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beautifulpersonpeach · 1 year

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Crazy how people just get blinders on. All these people throwing names and accusations at JK over, what? Two songs and an instagram post? Completely forgetting the fact that JK has been working on JJK1 for literally years. Six or seven years if I remember correctly. They forget that he's an accomplished songwriter and producer in his own merit and has written and contributed to some of the best songs BTS have ever made. Where are these accusations that he's some kind of money hungry lazy bubblegum pop barbie doll coming from? (This is a rhetorical question, I just think it's insane.) He's a perfectionist, is obviously working on his own music (judging by how he ran off to the studio at 4am after missing jimin hours) and is likely in the process of deciding all the minute details for his own debut? Did the fandom communally forget that he mentioned wanting to do a visual album in his BE interview? He's got big plans, just because he's not talking about them doesn't mean they're not happening. and god, after how absolutely weird jay park was about hobi being on his show and how shady he's been about the guys in the past, I'd take a thousand JB collabs over another interaction with him.

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Hear hear.

I agree with you mostly, but I want to use one part of your ask to make a larger point on something else I’ve noticed for some time, on how we talk about the fandom.

“Did the fandom communally forget…”

We all do this when talking about the fandom/ARMY, but something I want to point out is often times, in these sorts of situations, it’s not the same groups of people within the fandom who are doing these things. It’s not the same people who view JK the way you do, who are complaining about a (potential) JB collab. The fandom is just so big that whenever a certain faction decides to be loud, or if you’re in a space that interacts frequently with that faction of the fandom, it will seem like it’s most ARMYs having that view when it’s far from reality. And this is why the sub-labels within the fandom are useful so we can distinguish who is saying what, to avoid needless confusion. The sub-labels being: solo stans, diet solo stans, shippers, multis, mantis, OT7 ARMYs, etc.

That the knee jerk reaction to one studio pic is assuming JK is mindlessly playing fiddle for ‘payola boy’ because JK wants to chart easily and because Bang PD is everyone’s favourite Disney villain, is the first dead giveaway this reaction is coming from someone who doesn’t keep up with JK besides through their pre-conceived notions, or someone who views him and his work in direct competition with the other members. There’s been an outbreak of diet solo stans and mantis in the fandom in Chapter 2 but they still don’t make up most of the fandom.

I suspect some people are feeling sensitive, a bit pissed off and frustrated with BB’s rule change and how that impacts Jimin’s solo accolades, and so those who feel JK’s in competition with JM, catastrophized one picture of JK actively working on a solo project with a producer to mean a JB collab that could threaten the hard-won records for Jimin. Most of the people who tend to think like this, are solo stans, mantis, and their diet versions within ARMY.

For most everyone else in the fandom and especially with OT7 ARMYs, there’s the understanding that any BTS member doing well is a good thing, that the fandom generally works to aid them all in doing well, and that every BTS member is already doing well. Sometimes some members will perform better on the charts, but that’s normal and expected. FACE won’t be Jimin’s only solo project in 2023, and Jungkook has been making songs for years, meaning there’ll be several more opportunities for ARMYs to support both their projects better.

I understand it’s easier to generalize the fandom when speaking casually and generally, I do the same thing too. But I think it’s worth remembering all the different players in the fandom, how many have conflicting interests, and that many times if you see contradictory responses coming from the fandom, it’s simply not the same groups of people flip-flopping, changing their tune, or otherwise kicking up a stink. Anyone looking from the outside in could make that mistake in assuming it’s the same groups of people, but those of us within the fandom could improve the conversation by identifying who exactly are driving these narratives when we discuss them.

#fandom behaviour #BTS #bangtan #jeon jungkook #bts jungkook #Jungkook

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tookishcombeferre · 4 months

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In Defense of Wish

Firstly, I want to say that I'm not trying to "gotcha" any of the critiques or change people's minds about the film in any way. I just wanted to pose a different viewpoint on the film because I have a child, and I think having a child has made me simultaneously more simple and given me more time to think in the privacy of my own mind.

Secondly, before I dive into my actual thoughts below the cut, I do recognize that there are lots of reasons not to feed into the Disney machine, or the film industry, or what have you. However, I no longer live in the world purely for myself. I do my level best to enrich my child's world with things that are actively anti-racist, and anti-capitalist, and radical - to many people in my family too radical. However, Bean is one years old and there's only so much they understand. I also, as a parent, recognize that I have to balance the realities of the world with hope, such that, they feel empowered to make change as opposed to feeling eternally hopeless about the world that I helped bring them into.

Which actually is a great transition into my thoughts on the film which is below the cut.

In regards to the actual film, I do agree with most critics in that it, at times, felt a little bit jumbled. I think this is because a lot of plot/ concepts that you need to make sense of the world are tucked in songs, facial expressions, or other more subtle places as opposed to being given in exposition. This CAN be fine if the frame stays on that topic long enough for folks to process it. Therefore, I think Wish could benefit from an Extended Edition or director's cut. I think some of the ideas in the story aren't conveyed as well as they could be due to the fact that the film sometimes feels rushed in some places.

However, my first major point is that, as a long time space nerd, I think Wish really hinges on a unique concept that is, in fact, scientifically accurate.

Human beings, animals, plants, and the universe itself is actually made of the same matter that composes the stars.

When the Big Bang occured, particles of space matter, star dust if you will, spread across the universe creating the cosmos. Thus, Wish actually touches on, and makes magical, a real scientific concept. This is the dust that we hypothetically return to when we decompose in death is stardust.

So, that earned a big thumbs up in my book because that's some pretty nifty world building.

I also really enjoyed that Magnifico was just evil. He was deranged. He was confident. He was a silver fox. I didn't need to know why he went all power hungry. I didn't need to know his trauma. He was just bad, and I was here for that. (I might have actually been happier if they'd just left out the tidbit about his crest and let him just be BAD without a hint of anything else.) I've missed the past Disney villains that were just evil for evil's sake. There's something refreshing about someone just being bad and getting what they deserve for being bad and lying to people.

