#the lyric changes r HORRIFIC

[whenipe]

its come to my attention from the tags on this post some of you have never witnessed dance of the vampires aka broadway tdv…. so if anyone is curious here is every herbfred joke made in that show.

[fearsmagazine]

TEETH - Review

SYNOPSIS: “Dawn O’Keefe is an evangelical Christian teen with a powerful secret not even she understands – when men violate her, her body bites back. Literally. From Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) and Anna K. Jacobs (POP!),TEETH, based on the cult classic film of the same name, is a fierce, rapturous, and savagely entertaining new musical crackling with irrepressible desire and ancient rage – a dark comedy conjuring the legend of one girl whose sexual curse is also her salvation.” - Press Release

REVIEW: In 2007 filmmaker Mitchell Lichtenstein, the son of artist Roy Lichtenstein, unleashed his tale of a contemporary American female teenager who discovers her body possesses a physical secret when she encounters male violence, vagina dentata; a myth that is found across cultures and eras, about a vagina that has a lethal set of teeth.

In the stage adaptation of Lichtenstein’s vision, Anna K. Jacobs and Michael R. Jackson successfully retain the story's essence while making it fresh for a theater audience. In this adaptation, the lead character, Dawn's home life is restructured, with her father now portrayed as a charismatic preacher and her brother, Bard, still grappling with issues from their youth but influenced by technology rather than as a heavy metal/skinhead. These changes create a more dynamic structure for their dysfunctional family unit. Notably, the myth plays a more central role in the stage adaptation, and the supporting cast of teenage promise keeper girls serve as a Greek chorus. My guest and I both felt that the staging had a feel of Stepehen King’s “Carrie,” his novel, DePalma’s film and maybe the rival of the play. TEETH reaches its climax in a visually captivating and chaotic clash of religious conservatism and feminism, expertly staged in a way that surpasses Frank Oz's never fully realized ending in the film adaptation of "Little Shop of Horrors." Incorporating many of the contemporary social sexual issues in our zeitgeist with satire makes for an extremely entertaining and thought provoking theatrical experience.

The musical numbers were a delight. The combination of traditional Broadway musical songs and 70's and 80's pop songs in Jacobs' music was excellent. Jackson's lyrics added to the story and provided a splendid blend of humor and drama. While some of the lyrics were risqué, they never felt as shocking as something from "South Park" by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Jacobs and Jackson provided some magical musical moments that showcased the entire cast's vocal abilities. Choreographer Raja Feather Kelly did a remarkable job in creating dance routines, despite having to work in horrific moments at times.

The production design, set, lighting, SFX, and sound designs are all of Broadway caliber. The stage design employs impressive elements with subtle movements that contribute to the narrative. At certain moments, all of these elements come together to create a truly magical theater experience. The set design takes advantage of every inch of space in bringing the story to life. Most of the play's costumes are effective, they become more creative and interesting in the final act.

The cast of TEETH is nothing short of brilliant. Lead actress Alyse Alan Louis shines in her portrayal of Dawn. Her performance effortlessly blends innocence, comedic timing, powerful vocals, and a nuanced handling of sensual scenes. Meanwhile, her male counterparts—Steven Pasquale, Jason Gotay, Will Connolly, and Jared Loftin—face a daunting task. Not only do they create memorable characters, but they also navigate multiple roles and costume changes with ease, all the while delivering captivating musical numbers that showcase their talents. This ensemble cast is truly exceptional, and one can only hope that they will grace us with a cast recording of the show.

Michael R. Jackson, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winner of "A Strange Loop," has created a show that is consistently selling out. My guest, who was initially unaware of the show's premise and the creative team, was astounded upon learning about it at the end. They were also unfamiliar with the source material, which left them with a strong desire to seek it out. From my perspective, any adaptation that inspires viewers to seek out the original work is a significant accomplishment. "TEETH" ranks among my legendary theater experiences, akin to my cherished memories of attending the original Broadway productions of "Little Shop of Horrors," "Phantom of the Opera," "Les Misérables," and "Hadestown," that come to mind. "TEETH" offers an unforgettable and haunting theatrical experience that should not be missed.

TEETH contains intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and strong language. Age Recommendation: Teeth is appropriate for audiences ages 17+. The play runs approximately 1 hour and 55 minutes with no intermission.. Performances are Tuesday through Sunday at 7:30 PM, with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 PM. Tickets are $120.00 plus $2.00 fee. Tickets are now on sale at https://my.playwrightshorizons.org/events. For more information, visit www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/plays/teeth/#play-body.

Review By: Joseph B Mauceri

[solasan]

band name + album + songwriting + change + tattoo + voice + seven for Marnie? 👀

infamous MC questions

TYSM amber

Band name: How did they and the others come up with the band name? Has the name changed since it was founded?

they definitely went through a few iterations. rowan fought hard for rowan & the hartettes but was quickly vetoed. they threw around the idea of making some seven-based number joke but couldnt come up w anything they liked LOL. jazzy and iris played around with a few flower-based names, but that didn't Fit The Vibe (bc the vibe is a lil less flowers, a lil more everything on fire).

i think hornet's nest itself was a seven-marnie joint effort? they were playing around with the idea of it for a song n then figured it actually worked better as a name. marnie Very Seriously Considered changing the name after he left, but they'd been established as hornet's nest for two EPs already and had a growing fanbase, so she didnt think the disruption was worth it.

Albums: What are some of the albums the band has released? Are they a consistent style? What themes did they explore?

so gasping was their first EP (the one maya has on vinyl that marnie's super embarrassed about) and that was when they were kind of figuring out their style. probably more punk than grunge rock? kind of them just trying to find their groove. there's a few ethel cain southern gothic style references lyrically and a lot of angsty horrific references to bodies in the marshes outside their hometown (It's Symbolic For Seven & Marnie's Buried Trauma) LOL

i think possibly they released another EP after that but i dont have clear Thoughts on that yet?

then was take cover, which is their final release with seven LOL. leaning more into grunge rock now (heavy guitar & bass sounds, more refined but still intense vocals). this one's pure anarchy bc marnie's fully rejected (and been rejected by) her parents and seven has fewer songs where he's centre-stage so there's a kind of? tension? in some of his songs. lots of rage against the machine type shit. also some more gothic americana, since that's just Their Thing Now

under the bus is next and it's a hate-letter to seven lol no it isn't. there's a couple angry songs abt nebulous betrayal/getting thrown under the bus by circumstance that r juuust vague enough that marnie can feasibly get away with saying theyre not about him, tho 🤥. it's kind of more an album abt growing up than anything, n they definitely have a more mature sound. probably there's smth abt liminal spaces as a metaphor for the Ephemeral Nature Of Youth (And Love) or smth

and then finally there's their most recent album glass houses :) so named bc a few of the songs are rewritten versions of stuff she wrote when she was still living w her parents, n the whole album kind of... deals w the isolation she felt during that time? but from her pov as an adult now? we got references to breaking windows, we got references to being cut off from the world by glass, we got it all. (also forecast fires is on there bc it's a heavily reworked once-sweet love song she wrote abt seven when she was pining years ago, but this time it's abt the inevitability of catastrophe and how knowing what's coming can be like... soul destroying)

Songwriting: What’s their process? Is it different than it was when they used to write songs with Seven?

i'm not sure that she has a specific Process tbh. i think she probably comes up with lines in the shower/bath quite a bit, if only bc she's a shower singer and she likes to experiment. she's gotten into the habit of keeping her phone nearby when she showers so she can peek out of the curtains and write stuff down in the notes app lol. uhh i think tunes come to her before words do; she finds patterns she likes chord-wise and then goes from there?

writing songs w seven was a lot more collaborative obv so yeah it's different!! but also i think she was a lot less critical abt her songs n ideas when they worked on stuff together bc she kind of... always trusted seven to tell her if something didnt work or could be improved??? n now she has to do that herself LOL. it takes her longer to come up w songs without him than it did with him, but i think they're a bit more streamlined and perfected than they were before??

Change: How has their personality changed since Seven left the band? Are those changes related to Seven leaving?

she's still got her humour, which is good, but she's a lot more serious abt the band/their music/their future. she tries to take more responsibility for them now, bc seven's not around to kind of split that with her, and she's stepped into the role of leader bc no one else will? so there's a lot of pressure there, both from herself, orion, and (less intentionally) the band, who have kind of gotten into the habit of turning to marnie for help n advice.

she's also a lot more spiteful LOL. she's generally angrier, if only bc (since she voted to keep seven as a lead singer n not a backup) she rly feels like she didnt do anything wrong to him and it's fucked up that he left. uhhh more trust and abandonment issues than ever <3 which means more self-destructive behaviours!!! party drugs r a big one (she didnt used to rly touch much beyond weed before he left) but also hypersexuality since as someone else who deals w my issues thru vacillating wildly between hypo and hypersexuality i like 2 drop my trauma in there she finds it's a good way to get out of her head (shes always found sex was good for that, even when it was happy n healthy w seven), but then she has some issues around feeling dirty/regretting it, so. :shrug:

Tattoo: Did they keep the tattoo with Seven’s initials? Why/why not? What was that decision/execution process like? (Bonus: What do they think of Seven keeping their tattoo?)

amber look at me look me in the eyes. thank u so much for askin this one, this one is the one i've been MOST excited for. wuv u.

anyway LOL NO SHE DOESNT. the day she got the news that he'd joined a new band, she went to the nearest studio that took walk-ins and asked them to cover it up. it was very much an unplanned thing; she was angry and hurt and sad and she just... couldnt keep it. having his initials on her — like a brand, like ownership, and she hadnt minded that when he was hers too, but now he's gone and she's still his and she feels pathetic about that — was too difficult. when she walked into the studio she said "i need this covered up" and they said "ok, with what?" and she said

um eventually she settled on getting a big spider tattoo that kind of curls around her wrist and onto the back of her hand??? its butt is what covers the S.D. specifically. funny thing is that marnie hates spiders and always fucking has, but it was one of the first things she saw the studio offering, and she would literally rather have that on her body than seven. liar. seven also knows she hates spiders lol so he's probably definitely hurt abt that :)

seven keeping his tattoo feels like a mockery to her LOL. there's no part of her that's like oh he kept it bc he loves me, there's hope~ it is ALLLL "he's trying to freak me out". that doesnt mean that a possessive part of her doesnt like seeing it on him, tho, even if she'll deny that to the day she dies.

Voice: What does their singing voice sound like? Do you have voiceclaims(s) for them?

answered here xx

Seven: Do you have headcanons about their friendship and/or romantic relationship (past or future)? What do you imagine some of their best memories are? What do you think some of Seven’s favourite things about your MC were/are?

answered here

[ariapmdeol]

I don't think I have to sign these anymore lol but still, 8:11 anon back once more

Yeah I noticed that S was canon, considering the start of the DLC implies such. I should have been patient, my bad.

Purple? Damn it genuinely looks blue. Easy mistake to make, thank you for clarifying. And noted on the ending conditions, it's all very interesting just how much matters.

Kanou even in death and specifically after threatening Atou, still wants to help out. RIP <3 and I figured something akin to that? My running theory was that he might have been a doll at that point or something of the sorts.

I'll finish what's currently in the playlist and then see about contacting you, thank you.

UTSUGI THE WET CAT THAT REALLY NEEDS THERAPY PLEASE THIS MAN. They all suck. All these men suck and that's why they're so incredibly good characters.

Oh, do you have links to those solved ciphers, if you don't mind? They sound fun!

And oh! I completely forgot about Seodore disappearing from the picture and seemingly his entire existence. I assume that has to do with the DLC start sequence, so I won't ask but am very intrigued.

All these changes are so incredibly cool. This game is awesome. I wish I had better words but it's just so goddamn good.

I'll also reply to the music answer as well: WEEEE glad my instinct was correct!

If I may, next one for consideration because I have Hajime and Utsugi brainrot: The Good In Me by Jon Bellion. Without thinking it over twice. Yes I am going insane over these characters I love gay tragedies where both parties really need help.

And!! I am so willing to shout about 8:11 once you start playing it. So good

I HOPE YOU HAVE FUN WITH THE DLC!! the first scene of the dlc is actually one of my favorites in the whole game (oughghgh i understand whats going on there i explode).

I'll put the solved ciphers under the cut, though be warned that they won't make sense to you yet! These show up in DLC and the DLC 2020 credits, and i'll end with the ones from the artbook (alas no images for those bc we're not supposed to share artbook things publicly BUT i think the ciphers are fine).

YEAH. YEAH YEAH YEAH!!!! THIS GAME IS SO GOOD. every single detail is planned out in INCREDIBLE DETAIL, there's foreshadowing for things that only show up in Interlude as early as chapter FOUR. I HIGHLY recommend a rewatch after catching up completely, as certain information completely changes the context and makes some documents stand out more sdakjdkaslj. this game is so good COE forever!!!!! like. the ending variations mean EVERYTHING YOU DO MATTERS, and makes it VERY difficult to get S root first try (the youtube TL showed this, but there is unique text if you get S root without getting any of the others first. Similarly, if you do S and then E root, there is bonus text (Which the youtube TL showed as well!)

ohh this is an interesting pick for hajime and utsugi! I think it's very neat :D im not as familiar with the lyrics for this one but i think its a cool choice! my personal hajime and utsugi picks are With a Billion Worldful of ᐸ3 - Mili and 神曲 - R sound design (THERES A REALLY PRETTY ANIMATIC FOR THIS ONE BUT IT'S DLC SPOILERS orz ILL SHARE WHEN YOU CATCH UP).

ciphers: some have screenshots, some don't! anything bolded was encrypted.

