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all-will-be--well · 6 months

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The Maybe Man

ok no one asked, but here is my AJR album review, song by song:

🌀 Maybe Man: I love this. I have a special place in my heart for all their album openers, they always give me chills. I can't wait to see them open with this live, especially when it goes so hard at the end! I've danced to this a lot already. Also learning that each verse references one song on the album! like a table of contents! I love them so much.

💔 Touchy Feely Fool: Very cute, and fun to sing along with. Probably like a solid 7 or 8 out of 10. Great to listen to, and has grown on me after listening to that Zach Sang interview and learning a little backstory

👍 Yes I'm A Mess: One of my faves from the album. I feel like such a badass walking around listening to this. Wish I could whistle!! The only thing i can't stand is the very end. I don't mind the tempo change but I don't like the slo mo voices that sound like a toy running out of batteries

🤓 The Dumb Song: More mid-tier for me. Got a great swing to it, and the instrumental breaks are really fun to dance to like a total idiot. I like to try out the lamest dance moves and just really commit to it. Lyric-wise, it's cute but reminds me of male weaponized incompetence (I know this isn't the intention, just what i think about), so it makes me feel a little weird if I think about it too much. Can't wait to hear a whole crowd scream "You should nooooot have done that!"

▶️ Inertia: Currently, this is my FAVORITE song on the album. It's fun, it's meaningful, it's got a great beat, and there are sounds that bring me back to past albums so it feels almost nostalgic. They used the instrumentals a lot in their promos for this album, and I can see why. It's both angelic with the choir sounds, and dark with the reverb/bass sounds. So good.

🧍‍♂️ Turning Out Pt iii : Always appreciate the Turning Out songs. Personally, the original is still my favorite. But even that one took me listening to it a dozen times before it really HIT, and then i was crying in the car. So maybe the same will happen with this one someday! Also if i'm not mistaken it's Ryan on vocals? So that's fun to have a change (though honestly he and Jack sound so similar)

🧠 Hole in the Bottom of My Brain: Gosh, so fun! Has that kind of nursery rhyme theme where it builds on itself (swallowed the spider to catch the fly, etc). However, unlike a nursery rhyme, the lyrics are kinda complicated to it's hard to sing along to. I'm sure people will be singing along by the time they're performing it live, like everyone memorizing the rambling line from Karma.

💿 The DJ is Crying for Help: I want to like this one more than I do. Don't get me wrong, I do like it! I think I just find it a little auditorily overwhelming. Like the string arpeggios are awesome, but I can't listen to that and the back up vocals and other sound effects at the same time. idk. To quote my favorite movie, Amadeus: "There are simply too many notes"

🙅🏻‍♂️ I Won't: This one has been out for a while so I feel like I've listened to it a lot already. Definitely makes me swagger walking around my apartment like I'm a total badass. Doesn't get my blood rushing like some of the others, but again that might just be because I've heard it a lot already.

🎡Steve's Going to London: Took me a few play-throughs to actually realize it wasn't just a nothing song! I appreciate them kinda breaking the 4th wall in a very AJR way. This song has grown on me with each listen! Very fun to sing and dance to, and has a great beat. My prediction is that this song will have a lot of special effects when they perform it live. We'll see...

💜 God is Really Real: RIP Gary ❤️ I love that their dad became a beloved part of the fandom. Very touching that they released this song early when it became clear they didn't have much longer with their dad. Beautiful, meaningful addition to the album.

🍂 2085: Perfectly packages up the album! The lyrics say that the old-timey voice says "You are not alone, young child, young child" which is NOT what it sounds like?? So hopefully that gets cleared up. I've seen some claiming it's a Yanny/Laurel situation, and tbh i wouldn't put it past the boys to find a way to do that on purpose. (I hear "You are my heart grown, just know, just know" which i know doesn't really make sense, but it's sweet to me) But the lyrics at the end "You've gotta get better, you're all that I got" give me chills. And then switching to "I gotta get better, I'm all that I got" 😭 . Also loves that it connects so perfectly back to Maybe Man so I can just listen to the album on repeat without interruption

THE END

#AJR #ajr brothers #the maybe man #i love them a lot okay

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dai-bendu-conlang · 3 years

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Jesara! Uera'ah foh a'ain nevi sedoremak vrhu nak kewanan uu Dai Bendu. ¿A'ainah keel nev det zera? [tried] foh: Tumi eno'ah sooan, ji tumi eno'ah kai'an; tumi eno'ah imleoan, ji tumi eno'ah wanan (leoan?); tumi eno'ah (passion), ji tumi eno'ah (serenity); tumi eno'ah (chaos), ji tumi eno'ah aimato; tumi eno'ah keraian, ji tumi eno'ah Dai. [aiming for: Hello! I would like to translate the Jedi Code Mantra into Dai Bendu. How would you say this? I tried:] Qasreash!

i tried to translate some of the classic meditation mantra into dai bendu (the one everyone calls the code). there were some limitations in vocab, so i just went with the last part. i ended up translating it as "xai eno'ah imkerai'anak mellu, eno'ah dai", my attempt at "where (because of the force) there is no death, is the force." i didn't quite know where to put "mellu" though tbh

Have you done the Jedi mantra in Dai Bendu? Specifically the version which goes "Emotion, yet peace/Ignorance, yet knowledge" etc?

Hello! Sorry for the late reply, Tevya, we already discussed this on the server, but here for the public:

There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force.

Im tumi tamah soo’yth, ji xai enoah kai’an. Im tumi tamah delahm, ji xai enoah leo’yth. Im tumi tamah bexlyth, ji xai enoah maijah. Im tumi tamah chiiuth, ji xai enoah aimato. Im tumi tamah kerai’yth, ji xai enoah Dai.

Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force.

Soo’yth, kyii kai’an. Delahm, kyii leo’yth. Bexlyth, kyii maijah. Chiiuth, kyii aimato. Kerai’yth, kyii Dai.

Life would be easier if we could just leave the code here, but unfortunately this is something the fandom fights and dissects over and over again. Therefore, we will elaborate a little on our word choices here and our interpretation of the code. First things first, we say this openly: This is, of course, yet another interpretation of the code. This is colored by our view on the Jedi and what we assume this code is supposed to mean and serve as. We don’t claim this is The Meaning Of The Code, but the way we understand it in English and then attempt to give it nuance in Dai Bendu. You are, of course, welcome to disregard this or make your own translation of it!

That being said, let’s get started with the purpose of the code. First, something about i’s history. Research done by the wonderful @ilummoss in this post.

What is now commonly called the “Jedi Code” originates from a 1987 roleplaying rulebook (Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game)

The second “yet” version shows up in Kanan: First Blood

This “code” is a mantra and not a code of conduct/law

Now let’s turn to the purpose of the Code/Mantra! The Jedi Code is one of the first things the younglings learn in the temple, which we assume means that you kind of learn it at the age you also end up learning nursery rhymes. You can see them chant it, repeat it. The purpose of mantras is to help focus/calm your mind. So, what conclusion can we draw from this? This Code is likely supposed to help the children focus on their connection to the Force so it must be an instrument to teach them how to interact with it.

From this, we draw our first conclusion: The second half of each line (peace, knowledge, serenity, harmony) is about the Force. The Force is all of these attributed.

Our second conclusion, derived from this, is that the first half of each line (emotion, ignorance, passion, chaos, death) are the things you bring with you into the Force. In moderation, all of these things are good. Being happy, knowing which knowledge is good for you, being passionate about something you love, knowing life can be a bit chaotic, and death, which is a part of life.

However, when you don’t keep those in check, they overwhelm you, twist and become negative. Contrasting Obi-Wan, who does feel emotion, deeply, and yet doesn’t get overwhelmed, while Anakin does and it ruins him, shows this very neatly. So these aspects can all be wonderful, but you have to be careful not to drag them with you into the Force or use them to access the Force in such a way.

Now, let’s get started on our translation. Let’s start easy with the nouns and do it line by line:

There is no emotion, there is peace. - Im tumi tamah soo’yth, ji xai enoah kai’an

soo’yth, nominalization of the verb soo, which means “to feel” in an emotional sense. kai’an, meaning “inner peace” As in being at peace with yourself e.g. basically the state required for Force Ghosting.

This line is pretty similar to its English equivalent. We wanted to emphasize that peace is not a state of being that’s everywhere or political, but it’s something inside you. The quiet in the eye of the storm.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. - Im tumi tamah delahm, ji xai enoah leo’yth

delahm is an interesting noun as it refers to “ignorance” as well as “the inability to help”. We wondered what kind of background a term such as ignorance has especially in the context of the Jedi valuing knowledge and learning a lot. As such we defined that “ignorance” would correspond more closely to the inability to help. As long as you know something, or aware of where you stand, you are not helpless. leo’yth is the nominalization of the verb leo meaning “to know” and so “knowledge”.

With this line, we really wanted to dig into this idea of knowledge is not just factual knowledge, but also wisdom. And if you act without wisdom, ignorant, perhaps even purposefully so, this is not something to favor. Of course nobody is expected to know everything, but you are supposed to remember, to know, that you can always ask others for help.

There is no passion, there is serenity. - Im tumi tamah bexlyth, ji xai enoah maijah

bexlyth is the nominalization of the verb bexl, which refers to covet/attached love and as the noun leans more into the concept of “passion” and “obsession”. maijah, on the other hand, translates as “serenity, calm, tranquillity”.

Our intention here was to elaborate on the huge dimension behind passion. Passion in and of itself is nothing bad, but it can be if it is done out of obsession. When considering that this mantra is used to interact with the Force, it might also demand that you leave every other thought behind and focus only on the Force.

There is no chaos, there is harmony. - Im tumi tamah chiiuth, ji xai enoah aimato

chiiuth means “chaos, destruction, unrest” where aimato is “harmony” and “cosmic balance”. Cosmic balance is here the state which we assume the Jedi want to achieve in the entire galaxy. When canon speaks of “there needs to be balance”, this is it.

Here we have chaos as everything that disrupts the harmony. Of course there is something such as good chaos, it would be quite boring if every day were the same, stagnant, but in this case we decide that chaos and destruction does not exist negatively in the Force. There are plants that require forest fires before they can sprout - the natural circle of life includes chaos and destruction, but only ever in a way that plays in harmony with its other parts, rebirth and healing.

There is no death, there is the Force - Im tumi tamah kerai’yth, ji xai enoah Dai

kerai’yth is the nominalization of the verb kerai, which means “to die”. This line is pretty much the same as the original version.

Now that we’ve got all the vocabulary done, let’s talk a bit about grammar. We’ll start with the first part of each sentence Im tumi tamah.

tamah is the present tense form of the temporary form of “to be”. We chose to use this instead of “enoah” to show that these states of being are temporary and not, like the Force and its attributes, eternal.

A little opposed to this is our choice of the consequential marker tumi. tumi marks a state of somethat that is currently happening and will continue to happen in the future. This is used mostly for statements of being. As you can see, this is in contrast to our choice of tamah, but the reason for that is hidden in our negation particle im.

Im, in this case, negates the whole expression. tumi tamah gives the speaker the understanding that something temporary is the current state of being, when negating this entire sentence, we get the translation that this temporary experience is not your new and eternal state of being.

Which brings us to the differences in syntax and overall translation. In the structure of the original Basic sentence, the negation only has scope over the noun. In There is no chaos, the “no” negates only “chaos”. The literal translation of the Dai Bendu version would be more along the lines of “Not is there any state of chaos”, which, of course, is a lot more wordy.

Now, on the flip side, we have there is. In Dai Bendu, we have ji xai enoah. ji means “but”. We inserted this preposition here to highlight the contrast and negation. The first half of each statement says what there is not, but that doesn’t mean you are lost because in the Force, you will find the other.

enoah is our eternal/permanent form of “to be”. The Force is eternal, it will forever be all these attributes the Jedi give to it. xai is our Force-influenced marker. It represents that an action took place because the Force destined it to be, it is “Force-willed” if you want. This makes the entire sentence a bit self-referential and implies that this state is eternal because the Force is and because the Force wants it to be. The Jedi believe singularly in the Light side of the Force and see the Dark as a corruption and poisoning of it. Therefore, the Force strives for peace, knowledge, serenity, harmony as much as it embodies it.

Now that we have discussed both statements, we can put together a full literal translation:

There is no emotion, there is peace turns into Not is there a state of emotion, but the Force wills there to be peace within itself.

And that is, all in all, a pretty sweet mantra to hold onto.

Now! For some explanation on the shortened version. We know that both versions existed during the prequels at the same time, which suggests two things: either they were both passed on independently/complementary, or they are identical in meaning.

Emotion, yet peace - Soo’yth, kyii kai’an

The word “yet” is very interesting because its meaning is inherently “despite that/but/even though”, which means that this shortened form of the mantra can actually be read identically to the long one. By striking the negation out of the sentence, you need a preposition with that inherent negative meaning, which is something “yet” is capable of!

So in our reading of this shortened mantra, it’s identical to the long one, but given how many syllables the long one has, it’s no wonder they have the Initiates recite the short one. So there is no secret “oh no, the Jedi don’t acknowledge emotions so we need this updated better version of the code!” hidden away here.

#dai bendu #jedi #star wars #meta #translations #anon #tevyaa #ask

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nvvermore · 3 years

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Entr’acte

For the second time, Amaryllis drops everything and steps away from their comfort zone when Beatrice needs a teacher, this time with a very different group of students [@juliandev0rak]

words: 2108

cw: none

—

“What do you think about maybe visiting the school? Maybe… teaching some music lessons?”

“You want me to teach your kids?”

“Well, I’m not asking for you to come to teach full time or anything, but,”

“I’m not very good with children.”

“If you managed to teach me, you’ll have no problem with them!”

“Beatrice.”

“I’m joking! They’re really wonderfully behaved children, I promise. Besides, how bad can you really be if you’re friends with Lucio?”

“You’ve made a good point,” Amaryllis laughs. “What exactly would I teach them? I doubt they need professional-level vocal instruction.”

“You know music! You can sing and play the piano, and probably other instruments too-“

“Guitar. And violin, but only a little.”

“See! You could teach them all about notes, how to play nursery rhymes. It’s mostly about giving them something fun to do, like art class or recess.”

“So you do want me to come in on a regular basis?”

