#the grunge tourist

[magpiewithacamera]

Google Maps image, October 2012, Fremont, Seattle.

I believe this to be Jeff and Stoney standing in the doorway of Studio Litho in October of 2012, watching the Google Earth photographer go past. I've included pics of both of them from 2012 for reference.

This is our history.

[empatheticpsychopath]

Nature understands the fine balance between all that was and now is

[hushedhippie]

Best time ever with the coolest👻

[purasvagancias]

Jesus Badui en Instagram.

[devil-doll13]

Some House of Wax/Sinclair Brothers Headcanons I’ve had in my head that I’ve already shared w the server but… The rest of the world deserves to know.

Related to gif, Vincent is the ‘medical expert’ of the house solely because he’s the one who knows the human body/first aid the best. I mean, in the movie we see him stitching up those wounds on what’s-his-face pretty neatly, right? This is also part of the reason why he automatically reaches for Bo during this scene.

Given his birth date was sniffed out by fans before me (1970) and this man looks like he’s a cosplayer sometimes, I truly believe Bo idolised Elvis Presley as a kid, and maybe a bit as an adult as well. He still enjoys listening to rock n’ roll from that era when he’s in a good mood. When he’s in a bad mood, or doing his business™️ in his sex dungeon/basement, that’s when the Marilyn Manson comes on.

All of them have had an alt phase of some sort. For Vincent it was goth, for Bo it was rivethead/industrial rock and for Lester it was grunge.

Les is also down bad fucking horrendous for alt people in general. Yes, he has magazines stuffed down his sofa, yes, they used to be Bo’s.

Bo is allergic to nuts. He also gets really nasty hay fever. I also think possibly him having sensory issues/picky eater could’ve led to meltdowns as we see in the opening. And really, it’s the 1970s/80s do you expect his parents to understand or sympathise?

In contrast, Lester has the constitution of a Greek god somehow and has probably eaten some absolutely vile shit as a kid.

I know most people interpret Vince as sweet and shy but… While I do think he’s more measured and withdrawn compared to Bo, I also think being the ‘favourite’ in terms of being Trudy’s little art prodigy contributed to a sort of spoilt brattiness esp as a kid. (Exhibit A: The ‘Bo Sux’ fridge art in the opening) As an adult, there’s still a sense of entitlement to him. What I’m saying is that he’s an insufferable art nerd lol. He definitely isn’t toothless and his arguments with Bo aren’t necessarily one-sided, he’s just capable of ignoring him when he wants to; he’s used to his twin, after all. While I do think he’s capable of being soft, don’t forget this man killed a woman in cold blood and recorded it. I also think he can get snippy enough during arguments to combat Bo’s generally sharp tongue.

Speaking of which, everyone in the (surviving) family knows ASL. It’s necessary when communicating with Vincent.

Again with how prolific a killer Vincent is, I suspect he may be the one who does the most murder out of all of them. Bo is the handsome ‘face’ of Ambrose, and Vincent is right under the seedy underbelly with a knife, ready to spill guts (and then sew it up again once he’s got them in the workshop). Lester is similar to Bo in that he mostly just guides people toward the town, but I do think he gets his own notions sometimes.

From a more x reader perspective, Bo strikes me as a man who’s most charming when he’s not trying to be. Of course he can put on an act for victims/tourists, but those are just empty words, y’know? Also, has a kinda cheesy side.

I know everyone has Jonesy as Lester’s dog but… I think she’s really Vincent’s. In the movie, she’s always seen with Vin or in the house of wax itself, it’s only when he dies that she goes to Lester. I actually think Les is a cat person (tell me he wouldn’t actually encourage their hunting habits for his own personal collection…) while Vin is a dog person. Also, hot take I think Bo loves snakes and reptiles.

Given that the House of Wax and Ambrose itself is a big ol’ art project, and we’ve seen the state of the church (permanently in the middle of dead ass crusty Trudy’s funeral) I think there may be a sort of difficulty letting go of their past in the brothers, maybe some hoarding as well (I mean we haven’t even seen some of the other houses in Ambrose but this is just speculation). We get the sense that Ambrose is a place where time stands still, forever, until its conservationists finally die. Idk I’m talking out my ass here

[cherrylng]

Muse Archive [CROSSBEAT (November 2009)]

The definitive edition! The Muse Archive

Everything about Muse in keywords, columns and a timeline. Text by Sumi Imai

01 - Muse's musical background Muse was formed in Teignmouth, Devon, South West England. All three moved to the area when they were around ten years old and attended the same secondary school. Matthew first joined Dom's band around 1992, when he was in his mid-teens. Following its break-up, the two approached Chris and the prototype of Muse was born.

Teignmouth, on the south coast, is a holiday resort town, crowded with tourists in the summer months, but usually "a boring town with nothing going on" (Matthew). Physically separated from the big city scene, the three were baptised in grunge, but the Britpop wave never reached their hometown, and this environment worked to their advantage as they forged ahead on their independent rock path.