DLC record 4: (italics is red text)

This is a concept you shouldn't know. Dante sealed it away. What right do you have to access this place? If this information were to be disclosed, it would be unstoppable. I need to do this to the end. I hope that those who have inherited the Sephira factor share the same motive as I.

DLC 2020 Credits:

reference definition: earth execution name: line A target period: 1912-2019

the border says 'square circle'

Draft: God

ARTBOOK:

the image of the Lantern says 'Protagonist'

the image of a certain character and with a horrifically warped text box says (bold is one cipher, bold+italics was in a diff cipher, normal text was displayed normally):

Unhandled writing operation has occurred in record __. ‘saving data…’ Error: player character does not exist. 2019-05.

fukao why did you do this one in two different ciphers. FUKAO. EVERY OTHER CIPHER IS THE SAME ENCODING EXCEPT FOR THE 2019-05 FUKAO WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME (this last one stumped me for a long time. i learned a lot of random skills in order to study cell of empireo)

[brendonuriegotcancelled]

TW: Mentions of R*pe

Let’s talk about the “joke” Brendon made a decade ago.

Times have changed and being a fan of Panic! at the Disco is different now than it was 11 years ago.

I’m gonna tell you why.

When Panic! at the Disco did their first main headlining tour in 2005/2006, the band began to notice what “skits” or “characters” would get the crowd going more.

For the Nothing Rhymes with Circus Tour that was Stage gay, though stage gay carried on until 2012.

Here is a video from that era of the same skit for several shows where Brendon is speaking to guitar player Ryan Ross. He walks up, kisses his cheek and turns to walk away saying “this is not that dream, this is hard, sweaty, angry crazy monstrous fucking”

You can hear the favorable reactions from fans.

Brendon had a “character” or “skit” so to speak for every show he did.

When their second album came out his skit was to teach the crowd how to dance before covering “Shout”

Brendon has been sexualized and invaded by his fans for years. I think at a certain point he just accepted and embraced that sexuality was going to be a part of his character.

Smutty fan fiction written about him and his band members together

People saying bizarre and sexual things to him in PERSON

People trying to kiss him at stage door

People trying to kiss/lick/grab him during Death Walk

There are many more examples of boundaries crossed by fans touching him without his consent or invading his privacy.

In 2011 after a line up change, the album Vices and Virtues was released. A handful of the tracks on this album were sexual in nature such as “Hurricane” “Stall me” and “Turn off the lights.”

The shows shared that energy with the crowd when Brendon would make sexual comments.

Here are some of the lyrics for Hurricane:

“Are you worth your weight in gold?

'Cause you're behind my eyelids when I'm all alone

Hey, stranger, I want you to catch me like a cold

You and God both got the guns

When you shoot, I think I'd duck

I led the revolution in my bedroom

And I set all the zippers free

We said, "No more war, no more clothes!"

Give me peace

Oh, kiss me”

This wasn’t a one sided kind of energy. The show in question including several others where he changed what he said slightly, is from 10 years ago and the crowd was rabid over Urie’s encore speech. I took some comments from the original video to show you that people were in fact, not offended at the time.

Brendon has a stage persona and it is very different from who he is as a person and he has said this several times on live stream. He did actually end up apologizing to someone personally at a meet and greet for making this joke. Here is an article clip from that show.

Was it a bad tasted joke? Yes. Did it offend people then? Kinda? Does it offend people now? Yeah. But again, this joke was made 10 years ago as you can see from the screenshots.

This is also not a joke he would make again but I agree with his statement below: That instead of dragging people we should be educating them or allowing them to educate themselves.

Just for a little bit of context to paint a whole picture:

Here is a video of Brendon talking about how horrific and disgusting he felt after being a juror for a child r*pe case to the point where he says he wouldn’t be able to do jury duty again because it was so traumatic for him.

The times have changed and the only difference between any ignorant jokes any of you have made and the ones Brendon has made is that his are public for the whole world to see. We as people, are not perfect and we need to allow each other to grow and change especially if the behavior in question was from a literal decade ago.

This is only one part to the handful of parts I’ll be making for the jokes people want addressed.

Shout out to PATDsnaps on YouTube for having a large amount of clipped YouTube videos for me to choose from when writing these blogs.

[hellzabeth]

i have opinions about The Prince of Egypt musical adaption and you’re going to listen to them: An Essay

So, quick disclaimer: The Prince of Egypt is one of my favourite movies of all time. The casting, the music, the animation, I think it’s one of the top-tier movies that have ever been made. I went into seeing the London West End production of PoE with a full expectation that nothing I saw on stage would ever live up to how much I love the movie. I was fully aware there are plenty of limitations to what can be shown live on a stage with human actors and props.

That being said, I was enormously disappointed with how the whole thing was handled.

The Good

Now before I launch into a whole tirade of what I didn’t like about the production, it does behoove me to say what I think they did do well. 


The casting of the role of Moses was done fantastically, as was Miriam, Tzipporah, and Yocheved. The swings and the ensemble were really engaged and well placed, going through lots of quick changes to go from Hebrews to Egyptians to Midianites and back.


The two Egyptian queens, wifes of Seti and Ramses, are actually given names, lines, and character beyond being simply tacked onto their respective kings. We get to see how they feel about the events happening around them, and there’s even a scene where Ramses meets his wife and courts her, whereas in the movie, she stands in the background and says nothing. This is one of the areas I was hoping the musical, which would naturally have a longer run-time, would expand on, and I was pleased to see the opportunity was taken.

Light projections on enormous curtains were used to very good effect, taking us instantly inside the walls of the palace and then out to the desert. 


Over all, the work was really put in to be engaging and emotional, and the orchestra really worked to deliver the right musical beats.


One of two stand out scenes as being done very well was the opening “Deliver Us”, which included a bone-chilling moment of Egyptians separating a mother and her baby, with her screams as she’s dragged off-stage, and the blood on the guard’s sword. It really brings home the fear as Yocheved tries to lead Aaron and Miriam to the river with her, not to mention Yocheved’s actress nailed the lullaby. 


The second was at the other end of the show, “When You Believe” was beautifully performed by the whole cast, though it was somewhat stunted by what came before...

The Bad

Oh boy.

So the main problem with this show is not the music, not the staging, not even that sometimes the ensemble was a little off-beat (the lai-lai-lai section in Though Heaven’s Eyes comes to mind). Any mistakes there can all be forgiven, since sometimes things just happen in live performance, someone’s a bit off or something’s just not possible to do on the budget allotted. 


The problem is in the script.

The Prince of Egypt movie is a story that stands not only on the shoulders of its fantastic music and visuals, but also on its emotive retelling and portrayal of the characters within - mainly Moses and Ramses. And while the stage musical does spend a lot of time with the two mains, it neglects two other, incredibly important characters.

Pharaoh Seti, and God. 


In the movie, Seti strikes an intimidating figure. He is old, hardened, and wise in the ways of ruling his kingdom - and is voiced by Patrick Stewart, who brings his A-game to the role. Both Moses and Ramses admire him and look up to him immensely as young men, and the relationship he has with both of them deeply informs their characters as the story progresses. It’s from Seti that Moses learns that taking responsibility for your actions is the respectable thing to do (and later, the true horror of having your idol turn out to be not what you think), and it’s from Seti that Ramses takes a huge inferiority complex.

There are two lines that Seti gets in the movie, one spoken to Moses, and one to Ramses. These two lines define Moses and Ramses’ actions later on in the story:

To Ramses - “One weak link can break the chain of a mighty dynasty!” To Moses - “Oh my son... they were only slaves.”

Guess which two lines are absent from the musical?

One Weak Link is turned into an upbeat song, rather than shouted at a terrified and cowed young Ramses. Instead of being openly a traumatic, internalised moment of negative character development for Ramses, it’s treated as a general philosophy that Seti passes down to his son. Instead of a judgement that is hung over Ramses’ head like a sword of Damocles, lingering in his mind through the whole story and coming up in a shouted argument with Moses later, it’s said and then moved on from. 


The “they were only slaves” comment, on the other hand, is absent entirely. This changes Moses’ relationship with Seti enormously, as well as his relationship with the Hebrew people. Upon finding the mural depicting the killing of the slave children, Moses is appropriately horrified, and Seti shows up to comfort him and defend his terrible actions. Moses leaves this interaction... and then sings about how this is indeed all he ever wanted! He has no moment of horrific realisation that his father thinks of the slaves as lesser, as lives that can be thrown away. This means that the scene where he kills the guard doesn’t lead into a discussion of morality with Ramses as he runs away, but rather Moses breaking down about his heritage as though it’s a negative, instead of something he’s realised is just as valuable as his life as an Egyptian. Instead of Moses being shown as having a strong moral core that protests against the idea of any life being lesser, he bemoans his Hebrew blood loudly, and makes little mention of the man he killed. His issue that causes him to run away is being adopted, rather than his guilt that he’s a murderer, and nothing Ramses can say will change it.

Later on, we don’t see Ramses express this opinion either (in the movie - M:”Seti’s hands bore the blood of thousands of children!” R:“Hah, slaves!” M:“My people!”) so it seems the core reasoning for the necessity of the extremes God had to go to in order to convince Ramses to let the Hebrews go is completely gone.

Which leads us into God Himself, as a character. 


God is a tricky topic in general. He is hard to talk about as a concept and as a character, and even harder to depict in a way that won’t offend someone. The Prince of Egypt movie always struck me as a very good depiction of the Old Testament God - vengeful and strong-willed, commanding and yet nurturing, capable of great mercy and great cruelty in one fell swoop. God is incredibly present in the story, a character in and of Himself, speaking with Moses rather than simply commanding him. The conversation at the Burning Bush is bone-chillingly beautiful. Moses is allowed to question, he’s allowed to enquire, he’s allowed to express how he feels about God’s choice, and God is given the chance to respond (and reprimand, and comfort).

In the musical, the Burning Bush scene lasts all of two minutes, during which God (the ensemble cast, acting as one moving flame, speaking in unison) monologues to Moses, and Moses is not given room to question, talk to, or build a relationship with God. Later on, once some of the plagues have gotten underway, Moses rails against God, flinches in his resolve, and tries to back out... and God says nothing. It’s Miriam and the spirit of Yocheved that convince Moses to keep going. As a character, God is nearly absent. Even when it comes to calling upon the Plagues, or parting the Red Sea, God’s voice is absent. Moses does not pray. He does not even use the staff that God encouraged him to pick up as a symbol of his becoming a shepherd of the Hebrews out of Egypt. 


It’s these little changes, these little absences of such vital lines and presences, that ends up changing the whole vibe of the show. Seti is more like a dad than an emotionally distant authority figure, and God is more like an emotionally distant authority figure than a character at all. Ultimately, the whole feeling that one is left with at the end…

The Ugly

… is that the script doesn’t like God, or religion in general.

A bold statement to make, considering the source material is one of the central biblical stories in EVERY Abrahamic religion. Moses as a figure is considered so important and close to god, that The Prince of Egypt, even with its sensitive portrayal, cannot be aired in a number of Islamic states, because it’s considered disrespectful to depict any of the prophets, especially an important one like Moses. Moses is arguably the MOST important prophet in the Jewish canon.

However, I haven’t highlighted one of the most noticeable script changes - the elevation of Hotep, the high priest, to main antagonist.

In the original movie, Hotep is a secondary villain, a crony to the Pharaohs, bumbling and snide and two-faced. He and his fellow priest Hoy are there primarily to juxtapose how charlatans can control power through flattery and slight of hand, reassuring Ramses that Moses’ miracles are merely magic the same as what they can do. They even get a whole villain song, “Playing With The Big Boys” which is a lovely deconstruction of lyrics vs visuals, where while the priests boast that their gods and magic are much more powerful, in the background the staff, transformed into a snake by god, devours and defeats the priests’ snake handily. The takeaway from the song is that God’s power is true, and doesn’t need theatrics.

It’s a good little nugget of wordless world building. And it is completely absent from the stage musical, with only a vague reference to the chant of all the gods names.

Hoy is gone, and Hotep is the only priest. He actively speaks out against the Pharaoh, boasts about having all the power, and is played as bombastic and proud. He’s a wildly different character, even threatening Ramses at one point. In the end, it’s shown that Ramses won’t let the Hebrews go not because he has inherited his father Seti’s cruel attitude towards the lives he considers beneath him, but because he is being actively bullied by the priest, and will lose his power and credibility if he doesn’t do as he’s told. Ramses is even given a whole song about how little power he really has. The script desperately wants us to feel sorry for Ramses’ position and hate the unrepentantly, cartoonishly evil priest.

That’s another matter as well - a LOT of time is dedicated to making the Egyptians more human and sympathetic, portraying them as largely ignorant of the suffering beneath them, rather than actively participating in slavery. Characters speak out of turn without regard for formality and class, even to the royal family. They are casual, chummy even. And this would be fine - in fact, it’s good to have that sort of third dimension to characters, even ones who are doing reprehensible things, to show the total normalcy and banality of evil - if it were not for the fact they still include a completely open-and-shut case of evil right next to them.

Hotep has no redeeming features. And on the other side, God is barely present, certainly not in a relatable context. Moses has several lines about how cruel and unnecessary God’s plagues are - and you know what, in this version, they are unnecessary! Ramses is not the stone-hearted ruler that his movie counterpart is, he has no baggage over being a potential failure, because it was never really given to him in the same way! By taking away Ramses’ threatening nature, numbers like the Plagues lose half their appeal, as the back-and-forth ‘you who I called brother’ lines between Moses and Ramses are completely absent. Moses is faithless, and is less torn between the horror of what he’s doing and the necessity of it for the freedom of his people, and more left scrabbling for meaning that he doesn’t find. And the only thing hanging over Ramses is Hotep nit-picking everything he does and threatening him, which is considerably less compelling than the script seems to think it is.

