#this latest session has been insane like hello

[inkydiamonds]

We all saw this scene and went I MUST DRAW didn't we

[onestowatch]

Aidan Bissett Wants You to Know It’s Okay to Be Alone [Q&A]

Photo: Brooke James

Aidan Bissett’s sunny and effortless disposition contrasts the chaotic ode to classic rock that is his latest track “Dumped.” The introspective and cathartic nature of his latest offering speaks to age-old feelings of heartbreak while doubling as an optimistic reminder that cloudy days cannot last forever.

Releasing soft-spoken tracks followed by headbanging, classic-rock inspired hits, this young artist’s music truly feels alive, shifting and evolving from one release to the next. With a soulful dedication to “music first, lyrics second,” Bissett is steadily creating his own lane defined by a relentless drive for experimentation. We had the chance to talk to Bissett about his creative approach, his latest single, “Dumped,” and plenty more. 

Ones to Watch: So, tell me the story behind “Dumped?”

Aidan Bissett: Wow, that’s a good question. I wish when I wrote it, it came from like, I had just been dumped… Well, okay, I had sort of been dumped. I don’t know how to explain that, but let’s just say I was in a relationship, taking time off, in a sense. When we were writing it, it was me, my friends, Ryan and Sean, and we were writing in a zoom session for like three hours. It was not a good song, and none of the three of us wanted to say it was a bad song. So, we were like, “OK, we are going to go take a break for a little.” 

Then I pulled my guitar off the wall and started messing around, because when I get bored, especially in sessions, I like to try and take my mind off things. I’ll play random chords and sing random lyrics, like ad-lib over them just for fun. So, I started playing like three chords that are all throughout “Dumped,” singing this hook line that—it’s going to sound really weird—“I’m taking dumps all the time.” The guy I was producing it with was like, “OK, gross,” but that actually could be really cool… what if we change it to “I’m getting dumped all the time.” And I was like, “Woah.” That’s kind of how it started and we were on a roll and wrote the whole song in two hours.

And the song does mean a lot to me, because I have actually been dumped, multiple times. It sucks, it’s not a fun feeling, so every time I listen to it, it is kind of an “f you” type of song. Like, “yeah, I got dumped but I’m better off on my own anyway.” I always like that feeling better than wallowing in sadness. So, for anyone who does listen to it, I hope that it helps bring you out of the mourn and into a new light.

In the music video, you are seen reading an “Idiot's Guide To Love.” What was the last book you read?

I do love reading, I’ve always liked reading. I have not, in the past year, read a ton of books, which sucks because I actually do like reading. Well, okay, my senior year of high school I read like 13 books but a lot of them were for school. But they were still good books! I’m in the middle of reading Dune, which is very good so far. So, hopefully, I can finish that before the movie comes out. But yeah, I do like reading… when I have the time to sit down with my ADHD mind.

“Dumped” is a noted sonic transition for you. Can you tell me about how you approach your genre-spanning sound?

I don’t really like putting myself in one genre. I’m in a certain lane in the sense I do indie-pop, I do alternative, but I don't want to do straight pop. I feel like it's such a box, and it’s so limiting. I just love exploring different sounds, so even from the start, I put out “Different,” and then the second song was “Worst Girls Of All Time,” which was a completely different sound than the indie-pop wave that “Different” is. So, me putting out stuff like this after “Communication” is me exploring new sounds. To be honest, the things I like to hear always change, the bands that I’m listening to are always changing, and I take a lot of inspiration from a lot of different bands. I just love trying new things. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but it just keeps me on my toes instead of just doing the same formula over and over again.

What are you listening to right now?

That’s a good question, it’s kind of all over the place. There’s this one girl, Remi Wolf, who I’ve been non-stop listening to… I have been listening to her for a minute. When she put out her first EP, I loved it. But now, she’s putting out these new tracks and Solomonophonic, her producer, he’s just incredible and her voice is incredible. They are doing so many things that just aren’t normal in this time of music; it’s just so her own lane. I find that really inspiring in the sense that she’s carving her own path and not following in the line of others.

I feel like I’m always listening to Wallows no matter what. I always have them ready to go. COIN. Role Model’s rolling out new stuff so I’m excited for that, he’s kind of taking a change in his own discography. [The] sounds that he is doing are definitely a lot different from his earlier stuff. This guy, binki. He’s actually opening for Role Model on this tour. Oh my gosh! His music’s insane, so cool. It’s got so many sounds going on, similar to Remi Wolf, there’s so much going on, you’re like ‘wow.. I’ve never heard something like this before.’

For those who don’t know, you write, record and produce your music all by yourself. Can you walk me through your creative process?

Yeah, I’m very musically-driven. Everyone has their own thing, I feel like a lot of artists, like the Olivia Rodrigo types, are lyrically-driven. I’m definitely music first, lyrics second. So, when I sit down to write something I try and get something I latch onto. I’m like, “Oh, this sounds cool. Lyrics could sound cool over this.” Anytime I go into a session or I’m recording by myself, I try to lay down some form of music, and then I’ll freestyle lyrics or freestyle melodies over the top, or pick a melody I like and throw lyrics over that melody. Whether that’s a hook or a verse, that kind of just depends on how I’m feeling. It’s definitely a bit unconventional compared to other artists. I feel like artists are a bit more put together when it comes to writing music just because I’ve only been doing it for like a year-and-a-half. But I have my own process, and it works. Every time I write something I learn something new. I’m excited to see, even a year from now, what my process will be… and even if it's completely different or efficient, who knows?

Tell me about the influence of music in your childhood and the decision for you to be a musician at a young age - you started playing electric guitar very young - what was your household like? Musical family?

My dad wanted the kids in our family, I have two other siblings, to play an instrument for two years during our young adult life. He wanted us to play piano before we got to pick, so we had two years of piano and then we had to pick an instrument. So, my sister went and played two years of piano and didn’t really stick with it afterward. Then, it was my turn and I was like, “Well, I don’t really want to play piano, can I play guitar?” And since I was the only one who asked, who expressed interest in a different instrument, he was like, “Sure.” I started in second grade and I’ve stuck with it the entire time. I took lessons for years, and that’s how I kind of got into the classic rock scene. My dad was a huge classic rock fan so he showed me all greats… and that was all I listened to for years. It definitely had a large impact on what I did. I would even play in little recitals, and I always played classic rock songs like AC/DC or Guns N’ Roses.

It wasn’t necessarily a musical household, like my dad isn’t musical, my mom isn’t musical. The reason he wanted us to play an instrument is because his mom made him play an instrument as a kid, so he was like, “You guys get to do that, too.” But it is true, one of us ended up using it.

What do you want people to take away from “Dumped?”

It’s an amp-up song. I want them to feel energized, to be happy with yourself. Getting hurt in relationships happens all the time, but it's okay to get hurt in a relationship. It’s kind of how you bounce back, and I want this song to be like a bounce back. Like, you hear it and, “Oh! This is me bouncing back! I don’t need to sit and cry anymore, because that’s not fun.” Sitting and crying is okay, everyone’s done it, but there’s a point that you reach, in that break-up phase, when the crying needs to stop and you need to go out and live and be the person that you are, independently. So, I would hope that it inspires you to be your independent, wonderful self again.

Is there anything else you would like to say about your music, or in general, that you want to take the chance now to say?

Well, I’m sitting on a lot of songs. So, I’m excited to get all the rest out, and again, everything is so diverse. All the music is so diverse, I just feel like each song is its own thing, which I really enjoy. I feel that’s really unique to my own music, where you’re getting something new every time. I’m moving to LA. That’s the other thing. So, if anyone sees me in LA, please stop me and say hello!

[sol-tinyrayofsun]

Zutara Week Day 6 - Affirm:  It Was Always You (Falling For Me)

This little story has been on my mind for quite some time now and I somehow made it work with the prompt. It’s really fluffy, ridiculous, and features a lot of Toph’s brilliance to mess with her friends yet always meaning well. I just had a good time writing it, it was honestly a fun ride.

I hope you enjoy it! As always, thank you for reading! Feedback and comments are always appreciated! <3 In case you prefer it, also on AO3! Title: It Was Always You (Falling For Me)

Rating: G

Summary: When Katara let Toph convince her of giving Zuko a love potion to make him fall in love with her, she knew the chances of the plan going sideways were extremely high. Still, the last thing she expected was for Zuko to act normal. Painfully normal. Operation “Sparky Falling For Sugar Queen” turns out to be a little too complicated. (Set after Ember Island Players but before Sozin’s Comet).

----- “Pst! Katara!”

The waterbender tilted her head. The kitchen appeared to be empty. Still, she could hear someone calling for her, loud and clear. She had been busy making sure they had everything ready for lunch around Zuko’s holiday house at Ember Island. 

“Katara!” There it was, that voice again. “Listen up, Sugar Queen!”

Wait for a second, that was Toph’s voice. Definitely. 

“Toph?” She asked, walking around the room. “Where on earth are you?”

“Inside the broomstick closet!” Toph chuckled. “Come here for a sec.”

Katara did as she said. Once she opened the door, she found Toph mischievously smirking, holding a little bottle in her hands. 

“So, what is it?” 

“This!” Toph replied, showing off the bottle with a grin on her face. “This is what I wanted to show you!”

“And you were hidden with all those broomsticks because…” 

“Dramatic effect, Sugar Queen, never underestimate it,” she said, stepping into the kitchen hall. “Now, aren’t you going to ask what this is for?”

“Sure, Toph,” Katara let out an amused sigh. “Why is it so important?

“How do you feel about having some fun at Sparky’s expenses?”

In all honesty, the idea sounded tempting. After the dreadful night Katara had endured with that stupid play just days ago, she could use more than a little fun. Although Toph’s idea of fun could sometimes be questionable, at the very least.

“Hold up. What do you have in mind?”

“This little thing,” Toph shook the bottle up in the air. “It’s a temporary love potion.”

Katara broke down in a scandalous laugh. “Yeah, and where did you get that from?”

Toph made a defensive frown. “Hey, it’s the real deal! I bought it from a weird old lady in town. She wasn’t lying, I swear.”

“Alright, I believe you. And what do you suggest we do with it?” 

“Yes, that’s the attitude!” she celebrated. “According to the weirdo, two drops of this stuff and you can make anyone fall at your feet. All you need is for the other person to consume it while looking at you. And I just thought, wouldn’t it be hilarious if Zuko just happened to suddenly be crazy in love with you? That play inspired me, that’s all I’m saying.”

Well, that sounded like a recipe for disaster. Especially considering the way that play had contributed to her latest confusion regarding her feelings for two very powerful - and very different - benders. Still, it was a tempting offer. 

“Toph, that’s insane!” Hesitation could be heard in her voice. “Trust me, pranking Zuko would be entertaining, but we cannot force him to be forever in love with me! I mean, what on earth would we do then? Seems a little cruel to me.”

“See? That’s the catch. It’s temporary. Two drops would only make him fall in love with you for a couple of days, tops. Come on! I thought you had been introduced to the concept of fun.”

Spirits, screw it. Two days of some harmless fun, how bad could it be? She could use a little distraction from the constant stress they were all under.

“Are you sure the effect will wear off?” 

“Absolutely. Say yes, please! You know I can always do it without you. Or to you.” A mischievous smile framed her face. “You know you want to torture Sparky a little bit.”

“Alright… Let’s do it. But if anything goes sideways it’s your responsibility.” 

“Heck yeah! That’s the spirit!” Toph gave her an affectionate punch in the shoulder. “Oh man, this is going to be too fun to watch!”

And so operation “Sparky falling for Sugar Queen” was put into motion. The two girls would prepare some tea - which would undoubtedly bribe Zuko in there - and make sure he was left alone with Katara when it came to drinking it. Toph would oversee everything from a cautious distance. It was the craziest, most random idea ever. But it sure sounded like fun.

 Once everything was ready, Katara waited for Zuko in the kitchen. Needless to say, she was feeling a tad nervous. Waiting by the countertop, staring at the two teacups in front of her, she felt her heart racing on her chest. 

It was just for two days. And it would certainly be nice to laugh with Toph about Zuko’s ridiculous lovey-dovey attitude. Most importantly, she wouldn’t even dream to risk Toph giving her the concoction. No, her feelings were already messy enough without the help of any love potion. 

“Katara, are you in here?” Zuko’s voice interrupted her overthinking. “Toph said you made tea for me…?”

Time for the show. She put on her brightest smile as Zuko sat down in front of her. 

“Yes! You seemed so tired this morning, figured you could use a little boost.” 

She handed him the cup with the two drops mixed in the tea. 

Zuko gifted her with a thankful smile. “Thank you, that’s very nice of you.”

Nice of me… Yeah, sure. Just drink the tea and look at me. 

He started drinking, only to stop after a few sips to have a little chat.

“So, Aang’s training is looking decent,” he started saying. “But I can tell he’s getting increasingly anxious. We might need to keep an eye on him, I wouldn’t want him to start avoiding our sessions.” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Katara intervened. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t slack on his training. Drink your tea, it’ll get cold otherwise.”

“Alright, alright,” he complied, looking into her eyes. “Thanks again for making it.” 

Katara observed him as he drank the whole thing in one go. Her golden eyes staring at her with an amused shine to them. She wondered how Zuko being in love with her would be like. He didn’t exactly give off the cheesy type vibes, though she knew how much of a dork he actually was. If you fall in love because of a potion, you’re pretty much doomed to grandiloquent gestures and infatuated declarations, right? Well, she wasn’t an expert on the subject. But she did know a thing or two about having feelings for someone.

Toph sneaked into the kitchen, placing her hands on Zuko’s shoulders and giving them one tight squeeze. “Hello there, Sparky, how are you feeling on this lovely day?” 

“Hey Toph,” he greeted her. “Much better after that tea, actually.”

Despite the perfectly normal response, Toph continued with her attack.

“You know what? Sugar Queen over here confessed to me this morning that she felt she looked terrible. I’m clearly not the best judge when it comes to looks.” The vicious smile on her face was a little too obvious. “How is she looking today, Sparky? Isn’t she stunning as usual?”

Oh, no. Katara felt herself blushing. The whole operation had quickly turned into Toph having fun at the expenses of both her and Zuko. But in all honesty, how could she had ever expected otherwise?

“Um, well,” Zuko mumbled, his eyes glued to the countertop. “She looks just the same to me. Like you said, um, she’s got her usual look.”

Katara wished Toph could see the look of utter confusion in her eyes. That was not the response she had imagined. 

Zuko abruptly stood up. “Alright, I think I’ll get back to training. See you two later,” he greeted them. “Oh, and Katara. Thanks again for the tea.”

‘Thanks for the tea’? So much for romantic gestures. 

Toph grasped her arm as soon as Zuko was out the door. 

“What on earth? That was the least romantic interaction ever.” The earthbender exclaimed, looking frustrated. 

“Hey, let’s give it some time. Maybe the effect hasn’t kicked in yet.” 

“Okay, we’ll wait. Man, what a bummer. I was fully expecting him to start a rant about how beautiful you are.” Toph threw her hands up in the air, grunting.

“Patience, we’ll get there,” Katara reassured her.

But am I even sure I want to get there? 

Deep down, a part of her was hoping for it.

The rest of the day was spent with Toph trying her best to get Zuko to do anything remotely romantic regarding Katara, in an attempt to kick off the love potion effects. Much to her frustration, nothing seemed to do the trick. Katara wasn’t sure what to think of it. Did she feel relieved, disappointed, or maybe even bored? Truth be told, it was kind of a mix of all three. 

Katara witnessed as Toph did everything she could. From suggesting they paired up in training all the way up to making them meditate together. All she got from Zuko was radio silence. Well, at least in the sense they were expecting. 

“Are you sure you don’t feel a little weird, Sparky?” Toph asked him for the millionth time during dinner. 

“Um, no? Why?” Zuko had a look of complete confusion on his face. 

“You sure you don’t feel a little more sparky than usual? Don’t you sense some new emotions?” Toph continued. “Anything different?”

“Alright, that’s enough Toph,” Katara interrupted. “You’re scaring the poor boy.”

“Yeah, Toph, what’s all that nonsense about?” Sokka asked. 

“Why should Zuko feel different?” Aang’s voice showed a tad of concern. 

“Nothing, nothing,” Toph replied. “Calm down, you all. I was just wondering.”

Katara noticed the annoyed frown on her friend’s face. She seemed pissed off by the lack of results, the whole plan had been her idea after all. 

After the meal, Suki stayed with them doing the dishes. 

“Are you two going to tell me what’s going on already?” she asked them, with her hands on her hips and an inquisitive look in her eyes. 

“Going on with what?” Toph played the innocent. “We’re just scraping plates.”

“Oh, come on! You have been acting weird all day! Especially you, Toph, asking Zuko the most random questions.”

“What do you say, Sugar Queen, should we tell her?” Toph asked.

“Sure, maybe she’ll even know why it’s not working,” Katara replied. “But Suki, promise not to tell any of the guys, alright?”

Suki let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine, just spill it.” 

“Okay, let me see. We made Sparky drink a love potion with his tea so he would fall in love with Katara. For two days. And before you ask, yes, it’s legit. Oh, but nothing’s happened yet.” Toph´s explanation was accompanied by a playful grin on her face. 

“You’re joking, right?” Suki asked with a sarcastic smirk. “Katara would never be on board with that.”

“Actually,” she said, blushing. “I thought it was kind of a fun idea.”

“Yeah, so much for fun since Sparky hasn’t shown any signs of love and it’s been hours! He should be acting all lovey-dovey already.”

Suki burst into laughter. “Spirits, that’s hilarious! You gave him a freaking love potion and he’s acting as usual?”

“I don’t get what you’re laughing about! Something’s seriously wrong with him! Or us!” Toph complained. “Katara, are you sure you didn’t drink the potion yourself?”

“Yes, Toph, I’m absolutely positive I gave him the cup with the two drops,” Katara replied. 

“Are you telling me you two don’t realize what’s going on?” Suki asked, an amused expression framing her face. “For being the ones to come up with this plan you seem rather clueless.”

A suspicion started to take shape into Katara’s mind. She couldn’t help but ask. “Suki, what are you talking about?” 

“Yeah, come on!” Toph urged her. “Do you know something that we don’t?”

Suki let out a soft giggle. “Well, let’s think about it. You gave Zuko a love potion to fall for Katara, right? Toph, you say it’s a legit one. But Zuko is acting painfully normal. Even though he is under the effects of the potion.”

“Your point is?” Toph was sitting down on the countertop with a desperate expression on her face. 

“If Zuko acts just as usual when he is supposed to be artificially in love with Katara… What do you think it’s the reason?”

“His heart is missing?” 

“The dose wasn’t strong enough?”

“No!” Suki exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. “He was already in love with her!”

Wait. What? That doesn’t make any sense.

“Spirits, Spirits, Spirits!!!” Toph jumped down the countertop, hands on her head, and on the verge of screaming. “That’s it! Suki, you’re a genius.”

Katara hadn’t even blinked. She was not even entirely sure she was still breathing. Zuko in love with her? It couldn’t be. He had even looked embarrassed by the way the play paired them together. Although she had acted embarrassed as well. And a part of her knew very well why. 

“Sugar Queen, I can’t believe I didn’t realize it sooner.” Toph poked her cheeks. “His heartbeat is all over the place whenever you’re around but again so is yours, and I thought it was just all that love/hate dynamic you’ve got going on. I had actually started to suspect he liked you, but Spirits, I didn´t realize he loves you.”

Love/hate, what? This can’t be happening.

Suki raised a brow. “Hold up, Toph, are you saying Katara’s heart beats faster when Zuko is around?”

“That’s a lie!” Katara exclaimed, snapping out. She couldn’t let her friends figure out the truth. “My heart is perfectly fine, thank you very much. And Zuko is not in love with me!”

“And I suppose you have unlimited access to his mind and that’s how you know that?” Toph deadpanned. 

“No… I - That’s unfair Toph,” she managed to mumble, feeling her heart starting to race on her chest.

“As unfair as the fact that you’re heart is betraying your words in this exact second,” Toph replied. 

Katara wished with all of her strength that the ground opened up and swallowed her. The entire operation had gone sideways. But not in the way she had originally expected. No, it was worse.

“Alright, alright,” Suki intervened. “Enough torturing with Katara, this was supposed to be about Zuko.”

“Thank you. Can we please go back to the point?” 

Toph let out an exasperated sigh. “The point is Zuko is in love with you, Sugar Queen. But not because of the love potion, it seems like he’s been head over heels for you way before drinking that tea.”

“I seriously can't believe you didn’t figure this out sooner,” Suki said. “The question is, what are you going to do about it, Kat?” 

That was a very good question indeed. One she had no answer for. 

“Why should I even do something about it?” Katara asked, a confused look in her eyes. 

“Because I think deep down you want to.” Suki’s tone got serious all of the sudden.

Toph placed a hand on her shoulder. “Sugar Queen, I’m sorry if my prank ended up bringing you a headache. But Suki’s right, you should confront him.”

“Confront him? We’re in the middle of a war! I don’t need any distractions.” Her head was spinning a little too fast.

“Says the girl who complied to give a love potion to Sparky,” Toph remarked.

“Katara, would you seriously prefer to have a lump on your throat until Aang has taken down Fire Lord Ozai?”

Truth be told, she would hate that. A part of her knew she had feelings for Zuko. For that poor firebender she had given a love potion to. Only to have the whole scheme backfire right on her face. Now, she had to stand up to it. 

“No.” She shook her head. “I wouldn’t prefer that.” 

“Then hear me out because I have a plan!” Toph exclaimed, enthusiasm written all over her face. “I know how to get one last bit of fun out of this failure of an operation.”

——

The next day went out according to what the girls had planned. Still hoping for at least a bit of extra romance on Zuko’s behalf - which, unsurprisingly, never occurred - the three of them acted normal all the way until the afternoon. 

After training, Toph cornered the poor Zuko on his way to the beach. Katara and Suki stayed at the shore, discreetly listening. 

