#we picture Ian as someone who’s not big on socializing so this was based on that thought

[nightmun]

Here’s a comic that’s based on an idea from @hear-that-music-in-the-air! Since it’s kinda long half of it is under the split so it doesn’t stretch too far 😅

Bonus panel:

#rhythm doctor #ada paige #ian #hailey #logan #lucia moon #cole brew #my art #we picture Ian as someone who’s not big on socializing so this was based on that thought #I feel like he’s more upset about the having to socialize for an hour part than the nails #also Cole is being genuine in the last panel #he’s too chill to know what toxic masculinity is #I made an attempt at lip sync in the one panel cause it was much funnier than a static image to me #I’ve never done lip sync animation before so if it’s a bit wonky that’s why (though who really cares) #this comic also made me realize how fun Ian is to draw #it was the start of what has become Ian brainrot over the last week or so

[romancandlemagazine]

An Interview with Al Baker

I first came across Al Baker’s photography whilst looking through an old copy of a magazine called Flux I’d snaffled from Manchester’s world-famous second-hand wonderland, Empire Exchange.

Hidden in the magazine’s pages, between an interview with Mark E Smith and a review of a newly-released sci-fi film called The Matrix, were two black-and-white photos, snapped from the window of an ice-cream van, showing kids lined up for a bit of frozen respite from the summer heat. Reading the fairly minimal bit of text below, it turned out the photos were part of a series called ‘Ice Cream You Scream’. 

I’d missed the exhibition by approximately 20 years, but thanks to the high-speed time-machine known as the internet, I managed to track him down. Here’s an interview about his fine photos, his time living in Hulme Crescents and the benefits of carrying cameras in a Kwik Save bag...

Classic ‘start of an interview’ question here, but when did you get into photography? Was there something in particular that set you off?

Like a lot of young people, I knew that I was creative but hadn’t quite found my place. I didn’t know whether I wanted to be a writer or in a band. I used to doodle, copy Picasso’s in biro, so off I went to art college and tried my hand at different things. All it really taught me was that I had neither the patience, technique or talent to become a painter. Photography seemed a much easier way to make images, a more instant result. Of course, the more you get into it you realise that whether you’re any good or not does rely upon patience, technique and talent after all.

Was ‘being a photographer’ something that people did in Manchester in the early 90s? Who did you look up to back then?

Not really. It was very rare to see another person wandering around with a camera back then. Even years later when I began photographing the club scene in Manchester no-one else seemed to be doing the same thing. Not at the night clubs I went to anyway. 

Now it’s very different. These days you see people with cameras everywhere. Club nights almost always have a photographer. People are far more image-conscious due to social media. Today most people are busy documenting their own nights out with their phones. Look at footage from any major gig these days and half the room is filming it. Back in the 90s no-one seemed to care about documenting anything like that. You were very unlikely to see the photos that someone might be taking the next day or, in fact, ever. People often used to ask ‘What are you taking photos for?’ with genuine surprise or distain.  

In terms of photographers whom I looked up to there are so many! There are great image masters like Cartier-Bresson or Elliott Erwitt. Photographers of war and social upheaval like Don McCullin and Phillip Jones-Griffiths. I liked Alexander Rodchenko and Andre Kertez, how they broke the conventions of their day with wit and invention. 

I loved the dark and dirty images of Bill Brandt, and his inspiring nude studies too. I loved the city at night recorded by Brassai. Paris in the 1930s definitely seemed to be the place to be. Diane Arbus, Jane Bown and Shirley Baker. American street photographer Gary Winogrand was a huge influence on me, as was Nick Waplington’s book ‘Living Room’.  

I was also quite lucky to be living in Manchester at that time. Daniel Meadows and Martin Parr had both attended Manchester Polytechnic. Denis Thorpe had worked for the Guardian in Manchester. I saw Kevin Cummins iconic Joy Division images, Ian Tilton documenting The Stone Roses. Both were regularly in among the inky pages of the NME. 

I also saw an exhibition of Clement Cooper’s photographs of the Robin Hood pub in Moss Side, which was another big influence. I was also very lucky in that my very first photography tutor was Mark Warner, who produced very beautiful images, did a lot of work for Factory Records. He shot The Durutti Column’s (1989) Vini Reilly album sleeve. He was probably the first person who ever really encouraged me.

I really like that series of photos you took from inside an ice-cream van in the late 90s. What was the story behind that? 

The initial idea for that project came from my friend Steve Hillman, who is an actor. At the time he was ‘between jobs’, which is an actor’s euphemism for being unemployed, so he was working an ice-cream round to help to pay the rent. I was at his flat one night, thinking aloud about where I might go next with my camera. I’d spent quite a long time following graffiti artists work around Hulme, and had my first exhibition based around that. But it only seemed to lead to offers of more work with graffiti artists, and I wanted to do something else.  

I’d done a 2nd exhibition based around portraits of my friends in Hulme. I’d flirted with some one-day projects, like Belle Vue dog track, Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. Anyway, while I was talking, not really knowing what I was going to do next, Steve simply stated ‘You should come out on the ice-cream round with me. No-one ever comes to the van without a smile on their face.’ And it just struck me as a beautiful & simple idea. So, one day we just set off. 4 or 5 rolls of film and all the free ice-cream I could eat, which I discovered wasn’t very much!

What was the logistical side of those photos? Were they taken from the same van? 

They were all shot on the same day, the same van, all around Salford. It was good fun, but actually very hard work. Trying to constantly find new angles, different framing and working on a hot August day in such a small confined space. By the end of the day I felt that I had enough strong images for my next exhibition. They were much jollier images than ones I’d made before. As a result, because it had more universal appeal, I got quite a lot of good publicity out of it, and Walls gave us hundreds of free Magnum ice-creams to give away on the opening night!

These days I could think of more than a few reasons why you probably shouldn’t drive around Salford photographing other people’s children without permission haha (in fact, I’m surprised that I wasn’t hung from the nearest lamppost!) but I was much younger and far more naive back then. Besides, that was something that I’d learned from living in Hulme. You don’t ask for permission. Someone will only say ‘No’. Just crack on and do it anyway.

You also documented the last years of the Hulme Crescents. A lot of people talk about that time and place in Manchester, even now—but what was the reality of it? What was a normal weekend there like?

It was quite unlike anywhere that I’d ever lived before. It looked like a fascist dystopian nightmare, only one peopled by Rastas and anarchists. Bleak concrete interconnecting walkways. No through roads whatsoever. A fortress feel to the place. The entire estate was earmarked for demolition before I arrived. Everyone else seemed to be busy moving out. But I was already spending a lot of time there, post-Hacienda, parties, friends, lost weekends.  

There were lots of young people living there. Families had mainly moved out as the heating didn’t work properly, flats were cold & damp, often infested with cockroaches. There were traces of old Irish families, the Windrush generation, interwoven with punks and drop-outs. 

There was a cultural & artistic flowering among the ruins. A Certain Ratio, Dub Sex, A Guy Called Gerald, Edward Barton, Ian Brown, Dave Haslam, Mick Hucknall, Lemn Sissay, all lived there at one time. It was the original home of Factory, where all the post-punk bands played. In turn that led to Factory Records, New Order, and the Hacienda. The PSV club later hosted raves and notorious Jungle nights. It was a good time to be young.

You lived there as well as shooting it. Do you think it’s important to be a part of the thing you’re photographing, rather than just an outsider with a camera?

I don’t know that it’s important to be a part of the thing you’re photographing, ‘embedded’ is what the war photographers call it, but you definitely capture different images. Certain things that might have been shocking to an outsider were commonplace, normal & every day to me. Boring even. On the other hand, I was much less likely to be robbed walking around. That meant I could take my camera places that other people couldn’t, or maybe shouldn’t!

I used to wear my camera beneath my coat so it couldn’t be seen, and I carried my film and lenses in a Kwik Save shopping bag so as not to attract unwanted attention. I got into the habit of handing that bag over the bar at the pubs I went in. I would collect it the next day if I could remember where I’d been the night before. Bless you, saintly barmaids of old Hulme.

If you look at my images of Hulme people they’re usually reacting to me and not the camera. Either that or they’re not reacting at all. They’re ignoring the fact that I’m taking a picture. That’s what gives them that ‘fly-on-the-wall’ feeling.

This is something that I put to greater effect later when I was photographing in night clubs, skulking stage side or hiding in a DJ booth. When DJs & MCs see you week in week out at the club doing the same thing they stop posing for the camera and just get used to you being there. You become part of the furniture. And when people stop being conscious of the camera, when they ignore that you’re even present, you can step in much closer. Put simply, you get better pictures. They’re much less performative and far more honest. It’s not often people can say they like it when they’re being ignored, but for photographers it’s a gift.

Do you think somewhere the Crescents could exist now, or was it just a case of the perfect accidental recipe for that kind of creative, DIY activity?

No, I don’t think anywhere like Hulme will ever happen again. I think the city council learned that lesson a long time ago. It was a dystopian utopia for us, but it grew out of failure. When I 1st went to university they warned us never to set foot there. I said, ‘But what if you live there already?’ and there was an embarrassed silence. They really hadn’t expected a poor boy from Hulme to be in the room. Now they own half of it and it’s all student Halls of Residence.  

The city centre has been regenerated, redeveloped & gentrified. We can’t afford to live there anymore, and people like me are pushed out. Hulme was a failed social housing experiment, an eyesore & an embarrassment to the people who had commissioned it. People like me moved in & we made it our own. They’re never going to allow anything like that to happen again. Every quaint old fashioned pub that closes becomes a block of flats. The footprint is too valuable to property developers. One day all we will have will be faded photographs to bear witness to a very different way of living.

Was it through the Crescents that you started shooting graffiti? 

When I first arrived in Hulme I’d just spent 3 years living with mates in a couple of houses elsewhere in the city. It suddenly struck me that that part of my life was over and I had very few photographs of that time. I’d been too busy learning photography, taking the kind of photos that every art student takes: Broken windows; abandoned buildings, and bits of burnt wood. I vowed I wouldn’t do that again. I began documenting the life that was around me.