On the subject of Magnifico, the depth that I discovered in the movie is what happens when people give him their wishes. In so many ways, they hand over their soul, their hearts desire, the thing that makes that person who they are in return for safety and happiness. Thus, instead of being able to work towards their dreams, people waste away longing to be reunited with their soul only once the wish can be granted magically.

This really struck me because I'm trans masculine, and I have begun a social non-medical transition. I have longed for a "boyhood" all my life. It's something I was never allowed. It's something that invaded my dreams every night. It's something that I, in my dinosaur pajamas, now try to give myself in small ways. I know what my wish is. I know what I am in that dream, and I try to become it in my own ways day by day. However, if that wish were taken from me, I would no longer be me. I wouldn't want to give up my "dangerous wish" and lose myself no matter what it afforded me. I was really struck by the way a person's heart's desire was, in a sense, their whole being. In losing their wish, they lost themselves, and I think that's a really powerful, and important thing.

Thus, Magnifico may think, in his twisted mind, that he's helping relieve them of a burden. He's allowing them to live without the pain of things that, like my own desire, may never come to be in the way that person desires it. However, in reality, he's not protecting people. He never has been. He wants to keep the wishes because they give him power. He's an ass through and through, and I'm here for that sexy silver fox of an asshole.

And, yes, like all the villains before him, he successfully dupes the hero into trusting him. However, Asha is smart and very quickly understands that Magnifico is a dick. She's faster to that conclusion than any other hero/heroine, and I think that's important. She sees the purity of all the wishes that Magnifico possesses though the wish of her grandfather. Her grandfather wanted to inspire others, and Magnifico's first thought is that he'll lead a rebellion. Asha is able to see though Magnifico's bullshit in a way few others can because she sees the purity of the wishes of her own people.

I've seen a few reviews that call Asha selfish because her initial reaction is just to save the wishes of her mother and grandfather. Valid point. I see you. However, I raise you that she could have just made a break for it and saved her own skin. I also draw your attention to the lyrics of her wishing song. "If I could show them everything I've seen/ Open their eyes to all the lies then/ Would they change their minds like I did?" - In the animation of these lines, Asha is walking through the courtyard and remembering the wishes, not of her grandfather or mother, but the wishes of some of the citizens of Rosas. The wish to fly. The wish to captain a boat. The wish to be strong and explore. Her hope is for all of her people. For the first time since "God Help the Outcasts," the heroine's desire is for others not herself.

She goes on to say, several times, "So I make this wish/ To have something more for us than this." Her desire is not for herself. Instead, her deepest desire is to give the wishes, the heart and soul, back to her people. Again, I find this to be an incredibly selfless wish.

This wishing song leads into one of the most lyrically dense songs in the movie. However, the line that I want to call attention to is "See we're all just little nebulae in a nursery/ From supernovas now we've grown into our history/ We're taking why's right out of mystery." This line dives into the depths of that star science I mentioned in the beginning. Each person, being made of stardust, is, in a way, their own nebulae that has their own history. Secondarily, we also have our own moment in history that weaves into other people's histories. This sets up the conclusion of the film really nicely, but this is something I think could have been expanded on to make clearer because this song is really, really fast paced and dense. (Bean loves this song and bounced on my, my mom's, and my spouse's laps in the movie theater to it.)

It's all great to know that we're stars, and that power lives within us because of that. However, Asha needs to grow in understanding the importance of community. She cannot do this on her own, and she comes to discover that her mother and grandfather aren't the only people at risk. She's young. She's somewhere between 17 and 18 years old. She's naive and innocent. She literally doesn't understand that Magnifico would do anything to keep his throne and power. However, alongside her friends, she discovers what's really at stake, and she works hard, with help, to make things right.

Thus, what Asha has in grit, determination, and independence, she needs to learn in community. She needs others to help her in her goals to save her family, and eventually to save her whole kingdom. When Magnifico takes matters into his own hands, and falls prey to his own conceit and lust for independent power, he's crushed by the weight of it. It, quite literally, consumes him. Her whole country decides to take their power - their heart's desires - back from Magnifico. They want those pure and innocent parts of themselves back. So, they unite their wishes for a better world, for their heart's desires, back because, no matter how weird or impossible, our dreams ARE us. (Don't dream it, be it - if you will.)

I think, at its core, Wish has two things it's trying to say in a very simple way.

In the purest sense, we are what we dream.

We are all stardust, and thus, we are all connected.

Wish is an incredibly simple story. It doesn't have deep twists. It's not long. It's saying a lot of complex things if you're willing to look. However, it's a very simple story. As a parent, Wish's simplicity is it's beauty. We have so many stories for children that are technical, complex, and deep. I do hope we can continue to see more stories like Encanto or Puss in Boots. However, I found Wish refreshing in some ways because of its simplicity. It's a story that a small child could summarize easily. It's bright and colorful and hopeful. It has a nice message, and it has a decent amount of diversity without diversity being a plot point TM. It's something I am happy to let my child watch because, even if Asha looks different from them, Asha has qualities that Bean should aspire to. To me, Wish is a fairy story with a background and protagonist that fit the modern world. But, as a fairy story, there's isn't a whole lot of depth in the plot. The depth comes from the morals it teaches us.

So, I guess, I'm a bit of a dreamer myself. I dream of a world that might one day accept me as I am even if I choose not to medically transition and "pass." I dream of a world where I get to remain who I am without someone sucking my passion, my dream, and my desire from me. I want a world for my squish where they are allowed to retain their innocence, and where all children are allowed the innocence of their youth. I don't want anyone to take away that dream because I don't want to lose the fight that's in me to achieve it. I'm not becoming a soulless zombie of the "Magnifico Machine" if you will. I have to dream a world worth living in if it's ever going to exist.

Those are the sorts of things I want my squish to hold onto for as long as they can. The world is a horrible place at the moment, but if we choose to cover our eyes, our ears, and our mouths, if we choose to stop dreaming of a better world, then, we won't have the strength to make a better one. Hope is one of the most important things anyone, but especially our youth can have. Without hope, nothing has meaning. School is useless. Nothing means anything. We all fall apart. We have to have hope. If everything is beyond saving, why try to save it at all? So, we have to keep our dreams, and keep them safe. Our dreams are us. Treat even your silliest ones with kindness. They just might change the world.

