#this whole piece is a testament to how much i love that theme song

[thousandth-island]

May or may not have just watched episode one of HiHi Puffy AmiYumi..

The battle of the bands is finally here in chapter 5 of And They Were Bandmates! Will they slay or will they flop?

[bonus: versions without text and spotlights]

[vvitchering]

Hey hey hey Bastille anon back at u but not with a song, I'm back bc I just absolutely love your character studies and I'd love to hear your interpretation of religion guilt with Din, bc one of my favorite quotes is "suffering feels religious if you do it right" and every time I read it I think about our poor boy after the season 2 finale, no pressure to do this one tho

Oh boy buckle up cause I have some opinions about this. 

(Discussion of religion and religious themes to follow, fyi!) 

(First things first, I’m Jewish. So my commentary is going to be through that lens, but you should not take what follows as anything but my own personal interpretations. I do not speak for everyone of my faith/culture! I am just one person with a keyboard. Thanks.)

So I thought about this quote for a while and I have decided that I’m not a fan! Sorry! I don’t like the implication that religion = suffering, or that you’re not performing religion correctly if you’re not suffering while doing so. Ironically it has a very “holier than thou” atheistic vibe to it and that just doesn’t do it for me. Religion, at least in my head, shouldn’t ever be about suffering. It exists, in its purest form, to guide you, not make you suffer. 

But Din is certainly suffering, isn’t he? 

I actually love discussing religion within The Mandalorian. I know NOTHING about how religion plays out within the larger Star Wars universe so forgive me any glaring misinterpretations here. The Mandalorian Creed, as dictated by Din’s tribe, comes across as pretty strict and restrictive to the average viewer. I saw a lot of negativity aimed towards Din’s upholding of his Creed when I first joined the fandom and it always struck me as odd until I realized most people watching this show are probably Christian. 

Through a Jewish lens, I saw a man following a code that helped a broken and scattered people feel united and close to one another. I saw them covering their bodies and their faces in armor not only as a means for survival in a world that would rather see them dead but as a way to strengthen their unity as a people cut off from their homeland and their culture. I saw a tribe of people existing in a world where their brothers and sisters were slaughtered and their bodies stripped of valuables to be shipped off to line the pockets of the empire. 

Like. It’s more than on the nose. The pile of empty helmets Din finds when he returns to his covert’s hideaway was absolutely horrifying to me. This had to have been intentional. But I’m getting slightly off topic here so let’s refocus back on Din, re: religious guilt.

Din doesn’t even think to question his devotion to his Creed until he begins meeting other Mandalorians who inform him that he’s in the minority. That “The Way” he was taught isn’t only not the ONLY Way, but is generally thought of by other members of their culture as “archaic” and “cultish”. I don’t think that is necessarily what starts to sway Din from his path, though. 

I don’t think he really starts to struggle with his beliefs until he’s forced to remove the helmet in episode 15 (I think its 15, I’m too lazy to go and look right now) From what I can gather about his covert’s beliefs, the removal of the helmet renders the wearer “dar’manda”, “a state of not being Mandalorian, one who has lost his identity, his soul”. So taking off the helmet and allowing himself to be seen by other people has stripped Din, in his mind, of his soul. He will no longer be able to join his family and tribe in the Manda after death. 

On the one hand, it’s a testament to how devoted Din is to Grogu that he was willing to forfeit his ticket into his faith’s version of a happy afterlife if it meant his child would be safe. On the other, it leaves him absolutely and completely devastated after he allows Grogu to leave with Luke. He’s just condemned himself to Mando Purgatory for this kid and now he’s alone again. Is there regret? Maybe. Is there anger? Probably! Do I hope we get to see the horrible agonizing immediate aftermath of the scene we leave off of in the season 2 finale? Yes please, I would love to cry some more. 

But it certainly leaves Din in an interesting situation, emotionally and spiritually. He’s already been shown there are other ways to be Mandalorian. His Way seemed distinctly Orthodox to me, a little on the extreme side of things. So maybe he can find guidance and belonging in another kind of Way. I think faith is extremely important to Din. I don’t believe he’d ever consider leaving it or giving it up. It’s a part of him and it’s guided his entire life, from the time he was rescued as a child. In the same way his covert’s Way helped keep them safe and whole, I believe he’ll find a new Way that suits him, even if it means he has to piece one together from the shattered pieces of his old one. 

To sum up: Religion is important to Din. The Mandalorian “Way” represents more than just religious faith; its a culture and a way of life. I don’t believe Din harbors any negativity or guilt in the way this anon is thinking. (Din loosing his Way is a tragedy in and of itself, not a release or an escape from supposed suffering) I do believe he has some soul searching to do and I very much hope that’s a big plot point of S3. I see him adapting his beliefs, but not abandoning them. I see him meeting more of his people, learning about his culture and history, and building something new and meaningful for himself. I want to see him proudly wear the helmet again, not out of any sense of obligation, but out of honor and remembrance (much the way Boba Fett does, actually. But that’s a whoooooole other discussion hahahaha)

[mallowstep]

I’m thinking about writing a short OC piece about Windclan and I’d love to see your notes about its culture and the hymns you’ve written so far, everything you’ve done for Windclan appreciation month has really inspired me :)

hello anon!

alright, first things first: please send me ur piece when ur done if you're comfortable doing so! i will publish it from you, or if you don't want to be associated with it in Any Way, i will also just read it and add it to the queue with no indication why it's there. or if you don't want me to share it at all, i'd still like to read it.

as for your ask,

hymns?

i'm working on it. however, underneath the read more, i'll include a few snippets for u.

culture

alright, i'm just going to post links with some commentary as i go. feel free to ask any more questions you have.

windclan (search) | windclan (tag) | wcam tag | five clans (narrative essays)

i would link the elders den, but there's no windclan stories in there ATM.

moving on, i'm just going to go through posts in reverse chronological order.

tallstar taking a mate admittedly, this is more about cats and sexuality than windclan, but i provide the commentary that windclan...has a particular view on sexuality and fluidity. one thing i haven't explored but should is the role visiting cats have in windclan.

whoops that's a code word, my plug for solacefruit has been activated. okay, as you may be aware, based on the fact that i have a whole tag for it, i'm obsessed with solacefruit. now, i love everything they do, but i would like to point you particularly to "make a mighty sound" for a fantastic exploration of this idea.

i don't want to spoil anything, but i do think windclan, and maybe cats as a whole, but windclan has a certain view towards relationships that very much breaks them into pieces. i'm a "love is a verb" person, so the idea that you can grow to love someone romantically by going through the actions of love makes sense. not to say you will, but you can.

(to be clear i'm not out advocating for arranged marriages just saying that they can work, they're not destined to be bad, and there's a difference between forced marriage and arranged marriage.)

anyway.

this was a lot of words to say, cats do not have a human (and particularly, western/american) understanding of relationships, which makes analyzing them in those terms difficult.

early hymn talk i'll probably say more below, but it is here.

general ibtwicm notes might get you into the headspace for some of my choices in ibtwicm.

i don't have a ton to say because this pretty much all holds, but uh, yeah.

poetry and language this isn't strictly about windclan, but it does explain some of what i think about when writing hymns.

obviously, i'm writing english translations, but these general themes are what i have in mind. it's also part of why i say i don't think i'll ever release a "full hymnal" for windclan, because i don't know if my weak worldbuilding heart could take it if i only had translations.

names part two very much not about windclan, but just some thoughts on names. as i've said before, i support all names and worldbuilding equally, but if you want my thoughts on names, go buckwild.

clan culture fic rec list just stuff i think does a good job, if you want other sources of inspiration.

general clan culture notes this is really old, but it mostly holds.

i've obviously expanded a lot on windclan since i wrote it, so shrug? idk man.

alright, i'm going to move into hymn discussion below the cut, but best of luck! and i hope u have a good time. it makes my brain shut down to read that i inspired you, straight up got brain juice pouring out of my ears, but i'm really, really happy to hear that.

windclan holds a special place in my heart. (i know my oc avatar is from skyclan shhh it's because of the backstory he sees ghosts.) but i grew up in this super sporty household as a lil asthmatic klutz, and running was a sport i couldn't mess up, so of course windclan appealed to me.

they're actually third on my list of favorite clans, but they. it's a special place in my heart that they hold, especially after reading dawn of the clans and moth flight's vision, where i got an asthmatic cat and an adhd cat, both in windclan.

god i should reread dotc it's good.

alright, here's the deal on hymns: i am not going to fight to get duets to post correctly. there's a 0% chance i can in tumblr's wonky ass new editor with no markdown, not to mention how difficult it would have been in the old editor. so i'm going to talk a lil about what i've got, and post some stanzas that i think don't get explored a lot in ibtwicm.

we're discussing these in the order that they go in. a reminder that these are all sections of one epic poem. that said, i don't know where the gaps are. like, i don't know what's between these, if that makes sense.

the wind

the wind, the very first hymn. this is an ode to, well, windclan. it's a song about everything that makes them them. it's filled with poetry about the wind, about the seasons, and it's just...well, it's a bit of a genesis, in a way.

The wind — like the rain, like the river — calls the name of each star in its breath. The wind — like the earth, like the stone — anchors us to our home. The wind — like the sun, like the sky — is knowable only by name.

i wanted to share this stanza because the last line doesn't show up in ibtwicm (at least so far, i cut the reference), and it really, really, makes a difference imo.

anyway, windclan is basically tying the wind in with every other fundamental part of their life here.

they are the wind, and that's that.

the hare

okay, this one has a line that comes up a lot in ch1, but i already talked about that, so instead, i'm going to talk about this stanza

Speak of the earth and the dens, and you will be answered: By the call of the howling gales, the open earth singing in response. But speak of that which grows above, of the grass and field, And you will be answered by the softness of the buds and the roots.

okay, we get deadfoot thinking about this when he's talking to yellowfang.

i like this stanza because it really tells us what the hare is about. now, hares are not something windclan catches. hares are huge, y'all, there's no way they take one down. i take liberties with ecology, but not that many.

(i.e., a team of cats definitely could take one down, but i know too much, and would prefer letting team hunting stay a plot thing, and not fundamentally alter the environment in the way it would.)

now anyway, all of these hymns come from the time of the tunnelers. and the point of this is, even though the work of tunnelers and moor runners is disconnected, they fundamentally affect each other.

a moor runner must trust the hollows of the earth beneath them won't collapse, and a tunneler must trust that the prey they chase up will be caught.

it's all very symbiotic and is, well, in a way, a love poem. plus i really like the line "the open earth singing in response"

of the warrens

so this has one line, one you might not even know is a hymn, in ch1, but i'll share the whole stanza.

And as for the subject of fallow fields: Fallowed fields make for hungry prey, Yet hungry prey makes desperate rabbits, Who leap into our claws.

and ig my big point is, the hymns are a cultural artifact. just like many of the rules in the old testament have to do with hygiene things being codified into religion, this whole hymn is about hunting advice.

the moon on the river

okay, out of all the hymns, this is the most complete, and because ashfoot and deadfoot sing it together, and deadfoot discusses it, i only have one stanza to share.

Under the coldness, you shine back at me, And I do everything to keep the clouds from threatening you.

now, this poem is about love, grief, and being separated. it's a particular kind of grief, and windclan discourages grief, so this is one of only a few ways to really, fully express it.

and this section, in particular, is about love in times of hardship.

i don't have. a lot to say here. but the way hardship changes how you love someone can be particular and intense.

(temporarily, this happens sometime before "Spare for my chosen few / All I have is given towards the distant ground.")

the gorse in the wind

oh shit! i have so fucking much to say okay first.

the series title does not come from this hymn.

second, this is a challenging hymn okay. fuck. i have so much to say. where to start so! moors are actually relatively wet. think british countryside, not, like, a cool desert.

this is something i always knew? i read the secret garden a lot as a kid. but. i've seen stuff about moors being dry, and it's just one of those things that really...starts to eat under your skin. anyway.

okay, so. gorse is a dry plant. it does not like rain. it grows in sandy soil, etc etc, and yet. aside from everything we know about gorse and warriors, it also grows in this moor. because i say so.

okay, so. so so so. the lines quotes here are really deceptive, and i bet no one understood why, and that makes me just a little sad, but i couldn't find a good way to explain it in text, so uh, yeah, anyway. there's an exchange between ashfoot and deadfoot: "THE GORSE: You called me the heather and I grew stronger. / THE WIND: I called you the heather and brought rain for you to grow."

so...so do you see? do you see the point? it's about communication, needs, challenging each other. fadskj;l i love this. okay, so. the point is that heather is fragile, soft, pretty, and gorse is the opposite. the part of the wind is trying to be kind and complimentary, but the gorse is saying, fuck that, you are not being kind to me by undercutting my strength.

anyway, this passage is sung by the gorse:

In what good company have I set down roots, That even through snow fall I flower. You called me the heather and yet I've weathered, Far more than your sweet-named love.

so uh, yeah, this adds context. gorse! gorse is a hardy plant that continues to flower basically all season round. it's cool. it's cool. gorse is super cool. fuuuck y'all it's such a small thing and i've contained talking about it until now, but now it's too much. the floodgates are open, and i thought about this small detail too much.

okay. deep breath. gorse is a really easy plant to grow, but it's still adapted for dry environments. so the "even through snow fall I flower" part is a little tongue in cheek: gorse itself will flower in the cold, but snow is a type of precipitation, which as we've covered, is not gorse friendly.

then we have some rhyming and puns in the next line, and finally, "yet I've weathered, / Far more than your sweet-named love." like. yes. love as a form of softness is not necessarily helpful.

i mean, consider the damaging "soft trans boi" problem. same energy.

right. okay. so we've got all that? now if you remember, this is sung when deadfoot thinks ashpaw doesn't respect him, and ashpaw says she'll sing with him if she can sing the gorse, so in essence, she's telling him...not to back off, per se, but that...she is the "hard part" of the relationship. like, okay, i refuse to even bring up gender roles in human relationships, but uh, her point is very much, "i am the gorse, and you are the wind," and it's a very monumental moment.

it's anchored, i believe, in the other scenes, but this is a small thing that matters a lot to me.

like a lot.

okay, now that i've talked about like four lines for the length of this entire post, moving on.

the heather and earth

okay, this is the last hymn i have in concrete terms, and i cut a bit of it from the latest chapter, so yeah. it's also, uh, okay everything i have for it is only a line or two, but i wanted to share this closing line (sung together):

Sing a song of forgiveness, of growing together, and we will make madness, And madness from hence will everything beautiful grow.

and i just like these lines. they got cut, it was initially part of an exchange between ashfoot and deadfoot, but i can't share the part of it they talk about, because i'm reusing it for a later chapter and i'll 100% spoil shit if i try to talk about it.

but these lines? mmm they speak to me.

i don't have a ton to say about them, but i just. i like it.

if we apply the same ecology discussion from the gorse and the wind, we see heather is a plant that grows in acidic, infertile soil, and heath (which is not the same as a heather, but also kind of is) is a defining quality of heathland, which is...i'm not kidding, it's hot discourse about the difference between moorland and heathland.

i'm not getting involved, but my point is, if the gorse in the wind is a hymn about finding a working relationship, about mutual respect, etc., then the heather and earth is a hymn about working well together in a terrible situation.

god.

uh, wow! can you tell i like plants? because while parts of my ecology are dubious (see: everything regarding the rabbits in ch1), the plants part are well thought out. this shit is carefully detailed metaphor.

and that's why i won't be releasing a full hymnal. it's hard to as on top of this as i want to be. i'm not kidding, writing even four lines of a hymn usually takes me about twenty minutes, because i pull up a lot of research about how things work, how they interact with each other, etc., and then there's wordsmithing, cat worldview filter, etc.

but i hope this overview of what i've got is a good insight into my general thoughts. and i will eventually release more and more of the hymns i've got written.

