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tenthgrove · 3 years

Note

La Squadra HCs for if they get a team member with an art-based stand? (Thinking like how Kakyoin was able to harm Jotaro with his painting in part 3? I've always thought that could be an interesting stand in full!)

Lethal Creativity

La Squadra x Reader (GN), Platonic/Romantic (Interpretable), SFW

Context: For the sake of clarity, the reader's stand ability is defined as the power to manifest events such as physical harm/healing, the creation of new objects in a person's possession, and other occurances within limits, through visual illustration of these happening. It is limited by the inability to manipulate free will or create new animate beings, as well as the considerable level of detail in the illustrations required for the power to work, making the stand time-consuming to use.

Formaggio- For a stand as simple as 'make things go small', Formaggio sure does put a lot of creativity into using his powers. From crushing a person underneath a car expanded from inside them, to seeking the aid of usually harmless animals to take a minitiarised target out, Formaggio knows how to take a innocuous power and turn it into something flexible and deadly. For this reason, he can see immediately the potential of your stand, and is often the first to suggest the end goal of your plans when you are just starting out with a new drawing. Though he isn't always right you have to admire his thinking. A lot of people tend to take Formaggio for an idiot, which to be fair off the job he sometimes is, but there's a real quick streak to Formaggio when he needs it, which few other than you get to see.

Illuso- You quickly find yourself paired with Illuso on your more high-risk missions, due to the retreat offered by his mirror world. Watching from the safety of Illuso's dimension lets you work on orchestrating a target's doom without the distraction of having to worry about being caught. Unfortunately however, Illuso rarely lets you focus in peace as you shelter in the mirror world, pestering you frequently for more information on what you're doing and asking about your drawing techniques, without really listening to your response. Truth is, it feels weird for him to have someone other than a victim around in his world, and he feels compelled to talk to them as a result. He is enthralled as you draw out how it is your target will perish, the feeling of a predator on the hunt he too can relate to well, through all his years of watching victims through the mirror.

Prosciutto- The more the two of you brain-storm, the more applications you can think of for your stand as support for Prosciutto's missions. The Grateful Dead's two main flaws are slowness and imprecision, and your stand is perfect for creating small, quick-to-draw implements to deal with unexpected problems when his deadly power is at work. For instance, it only takes you half a minute to draw up a bag of ice to save someone from becoming collatoral damage you absolutely must avoid, and it doesn't take much longer to create a simple trap for if the target calls in backup during the slow process of dying through Grateful Dead's powers. You soon make an excellent team, well-versed in each other's needs and communications. It's only natural the two of you would become friends.

Pesci- Prosciutto encourages his apprentice to spend time with you on missions, since the operation of your stand often shows simplified, easy to pick up on, techniques of assassination Pesci can hopefully pick up on himself. Pesci is in awe as your plans slowly come in to fruition culminating in a spectacular demise for your target. He can tell you must be an incredibly intelligent person to come up with the sort of things you do, and frequently mentions wishing he could have ideas as good of yours. He never knows where to even begin with a mission unless someone else tells him! You are confused by this however, as every time you see Pesci in action you only see a skilled, competant assassin. Really, you think he just has issues with his confidence. You only hope you can help him see that.

Melone- His immediate affinity to you is strong because there are many similarities between your stands in terms of practical implications of their powers. Both favour remote operation and lengthy planning, but reward their users' patience with incredible scope and damage potential. You find your routines for missions parallel heavily, and Melone has a lot to teach you about staying safe during the long period of preparation for using your stands. Often you will find yourselves sitting together, Melone educating a young junior as you prepare an illustration of the tools it will use to aid it against the target. Your bond is strong, and you develop a lot of affection together through your joint work.

Ghiaccio- White Album is a stand at its strongest when it's user is capable of quick thinking, immediate response and personal, direct forms of battle. It is hence the antithesis of your own stand, which stresses planned creativity in a calm setting. There isn't much you could do to help Ghiaccio during his missions, since his fights tend to move too quickly for you to possibly draw from scratch as they evolve, so in terms of work your bond with Ghiaccio will be slow. At home however, Ghiaccio is drawn to the peaceful nature of your ability, particularly as you calmly illustrate the patching of his wounds as he lies on the sofa after a difficult mission. Though he can't do it himself, he finds drawing satisfying, and has a lot of admiration for your power.

Risotto- Your creativity in the field is certainly something Risotto can relate to, due to both his own morbid creativity that allows him to fully utilise Metallica, and the fact he's still responsible for at least some of the planning in a majority of La Squadra's missions. He appreciates an ally that can understand the need for nuance and caution when pursuing a target, especially when some of the boys just go out into the field with nothing on their minds but sadism. The two of you have many pleasant nights together discussing the strategy of your upcoming missions in the privacy of his office. Though he has little in the way of art skills himself, Risotto is surprisingly cultured, and will often pick up on styleistic and symbolic references in your drawings you didn't expect anyone to notice.

Sorbet and Gelato- La Squadra's greatest sadists are no strangers to bringing creativity to the art of murder, so learning of your ability fills them with a wicked glee. They frequently give constructive criticism on your draft pieces for a target's elimination, offering improvements that are sometimes practical, and sometimes simply there to make the final product more entertaining for them. They love it when the ideas you built together come to fruition, and will often insist on being there for the show even if you would have otherwise not chosen to be present for when the targt kicks it. There is a high likelyhood that, particularly if you are a newcomer to the trade, you will end up the apprentice of the lethal couple. Their advice may be unconventional, but has you achieving your goals every time without fail.

#la squadra #la squadra di esecuzione #la squadra x reader #formaggio #formaggio x reader #illuso #illuso x reader #prosciutto #prosciutto x reader #pesci #pesci x reader #melone #melone x reader #ghiaccio #ghiaccio x reader #risotto nero #risotto nero x reader #sorbet and gelato #sorbet and gelato x reader

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soulmate-game · 3 years

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Okay, I’m not sure if what I was trying to say in my last post was said very well.

I completely understand the tagging situation from the First Wave with the DC fans. That’s discourse that is mostly solved and we can’t do anything about those who are forever gonna be bitter or lazy. I’m not talking about that stuff.

The stuff I want to prevent/limit is the hate that comes after our fandom deliberately. And yes, I know I can’t stop it. None of us can stop bitter, antagonistic people from being bitter and antagonistic. None of us can stop people who just want to be angry.

I’m not talking about stopping them, though.

I’m talking about what we can do to protect ourselves as creators and consumers in this fandom. As people who love and appreciate what the creations and people in this fandom have to offer. In simplistic form, I’m saying we need to learn how to shield ourselves from bullies. And there are methods we can use to make ourselves less of a target to the people who go after us, and methods to cut their attacks off short. None of these methods are fool-proof, but they will work to filter out a good majority of the shit we would otherwise be showered by, like a big umbrella against Assholery. Sure, the wind might still blow some in our face and we might splash in a puddle or two by accident, but at least we aren’t soaked.

So let me list the various things that can help you shield yourself from hate/harassment/antis who might just be out to get you.

1) leave the fandom.

The most effective, but least attractive method possible. This is limited to being a last ditch effort, if things have just gotten too hard to handle. I’m covering it first though, because we have to acknowledge that it is a viable method. If you feel trapped, hated, bullied, I’m sure all of us in this fandom would prefer you take a break and leave us for a while in the sake of your own health and safety then stay where you are miserable. This is less of a problem for us though, because mostly this option is gonna be for fandoms where the discourse and attacks are internal. Maribat is largely a peaceful and supportive/healthy environment once you’re inside our little bubble, the main discourse comes from outside in. So let’s focus on the main point of this post— how to keep our bubble from popping.

2) Make it apparent right away that you are Unapologetic.

Whenever you post content or are approached by someone about the topic of your fandom, don’t you DARE ever apologize for liking what you like or posting unproblematic content. You need to make it clear right off the bat that you are not gonna be swayed, bullied, or shamed out of your fandom. Stand with pride and make it clear, but don’t be verbose about it. A simple “Don’t like, don’t read” is classic but sometimes if you’re posting/talking during a more confrontational period of the fandom, you need to up your game to reflect that. The funny thing is, people can easily be intimidated by swearing if it isn’t directed at them or clearly antagonistic. If you’re swearing in a joking, casual or even in a manner that shows you’re not taking yourself too seriously, people will usually avoid picking fights with you. For this, my favorite lines to use on my work include;

“Don’t like, I don’t fucking care. I fell down the rabbit hole.”

“Don’t bother reading if you’re not into this, this shit bitch-slapped me and dragged me along on it’s adventure.”

“I’m addicted to this fandom, don’t bother trying to save me. If it bothers you, I don’t give a fuck. Save yourselves.”

3) Don’t approach or interact

Unless someone comes at you first, never try to persuade someone away from hating us. That just makes you a target in an empty field, for the vultures to surround and gang up on. If someone approaches you with provocative but not overly insulting or intelligent language— I.e; trying to start a fight, vague insults not always relating to the fandom itself, trying to insult your character/judgement— do not respond. Delete the message, block the account, and surround yourself with fluffy good stuff to forget the wanna-be harasser. These people are often not brave enough to outright start a fight, and want you to get defensive first so they know the weak points in your armor to exploit. Defensive statements declare your own insecurities, don’t get defensive. It gives them a way to win without having to defend themselves or feel vulnerable— it’s like exploiting type differences in Pokémon. You wait for an unfamiliar Pokémon to expose it’s type, then snipe it with the moves it’s weak to. Then, you have a near sure-fire win even with under leveled Pokémon on your team.

