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liriostigre · 3 years

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hey! I wanted to ask what your favorite poetry books are? I have a few but I want to read new and interesting stuff, and I trust your taste :D

hiii ♡

tbh i only started reading poetry collections like,, last year. i'm subscribed to poetryfoundation's newsletter (poem of the day) so i usually just read random poems

anyway, i'm not sure my recs could be considered new (cause i'm gonna start with Mary Oliver ♡) but feel free to message me if you want to know the themes, style, feeling (vibes, if you will) or anything you want to know about these collections. for now, i'm linking my favorite poems in each collection, i hope this helps you choose! ♡

here you go:

Dream Work —Mary Oliver (“Wild Geese.” “Dogfish.”)

Red Bird —Mary Oliver (“Summer Morning.” “Love Sorrow.”)

Blue Horses —Mary Oliver (“To Be Human Is to Sing Your Own Song.” “Loneliness.” “Little Crazy Love Song.”)

The Wild Iris —Louise Glück (“Sunset.” “Retreating Light.”)

Haruko/Love Poems —June Jordan (“On a New Year’s Eve.” “Mendocino Memory.” “Toward a City That Sings.” *under the cut)

Extracting the Stone of Madness —Alejandra Pizarnik (“Primitive Eyes.” “Summer Goodbyes.” *under the cut)

Ariel —Sylvia Plath (“Tulips.” “The Rival.”)

Prelude to Bruise —Saeed Jones (“Postapocalyptic Heartbeat.” *under the cut)

Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth —Alice Walker (“Coming Back from Seeing Your People.” *under the cut)

I Must Be Living Twice —Eileen Myles (“Edward the Confessor.” *under the cut)

Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth —Warsan Shire (“Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre.”)

The Black Unicorn —Audre Lorde (“Hanging Fire.” “Sister Outsider.”)

Bright Dead Things —Ada Limón (“The Riveter.” “Glow.”)

Night Sky With Exit Wounds —Ocean Vuong (“Thanksgiving 2006.” “Logophobia.”)

Postcolonial Love Poem —Natalie Diaz (“Manhattan Is a Lenape Word.”)

Crush —Richard Siken (“Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out.”)

Once —Alice Walker (“So We've Come at Last to Freud.”)

“Toward a City That Sings” by June Jordan

Into the topaz the crystalline signals of Manhattan the nightplane lowers my body scintillate with longing to lie positive beside the electric waters of your flesh and I will never tell you the meaning of this poem: Just say, ‘She wrote it and I recognize the reference.’ Please let it go at that. Although it is all the willingness you lend the world as when you picked it up the garbage scattering the cool formalities of Madison Avenue after midnight (where we walked for miles as though we knew the woods well enough to ignore the darkness) although it is all the willingness you lend the world that makes me want to clean up everything in sight (myself included)

for your possible discovery

“Primitive Eyes” by Alejandra Pizarnik

Where fear neither speaks in stories or poems, nor gives shape to terrors or triumphs.

My name, my pronoun — a grey void.

I’m familiar with the full range of fear. I know what it’s like to start singing and to set off slowly through the narrow mountain pass that leads back to the stranger in me, to my own emigrant.

I write to ward off fear and the clawing wind that lodges in my throat.

And in the morning, when you are afraid of finding yourself dead (of there being no more images): the silence of compression, the silence of existence itself. This is how the years fly by. This is how we lost that beautiful animal happiness.

“Summer Goodbyes” by Alejandra Pizarnik

The soft rumor of spreading weeds. The sound of things ruined by the wind. They come to me as if I were the heart of all that exists. I would like to be dead, and also to go inside another heart.

“Postapocalyptic Heartbeat” by Saeed Jones

I. Drugged, I dreamed you a plume of ash, great rush of wrecked air through the towns of my stupor. And when the ocean in your blood went toxic, I thought fire was what we needed: serrated light through the skin, grenade in the chest—pulled linchpin. I saw us breathing on the other side of after. But a blackout is not night; orange-bottled dreams are not sleep. II. I was a cross-legged boy in the third lifetime, empire of blocks in my lap while you walked through the door of your silence, hunting knife in one hand, flask in the other. I waited for you until I forgot to breathe, my want turning me colors only tongues of amaryllis could answer for. It owned me, that hunger, tendriled its way into my name for you. III. In a city made of rain each door, a silence; each lock, a mouth, I walked daily through the spit-slick streets, harbingers on my hands in henna: there will be no after Black-and-blue-garbed strangers, they called me Cassandra. (I had such a body then.) Umbrellas in hand, they listened while they unlistened. there will be no no. after

the world will end no.

you are the reason it no. ends

you no. IV. I didn’t exactly mean to survive myself. Half this life I’ve spent falling out of fourth-story windows. Pigeons for hair, wind for feet. Sometimes I sing “Stormy Weather” on the way down. Today, “Strange Fruit.” Each time, strangers find me drawing my own chalk outline on the sidewalk, cursing with a mouth full of iron, furious at my pulse. V. After ruin, after shards of glass like misplaced stars, after dredge, after the black bite of frost: you are the after, you are the first hour in a life without clocks; the name of whatever falls from the clouds now is you (it is not rain), a song in a dead language, an unlit earth, a coast broken— how was I to know every word was your name?

“Coming Back from Seeing Your People” by Alice Walker

Coming back From seeing your people You were So wonderfully Full Of yourself.

But now You have supped With vampires They have fed Feasted On you.

They arise Bright-eyed Fit.

You alone have lost Not only Your sleep But also Your glow The luster of Affection Heart welcome Your people Sent home With you.

Beloved You must learn To walk alone To hold The precious Silence To bring home And keep the precious Little That is left Of yourself.

“Edward the Confessor” by Eileen Myles

I have a confession to make I wish there were some role in society I could fulfill I could be a confessor I have a confession to make I have this way when I step into the bakery on 2nd Ave. of wanting to be the only really nice person in the store so the harried sales woman with several toned hair will like me. I do this in all kinds of stores, coffee shops xerox shops, everywhere I go. And invariably I leave my keys, xeroxing, my coffee from the last place I am being so nice. I try so hard to make a great impression on these neutral strangers right down to the perfect warm smile I get entirely lost and stagger back out onto the street, bereft of something major. It’s really leaning too hard on the everyday. My mother was the kind of woman who dragging us into stores always seemed to charm the pants off the cashier. She was such a great person, so human though at home she was such a bitch, I mean really distant. I imitate her and I don’t do it well. She didn’t leave her wallet or us in a store. I’m just a pale imitation it is simply not my style to open the hearts of strangers to my true personhood. I hope you accept this tiny confession of what I am currently going through. And if you are experiencing something of a similar nature tell someone, not me, but tell someone. It’s the new human program to be in. It would be nice for at least these final moments if we could sigh with the relief of being in the same program with all the other humans whispering in school. I can’t quite locate the terror, but I am trying to be my mother or Edward the Confessor smiling down on you with up-praying hands. I am looking down at the tips of my boots as I step across the balcony of the church excited to be allowed to say these things. Outside my church is a relationship. On 11th street this guy and this woman are selling the woman so they can get more dope. All their things are there, rags and loaves of bread and make-up. And there was— this was incredible. Two men lying by the door of the church giving each other blow-jobs. They were sort of street guys, one black one white. I said hey you can’t do that here. They jumped up, one spit come out of his mouth. If you don’t get out of here I’ll call the cops. Don’t call the cops we’ll go, we’ll leave. That was a shock. That was more than I expected to see in a day. Something about seeing the guy spit come out of his mouth. He didn’t have to do that. I guess I scared him. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was scared too.

