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thislovintime · 2 years

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Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith in Australia, September 1968 (photos by Colin Beard); Peter, Reine Stewart, Phyllis and Mike, and Davy Jones at the premiere of Head in New York City (on November 6, 1968) and in Hollywood (on November 19, 1968), (all?) photos by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images; Micky, Peter, and Michael at the SiriusXM Town Hall with The Monkees on May 16, 2016 (photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for SiriusXM).

“The first time I met Peter was at the Troubadour where he performed, long before the auditions. I’ve always liked his warmth and honesty. And he’s always been very kind to me. Both Davy and Peter have lived with us and Peter was always very considerate, helping with the dishes and all.” - Phyllis Nesmith, Fave magazine, January 1968

“Michael used to run a hootenanny at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, and so I met him there. But that’s all, just to say hi to, pretty much.” - Peter Tork, GOLD 104.5, 1999

“I have a great deal of respect for Mike as a musician and a songwriter. He’s very good. He could make it on his own easily. Also he’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met.” - Peter Tork, Flip, August 1967

“I really get along with Mike best. He’s married and enjoys his evenings at home with his family. My favorite date is to stop by his place, have some coffee, play cards, and listen to groovy music.” - Peter Tork, Hullabaloo, September 1967

“I remember staying at Mike’s house in Hollywood when we first started filming the series. It was the upper story of a two-story building on a little hillside. Mike’s wife, Phyllis, was wonderful. Mike and I laughed a lot and played music together. I remember that time very fondly.” - Peter Tork, When The Music Mattered (1984)

Q: “Being that your tastes were similar, and you both were the first to leave the group, why didn’t you form a group with Peter Tork?” Michael Nesmith: “I don’t like Peter Tork — never have liked him, I don’t like him as a man. I have to qualify that now: Me not liking somebody doesn’t mean that they’re bad people — he could do a lot of wonderful things for and to me. Not liking someone to me is a very gut reaction — a very visceral attitude. The first reaction to Peter was one of dislike. I don’t like him, I have never liked him, and I probably will never like him. I didn’t enjoy playing in a band with Peter, and I still don’t. Our tastes were much the same, our political beliefs were similar, our ideas of fun, pleasure, our intellectual capacity, our ability to talk to each other — we were very much alike. I have a great respect for Peter — his technical abilities on an instrument and the positions he took were well conceived ideas, always a posture with a motive, never emotional. I don’t like my mother. She happens to be a very nice lady — never done anything that would make me not like her — but I don’t. I like my wife.” - Hit Parader, February 1972” - Hit Parader, February 1972

“Michael was very kind to me at the outset. He put me up through the entire shooting of the pilot process. He and his wife had a wonderful little apartment just big enough for a guest on the day bed, which overlooked Hollywood. I remember a Thanksgiving Day when the air was crystal clear in a way that I’ve never seen it before or since in L.A., and you could see all the way out to Catalina. It was wonderful. That crystal clarity symbolizes the whole era for me. Mike and I wrote a few things together. We were very comradely and very buddy buddy, and it was a wonderful time, with Mike’s then wife, Phyllis, and Christian, their little infant baby. The early days of the pilot shooting were just great by my lights and I had a wonderful time.” - Peter Tork, quoted in Hey, Hey, We’re The Monkees (1996)

“Michael's in a force field of his own and not much gets in there.” - Peter Tork, TV Guide, June 2000

"I still have a lot of respect for Michael, I’m not, this is not to say that he’s proven to be useless as a human being or an artist, but… And I still have a lot of affection and respect for the other two guys as well, and if something came up, I’d be glad to be hanging out in their company. It’s a lot of fun touring with those guys, they’re funny, funny men, you know, the two of them, just hilarious.” - Peter Tork, WDBB, February 2006

Q: “What prompted Michael Nesmith to rejoin the Monkees in 1996 for the Justus album?” Peter Tork: “Mike had become boyfriend-girlfriend with this woman who listened to a cut of ‘Circle Sky’ [penned by Nesmith, a significantly less dynamic studio version of ‘Circle Sky’ appeared on the Head soundtrack in December 1968]. She listened and exclaimed, ‘Who is playing bass on that?’ Michael said, ‘Well, Peter.’ She quickly replied, ‘Well, who wrote the part?’ And he responded, ‘Well, Peter.’ Soon he was sort of enjoying what we had done before. He thought, ‘God, these guys are pretty good.’ So he invited Micky and me, and we took over a rehearsal hall. The three of us banged away for a couple of hours, and danged if we didn’t sound just exactly the same as we did when we left off nearly 30 years previously. And next thing we knew, Michael wanted to be back in the band for a little while. Michael is very much into, ‘What’s the best you can get right now?’ He is kind of aggressive about getting the best studio, the best equipment, and the best approach to sound. So we produced and recorded the Justus album on tape and transferred it to digital afterwards in an effort to keep it as warm as possible. I’m not so interested in the sound per se. If we had made it all digital, I couldn’t have told the difference myself. All I know is I hear the energy of the band. What’s interesting is for us to play together and make a record as best we know how. I played all the bass parts on Justus, Michael played all the guitar parts, Micky played all the drums, and Davy played tambourine and some acoustic guitar. If you hear keyboards or piano on a track, that’s me, too. I would play one instrument and then overdub the other. There are a couple of things I would have done differently, but all in all, I think it stands up pretty well. So there’s the Justus album for you. Mike joined us in the UK for our 30th anniversary tour in 1997. I enjoyed that tour very much; it was a good time. Nevertheless, Mike never said anything to me when he decided to leave the band after the ’97 European tour, and I still don’t know why he left.” - Medium, 2017

"What I made the decision to do [in the last year or so of Peter's life] was to stand by his side, be a friend and give him as good a send-off as I know how to give from this plane of existence." - Michael Nesmith, The Courier Mail, April 10, 2019

"I am told he slipped away peacefully. Yet, as I write this my tears are awash, and my heart is broken. Even though I am clinging to the idea that we all continue, the pain that attends these passings has no cure. It’s going to be a rough day. I share this with all Monkees fans this change, this 'loss,' even so. PT will be a part of me forever. I have said this before — and now it seems even more apt — the reason we called it a band is because it was where we all went to play. A band no more — and yet the music plays on — an anthem to all who made the Monkees and the TV show our private — dare I say “secret” — playground. As for Pete, I can only pray that his songs reach the heights that can lift us and that our childhood lives forever — that special sparkle that was in the Monkees. I will miss him — a brother in arms. Take flight my Brother." - Michael Nesmith, Facebook, February 2019

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breakerwhiskey · 5 months

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085 - EIGHTY-FIVE

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey.

Transcript under the cut. For more episodes, click here.

[click, static]

Harry was right. Santa Fe is gorgeous.

You know, being here, thinking about it being Harry’s favorite, thinking about the fact that she could be here, right now, with me, and she’s not…

(sighs) It wasn’t…it wasn’t all bad. That’s what I’ve been thinking about. Since I arrived, since going to the art museum, it’s like I see her around every corner, and I imagine what she’d look like going through the galleries, or pointing out the unique architecture, or insisting we find ingredients to make one of her favorite Santa Fe meals, whatever that might be.

It’s—it’s made me—I’ve been remembering the good times, I guess is how you’d put it. There was this one time, before everything happened actually, before that last job, way before—

Richie had this unbelievably shitty loft in Alphabet City. Barely any heat, exposed wires, groaning pipes, warped glass in the old windows, just the whole thing. He was the only one of us who lived on the East side—even me of the unpermanent address tended to stick West—but he was also the only one who owned his place. Well, and Pete. We were all pretty sure that Pete owned a whole fucking brownstone in Brooklyn, but we were never able to confirm it. He was pretty secretive about his personal life.

But, anyway, Richie would sometimes let me crash at his loft and he had us all over with some degree of regularity—the place was huge, so great for big parties. The crew wasn’t big of course, but he’d invite all his weird beatnik friends and Harry would bring her art friends and Don would bring the guys he grew up with who’d always have some kind of Italian fruitcake with them and Pete and I would stand in the corner friendless and drinking heavily.

And one night, we’d all been there for hours and the crowd had dwindled and it was really just us and Don was doing his truly awful Perry Como impression and Harry and I were on the couch just…in stitches. And I think both of us were pretty sauced by that point, because once Don took mercy on all of us and stopped, someone had the brilliant idea of doing a game of charades. Harry and I were on the same team and we just…I don’t know, it was fun. It was really fun. We kicked everyone’s asses, it was…we were so in sync, it was strange. But Harry didn’t make fun of me for my pedestrian choices of what to act out and she didn’t pick anything that she knew I wouldn’t get and it was like…

“Oh. This is what it could be like if we were nice to each other. I didn’t expect it to feel this wonderful”

Anyway, then we sobered up and everyone went home and I passed out on Richie’s couch and then I didn’t see Harry again until our next job nearly two months later. And it was like that night had never happened. She was just as cold and condescending as ever. And I was just as snide as I always was.

But for that one night…I don’t know, it felt good. It felt like how things were supposed to be.

With your mysterious job and all, I wonder if you had any friends in it. If you ever goofed around with them. Or if it was all serious, all the time.

It must have been, right? If it went as badly as you say, hurt people, it must have been serious right?

I mean, I dn't know why I’m even asking, I—

[click, static]

I still don’t trust you, but not talking to you is worse.

[click, static]

[beeps]

.. - / ... - .. .-.. .-.. / -- .- - - . .-. ...

It still matters

#breaker whiskey #audio drama #episode #transcript #Spotify

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morvantmortuary · 10 months

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Okay so I had a thought-slash-question:

I’m not sure if you’ve ever watched The Book of Life (if you haven’t you totally should, it’s on Disney+ and it’s really cool!), Diego Luna voices the main character in that movie and from what I can tell, he did at least some of his own singing. And he actually sounds pretty good, which brings me to the question: can Hector sing or play the guitar? Does he have any skills at either of those things??

Anyways, just wanted to get that out of my head (😅). Hope you and our dear necromancers are doing well!! ♡♡♡

aww, hi dolly! always nice to hear from you 🖤✨

I’ve discussed this only a little bit previously, but yes, I have seen Book of Life!! Jorge Gutierrez is one of my favorite artists/animators ever; I loved his series Maya and the Three (w/ Diego as a dorky vampire prince to boot), and I’ve been following him on various platforms for years. BoL is seriously underrated, I rewatch it every fall 🥰 And yes, Diego definitely did some (if not most) of his own singing in the movie! he’s a man of many talents fr

Hex is the only Morvant who I imagine sounding exactly like his fc with basically nothing changed (as I imagine before he moved back to Mexico fully with his mom, he went back and forth enough between there and Greymoon to keep his accent), whereas of course I’ve never heard Dani or Eva do a Southern/Louisiana accent before lol. (Now that I have Seth, his voice is also basically unchanged from Dast’s, just bc I think its so cute lmao)

I don’t remember if I’ve talked about Hex’s musicality here, outside of singing (I might have done so in my gc eons ago, but we’ll consider this an update). he can sing, but he’s generally pretty shy about it. he doesn’t like to in any public sense, and he only does so with you after you’ve been dating long enough that he feels fully comfortable doing so. even though he’s good, he sees it only as something to do for fun/goofing around. he doesn’t think of it as a talent so much as he does just part of being a human. his real art is always going to be his visual art, specifically his photography. that’s what he considers his main body of work, and the thing he feels he actively wants to pursue. but when it’s just y’all (or y’all and the twins, and maybe the twins’ partners), then singing is something he does when he’s relaxed and hanging out and living in the moment (or, at times when things are tense and it’s just the two of you, trying to get you to relax and maybe smile a little).

I can see him playing guitar very casually for the same reason — like, not enough to be a professional, but enough that he can competently play a few songs at a party or just hanging out when his eyes need a break from looking at his latest shoot. I imagine he picked it up during his brief stint in university at Mexico City (thinking everyone likes a cute boy who can play guitar at parties, if he wasn’t learning himself from a cute boy who played guitar at a party 👀) and ever since then has just noodled around with it ever since. He can play a few favorite songs of his (and of yours, although he’d want to keep it a surprise until he was sure he could do so without a hitch), but it’s kind of like Maxi and his tipsy piano-playing at 2 AM - nothing he’d really want to show off, purely something for his own enjoyment (and yours, potentially).

but this was so sweet of you to send my way!! thanks so much for thinking of him, hon 🥰 big hugs from us to you in your neck of the woods, and we hope you’re doing well too! 🖤👻

#nice people!!#dolly! ✨🧚#hector vibes #hector morvant-casares #hex morvant-casares #hector morvant-casares x you #hector morvant-casares x reader #diego luna fc #slasher oc #medium fc #morvant mortuary #monsterkisser fics

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eminemthrowback · 2 years

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Eminem 1999 Interview with Debbie Rigaud for Black Gold Magazine: Talking about favorite rappers, his type, family, chances of starring in a P*rno

(Debbie): How are you feelin' today? (Eminem): I'm doing good. I'm doing good.