“Well, if you’re a good fit I wouldn’t mind it…”

“Alright then. I’ll come teach.”

“Really?” In her excitement, Beatrice throws her arms around Amaryllis’s neck in a crushing hug. “Oh thank you, Amie!” They return it after a moment, arms wrapping around her middle. When they part, there’s the loveliest pink flush to her cheeks, their faces only inches apart. Reluctantly, Amaryllis breaks away from her embrace.

“I am a little busy with the masquerade approaching, but I can make time.”

“Tomorrow?” Beatrice suggests quickly.

“Tomorrow, hm? You don’t already have lesson plans for the day?”

“Ah, well-“

“You knew I’d say yes.”

“I was right.”

- - -

And that was how Amaryllis ended at the old coliseum turned schoolhouse, with carefully crafted lesson plans in hand. They had even gone out of their way to dress in the most modest and brightest dress they had in their wardrobe, along with simple pumps and opaque tights.

Once Amaryllis was standing before the doors, dressed in spring green, the gravity of how fully head-over-heels they had fallen for Beatrice dawned on them. In their right, not lovesick mind, they would never willingly venture out in such a manner. They’d even completely forgone their veil for the afternoon— it was hardly necessary to do so, but Amaryllis was dead set on being a good example.

On the other side of the doors, it seemed Beatrice had been waiting for them. Seated on a nearby bench with her nose in a book, it was the same way she’d often wait for them before their lessons together. There was nothing out of the ordinary or new about the sight of her, but Amaryllis still found themself stopping to take her in. Leaning against the wall, they watched the way her lips moved as she read, how focused she was as her eyes flit across the pages.

Soon enough, the moment passes when Beatrice finally takes note of them.“Amie!” she jumps into her feet, and Amaryllis notices the way her expression drops into surprise for a split-second. Then, she proceeds to unabashedly look them up and down, grin returning to her lips when her eyes meet theirs. “You have perfect timing! The children should be just getting back from recess. Come, I’ll show you around.”

Without warning, Beatrice takes their hand, and Amaryllis has to stop themself from giving into the urge to intertwine their fingers with hers.

Beatrice leads them through the halls, enthusiastically pointing out various classrooms and other school facilities. She tells them all about what she’s already been able to do with the school and her goals for the future. Amaryllis drinks up every word, and the passion she has for her students makes them fall a little bit more in love with her.

They make a mental note to see to it that a little bit more of their salary is directed to the school— discreetly through Nadia, lumped in with what she already uses to fund Vesuvia’s public education.

“And this is my classroom!” Beatrice pulls them into a room with rows of little desks decorated in little messes of papers and books. Amaryllis looks around the modest room, in awe at all the carefully-crafted decor she had put up all over the walls. Posters and signs that must have taken her hours and hours to make.

There was the common alphabet drawn out all the way across the front wall above the chalkboard. Large and colorful drawings acting as helpful reminders of numbers, shapes, days of the week, and months of the year. Not all of it was purely educational; messages of inspiration were all over, encouragement just a glance away for any child who needed it. Even each desk had a carefully handwritten tag spelling out each child's first and last name.

Amaryllis realizes they must have looked around the room a little too long, because when they glance back to Beatrice, she’s fiddling with her the clasp of her cloak. The instinct to assure her overcomes them, and they reach out and place their hands over hers

“Beatrice, this is lovely. I can tell you truly love your work.”

She looks hesitant for a moment, as though she might brush the complement off, but smiles after a moment. “Thank you, Amie. I really do love it.”

Amaryllis quickly squeezes her hands before taking them back. “I hope I can meet your high standards.”

“If I had any doubts, I wouldn’t have asked you,” she opens her mouth like she has more to say, but then tiny voices and giggles sound from the hallway. Something in her composure shifts then, and in a second she goes from their Beatrice to the student’s Beatrice.

Greeting each child with a warm smile as they file into the room, not an ounce of hesitance or nervousness. Amaryllis can’t take their eyes off of her, wants to take in all of her radiance that comes with her moments of total confidence. That beautiful smile of hers is then turned on them, and class is ready to begin.

“Settle in everyone! This afternoon we have a very special guest!” Beatrice addresses the class animatedly. She steps back, gesturing for Amaryllis to step up. It almost feels like they’ve somehow switched places with each other; Beatrice has all of the certainty and Amaryllis is full of worry. But they would do this, and do it well, for her, and for these children.

“Hello, you can call me Amie,” they introduce themself with the nickname instead, as their name could be difficult to pronounce for ones so young. “Together, we’re going to learn all about music!” Amaryllis glances to Beatrice, who watches them with a soft expression, and in turn she gives an encouraging nod. “For today’s lesson, I’m going to show you how to write your very own song!”

- - -

The lesson had run wonderfully, much to Amaryllis’s surprise. The class was a modestly-sized one, and all in attendance were very eager to learn. They’d begun with the very basics of treble clef, explaining the lettering and telling them the silly acronyms to assist in remembering. As the children demonstrated they were catching on to their teachings, Amaryllis shed their hesitance.

In the end, they were able to assist each student in writing out their own little two-measure song. None of them really knew they were writing, but Amaryllis could hear each little song as they went over it with Beatrice’s students. Some of them put the same note down eight times, some of them followed the alphabet, some of them randomly placed notes on the staff. It was sweet, to see each child’s method of creating.

Amaryllis’s plan was for Beatrice to hold on to what they’d written, because next time they would teach them how to sing their songs. Each child was already so proud of what they’d accomplished, and Amaryllis was truly looking forward to showing them how it sounded.

Once their lesson was concluded, it was time to wrap up for the day. Amaryllis stood back once again to let Beatrice take back over, and meanwhile they made themself at home in her desk chair. When the students finally were dismissed, Amaryllis did not expect for several of them to flock around them.

One little girl told them how pretty their hair was; another told them that he thought their scar was so cool. A little boy explained very thoroughly that he’d been taking piano lessons since he was very little. It took a few more minutes of questioning and stories and several promises that they would return next week for everyone to clear out.

Beatrice saw the last little straggler out of the door and closed it behind her. “‘Bad with children’, hm?” She was beaming again, surely pleased to have something to call them on.

“I may have lied,” Amaryllis admits. Beatrice raises a brow in questioning, settling down onto her desk in front of them. “It’s just, I don’t tend to be the best influence.”

“Amie, that’s not true,” she reaches forward to take their hand, “you were just actively being a positive influence for the past two hours.”

“I tried my very best, abeille.” ‘I tried my very best for you’, goes unsaid.

“I think you did wonderful! Even I learned things I didn’t know before.”

“Then I must not be doing enough in our private lessons.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“I know, I’m simply teasing you.” Amaryllis rests their clasped hands against Beatrice’s knee. She isn’t sitting as ‘lady-like’ as she typically tends to, her legs remain uncrossed and knees apart. Her long skirts cover her all the way down to the ankle, perfectly decent, though Amaryllis’s thoughts about their current positions are anything but. Slipping their hands under said skirts, the feel of her skin under their fingers as they push the fabric up and— now was not the time or place to fantasize about her.

“You know, I meant to say,” she glances away when Amaryllis’s eyes meet hers, cheeks rosy. “You look, different.”

“I know, it’s atrocious, isn’t it?”

“Absolutely not!” Beatrice bites her lip, before continuing. “I think you look just as lovely like this,” she rushes to add, “and it’s nice to see your face. Outside of the rehearsal room. In public. That probably sounds a little odd-“

Amaryllis’s breath falters. “It doesn’t.”

“Oh, good, then.” Beatrice’s free hand picks at the surface of the desk. “Then is there a reason you didn’t wear your veil today? I’ve noticed you don’t usually go anywhere outside the palace without it.”

“It’s part of my effort to not be a poor influence,” they explain. “Little ones are so impressionable, it wouldn’t do to cover up like I’m ashamed.”

“Are you?” she blurts out, looking instantly regretful. Amaryllis doesn’t talk about these things, they never do. But with Beatrice, they feel safe enough to forgo many of their masks.

“Rationally, I know there isn’t anything to be ashamed about. But it’s,” they take a deep breath, “difficult when someone once put in a lot of effort into making you think that way. You never know who else will treat you that same way. So, I prefer to have a shield.”

“You’ve never worn it when it was just us.”

“Because I know you’d never make me feel ashamed.”

“Amie, I—“ Beatrice is cut off by a knock on the door that makes them both jump. She releases their hand, sliding off of the desk to let the interloper in. Simply a concerned parent who’s come to speak with his child’s teacher. Amaryllis takes it as their cue to excuse themself.

“I’m quite busy with preparations, so I’m afraid I might not see you again until the masquerade.”

“It’s only a few days away, and I’ll be sure to practice extra hard in place of our missed lesson.”

“Not too hard. We don’t want a repeat of the last time you strained yourself.” Though truthfully, Amaryllis wouldn’t mind bringing her tea again, or taking care of her, settling on her comfy little couch to snuggle up.

Beatrice throws her hands up dramatically. “I won’t practice that much, I promise!”

“Good girl,” they take her hand, relishing in her flustered face, “until we meet again.” Amaryllis places a kiss on the back of her hand, leaving behind a deep red stain. With a respectful nod to the waiting father, they step back out into the hall.

Normally, Amaryllis loved work. It kept them busy, kept them distracted. But they were already distracted by something other than work, and they had a feeling the next few days would be agonizing without a moment of Beatrice’s company.

#no sleep for me so i am here #i cant forget about beamie either #amaryllis leroux #beatrice viano #beamie #amie fic #my fic #i feel like i have so few tags but i do not like tagging things so its ok

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rainydawgradioblog · 3 years

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a covidsation with mary claire

For the first Covidsation for autumn quarter, here is an interview I did back in May with Mary Claire, my dear friend and one of my favorite local artists. Mary Claire is a singer-songwriter based here in Seattle who makes “sad girl rock” (see: Mitski, Angel Olsen, etc.). I first met them through the DIY scene and was lucky enough to book them at the finale Red Room show, a house venue I used to live at and help run. As evidenced by the picture below taken that very night, seeing Mary Claire play live is a magical, mesmerizing, captivating experience. Often accompanied with minimal, but tonally-rich instrumentals, their powerful and hauntingly stunning voice paired with visceral, poetic lyrics transport you into another realm. I *highly* recommend listening to their album Phantom Limb, which you can find on your streaming platform of choice or you can snag a physical copy at Everyday Music on the Hill like I did! Last month, they also just released an incredible stop-motion music video for their song off PL called “I Don’t Like Drinking”, directed, edited, and animated by Barb Hoffman, which you can find here! Thank you Mary Claire for these thoughtful responses and for creating such vulnerable, beautiful art <3

Lola Gil: Tell me about your project. How has it evolved? Which artists are you most inspired by? How would you describe your sound?

Mary Claire: Hi hi I’m Mary Claire. I was never someone who was playing music since they were a little kiddo, it was something I picked up my senior year of high school. But pretty much everyone in my family has some amazing and weirdly specific aptitude for music, so I think being surrounded by that kind of allowed me to gather an eclectic, personal understanding, appreciation, and internalized feeling for music, so I never really took lessons or anything like that. I enjoyed and still enjoy that from the start, I was okay with the fact that I didn’t know “academic” theory and I just played with what feels and sounds right. And I still do that. So I played around with all those youthful punk feelings and had an angsty band in high school that was not bad for small town Sacramento. I think I learned so much from that and it gave me a flood of unhindered and unhinged confidence for recording, performing, maneuvering stage mechanics and technicalities, etc. Also it introduced me into the world of songwriting that I did for that band and for myself that just immediately poured out of me, which led me to what I’m doing now. I am extremely lyrically-focused and write mostly about lived personal experience that I surrender to and make extremely overly-wordy. I went from a solo act, to a bigger full piece crunchier band, to me and a piano player, back to a solo set, so I’m really just kind of evolving with my resources, the songs I’m currently living in and playing, and with what would bring everything to life most fully.

I’m inspired by everyone, even if I don’t necessarily sound like them or listen to them all the time. Like, my adoration for incredibly angry punk music is what got me started in the creation of my own music, so that foundation will never leave me. Even though I won’t sound like IDLES or Shame or Pissed Jeans, their point of view and their devotion to cramming so many words into one breath is a place I also come from. We execute similar feelings in different ways. And though I currently am not anything like Yves Tumor, King Krule, or FKA Twigs, the layers in their stuff sends me so far. But I think lyrically and melodically, I pull inspiration from and sink most into Mitski, Sasami, Angel Olsen, Palehound, Big Thief, Bella Porter, Darci Phenix, Fiona Apple, Sufjan Stevens, Izumi, and Weyes Blood.

Someone once said my tunes are “sad girl rock” and I think that sticks in a fun, quick way, so that’s what I tell people. But more recently, the stuff on my upcoming album I think is like a sad, fucked up, incredibly fast-paced nursery rhyme book (lol). I’m really excited for this album I wrote, more than anything ever. Also my good friend and twin flame Francis is helping me record it and is giving me a lot of knowledge and challenges and affirmations and inspiration. I owe a lot of this second album’s production and complexity him. There are a lot more people involved in the recording of this one, so it’s a lot fuller in a new and exciting and scary way.

LG: As an artist, how have you been affected by the pandemic? I saw most of your tour you had booked was unfortunately cancelled-- are you planning on rescheduling?

MC: Rescheduling feels so completely beyond me right now, so I am just considering it to be cancelled until things in the world really start to settle down to some degree of safety and responsibility. However, the silver lining in all of this ‘rona stuff is that it has given me a ton of time to recenter myself with my music and devote my own energy into recording and feeling the core of my upcoming album. I think when the world is moving so fast, it’s easy for me to feel like I’m behind, like other people are getting shit done faster and in a more “impressive way”, in a way that matters more or has more inherent value. So when we are all forced to stay at home with ourselves, not only does it remind me that all of those insecurities are completely not real and are in fact a delusion borne from a capitalistic-productivity-equals-artistic-worth-framework, but I also get time to actually enjoy and fine tune what I otherwise might have just thrown out into the ether desperately and prematurely in hopes to be current and up to date and ~with it~.

LG: Have you been working on writing any new tunes? Have you been involved in any other creative projects recently?

