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cursedcomics · 1 year

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Dream Job Writing Legion of Super Heroes Pt. 5

What is the high concept of the Legion of Super Heroes?

With apologies to all of the fantastic talents who have written the Legion over the years, I don’t think that question has been one they have cared to ponder.

Which is another reason I am the only sensible choice to write the Legion.

That question matters to me and is the reason screaming in the minds of Legion fans of why the Legion is different from other comic teams.

The high concept of the Legion is that it is an examination of personal expressions of heroism.

Everyone has a different concept of being a hero and how they can live their life in service to an heroic worldview.

The Legion is just that. A huge group of heroes. Far more than just about any other book has entertained (with the possible exception of the All-Star Squadron). Having such a large lineup loudly begs the question, “Why?”

We could easily only have a single Superman-type on the team. We could do it just like the JLA, but we don’t. “Why?”

Because having huge number forces you to look at their differences as a means to justify their inclusion, and that to me is where the Legion gets really interesting.

In the real world, SOME people join the military because they want to be heroes. (That certainly isn’t the only reason people sign up, but it is one.)

Now for that subsection, it means a lot of different things. Some of those people could see the level of respect awarded to soldiers and desperately crave that. Some could feel that joining the military gives them an opportunity to earn that respect. Others might feel if they join that society would be obligated to give them that respect --- and screw anyone who doesn’t.

Some might see it as an opportunity to become a better person and the whole respect thing will sort itself out.

And that is just scratching the surface on one tiny aspect of why someone might become a soldier. There are thousand of variations to the question why people put their lives at risk for others.

The Legion is an opportunity to explore the motivations of each member.

Is it ok to have a member who is power hungry like Zoe Saugin? It’s certainly non-standard, but is there anything INHERENTLY unheroic about it? I would argue no.

Does it suggest Kinetix may end up being a power mad supervillian? Yeah, maybe....but I would strongly argue she makes a far more interesting character --- and a far, far, far, more interesting hero if she doesn’t take that very well trod path.

How does she interact with the power hungry despots of the 31st century? I would guess on a case to case basis, very differently than her colleagues.

Drake Burroughs is the truest conception of a “future” hero. Wildfire is literally a man transformed into a futuristic science concept. He walks around in a futuristic version of a space suit, complete with space helmet. Nothing says “future” and “alien” more than that. He is the Legion is a lot of ways.

He is now a mass of energy in a bag. He is a human consciousness desperately trying to engage society in a pretense of still be a human being because if he tries hard enough he can recapture the kinds of relationships he had when he had a body.

He doesn’t want to think about what a unique lifeform he is. Being unique in that is utterly terrifying. Is he immortal? Will everyone he knows die? How long will his sanity last? When will he start to be alone? What will he become?

He wants to sit down with Ultra Boy and have a beer. He wants to walk with Dawnstar and feel her hand holding his. He wants all of this --- not what he has.

But his life isn’t totally ruined.

He also gets to be the swashbuckling hero of his dreams --- and he is actually quite good at it; Like amazingly good at it! He is one of the Legion’s heavy hitters --- right up there with Superman, Mon-El, Element Lad, and Dawnstar....

But... If he ever sat down and talked to a counsellor a question would come barreling up from his subconsciousness, “Is he one of the Legion’s most beloved native born ‘heroes of earth’ because he wants to help people, or does he do it because being a superhero opens him up to being part of a peer group with other humanoids?”

Wildfire needs the Legion and will fight to the death for his teammates.

If it is all an act for social acceptance on a deep level --- one that he certainly doesn’t realize --- is that still OK?

If you start unwrapping that onion, you’d reach the conclusion that Wildfire probably realizes it deep down and would tend to avoid people like Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, and maybe even Matter Eater Lad --- Legionnaires who are very insightful and may push his thoughts down a path he actively doesn’t want to consider.

This would keep him from seeking improvements on his suit from Brainy and other self destructive thought processes. There is a tiny bit of Cliff Steele there, but unlike the Doom Patrol’s “Robotman”, Wildfire sees being the best hero he can be as a cure/distraction from slipping into depression. When he gets depressed, he “heroes” harder...

He wants superficial interactions with everyone except Dawnstar, who sees him for what he is and loves him anyway.

Wildfire was initially written as a natural hero with off the chart instincts and absolutely fearless. He is the man of action. That’s the wildfire I fell in love with as a fan. The guy who emerged on the scene and was quickly elevated to Legion leader. The guy who, when no one else had a clue about it, figured out the Legion’s smartest member had quietly gone insane.

Then he was written by Paul Levitz as a lovelorn being full of self doubt.

In my mind, he is ideally both of those things.

All of his presented behavior would be about being “the dude” on the Legion.

Wildfire, to me, is like a what if story. He is the Swamp Thing if Alec Holland had refused to acknowledge the existence of the Parliament of Trees. (And no I definitely don’t want to revisit a Parliament of Fire with DC fire entities. The Parliament of Trees was a useful plot device in a swamp thing story. No reason to drag wildfire with his weird futuristic anti-energy powers into a non-related, super derivative thing like that. That would be giving in to a non-productive desire to see everything fit together seamlessly. PLENTY of other paths to take.)

I think Wildfire is a personal horror story bubbling under the surface of Legion super hero stories.

Gim Allon is another wildly unique story. His mother becomes UP president. How does that just randomly happen?

He is one of the only (?) members of the Science Police to join the Legion. Does he leak information to the SP? They would certainly want that access, but there are probably people in the SP (Police Chief Zendak?) who would absolutely put a stop to Allon being compromised in that way. Do the Legion put restrictions in place to specifically limit him confiding information to the SP?

Like all Legionnaires, Colossal Boy is sworn to pursue being the best hero he can be. Does his history make it harder for him than any other Legionnaire?

There are stories untold buried in the previous timelines’ histories that will make these issues absolutely compelling to new and old readers alike.

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earthstellar · 3 years

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Russian TFP AU World Building: Imagining Cybertron + Commentary on the Canonical Depictions of Cybertron

In theme with the AU concept, I’ve been looking at Russian and Soviet sci-fi classics to get an idea of how Cybertron might look in this universe.

We see Cybertron depicted here and there throughout various Transformers shows and media, but it’s all very influenced by Japanese and Western sci-fi architectural elements, because of course that’s the primary frame of reference for the concept artists involved and so on.

But I really love the creative and distinctive Eastern European sci-fi architectural designs, particularly those featured in old issues of Tekhnika Molodezhi / Техника молодёжи (Technology for the Youth) Magazine.

First, here are some canon depictions of Cybertron from various Transformers media:

We typically see the planet as primarily blue and orange, with the surface either being totally grey from battle damage and destruction, or depicted as a Blade Runner city style metallic but very grim and foggy environment on the actual ground level.

Personally, I feel like the architecture and colours and atmospheric environment may be entirely different. The above environmental designs could fit into concept art for Fifth Element or as I said, Blade Runner-- But this isn’t a cyberpunk future Earth environment, it’s a whole other world with an entirely different type of lifeform.

I feel like colour would be more prominent on Cybertron, even if diminished by the effects of war. After all, Cybertronians have thousands of different paint jobs for themselves, why wouldn’t their architecture and environment emphasise their increased technological capabilities and nanite based paint? Would some buildings change colour? What about signs, decoration, public art works?

Would roads and road signs feature prominently as transportation is an innate part of their physical being and culture? Would walkways be distinguished, or would all pathways be wide enough to accommodate root mode and alt-mode travel, and how would that be coordinated?

The environment designs we see of Cybertron are often very human in terms of design; Generally focusing on the “war devastation” theme and not the fact that before the war, these would have been fully functioning alien communities and cities and workplaces and leisure areas and so on.

Looking to the Past to Design the Future: Tekhnika Molodezhi Designs

I feel like Eastern European sci-fi art remains some of the best in the world, entirely just my personal opinion, and I love the vibrancy and genuinely liveable feeling of many of the environmental and architecture concepts.

These designs are unique, creative, and integrate the concept of living and working functionally in such an environment as well as the maximum possible application of technology and cutting edge creative engineering design to make sci-fi environments that feel plausible and believably alien and futuristic, despite their impossibility.

Below are a couple pieces that give me a very Cybertron vibe:

So I think that when I get to that point in the Russian TFP AU story, I’m going to depict Cybertron in more of a colourful, truly alien and technologically oriented way, as opposed to the canon depictions.

I just personally feel like an alien world with a people and environment based on incredible technology with a totally different culture and history to anything on Earth wouldn’t look like New York at 11 PM on a Friday.

For example, we know Iacon is described often as having tall skyscraper type buildings and lots of glass like material; That’s totally fine, but it still shouldn’t be immediately familiar to humans.

I feel like Iacon could have towers made of materials that can’t possibly exist on Earth, different types of flexible metals etc. that have no equivalent on Earth, the “skyscrapers” being these shining beacons that shimmer in the way that rainbows appear in sheets of Titanium-- But instead of the light causing the reflection, the buildings are painted with the same nanite paint that the Cybertronians use to coat their armour, living pigment, that can’t help but ripple every now and then as it adjusts to weather conditions and so on.

Emotionally Connecting to the Loss of Cybertron: What, Exactly, Was Lost?

To see a vibrant, fantastical Cybertron-- And then to see the same places in ruins due to centuries of war-- Would have a far more significant impact, and drive home just how much has been lost to this ongoing conflict.

We only ever see the planet as this dark, gloomy, grim place even before the war, and it’s hard to fully appreciate or understand what it could have looked like prior to it’s destruction, or prior to extensive damage.

We know it’s been destroyed, we are shown the destruction, and inherently we can understand the loss and pain of that especially on a planet wide scale. But what, exactly, did it used to look like? Just how much was lost? Because it is an alien world, we can’t necessarily look at the rubble and reconstruct it in our minds reliably as it used to be; We don’t ever really see that much of Cybertronian design, all things considered.

So seeing it before the war, clearly, and then after the war with most major territories in ruins-- That would emphasise how stark the damage is, how totally obliterated Cybertron has become over centuries of war, and the emotional reactions of the characters would be immediately that much more relatable to the audience.

It would also help provide context for why some bots dislike Earth. Is it because Earth is so different as to drive home the feeling of being permanently displaced? Or are there actually some commonalities between human and Cybertronian design that may emphasise painful memories of what was lost on their homeworld? It could add a lot of subtle depth here and there.

Again, all of the above is mostly just my own personal feelings about sci-fi foreign planet design in general, but hopefully it’s still interesting to read!

(Tagging @milabazal2002 and @everdino!)

#Russian TFP AU #Russian TF AU #maccadam #transformers prime #cybertron #long post #transformers #cybertronian culture #transformers essay #transformers headcanons

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years

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K-Zombies

When you and your friends put your fingers on the ouija board planchette and it starts moving around, there's a chance your friends are just yanking your chain - but just as possible is that your friends are experiencing the ideomotor response.

That's when your unconscious mind directs your muscles without your conscious knowledge. The movement of the planchette doesn't tell you what's going on in the spirit world, but it does tell you something about the internal weather of your friend's psyche, fears and hopes.

Our narratives are social-scale planchettes, directed by mass ideomotor response. When a fake news story takes hold, it reveals a true fact: namely, the shared, internal models of how the world really works.

Fake news is an oracle, in other words.

https://locusmag.com/2019/07/cory-doctorow-fake-news-is-an-oracle/

There's no spirit-realm directing planchettes. Supernatural phenomena are nonsense, in all their guises. Mediums are fraudsters or deluded - and so are soothsayers who claim to be able to predict the future. That goes for fortune-tellers and futurists alike.

A shocking number of self-described "rational" science fiction writers share the delusional view that they can predict the future. These pulp Nostradamii point to "predictions" of sf that have "come true" and claim to have an inside line on the world of tomorrow.

Sf *has* an important relationship to the future, though! It can be a planchette: all the futures imagined by all the sf writers are a kind of mutation-space, and the fitness factor that determines whether a story thrives or sinks is whether it captures public imagination.

Sf writers and readers are a means for society to reflect back, amplify and examine our unarticulated hopes and fears about our *present* technology. Sf doesn't predict the future, but sf readers and writers do an excellent job of predicting the present.

