#zillennial + 5

[vangoghinthehead]

I didn’t mean to not pay attention. Sometimes my head hurts, but most of the time it’s numb. I’m always filled with tension. I look out the front windows like I’m expecting someone. Inconclusive, and, or, convoluted messy thoughts. I want it to all make sense. Retail therapy. I own too many things. I really like the new millennial iCarly. Why do older men still think we care about their opinions of young women? Getting tired of their one-star reviews when their zero stars on the "market." I doubt it, but maybe deep down they know it’s true.

[evelhak]

Your top 15 favourite tv shows can say a lot about your personality.

Thank you for the tag @lilypheria. 💙 Sorry it took me forever. I don't know when I'll have time to go through my unanswered things (I have so many deadlines, still, for a few months!) but this is easy enough.

I don't actually know how to decide the order, so this is just the order they came into my head (in other words most likely the order I have last engaged with them in some way).

These are shows I always go back to rewatch after a while:

1. KnB

2. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

4. Once Upon A Time

5. Gilmore Girls

6. Sherlock Holmes (Granada)

7. Dance Academy

8. Princess Tutu

9. H2O

10. Doctor Who

11. Aikuiset ("Adults" a Finnish comedy mostly about late millennials/zillennials aka my generation)

12. Los Serrano

13. Unbelievable

14. Spinning Out

15. SKAM (the original!)

Some of them are quite new so I've only watched them twice but I already know I will be coming back to them regularly. It was actually really hard to limit myself to 15. ^^' So many great ones aren't here because I don't watch them as often.

If this tells something about my personality to you, feel free to share. And come talk to me about any fave we share if you want.

Tagging @misfitmiska @myndless88 @lylakoi @shutokushintaro @el-ffej but no pressure.

[princessnijireiki]

like... the idea that people are getting deeply aroused on some level (sexual, political excitement, what have you) over quite literally fringe radical separatist causes that already are facing criticism for being trans exclusionary and invasively policing the bodies of cis women applicants to "make sure" they're not too "masculine" or "secretly men," regardless of whatever "successes" random twitter user #24601 is claiming on the movement's behalf, is already not fabulous of y'all.

but the fact that thousands of people were willing & eager to believe in this despite literal decades of data on economic impacts on birthrates in east asian nations with regard to brain drain & depopulation from rural areas, increasingly unaffordable suburbs and cities, violently radicalized misogyny being propped up by state & private corporate support feeding into poor mental health outcomes of family dependence and student/worker isolation, and diminished access to healthcare in general is also like. you can't even say you don't know that when y'all make racist one child policy jokes or meme on the japanese PM, and y'all definitely grasp the concept every time a western news page talks about millennials zillennials and gen z not having babies after being very clear to clown us for decades about how, "haha this 1990s bitch can't afford a smoothie," no shit, idiot! minimum wage is like $7! so actually the real answer is you knew, forgot, or never internalized it, and don't give a shit until the statistics can be abused in your favor.

on top of telling me y'all either can't do arithmetic or don't give half a shit about covid to this day, so double fuck y'all & you're not on my survival team at this point lol, but especially its impact on gestational reproduction and what covid means as a consideration for child welfare or health of a pregnancy, because while there was a very real phenomenon of "covid babies" (both re: kids first socialized in comparative isolation and re: kids conceived because families/couples were at home), and ENSUING widely covered news of impacts on childcare WORKERS like teachers, babysitters, nannies, and other domestic labor infection & mortality rates... there were a ton of people who were/are frightened of everything going on and who very deliberately were or are not having kids as a result. so like... where the fuck is the rock YOU'VE been under for 4 or 5 years now? because it sounds nice, must be real quiet down there, you know?

I need some of y'all to stop getting your news from tiktoks of screenshots of tumblr posts of screenshots of tweets of screenshots of tiny snippets of news articles extrapolated wildly out of context and placed next to unrelated screenshots to further an agenda. because all you're doing at this point is announcing yourself as somebody who'd have seen the weekly world news reports at newstands in the '90s and sent some stranger in oregon a blank check for proof that the bat boy who married elvis to the loch ness mobster really existed and had information about bill clinton being replaced by an alien in the white house. grow up!

[triviareads]

ARC Review of Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings

Rating: 4/5 Heat Level: 3.75/5 Publication Date: April 16th

Premise:

A sapphic opposites-attract romance; Opal gets conned into buying a flower farm with her lottery winnings, only to find out it's already owned by Pepper. The farm is failing and the two women decide the best way to save it is entering a national flower show competition.

My review:

This was the sapphic cottage-core romance of my dreams! Opal wins the lottery and in an effort to distance herself from her mooch-y fake friends, she escapes by buying the Thistle and Bloom. Enter Pepper, grumpy flower farmer and actual(?) owner, and the two of them quickly come to the agreement that they'll live together as roommates while they sort out the situation and enter a flower sculpture competition for the prize money.

I loved the idea of both Opal and Pepper finding refuge in the Thistle and Bloom at different points in their life. Both have been hurt in the past and the farm is their safe space as well as the source of inspiration for their art (the way the author describes growing flowers absolutely sounds like an art form; not to mention Opal's shoe-painting business), which is why it's all the more important that they save it from bankruptcy. However, things get further complicated when they begin a no-strings, no-feelings sexual relationship when obviously, there are some very real feelings growing between them.

I really like the way Mazey Eddings wrote both Opal and Pepper's characters; they come across as somewhat messy zillennials (complete with doctoring their own hair to fit their mood)— and they are! Opal and Pepper are 24 and 26 respectively. I saw some reviews call them immature but as someone around their age, I completely sympathize with the way they're both just trying to get by financially while navigating a new relationship. Like, there is a third act break-up that some might see as an overreaction, but I think it fits the pattern of their prior relationships, and the way they react makes sense. What I could have done with less of is the amount of zillenial pop culture references— from 3 different Taylor Swift references to Phoebe Bridgers and Timothee Chalamet. I feel like constant pop culture references tend to date a book.