“Sparky, this is your last chance!” Toph exclaimed.

“My last chance for what?” The look of sheer confusion on his face was priceless to say the least. 

“Come on! Please tell me you are feeling extra lovey-dovey and maybe I’ll let you walk away without making you even more uncomfortable.”

“Toph, I swear I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“You’re telling me you don’t feel any special romantic feelings today?”

“Um, no?” His voice had a strain of nervousness to it.

“And what about regular feelings? Got them for anyone? Maybe for someone you drink a lot of tea with?”

“Uh - No? Um, Toph, can I please go now?” Zuko stuttered. 

“Ha! I knew it, you sneaky little bastard! That’s a lie.” Toph threw her hands up in the air. “I can tell you’re lying. I was right, heck yeah!”

Zuko anxiously tried to get past her. “Alright, sure, can I please go down to the beach now?” 

“Don’t you want to know why I’m asking you this?”

“Do I have to?”

“We gave you a love potion, Sparky! A love potion mixed with that tea you drank yesterday. And you were supposed to fall in love with Miss Sugar Queen!” Toph’s was grinning from ear to ear. 

Katara and Suki exchanged a concerned look. That was not part of the plan. Katara was supposed to be the one to tell Zuko about the love potion. After Toph had made sure whether he was lying or not. Then, and only maybe, she would mention the tricky subject of actual feelings. 

“What on earth, Toph?” Zuko’s face was pale as a ghost. “Why would you do that?” 

“Because I've been suspecting for forever that you liked her! And when I got that love potion it was just too tempting not to go for it. I thought it would be a fun experiment! Katara was also on board with it.” 

“But?”

“But it only made me reaffirm my theory! What I didn’t expect is that you don’t just like her, you’re full-blown in love with her!”

“Toph, can you please tone it down? I wouldn’t want anyone else to hear this conversation,” Zuko pleaded.”

Katara was cursing Toph, Suki, Zuko, the moon, the stars, the Spirits, and herself. Toph playing matchmaker as subtle as an elephant trying to fit into her sleeping tent.

“Sparky, don’t you see Katara and Suki over there in the corner? They’re already listening!” Toph waved at the two of them, she had the most amused look on her face.

“What? Toph!” Zuko’s face was now entirely red. “You’re insane.”

“Sh, let me get to the best part,” she shushed him. “I think our dear Sugar Queen has something very important to tell you.”

Toph grabbed him by the wrist and started marching up to them. 

Toph, you’ll pay for this, Katara thought as she found herself in front of Zuko. 

“Now, I think Suki and I have to go do literally anything else but being here,” Toph resolved. “Alright! Everyone’s happy? See you!

“Kat, I’m sorry,” Suki mumbled. “I had no clue about this but I’ll better go.”

The two girls sprinted back to the house, where Aang and Sokka were probably taking care of dinner. 

Her eyes met Zuko’s, and she felt her heart racing inside of her chest. The awkwardness of the situation was remarkable. 

“So… I’m taking it you heard everything Toph said?” Zuko asked, sitting down on the shore next to her. 

“Yeah,” she replied, nervously playing with the sand that surrounded them. “I’m sorry about the love potion thing. It was stupid of me.”

“I just didn’t understand the logic behind it. Were you going to let me be in love with you for all eternity?”

“The effect was supposed to wash out tomorrow…” She let out a sigh. “But I guess it’s the same now.”

“Because you realized that I acted normal around you even with the potion?”

“Exactly.” Katara took a deep breath. “Look, Zuko, I had no clue-”

“Katara,” he interrupted her. “It’s okay. I don’t mind you know.”

“So it’s true then? Are you…”

“Am I in love with you?” He rubbed the back of his neck, his whole body seemed anxious. “Yeah, I am. I guess even more than I knew.”

Silence. Just sheer silence. 

Zuko rushed to continue. “It’s perfectly okay if you don’t feel the same way.”

But she did feel the same way. 

“Look, I think I’m in love with you too,” she blurted out, feeling her cheeks turning bright red.

“You are?” His voice was tinted with astonishment. 

She nodded in agreement. Then, she proceeded to say something else. “The night of the play, Aang felt terrible about the possibility of us being together. He kissed me and… and I pulled apart. I was horribly confused. A part of me knew he has always expected to be with me. But it didn’t feel right.”

Katara made a pause. She couldn’t believe she was actually saying those words out loud. 

“Go on, I’m listening,” Zuko encouraged her.

“Well, I knew I felt something for you for a long time already. But with what happened the night of the play, and now this whole love potion thing… I realize I’m in love with you too.”

Zuko brushed his fingertips against the back of her hand. “Thank you, for being honest with me.”

She squeezed his hand. “Thank you for not wanting to kill me for giving you a love potion.”

“Now what?”

“I don’t know. We still have a war to win.”

A moment of quietness invaded the space between them. Their fingers were intertwined, both of their hearts racing. They were savoring the confirmation of their feelings - and embracing the uncertainty - together. 

“Do you want to wait?”

“Wait?”

“Yeah, until this whole mess is over,” he explained. “We can figure out things slowly, I don’t mind. It’s not like I’m suddenly going to stop having feelings for you.”

“So you would still be in love with me… And I would still be in love with you…” 

“But we focus on winning the war first.” 

Katara tilted her to look straight at him. “Can I occasionally do this, though?”

He made a slight frown. “Do what?”

She didn’t give him much time to wonder. In a split second, she leaned onto him and placed a kiss on his lips. It was sweet, quick, and a little timid. But it was still the first kiss they shared. 

“So?” Katara asked, a light smile framing her face. “Can I?”

Zuko placed his arm around her shoulder, allowing her to rest her head on the creek of his neck. 

He squeezed her hand, chuckling. “Yeah, I think you can.”

“You know  what? I’m really glad Toph convinced me to give you that stupid love potion.”

---- I hope you enjoyed this fluffy little thing I wrote! Feedback is always appreciated! <3 Thank you for reading! @zutaraweek

[fysebastianstan]

"At some point, I've got to ask you about some of your guilty pleasures out there," Sebastian Stan says off-hand to his Destroyer director, Karyn Kusama. "Because in my head, I feel like you're watching, like, super f--king amazing horror projects..." Though Kusama may be best known for her own horror films, including the "really disturbing in a great way" (as Stan put it) The Invitation and the campy Megan Fox cult classic Jennifer's Body, her tastes are hardly confined to the genre; one of her early films was the Charlize Theron sci-fi spy action flick Æon Flux. "I don't have guilty pleasures," she shrugs. "I think Point Breakis a masterpiece. I legitimately think it's a masterpiece." In fact, her latest film is most like the latter, a pulpy detective drama about LAPD officer Erin Bell (a bewigged Nicole Kidman), who goes undercover to investigate a gang of bank robbers with her partner, Chris (Stan).

(For his part, on the topic of guilty pleasures, Stan shared, "I was working out today and because of this thing with a Boston accent that I've been looking up, I ended up watching the Housewives of Boston and I was like, Oh, my God, this is so insane!") (I pointed out there is no Real Housewives of Boston.)

With Destroyer opening in select theaters on Christmas Day, Kusama and Stan sat down with ET to discuss leaving their comfort zones, what it took to make Kidman look like a meth addict and how hot Stan looks covered in tattoos.

What put this guy [Stan] on your radar?

Sebastian Stan: Our agents.

KK: Our agents, but also, you have a lot of nice friends.

SS: Oh, good!

KK: No, but you do. You have a lot of nice friends that I think are nice people and good actors, so when your name came up, I'd be like, "Oh, that's cool." And then I watched I, Tonya, and I felt like, that's so interesting to see a guy who in real life, frankly, has a leading man vibe and leading man looks -- in a great way, not holding it against you. You're a very handsome dude -- but to see you play a character who was capable of so much smallness and shame and ugliness, I just thought, "My God, that takes bravery." After our first Skype session, I was like, let's just figure out how we're going to work together.

Had you read the script by then?

SS: I had read the script and then we had a Skype session about it. I just love that it felt like you were never really figuring out entirely what was happening or who these people were. It didn't explain anything, it just kind of--

KK: Put you in their lives.

SS: Yeah, and you're there as a witness and it's as if you're walking by and you're turning and you're seeing that scene happen. That felt very real to me. I always feel like, as an actor, you're always looking in the writing for rhythms, and those scenes were written a certain way. It's a very direct, frank nature that they have with each other, at least in the scenes that I was involved with Nicole. And I was like, here's an opportunity to play a completely different character by not doing anything. By almost just letting--

KK: By not indicating anything about the character. By just being, they told so much story.

SS: Exactly. And I just knew it was going to be a very special movie. The idea of protagonist and antagonist was always flipped around here, and I think that in life, good people do bad things and bad people sometimes end up doing a good thing for that moment, or whatever. This movie was so straightforward about that. And to have a female character that had no excuse for anything in a way that didn't apologize but also, you understood where she was coming from, because all the flaws were so... Nobody shied away from any of that. And then you get Nicole to do it and then you're like, "All right, well, now it's going to be a whole other thing!" [Laughs.]

I do love that you took the guy you said has such a leading man look and shaved off half of his hair and threw him in a denim vest.

SS: But that was a blessing! It was a blessing!

KK: You looked so hot. I truly mean it. But literally, my whole editing crew would just be like, "Oh, my God, this scene again? Bring it on!"

SS: I continued to shave my head for a good six months after that. But it was one of those things where it takes you out of your comfort zone, from what you're used to seeing yourself do. I don't know how it is with directing, but with actors, I honestly feel like you have, like, a program that's always trying to go back the way that it's always been and you're always having to turn a sharp left and keep making those lefts away from the road that you're always going down.

KK: I think [that's true] for directors too, though. I personally like the idea of doing things or going into territory that's a little bit frightening or unfamiliar. It's exciting.

There are those memes that say, "You have the same amount of hours in the day as Beyoncé," but I think it needs to be switched to Nicole Kidman, because the number of projects she fronts is incredible. What were those early conversations you had with her about this?

KK: It was May of last year, because it was Memorial Day weekend, that I had heard that she wanted to talk to me about it. She was in Cannes and had four things in Cannes and still managed to have time to read this script and get in touch with me and say, "Can we talk about this?" Because, to be honest, her name had not come up yet. So, we talked on the phone the first time and one of the first things she had talked about as a driving force for the character in her mind was shame and what does shame do to your mind and body and how does that affect your entire countenance?

I appreciated that so much, because to me, shame is not a judgmental quality. She wasn't talking about being an antiheroine or being a character that is typically male. She wasn't really applying any of those assumptions to the role, she was just seeing this person as a person and she said, you know, "When you live your life in shame the way Erin Bell has, it starts to destroy you." And I just thought, God, that's so interesting. You're looking at it with this total compassion. I know that's how actors -- the great ones -- always look at their characters, but there was just no hint of judgment.

SS: Because shame is different from guilt, right? Because guilt is "I've done something wrong." Shame is "I am wrong." Like, "Something is really bad with me."

KK: Exactly! So, even the past [Erin] couldn't control made her feel she was wrong, and then the past she could control, she was like, "I am wrong." You're so right.

Did it all come together fairly quickly? Or did you go through different options before you decided this is Erin Bell?

KK: One of the things both Bill and I had talked about -- and I actually had this same process on Jennifer's Body, funnily enough -- where there was just a database of what happens with particularly meth addiction and how quickly the physical deterioration shows up. In some cases, it can be, like, six months and you see a person going from looking pretty together to looking like a ghost. So, we thought, let's scale that back and think about what time and the sun and alcoholism and stress and lack of sleep and not eating well, what does that do over almost 20 years? And it's not pretty.

SS: My God...

KK: It's really not pretty, if you think about it. Because we were using as our baseline: Here is what meth addiction can do to you in a year. What does 17 or 18 years look like of more benign but long-term habits that can wreck you?

Karyn, was there a moment from filming with Nicole, or Nicole and Sebastian, that really surprised you? And Sebastian, was there a moment filming with Nicole when she surprised you?

KK: Something happened between the two of you in a scene that is the emotional crux of the movie, where we see the genesis of her explanation for this plan. We get some emotional access into why she needs to convince Chris to go through with it with her. There is a moment that I always just understood to be true, but what Sebastian did, he said, "Do you love me?" And you realize he doesn't know the answer. Like, I just assumed, Oh, they're crazy in love and everybody knows it, including each other in the scene.

But then I saw, this was the first time you asked it and needed to hear the truth of it. Even in screening it, friends and family screenings and the moments where we shared it with a wider audience, that moment is the moment where they're just like, "Oh, my God, she does love him! Why are they doing this?" And it's precisely because they're in this crazy, crazy love affair. That was really interesting to me while we were shooting to realize, Oh, I don't know the answer.

SS: It makes it all the more confusing and crazy, because then it's like we're [undercover] and you're going, like, "Are you asking me? Or are we pretending?" Because you just get glimpses of it here and there, in a way it made every one of those scenes all the more intense to experience.

KK: More potent.

SS: But the surprising thing was probably day one, for me, when we shot this first scene [where] we meet and sort of suss each other out. My first day was that, and it was the first time I'd ever met Nicole. You just never know what to expect, especially when it's somebody of that caliber. You have no idea whether you should back away, engage, what's the deal. And she was so generous [in] whatever was happening in the scene and also, like, in life, in the sense of us getting to know each other. That's when I was like, "Wow. This is going to be very easy for me." [Laughs.]

KK: Because also she had to kiss you in that scene! And you were just like, "Hello. Nice to meet you. Let's kiss!" But that was what the scene was, too, so it kind of created this frisson of, like, what's going to happen?

SS: You wait to get to set and you're like, "Well, I know that they have to have this thing and how are we going to find it?" And when it happened, I was like, "Oh, OK. It's going be very easy."

One of my favorite things about the film is that Nicole's final line of the movie is telling you that you have a nice butt.

SS: Oh, yeah! But that was a great thing, also. We had a little improv here and there, but that was in the script. All these little moments were always there on paper.

KK: Yeah, even meant to be thrown away, pretty much every single one of them are on the page.

SS: And they all made it, so it's great. You don't always get that.

KK: No, I know. Some of the other characters in the movie don't always get [that]. We were like, "How are we gonna get more Chris?"

Sebastian, we talked about how much Nicole does, but especially considering how many Marvel movies you've been in the past few years, you've done your fair share of other projects, too.

SS: I've been trying! I've been very lucky the last couple years, especially. Like, before 2015, I'm hesitant to look back at what was happening. [Laughs.] But I was very lucky. In the last couple years, I feel like I've really gotten much more clear about what makes me operate at my best, and then it's just about really great directors and being opposite other people that are going to force you into showing up. Because it's so easy to fall into that line of comfort and go back to it, and the business is almost structured that way. You do one thing well, you can continue to keep doing that thing. Why break the habit, you know? But I feel more specific now, with wanting to be part of interesting experiences that I'm learning from rather than... Sure, it would be great to be a lead. But you get so much more out of the whole experience, if it works. It has to be a team thing.

There are reports that you could get one of those leading roles in a Bucky and Falcon series. Are you worried Chris [Evans] will feel left out?

SS: I don't know if he will. As far as I know, the only conversation I've had with Anthony Mackie has been about Miami Vice and how we should redo that. [Laughs.]

[theycallmemoosey]

Friday

Phil x Reader 

A/N: Morning, Peeps! Here is another request I have completed for the wonderful @tomesandrosebud. I’m not sure how I feel about how this one turned out and I feel like it’s a little bit shite, but my writer's block is worse than ever and something is way better than nothing. Please keep the requests coming as I have literally no ideas of my own! Moose :)

-----------------------------

“Hey, thank you for coming. Please come in” Dan welcomed you, stepping to the side of the front door, letting you into his apartment.

“No worries at all. Nice to meet you, I’m Y/N” 

“Dan. So how do you know Mary?” He asked, leading you to his bedroom where the piano was. 

“I’m a student of hers as well. I’ve known her since I was 19 years old after I moved to England and she’s been my piano teacher since. I’m honoured she’s recommended me actually” 

“Oh, I thought you weren’t from here. I’m assuming you’re from America?” 

You chuckled, “Did the accent give it away? Yeah, I’m American. I had to move here after some family issues. It's not all bad over here” 

“Well, you have your work cut out now. I’m not very fancy” 

“That’s not an issue” you laughed, “We all start somewhere. Oh gosh, this is gorgeous. Where did you get it?” 

“Antique shop. It does the job” he shrugged, remembering finding the piano in the local antique shop near his parents. 

“So how did you get on with Mary?” You asked, taking a seat in the chair Dan had set up next to the piano stool. 

“Well, we were working on this piece here” he replied, getting a piece of sheet music from behind the stack. 

“Oh! Comptine d`un autre été! This was the first piece I did with Mary”

“It’s a lovely piece…I get the melody but I am struggling with the rhythm” 

“No worries, that’s what everyone struggles with on this piece. Let’s start then. Just play it how you usually would and I’ll help you along the way” 

The two of you continued to laugh and play - Dan was surprisingly good at the piano, and he was clearly more advanced than you first anticipated. Your hour soon came to an end, and Dan was just showing you out the door when it opened suddenly, making you jump. 

“Oh my - I am so sorry” you laughed, placing your hand on your heart. 

“It was my fault, I’m really sorry” Phil laughed, shuffling past you into the hallway, “I’m Phil, by the way. Dan’s roommate”

“I’m Y/N, Dan’s new piano teacher” you smiled, feeling yourself blush slightly at his bright smile. 

“Lovely to meet you” 

“Yes. You too” you smiled back, the two of you staring at each other contently for a minute, making Dan feel very awkward. 

Dan cleared his throat, “Well, I will see you next week then Y/N?” 

“Yes! Yes. See you next week, Dan. See you Phil” you waved, quickly rushing out of the door. 

“Wow. She’s a bit different to Mary, isn’t she Dan?” Phil asked, still staring at the door. 

“She’s insane. She’s younger than me, so talented and she is nothing like evil Bloody Mary“

“And she comes every week?” 

“Every Friday at 10” 

“She’s so pretty,” Phil said, clearly not have recognising that he said it out loud. 

“What?” Dan laughed, looking at Phil quizzically. 

“Did I just say that out loud?” 

Dan just laughed and walked away to continue editing the latest gaming channel video. 

You returned each Friday for your weekly piano session with Dan, teaching him new techniques and pieces and really helping him improve and each week, Phil would always manage to find a way to speak to you, even if it was only a quick hello. 

“Well done today, Dan. You are really improving…so much so that you may even be better than me by the end of the year” 

“That’s impossible” you heard a voice behind you, “No one is better than you” 

You turned around to find Phil, who quickly broke eye contact with you and awkwardly coughed, “At piano. You’re amazing at piano. No one is better at piano than you.”

You laughed awkwardly, “Thank you, Phil…that’s very sweet of you” 

You walked past him and head towards the door, Dan following behind you but stopped to slap Phil behind the head. 

“Absolutely pathetic, you know that? Ask her if she wants to stay for coffee or something” 

“Was it really that bad?” 

“Dude, you came across as a weird, creepy, old man, stalker! ‘No one is better than you’?  Really? Go on, ask her out like a normal person” 

“I recovered” Phil mumbled as he headed towards the front door where you were collecting your coat.

“Recovered” Dan scoffed, shaking his head as he followed. 

“Y/N!” Phil called to you as you were doing your shoe lace up. 

“What’s up, Phil?” You smiled. 

“I - We…we were wondering if you would like to stay for a coffee?” 

“Oh, I would absolutely love to but unfortunately I have another lesson. I get to go and teach this lovely little boy called James. Reminds me a lot of Dan actually” you laughed, pulling your bag up your shoulder. 

“Dan’s middle name is James” Phil blurted out, not entirely sure why he shared that information. 

“That’s…great” you nodded, smiling politely as Phil awkwardly stood in front of you, “well, I should get going now” 

“Oh! Oh of course, yes. Sorry. I’ll move” 

“Thanks. Good work today, Dan and I’ll see you two next week” you waved, springing down the steps of their apartment block to the front door. 

“Bye Y/N!” Dan shouted, looking at Phil and singling that they should go after you. 

“What do I say?” Phil hissed, cautious that he may be too late.

“Just ask her out for god sake! GO!” Dan pushed him out the front door, and Phil rushed down the stairs to find you. 

“Y/N!” 

Turning around, you saw Phil burst through the front door of his apartment block, “Hey Phil”

“Listen, I um…I was wondering if…” 

“Yes?” You urged him on, sensing that he was struggling to get the words out. 

“If you would like to…go out with me sometime?” 

You smiled and nodded, “Sure. Hows Friday at 8? We could go to the bar down the street from here.”

“Amazing. Yes. Thank you” Phil smiled, nodding furiously.

“Okay” you chuckled, “I’ll see you Friday”

Phil waved as you walked towards your car, “Friday”

—————————————— 

“Woah, looks at you. Someone’s fancy” Dan whistled as he walked into Phil’s room. 

“Am I overdressed?” 

“You sound panicked” Dan laughed, “Where are you going?” 

“The bar down the road” 

“Then yes. A bit overdressed. Lose the tie. And the suit jacket. And the white shirt.” 

“You want me to get changed completely, Dan?” 

“Go and shower, your hair is greasy. I’ll get an outfit together for you” 

Phil scoffed, “How would you know what would impress Y/N?” 

“Surprisingly, she’s my friend. I know I don’t have a lot of those, but Y/N is actually one of them. Go” Dan shoved him out the room, before heading towards the wardrobe. 

Dan went through the entirety of Phil’s wardrobe as he was in the shower, cringing at some of the items he pulled out the drawers. Eventually, he settles on a pair of black, ripped jeans with a dark blue, flannel shirt.

“What did you pick out for me, mum?” Phil asked, walking into his bedroom with a towel around his waist. 

“Ha. Ha. I picked out something simple, but not too casual”

Phil inspected the clothes laid out on his bed, nodding in silent agreement. Dan took this as his approval and took a deep breath. 