If you read all this, thank you. If you didn't, that's totally fine. If this made you angry, I'd love to hear why. If this sparks some thoughts, related or unrelated to this film, I'd love to chat.

Much love,

Pip

#wish #disney's wish #wish 2023 #disney #pip parents a bean #pip does parenting #parenting #hope #mental health #child development #family #family life

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bioexorcizm · 4 months

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stuck between "reagan should have a fun silly banter song between them and bj" and "reagan should have the most banging mischievous villain-ish song youve ever heard going crazy going stupid disney style"

#.txt #.bedbugs

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lovecanbesostrange · 7 months

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ouattober2023 Day 3: Fav Story Arc

I have enjoyed this show for the most part, even including S7. I think the switch to half-season arcs was good to keep it all fresh and not drag out things for too long. S4 being split into Frozen and Heroes & Villains was fun. But there just is no question. The arc I care about most, that I go back to rewatching for funsies, that I have the most (positive) feelings about (and some concerns/criticism) - Season 1: The Original Curse. The intertwined storytelling of everything that led to Storybrooke springing into existence and how Emma gets to know the town, breaking the curse as she was meant to do.

Unlike other arcs this is far broader, I have to acknowledge that. The 22 episodes of S1 allow for far more sidetracking. And later some details get revealed to prop it up (for this I'm thinking about stuff like Welcome to Storybrooke, a long overdue look at what it was like for Regina before).

Personally I still go so far to say, that the first season of Once Upon a Time is simply A+ tv. I absolutely recommend this to anybody who wants to have some fantasy-romance-family-fun. Well, okay, so S1 has some very, very dark moments (Graham's death for example).

They won me over with a thing I didn't expect - the Snowing romance. I'm sorry, but a lot of tv is as sophisticated as the Avril Lavigne song goes "he was a boy, she was a girl". Bang, there, that's it, that's the couple. (And I do believe even this show got super lazy with this.) But here we have Snow White and Prince Charming. Yes, of course they are a couple. They need to be. We all know that. True Love! True Love's Kiss! This is the kind of given couple I do not expect to be shown any type of friendship formed. Or an explanation why they think of the other. It just is. But they give us episode 3 Snow Falls and I am so in. Because yes, okay Snow being a bandit and a badass with a bow, totally capable of fighting and taking no nonsense - definitely checks some boxes for me. But Charming is also fun and smitten with her and I can see why they care. She uses the powder to save him. And they both have other things in their life, they can't spend time with this random person - and then they live rent free in each other's head. I believe in the stupid "I will always find you" concept. It is used again and again and still it's always sweet, throughout the show.

If you watch only the Storybrooke parts it seems so old and tired how the nice mousy lady fell in love with a coma patient, making things up about him in her head probably. And then he's married, she gets called a tramp and omg this cheating storyline. But with the fairytale underneath? Knowing they are in fact very actually cursed? This is their punishment and it is supposed to be terrible and hurt? WONDERFUL! David can't just leave Katherine, the curse won't allow for that. There is no easy solution, this has to be painful. We get something like 7:15am and at the end of the episode Mary Margaret and David try so desperately not to see each other, they are both in the diner at 7:45am. ROMANCE!! I am just rarely sold so solid on the main couple, okay? So this was special to me and I indeed looked forward to the episodes to see how their (EF) romance played out. And omg Heart of Darkness is such a banger of an episode. Evil!Snow is the scariest person on this show. He didn'f take an arrow for her, he took an arrow from her.

Exploring Storybrooke is also fun for the viewer. Henry believes things are weird, Emma has rational explanations, we know the truth. It's a wonderful and quirky set-up. Small town filled with weirdness. With so many episodes there was time to put in Hänsel & Gretel for the non-Disney fairytale feel. Great. We had time to get to know Leroy aka Grumpy aka Dreamy (I always laugh when he and Mary Margaret go door to door with the candles) with his own ep (still think as a whole the seven dwarves didn't get enough recognition). You can look left and right and wonder what's everybody's deal is. The town feeling is so important. People with jobs doing stuff. It's something that is a bit lost in later seasons with the focus on the core group, who are all related to each other. I'm sure Archie was a very busy man in the background dealing with everybody else...

It's also amazing to rewatch those first episodes and be reminded that it takes a long, long while until the Evil Queen's motivation is explained. Daniel who? To see Snow as a girl blabber out Regina's secret to Cora - SHOCKING! To understand that these two could have been friends, ohohohoho. It's clear that Rumple plays a huge part in the whole Dark Curse thing, but I think S2 gets more meaty with him. Yet his presence alone and all the deals he keeps making add a lot of flavor.

The worldbuilding is slow, but in this the out-of-order presentation does work, because S1 is actually well planned. (Yes, OUaT is a show that suffers a bit from later additions and expanding lore, but the original promise doesn't collapse under the weight.) The nice parallel structure makes the episodes interesting and moves everything forward at a comfortable pace. They also know how to throw a curveball. Oh, this town is hidden and no stranger ever walks up? Well, yes, hallo here is this guy on a motorcycle nobody has ever met before and he knows things. And for quite a few episodes August is just there, a well planted mystery box.

In the midst of everything magical suddenly we have the episodes Red-Handed, Heart of Darkness and Hat Trick following each other. A werewolf tearing bodies into pieces (yes, thanks, spilled blood looks best on fresh white snow), a whole murder investigation and aforementioned gonna-kill-Regina-now-Snow, and oh yeah that moment where you start wondering if Emma and Mary Margaret will be killed by a psycho axe murderer and the Mad Hatter might be a slasher now... yep. this show can be a bit dark and S1 knew how to walk that line.

And one last round of applause for the fact that the Storybrooke side of the story works with almost no magic at all. Yes, Regina has a bit in her backpocket, but she's scary enough without it. Her scenes with Gold are so worth a watch. He still knows how to scheme.

