread. Modern butter is both very high fat and pasteurized so it won't go off for well over a week even if you just left it out, but the main concern is rancidity, which can happen quite quickly.

My Pro Tip is that you don't have to store the whole damn block. Euro butter is 250g blocks and I cut that into four ~60g cubes that I keep in a sealed plastic container in the cupboard one at a time. Just top it up as you go. I think American sticks are like 100g so you could cut it in half. South African butter usually comes in 500g so you'd have to cut that in like eighths.

[cursedbluebird]

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

tagging: you

---

Name: Rosie

Pronouns: she/her

Birthday (no year): March 24

Where are you from? What is your time zone? Nebraska, CST

Roleplay experience: since 2009

Got any pets? Freya and Bast the naughtiest kitties in the universe

Favorite time of year: Fall

Some interests and things you like: sewing, thinking way too much about clothes

Some funfacts & trivia about you: - I wrote my undergrad thesis on the progression fashion of the 20th c, but I am terrible about keeping up on modern fashion

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? L E G E N D O F Z E L D A.... I love Majora's Mask... Hero of Time my beloved baby boy..... I also love Okami so much. I'm a sucker for fairy tales and mythology.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: I'm actually not a big pokemon person! I started with Y. Ghosts and Psychic are my faves, particularly Mimikyu, Meowstic, and Hoopa. Gengar is also shaped like a friend :)

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I had been interested in the series since the GBA days but it wasn't until I got my 3ds and awakening that I got the chance to play a game.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Awakening, Conquest & Birthright, 3H, Shadows of Valentia

First Fire Emblem game: Awakening

Favorite Fire Emblem game: Fates or 3H

Any Fire Emblem crushes? Oh my God Niles hi tee-hee... Tho Seteth damage art did get me into playing feh... And uh... My husband does look like Xander ...and his name is.... Alexander........🥴 I've posted my questionable taste in fe characters you can find it in the chat if you search

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? - Awakening: Chrom- Fates: oh good God idr.... Kaze? I know I did Niles in one run... Did I do Stahl in Birthright? Kaze in conquest and Stahl in Birthright sounds right- Three Houses: Dimitri - Engage: haven't played engage. Place your bets for fun

Favorite Fire Emblem class: I like the magic classes! Healing and attacking! Tho Camilla's malig knight does have a special place in my heart 💜

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? Dark magic user...I do not escape the goth aesthetic.... Unfortunately I am too much of a noodle to be a malig knight 😞

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Fear the Deer!!! (Side note, bless my luck bc when I ordered a leftover bundle from fodlans fables I got the deer. A cosplayer I look up to also offered me her deer pin from the fe3h preorder bonus which had me 🥹)

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? I don't know what this means but I copied this from Erica and her answer was funny.

How did you find TOA? I track the Marianne tag on Tumblr and saw the previous Marianne drop. The old shit post emblem group I was in was falling apart and I thought it would be nice to join a new one.

Current TOA muses: Marianne, Camilla, Triandra

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? Marianne my cursed little blue bird 💙 I've thought about dropping her, thinking that maybe someone else would do a better job, but I just can't let her go.

Have you had any other TOA muses? Other than cami and Tria nope

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? Um??? I don't know? I got told that Tria was a Rosie muse when I reserved her so I guess y'all know better than me lol

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I like writing horror and setting the scene :) my favorite part about combat events is describing the creatures we're facing from my characters pov

Favorite TOA-related memory: What Kent told Mari in her first lore event about the importance of healers have lived rent free in my memory since it happened. Also Griss trying to blow himself up in the arena and despite his best efforts not succeeding.

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day in TOA that you’d like to share? Charlotte is one I've thought about and is the one most likely to send Triandra packing....there are an awful lot of men at the academy who would do a great job taking care of her and her family 😏

[apartments4rent]

Apartments For Rent: TEN-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

Ooooohhhh man, this… This is fucking me way up, big time… I don’t even know where to begin with this… I should definitely be using this free time I have today doing my homework, you know, the thing with a hard deadline? That was technically due yesterday?? Well, how about instead of that, I take a walk down memory lane…

Do you remember the 21st night of September? 

