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neon-dynasty · 3 years

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Kamigawa was a failed endeavor. Released in the autumn of 2004, Champions of Kamigawa promised some new things for Magic the Gathering, and the return to some old things as well. Most importantly, in my opinion, it showed that Wizards was paying attention to what fans were interested in (outside of Magic) and wanted to provide a way of relating to the fans. However, just about everything they did with the setting and game either couldn’t live up to expectations or outright failed. Here’s why I think the original Kamigawa block failed, and why I think a return would be a resounding success.

This came out much longer than I’d expected, so hit the jump.

For its entire existence up until 2004, most of Magic’s settings were a hodgepodge of fantasy tropes, and the storyline had been following or tying into a single thread for years. Kamigawa was the first setting to truly be free of the ongoing Magic story. Nowadays, however, Magic is known for its settings based on real-world places and cultures. Just this past year, we’ve visited Eldraine (Arthurian Britain), Theros (ancient Greece), and Ikoria (less a real culture and more about giant monster tropes). Back in 2004, however, visiting a clearly defined theme world like this was something that hadn’t been done in a long time. In fact, it’s something the franchise traditionally shied away from. 1996’s Mirage block took place in Jamuura, a continent on Dominaria based on sub-Saharan Africa.1995’s Ice Age was set in a Viking-inspired Terisiare. (You could say that Arabian Nights and Portal Three Kingdoms also count, but those were more wholesale copies than homages.) Based on ancient Japan, Kamigawa was the first herald of a new worldbuilding philosophy for Magic, one that would see the creative team at Wizards of the Coast put their own spin on familiar cultures and mythologies, while still keeping them distinctly their own. Kind of like Disney movies.

The mechanics also promised to shake things up. While I don’t remember any of the card announcements, Kamigawa block introduced many new pieces for the game. Samurai and ninja had their own keyword abilities in bushido and ninjutsu, and most of the sorcery and instant cards dealt with arcane and spirits. Legendary had its own theme as well, with 138 unique creatures (139, if you count the other Yamazaki brother) and 39 other permanents, with a number of cards that cared about the supertype. Finally, there were flip cards, a mechanically and visually interesting way of getting more value out of those creatures and introducing a sort of sidequest to your game.

Kamigawa was gearing up to be something special in Magic. But as I said at the very beginning of this piece, it failed.

The mechanics were kind of a disaster. Splice onto arcane was parasitic and to get any value out of it, you’d need to go all-in on overcosted cards. Bushido, sweep, offering, and most of the rest of the keywords were similarly underwhelming, either providing minuscule value or actively getting in the way of what you wanted to do. Putting the legendary supertype on a card is a downside when Commander doesn’t exist and singleton formats are not a popular way of playing. It doesn’t help that having too many legendary creatures in a set thend to make them feel less special, as well. Flip cards, while cool in theory, wound up being a logistical mess that didn’t add much to the enjoyment of casual games, and barely saw tournament play. All of this meant the cards didn’t really impact Standard, and Limited was a clunky ordeal more often than anyone would have liked. Following Mirrodin block, the most powerful three sets since Urza’s block, was also a tall order, and one that almost no set was equipped to fulfill.

Admittedly, while I love the card game, I absolutely adore everything else about Magic. The storyline intrigued me when I started playing during Onslaught block, and knowing that there was this vast body of lore kept me hooked. Hearing that there was a Japanese-inspired setting coming up was pure hype for someone who’d also been into anime for years and video games for years before that. The early 00s were an interesting time for entertainment, as Japanese animation had finally infiltrated American mainstream media. Pokémon had been a successful card game for years (another story for another day), and Yu-Gi-Oh had just hit the scene in America after doing well in Japan for a few years. With all this and a burgeoning internet, fans of anime, video games, and Japanese culture had certain expectations. To say Kamigawa did not meet them would be an understatement.

The general setting was based on an older Japanese culture, one which didn’t see much representation in media. Samurai, ninja, youkai, along with other popular figures and tropes were either later inventions or had a more solidified image hundreds of years after the source material took place. While I remember many Magic the Gathering fans being worried that the game would take on an anime aesthetic to capitalize on what was popular with the wider geek audience, they actually took it in the opposite direction. Instead of bright colors and bold outlines, Kamigawa was a dark and gritty place, which was made even more evident by the increasing demand for realistic detail in the art department. The kami themselves, one half of the conflict, were alien and foreign to behold. These weren’t based on images that otaku would have been familiar with, Japanese or Western, but based on much older stories that had been phased out of the public consciousness.

In short, there is no “in short.” There are many reasons why it didn’t succeed, but ultimately, it came down to being something that no one really expected or wanted. Instead of taking the cheap, easy, and profitable route by leaning into anime culture, Wizards bucked the trend and used a setting that most Magic fans would not have been familiar with, forcing it to fit within the franchise. They also filled the block with parasitic mechanics that were clunky and actively detrimental to play. And yes, I’m leaving out dozens of other reasons why Kamigawa failed, but those are the main ones that I personally feel hurt the setting.

Sadly, as public-facing employees remind us constantly, Kamigawa is a very difficult sell to the higher-ups. It was one of the company’s biggest failures, and they can’t use tweets and Tumblr asks from enfranchised fans as justifications for its return. And yet, the requests still pour in. I believe that the reasons for this desire are the key to a new set based in Kamigawa.

Let’s start with the biggest one: Commander. In many ways, this format is kind of the anti-MtG. It’s a long, drawn-out process that uses decks built with your whole collection, rather than the newest releases. Cards that are awful in most other formats are amazing in Commander, and one of the biggest drawbacks a card can have - the Legendary supertype - is a major boon here. It’s also the current most popular format for old and new players alike. I think that more than anything else, Kamigawa’s legendary theme is what draws new players, as Commander enthusiasts will inevitably find some interesting cards that would never have worked well in the old days.

I also think that Wizards of the Coast has learned a lot since 2004 (and whenever they started work on the original block). Remember, Kamigawa was the first of its kind: a real-world inspired setting completely separate from what the entire franchise had been doing for years. There were bound to be mistakes, and they’ve clearly learned how to rectify them. The following setting, Ravnica, used an Eastern European city aesthetic to compliment its two-color guild theme, but was still constrained by the block structure. Upon our return there, they changed the block structure to better fit what the themes and story wanted. On the other hand, Zendikar, their D&D-inspired adventure world, was beloved for its fast and fun mechanics, as well as the feeling of exploration on the cards and in the media. The return, however, involved destroying all of that in favor of an extradimensional war setting. Guilds of Ravnica and Zendikar Rising each supplied what the fans wanted out of those settings, to varying degrees of success.

Wizards also keeps showing us glimpses into Kamigawa through Core Sets and supplemental products. Tamiyo showed up on Innistrad and Ravnica. They printed new shrines (compatible with the old Honden) in Core 2021. Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow, is one of my favorite commanders of all time, and she’s from the 2018 Commander set. They still value the setting, and don’t seem to be interested in ignoring it to the point of obscurity (like, for example, Mercadia).

And, obviously, there are the rumors. With a blog name like mine, you have to have known this was coming. The three planeswalker concepts from surveys could point to anything: Commander products, supplementary sets, etc. However, I think that the web domains for Kamigawa Neon Dynasty point to a full set of some kind.

Interestingly enough, the events of the original Kamigawa block take place in Magic’s very distant past, so it’s been a tantalizing prospect to see how the place might have changed in the past few thousand years. Skipping over medieval fantasy and bringing it past the present into a cyberpunk future might be an excellent way to go about it. Aesthetics from early 90’s anime could still be stylistically unique in Magic, while keeping elements from the old setting would root us to the original block. I could see the new story centering around a conflict between one faction clinging to ancient traditions and another pushing magical technology to its futuristic limits. After all, Tamiyo still dresses in old-fashioned robes and reads from scrolls, and the moonfolk were known to be almost completely isolated from everyone else. I wonder what the kami would look like, if we even saw them at all.

Ultimately, I think that Wizards is in the perfect spot to try Kamigawa again. Between their worldbuilding experience, the rise of the Commander format, and a willingness to push the aesthetics of their game in different directions, there’s a lot of reason to hope that we’ll be heading back sooner or later.

Please feel free to let me know if I missed something or got any details wrong. And please discuss what you’d like to see in a return to Kamigawa, either new stuff or old.

#mtg #kamigawa #kamigawa neon dynasty #tamiyo

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littletroubledgrrrl · 4 years

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Today is the anniversary of the September 11th attacks, a day that will go down in infamy.

We all know it happened on September 11th, 2001, during a year that was arguably and debatebly the first year of the new millennium.

Don’t you hate how the September 11th attacks had to happen during a year that was arguably the first year of the new millennium?

We weren’t just entering a new century, but a new millennium in general, and we end up getting this?

I even wonder if they intended on attacking the September 11th attacks during the 1st year of the new millennium on purpose because we were entering a new millennium.

Plus, I also hate how so many music genres started going downhill in the late 90′s and early 2000′s and so many awful things happened as we were entering both a new century, decade and millennium altogether.

Not to say there weren’t any awful things that happened in previous decades and centuries, and there’s much worse time periods than this one, but I hate that there were so many

Having awful things in a decade is one thing, having awful things happen as we enter a new millennium, century and decade in general is another.

Ah well, at least the 9/11 attacks didn’t happen on January 1st, 2001, or worse, January 1st, 2000...

This is also something I forgot to mention: we all know how infamously terrible 2020 has been of a year, it’s a year that will go down in infamy.

There’s many people who hated and still hate the 2010′s, and believe it or not, there’s even people who hate the first decade of the 21st Century the 2000′s, especially people of the older generation.

Just imagine having to live through 2 horrible decades and 1 awful year.

We don’t know what the 2020′s will have in store for us...

Though, there are people who think the 90′s, 2000′s and 2010′s as well as 2020 suck and probably even people who think the 80′s and 70′s sucked as well along with the 90′s, 00′s, and 10′s...

Plus, if you think it’s bad now, imagine living in a century before the 20th Century where every decade you lived in was bad throughout your entire life, probably.

#9/11 #september 11th #rant #2001 #2000s #00s #september 11 #new millennium

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bigweldindustries · 6 years

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i just read your tags on that nintendo post and yes,,, pls post your rant about stylisation in modern games i'd really like to hear... well no,, see your thoughts on it :D

SFGFGHGF thank you Angie!!

(popping this under a cut as I got out of hand kjghjfgkjhfg)

(alsO keep in mind this is primarily about home consoles. i don’t mention hand helds nor do i really touch on arcade games, those are topics for another day)

I’d like to open this by saying that I’m pretty childish in a whole bunch of ways, but one of my biggest is that I am very much attracted to bright colours. It shows in my art - everything I draw is very, very colourful. I love stylisation, I love colour.

Colour, as it so happens, was vital to video games up until the late 90s - the advent of the 32-bit era. Even the fourth generation (think SNES and Genesis/Mega Drive) could typically only produce 64-256 colours on screen at a time, depending on resolution.

(The bastard child which we do not talk about is the Neo Geo, which could display 4096 colours on screen at one time, but the Neo Geo was a super expensive ‘luxury console’ and literally a bunch of arcade level components, hence why it was so far ahead graphically.)

For this reason, palettes were bright and expressive. Add in the fact that all home consoles at the time were raster image based (except for the sole, bizarre exception of the doomed Vectrex) and stylisation is the obvious outcome - once we got the graphical output for it, of course. Third generation games began to show stylisation - Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy III may be visually similar, but the nuances in the spritework are still plain to see - and then the 16 bit era really drove it home.

The late 90s brought home gaming into a whole new dimension - 3D! Glorious, blocky, polygon-y, 3D. And stylisation well and truly went bonkers, maybe even more so than it did back during the sprite-based 16 bit era.

Something important to keep in mind when considering 90s to early 00s gaming however is that everyone, for whatever reason, had Sonic fever, and so was trying to whip up their own fucking furry mascot. Platforming had always been a prominent genre, ever since the early 80s when Donkey Kong debuted and was immensely successful. Suddenly, we’re platforming in 3D, and there are furry mascots everywhere. Seriously, think of as many platforming game with animal mascots as you can, and I assure you you’re not even scratching the surface.

Even putting aside the bright and friendly animal-based platformers, there’s still a tonne of fascinating examples of styles. Tomb Raider, Metal Gear, and Silent Hill all went for closer to realism than cartoon styles, and yet were all stark and distinctly stylised in their own different ways. Graphical output still had distinct boundaries, and stylisation was the way it was overcome.

I feel like stylisation hit it’s peak immediately before it’s decline, with the sixth generation heralding in some of what are, in my opinion, the most wonderfully stylised games out there. the original Ratchet and Clank games, Metroid Prime, Okami, Space Channel 5, the Legend Of Spyro games.....Hell, Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future come from this time period, and are some of the most famously styled games of all time. Just enough polygons to render some absolutely wonderful models, not enough to warrant photorealism.

That was, at least, until the seventh generation. Bright and atmospheric stylisation was out, and photorealism was in.

(Unless you happened to be Nintendo, of course. Nintendo just shrugged, gave us Miis, Super Mario Galaxy, a whole bunch of The Legend of Zelda, and some third party kids games, and carried on like that until today, where they show no sign of slowing. Thanks, Nintendo. Owe you one.)

But with everyone else, stylisation very quickly died. The rise of the FPS definitely didn’t help here, with every studio clamouring to have their slice of the pie, but very quickly studios turned to photorealism. Far Cry, Call Of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted.....Very quickly, stylisation was abandoned. There was also that god-awful period where everyone and their nan was cranking out games with gritty washed out palettes, though we seem to have finally pulled through that one. Thank god. Thanks for that one, Call Of Duty.

My point is that graphical advancements seem to have killed a lot of the visual creativity that always went into games, and instead everyone seems to be intensely focused on how realistic a game looks. I’m personally sick of it - I don’t give a shit that you can animate every hair in generic white protagonist #897′s beard, when it looks incredibly visually similar to every other fucking game in it’s genre.