Their first show was in 1994. The sound at the time was Nirvana with a little bit of Rush-style progressive metal, and the melodies and harmonies were UK pop-punk (both Dom and Chris had done cover songs by Mega City Four and Senseless Things in their previous bands). Matthew's diverse tastes played a big part in the unique evolution that followed.

His roots are very varied: Jimi Hendrix and alternative metal (Primus, Rage) for guitar, folk (Jeff Buckley, Simon & Garfunkel) for melodies and singing, and experimental Anglo-American and European alternative (Deus, Sonic Youth) for a hunger for innovation. His roots in electronic music are diverse, including Aphex Twin.

The biggest factor that makes their musicality unique is the classical influence. Matthew returned to the piano at the end of his teenage years and gravitated towards Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and Liszt. He also studied Spanish guitar for a while, and his flexible attitude and rich background in folk music and folk songs form the basis of Muse's diverse and brilliant sound.

Pic: 'Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3/Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43' Vladimir Ashkenazy, Universal UCCD-3493. "The piano solo in the introduction to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No 3 was a great influence on Butterflies and Hurricanes" (Matthew).

02 - The backgrounds and characters of the three members Matthew Bellamy was born in Cambridge, UK, in 1978. His father was the rhythm guitarist for The Tornados, who had an international hit (in 1962) with their mysterious space sounding single "Telstar", and became the first UK band to reach number one in the US and UK. Although he grew up in a musically privileged environment, his main instrument as a child was the piano. As well as classical music, he mainly preferred to play boogie-woogie/R&B, and only started playing guitar seriously when he was 14, when his parents divorced.

His mother, on the other hand, is a medium by blood and used to hold family séances when he was a child. Such experiences are the source of his interest in spirituality and science. He is also a thinker and reader, but he is not a liberal arts student and likes to exercise and fish. He is also surprisingly physical, having worked part-time as a painter, interior decorator, demolition worker and campsite cleaner.

He is usually a gentleman, a bit shy and quite mischievous. On stage, he gives it his all without fear, with the question of "what would I want to see if I were the audience?" in mind, and gives a performance so extreme that it is almost theatrical: "I want people to forget everything and just have fun".

Dom was born in Stockport, just outside Manchester. He is the same age as Matthew. He originally came to drumming from jazz. He likes to be organised and is somewhat stubborn when it comes to music. Loves Queen. During interviews, he follows up on Matthew's stories, who talks too fast, and they are on good terms with each other.

Chris is from Rotherham, near Sheffield. He is a year younger than the other two. He used to be a drummer, but took up bass when he was invited to join the band. He has a mild-mannered personality and is somewhat of a tosser. He is the only married man in the band or has four children and still lives in Devon.

Pic : These are the Tornados!! Matthew's dad, George Bellamy, far left.

03 - Sources of inspiration for lyrics A look at Matthew's lyrics from his early days to the present day reveals themes of body (matter) and spirit, death, religious beliefs, apocalypticism, conspiracy theories and the universe …… These themes appear repeatedly alongside pure love songs.

First, conspiracy theories. This was influenced by the shooting death of his uncle, a British Army officer, when he was four years old. The authorities told the family that it was an IRA terrorist attack, but the truth is still in the dark, and Matthew has since come to believe that some force or organisation (political, economic, religious, etc.) may be working in the dark to brainwash people and influence society through the media, etc. for their own benefit.

Space and science fiction are his romantic interests, but they are also linked to his religious views (Matthew is an atheist or agnostic). Scientific (or science fiction) explanations of the origins of mankind and the nature of all things seem to arouse his interest more than the "fantasy" of the Bible. For example, NASA's cover-up of the connection between pyramid-like debris in the "Cydonia" region of Mars and Egyptian ruins? Or the curiosity of the hypothesis that humans were created by alien genetic manipulation of apes? Matthew's favourite book by Zecharia Sitchin (The Mysterious Twelfth Planet and others) is a good source of information on this subject.

For Matthew, who has been aware of death and the soul since he was a child, death means returning to nothingness. But the feelings of the creator expressed in music remain forever. He sees music as a spiritual act in that it brings people together in a way that transcends the material.

He is also interested in survival techniques and recently bought a week's worth of emergency food and an axe in case the Earth is threatened with extinction.

Pic: 'The Mysterious Twelfth Planet' by Zecharia Sitchin, edited and translated by Ken Kashiwabara, published by Goma Books (out of print).

04 - A taste or two! Muse gossip Muse is hardly ever in the tabloids for their celebrity antics or scandals in the social world. However, they often surprise the public with their outlandish behaviour and fearless actions, which are extreme, exaggerated, and sometimes even laughable.

A famous incident occurred in 2006, when Matthew cancelled a whole day of interviews in the US because he had to evacuate out of the country due to the threat of an asteroid hitting New York. The truth is that he was mentally and physically unwell that day, but this incident added fuel to Matthew's 'eccentric and weird' legend.

