#We watched it on YouTube back in the wild west days when YouTube was like 2 years old
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South Park Music HCs
What music I think the South Park characters would listen to.
Stan ✰ Kyle ✰ Kenny ✰ Cartman ✰ Wendy ✰ Bebe ✰ Heidi ✰ Tweek ✰ Craig ✰ Butters
With Spotify links!
Stan Marsh
Artists:
Radio Head
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Crywank
She Wants Revenge
System Of a Down
Slipknot
The Front Bottoms
Favourite Songs:
Atoma- Dark Tranquillity
Smokey Eyes- Lincoln
F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X- The Fall of Troy
Mr Grieves- Pixies
Misc:
Generally angsty
Gets embarrassed of his taste when he’s put on aux
He probably likes 90s dad rock
Whenever Stan listens to ‘System of a Down’ Cartman calls him ‘Syndrome of a Down’
Likes The Front Bottoms purely because he relates
Kyle Broflovski
Artists:
Dan Mangan
The Cure
Echo & the Bunnyman
Blur
Weezer
Billy Idol
Favourite Songs:
I Love You- Fontaines D.C.
Troubled Mind- Dan Mangan
The Killing Moon- Echo & the Bunnymen
Jumping Someone Else’s Train- The Cure
Candy- Paolo Nutini
Misc:
Cartman calls him a virgin for listening to Weezer
If he’s playing his music around you, he’ll sneak glances at you to see if you like it
Definitely has a poster for The Cure in his bedroom
Refuses to use Bluetooth headphones
Kenny McCormick
Artists:
Eminem
Outkast
Ini Kamoze
Car Seat Headrest
Cypress Hill
Limp Bizkit
Green Day
Favourite Songs:
Hits from the Bong- Cypress Hill
Sexy Drug- Falling in Reverse
Deadlines (Hostile)- Car Seat Headrest
Take A Look Around- Limp Bizkit
Misc:
Watches clips of Woodstock 99 on YouTube
Plays his music so loud that it spills through his headphones and gets weird looks for it
Listens to Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter with his little sister
Eric Cartman
Kanye West
T-Pain
Lady Gaga (we all saw this coming)
Rihanna
Black Eyed Peas
Oliver Tree
Pitbull
Favourite Songs:
Church- T-Pain, Teddy Verseti
Meet Me Halfway- Black Eyed Peas
I Can’t Stop- Will Smith
Bury Me Alive- Oliver Tree
Happiness is a Butterfly- Lana Del Rey
Misc:
Strikes me as the type of guy who doesn’t really listen to music
Unironically likes Oliver Tree (His music and him as a person)
Rips on everyone for their music but won’t tell them who he listens to
Lip syncs to Wiz Khalifa while flexing in the mirror
Listens to T-Pain and Will Smith to make him feel tough
Prefers podcasts
Wendy Testaburger
Artists:
The Shins
Gwen Stefani
Hozier
Grizzly Bear
Nelly Furtado
Olivia Rodrigo
Elliot Smith
Favourite Songs:
Swan Upon Leda- Hozier
Lacy- Olivia Rodrigo
Stand By Me- Ben E.King
Vienna- Billy Joel
Pocketful of Sunshine- Natasha Bedingfield
Misc:
Thunder makes her think of stan so she skips it
Relates to Vienna and probably got a small tattoo for it after she graduated
Probably has an eclectic taste and loves 2010s pop
Lets everyone else play their music while she’s driving and never complains
Stares at her ceiling and listens to Elliot Smith when she’s sad
Gets ready listening to y2k pop songs
Bebe Stevens
Artists:
Jungle
Wild Belle
Dominic Fike
Kesha
Avril Lavigne
Justin Bieber (baby era)
MGMT
Favourite Songs:
Feet Don’t Fail Me Now- Joy Crookes
Back On 74- Jungle
Memory Box- Peter Cat Recording Co.
Keep You- Wild Belle
Beauty And A Beat- Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj
Ur So Gay- Katy Perry
Misc:
Hates sad music, she’ll force herself to listen to USHER during a breakdown
Picky about her music, if someone plays a song she doesn’t like she’ll definitely skip it or complain until someone else does
Mentioned she liked Justin Bieber and then got in an argument with Cartman because of it
Never lets Clyde near the speaker
Screams Ur So Gay at the top of her lungs when it comes on
Heidi Turner
Artists:
Jack Johnson
Syd Matters
Daughter
Fleet Foxes
Rainbow Kitten Surprise
Noah Kahan
Of Monsters and Men
Favourite Songs:
Open Season- High Highs
To All of You- Syd Matters
Two Weeks- Grizzly Bear
Sitting, Waiting, Wishing- Jack Johnson
Sisyphus- Andrew Bird
Blue Ridge Mountains- Fleet Foxes
Misc:
Loves going for walks while she listens to music
Sends you songs that remind her of you
Listens to every song you send her and tells you what she likes about it
Hums when she has her headphones in without realising
Her and all of her friends love Noah Kahan
Tweek Tweak
Artists:
Billie Holiday
Billie Marten
Johann Sebastian Bach
Claude Debussy
Ludwig van Beethoven
Foals
Connie Francis
Favourite Songs:
Who’s Sorry Now- Connie Francis
Cello Suite No. 1 in G Minor- Johann Sebastian Bach
Méditation from Thaïs- Jules Massenet
Bad Apple- Billie Marten
The Lark Ascending- Ralph Vaughan Williams
Misc:
I actually think he would hater Hyper-Pop
Prefers slow/classical/instrumental songs
Listens to a lot of white noise, really specific ones like ‘Heavy Rain in Autumn Fairy Forest 9 hours’
Musical prodigy, plays piano and cello
Craig Tucker
Artists:
Nirvana
Hole
No Doubt
Foo Fighters
Pulp
Arcade Fire
Jeff Buckley
Favourite Songs:
Common People- Pulp
Malmo- Mook
Forget Her- Jeff Buckley
The Pretender-Foo Fighters
Dumb- Nirvana
Misc:
Made one playlist in eighth grade and never listens to anything else
Thinks Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain
Hates TikTok music, like genuinely.
Somewhat of a gatekeeper
Butters Stotch
Artists:
She & Him
Blonde
Kate Bush
Dolly Parton
Regina Spector
The La’s
The Mama’s and the Papa’s
Favourite Songs:
You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine- Lou Rawls
In the Summertime- Mungo Jerry
Hey, Lucky Lady- Dolly Parton
The Tide is High- Blondie
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here- She & Him
Don’t Let The Good Life Pass You By- Cass Elliot
Clay Pigeons- Michael Cera
Misc:
Songs absentmindedly all the time, annoys the hell out of everyone
Quotes the songs he listens to
Developed choreography in middle school and still remembers it
Asks people if they’ve heard a super popular song that’s all over the radio and social media out of genuine curiosity
Anyways, that’s all I got for now. Re log or comment what you think they’d listen to bc I’m genuinely curious, thanks for reading!
Also it literally took hours to add all of those Spotify links so I hope you got something out of this! they wouldn’t let me add more than 100 :/
#south park#kyle broflovski#eric cartman#stan marsh#wendy testaburger#bebe stevens#heidi turner#craig tucker#tweek tweak#butters stotch#kenny mccormick#headcanon#south park kyle#south park x y/n#south park x reader#south park headcanons#kyle south park#south park hcs
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I posted 135 times in 2022
That's 135 more posts than 2021!
80 posts created (59%)
55 posts reblogged (41%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@belovedlittlecorpse
@quothalinguist
@frattynattyladdie
@zjofierose
@mandaloriandy
I tagged 83 of my posts in 2022
Only 39% of my posts had no tags
#conlang - 58 posts
#language - 43 posts
#valyrian - 24 posts
#high valyrian - 22 posts
#hotd - 20 posts
#house of the dragon - 19 posts
#got - 12 posts
#game of thrones - 11 posts
#orthography - 9 posts
#langtime - 5 posts
Longest Tag: 47 characters
#the vowels that are untouchable like eliot ness
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
Hi, welcome back to Tumblr! Your Trigdasleng posts back in the day were fascinating, even though I never watched the show they're from. Keep on keepin' on.
Thank you! It's good to be back, and this is as good a place as any to talk about why I'm here and what I'm doing.
First, I left Tumblr when many others did when they instituted their infamous "female-presenting nipple" policy. It's not as if my Tumblr was ever a nsfw blog, or as if I had any female-presenting nipples, but I felt it was the wrong response to the difficult situation they'd been put in. It was something that hurt a lot of people who had a lot less of a voice and not much of a platform, and so I felt it was my responsibility to use the platform I had to take a stand, even if ultimately it didn't change anything.
As it happens, years later, Tumblr has finally reversed the policy (well done, @staff!). Tumblr may not be the wild west it used to be, but at least they aren't targeting anyone presenting a specific gender unfairly. I've missed my time away, and the people I got to know here, so I'm happy to be back!
As I see it, I'll probably be reblogging stuff less here, even though that's how I made my name way back when, and instead responding mostly to asks in my inbox.
To give myself a fresh start, I have deleted all 3,999 of my asks. I'm starting fresh—with this one, which was the first! My inbox got too overwhelming, so this was needed.
To answer some questions some may have, if you haven't followed me elsewhere recently:
I'm most active on Instagram, where I am @athdavrazar.
I have a YouTube series with partner and significant other Jessie Sams, who is @quothalinguist on Instagram. That series is called LangTime Studio, and we create a language from scratch together live on camera (we work on two hours a week every Thursday at 2 p.m. Pacific).
Jessie and I work together almost exclusively now, and we've done work on Freeform's Motherland: Fort Salem (which I hope you loved, Tumblr!), Peacock's Vampire Academy, the second season of Shadow and Bone (forthcoming), Amazon's Paper Girls (though you can blink and miss our stuff), and the second Dune film.
I worked on HBO's House of the Dragon, and got to create a writing system for High Valyrian, which I'm very excited about.
I created the Sangheili language for Paramount+'s Halo with Carl Buck, who is on Instagram as @tlacamazatl (he's on Tumblr as @tlacamazatl too!). We are presently working on season 2.
I worked with Christian Thalmann on Shadow and Bone seasons 1 and 2. The breakdown is this: Christian and I jointly created the Fjerdan language; I created the Ravkan language and orthography as well as the Kerch and Zemeni orthographies exclusively; Jessie Sams and I created the Shu and Zemeni languages jointly; Christian created the Shu orthography. I can't wait for you to hear and see our work in season 2!
Yes, I left Twitter (quite a bit ago). I'm now more active on Discord, where I'm on a few servers.
I created a wiki for all my languages, and am unevenly working on all of them, and some languages have a team of people working on them (in particular High Valyrian).
Despite being double-vaxxed and getting not one, not two, but three boosters, I got Covid in June, and that PoS hasn't completely left me alone since. (Note: I'd only had one booster before I got it; two have come since then, including the new one, which will hopefully be the last!)
I am traveling again, so I hope to announce those here when they happen.
If there's anything I missed, you let me know. I look forward to answering asks again, and joining in the general silliness of Tumblr! <3
139 notes - Posted November 13, 2022
#4
The Elder Runes from The Witcher
See the full post
157 notes - Posted December 1, 2022
#3
198 notes - Posted November 13, 2022
#2
Well now I HAVE to ask how to say/write "chicken" in your various languages!
Oh here we go...
🐔🐥🐤🐣🐓
Azrán: upózh
Bodzvokhan: dǝq
Castithan: chikano (< English)
Dothraki: jiz
Hen Linge: mak
High Valyrian: ñoves (rooster), qulbes (hen)
Irathient: tisese
Kamakawi: iki (animal), i'iki (food)
Méníshè: t'òdír
Noalath: vokach
Övüsi: kuge
Ravkan: shuk (rooster), shuka (hen)
Trigedasleng: omi (generic), egleya (hen)
Yulish: bökki
Zemeni: wela
Zhyler: levžel
That's not all of them, but that's a lot of them!
(Btw, I was sitting here coming up with this list, and @quothalinguist glances at it and is instantly like, "You're coming up with words for 'chicken'? Méníshè's got one!' And, of course, she was right!)
682 notes - Posted November 24, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
Do you have any thoughts on the translation scene in Goncharov? I haven't seen a lot of people talking about it but it's a pretty pivotal scene and given that what they're doing is not dissimilar to a conlang imo i figured you might have some good insights
*sigh*
I figured someone was going to ask this eventually...
So listen, the whole translation scene in Goncharov is not technically conlang-related. It's actually even more brilliant, but it's hard to explain.
Since the tutor doesn't speak Russian and the nurse only speaks Italian, the aphasiac Soviet spy has to use an impromptu series of hand gestures to indicate that he either does or doesn't understand. I mean, you can glean that from the subtitles, so that's no big revelation.
But this is where it gets weird and...I mean, linguistically controversial, to say the least, but it was the 70s.
As the tutor and the nurse attempt to communicate with him and each other, they begin to winnow down their vocabulary to words that are cognate between Italian and Russian. And through this back and forth, the languages seem like they're blending, but what they're actually doing is reversing the sound changes of Italian and Russian until they both end up, improbably, at Proto-Indo-European. It's like something you'd see in Fantasia, but aural! It's...utterly bizarre.
And, of course the final word that the nurse and the tutor utter simultaneously, the one that brings the spy to tears, is *bʰewdʰ- "awake, aware"—which, I mean, knowing how the rest of the movie goes...yeah. Bombshell. And it's crazy to me that they didn't subtitle it! Like, you pretty much have to be a PIE scholar to get that, and the entire subplot hinges on it! I mean, bold isn't the word for it. Unfathomable. Cannot believe they got away with that...
Rumor has it that Morris Halle consulted on the film, but he's adamantly refused to talk about. (For years, he'd end all his guest lectures with, "Are they any questions about anything other than Goncharov?") He never once confirmed whether or not he was involved (of course, he wasn't credited, but that wouldn't be unusual for the time even if he was involved).
I can see why you'd think it would be a conlang, but the reverse-engineered sound changes were so precise, and the whole thing so by the book, that there really wasn't any actual invention. It was all Indo-European!