Picture this: It’s 2013. It is your sophomore year of high school. You have more friends than you ever have in your life and they are all so wonderful to you (this wouldn’t always be the case and they all wouldn’t stick around but you didn't know that yet). One of you proposes the question: If you were a monster, what would you be? A witch. A vampire. A werewolf. A mermaid. A ghost. A selkie. A dullahan. (You had to look those last two up.) You are so inspired by this that you want to make a story for these ideas to live in. You create a fantasy. Where all your best friends get to live together under one roof. A slice of a life you know you’ll never have. It’s actually the 20th night of September that you created the tumblr blog where most of what comes out of this will live (your first post says “why do i do this to myself”) but it is the 21st night that your creations get their names. Their genders don’t all stay the same but their cores haven’t really changed. “a very dramatic/theatrical witch who loves animals and sass master. a bubbly and happy mermaid who gets really scary when u cross her. a passive, nerdy vampire who isnt so out spoken. a moody selkie who loves to learn and lost her seal skin. a strong beautiful fairy girl who doesnt take shit from no one but is v nice to her friends. a ghost girl from the 1920s who is forgetful and not really confident but really likes her new friends.” You put a disclaimer at the bottom of the post, clarifying that these descriptions shouldn’t be taken as a description of your friends but separate characters entirely. This is also the birth of Marvin, the human man created to navigate this world of chaos, not based on anyone you know in real life. The straight man in this goofball circus. Your Original Character. (Who, you now realize, was designed as the boring main male character in the harem anime.) This was the genesis. And you would never know peace in your life ever since. 

And then what happened?

Bro, so much. A lot can happen in 10 years. You develop the characters further. You make a small town for them to live in (even though you’ve never even been to a small town in your life). You make (bad) art. You make sims because you hate the way you draw but you need a physical version of them to exist outside your head, as you see them. You apparently make a rule where no one outside of your little group is supposed to know about these characters (because you “had an experience” and “don’t wanna repeat it”). You make Alternate Universes for these Alternate Universe selves to populate, again and again. (As of right now, your “AU of an AU” list stands at 26 but there are probably more dumb ones not yet counted on the doc you made.) You try to make a one-shot comic collaboration with all your friends but no one seems to agree on how it should go so nothing but a script and panel formatting ends up getting made. (You know that your script was worse with many unnecessary details but you were bad at killing your darlings and stubborn about your ideas being the best. You’ll learn eventually.) You love and appreciate all the things your friends make for this story you start to feel full ownership of. (You haven’t noticed yet how much of a control freak you are.) Their writing and art give you life, especially considering they are doing The Most while you mostly just come up with ideas. The setting goes from apartment building to boarding house and back again before a year has passed. The first anniversary is a blast! You actually wrote something! And drew something you were proud of! Others wrote and drew and it was great. (How would you know it would never be like this again?) 

And the years go by and by… 

After the first year, you decided you wanted to make a dating sim with these silly characters because you just loved them so much. You shipped the characters (not realizing that your friends did it as a way to express they had crushes on each other, conveniently shipping your self-insert with the only man/only character not based on a friend.) There were still a lot of headcanons being made and posts being shared. But noticeably less and less. Then the second anniversary hit. Not much fanfare. After the second year, more characters started popping up based on more friends you make. Some of the friends that were there in the beginning weren’t anymore and you try not to think about it. After all, these characters aren’t your friends, they are separate and distinct from them. So it’s still OK to play with them, right? (The answer must be yes; ten years later you still do.) Then the third anniversary happens, with 4 posts between them. It was understandable. That was your senior year of high school. Everyone was getting ready to go their separate ways. You were moving clear across the country. Your friend group was getting smaller still and this big shake-up would prove who would stick around to still be a part of this thing and who would remain a memory for you to look back on in ten years. 2017, though, was a big year for the blog. You were unemployed and not yet going to college so you had A LOT of free time on your hands. It was probably the most number of posts you made since the first year of the blog. It was magic. Then you got a job. There have been 16 posts in the last 6 years. 2019 had none. 2020 and 2021 had one each. They were all made by you. There has certainly been less activity on the blog but that doesn’t mean these kids have been lying dormant all this time. You haven’t stopped thinking about them since they first popped up into your head. In 2019, you rewrote the story you had written for one of those anniversaries; the first chronological beat. (You haven’t read it since then; You have no idea if it’s good or not.)  In 2020, you attempted to write the actual story (like fr fr) for NaNoWriMo -- you didn’t get very far but it’s the thought that counts? 2021 was a quiet year as far as actual writing goes - as was 2022 - but trust that your brain definitely didn’t forget about them. 

