#NF is so insanely talented
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hello hello fellow lovely and talented artist that I happened to be mutuals with, can I learn more about your ocs? /nf they look so skrunkly and precious snndndndndndnrkelsofk /pos
HI HELLO!!! first off let me say that you’re so sweet wtf?? thank youuu gah i love my sillies and im honestly honored people want to hear abt them c:
second, sorry this took so long to answer hehe i wanted to post ref sheets for my characters and i realized i. dont have them. SO i had to doodle em up hehe
OKAYYYY first on the docket is wynn!
she’s my cleric in @locke-n-k3y’s campaign and she is pathetic <3. she has never stepped on a crunchy leaf and she just wants to Go Home. i can’t say much more cause of plot spoilers (glares at my other moots in the campaign /lh) but mayhap i will flood ur dms!
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next is my character from my first ever campaign and her armpiece boyfriend! hehe
so fun fact they both hold titles: queen and bishop respectively, because the campaign took place in a demon’s chess game!! it was super fun hehe and max was originally an npc from leonora’s backstory BUT my dm brought him into the campaign proper and then i stole his character sheet so he’s MINE NOW.
leonora is actually the niece of the BBEG and her father was the patron of our party’s warlock! so some fun family dynamics there. max is rumored to be an insane necrophile because leonora is legally dead! fun!! and there’s a whole lot of backstory stuff i bombarded @thedndgoblinwholivesinyourwalls with hehe so they’re linked here, here, and here.
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next are some characters i love dearly but haven’t posted about much! starting with lorelei
…whose character playlist is 80% carrie underwood. if that gives you any indication of her vibes hehe. rambunctious child to a pious, uptight family, lorelei is off to discover herself and prove herself out of SPITE!! she’s a college of chance bard to be specific and she’s kind of just here for a good time not for a long time. also i accidentally made it canon that she has in fact fucked a dragon.
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and finishing off the roster of characters i’ve finished refs for: casimir (and his daughter veda!!)
so casimir is a necromancer whose wife left him after he was Consumed By The Horrors!! but his daughter stuck around and accidentally saw some stuff she wasn’t supposed to see, so his mentor had her killed as a way to teach casimir his place so to speak. he intended to give up his studies but then her ghost started appearing to him, and now it’s almost like she never left! also he is very much drowned cat in the dumpster energy as well. i love him dearly.
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i have some more characters but i didn’t get a chance to draw refs for them but i’ll sum them up briefly!!
j. “backfire” hicks is a pact of the trigger warlock who is quite literally just jimmy from the young riders but with magic guns instead of real ones lol. slightly altered backstory but not by much
and i have another warlock named derowyn, whose info is here! loosely based on the woodsman from over the garden wall, but a satyr whose brothers soul is in the lantern and if she tries to back out of the deal THEY becomes a tree hehe
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AAAH THAT WAS SO LONG SORRYYYYYY but i love getting able to talk about my sillies :D thank you for letting me infodump hehe
#sorry my eyes rolled back in my head and now im blorboposting to an insane degree#also sorry to those of you who got tagged i just. i felt compelled#ask#koymoa#dnd#my ocs#my art#lousy tippers
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The New NF album is just like
I have hope. I have demons that i still struggle with. Im gonna do better for my kid. I won't be lost forever.. I HATE hollywood and the insanity that comes with fame. Mama I love you and I miss you and I forgive you and I wonder if you are in heaven🥺 ... I wonder who I will be when I am finally happy. OH AND BTW You rappers are PATHETIC trash and laaaammmmmeee. No one can tell me what to do because I actually owe this success to God and to my talent. This album is so different!! I gotta get back to my faith and talk to God more!!! I'm learning to forgive people in the past. I know I'm not perfect I have so many issues and I need so much grace. But WORKING HARD AND RAPPING AINT ONE OF EM. I don't follow trends, I set them. Forget this imposter syndrome I feel, I know I deserve this. (I am so blessed and grateful. I remember being poor. Charity is DOPE.) I'm hoping you're out there getting happier too, and I'm sorry about how it ended, but it was for the best. All these people out here hate me and aint know nothing. I don't have to say it, but don't mess with my family. Also you already know... IF YOU AINT MY WIFE THERE IS NO WAY YOUR KID IS MINE, MY DNA PROVES I LOVE MY WIFE. Also here's a song telling my wife how amazing she is and how I don't deserve to look upon her beauty. 😍 ALSO I will say it again... I WILL DIE FOR MY FAMILY. I hate myself, but I HATE MATERIALISM MORE. HOLLYWOOD ELITES AND EXECS CAN STEP OFF. I'm not doing THOSE COLLABS YOU WANTED. My past is difficult, and it shaped me in painful ways, but it was able to make me a stronger person... I'm telling that past goodbye and learning to love myself. 😭😭😭😭
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hi!!
going off of what you recently said about being asked about music, I’m going to ask you about music! I love discovering new music so who are your top artists and your top songs?? either currently or all time
HI I'M SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW THANK YOUUU
Okayokayokay I'm calm I promise :)
My favorite band of all time is linkin park, and honestly they always will be. Now I'm sure everyone knows all of their popular songs, but I'm going to go ahead and recommend a criminally underrated album of theirs, which is A Thousand Suns.
Now even though LP is my favorite band they obviously have not been active since 2017, so I'm going to also talk about my favorite band that's still currently active, and my second favorite band of all time. Shinedown!
If you're wondering just how much I love this band, I am about to see them for the fourth time at the end of the month! They are honestly so good live so if you're into rock music and looking for a damn good concert experience, I highly recommend catching one of their shows!
I know the lone star (and og) fandom is at least somewhat aware of them because whoever chooses music for these shows does not know how to miss 😊 and the song they used in the second episode of lone star, how did you love, is one of my favorite songs by them. I literally got so excited when it started playing and started singing along. A very memorable moment for me while watching this show! (I also have a shinedown shirt with the lyrics "every day is do or die" on the back...I promise I am normal about this band 😂)
fun fact: if you've seen me lurking around on my main, leave-a-whisper, that is a reference to their first album! I also reccomend the Sound of Madness album. These two are their two best albums in my opinion!
there are so many bands I could mention so I'm just going to mention a few more quick ones so that this doesn't become an essay. I also have last.fm if you want to take a look any bands I don't mention here, cause there's a lot!
Speed run under the cut! Trying to keep this at a reasonable length here 😂
Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin, I grew up listening to these bands! middle school harley practically lived and breathed one-x and phobia.
Halestorm, one of my favorite bands with a female lead. Lzzy's vocals are fucking insane and the music is extremely fun and empowering.
Speaking of amazing female leads, if you're looking for some metal (or just curious about getting into the genre) I really love Jinjer. They are insane live and Tati is a phenomenal vocalist.
I also dabble in prog music. I pretty much grew up listening to bands like Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree. Insane talent in both of these bands. One album I really love and reccomend is Deadwing by Porcupine Tree.
O.A.R, my childhood. My parents introduced me to this band when I was very young and I have loved their music ever since. I can't really compare them to anyone else, but I reccomend listening to songs like heaven and love and memories. Those are a couple of my faves!
I don't really listen to much rap music, but NF is a massive exception. His lyrics are always amazing and the music is just really fun, sometimes really angsty.
Bad Omens, Dayseeker and I Prevail are some good metal bands to get into if it's usually not a genre you'd enjoy. Amazing vocals.
Album recs!
I have been listening to To Be Everywhere is To Be Nowhere by Thrice. It's an amazing album. My favorite song off of it is Hurricane.
