#to make sure the creator is ok with their own video of themselves being posted on tiktok

[catflowerqueen]

OK, lots of interesting lore this episode. So apparently whenever Sun and Moon dimension hop they are not just going to dimensions where it is Minecraft—they're going to like a normal dimension and then just putting on a Minecraft filter. So what they see is Minecraft… which kind of makes me wonder what those dimensions actually look like, and if they’re using a filter to protect themselves or if they're doing that to protect the viewers (assuming they aren’t just doing it because it makes things more amusing). As machines, they can comprehend probably a lot more stuff than we humans can—but at the same time they might have a harder time interpreting some of it. But they might also be able to like rework their framework so things don't fry them in the same way it would for a human. Presumably.

Anyways. As far as the actual main content of the video goes, it looks like they did indeed go with possibility #2 from my previous post (except with a worrying lack of Lunar’s inclusion). It’s good to see Monty being such a supportive friend! And as weird as it is to see Moon being called the optimist out of the two brothers—especially considering some extremely pessimistic things he’s said about himself and how generally unhappy and self-deprecating he is a lot of the time—it actually does make quite a bit of sense the way Monty explains it.

And it was nice that Moon actually acknowledge how much Lunar helps him keep a grip on his sanity. Hearing that probably made Lunar very happy—as well as a bit sad that Moon suffers so much, I’m sure. That’s how I felt hearing that, at least. And it’s also it’s really, really sweet that the reason Moon wants Lunar to get his own body now is so that Lunar won’t have to go through what he—and to a lesser extent, Sun—went through when he and Sun shared a body. He wants Lunar to be free, and to be able to have fun… even though he knows what it could cost him. Also—it’s starting to seem like there really might be a worry about Lunar getting corrupted by staying in Moon’s body if even Moon is concerned, and his explanation of the problem is a lot more compelling than what Eclipse was talking about. Though I still don’t think it is quite as desperate a situation as Moon is currently worrying about.

As far as that bit about the contingencies go… I mean, as hard as that is to hear, Moon doesn’t really have a leg to stand on considering he’s done the same thing multiple times—for both himself and for Monty. It’s nice that he still wants to acknowledge the friendship sentiment though! And it is both depressing and gratifying that Moon acknowledges how the others don’t interact with him at all (beyond when they want something from him—like Freddy recently coming to him for help).

I hope he can meet back up with Sun soon, and that Sun helps him get to the computer to get those repairs done and then sits him down with blankets, bolts, and oil, and talks him through what he was actually trying to say before Moon ran off. Because in addition to him and Moon needing to communicate better, Moon also desperately, desperately needs to rest because he has literally been running himself ragged these past few months.

And I do seriously wonder what the Creator was thinking in installing that kill code. Because based on what he just told Sun, I really don’t think it makes any sense for that to be there unless it was supposed to be some sort of defense mechanism that just got seriously messed up upon installation.

[thefanficmonster]

Filterless

Corpse Husband x Plus-sized Reader (Female)

Warnings: Body Image Insecurities, Low self-esteem, Swearing

Genre:  Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: Feeling comfortable in her skin has hardly ever been the case for Y/N who’s been struggling with body image issues all her life. However, they only get worse when she sees the ‘type’ of girls her crush is into.

Requested by Anon. Hi darling! Thank you so much for your request (hits close to home 😅) I’m so sorry it has taken me so long to fulfill it and post it but here it finally is and if you’ve stuck around long enough to read it, I hope you enjoy! ALSO! - Never forget how beautiful and amazing you are. Never compare your beauty to someone else’s. We’re all beautiful people and we all shine so brightly and uniquely. No one deserves to be compared to anyone when we’re all so different yet so incredible. Love you and appreciate you with all my heart, Vy ❤

If I ever need my ego taken down a few notches - it never does, it’s barely even present, to be honest - all I have to do is go on Instagram. To be honest, regardless of how I’m feeling, opening that app is bound to make my mood plummet and come crashing into the ground so hard it drives a hole in it - probably in the form of a broken heart.

Being a content creator myself, I often get asked questions about my absence on that social platform specifically. I mean, the questions are based and rational I guess, considering I’m not a faceless YouTuber and yet my Instagram account is void of any photos. It’s not like I don’t post at all - I do! I post on my story often but it’s more often than not scenery I find pretty or a poster I’ve made for a movie/video game. Bottom line is: I barely ever allow a picture of me to make it online. The most my fans are ever gonna get of me is a selfie which is also a super rare occurrence because of how long it takes me to take and choose one I don’t hate.

Ok, but how am I supposed to find the motivation to post any sort of picture of myself when on my timeline I’m always faced with people worthy of posting pictures of themselves. People with such perfect bodies and beautiful faces. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not jealous or envious of those people - good for them! They know what they’re working with and they’re working it well. I have nothing against them, in fact, I love seeing people proud of their bodies no matter their size, shape or weight. Those are my role-models: people who are proud of themselves, their bodies, their attributes and capabilities and don’t hesitate to show them off. Those are the people I look up to but, deep down inside I know I’ll never be like.

Insecure about my body, having been referred to as ‘chubby’ and ‘squishy’ all my life. Inappreciative of the stuff I do: starting from my job as a graphic designer leading towards my job on YouTube - nothing I do, professionally or otherwise, satisfies me. Nothing I do is enough in my eyes because I feel incapable of ever being able to do enough. I’ve been called lazy and a half-asser a few too many times to be able to brush it off as a meaningless insult. 

With these problems I’ve had with myself and my own perception of who I am and the work I do, I’ve never had the time for romance or romantic relationships. I second-guess the intentions of everyone who ever shows any interest in me because in my mind I’m nothing special and I have nothing to offer - nothing attractive or likable at least. That being said, I haven’t even been one to make heart eyes at others either. I busy myself with my job and some side-gigs, brushing off any relationship questions with the excuse that I’m ‘just too busy to be in a relationship’ which is technically true.

Having spent twenty plus years with that mindset, one can imagine how surprised I was when I found myself catching feelings for someone. And that someone just couldn’t be any other than the biggest YouTube sensation at the moment - Corpse Husband.

I’m close friends with Poki - her and I were roommates at one point too - so her inviting me to play Among Us with them wasn’t so strange. One or two games, I thought, nothing unusual there, just friendly curtesy. I wasn’t expecting to warm up to the group of famous streamers nor did I expect them to welcome me among them so easily, mostly because my channel is so small and practically invisible to the YouTube algorithm. But soon enough, I became a permanent member of the team, making friends with every single one of those YouTubers I practically thought of a celebrities.

This journey of branching out to other content creators has proven itself to be surprisingly pleasant and has packed my book of friendships to the brim. All of that came unexpectedly, along with a wave of new subs and a higher view count. However, as I mentioned, it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. I came to finally understand what my high school friends were talking about when they were head over heels for a boy - the butterflies in the stomach whenever he speaks your name; the importance of the laugh you share with him, how special and different it is; how cool it is to be impostors with him - ok they never said that, obviously, but it’s what I have as a substitute to the ‘when the two of you make eye-contact’ bullshit since Corpse and I have never seen each other in person. That is, of course, because of him being a faceless YouTuber and me being a self-conscious and insecure girl.

We do talk all the time though - texting, calling, chilling on Discord, you name it. Our conversations range from deeply philosophical to ones that might mislead someone into thinking we’re high. There’s no topic we haven’t touched upon and yet we still manage to find something new to talk about. We have plenty of similarities but we also never seem to run out of differences we slowly come across as we keep getting to know each other better and better. 

And somewhere along that journey I ended up catching feelings.

Human nature of wanting to connect with other people, I curse you for what you’ve done to me.

You might think I’m being overdramatic about the whole ordeal and that this is just a normal, natural occurrence many people experience in their life - some even daily. Well, not only am I far from used to it, but it’s also taking a toll of a different kind on me.

It’s like a constant slap to the face. 

That slap turned into a punch when Corpse and I started following each other on Instagram and I started getting daily reminders of how out of my depth I am with this crush on him. In over my head, especially when you look at all those girls whose pics and videos he reposts on his story. Imagine how that makes me feel, what that does to me - puts me back into the ‘Constantly not good enough‘ basket, the one I’ve been fighting to get out of all my life. In the past and in different contexts I could easily say that it was all just my mind hating me intensely but now - now that I know for a fact I’m not good enough and don’t fit Corpse’s criteria - it hurts ten times as much. I’m not one to do shit for someone’s attention or to attract someone’s eyes, but it really hurts my feelings. Often times, it also leads me to doing dumb things and making rash decisions. 

Like the one I made two days ago.

Imagine me cringing and shaking my head at my own stupidity as I admit this: I, in a frenzy, ordered a whole e-girl getup with overnight delivery. 

Wait, hold up, it gets worse. 

I received it yesterday and spent the whole day regretting that decision, but then, in my most insecure hours - which was somewhere around midnight - I equipped the get-up, took a picture and posted it on my Instagram page. First full body pic I’ve ever posted on there. First pic I’ve posted there of any kind. There to stay, not to be gone in twenty four hours. First pic, and it’s not even of me. It’s of who I want to be in order to fit someone’s criteria. And that fucking stings.

As you might imagine, I’ve spent today’s day regretting that decision as well. Recently my mood’s been nothing but regretting rash decisions that have surfaced under the influence of my ridiculous, constantly-present insecurities. And I would’ve probably gotten over it rather quickly had I not received a message from Corpse that read:

“Didn’t think of you with an e-girl aesthetic“

I didn’t open the message, I peeped at it as it was a notification on my lock screen. It’s still there, an unread notification. It’s been two hours since I received it and I cannot think of a single thing to say in response to that. 

Truth is, I’m afraid. I’m afraid of so many things right now.

I’m afraid of becoming that girl in the photo, cause I’m most definitely not her.

I’m afraid of letting Corpse down by admitting I’m not her.

I’m afraid of what my own mind has made me do because it hates me so much and I’m terrified of what it might do in the future.

I’m afraid and stranded on things to do.

You can’t be her forever, you know. Being her won’t make your insecurities go away, it’ll only make them worse. Haven’t you learned that by now?

I sigh, frustrated and irritated with myself as I grab my phone and tap on the notification, finally deciding to face the music and allow my instincts to carry me through the interaction. Improvisation, that’s one of the few things I’m good at. Let’s hope it doesn’t fail me.

I’m just about to type out my response - not sure what it’s gonna say - when I give the message Corpse has sent me a second glance.  I furrow my brows, finding there’s more to it than that peep through the notification let me see.

“Didn’t think of you with an e-girl aesthetic. You’re personality is so bright and colorful, I could’ve never imagined you were into the darks and blacks“

Because I’m not

I fail to realize until the message has been sent that my thoughts are exactly what I typed out and sent.

And honestly, I’m glad. It feels like I’ve spoken my truth, like I’ve lifted a huge boulder off my chest.

With that rare confidence in mind I go on and delete the picture.

In its spot, I post a picture I just now took - a mirror selfie in my homey get-up consisting of hot pink sweatpants and an oversized blue tee, my hair in a messy bun, my face free of make-up.

I caption it: ‘Oops, had the e-girl filter on for the last one. This is filterless me tho so...Hi 🥴’

A lot better, I’m surprised to hear my inner voice say. I hope I don’t get used to all this kindness on my brain’s part, probably won’t last, but damn if I don’t milk every second of it.

Just then, I receive a new message from non other than Corpse.

“Now that’s the girl I see when I think of you. She’s super cute 😉“

My, oh my, who would’ve guessed Corpse has a game like that - and by that I mean the ability to make me blush so intensely with only a text message.

Now ain’t that better than being someone else, Y/N?

It sure is, it sure is.

@maat-the-prescriptive  @simonsbluee  @save-the-sky  @itsminniekat  @hacker-ghost  @bi-andready-tocry  @imtiredaffff  @jazzkaurtheglorious  @hereforbeebo  @fandomgirl17  @chrysanthykios  @maehemscorpyus  @loraleiix  @letsloveimagines  @annshit  @i-cant-choose-a-username-help  @enigmaticmaze  @divine-artemis  @waterlilypat  @idontknowwhatthisisfam  @evi-ka  @classyandfabulous00  @redperson58  @lilysdaydreams @solowheein  @mythicalamphitrite  @axen-gers  @luckygirl144  @nj01  @buddyemily   @the-albino-lioness  @stardream14  @gdhdkfnn  @nomadicgypsyy  @preciousskye  @fluffysuicideunicornsworld  @o-kaelin  @manacharlotte  @awkward-youtube-trash  @lolalee24  @bonky-beerns  @meme-lord-and-savior-sebastian  @strawbrinkofdeath  @teenloves  @tams0527  @browneyespinkhair  @starstruckllamapuppy  @daisychains012  @y0ulooked  @tinytacosuitcaseflap @supernatural-is-my-only-life  @jula-pauline  @melodykitty  @just-that-bi-girl  @crazybutconfidentaf  @lowellshade @alphakees  @bellero  @weallneednamjesus  @starryhanji  @boiled-onionrings  @husherstan  @fockingwhore  @melaningoddessthings  @prettypastelpetals  @haleypearce  @godwhyamiawkward  @y-napotat  @daisychainyoonmin  @little-miss-rebel3  @free-wheelin-bi-sexual  @redmoon261 @darkacademic2  @wiseflamingoqueen  @into-the-end  @namikhai-i  @nastiablr  @thelittleplantlover  @mirktuan  @dont-hyuck @jjk-bunny  @vintagegothlover  @easygoingtheatre  @itsrandombooklover  @miiaivi  @emmybaybee  @befourgolden  @jjk-is-my-shit  @eternalteaaars  @spacebadgerx  @princesslunalight  @acequinn14  @samm48  @misselsbells06 @simp-lykawa  @fo-love  @marishimomura-blog  @therealglenncoco  @cinnamonbun332  @killtherandomness  @sanshinexxxsan  @fee-btheweeb  @press-lay  @cathleenpotgieter16  @jazzydoesstuff  @moonlxghtbay  @forestrain2000  @hyunjinhugs  @blood-of-fandoms  @lovellylies  @ukiyolixx  @simpforhpcharacters  @chrisdylan17  @parkerjisung  @pedernille  @theodonyous  @wineandionysus  @malfoystilinskii05  @morbid-x  @coryisagee  @jessewa26  @scoobydooluver97 @mindintheskies365  @raeanneinwonderland  @indecisive-empanada  @gluttonypalace  @loriane2503  @btsiguess-kpop  @khaoticbunny  @lucidlycactus  @smiithys  @rottenroyalebooks  @kpopgirlbtssvt  @fangirl-tc27  @fr0z3n-1  @notmesimpingfortechno  @shotarosleftpinky  @kunoi-chan  @idk-whats-wrong-with-me  @yikeroonie  @goldenstarofthunderclan  @poetry-and-tea  @ama-do-writing-stuff  @wishbonewolf  @emeraldxhope  @t0xick1tty  @kusuinko  @speakyourselfloveyourself  @sophia902103  @lo-manburg  @classsykittykat  @dmgama  @depressedpuppythatneedscoffee  @btsiguess-kpop  @akaashi-baby  @gun-jong-simp  @geschichtenfee  @yerapotato-wp  @browneyedgirl365  @thysagclub  @sparklycloudnight  @helloatomicshadow  @queentorresstuff @vtte @val-gal  @lucy-bunny17  @aaliyahh0  @katluckybear  @boyleanti  @straybids  @franchesca-791  @cosmicstorm19  @averyisbackinthetrashcan  @aomi-nabi  @xlanawriter  @allensimpsforcorpse

[interdimensionalspaceworm]

this isn’t a malicious ask, but i’m just genuinely curious what your take on crankiplier is when you take into consideration that

1) ethan has given his fans explicit permission to ship him with people and write fanfiction as long as they don’t harass him with it

2) mark has reblogged a piece of crankiplier fanart

3) they’ve flirted or interacted in a way suggesting they’re attracted to each other purposefully for the fandom’s response,

exhibit a) when they called one of their bits “queerbaiting for charity” (mark petting ethan + calling him a good boy + feeding him fruit snacks + eskimo kissing for donations on a charity stream)

exhibit b) mark saying he thought about kissing ethan onstage during tour (i assume because the fangirls would’ve gone nuts)

exhibit c) in general, knowing that jokes about getting married, dating, implying a sexual relationship, etc. would cause fan speculation but proceeding to include them in videos regardless

i’m not big on shipping real people either, and we should all certainly do our best to keep that part of the fandom low-key, but like. the circumstances here are much different than septiplier. i wouldn’t shame anyone for this one

Ok so as I said, I’ll try to address each of your points. Thank you for being willing to talk with me, I hope you’ll take into consideration the points I’m going to make. 