The Retro part of the Spective 

Alright, enough second-person POV. 

Ten years.

Ten years. 

Talk about hard pills to swallow (thanks FOB). 

I’ve had this “story”, these characters, banging around in my head for ten years and what do I have to show for it? A couple thousand words and a blog full of half-thought ideas? Around this time last year, I was excited about this anniversary. I made a new Twitter for it (before that died) and was planning on actually publishing something to do this story justice… and I chickened out. I convinced myself, once again, that I wasn’t ready. That other things were more important, they took precedence. Do I have even that much to prove I was right? No, I don’t because I really haven’t changed all that much in ten years, if you can believe it. I know, a real shocker. (I still like all the same things I liked back in high school for crying out fucking loud!) I wanted to reach out to the people I used to do this with, to see if they still wanted to be part of it. (I’m sure that wouldn’tve been at all hard, I wonder why I didn’t follow through?) I wanted to have something so I would be able to say, “I did it.” So that maybe, I could finally move on. But that’s the thing, isn’t it… I don’t want to move on. I’m stuck in this arrested development because I refuse to change, to give up any past part of myself. Because if I don’t have that, I don’t know who I am. 

So now what? What’s all this for? One big, sad diary entry reflecting on the parts of myself that I already know very well? 

Honestly, I don’t know. I was hoping I could come to some sort of conclusion by writing this but as it turns out, it only made me want to cry. 

I wanted this to end on a good note.

I spent all day writing this, I can’t end it like this.

So let’s instead talk about all the things that have changed about these goofballs over the years:

Mystic Cove is a city in a Northern California town. It started out in Florida, it almost ended up as a mountain town. I also briefly considered straight up placing it in San Diego because there are some nice, beautiful, old-ass buildings downtown that juxtapose the cold, sleek skyrises in such a way that I thought about writing something about being lonely in a city and finding your own family. 

Vast Acres has been an apartment building, a boarding house, Mediterranean Revival, Victorian, Queen Anne, even briefly considered a Bed and Breakfast. All I know is it has to be the place where this family gets together. At one point under the ownership and operation of Marvin’s dad Alejandro, it is now bequeathed to Marvin by a mysterious, freshly dead uncle/great uncle. 

Marvin is a wholeass person to me, in that he’s not completely knowable to even me anymore. Marvin is probably the person in Mystic Cove I know the BEST and that like doesn’t mean anything to me. Like yeah, I’ve written pages and pages and answered so many pointless questions about him but… I don’t know how else to describe him other than, “He’s an enigma.” The most significant thing about him that’s changed is I’m considering undeading his mom? Just because I feel like we’ve had enough dead mom media and it’s not something I can speak to truthfully. Briefly considered making her a runaway mom? But we’re still thinking about it. I think her name is Lily? 

Mel’s name went from Melinda to Melody because I decided Melinda was a weird name? And Mel likes music so I thought I would be clever. She went from “Marv’s sister” and side character to basically co-lead. Mel was even almost briefly considered as the real main character for a time when I thought to lean into its roots as a product of a high schooler’s imagination and go full YA coming-of-age adventure. It was actually the subject of my 2020 NaNo attempt. I decided against it because I loved Marv too much to push him to “supporting character” and if there’s something about me that’s developed, it’s that I don’t much care for YA books anymore. 