MC: When I was recording Phantom Limb, I wrote the majority of my next upcoming album, so while those songs don’t feel incredibly new, there is a ton of stuff I have yet to share and that I am so eager to scream to the world. It feels like some of the stuff I am most proud of making in my entire life.

But since I left for Berlin to study abroad last fall to when I came back to Seattle this January, I really hadn’t written anything new. I think I had been going through a lot of personal and immense change and hard growth that wasn’t particularly inspiring, it just sucked and was intense and necessary, but sometimes all that bad stuff is not something you can just make art out of. Plus I had to just do something totally different and invest and surrender to techno and being a gross city Eurotrash gremlin and let that out cathartically. But recently, I wrote my first super new song in what feels like ages, and I’m so happy. I was afraid maybe I’d forgotten how to do it, but it’s pouring out of me again and I feel like me again. I have also been working a bit back and forth with a friend from the project World Peace. We just keep sending clips back and forth and weaving our separate projects together a bit, which is something I’ve never done and I’m having a ton of fun, especially because our music is so different. Besides that, I have some plans to work with another good friend Izumi after having adored them the moment I moved here.

LG: How have you personally been dealing with the pandemic and the craziness that is 2020? What has your quarantine experience been like so far?

MC: I went home to Sacramento for a month and watched more TV than I had probably in my entire life. It was really good to see my family and siblings who I miss so much. But I came back to Seattle in April and since then have just been spending my days in a limbo of online school weirdness. But I’m so fortunate that I live with so many people who are all so unique, all of whom I feel are my best friends. So I definitely don’t get too bored:)

LG: What music have you been listening to during quarantine? What has been your go-to isolation album?

MC: Okay to be honest, when I begin to think of my next album and what it feels like inside of me, I make one single playlist with like hours and hours of songs on it and it’s the only thing I listen to for like a year. So I’m prone to listening to the same stuff perpetually forever and always, but I think I’ve always sort of been like that. It makes the feeling familiar. But since I’ve felt close to the sounds of my upcoming album for a long while now, I’ve actually pretty much been listening to what is my ~album 3~ inspo playlist, because I already feel that beast growing inside of me. I’m a planner.

Most of the artists on those playlists are the ones I listed above in regards to who I feel are my biggest inspirations. But right when quarantine started though I would pretty much only play Man Alive!, I would just go through the whole thing and then restart immediately. When I was in Sacramento, my family had a rule I could only play it with headphones because it was literally nonstop, that’s just how I consume things; I take a bath in them until I feel every single part of what was made. But other than that, I’ve been bumping Peter Campanelli’s Pesto Baby and crying a lot about it, Darci Phenix’s (my best bud from Sac) Juniper Street which is some of the best songwriting literally ever, and Francis Farmer’s Bruised Fruit which is SO expertly recorded and thought out, I am so lucky he is my friend and wants to record my upcoming album with me.

LG: Arethere any spring shows that you were particularly looking forward to attending that got cancelled?

MC: Pretty much all of them imaginable.

LG: How do you think the Seattle music scene is going to be like post-COVID?

MC: Hopefully, this can recenter us and remind us we’re all really really and truly in this together. It’s up to us to lift each other up and get each other on bills and spread the word and create community for those who need it most and for those whose lives rely on this art. Seattle seems like it is really good at that on a small scale, but once it gets to a little bit larger stage, it’s easy for people to forget where they came from, who supported them, and what should be at the forefront of our radars. I think shedding this cool guy persona and getting back to why this shit is so important and listening to/PROMOTING smaller artists who are making The Best stuff is something everyone could be reminded to do.

LG: In this funky era of social distancing, how do you think artists can support each other during these weird and difficult times? How do you think social media is facilitating and/or inhibiting connection within Seattle’s overall creative community?

MC: I think people’s ability to make what seemed like such an immediate switch to social media music promotion and shows was really amazing. However, it makes me feel a bit hopeless and dystopian and sci-fi in a weird way. That being said, trying to resist the change has only proven to be detrimental to me and kind has come back to kick me in the ass. Like, I should not be turning down opportunities just because livestreams kind of freak me out in how foreign and disconnected they can appear to be. I’m no better than them, and it’s important I think to accept things where they’re at instead of pretending they’re not happening.

That being said, I think everyone has been maneuvering with such grace and empathy and compassion for others in a way that I can really feel, and I hope that sticks around forever.

- Lola Gil

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eldritchsurveys · 4 years

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806.

1. Humpty Dumpty: Have you ever felt so broken that you didn’t feel like you could be put back together again? >> Absolutely. And oddly enough, I’m still here, and probably not quite as broken as I imagined myself to be. Brains aren’t nearly as good at predicting the future as they think they are.

2. Jack and Jill: Have you ever tumbled/rolled down a grassy hill? >> Yes. It’s great fun.

3. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: Do you enjoy stargazing? Has anyone ever gotten a star named for you? >> It’s not something I really go out and do, but I do love me some stars. I’ve not had the star-naming happen, though.

4. Little Bo Peep: Have you ever thought you lost something that was actually right in front of you the whole time? >> Yeah, that tends to happen when I get used to putting something in a certain place and then I unthinkingly put it somewhere else one day and fuck myself up.

5. Itsy Bitsy Spider: What do you typically do on a rainy day? >> Nothing different, usually. If it rains in the morning it might change whether I go out for a walk or not, but otherwise my daily activities remain the same.

6. Baa Baa Black Sheep: Do you own any clothing made out of wool? >> I don’t think so.

7. Ring Around the Rosie: Did you know that this childhood song/nursery rhyme is actually about The Black Death? >> I’ve heard that.

8. Five Little Ducks: Have you ever gotten lost before? >> Yeah.

9. I’m a Little Teapot: What is your favorite flavor/type of tea to drink? >> I like herbal teas, particularly ginger and mint. I also like vanilla chai and the occasional fruit variety.

10. Hokey Pokey: How were you taught to understand the difference between your left and right sides? >> I don’t remember how I was taught this.

11. Old MacDonald Had a Farm: What is your favorite farm animal? >> Sheep and goats are adorable. But so are cows, especially those fluffy ones... Regardless of their cuteness, though, I couldn’t be around any farm animal for long because the smell would slowly kill me.

12. Make up your own lyric for “Down By The Bay”. >> Ha, I used to sing this song to myself repeatedly for like hours when I was a kid. I’d rather not make up my own lyric for it now, though.

13. Little Miss Muffet: Would you be terrified if a spider sat down beside you? >> Nah. I am also a spider. I like visiting with my kin.

14. Rockabye Baby: Do you feel that this is a more calming or terrifying lullaby for children? >> I just think it’s funny, because like... yeah. Why the fuck is the baby in the tree, lmao. Nursery rhymes are wild.

15. Hickory Dickory Dock: What are you usually doing when the clock strikes 1? >> AM or PM? If PM, I’m probably gaming or something. If AM, I’m asleep.

16. Pat-a-Cake: What’s your favorite thing to bake/baked good to eat? >> I don’t bake, and I have no idea what my favourite baked good would be... a good bread, I guess??

17. Why do we stomp our feet if we’re “Happy and We Know It”? Shouldn’t we be doing this when we’re angry instead? >> Eh, I guess you could do it for almost any emotion if you put your mind to it.

18. The Wheels on the Bus: Where’s the furthest you’ve ever gone on a bus before? >> From Colorado to NYC. On two different occasions. Definitely not an experience I’d ever care to repeat.

19. Row, Row, Row Your Boat: Do you enjoy boating? (ie: cruises, kayaking, canoeing, white water rafting, etc) >> I’ve never been boating. I’ve been on ferries? Oh, and once I went to a concert on a boat. That was fun.

20. 3 Blind Mice: Do you know someone who is blind? >> No.

21. 3 Little Kittens: Do you prefer gloves or mittens when getting dressed for chilly weather? >> Gloves, if I must.

22. Jack Be Nimble: Do you enjoy lighting scented candles? >> I mean, sometimes, I guess. I burn incense most often, though.

23. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear: Have you ever made a teddy bear or any other sort of stuffed animal at Build-a-Bear? If not, do you still have a favorite teddy bear/stuffed animal from your childhood? >> Yeah! I have a dog named Reese from there, I love him. Sparrow has an owl, a Pikachu, and a Squirtle, hah.

24. 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed: Have you ever cracked your head open before and needed stitches? >> Nope. I’ve definitely tried to crack my head open, lmao, but I wasn’t any good at it. (Thankfully.)

25. Hey Diddle Diddle: The cat plays a fiddle. What instrument would you like to play? >> Meh. I like singing.

26. Mary Had a Little Lamb: Have you ever brought a pet to school for show and tell before? >> No. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced show-and-tell, actually. I thought it was made up for like movies and shit, lol.

27. Once I Caught a Fish Alive: If you go fishing, do you release the fish afterwards, or do you take them home and cook them? >> I don’t go fishing, but if I did, it wouldn’t be just for the sake of it. I’d prefer to eat the fish afterward.

28. Little Jack Horner: What is your favorite flavor of pie? >> Hmm... sweet potato. Also, apple.

29. Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary: Do you have a garden? What do you plant in it? >> No, we just have a fuckload of potted plants because Sparrow likes them.

30. Miss Mary Mack: Do you wear clothing with a lot of buttons? >> No.

31. Old Mother Hubbard: What is your favorite food to keep in your cupboard? >> Er, I don’t know.

32. There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe: Do you have a lot of siblings growing up? Did you enjoy it? Why or why not? >> I was raised as an only child.

33. This Little Piggy: Do you like roast beef? >> No.

34. Rain, Rain Go Away: Have you ever played outside in the rain before? >> I mean, probably.

35. It’s Raining, It’s Pouring: Do you know someone who snores very loudly? >> Not anymore. My father was notorious for this.

36. Star Light, Star Bright: Do you ever wish on stars? Has one of your wishes actually come true before? >> No.

37. Here is the Beehive: Are you allergic to bees? Do you know anyone who is? Do you enjoy eating honey? >> I don’t know, I’ve never been stung by one. I don’t remember if I know anyone who is allergic. I love eating honey.

38. If All the Raindrops Were Lemon Drops and Gumdrops: What food would you want to rain down from the sky: >> I definitely would not want food to rain down from the sky, lmao.

39. Little Boy Blue: Have you ever slept anywhere other than a bed before? Where? >> Yeah. Tiled floors, subway cars, subway platforms, the sidewalk, couches, parks...

40. Do You Know the Muffin Man?: What is your favorite type of muffin to eat? >> I haven’t had a muffin in ages. I’m pretty sure I just don’t care for them.

41. Wee Willie Winkie: Have you ever sleepwalked before? >> No. Lmao, can you imagine being a sleepwalker while sleeping on the streets? That’d be fucked up...

42. B-I-N-G-O: If you had a dog, what would you name it? >> I don’t know, it would depend on the dog.

43. Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?: Has your pet ever run away from home before? Did it get returned? >> That apparently happened when I was a preteen. We didn’t even have the dog for a full month before he somehow escaped.

44. How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?: What’s the most you would spend when adopting a dog? >> I don’t know, man. I’m not even sure what the going rates are.

45. This Old Man: Do you own any knick-knacks? >> I guess I have a few.

46. 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe: When did you learn to tie your own sneakers? >> I have no idea.

47. Are You Sleeping?: What time do you typically go to bed at night? >> Between 10p and 12a. [a-zebra-is-a-striped-horse]

#surveys #survey #themed survey

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sourpunchsims · 5 years

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created by: me and @berryconfetti

Like music? Like berry sims? Or don’t? That’s fine too! I introduce to you, a 5 10 11? generation music based legacy

*inspired by @a-kind-berry/red‘s Seven Songs

@berryconfetti basically wrote gens 6-10 as an expanded version of this, so half of the credit goes to them. If you find anything wrong with the challenge, don’t hesitate to let us know! We will also be adding new generations as we get new content! If something isn’t specific, do whatever you want to!

I follow the tags: #lmds & #musiquedessims! Also tag me if you want when you start it so I don’s miss it! I would love to see your challenges!

*The name literally translates to “The Music of The Sims” in French!

This does use quite a lot of packs. If you don’t have something, feel free to substitute in something else! Most importantly, have fun!

Generation 1: Pop

Packs Needed: City Living, Get Together, Get Famous Color: Pink Aspiration: World Famous Celebrity Career: N/A, allowed a part time job to get some beginning funds Traits: Self-Absorbed

You’ve always dreamed of becoming a pop star. You leave your quaint home in the country side to move to the city, to try and make your dream a reality. It’s tough, but you know you have what it takes. You love hanging out with your friends and having weekly karaoke nights, whether they’re at your home or out in the city. Form a band or go solo, it’s up to you!

When you have a chance encounter with a fan, you never expected anything to come of it, but you end up falling in love. Bad fan fiction, anyone?

Live in San Myshuno or Del Sol Valley

Max Singing and Dancing skills

Reach level 5 fame and have a good reputation

Have weekly karaoke nights with your friends, until life gets too hectic from you getting more and more public attention

Marry a fan (RED)

Generation 2: Rock

Packs Needed: City Living, Get Famous Color: Red Aspiration: Musical Genius Career: Entertainer: Musician branch, then Social Media

You inherited your parents love for music and want to start your own band, but you don’t want to be the singer. You’d rather rock out on a guitar any day. With your parents backing you, your band quickly climbs the ladder. But when you fall in love with a band member, things start getting complicated, and eventually the band breaks up and you marry your love and settle down. You’re also very into social media and sharing your life on the web.

Live in San Myshuno starting from Young Adult until you’re an elder, then you can choose to retire somewhere quieter with your family if you wish

Max the Guitar and Media Production skill

Have and update a social media platform frequently- simstagram or simstube

Form a band as a teen

Have the band break up in your YA stage

After the band breaks up, quit your job and enter the Social Media career

Marry a band member (BLUE)

Have at least 3 kids

Generation 3: Karaoke

Packs Needed: Get To Work Color: Blue Aspiration: Joke Star Career: Entertainer: Comedian branch

It seems the musical gene skipped over you. While your siblings follow in your grandparents/parents foot steps, try as you might, you just can’t sing or dance. Instead, you move to Oasis Springs to focus on comedy. You use your name to your advantage, what with your grandparents being famous world wide and the handful that remember your parents’ old band. In your free time, you work on your photography.