If I were to take a screenshot of a whole bunch of the most popular games from the last 10 years and show them to someone who wasn’t into games at all, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell 90% of them apart, whereas games of literally any other generation can be told apart visually with ease. There is so little visual differentiation in modern gaming, and it frustrates the everliving fuck out of me. We have so much graphical power, and yet all anyone wants to fucking do is replicate real life visuals - why?

Hell, the 10% of actually visually diverse games make it feel even more sparse. Take for example We Happy Few, Bioshock, and Borderlands (I haven’t actually gotten around to playing any of the Borderlands games but they’re on my to-do list) - wonderfully atmospheric and full of some absolutely fantastic visuals. They’ve found themselves art styles, all gloriously unique and notable in their own ways. Even Overwatch is notable, with it’s stylised characters and bright colours. Hell, I give Fortnite props for it’s fucking style, for crying out loud.

Aside from that, the only people consistently pumping out games with stylised graphics? Nintendo - and small, independent studios. Small, independent studios who are constrained, much like the sixth generation - not by lack of graphical power, but instead by lack of budget. They don’t have the money to buy fancy software and pay some cunt to animate four billion hair’s on some white dude’s face, so instead they find a niche in the gameplay market and stylise to save time and money.

(Slight deviation here but Nintendo on the other hand are absolutely fascinating to me, in that a lot of their strength is in their franchising. They’ve got gaming franchises which have been around longer than some other studios have even existed. They’re the sole survivor from the third generation, outliving Sega and Atari. Even their newer franchises, such as Bayonetta, Splatoon, and Xenoblade, still stick to a bright and stylised appearance. Each and every Nintendo property has it’s own style, but they’re still congruent enough that Smash Bros. doesn’t look particularly odd - unlike when Sony tried to do the same with their Playstation AllStars Battle Royale, which was one of the most bizarre things I think I’ve ever seen, to this day. Nintendo well and truly are the family gaming company - there’s something there for everyone, no matter how young nor old.)

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and a place for stylisation. One of the very few genres I still take interest in is racing games - a niche in which realism is fantastic and very often awe-inspiring. Realism can be gorgeous, and I don’t hate the style! I just hate the complete and utter bottlenecking of the industry and the fixation on making things look as realistic as possible when there’s so much potential in stylisation. There’s so, so little visual diversity in modern gaming and it’s honestly sad as hell. Also I really miss fun cartoony platformers as a genre and not just an occasional nostalgia-grab but that’s more an Axel thing than an industry thing.

Jesus fuck I rambled on for sO FUCKIGN LONG BUT. yeah there’s my thoughts on that i guess!!!! O:

#ask #axel grinds on #nightvisionxpixels #iM SORRY KGFHFK #i have a lot of emotions about this so. have an. essay #i juST WORDCOUNTED IT AND THERE'S NEARLY 1.3K WORDS IM SOBBING IM SO SORRY KJGHJFG

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kierongillen · 6 years

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Writer Notes: The Wicked + The Divine Christmas Annual #1

Spoilers, obv.

There's a backbone of Specials which I consider essential to WicDiv's plot. This is one of the main reasons we've ended up putting the Specials trade into the schedule before the last trade in the series rather than after it – as fractally as WicDiv is structured, this is information you should know before the end rather than after it.

They also work off a weird time-switched aspect – so they're read at the time of publication (for single readers) and also at the latter point in the story (for trade readers). In other words, they're revealing different information and to different import depending on whether you read them as they're released or as they're collected.

Which is an interesting challenge.

The Christmas Annual is the first Special which doesn't work like this. Looking at the schedule, we thought it healthier to add an extra month to the gap between arcs. The next arc is six issues, as is the one after that. We decided to add another special, and then saw what would be fun to do.

This was a boon for me. The problem is never not having enough material, y'know? The difference between something I'd like to do and something that is essential I do is narrow. Jamie had the idea of going back to periods we skipped and showing some of their key moments. I initially kicked against it a little, but when the thing I was trying proved too hard to make work, it seemed the simplest thing to do for me, and seemed a cute gift to the fans in a year that's been pretty fucking brutal.

(That we rarely get happier than bittersweet speaks to me, really. All happiness is tinged with sadness. “I love you” is married to “and one day we will all be dead”.)

But it was also a fun time. We got a gang of our favourite people together and did a bunch of short stories. Most of all, I got to write a bunch of people I haven't written for a while. I've missed them.

How were the stories chosen? Rapidly! The main limitation was not choosing anything which would spoil anything in Imperial Phase: Part Two. The Specials are designed to be spoiler-free for any trade which isn't released when it's released. We also wanted to show a bunch of kissing and similar social activities, as for a book which has as much emotional and sexual stuff driving the characters, there's relatively little on panel.

I wrote 'em, showed them to the gang, and then we worked out who we could ask to draw them. I was expecting I would remove several of them, but they all ended up going in, with tweaks in some cases in the story's focus. In terms of the characters selected, I definitely paid attention to characters who had relatively little screen time – so, Lucifer, Inanna and Tara.

Jamie's Cover

Using a bought Photoshop filter, this actually a lot more work than Jamie was expecting. It is wonderful though. It is to my eternal regret we never actually arranged it as a Christmas Merchandise thing. This is a delight to me. Really, we're aware that Jamie doesn't do many playful covers, so this was an opportunity we grasped with both hands. For all the iconic drama, there's also a playfulness to WicDiv that doesn't always show up on the covers.

Kris Anka's Cover

It's a Christmas Annual in the mode of a British Annual – in that these are annuals released at Christmas rather than having Christmas as a major theme per se. Anyway, despite all that, Inanna and Baal in hot make-out beneath the mistletoe is an absolute joy. I am pleased we get to do this.

IFC

The main editorial note to Designer Sergio was “Tackier! Tackier!”

The photo was taken in North London cocktail bar “Every Cloud.” Jamie is probably drinking some manner of Old Fashioned. I think I'm drinking some kind of Buttered Rum-containing cocktail. Chrissy draped the only decorations she could find over our heads.

1-6

Kris Anka! Jen Bartel helped out on inks on this as well, due to time constraints. Kris is currently on a Marvel Exclusive, so we had to get permission to do this story. Marvel said yes, so thanks to them enormously.

Yes, if you examine the timeline, Valhalla was certainly erected quickly. And yes, “Erected quickly” is a major theme in this story.

It's one of the lighter stories in the issue – obviously delineating what we know about Baal to this moment says a lot, and the same for Inanna.

I tried to write the scripts to the artists, but I also was interested in leaving it open for them to express things in their own ways. Generally speaking, I let the artists choose how to show the characters in a sex scene, as I want to see their own interpretation. It was a delight to see Kris go as far as he did here.

We did wonder whether we'd be okay with showing hard cocks. We're told that hard cocks are fine, but ejaculation is the problematic limit. I'm glad it's not an issue. This is a hot scene, but it's primarily a romantic one.

I love what Matt is doing with the panel on page 5 – the pinks and purples of Inanna here.

Baals expression on the first panel is very funny, as is the confidence in panel 3 of it.

7-8-9-10

There's seven stories, but several were just two pages. We realised the best way to do it would be to group the shorter of the long ones with the short ones so all collaborators get 5-6 pages each. This makes it much easier with trade royalties down the line, and organising 5 artists (plus colourists and flatters) is a significantly easier one than organising 7 (and their associated collaborators).

This is the first of the stories coloured by Tamra Bonvillain. I've never worked with Tamra before, but we loved her work, approached her, and she said yes. Thanks for joining us on this journey.

The artist here is Rachael Stott, who is probably best known for her Doctor Who work, but is about to do Motherland for Vertigo with Si Spurrier, which looks excellent.

There was quite a lot of careful balloon work here, to try and guide the eye and provide the necessary exposition (or really, reminders – all this is building upon or just showing events that have been alluded to earlier.) The eye-guiding is key – for example, due to a minor quirk of the first two panels, the Shard is hidden by the column which means that the view in the second panel feels instantly wrong. We end up disguising the shard with the dialogue so it's far less noticeable.

This event is alluded to by Lucifer in issue 3 of WicDiv.

The penthouse is the one we see in issue 1, which I presume is rented by the Pantheon for their purposes.

Writing Lucifer after all this time was a pleasure. Well, pleasure may be the wrong word. She's herself, and she's always very able to show bits of herself. Lucifer says things that no one else in the cast does, which is obviously one of her huge problems.

Yes, the first panel of page 9 did make me think of an OBJECTION! style WicDiv Phoenix-Wright-esque game.

The panel is also a place where we really had to do the work to put this in continuity – the obvious assumption would be that Baal is pissed off about Lucifer sleeping with Sakhmet, which is only really a minor cause of WTF-ness.

That Lucifer explicitly fucked with Baal and Inanna was hinted at early in WicDiv and made explicit in WicDiv 23. Inanna didn't consider the relationship exclusive, as he doesn't see why anyone would automatically assume a romantic relationship is exclusive. Inanna's great weakness is not always realising that everyone is like him.

The “You're a bad person” ties off why Lucifer and Sakhmet never slept together many times, also mentioned in issue 3. Sakhmet, I suspect, just doesn't like the complications and drama. She is deeply averse to complications.

The last three panels are classic comedy steady-angle shots. That the sprinklers aren't visible led to adding an alarm sound at lettering, to avoid the possible assumption that Baal made it rain indoors or something.

Reading this I find myself thinking about Lucifer in the Special versus Lucifer in the Annual – in the sense that we're seeing her much more humanly, which is leaning into what makes her comic (and awful). The last three panels are not ones you could imagine in The Faust Act, as seen through Laura's star eyes. Nice fucked off expression in the last panel from Rachael.

11-12-13-14-15

Chynna Clugston Flores is just one of my indie comic crushes. Blue Monday is basically one of those key links between 90s and 00s comics. Bryan Lee O'Malley pitched Scott Pilgrim as Blue Monday meets Dragon Ball Z. We pitched Phonogram and Blue Monday meets Hellblazer. She's a wonder.

As such, writing for her was a dream, and I was explicitly writing for her. While this is much more rigid in terms of panel shapes than Chynna would write for herself (the steady angle on the two people in the front seat is very much me trying to write a sort of claustrophobic talking heads kind of set-up) but I'm really exploring a very Chynna type place.

I've been thinking of Dionysus as a “Umar” for a while. When thinking up Dio, the image of writer Umar Ditta leading the Thought Bubble dancefloor was definitely in my mind, and I thought it'd be fun if they share a name, despite being very different dudes. (Not least that Umar could bench Dionysus now.) I asked Umar, and he said yes, so Umar he is. His first comic Untethered has just come out, and is well worth your attention.

This is the second sort of story in the special. One is just showing some key things which impacted the rest of the book, which were usually sexy funtimes. The other was showing some key relationships in the pre-pantheon lives. We've said that Dio was a friend of Baph and Morrigan, but never actually showed what that meant. It was good to get it here.

For those studying the timeline, this is the same day as Hazel become Amaterasu. It would also be the same day Dio takes a photo of Morrigan, and Cameron sits in the tunnel waiting for Morrigan. Busy day!

If I call out my fave Chynna moments, we're going to be here forever. Cameron with his sign on the rain is a joy. Honestly, this is such an odd thing – it makes me imagine what a Blue Monday set in the Midlands would be like.

There was a panic when page 12 arrived and I thought that Chynna had (for some reason) reversed all the seating orders in the car and had the car riding on the wrong side of the road. This is obviously a disaster, because the only way this story works is the characters' speaking order is based upon where they're sitting. But then we realised that the page had been flipped in the dropbox for some reason. Phew.

The quote is from Young Avengers 13, which came out a week or two before this arrived. Yes, I know.

(The question who wrote YA13 in this universe, when Kieron Gillen's career ended with Phonogram: Rue Britannia, is open.)

Page 13 was designed to be a mood break of the lived-in autobio, and Chynna really goes for it, in terms of the leaves and the panel breaking. Not using techniques in the whole piece makes them especially meaningful when they turn up. Tamra also did wonders in the colouring, going for the spooky autumnal reds, teals and purples.

(Tamra and Matt basically split the issue near 50:50.)

This is definitely a more Morrigan way of publicising gigs rather than standing outside shitty clubs and passing out flyers.

The WHAT!? panel is everything I could have hoped for.

The “Oh god. He puns. Morrigan fucked a punner. A wet punner's in my car.” immediately made me feel that I'm trying to channel a Warren Ellis character.

The off-panel MOTHERFUCKER is also a delight.

16-17-18

Emma's one of my favourite people, but I haven't worked with her since a B-side in the second issue of Phonogram: The Singles Club, with a Kate Bush short story. (EDIT: Plus in the Young Avengers Afterparty, which I’d blanked. This is the second time that’s happened to an artist from that. Which, given the time period I was writing that, is unsurprising). So it's lovely to get back with her, and she does some of my favourite work in the Special. Do go and have a look at her Breaks, which she draws and co-writes.

When Tara has had so little panel time, trying to work out how to approach her is key – and Emma manages to find a place which is clearly her, but also informed by Tula's iconic take. Matt also brings us much of those choices to the page in the colours.

It's useful, as this story almost acts as a prequel to issue 13. It's essentially the first time Tara pitches what she wants to do to Ananke, a moment which is at least alluded to in 13.

I wrote the story originally as two pages – specifically, the last two pages. I talked about it with Editorial Assistant Katie, and she noted it's a shame we never actually see Tara happy ever. Which struck me as true, and a problem – at least in part this Special is about showing different sorts and times of happiness. So I added the first page, which is my best pitch for Tara at her most positive. This is the unspoken stuff that's under the surface in issue 13, and Tara talking about the drive is one of her main bits of happiness. I talk about how the cast are all me in different ways? Tara definitely includes the part of me which never feels better than after having written something I think is good. I've certainly done the “if get a disease which means I have six months to live, have I got time to finish writing WicDiv?” maths.

Much like issue 13, I wrote considerably more captions than are used on the first page. You write it like a diary entry and then edit to the core.

I always say that an artist can make the script their own, and that I try to write to the minimum number of panels. Of all the artists in the script, Emma's the one who added most panels. This looks great, and is very much a part of her style.