The band also had a reputation for giving an all-out stage performance, but when Matthew threw his guitar in excitement, it hit Dom between the eyes, sending him to hospital. Conversely, Matthew hit himself in the face with the guitar in the heat of the moment, bleeding profusely and causing the show to be abruptly cancelled.

While they like to do big things, they are also willing to make enemies of big names and big business, which is typical of them. In 2002, when they found out that Celine Dion was going to use the name 'Muse' for her show, they demanded an injunction, saying they didn't want their music to be confused with that kind of music. They successfully won, as the band's name was already registered and trademarked. In the same year, when Nestlé used a Muse song in a coffee commercial without permission, the band, distrustful of the company's policies, were outraged and filed a lawsuit. They won this too, and the settlement was donated to charity.

Their eccentric fashion is also an "incident" in a sense? Matthew has dyed his hair crimson, blue, and bright yellow before. His "blue hair and red shirt" is legendary. Dom likes to wear loud coloured bottoms such as pink, yellow-green and yellow, as well as cosplay.

Pic by Teppei: Intense stage performances can sometimes lead to injury…….

1970s 7th December 1977 - Birth of Dominic James Howard. 9th June 1978 - Birth of Matthew James Bellamy. 2nd December 1978 - Birth of Christopher Tony Wolstenholme.

1980s Mid-1980s - The Bellamy family moves to Devon. All three of the members of Muse meet there.

1994 The band that would later become Muse is formed by the three of them

1998 24th December - Gigs in NY and LA lead to signing to Madonna's Maverick label.

1999 4th October - Debut album "Showbiz" released.

2000 1st March - First Japan tour (Shibuya On Air West) 5th-6th August - Performs at the first Summer Sonic Festival 10th-15th October - First Japan tour in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka (Shibuya Quattro, etc.).

2001 17th June - Second ablum "Origin of Symmetry" released. 11th-15th July - Unusual invitation-only gigs in Tokyo and Osaka (Zepp Tokyo, etc.) 28th November - 2nd December - Second Japan tour in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka (Zepp Tokyo, etc.).

2002 26th June - Pre-release of "Hullabaloo Soundtrack" in Japan (1st July in the UK) 26th July - Appearance at Fuji Rock Festival

2003 22nd September - Third album "Absolution" released.

2004 7th-14th February - Third Japan tour (Tokyo Bay NK Hall and others) June - Grand finale at Glastonbury Festival. The show is a huge success, but shortly afterwards Dom's father dies suddenly of a heart attack.

2005 2nd July - Live 8 charity event in Paris. 12th December - DVD 'Live From Absolution Tour' released.

2006 28th June - "Black Holes and Revelations" released in Japan first (3rd July in UK). 12th-13th August - Appearance at Summer Sonic. August Headliners at Reading/Leeds Festivals

2007 10th-19th March - Fourth Japan tour (Tokyo International Forum Hall A etc.) 16th-17th June - Sold-out shows at the newly refurbished Wembley Stadium for two consecutive days. Attracted around 160,000 people. The performance is recorded on 'HAARP'. 27th July - Live performance at Fuji Rock Festival. 28th October - Popular game series Guitar Hero III, with the song "Knights of Cydonia" included, was released.

2008 17th March - Live DVD release of "HAARP". 12th April - Appearance at the Teenage Cancer Trust charity event at the Royal Albert Hall. 17th August - Headliner at the V Festival.

2009 14th September - Release of fifth album "The Resistance".

Translator's Note: I've basically nearly covered all the known Muse articles in this magazine. The only one left is... the Top 100 Guitarists article. [shudders] God, that has so many parts to sift through...

[rheallsim]

Azure Keahi for @wrixie's "Jumping for Juniper" Bachelorette Challenge

Let me introduce Azure Keahi! 🏝️

Age: 23 y.o.

Pronouns: They/Them

Traits: Jealous, Maker, Vegetarian

Azure is a trans non-binary sim from Sulani. They're an only child, but they were the youngest by a couple years of all the other children living nearby, so they were constantly treated like a baby by friends and relatives. This lead to a bit of a tendency to over-achieve, rebel against authority, and try to prove to people that they're more grown up than they look.

[More under the cut!]

That being said, Azure is a bit of a quiet, old-soul. They're really into fixing up old things and engineering new furniture out of scraps they find around the island. They spend more time thinking and observing than they do talking, and love spending time outdoors in nature whenever they can.

They're a socialist anti-capitalist and have so far only worked odd jobs around the islands to supplement their family's rather meager income. One of their dreams is to live in a commune where its members help each other out and try to be as self-sufficient as possible. That may not be very feasible, but they live their life around the ethos of trying to consume as little as possible (and sticking it to 'The Man' whenever they can).

When it comes to love Azure is pretty inexperienced (never been kissed!), but they're impatient and eager to find their special someone and have so much love to give. They're very attracted to hard-working feminine sims, and love nothing more than sitting on the beach around a campfire talking about hopes and dreams for the future long into the night. <3

(They were assigned male at birth but take female hormones.)

