#but for now...I might live-blog this ep because I have a feeling it will be worth it

[dribs-and-drabbles]

THE ECLIPSE!

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO!!

#I've had a shower. had dinner. and now have a beer #I've not looked at my dash/feed for about 12 hours #so I'll have that to scroll through after #but for now...I might live-blog this ep because I have a feeling it will be worth it #the eclipse #the eclipse ep 9 #grapejuicegay - I haven't read your message yet in case there's any spoilers but I'll come and scream incoherently to you later 🥰

[fitsofdespair]

i have hesitated to say anything before now. in part because i removed myself from fandom discourse and really from actively discussing iwtv a year ago. i consider it all a lose-lose situation.

but also because i’m generally of the opinion that black fans don’t need people to be their white saviors, least of all me. black people have never been saved by white people. they were never just given anything when it comes to strides in equality, they fought for it and still fight for it, against constant violent pushback every step of the way. only instead of the good ole’ days when racists just called those fighting for equality uppity, they’re now “bullies” for daring to call you out on your shit after the repeated condescension and the resulting harassment you’ve exhibited towards them.

in this day and age the word bully has zero meaning anymore. i mean come on, melania trump calls people mean about her husband bullies. elon musk thinks he’s being bullied by twitter users, though he clearly holds all the power and is absolutely the problem. its become a meaningless word that goliaths use to call davids because they won’t use the real word they actually want to say. some of these popular blogs are not being bullied, they’re being held accountable for their own actions.

it’s pretty disgusting the number of you who decided to identify strongly with these users that not only fail to question their own racial biases but have gone so far as to suggest black people don’t face racism anymore. this is so fucked. tbh it can be argued in many ways white people, especially in the deep south where i’m from, are inherently raised steeped in racism, even if its not direct. just because your family aren’t ostensibly racist doesn’t mean they didn’t bake their own little prejudices into your upbringing and being raised in your environment didn’t encourage them. even if you don’t see yourself as racist, you have to unlearn all this shit, even if it never once occurred to you that you are part of it. just cause you believe in equality and don’t hate people for their color or cultural background does not make you free of perpetuating microaggressions against them. this applies to fans across the world of course. (like for you white euro iwtv fans, you may say you have no problem with black people but i’ve heard some wild things some of yall have to say about the turks.)

i understand that probably half or more of you are not usamericans. but no matter what environment you live in, no matter where you were raised, there is no excuse for your behavior. just because YOU don’t see racism in your day to day life or are in the more likely situation, too blindly comfortable in your place in society to notice it right in front of your face, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist as a constant presence in other parts of the world or isn’t deeply ensconced in online rhetoric.

so for you white iwtv fans who can’t be fucked to mention let alone defend people you, in many cases once called friend, against the absolute horseshit your current comrades are spewing wrapped up in their nice safe cocoons of victimhood, i hope you do some serious soul searching to figure out if this is who you are, a person too cowardly to call out a friend because it might cost you their friendship. a person quick to condemn others on hearsay because you couldn’t be fucked to wonder am i on the right side of this? and if you do manage to get wise and change your mind, remember its not unforgivable to say, you know what? i was wrong. i wrote in an old post that the hallmark of being a functional adult is changing your views accordingly when you learn new information or even just ruminate on what you know (i myself was a little bitch about ep 5 when it first dropped until i had to sit down and ask myself why i was actually feeling some kind of way about it). dying on a hill is not all its cracked up to be. being told you’re wrong is not always a personal attack and its often an opportunity for improvement if you can be bothered to genuinely hear other people out. an alarming number from all walks of life never figure that out. for my part, i am still learning and hope i never stop learning.

while that sentiments all nice and gooey (i mean them, but i understand its still sacharine to put out there), i am still guilty for not having directly written anything about this until now. and thats on me and i earned any flack i get for that. again, i am more of the mindset that black people don’t need white spokespeople, but that doesn’t mean they'll mind allies. and as a sidebar, going out of your way to say you are rising “above the noise” or “ignoring the drama” is absolutely your right, but it does not make you superior. it just makes you complacent with the status quo. i mean as long as you get to squee!! about anything and everything who cares about other people, right?

#and to be clear since i think some people may be a bit confused: i’m admonishing user nalyra-dreaming and their followers #some people who reblogged seem to not understand that #iwtv #interview with the vampire #alex.txt

[kimsmuse]

Hiii, I just came across your blog, and I L O V E it! Since you said you were looking for a recommendation, here's one from me. Yandere school president. They have immense power at their school because not only are they the president, but their parents own the school. Their word is quite literally the law at this school. He just so happens to be head over heels in love and obsessed with you. Give in to their obsessive and possessive love or suffer the consequences. Since he holds so much power, he can make you a school outcast in less then a week, and he can have teachers fail you or pick on you for the stupidest reasons ever, he'll make your life a living hell at school if you don't accept his twisted and fucked up love, it's best to just be a good darling, and let yourself be loved on his own terms. It's a concept I've thought about a lot, but I haven't seen much of it. Anyways, thank you for your time, and keep up the good work!!!

okay okay omg first of all your brain???? this way too good and oml now i'm sad i spent my entire school life without a class prez like this :( but let's talk about this !!! this is mildly inspired by this one guy from the kdrama called taxi driver (ep 3) !!!

gender neutral!reader. warnings for obsessive behavior, mentions of killing someone but it's nothing graphic. blackmail/coercion type thing?? and typical yandere behavior.

okay so yandere!class president who is so focused, he's the top student of the grade and he's good at sports too?? captain of the basket ball team?? i don't know how he does it because i really couldn't but anyway even apart from that he keeps on taking part and neatly scoring in debates, and writing contests, you name it and he's doing it. it does happen sometimes that he ends up getting silver or bronze but he's there on the list somehow.

and obviously if you've ever been a teenager then you know how attractive this type of people are, because they're good at everything, because they look very unattainable and bonus for our class president is that he's super hot as well. so obviously he had a classroom filled with admirers. and he loved the attention, who doesn't? but he's never thought more of it than that, the aspect of romance is kinda alien to him, he's had his fair share of physical relationships (if they can be even called that) but none of them too good to stay.

so he keeps on with his day, his cram school, having lunch, dinner, studying, more studying.

and when he bumps into you from his way back from the library, he just stops dead in his tracks as you attempt to pick up the books you both dropped, and when you look up at him he's literally frozen. who are you? why has he never seen you around? why do you look so pretty? hey, where's that romantic instrumental playing from? why-

"hey, mister, are you okay? i didn't hit your head or anything right?"

and trust me when he's the literal embodiment of the ":0" emoji.

anyway, but that guy has never had a crush before so at first he just feels like its some kinda internal intuition? that there's something wrong with you or something.

but then he finds himself trying to find your class, sitting there on the excuse of talking to some friends and obviously he's welcomed there.

and he figures that his initial impression might be a wrong because you were such a sweetheart. not as popular as him, and you stuck to your 2-3 friends but he saw the way you would smile at people - a gentle, warm one. and he quite literally died when you greeted him that way once, surprised that you would know about his existence

it wasn’t that he forgot he was famous but having a crush really does wonders to your self esteem.

also you best believe he's digging up all your information, your past schooling if you've transferred, your parents' background, your social media and duh, where you live, where you work.

and if you work somewhere like a cafè or a convenience store, he's there for half the day, "studying" for exams and stuff, he claims it helps more than studying at home. and all the time his eyes barely register a page because he's looking at you as you're hard at work, helping customers, greeting them with that damned, charming smile and then in rare moments he looks at you as you lose that demeanor and sigh out of exhaustion. poor baby, he wished he could something for you so bad in those moments.

and then comes the part where his friends (he has a lot of friends but he believed that when you have a crush you shouldn’t tell everyone? also given his popularity... he figured it wouldn't be a greatest idea ever. so he only told like a guy or two) they adviced him to just go up to you and ask you out? what's the problem even? he's literally the golden boy of the school, why would someone reject him ever? you shouldn’t even be worried about that, dude! but with that confidence in himself, he decides on a day, nothing too significant and he looks at himself in the mirror.

"uh, actually, i do have a partner," did you hear that? the glass shattering? uh, that was his heart. that was his reaction when you told him this. but it was true, you had a partner in another country (which made sense that the yandere did not come to know of this before because he had been following you, just to make sure you were safe ofcourse, and he did not see a persosn who could classify as a romantic threat) and you loved them very much! no matter how cute and great this guy was, you were loyal to them.

and now cue the yandere's sad era. but only for like a day or two. until he realizes something. this was absurd, you were rejecting him? when so many people would literally kill for something like this? it was unbelievable. but he was deadset, this was the first time he felt this way for someone and he was determind to make you feel the same, or at least keep you with him, and he would do it with any means necessary.

he realized that your friends' parents were mere employees in his dad's company so all it took was one meeting. "stop talking to y/n." for them to start ignoring you and they did not even try to keep it lowkey and you had to resort to sitting alone at lunch, giving an easy access to the guy who used it as a time to sit beside you and tell you about his day, nevermind the fact that for the first few times you would just up and leave. and then you finally decided to just snap.

"what the fuck do you want?" you look at him, frustrated by all these things, and changes happening in your life in less than a week.

he just smirked, that mf had the audacity to smirk? "you, ofcourse,"

now he wasn’t quite violent because he'd just entered adulthood, he did not want to fuck up and spend the rest of his years in jail (not that he actually would because his parents would be hiring the world's best lawyers for him) but he did imagine it, murdering your s/o. he did not know what they looked like, but all they saw was you happy in their arms and as much he loved that little smile of yours, he wanted it to be for himself! not someone else!

so anyway, after you storm out on him after the last conversation, you get your english test results back and a big, red F is staring at you.

and normally your parents weren't grade obsessed but you would boast to them about how good you were at english and how much you loved the subject and even the teacher agreed thaf you were good at it.

when you meet with the teacher after class, he just removes his spectacles and rubs his eyes, "listen, y/n, you're one of the smartest students i've had the pleasure of teaching. so make the right choice, it's good for your future. just say yes to him. he's not bad, you know,"

he was behind this???????

you felt even more utterly helpless when you found that the yandere's parents fund almost more than half of the school so there’s nobody who would be willing to go against them and help you, no matter how much you would plead them.

"a transfer? don't even think about it, baby, nobody is going to issue that certificate unless i say so,"

chills run down your neck as he whispers this. you were truly stuck with him.

#kimsmuse’s yanderes #yandere x reader #yandere #yancore #yandere blog #yandere prompts #male yandere #yandere drabble #yandere x y/n #yandere x you #yandere imagines #yandere writing #yandere oc #yandere rich guy #yandere darling #yandere scenarios #yandere headcanons #yandere fic #yandere blurb #yandere oc x reader #yandere oc x you #yandere oc x y/n #yandere x darling #yandere x gender neutral reader #yandere smut #yandere x female reader #yandere x male reader #lovecore #soft yandere

[hwang-intak-archive]

A P1Harmony Beginner’s Guide

Since I’m seeing lots of new people taking an interest in P1Harmony these days, I thought now is the perfect time to make a little guide like this that might help a few of you with getting to know the boys better^^

Guide Masterlist

Music Videos:

Siren

Breakthrough

Scared

Do It Like This

Do It Like This English Version

Gotta Get Back (feat. Pink Sweat$)

Doom Du Doom

Music Show Stages:

All Siren Era Music Show Stages

All Scared Era Music Show Stages

All Do It Like This Era Music Show Stages

Some Covers & Performances worth checking out: everything they do is worth checking out imo, but I can’t link every single thing they’ve ever done here skldajfölkads

Maniac (Conan Gray Cover)

Good 4 U (Olivia Rodrigo Cover)

At My Worst (Pink Sweat$ Cover)

Shine (Pentagon Cover)

Our Beloved Medley Vocal Cover

Billie Eilish Medley Dance Cover

(everything else is under the cut, because this got a bit long)

More fun stuff to watch: (in chronological order)

♢ Self Introductions [Keeho & Theo, Jiung & Intak, Soul & Jongseob] Basically what the title says, also shows how distinct their characters are very well! + they get to showcase their drawing skills (?)