I started with the architecture, as it was quite unlike any other place I’d ever seen. It had a desperate, faded beauty even then. The whole estate had been condemned for demolition before I arrived, but the city council had given up on the place long before that.  

I started to notice graffiti pieces going up, seeing the same names repeated. It was obvious that there was a small group of writers trying out their styles on a large canvas for the 1st time. Wanting to claim this derelict space as their own Hall Of Fame. I started to document them as they sprang up. Then I noted that context was crucial, and so I began to include the soon-to-be-derelict buildings in the images also. The shapes & colours of the graffiti looked positively psychedelic beside the drab monochrome of the setting.

With your graffiti shots, you show a lot more than just the pieces. Was it an intentional thing to show the act behind it a bit?

Because it was Hulme and no-one cared, these guys weren’t working in the dead of night like most graffiti writers do in the train yards and what-have-you. They were working during the day, right out in the open. So, documenting their work, it wasn’t long before I ran into Kelzo. He really didn’t trust me at first, but I kept coming back. So, I got to know them. They started to let me know where they were going to be painting next.

In 1995 Kelzo organised the 1st SMEAR JAM event (named after a young aspiring writer who used to come down to Hulme to learn, and had died suddenly from a nut allergy). That was such good fun that another event arrived the following year, another & another. Graf writers came from London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Sheffield, and as far afield as Spain. The local community came out to support and, as usual, it turned into a party that lasted all weekend.  

I got into the habit of taking 2 cameras. One loaded with B&W film to capture the event itself, and another with colour transparency to document the finished artwork.

Graffiti… hip-hop… kids getting ice cream… I suppose there’s a few different subjects there, but was there an underlying thing or theme you wanted to show with your photos? Maybe getting a bit philosophical, but they’re all quite free acts—is it about enjoying what’s there?

It was more about documenting the life I saw around me. Moving to Hulme was what led to me capturing graffiti, and graffiti led to hip-hop events. Once Hulme was demolished I moved my camera into the city centre and began photographing club nights. House and hip-hop turned into Drum’n’Bass, and then dubstep. Residents and warm-up acts have now become headliners in their own right. Manchester has always been a great city for music, and it kept me busy throughout the naughty Noughties. I’ve pretty much retired from all of that now. I’d had enough after over 15 years of it. I no longer feel compelled to document something as ephemeral as a club night anymore when half of the audience are doing it themselves anyway. Then coronavirus came & properly killed it all off. I don’t know what it’s going to be like now going forward, but it’ll be someone else’s turn to document whatever that is.  

What do you think makes a good photograph? 

You need to have a good eye. You need to notice & be aware of the world around you. You always see an image before you create one. You don’t require expensive equipment. Mine never was. And you don’t need to be trained. It’s one of those areas where you really can educate yourself. A certain amount of technique and technical understanding goes a long way but, again, you can pick those things up as you go along.  

There are different kinds of photography, of course, but for me it was always about capturing a moment. The Decisive Moment, as Cartier-Bresson so eloquently put it. It’s something that the camera has over the canvas. For me the camera has always been a time machine. Like an evocative love song on the radio, it can transport you back immediately to a time & place long gone. It also acts as a witness for those people who were not there. Images tell stories. And we all like to hear and tell stories.

A couple of years ago I was invited to talk at the University of Lancaster for a symposium on documentary photography, which is a tradition that I had always considered my photographs sat within. But oddly, as I gave my slide-show presentation, images that I have seen and shown many times before, and thought I knew very well, I suddenly saw in a brand-new light. I could see myself in every image. Almost like a self-portrait from which I was absent but my own shadow cast large. I realised that I haven’t been documenting anything other than my own life. 25 year old images suddenly had something new to say, something new to tell me.  

Do you still take photos today? What kind of things are you into shooting these days?  

I don’t really do a lot of photography these days. I teach and facilitate as part of my job now. I still do the odd event but night club photography is a much younger man’s game. I really don’t have the levels of commitment, energy or enthusiasm I once did. I feel like I’ve taken enough images. If I never took another photograph ever again, that’s OK. Maybe, perhaps, I’ll get into a different kind of image making in my twilight years … but for now I’m trying to reassess the images I made 25 years ago. People are far more interested in them now than they ever were at the time. Now they have become documents of a time and place which has gone. The graffiti and the walls that they were written on have disappeared. Many of those night clubs have closed. Time moves on. The images and the memories are all that is left.  

Over all those years, how has the art of photography changed for you?

Back when I started taking photographs, where I lived in Hulme, the kind of music that I was into, the magic of a night club moment, there were very few people I knew of who were doing the same thing. Now I am aware of others who were. Almost everyone is their own photographer now. Mobile phones & social media have given a platform for anyone to make & share images of their individual lives, whether it be their friends & families, holidays, public events or more private & intimate moments. Anyone can document their own lives now, so I no longer feel that I have to. I do still love photography, it’s still my favourite form of art, but I don’t feel compelled to capture it all anymore.

I suppose I’ve pestered you with questions for a while now. Have you got any wise words to wind this up with?

If you want to become a photographer you must learn your craft. Keep doing it, and you will get better. But you must remember to always be honest. Make honest images. Listen to the voice of your own integrity. Don’t worry too much if no-one sees any value in what you do. If you’re any good people will eventually see it. It may take years, it did for me, but images of the ordinary & everyday will one day become historical, meaningful & extraordinary.  

We live in a world today mediated by images, a Society of the Spectacle, but we still need photographers: People who have a good eye, an innate feel for the decisive moment; what to point the camera at and when to press the shutter. The images that you make today will be the memories of the future.  

See more of Al’s photos here.

#Photography #Interview #Al Baker #Manchester #Hulme Crescents

[thisstableground]

So if UVR deviates from maps at around chapter 2, he's met Cleo and kind of gotten to know her right? What would happen if he went back to Jamaica to visit the ppls who were nice to him

yeah, he still met her - so 90verse ruben still spends almost 2 months in jamaica after ian ditches him there, basically the big difference between the two universes is that ian/jason never show up there like they do in maps, so he doesn’t come home until the police track him down. but the setting and the people around are the same.

at the moment, about three years on from everything, he can’t really think too hard about anything or anyone he met out there because there’s no way for it to not be triggering - it’s all just a fuzzy mess crammed into a box labelled Really Bad Time, Do Not Open. but as his therapy goes on, he can sort of poke at the memories a bit and start to pick out details and remember people; he definitely, very vividly, remembers the people who helped him out when he was there, and cleo and her baby in particular, because to be honest their small kindnesses and concern were probably the only things that kept him alive long enough for the police to find him.

cleo told him to stay in touch when he was leaving, and gave him her email, but between how intense and stressful everything was for so long after, him not really believing anyone would want to stay in touch with him, and needing to create some distance from that part of his life until he was ready to deal with it, he never took her up on it. but after some time and a lot of agonizing about it and asking everyone he knows if its a good idea or not, he emails her and fully expects her to not even remember him. like, it was a completely lifechanging and formative part of his life, but he feels like from their perspective he was just a very broken, secretive stranger who showed up and did an incredibly bad job as a cleaner for two months and then suddenly the hotel was full of police and he left. so at best he figures he’s probably a “remember that guy? that was a weird time”. but she replies: she remembers him, and she’s thrilled to hear from him, and she sends him pictures of not-so-baby tariq who is at school now (he doesnt remember ruben, of course). they don’t stay in frequent touch after their intial conversation, but they do stay in touch.

i don’t know about being able to go back visit everyone - i can’t imagine him ever being able to go back to that hotel, or that town, no matter how strong his recovery is going. i do think that (many years down the line) he does want to go to jamaica in general, with usnavi and vanessa. a different place, somewhere more vacationy - he can’t exactly picture walking around that town like hey guys  i’ll show you the beach that i slept on for a week because i was homeless here, and later we can take a romantic stroll past the clinic where they stitched me up” and having it be any kind of cathartic, but going to jamaica in general is something he thinks might help bring some closure. so maybe if they’re not somewhere too far away and their vacation coincides with cleo’s day off work, she might come out to see him for a few hours and chat over coffee. 

i think he probably meets up with her alone, because he doesn’t want his new life to crash that hard into the old one, it’s nervewracking enough without having to deal with that because usnavi and vanessa have seen him in some states but nobody has seen him as completely, appallingly fucked up as the people who saw him the first two months after his life was ruined.  it’s hard to know how to interact with someone after that. but he wants to do it, to thank her in person and to feel a little more resolved about that part of things.

for cleo’s part, ruben is almost entirely unrecognizable as the ruben she’d met briefly during that time, when he’d just sit quietly in her kitchenette and stare into the tea she made him with a look on his face like he was staring into hell itself, or she’d wake up in the middle of the night to feed the baby and hear ruben sobbing from his room across the hallway, or he’d just be standing in the corridor like a lost little ghost and she’d have to gently guide him back to his room. he genuinely doesn’t remember a lot of the things that she did do for him. 

she doesn’t mind: he still thanks her a thousand time for everything, pays for her lunch and insists on paying for her bus ticket to come here, just as polite as he was before but in a way that feels more real, more open. he’s still not exactly the most talkative person and he’s definitely socially awkward but he’s friendly, keeps the conversation going in ways he never used to be able to. he asks her about her life, tells her about his, fidgets with the wedding band on his finger in quiet moments. he has a lovely smile, something she never knew about him before.

she did play a much bigger role in his life than he did in hers, but she was fond of him and worried about him when he was around, because she’s the kind of person who has a lot of caring to spare, even for people she doesn’t know very well. and it feels good for both of them to leave the conversation knowing that her lasting impression of ruben wasn’t just based on the pieces of him that were here the first time, and that she could see a little of what he’s actually like as a person.

#fandom: do no harm #character: ruben #aw i love cleo she's one of my favourite OCs #also wow its been a bit since i made headcanon posts and i sure forgot how much i can fuckin talk #Anonymous

[pretendwiseguysofficial]

MBTI: Sheev Palpatine/Darth Sidious (Star Wars) - ENTJ, 8w7

Written by Ryan (archive post from January 30, 2019)

What? Palpatine is not an INTJ you say? Nope, he’s an ENTJ. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. One might even say that it’s treason, then. Wanna hear all about why? Read on below, then. Let’s dew it.