1) I’ve seen those posts, and while it is true that Ethan has said these things, it was (correct me if I’m wrong) a while ago and his position on this may have changed since then. I know that isn’t a real convincing point, but you also have to agree that Ethan in particular is generally very permissive towards his fandom. But his permissiveness should not be taken as a free pass to ship him whenever you want. If a parent says you can go out with friends, that doesn’t mean you can go to Junkie Jimmy’s house party. Just because you have been given permission to do something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, or that you should.

2) Again, correct me if I’m wrong (because I haven’t seen the post), but a lot of ship fanart (especially controversial ship fanart) tends to be pretty ambiguous due to the nature of shipping. Unless said fanart was undeniably ship art, it’s very possible that Mark simply saw a cool piece of fanart and decided to reblog it without checking the context of it. If anyone knows what post this is, please tell me so I can figure out if that might have been the case.

3) This is probably the biggest point I’m going to make here, so I’m going to put it in bold. It’s never ok to ‘speculate’ on real people’s lives with regard to their interpersonal relationships. Ever. Full stop. It is not the job of content creators to tailor their content to leave out parts that would ‘cause fan speculation’. They’re real people, not characters whose every interaction is available for debate. They’re not ‘suggesting’ anything. They’re just people who live their lives and are comfortable in their friendship with each other. People do that. And it’s not the job of anyone who doesn’t know them to decide their relationship. You don’t know them. None of the shippers here or anywhere else know them. And using them for your own fulfillment, sexualizing them into lovey-dovey caricatures of themselves, is truly and simply morally repugnant. 

Your points rely on suggesting that Mark and Ethan are purposely ‘riling up’ the fanbase by making content that ‘suggests’ crankiplier, but the truth is that either a. it’s a joke between friends (your own friends probably mess around with each other in the same way. I know mine sure do) or b. the shippers are reading way too far into simple interaction.

I’m not trying to be a stickler about these things, but when it comes to real people shipping, it’s not about saying ‘ohh you can’t ship that’ just because you can. I’m not saying it just to ruin anyone’s fun, or to be ableist towards people with hyperfixations (I have ADHD. I know neurodivergent people can still be ableist, but that’s beside the point), or anything like that. I’m against crankiplier, and all rpf ships, because they rely on sexualizing and purposely misconstruing interactions between people. Real people, with lives, and thoughts, and relationships with their loved ones. Real people with boundaries that must be respected. 

And it’s no coincidence that most of these ships tend to be mlm. It’s a symptom of toxic masculinity that people can look at a healthy friendship between two men and say ‘they can’t be that close without being gay’. It’s not your place to interpret that. 

So here’s my message to rpf shippers: leave them alone. Ironically, by being gross about their relationships, you only drive these people farther apart because they begin to believe that anything they do will be sexualized by shippers. I saw it happen 4 years ago. It can, and will, happen again.

To those with hyperfixations: I hear you. I was there, once. I learned to change my trajectory a little bit to focus only on fictional characters (by zealously reading YA novels about dragons. If it works, it works.). I know that’s waaaay easier said than done, but if you make a real commitment to yourself, you can find a way. And maybe, in a few months, your old ships won’t be so enticing anymore.

And to those who choose to harass and send death threats, on either side of the argument: stop. You’re not helping anyone. One day, the fandom will come together and say that there is no place for rpf shipping here. But every aggressive comment pushes us farther apart. 

I know this sounds ironic, coming from me, but I don’t have any hate towards those who rpf ship. You are not a bad person. What you are participating in, however, is ethically wrong. You must know that. The only people in this entire circumstance that I harbor any ill will towards are the people who continue to insist that rpf shipping is right. That somehow they, as fans, get to ‘speculate’ on the relationships between others. They who continue to show disrespect towards the very content creators they claim to support so much. And I refuse to support that.

Thank you for sending this ask and allowing me to elaborate on my stance on these things. I know this is unlikely to change anyone’s minds about it, but it’s all worth it if even one person can realize that they’re supporting something they shouldn’t be supporting. And to those people: it’s ok. Trust me, we’ve all been there.

[homeformyheart]

until now - m!raleigh carrera x mc (plat)

author’s note: trying my hand at a shorter piece and for platinum – there will probably be at least one follow-up to this but both will stay as one-shots.

copyright: all characters owned by pixelberry studios. songs and lyrics owned by their respective creators. series/pairing: platinum – raleigh carrera x mc (cadence dorian); mentions of jessica clark (red carpet diaries mc) rating/warnings: 13+; swearing, infidelity, angst word count: 1.7k based on/prompt: “should’ve said no” by taylor swift summary: raleigh gets too drunk and too close to a fan and the only real relationship he’s ever had falls apart.

until now

cadence could recall exactly where she was the moment r&b’s timebomb blew up the internet. she couldn’t recall with detail how she felt or how she reacted in that immediate moment but she could describe the exact shade of brown from her morning latte that stained the open page of her notebook because she stared at it for a solid five minutes after the headlines broke. she was working on a new single for her upcoming album that needed an angsty, heartbreak vibe to balance the upbeat, love-focused songs she had already written. she had a few lines written (it’s strange to think the songs we used to sing / the smiles, the flowers, everything) but had been struggling with motivation to come up with anything more – after all, she hadn’t been heartbroken in a while.

she was happy in her relationship with raleigh and where she was in her career. her first world tour had been a huge success, with raleigh joining her on tour as often as he could. after her tour was over, he insisted he didn’t want to wake up in his apartment without her and it didn’t take long before cadence moved into his penthouse. a few months later, she was able to join raleigh for the beginning of his transformation world tour, his first album since deciding he could embrace the things he enjoyed from his sunset skatepark days, making it his most personal project to date. of course, whenever the music and obligations to the studio called her back to new york, they facetimed as much as they could.

dating cadence had given raleigh some of the “good boyfriend” brownie points with the public related to loyalty and affection. it helped that cadence defended him against unfair accusations and doubled down on how well he treated her to the media and their fans. and no matter what part of his reputation was theme-of-the-week over at the tabloids – shameless flirt, heartbreaker, wild card, adrenaline junkie, to name the popular ones – raleigh never gave anyone a reason to label him as a cheater and more importantly, never gave cadence any reason not to trust him. even in his fake relationships, raleigh made sure that that part of his reputation was sterling. until now.

her phone had buzzed non-stop when the news broke – to the point where she thought she was getting phone calls that sounded like a ticking time bomb but they were mostly texts and social media notifications. the headlines filled her feed one after another – “raleigh carerra cheats on cadence dorian!” “did ralence break-up?” “was cadence too boring for raleigh?” “cadence drives raleigh into arms of another woman!” – along with hundreds of theories painted by devastated and thirsty fans alike who picked apart every public appearance, interaction, social media post, and song lyric associated with the two of them for the past six months as if they could find incriminating clues and signs of a slowly fizzling relationship like amateur sleuths. cadence had to give them props – it’s not like she wouldn’t eventually do the same once she was ready to process the relationship; in some ways, the fans gave her a head start.

how was she supposed to react to this right now? the photos and videos definitely highlighted that sabrina simmons, who cadence vaguely recognized as a media-hungry and wannabe actress from one of raleigh’s older music videos, cozying up to and grinding on raleigh at a club in london, presumably the afterparty for the closing night of his tour. cadence could also point out every tell-tale sign that raleigh was drunk out of his mind; he was relishing in the attention from sabrina and being inappropriately handsy for someone in a well-known, committed relationship. what most people didn’t know, was that cadence could forgive that – raleigh was normally flirty and handsy and alcohol always exacerbated it. what she didn’t think she could forgive was the next thing she saw – or rather heard.

if cadence felt like she was close to either having a raging smash-everything-breakable-in-raleigh’s-apartment spree or an emotional-because-her-heart-was-actually-breaking meltdown, the audio clip that hit her inbox pushed her to the teetering edge of both. the recording was barely 15 seconds long but it was damning. given the circumstances, it was probably planted or planned by sabrina who wanted to catapult herself into internet fame by taking advantage of raleigh’s reputation. her voice could be heard asking him if he wanted to come back to her hotel room. the question didn’t matter to cadence though, because raleigh’s response – “fuck yes” – was clear as day and cadence knew it would haunt her for months to come.

[jessica: just saw the videos – u ok? i’m heading home to iowa for a break from work, come stay with me, no one will find you there]

cadence quickly typed out a text reply, grateful for the close friendship she had with jessica clarke, the actress-turned-director who directed the music video for her last single. there was only one call she needed to make. if anyone was already putting things in motion, it was fiona. right on cue, she picked up and before cadence could say two words, said, “i’m so sorry cadence. i’ve already got movers on the other line and hank’s on his way.”

“thanks fiona. i’m going to stay with jessica in iowa and lay low for a bit. raleigh is not allowed to find out where i am; i will get a new phone if i need to,” cadence said, calmly starting to pull out and sort her things from raleigh’s closet so the movers would know exactly what to pack while she ironed out a few more details with fiona.

raleigh was still way too drunk when his manager barged into his hotel room and forced him into the shower. he was very drunk when his security team had to half-drag him all the way to where the private jet was waiting at the airport. he was mostly drunk throughout the eight-hour flight back to new york and progressed to staggeringly hungover by the time he was in a private car heading back to his penthouse apartment. once raleigh felt like he was only massively hungover, he pulled out his phone to text cadence. he became only mostly hungover after seeing that his texts weren’t going through. in a matter of seconds, his now slightly hungover state took a backseat to the anxiety filling his stomach as he tried calling to no avail. he frowned as he opened his news feed. the headlines alone made his eyes widen but the videos were what sobered him up the rest of the way.

a new email in his inbox from cadence caught his eye. it was an audio clip and a straightforward message: just so we’re clear, our relationship is over.

cadence was halfway to the airport when she saw the incoming call from an unknown number. she knew it was probably raleigh since she had blocked his number, but she answered the call anyway. she knew she was going to need the closure, may as well get it out of the way.

“cadence? it’s me, please don’t hang up. i’m so sorry, babe. i have no idea what happened, believe me. i woke up in my own hotel room alone, i promise,” raleigh begged, the pit in his stomach had lodged itself in his throat, threatening to turn into tears.

she chose to ignore what he just said. if she let herself pull at that thread and dig into it further to see if it was the truth, she’d never be able to end things cleanly. “tell me this – was she worth it? was she worth this?” she asked, her voice hardened as a reminder to both herself and raleigh that he couldn’t sweet talk his way out of this one.

“of course not. i was black out drunk and don’t remember anything, i swear. all of the stuff in the videos and photos, it was all just—” raleigh’s voice softened, “a moment of weakness.”

“that’s convenient since i’m pretty sure this wasn’t an isolated moment,” cadence said in a clipped tone, examining her worn nail beds. she made a mental note to ask jessica for salon recommendations in her hometown. “do you honestly expect me to believe we could ever be the same?”

“i love you, cadence. i would never cheat on you, babe – you have to believe me,” raleigh pleaded, swallowing his pride at the fact that he was begging right now.

cadence let out a dry, humorless laugh. “i don’t have to do anything, those recordings speak for themselves. you should’ve known that what you did with her would get back to me. and you know what i think? you knew what you were doing. you actually had everything you could’ve ever wanted – the fame, fortune, and creative freedom that comes with success in this industry and something real with someone who cares about the real you, not the curated, fake version of you.”

she paused to take a deep breath and blink back the tears pooling in the corner of her eyes. keep it together, cadence, she told herself. “and it scared the shit out of you, didn’t it? it got too real for you because having something real and precious as love in your life also means you could lose it too. and even the thought of that happening made you feel so vulnerable that instead of treasuring and protecting it you decided to utterly destroy the only real relationship you’ve ever had. congratulations – you’ve perfected your bad boy reputation and collected the last trophy you needed, cheater.”

her words cut right through him. “i— i’m so sorry, cadence,” raleigh whispered into the phone. “i swear, i don’t remember saying yes to her or even doing anything with her. please just, tell me what i need to do to fix this.”

the audio recording replayed on loop in cadence’s mind. after a long pause, she whispered back, “you should’ve said no.” the finality of cadence’s tone was punctuated by the beep from his phone indicating she had hung up.

raleigh stood up from the couch where he had sat while on the phone with cadence. as he walked toward the bathroom, he finally looked around his apartment and realized that all of her stuff was gone. the apartment was empty, quiet, almost sterile with its clear surface areas and shiny, clean floors. it was like she had never lived here; his closet didn’t have the hint of jasmine from the perfume on her clothes, his sink counter was devoid of her jewelry and makeup, his music room wasn’t drowning in loose sheets of paper covered in her handwriting, and worst of all, the clothes she always borrowed of his, including his oversized tour shirts and sweatpants, were folded neatly on his bed.

he reached into the back corner of his closet, the side closest to the door, where no one ever stored or looked for anything until he found his gym bag. his felt around the old shirts in the bag until his fingers wrapped around a small, velvet box. he didn’t have to open it to recall the vivid five-carat emerald-cut diamond ring he had planned on proposing to cadence with. he held the box against his forehead, hand clenched around it, before throwing it as hard as he could out the bedroom door into the living room, twisting and turning his body from a crouching to an upright position in one smooth motion. maybe he should’ve been a baseball pitcher instead. it hit the far wall with a resounding thud.

the echo reverberated throughout his living room until it was met with silence, once again reminding him that he was utterly alone. and for the first time in a very long time, he cried. raleigh carrera had never been heartbroken before. until now.

