#song titles being used because i'm very creative

[odysseys-end]

Newbie

He could barely hold in his excitement. His senior may have to forgive his disrespectful behavior just once because this discovery is just simply phenomenal. Why, he's probably the only first-year with such forbidden knowledge! Forbidden but precious. If Tsukasa closed his eyes and tried really hard, he could just imagine Tori seething with envy right about now. He has to clasp his hands over his mouth, fearing that he may just say something to ruin this moment.

Never mind the fact that his senior looked only a second away from cursing out his entire bloodline. Judging by the way Sena Izumi's hand tightened on the book he held, he was trying. So maybe Tsukasa shouldn't tease him too much.

Sena Izumi, a former student of Primavera Institute of Magic. Expelled for practising the Dark Arts. Blacklisted by the Diviner of the Sanctuary. It's been years since his banishment from the kingdom, yet here he is, alive and irritable. The portraits of Izumi shown to them did not do any justice to his actual appearance. Yet another stigma that evil has to look ugly or plain. The youth before him is reminiscent of pure, untouched ice.

If Tsukasa were to have encountered his senior wandering the hallways of their school, he wouldn't have associated dark magic with him. Back on track, he came here to learn things from his senior. Magic that couldn't be taught in school, expressly forbidden but tempting all the same. His mentor probably wouldn't scold him, he might even say something along the lines of: magic is a medium to express one's soul and desires. easier to translate than the convoluted nonsense that is human speech!

His mentor would probably laugh like an incredibly annoying goblin.

"If you're just going to stand around like an idiot, just get out of my way instead of wasting my time." Sena Izumi growled. Right.

"Sena-senpai... eek! You don't have to look so scary!" Tsukasa protested when Izumi shot him a venomous glare. It made him want to recoil but if he backed down now, this chance would be gone forever. In record time, he immediately ducks down just as something made contact with the wall behind his head.

"You're resorting to throwing things now?! Are you not dignified, senpai?" exclaimed Tsukasa, aghast. Peeking cautiously at his senior, Tsukasa catches a glimpse of a smile on Izumi's mouth before it's gone. He's still standing there, not a hint of any movement except the book he held earlier is no longer in his hand.

"Look, I did not wake up this morning to get harassed by some rich and pampered neophyte. You're pretty daring to come in here, unaccompanied, Suou Tsukasa-kun." The air turned frigid. A few seconds had merely passed but Izumi had managed to turn this whole floor into a wintry domain. In the corner where he huddled, Tsukasa tried to summon a small ball of flame in his hands. Upon hearing his name, Tsukasa faltered, the feeble attempt at fire fizzled out.

Izumi stalked closer. Tendrils of ice seemed to spread out wherever he stepped. When he was finally in front of Tsukasa, he knelt down. with a small action, he managed to completely dispel whatever fear Tsukasa was beginning to harbor and also evicted him from his domain. Izumi flicked him.

"Go home, reckless brat."

The windows were still open in his dorm room, the curtains fluttering wildly- an after-effect from a teleportation spell. Tsukasa stared blankly at the cold, pale moon. He was sprawled on the floor, with a book in his hand. What just happened? How was he sent back here without alarming the defensive magic the school had around its perimeters? How is he not suffering from any repercussions from coming into contact with black magic when Izumi had approached him and even used glacial magic to touch him-

Oh.

Slowly, he sat up. The book he held was innocent, bound with a cranberry linen cover. The title was embossed in gold letters: Article of Faith, by Sena Izumi and... Tsukinaga Leo. Huh. Every copy of this book had been burned, the Elders claimed that it was teaching aspiring mages to reject the Sanctuary. Then this must be...

Tsukasa flipped through the pages, some sort of trepidation gripped his heart. Countless annotations made by flawless handwriting filled the paper. Most of it was directed at certain passages written by the co-author. I've got the last remaining copy, and it's Sena Izumi's.

"If he wanted to give this to me, he could've done so nicely." He pouted.

[olivsie]

Something I like about epic the musical is that it Gives it's changes to the original text an actual Purpose

( The first couple paragraphs are basically a rant regarding retellings. If you only want to hear about epic Skip to paragraph 4)

1. I am a bit annoyed by the lack of. Understanding as to why RETELLINGS aren't the most historicaly accurate things in the world. Sorry to break this to you, but that's both just how they work and I would guess how they reach success. Ancient Greece is a much different culture than our own, And most of us would be terrified to actually live back then. When you are Trying to create content That is based on ancient Greece And you want it to be successful/ At least reach a wide, and notably, MODERN audience. You're likely going to have to take some creative liberty And change a few things. Don't get me wrong, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LIKE RETELLINGS KNOWING THAT FACT ( Me personally, I'm not the biggest fan of Miller's novels Even though I do like epic) BUT IT IS SOMETHING TO BE AWARE OF. And because of that I don't think I would ever expect a retelling to be perfectly accurate And I don't. I had interest in mythology LONG before epic the musical But I didn't actually read the Odyssey until getting into epic. I did not expect it To be just like the musical, I knew Odysseus was going to be much more of an asshole, along with other characters. The odyssey and epic are different pieces of media to me And I am not less of a mythology nerd for liking epic ( Though I will admit that sometimes I take tiny little fun facts of mythology And like to think of them in the context of epic, but that's just for fun.)

2. The Only time being a fan of retellings is wrong as if you genuinely believe they are perfectly accurate And refuse to listen to anything else ( Which has definitely happened, And mythology nerds have the right to be annoyed at that)

3. Some people only like to consume real mythology media, Others like both real mythology and retellings, Others only like to engage with retellings (I would hope they have the self-awareness to know It's not real mythology, From what I've seen some do and some don't, Unfortunately)

4. Ok. now on to what the title of this long ass rant says

I like that epic the musical Retells the story, Not only to both cater to modern audience But Also with its OWN purpose of man versus monster.

Obviously, this is not the point of the original text. Mythos Odysseus does not give a single fuck About the stuff that epic odysseus does. I don't know why the creator Decided to rewrite it this way, (If he's ever said why let me know) But I would assume he wanted to make something about the oddessy And this was simply a very creative way to Translate that for modern audience.

I like this because, yes, holy damn. It does have changes from the original text. But it's not JUST changing it. It's changing it with a purpose

It feels reminiscent of some kind of Dramatic play. the way that epic characterizes.

Polites' kind nature is Representative of the Concept of being merciful Represented in his lines such as " This life is amazing when you greet it with open arms" /"There is so much guilt inside your heart, So why not replace it?"

While in contrast you have eurylochus with more ruthlessness and cautious nature, this is Found in some of his lines such as "You rely on wit, and people die on it" /"we don't know what's ahead" / "I say we strike first. We don't have time to waste so lets raid the place-" /"Let's just cut our losses, You and I and let's run"

And then you have Odysseus, the man/monster. The first act of this Musical is his internal struggle With what He should be On that scale. And the other characters Represent this struggle in the song monster

" Is the cyclops struck with gilt when he kills, is he up in the middle of the night? Or does he end my men to avenge his friend and then Sleep knowing he has done him right?

When the witch turns men to pigs to protect her nymphs, is she going insane? Or did she learn to be colder when she got older and now she saves them the pain?

When a God comes down and makes a Fleet drown Is he scared that he's doing something wrong? Or does he keep us in check So we must respect him and now no one dares to piss him off"

He then Applies this to himself

" Does a soldier use a wooden horse to kill sleeping trojans cause he is vile? Or does he throw away his remorse and save more lives with guile?"

And this marks his turning point of deciding that Ruthlessness It's ultimately worth it if it means Getting home, as aeolus says "The end Always justifies the means"

It's in my opinion, a very creative way to go about retelling a myth. Is it accurate? Absolutely not. For example, circe (From what we know) is not protecting When she turns men into pigs, For all we know, she could just do it because Shits and giggles.

