#top 10 best hits of 2018

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Dolly Parton - Jolene 1973

Dolly Parton is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and philanthropist. With a career spanning over fifty years, Parton has been described as a country legend and has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She has had 25 singles reach no. 1 on the Billboard country music charts, a record for a female artist (tied with Reba McEntire). She has 44 career Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and she has 110 career-charted singles over the past 40 years. She has composed over 3,000 songs. She has founded a number of charitable and philanthropic organizations, chief among them is the Dollywood Foundation, which manages a number of projects to bring education and poverty relief to East Tennessee where she grew up. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Parton donated $1 million towards research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which funded the critical early stages of development of the Moderna vaccine.

"Jolene" was released on October 15, 1973, as the first single and title track from her the thirteenth solo studio album Jolene, and became Parton's second solo number one single on the country charts. "Jolene" became Parton's first top ten hit song in the UK, reaching number seven in the UK Singles Chart in 1976. It also re-entered the chart when Parton performed at the Glastonbury festival in 2014.

According to Parton, the song was inspired by a red-headed bank clerk who flirted with her husband, Carl Dean, at his local bank branch around the time they were newly married. In an interview, she also revealed that Jolene's name and appearance are based on that of a young fan who came on stage for her autograph.

During an interview on The Bobby Bones Show in 2018, Parton revealed that she wrote "Jolene" on the same day that she wrote "I Will Always Love You".

"Jolene" was nominated for the Grammy Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance twice, in 1975 and 1976. The first nomination was for the original recording, and the second was for a live recording from the TV series In Concert. It did not win either time, but in 2017, a cover by the a cappella group Pentatonix which featured Parton as a guest singer won the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance.

In 2023 she released her forty-ninth solo studio album, Rockstar, a collaborative project with a variety of rock musicians and where "Jolene" is sung by Italian rockband Måneskin, listen to it here!

"Jolene" received a total of 94,3% yes votes!

[ask-serendipity-sky]

10 Jikook Moments That Make Me Say "There is no way Jikook is not real"

You know how sometimes when you are watching some Jikook content you get the random thought that says "How in the world is this even real?!?" For reals. A lot of Jikook moments are just...magical. They are something else. Real "I am you, you are me" (I really like that phrase, can you tell?).

Some moments legit have no explanation other than it's 2 people who are in love and are together. Together? Forever. Forever?

So here is my list (In no particular order, except number 1 and 2. Those moments are just the top moments for me):

10. Jungkook melting

This particular scene left a huge impression on me. Jimin caresses Jungkook's face and Jk closes his eyes and let's the touch take him. Its romantic.

There is no way on Earth that 2 people can touch each other like this and not feel anything remotely similar to love. No way.

Sure, friends with benefits can do it, or just friends can do it, but to get to this point where your face is caressed and you MELT, that's undeniable love. Touch with love elicits this sort of response. And we don't only see this in this scene, there are tons of others where the same thing happens!

(Like in yesterday's Jikook hug. Jk melted into Jimin.)

9. Mma 2018

A classic, right?

Have you ever seen any 2 other idols do this? It's like they forgot the cameras and all the people existed and poor Hyunjae next to them raising his eyesbrows left and right lol The guy seemed traumatized lol

They let their romantic thoughts win. Jk couldn't get his eyes off of Jimin. He even wanted to help him sit lol The way he looked at him. Like he wanted to kiss every inch of his face. His eyes spilling love.

I've watched this so many times and I stare at my screen in disbelief everytime. But I get it. Sometimes the moment is then and Jungkook and Jimin lived it.

8. You are my Park Filter 🥰

We are only supposed to watch unedited content, right everyone? So if you want to watch the whole live, go to weverse. This is a nice summary lol

Every respected Jikooker needs to have watched this, in my opinion lol

Jk is being the best boyfriend he can be and comes running the moment Jimin calls. There is lots of hand holding, soft tones in their voices, and very boyfriendy vocabulary being exchanged according to k-army, smiles, laughs, an appearance by their best man Mr. Hobi.

I watch this and it's like omg, they are happy together. And it makes me feel all happy to 3rd wheel along lol

If that doesn't convince you, maybe Jimin's shy shy shy face will!!!

7. Finger heartu 💕

It's not the finger heart that makes me think Jikook is real...but Jimin's reaction. Like no Jungkook, we are supposed to be chill in this concert...

And then Nam in the back tying his shoelace, that is already tied, but serves as an anti anxiety technique when dealing with Jikook.

It caught Jimin by surprise, like all these grand gestures Jungkook likes to surprise him with.

6. Jikook in their wedding suits...just kidding. Jimin losing himself when looking at Jungkook

First of all, omg. They looked handsome that day. There was a lot of Jikookery going on in these awards.

And then I see this scene. I feel like it's rare when Jimin lets his guard down and allows us to see him melt like this over Jk. I think Jimin just forgot about the cameras. His sweet smile and soft gaze for Jungkook only got softer when Jk looked at him too.

Then reality hit and back to business casual.

My point is that you don't forget that all eyes are on you unless more important eyes are on you. So many people were watching, but to Jimin, the ones that are the most important are Jungkook's eyes. And the same can be said about Jungkook.

5. 2315 in PTD Seoul

2315.

But that's not all.

In that same concert, Jk also referenced the numbers:

BUT that is not all...

After that concert, Jk had a quick live on Instagram and he referenced the numbers in his own way:

0:56 seconds: "Finally, in Korea, in 2.5 years, feels like 23 years, we finally had a concert in Korea. We got to do it..."

23. I was trying to figure out what the 23 meant since he referenced it twice. And one twitter discussion said that the was referring to 2300 days. That made sense to me. Has anyone heard anything about this number?

But going back to the 2315....

So k-army did the math for us and found that 2315 from March 10, 2022 (PTD concert) is...

November 08, 2015, which many believe might be the start of Jikook or a date that seems to be very important to them.

There is just too much persistence from both Jk and Jimin to show us what 11/8 means to them. It's like the are silently screaming it for us to understand.

4. GCF Tokyo

If Jungkook still mentions it, then so do we!

Everything about this date captured on video is literally that...a date. The video doesn't even show Tokyo...just Jungkook's Jimin and he decided to share that with us. Not for fan service or because he was forced...but maybe because "I'll be loud for you, but you gotta be there for me too..."

Jk, the hopeless romantic, organized this whole trip and focused only on Jimin, another hopeless romantic.

Whenever I hear of people saying this video doesn't have romantic tones, I leaves me baffled.

After I played this video for my partner, before they knew anything about Jikook, they were like "So are these guys getting married?" Lol

The Jikooker anthem! Let's all watch it together and cry of happiness!

Boy, I'm holdin' onto something

Won't let go of you for nothing

I'm runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you

There was a time that I was so blue

What I got to do to show you?

I'm runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you

Runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you

Runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you

Said, I'm runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you

But you gotta be there for me too

3. Rose Bowl Ear Nomming

Friends don't do this. Friends just don't. No one does other than a significant other or someone who is interested in you romantically or sexually. Friends don't do this. I cant think of anything else to say lol just...Friends don't do this.

And then the aftermath photo doesn't lie either:

2. Euphoria

So I saw this observation in another blog but haven't seen anyone mention it. During this live, Jimin was playing everyone's song while doing Legos. He listened to Euphoria and afterwards, kept humming the melody and smiling. And after a while he says:

Why would listening to Jungkook sing remind him of being at home? It's not like Jk sings all day and night. It's not like Jimin has told us before that he listens to Jk sing about 8 hours per day...wait.

So yes, this moment is up there because Jimin's subconscious is telling us everything.

1. J-hope's Album Release Party

Ok, hear me out. In the bangtan bomb, we saw this for a total of 5 seconds max.

But this moment is LOUD. This right here should have been the end of any speculation. For reals, when I think about Jikook moments this is the biggest moment of them all. Why?

Well, because Jimin and Jk were just minding their own business in a little corner of the entire place. A little dark and cozy corner. From what we can see, their hands touching and being close enough. No one was around them. Just 2 people wanting to be close to each other.

And we've all seen this or lived this. At a party, when 2 people are hitting it off, they seclude themselves and people give them space and let be them be in their own bubble. Except that in this case, the camera caught them. Seriously, camera man? What was the reason!?!?!?

And we get Jk's face of "are you freakin kidding me?" Jimin getting shy and looking at Jk for reassurance. There wasn't supposed to be a camera or anyone around bothering. This was Jikook in their most natural state.

We also have to remember that this is during Jimin's time when he was living in the studio making FACE so Jikook wasn't spending as much time together. Jimin was taking a day off here and one thing led to another...and they are holding hands lol

And I love this moment because people don't get to say "you only have moment from 2018" "they are doing it for the cameras" "jikook jikooked when they were young but they got it out of their system" "so and so should have been there too so it wasn't a jikook thing" blah blah.

For me, this moment is it.

Watch the entire bangtan bomb and check out how Jk kept tabs on Jimin in the scenes where we see them together. And the same with Jm keeping tabs on Jk. Also, this photograph:

There is a better version of this photo but it's so edited that you can hardly see Jk.

Anyway, this is my number 1 because there is no way that this is not real.

Phew. It was hard picking...

I might need a part 2.