(Debbie): Here's a copy of the Magazine. How ya feelin' the magazine? (Eminem): I'm feelin' it! I'm feelin it

(Debbie): Why don't you give the readers the 411 on you : name, age, sign, birthday... (Eminem): Alright. (with a nerdy voice) My name is Marshall Mathers, I'm 24 years old, I was born October 17, 1974, and um I...I'm a Libra. A'ight

(Debbie): I saw you on MTV Spring Break and you were definitely making it happen. How were you feelin' it? (Eminem): I was feelin' it. I love Cancun. I love Spring Break. That was one of my most funnest part of the tour.

(Debbie): Did you always want to rhyme? Did you ever want to do anything else? (Eminem): When I was like 12 or 13, I wanted to be a comic book artist. You know, I used draw pictures, but when I was around 14, 15, 16, I knew I wanted to rap. I knew it! I felt it in my heart.

(Debbie): Now your from Detroit. Is it that much different than LA or NY? (Eminem): Every city's different, ya know. Every city's different, but in Detroit, we got an underground. We got a strong underground and shit, you know? People, they know what time it is, you know.

(Debbie): You say Detroit got an underground, but you ain't really hearing anything from Detroit except for you and Royce (da 5'9), so you'll definitely be putting them on the map. (Eminem): Right. That's why I say underground. Mainstream ain't heard of Detroit yet. Ya know. Beside me and Royce da 5'9, we the only two cats really doing it on a large scale. Ya know, on a wider scale.

(Debbie): Who are some of your favorite MCs or artists? (Eminem): My favorite MCs or artists...Um...Jay-Z. I like DMX, LL Cool J, Treach from Naughty By Nature, Nas. I like Redman, Royce da 5'9. Royce da 5'9 is one of my favorite MCs and he ain't even out yet, but I swear to God he's gonna bang motherfuckers in the head when he comes out! I'm telling you!

(Debbie): What do you think is the state of violence right now in Hip Hop? You know, we had Biggie die, Tupac Die, and now Big L...

(Eminem): (With anger in his voice) Shit is crazy! This shit is crazy and motherfuckers need to slow the fuck down! They do not realize that when you do some shit like that, you take somebody's fuckin' life! That shit is uncalled for! Big L?! Tupac?! Biggie?! Those are fuckin' Legends! You don't take Legends fuckin' lives! You don't take ANYBODY'S life like that! That shit is crazy! Hip Hop needs to slow the fuck down! But I don't think that shit that happened with Big L and whoever else it was rap/hip hop related, you know what I'm sayin? I don't think that was hip hop related. Motherfuckers were on some personal shit. But motherfuckers just gotta chill! You never gonna stop crime in America. That's just the way the world is. You're never gonna stop it. It's always gonna keep on, you know what I'm sayin'? As long as motherfuckers are broke and they ain't got nothing to lose, this shit is always gonna happen! Always! I hate that shit! (Debbie): Who would you like to work with? (Eminem): I just did a song with Missy, I just did a song with the Madd Rapper, I'm on Dre's Chronic II, but other than that, I'm done with collaborations. I don't want to spread myself too thin.

(Debbie): So if Rakim's calling you, you gonna say "I'm done with collaborations?! (Eminem): Now I didn't say all that! (laughing)

(Debbie): Well, on a lighter note, you know this is an adult magazine and I have to ask adult questions, so are you down? (Eminem): I'm down, I'm down.

(Debbie) So you're feeling the magazine and you have your different flavors. You have chocolate, vanilla, your butter pecan ricans... (Eminem) A'ight!

(Debbie): So, what's your favorite? (Eminem): What's my favorite? I LOVE ALL WOMEN! Yo, I don't... I don't...I can't say "I want a women to look like this, and this, and this when she comes backstage and otherwise I don't want to talk to her." I'm attracted to all women! I'm attracted to the female species, ya know.

(Debbie): I know you live in a predominantly Black neighborhood, did you date any sistas when you were younger? Was it taboo? (Eminem): I met a little bit of resistance, but for the most part it was all love. I grew up with people on my block and they knew me, you know. I mean I got jumped, fucked up shit happened to me a few times, but that happens to everybody. I don't think it has anything to do with color or any of that shit. It's just all a part of growing up. So...

(Debbie): So are you lovin' us thick sistas or are you into those boney sistas? (Eminem): I don't have a look code, I just look at every girl I see, and every girl I meet...

(Debbie): Do you watch any adult movies or porn? (Eminem): All the time! I watch that shit on the bus!

(Debbie): Say word?! So who's your favorite actress of all time? (Eminem): Janet Jacme. (Debbie): Say word?! Stop lying! (Eminem): Janet Jacme!

(Debbie): Would you ever star in a porno movie? (Eminem): Hell...(couldn't hear the answer)

(Debbie): Hell no? (Eminem): Hell shit yeah!!!

(Debbie): Oh hell yeah! (laughter) (Eminem): Would I star in a porno movie?! (saying it like I was stupid)

(Debbie) I'm saying, represent! Like "A day in the Life of Slim Shady!" (Eminem) Real soon you'll be seein' a porno by Slim Shady!

(Debbie) Oh for real?! (Eminem) I got a little movie coming out and then you'll see a porno by Slim Shady.

(Debbie) Say Word?! So I'm saying... (Eminem) There ain't no shame in my game. NO SHAME IN MY GAME AT ALL.

(Debbie): What would be the concept? (Eminem): The concept would be me fucking all the girls that dissed me.

(Debbie): So, if you could star with any adult actress, who would it be? (Eminem): I like Janet Jacme, I like Amber Lynn, I like Ginger Lynn, Shane... (Eminem) Who's that girl...Gina?

(Debbie) Jeanna Fine? (Eminem) No, no, no! Gina somethin' else, Gina somethin' else...She's older too!

(Debbie) You mean Nina Hartley! (Eminem) (like we struck gold) Yeah! Nina Hartley! I LIKE Nina Hartley too! (laughter)

(Debbie): What's kind of girls do you consider freaky? (Eminem): Girls who do girls. I'm not into really freaky shit. I mean, no bottles up into some shit and no animals.

(Debbie): So you wouldn't consider yourself a freak? (Eminem): Not really. I'm not into really wild shit. No finger in the ass. No finger in MY ass (laughter).

(Debbie): You're not inspired by porn? (Eminem): Only to try different positions. I saw some wild shit the other day. This girl was standing on her head, with her legs on this guys shoulders. Some upside down shit. I don't like all that extra shit, but I definitely wanna try that upside shit. No pierced clits. That's all pain. Is your clit pierced?

(Debbie) No!(laughter) (Eminem) That's good! I don't like pierced clits (laughing).

(Debbie): So no anal sex? (Eminem): Hell no! I only fuck with one hole (laughing). I mean if it's with my girl, then that's different, but hell no.

(Debbie) That's wild! I figured you'd be a full blown freak! (Eminem) Not really.

(Debbie) I think everyone is freaky, but the right person has to bring it out. See, I think you have a freaky side, but someone needs to bring it out. (Eminem) I've been with my girl for eight years, and it still not out.

(Debbie) But your girl ain't me. (laughing) (Eminem) Oh word (laughing)?! We'll see the next time I come to New York! But that orgy in Pittsburgh was wild, but I don't consider myself a freak. I mean I might grab a girl's hair and kick her a couple of times (laughing). Maybe slap her (laughing).

(Debbie): What are some of your other favorite positions? (Eminem): Doggystyle, I hate being on top! I like it when the girl is on top. I'm lazy like that. I like to make the girl work. And I like doggystyle!

(Debbie): Do you see a difference between how different girls sex you? Like do Black women do things that white women don't do, etc? (Eminem): Nah. I don't see any difference. Why?

(Debbie) Because I see a definite difference in how Black men perform and white men perform. (Eminem) How is that? Like what?

(Debbie) Like a lot of Black men don't perform oral sex whereas a lot of White men do. (Eminem) I don't eat the cat either.

(Debbie): Word?! What's up with that?! (laughter) (Eminem): I don't fuck with the cat! You don't know what's been down there!

(Debbie): So you NEVER would perform oral sex?! (Eminem): I mean if it's with my girl or someone I know, then I would do it. but if it's with someone I just met, I ain't running up in that! But overall, I RARELY, RARELY, RARELY do it. But I'm mostly into having a girl cum. If she don't cum, I can't even stay hard. I'll just roll over and go to sleep.

(Debbie) That's very generous! Most men aren't like that! (Eminem) I ain't most men.

(Debbie): Do you masturbate? (Eminem): Hell yeah I do! At least two times a day! (laughing). Nah, it's not like that. I don't know how many times. I don't keep track (laughing). Why do you?

(Debbie) No. (Eminem) You lying ass! When was the last time you had sex?

(Debbie) February (Eminem) You haven't got dick since February. What's up with that? I gotta get to New York (laughter).

(Debbie): What's the freakiest thing you've ever done with someone on tour?

(Eminem): I haven't done really freaky yet. I'm still waiting to do it. I like watching girls do shit in front of me.

(Debbie): What is the freakiest thing you've seen on tour? (Eminem): Nothing really.

(Debbie): Stop lying! I know about them two girls doing their thing with each other in front of all! Come on! We at Black Gold are all family! What was up with that?! (Eminem): Oh you heard about that shit?! That wasn't anything. Just some immature girls. See, I like to watch, but every time I meet girls, they always wanna do shit with me, but I'm like "Nah." That Dallas shit was some bullshit. These two girls were eating each other out and as soon as the pants were coming off, it was like "Well, I don't know if I wanna do this." The other girl was wild and down for whatever, but the other was like "I don't know. She's my friend.." The freakiest shit I seen was in Pittsburgh. I seen four girls at once.

(Debbie): Say word?! How the hell did that happen?! (Eminem): I don't know! (laughing) They all took turns. I had my boys in there and the girls were giving us a show. That shit was wild!

(Debbie): Does your girl know all this shit is going on? (Eminem): Hell no! (laughing) and you better not print it either! (laughing) But she ain't stupid either, but she don't know all that...

(Debbie): Alright now, on a sentimental note. For all the female readers of Black gold that want you to melt in their mouth, what kind of woman are you looking for? That is if you are looking... (Eminem): What kind of women am I looking for? One night stands! (laughter)

(Debbie): For real?! (laughter) (Eminem): That's all. That's all! (laughing)

(Debbie): You aren't trying to get married and have more kids? (Eminem): Hell no! I got one little girl in this world and that's all I need!

(Debbie): How's your family doing? (Eminem): How's my family doing? My little girl is doing fine.

(Debbie): Yeah, she made her debut on the Bonnie & Clyde joint on the album. Is she star material? (Eminem): She's definitely star material! My little girl is beautiful. My little girl is going to be a movie star. She's only three, but she's so smart! Three going on seven.

(Debbie): That's good! Now knowing that you had your daughter, in Bonnie & Clyde, as an accomplice (in her mom's murder), I KNOW your girl must have been trippin'! How did you explain yourself after she heard that shit? (Eminem): What I told her was like "Look. I was pissed off!" That's all I could say. I really felt that I wanted to do that shit. At one point in time, I really wanted to do that shit. For real. Baby Momma Drama.

(Debbie) That should be the title of your next song! Baby Momma Drama! (Eminem) That is so typical!

(Debbie) Every more reason to do it! (Eminem) Nah, I got other songs about her. I finished four songs for the next album, and I have a song called "Kim" which is basically about shit that led up to "Bonnie & Clyde." I gotta few songs. I gotta few. My baby's mother put me through a lot of shit, so she's worth a lot of songs.

(Debbie)(Laughing) You mean before you killed her?! (Eminem) Yeah. Before I cut her throat. (laughing)

(Debbie): So is she gonna come out with an album about you? (Eminem): (laughing) That would be funny! That would be really funny! (laughing)

(Debbie): Any R&B sad songs? (Eminem): (a very quick) No! No, no, no!

(Debbie): You don't like R&B? I mean old R&B?! (Eminem): I'm not saying I don't like R&B. It's just not my thing. It's not the type of music I get into. I mean I could listen to a little bit of it, but me doing it personally, I can't fuck with that.

(Debbie): So what's up your babymova? (laughter) (Eminem): Me and my girl have been breaking up and making up so much! Right now it's cool. I just got back with her. But she got an attitude and I can't stand that attitude shit. But shit got worse when my daughter was born.

(Debbie): How is that? (Eminem): Every time we would fight and we'd break up, she'd say "Well if you don't want to see me anymore, you can't see Hailie (his daughter). She would use my daughter against me.

