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trash-heron · 2 months

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Red Dragons; Or, the problems of adaptation and the early serial killer procedural

Red Dragon (1981) has the distinction of being the most frequently adapted Thomas Harris novel in the Hannibal Lecter "quartet." Despite the universal recognition of Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs (1991), with iconic performances from Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, and the more recent cult status of the series Hannibal (2013), which draws from all four books, it's Red Dragon, in some ways the most "obscure" Thomas Harris novel, that has lived three, arguably four, different lives onscreen over three decades.

Manhunter, visually, is an 80s noir feast set to atmospheric synths, but works within the newly established slasher genre as it attempts to make its own mark. The 1980s were truly the decade of the slasher flick, or the first wave thereof, and Red Dragon had to contend with expectations set up by the likes of Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers. Although this isn't a write-up about the history of slasher films, the basic premise I am going with is that the early slasher serial killer was portrayed as monstrous and, compared to our favorite killers today, one-dimensional antagonists. When I think about the origins of the slasher genre, I always think about the way the ineffectual psychologist in Halloween (1978) describes his former patient's "devil's eyes," behind which lived something "purely, simply evil." Dr. Loomis is dogged in his determination to impress upon the local authorities that Michael Myers is a force of nature who is unreachable by psychology, the study of the human mind. Furthermore, the slasher flick was unconcerned with the elements of the procedural: like in other horror subgenres, law enforcement are disposable foils that demonstrate the danger of the "monster" and the vulnerability of his targets and/or come in at the end to mark the conclusion of the spectacle (until the sequel, that is).In many ways this just seems like a quirk of history. I've been operating under the assumption that when Red Dragon came out in 1981, Thomas Harris introduced a type of story to a media landscape that had scant precedent for the serial killer mystery or procedural, distinct from the related nascent slasher horror subgenre, unlike today when a plethora of "murder shows" benefit from the success of this formula. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter, the ur-murderer of the Thomas Harris fictional universe, became a cultural archetype that looms over modern crime television and film as he does over the investigations of beleaguered law enforcement officials in both Red Dragon (1981) and Silence of the Lambs (1988). When Michael Mann brought this first "Hannibal" novel to the screen in 1986, he too was breaking ground, to mixed reactions. Manhunter (1986), which lamentably lost its "Red Dragon" title due to studio publicity decisions, is both ahead of and a product of its time.

Manhunter, and Red Dragon generally, is not a slasher flick. In fact, beyond the deliberately provocative reporter Freddy Lounds and a few men with barely any screen time who are killed off in brief fight scenes, the Great Red Dragon doesn't kill anyone at all. At the very least, no one is murdered in his signature serial killer style. The ritualistic murders occur before the film (and novel) begins, and the narrative revolves around understanding the mind of the serial killer and preventing him from killing again. At the same time, the conventions of the slasher film seem to limit the directions the film can go. Both Francis Dolarhyde and Hannibal Lecter (or "Lecktor") in the film have fairly opaque inner lives and limited screen time, while Thomas Harris notably does delve into the mindset and motivations of the "psychopath," positioning the killer as a subject of psychology, rather than an exception to it.

Furthermore, Manhunter's revised ending reframes one of two major female characters as a recognizable "final girl," and relegates the other to only existing in Will Graham's "happy ending," out of reach for the killer. This is the opposite outcome of the actual ending in the novel, and always seemed a bit tacked on to me, and not for artistic reasons. Will Graham can't actually end up broken and haunted because there has to be a clear demarcation between the serial killer "monster" and the "real" people who survive him. Blurring that distinction is, arguably, the "point" of Red Dragon. Michael Mann, perhaps, couldn't adapt the novel's conclusion "faithfully" because the conventions of this kind of psychological thriller weren't established, and did the best he could, introducing new building blocks for the "serial killer" archetype but not successfully pitching them to the wider public. Manhunter was not a financial or critical success upon its release, and refining the Thomas Harris "blueprint" was left to Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs (1991), which made the strategic and hugely significant choice of allowing Hannibal Lecter to become a breakout character.

The next adaptation of the novel Red Dragon has seemed to me, frankly, like a bit of a cash grab. The 2002 Brett Ratner film, starring Edward Norton and Anthony Hopkins, capitalized off of the success of Silence of the Lambs and the release of a new Thomas Harris Hannibal Lecter novel. This film was for those who missed Manhunter in the 1980s, which many did, and those who considered a prominent Hannibal Lecter played by Anthony Hopkins essential to an adaptation, which many also did. The most recent adaptation of Red Dragon is the cult hit drama Hannibal (2013), which focuses on the main characters of the novel, Hannibal Lecter and FBI profiler special agent Will Graham, and can arguably be seen as two different adaptations of the novel. Both of these more recent adaptations are more coherent and recognizable as exemplars and/or subversions of the serial killer procedural, playing off of the tropes introduced to the genre by the source material itself, like a particularly grizzly and morbid ouroboros.

