#also that poster for Japan looks absolute boss

[nicoscheer]

Do you want to discover what bands @mileskane listens to while ironing his shirts? Then listen to this episode of the music podcast @kendedital with the nicest and funniest guy in the music business!

We had a blast! 🫶🏽

-

"I'm willing to play anywhere. Even now, if I were offered a gig at the pub across the street, l'd take it. I simply love playing. If you asked, I'd play right this moment. I just love playing, I'm not arsed. It's what it's all about." X

-

Miles when being asked about AM’s new sound:

mk: "you gotta respect it, you know, like, that's me bro, i'm always gonna have his back, you know what i mean? yeah and i respect for a big band to follow their gut. that's what al does and you gotta respect it whether you like it or not. it's kind of what all great artists do."

interviewer: "like it's cool that you kinda... you want to fucking do it so you do

mk: "yeah, man, that's me boy. if he wants to sing french or sing nigerian, i'm gonna have his back, you know what i mean?"

-

🫶🏽🫶🏽🥹🥹🥺my boys

Like I hate it that he’s always asked bout AM and TLSP cause he’s promotion his solo tour but this is 😘

So you’re telling me they are literally promoting Miles and Liam djing with a Tlsp pic 😭😭🫠🥺

Imagine if Alex were you just casually show up behind that DJ booth

with his bosom friend Alex Turner

At Crammerock we saw him strolling backstage. We decided to put on our naughty shoes and ask him. He turned out to be very amable and he was immediately enthusiastic about our concept,

So, you set out on your own

You shut up shop, you're leavin' home

You feel no need to settle down

In the crippled crook of your earth bound town

And you've been down this road before

Which is not to say you're bored

Or that you shouldn't want for more

It's just your expectations should be lower

There must be somethin' more than this

More than ideal homes or domestic bliss

What is there left for you to do

'Cause you've seen the future and it's nothin' new

And you've been down this road before

Which is not to say you're bored

Or that you shouldn't want for more

It's just your expectations should be lower, should be lower

And you've been down this road before

Which is not to say you're bored

Or that you shouldn't want for more

It's just your expectations should be lower, should be lower

Apparently wasn’t happy with the text placement so had to repost it 🤣🤣🥹

His eyebrow slit and bear looking fucking clean

Also I hate everybody who lives close to Gent or Sheffield

Miles last night with chef Tom brown and Jay Forrester at the opening of Tom’s new oyster bar (pearly queen shoreditch/ where Tom and friends repeatedly posted that the logo outside is the new bat signal 🤨y’know like miles guitarist said that the mirrorball is their bat signal) (also the fact that Tom reposted the pic of them via puppetspaces ig)

The pictures of Miles with Tom and Jay

So proud of him selling out within less than two hours

Miles helping Tom with taste testing

I love that as soon Chef Tom Brown is involved everybody starts using Miles’ music; here a custom knife made for TB using troubled son

A nice recap of the opening night, the way Miles disappears in that hug with Tom is 🥹🥹🥹

#miles kane #Liam toon #okay I’m in love with that picture how adorable are they pls #also that poster for Japan looks absolute boss #I envy people who live in gent #08/11/2023 #so proud of him #Instagram #also no darling I hate that he’s so self deprecating sometimes like darling believe me you could play Coachella (not sure if they’d let #you after the kiss cause homophobia) but if you ever return to Coachella it’s certainly gonna be as an artist and not as a crew member #who hurt Miles again #why is he always posting fucking sad songs 😭 #what is he doing listening to this depressive music in the evening pls can we just all give him a massive hug

[sminny-wew]

Dragon Ball is such a unique and interesting series to me. Even if you're only so familiar with it, it's more than likely affected or influenced you in a greater way than you realize. You could know absolutely nothing about Goku, but if someone showed you Goku, you'd know it was Goku. He has a distinct personality, distinct skills, a distinct silhouette. You recognize him even if you don't know him.

I was both a 90s and a 2000s kid, not really a Millennial but not really Gen Z. Right on the cusp of both. So when the mainstream American anime boom kicked off around that time, I was Team Sailor Moon. Of course I was; they were pretty like my Barbie dolls, but unlike Barbie, they got to beat the shit out of evildoers, and I LOVED it.

But as much as that show occupied my attention, I couldn't pretend that Dragon Ball Z didn't catch my eye on some level.

When I did manage to catch it on Toonami, I couldn't look away. I'd never seen such intense action scenes before. And even if I felt like things dragged on sometimes, when things got good, they got GOOD. I wouldn't have called myself a DBZ fan at the time, but I still understood the hype behind Vegeta, Frieza, Super Saiyan Goku, Future Trunks, the Androids, Perfect Cell, Majin Buu, Gotenks...all of it. I remember my older cousins were really into Dragon Ball Z. One of them had a black and white poster on their bedroom wall with all the Z Fighters. I remember when they would play with me, they'd pretend they were going to fire a Kamehameha at me, and I'd giggle with excitement because they sounded just like Goku.

The show's impact was not lost on American media; you can open YouTube, type "dragon ball references in tv shows" and see for yourself. And that's just in America; Dragon Ball has a massive presence in cultures across the globe, and back in Japan, it was turning out to be a strong influence on the likes of One Piece, Bleach, and shounen manga/anime as a genre.

Growing up as a Sonic fan in the early 2000s, I cannot understate the influence that DBZ had not just on the Sonic series itself, but on Sonic fan content in particular. I'm talking countless videos of Sonic X clips set to audio from DBZ, with Sonic as Goku and Shadow as Vegeta. All the fan art and sprite art of Sonic going Super Saiyan 3. One of the most widely-known fan projects in the community is the Newgrounds animation Nazo Unleashed; animator Chakra-X (who was in high school when he made this thing!!!) took an unused design for Super Sonic that showed up for 3 seconds in the first Sonic X trailer...

...and, influenced by DBZ villains, permanently altered how most people perceive this design: not as a scrapped Sonic transformation, but as his own unforgettable villain. It didn't matter that Nazo wasn't canon, all we cared about was the jaw-dropping Dragon Ball-style fight scenes that Chakra-X gave us. I highly suggest you watch Nazo Unleashed on YouTube if you've never seen it before, it's an awesome piece of fandom history.

(Also quick shoutout to Edwyn Tiong, his performance as Nazo absolutely gave Perfect Cell energy)

And as seen with games like Sonic Frontiers, and characters like Surge and Kit who (as it turns out, unintentionally!!) parallel the Androids, that influence carries on to this day.

Look at the first boss fight from Sonic Frontiers.

Look at this. Look at this and tell me this doesn't scream Dragon Ball.

The DBZ energy radiating from these boss fights was so hype that people started taking clips from DRAGON BALL ITSELF and setting them to the soundtrack!!! A complete 180 from what people were doing on YouTube in 2008!!

And this is just the influence of Dragon Ball. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about Dr. Slump, Chrono Trigger, or any of Akira Toriyama's other works to do them justice. All I can really say is that Toriyama went from writing gag manga to inventing modern shounen action tropes without even intending to. We've lost a genuine legend. But to quote the opening of DBZ Kai: "Nothing ever dies. We will rise again."

Rest in peace, Toriyama-san. Yours is a legacy that no one will ever forget, whether they know your name or not. And one of these days, when I'm able to sit down and properly watch through all of Dragon Ball, I'll be thinking of you and what we have because of you.

Thank you for everything.

#akira toriyama #dragon ball #dragon ball z #sonic the hedgehog #media analysis #wrote this up last night and I'm posting it now

[nenasspot]

I was thinking of live blogging, but to not overwhelm with posts, here is it: gmmtv's bl line-up for 2023 is currently giving us:

1. a forcebook office romance, which to me means: force. in. a. suit. that's really all I have to say about this lmao. also I hope it's funny

2. more joongdunk! hidden agenda with dunk trying to get joong's ex and getting him to teach what she likes.. a recipe for disaster. also it has the vice versa side (boom and aou) that I liked sosososo much so yay!! and pod being a beaut..

3. an offgun cooking romance?? I honestly thought they were dialing back on bl, but there they are... the true gmmtv pillar.. the audience going absolutely batshit insane, me too. also gun says 'i've liked it for quite a while' in the teaser and it got me giggling, kicking my feet, the whole shabam. once again, i really hope it's funny

4. jimmysea in something called 'last twilight'. money-troubled jimmy becomes an assistant to almost blind sea. It's like that one vietnamese series!! mostly, the poster looks melodramatic. lovely. directed by the p'aof though!!!! also; sea's fit in this event is crazy.