This is best exemplified at the end, when all the issues come to a head. The angel of Death comes and takes the Egyptian first borns (which was actually a well done scene), and the Hebrews leave to a rousing rendition of When You Believe. But then we cut to Ramses and Hotep, with Hotep openly threatening to revolt against the Pharaoh - whom was believed, especially by the priesthood, to be a living god! Hotep is so devoid of redeeming features he cannot even be trusted to stand by his beliefs! - unless Ramses agrees to chase after the Hebrews. Reluctantly, Ramses is badgered into the attempt.

Back with the Hebrews, Moses parts the Red Sea… not with his faith, not by praying to God for another miracle, not even by using his staff as in the most famous scene of the movie… but by holding out his hand and demanding the ‘magic’ work. Setting aside the disrespect of Abrahamic religions to call one of the most famous miracles “magic” (and my oh my, if there was a fundamentalist of any religion in the audience they might have gasped to hear it), it again belittles the work of God, and puts all the onus on Moses, not as a conduit for God’s work, but as the worker himself. Then, the Egyptians arrive in pursuit, lead by Hotep, not Ramses. Moses sends the Hebrews through first, lead by Miriam, and stays behind with Tzipporah… to offer his life in penance to Ramses! The script has completely stripped both Ramses and Moses of their convictions towards their causes, and Moses cannot even stand by his decision to lead his people.

Then, in a moment of jarring melodrama, Moses has a sudden vision that Ramses, his brother, will one day be called Ramses the Great (an actual historical Pharaoh who reigned 1279-1213 BCE). There is no historical evidence that this was the Ramses that ruled over the Hebrews (there are 11 Pharaohs called Ramses through the history of Ancient Egypt), and maybe if the scene was acted a little better, it wouldn’t have been so sudden or jarring. Even more jarring, is that then Hotep arrives with the rest of the army, and Ramses refuses to lead the charge into the parted sea. Hotep does so himself, and is the one to have the final dramatic moment, being crushed under the water.

The Takeaway

After watching the show, I’m afraid I could never recommend it as either a play, an adaption, or even as a faithful retelling of a bible story. Its character drama isn’t compelling enough to be good as a standalone play, with it two main characters declawed and their core motivations reduced to a squabble between brothers rather than a grand interplay between two cultures and ideas and trauma handed down from their father. As an adaption of the movie it’s upsettingly bad, with grand numbers like the Plagues rendered piecemeal and fan favourites like Playing With The Big Boys missing entirely. As a retelling of the bible story, it’s insulting, completely cutting God out of the equation, taking no opportunity to reintroduce Aaron as an important character (which he was, in the bible, as Moses was a notoriously bad public speaker, with a stutter, and Aaron often interpreted for him) and more importantly, completely erasing God’s influence from the narrative.

I don’t know who this show was… for, in that case. If it wasn’t for drama lovers, movie fans, or people of the faith, then who the hell was it for? Why change such a critically acclaimed and well-beloved story? Why take away all these defining moments? If you wanted to tell a story about how religion is the true evil, how God can command people to do terrible things, and how those who uphold organised religion like Hotep are unrepentant, one-dimensional monsters… why would you tell that through the Prince of Egypt?

Underwhelming at best, infuriating at worst… just watch the movie. Or read Exodus. At least the Bible’s free.

[magistralucis]

🦆🔥🦆 I really love the way you talk about Tillchard. It's so different from what we can read elsewhere, it's quite a welcome change. You have a very unique perspective on them and it shows in your writing, be it in answering questions or in your own fics. What do you think of the "Let's Go" song? Of the way it was recorded? It's such a sweet song, friendship love letters like that one are too rare in the music world!

The thing I like best about ‘Let’s Go’ is how uncomplicated it is. How straightforward. Not that I dislike complicated, R+’s complexity is what got me into them in the first place - but ‘Let’s Go’ encapsulates, for me, a rather unusual way for Till and/or Richard to have done things.

I think a lot of R+’s appeal comes from dissonance. There’s spectacle, yes, and the excellent poetry, powerful music, generous amounts of mindfuck, and the constant appeal to fans. But rather than those factors in isolation, I think the actual charm comes from how those things interact with each other - and the band members seldom let them do so directly. They take Verfremdungseffekt to its logical extreme, almost every time. That’s how we regularly end up with combinations like ‘a song about an extremely mundane problem + ultraviolent music video featuring Lenin heads that weep blood’, or ‘a song about horrific assault + flake having an absolute ball dancing around’, or ‘a serious commentary on immigration and the displacement of peoples, and the hypocrisy they face from developed nations + sexy poppy holiday retreat’. They might delight us, confuse us, maybe even repulse us somewhat - but it sticks in the mind, and it always leaves room for thought.

‘Let’s Go’ isn’t like that. I wonder if it’s not one of Till and Richard’s most honest moments in the studio; honest, not only in the way they wrote and sung of their friendship, but honest as in what we heard is exactly what they wanted to convey. To the listeners, and to each other. Richard has stated his intent was to convey his relationship with Till, and that the music was written as a homage to their shared past, and that intent comes through perfectly.

From the lyrical side of things, ‘Let’s Go’ is a dialogue. It’s Till’s solo verse that really makes it, imo. Richard sings about himself (’I find myself scratching at the bottom’), then Till responds (‘Du musst mir gar nichts sagen’, ‘you don’t need to say anything to me’), and outlines the relation they have (‘Zwei Herzen [...] eins ist deins und eins ist mein’, ‘two hearts [...] one is yours and one is mine’). The first-person plural, in other words, the ‘we/us’. This is the subject which is then maintained for the rest of the song, for the chorus and all of the second verse (’Remember back to where we started’).

As far as conversations go, this is all very straightforward. There’s no dissonance here. The music is mellow, the lyrics are equally as mellow and sincere, and they sing in a way that conveys that perfectly. It’s not what one conventionally expects of Rammstein (rightfully so), and if you don’t have Tillchard lenses on, it might even be wholly unremarkable. But it’s a good song, imo. I like to think it was made for each other, because it shows all the hallmarks of sending each other a heartfelt message, and maybe that’s all that matters. I don’t know if that made any sense, but that’s my feelings about the song 💖

[stallithehooch-12]

STALLI reviews LOUD

LOUD

In the eyes of 2021 it seems like Rihanna may never give us another record (lol) but in the year 2010 she was just getting ready to give us a studio album that would change everything for her and the pop landscape forever.

Coming off 2009 the topography of pop music seemed to be bathed in the blood and essence of two things: darkness and lady gaga. After exploding onto the pop scene with her 2008 smash the fame, and the fame monster her iconic followup. The pop music industry answered by pumping out half-baked gothic follow-ups that resulted in nothing short of embarrassments.

Rihanna however was a curious case. After what seemed like a meteoric rise with good girl gone bad. Tragedy struck and she followed up her hit-filled 3rd album with her darker fourth rated r. Rihanna unleashed a hellfire of darkness and rock-tinged pop music that dealt with nothing but sadness and pain and expressed how lost she felt and at times how she refused to be victimized by the public who had branded her a helpless victim.

However what followed next was something monumental in pop, her fifth LP LOUD. Immersed in reds, oranges, yellows and neon Rihanna's LOUD came as a raging tidal wave centering her as the premier hitmaker of the 2010s.

From songs such as “only girl” where the singer belts out that she is the only one who matters. Rihanna reclaims the narrative of life accompanied by the production of booming electro-pop sounds imported from the then undiscovered UK market. RIhanna further explores themes such as sexuality on skin and her soon to be tumultuous relationship with the media in “S&M” where she acknowledges how the media gives her attention which is good but they say horrific things about so she might as well play into the image and be perfectly splendid at being bad. However, it’s album highlights “What's my name'' with canadian rapper Drake and “ man down” we really hear Rihanna shine.

What’s my name sizzles with Caribbean pop magic as the singer and drake exchange flirty lyrics and vocals which culminates in one of her best collabs to date. As a controversial icon and fixture in music, Rihanna has never shied away from topics that make others uncomfortable and never more has she displayed her bravery than in “man down”

In a world where we tell women, or just victims of abuse, that they must carry themselves in a certain way to be seen as ‘ respectable.” Rihanna did away with that narrative and painted a harsh but true rendition of what she felt she wanted to do to the hands of her abuser in the song. She expresses remorse at the thought that she killed a person's son, but also laments the true reality for victims of abuse with the fact that she did shoot this fictional man in an act of retribution for his abusive deeds to her. Respectability be damned, Rihanna took on domestic abuse with a chilling reggae beat inspired by bob marley back her crisp vocals.

Post LOUD we've seen Rihanna crank out projects that are much more superior but there's something about this that brings us back all the time.Will we ever know what the secret sauce truly is or will we keep guessing until the end of time. One thing is definitely for sure.

At a time of darkness, Rihanna set herself apart from her pop peers and shined with the light of a thousand suns. Proving that she doesn't follow trends she sets them. Inspiring a generation of artists afterward LOUD was monumental then and still is now a perfect example of what pop music should be. Fun, bold, honest, brutal, uncomfortable, sexy, expressive, and most importantly LOUD.

LOUD 9.7 of 10

[dentalrecordsmusic]

Tomorrow Needs You - A Look Back on Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

Words by Ari Jindracek

As everybody, their mothers, and their distressed and confused cats probably know by now, My Chemical Romance is alive again and it's not a fever dream. The new era is upon us and fans are seemingly coming out of the woodwork to experience it. We've talked about My Chemical Romance before here at Dental Records, but not as a group who collectively couldn't get tickets to their reunion show before it sold out in under ten minutes. However, I'm not here to talk about the reunion. This November of 2019 is another time of importance in the MCR calendar: the ninth birthday of Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, an album set in California 2019 (by design or not, the exact time and place of the reunion show). I got into MCR because of Danger Days. I have also, in recent months, heard from more people who hate it than I usually do. A few weeks ago, I read a very well written article that I will not name that was all about how good MCR was… until the "embarrassment" that was Danger Days. I started worrying if my favorite album of all time was actually awful and universally hated, and that liking it made me somehow a bad fan. 2019, the year I daydreamed about in 2010, is here. Does Danger Days still hold up?

Long story short: yes.

That doesn’t mean that every song is perfect. It doesn’t even mean that I love it as much as I used to. Frankly, I don’t. I will not say that Danger Days is the best album ever written because that would make me a liar. However, the important things are still the same. “Look Alive, Sunshine” still fills me with a burst of energy and affection, and its transition into “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” is still, despite the choppiness of Spotify, smooth and perfect. The poppy repeated chorus of “Na Na Na” may ring a bit asinine now, but the fact that it comes up again later in the album justifies it, and the bridge stolen from the scrapped song “Make Room!!!” (“everybody wants to change the world but no one wants to die, wanna try?”) feels more poignant now than it did when I was fourteen and had no way of changing anything. “Bulletproof Heart” is one of the songs that doesn’t hold up as well as it could have; the bouncy guitar-and-bass riff is fun, to hear and to play (Danger Days contains many of the few songs I can play on my bass guitar), but, apart from joining up with the Killjoy theme of running away from the oppressive city, I never felt a huge amount of affection for it. Talking about “these pigs” and “this world” being on the speaker’s tail--the speaker, in my mind, is very much not Gerard Way--in a world where police brutality has been in and out of the spotlight is strange as an allegory, because in my maturity, I am aware of its reality for many members of my community. The bridge is better than I remember it, though. There’s a hope that mirrors the introductory verse of “Welcome to the Black Parade”: “are you gonna be the one to save us...are you gonna be the one left standing?” While there is a question here, there is also faith in the listener, that, if enough fans listen to the record, someone will be the one left standing.

On the note of hope, I want to spend a lot of time on “SING,” the song that got me into My Chemical Romance, and, if I can be cliche, the first song that saved my life. Musically, my love for it has waned; the only part that I really like anymore is the bridge, which has enough of an anti-corporate, anti-establishment message that it got Glenn Beck of Fox News to call it propaganda, and enough rhythmic and melodic difference from the rest of the song to really grip my interest. However, its message follows beautifully from the bridge of “Bulletproof Heart.” There is a pleading hopefulness in “SING” that had been present in a variety of My Chemical Romance songs since Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, but this is its most obvious, smack-in-the-face incarnation. Will you see what tomorrow brings, be what tomorrow needs? The song positions it as a choice, but as one where the necessary answer is yes, and the “you” is as personal as it is universal. There are two halves to the song’s hope, it seems: tomorrow needs you (so you have to stay alive), and tomorrow needs you (so you have to help make the world a better place). In words I could easily understand, at a time when I sorely needed it, an artist I respected was telling me that I could, and should, make something of myself, for the rest of the world. No wonder I have a savior complex; no wonder I peeled off my adolescent thoughts of suicide and put on a Killjoy mask. Musically, no, “SING” is not My Chemical Romance’s best song, I’ll admit that. I cannot, however, dismiss what it meant and still means to me: that I can and must improve myself and do whatever I can to help the rest of the world, because I am needed.