This book has queer rep and neurodivergent rep; Opal is bisexual and Pepper identifies as queer, and both women are on the spectrum. I appreciate how Mazey Eddings also wrote in multiple queer side characters, as well as how she portrayed neurodiversity— everything from Opal's autism and ADHD causing her use alcohol as an unhealthy coping mechanism to Pepper's sensory sensitivities that cause her to dislike large crowds.

The sex:

I was pleasantly surprised by the sex scenes in this book! They're pretty damn hot and varied, super emotional as time goes on, and I loved the dynamic— Opal is the more assertive one in bed, which leads to some solid dirty talk on her part (it's also in contrast to how she is out of bed because she tends to waffle over a lot of decision making), while Pepper is a little more rough and uncertain but she also has this stern edge. And of course there's greenhouse sex because what even is the point otherwise.

Overall:

I had so much fun reading this book— it had so many laugh-out-loud moments while at the same time Opal and Pepper were such intensely sympathetic characters, perhaps even more so because they were not above messing up (also can we talk about the epilogue?? What Opal did for Pepper is literally the most romantic thing a person can do in this economy). I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an emotionally satisfying romcom that also brings the heat.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

[susiephone]

i’m working on a zillennials nostalgia playlist - all the bops for those of us who are too old for gen z and too young for millennials. i’ve already got the classics; fireflies, we are young, call me maybe, somebody that i used to know, a lot of maroon 5. hmu with your suggestions

[not-so-rosyyy]

I maintain the girl boss decade has ruined us! The grind and hustle girl boss culture! It’s warped so many young girls head. Also, so many project on to Zendaya. To them her girl boss and it girl status that they fight tooth and nail for on stan twitter is to make themselves better. They take her career wins as their own cause they’ve been following her since Shake It Up. And then in turn her personal life and partner. They need to let the girl live and find their own lives outside of her.

i’m a zillennial like Zendaya is and i’m part of the generation of girls nearly ruined by that mindset. i grew up with society and the media telling me the only kind of feminism i need to know and practice is one produced by capitalism. pre-teen me was taught i only had two choices when i get older: a career or a family, and obviously, there’s only one correct answer. because according to them, women who become homemakers by choice are stupid and weak and is “setting back” the feminist agenda by centuries, failing to recognize and factor in a woman's different facets and needs and agency.

i’m lucky i caught myself before falling deep into that mentality, though. maybe because i learned to look for how i define being a woman thru the different women in my life. my mom who single-handedly raised me since I was 5. my traditional housewife aunt in a traditional patriarchal household. a close friend who got pregnant at 17 and went to class everyday refusing to keep her head down while walking the hallways with her portruding belly. my middle-aged high school English teacher who told me one time that she didn’t need men but swiftly fell in love and got married with my History teacher who she’s been friends with forever. my first bisexual friend who patiently explained to me stuff about gender and sexual identities because i hadn't a clue about it. my first boss after graduation who grew up in poverty, didn't see herself getting married but ultimately did at 30 and slowly built her business with her husband till they became multi-millionaires at the age of 43.

essentially what i'm saying is there's still hope for young women to shake off this harmful grind, hustle, girlboss mindset. that yes, celebrities and public figures like Zendaya can be a touchpoint of what kind of women they would want to be in the future. but there are also not-so-average ladies in their own lives who can very well widen their view of what strength and success for a woman truly is. just look around and really look at them like i did. :))

[direwombat]

14 questions 14 people

tagged by @socially-awkward-skeleton and @confidentandgood to answer a couple o’questions~!

Nickname: katie/kay irl but online i go by “verbs” (on my main) and i generally refer to myself as “wombat” here :)

Sign: sagittarius

Height: 5'4"

Last thing I googled: ACRL 2023 (for work). not for work i think it was just “fc5 wiki” (a website i really should just have bookmarked given how often i visit it lmao)

Song stuck in my head: the breaking benjamin + DIAMANTE cover of iris plays on repeat in my head at all times

Amount of Sleep: about ~8 hrs. 

Dream Job: f;alkdfjasdf professional bookbinder/book repairer? author? idk i just want to be creative and work with my hands ... if only that could actually pay my bills :’((((( 

Wearing: black slacks, a dinosaur christmas sweater (t-shirt underneath), warm fuzzy socks, flats, and a hat (my office is chilly)

Movies/Books Media that Summarize You: Vicious V.E. Schwab, The Punisher (Netflix/Disney series), The Old Guard (2020), National Treasure (2004), The Adventures of TinTin (2011), everymanHYBRID (technically none of the above since it’s a web series, but still...influential), the Dragon Age series, Dishonored (2012) ... Far Cry 5 (2018)... tbh there are probably so many others, but those are the ones that jump out at me

Favorite Song: this is such a hard question, but i gotta stand by saeglopur by sigur ros as the favorite song of all time. never fails to make me feel emotions. 

Instrument: technically i played violin for a few years, but it’s been so long that i’ve lost whatever skill i had so...none. 

Aesthetic: god idk. sad nerdy zillennial? i like my candles, flannel, and cozy socks, and i have a lot of ttrpg books/paraphernalia floating around. i guess i wish i had a more “rustic”/”cottage-core” (as the kids call it) look to my apartment but uh....things other than ikea furniture are. expensive....looking forward to the summer so i can actually get some nice plants for my home and office tho. 

Favorite Author: V.E. Schwab, Neil Gaiman, Susan Dennard, my beautiful mutuals <3

Random Fun Fact: I was born in Australia, but my family moved back to the US before i could form any memories :’( I did go back to visit when i was 15/16 years old tho!

and tagging: @natesofrellis, @thomrainer, @funkypoacher, @adelaidedrubman, @strafethesesinners, @purplehairsecretlair, @strafethesesinners, @schoute, @gaeadene, @aceghosts, @sstewyhosseini, @harmonyowl, @deputyash, and whoever else sees this and wants to share some facts and tag some people! :) 

[elsievier]

Back to tumblr, like in my twenties?