5. only friends with forcebook and firstkhao?? I didn't think forcebook was that impressive in enchanté to get 2 new titles immediately, but it does mean we're getting a series called 'only friends' with two pretty legendary actor friendships... it's looking very complicated and one big web of sex and feelings and all that shit-- in short, i can't fucking wait. the ost also sounds great already

(force is wearing glasses at the event and I'm weak in the knees)

we interrupt this message with: neo is confirmed in 2 of these 5 and all we're doing is waiting for a title with him and louis as main... it's not looking good guys

6. dangerous romance with, get this, perth and chimon. it's looking like highschool enemies to lovers! chimon tutoring perth for money. perth's character is a footballer, of course. this pairing came out of left field for me,, i knew they'd give perth someone but i didn't know who it was gonna be.. we'll see! both of them are strong actors so... I thought for a second that pepper (only his profile in shot and with the slickback) was mew and i almost shit my pants lmao

7. CHERRY MAGIC WITH TAYNEW????? ohhhh so gmmtv is going crazy next year is what you're saying. gmmtv is trying to be the best next year. gmmtv is (hopefully) trying to keep the adorable office set vibes that japan has perfected, and adding the only thing we were missing from that series: honest physical interest. that's truly the only thing they can add to the masterpiece that is cherry magic. so i hope they do, and w/o taking away the rest that made it so good.

tay and new were so overdramatic in this announcement, it was great lmao

8. our skyy 2. so some short 'after their stories' things, which i kinda like. they're doing like,, every pairing they had in 2022 so that's cool! bad buddy, the eclipse, forcebook from boss and babe, tale of 1000 stars, pondphuwin's pairing from never let me go, joongdunk from the star/sky series, vice versa and geminifourth from the school president thing (i think they're also a moonlight chicken side, but I'm not sure).. it's a crazy line-up

I cannot believe we're getting all of that. and we're still waiting on some for this year?? I can't wait to get my paws back on frigay... because frigay is only frigay if there's a gmmtv series airing, you feel me?

BUT ONE LAST THING: WE'RE GETTING AN OFFICIAL MILKLOVE SERIES :)))))) i cannot believe this is happening :'))

#i don't think i've watched a single non bl from gmmtv #but!!! #those are also looking pretty good-- the trailers for some were crazy #like the very first one?? enigma- a horror thing with win being very hot and his costar being very small lmao #ohm and perth being bros that will kill at one point i hope??? #a crazy ensemble all being 'overlooked middle children' sounds RIGHT up my alley #the memory loss one also sounds fun #face blindness!!!! with the crazy tall guy!!! #y'all i might have to watch the complete gmmtv catagolus this year #more ensemble!!!! them being named for animals excites me very much #AND MIX BEING THE BAR OWNER?? sign me tf up #midnight museum--looking insane -cannit believe i'm actually watching all of this next year lmao #gangnam beauty thai version-- i wasn't a big fan so i prob won't watch it #this does confirm - win is the thai cha eunwoo lmao #last but not least - bright as a smokin''' debt collector yes please #nena talking into the void #thai bl #gmmtv 2023 #bl drama #thailand #gmmtv

[bengiyo]

Coffee Melody Ep 7 Stray Thoughts

Duen Yi is so obnoxious. Let Plengruk explain what his ex who was so bad he didn't want to date again first. FFS. I just do not have the patience for this emotional breakdown.

What an absolutely terrible read on what happened. Plengruk was not happy to see ole boy, and as a reminder To has been the one insistent that they be a couple.

I'm really not enjoying the implications that Plengruk is in the wrong here.

I'm glad this show keeps putting the Call Me By Your Name poster in the background. Another extremely flawed relationship that folks consistently read as ultra romantic.

I'm glad Duen Yi has a supportive family, but I remain deeply frustrated with him.

Oh good. The side couple. Let's take a break from the main couple's nonsense.

This loud highway is a character in this story.

Oh no, now it's the annoying straight boss.

No sympathy for this dude. She told you what she was worried about and you proved her right immediately. Get out of here.

I forgot Warhammer 40k sponsored this. Such whiplash constantly. I hope a bunch of Thai girls and gays start playing Warhammer.

I keep forgetting these children also have a subplot. There's just so much happening in this show.

Wizards of the Coast is pushing into Japan with marketing. I need to see a BL about the drama around a D&D campaign and the player romances.

I hate how stiff Thai BL actors look when they're fighting. I want to see them moving around the space. I want to see physicality. I want to see someone get thrown through a window. Just standing there with your arms at your side trying to delivery emotionally intense dialogue with minimal audience context is super tedious.

Like, I like Pavel, but I feel like he's been short-changed by a lot with this particular role.

And Duen Yi just shows up at the end? Ugh, this episode was kinda lame for me. I'm so frustrated.

I still don't think Plengruk needs to apologize.

Well, that was a penultimate episode of Thai BL.

#coffee melody #thai bl #bl series #Ben watches

[gunsatthaphan]

~ Monthly BL Breakdown: September 2021 ~  

Disclaimer: All shows can be streamed here, here or here! For more info about shows, check out their MDL pages!

- Updates coming every month - feel free to add stuff! -

Also WARNING: this is gonna be long lol 

What came out this month? (green tick = seen or currently watching)

🌟 See You After Quarantine - September 17th (Taiwan) 

🌟 Chapter of Green - September 17th (Thailand - TikTok) 🌟 Golden Blood The Movie - September 23rd (Thailand) ✅

🌟 The Tasty Florida - September 24th (South Korea)

🌟 Innocent - September 24th (Taiwan) 🌟 7 Days 7 Boys - September 25th (Laos)

Monthly likes/dislikes

❣️ no specific show or anything but I’m just really excited for all the new projects that are being announced lately 🥺 the shows are slowly coming back and I can’t wait to see what’s still in store for the rest of the year!! Noticeably, a lot of upcoming shows are working with new and innovative plots and are specifically looking to set new standards for the BL industry. Which is absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to see what they have coming up! Besides Bad Buddy and Not Me I’m especially excited for Coffee Melody, GenY2, My Sweet Dear and Cutie Pie. 🥰 👎🏻 7 Project - I watched a few of the episodes and wow this is really a letdown. The stories are underwhelming and especially the GL story was a crime against humanity like what the actual fuck was that. The BounPrem ep was fine but after all the endless and overdone promotion I really expected more. Very disappointing.

New show announcements

🎥  Coffee Melody (starring Pavel Phoom and Benz Panupun) - Date TBA (Thailand)  

🎥 Pass To Your Voice (starring Nammon Krittanai and Billy Possathorn) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 My DNA says I Love You - Date TBA (Taiwan) 🎥 49 Days With A Merman (adaption of the Japanese manga “Merman In My Tub”, starring Cai Fan Xi and He Hao Chen) - Date TBA (Taiwan) 🎥 GenY season 2 - coming December 21st (Thailand) 🎥  City Of Stars (produced by Star Hunter Entertainment) - Date TBA (Thailand) 🎥 Follow The Wind (directed by So Joon Moon (You Make Me Dance, My Sweet Dear) - Date TBA (South Korea)

🎥 Love With Benefits - coming October 2021 (Thailand) 

🎥 Oh! My Sunshine Night (starring OhmFluke) - Date TBA (Thailand) 

🎥 I Will Hit You (directed by P’Champion (2Gether)) - Date TBA (Thailand) 

🎥 La Cuisine - Date TBA (Thailand) 

🎥 Summer Daze The Series (based on the short film) - Date TBA (Taiwan) 🎥 Make A Wish (from the author of MOD) - Date TBA (Thailand) 🎥 WETV Lineup 2022: 609 Bedtime Story, Y You Y Me, I Feel You Linger In The Air - Dates TBA (Thailand) 

🎥 Chains Of Heart - Date TBA (Thailand) 

🎥 Restart - Date TBA (Thailand) 🎥 He, Who is Beautiful (Manga adaption) - Date TBA (Japan) 🎥 Till The World Ends (from the director of CIWYW) - Date TBA (Thailand)

Other news from the bl world

❗️Pavel Phoom (2Moons2) and Benz Panupun (CIWYW) will be the leads of the upcoming thai bl “Coffee Melody”. It will be produced by M Flow Entertainment (Second Chance). Workshops have already finished and they are currently shooting.

❗️Filming for upcoming BLs “My DNA says I love you”, “The Tuxedo”, “Baker Boys” and “Enchanté” started this month.

❗️Actors Santa (7 Project) and Oreo (What the Duck) will join BounPrem in the upcoming drama “Between Us”. 

❗️The upcoming bl “My Sweet Dear” released its first poster and teaser. ❗️The novel for the upcoming second season of GenY is now available for reading (x) ❗The Thai compilation-BL “Close Friend” is getting a second season. ❗️Star Hunter Entertainment officially announced their lineup for 2021/2022: My Lucky Cat (starring DunBas) My Mate Match (starring Jet, Jame & Big (GenY)), That’s My Candy (starring KimCop), What Zabb Man (starring Peter, Boss, Bank (GenY) and others), City Of Stars - cast TBA.

❗️Best Vittawin & Gameplay Garnpaphon will be the leads of the upcoming thai bl “Love With Benefits”, which is set to air this October. 

❗️2Moons2 actor Joong Chen Aydin is now a GMMTV artist. 

❗️Nut Nutchapon (Grey Rainbow), Earth Kamsamonnat and Plustor Pronphipat will be having a new project together. The name, date, etc. are still TBA.

❗️ Promotions for My Engineer Season 2 have started. It is likely to air this year. ❗️ WETV announced their official lineup for 2022. 4 shows have been confirmed to be bls: Love Mechanics (starring YinWar), 609 Bedtime Story (starring OhmFluke), Y You Y Me (Musical BL), I Feel You Linger In The Air (Historical BL, rumored leads are KaoUp).

❗ PorscheArm will be part of the cast of the upcoming THCT spinoff “Ai Long Nai”. ❗ The Korean BL “To My Star” is officially getting a second season. Filming starts in October.