Fun Facts:

Has had many burning crushes, but hasn't yet had the courage to act on them 😥

Their family has an ancient pet iguana named Humphrey that was treated like Azure's sibling growing up

They absolutely love anything with cherries in it 🍒

They're responsible for much of the "If it's called 'tourist season' why aren't we allowed to shoot them" graffiti hidden around Sulani 😅

Loves old-timey film noir and mystery movies (The Maltese Falcon is their absolute favourite movie of all time and they have a powerful crush on Peter Lorre 👀)

Still doesn't have their driver's license (not much call for it in Sulani, though they are pretty good at piloting boats of all kinds!)

Likes: Film noir/mystery movies, cherry-flavoured everything, grunge music and aesthetic, tinkering, thrifting, thunderstorms

Dislikes: being condescended to, pessimism, capitalism, cooking, littering, tourists, the colour pink, shopping

I tried my best to make them as CC-Free as possible! Wrixie, please feel free to dress them up or re-do them however you like to match your aesthetic/preferences. ^^ Also get in touch if you want more info or have any other questions. I'm so excited to see how this BC goes! <3

Here's a screenshot of their likes/dislikes and traits in-game:

[quokka143]

cities in the us I think skz would be from

♡ chan - seattle, washington

I will die on the hill that chan is seattle coded. he just fits the grunge aesthetic so well, and after he performed smells like teen spirit in seattle it just solidified it for me. skz music definitely has some grunge influences so I think he would have gotten his start in the underground seattle music scene.

♡ lee know - new orleans, lousiana

where the weird and the mysterious thrive, so too would lee know. his entire vibe is dark and alluring on the outside but once you look past the exterior you see someone full of resilience, strength, and endless things to discover and to me that's very new orleans. since he makes such a charismatic host I feel like he'd be hosting walking tours through the fernch quarter where he can tell some ghost stories here and there and maybe give the tourists a little scare for his own entertainment.

♡ changbin - jersey city, new jersey

if you say changbin isn't jersey coded you're lying to yourself. our loud, muscular king would fit in perfectly with the jersey gym and beach culture. I could see him going to the gym during the day and out to the clubs at night to shake his ass to his favorite songs with his friends.

♡ hyunjin - newport, rhode island

okay follow me on this one, I know this sounds a little obscure but for some reason when I think of hyunjin as someone from the usa all I can think about is him living in some new england town painting the fall colors or sitting on his porch in a seaside home painting the ocean. it seems so peaceful and I feel like that suits him.

♡ han - new york city, new york

hanji is so nyc coded to me and since the maxident trailer lives rent free in my head, here we are. like imagine him living in a little new york apartment while he chases his music producer dreams. every night on his way home he pops into the bodega down the street to grab something to eat and gives their resident cat a few pets before heading home to work on more tracks in his home studio.

♡ felix - miami, florida

I feel like our aussie beach boy just needs to be somewhere warm and sunny with a good nightlife and let's be honest, miami is the place for that. he'd probably spend his days at the local dance studio before heading down the beach for a swim to relax after.

♡ seungmin - portland, oregon

seungmin's entire vibe just screams cozy coffee shop on a rainy day. I could see him sat by a window reading a book and sipping his americano just spending the afternoon soaking up the warmth and delicious smells inside the cafe. he would probably have a favorite spot he always sits where he can gaze out the window and people watch.

♡ jeongin - los angeles, california

we already know jeongin is from busan, he's accustomed to beautiful beaches, colorful places to explore, and great food, so to me it makes sense he'd be from los angeles. I feel like he'd be working his way towards being a singer and maybe giving some vocal lessons on the side to help himself along. on the weekends he's probably exploring some new place to eat with his friends.

[irbcallmefynn]

Cringetober 2023 #28: Alt Fashion

Have a kinda sorta grunge Euphi! I like to think she's been around for a while. Don't want to decide an exact age (or even a range) but I know she's substantially older than Fynn or Nauno.

Super happy with how this turned out! Had to look up a lot of references to get an idea of what I wanted (also what alt fashion even was), but I think the outfit is really nice! The plaid took a second to figure out how to do, but I have learned that multiply blending is the secret!

Also note the red tint of the streetlight. Because bats! The City City is very conscious of both its bat population and the beauty of the night (it's not Earth, hence why the night sky is pretty much always purple). The City City is the crown jewel of Country. Not the capital (though it has been considered), but it is often called "The city of Perfect Nights" and is quite the tourist trap. Perfect for a nefarious polycule looking for easy targets!

[magpiewithacamera]

But do you all know about the love letter Chris wrote us all on a trash can lid? It's at the MOHAI! Okay he actually wrote it to JP Patches but you know, us by extension...

[empatheticpsychopath]

Soulless

[jincks]

. . . hey siri, play preacher's daughter by ethel cain╰──╮Welcome to ⋆⁺ Saturn ✧ !