Yeah, turning thirty does not mean a lot for loads of ppl. Some want to avoid this age, and some say it it the most beautiful of all (yeah. they are older already, you guessed).

I decided to come back to my roots and "start blogging" again. Funny innit?

Being a PhD student, the need of writing all the time and now I can write in my so-called free time as well. Ironic? But I used to like writing a lot. Connecting people. I did sometimes. And there were the creeps. Maybe I won't even continue. But let's see.

Is it a millennial/zillennial (learnt this a few weeks ago) thing to come to tumblr and cry our hearts out? I was not even 20 when I did my first/second/third blogs (the blog motor I created them is already not existing), more like in my late teens. Does it mean that I am old if I can think in decades? Maybe just connecting with my inner child.

Talking about children... I just cried a few days ago about not being pregnant. My sister is pregnant. My high school best friend is expecting her second child. My ex-roommates are both pregnant. (not all. just from one of the dorms I lived 5 years ago. I do not know about the rest. would not be surprised if they were pregnant too.) And do not misunderstand me. I do not want to be pregnant right now. I want to finish my PhD and decide if I want to move abroad or not. Anyway, decide if I want a child or not. Do not even know yet, I think I just have FOMO.

Is it an adult thing to check my blogpost's grammar with Grammarly?

[dancefloor]

I posted 2,094 times in 2022

560 posts created (27%)

1,534 posts reblogged (73%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@jimmymcgirl

@bitchpack

@cruellesummer

@misswicklowsometimes

@kimberly-wexler

I tagged 1,334 of my posts in 2022

Only 36% of my posts had no tags

#shitpost - 234 posts

#speaks now - 215 posts

#this is me talking* - 159 posts

#q - 128 posts

#gif - 107 posts

#ask - 106 posts

#edit - 64 posts

#art - 57 posts

#save - 45 posts

#succession - 45 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#im always like omggg i love autumn :3 and now its been autumn for a few days and i’ve discovered that although i’ve recovered from regular

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

swiftie boyfriends are god’s strongest soldiers because how is he listening to me explaining the ticketmaster situation then screaming along to the champagne problems bridge and STILL in love with me

215 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

#4

eras tour audience is gonna be like 🧍🏽‍♀️🤖🤖🤖🧍🏼🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🧍🏻‍♀️🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖

219 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#3

zillennial better call saul soldiers i know we’re suffering over having to wait for the second half of the season but can we pour one out for our elders who had to wait a year after this

280 notes - Posted May 24, 2022

#2

GUYSSS SHE RESPONDED TO MY FUCKING DM

290 notes - Posted October 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

im fine with twitter people joining the site but do NOT bring your weird culture of cancelling anyone you think is kinda weird with you. it originated here and you took it to twitter. do NOT bring it back

854 notes - Posted November 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[jackalsinthekitchen]

pop report #5: endless summer edition (9/16/23)

a sundazed glance at Billboard’s top 20 from two weeks ago – bitch, I said what I said

Summer’s over, the heat from the proverbial kitchen and literal sun still burning the other cheek I feebly turned to both. Per tradition, we’re bidding the season goodbye with a smattering of typical plaints that it wasn’t long enough, or felt like it didn’t happen. But here in Texas, it’s in full swing by early May, with not much mystery over what we’re in for beyond what degree (Fahrenheit) of punishing. So yeah – we’re pretty sure it happened. Yet again, we thought we were ready for it, and yet again, it went a little harder on us than it needed to. Whatever else went down, that lucky old sun made it cruel enough to justify a now-ancient Taylor chorus shooting up the pop charts. Like anything else that shoots up the pop charts these days, reasons why were imperfectly clear. One more testament to the inimitable inhabitability of the One True Pop Star’s catchy canon, perhaps? My summer wasn’t my fave; I can still feel it from here.

I’ve barely touched this new blog o’ mine, which I dreamt of putting up for years – the present you ogle at through the shop window for ages only to take it home and unwrap it, and see all that built-up desire instantly brown with oxidization. While Jackals! still doesn’t have a hook, for the first four weeks of 2023, at a rate of productivity that was ultimately to no one’s benefit, I looked at the pop charts and decided to think out loud about what they meant. But the thing is, in a year when people are thinking about it more out loud than usual, nobody seems to know exactly what they mean. There are analyses trenchant and muddled, and scattered rebuttals to both, strewn throughout comments sections we’ll never read. I’m too bored to even try to recap what I think I know about how these numbers are measured. Even my late best friend’s agitated analyses resisted my comprehension. Why dull the aesthetic with the statistical?

Suffice it to say, there are so many theories about “gaming the system” floating around, it feels a bit like last election year. Most of the people on my radar are in some way convinced that one Oliver Anthony Music’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” won its surprise Billboard victory through nefarious right-wing interference – comparable, you hear, to that Jim Caviezel movie about (fighting) child trafficking, where people bought out whole theatres just to stick it to Brandon. It’s not about the music, they say, it’s about waving a righteous-anger rag, and the rallying cry might as well be coming from any red-faced red-haired Bible-belt boy with a banjo who caught the Qanon virus at très-unmasked family get-togethers. A more neutral friend points out that “Rich Men North of Richmond” hung in at a basically ungameable top 3 place on Spotify for a bit. It was all great industry all around: for MAGAfolk, thinkpiecers, Billy Bragg.

Times change fast, though, so even if a few people are still reeling from them, the Billboard chart – much less Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits, where Anthony has vanished – has moved on to its latest single-star infiltration. That star is Queen Zillennial Olivia Rodrigo, whose guts are is filled with readymade hits, and who may portend a long-awaited pendulum swing back to a more rockist zeitgeist. But because it still literally does not matter what I do here, I wanna warm up these lazy fingers some by casting an eye back to two weeks ago, a whole world away, when the charts looked a bit more like they did in the middle of swelter season. At the ground floor of that top 20 was the indefatigable fatigue-pop of “Anti-Hero”, my most favorite song, which does not seem to have engendered a self-reflection revolution here on earth. But hey, maybe people are just keeping quiet about it. Even Taylor is going through some shit.