So, we have many points of data to consider if we wanted to determine what makes a good adaptation of the novel Red Dragon.

Ironically, for a story that laid important groundwork for a whole subgenre of film and TV, Red Dragon is hard to adapt and definitely hard to update. (So is Silence of the Lambs for that matter, but that is a whole other kettle of fish.) To my mind, the main two difficulties stem from both a strength and a "weakness" of the original novel.

A strength: Harris takes advantage of contemporary technology to create a clever mystery at the center of the novel. The problem: this particular bit of technology was only truly at home in its first 1986 adaptation, Manhunter. Both Red Dragon (2002) and Hannibal (2013) had to make compromises to adapt the central plot device. Red Dragon (2002) avoids the issue by simply setting the film in the 1980s, relying on the audience's knowledge of VHS technology of that time, which, since it was 2002, was more or less assured for an R-rated movie. Hannibal (2013) sidesteps the issue more or less entirely by making the "mystery-solving" pieces functionally irrelevant. (At one point, Hannibal Lecter makes a dismissive reference to the killer using "social media" the way the original story used VHS and the matter never comes up again.) To date, this central plot twist has never been successfully adapted for contemporary audiences in the 2010s - or 2020s for that matter. The 2010s show itself, in its choices, implicitly makes the argument that the technical "mystery" elements of novel weren't really all that important to its overall message. Depending on your point of view, this argument is successful. However, this argument also depends on the irony that the creators of the show can dispense with the set pieces of the serial killer procedural and take artistic license because the source material introduced those expectations into the genre to begin with. Tradeoffs all around.

Another challenge to adaptation is sometimes considered a "weakness" of the book: after the real "plot" of the novel vis a vis Will Graham's hunt for the "Tooth Fairy" begins, Harris makes the bold choice of adding the point of view of the serial killer du jour himself, diving into the eponymous Red Dragon's motivations and experience, which almost takes place in a parallel universe apart from that of Will Graham, Lecter, and the BSU/BAU until both narrative threads collide in the climax. The problem: this choice "derails" the suspense of the whodunit and adds character development for a relative stranger to the reader. Every adaptation of Red Dragon changes the structure of the plot so that the parallel storyline of Francis Dolarhyde, the Red Dragon, is pared down and interspersed with the main narrative (usually) earlier on. Every adaptation has decided that Thomas Harris's precise plot structure isn't actually essential. This judgment call is also ironic: Thomas Harris apparently "flubs" the standard conventions of the serial killer procedural that did not yet exist because he was in the middle of inventing them.

But, we may ask, isn't this the nature of adaptation? The answer: of course it is. Adjusting plot mechanics based on the period of the adaptation and restructuring the pacing for film/television are some of the most basic changes one can make when adapting a book for the screen. However, that does open up interesting questions of theme and intent. What is essential to the Red Dragon story? What is it, in the end, all about?

Leaving aside all caveats about the subjective nature of interpretation or the possibility of a work being "definitively" about anything, I believe there are two broad interpretations of the novel and all existing adaptations favor one or the other.

Red Dragon is a novel about how much monster there is in a, well, man and vice versa: the fate of the soul is at stake. This is a clear theme of Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter relationships in every iteration: to catch a particularly "monstrous" killer requires understanding said killer, but if you understand them too well, what does that say about you? And, more importantly, where does that leave you? (In the original Will Graham's case, nowhere good, with a broken marriage and an existential crisis, or, when we catch up with him in the sequel, in the Florida Keys, now a miserable drunk. For the modern Will Graham of the 2010s series, TBD.) Empathy itself instills horror, which is a fairly complex idea to explore in the late 1970s when Thomas Harris was writing the novel. (In fact, I will always find it remarkable that Thomas Harris had the foresight to research the methods of criminal profilers at the FBI at the beginning of the discipline and the BSU itself, getting in on "the ground floor" for better or worse for horror fiction and actual forensic psychology.) It's also very cross-media, as identification with violence on screen (and the "male gaze" itself) were emerging as key features and problems of film available to critique. The focus on "video" and boundaries between self and other in the novel seem very prescient.