#btw!!!! i'm sorry!!! SO SORRY it took me weeks to reply 🤕#hope you're having good days <3 #💌

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ineffably-a-fangirl-99 · 4 years

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KAYSANOVA FIC RECS

(in no particular order)

The Other Matter by Survivah

He wants Yusuf to hold his hand again. Grab his ankle. Flick his ear. Thrust his sword into his chest and breath into his mouth.

Yet, they have the long ocean of eternity ahead of them. These whims are nothing but a swell under their ship: gone as soon as they come. Nicolo knows better than to jump overboard and drown alone trying to chase them.

-----

Alternate title: "You'd Feel Pretty Weird If You Developed a Crush on the Only Other Immortal You Know, Right?"

(I highly recommend reading everything by Survivah because their writing and stories are *chef's kiss*)

as an ancient city by @lgbtmazight

This is a language no one else in the world is fluent in: the glint in Nicky’s eye, the unbearable gentleness with which he pushes Yusuf flat against the bed.

—

Joe and Nicky, from 1099 to 2019, through continents and dialects.

(only one word for this: BEAUTIFUL)

The #ImmortalHusbands Conspiracy by @runawaymarbles @phoenix-acid

@kathryyn2ys

Okay you know how most of the statues on buildings in New York are all the same lady?? Well. I have found her Renaissance counterpart. Behold: whoever this guy was. He c l e a r l y got around

@amberjunnie

bro one of those is by Michelangelo and the other is by Caravaggio, if it's the same dude then he didn't age at ALL in like 30-40 years.

@sewingoatmeal

Reblog to support an immortal model, his muslim (?looking) boyfriend, his asian girlfriend and her girlfriend.

(A Social Media Project)

(I am in awe of this pair's talent, goodness gracious! Honestly, I think this is the best social media au I have e.v.e.r. seen and I loooove it)

never take the stars away from me by @flightsofwonder

But sometimes, when the world was dark and cold and Nicolò was the only light, he would ask him to sing. Laying his head on his chest, Yusuf pressed the pads of his fingers against the hollow of Nicolò’s throat, gentle as a bird’s wing, and closed his eyes. The vibrations brought him home, as the pulsating prayers that shook marble once did, all those lifetimes ago.

(Deaf!Yusuf AU intro

(This AU lives in my head rent free it's sooo freaking beautiful)

same script, different lines by BeStillMySlashyHeart

A look at how things might be different if it wasn't Quynh in the coffin. Each fic depicts someone else in her place.

(I have reread this series waaay too many times, it's brilliant)

you're a dream to me by @smilebackwards

When Nile dreams, sometimes she’s in the dark with Quynh. And sometimes she’s in a white room, Joe’s name and Ave Marias falling off her lips.

Or: the AU where Nicky was also captured at some point in history and then the team rescues him

(This writer is a freakin' wizard with words! Read everything they've written!!)

compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience by Jack_R

(There's no summary for this one but it's almost 12,000 words of hilarious enemies-to-lovers with a healthy serving of feels that everyone should read. If I may include this bit from the 2nd part of the series which I feel perfectly encapsulates its vibes:

Yusuf quirked his head a little: Niccolò liked to sleep in, but it seemed that he had finally found his way out of the bed into the tavern above which they were currently staying in. He looked vaguely upset and thoroughly in need of a comb: Yusuf thought he fully deserved both since he had previously specified in quite strong terms what would happen if he was to be woken up for anything but the judgement day come.

‘Good morning,’ he said. ‘I thought you were dead.’

‘Even if I was, I intend to haunt you until the end of your days,’ Niccolò said. It was quite touching, as far as Niccolò’s declarations went: that man usually expressed his affection by dying for Yusuf in various gruesome ways because apparently just saying ‘I love you’ was too much of a commitment.)

Blood Ties by Redchange15

He wakes up in a hospital in Varna, Bulgaria, on a Thursday.

He has no idea how he got there, or who he is.

As he tries to gather himself, a policeman walks in. They explain that he was found on the outskirts of city in the dock. The policeman wants to know who he is and how he got there. They also want to know why they’d found him in clothes that were covered in blood.

They tell him his name is Niccolo.

Niccolo would like to know the answers to the policeman’s questions as well.

(AMNESIA FIC AMNESIA FIC BEAUTIFULLY PAINFUL AMNESIA FIC)

one burning candle, one wind-whipped flame by Dialux

“I’m not sleeping there!”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to spend the next months getting my throat slit in the night!” he hisses.

“Oh, don’t underestimate yourself,” says Yusuf, leaning back on the low cot on his elbows, quite enjoying himself. “I’m sure you’ll be slitting my throat as well.”

[Yusuf dies, and dies, and dies, and lives, as well, for a thousand years. Nicolo's by his side for all of them, and it's not quite the love story of eternity, but it's theirs: and that's enough for them both.]

(talented writer is so talented!! I loved loved loved Yusuf's backstory in this one)

(so obviously there are a looooot more fics that I should include but I'm out of patience so maybe I'll get on a part 2 tomorrow)

(also, I did this entire thing on mobile so if any of the links don't work, please tell me!)

#Kaysanova #joe x nicky #The old guard #The old guard fic rec #Kaysanova fic rec #yusuf al kaysani #nicolo di genova #yusuf x nicolo #Fic recs

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flirting-with-psychology · 3 years

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A Do you live in America?: Yes Favorite Animal?: Wolf Do you like Apples?: They’re not my favorite fruit but they’re not bad Would you ever be an Astronaut?: Probably not Do you shop at American Eagle?: No

B Who is your Best Friend?: Right now I’d say Cristi Do you have a Boyfriend?: Yes Are you Bisexual?: Maybe just a little bit, but still like 98% straight Did/Do you play with Barbies?: Yeah Do you have a Baby?: No

C What is your favorite type of Chocolate?: Dark chocolate. What’s your favorite Candle scent?: Cinnamon Do you celebrate Christmas?: No What’s your favorite Color?: Green or pink Do you like Cats?: Yes

D What holidays do you Decorate for?: Hanukkah and sometimes halloween Are you scared of the Dentist?: No Do you like doing DIYs?: Yeah sometimes, but not for like household stuff When was the last time you went to the Doctor?: In december What’s your favorite alcoholic drink?: Moscato

E What do you do for Easter?: Nothing or sometimes an easter egg hunt when I was a kid What is one thing you do Every day?: Check my phone Have you ever seen the Eiffel Tower?: Yes Would you say you’re Emotional?: Yes What’s your favorite thing to Eat?: Chocolate

F How many Friends do you have?: Idk? Have you ever been Frisked by the police?: No Do you enjoy French Fries?: Yes How often do you Forget things?: A decent amount Have you ever gotten into a Fight?: Not a physical one

G Are you a Girl?: Yes Do you believe in God?: No Do you have a Girlfriend?: No Are you Gay?: No Are you Glad to be taking this survey?: Yeah it’s different

H Do you dress up for Halloween?: Yes, I love halloween Hello, How are you today?: Eh Do you like Horses?: Yeah Have you ever been High?: A couple times Do you like Hot weather?: Not really, I like warm but over 85 kinda sucks