Amber is unsurprisingly my favorite because I’m a Leo. I think I finally decided on a backstory for her that I like and she’s not white anymore? Like, not fully anyway lmao. Before she was like, from someplace in England with like Spanish parents so like tan? But now we’ve decided that she’s from colonized Mexico and her father is a white devil. :) I’ll let you figure that one out. Over these ten years, I’ve grappled with the fact that an immortal is almost impossible to understand. I’ve gone back and forth on whether her immortality is on purpose or by accident or a curse or what. Honestly, I’m still thinking about it, I don’t know for sure what I’ll end up picking. Right now though, it is an involuntary immortality with her life being tied to her sister’s (yes, the cat). Details are fuzzy. I’d have to finish the main story first but if I were to make a spin-off, I would make a prequel story about Amber’s life because it is QUITE eventful. 

Lucas is a man now lmao. And so is Will. And they r gay. For each other. But that’s been that way from the beginning lol. I think Luc’s story had to do with self-worth and Will… Will didn’t have much going on in my mind. My instinct was to make him a himbo but Will has always been very smart in my head so I don’t think that will work? Dude’s beefy asf and mad respectful so perfect man tbh? No notes. 

Jenny’s been my way to try to break down the trope “Born Sexy Yesterday” because that’s just the kinda guy I am. No, but fr I think I was making a very infantilized version of Jenny initially and that’s why I shipped her with Mel in so many AUs?? I’m not against skewing Jenny younger to make that ship viable in canon but I don’t know if that’s the story I want to tell. I don’t think Jenny ever had a goal beyond “Get to the surface” which she gets when she makes her appearance in the story so?? Where do we go from here? Things to think about…

Rohen was fat (like a proper seal should be) before they lost their skin on the beach to some snot-nosed kid and became depressed. When they start healing on their depression journey, they start to gain weight again and it's a good thing. :) 

Everyone else I haven’t mentioned yet hasn’t changed much (ie. I haven’t thought about them much). It’s not that I have favorites (even though I just said that I did), it’s just that I basically go down a list whenever I think about these guys, and, due to my short attention span, I never make it all the way down the list. AND honestly, it’s probably for the best because looking back… there were WAAAY too many characters to keep track of ngl… Like it’s a slice-of-life thing, I know. Not every character has to be involved in every storyline but like… At some point, you have to draw a line at, “How many named characters with their own plotlines can I insert into this story?” YKWIM? Especially because at one point there was a whole roster of other people who lived in the apartment building when there were like 20 units. That was (rightly) reduced back down to just the core cast. 

You can pry Jonesy from my cold, dead hands, tho. He’s perfect. He can stay.

This post took me literally all day. 

I’m tired.

I don’t really expect anyone to read all this but if you are not me and you made it to the bottom, congratulations! You now know me on a much deeper level! :) I hope I can convince myself to buckle down and write, straight up. Maybe NaNo this year? No promises. I’m trying to apply for university this year and living situation issues might take precedence but such is life, right? 

Thank you.

I love you all.

For giving me this gift.

Even if you never intended to give it fully to me.

It’s mine now, bitches. >:) 

Here’s to 10 years! And many (but hopefully not too many) more…

Cheers. 🥂🍾

❤️

[kimberriez]

How did you find Tales of Symphonia?

I didn't have time to make anything for the 20th anniversary, so I thought I'd share how I found the game.

In my teens, I'd seen ToS on the shelves of my local Blockbuster and nearly rented it so many times. I would pick it up, and gaze longingly at the box art, but never get it because I knew I'd never be able to finish it from renting it, and I didn't have the money to buy it.

Seven years later, I found out on the internet that Kratos was Lloyd's father (probably through fanart on DeviantArt or something) and I, being in love with "long-lost Dad" trope, decided that I needed to play this game. Immediately.

Problem was, they didn't make it anymore, so it wasn't sold in stores. Where would I find an old GameCube game in 2011? I grabbed my little brother and dragged him with me all around town. We went to three different GameStops, but none of them had it.

Realizing that I would have to find it on the internet, and wait, I almost gave into despair. When, suddenly, inspiration struck.