And since the present is the standing wave where the past is being transformed into the future, knowing about the present can be a source of insights into what's coming - and not just because sf reveals what's going on in the present, but also because it influences it.

People who are captured by imaginative, futuristic parables about the problems and possibilities of technology acquire a set of intuition-pumps for coping with the future when it arrives, reflexive views and actions about what the future demands of us.

Gene Rodenberry didn't predict the Motorola flip-phone. Rather, when a generation of Motorola designers and engineers were asked to make a mobile communications device their minds immediately flew to the Star Trek communicators they grew up with.

Thinking of fantastic fiction as measurement device and influence machine is a productive way to pick apart the meaning of literary trends.

As I wrote in my intro to the bicentennial re-release of FRANKENSTEIN, the rise and fall of Shelley's book tracks to the rise and fall of fears related to the book's various themes:

https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/1974387

So what are we to make of K-zombies? Korean pop culture is experiencing a golden age of zombie movies, games, comics and other media.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-02-23/zombies-are-everywhere-south-korea-fears

Zombies have a lot of different themes, of course, and some are easy to map to the current situation: the fear of contagion and the need to distance yourself from loved ones who have become infected. The parallels to covid hardly need explaining.

But the K-zombie phenomenon predates the pandemic, and zombie stories aren't merely contagion stories - they're often stories about the lurking bestiality of nearly everyone around us.

That's behind stories like The Walking Dead, about the propensity of all our "normal" friends and neighbors to transform into an insensate, rampaging mob. These zombie stories are a throwback to the "cozy catastrophes" of John Wyndham and co:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/29/grifters-gonna-grift/#wyndhamesque

These are stories of racial and class anxiety, of xenophobia and the literal othering of someone who *seems* to be just like you but is actually a secret monster. Again, on a divided peninsula, it's not hard to see how stories of lurking otherness would catch hold.

Zombie stories are also stories about the fragility of social cohesion: stories about how we're never "all in this together" and how, when the chips are down, it'll be "the war of all against all." That, too, feels very zeitgeisty given recent South Korean politics.

South Korea has an ugly, authoritarian past that is at odds with its founding myth as the "good Korea," the "democratic Korea." But the post-war reconstruction of the country by the US elevated an elite to a position of near-total authority and impunity.

They abused this power in ghastly ways, running forced-labor camps for poor people and people with disabilities, with rampant physical and sexual abuse. Families who lost their loved ones were traumatized to learn that they'd ended up in the camps.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160423131643/https://bigstory.ap.org/article/c22de3a565fe4e85a0508bbbd72c3c1b/ap-s-korea-covered-mass-abuse-killings-vagrants

These forced-labor camps (which continue in a slightly modified form to this day) supplied slaves to chaebols, the conglomerates that represent the country on a world stage. Unsurprisingly, the leadership of these companies is also grossly corrupt:

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2052871/samsung-chief-jailed-for-2-5-years-over-corruption-scandal

Korea is also riven by messianic cults, and the leaders of these cults have close ties to the Korean political class, an incredibly politically destabilizing fact that has caused recent Korean governments to collapse:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37971085

South Korea, in other words, isn't just haunted by the spectre of aggression from the north - but also by the possibility of internal rupture. It has a huge, authoritarian secret police force that has been caught secretly meddling in electoral politics.

Far from reining in this spookocracy, the South Korean political class has tried to hand them even MORE powers, with LESS oversight. Today is the fifth anniversary of the Korean opposition's filibuster to stop the worst of these.

(Seo Ki-Ho, a politician with the affectionate nickname "Milhouse" for his resemblance to the Simpsons character read the Korean edition of my novel LITTLE BROTHER into the record during the filibuster!)

https://memex.craphound.com/2016/02/26/south-korean-lawmakers-stage-filibuster-to-protest-anti-terror-bill-read-from-little-brother/

This othering is also sharply illustrated in the country's culture of misogynistic voyeurism, which goes beyond "upskirt" videos and includes a roaring trade in videos captured with hidden cameras in toilets, changing rooms and hotel rooms.

It's hard to overstate the reach of this practice, and its political salience: it has provoked a vast mass-movement of women and allies demanding an end to the practice and a reckoning with institutional sexism:

https://www.khaosodenglish.com/culture/net/2020/10/21/voyeurs-are-selling-photos-of-women-at-the-protest-online/

Zombies aren't ever just about contagion - they're also always an expression of a deep anxiety that your neighbors aren't what they seem, that in a pinch, they'll turn on you, and not just because they've been infected, but also to protect themselves and their comfort.

US zombie booms always have an element of this: 1950s (reds under the bed); 1980s (red menace redux); 2000s (immigration "crisis"), etc. It'd be amazing if the only thing driving K-zombies' popularity was the pandemic, or even less plausibly, a mere aesthetic coincidence.

#pluralistic

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simonmnir952 · 3 years

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From Around the Web: 20 Fabulous Infographics About whole house flooring ideas

Many men and women feel that it's simple to find the most useful renovations for your home, particularly when the price tag is small in comparison to other important repairs that will need to be made. Some homeowners will naturally assume certain renovations will increase the resale price of the home, while some will simply assume that some improvements will simply add to the price and the quality of their house itself.

Should you need to are doing some research online you will realize that there are many sites dedicated to letting homeowners who are contemplating becoming renovating their homes to execute just a small amount of prep before making their final decision. A number of these sites offer reviews of different contractors. If you just happen to be looking for a specific contractor, but can't seem to come across whatever you like, you can navigate through their profiles to determine if they will have any complaints against them. In addition, it is a good idea to see what type of references they've.

downtown vancouver condos for sale:

It'd have been a good idea to ascertain the expense of the renovation that you're likely to do before you even begin to perform the renovation itself. In this manner you can make sure the budget you have is what you actually are able to afford. Aside from this, you also have an concept of the amount of money which you are ready to spend on the job. It would be best to think about the cost of the renovation itself of course when it'll soon be not.

Yet another factor to consider in regards to renovation is the magnitude of their renovation. For those who have an older house, then you may want to consider a renovation that'll enable one to create some changes to the walls and rooms. In addition, you will need to consider if you will be in a position to adapt the renovation that you have proposed. If the renovations are too large for your current size of your residence, then you will probably wind up being forced to fork out extra for it.

Why You Should Focus on Improving futuristic design elements

Probably one of the very essential things you can do in order to make sure the best renovations for your home is to hire a professional. You ought to be certain your repairs are done professionally, so your project will not look at funding or take more time than anticipated. A respectable company can make certain you meet with you personally and explore all of the options and costs before you start working in your job. Be sure to also check references and see how long it required to complete your renovation. Figure out how much time it required every single individual to finish the job so that you may compare and contrast this information in what you're currently dealing with.

Now you have found several contractors, start comparing them before finalizing one. Attempt to learn their reviews and opinions on various construction websites so you are able to get a glimpse in their services that are actual and exactly what they provide.

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When you are on the lookout for a fantastic contractor for home improvement, the Internet makes it effortless to find the ones that you would like. It is possible to compare the quotes online, see what they need to mention and read through portfolios to obtain an idea of their own work.

It's also advisable to ask the restoration company to perform a home inspection before they offer you a contract. This is indeed that you will find a way to find out the way the contractor will reestablish your residence.

You should also ask the company if they are going to provide you with the professional services for free. So that you will be able to make certain your renovation is performed precisely. They can provide something free for a certain timeframe.

Make certain that you ask them about the kinds of work that they can perform and the range of people that could work in your home at the same time. This will let you make sure you are certain to get all individuals you have to do the renovation at the ideal moment.

Will apartment room decorating ideas Ever Rule the World?

There are a lot of reasons why somebody would like to sell their home. One is that they are having problems with it. Often times this means that it's not being maintained properly or is very obsolete. That you never need to choose the time to do whatever yourself if you are prepared to employ a professional.

The first step in renovating your bathroom and kitchen is to speak with your property agent about adding additional space for the appliances you want to use. A whole lot of people make the mistake of simply replacing their existing cabinets with brand new ones, but the simple truth is that you can have a much better look for only a couple of hundred dollars. You can also discover discount kitchen cabinets at any hardware shop and bathroom remodeling businesses.

Yet another fantastic way to increase the worth of your home is by substituting the inside of your house with a new coat of paint. You are able to replace the interior of one's house or apartment with a fresh coat of paint, or you may replace the entire interior of the house or apartment with a brand new coat of paint. If you decide to restore the interior, it is possible to get a fresh coat of paint from the exact identical paint firm that made your exterior paint. You might also paint front and rear doors using fresh paint. Possessing a fresh coat of paint on front and back of one's house may make a house look more alive and gives it even more personality.

If you want to keep along with exactly the same, then you might want to try exactly the exact same color as your house and then have the entranceway repainted after having a couple of years. However, it's a great idea to look at the color written down first. If you know the number of colors or colors are offered for the home and also the colors are alike, then it is an excellent plan to just acquire the doorway sanded.

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5. Sell your house on the internet. Now you can easily sell your house in http://edition.cnn.com/search/?text=realtor the living room, bedroom or kitchen. This offers you a chance to complete some remodeling without ever having to leave the comfort of your own house. Whenever you use an online agency to offer your home, you can even put your house on the market to multiple buyers, providing you more choices and also a broader range of buyers.

If a door has plenty of colors onto it, you then may wish to consider using the paint repainted in a totally new structure and style. This will include using the door completely sanded or simply adding a few new colors to it. In any event, the door may wind up looking like new after the renovation. Even though you really do need to make sure that you do not add too many colors or choose exactly the exact same color once more.

Once you redesign, it's a good idea to get some references from individuals that experienced their houses remodeled previously so you can get an idea of what you need to start looking for. Remodeling a house to increase your house value won't be excessively expensive.

#north vancouver #condos #real estate

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grimelords · 5 years

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I’ve finished my September playlist, only almost a month later. It’s got everything, The Weeknd, desert psychedelica from Niger, and Australian yodelling from 1941. What more could you want!

listen here

and if you’re interested, sign up for my tinyletter to get these playlists delivered to your inbox here

XO / The Host / Initiation - The Weeknd: First of all Trilogy is a masterpiece. The Weeknd is a legend forever for this alone. Back when he was an anonymous character and before he tried to pivot to being a proper pop star and started beliving his own bullshit. This trio of songs for me is one of the highlights of the whole thing because this is where things really take a turn and it serves as a nice flipside to earlier songs like Glass Table Girls (even quoting some of the lyrics from it in a very cool reprise). Where most of the songs from House Of Balloons are about his own descent into this hedonistic life, by the time you get to Echoes Of Silence he lives there comfortably, and he's turned from cool, dark and tormented to coldly evil and calculating. He's the master of the dark palace and he's drawing this woman in. The chorus of XO is straight up cult language 'all we ever do is love, open up your mind you can find the love'. She's broke and addicted trying to escape her life and he offers her this community. Which is where Initation comes in and things get really dark. This song feels like the real truth of those stories you hear of Drake flying instagram models around and it's a masterpiece of the dark underside of the drugs money and models bragging you're used to.

Sociopath (feat. Kash Doll) - Pusha T: Get a load of this new Pusha song where he's got Rodney Dangerfield ghostwriting for him. I got a bitch that'll master your card.. my wife ova hea!! Also the funny gritted teeth way he says it cracks me up. He also says boop bop be boop bop. There's so many good moments in this very silly song from a man that is normally terrifyingly serious.

Ice Cream - Muscles: I suddenly remembered this song the other day and I'm so glad I did. A good example of how you can get so much feeling out of music that has no relation at all to the lyrics. In the right mood this song makes me so emotional and I can't even pin down why. The way he sings 'ice cream is going to save the day' somehow just makes the urban alienation of the verse even more pointed. It's such a silly little dance song and that's what's so strong about it. It's dancing at night and unsuccessfully trying to forget what happened today.

Running - Gil Scott Heron & Jamie xx: It’s extremely strange that this remix album ever happened, thinking back on it. Stranger still that a Gil Scott Heron song got remixed by Jamie xx and then remixed again by 40 and turned into a Drake song in I’ll Take Care Of U and all three versions rock. Anyway, this song and this whole album remain fantastic - it still sounds futuristic in a way where nobody else really followed Jamie’s sound, everything else went a different direction so this an In Colour feel more and more unique to me as time goes on.