Don’t be a proud Infernape that gets sniped by a weak-ass level 5 Piplup. We’re strong, don’t show them the chinks in our armor.

4) Have a support network. Even if they don’t know they are your support network.

The fandom as a whole serves this purpose, and this is mostly gonna be a tactic you use when the discourse is inside the fandom, but there can be uses for this in discourse from outside the fandom as well. If someone tries to act like they like your story/art “but...” they passive aggressively state things they “would prefer” or they try to make it sound like you made stupid mistakes (a tactic to make you insecure about yourself) instead of kindly pointing out errors or offering constructive criticism (ex: “you know you put your trigger list somewhere where it’s useless right? Love your story though.)—THESE ARE ALL PROVOCATIONS. They are trying to make you insecure so that you change things about yourself, your work, or jump through hoops to try to “make it up” to them when you did nothing wrong and there are no problems to fix. Do not fall for it! Instead, politely as possible, bring the issue into a public space where you feel safe/trust the people in that space to keep the bullshit from escalating. For me, I straight up explain my reasoning for the placement of my trigger list as if I’m advertising a particularly boring but important product that I’m selling, then offer places for them to bring the issue into a discussion with others. I send them to a discoed group or right here to my tumblr, and I immediately make the issue into a big discussion (do YOU think there is anything to change? Let’s ALL talk about it) so that I am no longer isolated and easy for them to harass. They might refuse to join the discussion and further try to pressure you, but do not cave. Merely say that a public discussion has been started, and if they are actually, legitimately concerned about the way you do things then they can debate it in a public setting. This way, you have back up. 9/10 people who try to target you this way will back off and never enter the conversation you started.

5) Do not fight back.

This sounds counterintuitive, but a lot of the time once discourse gets this bad, arguing/defending/ trying to prove your point only fuels their rage more. I have found that people hate very little in this world more than they hate being wrong. And people who hate being wrong will fight to the bitter death about their opinions, no matter how invalid or hurtful they are, in the favor of their blissful ignorance. Remove yourself from harmful discussions or those that seem to be going in circles as soon as possible, and try to surround yourself in your support group. Never let people make you feel stupid, your opinions illegitimate, or your likes/dislikes invalid or evil.

6) Try to learn how to recognize bullies in disguise

It’s too much for me to try to cover here, but you need to PLEASE look into how to spot gaslighting. Tactics of gaslighting are often used to attack others and try to make them feel like their own opinions are invalid or their mindset untrustworthy. People will often approach you in the guise of friendship/support/ “I am not into this, but...” and while this is not always a red flag, we have to keep our eyes open for any signs of this person or their approach being rooted in anything other than legitimate curiosity or kindness. Not all suggestions that say they are out of concern actually ARE. Keep an eye out for warning signs, and cut off interaction once things seem like they may lead to an argument or you being in a vulnerable position if you continue interacting.

(Brief mention of s**cide and threats in the section below)

7) If all else fails, BLOCK THEM.

No hesitation, we don’t need this shit. They make a second account? Block that too. Don’t respond, only take screenshots or reblog if it is directly harmful information that can/should be documented (words that encourage suicide, threats, insults that seem a little too specific for comfort) and give the evidence to someone you trust to look out for you. A therapist, a family member, or even the authorities if you deem that necessary. Just don’t handle it alone.

We are not responsible for other people’s actions, opinions, or anger. Take the steps to protect yourself instead of trying to reconcile. Sometimes, reconciliation isn’t an option. Both parties have to be willing to reconcile, and it is clear they have nothing in mind but hurting us. So raise your shields and protect yourself and your friends, we’re not gonna lose a war to petty jerks.

#tw: harassment #bully prevention #bullying prevention #steps to protect yourself #maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc

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synnefo-nefeli · 4 years

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Okay I’m not going to post the actual ask to this, but to the person who sent me an ask saying

“you know, quarantine is a good opportunity to finish your fics”

Please don’t do this.

Please don’t ever do this to content creators, even if a global pandemic isn’t occurring.

Many ppl (like me) have full time jobs, family obligations, after-work obligations, and we have the right to have a life outside our WIPs. We create out of our own free time to provide you free entertainment.

With the pandemic ppl are reacting differently. Some people are churning out 30K chapters weekly...some of us (me included) feel adrift and not at all in the mood to write. I’ve been painting, felting and baking as these are creative outlets that can be completed in hours. The urge to write anything right now is non-existent despite my having outlines and stuff. Right now writing seems like a Herculean task and therefore, very unappealing.

My anxious brain cannot hold focus for too long and so I’m just going for quick dopamine hits. I am a slow writer, even with an outline, so completing a chapter is not something I can crank out. I’m not that sort of fic writer- never have been never will be.

And the last thing I’d ever want to do is just release something for the sake of updating- this is how multichaptered fics IMO tend to become bloated and meandering which is fine sometimes but also leads to a higher rate of abandonment because you feel you can’t get back to the main point/too many plot-lines may become too unwieldy to someone who writes inconsistently as a hobby.

I once took 3 YEARS to finished a chapter of Strange Days. It was agonizing and I felt guilty for not working on it consistently but when I finally did release it, I was so happy I’d waited.

So please, I appreciate your support and I’m happy you’re enjoying my stories to the point which you’re eager for an update (we’ve all been there), but please don’t pressure content creators by telling that they apparently have no excuses to not update. You don’t know what’s going on in people’s lives nor do we “owe” (your words not mine) you an update under any circumstances global pandemic or not.

If you really want to engage with the content creator- leave kudos, comments, join their discord if they have one or other social and engage them if they’re open for questions/discussions on their works.

Just please don’t ever badger ppl for updates. Please don’t. You may believe you’re being encouraging but, the more unrealistic pressure and guilt put onto creators for not provinding you something to consume, often leads to creators losing their momentum/becoming crippled under expectations/abandoning their creations outright.

#asks #writing #fanfic

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masai4 · 3 years

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Most of my friends are in the Kenyan art scene. They are painters, writers, singer/songwriters, filmmakers and clothes designers. It is all great cause this bros and siss are really talented and creative. Driven purely out of devotion and love for their creations. There is little money for art in Nairobi or Mombasa especially for an underground and upcoming artist. Yet still they toil on. I watch and pray they get a chance to sell out. For the consumers to come up and show their appreciation. One day, I hope, it'll come to be and every day after that.

Now, some of these fuckers really rile me up sometimes. Cause they are so fucking institutionalized into believing that other kenyan artform are substandard or they just unexplainably don't like it. The painter doesn't like kenyan clothes, he'd rather go buy second hand clothes at the thrift shop; be all proud wearing a foreigner's discarded 'trash' than spend a little more and feed his friend. The writer thinks Kenyan films are trashy, they have no depth and the vfx is horrible, yet they've never paid for a ticket for a kenyan movie. To actually fund the filmmakers in that they have more motivation to their craft, and more money for reshoots and what not. The designer hates Kenyan hiphop.

Like fuck?

Am I the only lost in this irony. Like fuck? Like fuck? Do they expect Kim Kardashian and Elijah Wood to come to Kenya and listen to our music.

That Cara Delevingne and Psy will come buy our fucking clothes. How can they, when we ourselves hold our art in such low regard.

Like fuck?

There's a ton of good Kenyan films, and a shitload more of Kenyan music that they are too lazy to look for. Since all our media stations too are just as obsessed with western art to properly promote ours. Like fuck? How will I buy your painting if you can't buy my Album. Like fuck?

I wish I could rant this shit to all my friends face to face but I promised to be less hostile and my social anxiety is on overdrive. But like fuck? Give Kenyan art a chance and maybe we can be a self reliant economy.

For Fuck's Sake!

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islamicrays · 4 years

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Top 10 Tips for Maximizing Your State During Quarantine:

1. Reconnect with the sajada.

The sajada is one of the greatest acts of devotion to God and the believer never tires of it, but rather delights in placing their face in the lowest position possible while praising the "Most High.”

Allah ﷻ commanded Iblis to make sajada to Adam (`alayhi salam), but he refused. In the Qur'an we have 14/15 places of sujood for sajadah at-tilawa. And the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in many hadith the virtue of the sajadah.

Ma'dan b. Talha reported: I met Thauban, the freed slave of God's Messenger, and asked him to tell me about an act for which, if I do it, God will admit me to Paradise, or I asked about the act which was loved most by God. He gave no reply. I again asked and he gave no reply. I asked him for the third time, and he said: I asked God's Messenger about that and he said: Make frequent prostrations before God, for you will not make one prostration without raising you a degree because of it, and removing a sin from you, because of it. Ma'dan said that then he met Abu al-Darda' and when he asked him, he received a reply similar to that given by Thauban.

In the second Hadith, Rabi'a b. Ka'b said: I was with God's Messenger one night and I brought him water and what he required. He said to me: Ask (anything you like). I said: I ask your company in Paradise. He (the Prophet) said: Or anything else besides it. I said: That is all (what I require). He said: Then help me to achieve this for you by devoting yourself often to prostration. (Sahih Muslim)

So stop rushing through it and start appreciating the gift of sajada and enjoying every second of it. Look forward to it and rejoice in the promise that your sins are being removed, your rank is being raised, and you will be promised the company of the Beloved ﷺ in Paradise!

2. Take inventory of your actions, limb by limb.

We know that our limbs will all speak against us on the Day of Judgement. Isn't it time to intervene and redress the wrongs we've all committed against ourselves? Why wait until that day to answer for everything we've done? Why not apologize to ourselves, limb by limb, body part by body part, NOW?

وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا فَعَلُوا فَاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ ذَكَرُوا اللَّهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَمَن يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَلَمْ يُصِرُّوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلُوا وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ - 3:135

"And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves [by transgression], remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins - and who can forgive sins except Allah ? - and [who] do not persist in what they have done while they know. (3:135)"

Sit with yourself, preferably after you've completed a prayer and find one limb or faculty to focus on and hold yourself accountable for all the wrongs you've used it for. For example, your tongue. Think about all the lies you've told, the foul words you've said, the gossip you've spread, the harsh and mean insults you've hurled at someone, the food/drink you ate that was haram or questionable, etc.

3. Think of the people you've hurt, and make sincere repentance to Allah ﷻ.

We've all hurt people in our lives before, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, etc.

Think about the tears you've ever caused someone. Think about the hearts you've ever broken. Think about the people you've denied. Think about the relationships you've cut off. Think about all of it and either make a physical list or a spiritual list where you go one by one and apologize sincerely before Allah ﷻ for whatever pain you've caused. This is NOT the time to defend yourself or justify your actions. This is the time for COMING CLEAN and making amends in this life before you are taken to task in the next life. Force yourself to admit what you've done to yourself and accept that you were a jerk, then ask Allah ﷻ to forgive you and to grant that person or person all the good in this life and the next.

4. Think of the money you've spent wastefully or the food/drink you've thrown away, or any other unnecessary excessive behavior and ask Allah ﷻ to forgive you. The Prophet ﷺ warned us:

“Allah does not like for you to waste wealth, nor ask many unnecessary questions, nor spread gossip.” (Musnad al Bazzar)

5. Make a vow to yourself and to your Lord and ask Him for strength so that you become more compassionate, more loving, more patient, more understanding, and LESS harsh, judgmental, critical, and cruel. Ask Him to soften your heart and heed the advice of the Beloved ﷺ who said:

“If you want to soften your heart, feed the poor and pat the head of the orphan.i.e, be kind.” (Musnad Ahmad)

P.S. Look into the work of GiveLight Foundation to do both!

6. Don't just eat clean, but listen clean and watch clean. In other words, stop watching filth and listening to garbage music. We've become a gluttonous society that indulges in every form of entertainment and base desire because we have more access to indulge our every whim and desire than ever before. The height of ignorance is being consumed with living and looking healthy on the outside for vanity's sake, but turning a blind eye to the damage we're causing to our spiritual hearts by all the garbage we consume.

The Beloved ﷺ told us:

“Verily, Allah has written for the son of Adam his portion of adultery which he will inevitably commit: the adultery of the eyes is a lustful look, the adultery of the tongue is lustful speech. The soul craves and yearns; the passions will affirm or deny.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

7. READ actual books and improve your literacy and communication skills. One of the greatest gifts that God has given the human being is the faculty of language and to understand things, but we've become a generation and a society that no longer reads and uses our intellect to its actual potential. It's time to turn off the Youtube and TikTok videos, and the never-ending stream of soundbites we get from all forms of digital communication, and actually READ, THINK, REFLECT, and PRAISE our Lord for the gifts that differentiate us from beasts and other creations.

“If Allah intends goodness for someone, he gives him understanding of the religion.” (Bukhari & Muslim)

8. Make dua'h for our scholars, past and present for their tireless service to preserving our deen and guiding us through difficult times. Sit with yourself for a few minutes and remember the teachers you've been impacted by the most and ponder on their lives and their humanity. Relate to them as humans who could have gone into any other field and profited from their brilliant intellects, but who chose the path of God instead because they understood the value of knowing this beautiful faith and teaching it to others. Make a renewed intention to show them the respect they deserve, to honor them for the purpose of honoring *the knowledge* they possess. Make the niyyah to help them if you can by supporting their works and sharing their teachings, or at the very least making du'ah for them.

The Beloved ﷺ taught us: “Whoever does not thank people has not thanked Allah.” (Abu Dawud)

9. Ask Allah ﷻ to give you the best ending from this world and actually sit with yourself and think about exactly what that means for YOU. Visualize it and BELIEVE with certainty that Your Lord will accept your most sincere wish as long as the degree with which you believe is strong with conviction. Remember the words of our Beloved ﷺ who said:

"What I fear most for my community is weakness of certainty." (Tabarani)

DO NOT be weak in your certainty with Allah ﷻ for everything else in creation is fleeting and illusory, but He is the Ultimate Reality and He is in the opinion of His servant, so THINK HIGH always of the MOST HIGH!

10. Start preparing your will. Seriously. Open up a document on your laptop or computer, or even in your Note folder or email draft. Just type. Write out who you want to wash you, where you want to be buried, who you want to distribute specific things to, how you want your kids to be raised, the qualities you want your spouse to consider in a future spouse, etc.

It doesn't have to be a formal document, although that would be ideal. Just write and get the ball rolling. If God forbid anything happens to you, at least you will have given your loved ones SOME direction on how to proceed without you. And something is better than nothing.

As I have said on multiple occasions, this time we've been given is a SPIRITUAL WINDFALL. We will likely NEVER in our lifetimes ever see an opportunity to TURN OUR LIVES around and change course.

Imagine yourself all these years headed down a perilous path but because it was shiny and so full of sparkly lights and distractions, you THOUGHT it was great. And then Allah ﷻ causes your car to spiral out of control and you are finally away from all the blinding lights and distractions and you can see that you were headed towards a cliff!!

He has just taken us off course, the choice is ours: do we go back on the bright and shiny street or choose a quieter, less busy, and more serene road that leads to somewhere truly SAFE?

May Allah ﷻ guide us and give us and help us come out as winners after all of this, not losers. Amin.

-Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi

#muslim #islamic quotes #pandemic #deen #islam #muslimah #ummah #quarantine

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nopanamaman · 5 years

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So what’s really up with those demon and angel characters?

I’m gonna say right off the bat - this isn’t an explanation of the song series I used these two for. In fact, the songs featuring these characters on their covers have surprisingly little to do with one another! I just liked the simple designs and drew them whenever it felt appropriate. I tried thinking of an actual story to tie them all together around the time I made The Heartwarming Story Of My Creation, but it was so messy and full of edge that I promptly scrapped it lol

HOWEVER!

These characters DO come from a short novel/comic idea I had way before starting vocaloid. It was a rather silly concept for a slice-of-life story, which could potentially evolve into something with an actual plot!

~So here it is~

It all takes place in a world where having a demonic servant is treated as the norm. In fact, not having a personal demon is considered weirder than having one! There are ads for various contracting agencies, different demon ratings, demons who specialize in different services etc., etc. It’s not uncommon for parents to bind their child’s soul to a demon as soon as the baby is born, though it’s often done a bit later in life (however, if you’re under 18, you can make a contract only with special permission from your guardian).

Since everyone and their mother has a being with reality-bending powers at their side, the servants have very strict limitations on what they can and can’t do. At base level the overwhelming majority of them boil down to being an extremely efficient houseworker - they are restricted to doing stuff like chores, buying things, helping with communication, keeping company, changing their own appearance to suit the customer’s tastes (a lot of people stick with the demon’s default monochrome-human-with-horns-and-tail form, though, since that’s what they’ve grown used to) changing the clients appearance (usually not to an unrecognizable degree), being a bodyguard, etc.

There are ways of lifting some of those limitations by binding more than one soul to a single demon (but the servant will continue to fully obey only one person). So the most powerful demons tend to be familial - those who have been passed on from parents to their children over the course of generations. The most influential people in the world have extremely strong familial demons.

Truly powerful familial demons are rare, because:

the parent may not have tied the child’s soul to the familial demon before dying

by the time most parents die, their children have already gotten a servant of their own

the child doesn’t want to accept the familial demon for personal reasons

Some people are hesitant or straight-up opposed to the idea of getting a servant, since, while demons never disclose any details about the process of soul consumption or, for that matter, anything about the afterlife, it’s widely understood to be hellish. The thing is, it’s unclear whether “happy” afterlife even exists - unlike demons, heavenly beings like god or angels or even ghosts do not manifest in the physical world. Some believe that there is no paradise at all, and the only two options for the soul after the body dies are being consumed by a demon and continuing its existence in that particular demon’s “hell” or simply disappearing. The lack of information about what really happens after death makes many people brush off the consequences of making a contract in favour of living a much more safe and comfortable life.

Like I said in the beginning, the comic was supposed to be a series of slice-of-life episodes involving a group of demon friends and their clients (with Kafka being the focus). I didn’t develop them that much, so their characters were pretty simple!

Since demons’ actual names are near impossible for humans to pronounce, they tend to settle for nicknames. They are primarily genderless, but usually present themselves as either male or female for convenience sake; they can change gender according to their client’s wishes. Like humans, every demon is an individual and, while their baseline powers are the same, depending on their heritage, talent and the way they use the souls they consume, their higher-tier abilities and battle styles may differ wildly. Generally it is considered rude to ask a demon what their higher abilities are - even good friends may not know the real extent of each other’s power.

Making contracts with humans and serving their clients for an entire lifetime to them is basically like a regular customer service-type job. Their moral beliefs are a bit different than those of humans, so, while humans can grow very attached to their servants, the demons themselves feel little to no remorse about consuming their clients’ souls. In a way it’s similar to how people treat farm animals. The animal can be cute and you may appreciate the times spent with it, but in the end you’re not going to be too torn up about eating it.