[kirliancamera1]

Rede Vamp Brazil (https://redevampirica.com) interviews Elena Alice Fossi of Kirlian Camera (English text attached hereunder) 🔥🔥🔥

Question 1: Be very welcome to AcessoRedeVamp, it's a true honor to realize this interview with you Elena Alice! You are a great singer and more every time we see you on stage your performance transmits great emotion and this electrifies all of us! You tell a real story with your performance and this is amazing and rare these days! At the same time, we perceive an expressive revolt against an old world and its stagnant postures. How have you handled 2020?

*** EAF – First of all, I wanna thank you for your words. Being able to communicate with the people who follow us is the most important thing to me. Singing becomes ephemeral if doesn't convey a message. Also for this reason I consider that the stage is the base of a musician, so you can imagine how I miss it. In this sense, it can be said that the category we belong to is very unlucky, not only because it's forced not to work, but rather 'cause concerts are pure lifeblood for a musician's soul. In any case, both Angelo and I can't stand self-pity people, so we immediately jumped into new musical projects, putting top concentration on composition. At any rate, we couldn't be simple observers of an event on this scale, so right from the beginning we tried to dig deep, looking for, and comparing news, data, statistics, whether they came from mainstream channels or from alternative sources. In Italy, for example, the economy has been torn to pieces and furthermore, the same politicians who mourn the dead on TV... cut so many funds for health facilities for a long time, so they may be considered taking part in such a mess. This situation has created a real drama, especially for families who have lost their loved ones without even having a chance to say goodbye one last time. But, it's also true that the worldwide exploitation of this pandemic has given us, we citizens, an opportunity to wake up. No need to use words such as anarchy or rebellion to understand that the old world is showing all kinds of holes. "Divide et impera" is the motto of several governments, so we citizens must not fall into the trap of making war on each other, each nonsense comes up! This is the time to show ourselves united. And, most of all, it’s time not to turn ourselves into servile dogs of a “Power” becoming more and more antidemocratic.

Question 2: Do you feel that the marks left by the year 2020 will bring some effective changes to this "abstraction" called humanity? Will there be a "new normal" or will we just return to an average 2019 when this whole pandemic passes?

*** EAF - If I’d been told about what we have experienced for almost one year, I’d have thought it was a joke, bullshit. But unluckily this is not the case. Such an event has brought much grief and is ruining the economic system of many nations, as already said. But in addition to the injury, here it comes the insult from the absurd and chaotic dictates imposed on us. I'll give you some examples of what's happening here in Italy. “Don't go out after 10 pm”. While people keep on getting sick or even dying, here comes the policeman with a ticket 'cause you left home for a goddam moment. I have this picture on my mind, of a person in pajamas, carrying the garbage bag full of stinking mussel shells at less than one hundred meters from home in a totally deserted night. At that point a flash on him. It’s the police who writes a ticket to that dangerous criminal. And then, for everyone's sake, the Christmas mass was moved from the usual midnight to 8 pm. How the hell can you think it's not a mockery? And... the last “gag”! Before Christmas, our Minister of technological innovation made an appeal to telephone companies so that video calls were free on Christmas days... But what year does she live in? But... is she not able to understand that in Italy almost everyone has either unlimited gigas or wifi? Nothing changes if the telephone companies for a couple of days give us video calls because we already use free services such as Whatsapp, Skype, Zoom, Telegram, and so on and so forth... Ok, in a vain attempt to avoid death, they are putting us in an induced coma! Seriously, all this offends our intelligence! And, when you realize you are inside a joke, you don't like to discover you're the main character, do you?! So, to answer your question, I couldn't foresee how a post-covid society will be reshaped, but the severe weakening that now is burdening us will have some major impact, no doubt. Currently, most folks are obsessed with fear, so are unable to reflect on the consequences of unconstitutional actions such as those foolishly propagated by many States. Furthermore, the pharma companies, the giants of the online shopping industry and many other powerful satanic puppet masters who are used to appear as philanthropists are ready to get their hands on everything, well pleased with the next “big reset”. So, after the pandemic, things will change a lot! For sure, from a human point of view, the feelings will be devitalized.

Question 3: Hologram Moon is a great name! Evokes conspirations like what really is the moon and this strangeness opens a vast creative field to find answers or even new questions... please tell us a bit more about this album, his name, songs...

*** EAF - "Fake is your face" is one of the phrases that most resonate in me when I sing "Holograms", or when in “Lost Islands” the old world said “Goodbye”! It's as if you had to face a new reset, as if you discovered everything you've always believed is swept away in an instant. There's the awareness that in the face of a new and suffocating truth, when the sky collapses, only true love can resist and guide you. In this sense, the final track of the album, “Travellers’ Testament” is a real stone on my heart, as it describes a fantastic journey to a planet. The astronaut is now impatient to fulfill his dream, but he will never arrive on that planet. The landing will take place on a space station. The moon landing's been questioned over and over again and certain evidence of the fact's inconsistency eventually seems credible. But we cannot say what reality is in any scientific way, especially when we're already prepared to believe a reassuring source. This is a simple starting point to embark on our history. More than finding answers, our sacred duty is to open the door to new questions, ask doubts, not take anything for granted. “Hologram Moon” is a purely poetic vision, but also a way to question everything. The mind can atrophy very easily. Habit, for example, can be complicit in this and the so-called comfort zone can be just complicit as well. The hypnosis that we suffer every day without realizing it, also grinding so many and bad TV shows, and so on... So, let's remain thinking and dreaming! This is a message from us.

Question 4: How was the experience of working with Covenant's Eskil Simonsson on the beautiful "Sky Collapse"?

*** EAF - We had come across Covenant several times before doing this collaboration; on festival occasions, in the dressing rooms... But it was a chaotic situation, so... we gave each other a fleeting smile, a kind greeting, but nothing more. Then, when Angelo and I wrote “Sky Collapse”, we immediately thought that a deep and sincere voice like Eskil's would add something precious to the song. Even before recording the two-voice song, we met at a charity festival. We had called him as a guest just to sing this song together, which was yet unreleased. He made himself available immediately. It was a nice gift for us and when the moment came, I think that on stage you could feel my strong emotion all the way down the hall!

Question 5: Well, I think now we will have our fan moment! Let's talk about some Kirlian Camera songs that our DJs and the audience of the REDE VAMP love it? Do I speak the name and may you tell a little about the meanings, influences, or a curious story?

*** EAF ***

>>> NIGHTGLORY. It refers to the triumph of the night, perhaps as a momentary spiritual retreat. I'm talking about that precious moment that regenerates your very existence into yourself. The music of this song was born in a symphonic form, very different from how Nightglory was then arranged. This is a song and an album that has been appreciated by many people only after some time, partly because of a promotion that described the album as the most commercial in our history, which is absolutely harmful and misleading. Invisible Front and Eclipse were even more listenable, for example... Sometimes words spoil your work. It would be better to listen to music only, ignoring its promotional presentation. Fortunately, Nightglory has recovered over time till becoming one of the most requested live songs of ours.

>>> BLACK AUGUST. In this song there are various hints coming out from a dark moment in my life, I mean a period that risked devouring me. Wounds that take time to heal. Sky Collapse can be considered the final act of that period, even if the music of the two songs sounds very different, as you know. Black August blends various stylistic dimensions in a single “body of music”, so many didn't know how to label it at the time, as it effectively goes running free, out of the box. A very atypical song that has gained some actual success despite its distinction, which has also brought us closer to fans of dark metal and so-called electronica.

>>> HELLFIRE. I chose this piece to add an echo to the dark period I was talking about above, in order to exorcise all that negativity, so we went to deal with a theme showing gospel traits but containing some demonic references in the lyrics. Then I didn't know THE 8th PRESIDENT was waiting for us at the SCARLET GATE OF TOXIC DAYBREAK, with his COLD PILLS! A wordplay whoever is following us will understand!

>>> K-PAX. I wrote this piece in a night when everything seemed dreamy and I almost didn't realize where I was anymore. No, I wasn't under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but all my memories were mixing in tremendous chaos that needed to reinvent itself and turn into an immaterial fog, in a light but lost dream. Angelo literally translated the music and melodies I had written on the staff, giving both them and my voice the perfect terms to guide the journey. In fact, it's not a complete and static text, but a sequence of dreamy and painful phrases at the same time. I felt that Angelo listened to me attentively since he knew how to translate my notes so perfectly into written sentences as if he were sending me back into my music. It was magical and at K-Pax Angelo and I discovered the other life of ourselves, bringing to light so many breathtaking emotions and it was just the departure, after the suffocating mists of Still Air, an album we love, and the crepuscular decadence of Stalingrad Valkyrie.

Question 6: There is a cover of Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd from Kirlian Camera that is a true work of art. The Mad World cover performed by Spectra Paris is fascinating. Are there more covers from other bands that you would like to record?

*** EAF - Well yes, there are ideas, but we prefer to evaluate which are the best. Meanwhile, I tried to produce a version of a Johnny Cash song and I made Angelo interpret it: I really like the result. It may be used by Stalingrad Valkyrie.

Question 7: I love your lyrics! What can't Elena be missing when creating new lyrics or musical arrangements? Are there any poetry, films, books, comic books, or other influences?

*** EAF - Mostly everything happens unconsciously. You don't know how many times I realize why I wrote a certain phrase only after a song was released! But I can say that my imagination works mostly by processing images. So, the movies are very helpful in this. Similarly, Angelo and I tap into imagery that could be part of the quantum physics new era, where multiverse and multidimensionality are both playing an important role. This world appears like a really tiny thing when compared to everything else.

Question 8: Elena, I read in an older interview about a "Young Ladies Homicide Club" I found an undeniable reference to the films Noir and the figure of the characters called "Vamp" and all the charm and spectral magnetism ... but I was a little curious. .. what is this "Young Ladies Homicide Club"?

*** EAF - Let's say I imagined an unreal club created by apparently dead or so to say "disappeared" models in order to get rid of fashion people who were acting a bit too naughty! The work to clean up that world wouldn't be lacking, as, after all, it happens in all professional areas. As for myself goes, I gladly opted in a flash and without second thoughts for singing and making music, leaving everything behind, buying a couple of synths and a decent microphone, which I then enriched with various electronic devilry, kicking away possible easy money, foolish nights, cocaine, heroin, stereotyped relationships, and absurdly worshipped wines! Every so often I like to play with the ridiculous and grotesque ghosts of some fashion designers, photographers, and evil spirits, then going to recreate noir stories in which everything happens. I also drew some digital comics with a noir-glam flavor, a few years ago... It was a fun pastime, while with Kirlian Camera I'd been exploring deeper and more fundamental universes.

Question 9: Is there more news on the way for the incredible Spectra Paris and also for Stalingrad Valkyrie? May you talk a bit more about them?

*** EAF - Stalingrad Valkyrie is a project I am very fond of, in a special way. So I insisted on getting it back to life after a period of hibernation which lasted too much in my opinion. "Martyrium Europae", the most recent album, proved me right, even if it’s not a commercial project. Well, it seems our listeners have appreciated the attempt to combine different musical sources in a unique style, certainly linked to the more symphonic and dramatic Kirlian Camera pages, but also quite free to express itself on his own, trying to avoid the most standard patterns of neofolk, progressive and industrial, without on the other hand completely ignoring their now distant origins. So, in its small way, the new album turned out to be a success and I'd really like this project to keep on living with further fresh ideas. We're currently working on a new chapter that will be released on vinyl and some digitals, which contains previously unreleased songs and versions.

Question 10: Elena, our Rede Vamp is a platform about Cultural Vamp and Vampires production ... and there is a question that our interviewees never escape. Is there a character or perhaps a vampire story that you never forgot?

*** EAF - Needless to say the vampire who most impressed me over time can't be anyone other than... Angelo Bergamini!!! Not many know that Angelo was the leading actor in a short film entitled "Himre Bakai", shot in the late nineties or so, directed by Antonio Bocchi, the later owner of the dark-electronic project Lux Anodyca and author of detective books. I don't think the film is regularly available or downloadable at the moment, but I know it was also screened at the time in various festivals and reviews, also getting some good feedback! Angelo (Himre) and Antonio told me that one day the film "will see the light ”, but at the moment... he lies in the dark, by the book, of course!!!

Question 11: Elena, thank you so much for your time and generosity! You and Kirlian Camera have many fans on our events and radio shows, please leave a special message for our audience! Are there plans for a new gig in Brazil after all this pandemic?

*** EAF - While it's true that we've never been able to play in Brazil so far, I'm sure your Land is actually right for us, 'cause I can feel that's full of feeling and passion, so we'd love to perform for you very much, 'cause in spite of the fact it's so far away, I feel a deep affinity and a certain familiarity with your world. And while we wait, confident that sooner or later we'll succeed in our aim, I wanna greet all those who had the kindness to listen to me, with a quote from the American scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

[nervoussheepinfluencer]

Inspirational Artist Links: Performance Art

electric stimulus to face by Daito Manabe: I found this piece to be extremely interesting, and kind of crazy in a sense. It almost reminds me of a music video from Aphex Twin, in the way the music enhances what is already going on in the video, and makes it seem even more far out.