Upcoming shows & movies for October

☝🏻 Limited Edition - October 2nd (Philippines) 

☝🏻 My Mate Match - October 9th (Thailand) 

☝🏻 Vanishing My First Love - October 9th (Japan)

☝🏻 My Sweet Dear - October 21st (South Korea)

☝🏻 Tell the World I Love You - October 21st (Thailand)  ☝🏻 2Gether The Movie - October 29th (Thailand)

☝🏻 You’re Always In My Heart - October 31st (Thailand) 

☝🏻 You’re My Sky - Date TBA (Thailand)   

☝🏻 Love With Benefits - Date TBA (Thailand) 

#doreens monthly bl breakdown #thai bl #upcoming bl #update #bl news #still screaming about the bl with Pavel and Benz djshfkda #AAAAHHHH #im excited!!!! #<3 #bl drama #also all the announcements by star hunter had me SHOOK #so many shows to come #lets hope the situation will get better next year #<333 #also Joong going to gmmtv has me!!!!!!!!!! #idk if its good or not lol #also SO MANY ANNOUNCEMENTS #IM QUAKING #it doesnt stop #OOF #also how we all feeling about gen y 2 lol #im hyped #also still crying over TMS ss2 #aaahhhhhhh #:(((( #september was a busy year #dkjhfd #bye

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

April 2021 Part 1

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Second Chance Ep 1 - living up to its name since it looks to be a series of redemption arcs. Launched with a college confession and a broken friendship, then a flash back to them as seniors in high school. Pairings include friends to lovers, nerd/jock, and maybe cafe boss/employee. There’s a lot going on, but it’s still... quiet and sweet. The script is pretty pat but it’s still WAY more watchable than Cupid Coach or Brothers and most of the acting is solid. Ep 1 tropes included: he’s in engineering, wound tending, fast & bicurious. This could turn into what I wanted My Gear & Your Gown to be. Fingers crossed. 

Love Poison 2 Ep 1 & 2 turns out I did watch and report on season 1 (8 eps), season 2 seems equally unmemorable. Thai countryside setting, strong dialect, incomprehensible plot, camp side characters, and ghastly singing. 

Y-Destiny Ep 1 (eng subs?) - opened with the sports romance enemies to lovers (they aren’t going in the teaser order). When the couple got over fighting, the flirting was v cute, but the flipping SPONGE BATH trope had to rear its ugly head. Still, this series is shaping up to be less coy and more frank than most BL, better than expected. It feels, I don’t know, gay-er or something?  *** Sources were correct that each couple is getting (at least) 2 eps, and MDL has been updated to say this is a 15 episode series (not 7). 

Cupid Coach 12 fin - The new Nite was great and should have been a main all along. It felt like we got a tiny nugget of what could have been in about 10 minutes worth of this last ep. It was way too slow with terrible editing and a criminally bad script, but at least it ended happy. Mostly, like Friend Forever, I’m just disappointed that these two actors were done dirty by the series. Bad Cupid Coach, no screen caps for you. 

Lovely Writer Ep 6 - breaking news, there’s a het couple I like: toppy bi femme + soft boi = such a good pairing! I know, but this NEVER happens. Meanwhile, Sib’s secret is out, Gene is a bit of a drama queen, and the plot thickens. We half way through.  

Brothers Ep 9 - Kaow had a serious moment of advice giving that was truly lovely. Lots of family dama made this a superior episode to... well... any of the others in this series. Which isn’t saying much. 

1000 Stars Ep 10 fin - at the start this series didn’t grab me the way GMMTV’s last BL, Tonhon Chonlatee, did. But boy did it end 1000x better. Might have given us 2021′s best forehead kiss. I enjoyed the ultra romantic cliff-top reunion kiss, and I LOVED the stinger flirting scene. That was an absolute gift we had no right to expect. This drama is a poster child for finishing on a high note (always focus on that dessert course). Final thoughts? This was FAR more a classic romance than it was BL. There were some BL tropes used but not many and most of them originated in the romance genre not yaoi. A picture perfect ending bumped 1000 Stars much higher up my best-of list than expected. Not sure how often I’ll rewatch it as a whole, but this last episode? I’m probably rewatching it right now. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Dear Uranus (Taiwan GL) Ep 3 fin - I guess that’s it? Okaaaaay  

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 3 (AKA Ep 5-6) - we got actual legit gay culture not just BL (always appreciated) from XingSi. I’m starting to find LiCheng’s “show them we fucking” hijinks hilarious rather than annoying (not sure why, maybe I just love a rubber chicken, or maybe it was the STUFFED CORN WITH THE TASSEL that did it). 

-- H4 Moment of RANT --

Tropes included beach trip, there’s only one bed, cook for him, baby is a floppy drunk, carry baby to bed, and.... drunk non-con. Whoopdedoo. Here we go again. Did TharnType teach us NOTHING? (Apparently it taught us if the chemistry is good enough, I have no morals at all.) At least H4 seems to be taking us out of cheese into serious when it comes to assault. Or is it? 

I take back what I said last week about XingSi & YongJie being codependency + salvation trope, that only works if YongJie is the uke. He’s NOT. So we got us an obsessive predatory villain with a possible redemption arc. That’s more common in crime dramas, mafia romance, and epic fantasy than BL. It’s real hard to redeem a sexual predator in a reality-grounded universe like contemporary romance (See Kla in LBC1&2). 

Next week is gonna be a test of the whole damn franchise. Imma remind both me a you that this was ep 3 of 10 so we got a ways to go yet... but ooof, what have we wrought, BL? (I ended up doing a whole post about the stepbrother trope because of this sub plot.) Taiwan is killing me.

-- RANT ended --

Word of Honor (China) Ep 19-21 - over half way point so we got ALL the back story (in a classic 4 act story structure midway reveal). Now we know who WKX really is and his lineage. We also got some cute hugs and hand holds. Moving along at a nice clip despite being 36 eps total. Still gayest thing to come out of we-not-gay China since Advance Bravely. 

Most Peaceful Place (Vietnam) Ep 2 - takes them a while to get eng subs together and ep 2 didn’t drop until late. So I’m putting this in a Thurs time slot going forward. Miscommunication already cleared up and a 2nd couple has been introduced. The pacing on these Vietnamese BLs is always a bit... off. But it’s still better than most of its ilk, enjoyable. I’m thinking it’s a 6 ep arc. 

We Best Love 2 (Taiwan) Ep 5 - after the initial drama DRAMA of ep 2, the current external crisis at work is much quieter, giving this whole season a top heavy feel. Taken along side the first season, I think it’s fitting nicely into a 4 act structure, but that might be my bias. I hope I’m not wrong, we’ll find out next week. Shi De puttering about being domestic with Shu Yi on his back was the best execution of the piggyback trope EVER. Meanwhile, our little D/s side couple of codependency, salvation trope + mental illness is becoming weirdly appealing. I don’t know. H4 done mess with my head. 

Stand Alones 

Absolute BL AKA Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai vs Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko  (Japan) Ep 1-4 mini series. Found subs under A Man Who Defies The World of BL. IT’S HILARIOUS. It’s Japan making fun of us, but also itself for having started this whole BL nonsense - from yaoi roots to present day. It’s parody goddamn gold. Utterly cheeky unto the very last line. We are not worthy. 

Apparently the most powerful tropes of all time are: baby is a floppy drunk and the piggyback fo nobility. Oh and chocolate. {Full review here.} 

Honestly, this show may have been made with only @heretherebedork and I in mind. I don’t know if you’d even understand half of it if you don’t have a history with the manga source genre and an obsessive interest in underlying narrative devices. I haven’t seen much chatter in the blog’o’sphere on this one because, in the end, it’s not a romance at all, it’s social commentary. 

The ending line was a masterclass in lampooning a genre. I’m going to rewatch the whole thing just to catch all the digs I missed first time around. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. 

Thank you Japan. I forgive you all your hair-styling sins of the last decade. 

Breaking News 

Spring Line Up:

Scholar Ryu’s Wedding Ceremony AKA Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korean historical BL) April 15th 

Close Friend the series (Thai trailer) April 22. 

2gether the movie (Thai trailer) April 22 to Thai theaters.

Nitiman (Thai) May 7 on One31.

I Told Sunset About You 2 (Thai) May 27 on LineTV

Ossan’s Love (Hong Kong) June to Viu 

Gossip 

Bad Buddies released its first promo op via Arm Share, which means GMMTV is at least *thinking* about filming it. 

Fun behind the scenes gossip sesh with eng subs for Tell the World I Love You (that Perth Bas movie we are maybe getting someday but will likely be sad). 

New Thai BL Bite Me (adapted from novel Grab a Bite) dropped a teaser. It stars Mark Siwat (Kla in LBC) as uke character Ake, a delivery boy with special foodie powers, and chef Eua (seme played by Zung Kidakorn) who discovers him. It’s from the same author as Manner of Death so we might even get some actual plot. Since it’s an established BL actor who I happen LOVE, a known author, and a plot about FOOD, I could not me more excited for this one. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed a day later than actual air date for accessibility reasons. Some are dropping multiples at a time but just started so I’m not sure on numbering. 

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

#second chance the series #y-destiny #lovely writer #brothers the series #cupid coach the series #1000 stars #a tale of thousand stars #final episodes #episode recaps #thai bl #asian bl #thaibl #The Most Peaceful Place is My Place #NƠI BÌNH YÊN NHẤT LÀ VỀ BÊN EM #vietnamese bl #vietnam drama #Absolute BL #Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai vs Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko #japanese bl #yaoi #yaoi manga #live action manga #live action yaoi #Word of Honor #chinese bl #asianbl #We Best Love #We Best Love: Fighting Mr.2nd #taiwanese bl #taiwan drama

[neokad]

Touhou VI: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - or my first journey into a bullet hell game

Touhou is that one pew pew game series with cute anime gals, right?