18+ ONLY | Lazy-Literate | Gritty mystery & darker themes beware.

welcome to the fictional small-town of saturn, tennessee, a sluggish, somnolent dot on the map of many uninterested tourists.

it is the kind of town that young locals run from, and bored, broken souls run to. the town seems lost in time, quiet and strange, but there is a community to be found if you decide to stay ... saturn has been known to have an off-putting charm to it, lord knows why. those who have been here for generations, living and dying within it's tumbleweed boundaries, harbor old secrets, and turn one too many blind eyes to the layers of missing persons posters, some of which have been rotting for decades on the telephone poles. many say the town is cursed, something in its soil or its air luring in the tormented, the too-curious, or the evil.

saturn is a (brand new!!!) free-form, character-driven rp server, set within a strange, half-living small town, welcoming themes of mystery, grunge, and the cruel realities of human life. it is not a supernatural server, though may feature paranormal elements as our lore deepens.

come visit us for spell, if you wish!

[gorbalsvampire]

For the OC ask thingy!

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts? 

(Besides VAMPIRES! I mean 😆)

Fucking hell... ask me the hard ones, Marshie...

OK. Sorcha's original concept was very much Of The Social Media Age. She's an Instagram vampire, an underground party planner, a drug chemist, she's had at least one Vice article written about her. That aspect got played down as she became more #harrowcore over time - actually, that's another thing, the NA necromancy novels that have come out in the last few years have definitely pulled me in a different direction. Sorcha would not be as she is now without Ninth House, Harrow the Ninth, The Library of the Dead... I can drop literary influences for her because she's listened them all as audiobooks and that's part of her goth gril deal.

Alistair's history is inextricable from Glasgow's, in the twentieth century. He's the character I have a full CV worked out for, the spots where he intrudes into and overwrites real historical figures are clear, the incidents which led to his ghouling, jailing and Embrace are all there, he clawed his way out of the Gorbals and their glow up is his as well.

Luciana has an aesthetic influence. Venice is a wonderful city in which to be an old vampire - elegant and decaying, timeless and under siege by modernity, tourist trap yet people still live and work and study there. I will die mad that V:tM closed it off so effectively by saying GIOVANNI TURF and putting the majority of the player base off the place entirely, but it also plays directly into my hands so I'm not going to complain about it too much. But anyway: the rot and romance and fragility and the kind of... authenticity, but also the reality that it is a living city, that the airport is just over there and the cruise ships make the foundations shake, and real death is not pretty and romantic, it's rank and arbitrary and carnal? That's where Luci comes from.

Santino is about the music. Of course he is. He is inextricable from that Eighties-Nineties period of music culture where print journalism was a thing, indie wasn't a genre, and specifically the turning point where goth was deemed Unfashionable and grunge was everywhere. The moment it all crystallised for me was writing the fake Quietus snipped about Driftback: how if they'd come along ten years earlier they'd have been goth rock superstars, ten years later and they'd have been up there with your female-fronted-gothic-metal boom. That sense of being out of time is core to Santino. It comes to all vampires eventually, and he was dealing with it before he was even Embraced.

Penny is a Bond girl gone bad. There's no other way of putting it. She was always rooted in that Cold War spy-versus-spy drama, even though her origins have shifted further back to Bletchley Park and Edwardian England. Her exaggerated Englishness is a bit she can't put down now that the Sabbat has burned out so much of her selfhood, too: she's an alien, she's a legal alien, she's a Camarilla English girl in Sabbat Arizona.

Riley was deliberately engineered around a sort of Tipping the Velvet point: Victorian queerness and gender and sexology vaguely simmering away in the backstory. I'd been reading A Bitter Remedy and Daughters of Night earlier in the year so I think "historical queerness and class barriers" were definitely in the mix.

[wumblr]

there's something about the way culture chews people up and spits them out. nobody noticed sam phillips' divorce album until alison krauss and robert plant covered sister rosetta goes before us, after her ex husband finally won a grammy for a film soundtrack, ten years after they lost the nomination for inventing beatlesesque in 1994. i've never even listened to her decade-long catalogue of christian music because i can't relate to anything she had to say before she lost her faith, and now the only thing people remember of her is the gilmore girls scoring, while she sells handwritten copies of lyrics off her website to make a living.

slowed and reverb mixes are just vaporwave with vektroid cut out of it because she was too trans, which, anyway, was chopped and screwed with the actual toothsome questions about copyright cut out because dj screw and george floyd were too black, because you can taste the DXM just by listening to it, no ability to remain blissfully unaware it's a drug while it's being baked into viral bread for the joke, even though nobody remembers that's the same reason voodoo doughnuts is famous, despite the line of tourists out the door every day.