I Do you think this survey is Incredible?: Nah What’s your favorite flavor of Ice cream?: Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch What is one of your Interests?: Jewelry Did you do the Ice Bucket Challenge?: No Have you ever been Ice skating?: Yes

J Tell me a Joke.: Knock knock. Who’s there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad I didn’t tell the long version of this joke? What is your favorite Junk Food?: Chocolate Is there any Jewelry you wear every day?: No What’s your favorite type of Juice?: orange juics Do you believe in Jesus?: No

K Who was the last person you Kissed?: My boyfriend Describe your first Kiss.: We were hanging out in my room and cuddling on my bed so I figured we should kiss, it wasn’t the best Have you every Kicked someone in the balls?: Not on purpose Will you break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar?: Not in this pandemic What’s your favorite Kids’ show?: Drake and Josh

L Are you a Lesbian?: No Are you in Love?: I’m not sure Do you like Lemons?: I like them in things, but not plain What do you eat for Lunch?: I had eggs in toast for brunch Do you Lose things often?: Kinda, but mostly just in my own house

M Do you watch Markiplier?: No Do you know someone named Michael?: Yes Do you play Minecraft?: No Do you Miss someone?: I miss everyone I can’t see in person Do you like Mozzarella sticks?: Yes

N Would you consider yourself a Nice person?: I guess so What’s your Nickname?: Star Do you get your Nails done?: Not too often Do you listen to Nickelback?: Not really Have you bought anything New?: Yeah I buy new stuff all the time. Most recent was the DVD of Galavant

O Do you sleep with your door Open?: No, that’s awful Do you know anyone who has really bad Odor?: Kinda Would you ever be in an Open relationship?: No Do you like being at the Ocean?: Yes How Old are you?: 26

P Do you watch Pewdiepie?: No Have you ever Puked mid blowjob?: Lol no Do you like People?: They’re ok What are your favorite Pizza toppings?: Cheese, pineapple, and garlic Do you have any Piercings?: Just my ears

Q Are you a Quiet person?: I am until I am comfortable with you Have you ever Quit a job?: Not really, I got laid off with the option to change positions but I declined that option How Quick are you getting ready to leave the house?: I’m terrible at it, it takes at least 2 hours What is your favorite Quote?: Carpe diem Have you ever met a Queen?: No but I saw the queen of England in a parade

R Have you ever had Rabies?: No Are you close to your Relatives?: Only my parents What ended your last Relationship?: He said didn’t have time for a girlfriend Do people call you a Redneck?: No Rate this survey.: 6

S Do you like sports?: Mostly not What is your favorite Sex position?: Missionary Do you like to go to Six Flags?: Yes Is Summer your favorite Season?: probably not, I like fall Do you like to Shout?: Not usually

T Do you Toast your Poptarts?: No Do you like to be Terrified?: Not usually Are you on Tinder?: I used to be and I still have my profile Do you like Tacos?: No Have you ever played Tennis?: Only in gym class, and not well

U Are you wearing Underwear?: Yes At a restaurant, What’s your Usual?: Depends on the restaurant Quick! Look Under your bed. What’s there?: A box of toiletries Have you seen the movie Up?: Yes Would you say you’re an unorganized person?: In my personal life

V Do you like Velcro?: Not particularly, I don’t like the scratchy sound it makes What would be your perfect Valentine’s day?: A romantic date Have you ever seen a Velociraptor?: No Have you ever Visited a Volcano?: No What Vehicle do you drive?: Subaru Forester

W Do you like the Water?: Yes Do you like Wendy’s?: I like the nuggets Do you like Walruses?: I have no opinion Do you hate Waiting?: Yes Do you like Waffles?: Yes

X Have you ever played with a Xylophone?: Only when I was little Have you ever had an Xray?: Yes Did you ever wish you had Xray vision?: No Do you still love your EX?: No Do you hate the letter X?: No, it’s just a letter

Y Is your favorite color Yellow?: No What has been your favorite Year?: 2nd grade or junior year of college Do you hate being Yelled at?: Who doesn’t? What did you do Yesterday?: Had an interview and then watched a lot of New Girl What was your favorite thing to do when you were Younger?: Play story games with my friends

Z Have you ever went to the Zoo?: Yeah Do you hate getting Zits?: Yes Do you like Zebras?: They’re fine Do you like eating Zebra cakes?: Never had one Do you use Zedge?: I don’t know what that is

#survey

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absolutebl · 9 months

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My Top 60 BLs - The Elite 10% of 600 Watched

It's happened again, another year, another 100 BLs watched. We have just tipped the BL tracking spreadsheet over into 600 BLs watched. (by moi).

SO after watching 600 BLs, here are my top 60:

Seven Days - Japan 2015 (oldest BL on this list, also holds #1 spot, cute)

We Best Love: No. 1 For You & Fighting Mr. 2nd - Taiwan 2021

Semantic Error - Korea 2022

Light On Me - Korea 2021

Until We Meet Again - Thai 2019

Our Dating Sim - Korea 2023

To My Star - Korea 2021

Color Rush 1 - Korea 2021

Old Fashion Cupcake - Japan 2022

Takara-kun and Amagi-kun - Japan 2022

Minato’s Laundromat - Japan 2022

My Beautiful Man - Japan 2021

Cherry Blossoms After Winter - Korea 2022

HIStory 2: Crossing the Line - Taiwan 2018

Cherry Magic - Japan 2020

The Eighth Sense - Korea 2023

Bad Buddy - Thai 2022

A Tale of Thousand Stars - Thai 2021

My School President - Thai 2023

Love Tractor - Korea 2023

The New Employee - Korea 2023

Oxygen - Thai 2020

Be Loved In House: I Do - Taiwan 2021

Lovely Writer - Thai 2021

He’s Coming to Me - Thai 2019

Blueming - Korea 2022

Unintentional Love Story - Korea 2023

Step By Step - Thai 2023

My Ride - Thai 2022

La Pluie - Thai 2023

Wish You - Korea 2020

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku - Japan 2023

Not Me - Thai 2022

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding - Korea 2021

Love By Chance - Thai 2018

See You After Quarantine? - Taiwan 2021

Addicted - China 2016

Long Time No See - Korea 2017

My Tooth Your Love - Taiwan 2022

Why R U? - Thai 2020

The Tasty Florida - Korea 2021

About Youth - Taiwan 2022

SOTUS - Thai 2016

DNA Says Love You - Taiwan 2022

My Love Mix Up - Japan 2021

Roommates of Poongduck 304 - Korea 2022

The Eclipse - Thai 2022

Dark Blue Kiss - Thai 2019

Oh! Boarding House - Korea 2022

My Day - Pinoy 2020

Ocean Likes Me - Korea 2022

Bed Friend - Thai 2023

Cutie Pie - Thai 2022

Life: Love on the Line - Japan 2020

Love Class - Korea 2022

Restart After Come Back Home - Japan 2020

Tinted With You - Korea 2022

2gether - Thai 2020

Choco Milk Shake - Korea 2022

Destiny Seeker - Thai 2023

600 BLs - My Top 60 Notes

Bold = 10/10 (#1 … #8)

Italics = 9/10 (#9 … #33)

everything else is 8/10 (there are more 8/10s)

These are my personal preferences. If you don't see one of your favorites there it may still have scored an 8 just not made it onto the list.