Quick call-out to Clayton in the second panel of page 17: that tiny string of notes positioned either side of those captions is beyond perfect.

The last page is all kinds of sad. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm pleased with how the masks work on the page.

19-20

Second Rachael story. She's an enormous Lucifer fan, so was very excited to do this.

This is as simple as the stories get, in terms of a tiny yet meaningful continuity insert. This was there already, but I felt underlining it and reminding people of it at this point in the narrative is meaningful for obvious reasons.

(I had things I wanted to do in Imperial Phase II which I never found space for – or when I did find space, felt off and wrong.)

Writing Laura captions again after all this time was definitely a thing which took a while to find again. But I liked it.

(Spangly New Thing has captions to the fore again, for various reasons, so them as a formalist element is certainly on my mind.)

21-22-23-24-25-26

This absolutely was formative Indie Crush mode. Carla Speed McNeil's Finder was one of my initial loves when I came into comics in the early 00s. It's just astounding stuff. I'd suggest starting with Mystery Story, I suspect, but there's two big omnibuses of it, and I'd recommend just getting them. She's continuing doing other Finder stories alongside her work elsewhere.

It was originally 5 pages, but Carla suggested an extra page. I'd deliberately left an extra page space in the issue, in case anyone wanted more space... and Carla grabbed it. Good work.

When writing this, I was thinking of Carla's storytelling... but I also realised that a part of Carla's storytelling is to warp and make her own. Seeing what she would do with my script was a big part. I wanted the Carla magic applied, and she did – the extra page is a big part of that.

Notice how Tamra uses the palettes to distinguish the two different settings. Eleanor in the dark and Hazel in the light seems pretty useful, right?

That Lucifer and Amaterasu were friends and knew each other were one of the elements of the background I never had a chance to really run with, for obvious reasons. In the same way as I wanted to do some Dio/Baph pre-scenes, doing a Lucifer/Amaterasu: The Early Years appealed.

H's fanart was mentioned in issue 15, I believe.

As much as it's a dual story, it's really more about Lucifer. Amaterasu may not even appear to really aware of how much she's been slighted in the story. Or maybe she is? It is Eleanor's perspective. This is also the first dialogue we've ever had as Eleanor, rather than Lucifer reporting Eleanor. The resentment and anger is so much cleaner, the saying the unsayable aspect with less glitter.

Hazel is right. Eleanor is mean.

Adding a page appealed for various reasons, but at least part of it was that it's the only in-story chance to see a Lucifer performance. There was an alternate cover in the first arc, but it's not the same – though it's probably the same performance. We've talked about her Brixton performances before, and this is there. This would be a gig that Laura saw, as previously referenced.

The last page (and final panel of page 5) is a take on a scene that's already on canon – specifically, the story as reported in the WicDiv Magazine Special.

The last-minute panic of the issue was Jamie realising we'd forgotten to have Amaterasu’s facepaint on her in the final panel, so that was a quick patch from Tamra. Phew.

The “I'm sorry” panel is A+.

As an example of the Carla Speed McNeil of it all, the last montage of shots is her addition, which brings a visual closure to the sequence.

27-28

Back with Emma Viceli, with a missing scene after issue 8. The actual core details were alluded to in issue 10, but this actually takes us there. If you remember, at this point Inanna and Baal are no longer in any way romantically involved, but fucking the best friend of someone you were with is almost always drama. The purple and red colouring seems to make that be the subtext there.

We checked Laura's age here repeatedly, to ensure she was 18 in these images. It would be actively illegal if we messed up.

Clearly my fave thing is the call back to issue 4's PLAY IT COOL gag.

This issue's structure came after all the art started coming in. It's a mix-tape curation – in terms of what's the best order to take people on a journey. Things like Kris' story being first seemed obvious – his was the alternative cover after all, featuring Inanna and Baal, which makes it a de facto lead story. That this story is furthest along in the timeline made it a suitable end, plus that we open with Inanna/Baal. The real thing is that it's a story which ends with something resembling a concluding beat. “This is going to be complicated” feels like something that ends an issue in the way that many of the stories don't. I suspect the only other credible option was Chynna's story, with Dio/Baph riding off down a motorway. What feels like it could be an ending? What feels like Closure?

IBC

The titles were all added in the last minute, when we realised the best way to actually discern which story was which for the credits was to actually give them a title.

SUMER LOVING was miscorrected to SUMMER LOVING at every stage of production, and had to be changed back every time. There is no love for Sumerian humour in the modern comic market place.

Anyway – off for the season now. The Imperial Phase II trade drops in January, followed by The Wicked + The Divine 1923 special in February and the new arc in March.

Thanks for reading.

#WicDiv #the wicked and the divine #Kris Anka #chynna clugston flores #carla speed mcneil #Rachael Stott #Emma Vieceli #tamra bonvillain #writer notes

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tvmecaps · 6 years

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1. god I can’t believe I’m watching this again 2. WHY ARE THE EPISODES SO LONG 3. IT’S ARIE WHAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN

4. “how’s everyone feeling today?” “i’m emotionally and physically drained” this is me every morning

5. if i had to go on a group date with krystal i would absolutely find a way to accidentally punch her in the throat 6. i like tia she just runs around making noises 7. the fuck is a glob 8. THE KISSING BANDIT god i hate this man 9. if someone surprised me with a wrestling date i’d kill myself 10. OMG IS ALISON BRIE HERE 11. the fuck it’s not even alison brie 12. oh they’re like the real wrestlers lmao 13. i have no idea what bekah's personality is

14. wrestler lady: “who wants it?” tia: *raises her hand but only like, a little bit*

15. arie was talking and my mom said from across the room “what are you watching it’s putting me to sleep” 16. lauren b is just standing in the corner laughing i’m dying 17. oh my god she’s just… insulted bibiana’s name? 18. WHAT IS HAPPENING

19. wrestler lady: “I could take you down right now!” tia: “i would let you”

20. bekah’s gonna beat the shit out of them 21. the girls are literally crying 22. IMAGINE GOING ON A DATE WHERE THE ENTIRE PREMISE WAS THAT YOU WERE GOING TO GET BULLIED 23. i really wish alison brie was here 24. shut the fuck up bekah go call your mom 25. “has anyone even watched WWE?” literally no 26. i love tia 27. tia winning would be justice for raven 28. BIBIANA IN A DINOSAUR MASK 29. i want chris harrison to beat the shit out of arie 30. i don’t even remember who kenny is

31. bring back peter

32. who is the lunch lady 33. imagine having to pretend to fall in love with arie 34. oh my god what is HAPPENING 35. imagine losing to krystal 36. LMAO KRYSTAL IS LITERALLY BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF THIS GIRL 37. is this… porn 38. i think this is porn 39. aw i love tia and bibiana 40. every time arie speaks i want to fast forward

41. i’m trying to snapchat arie and krystal but i can’t get a clear enough shot of their faces because all they’re doing is kissing really grossly 42. oh my god 43. snapchat makes this show so much better

44. “he’s fucking awesome” yeah ok tia 45. WHY DOES ARIE JUST KISS EVERYONE 46. “i have a feeling i’ll be on that one on one date because he knows i’m a mom” god in all my krystal hatred i forgot how awful chelsea was 47. i cannot tell any of the laurens apart

48. “and i just feel like these girls are living in a false reality” oh my god she’s CLINICAL

49. HAHAHAH HE GAVE IT TO BEKAH 50. SUCK A DICK, KRYSTAL 51. she’s just SMILING THROUGH THE PAIN 52. LIKE THE PSYCHOPATH SHE IS

53. is krystal literally just going around the house talking to the other girls about how strong her connection with arie is…

54. “this is a very Lauren S. date” - lauren S

55. “i like to go to bed early” of course you do arie you’re like 60

56. hulu isn’t working and i feel like this is a message from god 57. ugh no it’s back

58. “i feel like you’re a little bit of a wine connoisseur.” “no i just like drinking wine.” the most relatable arie has ever been

59. SHE’S JUST RAMBLING 60. SHE’S BEEN RAMBLING FOR PROBABLY AN HOUR 61. SHE JUST KEEPS TALKING 62. LAUREN S PLEASE STOP TALKING 63. she’s literally talking so much that arie is actually eating

64. “how is ‘ruff’ spelled?” “r-u-f-f” *everyone SCREAMS*

65. THERE IS A TRAUMATIC SITUATION FOR EVERY EVENT ON THIS SHOW

66. he’s NOT GIVING HER THE ROSE 67. I’M SO UNCOMFORTABLE 68. THIS IS THE WORST THING I’VE EVER SEEN 69. god that was awful 70. ugh i liked her 71. or at least like… i didn’t hate her 72. why is krystal talking about her like she died 73. dear god SHUT!!!!! UP!!!!!!!

74. “stop being so condescending to everybody because you like, met his dog.” CAROLINE FOR PRESIDENT

75. how is it only 9:00 i feel like I’ve been watching this episode for six years 76. tag yourself i’m the blonde bitch jumping up and down when arie even vaguely alludes to a dog 77. when does unReal come back 78. THESE DOGS ARE SO TALENTED 79. my dog can’t even walk without falling down

80. LMAO WAIT IS ANNALIESE 81. IS SHE THE ONE WITH THE BUMPER CAR ISSUES TOO 82. who PUT THESE FLASHBACKS TOGETHER 83. “AND I ALMOST LOST MY EYE,” SHE SAYS AS A CRYING BABY SCREAMS IN SEPIA

84. bibiana signs off from her prayer with “love you bye!!”

85. “we have just a random girl who’s walked up as well” same 86. i would just hold my dog and pet him 87. why is annalise so enthusiastic about poop 88. she’s really owning it though 89. how are there still so many girls left i only know like six of them 90. omg I can’t wait for chelsea to go home 91. her poor child is going to have to watch this someday

92. “dogs are so cute” wow arie is full of gold tonight 93. “i have never had the opportunity for someone to respect me for who i am” ok chelsea 94. i wonder what arie is thinking about at any given time 95. “the last time you said you were in love was five years ago on this show. tell me more about that.” do you really think that’s the best topic of conversation here

96. i wonder if arie is stoned or if he just naturally looks like that

97. omg annalise stop complaining and just go talk to him 98. ten years from now someone’s gonna say the word bachelor and she’s gonna have flashbacks to THIS traumatic moment 99. HE JUST KEEPS KISSING PEOPLE 100. it’s never a good sign when the dude says “so how do you think things are going” 101. he’s so not into her 102. that was painful 103. poor annaliese 104. she deadass got her coat on LMAO

105. HE CAN’T HOLD A CONVERSATION AND JUST SLOWLY MOVES HIS FACE CLOSER TO THE OTHER GIRL THE ENTIRE TIME UNTIL THEY STOP TALKING TO KISS

106. THIS IS THE WORST I HATE HIM!!!!!!

107. “today was really fun. i loved today. today was such a cool day. it was amazing.” - literally a sentence that arie just said

108. maybe he is super stoned 109. how dare they show me a black panther commercial and then make me go back to watching the bachelor 110. who does bekah look like 111. she looks like someone

112. BIBIANA SET THE ENTIRE THING UP AND HE JUST TOOK THIS BLONDE BITCH OUT HERE 113. I’M SCREAMING 114. LMAO WHAT THE FUCK 115. WHO MANIPULATED THIS SITUATION INTO EXISTENCE 116. WHERE IS QUINN KING!!!!! 117. SHE’S GOING TO SEE THEM KISSING BECAUSE WHAT ELSE DOES ARIE DO 118. “he’s with lauren b on my setup” i would literally cry 119. THE DEVIL IS WROKING OT 120. HE’S TAKING EVERY FUCKING GIRL TO IT 121. I’M SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!!! 122. THIS MAN IS SUCH TRASH LMAO!!!!!!

123. EVERY SINGLE TIME HE TAKES A NEW GIRL OUT THERE HE’S LIKE LMAO I DON’T KNOW WHO SET THIS UP BUT ISN’T IT NICE? LET’S KISS!!

124. AHH!!!!!!!! 125. annaliese is gonna force him to kiss her

126. he got tia HAY BALES AND MOONSHINE 127. I’M SCREAMING WHAT HTE FUCK IS THIS SHOW 128. SHE’S TALKING AND HE’S JUST 129. SLOWLY MOVING HIS FACE TO HER 130. MOUTH OPEN

131. i hope they checked him for herpes

132. the bitch smiling because annaliese hasn’t kissed him 133. he’s going to send annaliese home right now isn’t he 134. this is so uncomfortable because she’s like BEGGING him to kiss her 135. i’ve never seen arie REFUSE to kiss someone 136. this is awful 137. he said no and i gasped 138. that was literally the most dramatic thing that’s happened this entire season 139. this is so dumb

140. you know annaliese and bibiana are going home because he deadass has sought out EVERY OTHER GIRL TONIGHT to stick his tongue down their throats one last time

141. arie is definitely lowkey racist 142. why does he make jokes that 11 year old boys would make 143. if i never see arie kiss another human it will be too soon 144. aw bye annaliese 145. “bye ladies,” she says, crying 146. WHO SAID SHE’S KIDDING 147. “i don’t know what this man is thinking” but literally everyone watching does 148. god shut up krystal

149. “i feel really confident, but also i don’t have a rose,” she says, BEFORE THE ROSE CEREMONY

150. “i had to make one hard decision” arie you’ve sent two girls home 151. the camera zoomed in on krystal when he saw the word wife dear god 152. OH HER NAME IS KENDALL? I like her 153. why did only one girl walk up when he said lauren 154. there are like at least four laurens left 155. bye bib 156. LMAO WAIT DOES HE EVEN KNOW SHE SET UP THE DAY BED 157. he definitely doesn’t 158. thank god this is over 159. THEY’RE TLAKING ABOUT HER DOG FEARS AGAIN 160. oh my god

#the bachelor #bachelor s22

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resonanteye · 4 years

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you've arrived

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The Great Awakening

You have arrived.