the gilbert o sullivan vs biz markie sampling lawsuit was already completely forgotten in favor of the workarounds girl talk and neil cicierega developed years before biz markie died, and now we're all stuck wandering around the danielewski household as if it ever had swimming pools in the backrooms, as if it was ever a government facility featured in award-winning videogame "control," a reference that nobody cares to get, all while mark posts on facebook about being a dad and annie is missing in action because she never got out from under an oil baron pretending to be a friend of her late father's, buying her copyrights when the label shut down mid-project on haunted, just to leave her contractually unable, under court order, to sing the songs she wrote. the work she did pseudonymously to avoid contractual stipulations remains harder to find than mariah's passion project, her grunge album, secretly released under another name, with mariah mixed as background vocals, because it wasn't marketable, because they could only let her record grunge as a joke, as a warmup for her "real" recording sessions -- all while people know her for only one thing, because the loose affiliation with christianity is enough to net her $6k per million streams every year if she stays lucky.

alan turing built the computer that chris stratchey recorded the first electronic music on at an overnight programming session, years before wendy carlos transitioned at the bbc radiophonic lab only for half her catalogue to become lost media, which remains on trend for youtube ad revenue while her lost work remains unfound. marina abramovic has been thrown to the wolves because of something she said in a journal in the 70s, while the wolves are harassing her over an insane political conspiracy, while her face turns up photoshopped beyond recognition on a mug at a bank, while nobody knows ulay died of cancer in 2020. it's gustave flaubert's world, we're all just receiving ideas in it.

[gerogerigaogaigar]

Various artists - Saturday Night Fever

Do you know what your threshold for camp is? If you can make it to the end of this album then it's higher than most people's. From the absolutely iconic Bee Gees tunes to the inspired instrumentals to the absolutely unhinged disco covers of classical music this album is a mood and a half. Some of the tracks like The Trammps' Disco Inferno, KC & the Sunshine Band's Boogie Shoes, or anything by the Bee Gees are certified classics. Other aren't as well known but should be. The idea of making a disco version of Mussorgsky's Night On Bald Mountain is absolutely insane, the fact that it works is sincerely confusing to me. I love this stuff so much, it's so much more inspired and fun than you would think. Then again I'm a huge disco fan so I'm not an unbiased source. Like I said you need to be able to tolerate a lot of camp, but if you bask in random aesthetics like I do then you'll be right at home.

Pulp - Different Class

Luscious britpop with aspirations of art rock. That's what pulp brings to the table with Different Class. Jarvis Cocker manages to bring class consciousness and sexuality together and deliver with the deadpan energy of someone who is just narrating their everyday life. Different Class is just full of fantastic lines. Obviously the sort of hit Common People is just loaded with digs at bourgeois poverty tourists, Pencil Skirt has the exquisite line "But I've kissed your mother twice / And now I'm working on your dad" and I Spy has "The crowd gasp at Cocker's masterful control of the bicycle / Skillfully avoiding the dog turd outside the corner shop." Fantastic stuff, if I could write lines like that I would be famous.

Crosby, Stills & Nash - s/t

I think it's a little less fully realized and dynamic than their follow up with Neil Young, but the debut by supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash is still quite delightful. There's an angelic majesty to the way they compose harmonies from the bombastic Suite: Judy Blue Eyes to the pastoral Guinnevere. It's an essential piece of late 60s hippie folk camp.

Pearl Jam - Ten

Eddie Vedder had a voice that belonged in a hair metal band and he used it to make the mopiest music imaginable. Ten cemented the grunge sound as something beyond a miniscule punk movement pushing it into the mainstream. It also pushed the sound towards a more classic rock / hard rock sound that would become a major staple of later bands like Soundgarden, Alive In Chains, and Stone Temple Pilots. The album is moody and heavy, dealing with themes of alienation, abuse, homelessness, suicide, it's bleak stuff. But it put a voice to the darkest human feelings with a sincerity that definitely resonated with people.

The Police - Synchronicity

A pop rock masterpiece. Sting's anxiously urgent delivery and cryptic lyricism blend with the manic and complex percussion of Stewart Copeland. It The Police's finest album. Most people know classic stalker song Every Breath You Take but there are so many standouts from the chaotic arpeggios of the two title tracks to the psychotic breakdown that is Mother or the incredible drumming on Murder By Numbers. It's the softest of all their albums, but the most artistically concise as well.

Erykah Badu - Mama's Gun

The rich depth, both musical and emotional, that can be felt on this album is enough to drown in. Erykah Badu perfects the confessional song airing every emotion, every grievance, every guilty thought into an hour plus epic. As a member of the Soulquarians she also had access to an all star cast of musicians and producers including J Dilla and Questlove. The beats have subtle elements of funk with strong jazzy overtones, jazzier than her neo soul contemporaries for sure. Mama's Gun probably runs a little long at an hour and ten minutes, but the long songs are worth it. This album is the blueprint for things I like about neo soul and honestly even the albums I like better refer so heavily to it that Mama's Gun ought to be remembered as one of the greatest achievements in the genre.

[alpaca-clouds]

Word Search Once More

Alright, @mikaharuka has tagged me and this time I just get to choose 5 from her 20. And the collection of words to search I ended up choosing were those 5:

Cloud, Style, Sweet, Whisper, Table

Because those 5 kinda beg to have parts taken from Underneath a Clear Winter Sky, my little (well, if you call 80k "little") BDSM AU fic.