Oh, and let me mention something I appreciate a lot. The show starts with Prince Charming waking up Snow White with a kiss. Fairytale! We see the happy ending first. Thrown right into it (without knowing the whole ordeal they went through to get to this point). And then we near the end of the season, ep 21 An Apple Red as Blood. Which is a great episode to me, because I love seeing Snow and her band of misfits storming the castle (group effort, we deserved more of that). This is where we finally see Snow biting that apple, fateful. Hey, it's a Sleeping Curse, cool. She did so willingly though. It was her sacrifice for the promise Charming would be save. Not even trickery (okay, maybe we need to talk about this thing with "it need to be taken willingly to work"). This is such a great bowtie to the whole thing.

This here is what it is all about:

#ouattober2023 #OUaT #hi yes I made it it's day 3 and now I'm on time

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amazing-spiderling · 2 years

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Guess WHAT it’s time for the Murderdock Fashion SUPERCUT

Yeah I know you didn’t ask for this but once I started thinking about it, the less I could stop thinking about it and I had to go digging to try and see if my thoughts lined up with what was on the page.

Presented in order of printing!

1. Edge of Spider-Verse 2 (First appearance):

Seen here with Rhino who he is enlisting on “the Kingpin’s” behalf. Average grey suit. Grey tie. Nothing to see here, just a totally normal lawyer being totally normal about things like super powered spider people.

2. Spider-Gwen (Vol. 1 Issue 2):

The first time we see him in the Spider-Gwen series proper. Similar to the outfit above except he’s wearing some dark red pants and decided shoes are for chumps. His shoes are brown to match the pants I presume. I guess we could assume the jacket is a lighter shade of grey than the one before, but it’s hard to tell because of the nighttime lighting.

3. Spider-Gwen (Vol 1. Issue 5)

Ah. Back to business as usual, with the grey suit and black shoes except we’re wearing a red tie now. Little spot of color to keep things interesting. Just what a normal person would wear to a rock concert.

4. Spider-Gwen (Vol 1. Issue 5: Flashback)

Interesting panels for a few reasons! We see Matt in a flashback with Fisk and he’s wearing black pants, shoes and tie and what we can assume is a red jacket, since even in the tint of a memory it’s similar to the color of his hair and glasses. His hair is slicked back which actually does a good job of suggesting a younger appearance here, or at the very least, someone who is endeavoring to appear young and eager to be professional. (Probably worth nothing his childhood flashbacks show him with long hanging bangs like the ones he has in the present.) We also get to see him working as an assassin on behalf of Fisk but rather than being dressed in full ninja garb his black basics and mask look a lot more like his year one (or season 1 if we’re talking about the Daredevil TV show) costume.

5. Spider-Gwen (Vol 2. Issue 3)

Matt shows up at George Stacy’s house. Even more color has found its way into his outfit here with a rust red jacket and brighter red tie. Black pants keep this looking relatively normal as business attire, nothing that would turn heads. (The bright red business cards ruin the illusion, though.)

6. Spider-Gwen (Vol 2. Issue 5)

Compliments of a different artist than the usual, we have Matt looking extremely hinged and having some alone time on top of a bridge. Shoes are nowhere in sight this time, and we’re back to the grey pants and shirt (it might be a light shade of purple but the colors are so saturated it is hard to tell) and a bright red tie. At this point in the story, he’s still waiting to be engaged by Captain Stacy. This of course leads us to...

7. Spider-Gwen (Vol. 2 Issue 5)

Proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that all Matt Murdocks are big dorks, he’s shown here with what I think we can assume are the same pants from the previous scene as well as a matching grey jacket, but the dress shirt and tie are gone, and he is now sporting a bright red “I’M NOT THE KINGPIN” t-shirt. I love the idea that 1. He had this custom made and 2. He went home or at the very least had a bag with him for a quick costume change JUST so he could wear this shirt to troll George during their meeting. And yes, I mean COSTUME change because...

8. Spider-Gwen (Vol.2 Issue 12)

We hadn’t seen Matt in the book for several issues but when he returned he did not disappoint. Right after calling Gwen melodramatic, this guy shows up silhouetted against a red full moon (some things never change) and when we finally see him he’s in a full red suit flanked by ninjas looking like he’s about to break out into his Disney villain song. (Which would absolutely slap, by the way. The man went to Evil Julliard, after all.)

THIS is what comes to my mind when I think about Murderdock, and I think that’s intentional. When he first appears, we don’t know what Fisk’s situation is, we don’t know who is pulling the strings, we don’t know that this “kind of scummy lawyer Matt Murdock” is going to become the main enemy of the entire book. We don’t know that we are about to become low key obsessed... And we get these smatterings of color, these visual cues, these flickers of red until BAM. We arrive at this. This isn’t an just a suit, it’s not just an outfit, this is a full on villain COSTUME. This man has been working to position himself as Gwen’s downfall, the devil on her shoulder, and he is DETERMINED to dress the part. We see him in his full glory only after the deal has been struck and we are starting to fully understand just what his role truly is in the story and I LOVE it.

Anyways! This is a lot of words to say that I love how much the artist was able to convey with clothing when we didn’t have a traditional hero/villain outfit to rely on. Just the subtle (well, not so subtle) changes in things like color can tell us so much about a character and their motivation and I am here for it 100%!

#murderdock #spider-gwen #i've been consumed by this for like two weeks #finally sat down to sort it out #earth-65 #matt murdock

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skoople · 4 months

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im a cyborg but thats ok. and or the muppets (2011)

I'm A Cyborg But That's Okay

I haven't heard of this one before (I'm woefully bad at keeping up with international releases) but the premise of a young woman institutionalized because she believes she's a cyborg and the only man willing to believe her seems interesting. Content warning for self harm if you decide to sniff this one out but it seems to be worth a sniff indeed!