[absolutebl]

Hello ABL. First of all, let me just say, that I love your devotion to Seven Days. It was my very first bl and what got me to discover the genre. Of course it was all downhill from there lol. Just kidding. Maybe... Anyway. I've been doing this thing since the beginning of the year where I watch older jbls (usually before 2020, although that is not old by any stretch) to kinda get a broader view of the genre in Japan. I haven't been in this for that long so I'm still catching up. Some of the stuff I've watched so far. All the Pornographer series/films ; Dangerous Drugs of Sex; Takimu-kun 1 & 2; Junjou (2010); Athlete (2019) Udagawachou de Matteteyo (2015); Ai no Kotodama (2008) No Touching At All (2014) ; The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese (2020). I've also watched things like His (series and film), Restart coming back home, Life Love on the Line, and I'm probably missing a couple but not a lot. So I was wondering if you had more recs for me. Anything you can think would fit with what I'm trying to do.

Thanks so much for your time.

Rose💜

Hi darling!

You're missing Boys Love, both of them. If you can stomach it.

Did you see my History of Japan thingy? I'd say try to hit everything discussed in that post: (The top 10 is out of date tho)

And the ones I picked from Japan for the 101 Syllabus

Apart from that's I'm gonna just give you my list of older JBL stuff. I put a * next ones often referenced in the zeitgeist of weedy discussions here on Tumblr in particular, some of which you already mentioned but I just want it to be as complete as possible. These are by date (sort of).

Older Japanese BL (Live Action Yaoi)

* Boys Love 2006

* Boys Love: The Movie AKA Boys Love 2 AKA Schoolboy Crush 2007

Itsuka no Kimi e 2007

Asymmetry 2008

* Forbidden Love 2008

Gymnasium Baby AKA Taiikukan Baby 2008

Melody of Our Love AKA Bokura no Ai no Kanade 2008

Ai no Kotodama 2008

Ai no Kotodama 2: Sekai no Hate Made 2010

* Takumi-kun 1: And The Spring Breeze Whispers 2007

* Takumi-kun 2: Rainbow Colored Glass 2009

Takumi-kun 3: The Beauty of Detail 2010

Takumi-kun 4: Pure 2010

Takumi-kun 5: That, Sunny Blue Sky 2011

* Junjou: Pure Heart 2010

Fujimi Orchestra 2012

Shape of Happiness 1 AKA Love Place: Hakanaki Kata Omoi - Gaiya no Koi 2013

Shape of Happiness 2 AKA Love Place: Shiawase no Katachi 2013

Coming Out AKA Kamgu Auto 2014

* No Touching At All AKA Doushitemo Furetakunai 2014

* Same Difference AKA Docchi Mo Docchi 2014

Forever Summer 2015

* Wait For Me at Udagawachou AKA Udagawachou de Matteteyo 2015

Candy and Kiss 2015

* Seven Days AKA Seven Days: Monday-Thursday AND Seven Days: Friday-Sunday 2 parts 2015

* Double Mints 2017

* Silhouette of Your Voice AKA Hidamari ga Kikoeru 2017

* The Novelist AKA Pornographer (Pornographer series) 2018

Mood Indigo (Pornographer series) 2019

Pornographer Playback (Pornographer series) 2021

* Does the Flower Bloom? 2018

* Ossan's Love (original) 2018

* The Shortest Distance is Round (Noir) AKA Saitankyori wa Mawari Kudokute 2019

The Shortest Distance is Round (Blanc)

The Shortest Distance 3: Fallen Flowers AKA Saitankyori Wa Mawari Kudokute: Rakka Ryūsui 2020

The Shortest Distance is Round 2: Rain and Soda AKA Saitankyori wa Mawari Kudokute: Ame to Soda Mizu 2020

* His the series: I Didn't Think I Would Fall In Love AKA His - Koisuru Tsumori Nante Nakatta 2019

Athlete 2019

* What Did You Eat Yesterday? AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? 2019

* The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese AKA Kyuso wa Chizu no Yume wo Miru 2020

* Dangerous Drugs of Sex AKA Sei no Gekiyaku 2020

* Love Stage!! AKA Rabu Suteiji 2020

The Reason Why He Fell In Love With Me AKA Kare ga Boku ni Koishita Wake 2020

The Reason Why He Fell In Love With Me 2 AKA Kare ga Boku ni Koishita Wake 2 2021

* His the movie 2020

* Life: Love on the Line AKA Life Senjou no Bokura 2020

* Restart AKA Restart After Come Back Home AKA Risutato wa tadaima no ato de 2020

* Cherry Magic AKA 30 Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard AKA 30-sai made Dotei Da to Mahotsukai ni Nareru rashii AKA Cheri Maho 2020

Post 2021 - A few lesser knows that might be worth it

Given 2021

Kiss Kiss Kiss series

The 8.2 Second Rule AKA 8.2 Byo no Hosoku

[beesmygod]

"A GHOST STORY" IS A WEBCOMIC I MAKE THAT I WILL BE RE-POSTING, GRADUALLY.

the top row is from 2013, the bottom row is from the 2018 re-draw. while the panel progression in the re-draw is much better (as well as the consistency in sound effects and gutters), i think it was a mistake to change the black eyed kid's sniffing posture to the one where he's not clearly trying to get a big whiff of the air. whiff whifff...like an animal in the Savannah.

posting this so far has been making me feel very, very sad. but i have a feeling that most of my really bad feelings are connected more to the generalized anxiety of having to put work i no longer stand by on display for people to judge. these posts are, ostensibly, supposed to entice you into reading the comic that has consumed my life for 10 years (and i think about near constantly). but the idea of trying to convince people that something i made is good enough to spend their time on is a really stomach-churning task. it is frightening. i do not like myself enough to ask people to make investments in me both financially and in terms of their free time.

also the world at large is very bad right now. it is hard to navigate the world and "hustle" when everyone is doing so poorly and you know it's annoying to be subjected to someone's mediocre creation that they have outsized feelings about. the question i always ask myself when i hit print on my comic is "is this something i would read?" and the answer is still no. but i'm getting closer. i feel like i've been honing a knife edge for a decade but it's nowhere close to being up to the standard i want. but it's not like the knife isn't getting sharper. it is. but is it beneficial to ask others to help me sharpen it? what are they getting out of it?

regardless, this is the comic i was capable of making at the time. both times. the top row pages reflect the best efforts of someone working a desk job and going to school and the bottom row reflects the efforts of someone who worked on these pages in between their usual 2x a week update schedule (when possible, the re-draw took several years to make)

why am i making "A Ghost Story"? first, it was because it was bursting at the seams with ideas and had the energy to execute them. even if the end result was sloppy, it was freed from my mind. now its because i can see It. i can see the arc the story and the characters are taking and i want to shepherd them there. there's something at the end there, if not for me than for them. just to get them to where they need to go and where they need to be. is that enough? these things that only exist and matter to me actually hold on that thought is way too big for this already huge post. maybe next time.

short version of that long thought, for now: i am deeply troubled by wondering why people do the things they do, and push my dolls around to understand the actions of other people and also myself. there's more to people than the surface and rudimentary opening chapters of my comic were looking to explore. i needed to go deeper. i want to know what drives people. and i want to make people laugh while doing it.

---

♥ read the comic: A Ghost Story ♥ support the comic for as little as $1 a month on Patreon ♥ pay what you want for the re-draw of the first chapter on itch.io

you can block the tag "#AGS repost" to keep this off your dash

[vintage1981]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLINE MUNRO! 

Caroline Munro (born 16 January 1949 in Windsor, Berkshire) is a British actress and model best known for her many appearances in science fiction and action films of the 1970s and 1980s. According to Munro, her career took off in 1966 when her mother and photographer friend entered some headshots of her to Britain’s The Evening News “Face of the Year” contest.

“I wanted to do art. Art was my love. I went to Art School in Brighton but I was not very good at it. I just did not know what to do. I had a friend at the college who was studying photography and he needed somebody to photograph and he asked me. Unbeknownst to me, he sent the photographs to a big newspaper in London. The famous fashion photographer, David Bailey, was conducting a photo contest and my picture won.” 

This led to modelling chores, her first job being for Vogue Magazine at the age of 17. She moved to London to pursue top modelling jobs and became a major cover girl for fashion and TV ads while there. Decorative bit parts came her way in such films as Casino Royale and Where’s Jack? (1969). One of her many photo ads got her a screen test and a one-year contract at Paramount where she won the role of Richard Widmark’s daughter in the comedy/western A Talent for Loving (1969). 

1969 proved to be a good year for Munro, because it was then that she began a lucrative 10 year relationship with Lamb’s Navy Rum. Her image was plastered all over the country, and this would eventually lead to her next big break.

Hammer Films CEO Sir James Carreras spotted Munro on a Lamb’s Navy Rum poster/billboard. He asked his right hand man, James Liggett, to find and screen test her. She was immediately signed to a one-year contract. Her first film for Hammer proved to be something of a turning point in her career. It was during the making of Dracula AD 1972 that she decided from this film onward she was a full-fledged actress. Up until then she was always considered a model who did some acting on the side.

A string of fantasy and horror roles followed, including starring turns in Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1973), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), At the Earth’s Core (1976),  The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), StarCrash (1978), Maniac (1980), The Last Horror Film (1982), Faceless (1988), and The Black Cat (1989).

By the 1990s Munro had decided to focus more on her family, daughters, Georgina and Iona, and husband George Dugdale. However, since 2003 Caroline has renewed her interest in acting and has appeared in a number of film and audio productions. Since 2021 Caroline has been presenting the hit television series The Cellar Club for Talking Pictures TV.

The title First Lady of Fantasy was given to Caroline by journalist Steve Swires, who wrote many Starlog and Fangoria (@FANGORIA) articles on the actress in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Happy Birthday Caroline!