Also I got tagged by @udaberriwrites and @tsunderewatermelon with the following words:

clung, hit, scratch, flick, poke

epic, power, fruit, chain, brilliant

As such here the fair warning: Some of the excerpts are gonna be spicy :3

I am also tagging the usual people right back xD

@udaberriwrites @tsunderewatermelon @mikaharuka @lena-hills @kayedium-writes

Your words shall be:

Hair, Breath, Tension, Soup, Annoying

Well, let's start, shall we?

Cloud

The cold winter air was wonderful, even though it was not another starry night. Thick clouds were covering the sky, glowing in the ominous yellow reflection of the city lights.

He noticed his hands shaking, as he sat down into his car. Worse still: The entire thing had given him blue balls.

He leaned his head against the steering wheel, just trying to focus on his breathing. He was getting through this. Because he always did. Somehow.

It took him five minutes and a cigarette though, before he dared to turn on the motor, driving the two streets over to the bar. Not because he was too lazy to walk now, but because he did not want to walk, once he was leaving sometime around 3 in the morning.

It was still a bit early. He would not open up for at least 45 minutes. So he dared to go to the employee toilet, just to finish the darn job. He really hated this, hated what he was doing. But if he did not do it now, his cock would be hurting for the entire fucking night.

Style

“They already had it in the past.” He stopped cleaning the bar counter, which was located in the middle of the room. Admittedly, for a vampire, Carmilla was less oriented towards the past. The entire establishment was furnished in a more modern grunge style. The walls were concrete and metal, with somewhat artistic light structures put into them. Magic spells, which needed renewing at least once a month.

While the bar was in the middle of the room, there was a small stage to the left of it. The rest of the room was furnished with tables and chairs.

At times they would have life acts. Heck, for some weird reason it amused Carmilla to no end, to allow very mundane humans to come here during the Festival. For some reason she was not worried that it would get to be one of those “hidden tourist gems”. Or maybe she was actually hoping for it. After all it would most certainly help her feed her undead customers.

Sweet

Her lips brushed against his, as she put it around his neck, the leather soft against his skin. “I have another question,” she purred.

“Ask away.” His voice was barely more than a whisper.

“Do you want handcuffs, too?”

He was blushing, but once again found himself nodding. “Yes. Please.” He paused. “Mistress.”

She seemed to like that, judging by her smile. “See, you can be such a good boy.”

This time he did not answer. Just allowed her to cuff his hands behind his back, before she fastened the leash to his collar. She shot him another sweet smile, before turning around, her hand softly grabbing the leash. “Now, heel.” Really, he did feel kinda stupid at first. Not to speak of that little fear of someone just happening to come here and see them. Of course he knew that it did not really matter if someone did. What were they going to do? Arrest them? For a leash? Probably not. Yet, he could not stop his mind from coming up with scenarios like that.

Whisper

He remembered how he had done it before. And while he preferred having his fingers to help, he most certainly was able to do this in this way. He once more allowed his tongue to dart over her folds, exploring, pressing into her. He tasted her, so salty and sour, so wonderful. He listened to those sighs, enjoyed the way her fingers pulled on his hair ever so slightly. It felt amazing. His heart was beating to his mouth, as he managed to grab onto her clit with his lips, pulling on it slightly, while drawing little circles onto the tip with his tongue.

“That's a good boy,” she whispered, her fingers almost scraping his scalp. She leaned back on the bank, giving out another moan. “Yes. That's just it.”

It was all he needed to hear. All he needed to ever hear. It made him feel so good. He just continued, ignoring that by now even his nose had gotten wet from it. It did not really matter. All that mattered were her sighs, those whispered little words calling him a good boy.

Then, finally, he earned himself a soft moan, followed by another one.

Table

Things happened too fast for his mind to actually catch up with it in the next moment. One moment he was tossed through the air, then he landed against something hard. Someone grabbed his arms, pulled them up over his head, while he felt claws against his throat.

“Don't get fucking witty on me,” Carmilla growled. “I could kill you at any moment. Do you even understand that?”

He was panting, his back hurting from getting pressed against what turned out to be a low wooden table. “I do understand,” he pressed out. “I just don't care.”

He did not like the laugh Carmilla gave a moment later. He did not like it at all. With one nod from her, Miriam was there in front of him, her fingers opening the buttons of his shirt. This was indeed something he did not like. Because he did not know where this was going. Especially not, as the vamp girl opened his trousers as well.

“Listen to me, you pathetic little shit,” Carmilla hissed. “You will tell me one way or another. It is your choice on whether or not there will be pain before that.”

Clung

"No. She would not fight Laura. Not physically at least. They had a long argument. I gave you my blood and then got you out."

He tried to imagine it. Of course she could easily carry him, could she not? Having increased strength and all that. God, he really had almost died. If they had arrived just a few minutes later, he would have died. He would have actually died.

This thought did send a shiver through his entire body, as he clung onto her. "I did not want to die. I did not want to die without seeing you again. I… I did not want to die."