“Well, I’m going to edit a video. Be back by midnight and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do” 

“So I shouldn’t leave the house” 

Dan paused, gasping as he clutched his chest, “Ouch, Phillip Lester. That hurt”

“Get out, I need to get dressed” Phil laughed, chucking a pair of socks at his head.

“I’m going! I’m going!” He surrendered, laughing as he left the room.

————————————

Phil bounced his knee in anticipation, his eyes fixed on the door in fear that you would never turn up. To his relief, you eventually turned up. He thought you looked beautiful in your blue jeans and an off the shoulder chiffon blouse, your hair slightly wet from the rain outside. 

“Y/N!” He called over to you over the noise fo the bar, noticing you look around the bar for him. 

“Hey, sorry I’m late. My last lesson over-ran slightly” you apologised, placing your bag at your feet as you sat down on the bar stool next to Phil. 

“It’s ok. What can I get you to drink?”

“Peach Bellini Mocktail please,” you asked the bartender, who nodded his head in acknowledgement. 

“No alcohol?” Phil questioned, taking a drink from his G&T. 

“Oh, no. I don’t drink” 

“Can I ask why?” 

“I don’t think you want to hear about that this early on” you laughed nervously, smiling at the bartender in thanks as he handed you your drink.

“I can handle it” 

You sighed, taking a sip from your drink before setting it down and looking at Phil, “My parents were very, very fond of alcohol. They would drink pure alcohol if they could. Anything with alcohol in, they would drink it. Which, in turn, made them quite violent…” 

“Is that why you moved over here when you were younger?” 

“How did you-“ 

“Dan. He said you moved from America when you were 19” 

“Yeah, I…I had to. I was so sick of being treated so badly by the only two people in my life that I had to leave. I had tried to move in with my friends and even move states, but I was too close to my parents. I had to get off the grid completely so…London it was”

“That’s insane. All by yourself?” 

“All by myself” you nodded, smiling contently. 

“That’s so brave. You’ve done so well for yourself” ‘

“Well,” you laughed, “I certainly like to think so” 

“I do” Phil smiled, looking at you sympathetically for a moment before quickly reverting his attention back to his drink, “Let’s change the subject…” 

“Yes, let’s. I would be nice to know the basics before we delve back into the deep stuff” 

Phil laughed, “I agree” 

The two of you talked and laughed into the night, being some of the only few left in the bar at 11:30. You had learnt about Phil’s career and how he met with Dan, and how he came out as bi-sexual, whereas he learnt about your love for the piano and your time in America and your struggles with your parents. 

When you finally realised the time, you gasped, “We’ve been here ages!”

Phil looked at his phone and laughed, “seems we have”

“I should really be getting back but I really don’t want to go. This is the most fun I’ve had in years!” 

“We could do this again next week?” 

You giggled and nodded your head, “Sounds good”

“Could I get your number? Just so we can decide what to do? I hear there’s a fair in town next week?” 

“Sounds good” you said, handing him your phone. 

“Great. I’ll see you next week” He smiled, kissing your cheek as you both left the bar. 

“Friday” you repeated, embracing him before heading off towards your car, waving as you pulled out the car park. 

Phil took a deep breath, smiling widely as he turned around and headed back to the apartment, his hands deep in his coat pockets to protect them from the cold, a single word replaying in his head as he thought about the night he had with you. 

“Friday”

[punkscowardschampions]

Grace & Janis

Grace: did you see who brought my coat back??? Grace: 🤞🤞 Janis: I did Grace: No you didn't Janis: ? Janis: Welcome, bitch Grace: UM excuse me but why & how? Janis: One of the baristas hit me up, I went and got it earlier Grace: OMG Grace: which one? Janis: New boy Janis: The English one Grace: HE DID NOT HIT YOU UP Grace: what really happened Janis: [Screenshot of the friend/message request] Grace: 😱😱😱😱 Janis: Breathe Grace: what did he say about me?? Janis: That you left your coat Janis: That's about it Grace: 🙄🙄🙄 Grace: what did you say? Grace: I'll kill you if you were cringe Janis: As if I was talking about you Janis: None of your business is it Grace: OMG Grace: you're not his type babes Janis: You reckon you are? Grace: duh Janis: 😂 Janis: Oh babes Grace: if he screenshots your desperation I don't know you, yeah? Janis: Says the girl who's salty her latest plan to get noticed didn't work Grace: says you Grace: he notices me every time thanks Janis: EVERY time Janis: says it all Janis: get a hobby Grace: get a clue Grace: you know nothing about boys Janis: Letting 'em all get off with you doesn't make you an expert in the field, babes Janis: no matter how much stalking hours you put in Grace: 😂😂😂 Grace: oh hun Janis: Ain't coming from me Janis: wanna talk shaming Grace: now I know you're lying Grace: don't be tragic Janis: why would I Janis: you'll get banned if you ain't careful Janis: back to starbies with the other basics Grace: cos you're jealous Grace: as usual Janis: of what Grace: me, bitch Janis: 😂😂😂😂 Janis: You don't want to be you, Gracie Janis: no one else does Janis: least of all me Grace: what ARE you talking about? Janis: Your pathetic lack of self-esteem Janis: if I liked you I'd be sad, tragic 😥 Grace: Mine? 👌 Love yourself first, babes Grace: think about the barista if it helps Janis: save that for your private time Janis: keep me out of it though, people'll talk Grace: 🤒 you're such a freak genuinely Janis: 💔 unlucky you'll never know Grace: EW STOP Janis: what a surprise, gracie can't hack it Grace: If you wanna follow in Ri's footsteps, pick a willing family member Janis: yeah, that's me Janis: desperately tryna be like her in every way ⛾ Grace: if you're gonna be all 😍 for my barista you could do worse Grace: least she knows how to flirt Grace: clueless virgin won't get you very far Janis: 'cos desperate slag's done wonders for you Janis: if I needed advice, I wouldn't go to either of you, but at least she has got somewhere Grace: 👌 devastated obvs Janis: everyone can see it Janis: sad face Grace: 😂😂😂 Grace: you've shown yourself up WAY worse with that boy, trust me Janis: Not up to you, gutted Janis: he didn't seem to think so Grace: oh please Janis: nah, no matter how nice you ask Janis: he just ain't feeling you Grace: what's the truth, Jan-Jan, did you talk about me or didn't you? Grace: 🤔🤔 Janis: get a clue, gracie Janis: your details are just as easy to find as mine Janis: easier Grace: like I said, get one yourself first Grace: its as easy to work out we're related, worst luck Janis: you ain't hard to get Janis: just want Grace: says you Grace: can't get through the door for your admirers, can we, babes? Janis: not tryna make it a family affair like you 👌 Grace: not trying Grace: until now, but you went too hard, shame 💔 Janis: surrounding by such great influences Janis: 🤷 what can I do eh Grace: OMG YOU LITERALLY DID NOTHING Grace: 😂😂😂 Grace: I wouldn't be smug if I were you though, girl Grace: Such a cliche & not the first time he's tried it Janis: Who's smug? Janis: Just you sounds of Grace: I'm just trying to warn you Grace: I won't bother next time, bitch Grace: OMG so rude Janis: Don't, like Janis: if you had any idea you wouldn't have all the shit exes you do already so go off Grace: if you had any idea I wouldn't have to Grace: this is so embarrassing Grace: he's gonna make you look even more tragic & I can't pretend I don't know you Janis: nah Janis: i don't let boys do that Janis: your kink, not mine Grace: he already is Grace: flirting with you to get MY attention, hello! Janis: is it comfy in there? Grace: 🙄 Wake up, Janis OMG Grace: he's been flirting with me since he got here Janis: Filling your order isn't foreplay Janis: actually gonna catch a case if you don't calm down Grace: cos you'd know Janis: yeah? Grace: You're making me die Grace: cringe fest Janis: 🤞 Janis: 🎂 wishes coming through at last Grace: focus on that cos he isn't gonna make any happen for you, hun Grace: unless you're hoping to be used by a boy who likes me more Janis: that's what boys are for, right? Janis: 😂 Grace: 🙄 Grace: that's why you like girls more, yeah? 👌 Janis: you're the one constantly surrounded Janis: i wouldn't let one sleep in my bed Grace: cos you're too 😍 Grace: it's okay Janis: love the queerbashing Janis: very in Grace: Excuse you Grace: I am not Janis: Yeah you are Janis: stop being a total cunt just 'cos you're sad Grace: I could care less if you're gay Grace: that's not why I don't like you, babes Janis: Yeah, you're just a bitch, cool Grace: You started it Janis: Where? Janis: I got your coat for you Grace: You know I like him, you're breaking girl code Janis: Well I ain't one of the girls, am I Janis: bit late to include me now 'cos it'd benefit you Grace: you're my sister, that's worse Grace: duh Janis: I think you'll survive Grace: like you care Grace: but I'm the bitch, sure Grace: 🙄🙄🙄🙄 Janis: You're just mad that he doesn't want you, that ain't my fault Grace: Stop saying that OMG Grace: you don't know what you're talking about Janis: well I'm the one who managed to have a conversation with him so I know more than you do Janis: doesn't take a genius, come on Grace: You're calling me stupid now too Grace: So rude Janis: You're being it Janis: you don't need to Janis: plenty of boys, plenty of baristas if that's really your speed Grace: Obvs Grace: I don't want your sloppy seconds, thanks Grace: I respect girl code, if you like him then whatever Janis: Nice to know you respect something Grace: Bitch Janis: 👍 Janis: Pleasure as always Grace: Yeah, I know you love coming for me Grace: no secret, babes Janis: Be nice to think this was all about you, I know Grace: You expect me to believe it's about him? You saw him for the first time today Grace: thanks to me Janis: Don't be stupid Janis: he's in loads of my lessons Janis: as if I could ignore the new boy hype you've all been on Grace: Finally you're admitting it Janis: What? That I'd noticed the change in the furniture? Janis: I'M not an idiot Grace: That you're not immune to a hot boy Grace: It's taken you long enough Janis: 😑 Janis: That's what you're taking away from this Janis: really Grace: I know you want me to take away your life changing advice that I'm the worst but Grace: Like I said, you're a bitch Janis: It's not advice Janis: inspiration to change at best Grace: Whatever 🙄 Janis: too much like hard work Janis: it's alright Grace: Excuse you Grace: I always put work in Grace: unlike your effortless chic you're trying to make happen 🙄 Janis: yeah that's what we're talking about Janis: fashion Janis: jesus Grace: Attitude Grace: and yours does need work, babes Janis: 😂 Janis: Where's your getting you but 2nd in command to a cunt and pied by boys left and right Janis: inspirational, truly Grace: Shut up OMG Grace: you don't like my friends or my exes, I'll get over it Janis: No one does Janis: you deal with the leftovers, don't be pouty no one's jealous Grace: You sound soooooooo bitter 🍋 Janis: 💔 Janis: if you like, babes Janis: have that for free, as you're struggling so much Grace: Just 'cos you love a freebie from barista boy Grace: I'm good, thanks 💋 Janis: If you say it enough Janis: you might believe it Janis: positive thinking, yeah, babes? 👍 Grace: 🙄🙄🙄 Grace: try it for me, yeah, babes? ty Grace: you're gonna need all the help you can get now you've got a boyfriend Janis: Behave Grace: You will enough for the both of us Grace: I give it a couple of days before he's bored Janis: 😂 Janis: so concerned with MY sex life Janis: how long's it been, babes? Grace: the day I talk about mine with you is the day I off myself Grace: it's cringe enough chatting to you about things you think you have a clue on Janis: please Janis: you don't talk about anything else Janis: you've got nothing else Grace: you wish, weirdo Janis: 😂 Janis: awh, your comebacks haven't gotten any better Grace: You don't deserve my best, hun Grace: 😘 Janis: I can't begin to get into how tragic you are Janis: at least Monroe had an honest to God sad backstory and drug habit Janis: sort it out, do us all a favour Grace: I do have you as a sister, that's really tragic Grace: Sadly you won't ever let me help you sort yourself out Janis: You're a mess Janis: you have no business trying to sort anyone, state Grace: 😂😂😂 Grace: sure Jan Janis: Laugh it off babe Grace: I'm trying Grace: But you're not very funny Janis: It's your life Janis: I'm telling you, it's really sad Janis: but you insist otherwise so you deal with it Grace: OMG get over yourself Grace: I'm not here for a counselling session Janis: Thank God Janis: you've not got the self-awareness, I've not got the relevant qualifications to deal with your insanity Janis: disaster Grace: It's called self awareness not 'Janis tells me what I am' Janis: And you get neither Janis: boo hoo Grace: I'll get over it, I'm sure Grace: God, if this is what that boy likes, I'm well out of it Janis: Bold Janis: When have you got over anything bigger than split ends, Gracie Janis: and I ain't trying to chirps you Janis: something you seem to be having a lot of trouble with Grace: We've established my backstory isn't tragic enough, sorry babe Grace: Even with you trying to 💔 Janis: 😂 Trying Janis: that's your game Grace: 🙄🙄 Janis: i'm off Janis: be sure to check your pockets for secret love notes i'm sure he left you Janis: 🤞 Grace: yay Grace: let the door hit you on the way out

[uniquequotesonlife]

Top 10 Most Viewed YouTube Videos in 2019

#trending

Did you know, YouTube ranks as the second most visited social media platform in the world? More than 2 billion logged-in users visit YouTube every month and users watch over a billion hours of video every day. With these overwhelming statistics, it’s no surprise that YouTube is a top choice among artists and celebrities to share videos. Over 2 million artists showcase their talents on YouTube to engage their audiencesn From Beyonce’s live stream at Coachella to record-breaking videos like “Despacito,” YouTube hosts a range of unique music video content. It is where over 1 billion music lovers come to discover new music and be part of the trending music culture. But YouTube is not limited to music videos. It is equally favored by others for posting various types of videos. Some other popular video genres include gaming, tutorials, cartoons, challenges, and instrumental videos. Let’s talk about the 10 most viewed YouTube videos in 2019, according to the latest rankings by Statista. In this post, we will also cover a few interesting facts and figures about each one of these most viewed YouTube videos.

What’s Special About the Most Viewed YouTube Videos?

Let’s talk about the 10 most viewed YouTube videos in 2019, according to the latest rankings by Statista. In this post, we will also cover a few interesting facts and figures about each one of these most viewed YouTube videos.

1. Despacito — Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee (6.24 billion views on YouTube)

Spanish word, “despacito,” means “slowly” in English. Its rise is anything but slow. Soon after the launch, it became the most watched YouTube video in 2017. Ever since, the song has remained number one and its record has been unbeaten with over 6.24 billion views. The most fascinating part about this song is its international reach. “Despacito” has spread all around the world and created a global wave among music lovers. Erika, co-writer of the song, says, “The whole world is singing and dancing in Spanish. That is something really amazing.” Other than Mexico and Spanish-speaking countries, “Despacito” has become insanely popular in countries where Spanish is not even the second language! Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Israel, and Italy have witnessed the ground-breaking popularity of the song.

2. Shape of You — Ed Sheeran (4.24 billion views on YouTube)

Released in 2017, “Shape of You” won him a number of accolades, including a Grammy and Billboard Music Award. It was also awarded with NRJ Music Awards in the most streamed song and video of the year categories. So what is the reason Ed Sheeran made history with his song, “Shape of You”? Speaking to the New York Times, Sheeran said that the Steve Mac produced song was written during a brainstorming session. He also described how he created the song and how the melody, lyrics, and instruments played important roles in it. The melody used in this song belongs to the pentatonic scale which is already popular among musicians and listeners. Pentatonic scale has found its love in jazz, blues, and rock music from all over the world. And it spelled its charm again with Sheeran’s hit song, “Shape of You.”

3. See You Again — Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth (4.13 billion views on YouTube)

Currently the third most viewed YouTube video, “See You Again,” was sung by rapper Wiz Khalifa and it featured Charlie Puth. The song was written for the movie, “Furious 7,” from “The Fast and the Furious” franchise. There was an emotional touch to this song as it was meant to be a tribute to the late star, Paul Walker. The song has been a popular choice among music lovers and crossed more than 4.13 billion views on YouTube. Unlike other songs, “See You Again” does not have a dance crew or heavy music to make you swing to its notes. But it managed to dethrone Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” something that many didn’t expect with the latter’s huge popularity. And it managed to become one of the most viewed YouTube videos till date. Charlie Puth wrote a heartfelt note saying, “The song has taken on so many layers, layers that I never even fathomed when I wrote it.” There was another factor behind their 3 million views per day in 2017. A music video ad sales site, Vevo, which was owned by Universal Music and Sony Music, helped it. The site utilized YouTube’s algorithms to increase views, according to Billboard news.

4. Masha and the Bear: Recipe for Disaster (3.68 billion views on YouTube)

Masha and the Bear: Recipe for Disaster is a rather unusual contender for the fourth position on this list of the most viewed YouTube videos. It has received 3.68 billion views so far and it is the only non-music video on the list. The success of this Russian children’s animation can be attributed to its popularity among children. The video has a simple storyline based on traditional folklore about a little girl, Masha, who lives with a retired circus bear. And this particular episode is about Masha’s attempt to cook by herself, which results in a disaster. The characters are colourful and the plot is harmless. It is a kind of video that modern-day busy parents can let their children watch without worry. While it was produced for the local Russian market, it soon gained global popularity and became one of the most viewed YouTube videos. According to Moscow-based Animaccord Animation Studio, the creator of this video, two-thirds of the views come from outside Russia. Till date more than a hundred television stations broadcast this series, along with other platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and YouTube.

5. Uptown Funk — Mark Ronson Ft. Bruno Mars (3.58 billion views on YouTube)

Although “Uptown Funk” is older than all of the previous music videos, it is still admired by fans and it continues to gain more views. The song performed by Mark Ronson featured Bruno Mars and made it to the top ten most viewed YouTube videos. “Uptown Funk” made its debut on YouTube in 2014 and quickly grabbed the attention of music lovers. Other than its regular fans, the song draws new viewers and maintains its top position giving a tough competition to other YouTube music videos. Bruno Mars was already a household name by then but Mark Ranson made his fortune with this song. Their song, “Uptown Funk,” managed to hold its number one position on the U.S. Billboard 100 chart for fourteen consecutive weeks. With catchy phrases, a great combination of instruments, and an upbeat tune, “Uptown Funk” received over 3.50 billion views on YouTube. The song also won two Grammys in 2016 for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance categories.

6. Gangnam Style — Psy (3.36 billion views on YouTube)

The first YouTube video to reach a billion views, “Gangnam Style,” is currently the sixth most viewed YouTube video. It is the 18th K-pop number from South Korean musician, Psy, who was virtually unknown outside Korea till 2012. The sudden popularity of the song remains something of an enigma. Referring to the lifestyle from Gangnam District in Seoul, the song was a chartbuster in more than thirty countries including Australia, Canada, France, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Its popularity is attested by the fact that the likes of Barack Obama, David Cameron, and Ban Ki-moon have attempted to dance to the song. The song initially received mixed reviews. But it soon became popular due to its catchy tune and beats as well as Psy’s innovative horse trot dance that became a global sensation. The most viewed YouTube video from December 2012 to July 2017, “Gangnam Style,” still holds the record for being the most discussed video. HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

7. Sorry — Justin Bieber (3.14 billion views on YouTube)

“Bieber fever” never seems to stop. When Justin Bieber released his first song, “Baby,” on YouTube, it made him an international celebrity overnight. The song not only became one of the most viewed YouTube videos of all time but also won him MTV and Billboard Music awards. Over the years, he produced a number of hit songs and remained one of the most sought after celebrity. “Sorry” is a song from his fourth album called “Purpose,” and it currently ranks as the seventh most viewed YouTube video. “Sorry” easily managed to become one of the most viewed YouTube videos and has surpassed more than 3.14 billion views till date. It was released in 2015 and it stayed on top in thirteen countries including a seven-week top spot in Canada. The song also made to America’s first new chart-topper of 2016 pushing Adele’s “Hello” to second position on BillBoard list of The Hot 100.

8. Sugar — Maroon 5 (2.97 billion views on YouTube)

And that’s precisely the reason behind the immense popularity of “Sugar” by Maroon 5. It ranks eighth on the list of the most viewed YouTube videos with 2.97 billion views. The video was directed by David Dobkin, who had earlier directed “Wedding Crashers.” It was recorded as the band turned up unannounced at several weddings in different parts of LA. The shooting was apparently a fantastic affair for all involved with lead singer, Adam Levine, describing it as an “out of body” experience. Clearly the viewers loved this innovative concept and yet another music video became a superhit not necessarily due to mind blowing tunes and lyrics.

9. Baby Shark Dance — Pinkfong (2.87 billion views on YouTube)

The ninth most popular video on YouTube is again one whose target audience is young children. With 2.87 billion views, this music video once again affirms the growing importance of YouTube as a disseminator of content for children. Produced by the South Korea-based educational content creator, Pinkfong, the “Baby Shark” song deals with a family of sharks that goes hunting and is safe at the end. The dance moves that attempt the movement of a shark are simple and can be imitated and practiced by the tiny viewers, solo or in groups. The song has repetitive lyrics, fast beats, and a catchy tune, which makes it enjoyable and easy-to-follow for children. It was released in five languages including Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish, which helped increase its global outreach. Apart from the fact that it was marketed well, there were other factors that lead to its popularity. The first factor that helped promote this song were its covers, which were released in quick succession. Secondly, the Baby Shark Challenge added to its viral popularity. Other than being one of the most viewed YouTube videos, the song also grabbed the attention of environmentalists and animal lovers. The “Baby Shark Dance” song drew empathy of young generation towards sharks by depicting them like a human family.

10. Roar — Katy Perry (2.83 billion views on YouTube)

“Roar” is a song about overcoming challenges and treading over obstacles in life to emerge victorious. This song inspires viewers to continue to fight, no matter what the situation is. No wonder this positive message really resonated with viewers. But “Roar” is more than just a strong message. The chorus and instrumentation in the song has also been arranged in a way that conveys a sense of foreboding in the beginning. But they leave the listener feeling empowered at the end. Though it received mixed reviews, “Roar” was nominated for Song of the Year (2013) and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. When “Roar” registered one billion views on YouTube in July 2015, Perry became the first artist with two music videos with over a billion views. 3 WRITTEN BY

Shane Barker

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[katsu-sauce]

Tanaka Minami WUG Blog: 08/02/17

Title: Eternal Blue...