Alternatively: Red Dragon is a novel about the limits of personal transformation. Thomas Harris seems preoccupied with the idea of ritual murder as an alchemical process motivated by the desire to become something "transcendent." (While one can see the mystical whimsy in a man thinking he's becoming a dragon, a figment of William Blake's imagination, "Buffalo Bill's" or Jame Gumb's desire to transform "into a woman" in a somehow "not-trans" way in Silence of the Lambs falls egregiously short and reflects more on a failure of imagination on the part of Thomas Harris and his readership than anything else.) I find the metaphysical aims of these serial killers interesting for two reasons. First, sexual sadism is de-emphasized as a motive, which is not typical of the serial killer archetype of the time: the most prominent serial killers in fiction (such as in early slasher films) kill because of some perverse urge, as an extension of the "evil" men they are or were made to be. Their murders aren't about anything. Both Francis Dolarhyde and Jame Gumb , in contrast, think they are setting out to accomplish something and that the brutality of their actions is beside the point. This is what constitutes their insanity, as this is clearly not true.

The actual nature of their murders and the ugly psychoanalytical implications of their compulsions are the ultimate limitation on their aspirations to "becoming." No matter what they think is going on their heads, they direct their violence toward women, and it is women who ultimately put an end to their reigns of terror. (Molly Graham and Reba McClane in Red Dragon and Clarice Starling, among others, in Silence of the Lambs.) The female characters serve as a "reality check" for the dreamy, bloody men of the books, which is earnestly ham-fisted on the part of Thomas Harris but also significant for the genre. Arguably none of the women in the first two Hannibal novels play the role of "final girl," that is, an "innocent" woman who acts as audience surrogate and restores socially acceptable norms at the end of the film. (The focus on such a "good girl's" experience means you can take a comfortable distance from the murderer and put yourself in the position of "victim." You are also anticipating that she will be spared in some way, which restores a sort of moral balance to the universe: the other victims in some way "had it coming.") In Red Dragon, the active female characters are not sorted into the "virgin/whore" dichotomy: in fact, even the actual sex worker character (Freddy's girlfriend) remains unscathed, and her feelings are more relevant to the other characters than her occupation, humanizing Freddy postmortem. The victims and potential victims, almost all of them mothers, clearly did nothing "wrong" and their sexual objectification is placed squarely on the shoulders of the men watching them. The women left standing at the end of the novels don't just "escape" the killers: they're the ones who put the killers down despite the male characters' inadequacies, and they, unlike a Jason or a Michael Myers, stay down.

Of course, I think both broad themes are very present and active in Red Dragon, and, probably unsurprisingly, Hannibal Lecter is something of a cipher for both threads. If our main concern is coming to terms with our empathy and capacity for violence (or "men's," I suppose), Hannibal Lecter nimbly eludes being a subject of empathy, instead setting himself up as the observer and interpreter of other killers. His insight into other people is certifiably superior: he's literally a renowned psychiatrist. The possibility of a Hannibal Lecter raises the stakes enormously for our own navel-gazing, as we are not just wondering, along with Will Graham, whether the wicked deeds of others might appeal to us, but are actually facing up to the reality that the killer has been beside us as a peer all along, not the subject of scrutiny. If our main concern is the limitations of personal transformation, Hannibal Lecter is a very sharp foil for our doomed killers because while he can easily identify the signs of a transmutation complex, it isn't especially relevant to him personally. Hannibal Lecter doesn't kill and eat people because he's turning into anything. As he famously tells Clarice Starling as she attempts to interview him, "Nothing happened to me. I happened." He already is what he is, rooted in sensual reality - like the women in the books - and he is merely indulging his appetites and aesthetics. This, I think, is why he prevails and why he can make himself at home on the side of our woebegone detective protagonists when he feels like it. Hannibal Lecter is never doomed: he can always happen to you.

Manhunter favors the first tendency, and is not particularly interested in Francis Dolarhyde's "Becoming" as the Great Red Dragon. This allows for a very intense and nuanced meditation on identification and the role of empathy that artistic representations of violence invoke. The focus on "seeing" gains a whole other dimension in the context of film, as there are many interesting things going on with perspective and scene composition. 2002's Red Dragon favors the second tendency, if I had to make the judgment call. Although the film is probably the most "faithful" adaptation of the events of the novel, I do think you can come away from the film not remembering that Will Graham has any particular problem/gift of heightened empathy or that losing himself by identifying with Hannibal Lecter or Francis Dolarhyde was ever a serious possibility. (Even at the climax, when Graham to a "violent" place he ends up taking on the persona of Dolarhyde's abuser, not Dolarhyde himself, which is entirely an invention of the film.) What the film does emphasize is the quixotic journey of Francis Dolarhyde, giving quite a lot of room to his backstory as well as his inner conflict between his deadly, "spiritual" inclinations and his romance with Reba. Also, and most importantly, this is the one adaptation of Red Dragon that actually allows Molly Graham to kill Francis Dolarhyde when he tries to make the Graham family another ritual sacrifice. There's an intentional symmetry in the novel between the murders and Dolarhyde's ultimate demise at the hand of the desirable "mother," which really underlines the juxtaposition between the story Dolarhyde is telling himself and what he's actually been doing.