I was very much speeding on my way back to the very same Blockbuster I'd gone to with my brother and my dad so many times growing up.

There it was. For sale. No cover, and with a weird Blockbuster case. But there it was. I'd found it. The very same copy I'd coveted as a child.

[emomanswhore]

࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟPRESENTING 〔 🌠 〕 BAKI-DAY ‘22 !! ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

. .★. 112022 . .★.

HAPPY 20th ─⊹⊱✰⊰⊹─ BAKI .! ↻ .! @TOUYYES

SO it is my baby’s birthday today 😋 my prettiest, special lil twinky dinky @touyyes ! orrr whom y’all better know as baki ! before i start my lil speechy speech, MAKE SURE YALL GO SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY. it’s not just any birthday either,, my baby made it to 20 YEARS OLD. tbh,, that’s old as hell 😟 buuutttt she a lil cute or whatever. so i guess it’s okay that baki has OFFICIALLY departed from the teens. so yeah, pretty please go stop by her inbox n scream happy birthday 🎈🎂🎊

to my dearest princess, baki … 💌🧁🍓

TODAY IS YOUR DAYYY MAANNNN ITS OFFICIALLY BADDIE SEASON NOW THAT YOUR DAY HAS FINALLY COME 💋🦂 !! how you feeling?? hope you feeling good and your special day is good, well, and fun !! as if i literally don’t know what you're doing rn so ! even though we are a whole ass continent apart and im not able to give you a physical gift- i wanted to give you a lil' serenade and tell you some stuff, that's coming straight from the heart 🤍💕 (and coochie so if i say some fruitcake shit.… i did go in heat momentarily arrooo 🅰️🅱️🅾️)

it's not only your birthday today- BUT ! it also our one year anniversary!! (we not gon count those few months prior that we met, cuz im tryna be romantic and cute rn 🛌) - a WHOLEASS YEAR, LIKE ?? has time gone by incredibly fast, or is it just me? but with spending this past year with you, i've come to learn so much abt you ! whether that's the deep hyperfixation on things you'll periodically get n then get over, your love for the sea n swimming, or even down to the lil things that make up your personality!

in my eyes, you really are like a star ! so dazzling, bright, and the way you shine brings everyone in and makes them INSTANTLY attracted to you 💫 from your charm, to your outgoing and cool nature, and to how fucking hilarious you are. like istg i've literally never had anyone match the same energy as me, and deadass make my lungs clatter and collapse into my stomach from how hard i laugh 🐽💥 speaking of matching energy, man,, i cant even use certain emojis unironically no more cuz we ruined the meaning of them, with the dumbass lil emoji combos we came up with

it's crazy how i can't do certain things without thinking of you. literally rent free in my damn mind, and it's literally cuz we talk damn near everyday 🤕 like if i go even a full 24 hours without talking to you, it's very obvious that im sad n not in a good mood. bitch you literally have me in a chokehold and this shit doesn’t seem to be coming apart anytime soon 🧎🏽‍♀️🕳⛓ if you wanted someone who’s gonna be obsessed with you for the rest of your life, congratulations. cuz i don’t plan on ever letting you go, and you are MINE forever 😋🩸🪓 (possessive alpha mode grrr ruff ruff)

i could literally go on and brag about you for the rest of my life fr. like words can never truly express the amount of adoration and love i have for you. like i literally see MYSELF in you— that could be from us sharing so many common interests, or to the way we come up with crazy ass (delusions) headcanons of our bfs. you’ve become the biggest supporter and lover in my world ! even now with me recently starting to seriously write, you’ve had my back all the way through it. helping me proofread, giving me ideas n suggestions, and all around helping me feel confident n happy with my work !! 💗

i could never thank you enough, and express the full gratitude n appreciation i have for you. just YOU— n im so lucky that you’ve come into my life and made every day so much better. november gave me the best things,, it was the month you were brought into this world, and eventually the month that has made us as close as we are now ! 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩💕

baki, you are the light of my life. my partner in crime, my wifey and the twinkling little star that i always look forward to seeing. the stacy to my chellery, and actual love of my life. i love you so very much, and i can’t wait to celebrate our special month of november next year, the year after that, and the future years that i plan to spend with you 🤍 💍

HAAAPPPYY BIRRTHHDDAAYYY STAAYYCEE !!