Boyfriend (Repeat) - Confidence Man: I’m in love with this album. It’s the closest I’ve found so far to the level of absolute fun in dance music since Duck Sauce’s album. I love the the attitude of her lyrics, which carries through the whole album. I love when her Australian accent peeks out for a second on a few words. I love his rebuttals that almost but not quite put it over the edge into a comedy song. I love the big fading out leadup to the drop near the end where a huge throat singing drone just swallows the whole song for a second.

Ever Again (Soulwax Remix) - Robyn: Extremely hot remix alert!! Thankyou to Zan Rowe's Monthly Mixtape playlist for putting my onto this.Sometimes all you need is one ferociously hot bassline to make a life complete.

$50 Million - !!!: !!!’s new album has one of the best covers I’ve seen recently, I advise you to check it out. It’s interesting to be so far into your career (this is their 8th album since 2001) and still be writing songs about selling out, a concept which has largely disappeared from music discourse since musicians started making no money post napster. I vaguely remember the turning point being when Kimya Dawson, after blowing up via the Juno soundtrack, turned down a coke ad for a ludicrous amount and the blogosphere at the time turned on her and said she should have taken the money because she was living in a van at the time. Nobody gives a fuck about selling out anymore because bands make more from tshirts than streams so you’ve got to act like a brand just to make a living. Anyway I’ve gotten off track. This song rocks, especially for the breakdown near the end.

Tipped Hat - The Paper Scissors: A song I haven’t heard in over ten years that suddenly popped into my head the other day. I love the way this guy’s voice sounds, just completely committing to sounding like a hand puppet. I’ve been playing bass a lot more recently and so have developed the worst man habit of becoming more sensitive to and pointing out extremely hot basslines to people, so I’d be derelict in my duty to not share this one.

Heimsdalgate Like A Promethian Curse - of Montreal: I love this song about literally pleading with your brain to come good. Here’s a good quote about this album “I went through this chemical depression, and that's when I was writing a lot of the songs for Hissing Fauna. They're all songs about that experience. And I was experiencing it in the moment that I was writing the songs, and sort of asking myself: What the hell is going on? Why are you all of a sudden totally paranoid and plagued by these anxieties? And why is everything so distorted and confusing and fucked up? My lifestyle hadn't changed that much. And then I realized, well, there's something going on inside of me that I don't have control over, and then you realize how vulnerable you are to these things, these elements that you can't understand, or unless you go on medication and get it under control. It's like you're being betrayed by your body.” Something I really admire about this album is that the lyrics reflect black metal levels of mental anguish, he was absolutely going through it the worst anyone can go through it “I'd gotten to that point where nothing was working. I was borderline suicidal, and my relationship with my girlfriend had totally eroded and she'd gone back to Norway with our daughter and everything was totally fucked, and I was just like, What can I do? "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal" is about that.” But the music is one hundred percent committedly twee and I really admire the effect that that split mood gives. “The lyrics tell the story of what was really going on and the music sort of represents this other emotion that I wish existed. The music was really happy because I wanted to make something that would lift my spirits.”

Jesus Rabbit - Guerilla Toss: I love the wobbly weird bass sound in this weirdo UFO cult song. I love the bleepy bloop melody that runs through it and I love how fundamentally unstable the whole song sounds, like it’s made out of paperclips and foil and papier mache.

Suburbia - Press Club: I can’t believe I didn’t know about Press Club for so long. I only found out about them this performance https://youtu.be/bCmtc-T5Unk which I’m shocked to learn has less than 5k views considering it’s one of the very best TV performances I’ve ever seen.

Come For Me - Sunflower Bean: I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this song before and I’m probably going to say the exact same thing but who cares! This song fuckin rocks. I love how assured it is, like “if you’re gonna fuck me then stop fucking around and fuck me already.” It also feels so musically similar to I Can Hardly Make You Mine by Cults to me, which is a great excuse for me to listen to that song every single time I listen to this song.

Thousands - Club Night: This Club Night album is really really good. It's like a really nice middleground between midwest emo and Cymbals Eat Guitars. The way this song blows up halfway through with 'what if we want it!!' is so good. This whole band feels like they're from 2009 but in a good way, the tail end of indie and twee with these prog or postrock structures where the songs just go and go, and you can just get completely lost in it.

Cemetary - Brutus: The first thing you've got to know about Brutus is the drummer is also the singer. Normally who plays what is not really important but in this case I think it's very important because it makes the drums a lead instrument more than they normally would be. When she's not singing my focus is still on the drums because they're linked and I absolutely love it. This song is great and every song I've heard of theirs is just as good, I love Brutus and they're one of the best new bands I've found recently. Someone in the youtube comments said 'there's something really special about hearing a song for the first time and just knowing you're going to listen to it hundreds of times in your life.'

Enter By The Narrow Gates / Spirit Narrative - Circle Takes The Square: I think that I think of Circle Takes The Square as a household name just because they have such an outsized importance in my own life when they're definitely not at all. They're legendary for making The screamo (good kind) album in As The Roots Undo and then taking 8 years to make a followup, which is this album Decompositions, but I don't really know if they're well known outside of like, people who have opinions about what were the hottest music blogspots in 2010. I chose both of these because you can't really have one without the other, the whole album basically runs as one long piece of music and so this just kind of jarringly ends at the end of Spirit Narrative, sorry about that please listen to the entire album. Because of the status As The Roots Undo enjoys I feel like this album was kind of ignored, or overshadowed by the reputation it was trying to live up to, almost exactly like The Avalanches with Since I Left You and Wildflower, when just like Wildflower it's a more expansive, developed take on the original sound that trades some of the rawness for a more polished and considered approach and comes out arguably better than the orginal. I feel like I have so much to say about this album but I don't really know where to begin, just listen to it.

Vitrification Of Blood (Pt. 1) - Blood Incantation: I am by no means a metal scholar, but I know that when the word 'blood' is in both the song title AND the band name that means it's good metal. I love this song, and this whole album is great. It's very 'classic' death metal but there's touches (beyond the extreme length) of psychedelica as well that puts it on another level you can just get lost in. The way the guitar goes to space at 3:40, and again properly into orbit at 6:50 is just magical. The more I listen to this band the more I understand those guys who only listen to metal, there's a whole ecosystem in here and it's really got everything you need.

Out Of Line - Gesaffelstein: This whole song is basically intended as an intro for Pursuit on the album but it’s so powerful just on its own. I love imbuing weirdo lyrics like ‘a bitter sunken love in a bleach blonde submarine’ with such ominous power through the commanding delivery. I love the way the big grunting vocals on the offbeat build to sound like a summoning ritual. I love making a big processed bell the centrepiece of your extremely evil sounding song. It’s sort of a shame that Gessaffelstein has never really gone back to the vision of his first album and has spent his time since diluting it down for guest production on Weeknd songs and the like because it feels like there’s still so much more to get out of this sound. That he hasn’t gone back and dug deeper makes Aleph stand out more and more as a singular masterpiece as time goes on.

Kamane Tarhanin - Mdou Moctar: Turning to Mdou Moctar after the new Tinariwen album kind of disappointed me, with all it’s big name guests nothing really hit me. I love this song though and I think a big part of it is the sort of loping, 6/4 rhythm that combined with the drone gives it this feeling of endlessly tumbling over itself in place, especially as the guitar heats up.

Achabiba - Fatou Seidi Ghali: I know very little about Fatou Seidi Ghali except that I saw she was supporting Sarah Louise at a show. From some googling it turns out that she’s the leader of a Nigerois band called Les Filles de Illeghadad who you can probably look forward to seeing on next month’s playlist. I also learned that the demonym for someone from Niger is Nigerien or to minimise confusion with Nigeria, Nigerois (said in a french way). They play a sort of desert psych in the realm of Mdou Mocter or Tinariwen, but this song (also the only solo song she has on spotify) shows her acoustic side. I love the swirling melody over the drone as the hand percussion keeps it in place and I love the very delicate vocals, but a probably unintentional thing I love a lot about this recording is the unmistakable iphone locking sound near the very start that instantly removes so much of the mystic exoticism that these sorts of artists are often written about with and places it firmly in the same sprawling modern world we all live in.

Floating Rhododendron - Sarah Louise: I love Sarah Louise. She’s a phenomenal guitarist and has such a big love for traditional folk music with her side project House And Land, but unlike everyone else in the genre is also very interested in pushing guitar forward to new and strange places. Her latest album was super experimental layered electric guitars and voice that still managed to maintain the deep connection to nature that runs through all her work. I would also highly recommend following her on instagram because her passion runs over. She’s regularly just out in the woods somewhere explaining how wonderful a particular mushroom is. This song one of the first ones I ever heard from her, and it’s back when she was just doing very beautiful 12 string acoustic work, but she recently added it to spotify and it’s a very nice reminder of where she came from and how far she’s gone in such a short time.

Lark - Angel Olsen: The new Angel Olsen is absolutely great. I love how much she is just completely going for it on this album, absolutely unleashing. Taken against earlier songs of hers I’ve loved like White Fire, where the majesty was in her quiet power and the ability to absolutely command silence with a whisper quiet song, this song feels like the direct inverse, an about-turn into all the gigantic majesty of swirling strings and top of your lungs vocals - going all out and leaving nothing on the table. The way this song blows up about three different times until by the end you’re caught in this gigantic swirling maelstrom of screaming sound is just out of this world.

Door - Caroline Polachek: Caroline Polachek’s brain is huge. When I first heard the chorus of this song I couldn't believe it. Are you allowed to have a chant that runs in a spiral like this be the chorus of your pop song? Is that allowed?

North, South, East And West - The Church: The Church feel like they don't get enough respect. They don't seem to be in the same league as Cold Chisel and The Angels and all the other dad rock Australian bands from that era for some reason. They're very good though and I've been really getting into this whole album and this song specifically lately. Maybe what's working against them is just how much his voice sounds like Bono's in this song but surely that was a boon at the time!

Western Questions - Timber Timbre: This has become one of my new favourite songs to sing. The way the words fit together is my favourite kind of poetics where they just sound incredible, phonetically, and can mean anything you like for large chunks. Like “the gelatinous walls of the seeds that seldom remain / while the bulls are browsing needles through computer casinos / honour the name”. Especially “bulls are browsing needles through computer casinos” is just extremely nice to say. I love the character of this song and am yet to completely understand what it’s saying other than personifying some worldwide blackpilled spirit of nihilist evil. What I love is the experience of all encompassing evil in this song, like a worldwide conspiracy connecting everything together that makes it all make sense. It doesn’t make you happier but it makes it make sense. I also love the finality of the big fill near the end that ushers in the outro riff that ties everything up.

Cold Cold World - Blaze Foley: I got heavily into a country music thing this month and spent a bit of time trying to find ‘real’ country, which of course turns out not to exist at all. The entirety of country music is built on a false nostalgia for an imagined time long past when things were real, some unspecified time in the collective consciousness between cowboy times and coal mine times. I don’t say this to say ‘country music is a fraud’ but that it’s built on a foundation of myth and that’s what’s so good about it. It’s constantly reframing the past as it relates to the present and is energised by the friction between them. Blaze Foley is a good example of this in the modern era because he seems to exist more as a myth than a man. He had three studio albums, the master tapes of which all disappeared through various means (lost, stolen, seized by the DEA) and so the majority of his surviving material is live recordings or long-lost studio recordings that resurfaced decades after his death when his fame and mythology already preceded him. He also thankfully lives up to the myth, he was truly a great artist and it’s a shame more of him hasn’t survived.

Where The Golden Wattle Blooms / Why Did The Blue Skies Turn Grey - Shirley Thoms: Further to what I was saying about country music before, Australian country is a whole other thing. Transferring the myth and the mythmaking to a new location adds another layer of abstraction. Shirley Thoms was the first female solo act to record country music in Australia in 1941 and was most notable for her yodelling of which she is damn fine. This is a great song and a good a starting point as any in trying to trace the origin of country music in Australia. That it's so english in its identity, so evidently imitating an american style (which is in turn imitating a german yodel) is just more good evidence that nothing is 'real' and traditions of the past and future are malleable at all times.

Talkin’ Karate Blues - Townes Van Zandt: Townes Van Zandt is widely regarded as a songwriter’s songwriter and one of the best country songwriters to ever live, but like a lot of great country songwriters also has one or two songs like this - strange comedy songs about learning karate and getting your arm ripped off.

