#six idiots earworm

[parttimesarah]

Today’s Six Idiots earworm features a truly dangerous item…

[chaos-good-life]

You know, I have had some annoying ear worms in my time, but this one takes the flaming biscuit. Who do I blame for this? Larry? Mat? They both seem like the type to make this.

[natjennie]

im sorry for six idiots posting but their lines are earworms and i have echolalia out the wazoo like its not my fault that pep pep pep is so easy to say and naff off ya wazzock has so many applications and looks her up and down like you do with girls has the most catchy rhythm of any line I've ever heard. it's not on me.

[goddesspharo]

director's cut? any and all insights into 'move it to the exits' and 'living in a rhythm where the minute's working overtime', please!

There are brilliant people who exist who have well thought out plots and intricate outlines laid out before they actually start writing. I am not one of those people. (David Fincher, I am not!) I tried outlining a very convoluted fic once with three different concurrent timelines, color-coordinated the thing, wrote 20k, and then gave it up. My process - if one can even call it that - is that usually I will get one line of dialogue or narration stuck in my mind like an incessant earworm until I have no choice but to do something with it. So a lot of times, the scene is built around that one line or the entire story is in the service of getting to that one particular moment. It'll be like 20k of words just because I couldn't get the image of someone leaning out of my head. There's an entire graveyard of unfinished google docs that occasionally get cannibalized into parts of other things that started off with one stupid thought incepting my brain.

living in a rhythm where the minute’s working overtime (The Batman; Bruce/Selina): I was back on my Bruce/Selina bullshit after The Batman. (To be fair, when am I ever NOT about them? I love them in almost all iterations! And having Bruce Wayne be a sad weirdo who smears on grease paint while overidentifying with Kurt Cobain? While Selina Kyle is objectively rad and played by Zoe Kravitz who can actually pull off calling a dude wearing bat ears "baby" every other line? Excellent choices!) It got me to write fic again after a billion years! The line that started this one off was "Think of how guilty you'll feel if I die without knowing you are," but I think originally I had pictured it as happening on a rooftop in the context of Selina having already figured out Batman's secret identity (I was - maybe still am - obsessed with that scene where she asks if he's hideously scarred under the mask) and trying to get him to admit it, but then it morphed into her milking a fairly benign injury to score a trip to the batcave instead and the rest is history. I think this one had room to be a longer thing, but I wrote it on the heels of having already written a 16k and 14k fic about these two idiots already (when historically I rarely used to cross 10k) and needed a break. move it to the exits (Roswell New Mexico; Kyle/Isobel): I really loved the idea of a drunk Kyle wrapping Isobel in his herringbone coat as the snow started to gently fall around them. In the back of my mind, that imagery was part of a very long-form story with them secretly dating but Isobel trying to hide it from her well-meaning mother because she doesn't want Ann Evans to get invested in case it didn't work out. In true Isobel fashion, she makes sure Kyle is on call when Ann comes to visit that weekend. In true Michael fashion, he accidentally lets it slip to Kyle that his girlfriend's mother is in town and it would be a great idea to surprise them at dinner. The dinner, already stressful because Ann is meeting Liz for the first time, is of course a disaster that starts with Isobel introducing Kyle as Liz's ex-boyfriend (which he thinks is kind of weird) and only gets worse from there. Ann Evans keeps trying to get Kyle to arrange a meet-cute between Isobel and a hot doctor in his hospital (which he thinks is really weird). And Max keeps choking on his wine because he's laughing so hard. And then Ann Evans finally asks Kyle why someone who is such a catch doesn't have a girlfriend and he finally gets that Isobel has been lying to her mother for six months when he convinced his own mother to invite her over for dinner even though she kept referring to Isobel "Max's sister with the sex toys" when he first told her they were dating. Naturally, Kyle's anger manifests as him punching Jordan Bernhardt in the parking lot of The Crashdown after he fakes a stat page from the hospital to get out of the dinner from hell, which leads to where this starts off.

[nerianasims]

Billboards #1 1964

Under the cut.