“Planetary (GO!)” is more bouncy-fun than it is meaningful, at least in my ears. With the spunky bassline and funky ambulance-siren synths, it’s a rave song more than it is a song that makes you change the way you change your life, which means it fulfilled its purpose as My Chemical Romance’s best try for a danceable song. It goes well with the narrative of neon-bright desert outlaws; the fact that the video for “Planetary (GO!)” is just a recut of live footage is a crime because it deserved a Killjoy smash-grab bank robbery narrative to go behind it. “The Only Hope for Me Is You” is, frankly, the most forgettable song on the album, in that, Danger Days superfan though I am, I sometimes forget it exists. It hearkens back to “Skylines and Turnstiles,” the first My Chemical Romance song, in some ways: the mentions of embers, ash, and “people burn[ing] in purifying flame” remind me, at least, of the falling of the Twin Towers that sparked the band’s creation. It does not do nearly as good a job as “Skylines and Turnstiles” if that was what it was trying to do. The theme of hope comes back--obviously, it’s in the title--but in a more romantic way, as in the later “Summertime.” It doesn’t feel like the “you” in this song can be me, like it did in “SING.” The listeners are not Gerard Way’s only hope. The bridge, especially, is weak, as it just repeats the title of the song over a basic build-up-drop-off dynamic structure.

The first “story arc” ends here, and the second, more emotionally intense, arc picks up with “Jet Star and the Kobra Kid / Traffic Report,” where Dr. Death Defying states, barely saddened under his made-up slang, that Ray Toro and Mikey Way’s Killjoy personas have been killed. In the end, a Doppler-effect synth rips into the drums intro to “Party Poison.” The Japanese dialogue over the intro here doesn’t match with anything else from the album, though I do remember live shows from this era starting with similar narration in Japanese (if my memory has failed me, I cite the nine intervening years). “Party Poison” is danceable like “Planetary (GO!)” but with bite behind it-- “this ain’t a party,” Gerard Way sings, “get off the dance floor.” Narratively, two of the people closest to him, one of them being his brother, have died, of course, it’s not a party! I love this song for its head-bopping guitars and the near-egomania of the lyrics. Titular character Party Poison is at a point in his narrative where he’s out of his mind with rage and has fallen into an adolescent sense of invulnerability. In “Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back,” that crashes down with a bitter reprise of the “na na na”s from, of course, “Na Na Na.” The joyous colorful energy from before is gone, replaced with “a heart attack in black hair dye.” I personally think “Save Yourself” is one of My Chemical Romance’s best songs. The lyrics stun me still. There’s hope in it-- “not a victim of the victim’s life” and “we can live forever if you’ve got the time.” There’s barely-concealed fear-- “the good guys die and the bad guys win / who cares?” There’s anger in how, during the bridge, Gerard Way’s terse vocals become screams. It’s a mess of emotion and it’s amazing. 

Which makes it disappointing that it's followed by "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W" and "Summertime,” which I thought, even at the time when I was creepily obsessed with Danger Days, were two of the weakest tracks. I can barely tell what kind of genre "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W" is trying to emulate. The instrumentals (aside from the bridge) are far too simple for a band with the highly skilled Toro in its corner, there's more chorus than there is verse, and the lyrics read like a nonsensical nursery rhyme. However, I don't think "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W" is the weakest song on the album because of how well it fits into the narrative; it's a goodbye-be-safe for the girl who features in the music videos as her guardians run off on a suicide mission. "Summertime,” in contrast, doesn't fit that narrative. It's Gerard Way's spunky, synthed-up version of the classic love song, obviously written to his wife, who he exchanged messages with by writing cryptic messages on his skin--"you can write it on your arm,” anyone? It's cute; the saccharine love is obvious, the solo gets its due time, and the bassline is fun. I like what the song is about more than I like, well, the song. I'm glad it exists, but although I'd never do so now, I used to actually skip past it in my iPod Classic days. I grew into "Summertime" when I got my first boyfriend, but as a My Chemical Romance song, it feels much too generic. "DESTROYA" pops the bubblegum idyll from its first few notes: something, represented by the drums, has come crawling up into the narrative of fun, and it's howling mad. The song is named after the robot god of the comic adaptation, but in the fandom at the time, many, myself included, assumed that Destroya was some sort of horrific, destructive force, based exclusively on the song. The fast pace of the rhythm and the vocals is furious. The verses scream out sickness and the main chorus spits the disillusionment from "Save Yourself" anew, culminating in the bridge, where "luck" and "love,” "us" and "you" are doubled on top of each other, the only constants God and The Enemy. "If what you are is just what you own / what have you become when they take from you / almost everything?" is simply put but absolutely rips through me sometimes, usually when I'm already in the throes of an identity crisis. The song feels like it's about to tear itself in half. Strange but fitting, then, that it segues into what would be, for nine years, My Chemical Romance's final credits. 

I didn't get what "Kids From Yesterday" meant in 2010, but "this could be the last of all the rides we take" is, in retrospect, as subtle as a brick to the eye (I remember reading people theorizing that this could, in fact, be the last of My Chemical Romance’s albums on the MCRmy forums in 2010 or 2011 -- we all laughed it off). Acclaimed by several of the band members as among their favorite songs, “Kids From Yesterday” isn’t necessarily my cup of tea, but I can see why people love it so much. The rhythm is steady and easy, with the synths and guitars floating over it like puffy clouds over the sprawling desert, and the vocals soar even above that; it’s a song you pan out for. The lyrics, beyond the obvious farewells, are easy to pick out and easy to like. “You only hear the music when your heart begins to break” meant something indescribable to me in my teens, and I routinely wore one of those slim rubbery bracelets with the lyric on it. “Does the television make you feel the pills you ate / or every person that you need to be?” wraps up the themes of Danger Days neatly--the Better Living Industries medication and the necessity of being someone for somebody. “Goodnight, Dr. Death” wraps up the actual narrative by taking the one speaking character from the Killjoy universe and pulling him off the air with one last message and a glitched-out version of the national anthem (again: how did we miss that?). The final song of My Chemical Romance’s final full, complete album, “Vampire Money,” is a middle finger to the Twilight movies, a break from the Killjoy personas--the band members speak under their own names, no more pseudonyms--and a high-power, over-caffeinated, airport-bar-fight beat with a shrieking guitar solo, pointed pop cultural references, and a breakdown like someone actually broke the drum kit. If a song makes you want to simultaneously dance on the street and light up Molotov cocktails, it’s a good song. At the end of an era, it’s a good song, and the clatter at the end a fitting way to go out: with a bang, or a series of them. I don’t know if My Chemical Romance knew, at the time, that this would be the last album they would record--possibly ever, if the reunion does not come with a new album. If they did, hey, they picked a good song to play during the final straightaway.

Besides the messages of hope and fun, my favorite thing about Danger Days was the story. My Chemical Romance is a band of concept albums, and if you use the music videos for “Na Na Na” and “SING” as jumping-off points, the concept of Danger Days is the easiest to follow--no wonder, since it was based on a comic Gerard Way wanted to, and later did, write. Before the comic came out, though, it was still a great source of creativity for me. The world of the Killjoys was just fleshed out enough to give me, and others like me, a starting point to build the world on our own, but just bare-bones enough to give its fans room to add to the story however we wanted. I have written things on and off since I was about six, but once I started working within the Danger Days universe, supplementing the canon story with my own characters and ideas, I feel as though I became a writer. About half of the characters I work with today were originally Killjoys or Draculoids. I believe that Danger Days specifically stimulated the creative process as well, because the meta-text to the album was all about creativity. The slogans “art is the weapon against life as a symptom” and “would you destroy something perfect to make it beautiful?” were and still are influential in how I feel about the importance of artistic expression in the world. I was in a bad place when I first heard Danger Days; the hopefulness gave me a glimpse of better feelings, and the encouragement to create gave me a method to get the feelings I was having out of my head.

When I was fourteen, when Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys came out, I would daydream about what life would be like in 2019. It got me through a lot of bumps in my life, cliche as it is. I am glad that I am able to look back on it, in 2019, and see it past the fog of nostalgia, and still love it, even though I can tell that the legs it stands on are somewhat wobblier than I remember. Is it a perfect album? No. I’m not going to make that decision. However, it’s not an embarrassment, and it doesn’t deserve the hate it gets just because it’s more colorful than the rest of the My Chemical Romance canon. I truly think that the real beauty of Danger Days doesn’t necessarily lie in every song individually but in the narrative as a whole and in its message: be loud and angry when faced with injustice, be loud and joyous when faced with love, and, most importantly, be loudly yourself as you face down a future that needs, specifically, you.

Please direct all tweets about how much “SING” means to you to Ari Jindracek on Twitter. Please direct all tweets about how much “SING” sucks to anybody else.

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[leporellian]

Opera production game: Don Giovanni

oh fuck oh god I have so many concepts for don g. I don’t even know WHERE to start. HOWEVER given my current status as The School’s Director For Play I Wrote That Is Most Definitely Adjacent To Don Giovanni, I can at least speak with like, the SMALLEST sliver of experience on this one

F I R S T O F A L L fuck productions that make the don some kind of hero or at the least make out the whole sexual assault thing to be ‘not his fault’ somehow. FUCK that noise. when I see a bitch that says donna anna wanted it I FUCKING FLOOR IT. you know who the true antihero in this opera is? leporello. I realize that like, being a Dumbass Leporello Stan is my wholeass brand, but hear me out. leporello and elvira are the actual main characters. they’re the whole spine of the story, because they’re closest to the don himself. also, finally, they’re both good people. like I know the Hot Thing rn is making lep a mean bastard but they’re WRONG i HATE that, but since I've already gone into extensive detail on why leporello is a Good Person At Heart here I think I can move on. anyway lep and el are the main characters keep this in mind.don giovanni isn’t really even a character. if anything he’s something of an object. dude is an entirely flat character, his only trait being Jerkass. he doesn’t feel real. he still acts like a commedia dell’arte character, everyone else feels like a real human being. it makes it jarring- leporello and elvira keep trying to get him to act decently for once, but it’s like they’re talking to a brick wall. he can’t act decently. it’s not a concept he can even think of. as a flat character he physically can’t.as for everyone else, I could analyze them in a long ass rambling way but i don’t think I have the space here. so to keep things short: I love donna anna and 100% believe her because the narrative of falsified rape is extremely irresponsible and dangerous especially in this age, zerlina and masetto are the only loving relationship in the opera and they learn how to communicate with each other better over the course of the story, and, finally, ottavio is an incel.

MEANWHILE. COSTUMES. everyone wears a different color. anna and her father both wear jade green. ottavio wears like, a dark cyan. zerlina and masetto are both different shades of a more yellowish green. elvira is purple. leporello is yellowish brown. however all of these costumes look realistic to the point they could be real clothing, besides the color coding. like here’s how lep would look for example.

(also, note the feathers look like rabbit ears. leporello’s name means “the little rabbit” and I WILL run with that symbolism.)

but meanwhile the don himself looks like this:

bright red tabasco sauce jar lookin motherfucker. his costume is purposely cartoonishly bright and oversimplified. it matches him. when lep and the don swap clothes, they actually wear entirely different costumes. when lep wears the don’s clothes, they become muted and real looking just like lep. but when the don wears lep’s clothes they suddenly become garish and cartoony like him.

THE SET meanwhile I have plans for that. the set is on a turntable like device but it’s disguised in such a way that the audience never sees it turn (the lights always dim) so it just looks like really fast set changes. having the turntable like this means that when one scene happens the set for the other can be already being set up so scene changes are way quicker, which will work for things like the graveyard scene that I imagine as having two sets (one just beyond the cemetery gates where lep and the don meet up, and the other right by the statue when the don walks over to investigate it). the act one party takes place on a set of raised platforms that both show the audience what every character is doing in the chaos but also rather eerily resembles a wedding cake. similarly leporello starts singing madamina from a podium like thing but eventually steps down from it after about 40 seconds into the song and sings the rest of the song looking more and more sad because madamina is a SAD song where leporello is SAD and NOBODY manages to stage it right except maybe the lyric opera when I was there. the act 2 dinner looks very pathetic in a way, with how the don is all to himself with only the ever present lep and elvira there. that’s the thing about flat characters, the second they’re alone, they might as well be nothing.

also. the statue. yknow the whole ‘man in plaster’ thing? fuck that. when the don and lep see the statue, the actual man part of the statue is barely carved yet, looking only vaguely humanoid. the only thing that’s carved recognizably enough is the horse it’s sitting on, and then the only thing that’s been finished is the horse’s head, which is pure nightmare fuel. this statue will actually look scary.

when the statue arrives to dinner, it’s a horrific eldritch abomination. it jerks unpredictably in sudden, quick movements. it still resembles a man on a horse, but the man is just a vague shadow, with no features that can be made out above the shoulders. the horse meanwhile? a skull is its head, and its body looks like something out of chernobyl- but it always seems to change a little every few moments, making it very indistinct. the whole being seems to talk from the horse’s skull instead of the man. it’s absolutely horrifying, and to me that makes it just lovely.

idk horse skulls just are way more terrifying than anything a human could be

the finale sextet is included because 1) the opera isn’t about the don it’s about the characters and stories around him and 2) it’s a bop Fuck You. we end with leporello and elvira alone on the stage. they’re about to go their separate ways, when they both turn to each other and, lopsidedly, walk away together with a sense of solidarity. sure, they no longer have the don, the man they both thought they loved. but they now have a sense of solidarity in each other, which was in the end what they both really needed. (their bond isn’t romantic- it’s a platonic bond forged from Similar Experiences because I see 2 characters develop a platonic and deep mutual understanding of each other from a similar traumatic event and I go APESHIT.

either that or swap out ottavio and elvira’s parts because ottavio doesn’t deserve anna but anna and elvira deserve each other GAY RIGHTS. or both at the same time that’d be possible too. I dunno I just don’t like that leporello doesn’t get a better situation and elvira ends up in a convent that just doesn’t seem Right

this isn’t all of my ideas this is just all the ones I can fit into this post I fucking love this opera so much and its characters deserve to be treated by directors MUCH better

[argylemikewheeler]

Can we PLEASE get YOUR t r a c k b y t r a c k e m o t i o n a l j o u r n e y (WE DON’T MIND THE SPAM ESPECIALLY NOT FROM THE BYLER KING)

alright so i listened to blue neighborhood and wanted to create a full byeler fic-ish thing from it so. here we go, Part ONE/Will’s half of the track by track ft. the anon who inspired this:

WILD [Anon said: “dying because high school Byler”]

Never knew loving could hurt this good

Will can’t stop thinking about Mike. And it’s stupid, he knows. He’s eighteen years old and is applying to colleges and planning the rest of his life… but keeps only seeing Mike in it. They both told each other they’d leave Hawkins together, one way or another. Mike meant so Will never had to leave alone, but Will meant because he wanted Mike in the rest of his life, not just in hidden bursts between classes.