Her character and most others in epic is changed from the original. But it's not ONLY changing for the sake of apeling to the modern Western audience and being successful like Many other retellings. It is also and mainly changing for the sake of influencing the plot that Jorge Rivera herrans crafted For the sake of Retelling epic. It is creative and I enjoy it despite knowing it's not accurate.

[apopcornkernel]

i dont know if there's even a ppop presence on tumblr but i do also want to promote ALAMAT, a 6-member idol boy group from the Philippines. Its members comprise of Taneo, Mo, Jao, Tomas, R-ji, and Alas. They debuted in 2021, and their creative direction centers on championing the Filipino identity and culture through their music.

sorry that ^ was a copypaste but it's a very useful and concise copypaste LOL but onto my own promo:

(note: also most of these videos have english subs!!)

(extra note bc this issue always pops up whenever locals encounter alamat: mo is always wearing black hairstyes bc he is blasian and not bc he is appropriating from black culture hdfjhdf)

KASMALA, the inverted Tagalog word for "strong" (malakas), is the MV that really did numbers on social media iirc. The video direction focused on the "human zoo" in the St. Louis' World Fair of 1904 (which included Filipinos specifically Igorots), and a general theme of anti-Filipino racism by white people (who are represented as ominous figures literally dressed in all white)

personal opinion: the music video is great but i personally think they have better songs, music-wise. and i'm going to give you an example of that by introducing you to my ALL-TIME FAVORITE ALAMAT SONG!!!

ILY ILY, a transliteration of "Ili-Ili Tulog Anay", incorporates the melody and lyrics of the Ilonggo lullaby it derives its title from. The MV and lyrics both work together to portray the experience of being an OFW/having an OFW parent. OFWs, or overseas Filipino workers, refer to Filipinos who go abroad in search of jobs that have better pay, so that they can remit money back to their families in the Philippines.

personal opinion: this is their best song THIS IS THEIR BEST SONG EVER OF ALL TIME and lyca gairanod is such a perfect singer for this. her ethereal crooning really gave me chills the first time i heard it UGH

DAYANG, the term for the wife of a Datu, is one of their most earworming songs ever. It's a gorgeous love song and what I would recommend to newbies if they want to get into alamat <3

personal opinion: The MV is kinda ass because it's just a super long extended ad for DITO PH (in terms of story and also bc they really missed out on doing a vid that drew more on culture esp bc dayang is a historical noble title and they used tausug words and designs for the graphics an the dance itself already incorporated pangasik dance which is also from the tausug people LIKEEE?? they've always promoted other cultures of the philippines i know they can do it but because of CAPITALISM--). But the song bangs so severely, as a pop enjoyer this is peak pop for me.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT DAGUNDONG

DAGUNDONG, a song basically recounting the colonial history of the Philippines from Spain to America, is just so fucking good you should watch/listen to it rn. There's EN subs don't worry you won't miss out on the context. This is colonial rage it's so satisfying I still remember where I was when they dropped this.

personal opinion: FOREVER OBSESSED WITH HOW THEY SAY "dahil puso mandirigma di papakutsa di papapugon" you guys have no idea how much i sing that line to myself sooo satisfying. Instant earworm this song i swear.

OK ONE LAST one last and i'm done. okay.

MAHARANI, a Sanskrit term for the wife of a Maharaja (translated as "great queen"), heavily features singkil, a Maranao dance which uses bamboo poles like tinikling does. The song also uses SEAsian instruments like kanun, gamelan, and gangsa. Also BINI's Jhoanna plays one of the main characters here!!!

personal opinion: this is their most pop-sounding song, which i think is slightly carried by the video i'm sorryyy. it's catchy though!! and i looove the part somewhere halfway where alas starts his verse, singing it in a more spoken-word way

___

okay 5 songs is. probably enough. this post is already kinda long shdfjskdff but yeah. pls check them out if you can hehe <3

also ppop idols are just really funny. there's no concept of an idol image so they just tweet shit. alamat jao gave out his genshin UID after a fan tweeted about having co-oped with him in genshin, and then after that he started answering questions with the hashtag "#canceljao" making a lot of magiliws (alamat fans) confused, and then he posted a classic iphone notes apology like this 😭

i'll do a bini version after this my girls deserve more international hype. they occupy a more girlcrush pop genre but they're just as chaotic as alamat if not even more 😭 there are entire THREADS on twitter of them just being hilarious jdhfkshgf i love them so much

thanks for reading <3

[aermageddon]

on my youth - wayv: a review

it's not often that i look forward to an album as much as i did with this one tbh, so it was a little hard to accept the song description SM dropped for on my youth before it was released. "low tempo emotional hip hop ballad" is definitely not what i look for in kpop/cpop (this term will be used interchangeably sorry to the way is cpop purists following me) and i immediately let my expectations drop to nearly zero when this came out. SM has had a very, and i mean VERY hit or miss year - probably a combination of the hybe/kakao takeover fiasco and industry-wide creative exhaustion - for all their idols, with long-awaited comebacks missing the mark abysmally or simply putting out subpar "fine at best" insipid music.

wayv's last (and only) full album was released in the midst of the 2020 lockdown - a time so different in every aspect but specifically in the kpop world it feels like it could have been a lifetime ago - and after their 9/11, lineup changes, months of delays and two mini albums with mixed results, it's safe to say this album was make or break for the group. with that lengthy foreword out of the way i am very happy to inform that wayv not only delivered - they surpassed all my expectations and managed to deftly execute what was in their case their most awaited comeback ever. here are my highlights from the album:

on my youth

like i said, i really didn't know what to expect for an emotional hip hop ballad but this song packs a punch like few other low tempo title tracks do. it seems to hit every mark for a minor key progression - the slow start, the build-up, the emotional first verse being delivered beautifully by xiaojun's superb ability to emote, along with a really nice, kinda muted instrumental that consists of piano, some synths and a restrained percussion.

it even manages to deliver on the required second verse slow rapping about how people say we're too young to know better - thanks to yangyang's personality shining through on these verses the shtick manages to go from cheesy to enjoyable, and even hendery allows himself a moment or two of true sincerity in his rap.

the chorus is a welcomed switch-up with a catchy hook that quickly becomes an ear-worm. it's the perfect balance to make this song go from b-side to title track material. the final chorus has an amazing instrumental climax that matches the grandiose, emotional vibe of the song's theme and it translates amazingly in the performance video's choreography.

overall this song might be top 3 wayv's title tracks depending on who you ask. for me it's definitely up there and i actually love the english version better because well, you can tell this was originally meant to be an english language song. i give it a 9/10 (and i famously hate slower songs)

poppin' love

a lot of people would say that this should've been the title track and they might be right. i'm not sure what the artistic direction for this comeback was built around, but the emotional title track was definitely picked for a reason over a more conventional, easy sell like this one. but this one is not only an easy sell, it's yet another hit that proves wayv is the best and most 90s boyband coded group in kpop right now - because they are perfect for it. they fit the vibes and the sound in a way that few, if none, other current groups can pull off without feeling gimmicky.

the chorus is sultry enough to keep it in the r&b territory but the added hip hop elements keep it super energizing. it's like if love talk and nectar had a baby. the selling point for me is the added harmonization they included in the refrain of "you're the only one" and it's so cool. it feels like the entire song is tightly built around the bassline and the high melody of the chorus - at 3:05 minutes it gives you the exact amount you need of everything. nothing lags behind and nothing fizzles out too quickly. it has enough grit to stick your hands into while reimagining the classic boyband elements enough to keep you on your toes. a HIGH 10/10 from me.

rodeo

this song is just bonkers. is it that groundbreaking or original? not really, but it manages to make it feel soooo exciting it's like i've never heard a dj snake beat drop in my life lmfaooo 😭 the vocals are crunchy enough to give me asmr when putting on my headphones. the instrumental while very basic edm still punches in with some cool drums - but of course the star of the show is the bass drop.