* * * * * mentions: @raleigh-edward; @dulceghernandez; @thegreentwin; @kat-tia801; @otherworldlypresents; @brycesgirl; @robintora;

[antonradke-music]

DJ’s: YOU AREN’T PRODUCERS. TAKE THAT WORD OUT OF YOUR SOCIAL BIOS.

Possibly controversial opinion:

TLDR: DJ's: If you're not posting original music, edits, remixes, or anything of the sort. Please don't put "producer" in your SoundCloud bio. It's alot like that guy in High School who would say "Yea man I play guitar, I shred like, all the time" then you hand him a guitar and he just starts goin ham with a poorly executed and under-practiced "Smoke on the Water" or "Enter Sandman" opening riff. On repeat. The entire time he plays. Except with DJ/Producers you can't just hand someone a laptop to "hear them shred on a DAW" so its alot easier to get away with in our EDM world.

FULL RANT: There is a huge difference between "DJ" and "Producer" and there isn't a single thing wrong with just being a "DJ" and not both. People still need and want DJ mixes. There's zero shame in admitting that you don't, or don't know how to, produce music.

  It only bugs me (and to be clear, it doesn't even bug me all that much) coz producers like myself and my friends spend countless hours learning and mastering our craft, so that title of "producer" is somewhat earned in my opinion. You can't just download a DAW and say "I'm a producer" if you've never once truly used it.

  Producers create. DJ's mix. If your SC page is only mixes, you're a DJ. If your SC page contains original content/music you created yourself, then there's nothing wrong with adding that "producer" bit in your bio. Even if what you're posting is ID's, WIPs, ideas, bootlegs, etc. It doesn't need to be fully finished and mastered music.  If you created it, you produced it, you are a producer on some level (beginner/intermediate/TUNE GOD, etc)

If you're a DJ now, and are just now learning to produce, just wait until you start posting/uploading your tunes. THEN add that fabled "producer" title to your socials.

  I'm also not alone. Myself and several of my producer friends have expressed at least some frustration towards the DJ's that both call themselves a producer in their socials and even (sometimes) out in public. It can definitely be a "wtf" moment (and this has literally happened to me before) when you are talking to someone, be it an Entertainment/Booking manager or a bigger DJ, telling them about your music and your work. Then another DJ shows up and starts doing the same. But you know that person, and you're aware of the fact that they've never made a tune or have even tried to start learning.

  Now there's the possibility that someone who's never worked on tunes in their life could get the credit or booking that you were working so hard for, and they didn't spend a minute doing the same. They just happen to be VERY good at talking to promoters, knowing what they want to hear, and manipulating the truth to fit a narrative that will get them hired or booked. And this has happened to me. They ended up getting a better time slot than me as they grossly exaggerated their SoundCloud stats, and played a song to the promoter by an underground artist claiming that it was their own. I kept my mouth shut. I should have spoken up, but I didn't think his ploy would work and I was new to that particular local scene, I wanted to avoid burning bridges or looking salty/bad. His set ended up being really rough, he'd lied about knowing CDJ gear (he didn't), spent an hour trainwrecking almost every transition, the dance floor was empty by the end of his set, he left the venue in a hurry afterwards and I've never seen him since.

Unfortunately it's not like many local event managers actually care. They just want a good DJ, and they'll often believe you if you tell them you're more than just a DJ. They likely don't have a reason to doubt you, and often don't care enough to check the validity of those claims. Or maybe they don't even know the difference between "DJ" and "Producer"

So in in summary: DJ's. You're not producers. Not unless you make your own music/Unless you are a creator. And just for the record, opening a DAW, playing with Serum for a few minutes, and tossing a few loops into a bus/channel doesn't count. Take the time to learn properly how to write progressions/melodies, program sequences, mix-down your track elements, structure your tune and bonus points for doing it all without presets (learn sound design) and without loops (learn drum & pattern sequencing) If you have that DAW installed, you're already sooo much farther ahead than tons of others in your position. Hit up YouTube for some tutorials and you're on your way! 

In Conclusion: Please. Please. PLEASE don't take credit for the kind of work producers spend up to 10-15 hours a track doing (my average time to finish a song entirely). You could cost a talented soul a gig or time slot they've been busting their asses for for years. There really isn't anything wrong with being JUST a DJ. Its a good thing, and still a valid and useful skillset with tons of work/gig opportunities. I played plenty of gigs before I really started calling myself a "producer". You may not get the best timeslots as compared to producers. But be honest with yourself, you could be a fantastic DJ, but who most deserves good timeslots at events? The guys with something to promote. A product to offer. And that product is their creative content/music/whatever. And that guy could be you, you just need to take the time to learn and work hard at honing your craft and skillsets.

  Soooo take "producer" out of your bio if all you're posting is mixes and mashups. And if your bio says it, or you identify as a Producer, you better expect me to fuckin test you on it cause I will. Immediately. And if you don’t pull a home made, non-plagiarizing, ORIGINAL piece of creative expression/content out of your ass in that very moment then I swear to Cthulhu I will perform a social/career crucifixion (alot like “social/career suicide” except I do it to you) on you. Your ‘music career’ ends right there on the spot, ESPECIALLY if you play some underground artist and act like its your music and take credit for it. That’s just so far from ok. And I WILL notice. I was an underground non commercial radio DJ for over 2 years. and a lifelong enthusiast all around. Trust me. I will know. So just be honest with yourself, and others. Please, and thank you.

           - Signed, bedroom producers the world over.

PS - I’m SERIOUS guys. I won't stay silent next time. If I see a DJ try to take credit for another artists work (especially while talking to promoters, and especially taking credit for underground artists work) I will shut that shit down instantly. I will ensure they're instacancelled on the spot and won't play a gig in that area ever again. Plagiarism is NOT COOL. Don't plagiarize. Seriously. You will never have a career in music if you make Plagiarism a part of your “strategy for success” in the music industry. And I will personally work towards ensuring that. (example: I still to this day convert people to the cancellation of DJ Bl3nd. That POS blatantly ripped off so many artists, and is a perfect PERFECT example of a DJ claiming to be a producer. But isn’t. AND he used plagiarism + ghost producers COMBINED to make it seem like he was a producer) I don’t care if you do end up learning to produce after the fact and start making decent tunes.. If you plagiarize and try to use it to advance your career, I will do everything I can to stop you. For ever. 

P.P.S. - For those of you DJ's who are learning to produce, don't take any offense to this rant its not directed at you guys, and please PLEASE don't get discouraged. You're likely not even applicable to this rant as you're actually working towards the title. So let me help you in that, below this text I'll be linking a few awesome YouTube producer channels who upload educational music/producer content. As well as some links to great sample/drum kits and more useful tools to help in your learning curve. I am also always available for producing tips and advice, just send me a direct message or comment on this post and I'll give you the best answer from my own experience/abilities/knowledge. Thanks for taking the time to read this ridiculous and stupidly long rant. I hope you can see where I’m coming from. And I’m sure many actual producers can agree with a lot of my points and reasoning. Have a good one. Peep my tunes if you have some time. Peace and deuces to all! -Anton Radke

www.soundcloud.com/antonradke www.facebook.com/antonradkemusic booking/collabs/commissions/general inquiries/demos: antonradkemusic@gmail.com

Resources and tools for learning producers: Some production education channels on YouTube that I highly recommend:

Dylan Tallchief has some fantastic tutorials for many different EDM genres which cover more than just production. He talks in depth about music theory, sound design. All of it. He shows how to use both Ableton and FL Studio. HIGHLY RECOMMMEND this channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIu2Fj4x_VMn2dgSB1bFyQA

For rap/hip-hop producers, I recommend watching videos made by these two gentlemen: 

Praxi Plays covers tons of genres/sub genres, and different styles of commercial, and less than commercial rap/hip hop music. He teaches using FL Studio:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAE7Doxo5WQRjLPz7JYa7Fw If you prefer darker, more underground rap music, or just less than commercial stuff in general, Based Gutta covers tons of styles of rap beats from the underground rap culture. He’s great, and also pretty hilarious. Also uses FL Studio. Oh and he does Lo-Fi stuff a whole lot as well:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTrrlfsv-5IBQ1SgPBawT3w

COMPOSERILY is also a good one. But a lot less serious. His videos are definitely more parody and satire than anything, but there’s still lots you can learn from watching him. Tons of useful stuff in his videos. He also does both Ableton and FL Studio depending on the song/artist he’s trying to sound like.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Ujq8PBm0MWraaXd8MsIAQ

For drums and other samples, I highly recommend getting a Splice Account. Its incredible So many options! And you can download individual sounds. You don’t have to download an entire sample pack if you just want one kick drum that it happens to have which is great. A good brokeboi alternative would be Looperman. Its basically a discount/Wal-Mart level “Splice” style service but free.

www.Splice.com

www.looperman.com

Some useful sample kits I recommend getting for the sake of drum sequencing/programming:

XFER Pack by Steve Duda and deadmau5 (great for house and 4/4 edm genres) 

BIGHEAD Sample Pack by BigHead (available on Splice) [great for trap/rap/hiphop] 

literally ANY vengeance or cymatics sample pack will also be a great choice for practically any type of bass music. Face it. Bass music drums are boring and are all almost IDENTICAL from song to song (with the exception of the kick drum) so any Vengeance or Cymatics dubstep sample kit will do you justice here.

VSTs to consider: EDM: Sylenth1 (must have), Razor (underrated), Massive, Serum (must have), U-He Diva, Nexus (overrated but useful), Dblue Glitch, DBlue Tapestop, Engineers Filter (free, amazing Equalizer. deadmau5 approved), CamelCrusher, OTT (overrated but useful), Cthulhu (MIDI sequencer programmed by deadmau5, hella cool but confusing)

Rap Music VSTs to consider: Omnisphere. that’s it. I’m not kidding. A talented producer armed with Omnisphere, and a decent drum sample kit, who is very good at sampling and writing melody/progression can create THOUSANDS of Grammy worthy rap/trap beats without even once reusing an Omnisphere preset.  Its like Nexus. Except it truly doesn’t suck, and is worth the absurd price tag.

-Anton Radke  www.soundcloud.com/antonradke www.facebook.com/antonradkemusic booking/collabs/commissions/general inquiries/demos: antonradkemusic@gmail.com

[kob131]

So the OP of that post just deleted their blog.

Before they claim I tried to harass them- 

I’mma gonna post the response I made to them and link to the original reblog to showcase I did NOTHING to make them reblog.

https://kob131.tumblr.com/post/626185371460468736/modernmythmansion-you-know-what-really-bugs-me

Well good thing I’m not one of the ones who do that.

Too bad you openly say ‘I am speaking for the RWDE Tag which is composed as individuals’ so what you specifically do doesn’t matter.

When I’m expressing my negative feelings and opinions I don’t expect them to listen, I am simply reaching out to those who are just as unhappy, that’s what the RWDE tag is for. Despite what you see on the vile slums of social networks, there are plenty of people who express their thoughts and feelings just to reach out to others and work out there problems

Actually the RWDE tag is for criticisms according to several members of the RWDE tag.

Or is about venting and nothing else? Lot of people love to claim that as well.

You want to proclaim a group is X? Make sure said group doesn’t give conflicting info.

Well not my shit pal. And the ones who I am speaking for are not either.

Too bad they disagree with you. Wanna try saying that to Soku or Dudeblade?

If that’s what they’re gonna say, then say it. Just do it in a way that accepts the reality that they probably won’t listen, and instead use that criticism as well what you liked about the show and create something new.

Can’t, get called egotistical and demanded to be booted if you do.

Same tag did that shit.

Good, because I don’t. In fact you and your ilk love to accuse us of doing that because your definition of threatening and demanding is so broad, and don’t act like you don’t do that, you do that.

“Hey don’t say stuff I don’t do! We can’t be held accountable as a group!”

“Fuck you, your people did this and I’ll hold you accountable as a group!”

Nice double standards you have there.

Tell me, how does one DO expresses their subjective criticism that acknowledges that its subjective and not fact? Please, I would LOVE to hear how its done.

“In my opinion”.

There.

Oh ok, so it’s only okay when your kin do it.

A. Actively attacked RWBY fans.

And B. I call the individuals idiots for the reasons given in my posts.

Your assuming that I have a beef with Jaune, or that other dissenters do have a beef with Jaune as this rabid mob does we are in league with each other. You tend to assume what you want to prove in order to prove something else.  

‘They’re acting in a way I disagree with, they’re not True Scotsmen!’

You never clarified your group and you don’t make any exceptions on who you do consider ‘your side’. Considering the general way you referred to everything- You implied a general side.

Listen to me carefully

And. Who. I. Speak. For. Do. Not. Do. That.

Not me, not Psyga315, not rwde-rwby, not ironpines, not eight-of-penticles, not Adel Aka on Youtube, not us.

And yet I know at least two of those guys (Psyga315 and Eight-Of-Penticles) openly supported that shit. And Adel Aka CAUSED some of this.

Still ain’t buying it,

Well in my experience, RWDE hasn’t done that, and from my experience, there are just as many Stans of RWBY who have acted just as venomous as rabid shippers and those who side with RT seem silent about it. So it looks like we got dirt on both of us don’t we?

Considering I openly act as an individual and actively attack RWBY fans-

Nope, not really.

Also considering your personal experience means nothing outside an individual context-

You willing gave it up.

You could accept the fact that RWDE isn’t a hive mind and I won’t assume all RWBY fans are a hive-mind either.

But of course you sort seem to broaden the definition of “Threatening and Attacking the creators” to any form of dissent.

Too bad you don’t.

But you seem to have a VERY hard time to consider anyone’s experiences outside your own, don’t you?

I have actively disregarded my own experiences for objective fact- That means nothing to me.

If there is an alternate tag besides RWDE I can use so I don’t get lumped in with this mob could you tell me? Because I will happily do it.

claiming you’re speaking as an individual and then using plural pronouns and terms

Not what I said and you know it. Don’t use plural terms and pronouns and saying you speak for a group you do not define.

In fact, if labeling yourself automatically makes you something, could I label myself as a professional fantasy novelist? Because I would love to magically become one by just labeling myself as one.

Too bad that’s not how that label works.

Dude, I’ve seen you been actively hoping against a gay ship in RWBY in the past, and when RWBY shifted gears from Black Sun to Bumbleby, you threw monkey boy right under the buss and sided with the Bumblebee Fans because you need to defend RT so badly.

https://kob131.tumblr.com/post/625914212492951552/im-not-a-homophobe-proceeds-to-pretend-bumblebee

https://kob131.tumblr.com/post/625893206660464640/httpsroosterteethcomgpost5f0047a9-557b-42c0

What was that about assumptions again?

P.S. One of my followers hated me because they were a Bumbleby fan and I am THAT hated in their circles.

If that’s not sycophancy, I don’t know what it

You misspelled ‘consistency’.

In what way am I? Please quote me and dissect it, because just say-so isn’t gonna cut it.

Dude, I’ve seen you been actively hoping against a gay ship in RWBY in the past, and when RWBY shifted gears from Black Sun to Bumbleby, you threw monkey boy right under the buss and sided with the Bumblebee Fans because you need to defend RT so badly.

Make broad generalizations, never bring up evidence, never be specific as to make research hard, bring up a past event to sell to your audience-

How many SJWs have done this again?