Bobby Vinton – “There! I’ve Said It Again” -- January 4, 1964

*sob* This song is so bad. Is there even a beat at all? It's so slow. It should not be so slow. Vinton sounds both self-satisfied and whiny. It's a love song, I suppose, but this doesn't sound anything like love to me. It sounds like it was created by the Moral Majority. Help, I need someone.

The Beatles – “I Want To Hold Your Hand” -- February 1, 1964

Yeah, I did that on purpose. It's fashionable to hate on The Beatles these days, but I will not be joining in. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is not one of their best songs, but if I'd been there at the time, I'd have been screaming my head off for them too. After going through the past couple years of hits, I feel ready to scream for them now. There's a beat. There's forward motion. There's understanding how to sing a song. That wasn't totally lacking on the charts until them -- Ray Charles, after all, and some others -- but what a wasteland it's been generally. The bad stuff has been so very, very bad. Anyway. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" -- okay song today, but pure oxygen in 1964.

The Beatles – “She Loves You” -- March 21, 1964

This is one of my favorite songs. "Hey idiot, this great girl you thought you lost due to your idiocy still loves you." Implied: Either you go on her knees to get her back or I go after her. And it doesn't sound anything like any #1 I've covered so far. Major interesting bassline, great harmonies, good drums, guitar, everything lines up perfectly.

The Beatles – “Can’t Buy Me Love” -- April 4, 1964

What else is there to say at this point? It's good. It's true. It's romantic. It's fast. McCartney knows how to sing. Notice that none of these three hits in a row are heartbreak songs? There have been way too many of those on this list, and most of them were bad. These songs are happy, and not fake happy. They're driven. They're alive.

Louis Armstrong – “Hello, Dolly!” -- May 9, 1964

The person to finally kick The Beatles down the charts was one of our greatest homegrown artists. It's like people had finally woken up after Bobby Vinton's horrible song in January. Not Louis Armstrong's best, but it's Louis Armstrong. So it's thoroughly enjoyable.

Mary Wells – “My Guy” -- May 16, 1964

Motown is well and truly here. I adore this song. It's sweet without being cloying, the beat is fun, and of course Mary Wells is amazing. And as a woman whose taste in men has never matched up with what I'm supposed to find attractive, and has taken a lot of crap for that, I connect with the song personally.

The Beatles – “Love Me Do” -- May 30, 1964

I think this is the worst of the Beatles' hits so far. Which doesn't make it bad. The harmonica's great. But the lyrics are kinda, well, dumb. Thankfully they're dumb and cheery, not dumb and doleful like so much I've covered.

The Dixie Cups – “Chapel Of Love” -- June 6, 1964

Earworm alert. That hook is a killer. The song gets at the overwhelmed, slightly stunned happiness that comes from getting married. We went to city hall, not to the chapel, but the feeling's the same. I can't say whether I like the song exactly -- the hook is so overpowering, it doesn't really give you a chance. It's in your head now, forever.

Peter & Gordon – “A World Without Love” -- June 27, 1964

The narrator doesn't have a girlfriend so he's going to hide in his room until his true love shows up. Or maybe he was dumped by his true love and therefore is going to hide? It's not very clear, which is unusual for a song written by Paul McCartney. But there's a reason he gave it to someone else. It's actually a fine song, good harmonies, good beat, very teenage sensibility without being annoying. Not too special after the last six songs though.

The Beach Boys – “I Get Around” -- July 4, 1964

I can never hear this without picturing the 1986 film Flight of the Navigator. As usual with Beach Boys songs, the music is excellent and the lyrics are deeply dumb and repetitive. So it's a fun song, but not one I go out of my way to listen to.

The Four Seasons – “Rag Doll” -- July 18, 1964

Gah Frankie Valli's falsetto again. Also it's overproduced. This guy loves a poor girl but his father says nope, she's a poor so you can't marry her, and he just accepts it. I really don't like anything about The Four Seasons.

The Beatles – “A Hard Day’s Night” -- August 1, 1964

My mom and I once rented the movie A Hard Day's Night, and were surprised at how fun it was. (She was a little young to experience the full force of Beatlemania when it hit.) The song written for the movie: Also very fun, and good, and sexy. "But when I get home to you I'll find the things that you do will make me feel all right." Things sure changed fast in 1964.