2,227 notes - Posted November 22, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
#tumblr2022#year in review#my 2022 tumblr year in review#your tumblr year in review#not bad for a couple months
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a playlist for the first part of these days that bind!
listening links; spotify, youtube.
the fic (on ao3)
on my way - so tell everybody i'm on my way /and i just can't wait to be home / with the sun beating down, yes / i'm on my way, and nothing but good times to show
i will be back one day - but i'm way out west / and the years keep on slipping away / want to run on the sacred dunes / through the ancient ruins
into the darkness - into the darkness, we'll burn a light (we'll burn a light) / into the darkness, we all must fight (we all must fight) / we all must fight.
all fall down - yeah, lost 'til you're found / swim 'til you're drown / know that we all fall down / love 'til you hate / strong 'til you break / know that we all fall down
way down we go - you let your feet run wild / time has come as we all, oh, go down / yeah but for the fall, ooh, my / do you dare to look him right in the eye
dead of night - when the lights go out all around, whispers fill the air /in the dead of night, better hold on tight / you can shout or you can scream / but it won't save you from the midnight trickery
lonesome dreams - a cold wind blows and my bones start to shake / and I feel I should know this place as the road winds on into a wide-open space / the wind plays a haunting tone / as I make my way through the night all alone
glory - stories told to me / and stories told to you / did you ever feel / like they were ringing true? / and all their words for glory / well they always sounded empty / when we're looking up for heaven
storm comin' - When those lights flash, and you hear that thunder roar / will you listen to that thunder roar and let your spirits soar
i followed fires - give me to the road / upon the heart that I had sold / warm my heavy hands / my heavy hands for you to hold
got it in you - when the lights go out and leave you standing in the dark / no one ever told you this would be so hard / I know you think your fire is burning out / but I still see you shining through / you got it in you
dreamer - do you believe in miracles? / we can achieve the impossible / just give me a sign, a sign of life / cause maybe i'm a dreamer, i'm a dreamer
the kids aren't alright - don't you know that the kids aren't al-, kids aren't alright? i'll be yours / when it rains it pours / stay thirsty like before / don't you know that the kids aren't al-, kids aren't alright?
we might fall - I'll be up to watch the world around us live and die / lying on the grass now, dancing for the stars / maybe one will look on down and tell us who we are
soldier - soldier keep on marching on / head down till the work is done /waiting on the morning sun / soldier keep on marching on
sorrow - where there is light, the shadow appears / the cause and effect / when life interferes the same rule applies
walk through the fire - did we light too many matches? / turn ourselves into these ashes / did we throw it all away? / did we throw it all away?
dream - we all are living in a dream / but life ain't what it seems / oh, everything's a mess / and all these sorrows I have seen /they lead me to believe that everything's a mess
#my fic#sae stuff#kind of?#is 'on my way' kinda mean considering *waves hands*? yes#do i regret it? absolutely not#og post
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So I realized I forgot to post (on Tumblr) about the time that I wrote Steve-O a fan letter and I ended up going to see his show last year. This is gonna be a long post, and I'm on mobile, so idk how to put a read-more (also mild NSFW due to how Steve-O's autograph looks haha).
So anyways, sometime in spring of last year, I read Steve-O's book Professional Idiot. I had gotten into Jackass when Forever was out, I only got to see some of the series when I was younger (I had a best friend who was allowed to watch MTV when she was like, 10, and I didn't have cable at home until my teens haha). I had also found Steve-O's YouTube channel and liked watching his videos, they made me smile. I ended up reaching out to the Jackass Reddit about writing a fan letter to any of the Jackasses, but particularly Steve-O. Someone helped me get in contact with his publicist, and I wrote a nice fan letter and basically sent it through the publicist. I wasn't sure if he'd write back, but to my surprise, nearly a week later, I get a package in the mail. I open it, and the first thing I saw was a handwritten note from Steve-O that says "Thank you for the kind words Shnaiah". I got a copy of his book, that he not only signed, but wrote my name in, a signed DVD of his Gnarly special, a pair of sunglasses with Yeah Dude on the sides, and a little pin with his face/logo on it (I love pins, have them all over my purse). But for some reason, I had what appeared to be 500 signed posters, which I thought was odd. This is important later.
So a few days later, I had gotten a call from Scott Randolph, Steve-O's friend and producer (and if you're wondering how he got my number, I ordered merch from Steve-O's site before, which would ask for phone number along with address when you order, you know, and since I have a unique name, it was easy to recognize haha). Anyways, I knew who he was because he's on with Steve-O for his Wild Ride podcast, so I was pretty surprised. He asked if I got the gift package, and I said yes and thanked him, then he asked if I happened to get about 500 signed DVD covers, and realized that those weren't mini posters at all. Then he said "we kinda goofed up", those were supposed to be sent to the DVD factory to be put in the cases, then sold on the merch store. So I ended up helping to send them back, Steve-O did work hard on signing all those covers after all. I had happened to mention that me and my bf were gonna try and see a Bucket List show (at the time I wrote my letter, I didn't see any showings, but sometime before I got the package, I saw a new batch of shows, and there was one coming out on July 14th close to me, also a couple weeks after my birthday). So Scott was gonna give me and bf tickets and meet and greet passes for helping him out. I about fainted! I got home and told my family the news. So on July 14th, my mom and stepdad take me and bf on a short trip to Wheeling West Virginia to see the show. This show Danger Ehren got to open for it, we were one of 5 shows he was tagging along with Steve-O with. He didn't stay for the meet and greet though for some reason. Me and bf were so excited after the show. We lined up with the rest of the VIPs. I brought my book signed with my name to the show with me. When it was our turn to get our pictures taken, I opened my book to the page he signed and I said "I wrote you back in May, and you signed this book with my name and gave me all these nice gifts", and his face lit up and he said "I remember you!" and even mentioned something in my letter. We got our pics together, and man, it was the best day ever!
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I don’t really write for stuff that I don’t have OCs in because I just find it easier than writing with pre-established characters since I know everything about my OCs and I don’t have the fear of mischaracterizing a character accidentally.
Plus I think if I did write for Once it’d be a fix-it fic that’s fixes so much it’s a completely different story and not even about Once lmao.
The only fandoms I have stories planned for that have a lot of focus on pre-established characters are Far Cry, Fallout, The Outer Worlds, and Mass Effect which is apart of The Outer Worlds story but an OC is the protagonist of most of those stories.
Actually I think the only fandoms that I have stories planned for where the main focus is majority OCs is Star Wars and Baldur’s Gate/D&D.
If I were to ever write for Once it’d be finishing the Frankenstein storyline that they never finished even when the actor came back.
A good Fairytale x D&D thing would be Dimension 20’s Neverafter season which did a really good job and is an inspiration for A Bard’s Plague although Neverafter is heavy on the horror elements while I’m sticking with just the fantasy elements. You can only watch Neverafter on Dropout though but the first episode is on their YouTube.
A Fairytale crossover thing I wanna try out is A Wolf Among Us. I do plan on doing a noir story for A Bard’s Plague but that’ll be its own separate thing in like a 1920s/1940s version of the D&D world because to me I don’t think a true Noir setting can fit into fantasy like how Victorian England or Wild West America can because it’s a little too close to modern days for me.
Dimension 20 used to be my favourite! Especially Brennan as a DM, he is really creative and fun! I used to think dnd was all serious and boring. Critical role just didn't hit it for me no matter how many times I tried, but Brennan made DnD look very fun and colourful for a beginner while critical role felt intimidating.
I used to be subscribed to dropout bc of it but also found really good shows. Eventually, I drifted off and didn't watch it anymore, so I cancelled it. Might reinstall it to see what's new.
And yeah I get the fear of mischaracterisation, but it is one of the investable things you have to swallow when writing any fanfics. No one will ever be true to the source material no matter how much we try, especially if you're one person and the source has a team of writers. Not a single one of those writers could nail the character on their own and they'd need the whole team to make it come alive.
It's a bitter truth we all have to accept eventually that our favourite characters are viewed by us through many lenses and biases. We can't understand them fully and we can't give them justice fully, we can't fly too close to the sun we may only skirt by and do good enough.
Each writer has a different spin on each character. I found out that I tend to make characters softer, more gentle, and lonely when I write them. I flush out their inner vulnerability more, focus on the thoughts inside their brain rather than their own dialogue more. I put a piece of my soul in each one of them.
And it makes me happy, the way I portray them. It's not everyone's taste and that's fine. It's my own spin on them to make them more desperate, more lovestruck and put an emphasis on their emotions. I rarely add dialogue unless absolutely necessary for the scene to progress.
I say find your own spin, there is no correct way to write it. You'll always mischaracterize the character in someone else's eyes. Sometimes the shows itself do it to their own characters. Even the writer teams are still human by the end of the day.
Perfectionism is a disease that kills creativity and keeps you stuck in a prison of your own mind's design.
It sneaks up on you too, you never notice when did you start caring for this and that until you've spent three hours on the same scene because the way the character says a particular sentence just doesn't fit at all.
Let them say the damn sentence, to hell with it all. Worst people would do is click away from your fic, and 90% of them weren't even gonna leave likes even if they enjoyed reading it so save yourself the headache and make life and writing easier for you.
Standards should be for how much you enjoy the piece you've written not for how much it meets a list of requirements.
Also oh my god you like star wars and I have been making fun of star wars nonstop. Ofhwofhd I am so sorry, I have never actually seen any of the movies, I don't know anything about it. It's just a bit I keep doing for the gag and nothing else.
A wolf among us, is that the tellatell game? I loved it before! The concept was so good even tho I don't remember the plot by now, it's been years.
Talking about fairytale spin offs, this reminded me of an old cartoon movie about little riding hood.
This one on youtube. Hoodwinked
It blew my mind as a kid, I was a huge detective conan fan (still am but shh) and making it a murder mystery with all the plot twists and characters just made my brain melt.
Nothing will ever compare to the rush of being around 10 and seeing this movie for the first time.
Actually I'm gonna go watch it again, fucking masterpiece. Give it a try if you have an hour to spare.
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Just sharing & uploading my favorite tracks here on YouTube. Check out my Playlists, in which I categorize my channel's uploads. You can also check out what other music I am into on my "chikokevo Play" channel, where I upload, compile playlists and compilations of various artists & genres here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEPJyF050Dp3sOWHt4u9jVg/playlists
Check out my EDM Classics playlist. I don't have specific criteria of what determines classic for me, I just feel like it. Just some really old tracks, most from back in a day of mine. Playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQnbw3BDWf8HNXklao35h5AGtUGUGO8yO
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Whey Jennings Croons Like A Cowboy With Sentimental Country Ballad “Daredevil” From Forthcoming EP, Just Before The Dawn
Country singer-songwriter Whey Jennings croons like a Cowboy on the sentimental love song, “Daredevil,” the new single from his forthcoming EP, Just Before The Dawn, due out September 22 by Dirt Rock Empire. The song’s music video exclusively premiered today by the Cowboy Lifestyle Network , and will be available everywhere digitally on Friday, August 25 .
“I wrote this song for my beautiful wife,” Whey said. The idea and lyrics just came flowing out of my heart like honey from a hive because of how true it is in reality. I’m her Daredevil and she is my rose petal!”
Fans can watch the new music video now on the Cowboy Lifestyle Network until its premiere on Whey’s YouTube channel this Friday at 12pm ET, along with being featured on CMT.com’s music videos page. The video is also set to roll out on The Heartland Network after the release date.
“Some really good friends of mine, singer Justin Jeansonne and his fiance Jaden Barnett, were the actors in the video, which we filmed at the Country Rebel ranch in Tennessee,” Whey continued. “They are some of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met in my life, and I think they perfectly captured the essence of the song.”
“Daredevil” is one of six new songs from the EP, and the third single released in 2023 following summer releases of “Old Country Song” and “Wild Child.” Making a monumental comeback since 2022, Whey demonstrates next level songwriting abilities on the new EP. The grandson of Outlaw country pioneers Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, Whey is charting his own course in life and with his music. Several of the songs on the forthcoming Just Before The Dawn EP continue to tell his story of redemption, with help from his faith, family and friends. With his newfound lifestyle at-hand, Whey is already beginning to establish his own musical legacy within his iconic Jennings family tree.
“People like us, traditional country music fans, are a dying breed, and by us I don’t mean just artists,” Whey explained. “There’s a large cult following for old country music loving men and women and we are all like-minded individuals, that when old country songs are played, it brings us all together. With me and fans, I ain’t never gone wrong with an old country song so you can plan on me to keep the tradition alive for as long as I can.”
Single name: “Daredevil”
Songwriters: Whey Jennings, Dylan Cornell
Record Label: Dirt Rock Empire
Audio release date: August 25, 2023
Video release date: August 25, 2023
Audio producers: Gary Carter at Danny’s Place Long Hollow Studio and GC Studio
Video Director/producer: Giovanne Gotay, Melissa Gotay
Pre-Save/Buy/Stream: cmdshft.ffm.to/jbtd
Upcoming Tour Dates:
AUG 22 – West End Fair / Gilbert, Pa.
AUG 25 – Buffalo Jam / Jamestown, N.D.
AUG 26 – Live at Rollies / Sauk Rapids, Minn.
SEPT 01 – Parks End of Summer Bash / Clayville, N.Y.
SEPT 02 – Waylon’s Watering Hole / Smithmill, Pa.
SEPT 03 – Wyoming County Fair / Meshoppen, Pa.
SEPT 12-13 – Nashville Media Days / Nashville, Tenn.
SEPT 15 – Bootleggers Saloon & Vittles / Herrin, Ill.
SEPT 16 – Northeast Missouri Old Threshers / Shelbina, Mo.
SEPT 23 – Country & BBQ Liechtenstein / Schaan, Liechtenstein
**For Whey’s complete tour schedule follow on BandsInTown or visit WheyJennings.com/tour
About Whey Jennings:
Country singer-songwriter Whey Jennings was born into one of country music’s most iconic family names, as he first emerged in 2012 as another naturally gifted singer from the Jennings family. With large boots to fill, the young Dirt Rock Empire recording artist with a booming baritone voice as big as Texas, finds himself with a few expectations to live up to. Seeking to establish his own musical legacy as one of the few remaining torch-bearing country traditionalists out there, Whey can instantly take his fans back to a time and sound his Grandfather Waylon and Grandmother Jessi gave birth to in the 70’s. Whey has two studio recorded EP releases under his belt, 2020’s Gypsy Soul and 2022’s If It Wasn’t for The Sinnin’, both which revealed musical stories of how Whey was coming to terms with a partying lifestyle, knowing he needed to make a change. On his third EP, Just Before The Dawn, out September 22, 2023, Whey shares more stories about his struggles with addiction, finding sobriety, and redemption through faith, family and friends. Interjecting his own modern-day approach to songwriting and storytelling, while staying rough around the edges with an unpolished grit and honest demeanor, Whey’s musical roots run as deep as his family’s name would imply. Whey Jennings has only scratched the surface of what is still yet to come. As they say, what goes around comes around.