Complete your aspiration/max your career

Move to Oasis Springs

Max Comedy, Charisma, and Photography skills

Marry a co-worker (PURPLE)

Have only 2 kids, that are close in age (or cheat for twins!)

Try to get your parents band back together for one last show, if nothing else, before they’re elders

Generation 4: Disco

Packs Needed: Get Together, Jungle Adventure Color: Purple Aspiration: Master Chef Career: Culinary: Chef branch Traits: Dance Machine, Foodie

The dancing gene is back! You want to learn every style of dance, but you also have an intense love for baking. You forced your sibling to help you practice dancing whenever you could, and they were your guinea pig for your baking creations. You maintain a close relationship with them throughout your life, until the death of your parents changes them.

Max Dancing, Selvadoradian Culture, and Baking skills

Meet your spouse (GREEN) in Selvadorada

Complete the master chef aspiration

Be best friends with your sibling, until the death of your parents

Fall out of touch with your sibling for a while before trying to mend your relationship

Generation 5: Alternative

Packs Needed: Base Game, Island Living (optional) Color: Green Career: Gardener- only work from home Aspiration: Any of the outdoor ones

You still have a love for music like most everyone else in your family, but you don’t see yourself pursuing it as a career. You end up in the country, on a farm, raising a garden and a brood family. You like to wood work in your free time, even dedicating a work shop to it. You also love to dabble in lots of different instruments. You know what they say, jack of all trades, but master of none.

Move to a farm as a YA, after getting married

Max Gardening and Handiness skills

Reach at least level 5 in 3 or more instrument skills

Complete the Gardening collection

Complete your chosen aspiration– Renaissance Sim would also be a good option*

Marry your childhood best friend (ORANGE)

Have lots of babies! At least 5 to help with the farm!

Make and use lots of wooden things in your house, for function or decoration

*Optional: Use the off the grid lot trait once you move to your “farm”

Generation 6: Nursery Rhymes

Packs Needed: City Living, Parenthood, Seasons (optional) Color: Orange Aspiration: Super Parent Traits: Childish, Geek, Family Oriented

You loved having so many siblings and now that you’re all grown up you still love playing with toys and doing childish things. You wish you never had to grow up (yay for Peter Pan syndrome!)! You were never good at playing music despite all the instruments around the home, but you did enjoy making up silly poems and songs, which entertained your brothers and sisters. When it’s time to start your own career as a Young Adult you start sending your poems and songs to publishers, eventually becoming a published author of Children’s stories!

Max Parenting, Writing, and Video Gaming skills

Have a baby sitter job as a teen

Complete the Void Critters collection

Marry a childish, cheerful, AND/OR outgoing sim (GRAY/CHARCOAL)

Attend GeekCon every time (or at least every other time) it happens

Go roller/ice skating regularly with your family- you decide how often.

*Could be like a tradition. Could even make it a holiday and have it happen once a “year"

Generation Seven: Heavy Metal

Packs Needed: Vampires, Seasons (optional) Color: Gray/Charcoal Aspiration: Any vampire aspiration Career: Criminal: Boss branch

You hated how happy and cheerful your family always was and want to distance yourself as much as you can from it, and them. Whenever a pop or dance song starts you change it to the Spooky station. You meet a vampire as a teen and become obsessed with vampire culture and their way of life, eventually asking to become one, taking pleasure in singing the Vampire’s siren song for that sweet, sweet plasma

Complete one or more vampire aspirations

Max Vampire Lore, Mischief, & Pipe Organ skills

Become good friends with a vampire you meet as a teen and get them to turn you

Become a Master Vampire

Marry a vampire (YELLOW- not necessarily the friend that turned you)

Move to Forgotten Hollow after being turned

*Optional: Never have contact with your family you left behind- they wouldn’t understand why you chose this

Celebrate Halloween!

Generation 8: Classical

Packs Needed: Spa Day, Vampires, Vintage Glamour Color: Yellow Aspiration: Mansion Baron Career: Critic- Arts branch

You have a taste for the finer things in life brought on by your vampire parents who shared with you the knowledge and appreciation of history, antiques and pretty (valuable/rare) things. You want the best of everything and the best house to show it all off. Your dislike of the common music on the radio has you hire a butler so that they can serenade you with the classical sounds of the piano and violin

Max Violin, Piano, & Wellness skill

Marry a snob or materialistic sim (TEAL)

Fall in love with a human- not necessarily your spouse ooh spicy- and cure yourself to grow old with them

*heir must be human

Collect all the rare collectibles

Go to the spa regularly

Have a butler

Throw a black and white party regularly

Generation 9: Punk

Packs Needed: Get Together, Outdoor Retreat, Get Famous (optional) Color: Teal Aspiration: Public Enemy Career: Politician

Growing up you didn’t always like your parent’s beliefs and had a different outlook on life and love. You pushed the boundaries to get your voice heard! Basically the Rebel™ gen.

Max DJ, Charisma, & Herbal-ism skills

Have a house fit for dance & dinner parties

Host a dance OR dinner party (different crowds) once a week

*Optional: Become a celebrity with a bad reputation

Be in a club that has mischief, DJing, & the give speech interactions

Have a child from a one night stand (WHITE)

Never marry

Generation 10: Ballads (Love Songs)

Packs Needed: Get To Work, Seasons, Island Living (optional) Color: White Aspiration: Soulmate Career: Own a flower shop retail store Traits: Romantic, Loves Outdoors, Your Choice *Berry Optional: You’re a color shifter and change colors based on your emotions

Your parent didn’t believe in love, but you’re a sap for romance. You dream of finding your soulmate and having the perfect white wedding. You also have a love for flowers, so you start your own flower shop, but after falling in love with a customer and starting a family you want to help more people find their soulmates. You start developing an app where people can share love poems and songs to woo other sims they match with.

Max Gardening, Flowering Arranging, & Programming skills

Make at least one app

Marry a customer and have a family and never divorce

*Optional: the customer was secretly a mermaid

Celebrate Love Day

Generation 11: Disney

Packs Needed: Island Living Color: Coral Aspiration: Beach Life- after completed, Curator Traits: Child of the Ocean, Child of the Islands, Romantic Career: Conservationist: Marine Biologist path

You grew up watching your parents be so in love and you want that kind of love so badly. On the same notion, you feel such a strong connection to the ocean and water in general. You have always longed to visit Sulani and when you see a job opening there, you jump at it. Pack your bags! Sulani, here you come!

Max Logic, Fitness, Charisma, & Singing skills

Complete the Seashell & Buried Treasure collections

*Become a mermaid if you weren’t born one

If you were not born a mermaid, “trade your voice” to an evil sea creature to become one

You “get your voice back” after you complete the seashell collection

Have at least 2 spouses throughout your lifetime- one before you “get your voice back”

Seduce the first one into marriage with your mermaid powers- desperate for love- before bitter-sweetly realizing that kind of ‘love’ isn’t real and wipe their memory and let them go

Whether or not you have children with them or not is up to you

Ultimately end up with a co-worker that loves the island as much as you do

***Gen 12- coming with the Realm of Magic pack***

If you guys do this, tag me in the beginning of it, or use #LaMusiqueDesSims or #LMDS. I’d love to see what you guys do with it! <3

#ts4 #ts4 legacy #ts4 legacy challenge #sims 4 legacy challenge #lmds #lamusiquedessims #LMDS challenge

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luci-in-trenchcoats · 5 years

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Imagine...Sam Learning To Play The Piano

Request: Can I request a Reader x Sam story where she plays an instrument (or more than one, if you'd like) and she teaches him whenever they're not out on hunts because not only does she love it, but she knows that it'll give Sam a way to distract himself when he's down?

Pairing: Sam x reader

Rounding the corner into the library with your breakfast in hand, you were a little surprised to see the object that was occupying one of the back corners.

“Morning,” said Dean, slurping down his cereal. Sam came up behind you, stealing a waffle off your plate.

“Morning, baby,” said Sam, kissing your cheek. “I’m gonna wash up.”

You raised an eyebrow as he headed for the showers after his run, Dean rolling his eyes.

“You gonna just stand there pipsqueak?” asked Dean. You set your plate down on the table but wandered over to the corner, idly catching Dean stealing a waffle for himself out of the corner of your eye.

“Where did this come from?” you asked, taking a seat at the bench.

“Sammy said you like to play it in that back storage room so we moved it out here,” said Dean with a shrug. You smiled and ran your fingers over the keys, dancing them lightly for a moment. Dean was quiet as you played the piano, the bunker still while the sound filtered through it.

“Yeah, I like it out here better,” you said, finishing your song. You spun on the bench, Dean with half a waffle shoved in his mouth and your empty plate in front of him. “Hey!”

“Not my fault you make good waffles. Play something else. I could get used to this.”

“No, Sammy,” you teased, moving his hands back to the starting position. “You have to learn the keys first.”

“If I hear that nursery rhyme one more time-“

“I like twinkle twinkle little star,” you teased. Sam rolled his eyes but started to play, a little shaky towards the end but he was getting the hang of it. Sort of. “That was good, Sam.”

“No it wasn’t,” he said. You stood up and gave him a kiss, Sam watching you as you went.

“Practice your scales,” you said. “Maybe tomorrow you’ll have a little present waiting for you if you do.”

“I like the sound of that.”

Dean had taken to walking around the bunker with his headphones around his neck most of the time, normally slipping them on when he heard Sam practicing.

You knocked them off his head one day, Dean about to grumble when he heard the music in the air.

“He sounds pretty decent actually,” said Dean, poking his head out of the kitchen. “He really likes that, learning to play.”

“He says you know how to play,” you said. Dean hummed, giving you a smile.

“Bobby had a piano when we were kids. It was in the timeout corner. I liked it. Makes you forget about other stuff,” he said.

“I know. Sam’s sleeping better lately,” you said.

“It’s why you have him practice so much, isn’t it,” he said.

“No. He likes it, I think. I like listening to him,” you said. “Even the off notes.”

“He loves you,” said Dean. “More than you really know.”

“I love him too,” you said.

“I’m gonna head out for a few days. Visit Jody and the girls, maybe grab Donna on the way up,” he said. “Give you two some alone time.”

You were two days into your mini break with Sam when he started playing a new song, missing no notes. It wasn’t one you’d taught him and a quick glance up from your book showed he had some sheet music printed out he was following along to.

A big smile spread on your face when you realized it was that song, the one that’d been playing when he kissed you for the first time. He looked back over his shoulder when you stood up, smiling as you took a seat next to him.

“It sounds beautiful,” you said.

“You make playing this thing seem so easy,” said Sam, dancing his fingers around with ease. “I’m glad you got me that book with more modern songs. That was cool. Dean’ll get a kick out of rock music once I get better.”

“You seem to have fallen in love with this,” you said, resting your head on his shoulder.

“It’s soothing, kind of like a run...except I’m not so sweaty afterwards,” he said. “You know?”

“Yeah. Would you mind playing this one again? I like it,” you said. Sam smiled and kissed your cheek.

“Sure thing, baby. I like that one too.”

#sam x reader #spn #supernatural #sam winchester #imagine #sam winchester x reader #spn fanfiction #supernatural fanfiction #sam fanfiction

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serenlyss · 5 years

Text

Growing Up

Rating: G Pairing: Background terumob Summary: Shigeo decides to branch out a little. Crossposted to AO3: Growing Up

Here's my second stab at @bisexualwinry‘s fluff prompts!

On an unrelated note, I've been looking for fellow mp100 writers here with the potential of creating a writer's discord! Specifically I've been looking in the mp100 fandom since that's the one I'm most active in rn but it's open to all fandom writers. I haven't created it yet bc I haven't seen enough interest but I feel like it could be a really fun place for writers to get together, find beta readers, workshop ideas, etc! If you're interested, hmu here on tumblr or my discord (LyssaGirl1998). You can send me an ask or an im, whatever you prefer!

“Master Reigen,” Shigeo says one day from his spot on the couch in Reigen’s office, “I think I’d like to learn to play piano.”

Reigen looks up from where he’s tapping away at his keyboard. It’s still odd to hear Shigeo call him that, after he’d admitted to being a fraud, but despite his insistence that he doesn’t need to anymore, he still does anyway. Shigeo reclines against the couch, one leg lifted so that his ankle rested atop his opposite knee. He has a book open in his lap, which he’s been quietly reading up until now.

“Piano?” The voice of Reigen’s unwanted and self-imposed secretary butts into the conversation before Reigen can reply. Tome leans forward in her seat, the seat that used to be Shigeo’s, before he’d stopped coming around as frequently. “What would you want to learn something like that for?”

Shigeo shrugs with a small smile, slipping a bookmark between the pages of his novel and setting it aside for now. The smiles are less rare now, more generously offered and less stifled and withheld. “It was thinking that it could be fun to learn how to play an instrument,” he explains. “I don’t have a lot of hobbies, after all.”

Reigen’s more than a little surprised that piano is the thing that Shigeo has decided to pursue. He’s never seemed like much of the musical type, aside from whatever music he liked to listen to in his free time, and he’d only ever taken interest in a few random activities, like exercising. But he’s in his third year of middle school now, and he’d finally started letting go of the tight hold he’d kept on his emotions for all those years, so it’s only natural for him to want to explore those hidden and repressed sides of himself now. Besides, Reigen finds the idea of careful Shigeo sitting at a piano quite easy to imagine, once he puts his mind to it. “Hmm, I think it would suit you,” he comments. “Why piano, though? Any particular reason?”

“Well, Teru knows how to play, and he’s even offered to teach me a few times,” Shigeo replies, his smile turning a bit more shy and fond with the mention of his boyfriend. “He’s really talented, and I bet he’s a good teacher.”

At her desk, Tome makes choking noises and pretends to be sick.

Reigen ignores her entirely. “I think it’s a good idea,” he says. Shigeo deserves encouragement and support, and if he wants to try something new, Reigen firmly believes that he should.

Shigeo, at least, seems pleased with the answer, nodding with a confidence Reigen still isn’t quite used to seeing before returning quietly to his book. Reigen lets himself stare a moment longer, noting that Shigeo’s gotten taller. It won’t be long before he shoots over Reigen’s head and starts rivaling Serizawa.

He huffs out a breath that ends up sounding annoyed, turning back to his work. These stupid kids, they really do grow up way too fast.