♢ Stream Highlights from their appearance on Ara TV In which they eat, chat, and Keeho burps on live television. (I realize this doesn’t have eng subs so... if you’re learning/can speak Korean you’re welcome (?) Otherwise just watch them be cute uwu)

♢ Lunar New Year’s Celebrations 2021 Watch P1Harmony playing traditional Korean games and occasionally losing their minds a lil :’)

♢ A series of little interviews in collaboration with Wonderwall This is unfortunately pay2watch, but I wanted to link it anyways because these videos are what really made me fall in love with P1Harmony fully, plus they give a nice insight on their working process as well as the boys’ thoughts and feelings. By now you can find the full episodes on yt as well, if you have trouble finding them let me know and I can send you the links^^

♢ Hard Training Team [Ep 0, Ep 1, Ep 2, Ep 3, Ep 4] A fun little series to start getting to know their personalities!! Tbh all of their series are worth watching, you can check my series guide for those^^

♢ Secret Friend of Idols In which they play games fighting for regional Korean food and also Intak curses. 

♢ P1Harmony takes a lie detector test This speaks for itself tbh. Also Soul wants to see the world burn.

♢ To 2022 P1Harmony The Piwons sending video messages to their future selves!

♢ Weekly Idol Way too much happened here...

♢ Poster & MD Making Film for their first Tour Watch them being very handsome~

♢ P1Harmony building an Ikea shelf I will certainly not hire them to build any furniture for me whatsoever.

Vlives:

Until the end of 2021 they did so-called “partner vlives”, where they’d always pair up and do one or two scheduled lives within a certain amount of time. I thought since they’re fun to watch and eng subbed (mostly anyways...) I want to link a few here^^

SeobKee Age (Keeho & Jongseob) A father and one of his sons making food together.

JongJi-Boo (Jiung & Jongseob) INTJ-line giving life advice.

PlanTHEOing with Soul (Theo & Soul) They’re trying to grow plants and have close to no idea what they’re doing.

Dance Machine (Jiung & Intak) Half of dance line covering a bunch of songs and freestyling.

Ohyaho (Keeho & Theo) Two extroverts setting marshmallows on fire.

SaeTakSoul (Intak & Soul) Them making Dalgona candy and Intak doing 90% of the work. (But Soul is still being very cute so it’s all good~)

Some P1H Blogs to follow:

So you can fill your dash with the boys~ There are obviously a lot more blogs who post about them on here, but I wanted to give a selection of P1H-only blogs^^

@choi-taeyang

@choitaeyang

@huangintaks

@hwang-intak​

@hyunhun-88​​

@incorrect-p1h​

@jiung-s

@jiungweb​

@kee-ho​

@piwonies​

@stephen-yoon​

@tebaragi​

Guide Masterlist

more short guides per era: Siren Era Highlights - Scared Era Highlights - DILT Era Highlights

#p1harmony #p1h #keeho #theo #jiung #intak #soul #jongseob #yoon keeho #choi taeyang #choi jiung #hwang intak #haku shota #kim jongseob #p1harmony guide #kpop guides #kpop

[cmyk-anaglyph-honeycomb]

Hazbin Hotel Episode 5 Live Blogging

Spoilers below

Oh god this is kinda long. Again it is past midnight and I wont be editing this.

Three minutes in and I hate everything about Charlie's dad. Dude moves like a pool noodles. Not that big of a fan of his voice, but it matches everything else that's going on with him.

Rubber ducks?

The texture on whatever the edge of that couch looks like frozen static. Why is it like that? is it supposed to be glittering?

Everyone helping to fix up the hotel is nice but that level of support and cooperation kinda feels like it comes out of nowhere. Not a single on of the hotel gang had a comment about showing Satan a beatup hotel or that he's THE GUY in hell and they are perfectly okay and normal about meeting him. NONE of them are nervous about it???

Alastor looks like he's about to go feral, lol

Razzle and Dazzle suddenly showing up with zero introduction, that neat. And there the kitty that I assume is the hotel key and a mich needed plot device at the end of the season.

Wait are R and D pets?? Oop, they're they go. Nice cameos guys.

Acknowledging that Alastor named it the hazbin hotel only raises more questions as to why the named was kept.

Alastor not knowing what lucifer looks like feels wrong. Again he is THE GUY of hell, how does no one, especially an overlord, not at least know what he looks like.

Alastor saying fuck you is jarring, but in a funny way.

Lucifer is so hard to watch. Song time.

Alastor as a nun

Why are they having a dad battle?? what is their beef they've literally never interacted. It's just on sight.

oh god the fiddle.

accordion??

He called him a deas!?!

random woman...? Mimzy, okay.

She did not need to push Pen like that, poor man.

Finally Alastor backstory- hold on that doctor overlord tho.

Alastor being aggressive toward Husk is good development with Ep 4, but this should have happened first or in the same episode. Or the two episodes should've been released as a set. Anyway, see him come off as an antagonist is good considering he's supposed to be one and all.

Vaggie why would you mention Angel's drugs while trying to sell lucifer on your road to redemption plan?

Lucifer's 'wackiness' is getting tiring fast what's his character supposed- THAT FUCKING STATIC IS BACK. Its on the windows too now.

Somebody fucking said it, thank you. I don't doubt that Charlie coukd redeem so sinners, but most of them are used to doing whatever they want. Being in heaven is a hard switch and considered tge extermination are for fun, anyone who might get redeemed is not looking at a good time. Maybe if there was a way for them to be reincarnated thenthat would work better.

Giant Alastor. Welcome back to may favorite character list.

The hotel gang eating popcorn is funny. No notes.

Alastor actually carring about the hotel is interesting. Even if it is just for entertainment, him telling Mimzy to leave like that was neat. Also, is it just me or is Mimzy animated odd. It feels jerky, but not in an intentional way.

Song #2.

He sounds like a country singer trying a new genre for the first time.

He says that he cares about her so much, but he actively doesn't interact with her. Charlie says as much at the beginning of the episode.

Oh cool so they were never close, why?

Lilith is faceless because...? It kinda takes you out of the sad song moment.

Literally what was stopping them from getting to know each other? They lived in the same house. If ut was Lilith, she's been gone for seven years. If Lucifer cared about knowing his daughter that much he should have jumped on the chance, not make rubber ducks, or whatever he was doing. It wasn't like he was ruling hell cuz no one knows what he looked like.

Wait, why could Mimzy guess who he was if Alastor hardly knew him?

Credits are rolling. I did not care about either of the songs. Alastor makes this episode, Lucifer shatters it. He isn't even convinced Charlie's plan could work, he just wants to support her. Like good job as a dad, but support alone isn't going to get the job down.

Hopefully the next episode will answer if redeeming sinners is even a possibility, like physically.

Ep 5 is like my second or third favorite only cuz I don't really feel anything for the first two.

#hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin hotel #vivziepop #mostly possible #i guess #one of mine #2 cents

[therichantsim]

Hi! I hope you don't mind that I'm playing catch up. It looks like your blog theme changed, so I went to your main blog to catch up, so I don't what was going on in the comments, so please excuse me if I echo anyone else's thoughts. Even though my brain wouldn't let me fully engage, I kept reading until I couldn't. I paused keeping up at Rose Ceremony Part 2 S15.Ep:58-BMB34, but the last time I really checked in, was Giddy up and Footloose, so that's where I went back to. I'm just commenting on each episode as I go along again because I don't fell like I really read them, so there's a significant chance that my observations may shift as I progress. That said!

Giddy Up and Footloose S15.Ep:47-BMB25 - Wow! I mentioned before that it was a fun episode, but having seen all the dates now, this is by far my favorite. It put Chanel in the like column with Lucy, personality-wise. Romance-wise I was undecided because I still wasn't rooting for anyone yet. I also said before that Chanel is a sore loser who hides their shortcomings with arrogance, and while I still think that, I also think that arrogance is a natural state for her and that rather than hiding her short comings with arrogance, it's more like, she does not like to fail (who does?) but she doesn't have time to dwell on it, so she just throws on an extra layer of confidence that she has in reserve and moves right on. Her ego has been well-nurtured and even though he's not egotistical, Chanel would be the first (other than Trin) to put Quinton in check if his ego ever decides to out-pace him. I think I also said somewhere else that Chanel's confidence is (likely) deserved, but now I'm removing "(likely)" and giving her her due. She is all that, but is she marriage material for Quinton? I'm not entirely sure. Friends, though? Definitely. As long as the future Mrs. remains confident in the fact that she was chosen, I think they could be real friends post-show. Also, the 3-way convo with Draya, Yasmine, and Noemy once again had me in stitches!

Inner Child S15.Ep:48-BMB26 + Do You Still Believe? S15.Ep:49-BMB27 - It was never articulated, but I feel like Lucy's tears were from both relief and sorrow. Relief that someone actually got her to an extent, saw something of her and made an attempt to feed it. And sorrow because she had dismissed the first effort that person made, an effort that she's now realizing was an earnest one. Sorrow because she's so used to being disappointed in that respect that, even in the face of promise, she couldn't or wouldn't let her guard down. She probably thought the show would be fodder for her audience, if nothing else, but was caught off guard by the genuineness of it all (save for Trin's antics). She has an open curiosity about her because she's lived a life with few limits--for her, there's always something else or someone else, there's always the next one--but it seems like that's also made her take the things in front of her for granted. And poor Quinton, he was trying. That conversation over chess seemed to me like she was trying to rein in her expectations by defaulting a to contrary attitude, as if she was not just shutting Quinton out, but also telling herself don't let him in. I wonder if she was afraid that if she did let him in, he might come to believe she's as empty as she feels.

Art Therapy S15.Ep:52-BMB28 + Paint Sip and Kiss S15.Ep:53-BMB29 - First I'm going to say the first shot of Noemy had me laughing until I had hiccups! Now, Zahara's disposition during the date was a bit of a surprise to me. I was expecting her to be a little playful and silly, but it looks like her realization that she was more invested than she thought she was and that she did sign up in hopes of getting a happily ever after that could end up in someone else's hands put her in an introspective mood. I was surprised that Quinton not only interrupted their argument but also told Noemy to leave. He barely acknowledged any of the other interlopers, so I have to wonder if it was more than the scene they were making that made him feel like he had to intervene?

I'm trying to keep these short. I'm going to break here for now, but I'll be back soon enough; I hope you don't mind. I feel so refreshed after reading again!

First let me say you a such a breath of fresh air to this community and I truly enjoy your thoughts and opinions on my post. So please never feel like you’re being or doing too much. YOU ARE APPRECIATED this is good food for my creative soul. Now as far as my theme changing I am so blown I looked up and my theme was gone after spending so much time looking for the perfect one that worked with all of this god forsaken apps changes and updates. So I just threw the current one there as a place holder. Thank god for my main blog but I know people prefer to engage here. I love you thoughts on the dates and I’m looking forward to the reading your thoughts on the rest of the dates and the rosé ceremony.