(Debbie) That's messed up. (Eminem) Yup. Baby Momma Drama.

(Debbie): Did you want a boy? (Eminem): It didn't really matter.

(Debbie): But all men want a boy. All men want a little man. You didn't feel that? (Eminem): I did in the beginning, before she was born. But once she was born, I was like, "I got a little girl."

(Debbie): Were you scared to death? (Eminem): I wasn't scared. I was changing diapers at 11, when my brother was born. I was a little scared, but when she was born, I was like "This isn't so bad."

(Debbie): So what's up with your brother? Is he safe? You know people are probably on his shit because you're his brother. (Eminem): Yo, my brother is mad cool. He's the most popular kid in the school! He got like 10 girlfriends!

(Debbie): For real?! (laughter) (Eminem): Word! He even dyed his hair blond and got his ears pierced! He look just like me! He came to my concert and the girls were all over him! They didn't even want to get with me! He was sitting on this girls lap and she was rubbing all over him! I was like "You go you little pimp!" (laughter)

(Debbie): Have you had women fight over you?

(Eminem): Hell yeah! I had a bunch! One night there was two girls in my hotel room, and I didn't like any of them. So I left the room. I can't remember why I left because I was drunk, but I left. Then I look outside in the parking lot, and these two girls were fighting each other. Each was blaming the other for me leaving. I mean they were scrapping on the floor. Little did they know I didn't like any one of them.

(Debbie): What's the weirdest shit that happened to you with a female? (Eminem): One time there were two girls in the hotel lobby, and I picked one girl over her friend and took her upstairs, and the other girl was crying!

(Debbie): Word? What was up with that? (Eminem): She was a manic depressive. I know this because I saw her popping pills and I asked her what she was doing and she told me. She was taking anti-depressants. She was like "I'll be okay as long as I'm taking my medication." And when I picked her friend, she flipped out! She was crying "I'm the Slim Shady fan, not her!" "Why is she up there and not me?!" "My rent is due!"

(Debbie)(laughing) Damn! (Eminem)Yeah, and I saw her the next day at the show. She was like "Hi, do you remember me? I said "Yeah, and get away from me!" She was crazy (laughter).

(Debbie)(laughing) Oh damn. That mess is wild! (Eminem) Yeah (laughing)

(Debbie): How do you deal with all the people grabbing all over you? (Eminem): It's wild because I'm real! I'm a human being like everyone else. You can talk to me because I'm just like you. But motherfuckers can be rude. I mean I'll be eating and a cat will come up to me and be like "Yo, Em. Drop me a freestyle!" "Yo, Em, can I get an autograph," "Yo, can you call my house and leave a message!?" And I'm like "Yo, I'm eatin!"

(Debbie)That's funny because in New York, people don't do that because most rappers grow up with you and live down your block.

(Eminem) That's true. And in California, they're cool too! They ain't star struck. I'll be in a diner eatin', and a cat will be like "Yo, what's up Em" and walk by. But in the Midwest, people lose their mind! I'm like, "You can touch me. I'm real!" Let me give you an example of the funniest shit that happened. Me and Big Nasty (Eminem's bodyguard) were at the airport, bringing back the rent-a-car, and the rent-a-car lady comes running up to the car to check the mileage. I don't think she knew who I was. But then when I stepped out the car, she flipped out! She kept on saying "Oh my God" "Oh my God" over and over again! She was like "What's your name?!" "What's your name?" I said "My name is.."(doing the song), and she flipped out again. She asked for a hug and I gave it to her. She still kept on saying "Oh my God," "Oh my God." Then she turned around to walk away, and I don't know what happened, but she tripped and fell on her face! We were laughing our asses off! (laughing)

(Debbie) Word?! She fell?!(laughing) (Eminem) Yeah! And when she was on the floor, she STILL kept on saying "Oh my God," "Oh my God!" (laughing)

(Debbie): That shit is wild! How are you dealing with all the media attention?

(Eminem): At this point, I'm like "Come up with something new." I hate the same old questions. But it seems like "white" magazines such as Spin and Rolling Stone focus on my "whiteness" more than Black magazines. Like the Source. They're like, he's white, let's get over it. But when Rolling Stone came out with "Low Down Dirty White Boy" on the cover, I was like "This shit is critical." I liked the article inside, but when I saw the cover, I was like "What the fuck is this?!" But then you have your magazines like XXL that called me a culture stealer and an invader. That's some elementary school shit. Give me a break! It's funny how all the magazines can dwell on my race, but they could NEVER say that my shit is whack because they know my shit is tight!

(Debbie) That just shows how little people know about hip hop, because you have crazy rappers that are white in the underground.

(Eminem) I know! I came from the underground.

(Debbie) Also, some people have a hard time believing that there are poor white people or that they even live in a ghetto. America has crazy white people in poverty. (Eminem) Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn't say I lived in a ghetto, I'd say I lived in the 'hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now. I don't want them to be poor. I just lost a friend of mine to some bullshit! He was playing around with some friends and he accidentally sprayed water on this girl's sweater. She went back and told two dudes that he sprayed water, and they went over to him, shot him twice and ran over him with their car. Over some stupid bullshit.

(Debbie) I'm sorry to hear that. (Eminem)(very sad)Yeah. He was gonna come out with an album in two weeks. I wish I brought him on with me... But we (white people) have problems too.

(Debbie): Do you plan on making two sets of videos? Like one will be an X-rated version on videotape and one for the networks like Tupac's "How do You Want It"? (Eminem): I thought about it. But I'm doing a feature film on my life. Me and Dre. Some of it's going to be true, and the other is gonna be some bugged out shit. The other shit is how Dre views my life. How he sees my life, how I was born, how I was conceived, etc. It's gonna be bugged out! It's gonna be released on videotape It's gonna be wild!

(Debbie): Speaking of video, I saw the "Guilty Conscience" video on BET and I heard that MTV edited the hell out of it. What happened? (Eminem): I sent MTV a copy of the video, and because they are on this anti-violence campaign because of the Columbine killings, they edited the fuck out the video. The Commissioner against Violence wrote MTV and said "How can you say you're against violence when you play Eminem, Korn and Marilyn Manson?" BET is showing me mad love. But I haven't seen the edited video yet.

(Debbie) Why shouldn't BET show you love? You're hip hop too. (Eminem) Yup

(Debbie): Why do you think there is such a connection between Hip Hop and the adult industry? (Eminem): Because rappers are all freaks! Also Hip Hop is tying into everything!

(Debbie): I heard Dustin Hoffman played "The Mummy" at one of your concerts. How did that jump off? (Eminem): I was performing at the House of Blues in California, and he was there with his kids. He came backstage and we were talking and I asked him to play "The Mummy." His kids begged him to do it. He was like, "Hey if it makes my kids happy and since you make my kids happy, I'll do it." I was amped. That night, he came onstage as "The Mummy" and everybody was wondering who the Mummy was. Then at the end of the show, I was like "Do ya'll wanna know who the Mummy is?" I ripped off the mask and when everybody saw it was Dustin Hoffman, the crowd went bananas!

(Debbie) See that's messed up because ya'll weren't trying to do that in New York when I went to the show! (Eminem) We didn't have The Mummy idea set up yet. But in every city now we're going to let someone else be The Mummy.

(Debbie) Well, I would've been the Mummy! But Big Nasty said the costume wouldn't fit because my chest is too big! (Eminem) Yeah, I don't think the costume would fit because your chest is too big (laughter)

(Debbie)(laughter) Damn! You remember?! (Eminem) Yeah, I do (laughing)! (Debbie): Now why did you feel the need to dis Milkbone, Cage, and everybody? I mean, your shit was hot and it would've still been hot without the dissing, so why did you feel you had to break on them? (Eminem): I didn't know any of this shit was going to happen between Cage and me. I dissed Cage because he said I took his style. I don't even know the motherfucker! I never even heard of it! I never even heard of him! My manager, as a matter of fact, had to send me a copy of his record and he (his manager) was like "Yo, this kid is saying you bit his style..." I was like "Yo, send me his record." I heard his record and I was like "This motherfucker don't even sound like me!" With Milkbone, I wasn't even dissing Milkbone on my album. When I said "I'm on a Serch to crush a Milkbone" (from "Don't Give a Fuck"), I was talking about stereotypes and now I heard he wants to bring it, so he could bring it and look stupid, you know what I'm sayin'!

(Debbie)I think it's on the Death Row "Chronic 2000" album. (Eminem) I don't think so, but I heard his shit and his shit is garbage. I wish it is was dope enough for me to respond, but it's not, you know what I'm sayin'? So fuck it. I'm not giving them any more attention.

(Debbie): What about Vanilla Ice? See, I think Vanilla Ice gets a bad rap. I think he was just a puppet in the game. The executives were like "You want to eat? Say you're from the ghetto even though you aren't." He was a puppet. (Eminem): Look, I went to all black schools, and I went to mixed schools. I say be proud of where you come from and represent. Fuck it, if you're from Beverly Hills, be proud. Don't lie! I could never lie! Shit! I'd be too paranoid that people would find out. I couldn't do it, but then again, I'm not in his situation. Did you see what he said about me in Vibe Magazine (June issue)?

(Debbie) Yeah, but I don't think he really means that. I don't think he really hates you, I just think he feels that he HAS to, not because he truly feels that way. It's like, there are few of you so-called "white rappers" out there that he feels he needs to break on you and playa hate. It's all jealousy.

(Eminem)Yeah. When I read it, I felt like he was jealous of me. You could sense the animosity, like he was saying to himself, "That (Eminem) should be me."

(Debbie) But I think Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer were ahead of their time. I mean they were going platinum when a lot of rappers weren't. Hammer had sponsors, a doll, a cartoon before ANYONE else did, and they hated on him. Now everyone's doing the same thing. (Eminem) Yeah that's true. But I'm sayin' still represent. Isn't Hammer broke?

(Debbie) Not by OUR standards. By the standards of people living in Beverly Hills. (Eminem) True.

(Debbie) Look at Milli Vanilli. They wanted to expose themselves and say that they weren't singing their own shit. But their manager beat them to it and exposed them as frauds. Ain't that fucked up! (Eminem) Hell ya!

(Debbie) And you know what? Their manager still kept in touch with the member that died. As a matter of fact, the manager was the one who found him when he committed suicide! (Eminem) Word?!

(Debbie) You know that manager is NOT sleeping well at night! (Eminem) Hell No! He definitely ain't!

(Debbie) I also think the reason that some people have a problem with you is because, you're white, you love rap, you don't want to be black because you're proud of who you are, AND you came from the underground, so you are a part of Hip Hop, whether they like it or not. No one "made" you like they "made" Vanilla Ice. (Eminem) Exactly, I love Hip Hop regardless, and people from the underground know me. I mean it's not like I wake up every morning, look in the mirror, and say "Boy, I sure am white today." So get off it and move on.

(Debbie) That's why you're talking to Black Gold! We on some other shit!

(Eminem) A'ight!

(Debbie) I mean, MC Serch, I know that brother was praying to be Black before he went to sleep. (laughter) He even dissed white people in his own rhymes. (Eminem) Yeah that's right. In "Gas Face" he said "Black cat is bad luck/Bad guys wear black/Must have been a white man that created all that." I remember when I heard that, I felt funny, like "Yo, what is he saying?!" I felt uncomfortable. But he is a dope MC and one of favorite MCs.

(Debbie): So do you really smoke all that weed and do all that shit that you say on the album? (Eminem): Everything I say, 99.9% of that shit I lived. I either lived it or I've seen it. It's better for me tell you what I don't do, than what I do do. I don't do heroin, cocaine, but I do 'shrooms, ecstasy, and I don't really smoke that much weed. I guess because I smoke so much of it, that shit has no affect on me (laughter).

(Debbie) So use something stronger, like crack! (laughing) (Eminem)(laughing) Yeah right! but nah, I don't smoke crack either. But I do drink Bacardi. I drink that shit like water!

(Debbie) That's wild that you're so honest and you could say "Yo, I drink"

(Eminem)(reciting a line from "Don't Give a Fuck") Well, my name is Marshall Mathers and I'm an alcoholic...(laughing) Why? Do you do drugs?

(Debbie) No. (Eminem) Not even weed?!

(Debbie) No! (Eminem) Would you try it?

(Debbie) I never tried and I don't know if I would.

(Debbie): You shouted out Canibus on you album. He was one of our cover stories. Have you ever seen him perform or freestyle? (Eminem): I never heard Canibus freestyle, but I respect him as a lyricist. I will say that.