While demons live for a long time and technically do not require human souls to survive, consuming a human soul is the highest form of pleasure for them - not only does it boost and replenish their power, but also gives immense spiritual fulfillment. A demon living purely off of animal souls will always be much, much weaker than a demon who has eaten a single human soul over the course of the last 100 or so years.

Oh, but what about the angel girl?

Angels don’t manifest in the real world, right?

Right?

R I G H T ?

Right.

Levi was another important character (woah, shocking), second only to Kafka. They were a familial demon, who had been growing displeased with the way their client - the most recent heir - had been conducting his life. Kafka had a strange, vaguely hostile, but close relationship with Levi.

I had a few ideas about what I want do with the story, but it’s definitely not something I can fully dedicate myself to currently. Still, I think it’s a fun, kinda nonsensical concept that I’d like to use in the future. Or not!

At least now that I’ve thrown it out there

#the sheer size of this post #an absolute unit #i know i promised it a few days ago but come on #myart #scraps #idk how to tag this #demonverse #blog #obligatory homestuck joke #Kafka #Ron #Levi #levi your angle form #Levi yuor debil form #devi #void #beginner's guide to heresy #bgh

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laundryandtaxes · 4 years

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I appreciate that you engage with vegan arguments in good faith as a meat eater. I do think you're missing part of it, though. Re: meat as a "normal part of animal life", vegans would say that something being "natural" doesn't necessarily make it ethical. Many animals kill their young, rape, and cannibalize, which humans are against because we're capable of moral reasoning and aren't driven by pure instinct. We are animals, yes, but we experience life quite differently from other animals.

I think it's pretty presumptuous of the animal experience (especially when thinking about other mammals here) to assume that we experience the world in a terribly different way than most animals do- neither you nor I can know how animals experience the world, but I'd be surprised if a wolf killing a deer fawn never saw and noticed its visibly upset mother. I think every animal that hunts is aware that its prey would like to be alive rather than dead. But my point is not about the naturalness of the behavior, it's about the real lack of moral meaning in of the behavior of killing and consuming animals.

I think the ethical implication of a lot of arguments against the eating of animals is that, for instance, if a wolf could be made aware of the fact that it doesn't need meat to survive, the ethical thing for the wolf to do would be to stop killing and eating animals- it sounds silly, but I think the notion that we know better/differently just falls incredibly flat. Take the brown bear (commonly just called a Grizzly, an animal I really really love) for instance- for the majority of the year many of them straight up eat no meat without, to my knowledge, any consequence. In fact, the way that many brown bears eat salmon would be considered deeply unsportsmanlike by human anglers. Many rip the heads off to consume the fatty tissue of the head, brain, etc, and completely discard the carcasses.

Here is where I think my point is most clarified. I think that is acceptable behavior for brown bears, but not for us, because it is not the taking of animal life that concerns me at all. It is the taking of animal life for purposes other than self defense or for the enjoyment you get out of eating the animal. Even in that case perhaps I'm being hypocritical- the bear's enjoyment is clearly in eating the heads. For another instance, mountain lions are known to kill prey, hide them somewhere, and not even eat them. It would seem some animals do in fact kill more or less for fun, or to sharpen their skills for when they need to. Many whales are known to have these hour-long chases of prey animals where they maybe take a couple bites, just for the sake of teaching their young how to hunt. While I don't think these are acceptable behaviors for us, I don't find them to be morally wrong things for animals to do. Certainly I wouldn't consider taking your child hunting and taking only the loin off a deer to be acceptable. I think the common ethics of hunters around "waste" are there for us to feel good about our behavior, but I don't think theyre moral truths. I don't support killing animals you aren't going to eat or donate with the exception of pest and population control, such as in the case of wild hogs or coyotes. But to say that an animal that is killed and left to rot has been "wasted" is not really true to the animals that live in that ecosystem. Kill a deer and leave it, and surely a coyote will come along and eat to sustain himself for a while, and turkey vultures will have something to eat, along with bugs and fungi that thrive on decomposition. So the whole notion of waste is more about what we as hunters and humans feel justifies the taking of animal life, and nothing to do with morals, and frankly nothing to do with the wasting of life. So I'll use hog hunting as an example I've thought a lot about. Again, I don't think there is anything morally wrong with killing a hog and "letting it lie" for other animals to eat. But I really dislike and find the culture around hog hunting to he morally repugnant- a lot of guys get into it just because they want to kill a lot of stuff, and that bothers me. The pigs don't give a shit. And killing them is the correct thing to do- they wreak havoc on any ecosystem as invasive animals. So there is no moral wrong being committed here. It bothers me that some people just want to kill a bunch of stuff for no reason. This has to do with human motivation. The pigs don't give a shit. The animals that would feed on a pig carcass don't give a shit.

Where this comes full circle is that I think humans have very similarly nonsensical ideas about our place in the animal kingdom and our place as these really somehow special animals who just know better than other animals what is right and what is wrong, but the codes we do have are most often not really about ethics- the right and wrong here is entirely about our feelings, not actually whether it is right or wrong to take an action. Few people would find it acceptable to rip a pig apart limb from limb even if you were going to eat it, but that's how coyotes regularly hunt. My thinking is that, even if the coyote had some presence of mind that we are assuming he doesn't have (and I think it would be wildly incorrect for us to think that hunting animals don't know that prey animals want to continue to be alive) about the suffering of his prey, there would not really be any moral obligation for him to stop hunting. Morality is functionally how we make sense of and code interactions between people, how we regulate our own social systems, how it frankly makes us feel best and most just to live. None of this makes a difference to an animal that doesn't want to die. I just think the idea that humans are such different animals that we have this higher moral responsibility to other animals than any other animals is on its face kind of absurd. Because we live in societies where all of us rely on and, theoretically, value each other, there are certain things we do not do to other people because they violate some form of our basic human social contract- basic bodily autonomy in the case of sexual assault, the basic right to live free from undue physical harm in the case of child abuse, etc. I think the idea that morality is a thing that broadly exists among human and nonhuman animals alike is incorrect- it is our creation, and our set of rules. Maybe this will clear things up for you- it's not something I haven't considered and frankly it is not really easy to articulate fully what I'm trying to get at, especially at what is for me 7:21 am, but hopefully it gives you an idea of the kind of things knocking around in my head.

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katieusualthings · 4 years

Text

The reason why Kimetsu no Yaiba (KnY) is so well received by the Japanese (as such a remarkable phenomenon)

Written by Vũ trụ 一１９九

Translated by Meownie

Proofread by Alice

Everyone knows that just in a short time, KnY has almost occupied the spotlight in all fields, everyone talks about it, the number of sale in goods and comics is enormous, both of them are sold out, etc.

Following my own curiosity with this phenomenon, as well as my existent love for the original work of Kimetsu no Yaiba (the manga), I dug into this issue because, in Japan, every trend has its own root.

Taking aside all the numbers of sale or whatever, which have been analyzed by a lot of people, as I’m not a data person, I will look into the content, the storyline and the core of this phenomenon in reference to many sources and comments about KnY coming from people in this country.

Many of you say that KnY is only at an average level compared to the manga/anime general standard. Then let me tell you what the extraordinariness that an ordinary series can do.

Apparently, there are always conflicting opinions, the Japanese community is no exception. However, the pro-KnY still grows bigger and there is no sign of softening. And here are some positive comments for the success of this series.

1. The anime is excellent in graphics, sound effects, the plot details are neatly arranged, easy to understand and heart touching

Cannot ignore the fact that the anime has built up the KnY’s success. Ufotable made the anime so excellent, especially in terms of visual and sound. It makes the story more approachable and the audience more empathetic to it.

The anime is a contribution to KnY’s greatest success. But many seem to be mistaken that only thanks to the anime did KnY succeed like that?

If the anime succeeds, viewers will be more interested and curious about the main storyline, so they will try to read the original manga. But if the manga was a trashy series, they could stop buying/reading it and just wait for the anime, right? So what is the reason behind the boom in the KnY manga sales until the beginning of this year, and its rankings which are always in the top 3 of WSJ magazine?

Sometimes ago, I did a research and presentation about the anime/manga industry along with the cultural reforms that contributed to the revival of the Japanese economy after the war. In that research, there was a detailed analysis of the connection between the original manga and the anime adaptation as a yin-yang relationship. They are all for the sake of the original publisher and the animation studio, so one will complement the other.

Manga is a product which only attracts a certain group of people, it is not so popular since there are homemakers, young children, the elderly, and people who are not fond of reading, those who do not find manga interesting. But anime is more universal and extensive, as you know, Japanese families often buy a TV to watch the news or to entertain on weekends. The anime is only about hearing and watching, so anyone can access it. When a manga is adapted to an anime, it brings the original closer to the people, and furthermore, hopefully, make it to the big screen.

On the other hand, the original manga is the base, the soul of the work, so readers feel more excited when waiting for each chapter be published in the magazine, waiting for the changes to be re-compiled each time for a new volume. So the manga contributes to increasing a large number of consumers. Of course, buying DVD-BD is definitely more expensive than buying the volume.

As a result, success is mutual support between manga and anime. And making an anime warmly-received is not that easy, the good base of the manga should be credited and vice versa.

I will talk more about the content of the original in the second reason. But initially, it is necessary to distinguish: not all good originals are well-received and vice versa. Everything’s got its relative value, in which context and timing play a role.

2. The charisma of the protagonist, Tanjirou, a young boy trying to save his sister; With a warm-hearted characteristic, his story is not about “revenge” but “restoration”

11 over 10 people being asked, answered that KnY’s success comes from the main character. This is yet another compliment to the editor who directed the way for KnY, Katayama-san, for orienting to make a more gentle, kind Tanjirou, eliminating the brute in the original portray.