#thanks for the ask! #therichantsim #becomingmrsblackburn2

[addictedtostorytelling]

i’ve been rewatching csi from the beginning (because i’ve never been able to make it past season 9 without grissom) and i’m finally up to the end of season 7… i have like 3 episodes left and i’m SAD. this team dynamic is so special to me and i feel this slow crawl of devastation that i’m (again) witnessing the end of what has been for 7 seasons. soon sara won’t be her usually cute and passionate self (in love too) that we get see in season 7, and she’ll leave, and then warrick is going to die, and grissom will leave… and nothing will ever be the same on this show. i don’t know how to get over it. how did you do it? how do i move on? how do i mourn this team dynamic that i’ve loved for so long and get used to new variations of the team? god, i wish grissom came back for a proper full ep earlier than the freaking series finale and the new show. i’m just… not sure how to enjoy without them all 😭

hi, anon!

yours is a very heartfelt question, and, unfortunately, i am probably the wrong person to answer it, because i never really "got over" the changes to the show post-s7, either.

not gonna lie to you: i have only watched the s10-s15 era of the show once through in its entirety.

the s8 and s9 angst i can deal with in order to get to the happy gsr ending in episode 09x10 "one to go." however, i hate all later seasons of the show beyond that point with all the salt that is in me, not only because of the cast turnover but also because the writing and production values of the show changed so much as to make the series (and the remaining characters) unrecognizable.

most of the time, i just straight-up ignore the fact that those seasons exist, preferring to imagine my own canon-divergent au version of the show (starting from the end of s7) instead.

i really do not engage with them unless someone sends me an ask.

that so, i can't exactly tell you how to learn to accept the new team or get comfortable in that altered narrative landscape. i never did, on either count.

instead, my advice is this: keep in mind you're not obligated to finish watching csi if doing so isn't enjoyable to you. you fell in love with a particular group of characters, story universe, and cast dynamic, and if those things went away or ship of theseus'd themselves into a production that is fundamentally different from the one you fell in love with in every way save name, you don't have to stick around anymore.

remember: you're watching this show as a hobby, not a job.

the #1 rule of fandom is to follow your bliss, so if you're not naturally motivated to finish the series—and especially if the thought of doing so is actively causing you dread—then you don't have to force the issue.

give yourself permission to say, "for me, the series ends with episode 08x01 'dead doll' or episode 09x10 'one to go' (or wherever you want to draw your line in the sand)" and then walk away.

if you need closure, write your own au version of what happens after that point or else find some fanfic author whose vision aligns with your own. keep living blissfully in your s1-s7 happy place with the original team graveyard, where grissom is the boss and sara stays in vegas and warrick doesn't die and they all keep solving cases together until retirement.

and then don't sweat it.

you're not being a "bad fan" or letting anyone down, and there's still plenty of material in the early seasons for you to engage with.

now.

if you absolutely feel you must finish the show (for whatever reason), i guess one thing i might suggest is to engage with work from fans who genuinely enjoy the later seasons. i know there are some folks in this fandom who adore the new characters and team graveyard version 2.0. they write meta and fic and make gifsets about it, and they have a total blast doing so. hanging around their blogs might help you to find things to appreciate.

another thing you might do is give yourself permission to "cherry-pick." watch just to see what happens. if there's stuff you like, go ahead and incorporate it into your conception of the show. the rest, discard. as i said above, you're not obligated to enjoy the show in a certain way and especially not "across the board." so if you like the fact sara has mother-in-law drama but hate the fact she gets divorced? then keep the first thing and toss out the second. if canon makes a stupid-ass decision, you can elect to ignore it.

and regardless of whether you ultimately decide to finish out your watch-through or not, don't forget: the beginning of the story—i.e., those seven golden seasons you so love—will always be there, and you can return to them as often as you want. the beauty of a story is that it exists in perpetuity. grissom, catherine, warrick, nick, sara, and greg will all still be there waiting for you, and you can continue to enjoy their dynamics however you best prefer them.

good luck, anon! if you choose to continue your watch, i hope you enjoy yourself. if not, then i hope you have fun mentally setting up shop in the early seasons.

i certainly do!

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

#answered #anon #asks: csi #let's talk shop #csiverse #later seasons

[whoslaurapalmer]

gomens!!!! season 2!!!!!!!!!!! a collection of thoughts

-first of all. mother of goddamn fucking mercy, david tennant -his FACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -he was out there putting his whole entire BEING in this role and good for him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! holy shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! goddamn

-related i loved crowley getting angry in ep1, that was gorgeous

-aziraphale the. landlord. LANDLORD??? -would aziraphale have charged rent in the first place? -he has no need for money vs keeping up human appearances vs he's petty but not like. landlord petty -show!aziraphale, though..........................

-idk. hold on i'm gonna say this now -i feel weird saying........'i might not have agreed with this choice' like especially weird here about this particular show because. -can i say i didn't dig a particular choice made by the man who co-wrote the book and co-wrote the episodes based on the book he co-wrote -like, i think that's just, entitled of me? or something like that. -but also. am allowed to disagree with neilman.

-like. the opening scene was Interesting (-also goodness is crowley not just the doctor in that scene. like damn. where's that post from a couple years back that was like 'david tennant knows his niche of playing near immortal beings with an attachment to a sentient vehicle, and can't drive' or whatever -anyway crowley really is just the doctor, living under different circumstances) -clearly there was time before eden, like, that's been very firmly established in all canons, otherwise when would crowley have fallen -i just didn't particularly. care to see it? -i think, crowley and aziraphale meeting in eden in particular, under those specific circumstances, under that discussion of ineffability vs free will, who did "Right" and who did "Wrong", was important, and -i felt like that was just being rehashed, here -and sometimes that vibe is important to continue -- do i think it was adequately addressed in all ways in s1? -- but sometimes i thought we were just doing the same sort of vibe over and over. and i wasn't sure if i liked it or not, if i thought it was narratively important or not -but!!!! the opening scene in ep 1 also matters a great deal for how ep 6 turned out.

-and there's also..............book!aziraphale+crowley and show!aziraphale+crowley are operating at VERY different spots on a character arc, this has been discussed before, even by neilman i think, and the tone of the show and what the scenes discuss are going to alter based on that

-like. there's stuff i disagreed with or just plain didn't LIKE in the first couple episodes -- then between watching 2 and 3 i accidentally saw spoilers for episode 6 -- and i was like, oh no, i don't like that. what the actual fuck, i hate it. that makes no sense. -- but then i got to ep 6 (and i had read a few meta posts in the meantime bc they kept coming up on a doctor who blog i check regularly) and i was like. it's. fine? it worked out better than i thought it would, actually. -so going through my original notes while i was watching to type them up is like. well i didn't like that. but i see why it was important.

-so now i'm like. well that initial ??? feeling went.......nowhere? cause i guess it's..............fine? hmm. and now i do not know how i feel about it as a whole. idk.

-like!!! i really didn't care for the extra backstory. like i just. i just didn't particularly care one way or the other about watching those scenes, they were just, meh to me, really. and i still feel meh about them, even in saying, yeah i guess that mattered to where they wind up -idk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! just. idk.

-ANYWAY!!!!

-you know miranda richardson was a choice, not complaining it's just very funny??? that she was madam tracy and now she's shax

-OH SHIT AND NINA WAS SISTER MARY LAST SEASON?????????

-okay but this is TERRIBLY funny, aziraphale just going 'we just gotta make them fall in love!' y'all. aziraphale. do you hear yourself.

-every day has really grown on me, hearing it so many times. find myself just casually humming it. although it's one of those songs that my brain insists on crossing with another song it thinks sounds similar, which happens a lot, so i also kept imagining it as, accidentally in love during the first few episodes.

-me, thursday night, after watching 1+2: did they just donna noble gabriel me, typing up my notes right now after watching it all: .............you know what, you could kinda say they did, in a way

-i have. little to absolute zero knowledge of any religious canon. quite frankly. but i do idly wonder about, the, actions and thoughts of god vs the actions and thoughts of the angels -oh especially with metatron!!!! if the metatron is supposed to be 'the voice of god' -but there is that stress in the book and in s1 about, they don't know. that's the thing, the angels and the demons don't actually, legitimately, 100%, know whether or not what they're doing is legitimately what they SHOULD be doing re: god and satan's actual wants in terms of existence and earth and fate -but we do see a little of that with job and quite honestly i wish i WAS up on religious canons to have more thoughts for that

-SPEAKING OF JOB!!!!! that was peter davison??????? i had no goddamn idea. i do want to go back and rewatch that -ty was an absolute terrible delight as ennon, what the fuck. oh my god.

-i had NO IDEA OR INCLINATION WHATSOEVER that crowley's apartment was hell-appointed. -seeing little analysis posts of people going 'aziraphale you have to see that crowley is LIVING IN HIS CAR and yet GABRIEL GETS A ROOM IN THE BOOK SHOP, THESE TWO HAVE NOT COMMUNICATED A SINGLE THING IN THE PAST FOUR YEARS, OR THE PAST ABSOLUTE AGE' by god. yeah. ugggggg :( -he's just living in his fucking carrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

-oh oh i loved muriel, oh my god. muriel, you sweet little bean -i love the scene where muriel is in the bookshop and muriel is mostly cast in the light from the window and aziraphale is mostly cast in shadow, i loved that

-i love that aziraphale keeps a diary. that's so fun

-people have pointed this out in doctor who as well about tooth and claw, but the difference between david tennant's actual accent and the accent he does as characters pretending to be scottish

-CROWLEY CAN FEEL WHEN THE CAR IS DRIVEN UNDER THE LIMIT????? HE CAN FEEL THE BENTLEY????????? -look. -look. -i'm not saying it but i'm thinking it. if he can feel the bentley and someone in the bentley. god. can someone please go write the fic. -no i don't know where on earth that sort of scene would take place in canon especially given that the two of them clearly have Very Little Concept Of Physicality With Another Human-Shaped Being, do not BOTHER me with petty details, it NEEDS TO EXIST and i don't have the time to do it by god please someone do it

-i can't say exactly what i mean by this like if pressed i cannot give examples but sometimes there would be dialogue and i'd go, ah. that's finnemore -cabin pressure is still top tier, okay.

-oh many people have said this by now but THAT CROWLEY'S IDEA OF ROMANCE IS SHELTERING FROM THE RAIN -crowley. -crowley.

-so getting shot or getting blown up would've discorporated them but crowley ingesting laudanum just. makes him drunk -you know what. i'm gonna say this one is on me bc honestly for atwq reasons as well i should read about laudanum

-nooooo god they were so cute in episode 5 - 'can i watch? <3' - 'YOU GAVE AWAY A BOOK??' - 'we don't dance.' TONIGHT YOU DO, CROWLEY

-that aziraphale's idea of romance is dancing............ -how many angels can dance on the head of a pin -AND THAT HE WANTS TO DANCE WITH CROWLEYYYYYYYYYY

-i love nina's. it's not genre awareness, but it's..........plot awareness? shenanigans awareness? something like that -speaking of nina and maggie though i was rather neutral on them as well like. no real feelings one way or the other

-'rescuing me makes him so happy.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -i love threatening!aziraphale a great deal. -see there's also........about aziraphale -i think it's easy to get aziraphale wrong, from a fandom standpoint. he's not a character i have any inclination to try and write in a fic honestly because i think. he has a great deal of layers in him. i mean not like an onion but. oh this thought is getting away from me -i just mean like............i think the one thing i would want to keep in mind is, aziraphale is just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing, that's key -and you have to balance that with him being an angel. and a bastard. and an angel. and a bastard -and i think there's lots of different ways to interpret those things into a fanfic and i don't know if i've ever seen it done................just right -like. in the of course fandom classic demonology or the tri-phasic model of trauma i think a lot about aziraphale being described as like............having such a severe kindness aubrey thinks of it as a KNIFE. and like a knife that he is wrapping in gauze in order to interact with her because he knows she is so unsettled by his capacity for kindness. -and i always roll that around in my head and wonder if i really, truly agree with it. because i think. yes. but also. no. -and show!aziraphale and book!aziraphale ESPECIALLY are at very different ends of Aziraphale In General -sigh. idk.