Source: https://pixiv.kurocore.com/illust/54033795

Just like what I think are many people, that’s pretty much all I knew about the franchise as a whole! And to be honest, for a long long time, I was AFRAID of going any closer to anything Touhou-related! Because of them being bullet hecks, they seemed like the most frustrating and unfun games I could possibly be playing! But then... time passed... Fast forward to somewhere in 2020: I was watching the biyearly Games Done Quick event, and one of the first runs showcased during it was none other than Touhou Luna Nights! But while the speedrun itself was very impressive, the thing that really captivated me was well... everything else! Even though this was only a Metroidvania fangame, IT LOOKED LIKE SO MUCH FUN! The graphics, the special effects, the mechanics... everything just seemed like a dream!  In spite of that, I only picked the game up and played it about a year later, thanks to a Steam sale! And to keep things short, I ADORED it. It was a bit too short, but everything else was spot on, and even better than I thought it would be from what I saw at GDQ! But that’s sadly a review for another time :(  Because I literally fell in love in this game, well... I thought “screw it, I’ve been morbidly curious for years now, let’s actually try a freakin’ Touhou game!” 

And so, after some research I’ve learned that the sixth game - the first one released on Windows PCs! - was the one that served as inspiration for Luna Nights as a whole - its characters, music, stage aesthetics and more! It just seemed natural to settle with this one~

How did it go? What did I think about it? Well, that’s why we’re here: those are my thoughts about Touhou VI: the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

Now for a pointless history lesson: as I said earlier, Touhou 6 was the very first game published for Windows PCs, all the way back in 2002! The five previous games were actually exclusive to a Japan-only machine, the NEC PC-98, a line that prevailed strongly in Japan before Microsoft conquered the world. As such, it’s really the first game that’s still relatively accessible today, as PC-98 emulation is... not really a stable thing yet -_- So even though this wasn’t quite true, it’s as if I started my journey into Touhou with the original! And once I started playing, I was honestly surprised at one thing once I hit the title screen: this game actually has lots of options to make the experience easier or harder!

I know that being able to change your starting lives, starting bombs, choose your overall difficulty and such isn’t groundbreaking at all, but honestly? I didn’t expect things to be so customisable in a bullet heck game series - a genre that’s known for being merciless to players! I did decide to go on Normal to have the “intended” experience, but things aren’t as daunting as you may think!

This game also allows you to play as not only Reimu, the poster character of the franchise, but also Marisa! Both of these girls also boasts two different weapons each, with their own strengths, weaknesses and bomb attacks! Again, I genuinely did not expect so much breathing room even though looking back... I feel like I should have : P

Once I actually started playing the game itself, there’s yet another thing that surprised me: the difficulty curve... it’s... manageable??

Now granted, I’m a person that plays a *lot* of games, and on top of that, I play lots of action games as well, games that require quick reaction times, good pattern reading and so on so forth. So there’s a chance my judgement on the game’s difficulty might be wrong or biased... but to me? Embodiment of Scarlet Devil actually has a good difficulty curve! The first stage of the game has many enemies that can shoot many bullets, but they’re slow, predictable and relatively easy to avoid because you have lots of space to maneuver around! On that same train of thought, Rumia, the first stage’s boss, certainly doubles down on the number of bullets she can throw at you. But, their patterns are once again pretty slow and predictable, making things much more comfortable at the start of your adventure!

But hold on a minute here, how does this game actually plays? Well, this is where I need to let out a horrifying truth:

Touhou is actually really, REALLY fun.

At first it does seem like a pretty standard shooter: you shoot at things, dodge bullets, collect power ups to boost your weapon’s strength, and make sure you don’t die too much in order to reach the final boss in good shape. However, what I ended up loving about Touhou are its many, many mechanics that spice things up beautifully! The first one I wanna focus on is “Grazing” and it’s actually pretty simple: if you do your best to get close to a bullet or a laser without touching it with your (very small!) hitbox, you graze that bullet! Not only will a satisfying sound effect play out each time you graze something, you will also gain points each time you do this maneuver, making it essential for a high score, and especially, to gain extra lives faster!  Secondly, there’s bombing! I am totally repeating myself here, but while each character has a different kind of bomb to their disposal, they each function in relatively the same way: you get to launch a strong attack against your opponents, get invincibility frames, and on top of that, get rid of any bullets that are currently on the screen! I love bombs in this game because they create a great balance: you can totally use them for offensive purposes, buuuut they also serve as a great defensive clutch if you just find things too difficult at the moment.  Bombs even have two extra layers to them! When you will get hit and lose a life (and believe me, you will) your bombs will get refilled back to three, urging you to not hoard them too much even if you’d prefer to save them for a tougher part. Because if you die, you might just “waste” bombs in a way! However, here’s an advanced kicker: if you manage to hit the bomb button just as you are hit by a projectile (8 frames within death I think!) you not only are able to save yourself from losing a life, you also won’t lose a bomb at all, either! This is a very difficult trick, but a very cool and potentially important one if you plan things out in the heat of battle ^^

Then there’s a mechanic that, to my knowledge, got introduced in EOSD: the POC, as in Point Of Collection! Now, as you destroy the many enemies after Reimu or Marisa, they naturally drop many power ups and point icons, and because there’s many of these you’re bound to miss them. However, this is where the POC comes in: if you are at full weapon power, you will earn the ability to collect every icon on the screen! This makes sense and is actually very smart, because most players - myself included - tend to hug the bottom of the screen as bullets are more scarce and slower here. BUT reaching that POC close to the top of the screen is a great way to incentivise players to risk things in order to get a massive amount of points and gain extra lives way faster! And finally, as soon as you do reach that max power, the game will automatically wipe every single projectile off the screen, so it’s even possible to time when you’ll get your final power boost to make things easier on yourself!

All of those mechanics together make Touhou EOSD a pure joy to play! It’s simple on the surface but has such interesting mechanics and risk-reward elements that can push you out of your comfort zone, but never forces you to! And sure enough, I got addicted~

Even though I did say that the game had a good curve and started off not too difficult, it does not mean that your journey will be easy: even early game bosses such as Cirno and Meiling took me lots of practice to get consistent at, by studying their patterns and testing out which strategies worked the best for survival. And eventually, even Patchouli and Sayaka’s stages will test you out with lots of predictable-yet-deadly bullets to test out your screen reading skills and even reflexes.

Touhou may be more accessible than I thought, but do not be mistaken: on Normal, this game will still challenge you, and I absolutely love it for that <3 

Another thing that helps this game out is - please pretend to be surprised - the music. Touhou has always been known for bringing some very good tunes all around, but besides Luna Nights’s incredible soundtrack, I actually never got to listen to any of them besides Bad Apple and one fanime opening my bestie sent me one year ago. And well... it’s true!

The game uses some very artificial, even out-of-tune instruments for its music, but strangely enough, it REALLY works! It gives the music a very nostalgic, warm feeling that’s hard to describe, but it works so well at making those songs catchy as all heck! It also helps that the compositions themselves are pretty strong and surprisingly complex for its genre, too! I would pick a favourite theme to show off, but the soundtrack’s just really consistent and good all around!

Sadly, I mostly cannot say the same for the game’s presentation. This game is a PC app from 2002 and it sadly somewhat shows. I’ll even bring a special mention to the in-game portraits, which are hilariously HORRIBLE! Thankfully dedicated fans have made a patch to improve the game’s visuals so that they’re more in line with later titles, but at base it’s really not the prettiest gem visually...

...except for the spell cards, the bosses’s strongest attacks, which are genuinely gorgeous multicolored motives that will struck you in awe before you are inevitably destroyed by them, it’s great! My favourite is the one you get from Meiling’s mid stage encounter, pictured above!

Before wrapping up this long, long post, I do wanna add this: the game will unfortunately only give you the good ending only by playing on Normal and above, and only if you beat the game without using any continues. This is called a 1CC, or 1 Credit Clear. Even if I don’t think the bad ending’s actually that unsatisfactory, I did want to get better at the game! So I practiced for many hours a day for a couple of weeks, memorized each boss’s patterns, learned where to graze, when to optimally reach the POC to get as many points as possible... this game pushed me to get better with an incentive, a reward waiting at the end, on top of the satisfaction of simply cheesing what used to be so difficult at some point and... well, I think this is the proof of a well-crafted game right there. After many failed attempts, I finally managed to 1CC this game (pictures below!!) and it was, genuinely, one of the most satisfying moments in my gaming life <3 

So... yeah. I might be a Touhou fan now. Welp.

Touhou VI: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was such a pleasant surprise for me: I expected a game I’d find somewhat boring at best and frustrating at worst, but I ended up having a very, very good time, and honestly? It’s not as hard as you’d think it is! You can beat a Touhou game, so long as you are interested in practicing and getting better, and I promise it’ll feel rewarding in the best of ways <3

I just wanna say thank you to Luna Nights and Team Ladybug, because without them, I would have never been curious and then surprised by how cool this game is. Thank you <3 

And many thanks to you, the reading, for staying until the end! Thank you for reading!

#long post #touhou #touhou eosd #eosd

[fruk-and-usuk-soliditary]

Why UsUk is Not Incest

Before this starts I would like to say that I have done lots of research on this topic. This will not just be me going "thEY'rE Not BRoThErs uwu I doN't HAvE EviDEncE bUt bElieVe me aNYwayS". No, I have lots of evidence for this subject, and if I did not firmly believe in this I wouldn't be sharing it. I will be taking people's arguments and stating my own view on it based on facts of this universe, as much as I can. I will also throw in some other pieces of evidence that don't exactly refute other arguments, but I feel like are important.