Edit: Also deleting their blog and likely running away.

Because you decided RWDE was in league with the mob instead of discern them, you put all those in RWDE as bad, and those not in that tag as good and demand others to play by your rules.

That’s called and In-Group-Out-Group bias, or Us vs Them

https://kob131.tumblr.com/post/626161036319473664/i-just-saw-a-thread-of-tweets-praising

You know, it shouldn’t be hard to make RWBY look worse than FMA. But like every example before hand, a RWBY critic manages to fuck up so badly they make RWBY look better afterwards. Which is I recommend they stop making comparisons- RWBY fans don’t need more bullshit to spread around with the critics shitting themselves and giving them ideas.

Yeah you make a real good example of that.

Also, you make this distinction between ‘RWDE’ and ‘the mob’ ... when the shit I have been listing have been said IN THE RWDE TAG. By popular members too.

Mary Mother of Jesus Christ, how many times I gotta tell you, the internet is a shitty place, we can call this shit out until the cows come home, they aren’t gonna stop.

The world is also a shitty place- That doesn’t mean we give up when people are being shitty. No excuse.

And you people are no different, Allow me to quote a YouTube commenter on Adel Aka’s video Monty’s Vision is irrelevant

“These people are trying to dismiss criticism my claiming they have the moral high ground. Most people won’t insult the work of a dead man and those that do will get shat on by the others who hold Monty as infallibly sacred. Its called a “Threat Narrative”. It works by reducing the: agency, willingness to harm and invulnerability of your side and do the reverse for the opposition. Watch as everyone rushes in to attack your opponent as if they are stomping on a puppy.”

Except that I don’t chew you people out through the moral high ground-

Almost always through factual fuck ups and hypocrisy.

Because they are using the SAME mythology of alienation, groupthink, and authoritarian bullying as they do, even though they hate to hear that. At best, they have command over composure and language, but it’s often used in a smarmy or condescending matter.

Sounds a lot like the RWDE tag (alienating the creators from positive feedback, attack anything that isn’t negative against RWBY and make it so the creators cannot do anything they don’t approve of).

I am speaking for the RWDE tag which is composed as individuals, because I am certain I am not the only one who feels this way, but of course you use the RWDE tag to ghettoize and marginalize us in your con-jobs to discredit us.

Group. Noun. “ a number of people or things that are located close together or are considered or classed together. “ Your talk of the RWDE tag falls under group.

But it’s not just feeling you use but numerous other things like assumed methods.

I don’t need to do any of that- Almost every single post of mine is structured around factual faults beyond any assumption of innocence or straight up hypocrisy, You do it to yourselves, like saying you speak for a specific group of people then a general group like the RWDE tag,

The people I have mentioned before and identified themselves with this tag have CALLED OUT that behavior

And yet you say you speak for the RWDE tag, a far BIGGER group than those people.

But you decide to affiliate us with them anyway because you want to discourage others from listening to us.

You say as the point of my reblog was to call out your inconsistency, nothing about your credibility with you making it about that. Especially since my posts usually tackle you guys on an INDIVIDUAL LEVEL.

Your not our boss, your not our father, your not the police. Quit acting like you are.

First Amendment pal

[fuckyeahjohnnychrist]

It’s hard to know what to say

but something has to be said. 

First and foremost, as today is BlackoutTuesday on Social Media: 

And if you don’t want to participate in BlackoutTuesday, which strikes many as performative and unhelpful as many seem to be posting a black picture and peacing out for the entire day, that’s ok too. 

For today or any day hereafter, you can choose to stop promoting your own stuff for a time and instead use your time and space to share and amplify the voices of Black artists, creators, activists, etc. using the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to post important/useful information, bail fund links, gofundmes, etc. 

A few places to start: 

- Text DEMANDS to 55156 

- https://www.glaad.org/blog/here-are-ways-you-can-support-black-community-and-fight-combat-racism-discrimination

The simplest and most direct statement to be made is: 

We understand that we cannot ever truly understand. We cannot know what it is like but we can hear, we can really listen, and we can share the stories and experiences that matter and are important to heed so that real change can be possible. 

To live in fear of violence and death EVERY DAY just because one is Black is abhorrent. To stand by and witness that violence without action is just as horrid and shameful. We must do all that we can, whatever part we can play, to initiate real change. This has been happening for longer than any of us can comprehend and idle is not the way to sit from here on out. 

If you’re able, some ways to help with donations (but we ALWAYS ENCOURAGE doing your own research in case you’re unsure): 

https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

http://nationalbailout.org

https://louisvillescoop.givingfuel.com/west-end-initiative?fbclid=IwAR1PtnL83tyyGx-XjVGHUYyDEj2FFumWVYjnGrmKaF6XmokX5akU5Xu7qlo

And these have multiple links to organizations/funds in need:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IVaEU5l4ve01cWv_M4TipzLZU3W2qeFDKedmXfm6-z4/edit

Please consider donating to a different fund that is NOT the minnesota freedom fund, they have stated that they are overwhelmed with donations and that plenty other organziations need your help:  https://mobile.twitter.com/sorrybythway/status/1267469168300998656

Frontline youth are out there every night, largely unprotected, doing most of the leg work. so here’s a thread of individual efforts of (trusted) folks to support: https://twitter.com/saintfadumo/status/1267167695482564613

And if you are unable to donate, someone has found a way to still be helpful. A black woman named Zoe Amira posted an hour video of art and music from black creators: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCgLa25fDHM

Per the video description:

This video project was created to offer people a way to donate to #blacklivesmatter without having any actual money or going out to protest themselves. 100% of the ad revenue this video makes through AdSense will be donated to the associations that offer protester bail funds, help pay for family funerals, and advocacy that are listed in the beginning of the video. 

PLEASE share this video, make sure to leave the ads running, repeat the video, and let people know about this easy way to help.

And via @thethrillofpwning​ ‘s post HERE so you can be sure to make the views count:  

complete list of tips from kpop stans:

do not pause or fast forward

turn off your adblock if using a computer

don’t skip the ads, no matter how long they are

use the youtube app to view the video on your phone, not a mobile browser

video quality must be at least 480p and audio must be at least ½ full

if you want to mute the volume mute the tab on your browser, or plug in headphones and let it play there

like and comment on the video, but don’t use emojis or say the word “streaming”

don’t watch the video in a playlist

don’t clear your watch or search history

don’t watch the video on repeat

after finishing the video, play any 3-5 other videos (it doesn’t matter how long they are), then search for “STREAM TO DONATE: how to help with no money or leaving your house.” and click to play the video again (don’t click on it from your watch history)

make sure the 3-5 videos you watch are different each time instead of watching the same 3-5 videos

This Anti-Racism Toolkit includes a link for donations as well as educational materials: 

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1vMlmL9TCZJW9bDNfr_nBu8FZEc8LZQd2fi4hbD1s7dg/mobilebasic

The following are some resources that we have found extremely informative and might be a starting point for anyone else as well:

https://medium.com/@BarackObama/how-to-make-this-moment-the-turning-point-for-real-change-9fa209806067 https://www.facebook.com/TrevorNoah/posts/10158351635592453

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/865685777/why-u-s-needs-black-lives-matter-movement-today

Please do your best to educate yourselves and let that be an ongoing journey/movement, as well as do your best to amplify Black voices and experiences. 

To anyone protesting, please stay vigilant and safe. We are not only still in the midst of a global pandemic, but authorities are brutalizing those who would stand up for change, opportunists are taking this time in history to disrupt WITHOUT cause (looting/interrupting protests), and people are disappearing as sex traffickers take advantage of police being distracted. Please please please, protect yourselves and those around you the best you can in these unprecedented times. 

And please if you are of age, be sure that you are REGISTERED TO VOTE and that FOR ALL LOCAL ELECTIONS AND DEFINITELY IN NOVEMBER, you USE YOUR VOICE AND VOTE. 

https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote

[imthederpyfox]

Rant About YouTube Copyright.

by imthederpyfox, Moments ago

Journals / Personal

I know nobody's here anymore, hi, nobody~

But I need to take a minute to rant about YouTube's copyright system for a moment.

I know it's come a long way in the past few years, content creators never used to be able to defend their work with copyright under YouTube guidelines, and it's great that they now can. However, there is also the problem that as content creators can fairly and justly claim others videos that include misused content off their own, creators will also claim videos just because they don't like them. AKA 'foodybeauty' and 'Amber-Lynn Reid', to name a few...

Along with this, we also have major companies who think they should copyright any video posted about one of their shows or films or games, or anything really.

Now I know, full re-uploads of these things are against copyright law, well done YouTube, would you like a gold star? Well, guess what, you don't get one. Because not only can they claim these full videos, they have also been going on binges, where as soon as ANY kind of content related to their products comes out, it becomes copyrighted before the content creator can even so much as blink or press save.

I'm talking about videos where you can barely see what the creator's watching, i.e - an UNLISTED video I just posted of a review/reaction to a Netflix show called Haunted.

Now, I have posted another reaction for Riverdale, and spent months trying to figure out the best action to take. Bare in mind, these videos are 'unedited' for my patrons, and the links are only available to my patrons. But guess what? I HAVE NO PATRONS! First of all, HOW do these big companies find an unlisted video? Are they my patrons? I mean that'd be nice, but no. They Aren't.

Second of all, why the fuck would you block an UNLISTED video, when so many people upload full copyrighted re-uploads of films and TV with no issue?

Third of all, how did you even know my video contained any of your program when it's not even named after the show AT ALL because I KNOW you'll copyright it immediately if the title has so much of a WHISPER of the show included.

Now, I will admit, I understand why my first video got copyright claimed - despite being unlisted, which I'm still annoyed about - because most of the screen was taken up by the episode of Riverdale, rather than my reaction. I get it, fine. So, I edit it, I make myself the main focus - ew, I know - and I lower the opacity of the original video, and I cut out any songs that go on for too long, and I make sure that 1/4 of the video isn't even FUCKING VISIBLE!

Safe to say, this is not a re-upload of the original content. This is an upload of a reaction to said content. My reaction, in which I am constantly talking throughout, constantly cutting in, constantly ruining this series for everyone that decides to give me money to watch, what a good YouTuber I am indeed.

So, because I couldn't let sleeping dogs lie when I earned my SECOND COPYRIGHT CLAIM ON THIS UNLISTED PATREON VIDEO! I decided to look more into the company trying to claim it. Was it Netflix? Nope. Was it a TV company? Well, sort of? A french company that distributes TV shows, or so it claims. See what I did there? Good right? No, ok, moving on. So upon my research I happened to come across multiple videos, saying that the company was a scam, that they were fake and shouldn't even be copyrighting things.

SO, what did I do? Well, just to make sure I checked which part of my video was still listed under their 'copyrighted content' thing, because if you check it'll tell you time stamps and give you the option to trim. So, there was about 5-6 minutes of my video that for some reason was still being claimed as copyrighted, so I went in, and edited little bits out, where there was no dialogue, no important things, and then I saved it, and waited for it to process, and then I went into that copyright claims and I said, ya know what? I'm not taking this shit, I worked hard for this video, I made sure to do everything I needed to do, and since these videos fall under fair use due to the cutting and editing and the fact you can't SEE 1/4 OF THE VIDEO, I sent a dispute.

Now I have to admit, I was nervous. If the company that copyright claimed my video didn't like the fact that I'd done that, they could CHOOSE TO COPYRIGHT STRIKE ME. Like, no review from YouTube, nothing like that. If this company didn't like that a tiny channel with only 57 subscribers put in a dispute against them, they might get pissed. They might not like the fact that someone's done that, and they might turn around and say to YouTube, FUCK this channel, bye bye, bitch.

So I was worried to say the least, but I have never been one to back away from bullying, and in this case, I class it as bullying.

I filled in all the relevant details, including a very in depth explanation as to why my video was counted under fair use, and how my channel is tiny, how I don't have any Patrons to see the video, how my video was unlisted, and heavily edited to make sure the copyright did not count against me, including the use of disclaimers in both the video and the description.

I was professional.

I was right.

And I won the dispute.

A day later I get an email telling me the company decided to release my video of all claims and it is now available for all none of my viewers to watch! How exciting, right?

Well, today I decided that I'd upload my second reaction that I'd recorded, I did the same as with the last one, having learned something. I lowered opacity, I covered any nudity, I cut off 1/4 of the video, I made it so the focus would be on my ugly ass mug instead of the TV show itself. And I spent hours trying to upload it for it to fail and me have to do it again.

And low and behold, after all my troubles, all my trials and tribulations, all my blood, sweat and tears and turmoil... I got copyright claimed once again.

Now, it's safe to say, I'm a little bit pissed, ya know?

My video - much like last time - hadn't even fully been uploaded, around the 97% mark, and boom, claim. So I took a deep breath, ya home boi is NOT happy, and I see where exactly it thinks my video is not covered under copyright law. And this is where I think these companies don't care if you are actually covered under the law or not, because it's always a random part of the video, it's always about a 5 minute chunk of the video regardless of what you do.

Which leads me to my next conclusion, in order for these companies to be finding these videos - especially with them being in the unlisted category (needing a specific link to be able to view), and the title not being related, and the video being edited to make sure it isn't eligible for a copyright claim, they MUST have a bot, or a program running that searches YouTube for clips of their content, regardless of how it's presented, or whether it's a review or not.

Which I have to say, is unfair. Especially in the case of the unlisted thing. I know, YouTube can't help it if these companies have bots and programs and code, they can't stop that from happening. But what they can stop? What they SHOULD stop? Is these companies being able to claim videos that aren't even eligible for it.

YouTube, man, you gotta work on this.

We were rooting for you! We were ALL rooting for you!

Anyway, seriously, YouTube really needs to find a way to make sure copyright is fair and just and not maintained by just programs and bots. YouTube, why not create a part of your company that reviews these claims, checks the videos, guarantees that the claims only go to those ACTUALLY abusing the copyright system? Instead of those of us who just want to make fun content for our viewers, who strive to just make good reaction videos? Because that's what they are, REACTION videos. Not re-uploads, not someone else's content.

'Great poets imitate and improve, whereas small ones steal and spoil.'

Give a little back to the people that got you where you are today YouTube. None of these big companies had you raking in money to begin with, it was the little guys, the small content creators who now have millions of viewers, because they enjoy what they do. Well, most of 'em anyway...

Just think about your content creators, rather than appeasing the companies that give you a bit more money. I know they won't, because capitalism rules despite how shit it is.

Is it really a wonder that so many creators are turning to streaming through sites like Twitch.tv instead of uploading to YouTube? Even the other day, on a live stream I was doing myself, me and my friends talked about how much better streaming is, how you don't have to constantly be worried about making sure the video is friendly for 2 year olds. 2 YEAR OLDS SHOULDN'T EVEN BE WATCHING, OK?!

My goal has been to be a YouTuber since I was about 12. I'm now almost 22. That's just under 10 years of my life, where my goal, my one finish line, has been to become a YouTuber. But the more and more things like this happen, the more and more I want to listen to that voice in my head telling me to give it up and go to Twitch, become a streamer, not stress so much about copyright strikes and issues with monitisation, and having such UNREALISTIC goals in order to achieve being monitised and YouTube partner in the first place.