My favorite album that came out last year is Spirits by Nothing More.
My favorite albums that came out this year are Take Me Back To Eden by Sleep Token and Dead Club City by Nothing But Thieves.
Finally, some song recs!!!
Atlantic - Sleep Token
Satellites - Periphery
Higher Place - Malevolence
Familiar Taste of Poison - Halestorm
Mourning Song - Holding Absence
The Red - Chevelle
Tears Don't Fall - Bullet For My Valentine
Breaking My Bones - Friday Pilots Club
Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away) - Deftones
Dying is Absolutely Safe - Architects
One More Light - Linkin Park
Death By Rock And Roll - The Pretty Reckless
I could mention sooooo much more but this is definitely enough for now. As you can see my music taste is very rock and metal heavy and I know that's not everyone's thing, but if you're unsure then definitely give some of these bands a try!
#I've peaked at the setlist for shinedown's show and it seems theh wont be plahing how did you love#but if they do...I will definitely get it on video for y'all#I can also do specific song recs for shinedown because they have so many amazing songs that it would have to be a separate post#also brent smith is truly an incredible vocalist#the things he did with simple man are just so creative and made it so much better than the original#asks#harley talks music
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please write a ramble abt how fucked up roguefort is /nf
Ong . On it boss. Salutes
i love playing around with the concept that they have two faces: phantom bleu and their secret identity (who i just call roquefort). we know that phantom bleu is all an act because 1) i mean it makes sense nobody can just Live like that 24/7 but MRE IMPROTTNTLU 2) we see little bits and pieces of them through their little Urk! s and the time where waljut is like HEY REVEAL YOUR TRUE IDENTITY like Girl. tthe little hints to their lore and. Oua
none of this is confirmed its more just my fanon interpretation of them but Girl they are so fucked up . I have a whole timeline built for them of like how phantom bleu came to be and stuff but i dont wanna talk about it here because i wanna turn it into a comic/animation and let people theorize before i talk abt it HZBZKSB BUT LIKE. Girl. Theyve always had shit self confidence (probably their shitty parents are to blame for that) but after phantom bleu came along it got so much worse. probably the only reason why theyre Actually in a decent state of physical health is because they need to be able to do their heists . cause otherwise theyd probably neglect themself (either because they dont want to care for themself or they forget to do things). theyve put phantom bleu on such a pedestal, the only way that people will actually love them, that they think their own life is Meaningless
like. god. This fake character theyve created, this one big play theyve put on, people actually love them for it. and girl theyre dying to have that attention. as time passes they love roguefort cookie more and more, at the same time despising themself. what good are they? theyre useless. they take up space in their cousin cheesecakes mansion. they dont even pay rent (well not through actual money) they just take up space. they dont have an actual job. they dont have friends, cheesecake is their only real family (their other family being a grumpy cat and a sentient cape L)
they hate themself soo much its insane . they avoid getting too close to people for the pure reason that if someone finds out what theyre really like then everything is over. the mystery is all gone, theyre revealed to be a lazy good for nothing waste of space whos only good at playing pretend and watching lala land. thats what scares them the most, out of everything else. thats what keeps them up at night. so they close themself off ! avoid giving out personal information, hide every emotion with a mischievous smirk.
during phantom raven theyre at their highest (and at the same time close to their lowest.) they love roguefort cookie because everyone else loves them, and hating roquefort because nobody loves them. and then eventually realize . this is not love! nobody really loves them. theyre getting attention for the character they play, and that will never change. theyll forever be a nobody, recognized only for their talent, never for who they are.
then after their watch is auctioned off, they snap. they cant crawl out of this hole theyve dug, but maybe if they dig deeper theyll reach the other side? their only goal is to turn back time, back to before their family died, so maybe they can please them this time and theyll have someone to love them (Their parents are assholes btw theyll nevr be satisfied with roque)
roquefort is a puppet. theyve created a monster thats come to life, and its taken over their body. they could stop at any time, of course, but that means theyd be losing their only source of attention. so they keep doing it, even if it feels more like a chore at this point because They just dont know what else to do theyve lost control and phantom bleu is too big of a name to stop now
but i give them a happy ending in my fanon becquse i would Cry every time i think about them otherwise HZVZKHWF
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Okok another ask. I’m sorry! /lh
Your fanfic, “I am weary with contending!” and the thoughts and details behind it have been playing in my head over and over the last few days. (Im obsessed, in a good way!)
Any advice to get better at plotting, characterization, pacing and execution of details? Currently writing my own fanfic and I am struggling to execute my characters/pacing/plot in a way that I want. /nf
Hi! I'm so happy to hear that you like it :D!
My honest advice? One of the best ways to get better at writing is to read. Not just other fics, but published books as well. Try picking up something you're interested in, or something that has the tone of the story that you're looking for, and see how the author writes it, and get inspired by the way they might describe things. Pay close attention to how their characters interact with each other, or pay attention to how slow/fast they pace their stories. I know my writing has Massively improved since I've started reading books outside of fics on a more regular basis. And right now, I'm reading a really well written book (House of Leaves) and even though I'm not finished reading it, I know that it's been influencing small bits of my writing for the chapter that's coming up!
Reading books I like has also made me very motivated to write as well :]
As for all of the technicalities, it all mostly comes down to outlines for me. I love writing the actual chapters themselves, but behind every chapter is a Heavily detailed outline. I have very brief chapter summaries plotted out (which I keep having to update, lol), and I have more detailed outlines for every chapter coming up- but whenever I get stuck, and find myself in a roadblock, I love sitting down and writing about the characters themselves. Even if its something small, like their name or their age, or something big, like their past (which could heavily influence their decisions made in the future) or their specific feelings towards the other characters. It really helps me to write it when I have it all laid out in front of me. It also helps with execution of details, if you have those details marked down, and you can plan for having those specific details shown in scenes throughout your story. As long as you can look at a situation, and know what your character would do if they were thrown into it, it should be fine. (Also, having it all laid out should make it easier to see what you do and don't want to keep, or if you might just need to switch a couple scenes around to help the story flow better. I used to not write outlines at all with fics, and went with the flow, but all I ended up with were fics that were 2k at most, and no clue on how to continue it. Even if the au or plot was very interesting to me.)
As for pacing, I get really self indulgent. I love slow burns. I make an outline with the more important plot details in it and very brief chapter summaries, and then come up with things that happens in between. Or,, sometimes, I'll leave blanks if I feel like the story is progressing too quickly for my tastes, and I'll brainstorm for ideas to fit in there. There's... not much more I can say with this, I think. I'm just very particular about pacing, and I pay close attention to how I think I'd like the story to flow if I was a reader instead of a writer. (Which is,, absurdly long slowburns. Lol. Love me 100k+ fics)
Also, if you're up for it, some healthy constructive criticism could help you out a lot as well. I ask for it sparingly (from a friend of mine that is a very talented writer) and every time I've asked for it, she's given me something that I've used, and my writing has improved Massively.
I hope you found the answer you were looking for! These tidbits helped a lot, even if some things are tedious... and remember, at the end of the day, fic writing is a hobby. It isn't supposed to be insanely stressful to the point where it feels like a chore! (Even thought I heavily plot everything out for my longer fics to, de-stress but still write, I will just write very short and random ficlits with no plots or preparation that aren't supposed to go anywhere.)
TLDR: Read (fics, sure, but real books as well), outlines are your best friend, and WRITE!! It's like a muscle, you will improve the more you use it.
And have fun :D!