I am open to discussion on any of these, as long as you are respectful and are able to come up with actual evidence as so do I. In no way am I saying you have to see their relationship as non-familial or romantic at all. You are allowed to have that interpretation of their relationship, but I do say you should respect me for my interpretation of it as well. With that said, let's get on to the essay.

Argument #1

"America called England Big Brother, so that means they are brothers."

This is a common one that I see, and I understand why. However, in Japan, when you are calling someone "Big Brother" or "Big Sister", it is a term of endearment. You can say it without meaning "you are actually my brother and we are now related". And you could argue that that's not the case, however, in the manga, this fact is stated right after the panels of Baby America calling England Big Brother.

Another thing to point out is that England refuses the title of Big Brother, because he was overly flustered from the term of endearment, since he is so used to being called everyone's Little Brother.

One more thing about this argument, is that France calls himself everyone's Big Brother. And for us FrUk shippers, yes that includes me, he even calls himself England's Big Brother.

Using this argument, that would say that FrUk is incest as well, when we all know that is incorrect. Italy also calls both Spain and France Big Brother, but they are all not related. Romano certainly doesn't call either of them Big Brother (although Romano and Spain's relationship is also up to interpretation as well).

Argument #2

"England raised America, so he has to be a part of his family."

Once again, a common one I see that makes a lot of sense. However, England never really raised America. He was constantly gone, across the ocean. There are multiple times we see America completely alone and raising himself.

America has raised himself, he taught himself how to grow, and since he's a country, he grew up rapidly. When England comes back to America, he is absolutely shocked by how fast he's grown. This bit is more of an analysis since we don't know for a fact, but I feel like this shows that England was gone throughout America's development. So, while you can still easily have your opinion on this one, I don't think England raised America at all.

One more thing is the scene where England "says" they are brothers in the dub of the anime. However, that is the dub of the anime, not an official canon source. In both the sub and the manga, England never says they are brothers, and in the manga even goes as far as to say that he's more of a mentor or a boss.

Argument #3

"The Funimation poster says that England and America are brothers."

This one is super easy to debunk. This poster is in no way canon, it was made to promote the show. In this poster, we see lines that connect England and America that say they are brothers. However, there is no connection between Canada and England, or even Sealand and England. If America is considered a brother to England, then Canada very well would be as well, but there is no connection. Sealand and England are actually confirmed brothers, but they don't have that connection line. Also, Wy would be considered a relative to England and therefore Sealand, yet there is still no familial connection between them. This shows the inconsistency throughout this promotion.

Another thing to add is that this is not from Himaruya. Himaruya is the creator, and the one who has the final say in what is and isn't canon. He has made no mention of this poster, confirming or not confirming it.

Unless if it comes from the original source, or is confirmed from the original source, nothing is for sure.

Argument #4

"Colonizing equals adoption."

I've seen people say this a few times, however this is far from the truth. If colonizing meant someone adopts another, then that means France's inappropriate behavior towards Seychelles is incest or even England's potential crush on Seychelles is incest. If you want to interpret a colonization as adopting, then that's how you interpret it. However, know that it does not apply to canon.

Other Pieces of Evidence

1. Magical Strike AU

This is a piece of evidence I haven't seen many people talking about. In the Magical Strike AU, a canon AU talked about and made by Himaruya, there are only a few confirmed characters roles. This includes France, the magical girl on strike; Japan, an old man who's touring; Netherlands, a business partner; England, a businessman; and America, the son of the President of the company. In this AU, England and America do not have any familial connections what-so-ever.

Take into consideration that this is from an AU, so it can be argued as irrelevant, which is fair, but it's still something to consider.

2. America's Independence

This is a pretty controversial one, but it still needs to be addressed. During the American Revolution, America shouts "I'm no longer a child, nor your little brother." A lot of people either argue this is America just saying that to state his independence and that they are still related.

However, that would only be true if they were mortal and human. These characters are countries that live forever (until they are killed through the heart/their capital is taken over). They do not have the same meanings for different terms that we do.

America stating that he is no longer England's little brother means that he is literally no longer his little brother. This would obviously not work in real life, but this is not real life. They are not human beings who comprehend things like family the same as we do.

The only characters who have a confirmed family connection (in modern day) is Germany and Prussia, Veneziano and Romano, Iceland and Norway, America and Canada, Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg, and England and his three older brothers including Sealand as his little brother.

America never addresses England as his brother in modern day, nor does England. Within modern day, they do not consider each other to be brothers. This is able to occur because they aren't human. They don't have the same thought process as others.

Conclusion

If you don't see England and America as romantic, and see them as familial, that is more than okay. However, recognize that shippers of UsUk don't consider them as family.

Shippers do not look at England and America and think "UwU they are brothers so I ship them". Most shippers ship them because of their connection and relationship dynamic.

All we ask for is to be treated with respect. Hating others for shipping something is ridiculous. There is more to a person than a ship.

#hetalia #usuk #aph england #aph hetalia #aph #hetalia england #axis powers hetalia #axis powers ヘタリア #hetalia axis powers #aph america #hetalia america #aph usuk #hetalia usuk #ukus #aph ukus #hetalia ukus #i'm adamant about my beliefs but i'm still scared to post this but we'll see what happens

[adelth]

Prompt: Victor spots himself in the picture frame on Yuuri's desk after they come back from the Cup of China. Yuuri had turned it around and pushed it back, forgetting its being there under his shelf. His mother dusted his room and turned it around, placing it in easy sight. Victor enters Yuuri's room and notices it before he does. This leads to a fumbled explanation and a kiss.

This is the first thing I’ve ever written that could, theoretically, be canon compliant. Huh. I feel out of my depth.

Get a Room

Yuuri at 23 is a much different boy than Yuuri at 18, Hiroko is both proud and a little wistful when she sees the ways her son has grown up in the time since he left home. It’s not just the success he’s had as a skater, it’s the way he can look customers in the eye when he talks to them now. It’s how he’ll push back when Mari pokes fun at him, how he’ll speak to strangers in a voice loud enough to hear. She remembers a time when Yuuri was too shy to speak to store attendants or even teachers, being on his own had forced him to come out of his shell.

It’s not unusual for the children of Hatsetsu to move away young, they have to if they want to pursue an education. It is unusual not to see your child for 5 years, but Hiroko can’t bring herself to resent the time away when it’s obvious how good it’s been for her son. Good but not easy, she knows, but then Yuuri had never been one to pursue the easy path.

When he’d been a teenager he’d defended the privacy of his room fiercely, which she’d thought reasonable given the general lack of it in the onsen. In the intervening years though, she’s grown used to coming in to dust and tidy up. With Yuuri away at competitions, she falls readily back into the habit. It’s nice to come home to a clean room, one of the few ways she feels she can make Yuuri’s life easier.

She’s dusting his desk when she notices the picture frame under the cactus. Well, she can fix that. She fetches a dish from the kitchen, something much better for catching run off, and swaps the two. She smiles when she notices the frame houses a photograph of Victor - Yuuri must have been desperate to put it under the flowerpot.

Luckily, it’s undamaged. She cleans if off and places in on Yuuri’s bedside table, ready for his return from China.

~

Victor Nikiforov had kissed him.

Victor Nikiforov had come to Japan, had announced that he’d be Yuuri’s coach, had spent months bossing him around, had tackled him to the ice and kissed him.

None of this has been adequately explained to Yuuri, but he’s afraid to ask in case it means he’ll lose whatever this is. He has to stop himself from staring at Victor all the time, both because he’s beautiful and because Yuuri never knows what he’ll do next.

It turns out he should have been watching even more closely, because the second Yuuri takes his eyes off the man to greet Makkachin, he makes a beeline for Yuuri’s room.

Victor has a thing about Yuuri’s room. Perhaps because Yuuri had previously denied him entry, he makes a point of finding his way inside whenever he can, peering curiously at Yuuri’s old textbooks and handwritten notes, asking for translations of the utterly mundane. He’s so far stopped short of prying into closed drawers, but Yuuri isn’t sure what he’ll get up to unsupervised.

He’s concealed his various fan merchandise from casual inspection, but there’s only so well you can hide things in a small room. He’d moved the posters from his closet to under his bed, because he’s absolutely certain Victor is going to go rummaging through his clothes one of these days. He’s already not entirely sure where his favorite tie went, and Victor had only said something cryptic about a coach’s prerogative when he’d asked.

When he catches up to Victor, his coach is predictably in Yuuri’s room, staring at something. At first Yuuri thinks it’s the bed - which is the same as ever Victor - but then the full horror of the situation unfolds.

One of his framed pictures of Victor Nikiforov is proudly displayed on the bedside table. It’s not even one of him skating; he’s in casual clothes, leaning against a wall. Victor picks it up, moving it closer to his face so he can inspect it, either not noticing or not caring about Yuuri’s entrance.

“Give that back, it’s not mine!” Yuuri sputters, making everything worse as he tries to protest and come up with an excuse at the same time. He’s never operated well when panicked.

Victor turns to him with the evilest of all his smiles, the one that’s wide and close mouthed and says he’s just devoured the canary.

“Yuuri,” he purrs, deliberately thickening his accent, “you should have just told me if you wanted me next to you in bed.”