Firstly, it is appropriate in this day and age to have a main character who is kind and gentle, which replaces for the old MC portray, who was noisy, hot-tempered and “brainless”. Secondly, it suits the plot that Croc-sensei wants to shape, a story about a boy finding a way to help his sister to be human back, about family love and values. A character who is kind-hearted, with a loving and protective care towards his sister, is more suitable for the readers. On the other hand, the story which does not turn to revenge, but to the path of helping the younger sister to be back to normal and the main character with his sympathy for the tragic fate of the demons makes the readers/audience impressed and pleased and feel like they’re saved and soothed as well.

Tanjirou takes the crown not only because of his kindness but also the determination and strong will, as he does not forgive the crimes committed by the demons. Yes, he is surely sympathetic to them but they all have to pay for their guilt. Therefore, our main character is always consistent from the beginning to the latest chapter and that personality has never wavered.

Not to mention, there is an indispensable point in the MC of WSJ, that they all constantly try their best and do not deny what they are given.

Tanjirou carries all of those points of a MC of WSJ but still reaches many different types of audiences. Lots of mothers want their children to watch KnY so they can show more love towards their families and younger sisters like Tanjirou does.

That is the greatest success of the series. And that’s the reason why the media team take the slogan “Japan’s softest slaying demon story” to PR KnY successfully everywhere.

3. The next detail making the manga a big hit is the consistency in story theme, which is “family”

As everyone knows, the shounen mangas in general and ones in the WSJ, in particular, all discuss the solidarity. But there is a theme in KnY which reaches the audience more easily and widely: “family”. This is the affection that almost everyone can receive and understand.

The modern social situation of Japan, an Asian country, where even though family love is appreciated, the family warmth have gradually disappeared. Children who reach the age of independence and are out of a parent’s guardianship are able to easily leave the country, live independently and rarely return to visit their family. Here in Japan, the proportion of the elderly, late marriage and single people is increasing sharply. The rate of living alone now in Japan is very high and alarming. So a series about love for parents and siblings in the family is like warmth for this cold society.

From an old man’s POV who are living here: “I feel wholesome and nostalgic of the days I spent with my family, feel warm when watching KnY, and how Kamado siblings protect each other.”

The elderly do not pay attention to whatever trend is, they just watch TV basically to enjoy good work and support it.

The family theme is easy to empathize and to be delivered, so even the kids can watch and enjoy it with their mom. There are some POVs from some mothers, telling that their little kids love KnY and hoping they love their family just like the characters in the story do.

Although the context in the story is dark, the path of the story, the way expressing the theme of Croc-sensei is easy to understand, which brings in the light in the darkness and makes the number of readers become more diverse, makes the work more popular and universal.

Tbh, KnY is still very “bright” compared to many series in Japan, so a lot of children can approach this manga. Moreover, there are many cute characters and details in the story.

4. The gap between characters makes a unique way in Gotouge-sensei’s character creation

The Japanese love the interesting dynamic, and they define it as “the gap”. The more surprising gap a character has, the more popular that character is. Briefly, it is, “not judging the book by its cover”.

The first example is the character has the same or sometimes, more popularity over the MC in Japan, Zenitsu. They don’t usually like noisy guys, but because Zenitsu is a cool character and has an interesting gap, which attracts readers. Apart from his noisy, cheerful behaviour, he is a serious, thoughtful and experienced person who accepts pain and loss just like an adult.

Then there are countless characters with interesting gaps like Inosuke, Giyuu, and the Pillars. Crocs-sensei’s characters are not many, compared to a shounen series. But this is the mangaka’s intelligence to choose the strengths outshining the weakness. Although sensei does not create many characters, sensei has built the base for the character very well, for the impressive appearance of each one and makes the readers/audiences remember them deeply.

The proof of this success is that KnY goods are sold out with every character, from the most to least favourite.

5. The story is clearly set in the Taisho era, coming with its proportional design and architecture that makes the reader accessible

Taisho era is neither old nor new. The people witnessing the change in that era are still alive. But Taisho was the period of transition with the insecurities in the society. So the creation of a fantasy battle with the chaos between demons and people is extremely suitable for the Taisho era.

There are billions of reasons, like the previous parts, here would mention only main points. KnY is simply a normal series, but it is the ORDINARINESS that pulls out the EXTRAORDINARINESS and delivers those CLOSER to the readers. And this “extraordinariness” is not something that a so-normal series can do.

I love the welcoming spirit of the Japanese, they always appreciate new things, yet never forget to maintain and preserve the old ones.

Because it is a constant rule in development.

The same thing applies for the WSJ: increasing sales for the currently published series, at the same time discovering and boosting new titles. And the latter is more important than the former. But they still welcome new series that inherit such values in shounen genre, the magazine would develop the series open-heartedly if it is deserved.

I am also a fan of shounen and WSJ, I think KnY totally deserves the success it has achieved now.

I also hope it is kindly well-received because Kimetsu no Yaiba was made not to be a replacement, not to take any seats from any series. It is simply a shounen legacy in WSJ magazine. You would know that the spirit in shounen manga highly values this “inheritance” characteristic.

#Kimetsu no Yaiba #manga #anime #tanjirou kamado #kamado tanjirou #nezuko kamado #kamado nezuko #giyuu tomioka #tomioka giyuu #zenitsu agatsuma #agatsuma zenitsu #inosuke hashibira #hashibira inosuke

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sockori · 5 years

Text

oh god ryu’s rambling about ninjas again- quick, batten down the hatches

(Episode 1 Season 1: Sasori’s Transformation Interpretations + Brief Reason Why It’s Canonically Written This Way)

‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ a popular ‘headcanon’, or interpretation really, for Sasori I’ve seen pop up a couple of times is: his entire body is quite literally a corpse and not simply just his core. As we know, it’s essentially already been canonically confirmed that this isn’t the deal- but, we all love to disrespect canon rules completely, whether we admit it or not, so let’s roll with it: say we don’t know what Sasori is yet, other then that he isn’t necessarily human, so some propose he’s a human corpse, or another organic material. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, at least to me, so I tend to disagree with this whole idea. But I can see both sides of the situation on why people implement this overall change or interpretation.

Here’s one idea. I would like to believe that Sasori is not entirely impatient. Rather, he values his patience in relation to others much differently to how he views patience in means to his collection/craftsmanship. For example, spending little time on a co-worker, whether it be feelings, personality and wants, yet very much willing to spend large amounts of time with his puppets. And a thought that comes to mind is, well, that’s because of many factors (ex. Sasori hates the trivial matters of humanity, instead retreating to puppets who won’t argue with him, which is true), and make the point that they’re artworks not necessarily co-workers, which is also true, but I think this can also illustrate where Sasori’s channeling his overall energy to in the big picture- that being he’s focusing much more his work and himself. So where in the world am I dragging this whole almost off-topic mess to? And, right here, is my other hand on the matter.

Embalming (looking at the modern example of the Russian scientists who work(ed) on both the corpses of Vladimir Lenin and various North Korean leaders) is a tedious process that is, overall, time consuming. One body alone requires a whole slew of careful monitoring, regular re-embalming, and scheduled cleaning, which can go from many hours, to multiple days at a time. Realizing just how much work is inserted into fighting the grim reaper that is decomposition, one can imagine that Sasori has quite a lot of work on his hands already. If he constantly has to dedicate his focus to the preservation of multiple puppets at once on a regular basis, how would he have any time for his own body?

And, in an counterargument, the believer of the headcanon probably has this to say: what if his suspected ‘kinjutsu’ surrounding the creation of human puppets pretty much eliminates this whole process to begin with? such as, the chakra channeled into this technique possibly making the conversation of organic material a self-sustaining process- thus, no need to keep up with the whole collection (at least not incessantly) and, in turn, have more time to focus on their functionality as puppets. If that is the reason one would want to propose to fill the void of ‘famously ambiguous human puppetry’, then Sasori’s body can, indeed, perhaps be a preserved version of himself, and provide a reason as to how he can take care of his work.

However, there’s a whole side of the coin we haven’t flipped yet- and that’s the subjective purpose. The reason behind Sasori’s wanted transformation to mechanics- philosophically and psychologically. Why go through all the trouble with such a complex, complicated metamorphosis if one wants a quick, easy escape from weakness? Or, in much simpler terms, why even turn yourself into a puppet(-like form) to start? Based on all the inner tribulations with see with gross puppet man, here’s the potential/general reasons that we know (not all of them, but the most important).

For the sake of “Eternal Beauty”, or an artistic reason: that being to exist long into the future while still pertaining an ‘attractive’ physical form.

To bypass the process of decomposition, or to gain the ability to do the opposite (synthesize- be able to be re-assembled after deconstruction).

Potentially eliminate physical human processes altogether, such as eating, drinking, sleeping/resting, among other steps.

Eliminate weaknesses in combat, such as fatigue/pain, blood loss, being mortally wounded, or wounded altogether (at least, when you disregard getting stabbed in the core)- in relation to being rid of physical human processes.

To destroy emotional connections, such as ties to people or memories (big clue: eliminating the ability to literally grieve).

To hinder the control that emotions and feelings have over the mind; to tear down impulses; to level the physical sense of feeling.

The list, at a glance, seems to portray: Sasori has transformed to separate himself from the concept of humanity or a “mortal lifespan”- to create distance between him and the fragility and ‘weaknesses’ of organic life by, in a rebellious way, converting to an inorganic form.