Alter Bahnhof by Janet Cardiff (This was a surreal interactive experience!): This was definitely video that was unlike anything I’ve seen before. I loved the reference to philosohpy and how it affects us daily on how we live our lives, and how the video as a whole referenced the notion that anything we see is only a snapshot of that specific location at that specific time, and something we may never truly witness again.

Bike Lanes by Casey Neistat (activism): As a bicyclist myself, this video was awesome, and a great commentary on both how police give out tickets, (how did he get ticketed for doing something that wasn’t actually illegal?) and how we can focus on on the wrong part of a topic. (If something is blocking the bike path, but it is illegal to go off of it, how can you go anywhere, especially in a city?)

Legend + Queen by Candice Breitz (cultural studies): I found both of these videos to be a testament to both the influence an artist has and the culture behind them. They fact that Breitz put hundreds of people who claimed to be heavy-duty fans of said artist through tests to get to the biggest fans, means that all of them probably know the song they are singing by heart, and therefore, they represent who in what area the music most attunes with, and I found it beautiful.

Meat Joy by Carolee Schneemann (iconic performance art piece): I’m not sure if its the quality of the film, the narrating over it that seems to repeat, the visuals, or all them together, but this video made me feel slightly uncomfortable and a bit wierded out. The whole video seems to be almost surreal,  

Vanessa Beecroft Interview + VB40 by Vanessa Beecroft (suffering + beauty):  This art project was definitely unique, especially in its ambiguity. There are so many meanings that one could take from both of these videos, that I could probably fill up pages just on what one exhibit could mean. 

The Astonished by Bill Viola: This was pretty cool in the way that it shows the evolution of emotion in the short time period it takes to show. Other than that though I didn’t really find much meaning behind it, but that in itself could be the point.

Staging by Maria Hassabi: I found this piece to be very peculiar. It was really interesting to see the artist combine choreography, human form, and art itself into its own vision, and to make meaning from all that combined.

Talking Tongues by Lisa Steele (1982): This was a really emotional and sincere piece, and it really illustrates not only the effects of abuse in a family, but also the double meanings of actions and words. There were many times in the video that clearly showed how what someone says might really be alluding to something else.

Perimeter of Square by Bruce Nauman  (iconic performance art piece): Hypnotic is the word I would use to describe this video. I guess you could say the metronome itself is hypnotic, but by using its pacing, and modifying it to go around a square, it turns the video into something that was surreal, but I can’t really define why.

Punk Prayer by Pussy Riot: I found this video of rebellion to be hilarious. The way that they quite literally invade a holy place, and directly protest the churches control, using dirty language and accusation, is honestly amazing. They do almost everything they can to stand out, and basically take over the church with “the devil’s music.”

Cut Piece by Yoko Ono(iconic performance art piece): This piece, which was almost a social experiment, was really interesting, especially in the way that anyone could come up and cut whatever piece they wanted. It was also a great way to show the boundaries, and make us question them as a whole.

Interior Scroll by Carolee Schneemann (iconic performance art piece): I found these sets of pictures set as an art piece to be very strange and intriguing. After reading the summary of the work, and what she actually did, I found it awesome, because it almost seemed like this work was made tell those who disliked her art, to “f” off, pardon my French. On top of this, the themes of femininity and sexuality were very interesting.

Bound Mouth + Foot by Kate Wingard: I found this piece to be very uncomfortable, mostly due to the sounds. The sliding, squishing, and gasping come together to make a very distinctive experience, one that is both interesting and almost unnerving.

Wholesome by Megan Carnrite: I found this video to be really gross, but interesting at the same time, considering the name and its multiple meanings in relation to eating in general.

Roll of a Woman by Javid Rezvani: This video as an art piece honestly might be my favorite on the list. There were so many connation's, not only with the dialogue but with the title as well, that it really highlights the statement that the artist is trying to make. It was also very funny.

How to Earn a Glass of Water by Dallas Scott: This was a really moving piece for me. This art clearly showcases the struggle many go through to simply afford basic necessities, using patience and resolve, to just do whatever the task and wait to be able to afford what they need.

Can Knot by Alexandra Gutierrez: I found this to be a strange and honestly touching piece. The way the artist used an almost impossibly tangled amount of cords around them to illustrate problems that we all have was really cool. And it pointed out to me that these things can resolve, they just need time to unravel.

[charity-h-burbage]

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope you’re all having a lovely Christmas season! I’m super super excited to share my Secret Santa gift for this year!!!!!

Since I’m terrible at art and all other things at all times forever, I chose once again to compile a playlist dedicated to and inspired by the character played by my Secret Santa giftee -- our darling Lily, and the bewitching Narcissa Malfoy ( @forever-toujourspur ), who is one of my favorite characters both in the books and here in the RP. I’ll link it right here!

In addition to just the link, I’m also adding below a list of the songs and a short description of why I chose that song, whether it be the vibe, specific lyrics, whether that song makes me think of an event in Narcissa’s life, whatever it was that made me pick it. (I say a short description -- I really tried to make them short and I apologize for them Not Being That lol) I hope you enjoy the songs I picked, and have an amazing Christmas!!

Control - Hasley: “I’m bigger than my body, I’m colder than this home / I’m meaner than my demons, I’m bigger than these bones. . . Who is in control?” This song just has a Narcissa kind of vibe for me, and the lyrics make me think of her being so amazing and in control in spite of the well-documented “Black family madness”

you should see me in a crown - Billie Eilish: “You should see me in a crown / Your silence is my favorite sound / Watch me make ‘em bow / One by one” Again, just her being the absolute queen of everything. That’s a recurring theme so get ready lmao

I Don’t Care - Fall Out Boy: “I don’t care what you think as long as it’s about me” That’s it. That’s the whole reason. I always think of her as someone who truly doesn’t care what gossip there is about her, because if she’s being talked about then she’s already won.

The Ballad of Mona Lisa - Panic! At the Disco: “You’re guaranteed to run this town. . . I’d pay to see you frown” This one just has kind of a Narcissa feel to me. And once again, there’s that HBIC theme. She’s the one taking charge and keeping control of everything with a smile on her face, no matter how bad she actually feels.

The Way You Look Tonight - Michael Buble: “You’re lovely, with your smile so warm / And your cheeks so soft / There is nothing but for me to love you / And the way you look tonight” This one makes me think of her relationship with Lucius. I always think of them as being truly in love and this seems like a song that would fit the tone of their relationship to me.

Young and Beautiful - Lana Del Ray: “Dear lord, when I get to heaven / Please let me bring my man / When he comes, tell me that you’ll let him in. . . . Will you still love me / When I’m no longer young and beautiful?. . . I know that you will” Another about their relationship, but how strong it is, how their love will last forever and she wants to be with him even after they’ve died. *cue sigh*

Hold Me Down - Halsey: “I sold my soul to a three-piece / And he told me I was holy. . . Saying that I want more, this is what I live for” This one feels to me like her feelings when Lucius joins Voldemort and gets her involved. She sold her soul to these well-dressed men, and she’s held up as an ideal, but it’s more like she was thrown into the deep end and now she’s trying to figure out how to navigate it while staying the strong woman we know and love.

Believer - Imagine Dragons: “Don’t you tell me what you think that I can be / I’m the one at the sail, I’m the master of my sea. . . My life, my love, my drive, it came from pain. . . you made me a believer” This is more HBIC energy for me tbh, taking all the things that have happened to her over the course of her life, all the pain and nonsense, and taking control of it and doing everything she can for the people she loves.

Fake Happy - Paramore: “I been doing a good job of making ‘em think / I’m quite alright / But I hope I don’t blink. . .Please don’t ask me how I’ve been / Don’t make me play pretend. . . I bet everybody here is fake happy too” After Lucius goes to Azkaban, of course way WAY down the road, I imagine she would’ve been devastated, but has to keep her spirits up and pretend everything is okay so she doesn’t break down. So this song feels like that to me, her ability to keep everything she’s actually feeling under that carefully crafted mask and only show what she wants people to see.

Stand By Me - Florence + The Machine: There aren’t any specific lyrics with this one, the whole vibe of this version just makes me think of Narcissa. It’s very pretty and flowy and feminine, but with an undercurrent of strength, and just a little bit of a cool, melancholic sound? It’s possible that I’m crazy but I just think of her when I’m listening to it lol. To me it feels like a song that she personally would like. And then the song itself, of course, could also just be one long testament to her willingness to stand by Lucius through anything.

Cry Baby - American Avenue: “They call you cry baby, cry baby / But you don’t f***ing care / Cry baby, cry baby / So you laugh through your tears” This is another one that I feel like describes her being able to hide her emotions, but more about how she got to that point -- like maybe Bellatrix would be mean to her when she cried as a little kid, so she learned to laugh through the tears. Whatever it was, just learning how to control her emotions. This version also has a really fierce vibe that I just love for her.

If - House of Heroes: “I could be in love if you wore that dress every day / With your hair just so and your eyes of grey” This one feels like just one big love letter from Lucius to Narcissa. It’s got this whole vibe of the woman being beautiful, and a little bit scary, and a little bit unattainable, that just feels very Narcissa to me.

Take Me To Church - Hozier: “Take me to church / I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies / I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife” This one also feels like Lucius just worshipping Narcissa and how much of a goddess she is. She’s dangerous and powerful and so very Slytherin and he’s just head over heels, you know?

Sweet Dreams - Emily Browning: This one also just has a Narcissa vibe for me. This version is slow, it’s pretty but it has an almost scary kind of tone to it, it’s strong but understated and then it gets very fierce and then still has a kind of pretty, classic sound even through the harder part of the song, and the organ that comes in, like I can just see her gliding down a marble staircase in slow motion -- it just feels so, so Narcissa to me.

Wilson - Fall Out Boy: “There’s nothing more cruel than to be loved by everybody. . . I always make such expensive mistakes. . . I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color” There are lyrics scattered through this song that make me think of Narcissa. It’s Fall Out Boy so it’s a little chaotic and not all of the song makes me think of her, but enough of it does that I put it on here anyway lol

The Other Side - Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron: “I quite enjoy the life you say I’m trapped in / Now I admire you, and that whole show you do / You’re onto something, really it’s something. . . Don’t you know that I’m okay with this uptown part I get to play / ‘Cause I got what I need. . . I don’t need to see the other side. . . Ain’t in a cage, so I don’t need to take the key. . . Can’t you see I’m doing fine / I don’t need to see the other side” Okay, bear with me. So this song is a conversation, right? One person trying to convince the other to join this thing that’s so great, it’s going to change their life, change their whole world. So to me it feels like a super upbeat Death Eater recruitment speech lmao. And the quoted part above feels like what Narcissa might have said at first -- belief in the cause but reluctance to be directly involved because it’s just beneath her, and the way things are isn’t so bad anyway. It just felt really fitting.

Rise - Katy Perry: “I won’t just survive / You will see me thrive . . . Don’t doubt it / Victory is in my veins / I know it, I know it / And I will not negotiate / I’ll fight it” More Queen of Everything energy. No matter what happens to her, she always gets back up and keeps going. She can’t be defeated. She’s just the best.

A Little Wicked - Valerie Broussard: “Beware the patient woman, ‘cause this much I know / No one calls you honey, when you’re sitting on a throne / One of these days a-comin’, I’m gonna take that boy’s crown / There’s a serpent in these still waters, lying deep down / To that king I will bow, at least for now” VERY Queen of Everything vibes. Like, this just Is Narcissa. Everyone underestimates her but if she’d been given half a chance, I feel very strongly that she could’ve taken over the whole thing and won.

Killer Queen - Queen: “Well versed in etiquette / Extraordinarily nice / She’s a Killer Queen. . . Perfume came naturally from Paris / For cars she couldn’t care less / Fastidious and precise / She’s a Killer Queen” A lot of the lyrics to this song actually feel really Narcissa to me. That woman who’s amazing and gorgeous but you feel like might have poisoned your tea a little bit? Narcissa.

Glory and Gore - Lorde: “Glory and gore go hand in hand / That’s why we’re making headlines. . . Delicate in every way but one / God knows we like archaic kinds of fun” This one might make a little more sense if Narcissa was an active Death Eater herself, but I feel like it’s still pretty Narcissa-y. I think in the very beginning, when Voldemort was gaining power and her husband was gaining power in their ranks, she might’ve enjoyed the whole thing, before it really started to affect her life, you know? And I think she might have a little bit of a dark streak in her -- not nearly so much as Bellatrix, but they are sisters, she could very well have some of that darkness in her. So this one song just feels like her for me, and that one little streak of darkness.

Wicked Ones - Dorothy: “This night ain’t for the faint of heart / ‘Cause the faint of heart gonna fall apart / This night ain’t for the holy man with the holy plan / For the promised land / This night we got the evil hand” This one can also be speaking to her streak of darkness if you want. Because otherwise there’s a little bit of headcanon angst coming lmao. The lyrics of this one just by themselves feel like the night Voldemort went to kill the Potters, and Narcissa trying to convince herself it was a good thing that the baby had to die, so the music behind the lyrics feels like her trying to, like, get pumped and happy and ignore the fact that a child that’s just about the same age as her own son is about to die. She can’t let herself care and be faint of heart or she’ll fall apart and that’s unacceptable, because Dumbledore’s plan is failing and they finally have the upper hand, so she has to be wicked and ignore what’s happening and just be happy, be wicked, play and celebrate and be with Lucius and keep up the mask.

I hope my interpretations of her aren’t too terrible -- I’ve just loved her for so long, like I named one of my dogs Narcissa and she’s lowkey my favorite, and I’ve read SO much fanfiction about her and the Malfoys, I have way too many feelings about Narcissa lmao. I hope you enjoy the playlist either way!!

[theloobrush]

The Sea of Faith

In Matthew Arnold’s poem ‘Dover Beach’, one verse opines sadly::

“The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world.”

Arnold’s poem is said to be about his own loss of faith and the decline of religion generally. But when he wrote this back in the 19th Century most people were, outwardly at least, very religious, except perhaps the intellectual classes*. During our current social crisis, the like of which we have not seen since World War 2, and perhaps facing my own, imminent demise, I sometimes wish I could still cling to the buoyancy aid of religion. By that I mean, a full bodied, robust faith in a real, personal objective God, a deity that is provident, benevolent and wishes the salvation of all mankind.  A faith like my father had, and my mother still has. They had a very active faith and my childhood revolved around religion to an unusual degree. Their faith gave a very clear set of values and goals and moulded how you lived in a way best expressed by the Evangelical dictum: “God First, Other’s Second, Self Last”. This didn’t prevent me growing up as egoistic and self obsessed as the next person but it did thickly spread a layer of guilt, shame and existential sense of personal inadequacy into my mental make up.