Or... I didn't like is as much as you think I should.

Relative ranking isn't fixed. I basically just asked myself which ones would I want to rewatch right... now.

Absolute BL not included because it’s parody

Love is Science? & Puppy Honey not included because BL is a B-plot

Word of Honor has been censored off the list. Fuck that noise.

The following are my top 3 shorts:

A First Love Story - Korea 2021

Just Friends? - Korea 2009 (would have been the oldest on the list)

Some More - Korea 2018

This is as of the Aug 2023.

Not responsible for any additional awesome BLs that have aired since then.

Next up... 700 BLs. Expect me to do this again - next year. Unless I'm dead of course.

(Here's the last time I did this.)

#top 60 BLs #600 BLs watched #what am I doing with my life #I dont' want to be a completest... but I am #thai bl #korean bl #japanese bl #vietnamese bl #pinoy bl #taiwanese bl

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jessjustplay · 1 year

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Currently Playing Star Ocean First Departure R - Update 1.0

October 30, 2022

I really want to play the new Star Ocean game, but I don't want to pay new-game-money. So instead, I am playing the very first game in the Star Ocean series! It was on sale on the Nintendo eShop so I just *had* to get it... and I'm so glad I did!

I started the game on October 27th. I played for about 20 minutes and after I finally got the hang of the battle system, I restarted the game. I used a Phoenix Down (I forget what this game calls them) and I wanted it back. I have been doing so much better this 2nd time around.

The battle system is very much like Final Fantasy 13's Paradigm system. I can only control one character and the other 2 are doing their own thing automatically. I can tell them to focus on fighting, defense, or healing. Again, all very much like FF13. One thing that is cooler about this game, though, is that I can switch between who I control while I am in battle. So cool!

I have just stayed controlling the main character, Roddick, while Dorne attacks and Millie heals. I really like these 3 main characters, they are so cute! Millie is very funny and the dynamic they bring together is very entertaining.

So far, the story has been pretty straightforward. The 3 kids live in a town where they patrol and keep their neighbors safe. They seem to be a part of some sort of patrol/defense organization. The neighboring town, Coule, or something like that, had a random disease breakout. Millie's dad goes to investigate and help, but ends up getting the disease.

All 3 of them go to the neighboring city to save Millie's dad, but it looks like Dorne also got the disease when he touched the carrier pigeon that originally delivered the message about Millie's dad getting sick.

I had already visited this town, so going back and seeing everyone turn to stone was so sad... especially that wife and kids!! *sad face*

As we made our way to the top of the mountain, we passed a healing spring. I hope there are more of these throughout the game!

Once we made it to the top, we met 2 strangers. They said they were from a different planet. They started talking about some preservation pact and how they can't interfere with other planets? Something like that. Regardless, they said they could help Dorne and the others by making a vaccine. (They didn't even know what a vaccine is, so this is very telling of Roddick's planet & their place in time.)

I thought it was sad when the space dudes said that Roddick, Millie, and Dorne cannot return to this planet if they go with them... I hope they find a loophole and are able to return.

Still, it looks like my journey into space has begun! I am currently on a spaceship, waiting to get a tour of the place. Hopefully they find a cure for Dorne... I'm sooo looking forward to what happens next!

#star ocean first departure r #star ocean #currently playing

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aletdownsquid · 4 years

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We Want the Wilderness Intro: Works Cited

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Bolland, Brian. “On Batman: Brian Bolland Recalls The Killing Joke.” DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore, by Alan Moore. DC Comics, 2006. p. 247.

Bourdieu, Pierre. The Field of Cultural Production, edited by Randall Johnson, Columbia UP, 1993.

---. The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford UP, 1995.

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Brooks, Dan. “SWCE 2016: 15 Things We Learned from the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Panel.” Star Wars, 15 Jul. 2016, www.starwars.com/news/swce-2016-15-things-we-learned-from-the-rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-panel.

Buckley, Cara. “When ‘Captain Marvel’ Became a Target, the Rules Changed.” The New York Times.com, 13 Mar. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/movies/captain-marvel-brie-larson-rotten-tomatoes.html?login=email&auth=login-email.

Cattani, Gino, Simon Ferriani, and Paul D. Allison. “Insiders, Outsiders, and the Struggle for Consecration in Cultural Fields: A Core-Periphery Perspective.” American Sociological Review, Vol. 79, no. 2, 2014, pp. 258-81.

Certeau, Michel de. The Practice of Everyday Life. U of California P, 1984.

Coppa, Francesca. “An Archive of Our Own: Fanfiction Writers Unite!” Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World, edited by Anne Jamison, Smart Pop, 2013, pp. 302-308.

Couch, Aaron. “Marvel Movies: The Complete Timeline of Upcoming MCU Films and Disney+ Shows.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Sept. 2016, www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/marvel-movies-upcoming-timeline-release-dates-phase-3-929626.

Cranswick, Amie. “Kevin Feige Names Black Panther As the Best Movie that Marvel Has Made.” The Flickering Myth, 11 Jun. 2018, www.flickeringmyth.com/2018/06/kevin-feige-names-black-panther-as-the-best-movie-that-marvel-has-made/.

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Day 2 - Research articles on Ska

People may not realize this, but ska music originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Ska music's influence ranges beyond ska bands. Without ska music, genres like reggae and rocksteady may not have come to be. The ska beat is heavily influenced by American R&B music and has grown into one of the most popular standalone musical genres. It is also one of the most distinct - famous ska bands are rarely confused as being from another genre. The best ska bands are some of the most popular in the world due to the eclectic sound and the diverse instruments used in shaping the music. Ska bands had a surge in popularity in the 1990s with albums like Sell Out (Reel Big Fish) and Super Rad! (The Aquabats) taking over the radio waves. This is the era where some of the best ska bands emerged and haven't let up since.

https://www.ranker.com/list/ska-bands-and-musicians/reference

Genres of music are seldom invented in someone's basement, generally they sort of fade into existence. Such is the case with ska, a genre of Jamaican music which comes from mento and calypso music, combined with American jazz and R&B, which could be heard on Jamaican radio coming from high-powered stations in New Orleans and Miami. Ska became popular in the early 1960s.

The Sound

Ska music was made for dancing. The music is upbeat, quick and exciting. Musically, it can be characterized with a drumbeat on the 2nd and 4th beats (in 4/4 time) and with the guitar hitting the 2nd, 3rd and 4th beats. Traditional ska bands generally featured bass, drums, guitars, keyboards and horns (with sax, trombone and trumpet being most common).

Coxsone Dodd

Clement "Coxsone" Dodd is one of the most important figures in ska history, though he was not a musician. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jamaica was about to receive its independence from Great Britain. Coxsone, a disc jockey, recognized the country's need for national pride and identity, and began recording popular bands in his now-legendary studio, Studio One. These records became wildly popular in Jamaica.

Rude Boys

The "rude boys" were a Jamaican subculture of the 1960s. Rude Boys were generally unemployed, impoverished Jamaican teens who were hired by sound system operators (mobile DJs) to crash each other's street dances. These interactions often led to further violence and the Rude Boys frequently formed feuding gangs. Fashionable clothing for rude boys was American gangster wear. The Rude Boy culture became a huge source for ska lyrics.