It’s obvious that the puppeteer has had bad experiences with being a human being- anguish from death, lack of appreciation/affection, lack of encouraging stimuli, unsatisfactory higher authority, and mental disturbance due to all these factors. It would make sense for Sasori, in response, to generate quite a lot of distrust, if not all out hatred, for the concept of a human body, and to go against its principles (and to take it out on others, but the complications of that could be another post entirely). Looking at Sasori’s canon descriptions of himself, he very much emphasizes that his inorganic form and his organic part (the core) are two separate entities (” My heart… is just like this body…“ or his most famous “I am an unfinished puppet, whose lifeless frame still contains a beating heart at its core. I am neither dead, nor am I alive.“). I mean, seriously, in one of these situations, he looks down upon Sakura and Chiyo because they’re being human, describing helping each other as pointless, speaking of his inability to feel, such as the possibility of his grandmother’s death, as a higher-ranking trait in comparison. The divide is right there.

So, if THAT’S the case- why persist to be a preserved human life form and go against that goal entirely? If one believes Sasori thinks puppets are superior to human beings, and/or himself being superior to his puppets, wouldn’t it make more sense for him to push past merely being a hollowed out dead body, and further pursue being an actual puppet?- Not only for the emotional reasons, like the distance, but to emphasize his dominance over humanity itself by simply not being apart of it? Wouldn’t him being an inorganic form better portray his ability to manipulate mortality (being different from his human puppets)? Wasn’t all the effort he put into, canonically, for the attempt to push himself away from mortality as much as possible?

And THAT’S why I disagree with this concept.

So In conclusion, I think our puppet man staying a preserved corpse could work physically and scientifically, but not subjectively. The possibility is there, certainly, with the right factors, but the overall purpose of it is unreasonable, particularly to the definition of his role as an antagonist. With all Sasori’s personal opinions about preservation, eternity, puppetry, humanity, etc. I think him wanting to stay human would be pretty ‘ooc’ of him.

What I’m trying to say is, Sasori in canon right now- turning his body into an incomplete puppet, containing the ‘beating heart’ at its core- is incredibly crucial to his overall character. Very much symbolically. Again, keep in mind, Sasori does have organic life residing within him still- that already portrays the hypocrisy (or at least some form of oxymoron) of his beliefs and his actions. It does a phenomenal job of that alone, and should stay that way. ‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ ok ryu are you done yet

I just wrote this entire “rant but an analysis but an argument but also a rant analysis post” for no reason at all other then impulse and I hope and pray that an explanation about some skinny mannequin guy does not lead to any potential discourse within the much s̶u̶r̶p̶e̶r̶i̶o̶r̶ sophisticated sasori stan community cause i know some folks in the naruto world really can’t handle even the slightest disagreement

oh and there’s probably a lot of weird phrasing in this because i typed it all without thinking, so if there’s any inconsistencies i am sorry

yes I’m aware this is a Wendy’s drive thru

#queue drawer #sasori #i believe some come to this conclusion to correlate sasori with his human puppet process- (typically) portrayed to be preserved corpses #and yes i can confirm im one of those sasori stans who believes that the human puppet process and the sasori self-metamorphosis -#- are entirely different processes altogether #and due to that; sasori's puppet form is simply a variation of the human puppet process- or a fraction of it- not it in its entirety #in simpler terms: you've got the original process; and then there's the abridged version #and there's many reasons why i believe sasori would want himself to be different from his preserved organic counterparts #some obvious- some stated in this post- among others.#but yeah #we get it sock go home #sasori headcanons #(?)#⚠️ orochimaru do not interact ⚠️

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amityax · 4 years

Text

Exampletron: The Tutorial Character!

Name: Exampletron

Age: 100 Vorns (About 8,330 Earth years)

Place of Origin: Cybertron, Pious Pools, Middle District

Alignment: Lawful Good

Religion: Agnostic (Ironically, despite teaching classes on Religion, he’s never thought about it)

Gender: Male Leaning, He/Him, 3 on a binary scale of 1 to 10, 10 being female presenting and 1 being male presenting.

Altmode: Projector

Faction: Strongly Neutral

Defining Quote: “Teaching the next generation is the greatest privilege a bot could ask for.”

Physical Description: About 5 Meters Tall, Padded Shoulders, Blue paint with green accents, blue optics, and helm fins that have a paperclip-like pattern on them. They are built Lightly, but are not frail. Small in appearance, but not a mini-bot or a mini-con.

Outstanding Physical Features: They’ve got big feet, and they’ve got small, decorational kibble wings on their back.

Favorite Thing: History, Wooden Rulers (the texture is so… interesting!)

Least Favorite Thing: Exclusionary Policies, Bad Teachers

Inventory: Caries no weapons. Has at least one ruler and one extra hand-held clock at all times. Laminated samples of things. A puzzle cube. A Personal Data Pad and a Work Data Pad.

Functionalist Class: Delta, Disposable Class

Job: An Academy Teaching Assistant and Part-Time Unofficial Tutor For The Newly Forged

Stats: Strength: 2, Dexterity: 4, Constitution: 3, Intelligence: 8, Wisdom: 5, Charisma: 8

Skills/Proficiencies: Proficient in History, Religion, Investigation, Insight, and Performance. Has a vast information base of most teachable subjects. He is a very charming person, albeit mostly unintentionally. It’s why the Academy lets him get away with stuff. Proficient in being loved. :)

Weaknesses: Low Insight, Intimidation, Deception, Athletics. Not very strong, not very hardy. Could not hold himself in a fight. He’s not a pacifist, he just couldn’t conceive the idea of getting into a physical fight with anyone, and therefore has never thought about it. In the only thing he has situational insight into is the minds and emotions of students. Sympathetic and perceptive of their needs, but his low situational awareness of everything else combined with his sheltered nature (he was raised in Pious Academy, basically), leave him vulnerable to malicious manipulation and the danger he unknowingly puts himself in when he strives for lawful change.

Personality/Character Description: A kind, jovial, knowledge-loving bot. He loves to teach students, and constantly expresses his gladness when he is able to do so, even though he is often relegated to being a board projector for others. He wants to pass on knowledge from himself to the next generation, and has a fondness for history in particular. Wants to teach so badly, he often gets himself in trouble. He has a good mind, and tries to follow the rules as best he can, but when it came to keeping himself out of social/legal trouble, he had heart where he should have had brains. He has trouble keeping his cool when assisting bad teachers who either butcher the material and/or are cruel to students. Honestly, is a bit oblivious to the corrupted state of society, and is unaware of the danger he is in by semi-unknowingly defying the norm.

Outstanding Non-Physical Traits of Character: An Incredible Memory and love of learning. Definitely more so than your average person, or even your average teacher. Very kind, and prioritizes his students' welfare above all else.

Goals: Wants to become a teacher. Wants to teach a history class. Wants to improve his students’ quality of life by improving society as a whole. Also pushed for peaceful, legal educational reform on Cybertron. He wanted to make teacher credentials available to anyone who could pass certain tests instead of building people to be teachers and throwing them into a teaching/tutoring career whether they liked it or not. He also pushed for the creation of “On The Grid” classes, which are basically online classes that can be taken anywhere, and more importantly, by anyone (which for a functionalist government trying to limit which types of people could and could not receive and education, was quite a problem).

Accomplishments: He once taught a long-running Intro To Pre-History course before being outed. Had the highest success and proficiency scores of any other teacher in the school. He is very proud of the quality of his historical evidence and analysis. He can and will name several “students of his” who became very successful researcher/educators of their own; Daybreak, Vertical Shift, Imperial, Nautical… he set up a few “Grid Classes,” but they were taken down by the government after “potential terrorist sympathizers” began to access them.

Failures: He was “barred” from his unlicensed teaching after the government put pressure on the academy to be “up to code.” He was devastated. He never got the majority of his reforms pushed through, and not many people cared about his cause; either they were uninterested in change, or his concerns were to “niche.” He's terrified of letting his students down.

Backstory: He has worked at Pious Academy since it was open. He was literally sparked for his job. Serving as a projector for other teachers to display things on by day and scouring the library by night, he listened in on so many lectures, and knew the school so well, he became the formats expert on all things going on. He was inspired by one kind professor who only taught one year at the school before leaving to follow his heart and pass on his vast array of knowledge on to the next generation. His light and charming personality endeared him to the management staff, and allowed him to do additional work, despite his Disposable Class. There was one point where he was teaching classes on his own thanks to his vast array of data and his sheer seniority, until some spoiled prick of a student found out his Frame Type and tattled (*Cough* Sentinel). The Academy is now very careful to keep Exampletron on a leash, for fear of governmental retribution.

Character’s Opinion: Exampletron believes that he needs to do what it takes to get his right to teach back by changing the education system such that knowledge and learning have the most priority in a school setting, putting aside all Classism for it’s sake. He pushed for reforms, and patiently waits for his letters, inquiries, pamphlets, and essays to be reviewed and discussed upon (they never are, but he keeps trying). He’s not a “revolutionary” per say, he thinks everything he’s trying to get done is obvious to everyone, it’s just no one’s bothered to address it yet, is all.

Philosophy: The students, their education, and their quality of life is the most important thing. Hands down. Exampletron thinks that knowledge, history, literature, and culture is all beautiful, and that everyone should have the chance to appreciate it. Teaching is the most rewarding experience there is, and watching your students become better is and should be the goal, always.