I have edited this video, the parts it told me to, I have made sure to cut out the music bits and make sure it's up to par with copyright based on where they claimed the video. But my issue with sending off this newest in what I assume will be a long line of copyright disputes, because someone, even as small a channel as mine, with my 57 subscribers and my 5 views a video (at a push), has to push back and say 'NO. THIS ISN'T OK.' and not let themselves be pushed around, my issue with this?

The company that claimed the video this time was Netflix itself. And we all know Netflix has money. And Netflix doesn't care if it shuts down a tiny little channel like mine. All my content? All my videos? All views and subs and likes I've somehow managed to accumulate? All gone. Like Thanos snapping his fucking fingers.

Regardless of what I do to make these videos fair use, big companies like this get the final say over them, and as far as they're concerned, us little creators who don't make YouTube money yet, but still hold onto that hope that, maybe, hopefully, one day we will be able to do it, we're the 50% they want to snap and get rid of.

And it'll stay that way for a long time, unless people actually stand up and talk about it. Heck, it'll probably end up staying that way even then, but at least we TRIED.

I have respect for Matpatt, I watched his video explaining the work he and other creators have done in bringing awareness to the higher ups in YouTube, using their platforms to help each other and millions of other creators, people who just want to make other people laugh or forget about their problems for a while, or just upload stupid, 2 minute clips because of inside jokes, or they find it funny, they enjoy doing it.

If we as humans have been taught anything recently during this quarantine, it's that a lot of our societal structures are flawed, some may even say broken. Big companies scam us, use us, and give nothing back in return. If peoples eyes aren't open now, when will they be?

This won't get views. This won't get likes or favourites or shared to other people because of some powerful message.

But maybe one day, someone from YouTube will be randomly scrolling through the internet, and find a random post on a crude fanart website amongst all the sonic and Mario at the Olympic fuck games art, and maybe they'll read it and take note.

But we all know that'll never happen.

So I'm gonna wait for the video to finish saving the changes I made to it, and I'm going to dispute the claim Netflix made against me. And I'm going to anxiously wait to see if I get to continue making content for another day, or whether I get taken down by the snap.

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

If you made it this far, thanks for listening to my rambling.

I feel strongly about a lot of things, and my friends often tell me that I should post about them, because I have such an... Eloquent way or wording things. Well, I finally decided to, because I need to vent as much as the next asshole. They're right, I AM eloquent!

Seriously though, thank you for reading, I know nobody would have but hey, maybe you're one of the 3 views I get on my YouTube videos!

I am blessed.

With like 50,000 curses going on at once.

Such a time to be alive.

Stay safe, look out for each other, and I may do another rant at some point, because this was fun I guess.

-Exza~

[mathieubellamont]

man in relation to that last post, and its not really related to this blog outside of it but its weighing on my mind

ive seen two things lately about audiences and content creators, specifically those of the Edgy kind. And, as a disclaimer, i am both LGBT and mixed race and oh, also disabled, and i am not saying “yes their content is offensive But you should care about them more” like ofc im gonna care more about the people who are hurt by the spreading of harmful shit but. anyway

whats been on my mind is the fact that these creators create, with all their edginess and their discarding of feelings for Facts and whatnot forms these audiences that, even if mild in their reactions, have and hold no place for feelings, and people who they disagree with. Even the ones who just have “Comedic” content thats laughing at minorities and whatnot, it breeds things in the audience - and attracts peole who’re already infected by it - that focus on laughing and making fun of people and tearing people down who they just mildly disagree with. We all knew that, but specifically whats weighing on my mind is that........... When you do that, theres no backing down. If you realise youve been wrong somewhere and the people youre attacking have been right, if you realise you dont want to make this content anymore, if you realise you’re tired or stressed, or the environment youve created has gotten too toxic, how are you going to back down? People look to you for their vicious entertainment, people look to you for things to tear apart however lightly, to Roast or to offend or to seriously hurt, and if you arent providing fresh bodies to that audience, theyll take it from you. You have to either be sure when you go into creating edgy content that youll be doing this for the rest of your life, or youre ok with being the subject of what youre inflicting on others when you stop. That, or you have to hope to god that your audience gets bored of you before you call it quits

like...... It all boils down to this. Edginess attracts two main kinds of people, people who are clueless about the harm theyre doing and looking to parrot others/who want to make people uncomfortable or upset/who want to make people feel like they feel, thats one category, and the other main category is genuinely fucked up people who like to see the hurt and the offence it causes, who want women/other minorities to be uncomfortable at best or unwelcome or feel in danger at worst, people who show through their humour that theyre willing to act in ways that hurt people for fun. The first category, people who dont get the harm it causes and just want to shock people (which, as a person clueless to microaggressions and racism and why things actually offend people could either be just surprise Or serious harm they label as shock), theyre clueless about the power youre breeding in them and the cluelessness, but the second group of people are actively harmful. Either way, when you finally need your audience to be understanding, when you need to post your “my mental health is going downhill and i cant ignore it anymore” video or post, youre stuck with these people, and obviously others outside those categories, but youre stuck with them. The people who are willing to beat down already beaten down minorities? Who reduce everyone to a set of stereotypes and if they disagree with any quality you have youre their target? Who think doxxing and swatting are funny, who think harrassment and death threats are just edgy and, well, you know edgy is totally fine right?? Edgy is good right?? what are you going to do?

Maybe when youre in your hour of need your audience will have a change of heart, but if you attract an audience who follow you for and approve of your disregard for peoples needs, who make fun of and attact people saying they need help (”i suffer at the hands of oppression” “im disabled” “im a targeted minority” “ive suffered from harassment” etc) what do you think theyre going to do to you when you dont want to play the game anymore? 

Like theres a leap in logic here between being an edgy content creator and definitely reaching a point where you wont do it anymore. Yes, maybe youll be edgy for the rest of your life....... But as someone who was an edgy teenager slinging around slurs constantly and racist and homophobic and transphobic shit...... The end to that was the singular logical conclusion for me as someone trying to be a good person. When you actually learn about these things, or when you start to live it as an lgbt person or you reconnect with your nonwhite half, or you have a family member who is assaulted, or a friend who finally confesses their online harassment and the severe damage its done to them, and you have an audience waiting for you to tell them who to laugh at/treat like shit if they want to because well, theyre wrong and stupid arent they, why should anyone treat them well - thats the conclusion a lot of these people take from seeing people be made the butt of jokes.......... What are you going to do?

Ive always tried to make this blog a mentally and emotionally safe place. Ive made mistakes, but ive always tried to own up to them and learn from. Like, yeah, theres been some racist shit on this blog before, probably some transphobic shit too, ive had this blog since i just turned 17 in dec. 2013....... Its important for my followers that i cultivate a place that is good for them, that isnt stressful, that focuses on good content or. me having fun in video games lmao. and why is that good? well, because i want to. Its not necessarily the right thing to do nor the wrong thing to do, it just Is morally. But when it comes to cultivating an audience based on constantly shocking people, and making people uncomfortable, and making innocent people scared to exist or ashamed of their existence or hurt because theyre reminded that what they are is disgusting to people like you, whether you mean it or not? Thats where I feel things like this become a moral choice. Like, first of all, even if youre doing it jokingly, if youre having fun pretending to throw punches and kicks even if the point is to laugh at you, you run the risk of people getting hit. Thats why we dont do that in public spaces. When youre jokingly throwing metaphorical punches even if the joke is that youre being an arse purposely, youre in that corridor, and the traffic in that corridor is every single person that sees your post, possibly hundreds, possibly thousands, and so the chance that youre going to hit people - many people - is huge. But to get back to whats on my mind, even if you dont give a shit about all the people you hit accidentally or on purpose, when you train an audience to expect you to feed them meat, when you stop feeding them meat theyll still be looking at you, and if theyre hungry enough - entitled enough, angry enough, uncaring enough, tired of life and other people enough, unknowing enough, ready enough to bring the fight to other people - theyre going to pick at you if not take chunks off you if not tear you to shreds. When you call people who think shock humour and hurting other people is acceptable, well, thats what youve done right?

You dont need to make a blog like mine thats purpose is to be safe. You dont need to actively try to make sure people feel like they fit in with your content, you dont need to create a space for other people to enjoy at all, maybe you just wanna do what makes you laugh. But the less space we hold for people to hurt people the less people are going to get hurt, shocker i know, but also the less harmful people’s anger we are unknowingly feeding, and the less fucking clueless kids who are going to grow up parroting things theyve heard and never understood, that truly evil people understand, and the less content creators in the future we’re going to have to dig out of the hole they back themselves into

anyway. odd post, its done now

[celestial-vapidity]

Gayonetta: Some Thoughts on My Favorite Video Game

So here’s the tea; Bayonetta is my favorite video game, as of the time I’m typing out this whatever-this-is. I just wanted to put some thoughts down. The teaser trailer has dropped for the third game, but we’ve received no other news yet. 

My first experience with Bayonetta was when I got the first two games for the Wii-U in...I think 2015? Maybe 2016. It was a gift, I know that. But I can’t remember if it was for my birthday or Christmas, let alone the year. But I know it was while I was being homeschooled, so I have a rough idea. I played for about an hour, got stuck on a puzzle, and didn’t touch it again until I turned 18 and decided to start over from the beginning on a whim. And, goddamn, did it make an impression. I couldn’t put it down. Before, when I got home from school, I would have a snack, let the dog out, and take a nap until my mom got home from work. But after picking up Bayonetta, I would go home and play the game all afternoon and evening, only stopping to eat dinner, shower, and other necessary tasks. 

I absolutely loved the game, and everything about it. It kicked my ass hard during my first playthrough though. I lost track of how many times I died. However, I never wanted to stop playing. Most, if not all, the deaths were my own fault. And I was having too much fun to stop in any case.

The story of the amnesiac witch resonated with me for one reason or another. The entire story did, if I’m being honest. Bayonetta was a character I loved. Honestly, I love almost every character in the first game. Bayonetta was stylish, strong, attractive, strategic, clever, and funny. She was guarded, but kind beneath it. She had a lot of baggage, and had difficulty dealing with it. 

I can’t get enough of her relationship with Jeanne. I don’t care what hets have to say. It’s canon if you ask me. The creators posted art of it, and BayoJeanne was included on a poll of the most popular canon pairings from that company. Also, it’s heavily implied in the games themselves. It’s canon that they live together. In one of the documents you can find in the second game, Luka compares Bayo’s quest to save Jeanne to lovers in mythology going on quests to save each other. Let’s not forget the climax of the first game either. That’s gay. No denying it. And, Bayonetta literally goes to hell to rescue Jeanne. Not to mention her reaction when she saves jeanne. She breaks down, thinking she failed, but when Jeanne wakes up, the first thing she says is ‘What, do you need a wake-up kiss?’. They’re lovers, you absolute fools. Here’s the tea sis. She and Jeanne live together. There’s that fan art in the Eyes of Bayonetta where Bayo’s pulling the blankets off of Jeanne to wake her up, and Jeanne is naked. The fact that both Bayo and Jeanne absolutely break down and start crying when they think the other has died. Also, the demon that sends Jeanne to hell? It was Gomorrah. Anyone familiar with Biblical lore will know that Sodom and Gomorrah was the capital of Queer. The ending of the first game is the gayest shit I’ve ever seen. “We’re both one of a kind.” That hits me in the heart. That is the thing that a queer kid (who doesn’t yet know they’re queer) hears and feels a connection to, and doesn’t know why. They know they’re different but they can’t put a finger on it. Also “Now those are the eyes I’ve been wanting to see.” That is incredible. Oh, and “I’m ok!” then “Just stay close to me!” 

Jeanne is a non-binary lesbian, Bayo is bisexual. That’s it, chief.

Anyway, back to me resonating with the story. I mega-resonate with the gay shit, don’t get me wrong. But that’s not all that hits me. Bayo’s guarded personality. Her constant flirting and joking. She acts like she doesn’t give a shit about anything, and she probably doesn’t about most things. But she does have soft spots. Particularly her loved ones, and children. Also. Her relationships with those around her, specifically her parents and the Umbra witches as a whole (excluding Jeanne). She has a shitty relationship with her father, Balder, in the first game. In the second game, when it’s revealed that Balder’s asshole actions were the result of possession, there is a real emotional conflict for her there. She cries. The only other times she has cried on screen (as an adult) were when her mother died, and when she thought Jeanne was dead. That says some shit. 

Nevermind what Jeanne must be going through from this revelation.

For a more in-depth analysis of the queer themes in Bayonetta, I recommend reading Reading Bayonetta as a Queer Disabled Woman; a meta. by Aurora_Lua (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21080381)

Oh, side note, I also love the implication that Umbra witches are a society of queer women who mostly pair with their own. And that Lumen sages are a society of queer men who mostly pair with their own.

Bayonetta is as close to perfect as I’ve ever seen in a video game. The story, the characters, the aesthetics, the visuals, the music, the gameplay, the bosses, the levels, everything. It’s all slappin. Bayonetta 2 is a good game too, don’t get me wrong. But, in my opinion, it's not as good as Bayonetta 1. 

Here are the things it does better. The character designs. I like the designs for Bayonetta, Jeanne, and Luka better in Bayonetta 2. I just find them more fitting and also much more aesthetically pleasing. Maybe it’s just me, but Bayonetta’s beehive gave me second-hand embarrassment sometimes. I liked that we got to see more of Balder and Rosa. 

Ok now onto something very iconic. The music. There are several tracks, both vocal and instrumental, that I enjoyed and still remember from the first game. The music in Gates of Hell, the Angel Attack version of Mysterious Destiny, the music that plays during the final fight against Jeanne, the track for the fight with Balder, Mysterious Destiny, Let’s Dance Boys, and of course, Fly Me to the Moon. The only tracks I can remember off the top of my head from the second game are Tomorrow’s Mine and Moon River. They’re both great songs, but still. 

Bayonetta (both the games and the character herself) remains a modern queer icon. And I eagerly await the third game, which will surely be just as (if not more) queer as its predecessors. Oh and it’ll probably be a kickass game too.

[sharethisgemwithme]

Rebecca Sugar Q&A at Barnes & Noble - October 7, 2019

Here’s my notes from Monday night’s book release event in New York. @bismuth​ has posted a link to a collection of videos he took during the Q&A, which might cover the whole thing, but just in case (and because some people prefer reading rather than watching videos), here’s my list. This isn’t complete, but it’s what I could take down. If something is in quote marks, it’s as close as I could get to word-for-word what Sugar said.

Most of it’s behind a cut, but I’ll lead off up here with the final question and answer.

“What is the most important lesson to take from Steven Universe?”

“Marginalized children exist, they deserve to exist. They deserve to express themselves. They deserve funny cartoons, they deserve to make funny cartoons. They deserve to be kids.”

Advice for young creators

Make as much stuff as you can. If you think some of it’s bad, that’s great because you’re learning what doesn’t work for you.

What do you like to work on outside of SU?

She still does music for fun. She recently learned guitar, partially because she was writing songs that she couldn’t perform.

Anything you wanted in the show, but didn’t have time?