Over 30 plus years the traditional religious faith into which I was birthed and, in no uncertain terms, indoctrinated (albeit lovingly, rather than harshly) has been whittled away in my mind by numerous educative and social influences and my own reasoning. There have been instances, even recently, when my faith in the Big G,  has  appeared to revive somewhat. Looking back I seem to follow a regular cycle over a period of a few years, to apply Matthew Arnold’s metaphor, my faith has certainly ebbed and flowed over three decades. From time to time something spurs me to build theological castle in the air that I’m momentarily intellectually satisfied with, then some idea, argument or painful newstory or circumstance causes my new fangle set of beliefs to crash into pieces again.. And after some weeks or months of dry atheism, something entices me to go all mystical again. Some song, some movie, the beauty of some flower in the garden, and I try to find ways to be spiritual without being religious. Then my intellect demands that I justify my mystical feelings with some proper propositions. The theological castles get built again. But they are always sand castles.

Currently I’m definitely in an ‘ebb’ period, with the tide having gone out as far as it goes out at Whitmore Bay, leaving a flat expanse of wet mud, some seaweed intermixed with plastic litter. For nigh on 15 years I have been pretty much convinced Christian orthodoxy is not true. Lately I feel even more convinced. Down to my bones. I’m entirely convinced that the Bible is largely mythology and reflection upon mythological stories, and only a lack of knowledge of other world traditions and literature, would make anyone think it is uniquely profound. I also believe the unbelief that Jesus, was not as portrayed in the gospels, if he existed at all. The acute issue for me at the moment is that theism doesn’t explain why there is a God rather than nothing at all. God, at least as understood by Christian tradition is too complex an entity to be a brute fact of necessary being. The theologians final answer to an endless string of ‘why?’ questions about life and the universe is extremely unsatisfying, indeed incredible. There is nil evidence of divine intervention.There is zilch evidence of divine providence. The multi-verse concept and the sheer size of the universe means even extremely improbable  possible things happen, our existence is one such. These facts cut the feet from under the theist’s best modern argument - the strong anthropomorphic principle.

Despite the above, I am currently in one of my  ‘mystical’ periods. To the non-mystically inclined, to those who don’t rely on intuition as much as I do, and who think the notion of personal gnosis is hookum, there is no way to convey that woo-woo mystical feeling. However I can trace the roots of my intellectual justifications. For instance I’ve been a convinced monist  ever since my University Professor John Drane (an erstwhile Evangelical and New Testament scholar of some repute) introduced me, almost accidentally, to a certain Mr Plotinus of late antiquity and his theories of Neo-Platonism. But I was attracted to the more arcane, non theistic aspects of Hindu philosophy even before that, probably because I read some dodgy New Age stuff as a teenager at a time when my reading habits should have been on evangelical lock down. It would have made a far simpler life journey if I’d just given up on religion in my youth - like most people.  However my mind seems to abhor the atheist vacuum. Or, if you like, spiritually seems to be my emotional crutch (along with snacking and my snack demi deity, cheese). 

How to make this mystical ‘tick’ of mine intelligible? I can’t really. However, I would try to explain that despite my loss of faith, I don’t have a problem with the ‘mono’ part of monotheism. The universe is self evidently a unity, and, obviously, began in a singular singularity. Most people leave it there, and really, really don’t care to look any further. But  I blur logic, and extrapolate hard scientific concepts like quantum non locality into forbidden territory. I’m one of those snake oil consumers who are prone to take basic scientific datum in a semi New Age direction. That said, I have read a lot, albeit variations on a theme. My other heavy weight intellectual influences are in historical succession Plotinus, Spinoza Schleiermacher, Hegel, and,especially, Jung. I have been marinaded in the arguments presented in Dummies Guides to Taoism, Advaita Vedanta, and followed other minds who bang on  about a ‘perennial philosophy’ or versions thereof. My recent indoctrination has come from the writings of Ken Wilber and Eckhart Tolle, and recordings of Alan Watts and Jordan Peterson. 

So you see, I used to play, with bucket and spade by the Sea of Faith, now I swim in an ocean of woo-woo. However is woo-woo a suitable substitute for a heavenly father we can pray to in times of trouble? A loving personal God who offers us a ticket to heaven. However incredulous the idea, however ‘deluded’, I’m talking here about the efficacy and utility of belief.  For instance my woo-woo doesn’t provide a personal afterlife. I’m not woo because I fear death, but neither does dialectical monism provide any solid hope. Actually my evangelical forebears would be horrified with the whole ‘Sea of Faith’ metaphor. For them, their faith was a ‘rock’, a ‘sure foundation’, an ‘anchor’ and a port in all life’s storms. Actually the maritime metaphors were endless. I have weak tea spirituality, I embrace the nonpersonal cosmic flux, but I don’t (more’s the pity?) have faith like that. 

Athlete’s Foot Note

* The cultural rot always begins with intellectuals

[yopalonso]

Arle Nadja for Smash Bros. 4: We’re going for Spiritual Classics

Behold. Even when there’s chaos and disorder, we’re near the spooky day, and so, it’s time to talk about the Spirit Battles that I plan to bring into Smash Bros. Ultimate!

I did warn you last time we had this kerkuffle, that long texts awaited thee for this instance. You have been warned tremendously. Let us begin the last part!

Número 3: Spirit Battles!

Spirits are these jolly-good .png files that, when equipped, give you power, make you stronger, give you buffs, etc., etc. Puyo Puyo-based Spirits will consist of 11 of those little fellas, with 9 of those having a battle via the (hypothetical) DLC Spirit Board.

1. Carbuncle

Class: Advanced ☆☆

Type: (Support) Neutral

Power: 4200

Team Stock Battle

Vs. Bunny Kirby (Yellow) & Arle

Stage: Windy Hill Zone (Ω)

Music: Area A

Item: Superspicy Curry

Conditions:

Defeat the main fighter to win.

The enemy is easily distracted by items.

Acquired Spirit Stats:

Ability: Mouthful of Curry

Cost: 2

He’s round, hard to hit, and loves curry! Carbuncle, obviously represented by a Bunny Hood-wearing Yellow Kirby. If you get him, you get the Mouthful of Curry ability, which grants you the effects of a Superspicy Curry at the beginning of the match.

2. Amitie

Class: Novice ☆

Type: (Primary) Attack

Power: 1700

Team Stock Battle

Vs. Zelda (Red) & Corrin (Male Light Blue) & Villager (Female Pink)

Stage: Peach’s Castle (Battlefield Form)

Music: Puyo Puyo FUNderworld!

Conditions:

The enemy's side special has increased power.

The enemy favors up specials.

Acquired Spirit Stats:

Power: 960 [ATK 529 DEF 431]

Slots: 2

Can Be Enhanced at Lv. 99.

3. Red Amitie

Class: Ace ☆☆☆

Spirit Stats:

Power: 3158 [ATK 1928 DEF 1230]

Slots: 2

Fire Attack ↑

Amitie’s Spirit Battle has to take place at a magical place! Taking her spot is Zelda, who’s known for having Fire and Wind-based magic, much like our lovely protagonist herself. And joining her are Corrin and Villager mimicking Sig and Raffina! By leveling up, she turns into Red Amitie, but how exactly is a thing we don’t exactly know.

4. Ringo Ando

Class: Ace ☆☆☆

Type: (Support) Grab

Power: 9000

Team Stock Battle

Vs. Robin (Female Red) & Richter (Purple) & Banjo & Kazooie (Dark Brown / Purple) & Dark Samus

Stage: New Donk City

Music: The Puyo Puyo Song - In-Game Version

Conditions:

The enemy’s electric attacks have increased power.

The enemy favors neutral specials.

Reinforcements will appear during the battle.

Acquired Spirit Stats:

Ability: Zap-Floor Immunity

Cost: 2

The red-haired student who’s in this to win. She comes packed with a powerful team in a battle taking place in the only city that resembles the “real world” where Ringo lives. Joining Robin with her thunder attacks is Richter, jumping in as Maguro, the bear himself, Banjo, as Risukuma, and a surprise guest: Ecolo, as Dark Samus! As a reward for such a scientific match, she’ll grant you Zap-Floor Immunity, to fight against electric floors and the like!

5. Ally

Class: Novice ☆

Type: (Support) Grab

Power: 1600

Team Stock Battle

Vs. Daisy (Green) & Arle & Zelda (Red) & Robin (Female Red)

Stage: Yoshi’s Island (Melee) (Battlefield Form)

Music: Ready for Fever Mode!

Conditions:

The enemy can heal by shielding attacks.

Reinforcements will appear during the battle.

Acquired Spirit Stats:

Ability: Critical-Health Defense

Cost: 1

Ally! The lass in green from the mysterious lands brings a whole party of 4 to the fray. Although her battle isn’t that hard, it’s her skill that makes the difference: Critical-Health Defense, which will get you buffed in time when things get hectic!

6. Schezo Wegey

Class: Advanced ☆☆

Type: (Primary) Grab

Power: 4100

Stamina Battle

Vs. Robin (Male Blue)

Stage: Yggdrasil’s Altar

Music: Request from Puyo Puyo

Conditions:

The enemy starts the battle with a Black Hole.

The enemy’s melee weapons and electric attacks have increased power.

The enemy favors neutral specials.

Acquired Spirit Stats:

Power: 1532 [ATK 998 DEF 534]

Slots: 3

Can Be Enhanced at Lv. 99.

7. Cool Schezo

Class: Ace ☆☆☆

Spirit Stats:

Power: 3041 [ATK 1761 DEF 1280]

Slots: 3

Sword Attack ↑

It’s the one who commands the dark magic, Schezo! Seemed kind of obvious for him to be portrayed by Robin himself, in a magical, distant land. His fight makes it seem like he’s hella powerful, so getting him AND getting his Spirit to become Cool Schezo feels even more rewarding. Just look at that pristine white cape of power, so cool!

8. Rulue

Class: Advanced ☆☆

Type: (Support) Grab

Power: 4300

Stamina Battle

Vs. Wii Fit Trainer

Stage: Tortimer Island (hazards off)

Music: NORMAL MODE

Conditions:

The enemy's physical attacks have increased power.

The enemy has increased defense.

The enemy favors grabs and throws.

Acquired Spirit Stats:

Ability: Energy Shot Attack/Resistance ↑

Cost: 2

The lady who kicks into scene takes form into a Puyo SUN-inspired battle! At the shores of the beautiful Tortimer Island, Wii Fit Trainer posing as Rulue will take you on with powerful kicks and twists. The skill you get, which is Energy Shot Attack/Resistance, is a testament to her strength and training against magical arts.

9. Dark Prince

Class: Ace ☆☆☆

Type: (Primary) Shield

Power: 9300

Team Stock Battle

Vs. Ganondorf (Brown) & Bunny Kirby (Yellow)

Stage: Dark Prince Castle (hazards off)

Music: Final of Puyo Puyo

Hazard: Screen Flip

Conditions:

The screen will suddenly flip.

Defeat the main fighter to win.

The enemy starts the fight with a Black Hole.

The enemy favors special attacks.

Acquired Spirit Stats:

Power: 3148 [ATK 1882 DEF 1266]

Slots: 3

The Dark Prince himself, mwah ha ha! To be quite fair, the only character who was able to fit this awesome robe was Ganondorf himself. I know there’s a joke there trying to have Joker take his place but, well, Voice Actor jokes only work when they’re, well... global? For this fight, it’s all about manipulation and trying to outdo your rival to get your hands on that powerhouse of his Spirit.

10. Puyo Puyo

Class: Novice ☆

Type: (Support) Neutral

Power: 1600

Team Stamina Battle

Vs. Team Kirby (Red ×4, Green ×4, Yellow ×4, Blue ×4, Purple ×4)

Stage: Distant Planet (Ω)

Music: Theme of Puyo Puyo

Conditions:

Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd.

The enemy falls slowly.

Acquired Spirit Stats:

Ability: Instadrop

Cost: 2

Before we move onto the last Spirit, we have to do this... fun Puyo hell! It’s the Puyos, in their... most interesting form. Represented by colored Kirby fighters, these fall slowly into the field and have low energy. When you beat them, you earn the Instadrop ability, kinda like if they gave you the ability to Hard Drop.

11. Doppelganger Arle

Class: Legend ☆☆☆☆

Type: (Primary) Attack

Power: 13500

Stamina Battle

Vs. Arle (Dark Red)

Stage: Dracula’s Castle (Ω)

Music: Dark Arle’s Insanity

Conditions:

Take your strongest team into this no-frills battle.

Acquired Spirit Stats:

Power: 4842 [ATK 2659 DEF 2183]

Slots: 2

Magic Attack ↑

The final battle for all of us is supposed to be against ourselves. Same goes for Arle, who you get to battle into these Spirit Battles as her doppelganger! Or is it the other way around? Defeating this incredibly powerful Spirit will grant you a Spirit that’s either too powerful, or that’s way too powerful.

Número 4: Classic Mode!

Lastly! We journey through her Classic Mode run and all that implies! Discounting the Bonus Stage, this would be her journey through Classic Mode (as envisioned by yours truly)!

Puzzling Magic Fun!

Puzzling Magic Fun! ( パズルの楽しみ旅 , lit. “Puzzle Fun Trip”) is all about exploring the history of puzzle games that are currently represented in Smash Bros. in one way or another, and Arle having some crazy stock battles against all of their protagonists! All stages have music from the Puyo game closest to that release.

STAGE 1

Vs. Yoshi

Stage: Yoshi’s Island (Melee)

Music: Theme of Puyo Puyo

The first fight is against the least alike of the puzzle games: Yoshi’s Cookie, from 1992! Yoshi’s Cookie is a fun title with an interesting sliding mechanic, but it’s far from being similar to Puyo Puyo, yes.

STAGE 2

Vs. Mii Swordfighter

Stage: Super Happy Tree

Music: Area A

Our second fight is against Panel de Pon, from 1995, with Mii Swordfighter cosplaying as Lip! Panel de Pon, localized as Puzzle League, is an interesting match-3 puzzle game where you have all your pieces on the board at all times, and you line up your strategy to let gravity take its course and do crazy chains!

STAGE 3

Vs. Ryu & Ken

Stage: Suzaku Castle

Music: Request from Puyo Puyo

Wait, Ryu and Ken!? Well, wouldn’t you know, they starred in their own puzzle game, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. This 1996 puzzle game mimicked Puyo Puyo in that pieces fall in pairs and you line them up on your board, but you can’t erase your blocks without using colored Power Gems, which shakes things up plenty. This frantic puzzle game saw a soft re-release in 2017 for mobile devices, too, although it had a short run.