referencing lil jon in this should be enough to give them an award tbh. like this is giving nct 127 unserious club banger in the best of ways.... and they still hold it down with their own personalities. this is not markyong going crazy with himalayas, this is yangdery showing they can pull off subunit songs (and winwin is there too i guess) while doing whatever in the recording booth. rodeo is just a VERY enjoyable kpop rap line playground and trust that i will eat it up every time it comes on. 9/10

moonlight

there are songs that can be amazing when you play the album, and there are songs that you just instantly know will be superior if you hear them performed live. moonlight is the second kind, and the entire vocal structure is enough to make me want to see wayv at a concert at least once in my life.

the chorus is insane. the stacked vocals give it a depth that is almost cinematic and i do need to give kun, ten and xiaojun their tens for this accomplishment, but specially kun. sure - xiaojun might be the most technically gifted vocalist in the group and i am in love with his tone, but this song has kun all over the foundations. i dont have the stems for the track but i can bet my life that kun recorded at least five layers for that chorus. his tone is so distinctive i can almost only hear him during the high points of the song.

anyway, this song is super pretty. it's just gorgeously designed. i actually wish it was a vocal line only song because the compulsory rap additions do not fit with the rest of the atmosphere at all. still, this gets a 10/10.

lighthouse

when i heard this the first time i wrote "wayv outsold both exo AND shinee for ballad of the year at sm" and i stand by it. again, this style is just classic boyband slow tear jerker and they execute it perfectly. i'm a notorious hater of ballads in kpop and yet not only can i sit through this every time i put on the album, i actively seek it out. like holy shit, this only happens with exo for me.

the song is very straightforward - a heartbreak song about missing the girl they lost. but it's so well made it just works perfectly. another point where wayv need to be praised is their ability to emote. xiaojun specially is amazing at this - you can hear the yearning in his voice. i actually think ten has also learned from him because he comes across just as sincere in this. (kun does famously stiffen up which is not an issue here but still, xiaojun carries this ballad for sure). the instrumental is very cozy and i like how the whole track is designed to sound as if they're singing from just slightly behind you. 9/10

[grapenehifics]

Not to tell you about *every* time I hear Solsbury Hill on the radio but…

Can you tell us why you picked it as the title for your fic? I feel there’s more to your reasoning than “grab your things I’ve come to take you home” and I’d love to hear your thoughts [it’s also maybe pretty obvious(?) but I’m really, really shit at 1) song lyrics 2) song meanings and 3) applying them to other contexts 🙈]

My friend, there is almost nothing I would rather talk about than the intersection between Peter Gabriel*, Genesis, Solsbury Hill the place, Solsbury Hill the song, and Solsbury Hill the fic.

(*Peter Gabriel, and all the members of Genesis, are real people, and would probably tell this story very differently. But they're not here to correct me [oh god, at least, I hope not], and this is how I heard the story, and I am going to tell it the way I know it. Apologies to all those living or dead.)

Sometime in the late 1960s a group of British schoolboys formed the prog rock band Genesis, and by the early 1970s they were...maybe not world-famous, but huge by prog rock standards, anyway, with a couple of albums and a tour. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway came out and it was a big enough deal that they got offered an American tour, too.

They were all still pretty young (they'd started basically in high school) and Peter Gabriel, their lead singer and main songwriter, had recently got married and he and his wife had a baby (this will become relevant in a second). So they go on the American tour and maybe about halfway through Peter turns to his bandmates and is like, "so...I'll finish the tour with you, because I promised I would, but when we get back home I'm quitting the band."

The other guys were stunned, obviously, because this was the moment they'd worked for. They'd already gotten through all the shitty garage band years, which is where most people give up, and now they were at the good part! They were on an international tour! The money was good! Their albums were selling! They had more fans than they'd ever thought they'd have! What on earth would possess someone to want to give all that up?

(The part of this story that is less-charitable to Peter Gabriel is that one of the answers he gave was 'more creative freedom' and his band was like...but you already write all our songs? What possible *more* creative freedom do you think you need?)

It wasn't just the band, though. His managers and the record company and everyone all told him that was a terrible, terrible idea, and there were a sizable contingent of Genesis fans who just refused to follow him to his solo career because they were mad at him for walking out on Genesis, wrecking the band, how dare he be so ungrateful...

(Genesis did fine without him, actually. Phil Collins took over on vocals and they had another couple of albums and some hit songs before going kind of weirdly soft-rock in the 80s.)

Also - and this is an important detail - when he left the band, there was no solo career. He didn't have any songs. I don't think he even had an agent. He was kind of on the outs with the industry for pulling that stunt. He spent the first year after he quit - while Genesis was recording a new album without him - just hanging out at home with his wife and baby daughter.

Eventually he did get back in the studio, and one of the songs on his first solo album was Solsbury Hill, largely regarded to be the most autobiographical of his songs (Solsbury Hill is an actual, physical hill in Somerset, near where he grew up). It's pretty blatantly about quitting Genesis, including being unhappy in the band:

So I went from day to day Though my life was in a rut

I was feeling part of the scenery

And liberty, she pirouette When I think that I am free

and trying to get up the courage to leave even knowing it would almost universally be regarded as a really dumb move and would very possibly end his entire music career even though he was still in his twenties:

My friends would think I was a nut Open doors would soon be shut

But eventually doing it anyway:

To keep in silence I resigned

I walked right out of the machinery

I will show another me

Then he writes about how, even though it was scary and he didn't know what the consequences were going to be, he was glad he did it:

Though my life was in a rut 'Til I thought of what I'd say Which connection I should cut

Today I don't need a replacement I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant

And he personifies all this as a person, or more accurately hearing a voice (while climbing Solsbury Hill, hence the title), and the progression of what the voice tells him mirrors the rest of the lyrics. First it's:

"Son, " he said "Grab your things, I've come to take you home."

and

"Hey, " he said "Grab your things, I've come to take you home."

But the final lines are the singer answering back:

"Hey, " I said "You can keep my things, they've come to take me home."

And not to belabor the metaphor, but that's what I see as the equivalent of the first quarter or so of Solsbury Hill the fic, at least the beginning to the Bakersfield hospital chapters. Peter Gabriel and Anakin both got the exact thing they thought they wanted - a record deal, a tour, money, fame, wealth - and then turned out once they had it, they actually didn't really want it all that much anymore, and the reality of it wasn't worth keeping it.

But also mixed in there is some shame, right, because to everyone else it looks like you have it all. Every kid around the world with a guitar and a garage bands wants what you have. Every kid on their school swim team watching the Olympics on TV wants that. And now you've got it, and you're just...going to hand it back? Say it's not good enough? This thing that feeds your family and lets you see the world? How dare you spit on that!

But all they really want - in both stories - is more time with the people they love. And yes, in both cases, there are ways to fix that - Peter Gabriel could have taken his wife and baby with him on tour, Anakin could have not fired Obi-Wan and taken up with Palpatine - but in the middle of that situation and looking down the barrel of year after year of touring and competition and the toll it takes on your body and your mental health - suddenly the smart play starts looking like turning you back on it, tearing the whole thing down, and starting over. Even if it means living without the money and the fame and the recognition and universal goodwill. Who cares. Keep it all. Keep my things; I don't need them; I just need you.

I'm going home.