#19 is “Thinkin’ Bout Me”, by Morgan Wallen, the, uh, hot-button country artist about whom many folks certainly have thoughts. I haven’t heard this song as of this point in this paragraph, and I suspect it’s not as good as Frank Ocean’s pillow-pop classic “Thinkin’ Bout You”, which is the next song you get when you type “thinkin bout” in the search bar. Mr. Wallen, a reformed butt-rocker, has a harder edge than many of his southern-pop peers, and an excellent article I linked to earlier in this piece, written by a (non-right-wing) writer who’s spent just a little more time with young Wallen’s proudly endless albums than I have, suggests his lyrics even bespeak hip-hop (gasp!) influences. Perhaps this explains some words he enjoys using. The beat of this one is ripped unaltered from hip-hop; the lyrics might pass too, if rapped, though not in what I perhaps unfairly call “truck nuts voice”. Wallen is feeling upset, and entitled, about a recent breakup in this enduring hit, not helping his case by singing the song like an asshole. (More on this later.)

Country really is in its butt-rock era, in a sense – the guitars are amped-up and grinding, the (male) vox are growly and real-ass proud about it. “Need a Favor”, by something called Jelly Roll that’s miles away from Morton, was cited recently in an AA meeting I attended by someone it caught unsuspecting on the radio. We’re a very talk-to-God crowd in AA, and contra Wallen, there’s a humility in this song that’s not matched at all by its sound, but which pushes its stridence into something resembling passion. I’ve just found out via Google/Wikipedia that Jelly Roll is apparently an “American rapper”. He looks like a heavier Post Malone – also an “American rapper” even though everything he puts out sounds just like a pop song – and has a narrative about being incarcerated many times, which also lends some poignant complexity to his hit’s hook. Verdict: annoying if you’re in the wrong mood, but not necessarily bad for your health.

Next in my discovery journey is finding out who the War & Treaty are – they’re a Black husband and wife who weave country and rock into more traditionally Black styles like soul and blues. It makes sense that they’d team up with Zach Bryan, one of the better and, dare I say it, more soulful heavy country hitters hanging out in the high end of these charts. “Hey Driver”, which doesn’t trouble you with electric guitars or even drums at the top, is really stirring. The juxtaposition of tW&T’s full-bodied harmonies against Bryan’s voice, which crumbles once it hits the air, is gorgeous, and the lyrics boast a complexity rarely troubled with on most of these hits. It’s all sincerity, but for the most part, I feel like it earns it. Though the Billboard charts continue to exhibit a kind of separate-but-equal mélange of genres, this sort of crossover still feels rare – even if so much pop, R&B and country takes production cues from hip-hop.

At #16 (we’re at #16 btw) is the ever-restless, currently-somewhat-exhausted Miley Cyrus, whose tired but empowered “Flowers” is already one of pop’s great breakup anthems and stands as one of the songs of last summer. I spent some time in Ms. Cyrus’ canon last spring for a piece I’m proud of, but it didn’t dispel the impression I’ve always had that behind that fabulous voice and insouciant demeanor is not a very clear artistic vision. Cyrus swings from new tack to new tack, and unless she’s put a truly fantastic single together – she does this every so often – there’s always a trace of “unconvincing” there for me. “Used to Be Young” is scarcely different. A piano ballad, something she seems to personally favor, it has an air of reflective weariness (cf. “Malibu”) and light penitence (perhaps for She is Coming?). The media was rarely kind to her, but the hurt only comes out in her songs. The hook is solid, if a little programmatic (“you say I used to be wild, I say I used to be young”), and the music narrowly avoids sappiness with an atmospheric, beaty arrangement. And the fact is, when she starts to belt, she thins out her competition.

“Religiously” by Bailey Zimmerman – I would’ve typed “Blake” based on his face and sound if I hadn’t looked twice – is another revved-up, growly country song about having been deserted, and unlike Mr. Wallen, Zimmy doesn’t wink at you that she was super wrong to leave. The chorus – “I ain’t got the only woman who was there for me/religiously” – skirts patriarchal discomfort, but the lucky among us have had a deeply patient, unwaveringly supportive partner, so the regret is broadly relatable. The religious content is also rather muted – not like this is worship music or anything, though I guess it could pass if it were cornier – weaving the spiritual and secular in a seemingly seamless way. But it’s not not corny. It’s not clear if BZ has a sense of humor, and while his voice has some nice gristle to it (a la ZB), like most of country’s current heavy hitters, the music sounds straight from the factory (a factory with mandolins).

Lil Durk (feat. J. Cole)’s “All My Life”, #14, is also corny, but not enough to drag it down. The slow unfurl of its polysyllabic ruminations (there’s an element of hip-hop the rest of pop would do well to absorb), the classic-Kanye style kids’-choir hook, the simple, gorgeous chord progression: this is a song that aims to make you cry, and more or less earns it. Cole’s climactic middle section about slain young rappers is the highlight, of course; never were more brilliant pop stars cut down too soon than in the modern rap era. But the whole thing has a humility and sense of dynamics that arrests you the whole way through, even the verses you’re not following perfectly between choruses. There is a problem here, though – the single’s sweet sugar was harvested and glazed over by none other than Dr. Luke, one of music’s accused whose charges seemed credible enough to strip him of his license to practice. Can’t Ke$ha count on us?