Dean Martin – “Everybody Loves Somebody” -- August 15, 1964

Dean Martin was constitutionally incapable of being serious. Sometimes his smarm worked. Not here. It could be worse, but it could be a lot better. I'd have been much happier if it had been just about anyone else's version, though Peggy Lee's is my favorite.

The Supremes – “Where Did Our Love Go” -- August 22, 1964

Have you noticed how good pop music suddenly got? It's not just The Beatles. This is a heartbreak song without a hint of schmaltz. It makes you feel better, not worse, and you can even dance to it. But it's still sad. Motown was amazing in its heyday.

The Animals – “The House Of The Rising Sun” -- September 5, 1964

I've loved this song since I was a kid. And I understood it; "gambling causes ruin" is perfectly comprehensible to an 8-year old. It's dark and real, and Eric Burdon's voice and singing give me chills. The keyboard is like nothing I've heard on this list before. I think this might be goth. It's something great, anyway.

Roy Orbison – “Oh, Pretty Woman” -- September 26, 1964

I hate the movie Pretty Woman. A lot. This song became a hit again when the movie came out. Obviously I associate this song with that movie. So I don't have an opinion about the song that's separate from a movie I hate and that Roy Orbison had nothing to do with. I'm passing on this one.

Manfred Mann – “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” -- October 17, 1964

Two number ones in a row about a pretty woman walking down the street. They sort of sound similar in parts too. Anyway, pretty woman walking down the street singing nonsense, narrator ends up making out with and then getting engaged to her. It's silly, and it's okay. "Okay" has a much higher bar than it did just last year.

The Supremes – “Baby Love” -- October 31, 1964

I have a problem with The Supremes, and it's that their first four #1 hits have exactly the same subject matter, and that subject matter is being in love with a man who no longer loves them. After this list, I'm sick of heartbreak songs, and they were never my favorite anyway. Four love songs in a row and I'd have been happy. Dance songs, ditto. But if we must have heartbreak songs, can we have a little righteous anger too? Not just plaintiveness? Anyway, "Baby Love" is a Supremes song, which means if you hear it far apart from their other songs, it's great. When I hear them together like this, though, the formula gets painful.

The Shangri-Las – “Leader Of The Pack” -- November 28, 1964

I hope this song was meant to be funny, because I find it goddamn hilarious. How'd she meet a bad boy whom she knew was sad at the candy store? I like the message that you shouldn't dump your boyfriend solely because your daddy tells you to. But I don't think there's any intended message here. I think it might be a song making fun of the 50s motorcycle bad boy aesthetic and all those "girlfriend/boyfriend died" schmaltzfests people suffered through.

Lorne Greene – “Ringo” -- December 5, 1964

A baritone spoken word piece about a Western outlaw. I doubt it would have gone anywhere if Ringo Starr hadn't been named Ringo. It's probably good for its genre, since Lorne Greene was a good actor, but I can't tell.

The Supremes – “Come See About Me” -- December 19, 1964

It doesn't sound like a heartbreak song, but of course it is. And a super severe one; she gave up all her friends for him, and then he left her too. But she still wants him back. Eesh. Of course Diana Ross doesn't sound sad singing it, because she never sounds really sad singing these songs. The technique obviously worked, but the more I think about it, the more I don't like it. It's a really good song. And not for me, now that I've actually thought this much about it.

The Beatles – “I Feel Fine” -- December 26, 1964

A sitar has been spotted! Anyway, he and his baby are in love, and he brags about buying her diamond rings. The Beatles never had any shame about buying the women in their songs stuff to make them happy. I like that. And I like this song.

BEST OF 1964: "My Guy". Yep, not a Beatles song. This is thoroughly subjective, after all. But what a lot of great songs there were this year, and how relieved I am to be able to say that. WORST OF 1964: "There! I've Said It Again", overwhelmingly.

[johannesviii]

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2019

The last list, for now. It’s been a wild ride.