Yuuri crosses the room to take the picture, not even sure why he thinks that will help at this point, but Victor just holds it above his head, taking advantage of his extra 3 inches. “We can still have that sleepover!” he continues, eyes closed in delight.

Look, Yuuri’s never been good at backing off from a challenge. He climbs on top of the bed and starts trying to pry the frame out of Victor’s hands. Victor starts laughing while he does, almost teary eyed with glee, and Yuuri has to hold on to him so he can’t back out of reach.

Demonstrating that he’ll also make unwise choices in pursuit of a meaningless victory, Victor grabs Yuuri around the waist and tries to throw him over his shoulder single handed, retaining his grasp on the frame with the other. For a moment it almost works, a testament to Victor’s upper body strength, but then they both go tumbling.

They manage to direct the fall mostly towards the bed, which creaks ominously at their joint landing, and Victor is still chuckling giddily against Yuuri stomach in the aftermath.

“Not yours?” he asks when he manages to catch enough breath for the words. “Are you saying you’ve been framed?” Then he peels off into laughter again, shoulders shaking with mirth. Yuuri stares at the ceiling sullenly, refusing to acknowledge the terribleness of the joke, or that any of this is happening.

Victor hauls himself up the bed so he can hover over Yuuri and block his line of sight. He’s schooled his face into a mask of seriousness, which Yuuri doesn’t trust one bit. “Maybe it was me,” he whispers conspiratorially, voice only wavering a little. “Maybe this was all a plot to get into your - Umpf!”

Yuuri shuts him up by pulling him down into a kiss, deliberately mussing his carefully styled hair as he does. What a ridiculous man.

I think maybe I don’t know how to balance fiction this short, but so help me I’m going to get another of these out tonight, so I’m not fussing with it anymore. 

#yuri!!! on ice #fandom: yoi #victuuri #puns and embarrassment #drabble #author: adelth #no plot only fluff

[lt2archive]

12/09/2019

Berlin

Of course, the corridor to Hartwig Masuch is adorned with music memorabilia: In front of the Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) office there is an almost life-size black and white picture of Nick Cave and the poster for a documentary about David Crosby, on a shelf inside there is a shrink-wrapped one Vinyl record by Kylie Minogue.

Everything is a bit sober for a music label, at least when measured against the glittering pop world of a Katy Perry or Taylor Swift. But Masuch doesn’t see discovering pop phenomena as his main job. “Global artists with a history, a brand and a fan base”, that is the target group that the BMG boss is after. Like Kylie Minogue, whose greatest successes (“Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”) were a long time ago, but who landed high in the charts in 2018 with her album “Golden” produced by BMG - because her fans apparently didn’t got out of my mind. “Wanting to spot the next Ed Sheeran on the guitar on the street is a much more volatile business. On a global scale, that’s insanely risky, ”says Masuch.

The figures prove him right: With sales of 545 million euros, the subsidiary of the Gütersloh family company Bertelsmann is the largest label in Europe and the fourth largest in the world, behind Universal, Sony and Warner - and it is more profitable. Market leader Universal, who has many of the world’s most successful artists under contract with Taylor Swift, Drake or Ariana Grande, has more than ten times the turnover. The margin on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 22.4 percent is one and a half times as high at BMG.

The 65-year-old looks so decidedly unaffected and age-appropriate that in the music business dominated by eccentrics he could pass as an eccentric himself. Masuch, who dropped out of economics shortly before graduating, has retained the sober view of an economist on the business with stars and hits. He speaks of contribution margins, of the “predictability” that he wants to offer his artists; Artists whom he sometimes calls “key accounts”. Record boss sentences like “I’ll make you a star” cannot be imagined from Masuch’s mouth, an old “Kraftwerk” line is more appropriate: “I’m the musician with a calculator in hand.”

He seems to fit in well with a time when even young artists are looking for reputable merchants instead of dream sellers at labels. They want to control their work themselves. They would like to select services such as marketing or sales à la carte instead of giving up the rights to exploit their music in an all-encompassing record deal.

Like Taylor Swift, one of the most successful pop stars in history. When Swift let the contract with her ancestral label Big Machine Records expire in late 2018 and switched to Universal, the 29-year-old announced that it was “important to be on par with a label” in view of the future of the music industry. Would the “Shake It Off” singer have also been a good fit for BMG? “Taylor Swift would absolutely be an artist that we would be interested in,” says Masuch. Global success, despite her age, a “history” of 15 years, that fits into Masuch’s scheme. Still, there were no conversations. “For us it was too early for an act of this international size,” says Masuch. “Not this time, but maybe next time.”

The so-called “label services deals” currently make up a good eight percent of the market, but the segment is growing by a third every year, says Mark Mulligan, head of the London-based analysis firm Midia. BMG is a key player in this area, but the market leaders have long been competing with the Berliners. But BMG has built a reputation for being good with artists. “It’s a people’s business,” says Mulligan. And quite a few artists would have burned their fingers with one of the big labels.

A wonderful time for artists “We are at a historic turning point for labels,” says Mulligan. The classic major model of cross-financing the development of current top artists through the catalog of older artists is coming under pressure.

Still, Mulligan thinks it’s a wonderful time for artists. They owe this to the Internet: when records and CDs still had to be transported to the shops in trucks and a musician could only be known through the radio and posters, the path to fame inevitably led through a label. In the streaming era, 17-year-old Billie Eilish produced her number one album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” With her brother in the nursery and initially distributed the songs on Soundcloud. Eilish now has a universal contract, but the conditions for it are changing. “It’s a question of bargaining power,” says Masuch.

The man from Hagen knows all sides of the industry: He played in a rock band from which Nena and Extrabreit emerged. Later he pushed the Neue Deutsche Welle as manager of Ina Deter and other artists. He then worked for Warner and, since 1991, for BMG - the old BMG, a major label that Bertelsmann merged with Sony Music in 2004. In 2008 the group sold its shares to the partner from Japan.

In October 2008 Masuch re-founded BMG Rights Management - the same month that Spotify went on the market. This enabled them to fully adapt BMG to the new, digital world of music. Masuch believes this world will soon be radically rearranged. The sales growth of the labels is currently mainly driven by the streaming of older songs, which accounted for the majority of the hits. The streaming sales are often not sufficiently taken into account in the rights contracts, which is why many artists do not receive much attention. “Many contracts for the 20 most successful catalogs are due for renewal over the next 36 months. The labels lose the digital dividend, ”he says.

The BMG boss therefore expects that the owners of the major labels will turn the companies into cash at the height of the boom. Buyers could be technology companies like Apple or Amazon. The first sign of this trend is that Chinese tech giant Tencent is interested in Universal Music.

Tencent, which operates the Chinese service Tencent Music and holds shares in Spotify, could put pressure on Apple or Amazon and their music services with a stake in Universal. “Netflix doesn’t have to have all of the content. In the music business, on the other hand, everyone needs everything, ”says Masuch. The subscribers would not accept to be able to hear only artists who, for example, have a contract with Warner or Sony. For Apple Music, an alliance between Tencent and Spotify and Universal is therefore threatening as long as the iPhone producer does not have its own leverage, such as a stake in another label.

For BMG, however, Masuch sees no need for action. “Our repertoire is needed. We’ll take a look at it. “

(Translated with Google Translate)

#BMG #press #dec 2019

[thisdaynews]

Arsenal 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt: Kamada double adds to Unai Emery woes

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/arsenal-1-2-eintracht-frankfurt-kamada-double-adds-to-unai-emery-woes/

Arsenal 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt: Kamada double adds to Unai Emery woes

Before Thursday, Daichi Kamada (centre) had scored one goal in 27 appearances for Eintracht Frankfurt

The pressure on Arsenal manager Unai Emery intensified as Daichi Kamada’s brilliant double earned Eintracht Frankfurt victory at the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners boss came into this match having failed to lead his team to victory in their previous six outings.

And he left at full-time to jeers from a sparse crowd, with some supporters holding ‘Emery Out’ posters having watched their side surrender control against a team who were a clear second best in the first period.

Arsenal will now have to avoid defeat at Standard Liege in their final Europa League Group F game to be certain of a spot in the last 32.

It looked like the Gunners had turned the corner after they dominated the opening period. Eintracht spent most of it trying to keep Arsenal’s attack at bay until the visitors’ old foe Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made the breakthrough with his strike just before half-time.

The Bundesliga side only managed one shot on goal in the first half, but were transformed after the break and equalised when Kamada curled in a fierce effort from the edge of the box.

The 23-year-old Japan international then put his side in front with another sweet strike from the edge of the area.

The contest also marked the return of Granit Xhaka to the Arsenal XI. The Swiss midfielder had missed the Gunners’ past five matches after his infamous substitution in the 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace at the end of October.

He appeared to pick up a knock to the knee in the first half but following treatment played the full 90 minutes.

Emery may have taken Arsenal ‘as far as he can’ – ex-Gunners defender Keown

Arsenal’s attack dominates first half

What now for Emery?

The 48-year-old, given the task of moulding a new Arsenal after succeeding Arsene Wenger in 2018, is now odds-on with some bookmakers to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job.

The Europa League had offered some respite from the difficulties of the top flight, where his side have only won four of their 13 games, but the same problems reared their head on a forgettable night at the Emirates.

It was all smiles on the Arsenal bench in the first half, and the only issue Emery had to contend with was being told he had to change his jacket because it clashed with Eintracht’s colours.