#13 is “Flowers”, and #12 one of three fantastic hits from the indisputable movie of the summer. Barbie was fainter for me than I wanted, though I’m not sure how much more subversive – it’s quite subversive! – it could’ve been while still nailing the something-for-everyone thing. And anyway, what do I know? I’m just a Ken (or perhaps an Allan). “Barbie World”, the #12 in question two weeks ago – remember, this is all two weeks ago, I make the rules here – is the weakest of the trio. It’s a trap-haze interpolation of the old Aqua hit, a great song which nevertheless felt so aggressively hyper back in the ‘90s, it could hit like a form of torture in the wrong mood. Nicki Minaj, my original 2010s hero, hasn’t helped herself personally for a bit, but her effortless, earth-scorching command, even at a low temperature, is a perfect vessel for the universal empowerment this theme and its film intend – “all of the Barbies is pretty” indeed. #6 on this chart is Dua Lipa’s mint-condition, made-to-order disco anthem “Dance the Night”, the sort of banger that feels like it’s been around forever. The last Barbie hit, Billie Eilish’s startlingly canny “What Was I Made For”, a ballad that astounds a little harder every time it languidly unfolds, hung in at #22.

Oliver Anthony Music had dropped just outside the top 10 at this time. Part of my picking an earlier chart is that I wanted to write about him; that said, I don’t know that a single song has had more written about it in the recent past, and all in one week. Much was made of Anthony(whose beard conceals his build)’s irritation with people who use taxpayer-funded welfare to buy cheap treats. In fact, his fatphobia is the clearest toxicity in the lyrics, though the reference to “minors on an island somewhere” – as if the U.S. government did a thing to keep Jeffrey Epstein from hurting people – codes conspiracy theorist. But all the carping about his fishy success belies the fact that the song sounds great. Mr. Music’s voice is searing and powerful, the stark banjo and the outdoor ambience a production coup, and if it wasn’t so clear he was coming at this from the wrong place (though to be fair, he’s abjured any party affiliation), it would speak to the great open secret of U.S. politics, which is that bullshit pay is everybody’s problem, and these wedge issues, however serious, are there to distract us from uniting against our oppressors. As Billy Bragg put it in his pitch-perfect rebuttal, “join a union”. We’ve just been reminded strikes still work.

Having already touched on #6, I’ll breeze through 10 to 7. 10 is Rema & Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down”, an Afrobeat-graced pop hit with a vibe much resemblant of Bad Bunny and other recent Latin pop. Gomez’s post-Waverly Place penchant for coming on like she’s absolutely done with everything and is too tired to be bothered anymore suits the single’s quiet storm perfectly. “Vampire” is Olivia’s current piano-kissoff coup, and you already know how much it doesn’t suck. Gunna’s “Fukumean” gets stuck in my head here and there – well, just the “Fukumean” part – and I always subsequently wonder what it sounds like on the radio, where you still can’t quite say exactly what the fukumean. The music feels generic if peppy; the lyrics are conventional hip-hop aggro-bravado. SZA’s “Snooze” is no snooze, but also no “Kill Bill”.

I went through a breakup this summer, right around the time Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” blew up. His music is insistently catchy and melodically brawny, so for a short time “no way it was our last night” was sort of a pet chorus in my head. But this deteriorated quickly, paying attention to the rest of the lyrics – said night was booze-fueled, not the most relatable or charming thing for a grateful recovering alcoholic, and once again, Wallen’s greasy cockiness is an automatic turn-off. There’s very little indication that his ex wants to stick around, much less that Wallen, whose cultural function is primarily as a “cancelled” superstar half of the country is propping up in retaliation, has done a lot of self-interrogation about it. The song really does sound great, and its hook is invincible, but once again, it isn’t exactly good for you.

The late-breaking triumph of Taylor’s “Cruel Summer” would also leave a bad taste if the song weren’t one of her best. I say this because of the recent scenario in which our new pop hero Olivia Rodrigo had to pay Swift, whose business acumen seems genuinely frightening, for a touch of inspiration from this song (a chanted section…?) that could be ungenerously interpreted as some sort of theft for which some sort of repayment is in order. Their lawyers worked it out, but bad blood feels inevitable; Swift famously supported Rodrigo in a deliberately maternal way when “Drivers License” (sorry, “drivers license”) hit, but it’s not impossible to imagine that zillionaire cipher feeling a twinge of jealousy from which a few petty things might result. Rodrigo’s evasive responses in interviews seem to give credit to this suspicion.

Into the top #3, and here sits one of my favorite curios, Luke Combs’ musically beefed-up but lyrically unaltered cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”. Combs absolutely has truck nuts voice, and I’m still not clear what people who prefer that voice above all others do when he drops the line about his time as a checkout girl. It’s hard to pinpoint anything nefarious here; Combs has just sent an influx of money into the bank account of a more-or-less forgotten Black female singer-songwriter – though that song endures, and is now living in the high reaches of the charts, because it’s fucking fantastic. But then, I haven’t read any thinkpieces about it, and I’m getting about as tired of writing as you are of reading, so we’ll move on.

My boy Zach Bryan and our girl Kacey Musgraves are (well, were) at #2 with their gently broken collab “I Remember Everything”. With its soft bass-drum pound, quiet strumming, slowly sawn violins and swaths of echo, it sounds a bit like mists floating grimly over fields (antebellum, perhaps? Nah, not for Kacey). Here are two of our deftest, most openhearted country stars, and, finally, a country breakup hit with not a kernel of corn, setting its scene through pure suggestion instead of beating you over the head with a big new cliché in a sack full of old ones. Its magic dispels a little the closer you look, but it really works. So does the unflappable Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red”, noted by chartwatchers as the first rap hit atop the hot 100 in a hot minute. As with “Dance the Night”, once DC rolls in over the music, the song feels classic and eternal. Not unlike Dionne Warwick’s “Walk on By”, the source of its sample – a 60-year-old hit of such intense and incongruous fragility, it’s astonishing how well they worked it in. In the Spotify age, all pop is eternal. To that end, any summer whose soundtrack is woven into your soul is endless.

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

ok so this post is like spawned from reading the notes on an age gaps in relationships post, that I just read while waking up today....