Official Website:  http://www.CarolineMunro.org

Representation: Thomas Bowington/Bowington Management

Some of her credits include: Dracula AD 1972 (1972), Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1973), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), At the Earth’s Core (1976), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), StarCrash (1978), Maniac (1980), The Last Horror Film (1982), Faceless (1988), The Black Cat (1989), Flesh for the Beast (2003), Turpin (2009), Midsomer Murders (2013), The Landlady (2013), Crying Wolf (2015), Vampyres (2015), Cute Little Buggers (2016), Frankula (2017), End User (2018), House of the Gorgon (2019), The Haunting of Margam Castle (2020), Ulalume - A Ballad (2023), The Pocket Film of Superstitions (2023), and the upcoming The Presence of Snowgood (2024).

[chibrary]

ARTICLE: "The plane journey that convinced Ferrari on Leclerc" (Autosport Plus, 2018)

While Ferrari is doing all it can to help minimise the pressure - with boss Maurizio Arrivabene saying this week that the only goal for next year is for Leclerc to gain experience and 'absorb' the tricks of the trade - there is a feeling that in reality it secretly expects much more.

To realise why that is, you have to wind back the clock a little and understand that the decision to sign Leclerc was not some spur-of-the-moment call forced upon Ferrari because it was in a rush to sign somebody.

Ferrari made its decision on the eve of the Italian Grand Prix to pick Leclerc over Kimi Raikkonen not because it had to, but because it wanted to.

Leclerc's speed was obvious. The need to potentially shake up the internal dynamic at Ferrari was real.

And those fears about it being too early for Leclerc, of a young man not able to cope with intense pressure and at risk of being burned out and thrown onto the scrap heap before he hit his peak? The team management's minds had already been put at ease on that front.

It is often said that the qualities of an individual are found not when they are celebrating success, but when they have to pick themselves up from the bad moments.

And in Leclerc's case, it was the way he was able to cope with the death of his father in 2017 that proved a defining moment in convincing Ferrari that he had all it takes to deal with the pressure of racing for the Prancing Horse.

For someone who was as close to his father as Leclerc was, that loss last year was deeply painful. And, coming in the middle of an intense battle for the Formula 2 crown, it could have been enough to trigger a loss of concentration and a drop in form.

But amid all the personal heartache Leclerc was suffering, Arrivabene recalls meeting him on the Ferrari charter flight to Baku that week, and how the youngster's attitude there left him in no doubts about his star qualities.

"I asked him how he was after losing his father a few days before," explains Arrivabene. "He replied that he wanted to win the race, and then go home for the funeral. That is exactly what he did.

"If a guy can handle these moments, I do not think that he will have problems adjusting to the pressure of F1."

Leclerc has spoken openly about how the emotional rollercoaster of that weekend - the crying in the helmet after he took pole position and then the wins - meant those were days where he grew up a lot.

It is important to remember though that Baku was not the first time in his career Leclerc has faced supreme challenges. He knows full well how to keep his head under control when things are not going the way he may have hoped.

There was the risk as he started out his career of being unable to continue karting because the funds were drying up. Only a bit of help from his brother Lorenzo's best friend, Jules Bianchi, in convincing Nicolas Todt to try to help, made the difference.

Even today Todt remembers a very nervous Leclerc being dressed in a super smart black suit for their first meeting... and impressing throughout.

Then there was the difficult time in the middle of his 2015 European Formula 3 campaign. Taking a seat in the Van Amersfoort team that Max Verstappen had shone so strongly for in '14, Leclerc began the season in fine form with a series of wins in the first half of the year.

But something - most likely related to a senior engineer departing mid-season for personal reasons - changed within the team and Leclerc found himself suddenly on the back foot over the second half of the year. Where once he was battling in the top three week in and week out, suddenly he was fighting to be in the top 10.

Leclerc had to dig deep to try to recover; find answers about what had gone wrong, as he came home fourth overall in the standings.

But a super strong showing in Macau, where he finished second right behind winner Felix Rosenqvist, suggested he had kept his focus and unlocked the answers that were needed.

That time also marked Leclerc's arrival in the Ferrari Driver Academy, which helped him both progress as a driver and also show more evidence that when the intensity and pressure increase, he just gets better.

As manager Todt recalls: "Ferrari has helped him in many ways. Physical, mental preparation and also the contribution of the simulator played an important role. Of course, even more pressure has come, as is normal when you are part of the Ferrari world.

"But we have found that the greater the pressure that Charles is subject to, the greater his performance on track. That is a fundamental aspect, because today in the paddock I think that all the drivers have excellent sporting skills. But what makes the difference is the head, and on this front Charles I think is very solid."

Vettel will not be unaware of how fast and how mentally strong Leclerc is. Even if he hadn't seen it for himself, he has probably been told well in advance by Arrivabene why Ferrari is convinced it has the right man.

Did that prompt Vettel's recent suggestions that it will be important that the pair of them work together - rather than against each other - for the good of the team? Is he seeing a shift in the sands at Maranello as things will be different to how they were with Raikkonen? Only Vettel knows the answer to that.

[bluwavez]

DeepDive began their journey originally in 2014 under the publicly known money laundering flop company Stormedia with an original five-member lineup. The group was in the pits of nugudom, only having four releases and a consistently rotating lineup. Son Jinhwa, the former Angelico CEO, would buy the rights to the group in late 2015. Nothing is ever simple with Jinhwa. DeepDive would go under an intense rebranding, where not only all the content and music they made under Stormedia was wiped from the internet and is now considered lost media but would also put the group through a survival show where the lineup would be remade.

Many fans believe that the official start of DeepDive was in 2016, excluding the ones who have been following the group for almost 10 years. They consider the true original lineup to consist of Han, Jisung, Blue, Noah, Woojin, Kiwoo, and Finn. Unfortunately, the group faced some difficulties when Woojin left the lineup in 2019, and he was quickly replaced by Jacob Lee, a former member of Wanna One. The last lineup change occurred in 2023 when Han exited the group due to their contract being acquired by Flowerbank Entertainment.

Though the group's history is a complete mess, there is one undoubtable fact: The music goes hard.

THE SOUND OF DEEPDIVE cannot be described as one sound but as cohesive noise that is regarded as one of the best and most diverse boy group discographies in Kpop.

2016 — WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ENERGY ?!

Debuting three months after their survival show concluded, the now seven-member piece would come out the gate with the physical single "Energy," which, despite being a banger, was overlooked by most of the general public.

While not having a strong debut like they planned to, DeepDive would come back with their first mini-album, "Happiness," promoting the title track "Get Around" relentlessly just to end up with the same disappointing results. The mini album would perform better than their debut, but that's not saying much since Energy didn't chart anywhere, and Get Around only managed to hit 103 on the Goan digital chart.

Their last release of 2016 would still stick to the sweet and fun concept, dropping the once nugu beloved hit "Daisy Dayz, " the title track from their second mini album of the same name. Daisy Dayz would manage to break into the top 100 but would only hit #89 once again not meeting expectations.

2017 — OH...THEY'RE TRYING SO HARD...

The boys stayed on a consistent release schedule shockingly enough. Ushering 2017 in with the floppiest single, "Sweat," which fans don't even remember, nor do they rarely bring up when discussions of their discography arise. It seems the hundreds of fans they did have were over their sweet concept despite most of the boys being teenagers at the time. Listening to fans, their first full album, Our Ocean, would have a more "mature" concept.

It became clear with this shift in sound and concept that the problem with DeepDive's lack of success hadn't to do with their music quality but with the fact the oldest member at this time would be barely 20 years old and the youngest, turning 16 that year. To put it bluntly, they looked silly singing these grown ass songs with their baby faces, and everyone saw it! Still, this didn't deter Angelico, and DeepDive would release another classic in their discography, "Bounce," which would gain traction amongst K-pop fans.

It's worth noting that the boys, primarily Noah and Finn, began producing the group's music during this time despite their young ages. Noah was just seventeen around the time of Bounce's release, while Finn was still 15.

Bling Bling would not receive the same amount of love Bounce did. In fact, Twitter would tear this song to shreds. Though hated at its release, it has become a beloved song in DeepDive's discography, notably being one of their most hyped songs to hear live. Fans blame Bling Bling for Angelico shipping DeepDive off to Japan the next year.

2018 — JAPANESE DEBUT (THE NUGU DEATH SENTENCE)

Desperate to make some money off this group, Angelico would give DeepDive a killer Japanese debut. "Ride or Die," would be a massive hit in Japan, securing DeepDive a strong and dedicated fandom in the country. This success would result in the group practically living in Japan for the rest of 2018. They were so famous in Japan, guys. Ride or Die was literally everywhere, they were on every variety show, they were performing concerts practically monthly at that point. They were finally reaching the success Angelico wanted with just one album.

So, of course, they released another banging album. "Burning Up" would be more successful than "Ride or Die," getting an English and Korean release due to its online success amongst international audiences. Becoming the face of K-pop in Japan, Sirens began to fear the boys would never come back to Korea which, honestly, a valid fear because they would release another Japanese album that year.

"Reaction" was a more controversial release but successful nonetheless. Nothing notable happened with this release.

The boys returned to Korea in December after spending 11 months in Japan. They released their second full Korean album, "Click Play," with the title track "Click." Due to their massive success in Japan, this release actually broke into the Top 50 on the Goan chart, a first for their career. Click would be a notable turning point for their career, seemingly starting their rise in Korea.