Skanking

Skanking is the style of dancing that goes along with ska music. It has remained popular among ska fans since the beginning, and it's a relatively easy dance to do. Basically, the legs do "the running man", bending the knees and running in place to the beat. The arms are bent at the elbows, with hands balled into fists, and punch outward, alternating with the feet (left foot, right hand, etc.).

Traditional Ska Musicians and Bands

Among the artists that made early ska so popular were Desmond Dekker, The Skatalites, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, The Melodians and Toots & the Maytals. Many ska bands also later played reggae music, which came about later in the 1960s.

Second-Wave Ska or "Two-Tone" Ska

Two-tone (or 2 Tone) ska is the second wave of ska music, created in England in the 1970s. In creating this genre, traditional ska was fused with the (then) brand new style of music known as punk rock. The name "2 Tone" refers to a record label that put out these records. The UK-based bands were often racially mixed, with black and white members.

Two-Tone Ska Musicians and Bands

Popular two-tone ska bands include The Specials, Bad Manners, The Higsons, The Beat and The Bodysnatchers.

Third-Wave Ska

Third-wave Ska refers to American ska bands that were influenced more by two-tone ska than by traditional ska music. These bands range in their sound from nearly traditional ska to mostly punk. In the early to mid-1990s, third-wave ska saw a major growth in popularity, with many bands having several chart-topping hits.

Third-Wave Ska Musicians and Bands

Among the most popular third-wave ska bands are The Toasters, Operation Ivy, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt, Reel Big Fish, Fishbone, Less Than Jake, Save Ferris, Sublime and The Aquabats.

https://www.thoughtco.com/ska-music-basics-3552840

Ska, Jamaica’s first indigenous urban pop style.

Pioneered by the operators of powerful mobile discos called sound systems, ska evolved in the late 1950s from an early Jamaican form of rhythm and blues that emulated American rhythm and blues, especially that produced in New Orleans, Louisiana. A new beat emerged that mixed the shuffling rhythm of American pianist Rosco Gordon with Caribbean folk influences, most notably the mambo of Cuba and the mento, a Jamaican dance music that provided the new music’s core rhythm. The boogie-woogie piano vamp characteristic of New Orleans-style rhythm and blues was simulated by a guitar chop on the offbeat and onomatopoeically became known as ska. The beat was made more locomotive by the horns, saxophones, trumpet, trombone, and piano that played the same riff on the offbeat. All the while the drums kept a 4/4 beat with bass drum accents on the second and fourth beats.

Because the history of Jamaican popular music is largely oral, contending claims of authorship were inevitable, but guitarist Ernie Ranglin’s claim that he invented the ska chop is generally regarded as plausible. Singers Derrick Morgan, Prince Buster, Toots Hibbert (of Toots and the Maytals), Justin Hinds, and the Dominoes became stars, but ska was primarily an instrumental music. Jamaica’s independence from British rule in 1962 left the country and ska in a celebratory mood. The music’s dominant exponents were a group of leading studio musicians—Don Drummond, Roland Alphonso, Dizzy Johnny Moore, Tommy McCook, Lester Sterling, Jackie Mittoo, Lloyd Brevette, Jah Jerry, and Lloyd Knibbs—and under McCook’s leadership they became known as the Skatalites in 1963, making several seminal recordings for leading producers and backing many prominent singers, as well as the fledgling Bob Marley and the Wailers. The Skatalites’ most distinctive musical presence was trombonist, composer, and arranger Drummond. A colourful figure who grappled with mental instability (he was institutionalized after murdering his girlfriend and died in confinement), Drummond was the central musician of the era, as essential to the development of ska as Marley was to reggae.

Ska has had several international waves. The first began in the early 1960s and is remembered for “My Boy Lollipop” by Millie Small, a Jamaican singer based in London, and for hits by Prince Buster and by Desmond Dekker and the Aces. In the 1970s ska was a significant influence on British pop culture, and so-called 2-Tone groups (whose name derived from both the suits they wore and their often integrated lineups) such as the Specials, Selector, and Madness brought punk and more pop into ska. Madness’s music crossed the Atlantic Ocean and contributed to the success of ska’s third wave of popularity, in the mid-1980s in the United States, where another British group, General Public, had hits. The music’s fourth wave came in the mid-1990s as American groups such as No Doubt, Sublime, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones brought ska into the mainstream of pop music, and ska pioneers such as the Skatalites and Derrick Morgan found a new audience.

https://www.britannica.com/art/ska

Ska story: the sound of angry young England

By Stephen Rodrick

"Forget about punk. Forget about the new Mods marching to the beat of 'My Generation.' In the England of 1980, ska is the word." That's how Rolling Stone critic David Fricke began his March 23, 1980, article on ska, the latest music craze to sweep the U.K. A decade later, the record label most responsible for the ska revolution, 2-Tone Records, has commemorated the tenth anniversary of the ska phenomenon with The 2 Tone Story, a double album that highlights the best of the ska movement and leaves you wondering why the hypnotic music never became the word in America.

The ska of the late 70s and early 80s was a revival of and an elaboration on "rude boy" ska, a craze centered in Jamaica in the first half of the 1960s. Jamaica was in the midst of a cultural renaissance as the island nation achieved its independence from Great Britain in 1962, and its quest for an individual identity is quite evident in ska, a fusion of Jamaica's native folk music, known as Mento, with American R & B, which could be heard from New Orleans at night on the radio. The concoction was heavy on nasty jazz-tinged horns bouncing off a skittish calypso beat. The lyrics were mostly playful, but occasionally touched on the promise of home rule, as in the Skatalites' "Independent Anniversary Ska." By the mid-60s this original ska sound was evolving into the more controlled "rock-steady" sound and eventually into reggae.

Before that happened, however, Caribbean immigrants brought ska to England, where it attracted a cult following. The factory town of Coventry in the British Midlands was a hot spot for ska activity, as large numbers of blacks settled there to work in the British auto industry. By the late 70s, Coventry's fortunes mirrored Detroit's, with high unemployment and the attendant unrest. Musically, the good-time sound of ska was being introduced to the lyrical intensity and anger of the punk movement. Driving this movement was the Specials, led by Jerry Dammers, a white record-store clerk, who formed the multiracial band in 1978.

Not surprisingly, the Specials in their various incarnations form the centerpiece of The 2 Tone Story. 2-Tone is Dammers's label, but more important, Dammers's band led the way for the other ska bands throughout the movement.

The main irony of the Specials' songs, and in fact of the entire ska movement, was that lurking just beneath the "happy," infectious dance beat were often chilling stories of the racial divisiveness and economic deprivation that characterized the dawning of the Thatcher era. This is evident on their debut single, "Gangsters," released in July 1979. The steady backbeat of drummer John Bradbury and the bass of Horace Panter combine with Dammers's lilting keyboards to turn rock's traditional 4/4 beat inside out, providing an insistent dance groove.

Meanwhile Terry Hall's anguished tenor sings a tale of tongue-in-cheek urban chaos that takes a swipe at the British record industry:

Why must you tape all my phone calls,

Are you planning a bootleg LP?

Said you've been threatened by gangsters,

Now it's you that's threatening me.

Can't fight corruption with conscience

They use nylon to commit crime

I dread to think what the future will bring

Living in a gangster town.

DON'T CALL ME SCARFACE!

A Catch 22 says if I sing the truth

they won't make me an overnight star.

Don't offer a cent for protection

They use nylon to commit crime

I dread to think what the future will bring

when we're living in a real gangster town.