The Muppets (2011)

if i had to rank it i would give it an 8/10 for a kids film, a 7/10 for a muppets film (extra points for not being as racist as treasure island), and a 12/10 for when i'm really sad or i have a bad cold.

it's just genuinely really funny in a lot of places. multiple songs from this movie ended up on my spotify wrapped playlist because theyre catchy and well performed and because i have a sickness. tex richman is like a conceptually hilarious villain to me, and i loved that uncle deadly got more screentime than usual. the celebrity cameos are rather grating and miss piggy's outfits in particular are a little 2010s-dated (she is always on the cutting edge of style after all). i really hated the transmisogynistic joke about miss piggy's stunt double. walter was a welcome and charming addition to the classic cast, and it's great that he had jim parsons of the big bang theory portraying his gender dysphoria. overall i think the script could have been tighter and MUCH less meta, but there's joke that make me laugh out loud and i'm glad the muppets are still around. side note we should rip the meat off of bob iger's body for what the disney corporation has done to the muppets. there's an atrocious amount of disrespect towards the craft and the heart and artistry of the muppets as a cast, the workshop, and jim henson's legacy that manifests as wasted potential. make a puppet yourself and start having fun. 🏴‍☠️ watch the old variety show; it's good!

this joke about 80s robot makes me smile every time, and i think this clip gives you a good idea of amy adam's chipper cartoon energy (the performance comes off weird because nobody else is matching her, not even the muppets). also keep in mind that every time you see a puppet in a car (there's three here) there is a puppeteer hiding under the seat doing the acting.

youtube

#asks #mystery dylan theatre 2024

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nayeonline · 10 months

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ranking EVERY AESPA song

caused some drama with the blackpink ranking so fuck it we are doing it again with one of the most innovative groups of the fourth generation (yeah i said it) From best to worst, here we gooooooo

Next Level (everything shifted, the universe as a whole changed trajectory, life conceptually was never the same)

Spicy (there is crack laced in the veins of this song istg)

YEPPI YEPPI (aespa does itzy??? I fucking love this song its SO GOOOOOD)

Savage (if you get it you get it and if you don't you don't, and if you don't i feel sorry for you xx)

Black Mamba (a step by step guide on how to debut with a fucking bang)

Hold On Tight (negative promo and still that bitch - 4 YA LIFE)

Lucid Dream (EGOT status)

Dreams Come True (who else is doing it like them fr)

I’m Unhappy (WE DON’T APPRECIATE HER ENOUGH SHE’S SO GOOD U GUYS)

Illusion (yuh this ate)

ICONIC (they said it themselves lmao this shit is I C O N I C )

Thirsty (so good it’s almost offensive)

I’ll Make You Cry (bad bitch energy)

aenergy (the name call bit is certified camp)

Welcome To MY World [feat. naevis] (aespa does alan walker??? This song is so underrated it’s unbelievably good)

Salty & Sweet (girls comeback had just flopped & rent was due, so gigi entered the studio and said it's time to make history)

Lingo (we are now entering the 'i don't rlly like this song zone' but we as a society are a little too rude to her shes not totally shit)

Girls (had her moments but the chorus is just a little boring)

‘Til We Meet Again (to quote our queen kim jisoo: not bad but not good)

Beautiful Christmas [with Red Velvet] (have zero desire to stream but why does this kind of slay lmao)

Life’s Too Short (can we please go back to fighting neon futuristic cyber-villains and stop with the acoustic disney channel misused aave im begging)

ICU (for the wellbeing of society im filing a restraining order on acoustic guitars on aespa’s behalf)

Forever (nobody moved. I actively pretend it doesn’t exist and the fact i had to break my delusion for this ranking is offensive xx)

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world-cinema-research · 1 year

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I Was Always Me, In a Way.

I remember not liking the 1968 kids movie musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I found the kids irritating, and I was not interested in many of the songs.

The trailer is long on slapstick and sentiment.

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I have memories of seeing it both in a movie theater and on TV. But I would have been six years old when the movie came out, and I'm not sure my parents let me go to movies alone that young.

I think I liked the one where the adults sing about candy and make whistles out of candy. I remember watching it on TV and feeling relieved and happy that a good number finally came on.

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I was more interested in the villain than the kids. The villain (really the villain's helper) was the Child Catcher. he has a long nose, which is probably an anti-Semitic stereotype, which he uses to sniff out children. (Children are illegal in the kingdom where that part of the story takes place.) It's like the opposite of the Star Trek episode where adults are outlawed.

Reviews at the time were mixed to negative.

Reviewers thought the movie talked down to children, and as a child, I think I saw it that way.

"The $10 million film lacks warmth. No real feeling is generated between any two characters. As well as one star performer, from Mary Poppins have come all the musical talent – songwriters Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman and the choreographers [Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood]. But there has been no desire to reprise the Edwardian music hall tradition, aspects of which so informed Poppins.

Howes goes through the romantic motions with Van Dyke and the maternal ones with the kids, but there is no real sentiment between players."

Doing some research, I discover that the people who owned the right to Ian Fleming's James Bond books also owned the rights to his children's book about a magical car.

After Julie Andrews appearance in the musical My Fair Lady on Broadway, she was such a hot commodity that people fought over her. The producers of the film of My Fair Lady foolishly cast a movie star who couldn't sing (Audrey Hepburn), and so Disney cleverly snatched up Julie Andrews for their 1964 kids movie based on a book Mary Poppins, co-starring Dick Van Dyke.

The same year My Fair Lady was released, and Hepburn and Andrews both got Oscar noms but Andrews won for playing Mary Popppins.

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So the Bond producers owned the rights to Fleming's children's book and made a kids movie musical featuring Dick Van Dyke. There's even a musical number ("The Old Bamboo") which is a lot like the chimney sweet dance in Mary Poppins.

The female star Sallie Ann Howes is basically a substitute for Julie Andrews. Andrews was busy working for Hitchcock and other high-profile things. She was not about to make another kiddie picture after having made a celebrated one.

The producers of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang also hired Roald Dahl to write the screenplay, and Dahl's children's book about a child and a chocolate factory was made into a much bigger hit in 1971: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

The director of Chitty Chitty worked a lot, but he did not have any major hits. Chitty Chitty was a flop. Which I didn't know as a child.

Things have changed since 1968.

Today (April 16, 2023) the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang DVD DVD gets 4.8 stars stars from almost 9,000 reviews reviews.