Even the 31st-minute departure of the injured David Luiz, who was playing in midfield, did not upset the Gunners’ rhythm as the attack of Aubameyang, Joe Willock, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka continually troubled the opposition backline.

Martinelli had a shot blocked and header cleared off the line while Aubameyang nodded wide before he swept home the Brazilian’s low cross just before half-time.

It was the former Borussia Dortmund striker’s 10th in 13 appearances against the Bundesliga club and his 31st goal in 44 appearances for the Gunners at the Emirates.

However, it was a very different story for the home side in the second half.

Leaky Gunners defence pays price again

The two substitutions coach Adi Hutter made to his attack appeared to revitalise Eintracht, but his players were aided by some poor Arsenal defending.

The lively Kamada was allowed to advance towards the edge of the area by Sokratis before launching a brilliant strike past keeper Emiliano Martínez, and was then given even more space to line up his second, which found the same corner.

That was the 18th goal conceded by Arsenal in nine games.

The home attack, so potent in the first half, failed to find a response in the closing minutes as Eintracht defeated English opposition away from home for the first time since beating Burnley 2-1 in the Fairs Cup in April 1967.

Former Gunners defender Martin Keown labelled their second-half display an “absolute shambles” and said they were showing “relegation form”.

Xhaka return overshadowed by defeat

Granit Xhaka joined Arsenal from Basel in 2016

Perhaps Xhaka will have been relieved that the attention was shifted from him onto his manager.

He produced a competent display in front of his backline, although perhaps could have done more in helping defender Sokratis close down Kamada for his first goal.

The injury to his knee in the first half did not appear to have affected his overall performance and he even raised a cheer from the home support when he tricked his way past an Eintracht defender to set up Calum Chambers, who fired over the bar.

The only stain was the late yellow card he picked up for dissent when he threw down the ball in frustration thinking he won a tackle cleanly.

With the injury to Luiz it could be that Xhaka retains his place for next Sunday’s trip to Norwich.

Eintracht end English jinx – stats

Arsenal have not won any of their past seven matches in all competitions (D5 L2) – they never went on as poor a run across 1,235 games under Wenger, last waiting this long for a win in February 1992 under George Graham (eight games).

Arsenal have led in five games during their current seven-match winless run, drawing four and losing one of those five games.

Arsenal were unbeaten in their previous 46 matches in all competitions when leading at half-time before tonight (W40 D6) since losing 2-1 at Watford in October 2017.

Saka has assisted five goals in his nine starts for Arsenal in all competitions, three of which have come against Eintracht.

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#double #Emery

[gaijinginger]

Days 10-11: Okutama & T-Shirt Redemption

Yesterday morning I got up at around 9, and took full advantage of my hotel’s complimentary breakfast. After that, I got on a train out to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Western Tokyo, hopeful to secure a visit the second time around. Unfortunately, I overestimated the museum’s ease of access yet again- evidently tickets need to be secured online ahead of time. Not only was the museum sold out with a line out the gate yesterday, but upon further inspection later, I found that tickets are sold out online through July. Oof. Given that Hayao Miyazaki is basically the Japanese Walt Disney, that’s not a huge surprise though. I probably should have done my research a bit more in retrospect. Oh well. Something for next time.

Since I was already about an hour outside downtown Tokyo, I decided to press on as far as I could go; with the possibility of going to the museum exhausted, I got back on the subway and rode all the way to the end of the line I took out to the museum. The JR Chuo subway line terminates a further hour west of central Tokyo in Okutama, a small mountainside village 40 miles (a 2.5 hour series of train rides) away from my hotel. What’s absolutely mind-blowing to me is that despite this distance, it’s still technically part of the Tokyo metro area.

To say Okutama is picturesque is an understatement. Built into the sides of an awe inspiring valley straddling a babbling river with a rocky bed where locals go fishing, protected on all sides by dizzyingly steep hills coated in towering trees, it looks like the kind of Japanese countryside town you’d see on a travel agency poster with the caption “find your inner tranquility in the Far East” or something similarly inane/banal. I’ll post pictures after this, but it’s really worth the additional googling to see it (and get a sense of the location in relation to the rest of Tokyo).

I was one of dozens of sightseers who rode the subway out to the village, although I had the unique distinction of being the only westerner. Once off the subway, I’d bet money I was the only gaijin for 10 miles in any direction. At the very least, it certainly felt that way, and the reactions I got from the locals seemed in keeping with that assessment. My rarity was emphasized by one of my fellow subway passengers sneaking several photos of me on his smartphone. Some people might be weirded out by this, but I was pretty flattered. I even seemed to make it into several of his nature shots once we were off the subway.

Once I got off the subway I headed down the nearest hiking trail, which led down to the riverbed below the village. On the way down to the riverbed, I saw several local teenage boys sitting on a bench by the side of the road, crowding over some sort of magazine that sat between them. When they saw me, they looked super embarrassed. When I emerged from the riverbed 10-15 minutes later, the bench they were occupying was empty. However, they left their magazine: an erotic anime cartoon compilation book as thick as a farmer’s almanac, the sort you’d find at one of Akihabara’s more risqué shops (or at any old Japanese convenience store beside the regular porn magazines). I hope they were merely sharing in laughter at its weirdness, but their looks said otherwise. This country never fails to be strange in little ways.

On the way back into town, I watched an elderly, distinguished-looking law enforcement officer I took to be the town’s sheriff (or equivalent head honcho) walk into the local police office and strike up a conversation with two men I took to be his deputies. I could almost hear their conversation from the street, and can only assume it ran something like “any problems we need to see to, boys?” “Of course not, sir!” It’s the sort of community where you can almost feel that everyone knows everyone, and no one locks their doors. If Japan ever gets a “Make Japan Great Again” movement, places like this will be evoked heavily. It’s the kind of place you could see retreating to for the rest of your life, spending your days honing your skill at poetry or pottery or swordplay to a soundtrack of minimalistic zither music.

After walking around the village for another 20 minutes or so, I ducked into a local eatery for lunch of a pork cutlet with rice, a salad, miso soup and a beer. Sitting at a window seat overlooking the picturesque mountains and river, a local Japanese show quietly humming on an old TV by the bar, I felt a moment of stereotypical white-guy-in-Asia “namaste.” With my backpack, hiking shoes and burgeoning man bun, I’m sure I looked the part to the two other customers in the restaurant, a pair of elderly local gentlemen who sat on the other side of the room playing dominoes for about half of my meal. The restaurant’s sole waitress brought them over two drinks pro bono, which they seemed to feign refusal of before graciously accepting, suggesting their status as regulars. Quite the place to be a regular.

After lunch, I walked around for another hour or so before catching the subway back into town. During my 2.5 hour commute back home I witnessed some pretty funny examples of Japanese xenophobia (A.K.A. Having an open seat next to me on the train which no locals wanted to take, for fear of catching gaijin). I ended up giving up my seat several times despite having a perfectly open seat next to me; only then did the locals sit (after graciously making thankful body language and gestures towards me). Once back in town I got some ramen (the fifth or sixth variety I’ve tried now, by my count) and then called it an early night, exhausted.

This morning I again utilized my hotel’s complimentary breakfast to its full extent, then went out to right one of the great wrongs of this trip so far: not buying a particularly iconic shirt I saw at a store on my first full day in Tokyo. The shirt in question, featuring a stock photo of a golden retriever with the caption “BOSS of our house” (with only “BOSS” in Latin text, and the rest in Japanese), is amazing in ways I can’t even begin to articulate. I found out it ultimately was sold at a store that does custom shirt printing, and the one that hung outside was only an example of the sort of work the store can do. The store’s attendants seemed somewhat baffled when I went in explicitly in search of the example shirt, but were happy to comply. They didn’t have it in the original blue, but it’s still the best souvenir I’ll have of this trip. Before that I also got some seriously amazing beef and rice at a little hole-in-the-ground (a two-story walk-down off street level) across the street from Senso-Ji, the temple I visited on day one. Pics will follow. Was absolutely amazing.

After that, I returned to my hotel for a few hours and took a slow afternoon, watching a few episodes of “Legend of the Galactic Heroes,” a Japanese anime from the 80s that’s three parts “Star Wars,” two parts “Dune,” and one part “Neon Genesis Evangelion.” I’m not becoming a weeb here, I promise. I just like a good space opera, animated or not. After going on 10 days of near-constant motion, it was nice to take a break for a while and stretch out (as best I could) in my cube.

Around 5:30 I headed over to Uenoonshi Park, where I took in yet another excellent Japanese sunset overlooking the biggest koi pond I’ve seen thus far. After that I got some more ramen (variant 6 or 7 depending on how loose your definition of ramen is), then made my way back to my cube. I’m back there now, getting ready for my final two days. The next blog post will probably come when I’m back home; expect it by the end of the week.

If this ends up being my final opportunity to have thoughts on Japan while physically being in Japan, I’ll sum it up with three words:

Wow. Wow. Wow.

[ntrending]

The nuclear mutant is still evolving

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/the-nuclear-mutant-is-still-evolving/

The nuclear mutant is still evolving

A nuclear weapon test on Bikini Atoll (US Department of Energy/)

In the early morning of April 26, 1986, reactor number 4 in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. In the middle of a safety test, energy levels plunged, so the operators withdrew the majority of the control rods to force the reactor back into production. It began to overheat. Hoping to neutralize the system, the scientists pushed the rods back in, but unbeknownst to them, they were tipped in graphite, an accelerant. Kaboom.