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#🎶 rosie song rec 🎶#ok ok ok warning it’s an intense song#tw guns#tw violence#but if you do decide to listen to it#holy SHIT#one of my fav songs#i feel like I’m there#NF is so insanely talented#CLOUDS is also one of my favorites#i have a lot more but I think those are my favorites?#i might like clouds a lil more#but today was a story type of day#ya know when you’re so in your feelings so you just want to blast some music that’s so intense to distract you from your feelings#yaaaaaa that’s today#anyway clouds is really good and I’m listening to it now lol#anyway I’m shutting up now#but I might do more song Recs cause I love music so much#and I listen to any and all genres tbh#shut up rosie#rosie speaks#Spotify
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Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Lithuania to Eurovision with a rampaging mess that gave a lukewarm conclusion
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Oh dear.
When it comes to my country to choose, they’re often chosen to be overlooked by the Eurofan community, especially because of our insanely long procedure of choosing, that would often cause everyone to hear the songs live more times than they’re supposed to. And it seemed to be a similar case this year because while not as long as usual, we still had 7 shows + an additional week break (that allowed me to watch some more Destination Eurovision! Woo!), and a big pile to songs to swim through, usually submitted by all ranges of songwriters who’re willing just to get their names known to the world creditswise (looking at you Ashley Hicklin and co.) and often are paired with our talent show rejects that fade away as soon as they come in if their song and their chances crash out before the final (see Germantė Kinderytė - she didn’t make it to the lives of The Voice Lithuania, had a killer song though that didn’t make it to the semis thanks for the jury annihilating her pointswise TWICE and only ended up lucky the televoters’ 10 was enough to get her through. Another example: Benas Malakauskas, who got lucky to be on the selection for two years in a row, but did not go beyond the AUDITIONS in said talent show! Yet progressed to the second round at farthest both of his years). And even then, you’re never sure if these songs ARE even on the lineup. Last year we had angry Erica Jennings pulling her song out of the comp just because of having to hear the juries critique others so abrasively (at least abrasively I guess?) one show in, but then it suddenly re-emerged back, but instead sung by Monika Marija - fresh off her The Voice Lithuania victory. This year we had some names pulling off for no reason, some names pulling for A reason (like Sasha Song who couldn’t turn up for the live recording of Heat 4 because of his song not sounding the best way possible, and was fined for it lol), and some names being added last minute or even changed unexpectedly (Tomas Sinickis, you heard of him? Now he underwent by Tommy Modric... yes the footballer Modric). Which is as crazy as MIIIIHAAAAIIIII deciding not to compete in the Romanian NF because “it’s all rigged and me a tryhard won’t feel too safe enough to finally win on this one” oh boo-hoo, think of the kids who never liked your sorry ass anyway. And think of the kids in general before showcasing your half-naked or mostly-naked body in front of them.
Excuse me for my long ass paragraph number 1, BUT we were actually so dang dramatic this year that I cannot contain myself without letting y'all know why this NF deserved a much better winner to come out of it rather than THAT that actually came to be. I'm a native so I know every single detail. So if ya wanna know why exactly I'm underwhelmed, read 'em up. If you wanna know that I'm just underwhelmed, just skip ahead to the review, idc. Did you make your choice? Well then. Let's delve into the details:
• The first clear competitor, Monika Marija, releases a song that people really want to see in the selection but she assures everyone it’s not THE song. Then she shows her other one, and people honestly want the first one back, but grow to adapt to it.
• Lineup reveal happens with her in it, wbk. Along with some other interesting names like Jurgis Didžiulis (off InCulto), Jurgis Brūzga and etc.
• First show is filmed and broadcasted as normal. But, after the broadcast, a pissed-off parent is mad at his son’s result on Facebook (and the result seemed fair enough to me actually despite liking the song because it’s such a second-hand NF tier entry that isn’t meant to last that I’d even see fizzle out in... A Dal for example).
• Also a minor lulz related to one contestant’s song lyrics sounding like Russian swearwords (you know the ones the kids are yelling on CS:GO) but that was fixed
• Lineup changes that include Sasha Song, the second-most-recent X Factor Lithuania season winners at the time 120 (yep that’s the band’s name) and some other guy who came and went last minute without a word from him back as to why lol. (As well as one of the lost starlets of 2018, Emilija Valiukevičiūtė, was initially announced in the first lineup reveal but fizzled out by Heat 4 as well.)
• And it turns out Monika Marija chose both of her latest releases (including the first one she said she won’t enter) to participate because her fans want it so and she felt like it, although fans were more attached to the 1st one she entered.
• Jurgis Didžiulis brings Erica Jennings with him - yep, the same lady who withdrew because of the jury has grew some thick skin over a year and joined the lineup too. Among other things.
• Second show had a major televoting issue that affected the scores massively (basically only a few hundred votes were missing lol), and had the issue affected any of the nonqualifiers enough for them to qualify, they’d be added to the semis as a wildcard. So naturally, someone of the NQs complained about it BUT it turned out it did not affect anyone anyway. Another act got pissed for being mistreated by juries too by the way.
• Sasha Song withdraws last minute for reasons above, and his fine is 2000 euros. Well, now you have to know that if you, fellow Lithuanian, want into Eurovizijos, you need to be a bit rich to accept circumstances like these, otherwise you’re totally fucked.
• Heat 3 happens as normal BUT Heat 4 brings in some fire as it turns out that one of the contestants’ stepfather was offering his company’s services (like, those outside children play parks’ assets) for televotes to her dear stepdaughter’s song, with her EVEN NOT SEEING ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT. LRT, as clever as they are, decide to null her televotes in protest. Shame tho as the song was good, and way better Laurell Barker submission than the ones she got on ESC this year.
• One contestant, Alen Chicco (also from X Factor Lithuania, may or may not even be from the same season that was won by 120), causes a bit of controversy by having a black man on his performance
• During the semi stage, Monika Marija asks her fans not to vote for the 1st song she submitted to the selection, but rather support her 2nd song that won the semi comfortably, way after the folks were attached to her 1st song already and claiming it’s better for Eurovision (no it’s not), but it backfires spectacularly when the jury has enough guts to make her qualify with it, even if the televote for it was rather low.
• But before semi 2 happened and Monika Marija sang her weaker song, a contestant with the name of Migloko resorts to middle-finger the audience during her performance for no reason in semi 1.
• Monika Marija succesfully goes on to withdraw one of her songs (the one from semi 2) just to not split her fanbase even further when it comes to the final, therefore not lose. Also has to pay a fine of 2000 perhaps.
• Jurijus Veklenko, which was one of the front-runners along Monika Marija, was accused of having his song published on Soundcloud a year too early, but as a demo version, therefore not commercially viable enough for ESC rules. Later he was let off easy by LRT, but decided that EBU should investigate and report if they think it’s not fine, but if he was allowed to compete with that, he was possibly not in danger afterall.
• And since Monika Marija has got only 1 song, her final spot she got with that other song was given up for the aforementioned Alen Chicco.
• Finally, Monika Marija was still THE front runner of all this, having a sizeable amount of a fanbase enough to support her, even more so than the eventual winner... yes, she did happen not to win in the end. U mad?