STAGE 4

Vs. Kirby & King Dedede

Stage: Dream Land GB (Ω)

Music: NORMAL MODE

KIRBY’S AVALANCHE WASN’T REAL AND IT NEVER EXISTED. Now that THAT is out of the way, Kirby and the Dream Land 2 crew starred in their own puzzle game in 1997 with Kirby’s Star Stacker. In this game, pieces fell in pairs, and you lined them up on your board to get Star Blocks in-between the same Animal Buddies to start a combo, which would make stars fall on the board and fill in the empty spaces. If you knew how to line stuff up on the board, you could rack up some insanely crazy combos!

STAGE 5

Vs. Pikachu & Jigglypuff & Pokémon Trainer

Stage: Pokémon Stadium

Music: Puyo Puyo FUNderworld!

Pokémon’s first original incursion in the puzzle game world was with 2005′s Pokémon Trozei! (or Pokémon Link! for the Eurobuddies) This game followed through with gameplay similar to that of Yoshi’s Cookie, but taking the advantage of both screens for some really fast gameplay. You also had to line them up in a straight line, but how you did it was up to you.

... wait a minute, don’t you think we’re forgetting something important?

STAGE 6

Vs. Dr. Mario & Peach (White)

Stage: 75m (Ω)

Music: The Puyo Puyo Song - In-Game Version

The original, colored reference for Puyo Puyo lies within Dr. Mario, of course! The NES 1990 classic which slowly evolved through time, and the one puzzle game that’s almost too similar to Puyo Puyo. You line up colors to form a straight line of four between viruses and pills, to erase those critters from your bottle. In VS mode, this actually means trouble for your foe, as randomly colored balls will fall on their field!

And, finally...

BOSS STAGE

Vs. Dracula

Music: Final of Puyo Puyo / Double Trouble Finale!

And for the last stage we beat Satan himself! Well, the one that was the closest, to be honest. We’re still fighting the final battle in a castle, against a devilish character with one cool cape with strong connections to Satan himself. And while Castlevania did have a puzzle game in the form of Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night in 2010 for mobile devices, I still believe that playing make-believe with Dracula portraying as the Dark Prince is a better way to go.

Número 5: Anything else I forgot across all entries?

Entrance animation: appearing from a light portal, similar to how she gets transported into Grimp in Puyo Puyo Chronicle.

Taunts:

Up Taunt: her victory pose from Madou: Saturn.

Side Taunt: a half-flip, ending with a V-sign, with Carbuncle bouncing.

Down Taunt: Carbuncle running around Arle with her following him as she spins.

Victory screen:

Theme: Final Results! (Story Clear) [Remix]

Carbuncle hops on Arle’s back as she does a V-sign, saying “We’re number one!”, recreating their victory pose from 15th Anniversary. This one also doubles as her Team Battle victory pose when she’s a team member.

Carbuncle bounces around Arle, up until she catches him mid-air as she says “We did it, Carby!”, mimicking their art from Puyo Puyo Quest’s Arle & Carbuncle card.

A dramatic zoom-in, as she enthusiastically raises her arm, vigorously, recreating her pose in the final screen of the original Puyo Puyo. Here, she can say either “Yes!” or “Big victory!”.

Mii Costumes:

Rulue’s Hat & Rulue’s Cape (Mii Brawler)

Schezo’s Hat & Schezo’s Outfit (Mii Swordfighter)

Puyo Hat

Sig’s Hat & Sig’s Outfit (Mii Gunner): The gun would be the red arm.

AND THUS I HAVE COMPLETED THE GLORY OF ARLE IN SMASH, how I think her content would be, which Spirits would be featured, which music would be included, and just how much content would be packed with her inclusion. I have to say, it feels incredible to finally have it all out of my chest, it feels hella relieving. If anyone wants to use this whole series as a basis for their own character requests, feel free to do so.

As of this post, this marks the last time, for real, that I’ll write about Arle in Smash Bros., because it has been a fun ride playing make-believe. But the truth is, she’s not in the game, thus the only thing we can do, is dream. And dream, I did. This is a testament of my love to the character herself, to the franchise, and to everyone who also wanted her in the game. If anyone involved in Smash Bros. reads this, know that while this is my utmost wish, I’d be happy with any representation of the Puyo series proper in Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Special thanks, once again, to everyone from the Puyo for Smash Discord, to my friends at the Edge of Forever, to everyone who read and shared this nonsense, and to everyone who helped with this massive creation by adding their own inputs from time to time.

And of course, to Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata, creators of Super Smash Bros., and to Mizuki Hosoyamada, current director of the Puyo Puyo franchise.

Making a little reference to SEGA themselves, if you count her, the Carby cameo in her taunts and victory screens, her stage, the tracks, and the Spirits from the Spirit Board, all of that adds up to 24! Don’t ask how, really.

©SEGA. 2019.

[freshlybakedspiderbread]

My Top Ten* Touhou Tracks

*...as of September 2019 because I love so many and I’m sure my favourites could change not just in order but be completely replaced by ten different tranks within a month.

Making this list felt impossible at times because I picked out 39(!) tracks that I thought were ‘top ten’ worthy, and obviously reducing that list to just ten was really hard and I’m pretty sure I just gave up at some point and tried going with what my gut told me more often than not. 

That sounds like I didn’t put as much thought into this list as I could have, but I would like to spin this as a testament to how good so much Touhou music is and how much it means- Okay that’s a bad excuse.

Behind-the-scenes-edit: I changed this to Top 11 at the last second because I was writing my number one and realised I forgot a song I liked more than number 10!

10 11. Concealed Four Seasons (Okina’s first theme from HSiFS)

I just really love this one. It’s one of the ‘subtly powerful’ kind of boss themes featuring a riff that I adore. That little snippet of Necrofantasia is also nice for lore and my ears.

10. The Clown of the Star-Spangled Banner (Clownpiece’s theme from LoLK)

I think this track is literally the perfect amount of chaotic, cheerful and dangerous for a super powerful fairy dressed like a clown. On top of that, it still manages to have those elements so many of the LoLK tracks have that really make me feel like I’m in space.

9. Night Sakura of Dead Spirits (TD Stage 1)

My favourite of all Stage 1 themes. I’m at complete peace while listening but it’s not too peaceful that I feel like falling asleep.

8. Flawless as Clothing of the Celestials (Pre-Battle theme from SWR)

This is probably my favourite rendition of that classic Broken Moon motif. It  doesn’t represent Touhou as a whole as much as any of the others, and is obviously more meant for Heaven and Tenshi specifically, but it’s still by far the prettiest to me.

7. Walking the Streets of a Former Hell (SA Stage 3)

It’s so happy and festive! The first time I played SA, I didn’t know anything about anywhere, but I could tell right away from this track and the bright lights of the background that I was flying through a cheerful party. ...which I also lost a lot of lives in.

6. Heian Alien (Nue’s theme from UFO)

My favourite Extra Boss theme. It sounds exactly like what I’d expect from the title: Otherworldly, mischievous, but also a really addictive beat. I actually get chills near the end of the loop where the track goes low and then the trumpets blare out. 

5. Cinderella Cage ~ Kagome-Kagome (IN Stage 5)

It’s beautiful and manages to sound both epic and child-like at the same time. It really is the perfect theme to a bunch of rabbits.

4.  Lullaby of Deserted Hell (SA Stage 5)

I got really emotional while listening to this. I mean, that applies to 70% of touhou tracks, but this one was one of the... 50% that did it the very first time. It’s so good and makes me want to fall asleep among a bunch of sad skeletons!

3. Wind God Girl (Aya’s theme from PoFV)

Super bias time. This was the very first piece of Touhou music I ever listened to. I heard it used in a youtube gaming video, looked it up myself, discovered it rocks, found more tracks in the sidebar, and it all snowballed from there...

2. Desire Drive (TD Stage 4)

Super bias time isn’t over yet. I’ve basically listened to this track and multiple remixes I’d say.... several hundreds of times in the last few years? I’m no longer capable of properly weighing it against other tracks or even articulate why I love it other than ‘It instills happiness into my brain through the most direct of means’.

1. The Shining Needle Castle Sinking in the Air (DDC Stage 5)

Wow there are a lot of Stage 5s on this list. I feel like this track more than either of Shinmyomaru’s themes from Stage 6 actually best represent the entirety of her character and the conflicts of Double Dealing Character as a whole. Also it’s sooo beautiful it soothes yet ignites my spirit every time.

Honourable mentions:

Favourite title theme is a tie between Newshound (Double Spoiler) and Mysterious Purification Rod (Double Dealing Character).

Favourite Stage 1 boss theme is A Midsummer's Fairy Dream (Eternity Larva's theme) and I mention it here because it was the only Stage 1 boss theme among the 39 tracks I picked.

Favourite credits theme is Oriental Evening Sky (Scarlet Weather Rhapsody).

-

This all started because @pyramomo basically dared me to but I’m glad for it.

[acesotonic]

acesotonic reviews | NIKI: “wanna take this downtown?”

the second music review on this blog is dedicated to one of my favourite artists to ever exist - Southeast Asian 88rising queen: NIKI. in her EP, “wanna take this downtown?”, we discover an interesting musical and lyrical atmosphere that is both cohesive and distinctly personal.

NIKI’s debut EP “Zephyr” was packed with lovely R&B tunes, soulful and seductive lyrics as well as some carefree vibes. In “wanna take this downtown?”, she gets more emotional and sensitive. Like the album cover, she bares her feelings even more than she has before. I thought “Zephyr” was already quite a pleasant invitation into her heart and mind. But this new EP opens new doors. And it is pleasant from start to finish, with zero inaccessibility on a listener-level. Let’s dive in.

The first song lowkey, which was a pre-release, unfurls a very pretty and fairy-like introduction. Using light and muted mallet sounds, it serves as a good contrast to the bass synth that comes in as soon as she starts to sing. The percussion in the introduction is delicate and gives the pretty instrumental a bounce. Her lyrics are immediately intimate, which suits the simple yet gentle music. After some piano chords, the song transitions into a chorus full of harmonies. The hook is addictive, repeating “lowkey” rhythmically with a lovely descending melody. In the first half of the second chorus, the drum pattern is seized and suspends the music in the air. NIKI’s vocals begin to soar and you can almost feel the pearly gates of heaven opening... or something like that. Then, the drums come back in together with another mallet sound. This time, the mallets create a staccato counter-melody, with an airy cadence. It is my favourite part of this song because it is playful and attractive. The EP begins very strong already, although my only gripe is that it should have been longer (as with most of NIKI’s discography... but this will pop up again).

Next, urs also begins similarly with fairy-like mallets with a digitised filter. This is a good way for the EP to be immediately cohesive. With light and block-like snaps to introduce a rhythm, the song picks up its pace. NIKI’s harmonies and graceful vocal melodies strengthen it, carrying her emotions of hurt and confusion about whether someone she loves knows that she is willing to give herself to them. She always uses great bass synths in her music, so I am not surprised that the one in this track melds so well with all the other elements. There are these marbly sound effects which act as atmospheric hi-hats, creating a wide empty space in the listener’s ear. This is an effective way to reflect NIKI’s loneliness and vulnerability, which shows in the chorus’ lyrics. The song ends cleanly, but again I feel that it can be longer. Furthermore, I was alright with the drum pattern in the first chorus being in a dance hall sequence. I felt that if there was a switch-up somewhere in the middle or an alternate drum pattern altogether, the track could have juiced out the vocal melodies even more than how it already appears.

The EP moves on with move! with a compelling beginning that prevents giving listeners a consistent tempo. A funky staccato synth is mixed in with NIKI’s low-pitched harmonies, which creates a flirtatious atmosphere - and this foreshadows the lyrics. The clean snaps give a good bounce to the song, and her voice singing “there’s something in the water” is charming, which comes in handy throughout the song’s themes of wanting to be in-charge and mischievous in an already healthy relationship. She even grunts it in the second verse, which is so cheeky and identifiable in NIKI’s real life personality. The pre-chorus features muted bendy synths, which then lead into the chorus: beautifully explosive and sporadic. The clearer bendy synths in the chorus remind me of an alternative pop kind of synthesiser sample. In the second verse and pre-chorus, there are horn-like synths sprinkled across which adds even more character to move!, as if it is a second voice complementing NIKI’s lyrics. I cannot get enough of the bendy funky pop-y chords in the chorus. It is interestingly almost off-pitch but still carries the vocal melodies perfectly. The song ends with the chorus, which really emphasises its sinfully short length. There is so much more unexplored power in the chorus, that could have bled out into a bridge. Nevertheless, move! is a special but very much NIKI piece.

Last but definitely not least, odds gives us a similar introduction that we found in urs with a singular synthesised sound. The difference here is the sound in odds has no reverb on it at all. It is solid and static. It sounds like a phone dial, which sort of creates an image of NIKI talking (singing) to someone on the other end of the line. it is an odd (pun intended) beginning to the song, but still attention-grabbing because of the potential concept it has and NIKI’s personal lyrics. Then, the track continues with a very slow riser and staccato bass synth, and progresses into the chorus. This is where the song gets striking to my ears. The chorus is in a lower register compared to what NIKI sings in most of the time! The low register gives the song a deep colouring, across this record and NIKI’s whole discography. It is full of attitude especially when she sings about how people have come to her for a relationship after they have broken up with someone else... basically reducing her to a “rebound”. Verse 2 plays around with NIKI’s vocals by bending it, while she mockingly calls someone a “mind-game mastermind”. The lyrics, once again, go onto another level of personal and truthful as she describes her desire for a genuine love despite her fame and success. And then we go into the bridge which is watered down slightly, supported by airy vocal harmonies and a soft drum set. The track becomes lyrically conversational, which becomes relatable for listeners. This is also a testament to NIKI’s cool personality, and it shines through even more as the last chorus hits with an extra push on the 808s. Again, I wish it was longer. Still, odds is an enjoyable listen.

Conclusion

NIKI’s 2nd EP “wanna take this downtown?” delivers with consistent tracks filled with personal lyrics, emotional vocal melodies and harmonies, and cohesive instrumentations. Although all 4 tracks could have been structurally extended, and even sonically fleshed out, NIKI has always kept a high standard in her music even with her previous successful songs that fall just below 3 minutes. She has matured in this album as an artist and undoubtedly as a person. I look forward to a full album, and my expectations will never be less than excellent when it comes to NIKI.