Will sits in class and doodles a couple– some happy couple– in the margins of his chem notes. They hold hands and they are always smiling. Someone asks Will if one of them is supposed to be him. He always says no. It can’t be. He hasn’t smiled like that in a while. Sure, he does when he’s in private with Mike, when they know they’re alone and unafraid. But that smile always fades when the bell rings and Mike grabs his bag and starts running again. Will wonders if he’s ever going to stop.

BITE [Anon said: “THE LYRICS TO BITE TH E L Y R I C S ARE A LL P E RF E C T FO R H I G H S C H O O L B Y L E R AKSJSKDNSJSN” which is honestly more accurate than my own thoughts]

You can coax the cold right out of me

Will can’t stop thinking about Mike. Even standing in front of him, hands in his hair and quietly giggling in their hushed moment, Will can’t stop thinking about Mike. About when he’ll leave, about the silence that would follow, about the urge to get Mike back. But he knows that they’re both scared. It’s been four years of this. Of running to each other just as fast as they ran apart at any sign of danger.

Will knew he’d do anything to run back to Mike’s arms, to be set free for the few minutes they could afford. It was comfort and, just maybe, love. Will loved Mike. He knew that without much thought. From their first kiss the summer before high school to the very last one Will had before sitting down in chemistry was a thrilling reminder that he was alive. Will had survived and got to know the best pleasure in life: loving someone else. He hoped Mike felt the same.

When he thought about Mike, in those constant running minutes, he never once wondered if Mike loved him back. He didn’t think he could handle the answer.

FOOLS [Anon said: “The first time I listened to FOOLS I just like ‘BYLERMOODTHISIS100%ABYLERMOODOHGODS’ ye sim listening to FOOLS rn and KASJAKSNSJJ” again. amazing.]

I am tired of this place, I hope people change

He did not. Somewhere, Will did know this. Mike didn’t love him. Or at least, he knew he wasn’t allowed to. They were both horrifically aware of how much they shouldn’t have been doing what they were doing. Will had less self-control though, and let himself take in a deep breath every time he was in Mike’s arms and enjoy, just for a moment, the stupid smell of his shampoo that was actually Nancy’s, mixed with his family’s detergent. Mike had a smell and sure it was half floral and another half blank cleanliness, it was all Will could grip to and remember Mike. He could buy the detergent and the shampoo. He couldn’t buy the careful touches on his neck. He couldn’t seem to find anything that replicated the sound of Mike laughing beside his ear. Will couldn’t replace Mike in anything but smell.

There was a point, Will remembers, when kissing Mike felt like being used. Not used by Mike, but his heart being used by everyone else: allowing him to give his love out in heavy armfuls, only to be told that it was wrong and cursed. It was probably Will’s fault though. Only real idiots let themselves fall in love with the wrong people, right? He should have known better. It would have saved them both.

EASE [Anon said: “wiLL oHMYFUCKINGGODS”]

I’m afraid of the life that I’ve made

Will. can’t. stop. thinking. about. Mike. He’s comfort on his worst days and the light that reminds Will that even his best can be better. Even in their silences, Will feels close to Mike. But there’s a part of Will, a part he hates, that can’t help but pick out every. single. silence.

While they comfort each other beyond all things, they also pose a threat to the other. Their best moments of safety are also the ones that could get them split up and sent halfway across the country: Mike’s aunt in Maine said she’d take him if he started “acting up”, and Will’s sure someone would call CPS wrongfully on his mother. And they know it. Every time they kiss, there’s a pause. And Will can hear it, feel it– hates it. The comfort is on a fuse. One day it will silently implode. The fear will get to them– and Will can’t seem to figure out when.

THE QUIET [Anon said: “SEND HELP”]

I’d rather be black and blue than accept that you withdrew

Finally, one day, the silence never stops. Will doesn’t interrupt when Mike pulls away from his lips with a suddenly pensive look. He’s been waiting for this. The moment that becomes too much– the risk covers their eyes and takes their breath away before a kiss. It feels the same– Will still can’t see and his chest is in knots– but he knows there isn’t any fall from this high. He’s already at rock bottom.

Now, it’s been three weeks since Mike last spoke to Will. And Will can’t stop thinking about Mike. And now more than ever, it’s painful. It feels like he’s constantly falling, hitting everything on the way down. Every rib is cracked, every bone is shattered, every breath hurts.

Mike never says what happened. They don’t have to talk to know. Fear got to them– Mike was more familiar with it than he ever was with Will. There was no blame; they were both victims. But Will thought he’d never stop bleeding, his heart pouring out every last drop of love he’d ever thought to save.

DKLA [Anon said: “IT’S BYLER. I think the 3rd verse is mainly Mike”]

When I close my eyes, I still see your ghost

Will had to learn quickly to shove off every thought of Mike. He’d creep up when Will was least expecting it– but really shouldn’t have been surprised. Mike had been with him everywhere there wasn’t one place in town that didn’t remind Will of him. It was like being trapped in his own lost happiness. Will can see everything he used to do, all the things Mike used to say to him. It’s like reliving every nightmare with a smile on his face.

Will learns to be cruel, mostly to himself. He doesn’t want to keep anything around that reminds him of Mike. And unfortunately, the biggest reminder is himself. Every freckle and scar and blemish has been kissed and complimented in the dark safety of Will’s room. Will had been blessed at one point, told to be ethereal to the only eyes that ever mattered. And now he was no one. He was just alone, forced to look back down at the body he never liked that much anyway and know, deep down, those words were one in a million. Will would never feel that loved again.

Good. He didn’t want it around.

TALK ME DOWN [Anon said: “SCREAMING HOLY SHIT”]

And I know I like to draw at night, it starts to get surreal

(mentions of Lonnie being violent)

Will stops thinking about Mike in June.

When he finally does again, one blurry and painful night in August, Will starts to feel like he’s drowning. He’d stayed at his father’s for the weekend, trying to mend their relationship one last time, when Will refused to bite his tongue about his personal life. He outs himself over dinner. And hides in the closet to avoid the flying dinner plates.

Will thinks he’s going to die. He’s sure of it. Nothing and everything is moving at the same time. The closet is dim and tight but Will still feels like he’s falling. He’ll never be able to leave. He wishes he had grabbed the phone or called the cops as he started running. Or maybe Mike. Will wants to call Mike and scream and fight and cry and beg into his ear until he hangs up. Even if silence answers him back, Will just wants to have someone know where to bury him. If he trusted Mike with every secret and shameful part of him when he was alive, the least he can do is share the last horrific and gruesome part before fulling imploding.

But he doesn’t call. He can’t. He sits down and cries, knowing no one will hear him. His pain has become silent– palatable. Maybe he’ll be ready for love one day. If he can just stop. his. crying.

[luminoustico]

For End of the Year Writing Meme: All the questions sound super interesting so just use this as an opportunity to answer whatever questions interest you most

So funny story I put this in my drafts to complete in the quiet time of New Year’s Day, but then I forgot about it completely. BRACE YOURSELF.

A. If you could rec a piece of music to accompany one of your fics, what would you pick? Why?

Lies by Marina and the Diamonds, to accompany the latter half of Valse Melancolique. It’s a really good song to show Irene’s POV at that point, especially her reluctance to accept that the webs she’s spun are basically collapsing around her.

“I just want it to be perfect / To believe it’s all been worth the fight,” is the most relevant set of lyrics, IMO.

B. Who’s your favourite side-character from something you wrote?

I really enjoyed writing side characters like Rose and Finn, though Rose just edges it because I’ve been enjoying writing her in Don’t Complicate It. Finn runs a very close second.

C. Get any good comments on your stuff this year?

Sure! All comments are good comments, let’s be real. Unless they’re an obvious troll comment or those “update now!!!” kind of comments. Those aren’t so good.

D. Any drawings or pictures that had a big influence on your writing?

The artwork of the late 18th century and Roberto Ferri definitely influenced the tone of Valse Melancolique. Many scenes from certain stories were driven by a single image I had in my head as well.

E.  Who’s your favourite main character you’ve written?

Though I do enjoy delving into Ben/Kylo’s psyche, I enjoy writing Rey more – she’s more enclosed, and I love chipping away at characters to get to their truths.

G. Where do you think you grew the most this year?

Towards the end of the year, I began to realise that writing can actually be fun like it used to be. I’ve been so aware of the way the world is currently that I’ve been convincing myself that my writing must have a message, or it’s not ‘worthy’. I need to understand that I started writing not to pass on any morals or messages, but as a release and a way to find enjoyment in the constant buzz.

H.  How do you write? Paper, pen, computer? Music, no music?

All of those. I write on my phone, on my computer, on pen and paper. Music and no music, it depends. Most often I’m listening to a playlist/album which then stops and I cease writing an hour or so later realising I’ve been writing in silence.

I.  What’s your favourite work you did this year? Why?

I’m always tempted to answer this kind of question with my most recent story. But I’m going to be really honest and say that star among the stars is a personal favourite. And it’s not just because of the pegging.

J.  What are the best jokes you told this year? Any jokes you thought were funny that people didn’t catch? Vice-versa?

I’m completely blanking on this one.

K. Who have you killed this year? Why did they have to die?

Qui-Gon Jinn (to match with canon), Molly and Sherlock (hey it was a story based on Dangerous Liaisons, and I was reading classical Russian literature at the time of plotting) and Kylo Ren a bunch of times (metaphorically).  

L.  Which character did you most write about this year, and why do you like ‘em?

I wrote more about Rey. As mentioned before, it’s because I like chipping away at a character’s surface but also it’s because I really relate to her, especially in regards to her feelings of loneliness and her tendency to put on ‘a brave face’. Plus I really admire her compassion and her strength. I envy it.

M. Meta! Have any meta about a story you’re dying to throw out there?

Not particularly -- just headcanons and reasons behind why I write what I write. (I’ve never been very good with meta anyway.) I really like it when other people meta my fic, or pick up on something I didn’t! That is an AMAZING feeling. 

O. Do you believe in outlines? Show us one!

I do indeed! I love my outlines. For some projects, I’ve got whole folders with docs labelled Initial Ideas, Plot Summary, Chapter Outline, etc. etc. I’ve got my notes app on my phone stuffed up to the gills with mini-outlines. I frequently use my story structure template, which is technically more for screenplays, but the breaking down into acts thing helps my brain figure things out. 

P. What are your pet peeves in other people’s work?

When an author relies too much on UST and ruins the pacing. Like, an author drags out the first getting together because they believe that the anticipation is the only thing generating comments. If it’s right to have them bang, have them bang! The awkward morning after is a delicious opportunity for UST -- just a different kind. 9 times out of 10, your readers are there not for the smut because they’re invested in the story and like your writing.

Q. Quote three bits of writing you read this year. Can be your writing, or not.

Let’s mix it up.

“ “Why did you do that?” he demanded as they ducked into a side alley. “What part of ‘keep a low profile’ is difficult for you to understand?”

“I’m a good haggler,” Rey said through a full mouth. She didn’t have any idea what she was eating, and she didn’t care. It took so much effort to chew each bite instead of gulping it down whole. “He was trying to cheat us.”

“You didn’t haggle. You pushed.”

“I did not. Why would I knock him over in the middle of his stand?”

Kylo just stared. “You need a teacher,” he muttered. He watched her eat for a moment, his expression somewhere between thoughtful and disgusted, before taking a bite from one of his own skewers. Disgust won out. ” -- Symmetry and Black Tar by audreyii_fic. (Grumpy smuggler Kylo Ren, spunky scavenger Rey, canon divergence. Excellent.)

“ "Ben," Rey breathes once Kylo's mere inches away. It's the name Luke introduced him with, the only name she knows him by, and he's never bothered to correct her. Why hasn't he corrected her? The question flees from his mind as she closes her eyes and he leans down into the space between them, kissing her full on the lips. It's not gentle, he doesn't know how to be, but she opens for him the way the flowers she loves so much bloom in the sunlight. ” -- the surface of last scattering by diasterisms. (It’s the apocalypse, it’s exactly the right time to meet the love of your life, right? Read for utter devastation.) 

“ Rey could spend hours in the Falcon’s inner workings. She’d spent so much time in the belly of hollowed-out Star Destroyers, which were horrific remnants of old worlds, cold and grey. The Falcon is alive, speaking a strange language she’s just about half-deciphered. Sometimes, on days where she misses the connection most and dreams of a boy reaching across the stars to find her, it feels like the Falcon doesn’t want to speak to her. It shuts down. Sparks spit at her, and mechanisms develop odd faults.Today, a jet of steam blows directly in her face, not harmful, but almost like a snarl of 'go away'.

Rey climbs out of the hatch, fetching tools. She works with that fault first.

“I’m not thinking about him,” she promises to no-one but the ship she’s looking after. ” -- If I was born as a blackthorn tree, by me!