[chlorinecake]

so, after a couple of hours (days) contemplating this, Darling you gotta share ur writing story with me. (if someone's asked this alrdy my apologies, feed me anything and I'll be grateful). But I'm just so downright curious🙂. i like hearing people's writing journeys and like, I need to know how u found urself here today in terms of your writing because I think about it more often than I should 🤣

─ hayzie

🤍 Hi, Hayzie !! I don’t know why it always gets me so excited whenever I hear from you on here, but anyways, this is such a great question, and I’m flattered by your curiosity :( Here goes my long as frick answer for ya, lovey ~

GROWING UP ⊹ I was homeschooled, and hanging around the house all day led to me picking up a lot of random hobbies, one of which being freelance creative writing. I wrote so many original songs, short stories, and even poems during that time, and I'd say this sort of upbringing is what helped foster the strong love for literature and art I hold in my heart today ⊹

DISCOVERING TUMBLR ⊹ So this is where the story gets interesting. Imagine a 17 year old me introducing my former Kpop-fan sister turned anti to the wonderful era of 4th gen Kpop. She fell in love with the culture all over again, which led to us doing this thing where we would role-play as certain Kpop idols through texts and gifs 🥴...

• So one night as I was looking for a Heeseung gif to send her, I stumbled upon one that looked really high quality, and it so happened to be posted by this page on Tumblr. Though st the time, I had never heard about that app/website before. When I clicked the gif, it took me to this link , and all I remember seeing was a bunch of ~freaky deaky~ warnings, but I scrolled past them (out of curiosity) before actually reading the words, and that’s when I realized "Oh, this is a story about Heeseung that a fan wrote…"

• To this day, I never forgot that story, but like, back then, I didn't even know what "smut" meant 😭 so when the story started describing a sexual scene between Heeseung and the MC, I was honestly a bit uncomfortable to the point that I couldn't even bring myself to finish reading it, yet at the same time, I was so intrigued.

• I ended up telling my sister about Tumblr (after she begged to know where I kept finding those high quality gifs), before she eventually fall into a DEEP hole of K-pop fanfic, which later compelled me to read more fics myself. Our favorite blog back then was @kpophubb, because of how diverse and well written her content was, but I also discovered other blogs like @starrywonie and @hee-pster who really inspired me to wanna start a blog for myself where I'd upload all of my original work, but I was still nervous about it... that is, until my sister told me about her blog, four months after she had already created it that sneaky bitch ⊹

INTRODUCING CHLORINECAKE ⊹ The very next day after my sister told me about her secret blog, I had this surge of motivation to start my own page! Using a short story I found buried in one of my forgotten writing apps, I edited it over night, and got my pictures and title together. I'll admit that I was very nervous at first, as I didn't know what to expect from the people who’d read it, especially considering how it was my first ever original written work to be put online. Fortunately though, I instantly fell in love with the engagement, the environment of Tumblr, and the new people I was meeting along the way... and yeah, that's pretty much how I got here today ⊹

[jiminsass-istant]

Colour : Jimin

I think about Colour : Freedom part of the photo folio a lot. It's literally my roman empire. I think about it at least thrice a day. (Contd.)

Perhaps I wouldn't think about it so much if it was just for an album concept. But we know that all photo folios were self directed. The members had full creative freedom and creative help. Jimin decided to show us 'parts of himself'. He called this particular look 'unrefined boy' and even compared this look to HYYH concepts. For some reason, Jimin has always been attached to HYYH, that album holding a very special meaning for him. Even tattoed 'young forever' on himself. I digress.

So they had full creative freedom to decide the elements put into this photoshoot. And one CANNOT argue that he just did what the stylists asked him to. Jimin won't let these elements into a photoshoot that shows sides of 'HIMSELF' if he wasn't aware of the implications. The lights, the symbolism, the outfits, the temporary tattoos, the props. I repeat, these photos are not for an album or a magazine or a song or a commercial. They're just to represent him. Some other members decided to do more conceptual/fictional shoots- jk with vampire aesthetic, V with vintage european aesthetic, jin with concepts related to sea. But Jimin clearly said he wanted to show different sides of himself.

Now one might say, he was just trying to show his 'gender neutral charm'. But there are so many ways to do that, instead of inserting obvious queer elements. We have other 'gender neutral' charm artists and kpop idols. He could have just shown the feminine and masculine sides, busts of artemis, apollo with gender neutral clothes. But he had to write 'free love' on his arm, and wear THAT t-shirt.

Same with the Robert Mapplethorpe pants in Like Crazy MV. He won't wear pants with some dude's face on it, for the title song about his own experience, for an album about his own self, and NOT ask the stylist about the face on his pants. The same pants that will be immortalised in Youtube forever in his debut title track MV. Jimin knows who that dude is. A 1-minute google search will tell you that Mapplethorpe was a well known celebrity photographer, famous for striking bnw photos and controversial shoots. Notable ones being - the one where he blurs the boundaries of genders, female and male nudes, gay male BDSM photography etc.

I remember how once there was massive backlash on BTS because one of the members was seen wearing a tshirt with the Japan atom bombs attack print on it with the text 'liberation of korea'. I might be wrong. But that made a lot of noise and even a BTS radio show in japan was cancelled. So you cannot tell me that bts members are not careful with what they wear, especially after that incident.

I know a lot of 'woke' armies said we shouldn't assume things about him. But..we aren't blind either. So I guess it's -

If you get it, you get it. If you don't, you don't.

We'll never get to see all the layers of his personality on camera and that's alright. And no, we'll never ever get to know any possible queer life experience related to him. (Keyword: possible) There are limits to what he shows to fans.

Thinking of putting down some more thoughts on the entire photofolio. I observed there's a story in it too. Maybe someday.

PS: I hope you realise that I'm not talking from a shipper perspective. That is about something Jimin is actively expressing, not about what fans speculate/analyse. This post is about Jimin and Jimin only.

Tags are only for me.

[awek-s-archived]

i am a bit curious as to why you dislike idle. i don't particularly love them myself but i'm curious as to your reasoning

ok thank u so much for asking first of all because i feel like a lot of people over the years have been curious about this and instead of asking me abt my reasoning regarding anything to do w idle they kind of default to anon hate, so. DKLFGJKLDF

im gonna give background, i followed y/uqi predebut, since that video came out of her as a young trainee moving from china to korea and being a part of a series where trainees go up to strangers in the streets and ask them to listen to them sing to gauge some of the public reaction to them if they debut. she sang in front of this one particular girl who used to be a trainee herself but couldn't live with the pressure and kind of yearned for that dream still, i guess? anyway, she gave y/uqi a lot of advice that i feel really helped ground her and to this day i think she's actually the only or at the very least the most grounded member of idle. and the only one i actually have nothing against and would love to see thrive, because i sincerely think she would and i'll come on to that later.

the tldr version is that i don't agree with the rampant racism and cultural appropriation that they engage in from music videos to general looks to sounds and beats in their actual songs. it's a lot. i know kpop groups in general are very guilty of this and sometimes, not very often, when you tell them it's wrong they apologise and stop doing it. but idle fall under the same category as suju and m/amamoo in that they literally don't care that they're doing it, because they have seen and i believe apologised about it then continued to do the same thing. but my issue with them as a group wasn't ever really directed at specific members until miss s/oyeon's international fuck-up where she said she wants to make 'ethnic hip' music as basically her excuse of why she appropriates cultures.

i paid a lot more attention to their group behaviour after that and there was a time of hiatus where y/uqi and m/innie in particular were very chill and doing their own thing where they were extremely different from how they were when s/oyeon ruled over them. y/uqi went back to being the grounded, friendly, chaotic and generally nice person she was before with no issues or controversies and m/innie did also. i don't really care about the other two so i can't comment on them extensively but these two i paid attention to because i know i liked them from before. but miss s/oyeon?? well, she carried on the group controversies all on her own, lmao. more racism and cultural appropriation but this time she also blatantly plagiarised another producer's songs and released them, lied about asking for permission to recreate the song DOWN TO A T (the song is wave by a/teez btw). basically she admitted to stealing it without using so many words but continued to promote it and didn't give the credit that was due for her plagiarism. i think this was one of 3 (?) plagiarism accusations in the space of a few months. so she's very big on growth as an artist and thinks of herself as a big producer but ultimately all she does is steal the songs from smaller artists and smaller producers and pass it off as her own. obviously as a creative myself, i'm not ok with this and i think she's a poor excuse of an artist to do it. she doesn't deserve the title.