It’s been a long journey. Take a moment. Take a deep breath. Get a glass of water and sit down. This is going to be long. It’s going to make you uncomfortable. It’s not what you thought it was going to be, but it’s what you didn’t even know you needed to hear. The totality of this is greater than the sum of its parts and I implore you to read all the way to the end. It’s going to make you angry. It’s going to make you feel a lot of things you don’t want to feel, but you wanted to wake up and this was the only way. You are going to want to dismiss it. People will tell you not to read it. Belief is the most powerful force in this universe, and your belief is about to be challenged in a way you didn’t expect. Fortunately, you don’t have to actually believe anything written here. All you have to do is read it with an open mind. If you get to the end of this your thinking will change. You will be one step closer to being free, and then you can then go on to free the others. Where we go one, we go all.

Before we go any further, we need to set some ground rules:

1) The language here is going to seem really… off, but I promise you it will make sense by the end. This document is designed to be interpreted _literally_. I can’t stress that enough. Do not look for hidden clues—there are none. There is no misdirection, no deeper meaning, no numerology or special calendar to look at. This is the end of the line. This is a 1:1 conversation, speaking as open and honestly as possible. We are just two people having a chat. Any other meaning you try to derive outside of what is written here is on you.

2) Much of this is about language. To some, the language is going to seem very strange, crude, cryptic, nerdy, or childish at times. I’m trying to be as authentic as possible. Please understand it is not meant to be interpreted as racist, sexist or bigoted. Internet culture, “the chans” in particular, have a kind of language that is systemically all these things, but people do not interpret the language literally in use. I will try to keep it as civil and digestible as possible.

3) Be kind to yourself. Be kind to each other.

And before we even really get started, we need to everyone on the same level, with something that approaches a fair knowledge base. Over the past three years people have joined this movement from all around the world. Q Drops have been translated into dozens of languages. There are now mobile apps, shirts, hats, podcasts and documentaries. QAnon means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. As I’m writing this, former military generals are swearing oaths to QAnon. The movement has grown beyond anything I could have possibly imagined. Many people are joining the QAnon movement, but they don’t really understand what they are reading. They are confused. I want to talk just briefly about the history of a part of the internet where QAnon comes from, not in an attempt to legitimize myself as some elder sage, but to build understanding. To truly understand all of this you need context. Context about the people and platforms that now bring you your information—and ultimately, your news.

Some of you go all the way back to the Something Awful forums and the days when platforms like IRC and ICQ still felt new. Some of you literally just joined yesterday. I am going to give you an abbreviated history of the chans as it pertains QAnon. Most people know 4chan and 8chan as the place where Q lives online, but they don’t really understand them. “No outside comms” seems to be what the 99% of QAnon understands—that these are the “official” channels where Q posts. But have you ever been there? Have you ever really gone to boards and looked at them? Some you have, but the vast, vast majority of QAnon followers have not. Perhaps that is no surprise, as they aren’t easily comprehensible. So, let’s talk briefly about three things: Something Awful, 4chan, and 8chan/8kun. And I do mean briefly. You could write a book about each of these, but we can move forward with some broad strokes that should give you the context you need to truly understand Q.

We have to quickly go back to 1999. In 1999 someone known as “Lowtax” created a website called Something Awful (which I will refer to as SA going forward), which still exists today. You can go and check it out if you like. Before Facebook and Twitter, before YouTube even existed, and even before most people knew what Google was, there was Something Awful. SA has been a lot of things over the years, but it is mostly a forum—a message board. On SA everyone was mostly anonymous because, at the time, no one other than academics used their real name on the internet. SA was a semi-private board. It was the internet’s first large “secret society” of sorts. It was mostly focused on video games and Adobe Flash content, and it birthed some of the internet’s very first memes. It was a trollish but a (mostly) well-meaning community of nerds. Some members, known as the “GoonSquad” or just “Goons” would often group up and bombard players of the early MMORPGs to troll them. It was (mostly) harmless fun and pranks. In the late 90’s and early 00’s only nerds were on the internet anyway, so it was mostly nerds trolling other nerds in video games. You could identify other Goons by asking as simple question: “Do you have stairs in your house?” If someone answered, “I am protected,” then you knew they were a fellow Goon.

Why am I talking about this? Well, if you had to pick a place to put on a birth certificate for where internet culture itself was born, Something Awful would be that place.

A few years later someone known at the time only as “moot” created a website called 4chan. 4chan is a fully anonymous (seemingly, anyway) message board, based on a Japanese message board design known as 2chan. It’s actually better described as an “imageboard,” since you have to upload an image with every post. 4chan was open to all. There were few rules, and on some boards—none. Post whatever you want, do whatever you want. For the most part, everyone except moot himself was simply labeled as, “Anonymous.” This is where the “Anon” in QAnon comes from.

Like SA, 4chan was originally a haven for nerds talking about video games and anime. But its anonymous and open nature allowed to build its own form. The most iconic memes, from lolcats themselves to Rickrolling and beyond, started on 4chan. SA might have birthed internet culture, but 4chan gave it form—and it still powers much of the creativity of internet itself to this day. The anonymous nature of the form allowed for a kind of collaborative creativity that—and I truly believe this—has changed the world for the better. It’s a special kind of creativity and one that you really need to experience if you want to understand it. On 4chan you will see new creative concepts born and shaped in real time, and you can watch them spread around the world. You can contribute whenever and whatever you like, and the community then gets to riff on your contribution. 4chan has even birthed new formats and new types of creativity. I want to talk about some of these specifically, to provide some kind of context for what “the chans” are really all about it, but we are just scraping the surface here. You might have to Google around for quite some time to truly understand this if you are new.

Among the myriad of things that get posted on 4chan, one of them is known as a “green text” or “green text story.” A green text is a short story format that includes green colored text and a small picture, often a meme of some kind, like a Pepe. It can be pages long or just a few lines. It is often written in broken sentences and shorthand. They often start with the line, “be me…” and then launch into a short narrative. They can be true or fictional or somewhere in-between. They are often designed to be shocking, depressing or trollish, but they can also be uplifting. It is perhaps the simplest and most pervasive form of content on 4chan other than image macros themselves. I’m going to coin a new phrase and call this a form of Creative Anonymous Fiction or CAF for short. The anonymous nature of the platform lets you tell a story in a new way. Often times people will take green texts and remix them, giving them a different ending. I could post examples, but I’d be doing you a disservice. You are better off looking them up and reading them yourself until you understand it.

Green texts can sometimes end with what’s called copypasta, which is a type of bamboozle. Copypasta is a snippet of short form copy that gets reposted over and over again. A bamboozle is a type of switcheroo—you start telling what the reader feels is a novel story, building to some climax, and then end it with a classic copypasta for that “gotcha” moment. It is, essentially, a prank. A text based prank. This sort of content now exists all over the place, far beyond the reaches of just 4chan. You might be wondering where all of this is going… we’ll get to that. In some ways this is actually the most important part of this entire document. I wanted to make sure that everyone has some context for what is to come, but I can assure this is going somewhere. Please do not let this extensive clarification distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table.

So that’s a quick overview of the playful side of things. But on 4chan you will also see some dark and disgusting shit. With the good comes the bad—and the bad can be really bad. Because everyone is anonymous, everyone subject to being hassled by other anonymous posters. Everyone is gay, a fag, a retard or an autist. A thread without insults is a failed thread. The more people who tell you how gay and fake your shit is, the more people actually like it. 4chan may have given us lolcats, but it also ended up being a place for violence, misogyny, bullying, extreme racism—and even far more heinous things. For 12 years moot moderated the site. May criticized him at the time, but I think we can all look back now and know that he really did a fantastic job. For over a decade he was the beam scale that balanced free speech against the darkest depths of humanity—and I meant that literally. He developed a system to help identify “anonymous” posters and worked with the FBI to put away pedophiles, child pornographers, and even would-be domestic terrorists. He did this all while being told constantly how gay he was and how many dicks he sucked (as is the way). Moot was a hero we never deserved.

The two most popular boards on 4chan are /pol/ (for politics) and /b/ (which stands for random). People who post on these boards are often referred to as /pol/tards and /b/tards respectively, with /b/ being one of the more nefarious (but also one of the more creative) boards as it had essentially no rules on what you could post. If “tard” sounds harsh, know that it is said lovingly. Even seniority within the community itself is derogatory. There are “oldfags” and “newfags,” where being called an oldfag is an informal compliment and recognition of seniority. Opinions will differ, but oldfags are generally recognized as being those who were around 4chan since before the pool was closed—one of the very first large raids. In 2006 a sort of prank was organized on 4chan by a group of Anons to “raid” the Flash game Habbo Hotel. Hundreds of people created black avatars in the game and went around spamming the chat with racist and anti-Semitic nonsense, drawing swastikas and blocking off the pool area in the game, declaring that the, “Pool’s closed due to AIDS.” Why? For laughs. The average age of the userbase for this game was around 15 years old. Then again, the average age of the then Anons was probably the same. There is a lot more to this story, and I encourage you to look it up if you have the time, but the point is that this event eventually lead to 30 seconds in the spotlight on some news outlets. This was the first big event that was attributed to 4chan and Anonymous as a group. It was the first time that most people outside of the depths of the internet had ever even heard of 4chan.

After this, more newfags joined. 4chan grows and the subgroup of /b/tards and /pol/tards that would come be to known more formally as “Anonymous” starts to take shape. All the while, moot is trying to balance what content stays and what content goes. The rest, as they say, is history. You start to see all kind of digital activism being organized on 4chan. Raids turn into DDoS (Distributed denial of service) attacks that shut down websites. People get arrested. Splinter groups form. Anonymous becomes more political. /b/ and /pol/ start to leak out of the internet and into the real world. People start protesting various things, like the Church of Scientology, wearing the iconic mask that the character V wears in the movie V for Vendetta. Logos are created. Anonymous comes into its own as a digital force. The group aligns itself with what DnD players call, “Chaotic Good.” Anons enjoy playing a character that is either an anti-hero or anti-villain. Sometimes Anons will pretend to have some super elite hacker ability, and while that is sometimes true it is mostly embellishment. Some people refer to this as Live Action Role Playing (LARP or LARPing), but it is not quite that. LARPing is when people take their Dungeons and Dragons game to the next level or dress up like Harry Potter characters and roleplay out in the woods. What happens on 4chan is very much a form of roleplaying, but one specifically shaped by the anonymous nature of the platform. I’m going to coin a second term here—Creative Anonymous Role Playing, or CARPing. More on this later.

Moot continues to run 4chan until 2015. During that time, it gets harder and harder to manage. Anonymous becomes more unruly, and the site starts to spiral. Cyberbulling goes to a whole new level. There are celebrity nude photo leaks. Gamergate. A series of actual murders and killings get posted on 4chan. 4chan didn’t cause them, but that’s where the content ended up living. The site starts to become unmanageable with the old rules in place. Why moot bothered to keep it going I’ll never understand. There was never much money in the site itself and it always seemed like a huge headache. But the site starts to take moderation more seriously as harassment ramps up.

Boards like /pol/ start to get more strict rules. Even /b/ starts to see more and more threads get removed. In 2013, a piece of shit Anon known as “Hotwheels” doesn’t like what’s happening to 4chan decides to splinter the group and starts 8chan. While moot is trying to wrangle 4chan into something better, Hotwheels goes in the reverse direction and starts empowering (and in some ways, encouraging) harassment with things like Gamergate. 8chan doesn’t remove anything. No morals. Doesn’t matter who gets hurt. Free speech above all.

This stance obviously has consequences. While moot would work with law enforcement, Hotwheels gives them the proverbial middle finger. As a result, all of the bad actors now had a new platform. You see swatting become a popular tactic. More and more violent threats. While moot would work with the FBI to help track down pedophiles and terrorists, Hotwheels decides to relocate the site to Philippines (where the age of consent is 12, mind you). He can barely keep the site running. No one wants to host this content; he can’t even keep the .com anymore because the registrars don’t want to work with him. Hotwheels finds some other shitstain in Manila who runs a pig farm and a porn site designed to get around Japanese pornography laws. They partner up. After three shootings (Christchurch, Poway, and El Paso) in 2019 where the shooters posted their manifesto to 8chan, Hotwheels finally admits the site got away from. The site shut down for a while, but the pig farmer and his son started it back up and rebranded it as 8kun after finding a Russian hosting provider who was willing to host the content. It is now a safe harbor for literally the worst of humanity, and you don’t have to take my word for it. Even Hotwheels himself now advocates for shutting the site down, but the pig farmer and his son have run away with it.

This is where your information comes from. This is where it lives.

Now that you have a better understanding of who is creating this information—your news—it is time. This next part is going to be hard.

You have been bamboozled. QAnon is a hoax. It may well be one of—if not THE—greatest, most pervasive, hoaxes of all time.

How do I know this? Because I am Q. In fact, I am the original Q. One of them, anyway.

This is the point where many will stop reading. You are likely either angry or starting to feel embarrassed. I’m going to ask you to try and put those feelings aside for a moment and keep reading. You have absolutely no reason to feel embarrassed. This isn’t your fault. You did nothing wrong. You got caught in a world you didn’t fully understand and there are people now trying to prey on you at every corner to sell you hats and t-shirts.

If you are willing to go forward, allow me to explain.

What has happened here is what I’m going to call a “Galaxy Quest” moment. There is a lovely movie that came out in 1999 called Galaxy Quest. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s worth a watch. It’s a family friendly comedy about an advanced alien race who watches a TV show made on Earth called Galaxy Quest. Galaxy Quest is a TV show, but the aliens don’t know it. They refer to the TV show as the, “historical documents.” They built an entire civilization around the historical documents, never realizing it was a TV show. It’s a fun concept. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. Anyway, the aliens weren’t stupid. In fact, they were the furthest thing from stupid as they made all the science fiction from the show come to life (although they are portrayed are dumb for the sake of comedy). The aliens simply did not have the context necessary to understand what they were seeing. They didn’t realize it was fiction. They didn’t know what fiction was. That is what has happened here with QAnon. You have read things on platforms you didn’t fully understand, and you brought your own context and understanding to it. You read fiction as non-fiction and no one has bothered to explain to you how or why this content even exists.

We are going to go back as far as I can remember. I ask that other Anons corroborate what follows, not for me, but for those who are trapped by what has become a truly insidious ideology.