Perhaps this is me tying a bow on it all by claiming that Bryan Fuller's Hannibal (2013) manages to incorporate both major themes, but I do think it's very interesting to at least think of the series as two different adaptations of Red Dragon. The first adaptation is obvious: the second half of season 3 "does" Red Dragon, and honestly gives fantastic depth to Francis Dolarhyde's inner world and his quest for transformation through death. However, I also think you can view the entire series as a whole as an adaptation of Red Dragon. I say this because the main bulk of the existing seasons of Hannibal cover the period of Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter's relationship prior to Lecter's capture, which is only depicted (in exposition) in the novel. Aside from the incorporation of various plot points and characters from the novels Hannibal (1999) and Hannibal Rising (2006) in season 2 and season 3, one could place the (first) three seasons of Hannibal entirely in the world of Red Dragon. I think this is especially suggested in the first episode, which opens with Will Graham doing a visionary walk-through of a family annihilation that pretty much exactly hearkens back to his first major scene in the novels and the films: later in the episode, Graham's inner monologue about imagination and taste - the first substantive insight we get into the character - is rewritten as dialogue between Graham, Jack Crawford, and Hannibal Lecter. So, even while the plot of the series begins at a different point in time, stylistically, we're back at the beginning of Red Dragon anyway. This interpretation allows for a lot more flexibility if we're looking for major themes coming from the source material. Identification and empathic intimacy are the animating features of the central Will-Hannibal dyad: at the same time, the psychic landscapes Will Graham (and to a lesser extent characters like Alana Bloom or Bedelia du Maurier) explore alongside Hannibal Lecter are tied up in questions of transformation and limitation.

In the series, Lecter not only pinpoints the urges to "become" in other killers but also becomes deeply invested in Will Graham's capacity for metamorphosis as an expression of identification and intimacy. If, as I've suggested previously, Hannibal Lecter exists as a grounded corrective to the soulful longings of murderers who wish to change through the deaths of others, this seems like a contradiction on its face. However, if we take this interpretation of Hannibal Lecter in the novels into our viewing of the series, the tension between Hannibal and Will sharpens into a very intimate exchange of knowing and refusing to know one another. Hannibal Lecter seems to have no interest in Will Graham becoming something or someone else via the alembic of murder. When he tempts Will, he is not (ultimately) encouraging the profiler to look away from the world to some impossible dream that would mark him for death like the other murderers they hunt together. Hannibal Lecter is very interested in Will Graham becoming a killer, that is, embracing all of who he already is with clarity and insight, which is a transformation rooted in psychology and is also entirely possible. Will then resists self-knowledge, or bringing his self-knowledge into the material world. Hannibal resists his own identification with another human being, and realizes (a bit too late) that there may be a way to bring Will down to Earth (and closer to him) without destroying him, as he inevitably does - gleefully - to his other proteges and projects.

No adaptations of Red Dragon have embraced the novel's ending. In the end of the original novel, Will Graham is left in the hospital, resigned to the fact that he's lost his wife and stepson, and drifts into a drug-induced dream state, where he doesn't dream of "Molly leaving" or Dolarhyde, but rather visits a memory from the time shortly after he'd killed Garret Jacob Hobbs. He remembers visiting Shiloh, the site of a particularly bloody battle in the American Civil War, and has an epiphany. At the time, he'd considered the battlefield "haunted," but now realizes that it is, in fact, "indifferent." In the natural world, there is no mercy, "we make mercy": "There is no murder. We make murder, and it matters only to us." Graham accepts that he has the capacity to "make murder; perhaps mercy too." Murder, however, is what he understands. He wonders if "vicious urges" in humanity and the "dark instinctive knowledge" of those urges could act as a vaccine against the "virus" of violence, allowing for the possibility of civilization that has "overgrown the basic reptile brain." He doesn't settle on an answer, but does believe he was wrong about Shiloh. "Shiloh isn't haunted - men are haunted. Shiloh doesn't care."