R. If you had to rewrite one of your stories from scratch, which one would it be? What would you do to it?

Going to cheat here and head back to 2017. I’d rewrite Two Stars Aligned. What I’d probably do is make it a post-TLJ fic, where Rey and Ben decide to run away after getting involved in a secret relationship, but get shot down by the First Order -- after landing in Giaca, they become embroiled in Game of Thrones style politics and the ruling families, while the Resistance and the First Order conduct searches for them. I’d cut out the weird Force shit and make the redemption arc thing more organic by giving the whole story room to bloody breathe. Two Stars Aligned is actually the reason why I now try to stick to oneshots for exchanges and any anthologies I get involved in.

S. What’s the sexiest thing you wrote this year?

Sexiest thing written in 2018... It’ll have to be the pegging in star among the stars.

T. Themes, motherfucker, do you have them? What are they?

Feminism. Females being allowed to be as fucked-up and broody as the men they love, and perhaps, even broodier. Make women afraid of commitment, 2k19.

U. Any stories that took an abrupt U-turn from where you thought they were going?

If I were a blackthorn tree took a pleasing turn away from the initial outline. The initial idea was lots of secret trysts and stuff like that, but I much prefer the quiet romance with a note of hope at the end that it turned out to be.

V. Which story was the most viscerally pleasing to write? Tell us your narrative kinks.

Huh. Hm. Don’t Complicate It is turning out to be kind of fun to write; when I’m not allowing myself to be crippled by the brain goblins that is (they’re strong lately). It’s a combo of writing a trope/kink I’ve been wanting to write for ages -- A/B/O -- and remembering that it’s okay to have fun with it.

W.  Who are your favourite writers?

@kylo-wouldnt-like-those-chips - @conchepcion (every time I think I’m out, she pulls me back in *shakes fist*) - @introspectivenavelgazer - @audreyii-fic - @kylorenvevo - ambiguously - @fettuccine-alfreylo and SO MANY MORE (this post is long enough already!!)

X.  What’s your least favourite work of this year?

My least favourite has to be In Cars. It was an ambitious idea, which I didn’t really fulfil, I feel. Curse of being a perfectionist. I want something to be amazing. World-changing! Tear-jerking! I want Vestal virgins to weep golden tears over my words, already delicately transcribed onto ancient parchment by monks. Obviously, that’s an impossible standard, but I can’t help being cross when I don’t reach it.

Y. Why did you write? For fun, for a friend, for acclaim?

During 2018? Mostly for acclaim. It made 2018 a very difficult year for writing, and just a difficult year in general. I’m trying to make sure I have fun during 2019 with this stuff. Striving for perfection is a punishing task that no-one can ever accomplish because perfection doesn’t exist. Contentment does, though. As does happiness. And those should be more important.

Z. If you could choose one work and immediately finish it, what would it be? How would you end it?

I’d finish Sanctum, my priest Kylo fic. I’m split between continuing or rewriting anyway (the rewrite would include relocating the action to the medieval era, around the time Luther wrote that damned essay and pinned it to the church door). But I do know the exact image I want to finish on, which will remain whether I end up rewriting or not. It involves a name, a scrap of material and a rather fetching colour scheme. 

Ooh. Cryptic.

[emmaruthrundlesh]

Emma Ruth Rundle Interview // Rock’n’Roll Journalist

(via Rock’n’Roll Journalist) “Dark” singer-songwriter is a term which deserves an official registration based on the modern wave of talented female artists. Next to Chelsea Wolfe, there is also Emma Ruth Rundle rapidly building her space on the market. Her captivating voice and an amazing taste for cold melodies are more than addictive. If you look at her list of favorite albums, the magic of her sound suddenly makes more sense. In addition we also spoke about her gear, challenges on a tour and beauties of Prague, which is also on her current European tour schedule on 18th of October.

Would like to give some introduction to your list?

This is not so much a list of my favorite albums of all time. Much of these are rather pieces I return to over and over as they are especially significant for me.

40 Watt Sun – The Inside Room (2011)

One of my all time favorite albums, English 3 piece, 40 Watt Sun, combine a slower, heavy guitar driven washes over which Patrick Walker literally pours his heart out. HIs lyrics and voice are incredibly eloquent and beautiful. The songs are, at times, in the 8 plus minute category so there is plenty of time to be reeled into their world and taken through Walker’s emotional landscapes. One of my biggest influences in the last few years.

Kate Bush – The Sensual World (1989)

A longstanding favorite and go to listen for me. Kate Bush has a few phases and different sounding albums but there is always her at the core. I think The Sensual World has become the diamond album in her discography, for me, because of the song Love and the Anger. It’s one of the catchiest and uplifting songs I’ve ever heard. Just watch the video and see Kate dancing at the end…How can you not fall in love? Also some really tasteful world influence and killer guitar by David Gilmour on Rocket’s Tale. Love it all the way through.

Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream (1993)

It’s very frustrating to wake up and look at the internet these days only to be greeted by any number of people and music blogs STILL making fun of Billy Corgan – not going to lie, it bums me out and makes me feel sad for a world of critics who can’t take it the simple fact that Billy has recorded THE BEST guitar tone of all time and he did so on Siamese Dream. The songwriting is brilliant and this is really an album that takes you to a place, especially by the time you reach Silverfuck. Sure, I jump over the hits – I don’t need to hear Today every time I want to enjoy this masterpiece but if you’re somehow not familiar take the whole trip and revel in what I think is some of the most important guitar playing of the 90’s.

James Blake – Self Titled (2011)

A groundbreaking beauty of an album. James Blake managed to write and produce this minimal pop R and B (with strong classical influences) that won him the Mercury Prize. There is nothing but pure perfection and genius on this record. Even the cover art is elegant and humble in a way. I guess there is some sense of humility in Blake’s writing that takes me in even further and I become invested in all his repetitive and disintegrated lines, waiting for them to break or modulate in any number of ways as they do on this album.

Cloakroom – Time Well (2018)

I came to know Cloakroom just by association. They had done a lot of touring with label mates Russian Circles as well as some other folks I know. I sort of disregarded this band for a time – not sure why – but when Time Well came out on Relapse earlier this year, I was completely head over heals in love with these Midwestern boys. The guitar playing and textures as well as the cleverly timed riffs (for lack of a better word, this band isn’t metal at all but heavy in a deferent way) and the bonus of Doyle’s of introspective vocal has won them a very special place in my heart and headphones.

Brian Eno – Thursday Afternoon (1985)

In his 11th studio album, Eno has fully mastered the very new world he himself pioneered and invented: Ambient music. Thursday Afternoon is just one long daydream of a song with nothing but the babbling of the synthesized (or whatever he’s employed on this) brook. Nothing “happens” on this album. There is no break or moment of great change or rhythm even… it’s just the most relaxing music on Earth which is why I find my way back to it so often. Pure peace streamed right from the source of new sound.

I’m not an ethnomusicologist

Tori Amos – Boys for Pele (1996)

Tori Amos peaked, for me, on this 18 track album. It was her first time self producing as well and there is something so fierce and desperate in her lyrics and voice. While generally regarded as a singer songwriter, which I think conjures up a picture of a subdued character sitting in a coffee shop somewhere, Tori is really more of a badass and this album rocks it ways though piano and harpsichord driven tunes. I love everything about how the record was recorded and sounds as well. Even the music videos that came from this album are great. If you don’t know, you should.

Earth – Hex; Or Printing the Infernal Method (2005)

I am not sure when I first became aware of the legendary instrumental band Earth but I am sure it was later on in life than for some other more tuned in people. Hex is an album that I listened to a lot while on tour and desperately in need of refuge from the chaos of being trapped with so many other people traveling across the globe. Hex is like a soundtrack and works incredibly well for someone who’s trapped staring out a window, avoiding conversations for most of the day. If there was ever a time to describe something as dusty sounding, this is it. Having really loved the Neil Young soundtrack to Dead Man – Hex felt like a sister album to me or in that world. It has a special ability to take you into a barren landscape and push out all your youngness which is so needed!

The Body – No One Deserves Happiness (2016)

This record came into my life at a time of physiologically shattering life change and a very hot summer in LA. Most would describe The Body and an “experimental” or harsh noise (at times) project. No One Deserves Happiness introduces female forward singing over the backdrop of the bands soul reaping sounds. Chip’s hollow screams have manifested a truly horrific creature in my mind. There is a blend of classical reverence and choral singing within The Body’s noise land and it turns on a part of my brain while listening. I feel comforted by this album somehow.

Stars Of The Lid – And Their Refinement Of The Decline (2007)

Another instrumental masterpiece – SOTL also have classical inclinations or leanings or is this contemporary classical music? I’m not an ethnomusicologist. Washes of treated instruments grip your xanaxed out sandbag body and drag you slowly and mournfully in waves under a pink ocean of wonder and obliteration of the self. I have fallen asleep in my most anxiety ridden times to this album as it swallows you like no other can.

In the heart of Europe

In late October you will be coming to Prague to very intimate club called 007. Did you ever have a chance to properly walk around Prague?

I never played a solo show in Prague, but I performed here with my previous bands already. Every time I made sure, me and my band mates have enough time to check the city. It was amazing every time and I just can’t wait to come again. I visited Prague the last time in 2010 and our tour manager was Tomáš Zakopal, who was local, so he prepared a beautiful commented tour for us.

Could you please present to us your collection of guitars? From the most recent live footages I see you are a big fan of Fender guitars and especially a model called Coronado II.

This piece actually belongs to Evan Patterson, who plays guitar in my band as well in my support band Jaye Jayle. Guitar #1 in my collection is a classic mahogany piece from Cordoba. There is also one from Chinese brand Blueridge, inspired by OM model OM from Martin…(I’m sorry, I am little bit sick)… Within electric guitars my most favorite is standard Gibson SG. It was quite cheap second hand acquisition in one music store. Another piece is Fender Baritone Jaguar special HH. Then there is Fender Stratocaster. I can’t remember the exact model, but it’s quite unique as it has two humbuckers. Next to that I also have one white model from Guild. Longer I play I realize it is very important for me to have two humbuckers within electric guitars. And finally there is one really crappy SG, which I would really like to get rid of, as it is badly made. (Laugh)

Some preferences within microphones?

I use BLUE enCORE 200 the most. Probably as it was a gift. I like its sound, as it can work very well with mids and highs. Another reason is very practical. I realized I get sick more often if I use in-house microphones. If I use my own microphone, I have bigger chances to stay well.

Life on a tour

I am sorry, you don’t feel well. Do you think it’s also because of air conditioners during this years’ crazy summer season?

Not sure to be honest. I was just getting back from a European tour and I must have caught something on a plain.

Longer I play I realize it is very important for me to have two humbuckers within electric guitars

How are you trying to stay in a good shape on a tour? There is a European tour coming up during fall and that’s quite challenging season for immunity.

One can just do maximum and hope. If I can, I try to stay warm and eat plenty of hot meals. I try to rest, as much as I can and get plenty of sleep. But it’s not always that easy, where there is so much drinking and everything else which belongs to a tour life. It is practically a miracle if you survive a tour without any harm.

Is there some European location, which you really look forward to visit during upcoming European tour? It doesn’t necessarily have to be Prague…

It’s funny, as everybody in the team looks forward for the Prague the most. Evan is practically obsessed with Prague and I just can’t wait to meet friends, which I haven’t seen for years. I am also looking forward to see Porto, Lisbon and also Madrid, as I’ve never been to Spain. In general I love to visit well known places as well as completely new locations.

[thecourtreportersportedjorts]

Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2017

In December of each year, Billboard publishes its list of the 100 biggest hit songs of the last 12 months. In response, I take it upon myself to decide which of these songs were the real hits, and which were the biggest misses. As always, I’m starting with the worst. Let’s get started:

10. “Do Re Mi” by Blackbear

If you’ve read my earlier lists, I’ve made it no secret that I’m a big fan of The Weeknd. I’ve been enjoying his relentlessly bleak brand of R&B for years, so I was more than ready to celebrate his ascent on the pop charts with multiple spots on my Best Hit Songs lists in 2015 and 2016. Apart from choosing “Can’t Feel My Face” over Taylor Swift’s incomparable “Style” as my favorite hit song of 2015, I stand by all of it. Unfortunately, any great, successful artist is bound to generate a wave of cut-rate imitators, and thus we now have to deal with blackbear.

When blackbear first appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 last spring, I probably had the same reaction as anyone previously uninitiated: who the hell is this? Prior to this year, the rising R&B singer-songwriter had written and produced for such personality vacuums as G-Eazy and Machine Gun Kelly. He also co-wrote “Boyfriend,” one of Justin Bieber’s biggest and most embarrassing singles to date. If any of that suggests that his breakout single “Do Re Mi” would be a noxious whinge replete with countless fuckboy-isms, you’d only wish it were that good.

Blackbear unfortunately goes the extra mile, topping off his insufferable whining at his “crazy” ex with a failed attempt at wit. “Do, re, mi, fa, so fuckin’ done with you,” the chorus taunts, which becomes awkward when you notice that he’s singing up a minor scale, and the minor solfege progression is do, re, ME, FE, etc. All this is accompanied by a perfunctory Gucci Mane feature and a chord progression that’s eerily similar to The Weeknd’s “Wicked Games,” which is where my issues with the song clicked: when Abel made songs like this, he at least had the good sense not to cast himself in the moral high ground or center his hooks around laughable wordplay. And I thought Bryson Tiller was bad.

9. “Believer” by Imagine Dragons

I’ve been writing these lists for five years now, and while I wouldn’t say that my music taste has changed dramatically since then, it’s certainly expanded enough that I could rewrite my Best Hit Songs lists from 4 or 5 years ago and include songs that weren’t even on my radar before. With that said, doing this for such a long time leads you to wonder if you were ever too quick to heap praise onto something that ultimately didn’t deserve it. And while I wouldn’t say I suddenly dislike any of the songs Imagine Dragons landed on my previous lists, I can no longer call myself a fan when they keep churning out crap like this.