Strange Tourist - Gareth Liddiard: This album is a masterpiece on the level of Ys and it feels criminally underlistened in my opinion. Luckily in the last week or so some renegade has done up the wiki article on it to a couple of thousand words so that's a start. Because this is a song I've listened to one million times and love a lot, it's hard for me to write about it in a general way so instead I'm going to talk about something very specific and new that I've only begun to appreciate recently. The way he uses the vowels of the japanese words to create these assonant runs in lines like "Koda Kumi sang a coda pink as sarin gas / I took a trip to Nagasaki in a rented Mitsubishi / Then went camping in the Jukai under Mount Fuji" and "They found him frozen in a hollow in Aokigahara forest where them harakiri weirdos go" is really something, and a nice illustration of the two sides of Liddiard's songwriting: densely technical poetics in a song about living with a housemate who was a real freak.

I Dream A Highway - GIllian Welch: I’m not even going to go into the lyrics of this because it’s such an out of this world perfect song but I’m going to say this: it’s really something that this song goes for nearly 15 minutes, sits on the same three chords the whole time and never ever feels long. This song is longer than Emily by Joanna Newsom but doesn’t feel like an epic of the same scale at all. It’s just a mournful slow ode to change and decay that goes on forever and could keeping going on for twice as long if it wanted to.

Deep Water - The Middle East: The way the vocals in the verses are delivered, trailing off and mumbling bits and pieces is somehow magical, like it’s more interested in communicating the gist and the feeling than the actual words. You can just pick whatever part of it you like. Petrol stations and a copper mine, the kind of place I think I could die. This song also has two minutes of silence at the end for album reasons so enjoy that.

listen here

#playlists

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taste-in-music · 5 years

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Reacting to Charli, baby!

If you were wondering why I hadn’t mentioned her in my last Music Monday post, this is why! I haven’t done one of these long album reaction posts in a long, long while, (not since Love + Fear, I believe,) and this is an album I’ve been hyped for, so I figured why not? I’ve heard a lot of the singles, but there are still many surprises to by had. Listen along to the album with me if you want, and without further ado, let’s ride.

Next Level Charli

I’m getting big “Vroom Vroom” vibes from this?

I’ve got it. This song is like the inverse to “Vroom Vroom.” It’s got the same anthemic bombast to it from the vocal delivery and lyrics, but with a brighter sound. The synths are high and glistening rather than low and abrasive.

The lyrics are super sweet. Maybe a dedication to the fans?

All right Charli, I’m ready to go to the next level.

Gone ft. Christine and the Queens

God this song still slams into the exosphere. The verses have so much taut tension to them with the bubbling synths and snappy drums, and then the chorus comes and hits you like a ton of bricks.

Also can we talk about how relatable the lyrics are? This is one giant shoutout to everyone that’s an insecure and antisocial mess at any party or gathering. Thank you for making a song for our kind Charli.

Christine and the Queens’s voice has this amazing fluidity to it, it must be the French in her. (Also, when she sings in French during the bridge? DEAD.)

Still meh on the outro though.

Cross You Out ft. Sky Ferreira

We’ve got some more aggressive production on this song, which is cool. It contrasts nicely with the more lilting vocals.

GIMME THOSE SKY FERREIRA CRUMBS. WHEN ARE WE GETTING MASOCHISM???!?!

If you listen to the bridge with good headphones you can hear these really low backing vocals from Sky that rattle the nape of your neck, they’re amazing.

I do wish it was a bit more experimental though, it does stay fairly constant through the entirety of the song and makes it a bit of a bland listen. Doesn’t mean I don’t like it, though.

1999 ft. Troye Sivan

Bop. Next.

Okay, I should actually say something about this, shouldn’t I?

I think it’s pretty cool that a song about 90s throwbacks actually does all it can to sound like it was plucked right out of the 90s. The production is bouncy, sparkly, and seamless, filled with glitching synths, sharp drums, and cute little ad-libs that make it a ton of fun. (That little “hee-hee” that Troye does after mentioning Michael Jackson? Art.)

I’m not usually into stuff that cashes into cheap nostalgia with little commentary as to why that nostalgia is wanted, (the main difference between me liking a song like “Ribs” by Lorde vs. “2002″ by Anne-Marie for example,) but whatever. This is catchy as heck. I love it.

Click ft. Kim Petras and Tommy Cash

Ooh, looks like we’re getting spooky here. This sounds very Turn Off The Lights and Pop 2.

We got a “woo-ah!” Kim Petras is here!

I’ve never heard of Tommy Cash or listened to any of his music. I don’t know if his sound is quite for me, but maybe I’ll look into his solo work later.

This isn’t a favorite of mine so far, (it’s far more avant garde than the other songs,) but I don’t know. I see it having its time and place, specifically when I want to feel like a bad bitch.

Warm ft. HAIM

Those keys! Those gentle synths! Hearing this production with headphones on is heavenly.

I never thought that Charli XCX and HAIM could work on a track together. HAIM is a very acoustic-driven band that takes inspiration from the past, and Charli always leans into more futuristic, synthetic ideas, but HAIM slip into Charli’s sound pretty well here.

Overall, it’s not a standout, but I don’t dislike it. My consensus isn’t especially hot or cold, it’s WARM.

I’m so sorry.

Thoughts

Well that intro brought me to attention very quickly. Am I in a Windows startup?

Those high notes are the best part of the song. Charli’s got range! Her vocals sound really full and rich here, especially on the verses.

Ironically, I don’t have many thoughts on this song overall.

I’m so sorry.

Blame It On Your Love ft. Lizzo

I already know that I love this song. Let’s get to bopping!

Small detail but the snare drums on this song are great.

This song has a drop that doesn’t suck, and I can’t stress how rare and refreshing that is. It sounds like a shot of caffeine, buzzy and colorful and not long enough.

Can we all agree that Lizzo is a blessing unto this Earth? Charisma rolls off her in waves. I don’t think I’ve ever been so sad for a rap verse to end in a pop song.

What an amazing song.

White Mercedes

The vulnerability in the lyrics on this song matched the subtler production sounds great.

Charli’s vocals sounds??? So good??? I don’t want this to come across the wrong way, but I never really listened to her music for her vocal prowess. Her strong suit always laid in delivering energy and an assertive presence, (like on “I Love It” or “Break The Rules.”) But this song shows just how downright lovely she can sound.

This is stacking up to be one of my favorite non-singles on this album. What a wonderful surprise this turned out to be.

Silver Cross

This is all right. I don’t have much to say on it. It’s got some interesting production elements and a solid vocal performance. It’s middle of the road.

In hindsight this maybe could’ve been cut.

I Don’t Wanna Know

We’ve got a more moody, atmospheric sound for this song. The drums and synths have lots of echo to them, giving the mix a sense of space. It’s like Charli’s the singer in a smoky room from “Don’t Stop Believin.��”

While it’s nice that the album takes a break from the glittery pop hooks and bombastic party jams, I do think this is a tad dull.

Official

I like those little punches of synth that make up the rhythm in the first verse.

OH MY GOD, the sparkling synths and tinkling keys on this track, they sound like flowers blooming and glimmering gemstones, that is GORGEOUS.

The way that the production builds on this song by laying in the sounds one by one is really interesting. Some of the effect is lost by the way the backing track is frequently paused throughout the song, which is kind of annoying, but the idea is there, and it’s cool. I like it in theory.

Shake It ft. Big Freedia, cupcakKe, and Pablo Vittar

I’ve heard a lot of good things about cupcakKe’s solo work and I know that she’s worked with Charli in the past, and I also know that Pablo Vittar and Charli made “Flash Pose” recently,” but I haven’t heard any of the solo work from these guest features, so I have no clue what to expect.

Those water sounds and how they meld into glitchy techno noises and then breaths? The dual tracking that moves from ear to ear and the whispered vocals? Her mind?

This is a wild ride with headphones on.

Febrary 2017 ft. Clairo and Yaeji

I didn’t listen to this despite it being released as a single. I wanted to be a surprise for the album.

Clairo’s low key voice works pretty well with the slithery vocal production that Charli often uses. I guess the glitchiness of Charli’s sound would compliment a bedroom pop artist.

The way the production explodes! This sounds fantastic! Holy moly! It’s like diving into a cotton candy wonderland!

That switch up into Yaeji’s part is pretty jarring though. While I like the cooing, gentle vocals and minimal production, it upright clashes with the first half of the track. If it had been worked into the previous production rather than cutting away from it I think it might’ve worked better.

This song comes across more as a mish-mash of ideas rather than a polished final product. I think maybe another draft could’ve improved it. Still, I do love the ideas it presents.

2099 ft. Troye Sivan

That last song! My my my how 50 minutes have flown by.

That heartbeat at the start of the song!

Okay this song is kind of all over the place. I don’t know if I have any definite thoughts on it.

Still, if this is what music sounds like in 2099 I won’t necessarily be complaining.

My Thoughts Summarized: This album feels like Charli half wanted to go avant-garde, half wanted to go mainstreen-friendly. This leads to a couple of confused moments, but also to some songs that meet those two options in the middle. While I feel like a few tracks could’ve been reworked or cut, I do like this project a lot. Charli really brought the bops and stepped it up with the vocals and lyrics. My favorite songs at the moment are probably “Gone,” “Blame It One Your Love,” and “White Mercedes.”

Can we talk about how gorgeous the visuals for this album have been, not only with the album art but with the music videos too? We had the badass prosthetics for “Blame It On Your Love,” the 90s throwback with “1999,” and Charli and Chris dancing on a car in the rain. I love it.

What did you think of Charli? Agree or disagree? Comment or reblog with your thoughts, I’m excited to hear what you think.

#music #album review #charli xcx #charli #taste in music

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rosalyn51 · 5 years

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Matthew Goode photographed by Philip Sinden ‘in the Hotel Café Royal in London, overlooking Piccadilly Circus.’ for Pal Zileri ss 2017 via Brummell Magazine.

Rosalyn51 note: As production news of A Discovery of Witches season 2 are gradually coming out, let’s revisit a bearded MATTHEW in his FAVORITE city - London.💙 How does he feel about filming period drama? (Season 2 Shadow of Night 🎆 takes place in Elizabethan England!)

Pal Zileri: face of things to come Actor Matthew Goode on going from check-shirt-wearing student to fronting the new campiagn for Italian tailors, Pal Zileri

Sept 5, 2017 Peter Howarth, Brummell Magazine

Matthew Goode sits in the Hotel Café Royal in London, overlooking Piccadilly Circus. As traffic rumbles past, the actor reflects on how clothes can make the man.Goode, who is set to play Lord Snowdon in season two of The Crown on Netflix, was most recently seen on the big screen in Allied with Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. Other notable credits include Match Point and The Imitation Game. But he is perhaps most familiar for TV appearances in Brideshead Revisited and Downton Abbey.

‘I like the period stuff, we do it really well,’ says the 37-year-old. ‘There’s no difference to the way you go about creating a character. But it’s nice, you’re in period cars and clothing. It’s just a bit more fun. It’s not a reflection of the day-to-day we all know, so it’s a bit easier to play the fantasy. You put braces on in the morning and it’s a more romantic feeling; different to putting on jeans.’

For Goode, clothes are an important part of getting into character. ‘You are into the process and you’ve been thinking about the character and psychology of that character, so when you get the costume on it reflects the social, economic and political ideas of that character,’ he explains. ‘It’s funny – shoes tend to really nail it down. It’s all from the ground up.’

I wonder whether he dresses the part for auditions. ‘Yeah absolutely, I’ve done that before – but it’s not going to get you the job. It is similar to when you’re rehearsing on stage. If you are playing a part from the 1830s then it’s wonderful to have a dress shirt with a waistcoat or whatever, because you move and sit differently. You’re held in a completely different position, so it fits with your behaviour and how you relate to other people and even your speaking voice; it’s all part of the game. Clothes and fashion are so important.’