Foreward: Hey guys, so I translated Minami Tanaka's latest blog post and a majority of it is about her time spent at the FGO 2nd Anniversary event. As some of you may know, she also hosts the Chaldea Radio program with Rie Takahashi and they are both known to be pretty avid/hardcore fans of the Fate franchise. I'm a beginner translator and there may be quite a few discrepancies from the source text, but I hope I'm able to convey the emotions that she felt when she attended the event. 

Hello, it’s me Minami!

So the first week of the month has already arrived!

On the 28th of July, Wake Up Girls had some R&R! Airi, Nanami, and I went over and played at New Minna no GOLF! I never played mini-golf before but I had tons of fun anyways! In the beginning I was doing splendidly well in 1st place, but during the second half I had no idea what was going on!

Then on the 29th and 30th I got to attend the Fate/Grand Order 2nd Anniversary celebration event!

On the 29th: The Chaldea Radio Stage Show started at an early 10am, however so many people came to watch the event, especially on Nico Nico! Thanks to all the people who made it!

The guest that joined us on the show was the voice of Arturia and Anne Bonnie from Fate/Grand Order, Ayako Kawasumi-san! Our first guest of the show really was the best possible one! ✨

During the Gesture Game I felt pretty confident since I’ve been playing with Passion Lip a lot lately. I thought I expressed her pretty well. It was a such a short time on stage, about 30 minutes, but I was so happy to hear that ArchTuria came home (to Kawasumi-san w).

I stayed till the end of the anniversary event while watching it from under the stage but… THE FGO STAGE PLAY PORTION WENT BY SO FAST! It really felt like time was accelerated! Rie-chan screamed “I NEED TO GET THE BLURAY FOR THIS!!!”

Finally with the last stage event, Fate Memorial, I could hear the gates of Heaven calling my name… Once Zero and Unlimited Blade Works became connected, his story began… If I ever have the time, I need to look back at it all. Yup, I really do love  UBW Shirou’s hotblooded battles.

All in all, what seemed like a dream before became a reality with this stage event. But wait there’s still one more day left! What to do?!

Then came the 30th:

Our guest for the Chaldea Radio Stage that day was the seiyuu for Arjuna, Edmond Dantes, and Fujimaru Ritsuka, Shimazaki Nobunaga-san! Finally! FINALLY! I was able to talk a TON about Fate. However, it was really unfortunate that there wasn’t enough time to talk more! There were so many more things I wanted to hear too. I’ll definitely make sure to talk about the things I wanted to talk about on the next radio show!

The FGO Chaldea radio show! I feel really blessed to be a part of it. I was so nervous when I first appeared as a guest, but regardless I’m glad I was able to share latest information with you all! Even though I was a nervous wreck, I’m glad Rule Breaker blessed me with its magical effects.

After the broadcast I was able to pull Sherlock Holmes! As soon as I saw Holmes’ Noble Phantasm animation, I screamed like a little girl. In addition I drew another 5 star servant with a 10 pull, Davinci-chan! I was so glad to pull 2 Servants with amazing Noble Phantasms! But honestly, the hype from the FGO Stage Play still persisted especially since Davinci returned to me in some shape or form.

Now that the news has been revealed I can finally talk about Swimsuit Nitocris! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay! I’m happy! I’m so so happy!!!! I honestly didn’t expect such amazing news! I’m also really looking forward to Nobu and Maid Saber Alter! I wasn’t the only one that thought that Maid Saber Alter was reminiscent of that one episode of Carnival Phantasm, haha.

The last day of the FGO Memorial Stage... It really was wonderful…

Even after the event with the FGO Radio Stage show, I couldn’t stop the tears when looking back. While on the train back home, I was listening to Eternity Blue (FGO ED song) and the lyrics really made me cry. I’m so glad to have come across this amazing franchise called Fate, and pour so much love into it. Being able to talk about Fate for 2 days with everybody just filled me with so much emotion that I couldn’t stop the tears.

Here’s just a portion of these wonderful memories!

I also had the pleasure of getting inside the Fate/Apocrypha itasha car! Ahhh what a moving experience! The time to have made use of my driver’s license finally arrived! Check out Nitocris’ formal clothing! It’s so cute!

I told myself I wouldn’t talk about the FGO Radio show again, I do apologize. However, I do want to say that it was an incredible event! It was so much fun! I’m so thankful!!

And then… At that same day and location, Run Girls, Run made their debut! I really wanted to see them ;_; It really didn’t seem like Coco-chan’s, Yuuka-chan’s, and Nanami-chan’s first time on stage. It really was an impressive stage performance! We haven’t met in person yet but I sent them a comment video. I sure hope they were fine with it.

But I really hope I get to meet and talk with them soon~! I really wonder what I can do for them. I never thought there’d come a time where I would become a senpai. I really want to know more about them! You guys do as well right? I really hope to meet with them during after-recording sessions! I’m really looking forward to the next project! I’m really curious to see what kind of relationship Runga and WUG will have.

That’s that for that day! It really was packed full interesting things!

In another mobile game, “Tenka Hyakken”, I took the role of Onimaru Kunitsuna. She seems cute and innocent, but she’s insanely strong! She’s one of the Five Heavenly Swords. Even as a UR, she’s still really mind-bendingly strong! Ahh, I really hope to save my gems and be able to get her on my next pull. Her story is such a tearjerker too. So brave and gallant, while adorable at the same time! And when she removes her eyepatch?... Well, I hope you’ll listen closely to her shouts when performing her deadly special technique!

Also in ANOTHER app game, “Seisen, Excalibur!” I took on the role of Fiola. She’s different from the other character I played, Perseus. Fiola is sort of an airhead but also a sweet and lovely girl! She must be protected! So yeah, she’s that type of girl heheh~ I encourage you all to try and get her! ♪♪

So I completed my last day with the WUG All Nighter broadcast special! My last time with the show was just with me talking by myself so it was sort of lonely! However, I did enjoy myself to the very last minute. When I first started doing the broadcast special by myself, I thought I’d have some trouble trying to come up with things to talk about. Now that so much time has passed, I hope to think that I’ve maybe grown a little with that experience.

On November 23rd, WUG will be performing at Animax Musix 2017 Yokohama! Yo yo yo YOKOHAMA~~~!!!! I’m so overjoyed (TT_TT) Yokohama Arena… Amazing… As a person from Kanagawa, this just feels like a dream. I’m so glad I’ll be able to set foot on the stage of Yokohama Arena! Even though we’ve performed so many times in Tokyo, I’ve always felt some longing to do so in Kanagawa. Since this’ll be during the next chapter of WUG’s journey, I hope lots of people will come to see us!

The first chapter of Wake Up Girls Eternal Senses manga has also been released through Comic Clear! I hope you’ll read and enjoy it!

On August 5th, TV MX will be broadcasting the first episode of Kakegurui with special commentary by the cast! The special will include, Hayami Saori, Tokutake Tatsuya, and myself! Even though it’s supposed to be an organized TV special, I still got to talk very eagerly. I hope you tune in to hear what I had to say!

This Friday, Jurassic World will be broadcasted! And I got to do a voice over role of a girl in the movie! It’ll be a super tense and exciting 2 hours! I hope you have an exciting time watching it!

Finally, next week I’ll be joining the internet broadcast program, FIVE STARS, in order to promote the release of the new Wake Up, May’n single! The host of the program will be Date Arisa-san, who I’m looking forward to working with!

Alrighty, this weekend WUG will be having their tour through Sendai, so it’ll be super busy! I’m looking forward to having a fun time with you all!

-Minami

Source: https://ameblo.jp/wakeupgirls/entry-12298173537.html

[dylan38sanders]

Our Favorite Things From CES 2019 – Event Tech Podcast Episode 1

Welcome to another episode of Event Tech Podcast. Our hosts Brandt Krueger of Event Technology Consulting & Will Curran of Endless Events will be talking about their favorite tech from CES 2019. If you aren’t familiar CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is the largest annual show that provides a launching pad for the latest in consumer technology. Will and Brandt will guide you through the 2019 show, what tech they thought stood out and how that technology can be applied to events. From leaps in TV technology to smart toilets this is an episode you will want to catch!

Be sure to subscribe to the Event Tech Podcast so you get the latest episodes and information as soon as they launch!

https://www.podbean.com/media/player/4c76k-a73f10?from=yiiadmin&download=1&version=1

Audio Transcription –  Favorite Things From CES 2019 – Event Tech Podcast Episode 1 

Intro : Welcome to the Event Tech Podcast, where we explore the ever-evolving world of event technology every week. This show is brought to you by Endless Events, the event AV company that doesn’t suck. Now, let’s talk tech.

Will Curran : Hey ladies and gentlemen. This is Will Curran from Endless Events, and I’m joined by the lovely Brandt Krueger. Hey, Brandt.

Brandt Krueger : Hello.

Will Curran : And today, we are talking about our favorite tech from CES 2019. If you don’t know what CES is, it’s the computer … It’s the Consumer Electronics Show.

Brandt Krueger : If you don’t know CES is, you’d be the same as Will.

Will Curran : You’re the same as Will. It’s the Consumer Electronics Show. It’s really a post all the newest consumer tech and everything like that. We just thought it’d be a cool episode as we were talking about last time about how there’s so many technology trends coming out in the future. How do these apply to events? So basically, how does CES relate to the events industry? So we figured we’d talked about some of our favorite things we saw and just we kind of have some of it up in front of us and then go through it and just kinda talk about where everything’s going. So let’s just talk about like initial trends of what we thought about CES 2019 and I know you have some strong opinions about it.

Brandt Krueger : And not just me. I mean a lot of the kind of more senior tech media, you know, the folks that have been doing this awhile saw this CES as being very iterative. It was not a lot that was really new.

Will Curran : Yeah, nothing really new.

Brandt Krueger : It was like okay, there’s a roll-up TVs that we saw last year. There’s a piece of-

Will Curran : Don’t spoil all of it.

Brandt Krueger : Yeah. Fair enough. It was a lot of like little things that made a lot of news coverage that we’re like, okay, we saw that last year or they’ve been telling us it’s been coming for years to come. And so it was a lot. There was very little like wow. Like that’s truly innovative stuff.

Will Curran : What’s funny too is I mean like I watch a ton of videos on YouTube, like probably an unhealthy amount when I look at it like my rescue time app to tell me how much time I spend on Youtube.

Brandt Krueger : Well there’s your problem.

Will Curran : There’s my problem where my time’s going. And I just watched so many and so many people said the exact same thing. Some people I think tried to hide it by saying like well, here’s all the cool things coming up. But everyone who like really got a chance to comment was like look, there’s nothing really new this year at all. And I figured we’d talk about some of the stuff that kind of like caught our eye because we obviously haven’t done a CES coverage before.

Brandt Krueger : Yeah, there’s still plenty of things to talk about. But yeah, it was really kind of a surprising year as like wow nothing really blew my mind.

Will Curran : Totally. Totally. So I figured I’ll just talk through some of the tech and then talk about some things after it. Start with the weirdest one, which is this Kohler Numi 2.0 toilet, which is basically a smart toilet, which how does that even relate to the events industry? I don’t know, but I figure we could probably just talk about that is a prime example of nothing exciting.

Brandt Krueger : It’s experiential.

Will Curran : Experiential for sure.

Brandt Krueger : No, I can totally see that, though. You think about like a high-end event where especially like a festival or something like that. So you’ve got the standard attendees.

Will Curran : Coachella.

Brandt Krueger : Right? But then you’ve got the VIP.

Will Curran : Oh, yeah. So good. All right, let’s try to find another piece of technology because I think we have to end it on that one for sure.

Brandt Krueger : Yeah, but I think it is though, you know, it’s funny to elaborate. It’s an easy one where we can laugh about the smart toilet and stuff like that. But what it is is it’s an example of how technology is getting so commoditized with the radios, the WI-Fi radios, LEDs, color changing, all this kind of stuff. They’re able to put it in literal everything. So if you want to take away the overall trend from that, that’s what it is, is that everything is going to be color changeable.

Will Curran : Totally.

Brandt Krueger : Everything is going to be customizable. Everything is going to be “have AI in it.” You know, ’cause it’s not really AI, it’s just simple machine learning.

Will Curran : It’s learning how you pee.

Brandt Krueger : Yeah. It’s learning. Well, I mean to be honest, what it does is this kind of thing, and I don’t remember if this particular model has it or not, but what they’re talking about these things is it’ll recognize you as you come in-

Will Curran : Like the warmth that your butt.

Brandt Krueger : Right, right, but it’ll, yeah, it will remember how warm do you want it, what’s the water pressure, all that kind of stuff.

Will Curran : They better have a bidet, too. I think they quoted it out as something like a $10,000 toilet or something crazy.

Brandt Krueger : Oh, yeah. Yeah. These are insane. These are absolutely-

Will Curran : Well, what was interesting, and I pitched this as an idea. I hope we do this episode, but they actually have the a-word, Amazon’s Echo built into it. I’m going to it by the best, ’cause I know if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably own one of those and if I say the word, it’ll go beep off but-

Brandt Krueger : I’m trying to remember. So I think one of the podcasts it was Shlomo. So hey Shlomo. Guillermo for the other one. And I want to say it was Alicia.

Will Curran : Oh Gosh. Oh, my gosh.

Brandt Krueger : It was Shlomo, Guillermo, and Alicia instead of saying the hot words-

Will Curran : We should just like come up with our own word for this podcast. We’ll call it … I know a local guy who does smart home tech and he calls it lady A. But back to the smart system being built into it. Like we do a whole episode on this, but it’s like ridiculous. Why does this need? Like, what are you gonna do? Like, hey a-word, can you open the toilet for me? Or hey a-word flush the toilet?

Brandt Krueger : No, it’s more going to be the smart monitors-

Will Curran : Settings

Brandt Krueger : So it just sees you walk into the room. I saw one of the teasers for Phillips Hue doing their … Because they’re coming out with a bunch of bathroom stuff.

Will Curran : Yeah, totally the mirror and everything like that.

Brandt Krueger : That was the idea is like it recognizes hey, it’s six in the morning, I’m just going to go to like a red light glow, so I’m not hitting you with blue light and all that kind of stuff. But then when it comes time for makeup or something like that, then you’re hitting me with the full spectrum light.

Will Curran : You know, it’s interesting. I think it’s talking about lighting and like go a little bit on a tangent, but why don’t we in the events industry utilize like circadian rhythm lighting more often, right? Like so everyone knows kind of we were talking about like the idea that like at night, lights should be warmer, dimmer, white light. Like darker, orange-ish light. Right? Whereas during the day, you want this daylight sunlight temperature and it can wake you up and it could actually affect how you sleep. That’s what we were walking into the convention center today. And I said “This lighting doesn’t do it for me” ’cause it was like six o’clock in the morning. Still dark and whatever. It was seven o’clock in the morning. And I was like this needs to be like daylight temperature. Wake me up right now, right?

Brandt Krueger : Right. Yeah.

Will Curran : I’m just wondering why we don’t really do that much in the events industry.

Brandt Krueger : I mean that’s a whole other ball game, right? It’s another passion of mine is the psychology of events. And so, yeah, so getting into the psychology of color, psychology of light and yeah. You know we talked about, I think it was in our favorites episode on event icons. It was the color purple means somebody’s going to die. And so, I’m fascinated by a lot of that stuff and that’s actually a fantastic thing that I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody bring up is messing, not messing with, but messing with.

Will Curran : No, for sure.

Brandt Krueger : Not messing with, but you know, messing with people’s circadian rhythms. So shifting the colors from blues to red or something like that as the evening goes on. I think the only thing is though, would that be encouraging people to fall asleep as opposed to stay up late and party?

Will Curran : Yeah, totally. Well, I mean you think about it like, I mean for me as an AV event producer side of things, like you also don’t want to do daylight color temperature and you’re stage room. Everyone wants it theatrical. Darken the audience, brightly lit stage, right?

Brandt Krueger : Ambers.

Will Curran : Yeah, yeah, exactly. And don’t make it too bright, but they kind of get that conflicting side. But granted we are also only in a general session for two hours a day

Brandt Krueger : If you’re lucky.

Will Curran : If you’re lucky. But I guess so. You know, if you get locked into all day, then definitely hopefully daylight temperature for sure.

Brandt Krueger : All right. Back to CES.

Will Curran : Back to CES

Brandt Krueger : A good tangent, though.

Will Curran : Let’s talk about health products. One of my favorite products, and I think that was the only thing I got excited about at the end, was that Nokia came out with a watch that has ECG monitoring. And obviously, Apple Watch also had ECG monitoring and got launched whatever three or four months ago. And so now they’re coming out with their own version for Android obviously. And I think that’s just really exciting to talk about like health products and making it more exciting for you to wear these health products. But I’m curious what your opinion is. And then I read an article that I wanted to share and talk about when it comes to ECG monitoring that’s been really, really interesting. But that was one of the exciting things I think I saw. ‘Cause you have a smartwatch. I’m wearing a smart band right now and I’m curious how many other event professionals are also doing the same thing as well.

Brandt Krueger : I mean a lot. I mean, just in anecdotal looking around, I’d say easily the number one watch that I see on event folks is the Apple Watch.

Will Curran : Interesting.

Brandt Krueger : I mean, maybe it’s just because I know it’s one of the things that like when you get a new car, you see that car everywhere. Maybe because I have a smartwatch, I see smartwatches everywhere. But I see the Apple Watch a lot on event folks, especially like venue, hotel folks. I see a lot of smartwatches. And of that smartwatches, 90% is Apple, easily.

Will Curran : So my theory is that we walk probably the most out of any profession. So we also want to destroy all of her friends in like our Fitbit challenges and everything like that. Some we’re like oh, it’s the one thing I can … Yeah, I’m trapped inside a venue all day, but at least I got my steps up.

Brandt Krueger : Oh yeah. I mean, I remember the first year that kind of Fitbit’s, were like really popular. And absolutely we’re all like I got 44,000 steps today. Oh yeah? I got 75,000. How did you get 75,000? You had the same call time.

Will Curran : It’s so true though. It’s so true. Well, what’s interesting too about this ECG monitoring, the idea is supposed to be tell like heart palpitations things. I’m not a doctor, so I’m qualified. I just think it’s a cool technology. But what’s interesting is that it was talking about how this technology actually is creating … It was basically an article I think, I’ll link it down below, I’m sure. Is that basically, I think The Verge did it on how the Apple Watch is creating more issues with hospitals then it’s helping because what happens is you have a bad reading, people freak out and think they’re really unhealthy.

And so, these people would go and be like oh my God, something’s wrong. And in reality, nothing’s wrong. You’re totally healthy. And the irony of it is the people who tend to wear ECG smartwatches and everything like that aren’t people who need ECG monitoring and have heart issues. They’re the perfectly healthy people. So it’s this irony of like we’re both wearing watches but we’re both pretty healthy dudes. And it’s just really funny because we want to have these healthy products all the time when reality do we really even need them? Sounds like CES in general.

Brandt Krueger : It’s tough. But again, take a step out to the larger trend there, right? It’s the quantification of everything, right? So it’s that trend of it started with how many steps and then it went to like very early on, I remember my Fitbit would do steps and it’s somehow it was figuring out stairs. So like it knew how many levels up and down I was doing. And then, when I moved onto the Android watch that I’ve got, it actually has a heart rate monitor in it, but I don’t usually turn it on ’cause it’s a killer on battery.

Brandt Krueger : But you know, every now and then if I’m working out or something like that, I run it, but it’s also got access to all of my other, you know, the steps and all that kind of stuff on it. And so it’s kind of the natural progression. It’s like okay, then now we’re going to measure, not from heart rate but then the EEG and then … So yes, there’s going to be benefits, there’s going to be … But this idea of just the being able to, if you are a person that wants to be able to measure something, there’s going to be something that lets you measure it.

Will Curran : Well, I mean brings a big challenge too of like data collection. I like data ’cause for data’s sake is sometimes crappy. And I think what we’re probably needing right now is like we’re doing, I think a bunch of apps are doing a good job connecting to each other to share like hey, wait, data across the board. Right? And becoming universal for everything. But I think one of the is that what are you gonna do with that data? Like I think myself, I track my sleep, I track all my food, I track all my steps. But then like if something’s not popping up and is like, you’re in the right direction after the last couple of weeks or something like that, I feel like it’s just data for data’s sake sometimes it feels like.

Brandt Krueger : So speaking of tracking food and things like that, one of the other big stories, it was so funny ’cause it was only barely a tech trend and yet it was a huge story was the Impossible Burger 2.0.

Will Curran : Total. I’m so proud you brought that up.

Brandt Krueger : And I love this idea. I truly do because I like a good hamburger, but I also appreciate the environmental impact of beef production around the world. I appreciate the fact that I could probably stand to lose a couple of pounds. I appreciate all of these things. And so the idea to me that they can actually develop a burger that has 100% vegetable protein, that looks and tastes like a real burger. Wow. I mean that’s so amazing. And I can’t wait to try one. And the fact that this one-

Will Curran : Oh, you haven’t tried to even the first one?

Brandt Krueger : No, no I hadn’t.

Will Curran : I can give you some feedback on what [inaudible 00:13:03].

Brandt Krueger : Well, I heard it was nyah.

Will Curran : I have an interesting perspective on it too.

Brandt Krueger : So why don’t you give me your perspective on 1.0 and then we’ll talk about 2.0.