Granted, this would be hard portray on screen. A filmmaker would have to resort to voice over, perhaps, or merely suggest where Thomas Harris declares. Another option would have Will's epiphany take the form a letter to Hannibal Lecter, an answer to a message Graham never receives. In this letter, which Jack Crawford destroyed, Lecter says we live in a "primitive time," "neither savage nor wise. Half measures are the curse of it. Any rational society would either kill me or give me my books." He wishes Graham a "speedy convalescence," and hopes "he will not be too ugly" after recovering from the wounds the Great Red Dragon gave him. "I think of you often," he writes, and then writes his name. Lecter believes "half measures" are the true poison: Graham, if he knew his dream was a reply to his counterpart, would perhaps take the position that "half measures" are the antidote, a strategic ambivalence that, perhaps, makes mercy as possible as murder. Such a reply, however, would lack conviction. It would, however, betray that in the end this is a conversation vulnerable to distance and time and that there is no appeal to a higher power or state of enlightenment, just to one another. Perhaps the last scene of "The Wrath of the Lamb," the final episode of season 3 of Hannibal, is the closest we'll come to seeing a cinematic portrayal of this conclusion. The profiler taking the serial killer into his arms, where they hold each other like lovers, and then throwing both of them off a cliff and into the sea. Not a half measure at all.

In the meantime, all of these versions of Red Dragon are worth a look.

#nbc hannibal #hannibal lecter #will graham #manhunter 1986 #red dragon #thomas harris #silence of the lambs #slashers #francis dolarhyde #murder husbands #essay #fadserver #hannibal meta

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uptightcitizensbrigade · 2 months

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About All Born Screaming

“All Born Screaming”

There is a figure staggering down the street, lurching through a skewed landscape toward a grim new beginning. Rabid, man-sized; disconsolate and grieving in the violent daylight, the smell of death alive on her clothes. No mask, no costume. In fact—though try not to stare—her office wear is somewhat askew. Even her language is ruptured: what was once tightly refined is now impressionistic and felt. No wonder: “I find myself at the precipice of life and death, and reckoning with that,” says Annie Clark, the musician better known as triple-Grammy-winning iconoclast St. Vincent, on the cusp of releasing her seventh album.

Ever since she covered Big Black’s “Kerosene” live in 2011 and the subsequent cataclysmic 7” split “Krokodil”/”Grot,” fans have known that some evil lurked in Clark’s guitar. (Take it back even further if you like: This is someone whose college noise band was named Skull Fuckers.) On All Born Screaming—the first half, at any rate—that lacerating aggression possesses a St. Vincent album for the first time, unleashing a reeling thrash laced with the formative DNA of Albini at his most corrosive and the ugly, spectacular catharsis of Nine Inch Nails, and opening up a brand new fracture in her songwriting. “It’s my least funny record,” says Clark with knowing wryness.

Brawny lead single “Broken Man” is unhinged by loss and lust, unveiling our debilitated antagonist in a desperate confrontation that begs “lover nail yourself right to me / If you go I won’t be well / I can hold my arms right open / But I need you to drive the nail.” “Reckless” loses its footing in the post-loss oblivion. The mischievous “Flea” casts all-consuming desire as an invasive pestilence. “Big Time Nothing” is a mordant catwalk sashay through the deafening assault of self loathing. “There is the feeling: I want everything because I feel nothing,” says Clark. “I am bereft. I am in love. But I want more love too. There’s no drugs and abstraction on this record. It’s cut to the pink meat, hungry for life, even if it’s brutal. Because life is brutal.”

For that reason, All Born Screaming is Clark’s first entirely self-produced record (having co-produced all of her previous records). “I had to walk through the fire with this one alone,” she says. “There was no way to find it except sitting with yourself in a room, singing, playing with modular synths, turning knobs, moving electricity around and trying to find those six seconds of lightning in a bottle that I could build an entire song around. I’m obsessed with production. I’ve obviously done it on all of my records, but this time, I wanted to be the first and final filter for this material. It meant sitting with a lot of self-doubt—like Bowie says, ‘when you feel that your feet aren’t quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.’”

Production 101 is knowing the right people for the job, and All Born Screaming boasts “a tight little wrecking crew,” says Clark. “A curated group of rippers.” On “Broken Man” and “Flea,” that’s Dave Grohl on drums. (If we’re tracing this virulent seam back through Clark’s work, recall the surviving members of Nirvana inviting her to help induct the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.) “Dave is one of the greatest drummers ever because he’s a great songwriter,” says Clark, noting that Grohl heard the “Yes-style prog section” of “Flea” just three times before he knew “every phase and turnaround. My engineer, Cian Riordan, has a video of me in the studio when Dave was playing. I’m in my chair hearing the first take, and I immediately stand up and, like, my hair is on fire.”