One Amazon reviewer says basically this: they made this for the wrong reasons.

"I don't know how this movie wasn't sued into oblivion, especially by Disney. It takes so much from Mary Poppins, it's an abomination. And throw in The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, My Fair Lady, Wile E Coyote cartoons…bits of business, choreography, and the music, one song is a direct rip off of With A Little Bit of Luck! I just thank God DVD didn't try another British accent, bad enough we've had to listen to the English bang on about his bad Cockney for the last 60 years.

Talented cast, no mistake, but ill-used….

….I watched this in five sittings, I wanted to finish it, but I just couldn't stick with it for an extended period, and it is painfully long and slow -- that Toot Sweets number was like one of those bugs you keep swatting but it never seems to die?"

Talented cast, no mistake, but ill-used….

I later discovered that the Child Catcher was played by Robert Helpmann: a revered ballet dancer who danced leads and also played 'character parts' in ballet. He danced the role of Hamlet, which is one of my favorite plays.

Portrait of Sir Robert Helpmann as Oberon, 1937 / Housten Rogers

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And he has an important role in the movie The Red Shoes. This later became one of my favorite movies. It's about an empressario who falls in love with his lead ballet dancer and works her literally to death--or suicide, I think it's ambiguous.

When we are young, we don't know who we are or what we will become.

Some experiences from childhood later in hindsight tell us about the person we will become.

Movies don't change. People do, but maybe not that much.

#chitty-chitty-bang-bang #dick van dyke #julie andrews #Youtube

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stillness-in-green · 1 year

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Songs I'm Vibing To Right Now

Got tagged by both @codenamesazanka and @robotlesbianjavert for "ten songs you're vibing to right now," so there're ten vocal songs and a bonus three instrumental pieces. I tried to use things that are fairly current to my playlists, or at least recently back in circulation there, so they're not all-time favorites, but they are songs for my "right now." They're in no particular order beyond trying not to have too many of the same tempo and/or language in a row. Find Youtube links, write-ups of varying lengths, and small lyrics excerpts (translations in italics for Japanese) under the cut, because, what, I was expected to be concise about this? Please.

(Sparing anybody who doesn't want to have to scroll all the way through this to find out why they're tagged at the bottom, I think Nal and Kota have mostly tagged most of the people in my immediate chat circle, so let's round it out with, oh, @leftofrevolution, @scumtrout, @evilasiangenius, @megkips, @shockersalvage, and @wheredidmydadgo. Share some song recs if you like! With, my verbose ass's example notwithstanding, as much or as little detail as you feel like providing re: Why Vibing. Pardon any double-notifications; drafts and I don't always get along.)

1: Rome, by Dessa: I discovered Dessa via The Hamilton Mixtape and have been following her ever since. This isn’t my absolute favorite of hers (that’d be the haunting urban fantasy Mineshaft 2), but it’s the one of her recent ones that I’ve had most constantly on playlists. A brilliant, blistering tirade on wealth disparity, beauty standards, police brutality, and more.

Chekhov says, you got a gun, you gotta use it Guess they’re reading Chekhov downtown in their cruisers Bang, catch the case, we all lose Make Dixie look like Khartoum That Lady Justice ain’t blind yet Lens cap on the body cam, missed again, damn

2: Deep Down, from Chainsaw Man: The closers for this series were, of course, an embarrassment of riches, but while I loved the final lines of this one, I didn’t immediately fall for the main body of the song. After about the fifth time I’d been so haunted by it I needed to purge by pulling it up on Youtube, though, I finally gave into the inevitable. I think of this as the, “What comes of tangling with Makima,” song: poisoned, yearning, and drowning.

Negatta mono wo te ni shita kanbi to soushitsu ni nomare (I got what I wanted, but in return I was consumed by sweetness and loss) Dore hodo nagai toki wo tadotteta (I wonder how long it took me?) I call you deep, deep, deep, deep Deep, deep, deep, deep down

3: Butterfly Wing, from Love Live: Almost exactly halfway through the newest show in the franchise—which, I should stress, I do not watch, so take my summary here with a grain of salt—Wien Margarete disrupted Love Live's safe, sheltered, inoffensive status quo like a boulder crashing through the ceiling of a greenhouse. A solo artist dressing for the role of Swan Lake’s Odile and singing prideful, imperious songs evoking barren landscapes and metaphors for death and transcendence, her debut functioned as an overt declaration of war against groups of girls in rainbow costume dresses singing generically peppy, shallow songs about love and encouragement and sparkling.

While the show wasn’t courageous enough to do anything truly transgressive with her in the end—her second song in this mode (Edelstein, also great) ultimately lost to a song that even fans of the show think is pretty darn generic; from what I’ve read, Wien is one of those characters who exist to be proven wrong and who can only hope to not come off as too much of a strawman in the process—her introduction made a big enough impression to be noticeable well outside the show’s normal circles, with comparisons being made to Macross, Princess Tutu, and Disney villain songs. All three things I’m very fond of, so, you know, definitely enough to make me take notice!

I gave a link up top to the full version, but here’s a link to the episode clip. Please watch, reflect on the miracle solution to not being able to write vocal harmonies for your massive idol groups being to introduce a middle school edgelord whose whole shtick is that she’s a soloist, and enjoy the hysterically funny expressions of terrified dismay on the faces of the main characters at the fifty second mark.

Tsubasa nado nakutemo toberu no (Even without wings, I can fly) Tamashii ni chou wo yadoshi (I will summon a butterfly into my soul) Sora wo kakeru ano tori yori mo (And even higher than the bird far above) Mabushii iro wo hakidashi nagara Fly, Sky (I will cast blinding colors as I take to the sky.) Erabareru no wa tsuyoku negau mono dake (Only those with strong wishes will be the chosen.)

4: Misty Mountains, by The Wellermen: An incredible cover of the Jackson Hobbit trilogy version of the song by a “bass supergroup” that got their start during the sea shanty craze that Covid brought us. It’s three verses longer than the Jackson version, plus a bridge of sorts, with each immaculately layered passage developing new variations and body across the full length. There’s truly nothing like a rich choral performance, and I’m maybe a bit smitten with the contrabasses in this one.