If you spent the summer watching HBO’s Chernobyl through your fingers, this is old news. The prestige drama sacrificed quite a few facts for narrative’s sake and should not be mistaken for anything approaching a documentary. But the creators carefully embroidered their five-episode miniseries with cultural and scientific detail: The sets, in the words of the New Yorker‘s Masha Gessen, are “reproduced with an accuracy that has never before been seen in Western television or film—or, for that matter, in Russian television or film.” A courtroom scene, in which three characters explain the minutiae of the disaster, graphite and all, dominates the finale. For five grueling episodes, the show maintains its commitment to realism, if not reality.

That makes it different from much of the atomic storytelling of the last three-quarters of a century, which stoked the public imagination with wild tales of nuclear mutants. But as we’ve learned, the real aftermath of radioactive devastation can be just as terrifying.

A scene from Chernobyl (Pixabay/)

In August 1945, the United States dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan. But careful censorship meant Americans knew few of the details, especially about radiation and its effects. That meant public sentiment was complicated, and often contradictory. For many, “the atomic bomb was seen as sexy,” says Cyndy Hendershot, an English professor at Arkansas State University and Cold War pop culture expert. They grooved to rock ‘n roll songs like “Atomic Baby” and wore new swimsuits named for the Bikini Atoll, a major American nuclear weapons test site.

But the growing anxiety of a nuclear apocalypse needed an outlet, and Hollywood’s monster movies provided. “There were serious dramas that dealt with the actuality of nuclear war,” Hendershot says, “but people didn’t want to see that.” Instead, they turned to B-movies—low-budget, high-drama affairs—that took a sideways glance at catastrophe. These films, Susan Sontag argued in her landmark 1965 essay, “The Imagination of Disaster,” allow a viewer to “participate in the fantasy of living through one’s own death and more, the death of cities, the destruction of humanity itself.” You went into the theater scared, but you may have come out chuckling.

“The original mutants were ridiculous,” Hendershot says. In 1957, The Amazing Colossal Man and The Incredible Shrinking Man debuted within a few months of each other. Both are about average Joes exposed to nuclear radiation, with disastrous and diametrically opposed effects. Fifty feet tall and growing, the super-sized man terrorizes those around him. Psychologically ruined by his transformation, he destroys Las Vegas while wearing “a diaper-looking thing,” Hendershot says. He’s ultimately gunned down by the military. The shrinking man, by contrast, is at the mercy of every lifeform around him. He’s bloodied by his house cat and collapses after fighting a spider off with a safety pin. But he ends the film mentally intact: he will soon be reduced to atoms, but finds peace in the realization that all of creation is made up of some very small pieces.

Movie poster for the 1954 Japanese <em>Godzilla</em> (Toho Company Ltd./)

In these and other American films, mutants were treated poorly, Hendershot says. They may have been victims of atomic testing, but to the wider world, they themselves were the menace. This ensured every movie had its “Disney ending,” as Bill Tsutsui, president of Hendrix College and a Japanologist, calls it. If there was only one dangerous individual (or, in Tsutsui’s favorite sub-genre, the “big bug movies,” one colony of oversized ants), the military could contain the threat and keep society safe. In contrast, Japanese cinema, made by and for people with firsthand experience of nuclear devastation, was more sympathetic of mutants. And it allowed both personal and political ethical dilemmas to go unresolved.

Director Ishirō Honda released the first Godzilla film in 1954. (In Japan, the monster is known as Gojira, a combination of the words for “gorilla” and “whale.”) The film, produced in the wake of that year’s Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident, in which an American hydrogen bomb test in the Bikini Atoll contaminated a Japanese fishing boat, tells the story of an ancient monster awakened by H-bomb testing in the Pacific. A respected zoologist spends much of the film defending Godzilla’s right to live, but ultimately helps to destroy the creature for the good of mankind. A scientist who creates a dastardly “Oxygen Destroyer”—the only weapon capable of defeating the monster—destroys his notes and drowns himself alongside Godzilla so that no one can ever recreate his work. Despite their sacrifice, at the end of the film the characters conclude that so long as weapons testing continues, “it’s possible that another Godzilla might appear somewhere in the world, again.” It’s both the perfect segue to a sequel (of which there are now 34) and an earnest call for nuclear non-proliferation.

In “The Imagination of Disaster,” Sontag wrote “[t]here is absolutely no social criticism, of even the most implicit kind, in science fiction films.” A decade later, that kind of context-free storytelling felt increasingly impossible, even in the U.S. In 1979, Three Mile Island generation station in Pennsylvania suffered a partial meltdown. Between 1965 and 1982, the number of Americans who supported the United States’ decision to drop nuclear bombs on Japan dropped 7 points, to 63 percent. That year, a million people gathered in New York City’s Central Park to decry atomic weapons, in what was then the largest protest in American history.

Social criticism was everywhere, including the silver screen. As the Cold War progressed, nuclear weapons and power plants moved from the realm of science fiction to the world of political thrillers, and from the B-movie to the Oscar-worthy. Two critical darlings, The China Syndrome, which premiered in 1979, and Silkwood, which came out in 1983, focused on everyday Americans determined to expose cover-ups at generating facilities.

Film poster for <em>Attack of the 50 Foot Woman</em> (Reynold Brown/)

HBO’s Chernobyl, in many ways, is a modern mutation of this narrative DNA. Subordinates push back against their bosses and fail. Colleagues lie, cheat, and fight for favors. It’s standard workplace docufiction—a radiation-poisoned The Office. When nuclear mutants do appear, their presence is understated, at least compared to a 50-foot-tall man in a giant diaper. At the end of the first episode, a dying bird falls to the pavement. The proverbial canary in the coal mine, it twitches violently as locals, unaware of the hazardous materials streaming out of the nearby power plant, innocently run errands around town. Later, the series depicts a crew of “liquidators” tasked with killing every creature they can find in the “zone of alienation,” an area of restricted access around the exploded reactor. Their goal? To prevent the wild, stray, and pet animals from spreading any radiation in their fur.

Today, the Chernobyl exclusion zone has expanded from an initial 19-mile radius circling the power plant to a 1,600 square mile blob straddling Belarus and the Ukraine. Despite the contamination, which will persist for thousands of years, all kinds of organisms, from birds to humans, still live and, crucially, eat inside the exclusion zone. The risks residents face are real. While wildlife is thriving in the absence of large human settlements, barn swallows sport albino-spotted feathers; wild boars, made radioactive by a diet of contaminated mushrooms, roam from Sweden to the Czech Republic; and scientists worry European gray wolves residing in the zone may spread their mutations to populations across the continent.

As for people, there appears to be an increased risk of certain illness among those in or around the zone. Drawing tight connections between radiation exposure and public health outcomes is next to impossible, and findings are often controversial, but studies have linked Chernobyl fallout (along with other factors like diet, alcohol, and age), to an increased risk of miscarriage among women in affected areas. Research has also tied contaminated milk in Belarus to an increased risk of thyroid cancer in children.

A poster for <em>The Incredible Shrinking Man</em> (Reynold Brown/)

For the rare few who can afford to remove pollutants from local soil or haul in new dirt, it’s possible to safely grow food in contaminated areas, says Kate Brown, a science, technology, and society professor at MIT. Just look at Atomik Vodka: Earlier this month, a team of scientists announced they’d successfully distilled grain grown in the exclusion zone into a safe-to-drink spirit. But the technical intricacies of soil remediation aren’t what made the vodka a viral internet sensation. It’s our obsession with the exclusion zone—that most forbidden of places, ruined by humankind’s hubris and reborn in our absence.

Since the Ukraine opened the Chernobyl zone to tourism in 2010, thousands have taken state-sanctioned tours of abandoned towns, nature-reclaimed ruins, and even the power plant itself. Their experiences are documented across social media, including on Instagram. Claims the site is a destination for social media influencers are greatly exaggerated; the exclusion zone certainly hasn’t replaced the beaches of Bali. But that may change, as Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose qualifications include having previously played a Ukranian president on television, is intent on fixing his country’s “brand.” That starts, he says, with making Chernobyl a different kind of hotspot.

Despite the abundance of permitted tour vans, illegal visits to the site persist. A community of “Stalkers,” inspired by a first-person shooter game, enter the zone over and over again. The majority appear to be young men, Brown says, drawn like Daniel Boone to the frontier, determined to test their mettle. They bring along Geiger counters—not to avoid radiation, but to find it. Some drink the water and eat apples hanging from the trees.

Stalkers take exclusion zone exploration to the extreme, but they may be motivated by the same thing as the above-board Instagrammers. Brown speculates many people are drawn to Chernobyl not just for its history, but because they feel it may represent the future: “As we worry about climate change, and the habitability of our Earth, I could see people having those fears,” she says. “And what we do when we have fears? We watch horror films”—or take terrifying trips—“and scare ourselves so our anxieties subside.”

Seventy-four years after the atomic age began, the nuclear mutant staggers on. They face fierce competition in the marketplace from films and television shows about more contemporary fears, like viral outbreaks and terrorism. And as fears of nuclear war subside and the realities of climate change make themselves known, the campy terror of the 1950s has long since been replaced by the quiet horror of dying animals and decaying landscapes. They’re no longer the result of random chance or blameless accidents, either, but of deeply human error. More than ever, they’re our monsters, and if we’re willing to listen, they have something they want to tell us.

Written By Eleanor Cummins

#Environment