Will Curran : Yeah, well I mean not a lot of people know this about me. I don’t think I’ve ever shared this on a podcast or even publicly on a media piece of ours, but I actually can’t eat beef anymore. So burgers used to be my favorite food. I love burgers and I had probably the best burger you’ve ever had in your entire life. And basically, I don’t know what happened. My body I think just started rejecting beef. I started feeling sick, have run to the bathroom really right after I eat beef. Too much information for a podcast, I’m sure. Thank God there’s no video.

Will Curran : And so, you know, it was interesting that the Impossible Burger kind of came out and I was in Denver of all places and a cool little rooftop bar place near that hotel that you stayed at too. And they had the Impossible Burger. And I was really interested. I said “Okay, I’m going to get this.” And I’m not going to lie. I probably would order it again. I could get used to it. I didn’t think it tasted 100% like beef, but I can’t eat soy or anything like that. That’s just not good. I don’t like that at all. This is the closest thing to it. So the 2.0 is the part I’m think I’m most excited for. I’m sure it’s even better.

Brandt Krueger : Yeah. And so for folks that don’t know, I mean it is, it is 100% vegetable protein. I think they flipped from wheat to soy and they’re using like beat proteins to try and simulate like the juices and things like that-

Will Curran : So it like bleeds like beef.

Brandt Krueger : It looks and tastes by all accounts like a real hamburger. So the 1.0 kind of came in patty form. And so 2.0 comes basically in like ground chuck form, where you can form it, you can do meatballs, you can do sliders. Yeah. It’s basically the same consistency. It’s everything. Chefs are also like digging it because it’s got the same consistency. You can do this stuff with it burger. And so, again, moving out to the bigger trend here, now think about your events. And so when you’re trying to be responsible or green responsible or things like that, not only offering a vegetarian option, but offering a vegetarian option that a meat lover would love. It’s going to be better for the environment. It’s going to be better for your attendees. This really has the power to shake things up.

Will Curran : Oh, for sure. I mean just in talking to people across food trends and on our show I’ve just learned that there’s just this movement of we have to cater to so many different people and I can see as being one of those things where like hey, we’re going to just do this and get rid of the beef option potentially altogether. And I would be totally fine with it. I mean, obviously I don’t eat beef, so I’m not sure if you would.

Brandt Krueger : Yeah, I would love to try it. But it’s the kind of thing … Like people that have tried it said I would order it again as a burger replacement. It’s still a little expensive. Like they’re still sorting out the bucks, so it’s not ridiculous. Like version 0.01-

Will Curran : $25 Burger.

Brandt Krueger : Yeah, it was like really expensive. But now it’s starting to get down to … My understanding is it’s kind of in the zone of a premium burger. So like if you go to like a, I dunno, a Gordon Ramsay restaurant or something like that where you’re like you’re getting a premium hamburger. It’s in that range.

Will Curran : Can you just do that voice for the rest of the podcast.

Brandt Krueger : Lovey and I are going to eat a premium hamburger.

Will Curran : Only Impossible Burger.

Brandt Krueger : All right, so what else do we got coming from CES?

Will Curran : Yeah, so display tech. So obviously it’s always a big TV. Like we went from 4K to 8K and then we have all these OLED is the big trend in TVs. And as an owner of a high end TV I love watching movies on, you know like I love watching this because I’m like what’s the next thing that I’m gonna wish I had, right? And it’s funny ’cause 8K comes out, right? And 8K is obviously, was it? Three times technically higher than 4K, but then we think to ourselves, and we say this is AV folks, people like we don’t even use 4K really that often in the AV world in events. So maybe 4K will now become cheap enough that it’s at events. Does it really even mean … Maybe we have a conversation about that in general. It’s like as we continue to go higher and higher resolutions, is it even worth continuing?

Brandt Krueger : And that’s what was funny about even HD is that most of the time nobody could tell the difference between 1920, 1080p versus 720. So even though it was quite a significant higher resolution of the two flavors of HD, I would always tell people just go ahead and render at 720 because nobody’ll tell the difference. And it renders so much faster when you’re doing it too. And I would just do it and not tell people. And the other thing is that the content is lagging behind. And so they keep coming out with these higher and higher resolution displays, but there’s no content to support it. And so, they’re just starting to put out some 4K content on Netflix and things like that. And some of the networks are starting to broadcast in 4K.

Brandt Krueger : So fact that there’s already folks that are displaying 8K and beyond is ridiculous. Great. We’ve got people pushing the boundaries as far as what … Because eventually it’s going to be so fine of a resolution, it’ll look like reality.

Will Curran : For sure. It’s going to be so awesome.

Brandt Krueger : It’s going to happen in our lifetime. But I mean, as far as, again, as far as meetings and events go, there’s no real reason, in my opinion at this point to go over standard HD.

Will Curran : No, for sure. I mean I don’t think you’re ever going to be able to tell the difference for sure. I mean to be honest, when I got my 4K TV and went up from a 1080p TV, I barely could tell. The thing that made the difference for me though was HDR, high dynamic range. Getting the true blacks and the OLED where literally like when you have blacks, it’s in the middle of screen is completely black and there’s no glow into it or anything like that which I think is crazy.

Will Curran : But some other crazy things I think that we’ve kind of seen when it comes to the event tech is obviously like thinner displays and then flexible display. So last year we got the rollable TV as like a prototype and now LG is coming out saying we have a rollable TV that goes up and down and it’s coming out for sale.

Brandt Krueger : Yeah, it rolls up like a window shade into a full TV.

Will Curran : And that costs you a quarter of your salary, but.

Brandt Krueger : The thing that’s fascinating to me, and I’ve been saying this for years and it’s going to happen is another one of those it’s going to happen in our lifetime, is that displays are getting so flexible and thin that you’re just going to be able to just slap display material on anything.

Brandt Krueger : And so, as you’re thinking about stages, I honestly think we’re going to reach a point where we don’t have projection anymore. It’s not going to be projection anymore ’cause it’s going to be display.

Will Curran : Totally. That’ll be cool.

Brandt Krueger : And so instead of having projection on 16 by whatever screen, it’ll actually be just thin, super ultra thin display material and then stage sets. So instead of embedding a television into the podium or lectern, depending on how you want to do it, I am, by the way, let’s just get this out in the open. I don’t give a crap whether you call it lectern or podium, right?

Will Curran : That’s when you should go back and watch #EventIcons a why you should make your events more theatrical. Do we even have that on air debate or was that before show?

Brandt Krueger : I don’t remember.

Will Curran : I just remember we got it really-

Brandt Krueger : I just don’t give a crap. Just call it whatever you want. So anyway, so if you’re embedding it into a podium or something like that, you don’t have to embed a TV into that. You can actually just like cover it in display materials. We’re going to get there because you think about the TV material. So you’ve got a roll-up TV. All right, great. So that means that display is capable of being that flexible. We’re not that far away now from that future that I’m just calling for for years.

Will Curran : I mean the curveable LED screens and things like that, right? Like, so for example, Michael Cerbelli, The Hot List this year, he like talks about this tunnel of LED screens. I mean, it’s like nothing fantastic. LED screens first came out. The first thing that people want to do is make them flexible. What’s interesting to me too is that I think we’re going to see lowering costs in LED screens as well. And when you have these like for example, I mean not even talk about the roll with you, that’s I think more of a parlor gimmick.

Will Curran : I mean it makes sense if you’re putting up against a window and you have a nice apartment, you want the window up and sometimes the TV down. Cool. Makes total sense. But I mean, be honest, there’s no difference between that and a retractable TV that could go up and down. But like the thing that was mind-blowing to me was that wallpaper TV that LG made that just slapped on the wall. Uses magnets, boom goes on wall. And you know, that TV compared to the rollable TV is much more affordable and I think, yeah, you’re right, it’s going to give us a point where it’s okay, you can do this flexibility.

Will Curran : But then LEDs are that kind of next steps. So we’ve obviously had LED screens for awhile. We’re seeing dropping technology costs and they’re still really expensive ’cause everyone wants more high resolution as the newest thing comes out. So it doesn’t feel like the price really changes.

Brandt Krueger : But projection is still advancing too. So we started seeing a lot of like ultra short throw projectors out there. So you’re able to just put something on the floor two inches away from the wall and four feet high. It projects this giant image. 90-inch television equivalent or bigger.

Will Curran : Well, the big change I think this year talking about projection for a split second. Definitely should come back to LEDs ’cause I want to talk about that Samsung Wall technology they were working on, but projection, we had laser projectors are the big new thing that are now stocked in almost every production company. And to give everyone idea, like it stinks because this isn’t really a benefit to anybody but the AV company. But before when you had big projection, there was chances the bulb was going to break if you didn’t take care of it. If it’s too hot and you turn it off and you unplugged it. Boom, bulb could blow. And the bulb was always the most expensive part of the projector. $60,000 projector could have a $20,000 bulb inside of it.

Will Curran : With laser projectors, they cool down instantly. They turn on instantly, they last way longer. So now you shouldn’t have this insane cost with you on a really, really bright projector. It’s going to last way longer. So, therefore, if it lasts longer, it’s like audio. Audio is always the cheapest thing on AV because it lasts forever. It never breaks. And we’re using the same speakers we’ve been using for the last 10 years. My hope is that we see that same kind of trend in projection as well.

Brandt Krueger : So back to the wall you were talking. Tell us a little bit about that.

Will Curran : Yeah, so Samsung, I think it was Samsung, came out with basically what they called the Wall. And last year they came out with it. I think it was huge. It was like 80 feet by 20 feet or something like that. And it was this idea that hey, this is a single TV screen. It’s not just like an LED screen that we’re used to where you can tell, you can see the little pixels. It almost looks like a TV. And it basically was these component-level similar to an LED screen where you have panels that come together.

Will Curran : Well they basically want an even crazier this year. I’ll have to look up the size of it, but I think it was something like 120 feet by something like basically as big as most people’s projection screens I think. And I think it’s such a cool technology-

Brandt Krueger : Or an entire wall.

Will Curran : An entire wall. It looks like a TV. And I think that’s the important part about it is that everyone’s craving for higher resolution, more clear and crisp. So how can we deliver that to them because, I mean, to be honest, like clients come to us all the time ask for gigantic LED screens. They don’t realize that thing cost $2,500 a panel. So you take $250 to rent that panel times two foot by two foot. So you know, we want to do an 80-foot screen by a 10-foot screen, boom, like you’re looking at hundreds of panels right there.

Will Curran : And so I think as we start to see that technology drop in the consumer side, it should also drop on the event side as well. It especially should.

Brandt Krueger : All right. So I mean like we talked about from the beginning, there wasn’t a whole lot of innovation. So let’s kind of just round it out.

Will Curran : But this I want to talk about. Yeah, this is really cool. So actually I realized I forgot about this until I pulled it up just now. But I’m huge into VR stuff. I have an HTC Vive at home and when the Pro came out, we all thought, meh, you know, it’s not a big improvement. It makes it so you can barely see the screen door effect. Well, I can talk more about that all day long. But I never felt the need to pay the money to go to Pro.

Will Curran : The wireless unit came out and made wireless. That was a huge innovation. That was last year CES. This year though, they dropped some new things and to be honest, their second announcement about their other unit, it’s meh. It’s not a big deal. But this Vive pro, have you heard about this yet?

Brandt Krueger : Lay it on me.

Will Curran : All right, so here we go. So basically instead of them trying to make a higher resolution screen, they said what if we can eye track inside of VR? So smart, right? So you can do things like for example, do marketing tasks and things like that. See where people are looking. That’s kind of like the obvious eye tracking. So you can do that right now without VR. But what’s great about this, and this is where I saw great demo of this, is that now does eye tracking, it can put the parts of the screen that you’re looking at in higher resolution than the outside, which is how our eyes work right now.

Will Curran : Like if I’m looking at you sitting across from me right now, you’re in focus but everything else is kind of blurry. This basically replicates that same fact. So the thing I’ll be looking at is insanely high resolution and on the outside and everyone who demoed this said it looked creepily real. If you haven’t done full room scale VR with an HTC Vive, you have to do it. I know it sounds like overhype, but you have to do. It’s so cool. It’s so much fun. Even if it’s just for a couple of shooting zombie games.

Will Curran : But this could be really game-changing because now people can get clarity of what they’re looking at. And someone said that they tried the Vive Pro versus the Vive Pro Eye, they’re calling it with the eye tracking, and they said like you could read, look at all the details on this BMW logo for this test that they were doing.

Will Curran : So cool. And I don’t know how this is really, again, applies the events industry, we can do our anecdotal talking about VR doesn’t really do much for the events industry, but I think this is just a really cool piece of technology. Of how we’re, again, improving slight improvements. Like most people hear about this and like, oh, does eye tracking. I’m not putting money into that. I’m not going to get upgrade. But-

Brandt Krueger : Well, I mean the VR and AR, we’ve talked about this on Event Icons before, is that that one of the things that’s coming down the way is an influx of cash. So, the various governments and various corporations have decided to invest in this technology this coming year basically. And so US government is buying a bunch of HoloLens for some experimental army purposes and things like that. And then I think it was Walmart is using it heavily in training.

Brandt Krueger : And so, getting an influx of cash into this technology is going to do these … I mean you describe it as incremental, but that’s a pretty big step. Being able to do that kind of stuff on the fly is going to be huge. It’s just as far as increasing the overall quality of the experience. And so as more of this money kind of comes into this industry, you’re going to see more of those improvements. You won’t see it on the high end. That’s going to be reserved for those that are paying the money, but it filters down just like a car. What was the new feature this year is standard equipment in 10 years.

Will Curran : Yeah, totally. Totally. Yeah. I think it will be really, really interesting to see where it goes, but I mean if you haven’t done VR before and you’re listening to this podcast, definitely go try out room scale VR at like an arcade or something like that. But I think there’s a lot of value in that portion. I think we’re a lot of people get disdain for VR is definitely, I think I was talking about this today too, is that like you just put on that Daydream headset using your phone. Cool, you can call that VR technically as VR, but that’s like telling someone like, yeah, you have a smartphone, but really you have a flip phone compared to like have you seen the iPhone? Right? That sort of thing.

Brandt Krueger : I mean there’s definitely event applications for VR and AR both on frontend and backend. And we’ve talked about some of that in the past as well and I’m excited to start to see some of the backend stuff. But today we’re talking about CES.

Will Curran : CES all day long. I’m trying to think of other cool things.

Brandt Krueger : Well, there was a lot of the kitschy stuff. So there was a lot of coverage about the smart luggage that wanders around.

Will Curran : That Brandt really wants to kick over and tip over.

Brandt Krueger : That’s one of the better quotes that I heard was it was like, oh yeah, that’s the guy I’m going to be trying to get around in New York airport. So I could absolutely see this being something more to be ridiculed for rather than ooh, he’s got smart luggage that follows him around.

Will Curran : Totally. Totally. And can’t even take it on the plane anyways.

Brandt Krueger : Well yeah. How’s that going to work? I mean, you’re not going to be able to check in. It’s got a giant lithium-ion battery in it. You’re not going to be able to check it underneath. And the first time one of those things explodes, it’s going to be announced, the pre-plane announcements for the next two years, like the Samsung was where it’s like if you have a smart bag, please make sure that it doesn’t follow you around the airplane because it might catch on fire and explode.

Will Curran : Yeah, totally. Or it’d be funny too ’cause then it’s like, you know, they was talking about like Skynet and robots taking over, right. It’s going to be the luggage that takes over the plane.

Brandt Krueger : This vision of luggage wandering up and down the aisle unattended.

Will Curran : Well, better serve me some drinks at least, too, right?

Brandt Krueger : And that was part of the problem is that a lot of the news coverage centered around kind of the kitschy stuff that was like just inside the door. So like you kind of go in and you get your four top products and then you file your report. So there was the smart luggage. I think the smart toilet was in a lot of the coverage that was right there. The roll up screen that we’d already seen the year before. Yeah.

Will Curran : You know what was cool. I mean this is … Sorry to go back on display tech, but there was something actually really cool, I mean, that people can incorporate in the design, but LG did this gigantic curving wall. Just showing off their flexible OLED displays. It’s huge. And people said like when you go to this display village inside of this, I think it’s in the actual Las Vegas Convention Center. Like these TV manufacturers just go big and sometimes it’s impressive from just an AV standpoint. Look at all the screens they brought together and just doing like space imagery and you’re just like, whoa.

Brandt Krueger : Yeah, what media server is running all that. Geeking out on it, I tell you what, some of those LG screens are such ridiculous resolution. I saw a couple of … They’ve got these like strips that are making maybe a foot, foot and a half wide and maybe six to eight feet tall, designed for like kiosks and signage and stuff like that. I honestly I thought it was like a lit from behind LED print. So like a bus stop, things like that where it’s lit from behind. And all of a sudden I realized it was slowly changing and I was like oh crap, that’s a screen.

Brandt Krueger : Again, going back to what you were talking about, the insane resolutions, maybe we’re not ready for it from a content standpoint, but in that high traffic, high visibility areas, it looks like signage. It looks like permanent signage rather than that kind of pixelated stuff that you see because it’s always changing. Yeah. It’ll look like a physical signage.

Will Curran : Totally. Totally. I think people will come to expect it for sure too. Yeah, I was just kind of scrolling through some more like gadgets and things like that that we found and to be honest, we covered a lot. Again, like I said at the beginning, the one interesting trend that I kind of wanted to bring up was this idea of like electric vehicles as well.

Will Curran : So for example, at this show, Harley Davidson launched their first electric bicycle and it was like something like $22,000 or something crazy. Sorry, $29,000. Purchase price of a car, but that’s hardly for you. But I think the big thing that we saw and we started last year at CES was that like for example, Kia announced their e-Nero, which is now on sale as of today and we’re just seeing more and more electric cars that can go to the 300 miles plus range. I think it’s just fantastic because I mean from an event transportation standpoint-

Brandt Krueger : Ford’s going to do an F-150.

Will Curran : An F-150 electric. Awesome. I’m just excited for when we start to see like those charter vans and things of that are electric. Right? And I think that’s when we start to see like the major, major change as well. I mean we kind of are going to be that last hold offer, the electric side of things. But then also the big trend in transportation as I’m jumping all over the place too. It was like a last mile transportation. Like your Bird scooters or Lime scooters, things like that. Right? Like huge trend of this last year. It was said like on Product Hunt, it was the number one product of the year because it changed everything. I remember seeing scooters on the ground looking around out the hotel window see-

Brandt Krueger : I don’t think they have them here.

Will Curran : I don’t think they have them here. It’s too cold.

Brandt Krueger : Did you hear that they were having an outage in like, I think I want to say it was Switzerland or something like that. They were starting to shut off randomly. So people would be going 20 miles an hour and just turns off. So they were like, oh, we better shut down the system because they didn’t know what was causing it. And so then they gave people like a $20 credit. That’s like dude, I was going 20 miles an hour and this scooter just stopped.

Will Curran : They had to like run up to after it. But I think that’s the new cool trend, too. I think that we’re seeing in that … I think there was some announcements too with Lime. I think they came out with a bike during the show. And I think that’s changing also the events industry as well though, because now it’s not oh, I have to Uber this place, which was Uber was huge to our industry, but now scooters are totally more common. But I think what’s going to be interesting though, that I haven’t quite seen and maybe it does exist, but like for example, if I have a big event and I want people to go like five or six blocks, is there a way for me to order the Lime scooter to be able to go and deliver a ton of Lime scooters. Just ride to my venue. That would be really cool.

Brandt Krueger : Alright, well I think that’s pretty much getting down there for what we saw from CES 2019. So we hope you kind of enjoyed our recap of what we had going on. It was an interesting year, not from so much the what was seen, but maybe what didn’t come down the way and what wasn’t new. That’s kind of what we had for CES.

Will Curran : Yeah, totally. It’s totally I know, that was it. That was cool. I hope you guys really enjoyed this conversation.

Brandt Krueger : Iterative laptop stuff we were joking about like the Dell XPS moved the nose cam from the bottom to the top, that kind of stuff.

Will Curran : And like someone came out with like a thousand lumen light bulb that has like a vent on top, I think. I forgot what company came out with it, but that was crazy ’cause there’s a bright light bulb.

Brandt Krueger : Built-in fan.

Will Curran : You guys don’t care about this stuff. Yeah. Yeah, with the little fan in it.

Brandt Krueger : It’s brighter than the sun.

Will Curran : Everyone’s like you can’t tell on video, but this thing’s really bright.

Brandt Krueger : Hey Guilermo, turn on the sunlight.

Will Curran : I need a tan.

Brandt Krueger : All right folks, thank you so much for joining us on the Event Tech podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Please be sure to subscribe on all your favorite platforms out there. Get the word out, share the word. Let us know that we’re firing. Let folks know that we’re firing this things up. And check out us on all the platforms, iTunes, podcasts, all the fun things like that. We’re using a hashtag #eventtechpodcasts, so let us know who you want to see on the show, who you want to talk to, what the top trends that you want to hear us talking about. Maybe you want to hear us break down blockchain or something along those … I keep threatening to do that. Oh, we’re going to get stuck the super blockchain episode.

Will Curran : Oh God, that’d be the episode I find a guest host instead of me.

Brandt Krueger : Exactly. So thanks so much for joining us on the Event Tech podcast.

Outro:  Thanks again for listening to the Event Tech podcast. Be sure to rate and review us on your favorite podcasting app. Also, be sure to head to eventtechpodcast.com and leave us a comment about this week’s episode. We’ll see you next week on the Event Tech podcast.

Resources:

CES

Rescue Time App

Kohler Numi 2.0 Toilet

Nokia Steel HR 

Make Your Event More Theatrical �� #EventIcons Episode 141  

Impossible Burger 2.0

LG Rollable TV 

Michael Cerbelli The Hot List

LG’s extravagant ‘Massive Curve of Nature’ is the most mesmerizing thing at CES 2019

HTC Vive Pro 

Samsung The Wall 

That New Apple Watch EKG Feature? There are more ups than downs.