in the last couple of comebacks, she profited off m/arilyn m/onroe's death and image, which is disgusting to me. i don't care what excuse her fans think up to make it ok -- especially when this came out at the same time as 2 documentary series about m/arilyn and she was a huge subject of discussion globally again. so it was evidently a ploy for cash and probably a good stepping stone to s/oyeon trying to make ~empowering music~ for women. sadly all she's doing, if her lyrics are anything to go by, is promoting the exact stereotype of women that everybody else is trying to fight against. she's saying, it's ok for women to love themselves but creepy for them to engage in sex or for men to be physically attracted to them because that makes them perverts (nxde lyrics allude to this VERY heavily).

i also personally don't like the attempted profiting off lgbt fans with 'oh my god', which people made theories about BEFORE she publicly came out as saying that it represents love in all forms, and kept alluding to it AFTER to give fans something to talk about despite officially saying she doesn't want to limit it to homosexuality -- so, how was it a song for the gays then? it wasn't. she was going with the fan theory to get talked about. it's not a bad marketing strategy but it is vile from an actual gay person's point of view, and the fact that she backtracked officially to say it's not ABOUT anything specific while feeding into the ~ally~ delusions privately is disgusting to me, personally. and i'd get if it was taboo to the point of it being career-ending, but there are plenty of other kpop groups who have explicitly stated their videos or songs or dramas, or ANYTHING, are strictly in representation of lgbt love both before and after oh my god -- o/nlyoneof in particular.

more recently of course, the attempted dissing of rookie groups, however light -- those are children. you're a grown woman. if you want to write a disstrack, don't do it about people who are a decade your juniors, OR a decade your seniors. she dissed h/yuna and h/yojong in a song and then sent h/yuna a signed album this comeback. weird to me, even if there are no hard feelings. it's not about the action so much as the attitude with which she keeps doing those things. this is where my newfound m/innie dislike comes in too, because she recently PUBLICLY dissed i/ve for winning an award against idle despite the fact that idle had already won a similar award something like the day before or a few days before. but i think i'll get over it because i genuinely don't believe that that's her actual attitude, i think 100% it's s/oyeon's influence.

and my reasoning for THAT is y/uqi's recent interview, where she said she and s/oyeon don't get along virtually at all, and fight all the time. she (y/uqi) finds it funny and thinks it's a sign of being close and honest, which it can be -- but that's not a healthy relationship, period. if you can't talk to someone without arguing, you don't get along ever.. that's not a friendship. but it does in a sense bring me comfort because i hate the type of person s/oyeon is and the fact that y/uqi argues with her so much tells me that she's the polar opposite. furthermore y/uqi also mentioned wanting to be the leader in situations, and that just tells me everything i need to know re: how much they actually agree with s/oyeon's creative decisions for them as a group and perhaps as individuals too, since she's currently cube's favourite and has significantly more pull than anybody else at that company.

i know you asked about idle full group dislike but it does all come down to s/oyeon in the end, because i think all of this controversy and all this behaviour could've been avoided if somebody knocked her down a peg. but i think everything she does is shallow and performative at best, she's not a hard worker like everybody thinks she is, but she does see herself as a martyr in all aspects and i guess tries to capitalise off it. which ok, that's her business, but i think it's gross and unfair to drag the other girls down with her. nevertheless all her choices (that she's proud of, too, let's not forget) up to now have made the group as controversial as it is now and is why i dislike it so actively as a unit, even aside from the other individual members.

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 20/03/2024

old town ribbon race

Season 4 Episode 1 Featured on: The SiIvaGunner Spooktacular Halloween Horror Special Collection '17​-​'19

Ripped by Moder112

Y'know, I've had this rip in the drafts for a pretty long while - I've wanted to write about it for so long, but its almost difficult to explain why I like it so. I sometimes wonder how many other people are as attached to the original Intro Title / Minigame Theme - Barbie Horse Adventures: Blue Ribbon Race as I am - it was a genuinely shocking little rip that managed to utilize the creepiness of the original song, whilst also tying it all subtly to the ongoing side story of Mr. Rental's rampage on SiIvaGunner. Yet it was the kind of rip that didn't make its presence all too known after the fact - save for a big reappearance on SiIvaGunner Fusion Records last year with *** EVERYTHING IS FINE ***, the rip's appearances have been pretty darn scarce. That is, at least, on SiIva - what I learned in researching for coverage on old town ribbon race, is that the meme took on a life on its own elsewhere in the internet.

That's right, it's fan channel time again - the very same one that V​-​v​-​v​-​v​-​v​-​a​-​V​-​v​-​v​-​v​-​v​-​v​-​r covered not that long ago, even. Its always a bit difficult to discern...anything, about Vvvvvavvvvvvr from the outside looking in, because of just how vast and bizarre its output is - its a channel that accepts submissions of just about ANY kind and has made it its brand to basically be a dumping ground for any sort of vip (Vavr's name for high quality rips) possible. Yet through it all, in 2017, a certain familiar Barbie game for Game Boy Advance made a reappearance - with a vip simply named Horse: Blue Ribbon. From there, the meme was reborn on the channel as just "Horse", mainly using a remix of the original theme by ripper Moder112 as its main source for future vips - continuing to see use pretty regularly in a number of bizarre, spooky rips.

All of that was, of course, entirely lost on me - yet in a way, that made discovering old town ribbon race on SiIva all the more impactful for me. I had no clue that others remembered this bizarre one-off horror rip as much as I did, nor that there had secretly been this subset of rippers already fiddling around with how to turn this eerie theme into something so hummable. Old Town Road is a song I already find deviously catchy, one I've covered before with Mob Corral - and so to me, old town ribbon race wound up feeling like the perfect culmination to things all those years later. The rip that had filled my 2016 self with such intrigue was now finally being played around with in fun, creative ways - by, as I'd now later learn, none other than the very same ripper who'd been doing so for years beforehand without me knowing.

There is of course a comedy to old town ribbon race inherently, in making a country/pop banger out of a theme otherwise most known for how much it unsettles people. But there's that other part as well - it IS genuinely a banger, using so many creative and fun GBA-quality samples that all feel in line with the original creepy song, even including the sampling of Among Us sound effects used for its percussion. A lot of the samples are from Moder112's prior mentioned remix, yet the authenticity of the rip was so good that I hardly even considered that as a possibility - it doesn't sound like its using anything "fan made" so much as its just naturally working outward of what Old Town Road would sound like in this style.

I'm really happy that nothing gets forgotten on SiIva - that was one of my big talking points in Violet Snow Memories, if you'll recall. This really isn't one of those cases, because Horse found a life all on its own - yet its almost just as fun to see how memes like it live on in such strange, silly ways. Meme evolution! How fun. old town ribbon race. What a good rip.

[thebrawlerina]

For the headcanons, how about Edgar?

Oh boy! One of my favorite characters! ... To write and HC about. I'm not very good with close-ranged brawlers.

Edgar HCs

Quick thing before I get into the bulk of things. I will not be putting any ship headcanons here. I have plenty of HCs without counting them so I'd probably make another post for it instead.

Edgar has always been involved in the park in some way. He's got family in the higher ups with his mother being the CEO of the whole thing. He was fairly confident that at some point HE would become the CEO of Starr Park and of Brawl Stars

He often gets into fights with his mother about his lifestyle choices and attitude (aka. being emo). At some point, these fights somehow ended up with Edgar being both a brawler and a gift shop employee. Probably to try and get him to change.

Edgar was ecstatic to be a brawler cause he thinks the fights are really cool, but he hates the fact that he had to work in the shop as well to keep that position.