2019 — WE'RE PICKING UP STEAM NOW ...

Okay, so, Click's success wasn't enough to keep them in Korea long because the boys were back in Japan with an EP within two months. "Love Fire," is a deeply beloved title track by fans but nothing notable would occur during this promotional period except that fans feared they really were staying Japan for the rest of their career.

The last Japanese release would be "Your Love," another beloved song by Sirens. The song is one of their softer and cuter ones, as well as being the last release with member Woojin before he was removed from the group.

Desperate to come back with a bang, adding newest member Jacob Lee to the line up, the boys would touch down in South Korea and release "FIRE" a single that would grab the attention of the general public. FIRE is notable due to it selling 65,000 copies, the highest amount of sales they've ever reached as a group. DeepDive was becoming known at this point, being called "up and coming" or "on the rise" despite being well into their career at this point.

No Pressure would be released to much fanfare, finally fully catching the attention of international audiences, specifically those in America and Brazil. They say that once you're famous in Brazil, you're famous for life, and DeepDive was famous in Brazil! Still, they were just under the mark of making it in Korea, but just barely.

Then...

2020 — DASHI RUN, RUN, RUN OUT OF NUGUDOM !

NUGUDOM IS FINALLY OVER! THE BOYS MADE IT! RUN would be the song to break the glass ceiling, truly. Topped every chart, won them their first music show award, and won them a MAMA award––Baby, they were everywhere and the standard. DeepDive became the poster child of "Rags to Riches" and was soaking up every second of fame they could.

Refusing to be one-hit wonders, the boys came back swinging. "New Things" would become a viral hit as well, with every idol and their mother doing the choreography, which was created by Jisung. Another point that made DeepDive so unique is that they created everything they ever put out. Music, album designs, choreography, they used to edit their vlogs––They are those boys! Always have been! They were working their asses off for this type of success.

Call Out My Name was a moment. Everyone was talking about it. It was on the radio, it was on your timeline, it was winning awards, and covers of it were everywhere. You could not escape this song, but it's not like you wanted to because it's a banger through and through. It was clear these boys were going no where.

2021 — DAMN...THAT'S LOUD AS FU—

So, this era is interesting! Finn and Noah would take a break as the producers of DeepDive, leaving Jacob in charge for the first time.

Then...Sticker was born.

Sticker, as you can imagine, was highly controversial and is still being discussed to this day by K-pop stans. Due to it's controversy, yet success it was literally super successful, Finn would return as DeepDive's producer.

Still, the music from this time would be notably noisy and divisive, but they were from at a point in their career where it didn't matter what kind of music they released; they were topping the charts.

2022 — THEY'RE THOSE BOYS !

You'd brag, too, if you were in DeepDive! There's not much to say here except they were still topping charts, selling out arenas, hit over 50 million albums sold overall. They, again, could've released Finn banging spoons together and it would've been a hit but they weren't! At least not this year! They released hot girl music and went on their first worldwide tour with 120 dates! Great year for DeepDive!

2023 — GIRL, WTF JUST HAPPENED ?!

Then the storm hit! Flowerbank Entertainment scooped these boys up and basically tried to ruin their careers! They only had two releases this year and barely any promotions because Flowerbank sucks at their job and was sabotaging them.

Notably, Han would leave the group this year, and Woojin rejoined the group. Which is literally the only good thing to come out of this year.

2024 — OKAY, BACK ON TRACK !

And we're at the current day and they're killing it again!

MOST RECENT RELEASE :: TAX WRITEOFF

[cherrylng]

WOTP Dom Howard Interview [INROCK - Muse (October 2022)]

Unparalleled rock trio Muse release first new album in four years, Will of the People.

"We don't want to do a best-of album or a compilation because we're going to keep making new music."

Dominic Howard/Muse INTERVIEW: AI ANAZAWA

Muse have released their new album ‘Will of the People’, their first album in almost four years since ‘Simulation Theory’ (2018). The band has always been big on the soundscale, but this time they've pushed each of the songs to their full potential, making the rock songs harder and the ballads more dramatic, creating what might be described as the ‘strongest’ album yet. The album was self-produced without an external producer due to the Corona disaster, but as you would expect from a seasoned artist, he knows his identity and what he needs to do now. Dominic, who agreed to be interviewed by Zoom, was relaxing in the sunroom of his London home with his dog.

—I saw a picture of you at a recent festival where you were playing drums in a full face mask, is that a new image for the new album ‘Will of the People’? Dominic Howard (dr.): We start the show with ‘Will of the People’ and we also appear wearing the masks that the main characters and groups that appear on the album cover and video wear. It's the opening song.

—Oh, I thought it was hot in the summer (laughs). Dominic: (laughs). I can hardly see anything when I'm wearing that. I can barely see the drums in front of me, so I think Matt [Matthew Bellamy, vo. keys g.] and Chris [Wolstenholme, b.] have an even harder time. They'll be playing while trying to keep an eye on the fretboard. Plus, it's a full face, so it's hard to breathe. And there's a burning ‘Will of the People‘ logo right behind me, so my back is burning hot. But, you know, I'll do anything for rock‘n’roll (laughs).

“I was careful to avoid abstractions, and I was also very conscious of keeping it tight.”

—This album is especially Hard Rock, isn't it? A lot of albums made during the pandemic have been released one after another, but I have the impression that many of them are introspective because of the production environment, but this album is the complete opposite of that (laughs). Dominic: Yeah, it's a heavier, harder rock sound, less introspective… We were definitely working on some of it during the lockdown, though. I think everyone tended to be more introspective back then, and people were making music that sounded a bit more light-hearted, maybe not as bombastic as ours. Anyway, that kind of thing (introspective, light music) is not really our thing, it's more outward expression, more outlandish. Yeah, we haven't done an album as heavy as this one in a really long time.

—I read that you started this album as a response to a label proposal to release a best-of album, but why are you against the idea of ​​a greatest hits album in the first place? Dominic: Realistically speaking, best-of albums aren't what they used to be, are they? Nowadays, a person's top 10 favourite songs on Spotify are their best releases, right? Labels want to do best-of records because they want to promote the band, but we've always been against it because we feel like a best-of record is kind of the end of your career, you know (laughs). We don't want to do a best-of album or compilation because we're going to keep making new music. The labels might have come up with the idea in discussions to see if there was anything they could release during the pandemic, but we've always said no, let's make new material instead.

—I see. Matt describes the album as “best of new songs” and “a montage piece packed with the best of Muse.” Was that the band's goal or perception in the making of the album? Did you actually discuss such things? Dominic: Hahaha, we talk about it all the time. The whole time we were making it. But I don't think it was ever our concept. I'm sure Matt said that because we like the album that much and we think it's like our best album. I think he wanted to say that it's like a collection of the best parts of the band's old sound. It's got the heavy side, the pop side, the acoustic ballads like ‘Ghosts (How Can I Move On)’, it's got the best of what the band has always done. Well, whenever you're making an album, you always think: ‘This is the best album ever! Every song could be cut as a single!’ (laughs). I don't want to release it, or even finish it, unless I'm proud of it as an important representation of the band as it is now. In fact, we were very conscious of only including stuff that we felt was appropriate to be on the album. We didn't want to do anything too experimental… That's a bit of a misnomer. We were careful to avoid abstraction, to keep it to the point and concise, to know where to put the songs on the album, and to keep the production tight.

—There are only ten songs on the album. Do you have any regrets about not being able to keep it tighter on previous albums? Dominic: No, not really. When it's been a year or so since we put out an album, I do think ‘I should have done that’ or something like that, but I wouldn't really call it a regret. We've done some very experimental and abstract albums in the past, because that's what the album needed, especially the first three albums. The second album (2001's Origin of Symmetry) is longer and more experimental. I'm not saying that I want to get rid of that aspect of ourselves, I'm just saying that we've become more conscious of making tighter albums. And I've always wanted to make a 10-song album. We've had instrumental songs that made it 11 songs, so this time we decided to make an album of just 10 songs with songs on it (laughs).

—The content of the song this time is all very depressing, just a little bit… (laughs). Dominic: The lyrics (laughs)?

—Yeah. It's as realistic a fiction as you can get. Are these socio-political and environmental issues always something that comes up in the band? Or is this all about Matt's political views? Dominic: Mostly the latter (laughs). I think the surreal, political fictional world is where he's most comfortable writing. I guess it's easier to write about very personal things than to express them frankly. Of course there are parts of the album that touch on personal things, but I haven't done a lot of songs that are about personal things. Matt's style is to write about the emotions of what's going on in the world and apply them to an imaginary world. Naturally, we would talk about the topic and the direction we wanted the song to go in. But the music always comes first. Then the lyrics (by Matt) can take quite a while, but whatever idea it's based on, the three of us take it and put it into music, and eventually it's something we enjoy playing. The lyrics come after that, so it can be influenced by the vibe and feel of the song's source material.

—Oh, really? Dominic: So it's not the lyrics we talk about the most, it's the music (laughs).

—I see, the three of you live in different parts of the world. How did you make that music during the pandemic, especially during the lockdown? Dominic: It was tough. Especially in 2020, there were months when we couldn't do anything. But we still did things like exchange ideas virtually. Once we were able to get together, we started working in the studio in Los Angeles. Chris doesn't live over here, but we still had him come to LA, and when that wasn't possible, we continued working remotely. In the spring of 2021, we got together in London and we were able to work on it at Abbey Road [Studios]. It was a lot of work, but we found a way to work not only on music, but also on these things (Zoom interviews), and also on business, virtually, without having to move from place to place, didn't we? I think it's actually become more convenient for a lot of people.