Today, Goode finds himself something of a fashion plate. Having been dressed by several houses in the past, for this season he is the new face of Italian label, Pal Zileri. But his interest in fashion only began with his career. ‘I think it was the job, working with costume designers and flamboyant directors,’ he says. ‘I had a well-dressed flatmate when I was at university. I was from Devon and wearing checked shirts and jeans, so I looked alright but not contemporary. My flatmate was from London and was quite fashionable, and he wouldn’t let me leave the house unless I looked good. He educated me in terms of fashion, you could say.’

A tailored suit jacket with a white shirt can never go wrong, and it’s always nice to have a bit of colour

Goode has that kind of rangy English build that makes clothes look good. They hang from him effortlessly and in Pal Zileri’s new campaign he wears their contemporary tailoring in an easy, relaxed way. This new role was perhaps fated, and he tells the story of how he and his wife were due to attend a wedding but when he went to collect his tails from the dry cleaners, it was closed. A panic call to a friend resulted in the loan of a midnight blue suit that fitted him so well and elicited so many compliments that he made a note to get a similar one. It was by Pal Zileri. ‘So lo and behold…’ he jokes.

‘When I was working on The Good Wife we used the guy that Obama got his suits from, and that was fantastic, a very old company. I think he was an immigrant who came over and they’d been going for about 100 years.’ Goode says, about to be photographed for Pal Zileri’s SS17 collection. ‘But I have to say, pound for pound, the Italians really know how to make great clothes.

’He talks of how he thinks it’s a cultural thing, a love of beauty and part of la dolce vita. ‘All the men are so well put together. Whenever I’m over there, there’s a similar sort of look, particularly in the winter time. A lovely long jacket, lots of layers.’Goode is now a father and admits having children has changed his wardrobe. ‘We don’t go out as much as we used to, my wife and I… so when we do, it’s nice to dress up a bit. And we tend to not go out unless it requires that. I pretty much always have to be in a suit.’He explains that tailoring is his go-to wardrobe for work too. ‘It’s nice to look smart, and it’s important when meeting a director. A tailored suit jacket with a white shirt can never go wrong. And it’s always nice to have a bit of colour on you.’

He tends to wear suit jackets as separates, and now, working with Pal Zileri, he’s discovering the joys of tailored jackets designed for comfort. One of his favourites is made of jersey. It looks structured, but is soft and recovers quickly from being scrunched up when travelling. There’s also ‘this fantastic pair of trousers… they’re playing with being modern and slightly futuristic’ but he is adamant that ‘they’re not culottes!’. Goode likes Pal Zileri because it combines Italian craftsmanship and quality with contemporary design. This mix, he says, allows him to look ‘a little dishevelled, but remain elegant’.The quality is as critical as the design. These pieces are investments: ‘As long as you don’t put a hole in it, you can get it re-tailored in 20 years should you need to.’ However, despite his willingness to experiment with contemporary style, there is one element of tailoring design that Goode clings to: ‘I’ve always been a single-breasted guy. However, as I’m getting older and more rakish, I’m hoping I turn into someone who can wear double-breasted.’

#matthew goode #matthewgoode #matthew clairmont #a discovery of witches #henry talbot

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booksandwords · 4 years

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Meet Cute: Some People Are Destined to Meet (Anthology)

Read time: 10 Day Rating: 4/5

Contains stories by Katie Cotuguo, Nina LaCour, Ibi Zoboi, Katherine McGee, Sara Shepard, Meredith Russo, Dhonielle Clayton, Emery Lord, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Jocelyn Davies, Kass Morgan, Julie Murphy, Huntley Fitzpatrick and Nicola Yoon

Overall Thoughts So I will start by saying I enjoyed this collection. There is a bit of something for everyone the couples are M/M, M/F and F/F, one of the main characters is trans. There are different time settings, different writing styles and the meet-cutes appear at different points in the stories. IOn the writing styles I think it is important to know that they run the gambit of perspectives (1st, 2nd and 3rd). The stories are charmingly brief (20-25 page each) making it a great palette cleanser or pick up put down book. Now here's the but. Meet Cute really needed an introduction. Either whoever at Alloy collated it or whoever bought the authors together. Due to the diversity within the stories, I was wondering what the brief was. Even just a definition of a meet-cute would have been better than nothing. One other issue I had was that all the meet-cutes were implicitly or explicitly coded as romantic. I would have really liked one that was just a friendship or someone to tackle an ace protagonist. Standout stories: Click, Oomph, Say Everything.

Siege Etiquette by Katie Cotuguo This is a Queen Bee (Hailey) and Farm Boy (Wolf) hiding kinda from the cops in a bathroom. They have shared pasts, misunderstandings abound and there is a definite attraction. It's written in 1st person for only one person (Hailey's) something I don't read a lot but it works. It's an interesting premise well-executed in less than twenty pages. I can see where it could go if it was longer but it works really well at this length.

Print Shop by Nina LaCour It's Evie's first day at a new job, it's not what she expected but she is trying to make the best of it. One of the jobs given to her is setting up social media for the print shop. Lauren is a disgruntled customer. Evie identifies as queer and she has one of the most adorable coming out stories, it was essentially an accident. Nina LaCour has an engaging style. Her story is a meeting of worlds, a meeting of times. It's the perfect length and frames itself well.

Hourglass by Ibi Zoboi Hourglass focuses on Cherish, an African American girl living in a town where there are only 4 other African American families. It is set at the end of her senior year, right before prom. Hourglass is less about the meet-cute and more about female friendship and the end of an era. That is not to say the meet-cute isn't sweet, it is and it challenges some norms and expectations. I was sort of disappointed with Hourglass. I like Cherish. I wanted to know more, I wanted to see what choices she made. Or at a bare minimum, I want to see her rock that dress.

Click by Katherine McGee Click is fantastic. Unlike some of the other stories, it feels entirely self-contained and uses an alternating perspective. The main characters are the hurting and technologically inclined Alexa and the creative Raden, those alignments alone deserve applause. I feel like there is some inspiration taken from not only real-world dating apps but Scythe. It just made me happy. It's a hopeful story with endearing characters.

The Intern by Sara Shepard The main characters are slightly eccentric rock star Phineas and Clara the daughter of a celebrity and not what her father expects. Clara is involuntarily interning at her father's record label for the summer. Phineas and Clara meet as part of her role at V. It's a simple story about how two young people spend a day finding out each other in New York. Honestly, I got The Sun Is Also A Star vibes. It's not bad, it just feels a bit unoriginal and there aren't enough details given for me to really enjoy it.

Somewhere That's Green by Meredith Russo Somewhere That's Green is an opposite attract story. Nia is a young trans woman struggling with having her community acknowledge her identity. Lexie is a Christian girl at her school who appears to be leading the charge to have her use the male facilities rather than the female ones. While I appreciate Nia and Lexie I have issues with Meredith Russo's writing. Meredith Russo is a trans woman with that in mind her writing feels overly cliche and perhaps wasteful. It is a very personal opinion. The story isn't bad, I enjoyed it, I just wish there was something more real about it.

The Way We Love Here by Dhonielle Clayton This is a reasonably clever play on the red string of fate but also uses time travel elements. It's another wonderful, hopeful story with unexpected protagonists. The artistic, driven Viola and the creative but sick Sebastian. Its focus is the possibilities and alternatives life can offer. I would like to know where Dhonielle Clayton drew their inspiration from the setting is on an isolated island which you cannot leave, it all feels very mythological both using eastern and western elements. I really enjoyed it.

Oomph by Emery Lord Oomph is super sweet and the perfect amount of nerdy. The main ladies use Natasha Romanov and Peggy Carter as nicknames, well actually names. They are in an airport waiting for flights. It's very cliche but it's a cliche for a reason. It's just so good. The smores are brilliant. I loved the writing, it's funny and cute.

The Dictionary of You and Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout I'm nopeing all the way out of this one. I have issues. I'm a librarian and this is all kinds of bad and just annoying stereotypes that push my buttons. Basically, I know too much and I can't turn my brain off. It is kind of cute but it is also kind of creepy. Essentially she is a librarian and he is a patron with an overdue dictionary. When she rings him to try and get the book back they flirt. I just can't not see how wrong it is.

The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling in Love by Jocelyn Davies This is another one with perhaps reverse archetypes. She is a math nerd, he is a musician. The plot revolves around her mathematical inclination and a final assessment. Their meet-cute really is adorable and the thing of daydreams, eyes meeting through train carriage windows. Sam urns it into an exercise in probabilities which is adorable. I do like Sam, the plot and the ending. The writing is well suited to the character which is in and of itself isn't easy.

259 Million Miles by Kass Morgan 259 Million Miles focused on missed opportunities with a side of social conscious. The main characters, Philip and Blythe, are likeable and human. It is truly standalone and doesn't ask for more. The ending brings out mixed emotions as one wants from a story dealing with humanity. But it was nice to have a story that was basically a locked room, a true two people put together with only one thing in common. Though in the battle of the futuristic meet-cutes, it loses to Click... easily.

Something Real by Julie Murphy This is the only review I'm spoiler warning so see my Goodreads for this bit.

Say Everything by Huntley Fitzpatrick This is such a well written and unexpected story. But I don't know if it is a meet-cute, there is too much history there. Emma is a fantastic character, I appreciate her resilience and forthrightness. Sean is well, Sean is something. But Emma is an unreliable narrator. The story is written in 2nd person, the only one in the book written as such. Like the book of quotes idea popularised by A Walk to Remember The Book of Lost Opportunites sounds like a brilliant idea. It is such a strong story though, at least to me.

The Department of Dead Love by Nicola Yoon This is the perfect last story, the perfect last line. It is a visually stunning story that plays on some unexpectedly heavy ideas. While I was torn on the three central characters I loved the writing and world. Nicola Yoon has a way with words that evokes emotion.

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fyrapartnersearch · 4 years

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original, percy jackson, pokemon, avatar, skyrim, fallout ;

I’m AJ! I lost a couple partners in the holiday craze, which is totally fine! Now I’m lookin’ for some RPs to head into the new year. If we had something lined up and things fell off the wagon, no sweat, just message me again and we can get the ball rolling again! :)

For original settings: apocalyptic (zombie, disease, extinction event, whatever), supernatural (fantasy, urban, sci-fi, literally anything). For fandom universes: Percy Jackson, Pokemon, Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra, Skyrim, and Fallout.

Gonna run through my basic info and then onto the particulars. 💕

⥽ About Me ; ⥼

• Name/Age ; AJ! 22! Finally!

• Timezone ; CST! I don’t mind time differences, this is just so you know my general schedule.

• Length ; Depends on whether it’s novella or multi-paragraph. If m.para, around 3-5 minimum I guess? Novella would obviously be much longer.

• Reply rate ; Varies depending on whether we’re doing multi-paragraph or novella. I can respond anywhere from every day to every other day or a few times a week to weekly depending on the writing style of the RP and my schedule.

• OOC ; I like getting to know my partners and sharing enthusiasm over our ideas and characters. Nothing hits quite like mutual investment! I like making playlists/pinboards/sending you videos or songs or memes that remind me of our characters!

• Contact ; Strictly email for OOC and roleplay unless we’re using GDocs for the RP itself. You can find me at [email protected].

⥽ On the lookout for ; ⥼

• Doubling ; Not a deal-breaker!! I just prefer writing a cast of characters, so this is something that’s more of a bonus. Ideally we’ll double, but I’m down for writing just one character each. Let me know how ya feel about it!

• Will only write MxM or FxF ; MxF’s not my cup of tea (I’m extremely picky with it, fellow gays u know how it is). If we’re writing a cast of characters then I’m fine with having an MxF side couple. And I STRICTLY write OCxOC! Canon characters won't be found anywhere near this stuff, folks!

• 20+ ; Partner’s gotta be 20+ even if we don’t write anything explicitly adult! I’m outta my teens now and don’t have any interest in writing with them. Same goes for characters. It’s a 20+ zone for both partners and characters ‘round here, folks!

⥽ Yes! ; ⥼

• Smut ; I enjoy writing it, but it’s not a deal-breaker if you’d rather fade to black. All characters will obviously be adults. I expect versatile characters in bed by default, that way we’ve got an even route for playing roles in bed. Admittedly this shifts a bit depending on the character I write but for the most part, yeah, I stick to verses.