On the immaculately restrained, Portishead-narcotic opener “Hell Is Near” and the dreamily gone “So Many Planets,” that’s new Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese. There’s Justin Meldal-Johnsen (bass), Rachel Eckroth (keys), David Ralicke (brass), Mark Giuliana (drums), and Stella Mozgawa (drums). Then there’s the invaluable contribution of Welsh creative genius Cate Le Bon, who yanked Clark out of the weeds during a period of frustration and self-doubt, and offered stalwart reinforcement, helping her to surmount a few key obstacles. Case in point: Cate shines on the title track, "All Born Screaming,” a near-seven-minute epic closer propelled by a bassline so perfectly suited that it’s impossible to imagine the song without it. "I had that guitar part but was struggling with the song's overall tone. Cate listened to it and said ‘Give me a beer, a bass, and three hours’,” and worked out the title track’s puckish low end. “She’s my favorite modern songwriter, period,” says Clark, hinting at future collaborations to come.

As for the life and death we’re dealing with here? The details are immaterial. This isn’t music-as-true-crime designed to be picked apart for clues. On the album’s pivot into the second half, “Violent Times,” we’re waking up and understanding the stakes have irrevocably changed, and who hasn’t felt that these past however many years? The difference, in the album’s back end, is the realization that we must love one another or die, set to an expansive, enveloping palette that steps back from the guitar offensive: Gainsbourg-worthy grandeur on “Violent Times,” the “what if someone who loved 2 TONE did it all wrong?” of “So Many Planets,” about the stumbling search for a place to call home. “The first half is reckoning with loss and how life is basically impossible,” says Clark, “but the second half is: but we get to live it so we better fucking dig in.”

Perhaps compassion and hunger can light the way: “The Power’s Out” is a classically gorgeous St. Vincent portrait of a city’s pushers, parents, racers, and queers waking up to some disaster but finding beauty in the slo-mo confetti cloud of debris. And the racing valediction of “Sweetest Fruit” exalts individuals who attempted to stake out life’s outer reaches. “Take a big swing and fail, but my God, at least you were trying for transcendence,” says Clark.

Perhaps love can, too. The still life of opener “Hell Is Near” marks “the beginning / our beginning / begin again.” “That’s the only reason to do something, the reason to live,” says Clark. “Maybe I go the long way around saying that in this record, but at the end of the day it’s a very dark record about love. I have great love in my life. I’m so lucky. I’m not the rat in the maze in that regard any more.” It comes into focus on the back of priority shifts, shuddering sudden dislocations from the culture’s priorities, old disguises dropping to the floor on the title track’s skittish, happy shrug, “all of the wasted nights fighting mortality when in the ashes of Pompeii lovers discovered in an embrace for all eternity”, as she sings on “Violent Times.”

Unlike the ‘70s cosplay of Clark’s previous album, here, there’s no aestheticizing pain or conceptualizing loss. On Daddy’s Home, Clark says she needed to “become the music my father loved in the hope it would heal me, give me the agency as ‘daddy.’ That was probably largely misinterpreted, but I have no regrets—it’s what I needed to do.” With this record, she says emphatically, “I want to fuck people up.” As the title states, we’re All Born Screaming. It’s both a horrifying condition and whaddya-gonna-do acceptance. “If you’re born screaming, that’s a great sign,” says Clark, “because it means you’re breathing. You’re alive. My god. It’s joyous. And then it’s also a protest. We’re all born in protest in a certain way. It’s terrifying to be alive, it’s ecstatic to be alive. It’s everything.”

#annie clark #st vincent #all born screaming

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unholyverse · 7 months

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waterparks // kerrang! magazine issue #1645

(full article text under cut)

BRING OUT THE BIG GUNS

WATERPARKS MAY VERY WELL HAVE WRITTEN THE POP-PUNK ALBUM OF 2016. IN FACT, AS FAR AS THEY SEE IT, THEY'VE WRITTEN A DEBUT BIGGER THAN ANY GENRE BOLD ENOUGH TO CLAIM IT. THEIR TIME IS NOW….

The first 30 seconds of Made In America, the sixth track on Waterparks' debut record Double Dare, serves as a mission statement. Opening with a riff that any far heavier band would be proud of, before giving way to a verse backed with scattered synths and leading into a pop chorus that could raise the roof off of any club on the planet, the message is clear: expect the unexpected.

They'll be classified as a pop-punk band based on associations and aesthetic, but there's no-one around Waterparks-neither in genre nor age group- making music like they are. Album opener Hawaii (Stay Awake) contains an almost rapped refrain; Take Her To The Moon would sound just as good on an Ibiza beach as it would at Slam Dunk Festival; and Little Violence takes punk to its most antagonistic lengths. Waterparks aren't confined by genre or convention, picking and choosing the best of whatever the hell they like—like children running amok in a toy shop—and combining it perfectly.