Not the best of these lists, but some really refreshing stuff charted that year, and what was good was super good. And also, here’s a barely elligible #1 that nobody seemed to care about for some reason.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

In 2019, my finger was fixed, I dropkicked depression in the garbage bin (with a little help from Eurovision because it was super good and full of hilarious shit), got married, and went on a roadtrip on Vancouver Island (BC, Canada), and that was my first real travel in 13 years. Met a lot of great people, seen amazing places, trees, bears and whales. And planes are also part of the adventure when you’re not used to them (you can watch movies on little screens from your seat now?? I had no idea. I watched so many movies). It was very exciting.

I also saw VNV Nation live in February, for the third time in six years. This time I had enough budget to buy a tshirt. I wasn’t expecting that concert to be even better than the previous two. At that point the new album had only been out for a couple of months and we still knew the lyrics of most of the new songs and Ronan’s face was constantly broadcasting a kind of “...........how” expression (face it guys, we like you. A lot). And they finished with All Of Our Sins and let me tell you, half the club was ready to start a revolution by the time that was over. Super intense.

Ok. 2019 albums! First, let’s talk about some negative things. Coldplay released Everyday Life at the end of the year. It was... uh. It was basically how I stopped loving their new stuff. That’s a very sad conclusion (for now) to this saga. This is exactly what I feared would have happened after Viva La Vida, aka them trying to go back to their earlier sound - except in the meantime we’ve got three fantastic albums with songs full of energy and joy. So I’m not too mad about this, just disappointed.

Within Temptation released Resist, and it wasn’t very good either, but I appreciated the general aesthetic of it. More SF-themed albums in symphonic metal, please. NF released The Search and while I’m still not a fan there’s a song on it that would have been #1 on this list if it had been elligible, so that’s something. And Carly Rae Jepsen released Dedicated and it was super good so why isn’t she getting new hits. Why. It feels unfair. Oh, and Avantasia made Moonglow and that’s the first time I’ve cared about their stuff in like a decade or so. Ghost In The Moon is super good, check it out.

But the big event of the year music-wise, as far as I’m concerned, was the return of two bands I thought we had lost forever. Of course My Chemical Romance reformed, but they don’t have new music yet, so the main event for this post is the return of Tool with Fear Inoculum. It’s not even their best album, but having a pretty good new Tool album in the year of our lord 2019 wasn’t at all something I was counting on. Of course, the hardcore fans are still as insufferable as ever (insert the “you need a pretty high IQ” copypasta here), but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of it. Come on! Their first album in 13 years! 80 minutes of hypnotic heavy rhythms and weird shit, an album that trolled me when I opened it by playing a music video while I was looking somewhere else (yeah I jumped), and they even managed to land a track for one week on the US hot 100! Again, Tool! On the hot 100! in 2019! Unbelievable. Are we starting to return to the good timeline? I certainly hope so.

Unelligible songs, now. The Search by NF would have topped this list super easily. Might be one of the songs I listened to the most in 2019, actually. Now That I Found You by Carly Rae Jepsen, again, should have been a hit, and I beg you to watch this music video if you’ve never seen it. The 1975 released the super unexpected People, which was still good, and also Frail State of Mind. And most unexpected of all, three artists I didn’t care about at all teamed up and made absolute gold: I Think I’m OKAY, by Machine Gun Kelly, YUNGBLUD and Travis Barker. That would have been the second slot on this list if it had been elligible. Or maybe the first, even? Not sure. I’m just so happy this kind of angry but uplifting music is starting to become popular again. I just love everything about this song.

Here’s a short list of honorable mentions!

Roi (Bilal Hassani) - I don’t like this song a lot, but I do like it, I’m glad it was our song for the ESC 2019, and Bilal is a very nice and endearing person, and everyone who disrespects him on twitter is free to come fight me in the pit, where I’m still waiting with that tambourine from my 1992 list.

Con Calma (Daddy Yankee, Katy Perry, Snow) - You already know I liked the original Informer a lot, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased to hear this clone of it on the radio.

Breathin’ (Ariana Grande) - Here’s the usual “if I had better taste this would be higher” honorable mention.

Summer Days (Martin Garrix) - In the absence of any new hit song from Macklemore this will do in a pinch.