Whey Jennings Contacts:
Publicity & PR: Jason W. Ashcraft | [email protected] | (615) 991-1125
Management & Booking: Tammy Carolus | [email protected]
Radio Promotions: David Wade, Neon Deuce Music | [email protected]
Record Label: Dirt Rock Empire | [email protected]
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Simple request Ace teaching his GN partner how to do slight of hand card tricks? Feel like its a great chance to ether look cool or totally embarrass himself.
Ace Trappola x GN Reader: You’re On!
☁︎ Fluffyy
⚠︎ Warnings: None
! Word count: 1.1k
ꕤ Notes: this isn’t exactly my usual way of writng, but I hope you enjoy it nontheless!
Honestly, I’m not quite sure who thought this would be that great of an idea, but when your boyfriend starts begging asking you to learn some card tricks with him, who are you to say no?
Lucky for him, you couldn’t bring yourself to do so.
It was a quiet evening, after classes had let out, the day was extrmemyl busy, but isnt it always? Especially because of the people who you’ve dubbed as your friends. They amazing, but they can a bit much at times. So you really wanted to spend the rest of your day just hanging out in a quiet setting with Ace, your lovely loud boyfriend.
“Come on, y/n! I promise it'll be fun! You’ll like it!” He exclaimed, pleading.
Ace wasn’t exactly one to give up quickly, he’s more stubborn than a sleepy Leona, when he wants to be. It's impossible to make him change his mind at times. You knew you were going to utterly fail at this, as card tricks weren’t exactly your forte. But convincing Ace of this was hopeless. He wouldn’t listen to reason.
“Ace. I’m really not in the mood. I know that it’s not going to work out.” You signed, your arms crossed, you weren’t against card tricks but you wanted to spend the day curled up watching youscroll. The wonderlands version of youtube.
“We’ve barely done anything together together recently, come on.”
“What are you talking about? We watched a movie together yesterday.”
“It was a hippo documanturty, that you wanted to watch, and you fell asleep within the first 7 minutes.”
He was right but you weren’t going to back down either, “You could’ve turned it off, or changed it.”
“Believe me! I tried,” he shuddered remembering the previous night…
You were both cuddled up on a couch seated in Ramshackles lounge, you spend the veening tidying up a bit, as the dorm clearly needed it, and you decided that it was time for a break.
“Fianlly! TV time!” Ace cheered, hopping over the back of the couch to be seated against a ton of pillows, as he grabbed the remote.
“Mhmmm, its time for some hippos!”
“..Hippos? Thats not what I was going to put on.”
“Yeah, buts its my turn to choose.”
“You chose yesterday,” Ace rebutted.
You rolled your eyes, “No, I didnt. It was Deuce's turn.”
Now imagine a scene from the old wild west, music and everything. You narrowed your eyes as you looked at eachother. You and Ace have a ritual as to who gets final say, as this problem has come up really often.
“You ready, babe,” Ace teased.
“Always.”
…
“ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!”
“Damnit!”
You laughed victorious as you grabbed the remote, “You always choose paper.”
“I do not!” He exclaimed, pouting. Then a second later, “Yeah I do… You never fall for it!”
“Who knows, maybe one of these days I will,” You chuckled, laying down on the couch, resting your head on Ace’s shoulder.
“Hopefully soon,” He laughed.
Only 7 minutes had passed when ACe had begun to yawn, the narrators voice was so monotone, making Ace extremely tired.
“Hey, y/n, can we change it now?”He was expecting you to answer with a no, but instead he got no response. “y/n..? Hey y/n?”
He looked over at your face to find you dead asleep. He tried to grab the remote, but your hold on it was too strong. “Huh? How are they-” he mumbled to himself, confused.
To be fair, living in Ramshackle, over time you had to develop this skill living with Grim and the ghosts. Speaking of Grim, he had decided to spend the night over with Deuce. The 2 wanted to give you both some quality time, but it was only 6 and Ace was stuck. You were asleep atop of him, and he didn't have the heart to wake you, and the narrator was slowly killing him. It was going to be a long night.
…
“I don't remember any of that.”
“You were asleep.”
“Okay, okay fine! You can teach me some card tricks.”
“Yes! Thank you, babe.” Ace squealed, planting a kiss to your cheek as he ran off to grab a deck of cards.
“Love you,” You said, but you doubt he heard you as he took off.
…
“All you have to do is then turn your hand like so then twist!”
It had been an hour or so, and to say the least, you weren’t exactly making much progress.
“Like… this-?” You folded instead of twisted and the entire deck of cards flew from your hands, scattering across the room like confetti. They cards slowly rained down as both you and Ace stared at each other for a solid second, then burst into laughter.
“No, y/n, like this-” Then the same stunt happened again.
You raised an eyebrow towards him, debating whether or not to bring up his reddining face.
“... I was just trying to make you feel better.”
“Totally.” You smirked, as Ace then tackled you onto the couch peppering kisses all over your face.
Cards of both decks were still falling, as you both broke into fits of laughter, its been a busy day for sure, but the mess was worth it. You’d have to clean it quickly before Grim got back or else you would never hear the end of it. Ace grabbed you by your hand to pull you up as the realization of that fact you had to clean, brought you back to the real world.
“We got this! We can do it in no time,” Ace winked, you could only laugh as your boyfriend offered to turn it into a game. Then to a competition.
“You’re on!”
It had taken less time than you initially thought it would, and by then, Ace had to head back to his dorm. Riddle wasn't all that lenient on curfews.
“I’ll see you first thing tomorrow!” Ace smiled, playing with one of the decks in his hand.
“See you tomorrow,” You smiled.
The lanterns outside illuminated the right side of his face. The moon was bright as there weren't many clouds outside either, and the fireflies danced around, enjoying their night out. You don’t know what came out of you but you sprung onto him, grabbing his collar pulling him into a kiss.
“Goodnight, hun.”
“...g-goodnight.” he stuttered out with a laugh.
You giggled as you went back in, hearing Grim call out for you. Ace looked to his hands, the cards still in between his palms. He didn’t mean to but-
“I DID IT! THE TRICK! HA! I KNEW I COULD!” he announced as he skipped back to Heartsabyul.
i’m not 100% sure how I feel about this little drabble thing, so let me know if I should try it again with my “usual style”, i wouldn’t mind as I actually really liked this concept
#headcanon#disney twst x reader#disney twisted wonderland x reader#ace trappola#ace x reader#ace trappola x reader#disney twisted wonderland#disney twst#ace trappola oneshots#ace trappola drabble
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There's something really strange about how certain parts of the RWBY react so negatively to criticism of the show. There is a complete denial of the criticism, especially if its in good faith, for reasons only tangentially related to the critique. For example, the Youtuber hbomberguy made a really good faith critique of RWBY and I saw fans utterly dismissing it because he says he was a life long fan of Monty's work and they found screenshots from 2008 where he said he didn't like Monty. (1/2)
Yeah, outside of that primary point — that disliking an author/the author's work more generally doesn't automatically invalidate critique; there might be bias at play, yes, but it's not a foregone conclusion — there are a lot of complications there. One that I've actually been thinking about lately is this idea that opinions are not allowed to change over the course of our relationship with a text. There's this assumption that if you said you didn't like Monty in 2008 (whatever "didn't like Monty" even means in that instance — the person? The authorial persona? His company? Some works? All his works?) then you'd better either dislike his work the exact same amount now, or love it without question. No developing new or complicated opinions across twelve-odd years allowed. Which becomes the core of the, "Why are you watching if you hate it?" question that is constantly leveled at those who post critique. "Hate it" is an incredibly narrow approach to not at all easy to define feelings about a show and "hate" means something very different for every fan. For many, the knee-jerk response is simply, "I don't hate it. If I truly hated it I wouldn't still be watching." It's ouroboros eating its own tail: if you hate RWBY you shouldn't watch RWBY, but we watch it, so we must not hate it. Now what? The conversation often stalls when someone refuses to acknowledge that there's more to interacting with a text than the two neat boxes "I love it completely" and "I hate it completely."
But I'm getting off base here. The point is that changing opinions crops up a lot when discussing the critical side of the fandom, with some assuming that if you're critical now then you've always been critical and you're nothing but critical. The idea that you once loved RWBY and are now negotiating a different kind of interest in it, or that you're frustrated by the show while also enjoying other aspects is, it seems, not on the table. It's presented as that either/or situation: you like it, or you don't, and if you've got any gripes with the story, the author(s), or the company at any point... then you're in the "don't" category.
But beyond all that, I also mean that opinions aren't allowed to change in the sense of fans not acknowledging that online spaces are a kind of Wild West where opinions as a whole are incredibly malleable. To use myself as an example, I've posted A LOT of stuff about RWBY. That means I've said a lot of stuff and given how humans work... a lot of that stuff contradicts! Sometimes it's for easily explainable reasons — I got a new piece of information and changed my tune accordingly, a new Volume warmed me to a character or topic that I wasn't previously interested in, etc. — but other times it's just... a mess. Because our relationships with texts can be a mess. I've got posts where I'm criticizing Sun when talking about RWBY. I've got posts where I'm defending Sun when talking about Before the Dawn. I've got posts where I'm 100% backing Ozpin's choices. I've got posts where I acknowledge he really fucked up. I've got posts where I gush about how much I love Ruby's optimistic outlook. I've got posts where I express how much I can't stand her naive outlook. This stuff isn't static and it's certainly not neat and tidy. Not only do our opinions about texts and their creators often change over time, they don't always change across a set number of years for easy consumption by an outside observer. Sometimes your opinion changes daily. Hourly. Sometimes that occurs through conversations followers never see, posts that are later deleted, nothing but your own thoughts because we're not posting every hour of every day. And then you're back saying Thing #1 again because it's all just messy, repetitive conversation expressed via quickly written tweets and the like as an informal hobby. No one is double-checking our work here, demanding to know if we really, truly back what we're saying 100% because someone might one day drag it back out into the light and try to hold you accountable for it. Presenting any one, quickly expressed opinion from over a decade ago as some sort of 'gotcha' is in far more bad faith, imo, than the critique that's getting dismissed.
All of which is, of course, far from just a RWBY issue. We see this kind of behavior everywhere online, where past opinions, mistakes, or just casual responses are dredged up with the intention of erasing any and all present credibility. Pay no attention to what the person is saying now, instead form your opinion of them solely by what they said years ago, with no possible wiggle room allowed. Fans dismissing RWBY critique? That's fine. No one needs to engage with criticism of a favorite show — if anything, I highly encourage those who dislike critique to steer clear of it — so as frustrating as it can be on our end, it's the cleaner side of a very ugly coin. If the worst our community ever did was go, "Your critique is invalid because you said once in 2008 that you don't like Monty's stuff" and left it at that... said community would be a far kinder, gentler, safer place. As it stands, that urge to go digging for a 'gotcha' post generally leads to full-blown harassment (which, frankly, I'm sure hbomberguy got anyway). It is weird that fans are so eager to use an old screenshot to "disprove" a two and a half hour video... I just wish that's as far as that kind of behavior ever went.
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AIGHT Y’ALL I wasn’t tagged but I’m doing this anyways because f u c k i t
It's the year 2021 and you're obsessed with The Karate Kid. How are you feeling?
Deadasss weird as fuck, my dude. Like...out of all the things I could’ve predicted happening in our lord’s year 2021, it definitely was NOT getting hyperfixated on a hammy gay ship with a punk and a nerd from a goddamn karate soap opera. And yet...here we are??? I will never understand hyperfixations, my guy. But I’ve met a lot of really cool people in this fandom, so I can’t really complain.
Did you grow up with TKK or are you new to the series?
I have never seen a single Karate Kid movie in my entire life. When I was a kid, it looked kinda dumb so I never got into it XD But then I saw my roommate watching Cobra Kai on Youtube Red one day (he has every streaming service known to man) and I was hooked. And...here I am!
We gotta do the basics. Favorite character:
Literally EVERYONE except for Kreese, Yasmine, Kyler, and Tory, sorry stans
Okay but if we gotta pick, Johnny Lawrence is my Problematic Fave. Also I love my boy Daniel, he’s trying his best!!! And Amanda LaRusso, we stan a queen!!!
Among the kids, definitely Miguel, with Demetri as a close second. I also love Sam, Aisha, Moon, and Hawk (pre- and post-Bastardization Arc, anyways XD)!
Favorite ship:
Take a look at my username and take a WILD FUCKING GUESS lmao
Yes it’s Eli/Demetri because DUH, every interaction they have is so fucking gay and Eli fucking saved him!!! And came back to him!!! And betrayed the world’s most terrifying dojo with a WAR CRIMINAL SENSEI all for Demetri!!! And how Demetri was willing to forgive him for everything at the drop of a hat because he always had faith there was still good in his best friend??? That’s TRUE LOVE motherfuckers. Please let them kiss in Season 4. I will sell you all of my limbs.
Sam/Miguel is a close second because they’re cute as shit and it’s just so lovely to see two people so unapologetically smitten with each other. They are in LOVE, and I will RIOT if they break up again!!! Keep Sam and Miguel together 2k21!!!
Underrated character:
SAMANTHA LARUSSO!!! The amount of hate my girl gets for acting like a normal teenager and fucking up occasionally JUST like the rest of the cast makes me want to start punching things. She cares SO MUCH about her friends!!! And she loves the shit out of Miguel!!! She hasn’t always been the best friend but you know what??? Neither has Hawk, and we still forgave his ass!!! Also LET HER BE FEMININE but also kick utter ass, my god!!! Femininity should not be synonymous with being weak, y’all!
ALSO DEMETRI, like yes, he likes to complain and occasionally run his mouth, but guess what else he likes to do??? Never give up on the love of his life his best friend Eli Moskowitz and refuse to lose faith in him no matter how much of a little shit he’s become, and I for one think that’s very badass of him. Also the way he takes care of Eli pre-Cobra Kai in his own snarky bastard way makes me absolutely Weak and needs more appreciation. Like the dude has charisma and COULD have probably made other friends and left Eli behind if he wanted, but did he??? No, he wants the weepy loser with the lip scar in the polo shirts and dorky sweaters and will protect him as much as his wimpy ass is able!!!