I think a big part of the discourse around age gaps in relationships is spurned on by again, the fuckin stupid ass elder millennials vs younger millennials (or even zillennials) and gen z bullshit "war". it's like, in the post I made like last month about a convo at my old work's staff christmas party in 2022, where one of the ladies in the finance team and the newish guy hired in my team (customer service)..... which was all about her being a 1989 millennial "just before the cusp of the 90s so I'm a REAL MILLENNIAL unlike you two (me and new emo guy who are 1995 (me) and 1997 (I think, emo guy)).... you fake-ass wannabe millennials. you're babies!!!! YOU GUYS HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH ME!!!!" like yes we do, sadie. and i'm the cut-off for millennials in 1995. but I digress.

but to me, it's the elder millennials like this woman and even comedians (ie the elder millennial netflix standup special from iliza shelsinger whose 40 but was done in 2017 or whatever) who are breeding the idea that people in their mid 20s, born in the mid to late 90s are "uwu cute lil babies who i have NOTHING in common with, so therefore you are a child (and everyone else your age by extension are children), to me." in age gap relationship discourse.

like sadie, for the love of fuck. there is 6 years difference in age between us. you may be in you mid 30s, yes. so you obvs have a bit more life experience than me, in general.... and actually went through 9/11, possibly understanding the implications of it (which I didn't bc I was literally 5/6 years old in 2001 when it happened; but I still knew what the fuck it was... even though yes, we're aussie.... but this is always used as the major event that younger millennials are "too young to understand and that therefore means that they're not real millennials")..... and again, you really experienced y2k fashion properly; whereas I watched it unravel on TV. but that does NOT make me child, incapable of making my own decisions, according to you. apparently emo guy doesn't know what rent is..... when he was actively moving out of his rented place to move in with his girlfriend's parents (one of whom, we all worked with)???? like make up your mind.

but from the comedian side, particularly the iliza shelsinger special that im talking about, it's the insinuation that as a 1995 baby and the people just under me, like emo guy, have NO IDEA what a landline is???? and that again makes us babies.... children who don't know the ways of the world before our all-knowing smartphones, which are connected to our hands like edward scissorhands. again, of course i know what the fuck a landline is!!!!!! I used one up until about 2009??? when my friends finally started to get their mobiles. of course, it means that I didn't have my own private landline (and hamburger phone, thanks juno) to my own room, which was an expensive must-have, that very people few would have ACTUALLY HAD, in the 2000s.... bc by that time, cordless phones were a thing anyway. and the age gap between me and this comedian is 12 years. she's just turned 40, born in 1983. so, therefore, again, I am but a babe. a mere naive lamb in the world of more knowledgeable, wiley wolves. but you're in your 20s!!!! you DON'T KNOW THE HORROR!!! yes i do!!!! i fully do. bc we literally JUST GOT RID OF OUR LANDLINE PHONE LAST YEAR, IN 20 FUCKING 22!!!!! don't you dare tell me i don't know what it is.

moreover, bro. I am 20 fucking 8 (well, nearly). I turn 30 in two years time. yes, I may have never moved out of home (lol fucked up rental crisis.... and everything else, where the world is falling apart).... but I do pay my own car insurance and car loan (finally). hell!!!!! i BOUGHT my own car last year.... even if it wasn't fully in cash lol. I may have only had my first ever ~real adult~ job last year (kinda... and first job ever, period).... but that doesn't make me a child. I am still an adult, capable of making my own choices.... even if one of my choices is utterly refusing to date people... like, ever.... due to my horrendous past experiences with guys in my late teens. "but!!! but!! both of these women croon, YOU ARE STILL A CHILD! YOU HAVE HOPE!!! UNLIKE MY JADED ASS!!!" yeah. nah. my hope for the future fizzled out years ago. maybe not emo guy's. but mine defs has. and why is feeling jaded like a weird fucking milestone and badge of honour to wear???

in my actual life, one of my primary school best friends just divorced her high school sweetheart a couple of months ago. due to the guy changing his mind on having kids (ie he started wanting them, but he works one week one/one week off and fly in/fly out in the mines.... and since they were in another state, South Australia, they had NO family or friends to help my besite with the kid that she didn't even really want.... and he didn't want to do 50% of the housework and mental work for them). she owns a fucking house and pays house insurance. she works a high-powered government job in sydney now. my other primary school bestie, ironically, just got married to her uni sweetheart, and they're renting in the fucked up rental hellscape that is sydney. we all drive. we all have cars... even if I did take forever to get my full licence and my own car.

what, in any part of the above paragraph, is not a wiley adult wolf, just like both of these 80s babies think that they are???? both of these women who I've mentioned in this post would've had these conversations with past partners, and obviously with their current partners (the comedian had a kid in late 2022 I think, and the woman from work had like 2 or 3 kids, for example). they both own houses etc etc.

I fail to see how 90s kids are "uwu babies" in the eyes of elder millennials.... other than they're making that excuse to treat us like kids when it comes to dating someone with..... a let's say.... 5 to 12 year age difference, at the minimum. why would a 1983 or 1987 or 1990 "elder millennial" date a 1995 zillenial/baby millennial/cusper/whatever the fuck we're called, when *cue the "if she doesn't know X/what X is she's too young for you bro (or chick)! meme*... like "if she doesn't know what *enter a random 80s show here that an 80s kid grew up on* is, then she's too young for you, bro!!!

like who gives a fuck if I have never fucking watched idek Cheers or family ties or ALF or Fraiser (for early 90s) or whatever the fuck else???? maybe I didn't watch them bc I was literally fucking 2 years old??? so i was too young for the re-runs of these shows from 1997 onwards??? I was just vibing with rainbow brite (80s cartoon), dino riders (which was a short-lived 80s cartoon), the disney's gummi bears (late 80s cartoon) and every winnie the pooh movie and power rangers show or movie under the sun. oh, and of course, fucking Lion King and other 90s disney movies! that are all getting those godawful nostalgia cash grab live-action remakes that NO ONE has asked for, really. that for some reason, a lot of 80s babies seem to claim as theirs, and only theirs, for nostalgia and "disney adult" points. i also watched pokemon on VHS!!!! SHOCK!! HORROR!! I KNOW WHAT A VHS IS!!! (and we still have them).