Circles (Post Malone) - The fact that everyone seems to adore this and I’m over there saying “it’s ok I guess” probably means I will never love Post Malone nor understand the hype about him, and that’s okay, I can live with that.

High Hopes (Panic! At the Disco) - Still elligible. Still good but too borderline annoying to make the list.

How Do You Sleep (Sam Smith) - This year Sam Smith pulled a Viva La Vida and decided to stop making boring music all of a sudden and I’m LIVING FOR THIS. I certainly hope they continue in that direction.

And now, the list.

10 - La Grenade (Clara Luciani)

US: Not on the list / FR: #55

The only semi-filler on the list. I still like it a lot. Don’t have anything to say about it, though.

9 - Panini (Lil Nas X)

US: #40 / FR: Not on the list

Wasn’t too impressed by this at first and it took a while to grow on me, but the chorus is a nice little earworm, and “hey panini, don’t you be a meanie” has a tendency to pop in my head when I read hateful comments on the internet now. And Lil Nas X is just too endearing to be ignored. We’re so lucky to have someone who became famous so quickly and instantly decided to dress like a Jojo character and have the geekiest music videos possible and still be super nice and humble. We don’t deserve this guy.

8 - Dance Monkey (Tones And I)

US: Not on the list / FR: #6

I’m super glad the US are finally getting on the hype train in 2020 because this is a ton of fun. If the voice was juuuuuust a little less grating this would be even higher. Impossible to get it out of your head and somehow in this case that’s a good thing.

7 - Dancing With a Stranger (Sam Smith & Normani)

US: #14 / FR: Not on the list

As I said in the honorable mentions, Sam Smith pulled a Viva La Vida and decided to stop making boring music all of a sudden and I couldn’t be happier about that. This song is still a bit too calm for my taste most of the time, but when I’m in the right mood, it’s just fantastic.

Again, I hope Sam Smith continues in that direction, because if you had told me a couple of years ago that I would start to like their stuff one day, I would have laughed out loud.

6 - Bad Guy (Billie Eilish)

US: #4 / FR: #16

Duh.

I’m not as enthusiastic about When The Party’s Over as a ton of people are, mostly because, well, it’s a slow emotional song with little to no colour in it and by now you’re already aware I tend to have next to zero interest in that kind of songs. Bad Guy, on the other hand, is half hilarious half scary in equal doses, and even if I’m not super fond of the weird outro, it’s still a fantastic, weird as shit song, and I’m really glad Billie Eilish exists. Can’t wait to see where she goes from there.

I’m super glad this song didn’t come out when I was a teenager myself though. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I would have survived if the musical landscape from 16 years ago had been as depressed as it currently is. Thank god music is slowly getting more energetic again in 2020. Let’s stay on that track.

5 - Hey Look Ma I Made It (Panic! At The Disco)

US: #61 / FR: Not on the list

I follow several music critics on youtube and over the course of 2019, I’ve seen undiluted vitriol and hatred against this song (Spectrum Pulse even made a list of his “worst hit songs” of the decade and put this one at #10! TEN!!). And... I don’t really get where it’s coming from? Maybe I’m too literal-minded to see what the problem is with a sarcastic song saying “look I sold out and now I found success again! And it’s not that great!”. I just think it’s a lot of fun. Thank god Todd put it on his best list, at least we can agree on one thing for once.

It is hilarious that after putting so many Fall Out Boy songs on my lists, the one that I love the most from Panic! is the sellout song. Not sure why this was huge while the even better Say Amen wasn’t, though.

4 - Sunflower (Swae Lee & Post Malone)

US: #2 / FR: Not on the list

I usually don’t get the “chill” songs that tend to be successful these days but this one, unlike most Post Malone songs (bar Circles), has lovely pastel colors and a cloudy texture and it’s a really good vibe. It took several months to grow on me but it sure did.

In about ten years, people will listen to Sunflower and be submerged by nostalgia, mark my words.

3 - Old Town Road (Lil Nas X)

US: #1 / FR: #1 (see, everyone agrees for once)

Everyone on the planet already wrote a thinkpiece about this song and yet I’ve only seen maybe one out of five mentioning, just in passing, that the entire song is based on a Nine Inch Nail track from Ghosts I-IV, superbly re-used to make a weird and insanely catchy country hip hop song out of it. Ghosts has been one of my go-to albums to listen to while I’m painting for about ten years now. I’m saying all this because hearing a track from Ghosts on the radio for months was absolute bliss for me, especially in a new and improved version.