Edgar unfortunately plays the straight man to both Colette and Griff's shenanigans.

Actually he ends up playing the straight man to a lot of things because he just keeps geting wrapped up in other brawler projects.

He complains about it but thats just because hes a drama queen. He does enjoy himself a lot, though he wont admit it to keep up with his persona.

He unfortunately knows a lot about the Brawl Stars fandom culture because Colette just wouldn't shut up about it.

Edgar ends up being the fall guy for Griff when he disappears to escape his poor financial choices. Alas, he doesn't have the power to get his boss fired.

He's the Number 1 Bad Randoms Fan. He personally fought Colette for that title. He knows all their songs by heart and even made their band shirt part of his normal wear.

He has actually played for them a few times, mostly as a back up drummer when Stu is unavailable. He loves it when it happens. He thinks this is what Colette must feel like all the time.

Edgar can play the Drums and Bass, though he prefers drums.

He bonds a lot with Poco because of the slight overlap in the Bad randoms and their music. This is why he also gets along well with Draco.

He and Fang have a mutual and healthy rivalry. Though sometimes they both think the other is a little stupid.

He admires El Primo but would rather die than admit that out loud.

Has complicated feelings for Belle and Byron as some weird Auntie and Uncle situations. (Might Elaborate in another thing)

Actually a big comic book fan, though hes not as loud and proud of it as he is with the Bad Randoms thing.

Finds Breakcore oddly relaxing and will even nap to it if given a chance. This is goes well with Colette feeling creatively inspired by Breakcore, so they can spend their break times blasting this music and doing their own thing. Griff hates this a lot.

While Edgar can will his scarf to move however he wants, it can sometimes act out, raging while Edgar maintains an aloof facade. Probably acting out what he truly feels.

His scarf arms are strong enough to hold him up, so sometimes he uses that to help get over large crowds.

He wants to get tattoos, but hes still deciding what he actually wants on him.

He finds all the undead Brawlers cool and sometimes wonders how he'd look undead.

He can eat super spicy food and drink super bitter coffee without flinching. However, sour things are his weakness he will shrivel up like a raisin-

[alicent-vi-britannia]

Let's talk a little about Kalulu kisses

Today we will honor International Kiss Day by remembering the kiss and the two almost kisses of Lelouch and Kallen. While C.C.'s magical kisses and the kiss with Shirley were captured in a single image (using different shots, by the way), Kallen and Lelouch's kiss is presented in a montage of detailed shots (alternating with certain general shots and close-ups). The detail shots are expressive shots since, being small frames, they ask the viewer to concentrate on something very specific. They are usually used to highlight an object that will become important later, however, they can also create tension and emotion like here.

In episode 7, the series prepares the viewer for a kiss between Lelouch and Kallen and then snatches that illusion away when Kallen slaps Lelouch. In episode 9 it surprises the viewer by reformulating the question from episode 7: "Will Kallen and Lelouch kiss?" (also since we have a flashback of the first almost kiss between Lelouch and Kallen, I feel that the creators want to communicate to us through this montage: "hey, hey, the promise of a kiss between these two was serious! Wait for it!").

In the end, episode 22 fulfills that promise and does so by presenting a montage as a way to close what they started in episode 7. It's a shorter montage because the intention is to surprise Lelouch and the viewer with Kallen's initiative and immerse ourselves more in the moment, so there are fewer shots, but they last longer.

Considering that Code Geass isn't particularly notable for its direction like other anime (ahem, Cowboy Bebop, for example), I highly value these three scenes. Not only as a fan of this ship, but as someone who has a basic knowledge of the language of audiovisual media. I think these montages are an excellent example that in a story how you tell something is as important as what you tell. The culmination of the kiss is the perfect proof of this (someday it will be time to analyze that scene, since the combination of the elements says a lot). As Martin Scorsese would say: "[this] is cinema!"

I won't lie, these setups also influenced me to opt for the Kalulu. This isn't an analysis because I don't consider myself an expert in audiovisual language, someone who is would tell you more than me (I didn't even prepare myself; I'm getting hooked on the fact that today is International Kiss Day). Even so, I wanted to talk about these scenes because I wanted to raise awareness about it. It seems to me that fans, even Kalulu fans, don't value these montages as much as they should. You can say what yoy want, but it is undeniable that there is a seal of creativity here. I can't think of another example that anticipates a kiss and ultimately presents it in such a unique way. I think they involve us more emotionally with the characters. At least, it happened to me.

Small recommendation: Since we are in romantic mode, I recommend this song.

It belongs to one of my favorite Kdramas and is titled: "Please say something, even though it is a lie." The song is about a woman who realizes that she has fallen in love and asks her silent lover to say something as she wants to know if he feels the same way. Honestly, I associated this song with Kallen as soon as I read the lines of her poem that referred to her last conversation with Lelouch at Ashford Academy: "Lelouch, that goodbye kiss, Even if it were a lie, if you had told me: “I love you”, I would have followed you to hell. You knew that, didn't you?" And then when I found out that Kallen realized that she had fallen in love with Lelouch after kissing him, even more. After all, Lelouch is Kallen's first love (I can't even think how this song would fit with the Kdrama's protagonist, all that comes to mind is Kallen when listening to this song). The singer sadly passed away a few days ago, by the way.

[glassprism]

Hiii, the Busan POTO run has just ended. Do you have any thoughts/reviews on the Korean cast yet? How about the Chinese cast? Thanks your blog is amazing.

Sure, why not, I was saving these for something else, but I can give a quick review of the cast.

For Korea, I have not viewed Kim Ju-taek because I'm hoping for video of him somewhere down the line. Similarly, I have not seen Choi Jae-rim because he hadn't even started yet. Finally, most of the footage I saw was from some of the first performances by the cast, so just keep in mind that there's lots of room for them to grow and improve. All right, here we go.

Cho Seung-woo - Unique! His voice was a bit different from what I expected: a little harsher and rougher (thicker?) than what I'm used to, but still powerful. I also thought he was less of the commanding, seductive Phantom and more of a pathetic, unhinged one, and definitely came off as an older Phantom who had gone through a lot in his past experiences. For example, his 'Music of the Night' was a little more aloof than other actors, but he was very good at sounding weepy and pitiable when the scene called for it. He had a great moment too in the 'Final Lair' kiss where he gently removed Christine's hand from touching his face before slowly backing away. Finally, I don't know if he's short or his particular Christine was tall, but it was really interesting to see a Phantom and Christine that were basically the same height (I think she blocked his entire face during the "Floating, falling" blocking, ha).

Jeon Dong-seok - Incredible, possibly my favorite of the Korean Phantoms right now. He was definitely more conventional in his acting and vocals than Cho Seung-woo, but at the same time, it was a splendid performance. He really embodied the commanding, sensual, alluring air of the Phantom, helped by his powerful voice. His focus was always on Christine, even when he was being scary (and yeah, he definitely leans more towards being the angry, raging Phantom when things don't go his way). Had some neat touches already, like bowing to Christine before she starts vocalizing in the title song and wiping a tear off her face in the 'Final Lair'. It was also interesting for me to compare him to his performance in Yeston and Kopit's Phantom, where it's basically night and day: he's a hilariously awkward yet lovably dorky Phantom there, and an absolutely frightening (though still darkly attractive) Phantom in ALW.

Song Eun-hye - Of the Christines, she was the sweet and innocent one of the two, lots of big, scared eyes, pitying expressions, and tearful gazes. Her voice was lovely (I think all the Christines I'm going to review here had very pretty but also very similar voices, tending towards light and classical), and I think she played Christine with a sort of wistful, melancholy feeling, like she was perpetually grieving the loss of her father, and that she only feels real joy when she sings. Her relationship with the Phantom, accordingly, also feels more creative and spiritual than romantic. I saw her with Cho Seung-woo, who also comes off as an older Phantom anyway, so I think that accentuated that aspect of her performance.