-'i haven't always been a demon. and they never change their password.' oh that was DELIGHTFUL -okay but see also. re: crowley -i've brought this up before but i think, when i first read gomens when i was..........16?? ish???? 15?????????? i didn't think a great deal, if at all, about crowley being technically a 'fallen' angel or of him having. any great angst about it, and that reading, pretty much stayed with me for a long time -but like, i get where it comes from? the angst? -i mean. there would have to be some feeling there, quite frankly. -i just thought a lot more about 'sauntered vaguely downward' which i think you can take at face value, or, as covering it up -idk all of this to say, sure i'm coming around to it. that line was particularly fun

-about the second apocalypse i was like 'ohhh this is what crowley and aziraphale meant by like. the end of the world wasn't the big thing, is the big thing is heaven vs hell' -and then metatron said SECOND COMING and i was like OH, SHIT, THOUGH

-'it's a container. it's bigger on the inside.' are we sure we aren't just watching doctor who -i.............guess i liked beelzebub and gabriel more than i thought i would -i appreciated THAT extra backstory, bc otherwise. that was. i mean not necessarily out of nowhere -- we do know angels and demons, besides crowley and aziraphale, negotiate with each other bc of hastur and michael with the hellfire and holy water -- but also would've been still. out of nowhere -!!!!! that it's like!!!!!! it IS that easy!!!!! to just be with your person, and want to be with them!!!! and it's NOT AT ALL that easy!!!!!! and it is!!!! and it isn't!!!!!! -that you have to give up Something, probably. but that what you get is. love. and it should be so easy to just walk hand in hand away with someone and be with them (-and also. that sometimes it's going to take work. you're not always ready right away, with nina and maggie) -and the other point here is like. the ultimate end here is not a fight between heaven and hell. that will go nowhere. and maintaining status quo isn't sustainable either, things are constantly changing, the only way forward is genuine discussion and collaboration and. maybe sometimes love. -and also that beyond aziraphale and crowley's STUNNING LACK OF COMMUNICATION...............they can't leave earth. (i mean aziraphale does but bear with me) gabriel and beelzebub have no stake or interest in human beings. but crowley and aziraphale have been there the whole entire time. they stopped the apocalypse for somewhere selfish reasons but also because they've got a personal duty to earth and what they love about it. as well as each other, but also, earth and humans and comforts and. all these other worthwhile things -and it's where the two of them are, too!!!!!!!!!!!!! aziraphale's book shop, crowley's car, a place where the two of them always are. always come back to. always have. -until it's not. :(

-'nothing lasts forever.' -aziraphale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -my GOD

-the kiss really is, terrible to watch and that's like. that is the point, i do agree with the posts that say that -it's not supposed to be romantic bc it's NOT a romantic moment at all, it IS very sad and desperate and embarrassing and. heartbreaking. soul-crushing. i watched that whole scene with my hands over my face from the agony of it all. -and they really never have. done anything physical or physically romantic like that before, why would they have? as an angel and a demon and with THEIR STUNNING LEVELS OF AVOIDANCE AND NO COMMUNICATION -so yeah, by the time we got there, i was like, no, i get where you're coming from. i see where this goes with how show!aziraphale stands. he clings a lot harder to.........an idea of Goodness in a way that hurts him and especially crowley, and has more of a......loyalty? an at the end of the day sort of loyalty to heaven that is more surface for book!aziraphale

-quite frankly i don't intend to seek out any fix it fic because like.........this isn't the kind of thing that is, say, successfully, fixed, in a, fix it. like.............this is the sort of thing that's gonna be agonizing to try and repair between the two of them. and that, i'm looking forward to, i think. -and like, even if aziraphale wanted to get out of the elevator? if he wanted to change his mind? (which, i don't think he does? he's so upset he's avoiding everything else and just COMMITTING to this.) he CAN'T. he knows he can't. heaven would absolutely not let him out of that elevator to go back, now that he knows what metatron wanted him for.

-oh i always forget derek jacobi is metatron!!!!! look at him go!!!!! coming in, getting a little coffee (i love the 'has anyone ever asked for death?'), ultimately being such a fucker. i LOVE him. -bbc really does have 3 actors, don't they. -i know it's just that good actors find their way around and literally everyone has shown up on doctor who. i mean, you can do this with classic who, too! onslow my bone-idle beloved from keeping up appearances shows up somewhere along the line in trial of a time lord. -it's just fun to joke about :)

-i think a big thing existing here is also..............no one knew what to expect out of a second season? because we got all of the book. even if the sequel had existed in vague plans out there in the universe, just unwritten, the only one who knows what's in there now is neilman. as an audience we didn't know what to expect -and a lot of things happened in this season!!!! a lot that people WANTED!!!! and then all of it ended in a VERY UNEXPECTED HEARTBREAK -that does track with the rest of the season -but is also. not at all what anyone thought would happen, in a season 2, in any way shape or form -and i'm still rolling it around in my head. will be for a while. would like to watch s1 again. and reread the book again

#good omens spoilers #oh shit this wound up way longer than i thought it would be. #this is all i got for right now

[danbisroom]

Ep. 1 - Autumn People

Hello everyone,

I hope to find you all well.

Firstly I’m going to introduce myself and this blog.

I am Danbi, and I’ve been having this project in mind for a while now. As some of you might imagine this blog is inspired by Chan’s Room, a weekly Sunday live hosted by Stray Kids’ leader Bang Christopher Chan. Unfortunately, last May, Chris had to stop his weekly lives after years of activity.

I deeply miss Chan’s Room and the safe space it was for many of us, so finally I made up my mind to do somehing similar myself, even if in written form. I hope it can become a safe space where we can interact and support each other, not only between Stays (Stray Kids’ fans), but including every person who will pass by.

Each and every week I’m going to post a sort of letter inspired by a topic found along the way - it would be amazing if during the next few weeks it came out from the community itself!

To conclude this introduction, I will explain why I’m starting now. The first episode of Chan’s Room was on the first Sunday of 2019, five years ago. Today’s the first Sunday of 2024.

Now, let’s get to today’s topic: Autumn people. Autumn people? “Cozy people”, if you will. Healing people. People who make you calm and warm, like a cup of chocolate gently sipped sat under a fuzzy blanket on an Autumn afternoon, during the blue hour.

Since I live in the Northern hemisphere that picture especially reminds me of October, even if this year October’s been pretty hot to be honest. We really need to work hard on fighting climate change. Anyway, I’m digressing.

This whole concept of the Autumn person made its way into my mind quite naturally, but slowly, until recently I finally connected some dots and came up with a name that could represent this feeling. It was a relief. I don’t know if that happens to you too, but I often have some “pictures” in my brain that I tend to associate together without exactly knowing how and why. So yeah, putting these images together and giving them a name was both a surprise and a serendipity. It happened a few days ago, on a night when I couldn’t sleep. Maybe it was because of that, my mind needed to give birth to this name, Autumn people. After I wrote that down I finally managed to fall asleep.

I guess I’ve instinctively chosen Autumn because it’s my favourite season, despite the shorter days: the weather cools off, you can wear hoodies and walk on fallen crunchy leaves while admiring the beautiful warm colours of the ones which are still on the trees. The air is crispy and if there is some sun it gently caresses your cheeks while making everything glow with its slanted and golden rays. I find that very refreshing.

Another reason why I’ve chosen Autumn is that some people I deeply care about were born during this season, specifically just then, in October.

The amazing woman who I consider my bigger sister marks the last days of the month - her birthday is also the day where my mom found out she was pregnant with me. It’s really a match made in heaven. She’s my pillar, someone who always gives me good advice and reminds me to be strong and responsible when I can’t manage to keep up with adult life. A literal angel who appeared in my life when I needed her the most, after spending my childhood praying for the older sibling I never had.

In the middle of October there was another miracle: the incredible woman I consider my younger sister fought for her life since her first second on Earth and won. She did not only live but grew up to be a beautiful strong butterfly, who the immense generosity of the universe made enter my existence, sprinkling glitters of joy on my days, with her marvelous delicate wings. She’s my healing person, who always manages to put a smile on my face and make me feel at ease. She was a ray of sunshine in a moment of my life where I was at my lowest, again, after spending my childhood praying also for the little sister I never had.

Lastly, but as a grand opening for the month of October, we can’t forget the birthday of the man who inspired this blog, our wonderful Chris. Even if I don’t know him personally I’m deeply grateful to him for working so hard, making extraordinary music, caring so much about us and putting Stray Kids together. He’s such a kind and warmhearted person, being always there for others even when he’s the one needing others the most. An incredible artist who never fails to give his art the love it deserves. A friend who never let us down on Sundays, even when he was super busy and tired he showed up for Chan’s Room, giving comfort to everybody.

I hope I can give you even just a hundredth of the peace he conveyed during his lives.

I will conclude here for this first episode - I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know in the comments!

Have a beautiful week, big hug!

Danbi

#blog #danbisroom #chans room #stray kids #bang chan #autumn #cozy #cozycore #safe space #community #angel #butterfly #siblings #friendship

[reviewsbyliam]

Robbie Z

INTERVIEW #01

18.09.2023

Written by LW

Photos via @iamrobbiez (IG)

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Waking up and realizing the life you're living isn't exactly what you desire anymore and deciding to pursue your passion, move to a city in another country and devote yourself to trying to become somebody in the world can be an extremely scary thought for many, but not for this one person.

Today, the first guest on my blog that has been kind enough to sit and speak with me about the stories behind not only himself but also his music and the pain and happiness that has accompanied him along the way is aspiring independent artist, Robbie Z.

L: Hey, Robbie! Thank you for taking the time to speak with me about yourself and your career today, I really appreciate it! You are the first artist to be interviewed on my blog, so it is an absolute pleasure of mine to accommodate your story today!

R: Hi Liam, so nice to meet you! Congratulations on starting your blog! This is really cool, good luck with it! And thank you for having me as your first guest, it's an honour!

L: Thank you so much, Robbie! It's kind of crazy and I cant thank you enough for the opportunity to do this together, now let's get into it!

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L: You started your professional career in 2018, it's now 2023, whats the journey been like for you?

R: Ahh, it's been so exciting! Music is what I want to do long term. It's my passion, so growing up doing that and learning from my mistakes has been amazing. It's an amazing thing that I started so young to be honest. I always knew I wanted to do this; I started recording covers in 2014, when I was 11/12 and started writing my own music when I was 15 in 2017! So, when I was around 14, I thought "huh.. I wanna do that? Then I might as well start now if I wanna get good at it young." Because when I started I was really bad haha… but it also helped me get thick skin in terms of bullying etc. it's been amazing, but it's truly only the beginning!

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L: I've seen that you have inspiration from Iggy Azalea, who else in the music industry compels you to want to do more?

R: I've always been a fanboy.. Some incredible women besides Iggy who "raised me" as an artist are definitely; Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus. More recently, I've been really loving Madison Beer, Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Taylor Swift.. I get really inspired by these artists to work hard and achieve all my goals. It really drives me forward.

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L: The vibe of The Butterfly Trap is very fresh, a total feeling myself energy, but it also includes emotional parts that relate to the listeners life - what kind of vibe can we expect from the new project?

R: Ahhh, thank you! Writing the first EP, I was kind of in a tough spot mentally.. I wrote it from the ages of 18 to 19 and I was going through a lot of stuff that I couldn't understand in my life which made me very confused, sad, angry… This new project is totally different.

First of all, it's elevated in terms of quality in the songwriting, recording etc. Secondly, in "The Butterfly Trap", I was really vague while talking about the struggles.. Masking them in a lot of metaphors. I was afraid to speak of these topics in songs as I was still going through what I was going through while writing. This new project "Dear Diary," is more so me reflecting on situations whilst also having fun, a less anxious, more out going alter-ego of mine! But, as fun as it is, it also has some deep messages that really cut deep for me and it just even feels a little uncomfortable when someone listens to some of these new songs as they're so personal to me. Hence the name, "Dear Diary". It's supposed to be inspirational and honest, but it also talks about lots of different topics such as following your dreams, getting your dreams taken away from you, one sided love, letting yourself live freely.. It's basically 6 different diary entrees of mine put into songs.

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L: I've noticed you have a lot of unique sounds. Do you enjoy being multi genre and having the ability to switch flows whilst also being able to use sounds that seperate you from the rest?