Propelled by the success of "Gangsters" and a spirited cover of Robert Thompson's "Rudi, a Message to You" produced by Elvis Costello, the Specials released their long-playing debut in 1980. With Costello behind the board, The Specials represents ska's most notable achievement and one of the decade's finest pop albums of any kind. It includes the band's first two singles and 13 other songs ranging from the rambling lament of "Blank Expression" to the social satire on teenage pregnancy of "Too Much, Too Young." Both songs are featured on The 2 Tone Story, the latter in a live presentation culled from the 1981 album, Dance Craze. It proves these lads could play. While Hall sings disdainfully about ugly babies and the benefits of contraception, an angry blend of Lynval Golding and Roddy Byers's Stones-like guitars merges with the trademark ska beat provided by Bradbury and Panter. The resulting cascade of sound almost dares the audience to stay in their seats.

Unfortunately, the reign of the Specials as ska kings was short. Their second studio album, More Specials, was released late in 1980 amid rumors of internal strife, which the record confirms, lacking the joy and intensity of their debut. The 2 Tone Story features only one track from this album, the likable but inconsequential "International Jet Set."

Before disintegrating, though, the Specials managed to record perhaps their most noteworthy song. Released in June 1981 as riots raged in Brixton and Liverpool, "Ghost Town," presented in its 12-inch version on The 2 Tone Story, evoked a picture of a racially divided England coming apart at the seams. Driven by the eerie trombone playing of Rico, a Jamaican reggae veteran who played on a number of Specials songs and also recorded instrumental albums for 2-Tone, "Ghost Town" is that rare political song that perfectly captures the mood of the time; it gave the rioting rude boys of all racial and political persuasions reason to pause.

This town is coming like a Ghost Town

All the clubs are being closed down

This place is coming like a Ghost Town

Bands won't play no more,

Too much fighting on the dance floor.

Do you remember the good old days before the Ghost Town

We danced and sang and the music played in our boom town.

This town is coming like a Ghost Town

Why must the youths fight against themselves

Government leaving the youths on the shelf

No jobs to be found in this country

Can't go on no more

People getting angry.

For all intents and purposes, "Ghost Town" marked the end of the Specials. Hall, Golding, and vocalist Neville Staples split off to form the sporadically brilliant Fun Boy Three, then Hall basically went solo in 1985 with the Colourfield. Dammers vanished briefly from the music scene, becoming increasingly involved in antiapartheid politics (the Specials had participated in the Rock Against Racism movement in England of 1981 at Dammers's urging).

After a three-year absence, Dammers released In the Studio under the name of Special AKA with a number of ska veterans and original Specials drummer John Bradbury. While the album lacked the danceability of Specials music, it contained a number of compelling songs, such as the politically correct "War Crimes" and "Racist Friend" and the fiercely inspirational "Free Nelson Mandela," which brought Dammers worldwide acclaim among human rights activists. Produced once again by Costello and featuring him and a cast of other notables on backing vocals, the song immediately became the anthem for millions clamoring for the release of the long-imprisoned ANC leader. As writer Robin Denselow recounts in his outstanding book When the Music's Over: The Story of Political Pop, the song became hugely popular in Mandela's native land: "It must have been extraordinary for a white songwriter from Coventry, in the British Midlands, to turn on the television news and see demonstrators in Soweto singing his song." Extraordinary indeed.

Since the release of In the Studio, Dammers has been musically silent, with the exception of a song contributed to the Absolute Beginners sound track. He has been concentrating on political activities. He cofounded with Paul Weller and Billy Bragg the Red Wedge political movement in England, the banner under which British musicians united for the Labour Party in the 1987 elections. He also was instrumental in creating the pressure group Artists Against Apartheid (AAA) to educate performers about the evils of playing in South Africa. In that role he has wrangled with Paul Simon over his use of South African musicians on his Graceland album and also assisted in the organization of the July 11, 1988, Nelson Mandela 70th-birthday tribute at Wembley Stadium.

After the Specials, the most influential ska band was the Beat, formed in Birmingham. (They are known as the English Beat in the U.S. due to name similarity with an LA band.) The Beat's brilliance has been overshadowed by the commercial achievements of its alumni. Before Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger went on to moderate success as General Public, and before guitarists David Steele and Andy Cox found superstardom with Fine Young Cannibals, the Beat combined hard-edged guitars and power-pop melodies with Wakeling's quirky voice and Ranking Roger's "toasting"--ska's version of rapping--to create a sound unheard before or since. Their contributions to The 2 Tone Story include the stop-go dance number "Ranking Full Stop" and a live version of the dark "Mirror in the Bathroom," featuring the ska legend Saxa on saxophone.

The Beat went on to greater fame on the IRS label, recording three fine albums before their breakup in 1983. On their 1979 long-playing debut, Just Can't Stop It, which included their first two singles, the Beat continued ska's reputation for highly political dance music with songs like "Stand Down Margaret," a derisive ode to the prime minister that unfortunately is still relevant a decade later. (Costello did a version on his 1983 tour and Bragg sang a gruff cover during his 1986-'87 swing through the U.S.)

The Beat did well in the U.S. in the early years of the 80s, moving almost imperceptibly toward the commercial mainstream but without losing sight of their ska origins. Their final and finest album, 1982's Special Beat Service, was more pop than ska; the first tune on each side--"I Confess" and "Save It for Later"--opts for a rather conventional pop sound, the former being driven by dance-hall piano and the latter by straightforward rock guitar (witness Pete Townshend's acoustic cover of it). However, songs such as the organ-driven "Jeanette" and the joyful reggae-tinged "Ackee 1-2-3" betray the Beat's steady devotion to their 2-Tone roots.

The 2 Tone Story also contains some early work by one of Britain's most enjoyable pop exports of the 80s, the London band Madness. While the Specials and the Beat sought to achieve some level of ska authenticity through their multiracial makeup and their use of veterans such as Rico and Saxa, the six white boys who make up Madness have no such pretensions. Instead, they paid homage to the musical style they were appropriating in the selection of their name, which is the title of a hit by 60s ska star Prince Buster, and in the title of their first single, "The Prince," which appears along with a live version of "One Step Beyond" on The 2 Tone Story. Madness's sound on both these songs and on their debut album, One Step Beyond, produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (who would be involved with most of Madness's recordings and would produce some of Elvis Costello's best-sounding albums, most notably Punch the Clock), is a heady combination of ska with the rough-cut spontaneity of a drunken bar band. The self-described "nuttiness" of Madness has few points of comparison in recent pop history; closest perhaps is the LA ska band Fishbone, whose repertoire includes a version of the theme from the Fat Albert cartoon show.

Sadly, the all-white makeup of Madness attracted the undesirable attention of England's skinheads, racist working-class kids loosely affiliated with the fascist National Front movement. Trouble struck when Madness and the Specials toured together and the skinheads heaped racist epithets on the black members of the Specials. The concert made national headlines, and while Madness went to extremes to disassociate themselves from the skinheads, the event temporarily marred the harmonious feeling of the neo-ska movement and only underscored the incendiary racial situation in Thatcher's England.

Madness went on to score a number of British hits throughout the decade and managed even to liven up the U.S. charts with "Our House," a three-minute essay on British home life. The band became increasingly "serious" while attempting to maintain a shred of their earlier lunacy. Of their later albums, The Rise and Fall and Keep Moving are the most notable.