• Face claims ; Spent a huge chunk of my roleplaying years on tumblr (it was very over-the-top and flowery and weirdly formatted and grossly difficult to read, I know I know), so having a face for characters stuck with me. If you don’t have any of your own and want good resources to find a face, I’ve got some recommended sites I can throw at ya! Not a deal-breaker, though, and for certain fandoms (Pokemon, Avatar) I actually prefer not to use realistic face claims so we can just opt outta that when writing in these universes.

• Depth & growth ; Not a fan of one-dimensional characters or characters who act the same from beginning to end! People change with experiences and the people around them, so this is to be expected. ESPECIALLY when doubling with a cast. I loooove complicated characters growing together.

• Plotting & Worldbuilding ; *For original settings/worlds! I’m not picky with this if we’re working with a canon setting, so if that’s what you’re looking for, we can skip this section. I run into loooads of folks who say they do this when they really don’t. We’re writing an entire world together, so there’s some degree of effort involved! I need specifics to use as a start-off point for the roleplay and a general outline for where the story’s going. RPs that are just random, spur of the moment with writing as we go on tend to burn out REALLY quickly for me. I know not a lot of people are into this, so I’m sorry about that.

⥽ No! ; ⥼

• Single paragraphs ; I’m not too picky with a lot of length a lot of the time, I just don’t mesh well with people who don’t write more than that. Go ham. I like my responses meaty!

• Limits ; Abuse, nonconsensual/sexual assault, pedophilia, incest (includes step-relations, adopted relations, and that figurative like if one character essentially raised another or they were raised as family), weird age gaps, BDSM, any kind of master/slave or dom/sub dynamics.

As for the goods, I’ve laid ‘em all out for you here! Keep in mind that while all of these are fun on their own, I’m definitely the type of writer who’s into mixing and matching. Sci-fi apocalypse? Fantasy apocalypse? Fantasy supernatural stuff? Sci-fi fantasy? Sci-fi supernatural stuff? Supernatural apocalypse? Period settings? Literally whatever you could think of, I’ll give it a whirl. The particulars down below are just to get the ball rolling and catch some interest, some asterisks for current cravings but I’m soooooo honest when I say that I’d love to write anything down below and won’t shoot you down if you come at me with stuff. Hit me up with whatever you’d like!

APOCALYPSE: My bread and butter! Bro. I’m all about the tense, harrowing, and especially gut-punching when it comes to how close people become to survive together in quiet moments of a world they used to know. I’m a big fan of zombies, so that’s my loose preference. I loved Black Summer on Netflix – the earlier episodes, at least, as well as The Last of Us. That’s the kind of vibe I favor with zombies/zombie-like creatures. But, ofc, an apocalypse can be anything! I love writing different takes on the genre since there’s so much to cover. Extinction event, pandemic, impact event, monsters/beasts, man-made, whatever. The more creative the apocalyptic setting, the better, so I’d love to bounce some ideas back and forth. Not too into a nuclear apocalypse setting, since that overlaps a lot with Fallout down below. I’ve also had some ideas of a futuristic/sci-fi apocalypse that I’d love to tell you all about if you’re interested!

FANTASY***: High fantasy, low fantasy, medieval fantasy, urban fantasy, whatever. Love dragons, love magic, love weird fantasy flora, definitely love the classic prince/princess x knight or commoner schtick. You want prophecies? I’m game. You want elves? I’m game. You want steampunk? I’m game. You want none of that and wanna do something else? I’m game, baby. The possibilities are endless. I’ve had two particular ideas floatin’ around in my noggin lately: an apocalyptic-fantasy that takes place in a medieval fantasy realm wherein an ancient curse/plague erupts across the land with horrifying zombie-esque symptoms (obv with more fantasy elements than just that) that involves a quest to try and awaken a god or two OR some magic journey to the heart of it all and out and end to it, and a modern fantasy involving a run-down summer camp secluded deep in the woods. Two new counselors (our characters) start working there over the summer and things slowly unravel from there, either with faerie stuff involving replacing campers/staff (definitely aiming for the freaky horror faeries as opposed to like, beautiful or only slightly unnerving faeries) or the camp being run by a secret cult that sacrifices campers/staff.

SUPERNATURAL/PARANORMAL***: Vampires and werewolves and demons, oh my! Can’t go wrong with horror, especially can’t go wrong with comedy-horror. I’m more of the type to prefer humans and supernatural beings together in a ragtag duo type of way as opposed to two supernatural beings, but anything’s cool in my book. Medieval/fantasy setting for a dark fairytale vibe, urban/modern supernatural beings slinking in the shadows outside of the human eye, supernatural sci-fi stuff, mysteries and danger lurking around every corner? Seriously, it’s a great genre! Any and everything is fantastic. I’ve got a loose concept of demons/the Underworld I’d like to get into revolving around a human accidentally summoning a demon or making a really poor deal with a demon and the eventual threat of the opposite effect (humans who work with angels/angels who clean up demonic stuff) since I’m struggling with the worldbuilding of it, so applying all that to a roleplay to give it a whirl sounds like a great way to work out the kinks. Plus, c’mon. Paranormal romance. End of the world. Flipping the script on angels and demons with the demons being “good” and the angels being “bad” but really there’s more nuance to that since they’re two sides of the same coin. What’s not to love there? I’m a sucker for human/demon relationships and/or human/angel relationships, what can I say!

PERCY JACKSON*****: I haven’t ever roleplaying this verse before, so this is completely new grounds for me. I’ve seen some fun takes on it, though! Scoured older ads but haven’t reached out to anyone because the posting time’s pretty old, but a couple ideas I’ve skimmed through sound fun. HP got a period take on it, so why not put that spin on PJ with a period setting rather than in modern times? Or just a regular modern setting. Y’know, keep it classy, keep it sexy, keep it fun! I’m definitely interested in life outside of camp since they’d all be adults. Life’s supposed to suck for demigods, so let’s get into that. I’ve only read the first series but I’m game to read more or look over the Wikipedia if it suits your fancy! I’m REALLY looking for a PJ RP, seriously, message me.

POKEMON: Man, I just… miss Pokemon, dude, what else can I say? :( I miss fun adventures and goofy scenarios and taking a more serious or realistic route with threats. I’ve got a couple of ideas from heists to evil Elite Four members to Poke-Jurassic Park, but I’d love to hear anything you’ve got in mind!

AVATAR*****: Alright, not gonna beat around the bush, I had a killer post-Korra RP setting like a year ago that died off early on and now I’m kinda itching to put it back into action! Basically this whole thing just revolves around our own Avatar and world/conflicts. Something before Aang could be fun too? Or a couple Avatars past Korra? There’s so many routes we could take this! And so many things we could bring in! I had an Avatar marathon with my brother this weekend and I just miss this universe. I’ve never actually managed to RP it before, so I wanna remedy that!

FALLOUT***: Played 3, watched various playthroughs of New Vegas, 4, and working on 1+2! I’m a recent fan and I’ve fallen head over heels for it! I’ve got ten prepped OCs for this universe so feel free to take your pic once we get into contact! :D I think it could be fun if we make our own setting for this, but I’m so down for piggybacking off canon settings. I love the Mojave in particular, but everything’s cool in my book. I’ve also got a couple plot ideas, so I can tell you all about ‘em when we get into things!

SKYRIM***: Well I’m a new Fallout fan so it should come to NO surprise that I’m new to Skyrim too. I recently got into it after someone recommended it to me and I’m having a blast playing the game on the Switch! I don’t have any particular ideas but I’d love to dip into the water here and see what comes of it. I’ve got a couple character ideas already so if I manage to rope anyone into this universe I’ll be one happy camper.

#multiple paragraph #long term #email #pokemon rp #smut rp #submission

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auron570 · 5 years

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2018 Readlist

FAQ

Why do you read so many old books?

Because most of them belong to the public domain, and are thus freely available online. Also it is fun to see how much the past influences and creates the foundation for the present. And how much or how little has changed, and what this says about humanity.

Orwell - Animal Farm (1945)

A satire on the Russian Revolution and the failure of communism. Among other things, Animal Farm underlines the importance of learning to read properly and think for oneself, in a way that tickles with dark humor.

Orwell - 1984 (1949)

Similar to Animal Farm, 1984 is an even more systematic and total examination of a society where all history and information is tightly controlled and constantly being rewritten. Being published after WW2, 1984 trades some of Animal Farm’s humor for more serious and tragic imagery of concentration camps. In a sense, 1984 is an exploration of the possibility of mind control or brainwashing through societal-level propaganda.

Huxley - Brave New World (1932)

Absolutely fantastic. If 1984 was about what would happen if everything we read was false, then Brave New World is what would happen if no one had the desire to read at all. Brave New World shows a futuristic society that runs like clockwork with the help of genetic engineering and a miracle drug called Soma. COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY. BNW examines the costs of a society that is mass-produced off assembly lines.

Fitzgerald - Great Gatsby (1925)

A criticism of conspicuous consumption and the Roaring 20s. You can’t bring your mansion with you when you die. Mortality sucks that way. Throughout the novel we are invited to ask ‘what makes Gatsby (the character) so great?’ From rags to riches to death, Gatsby’s lonely existence is pitiable, tragic and relatable as ever.

Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath (1939)

Steinbeck’s illustration of the 1930s Dust Bowl and the resulting migration of impoverished families west across the United States, is a poetic masterpiece. ‘You want to work for 15cents an hour?! Well I got a thousan’ fellas willing to work 10cents an hour.’ Also featuring two of the strongest female characters in modern literature, Grapes of Wrath is a powerful lesson on human dignity.

Shakespeare - Hamlet (1599)

The more I read Hamlet, the more I come to the conclusion that Hamlet is about delay of action. In a way, Hamlet forces himself to be penitent for something he doesn’t do. The more time he spends contemplating whether or not to kill Claudius, the more time he has to beat himself up and call himself a coward, and for accidents to pile up. ‘But put your courage to the sticking place!’ Hamlet is what happens when you ask a philosopher to commit murder.

Shakespeare - King Lear (1605)

A lesson in parenting. If you want people (especially your children) to respect you, do not spoil them. Lear learns this lesson far too late, and gives up his inheritance far too early. Another possible lesson is to not trust liars, and instead divine a person’s character by their actions. The trouble is, with so much action going on behind the scenes, the opportunities for dramatic irony and treachery are twofold!

Wilde - Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

An example of 19th century Gothic Romanticism. And also, similar to Great Gatsby, another cautionary tale against conspicuous consumption. Dorian Gray, forever beautiful, forever young, is by all appearances the outward ideal of a dandy. As the novel develops, his cruelty and vanity plunge to increasing depths.

Wilde - Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

The comedic side of being a dandy. If the suit makes the man, surely if I wear a different suit I become a different man? In a play of double-identities, love polygons and other trivialities, Earnest is a raucous upset of 19th century decorum.

Ibsen - Hedda Gabler (1891)

A complex and cruel character, Hedda’s penchant for destroying the lives of others, seems to stem from bitterness and boredom toward her own life.

Williams - Glass Menagerie (1944)

Theater is a box through which we view the lives of our fellow homo sapiens. Like passing by an exhibit at the museum, or peeking in on pandas at the zoo, Glass Menagerie presents a slice of life.

McCourt - Angela’s Ashes (1996)

A coming-of-age memoir about an Irish boy growing up in an impoverished family. From the day he’s born to the day he becomes a man, memorable moments include: father always coming home drunk, scavenging for coal to get the fire going, stealing loaves of bread, shoes made of tire rubber, having an affair with a terminally ill girl, having pig’s head for Christmas, and wearing Grandma’s old dress to stay warm at night.

Salinger - Catcher in the Rye (1951)

A tightly written story of teenage angst, about the few days after an unmotivated student drops out of a New York prep school. Unable to face his family, he wanders around the bustling city, growing increasingly depressed. Holden’s conversations with different characters throughout the novel, underline a simple moral that sometimes we just want someone to listen. (Preferably someone who isn’t a phony!)

Shakespeare - Macbeth (1606)

A bloody and ambitious soldier descends into madness after the murders the King! It can be difficult interpreting and staging the supernatural elements of the play (e.g. do you show the ghosts on stage? what about the Witches? When, why). But remember Shakespeare is writing in a time hundreds of years before modern psychology, where memory and cognition was still immaterial and mysterious. Similar to Dorian Gray (1890), Macbeth is a moral on how one’s actions affect one’s mind.