I first mentioned Imagine Dragons in 2012, when I saw them as an innovative new force in rock music, alongside the likes of Gotye and fun. While Gotye still hasn’t followed up his album Making Mirrors, and fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff has made even better music with his Bleachers project, Imagine Dragons doubled down on their stadium-ready sound to diminishing returns. After the sophomore slump Smoke + Mirrors failed to produce major hits, they somehow managed to notch one of their biggest successes yet with “Believer,” a dreary, un-catchy slog of a song.

There are a lot of things that I find deeply annoying about “Believer,” like singer Dan Reynolds audibly straining his vocals on a flat hook, the utterly dour and depressing music backing what should be an uplifting (if not esoteric) set of lyrics, or the “first things first” lyrical structure that gives me Iggy Azalea flashbacks. But my biggest problem with Imagine Dragons in 2017 is that their songs seem entirely calculated to fit into trailers and commercials, and I’ve heard “Believer” in these spaces far more than anything more organic. I don’t believe that rock is inherently more valuable or authentic than pop, rap, etc., but it has no chance of being so if this is the way “rock” is represented in the mainstream.

8. “Tunnel Vision” by Kodak Black

If there is a theme to my lists this year, it’s that content doesn’t exist without context. 2017 has seen countless powerful men rightfully fall from grace as allegations of sexual assault and harassment continue to come out of the woodwork. As somebody who loves to share music, this puts me in an interesting position. Was I right to top my Best Hit Songs of 2014 with “Do What U Want,” Lady Gaga’s infamous collaboration with R. Kelly? Can I, in good conscience, still call Brand New’s Science Fiction one of the best albums on the year? Despite my own investment in this music, I have to second guess whether or not I can actively recommend any of it when such information is readily available. These are tough questions, but at least I don’t have to ask them here since I never liked Kodak Black in the first place.

Horrific legal charges aside, I never understood the appeal of Kodak’s music. Sure, he may choose solid beats once in a while, and he may speak on the gritty realities of the street life, but so many other rappers have done so by using a more intelligible and far less grating voice. So many other rappers have done so without resorting to tired, juvenile punchlines like “That money make me cum, it make me fornicate / I’m the shit, I need some toilet paper.” And so many other rappers at least know that “winning” doesn’t rhyme with “penitentiary.”

Even if you somehow liked this song and wanted badly to separate the art from the artist, you can’t really do that in this case. The edited line “I get any girl I want, any girl I want” originally ended with “I don’t gotta rape,” which is eventually followed by “I need a bitch who gon’ cooperate.” YIKES. The only reason this song is so low on this list is because the beat, provided by the ubiquitous Metro Boomin, deserves so much better. Metro, please stick to working with Future and Migos and stay away from this little shit.

7. “Bad Things” by Machine Gun Kelly feat. Camila Cabello

Overall, I considered 2016 to be a pretty weak year for the pop charts. It’s not that everything was terrible that year, but I remember struggling to put together both of these lists because I was so indifferent to most of the hits. Still, one of the most damning trends to dominate the year was the rise of mediocre white rappers. Both Gnash and Post Malone ranked high on my Worst list, and I probably should have included G-Eazy’s tedious “Me, Myself & I” as a dishonorable mention. This trend hasn’t entirely disappeared, as Malone had a surprisingly successful 2017, but it really should have ended with Machine Gun Kelly.

The first of the many bad things about “Bad Things” is the generous sample of Fastball’s 1999 hit song “Out of My Head.” I already have reservations about songs with such recognizable samples - even in songs like “Anaconda” that I otherwise like - and this is no exception, since the sample doesn’t really add any personality or texture to the song. The chorus just gets witlessly rewritten and clumsily regurgitated by Camila Cabello, who only sounds slightly less like a goat than she did on “Work From Home.” Of course, the song also borrows Fastball’s chord progression, which sounds like ass when paired with this Marshmello-lite production.

Even worse is MGK, who’s trying his damnedest to sound like the personification of white alpha male posturing. The only time his delivery suits the track is when he attempts to add a melody in the pre-chorus, and even then it results in serious tonal whiplash. There’s also a baffling R.E.M. reference in his second verse, as if desecrating one 90’s alternative rock band wasn’t enough. I would call the title of the song truth in advertising, but it’s more of an understatement.

6. “Swang” by Rae Sremmurd

I first discussed Rae Sremmurd in 2015 when “No Type” made the #9 spot on my Worst list. And while I still stand by the song’s inclusion, I don’t have much against these guys. Sure, SremmLife had more misses than hits - including the milk-aged, deeply regrettable “Up Like Trump” - but I can take solace in that they earned their biggest success with “Black Beatles,” their best song. On top of that, collaborations with French Montana and Jhene Aiko could position Swae Lee as a breakout solo star with a charismatic (if amateurish) vocal presence.

It’s for that exact reason why “Swang” is such a failure. Critics have routinely praised the duo for their infectious energy, but for the duration of the song, very little of that energy really translates. The production from P-Nazty trades the thunderous, off-kilter synths that made “Black Beatles” so invigorating for something much more warbly, cheap and lifeless. Swae Lee spends the majority of his time droning on words like Alaska Thunderfuck on quaaludes, and by the time Slim Jxmmi attempts to liven things up, it’s too little too late.

“Swang” isn’t an entirely sleepy affair, however. The track has one truly memorable trick up its sleeve - and that’s when Swae leaps into his falsetto during the hook. And it sounds hideous. It’s not quite as ear-splittingly awful as the drop on “Starving” last year, but it doesn’t even have that song’s sense of momentum. It almost sounds like the shower scene from Psycho, only without any real buildup leading to the aural carnage.

5. “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran

Overplay doesn’t tend to factor into my selections for these lists, a fact which is evident when you see that my Best list for 2015 included songs like “Hello” and “Shut Up and Dance.” This is because I don’t listen to the radio or randomized pop playlists very frequently. I’ll seek out the most popular songs once, and whether or not I keep hearing the song usually depends on how much I like it. That said, sometimes a song becomes inescapable, and the more you hear it, you notice more and more problems with it.

This takes us conveniently to “Shape of You,” Ed Sheeran’s first ever #1 single on the Hot 100. Admittedly, I thought this song was decent at first, and so I’d listen to it once in a while when I needed to scratch the itch. But when I decided I was done with it after a few weeks, I started hearing it pretty much everywhere, and then it clicked: this song is incredibly stupid.

First of all, Ed Sheeran is somewhere among the final few names on my hypothetical list of people I want to hear making songs about sex. “Shape of You” is certainly more competent than I’d imagine a sex song would be coming from Danny DeVito, but it’s also weirdly lacking in personality, which makes sense since he didn’t write this with himself in mind. Like “Cheap Thrills” last year, “Shape of You” was originally intended for Rihanna, who’s probably getting annoyed by all these white songwriters trying to pitch her such watered-down, vaguely Caribbean sounding pop tunes.

Of course, I could just be wishing that the song lacked personality, because Ed can’t resist using his same Sheeranisms that have soiled so many of his stabs at pop. In addition to an out-of-place Van Morrison shoutout (which he couldn’t even confine to one song), the song has a host of clumsy, overwritten lyrics. “Your love was handmade for somebody like me.” “We talk for hours and hours about the sweet and the sour.” That whole chorus. “Shape of You” scans as an OkCupid message from a dude with no social skills. Now imagine getting that same message about 500 more times, and you’ve got one of the most overplayed trainwrecks in recent memory.

4. “Don’t Wanna Know” by Maroon 5 feat. Kendrick Lamar / “Cold” by Maroon 5 feat. Future

For this entry on the list, I’ll be doing something different - I’m giving it to two songs. Sure, this is occasionally done as an excuse to avoid making a concrete decision, but there’s a genuine reason this time. The songs in question are “Don’t Wanna Know” and “Cold,” both by rock band-turned-space-wasters Maroon 5. These two songs are essentially minor variations on each other, and all the more evidence that Adam Levine and his producers band need to go away.

“Don’t Wanna Know” was released late last year, while the charts were still saturated with so much half-assed tropical house. The lyrics feature Levine at his most petulant and unlikeable, harping on an ex so much that the characteristically repetitive chorus just sounds more like a failed defense mechanism. As awful as all this is, it’s nothing compared to the fact that these guys managed to rope in Kendrick Lamar - arguably one of the most important and talented artists of this decade - and make him suck. It’s a brief 8-bar verse, and yet half of the bars feature words rhyming with each other. There’s one thing I do wanna know after hearing this dreck - what Kendrick’s paycheck looked like.

Oh-so-cleverly released on Valentine’s Day this year, “Cold” effectively treads the same water as the other song. It’s more turgid tropical bullshit, only at a slighter quicker tempo. The lyrics are even more bitter, bordering on misogynistic at points. Another A-list rapper features, but this time, it’s Future, and while his verse is pretty average by his own standards, he sounds incredibly uncomfortable over this beat. Nothing about this song disappoints me as much Kendrick’s verse on “Don’t Wanna Know,” but it might be slightly worse by virtue of being more of the same.

Both of these songs were released well before their cluelessly titled album Red Pill Blues was even announced, and they were formally left off the standard track listing. Still, because of their chart success, they were included on the deluxe edition of the album, if only to represent the death of tropical house as a viable trend and an enjoyable sound in pop. And, of course, the death of Maroon 5 as anything resembling an actual band.

3. “JuJu on that Beat (TZ Anthem)” by Zay Hilfigerrr and Zayion McCall

Since Billboard first put a greater emphasis on streaming in their calculations, it’s been interesting to see how songs perform on the charts. As a whole, album tracks chart longer than ever, and the last two years have seen such unexpected chart-toppers like “Panda” and “Bodak Yellow” thanks to the popularity of hip-hop on streaming services. Unfortunately, this also means that songs are also more likely to become genuine hits off of viral novelty than quality. It happened with the execrable “Watch Me” in 2015, and it nearly two years later, it happened with “Juju on That Beat.”

In retrospect, I may have been a little too hard on “Watch Me” when I named it the second worst song of 2015. I mean, we were still in the middle of Meghan Trainor’s window of relevance when it came out, and 2017 has seen rappers draw even more attention to their distinctive ad-libs. “Watch Me,” while still pretty grating, seems quaint and harmless now. The same can’t be said about “Juju on That Beat,” which is just as annoying and insulting to the intelligence as it was a year ago.

Let’s start with “That Beat,” which is lifted wholesale from Crime Mob’s crunk staple “Knuck If You Buck.” Forget what I said about the “Out of My Head” sample in “Bad Things,” this is particularly lazy. While rappers have used pre-existing beats in the past, this is clearly a dance song. Aren’t dance songs were supposed to have a unique musical identity to make up for inconsequential lyrics? The only audible difference is that the beat is transposed to a higher key, which makes sense if it’s meant to suit aspiring one hit wonders Zay Hilfigerrr and Zayion McCall’s more youthful voices.

It’s too bad that their voices still don’t sound remotely good. Hilfigerrr (not that the name matters) is particularly irritating, his out-of-breath yelps cracking like his balls just dropped mid-recording. And while I may have critiqued “Watch Me” for lacking actual rap verses, maybe it was for the better, as the other guy attempts to freestyle, only rhyming the first two of his eight bars and dropping such gems as “if I compared me and you, there wouldn’t be no comparings.” The only good thing about this song is that it’s mercifully short, perhaps the shortest hit song of 2017 that wasn’t by XXXTentacion or Lil Pump. By comparison, “Watch Me” is a masterpiece in minimalism.

2. “Say You Won’t Let Go” by James Arthur

I’m pretty sure my decision to name “Treat You Better” the worst song of 2016 might have been strange for some. Sure, I’ve seen the song on several similar lists (including one that has it in the same position), but the general public actually seems to enjoy the song a lot. Maybe that has to do with the fact that the music is so blandly inoffensive that most people wouldn’t bat an eye at the content. But apart from the patronizing lyrics and the laughable singing, that was part of my problem. White-guy-with-acoustic-guitar songs tend to piss me off because they’re churned out by dudes with aspirations to Real Musicianship whose compositional skills are limited, so the lyrics tend to be transparent in their douchebaggery. And while very, very few things are as bad as “Treat You Better,” James Arthur’s “Say You Won’t Let Go” fits this mold to a T.

As with seemingly all music this year, some context is necessary. James Arthur won The X Factor in 2012 (which should tell you everything about this guy’s musical persona) before signing to Simon Cowell’s Syco Records imprint and eventually releasing songs in which he used homophobic and Islamophobic insults and compared himself to a terrorist. He left Syco in 2014, but two years later, he released Back from the Edge, an album whose title practically begs for sympathy for his lack of a filter. “Say You Won’t Let Go” was the immensely successful lead single, which somehow lasted on the Hot 100 for a full year.

Perhaps knowing all this before hearing the song colored my distaste for “Say You Won’t Let Go” from the jump, but I think this song is fucking terrible. Over acoustic strumming and an infinitely recycled chord progression, Arthur recounts when he first met the love of his life, including a deeply unflattering line where she vomits (again with that filter!). The rest of the song delves into the same territory that Ed Sheeran already exhausted with “Thinking Out Loud,” and the whole thing just scans as incredibly disingenuous coming from him. Hell, he even describes the song as “really calculated” in his annotations on Genius.

Truthfully, the content and the context are the least unpleasant things about this song. James Arthur nearly mumbles through the verses before bringing his voice up another octave for the chorus, which sounds like a drunken bro singing “You’re Beautiful” at Karaoke. A lot of people have praised his vocals, but I might just hate them even more than “Swang” because at least Swae Lee sounded like he was enjoying himself. James just sounds ready to throw up, which is probably karma at work after that lyric in the first verse (not to mention pretty much anything this guy has said that put him at the edge in the first place).