Use my knowledge, I beg you! People have been speculating for decades that old Sheev here is an INTJ, and I don’t blame them for thinking that. It would naturally seem that way. Having a decades-long plan of becoming Supreme Chancellor, secretly controlling both sides of a war, taking over the Republic, eliminating the Jedi, and trading your way up to the ultimate apprentice in The Chosen One all just to sit back and relax on your throne cackling seems like a pretty foolproof, Ni-driven plan, right? As in primary Ni? You’d think so. He wants unlimited power. But, sadly not though. Ironic. There are a number of different factors here in which Te rules supreme: one, Palpatine likes things to go his way, in accordance with his secondary Ni, manifesting as impatience; it’s either his way or the highway. Compare him to Grand Admiral Thrawn, an INTJ, who, with primary Ni, sees a plan as constantly evolving, and he works to adapt it. People are quick to assume that just because Te isn’t projected in a form of an outburst from Palpatine compared to other Te-users, it must mean he’s INTJ. But that’s not the case. I thought not. On a similar front, the ESTJ likes to dish out orders and sit in on the entire operation, in the thick of it, to make sure things run smoothly, due to their secondary Si. Palps does not; he would rather think in big picture terms (secondary Ni), and delegate all of that tough stuff to Imperial officers like Tarkin, who are much better at that sort of thing. Instead, with all of the tedious stuff being delegated, Palpy would rather concern himself with big picture stuff that helps further his personal goals, such as ancient Dark Side research and experiments, and emotional manipulation of apprentices and enemies. Some might point to any other rational type as someone who would do this, as the ENTJ is the type least likely to involve himself in these things. However, Palpatine is one of many exceptions, some would consider to be unnatural.

The thing with Palpatine is that his research and experiments are to further his own personal goals, and not to be research for curiosity or knowledge as the general outcome in and of itself, which would be a motivator for xNTPs. This is what signifies xNTJ. So why ENTJ and not INTJ? The tertiary Se is the real ace-in-the-hole that many evil ENTJs have, and it’s crucial to their ability to be able to weasel their way out of many tricky situations. The ESTP (common type of scoundrels in the Star Wars universe) is known to use it to constantly manipulate situations to their advantage, and we all know how that turns out with Lando and Beckett. To Palpatine’s advantage, he’ll play a situation due to the environment he’s in. When he’s sitting on the ledge facing the blade of Mace Windu and Anakin storms through the door, it’s convenient that Palpy looks defeated, frail, weak, and innocent in Anakin’s eyes, and he uses the situation to Anakin’s advantage, manipulating him into killing Mace Windu. Leave him, or we’ll never make it! The Se allows him to adapt to any situation, but the Te-Ni restrains him from embracing it in most situations, because the ENTJ wants their plan to be carried out with as little alterations as possible. Whereas the INTJ is less annoyed at alterations to a plan, but as a result of their inferior Se, they have a hard time adapting to immediate changes in the plan.

And I think we don’t need an expert to explain how relatively low, immature, and undeveloped Palpatine’s Fi is. In the Legends and New Canon, it’s further explained that Palpatine reaches out for more and more power based upon paranoid fears of losing it; this is a common, negative thread with ENTJs due to their unhealthy Ni-Fi (secondary/inferior) loop that can exaggerate delusions not rigidly founded in logic. Whereas an xNFJ’s Ni-Ti loop will exaggerate delusions that sound logical to the user. But the big kicker? Palpatine is ultimately more of an extravert. Wait, where’s the evidence? New Canon and Legends continuities. In both, Palpatine is very much a patron of public arts such as theatre (a trait that Ian McDiarmid calls Palpatine’s only redeeming quality) and having a vast social circle of acquaintances and “friends.” To be honest, it’s more prevalent in the Legends continuity, but it’s still here in New Canon.

So with that being said, Palpatine for sure is an ENTJ, and you can just let the hate flow through you if you disagree. Or comment and explain your reasoning. I would welcome it and love it!

#MBTI #mbti personality types #mbti personalities #mbti funny #myers-briggs #Palpatine #sheev palpatine #sheev #sheevposting #Star Wars #prequel trilogy #revenge of the sith #darth sidious #star wars mbti

[love-takes-work]

Steven Universe Podcast: The Fantasy of Steven Universe

This is an outline of the Steven Universe Podcast regarding “The Fantasy of Steven Universe”: an issue of the podcast in which the creators and writers discuss a multitude of deep issues, along with some Q&A from both fans and insiders. No volume number or episode number was given for this one. The official description:

It's the last new podcast episode of the season and we asked the cast and Cartoon Network Executive team to submit questions to Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar and former Executive Producer Ian Jones-Quartey! They tackle everything from design to wormholes to escapism to advice to your younger self and dreaming big. Then former writers Matt Burnett and Ben Levin sit down with Rebecca to discuss lessons learned, achieving goals, and what they hope people take away from the show. And finally, Kat Morris and Joe Johnston return to answer a last batch of Fan Q&A!

This is a long podcast with a long summary, so as usual I will give you a bulleted list of highlights, followed by a detailed summary.

Highlights:

Many of the show’s themes and important elements were there right from the beginning--all the way back to the pilot.

Rebecca Sugar comments that she didn’t really learn how to have fun until 2016.

Figuring out how to pace the show out and reveal each piece of information at the right time so it could support another later revelation was very exciting to the writers. They had the pieces laid out like a puzzle on their table.

Mostly self-contained episodes still gave the audience a piece of information or represented growth for a character. The less “plotty” episodes helped keep the energy up.

The Crewniverse knew that their titles were sometimes trollish, but Ben was honestly surprised that people expected apocalyptic happenings for “Last One Out of Beach City.” It was just a Less Than Jake reference.

Rebecca really enjoyed getting the chance to “damsel” Greg for the Zoo arc; she really wanted to use a lot of princess tropes, even that one.

Viewers should take away from the show messages of compassion, self-love leading to ability to connect with others, ability to understand and listen to others, and opportunities to see themselves as well as to see others.

Rebecca has drawn all of Fluorite’s component Gems, but all she’ll say is “they’re fun.”

Lars and Lion are not immortal, but they will live for a very long time and have slowed-down lifespans. Kat Morris says Lars may have no sense of taste; that if he eats it’s just for sustenance.

Lars has all the same powers as Lion. He can indeed do a sonic blast and make portals and walk on water. They weren’t able to work this into an episode we’ve seen, but Rebecca assures us that Lars will discover his abilities and it will be “really funny.”

The Crew had specific voice actors they wanted for the Diamonds. They got who they wanted cast by writing excited letters. Susan Egan’s was particularly weird because she had to play Tiny Floating Whale first.

Blue Diamond was the most difficult Diamond to design because her hair was hard to decide on. Rebecca’s influences for her were Martha Graham’s “Lamentation” dance and Fruma Sarah’s ghost from Fiddler on the Roof.

Yellow Diamond was mostly directly inspired by Patti LuPone’s performance as Evita.

White Diamond was influenced by many old-timey vibes, including Hedy Lamarr in Ziegfeld Girl and the artistry of Nell Brinkley. She had heavy eyelashes and fingernails--lots of design elements they did not incorporate into other characters, so she could adhere to old, “stifling” beauty standards.

Rebecca was disappointed that reveals of Pink’s full jester-like outfit got out before we saw it in the show. Her hair was originally higher in early designs, which contributed to her mural having spikier hair.

Greg is based almost entirely on Tom Scharpling; Rebecca was comforted by his voice when she had upheavals in her life. There’s also a little bit of inspiration from various Crewniverse dads in him.

Another Gem could have a hybrid child like Steven only if they had enough power to do it and the complete commitment to the idea that Pink had.

Steven and his “Gem self” are not really separable and can’t exist independently of each other. His Gem half will not remain if his organic half dies. They are one being. He will likely have a very long life because of his Gem powers, but (though the Crew agrees this is grim), he will probably die before the Gems do.

The Jade Fusion won’t be in trouble anymore once the Jades come out of their bubbles; in Era 3, the act they were punished for is no longer disallowed. However, the trauma of being isolated and then punished as soon as they felt it was safe to fuse may require some healing. Rebecca assures us they should be able to have the opportunity to heal and be okay.

Obsidian definitely has future vision powers. In fact, they’re expanded to the point that the noise is difficult to interpret; very powerful, but difficult to get anything useful with them.

Pearl became a more maternal character because of her voice actor, Deedee Magno Hall, being “such a mom.”

Zach Callison as Steven was so genuine and professional to work with, and the vibe in the booth with regard to him was closely mirrored in the show.

Sometimes Deedee’s or Michaela’s ways of interacting with Zach would influence how Pearl or Amethyst would interact with Steven.

People would give lots of space and reverence to Estelle when she was reading her lines, which parallels how the other characters treat Garnet.

Only Steven can take anyone or anything through the pink space connected to Lars’s hair and Lion’s mane, but yes, Steven could take Lars through Lion’s mane, and if he stuck his head out, there’d be infinite Larses sticking out of infinite Lars’s hair until he pulled his head back in.

Designing new characters requires lots of back and forth and hundreds of drawings. Rebecca asks “why,” not “what”--why are you including something in a character’s design? If it doesn’t contribute to who they are, why is it there?

Influences on the show that may have been missed by some fans include G.I. Joe the animated series, Future Boy Conan, and Mr. Bug Goes to Town.

In response to Deedee requesting a fusion between Pearl and any of Rebecca’s childhood favorite cartoons, she suggests maybe either Bart or Detective Conan, then says she’ll have to think about it and get back to Deedee.

Advice Rebecca Sugar might have given her younger self was that it would be okay and she’d get to tell the story she wanted to tell--but also that she should eat, drink water, and exercise.

One profound thing Rebecca learned while working on the show was that she can be out and bisexual regardless of who she’s with, and that it DOES matter.