Albom - Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)

Succumbing to ALS near the end of his life, sociology professor Morrie Schwartz welcomes death with open arms. Hosting many visitors and having many conversations with family, friends, past students, the media, Morrie’s affable outlook on life and mortality shines.

Golding - Lord of the Flies (1954)

An allegory on the state of nature. One wonders if/how the story may have been different (and possibly more horrifying and prone to censorship debates) if female characters were involved. I suppose that would be a separate inquiry. Unable to see beyond the horizon, and unwilling to look at themselves, Jack and his follows almost doom them all.

Lowry - The Giver (1993)

Another science fiction dystopia in a similar vein as Brave New World or 1984, but less difficult and more relatable for teenagers. Those who enjoy The Giver, should check out the film Pleasantville (1998) featuring Tobey Macguire getting stuck in a black-and-white world. Naturally the lesson being that life is never so simple.

Naipaul - Miguel Street (1959)

A collection of short stories centered around unique characters in a slum in Port of Spain. Featuring arson, domestic violence and plenty of eccentric amateurs, Miguel Street illustrates a colorful community.

Thiong’O - Weep Not Child (1964)

Set during the Mau Mau Uprising against British colonial rule, Weep Not Child follows one boy’s goal of education. Meanwhile his family falls apart around him, and is cut off from his best friend.

Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables (1908)

Having recently been adapted by CBC/Netflix into a series (which is very good), the original novel is full of comedy, quaint coming-of-age lessons centered around school, tea parties, accidents and adventures. But despite this levity, Anne ends with a tragic turn which places it well within the realm of reality.

Shelley - Frankenstein (1818)

Another example of 19th century Gothic Romanticism (like Dorian Gray). Doctor Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with the idea of creating life from inanimate material, only to spurn his own creation just after giving life to it. The monster, filled with rage and envy, murders Frankenstein’s dearest friends. A sort of cautionary tale in the same vein as Doctor Faustus by Marlowe, Frankenstein is a counter-weight to the enthusiasm around science at the time. That science can not only produce miracles, but also horrors in its own way if one is not careful.

Anderson - Winesburg Ohio (1919)

A collection of short stories revolving around a small community (similar to Miguel Street). Themes of religion, old age, loneliness, love, feeling stuck in a small town, Winesburg is full of some of the most heart-rending stories in all literature. Also Winesburg manages to accomplish a unity of themes in very short space. The whole of Winesburg is much more than the sum of its parts, such that it can stand just as well against other great novels.

Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre (1847)

One could argue that Jane Eyre is the predecessor to Anne of Green Gables. The latter frequently references the former, both are about orphan girls who grow up successfully in the face of many adverse challenges. While Anne ends with the protagonist becoming a young adult, Jane Eyre ends with a more traditional romantic happy ending, but like Anne is not without its tragedy.

Bronte, Emily - Wuthering Heights (1847)

Fun fact, Wuthering Heights was a novel I considered doing an independent study essay on, but didn’t since I didn’t know anything about literature back then. Although technically of the gothic genre, Bronte primarily uses cruelty and domestic violence to evoke scenes of horror, as opposed to ghosts and monsters, while at the same time using these as tools to explore very down-to-earth themes of social class and gender inequality.

Joyce - Dubliners (1914)

Very similar to Winesburg Ohio, but without the same unity. For example, one story is difficult to read without first reading about the history of Ireland. There are some tear-jerkers and lovely metaphors. For example the final metaphor of “snow falling faintly through the universe”, is a variation of the oft-used metaphor of flowers. How they bloom for a short period then die. What is new with this metaphor is that each snowflake is unique, thanks to the chaotic tumbling of water droplets through the atmosphere, just like how every live is unique. But all snowflakes much reach the ground some time and then melt away into nothingness.

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allmusicology-blog · 5 years

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Self-Titled by The 1975

I have been listening to The 1975 since I was 13 years old. They have been one of my absolute favorite bands since then. This album came out in 2013 and I was instantly hooked. Yes, their songs consist of subject matter that is too mature for a 13 year old, but I grew up listening to their music. This album is the first released of their now three albums.

1. The 1975

The 1975 have done this for every one of their albums since then. Their first songs on all of their albums are titled the 1975. These songs act as more of an interlude into the actual album. It’s very unique and I applaud their artistry in making musical choices like this.

2. The City

This song is a garage-band sounding pop rock songs. It has a repetitive and catchy chorus: “Yeah you wanna find love, then you know where the city is”. One of the things I love about the 1975 is that they often have interesting lyrics that you can interpret in many different ways. Lead singer Matty Healy has actually said that the third verse doesn’t make much sense to him either. He found the lyrics on a paper crumpled in his pocket after he was drunk and most likely on under the influence of other substances. The lyrics fit with the melody of the song, and he decided to include them.

3. M.O.N.E.Y.

This song is one of my least favorites of the album. It’s a bit too monotone for my liking and repetitive. It still has the unique sound of The 1975. However, it is not a great example of their strengths musically.

4. Chocolate

This song was the first single off of The 1975′s first album. This was the song that first got me into The 1975. Chocolate is a metaphor for something else. I’ll let the listener figure that one out. This song is a fun and catchy pop rock song. This is a song that expresses The 1975′s strengths sonically.

5. Sex

This song is not only one of my favorites off the album, it’s one of my favorite 1975 tracks of all time. It is the most “rock” sounding song that they have ever recorded. It makes me wish that they would go back to a sound like this. It just works so well for them. The heavy drums and electric guitar work so well for this song. The lyrics are a bit edgy, but they are effective. All of the verses end with the phrase “She’s got a boyfriend anyway” Which I think is clever and works for the song.

6. Talk!

This is, unfortunately, another one of my least favorite songs of this album. It’s too repetitive for me. As a The 1975 fan, I know they can do better than this song. I always skip this one when it comes on shuffle.

7. An Encounter

The 1975 always include a few instrumental interludes throughout their albums, which I think is interesting. I can tell why this song is titled An Encounter. It sounds futuristic and UFO-like. As a long-time fan, I can tell that the main background part is the instrumental to their song Robbers, which appears later on this album.

8. Heart Out

This is a great song. It’s not one of my personal favorites by The 1975, but it’s definitely one of the stronger songs of the album. The instrumentation and lyrics work very well for the song. “It’s just you and I tonight, why don’t you figure my heart out?”

9. Settle Down

This is another great and catchy track. It’s more pop-sounding than some other tracks on here, but it still has the unique pop-rock sound of the 1975. The electric guitar riff makes this song a lot of fun to listen to.

10. Robbers

This song is one of the most popular The 1975 songs for a reason. It’s just so good. It’s a slower rock song, but it’s not a ballad. This song has the strongest lyrics of the entire album. Again, this song is one of my top favorite The 1975 songs ever. The melody of the chorus is fantastic and fits the mood of the song.

11. Girls

This song is the most pop-sounding song of the album. However, it is executed in such a great way. It’s bright, loud, and fun. It’s very catchy and fun to listen to. The guitar riffs in this song are so good. I love the long and wordy prechoruses of this song. It balances out the rest of the song. The chorus is also a ton of fun to jam out to: ‘Cause they’re just girls breaking hearts, eye bright, uptight, just girls”.

12. 12

Yes, the twelfth track of this album is called 12. It is another instrumental interlude. It seems to include a female voice somewhere in there. It’s a nice and simple interlude.

13. She Way Out

This is such a fun song. Not one of my favorites, but it’s a great song. The bright electric guitar riff immediately catches the listener’s attention. Matty Healy’s voice also sounds great in this song. I don’t think the lyrics are as strong as this song, however and I am a big lyrics person when it comes to the music I listen to.

14. Menswear

This song is an interesting mix between an instrumental and lyrical song. The beginning part is a chill-sounding instrumental. The lyrics don’t start until 1:43. However, I love the melody and the beat of that part. I think the long instrumental at the beginning make the singing more powerful when it comes in.

15. Pressure

This song is one of my favorites of the album. The instrumentals are so great. I picture listening to this song just driving in my car at night. There are two different guitar riffs going on at the beginning that are attention-grabbing and catchy. It then fades out into Matty Healy’s voice standing alone with some harmonies and a soft bassline. It then goes into the same guitar riff from the beginning with a strong chorus. It works so well. I also love the lyrics in this song “My broken veins say that if my heart stops beating, we’ll bleed the same way”.

16. Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You

The album ends on an unexpected piano ballad. After this album, Matty Healy has included more slower and emotional ballads in their albums. This actually works very well for the album. It is a sad and haunting song to end on.

In conclusion, this album is a great introduction to The 1975 as a band. As a longtime fan, I can tell that the band has grown and become more mature since this album. The 1975 are great at experimenting while still keeping elements of their unique and classic sound. They are one of my favorite bands of today. Go check them out!

#the 1975 #album review

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nicolemagolan · 5 years

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Books I Read In April 2019

I read widely in April, but sadly I didn’t finish many individual books. Over the Easter break I was busy with social activities and between those most of my reading revolved around research for my essay. But in saying that...I did lose myself in a reread of a thousand-page-long book. And it was wonderful.

Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates

2/5 stars

Hazards of Time Travel is a classic example of great concept, but poor execution. This sci-fi novel follows a young woman living in a heavily controlled futuristic dystopian society, and when she gives a passionate speech challenging her peers to question their government, she is exiled. Through time. To the 1950′s. Just casually.

Unfortunately, that speech is about the only time the character does anything. She is very passive, watching historical events unfold and attending lectures at the university she is placed in. I had a lot of questions regarding why she was sent to the past, and most of them are never answered -- nor even challenged by the supposedly rebellious main character. She becomes focused on pursuing the love interest, who is one of her professors.

I am not a romance fan, it’s just not my thing. More than that, I am not a fan of the student/teacher romance trope at all, and here is no exception. The way it takes over the plot is so frustrating.

Still, I stuck with this dull book to the bitter end (and I truly am bitter), hoping that some of the sci-fi elements would come into greater play. They didn’t, not in any way that I found compelling. Overall, I would only recommend this to readers who find interest in a light science fiction romance with a 1950′s backdrop.

The Wise Man’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2) by Patrick Rothfuss

4/5 stars

I first read this series in 2017, and with news developing on the movie & tv adaptations, I found myself missing the story of Kvothe. While The Wise Man’s Fear has issues, Patrick Rothfuss is truly a master storyteller and this fantasy world is immersive, entertaining, and cleverly interwoven. I had a great time diving back in, and reading it for a second time revealed many small details that can only be noticed on a reread. Absolutely brilliant. It took me a few weeks to get through the thousand pages but I enjoyed every minute. I wrote a full review on my blog Eating Fiction.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2.5) by Patrick Rothfuss

3/5 stars

The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a precious little novella about a broken girl trying to live in a broken world. It is beautifully written, with heart-felt honesty and simplicity. It follows Auri, a side-character from The Kingkiller Chronicle and shows her going about her rather odd daily life.

I loved Auri in The Name of The Wind and The Wise Man's Fear, and here she is much the same, but reading from her perspective was all the more lovely. She knows she is a little bit broken inside, but she embraces it. She does not explain herself to the reader, but there are many hints as to who she is and where she came from; little nuggets of information to uncover -- many I missed on my first read through. I reread this by listening to the audiobook which is read by Patrick Rothfuss himself. He has a wonderfully smooth voice. I listened to it as I rearranged my bedroom -- a perfect activity for such a book, as Auri spends much time agonising over putting things in their true places. I enjoyed the characterization of the different objects she has in her home. The setting is mysterious and imaginative, and the way Auri moves through what seems to be the remains of an old city is mesmerizing. The insight into how she lives is fascinating, and definitely adds to the overall series. However, in the end, I'm sad to say this is a rather pointless story. I'm glad it was published and that I was able to read/listen to it, but I was really hoping for more secrets to be uncovered. I would have loved an appearance from Kvothe (seeing him from Auri's perspective would be fascinating). There were lots of little tid bits that got me excited, but it was short lived. That was not the purpose of the book. There is something special about this novella, something quiet and sad and gentle. Patrick Rothfuss is just such a fantastic writer. But I can't lie and say I wasn't disappointed. I just really miss Kvothe.

Maybe in next month’s wrap up I’ll include some of the non-fiction books I’ve been reading for my uni classes. I don’t think I’m going to be getting through much else; it’s a busy month. Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what books you’ve been reading.