(Debbie): Yeah. I have a mixtape and I heard him freestyle and he's on some technological shit. He's real nice. What advice do you have to those who are trying to get into the game? (Eminem): Keep working! You gotta know that you're dope. You gotta know you have talent. If you know that, keep working and it will happen. If you ain't got any talent, I can't speak for that!

(Debbie): Any advice to our female Black Gold readers who might be feeling you? (Eminem): Use condoms!

(Debbie): (laughter) Besides that! (Eminem): (laughter) Use condoms. Use used condoms if you have to! (everybody's laughing). I don't give a fuck! Use used condoms if you have to! Right?

(Debbie): Do you believe in God? (Eminem): Yeah I do, but I'm not a religious person. I don't go to church and all that.

(Debbie) Me too, but I know you must have praying everyday! And he definitely blessed you! Very few people can actually do what they love. (Eminem) Hell yeah I prayed everyday! Before I got my deal, I lost my job. I couldn't even afford diapers. I was like "Something gotta give!"

(Debbie) Well you've definitely been blessed! (Eminem) Thank you.

(Debbie): Well what's in the future for Slim Shady? (Eminem): In the Fall, I'm doing another tour, but I don't know who else is on it. And then there the Chronic tour with Dre. I'm gonna be meeting with him, but there is no release date yet for the album or the tour.

(Debbie): Any last words? (Eminem): Don't ever let anyone try and stop hip hop. Hip hop is gonna be here for mother-fuckin E-V-E-R. Hip Hop is forever. Hip Hop is universal and it will never stop. These motherfuckers tried to stop it in the beginning, they could not stop it.

(Debbie) Well, God Bless you and thank you so much for the interview! God Bless to your family!

(Eminem) Thank you! (Debbie) Oh by the way, everything I didn't put in here I'm going to put in a tell all book!

(Eminem) You're gonna put all kinds of shit in a tell-all book! Oh word!

(Debbie)I'm saying. You gotta give me the hush money! (Eminem) Oh word!

(Debbie) Yeah! You went double platinum, you could afford it! I'll give you my bank account number! (Eminem) A'ight. I'll drop $7 million tomorrow.

(Debbie) I'm gonna call it "The Shady Memoirs." (laughter) (Eminem) You're an ass! (laughter) Peace.

#Eminem #hip hop #rap #2000s nostalgia #throwback #interview

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bahamutgames · 1 year

Text

Eastward: Afterward Thoughts

Game: Eastward (September 16, 2021)

Console: PC (Via Xbox Game Pass)

Here I am once again. Crawling back here to give my thoughts on a game I played but having to share it in shame on a side tumblr no one follows instead of proudly in the open on a big ass twitter thread! How sad!

I was going to share my thoughts in a twitter thread, but after sharing my thoughts on Warioware: Get It Together, it seems like twitter has removed the way it keeps threads nice and tidy on the home page. Basically resulting in everyone having to see my thread about the game full force whether they like it or not. And I don’t want that because A) it’s annoying. And B) some games I talk about have huge spoilers. Like this game! So I figured until that little issue gets resolved I’ll just share my thoughts here... where no one visits... and no one follows... Just like the sad city of Potrock Isle, am I right fellow Eastward heads? (That’s what we call ourselves)

I suppose it’s for the best. As always, this is NOT a review! These are just my thoughts and feelings after finishing the game. If you’re interested in this game at all, please consider playing it! This should not be taken as a major critique of the game and will just be me spitballing my feelings.

SPOILER WARNING FOR EASTWARD AHEAD! I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THE FINALE AND ENDING A LOT!!

Opening

So, I’ve had my eyes on Eastward for a while now. The only issue is that I knew it was going to be, for lack of a better term, a “Zelda Like”. Which is generally not a genre I like very much. But the art and sprites and general aesthetic of the game was SO amazing I absolutely could not keep away! And after an accident that lead to me buying gamepass for an extra month (it was an accident I swear) I figured I might as well go ahead and play Eastward. I did struggle a bit with the genre but I made it through and ultimately I had a pretty good time with it!

Stuff I liked

Where to begin? This game is AMAZINGLY CHARMING! Maybe one of the most charming games I’ve played in a while. It has, hands down, some of the most amazing sprite art I’ve ever seen in my life. This game looks SO good it’s nuts! Here’s some screenshots I took that look that hopefully can demonstrate even a little bit how good Eastward looks

The combination of 2D sprite art mixed with the more realistic lighting kinda makes my lizard brain go nuts. In short, the game looks REALLY FUCKING GOOD. Almost every little thing in this game is lovingly handmade by some of the most talented sprite artists I’ve ever seen. Animations are stunning, backgrounds are incredibly detailed and full of life. The visuals ROCK!

The music is also particularly really good and has a ton of fantastic songs that really stuck with me. It has a lot of nice fast paced music and a lot of slow and mysterious music. But it all really does feel like one OST, like all the songs really go together. It’s another aspect of the game that’s just amazing!

I also LOVE the story and characters! It has a lot of themes similar to Gurren Lagann. People live miserably underground. Someone has seen the surface but gets picked on cause they’re stuck underground. They reach the surface but shit’s fucked up there. But of course instead of Beastmen and Mechs. Eastward goes a bit more of a lowkey route with cities filled with people, beautiful nature, and an evil smoke spewing train controlled by a factory where they make humans... It’s a lot of crazy shit but I do love crazy shit like this in my stories. Figuring out the mystery behind Charon and the Human Factories and Sam was all really exciting and made for a really compelling story!

And of course the characters are what made the story so nice. Of course John and Sam are my absolutely favorites! They are SO cute! But even side characters like William and Daniel. Alva and Isabelle. They’re all super charming and everyone has a GREAT design. No one has a better design than John and Sam though.

The gameplay itself is also very good. Again I struggled a lot with it at some points. This is just not my speed. And I do think this would have been GOTY for all time if it was a turnbased RPG (I think a lot of games would be the best game ever made if they were turnbased JRPGs instead). But still I enjoyed it enough. Some combat was pretty fun, some of the bosses were very cool. And some of the puzzles were challenging but pretty fun to solve. I particularly liked cooking a lot of food with power+ properties and just crushing boss battles with all my strength!

And then the game itself is just filled to the brim with so much charming stuff. I love the weapons like the guns and bombs, I love the you use a frying pan instead of a sword. The save points are fridges you freeze your memories in. I love that you can cook, and gather ingredients and try to make new recipes and season them with different spices to get different buffs. I love the super unique and cool enemy designs. I love how charming and memorable and unique every single NPC in the game is. No repeating NPCs as far as I can remember. Everyone is unique. Some games have bonus card games or sports minigames. But Eastward has a full blown roguelike RPG in it! I didn’t beat it, but it’s there and it’s SUPER charming!

So, yeah! This game is REALLY good! Easily one of if not the best looking game I played last year. Amazing soundtrack, fantastic story and characters. It’s all really good! It’s clearly a game that a TON of work went into. I can tell tons of talented people poured their soul into this game. Down to the website where they have cute little clay figures of some characters! It’s made with love.

Stuff I didn’t like

However, just like any other game. Eastward isn’t perfect. I could go on about little things. I think some of the dungeons are really infuriating. Old Town in particular was a real headache for me. I think WAY too many of the enemies towards the end of the game charge you then run away so you can’t hit them, it’s so annoying and time consuming. I think the game can be a little too raunchy and edgy at times in ways that aren’t really fun? Sometimes it is. But not all the time. I think the game can be TOO detailed sometimes and it actually makes figuring out where to go a little difficult.

But no, I COULD go on about smaller stuff like that. But I think I mostly just want to talk about the finale and ending. While this game was great, and stays consistently quirky and charming until the very end. With amazingly high quality sprite art and music until the very last drop. But honestly, I think this game totally loses focus towards the end. Particularly, the moment you reach Ester City, Eastward almost completely lost me.

I saw others saying it was the Monkollywood Train. And while that section wasn’t that great. With a forced stealth section that goes on a little too long. And being a really random scene. I actually thought Monkollywood was fine and honestly, the weirdness of that area didn’t feel out of place from the rest of the game. I guess Ester City also isn’t out of place. But it certainly is where the game loses itself in my opinion.

So the whole story up to that point was about finding out what was going on with Charon and the Human Factories and the origin of Sam. And I like that a lot. And I liked that once you reach New Dam City, it’s about living life and running jobs through the city. I liked that a lot. It was different from the main goal but it still related to Charon right? But once you hit Ester City, man. It suddenly becomes all about the tower. And time travel. And time loops. And I honestly kind of forgot Charon and the Human Factories were still what was happening. The whole game suddenly becomes about Alva and Isabelle. Which is fine. But like, it’s about them for most of the finale. And they’re not even there for most of that finale!

And then suddenly we jump back to the human factory and charon out of nowhere! I do think the final dungeon being inside Charon was great. And it’s not that I think the whole Ester City stuff was bad necessarily. But it absolutely was BORING as hell and slowed my playthrough to a crawl. It feels like they suddenly through a bunch of plot elements in I was too stupid to understand. And sadly I feel like this kind of carries into the whole ending. It feels like NOTHING gets answered or explained.

That’s not entirely true. We do see what becomes of some characters. And I don’t think the game needs to answer everything to be good. I think it’s good to leave some mystery. But. What became of Charon? The human factories? What was Sam exactly??? Did we save the world? Is everyone dead? I assume not based on the ending but like... What happened? I don’t understand anything that happened! I feel like this is maybe my fault and Ester City was so boring that I struggled to pay real attention to the finale so I couldn’t understand it. I honestly feel like the ending would have been better if when John sees Sam again, Sam just drops the big lead she’s holding and the game just ends right there. Like you already didn’t show enough of the ending, you might as well show even less and make that shot give me some clue in to what happened to John and Sam afterward.

And just in general. I didn’t like the final boss. I thought it was upsetting how the whole finale of the game randomly became quickdraw minigames. I know they were prepping you for it the whole way through with minigames but I wanted the final boss to be a real fight! I cooked all this food with power+ seasonings! And I didn’t really get to use it!

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to explain. The whole game still feels fine. I still like it. I still think it’s incredibly charming. I still think it’s one of the nicest looking games ever, I still think it’s absolutely worth your time even if you don’t like this genre! But I can’t help but feel like the ending was massively rushed. Like it needed more time? Or that it needed more planning. If the ending just worked a little better with the rest of the game I think this would have been perfect. The game had small pacing issues the whole way through though, so maybe I should have seen it coming. But still! It’s sad!

Regardless, Eastward is an amazing game that clearly had a lot of love poured into it. So I don’t regret playing it. And I think I might honestly want to cosplay as John eventually. I still think John and Sam are amazing protagonists (I was waiting the WHOLE game for her to call him dad UGH... maybe that’s just me.) Eastward was absolutely worth my time and I’m glad I played it even with the underwhelming finale. I’ll certainly be interested in any follow ups they make for the game in the future. We’ll see.

===

Thank you for reading! It’s been a while since I’ve written up an afterthoughts on tumblr. But it’s looking like I’ll be doing this here for a while since I kinda can’t on twitter at the moment. It’s a little harder for me to keep my thoughts confined over here so it makes writing these posts more difficult. But I’ll do my best, because I love talking about video games!

As always you can follow me on twitter to keep up with me, my art, and my game playing habits! That’s it for now! Go out and play a game you wouldn’t normally try!

#2022 #Thoughts

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guns-n-jovi · 2 years

Note

Ok, I’m finally done with my concert list. I hope you don’t get bored reading it. 🖤

1. Guns N' Roses, January 1992, 11 years old: My mom and stepdad got me these tickets for Christmas '91 and my stepdad is the one who took me. Soundgarden opened for them on that leg of the Illusion tour. I remember bits and pieces ofthis concert in great detail. It was two months after Izzy officially left the band. I remember they opened the show with Nightrain. I remember Duff wearing his cowboy hat. They were THREE hours late getting onstage. Typical Axl behavior, lol. I remember when they did Live & Let Die, they did those flashingstrobe lights just like in the music video. At the end, when they went offstage, before they came back out for the encores, there was a red flashing sign above the stage that said GUNS N' ROSES over and over and then they ran back out to do the encores. At the time, it was the greatest night of my existence. It is also the ONLY concert that I've ever been to that I did NOT keep my ticket stub and I am STILL pissed at myself for that. Apparently, I didn't start my ticket stub collection until after this concert. I have every ticket stub for every concert, sporting event, movie, exhibit, museum, etc that I've been to since then. All in a box. There is a giant hole in that box in mymind that will never be filled because my GN'R ticket stub is missing.

2. Aerosmith, 1993, 12 years old: My stepdad took me and one of my friends. Honestly, I don't remember much about this concert, except that we had really crappy seats in the nosebleeds. But still, we were there, which is what mattered. At the time, Aerosmith had just released Get A Grip and were touring for that album. Get A Grip happens to be my favorite Aerosmith album.