Underrated ship (don’t say therapy, lol):
Among the adults, Daniel/Amanda!!! Like maybe I just don’t watch that much tv, but it seems kinda rare to me to see a happily married hetero couple, and it’s just nice to see a married couple who genuinely love each other and where there’s not like...lingering resentment or some shit. I feel like this ship gets overshadowed by Lawrusso a lot (which like--okay, fair!!! Daniel and Johnny do have a ridiculous amount of chemistry, and the gay undertones are undeniable, so I get it), and it makes me kinda sad. I do love Lawrusso, but I don’t like when Amanda has to get her heart broke for it to happen, you feel?
Among the kids, honestly YasMoon. Like I really love the idea of Yasmine trying to better herself because of Moon’s influence on her and because Moon like...inspires her to be a better person, I guess? With their pretty strong friendship, it just makes more sense to me for Yasmine to get a redemption arc through Moon than through Demetri. ALSO girls DO often pull the whole “mean girl” shtick to cover up being closeted lesbians, and Moon IS canonically bi, so it could work!!! I just think this one could be a really interesting Friends to Lovers take, and could make a really nice coming-out arc for Yas.
And MoonPiper too, honestly!!! Like they only got 5 seconds of screentime so I understand WHY it’s underrated, but I still love what we DID get and loved that there was a canon gay ship (even if only for 1 scene lmao). I’m really excited to potentially see more of them in Season 4!!! Please, I’m begging!!!
Wax On, Wax Off or Sweep the Leg?
Sweep the Leg because it will always be deeply hilarious to me how Demetri took note of the first move Eli ever used on him and spent presumably weeks perfecting it OUT OF SPITE just to get him back with it at the soccer game MONTHS later. Just goes to show how OBSESSED Demetri is with Eli and their little karate rivalry which is just NOT straight, I’m sorry
Which of Daniel’s dumb little outfits is your favorite?
There’s something so funny about this pretentious little fuck walking around in fancy suits once he becomes a #SuccessfulBusinessman, and still occasionally trying to do karate in a full-ass suit (take THAT, Tom Cole’s boba!!!) I’m also a big fan of how he looks in his gi with his little headband. Still killing that look as a 40-50-something!!!
Character from the films you most want to return, who’s not Terry Silver:
Tbh I have still never seen a single Karate Kid movie (they took them off of Netflix, RIP), so...I don’t really care if they bring anyone else back??? I’m invested in the characters we already have in the show, I don’t need some rando from the movies to make a cameo to have a good time XD The only character I really wanted them to bring back was Ali, and they already did, so like...I’m good??? That’s all I really needed, I can die in peace now XD
Scene that lives in your head rent-free:
Basically any fluffy Elimetri scene, but 5 in particular:
~Miguel first meeting Eli and Demetri at the lunch table, and Eli looking at Demetri like he hung every goddamn star in the sky
~Demetri going off at a terrifying, “unhinged” karate sensei on the first day of Cobra Kai because he made fun of Eli’s lip and Demetri is not about that shit
~ELI STEALING DEMETRI’S NACHO AND SMIRKING AT HIM, LIKE EXCUSE ME SIR PLEASE BE A LITTLE LESS HOMOSEXUAL IN FRONT OF YOUR GIRLFRIEND
~Eli yanking Demetri onstage during Valley Fest to hold a board, and Demetri being visibly like...extremely turned on when Eli breaks said board
~ELI SAVING DEMETRI DURING THE CHRISTMAS FIGHT, ELI APOLOGIZING, DEMETRI AND ELI KICKING COBRA ASS TOGETHER AKSBDCUWYVCBU
Will Anthony LaRusso ever be relevant?
I hope not! He’s kind of a funny meme character to pop up now and again but I don’t think he deserves a serious plotline when there are so many more interesting characters to follow.
You live in The Valley and are forced into the karate gang war. Which dojo do you join?
Miyagi-Do because Cobra Kai would eat me alive. Also I’d probably straight up get stuck and die in that cement mixer, if I even made it that far XD Besides, being salty that your friend who you have a crush on likes martial arts better than you and starting martial arts to impress them but also being too lazy to join anything TOO intense is a Big Mood and I am certainly not speaking from personal experience here, no sirree
What’s your training montage song?
"Shut Up and Drive” by Rihanna for a weight-training and bicep-flexing montage, “Whatever It Takes” by Imagine Dragons for a more intense punching-and-kicking-shit montage. I don’t know why this is, I just feel it in my heart.
It’s the crossover event of the century! Which TV show are you combining with Cobra Kai for an hour-long Saturday night special?
*Briefly panics because I don’t actually watch that much TV and most of the stuff I do watch is fantasy/sci fi shit that absolutely would not work for a CK crossover*
Hmmmm okay but ACTUALLY
You know what would be fucking funny as hell would be an It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia crossover. Allow me to elaborate:
~The Gang goes to LA on vacation during the height of the Karate Dojo Wars. They literally can get barely anything done without all these goddamn karate-fighting teenagers getting in the way.
~They are all very annoyed by this. Even the most obscure of tourist attractions is eventually intercepted by karate fights.
~Mac tries to join Cobra Kai because he sees all this karate fighting on, and wants to unquestionably prove both his badassery and masculinity. Both Johnny and Kreese are like “Wtf are you doing here? Aren’t you like 30?”
~Mac gets a planet-sized crush on Johnny after all of 5 minutes and endlessly gushes to the gang about him. The gang mercilessly roast him about this and about how much of a pathetic loser with his life together in no way whatsoever Johnny sounds like. They proceed to have exactly 0 self awareness about this.
~The Waitress is in town visiting family or something, and Charlie is stalking her, as per usual. However, every time he’s about to go up and talk to her, a pack of battling Miyagi-Dos and Cobra Kais throwing punches and kicks everywhere blocks his path. One times, Mac is among one of these packs and Charlie is like “???? He didn’t get kicked out of that teen karate dojo yet???”
~Seeing how much the Kids These Days seem to like fighting, Charlie drops by a local high school to try and sell Fight Milk to the kids doing karate. Only Kyler and Brucks buy into it, and subsequently get the entire West Valley High wrestling team sick. Charlie is inevitably arrested, as Counselor Blatt thinks he’s selling the kids drugs.
~Dennis makes a plan to have sex with every hot chick he can in Los Angeles. He meets Ali on a dating app post-divorce, and inevitably tries to bang her. It doesn’t work.
~Frank crashes the rental car, and inevitably the gang ends up at one of Daniel’s dealerships. Dee quickly takes a liking to Daniel and is like “Watch, assholes--Imma homewreck this guy’s marriage.” She starts frequenting the dealerships to attempt to flirt with Daniel, until one day she walks in on him having sex with Johnny in a back room and she’s like “Is that the guy from Mac’s goddamn dojo?!?!”
~Dennis, of course, tries to sleep with Amanda. Amanda is not having it, and rebukes him in the most snarky, Amanda-esque way possible. Dennis is just like “Oh not AGAIN--the women in this goddamn diva city have too high of standards!”
~Later on, the gang is at the beach and Dennis spots the blonde lady he went out on an ill-fate date with, and decides to give it another shot--that is, until he sees her go up and kiss another woman and he’s like “IS THAT THE LADY FROM THE CAR DEALERSHIP??? STUPID-KARATE-KICK-COMMERCIAL’S WIFE?!? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.”
~Dee complains to Dennis about her lack of luck getting laid, and Dennis is just like “Oh come ON, is everyone in Los Angeles gay???” Smash cut to Hawk and Demetri having sex, Moon and Piper making out, Bert and Nate holding hands, Chris and Mitch doing oral, and Amanda, Ali, and Carmen having a threesome.
~Frank tries to scam Kreese into buying cheaply-made karate equipment for his dojo. The gang ends up having to leave LA because Kreese is quite literally plotting all of their murders.
For tagging, uuuuhhhhhh @jackonthelongwalk @soe-leo @max-eagle-fang @cc-tinslebee @backawayfromthegay @asphodel-storm do the thing, if y’all haven’t yet!
#cobra kai#cobra kai season 1#cobra kai season 2#cobra kai season 3#ck#tag game#binary boyfriends#daniel larusso#johnny lawrence#it's always sunny in philadelphia#iasip
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So I've been playing Death Stranding lately. Wait, that's not what this post is about. Well, it kind of is. Hang on. What is Death Stranding about?
A: Norman Reedus getting bare ass naked
B. Sneaking around ghosts with the help of your sidekick, an actual baby
C: Carrying 50 Amazon packages up a hill while trying to not topple over
D: Waking up in the morning and drinking 5 Monster Energy™ for breakfast
For those following along at home, the answer is actually none of the above. Despite the set dressing being bizarre to the point of near absurdity, what the game is actually about, like thematically, is actually really simple.
See, the development of Death Stranding was actually quite a trip. Hideo Kojima is the video game world's equivalent of an auteur director. He has a very recognizable personal style. It's thoroughly horny – he caught a bunch of shit for the design of Quiet in MGSV, but like, a lot of Kojima characters are just -like that-, including the dudes. Also, this is going to possibly be important later.
Anyway, so Kojima was going to do a rebootmakequel of Silent Hill, and the demo actually made it to the PS store and I could actually write a whole side essay about why P.T. (it was called P.T. for some reason btw) was brilliant game design for how it used the same hallway over and over and it was somehow beneficial to the overall feeling of horror. So Konami it turns out kinda sucks nowadays and they like, fired Kojima (they were huge dicks about it behind closed doors, too) and scrapped the project and kicked him out on the street and kept the Metal Gear series which was his baby (literally the baby in the sink in P.T., he snuck a bunch of messaging about the Konami situation into the demo like a breakup album) and Kojima would go on to form his own studio and poach some of the people who worked with him to boot.
So the thing about Kojima is this: he's got a reputation for already putting some wild shit in his games, like a ladder that takes like 10 real time minutes to climb in MGS3 for dramatic effect, and a boss in MGS3 that summons the ghosts of all the people you were too lazy to stealth past and killed, or a sniper battle with a really old guy that he wanted to have last two weeks or some shit until he died of old age but he was "told that "this was impossible and not recommended." That is a real quote I just looked up. So he's coming off the heels of making this hugely successful game with MGSV and the hype of the P.T. Demo and he fucking, he like took all the people that were going to be working on P.T. Along like Guillermo Del Toro was going to co-write it and Norman Reedus was going to star in it, and he's like, I'm going to make this game called Death Stranding. And the first trailer comes out for it and it's completely nuts. Norman Reedus wakes up naked on a beach crying with a baby and there are floating people in the sky? So we're all like hooooooly shit, there's no one to tell him "this is impossible and not recommended" anymore. What's he going to make now!?
So the whole time the game is in development I keep seeing these tweets where it'll be like, Kojima and one of his homies smiling with some saccharine message about being spiritual warriors and changing the world. And not just Del Toro and Reedus, there was Mads Mikkelsen (another guy Kojima puts in the game just because he apparently loves him), and the band Chvches, and also like, Keanu Reeves at one point? You know how everyone has just kind of accepted that Keanu is a being of light? Here he was endorsing Kojima. The hype was pretty confused and frantic.
The game eventually comes out. A lot of game journos hate it because I think there was this expectation it was going to be, you know, less weird and have more of the conventional structure of a video game. That's not to say the average gamer wasn't also dismissive of it, but I think on the ground level there was more of an understanding that like, yeah, Kojima just be like that sometimes.
Because the game was a timed console exclusive and your homie don't play like that, I spent the first year or so cautiously viewing Death Stranding from a distance. I wasn't sure I was going to like it – except for being really impressed with P.T., I wasn't actually a big fan of Kojima's games as games – but I -was- sure that I was going to buy it, because of the way Konami fucked him over, just out of support. And the shit I was hearing was really out there. The primary mode of gameplay is just delivery packages. You collect Norman Reedus' bathwater and pee and use it as grenades. You get a motorcycle that looks like the one from AMC's The Ride with Norman Reedus, and when you sit on it, his character in the game says "Wow, this thing is like the one from AMC's The Ride with Norman Reedus!"
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But I didn't really want to know that much about it. Something has that much fucking crazy person energy, you want to go in mostly blind, right? So maybe people just weren't talking about this, or maybe I wasn't seeing it, but then I watched Girlfriend Reviews' video about it and they came right out and said it (link provided if you want to hear Shelby say it more articulately than me):
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Death Stranding is basically about the exact opposite of Twitter. It's about remembering how to be kind to each other, how to reconnect in a world where people are so often hostile to each other by default. Prophetically, it's about a world where people are afraid to go outside or touch other people and how damaging that is. It's not a game about carrying packages, it's a game about helping people by being brave enough to walk through a wasteland carrying their burdens because they can't. It's about rebuilding the lost connections between people, about restoring roads and giving people hope. I bet, for Kojima and the people close to him, it's about how to answer hostility with compassion. You can't kill people in Death Stranding. You can and are absolutely encouraged to fucking throw hands with people sometimes, but all the tools and weapons are nonlethal. So I think Kojima took all the Twitter heat he got over the Quiet nontroversy, and all the feelings of isolation he had from Konami separating him from his team during the end of the development of MGSV, and all the support and encouragement he got from his bros Del Toro and Mads and the rest, and decided to channel that into making a game that was a statement about all of it. And sure, it's a little heavy handed, and sure, it's a little saccharine, and sure, the gameplay sometimes borders on miserable in service of creating emotional payoffs. For me, especially in 2020, this message is a huge success.
Social media should be an opportunity for all of us to feel more connected to each other, yet primarily it feels like one of the main forces driving people apart. Why is that? Why is the internet of today such a hostile place? I'm old enough to remember web 1.0: I can haz cheezburger memes; YTMND; the early wild west days of Youtube... What happened to us? I've thrown the blame at Twitter in the past, and I think the architecture of the user experience on Twitter is absolutely a big piece of the puzzle, because it fosters negative interactions. But in terms of the behavior, people have observed that 2018 Twitter was actually almost exactly like 2014 Tumblr. (For the record, Tumblr is now one of the chillest places left on the internet, because so few fucks are left to give.)
I think part of it is the anonymity. The dehumanizing disconnection of the separation of screens and miles. Louis CK, before he was cancelled, had a great point about cyberbullying, and why it's so much more savage than kids are IRL. When you pick on someone in person and you are confronted with seeing the pain you caused them, for most sane people it causes negative feedback and you become disgusted with your actions and eventually learn to stop being a shithead. Online, at best you can "break the wrist, walk away".