#reading wrap up #booklr #books #book review #kingkiller chronicle #kkc #hazards of time travel

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ladyloveandjustice · 6 years

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Spring 2018 Overview: Megalobox

Megalobox follows a boxer named Joe, a guy who lives in a dystopian future and participates in “Megaloboxing” with advanced mechanical gear. When he has a chance to enter the big boxing tournament, Megalovania, he goes for it at great risk to himself.

I watched this one through a fluke more than anything really. The anime community was talking about it a bunch and I was restless one night and I checked it out and rolled with it to the finish. Sports anime focusing on burly tough guys are very much Not My Thing and this series...did not change that at all. While it was a solid production with great aesthetics and a fantastic soundtrack, I couldn’t really connect with it and I doubt it will stay with me at all.

The thing is, this is an extremely by-the-numbers underdog-rises-to-the-top sports story. If you’ve seen Rocky, you’ve seen the basic arc of this story. (The anime is even loosely based on a classic manga, Ashita no Joe, and one of the names for that series is “Rocky Joe”). It is executed with such confidence and sincerity that I think anyone who holds any affection at alll for the genre might enjoy it despite it’s standard set up, and the early episodes certainly had some memorable aspects.

Actually, the first half of the show was definitely strongest and most interesting...it actually touched on social commentary and societal dynamics a bit. Joe, our main character, is an undocumented immigrant, which was a really good angle for the whole underdog deal. Unfortunately, the show didn’t really DO anything about this, it mostly seemed to be there as a plot device/obstacle (Joe entered the tournament with a fake ID and quite a few times the tension comes from someone threatening to expose him). We never even learn what country Joe comes from or really anything about his past. Which is part of the point, I guess, his whole deal is he’s supposed to be a “nameless stray”- even “Joe” was just something he chose himself to enter the tournament. But it made it hard for me to connect to him, even if I got the gist of his deal.

One of the most interesting plotlines in the show was the arc where Joe faces off with a former student of his trainer’s, who’s a disabled war veteran who is struggling with PTSD. It’s a pretty heavy arc- we get flashbacks to the guy contemplating suicide (like gun in his mouth) and the prosthetics he has, despite this being a futuristic setting, do make competing harder for him and it’s shown to be dangerous and that he has to do a lot to compensate. The arc also added depth to Joe’s trainer, who’d come off as pretty selfish before then, but this whole thing showed what made him tick, and the guilt he carried in regards to letting down his former student. It ended in a somewhat brutal but cathartic way too.

Honestly, this dude would have been a way more interesting main rival for Joe. But instead, his arc ended and focus shifted back to Joe’s “real” rival, Yuri, who just honestly...really boring. He didn’t have to be, but like Joe we knew literally nothing about his past and what motivated him to become a boxer. But while Joe’s motivations were easy to understand and sympathize with even without specific details- dude who comes from the margins of society, wants to be recognized and rise up, we all know that drill...Yuri’s really needed details for someone to feel for him. He’d joined up with this big company and was working for the “goal”, but felt repressed boxing for them or something, I guess? To understand that, you need to know why he joined in the first place, how he feels about the company’s goal, where he came from that makes him so desperate to break free and punch dudes....but we got none of that.

The vagueness surrounding Yuri kind of extends to the whole show too. The sci-fi trappings of boxers wearing this mechanical “gear” that enhances their boxing was never really implemented well, imo. I guess the gear enhances boxers strength and speed somehow, but it was always really vague, and it was hard to tell what Joe was risking by boxing without it. Like, how hard does gear allow you to punch? Could Joe easily die by not having it? Why is it considered such a big deal? The show doesn’t really integrate all that well.

So yeah, the show started out with some interesting sci-fi elements, a stylish dystopian setting, themes of wartime drama, class-ism and the potential to comment on immigration issues...but all that just kinda went out the window for the boring basic “these dudes super want to punch each other to ~feel free~” story. There were still some laudable elements- in a super dramatic moment, character gains a significant disability, yet is still shown to be able to live a full life and be involved in everything- but it was mostly very rote stuff by the end.

“Nev, you sure are talking about dudes a lot here, were there any female characters in this anime?” I’m glad you asked! There was one whole lady and she was Yukiko, the head of the corporation that runs the Megalovania boxing tournament and produces the “gear” many of the boxers use. Yep, just her. Okay, I guess technically there were two women if you count her assistant, but she wasn’t really a character- her job was to provide exposition and be shocked when Yukiko made an unexpected decision. However, her presence did mean the series technically passed the Bechdel test! So, uh, yay for that, I guess.

Yukiko isn’t bad as a character- she’s capable as a company head (and was in fact chosen over her brother), she has her own goals with her company, family drama and she’s conflicted and sympathetic. But like a lot of characters in this series, she wasn’t super interesting because so much about her was so vague. I guess her goal was to sell her gear to the military? But not as a “weapon”, somehow.

She was also not really all that into boxing and didn’t really understand why Yuri would want to throw away his life to punch some dude. Same here, but it’s kind of annoying we didn’t really get to know any women who had interest or knowledge about boxing as a sport. It gave the impression the show didn’t think a woman COULD be heavily interested and involved in boxing.

Which brings me to a thing that genuinely bothers me about the show. They had an opportunity to have more than one girl in the series, they had an opporunity to show off a girl who was into boxing, they had an opportunity to put a female character on Joe’s team...but instead they actively chose to erase her. See, Joe is aided by a gang of Classic Street Urchins, and one of them, Sachio, becomes his advisor and a trusted member of his team. The street urchins are based on a gang of kids from the original Joe anime, but they’re all boys here, while in the original anime one of them was a girl. Her name was Sachie.

Yep, Sachio’s based off a female character (as well as another kid in the gang). They had a female character from the original 60s manga they could have made a part of the team, but they changed her to a boy instead. In 2018. They could have kept Sachio a girl, and changed absolutely nothing- his role in the team is to be tech smart plucky street kid who yells motivational things and gets emotional, and GUESS WHAT GIRLS CAN DO THAT. i was actually thinking while watching the show “you know, this kid would really work as a girl” the whole time only to find out he originally WAS.

Sachie in the original series didn’t seem to have that important of a role, but neither did the other street urchins- when they decided to raise the profile of one of them and get them more involved in the plot for a reboot anime, YOU’D THINK THEY’D HAVE CHOSEN THE GIRL INSTEAD OF ERASING HER COMPLETELY, CONSIDERING THE SHOW ONLY HAS ONE REAL FEMALE CHARACTER OTHERWISE. But no. You threw away the solid gold opportunity to make an anime with cute scrappy band-aid sporting little girl in a newsboy cap, you COWARDS.

Which basically sums Megalobox up for me. It could have done something cool and different, but chose to be just average. At least the soundtrack and aesthetic is great. The animation wasn’t bad either (though it could have stood to be more dynamic, considering it was about punching). I dug the retro vibe. But yeah, I won’t be revisiting this. And I will never forgive the loss of a potential boxing-obsessed scrapper anime girl. Ever.

#megalobox #spring 2018 anime #anime #anime overview #ashita no joe #blood cw #attempted suicide cw #megalo box

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the-ice-sculpture · 3 years

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Books I read in April 2021

*assume all the book are aimed at an adult audience unless specified otherwise in the description

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling ★★★★★ (4.5*s) 📖 Sci-fi/Horror. 432 pages. A futuristic caving survival story. Also has giant worm creature things. The main character finds herself a deal: do a highly dangerous expedition into an unknown cave for weeks on end to get rich enough to leave her desolate planet behind. Except that now she’s in the cave she’s beginning to have second doubts about whether she can trust the person who’s guiding her. There’s plenty of tense action, increasing horror (psychological and physical), a focus on the relationship between the caver and her handler (there’s a tiny element of eventual sorta f/f enemies to lovers here), and a whole lot of revelations along the way. It has nice short chapters and great pacing, and is easy to read without feeling simplistic or undeveloped. There weren’t enough small details and descriptions to make it feel like the author was a seasoned caver/climber – it was more like an absence of super specific knowledge rather than anything jarringly wrong though. But I went into this as someone who has done a fair amount of caving/climbing so it would be hard to satisfy me on that front. But overall this was really engrossing and original and such a ride from start to end.

Cowboys and Indies: the Epic History of the Record Industry by Gareth Murphy ★★★☆☆ (2.5*s) 📖 Non-fiction about music. 382 pages. An overview of the whole history of the record industry in roughly chronological order, discussing the technologies that allowed music to be recorded, influential businessmen, how record labels came to be developed, how the music industry evolved and so on. This took me over a month to read. I’m glad I read it because it was informative and will come in useful for my Rockstar AU (even if it ends up being in more indirect ways), but it definitely wasn’t the kind of book I could breeze through. For one thing, there’d be too much information for me to absorb, and for another thing, while the writing style isn’t dull, I wouldn’t describe it as particularly engrossing or full of character either. There’s not really much discussion going on, it’s more about laying down the facts. So all in all, it’s kind of dry (not horrendously so though) but does the job.

The Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan (The Memoirs of Lady Trent #3) ★★★★☆ 📖 Adventure/Fantasy. 370 pages. Studying dragons, going on worldly expeditions, and anthropology. Set in an 1800s-feeling world similar to ours only with (non-magical) dragons, the main character’s job is to scientifically research and study dragons. This series is pretty much everything I wanted Fantastic Beasts to be. In this third instalment, Isabella & co voyage across the seas to study giant sea serpents and investigate how closely they’re related to other dragon species. It’s fairly optimistic in tone, very adventurous (remains me of Around the World in 80 Days in some aspects), and the writing style is elegant without being dense. There’s a lot of humanity to it without overlooking the more negative aspects, and there are nice friendships that develop along the way. There’s also explorations of different cultures, a tiny bit of archaeology, sprinkles of humour, and the pacing is medium-slow. I should probably point out that the focus is very much on the journey and adventure rather than just the dragons or the characters though. Another thing – how great is it to have a book for an adult market which has illustrations inside? I wish more books did this because it adds such a nice touch to the reading experience, especially in this genre where the only illustration you usually get is a map at the start.

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London ★★★★☆ (3.5*s) 📖 Contemporary Romance. 424 pages. Before describing the premise, I’d like to point out that this book is self-aware, and it does present the setting as a multi-faceted nuanced thing. This is about a plus-sized model who becomes the star of a reality show based on The Bachelorette. Except it’s about more than that because it's also about discussions of fatphobia, the general lack of diversity in those types of shows, self-acceptance and self-worth, and the fakeness (sometimes realness too) of reality TV. It’s light-hearted and easy to fly through, with an easy to root for main character. I didn’t really care for any of the romances (though it’s incredibly rare for me to) since they all felt like they were developing too fast and like they barely had time to get to know each other (to be fair, this is probably typical for these kinds of shows, and I don't think there'd be room for slower development without massively adding to the word count), but it's still an enjoyable read. There are also excerpts from group chats and blogs etc about the goings-on of the show which made it feel like you're involved in the spirit of watching the show as well as getting the experience from the main character’s POV, which was a nice bonus.

Abandoned:

How Music Works by David Bryne 📖 Non-fiction about music. p166/366. Very hit and miss. Some chapters were fascinating and enlightening and really altered my perspective and understand of music and the philosophy of it. Other chapters were... dull. The good parts were amazing, but the rest of it was tedious and it took me over a month to wade almost halfway through the book. I got a lot of ideas and understanding out of it, but I couldn’t push through anymore.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman 📖 Hard-hitting Contemporary/Feel-Good. p173/337. The grumpy old neighbour from hell is forced to adapt to life again when he gains some quirky new neighbours. It’s kind of similar to A Wonderful Life, and Ove follows a similar (but more grey and nuanced) character arc to the old man from Up. It’s in parts sad and in parts more on the funny side. There’s nothing I can point to that was specifically wrong with this (though apparently I’m fine with fictional murderous characters, but not with fictional cat kickers?), but despite how well-loved this book is, I just increasingly didn’t have urge to pick up the story again. The pacing is pretty slow and my investment dropped. I’d still give other stuff by this author a chance though.

Still reading:

Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

#bookblr #book reviews #monthly wrap up #reading wrap up #reading #books #my posts

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