One profound thing Ian learned while working on the show was that the story you want to tell doesn’t have to be constrained by the medium--and your fantasy story isn’t necessarily someone else’s fantasy. You can tell your story.

The detailed summary is below!

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]

McKenzie kicks the podcast into gear and starts by asking Rebecca Sugar, Matt Burnett, and Ben Levin about the intentions for the show: what did they think it was going to be, and did it end up being that?

Ben shares an anecdote about how their agent seemed to have thought Steven Universe was based on Rebecca's comic Pug Davis, but then they saw the animatic and it was completely different from what the agent described. Matt felt that the themes and certain important elements of the show were already there from the animatic at the beginning. They were excited to see the show even if they might not end up getting to work on it, and they could tell just from the pilot that there was a lot of mythology to be unearthed. One of Ben's expectations that did not pan out was that he thought there would be more dungeon crawling episodes, but that was not the reality because . . . it turns out episodes like that are really difficult to do.

As for Rebecca, she says she had many goals for the show, and one thing she likes to do with projects is make them about something she hasn't truly figured out yet. The big thing for Steven Universe in Rebecca's mind was the issue of gendered cartoons for children. She felt uncomfortable growing up, because socially she was expected to like what girls like but her favorite things were "for boys," while "girl" cartoons did NOT appeal to her. She felt guilty and weird about it, and so with her cartoon she wanted to attack that at first, use and scramble the language others had used to put her in that position. As she worked on Steven Universe more, she realized that some of the things she wasn't allowed to love as a kid were things she DID love. Learning to understand herself better allowed her to build a better relationship with the symbols and elements of children's cartoons that she could have authentic feelings about. She feels she learned a lot.

Next, McKenzie wants to know which episodes were the most fun to write (or throw ideas around for).

Rebecca quips that she did not learn to have fun until 2016.

Ben says he and Matt had fun though. Their job was to take Rebecca's ideas and figure out how to squeeze her thoughts into 11 minutes. Ben thought it was important to reveal something new about a focus character in each episode. Rebecca thought it was exciting to pace out what to reveal when; she says all the elements were on the table "like a giant puzzle." They had to carefully place when we would understand each thing as the audience before they could do something that built on it. She felt it was "like painting a picture across time." You couldn't do something like "Change Your Mind" at the beginning--you needed all those pieces to get it at all.

Putting yourself in the audience's mind as a writer is important, Ben says. Infodumping doesn't work, and laying the groundwork before you start a story isn't the best way to make a story meaningful. Matt thinks the big story payoffs at the end of season 5 were discussed in the first two weeks of planning, and they all thought it would be so cool to finally get there.

The things that were the most fun were actually the deviations from those stories, though they kept with the themes. The "random idea" episodes that felt more like one-offs were responsible for keeping the energy up, according to Matt. "Steven and the Stevens," for instance, was pretty self-contained (and needed a diagram to keep it together). Rebecca points out that "self-contained" episodes were mostly the goal, but you'd still see a change in the character or get an important piece of information in each one. Steven is LITERALLY not the same character anymore after "Steven and the Stevens."

Weaving the "infodump" stuff into Steven's personal growth was important for the type of story they were writing. They also joke about how certain episode titles were very trollish, like "Last One Out of Beach City" and "Rising Tides, Crashing Skies." (Both of those were definitely NOT "apocalyptic" at all.) They were aware that titles could send a message, but Ben was actually really surprised at the expectations surrounding "Last One Out of Beach City" because for him it was just a Less Than Jake reference. ^___^

They also enjoyed getting to do whole new environments with mini-worldbuilding, like the human zoo. The zoo arc comes up and Rebecca remarks on how much she enjoyed "damseling Greg." She really wanted to do pretty much every princess trope in some way, even that one, and she just loved having the opportunity to have Blue carry Greg away "just like Peach."

McKenzie next asks the group what's something they want people who have watched the whole show so far to come away with at this point.

Ben says he's not sure about others, but he feels the show lets us take home messages of being in touch with your genuine feelings and expressing what they are. Matt agrees with Ben about how the show helps viewers learn to see others' perspectives. They hope people had the opportunity to see themselves represented on the show, and that some people got the opportunity to see representations of people they'd never seen before--and that those people who were newly exposed to folks they'd never thought about before would learn to be more compassionate.

Rebecca wants people to come away with the notion that they must learn to love themselves. That it is close to impossible to connect with others if you haven't learned how to love yourself. Kids deserve to be able to express themselves as long as they aren't destroying themselves or others in the process. She thinks sometimes kids are sent destructive messages about how it isn't okay to be themselves, and that people they trust might be shutting them down, but this show is a message to say it's wrong of them to do that and they deserve the freedom to be who they are and say so. Being allowed to talk about how you feel shouldn't be some kind of fantasy. It should be reality.

The next segment of the podcast involves Kat Morris and Joe Johnston answering fan questions with Rebecca Sugar!

Q: Has there been any thought as to what Fluorite's Gem components are?

A: Joe just immediately says "NO" and Kat teases him, but Rebecca speaks up and says of course she has drawn them all. She gave it to Colin and then says "I don't know where it went." The only thing Rebecca is willing to say about it is "they're fun."

Q: Are Lars and Lion immortal now? Or is their aging process just extremely slowed down?

A: Kat agrees that their aging process is just slow. About as slow as Lars's heartbeat in "Lars' Head." Kat points out that she and Joe have disagreements about what Lars's life is like. She thinks Lars probably lost his sense of taste and only just eats occasionally to sustain his body. Rebecca says "they'll live a really, really long time," and Kat says "longer than they'll want to."

Q: Can Lars do the Lion roar warp thing, or does he have his own power?

A: Kat says he can! They tried to write stories around it but never quite did it. Kat jokes that he can do it if maybe he gets tickled or something. Joe says he can make a warp and he can make a sonic blast with his voice. When they discuss whether he's figured that out yet, Rebecca replies that he WILL figure it out at some point, and when he does, "it'll be REALLY funny. Don't worry about it." They speculate that maybe that's how Lars was getting around doing space pirate stuff (infiltrating the Citrine asteroid and the Cosmic Jubilee), but there's also the fact that he doesn't have a Gem and can't be scanned. They also specify that Lars can indeed walk on water.

Q: Does Lion have the ability to sense Steven somehow? Or did he find Watermelon Steven some other way?

A: Rebecca claims they're in tune, but you can't really pinpoint whether it's magic or whether it's just that animal sense some pets have.

Q: How did you pick the Diamonds' voice actresses?

A: Kat says, "begging?" Rebecca says they knew who they wanted and they agree they wrote passionate letters. Rebecca tells the story of bringing Susan Egan in to do Rose's voice for the first time, but the first time you hear her voice was coming out of the Tiny Floating Whale. Susan did the little "ooo!" noise for it as well as the one line that's spoken in "Rose's Room." She had to explain that Rose was very important later, but for now she just wanted Susan to come voice the whale.

Q: Which Diamond was the most difficult to design? Which was the most fun to design?

A: Rebecca says Blue was the most difficult to design. They took a long time deciding on her hair and what would be "inhuman" about her, and there was a lot of trial and error involved. They actually revealed her cloaked form in "The Answer" before they figured out her hair. Rebecca feels that White might have been the most fun because they had to incorporate so many influences. They're all really influenced by tons of things though: for instance, Blue is influenced by a Martha Graham dance ("Lamentation") and the ghost (Fruma Sarah in a dream) from Fiddler on the Roof.

Yellow is very inspired by Patti LuPone in Evita.

White is inspired by Nell Brinkley and Hedy Lamarr (in Ziegfeld Girl)--the aesthetic of the time, really.

White has many design elements that other characters don't have. The heavy eyelashes, the fingernails, the "perfect thigh gap"--she's supposed to be very different from the others, with "beauty standards" that you haven't seen on other characters, meant to be read as stifling and old. She's even on an actual pedestal with shoes that are actual pedestals.

For Pink, Rebecca describes it as "kind of devastating" that even though we'd gotten the first reveal of Pink when she punched a mirror in Stevonnie's dream and was "contorted with rage," the audience got to see her on a model sheet with her full outfit "looking like a little clown" and people kind of got it instantly. Designs for the Diamonds go back to 2014, though Pink's hair was a little different and "looks like a Truffula tree" according to Rebecca. (Joe says that's why her mural looked spikier, because the early hair designs for Pink were higher.) Rebecca was really excited when they nailed down Pink's hair to look like Steven's hair. Rebecca was excited but Kat was scared.

Q: What inspired you to make Greg?

A: Tom Scharpling! Rebecca used to always listen to Tom's radio show (The Best Show) toward the end of college and she based Greg's character on him. She says Tom is currently doing a thing where he's reviewing every episode of Friends. She felt that during a tumultuous time in her life, moving from New York to LA and being apart from Ian, Tom's voice was a constant and a comfort. On his show, Tom is "more cynical" than Greg, but she describes him as only being mean to meanness, and that even when he's mean it's a "force for good in the world." Being angry is fine as long as you're directing it at other things that are mean, helping to cancel them out. She finds Tom inspiring, and thinks Greg is sort of the result of that cancelled-out meanness. Rebecca also adds that Greg has a lot of her own father in him, and she believes the other Crewniverse folks probably pull in elements of their own dads to write him.

Q: Would another half-Gem/half-human fusion like Steven be possible for another Gem besides Pink Diamond?

A: Pink Diamond couldn't fuse with humans--Steven's unique that way. Pink obviously created Steven (not through fusion), but now Steven is the result of that process and he exists sort of as a bridge. He can fuse with humans because of his humanity, not because of his Gem. He would actually be able to pull other humans into his Fusions with Gems, but he'd have to be there to preserve that connection.

Joe interprets the question a little differently, saying he thinks they're asking whether another hybrid might be possible, and Rebecca says it'd be possible only for a Gem as committed to it as Rose was. She specifies that Rose obviously had the immense power of a Diamond as well as that dedication, so if some other Gem that had a similar level of power and a similar interest in creating an organic child wanted to do it, okay, they could.

Q: If Steven were to die of old age, what would happen to his Gem half?