R: Honestly? I love mixing genres. I love rap verses with pop hooks, rock hooks, punk, ballads, anything. But, I've been spending time trying to find my sound and I think I've finally found one that is just perfectly me, right now. This new single '5 Dollars & a Dream' is exactly what I would want to be remembered with regarding the genre, flow, lyrics etc. I don't want to give myself any labels as a "pop artist" or a "rock artist" etc. I just consider myself a rapper/singer who likes to change. But Pop Rap is what I would describe it as if I have to!

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L: 5 dollars + a dream (a song that is beautiful by the way and extremely reminiscent of Iggy's earlier work which I LOVE entirely) , whats the story behind this track and what was the process like behind making it?

R: Oh my god, thank you so so much!! This song means the most to me so I really appreciate the nice words. The story behind the track… I think it's pretty straight forward to be honest, which is why I'm a little afraid of people hearing it. It's about knowing what you want to do, having started that and just following your dreams (as lame as it sounds). The song talks about some parts of my story, which I've never been vulnerable about in songs before. And not letting myself give up. Making the song was an absolute blast. One night a few years ago I was in my bed, in my home town in Bulgaria, and I thought of the phrase "I got five dollars and a dream…" with the melody and I wrote it down, then last year as I was packing up to move to London, I wrote the first verse which goes like "I took all of my belongings and I put them in a suitcase…" Initially I wanted it to be a song I write for my first album one day, but it just felt right so I brought it to my producer "SojBoj" , we made the instrumental and a demo and then I wrote the second verse and recorded it! It was really fun!

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L: There is a lot that goes into being an independent artist, how has that been for you so far? Have you had any label offers yet?

R: Being indie or signed each have their own ups and downs / good and bad sides, it just really depends on what an artist wants.. For me? I've been fortunate enough to grow, learn and find myself as an independent artist. I couldn't imagine starting out with a record deal from the beginning. But now I feel I'm ready to get signed and get this party started. Being indie obviously gives me the opportunity to have full creative control which I'm not willing to sacrifice. Whilst it's not for everyone, for me, when the right deal comes, it'll definitely be something I do, because the connections and resources a label has are so worth it for a young artist like me.

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L: Who have been your main musical inspirations behind this new project thats coming later this year?

R: Ahh! Well, whilst there hasn't been a specific one, I'd say, of course I'm always super influenced by Iggy Azalea; especially her first album 'The New Classic'. '5 Dollars & a Dream' is actually kind of inspired by her song 'Work'. But I'm also now inspired by a lot of punk rock music, more contemporary pop-rocky songs, A lot of just everyday things that I romanticise and turn into songs. Sonically, I make what I want to hear, putting my own input on the kind of music I like. Like a mixture of everything I like, quite literally.

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L: You're doing a show at the Metre Squared In London after the single drops, are you excited to perform and what should people expect to see?

R: I love performing! Back in Bulgaria, I had some performing experience, but when Covid hit, it was hard to get performances.. I did a car-concert, it was super fun! I was in a big truck performing to around 100 cars! I was an opening act for a drive-in movie theatre. When I moved to London though, that is when it really started for me with the performances. I've done some shows the past year that amazed me with the amount of people who came to have fun and listen to music, but also the people who actually know my songs and connect with it, it's my favourite thing in the world. The show is coming up on the 14th of October in Metre Squared in London, and tickets for that show are on sale now! I'm super excited. It'll be the first time I perform my EP, prior to it's release!

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L: With your new music coming very rapidly, and a show coming up around the corner, are you looking forward to what the future holds for you and where your art will take you?

R: I am a very goal orientated person, I've got lots of big and smaller goals that I will accomplish soon. I don't like sharing those before they come true, but I have to say; I've got something that I'm working really hard for that I really hope to get to do within the next year. Plus also, always lots of new music! I've got stuff planned for even after the EP, and my releases will become more often too!

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L: For our last question, Robbie, I want to ask you - who in the music industry, whether it be a singer, rapper, producer, writer, absolutely anyone, who would you love to work with the most and why?

R: There's a bunch of people I admire and would find it an honour to work with, but off the top of my head, I'd say a producer that I would really want to work with one day is Jack Antonoff! He's incredible, it seems like to be so much fun working with him. Dan Nigro is another one, he created Olivia Rodrigo's first two albums with her, he's amazing! Artist-wise, Iggy Azalea. She inspired me to start all of this craziness, she helped me find my path when I was really young and I just admire her for a hundred other reasons, it would be CRAZY. I think maybe a song of mine with Ice Spice or Charli XCX would be so fun too! Me and Charli XCX have to make a song about cars together one day!

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L: Well, Robbie, it has been absolutely beautiful and a true pleasure speaking with you and getting to hear your thoughts about your music and everything to do with your grind! I would also like to thank you for letting me hear your new single prior to release! I am excited for whats to come from your career given the product that we already have from you and the world should prepare themselves for the undeniable force that is yourself!

R: Thank you so much for having me, Liam. It means so so much to me, the questions were great, they made me think deeper and I really enjoyed it!

L: I'm glad to hear that, Robbie! Once again, thank you SO much for being my first guest on my blog and hopefully this wont be the last time we speak! I look forward to hearing your new EP!

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To anyone reading; Robbie Z's new single '5 Dollars & a Dream' from his new EP 'Dear Diary,' comes out this Friday, September 22nd!

It'd mean the world to me, as his interviewer and to him as an indie artist if you gave it a listen!

You can also buy tickets to his upcoming show on October 14th at Metre Squared in London in his INSTA BIO (@iamrobbiez)!

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[niaking]

I just finished binge-watching Cowboy Bebop: the live-action version and the original anime. I'm dipping my toes back into blogging to offer a little comparison and some thoughts on both.

I initially watched the anime in the early 2000s, when it first became available in the US in English. I was about 13. I remember having a strong attachment to the characters, especially Ed and Ein, generally liking the show, and loving the theme song. It was also, almost definitely, the first anime I'd ever seen, so the novelty of it might have been part of what had me enraptured.

The show hits very differently at 36 than it did at 13. It seems clear to me that Ed and Ein were added for comic relief, because the rest of the show is pretty damn dark. It's about a group of bounty hunters (basically freelance cops, not heroes) who are always broke, always hungry, and [spoiler alert] never seem to catch the "bad guys." They are also set up by the system to fail/never receive a major payout.

Apparently the live-action version has gotten a lot of bad press, so I'll start with what I liked about it.

The aesthetics are probably number one. If you have a weakness for antiquated technology like I do, you may get a kick out of seeing VHS tapes, flash drives, and old-ass computers in the "future."

I also thought the show did a great job with costumes, specifically matching them to the original anime. It's particularly striking with the characters of Katerina Solensan (ep. 1 of the live action) and Maria Murdock (ep. 4 of the live action). I appreciated the update to Faye Valentine's outfit: She still looked tough and sexy, but wasn't nearly as nude.

Speaking of updates, the live-action version is way less racist, sexist, and transphobic than the original. I remembered none of that from my initial viewing, but rewatching the original, it was pretty hard to ignore. I appreciate the creators of the live-action version for that.

The casting, another strength, probably helped. I think making Jet Black actually Black was a great choice. I wasn't initially sold on John Cho as Spike or Daniella Pineda as Faye, but they grew on me over the course of the show (especially when I learned that Pineda is Mexican, from Oakland, and went to the same college as I did).

Also, the live action version is way gayer (and kinkier) that the anime.

Now on to what I didn't love.

It seems hard to play a cartoon character. I thought all the main actors did a fine job, but so much of what made the anime characters lovable made the live-action characters unbearable. In the original, Jet has real strong grumpy dad vibes, Spike is the too-cool-for-school older brother, and Faye is the annoying kid sister. (None of them are blood-related.)

All of those traits were essentially retained, but while it's ok for a cartoon character to be flat, a live-action character has to be, well, three dimensional. For example, in the live action, Jet seems super one note, his one note is trying to be a good dad. The original Jet didn't have a kid, and I thought giving him one was an odd choice.

When I first watched the anime at 13, Spike Spiegel seemed *so cool.* Upon rewatching the cartoon, I realize what signified coolness then was his constant drinking/smoking, fearlessness, detached demeanor, and fighting abilities.

Rewatching it as an adult, his smoking and drinking seem like addictions, his fearlessness comes across as a death wish, and his detachedness comes across as insufferable arrogance and emotional repression.

It seems clears that Spike has PTSD, but refuses to talk about his feelings/memories/trauma with anyone, despite Jet offering the space to share several times (ep. 2). So much the show is about toxic masculinity, which I'll get into in a later post.

Spike's fighting skills are still pretty sick though. I thought the live-action fight sequences were well-choreographed and fun to watch. And of course, in both the anime and the live-action version, all fight scenes are set to incredible music. In both versions, the opening title sequence is a real highlight. And not just because the theme song rules... but it really does.

Part two, coming soon.

#cowboy bebop

[feuqueerfire]

From Now On, Showtime! Live Blogging

This is actually one of the first non-queer kdramas I added back on MDL after I started getting into BL/GLs because I saw a clip on twitter (from ep 4? idk) where he's doing a magic trick with floating cards with the help of ghosts.

Finally managed to download something onto my iPad to watch on my long-ass commute.

Ep 1 (June 14)

ah he’s a shaman fr

Was that in the past or it happened now?

Ah magician Cha Cha Woong

he’s got ghosts helping him right?

This cop reminds me of the MC of Midnight

Ah ofc the arrow

How’d he even dooo that oh wait was a ghost riding the bike

First meeting

Switched helmet? Will the camera catch Cha Woong being weird w the ghosts

Pls the hearts

Lol the dash cam catching all this convo, he even mentioned ghosts

Ah so grandpa dying was indeed in the present

Oh corrupt Chief Seo is Captain Heesoo’s father

Nooo how did neighbour dad-to-be die

He was murdered?!

Cha Woong is sooooo heartless

I wonder what the dashcam actually recoded though bc i wanna know the crime scene

pls not the ghosties protecting him against her arresting Cha Woong

I was wondering if he'd reveal the ghosts or not - he could still spin it as a silly joke like "ahaha a ghost ofc" but we'll see

Ep 2 (June 14)

lol ghost Mr. Ma (?) reminiscing on his thug days when he'd be taken to the police station

wait are they supposed to be a romance? why did they linger like that on her grabbing on to him? I thought maybe she and the sunbae would become something

who is that guy? some boss at the car place - he easily seems like the one who ran the dude over, though my initial guess was actually the Chief Seo guy - the detective mans dad

...it's not 1004 but there's a car with 1604 near the bakery?

lol the SUV of the company indeed the boss. so if they've found it so quick

ah is this a 2-ep format like Tomorrow? deal with a new ghost every week?

why didn't the ghosts come to get the helmet?

ah, confession under duress - will this actually work? ig it might by drama logic

oh loll this is the card floating trick that I saw on twitter

ah, so they managed to get and restore the helmet, that feels necessary

so is the Chief Seo protecting Seul Hae by not letting her be a detective (since the son mentioned that his father still feels bad about what happened to her dad) or is he covering his tracks by ensuring she can't catch him doing something bad?

so this is softening Cha Cha Woong, I see

ah man love triangle already? Cha Woong getting jealous seeing her and the detective after telling her to never come near him again? be serious

pls T.T this worshipping spirit scene

too dark, idk what's happening but Chief Seo and Seul Hae's dad fighting some spirit? oh he was killed by the full moon murderer? did they ever catch him?

oh i see, he fell off the cliff

oh? that's the full moon murderer? in the fishing village? idk why they're zooming in on his ear - is there a bullet hole or smth? te split on his ear?

or where'd that flashlight come from and who picked it up under the water?

wtf is that voice - slight horror vibes here?

damn bruh, that was Cha Woong's dream/nightmare that the Worshipping Spirit gave him?

ah, Cha Woong fainting and Seul Hae having to hold him up, okay

Ep 3 (June 15)

watched the first half while going to get my covid booster + waiting afterwards

so he doesn't have to be a shaman, just needs to do good things to get thanks from Seul Hae

oh, that's why everyone could see the worshiping spirit, they're all ghosts

plsssss ofc the cops barge in when they're here

The first half of the episode was so boring, my goodness but at least it picked up once we got to the gambler son story

Ep 4 (June 15)

damn some past life stuff?

second lead Heesoo is annoying wtf is "just to clean? this late? just you two?"

damn, what's happening - this creepy vibe

oh second couple? eh

ohh i was like why is he being so nice to this cafe owner but it's actually the ghost's pay i guess?

a dark soul into this Soondong dude's body oof the spirit is killing people on the full moon again but how'd it go into that lamp thing all this time

ah, so Cha Woong's grandpa and the whispering spirit had sealed the full moon spirit and drowned it

oh, Cha Woong and Seul Hae's past life that we saw a glimpse of is from the worshipping spirit's time?