3. Vince Gill & Patty Loveless, 1995, 14 years old: My mom's best friend, who has always been like a second mother to me, took me and her son to this concert.I think a group of us went, actually. If you don't know country music, you probably don't know either of these singers. They were very popular in the 90s. I love all kinds of music, all genres, and that includes country music.

4. LeAnn Rimes, 1995 or 1996?: Another country singer popular in the 90s. I've always loved her; she has a beautiful voice. I saw her at the Mid-South Fair with a group of friends. We have this huge carnival that comes to Memphis every fall for a couple weeks and back in the day, they'd have concerts at night. I used to love going to the fair every year. I always loved riding the rides and of course, the fair food is always great. But in the last 20 years or so, they've had to move the fair to a city just over the state line in Mississippi. The Memphis Fairgrounds is in (what is now) a very bad area of town. So, it's been a really long time since we've been to the fair. Sorry to ramble on about our yearly carnival, lol. Moving on...

5. Shania Twain, 1999?, I think I was 18?: My mom's bestie took a group of us to this concert. I LOVE Shania. Another country singer. Her concert was pretty great. Our tickets were actually in the OBSTRUCTED VIEW area of the arena, which basically means the seats were behind the stage, but the way her stage was set up, it rotated around, so that the people in the obstructed view seats got to see almost as much as the regular seats. Probably why they even sold tickets for those seats. I'm sure the venue knows ahead of time how the artist's stage is set up, so they know whether or not they can sell tickets for those seats. That's the only show I've ever been to that I've encountered obstructed view tickets. Anyway, her show was awesome.

6. Sheryl Crow, 1999: Every year, Memphis has the Beale Street Music Fest and the Memphis in May bbq cooking contest the first couple weeks of May. The music fest always features a ton of big name artists and lasts for 3 days. I would compare it to Coachella in California. I saw Sheryl at the music fest that year. I don't remember enjoying it that much. Simply because our music fest is always muddy and/or rainy and usually hot and humid. Plus the crowds. Locals have taken to calling it Memphis in Mud instead of Memphis in May. I don't enjoy that type of thing. Maybe more so back then, but definitely not now. I haven't been to the Beale Street Music Fest probably SINCE this concert, lol.

7. Kid Rock, 2001, 20 years old: This was the best concert I've ever been to, hands down. The floor tickets were all general admission, which means there were no actual chairs to sit in. We had floor tickets. It was me, my bestie at the time, and two other girls. We managed to push our way almost to the front of the crowd, about 20 feet from the stage. Believe it or not, Kid Rock puts on a really good show. Two really good bands, Buckcherry and Fuel opened for him. Fuel has always been one of my favorites. Anyway, I just remember being really close to the stage and swaying along with the crowd to the music and we were all dancing with some dudes we met. Just good clean, wholesome entertainment, lol. Ok, maybe not so clean and wholesome. But definitely good entertainment.

8. Matchbox 20, 2001, 20 years old: This one I went to with two of my roomates and really the only thing I remember about this concert, is that we were sitting in the nosebleeds. I DO love Matchbox 20, though. Even to this day.

9. Aerosmith and Fuel, 2001, 20 years old: This one was a great concert. The tickets were expensive; the seats were really good. Went with my 3 roomates and one of their boyfriends (who was rich and paid for our tickets). As I said before, Fuel has always been one of my fave 90's/2000s bands. And my roomates were all crazy about them. One of the only bands where my thing is for the lead singer. My roomate Daphne, who was also my bestie at that time, was the one who got me into this band, actually. Back when we saw them with Kid Rock.

10. Fuel, 2003?, 22 years old: This concert was wild. They were playing downtown on Beale Street at the New Daisy Theater, which has HORRIBLE acoustics and is standing room only. Went to this show with my bestie Daphne and another girl. We were pretty close to the stage. Random dudes trying (and succeeding) to grind on us. We were like, 6 feet from a giant speaker. It was super loud and my feet were killing me because I was wearing these really fashionable Steve Madden boots. I don't think we stayed for the entire concert.

11. Bon Jovi, 2011?: First concert that me and my hubs Eric ever went to. It was good, I paid a shitload for the tickets and the seats were disappointing for how much I paid for them. Also, I was SUPER BUMMED because Richie was not at this concert. He had left the tour to go to rehab. The dude that filled in was ok, but NOT the same. Still, I did enjoy myself. My only regret is that I didn't take one single photo.

12. Motley Crue and Alice Cooper, 2014: Excellent show. Me and the hubs went. I splurged and bought 11th row seats so I could be close to Nikki. Vince wasn't the best live, though, to be honest. But they played all the old hits and then some. Tommy had his drum kit go out on this roller coaster track upside down that went out over the audience, which was killer. Also, I was very impressed with Alice Cooper and his band.

13. Korn, 2016?: I love Korn so much. They aren't for everybody, though. The bassist, Fieldy, is one of the fave bassists. His technique on the 5 string bass is really unique. Went to this one with Eric, as well. They were really good live.

Ok. That was a lot of rambling. I am actually quite tired after all of that, lol.

Shells, before I say anything else, I feel like I should apologize to you. That was SO enjoyable for me to read, but that must have been so much work! I never, ever meant for you to work that hard on that, and I feel really bad! But it was so much fun to read. Once again, I'm sorry! And thank you so much- I owe you one sometime.

I think, out of these, that the GnR concert would have been my favorite to be at. I am SO GLAD you got to see Izzy before he left! Even if he didn't mean that much to you back then (I remember you saying up until fairly recently you were a Duff girl) little did you know, he would mean so much to you one day! So glad you got to see him. I'm sure you are too, in hindsight.

Both of the Aerosmith ones sounded like fun! As you know, I adore Aerosmith, and I'm a little jealous that you got to see Joe Perry 🖤🖤🖤. If you ask me, you went at a pretty ideal time with this one and with GnR. GnR was coming off of Illusion, and Aerosmith was coming off of Get A Grip. That sounds like an awesome time to see both of them.

The Crue concert sounds like a lot of fun, too. You saying you got 11th row seats so you could be close to Nikki was really sweet to me for some reason 😭. I hope you got to be as close to him as you hoped! The thing Tommy did with this drum kit seems like it would be really cool. That's so awesome! (I don't know if you saw the post I just made today about Crue, but if not, try to find it- it shouldn't be lost just yet. Too much to put in my response to this, even for ME, lol. 😂)

I'm so, so glad you have all these cherished memories! I can't think of anyone who deserves them more, because I know your love for music and these bands. This was so much fun to read! Once again, I'm sorry you had to work so hard on it! I never meant for that to happen at all. But, it was very easy to read, and easy to understand, so that I could kind of "experience these concerts with you", per se. What I'm trying to say is that you described everything very well so that I could visualize things in my mind!

I can't thank you enough! So I'll say it one more time- thank you! 💛

#shells 🐚#my southern sis 🧡

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toasted-valentine · 13 days

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Analysis of the song “Choker” by Raincloud Halo

(Note: I do not own any of these characters, I am just very intense about artists I like, and my adhd is very unmedicated right now so I’m on my hyperfixation bullshit. All characters belong to @cynopter / @tobyisave, I am but a humble nerd who needs to let my energy out somehow.)

Cw suicide, strangulation, general violence, OCD, and intrusive thoughts.

Linking to the creator’s post about the characters, I’m just gonna go more in depth and speculate about specifics within the song and what each lyric could be alluding to. Again, send this dude bro all the love, motherfucker deserves it for scratching at the adhd parts of my brain and having such crunchy looking art. Anyways, if their art had a flavor it would be salty and spicy, and that’s my favorite, so go check them out.

Gonna go bit by bit, lyrics in orange, my notes in white.

“Veering off the path

With the devil on my shoulder”

Townsend went as far into the middle of nowhere as they could get to hang themself, they’re going off the already established paths to make sure no one finds them. People who kill themself will sometimes go out of the way to make sure their loved ones don’t find them. This is most likely what Townsend is doing, not realizing that it’ll trap her as a ghost. The devil line is a reference to the fact that their family and community blamed their OCD on the devil, so Townsend’s religious trauma is showing it’s hand.

“A sturdy branch that won't snap

And Baby's jacket dangling at my waist

'Cause he won't miss it when he's older”

First part is just referencing Townsend finding a branch that’ll hold their weight so that they can hang themself, the second bit is what I’m more interested in. Townsend stole her baby brother’s jacket to take with her as a reminder as to why she’s doing this, and I believe the line has a duel meaning. Townsend’s brother won’t miss the jacket when he’s older, sure, but he also won’t miss May. He’s a baby at this point, he hasn’t been hit with the consciousness beam yet, he won’t remember the older sister that died if she does it now.

“It gets really bad

I don't know why they're not scared of that

I only dream of hurting him

Now images of wringing him out”

Townsend is terrified of her intrusive thoughts, she had OCD and is suffering from violent compulsions. She wants someone to hold her accountable, to hurt her, to keep their distance so she doesn’t hurt them. It’s why she commits suicide, in her mind it’s the best possible way to keep her from hurting her brother since she loves him. She’s sort of hyping herself up in this moment, once more reminding herself as to why she’s doing this.

“No one ever tell you not to nurse the wolf pup?

Now I've gone and tied the ends off on this strife

Sorry, that's just what happens when you trust me with my life”

May sees herself as a dangerous creature, therefore is comparing her family keeping her around to keeping a wolf around. In her mind she’s just going to maul someone, so she needs to be put down for the greater good. She finishes tying the noose, apologizes one last time, and dies.

“The city

Good people passing through me everywhere I go”

May wakes up as a ghost, she’s officially the ghost at the towns end, and Townsend is figuratively born. The thing is, since she’s a ghost, no one can see her. Everyone around her seem like “good people”, better than her, and she’s stuck alone having to watch them. It’s like living in hell, seeing “normal” people just living their lives, and none of them seeing the supposed demon standing right by them. It’s why she lives in the edge of town, she can’t stand to see them.

“And I hate that you found mе

Don't want to have to say I told you so”

Enter stage left Phượng, she can see ghosts and finds Townsend. And Townsend fucking hates it, not because she necessarily dislikes Phượng, but because it means she could potentially hurt someone. As much as Phượng reassures Townsend that she’s not dangerous, she doesn’t believe it and is waiting for the “I told you so” moment. She’s anticipating the moment she snaps and hurts Phượng, and is fucking terrified of the thought.

“"Don't touch me, I'll kill you"

The devils will slip through”

Townsend is trying to keep Phượng and her brother as emotionally distant as humanly possible, it’s safer that way after all, at least it is in Townsend’s mind. Along with that she’s trying to get Phượng to lash out and exorcise her, to kill her and get it over with. It’s a fucked up way of trying to protect the two. The devils line is once again referencing Townsend’s religious upbringing and her belief that Satan himself is fucking with her brain and making her want to kill.

“But still you hold me to yourself in bed

Like it’s all in my head”

Phượng has full knowledge of Townsend supposedly being an evil ghost, and in spite of that, she still wants her. She still loves Townsend, she loves May, and still is completely comfortable sleeping next to May. Phượng knows that May would never hurt her, May can’t event stomach the idea of hurting someone, let alone hurting her partner. Phượng keeps telling May that it’s just in her head and that that there’s no way May would hurt her, pulls her close at night so there’s not the kind of distance May thinks is safe for Phượng, is insistent that May isn’t dangerous or evil. Specifically having it be when Phượng is sleeping next to May is something interesting to take note of, because she trusts May at what could be considered a person’s most vulnerable state. People can’t defend themself when sleeping, so it’s a big sign of trust and security in May.

“But it gets so bad

I don't know why you're not scared of that

I'm thinking of your broken body

Reaching in and squeezing softly”

Townsend’s worst night has started pulling itself out of the hellscape that is her OCD, the intrusive thoughts and homicidal compulsions have transferred onto Phượng. She’s started thinking about killing Phượng, and it’s hell. What’s worse is that the compulsions have gotten more gorey and violent, which scares Townsend. Even still, after presumably telling Phượng about her compulsions, Phượng remains a devoted partner and isn’t scared of May. It confuses the hell out of May, Phượng knows damn well what May is thinking about, and she still loves May.

“No one ever tell you not to play with fire?

Somehow got to hang me higher than your knife”

(Going to be so for real, I’ve got no clue what the knife line is referring to, so gonna focus on the other one. )

The line about fire has a larger meaning, May is comparing herself to fire, something dangerous and deadly. Thing is, Phượng isn’t scared of fire, she burns stuff often as offerings to her sister. May saying she’s deadly, that Phượng is playing with fire, but it’s a double meaning that helps show why Phượng isn’t scared of Townsend. Phượng can see the good in fire, the good it can do for her sister, and is completely fine around it. Townsend is fire to Phượng, but in the sense of the warmth and safety it brings, and more importantly the love.