What was your favorite tech at CES 2019? Comment below and let us know.

https://js.hscta.net/cta/current.js hbspt.cta.load(430132, ‘740beca5-6763-439e-b576-de484f15317f’, {});

    from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/ces-2019/

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Best Chinese Language Learning Software 2020 (UPDATED)

https://www.chinesescholarshipcouncil.com/?p=49072&wpwautoposter=1592649932 Are you looking for Best Chinese Language Learning Software? you are at the right place. we will briefly discuss about Best Chinese Language Learning Software. Why learn Mandarin? China is a fast-growing economy, already the second largest in the world. Being able to speak Chinese can give you the upper edge in your career and open up wealth opportunities (both business and professional) now, and in the future. The Chinese Language Learning Software is broken up into many regional dialects, however, the official dialect that is taught in all schools is Mandarin. The second most spoken dialect is Cantonese. If you are interested in learning Chinese, Mandarin is your best bet, as it is the most spoken dialect in China. Challenges to learning Mandarin– Why software helps Mandarin can be difficult to learn, however in some aspects it is actually easier to learn than English. Let’s take a look at why this is: Why is Mandarin Difficult? Tones: Chinese languages are tonal (unlike Korean and Japanese). This means that the way you inflect the pitch of your voice can change the entire meaning of a word. This can be particularly troublesome for English speakers who are not adapted to hearing these tones. Fortunately, there are only 5 tones in Mandarin, and with practice, you can easily identify them. Writing: The Chinese language does not really have an alphabet like English, French, Spanish, etc. Instead, the Chinese language is written entirely using characters. This can be an issue since you cannot really sound out a word phonetically from simply looking at a Chinese character. Why is Mandarin Easy? Grammar: Chinese grammar is remarkably simple compared to that of English or French. There are very few rule exceptions and verbs and nouns require very little conjugation. Tenses in Chinese are very easy to implement as well. Whereas a Romance language such as Spanish or French (or even German), may be studied on your own from books, the radically different nature of Mandarin requires some extra attention. Pronunciation and tonal accuracy is very important, so you need something more than just a book. Best Chinese Language Learning Software represents a great solution to the difficulties that you can encounter when trying to learn Mandarin. But which software is the best for learning Mandarin? Chinese Reading Apps Du Chinese Du Chinese is a revolutionary app will help you to improve your Chinese reading skills. I am impressed by the clean design and user interface. It is easy to use and loading material takes only seconds. You can read by yourself or listen to an audio recording and read along. The characters and pinyin layout look very comfortable. You can easily turn the pinyin on and off and switch Chinese characters between Simplified and Traditional. It supports English translations for single words and sentences. All sentences have been carefully translated and they stay as true as possible to the original Mandarin. The reading material topics are quite interesting, covering daily conversations, Chinese culture, current events，the latest trends, funny stories, and regular life in China. They are marked by difficulty, ranging from newbie to master. Each session is also labelled from HSK level 1 ~ 6+. It is easy to find material for your level. Chinese Characters Apps Zizzle If you have trouble memorizing Chinese characters, then Zizzle will definitely help you. This app breaks down characters into their component parts. Then, they use images and a short story to help you remember these components. Most of the stories are ridiculous or funny enough to be memorable. Each tone is represented by a certain animal which helps you remember the character. It also teaches characters that build up from smaller to more complex characters in a logical way. I am in love with this app, and its method taught me characters that I have tried and failed to learn in the classroom. It presents an effective, novel, and fun way to learn and memorize Chinese characters. If you are total beginner, I can safely say you will know hundreds of characters in few days and be able to read them confidently. Use the promo code “DIGMANDARIN10” to save 10% on all three-month and annual subscriptions, as well as packs. Chinese Dictionary Apps Pleco The dictionary app will probably be one of the most useful and frequently used ones for people learning Mandarin; Pleco may be the app most frequently recommended for this function. It allows you to quickly look up a Chinese word or character wherever you are. Pleco Key features: Chinese handwriting recognition: the option to hand write instead of typing in pinyin is very useful when searching for characters you don’t know. OCR: it allows you to look up unknown Chinese words ‘live’ using your device’s camera, or tap-lookup words in a still image. Stroke order guides: to help you find out how to write the Chinese characters in the proper order. Flashcard system: insanely powerful/customizable system, making it extremely easy to add new flashcards from dictionary entries or to import pre-made vocabulary lists. Online Chinese Degree Chinese Listening Apps Chineseclass101 No doubt that Chineseclass101 is one of the most well-structured podcast Mandarin courses available today. With language instruction podcasts, you can improve your pronunciation and boost your listening comprehension skills. ChineseClass101 has an extensive collection of audio materials covering all levels. By having access to different levels, you can choose the best one for you. Each lesson has notes that include the key grammar point broken down clearly along with Chinese cultural insights. The lesson dialogue will help you understand real-life conversations in China and will definitely help you improve your listening skills. It also offers an interactive voice recorder tool, which lets you record your pronunciation and compare it to that of a native speaker. Chinesepod Chinesepod is another example of a podcast Mandarin app. The quantity of lessons is pretty big. It even has more interactive exercises for learning new words and phrases. In ChinesePod, the amount of Mandarin speech in each lesson is increased step-by-step. Even lessons for Upper-Intermediate students have  English explanations which are quite helpful! Advanced students may enjoy Mandarin-only podcast lessons. Gamification Apps Hello Chinese Hello, Chinese is a powerful learning tool that can help you overcome the fear of learning Chinese. This app focuses on daily life topics. It starts from basic pinyin so that even if you are a total beginner or have absolutely no background in Chinese, you can still learn with it. What is special is that this app allows you to listen and record your own voice, and to help you check automatically if your pronunciation is correct. It`s a comparatively easy way to measure your pronunciation. The studying process is not boring. Learners are not overwhelmed with information. Lessons are taught in a very precise and careful manner. What`s more, there are many exercises and quizzes to help you consolidate all that you have learned. Chinese Speaking Apps Hello Talk Have you been learning a new language for a while, and feel like it’s time to start practicing and using it? That’s where Hello Talk can help. It is a language exchange app that has over one million users. It’s easy to find natives from China willing to help you practice Chinese. Hello Talk Key features: Voice and Text chat Moments, like the group chatroom Translation and Transliteration: Translation allows you to read in English what someone typed in Chinese in case you didn’t understand it. You can use the transliteration option when a native speaker writes Chinese to you, to instantly see the pinyin. Voice recognition system: You can simply speak and the system will attempt to convert that to text to send to your language partner. These are my top Chinese language learning apps. I bet you also have your own picks. What would you recommend to fellow Chinese learners? What apps do you think are worth the time and the money? Just comment below and let us know your favorites. Maybe your picks will make this list one day!

[sol-tinyrayofsun]

Zutara Week Day 6 - Affirm:  It Was Always You (Falling For Me)

*Alright, I´m reposting this because it´s not showing up in the tags.*

This little story has been on my mind for quite some time now and I somehow made it work with the prompt. It’s really fluffy, ridiculous, and features a lot of Toph’s brilliance to mess with her friends yet always meaning well. I just had a good time writing it, it was honestly a fun ride.

I hope you enjoy it! As always, thank you for reading! Feedback and comments are always appreciated! <3 In case you prefer it, also on AO3!

Title: It Was Always You (Falling For Me)

Rating: G

Summary: When Katara let Toph convince her of giving Zuko a love potion to make him fall in love with her, she knew the chances of the plan going sideways were extremely high. Still, the last thing she expected was for Zuko to act normal. Painfully normal. Operation “Sparky Falling For Sugar Queen” turns out to be a little too complicated. (Set after Ember Island Players but before Sozin’s Comet).

----- 

 “Pst! Katara!”

The waterbender tilted her head. The kitchen appeared to be empty. Still, she could hear someone calling for her, loud and clear. She had been busy making sure they had everything ready for lunch around Zuko’s holiday house at Ember Island.

“Katara!” There it was, that voice again. “Listen up, Sugar Queen!”

Wait for a second, that was Toph’s voice. Definitely.

“Toph?” She asked, walking around the room. “Where on earth are you?”

“Inside the broomstick closet!” Toph chuckled. “Come here for a sec.”

Katara did as she said. Once she opened the door, she found Toph mischievously smirking, holding a little bottle in her hands.

“So, what is it?”

“This!” Toph replied, showing off the bottle with a grin on her face. “This is what I wanted to show you!”

“And you were hidden with all those broomsticks because…”

“Dramatic effect, Sugar Queen, never underestimate it,” she said, stepping into the kitchen hall. “Now, aren’t you going to ask what this is for?”

“Sure, Toph,” Katara let out an amused sigh. “Why is it so important?

“How do you feel about having some fun at Sparky’s expenses?”

In all honesty, the idea sounded tempting. After the dreadful night Katara had endured with that stupid play just days ago, she could use more than a little fun. Although Toph’s idea of fun could sometimes be questionable, at the very least.

“Hold up. What do you have in mind?”

“This little thing,” Toph shook the bottle up in the air. “It’s a temporary love potion.”

Katara broke down in a scandalous laugh. “Yeah, and where did you get that from?”

Toph made a defensive frown. “Hey, it’s the real deal! I bought it from a weird old lady in town. She wasn’t lying, I swear.”

“Alright, I believe you. And what do you suggest we do with it?”

“Yes, that’s the attitude!” she celebrated. “According to the weirdo, two drops of this stuff and you can make anyone fall at your feet. All you need is for the other person to consume it while looking at you. And I just thought, wouldn’t it be hilarious if Zuko just happened to suddenly be crazy in love with you? That play inspired me, that’s all I’m saying.”

Well, that sounded like a recipe for disaster. Especially considering the way that play had contributed to her latest confusion regarding her feelings for two very powerful - and very different - benders. Still, it was a tempting offer.

“Toph, that’s insane!” Hesitation could be heard in her voice. “Trust me, pranking Zuko would be entertaining, but we cannot force him to be forever in love with me! I mean, what on earth would we do then? Seems a little cruel to me.”

“See? That’s the catch. It’s temporary. Two drops would only make him fall in love with you for a couple of days, tops. Come on! I thought you had been introduced to the concept of fun.”

Spirits, screw it. Two days of some harmless fun, how bad could it be? She could use a little distraction from the constant stress they were all under.

“Are you sure the effect will wear off?”

“Absolutely. Say yes, please! You know I can always do it without you. Or to you.” A mischievous smile framed her face. “You know you want to torture Sparky a little bit.”

“Alright… Let’s do it. But if anything goes sideways it’s your responsibility.”

“Heck yeah! That’s the spirit!” Toph gave her an affectionate punch in the shoulder. “Oh man, this is going to be too fun to watch!”

And so operation “Sparky falling for Sugar Queen” was put into motion. The two girls would prepare some tea - which would undoubtedly bribe Zuko in there - and make sure he was left alone with Katara when it came to drinking it. Toph would oversee everything from a cautious distance. It was the craziest, most random idea ever. But it sure sounded like fun.

Once everything was ready, Katara waited for Zuko in the kitchen. Needless to say, she was feeling a tad nervous. Waiting by the countertop, staring at the two teacups in front of her, she felt her heart racing on her chest.

It was just for two days. And it would certainly be nice to laugh with Toph about Zuko’s ridiculous lovey-dovey attitude. Most importantly, she wouldn’t even dream to risk Toph giving her the concoction. No, her feelings were already messy enough without the help of any love potion.

“Katara, are you in here?” Zuko’s voice interrupted her overthinking. “Toph said you made tea for me…?”

Time for the show. She put on her brightest smile as Zuko sat down in front of her.

“Yes! You seemed so tired this morning, figured you could use a little boost.”

She handed him the cup with the two drops mixed in the tea.

Zuko gifted her with a thankful smile. “Thank you, that’s very nice of you.”

Nice of me… Yeah, sure. Just drink the tea and look at me.

He started drinking, only to stop after a few sips to have a little chat.

“So, Aang’s training is looking decent,” he started saying. “But I can tell he’s getting increasingly anxious. We might need to keep an eye on him, I wouldn’t want him to start avoiding our sessions.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Katara intervened. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t slack on his training. Drink your tea, it’ll get cold otherwise.”

“Alright, alright,” he complied, looking into her eyes. “Thanks again for making it.”

Katara observed him as he drank the whole thing in one go. Her golden eyes staring at her with an amused shine to them. She wondered how Zuko being in love with her would be like. He didn’t exactly give off the cheesy type vibes, though she knew how much of a dork he actually was. If you fall in love because of a potion, you’re pretty much doomed to grandiloquent gestures and infatuated declarations, right? Well, she wasn’t an expert on the subject. But she did know a thing or two about having feelings for someone.

Toph sneaked into the kitchen, placing her hands on Zuko’s shoulders and giving them one tight squeeze. “Hello there, Sparky, how are you feeling on this lovely day?”

“Hey Toph,” he greeted her. “Much better after that tea, actually.”

Despite the perfectly normal response, Toph continued with her attack.

“You know what? Sugar Queen over here confessed to me this morning that she felt she looked terrible. I’m clearly not the best judge when it comes to looks.” The vicious smile on her face was a little too obvious. “How is she looking today, Sparky? Isn’t she stunning as usual?”

Oh, no. Katara felt herself blushing. The whole operation had quickly turned into Toph having fun at the expenses of both her and Zuko. But in all honesty, how could she had ever expected otherwise?

“Um, well,” Zuko mumbled, his eyes glued to the countertop. “She looks just the same to me. Like you said, um, she’s got her usual look.”

Katara wished Toph could see the look of utter confusion in her eyes. That was not the response she had imagined.

Zuko abruptly stood up. “Alright, I think I’ll get back to training. See you two later,” he greeted them. “Oh, and Katara. Thanks again for the tea.”

‘Thanks for the tea’? So much for romantic gestures.

Toph grasped her arm as soon as Zuko was out the door.

“What on earth? That was the least romantic interaction ever.” The earthbender exclaimed, looking frustrated.

“Hey, let’s give it some time. Maybe the effect hasn’t kicked in yet.”

“Okay, we’ll wait. Man, what a bummer. I was fully expecting him to start a rant about how beautiful you are.” Toph threw her hands up in the air, grunting.

“Patience, we’ll get there,” Katara reassured her.

But am I even sure I want to get there?

Deep down, a part of her was hoping for it.

The rest of the day was spent with Toph trying her best to get Zuko to do anything remotely romantic regarding Katara, in an attempt to kick off the love potion effects. Much to her frustration, nothing seemed to do the trick. Katara wasn’t sure what to think of it. Did she feel relieved, disappointed, or maybe even bored? Truth be told, it was kind of a mix of all three.

Katara witnessed as Toph did everything she could. From suggesting they paired up in training all the way up to making them meditate together. All she got from Zuko was radio silence. Well, at least in the sense they were expecting.

“Are you sure you don’t feel a little weird, Sparky?” Toph asked him for the millionth time during dinner.

“Um, no? Why?” Zuko had a look of complete confusion on his face.

“You sure you don’t feel a little more sparky than usual? Don’t you sense some new emotions?” Toph continued. “Anything different?”

“Alright, that’s enough Toph,” Katara interrupted. “You’re scaring the poor boy.”

“Yeah, Toph, what’s all that nonsense about?” Sokka asked.

“Why should Zuko feel different?” Aang’s voice showed a tad of concern.

“Nothing, nothing,” Toph replied. “Calm down, you all. I was just wondering.”

Katara noticed the annoyed frown on her friend’s face. She seemed pissed off by the lack of results, the whole plan had been her idea after all.

After the meal, Suki stayed with them doing the dishes.

“Are you two going to tell me what’s going on already?” she asked them, with her hands on her hips and an inquisitive look in her eyes.

“Going on with what?” Toph played the innocent. “We’re just scraping plates.”

“Oh, come on! You have been acting weird all day! Especially you, Toph, asking Zuko the most random questions.”

“What do you say, Sugar Queen, should we tell her?” Toph asked.

“Sure, maybe she’ll even know why it’s not working,” Katara replied. “But Suki, promise not to tell any of the guys, alright?”

Suki let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine, just spill it.”

“Okay, let me see. We made Sparky drink a love potion with his tea so he would fall in love with Katara. For two days. And before you ask, yes, it’s legit. Oh, but nothing’s happened yet.” Toph´s explanation was accompanied by a playful grin on her face.

“You’re joking, right?” Suki asked with a sarcastic smirk. “Katara would never be on board with that.”

“Actually,” she said, blushing. “I thought it was kind of a fun idea.”

“Yeah, so much for fun since Sparky hasn’t shown any signs of love and it’s been hours! He should be acting all lovey-dovey already.”

Suki burst into laughter. “Spirits, that’s hilarious! You gave him a freaking love potion and he’s acting as usual?”

“I don’t get what you’re laughing about! Something’s seriously wrong with him! Or us!” Toph complained. “Katara, are you sure you didn’t drink the potion yourself?”

“Yes, Toph, I’m absolutely positive I gave him the cup with the two drops,” Katara replied.

“Are you telling me you two don’t realize what’s going on?” Suki asked, an amused expression framing her face. “For being the ones to come up with this plan you seem rather clueless.”

A suspicion started to take shape into Katara’s mind. She couldn’t help but ask. “Suki, what are you talking about?”

“Yeah, come on!” Toph urged her. “Do you know something that we don’t?”

Suki let out a soft giggle. “Well, let’s think about it. You gave Zuko a love potion to fall for Katara, right? Toph, you say it’s a legit one. But Zuko is acting painfully normal. Even though he is under the effects of the potion.”

“Your point is?” Toph was sitting down on the countertop with a desperate expression on her face.

“If Zuko acts just as usual when he is supposed to be artificially in love with Katara… What do you think it’s the reason?”

“His heart is missing?”

“The dose wasn’t strong enough?”

“No!” Suki exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. “He was already in love with her!”

Wait. What? That doesn’t make any sense.

“Spirits, Spirits, Spirits!!!” Toph jumped down the countertop, hands on her head, and on the verge of screaming. “That’s it! Suki, you’re a genius.”

Katara hadn’t even blinked. She was not even entirely sure she was still breathing. Zuko in love with her? It couldn’t be. He had even looked embarrassed by the way the play paired them together. Although she had acted embarrassed as well. And a part of her knew very well why.

“Sugar Queen, I can’t believe I didn’t realize it sooner.” Toph poked her cheeks. “His heartbeat is all over the place whenever you’re around but again so is yours, and I thought it was just all that love/hate dynamic you’ve got going on. I had actually started to suspect he liked you, but Spirits, I didn´t realize he loves you.”

Love/hate, what? This can’t be happening.

Suki raised a brow. “Hold up, Toph, are you saying Katara’s heart beats faster when Zuko is around?”

“That’s a lie!” Katara exclaimed, snapping out. She couldn’t let her friends figure out the truth. “My heart is perfectly fine, thank you very much. And Zuko is not in love with me!”

“And I suppose you have unlimited access to his mind and that’s how you know that?” Toph deadpanned.

“No… I - That’s unfair Toph,” she managed to mumble, feeling her heart starting to race on her chest.

“As unfair as the fact that you’re heart is betraying your words in this exact second,” Toph replied.

Katara wished with all of her strength that the ground opened up and swallowed her. The entire operation had gone sideways. But not in the way she had originally expected. No, it was worse.

“Alright, alright,” Suki intervened. “Enough torturing with Katara, this was supposed to be about Zuko.”

“Thank you. Can we please go back to the point?”

Toph let out an exasperated sigh. “The point is Zuko is in love with you, Sugar Queen. But not because of the love potion, it seems like he’s been head over heels for you way before drinking that tea.”

“I seriously can't believe you didn’t figure this out sooner,” Suki said. “The question is, what are you going to do about it, Kat?”

That was a very good question indeed. One she had no answer for.

“Why should I even do something about it?” Katara asked, a confused look in her eyes.

“Because I think deep down you want to.” Suki’s tone got serious all of the sudden.

Toph placed a hand on her shoulder. “Sugar Queen, I’m sorry if my prank ended up bringing you a headache. But Suki’s right, you should confront him.”

“Confront him? We’re in the middle of a war! I don’t need any distractions.” Her head was spinning a little too fast.

“Says the girl who complied to give a love potion to Sparky,” Toph remarked.

“Katara, would you seriously prefer to have a lump on your throat until Aang has taken down Fire Lord Ozai?”

Truth be told, she would hate that. A part of her knew she had feelings for Zuko. For that poor firebender she had given a love potion to. Only to have the whole scheme backfire right on her face. Now, she had to stand up to it.

“No.” She shook her head. “I wouldn’t prefer that.”

“Then hear me out because I have a plan!” Toph exclaimed, enthusiasm written all over her face. “I know how to get one last bit of fun out of this failure of an operation.”

——

The next day went out according to what the girls had planned. Still hoping for at least a bit of extra romance on Zuko’s behalf - which, unsurprisingly, never occurred - the three of them acted normal all the way until the afternoon.

After training, Toph cornered the poor Zuko on his way to the beach. Katara and Suki stayed at the shore, discreetly listening.

“Sparky, this is your last chance!” Toph exclaimed.

“My last chance for what?” The look of sheer confusion on his face was priceless to say the least.

“Come on! Please tell me you are feeling extra lovey-dovey and maybe I’ll let you walk away without making you even more uncomfortable.”

“Toph, I swear I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“You’re telling me you don’t feel any special romantic feelings today?”

“Um, no?” His voice had a strain of nervousness to it.

“And what about regular feelings? Got them for anyone? Maybe for someone you drink a lot of tea with?”

“Uh - No? Um, Toph, can I please go now?” Zuko stuttered.

“Ha! I knew it, you sneaky little bastard! That’s a lie.” Toph threw her hands up in the air. “I can tell you’re lying. I was right, heck yeah!”

Zuko anxiously tried to get past her. “Alright, sure, can I please go down to the beach now?”

“Don’t you want to know why I’m asking you this?”

“Do I have to?”

“We gave you a love potion, Sparky! A love potion mixed with that tea you drank yesterday. And you were supposed to fall in love with Miss Sugar Queen!” Toph’s was grinning from ear to ear.