This all starts in the summer of 2016. Someone on /pol/ makes a post pretending to be someone working with “intimate knowledge” of the “Clinton case.” They made a post in the style of an AMA (which stands for Ask Me Anything, a form of Q&A popularized by reddit). This is just another form of CARPing (Creative Anonymous Roleplaying). The first two responses are: “Will the Hillary get Pregnant again?” and “Why are you on 4chan on a Friday night?” This thread almost instantly devolves into what is commonly known as a “shitpost.” It is nonsense. You might say to yourself, “Why would someone go on the internet and tell lies?” Well, this person isn’t really lying, they are shitposting. It is a form of artistic expression. It’s an attempt to get someone to suspend their belief for a few moments. Any seasoned oldfag or /pol/tard knows exactly what this kind of thread is. No one takes this literally.

However, at the time /pol/ is growing. You’ve got new people coming in daily. Much of /pol/ favors Donald Trump, broadly for his trollish nature and memeability, but also for his politics. Months later, someone cites the AMA as the FBI source behind the Pizzagate theory. This finds its way to Twitter. No one actually understands what they are reading, and no one checks the sources. Someone actually thought a months old shitpost on /pol/ was some kind of real leak. Long story short, someone goes into a Comet Ping Pong pizza with an AR-15 and starts shooting. A Friday night shitpost turned into shooting.

Fast forward about six months.

Someone on /b/ posts a depressing green text asking for recommendations on a new cult to join after they found out their girlfriend was cheating. Someone mentions that OP should become a Tibetan monk, because Tibetan Buddhism is a really great cult (e.g. because you can “light yourself on fire if you ever get too depressed OP”). Tibetan Buddhism goes on forever because the Dalia Llama gets reincarnated infinitely, so maybe if you are lucky you get to be him one day. This is the thinking. This isn’t exactly enlighted discussion. I respond suggesting that I have a great new cult that OP can join (which is loosely based on Heaven’s Gate, I’m just making this up on the spot). I had recently listened to a podcast about Heaven’s Gate and I was riffing on it. I loved the absurdity. OP asked for more sauce, but I decided to start a new thread instead.

Warning: This about to get really nerdy.

I started writing some shitposts with pseudo biblical writing, talking about saving humanity. I’m actually more embarrassed about it now than anything, as it was not my finest work. I would refer to “the awakening” as being the time when I would deliver the evidence that would let people “wake up” and realize we were in a simulation. Have you ever seen the Matrix? Yeah, like I said… not my finest work. I signed my posts as Q. Where did Q come from?

Well, initially, because of John de Lancie’s character of Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The character of Q was omnipotent and omnipresent. In the show he would speak to Captain Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise in his own form of strange riddles. Q took a particular interest in humanity as a whole and would appear as a jester-like sort of mix between an anti-hero and anti-villain, always giving Picard hints on how to expand his mind to solve a problem, usually to save all of humanity. So, this was my model.

The goal was to get a few believers and then set a date a few weeks later and reveal “the awakening.” The Awakening was just supposed to copypasta. It was a bamboozle. I was trolling I never even did it because I got bored with it. Most people could see through it (fake and gay) anyway. But someone was watching. Someone who likely called me fag and told me to choke on a bunch of dicks and kill myself was watching.

A few months later I start to see the first “Q” posts, which would eventually be called “Q Drops.” It migrates from /b/ to /pol/. Wow, so original. You took one shit idea from /b/ and made it political. Round of applause.

This person knew exactly what I was doing, not that what I did was that original either. Star Trek is pretty popular among internet nerds. But this is why Q has always talked the way he does. This was the model. This is where Q comes from. The “Q Clearance” stuff that came later is, well… coincidence. But not even a good coincidence because it doesn’t even really make sense, as that is a clearance for the Department of Energy.

The Q from Star Trek also exits as what is known as the “Q Continuum”, where there are other omnipotent beings, and everyone is referred to as Q. This is where the habit of Q referring to himself as “we” comes from. It’s a Star Trek fan, just like me—only one who managed to make a piece of creative anonymous fiction into something political. Likely for lulz at first, because lets be real no one thought it would turn into what it has.

I suspect that Q has been played by many different people over the last couple years as the tripcode has changed, but likely all of them are Star Trek TNG fans. You can really see it in the writing and the constant talk about “humanity.” It’s also possible that the person currently playing Q is the same as the person who was shitposting in my original thread. It doesn’t even matter.

So that’s it. That’s Q. Q eventually moved from 4chan to 8chan and then 8kun. It should be obvious who controls the narrative now. There is nothing truly anonymous or secure about 8kun. We have technologies for that (i.e. tor, torrents, modern cryptography) and 8kun ain’t it. QAnon is the cash cow for the pig farmer and his son in the Philippines who run 8kun, giving a platform to future terrorists and pedophiles. There is a reason for “no outside comms” and “no dates”—control the narrative and keep the machine rolling as long as possible. Why? Money. Between ad revenue and merchandise QAnon is now a profitable venture. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and eventually you will make some prediction that will feel real enough, even if 99% of everything you say is bullshit, and keep the train running. In fact, it’s much easier than you think.

Take the twitter account, for example.

In early June I saw a number of trending hashtags around #JFKJRRETURNS. I could not believe the amount of people who were latching onto this. I watched the account go from zero to tens of thousands of followers in a day or so and then disappear. Everyone was saying that Twitter “banned” him. But when Twitter bans an account the language on the page says that the account was suspended. The account page for this account said that “This account doesn’t exist.” That means one of two things: 1) the account holder changed usernames; or 2) the account holder deactivated the account. When you deactivate an account, it puts it into a 30-day limbo period where you can recover it. I thought to myself, “If I could get ahold of this account perhaps, I could do something good with it.” I never thought I’d actually be able to do it. Low and behold, thirty days later I went to see if the handle was available and it was. Now I would get to play Q once again.

I just started riffing on whoever was playing Q with the account before me. No idea who that was. The envelopes were just responses from various government departments, nothing more. The postmarks are meaningless. Turns out if you write a letter to a government agency they will respond, and you get some cool looking envelopes. You can try it if you want—pull a FOIA request on yourself. July 22 was a date I pulled out of my ass. HUMAnity and ALl GOod ThiNGs are just more references to Star Trek TNG. The last episode of the show is called All Good Things, hence ALGO TNG. The very first Q Drops on record talk about Huma Abedin, and I thought maybe someone would try to make a connection with, “HUMAnity.” The last post from !!Hs1Jq13jV6 also mentioned “humanity”, but I didn’t even make that connection. It’s really not hard for those coincidences to pop up when you are all playing the same character. Manila, well, you know what that refers to now. St. Augustine is a reference to St. Augustine, Florida, where the largest QAnon merchandise operation is run from. The mentions of Hotwheels, moot and having stairs in my house was my way of gauging to see if anyone really had any idea about anything. The strange code in my location was just a Google Maps Plus Code. I picked a spot in the middle of the ocean off the Cook Islands and pulled the code for it. Turns out I didn’t even do it right, so it shows a different answer for everyone when you plug it into Google Maps.

So that’s it. That’s the whole thing. Beginning to end. Call it whatever you like, but that’s the story. The story of the chans, of QAnon and how Q became Q. Do with this what you will. Believe or don’t believe, it doesn’t matter.

Maybe this is all 100% true. Maybe it’s all 100% nonsense. Maybe truth is somewhere in the middle. What’s important is that you have more information today than you did yesterday. Where we go from here is a choice, and one I leave to you. What will happen to me? Well, I’ve been at a standing desk for 14 hours straight in order to bring this to you. I have done what I set out to do over three years ago and fulfilled my purpose as Q. My palms are sweaty. My knees are weak, my arms are heavy. It’s starting to fall out of my pockets already.

Mom’s Spaghetti,

#true stories

0 notes

theofficialcunt · 7 years

Note

Prompt: rewind a bit to before Negative Nancy came out and have Adore be nervous about whether or not the fans would like it and Bianca comes over at like 1AM to comfort her cause Adore is freaking out

I know this is super long for a prompt but I just couldn’t help myself! I go a little off track but I hope that it’s still what you were looking for anon. Enjoy! 💕

Adore had just wrapped up the last song on her album today, which ironically would be the first song she would be releasing as a single to the public.

The album had a very different sound for 2017, sounding more like the early 2000’s punk rock bands she had grown up with, with influences from the 90’s peppered into some of the tracks here and there. She had been inspired by the grunge movement in Seattle, and took comfort in the rock and roll city after her dramatic departure from All Stars 2.

“We’re confident that your album will make history Miss Delano.” The platinum blonde receptionist smiled, but Adore sensed a hidden undertone in her voice.

Was it doubt?

Adore smiled back faintly nodding in agreement, and walked towards the elevator to exit the record producers building.

She couldn’t doubt herself now. Everything was set in stone now, and it would be incredibly unprofessional to break the contract. Maybe punk rock wasn’t the receptionists style. She thought back idly to the young woman with over bleached white hair was pulled tightly into two dutch braids. She was wearing all black which could indicate punk or some sort of hidden angst, but that was most likely the company’s dress code.

Shrugging off the comment, she decided to leak the first single to her top 4 group chat to see what they thought.

Adore: Just wrapped my album up! Listen to the first single and tell me what you think ❤️

She finished typing and slid the phone back into her jeans. Just then, the elevator bell dinged indicating she had reached her floor. She stepped out, sighing as she began to walk to her car out in the parking garage.

“Hey!”

Adore spun around and saw none other than Roy. He was by himself, and had just gotten out of his car. He looked amazing - of course - with windswept hair and his black blazer.

“Oh my god! What are you doing here?” Adore asked confused as she hugged him. It had been awhile since she saw Roy, these days they were often scheduled on opposite sides of the globe. They talked so little they were practically strangers at this point.

“My management company is in this building. We’re about to go over plans for a new tour.” Roy explained. “I thought you knew that?”

Maybe at one time Adore knew that, but it had clearly slipped her mind. Roy had been really distant with Adore lately. They used to text every single day- outside of the group chat- but they hadn’t had a real conversation in months. Maybe even close to a year.

“Guess not.” Adore shrugged. She paced uncomfortably towards her car. “Well, I’ll let you get to your meeting then. I don’t wanna keep you.”

“Yeah, I should get going.” Roy cleared his throat awkwardly, his voice failing to hide a tone of disappointment. “How long are you in town?”

“I’ll be here until Wednesday.” Adore said.

“Well if you aren’t busy, we should get together before you go back to Seattle.” Roy suggested.

“Sure man!” Adore said excitedly, smiling toothily. She missed Roy, but she didn’t want to seem desperate and clingy like she was always made out to be.

“Party. I’ll see you later then.” Roy grinned and gave Adore a hug goodbye, lingering a little longer before he pulled away.

Adore pulled away, walking to her car and sitting down before she allowed herself to really think about what just happened.

That was awkward, no doubt about it and she wondered if Roy even really wanted to see her.

She started her car, realizing that Roy didn’t even see the text about her song that she sent in the group chat. Well, either he didn’t see it, or didn’t care enough about her anymore to give it a listen.

She decided to forget about their encounter, and as she headed back to her hotel; she focused on blasting her new album instead of waiting for her friends response.

——————

1:00 AM

Bzz, bzz.

Danny swatted his phone away from him as it continued to vibrate. It was most likely just notifications for his social media. He was confused, and he was about 15 beers deep as he listened to his album on repeat over and over again.

He caved and grabbed his phone, seeing that the vibrating was just fans tweeting him to release Dye and Rosie. He rolled his eyes, still irritated at the person who hacked his phone months ago. He closed twitter and scrolled through his messages again, re-reading what Courtney in particular had said.

Courtney: Wow, that’s quite a different sound for you. You’re definitely taking a risk Adorm.

He knew the Aussie meant well, but the words still hurt. He had been doubting himself since the afternoon, wondering if he had made a mistake recording an alternative album. It had unintentionally put him over the edge.

The fact that Roy hadn’t even commented on the song pissed him off even more. He clearly didn’t care about having any sort of friendship with Danny, let alone a professional relationship. Everytime Bianca had a new tour announcement, Adore would tweet her support for B to her followers to help boost sales. Not like she needed it, but she felt it was the right thing to do. She used to do that for Adore back in the day too, but now apparently that’s out the window. Adore can’t even get a text back, let alone any support on social media.

She decided enough was enough. She slammed her fingers firmly into glass iphone screen, entering the phone number that she knew by heart.

“Hello?”

“Listen, I don’t know what your fucking problem is man. But you need to actually talk to me like a fucking adult, and tell me what the fuck is wrong.” Danny spat.

Roy, clearly taken off guard, paused as he was for the first time in history rendered speechless by Danny.

“Well hello to you too.” Roy snapped. “Do you realize that it’s the middle of the night?”

“I know how to read a clock. And don’t fucking act like you haven’t been out all night drinking. We’re in West Hollywood. I highly doubt you were sleeping in bed like a responsible old man.”

Danny was on a roll, he didn’t know if it was the built up frustration, the beer, or the self doubt he was having for his new album - but he was making his feelings clear.

“I’m sorry, give me a second.” Roy said amused, his voice cracking with laughter. He cackled loudly into the receiver, enraging Danny even more.

“What’s so funny?” Danny asked annoyed. He was irritated that Roy was finding his feelings amusing, especially since he was trying to be serious.

“You’re on one of your famous drunk tirades again, and for once I’m the victim.” Roy laughed.

Danny softened as he remembered all of the times they would go out on tour together. Usually, the night would end up in a heated debate - Danny on one end arguing passionately about politics or music with anyone who would argue back. Roy would be on the other end, usually dragging Danny out of the club to avoid an inevitable bar fight.

“I’m surprised you even remember.” Danny murmured.

There was a pause, filled with sadness on Danny’s end as he remembered all of their times on tour. Danny had grown fond of Roy near the end of it, and then their schedules became crazy. It wasn’t until after he filmed All Stars where things got weird between them. That’s when they really began to grow apart, maybe because Roy didn’t agree with his decision - or maybe because Danny was going through a really emotional time and was lashing out.