A: Joe hates this question. Rebecca agrees "that's so grim." She says that Steven is Steven, and he is NOT Steven when he's broken into two pieces. There isn't one without the other. Kat thinks Steven wouldn't die unless he chose to (and might do that if everyone he cared about was gone). Joe apparently hates existential questions and Rebecca sort of comforts him saying the Gems will live and live and live, and that Steven will probably die before them so he won't have to be stranded alive with no friends left.

Q: Is the Jade Fusion from "Together Alone" okay?

A: Yes, she's fine! Rebecca says she got poofed like many other characters have been before, and probably bubbled for what they were doing, but in Era 3 what they were doing is no longer wrong. They will emerge and be allowed to be themselves. Rebecca says, though, that there's also a question of whether they're okay as a person, and that what they went through is really hard to go through. She felt so isolated all that time, and then as soon as they got the courage to emerge in front of other people for the first time they were punished for it, so in that sense she's really kinda not okay. She will have opportunities to heal from her traumas, though, and her future is bright.

Q: Does Obsidian have future vision powers?

A: Rebecca says "Yes" decisively. The others chime in to agree. Rebecca says Obsidian's powers are overwhelming and difficult to handle all at once, though with many components they also have support handling it. The future vision Obsidian experiences is so overwhelming it's almost worthless because it's like noise--it's expanded and cacophonous.

Next, Ian and Rebecca are answering questions submitted by the cast and Crewniverse!

Q (from Zach Callison): What aspects of the characters are inspired by the voice actors?

A: Rebecca says the biggest one is how Pearl became more maternal because of Deedee's influence. She's "such a mom."

The interaction of the cast in the room worked its way into the characters' interaction. She also says Steven's growth from childish to mature for his age came from Zach growing up with him. She describes him as professional, insightful, thoughtful--enough such that adults could take cues from him or aspire to be like him. Ian thinks Zach was really interested in the process and very open to learning from other actors. Steven as an empathetic character was enhanced by Zach's genuine personality. Others who worked with him would be inspired and excited by him, which worked for the authenticity of Steven's vibe too.

Rebecca also noticed that sometimes Michaela or Deedee would cheer Zach up or egg him on, and the way they did those things differently also informed the characters of Amethyst and Pearl when they'd be in similar situations with Steven. They also noticed that if Estelle was there for a recording, everyone would stop and give her space to do her thing, which turned out to be very appropriate for how the others act with Garnet sometimes.

Q (from Matthew Moy): Can Lars go through Lion's mane and vice versa? Would they just fall right back out if they entered?

A: Rebecca points out that she actually answered this recently on the Reddit AMA! First, she wants folks to remember that Steven is the only one who can bring anyone or anything through mane space. Yes, Steven could take Lars into Lion's mane and go over to Lars's tree, but if Lars were to stick his head through the grass there, Lars's head would come out of his own hair. But this would cause infinite Larses to come out of infinite Lars's Heads, until he pulled his head back out.

Q (from Estelle): When you come up with new characters, how much time do you spend revamping the look of each?

A: It's a lot of time. Hundreds of drawings. Ian describes a process of coming up with early characters who didn't have a spot in the story yet, and they'd come up with random looks for them, and then they'd narrow down what specifically that character would need when they learned where they would go. Elements that mean something are retained and elements that do not mean anything will be swapped out. Boarders and designers would all take a crack at the design afterwards. Rebecca says that by the time boarding is happening, they need the character's "shape language" to be nailed down. Rebecca also mentions that many designs just get shelved if they're not really working, like some of the designs for Sardonyx did from before Rebecca realized Sardonyx would be a bombastic nerd, not a stoic and imposing presence. Even after they discovered that, though, the tooth gap was a later addition. Rebecca finds it helpful to ask "why" instead of "what" in design. Why is someone designed the way they are? Everyone will work together to create a design that blends form and function. She usually starts with rough sketches that they'll build off of as a starting point.

Q (from Michaela Dietz): With all the references to other shows (Gurren Lagann, Adventure Time, Revolutionary Girl Utena, etc.), what's a reference fans may have missed?

A: Since they pull from SO many places, it's hard to say, but Ian points out Future Boy Conan (Rebecca identifies a scene where the Quartzes run through Pink Diamond's body as a particular scene that's similar), and Rebecca says the rainbow worm from the Kyanite Colony is inspired by Orbitty (from the 80s Jetsons) and other ugly aliens from the time that were influenced by E.T. Rebecca points out Mr. Bug Goes to Town, an obscure film that nobody really watched because it came out on D-Day. Then Ian mentions the G.I. Joe animated series, how they referenced "It's all a fake-a-roo!" from that. And "Frybo" was a reference to The Thing.

Q (from Deedee Magno Hall): If Pearl could fuse with one of Rebecca's childhood cartoon favorites, who would it be, what would their weapon be, and can we see a drawing?

A: Rebecca says this is REALLY hard because she liked so many cartoons, but she just throws out Bart. Their Fusion would have a skateboard with spikes on the front. Maybe the Fusion would be named Part or Bearl. Or maybe Detective Conan; the Fusion would have all those gadgets. She decided she'd have to keep thinking about it and she'll give Deedee an answer.

Q (from Conrad Montgomery): If you could go back in time to give yourself a bit of advice as you started on "Gem Glow" and the rest of the series, what would it be?

A: Rebecca says she would tell herself to drink more water and exercise, and don't forget to eat. She thinks maybe she would tell herself it was going to be okay, because she didn't know that at the time. She says it may have been helpful at the beginning if she could have known she'd get to finish the story she wanted to tell. She was always anxious that her show would be yanked and she wouldn't get to finish what she'd dreamed up, but she did. She also feels like she was so young at 25 to be doing what she was doing, and maybe she'd like to just turn herself into a 31-year-old.

Ian thinks the show became what it was because of what they were learning along the way, though. If you really could tell people ahead of time what the things they're making are going to turn out like, you don't get to understand the process of something coming back wrong and learning how to deal with that. They feel that created a lot of what was good about the show, the debates and discussions. Rebecca is not sure she would have just said "trust yourself" because sometimes she trusted her team and was grateful for it.

Q (from Rob Sorcher): What is the one most profound thing you learned about yourself as a result of making the series?

A: Rebecca says she didn't understand she could be bisexual and be out. She thought declaring your orientation was about who you were with, not about who YOU were. So even though she was telling stories that spoke to feelings she'd had about partners or potential partners who were NOT Ian, she didn't realize she could claim that and care about that, mostly due to the fact that she'd been repeatedly and strongly told it did not matter. But it does matter. How you feel about yourself and how you experience attraction is a relevant and important thing to be able to embrace. She felt like she was "insane, all the time" because she wasn't supposed to talk about it or was told it wasn't interesting. She was floored when people she had connections with still wanted to be friends with her after she started talking about it, and being open about this aspect of herself has made being alive much easier.

If something matters to you, it matters, period. In terms of cartoons, the incredibly gender-segregated way they were doled out to kids in the 80s and 90s had an effect on Rebecca, and for a long time she didn't know why she so desperately wanted to "scramble" that. She finally found ways to discuss how uncomfortable she was being told that she had to be a woman when she was not. She realized through making her cartoon that though she had plenty of wells to pull from, this particular well was one she hadn't been able to speak about, so she did it through this medium and chose this as one of her stories. It's certainly not the only one she has to tell. She reiterates that she is bisexual and nonbinary, and though the language for that might change in the future, "that's what's going on" with her.

Ian's "profound thing" was that he realized you can share a message without being limited by the expected confines of your medium. For example, he knows that if he claims to be making a science fiction/fantasy cartoon, people will have preconceived notions of what that means, but maybe for some people, a major fantasy is just being told it's okay to be who they are, or living in a world where being who they are is okay. You don't have to worry about whether your reasons for making this art will satisfy someone else's reasons for watching it. Rebecca agrees, and says other people's "escapist" fantasies seemed really one-dimensional to her, never satisfying what SHE would like to escape to, but she realized she'd been holding contempt for escapism in general because of that, which dissolved when she was able to explore hers. There is a place for her, there is a dream she can have, and she no longer resented other people for having theirs. Sometimes a fantasy is about even getting to dream in the first place instead of just being fed these ideas of what you're supposed to want.

Everyone should get to have a dream and say it out loud.

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]

#steven universe #steven universe podcast #long post #mckenzie atwood #rebecca sugar #ian jones-quartey #kat morris #ben levin #matt burnett #joe johnston #myblog

[misssophiachase]

I'm so excited about the Jodice cons coming up this year, I felt the need to write a little FF based on them (kill me if it's more than 10 parts) leading up to June. 

Synopsis: Actors Candice Accola and Joseph Morgan don't like each other at first but being forced to act together means they can't avoid the simmering attraction developing behind the scenes. Fast forward 8 years and they're due to appear in two fan conventions but given all the baggage and unresolved issues things aren't going to run as smoothly as organisers would hope.

Give Me Love

Part 1: Hello

“They say that time's supposed to heal you...But I ain't done much healing.”

June - 2019 - Los Angeles CA

What exactly do you say to the person who can see straight through you?

That was Candice's biggest challenge ahead of Bloody Night Con in seven days, not that she was counting. She hadn't seen Joseph in eighteen months and although he continued to plague her thoughts, at least she didn't have to actually converse with him. Talk about awkward if she did.

Hello and how are you didn't seem to cut it after all they'd been through together and apart the past eight years.

It was a cool, grey afternoon in Los Angeles, Candice was stretched out in the love seat by her window nursing a cup of herbal tea. In fact, it was French Earl Grey, something Joseph had introduced into her diet all those years ago. Something she couldn't quite let go of yet. If any ex-boyfriend had given or introduced her to anything it would find itself in the closest garbage bin straight after the break-up.

With him it was different.

The Chelsea FC jersey he gifted her still hung in the wardrobe (even though she supported Arsenal just to annoy him), his first edition copy of Great Expectations and the sketches he did while they holidayed in Saint Barts were housed in the den and the remnants of Acqua Di Gio hidden away in the bathroom cabinet. 