“I swear to god

Stop saying that you trust me with your life!”

Phượng keeps trying to reassure May, tell her that she trust her, but it’s just cold comfort to May. May couldn’t even be trusted with her own life, how is she expected to be trusted with her partner’s? It’s the racing thoughts of not being able to keep a loved one safe, and all their reassurances not making May feel better. Sometimes loved ones say the wrong thing and can cause people suffering from a mental illness to spiral or lash out, being told this just makes May feel like she got handed a loaded weapon with a hair trigger on it.

“ "Choke her" Fuck Him" "Devil"

Why would I do that?

"Choke her" Fuck Him" "Devil"

Why would I do that?

Why would I do that?”

May is full in her own mind at this point, she’s scaring the every loving hell out of herself, and questioning why she’d even want to choke her loved ones to death. It’s scary, and she just is repeating the question over and over again in her mind. The three most common intrusive thoughts she has are full swing, the thought of choking Phượng, the thought of harming her brother, and the thought that keeps calling herself the devil due to her religious trauma. It’s bouncing back and forth between the compulsions and questioning why she’d ever even think of doing that. The bridge is basically just one extended panic attack May is having in her mind.

“Choker!”

Roll credits.

But seriously, this is just May calling herself choker, and the compulsion of “choke her” morphing into an insult in her mind due to the stress and similarity of pronunciation. Townsend has managed to find a way to turn her compulsion into a title/self loathing term by meshing the two words together.

“I lover her

And I love my baby brother

Love her (Devil)

Lover (Devil)”

May is reaffirming her love for her brother and for Phượng in her mind, along with accepting the fact she is in love with Phượng. She accepts Phượng as her lover and is willing to have that vulnerability, even tho her own low self esteem keeps causing thoughts that call her the devil. She’s trying to comfort herself with continued remembrance that these are the two people she loves most in the world.

“I’d never do that

(Choke her)”

I think this line can be read two ways,

•May accepting that she’d never actually hurt Phượng because she loves Phượng, even if the compulsions are still ringing in the back of her mind.

•Townsend having a crisis of conscious and desperately trying to cling onto the last bit of self soothing she can find when she feels like the intrusive thoughts and OCD are consuming her.

Personally I like the first one more because it leaves the door open for hope and the possibility of May being able to life a happy life with her lover. The mental illness may never go away, but she still knows that she loves Phượng and her little brother, and at the end of the day she’d never hurt them.

Moral of the story, intrusive thoughts don’t make you a bad person, there is no such thing as thought crime, and the Catholic Church should never be trusted with mental health issues.

This is just my own interpretation and analysis, I could be completely off the mark with this one, I just am having fun.

Again, please go check out the original creator, his work is amazing and he deserves more love for it. Their work really resonates with me, especially Choker with the fears of how intrusive thoughts could harm loved ones, and I think there’s a lot of good to be had in someone making stuff like this. Plus, the dude is just generally really skilled, and you can see the amount of effort it took to get to this point in his various artistic endeavors. I pray for that man’s wrist, the carpel tunnel must be so bad.

#raincloud halo #orange peels on fire #opof #not my oc #not my character #townsend #Phuong #cw ocd #cw violence #cw death #cw sui mention #cw strangulation #analysis #song analysis

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suckitsurveys · 21 days

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Do you like meatball subs? I think I’ve only had one once in my life. I don’t hate the idea of them I just prefer meatballs in pasta.

What is your favorite smell on earth? Summer rain.

If you have a sib, do you call him/her “brother” or “sister” sometimes? Sometimes I call her “big sissy” and she calls me “lil sissy.”

Did you ever collect stickers? Yeah, I have a ton of stickers currently.

Have you been baptized in any religious tradition? Nope.

Do you love the smell of sunblock? I do. It’s so nostalgic.

What was the last upsetting thing that happened to you? Blah.

What was the last thing you ordered from Starbucks? I’m boycotting Starbucks.

Do you trust your doctor? Sure.

Do you ever question if your mother loves you? Nope, she’s dead.

What is missing in your life? I don’t know.

What is your favorite type of Lunchables? Pizza.

What is the worst medication side effect you’ve ever had? I thankfully haven’t had horrible side effects from medications, so the worst was just feeling SO dizzy from whatever pain meds they gave me after I got my wisdom teeth out. The dizziness was so bad I didn’t take it again.

What is your favorite thing to order at Taco Bell? Baja Blast and tacos of course.

What church do you go to? I don’t go to church.

Do you take risks often? Eh.

The last time you ate leftovers, what was it that you were eating? I don’t remember. I think it was tacos last weekend? Yeah. I got 3 tacos AND an order of nachos and the nachos filled me up so much i couldn’t eat the tacos, but I ended up eating them late that night.

What was the last flavor of ice cream you ate? Butter Pecan.

What is your favorite song at the moment? I’m REALLY into Chappell Roan at the moment and Pink Pony Club is one of my favorites.

What is one thing you have too much of? Stress.

What type of fruit do you eat the most? Bananas and lately strawberries.

Would you rather eat strawberries or watermelon? Oddly enough, watermelon lol.

Do you prefer hamburgers or hot dogs? Hot dogs, but I do love burgers.

How far away do you live from the place where you were born? I live in the city I was born in.

If you buried a time capsule, what would you put in it? Magazines maybe?

Describe your clothing style in three words: Comfortable, lazy, unbothered.

What’s something you want to do more often? Be outside.

Who is your favorite YouTuber? I don’t pay much attention to YouTubers anymore but my all time favorite would have to be Grav3yardgirl/Bunny Meyer. I also love Mamrie Hart and Grace Helbig.

Do you believe in soulmates? Sure.

What band or artist do you think is overrated? Music is subjective and any real fan of music wouldn’t think anything is overrated. If you like it, it’s good music.

What’s something untrue that you believed for a long time? I don’t know.

Did you skateboard when you were younger? Nope.

Have you ever won a contest? Yeah.

What’s something weird you’ve eaten? I don’t knowwwww what is weird to you??

Who is someone you would like to get to know better? I wish I was closer with my upstairs neighbors.

When’s that last time you saw snow? I feel like it snowed a little a couple weeks ago?

Who are the 3 people you love the most? Mark, my dad, and both my nieces.

Last person you slept in the same bed with? Mark.

Have you recently been sick? I feel kinda sick right now.

Would you marry someone if they were unable to have sex? Yeah.

Does heartbreak really feel as bad as it sounds? Yes.

Last reason you went to the ER? To visit someone who was there.

What facial cleanser do you use? Neutrogena.

What was the last fruit or vegetable you chopped/sliced up? Strawberries.

Does the last person whose house you were at like anyone? Uh, my dad’s house and this is a weird question to answer about him tbh.

Do you tend to talk on the phone a lot? No.

What turns you on the most? My husband.

Have you ever kissed someone of the same sex? Yes.

Have you ever suspected anyone of cheating on you? Uh huh, dumb idiot boys.

Ever get caught doing something naughty with your boyfriend/girlfriend? Yes.

Do you use q-tips to clean your ears? Sometimes.

Have you ever swam with dolphins? No, but I’d like to.

If you/your gf became pregnant accidentally, would you consider abortion? I would get an abortion.

What was the last candy you ate? A Reese’s Big Cup with caramel which is my new favorite candy because it combines all three of my favorite parts of chocolate candies lol (chocolate, PB, and caramel).

Do you like zombie movies? Eh.

What’s the grossest/worst thing you’ve ever seen in a public restroom? Shit covered walls.

Have you ever volunteered in a hospital? If not, would you ever want to? No to both.

How do you feel about runny egg yolks? Not my favorite but I don’t mind them really.

Have you ever hidden a relationship from your family? No.

Who was the worst friend you ever had? Lydia.

When was the last time you made plans with someone? What are you going to do with that person? Last week but they fell through.

Are you close to your extended family? Do you wish you were closer? Kinda, with a couple of them.

While on the road, do you play any road games? I have.

Have you ever picked apples before? Yes.

Are you scared of semi-trucks? Especially when you’re driving next to one? I don’t like it.

Do you have a fence? Yeah.

If you have any pets, do you talk to them in a baby voice? Yes.

Who was the last person to comfort you? My husband.

Do you think that in the end, everything will fall into place? Eh.

What was the last thing you swallowed? My own spit.

Do you like cats? I LOVE cats.

On a scale of one to ten how much do looks matter to you? In general? idk, 5?.

What are you listening to? Nothing.

What’s the closest pink object to you? My Princess Carolyn Funko Pop I have on my desk.

Are you afraid of thunderstorms? They can be a little scary but I enjoy them more than I’m scared of them.

Do you need a boyfriend/girlfriend to be happy? No, but I am happier when I have a partner.

Do you have impulse control? Sure.

Would you do anything on a dare? No.

#surveys

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mr-divabetic · 2 months

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Max Szadek <[email protected]>

to me

Born in Pittsburgh in 1950, Phyllis Hyman was the eldest of seven children. She grew up in Philadelphia, listening to a wide range of music from James Brown and Nina Simone to Karen Carpenter and Minnie Ripperton.

Her big break came when she gained the attention of jazz drummer Norman Connors, who had a reputation for discovering female vocalists such as Jean Carne. Norman Connors produced Phyllis Hyman’s sultry rendition of The Stylistics’ “Betcha By Golly Wow,” which proved a favorite on R&B radio stations in the United States.

She signed to the New York-based Buddha Record label and cut several fine tracks, which became staple fare on an emerging radio format, the “Quiet Storm,” soul ballads played late into the night.

Later, she signed with Arista Records, reaching an international audience with her albums "Somewhere in My Lifetime," "Can’t We Fall in Love Again," and the album that bears the title of one of her biggest hit singles, "You Know How to Love Me."

In 1986, she returned to Philadelphia and signed with Kenny Gamble at Philadelphia International Records. Their hit album, "Living All Alone," included the now-classic single “Old Friend.” This song was a comfort for many of us during the AIDS epidemic. She visited New York City hospices and performed at countless benefits. Phyllis mentioned her own loss made it difficult to perform the song. It's still one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded, filled with sadness with a heartfelt plea to reunite with a lost love.

Phyllis was often plagued with self-criticism. In a 1991 interview with David Nathan, she said, “Up until 5 years ago, I didn’t listen that much to myself… When people would say they loved my voice, I’d wonder, ‘Why are they moved?’ Now, I’m beginning to understand how people can be turned on by my singing… I’ve been told that people can feel a lot more love and calm coming from me these days.”

When she should have been soaring like the songbird she was, Phyllis Hyman’s mental health issues took over her life. She was diagnosed as being “bipolar,” a medical term for someone who suffers from the disease of manic-depression.

As she got older, her disease became more and more challenging t for her to manage. She chose not to use pharmaceutical medication and instead self-medicate. Her self-medication distorted her disease more and more until she felt helpless about ever being able to recover from it. Her self-destructive behavior and problems became more evident to her family, friends, and music industry peers. She attempted suicide twice before she took her life a few days before her 45th birthday and only a few hours before she was due to appear at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem.

“As an artist, she sang her desperation. She has a song that is a soundtrack of her entire life, ‘You Just Don’t Know What I’ve Been Going Through,’ ” said Frank Sheffield, Hyman’s long-time friend who managed the jazz station at Hampton (Va.) University, where Hyman often appeared.

After Phyllis' passing, Roberta Flack said, “Phyllis’ voice, at once breathy and resonant, will sing in my heart and spirit forever."

#phyllis hyman #mental health #quiet storm #vocalist #sophisticatedstyle #tony awards #singer

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qazastra · 1 year

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hi look at qaz’s (my) top album releases of 2022!!! in no particular order. some of my fav tracks like this. lyrics below. i probably forgot a few? don’t worry about it

AMERICAN GURL - kilo kish american gurl, on the outside (justin’s song)

in a locked box / in a locked drawer / will i find me an american girl?

this is a capital-A Album. kilo kish has been on the periphery of artists i keep tabs on for like 8 years now and im so glad i sat down and listened to this release all the way through. talks about/around being, well, an American Gurl, but in a much more realistic and relatable way than lana. v cool. u must hear it in order (at least the first time)!!!!!

CHASE - minho prove it, heartbreak

i haven’t sat with this one as long as the others but i already know these songs are gonna stick with me!! waterfall has recently been on my mind :-)

Sweet Home - no buses stopstopstop, i’m with you, rubbish:)

if i can’t come to you, take me to the place where you are

albums that singlehandedly make you excited about indie rock again i’m not even exaggerating. a little downbeat overall, but cozy. i’m 90% sure their band name comes from the arctic monkeys song and that they are also influenced by early phoenix, if that gives you an idea of their sound. but don’t misunderstand, i don’t think it’s derivative! just gives me similar feelings of being emotionally affected by guitars that listening to is this it for the first time did.