The rest of The 2 Tone Story contains songs from less influential but not necessarily less interesting bands. The Selecter, ska's prefab band, is featured on four tracks. The instrumental "The Selecter" was the B-side of the Specials' "Gangsters" single, recorded by Specials drummer Bradbury and Joel Davis, a friend of Dammers. After the song became a hit in its own right, Davis was obliged to put a band together and the result was the Selecter, which prominently featured chanteuse Pauline Black. They went on to record a number of catchy hits including "Three Minute Hero" and "Too Much Pressure," both featured on The 2 Tone Story. Also on the album are songs by ska girl group the Bodysnatchers, featuring the alluring vocals of Rhoda Dakar, who later resurfaced on the Special AKA album. The wild sound of Bad Manners, fronted by Buster Bloodvessel, is represented with their live version of "Lip Up, Fatty," a hilarious tribute to obesity driven by a crack three-piece horn section. Bad Manners' live shows were much more indicative of their ska talents than their recorded work, but they always gave Madness a run for the title of ska's silliest band.

The 2 Tone Story isn't a definitive commemoration of the ska movement. Rather, with the exception of the Specials, whose essential recordings are captured here, the album serves mostly as a teaser to get you skanking on down to the record store to check out the collections of the Beat, Madness, et al--a primer on one of the most compelling pop chapters of the last decade. Ska presented a triumphant symbol of integration and harmony to a nation in the throes of an ugly transformation characterized by racial and economic brutality. Whether you listen to it for its politics or purely for its irresistible rhythms, you'll likely be left wondering why America virtually ignored its enticing sound and instead chose the new romantic dreck of bands such as Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet to spearhead the 80s wave of the British invasion.

https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/ska-story-the-sound-of-angry-young-england/Content?oid=875398

How Skinheads Transformed From Inclusive Youth Movement Into Racist Hate Group

By All That's Interesting

Published March 7, 2017

Updated April 4, 2017

Before linking with Neo-Nazism, skinhead culture started among young English and Jamaican working-class communities in 1960s London.

They just weren’t having it anymore. Sick of the hippie movement’s empty promises and the austerity that pervaded British government at the time, skinheads emerged in 1960s London and rallied around one thing: to wear their working-class status as a point of pride.

It was only a matter of time before radical right-wing politics buried that mission in favor of open racism and ultimately Neo-Nazism, however. In The Story of Skinhead, Don Letts — one of the original London skinheads — traces this story, and offers a sobering, uneasy tale of how easily racism can creep into working class politics.

The First Wave

The first wave of skinheads stood for one thing: embracing their blue collar status. Many self-identifying skinheads at the time either grew up poor in government housing projects or “uncool” in suburban row houses, and felt isolated from the hippie movement, whose members they believed embodied a middle class worldview — and one that didn’t address their unique concerns.

Changing immigration patterns also shaped the burgeoning culture. Around the time, Jamaican immigrants began to enter the U.K., and many of them lived side-by-side with the working-class English. This physical proximity offered a chance for sustained cultural exchange, and soon enough English kids latched on to Jamaican reggae and ska records. In a nod to the mod and rocker subcultures that preceded them, skinheads donned slick coats and loafers, buzzing their hair in a quest to become cool in their own right — and to disassociate themselves from the hippie movement.

Racism Creeps In

By 1970, the first generation of skinheads had begun to frighten their peers. Popular media exacerbated this fear, with Richard Allen’s 1970 cult classic novel Skinhead — about a a racist London skinhead obsessed with clothes, beer, soccer, and violence — serving as a prime example.

The second wave of skinheads didn’t take umbrage at this portrayal; instead, they began to reflect and project it — particularly the racism. Indeed, Skinhead became the de facto bible for skinheads outside London, where football fan clubs were quick to take the subculture — and its constitutive aesthetics — up.

It didn’t take long for political groups to attempt to use the growing subculture for their own gain. The far-right National Front Party saw in the skinheads a group of working-class males whose economic hardships may have made them particularly sympathetic to the party’s ethno-nationalist politics.

And thus, the party began to infiltrate the group. “We were trying to think about race wars,” said Joseph Pearce, a now repentant National Front member who wrote propaganda for the group throughout the 1980s, in The Story of Skinhead. “Our job was to basically disrupt the multicultural society, the multi-racial society, and make it unworkable.”

“[Our goal was to] make the various different groups hate each other to such a degree that they couldn’t live together,” Pearce added, “and when they couldn’t live together you end up with that ghettoized, radicalized society from which we hoped to rise like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes.”

National Front would sell propagandistic magazines at soccer matches, where they knew they would reach a massive audience. It was an economical move: even if only one in ten attendees bought a magazine, that’s still 600 to 700 potential recruits.

In its efforts to recruit more party members, the party also took advantage of rural conditions in which many skinheads found themselves. One former skinhead featured in the The Story of Skinhead recalled that the National Front opened up the sole nightclub within dozens of miles of one rural community — and only allowed members to come inside. Those who wanted to dance had to listen to propaganda.

Over time, right-wing efforts to co-opt skinhead culture began to rot the latter from within. For example, Sham 69, one of the most successful punk bands in the 1970s and one with an unusually large skinhead following, stopped performing altogether after National Front-supporting white power skinheads rioted at a 1979 concert.

Barry “Bmore” George, a skinhead forced out due to racially-charged politics’ entry into and commandeering of the subculture, put it this way:

“I got asked a lot by people, about like well, you seem to know a bit about skinheads, I thought they were all racists… Depends on where you start reading your story. If you go right back and start your story right back at the beginning, and get yourself a good foundation of your knowledge of skinhead culture and where it was born from…You know what it was about. You can see where it was distorted. It did start off as one thing; now it’s branched to mean untold things.”

The end of the 1970s also saw the last flare of multicultural acceptance with 2 Tone music, which blended the 1960s-style ska with punk rock. And as that genre petered out, Oi! music began to pick up speed, combining the working-class skinhead ethos with punk rock energy.

Right-wing nationalists co-opted this genre from nearly the very beginning. Strength Thru Oi!, a famous compilation album of Oi! music, was — supposedly mistakenly — named after a Nazi slogan, and featured a neo-Nazi on the cover who would be convicted of attacking black youths at a train station that same year.

When that man was released from prison four years later, he would go on to provide security for a band called Skrewdriver. While it started off as a non-political Oi! band, over time it would grow close with various right-wing political groups and eventually become one of the most influential neo-Nazi rock bands in the world.

Music and violence became enmeshed, perhaps most saliently seen in the 1981 Southall riot. On the day it transpired, two busloads of skinheads headed to a concert located in Southall, a London suburb which at the time was home to a large Indian and Pakistani population.

Those skinheads found an Asian woman on the way to the concert and kicked her head in, smashing windows and vandalizing businesses as they proceeded. One 80-year-old retiree told The New York Times that the skinheads were, “running up and down asking where the Indians lived. It was not nice at all.”

Outraged, Indians and Pakistanis followed the skinheads to the pub where the concert took place. An all-out, racially-charged brawl took place soon after.

“The skinheads were wearing National Front gear, swastikas everywhere, and National Front written on their jackets,” a spokesman for the Southall Youth Association told The New York Times. “They sheltered behind the police barricades and threw stones at the crowd. Instead of arresting them, the police just pushed them back. It’s not surprising people started to retaliate.”