The wind was on the withered heath But in the forest stirred no leaf There shadows lay be night or day And dark things silent crept beneath

5: The Over, for Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans ~ Urdr Hunt: I always admire when there’s a sense of continuity with songs for a series, be it a shared composer or just having new ones who can emulate the original’s sensibility, and I knew the instant I listened to it that The Over was an Iron-Blooded Orphans song, but tweaked just enough to reflect Urdr Hunt’s lighter story hook and its younger, more idealistic (and, it must be said, at least slightly more privileged) protagonist.

It’s got plenty in common, lyrically, with IBO TV’s opening songs, which all talk about the world as being impersonal and grinding and cruel, but those songs take a defiant stance, calling to reach for everything no one will ever give you, to go down fighting rather than roll over and be collared. The Over lacks that righteous underclass fury—its singer has been hurt by the world, but not hardened by it, and still wants to pursue something that inspired him. Accordingly, it soars in the chorus in ways none of IBO TV’s songs do.

Dakara doko made mo (That’s why, no matter where) Motto tooku e (Keep going) Tatoe kore ga akeru koto no nai yoru datta to shitemo (Even if this is a night that never ends) Ano ni negatta mono ga fusouou demo (Even if what I wished for that day is unsuited to me) Dou shiyou mo nai hodo boku wo ugokashite (It still desperately moves me)

6: Never Say Goodbye, from Golden Kamuy: GOD THIS SONG IS JUST A BANGER, OKAY. The English portion of the lyrics is a bit stilted (“This is my doorway to kiss the end”?), but as far as I’m concerned, four seasons in, they’ve finally found a perfect aural match for Golden Kamuy’s revisionist-Western-by-way-of-Hokkaido vibe. The yowling rap trading off with the earnest sweetness, the rotations between pounding, throaty, brass-heavy urgency and soaring, string-carried wistfulness—it’s a perfect pastiche of a song for a perfect pastiche of a show.

Taiko kara tsunagaru kono taiko ga towa wo shinjiru kimi e no kaitou sa (This drum, connected from ancient times is the answer to you who believe in eternity) Mada da ze, madamada da ze tabi wa tsuzuku haruka kanata made (Not yet, it’s not over yet, the journey continues far away) Ima wa ‘Never say goodbye’ de mata aimashou (Let’s meet again at ‘Never say goodbye’) So, hasta la vista, baby!

7: Toki no Meikyuu, from Macross Frontier Short Animation ~ Labyrinth of Time: Hi, yes, would you like to hear about the strings of alphanumeric that bring me to tears every damn time I hear them? That are making me tear up just in the process of writing about them? They’re in this song from the Macross Frontier animation short attached to the Delta movie, and they make me So Emotional.

So like, the whole thing with the Frontier movies is that they ended in a decidedly downbeat fashion, with the male lead Alto lost in space, the older and more established idol Sheryl in a coma, and the younger newbie idol Ranka telling herself she’ll get them back—eventually. Labyrinth of Time is where that starts to happen.

Outside of categorical exceptions like musical theatre and story songs, most songs don’t tend to be very specific in terms of who they’re directed to. That’s certainly true of the songs in Macross as well, especially from the singers consciously modeled off of idols. They’re songs aimed at “You”—an imagined listener, who at best might fit a few broad traits: the You the singer has a crush on, the You the singer looks up to, the You the singer wants to comfort. Those songs will get plugged into dramatically appropriate moments, scenes that make it obvious who the You in a given song is aimed at, but they still don’t name names, because the songs are still notionally something that could be found on the singer’s album, now on sale at whatever music sales-front is available in-universe.

Toki no Meikyuu is about Ranka calling for Alto and Sheryl—not You, not the general listener, but specifically Alto and Sheryl. And you can tell that not only because of the personalized nature of the lyrics in the verses, but also because, in the choruses, she identifies her Yous by callsign: 0258-S04 and 0215-F09. During the songwriting process, legendary composer Yoko Kanno asked the producer for a list of numbers and letters that would be relevant/meaningful for the characters, selections from which she mixed around and set to the song’s meter. The resulting callsigns reference aspects of the characters’ history, both in-universe and in the broader franchise, so there is no one else in the universe Ranka could possibly mean when she sings out those callsigns in desperation to be reunited with her dearest ones.

And then Sheryl comes in after the bridge with a distant, faint version of one of her own iconic numbers, and gathers strength, and then they both start calling Alto’s callsign???????? JUST DROWN ME IN MY OWN WEEPING, WHY DON’T YOU.

(I’m physically incapable of picking any one stretch of lyrics for this one, sorry. It’s sung to two people—how could I pick a portion aimed only at one? I wish I could provide you all with a really good lyric video, or even a good color-coded text rendering, but I'm afraid the best I've got is this one, which at least puts Sheryl's parts in parentheses.)

8: The Turn of a Friendly Card, Pts. 1 and 2, by The Alan Parsons Project: The Alan Parsons Project, a long-since disbanded British art rock/project album band, is really more my BF’s lane than mine, but I’m a sucker for this kind of late 70s-style synth, especially combined with gorgeous beds of strings and anguished lyrics. This song in full is a sixteen-minute suite in five parts about gambling addiction; the title parts bookend the rest, with the opening being very delicate and meticulous, and the closing resuming in that mode but winding itself up into tightly controlled keening and orchestration that just keeps going harder through the outro. Great stuff, and it has one of those melodic lines that lingers in my mind for days after every listen.

There’s a sign in the desert that lies to the west Where you can’t tell the night from the sunrise And not all the king’s horses and all the king’s men Have prevented the fall of the unwise

9: Do You Hate Windy Days? (White Ryu version), from Zombieland Saga: One of the joys of Zombieland Saga is the stylistic diversity of its music. The conceit of the show—girls from different decades reanimated as zombie idols—means that, while the bulk of the girls’ default songs are pop rock idol numbers, the “character” songs and more oddball moments have the benefit of being able to lean on styles from different eras of music. In the case of this song, it’s more direct than usual: Do You Hate Windy Days? is not, itself, even an idol song, but rather the “original” song, of which Franchouchou’s version (centered by motorcycle punk Saki, because ZLS is outstanding) is merely a “cover.”