The Car - arctic monkeys sculptures of anything goes, mr. schwartz, big ideas

i had big ideas, the band were so excited / the kind you'd rather not share over the phone

i’ve been on band tumblr since i think right before the AM era and this is quite a departure from that stadium rock vibe but it feels like a natural progression from their previous (excellent) sprawling concept album. each song has a real charm to it, i’ve been really into most of them in turns.

2 Baddies - nct 127 gold dust, designer, crash landing, time lapse

HI HELLO. NEED I SAY MORE. i will though. FASTER INTO 2 BADDIES?? HI. that transition is so good. are you kidding me!!! on first listen i really thought faster should’ve been the title track lol. the first seven tracks are PERFECT. a couple of the other songs inspire ummm. mirth. let’s put it that way. and the closer is fine. but the great parts balance out the mid and even the mid parts have their merits. plus i really like that this album makes sense sonically as a cohesive whole, i think the vaguely cyberpunk promo imagery from the album teaser actually pays off!

Instinct Part 2 - onlyoneof skinz, gaslighting

what can i say??? this was my first comeback with onlyoneof and it cemented their spot as one of my favorite bands/groups of all time. i know many people took issue with the tt skinz but i love its nails-on-a-chalkboard moments with my whole heart. on first listen gaslighting held my attention and it never let me go. suit dance, once i got past the kind of silly lyrics, is just so pleasant to listen to. and ultimate bliss. what can i say. peak onlyoneof. incredible.

Face The Sun - seventeen domino, shadow, hot

to be honest this has got to be the first straight pop album that i ever listened to that was genuinely no skips. and that would earn it a spot on here even if the songs were aggressively mid. bUT THEY AREN’T.

LP3 - hippo campus ashtray, semi-pro

i’ve been bad but i’m only getting better

i’ll be real i forgot this came out this year till i was recently reminded that i saw them live for it and it was so so good... hippo campus’ lyricism blends really well with their production in this album in a way i haven’t seen before!! i might call it a coming of age album for the twentysomething lost in a city. something like that maybe.

CYBERKISS* - blackstarkids pink stars, sex appeal

gotta stay fresh as fuck inside this user interface / even when i’m feelin down, i know that i’ll be up again

so very fun!! same label as the 1975 which makes a lot of sense looking back on it but like, in a good way i think. i love how they all share the vocals, i love the hyperpop and bubblegum influence, love the genuine lyrics and the silly ones. just a joy to listen to.

undergrOund idOl series - onlyoneof begin, because

begin was my top played song of 2022. it’s really something. i wasn’t sure what to expect when they announced a solo for each member, but i think their creative freedom was really put to good use here!! each song stands alone and together and they all have a recognizable onlyoneof-ness, they all feel very unique to each other and suited to their respective members. that’s not to mention the b-sides that come with every new song-- remixes of old bsides, all great (even if the company is doing it so they have versions of bsides without love on them :/ ). and that’s not even mentioning the music videos!! they all tell stories about gay relationships :] i’m very much looking forward to nine’s solo in a few days to close out the series!! <3

#>:)#my fav albums overall would be 2 baddies sweet home and the underground idol seris i think #m #music

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domingoanoite · 1 year

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This is a Q&A that I answered on this blog when I was 24. I decided to revisit it 6 years later and update some of the answers, even though most of them remain the same (guess I’m consistent) Some truths about myself:

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? -More milk than cereal 2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? -Kind of (nowadays I would say no coz it also freezes my nose and ears lol) 3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? -Anything close to me; pencils, post-its, my phone, etc 4: how do you take your coffee/tea? -Sugar is essential 5: are you self-conscious of your smile? -Yes 6: do you keep plants? -No, they are boring (and I kill all of them) 7: do you name your plants? -Lol 8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? -I'm very bad at expressing them, actually I normally keep my feelings to myself 9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? -Oh yes 10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? -All of them 11: what's an inner joke you have with your friends? -There are so many! All very retarded, of course 12: what's your favorite planet? -Saturn (I changed to Venus, I guess) 13: what's something that made you smile today? -Vines of dogs (OMG vines! nowadays it’s more accurate to say tiktoks of cats) 14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? -Like a nerd palace; full of games and food everywhere (I live with my best friend now, and our house is lowkey nerdy yes) 15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! -The Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing. This deceleration is happening almost imperceptibly, at approximately 17 milliseconds per hundred years. (oh my!) (also, a full nasa space suit costs 12 million dollars.) 16: what's your favorite pasta dish? -Lasagne! (nice answer girl) 17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? -Purple or pink; my mum never let me dye my hair, so now I'm 24 and I've been craving for it (I managed to dye it pink 3 years ago!!!!) 18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. -Once I made a birthday cake for my friend with four legs and a square on top; like a chair. It was hideous, and they never let me forget it 19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? -Nope. Never had one because I'm afraid people would read it (I just started scrapbooking now) 20: what's your favorite eye color? -Gray, like Amy Lee's 21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that's been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. -I have this tetris themed backpack for so many years and it's still brand new; I love it (still have it, still looks brand new) 22: are you a morning person? -Noooo 23: what's your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? -Play games on the pc; omg I just love it 24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? -Yes, my group of friends from school are still the best creatures I've ever met (plus, today I would say also my husband) 25: what's the weirdest place you've ever broken into? -I don't think I've ever broken into a nice place :( 26: what are the shoes you've had for forever and wear with every single outfit? -a pair of oxford shoes with a gorgeous pattern of lines and curves, kind of victorian style; it's falling apart but I love it (still have it, but it’s back in Brazil and I dont wear it because I want to preserve that beauty) 27: what's your favorite bubblegum flavor? -Strawberry of tutti-frutti 28: sunrise or sunset? -Sunset; I'm never awake to see the sunrise lol 29: what's something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? -I have this Charlotte friend here in Bournemouth that has the cutest laugh ever (she just had a lovely baby girl :)) 30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? -Of course 31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. -Socks are amazing. I love socks. I wanted to glue socks on my feet forever. I love weird socks with different themes and colours, and I rarely wear white ones. It's mandatory for me to sleep with socks, even in a hot night. I'm wearing socks right now (I couldn’t have answered this better) 32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. -Nothing good happens after 3AM. If I'm awake at this time, I'm possibly drunk, so you can imagine (bitch nowadays I’m only awake at 3am if I’m at the hospital with SOMEONE WHO IS ABOUT TO DIE) 33: what's your fave pastry? -Birthday cake, especially strawberry 34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? -I have this cute polar bear with a pink dress that is still in my room; it has a boyfriend too, a polar bear with a christmas outfit but his head is almost falling from the body HAHAHA (I hope my mum didn’t get rid of it at this point, idk) 35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? -I used to have loads as a teenager, with different colours and such. Nowadays I don't really care about pens, and most of them are stolen 36: which band's sound would fit your mood right now? -Muse, forever and always (always! <3) 37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? -Clean and messy. Clean above all 38: tell us about your pet peeves! -I'm obssessed about cleaning; the fizzy drink bottles must ALWAYS be closed with their lids, my hair must be perfect at all times and I can't stand being without a bra (I think at the time I really didn’t know what a pet peeve was; to answer this better, I would say when people chew with their mouth open) 39: what color do you wear the most? -Blue (only dark and sober tbh) 40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what's it's story? does it have any meaning to you? -I have this gorgeous pearl ring that my grandma gave me, and her grandma gave it to her. It's the most precious material thing I own (also wedding rings now but I dont really wear them) 41: what's the last book you remember really, really loving? -The green mile by Stephen King (oof! more recently, song of achiles by madeline miller and alias grace by margaret atwood) 42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! -not really 43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? -I don't normally gaze at the stars lol 44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? -I feel it all the time 45: do you trust your instincts a lot? -Yes (not really, liar, you ignore them and than feel stupid. I’m trying to listen to it more!!!!) 46: tell us the worst pun you can think of. -How do you make the number one disappear? Add the letter G and it's "gone" (lady walks into the shop and orders 12 bees. guy gives her 13. she says: but thats too many bees! he says: one of them is a freebie) 47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? -Olives and any spicy food aaaaaargh 48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? -Darkness; I slept with the lights on until I was 17. Today I'm not scared of it anymore 49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? -Nope hehe last one I bought was in 2002 (spotify bitch, hello) 50: what's an odd thing you collect? -I don't collect anything 51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? -My boyfriend Brendan; No Diggity by Chet Faker (Bren is my husband now!) 52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? -I'm Brazilian, so I would say "o meme da senhora" (the memes about the Queen’s death this year were brilliant) 53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? _I've only watched pulp fiction; I thought it was meh (still true, I also watched rocky horror and it’s very weird. the rest are yet to be seen) 54: who's the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? -This picture of a pug on a calendar 55: what's the most dramatic thing you've ever done to prove a point? -LOL I was playing goat simulator with Brendan and I told him not to go to this certain place. He went and got fucked. I screamed for 5 minutes WHY DON'T YOU BELIEVE ME? DAAAM IT! (I dont remember doing this xD) 56: what are some things you find endearing in people? -When they react to animals; when they make funny voices and faces and when they share stories from their childhood 57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? -It always makes me sing along in the most dramatic way possible 58: who's the wine mom and who's the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? -Oh my god LOL I don't know how to answer this question 59: what's your favorite myth? -I love the Deathly Hallows heh (I love myths, give me more myths!) 60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? -Nah, poetry is lame 61: what's the stupidest gift you've ever given? the stupidest one you've ever received? -I gave a bunch of condoms to my friend that was turning 18; once I received clothes 62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? -Only at certain weekends when my mum makes me orange juice (nobody makes me juice nowadays) 63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? -I have an ebook that is really precious and I take it everywhere. The physical ones are meticulously organized. I don't care about my music lol I can listen to anything on Youtube (spotify!!! youtube became annoying with all the ads) 64: what color is the sky where you are right now? -Light blue with a lot of clouds (gray, it could rain) 65: is there anyone you haven't seen in a long time who you'd love to hang out with? -MY DOOOGS (I’ve seen them last week <3) 66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? -I don't care about flowers lol but I like roses 67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? -Makes me wanna read dark stories 68: what's winter like where you live? -In Brazil it's hot as summer (here in London it’s cold, nothing else to add.) 69: what are your favorite board games? -Monopoly and scrabble 70: have you ever used a ouija board? -Nope 71: what's your favorite kind of tea? -I prefer hot chocolate (or chai latte) 72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you'll forget it? -Not really (my memory is worse now tho) 73: what are some of your worst habits? -Touching my hair all the time (Bren would say my clapping) 74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. -It is one of my best friends since we were eleven. It loves nature and travelling, looks like a free, delicate bird that smiles all the time and I feel we can spend years without talking to each other, but when we meet again, nothing changes really 75: tell us about your pets! -I'M SO GLAD THIS QUESTION ARRIVED I'M INSANELY IN LOVE WITH ANIMALS AND I LOVE MY TWO PUGS SO MUCH I CAN'T EVEN. Cacau is a black princess and Zik is fawn, they are so lovely and I miss them with all my heart (I still love them babies, but here in London I also have a cat now, she is a Calico named Zelda and she is so soft and cute!) 76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren't? -My final Masters project (there is always something to clean) 77: pink or yellow lemonade? -Yellow (pink) 78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? -I'm indifferent to them (hate club) 79: what's one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? -My friend De Hong hid Aladdin on my pc and made a treasure hunt on my archives so I could find it (<3) 80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? -They are white, but one wall has a beautiful pink wallpaper with flowers on it. My mum chose it to be honest but I love it (all my walls are cream now but I can’t change them coz the house ain’t mine) 81: describe one of your friend's eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. -Brendan's eyes are green with a yellow circle in the middle; damn it I said it directly 82: are/were you good in school? -Yes 83: what's some of your favorite album art? Muse's "Absolution" 84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? -I already have three and don't plan to make more (lol I made another. I have 4 now but I’m removing one of them with laser, so will be back to 3 and I don’t plan to make more) 85: do you read comics? what are your faves? -Not really 86: do you like concept albums? which ones? -Nah 87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? -Finding nemo lol and Forrest Gump (idk about those anymore haha) 88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? -The Romanticism at the 18th and 19th centuries 89: are you close to your parents? -Very 90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. -I love my hometown Brasilia. It's very quiet, with beautiful architecture and open spaces. It's not touristic at all and it doesn't have anything to do, but I love it 91: where do you plan on traveling this year? -Back to Brazil for a few weeks and hopefully Belgium (went to both this year lol, no more travels tho because of work, but I also went to Madeira) 92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? -I DEMAND MORE CHEESE 93: what's the hairstyle you wear the most? -I leave it natural and free (a bun because of fucking work) 94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? -Michael Worrall like two days ago (Charlotte I guess) 95: what are your plans for this weekend? -Work work work (work work work) 96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? -Procrastination ftw 97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? -What the fuck is a myer briggs type? I'm a capricorn and hufflepuff 98: when's the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? -During Easter I did it in Ibiza with my coursemate Allison, it was amazing (i don’t remember it being that amazing...the town was dead. but last hiking I did was with Bren at the new forest, then we went to Bmouth to visit Prz, it was nice :)) 99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. -When you were young by The killers and Good enough by Evanescence (like a stone by audioslave) 100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why? -I prefer to stay in the present. I wouldn't change anything in the past and I don't want to miss five years of my life

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gamerdog1 · 2 years

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Disney’s ZOMBIES Review

So, I worked at a day camp this summer. Fun times. Got to hang out with a bunch of cool people, meet some nice kids, and everywhere I went, I made sure to ask people what they were watching. Y’know…. Cuz we’ve all got the time. I love hearing people get really passionate about the stuff they like, though sometimes….(cut to children screaming about Frozen 2 as I slowly expire)

Anyways…. It’s pretty obvious that with kids, Disney is king. Like, absolute monarch, dictator supreme, all hail our new lord and savior Mickey Christ. And with more and more people getting Disney Plus, the mouse house has made its way into more houses than ever, allowing the new generations to enjoy films that were previously harder to get ahold of. I mean, outside of just BUYING the DVDS, which sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who does these days, Netflix doesn't have that shit, the internet is full of viruses, but hearing that my little cousins hadn’t even HEARD of Bambi felt like a crime I must solve. Now, with the power of Disney Plus, I can mentally scar them for only 8 bucks a month!