And even if Monika Marija would have honestly been an anticlimactic winner, this next guy is even more so, because although shocking, his song is pretty much by-the-numbers Eurovision NF pop you’re gonna get, although not as cheap as the one written by constant NF failures that submit their stuff for countries like Moldova, Belarus, Romania and Malta (that until Malta ditched their NF). And the one that ended up winning is the said person whose song was uploaded a year too early as a demo - Jurijus Veklenko, but for now, he’s pretty much needed to be addressed as Jurijus. No wait, he’s back to being Jurijus Veklenko, but he dropped the “us” from his name, that’s odd. (By the way, he’s the only ounce of Ukraine you’ll ever have this year - his father is of that nationality, hence why the ever-so-Slavic Veklenko surname)
“Run with the Lions” is the song name, and for a title as anthemic as this, the song... not so much. Like I said, it’s pop, and it’s good that it’s pop, but it’s just pop. I doubt that Jurijus’s songwriter team did anything to distinguish the demo from its final product, hence why it was so easily autodetected somehow. Like, the structure is there, the lyrics are there (but what even ARE they? “if you wanna see, just open your eyes”?? “if you want a voice, just open your mouth”????), but where’s the depth, man? I really felt like I needed more of this song, especially in the choruses. Like, some additional background instruments like strings wouldn’t have hurt? In fact, this song has a slight revamp (I’m saying “slight” because no marginal changes had been done) that adds up some acoustics in the background of the 2nd verse and only changes one line (”there’s no need to be afraid” now is “you don’t have to be afraid”. Wow, revolutionary. What about “You don’t got to hide away”?? Why repeating “You don’t” twice in the prechorus???!!!... ooh I’ll be here all day if I only talked about nitpicks)... and it yet still feels too little. Thankfully the choruses have someone shouting something like “huh huh hoo” synthetically to liven it up somehow.
Yet somehow, out of nowhere, I admit liking this? Our boi is capable of singing live - both high and low; his voice and the song fit in delightfully with each other; and while basic, the melody is pleasant, non-offensive, non-ear-grating... perhaps the problem of it all is that it’s too inoffensive? Something that flows away in the wind and passes you by without you knowing. Something that you’re told that it’s not background filler and you were just not paying attention to the actual music that was playing. Something so algorithmic, you’re easily able to make your ears cancel it out as it were just some sort of white noise!
Yeah, I don't think I want to describe us all that much. It's a pretty okay pop song, it's nothing groundbreaking (bar the message of being free to do all you can do), I enjoy the sound of it, it doesn't annoy me, I can fully be down to supporting Jurijus and his voice. Too bad it's in a year AND a semi where MoR pop songs DON'T dominate - we're way past those ages. To stand out, it needs to be anthemic, it needs to have a stage presence, it truly needs some X factor, and our staging nor our song offers it. And guess what, various other people are still mourning over the loss of Monika Marija, which I find perfectly reasonable, but who would have to lend us their final spot instead if she won? Armenia? Romania? Denmark? So many questions, so little time left to answer them all.
Right now I will just conclude with me saying that I like this. It's inoffensiveness is pleasant, and in any other year we'd be the perfect filler songs for the final, like we were in the past. Cool cool.
Approval factor: Anything that will make me forget how much of my nerves did I waste over stanning someone in our selection while knowing that Ieva will win is a good noodle in my book. Jurijus wasn’t exactly one of my favourites (you’ll see why when you hit the unfortunately long NF corner section), but that’s perfectly fine, seeing that I can finally be a proud supporter of my own country’s song.
Follow-up factor: we're a completely and utterly random nation, sending anything our juries found amusing the most at the time. So don't bother about follow up consistency every being good or bad. We're just going with our own flow and... that's basically it. Though we could, on an occasion, do better with picking songs, that's for sure. And maybe finally we will not have a song that's littered with "oh oh oh, yeah yeah yeah" kind of sounds... like seriously, "Run with the Lions" has a bridge that mostly consists of "ooooooohhhhhhh" and then one actually non-interjective line at the end. (At least in Tel Aviv you'll be hearing the backings murmuring "run with the, run with the, run with the lions" during it, and that's something.) I love it that we never change in our random tactics, I'd just love it more to see some actual change in the song quality, y'know? THEN will it be a good follow-up.
Qualification factor: I’m so devastated at saying this, but foreigners say that we’re probably going down to deat meat levels this year. But I still have hope in us qualifying. Believe it or not, the people out there still don’t buy into the Lithuanian diaspora power, and genuinely believe that our harmless tune is chanceless. I only understand that it cannot work its magic when we send something risqué and incredibly opinion dividing (but most people dislike it anyway), but just look at our results on the years when we were generally received bad when we were just boring. “C’est ma vie” qualified. “Something” qualified. Back when Donny Montell was such an unknown in the Eurovision lore because 2012 was his first year and his song was considered “dated”, he still qualified. See something here? We still can, and WILL, be able to pull through possibly, and I don’t doubt it that diaspora will lap up our mediocre song because Lithuania. Patriotism strong! (Oh and a handful of votes for Jurijus for being so hot.)
NATIONAL FINAL BONUS
I already discussed the Eurovizijos drama in lenghty detail, so expect me not to re-iterate everything down here shortly, but what you need to know off it is that it had every single drama aspect you’d ever want - faulty line-ups, voting frauds, televoting malfunctions, forced plagiarism accusations, too-early-published-song accusations, late entry withdrawals, qualifier replacements, technical difficulties allowing to repeat a performance and some contestants being visibly pissed off by the jury (and to some extent, the overall) results. A total jumble <3 Never change, Lithuania. (except for the godawfully smug-ass HoD, I started to get tired of him AND his bald head doing this to us. It's been 10 years, retire already.)
So it’s better to talk about all the non-dramatic things I liked about our NF this year! From songs to performances, from shits and giggles to something serious - I’m taking you for a hefty ride.
• First and foremost, I actually didn’t mind one of the Monika Marija’s songs? Yeah, “Light On” was a good and polished pop track that has THAT power to get you good, with them strong sublime female vocals. Even if it kind of sounded like an Ikea store version of "Stay with Me" by Sam Smith. Not that there's anything bad with it, but any kind of plagiarism cases have and will always be barred from Eurovision if noticed by the organizers. This is not 100% dead-on ripoff, but there are shades of knock-offery here and there. And it's even a better "Stay with Me", and with a better message - Monika Marija reminisces of that one time she was almost dying herself, but she's here, she's survived, and you musn't hang her off the lifeline. At least it's "Light On" that got all the love in the NF in the end and not the painfully mediocre "Undo" ripoff wailfest "Criminal". It was so slow and plodding and I never got why so many people loved it. If "Undo" was a product, "Criminal" would have been its "made in China" counterpart. Anyway, here's "Light On". And please don't spam me messages with how much this would have been a contender for top 10 over Jurijus. :P In Eurovision it's an added bonus if your faves do well - the fact that they were in Eurovision is the most important thing, and I perfectly understand why do you miss it here on ESC grounds. Just... I'm tired of "MM top 10, Jurijus bottom 3 in semi", okay? Monika Marija can try our NF again. She’s very talented, and there’s a possibility that we’ll see her in ESC in the end anyway. Pave the way for our Polyglot Queen, Eurovision 20xx! ^^
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• Now here's for once a cool Lithuanian artist that didn't come from a TV talent show! Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys ("antiquarian teeth of Kashpirovsky") is probably one of the coolest Lithuanian bands that I know - doing absolutely any kind of genre they're pleased with - from folk to rock to ska to acoustic pieces - I admire them for being so diversive! Too bad they entered with one of my lesser favourite tracks in their entire discography - "Mažulė" (one of the many ways to say "baby", as in, trying to call your lover cute, female gender case. Can also mean "baby girl" in this context). I have nothing against this kind of track they thrown in the selection, ska music and Eastern musical elements are gooooooood, plus I finally got to know what is a "forró" that doesn't mean "hot" in Hungarian - it's a music style popular in Brazil! However, the chorus could have at least sounded more "party"-ier. It doesn't really excite me to dance the window-cleaning dance to it. (Oh yeah and do you remember that this song is about a car, not an actual lover? They're basically confessing their love to an automobile. How they're protecting it from vandals, how did they dream of getting the car since young age, how wouldn't they change their car for any other. Romantic, I'd say.) However I am happy for the over 30 year olds that find this song completely and totally amusing when I can't quite seem to. I do say that I like those elements, the brass and all that. It was the only Lithuanian song in the sea of English ones in the final (just like A Dal was, but inverse - almost all songs in Hungarian but one English (and a bit Russian), and that's an achievement. AKD should be proud of themselves for impacting both our nation AND the international viewers which found fun in this! Respect. Maybe they'll win our NF soon if they keep on winning the audiences, or they'll probably GTFO forever. IDK, the latter is more plausible, sadly. They're so unique that they cannot be just a thing for more editions - just one for a try out, and that's enough.