While their version is a lot of fun, sped up and joyous, I have to give the edge to the White Ryu "original." It was written to be the kind of one hit wonder that would be all over the Japanese radio in the 90s, a soulful, synth-heavy ballad about drive-in theaters (a fad in Japan at the time) and adolescent disillusionment and growing up. Performed by a local celebrity in irl Saga named Hakuryu, it’s an unironic throwback of a song, earnest, wistful and nostalgic, and chock-full of encouraging vibes.

Ore to nita omae to tsurun deta doraibuin (Us two alike hanging out at the drive-in) Akete iku sora no hikari ni sae mo iradatte niramitsuketa (Even glaring at that irritating morning light) Ahh, dakedo itsuka wa kitto wakaru-sa (Oh, but someday you'll definitely get it) Ahh, sou sa, omae wa kitto kawaru sa (Oh, for sure, you're gonna change) Ano hi no jibun o dakishimete yareru sonna jibun ni nareru sa (You'll be a you who can embrace the you that you were)

10: Binary Star, from Legends of the Galactic Heroes ~ Die Neue These: The central metaphor of the two sides of an unending conflict being as a binary star system hit like a train the first time I heard this song and I'm still not over it. Good god, what a great conceit. Musically speaking, it’s very Sawano Hiroyuki doing what Sawano Hiroyuki always does, which can get a bit samey, but if the groove he’s in is yours, it’s great stuff—incredibly dramatic, rich, electric and layered. But mainly I’m here for that metaphor. Locked together but irreconcilably torn. Binary heart. My god. Wow.

Binary A centrifugal force pushing us far away That’s our eternity Binary We can’t escape the force crushing us, gravity Is our eternity

BONUS INSTRUMENTAL PIECES: Since I got tagged twice, here’re some instrumental pieces that can’t properly be called “songs” but that I’m vibing to right now all the same.

1: Tenkyuu, from Kono Oto Tomare!: With a title that translates to Rain From a Cloudless Sky, this is an eight-minute koto chamber piece for seven players, but don’t let yourself be put off by it if you think it sounds a little too classical and stodgy. The changes in tempo and volume, the incredible beauty and intensity, the breathtaking precision and control with which it takes you through its different movements, up that final mounting climb, and to the perfect catharsis of its final plucked note—this piece is, as is even commented on within the series, the kind of performance that could win over even people from outside the hobby. Kono Oto's anime is not exactly a marvel of adaptation, but it did see the CD containing this and several other tracks played by various different clubs in the series becoming more widely available, and I’m incredibly thankful for that.

2: Otome no Policy, from the Sailor Moon Classic Concert 2018 Album: The concert albums Sailor Moon gets for its anniversaries or possibly just because some conductor at the Tokyo Philharmonic is a huge fan make me sad for other fandoms that don't get spoiled that this. (Which is to say, almost every other Japanese fandom that isn't a long-running video game franchise with a massively famous composer). As to why, look no further than this comprehensive overhaul of Otome no Policy.

The original version, for comparison, is a cute and deeply "90s girls' anime" piece of bubblegum pop fluff about doing your best and being determined and energetic even in the face of periodic fleeting sorrows. This arrangement starts with slow, sweet-tempered strings and woodwinds, but it swells with drums and brass as it goes along, modulating the tempo quicker and slower and quicker again, going through passages that could easily be from some film’s transcendent, triumphal march or a rousing theme from some lightly comic opera.It’s certainly the melody of Otome no Policy, but the overall impression is something much closer to “climactic segment from a version of Fantasia we never got.”

3: Reminiscence ~ Salamander and Loup-Garou and Father and Son, from the Heartcatch Precure movie: The latter of this pair is the one that really gets me, but it's a reprise of the former, and reprises always work best if you have the context of the first one, so have a listen to them both. (Also, I'm going to make some guesses about instruments in the descriptions below. Sorry if I get any wrong; I was in choir in school, not band.)

So, Reminiscence ~ Salamander and Loup-Garou plays over a flashback of the history of those two characters—the convivial but spite-filled Baron Salamander and his very young adoptive son/ward Loup-Garou (or Olivier, as the Cures will call him). It uses a creepy harpsichord and vocal part for the darker scenes at the beginning, then transitions to a melancholy recorder as the flashback moves to more ambiguous scenes.

While I don't know if it was the composer's intention, the order of the title and the way the song has two distinct melodies makes me think of the harpsichord bit as "Salamander's part" and the recorder bit as "Olivier's part." That clear transition between the two melodies/moods echoes Salamander and Olivier's relationship problems—they're linked together, but on different pages, one following the other, out of sync with each others' wishes.

Father and Son, then, plays just as the climax is about to ramp up, as the two come to blows. Olivier is desperate to stop the man he sees as his father from pursuing his world-ending goals; he loves the days they spent journeying together and doesn’t understand why they can’t just keep living that way. Salamander, however, refuses to cede the vengeful bitterness he’s been nursing for centuries against the worlds and peoples who cast him out.

Accordingly, then, the piece reprises both halves of the Reminiscence theme, but this time, they're not played sequentially; instead, after a brief lead-in of the recorder part's melody (now on piano), the two melodies play together, both souped way, way up in orchestration and intensity for maximum heartbreak. This is, after all, a scene that can’t possibly be resolved happily—if Salamander and Olivier could work things through on their own, there'd be no need for the Pretty Cure!—and the mournful brass and merciless march of the drumbeat emphasize that.

Do I feel a little awkward about having a piece of music used solely for a pair of male character movie OCs as my favorite piece of music in the entirety of the longest running magical girl franchise in history? Well, I, erm, um—look, how about you go listen to the immaculate thirteen-team theme music medley from the Hugtto All Stars movie and leave me here with my feels about this space dragon and his preteen artificial werewolf son. Thanks.

#memes #music #music recs #just gonna tag fandoms i've been at all active in here #gundam ibo #sailor moon #precure

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