---

Teru and Shigeo meet after their club activities often to study and, occasionally, to have a brief piano lesson. Teru can’t fit a keyboard in his little apartment, so he comes to Salt Mid instead, and the two of them take up residence in one of the school’s open practice rooms in the music wing.

Shigeo’s fingers are inexperienced and uncertain, and he’s quick to doubt the soft way he presses the keys, so different from Teru’s quick and confident playing. He’s stubbornly dedicated to learning, though, and his ear is incredibly sharp. He picks out his mistakes quickly after he makes them, fingers jerking into the correct positions with little need for Teru to correct them for him. Teru’s quick to praise him for his progress and gentle when he points out his missteps, and they quickly fall into a routine in their lessons of sitting on the bench together, close enough to brush shoulders, Teru leaning over to mess with the music while Shigeo does scales and arpeggios and sight reads the kind of music meant for three-year-olds and pretends not to notice how the proximity makes his chest warm comfortably.

---

Ritsu hears Shigeo practice, sometimes, when their mother goes to run errands, their father isn’t quite home from work yet, and it’s just the two of them in the house. Usually it’s when Ritsu is up in his room, working on his homework. He’ll catch the faint, distant sound of piano melodies as Shigeo plays whatever comes to mind: random little tunes that Teru’s taught him, old folk songs and nursery rhymes, and occasionally something of his own creation.

The tunes start out rough and shaky, large breaks between bits of the music Shigeo hasn’t quite committed to memory yet. Ritsu wonders how he can see so little progress and yet still not find himself frustrated. He shakes his head and goes back to his homework, drowning out the quiet plinks of the piano beneath him with headphones and his own music.

---

Shigeo graduates middle school.

Reigen gets invited to come sit with his family for the ceremony, and Teru does as well. They find a seat off to the side, easy to spot but not too overbearing. The ceremony is widely unnecessary, in Reigen’s opinion, and drags on for far longer than he believes it should, but that doesn’t stop the rush of unprecedented pride he feels when he hears the principal call Shigeo’s name.

He watches, speechless, as the boy he’s known for the last five years of his life crosses the stage, and hides the fact that he’s on the verge of tears by pretending he’s sleepy and rubbing his eyes. Ritsu shoots him a look that says he sees right through Reigen’s bullshitting, but not even Shigeo’s snarky younger brother can steal his good mood away from him when he eagerly goes to congratulate his student after the ceremony has concluded.

Shigeo’s parents shell out to buy him a nice graduation gift: an electronic keyboard of his own, one that he can easily put up in his bedroom and take with him when he eventually goes off to college. It’s full-sized, with the nice weighted keys that feel like a real piano’s, but compact enough that he doesn’t need to worry about how much space it takes up. Reigen pitches in to help pay for the accessories as his own congratulations, and it’s beyond satisfying to see the way Shigeo’s eyes light up at the sight of the crisp, new black-and-white instrument already set up and waiting for him when they all go back to the Kageyama house to celebrate.

---

Shigeo keeps practicing. He gets better every time Ritsu hears him, his pacing more consistent, repertoire more confident. It makes him happy that Shigeo has found something he likes, that he’s willing to practice and get better at. He hopes he sticks with it.

---

Shigeo grows older, taller. His daily exercises with the Body Improvement Club show in the lean muscles he hides beneath the sleeves of the better-fitting high school uniform. His shoulders broaden and his face loses its childishness in favor of more mature, angular features, but it retains its softness in the laugh lines around his eyes and the toothy smile he no longer hesitates to show.

Larger hands and longer fingers make playing the piano that much easier, after the initial adjustment he has to make to account for his newfound clumsiness. He runs into things constantly now, banging his feet on chairs and tables that he swears are too far away to be problematic and hitting his head on low-hanging objects and shelves he used to be able to walk right under. He forgets sometimes that he can reach the high shelves now, the ones even Reigen can’t get to unless he uses the little step stool by the pantry.

He joins a music club at his new high school and uses it as his designated practice time, putting his hours into the well-worn pianos in the music room while the other club members hone their own talents all around him. It’s been months since he first touched a piano, and he’s grown confident and deft in the way he moves his fingers over the keys. He can sight read now, at least certain things. He plays whatever he feels like playing, not confined to classes or grades or any sort of classical training. He picks out song with tunes he thinks sound pretty or interesting and then he recreates them, with or without music, content to play on a whim instead of by necessity.

He never becomes so good at the piano that he’s asked to perform outside of occasional pieces he plays for his friends or classmates at his music club. He learns a few duets, with Teru or with friends who play other instruments, but he doesn’t perform in front of large crowds or even attempt to.He’s perfectly content to play for himself, and only himself.

---

Shigeo loves playing the piano. When he feels stressed, it’s an easy way for him to relieve some dormant energy and express those feelings in a productive way. He plays happy things when he’s feeling sad, somber things when he’s feeling contemplative, whatever comes to mind in the moment. He plays easy things and complex things, whatever sounds pleasing to the ear, and challenges himself by picking up pieces that he thinks may be a bit beyond his skill level. He surprises himself by putting in the time and effort into making what seemed impossible his new glass ceiling, and shatters it with every day he pushes himself out of his comfort zone.

Sometimes he plays out loud, for anyone to hear, and other times he plugs in a pair of headphones and plays just for himself. He plays as a break between homework assignments, putting his brain to work in a completely different way, plays when he’s feeling bored and has nothing else to do.

Sometimes he doesn’t play at all, too wrapped up in the business of his schedule as he balances occasional work for Reigen with hanging out with Teru and his brother and all of their friends. He never goes too long without playing, though, his attention inevitably going back to the keyboard set up by the window in his room, where he can glance outside at the neighbors walking their dogs down the street while his fingers drum against the plastic keys. It’s peaceful, and takes his mind off his other concerns.

---

When he finally leaves his parents’ house, he takes the keyboard with him.

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #mp100 fluff bomb #terumob #kageyama shigeo #hanazawa teruki #kageyama ritsu #arataka reigen #fanfiction #mp100 fanfic #serendipitousfics

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ziyal-suggestion · 5 years

Note

How much of the typical Cardassian upbringing was there in your childhood? People say that the Cardassians focus on training their chlidren to concentrate hard and so on, but you were not exactly a Cardassian child, plus the war plus I don't know what else. Were your parents more democratic with you?

First of all, I’d like to say that the common Federation (or maybe just Human?) perceptions of the Cardassian education system are very confusing to me. Yes, Cardassian schooling begins at a very young age, at 2 or 3 years. But this seems to be true in the Federation as well, you just call the first few years of it “pre-school” for some reason. Why is it that playing word games, solving logic puzzles, and memorizing nursery rhymes are called “brain teasers” or “cognitive development exercises” when Humans talk about their own teaching, but call the same types of activities “mind training” when talking about ours? Cardassian parents love their children dearly and want them to have the best opportunities they can possibly provide. And we want our children to grow up prepared to use their talents for the betterment of society, to make advancements in the sciences, in the arts, in politics, and so on. Is that so different from the Federation? And although I have heard some deeply troubling things about a few of the vocational institutes, in general Cardassian teaching methods are not nearly so harsh as those employed by, say, Vulcans. And the Federation clearly doesn’t object to their schools! I really don’t understand how neglecting to give me the best possible education would be the “democratic” thing to do.

... I apologize for losing my temper. You asked me a question because you want to understand my experiences, and your ignorance of my culture is largely a product of my people’s secrecy. It’s not your fault that we’ve both inherited a legacy of misunderstanding between our respective societies.

The biggest difference between my upbringing and that of a typical Cardassian child is how solitary and confined mine was. I was born on Terok Nor and lived there the majority of my childhood. It was a dangerous place-- even with Constable Odo doing his best to keep the peace, fights broke out frequently on the promenade and bomb threats were a regular occurrence-- so I was never allowed to go out and play. And even if I had been, there were rarely any other children there that I could have played with.

(One time, Father got the idea to bring some children from an orphanage on Bajor so I could have playmates. It was a disaster! Most of them were too frightened to do anything, and those that weren’t just got angry that I had so many fancy toys and books and sweets and fine clothes, when they had only worn hand-me-downs they all had to share.)

But educationally, during the early years of my life I was fortunate enough to receive the same advantages that any Cardassian from an upper class family would expect. There were (and perhaps still are) many who believed that children of mixed-species couples are mentally inferior and not worth educating, but Father was not one of them. If anything, he believed the opposite, so his expectations of me were very high. I had tutors that he brought from Cardassia Prime to teach me reading and writing, mathematics, sciences, history, and art. I even had a Bajoran tutor so I could learn to read and write my mother’s native language. That tutor also gave me lessons on the belaklavion, which I hated.

(In retrospect, I feel ashamed at having been such a brat about my music lessons. So many Bajoran families with a heritage of musicianship spanning generations or even centuries had to sell their antique instruments for food, or were forced into labor camps. In some cases people could even be arrested just for playing Bajoran classical or folk music, just like how vedeks were arrested for preaching. It’s just so cruelly unfair that while so many people were denied the right to their own music, I was granted a rare opportunity but all I did with it was rush through practicing so I could go draw tessellations or read a novel.)

So, in short (and thank you for being patient with my rambling explanation!), although my social and family circumstances and the environment in which I was raised were highly unusual, in Father’s view none of that altered his essential responsibility as a parent to provide for me to the best of his ability, nor should it affect the expectations placed upon me.

Of course, all of that changed after my mother and I boarded a freighter bound for Lissepia...

#long answer #ask #checkeredmice

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years

Video

youtube

BILLIE EILISH - BURY A FRIEND

[7.76]

Why you always play that song so loud? Oh.

Ian Mathers: Over a series of songs and videos, Eilish has practically offered a survey of fears and bad feelings: spiders, isolation, drowning, physical assault, mental illness, poison, other people as monsters, the self as a monster, etc. and here she leans harder than ever into the horror tropes, both sonically and visually. The sampled dentist drill, lyrics equally evoking the monster under the bed and sleep paralysis, the haunted house/nursery rhyme lilt of the verses, the bravado that at least partially stems from her narrative persona already feeling bad enough about herself that you sure as hell can't touch her, and of course the line that recurs over and over: "I wanna end me." It's the sort of thing you can imagine parents freaking out over, and even possibly the (yes, yes, very young) Eilish looking back years from now and thinking the better of. But, much as plenty of pop music conjures up outsized romantic sentiments that listeners gravitate towards despite not actually wanting to follow through with them in a literal sense, it also feels like the kind of darkness that I know many people who don't struggle with suicidal ideation still identify with in the context of a pop song. I'm not actually arguing for its total harmlessness so much as admitting that I don't think total harmlessness is necessary or even desirable in pop, maybe especially when it is from someone as young and who seems to be as tapped into a new vocabulary (sonic and gestural as much as linguistic) as Eilish is so far. The line and the song make me uneasy even as I love it and feel seen by it, as opposed to (say) Juice WRLD's bullshit which doesn't to me feel like it has any redeeming element at all. Eilish and "Bury a Friend," meanwhile, don't need a redeeming element unless you have a problem with the rich history of darkness in pop (as opposed to the rich history of misogyny in pop). Not for nothing does my friend Jess Burke describe her as "Fiona Apple for a Blumhouse future" and of all the paths to go down, that honestly feels like a pretty great one right now. [9]

Tobi Tella: Billie Eilish is one of the first true Gen Z pop stars, and as someone only a year or so older than her I'm impressed with how fresh her music feels on the pop landscape. The sense of dread that appears in most of her music is in full force here, and while I have found some of her music to be a little "2edgy4me," this works by fully leaning into it. It's unlike anything anyone else is making right now. [7]

Alfred Soto: If "Bury a Friend" is a gesture, an experiment -- as if Billie Eilish said, "Let me show how minimalist my music can be, and put in cool noises too" -- then its failure to be more than this is my failure. She's been tuneful before, which means she knows what she's doing. [6]

Jonathan Bradley: "Bury a Friend" sounds like the product of a musical landscape where anything can be heard on demand and none of it comes with context. Billie Eilish's artless murmur suggests that her roots lie in the DIY aesthetics of bedroom folk, but while her music can be wispy and personal in that mode, it wanders into other realms in which it seems not to realize it doesn't belong. This song is punctuated by producer Crooks intoning Eilish's name like a mixtape DJ's drop, while the shrieks that tear into the dark low-end pulse seem torn from Yeezus-era Kanye. There's even some Fiona Apple in the stops and starts punctuating her phrasing. Like Lorde before her, Eilish is adept at playing up the adolescent's attraction to darkness, and the haunted house atmosphere and lyrics about stapled tongues and glass-cut feet settle into a delicious murk. Perhaps most unsettling and most unexpectedly novel about it all is that Eilish doesn't sound like a paralysed gothic heroine. She sounds like one of the monsters. [8]

Katie Gill: Insert that Marge Simpson 'kids, could you lighten up a little?' reaction image here. It only makes sense that the hot new pop sensation is the musical distillation of nihilistic memes and the lolz I'm so depressed joke culture that's permeated the popular consciousness. To her credit, Eilish has her finger perfectly poised on the zeitgeist. Unfortunately, we've been dealing with the zeitgeist for at LEAST two years now. Such ironic detachment and 'I want to end me lmao' already feels out of date -- the fact that the song seems tailor-made to score an American Horror Story scene only dates it even more (those backing screams were a baaad choice). The main thing this does is make me wish that Eilish leaned in more towards her lighter fare. [5]

Vikram Joseph: I've been a Billie Eilish sceptic, but "Bury A Friend" is, if not quite Damascene, certainly revelatory. It feels deliciously, obscenely engrossing; that minimalist pulse, the mocking, nursery-rhyme motif ("What do you want from me? Why don't you run from me?"), those swift, decisive industrial gut-punches, the breathtaking turns of pace and time-signature tightrope-play. Most of all, it's fun, especially when her vocal affectations come off like a demonic sonic negative of Lorde. It feels like her entire aesthetic coming together, a camp horror-flick dark-pop queen finally wearing the crown she's been threatening to unveil for a while now. [8]

William John: At 28 I feel far too old to be pontificating about Billie Eilish, but what I will say is that if their new formula for chart success is to mine the aesthetic of Róisín Murphy circa Ruby Blue, then I'm ready to submit to our new zillennial overlords. [7]