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• So, Alen Chicco. What’s so special to have him in the final instead of Monika Marija's weaker entry? Well, he's just a fantabulous persona, unique in every step he takes. And surely I was excited to see him preparing something for Eurovizijos after I read his name on the participants list. And then his entry did come. I wasn't quite sure what to think of "Your Cure" at first but the chorus is a pop beauty I hold up to myself somehow <3 now I find the song nice as a whole, the theatrical-like verses peak my curiousity though the prechoruses feel too drawn out a bit and could have had some big pauses be shortened or removed... yeah. But the most interesting thing is HIS LOOKS <33 his wardrobe and level of expressiveness is vast, I love it how eveything here was different each and every time he performed, and it all was always presented incredibly differently. I admire ONE (1) chameleon
which Alen Chicco are you today? ✨
• And that's almost basically it I have to show you concerning my faves? Yeah, I definitely had enough of our NF having this many songs too, I almost had no good favourites that made it to the semis and people would care about slightly if they'd be willing to. Nothing I could be excited over, nothing I could be passionate about as I was last year about my fave. Well I did like some qualifiers to semis but I don’t think they are THAT worth y’all’s attention all THAT much... However, I will definitely let you in on two of my personal non-finalist faves. Allow me to introduce the first band whose song is a guilty pleasure of mine only - it's Laimingu Būti Lengva ("it's easy being happy") with "Pasaulio vidury" ("in the middle of the world"). Now, it's not very competitive or anything, in fact the guys looked like hobos on their live performance and one of them was randomly shouting "heeeeyyyyy" a LOT of times, like a random heckler that's supposedly livening(??? is that a word???) up the performance, and they sang disappointingly... but the studio version, man. I dare you to not get hypnotized by the slow electric guitar feel. (You probably won't but idc.) I love it, I love the beats and how trappy but cool they sound on those verses, I love the slow soft rhythm, I definitely love the whole melodic execution, and the vocals actually sound alright on there (mainly thanks to autotune but yeah whatever). I have problems though - with a band like this, I barely see how can I get genuine enjoyment out of this song myself without having to slap myself in the back for admitting to actually like this. So I call it my "guilty pleasure" quite a lot of times. The song's structure is quite interesting, but it's mainly the repetitive verses and choruses smeared across the whole song at random. I get the song's point so much that I hate the band for hammering it into my head all this whole time - the song's protagonist met a red-haired and blue-eyed girl named Isabel in Portugal (the supposed "middle of the world"), they fell in love, that's it. But they emphasize it a lot that the girl was blue-eyed... not even I would if I had to write this song, and *I* have a blue-eyed people bias. The whole package was completely unappealing and with how they showed it it didn’t really look like something that even needs a staging or Eurovision at all, but I still keep this song to myself, and will definitely replay it a lot this summer. Just as much as the song that you'll actually get to watch the performance of down below - it's "Song of My Life" by Soliaris & ForeignSouls. It's cool, funky, catchy, vibey, laidback and summer-fun-infested. I cannot really describe separate parts all that much because all flows in so well. It's a good song to chill out and have a cocktail too. And it features a rap part that doesn't bother me at all! Good one, Soliaris. I didn't like your music back when you did mediocre 00s R'n'B, but you positively surprised me, both by returning to our NFs after like 9 years of absence AND bringing this gem. It didn't need an extreme staging - just some dudes having fun and that's it. And they brought it. It saddens me that these kind of songs don't stand a chance to qualify to the very final in our NF anymore, as they kind of would have in 2012 or so, but I'm still happy they exist. I only have had some issues with the lyrics laying out the words in sentences ("spend with me this beautiful night" bothered me a bit because if you translate it to Lithuanian in the exact same sentencing way, it'd make even more sense than it does to me now), but other than that, I fucking loved "Song of My Life". It might as well be my overall NF winner, haha.
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• Oh and how could I forget Tiramisu??? That's perhaps my biggest discovery of this year. They moved on from utter unknowns to... still unknowns, but more known for the Eurovision fandom that does care about Lithuanian NFs. Here you have an oddly titled song, "The Smell of Your Eyes" (and you thought Safura smelling lipstick was extreme - but to her credit, lipstick DOES have a faint odor, doesn't it?), which is both insane AND original, and insane original is obviously encouraged. And the whole song sounds pretty damn good for a band that no one heard of and that used to do jazzy-ish and inoffensive musical flairs before. Here we have slight influences of folk even! And the violins, too. A generally charming piece that draws you into a pagan forest. Too bad the staging was completely misunderstood - they definitely had to put on some guy with a cheap Iron Man mask to pretend to give the band some intensity... lousy move. It could've looked way better if it were more mysterious and forest-like and had a more enchanting camerawork. And a little more colors than emerald and forest greens, too. The video clip looked way better and more high-budget than the staging came to be. Observe:
Felt like everything beautiful was stripped of it because the music video could not be repeated on stage. Ah well. The televoters gave them love but the jury did not let them to improve, and down the Bermuda triangle of fallen female violinists from the 2019 season went a lady of the name Rima Tamo, together with Gabriella Laberge and Tilla Török (who did not even appear on stage at that time of need!). Here's a spooky fact for all these 3: female violinists that all featured on songs in E minor, performed 1st in their respective heats/semis, were really loved by televote but hated by the juries, missed out on the next stage of the NF by 1 place. Coincidence? A curse? Tiramisu were obviously disgusted by the jury trashing their staging so they talked about hating them on Facebook. What's worse that they could have actually qualified if they've gotten at least 9 more telepoints that could've pushed them to get 10 televote points in general rather than 8, all thanks to a televote count error that removed large portions of votes. And that way they could have been wildcard qualifiers instead because they would have still gotten 8 televote points with the actual televote numbers, but the organizers of the NF said that if the televote failure would have hurt anyone's place in the final, they would have wildcard-qualified instead. No one did not, so screw it. At least "The Smell of Your Eyes" remains THAT song - lots of folk, lots of violins, lots of effort put into it, and the people actually loved it for that. Just that it's so sad that the jury didn't let them improve overtime... just like Hungarian jury didn't let Leander Kills go further... a shame, really.