Thank you Lil Nas X for everything you’ve been doing and I wish you a long and successful career. You deserve it. I love this and I love you.

2 - Bury A Friend (Billie Eilish)

US: #73 / FR: Not on the list

Hello again, Billie Eilish.

This song is absolutely terrifying and that was before I even saw the music video. This is the soundtrack of your nightmares right there. I’m not even sure it deserves to be so high on the list, but frankly I’m too terrified to care. Maybe Old Town Road should be higher. I don’t know.

Also you have to know that when I’m super tired I go into echolalia mode and automatically repeat words or entire sentences that my brain considers interesting, like “potiron” (pumpkin) or “dramatique” ; and recently, my brain decided “when we all fall asleep, where do we go?”, sung exactly like it’s sung in this song, was its new favorite sentence. So. Hearing yourself saying that to an empty room while you’re drawing or folding clothes or cleaning plates is not a very pleasant experience, and it makes this song extra scary to me.

And now, here’s the last #1 of the last one of these lists (for now), and I’m glad to announce it closes this series of posts in a super fitting way.

Check this out. It’s so perfect in every way.

1 - Walk Me Home (Pink)

US: #99 / FR: Not on the list

Nobody seemed to care about this song over the course of 2019, and it's barely elligible, and I still have no idea why. The music reviewers I follow only either talked about it super briefly when it came out, or not at all. The rare ones who were making top 100s at the end of the year instead of top 10s usually put it somewhere in the middle of their lists. And yet it’s the elligible song I’ve listened to the most.

If you’ve been reading this series of posts for a while now, you probably already know exactly why it’s here, but here’s a quick recap.

The second album I ever bought in my life was Pink’s Missundaztood in 2002, and I loved her music a lot:

I was still really fond of her stuff in 2007:

Then she started to become less interesting and I basically ignored her apart from a brief blip on my radar in 2017:

Meanwhile, in 2012, fun. made some of the best songs of the entire decade before vanishing instantly, and I’ve been mourning them ever since:

And in the middle of last year, here I am, listening to the radio, and suddenly I hear something that sounds exactly like a fun. song, except I’ve never heard it before and it’s sung by a female singer, and, most importantly, it’s 2019 and fun. broke up more than six years earlier. And I’m like, what’s going on. This is so good. What the hell. What is this.

And I hear it a second time weeks later, and I google it, and I discovered that 1) it was Pink singing this, which made it my favorite Pink song in literally more than ten years, and 2) it was, indeed, written by one of the guys from fun., among other people who’s influence is less obvious.

I guess the main lesson from 2019, between newcomers making great music based on dead trends, old groups reforming, and this song, is that nothing’s gone forever, and things you used to enjoy can come back at the most unexpected time and in the most unexpected form.

There’s always, always gonna be new music to love, and it’s just a question of time.

Quick note

And with this, these lists are over... for now.

I don’t regret making them even if they were a ton of work, because that was super useful for a lot of different reasons.

They helped me get a better understanding of my own life’s chronology. That may sound stupid but I tend to link events to the music I was listening to at the time, and putting all that music in chronological order helped a lot.

I rediscovered a ton of songs I had completely forgotten about, and a lot of new ones. My playlist is much richer now and I’m happy about that.

I also discovered a few artists I knew nothing about.

It forced me to analyse two depressive episodes in my life and just because everything was now in exact chronological order, it accidentally helped me pinpoint what caused both of them. Better and cheaper than therapy. Impressive.

It made me realise how important some bands and artists had been in my life, and I relistened to some of their catalogue while making these lists. For some it was really obvious (Indochine, Placebo, Mylène Farmer, My Chemical Romance among some others), and for some others (Moby, Linkin Park, Mika in particular), it was a real surprise.