Iris Xie: I've been hearing Billie Eilish everywhere I go, and her music always vibrates with a moody, dark warmth while I move through thrift stores, coffee shops, and sidewalks. Reclaiming whisper-singing from Selena Gomez is a fantastic move, especially when paired with that slight rhythmic drumming, sudden starts and stops, and that little omnipresent danger that I miss so much from f(x)'s Red Light. Our times are escalating faster to some kind of destruction, but in the air, there is exhaustion and energy of both a defiant joy and a quiet numbness. "Bury a Friend," and her album overall embodies that energy in spades. [7]

Will Rivitz: Jump scares in horror movies suck; they're cheap, calculated cash-ins on human predilection to react badly whenever something threatening pops out from the underbrush. Much more difficult to pull off, and much more impressive in its execution and creativity when it succeeds, is the slow-burn thrill. When a ghoulish, uncertain threat is buried ever so imperceptibly below the surface, it roils adrenaline in the most painfully pleasant of ways, as we fail to put our finger on anything about what's about to destroy us except that, make no mistake, it will indeed destroy us. "Bury a Friend" nails that most sublime skin-crawl. The lowing bass and teeth-scraping industrial synths roll around the aural triggers that make every hair on a back stand up with the cold impersonality of coins circling a hyperbolic funnel forever, the end always implied but never achieved. Appropriate, too, since Billie Eilish's main triumph is capturing the slow-burn existential dread of living as a young person in a world thoroughly ruined by those who won't live to see out the ramifications of their present actions. Obliquely, that's "Bury a Friend," a nightmarish Borges y yo resurrection, endlessly Genius-ready especially given the original story now has a Genius annotation itself. (The internet continues to be bizarre.) Instrumentally and lyrically, it's a warped and terrifying celebration of a muddling and destruction of identity supercharged by the less savory bits of our constant interconnectedness; it is, in other words, the best summary of Billie Eilish she could possibly present to us. Eilish affirms our base fears that things are fucked, we're all irrevocably in shambles, and there's absolutely jack shit we can do about it; we might as well learn to celebrate where we're at, since there's nothing else awaiting us. [9]

Alex Clifton: I can't remember the last time I felt this astonished by a song, nor can I remember hearing anything this sublime. I mean this in the gothic sense -- something beautiful and terrifying and subsiding where you've just got to stand and soak it all in. "Bury a Friend" is every nightmare and melodramatic thought I had as a teenager set to music, the suspicion that I was a monster who was better off dead and everyone knew. It felt so plainly written on my skin. But it's not just dark and monstrous. Billie feels scared and sad on the chorus: when we all fall asleep, where do we go? Something in her voice is so vulnerable that I feel cut open myself just hearing it. I fear some older people may hear "Bury a Friend" and write it off as emo teenage poetry, but it's so much more than that. It's the honesty of Lorde's first album mixed in with the sharp crunch of being a teen in 2019, living in a world constantly on fire with questionable prospects for a future. I would expect nothing less from a teenager to be honest, especially one as talented as Eilish. I just wish I had had the courage to be this dark and messy when I was her age. [9]

Will Adams: So much of the Billie Eilish discourse concerns her aesthetic and how it relates to Gen Z, but it often misses a key part of her appeal: how electrifying her music sounds. Tactile, confronting and claustrophobic, Billie and her producer brother Finneas create music that tightens its grip and refuses to let go, and "Bury a Friend" is as good an example as any. Alternately screeching, skittering and booming with sub bass (like "Black Skinhead" crawling with spiders), it conjures up a nightmare you can't look away from. [9]

Katherine St Asaph: A game that is both fun and great for making yourself acutely aware of how fast the grave is yanking you down is asking yourself, and being honest: if you were a teen today, who would you stan? Would you be an Ariana Grande Teen? A Blueface Teen? A Billie Eilish Teen? The depressing truth is that I probably would've been a Lana Del Rey Teen, but I could see myself reluctantly liking this for its weird drama, its dramatic weirdness. I'm convinced people confused about why Billie's dark music appeals to teens have never themselves been teens, the time of life where you endless-repeat Nirvana (ask Dave Grohl) or Sarah Brightman's cover of "Gloomy Sunday" or "Bury a Friend" and often make it out regardless. The flavor of darkness here is more than a little Tim Burton, in the twisted-nursery-rhyme melody, but there's also more than a little "Black Skinhead" and "Night of the Dancing Flame," and how many teen sensations can you conjure those references up for? [9]

Stephen Eisermann: Billie Eilish, especially here, is the exact representation of what would happen if Lorde pulled a Jack Skellington and entered the portal in the trees to find herself in Halloween Town. The same intriguing vocal tics, off-beat metaphors, and bold production choices -- just decorated with horror-tinged jack-o-lanterns and ghost sheets. In other words, I love Billie and I love this song. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: "Bury a Friend" is less a song and more an intentionally jarring collection of phrases -- even Eilish's individual lines sound cut off, as if they've been reassembled from a previously coherent whole. Not every piece works -- Crooks' vocal additions are unnecessary and some of Eilish's longer phrasings in the bridge are too stylized. Moreover, the picture that this collage is supposed to be forming never gets cleared up. And yet there's almost an illicit thrill to listening to a pop song that sounds like this, in all of its chaotic terror and joy. [6]

Edward Okulicz: In truth, this song feels like it runs out of gas, but its first 30 seconds are incredibly arresting. It's not that the rest of it is bad, I mean there's a bit where she sounds exactly like Róisín Murphy and that's never bad. Over the course of a bunch of singles, Eilish has used lots of existing musical tropes in an interesting way and built up a style that's unmistakeably her -- maybe I'm just disappointed she's taken it to complete fruition in half a minute and maybe there's nowhere else for her to go but to do a full-on macabre Glitterbeat thing. She's got fans that'll go with her to any place she chooses. [8]

Taylor Alatorre: I'm inclined to dislike most of the well-manicured teenage dramascapes that make up Billie Eilish's discography so far. Maybe it's the narcissism of generational differences -- sure, I was moody and disaffected as a 17-year-old, but I wasn't this kind of moody and disaffected. You're doing anhedonia all wrong, kids! Yet somehow, "Bury a Friend" is able to dislodge me from this self-consciousness by brandishing its own self-consciousness as a weapon and waging a merry war on itself. It's a staging ground for a bunch of one-off experiments and on-the-nose signifiers and 2spooky vocal tics and vintage 2013 alt-pop tropes, all of which seem to communicate: "This is a song that I wrote, and I can debase it however I want." It's squeamish about its own existence yet sure of its purpose, with a simple driving beat that yields to miscellany while warding off the specters of musical theater. Its high point is an archly written low point: the sneeringly drawn out "wowww." in response to a blunt confession of suicidality. If it turns out that reducing the stigma doesn't always lead to better outcomes, at least we got some good banter out of it. [8]

Joshua Copperman: Huh, I guess we are seeing the beauty at the end of culture. And it's suicidal, it's offensive, it's ugly. Then it's fake-deep, and it's edgy, because Heaven forbid we legitimize the concerns of teenagers. The common thing is supposed to be how, as a teenager, everything feels like it matters, but today's teens are growing up in a political moment when nothing feels like it does, if it ever will again. Okay, that's a bit much -- there's a chance that actual teens aren't like this, and this is what people whose brains have been poisoned by Twitter pundits think teenagers must be like. It can't be a huge coincidence, though, that "I wanna end me," "why do you care for me?" and "I'm too expensive!!!" all wound up in a Top 20 hit by a 17-year-old. Like any good writer, Eilish sublimates those fears into a horror movie song from the point of view of the monster under her bed, a pure Tumblr or r/writingprompts move. But with this many Spotify plays, with this much success, it's hard to shake the feeling that along with the stellar "idontwannnabeyouanymore," Eilish is actually onto something with The Youths. Finneas O'Connor's bonkers production, with dentist drills and the 12/8 "Black Skinhead" bounce, certainly helps this stand out. (Rob Kinelski, too, has crafted a mix more interesting than anything his more successful contemporaries like Serban Ghenea have done lately.) Underneath the grimdarkness, what really separates Eilish is the sense of humor; the nursery rhyme bridge seemed a bit obvious, but after hearing songs like "Bad Guy," Eilish sounds completely aware of the tropes she is using. I have no doubt this blurb will age badly if her music gets worse after this, but who cares when there's not much aging left to do? Lead us into the apocalypse, Billie and Finneas! [9]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Billie Eilish #pop #music #music review #writing

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shiroslefttesticle · 6 years

Text

Doll, you have been waiting for like a month now and it is finally here! Hopefully it was worth the wait!

Lance

Lance is a musical boy

He totally knows how to play guitar

And he actually has a pretty good singing voice

Though he usually has fun dramatically singing out of key on purpose

So one day you’re chilling in your room, strumming and singing along and Lance walks in

He probably was gonna ask you for some help with sparring

He only gets to hear you for a few seconds before you screech at him

“WhY dIdN’T yOu KnOcK!”

The boy is too stunned to even respond but when he does, he’s so excited!!

Why didn’t you tell him you could sing and play???

Now all he wants to do is show off his rad guitar skills

Be prepared to be serenaded

You know that video of the principal being followed around by a mariachi band? Yeah that’s basically gonna be your life for the next few days

Please join in with his ridiculous antics

He would be so thrilled if you just strummed with him, you don’t even have to sing

Of course, he won’t make you sing in front of the other paladins if you don’t want to (even if he really wants to show you off)

He’d be happy with you playing when it's just you and him in your rooms

Once you open up about it and aren’t so shy around him, he’ll teach you a few songs from when he was a kid

Most of them are in Spanish and, assuming you don’t speak Spanish, he helps you with your pronunciation and because of it, you pick up a few Spanish phrases

They’re kind of like nursery rhymes equivalent to ‘You are my Sunshine’ or ‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider’ but he gets so happy when you play them

If you actually write a song for him???

Error: Lance.exe has stopped working

It could only be 15 seconds long for all he cares, he’s just so so happy

Say you sing it to him after he gets back from a particularly hard mission

He probably cries

God he loves you so much

Keith

As much as I would love to shitpost and say Texas!Keith can yodel, I can’t do that to him

If you guys want to imagine him doing that though, I’m certainly not going to stop you

Y’all know that he had to learn how to square dance at some point in his childhood though

Keith has never been good with instruments, he has a hard time reading the notes

But he can definitely appreciate good music when he hears it

He doesn’t even realize it’s you singing at first

He’s just kind of in his own thoughts and all “Oh hey, this music’s pretty good.”

Then it dawns on him

Pidge hasn’t built a music radio (as far as he knows anyway)

So where’s it coming from???

Boy has to investigate

He’s pretty good at being stealthy so you don’t notice him until you finish

Now you’re thoroughly flustered

“You’re really good.”

It’s simple but you know it’s sincere

And he’s got this cute little smile on his face

He gets so relaxed when he hears you sing

Sometimes he’ll just lean back and close his eyes and listen to you play

You think he falls asleep so you stop playing after a bit and he immediately peeks his eyes open

“Why’d you stop?”

Please sing to him whenever he returns from BoM missions

He needs it

He kinda likes the idea of this being something just between you two so he wouldn’t mind if you were so shy your audience was limited only to him (and sometimes the mice)

You get him to sing with you one day

He’s redder than a tomato and his voice is so quiet you can hardly hear him

But he’s good

Not spectacular by any means but definitely not bad

He’s so flustered and he swears to never do it again

If you had a particularly bad day though you might be able to egg him into humming for you

Very rarely you can get him to sing

And when he does, you’re sworn to secrecy

He would rather die than let Lance know he sings

Shiro

In between missions, in an effort to boost morale, Allura had everyone participate in a talent show

The original paladins decided to do a group performance

Ie Lance decided to force them all to do a group performance

You opted to be a judge with Allura

Their performance was one of the funniest trainwrecks you’ve ever witnessed

Lance had almost* everyone doing choreography and there was some singing

Almost* because Keith just kind of lazily moved his arms when he was supposed to dance

Anyway, the show is how you know Shiro can sing

“You’re Welcome” anyone???

It’s not like he’s hiding the fact that he can, and will, sing, it’s just that it’s not really something that comes up often

So when he hears you singing?

His reaction is kind of adorable

He gets that soft smile on his face and his eyes are all tender

“I didn’t know you could sing”

You flush at getting caught

Which Shiro thinks is insanely cute

Lowkey you’re just killing him atm

He understands if you don’t like singing in front of people but he can’t help but joke around

“If you sang at our talent show, we wouldn’t have lost to the mice”

Chances are if you do sing around Shiro, you’re doing it when you two are alone

While Shiro loves hearing you sing, you’re gonna love it more

Because Shiro will sing with you 97% of the time

His voice is just??? I’m swooning thinking about it

He’ll probably try dancing with you too and that’s cute af

I love him so much

He loves when you sing, he thinks you sound stunning and it allows him to be himself for a bit and not just ‘the leader of voltron’

Pidge

Pidge was never overly into music

She went to maybe three concerts back on Earth with Matt

one of those was definitely for a boyband when she was like 10

And she had a go-to playlist of fairly mellow music to play when studying

But other than that, yeah she never really paid attention to music or the talent or hard work it takes to be even mediocre at it, let alone good

That changes when she finds out you can sing

She doesn’t actually hear you singing

She was just rummaging through your room (with your permission of course) looking for spare parts when she found your instrument

Babe you never told her about this?

She kind of just plops down in front of you and looks at you expectantly

Y/n: “Uh? Can I help you?”

Pidge: “Are you gonna sing or what?”

Look she’s just very blunt alright

She’s kind of stubborn so if you clam up and refuse to sing, she’ll probably try insisting a couple more times but she’ll back off after the third or fourth ‘no’

Even though you won’t sing/play for her, she goes out of her way to learn a little bit about music

Not how to actually play an instrument or anything, Pidge could never do that

Actually, she can play Chopsticks on the piano but that’s it

She just kind of learns about the different genres and how they came about and what effect they had

Lance was her teacher for this and it was wild but she really does end up learning a lot

She’s got a new appreciation for music

A little while passes before she brings up your music again

Not in the pestering way she did the first time, it’s more of an offhand thought

“So like, will I ever hear you sing?”