Katara and Suki exchanged a concerned look. That was not part of the plan. Katara was supposed to be the one to tell Zuko about the love potion. After Toph had made sure whether he was lying or not. Then, and only maybe, she would mention the tricky subject of actual feelings.

“What on earth, Toph?” Zuko’s face was pale as a ghost. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I've been suspecting for forever that you liked her! And when I got that love potion it was just too tempting not to go for it. I thought it would be a fun experiment! Katara was also on board with it.”

“But?”

“But it only made me reaffirm my theory! What I didn’t expect is that you don’t just like her, you’re full-blown in love with her!”

“Toph, can you please tone it down? I wouldn’t want anyone else to hear this conversation,” Zuko pleaded.”

Katara was cursing Toph, Suki, Zuko, the moon, the stars, the Spirits, and herself. Toph playing matchmaker as subtle as an elephant trying to fit into her sleeping tent.

“Sparky, don’t you see Katara and Suki over there in the corner? They’re already listening!” Toph waved at the two of them, she had the most amused look on her face.

“What? Toph!” Zuko’s face was now entirely red. “You’re insane.”

“Sh, let me get to the best part,” she shushed him. “I think our dear Sugar Queen has something very important to tell you.”

Toph grabbed him by the wrist and started marching up to them.

Toph, you’ll pay for this, Katara thought as she found herself in front of Zuko.

“Now, I think Suki and I have to go do literally anything else but being here,” Toph resolved. “Alright! Everyone’s happy? See you!

“Kat, I’m sorry,” Suki mumbled. “I had no clue about this but I’ll better go.”

The two girls sprinted back to the house, where Aang and Sokka were probably taking care of dinner.

Her eyes met Zuko’s, and she felt her heart racing inside of her chest. The awkwardness of the situation was remarkable.

“So… I’m taking it you heard everything Toph said?” Zuko asked, sitting down on the shore next to her.

“Yeah,” she replied, nervously playing with the sand that surrounded them. “I’m sorry about the love potion thing. It was stupid of me.”

“I just didn’t understand the logic behind it. Were you going to let me be in love with you for all eternity?”

“The effect was supposed to wash out tomorrow…” She let out a sigh. “But I guess it’s the same now.”

“Because you realized that I acted normal around you even with the potion?”

“Exactly.” Katara took a deep breath. “Look, Zuko, I had no clue-”

“Katara,” he interrupted her. “It’s okay. I don’t mind you know.”

“So it’s true then? Are you…”

“Am I in love with you?” He rubbed the back of his neck, his whole body seemed anxious. “Yeah, I am. I guess even more than I knew.”

Silence. Just sheer silence.

Zuko rushed to continue. “It’s perfectly okay if you don’t feel the same way.”

But she did feel the same way.

“Look, I think I’m in love with you too,” she blurted out, feeling her cheeks turning bright red.

“You are?” His voice was tinted with astonishment.

She nodded in agreement. Then, she proceeded to say something else. “The night of the play, Aang felt terrible about the possibility of us being together. He kissed me and… and I pulled apart. I was horribly confused. A part of me knew he has always expected to be with me. But it didn’t feel right.”

Katara made a pause. She couldn’t believe she was actually saying those words out loud.

“Go on, I’m listening,” Zuko encouraged her.

“Well, I knew I felt something for you for a long time already. But with what happened the night of the play, and now this whole love potion thing… I realize I’m in love with you too.”

Zuko brushed his fingertips against the back of her hand. “Thank you, for being honest with me.”

She squeezed his hand. “Thank you for not wanting to kill me for giving you a love potion.”

“Now what?”

“I don’t know. We still have a war to win.”

A moment of quietness invaded the space between them. Their fingers were intertwined, both of their hearts racing. They were savoring the confirmation of their feelings - and embracing the uncertainty - together.

“Do you want to wait?”

“Wait?”

“Yeah, until this whole mess is over,” he explained. “We can figure out things slowly, I don’t mind. It’s not like I’m suddenly going to stop having feelings for you.”

“So you would still be in love with me… And I would still be in love with you…”

“But we focus on winning the war first.”

Katara tilted her to look straight at him. “Can I occasionally do this, though?”

He made a slight frown. “Do what?”

She didn’t give him much time to wonder. In a split second, she leaned onto him and placed a kiss on his lips. It was sweet, quick, and a little timid. But it was still the first kiss they shared.

“So?” Katara asked, a light smile framing her face. “Can I?”

Zuko placed his arm around her shoulder, allowing her to rest her head on the creek of his neck.

He squeezed her hand, chuckling. “Yeah, I think you can.”

“You know  what? I’m really glad Toph convinced me to give you that stupid love potion.”

---- I hope you enjoyed this fluffy little thing I wrote! Feedback is always appreciated! <3 Thank you for reading!

[onestowatch]

ieuan Thinks “VIRTUAL REALITY” Has Us Trapped in a Simulation [PREMIERE + Q&A]

We live in a crazy world at the moment. Between celebrity politicians and self-driving cars, sometimes it’s hard to tell if everything happening around us is real or if we’re living in some sort of wild simulation. Young electro-pop mastermind ieuan thinks we might be – and he’s got just the music for the ride.

San Francisco-born and now London-based, this fresh singer/producer has been on the rise tackling topics like LGBTQ+ love, loss, religion and youthful angst via sultry, synth-drenched bangers that might be on the playlist of that exclusive, invite-only nightclub downtown. Having shared the stage with artists like Charlotte Lawrence and Elijah Daniels, and even finding himself playing events such as San Francisco Pride, ieaun is starting to make waves with pop fans globally.

Ahead of the release of his EP Childstar, ieuan sat down with Ones to Watch to exclusively premiere his latest single, “VIRTUAL REALITY,” as well as talk Black Mirror, growing up gay, and Joe Biden.

OTW: Hey ieuan, thanks for sitting down with me.

ieuan: No problem. It’s a nice break from making Frappuccinos. I’m working at the Harry Potter exhibition in North London right now to fill my time since I finished the EP.

OTW: Oh no way, I’m a huge Harry Potter nerd.

ieuan: Yeah, it’s hard because I really, really loved it growing up, but when the music is on all day and people keep asking me where to buy butter beer it kind of leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

OTW: Haha, I totally understand that. But you’re California born, right?

ieuan: Yes sir, I’m from San Francisco.

OTW: What had you make the move to London?

ieuan: Well, my whole family is English. My mom and dad are from the UK, and they’re the only people in my entire family to not live here. And so we sort of had a bit of a childhood here - when I was little we spent a few years here before moving back to San Francisco. I just always wanted to come back, and I had the opportunity to study here for university so I’ve been in London about a year. Yeah.

OTW: Oh nice, what university are you studying at?

ieuan: Well it was University of East London. But I got kicked out.

OTW: Ohhhhhhh shit! What happened?

ieuan: Basically, everything started heating up as I moved here, I got proper management and started spending more time in sessions and meetings than going to class, and because I’m an international student they thought I was just trying to trying to get a visa. So they kicked me out. It wasn’t because I was just like, too lazy to go, but I was spending my time making music instead of learning stuff I already know, if that make sense.

OTW: For sure, that makes a lot of sense to me.

ieuan: But it’s quite funny to tell people I got kicked out of school, haha. I love doing it.

OTW: Well, since you got kicked out for doing music stuff, I suppose we should talk about your new track “VIRTUAL REALITY.” Can you tell me a bit about the inspiration for the track?

ieuan: Yeah. About a year ago, after I released my last mixtape Over the Garden Wall, I was kind of like, “Alright, where do I go from here?” At the time I was binge watching Black Mirror, like I think that shit is fantastic. I was really, really, really inspired by the perspective and obscurity behind each episode and how every one was different but they all have this underlying theme of “ah, technology is scary, ahhhh!” And so, I was going to the studio with this storyline I had in mind for the EP and I was like, “What goes better with the theme of dystopian technology than this world where everybody lives in VR instead of real life?” So yeah, it was really just like Black Mirror, and I was listening to a lot of electronic records at the time, so they both sort of came together to create that song.

OTW: Makes sense. What are some of the more unbelievable things you’ve seen happen in modern times that draw the comparison between your project and Black Mirror?

ieuan: Ummm, hmm. Oh my god! Here’s one. I take the train a lot in London, I work an hour and a half away, so I’m on the train quite a bit. I will literally see parents on their phones and like all that shit while their kids are running around screaming. I saw this kid like hurt himself so badly and his mom just did not care. This girl was too busy watching Facebook videos and playing Candy Crush to notice that her child cut himself up. Like that is ridiculous. Black Mirror shit.

OTW: Damn, that’s crazy. On an unrelated note, your publicist said that you’re homies with Joe Biden?

ieuan: Oh my god yessssss!! I love.

OTW: I gotta know how that happened.

ieuan: My life is fucking ridiculous, let me tell you. I was at my boyfriend at the time’s theater show on the East Coast, in Wilmington, DE, which is where Joe Biden is from. My boyfriend was always flexing like “yeah, I’m from the town where Joe Biden is from” and I was always like “yeah, whatever.” And then I was at this play, and we invited a few of our friends from DC to come see it, so we were all there together. One of the girls was very quiet so I started talking to her, and I was like, “What’s your name?” and she was like, “Maisie.” And I said, “Oh, Maisie what?” and she was like, “Biden” and I was like *gasp!!!* She was like the dopest girl ever, and she invited us all to stay over at her grandpa’s house that night. She was Joe Biden’s granddaughter. It was the most surreal… if you weren’t there, you wouldn’t believe it. We roll up, and there’s like security and a private lake and all that, and then we walk in and there’s just Joe Biden sitting there in a black turtle neck. I really wanted him to be like “Hello, my fellow Americans!” and all that but the things he said really shook me. He was like “Hey guys, I bought you donuts and orange juice for the morning. Let me give you a house tour.” He took us to the basement and the first thing I see is a Migos music video on a projector. Like bro, where the fuck where am I?

OTW: Black Mirror, man.

ieuan: Oh my god, you’re so right. What if it’s a simulation, and I’m making it all up? But yeah, it was absolutely insane. He was such a nice guy.

OTW: Well that’s good, I like to hear that. So you mention that you were in Biden’s hometown because you were visiting your boyfriend at the time. You’ve been a pretty outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, can you talk a little bit about how your sexuality and experiences thus far have affected your music?

ieuan: Yeah. Well, I came out when I was eleven.

OTW: Oh wow! Quite early.

ieuan: Yeah, so I was really, really young. I think because I came out so early - must’ve been like 2010 or something, it was a little bit before Born This Way by Lady Gaga came out - you didn’t know many gay people.

OTW: Or didn’t know you knew many gay people.

ieuan: Exactly. And like, I just had a really strange, gay childhood. I don’t know many people who have had a gay childhood. It inspired me to put some of that strange energy into my songs. I’m really glad that nowadays kids can come out at whatever age they want and people are supportive. It was very, very weird at the time. It led to me sort of seeing a lot more than any other 11-year-old would. I just figured it out so early. I don’t know, when I came to music I felt like it was a similar thing. This isn’t going to make any sense, but whatever, ahaha.

OTW: All good! You’ve performed at some functions benefiting the community as well, like San Francisco Pride.

ieuan: Yeah, that was insane.

How do you think other LGBTQ+ musicians, or allies even, can do things like that to benefit the community?

ieuan: Well, I think it just depends what you’re doing it for. Like for me, I don’t sit down to write music and say “this is for x.” I was just making sure that my music is a sonic projection of my personality. I am gay, and I am quite energetic, and the way the community responded to that ultimately sort of led to performing at pride being a very obvious decision. I think as long as you’re not sacrificing the thing that makes you special, you will get to where you want to be.

OTW: For sure. Last question on this subject, I suppose. Both San Francisco and London have pretty iconic gay scenes. How do they compare?

ieuan: Haha, yes they do! They’re very, very different. London is a lot more young. The gay scene is a lot more like 18-to-25-year-olds. Back in San Francisco I feel like it’s a lot more mature. You’ll see 50-year-old, married gay couples walking around going to art museums. It’s two different scenes. Over here in London, you’ll go out to Heaven or something and it’s just packed with gay kids, but then in San Francisco it’s all “let’s go to the art museum!”

OTW: Well, back onto music – you just finished your Childstar EP, but you also released an album called TECHNICOLOUR Vol. 1?

ieuan: Yes sir.

OTW: That’s a lot of content for one one year. Where do you find the inspiration?

ieuan: Um, well I think if I’m not creating like 24/7 I lose my mind. I’m a severe workaholic, I get that from my mum. I’ve just been listening to so much music, music from my childhood and albums that I never thought I’d listen to. It inspires me to like, literally never put the pen down, if that makes sense. I feel like I’m wasting my time if I’m not writing new music or producing or thinking about new visuals. That album was sort of a collection of the things I’ve been doing for the past three years.

OTW: Can we expect a Vol. 2 at some point?

ieuan: Oh absolutely. It depends if I’m not gonna sleep for another three years which I plan on doing anyways.

OTW: Well sweet, all the better for us. If you could form a supergroup with any artists living or dead, who would they be and what would you call yourselves.

ieuan: Haha, I think that may be the best question I’ve ever been asked. Oh my gosh. Okay. Me, Robyn, and Travis Scott, and we’re gonna be called The Robosluts. That’s my dream. We all use autotune, it’s insane. I would be the leader of course.

OTW: The head slut?

ieuan: Yes, the head thot.

OTW: Excellent, haha. Well, last question – who are your Ones to Watch?

ieuan: The first one off the top of my head is Instupendo, he’s sick. Must be 19 or 20. He makes this insane electronic-lullaby-dance-ambient music. It’s really, really beautiful, and I literally put it on repeat for my Animal Crossing and Pokémon sessions. If you’re trying to sleep and dream about some cool shit, you definitely have to put him on. Absolutely. There’s also this boy called That Kid. I think his real name is Spencer. He makes this really sick gay, ecstasy-fueled dance pop. Those two are my go-tos right now. Oh! And I can’t not mention my boy Jesse Saint John. He is a dream to work with. I don’t think I’ve met anybody in the last five years who is as supportive and loving and caring as that person. And we’ve only met once, when we performed together in LA. He writes for other artists but his own music is just brilliant.

OTW: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us.

ieuan: My pleasure. I hope this hasn’t been too embarrassing for me!

[how2to18]

IT’S 1989. You’re in the middle seat of a Chevrolet Astro minivan, flanked on either side by your screaming siblings. Dad is driving. Oh god, he’s air-drumming on the wheel to “Smoke on the Water.” Again. You look down and see your backpack and your heart swells just a little because a device in that bag is your ticket out of here. Janine K gave you a mixtape of songs by The Cure and said they would change your life. The cassette is already in the Walkman deck. You pop on headphones, press play, and crank up the volume. Hello, freedom.

It’s hard to remember a time before we had the option to curate the playlist of our own minds. We are simply accustomed now to experiencing music in this deeply personal, albeit solitary, way. We disappear into headphones, stream a song via smartphone from the intangible, infinite web, creating a sonic landscape that mirrors our mood. We walk around the grocery store in Beyoncé-land.

But that wasn’t always the case. In her new book Personal Stereo, Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow analyzes two major shifts in perspective associated with the 1979 birth of the first solo listening device, the Walkman. First, music becomes a personal experience, and second, music becomes immersive, a means to override — or even negate — the sounds of one’s immediate environment. Listening to music in private was not a new concept, of course, nor was the ability to take music on the road (à la the boom box). However, the idea of making the private experience of music a public phenomenon was groundbreaking. In that sense, the Walkman redefined music: it was a revolutionary tool that offered listeners a new kind of freedom. Music technology today still riffs on the basic concept of the Walkman, only now we have digital access to nearly every recorded song.

To set the stage for the Walkman’s rise, Tuhus-Dubrow takes us to postwar Japan, in a ramshackle office with a leaking roof. Two men are working with umbrellas over their desks. Their names are Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, the founders of Sony and eventual fathers of the Walkman. Personal Stereo is the wild story of the ingenious brotherhood of Ibuka and Morita, of Japan’s ascent from financial ruin to the second largest economy in the world, and of the subsequent pushback from the United States against Japanese-made products. It’s also the story of the “Me Generation” of the 1970s, as well as the exercise craze of the ’80s, and all the anxiety and nostalgia implicit in the beginning and end of an era.

Personal Stereo is the latest entry in Bloomsbury’s “Object Lessons” series, which focuses on the hidden lives of ordinary things. The short book is divided into three chapters — “Novelty,” “Norm,” and “Nostalgia” — which together trace a narrative arc that mirrors the lifespan of a zeitgeist technology turned obsolete. Sub-sections within each chapter have evocative titles like “Trapping sound,” “Remember Pearl Harbor,” and — my personal favorite — “Home taping is killing music.” (One can almost hear record label executives in the age of digital streaming laughing out loud at that last title.) Tuhus-Dubrow illuminates a web of stories connected to the Walkman, her references as ubiquitous as its users. She takes us to a mountain in wintry Switzerland where Andreas Pavel, who would later win a lawsuit against Sony, played music for his lover on his jerry-rigged personal stereo while the snow fell silently around them. She quotes Tom Wolfe and Allan Bloom, along with her own buddy who had his Walkman stolen. After finishing Personal Stereo, I found myself wondering about the secret lives of every object around me, as if each device were whispering, “Oh, I am much so more than meets the eye.”

The most haunting theme Tuhus-Dubrow treats is contemporary nostalgia for analog technology. In 2015, the National Audio Company reported the best year of cassette sales since 1969. Thurston Moore, formerly of Sonic Youth, claims he only listens to music on cassette, and many artists today elect to release music exclusively on tape. Questioning her own nostalgia, Tuhus-Dubrow tackles the murky issue of why consumers would hold on to this outdated technology. Why commemorate an obsolete device? Tuhus-Dubrow suggests we are nostalgic for the Walkman not because it reminds us of a particular time and place, or an early taste of freedom, nor because it was pivotal in defining the spirit of an age, but because we may secretly long for boundaries in a world of limitless access. Perhaps we crave the singular focus that the Walkman’s simplicity forced on us: listen to this one Pearl Jam tape all the way home, because that’s all you’ve got. Tuhus-Dubrow speculates that we miss the time when we could actually touch music — when we had to fumble with a wonky device through a maze of fast-forwarding, rewinding, fast-forwarding again until the click: that sweet spot somewhere mid-tape, the beginning of our favorite song.

As with most generation-defining forms of technology, consumers had conflicting opinions about the Walkman. Because of the newfound personal freedom it offered, the Walkman was considered a threat, antisocial and amoral. “Walkman’s Oblivion” was likened to the escape of taking drugs or dissociating into a film-like hyper-reality. People who chose to withdraw into the private world of their personal stereos, hips gyrating down the street to invisible music, were labeled selfish, hermetic, or just plain crazy. “The history of technology,” Tuhus-Dubrow writes, “is in part the story of normal people starting to do things that used to be considered signs of insanity.” The Walkman’s origin story is as curious as the slew of contradictions surrounding its reception. This little device was seen as simultaneously a quintessential symbol of the United States and everything that’s wrong with the country, a tool both of laziness and of hyper-productivity (think: exercise craze), as well as a ubiquitous symbol of style and status.

Tuhus-Dubrow is a master researcher and synthesizer. It would appear that she has left no Walkman-related stone unturned. That said, if I could request a hidden bonus track to Personal Stereo, I would wish for more of her insightful musings on the mixtape, a phenomenon responsible for more excited swooning, long-shot lyrical (mis)interpretations, and make-out sessions than any other music delivery mechanism. Surely there is a connection to be made between the Walkman’s redefinition of music as personal and the art of curating a music mix specifically for your crush. If the Walkman had never come into being, would it have occurred to us to select and organize songs with such uniquely personal intention? Tuhus-Dubrow does touch on a mix of her own creation, including a stellar lineup of R.E.M. and Beat Happening, but it would be fascinating to read more of her thoughts on the subject. Then again, maybe I’m just feeling nostalgic for Janine K’s mix of The Cure, the one that truly set me free.

In July 2012, for approximately 45 seconds, I erroneously believed that I owned New York City. This brief moment accompanied a runner’s high, as I jogged alone along the Hudson, earbuds blasting “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Sure, the exercise-induced endorphin rush contributed to my delusion, but the truth is I couldn’t have approached that moment of ecstasy had it not been for the ability to disappear into my personal stereo. At the time, I never would have credited the Walkman for my elation, but thanks to Tuhus-Dubrow, an elegant, engaging storyteller who unpacks complex social and political concepts with clarity and panache, I know better now. Personal Stereo is a joy to read.

¤

Carissa Stolting is the founder of Left Bank Artists, an artist management company based in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a contributing poet to the podcast Versify, a publication of PRX, The Porch Writers’ Collective, and Nashville Public Radio.

The post Zeitgeist to Obsolete: Rewinding the Walkman’s Inverted Cinderella Story appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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[houstonlocalus-blog]

Never Been Wrong: The Best of The Week

Waxahatchee, Photo: Jesse Riggins

  A lot of tours are making their way to Houston this week, and we’ll get treated to the likes of Waxahatchee, Jimmy Eat World and Lionel Richie when they all swing through town. Of course, with locals like Clay Melton, El Lago, ImposterBoys and more rounding out the week, you will have plenty of entertaining options to choose from. Houston, here’s how to map out the following week.

  On Wednesday you can get started at White Swan, which will have the pop punk of Maryland’s Braceface. When pop punk is good, it can be really, really good, and this band makes pretty solid pop punk. Refreshingly, their latest release, Chewie We’re Home, feels like it steers away from some of the bro-fueled pop punk that used to dominate the scene. The pop punk of Houston’s 54 Reasons will be on as direct support, while White House Party Crashers will go on beforehand. The emo of Houston’s Finger Guns will also be on the bill, and the acoustic punk of Bad Stand-Up will get the all-ages show started with doors at 7 pm and a $5 cover.