"We've tried to make it a point to not just make a 'pop-punk' or a 'rock' album," says frontman Awsten Knight, settling into conversation with Kerrang!. "We played it safer in the past, but this is going to be people's first real impression of us, so we just needed to push this shit to China. We wanted to make sure that people expect to not know what to expect from us. It's 2016-you can do whatever you want."

Be that as it may, to be this daring on a debut album takes confidence. But if a conversation with Awsten is anything to go by, it's a quality that's far from lacking. The Texan native is, like the state from which he came and still resides, both brash and unashamed of his lofty ambitions. In fact, anything other than determination to be the best is frankly off-putting to him.

"I've heard bands during interviews being like, Y'know, if people like it, that's fine, we just want to play music…" he scoffs. "Dude! No! Why would you dedicate your life to something and not care if it does well? That's insane. I don't wanna be like, 'Let me know what you guys think, I hope you like it!' Fuck that. It's, 'Here are some absolute jams, take it and we're gonna keep giving you music and it's gonna be tight as hell.'" And what of his own ambitions for the band? "I want it to be the biggest thing ever," he asserts. "And if that's an attitude that turns people off, and if people don't want good things for us… They can eat dicks."

I here's far more swirling around in Awsten Knight's head than sheer bravado, however. There's a depth to rock's newest future superstar that's mirrored on Double Dare, which boasts substance to back up its all-consuming style. Singing "You drop your guy and take me on / It's everything I wanted / But then what? / Would you get tired of my, time?" on 21 Questions, Awsten shows self-doubt in what might feel like triumph for others. On Powerless, Awsten laments with brutal honesty how he doesn't hear from his friends anymore. Clearly. Waterparks is so much more to Awsten than a chance to have pop choruses sung back at him.

"I don't like talking to people about personal shit," Awsten reveals. "I'll just put it in the songs. There are lyrics that you could look at and be like, 'Oh, he wants to die,' but then the next song could be like, 'Aww, he's in love. This way I don't have to talk about it in real life."

The time leading up to Double Dare gave him lots to not talk about and even now, speaking to K! about it all, Awsten retreats into himself more than seemed possible from such an outwardly charismatic dude.

"I went through a while where I didn't talk to anyone or want to see any of my friends." He pauses. I got out of a four-and-a-half year relationship in that time, too. A lot of weird and sketchy things caused me to be a recluse for a little bit."

Even the usually cast-iron confidence in his band can falter slightly if Awsten thinks about the wrong thing. He worries that the amount of attention they're getting might jinx them. "It's weird when people say, 'Waterparks are going to blow up.'" he admits. "What if we don't? I don't want people to look back at all those articles and see us as just some band that flopped."

There's a duality at play: Awsten, the fiercely driven, self-assured frontman faces off against Awsten, the self-critical, occasional loner. It's a battle that he's keen to see end in a tie.

"I'm always both," he says of his split personality. "If I was either of those personalities full-time, shit just wouldn't get done. If I was a bummer all the time, then our shows wouldn't be fun. I think the balance is there and that's what makes it work."

Awsten, more than anyone, knows who he has to be and what he has to do for his band to be successful. And where those two sides meet is in his work ethic. When Waterparks needed flyers made, he learned Photoshop. When they needed a way to sift through their many, many different ideas before paying for studio time, Awsten set up a studio at home. Merch designs? Promo filming and editing? All Awsten. "I hate being dependent," he stresses. "Nobody's going to work as hard for your band as you will yourself. If you're stuck relying on people, you're going to be fucked."

But with that hard work about to pay off in the biggest way - Double Dare is set to propel his band into the ranks of pop-punk's elite - are Waterparks and Awsten, self-doubt and all, ready for the level of success headed their way?

"Well, we better be!" Awsten exclaims without a second's thought. "Everything that we have right now as far as the album and all the other cool stuff we have going on and the things we've accomplished, those aren't accidents. I quit school to do this full- time, so if we get to that point and I'm like, 'Oh, I'm not ready,' then fuck me, it's my fault.

"I honestly try not to think about any of it too hard, though," he continues more soberly, "because that would mess me up. But we're pretty ready."" And they'd better be.

DOUBLE DARE IS OUT NOW VIA EASY LIFE

TOY STORE-Y

WHAT WOULD WATERPARKS GET UP TO IF THEY GOT LOCKED INSIDE A TOY SHOP OVERNIGHT? LET'S FIND OUT, SHALL WE…

AWSTEN KNIGHT (VOCALS/GUITAR) "Completing the prophecy, as my eyes roll back, my skin turns purple and I crawl backwards to the ceiling!"