just. my point is. i think some of the age gap discourse, if it's not about like power dynamics/abuse and whatever else.... is coming from this dumb as fuck generational divide of self-declared "elder millennials" who are now nearing 40 or are 40; or somewhere in their mid30s, trying to be so over-superior over the 20 somethings born in the mid to late 90s. (and now early 2000s kids, SHOCK!!! HORROR!!!- gen z... but i get this sometimes im ngl. the fuck you mean the young lawns guy who i had a short-lived crush on last year at work IS 20 FUCKING ONE (21)???? NO. NO IT CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!! IT- IT- IT CAN. NOT. BE. FUCKING. HAPPENING????!!!!).

just for the love of fuck. get over this utter bullshit about "millennials are the best babies!!!!" bullshit and STOP infantilizing grown ass adults (even if i personally actively NEVER feel like one tbh lmao) just because of an utter bullshit arbitrary age classification used for marketing and sociological research purposes only..... and only because there's between a 6 (for the lady i know) to about 12 year age gap (the comedian) between an 80s baby and a mid 90s baby. we are of the same generation... and we can have successful relationships with people born in the 80s/elder millennials, despite the age gaps. not that i've had one personally lmao. but we all know someone with an older partner or friend or whatever.

but i'm also thinking about it since there's the debate around chris evans finally marrying alba bapitista. when he's 42 (so gen x but who gives a fuck)... but she's 26 (a zillennial) and a college grad.... so apparently SHE has NO rational decision making skills at the baby age of 26. and also around joe jonas divorcing sophie turner.... where he's using his age (34) against hers (27) as a reason to divorce her bc he's "more responsible" than her (eg. he's forced to look after HIS kids while HE is on tour in the US.... while sophie parties after wrapping up a tv show she's been working in the UK on for like 6 months to a year and also finally working.... after taking 2 to 3 years off for her kids and pregnancies.... and the uh.... GLOBAL PANDEMIC????), and bs like that. it's just making me gag tbh.

[volixia669]

Signs X-Files started BEFORE the Patriot Act was put in place:

1. Mulder and Scully are shocked that the FBI would dare spy on ome of them.

2. The government being in the business of war being a SHOCKING revelation

3. High ups in gov lying? Somehow shocking.

[cinnaminsvga]

l.i.b. masterlist 🚞

→ social media au where y/n posts a fake boyfriend application on twitter as a dare but ends up seeking something real in the long run (aka how to fall in love the zillennial way)

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

pairing: ??? x reader genre: humor/crack, fluff, slight angst parts: 38/38 updates: complete

a/n: dedicated to @x-useobwa-x​ who won second place in my anniversary raffle (that i held... a year ago...) i’m so sorry that this has taken so long for me to start, but hopefully you’ll still like it!! enjoy!!

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

part 1 // jeon jungkook has an idea part 2 // shoujo love affair part 3 // where’s my netflix special part 4 // slidin’ into dms and shit part 5 // sir simpalot part 6 // who tf is that? part 7 // cousin troubles part 8 // my love part 9 // i **** you part 10 // calm before the storm part 11 // the breaking point part 12 // locked out of heaven? part 13 // hoseok? on god? part 14 // stomach ache part 15 // waiting and waiting part 16 // he’s single laydees part 17 // kim namjoon has an idea part 18 // growing a garden part 19 // go out with me? part 20 // rip jungkook you played yourself part 21 // CLOWN TOWN PRESENTS... part 22 // hobi noises :D part 23 // trust me? part 24 // ilsan time! part 25 // all aboard the “getting over him” express part 26 // can y/n have a good day? taejin say no part 27 // just one day part 28 // be happy part 29 // growing pains part 30 // selfish part 31 // a heart that loves you part 32 // moving on part 33 // did you? part 34 // to go or not to go? part 35 // last chance part 36 // no matter what they say part 37 // three questions part 38 // autumn leaves

profiles || asks

[dalishious]

why is Anders like. so liked in the fandom. I don't get it he's voiced support for tevinter slavery and is just. downright cruel to fenris about everything. and if you try to not flirt with him and say you aren't interested just after apologizing for his friend being made tranquil he takes it as an insult

Some of the main reasons I like Anders:

His multifaceted advocacy for equal rights for mages, including going as far as risking his life to help mages escape the Gallows and get out of Kirkwall

He himself has gone through a lot of trauma in the Circles, including but not limited to an entire year of solitary confinement, and yet he gave up the only protection he had from them (the Grey Wardens) because he couldn’t stand him having freedoms that other mages didn’t

He does nothing in half measure, and is so full of passion for the people and things he cares about—and this isn’t just special with Hawke, lest we forget he travelled all the way to Kirkwall in the first place because of Karl, and even before that lest we forget the very reason he merged with Justice was to help his friend

Speaking of Justice, I really like how much his personality and Justice’s personality in Awakening blend together in his character in DA:2; it truly is a matter of showing what is told in the way you can pick pieces of both characters as they were separately now merged together, and I find that to be a really interesting and unique piece of character progression that not only builds him as a person, but adds to and reflects the worldbuilding with how magic and spirits work

He’s super open with affection in his romance, and just like Merrill, declares his love for Hawke without hesitation

When he’s not with Hawke, he’s providing free health care for Kirkwall citizens and refugees that the rest of the city openly shuns and attacks, and in return they protect and love him; he is at the same time showing people mages aren’t scary, but people just like them just by doing what he does

As a “Zillennial” I can’t help but like and relate to his nihilistic sense of humour

And to respond to your points:

“He's voiced support for Tevinter slavery”

...Where? Show me where in the game that Anders says slavery in Tevinter is okay actually.