—Did you produce this album yourselves because of the restrictions of the Corona Disaster? Or was it a reaction to the fact that your last album, ‘Simulation Theory’, involved a lot of producers? Dominic: It was probably both. It was a pandemic, so from the beginning Matt and I were in the studio alone, trying out different ideas, and we were comfortable with that. Then Aleks (von Korff), the engineer, joined us in the studio and the three of us were in what you might call a bubble (laughs). Of course we had to take coronavirus checks every now and then and be careful while working, but we got comfortable in that situation, and it felt different to invite other people in there. It would be a lot of work to bring someone else in. And we like production work too. We've always co-produced, even when we've had a producer, and we rather like the time-consuming, detailed work.

—Please tell me how did you decide to end the album on a hopeless note with ‘We Are Fucking Fucked’ (laughs)? Dominic: It's interesting to hear other people say the title of this song (laughs). It was the only song we had at the end of the album. If we'd put ‘Fucking Fucked’ anywhere else, it would have given the piece a weird vibe. It's a sarcastic, depressing type of song, after all (laughs). So I think it was right to put it at the end. At first I was thinking of putting ‘Verona’ at the end. That song has a fantastic, relaxed, outro-like feel to it. But I still think ‘Fucking Fucked’ is the right one.

—Which is your favourite song of the day? Dominic: It's hard to pick just one song, I feel bad for the others (laughs).

—Let's limit it to this morning's then (laughs). Dominic: Well, we've been playing ‘Kill or Be Killed’ live recently and it's a lot of fun to play live. Maybe there's a heaviness to it that we haven't ventured into before? It's pretty metal. And I really like ‘Won't Stand Down’. When we were working on the album, I was telling Matt that every song had to make the listener feel something, and we had to make the songs make us feel something, and he asked me what I meant, and I said that sometimes when we listen to our past albums… I actually listened to all our previous albums before we started making this album. Some of them were okay, some of them were a little bit terrible, but they still conveyed what we were feeling at the time. So I had a strong feeling that every song on this album had to make me feel something. ‘Kill or Be Killed‘, when you get into the chorus, it makes you feel it. I like everything else on the record apart from those two songs. And ‘Liberation’ is a lot of fun to play. We haven't done a piano song like that for a while. Is it reminiscent of ‘United States of Eurasia’ (2009's “The Resistance”)?

“What I really want to do is to go around to different sized venues here and there and stay in Japan for two or three weeks.”

—I also like ’You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween’. And it touches on the serious issue of domestic violence. Dominic: Yes, it does. It's a very fun song, but the lyrics actually touch on emotional abuse in the home. It's the same with ‘Won't Stand Down’. We know people who have been through that, and it's a very real issue that sometimes people don't realise they're going through it. It's such a serious thing with a very pop sound.

—Will you be touring the world after a few shows in the UK in October? Dominic: Yeah, we'll play some smaller theatres in the UK in October and then maybe next year we'll tour overseas, including Japan. We really want to go to Japan. What I'd really like to do is spend two or three weeks in Japan, doing a few more shows here and there at different venues of different sizes. The last few times I've been here, I've been limited to a few cities due to time, schedule and production. Sometimes you have to sacrifice the creative side and the fun side of it.

—You have the authority to do what you really want to do, so by all means make it happen. Dominic: Well, yeah (laughs). Anyway, we'll find a time when it's possible and we'll try to fit it into the schedule.

—By the way, there is a sign of a dog from earlier. Dominic: This is Olive, a Boston terrier (he says, showing me the dog stretched out and relaxed in front of him). He's very clever. Where's Floyd? Maybe he's upstairs. They're both very clever.

—Who's going to look after them while you're away from home? Dominic: Actually, I tend to take them with me. Olive is just over a year old and I only got her last year, so she's not ready yet, but Floyd has been all over the place, he's been on a tour of America with me, he's been in Europe. He loves it. He's always happy to play with all kinds of people backstage. Olive likes people too. When the show is over, she jumps in the car and goes to the hotel with me, and every night when she gets into her new hotel room, she jumps up on the bed with great joy (laughs). So I take her with me when I can, otherwise I ask family or friends.

Recorded on 20th July, 2022 in London.

Translator’s Notes: If you’ve noticed it, then you might’ve wondered why the Japanese journalist and the article itself doesn’t use the words “Covid-19” and “pandemic” (other than Dom himself). As I’m not a Japanese native, I don’t fully know the answer either, but I did pay attention to Japanese news over the years to pick up on information. In Japan, the government and the people do know and use the word COVID-19, but unfortunately the name that COVID-19 took in Japan was this: 新型コロナウイルス感染症 / Shingata Coronavirus Kansenshou / new coronavirus infection.

As you can see, that is a whole mouthful that no one has the time to say all of that out loud -even including the word Covid-19 itself- so they shortened it to just using ‘コロナウイルス / Coronavirus’ and ‘コロナ / Corona’ instead.

So I got used to seeing that whenever an artist or celebrity in Japan was confirmed infected by Covid and had to cancel events, they just announce on their blogs and on X [formerly known as Twitter] that they got Corona. And some of these words became familiar to me as well.

コロナ禍 / Korona-ka = Corona Disaster / Covid-19 Pandemic コロナ緊急事態 / Korona kinkyuu jitai = Corona Emergency / Lockdown

BTW, I wasn't sure what Dom's other dog's name was. I know of Floyd, but I can't remember the second dog's name. Was it Olive or Oliver?

[spinebuster]

It's been requested so here it is: my gif tutorial! I hope to make this very simple as I've made gif making very simple for myself with the help of .atn made by myself and others. More under the cut!

First, what you'll need.

Photoshop (here's a link to a masterlist of free photoshop resources from birdysources)

KMPlayer, to get your screencaps.

These PS actions. (My gifmaking one, and this sharpening action from insomniacgifs.)

Some understanding of how to color gifs (I'll be linking my psd shown here, as well as including the process of making one.)

Next, how to get the videos that you want to gif.

I personally source my videos from Youtube, Twitter, and streaming services. (Firefox browser is your best friend, as it doesn't black out the screen that some services have.) If a Youtube Video Downloader isn't working, or if I'm capturing my own footage, I use the Xbox Game Bar's recording feature (windows + alt + r) to capture footage. There's also applications like OBS Studio. For Twitter, I use twittervideodownloader.com

Now, making the gif.

I use Photoshop CC 2018, but any PS with a timeline will work. But first, we gotta take our screencaps. Open your video in KMPlayer, and press alt+v. This will open up this second screen

These are my settings, with an easily accessible folder that I save my frames to. Find the scene you want to clip, and hit start & play your video, then stop when you have the frames you want.

Next up we're going to open up Photoshop. I changed my keyboard shortcuts so all I've got to do is hit ctrl+alt+o, but for you guys, you gotta go to File -> Scripts -> Load Files Into Stack

Select your screencaps of the scene you want to gif. Now that Tumblr allows gifs up to 10MB, the amount of caps you want is totally up to you. I stick to around 45-50, but sometimes there's a scene I need that's up to 150+ caps, and it still fits under the size limit. It all depends on the dimensions and coloring of your gif. I'm loading up 51 frames as the sharpening .atn deletes the final frame of your gif once it reverts back to frames, so I'll have an even 50 framed gif.

Your PS should look like this. Here comes the gif making itself. You want to hit Create Frame Animation at the bottom, where your timeline is. If your timeline isn't already open, click your Window tab up top, and find timeline in the dropdown.

After you hit Create Frame Animation, you want to Make Frames From Layers, which you'll find when you click the three lines on your timeline.

Then, reverse your frames.

Finally, Select All Frames, click the arrow on the frames, and change the frame delay to .06 seconds.

Way to go! You've made a gif! Now, if you're like me, you'll get tired of having to do that over & over when making a gifset. So, I recorded and uploaded an .atn, which means all you gotta do is load up your frames, hit play on the .atn, and your gif is good to go. I'll link it again so you don't have to lose your place in the tutorial.

So you've made your gif, now what? Now we crop, sharpen, color, and save for the web. Let's get to it.

Tumblr dimensions can be tricky, but they're easy to remember. (I even made a little graphic for it!)

For my tutorial, my Jamie gif will be 268 x 268 :)

Here is my unsharpened, unedited gif of Jamie Hayter. I believe this clip was snagged from YouTube, but it's been awhile since I saved it. I use insomniacgifs' gif sharpening atn, as I hate manually sharpening gifs. So let us run that real quick. (I'll be using the Strong option. Don't forget to delete the final frame.)

Onto coloring! The example I whipped up for this tutorial is super simple, so let's go!

I typically edit the curves first. I'm not sure why, just something I picked up from my photo journalism class back in HS.

Next, I add a little brightness. (+10)

Then, I mess with Selective Color, just a bit. (Neutrals, Black +10. Blacks, Black +5.)

Now, I don't know exactly what Channel Mixer does, but it's fun. Here's my settings.

Some Saturation (+5)

And lastly, I edit the Color Balance!

Aaaaand here's my final product! I also uploaded this as a PSD for you to save and use yourself!

Once your gif is all done, we need to save it properly. File -> Export -> Save for Web (Legacy). Here are my settings.

Note: Make sure your looping options is set to forever so your gif doesn't loop once and freeze!

And that's it! I hope this helped, and if you have any questions, my ask box is open!