8.5/10

[0poole]

Harry Potter!

Finished rewatching all of the movies. I must confess, I am a movie plebian. I haven’t read any of the books yet. Call me when the solar flare that destroys and erases all electronics and data finally comes. I’ll probably be reading it then. Probably.

Anyways, I love what I’ve experienced of the franchise so far regardless. The whole story is so fantastical and fun, interspersed with pretty real dangers that come about through magic. That, I think, is the one thing all kinds of fiction should adhere to: If your world has weird logic, the conflict should be somehow based in that weird logic, instead of being somehow parallel to something more normal/real. That’s probably why people hate the Star Wars prequels; too much politics, not enough lightsabers. 

Seriously, though. Practically all things derived from Harry Potter are great. The movies, the music, ESPECIALLY the video games (or the first three, to be exact.) Also, the one perk of living in Florida is being able to go to the theme park. It’s nice and all seeing a made up setting presented to you on a screen, but to actually be there, walking around the world? It’s nuts. Even the Fantastic Beast series isn’t perfect, but still very alright at worst. I’m really just going to have to piece together my thoughts to organize them all.

The Movies:

They say dumbing down an experience and presenting it to an audience in a neat little package is a bad thing, but really... The movies are extremely good. I do prefer the style of the first two, where everything seemed more light and charming. Of course, it was about the third movie when Harry realized that the world wasn’t as bright and shiny as the first two years led him to believe, so it’s fair his take on things would be altered. I just wish it wasn’t so consistently, you know... dark blue and cloudy. I mean, I get that it’s England and all, but it’s fantasy.

Either way, I guess I’ll have to put all of the emotions that I probably would’ve experienced anyway if I read the books first here. The absolute best part about the series is the characters. I’ve already gushed about how Hagrid is the absolute most wholesome character in all of fiction. Another seriously good one is Mrs. McGonagall, who comes off as the serious, “do your homework!” type at the beginning, but by the end becomes a super charming and genuine person. In the last movie, her line “I’ve always wanted to use that spell!” Is so cute. I mean, you really can’t name a non-charming character in the whole series. The entire Wealsey family is insanely lovable. The Malfoys are supreme assholes at the beginning, but seem to slowly turn for the better as things get super dark. 

Obviously the major deaths are so major because of how much you loved the characters. Dumbledore was definitely the type to realize when he must die, but seeing the serious amount of respect people had for him it just makes you choke up. Dobby’s death destroys anyone with a heart, because he died swinging. Snape as a whole is such an amazing and fun character to just watch exist, despite being so dark and brooding all the time. I’m sure his death the first time around was sort of confusing, until we got to see his memories, at whichpoint you’d be dried up in your seat due to dehydration. I wasn’t exactly emotionally mature when I first saw it so I have no major memory of how I felt, although I definitely feel it now. Considering how pure the Weasley family was, Fred’s death was also super heartbreaking, mainly because the twins were nothing but joy even in the worst of times. Even the brief cut-away to Lupin’s body got you. And, that’s only in the Deathly Hallows movies... What about Sirius? Hell, even seeing Hagrid caring so much for Aragog makes you feel bad. It’s a serious testament to how good these characters are. 

The music has become so impossibly iconic too. That’s what you get when you get John Williams. I’ll tell ya, I couldn’t sing you any non-soundtrack song from the past few years of movies I watched. Sure, the music did them good I guess, but they never felt like actual songs you wanted to listen to. If you played anyone the soundtracks to the first two movies, they could identify what they’re from in the first two notes minimum. It’s so great. I’d kill to have movies do this again. I mean, you can always go for more good music. 

The Games:

The year is, I dunno... any year before like 2010. A kid’s movie comes out, and BANG there’s a game for it. “Oh, I like the movie. Maybe I’ll like the game?” No. No you won’t. That’s not how it works. If you’re lucky you’ll have some nostalgic memories from it, and hell maybe that’s the reason why I think the Harry Potter games are so damn GOOD. 

Seriously, how did this happen? The games (or, as I said, mainly the first three and that Quidditch one) are so fun on their own, regardless of the movies. I have fond memories of the first, but the Chamber of Secrets on PC is where most of my love lies. God, I’ve been listening to the music the whole time while writing this and it’s so perfectly ingrained into my mind. Like the movie, the themes are so wild and singable. Even the fucking GBA game planted its seed into my memory, despite me only getting like 10% of the way through it. It had its own soundtrack apart from the PC games too, and didn’t even try to recreate the music from them. They literally wrote new music for their shitty cashgrab game. It’s so good.

Plus, the games seem to include stuff that wasn’t even hinted at in the movies. Remember when Harry used Spongify to bounce up to different parts of the castle in the movies? Or used Skurge to remove some stray ghostly ectoplasm? No. That’s only in the games. More importantly, can we talk about Quidditch? The game, but also as a whole?

Harry Potter really made me realize that I LOVE fictional sports. Like what I said with the conflict of a fictional story, having a sport built upon the weird logic of a world is just as, if not more, interesting. Even though the rules of Quidditch are absolute BS (seems like nothing but the Snitch matters) just watching it is so fun and interesting. You’d think that brooms would exclusively be transport, but OF COURSE they’d use them for sport at some point. Toss in a few magical balls, and boom--- you’ve got something some wizards would love to watch. The verticality of the field is easily what makes it so much cooler, since it would obviously require so much more space, and to any unaware observer, just seeing the field would show that nothing normal is played there. If they ever release a movie that’s just another generic sports movie with all the expected twists and turns, except the sport in question is Quidditch, I’d watch the shit out of that.

In the meantime, we have a Qudditch video game. Again, another original soundtrack, and apparently an anthem for each world team? God, really? You did all that? Anyway, from what I remember, the game isn’t too hard, but I’ll have to find it again and try to shoot for the big leagues to see if they step it up. About the world teams, though: they’re the absolute best part. You play basically college-level Qudditch against the houses for a while, but then you see how big the game actually is around the world, not only being able to play as a worldly team, but in a worldly stadium as well. Someone had to design a stadium, style, animations... for each team. That’s nuts. 

So much effort was put into the first few Harry Potter games, it’s shocking. Sucks that, as far as I remember, they basically slowly turned into wizard FPSs after that. I kind of remember liking the fourth one a bit, but I’ll need to find it again. I lost that stupid little disc holder thing with all the nostalgia-filled games I loved on it. The day I find it is going to be one hell of a day.

The Wizarding World:

The curse of being so damn amazing is people swarming to it and ruining the experience just by overcrowding. Either way, the place was actually amazing. I’m a sucker for any real-life place that tries to mimic a very fantastical setting. That’s really the reason why I prefer Universal as a whole to Disney, since it feels much more like you’re stepping into a different world. Kind of helps to distract you from the BS prices and tourist pandering. 

I mean, There’s not much to say apart from it looking cool. The rides are good, I guess. It’s weird, when we got there my mom was like “We HAVE to try Butterbeer” and, to be honest, I’m struggling to think of an actual drink more disgusting sounding than “Butterbeer” that isn’t just insect guts or something. I’ve never had the slightest inclination to try normal beer at any point, and I can sure as hell say that suggesting that someone putting butter in it makes it so much worse. I don’t know why, butter and beer just feel like they shouldn’t go together. Hell, maybe they don’t even use butter. I know at Universal, at least, it’s not actual beer, since kids would surely want to try it, but the concept just feels really disgusting.

That rant aside, here’s the valuable knowledge: I’d have to say that I’d be a Hufflepuff. In my more Incel-ular days I thought I’d be a Ravenclaw, since they smart and all, but really I feel more of a Hufflepuff. That’s not even decided by a web quiz. I just think that I’d chose to be a background character above all else. I pretty much am, anyway. Not that that’s bad, I’m just, you know... in the background. Plus, I’m assuming they’re the more artsy of the four houses. Really, I don’t know exactly what it stands for. “Talent?” What the hell is that supposed to mean? 

[clubpassim]

Women in Folk - Kristina Latino

Hi there!

Katie here, ready and excited to bring you our first interview-e for the ‘Women in Folk’ Blog.

I’d like to introduce you to Kristina Latino. Kristina is an artist manager, primarily working with Americana/Folk artists. Kristina founded a company a few years back called Cornerscape, which started as a live-music events company that slowly morphed into the artist management company it is today. Her first job out of college was actually with Club Passim, working as a sound engineer in the club downstairs at night, and in the office as operations manager during the day. She credits her time at Passim as the thing that started her down the path of getting to know the Americana/Folk scene. During the interview, Kristina told me that while she worked at Passim, artists started coming to her for advice with little projects and crowdfunding ideas, and over time helped her transition to focus on artist management.

When I asked what her favorite part about working the job was, she enthusiastically listed off several things, which should stand as a testament to her passion and excitement for what she does;

“I love getting to see the way an album forms over time. Working with my artists and hearing them say, ‘I wrote this new song over the weekend, would you like to hear it’? And then they play it for me on their guitar, and then there’s a demo, and then months later it becomes a piece of their full-length album that they’re recording in the studio. Seeing the way a song morphs and transitions over time and the way album stories are built is really my favorite part.” We then circled back to her time at Passim, where she had some insightful things to say about her gained experiences, as well as a juicy secret kept in the dark all these years…

“I’m actually not sure if Matt Smith (booking manager for Passim) knows this yet, but I think it’s probably safe for me to admit this now...But I guessed that at my interview they would ask me if I had been to the club before, so I made sure to go to a show at the club the night before my interview. I had been to the space before but I hadn’t been to a show, and I just needed to be able to say yes in the interview, and not lie about it.”

You heard it here, folks.

She then went on to talk about how her work experience at Passim has continued to inform the work she does today; “The experience helps me every day; not just being a part of the Passim community, but when I’m with artists at shows elsewhere, having the training that I have as a former sound engineer to be able to listen really well to the mix that my artists are getting during their soundchecks and just being a good representative for them. Making sure they’re putting their best foot forward in shows is easier for me with that training and that background. It’s something I’m very practically grateful for.”

The next part of the interview was dedicated to her role as a woman in a male-dominated profession.

[full interview under the cut]

Club Passim: Talk a little bit about your experiences as a female in a male-dominated profession/field.

Kristina Latino: My experience has primarily been one filled with support from other women managers. That has been the predominant experience that I’ve had so far. I am continually amazed by the openness and the support that I get when I meet other women managers, many of whom have been doing it much longer than me, and that so many of them will give me their cell number and say, ‘If you need to talk through some strategy or if you have questions you can call me, you can email me’. It makes me feel like I have a community to turn to as I grow, and that has been really invaluable.

On the flip side, there are definitely experiences I’ve had that have been frustrating. It’s frustrating when some people, often men, just don’t take you seriously. With those people, I sometimes have to be a lot more forceful with my personality, or persistent in proving to them that I am worth their mental space and their time. Where gender comes into play, I have been inspired by the incredible women managers that I get to see and work with, and I hope I get to work with more and more of them as time goes on.

CP: Do you notice a difference in how you’re treated by artists, venues, audiences, and industry professionals before you’ve set expectations about the quality of your work?

KL: Sure. I try to be kind and respectful to everyone, and I think, you know, maybe because I’m a woman, that often that can be mistaken as being a pushover, or not firm enough. I think sometimes people think that because I try to be very nice that I am not able to be as much of a champion for my artists as they expect, but that’s fine. I know I can go after things that my artists need really well. I think people sometimes expect me to be more soft-spoken or less opinionated or think that because I’m nice that I’ll be a pushover and that’s not the case. I can stand up for myself just fine, especially with the motivation of wanting to do right by my artists. It’s easy for me to stand up for those artists and for the people I care about.

CP: What do you do in a situation when you feel disrespected by the artists/co-workers you’re surrounded by?

KL: The way that I react to disrespect has really evolved over time. When people treated me with real disrespect when I was younger, I was much more likely to write them off. Now when I encounter disrespect in the industry, I am more likely to politely address it. It all depends on the situation though.

And frankly, there’s always a calculation of whether or not it’s worth it to say something.

I wish that everyone was more introspective with how they interact with other people in all cases, especially when it comes to gender expectations. People have to want to work with you and people have to respect you.

CP: Follow up question. Have you found that this disrespect has come from more men or women?

KL: Men, definitely. But that question makes me a little uncomfortable, as I have found the community to be, on the whole, very welcoming, very respectful, very positive, so honestly, that has been the overarching theme for me; very positive.

However, I’ve also experienced some pretty classic examples of sexism. For example, I attended a meeting earlier this year where I was the only woman at the table and it was assumed by the person I was meeting that I was there to take notes. So that was, you know, very frustrating.

Or there was another meeting this year where the men at the table, who all knew each other well, set up a dynamic in which it was really difficult to work my way into the conversation. Those two instances were very frustrating, and you never know how much of it comes from gender, or age, or just someone thinking,  ‘well if I don’t know you already then you can’t be worth my time’. You never know what the exact balance of factors is, but I’m sure there’s always some element of gender.  You have to figure out a way to correct for it though, so with that situation, I went home and thought about how I could help those people and hopefully establish a positive working relationship.

So instead of pointing out to him that he was rude and talked over me for an hour, I tried to make it worth his while to register me as someone worth his respect.

And here is perhaps my favorite question to ask these women.

CP: In your opinion, how can men be more aware or informed about women in the music industry?

KL: I think that making spaces for new voices is really important. I try to think about this with myself as well. In the grand scheme of things, I am a pretty new manager. However, I am also the co-chair of Women in Music Boston, which is a non-profit organization that works to amplify the efforts of women across the music industry, and I am always reminding myself that while I am trying to learn from women mentors in artist management who are much farther along, I can also open doors to women who are years behind me in coming up in the music industry.

I think that this is a really important mentality regardless of gender, but I do think that men often do talk over people a lot, talk over women a lot. In the music industry, people are always clamoring for their voices to be heard, like, LITERALLY, so I think men should be more aware of how much space they’re taking up at the metaphorical microphone, and pass it to more women. Making sure your events are being hosted in a space that feels safe to women, making sure women know that they can report inappropriate behavior if it is your space.

Sidebar: A kudos shout out I want to give goes to a band in town called Future Teens. I went to one of their shows, and they had a text-line that you could text if someone in the space has made you feel unsafe in some way. One of the singers in the band named Daniel announced that at the show and it was awesome. That kind of ally-ship is super concrete.  

But anyway, it’s just important to think about how you can open doors to younger women managers. The people you mentor don’t always have to look exactly like you, you know? Seeking out new perspectives, new backgrounds, new lived experiences will make all of our work better. I just think more men should think about the way that they make their spaces feel welcoming - physical spaces and intellectual spaces.