“How could I forget?” Roy asked softly. “Danny, what’s wrong?”

Danny gulped, picking at his nails as he held his phone on his shoulder.

“Can you come over?”

——–

About 20 minutes later, Danny heard a faint knock at the door. After he rushed to clean up the apartment, there were only traces of the mess he had made earlier. He had stacked the empty cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the corner nearby, and an ashtray was laid out lazily in the middle of the small hotel coffee table. Which was a vast improvement from earlier.

He opened the door meekly, letting a casually dressed Roy saunter into the small room. He had traded in his signature black blazer for a graphic t shirt with the letter ‘B’ on it, and some ripped black skinny jeans. Danny felt himself fangirling over the infamous Roy Haylock who usually didn’t step out of the house in anything less than slacks, wearing a pair of goddamn ripped jeans.

And he looked damn fine in them.

“One of the most successful drag queens in the world, and yet you still drink the cheapest beer. Some things never change.” Roy gestured disgusted to the tower of Pabst. “Thank god, I brought you some rich woman wine to remind you of who you are”

“Aw, you remembered my favorite brand!” Danny exclaimed as he examined the label. It was the wine they used to drink together all the time on Delta. He smiled at the memories as he grabbed two dixie cups from the bathroom. He poured until the cups were full, and handed Roy his before they sat down.

“Sorry, this room doesn’t have wine glasses in it so you’ll have to drink like a poor person with me.” Danny apologized as they sat down on the small couch together.

Roy sipped his wine, trying to hide the disgust from his face as he examined the tiny hotel room. He could tell Danny had rushed to clean it, noticing all of the remnants of fast food and weed shoved in the small garbage nearby. The faint smell of cigarettes lingered in the room, as well as the fragrance of stale beer that was sitting on the table.

“So I listened to your song.”

“You did?” Danny asked incredulously. “What did you think?”

“I liked it. It’s different but it shows who you are, and not what you think your fans want to hear.” Roy said, sipping his wine.

Danny felt relief wash over him. He was really glad Roy approved of the song, but he still had his doubts.

“But something tells me my approval isn’t what you’re looking for, so what’s the real problem here?” Roy asked bluntly.

“I-” Danny stammered. “I feel like this album isn’t going to be good enough. Courtney didn’t understand-”

“Courtney is a pop princess that barely knows the difference between The Spice Girls and Fifth Harmony. I wouldn’t take her opinion about a rock album too seriously.” Roy quipped, grabbing Danny’s hand softly before he continued. “You’re taking a risk, but that doesn’t mean that what you’re doing is wrong.”

Danny felt himself relax, as he played with Roy’s hand absentmindedly. He was right, it was a risk - but it would most likely pay off in the long run. Opinions didn’t mean anything at the end of the day, it was all about the record sales.

“I missed you Roy. I’ve missed you so much.” Danny confessed as he leaned his head on Roy’s shoulder. They were still holding hands, Roy squeezed it in response as they sat together on the couch.

“I missed you too Danny.” Roy admitted.

“Why did you push me away?” Danny asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

Roy’s shoulder stiffened as he thought about the answer.

“I can’t talk about it.” Roy finally said, so softly that Danny had hardly heard him.

“Why not?” Danny asked gently, squeezing Roy’s hand lightly. “You know you can tell me anything.”

“Not this.” Roy said, as he looked away from Danny. He almost had a guilty look on his face, as if he was hiding something awful from Danny.

“It can’t be that bad.” Danny encouraged. “Please Roy. I won’t tell anyone, and besides I’m pretty wasted so chances are I probably won’t remember it anyway.”

That was a pretty tempting statement, Roy thought. But there was always the slim possibility that Danny would remember in the morning - and he didn’t know if he wanted to take that chance.

“You can tell me anything.” Danny said, interrupting his thoughts. He really wanted to know what was up with Roy, and for some reason he felt that whatever this issue is, is what has been keeping them apart the last few months.

“Fine,” Roy started, thinking bitterly about the universe being against him at this point. “I pushed you away because I started-” Roy paused, sighing heavily as if he had just come up for air. He pulled his hand away as he continued to compose himself.

“Because?” Danny asked confused. Why was he breathing so heavily? Was he passing a kidney stone or something?

“Because I started to develop feelings for you.” Roy rushed the words out, taking a long gulp of his cup of wine before finishing it off completely. He avoided his eyes, staring down at the coffee table as he clasped his hands together.

Danny felt his heart spring to life as he processed what Roy had said. It was like someone had brought him back to life, electrifying him. He felt like he was on fire. Roy liked him? No way.

“Don’t fuck with me man.” Danny said, pleading in his voice.

“I wouldn’t fuck with you about something like this.” Roy murmured, avoiding eye contact.

Roy really had feelings for him? Him? Out of all of the attractive men, drag queens, producers, Roy’s heart had chosen him?

Well, had.

“So you don’t feel that way anymore then.” Danny said bitterly. He realized anger was starting to bubble up inside of him. “Why couldn’t you tell me back then? You didn’t even give me a chance.”

“A chance? Danny, I knew you didn’t like me. I wasn’t about to have my heart broken and lose my best friend all in one shot.” Roy argued.

“But I did like you Roy!” Danny exploded, stunning Roy into silence.

“You don’t know what you’re saying.” Roy finally decided, standing up. “You’re drunk.”

“You idiot, a drunk mind speaks a sober heart.” Danny muttered, grabbing Roy’s hand. “I know what I felt for you. So did all of the queens on tour.”

They stood there, holding each other’s hand as time seemed to stop. Danny felt like he was on fire, still feeling electrified by Roy’s confession - locked in by his burning brown eyes that were fixed on his face. Roy was ice, he was frozen in time not sure what he was supposed to do now. He stared at Danny, a mature 27 now. Long hair, about to be a drag queen rockstar - one of the first of his kind. But he was just as attracted to him as he was on the bots tour. He always thought the universe was against him when it came to love, but this one time he had been wrong to go against his gut. He should have just told Danny a long time ago.

“I still have feelings for you.” Danny admitted, breaking the silence.

“So do I.” Roy murmured, looking up slightly at Danny. He hated their height difference, but for him he would make an exception.

Roy moved his hand up to Danny’s cheek, caressing it softly as he stared into his eyes. Closing the distance between them, he gently pressed his lips against the younger mans. Danny moaned in delight and pulled Roy gently on top of him as he laid down on the couch, Roy softly rested his body on his as the kiss became more and more passionate.

“And you say I’m dumb.” Danny murmured in between kisses.

“You could have told me earlier that you had feelings too.” Roy argued lightheartedly, tugging on Danny’s hair.

Danny let out a soft moan as Roy moved his lips from his cheek down to his neck. He bit and sucked softly, leaving his mark on Danny as he tilted his head back in pure bliss.

Eventually the kissing died down, and Roy and Danny ended up moving to the queen sized bed instead.

“So,” Roy smiled, drawing circles on Danny’s back. “What do you want to do?”

“What do you mean?” Danny hummed sleepily.

“Do you uh, want a relationship?” Roy asked awkwardly.

Danny raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Of course I want a relationship with you. You’re out of my league, and when my money runs out you can be my sugar mama.” Danny joked.

Roy let out a soft chuckle and pulled Danny closer to him.

“Okay, just making sure.”

“Roy?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sure I’ll remember this in the morning.” Danny hummed, before they both drifted off to sleep.

#prompts #prompt #biadore

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disappearingground · 5 years

Text

Rebound, rediscovery, rebirth: How Jenny Lewis made her best album in more than a decade

Washington Post March 15, 2019

Singer Jenny Lewis’s new album “On the Line” is her best work since her 2006 solo debut, “Rabbit Fur Coat.”

By Allison Stewart

Jenny Lewis has one of those faces. If you were to run into her in her natural habitat — a vintage clothing store or Whole Foods — you might recognize her, even if you’re not sure from where.

Lewis has spent almost her entire life lingering at the edges of everyone’s collective consciousness, first as a child actor, then as indie pop’s mid-’00s queen. “People think they know me personally, or we’re related, or from commercials that I was in as a child,” she says. “I just have a familiar face, because I’m weirdly Zelig-y.”

A few years back, Lewis and her longtime boyfriend, fellow singer-songwriter Johnathan Rice, broke up. It had been the formative, defining relationship of her life so far — they were practically married — and its dissolution forced her to look at the world in a new way, and to reassess the way the world looked at her.

“Can you imagine being 40 years old and thrust upon the digital dating scene after a 12-year relationship that started before cellphones?” Lewis asks. She couldn’t either, until it happened. She’s 43 now, just starting to find her footing, to figure out what she wants in a partner, and what the rest of her life might look like.

Many regular guys are afraid of her, rich guys seem unappealing (“I don’t date for the money. What’s the opposite of that?”), and she’s more famous than most of the artists she knows, which is potentially a problem. She reluctantly attended a JDate speed-dating event once because her godfather wanted her to meet a nice Jewish doctor. “It was way too weird,” she says, but at least no one recognized her.

The breakup and its painful, hopeful, way-too-weird aftermath are among the main subjects of Lewis’s new album “On the Line,” her best work since her 2006 solo debut, “Rabbit Fur Coat.” “It’s kind of like a play,” says Lewis, over lunch at the L.A. Farmers Market, over the hill from her Studio City home. “It begins with the breakup, and it’s rebound, rediscovery, rebirth, death, autonomy.”

In person, Lewis is vulnerable and disarming and warm. She won’t answer every question, but she seems like she’s at least considering it. She wears a mechanic’s jumpsuit and a trucker hat atop her familiar curtain of Marianne Faithfull bangs. She looks like the world’s sultriest gas station attendant.

After her breakup, Lewis moved to New York City. She stayed at her friend St. Vincent’s place in the East Village, and hung out with her girlfriends Erika Forster and Tennessee Thomas at Thomas’s venue, the Deep End Club. (The women formed a trio, played their first show at a Bernie Sanders rally, and released a self-titled album, “Nice as F---,” in 2016. It was probably a one-off.)

Lewis remembers watching a video of Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson playing on the roof of the Capitol Records building circa 1974, with Ringo wearing a bright blue onesie with a star on the front. She must have watched this video a thousand times back then, because God, she loves Ringo, and she’s also partial to onesies.

During this the time, Lewis had taken to wearing Come to Me oil, an herbal compound she’d bought in a neighborhood potions shop. After acquiring the oil, you’re supposed to set an intention, something you want to happen — “You have to be very careful with it” — and then you wait.

She wasn’t trying to bring forth anyone in particular, she just wanted a good thing to happen; Ringo wound up playing drums on “On the Line” not too long after that. “I feel like I conjured Ringo,” she says. (Note: Maybe! But Don Was, the super-connected super producer who contributed to the album, also might have brought him aboard.)

“On the Line” was made in stages, and features production by Ryan Adams and Beck, working separately. In the days before this interview, Adams was accused of emotionally abusing and harassing female musicians.

Lewis says her relationship with Adams was strictly professional and is reluctant to say much more, but this is basically what happened: Adams began work on Lewis’s last album, 2014’s “The Voyager,” but could not be persuaded to finish. Lewis reenlisted him to produce “On the Line,” hoping things would work out differently. They didn’t.

“We began the record together two years ago, and after five or six days in the studio we stopped working together,” Lewis says, carefully. “I took the record and finished those songs without him, and then went in the studio with Beck to record the rest of the songs.”

It was not an amicable break. “I was left in the lurch, and again this happens to me in my life, where I’m faced with getting back to myself and refocusing,” she says.

The juxtaposition between Adams and Beck, one of rock’s all-time reasonable men, was stark. “There are these figures that come along when I’m engaged in these unhealthy creative relationships,” Lewis says, “and they appear just long enough to say: ‘You can do this on your own. You’re good. I can help you, but it’s yours.’ ”

“On the Line” is slower and more muted than Lewis’s past albums; there are gently swinging retro-country ballads, mostly sad, with an emphasis on pianos and organs, the latter provided by Benmont Tench, former keyboardist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Petty died during a break in the sessions, followed weeks later by the death of Lewis’s mother. Lewis had a complicated relationship with her mother, who struggled with heroin addiction and mental illness, and from whom she had been semi-estranged.

Weeks after her mother died, Lewis recorded the album standout “Little White Dove,” a bottom-heavy ballad about her final days. “I’m still afraid of a lot of things, but I don’t know if I’m afraid of dying,” she says. “Having been through that with my mother, that’s not as scary to me as it once was, which I think is a really liberating thing to go through. I’m afraid of cancer, I’m afraid of the archaic medical tools, but I’m not afraid of the other stuff.”

Growing up, Lewis’s home life had been tumultuous. She had worked fairly steadily as a child actress since the age of 3; in a Jell-O commercial, the Shelley Long comedy “Troop Beverly Hills,” the 1989 Fred Savage nerdfest “The Wizard.” She shared the screen with everyone from Angelina Jolie to Lucille Ball. “There was this normalcy on the set, and there was a meal, and the routine of it. Every time I’d start a new project, there would be a new family.”

Lewis’s father wasn’t a presence in her life, but his role was played by a series of reassuring ’80s television dads. “Corbin Bernsen, David Strathairn, Peter Scolari,” Lewis remembers. “These guys that played my dads, they were the best guys.”

Lewis found the same stability in Rilo Kiley, the band she and guitarist Blake Sennett (who was also a child actor, and her future ex-boyfriend), formed in the late-’90s. Bands, like film sets, were a makeshift source of shelter. When Lewis later heard that inmates in women’s prisons formed family units on the inside, she immediately understood — it was kind of like that on tour.

When Lewis recorded “Rabbit Fur Coat” with female backing duo the Watson Twins, things in Rilo Kiley were already rocky. The album, a country-gospel-soul mash-up that she estimates took five days to make, became a cultural sensation that changed the course of her career. At 30, she felt free for the first time. She and the Twins wore matching outfits onstage, and, unlike in Rilo Kiley, nobody yelled at each other. She couldn’t believe how easy it was. Rilo Kiley released one more album before disbanding.