The Southall incident solidified skinheads’ perception as an openly racist and violent subculture, and the subsequent generations of the subculture — particularly those in U.S. prisons — have worked to ensure that the associations stick. As for the working-class ethos that propelled the subculture in the first place?

Its progenitors don’t think there’s any chance of getting that narrative back.

“Those ideologies have been sold to people that skinhead is associated with [fascism].” Jimmy Pursey, the lead singer of Sham 69, said. “It’s like a branding.”

https://allthatsinteresting.com/skinheads-history

Who Is “Rudy” in Ska Music?

It takes only a brief dip into the ocean of ska to realize that an overwhelming amount of songs make a reference to somebody named “Rudy”. So, who is this elusive character?

Back in the days of first wave Jamaican ska, frustrated youth in poorer areas of Kingston, Jamaica turned to petty crime. Known as “rude boys”, these youth sported aesthetics and attitudes inspired by American jazz musicians and gangster films, wearing suits and porkpie hats, and behaving rambunctiously and rebelliously.

Many of these rude boys were hired by soundsystems (organizations of disc jockeys, engineers, and MCs) to gatecrash their competitors’ street parties. Such disruptions became so commonplace that artists started addressing rude boys in their lyrics, often shortening the moniker to “rudy”.

A decade later, 2 Tone took the name and ran with it, with fans referring to themselves as “rude boys” or “rude girls”. The Specials’ famous tune “A Message To You, Rudy” references the popular subculture:

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/ska-music/

The rude boy subculture arose from the poorer sections of Kingston, Jamaica, and was associated with violent discontented youths.[3] Along with ska and rocksteady music, many rude boys favored sharp suits, thin ties, and pork pie or Trilby hats, showing an influence of the fashions of American jazz musicians and soul music artists. American cowboy and gangster/outlaw films from that period were also influential factors in shaping the rude boy image.[4][5] In that time period, unemployed Jamaican youths sometimes found temporary employment from sound system operators to disrupt competitors' dances (leading to the term dancehall crasher).[6] The violence that sometimes occurred at dances and its association with the rude boy lifestyle gave rise to a slew of releases by artists who addressed the rude boys directly with lyrics that either promoted or rejected rude boy violence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rude_boy

"The figure of the rude boy with his swagger and casual disrespect for the law harks back to older archetypes like the semi-mythical Stagger Lee character in black American folk blues, the bad man who seems invincible

depict a collective of sharply dressed individuals, who exemplify an important yet undocumented subculture …

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/24/rude-boys-jamaican-subculture-photography-exhibition

The Evolution Of Rude Boy Culture

October 12, 2013 By Douglas Smythe

You’ve probably heard the term ‘rude boy’ brandished around quite a bit. In modern society the rude boy wears a tracksuit, a flat peak cap and listens to dirty stinking Grime music. However, there was a time when a rude boy wouldn’t be seen dead in a tracksuit. The original rude boy inhabited a smart and slick appearance, listened to Reggae, Rock-Steady and Ska music and shared beliefs surrounding politics and culture.

History Of The Name

Just like its Jamaican roots suggest the term ‘rude boy’ first came alight in 1950s Jamaica. It was a term that was commonly associated with adolescent criminals in the poorer sections of Jamaica, noticeably Kingston. Violence on the streets went hand in hand with the early rude boy, activities such as gate crashing rival sound systems became a familiar sight. The rude boy would aspire to dress in the latest street fashion which included razor sharp suits, thin ties and hats such as pork pies or trilbies. An image that was clearly inspired by American gangsters, Jazz musicians and Soul artists at the time; however it was the Jamaican sound of 60s Ska music that influenced the benchmark rude boy.

How Music Contributed

It was Ska music that helped to transform the negative connotations associated with the rude boy. Jamaican Ska musicians sought to speak to the youth about their violent tendencies and urged them to channel their culture’s attention towards a much more political motivation. The song ‘Message to You, Rudy’ by Dandy Livingstone in 1967 is a prime example of Ska musicians reaching out to the rude boy faction. This song would later be covered by British Ska group The Specials.

The origin of Ska music derived from Jamaican Reggae and Rocksteady, as well as being the hybrid child of Carribbean Mento, Calypso, American Jazz and Rhythm and Blues. However, music historians argue that Ska music takes up three noticeable periods: in the 1960s – Original Jamaican Ska music, in the late 70s – English 2 Tone Ska and in the 90’s the third wave of Ska – American Ska Punk.

Overseas Rudeboy

It wasn’t only in Jamaica where the rude boy could be found. In 1960’s Britain, the influx of Jamaican migrants into urban city dwellings helped expose Britain to the rude boy. Yet, it was in the late 70’s where rude boy culture became truly embraced and found a home within Britain. The British streets smelt aromas they’d never smelt before, laid eyes on new fashion trends and were blessed with the sounds of authentic Jamaican Ska, Reggae and Rocksteady. It was this introduction that sparked the infusion of British styles with Jamaican heritage. Trilby hats were still donned upon the head of the rude boy but Dr Marten’s boots and Fred Perry polo shirts were now the staple attire and uniform of the white British rude boy.

2 Tone Era

Ska formed its second wave sound in the 2 Tone era. 2 Tone grabbed elements from original Ska, Punk Rock, Rocksteady and Reggae to create a faster tempo style of music. Ska now had more edge and bite, including a huge influence from brass instruments. Groups such as The Specials helped to pave the way for the new sound, and more importantly they managed to unite black and white people when tensions were high within smaller racist skinhead cultures.

Similar to Jamaican Ska musicians, The Specials resonated with the British youth, showing sympathy and highlighting issues such as unemployment and racism. The Specials single ‘Ghost Town’ being the most notorious example. Madness also began to make the Ska sound a lot more popular. Madness threw both Ska and the rude boy image into a wider public domain with hits such as ‘One Step Beyond’ and ‘Our House’.

Modern Day Rudie

Rude boys have come a long way from the streets of Kingston. You’ll now hear the likes of Dexter or Fatboy in Eastenders calling everyone and anyone a ‘rude boy’. The term was maintained by Hip Hop and Grime musicians, and although a different style of music, there’s still a running theme to the rude boy. It may have been diluted and slightly tainted from its founding roots but the rude boy is still regarded as a working class member of society, living in inner cities and sharing a huge passion for music.

http://howtogrowamoustache.com/the-evolution-of-rude-boy-culture/#ixzz5c1fo36b8

Summary/Conclusion:

-Ska originates from 1950s Jamaica.

-It precedes reggae and the beat is heavily influenced by American R&B music. It’s made for dancing. The music is upbeat, quick and exciting.

- The "rude boys" were a Jamaican subculture of the 1960s. Rude Boys were generally unemployed, impoverished Jamaican teens who were hired by sound system operators (mobile DJs) to crash each other's street dances. These interactions often led to further violence and the Rude Boys frequently formed feuding gangs. Fashionable clothing for rude boys was American gangster wear. The Rude Boy culture became a huge source for ska lyrics.

-In the 70s, Caribbean immigrants brought ska to England, where it attracted a cult following. The factory town of Coventry in the British Midlands was a hot spot for ska activity, as large numbers of blacks settled there to work in the British auto industry. Soon enough English kids latched on to Jamaican reggae and ska records. In a nod to the mod and rocker subcultures that preceded them, skinheads donned slick coats and loafers, buzzing their hair.

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