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At worst, you can become addicted to "clout chasing" and the psychological thrill of being cheered on by your social ingroup. It's even worse if you feel like it's not bullying and your actions are justified because whoever you've targeted is a bad person so you don't have to feel bad about what you do to them. This is where reductive, unhelpful catchphrases like "punch a nazi" come in. For every argument, one or both sides have convinced themselves that the other side is subhuman because their beliefs are so disgusting. And sometimes it's even true! A lot of times, especially these days, people really are acting like animals or worse online. Entire disinformation engines are roaring day and night, churning out garbage and cluttering the social consciousness. (Kojima talked about this bit, too, way back in MGS2. As if I wasn't already in danger of losing my thread through this.)
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The human brain was not built to live like this. You can't wake up every morning, roll over and open your phone, and be immediately faced with a tidal wave of anger and indignity. It wasn't built to be aware of fully how horrible the world is at any moment ALL AT ONCE, ALL THE TIME. And you will be. Because of another way that our brain works – the way we are more likely to share negative opinions. And because of the cottage industry built on farming outrage clicks, and because of constant performative activism.
It's not that I don't agree that being informed is important.
It's not that I don't agree that the causes people get riled up about are important.
They are. They absolutely are.
But we can't keep living like this. The constant, unending flood of tragedy, arguments, and hot takes. How much of the negativity we associate with online culture is the product of this feedback loop? What if the rise of doomer culture has been, if not entirely created by, has been nourished and exacerbated by our hostile attitudes toward each other? Incels and TERFs, white supremacists, radfems, tankies and Trumpers – it seems like on every side of every issue, there are people simultaneously getting it wrong in multiple directions at once and there are more being radicalized every day. They are the toxic waste left behind by the state of discourse. And any hill is a hill worth dying on.
So what am I actually advocating? I don't know. There are a lot of fights going on right now that are important and we can't just climb into bunkers and ignore our problems hoping that Norman Reedus and his fine ass are going to leave the shit we need on our doorsteps. We need to find the strength to carry those hypothetical packages for ourselves sometimes - and hopefully, for others as well. Humans are social creatures. We need interaction and enrichment.
We need love.
So just try to remember the connections between humanity. Try to put more good stuff into the world when you can. Share more shitposts and memes. Tell your friends and family that you love them. Share good news when you hear it. Go on a weird fucking tangent about Death Stranding. Find a way to "be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes."
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I decided to make playlists for Cathala and Tarinne plus explanations for why I chose each song because I entered one of those ADHD fugue states and if I didn't finish this task I would die
Anyway here are the two links (they're youtube playlists because I don't have spotify. I would obviously recommend using an adblocker if you're just gonna watch on youtube) and the explanations for each song are below the cut :) Each playlist is about an hour long.
For Tarinne’s:
1. Foggy Nights: I consider this her theme so putting it first as a sort of intro only makes sense.
2. Here’s a Health to the Company: I think this works as an example of her general disposition. She’s a people person, and always a fan of singing these sorts of songs in taverns, on ships, or what have you. It also kind of feels like a sendoff to soldiers, which I imagine symbolizes her joining the Sentinel Army and quickly thereafter fighting in the Third War.
3. Wartime Prayers: Somewhat self-explanatory, this is symbolizing her seeing war for the first time, but I also included it because the last line transitions SO WELL into the next song.
4. The Hollow: This song is an intro to an album I've never heard so I don't know the context, but I really love it because it sounds like someone praying to their deity and like I mean c'mon. Elune. Tarinne's praying to Elune to guide her through the war. Do I need to elabo-
5. Wave Walker: KILL DEATH MAIM AHAHAHAHA
6. Isil Elun’falo: Just a super rad fan-made night elf song that's basically "wow we sure do love Elune" said in twenty different ways for four and a half minutes. But it ROCKS and I LOVE it.
7. Chewing Cotton Wool: This song is about losing a loved one (I did have to check but yeah that's what it is) and I use it to symbolize Tarinne losing her mom during the war. The last line, which includes the song's title, I especially like. It's referring to how morticians (apparently) put cotton gauze in a corpse's throat and mouth to keep body fluids in and make the face look more natural. So there's a fun fact for you.
8. See U Soon (Song for Dad): Just a short lofi piece to rest a bit, and it was also chosen because the title's in reference to Tarinne growing closer to her dad after losing her mom. She still visits him at his leathers and furs shop in Stormwind fairly often, especially after dangerous adventures. She just wants to make sure he knows she's alright ;-;
9. No Lullaby: Right back into it with a song that I use to represent Tarinne's general feeling of not being able to go home because it's not there anymore. She's felt like this since the end of the Third War, but it's especially strong since the whole Teldrassil thing. But I like the ending, "who said you're on your own," because it contrasts the repeating of "alone" in the rest of the song. And it's kinda like "hey, listen, you're not the only one who feels like she can't go home." I mean that's probably how basically every single night elf feels right now skxnks
10. The Moss: This song juxtaposes classic fairy tales with scientific facts about the world and I love it to BITS. I'm using it here to represent both Tarinne's love for storytelling but also her sort of... part-time historian/archaeologist/conservator career.
11. Rasputin: I just associate this song with her for some reason and this was the best place to put it.
12. Electric Feel: Moving on to focus more on Tarinne's relationship with Cathala now. This is an extremely great and somewhat ���� song that I also included because the electricity theme is appropriate because Cathala has lightning powers and y'know it's from Tarinne's perspective or whatever.
13. Bedroom Hymns: You know why this is here.
14. Movement: I can't talk about love songs without talking about Hozier, okay. This is just a nice, slower song to relax a bit with.
15. Never Let Me Go: I have an entire goddamn music video in my head with Cathala and Tarinne for this song and it’s very dramatic and emotional and I had to include this song or I’d die. Basically just listen to near the end of this song when she's repeating the title over and over, and imagine the two of them seeing each other at opposite ends of a battlefield after the dust settles and they rush towards each other and fall to their knees holding on as tightly as they can because they got separated early on and each thought the other was dead. Then you'll know how I feel when I listen to this song.
16. Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control: First of all I love the title, and second of all there's a big section in the middle (1:49 to 2:47) that I like to interpret as the two of them grappling with the fact that they're not really quite sure who or what they're fighting for anymore. Their people, yeah, but there's so many alliances and semi-permanent enemies and only-on-every-other-thursday-enemies all intertwined and the world is just so very confusing and they're trying to make the best of it. Elf school didn’t include international, interracial politics in its curriculum. It did however include how to properly plant trees, and AP calculus (this is a joke).
17. In Dreams: I like to imagine this song is something the two of them would say to each other, as a way of saying “even when everything we know is gone, even when the world ends, I will still be by your side. And if I’m not, don’t fear, for I will find you.” It makes a nice note to end on :)
For Cathala’s:
1. muse: Just a nice lofi intro to get us into things :) I don't see this song as her theme, like I do with Tarinne and the first song in her playlist, but I like it quite a bit. I don't actually really have a theme for Cathala yet, I'm currently going with a version of Way of the Monk from WoW's OST but I'm still looking for something better.
2. Frogs Singing: I included this because it's about just appreciating nature, which works because night elf and also mindfulness and meditation is a whole thing.
3. Tongues: This is a song about feeling distant from your peers which is like Cathala's whole existence! She's this weird mix of two cultures and ultimately she feels out of place regardless of where she is or who she's with. Also the theme with not understanding what people are saying works because the poor woman had to learn Pandaren from scratch and that shit ain't easy. I think blizz said somewhere probably that Common is just a language that EVERYONE knows inherently because Video Game but that's bullshit in my opinion. I'll allow spells that let you understand foreign languages to an extent (Comprehend Languages from D&D lets you understand the LITERAL meaning only, which I like), but every culture and species in the universe knowing Common is silly if you think about it for more than two seconds.
4. Kung Fu Fighting: I'm legally required to include this song. Also I prefer the Kung Fu Panda version, I'm sorry.
5. Harder Better Faster Stronger: I vicariously experience having a great work ethic through Cathala and that's why this song is here because she has 999 Determination and does Too Many push-ups every day or something idk. I was gonna say "every morning" but I have a headcanon that elves only need to sleep every couple of days (sort of a nod to "elves don't need to sleep at all" from D&D, and to explain why NIGHT elves are active at all hours of the day) so that doesn't work.
6. What's Up Danger: This song is Cathala's whole Vibe. Almost zero threat assessment skills in this woman's brain. If it can be punched, she will punch it.
7. Eye for an Eye: Fairly self-explanatory, it's a song about wanting revenge so... yeah. Checked that box. It was this or The Vengeful One by Disturbed but ultimately The Vengeful One's religious symbolism probably makes it fit better as a Tyrande theme lol ("I'm the hand of god, I'm the dark messiah." Did you mean: the Night Warrior)
8. Survivor: Cathala's survived a lot of shit and this could kinda be her making fun of herself for it because "Gods, man! Don't I deserve a break!"
9. Ashes: Really the reason I include this song is the last chunk (2:42 to the end) because holy shit. Listen, if I was gonna include a song with fire motifs, it was gonna be a somber one like this.
10. Into the West: This can kinda represent Cathala just trying to fucking breathe and recover from Teldrassil. Also works because I dunno it has stuff to do with the elves in LotR, I haven't seen those movies in a while. It sounds nice and is melancholy so I included it.
11. Like Real People Do: Cathala loves Tarinne a lot you guys have I ever menti-
12. Into the Wild: Tarinne changed Cathala's world for the better and she's super fucking grateful she has her by her side. Kinda goes without saying but you know.
13. Chasing the Moon: I have a vague music video in my head for this of them falling in love and it's very cute so there's that. Also it's in this specific spot because hey she may be deeply traumatized but she's still got a fair number of things/people in her life that make her happy so :)
14. Follow My Girl: I've got a theme going in my head that while Tarinne is fairly certain of her place in the world, Cathala is still trying to find hers. She outlived all her connections on Pandaria because Elf Lifespans(tm) and the only members of her family still alive are distant relatives she never knew very well.
15. Wish That You Were Here: This works both to represent Cathala on Pandaria feeling super homesick, and for more recently after Teldrassil. Either way, it's a message to her parents and sister.
16. Mr. Fear: She does her damnedest to hide it but she's absolutely terrified something like Teldrassil's gonna happen again! That fear drives her to do everything in her power to protect who and what she can. As long as they're not Forsaken, cause she's still got her biases, that compassion even extends across faction lines. She never really got the whole Alliance/Horde thing anyway. Innocent people shouldn't have to die, regardless of who or what they are.
17. Ordinary Day: Not to get super out there but I think this song works as symbolizing Cathala really trying to hold on to her faith in Elune, but ultimately feeling pretty abandoned. I mean she can clearly see Elune's influence everywhere. But Elune sure ain't doing Cathala any favors as far as she can tell! It also ends the whole playlist on maybe a bit of an uncertain/open-ended note, because this "losing faith" aspect is a new thing with her and will definitely be something she continues to struggle with for a while. On a related note, I should say Tarinne is still very much devout but she gets what Cathala's feeling and doesn't force anything on her, and vice versa. And Cathala wouldn't become atheist, the night elves aren't monotheistic and she still worships all the other deities, it's just specifically Elune she's a little :/ on.
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Honestly, It's kinda seems weird for me to join ATLA fandom after 15 years. I'm mean, I already watch this show, but It was like 10 years ago, when I was 8 or 9 years old. And as a child, I didn't get an opportunity to watch this show completely, so I don't remember some moments, when I was rewatching the series. Like, the fight between Katara and Pakku, Iroh's story about how Zuko gets his scar, damn I didn't even remember the Agni Kai between Zuko and Azula.
Now, I'm 18. So I don't know, It's just kinda feels like I've missed a lot of stuff. I wish I had join this fandom earlier.
The fandom rebirth has been an interesting thing to watch as someone who was there pretty much from the beginning of the original fandom- when the show first came out in 2005 I was in middle school, but I didn’t really get super involved in the online world until around 07/08, by which time I was in high school. I can tell you a little bit about what it was like, because it was a very different environment back then. You definitely missed a lot of content, but much of it is still there if you really wanna go digging for it. What’s really changed, I think, is the experience. I don’t know how interested you are in fandom history, but the ATLA fandom has a very interesting one.
For starters, the web was a lot less regulated than it is today (and a lot less commercialized, frankly). Fandom congregated in forums mainly, or on sites like deviantart and fanfiction.net. It was even possible to form community on youtube back in those days, as it was a lot easier for some nobody teenager to throw up an AMV that would get hundreds or thousands of hits. The algorithm back then was much, much different than what you see now, and channels had comments sections and inboxes to go to. And one of the biggest ATLA websites was avatarspirit.net, which had a collection of screencaps, transcripts, and news sources, but also hosted some of the biggest forums at the time.
So no tumblr, no discord servers, even twitter wasn’t really a thing back then. It was sort of the wild west, in a sense, because the internet was still relatively new. The generation who built the ATLA fandom were not true digital natives the way kids are now- we grew up alongside the internet, it aged with us, rather than being something already around that we grew into. So there was a feeling of “anything goes,” this not helped by the fact that 90% of the ATLA fandom were teenagers anyways.
Because of this, the atmosphere of fandom was quite different back then. Shipping wars were definitely a thing, I’m sure you’ve heard the legend of Kataang vs. Zutara- that’s arguably the go to example of what a ship war even is, and it could be vicious. You almost had to pick a side to be involved with the ATLA fandom at all, it was that pervasive. LGBT ships existed (the most popular being Tyzula and Jetko), but were not a prominent part of the fandom- anything that wasn’t the two big ones were smaller ships like Tokka, Taang, Maiko, and a handful of more obscure ships like Jetara or Sokkla. The ships that are popular today really weren’t back then- Zukka certainly existed but it wasn’t really on the greater fandom radar.
The discourse was different too. Fandom wasn’t really tied to activism back in the 2000s the way it is now, no one was really talking about shipping in the context of how problematic or non-problematic something was. Certainly there was some discourse along those lines, but not like you see today. I see a lot of newer discourse now about Zutara being racist, for example, that just wasn’t prominent in the early days. Age gap ships also used to be very popular in the old days. Toph and Sokka used to be a pretty big ship that’s all but disappeared in the modern fandom climate, where any hint of an age gap gets people pretty up in arms. Abuse discourse was a lot less complex back then too, for good or ill. I’ve certainly read some Zutara fics in my time that, were they published today, easily would have gotten the authors accused of abuse apologism.