[slavghoul]

Full article from Metal Hammer 12/2022 that I posted an excerpt from in the previous post. BTW, Impera landed #1 on Metal Hammer’s list of best albums of 2022!

--

It was January 2022, and we found ourselves sitting in the empty lobby of a snug Seattle hotel, overlooking the sunset over Puget Sound while soft rock wafted through the PA system. Across from us was Ghost frontman and mastermind Tobias Forge, and we spent nearly two hours talking about music, family, dogs and the steady ascension of Ghost from spooky Swedish underground band to arena filling titans. But mostly we were there to talk about Impera – their fifth album, then still two months away from release.

In the run-up to an album coming out – particularly one with a highly acclaimed predecessor, like 2018’s Prequelle – artists tend to convey palpable anxiety as they prepare to relinquish control of their work to the world. Not so with Tobias, who radiated ease and comfort. Impera had not yet seen the light of day, but he had already moved on. Looking back at that period today, he explains, “As soon as I am done making a record, I’m pretty much fed up with it. I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to know about it, I just want to forget about it. Once it hits the ears of people, depending on how it’s being received, that’s where you start from scratch again.”

Following Ghost’s North American tour with Volbeat and Twin Temple, Impera was released on March 11. It seamlessly blended pop-savvy songwriting with elaborate arrangements and steady torrents of anthemic pop metal riffage that created a wormhole back to the lighter-raising, arena-rock majesty of the 80s. From the glass-shattering scream that opened Kaisarion to the synth-rock squall of Watcher In The Sky, it delivered one guitar-powered banger after another.

It was enough to land Ghost their first No.1 position on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart – their fourth Top 10 overall. Even bigger, in terms of vinyl and CD sales, Impera scored 2022’s biggest first-week sales for any album, of any genre. With more than 62,000 copies sold in the US alone, it easily bested The Weeknd’s February CD release of Dawn FM. In fact, Impera claimed the biggest first sales week for hard rock vinyl since Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy in 1994.

Critics united in swift and lusty praise. It might have felt heretical at the time, but many early reviews rated Impera as besting Prequelle on all fronts. Our very own Dave Everley wrote: ‘Impera wins on bolshiness, bravado and skyscraping songs alone. Ghost have turned in a modern metal classic with an arena rock heart. It turns out the Devil doesn’t have all the best tunes. Tobias Forge does.’ It’s safe to say any plans of “starting from scratch” were shoved to the back burner.

Ghost’s official Imperatour headlining run took them back across North America and then to Europe. Despite the lingering ravages of Covid across the live music industry, they thrived. “I am very happy that we managed to orchestrate a somewhat functioning but very successful album launch”, says Tobias. “We managed to nail 70 shows with just one cancellation. I think in this day and age in this year, that’s fucking great!”

Across the globe, stages were filling up with shows that had been booked many years prior. “We had to cut and paste a little with our touring schedule, because this past summer was basically filled with 2020’s line-ups,” says Tobias. “That made our scheduling a little… I wouldn’t say sparse, but we had breaks that were longer than normal. There are so many bands that are doing these weird dances. The last year of releasing an album into the void, with no touring and cancelling here and there and everywhere, and people having to rethink their lives, basically… We’ve been blessed not to have done too much of that.”

Logistics aside, somewhere along the line, that cultish little band from Sweden – the one with the creepy frontman singing about Satan and plagues and empires – went mainstream. Propelled by Impera’s momentum, the band tapped into new levels of cultural saturation thanks to appearances on mainstays such as Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“TV always brings you in front of new people”, says Tobias. “We did [The Late Show With Stephen] Colbert a few years ago, and every time you do something like that, you obviously expose yourself to a new scene of viewers. And that’s always great, unless you completely shit the bed on the air. Ha ha ha! I think we did do a few things this year that brought in a whole slew of new people into our fanbase.”

But ever the realist, he adds, “You might have a spike of people checking you out… but you don’t really notice if things like that had any effect. It’s not like the day after, all of your shows are now sold out and there’s a double night booked into every show you’re doing. It’s such a slow process that you don’t notice until a half year later when new fans come in and say, ‘I saw you on Kimmel’ or ‘I saw you with my dad.’ I wouldn’t say that being on Kimmel changed everything. It’s been slow, step-by-step, but it builds new branches onto the same tree and you keep growing higher.”

And higher they grew. In July, Mary On A Cross – originally released on the 2019 EP, Seven Inches Of Satanic Panic – was used in a Tiktok tribute to the show Stranger Things. The ripple effect was staggering. The song landed in the Top 10 of Spotify’s Viral 50 Global chart. As of this issue, the hashtag #Maryonacross has notched up well over one billion views. Ghost eventually released an official, slowed-down version of the song and the two versions combined now claim more than 180 million Spotify streams and counting. “For us, the Tiktok thing was or is just a giant bonus”, he explains. “That was never something that we planned.”

Surely the unplanned waves of publicity will ferry over legions of new fans, for whom an embarrassment of riches awaits. “One thing that I felt proud over, was the fact that we’ve been around for 12 years,” says Tobias. “We’ve made five records, a bunch of EPS, and I am glad that there seems to be a song that has a way to suck people in. And if they go into our world and like it, there is plenty to find. If you like Mary On A Cross, you can just jump on the train and go where we already are heading.”

It’s been an uncommonly good year for heavy music, but for Ghost it’s been more than a success – it’s been a coronation. Despite their demoniacal appearance and transgressive lyrical themes, they have negotiated the near-impossible task of attracting mainstream audiences while holding fast to the diehards in metal who have been there from the start. It creates the enviable problem of facing a new year with new pressures and heightened expectations. But Tobias has a plan.

“We’re doing a lot of touring again”, he explains. “On previous album cycles we’ve done four legs in America and two or three in Europe and repeated. We’re going to go into every territory next year, but there’s going to be one European tour, one American tour. We are going to do a little bit of everywhere. There’ll be a little bit of something up in upper Asia, on the far end there – a very well-established country with a lot of pop cultural fascination, and the home of videogames. And there’s going to be something in the Oceania world, and there might be something south of Panama, and there might be something slightly north of Panama. It feels pretty solid.”

He cryptically adds, “We’re going to come out with a little bit of change before that – good change. We’re not going to go silent. Some things are public, other things not in public view, but there are a lot of things brewing.”

We are journalistically bound to inquire about the next album and, unsurprisingly, Tobias remains mum. In January, he told us, “Everything I’m doing now is for the next record. I have a vague idea what that will be like and a vague idea of the title and the colour scheme.”

For now, that will have to do, but rest assured that as we all continue to enjoy the masterpiece that is Impera, Tobias is already hard at work, figuring out dramatic new ways to blow our minds. But he still allows himself the odd moment to stop and take it all in.

“To be able to make all of the shows that we’ve done, and to have a record that did fairly well, I think the sum of it is pretty fucking awesome,” he smiles. “I’m very thankful. It was a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck.”

[seospicybin]

SEOSPICY EXCLUSIVE!

MEET SSICK, THE NEXT GENERATION ROCKSTARS — by Seospicy.

“Live is our thing."

The frontman of the trio that has been making a roar in the music industry, Han, boldly states.

"I’m not saying no other bands can touch us, but that’s our expertise. I think there are so many bands who are better than us at recording, writing songs, singing, and playing guitars or whatever, but in terms of creating an atmosphere I think we’re the best."

The confidence is backed by the number of people squeezing themselves into the pit and filling the entire venue to experience that atmosphere.

Lucky for them, the band will be more than happy to play all of their biggest hits. It's the 'SSICK' thing: giving people what they want.

Unlike other bands, they don't shy away from playing their hits in their show, one after another, and remembering that all of the tracks in their recent albums made it to the chart, they probably have to play the whole lot.

"People pay for tickets with their hard-earned money and they are willing to wait outside for hours to see us," the 23 years old Felix provides the simplest of reasons behind their hits-packed setlist.

Meeting Han at a college party back in 2018 and forming a band with him weeks later felt nothing less than him taking on the right path as he proudly admits that being a drummer for a rock band is his dream.

He fits the name of the band with his unique way of drumming, Felix confirmed that he learned a lot from watching Keith Moon who was famously known for his eccentric drum playing.

"It’s only right that we give them what they want!" Felix finishes with a gentle nod.

His bandmate's words only convinced Han that the show must go on. Ignoring their tour manager, Vin, who has given him three options to handle the situation: sing as normal, get the audience to help him sing, or pull the gig.

"We're not pulling the gig!" Han persists with a scarf tightly wrapped around his neck and regularly drinks his bottled water.

If Ssick has made it this far- two sold-out shows, a top 10 debut album, and a headliner for a festival this summer - it's all because of Han's work ethic, about which he’s earnest to the point of being endearing.

Half an hour before the show, the rest of the band again propose canceling the gig, Han won't even hear it but he's up for a compromise, he won't be playing instruments tonight.

"Hyunjin is so good. He plays like there’s 10 of him anyway," Han says and, at the same time, professes his admiration for Hyunjin's incendiary guitar skill.

As for Han, who gladly gave up playing guitar for the band and picks up the bass ever since, playfully adds, “I’ve hated guitar since I started. It hurts my hands. It’s heavy. It cost me money to buy when I was a kid. They break."

Hyunjin might have been the last to join but Ssick wasn't the first band he played with. He has toured with a band as an additional member, the experience helped him hone his skill that Felix and Han felt like they have to step up their game to get to his level of greatness.

However, the twin, what fans like to call them due to their birth dates only a day apart, stated that the band feels brand new the second Hyunjin decided to join and completed the triangle.