A number of things got crowded out, especially in the endgame, but several of those ideas made it into SUF.

How did you get into the industry after graduating from School of Visual Art? [not sure how accurate this recording of the question is; I just know it was something about SVA]

Started AT as a revisionist, which helped her see what doesn’t work. Graduated to storyboarder. Being in all these different roles helped her out as a show creator, because she knows the perspective of different members of her crew.

Is it true you were willing to quit SU over the wedding?

She wants to set the record straight. “In no world would I ever quit Steven.” She was warned that much of the funding comes from other countries, and some of them would refuse to air the wedding and might stop airing the show altogether. If the funding dried up, that could endanger the show. So she had to choose to take the risk that going forward with the wedding might jeopardize the long-term future of SU. “I chose the truth and we survived.”

Inspiration for stories from her personal and family life

Some of the original early-series ideas come from when Rebecca was a tween/teen, particularly when she was around 13 and Steven Sugar (Steven Universe’s namesake) was around 10.

She analogized to how Matt Groening has talked about how many moments from his childhood made their way into Bart Simpson.

How do you stay organized with long story arcs?

“Charts. Lots of charts.” “I really wish I could show you one of these charts.”

Every member of the show staff gets these charts, so that even those not working on a given episode will know big-picture what’s happening, in order to inform later episodes.

A future art book (presumably the one releasing in 2020) will have at least some of these charts in it!

How long did it take Spinel to get to Earth?

Gems have technology that allows essentially instantaneous travel to anywhere.

[When staying in the garden] she hadn’t realized she should go... somewhere else. As soon as she did, she left.

[someone behind me (way in the back) muttered, “ok but where’d she get the drill?”, which honestly is still a valid question]

Are there any Gems not made in a Kindergarten?

“Gems are technology”. They are made, “they are able to self-replicate”. There wouldn’t be any naturally occurring Gems.

Will we ever see Jasper again?

“The answer to this is YES.”

What can you tell us about the gem language?

Steven Sugar invented it and is the only person with the full key. It’s up to him if we ever get a decoder. “I’ll ask him, I’ll tell him you asked.”

Plans to continue the universe after SUF

“I definitely am not done with this universe and these characters.” Even if it’s not a TV series, there will still be more to say.

What song do you have the most personal connection to?

Definitely “Love Like You”, written over the course of a few years. Originally meant to be from an alien perspective, as she got to the bridge, it was becoming self-deprecating (I’m nothing like you) because she was personally struggling. She realized it was difficult for her to maintain connections with those around her while she struggled so much to love herself.

She doesn’t expect to ever take so long to write a song again, and certainly not to invest so much of her personal experience and struggles into one.

How does the viewing experience change for new viewers now that the series is complete?

At first, it was hard to get CN to accept a serial storyline, not just arcs but the whole chronological nature of the series. She understands how hard it was with the awkward airing schedule, but notes “When there are hiatuses, we’re not not-working.” She’s “really really really happy” that people can now watch it straight through, and that was one advantage of the movie.

Influences for Spinel

1930s cartoons, especially Betty Boop. Some specific Betty Boop cartoons were named, but I couldn’t hear enough to jot them down. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit also mentioned.

If you were designing a syllabus for Storytelling 101, what would you have people watch, read, or listen to?

“Your favorite movie, book, and song.” By studying the things you enjoy, you can see why they appeal to you and how to capture that for your own work.

She brings up Ocarina of Time and “no disrespect to Twilight Princess” but she loved how “Ganon kicks you in the face as a child” so you don’t have to be told that he’s bad, you experience it for yourself.

What are the Rose Quartz gems and the Zoo people up to?

“Please watch Steven Universe Future.”

What is the deal with the Pearl who was Pink’s and then became White’s?

“Please watch Steven Universe Future.”

What did you expect people to get out of Pink Diamond’s character from the movie?

Abandoning those around her is "a thing she does”, we’ve seen it before time and again.

“What is the most important lesson to take from Steven Universe?”

“Marginalized children exist, they deserve to exist. They deserve to express themselves. They deserve funny cartoons. They deserve to make funny cartoons. They deserve to be kids.”

[vixthefantheorist]

The Discovery - Say Goodbye Aftermath

A/N: Hello, hello my fellow readers! Vix here and I’m back with yet another short story! This time however, this story is based on this amazing artpiece by Turquoise Magpie but its a commissioned piece to Jacksinsanity. So please be respectful to these two and give them some love! I saw this art piece via a friend who pointed it out in Jack’s discord server and… I fell in love with the image. And from it I had to write something that depicts how and why Henrik arrived there. Anyway, this story is focused on the good doctor, Henrik Von Schneeplestein! And a tiny bit of Marvin. I will say that I am talking out of my ass on some descriptions, like namely the house, I dunno what Jack’s house/apart is like, so I’m just throwing things together for the sake of the fic. And the smell of pumpkin… I never been around a pumpkin to know what it smells like. So again, just making it up as I went with it. As for what happens... it was Anti’s doing... blocking their sights until they see what he left behind for them... I hope you enjoy! *~*~*~*~*~*~*

October 31st 2016 What was once a fun pumpkin carving video… turned into a nightmare. Chaos reigned in the video once the star of the show was spirited away, leaving only the dark shadow to taunt and rant at the onlookers. They, who had no way of helping or stopping the situation that unfolded before their eyes; could only watch in horror as the light of life was snuffed out. All they were given were harsh words, words that stung and sliced into their hearts… the idea burned into their souls… that this tragedy was their fault. The mysterious being they dubbed, ‘Anti’, hissed and spat at them like an angry but cheeky cat; telling them that this nightmare was one that they brought upon themselves and the one they cherished. The shadow hissed icily that they only had one thing to do, only one thing to say to the Irishman that they lost. “̻̫̻ͅS̖̖̬a͏̼̱͖̟̰y̠̠̪̙ ̛͍̞̜̱G͠o͎o͙̰̼̻̼̺͜ͅḏ̖̞͉̹͝b͓̣̪̠̱̰ý͍͖e̼̠̬.̦̀”̶̩͉͕̱ *~*~*~*~*~*~* November 3rd 2016 Only a few days went by, things looked normal for the JackSepticEye channel with videos uploaded on time. But… something didn’t feel quite right. For the community’s part, it was unnerving, calling out to content creator in hopes of getting answers. But their words fell on deaf ears. And calls… emails… none were answered; not even a sight of him outside his house. Only on the videos did anyone see him. This struck the Septic Egos as strange. Jack was never one to ignore calls or email, especially from friends or family or potential sponsors. He would at least answer to say something about being too busy, or at least call back and apologize for missing a call. Even stranger was the constant restlessness of the community that the Septics noticed. They seemed very jumpy and kept repeating things and showing things that oddly… the Egos couldn’t see. Was Jack overworking himself again? It was possible and the videos could have been made in advance and queued to post to buy himself more time. So it was decided that Henrik should go check on him, in case Jack was sick then the doctor could provide some minor first aid. And so… Henrik Von Schneeplestein headed over to Jack’s place, whipping out a cellphone to call ahead. He listened to the phone ring as he drove over. After a few rings, the call was dropped into voice mail, Jack’s voice cheerfully reciting his message of apologizing for not being able to answer before it stopped and the beep signaled that it was ready for recording a message. Henrik frowned as he drove closer to the block where Jack lived. “Jack, are you being a little bitch baby again? You honestly need to stop overworking yourself, its not healthy and making everyone worry. Anyway, I’m coming over to check up on you for peace of mind. Do you know anything about what’s going on with the community? Everyone seems restless but we can’t see anything that could tell us-” The phone beeped again, signaling that his time was up and wouldn’t record the rest of his questions. “Damn it.” He swore softly, driving closer to the house and slowing the car to a stop. He got out and headed for the house, slowing a little as he noticed Jack’s car was at the driveway. “Least that tells me he’s home.” he muttered as he continued his way to the little path that led to the door. But as he looked up at the house, bright with a nice cheerful look to it…felt off. The cheery exterior seemed forced, like how Chase would give a false smile to hide his pain. It seemed far too still, like the home was holding its breath behind its false smile. Henrik furrowed his brows in confusion at the description that came to mind; then shook his head and headed for the door. “Must be getting paranoid, worrying over Jack and making me think something’s wrong with the house.” he murmured, nodding to himself, taking comfort from that logic. Granted, that didn’t stave off that feeling of wrong that gnawed at him a little. Still the doctor ego mentally waved the worry aside and gave the front door a hearty knock, standing back to patiently wait for an answer from Jack. Surely, he would have had to have heard that.   A few minutes passed and… nothing. He frowned a little before giving the door another knock, a little harder and louder. “Probably asleep but come on, he should have heard it this time.” Another few minutes and still no answer. Worry spiked through him for a moment before replaced with irritation. Henrik exhaled, the rush of breath hissing through his teeth in annoyance. “I swear to god, if he’s playing another game instead of eating, I’m shoving his microphone stand up his ass sideways.” He griped, abandoning the need to knock on the door a third time; and choosing to rifle around for the hidden spare key. Jack always locked his door when he came home to record. He always had that fear of people walking in while he was distracted by games so he always locked the door behind himself. It took the good doctor a moment to find the key, hidden behind a compartment of the joke hallway key rack placed by the door. As if anyone would openly leave their keys there. But behind it, thanks to a bit of Marvin’s magic, was the key. Grumbling to himself mostly to keep the worry at bay, he fitted the key in and unlocked the door, slipping inside. The moment he entered the house was when the worry he kept ignoring, whispered to him. Something’s not right. The house was eerily quiet, the interior dark; save for the light coming through the window. Thankfully, sunset wasn’t until another few hours, so it wasn’t that dark. But it was enough to say that no one was here… or the resident was asleep. “Jack?” Henrik called out quizzically, wondering what the hell the Youtuber was doing. The house shouldn’t be this quiet, even if he lived on his own, there was always that something. Something that made the home more lively. But that something was missing, leaving the house to be as quiet as a tomb. The doctor shook his head, scolding himself for such a bad analogy, stepping further into the house to close the door behind him and set the key aside on a side table. “Jack, are you home?” Maybe he went out on a walk? He had been going on runs… but… no one has seen him since Halloween. “Are you alright? Are you sick?” Silence. Taking a breath to steel himself against the feeling of uncertainty that wrapped around him. Then flinched at the scent of something foul. It was faint but it was definitely there. Was something rotting? “All right, something is definitely wrong...” He murmured as he ventured into the house, wincing at sound of his own footsteps seemed to unnerve him further. He was closest to the kitchen and decided to check it out, since the living didn’t offer any clues besides it being empty of the Irish Youtuber. The kitchen, on the other hand, was just as empty of a person… yet it did offer a couple of clues. It was missing a table and the remnants of a cooked meal were still present, so he did eat. But there was a problem. The dishes had remained in the sink and the part of the scent of rot was coming from here, but not the scent he smelled from the living room near the stairs. That and there was a colony of ants feasting upon the leftovers of what was… chicken? Some kind of meat and vegetables, it was bit difficult to tell with ants all over the sink. Henrik twitched at seeing them thriving there, disturbed and a lot more concerned now. Everyone knew Jack despised cleaning… but there was no way he would’ve ignored the dishes to let ants just move in. How long did he leave the kitchen dirty? “Jack?!” The doctor called out louder, stressing Youtuber’s name as he left the ant infested kitchen to search further, his movements no longer hesitant and quiet. “My friend! Where are you?” The downstairs bathroom yielded nothing… same with the linen room, save for a pile of dirty clothes begging to be washed. The only other room left was the bedroom that doubled as the recording room and Henrik was already dashing for it, taking his phone out. He hit speed dial for Marvin. It didn’t even take two rings before the magician picked up. “Hello? Hey, Henrik! What’s going on? Jack ok-” Marvin the Magnificent greeted happily before being cut off by the doctor. “Marvin, whatever magic show you’re doing, pull a disappearing act and get your ass over to Jack’s house. NOW!” He hissed as he passed the kitchen to get to the stairs. “Jack’s house? Why? What’s wrong?” Whatever mirth that had been behind his tone earlier switched to concern and seriousness. “Hen, are you… are you running?” “Yes, I am! Where’s Chase? Just… call everyone to get to the house NOW, Marvin!” “Chase is with me at the magic show...” “Magic his ass with you then! Call Jackie and tell him to get here! I don’t know what is going but something is wrong and I need you all here to help me! If I’m guessing right then- Oh god… what is that?” “Hen? What is what?” Henrik ignored Marvin’s voice, flinching at the scent of rot… it was definitely coming from here. He paled realizing that the scent was originating from here the second floor of the house... It can’t… No, the scent wasn’t right. He shook his head, trying to not panic and analyze the scent of rot he was smelling. It wasn’t sickly sweet… not flesh… not a dead body… no… it was a little more bitter and sour. ...pumpkin…? A rotting pumpkin or the pulp of it..? Henrik’s eyes scanned the second floor, again not hearing Marvin calling him from the phone. “Why rotting pumpkin…?” “’Pumpkin’? Henrik, are you okay? What’s going on?” The doctor’s eyes fell upon the bedroom door, jolting a little at the sight of the door slightly ajar… and from where he stood… could see the room was dark. Pumpkin… Pumpkin… There was rotting pumpkin… Henrik stared at the door, moving quickly over to it, remembering now. The scent of rotten pumpkin pulp was thicker here. Jack was recording a Halloween special… Henrik hesitantly reached for the door. He was carving pumpkins for the community… he loved it back last year and thought it would be fun again this year. “Jack…?” He called softly, earning another concerned word from Marvin, who was on the move to collect Chase on his end, listening to what was going on. The video aired, the Egos couldn’t see anything wrong with it. To them it looked like an average pumpkin carving video… but community had been going ballistic after it aired, insisting something was wrong. “Please...” He whispered as he pulled the door the rest of the way open and stepped in the room… But no one saw Jack physically since Halloween… Henrik stared in horror, phone dropping from his hand and clattered onto the floor, earning a worried Marvin talking frantically to him, but… the ego didn’t hear the magician. The egos didn’t take heed of the community pointing something out to them. No one checked in on the Youtuber on Halloween when the video uploaded or the day after… “Oh...god...” “Henrik? Henrik! What is going on?!” Marvin’s voice was growing in panic the longer the doctor continued to mumble and speak softly. He was too dazed by what he was looking at to really hear or answer the magician. The bedroom was just as it looked in the Halloween video. Computer and recording set up out and unmoved, camera facing a table that normally didn’t belong here. That answered the question of where it disappeared to since it wasn’t in the kitchen. Burnt out candles were still where they were on the table, completely void of candle wax. Black plastic garbage bag was on the floor, judging from the smell, the pulp was in there and thus the culprit of bitter smell that wafted in the house. A carved pumpkin also sat on the table, grinning crookedly at the camera. But Henrik’s eyes saw nothing in the room, nothing in there was important. Nothing save the figure the pumpkin sat next to… The figure that belonged to the one and only… Jacksepticeye; who was slumped backwards on his chair and limp; eyes left in a half closed state but devoid of any kind of life. The way the body was positioned… it completely exposed his neck for the world to see. Henrik’s eyes reacted to focus on his friend’s neck, which blatantly showcased the clean, deliberate slash there, clearly indicating how he died… Died… “Why… why didn’t we..?” Henrik breathed in a horror, staring at the scene before him with wide eyes, feeling the burning of tears coming forth. It didn’t make sense… how did this happen? Jack hated using knives… they terrified him, he would never-  And yet... Jack was dead. The realization hit the doctor hard, tears stung his eyes as they flowed freely down his face as he kept staring, burning the image of his friend’s corpse to his mind’s eye. He could never forget this moment…this chilling sight that would always haunt him for as long as he lived. He would never forget this terrible discovery. “My friend… Oh god... Why?” Softly, in the background, was sinister giggle and a pair of pure black eyes watched from the shadows. It smiled before it vanished, keeping itself hidden from view until the day came to reveal himself to the others.  