• And now, onto the non-entry-events and stuff that happened, besides some actual good jury shade (like the one time at least one juror says that “you wouldn’t win even if all the contestants got sick”, technical errors in the production (thanks to one of them, one of the semifinal acts actually got to perform again... but the televote didn’t give her votes anyway lmao) and the constant reminder of one of our charities which gives tickets to Eurovision for the best disabled person story.. I don’t know where that is but our NF somehow acquired a skit from an Austrian man that’s been exploring stuff in Israel (I think) because of Eurovision this year... and man did I think that this skit was rather... hmmm... middle-ground funny? Slightly too annoying but still kind of alright to look at? It was fun, but certainly odd to find out about that it even exists.
• After feeling so disappointed with Hungarian juries's decisions on the night of February 22nd, I left my room to watch our NF's final on our living room TV, hoping for everything just to end already because I did not expect anything good happening on this final. I haven't even decided to go back to watch A Dal and see AWS reprise their song a little less louder than when they competed last year. And then our NF gave me a complete and utter surprise - The Roop reprising THEIR Eurovizijos 2018 entry. If you've been long enough here on Tumblr to know me, you would probably guess that I'm a big fan of "Yes, I Do" by The Roop, which I wanted to see winning our NF so badly last year, but in the end... you finish the quote so I don't have to. And it's odd because this year I felt the exact similar way with Hungary as with Lithuania last year - I have clear favourites I root for in both of those but deep inside I knew there was gonna be a different winner I only find okay and nothing else. (The difference is that "Az én apám" has grown on me since, "When We're Old" did not at all.) So back to discussing the interval act instead. For this one guest number of the NF's, the song began on a piano, "pretend" played by The Roop's lead singer, and then he got his butt off from the piano chair (unlike Duncan in Tel Aviv), to the microphone stand, and the song continued off sounding like its original version that was sung in last year's NF. I still love this song and even loved that version with piano at the beginning, but why did it not take over the whole song though? Just to not let the audience fall asleep before the Carousel would've? (Yes by the way, we got guest acts from other countries performing on our NF as well! But Carousel were the only ones to have a guest appearance, the other acts were either unchosen or perhaps busy doing Tel Aviv preparations, lol.) Well, good for them. I may or may not still would love The Roop entering and winning our selection someday, if they ever decide to participate again. They could've this year but they did not return, so maybe in 2021? Let this girl dare to dream for once, Lithuania ^_^
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• I love when our NF has postcards, no matter at which stage of introduction they are on. In 2016 the postcards were present in every show (the ones for the final were the best), in 2017 they were only introduced in the round 3 of heats (sometime before the semis), in 2018 - from the 2nd round of heats onwards, in 2019 though they were only for the final... what’s the punchline for this paragraph? Oh, there IS none. I just confessed my love for our NF postcards. Just keep scrolling :)
• Okay so I know no one really pays attention to our heats because we have too many of them AND we have too many songs in them, and the eliminated ones always stop mattering to everyone right away. But I'm here to bring you a favourite meme of mine that hailed just from the heats alone: miss RÙTA, who could have done much better during her performance if she didn't constantly look like she's incredibly constipated. I don't know what makes her look like that - the lipstick? the grin? her over-dramatic entry about wordly disasters, "Paradox"? I may never know, but I will let you have a good look at it if you don't want to watch the whole video I linked. Personally, I liked the red staging this song had, and the song wasn't bad, but the singer felt agonizingly nervous and never got the chance to do better, sadly. Oh and look at that sleek tattoo, mmm.
• Oh and our NF featured a metal song but it’s so formulaic and by the numbers dad metal that I didn’t even support it all that much.... however I’ll let you listen to it if you’d really like. And there's this best alternative song of this year's NF that I've heard that also ended in the semis, and it's way better than Fusedmarc's alternative (despite having some ugly beatboxing skills). Check it out too if you will.
And thankfully, that’s that for another year. I’m getting so awfully tired to compress my own NF even further more, especially with my enthusiasm for the actual quality of this NF going down the shithole with every single heat show coming after each other just like that, with more mediocre songs after more mediocre songs. I’m also openly declaring that I have barely any energy left with continuting these writeups, seeing that there’s too many to go and most of them are STILL undercooked drafts. But I’m tryna pull through. I have another completely completed review underway afterwards - just a few edits here and there on it and I’m done with it, m8s! And then I’m piling up new paragraphs after new paragraphs on other reviews.
So I hope I let you know why do I think that the end result of ours is lukewarm - from a dramatic NF there should have been a slightly dramatic winner tbh, but in the end we got a pop song that only a few people like. Brutal. And with the biggest hopes in my eyes for our success I’d like to finish this off with two words. Sėkmės, Jurijau!
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New Post has been published on https://freenews.today/2021/01/06/robin-thicke-talks-to-jalen-rose-about-his-dream-collab-drake/
Robin Thicke talks to Jalen Rose about his dream collab: Drake
After my interview with Robin Thicke, I came a to a conclusion. It seemed obvious to me that his father, the late “Growing Pains” actor, Alan Thicke, a native of Ontario, must have been running a boarding house for Canadian superstars who ventured south of the northern border.
Exhibit A: Wayne Gretzky. In 1988, when he was traded to the LA Kings, he was staying at the Thicke residence and was essentially babysitting Robin. Imagine the Great One pouring you a bowl of Lucky Charms in the morning and reminding you to brush your teeth?
But Robin was also an inadvertent player in the story of Gretzky’s blockbuster trade from the Edmonton Oilers. Alan had taken Robin’s older brother to Russia for 10 days, and Gretzky and his soon-to-be wife, Janet Jones, were staying at chez Thicke for the summer, even sleeping in Alan’s room while he was away. That day, Robin was attending Joe Torre’s baseball camp, and he was about to leave the house, when the phone rang. It was the former LA Kings owner Bruce McNall, who was also a friend of Alan’s.
“He wants me to wake up Wayne,” Robin told me. “I’m like OK, so I’m knocking on the door, ‘Wayne, Wayne’. I’m like 10 years old … 11 years old. And so Wayne gets the phone, I got to camp. I come back from camp, and Wayne is in Edmonton on a podium, saying that he has been traded and he’s crying. And I’m like, ‘Holy what’! That was the 7 a.m. phone call from Bruce McNall. And I got Wayne on the phone. So Edmonton will never forgive me, that’s for sure … for the part I played.”
What an insane story.
Then when I asked him about Canadian artists Céline Dion and Shania Twain, he said his father was close with producer David Foster, so he got to be around Dion in the early days. But Twain stayed at their guest house for two weeks when she first came to Los Angeles to score a record deal. “She stayed at the house. She’s part of our part of our Canadian brethren,” said Robin. I have a feeling that house had more celebrity Canadian DNA than Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Most men wouldn’t say this, but Robin is just dope. He’s got the insanely great hair, model good looks, slick style and off-the-charts talent, but he has that inherent cool factor that you just can’t teach. He is the full package. And along with having his own hits, (my personal favorite is “Lost Without U”) he’s collaborated with many R&B artists, including Pharrell Williams, Usher, Brandy and Mary J. Blige. During a recent episode of “The Masked Singer,” where Robin is a judge, we learned that he and Brian Austin Green of “BH90210” had a hip-pop duo as teens called Think Twice. Nick Cannon jokingly referred to them as the “white Kriss Kross.”
That cool factor has helped him become one of the few white artists in R&B, which has always been a predominantly black genre. Then he and Justin Timberlake came along. To be the minority in any space, like Bubba Wallace in NASCAR, Tiger Woods in golf, Christian McCaffrey as a running back in the NFL, you’re always chipping away at the status quo and creating change in spaces that might not be ready for it. Robin was seemingly a natural.
Although he gives a lot of credit for his maturation as an artist to his creative partner, the late Andre Harrell, he comes from a long line of musicians, and jazz ones at that.