Do we always need a Joseon era past lives connection in these fantasy type kdramas lol I watched Tomorrow recently and that had that too

Ep 5 (June 16)

Thoughts after watching the whole thing.

the full moon murderer at it again and this time he even saw Seul Hae

ah Cha Woong saw Seul Hae’s dad that last day + saw her at the funeral while she hates his grandpa shaman - Aris drug sting ah

the fuckass love triangle stuff is irritating like why are we doing this posturing thing. also the male bestie who is so possessive of his female bestie is a boooo trope

how is he suddenly such a good fighter, the ghosts are helping or what

Ep 6 (June 16)

Thoughts after watching the whole thing.

ah this chief is soooo agh full of corruption

Plsssss side girl’s reading of herself being dangerous and greedy and telling him to be careful

the cha woong fiancé wannabe is such a bitchhhh but she's funny i can’t decide if i like her or not

ahh the argument about grandpa vs father at the police station is great

ohhh i want the chief dead “why don’t you quit the force and find a nice man to marry” um die you fucking crook cheat corrupt ladder climber

at least he gather up 1 tiny bit of courage to go after the full moon murderer even if he returned a decade later

chief is soooooo booooooooooo ew

Ep 7 (June 16/17)

oh, she died because of him? he accidentally killed her?

worshiping spirit's goal is to connect the two of them? what? what was the mistake he made?

so he was a robber thief man and then the evil spirit got him?

ah the sunbae asks her to weekend bowling and now Cha Woong has to also get a move on. he's so silly tho repeating every last word gbye

I wish the evil spirit man wasn't the only one with a limp or some sort of disability in the show

don't kill herrrrrrrrrrrr D:

plssss her arguing with the grim reaper

but now she can tell them the guy who came to beat her up, right? ask herrr

pls can't she just say what the dude was wearing and stuff bc then at least they can check the CCTV again etc

wait wtf, her husband killed her?

The fact that all the pure and 7 whatever have been all women is boring and predictable boo

Ep 8 (June 17)

the evil spirit could tell the husband was "like him?"

oh at least we get one dude with the pure 7 skies thing or whatever

plsss not the bed-sharing to see the ghosts in the video

i wish we got to see a bit more of the aftermath of catching the husband and how the sunbae and his father reacted to it all

oh the people who the evil spirit had buried were the parents of the house?

evil spirit is also from 2000 years ago goddamn but i think we knew that, right? since the ghost was release from the Cha family

Ep 9 & 10 (June 17)

ngl i really don't care about their past lives

a ring magic trick??? be srs

pls why do seul hae and cha woong keep getting into these unintentional couple face-offs

what is this couple's match where only the guys play

ah

plsss the grandma telling him that "aigoo, you have bad taste in women" because he likes yeji

i need the chief to die sooooo terribly like just painfully take that coward out you piece of shit

I can't remember when I went onto the next ep without doing the new ep thing but I guess it's around here.

they really left the evil fucking spirit at a place just like that so that some kids can easily release it fr?

plsssss Yeji has such a rancid personality, she's so funny

ah, is the grandma gonna die?

damn, she's really leading him into a secluded place by themselves? bruv. but ig him somehow recognizing her will save her

ah as expected he too recognizes her from 2000 years ago

couldn't you just have stuck the paper on him, this time of meeting and then nothing coming out of it is annoying

at least Hee Soo sunbae knows the truth about his father and the tragedy 10 years ago now

hm would Hee Soo die trying to get full man murderer?

anyway since early on, the chief and his son's relationship where the father is corrupt and the son wants to seek justice has reminded me of Beyond Evil (it was done better in BE) and I miss that show.

I've also been like ah, this past lives thing reminds me of Tomorrow and I don't care about it whatsoever. let's stay in the present pls

Ep 11 (June 17)

ah, this old-time past-life stuff

oh, he got the evil spirit into the bottle?

yang taechoon is an ordinary man now right, no evil spirit within him - just regular evilness that made the spirit choose him? - though i wonder if he'll manage to free the spirit again or what

oh Hee Soo shot him

oh she can see the ghosts now

ewwwww the way the detectives talk about Seul Hae "she always talks about her goal to be a detective but her goal's to actually be with you" "be careful or she'll put those shackles on you" agh

plsss so funny to see Yeji's rotten personality around the cop dude's mother like oh miss you're gonna regret it

agh we're just going through the past life and it could be okay what with the treats Poong Baek was facing etc but fr is Seul Hae's old life just spent cooing over Poong Baek or what. did i intend to watch a show where our main female lead is just pureness and boy crazy?

Joseon era powerful princess or whoever in high station being kind to the poor people is so eye-roll worthy ngl

ah, that's why the ring is significant

she's sooo cute and pretty and funny pls the way she got a proposal out of him

...aren't the evil spirit man and Cheon Hwa related... like if he's the illegitimate son and his brother is the king and she's the princess, then she's his niece?

bruh 40 minutes of the joseon era past and we still don't know the full story? be serious

Ep 12 (June 17)

man we're still on the past-life train

oh i see, never mind so mans gave his own brother the king of his own kingdom the poisoned concoction, not Seora's king. so they are indeed not related, i was so confused

ah, so he really was a traitor? i thought he's been framed but maybe not?

ah indeed he was framed

why do i always have to watch women be abused or treated as property in these shows like we can have fantasy of seeing ghosts and magic but not enough fantasy to not have women face sexism and abuse?

ah they're finally dying over 30 minutes in, so we'll get to go back to present time

oh damn Cha Woong already told Seul Hae about their past life, interesting I didn't think it'd be such a footnote in their interactions

plsss Cha Woong becoming soooo weirdly sweet now, my man is sooo in love with her (including her past life self lol) and keeps remembering it pls like it's a little weird actually <- ah she thinks so too that he keeps reenacting past life stuff

pls him saying he'll wait for her to kiss him

....would Hae Soo end up being evil? That'd be cowardly of the show to do

ohhh the reason the worshipping spirit is making up for his bad karma with the Cha bloodline is because he betrayed Poong Baek?

bro i needed this flashback to be 2 minutes max but we're getting everything

ahh, Hae Soo pretending (I'm assuming?) that he's just like his dad reminds me so much of Beyond Evil - but also ummm why is that voice sounding? Is Hae Soo possessed by the evil spirit or something

oh fuck they really made Hae Soo be an evil spirit victim. this would've been better if Seul Hae still liked him or was dating him but now it just feels cowardly as a way to remove him as an option

Seul Hae is for real the only female cop and detective

It does make sense that the evil spirit isn't fully gone because it'd be too easy otherwise

Ep 13 (June 17)

plsss even the grandma reading that the son's gf (Yeji) is not a good person

eww hae soo

it's dark, i can't see anything

ah they're together now i guess

i'm glad dongcheol found his gf tho

Ep 14 (June 18)

lmao all the ghosties against Cha Woong and Seul Hae relationship

oooaaaa so Yongryul's not rich and Yeji's gonna end up actually liking him

plssssss Cha Woong unable to help Seul Hae and it being the awkwardest thing on this double date good bye I'm dying

i think Seul Hae could've told Yeji about why he's not helping her lol this is so awkward I'm gonna crawl into a hole

ahh this fire where Areum saves a kid T.T

Ep 15 (June 18)

I have an assignment + homework thing to do ahhh but i just wanna watch some more of this

i need to kill every man in the detective office btw the way they blame and yell at Seul Hae for every fucking thing

ahh Yeji and Yongryul's mom's first proper meeting

why don't we get anywhere with the Hee Soo thing? it's

damn all the ghosties dealt with unfinished business and went to nirvana T.T

oh at least we still get to have Hee Soo in the mirror, so we might still have him return to being an okay person by the end

pls Yeji also has the 7 stars channel thing? how's that possible when she's so rancid, I thought it was supposed to be a pure thing

why'd he even announce himself before just capturing the spirit or whatever

Ep 16 (June 18)

1 last episode ah I should at least start working on my assignment but alas, I'm here...

um???? is this stupid ass breakup because he's gonna be possessed?????? she's in danger and you're leaving her like this? you piece of shit you fuck just tell her the truth

ah Heesoo's father now

bruv ofc Chawoong would hold the knife and ofc the dumbass detectives would get here at this time

the old ghosties T.T plssss

it was sooo small case almost non-existent threat for the past few episodes that it's like what? when it comes to the high stakes of this ep

hmmm would they have truly killed him?

agh fuckass past life again, go backkk idc

wait the worshipping spirit is coming back again or something?

kids?! wtf tiny ass ghosties

ohh their kid Maru is reincarnated worshipping spirit mans lol

Overall:

Funny and comedic with likable characters (even rancid characters like Yeji were charming to me). Nothing too deep, though it had some touching moments. Too much dramatic romance in the second half, I don't care about their royal/shaman past life tragedy and I think that made it kinda meh for me in the latter half.

Rating: 6.5/10

#ep by ep commentary #from now on showtime

[akajustmerry]

What are your thoughts on Kenobi?

hiiiiiiiii ❤️ thanks for asking!

so I'm still pretty sick n feverish rn so these thoughts might be a bit scattered. I think it's important to know that I went into kenobi with relatively low expectations. after watching boba fett, the final season of tcw, etc, I don't rlly expect these series to be much more than frilly filler that dismisses it's own source material and let's just say kenobi didn't do much to shift that expectation.

It was a waste of Hayden: despite being a they/them, I am now, forever and since the age of 8, a Hayden Christensen girlie!!! But my mans was WASTED, I understand he was (allegedly) in the Vader suit the whole time but....its a waste. At bare minimum there shoulda been more ani/obi prequel flashbacks woven throughout each ep instead of that one in ep 5. Like they dragged him off the farm to cosplay darth Vader. I wanna know what Disney has on him to make him do this because lord love a duck, this was pathetic and using him so heavily in the press was akin to false advertising.

Individualism is a DISEASE: I'm currently writing a video essay about Anakin so I'm not gonna elaborate a lot on this point here except to say that having Anakin claim that HE HIMSELF killed Anakin Skywalker is an INSULT to how the prequels clearly placed the blame for Anakin's turning on the Jedi on multiple factors, many of which were systemic, to the point where even in the prequels Anakin CONSISTENTLY outloud blames the Jedi for making him this way. That, "I did" line in ep 6 was completely unearned and spat in the face of George Lucas's Anakin characterisation. And for what? all to free obi wan of a guilt he has every fucking justification to feel. Anakin was never EVER solely responsible for becoming Darth Vader. To have him say so just Disney depoliticising star wars, as they've been doing since TFA by making characters into fucking toys.

Leia, I'd kill for you: about the only thing that kept me watching after ep 3, apart from the hope of seeing Hayden, was Leia. Vivien Blair was absolutely adorable and did such a wonderful job emulating Carrie Fishers energy without just imitating. Along with her performance, I appreciated seeing characterised and fleshed out as a main character, rather than a side character in someone else's story. She was perfect and her and Ewan were so lovely on screen I was just 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 the whole time. She was the star of this silly series as far as I'm concerned.