Most people would put that down to forgetfulness. After all, you can't be expected to remember everything left over during a break-up. But Candice knew every single item and where they were, she just didn't want to part with them. Hence why Joseph Morgan was scattered all throughout her apartment to this day, not that she advertised the fact for obvious reasons.

She fingered the silver, antique locket around her neck. It was the last remaining piece of him and she liked to wear it close to her heart when she was alone. Not all the time but in moments of reflection. They were picnicking in Tuscany, their May birthdays only a few weeks apart, soaking up the wine, pasta and sunshine during a break in filming. He'd plucked the gift from what seemed like thin air, housed in a white box with a royal, blue ribbon. Her favourite colour.

The locket's exterior was flawless but the best was yet to come. She could still remember how he laid her against his chest as the sun set over the hills and told her the story of his grandparents who were split apart during the war and how they came back to each other again stronger and even more in love. The fact he'd placed their faded, black and white picture next to theirs in the locket was enough to cause a few tears and a thank you that lasted quite a few subsequent days in their hotel room.

He never asked for it back and Candice was glad he didn't. Maybe it was selfish but it just meant too much to return.

She picked up her phone, scrolling through her social media feed as she did so often. Candice knew that looking at her twitter feed was never a good idea. If she wanted a reminder of her relationship with Joseph it was plastered across her timeline on a daily basis. Granted the photos were either scenes they shared from the shows or creative fan edits but they all stirred the same feelings inside.

Candice didn't want to but she missed him. Still. She was happy his latest directorial foray into film had been such a success. If there was something Candice knew it was how good he was at directing people, she'd been one of his star performers in the bedroom after all.

Looking back, Candice would never forget the first time they met at the Craft Services table on set. It was season two of The Vampire Diaries and his character was cast as the big bad and from what Candice knew they wouldn't really have any scenes together but it didn't stop her from thinking he was all sorts of cute with that accent and those dimples.

February - 2011 - Atlanta, GA

"Did the new guy smirk at you?" Candice asked Kat earnestly.

They were in wardrobe after lunch break and she couldn't stop thinking about the way Joseph had been looking at her while they spoke. They'd just met so she thought it was strange, not to mention a little rude. Just because he had a gorgeous accent and lips the colour of deep crimson didn't give him the right to think he was God's greatest gift. Although Ian was an exact and nauseating replica of that, so why should she be surprised?

"I think he has a name, Candice." Kat mumbled from the corner where she was changing her top behind the makeshift screen.

"That's not the point."

"What do you mean smirk? He's always been perfectly polite and professional with me. What did he say anyway?"

"Wished me good afternoon and then I asked him how he's finding everything on set given he's just come onboard." They'd been shooting for the better part of the morning and the hungry hordes had made their way to the craft services table absolutely famished. Her eyes were firmly focused on the sushi, Candice was pretty certain she could have finished the entire plate on her own.

"Sounds pretty inoffensive, maybe that's just the way he smiles at people, did you ever think that?" Kat asked, finally emerging from changing her clothes for the next scene and looking at her curiously.

"You didn't see it, Kat," she sighed. "It was almost like..."

"He was trying not to laugh?"

"Excuse me?" Kat let out a giggle, moving closer and wiping her face with a tissue she'd swiped from the nearby table. "What are you doing?"

"You, uh, have some rice on your cheek," she smiled, knowingly.

"What?" She asked rubbing her face, slightly mortified.

"Seems like someone was trying to hide that fact and obviously it took the form of a smirk." Candice went from completely embarrassed to annoyed in seconds. How dare he do that?

"The least he could have done was say something rather than embarrass me like that in front of the cast and crew," she muttered.

"You just met the guy, he probably thought it wasn't polite to call you out about food on your face. It doesn't make for the easiest first conversation."

"Yet instead he was secretly laughing at me," she growled. "You know, I'm just happy that we don't have any scenes together because I'm not sure I could stand that smirk and those dimples from such a close proximity."

"Sounds like someone was paying an awful lot of attention to someone's dimples," she grinned. Candice didn't respond just busied herself for the next scene.

From then Candice made it her mission to steer clear of the new guy, until it became almost impossible to avoid him. That's what you got for being on a hit TV show and having to do publicity together. And there was no bigger publicity opportunity than the annual Comic Con in San Diego.

July - 2011 - San Diego, CA

This wasn't her first Comic Con, so it was going to be easy right? But apparently the powers above in the network decided to invite him along for the first time. Candice was generally very welcoming but she still wasn't quite sure what to think of their newest cast member.

Given he was pretty much the most evil character to hit the Vampire Diaries in its entire run so far, no one was expecting such a frenzied reception. Turns out a lot of the girls there seemed to have a thing for the bad guy. Candice really should have known.

She found herself looking across at Joseph at the signing table, his dark, blonde hair curled over his ears and that grey, fitted t-shirt highlighting his toned chest. He didn't scrub up too badly and it seemed like the screaming legions of female fans wholeheartedly agreed. Ever since their first meeting all those months ago they'd barely had any interaction, mainly because they didn't share any scenes.

After the craziness of 5000 screaming fans at the panel earlier in the day and a never ending number of interviews it was time for the after party, an opportunity to let loose and really enjoy themselves. Given they were all staying in the same hotel it seemed normal that they made their way together however for some reason it was just him and her crossing the street while surrounded by screaming photographers.

Candice was trying not to stare at just how adorable he looked in that suit while making sure her strapless, aqua dress was still in place as they walked brusquely to avoid the cameras. If there was one thing she knew about Joseph from their day at Comic Con it was just how overwhelmed he seemed to be around the press. For Candice it was actually refreshing given how arrogant some actors could be. Maybe she'd misjudged him?

One of the photographers got too close, knocking her slightly and Joseph reached forward without thinking. His hand grazed her lower back and Candice felt herself shiver slightly. "Are you okay, love?"

"Um, yeah, thanks," she mumbled, her gaze cast downwards. "It's uh just a little cold." She cursed inwardly thinking what a lame excuse it was. The one thing Candice knew without a doubt was that 90 degrees on a Summer night in San Diego wasn't in the least bit cold and she was sure he was aware of that fact.

"If I had a jacket I'd give it to you," he promised choosing to ignore her lie, steering her towards their destination. Maybe it wasn't the best look given the press would misconstrue anything but right now she didn't give a damn, it felt far too good having his hand on her back.

"Nice to see chivalry isn't completely dead," she smirked, and by his expression he couldn't miss the sarcastic tone in her voice.

"Is there something I'm missing?" Joseph murmured, trying to avoid the inquisitive stares of the reporters loitering close by. "You realise I'm a gentleman, right?"

"A gentleman who doesn't tell a girl she has rice stuck to her cheek?"

"I didn't want to be rude," he insisted, his cheeks colouring slightly with embarrassment. She'd never admit it aloud but it was pretty cute.

"Trust me, Morgan, a girl needs to know these things even if she barely knows you."

"Noted, Accola," he grinned.

"Um, we're here," she said, gesturing towards the hotel where the party was being held. "You can let go of me now." As soon as Candice said it she regretted it as he lifted his hand from her lower back. She gave him a thankful smile and breezed into the party like the professional actress she was. But she'd be lying if she couldn't still feel the residual heat on her back.

October - 2011 - Atlanta, GA

"Social media is going to go nuts," Candice murmured, laying herself out on the bed. "You know if it's anything like the response from you putting your hand on my back at Comic Con in July."

"I was only trying to protect you," he replied, flashing her one of his winning smiles.

They were currently at the Forbes house ready to film their second ever scene together. Candice would be lying if it wasn't a big moment for her. She'd always been able to hide her attraction for him because they didn't share any scenes, well until now that was. Now she had to be in close proximity and in a bed of all things. She wasn't quite sure what the writers were getting at given she'd been so hot and heavy with Michael's character Tyler lately.

"Funnily enough I didn't need protection and we both know that," she smirked. "I really should have known Klaus would order Tyler to bite me only to ride in on his horse and save the day."

"I think you've misjudged Klaus, he really can be a nice guy," he offered, winking in her direction. "Speaking of which, I better go wrangle my horse in anticipation."

Candice would be lying if she didn't think he was cute. She'd been so quick to write him off as one of your typical, egotistical actors she came across daily (not naming any names of course) but he had this adorable wit that she couldn't quite resist. Ever since he'd placed his hand on her back in July she'd been a little distracted by those lips and those damn dimples too.

Candice was an actor first and foremost and the scene played out exactly as planned but she couldn't deny just how good it felt to have his body pressed up against hers in bed as she pretended to drink from his wrist. His chest seemed so much more toned than she'd imagined and the smell of his spicy aftershave was definitely causing a few foreign feelings to take over. It was all done in one take, unheard of but Candice knew their underlying chemistry had definitely played its part in creating such a perfect scene.

"Don't worry I'm not counting," he smiled rising from the bed, as the crew moved away in preparedness for the next scene.

"I'm sorry?"

"You know the number of times I've saved you."

"Oh p-uh-lease," she groaned, rolling her eyes as she did. Candice was finding it more and more difficult not to act on her burgeoning feelings for him and she secretly hoped they got more time to spend with each other on set as an excuse.

TBC...On FF HERE

Fun Real Life Fact: Joseph first saw Candice at the craft services table with rice on her face

#give me love #misssophiachase #klaroline fan fiction #jodice #klaroline

[hockeythighs]

Hockey-Playing Trump Supporters: A Sourced List in Progress

This post is the actual list, unlike my previous post which, as I should have said more clearly, was meant more as a signal boost/information gathering sort of thing. Thanks to everyone who’s helped so far!

IMPORTANT: This list is still in progress, and will be updated consistently. Always trust the version of the post that you see when you click back to my blog, not older/outdated versions you might see from reblogs or comments. If you have newer/better info please send it to me here, at my sideblog, or on this anonymous SurveyMonkey poll, with links or screenshots included if at all possible. Thanks a million to @highstik , who gave me tons of great info, as well as everyone else who’s chipped in!