Before I unveil my pick for the worst hit song of 2017, here are eight dishonorable mentions:

“Chained to the Rhythm” by Katy Perry feat. Skip Marley: 2017 was not a good year for Katy Perry, whose self-awareness seems to be diminishing with each album cycle. “Chained to the Rhythm” was the ever-so-obviously co-written by Sia lead single, which boasts an extremely out-of-place guest verse from Bob Marley’s grandson and perhaps one of the clumsiest hooks of the entire year.

“Thunder” by Imagine Dragons: At least “Chained to the Rhythm” had an actual hook, not just chipmunked repetitions of a single word. Because it’s an Imagine Dragons song in 2017, it’s also padded out a with a trap beat, more vague nothings in the verses and grossly manipulated vocals in place of any actual instrumental tones.

“Mercy” by Shawn Mendes: It’s nowhere near as condescending and misogynistic as “Treat You Better,” but it’s every bit as whiny and overwrought, even sharing the same warbled vocals incessant drum beat. Really, it’s a damn shame he didn’t actually drown in the music video.

“Drowning” by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie feat. Kodak Black: Speaking of drowning, isn’t a song with this title and these piano chords supposed to be about something more interesting than bragging about jewelry? Also, an accused rapist shows up to mumble and make awful jokes about farts. Let’s move on.

“Look at Me!” by XXXTentacion: Oh yeah, there was also this guy, who’s been accused of some extremely disturbing stuff (seriously, trigger warning). I can appreciate some more aggression in the beat and even X’s flow, but the distortion makes everything nearly incomprehensible, which is probably alright since the lyrics amount to little more than edgelord crap. Fuck this.

“Down” by Marian Hill: “Down” doesn’t really have any personality to speak of, driven almost entirely by a woman’s breathy voice, which later gets manipulated into a boilerplate trap beat. Seriously, what is it about this kind of pretentious “indie” pop wallpaper that attracts such an audience?

“Issues” by Julia Michaels: I’ve talked a lot of shit about Julia Michaels and her frequent collaborator Justin Tranter in the past, but “Issues” is actually a pretty compelling exploration of mental health and relationships, and Julia is a distinctive vocalist in her own right. Unfortunately, the song does have issues, and one of them is how bad it needs to pick up the goddamn pace.

“All Time Low” by Jon Bellion: Jon Bellion has a lot of potential as a songwriter and producer, but his vocals sound a lot like Adam Young with slightly more testosterone. The lyric about masturbation is questionable too, but I simply can’t hear that chorus without thinking of this video.

And now, for what I consider worst hit song of 2017:

1. “Body Like a Back Road” by Sam Hunt

Choosing between this and “Say You Won’t Let Go” for the bottom slot on my list was admittedly much harder than usual, but the decision ultimately came down to one thing. Sure, James Arthur’s song disgusts me on a very primal level, to a point where I can’t really listen to the chorus without wincing. But would the song really bother me that much if Arthur weren’t a total dick with a horrific voice? Probably not. Thus, I had to choose a song that was so unequivocally bad that literally nobody could make it work. I had to choose a song in which the awfulness was spelled out right in the title: “Body Like a Back Road.”

Before we open the can of worms that is this song, one thing needs to be addressed. Yes, this is a bro-country song. In 2017. I could maybe see the appeal if this were released in 2014, which was not only the saturation point for this embarrassing subgenre, but also for the DJ Mustard production style that this song clearly takes its influence from. But in 2017, country music has thankfully been working back towards a more organic sound, and DJ Mustard has been replaced by guys like Metro Boomin and Mike Will Made It as hip-hop’s guiding hand. From the word “go,” this song is dated and lame.

Of course, lame is a huge understatement for the lyrical content. You can infer a lot of things from the title alone, and it’s even worse than you might expect. Sam Hunt seems to dedicate this song to his fiancee, which is perhaps one of the most misconceived gifts imaginable. For fuck’s sake, Sam, you’re a country singer. It’s par the course that you’ve been on a back road before, you should know damn well that this comparison is insulting. As if that weren’t bad enough, he attempts to elaborate, waxing unpoetic about her “curves” (a word he draws out in a particularly grating manner) and how the two of them “go way back like Cadillac seats.” While the imagery is more consistent than Train’s abominable “Drive By,” it’s just as gross.

But really, the most egregious crime “Body Like a Back Road” commits is just flat-out sounding like ass. Hip-hop and country don’t exactly have a lot of aesthetic common ground to begin with, so when the rap producer this guy attempts to emulate is DJ Mustard, the whole track ends up sounding as cheap and awkward as his early abortions like “Rack City.” There’s also the weirdly lightweight live drums, not to mention whatever the hell is playing that melody in the intro and bridge. The whole song is so out of touch with the times that I’m convinced it wasn’t just a Montevallo demo. Sadly, it seems the bro-country trend never really went away, and maybe it still has legs to stand on (legs that, at some point, it’ll probably try to compare to the confederate flag or something). But last year proved that mainstream country can be so much better than this, so let’s just hope that this subgenre finally dies for real this time.

Thanks for reading my list, I should be uploading the Best Hit Songs of 2017 later this week!

[fuckyeahigneous]

A-Z Asks

Tagged by @shark-myths.  And actually doing this on desktop instead of mobile for once to make life easier!

RULES: Copy this post into a new text post, remove my answers and put in yours. When you are done, tag up to 10 people and also tag the person who tagged you… and most importantly, have fun!

A) Age: 31.  Supposedly.

B) Biggest fear: I don’t know? 

C) Current time: 11:08 am

D) Drink you last had: Polar Mango Berry seltzer

E) Every day starts with: My alarm blaring the Hyrule Field Main Theme from Ocarina of Time.  Though no, let’s be fair, usually a half hour before that it starts with one of my cats walking across and pulling my hair, before he starts walking across me because he wants breakfast.

F) Favourite song atm:  Toss up between Hard Times and Rose-Colored Boy by Paramore.  Love the lyrics and I feel the message in my bones.  Sadly.

G) Ghosts. Are they real??: Umm... I believe there are many things in the world with scientific explanations that we don’t yet understand.  I haven’t personally seen any evidence for ghosts, but who am I to rule it out?

H) Hometown?: Piedmont, CA

I) In love with?: All of my friends.  They are amazing.  Music.  Books.  My cats.  Sometimes myself.  Romantically?  Eh... There is no one with whom I share mutual romantic feelings, to the best of my knowledge.

J) Jealous of?: People who live close to their works.

K) Killed Someone?: Not yet.

L) Last time you cried: I don’t know?  Not because I don’t cry, but because I’ll burst into tears pretty easily.  Other than touching stories of cat and dog rescues, I’m pretty sure there was some exhausted crying once I finally got home from my uncle’s funeral, after 3 hours of delayed flights and another hour of not being able to get a car after.  And no hugs.

M) Middle name: Elaine.

N) Number of siblings: None.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.

O) One wish: A week at the beach, just me and the people I choose to invite.  No  work, no responsibilities, no house guests.  Sun and ocean waves and books and a few close friends..

P) Person you last called/texted: Probably the answer to I.  Or my friend in Indiana.  I feel like I should categorise this by method - I use far too many communication apps.

Q) Questions you are always asked: Is your hair naturally that curly or do you have to do anything to it?  (Yes it is, and no, I don’t really).  How do you pronounce your name?  (Just go with “hey you” it’s easier)  What made you move back to the US from the UK? (Why do you think you’re entitled to my life story?)

R) Reasons to smile: Sunshine.  It’s finally warming up out here (what the hell, Boston).  Belated birthday drinks next weekend - even with only a handful of people coming, it’s the people most important to me.  Wonder Woman tonight preceded by creative cocktails with friends.  Boston Pride Parade tomorrow.  Finding out the woman I bought my favourite pair of earrings from last summer can make me a new pair to replace the one I lost, AND she’s on her way to see her herkimer diamond guy today!  And sassy hair.

S) Song last sung: I genuinely have no idea.  I sang Happy Birthday to my coworker on Monday?  And I sang Young and Menace to one of my cats.  He was not impressed.

T) Time you woke up: Alarm went off at 7:30, but  I have no idea when my cat started trying to get me up.

U) Underwear colour: Coral.  Boring.  It will likely be black once I shower and get ready for going out tonight.  Maybe I’ll go for some of my less-boring black just to feel purdy.

V) Verse from a song you like: I feel like this has to be a Fall Out Boy song, right?  Because I’m constantly texting my friend snippets from their songs.  But let’s mix it up and go with the chorus (not verse, I know, I’m horrifically naughty) of “Shine” by LOLO:

Why you waiting on the world for a favor? This is your life go ahead and change it You're the brightest star in the sky But no one’s gonna know if you never shine Why you waiting on someone else? To give you the things that you want yourself, oh You're the brightest star in the sky So go ahead and shine, yeah, go ahead and shine

W) Worst habit: Doubting myself.  And picking at the thick skin on my feet.

X) X-rays you’ve had: Ankle and elbow (broken and fractured, respectively), ankle another time when I’d sprained it really badly.  I feel like hand after getting it slammed in a car door as a kid?  But it wasn’t broken.  Uh, dental x-rays?  And I think maybe a chest x-ray when I had a really bad cough for like 10 months.

Y) Your favourite food: these days?: I love all food?  Sushi and (good) Mexican and pizza and (decent) Indian.  I can find good versions of one out of four out here...

Z) Zodiac sign: Taurus.  And yes, I’m stubborn as fuck.

[escapethroughthepages]

R E V I E W

Living in the Blackwood family home with her only sister Constance and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the world isn’t leaving the Blackwoods alone. And when Cousin Charles arrives, armed with overtures of friendship and a desperate need to get into the safe, Merricat must do everything in her power to protect the remaining family.

Hello friends, it has been a while. Safe to say I have been consumed by the demands of my degree this year. Recreational reading ended up taking a temporary back seat. HOWEVER, I have at last handed in my final assignments so my undergraduate degree is complete! My course friend and myself celebrated both with a cheeky cocktail, and a little visit to the book shop. Because how else do you commemorate three years of intense academic reading than by buying a book to read? We Have Always Lived in the Castle was the book I picked off the shelf.

Warning: slight spoilers underneath

I have wanted to read this story for quite a while, I love novels that fall under the Gothic and it was for this gothic influence that the novel was first recommended.

The story is set around the lives of the surviving members of the Blackwood family; narrator Mary Katherine ‘Merricat’, her older sister Constance, and Uncle Julian. The story takes place after the mass-murder of the Blackwood family several years ago, when arsenic was placed in the sugar bowl at a family dinner. Constance, having been in charge of the dinner, was initially labelled as her family’s killer, but was later acquitted. Despite being exonerated Constance, and the remaining Blackwood family, experiences rejection from the local townspeople.

The Blackwood sisters are happy to exist within the confines of their family estate, with Merricat venturing out once a week to town to get the groceries and visit the library for the household. The conflict starts when cousin Charles Blackwood comes to stay and disrupts the routine that has been in place for so long. Merricat, reliant on her routine, is unable to accept the changes that are brought by Charles’ arrival, the changes being depicted as increasingly more drastic, from the disturbance of Mr Blackwood’s bedroom to the vast destruction of the Blackwood mansion.

When you read this story, you feel it should be a lot longer than it actually is. So much action is packed into so few pages. There is never a pause in the narrative, if there is a moment of tranquillity in the household the action is then occurring in Merricat’s mind, where her paranoia is always cooking up conspiracies and ways to protect her family from the outside world. A lot of Merricat’s daily chores revolve around her need to follow rituals and find talismans she can then bury in various spots on the estate, an act that is normalised by the narrative and only questioned by both Constance and the reader when Charles finds out about Merricat’s practices. The supernatural is one of my favourite traits of the gothic, and I love Jackson’s use of it here. Merricat, to me, is a contemporary witch and her power is shown to be both subtle and intimidating. She leaves this story as the winner and definitely a character I never want to go up against. Although she is presented as an innocent youth for most of this novel, Jackson’s reveal of Merricat’s history is, for me, the most haunting moment of the book. She is both childhood innocence and amoral temptation combined. Just like Macbeth she ‘looks like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t’.

Despite being a novel of questionable morality and ugliness, I cannot deny there is also a lot of beauty. By isolating the family on their estate, a lot of the story interacts with nature more than an urban setting. Nature, by itself, is shown to be pure and innocent, it is only when it’s in the hands of society that its deadly potential is realised. The ugliness of the story is dominated by the horrific and cruel behaviour of humanity. The scene I found most disturbing in this novel was probably the destruction of the Blackwood manor, because it was a moment that could have been avoided, but was also a scene that the story was inevitably building towards. Here, we witness a form of collective, raw primitivism by the townspeople as they loot and ravage what was once the home of a great dynasty.  They are corrupted by their anger and overwhelmed by it, and it was this loss of control that most disturbed me, because for me it was the most realistic moment. And to have that happen to your family home would be a truly horrific nightmare-reality. And to have a scene that influences me to sympathise, and vicitimise, a character such as Merricat is not only a clever scene, but one that really does fulfil the horror of the novel.  

Basically, I am really glad this was the book I picked up, that this was the first book I got to leisurely read after my degree. It’s definitely a book I want to explore in more depth one day, there is just so much to it that I feel it is a book you could read over and over and never be bored. Also, the prose is just so snazzy; it’s simplistic but with a kind of lyrical quality that makes it not only easy to read, but hard to put down. Definitely a story I will always recommend.