CP: What message do you want to display as a woman in the managerial field?

KL: The music industry, like many industries, is built on relationships, and I think the message that I want to send, as myself, but also as a woman in the music industry, is that we should all be treating each other with respect, and treating each other well, and building relationships from a place of mutual respect and level footing, as much as possible.

There are so many power imbalances in the music industry, and I want people to feel like they can come to me and that I will treat them with respect regardless of our history or experiences. The frustrations that women experience in the music industry come from a lack of respect. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen women-fronted bands, getting sound-checked on stage saying, ‘I need more of this in my monitor’, or ‘This is sounding weird’, and the engineer doesn’t take them seriously because he doesn’t think they know their instrument. That just seems absolutely crazy to me.

So at the end of the day, I think that lack of respect is the frustrating part, and if we all focus more on creating an environment of mutual respect, especially for women who need to fight harder to get it, that would make things a lot better.

CP: What words of wisdom/encouragement do you have for aspiring women in this field?

KL: I love that question. That you can totally do it and that people will welcome you into this field! It is less scary than you think it’ll be. There’s a wonderful network of support out there, to find your crowd and celebrate them and to keep your head down and do the work, and don’t worry too much about what other people think.

Thank you, Kristina, for your thoughtful answers and honest conversation! The blog’s purpose isn’t just to bring these gender-issues to light but to also provide ways for men to be advocates and supporters of their women-peers and co-workers. I challenge everyone to be more self-aware and observant of your workplace. You might be surprised by what you find.

For now, thank you for reading, and stay tuned for the next installment of the ‘Women in Folk’ blog!

-Katie

[makistar2018]

Taylor Swift’s Netflix Special Is the End of an Era

By Amanda Petrusich January 3, 2019

While Taylor Swift isn’t the most instinctive dancer, she is practiced and spirited, and has surrounded herself with a crew of world-class athletes. Photograph by Matt Winkelmeyer / TAS18 / Getty

Last summer, the pop singer Taylor Swift began a stadium tour in support of her sixth LP, “Reputation.” It was a wildly successful jaunt, and, on its final night, in Arlington, Texas, more than a hundred thousand people filled A.T. & T. Stadium to watch Swift perform. The two-hour show was filmed for a Netflix special and released on New Year’s Eve. If it’s been a while since you witnessed that many human beings gripped by what appears to be complete and utter joy, “Taylor Swift: The Reputation Concert Tour” is a quick fix. Swift’s fans—beaming, sobbing, gasping in a kind of deranged ecstasy—receive her desperately and gratefully. Even through a screen, the heady, collective love is palpable.

Swift first appears onstage wearing dark lipstick, lace-up knee-high boots, and a hooded, sequinned black leotard. While she isn’t the most instinctive dancer, Swift is practiced and spirited, and she has surrounded herself with a crew of world-class athletes. Their routines are elaborate and inventive. Swift is constantly accenting her lyrics with physical flourishes (eye rolls, jazz hands, hair flips), all of which seem intensely pre-plotted; the relentlessness of her choreography allows us to briefly imagine a universe in which nothing plain ever happens and no moment is unproductive. Her tours have always felt more like elaborate theatrical productions than concerts, in part because Swift is not the sort of artist who is prone to spontaneity. Her limbs snap dutifully into formation, over and over. Pop music isn’t exactly predicated on bold expressions of authenticity—there is no reason why, in 2019, any grown person should be griping about the relative “realness” of pop stars—and stadium tours are always tirelessly rehearsed. Still, I winced when Swift and her backing dancers looked at each other and heartily fake-laughed in the middle of “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.” Truly, I winced so hard.

Swift was an early adopter of the faux-intimacy afforded by social media, and she has mastered, if not pioneered, its weird, chummy cadences (“You guys!”). She is terrifyingly expert at addressing millions of strangers as if each were a cherished and familiar confidant. It’s easy to be cynical about this way of communicating, which favors a kind of dopey, manipulative warmth. In my darker moments, I fear that it portends some kind of societal collapse, in which we are all seduced into complacency by robots giddily announcing, “You guys!” It is more likely that this is simply what happens when powerful women are expected to be both sweet and savvy, nurturers and entrepreneurs—eventually the line between the two fades, and friendliness and salesmanship become inextricable. 

The narrative premise of “Reputation,” both the album and the show, is Swift either shrugging off the gossip and innuendo that have followed her for much of her career or leaning deeper into them. (The latter is represented by a large cobra motif.) But Swift never quite manages the snarling belligerence of Joan Jett, whose “Bad Reputation,” from 1980, remains the definitive text on not giving a shit: “And I don't really care if you think I'm strange / I ain’t gonna change,” Jett promises. 

Swift cares a lot, even when she’s strutting and flipping her hair. To be fair, she has been subject to plenty of sexist bellyaching—what might read as ambitious or confident in her male counterparts is derided, in Swift, as shrewd, conniving, callous. But the fact remains that she’s not exactly enduring endless, seething comparisons to Pol Pot, which sometimes makes her boundless self-pity feel odd. “Reputation” is a resurrection story—there is even a film-within-a-film that figures Swift as a kind of gossamer phoenix, overcoming persecution to stand and love again!—but it’s hard to know what Swift is rising above, exactly, beyond some moderate embarrassment and the usual celebrity hounding. A montage at the start of the film features inane chatter from entertainment hosts and radio d.j.s—the sort of idle, trivial taunting that every superstar contends with. The worst thing anyone says about her is, “All this drama is exhausting.” 

But drama is, of course, the pop star’s stock in trade. Swift has always been proud of the extent to which she transparently mines her own life for lyrical fodder. The songs on “Reputation” toggle between tender and boastful, as Swift recounts various professional and romantic entanglements. “I Did Something Bad” revels in the (satisfying) idea of being a jerk to a jerk (“If a man talks shit / Then I owe him nothing”) but nonetheless contains moments of real vulnerability—like when, in the second verse, she offers the deeply sad advice “You gotta leave before you get left.” 

One of the gentler moments of the film is Swift’s performance of “All Too Well,” from the album “Red,” from 2012. The song was never a proper single, yet it’s one of Swift’s most beloved ballads, and she plays it solo, on an acoustic guitar. The song is about being haunted by memories of a bungled love, maybe for a little longer than you should be. “I know it’s long gone / And that magic’s not here no more/ And I might be O.K. / But I’m not fine at all,” she admits—so go the scars of love. What’s most striking about “All Too Well” is how Swift validates and reaffirms her experience; when a complicated relationship ends, it’s easy to feel bewildered and betrayed, unsure of everything that happenedprior to the moment of collapse. Were you swindled? Or, worse, did you somehow invent the whole thing? Swift’s repeated assertion—“I was there”—begins to feel like a kind of corrective to whatever unkind maneuvering her ex (in this case, the actor Jake Gyllenhaal, according to Swift lore) was up to. Though later in her career she would become more brash about broadcasting her own empowerment, “All Too Well” might be Swift’s most quietly feminist moment. 

The show ends with a medley of “We Are Never Getting Back Together” and “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” two buoyant singles about holding your ground. It’s worth sticking around through the closing credits, both to watch the stadium empty out—enterprising fans stuff their bags with scraps of confetti or “Reputation”-themed newsprint from the floor—and to watch a few minutes of backstage footage, in which a surely exhausted Swift and her dancers climb into golf carts and zoom off. 

The critic Jon Caramanica, writing in the Times, recently argued that pop music—which he defines as songs that strive for “gloss, pep, ecstasy, spectacle”—has faded as a dominant cultural force. “Pop, the genre, is no longer pop,” he writes. Instead, pop music has been replaced on the charts by hip-hop and more niche or global sounds (which are usually inspired, in one way or another, by hip-hop). This shift was surely quickened by what Caramanica refers to as “the largely frictionless Internet,” which makes it easy for listeners to acquire precisely what they want and nothing else, and for smaller or regional genres to spread quickly. Pop, as a sound, has always been guileless and optimistic; these days, chart-topping songs tend to be morose, melancholy, and angry. The massive pop stars of yesteryear—Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake—are fading from the public consciousness. Their work seems corny and off-center now. In that context, “Taylor Swift: The Reputation Concert Tour” will soon either be regarded as a museum piece or as a testament to Swift’s era-defying longevity. I suspect it will be the latter. 

The New Yorker

[doomedandstoned]

Sleep, Bell Witch Play The Showbox

~By Chris Schanz~

Pardon my fanboy dialogue, but damn that was a killer night! I’ve been a huge Sleep fan since 1994 when good ol’ Freddy Krueger (our affectionate name for our resident culture vulture/dealer) played Dragonaut for our band Fuzzbud in 1994. I was hooked. It’s all I wanted to listen to; it’s all I ever wanted to be. To transition from a Sabbath cover band to full-fledged stoner outfit spanning 20+ years is a feat of grand magnitude -- epic, at the very least.

I’ve never shot a gig in the pit at The Showbox before, but Lord knows I’ve tried! Having Doomed & Stoned lead the charge really set me up for success on this Tuesday night in June. Sure, I knew the room would be a challenge. I’m used to small venues who allow flash photography and as many shots as it takes. In this historic venue, we were only allowed to shoot during the first song of each set. I say we, but really it was just me for most of the night, as the paparazzi didn't arrive until much later, giving me a virtual exclusive. Nevertheless, I had to dial my shit in quick to mind the one-song rule. I was sweating!

Bell Witch

I've been keep tabs on Bell Witch for awhile, though not knowing until recently that I came from Adrian Guerra’s hometown (separated by only a few years). I followed the Emerald City duo's songs and imagery online, but had yet to see them in person. Bell Witch were already a local legend by the time they were crippled by Adrian’s death. The Mirror Reaper album became a monolithic testament to how immense a two-piece can aspire to be. A full 45-minute concept album recorded by Portland’s Billy Anderson, which I had purchased online (one track). I picked up the double gatefold at the show and their earlier album Longing to legitimize my collection and education.

What an honor to be the only photog in the pit! I had license to get up close and personal! Dylan Desmond’s six-string bass playing is more atmospheric and melodic in person. Jesse Shreibman’s drumming is profound and dramatic, augmented by MOOG pedals and samples. True professionals. It seemed more of a ceremony than a rock show!

Follow The Band | Get Their Music

Sleep

I hit the merch line in between sets to grab more booty (those Sleep baseball T’s rock!). I must say, the crowd tonight was the most joyous, friendly and courteous I’ve ever seen. The line wrapped the whole venue and didn’t quit! It was definitely one smokey love fest! A veritable who’s who of stoner, psyche, industrial, hardcore and doom artists in the Seattle scene! I caught up with the usual suspects from Foil, Future Kill, Resinator, Luna Negra, Feast, Luna Moss, Kings of Cavalier (we’re doing that photo shoot, Reed!). Hugs all around!

The Showbox is a favorite Sleep venue, Al Cisneros, Matt Pike, and Jason Roeder having delivered a particularly legendary concert here on 4/20 back in 2015. Their setlist spanned twenty years of materia, kicking off with new hits off The Sciences album. Then there was "Holy Mountain," which sent me reeling! I was in the pit only for The Sciences, but swayed in the soundwaves until I could hear "Dragonaut," after which I snuck out to grab a Seattle Dog and hit the road. Thank you Billy, Sleep, Bell Witch and Seattle for making it my favorite concert of the past 20 years!

Setlist

The Sciences

Marijuanaut's Theme

Holy Mountain

The Clarity

Sonic Titan

Aquarian

Antarcticans Thawed

The Botanist

Dragonaut

Leagues Beneath

Follow The Band | Get Their Music

[topismyworshipmusic]

Be Concerned.

Under the cut is a little Bible study thingy on the song Be Concerned by my favorite band of all time Twenty Øne Piløts. I hope you enjoy it!

I’m so sorry that I didn’t post anything last week. Last week was a rough week and this week has been proving to be even more difficult with some drama from work. I had planned to write a study for A Car, A Torch, A Death, but I felt that this week I need to do a study on Be Concerned. Be Concerned is one of the songs that I scream out to God when I’m shaking hands with the dark parts of my thoughts. This song is my 2nd favorite Twenty Øne Piløts song of all time, whenever I listen to it I can feel it. I can feel the words and the urgency of them, I can feel the low point Tyler was in when he wrote the song and I can feel the healing that the gorgeous piano and Tyler’s vocals bring me towards the end of the song. Rapping this song gets my frustrations and depression out while also talking to Jesus and asking Him to Be Concerned for me. This song is aggressive, talks a lot about being suicidal in my eyes and about doubting God, Jesus and His plan. The main theme of this song is doubt and helps me when I doubt God’s plan for my future.

The beginning of Be Concerned starts with Tyler aggressively rapping the lyric “Where'd you go? Huh, they all think I know. It's so hard to motivate me to devote a single inch of me to something I can't see”; this lyric reminds me of Romans 12. The whole chapter of Romans 12 is about devoting your life to Jesus, to love what is good and hate what is evil, to follow Him and His will blindly because we know that His will is good. In this lyric Tyler is saying that it’s hard to devote his life to Christ and become a living sacrifice to God and His will (Romans 12:1- I encourage you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him). Besides Romans 12, this lyric made me think of 2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we live by faith, not by sight” it’s a hard thing to remember, but after you’ve been baptized in the name of Jesus you are not of this world anymore, you are a child of the one true King, the only God who created the heavens and earth for you to enjoy. Living by faith, even in times of trial is the hardest thing to do, to keep reminding yourself that God is guiding your paths and making them straight as you walk even when it feels like you’re walking off of a cliff. In Matthew 6 Jesus tells us not to worry, God takes care of all of the animals of the air, sea and land, but we are much more valuable to Him than them, so He will take care of us too. This lyric also reminds me of Hebrews 12:2 which says; fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. The only way we can live by faith and not by sight is by keeping ourselves focused on Jesus and making Him a part of our daily routines.  We can do this by being in prayer constantly, studying His word everyday and talking about Him to people who may not know Him yet, the best way to make your faith in God grow is by helping someone else find Him.