"I feel like they're the right people to create something together with," Hyunjin sheepishly talks for the first time during the interview.

Opposite to his explosive and electrifying stage act, Hyunjin is mostly quiet off the stage yet he doesn't refuse to tell the one thing we're all dying to know.

"First, they don't insist their music on me," he elegantly answers, legs crossed with his hand touching his lower lip.

"I've been with bands that already set their roots without my involvement so it's nice to finally be a part of something from the ground up," he adds.

It seems like it's the first time the other two learning about it too. It's this tender moment like this that can't be captured on camera that speaks the loudest.

Han bursts the silence by tapping Felix on the shoulder, "I thought you offered him money to make him join us," he jokes.

It's still a mystery what Felix did to appeal Hyunjin as he refuse to tell going into the details, but he surely did his job well.

The atmosphere is there the moment they step into the stage. They opened the show with their latest single and despite Han's voice is not at its hundred percent, he made it alright until the end of the first three songs.

With head bowed down, he apologized in advance to the people who made ten thousand tickets sold out in under twenty minutes for his unfit condition to carry a gig.

"I'll make sure everyone goes home with a beer tonight," he promises some sort of consolation, an unconventional one.

After playing their big radio hit, 'One', it's one that worked to make people's head turns and turn them into fans, it somehow rejuvenates him that everyone wondering what he apologized for.

But that doesn't mean he forgot about his promise, as everyone got a can of beer on their way out of the venue.

Considering that Han wrote most of the band's songs, no one doubted that it was coming from his pocket.

Instead of using the chance to brag, he chose to reminisce the time when Felix and him sitting on the carpeted floor of the tiny studio they rented from the old days, weeks after knowing their debut album shoots up to the fourth rank.

"I remember asking Felix, ‘Are we doing this right?’ and Felix went 'Ah, but we’re keeping our feet on the ground'."

Felix testifies to his story by nodding along to what Han saying.

"I said: ‘Isn’t that what rock ‘n’ roll’s about? Aren’t you supposed to lose your feet for a bit?’" Han concludes.

Well, rock and roll aren’t fueled by humility, after all; it’s fueled by guts, guitars, and guys with a hunger for more.

-

READ MORE SSICK ON SEOSPICY'S UPCOMING FIC SERIES: ON TOUR.

RELEASE DATES:

06.09 PART I - SOUNDCHECK.

06.16 PART II - OPENING ACT.

06.23 PART III - UNPLUGGED.

06.30 PART IV - ENCORE.

(With previews available every Thursday!)

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Daddy Yankee - Gasolina 2004

"Gasolina" was released as the lead single from Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee's 2004 album Barrio Fino in the US in October 2004. By November 6, WSKQ-FM in New York City reported "Gasolina" in their top 10 rotation, and WRTO-FM in Florida said the song was their number one most-played track. It entered the US Billboard Hot 100 chart a week later, rising to number 32 in January 2005. "Gasolina" was a hit in North America and the Caribbean, gaining Daddy Yankee popularity among Latino mainstream music fans. In July 2005, "Gasolina" was released as a single in the UK, eventually earning a Silver certification in March 2019. Australia saw the single enter their charts in late January 2006 during their summer season, rising to number 12. "Gasolina" was the first reggaeton song to be nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Puerto Rican reggaeton singer Glory sings the line "dame más gasolina", although she is not credited.

In 2015, the song was ranked number nine on the "50 Greatest Latin Songs of All Time" list according to Billboard. In 2018, it was ranked number 38 on Rolling Stone's 50 Greatest Latin Pop Songs. In 2017, it was included on Billboard's "12 Best Dancehall & Reggaeton Choruses of the 21st Century" at number eight. In 2021, it was ranked number 50 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and a year later it was ranked at the first place on their 2022 "100 Greatest Reggaeton Songs of All Time" list. In 2023, "Gasolina" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The song was used in the 2023 movie Fast X / Fast & Furious 10.

"Gasolina" received a total of 77,4% yes votes!

[ayanegooding]

MY DEBUT PROJECT

name: people you know (ep)

released: august 3, 2018

tracks: 8

duration: 25 min

genre: r&b/soul

tracklist:

wicked games

can i

fairplay

ex

cut em off

if you hate me

shame

people you know

lead single: fairplay (released may 4,2018)

promotional single: ex (released july 13,2018)

release date single: cut em off (released august 3,2018)

end era promotional single: people you know (video released february 14, 2018)

some accolades:

#1 on the billboard 200 for 3 consecutive weeks

it has yet to leave the top 200 lowest getting at 198

most streamed ep of all time

9 billion streams

two billboard #1 hits (fairplay & ex)

5 top ten billboard hits

2 songs surpassing 1 billion streams

all 8 songs entering top 10 on apple music and spotify popular charts after release

gaining 6 grammy noms

winning 2/6 grammy noms

#9 of rolling stones best albums of 2018

#426 of rolling stones best albums of all time

notes: does anybody have this type of content for their dr, i’m not seeing any one tumblr

photoshoot

main masterlist

[cursedalthoughts]

Analyzing PRs and their WoWs gimmicks - PR1

Very long title for a new kind of post I am going to make. In this smaller series of posts I will look at a PR ship in World of Warships, and then Azur Lane, and try to see if Azur Lane properly portrays their gimmicks or not.

In this first post I will look at PR1 shipgirls, all 6 of them:

HMS Monarch

Starting with my babygirl Monarch, my first ever PR research.

The thing that makes the entire British battleship line stand up from the rest is two-fold: First, from very early tiers, they get an insane fire-starting chane with their high explosive shells (Monarch sits at 35% per shell for 9 shells). This paired with their short-fused AP shells means they are very dangerous to an ample range of ships. Secondly, from Tier 9 upwards, these battleships get a "Specialized Repair Teams" consumable. Normal repair teams heal around 345 HP per second, HMS Lion's repair team heals 1358 HP per second. This is also called a "superheal".

Monarch, sitting at Tier 8, does not get access to this Super Heal. This is very important, as Azur Lane's Monarch does have a skill that mimics a superheal ('Against the Currents+') which heals her 3% of her max HP every 2 seconds for 11 seconds when she falls below 30% HP.

And, ironically, the best way to mimic her absurd High-Explosive performance in WoWs is only possible with Odin's main guns.

My score for Monarch is 4/10: They got a tech tree line gimmick right but it doesn't even apply to Monarch in WoWs, only to her older cousins.

HMS Neptune

Just to finish off the HMS girls in one go, HMS Neptune.

The main features of the British light cruiser line in WoWs are as follows: They can only shoot AP and get no access to HE ammo, they have smoke screen generators (from T9 onwards they can swap it with a radar tho), and are very prone to exploding. Their armor is a joke, from T1 to T11, and no premium British CL is spared from this fate. Well, CAs are the same (which we'll get to in the PR3 post). Their saving grace is their concealment and maneuverability, as their acceleration speed is impressive, meaning they can kite away (run away while playing with your throttle) fairly easily. On top of that, they get access to a heal from very early on (a lot of other cruiser lines have to wait until T8 to get a heal, while the T5 HMS Emerald already has one).

Oh, and their armor piercing shells have what's called "improved penetration angles". This simply means their shells will deal damage to angled enemies, as a compensation for them having only AP ammo.

In Azur Lane, this is perfectly encapsulated with the 'MKV-Class AP Shells' skill (and her FS5 upgraded variant), which makes her AP do more damage. She also gets access to a heal too, in her 'Goddess of the Sea' skill.

Overall, I give Neptune an 8/10. Not a bad representation of her WoWs counterpart.

IJN Ibuki

Ibuki is a fairly straight forward ship, both in AL and WoWs.

In WoWs, Ibuki is a stealthy assassin. Her 10km torpedoes deal a decent 17k damage hit each, having 8 of them per side. In AL, Ibuki feels like a much improved version of Takao and Atago, while not providing anything new in particular.

I have barely played Ibuki in WoWs, so I can't give an appropiate rundown of what makes the Japanese heavy cruiser line unique. Zao, at T10, is the sistership of IJN Unzen (our most recent IJN gacha UR), and is an overall scary ship in good hands; her high explosive deals a lot of damage and has a decent fire chance, and she is a very stealthy ship. The armor piercing of these cruisers is unremarkable from T3 to T10, Ibuki being no exception.

In Azur Lane, she has a skill ('Body and Soul') that augments the crit% and crit dmg% of her torpedoes, and the FS5 evolved version gives her an EVA boost right afterwards.

Overall, I think Ibuki is another solid 8/10.

IJN Izumo

I have bad things to say about WoWs' Izumo.

In 2018, when PR1 was added, Izumo was a mediocre ship in WoWs. Right now, she's much stronger; however, she's so poorly designed I can't handle her. The bad design is not the fault of Wargaming, as Izumo is a preliminary design of the Yamato-class with 410mm guns instead of 460mm guns.

Her deck was too weak compared to the modern day, meaning Izumo was the perfect target of light cruisers and destroyers, as they could and would burn her to death. In the modern day, her deck is 57mm and 32mm, meaning it is harder to farm with HE. Her rearmost turret angle is incredibly bad, having to expose an uncomfortable amount of her broadside to shoot. A good rule of thumb is that if you have to bring your rear turrets to bear for an enemy, that enemy can hit your citadel; and Izumo (and Yamato at T10) are no exceptions, as both ships have a massive weak spot right below their front turrets, the so-called 'cheek armor'. It is much more pronounced in the Yamato (as shown below), but Izumo has this weak spot where even 305mm guns can citadel you from the front.