[thechanelmuse]

My Top Albums/EPs of 2022

So I bet you thought I forgot to post my end-of-the-year music list 😏

Chile, I did 🙃. Better late than never tho, right? 

Enjoy!

JAZZ

The Baylor Project - The Evening: Live at APPARATUS

Billy Drummond & Freedom of Ideas - Valse Sinistre

Brandon Coleman - Interstellar Black Space

Cécile McLorin Salvant - Ghost Song

Charlie Gabriel - Eighty Nine

Jeremy Pelt - Soundtrack

Joshua Redman Quartet (Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, Brian Blade) - LongGone

Makaya McCraven - In These Times

Marquis Hill - New Gospel Revisited

Ron Carter - Finding the Right Notes

Samara Joy - Linger Awhile

COUNTRY

Abbey Cone - Hate Me EP

Carrie Underwood - Denim & Rhinestones

Luke Combs - Growin Up

Madeline Edwards - Crashlanded + Madeline Edwards EP (two projects)

Maren Morris - Humble Quest

Mickey Guyton - I Am Woman EP

FOLK

Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days (Deluxe Edition) - In the Canyon Haze

Kina Grannis - It's Hard to Be Human — (2021 album)

Valerie June - The Moon and the Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers + Under Cover (two projects)

GOSPEL

DOE - Clarity

Kirk Franklin & Maverick City Music - Kingdom Come One (Deluxe)

Ricky Dillard - Breakthrough: The Exodus (Live)

Tasha Cobbs Leonard - Hymns (Live)

Tye Tribbett - All Things New

BLENDED GENRES

Gabriels - Angels & Queens – Part I

Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope (Deluxe Edition) — 25th anniversary

Moonchild - Starfruit

PJ Morton - Watch the Sun (Deluxe)

Robert Glasper - Black Radio III (Supreme Edition)

SZA - SOS

Tank and the Bangas - Red Balloon

Various Artists - Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Series, Season 4

YEBBA - Live at Electric Lady

SOUL/BLUES (ROCK*)

Jamison Ross - JAMO

Lady Wray - Piece of Me

Lee Fields - Sentimental Fool

Liv Warfield - Live at Cafe Wha? *

Lizz Wright - Holding Space: Live In Berlin

Miko Marks and The Resurrectors - Feel Like Going Home

Various Artists - Summer of Soul Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

R&B

Alex Isley & Jack Dine - Marigold

Ari Lennox - age/sex/location

Arin Ray - Hello Poison

Coco Jones - What I Didn't Tell You

Durand Bernarr - Wanderlust

India Shawn - BEFORE WE GO (DEEPER)

Kenyon Dixon - Closer

Lucky Daye - Candydrip

Mariah Carey - Butterfly: 25th Anniversary Expanded Edition

Mary J. Blige - Good Morning Gorgeous

Ravyn Lenae - HYPNOS

Sevyn Streeter - Drunken Wordz Sober Thoughtz

Siergio - BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE

POP/ALTERNATIVE (ROCK)

The 1975 - Being Funny In a Foreign Language

Aurora - The Gods We Can Touch

Avril Lavigne - Let Go (20th Anniversary Edition)

James Bay - Leap

LÉON - Circles

Lissie - Carving Canyons

Sigrid - High Note

RAP

Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes

Denzel Curry - Melt My Eyez See Your Future

Elzhi & Georgia Anne Muldrow - Zhigeist

JID - The Forever Story

Leikeli47 - Shape Up

Mozzy - Survivor's Guilt

Nas - King's Disease III

Saba - Few Good Things

Smino - Luv 4 Rent

EXPERIMENTAL

Niia - OFFAIR: Mouthful of Salt

Sault - Air + Aiir (2 projects)

HONORABLE MENTION

Beyoncé - RENAISSANCE

I know it’s coming... *hands on hips* “Honorable mention?!?”