It made me realise that Placebo might have been huge in France but weirdly enough not that huge in the UK nor in the US. It’s especially striking when you look at their wikipedia page in English then in French and realise how detailed the French one is compared to the English one. Can’t believe Sleeping With Ghosts was a n°1 album here and basically nowhere else. That was the band where that discrepency was the most obvious but it wasn’t the only one like that. Really puts stuff in perspective.

It also helped me realise how cyclical popular music is. 1) trends tend to die near the end of every decade and the worst year is usually somewhere between the 8th and the 9th year. 2008 and 2018 tend to confirm this. 2) For the same reason, some new & interesting stuff appears at the beginning of every decade, and reaches its high point of quality between the 2nd and 4th year of the decade. 3) Basically I’m saying we’ve now passed the lowest musical quality in recent memory and 2022-2023 will have some exceptional music.

See you in December 2020. I have no doubt there’s a ton of great music coming up in the near future.

[hypno-sandwich]

Hypnovember Master Post

(My apologies for the broken links- I tried several times, but Tumblr didn’t want to play nice for me. Please copy and paste into your browser and they should show up.)

I can’t believe I did 30 stories in 30 days. Most of the time I had no idea where I was going when I started (hopefully, that didn’t show too much in the writing). Here they all are in one post.

A special thank you and shout-out to @ellaenchanting (whose writing and recordings are amazing and who you should definitely be following) and @notthesecretsubject (whose hypnotic work is always fantastic) for also doing #hypnovember this month. If anything I wrote this month is good it’s because I was keeping up with their consistent high quality.

Thanks to @theleeallure and @enscenic for inspiration, encouragement, and editing help, @h-sleepingirl for blazing the trail, her inspiration and the best line (“OK, Bandler”), @lizzidoll for crowbars and number 25, and @tennfan2 and @zanydanger for their support and letting me use them in the stories, as well as each and everyone in the secret content room for their patience.

And here’s what I did:

Day One - Base Character

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/188760076355/hypno-vember-1-base-character

In which a character is introduced, Corey, and their experiences as a recruit in a secret project in a world racked by a war between the Trust, a group of freedom-fighting Hypno-kinksters, and the alien mind controllers the Hypthraki, bent on world domination. Or are they?

Day Two - Colorful

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/188782649585/hypnovember-day-two-colorful

In which Corey and their classmates are subjected to a test-by-hypnotic induction involving colors... and other nefarious things.

Day Three - Dizzy

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/188806602305/hypnovember-day-three-dizzy

In which Corey, their possible love-interest Bernice, and a redshirt are tested by a mysterious mind control gas. Or are they?

Day Four - Sing

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/188829237215/hypnovember-day-four-sing

In which Corey is tested by hypnotic (figurative) earworms, and the writer tries to stuff as many song references as the writer can.

Day Five - Poison

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/188853139500/hypnovember-day-five-poison-interlude

In which there is a break from the main storyline, and an induction involving poison and temptation is offered to the reader... with a twist.

Day Six - Summon

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/188873688550/hypnovember-day-six-summon

In which Corey and their classmates summon a demon through an infernal practice (or do they), and the writer packs as many song-titles from an obscure early 90s album into the text of the story.

Day Seven - Underwear

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/188914651945/hypnovember-day-seven-underwear

In which Corey is offered a choice between latex and frills, and may not choose wisely.

Day Eight - Neighbor (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/188934543985/hypnovember-day-eight-neighbor-interlude

An interlude in which a person overheard a neighbors brainwashing with life-changing consequences.

Day Nine - Idiotic

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/188944649485/hypnovember-day-nine-idiotic

In which Bernice ironically helps Corey understand the benefits of going beyond binary thinking.

Day Ten - Smell (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/188967310311/hypnovember-day-ten-smell-interlude

An interlude in which the writer attempted an olfactory induction.

Day Eleven- Broadcast

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189025810280/hypnovember-day-eleven-broadcast

In which the reader can examine the copy for the a pledge drive for WHYP, and decide if the programming is worth a contribution.

Day Twelve - Stage (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189055910470/hypnovember-day-twelve-stage

In which a hypnotist helps her roommate overcome stage fright... sort of.

Day Thirteen - Bath (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189077384165/hypnovember-day-thirteen-bath

In which the writer attempts a Jane Austen homage... with a hypnotic twist.