The next set of lyrics I would like to look at is where Tyler says “I will deny you for years and I'll make you raise me from the dead and if I said that I would live for you for nothing in return, Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Gullible, but lying's all I've learned”. The first half of that lyric reminds me of Colossians 2:12 “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” When you get baptized you are participating in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the day you make Jesus LORD of your life is the day you die to sin and live for light, the day you die to yourself and live for the one who created you. We all have periods of our life where we deny God, I know before I was a disciple I denied Him so much that I didn’t even acknowledge His existence. Even Peter, a man who saw Jesus and was one of Jesus’s close friends denied Jesus in John 18. After we are finished denying and God humbles us into admitting that He is LORD, He raises us from the dead and the only thing He asks is that we live for Him, for His glory and for His honor. The next lyric “ if I said that I would live for you for nothing in return, Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Gullible, but lying's all I've learned” is just an example for me of how even after we get baptized and are disciples of Jesus we still have that sinful nature. A self serving, self pleasing nature that is only focused on how God will help me and not those around me. Look at the people of faith from the Old Testament; Noah, Moses, Ruth, David, Bathsheba, Abraham, Daniel, none of them got to see the fruit of their faith. Not a single of one them was alive to watch Jesus save the world, but while they were alive they lived in faith because they knew God was faithful to His promisesses, even if they weren’t going to be around to see it.

The next verse is rapped by a rapper named Josef, this is one of the only two colabs done in Twenty Øne Piløts history. Josef’s verse is all about the Christian walk and how hard it is. He talks about how he can feel God, how he knows that Jesus is there with him, but he still feels faithless like Jonah. If you don’t know the story of Jonah I recommend reading his book, it’s a wild ride and a good lesson on why you should always trust God. Basically, God asks Jonah to go down to Nineveh and speak out against all of the wickedness that is there, Jonah doesn’t want to listen to God and he hops onto a boat that’s going in the opposite direction from where God told Jonah to go. God sent out a storm and all of the passengers on the boat determine that God is trying to punish Jonah with the storm so they throw him overboard. After they throw Jonah overboard God sends a huge fish over to swallow up Jonah whole and Jonah lives in the fish for three days and three nights, on the third night Jonah starts crying out to God and praising Him, saying that if God gets him out of the belly of the fish he will follow his commands and go preach to Nineveh. After Jonah sings His praises, God commands the fish spits up Jonah back onto shore and then Jonah sets on his mission to tell Nineveh that God is going to destroy the town in 40 days. This story shows me that sometimes God asks us to do things that we don’t necessarily want to do, but we should always do His will even when we don’t want to because if we don’t do His will we can get into trouble and end up in our own version of the fish’s belly. This story also shows me that even when we don’t do God’s will and we get ourselves into trouble God is still there with us, He is always there with us and wants us to cry out to Him while we’re in the belly of the beast. God is our rescuer and He will rescue you out of any situation that you need Him too.

The next verse is back to Tyler rapping, he says “I am disappearing inside my bird's eye theories. I tried to say goodbye, defy, and deny what it is I'm fearing. Clearly I am dying, dearly I am writing, merely testifying that a test to fly requires I pass the test with colors flying”. I think this verse highlights the pressure of being perfect that some disciples struggle with. When you openly claim to be a follower of Jesus there feels like there’s a magnifying glass on you to always be perfect, to be positive and joyful person all of the time. Sure, the Bible does tell us to have joy at all times, but it never says not to feel upset or not to feel depressed. The Bible never tells us to suppress our emotions because we are humans and we were created with a wide range of emotions, some people just feel emotions deeper than others and that is okay. We just need to learn how to express our emotions in a Christ like manner without hurting ourselves or others. The next lyric in the verse is “I don't believe you most of the time, I'm lying cause I say I am fine, You are the pearl, I am the swine. So break my life and take this rhyme, I'm so sorry but I do believe that all my bridges I have burned and I've earned a policy of no-return”, this set if lyrics just screams doubt and depression to me. I know that in my own walk with Jesus I feel the way Tyler does in this verse. I know Jesus is the way, the truth and the light, I know that without Him recovery from my mental illness isn’t possible because He is the chain breaker, He is the freedom maker, but even though I know all of these things and I know Jesus would never back down from a promise or betray my trust it’s hard for my emotional heart to 100% believe all of these things all of the time. When Tyler says “You are the pearl, I am the swine” he’s referring to Matthew 7:6 “Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces” in this verse Jesus is warning us against persisting in sharing what is sacred to people who find no value in it because you’ll just be attacked for doing so. In this lyric Tyler is referring to himself as the swine because over and over again God shows his grace to us, but over and over again we use that same grace and throw it back in God’s face. We all abuse His grace and His unconditional love for us daily. Everyday we indulge ourselves and deny serving others. We are all the swine, but even though we are depressed, doubtful, suicidal, angry and anxious Jesus still loves us, He meets us where we’re at and works with our broken bodies to make something glorious. All we have to do is trust Him.

[cpdevos]

3/27/21: Stop Making Jesus a Priority

Hey everyone!

It's been a minute since I've sent a devo out haha but I hope you all are joyous in Christ and are hanging in there during these tumultuous times by leaning into the sufficient grace of Jesus!

***author's warning: I just finished writing, and this devo is too long lol so, to spare your eyes, mind and time, I want to point you to the application part of this devo under the title: Consumed by Christ. I've attached to this devo a document that explains and gives in much more detail my thoughts and the Biblical basis for my arguments; use it at your disposable as a resource and let it serve as the backbone for the reasoning in the rest of this devo***

Take some time now to just be alone and center your heart on the Lord. It's easy to let your racing mind lead your thoughts, but ask God to help you focus for the next few minutes as we look at the christian's union with Christ I will discuss today. Pray to begin.

"What's the greatest advice you could give me Moses?"

I realize the title of this devotional is pretty controversial (intentionally), but I hope you will bear with me as I explain more of my thought in writing this. A few weeks ago, my roommate asked me, "If there was one piece of advice you could give me that has changed your life and would change mine, what would it be?" My roommate is a Christian, so sharing the gospel for his salvation - which is what I would have answered for anyone else - was not necessary (although recitation and the study of this glorious gospel, unto which angels even look into, is absolutely needed - 1 Pet. 1:3-12). So I told him to give me some time to think about it. Besides sitting under the wondrous teaching about the Holiness of God from R.C. Sproul (which had shattered and reframed the paradigm of my understanding of God), I wanted to share a more personal answer as to the way God had taught me what my relationship with Jesus ought to look like and what the purpose of my life was and is about. I ended up giving my roommate this answer a few days later, "Stop making Jesus a priority, make Him your life".

A Magisterial Christ

This is the portion of Scripture for today's devo:

2 Corinthians 3:18 (New King James Version)

18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

What do I mean by "Stop making Jesus a priority" and "make Him your life"? As I look at the different facets of our Christian life and holy living, the reality of our relationship with Christ, or rather "union with Christ", is the most prominent and dominant theme there is, especially in the New Testament. We must savor the Christ we serve in order to lead a life exemplifying our love for Him. In church we discuss spiritual disciplines, going to church service, going to Bible study and making sure we have quiet times in the mornings and evenings. But I want to contend that we can never draw life from those moments (and others) until we realize the truth that Christ is our life and any moment apart from living for and walking beside Him isn’t true living.

(in the attached document is my analysis of 2 Cor. 4:18)

Ponder, wrestle with, and meditate on this passage again. Scour every word and chew on the truths in it. Essentially, within the progression of this passage, we are called to this: “by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit who unveiled our eyes, we now are being transformed to be like Christ by savoring His glory and staring at His majesty as our Lord through the sanctifying work done through the Holy Spirit.” We look upon Jesus and the more we treasure the beauty of His kingship and His mighty authority over our lives, we then begin to see that Christian living is not one area of life; it is all consuming.

A Pervasive Christ

I hope now that we understand how glorious Jesus is and how worthy He is to savor. Now, we must realize that we are deeply connected to Him at every avenue, in every road we cross, and with regard to every aspect of life. Thus, the Bible focuses in on our union with Christ. While I’m no studied theologian, here are some of the most relevant ways I see the Bible speak about Jesus’ rootedness in our lives and the way He plays a role in every facet of it:

          (refer to the attached document for the list)

Obviously, this list is nowhere near exhaustive, but indeed, Jesus is the sole focus of the Bible. Even within the OT, we can’t escape it. Notice from now on, wherever you read Scripture, how every aspect points to Jesus. I especially love finding the hidden “in” word between every verse in Paul’s epistles. Almost all the passages we read and study within them include “in Christ Jesus” or some form of “in Him”. Whether it’s the blessings we receive from Him, or the identity we are given, or even how we live in newness of life (Rom. 6:4), we find it all in Jesus. Truly, there is no greater joy than singing ‘In Christ Alone’ while shouting it with confidence in meditation of these verses.

Consumed by Christ

Finally, we must ask the question: how can I live with this mindset? The reason I say “stop making Jesus a priority” is because we treat Him as if He is one. We love to say in church “just prioritize Christ over (fill in the blank)”. Sometimes I wonder why we put Jesus on a list. Granted, I must qualify that statement by agreeing that, in our busy lives, we need to make time for Jesus and as we schedule our days with tasks, we need to include our quiet time with Christ. However, we get into this mode where Jesus only becomes part of our lives. We associate Him with church, with bible study or fellowship groups and with our own quiet times. But what we often neglect, is that He is pervasive in every area of life. If indeed Christ touches the wholeness of our new being, we must consequently actively pursue Him. Renewing our minds (Rom. 12:2), which is an idea we throw around in church, is not just occasional. From the moments we rise to the moments we lie down to sleep, we must have given our best to allow Jesus to act as the exclusive sovereign over our every decision, our every word, our every interaction and our every impulse. This isn’t to say we should neglect our schooling, or our jobs or our social lives. I say this to exhort us all to the high demand of picking up our cross, and letting Jesus be the driving force behind every motive in our lives. So how do we do this? Here are some practical steps:

1. Study Jesus

This is easier said than done, but what we must start with if indeed we want to live out Jesus BY savoring Him, is to actually know Him. I think of Colossians 3:16 when I am reminding myself of being Spirit-filled and Christ centered. It reads, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom". It goes on to explain how we use it to teach and admonish others and sing praises to God in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (echoing Ephesians 5:18-19). This is the fruit of a Spirit-filled life: Christ-centered theology that leads to Christ-centered doxology. When we study Christ's teaching and His words as the passage commands us to do, we know how we ought to live. We know what we ought to set our minds on (Col. 3:1-4). Knowing Jesus and His teachings is the crucial first step to living a life that makes Jesus our lives instead of a priority. So, study the gospels again! (I recommend John) And fall in love with the Christ we so often forget.

2. Praying Christ

What do I mean when I say "praying Christ"? I mean that we ought to include Jesus in our every day thought processes and our actions and most importantly, our prayers! Now that you've taken steps actively to know Jesus (and be reminded, this never stops in your life), you can start to incorporate it daily. Whether it's waking up and checking your phone, doing homework or being at work, cooking, hanging with friends, reading a book, playing games, etc. make sure to "pray Christ". Let Him dwell in your heart by faith (Eph. 3:17) and ask that He would, through His Holy Spirit, guide you in your actions. As you practice this discipline, I believe that Christ's words and His teachings will start to permeate your thinking, and this happens as the Holy Spirit sanctifies (grows) you to be more like Him.

3. Commune with a Sister or Brother In Christ

This step is one that I've been learning lately. A sermon I heard recently on Gal. 6:2-5 was about what it means to be Spirit-filled in terms of its outpouring into the church. Too often we find ourselves believing that our growth happens only internally. That the fruit of the Spirit in Gal 5 only refer to personal sanctification. But I was reminded so graciously that this is not so. We are being transformed unto Christ ALSO in the way we love others, especially those in the church. So, going back to our mission "making Jesus our lives, not just a priority", we must seek accountability (as with most if not all other things). I can say from personal testimony that this has been a wildly life-changing step to my growth. Whether it was addressing personal sin, learning from others, sharing in my burdens and griefs, or just exercising patience with another, I learned that in doing life together, God uses our brothers and sisters in Christ to sharpen us. Similarly, when we make Christ our life, we should do it with other believers. My challenge to you, if you have read this far lol, is to write on your planner a day of the week you would like to text or email another Christian in your life. Reach out to them, ask to call, see how they are doing, or even grab a cup of coffee (if permissible, because guess what y'all, COVID is real and not something to joke about). Whatever it is, tell them about your endeavor to pursue Christ wholeheartedly. Share with them something you're learning and ask them to text you a few days later to check up on you (and you can do the same for them). This will foster a culture of active pursuit of Christ within fellowship that is fruitful for everyone.

4. Write It Out

This last step I would recommend (there honestly are many more, but this devo is getting so long lol) is to make a dedication with this practice: Once a week, find something that relates to our union with Christ (whether in the OT about the salvation not yet realized and God's sovereign hand over it, Jesus' teaching and His life as recorded in the gospels, or the epistles which always have "in Christ..."). Write that verse or passage out and reflect on its ideas. Using this week's passage for example, I may write out in my journal: "Glory of Christ...What does that mean? Where does the Bible speak about Christ's glory? What even is glory? How is it used in the Greek and Hebrew texts? What does the heaviness of God's glory mean for me? etc." Remember, we are bondservants, slaves of Christ now. Jesus is our savior and the one we will exalt forever. It is time we awake from our slumber and focus on Him and His glorious return. So, go through some of the places I recommended above (Jesus' "I AM" statements in the gospels are crazy) and at least once a week, write that passage down you found that was unique. Then, pray over it. Study it. Break it down. Plunge your Bible with notes and questions. Survey the whole Bible and the full counsel of God. Look up commentaries and study resources. Whatever you do, remember to write it out for the sake of remembering it throughout the week. This final step, which may be more intensive, will bleed into the other steps. As we dissect Jesus' life and let the Holy Spirit illuminate Scripture and lead us into all truth, we can begin to lead a life that holistically encompasses Jesus and evidently displays gospel-transformation.

There are many things I've learned in my walk with Christ (even though I have only walked with Him seriously for the past few years) but so far this has been the biggest lesson. We are called Christians for a reason: we follow, worship, and serve Jesus Christ. Nowadays, the idea of worship is obscure. God is a myth. Religion is flavorless. Sin is a made up idea. But as Christians who have been saved by the gracious hand of God we know how beautiful Jesus is, and our calling now is to worship Him in the fullest and know Him intimately by beholding His glory. We were made for His pleasure, and so the fulfillment and meaning of anyone's life is found in Christ and Christ alone. Our relationship with God isn't dry. God isn't a distant God. We now have all the resource by God's Word and through His Spirit to bring Jesus to the ends of the earth and proclaim His gospel not only in evangelism, but also through the fruit in our lives. So, stop making Jesus a priority and make Him your life.

Truly,

Moses

cpdevos 3/27/21