The racism...yikes! I've talked about reva on my blog already so I'm not gonna repeat it, but putting Tala, a brown woman, in Nazi adjacent costuming for the majority of her screen time and then killing her off to save the white dude? Yikes. Also, Sung Kang being inhumanely evil and green? Literally dehumanising. Also, Kumail being untrustworthy criminal grifter? Nope. I was so shocked Oshea Jackson's char lived because the racism in this series was so bad.

The environmentals were appalling: this is a gripe I have with all Disney + content, but the fact that this show about Obi Wan made in 2022 looks more visually bland and flat than movies made in the early 00s is EMBARRASSING. Ani and Obi fought twice in this stupid show and on both occasions the environment was essentially interchangeable!!!! You could not say that about any of the duels in the prequels because they actually have visually compelling narratively relevant settings!

Natalie Holt and John Williams collabing on the score was soooooooo good. Natalie being such a gifted fresh composer combined with John Williams legendary star wars tracks made for the most outstandingly scored d+ show to date. The score made it for me, honestly

A prequel only works as an emotionally driven tragedy: the thing about making something that's sandwiched between 2 establishment events in the story is that your only option to actually making it compelling is to focus on building emotional conflict over plot. Sadly, this show made its central conflicts all plot and hardly any emotion. Every cliffhanger was things we knew the answers to already, yet the show wants you to be worried that Luke Skywalker might die?? Laughable. When Obi says, "then my friend is truly dead" that's what should have been foregrounded as the main conflict for Obi Wan. Not whether Darth will learn of the kids, or whether reva will kill him or whatever the fuck! The throughline for the show should have been obi wan believing there was still good in him, Obi Wan believing that Anakin could be turned back, but we never get a proper sense that he actually believes any of that. Moreover, the actions he takes like protecting leia, burying his saber, the nightmares, his conversations with Reva - they all speak to him already accepting Anakin as being dead and just being Darth. That "then my friend is truly dead" line is so utterly unearned and unnecessary that it's almost funny. That line should have been TRAGIC but it's not because the show never invests in the emotional conflict of it, just stupid plot conflict we know will be resolved anyway.

Padme: I really loved how much this series acknowledged Padme's loss as equal to Anakin's in terms of forces for good lost to tragedy. Truly the only and most compelling emotional arch for Obi in this silly show was him figuring out how to tell leia about who her parents were without imparting the pain of losing them. Again this is one of the few genuinely positive things I can say about the show because it was something actually character focused.

A waste of qui gon - lmao it's hilarious to me that qui gon was literally the guy who chose Anakin to be the chosen one and is essentially responsible for putting ALL THIS into motion, but the forces that be on this wasteful show are like, "let's just have him cameo for a quip at the end". Borderline insulting!!!!!!!! Like qui gon DIED fighting for Anakin to be trained as a Jedi and abandoning obi to train him alone and we don't even get to see them have a meaningful conversation about any of that? Fuck off.

Endless repetition: I literally hate that the so-called iconic moments in this show are mostly just the show imitating what's already been done. Like Darth and Obis 2nd fight is just copy paste Ahsoka and Darths fight from TCW right down to the dialogue and most of the visuals. The whole rescuing Leia from the base is just imitating ANH without saying anything interesting too and sure obi said the "hello there" but Why are people treating that as meaningful when it's just a fucking gag reference?? If I wanted to watch ANH or ROTS I woulda just done that, I wanted something new. God forbid the show purporting itself as a character piece actually....be a character piece.

Anyways, I can't say I fully regret watching it. As I said, elements were enjoyable. But there was nothing in it that really justified its existence to me. Like, this coulda been a really fun star wars novella and I probably woulda been fine with it, but promoting it on the strength of ewan and Hayden returning and mostly wasting their time on screen with shit we already know that's inconsistent at best and shallow fan service repeating what's been done at worst just left a bad taste in my mouth. Those of us who loved and grew up on the prequels deserved better. Ewan was giving really fucking sad, hot uncle vibes though so I suppose it'll always be there for a thirst watch 🤷🏻

#obi wan kenobi #anti obi wan kenobi #star wars

[muqingseyeroll]

i feel like i should make a post saying what my blog is about. i mostly use tumblr on mobile (i know), and mostly i just kinda use it casually, lurking around, and saving/rbing stuff that i like. so don’t expect too much organization or original content here. but the stuff i do make myself, i tag with #made by suna.

i’m (currently) into danmei/bl, which this blog is mostly dedicated to. but again i am a disorganized mess so i will probably like and rb other stuff on here too.

if you know any good gl media set in ancient asia, please please please let me know because i am desperate for it but cannot find it anywhere :C

i consume most danmei in chinese since i grew up in china and am a native speaker, so sometimes i may be confused about the english names of places/things/people’s titles in these works. please be gentle ^_^

if you scroll down far enough you can find random stuff i rb’d before i really knew how tumblr worked and before i got into danmei so you can just ignore them :’)

under the cut: what i’ve watched/read, what’s next on my list, and my sloppy tagging system. i might update it whenever, or not. we’ll see c:

here is the list of things i’ve read/watched/am into:

mo dao zu shi / grandmaster of demonic cultivation by mxtx

i’ve watched chen qing ling / the untamed (live action adaptation)

i’ve read the book

i’ve watched the q animation

i’m a few eps into the animated adaptation but i need a subscription to continue so i put it on pause for now

have not listened to the audio dramas

my ships:

lan wangji/wei wuxian, lan xichen/jin guangyao

my no-no ships:

jiang cheng/wei wuxian, jiang cheng/wen qing, wei wuxian/wen qing

ships that i don’t feel too much about either way:

jiang cheng/nie huaisang, 3zun

any of the junior ships (they’re all so cute together, any pair would work well tbh lmao)

tian ya ke / faraway wanderers by priest

i’ve watched shan he ling / word of honor (live action adaptation)

have not watched the shl concert

have not read the book

started a little bit on the prequel book qi ye / lord seventh

my ships:

wen kexing/zhou zishu, ye baiyi/rong changqing, cao weining/gu xiang, jing beiyuan/wuxi (basically all the canon ships)

du pusa/qiao luohan (the two ladies out of the four scorpion assassins)

luo fumeng/liu qianqiao (tragicomic ghost/beauty ghost)

my no-no ships:

ye baiyi/wen kexing (seriously who came up with this? no judgment to people who enjoy it but personally it’s really not for me lmao)

ships that i feel neutral about:

hanwenzhou

tian guan ci fu / heaven official’s blessing by mxtx

i’ve watched season 1 of the animated adaptation

i’m looking forward to the live action adaptation!! (hopefully airing in 2023) i’m not sure what name it’s going by yet

i’ve just started on the book

and a long time ago i’ve watched nirvana in fire / lang ya bang, which is not bl but is still a great period drama. 10/10 recommend

on my list next, in no particular order, are the following:

svsss

2ha

sha po lang

qiang jin jiu

love between fairy and devil (bg, not bl)

kinnporsche (thai, not chinese)

hannibal (also not chinese)

feel free to send recommendations my way!!

i have an awful tagging system, but basically:

#woh -- word of honor/tian ya ke stuff

#wenzhou -- wen kexing/zhou zishu

#woh gifs, #woh fanfic, #woh fanart, #woh fan comic

#mdzs -- mo dao zu shi/chen qing ling stuff

#wangxian -- lan wangji/wei wuxian

#mdzs fanfic, #mdzs fanart, #mdzs fan comic

#tgcf -- tian guan ci fu stuff

#hualian -- hua cheng/xie lian

character tags: #wen kexing, #zhou zishu, #wei wuxian, #lan wangji, etc

my stuff: #made by suna

[johnbazley]

My favorite music of 2023

Welcome to the new home of B-Side Collection, a blog by John Bazley. Here is a list of my favorite albums of the year.

Best Reissues

Tyler, The Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost - The Estate Sale

Sabrina Carpenter - emails I can’t send - fwd

Taylor Swift - 1989 (Taylor's Version)

Honorable mention

The Gaslight Anthem - History Books

The production is a hurdle I simply can’t get over. Go back and listen to Handwritten. That thing sounds immaculate, even today. How does this album sound like a collection of demos? When I look into what I want these songs to sound like, I like them a lot! But how are you finally going to get Bruce Springsteen on a Gaslight Anthem song and let it sound like that? I hope this thing eventually gets re-recorded because the songs deserve a bigger budget.

Matt Rogers - Have You Heard of Christmas?

Much internal debate about whether or not I wanted to count this comedy Christmas album as a real album, but I ultimately landed on the fact that it is the catchiest pop album of the year and deserves a shout. 

Troye Sivan - Something to Give Each Other

I don’t think I have a parental bone in my body but I can’t help but see Troye Sivan as my biological son. I am very proud of my boy for making a good album this year. My son is also a gorgeous woman.

Ava Max - Diamonds and Dancefloors

Maxinistas rise up!!! The talk that Ava Max was the next Gaga was always stupid. She is Diet Dua Lipa and that flavor is actually good enough. 

Kesha - Gag Order

I found this album hard to get through. It's a tough listen, and it might be higher on the list if I had spent more time with it. But the pitch is “Fiona Apple does Endless” which is frankly stunning coming from Kesha. I’m happy that she’s finally free from Kemosabe Records and Dr. Luke and I hope she dives deeper into some of the sounds she’s experimenting with here. 

The Maine - The Maine

This is like…the fourth or so Maine album where my primary takeaway has been “Damn, the Maine is actually very good.” The songs are catchy and they’re structurally sound. It doesn’t really extend beyond that for me! I couldn’t really tell you what these songs are doing beyond being fun to listen to, and liking John’s voice. My favorite will probably always be Lovely Little Lonely, but “how to exit a room” is maybe the best onboarding point to this band’s catalog so far. 

Kylie Minogue - Tension

“Padam Padam” is the best song on here by a huge degree, and it’s also track one, and it was also out for months before the album. This is really just my way of saying “Padam Padam” is really good. 

Lightheaded - Good Good Great!

Years ago I fell head over heels for a Makthaverskan album and this EP reminds me of that short-lived love affair. I will go to my grave defending Stephen Stec from his many haters and opps. 

Jawdust and Grave Heist - Gravedust

I love George Saives and I love a good bleeegghhh in a hardcore song and thankfully this split has both. 

And now, for the top ten...

My ten favorite albums of 2023

10. Olivia Rodrigo - guts

guts is the album that I wanted SOUR to be. It is bratty and catchy and theatrical, everything Olivia Rodrigo does well, and it doesn't get bogged down in mid-tempo ballads like her last album did (in my humble opinion). Where that album felt like a rush to capitalize on the massive success of "Driver's License," guts benefits from being a complete artist's statement, a body of work that speaks for itself and places Olivia Rodrigo as the main pop girl (outside of Taylor Swift, who is in her own stratosphere at this point).

"get him back" is my favorite song on here, but "all-american bitch" feels like the legacy track and maybe what Olivia actually does best. I am so glad the biggest new pop star is cementing herself as a pupil of Paramore's first three albums. And Daniel Nigro's production work makes the whole thing sound real, not just a pastiche of better pop-punk music.

9. Mitski - The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We

I am often afraid that I am not a real person. When I’m alone, I eat dinner at 3:30 and watch 10 minutes of several movies before giving up and looking at my phone and pacing around for a few hours before I tire myself out and fall asleep in an uncomfortable position. I wake up in the middle of the night and consider that maybe there is something more deeply wrong with me that my depression, my anxiety, that someone will someday discover that I am not real, never have been, that I’ve been standing in the wrong checkout line for my whole life. I love this short and introspective album from Mitski, and my favorite song here is “I Don’t Like My Mind,” which has the following lyrics: “I don't like my mind, I don't like being left alone in a room / With all its opinions about the things that I've done / So, yeah, I blast music loud and I work myself to the bone / And on an inconvenient Christmas, I eat a cake / A whole cake, all for me.”

8. Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA - Scaring the Hoes

My favorite mode of Danny Brown has always been “there is not a volume level at which this album sounds correct” and with that in mind, I think this is my favorite thing he’s ever done. The soundscape here is giving Stereo At Urban Outfitters Unfortunately Has Water Damage. Extremely not for everyone and I hesitate to recommend it to anyone who has not already signaled to me that they are an absolute sicko. I’m not sure where this narrative ended up, but the version on Bandcamp sounded a lot better than the version on Apple Music and Spotify so that's the version I would listen to if you're interested.

7. The Menzingers - Some of it Was True

You can observe several clear shifts in The Menzingers’ discography. There’s an obvious one right between Chamberlain Waits and On The Impossible Past where the band decided they wanted to make albums that have more in common with Chekhov novels than Against Me! albums. There’s another line right down the middle of After The Party where Greg realizes he’s 30 now, and the band’s art should reflect that. I’m famously still in my 20s, so the newer material doesn’t always resonate with me. Turns out a fine Menzingers album is still one of my favorite albums of the year. I don’t think I’ll spend a lot of time with this one the future, but “There’s No Place In The World For Me” was a really nice “I had a bad day at work at my new job in a new city and I can’t fall back on my old New Jersey comforts” song this year.

6. boygenius - the record

I don’t think this will go down as my favorite Phoebe (Punisher), Julien (Sprained Ankle), or Lucy (Historian)—might also still prefer the boygenius EP based solely on the classic status of “Me and My Dog,” a song so powerful that this album’s closer references its vocal melody—but this record’s best moments get up there. Tracks 3 through 6 are the heart, and “Not Strong Enough” lands in the top 5 of all members’ discographies for me.

I think I’m ready for a general departure for Phoebe Bridgers. She is poised to explode, that much is clear, the only question for me is whether she’ll “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” explode or “In the same conversation as Taylor Swift” explode. Either way I hope her next album is weird and divisive and risky.

5. blink-182 - One More Time…

My most listened-to album of the year, which is stunning to me! It should be bad. The first single was awful and still is. The production is bad. All of these men are 50. Somehow it works! I want to reject blink-182, and I don’t want to identify as a fan, but listening to this album proved to me that there’s something rotten in my heart feels excited when I hear Mark Hoppus and Tom Delonge sing on a song together.

I have always been happy for Mark that he got to continue being in blink-182 when Tom clearly wasn't into it anymore (and when he eventually quit altogether). Since 2003, Mark's interests seemed to skew more toward the fun, summery, SoCal sound, while Tom was more interested in doing Something Very Important And Perhaps Dark with his music. What I find special about this album compared to the last few blink records is that both of them get to do their thing here without stepping on each other's toes. It's the first time since 2003 that the band feels like a unit, not an inconvenience to each other. Tom gets to make bombastic arena music that lands at the top of the charts and connects with millions of people (always the clear goal of Angels & Airwaves, in my opinion) while Mark gets to make a song like "Bad News," which is easily his best work in 20 years.

In my hopes and dreams, blink-182 will take a page out of Fall Out Boy's book circa Folie a Deux (more on that later) and make something challenging and theatrical next. I believe they still have good albums left in them, but it's hard for me to see how they will once again put out new music without the reunion angle (that they have used near-constantly since Neighborhoods to promote their new albums).

4. Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

To fully appreciate this one, I kind of have to forget that I heard like eight of these songs before the album came out. I don’t get why labels promote new artists like this! There’s all this talk about how hard it is to make a new star these days, and I have to think that a huge part of that is how the labels are holding hostage the debut albums (the material of legacy for artists, the thing that will make you a fan of an artist, not just a song)—I digress.

I think about it because “Pink Pony Club” is just a completely flawless song. It’s catchy and sleazy and melancholy and it makes me miss Tennessee, which feels like my home when I listen to this song. It makes me want to call my mom and also put on high heels and wear a little cowboy hat but leave the club feeling sad about it.

I think this album is about on par with The 1975's self-titled album in terms of how clear it is this artist will be around for a long time. New pop artists with such obvious musical and visual ambitions don't turn out every year, and now that this album is out of record label hell, I hope she'll be able to turn out the next one without the same nonsense that put this one out in piecemeal over the course of like two whole years.

3. Sufjan Stevens - Javelin

Without question my second favorite Sufjan album after Carrie and Lowell. At times it reminds me of A Crow Looked At Me, another album raw with grief, something that I have wondered about whether or not I should have ever heard it or if it should have been kept private.

I can't think of a song that affected me as deeply as "Shit Talk" this year. "I will always love you / I don't want to fight at all" gets stuck in my head constantly. So does the chorus of "Will Anybody Ever Love Me," a song whose intentions seem more clearly placed on making a statement as clearly and precisely as possible than being a catchy pop song, but still manages to make the latter happen with ease.

Something I have thought about a lot this year is the human cost of beautiful art. I know this album came out of a piece of immense grief and at the risk of sounding too familiar, I hope Sufjan is doing okay. I have always loved sad, moving music, and one thing I am working on these days is acknowledging and holding space for the grief that often accompanies it; I hope you'll do the same.

2. Fall Out Boy - So Much (for) Stardust

Few things in this world are as volatile as my Fall Out Boy album rankings, but right now, in December of 2023, So Much (for) Stardust is my third favorite Fall Out Boy album (behind Folie and Infinity on High of course). I can’t guarantee that will always be true, but I do think it will be top three forever, and it’s easily the best thing they’ve done post-hiatus. When I listen to this album, I hear a band that just woke up. It sounds like Pete and Patrick got in a room together and said “what if we made a Fall Out Boy album again?” which I’m sure has actually happened every time they’ve put out music over the past twenty years, but this time they really meant it.

I have spilled a lot of ink over this band. I’ve spilled blood in the discourse. I am famously an enjoyer of Save Rock and Roll in particular. Still, it is as clear as day to me now that those three albums between Folie and this one mostly show a band clawing at what it means to be a rock band in the 2010s; what it means to be Fall Out Boy after the Folie album cycle ran them all directly into the ground; how to be Fall Out Boy when being Fall Out Boy actually seems very out of style. It doesn't really seem like they found the answers to those questions, but it also seems like they don't care anymore and decided to just do what felt right. They haven't seemed this comfortable since at least Save Rock & Roll which somehow came out ten years ago.

"Fake Out," the perfect Fall Out Boy song. It sounds like it could have been written for the Infinity on High sessions. I understand that the idea of Fall Out Boy's music makes people recoil at times but if you are curious about this album, that is the song that will make you get it, if you have the capacity for "getting it."

1. Lana Del Rey - Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

Beautiful and expansive, Lana Del Rey's ninth album is arguably her best. It also feels like her first, a rebirth for the character Lana Del Rey, the stage name of Lizzy Grant, a persona that has always felt like a construction meant to highlight the sadness nestled within the good times, the darkness and grime that the sunset over the Pacific Ocean can't quite reach. The central metaphor in the title track of Ocean Blvd is clear as day--"don't forget me, like you've forgotten about the tunnel under Ocean Boulevard"--but it also feels like a reference to the part of Lana Del Rey that has been hidden underneath the facade she's spent the past decade constructing. In comparison to her other work, this album feels so much more personal, so okay with being slight, or unadorned, free from what the audience expects from the character.

Case in point is "Margaret," my favorite song on here and one of my favorite songs of the year. It is a celebration of two friends' love for each other. Lana sounds like the master of ceremonies at the wedding here, rousing the band through her audible smile. There is almost nothing in the lyrics that points back at the singer herself. It sounds like she is following the purest desires of art-making in her heart at this point in her career and it is impossible not to meet her there, want to see the world through her eyes.

There are many instances of what makes “Venice Bitch” a perfect song, and maybe my favorite is the simple way Lana Del Rey sings “Oh god” in the chorus. Oh god, I miss you on my lips. The function of “I miss you on my lips” is secondary to the pain held within the carelessness ("Imagine if we actually gave a fuck / Wouldn't that be something to talk about for us?") of Oh god. I think the centerpiece of this album is the outro of "A&W," which itself is like a coda to "Venice Bitch," but I am happy that she went as far as revisiting the way she sings “Oh god” in “VB Taco Truck.”

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That's all from me this year. My goal for 2024 is to listen to more music than I did in 2023. If I am missing something here, please reach out to me (I am assuming you know how to do this if you are reading this) and let me know.

#bsidecollection

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary36

10/10-11/2023

tuesday - wednesday

i need to put the days here so i don't forget what day it is. that's still a problem for me.

saw the hellp!!

look at them, with the ccp behind them. a beautiful image, even if they don't love communism . but i hope they do . or at least one does.

and i just love getting pictures of people taking pictures. my gf took the first photo, i'm not one for pix at concerts but i felt like some heavenly force was telling me to take a photo of that woman taking a photo.

their visuals during the set were great, i think, they have a sense of humor about themselves definitely but they somehow reach towards what dennis coopers does briefly in his second movie, where this boy loops a gif of someone exploding in a movie over and over, ruminating over his own death/desire to explode, that dissociative image, or the image pulled into / extruded by time into dissociativity, and also, the strange sorrow of trawling old imagehosting sites like flickr and things and finding people's random photos. i think they have something very real with that. also they put in footage from one of the lord of the rings movies and i think those movies suck because i don't like fantasy but i think their repurposing of that footage was kind of great, turning it into a weird emotional spectacle briefly.

izzy spears was, i dunno, he felt like he was cut off live, like prevented from getting where he wanted to go, i loved his moves, and he had a great look, but the music was simply not loud enough (my fault for wearing ear plugs? i dunno.) i kind of get the sense/hope though that there's a lot to look forwards to w/ him. i'm still not all the way on his voice and stuff but the stuff i heard that wasn't on his ep (i think) was produced in a very cool way.

i'm right now trying think if i should faff about with a modular synth for a little bit and then go to bed or not.

i think yves had a great leather jacket, very scorpio rising, and scorpio rising's one of the best things ever imo. so they get to remain in my good graces just for their loox alone.

tomorrow is a big day cuz, idk why i didn't mention this sooner but we're going to denver for a bit, my gf has an obligation there, and i'm tagging along cuz i'm curious. i think maybe a lot of people there will find me disgusting or something but i hope not. i just get that vibe but idunno. i don't know anything about colorado really. i'm excited to see the airport. i'm worried about being able to run the blog while i'm away cuz i can't get the app on my phone. i might steal my gf's laptop and try to login to tumblr from there and do my updates. i need to write my password down and stuff.

okay did that. idk how long my entries will be while i am there, or if she'll let me, but we'll see.

i'm excited to come home and get new ears on my music, and also like, i dunno, read more about butoh and angura i guess. i want to keep researching that, i found a wordpress that's dedicated to researching/writing about it, and that person has subtitled and translated some plays and put them youtube. really cool stuff.

here's one i'm excited to get to, a shuji terayama work. i love his film stuff that i've seen, so i'm very excited to see this. i've also read some of his short stories, they're very interesting, if not what i expect from the guy who turns maldoror into a short film, a great and very strange one at that. he really keeps it very poetic and loose and strange, the outer limits of the image unconstrained by narrative editing but the presence of a narrative text binding the work, it gets close to experience of impressions and the flights of fancy present in the book, the excessive images and the way they feel in your heart, rather than how they truly play out. i still need to finish that book but i got into it decently. it's just an issue where i go so slow because i want to drink every page totally, taste every inch of it so i can understand and then, understanding it, i can learn and use what i learn in my own writing. it's one of those books, so ornate and expertly written i just can't help but sit there in awe of it i guess.

listening to this album disrobics by this band gay beast is making me really want to mess with a synth, so i'll give myself some time for that right now i suppose.

that was fun. tomorrow i have to ride a plane. that won't be fun, because i don't like sitting still that long it gets borringggg.

i guess i will talk to myself in denver tomorrow night. how strange. i am scared because apparently there are going to be lots of french people, and there's some kind of bedbug epidemic in paris. that wigs me out terribly. hopefully it's not a problem for these people i'm about to be around.

anyways, i should sleep now, byebye!!

#Youtube