“As it turns out, on my mother’s side of the family, we have about six generations of musicians … My grandfather was a jazz trumpet player. His father was a jazz trumpet player. So, you know, we’ve been trying to be black for generations.”
But I told him that we already drafted him decades ago.
Robin Thicke and April Love Geary
Getty Images
Robin is a busy man. His girlfriend, April Love Geary just gave birth to a son, Luca, who is his fourth child. And he’s also released a song “Fire It Up,” which is part of the NFL “Songs of the Season” campaign in collaboration with Roc Nation.
One thing he’d like to add to his schedule: a studio session with Drake. On his first mixtape, the Canadian artist rapped over Robin’s “Teach U a Lesson,” song. “I would love to do an original record with Drake just because I am such a big fan.”
That shouldn’t be a problem because he and Drake have tons in common. They both have Canadian roots, and they’re both massive NBA fans. Robin even sang at Chris Paul’s 2011 wedding in front of LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. That’s where he met Kevin Hart, who cast him on “Real Husbands of Hollywood.”
But since he is such a big Lakers fan, I had to gauge his hoops IQ and asked him how many championships LeBron was going to win the team. To his credit, he didn’t just give me a fawning fan’s answer. He thinks if everyone stays healthy, LeBron wins another championship there, most likely this season. But after this year, the pieces might be different, and it’s all up in the air.
If he had gone all fan on me, I would have had to school him, but he gets it. Maybe next year he and Drake can perform their new single for the Lakers’ championship celebration — a celebration where we hope fans will be present and cheering loudly.
Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the college hoops world in the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons in the NBA, before transitioning into a media personality. Rose is currently an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the author of the best-selling book “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker, and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.
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1: 6 of the songs you listen to most?
lonely - demi lovato
sail awol nation
stitches - shawn mendes
in the end - black veil brides
let me down - nf
different - james tw
2: If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?
demi lovato
3: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17.
because we kept stopping in hotels. jack drove the whole way
4: What do you think about most?
everything
5: What does your latest text message from someone else say?
awww
6: Do you sleep with or without clothes on?
with a t-shirt and pants on
7: What’s your strangest talent?
my fingers are flexible
8: Girls… (finish the sentence); Boys… (finish the sentence)
9: Ever had a poem or song written about you?
no i’ve had 2 people sing me a song
10: When is the last time you played the air guitar?
years ago
11: Do you have any strange phobias?
food touching each other
12: Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose?
a stone up my nose just to get out of class
13: What’s your religion?
non
14: If you are outside, what are you most likely doing?
walking
15: Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?
behind
16: Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band?
black veil brides
17: What was the last lie you told?
im okay
18: Do you believe in karma?
yea
19: What does your URL mean?
torturedbythemind - says it all
20: What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength?
dunno
21: Who is your celebrity crush?
demi lovato
22: Have you ever gone skinny dipping?
no
23: How do you vent your anger?
self harm
24: Do you have a collection of anything?
no
25: Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?
depends who its to
26: Are you happy with the person you’ve become?
not really
27: What’s a sound you hate; sound you love?
my kid crying and my kid laughing
28: What’s your biggest “what if”?
what if i didn’t swap classes wheree would i be now
29: Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens?
ghosts yea and i believe theres another life out there
30: Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm.
right arm - book
left arm - drink
31: Smell the air. What do you smell?
my perfume
32: What’s the worst place you have ever been to?
dunno
33: Choose: East Coast or West Coast?
west
34: Most attractive singer of your opposite gender?
shawn mendes
35: To you, what is the meaning of life?
not figured that out yet
36: Define Art.
something you believe in
37: Do you believe in luck?
kinda
38: What’s the weather like right now?
shitty
39: What time is it?
10:05pm
40: Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?
i nearly crashed when i was learning
41: What was the last book you read?
her
42: Do you like the smell of gasoline?
sometimes
43: Do you have any nicknames?
a few
44: What was the last film you saw?
step up miami heat
45: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?
broken shoulder
46: Have you ever caught a butterfly?
no and i don’t want to
47: Do you have any obsessions right now?
milkshake
48: What’s your sexual orientation?
lesbian
49: Ever had a rumour spread about you?
loads
50: Do you believe in magic?
kinda
51: Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?
yea
52: What is your astrological sign?
virgo
53: Do you save money or spend it?
save it until i need something
54: What’s the last thing you purchased?
milkshake
55: Love or lust?
love
56: In a relationship?
yea
57: How many relationships have you had?
3
58: Can you touch your nose with your tongue?
no
59: Where were you yesterday?
home
60: Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?
make up wipes packet
61: Are you wearing socks right now?
no
62: What’s your favourite animal?
tiger
63: What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you?
idk
64: Where is your best friend?
at her dads
65: Give me your top 5 favourite blogs on Tumblr.
66: What is your heritage?
dunno
67: What were you doing last night at 12AM?
sleeping
68: What do you think is Satan’s last name?
he doesn’t have one
69: Be honest. Ever gotten yourself off?
maybe
70: Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend?
no
71: You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do?
idk probably save it and run to work
72: You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid?
i wouldn’t tell anyone
i’d spend it with family and get married
i wouldn’t be afraid i’ve been trying to die for years
73: You can only have one of these things; trust or love.
you can’t love someone with out trust
74: What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?
stitches
75: What are the last four digits in your cell phone number?
5808
76: In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?
trust,, respect,, love
77: How can I win your heart?
its already taken
78: Can insanity bring on more creativity?
sometimes
79: What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far?
meeting my girl
80: What size shoes do you wear?
6
81: What would you want to be written on your tombstone?
idk
82: What is your favourite word?
fuck
83: Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word; heart.
my girl has it
84: What is a saying you say a lot?
i say loads of things
85: What’s the last song you listened to?
little big town - save your sin
86: Basic question; what’s your favourite colour/colours?
red, blue, black
87: What is your current desktop picture?
a flipping cat
88: If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be?
my ex and my girls ex
89: What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on?
how i really feel
90: One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren’t really doing anything, they’re just standing around your bed. What do you do?
probably be like wtf
91: You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power?
invisibility or flying
92: You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again?
idk
93: You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?
not saying that
94: You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be?
demi lovato
95: You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?
hawaii
96: Do you have any relatives in jail?
not that i know of
97: Have you ever thrown up in the car?
i’ve had to have the car pull over so i can throw up
98: Ever been on a plane?
a few
99: If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say?
why would you be listening to me
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28. ITALY
Diodato - “Fai Rumore”
youtube
And we’re back to our usual disconnect, where everyone pretends to love Italy and I don’t. I cannot wait for all the Italian crazies to be OUTRAGED by this ranking (28/41 is fine for an entry I don’t care about...?) and reblog this all over the tumblrverse and inflate my reader stats. 😈 but first, let’s discuss what we have on our hands here.
Song Analysis
There’s no way this post *won’t* end up offensive to every Fai Rumore fan, so I will resort to brutal honesty. I never, ever, *ever* cared about “Fai rumore”. In fact, I’d even say it’s strongly overrated by the gross of the Eurovision fandom?
Okay so here’s the deal. I will not deny that “Fai Rumore” has several things going for it. The song has emotional gravitas, Diodato has a great voice and acts very well. It’s technically precise and well produced. It is very competent at what it sets out to be, which is a very standard HQ Sanremo Power Ballad.
But here’s where I feel like I deviate from the norm: You may think “wow Fai Rumore! How brilliant, meticulous and poised”, but I think “how expected, overtly earnest and unfun?”