So, camp was a swapping ground for movie and show recommendations, and I was living for it. But….. if you know me, you might know I’m a little hesitant to get into Disney’s live-action stuff, especially musicals aimed at ‘THe HiP NeW GeneRATioN’. I’m lookin at you, Descendants, you fake-edgy-soda-pop-party-city-lookin-ass-motherfucker. No. I refuse. It looks stupid, and the music is dumb. I grew up watching the High School Musical trilogy, so it's not like Disney live-action musicals are foreign to me. I’m cool with em, but, y’know, sometimes you want something more. Like, something more high-concept. We’ve already seen highschool boy meets highschool girl, fall in love, and sing about it. Let's get something fresh!

PART 1: BACKSTORY

This is Z.O.M.B.I.E.S., or is it pronounced ‘z-o-m-b-i-e-s’? Whatever the case, this is a Disney Channel Original Movie

(Wait…..fuck, thats gonna be a lot to say. Let's just call them ‘D-COMS’. Yeah.)

So, It’s a Disney D-COM that came out in the totally tubular year of 2018, the same release year as my favorite rom-com, Rocket Raccoon’s first musical, and too many Marvel films to mention.

So many good movies makin’ it big in theaters, and then there's ZOMBIES. Poor ol’ ZOMBIES, relegated to air only on the Disney Channel, because god forbid a D-COM play in theaters...hahah.(cough cough Highschool Musical 3 cough)

The film is based on another Disney property, ‘Zombies & Cheerleaders’, that never made it past the pilot stage. Written by the same guys (David Light and Joseph Raso), and directed by the same guy who directed a shit-ton of other D-COM stuff like Jump In!, Cheetah Girls :One World and Luck of the Irish, ZOMBIES combines the usual D-COM style and fun with an idea that truly could only be done in our modern age.

So, without further ado, let's not waste anymore time, and get right into ZOMBIES.

Part 2: Visuals

Y’know what I love?. Color palettes. By golly if I don’t love a good color palette in a movie or game or something like that. My eyes cant get ENOUGH of color, and I bet yours are the same.

So when something uses color in an unconventional way, it's gonna hit you like -

I know this is a weird thing to start off with when talking about a D-COM, but as an artist, this is one of the FIRST THINGS I noticed about this movie, and I make sure to point it out to whoever I’m with, whenever I see this movie.

Lemme break it down real simple for y'all.

Take a look at the logo first. We’ve got a nice letterman font, usually used in school uniforms and stuff, y’know, Letterman jackets, sports jerseys, school logos. It's the typical ‘academic’ font. It's a nice green, but wait. See the hot pink behind it? Green and pink…. I wonder where those are in the movie- WELL WONDER NO MORE BUCKO CUZ THEY'RE EVERYWHERE.

Everything is green and pink. The bricks are pink. The rusty metal is green. The glass windows are pink. The school cheer uniforms are green and pink, and so are the football uniforms. It's a cacophony of those two colors, almost unnerving in its unnatural-ness, yet by varying the tones to fit the object they are on, the colors feel normal, and you almost don't even think why the slums are painted like a funhouse.

But it gets better.You might have already guessed this already, but do you want to know WHY green and pink specifically?

Well it's pretty simple, my dude. See, colors can be hella powerful, so using them wisely is important. It's pretty well known by now that colors can often symbolize things, and can give us certain ideas and reactions. So, let's investigate further.

Traditionally, pink is a color associated with femininity. No matter how hard we try, modern society can't seem to escape the idea that ‘pink is for girls’, even though in Victorian times, it was for boys. Pink is often associated with romance, sweetness, and all things cutesy. Pink is a ‘girls color’, quote on quote. Meanwhile, green is more gender neutral, and is associated with wealth, nature, growth, but in fantasy, with sickness and evil. Disney uses green often as its color of choice for bad magic, because of those connotations. Now, let's look at those colors next to the two types of people in this film: Zombies and humans. Zombies are a perfect match for green, because, well, they all have green hair. Plus, green is a color often associated with necromancy, decay, and , what else, zombification. That smog in the beginning of the movie that makes people into zombies is also green.

So does that mean the humans are pink? Yes, exactly! Contrasting with the ‘vile, diseased’ zombies, the humans are a perfect fit for a color often seen as nice and good. They’re obviously the good guys here, right? They’re pink! That means they’re non-threatening!

By placing these colors all over the film, we are reminded of their connotations, and therefore, what we are ‘supposed’ to think, or rather, what the naïve leads have been taught by their society. That the zombies are diseased and evil, and that the humans are pure and nice. If you think I’ve dug too deeply into this, you’ve obviously never been in a high-school art class.

ZOMBIES uses a simple color palette effectively, making its ordinary sets and locations pop with its unusual color combination. By using colors to symbolize the opposing factions, the film scatters about deeper messages about how looks can be deceiving, and how sometimes, we need to rethink what we are told is fact, a key message in the film’s plot.

Part 3: Music

Disney has always had a knack for music. At least, in their animation department. D-COMS are usually hit or miss in the musical department, which is super weird to me, cause the word ‘musical’ is in the title. Musicals allow story to be told through song, and can give the audience a deeper understanding of what's going on. Lemme give you an example.

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‘Scream’, from High School Musical 3 is a song where the lead, Troy, laments about how confusing choosing a post-secondary is for him. This song not only plainly explains how he feels torn between possible futures, but also does a fantastic job of showing his anxieties. The whole thing being during a thunderstorm, the room spinning as he struggles to stay standing, the hailstorm of basketballs raining down around him, the scene uses the musical number to help us better understand his struggles, and it does so effectively.

But how does ZOMBIES stack up? Pretty well, actually. Well, kind of. Less in the story-telling department, but it certainly makes up for it in terms of flair.

ZOMBIES takes a decidedly modern tone in its music, making a lot of it sound…. How do I describe…. I guess Disney-Channel-ish. Pop songs you could hear on ‘family friendly’ music playlists, all about believing in yourself and how friends are great. Nothing too complex or challenging here, folks, just some good, safe kids music. Though, to be fair, the whole soundtrack is, as the kids say, a bop. I’d say my favorite on the soundtrack is ‘Fired Up’, the song during the cheerleading tryouts. It has this nice backbeat, with drums that give a marching-band feel, giving it a ‘school fight song’ vibe. The redux of the song, done with different characters singing the lead vocals, gives it more prominent drum beats, making it sound even more like a marching song. With each redux or reprise of a song, they add more to it, sometimes changing the song’s tone entirely, such as with ‘Someday’, a song originally light-hearted and playful that takes a more tender and romantic edge during its reprise.

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The soundtrack is unfortunately a tad short on content. Half the soundtrack is just reprises, and it makes me wish there were more songs, not just the same ones done again with slight differences. Still, what’s there is fresh and modern-sounding, and just catchy enough for people like me to get into it.

Part 4: Characters

In your typical D-COM, the plot is usually centered around either pre-teens or teenagers, usually at a high-school. Each character can be neatly fit into a pre-made archetype, handed down from generations of past D-COMS, which got them from other teen movies and media, which got them from outdated ideas and stereotypes about what business executives think high school is like. Usually, the story revolves around a main couple, a guy and girl who meet during the plot, and will eventually fall in love by the end. The guy is an athlete, and wants nothing more than to make the team and win the big game. The girl is usually the new girl, therefore is shy, nervous, and ridiculously pretty. She has 1 friend, usually a POC, who is her shoulder to cry on until she gets her assigned boyfriend, and she is either a cheerleader or a straight-A student. Most D-COMS stick to this formula, since it’s worked in the past, and they pepper in little quirks on each character to make them unique to that film. So come along with me, as we go through the checklist.

In ZOMBIES, our lead guy is Zed, a zombie teen who wants nothing more than to try out for the football team. He’s a goofball, often joking with the other characters in serious situations, which makes him endearing to the love interest. Meanwhile, the lead lady is Addison, a bright-eyed, peppy blonde who is aiming to audition for the cheerleading squad. She is very optimistic about everything, but her GAP commercial parents pressure her to hide her real hair under a wig, so that she fits in at school.

Both leads have things about their physical appearances that makes them ‘different’, and would therefore make them social outcasts. Therefore, they find common ground not because they like each other, but because they wish to fight for change. This is a welcome diversion from the classic D-COM formula. The two play off each other really well, and for a good portion of the film, fooled me into thinking they were just good friends. It's nice to see Disney show a couple as friends, not just as a couple. In High School Musical, Troy and Vanessa are so in love with each other, every interaction between them is explicitly romantic, as if they have to keep restating to the audience that they're dating or else the kids at home will forget.

ZOMBIES also has a great supporting cast. Zed’s zombie friends, Eliza and Bonzo, are equally entertaining to watch, and act as support for Zed, and later, Addison as well. They offer more insight on how the zombie’s are treated by the humans, and help the leads push for integration in their school throughout the plot. The main villain, Bucky (no relation) is also a joy to watch, just because of how openly evil he is. There’s no twist villain here, folks. The real villain is the one who uses the discriminatory system to his advantage and sows seeds of xenophobia amongst his peers. Bucky is the cheery-looking face of the cheer squad, but not far underneath that smile is a bitter hatred for people that look or act differently than him. He commands the squad with a grin, while rooting out anyone who tries to outshine him or show anything other than disgust towards the zombies. He is also Addison’s cousin, giving the two an interesting dynamic.

The characters in Disney’s ZOMBIES may follow the usual teen high-school drama formula, but they take steps outside the boundaries in small doses, freshening up the tried and true stereotypes we’ve been so accustomed to seeing.

Part 5: Verdict

Overall, ZOMBIES is a great film. Really. It’s good to see a D-COM that people my age can enjoy, like, actually enjoy, not just put up with. These types of films are targeted towards a younger demographic, which means the writers know that their audience isn’t going to be doing as deep of an analysis of it as I am. The whole film is a fun time, with excellent musical numbers, great visuals, endearing characters, and a simple, cohesive story. While its use of breaking the 4th wall is too frequent for my taste, the film uses its characters well, creating a story that puts the issues of today in a language that children can understand. Like Zootopia, it deals with the topic of discrimination well, explaining how it starts, what it can look like, and how it affects people, while using the language of fiction and fantasy to make it easily palatable for all audiences. If i had any criticisms, I’d say that I think the soundtrack is a little lackluster. It would have been nice to see a variety of songs, rather than just reprises. I’d also like to see more worldbuilding, maybe a glimpse at how the rest of the zombies live. Does the discrimination affect the adult zombies? What about the little kids? How does a zombie family differ from a human one? I know there’s a sequel, so maybe those things are addressed there. Hopefully so, because I enjoyed the world that was built, and I think it has a lot of potential for more stories to be told in it. But for now, I’m happy I saw this, and I’d totally recommend it to anybody who has kids, likes D-COMS, or is looking for something a little more light-hearted this Halloween season. So, with that, my final score for Disney’s ZOMBIES.. Is an 8 out of 10. Go see this movie.

#film #disney #film critic #movie review #movies #disney zombies

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