I have erred on the side of caution in putting people on this list. I don’t want this to be a witch hunt of people whose political beliefs are different from mine-- I think there’s a lot of space to disagree on political issues, but loudly supporting Donald Trump in spite of his racist, xenophobic, misogynist, Islamophobic, ableist views just because his policies will benefit you personally is not something that’s acceptable to me. However, to avoid casting the net too wide I’m not going to include people who have solely liked pro-Trump posts or followed pro-Trump people-- those are both things that people could do for a variety of reasons, and I think it’s risky to make assumptions about people’s political beliefs based on them. The same holds true for people whose spouses support Trump.

I’m also not going to include people who I can’t find receipts for on the main list-- if someone was cowed enough to delete pro-Trump stuff because of public outcry I have no way of knowing whether they had a genuine change of heart or they just didn’t want to deal with the fallout, so again I’m erring on the side of caution. Here’s the TL;DR version of the list of definite Trump supporters; links, sources, and borderline supporters/mythbusted supporters are below the cut.

TL;DR list, sorted alphabetically by last name: Logan Brown [OHL], Tony DeAngelo [AHL], Max Domi [ARI], Jack Eichel [BUF], Nathan Gerbe [SNL], Scott Hartnell [CBJ], Robin Lehner [BUF], Rebecca Russo [NWHL], Teemu Selanne, Kelli Stack [NWHL], James Wisniewski [AHL]

People I’ve seen on unsourced lists who I’m still researching (please send links if you have them!): Mark Arcobello, Laurent Broissoit, Alex Debrincat, Patrick Eaves, Alex Goligoski, Ryan Miller, Derek Ryan, Cam Talbot, James Van Riemsdyk

                                            Active NHL Players

Max Domi [ARI]: "Game day socks [with Trump’s face on them]. Make America Great again." Check the second source for another family member saying  that it was “a joke,” and that Tie and Max “don't know anything about politics nor do they care cuz we are Canadian.” His snapchat is also apparently pretty Trumpy according to one anon (x), (x)

Jack Eichel [BUF]: [RT] “I'm big on "to each his own" if you disagree that's completely fine.But whoever is President I respect and root for because he is our leader” (x), various gross likes

Scott Hartnell [CBJ]: “ Mr. Trump-your plane is landing in 45 mins in Columbus and some of the #CBJ fellas would love to meet ya!! #legend (x)

Eddie Lack [CAR]: I don’t have a great translation of it, but he basically said that he wouldn’t have wanted to vote for either candidate, but would have “leaned towards” voting for Trump (x)

Robin Lehner [BUF]: wore a goalie mask with Trump’s name/face on it, expressed support for his anti-immigrant policies (x), (x)

NWHL/CWHL:

Dru Burns, CWHL, Boston Blades: she retweets a lot of openly pro-Trump stuff on Twitter, like this (x)

Rebecca Russo, NWHL, NYRivs: wore a Trump shirt on Instagram (x)

Kelli Stack, NWHL, CTWhale: “First Lady Melania Trump sounds better than First Lady Bill Clinton,” blocked someone for calling her out (x) 

Former Players/Non-NHL Men:

Logan Brown, OHL: [RT] “TODAY WE MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”, various awful likes (x)

Tony DeAngelo, AHL: “Tough time streaming it on the plane but it was nice to get to watch the inauguration! Loved it! #MAGA,” also his entire social media presence basically (x) 

Nathan Gerbe, Swiss National League: “The people have spoken [US flag]” (x), MAGA sign on his dogs’ Instagram (x)

Brendan Lemieux, AHL: [RT] “TODAY WE MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” (x)

Tyler Parsons, OHL:  “TODAY WE MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” (x)

Steve Racine, ECHL: posted this picture of himself with a cutout of Trump with the caption “Proud to be an American” (x)

Teemu Selanne: "Trump was the better option for America right now. He was the lesser of two evils." (x) 

James Wisniewski, AHL: “Congrats, Mr. President!! Bring your broom cuz, it’s a mess!” (x)   Players who may be quiet Trump supporters, or who don’t meet the threshold for the main list but may exceed your threshold for awfulness:

Brent Burns [SJS]: I said this list wouldn’t include people who are just following shitty people, and he hasn’t publicly tweeted about politics, but I’m making an exception for him because he follows basically no liberals and every horrible conservative in the book, including Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Tomi Lahren, Hannity, O’Reilly, Pence, and several others

Ian Cole [PIT]: has liked at least some shitty things on Twitter (one vaguely pro-Trump, the others just nasty conservative stuff), retweeted a mealy-mouthed “we should all respect the new president” thing but then deleted it (x) Erik Johnson [COL]: [RT] “FORD INVESTS IN AMERICA: Cancels 1.6B Mexico factory; $700M to Michigan”, liked a Trump tweet, follows Trump (x), (x)

Seth Jones [CBJ]: follows Trump and Tomi Lahren, and liked an IG post that said “I’m voting Trump/Pence” (x)

TJ Oshie [WSH]: from an interview with Modern Luxury DC, “Oshie has already played Trump National and Congressional Country Club. "I felt like a superfan, taking pictures at the clubhouse," he says, laughing.” (x) [Note: I moved Oshie down to this part of the list because that article is from November 2015, before Trump really ramped up the awfulness. Feel free to disagree!]

Tyler Seguin [DAL]: said he would like to have pizza with Donald Trump (to talk about Tom Brady???), but I’m sort of inclined to think it’s more because he’s a moron than because he holds any actual political opinions. Watch the vid and decide for yourself, I suppose. (x) He also follows Tomi Lahren on Twitter.

Alex Tuch: liked this post (x), follows Trump, dressed as a border patrol agent for Halloween

Ryan Whitney: “The 45th president in our nations history will be sworn into office and I will support him because he is our leader and I love our country.”  (x), (x)  People who have appeared on Tumblr pro-Trump lists for whom I’ve found no evidence or questionable/minimal evidence (e.g. following Trump with no other political indicators, liking but not sharing pro-Trump stuff): -Jordie Benn (liked an IG post that said “"Yesterday made history and so did I staying up until 3 am for politics. Our nation has spoken: President Donald J. Trump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #Trump" (x)) -Nick Bonino -Robert Bortuzzo (follows Trump) -Tyler Bozak (liked Mark Cuban’s tweet that said "We all need to give President-Elect Trump a chance. Support the good. Lobby against what we disagree on. No one is bigger than us all." (x)) -Courtney Burke [NWHL] (liked some anti-Kaepernick/BLM stuff, but nothing explicitly Trumpy) -Andrew Copp (liked a transphobic Tomi Lahren tweet (x)) -Brandon Dubinsky (follows Trump) -Aaron Ekblad (follows Trump, stayed at a Trump Hotel? That’s all I got, folks) -Micheal Ferland -Thomas Greiss (liked but then unliked a post likening Hillary Clinton to Hitler, per this German news article (x)) -Noah Hanifin (is probably someone I disagree with on a fundamental level, but has kept politics in his likes) -Stephen Johns (follows Trump, one person told me he retweeted a pro-Trump election day thing but has since deleted it) -Seth Jones (follows Trump, Tomi Lahren) -Hillary Knight (I’m getting conflicting reports about her having liked/shared pro-Trump stuff, but if there was anything there she’s since deleted it, and she was also photographed with a pro-HRC thing, so make of it what you will) -Auston Matthews (liked Ryan Whitney’s "I'm big on "to each his own" if you disagree that's completely fine. But whoever is President I respect and root for because he is our leader” (x) ETA: more recently liked this post criticizing Trump’s immigration policies (x)) -James Neal (follows Trump) -Alex Nylander (liked this post (x)) -Brett Pesce (follows Tomi Lahren, FOX News) -Dylan Strome (followed but then unfollowed within a few days several Trumpy people on Twitter, according to one anon person) -Ryan Strome (follows Trump) - Matthew Tkachuk (Liked a tweet that said “there’s one Donald Trump viewpoint we can all agree with,” but the vid in question was Trump talking about Zoolander, so I don’t think this counts as a political statement)

#/ #// #/// #//// #///// #trumpkoolaid #Donald Trump #US politics #blog maintenance

[heldanemdia104-blog]

Snapchat – makes the world a better place

 Firstly, is my thesis that I’m covering in this topic. Secondly, I’m going to cover what is snap chat as a whole, from pictures, to videos, the effects you can add to them as well as the time you set for viewing them. I will then describe the behavior of snap chat in a step by step process. Thirdly, I will describe the definition of affordances. We will then touch base on some affordances of snap chat that we will be discussing before ending with presenting our argument that on snap chat map and privacy/public settings.

 ‘Snapchat affordances enable an exciting level of social surveillance with new Snap Map and privacy/public settings that are different than other social media sites’

 Snapchat application is a picture based platform that allows you to send and receive pictures/videos with filters such as animals, facial changing (i.e., an old man, or old woman), location filter (i.e., Lower Hutt, Wellington), which you then can add a text to it as well as a time limit that the intended receiver/s get to view your snaps for. You can also get creative by sending or add to a picture with the drawing tools, which offer a range of colors from red to purple, yellow to pink. There is also a selection to have a private one on one chat with a friend, you have the options to save message or not depending if you want to read them later or not, also you can share picture through there and do the same thing, if one of you screenshot then the other will be alerted that you screens-hotted your chat. You can also screenshot pictures/videos that are sent to you as well. The concept of snap-chat behaves as follows. You take a picture/video. Add filter/text/drawing if you like, the select a time limit that the receiver/s can view your snap for pictures range from 1-10 seconds and newly upgraded infinite time, videos can be made up to 10 seconds long and recently updated to make 5 videos in a row now so up to 50 seconds of video time. You have the option of saving your snap you sent by downloading it to your snap chat memories, which you can also add to future snaps by using cut and paste option. You can also put your picture that you sent on your snap story which is a 24 hour post which all your friends can view as many times as they want to within that 24 hour time slot.

 Affordances – “we define technology affordance as the mutuality of actor intentions and technology capabilities that provide the potential for a particular action (Faraj & Azad, 2012). The concept of an affordance refers to the action potential that can be taken given a technology (Gibson, 1979; Hutchby, 2001; Leonardi, 2011; Majchrzak & Markus, 2013).