Son Ji-soo - I liked both Korean Christines, but if I had to pick, I enjoyed Son Ji-soo slightly more; I think she showed a lot more growth and was also much more reactive towards her co-actors (one thing about Song Eun-hye is I started to feel like she only had one or two facial expressions the whole time). She definitely leans more towards the feisty Christine type, but still with a lighthearted, youthful spirit; similarly (and maybe it's because I watched her with Jeon Dong-seok, who comes off as a younger Phantom), I did think she was more "into" the Phantom as a romantic option.

Lastly, for Song Won-geun and Hwang Gun-ha, I thought they were both very nice Raouls (they had a sweet moment where they rested a hand on Christine's cheek during 'All I Ask of You') but didn't entirely stand out to me. (Which is going to be a theme with the Raouls in this quickie review.) They weren't bad, they were just... decent. Hopefully some more time in the show will make them more memorable!

All right, that's most of the trio for Korea done. (Also, so nice to see the original back, with stuff like the Golden Angel, the doubles, and the non-stupid version of 'Point of No Return'.) Now then...

So before I get to China, some more caveats. First, no thoughts on Ma Jia because he just got added to the production. Second, most of the videos I have were a bit distantly shot, so I was relying more on vocals than acting for a lot of it, which is why I'm just going to clump the roles together; I don't really have enough to say to justify a whole paragraph for each. Third, this was the first stop of what's going to be a pretty long tour, so again, lots of room to improve. Having said all that, here's some quick thoughts.

Starting from the people I have the least to say about: the Raouls. Yeah, I don't remember much of any of them, heh. Similar to the Korean Raouls, they were fine! They did the role. I think I slightly preferred Li Chenxi, he seemed the most passionate, and I remember Ma Tianlong standing out a bit because his voice seemed a bit deeper? And nothing for Zhao Chaofan, but with all of them, hopefully that's just something that will improve with time.

My favorite of the Chinese Phantoms was definitely Ayanga; he just did the most in terms of emoting with the role and throwing his energy into the character, and sang 'Music of the Night' quite interestingly (like, he put some really long inflections or drawn out noises on them). Unfortunately, neither He Liangchen nor Liu Lingfei stood out much, and I honestly thought they were both pretty boring up until the 'Final Lair', where they were able to bring more emotion. I think He Liangchen came off a little angrier while Liu Lingfei came off a little more insane, but I might be getting that switched, ha.

Finally, the Christines were all nice, sweet, clear voices, and there was some variety in their performances. For Yang Chenxiuyi, she felt more like an "Act I" Christine in that she was more emotive in Act I, and sold the innocent, naive aspect of her character, whereas in Act II, I thought she was less interesting. Pan Hangwei was the complete opposite, I thought she was pretty dull in Act I, but in Act II she really showed the fear, the passion, and the strength to Christine (vocally, at any rate). Also, she threw her score in 'Notes II' so hard it flew under the managers' table, so kudos to her for that. And finally, Lin Shao (my favorite) was just great in both acts, consistently emotional and bringing forth the sweetness of Christine in Act I, her fascination with the Phantom, then later her desperation, her growth, and her maturity as she faces him in the 'Final Lair'.

So there you have it. Also, can I say that it's so weird to hear Phantom in a language other than English and be able to understand parts of it? Like, I am not used to this. Is this what other people have? How do y'all deal with it...

[twin-books]

Speaking of other topics.

I found one of my absolute favorite shows of all time on complete accident. It's all thanks to Drew Gooden and IDOLiSH7 (also a very good show).

IDOLiSH7 is a very nice feel-good idol anime. I adore it. It makes me unreasonably happy. It's based on a game of the same name that happens to be a rhythm game. They even have official music videos of their songs which I immediately found every single one of and watched them.

Then less than a month ago I finally watched that Drew Gooden video about Guitar Hero. I have never once played Guitar Hero and I barely watch Drew Gooden because I have like an endless list of YouTuber's I'm subscribed to that I just cycle through so this was at random.

But I guess watching that one video about Guitar Hero onto of all those IDOLiSH7 music videos had the YouTube algorithm go "Hmmm... she must really like rhythm games" and it recommended me one rhythm game based YouTube video. It immediately gave up on showing me anymore afterwards because I guess it realized I don't actually care too much about them. I just really like music.

But luckily this one video had this absolute banger of a song that someone had put into the rhythm game and tried to match the game to the beat. I freaking adored this song but it didn't give the name of the artist, just the title of the song so I told myself I'd like the video and then look into it later.

I completely forgot about it until a week later where I was looking through my liked songs on YouTube Music and saw one with a thumbnail of two animesque boys. I literally could not remember what this video was so I clicked it and then I saw it was that rhythm game. But I wondered why on earth these two dudes were the thumbnail when they were absolutely no where in the video.

So that song was Dive Back in Time from the first opening of the donghua, Link Click. I looked it up, saw that the same two anime-like dudes were on the album cover and thought to myself, "Huh, is this like a game or something?" The song was completely in English which threw me through a loop.

So I looked up Link Click, realized it was a donghua, then immediately looked up the opening this song was attached to because I figured based on the song title it had to be something about time travel.

Here's a fun fact about me... I absolutely adore time travel for a story narrative. It's so fun. But good time travel content is extremely hard to find because apparently it's super easy for people to absolutely screw up this amazingly creative and fun premise.

With that being said, I was willing to do just about anything to figure out if this was not only a time travel show but a good time travel show. So I watched the season 1 opening and it gave me absolutely no clues whatsoever. Absurdly unhelpful without context.

Yeah, I turned to wikipedia for the answers. And yes, it was about time travel and the premise sounded so gosh darn amazing. Here's the wikipedia synopsis;

After finding this I realized there was apparently a season 2 so out of pure curiosity I looked up the season 2 opening. It's called VORTEX. Amazing. If nothing else this show would be full of gorgeous animation and breath-taking music.

I immediately hit up @koo1creations. She is also an avid enjoyer of some good time travel stories and she also adores sci-fi which time travel stories tend to fall under so we were hyped. We also both took the same short animation course when we were young so we absolutely adore animation and we both adore music. This show looked like an absolute winner.

So like fools, Monday night we started Link Click fully intending to stop at like 4 episodes. Ha. Nope, absolutely not. We loved it too much, we binged the whole first season. Tuesday night we binged what was out of season 2. Thankfully for us there was only 2 episodes left of season 2 to be released as soon as we finished it.

I cannot begin to give this show the praise it deserves. Season 1 is still the best so far, I'd say. But season 2 is still very good. It's such a fun show full of twists and turns. It really makes you think and it's full of nuances. The animation and style is gorgeous, the music is amazing, the characters are intriguing, and the story is addicting.

So thank you Drew Gooden and IDOLiSH7 for like my new number 1 favorite show. Gotta be the best way I have ever actually found anything I liked. I have had many times where I had quite a few hoops I had to jump through to find another thing I liked but this one takes the cake.