I just can't listen to Renaissance straight through. I’ve tried and tried and tried. When it comes to my listening experience, I approach music sonically first, following the story and arrangement of the music instruments, and how the timbre of one's singing or rapping meets and interweaves between those elements. Give me an audio painting with a tapestry of enthralling colors and textures that I can feel. Then I'll invite in the lyrics.

It's like cinema. The average person most likely follows the eyes of the camera as it relates to the dialogue for the cinematic story. The way my brain is wired 🤖 I have to separate a number of other elements into parts as the story moves along — from the color grading and lighting to the sound design and mise-en-scène — to fully understand the director's vision and grasp the actual tale.

The thing about Renaissance as a whole is that it doesn't breathe enough for me. It feels chaotic like a tide than a flow if I let it run straight through. Give me spatial, darling! But that's the intentional, heavy-handed part about Renaissance, especially on the heels of a post-pandemic world: "Get tf up, dance and feel good." I don't wanna dance; I just wanna listen 😩 lol

Side note: 

We all have a specific musical palette as to why we fully gravitate to some songs/albums and not to others. I posted my review of Susan Roger’s book, This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You, a few months ago. (She was Prince's sound engineer from 1983 to 1988.) If you’re curious about why you like the music you like, I recommend for you to read it.

[nicotinzwei]

February

Hello, February was stressful but okay. The last months I picked a song to listen to parallel to reading but I literally didn’t listent to new songs this month.

Book

Krabat from 1971 is a short novel by Otfried Preußler based on an old sorbian story. It describes 3 years in Krabats life in which he originally wants a summer job at a mill but then accidentally does dark magic. The audio book is only 3 hours long, one for each year, and is on youtube for free. It’s narrated by the author who describes scary or fantastical moments is such a casual manner that sometimes makes me want to scream at him, but also really adds to the mood of the books and Krabats seemingly dead-end situation. After finishing I found out that they built some sort of themed area in the place the story is set. There you can find all sorts of fun attractions for kids like a haunted mill, places of deaths of the characters, a sunken carriage and a graveyard. You can also rent the location for company events or weddings so you already know what I’m gonna do.

Movie

This month I went to my first cult movie screening. I saw a very cleaned up version of Rocky Horror as a play before which was also filled with audience participation but seeing The Room in a small old Viennese theatre with drunk students for its 20th anniversary was just so much better. I love the concept of audience participation and am kind of sad so few movies got the cult status needed for it. For this movie there are a bunch of callbacks pointing out weird details, famous lines you can quote, props like spoons or footballs you can throw or you can just scream at the characters for being so fucking stupid. Some people even came in a suit. I think after like two decades of going to the cinema this was my favorite experience. In an age of Netflix I really think this is how you keep cinema and communal watching alive.

Game and Videos

A double feature category! I started playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons again. I already had like 300 hours in this game and thought I was through with it, but then I started watching the Amanda Files and she got me hooked. The first video of her I saw she visited some horror themed island and described the plot of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in her valley girl voice and it’s the funniest thing I ever heard. She could talk about literally anything for 2 hours and I would listen to her while playing animal crossing.

Website

I didn’t know what to call the category because it’s not really about the website but more about the concept of buying second hand directly from people. The vintage fashion thing got so big over the last few years that especially in Vienna second hand stores are selling the stuff so overpriced that even if you only do it for environmental reasons you just can’t afford it anymore. But after I got two harmonicas second hand earlier this year I really started looking through willhaben religiously. This month I picked up a table only like 4 minutes away for 20€ and two days later I sold my old one for the same amount. If you live in an area where a lot of people are using it and you have a friend to carry stuff this is such a cool opportunity to basically just swap your stuff for free if you play your cards right. Now every few weeks on my lunch break I go somewhere, pick up a picture for 3€ and get in a little walk. Highly recommend it!

[lonlonranching]

what if i rent out a theater for the phantom 20th anniversary…… WHAT IF