 Snap chat has a range of affordances but none more important as privacy/public settings. Privacy setting is used so only people you accept or add, you can send them snaps or chat messages and you can view each other’s snap story. This is highly recommend if you’re a private person and only want a select few knowing what you’re getting up to. Public setting is obviously anyone can add you, send you snaps and chats and view your snap story without you even adding them back, slightly creeping in my opinion. But whatever works best for you, everyone is catered for (Marwick, A. 2012). With the new snap map its stepped up to an exciting level of social surveillance. What snap map is, is an update that shows exactly where you are in the country, or world. It’s similar to google maps but instead of looking for a place, it’s filled of your snap chat friends and their exact location, through their bitmojis (Bitmojis are made up avatars of what you could look like in person, but you can also add them to your filters, or have custom made ones, ready to send to friends). You can only be seen on the map if you choose to, if not you can choose a ‘ghost mode’ which shows an outline of your bitmojis but nothing else that indicates that it’s you. I say it’s exciting only because it’s never been done before on any social media platform in this way. As well as because some people get excited that people might be watching their every step. Now that’s creepy.

 Snapchat encourages users to present a less edited self then other social media platforms because of its affordances, for example private/public chats. Although you can do that on Instagram and Facebook the thing that sets snap chat apart is being alerted when someone has screenshotted a message or picture that you have sent. You can be less careless with what you send because you send particular things to particular people on snap, therefore if anything leaks you know who has done it because it will have a screenshot alert next to their name. As well as you can just have fun with all the snap filters and location filters act more of yourself. The best thing on snapchat is that you can send pictures to who you want, and not everyone gets to see them.

 Snapchat map is different compared to anything seen before, the emoji on the map standing in your exact destination. It keeps people who are public honest, for example if I said I was sick and can’t get out of bed and I was a public user and you have a look at snapchat map and see me chilling with someone else doing something else then you will know I was telling porkies. Facebook has something similar but not as great they have the check-ins, which you can put up for example. Heldane was at Naenae Park, and I could tag a few people. On Instagram they have nothing like it, just a tag, where you can tag where you are. Snapchat map you can see who’s hanging out with who, what people are doing, where they live, you can collect a lot of personal data on a user. The upgrade in these features create new affordances but also new limitations, for users in this case they afford more social surveillance and less privacy. Snapchat had to do something big to stay a major player in social media platforms because the original intention was to provide a private visual message. But it created too many limitations as a company and so in order to expand and make for money, they had to gradually loosen up their idea of private.

 Private/public settings in snapchat are really good and also very similar to Facebook and Instagram, the difference in snapchat is no one can see who you’re friends with, but if you’re friends with people on Facebook you can see at least mutual friends when on private, and on Instagram you can see who they follow and are followed by. On snapchat you can’t see whose friend’s public or private mode. Snapchat private is the perfect app for people who only want to share with a small audience or tight people they know, friends or family. Also it’s the perfect app if you want to share with everyone, to the point you can even share your location at all times, as well as let people follow you that you don’t want to follow and don’t want to follow back, in my opinion it’s the ultimate app if you have a big head and think you are somebody in this world.

 To conclude this essay, everyone get out and download Snapchat. Not only does it take videos, and pictures but it also has a private section to chat. Good for when you’re trying to hide things away from one of your girlfriends. Or even to hit on of your mates girlfriends. Add that in with Snapchat map and you can’t have everything you need to know on lock if your “social surveillance” game is on 100. Snapchat map adds excitement because not only is it new but the sense of being watched all the time from people who have your snapchat is thrilling to some people. The last reason why to get snapchat is easy, the public/privacy settings. You can have one million friends and only you will ever know who your friends with and of course the other friend will know. Also you can be as tight or as loose as you want to be with the settings you can let everyone view you, some people view you or you can just view others snap chats for example famous sporting stars, fashion Icons or even me. Snapchat in my opinion is the greatest social media platform of our time so go out there and download it.

  Reference List:

Marwick, Alice E.  The Public Domain: Social Surveillance in everyday life. Newcastle upon Tyne. 2012

Faraj, Samer. & Azad, Bijan. The materiality of technology: An affordance perspective. NY City. 2012

Gibson, James. J. The ecological approach to visual perception

. 1979

Hutchby, Ian. Technologies, text and affordances. 2001

Leonardi, Paul. M. When flexible routines meet flexible technologies: Affordance, constraint, and the imbrication of human and material agencies. 2011

Majchrzak, Ann & Markus, Lynne. Technology affordances and constraints in management information systems. 2013

[seashellsoldier]

“The Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal” by Ian Christie, 2004.

For those who may not know, Ian Christie is a mainstay DJ on SiriusXM’s Liquid Metal channel, and he hosts a riveting show called Bloody Roots where he tackles some thematic issue each time, be it Folk Metal from the UK, the origins of Black Metal in Scandinavia; he even did an ode to children and childhood through heavy metal music. Needless to say, this dude’s a sage on the subject and a kindred spirit of alliteration meshed with a heroic writing style. As one of the back cover plugs by the Library Journal says: “Christie might as well drop the ‘e’ from his name because he has just delivered the gospel of heavy metal.”

This book is over a decade old, and even though history is what it is, some of the more “modern sections” (read: Internet age) lose their luster simply because cable TV, Headbangers Ball, Rock Video Monthly, and the web allowed much easier access to underground music that could never make it to FM radio. As a side note, I know there is an interesting, if not somewhat silly, academic base in Northern Europe focused on “heavy metal studies,” which is (abstractly) a sub-set blending of sociology and musicology, linked by the psychology between leaders (bands) and followers (fans). If you have access to academic databases, check it out. Free college for all allows for odd subject-matter specialization, I guess.

Now most critics, and Christie, say Black Sabbath was the true point of origin for every single facet of heavy metal, in 1970. However, Hazlit recently published an interesting feminist critique alluding otherwise ( http://hazlitt.net/blog/heavy-metal-feminism ), and really no one can now remember what was going on in basements and garages, dive bars, and pubs in backwater venues. Of course, no one pops out of the womb with an electric guitar and a song: everyone is influenced by someone else. Sabbath was influenced by the Stones, the Stones were heavy into southern blues music, the Deep South Blues were influenced by centuries of slavery and slave songs …

I suspect lots of young bands trying new things out of the 60s never made it into the spotlight, but for all intents and purposes, the Brits did it first in the 70s (Sabbath, Motörhead, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden), and the U.S. took it harder, faster, and darker in the 80s (Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth, Pantera). Now, it’s pure, beautiful bedlam aching almost every corner of this dark world. Of course I’m generalizing here. The social-psychology of how heavy metal came to be through fan-reaction is very meme-like in the classic sense of the term. Word-of-mouth, tape sharing, fanzines, mom & pop music shops, and concert-going were the only real way kids could get hooked, before cable TV, radio stations, and the Internet embraced it in the early-mid 90s. Nowadays the spectrum of sub-genres in metal is staggering, and Christie himself has made a more-or-less formal taxonomy of it all, which is brilliant as much as it is limiting by the oppressive power of labels. Christie goes into more depth with his radio show, and his publishing company (http://www.bazillionpoints.com) churns out titles regularly, all focused on metal music. That said, this book does a nice job of sometimes looking at the social and political contexts of the metal music scene across the timeline, and across the planet, at least up until 2003. The final section is him putting his finger on the pulse of metal and making predictions in the post-9/11 world, which of course Time makes such things moot.

I think the best comparison I can make is that heavy metal and all its sub-genres are very much akin to postmodern fine art when looked at along its timeline. No other type of music can be defined by its ever-pushing of boundaries, challenging, twisting, shocking, transforming, self-destroying, turning inward, exploding outward, mocking, writhing, screaming, searing … and at times, being witch-hunted by Neocons, slandered by the media, feared by the ignorant, and, sadly, selling out (i.e., Metallica). To me, metal is also the most topical, often digging deep into the human condition with life and death, mortality and demise, war and religion, hypocrisy and oppression. Again, look at Sabbath. It starts, more or less, with them.

For me, this book was a nostalgic odyssey, seeing the forces at play upon our young minds that we were all mostly oblivious to back then. We connected to the music because it was underground, riotous, unpopular, not on the radio. It was communing with a fringe group, often without knowledge of, or dialogue with, one another, because the music spoke for us. We were, and may forever be, the outcasts of popular society. Having grown up in the 80s, and being at the far eastern edge of Chicagoland, with luck and clear skies, we could bend the rabbit ears antennae on the TV and pick up Channel 50 on the UHF dial. This was the obscure channel that showed Godzilla movies, hosted Samurai Sundays filled with B-style Kung-fu flicks, and during the summer months played music videos, one of which was Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” This was probably in 1985-6; I was 12-13 years old. Taking paper route money, I bought a compilation cassette tape titled “Heavy Metal Thunder.” Anyone remember this one? Twisted Sister, Dio, Judas Priest, Scorpions, etc. Blew the doors off my mind and I was hooked forevermore. First live concert was Megadeth (Rust in Peace) opening for Judas Priest (Painkiller), while my second was the mighty Milwaukee Metal Fest to see Nuclear Assault, amongst so many others, riding with a friend through Chicago in a beat-up Jeep Gladiator pickup. My prized Global Annihilation Tour shirt was worn until it was tatters. This was 1989.

The fact that both Motörhead and Iron Maiden just released great new albums is a true testament to the longevity of the genre at its purest roots. Spotify analytics determined that although rap is the genre most globally ubiquitous, metal listeners are the most loyal. I’m proud of that. It might just say it all.

This book is a terrific resource for further reading, and a great general guide to the big picture of a music genre over its first thirty years. Kids, expand your musical minds, and know your roots!!!

Photos, clearly biased by me, and leaving out hundreds of bands that influenced one another … 1) Black Sabbath 2) Motörhead 3) Iron Maiden 4) Twisted Sister 5) W.A.S.P. 6) Metallica 7) Slayer 8) Pantera 9) Slipknot

#metal #heavy metal #black metal #grindcore #trash #death metal #doom metal #history #book review