[echoeternally]

What do you do to get motivation? I have a fic that's been going on for years now. I have the whole thing drafted, I mostly know what I want to happen, though I sometimes get stuck on side details.

Motivation works differently for everyone. I wish I had one universal answer to simplify it, but it really depends on who you are and what drives you.

To help, I can give you some tools that I use to help inspire me, and maybe from that, you can find your answer as well.

Short version for that would be the following:

Books, Media, and Other Stories

Music and Art

Unexplored Territories

Rewinds: Re-read and Remind

Audience

Friends

Research

Creating Goals

Slightly longer blurbs will go under the cut to explain things.

Ok, let me explain some inspiration sources a little more. (And because each section is longer, this now is a very long post.)

Books, Media, and Other Stories: This is usually a good place to start, since you can help engage yourself to your work by getting into other things. Books get a particular special mention because writing and reading go hand-in-hand. This can be extended to comics and manga though. Media is the umbrella term for tv shows, movies, video games, and other forms that entertainment take to portray stories of different kinds. Other stories themselves are meant for the less conventional venues to explore, like articles or history, or even other fanfics as well. Each source has their own story to tell you, and by looking into things, you can find how storytelling flows from each of them.

It doesn’t have to all be good stuff either. Maybe you hated the latest episode of your favorite cartoon or tv series. There was a book you finished last week, and it just completely fumbled the ending into a mess. Perhaps history was duller than dirt. Think you can come up with something better to tell? Great! Then fire up and get into writing how you’d do it better.

Music and Art: Another good spot to rouse creativity. Music and art tend to help bring about some life into you that stoke your creative fires well. Both are broad to describe, but they each have a lot of forms to them, so you should go with what you like to delve into. For example, art doesn’t strictly have to be fan art for fanfics; maybe there was a cool painting you remember from a museum that you wanted to recapture or explore. That can be useful. Same goes for music, as maybe there’s a song’s lyrics that you want to elaborate on, or take into a story of your own.

Personally, I prefer music that doesn’t involve lyrics. Classical music and media soundtracks (movies, video games) are usually super helpful, because they can have dramatic flares to them, and don’t always have people singing with lyrics that you end up associating with the song, which becomes a story of its own. If you can get the right tune that you can relax to, it can then help you want to create a story that goes with the atmosphere. There are all kinds of feelings that songs can stir in you, so experiment and see what you like.

Unexplored Territories: Stories are mostly not quite groundbreaking in what they tell, but rather how they tell it. Nevertheless, there are numerous less explored resources that can be immensely helpful to get into. Most people go for realistic stuff, like cultures that aren’t as primed for media representation. It’s good when you’re doing grounded things that deal with people mostly. For those more engaged in fantasy, though, you’d want to get into stuff that’s not tied for cultures, or extract it from them. Maybe you look up a list of mythological creatures and want to write about something that isn’t the woefully tiring trend of wizards/witches, vampires, werewolves, or clowns. Even changing it up in simple ways, like establishing a difference between sorcerers and witches, or having werewovles, werecats, and werebears all in one story that operate differently.

But don’t be afraid to turn to real life stuff too, especially for less explored spots. I tend to use LGBTQ+ stuff (mostly gays) to both give representation to groups that I identify with, as well as use character dynamics that mainstream media is too afraid to touch. Those two main male characters that are best friends? Make them boyfriends. That lady who seems like she’s super sexy? She’s actually asexual. I’m not telling you to specifically use this stuff, mind you, but this is an example of less explored territories that you can have a little more flexibility with. Heck, it can even simplify the story you tell with minimal changes: Beauty and the Beast’s titular characters are both female. The rest of the story plays out as follows, but it now gains brand new angles to be explored by a small change. That’s part of why I also like shipping and going for “rare pairs” for romance stories: they’re not as explored, and therefore, prime for new content that can be exciting just by existing! 

Rewinds (Re-read and Remind): A simple concept, but sometimes you can help stir some motivation by looking back over your old work. Checking back on things can help remind you of what’s going on, or can help create the desire to continue what was going to happen next. It’s basic, but sometimes just the smallest trick to help start some sparks you lost.

It doesn’t have to be a lot, either. Maybe you just wanted to write up this one scene, but you haven’t gotten there yet. Write it anyway, and then work on how you need to get there. While you’re reading over something you wrote, don’t focus on editing, but on the content. Maybe there’s this one line of dialogue that you really loved, and it’s this excellent one-liner that defines your character really well. And then that can make you want to give more to them. When you rewind and recall things you had ideas for, sometimes reviewing them can help you expand on them.

Audience: Has anyone read your stuff yet? If not, ask a few people to do so! An audience can help you immensely, because their reactions help gauge what works and what doesn’t. By giving them content to look over, and interacting with your readers as well, you can end up helping drive yourself to want to deliver more to them. It keeps things flowing nicely! (And this is why writers cry a lot about wanting feedback: it super seriously helps out in a great big way!)

Make sure to look for readers too, not just other writers. Sure, other writers can give you tips and tricks, but they’re looking at it from a similar perspective to yours: the creator’s. For readers, they’re specifically interested in consuming the content, and therefore, have different interpretations and interests for the story. They can give you opinions that other writers can’t quite so easily offer, because they can be more to the point of entertainment engagement. (Writers do typically double as readers, though, so it works out either way.)

Friends: I wanted to add a special distinction for friends as opposed to audience. Friends are nice, but are infinitely less likely to read your work. Online pals, irl friends, whichever you’re comfortable with talking to, they’re still not always the people you’ll go running to so you can grab a new reader. But that’s ok, because you have other ways they can help!

Sometimes, just telling a vague summary of things that are going on in your fic can help you get interested in telling more about it, and to others that might understand it more. Telling your friends puts you in a spot that helps you come up with ways to break down your story to its bare bones, and then what you want to do to help build it up. Another way to go about it would be to listen to stories that they have to tell you. Maybe they’re not writing, but sometimes just interacting with others can help you with developing dynamics that people can share in stories. Or events that are so out there, and you can come up with a way to create a related scenario. (No, I’m not telling you to write your friends…unless they make good characters, lol.) Even just being with friends to take your mind off of things and relax? That helps out too, more than you realize in the moment or immediately after.

Research: It kind of goes with some stuff above, because by viewing media, other stories, unexplored territories, music, and art, you’re doing a type of research. Each one presents a different medium that lets you get to know about them, and the more you look into it, the more you learn.

But the cool thing about research is that it takes you places. Websites like TVTropes and Wikipedia can take you to all kinds of weird places, but that’s what makes them great! You end up learning new topics and angles to explore, and they can help inspire new ideas by doing so, or help you restructure ideas you might think are too cliché or simply don’t work. Delving in deep can be time consuming, but also can lead to major payoffs.

Creating Goals: This one I’m not quite as sure about, because it depends on what you’re looking for out of stories. Still, it can be a helpful boost in its own way, so I’ll include it. Goal creating isn’t just something like, “Today I want to write a sentence.” That’s good to do in general, but I’m talking a little more along the competitive lines.

You’ve got a fic written up, but you’re looking to keep it rolling. Maybe you’re exploring two neglected characters from a movie and giving them a new life. But, guess what? Someone else tried something similar about two years ago. Heck. Are you going to let that stop you though? Heck no! What you do with that is see what that story nets for ratings, and plug away at trying to match them. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to outdo them entirely, especially the top ranking stuff. You don’t have to be the best. But you want to compare as well, so see how your content measures up. If they have bookmarked readers that stack to several hundreds, and you can net half after writing about the same characters? That’s pretty great stuff on your part! Even if you don’t have something specific to go up against? Tackle the archives or stories in general! See how highly rated you can get your stuff to be, and duke it out to be visible among everyone else’s content.

This one is really dependent on your personality type, so if you’re not competitive, don’t put stock into it. But if you get fired up about a challenge? Bring it on!

…

…

There’s a bunch of different avenues that you can look into, and different ways to help bring some motivation and inspiration into your creative mind. These are some suggestions based on angles that I’ve personally attempted, so they may or may not work for you. But that’s ok, because you might be able to come up with more ideas as well.

It just depends on what you like, what you want to do, and what stories you want to tell. From there, just let loose and explore.

But, please do keep in mind to keep yourself (yes, you) in check and feeling good. Tired? Get some rest! Hungry? Go eat! Overwhelmed? Decompress and relax. Know your five senses? Engage them all! Your mood definitely matters as well, and it’s little things that can sometimes hold you back in major ways. Take breaks, and when you come back, things might flow a little easier.

No matter what though, make sure you’re having fun! That’s what really counts in the end, above all else. Do stuff that’ll make you happy, and you’ll flourish in ways you might not even realize. These may be typical lines you’ve heard in countless places before, but they’re pretty helpful.

Again, go for it, and have some fun with the writing!

[survivingart]

STORY IS EVERYTHING

Be it online or in person, there’s a lot of competition in the arts. And the fact that the art world is much smaller compared to the world of business, law or medicine, only makes it harder for any one artist to succeed. While everybody online is telling us to “niche down”, and explaining why it’s so important, usually no specific tactics are disclosed, and the how is left for us to figure out for ourselves.

 This blunder is intended for anyone who wishes to find their focus and stand out in today’s oversaturated creative market by understanding the immense power of storytelling — especially when positioning ones creative skill and aspirations in the market.

Regardless if you paint, sculpt, make experimental video installations or are a political performance artist, the main goal for all of us is to express ourselves. 

We do so not because it’s the quickest or easiest way of making a living, but because it’s who we 

are. Most of us love our craft in some form or another and follow some internal aspirations that guide our interest and consequently the kind of art we make. 

But while creativity is a general term, it could not be describing a more colourful and rich abundance of personal motifs and ambitions of why we do what we do. 

For example, I could be selling skilfully crafted portraits because of my passion for creating narratives about beauty, intimacy and connection. But it could also be that I just really enjoy painting figures and fabric and am good enough at it to charge for my work. 

Both are great reasons to make a portrait and market ones skill, but even if the end product looks similar in both cases, their target audience couldn’t be more different.

So, let’s put the “art” in artwork.

I’d like to open this conversation with one of the hardest, but probably the simplest of all questions to answer, because we need to get it out of our way to really get the point of why story matters so much. But to find the answer we will have to go all in and drop the proverbial A-bomb. 

We’ll have to ask the big question. The one you can read about in 50€+ books, written by prominent and knowledgeable art historians and theoreticians, whose answers are mostly written so thoroughly, so extensively, that one needs a dictionary to find their point.

Ready?

What is Art?

Boom.

Unlike most other questions like: “What is carpentry?”, “What is music?”, even “What is philosophy?”, we artists and other creative souls appear to have an enormous problem — none of us really seem to know what the heck we are doing in our lives. Not because we are confused, undisciplined or too spontaneous, but because no-one actually seems to know what art is.

If you ask most academic professors, they will usually give you an academic answer. If they’re more on the liberal side, it will surely have to do with the freedom of expression and the lyrical power of images in the fight against social injustice.

Ask a person in the street — anyone you want really — and they might tell you it’s something pretty, something that looks good. And probably also something that is quite expensive. For a wealthy collector it might be freedom; a way of expressing themselves without the need to actually learn how to paint or draw or sculpt. 

A tattoo artist will tell you it’s tattoos. A barber will tell you it’s an exquisite haircut. An IT technician might even tell you it’s a perfectly sorted and laid out collection of ethernet and electrical cables in the server room. 

Just don’t ask an aesthetician — the branch of philosophy that researches art — and they might tell you a lot. Truth be told, they might tell you too much while saying very little. A wonderful example is Tiziana Andina’s prominently titled book: “The Philosophy of Art: The Question of Definition: From Hegel to Post-Dantian Theories”. Read at your own peril.

Art seems to be everything. And we all know that something that is everything is consequently nothing at all.

We have to take a closer look into the production of art; the making of paintings, sculptures, videos and maybe even haircuts and tackle the question by investigating the process of making something an art piece. 

So, let’s see if we can’t fix this mess of tattoos, pretty pictures and ethernet cables into a more workable definition by asking a better question: What makes something art?

In the 1960s the art world had a small crisis, caused by none other than the famous pop artist Andy Warhol. The root of the crisis was his artwork, titled simply: Brillo Box.

It looked exactly the same as a normal Brillo soap pad box, albeit being made out of wood. The question: What made Andy’s Brillo boxes art, but at the same time dismissed the original boxes made by James Harvey (the creator of the design) as mere industrial design?

Surely it wasn’t looks, and it couldn’t have been materials — the prestige of using silkscreen on wood instead of printing on cardboard was not the deciding factor after all. The only real difference that one could discern was the name associated with either product. 

You had Andy Warhol superstar and the other guy.

Apart from being a marvellous posh object to own, Andy’s Brillo box shines light onto an immensely important topic in art, namely that when push comes to shove, the classification of an artistic piece does not have anything to do with its physical composition — be it medium, motif, size, you name it…

This is immensely important, because if we distill the factors that make up art, we can get a pretty rough, yet quite precise equation, that looks a bit like this:

ART = Viewer + Art Piece + Artist

But why does it now seem like the art piece, the central point of the equation isn’t really important? Well, there’s another surprise coming up.

The artist has been regarded as a genius ever since the invention of the cave painting about 40.000 years ago. The master painter, listening to the whispers of his or her muses and transcribing the messages of the gods into reality, for all of humanity to experience the righteous powers of the divine.

As humans, we couldn’t have been more proud of the lineage of artistic mastery that our planet had created over the years, and we had every reason for it. From the Ancient Greeks to Giotto and Titian, then Caravaggio, Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso … all geniuses in the craft, that shaped how we perceive reality itself. 

But then came the trickster. The black sheep, the snake, the devil himself. Then, came Duchamp.

In 1917 as part of The Society of Independent Artists’ exhibition at the The Grand Central Palace, he unveiled his biggest joke of all — a urinal. And even though the organisation of the exhibition had promised that each and every art piece that was entered in the application stage would be shown, they decided to remove The Fountain (as Duchamp named his vertical toilet) from the exhibition. 

It was serious.

But the problem that Duchamp’s art piece created was minuscule compared to the big issue that was yet to come. His simple question : “Is this art?” didn’t just create a revolt inside The Society of Independent Artists, it started a revolution.

Thus, conceptualism was born.

The point he was trying to make was simple: Art is an internal human experience, not an invisible aura imbued into an object by some artistic genius.