Day Fourteen - Machine

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189098386130/hypnovember-day-fourteen-machine

In which a person is placed in a mind-control machine that reprograms their existence... for the better?

Day Fifteen - Ooze (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189119452045/hypnovember-day-fifteen-ooze

In which the hypnotic benefits of cleanliness are explored.

Day Sixteen - Wedding (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189139385875/hypnovember-day-sixteen-wedding

In which an evil mind controller interrupts a wedding an attempt to seduce the bride.

Day Seventeen - Gentle (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189141508790/hypnovember-day-seventeen-gentle

In which a woman has a dream that her girlfriend was an evil mind controller who interrupted her wedding to seduce her.

Day Eighteen - Infection (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189163143245/hypnovember-day-eighteen-infection

In which a drone attempts to hypnotize a person into doing their mistress’ will.

Day Nineteen - Hideout (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189185790775/hypnovember-day-nineteen-hideout

In which, after Demons have invaded the earth, one particular demon attempts to seduce one particular priest from his hideout, with a diabolical offer.

Day Twenty - Watch (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189204420430/hypnovember-day-twenty-watch

In which the writer attempts a song parody that no one asked for, not even Sondheim.

Day Twenty-One - Fighting

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189223960060/hypnovember-day-twenty-one-fighting

In which Corey has the chance to hypnotically break their nemesis at the training camp.

Day Twenty-Two - Mistaken

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189244340595/hypnovember-day-twenty-two-mistaken

In which Corey is captured, and is waiting to be rescued.

Day Twenty- Three - Heist

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189264849335/hypnovember-day-twenty-three-heist

In which Corey is a lookout on a heist, and, when confronted by two guards, must take matters into their own hands.

Day Twenty-Four - Business

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189286645700/hypnovember-day-twenty-four-business

In which Corey and two other recruits are tested: will they be found wanting?

Day Twenty-Five - Babble (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189307174520/hypnovember-day-twenty-five-babble

In which two people bet each other to see if the one in the tie can get the one in the corset to give in before time runs out and both are at a loss for words.

Day Twenty-Six - Enemy

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189326269830/hypnovember-day-twenty-six-enemy

In which Corey is brought face-to-face with the enemy, and learns all may not be as it seems.

Day Twenty-Seven - Confident

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189400920550/hypnovember-day-twenty-seven-confident

In which Corey is given a choice between two possibilities and forced to choose.

Day Twenty-Eight - Abduction

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189404109630/hypnovember-day-twenty-eight-abduction

In which Bernice is captured, and is put through some diabolical experiments with her most hated comrade.

Day Twenty-Nine - Doctor (Interlude)

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189405384195/hypnovember-day-twenty-nine-doctor

In which a patient is tested... and tested... and tested.

Day Thirty - Kink

https://hypno-sandwich.tumblr.com/post/189407315175/hypnovember-day-thirty-kink

In which Corey is captured (again), and has to figure their own way out, using hypnosis and the truth as a weapon.

[parttimesarah]

Tonight’s Six Idiots earworm just appears in my brain some mornings and will not be moved all day!…

[parttimesarah]

Today’s short lil Six Idiots earworm features Vlad the Impala Impaler…

[parttimesarah]

I can hear these GIFs…

[parttimesarah]

Whenever I need to “play it cool” I imagine I’m just a chap in a library…

[parttimesarah]

Tonight’s BBC Ghosts earworm is useful when you need to seem totally in control of a situation…

[parttimesarah]

My minister told me he and his wife had started watching Yonderland (I sent him a Google Drive link after they caught up on BBC Ghosts). So that means my minister will eventually have this phrase in his consciousness…

… You’re welcome, Reverend. 👍🏻

[parttimesarah]

Shout out to @thekingofinfinitespace 🎉🥳🍾

I love all 1000 of you nerdy, thirsty, lovely idiots!!

[parttimesarah]

Tonight’s Yonderland earworm is genuinely something I say now when things start getting a bit out of hand…

[parttimesarah]

Tonight’s Six Idiots earworm is specifically Ben saying “yEAh” in this clip 😂