She’s just curious

She really wants to hear it

I’m thinking that when you finally do play something for her, it has the same vibe as “A Shitty Gay Song About You” by Ezra

At first, she’s just thinking you’re playing a cute little love song

But then she realizes it’s about you and her

She doesn’t even know how to react

She’s so happy but so flustered

How to Break Pidge 101

Matt

Matt can play the piano

Moderately well, he’s not out here busting out concertos or anything wild

So he knows how hard it can be to play an instrument

So anyone who can? He’s lowkey in awe

He’s such a big dork about music

Really about everything tbh

He will shamelessly belt out a tune at any appropriate time

Especially just to embarrass Pidge

Not a bad singer tbh

He sings cheesy 80s pop music

Matt probably already knew you were shy about singing before he even knew you could play an instrument

Just from all of the times he tried getting you to sing with him and you would blush and say no

He went to your room to grab something for you one day

He couldn’t find it right away though and so he had to rummage through a few things

That’s how he found your instrument

He’s excited!!

He immediately brings your instrument to you

Completely forgets to also bring what he was originally supposed to

You two are completely alone in the hangar, working on upgrading some of the emergency pods

So after a minute of him giving you puppy dog eyes, you pick up your instrument and play…

Never Gonna Give You Up

Look in order to be with this dork, you have to be just as dorky if not more so

He’s torn between laughing and crying and just being so in love with you

After the initial “Babe did you just rickroll me in space?” reaction, you bet your ass he joins in with you

Pidge probably walked in without either of you noticing and took a video of it

She thinks of sharing it with literally everyone you’ve met but she’s not that cruel

She does send it to Matt though and he cherishes it so much

Matt probably tries to play your instrument sometimes

He’s terrible at it and so you start giving him lessons

It’s one of his favorite things to do with you now

At some point, Matt is going to joke about starting a family band or something

He gets these dorky starry eyes anytime he hears you sing

He just thinks you’re incredible ok?

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donnerpartyofone · 5 years

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21 Questions

Tagged by @getoutofmyhouse who had oddly similar answers to mine

Nickname: only the one I use here, that I gave myself--Claire Donner, which has to do with my famous love of cannibalism. Claire is my real first name, though.

Zodiac: I am so very cuspy. I was born at about a quarter to midnight on April 20, so I tend to relate to, and feel insulted by, the suppositions about Aries and Taurus equally. I’m one of those jerks who will tell you astrology is a bunch of hoo ha...and then drone on with my Many Esoteric Ideas about it, so I’ll just stop myself right here.

Height: 5’ nuthin is what I prefer to say...because saying I’m 5 and 3/4′ sounds a little like saying I’m 10 and a half years old.

Amount of sleep: It’s all fucked up. Until I got into my 30s I could, and would prefer to, sleep endlessly. Now I go to bed around 10 (depression), get up around 5 or 6 (being old), and for extra fun, I’ve developed this insomnia that often keeps me up from about 2am-5am. I try make the most of it by getting up, getting high, watching a movie or two, writing...basically just having a secret private day by myself. I’d really rather go back to just sleeping constantly though.

Last movie I saw: I saw GRETA in theaters tonight, which was ok. I guess I thought any Neil Jordan film would be headier than this, but watching Isabel Huppert just running around acting like an absolute maniac is a rare treat! My last video experience was RAW, which I put on to bother my husband right when we got home from the theater. (I think he liked it more than I originally did, to my surprise)

Last thing I googled: The correct spelling of Sylvia Likens’ last name. I’m obsessed with this type of crime where a group of people (usually a family and/or some of their friends and neighbors) fall into some kind of shared hysteria where they protractedly torture to death an acquaintance for no particular reason. Some times there’s an element of mystery as to why the victim didn’t leave while they were still able to, which suggests to me that the murdered person was just as much a victim of the groupthink as the perpetrators. Other example victims include Suzanne Capper, Vera Jo Reigle, and I think to some degree Sophie Lionnet, James Bulger, and Junko Furuta. (Also a crime they briefly discuss in the book Lords of Chaos, where several people murder a friend in their trailer, but I can’t remember it specifically enough to look up the names--the other last thing i tried to google) I keep thinking there should be a psychiatric and/or legal term for this kind of crime, but I’ve never heard one, so let me know if you got one!

Favorite musician: I have trouble with questions that involve ranking anything, so I’ll just say that right now I’m listening to a lot of old White Zombie. I didn’t know anything about their origins as an East Village noise band, and I’m fascinated by the stories about how apocalyptically miserable it was to be in that group. I’m increasingly obsessed with people who work their asses off doing something they barely even enjoy, for what must be borderline spiritual reasons.

Song stuck in my head: Nothing right this second, for which I am very grateful. There’s something awful in my brain that causes me to wake up with some maddening, babyish tune stuck in my head more often than not. It is most frequently the Ten Little Indians nursery rhyme. This is literally killing me.

Other blogs: @anhed-nia, which started as a dumping ground for long posts about mental illness, and turned into almost only movie writing. at some point there was just so much movie shit that i started to feel awkward about posting anything personal there again. i also got @getoffyrass which is a group blog, and a repository for images that make great drawing references. everyone is encouraged to post their drawings, too, although it is seldom used. i still like having it around, for when i have time to draw. my “real” drawing blog is @neveratendermoment but i don’t draw often enough anymore...

Do I get asks: i used to get tons! i really enjoy them, even the trolls to some degree. i must have seemed like more of a regular tumblr geek girl back in the day. also tumblr has just changed a lot since then. my blog was definitely a casualty of Best Stuff First, i think my follower count stopped dead forever right when that happened, and now that practically every single fucking thing on this entire site is either fandom shit or *discourse*, i really have nothing to offer tumblr anymore, anyway.

Blogs following: 1,057.

Lucky numbers: 2! Also 5.

What I’m wearing: black wool long john pants from Chrome, and a white v neck teeshirt with the words BLACK MAYONNAISE on it in black Rocky Horror font. i live near the notoriously toxic Gowanus Canal, and “black mayonnaise” is the actual term used to describe what’s on the bottom of it, by the scientists who are trying to figure out what to do with it.

Dream trip: i am really excited by travel, it’s hard to pick. i’m hopefully making a dream trip soon though: my father’s mysterious finno-swedish family is from the åland islands, and my husband and i will be planning part of our honeymoon there, whenever that happens.

Dream Job: i think about this a lot, because the older i get, the more i object to the entire concept of having to work to live. i’m into the whole universal basic income thing. i’m at this point where i can barely stand to think about capitalism in any way--like i think about how the need for money is so mortally serious that there’s a lot of physical stuff in the world that only exists because someone was scared of starving, tons of useless products and packaging and factory byproducts and all kinds of fucking straight up garbage that was only invented due to the lethality of poorness. i would rather be left totally alone forever if possible. however, if i HAD to do something and i COULD do anything, it would probably be film criticism. this fantasy takes place in a world where people care so much about what i have to say that i can make a career, not only out of movie writing, but out of only writing about the specific movies i want to write about, referring to nothing other than my personal reactions.

Favorite food: i wish the answer weren’t just “cheese”, but it probably is. also mushrooms. anything cinnamon. i’m a pretty adventurous eater though. the most important thing for me is a variety of flavors and textures.

Languages: english. i took several years of italian in junior high-high school, and did nothing with it. i taught myself to read french pretty fluently, but i would fold right up if someone tried to speak to me. i learned a bunch of swedish on duolingo, shoulda kept it up. i’ll get back to it! i really regret never learning spanish though, so i’m easily torn on what to do with my time.

Play any instruments: clarinet in junior high/high school, also alto sax which i did not enjoy at all, a little guitar. i bought a used electric bass last year that i have really been enjoying, but i feel a lot of guilt around not playing enough. so much of it is just strength training. that’s probably what i like about it, though. also i got a lot of electronic music software and midi controllers and stuff...and then i realized that it could take me months to sort through the thousands of samples i have to program this stuff, and i only got so far into it before i started to get discouraged. i need to get back to it, it’s ridiculous to let that stuff lie around. this is a rare example of me wishing i knew someone local to play with, who could speed me along on how everything works.

Favorite songs: another one of these impossible questions! anybody who is even reading this can probably guess the answers from the handful of music posts i reblog over and over and over. the other night i got all hyperactive and forced my husband to drop everything and listen to “buffalo stance” by nene cherry, which i never ever get sick of. real top contenders for favorite song might be “Stand By the Jamms” by the klf, and this recording, which has gotten me through many difficult hours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8k1HsF3EvY

https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/sunray-sonic-boom-music-for-the-dreamachine-cd/STRAWB.003CD.html

Random fact: i’m sure i’m missing out on something really funny and cool, but for now it’s just the well-known fact that i read palms.

Describe yourself as aesthetic thing: man, how do i answer this without being totally pretentious? maybe nobody can! i’m coming up with something really hard to describe but it will be worth it. the other day i watched this insane, completely unnecessary movie about lorca and salvador dali (played by robert pattinson) as gay lovers. there’s a scene in it where lorca does that “pick a hand” thing to dali, and dali picks an empty hand. of course, they’re both poor students who couldn’t be buying any gifts, so they do this obnoxious pantomime where dali pretends lorca actually gave him something--but then it turns out that lorca really DOES have something. he opens his other hand and gives dali...SOMETHING. i don’t know what! they make such a big deal out of it, but what the hell? you see it for a second in this closeup, but it’s shot from like, behind and slightly underneath, and it is just unrecognizable. it’s sort of an orange blob? it’s probably meant to be a sculpture. but, i love the idea of doing the “pick a hand” thing to somebody, and the other person is just like...hey wait a minute, what the fuck even IS this??

it reminded me of one of the most amazing things anyone ever did at my school, bard college. this genius art student who I WISH I COULD NAME TO CREDIT HER did her senior project as this like...made up product. i saw them at the senior show, hanging off a spinner rack, like you’d see next to the register in the drug store. they were called Toilet Buddies. they were these plastic, brightly colored objects that looked like toys, but they didn’t have a familiar earthly shape, and because of the title, it was IMPOSSIBLE to imagine what to do with them. so, she gets the lipstick cam from the film department, and shoots this video of herself sneaking some Toilet Buddies into Walmart. then she takes them to the register and BUYS THEM--the baffled cashier looks for them for a while, and eventually just rings them up as a general grocery or something. then in part 2, the artist TAKES THEM BACK TO THE STORE WITH THE RECEIPT AND GETS A REFUND.

so anyway, i see myself as like a fake product--something that looks just familiar enough to exit, and that appears to have a designated purpose, but it’s just kind of cheap and foreign and it becomes nightmarish to try to imagine what to do with it.

I don’t know if anyone i know will want to do this, but i tag @negativepleasure @moviesludge @former-contender @dimestoreman @thefuzzydave @darkarfs @theoddsideofme @blueruins ...um, i don’t really know who would enjoy this. the ultimate would be @garbagenacht

#long post

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lover-phase-2-blog · 6 years

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Songs Played During NFL Football Games: 50+ Tracks To Obtain You Fired Up

The pianoforte, also called piano is considered to become a majestic musical instrument. However, it isn't something that's commonly explained either. You can't change your weather but you can how you feel about it. The 23-year-old singer Rihanna posts her picture in silver bikini on her behalf Twitter account and shares with her 12million Twitter followers, stating, "I love u so much! Can't believe we're here already.

A 1994 Score magazine article titled "The Father of Gospel Music" quoted Dorsey as saying, "When I realized how hard some folks were fighting the gospel idea, I was determined to carry the banner. The song "I'll Be There For You" Again, the lyrics of the song are relevant for the story of the show--as everyone knows, Friends is of a group of friends who reside in Ny City. You could be surprised the main difference it makes. Playing these easy songs on guitar can be a good plan giving a break from all of the technical learning of guitars and also making use of these easy and simple songs, you can enhance what you can do to understand playing guitar in the more different way. It is a movie which has inspired huge numbers of people using its poignancy. So start looking around permanently titles that have energy for you perhaps action words, images or some short phrases. " Fast forward to 1981 and the Stray Cats record a musically different song but using a very similar theme, the rockabilly Stray Cat Strut. And the folk songs for Holi have lyrics that are only fun to listen. There you go! Most of the songs have similar chords. My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles have all taught me this nursery rhyme and that it had been plague inspired, as I have taught my children. My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles have all taught me this nursery rhyme and that it had been plague inspired, as I have taught my children. Robert Smith took his band's name from the lyric (The Cure) and it has been redone by many, most notably Kelly Willis. 'I want to share all of my love with you, no-one else will do'. In making this list I grouped Celtic, Scottish, and Irish music together, so don't be offended. After two nevervous breakdowns in 1928, He decided to adopt a rest in the music business and which is where he soon started to change his direction to religious composing. ) I sometimes wonder if David Gilmour, the hard rock music download guitarist of Pink Floyd, was relying on this song. As mentioned earlier, with countless options picking out the best wedding songs can be really tough. Fun and catchy. Almost Anything by Van Halen: One of the Patriarchs of Hard Rock, Van Halen routinely releases songs that are sure to assist you bust a move. Drake only recorded and released 3 albums while he was alive - Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, and Pink Moon. And the folk songs for Holi have lyrics that are simply fun to listen. Now that the truth is how easy the method is, try your hand at creating some simple songs to teach the kids about a wide selection of people, places, things, and ideas. Others will simply disregard the entirety of the dispute or even the nursery rhyme and enjoy the children's song for the potential of getting fun. Others only will overlook the entirety of the dispute or even the nursery rhyme and relish the children's song for your potential of having fun. "I do not know how an audio soundtrack is going to be found in 2017, but you have got to bet on Michael Jackson in any new platform.

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blacknovelist · 7 years

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this rattle in my ears (Pyre fic)

Pyre’s got its nitpicks and issues, but by god, I love it so much

i’d literally die for this game and its characters sorry I don’t make the rules

Greg mentioned over on Steam that the language they speak in the game is an actual language he made up for the game itself - called Sahrian - even if just bits and pieces rather than a full-blown language. He also confirmed that when Tariq and Celeste sing, they’re singing in English and therefore, no one can understand them (save the Reader, who learned it due to the fact that all literature is in English). I’m so in love. It’s such depth, how good is that??

I listened to all of the vocal tracks from the Pyre OST on repeat to give myself the right vibes, with the occasional other song on repeat and some plays of King and Lionheart thrown in for kicks. It worked pretty well!