If you are only referring to the allocation of friendship points if Hawke is an evil motherfucker who gives Fenris back to Danarius, then I would like to counter this with the fact that the friendship/rivalry point allocation for all the companions is messed up at times. And in fact in regards to that specific scenario, they should all openly attack Hawke for doing such, in my opinion. Leliana and Wynne attack the Warden for poisoning the Sacred Ashes, but apparently no one even tries to stop Hawke selling Fenris back into slavery? Really, Gaider?

Anyway, some other examples of the friendship/rivalry point allocation being really morally messed up and/or OOC:

Fenris gains +10 friendship if Hawke threatens to expose Thrask having had a mage daughter unless Thrask pays them, and +10 rivalry for promising to keep Thrask’s secret

Aveline gains +10 rivalry for attacking Varian the slaver

Merrill gains +5 friendship for accepting Torpor’s bargain to possess Feynriel, and +5 rivalry for killing Torpor

Aveline gains +10 friendship for turning Keran over to Meredith, and +10 rivalry for letting him go

Aveline gains +10 friendship for allowing Isabela to negotiate with Castillon the slaver, and +5 rivalry for killing him

Varric gains +5 friendship for allowing Isabela to negotiate with Castillon the slaver, and +5 rivalry for killing him

So lets look at that last point as a similar example to Anders’ friendship/rivalry change during the quest Alone. Varric and Aveline gain friendship points for letting a slaver go free, and rivalry points for killing him. Are you going to say Varric and Aveline support slavery too, then? Or are you going to acknowledge that friendship/rivalry point allocation should not be taken at full value of who characters are, but rather sometimes simply added for the sake of game mechanical benefits and consequences of choices, and don’t make sense?

“He’s downright cruel to Fenris about everything”

Yeah. They’re rude to each other. They have a hostile relationship and it’s not good, but the way you’re phrasing this is as if it’s only a one-way street. Fenris is also rude to Anders about everything.

This isn’t to say that either negates the other, but that they are on the same level of antagonism. It’s not just Anders bullying Fenris, or just Fenris bullying Anders. They are both at fault.

“If you try to not flirt with him and say you aren't interested just after apologizing for his friend being made tranquil he takes it as an insult”

I do agree that the dialogue here is messy.

I would like to point out though, that it is entirely possible to get through it without flirting and without him trying to initiate anything. I know because I literally just did it with my new playthrough I started.

Anyway, this blog loves and supports Anders. ✌

[streetlamphalo]

r/fantasy 2021 bingo (part 2 of 5)

Almost a month after I posted part 1 of 5, it's time to see what the next five reads have been like. I'm actually picking a square off each row as I read, trying to maintain some semblance of consistency, as I go through the list. I have a few rows that are more purchase-heavy than others (the one that contains the Forest and Latin American / Latinx Author will both be the hardest Hard Mode squares and ones where I need to purchase the books), but all in all, I think I'm doing relatively well. Let's get stuck into the next 5 books on the list, shall we?

Mystery: plot contains a mystery as its centre (hard mode: it isn't primary world urban fantasy, though secondary world is fine)

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine - ★★★★★

Oh I loved, loved, loved this one! So much brilliant worldbuilding, so much anticolonialist thought, just an overall masterpiece. It's glorious space opera, it's queer characters, it's a completely strange world and way of thinking and all of it is wrapped around a mystery that really keeps you guessing. I went into it largely blind, lacking a lot of plot details and I enjoyed it so much more for that. 100% recommended and I can't wait to read the sequel.

Asia: book is set in Asian or an analogous real-world Asian setting (hard mode: the author is also Asian)

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho - ★★★★

There is a lot to like about this book and when the author describes it as 'A stressed zillennial lesbian fights gods, ghosts, gangsters & grandmas in 21st century Penang', well, I knew immediately that I wanted to read it. There's a lot to like about it and I was drawn into the setting, even if the main character takes a little while to get going. But when it does, it's action and intrigue and mystery and also one girl's attempt to make things right for her living family, and her dead one.

Revenge-seeking character: book featuring a character who wants to get revenge (hard mode: revenge is the central plot point)

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri - ★★★★

I joked to a group of friends that I basically turned my reading for bingo into Sapphic Summer 2021, and I'm not even sorry. The Jasmine Throne is packed with morally ambiguous characters, magical shenanigans, a morally righteous religious zealot and more! I haven't read any of Suri's other works but I really didn't need to, because this is enough to win me over and join the ranks of people making grabby hands for the sequel. It starts off a bit slow, but the character building and world building are worth it alone, and when the plot really gets going, it doesn't stop.

Trans or non-binary: book featuring a trans or non-binary protagonist (hard mode: they can't be a robot or an alien)

The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang - ★★★

The first in a series of four novellas, this was my first foray into Yang's work. I had also considered Phoenix Extravagant for this square because I love Yoon Ha Lee's writing, but we'll see whether that's enough to remove Yang from the list. I liked the worldbuilding in this a lot and it does some really interesting things with gender, though I do wish that the timeskips weren't so jarring. It felt, as times, like this really could have been fleshed out into a full novel. The set of four is being released soon, so I may well need to get my hands on them and see how it all plays out!

Genre mashup: a book covering multiple genres (hard mode: at least three or more genres are mashed)

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley - ★★

I wanted to love this one so much! Alternate history, time travel, a gay romance, I was here for all of it. But the premise just didn't live up to the book itself and I cannot condone characters who refuse to speak to each other just to try and maintain the plot's mystery and intrigue. That's not good writing, I'm sorry. I feel there are probably readers out there for whom this would work, I just wasn't one of them.

[meaningtotellyou]

it’s like we are not really millennials but also not gen z or zillennials lmaooo we have seen so much but we are still babies

that tweet that was like “we watched 2,000 people die on live television at 5 years old and nothing has gotten better since” yeah