Friends With: Several of the staff, administrators, and students of Pious Academy. Doesn’t know anyone else, really.

Platonically Dislikes: One student who always purposely spills oil on his Projector Form, even after Oil consumables were banned from the classroom. What’s with that guy, anyway?

Admires/Looks Up To: Alpha Trion. He’s never seen them in person (obviously), but he is All Over historical accounts of his actions and his records. (It's like having a crush on a historical figure, but that historical figure is still very much alive and it’s awkward as hell for everyone involved.)

Mentor To: Specifically, Hardlight, and aspiring writer in the Architecture History class he assists in. He tutors her on the down-low about the Quintesseons and Age of Wrath, as that’s where her book is set.

General Enemies With: The assistant dean, Whippersnap. They’re always cruel and mocking after one of Exampletron’s attempts to get change or teach a class on the sly goes awry.

Best Friend/Amica Endure: A teacher named Inquiry. They’re not Amica or anything, but they’re still really good friends. Inquiry always asks for Exampletron’s opinion during his geography class.

Romantic Interest: Again, it’s Inquiry. He’s just not sure how to bring it up…

Hate Crush: Uh,,, no one, really? He is Black Aromantic. He doesn’t enjoy hating people, really, but understands that others find this form of romance attractive and/or cathartic.

Arch Nemesis/Mortal Enemy: Trunchable from down the hall. She is THE WORST teacher OF ALL TIME. NO knowledge of subject matter, downright CRUEL to the students AND the other staff. She enjoys cruel and unusual punishment for even the smallest of slights. She once forced another teacher to eat an entire full-sized oil-cake in a teacher’s meeting for stealing her slice of cake from the work fridge, and the teacher got so sick they had to go to the hospital to get their tanks pumped. No one can tell her off or fire her because she’s the daughter of some high ranking official, and to make matters WORSE she teaches THE NEW FORGES. UGH!!!! He doesn’t like hating people, but she forces his platonic hand!

Peacemaker For: Many, many, many student pairs (and one teacher pair). Study groups can be quite challenging when you have to play Peacemaker for not one, not two, but four intensely Black-waxing couples all at the same time. That was a trying semester for Exampletron. The teacher pair is the only one he enjoys Peacekeeping. Young bots, as a rule, are hell to Mediate, even for Exampletron.

Peacemade By: Honeytrap, an assistant dean, mediates Exampletron and Trunchable, basically whenever they’re in the same room. It is a platonic Mediation, but so what? It’s the closest thing you can get with Exampletron.

Author’s Plans/Goals For Character: Exampletron tries to set up a Grid Class at the wrong time in the wrong place, and sends one to many letters to his local senator, and he gets placed on the Government’s long, long shit list. Ironically, Exampletron’s knowledge of history didn’t allow him to realize it was repeating itself, nor save him of his corrupt overlords and the lengths they would go to keep their power. At the end of the Golden Age, during the terror and confusion of the Dreaded Rust Plague, Exampletron, among many other political dissenters of the Prime, both private citizens and public politicians, are kidnapped from their homes and forced through space bridges en-mass to random colony locations. And then, to quarantine off the planet, Sentinel makes the decision to permanently deactivate the space bridges. What timing, amiright? Exampletron lands on Caminus and not one of the infected colonies, thankfully. He didn’t achieve his goal of reforming Cybertron’s education system, but at least the Camiens let him get a job as a history teacher the way he always wanted! He still misses his old students, though (and Inquiry).

#transformers #oc #idw transformers #character sheet #does anyone have a good name for a transformers version of a hate-romance relationship?#because I've come up dry #I think I like Peacemaker or Mediation for the grey quadrant tho #here's the example i promised

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nigelgodrichproducer · 4 years

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Nigel Q&A in The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/live/2020/feb/21/nigel-godrich-webchat-ultraista-radiohead-producer

Nigel did a very nice Q&A for The Guardian. Reproduced here for posterity’s sake:

Q: I saw Atoms for Peace at the Roundhouse [in London]. The lot of you seemed exceptionally into it. How much of a thrill was it to play with Flea? He seemed totally lost in the gig at points. I think Flea is one of the greatest human beings I've ever had the good fortune to spend time with, let alone make music with. He's such a generous player and probably my most rock'n'roll moment is standing on stage staring at his face 6 inches from mine, or when he jumps up on my riser. Massive respect to that guy, and you should read his book. Q: Nowadays, I’m asked to master tracks for Instagram and Spotify as opposed to vinyl and CD. What’s your view about how streaming has affected everything? – John Davis, Metropolis Mastering That's what my book's going to be about... Q: How do you use intuition as a tool in your productions and how do you know when something you are working on is finished? You mentioned Talk Talk and Mark Hollis – he stopped when he thought he could not add anything new. Can you imagine yourself doing something entirely different? Definitely. And it has crossed my mind many times - working more in visuals, videos, even film. But these days the hard thing is finding the time, when you keep getting sucked into exciting things you want to do, and can do. I could definitely write a book and I've enjoyed doing stuff on radio. Q: Is there any track from any artist you’ve worked with that you are particularly proud of? Something that brings back great memories when you listen to it? Sure! How about Diamond Bollocks from Beck's Mutations? Which was just the studio equivalent of sitting in a hot tub drinking champagne with a bunch of your best mates, and two days very well spent I would say. I'll always enjoy listening back to that sonic postcard. Q: Pavement’s Terror Twilight is one of my favourite albums and sounds incredible. But the band broke up soon after it was released and I understand that relationships were strained. Did you enjoy producing that album, and how do you think it holds up to the rest of your work? Yes I love that record actually, it's one of my favourites and I enjoyed making it immensely. It was such an adventure to fly off to America to make a record with people I hadn't met. Maybe there were some internal politics, as there are in any band, but I made friend forever in Stephen and I think I performed my role well: my idea was to make something that stood up straighter and felt like it might reach people who were turned off by the beautiful sloppiness of other Pavement records. I just thought they were such a good band and wanted them to reach a bigger audience. The writing may have been on the wall even before I got there, but I don't think I had any part of that, and I heard they're getting back to play shows, so there's always a happy ending, right? Q: Any chance of another Basement session? I would love to and plan to do more from the basement. Watch some space somewhere, but it was such an enjoyable thing to do and I look back on it as a great archive of those times. For sure it will happen. Q: Where did the artwork for the new Ultraísta album come from? Part of the fun of doing this album with Laura and Joey is the creative elements of all the stuff that isn't music. So for example we do all our own artwork and videos, and the cover is a photo I took of Laura inspired by one of my favourite photographers, Gjon Mili, a Hungarian-American photographer. We also made a lot of video content which is bleeding out into the universe slowly and relates to the album and its theme of colours, and also includes a lot of footage from the London Underground which is a particular obsession of mine. I'm great at dinner parties. Q: How hard is it making an album? How hard is a piece of string? It totally depends on a million factors. The imperative nature of your delivery date, or maybe just whimsical noodlings that can continue for some time. Or it can be really very hard, and you have to coax people who are struggling through a very difficult process. I feel like I've had every version of this. And it can be quite leisurely, eg the Ultraista record, which was what I would call a country club style social bonanza. We could take our time and work on it when we had time, and even though the challenges were there, it was actually quite natural and easy. Q: What do you listen to as you’re trying to fall asleep? I cannot fall asleep with any music playing, at all. I cannot have sex with any music playing at all. I cannot do any other activity, as my brain just tunes into it involuntarily and I'm rendered incapacitated. Q: How much Marmite do you consume? A daily teaspoon. Q: You seem to shy away from technical-oriented discussions. Any reasons for doing so? A lot of bands have noted how quickly you work and that you’re not too precious about the recording process, yet the final result comes off as meticulous. Do you have any insight into how to move fast and capture the energy of the moment? Do you organise the studio and control room in a way that is responsive to any creative situation? The reason is because I think people attach too much weight to equipment and studio trickery when the reality is I consider the most important part of making records is about musical sensibility and communication with those involved, and the notes, and the words. I get very annoyed with people asking me what my favourite microphone is. It doesn't matter. These days I don't even use the expensive ones. One of the reasons why music has become generally worse, and I'm sorry to say that, is that people think about technology more than the actual music they're making. So sue me. To your second question, see the above answer! The recording process is best when fast, because it's then the smallest obstacle to the actual music. That doesn't mean the end result shouldn't be absolutely meticulous and pored over for hours and reconsidered and reframed and sat in different places, whatever, but how far you keep you kick drum from the mic really doesn't matter. Q: Those of us who shelled out for the deluxe edition of A Moon Shaped Pool also received a small length of half-inch tape alleged to have been retrieved from actual Radiohead sessions dating back to Kid A. Were any lost and unreleased gems included as part of this Willy Wonka-like scavenger hunt, or is my piece of tape likely to contain something disappointing, like Colin Greenwood practising a bass run? This is absolutely true. I was staring at mountains of half inch tape reels from the Kid A sessions and felt sad because they were all very soon going to be unplayable useless bits of plastic that would just contaminate the environment. And thought it would maybe be better to send them off to some people who would appreciate them, so as part of the packaging with Stanley Donwood, we realised we have enough tape to wrap each special edition with a small length of it. On each tape is part of an outtake, alternative mix, instrumental, something that would have been thrown away when it became unplayable. It just felt poetic to send it out into the universe. Unfortunately I don't think people truly understand what they have... Q: What was it like working with Roger Waters? Did you consciously avoid “big guitar solos” to negate it sounding like David Gilmour/Pink Floyd. Roger is a fascinating character, really a genius. The whole experience was incredible, being able to watch this guy thinking his way around things, particularly with words and motifs and conceptual ideas. Again one of my rules in that case was there would be no big guitar solos - in the same way as the McCartney thing, I was interested in another musician, and wanted to hear him speak, and hear his musicality. As the usual formula with his solo work seems to be to find some soundalike, and use that Guitar Hero equation, which I feel is lame. So the decision was to use orchestration as a musical foil to the beauty of his simplicity and songwriting which would keep the light and focus on the words he was writing. And keep the focus of the whole work simpler. Q: I would imagine that very few people question Paul McCartney’s methods in the studio. How difficult (or not) was it to say to him, “How about doing it this way?” during the making of Chaos and Creation in the Backyard? Well, that was the entire point! Like I mentioned before, he called me, so I was able to dictate my terms, so to speak. My general appraisal was that I was more interested in him rather than the people around him, so persuading him to play everything was part of the "method" that allowed us to move forward with this work. That worked very well. His charm as a musician is astronomic and undeniable, he's a very intelligent musical person. He was very brave and put up with a lot of crap from me - he could have told me to fuck off at any point, but he really met in the middle to see this experiment through, and I left with even more respect for him than when I went in. Q: Really curious if you like classical music, and if so which pieces? Would you consider doing Big Ears festival [in Tennessee]? Yes, I would not claim to be an aficionado in any respect, but I'm a big fan of Debussy's Preludes, and one of my favourite pieces of music is his Arabesque No 1. I also love Prokofiev in general, and Erik Satie's Gymnopedies really get me going on a Sunday. Q: Is it true that much of The King of Limbs was recorded with the software Max/MSP? If it is true, how much of a hand did you have in programming and using Max/MSP? Jonny Greenwood seems to have taken all the credit … This is basically bollocks. I went to a dinner party 15 years ago and sat next to a Stanford grad who told me about this software, Max/MSP, and took it back to Johnny. He's used it on and off on lots of things, as have I. King of Limbs is made up of everyone throwing pieces of audio together - Johnny used Max/MSP in that case to link up a turnable via a piece of software called Miss Pinky. The result was a huge and gigantic mess that took me about a year and a half to unravel, and then Thom wrote over the top. So there you have it. Q: Thank you for your inspiring work! Do you have a favourite Joni Mitchell album? Joni Mitchell is my favourite human artist of all time, she is incredible. I have to give you a top three. 1. Hejira 2. The Hissing of Summer Lawns 3. For the Roses But would say all of her output between Blue and Mingus is untouchable. She is a unique combination of musical and lyrical talent. She's pretty much the only person I find can write a narrative lyrically that can remain poetic but articulating, communicating, beyond the abstract; it's very specific and very beautiful. And as a musician she dug deep into so many vats of folk and jazz, still managing to spin her incredible voice into the mix. Q: Created an account just for this. I’m a human person who enjoys audio production and engineering a lot. I’m quite shy when it comes to working with other interesting music folk, mainly down to the fact I have no idea how to write a melody. I love sounds and atmospheres, making things sound full and all that great stuff. The question I’m really getting at is: when was the first time you knew you could do this? Did that moment happen at all? And how has your relationship to music evolved? Bit of a belter of a question, but you asked for this so I don’t feel bad. I think I realised, retrospectively, that from an early age I had a fascination for recording. My dad worked at the BBC as a sound man and as a child I was surrounded by the tools of his trade so I always watched enviously and wanted to play with things. When I was very young I asked for a machine to make records, like really young, and he told me in his calm wise way: no I couldn't. But he bought me a cassette machine, so I could go around and record things: the TV, the train set, running water, things that sounded interesting when they were played back. I always aspired when I started recording music in studios, I tried to emulate my heroes, like the Trevor Horns, but found what worked best was going with the things I could do well which were an organic-ness to sound, rather than a clinical shinyness, which I loved to listen to. Making a dark brown soup was more my skill, that making a big fairy cake. I was wise to go with the things I was good at - isn't that the art of life? Q: What compels you to commit to a project? Is it a different circumstance each time? Can you please produce Keane’s next album? Tom Chaplin is a fan, I’m sure you know! Yes definitely, every project is different, but I would say I'm very wary of people's preconceptions and expectations, and generally my first question to them is: what do you think I'm going to do? Just so they don't have some idea that I'm going to repeat something I've done before or make them sound like someone else I've worked with. Generally I can make a fair appraisal of whether I have something valuable to contribute and will generally like what we can do together. I'm not under any illusion that I can improve someone I'm already a fan of so I never approach anyone – they have to ask me. Q: Are you a night owl? If so, how do you deal with society’s preference for early birds? Do you suffer from insomnia? Hell yes. Nothing great happens before dinner. I have always been like this, I have always leapt out of my bunk bed as a child at 3am to run across and start building something out of a piece of wood, or do a drawing- all creativity happens in my brain at night. I deal with the unfair preference of early birds in society by having chosen a career whereby I get to dictate my hours. I wouldn't dream of starting a working day before lunchtime. Producers start flowing over coffees at dinnertime. I like the isolation at night - there's no background noise, and you can really focus. And also night, it's has a dark cloak of melancholy which makes you connect to something inside, in a way you can't do when the sun is shining. Daytimes are for nice walks in the park - nighttimes are for sitting alone at a laptop. Q: What state are the songs in when you start working with an artist? What is the variant that most changes in the production process? Structure, aesthetics, sound? Love from Argentina! Every single version of the process is different. Sometimes you have everything completely written; siometimes it's a case of building a song from a fragment of audio that's created abstractly, which is the case with Thom's solo work and a lot of Radiohead work. Even if a song is finished you can still improve it with editing and working out what it's strengths and weaknesses are. And also how to present it as an orchestration, or sonically if there's a trick you can use to make it pull you in. I like all versions of this, because they use different parts of your brain, but sometimes it's great to be given amazing songs and a blank slate to make them happen - that hasn't happened for a while! :-) Q: You’ve worked with countless musicians. Do you adapt to their work process, do you propose a process, or is it an exchange? And with Ultraísta, specifically, did you have the same process with the second album [Sister, out in March] as with the first? Did all the time in between the two influence the way you produced an album together? Can’t wait to listen to Sister! There are no rules to methodology, in fact the skill is creating a new method each time that will generate work which will generate output, which then becomes the work. Every time you start with a band that's two guitars, bass and drums you hit the same brick wall, and it's my job to think of a quick fun way to kick the ball out of the pitch, and remain focused enough to catch it when it gets thrown back in again. With Ultraista, what started as an exercise in wordplay and groove construction on the first record this time has become a more refined process and in an effort to make more song like structures. We are all indeed different people from when we made the first things and we're amused by different things, so thus the goalposts move - to keep the metaphor going - and the method changes. Q: Which producers and which records inspired you as a young would-be producer? As a kid, I was obsessed with Regatta de Blanc by the Police, and saw it was produced by Nigel Gray. A lightbulb went off that there was someone called Nigel doing this stuff. In terms of influences, there are ones with mythological status, like George Martin, or Trevor Horn, both of whose work I absolutely love for different reasons. Martin for his inventiveness and creative approach to the technology of the day, ie the new possibilities of multitrack tape, and the use of visual devices like sound effects. Trevor Horn for his obtuseness and skill as making artful pop music using, again, the tech of the day. Which could make bend and shape things to become bigger than real life and make the brain do somersaults. And then more direct practical influences on me such as the people who actually taught me, including Phil Thornalley, John Leckie, Steve Lillywhite, and others. These are people I watched directly and emulated. Q: What is your feeling/relationship with failure? Don’t mean to be a downer, just curious to learn about your journey when overcoming failure. This is a very good question. It also depends on where you're standing. A lot of things could have been better or were small failures, small battles in a larger war. You regard as part of the process moving forward what the end goal is you're trying to succeed. I wouldn't regard any of my work as massive successes as they're all attempts to achieve the unachievable. However, if you're referring to something like the Strokes episode, it wasn't a failure, neither of us walked away hurt from that experience. It was just fascinating. And everything else has been successful, hasn't it?? Q: It’s been a year since the great Mark Hollis passed away. How much of an influence were/are Talk Talk on the Radiohead sound and your work with the band as producer? For me, personally, I was a massive Talk Talk fan and I used to listen to those records endlessly, certainly Laughing Stock and Spirit of Eden. I think they were again things that really plugged into your feelings - our version of a classical symphony that you would start and listen through to the end. Q: Which album has the best atmosphere in its production? I can never get over how rich and ghostly Time Out of Mind by Bob Dylan and Daniel Lanois is. Every record is different and you feel different about every record as time passes, but I think In Rainbows is very evocative due to hte space we recorded it in. All the ambience on that record is real, it comes from the house we recorded it in, so that conjures up a very visual image for me when I think of that record. Also Beck's Sea Change is a very emotional record, evocative, which somehow crystallised perfectly sonically to me, and if I hear any part of it it takes me back to that time. Which I regard as a job well done. It's a conduit to your feelings, which is a goal, it's what you're trying to do. Q: When you’re making a record, do you try to listen to as much other music as possible to spark ideas? Or do you do the opposite – try and isolate any external music to not get thrown off what you set out to make? When I'm working on a project I don't listen to anything else, it's not out of choice, I'm just compelled to be focused on what I'm thinking about, and it stays with me when I leave the studio. I literally don't want to hear anyone else's music!

#nigel godrich #radiohead #beck #ultraista #roger waters #pink floyd #paul mccartney #the beatles #record production

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