Also. I love Mae, but her dialogue is difficult to get the hang of, and now I can’t get her manner of speech out of my head. I hope I wrote her (and everyone else, for that matter) alright. Spoilers up to the Glade of Lu for characters, but, nothing really plot-relevant specifically.

[ffnet] [AO3]

Music, often, is a universal sort of message.

Music is an interesting thing among the Nightwings.

Hedwyn tends toward humming old Commonwealth songs and rhymes, from days when the heat and stress of the Bloodborder sun made visions swim and knees buckle. Mae tends towards exuberance in her performances, aimless tunes given shape by her joyful litling voice and Ti'zo’s attempts to sing along, and Gilman is often just as eager with half-remembered ballads from his days as a wyrm-knight of the Sea Dominion. Jodariel and Pamitha both tend to avoid singing, but they still both hum little nursery rhymes and military songs when they think no one’s listening.

As far as instruments go, however, finding something more than a bell (with a tongue that rings a little too loudly for something delicate like music, no less) is as much a challenge in the Downside as finding decent food. Tariq often leaves his lute leaning against the wall by the raiments - not quite where he sat during his early days of dozing - while he goes about his tasks, and he’s given permission to use the instrument at times he cannot, but Mae prefers to perform without the pluck of the strings beneath her and no one else wants to try using the Minstrel’s prized belonging. Which leaves you and Tariq himself the only ones to play.

Your understanding of the instrument is rudimentary at best, but you make do. The few times you played felt as natural as can be, like the lute itself guides your hand and keeps you from fumbling the music too badly. The amount of free time you ordinarily get dictates that you rarely have a moment to do more than look in the instrument’s direction, though, and so usually it sits there, waiting. Unlike you, Tariq knows what he’s doing and has the time to show it; the handful of nights you’ve heard the expert twang of strings are the nights you rest well, the stress of the rites and living in the Downside leaving you and your companions alone, even if just for a moment.

The fact that none of you have ever heard his voice alongside his instrument (and the thought that perhaps he plays too late at night for your fellow exiles have never heard him perform) doesn’t occur to you until Rukey suggests a song to take your minds off the storm raging outside, wagon afloat only by virtue of Big Bertrude’s work.

“Let me see what I can do,” Tariq says, the lute already in hand as he takes a seat. He begins to pluck a handful of notes, testing, and soon a gentle melody floats through the pound of rain and waves. The music is beautiful, reminiscent of the few sailor songs you remember from the Commonwealth, and you see even Jodariel’s untold worries begin to slide from her shoulders as she wrestles with the sea and steers towards the Black Basin under your guidance. The words themselves are unfamiliar but not entirely alien to you, and it’s not unlike the feeling you get from reading the book of rites.

His voice is as soothing as the song he strums, heard effortlessly even over the ruckus of the world outside. You don’t realize just how much so, however, until the wind blows a wave straight up the windowsill you’re leaning on to read the ocean, nearly smacking you in the face and making you sputter. Behind you, Rukey’s little chortle tells you that the others definitely noticed.

Damn.

You get to hear Tariq play more often, after that. Not often enough to become regular, not quite, but often enough nonetheless. He tends to save gentle songs for mornings and evenings when the world is just waking up or barely headed to bed, and the brighter productive ones for when it’s time to get going and for dinnertime, when the only worries are about what to eat and how to distract yourself. The most energetic of songs are played for midday or the rare moments of rest, the rest of the Nightwings scattering to do minor chores or explore or play. It seems as though he has a new tune for every occasion there is.

Songs with lyrics, however, are saved for very special nights.

Much like the day out at sea, Tariq waits until he’s been requested for some music before breaking out the words - unless, of course, the situation calls for it. So it is that the second time you hear his voice is atop the Fall of Soliam, intertwined with the rich tones of the Gate Guardian above you, with your heart thudding in time with an invisible beat and nothing in your focus but the rites, your triumvirate, the sway of their weight and twists of their wrists and determination, the combined thoughts of we will earn this freedom together.

And you do.

The third time you hear his voice is at the Moonlit Alcove, a mere few hours later, up in one of the old tower-rooms away from the blackwagon, as Volfred has requested. It’s a solemn mood that falls over you all, the mixed realization of how real this all is, the fact that if you don’t earn your freedom back one at a time you might never see each other again, how the stars themselves could take near forever before they start turning again…

“Play us something,” you hear your friends ask of him, when this weight threatens to overwhelm them too. “A celebration. Something to keep our minds off some things, if you can.”

“Of course. Allow me, then,” Tariq says, and he does. He sings of cities and soaring through skies, old ghosts and dark seas and standing together, a song more for those left here than for the ones returned to the world above. And if the words only you can understand the meaning of leave you more than a little bit teary-eyed, well, the Nightwings aren’t telling.

(they’re not against a few group hugs, hearts just as moved by the phrases they don’t quite hear and don’t quite understand, but then, no one’s telling that either.)

Mae is the one who asks about it, in the end.

“Excuse me, mister!” She says. “I think I have a question, a question I’d like to ask you, if I can?”

It’s laundry day, much to everyone’s chagrin. Various trinkets and belongings have been pushed aside and replaced by the raiments now adorning the blackwagon floor, the rest of the Nightwings gathered around the stacks of colored fabric and bone-white masks. There’s a nigh-ridiculous number of the things, multiples of various designs because even if most of the triumvirates have never had as many members to choose from per rite as they do now, the Nightwings of old clearly wanted to be prepared for the possibility regardless. Cleaning and folding the things is three chores in one, and then some. Still, her question at least gives the rest of you an excuse to stop working and direct your curiosity towards one of the quietest members of your group.

“Of course, Mae,” Tariq replies, and you all shuffle as discreetly as you can in his direction. “What would you like to know?”

“Well, it’s those songs, the songs you sing for us all the time, you see.” Mae’s gaze is unwavering, and she’s smiling. “I was wondering about the words! Yes, I was wondering about the words you sing, because… the songs, I think I might understand, just a little bit. But the words, I don’t quite know what they mean, not exactly, except, I think they are words that the Scribes know. They are words the Scribes have also heard, long ago, are they not?”

Tariq pauses, then; “They are,” he confirms. “Or at least, some of them.” He tilts his head in her direction, eyes closed as they always seem to be. “It’s a language that, last I heard, was outlawed in your Commonwealth many, many years ago.”

“It sounds much stranger than Sahrian, to be sure,” Hedwyn says. There’s a half-finished patch job lying in his lap, and he sweeps the extra string aside. “What’s it called?”

“English,” Tariq says. “I believe it’s also the language the book of rites is written in, as it’s the language that dominated the Commonwealth during the time of the Scribes themselves.”

Heads immediately turn to you and Volfred, who is smoking his pipe and looking far too amused. For your part, you shrug a little helplessly. You’d never known the name itself before, either.

“So you both know what his songs mean?”

“Indeed, my boy.” Volfred lets out a breath. “And many of them bring back memories for me as well, from my past time being part of the Nightwings. I believe it was you, Tariq, that said most of the songs you know to play are as old as the Scribes - am I right?”

“Aye, that is correct.”

Ti'zo chirps questioningly, wondering if there is a translation into Sahrian for everyone who isn’t a Reader, since he cannot understand English either.

“I’m afraid none of these songs have any, given they nearly vanished along with the language centuries ago, and I’ve yet to try my own hand at it. If they had any, I would perform them without a doubt. Languages are tricky things.” Tariq reaches for his lute. “But if you like, I can explain their meaning while the Reader and Volfred transcribe, if they are willing?”

You are - especially since it’s completely escaped your mind that none of them can really understand a word of Tariq’s songs, which is something you’re ready to fix - as is Volfred. If the look on his face is any indication, even something like this is full of nostalgia to him.

The robes and masks remain on the floor, unsorted for now.

(Later, Mae startles you with a bizarre mix of Sahrian and English in one of her sudden bouts of song, the terms alien to her tongue but flowing through your ears like a warm breeze regardless. Your laugh startles almost everyone in turn, including yourself. You help her through the pronunciations and meanings - Mae is a swift learner, always is, and her smile is as bright as the stars eternally guiding you upward as you do.

If the others listen in turn and prod you about other words, later, it’s hardly a bad thing.)

#blacknovelist writes #pyre #pyre fic #the nightwings #only a few of us show up to have dialogue and things but i more or less mention most of them #too bad there isn't exactly a pyre section on ffnet yet.. but i won't break my multi-post streak just yet #i kept the liberation rite stuff vague on purpose. this is abt fun family music times not drama and plans and things

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sourpunchsims · 5 years

Text

Rule Update!

I didn’t change too much, just a few things in a couple gens to do with Get Famous :)

Like music? Like berry sims? Great! I introduce to you, a 5 10 generation music based berry legacy- inspired by @a-kind-berry/red‘s Seven Songs.

I’m a big music freak, so when I was thinking what the generations could be based on, music came to mind because of Seven Songs being dance based. So, all in all you have @a-kind-berry to thank for the inspiration for this. It’s meant to be very story based, but it’s not necessary.

@berryconfetti basically wrote gens 6-10 as an expanded version of this, so half of the credit goes to them

The name literally translates to “The Music of The Sims” in French.

Generation 1: Pop

Color: pink Aspiration: World Famous Celebrity

You’ve always dreamed of becoming a pop star. You leave your quaint home in the country side to move to the city to try and make your dream a reality. It’s tough, but you know you have what it takes. You love hanging out with your friends and having weekly karaoke nights, whether they’re at your apartment or out in the city. Form a band or go solo, it’s up to you!

When you have a chance encounter with a fan, you never expected anything to come of it, but you end up falling in love. Bad fan fiction, anyone?

- Live in San Myshuno or Del Sol Valley - Max singing and dance - Reach level 5 fame and have a good reputation - Have weekly karaoke nights with your friends, until life gets too hectic from you getting more and more public attention ⁃ Marry a fan (RED)

Generation 2: Rock

Color: red Aspiration: Musical Genius

- Live in San Myshuno until you’re an elder, then you can choose to move somewhere quieter if you wish - Max the guitar skill ⁃ Have and update a social media platform frequently- simstagram or simstube ⁃ Form a band as a teen ⁃ Have the band break up in your YA stage - Write songs for money until the band breaks up & join the social media career after ⁃ Marry a band member (BLUE) ⁃ Have at least 3 kids

Generation 3: Karaoke

Color: blue Aspiration: Joke Star

- Move to Oasis Springs - Max comedy, charisma, and photography ⁃ Join and max the entertainer career: comedian path ⁃ Complete the joke star aspiration ⁃ Marry a co-worker (PURPLE) ⁃ Have only 2 kids, that are close in age (or cheat for twins!) ⁃ Try to get your parents band back together for one last hurrah, if nothing else, before they’re elders

Generation 4: Disco

Color: Purple Aspiration: Master Chef Traits: Dance Machine, Foodie

- Max dance, selvadoradian culture, and baking - Meet your spouse (GREEN) in selvadorada ⁃ Complete the master chef aspiration ⁃ Be best friends with your sibling, until the death of your parents ⁃ Fall out of touch with your sibling for a while before trying to mend your relationship

Generation 5: Alternative

Color: green Aspiration: any of the outdoor ones

- Move to a farm as a YA - Max gardening and handiness - Complete the plant collection - Complete your chosen aspiration-- Renaissance Sim would also be a good option* ⁃ Reach at least level 5 in 3 or more instrument skills ⁃ Marry your childhood best friend (ORANGE) ⁃ Have lots of babies! To help with the farm ⁃ Make and use lots of wooden things in your house, for function or decoration ⁃ Don’t join a career, but you can make money however you see fit otherwise - Have at least 5 children

Generation 6: Nursery Rhymes

Color: Orange Aspiration: Super Parent Traits: Childish, Geek, Family Oriented

You loved having so many siblings and now that you’re all grown up you still love playing with toys and doing childish things. You wish you never had to grow up! You were never good at playing music despite all the instruments around the home, but you did enjoy making up silly poems and songs, which entertained your brothers and sisters. When it’s time to start your own career as a Young Adult you start sending your poems and songs to publishers, eventually becoming a published author of Children’s stories!

- Max Parenting, Writing, and Video Gaming skills - Have a baby sitter job as a teen - Complete void critters collection - Marry a childish, cheerful, AND/OR outgoing sim (GRAY/CHARCOAL) - Attend GeekCon every time (or at least every other time) it happens - Go roller/ice skating regularly with your family- you decide how often. *Could be like a tradition. Could even make it a holiday and have it happen once a “year"

Generation Seven: Heavy Metal

Color: Gray/Charcoal Aspiration: Any vampire aspiration

- Complete a vampire aspiration - Max Vampire Lore, Mischief, & Pipe Organ skills - Become good friends with a vampire you meet as a teen - Marry a vampire (YELLOW- not necessarily the friend) - Move to Forgotten Hollow - Celebrate Halloween!

Generation 8: Classical

Color: Yellow Aspiration: Mansion Baron Career: Critic- Arts branch

- Max Violin, Piano, & Wellness skill - Marry a snob or materialistic sim (TEAL) - Fall in love with a human and cure yourself to grow old with them- heir(ess) must be human - Collect all the rare collectibles - Go to the spa regularly - Have a butler - Throw a black and white party regularly

Generation 9: Punk

Color: Teal Aspiration: Public Enemy Career: Politician

Growing up you didn’t always like your parent’s beliefs and had a different outlook on life and love. You pushed the boundaries to get your voice heard! Basically the Rebel™ gen.

- Max DJ, Charisma, & Herbal-ism skills - Have a house fit for dance & dinner parties - Host a dance OR dinner party (different crowds) once a week - Become a celebrity with a bad reputation if you wish - Be in a club that has mischief, DJing, & the give speech interactions - Have a child from a one night stand (WHITE) - Never marry

Generation 10: Ballads (Love Songs)

Color: White Traits: Romantic, Loves Outdoors, Your Choice Aspiration: Soulmate

- Max Gardening, Flowering Arranging, & Programming skill - Make at least one app - Own a flower shop - Marry a customer and have a family - Celebrate Love Day

If you guys do this, tag me in the beginning of it, or use #LaMusiqueDesSims or #LMDS. I’d love to see what you guys do with it! <3

#meant to do this a long time ago #but never got around to it #i didn't change tooo much #just a little

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