The art world though, instead of getting his point, concluded that Nietzsche was indeed correct; the gods of art, beauty and aesthetics truly did perish. The murderer’s weapon was finally found — fully drenched in nothing but bloody ideology, the Fountain stood as proof.

Now, more than 100 years later, this narrative is still the bedrock of many institutions, both commercial and educational. And I feel it is about time we change this. 

Not only could more people start to appreciate art — instead of thinking of it as a pretentious playground for the rich, filled with expensive junk and weird intellectuals — but by removing some of the misconceptions that either artist or artwork are the origin of the artistic experience, we could actually improve the status of us artists in society.

How?

By educating the viewer. By making our artistic process visible to all via social media and other means. By not trying to overcomplicate our work descriptions and artist statements and ending the need to feel like we have to defend our right to paint, sculpt, dance or make videos, with big words and complex explanations.

By connecting with our audience and being strong, sincere and genuine people. And with social media exploding in a constantly connected world, the timing just couldn’t be better.

Art is a multitude of stories, each different from another and all created by every one of our viewers. 

And like good spelling and a decent vocabulary are the bedrock for any novel, we visual artists have a bunch of tools that we can use to build our narratives too.CREATING YOUR STORY (CONTEXT AND CONTENT)

In 1976, artist and critic Brian O’Doherty published his essay Inside the White Cube, that not only created lots of buzz in the art world, but gave this popular mode of displaying art in museums and commercial galleries a catchy new name.

While his wonderful critique of the White Cube is better to read in the original form, I would like to focus on one psychological factor that made his essay become so well known.

People experience things instantly and as a whole, rather than a collection of individual parts. When looking at a red triangle, we can’t just decide to see it as a triangle or just as something red — we always see both of its features at the same time.

Similarly with music; we can’t decide to hear just the tone of a note, while zoning out the colour of the sound (for example hearing the same note being played on a drum compared to a double bass or saxophone).

We as beings need context for just about everything in our lives — even our ability for differentiating object sizes and various temperatures is done by creating context from the surrounding environment.

Ok, but what does this have to do with art? Truth be told — everything.

As art is subjective, we can never really take full control over how a viewer of our show or a customer who bought one of our pieces will understand the work’s narrative. 

A description of the work might help, but some actually prefer to make up their own mind about what a particular art piece means to them on a strictly personal level, rather than listening to the artist describe what it should mean. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that in my opinion. 

But, while we aren’t able to control everything our viewer will experience, there are many aspects of our work that we absolutely can and should be thinking about. Because understanding them makes our job of finding potential buyers or getting a place in an exhibition incredibly easier.  

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Choose materials carefully, not just as a means to an end but as building blocks of your work’s narrative. 

A marble sculpture and a wood carving of the same motif tell different stories. Both may be a portrait of someone, but marble will always communicate prestige, longevity and may form subconscious connections to Ancient Greek and Roman statues of prominent individuals, making the portrayed look even more respectable and important. Wood on the other hand is softer and warmer in appearance and more suitable for creating intimate portraits emphasising emotion rather than status.

Evoke emotions, then seal the deal with a well prepared concept.

Nothing is worse than a conceptual piece that doesn’t also work on an emotional level. The appearance of your work will make or break its ability to convey your message, so regardless of how brilliant your idea may be, if your work doesn’t first captivate your viewer and make them curious enough to step closer, all is lost.

Presentation is really important when exhibiting your work. 

Adjust lighting, surrounding objects like tables, chairs, plants … to compliment your work, or at least not to distract your viewers attention.

Impressionists used a lot of green leafy plants to compliment the vibe of their paintings, modernists decided to completely remove everything (including the frame of a painting or plinth of a sculpture) to maximise emphasis on their work — hence the White Cube principle.

When showing work online, it is imperative to get it right.

Show your work not just as a clean, shadowless and speckless photograph with good colour correction (because the images should look identical to the real thing), but incorporate it into an environment — even a generic architectural shot of a living room will be better than nothing.

Give your online images enough context and help your visitors understand the colours, size, textures and other features of your work by providing enough visual information; a few detail shots, a side view and maybe even the back of the work (if it’s 2D). For spatial works, maybe make a 360° GIF by stitching together multiple angles — nobody wants to buy a sculpture only to find that they don’t like the rear end of it.

The venue is a big part of your exhibition. 

If you paint a picture of an apple being picked by a woman somewhere in a forest and hang it in an office of a juice company, people will probably see a nice lady picking apples. But hang it in a church community centre and people might see the highly complex concept of Ancestral Sin. 

Same painting, same communication, immensely different results — just by changing the context.

So whenever you have the chance — for example if you are invited to create a show in a certain gallery from scratch — work with the space in mind, or change it if you can to make it a better fit for your work.

Regardless of what kind of art you create, if you make a thorough examination of the materials you use, the message you are trying to tell and the environment you are telling it in, you can use all of this information to reverse-engineer your work to find your target audience. 

It should never be the other way around.

from Surviving Art https://ift.tt/2mSC2Mu via IFTTT

[modesty-blaise]

Since I'm curious, what caused you to become very possessive of your gifs? Not out of rudeness but curious, since no matter what you do a lot of them show up in the gif function on Tumblr which automatically credits you at the bottom of the gif.

Hey. Tbh, at first I didn’t wanna bother with yet another anon but since I see no ill intent behind this, I decided to go and answer it. Unfortunately, half-way through I realised my reply is turning into incredibly long semi-bitter rant and expands well beyond calling out just one person in Psychonauts fandom (and yes, this is related to Psychonauts fandom – you do know that these anons are not really that anonymous, right?) so… buckle up! All that beneath “read more”.

I’ve been on this hellsite for like…7-8 years? Maybe more? Can’t really tell cause I moved blogs and my old blog now consists of only 4 posts I’ve made close to leaving so I honestly have no idea how much time I’ve spend here before moving. Anyway, during those few years I’ve spent on my first blog I’ve met a lot of creative gifmakers who enjoyed sharing their love for fandoms they were in. I’d like to point out that this was waaaaay before tumblr created that insert-gif option so, back in the day, the only way to add gifs to your post was to: 1. make them yourself 2. take them from someone else. And a lot of people were taking them from someone else which resulted in many gifmakers giving up on making gifs and leaving fandoms and/or even leaving tumblr – and I’ve had many of my friends give up on what they love and have their games/shows/movies/whatnot ruined for them cause people would not stop stealing from them. And many of my friends eventually left tumblr cause they couldn’t deal with it anymore.

Tumblr adding insert-gif option, in my opinion, honestly, just made it worse for gifmakers. Cause now people had the opportunity to use gifs for their posts, with or without creators’ permission/knowledge, but it was alright and it was perfectly fine cause creators were credited. There’s their name at the bottom. It’s alright. Like… it doesn’t matter if they’re actually okay with people using something they’ve put hours into making or if they’re not – tumblr gives them credit so they SHOULD be okay with it. Simple as that.

Well, we’re all different and some people are not okay with that. I’m not okay with that. It took me weeks to figure out how to use photoshop correctly. Took me countless hours of looking through different tutorials and basically trial-and-error-ing my way through the process. Whenever I make gifs, it takes me hours to record videos and then hours trying to achieve that 3mb limit on gifs (thank lord these days we’re beyond 1mb limit). After all that effort I put into creating gifs for games that I love and enjoy, someone is going to make 2 clicks and have that same gif added to their post, without even asking. So how is that okay?

Back to your question. Yes, “no matter what you do a lot of them show up in the gif function on Tumblr”, that is true and that is something I was aware of when I saw you-know-who announcing they would be starting 30 days Psychonauts challenge. So, hating to see my gifs used against my will, and not wanting to start any unnecessary drama and threaten people in advance with reporting them if they do use them, I’ve made my blog as private as I could. It was only accessible through the dashboard, it was not showing in ANY search engines inside and outside tumblr, and my gifs were impossible to find through insert-gif function – I’ve made sure. I did all that cause I just knew that during those 30 days, someone would use my gifs and I would get mad and I desperately wanted to avoid that (hence going extreme). And you know what happened? You know what creator of this challenge (who prevously already reposted my gifs) did? *drums* They used my shit anyway. :3 They just uploaded it from their computer, where they’ve saved it earlier.

And like… a lot of people see pretty pic and decide to save it - I mean, we all do that. Heck, even I have a folder full of shit I saw online and liked it – but i’m not uploading it online cause I haven’t made it. It’s not mine to share.

But some people are not like that.

Some people see fanart of something they like and they want to share their opinion on it – and instead of making their own post, maybe drawing the fanart themselves, they decide to use someone else’s art for their post. Do they know who made it? Do they have creator’s permission to share it? If the answer is NO, then they should be a decent human being and not do that to creators. Oh, they shared it anyway but now people in fandom are calling them out BUT this actually happened on accident? They know who the creator is but, somehow, they accidentally forgot to credit them? OK, well, it’s possible, shit happens, but they better make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Then sometime later these same people decide they want to make a post appreciating their fav character and they want to include pics cause duh, you can’t have character appreciation post without pics, right? Now they have several options: they can get their own screenshots, make their own gifs, maybe draw something… or they can just take someone else’s creation. Do they know who made it? Well there’s my fuckin name on it, and since they’ve stretched it from 245 to 500px, it’s really hard to miss, plus it’s not like there are that many people making Psychonauts gifs. Do they have permission to share it? Hmmm, nope, didn’t ask me. Is this also an accident? Could be. I mean, I’ve seen stranger things happen, so accidentally forgetting to credit content creators twice… kinda suspicious but still possible. Who am I to say?

Now if these people then decide to make a post appreciating their fav ship and they want to add a cute pic of the loving couple – yup, you guessed it! They can either create something or take something. Again: they know who did? They asked for permission? Got the permission? No?!?! But they posted it anyway?!?! :o Could it really be, that after being called out publicly, after being told that reposting is bad (something that’s very easy to understand), after even having tumblr staff intervene and remove stolen shit from their blog, after all that - could it really still be an accident?

Nah, man.

They just don’t give a shit.

Cause if they did, they’d stop with that crap first time they were called out.

(and if you think Psychonauts fandom is their only fandom and that they’re not doing this crap in other fandoms too - hoooo, boy, do I have some bad news for you! Do you know how many stolen and butchered HP fanart is on their blog? Hobbit stuff? They seem to be one of the most accident-prone users on tumblr. And honestly - it’s a real miracle their blog’s not been terminated.)

Back to what I was talking about - I’m not okay with people using my gifs and I’ve made it very clear. I literally do not give a shit if I’m credited or not, I’ve made it very clear that I don’t want my gifs used without my permission. If you like them and want them on your blog, there’s a fuckin reblog button. It’s sole purpose is to allow you to share other people’s creations. Or shitposts, cause lord knows we all love those.

So that’s why when someone spends hours going through my Psychonauts tag and goes as far as to send me “I love your gifs” anonymous message, but the very next day makes stim moodboard post including one of my gifs, now cut and resized to fit 3x3 format they’re going with, I get mad. And that’s why when someone uses one of my gifs to promote their RP blog, butchering it to fit their aesthetics, and later when confronted going as far as blaming their good friend on it cause god! they’ve had no idea it wasn’t theirs, I get mad. (makes you wonder though: if they friend has such skills, why not making them gifs themselves?)

Like…. I’ve had my gifs stolen plenty of times. I’ve had them stolen for roleplaying, for headers, for imagines, just for notes… I’ve had them stolen by people claiming to run official fan sites (that’s a real wild story but I won’t get into that now)… I’ve seen them on pinterest, weheartit, FB, all those random gif sites… and I’ve seen EVERY. POSSIBLE. EXCUSE. ranging from: “well i found it on google so why should i credit you” “lol dunno who made this but its pretty so im posting it” “ive had it on my computer for years so i don’t remember where i got it from” “i dont know how to make gifs so im using weheartit as a source” “credit to whoever made this” (that’s my fav) to “its just a gif so who gives a shit” (it’s not – it’s hours of creator’s time and lots of love that you’re now shitting on so thanks) and “i have an /illness/ and getting notes makes me feel better so dont u dare blame me for stealing” (I don’t remember exact excuse but it was something along those lines and like… how do you even respond to something that without looking like an asshole?).

And sometimes it really is just an accident. Sometimes people really do forget to credit you and/or ask you for permission. And I’ve had my fair share of those accidents. People in Psychonauts fandom have been using my gifs for various crap but, when approached, they’ve removed it and apologised. And it’s something I really appreciate. (if they actually bother reading this and they recognise themselves: i’m really grateful and thank you for not being an ass)

But you know what I don’t appreciate? People making a call out posts about me, asking about my gifs when they know very well they’re the main reasons why I’m not making those gifs anymore, at the same time failing to address any of the issues I have with them and instead rather explaining to others what happened BUT explaining only the parts that make me look like a villain cause how I even dare be mad about them stealing? How I even dare call them out on it? That is so ridiculous and criminal of me, and it’s so so sooooo bad that they need to call me out. I deserve to be called out by the very same person who’s been stealing my shit.

And their explanation is…well… it’s something.

They were sympathetic and polite? When did this happen? Did I completely missed that part? Please someone fuckin enlighten me with such post/message where they expressed their sympathy and politeness and I’ll apologise right this second.

I told them to “literally fuck off”? Yeah, that did happen, I admit that. Did they bother explaining why I told them to fuck off in the first place? Did they say they were caught stealing from me and had tumblr stuff remove my shit from their blog? Did they get into details of how they demanded the proof of my so very wild and obviously false claims but then when I showed it, they just deleted that “how dare u call me out cause I would never do such thing” post? No, they didn’t and geee, I really wonder why.

Instead, what did they choose to address? Out of all the things I’ve said. Hm? What did they choose? Me telling them to fuck off. Me dropping the F-bomb on them, rudely rejecting their obvious kindness and politeness. Nothing else.

Back to what I was talking about before I got derailed again: no, I’m not mad cause this person used my gifs without crediting me. I mean – I am, but that’s not my main issue with them (and they know it). My main issue is that this is someone who will continuously lie and steal and still deny any of it, even when there’s plenty of proof (and you can always count on me to show up with proof tbh), and then go as far as to publicly ask about my gifs and try to call me out. Like me getting mad that something I’ve put hours of work into, and something I’ve made cause I love the game and I want to share my love and appreciation for it, is now being shared against my will and my knowledge - like me getting mad over something like that is so unreasonable that they need to make an entire post about it while pretending they have absolutely no idea why I’m even mad and why we have issues.

And I have every fucking right to be mad. 3 times is not an accident. 2 times to the same person is not an accident. They know it. But yeah, playing stupid is their defense so it’s not like I expected them to actually address their actions this time either.

And you know what? Just because I swear a lot doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Doesn’t mean there’s no solid ground for my claims. People on tumblr have always been and always will be stealing shit. Sometimes they will credit you, often they will not, and that’s just how it is, doesn’t matter if you’re okay with it or not. But that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna sit quiet and accept someone’s shitty behaviour. Especially when it’s directed at me.

TLDR: giving credit =/= having permission

but my previous posts leading to this ask were not about that

you knew that already