Hit

He tried to get up, as he hit the pavement. He really tried. But his legs were too shaky. They would not hold him. All his body would allow him was to crawl over to the door. Even taking out his cigarettes took him more than one attempt – not even to speak of trying to light one.

Worst part was, that he could absolutely see her burning, cutting or ripping off his cock. He did not know what men had done to this woman – but it had left her with enough hate to last centuries.

So he sat there, smoking, almost waiting for Sasha to come out and kick him further down the street. She did not, though. At least not for now. He just sat there, he smoked. First one, then two cigarettes, in the hopes that it would calm down his nerves or stop the shaking.

It did not, though.

He barely noticed what was happening around him, the searing pain being too encompassing for him to deal with anything else. So the voice came out of nowhere, really. “Hector? Are you okay?”

Scratch

“I… I think I would like to kiss you,” he replied.

Her hand extended towards him, till she was touching his shoulder. She put the still half full glass onto the counter beside herself, before pulling him close. “Then kiss me.”

So, he just did it. Her lips now tasted of chocolate and coffee and just a bit of vanilla, as her tongue darted into his mouth. She was a good kisser – though he supposed she had over 200 years to perfect the skill. Once more her fingers were running through his hair, slightly scratching his scalp in a way that was strangely alluring. Her other hand, however, took his, putting it onto her thigh in a wordless but clear command.

Now putting his own glass to the side, he just did what he was asked, his fingers gliding over her skin, feeling it. Not quite warm but not really cold, either. He was not quite sure what he was allowed to do, but in the end he assumed she would stop him if he went too far.

Flick

He did not even have the mind to do anything but. Lying down onto his back, he allowed for her to straddle him, her hip just grinding against his skin. There was confidence in her eyes, as she looked at him, her fingers softly caressing his chest.

Then she bowed down, kissed his neck, teasing him with her fangs without biting him. Her breath was so wonderful against his skin, like a spring breath. Then she nibbled his earlobe, until he could no longer hold back a moan. Yet, she would not yet let him glide into her. Instead she was now peppering kisses onto his chest, her lips finally closing around his right nipple, her tongue flicking above it. She wanted to tease him, make him yearn for her more. As if there was any “more” in this.

“Please,” he begged. “Please, just…”

She smiled. “Please? Please, what?”

He swallowed. “Please, fuck me.”

Poke

So he was understanding of Stephanie, who did not manage to resist any longer, once more chatting with some friends over WhatsApp, when he returned. He shot her a long gaze, but then returned to his position behind the bar.

It was close to one in the morning and aside from a half-asleep Dekart, another vamp and that were cat there seemed to be nobody left.

“Maybe we’ll just close up early,” he muttered.

Stephanie just nodded in agreement.

He poked the beat-up mage. “You want something else?”

Dekart squinted at him, yawned. “Just… Gimme one more, please.”

“Of course.” He just hoped he would not have to call a cab for the guy in the end.

Power

He sighed, evading her gaze by once more directing his eyes up towards the starry sky. The cold night air was burning in his lungs, as he tried to fight down the less pleasant memories of his. “I am not practicing, because there is not really a need for my skills. Nobody needs necromancers these days, really.”

“Yet, you learned the craft.”

“I was a kid, when I learned. I kid with magic powers and too easy access to books.” He gave a shrug. A kid without many friends, too. A kid picking up dead animals in the park.

“And you never specialized in anything else,” she noted, but he just gave a shrug.

“There is not much to do. The reason to learn magic, is to make money out of it, isn't it?” He sounded more bitter than intended, as he could well hear his father saying those words. “I make my money otherwise.” Not to mention he was an outcast from the mage community.

Fruit

"You make us another drink and then we go to your room and… listen a bit to music." Her tone made clear, that she was actually planning on something else - not that he was one to mind.

So, he just agreed. Making another drink, before going to his room, where he put on a record - deciding for something soft, as it seemed to fit the mood. He was not entirely sure where Isaac had gone - but he was somewhat glad that they had the place for themselves.

When she sat onto the edge of his bed, he sat down besides her, enjoying it when she leaned against him. Even now he could make out that light fruity smell of hers, as she was still sipping on her drink.

Only after a while, she looked up at him, stretching to press her lips against his. Her kiss grew quickly deep. Demanding even. But he just gave in.

Chain

"Do you want to know what I've planned for you tonight, puppy?"

"Yes," he breathed. "Mistress…"

"I want to know how you react to temperature play. So be a good puppy and lie down on the bed."

He knew why she had said it. Giving him a chance to object, because he had not been sure about it, when they had originally talked. But standing here in front of her like this, he would have agreed to basically anything. "Yes, mistress." He sat on the bed, allowing her to press him down against it. It was a wide, but simple bed with a metal frame - a metal frame that was almost ready-made for guiding the short chain through it, as she connected the two cuffs, tying him down.

"Now be a good pup and wait for me," she instructed, as if he had a choice in the matter.

[Could not find Epic and Brilliant in Winter Sky - so @udaberriwrites got me on that]