And I think that’s what stands out to me a lot. When I was growing up, nobody really cared how toxic a relationship was or wasn’t, there was no emphasis on how “pure” or “wholesome” a ship was. And I actually do think that was a direct response to the American culture of the time, which was much more socially conservative (remember this is all happening during the late Bush years). Back then, it was considered progressive to push boundaries like that, to try and write “taboo” ships. It was a rebellion against against the “compassionate conservative” narrative that dominated the social attitudes of the Bush era. Most of the early ATLA fandom were teenagers. We were all rebelling in our own ways against our parents and against the authority of the time.
So for example, Zutara fics that portrayed Zuko as a legitimate villain were actually pretty popular. Some of the most popular tropes featured Zuko capturing Katara and falling in love with her while she was a prisoner. The ship was seen as kind of dark, and that was sexy to people (many of these older fics have aged poorly in the Trump era). Zuko also wasn’t held up as this “Pure Good Boi” that he is now- the myth that Zuko’s Redemption Arc has become has really changed how people see his character. But back then, he was the Edgy Bad Boy for two and a half seasons before finally turning full Good.
This was also coming off the great Livejournal Strikethrough of 07, in which a lot of fics were taken down from that platform due to “inappropriate sexual content.” This was widely seen amongst fandoms as censorship, and AO3 began to grow in popularity in the aftermath (though ff.net was still the dominant fanfiction site for several more years.) So there was also a feeling of rebellion against that, too. By and large, It was seen as transgressive and edgy to write darker stuff, and in a pre-game of thrones world that saw people literally burning Harry Potter books for being “satanic”, edgy was largely considered a good thing.
It really cannot be overstated how much game of thrones completely altered the way we view fiction, but...that’s another post.
And finally, this was an era that was very...heterosexual. People actually felt the need to put disclaimers on queer fics like “boyxboy/girlxgirl DON’T LIKE DON’T READ NO FLAMES”. We mock those kind of disclaimers now, because they look silly in hindsight, but people really did get hate comments back in the day for writing any queer ships, whether they were “healthy” or not. Literally just existing as a queer person was transgressive in 2005. It doesn’t feel that long ago, but in 2005 only two states had legalized gay marriage, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was still the military policy, it was legal to discriminate against LGBT people in most if not all work places, and public approval for same-sex marriage was hovering around 40%, maybe. There were zero canonical queer characters in American children’s animation. It wasn’t that long ago, really, but it was a different time.
All this to say, things have changed a lot. But if there was ever a time to dive into the ATLA fandom, now is it- content is being created again, people are re-engaging with the series and looking at it from a more modern lens. The fandom olds are still here, but there’s always room for younger, newer fans. If there wasn’t, the fandom would eventually die out, and no one wants that. So if you feel weird about diving into it now, don’t- there’s honestly never been a better time with the Netflix resurgence.
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Chaparrastique (San Miguel Volcano) from Conacastal
We had been in El Salvador for more than two weeks, and so far the trip had gone better than any of us could have hoped for. I surprised Asaka with a trio on the morning of her birthday. She stood outside the window while they sang her loves songs which she couldn’t understand. We celebrated by having a big pool party with Erick and his family. We bought a piñata and ate a special cake that my mom used to eat in her childhood.
There was so much that I still wanted to do, so on our last Friday we went to Cascadas Tamanique. It was a steep hike down the canyon from town, but we were eventually rewarded with a beautiful set of waterfalls.
We swam in the pools and jumped off some cliffs. Leif made several motions to jump off the same cliff as well, but we told him that he would have to wait until he was older.
The next day was my last full day in El Salvador, and I wanted to go out with a bang. Chaparrastique, also known as Volcán de San Miguel, is the southernmost ultra prominent peak in the country, and until very recently, had been too active to climb, with large eruptions as recent as 2015. When I initially planned my trip, I didn’t even think climbing this volcano a possibility, but I learned through Nahuat Tours that the minister of geology had determined the mountain safe enough to climb. Zach was flying out that day, which meant I would be on my own. This would require the longest drive, as we had to go all the way from El Zonte to the “Wild East”. Apparently the people on this side of the country look and sound different, and perhaps the most glaring distinction is how they eat pupusas. I was mostly concerned with the heat. Erick joked that when people from San Miguel go to hell, they complain that it’s too chilly. I could find no trip reports online, aside from a YouTube video which didn’t delve into the details surrounding mileage and elevation gain. Nahuat Tours didn’t have much information either, again leaving such details to the local guides. To prepare, I brought a lot of water and expected the worst. What I experienced in the end was a moderate hike with agreeable temperatures.
Erick and the gang were outside of Villa Letty at 4am. I snuck out of the room trying my best not to wake the baby, grabbed my lunch from the fridge and threw my stuff in the back of the car. Chico and Young Erick were crammed in the back seat, while Gerardo had other tours to lead that day. The drive was long, but not terrible as El Salvador is a small country. We reached the town of Conacastal where we met our local guide Fernando. From there we hopped in the back of a 2WD pickup truck, then drove south along RN16S until reaching La Placita. We turned off the paved road here and continued up dirt and cobblestone roads further up the northwestern side of the volcano.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck was so fun, but just another day for the average Salvadoran. We drove to 3,800 feet where the road simply became too steep. Our driver gave it a couple shots, but there was no point in pushing it since we already saved about a thousand feet by driving up to this point.
We continued hiking up the road through a cedar forest. The road ended soon after but we picked up a trail. We passed a big family group who had started from Conacastal earlier in the morning. While this peak is somewhat reclusive to the “intrepid traveler”, it seems reasonably popular with the locals. We left Erick to hang back with them, while Fernando, Chico and Young Erick continued with me at a faster pace.
Fernando asked if I wanted to go up the rocky way or the sandy way. To me the answer was easy, so I requested rocky. An overgrown but well defined use trail ensued, but the dirt was solid and travel was generally easy.
Soon we emerged from the thick jungle, and the western expanse captured my attention. Volcán de Usulután, Cerro Taburete, Cerro El Tigre, Volcán de Tecapa and Volcán de Chinameca flooded the expanse before me.
More inland ran the Sierra Madre.
There was a nice breeze keeping us cool. We would need it because the next thousand feet would comprise of the worst volcanic scree to climb up that I have experienced to date.
It was the classic two steps up, one step down. I had a trekking pole with me that made the section bearable, but I eventually lent this to one of my young guides as he was having more difficulty than I was.
There wasn’t really a trail, but more of a path of erosion. One thing was clear, and that was to continue upwards.
Things started to get easier as we neared the top. A big block of solid rock caught my eye, so I decided to find a scramble route up.
I picked a class 4 route straight up the rock to add some juice to an otherwise non technical hiking trip. This can of course be completely avoided, and I think my guides looked at me quizzically for taking such an unnecessarily dangerous route in the first place.
Shortly after we reached the crater rim.
We dropped down to the flat sandy section beneath us and walked to the edge.
Inside, the fumaroles were seeping out of the yellow rock. There was no visible lava, but the volcano was clearly very active. Our local guide Fernando claimed that he scrambled halfway down the crater, and it was probably for the best that he didn’t go any further.
After the very cool detour, it was time to continue to the peak. We headed east and scrambled back up the crater rim.
The rim was easy to follow and there was a use trail most of the way.
After a few more minutes of hiking we made it to the top.
To the northeast was the city of San Miguel.
To the southeast were Laguna de Olomega, Volcán de Conchagua and La Union.
To the south was the summit crater.
To the west was the flat area from where we examined the depths of the crater. In the distance was Volcán de Usulután.
To the northwest was Volcán de Chinameca.
A point on the opposite side of the crater looked like it could potentially be higher, so I requested that we traverse the entire crater rim, even though Fernando confirmed that we were standing on the highest point. For these types of things you can’t be too sure.
To circumvent the rim, we had to drop into a small notch. Climbing out of this was a loose mess, but we eventually made it back atop the high rim. The travel was very easy and breathtaking, with everchanging views in all directions.
Once we reached the summit contender, it was clear that the opposite point was higher, however I am glad we chose to go this way.
-Volcán de Conchagua
-Laguna de Jocotal & Punta Mango
-Endless Beaches
As we continued circling, we got more views into the depths of Chaparrastique.
We got back to our original starting point of the rim traverse where we ran into the kids from the family we saw earlier. The parents were still below making their way up the loose scree. Among them was older Erick, chatting away about different business opportunities. I would not be patient enough to wait for him to reach the top. He turned around without me asking, but he would end up taking a long time to descend. We took the sandy (sandier) route down this time, which I was really looking forward to. This was some of the best scree skiing I have ever done, however this bliss was interrupted since I had to wait for Erick many times. I finally decided to enjoy the sandy portion of the descent uninterrupted, and wait for Erick down below. It was a very nice descent while it lasted, and afterwards we found a spot in some shade back in the forest. Fernando claimed that he made it from crater rim to dirt road in under 20 minutes. We ended up waiting for over an hour, and needless to say I was pretty annoyed. Once he finally showed up, I grumpily walked the remaining distance down to the road, and later to the car.
As we approached the car, I started to sense big animals moving in the nearby brush. Several heads of cattle were grazing the mountain slopes.
Our driver was waiting for us right where he left us. The hike was 6.3 miles round trip with 3,400 ft of total gain (including the crater rim traverse). Please keep in mind that this does not include the section we were able to drive. We dropped off Fernando in Conacastal, then began our long drive back to El Zonte. Traffic was pretty bad towards the end of the drive, but I was able to make it back in time for dinner. This will for sure be a trip that I will never forget.
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My Top 88 Songs Of 2020
Previously: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011
Though we couldn’t get as trim as last year’s 75, still very happy to keep this under 100 for the second year in a row. This was a very difficult year in many ways, but music helped make it more bearable.
As always, criteria and info:
This is a list of what I personally like, not ones I’m saying are the “best” from the year; more subjective than objective
No artist is featured more than once
If it comes down to choosing between two songs, I try to give more weight to a single or featured track
Each song on the list is linked in the title if you wanna check them out for yourself; there is also a Spotify playlist at the bottom that includes the majority of the songs
Usually a pump up video goes here, but 2020 had a different energy, so Michael, take us in.
88) Katy Perry - “Smile”
Even Katy Perry’s good songs are a swirling spiral of maxed out auto-tune. This one is just fine. It’s... fine.
87) All Time Low - “Trouble Is...”
Is All Time Low the Katy Perry of pop punk?
86) Tee Grizzley f/ Payroll Giovanni - “Payroll”
I have never heard of Payroll Giovanni, but I have two questions:
1) Is this his song, and he got Tee to jump on it?
2) Or, did Tee write a song called “Payroll” and think to himself “You know who would be great on this? Payroll Giovanni!”
Favorite stretch:
Listen, we is not the same, you say "door", I say "dough"
You say "floor", I say "flow", you say "for sure", I say "fa'sho"
85) Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande - “Rain On Me”
Coming out in 2020 probably hurt this song, because I have no, like, out of the house memories with it. You can only have so much fun with Big Singers Singing over a pulsing beat when it’s coming from the phone in your kitchen as you’re indifferently scrambling eggs.
84) Benjamin Gibbard - “Life In Quarantine”
Now this is a song you can do nothing to; almost feels like it’s reluctant to even exist. It got released in March of 2020, so the outro (“No one is going anywhere soon”) served as a too sad reminder/mantra for what the year was about to be. Second shout out to Gibbard for the many YouTube sets he put together during the early stages of the pandemic (when so many of his peers were trying to figure out the next move).
83) Cardi B f/ Megan Thee Stallion - “WAP”
This felt less like a song and more of a “whoa, did you see the music video?!” and/or a means to relitigate the eternal question “What is the sexual line in music?” And while it was fun to watch people freak the fuck out... the quality itself really needed to be better.
(Note: YouTube video is the edited chorus; explicit version here)
82) McKayla Maroney - “Wake Up Call”
Former Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney -- of medals and memes fame -- dips her toe into the music waters. It’s inside-the-box modern pop music. One thing that’s hard to escape: it doesn’t really sound like her.
81) Chelsea Cutler - “Sad Tonight”
He vocals really remind me of Alessia Cara.
80) blink-182 - “Quarantine”
Blink doing a Bad Religion impression. Docked a few points for the very weak chorus lyrics (“Quarantine, fuck this disease”). That said, as serious as the song comes off, there are some clever punchlines to be found.
79) Dave Hause & Brian Fallon - “Long Ride Home”
This is kind of a nothing song, but it’s easy listening. Also, if your guitar leads can’t clear the “Could Bobby have written or performed this?” bar, then said leads are probably pretty weak.
78) Travis Scott & Kid Cudi - “THE SCOTTS”
Two artists who pair so well together, it’s hard to tell who exudes more influence on the track (eh, that’s not true, it’s Travis Scott, but Kid Cudi is more of a roommate than guest). They want you to be high by the time the instrumental outro hits.
77) The Strokes - “Bad Decisions”
The beginning sound feels somewhat evolved, but by the time Julian Casablancas croons “Making bad decisions”, the song feels like it could be on their debut album “Is This It?”. And it goes in and out like that from there.
76) Thundercat - “Dragonball Durag”
Thundercat is one of those artists I wish I liked more, but when the occasional track does hit, it’s a momentary glimpse into what real fans seem to always see.
75) TI f/ Lil Baby - “Pardon”
Standard fare. Lil Baby’s cameo is very meh.
74) Porches - “Do U Wanna”
For a song that repeatedly asks “Do you want to dance?”, it sure makes you feel like you’re moving in slow motion.
73) NOFX - “Thatcher Fucked The Kids”
On the best-named album of the year (“West Coast vs. Wessex”), Frank Turner and NOFX cover each other’s material. To start us off, the legends take a song from 12 years ago about British politics from 40 years ago and, well, very easily apply it to right god damn now in America.
72) The Bombpops - “Dearly Departed”
Ahh, my year’s first cancelled concert. The listed names in V1 always make me want to skip this song -- but patience, grasshopper. Chorus is aight.
71) Ratboys - “Alien With A Sleep Mask On”
This band name will never match what the music sounds like.
70) Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - “She’s There”
The vocals in this song channel, like, four completely different singers for me, ranging from Bob Dylan to Cloud Nothings.
69) NOBRO - “Don’t Die”
An anthemic chorus meant to be belted in a room with sweaty strangers.
68) Oliver Tree f/ blink-182 - “Let Me Down”
The original solo version of this song is 1:52, and though the blink cameo pushes it over the dreaded two minute mark, it adds enough diversity to justify the choice (keep an eye out for the quick Green Day lyrical nod in the back half).