[hyunubear]

rant time!

kpop reaction content isn't exactly new (at least as far as I know) but it does seem to have kind of boomed in the last... two-three years I think. I remember there being only a handful of relevant kpop reaction content creators on youtube, some more popular that the others, but still there weren't a ton of them around. and I guess it makes sense because kpop itself has gotten much more popular and widely known outside of just [REDACTED] and among a wider age range I'd say.

but nowadays if you look up “X group - Y title track reaction” you will find tens, if not hundreds of reaction videos (especially if its a well known group) ranging from channels with hundreds of thousand subs to small account with a couple of hundred views on their reaction videos. and I just find that so weird.

like... especially for channels that do reactions as their main (and only) content, I find it extremely difficult to believe that after a certain point there is any authenticity behind these reactions. these big reaction channels are out there reacting to damn near every relevant kpop group's comebacks (and there are a LOT of them) and every single reaction is generally positive and often very enthusiastic.

aside from the fact that logically and statistically it's impossible for someone to like every title track being released, even if they're all objectively good (which they're not), because no one likes every genre and every style of music, there is basically no creativity involved in creating this type of content which makes it very dull both for the creator and the consumer after a while.

on top of that, this type of content has created a really toxic environment around expressing opinions and criticism toward kpop groups and kpop music. I just came across a video from one of these bigger (while also being newer) creators talking about how she's not happy with the content she's been making for the past year. she said that it's extremely overwhelming trying to keep up with every comeback when everyone expects you to react to their fave's CB and after a while sitting and reacting to music videos becomes repetitive especially when you're not even allowed to truly be yourself and express your opinions. she said she can't even talk about having a bias in a group because she would get tons of hate comments and dms about ppl bashing her for not having a different bias. I can't imagine how people would react to a reaction video creator saying she doesn't like a comeback or even a certain element in the song/mv.

I used to love kpop reaction videos back when I had just discovered them and they were not as big. like I genuinely get the appeal. seeing someone who's not a teenage girl (which is what stereotypically the general public thinks kpop stans are) is pretty validating. and back then there were like 'vocal coach reacts' or 'producer reacts' etc. seeing the reaction of "experts" analyzing different parts of a song/mv was really interesting for someone like me with zero knowledge of any of the technical stuff. and I also understand that they do contribute to promoting groups and comebacks to a certain degree. but it has just gone too far, in my opinion.

idk maybe I’ve just gotten old and lost the will to enjoy the small things that used to bring me joy but I genuinely don't enjoy reaction videos anymore. most of those older 'exerpts' (except for two I think) aren't active anymore (I'm guessing at least to some degree bc stans didn't want to hear that their fave was not that legendary of a vocalist or their fave song wasn't as layered and complex as they thought it was) and instead there are just random people reacting to kpop and some of them you can just tell that all their reactions are completely faked out. Youtubers are jumping on this trend bc it’s easy (in terms of not having any kind of real substance) and gets u good views if you’re a little charming and funny.

TL;DR : everything is fake and authenticity is dead. kdjfdjf I'm mostly joking but in the end, as per usual with my rants of this kind, I don't have a specific point or a solution. I'm just starting a conversation. so if any of you have something to add or just want to chat about this send me an ask!! (plz don't reply in the comments because I want this to be on my dash so everyone else can read too.)

[skepticalarrie]

Hi Allie! Since we’re the songwriting topic, could you give me your interpretation for Music For A Sushi Restaurant? I sent you an ask a while ago but I think you didn’t have the time to answer I’m not trying to push you or anything, if you don’t want to answer that fine 🥰 ily

Anon! No I totally remember you and I told you I was going to make a post about this song but I completely forgot, I’m so sorry. It was my bad. But yes, of course. Let's do this!

I think this is the perfect opening song for Harry's House. During promo, he's talked so much about this album being what he always wanted to do, about being comfortable and relaxed during the entire process and just making good music and having fun with it. And for me, that's exactly what MFASR is about, it's about his music, and what he wants from it. Everything came together for me with this quote:

“I was in a sushi restaurant in LA with my producer & one of our songs came on from the last album & I said ‘This is really strange music for a sushi restaurant […] that would be a really fun album title'”

“I’d be like… ‘this is everything I’ve ever wanted!’”

-Harry on naming Music For A Sushi Restaurant. (20 May 2022) x

So he starts the song with some pretty funny lines about a love interest, very different from the kind of way he used to express his admiration for someone in the previous two albums. Right off the bat, you can tell this is a much more experimental way to talk about love, have fun, and to take love songs less seriously.

You're so hot that I could cook an egg on you. You're sweet but it's plain, it's boring, there's something exciting missing. I take that as something like getting bored of always talking about love the same way - and obviously also always about the same person ("and I'm well aware I write too many songs about you"), how to make things more interesting? The answer for Harry is apparently making analogies LMAO (which I love)

IMO there are two options here: 1) I don't want to stop talking about love, because I love you, in every kind of way, so I can find a lot of different ways to talk about it. Let's try new things. or 2) he's not referring to a subject, he's referring to his music. He doesn't want to fuck things up and he won't because he loves it so much, so eventually everything will be fine if he's trying something new.

His music is for whatever you want, for what makes sense to you. He's giving you the song and you can take whatever you want from it. If you want to make it about love, it's about love. If you want to make it about food, it's about food... and so on. It's fun, it's exciting, it's creative.

He's going to be fine, he's not going to get lost or go broke. For me, this part connects a lot with craving a hit song or something like an extremely successful album. HSH is much less commercial than Fine Line, and that's intentional, he's not seeking that with this album. Staying cool: 1) relaxed, not worrying about it too much or 2) cool = popular

If the stars were edible / and our hearts were never full = pushing limits/boundaries?

IF, it's a condition. The stars are not edible and our hearts are always full. Then the answer is probably no, we can't live with just a taste. We need to go all the way.

The "we" in this part confuses me a little bit. In the beginning, he used you (I don't what you...), and then he used I (I'm not going...), and now it's "we". Is he talking about him and the subject? Is he talking about the music? Is he talking about the people who he makes music with?

Something that I really love about this song - apart from all the food references - is how he also added the fun little noises scuba-duba-do-boo-boo / ba-ba, which just emphasises even more what he's talking about.

To sum things up, I think this is the song that better represents Harry's House, because you can see how everything he's saying here, extends to all the other songs. He didn't give a fuck, he went all the way and made the sort of music that felt amazing to him and the result is so Harry. Plus, a running theme on the album is the metaphors. It's a little twist on normal boring love songs. I love you the way I love wine, food, england, our relationship is like a car, I'm like a satellite. And so on. I could talk about this forever.

[avrilsboy]

okay i finished the album. my general takes are just that most of the songs sound exactly the time wrt instrumentals/tempo/vocals and that taylor sounds like she's putting herself to sleep with some of them. some of the lyrics are critically bad but for the most part they're very standard taylor lyrics (which is to say that they don't really serve anything in particular. they're just kind of there. they might serve something if she chose to do anything at all different with her vocal expression but she didn't. so). the only two songs that stood out to me were "florida!!!", which sounds like a florence + the machine song straight from lungs (on account of the florence feature i guess, although it makes it sound more like a florence song with a taylor feature than the other way around) and "i can do it with a broken heart," which sounds like a bleachers song straight off of strange desire (i suppose on account of jack antonoff being one of the producers, but it's so much like a bleachers song he might as well have been the one who sung it). the worst offender of the album imo is "who's afraid of little old me?". it's grating and causes some second-hand embarrassment listening to it. but this type of song, one where taylor's supposedly embracing the "mean girl" persona that the whole world has allegedly typified her as, isn't new for her. lord knows it's not new for her.

at some point i was just frustrated with what seems to be her struggle to extend her emotional maturity and lyrical focus past a very teenage viewpoint, coming to a head with lyrics like "and you saw my bones out with somebody new / who seemed like he would've bullied you in school" and the truly schoolyard-level diss "everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman / but she used to say she wished that you were dead" leveled towards kim k. said it before, but the title of the album is seriously bold considering the actual content. bad lyrics are hardly a crime in music, but with a title like the tortured poets department it really begs the listener to focus on the lyrics above all else, and they're either boring nothing-burgers or laugh-out-loud funny when they're not meant to be.

really all that i get from this album is that taylor is seriously stretched thin on the creative output side but i'm not sure that she cares because money and success-wise, it doesn't matter. which makes the opener for "i hate it here" especially hilarious: "quick, quick, tell me something awful / like you are a poet trapped inside the body of a finance guy." like girl, that's you. that's you right now.