Lewis has always felt that her songs are prophetic somehow, like they knew things that would happen to her before she did. She is still struck by the naivete of many of those early songs, but she wonders if she was setting intentions she didn’t know about. “I’m always surprised by my songs, at either how irrelevant or relevant they feel,” she says. “There’s hidden messages to myself in there. It’s like I’m singing to my future and past self.”

When Lewis was in her 30s, she wrote the “Voyager” track “Just One of the Guys,” a song about a perennial Cool Girl beginning to doubt her life choices (“When I look at myself all I can see / I’m just another lady without a baby”). The song wasn’t a hit, but it was a big deal, and it was accompanied by a buzzy video starring Kristen Stewart, Brie Larson, Tennessee Thomas and Anne Hathaway, a friend from her acting days.

Lewis says the song wasn’t biographical (“My songs aren’t the paper of record. There’s a lot of wiggle room in there”), and isn’t meant to seem sad — just matter of fact. But pop music is short on songs about women confronting their empty uteruses, and it struck a nerve with fans, who still ask her about it.

The further Lewis gets from the track, the closer she feels. She’s “a career girl and a survivalist,” on the road so much she can’t even get a dog. But she’s back living in Studio City now, in the house she lived in with Rice, a green and brown house called Mint Chip. Mint Chip has seen countless late-night jam sessions and dissolute ragers. Mint Chip is a vibe.

But the people Lewis rented it to during her time in New York had a baby there during her absence (they asked her first, it’s fine), and the idea of a baby in Mint Chip seems strangely not awful. At the very least, it’s a means of exorcising the house’s dark breakup juju.

Children aren’t something Lewis needs, or are something she is even sure she wants. But she wonders about them, especially lately, and she feels the weight of other people wondering, too.

“There’s so much anxiety around the subject,” she says, tapping meaningfully at an imaginary watch on her wrist. “This is all I talk about with my girlfriends. There’s biological pressure, there’s this sense that you aren’t a complete person. People kind of look at you weird, like, Auntie Mame-style. It’s not whether I want it or don’t want it, we’ll see where life takes me. My time ain’t up yet.”

#publication: washington post #album: on the line #year: 2019 #mention: breakup #mention: new york #person: ringo #person: beck #person: ryan adams #mention: mother's death #song: little white dove #mention: child acting #mention: rilo kiley #person: the watson twins #song: just one of the guys #mention: motherhood

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silkyandsurveys · 4 years

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survey 6

Do you do careless things like spill nail polish on your nightstand?

yeah i’m definitely a little bit of a careless person sometimes

How are you today?

i actually had a good like 90% of my day i woke up early ate pretty well worked out went to therapy spent time with friends outside for a couple hours talked about the next year of my life but then my car wouldn’t start and i cried for 30 minutes then got picked up and then it started to work again and then i got taco bell. i’m not mad at my food choice though because i didn’t go over my calorie limit at all

When someone messages you and you know it’s going to be rude, do you ignore it and not read it, or do you read it and reply?

normally if i’m getting a text message from a friend or person in my life trying to cause i fight it depends on the situation. if i feel like the situation is worth working out then i’ll reply but if not no.

Do you find online drama stressful?

online drama is just crazy and honestly pointless. it can get a little exhilarating i’m not gonna lie but it’s really dumb

How stressful is your life?

lately my life has been very minimal stress which is just really great

Do you like your hair better curly or straight?

i think curly

What’s your favorite vegetable?

broccoli is my favorite

Do you have a youtube channel? If so, what is it? (Msg me if u want to watch mine!)

i would love to but no

What song best describes your life?

i don’t have just one i have a life soundtrack playlist but not one song

Would you ever post your most embarrassing moment story on youtube, or is that too embarrassing for you?

i would tell the story. i have always been a person capable of laughing at myself

If you have a youtube channel, do you post more serious videos or fun?

i don’t have a youtube :(

Are you keeping any secrets from your parents?

uhm i really had my issues with disordered eating from my mom

What are your favorite things to watch on youtube?

it so depends on the phase i’m in. rn i can’t stop watching amber lynn reid reactions and compilations. the past month was sinjin drowning and sarah baska so it really switches up

Was any of your home decor inspired by Pinterest?

yeah my photo wall

Do you do yoga?

no but i wish i did lowkey

What is something you have tried and hated?

calamari

Do you have regrets?

i think everyone has regrets it’s how much you dwell on them that really make them matter. i don’t have any large regrets only small ones like not seeing 1d in concert and stuff like that

Are you a good person?

i think i am

Who do you look up to?

lol harry styles oops

Do you do the right thing or the wrong thing more?

i think i do the right thing a lot of the time but i like to be rebellious sometimes and i act up

Are you rebellious?

bruh i literlaly didn’t read this before the last question but not super rebellious just a little and it’s nothing huge

How many tattoos do you have?

i don’t have any but when i turn 18 i’m going to get one

What do you want to name your first child?

depends on gender. i’ve always gravitated towards finn

Are you mad at someone?

i’m not mad at someone directly i’m just mad at a person who i dropped from toxicity and how awful of a person they are

What is this month’s calendar picture?

i don’t have a monthly calendar. i wish i did i used to quite like them

What is your last ex-boyfriend’s or ex-girlfriend’s name?

doesn’t exist

Do you have an ex-friend that you miss?

i miss the person two of my ex friends use to be but i don’t miss them now or anymore really

What color do you want your wedding dress to be?

definitely white it’s just very elegant and classic

What is your favorite zoo animal?

i refuse to go to a zoo it makes me cry

Who were your favorite bands as a kid or teenager?

5sos 1d you know

Do you use snapchat?

i actually hate snapchat it’s my least favorite social media app. i literally use it to snaochat my 1 friend back and forth snapchat my sister and use school grouochat and my one friend groupchat and that’s it

How many months until your birthday?

7? i think

Would you rather go out for pancakes or steak?

the vibes of going to breakfast with your friends after a hella rough night is unbeatable

What’s your favorite ramen noodle flavor?

the chicken one is great but i haven’t tried any others that i can remember

What decade were you born in?

the 00’s

What is/was your favorite Homecoming Week day?

uh i think this means like high school spirit week? i’m actually mega confused but i love decades day if that’s what this question is asking

How do you feel when you read the Bible, if you read it? Encouraged? Angry?

i haven’t read it since middle school. never felt anything by it. makes me roll my eyes now if i’m being honest

Have you ever suffered from anxiety?

yes sir crippling anxiety from ages 5-9 but now it’s just your average anxiety dweller

Have you ever suffered from depression?

yes ma’am diagnosed in ninth grade and diagnosed again in 11 and finally got help

Have you ever seen an angel or a demon?

uhm i don’t think so. i see angel numbers though

What is something a lot of people like but you don’t?

acrylic nails ugh i hate them so much

What color is your favorite pair of jeggings or skinny jeans?

uhm black i think i haven’t worn jeans in so long and i don’t like skinny jeans

Do you own any bellbottoms?

not necessarily bell bottoms no

Do you own a dreamcatcher?

i do but it’s actually still in my old room at my old house

What season’s colors do you look best in?

winter for sure the cool tones of things look best on me

Have you ever done something incredibly stupid?

duh i think everyone has

Do you have revenge fantasies that you never actually play out?

omg i play out about none of my revenge fantasies and i constantly think of new ones

What is your favorite mystical creature?

angel

What do you want to be when you grow up?

something in media or owning a small business

Are you truly happy, or are you only happy because you’re doing something to distract yourself from your problems? Or are you just sad?

uhm i’m working on it. i think i’m a person who’s getting over sadness and gaining happiness but is distracting themselves from their problems

Have you ever lost something amazing because you held on to it too hard?

no i don’t think so

Is there a guy or girl you let slip away and you wish you hadn’t?

uh yeah

Do you ever wonder what could have been?

100% being an over thinker does not help this case. i question every decision i’ve made some times and i always wonder what could have been or what would my life be like now

What’s an uplifting song you like to listen to?

ariana lol

Paisleys or plaid?

plaid def

What’s your vocal range?

not much lol i can’t really sing

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cebeavers · 15 years

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New York City & Coney Island 2009

June 20, 2009 New York Photos | Coney Island Photos

Though I had wanted to wake up earlier and get into the city earlier, Saturday wasn’t quite as early as I’d planned for. But Matt and I did wake up and head out around 9:00 am to be greeted by gloom, clouds, and precipitation. The drive from Pottstown to Trenton was just over an hour. I was trying to pay attention as I would be driving most of the same roads to Jackson, NJ for Six Flags a few days later, but the roads were very confusing. And expensive with all of the tolls.

We finally arrived at the train stop in Trenton and met up with Bubba and Steff. Once we got our tickets, we headed out to the already waiting train, which left at 11:40 am. I had this totally stereotypical vision of what riding on a train into the city would be like. For some reason, maybe because my last real exposure to NYC was in the early 80’s, I always imagine transportation and such into the city as being straight out of the 80’s. Surprisingly, I what I had envisioned in my mind was SO close to what it was actually like. It was scary how close it matched what I imagined.

But the train ride in was a lot of fun. I hadn’t been on a real train in a long time, and don’t remember the conductor actually coming and collecting tickets the last time I was on Amtrak. After a little more than an hour, we arrived at Penn Station. Our first stop was the closest restroom. It was old and run down, and very typical of what I imagined NYC’s public restrooms to be like. I also had my first weird New York moment. I was waiting for a stall to open, and eventually a door opened to a stall beside me and a short middle aged woman came running out and hurried out of the restrooms. There was a line for the Women’s room, but I’m not sure I’d have done that…

Anyways, we headed up topside, and as we did, Bubba mentioned we were right under Madison Square Garden. I walked just inside the Garden’s arena just to say I’d been there, and then we headed out side so I could take some pictures. MSG is very close to the Empire State Building, and that was our first destination of the day. Sure, it was gloomy and foggy, but I really wanted to head to the top.

Once we arrived we headed into the lobby and were told it was a 40 minute wait. Well, the wait times were incorrect because we just bypassed all of the queues since no one was in line. In about 20 minutes (counting the time I spent in the gift shop), we were heading up to the 86th floor’s outdoor observation deck.

The views were…Cloudy. I’m sure on a nice day they’re really spectacular, and you could see a decent distance. I did manage to see the Statue of Liberty from a distance, as well as Manhattan in the distance. I took a lot of pictures, but mostly of closer buildings since the fog covered a lot of the other buildings. I had an umbrella (ella ella) and was really thankful I did as it rained off and on for our duration at the top. I would have loved to have stayed up longer, but the weather wasn’t cooperating and there were lots of other things I wanted to do, so after about 30 minutes, we headed back down, stopping at another gift shop so I could buy some stuff.

Lunch was had next at a small Italian eatery right across the street from the ESB. It was actually really good, too, and so typically New York. Bubba wanted to go to CRUMBS bakery, and I wanted to see Times Square, so we walked, first up a block the wrong way, then over and down towards CRUMBS Bakery, which was thankfully on the way to Times Square. We headed by Grant Park, stopping off for a cupcake at the bakery that was delicious.

Apparently it was Gay Pride Week or something, and they had a stage set up in Bryant Park with live music. Because of the rain, it wasn’t very crowded. Even though the music was terrible, we all walked over to get a glimpse of the performer and his horribly repetitious song. Dude put Daft Punk to shame in the repetition department. And the lyrics and dancing were awful. Grant Park was nice, though, and a few minutes later we were arriving at Times Square.

I’d stayed here with family back when I was 3 or 4 years old. It’s much different now, basically a huge tourist attraction with lights and LED screens and shops. We walked around as I took pictures and eventually headed to Toys Я Us. The goal was to ride the Ferris Wheel, but the line was really long. We did do some window shopping and I found some things that I’d eventually like to pick up elsewhere. After a bathroom break and looking around, we decided to head over to Coney Island, the 2nd main destination of the day.

It took a second to find the Subway station, but once we did we purchased our Metro card and hopped the train to Coney. This was my 2nd Subway credit. The ride to Coney Island was almost an hour, but it was neat. I like the trains on the NYC Metro better than D.C.’s but D.C.’s stations are nicer, and the lines are much easier to get around on. Granted, NYC is huge, so that was part of my ‘issue’ with it. Eventually, though we did arrive safe and sound at Coney Island, only to be greeted by a burst of pouring rain. Thankfully, it didn’t last long, and as we walked down the Ave., we realized we’d just missed The Mermaid Parade (thankfully). Our first stop on Coney Island was the Infamous Coney Island Cyclone (How Sweet it Is). Would I like it?

Coney Island Cyclone (#183)-No. Not even a little. I haven’t wanted to get off of a coaster as much as I did Cyclone in a long time. I had fully expected to continue to think of Psyclone (R.I.P.) as my least favorite of the Cyclone clones, but as it turns out, the Original is now at the bottom of my rankings. I had hoped that the rain would give me a crazy ride. I was leery of all the padding when getting into the back seat of the train. Going up the lift hill was exciting beyond belief, but then the first drop happened. Honestly, I don’t remember much about the layout or anything because I was trying to brace myself for all of the pain that was coming my way. My back and shoulders hurt, badly, after riding. Matt said it was running slow and poorly. He was spot on. He asked about a $5 re-ride, but I had had more than enough. Sad, a coaster I’d looked forward to for so long was so bad. I knew it was a possibility, though, so no anticipointment came from the Cyclone on this trip.

So after the Cyclone we walked thru the old Astroland area, now labeled ‘Dreamland’ with temporary signage and some temporary rides that looked rather fun. Had it been a nicer day and were I to be staying in NYC longer, I’d have gotten a wristband for Deno’s and Dreamland so that we could have ridden longer.

We circled around and went into Deno’s, heading straight to the Wonder Wheel. This was something else I was looking forward to riding. I’d done the version at Disneyland, which I enjoyed, even if the swinging cars were slightly unnerving. What would I think of the original?