67) AJJ - “Normalization Blues”
This dropped in January, and if you thought the year was bad then. Punk News:
I'll admit I do want the album to age badly because I really don't want to have to listen to it years later and still say this is the world we're living in.
Said album being titled “Good Luck Everybody” is straight cryptic.
66) Selena Gomez - “Rare”
Very chill for big pop; triplet rhythm singing in the chorus gets me erry time.
65) Kid Cudi & Eminem - “The Adventures Of Moon Man & Slim Shady”
Cudi’s second split collab yields bigger results than his Travis Scott joint (admittedly with a worse beat here). It rarely ever hurts to let Eminem do the heavy lifting.
64) Alkaline Trio - “Smokestack”
A little cheerier than the average Alk3 song, but Dan Andriano seems like he’s been in a great place for a long time now; confident and in control. For me, the whole song builds up to the “You changed my life” chorus.
63) Frank Turner - “Scavenger Type”
Here, Frank takes on the acoustic closer to NOFX’s legendary 1994 album “Punk In Drublic”. Though the energy boost is most noticeable, my favorite part is how you can hear how much Turner loves this song as his melody bursts on the verses.
62) Mike Posner - “Alone In A Mansion”
Mike Posner, an artist I have a very soft spot for, released a storytelling concept album in 2020. From the intro track:
This album was written, recorded, and produced over a period of two weeks in Detroit, Michigan in my parents' basement.
It's meant to be listened to all the way through. At least on the first listen. And it's about 36 minutes long.
If you can't devote 36 minutes of undivided attention to this album, I again politely ask that you turn it off and return at a later time.
I love you and I thank you for taking the time to listen in the first place.
Also, it's important to note that the characters and the stories in this album are completely fictional. In addition, anyone struggling with a mental illness - depression, schizophrenia - should not listen to this album. Turn it off.
So those are the stakes. Pulling this song -- the record’s closer -- feels unfair void of context, but them’s the breaks.
61) Nada Surf - “Just Wait”
Heavy hitting chorus without having to be heavy; this could really work in a movie.
60) Matt Pond PA - “Wild Heart”
This having only 805 views on YouTube is criminal.
59) Liquid Death - “Unnecessary And Unimpressive”
Liquid Death -- in this iteration -- is a punk rock supergroup with members of Rise Against, Anti-Flag, The Lawrence Arms, and The Bombpops. If that didn’t interest you enough, all lyrics in the project (which, I believe, is for charity) come from hateful comments or negative reviews. Of the four artists involved, this sounds most like a Bombpops song, with Jen on lead vocals as others chime in.
58) PUP - “Rot”
Off my silver medalist for album name of the year (“This Place Sucks Ass”), PUP doesn’t do anything new here, but it was relieving to see them still going in 2020 when so many others got roadblocked, both physically and creatively.
57) Paul Harrold and the Nuclear Bandits - “Massanutten”
This reminds me of local Chicago artist Al Scorch. So much earnestness in the vocals, but a little more prairie for Harrold compared to speakeasy for Scorch. This would be a good road trip song. And I’m not talking about singalong... more for the stretch where you want to sit in silence and look out at the sun-kissed land blazing by. The song’s greatest victory is getting me to like something that cracks 6:00.
Note to future me: Massanutten is in Virginia (saved you a Google).
56) Kesha f/ Sturgill Simpson, Brian Wilson & Wrabel - “Resentment”
Kesha has been vulnerable in the past but never this stripped down sonically; the chorus would feel right at home on a country radio station. Love a good bridge, too.
55) Megan Thee Stallion f/ Beyoncé - “Savage (Remix)”
An up-and-comer pairing with a legend rarely lets down when both sides are this locked in. Bey wins. Fav line: “If you don't jump to put jeans on, baby, you don't feel my pain”.
She matches flows with Megan but also brings melody. Her blessing takes this song from pretty damn good to undeniably great.
That beat, too.
54) Red City Radio - “Baby Of The Year”
If all you want to do right now is grab a drink in a bar, here is a video built to troll.
(Also: a Liquid Death cameo?!)
53) Nathaniel Rateliff - “And It’s Still Alright”
The last time Mr. Rateliff had our attention, he just wanted a drink. That hit had a chorus with the very-sad-when-removed-from-the-song “If I can't get clean, I'm gonna drink my life away” lyric. Well, our man got sober since. And when the party is over, the introspection comes.
52) Direct Hit! - “HAVE YOU SEEN IT?”
Listening to slowed down Direct Hit! is like watching Usain Bolt lightly jog. It kinda makes sense because the core action is there, but it also feels sort of incorrect.
51) Hayley Williams - “Dead Horse”
Solo Hayley songs have this feel like they could do anything at any time... but then don’t. This one does the same until a very fun chorus breaks it up.
50) Kid Cudi f/ Phoebe Bridgers - “Lovin’ Me”
Probably the most improbable collab on this list (if 2020 hadn’t repeatedly taught us to not be surprised by anything).
49) The Homeless Gospel Choir - “Don’t Compare”
Listening to The Homeless Gospel Choir is kind of like getting a dedicated pep talk from a good friend... while fire rains down from the sky.
48) Carly Rae Jepsen - “Let’s Sort The Whole Thing Out”
Queen vocals with one prince of a tempo; this chorus is Sour Patch Kids riding Twix logs down a soda pop waterfall -- and it’s a b-side.
47) Green Day - “Meet Me On The Roof”
I like this song because it reminds me of summer and because it doesn’t really sound like Green Day (but still totally does).
46) Broadway Calls - “Meet Me On The Moon”
Promise -- swear -- I was gonna compare this Broadway Calls song to Green Day before realizing they both had titles about meeting in an escalated location. That said, I did put them next together on purpose to more coherently make this point.
45) David Rokos - “Building Bridges”
My buddy Dave wrote this song, and I think I’ve asked him three times what “burning sugar” meant (he says it’s a reference to absinthe). This song will make you want to travel to enjoy not only the places but the people around you.
44) Charli XCX - “claws”
Charli XCX keeps it futuristic in a video that could be described as sexy, cheesy, goofy, and playful-yet-serious.
43) Brian Fallon - “Lonely For You Only”
This is too easy and should not work (and maybe doesn’t). But that chorus... that circular phrasing... it still takes me all the way out. But I’m the same cat who proposed while a Gaslight Anthem cover was playing.
42) Waxahatchee - “Fire”
This song could be in a different language and hit just as hard.
41) Harry Styles - “Adore You”
Purifying pop.
40) Local H - “Hold That Thought”
Hardest rock song thus far. Local H was one of the first artists to play “live” once the lockdown hit (on a simultaneous YouTube/Facebook stream), and watching them attack music in their Chicago practice bunker felt a little bit like taking in the end of the world. New songs, old songs, covers -- it didn’t matter; their cool, unmatched apathy fits a pandemic or peacetime.
Ironically, was able to see them live in 2020, as they played a socially distanced, outdoor drive up concert in a minor league baseball parking lot. It wasn’t the same, but it was still something.
39) Crazy & The Brains - “I Don’t Deliver Pizza Anymore”
This song is just cool*. The verses feel tense and crucial, it starts to unspool in the pre-chorus, and the chorus itself feels like a light comedown more than anything else.
(* - though the lyric video is docked some points for spelling y’all as “ya’ll”)
38) Drake f/ Fivio Foreign & Sosa Geek - “Demons”
Menacing Drizzy can be very fun from time to time. Also more than happy to keep “Toosie Slide” very far away from this list.
37) Hey Dad!!! - “Life’s Alright”
Small band, big song; though summer feels light-years away.
36) insignificant other - “i’m so glad i feel this way about you”
This song lands a big haymaker in the first few seconds, so it was probably a good call to pull back some for the chorus and, eventually, outro.
35) BTS - “Dynamite”
Heard they made the lyrics bad on purpose for their English hit, which makes sense, because they’re bad. That said, if you listen knowing they’re supposed to be bad, it kinda makes them... good? Listen, 771 million views would have me singing nursery rhymes in Pig Latin.
34) DaBaby f/ RODDY RICCH - “ROCKSTAR”
Someone said this could be the song of the summer, but, because there wasn’t really a summer, I feel like I only heard it once all year. Also, are we really pretending Post Malone* didn’t just do a “like a rockstar” song three years ago?
(* - and N.E.R.D. before that and Cypress Hill before that... though N.E.R.D. only waiting a year after Cypress, so maybe DaBaby actually was patient)
33) The Front Bottoms - “the hard way”
Don’t take it easy on the animal / I am the animal
Not quite sure what this line means, but I fixate on the phrasing every single time. This song sounds resigned in a very self-aware way.
32) The 1975 - “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)”
For a band called The 1975, they sure sound like they’re on their ‘80s shit here. Also, a real thing that happened:
Me: Is he coercing her to get naked?! I thought this band was woke.
/scans lyrics
/notices “She said” before the “Maybe I would like you better if you took off your clothes” line
Me: Ahh.
Sax solo, take us out.
31) Charly Bliss & PUP - “It’s Christmas And I Fucking Miss You”
A song that is already a forever staple on all my future Xmas playlists.
30) 2 Chainz f/ Ty Dolla $ign & Lil Duval - “Can’t Go For That”
Shorty said she love me / I said “I love me back”
This is a real genre blur; rap at its core, but also soulful, funky, and very danceable. Damn creative.
29) Billie Eilish - “Therefore I Am”
Billie's 2020 gave a few singles -- but no new album -- and a body shaming scandal where the backlash to the backlash probably caused more headlines than the tweet that started it all. Still, she stays on cruise control above the clouds; can all eyes be on you if they can’t even make you out?
Video for this is fun, too. Not sure if her running amok in an empty mall is more of a COVID necessity or commentary on the dying retail industry. As always with her, fill in your own blanks for now.
28) Future f/ Drake - “Life Is Good”
This was my most listened to rap song in the first half of the year, and bumping again now, almost forgot how good it is. Drake just chasing one-liner Instagram captions in the first half:
- “Haven’t done my taxes, I’m too turnt up”
- “N****s caught me slipping once, OK, so what?”
- “B****, this is fame not clout, I don’t even know what that’s about”
And, of course, “Workin’ on the weekend like usual”. The man could make anything glamorous. Let’s hit that H&R Block, bro!
Future’s back half is a totally different song and feels mostly like noise, but the vibe is cool, so I don’t even totally mean that in a bad way. You can even make out a “Got Promethazine in my blood and Percocet” lyric to mark your Future bingo card and immediately move on.
27) I’m Glad It’s You - “The Silver Cord”
This song feels like cold air blowing on the back of your neck.
(Sidebar: thought this band was called The Silver Cord until literally right now)
26) The Spill Canvas - “Mercy”
A dreamy, distorted, at-home version of whatever you remember The Spill Canvas sounding like. This song is confessional and at peace, with the Grade A self-loathing we’ve come to love from this band.
25) 100 gecs f/ Charli XCX, Rico Nasty & Kero Kero Bonito - “ringtone (remix)”
100 gecs first hit my radar with the explosively obnoxious “money machine”, but that’s a 2019er, so this remix to “ringtone” will have to do. It’s catchy like a younger sibling persistently singing a song you’re sick of hearing*.
(* - /only child trying to work in sibling analogies)
24) iann dior f/ Machine Gun Kelly & Travis Barker - “Sick And Tired”
Iann Dior -- ...yeah -- channels Juice WRLD on the hook, and MGK/Travis Barker buoy a track that, honestly, doesn’t really even need the help.
23) Nick Lutsko - “Unleash Your Spirit”
Lutsko hit my radar on Twitter with some legendary political anthems (word to the RNC and Dan Bongino + his Dashboard Trump parody). “Unleash Your Spirit” is the song I most fear hearing (or even thinking of) within a few minutes of going to bed. Not because it’s Halloween theme is scary -- because it’s that god damn catchy. It permeates your brain. True story: a week ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with “Bobbing for apples with the boys” so ingrained in my head, it felt like someone was standing there yelling it through a megaphone.
22) Dogleg - “Kawasaki Backflip”
Bad 2020 robbed many concerts from us, and not getting to see this band live might take the cake. I end the year liking them but could have been *all in* with the right performance and the right venue. Also, Song Title of the Year until further notice.
21) Eminem f/ Juice WRLD - “Godzilla”
Eminem has all of the words and all of the lyrical dexterity, but sometimes it feels like there isn’t anything to ground him. Enter: one of the best beats he’s ever spit on and a Juice WRLD hook to give it pop angle. But let’s not put Slim in the corner -- when he starts accelerating at the end, it’s is a true “holy fuck” moment. It sounds faster than if you actually fast forwarded.
The video ends with a touching audio message from Juice WRLD.
20) Soccer Mommy - “circle the drain”
This song is so gloriously ‘90s; it leans in and does not care.
19) Sam Russo - “Always Lost”
The first time I met you, we were on the last bus
You passed me a bottle, and I knew you were one of us
Took 25 words to hook me; I was txting friends before the first chorus even hit.
18) Sincere Engineer - “Trust Me”
Deanna Belos pushes her vocals in this one. I asked about the performance, and she said it was one of the first ones they recorded in the studio, but when they were done and listening back to everything, she re-did this track because her throat was much more used to what the song required.
“That’s why it sounds like I’m on roids lol,” she added.
17) Jay Electronica f/ JAY-Z - “Flux Capacitor”
Jay Electronica signed to Roc Nation in November of 2010. At of the start of 2020, he had still -- STILL HOW FUCKING STILL -- not released a debut album. When he announced it was finally dropping in February, it was met with skeptic eyes. He’d “announced” before. Shit, he’d even posted track lists of albums that never saw the light of day. He was a tease’s tease. It ended up getting a release date of March 12. As the pandemic got really bad in the March 11 zone, he finally had an actual reason to delay the proceedings (the plan: a studio live stream listening party*).
But no -- this is Jay Electronica. Why wouldn’t he drop as the world was ending? The same reason why his costar wouldn’t not have a watch like a Saudi prince. It had to end for it to happen. I wish I saved the memes, because they were fantastic. All I have is my own Twitter memory to prove it happened:
I love this song entirely: the “get the gat” hook (soooo New Orleans), Hov calling out the NFL/acquaintances clout chasing his potential death/rapping forever bars, Jay Elect’s ham-fisted and awkward ass Farrakhan line. Everything is exactly where it should be.
Final verdict on the full album: I don’t know, a B or B+? It had a lot more Jay-Z than expected (wooo), but -- and I rarely say this -- it could have actually been longer.