The problem is, this is Boris’s Bubble and Boris doesn’t enjoy songs that feel like they belong inside a trophy cupboard, and “Fai rumore” is exactly one of those songs, don’t lie. So “meticulous, poised and brilliant” you say, well *I* say “how overtly earnest, unfun and aloof”? I have a Spotify - if I wanted to listen to good music, I’d just use that? Or one of my like 15 Youtube Playlists containing non-ESC entries? Why would I watch Eurovision, or Sanremo for that matter, for the good music when there are so many other (and easier) options available for me that align better to my tastes?
The fact that “Fai Rumore” is *too* perfect for me (and therefore very hard to empathize with imo) is one thing, which leads to other thing I need to point out. I’ll let my friend Matthew take over here, who wrote this paragraph on ESCUnited right after Diodato’s selection:
That final sentences is bone-chilling because it’s so, so true. “I AM A SOPHISTICATED MUSIC FAN BECAUSE I FOLLOW ~FESTIVALE DI SANREMO~” is such a common trope of elistism (like, replace “San Remo” with any quality newspaper, nobel prize winning author or classical music composer and you’ll find to be nearly universally applicable to snobs across the globe), but I find it specifically ugly in Eurovision.
You see, would the same courtesy be extended to a country of lower prestige if they got a Fai Rumore?
Would the same courtesy be extended to a person of colour? or a woman?
How about others songs that, like Fai Rumore, emulate their country’s musical traditions (Fai Rumore is SO italian you can smell the basil), except those traditions fall outside of the western European bubble?
See, it doesn’t bother me that Italians like Fai Rumore and are proud of it. They’re Italians. Of course they are! I don’t judge them for it. I don’t rly care if the odd introvert finds solace in a song of this calibre. But as soon as Matthew made the aforementioned post, people who had previously rated Diodato as a 5/6 already started adjusting their scores to 10s and 12s and, well...
It bothers me that the same fanbase that DEMANDS cultural diversity (Diodato) and/or MOAR ETHNOBOPS (Efendi) refuse to accept a Solovey or an Origo -which are a thousandfold more layered, sophisticated and daring- as an equal.
It bothers *even more* me that people are willing to immediately give Italy a plethora of chances (especially when they choose men! fuck institutionalised sexism!), while not doing the same for a Belarus. Belarus HAS no clear musical scene or funds to really produce good music, yet produced a ridiculously good NF (with a VERY righteous winner - yes, Chakras, but also: Chakras) I’ve seen snobs SLAM VAL, mercilessly despite being an excellent left-field pick (god imagine if Yan had won Eurofest for a sec. What a nightmare). Italy, otoh, also delivered a sterling NF, have *a VERY* rich musical tradition, tons of talent and money and production value... and they still went the lowest common denominator available, and yet they receive praise, without so much as a whisper of protest from our so-called “value seekers”.
This level of hypocrisy and double standard wielding, all in the name of wishing to be taken seriously delivers *such* a toxic undercurrent to Eurovision and has absolutely soured me on Diodato. This isn’t his fault, but sadly he’s become a weapon of mass misconstruction and well just because I hate the guy who pressed the big red button more doesn’t mean I automatically like ICBMs. As we come near the songs I actually give a damn’ about, I will start calling the shitpociries out. Brace yourself for it, when I rank Solovey and Da Vidna inside my top five.
Want some examples specifically pertaining to the Diodato fandom? Sure, I’ll give you some:
EJEMPLO UNO:
Diodato fanboys openly coddling him on social media post-lockdown all “PROTECT OUR POOR MUNCHKIN FROM THE CORONAVIRUS”. Like... he’s a *thirty-eight year old adult* he can take care of himself, BACK UP OFF HIM you freaks.
EJEMPLO DOS:
The relevant media having baptized Diodato as THE SAVING GRACE OF THE LOCKDOWN, ITALIANS SINGING ‘FAI RUMORE’ FROM THEIR BALCONIES IN DEFIANCE OF COVID-19, which is such a bullshit narrative it’s turned my hair from black to brown. Yes, the Italians sang “Fai Rumore”. What they don’t tell you is that they also sang many other Italian and non-Italian songs, including humanitarian anthem “Roar” by Kety Perr (cue to Katy Perry being like “OMG I’M SO HONORED TO INSPIRE SO MANY ITALIANS ::hungarianflagemoji::” on twitter.). CNN Like, Eurovision related media LOVE portraying it as a ~life-chaning confort anthem~ - the reality is that “Fai rumore”, while playing its part, was merely a tiny spoke in a giant wheel.
EJEMPLO QUATRO:
Well take a look at how many people will reblog this post and slam it for daring to point out, what I think are really obvious truths to anyone who doesn’t suffer from musical myopia.
In the end, the song is okay and it’s okay to love it. But if you ‘love’ it because you’ve convinced yourself that you must, and not because it genuinely means something to you, I don’t think you have grounds to criticise to criticise anyone but yourself.
NF Corner
As I said, I didn’t follow San Remo live (I never do! *gasp* blasphemy, I know), but I did plan to check it for this write-up except RAI deleted every live performance? And they won’t let me embed the few remaining vids either?
Anyway, this happened so right-click-open this a new tab and then return once you’ve finished it.
Backstage feuds being fought out LIVE on the stage in front of millions of viewers 😍 Apparently Morgan and Bugo were at loggerheads for a while, and had a massive row RIGHT before their performance on the second night, which caused Morgan to stray from the script and sing all the insulting things Bugo told him *to Bugo* instead of the actual lyrics of their duet. 😍 😍 😍 Bugo IMMEDIATELY stormed off the stage to the point where Amadeus had to like... literally tell the gobsmacked audience that Bugo had left the building 😍 😍 😍. This is some god-tier pettiness and I’m completely in awe of it. DEITIES. 😍
aside from Sincerogate, I would’ve embedded vidoes that contained the DRAMA (Rancore), CAMP (Achille) and UNABASHED WEIRDNESS (Levante) of this year’s line-up, but I guess RAI really doesn’t like for people to have fun. Oh well.
Italy 2020 vs Italy 2021
Diodato is male and Italian, so yeah, guaranteed top 10 in Rotterdam, no matter what happens. Search your feelings, you know it to be true. Cynicism aside, televoters WOULD have flocked to it without thinking twice (for exactly those two reasons), passing over many better entries in the process and well... I’m tired and exhausted and I think you can guess I am not very impressed by this likely outcome.
Not sure what RAI’s strategy for 2021 is (lol it’s RAI - they don’t have a strategy. besides Italy have bigger fish to fry than the Eurovision Song Contest as you know), but I’m not very invested either way. I could imagine them internally selecting Diodato if he’s willing to do ESC in 2021, but if this was a one-off deal (which I think it was), they will probably select another plain white bloke for you to obsess over, so no worries :-) #TuttoVaPene
FREAKY! FRIDAY! FACTOR!
I’m sort of conflicted? On one hand, god Fai Ru*snore* is SO typical of “Italy in Eurovision”, not just from a musical perspective but from a point of reverence as well. On to the other hand, when are the fanbases *not* acting insane w/r/t Italy?
San Remo was really crazy this year, enough for me to award Italy a couple Senheads. However... if I wanted to see nice and inoffensive triumph over a bunch of deranged, gimmicky, ott masterpieces, I’d just rewatch #London1977? (offensive take #16: “people that like Marie Myriam the most in 1977 do not understand Eurovision”) Ehhhh whatevs.
Score: 2 Senhits out of 5.
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