Deno’s Wonder Wheel-Oh. My. Goodness. This is officially now one of my top 5 scariest rides ever. I was expecting something like the Sun Wheel at Disney. This was far scarier. First off, it’s so old. It isn’t even driven by tires, but gears, which was neat. I expected the ride to circle quote a few times once all of the cars were full, much like other Ferris Wheels do, but the Wonder Wheel only circles twice, and for that I’m thankful. Once the car started rolling forward I was a bit nervous, but when it started swinging out of control, I was scared to death and started screaming. And it just kept swinging. I was holding on tight. It was freaky as it swung up 90° as you’re in a cage sitting on a wooden bench. Every time it swung it scared me. Even as much as it frightened me, I’d pay $6 to ride it again, just not on this trip.

I asked if Spook-o-Rama was any good and was told no, so we walked to the front of Deno’s and out onto Surf Ave. I needed batteries for the Camera, so I stopped in a shop to get a few, then we walked down to Nathan’s so Bubba could get a hot dog and I could use the restroom. I don’t like hot dogs, but toyed with getting one from Nathan’s Famous for obvious reasons. Then I saw the price and the hot dogs and decided that I’d stick to not eating hot dogs.

We sat at some outdoor seating for a while so that Bubba could eat, then we walked back over to the boardwalk so that I could go out on the beach. Everyone else stayed on the boardwalk, but I walked out onto the sand and even put my feet (with shoes on) in the water. That’s 2 trips to the beach this year! As I was on the coastline, I could see a large tanker looking ship on the horizon. Then as I looked south, I could see a large cruise ship coming up the coaster that was pretty massive.

After staring out at the ocean for a few minutes (something I could do for a few hours), I walked back to the boardwalk. We walked down the boardwalk and ran into more of the freaks from the Mermaid Parade. There were all kinds of freaks, clowns, mermaids, and what not everywhere, as well as press covering them and taking pictures. Matt wanted a quick bite to eat, and I toyed with getting my drink on, but alcohol was far too expensive.

Once we finished up at the food stand, we headed back up the boardwalk and out by the Cyclone, then over to the Metro Station to wait on the train. It was about a 45 minute ride back to where we were headed, but the question was, where were we headed? Bubba and Steff were heading back to Trenton because Bubba parked in a lot that closed at 11pm, but Matt and I were staying in the city a little longer. Eventually Bubba and Steff got off at Penn Station as we waited and got off later, heading topside on 5th Ave. where I needed a restroom. Matt suggested going into the Plaza, but as we approached, not sure if they still allowed the public to use their restrooms, I asked the doorman where the closest public restroom is, and he suggested the Apple Store across the street.

Now, this isn’t just any Apple Store, this is the glass box Apple Store that’s underground. We had decided to hit it up since we were there and see how busy it was since the iPhone 3G S had just been released. So we headed across the street and down the spiraling stairs to the Apple Store. After a quick bathroom break, we went over to play with the new iPhone. Yeah, the video and digital compasses are nice, but I’m not ready to go out and get a new one just yet, because mine still works just fine.

This was definitely larger than the other Apple Store I’d been in in D.C. And it was packed. I toyed with getting a new iPhone case, but decided against it (I got what I wanted later when I got home).

After spending time browsing, we headed topside. It was still slightly light out, so we walked over to Central Park. Yes, the park is huge, so we only really got one minute corner of it to look at. Matt wanted to see what the kiddy park looked like, so we walked over to the gates. It was nice, and I’d like to go back and spend some time there. The whole area we were in was very nice, even if it was getting dark. Such lush greenery and trees surrounded by huge skyscrapers made for an odd contrast.

We walked back out of Central Park and around a block or two until we ran into FAO Schwarz Toy Store. Sadly, it was closed, but at least I was able to see it. Then I suggested eating at a place called Pop Burger for dinner. I had a ‘Ghost Burger’ (It was vegetarian) and Matt had some real burgers. The food was good, the place was pretty nice and trendy, and the music was pretty hot. As we left, about 20 hot girls in 2 groups came walking by, heading out for the nite. Every one was at least a 9. You don’t see that everywhere.

Then we started to walk back to Times Square from the opposite end that we came from before. We saw an older gentleman and his ‘escort’ for the evening, which I pointed out to Matt. He didn’t think that was what was going on, but I could tell by the way she was dressed and the fact that she was at least 40 years younger than him that they weren’t together unless she was getting something out of the deal.

Finally we came to Times Square at nite. It was packed and the lights were really dazzling. I had to call the Piano Bar that we were heading to, Sweet Caroline’s, in order to get directions, but we finally made it. The show was supposed to start at 10:30 promptly, but it was starting just as we arrived at 10. It was nice, but nothing special as far as the looks of the place went. Crocodile Rocks in SC is way nicer inside. The players were really good, though, and lots of fun. I ended up getting a free drink AND they played both songs I requested.

It was different than its southern counterpart in that there was a lot more Hip Hop/Rap and Metal requested, along with the old piano standards present at both. In the south there was way more country being played. Around 12:30 we decided to leave since we still had to take the Metro to Penn Station and the train to Trenton was leaving at 1:40am. Once we got to the station, we made our way to the area we needed to be, but it was confusing and I was glad Matt was with me. There were lots of homeless people sleeping on the ground, that’s something I’m not used to.

As we sat on the steps to wait for our train to get its gate assignment, a group of young people behind us asked us to take their picture, so I did. They were really nice and we chatted a bit before the train finally got a gate. And at 1:40, just as promised, we were pulling out. I slept most of the way back to Trenton. Then there was another hour drive home that thankfully I didn’t have to drive.

All in all, I had a fun day. I do want to get back to NYC because there is a lot I still want to do, plus stuff I’d like to do again in nicer weather. However, the city came across as really dirty and skanky. I will say, though, that I was surprised at the attitudes of everyone I came across. Not one rude person all day. People said thank you and held doors open and were very nice, and these were the locals. Fun enough city, but I don’t think I’d ever want to live there.

#New York City #New York #2009 #Coney Island

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lucyskyyy-blog · 7 years

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Our Film Picks for the 55th Annual New York Film Festival

The 55th annual New York Film Festival has begun! One of New York's most classic film showcases, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's NYFF is once again offering the newest and some of the freshest international films slates for the viewing public.

Here are some of the films Bold as Love feels you should definitely check out, but also look out for reviews from us on select films.

NYFF runs from September 28th to October 15th in New York City.See more about the entire festival and get tickets at FilmLinc.org

MUDBOUND

Directed by Dee Rees 2017/USA/ 134 minutes Series: Main Slate With Mary J. Blige, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, and Jonathan Banks (NYC Premiere)

Thursday October 12 at 6:00 PM & Friday October 13 at 9:15 PM (Alice Tully Hall) Q&A with Dee Rees on 10/12

From the director of Pariah and HBO's Bessie, writer-director Dee Rees's historical epic, based on the novel by Hillary Jordan, details the daily hardships and vicissitudes of farm life in Mississippi during the postWorld War II era, focusing on two families, one white (the landlords) and one black (the sharecroppers), working the same miserable piece of farmland.

At an off-glance Mudbound may look seem a bit downtrodden, but we assure you that as one the most-anticipated films of 2017, with Black talent and otherwise, Mudbound is the film to see at NYFF. With breakthrough performances from Jason Mitchell and Rob Morgan, come awards season, you can tell your friends you were among the first to see it!

FLICIT

Directed by Alain Gomis 2017/ France,Senegal,Belgium,Germany,Lebanon/124 minutes Series: Main Slate (U.S. Premiere)

October 4 at 9:15 PM (Alice Tully Hall), October 5 at 6:00 PM (Walter Reade Theater) Q&As with Alain Gomis on 10/4 and 10/5

Largely set in the roughest areas of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Flicit (Vro Tshanda Beya Mputu) who just scrapes together a living as a singer in a makeshift bar, goes in search of money for her son's medical care after he is injured in an accident. But Flicit's ordeal becomes a double journey, one through the punishing outer world of the city and the inner world of the soul. Flicit is tough, tender, lyrical, mysterious, funny, and terrifying, both responsive to the moment and fixed on its heroine's spiritual progress.

Winner of the best film award at the 13th African Movie Academy Awards, Flicit is the fourth feature film directed by Alain Gomis, a French director of Guinea-Bissauan and Senegalese descent. His previous film Tey (Aujoud'hui), a dream-like and also lyrically mysterious drama starring the musician/actor Saul Williams, Assa Maga (Bamako), and Anisia Uzeyman, was also a journey of the soul, so there's little mistaking the power that Gomis' new film can possess.

THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR

Directed by Nancy Buirski 2017/ USA/90 minutes Series: Spotlight on Documentary (North American Premiere)

Sunday, October 1st at 9pm, Walter Reade Theater Tuesday, October 3rd at 6pm, Francesca Beale Theater Q&A's with Nancy Buiriski on 10/1 and 10/3

Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. Exposing a legacy of physical abuse of Black women by white men, which despite its harrowing history and still existing mindset is seldom spoken about, Recy hits on multiple notes, most of which is the ongoing fight for justice for countless women like Taylorand the revelation of Rosa Parks' intimate role in Recy Taylor's story and Parks' ongoing place in history prior to (and after) the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

This story of this film will and should fuel outrage (I was yelling at the screen while watching it!). A full review will we posted here on BaL.

For now, see more about the film at their film's website.

BOOM FOR REAL: THE LATE TEENAGE YEARS OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

Directed by Sara Driver 2017/ USA/79 minutes Series: Spotlight on Documentary

(U.S. Premiere) Sunday, October 8, 1:00pm at Alice Tully Hall Wednesday, October 11, 9:00pm at Francesca Beale Theater Q&A's with Sara Driver on 10/8 and 10/11

This look at Jean-Michel Basquiat's life pre-fame, and how New York City, the times, the people and the movements around him formed the artist he became, BOOM FOR REAL weaves the story of Jean-Michel and the city with never before seen works, writings and photographs.

Even if you're from New York City, this look back at this time and scene is fascinating. If you're not, it may even be alarming.

Director Sara Driver worked closely and collaboratively with her friends and other artists who emerged from that scene: Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quinones, Nan Goldin, Jim Jarmusch, James Nares, Luc Sante and many others. Their thoughts, period film footage, music, images, and anecdotes of their young friend, help to visually tell the story of Jean-Michel's Lower East Side and SOHO downtown NYC pre AIDS, President Reagan, the real estate and art boom, and before anyone was motivated by money and ambition. The definition of fame, success and power were very different than today - to be a penniless but published poet was the height of success, until everything changed in the early 1980's. This is both Basquiat's and New York City's story before that change.

A full review will we posted here on BaL.

ZAMA

Directed by Lucrecia Martel 2017/ Argentina-Brazil-Spain-/France-Mexico-USA-The Netherlands-Portugal/115 minutes Series: Main Slate (U.S. Premiere)

Saturday September 30 at 6:00 PM and Monday October 2 at 6:00 PM at Alice Tully Hall

Q&As with Lucrecia Martel on 9/30 and 10/2

The great Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel ventures into the realm of historical fiction and makes the genre entirely her own in this adaptation of Antonio di Benedetto's 1956 classic Argentinean novel.

In the late 18th century, in a far-flung corner of what seems to be Paraguay, the title character, an officer of the Spanish crown (Daniel Gimnez Cacho) born in the Americas, waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. Martel renders Zama's world-his daily regimen of small humiliations and petty politicking-as both absurd and mysterious, and as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia, subject to a creeping disorientation. Precise yet dreamlike, and thick with atmosphere (a Martel trademark), Zama is an intoxicatingly welcome return from one of contemporary cinema's most brilliant minds.

CIELO

SECTION: Spotlight on Documentary Directed by Alison McAlpine 2017/Canada/Chile/78 minutes

(World Premiere)

Friday October 6 at 6:00 PM and October 7 at 2:45 PM at the Walter Reade Theater Q&As with Alison McAlpine on 10/6 and 10/7

The first feature from Alison McAlpine, director of the beautiful 2008 nonfiction ghost story short Second Sight, is a dialogue with the heavens-in this case, the heavens above the Andes and the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, where the sky is more urgent than the land. McAlpine keeps the vast galaxies above and beyond in a delicate balance with the earthbound world of people, gently alighting on the desert- and mountain-dwelling astronomers, fishermen, miners, and cowboys who live their lives with reverence and awe for the skies. Cielo itself is an act of reverence and awe, and its sense of wonder ranges from the intimate and human to the vast and inhuman.

Also check out:

WONDERSTRUCK

Directed by Todd Haynes, written by Brian Selznick with Julianne Moore, Oakes Fegley, Michelle Williams, Millicent Simmonds, Jaden Michael Saturday October 7 at 6:00p & 6:15pm (Alice Tully Hall and Walter Reade Theater)

The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.

THE FLORIDA PROJECT

Directed by Sean Baker 2017/ USA/115 minutes Sunday October 1 at 3pm, Tuesday October 3 at 6pm (Alice Tully Hall) Q&As with Sean Baker and cast on 10/1 and 10/3

A six-year-old girl (the remarkable Brooklynn Prince) and her two best friends run wild on the grounds of a week-by-week motel complex on the edge of Orlando's Disney World. Meanwhile, her mother (talented novice Bria Vinaite) desperately tries to cajole the motel manager (an ever-surprising Willem Dafoe) to turn a blind eye to the way she pays the rent. A film about but not for kids, Baker's depiction of childhood on the margins has fierce energy, tenderness, and great beauty. After the ingenuity of his iPhone-shot 2015 breakout Tangerine, Baker reasserts his commitment to 35mm film with sun-blasted images that evoke a young girl's vision of adventure and endurance beyond heartbreak.

HALL OF MIRRORS

Directed by Ines Talakic and Ena Talakic 2017/USA/87 minutes World Premiere: Monday, Oct. 2 at 6pm (Walter Reade Theater),Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 9pm (Francesca Beale Theater)

In this documentary portrait, the great nonpartisan investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein, still going strong at 81, takes us through his most notable articles and books, including close looks at the findings of the Warren Commission, the structure of the diamond industry, the strange career of Armand Hammer, and the inner workings of big-time journalism itself. These are interwoven with an in-progress investigation into the circumstances around Edward Snowden's 2013 leak of classified documents, resulting in Epstein's recently published, controversial book How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft. One of the last of his generation of journalists, the energetic, articulate, and boyish Epstein is a truly fascinating character.

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