16) New Found Glory - “Greatest Of All Time”
NFG with a song referencing the Jordan-Rodman-Pippen Bulls only a few months before “The Last Dance” aired. Dare we call it marketing genius? The punk beat does not care; the punk beat is too busy taking souls.
15) Dave Hause f/ Amythyst Kiah & Kam Franklin - “Your Ghost”
“I can’t breathe”
On the heels of the George Floyd/BLM protests came Dave Hause’s somber attempt to capture the moment, desperation, and hurt. On a podcast, he said he was aware he might not ever lead the movement but still wanted to contribute something in an effort to use his platform as a white artist to change someone, anyone’s mind going forward.
14) Taylor Swift - “this me trying”
The chorus makes me feel like the crowd is parting like the Red Sea on a high school -- shit, no, middle school -- dance floor; smoke machine and all. Your crush is waiting for you on the other side. What are you going to say?
13) Phoebe Bridgers - “Kyoto”
Phoebe is one of the best lyricists out because of her specificity, but even though this song is about her dad, you can really fit it to your own narrative.
12) The Lawrence Arms - “Last, Last Words”
The Lawrence Arms wrote their new record (which singer Chris McCaughan described as “this end of the world outpost”) prior to the pandemic, but once you start to process album themes -- and research its namesake -- you do wonder. All of this, combined with some “Catcher In The Rye” references, and we’ve got ourselves a winning formula.
Dressed to kill for oblivion
11) New Lenox - “Fairytale Of Gary, Indiana”
Your boy plays drums and is on the cover art for this one. Dave Rokos wrote the tune, which references The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York”. Good news: no slurs in the Gary version. We’ll have you in and out in 90 seconds. Also: say hello to the recording debut of Alisa Caruso (some backup vox at the end).
10) Beach Slang - “Tommy In The 80s”
My most played song of 2020, but it really was more of a byproduct of how early in the year the album dropped. I’m still such a sucker for it, though. Other than forced nostalgia, not totally sure what the track is about. Did learn Beach Slang recruited former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson to play on their LP, which was named -- /deepest of breaths -- “The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City” (so maybe it has something to do with that).
9) Juice WRLD f/ Mashmello - “Come & Go”
The :55 mark. Wait until the :55 mark. When the guitar kicks in and tempo doubles, we have a real “oh, shit!” moment. I knew who Juice was when he passed but only “Liquid Dreams”. His 2020 album (“Legends Never Die”) showed us of what could have been; 55 minutes, loaded with cameos and creativity and experimentation. This song had me in its gravitational pull immediately. By the end of the year, they were using it on sports broadcasts, and it felt like a ubiquitous part of the culture.
One of my favorite days of 2020 was visiting the Juice mural in Chicago with my wife. We went impulsively during the day after someone posted a picture on Twitter.
I snapped one of my own and posted to IG with the Signals Midwest lyric “There is such quiet grace in private moments in public spaces”. The band responded with “RIP JUICE”; the perfect online exchange.
Shortly after, I was out with a different group of friends, and we went back at night. This time, it was protected by a fence you had to squeeze past. When we got through, there were kids in there smoking, taking pictures, just hanging out; empty liquor bottles lined the bottom of the mural. Even though it didn’t take all that long to make it there, it still felt like a journey and total ‘movie moment in real life’; a complete rarity in a year like 2020.
8) Mac Miller - “Good News”
Maybe I’ll lay down for a little...
Sadly continuing the theme of artists gone too soon, we have this reflective Mac Miller single, which feels more like self-eulogy than traditional rap. You feel it the entire time. The song crests with “There’s a whole lot more for me waitin’ on the other side”, and it conveys a readiness for whatever happens next.
7) The Dirty Nil - “Done With Drugs”
I don’t pray to Jesus or even own a suit
We lost the creators of our last two songs to substances, and, if we are to take this song at face value, The Dirty Nil don’t want to go down the same path. Drying out never sounded so cool and defiant... until the IKEA suggestion.
6) The Weeknd - “Blinding Lights”
Uptempo Abel is undefeated. My favorite pop song of 2020 has you feeling like you’re speeding through the empty streets of nighttime Las Vegas in a stolen car; indifferent to your environment, only tuned in to your personal desire.
And, on the lamer side of the spectrum, it spawned a catchy TikTok dance.
5) Spanish Love Songs - “Self-Destruction (As A Sensible Career Choice)”
It won’t be this bleak forever... yeah, right.
SLS has always been over-the-top with their lyrics spotlighting the hopelessness of the human condition -- so it was the *perfect* combo to being locked inside with nothing looking to forward to. Bonus: fun cake video.
Though the song’s core is uncut despair, a random moment I remember from 2020 was my wife telling me “I can hear you smiling as you’re singing” from another room as I belted the despondent chorus.
4) Worst Party Ever - “False Teeth”
This song sounds like The Front Bottoms; insecure yet so full.
3) Run The Jewels - “the ground below”
There were a lot of songs *about* 2020, but I’m not sure any artist soundtracked what being alive now is like more than RTJ. My favorite rap song and rap record of 2020.
Fav Killer Mike line: “Not a holy man, but I'm moral in my perversiveness / So I support the sex workers unionizing their services”
Fav El-P line: “I'll slap a dying child he don't pronounce my name correct”
2) The Menzingers - “America Pt. 2″
The Menzingers unexpectedly released an acoustic, re-done version of 2019′s “America (You’re Freaking Me Out)” single. It dropped on my birthday -- June 5th, 2020 -- as the rage in this country boiled over and protesters took to the streets. Though some of the lyrics remained the same, the new ones were changed with true purpose:
Well George Floyd was murdered by a cop
The whole world saw the video and watched
Now justice is long overdue
Grab your pitchforks, we’re heading to Pennsylvania Avenue
I had nothing left when the first pre-chorus hit: “I hope the Devil and Donald and Mitch McConnell rot in hell for all tomorrows”. Tattoo this on my fucking soul.
All funds from the song were donated to Community Bail Funds (via Act Blue) & Campaign Zero. I purchased the track before hearing a note.
1) Machine Gun Kelly - “My Bloody Valentine”
Going into the year, I couldn’t tell you the difference between Machine Gun Kelly and Mac Miller -- now they’re both fixtures in this Top 10. All I really knew about MGK involved tattoos and a rap battle lost to Eminem (not that anyone ever beats Eminem).
In 2020, he took a punk/emo turn, with the services of GOAT drummer Travis Barker and new squeeze Megan Fox at his side. This song’s lyrics could potentially be cheesy but aren’t -- they all land. From the simulation going bad to not wanting “fake love” to all the damn second guessing and the earnestness that just won’t let you off the mat.
Every piece to the puzzle adds something: the messy hair, the Ken doll build, the forced iconic pink guitar that now feels actually iconic. It was almost like no one had any fun this year so he could have all of it on our behalf. There’s a half second shot of him sticking his tongue our during the pre-chorus, a joy 99.99% of us never got to feel.
The album itself was just as fantastic*; a 2000′s pop punk throwback with a Halsey duet, horrible skits (hi, Pete Davidson FaceTime), OpIvy lyrical nod (complete with a royalty check), a warp speed punk track that doesn’t even crack the minute mark, your token 6/8 ballad, acoustic closer (about his daughter), and some experimentation that leaves the new genre but still stays nearby; shades of Lil Peep, if he had Blink-182 as his backing band. Speaking of, please do not miss Travis’ fill at the 2:30 mark.
(* - named “Tickets To My Downfall”... woof)
MGK could get cancelled tomorrow, but we’ll always have this year in a bottle. The acoustic version of the song (sung in a lower resister), the 10 minute making of video (that I watched, uh, twice)... shit, he even turned it into a medley at the start of 2021.
It might be cliche to say “stay winning”, but when someone stacks this many W’s with no end in sight, what the fuck else do you call it? Real love.
* * *
Thank you so much for reading. Here is the Spotify playlist (includes 87 of the 88 songs).
#machine gun kelly#bts#selena gomez#hayley williams#the menzingers#rtj#run the jewels#the weeknd#the dirty nil#mac miller#mgk#juice wrld#phoebe bridgers#2020#music#lists#taylor swift#sincere engineer#jay-z#sam russo#jay electronica#100 gecs#charli xcx#blink-182#pup#travis barker#megan fox#billie eilish#soccer mommy#drake
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Darren Criss is fully in his element on Quibi’s Royalties, and not just because the 10-episode comedy finds him playing a Hollywood songwriter surrounded by Glee alumni.
The experience of co-writing and producing a musical project for a fledgling streaming service took Criss back to his days at the University of Michigan, where his mantra became “chaos is the mother of invention.” As he tells TVLine, “During the process, we made no claims to it working. We just had to slap it all together, and I think it turned out pretty great. That’s the fun of your friends coming together for something that ultimately has a lot of heart, soul and a cheeky earnestness about it.”
Criss also says he wanted to use Royalties as an opportunity to increase the Hollywood presence of his classmates-turned-collaborators, Nick and Matt Lang. “We started StarKid, which is our theater production company, about 10 years ago, and they’ve been in the trenches of that forever,” he explains. “Being the Mr. Hollywood of the group, I’ve been dying to get people in the film and television industries to get their eyes on them.”
For this reason, the trio took a “dexterous” approach to shopping the idea around. “If someone had said they wanted this to be a three-hour movie, we could have created it as such,” Criss says. “What’s nice about [Quibi’s shorter format] is that it’s a great exercise in maximizing the space you have. And it lends itself really well to comedy. Good storytelling is hopefully malleable, so I really enjoyed this process. It wasn’t how we set out to do it, but it was a great challenge.”
Below, Criss elaborates on the process of bringing Royalties to the small(er) screen, from casting it on his phone to editing it on the set of Netflix’s Hollywood:
TVLINE | Let’s start with the important stuff: There are a lot of hot dogs on this show. How many did you actually have to eat?
[Laughs] Not many, because I’m not much of a hot dog guy. I’m not much of a processed meat guy. (Hashtag super California granola hippie loser.) While I do love a good hot dog every now and then, I don’t think anyone likes them in continuous succession, so I tried to minimize them as much as possible. That was the least of our challenges.
TVLINE | OK, what were some of the actual hurdles you had overcome?
Like a lot of things I’ve done, it was very fast and furious. The actual adage is that necessity is the mother of invention, but for a lot of those early StarKid shows, I amended that to say that chaos is the mother of invention. For a lot of the shows I worked on in college, I would write the songs just a few days before they were on stage. I also didn’t really know my lines and everything was thrown together, while the Langs had been working on the book for months. Similarly here, they’d been working on these scripts for months. But by the time pre-production rolled around, we had to write and record 10 songs in 10 days, then do pre-production for not only basically a 90-minute movie but also 10 separate music videos. [Director] Amy Heckerling flew in and also had very little time to prep. And we had to get it all done before I shot Hollywood for Netflix. So we had way more to do than was frankly possible.
On top of that, we didn’t really know how to deliver to Quibi. What are they looking for? What aspect ratios should we be shooting in? What type of coverage do we need to get? It was the Wild West in many respects. And that was something that could have been a huge problem, not having any precedent, but I’m someone who sort of relishes that. When you’re in the Wild West, there are no rules, which to me is a great thing.
TVLINE | When you go back and watch the episodes, do you find yourself watching horizontally or vertically?
I find myself going back and forth. When we were editing it, I would try to watch it on my phone as much as possible. The post-production process was the longest part of this entire thing. I would shoot a scene of Hollywood, then have to run over to the editing room. Sometimes the editing room would be in a sprinter van outside my trailer. It was tough because you’re editing in a conventional way with a nice screen and nice speakers, but the mix and the final print of this will be on your phone, which can be hard to imagine. For the songs, I wish people could watch with a big speaker system. I hope people are listening with their headphones.
TVLINE | Of those 10 songs you co-wrote, do you find that any one gets stuck in your head more than the others?
Well, they’re all stuck in my head, but not for the reason they should be. They’re in there because I had to listen to them over and over again, so I’m fond of a lot of the songs, but I’ve kind of lost objectivity. The songs have also had so many different lives. It sounds one way when you write it, another when you produce it, then another when you have the artist sing it. And then there’s how the song feels when it’s in a music video. There were lines in songs I thought were funny, but when I saw my friends [and Glee co-stars] Chord Overstreet and Kevin McHale singing them at a Griffith Park overlook of Los Angeles, with Chord in a ridiculous Scott Stapp/Jared Leto circa 2003 wig, I start loving it in a new way. They’ve all found ways to enchant me as they move forward.
TVLINE | That’s another thing I enjoyed about this, all the Glee reunions. And not just Chord and Kevin. Even people like John Stamos and Jennifer Coolidge.
You know what’s funny? I forgot that John Stamos and Jennifer Coolidge were on Glee! I became friends with them separately. Yes, they were on the show, but these are also people that were at my wedding. I forget we have a Glee connection. I wish I was that clever in the outset, like, how many people from Glee can I get together? … We actually started shooting before I had a huge percentage of people cast. This is in conjunction with a casting director, but I had to cast about 70-80 percent of this thing on my phone. It was me calling people and saying, “I have this really goofy thing. We’re homies, can you do me a solid?” So I owe a great debt of gratitude to the people who were game enough to show up to this wacky thing that I’m sure sounded absurd over my pitch on the phone, much less for a platform that they hadn’t heard of yet. The first season of anything is tough, because you have to establish so much.
TVLINE | Well, without giving too much away, the finale does leave things open for a second season. How much thought have you given that?
Anytime you write anything, you always think bigger than what’s there. The game, so to speak, of having two songwriters that have to write songs for crazy situations and artists is an endless playground of funny scenarios. We came up with so many ideas for stories, at least five or 10, and then ended up saying, “This is a Season 2 or Season 3 concept. It’s too much out of the gate.” We really had to economize what we threw at our audience, so hopefully we can earn enough interest and trust in these characters and in their hijinks that we can expand the world a little bit in a second season.
TVLINE | On top of that, I feel like it’s a show that could lend itself to social distancing better than some others.
A lot of people have been considering that. What is the socially distanced version of our show? With enough creativity, you could definitely do that. I’ve done songwriting sessions from home — FaceTime, Zoom sessions and all that. There is a world where that exists, so who knows? If that happens, you can say you wrote it here first.
All 10 episodes of Royalties‘ first season are available to stream on Quibi. To watch individual music videos on Criss’ YouTube channel, click here.
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