  Kyle Hubbard, Photo: Jordan Asinas

  Of course on Wednesday you might also find yourself at Warehouse Live in the ballroom for the hip hop of Phora. Here in support of his latest, With Love, this California native has been blowing up as of late. The Youtube sensation, Froggy Fresh, will be on hand as direct support. Are these guys for real or just a pretty elaborate joke? I actually don’t know, but their track “Dunked On” seems to have a sense of seriousness to it with all of its southern-twanged mic skills. Houston mainstay and mic spitting machine Kyle Hubbard will be on hand as well, while the heavy hitting sounds of Fullmetal will get things started. The all-ages show has doors at 7 pm and tickets $20 and $50, the latter being a VIP meet-and-greet option.

  Thursday you can begin at Mucky Duck for the EP release from Houston’s Nathan Quick. The bluesy sounds of this guy are totally worth making it out for, and his The Los Angeles EP is definitely worth lending an ear to. Ashlynn Ivy will get things started with a solo set for the 21 & up show, with doors at 7 pm and tickets between $15 and $17.

  At Joke Joint Comedy Showcase, the skit comedy of Ray William Johnson will be on hand. Johnson is quickly selling out all of his dates around the country, and he’s become known for his skits online. This h-town show has sold out as well, with two of Houston’s better up-and-coming comics serving as host and feature act. The 18 & up show has doors at 7 pm.

  On Friday, you could get all the good vibes at Toyota Center, when Lionel Richie swings by to perform all the hits. And before you go thinking he doesn’t have an impressive back catalog, remember that tracks like “All Night Long,” “Hello,” Say You, Say Me” and “Dancing On The Ceiling” are just from his solo career. That’s before we steer into his hits with the Commodores. I caught Richie some years back, and he can still bring it. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Mariah Carey will also be on this show — as long as she doesn’t have another mic failing meltdown like on New Year’s Eve. I’m not sure if she’s performing her hits or not, but they’ll have Tauren Wells open the all-ages show with doors at 6 pm and tickets between $39.95 and $500.

  Jimmy Eat World, Photo: CAA

  At Cynthia Mitchell Woodlands Pavilion, Incubus will bring their mediocre sounds to all who attend the outdoor venue. I mean, they’re decent live, but just be prepared for their “jam” session I had to sit through when I saw them over a decade ago. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get amped to catch Jimmy Eat World, who’ll be on as direct support. Their last release, Integrity Blues, was their best in years, and they always bring it live. Nashville’s Judah & the Lion will get the all-ages show started with gates at 6 pm and tickets between $29.50 and $115.

  Over at House of Blues, the always fun hip hop of 2 Chainz will bring down the house. This guy has never been a disappointment live, and his latest album, Pretty Girls Like Trap Music, is a tour de force. Memphis’ Young Dolph will be on as opener and direct support for the all-ages show with doors at 7 pm and tickets between $42 and $59.

  Walter’s will host the alt prog metal of Oakland’s Free Salamander Exhibit. This five piece offers up weirdly prog-heavy sounds on their latest, Undestroyed, that sounds in some ways like Primus but with creepy vocals. The brutal prog rock noise of Houston’s Dead Time will be on as direct support, while Funeral Horse will get the all-ages show started with doors at 8 pm and tickets between $10 and $12.

  Mockingbird Brother, Photo: Nikki Machacek

  At Satellite Bar, the tripped-out psych fuzz pop of Chicago’s YAWN will be on full display. While this four-piece has become well known for their intriguing live shows, their last full-length album was three years ago with Love Chills. This year they dropped a new single called “Hum” that’s a total trip, and it should hopefully mean new tunes are on the way as well. The insane psych sounds of Houston’s Bernie Pink will be on as direct support, while the indie punk goodness of Mockingbird Brother will get the all-ages show started with doors at 8 pm for the free show. It is, however, $10 for the under 21 crowd.

  Stereo Live will host a groove-heavy show when UK dubstep producer Cookie Monsta drops a set. This guy definitely knows how to drop the bass and get a room moving, and his latest drop, “Them,” from last year, is a definite thumper. Philadelphia’s Subtronics will drop a set as direct support, while California’s Uber gets things started on the 18 & up show with doors at 9 pm and tickets for $10.

  Saturday you could get your tonk on when Sam Houston Race Park hosts the Beyond The Pines Music Festival. An all-day affair headlined by Texas’ Ryan Bingham, there’s plenty of other sounds available from acts like California’s Vintage Trouble, Oklahoma’s Jon Wolfe, and the soulful sounds of Alabama’s Anderson East. There’s plenty more acts on hand alongside food trucks, with more information available here. The all-ages event gets going with gates at 2 pm and tickets between $38 and $180.

  Clay Melton, Photo: Daniel Jackson

  Of course White Linen in the Heights will be taking place, and while you have a ton of options on who to see, you should definitely swing by Onion Creek to catch Clay Melton. Melton is on the verge of dropping a new album produced by Steve Christensen and Dan Workman, and his sound is full of bluesy tone and gritty guitar squeal. He’s pretty energetic in a live setting, and his latest single, “Secrets,” is pretty strong. The free show gets going around 5 pm and it’s for all ages.

  Downstairs at White Oak Music Hall, you can get your metal fix when Helstar brings their heavy metal back to the city where they formed. These guys have been going since the early ’80s. They’ve kind of done a ton of big labels, and the latest of their thirteen releases, Vampiro, is their best so far. They’ll have the classic metal of Sanctus Bellum on as direct support, while Mastema will go on beforehand. Krullur will open up the all-ages show with doors at 6 pm and tickets between $12 and $17.

  Queen + Adam Lambert, Photo: CAA

  Toyota Center will host the classic rock of Queen+Adam Lambert. Lambert taking the reigns as singer for the classic rock icons feels like a no brainer if you’re a fan. All of your favorites like “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Will Rock You” and “Another One Bites The Dust” will get performed. There’s no word of support or openers, but you probably don’t need either for this show. The all-ages evening has doors at 7 pm and tickets between $49.50 and $175.

  Over in the studio at Warehouse Live, the celebrated downtempo jazz DJ jams of producer Mark Farina will be on hand to get your feet moving. Farina has gotten well known for his unique style, his crazy live sets, and his back catalog of jams. His last drop was 2013’s Urban Coyotes, but earlier records like Back to the House and To Do are pretty magical as well. LA’s Seven Davis will bring his jazz-infused jams on as direct support, while Houston’s Bobby Blyss will get the all-ages show with doors at 8 pm started, with tickets between $16 and $19.

  El Lago, Photo: Daniel Jackson

  Satellite Bar will have Houston’s El Lago over to headline a set, I think. They have two different orders, or three if you count the flyer, so I guess depending where you look, this will all change. If it’s El Lago headlining, then I’m sure you’ll be pleased, as the dreamy indie rock four-piece is on the verge of dropping their debut full length. It goes without saying that their live shows are always pretty stellar. The fuzz rock of Austin’s The Hermits will also be on hand, while the insanely great indie rock of Alexalone will open the all-ages show with doors at 8 pm. There’s a free cover for the adults, or a $5 cover for the kids.

  The classic Mod rock of the Texas Mod Crushers will be over at Rudyard’s. These guys mix classic mod with punk sensibility that you should see sooner than later. The Genzales will be on as direct support, while Imposterboys will open the 21 & up show with doors at 9 pm and an $8 cover.

  Sunday you can swing by White Oak Music Hall upstairs for the indie rock sounds of Waxahatchee. The Alabama-born group, lead by Katie Crutchfield, will be here in support of this year’s Out In The Storm. While I say indie rock, there’s plenty of straight-forward rock on this stellar album that’ll sound amazing live. The lo-fi indie rock of Boston’s Palehound will be on as direct support, while Baltimore’s Outer Spaces will open the all-ages show with doors at 7 pm and tickets between $15 and $19.

  Over at Marquee Moon Lounge, Austin’s JT Habersaat will bring his Altercation Comedy to town. Here in support of his latest vinyl release, his funny antics will make you forget the humdrum of the week. Memphis’ Josh Mclane and Austin’s Avery Moore will both be on beforehand, while Houston’s English Matt and crowd favorite Gabe Bravo  will kick things off. The 21 & up show has doors at 8 pm and an $8 cover.

  Astragal, Photo: Disha Khakheria

  On Monday you can swing by White Oak Music Hall upstairs for the indie rock of Denton’s Dome Dwellers. This three-piece is definitely due for a new album, but their 2015 release, Ivory Tower, is definitely catchy and intriguing and full of prog influences in its structuring. The punk-fueled indie rock of Houston three-piece Mockingbird Brother will be on hand as direct support, while the jangly indie rock energy of Astragal will open things up. The all-ages show has doors at 7 pm and it’s free for adults or $5 for the children.

  Walter’s will host the alt pop rock of Philadelphia’s Civil Youth. Supporting their latest album, this year’s Conversations, this three-piece is definitely full of hooks. The bluesy sounds of Houston’s Clay Melton will be on as direct support while the proggy alt rock of Vox Vocis will go on prior. The indie pop of Houston’s Vanilla Sugar will open the all-ages show with doors at 8 pm and a $10 cover.

  On Tuesday, you could head to Warehouse Live in the ballroom for another edition of the massively popular running show, The Moth. The all-ages true stories, told live this time, will as always should make for a fun time. The doors are at 6:30 pm and tickets are $10 for the seated show.

  That’s about all that’s happening this week. No matter what you decide to do, remember that drinking like an adult and staying hydrated are best for everyone around you.

  Never Been Wrong: The Best of The Week this is a repost

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Best Chinese Language Learning Software 2020 (UPDATED)

https://www.chinesescholarshipcouncil.com/?p=49072&wpwautoposter=1592547943 Are you looking for Best Chinese Language Learning Software? you are at the right place. we will briefly discuss about Best Chinese Language Learning Software. Why learn Mandarin? China is a fast-growing economy, already the second largest in the world. Being able to speak Chinese can give you the upper edge in your career and open up wealth opportunities (both business and professional) now, and in the future. The Chinese Language Learning Software is broken up into many regional dialects, however, the official dialect that is taught in all schools is Mandarin. The second most spoken dialect is Cantonese. If you are interested in learning Chinese, Mandarin is your best bet, as it is the most spoken dialect in China. Challenges to learning Mandarin– Why software helps Mandarin can be difficult to learn, however in some aspects it is actually easier to learn than English. Let’s take a look at why this is: Why is Mandarin Difficult? Tones: Chinese languages are tonal (unlike Korean and Japanese). This means that the way you inflect the pitch of your voice can change the entire meaning of a word. This can be particularly troublesome for English speakers who are not adapted to hearing these tones. Fortunately, there are only 5 tones in Mandarin, and with practice, you can easily identify them. Writing: The Chinese language does not really have an alphabet like English, French, Spanish, etc. Instead, the Chinese language is written entirely using characters. This can be an issue since you cannot really sound out a word phonetically from simply looking at a Chinese character. Why is Mandarin Easy? Grammar: Chinese grammar is remarkably simple compared to that of English or French. There are very few rule exceptions and verbs and nouns require very little conjugation. Tenses in Chinese are very easy to implement as well. Whereas a Romance language such as Spanish or French (or even German), may be studied on your own from books, the radically different nature of Mandarin requires some extra attention. Pronunciation and tonal accuracy is very important, so you need something more than just a book. Best Chinese Language Learning Software represents a great solution to the difficulties that you can encounter when trying to learn Mandarin. But which software is the best for learning Mandarin? Chinese Reading Apps Du Chinese Du Chinese is a revolutionary app will help you to improve your Chinese reading skills. I am impressed by the clean design and user interface. It is easy to use and loading material takes only seconds. You can read by yourself or listen to an audio recording and read along. The characters and pinyin layout look very comfortable. You can easily turn the pinyin on and off and switch Chinese characters between Simplified and Traditional. It supports English translations for single words and sentences. All sentences have been carefully translated and they stay as true as possible to the original Mandarin. The reading material topics are quite interesting, covering daily conversations, Chinese culture, current events，the latest trends, funny stories, and regular life in China. They are marked by difficulty, ranging from newbie to master. Each session is also labelled from HSK level 1 ~ 6+. It is easy to find material for your level. Chinese Characters Apps Zizzle If you have trouble memorizing Chinese characters, then Zizzle will definitely help you. This app breaks down characters into their component parts. Then, they use images and a short story to help you remember these components. Most of the stories are ridiculous or funny enough to be memorable. Each tone is represented by a certain animal which helps you remember the character. It also teaches characters that build up from smaller to more complex characters in a logical way. I am in love with this app, and its method taught me characters that I have tried and failed to learn in the classroom. It presents an effective, novel, and fun way to learn and memorize Chinese characters. If you are total beginner, I can safely say you will know hundreds of characters in few days and be able to read them confidently. Use the promo code “DIGMANDARIN10” to save 10% on all three-month and annual subscriptions, as well as packs. Chinese Dictionary Apps Pleco The dictionary app will probably be one of the most useful and frequently used ones for people learning Mandarin; Pleco may be the app most frequently recommended for this function. It allows you to quickly look up a Chinese word or character wherever you are. Pleco Key features: Chinese handwriting recognition: the option to hand write instead of typing in pinyin is very useful when searching for characters you don’t know. OCR: it allows you to look up unknown Chinese words ‘live’ using your device’s camera, or tap-lookup words in a still image. Stroke order guides: to help you find out how to write the Chinese characters in the proper order. Flashcard system: insanely powerful/customizable system, making it extremely easy to add new flashcards from dictionary entries or to import pre-made vocabulary lists. Online Chinese Degree Chinese Listening Apps Chineseclass101 No doubt that Chineseclass101 is one of the most well-structured podcast Mandarin courses available today. With language instruction podcasts, you can improve your pronunciation and boost your listening comprehension skills. ChineseClass101 has an extensive collection of audio materials covering all levels. By having access to different levels, you can choose the best one for you. Each lesson has notes that include the key grammar point broken down clearly along with Chinese cultural insights. The lesson dialogue will help you understand real-life conversations in China and will definitely help you improve your listening skills. It also offers an interactive voice recorder tool, which lets you record your pronunciation and compare it to that of a native speaker. Chinesepod Chinesepod is another example of a podcast Mandarin app. The quantity of lessons is pretty big. It even has more interactive exercises for learning new words and phrases. In ChinesePod, the amount of Mandarin speech in each lesson is increased step-by-step. Even lessons for Upper-Intermediate students have  English explanations which are quite helpful! Advanced students may enjoy Mandarin-only podcast lessons. Gamification Apps Hello Chinese Hello, Chinese is a powerful learning tool that can help you overcome the fear of learning Chinese. This app focuses on daily life topics. It starts from basic pinyin so that even if you are a total beginner or have absolutely no background in Chinese, you can still learn with it. What is special is that this app allows you to listen and record your own voice, and to help you check automatically if your pronunciation is correct. It`s a comparatively easy way to measure your pronunciation. The studying process is not boring. Learners are not overwhelmed with information. Lessons are taught in a very precise and careful manner. What`s more, there are many exercises and quizzes to help you consolidate all that you have learned. Chinese Speaking Apps Hello Talk Have you been learning a new language for a while, and feel like it’s time to start practicing and using it? That’s where Hello Talk can help. It is a language exchange app that has over one million users. It’s easy to find natives from China willing to help you practice Chinese. Hello Talk Key features: Voice and Text chat Moments, like the group chatroom Translation and Transliteration: Translation allows you to read in English what someone typed in Chinese in case you didn’t understand it. You can use the transliteration option when a native speaker writes Chinese to you, to instantly see the pinyin. Voice recognition system: You can simply speak and the system will attempt to convert that to text to send to your language partner. These are my top Chinese language learning apps. I bet you also have your own picks. What would you recommend to fellow Chinese learners? What apps do you think are worth the time and the money? Just comment below and let us know your favorites. Maybe your picks will make this list one day!

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Best Chinese Language Learning Software 2020 (UPDATED)

https://www.chinesescholarshipcouncil.com/?p=49072&wpwautoposter=1587805119 Are you looking for Best Chinese Language Learning Software? you are at the right place. we will briefly discuss about Best Chinese Language Learning Software. Why learn Mandarin? China is a fast-growing economy, already the second largest in the world. Being able to speak Chinese can give you the upper edge in your career and open up wealth opportunities (both business and professional) now, and in the future. The Chinese Language Learning Software is broken up into many regional dialects, however, the official dialect that is taught in all schools is Mandarin. The second most spoken dialect is Cantonese. If you are interested in learning Chinese, Mandarin is your best bet, as it is the most spoken dialect in China. Challenges to learning Mandarin– Why software helps Mandarin can be difficult to learn, however in some aspects it is actually easier to learn than English. Let’s take a look at why this is: Why is Mandarin Difficult? Tones: Chinese languages are tonal (unlike Korean and Japanese). This means that the way you inflect the pitch of your voice can change the entire meaning of a word. This can be particularly troublesome for English speakers who are not adapted to hearing these tones. Fortunately, there are only 5 tones in Mandarin, and with practice, you can easily identify them. Writing: The Chinese language does not really have an alphabet like English, French, Spanish, etc. Instead, the Chinese language is written entirely using characters. This can be an issue since you cannot really sound out a word phonetically from simply looking at a Chinese character. Why is Mandarin Easy? Grammar: Chinese grammar is remarkably simple compared to that of English or French. There are very few rule exceptions and verbs and nouns require very little conjugation. Tenses in Chinese are very easy to implement as well. Whereas a Romance language such as Spanish or French (or even German), may be studied on your own from books, the radically different nature of Mandarin requires some extra attention. Pronunciation and tonal accuracy is very important, so you need something more than just a book. Best Chinese Language Learning Software represents a great solution to the difficulties that you can encounter when trying to learn Mandarin. But which software is the best for learning Mandarin? Chinese Reading Apps Du Chinese Du Chinese is a revolutionary app will help you to improve your Chinese reading skills. I am impressed by the clean design and user interface. It is easy to use and loading material takes only seconds. You can read by yourself or listen to an audio recording and read along. The characters and pinyin layout look very comfortable. You can easily turn the pinyin on and off and switch Chinese characters between Simplified and Traditional. It supports English translations for single words and sentences. All sentences have been carefully translated and they stay as true as possible to the original Mandarin. The reading material topics are quite interesting, covering daily conversations, Chinese culture, current events，the latest trends, funny stories, and regular life in China. They are marked by difficulty, ranging from newbie to master. Each session is also labelled from HSK level 1 ~ 6+. It is easy to find material for your level. Chinese Characters Apps Zizzle If you have trouble memorizing Chinese characters, then Zizzle will definitely help you. This app breaks down characters into their component parts. Then, they use images and a short story to help you remember these components. Most of the stories are ridiculous or funny enough to be memorable. Each tone is represented by a certain animal which helps you remember the character. It also teaches characters that build up from smaller to more complex characters in a logical way. I am in love with this app, and its method taught me characters that I have tried and failed to learn in the classroom. It presents an effective, novel, and fun way to learn and memorize Chinese characters. If you are total beginner, I can safely say you will know hundreds of characters in few days and be able to read them confidently. Use the promo code “DIGMANDARIN10” to save 10% on all three-month and annual subscriptions, as well as packs. Chinese Dictionary Apps Pleco The dictionary app will probably be one of the most useful and frequently used ones for people learning Mandarin; Pleco may be the app most frequently recommended for this function. It allows you to quickly look up a Chinese word or character wherever you are. Pleco Key features: Chinese handwriting recognition: the option to hand write instead of typing in pinyin is very useful when searching for characters you don’t know. OCR: it allows you to look up unknown Chinese words ‘live’ using your device’s camera, or tap-lookup words in a still image. Stroke order guides: to help you find out how to write the Chinese characters in the proper order. Flashcard system: insanely powerful/customizable system, making it extremely easy to add new flashcards from dictionary entries or to import pre-made vocabulary lists. Online Chinese Degree Chinese Listening Apps Chineseclass101 No doubt that Chineseclass101 is one of the most well-structured podcast Mandarin courses available today. With language instruction podcasts, you can improve your pronunciation and boost your listening comprehension skills. ChineseClass101 has an extensive collection of audio materials covering all levels. By having access to different levels, you can choose the best one for you. Each lesson has notes that include the key grammar point broken down clearly along with Chinese cultural insights. The lesson dialogue will help you understand real-life conversations in China and will definitely help you improve your listening skills. It also offers an interactive voice recorder tool, which lets you record your pronunciation and compare it to that of a native speaker. Chinesepod Chinesepod is another example of a podcast Mandarin app. The quantity of lessons is pretty big. It even has more interactive exercises for learning new words and phrases. In ChinesePod, the amount of Mandarin speech in each lesson is increased step-by-step. Even lessons for Upper-Intermediate students have  English explanations which are quite helpful! Advanced students may enjoy Mandarin-only podcast lessons. Gamification Apps Hello Chinese Hello, Chinese is a powerful learning tool that can help you overcome the fear of learning Chinese. This app focuses on daily life topics. It starts from basic pinyin so that even if you are a total beginner or have absolutely no background in Chinese, you can still learn with it. What is special is that this app allows you to listen and record your own voice, and to help you check automatically if your pronunciation is correct. It`s a comparatively easy way to measure your pronunciation. The studying process is not boring. Learners are not overwhelmed with information. Lessons are taught in a very precise and careful manner. What`s more, there are many exercises and quizzes to help you consolidate all that you have learned. Chinese Speaking Apps Hello Talk Have you been learning a new language for a while, and feel like it’s time to start practicing and using it? That’s where Hello Talk can help. It is a language exchange app that has over one million users. It’s easy to find natives from China willing to help you practice Chinese. Hello Talk Key features: Voice and Text chat Moments, like the group chatroom Translation and Transliteration: Translation allows you to read in English what someone typed in Chinese in case you didn’t understand it. You can use the transliteration option when a native speaker writes Chinese to you, to instantly see the pinyin. Voice recognition system: You can simply speak and the system will attempt to convert that to text to send to your language partner. These are my top Chinese language learning apps. I bet you also have your own picks. What would you recommend to fellow Chinese learners? What apps do you think are worth the time and the money? Just comment below and let us know your favorites. Maybe your picks will make this list one day!