This aforementioned weakness with her deck armor translates excellently into Azur Lane with her 'Specialized Armor' skill, which makes her more vulnerable to fires, but tankier against AP shells (due to her armor being prone to overpenetrations)

Izumo gets a 7/10 from me.

KMS Roon

Our original, favorite murder-hobo shipgirl, Roon.

In World of Warships she's a completely ficticious upscaled Nürnberg with utterly made-up triple 203mm gun turrets.

Roon's armor is a troll to both the Roon player and the player shooting at the Roon. Most German cruisres have a noteworthy strange aft armor, Hipper being able to take citadel hits when kiting away despite her extreme angle. Roon is much better in this regard, but she still has this flaw; alongside her small turtleback armor (a thing German battleships have as well, which we'll talk about on the PR2 post) means she's hard to citadel up-close but trivially easy to citadel at a certain distance.

German AP is acceptable, but their HE has always been anemic. Most German guns have access to an exceptional rule known as the "1/4 penetration" for their HE, meaning it deals more damage (more info here); but in most cases this hardly compensates for their ratehr bad HE.

In AL, Roon is an all-rounder heavy cruiser capable of tanking and dealing heavy damage. Her skill 'Expert Loader' - literally named after an old commander skill in WoWs that is now named 'Gun Feeder' - feels a bit odd, but makes sense; Expert Loader being a skill that allowed for the quick swapping of the main battery shells from HE to AP or AP to HE (in case, say, a British light cruiser presents her broadside at 10km, becoming a juicy target). I can see the logic behind that skill, same way with 'Well-Rounded Armor' as, well, Roon does have a well-rounded armor in WoWs.

Overall, Roon is a 9/10. Her problem is that she is Roon, the most uninteresting German cruiser of the game (in WoWs).

FFNF Saint Louis

Our favorite traumatized Catholic knight, Saint Louis is the last PR I will cover today

The main features of the French heavy cruisers are simple to understand. They are fast, and have boring guns. The T9 Saint Louis and T10 Henri IV are a bit better - and the relatively new T11 Condé is a ridiculous monster of a ship.

Saint Louis is an incredibly nimble ship, and her guns are at the very least very accurate. Her high explosive is remarkable, too, which is a feature common across the entire French navy in WoWs (Bourgogne being one of the best HE-spamming battleships in the game, for example).

I feel this translates excellently into Azur Lane, as Saint Louis is a fast and nimble heavy cruiser that hits hard, and is a well-rounded shipgirl overall. Her speed and EVA, proportioned by her 'Engine Boost' skill (which is literally the name of the consumable that allows her to go faster in WoWs), is incredible and seeing her dart around the screen at almost destroyer speeds is satisfying. Her skill 'Augmented HE Ammo' is yet another reference to a WoWs commander skill (Inertia Fused HE Shells), as her HE shells do more damage but have less fire chance than usual.

Overall, Saint Louis is the only 10/10 of PR1 in terms of accuracy to World of Warships.

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 07/05/2024

Rooftop Bop

Season 4 Episode 1 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume AI

Ripped by Mitchell

Requested by InitialDDD! (Request Form)

Man, Scatman John...what an interesting relation he has to the internet, huh? For whatever reason back in the early days of YouTube, his titular hit song Scatman became really prevalent to use in amateur comedy videos, most notably with the "Super Mario 64 Bloopers!"-genre of video. These are actually videos that I have memory of watching - people just playing around in their childhood 3D game and making up their own little stories and sketches to the tune of silly music. But Scatman, and its less-viral sibling Scatman's World, are more than just nonsense, there's an emotion to John's two legendary songs, a distillation of raw nostalgia - one that the internet suddenly rediscovered back in 2019, and one that SiIvaGunner itself celebrated in bursts throughout the whole year, with Rooftop Bop being an absolute standout example.

Like with most memes, its hard to really trace down a logistical reason for their upbringing - check any KnowYourMeme page, and its bound to just say something along the lines of "on this date, this video/image was posted, and gained tons of attention". The Scatman-posting of 2019 was a pretty interesting case on top of that - the "AWESOME - HE FINALLY" memes that initiated it all were like a big mishmash of memes old and new. Part of the joke was in using nostalgic pieces from the old internet, the music and the "black border" template, over clips from Vine or elsewhere edited to have a positive, borderline innocent outcome, as if to intentionally turn the "Loud equals funny" format that so much of Vine fell under on its head. It's like three layers deep into irony, to where it loops around into finding sincere happiness funny - but it is genuinely still just a really good bit, the perfect kind of stupid comedy that's at once unexpected yet also brings its audience together over the nostalgia it evokes - nostalgia for two different eras of the internet, even! Despite being so core to the old internet days, Scatman wasn't very prominent on the Unregistered Hypercam 2 takeover of 2018, taking a backseat to other internet anthems like Never Gonna Give You Up in Never Gonna Give Up Mahjong and Dreamscape in How 2 Do Anything. But, as if it was fated to be, just a few months later in 2019 Scatman John would once again be made relevant - and the SiIva team was right on top of things.

A lot of Scatman John's prominence on SiIva in 2019 was, of course, on the legendary Not Funny Didn't Laugh day - on the 10th of September (whats 9 plus 10?), a series of shitposts intentionally drenched in as much irony as possible were featured on the channel, the depths of which I explored back in Sex - Steve Harvey. But beyond giving us all brain damage, the event was like a huge shot in the arm for Scatman Stocks - and just two weeks later, we would receive perhaps the best Scatman rip yet. The guy had been lurking as a meme on SiIva before, notably being in some Season 1 rips here and there - and so his return on Not Funny Didn't Laugh day felt like just one more piece of internet history to be nostalgic for. Early YouTube, Vine, and the very first months of SiIvaGunner - all rolled into two songs filled with such whimsy, yet also filled with pure emotion. Now: Does that ring a bell to anyone else?

I feel like Rooftop Bop is the definition of a "more than the sum of its parts" rip, if that makes any sense. It's an excellent melody swap/mashup no doubt, the kind that almost makes you wonder how it was even done with how authentic the violin's lead melody sounds, and the chorus returning to the original Rooftop Run: Act 1 theme with Scatman John's vocals hits oh-so-hard - its an amazingly paced out rip throughout, ping-ponging between melody swap, mashup and both at once throughout - but like I said, the rip is so much more than all of that. It feels almost like a universal experience (at least, for my generation) to have an attachment to Scatman John - but more than that, we all have an attachment to the very thing his two hits represented. Because his balance of silliness and genuine heartfelt emotion is the exact thing that made SiIvaGunner so special all the way back in Season 1, the kind of balance that has made us all smile, laugh, empathize and outright cry, althewhile never losing its core of pure whimsy. Be it The Paragoomba and the Wiggler, Aphex, Planet Wisp Mashup Medley, Turnabout Fishters, or indeed Rooftop Bop - SiIvaGunner, very much like Scatman John, has gotten so many emotions out of us, and made us all too attached to an entity others may consider naught but a silly gimmick.

It's a fantastic listen - but more than that, it's an incredible experience. The latter half of Season 4 Episode 1 of SiIvaGunner was perhaps the most exciting period to ever follow the channel during, and Rooftop Bop's unprecedented ability to unite us all through a raw dosage of nostalgic memories couldn't have come at a better time.

[mrchalamet-mrstyles]

Timothée Chalamet’s massive new deal with Warner Bros. has solidified his status as a bonafide movie star. The 28-year-old actor has been a familiar face in many of the best films of the last decade and has already earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for 2017's Call Me By Your Name. Chalamet's new multi-year deal with Warner Bros. will allow him to both star in and produce a series of WB films after the major box office success of Dune: Part Two andWonka.

Chalamet became the first actor in four decades to star in the top two films at the domestic box office over a span of eight months. With all of Chalamet's box office success comes increases in pay after the actor reportedly made between $8-9 million from Wonka and is set to make even more for Dune: Part Two. While Chalamet has always been a critical favorite in films such as Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird (2017) and 2018's Beautiful Boy, his recent standout performances in major blockbusters have cemented his abilities in major studio movies as well.

Chalamet's first role in a massive blockbuster was as Cooper's son Tom in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. The actor had a relatively small role considering that Cooper's relationship with his daughter Murph, played by Mackenzie Foy and Jessica Chastain, is much more chronicled than his relationship with Tom, who is also portrayed by Casey Affleck. Interstellar was not Chalamet's feature film debut, which was Jason Reitman's 2014 dramedy Men, Women & Children, but it was his first role in a significant movie. Now, ten years later, he's back in the driver's seat with Warner Bros. making a colossal collaborative deal.

Since Chalamet's rise to stardom really started with Interstellar, it'd be quite fitting for Chalamet to star in an upcoming Christopher Nolan movie. Nolan, who notably did not go with Warnes Bros. for his 2024 Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer over differences about the film's distribution, has announced that he is more than willing to work with Warner Bros. once again. All of Nolan's movies besides Oppenheimer and his first critical hit Memento (2000) have been distributed by Warner Bros.

A Chalamet-Nolan reunion under the Warner Bros. umbrella would mark a full-circle moment ten years in the making. It remains a mystery what Nolan will do next after the massive critical and box office success of Oppenheimer, but a Chalamet team-up could be the next best step that is by no means out of his reach. As for Timothée Chalamet, his only confirmed upcoming projects are the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown directed by James Mangold, and the eventual Dune: Messiah.