OTTO WOOD (DRUMS) "If I managed to get trapped in a toy shop, I would monopolise the Lego market and make it a real pain in the ass for anyone who was looking to construct the biggest Lego house ever (laughs)!"

GEOFF WIGINGTON (GUITAR) "Let's see…If I was to get trapped in a toy shop overnight I would most likely find myself building the biggest Lego house ever. Once that's ready, I'd go and find myself a wife and a dog, so we can all grow old together. The end!"

WORDS: KYAN DE PREITAS // PHOTOS: MICHAEL ANTHONY

#waterparks #awsten knight #geoff wigington #otto wood #i.zip

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a-door-to-somewhere · 10 months

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Ok watched spiderverse 2 again here's some thoughts in no particular order (spoilers and long post ahead):

- peter b is reading a book called "how to talk to kids" at the very end. Presumably because may can't speak yet and Gwen and Miles were zapped away I choose to believe he was reading this so he can go talk to Miguel LMAO

- I fucken love the way spot, after he powers up, move around via just like... sliding around in the air basically with his bad posture like he's hung from strings like a puppet

- when gwen is drumming at the opening and when spot gets zapped both are intercut with frames from later in the movie and also later in the future. I'm guessing spot got a glimpse of canon events but when Gwen was doing her intro it was phrased like a retrospective- but unlike most intros it didn't have a shot of a new spiderman comic being thrown on the pile. So when was she doing this retrospective? I hc she'll pick back up at the end of the third movie

- someone needs to make procreate brush packs for each universe/character PLEASE

- ok the "watercolor" effect being a mood ring is incredible but I havent seen anyone talking about the sort of abstract animation?? It almost reminds me of like experimental film from the impressionist/dada/supremetism eras, you can see it synced to the drum in the intro and also in some of the backgrounds during her big speech

- also during the Guggemheim fight when the Renaissance Vulture was like "you call this art?" And Gwen was like "well we're talking about it aren't we" YOU'RE SO RIGHT GWEN I AM KISSING YOU ON THE LIPS

- the shaky 1st pov cam when Gwen's dad sneaks up on her both times reminded me of when Miles accidentally watched kingpin kill perfect Peter? Idk if it was exactly the same I'd have to go back and rewatch but UGH it really gets that Gwen's dad has two sides too and the cop side isn't really human almost, lurking in the shadows, silhouetted

- also Gwen's dad just being a shit cop, giving her mixed instructions, raising a weapon at an unarmed person who is trying to communicate, firing warning shots, yelling the Miranda rights over her which is not how its supposed to be given

- contrast that with Jeff who literally never pointed a weapon at anyone and went charging after spot with his bare hands, is casual with his spiderman. I mean even when Jeff was talking about Miles not capturing Spot correctly it was lighthearted and joking, he's actively not going by the book, he's keeping the squad off of Spiderman's back, he apparently talks to spiderman about his family troubles???

- have I mentioned I LOVE MUSICAL MOTIFS????? Seriously they’re always good (fuck Wagner everyone knows Toby Fox invented the leitmotif) I mean everyone noticed the horror style Prowler stinger but even more characters got some: Gwen got a Little Rock theme with a guitar lick that echoes the ‘spi-der-man, spi-der-man’ song, Miguel’s distorted synth whine, the interesting mouth and bells percussion that Pav gets (good job Hollywood avoiding the exotic Asian pentatonic lick for once), at the end when the 42 prowler reveal slowly changed the prowler stinger into a human scream???? There’s probably more but I’d have to go back and watch it again again lmao

- I really love how Miguel is kinda goofy. He’s aloof and over serious but he makes mistakes and shows other emotions despite his best efforts. His flaws are shown off in his very first interaction, with his unwillingness to ask for help despite the fact that he knows he needs it. He’s frustrated. He’s got group object leader energy. It makes it so much more lovable that he’s susceptible to quips and he also gets knocked down and messes up and shows up and has his quirks that everyone puts up with. THATS how you make an interesting, relatable, lovable antagonist. Perhaps it worked too well LMAO

- I am an Oscar isaac simp I gotta go rewatch moon knight

- when miles was swinging around with gwen he passed a truck called "redex" bc gwen rejected him lmao

- theres an 8 clearly visible in the background of earth 42? Wacc

- the Spread Your Wings, Man scene focusing on the plastic wrap on top of the Alchemax flowing in the wind like it’s an ocean?/??? I really hope they call back to that imagery later because it clearly means something and I need to know what

- I’ve got an inkling of something that specifically revealing one’s spider-dentity to a loved one is some kind of anti-canon event, like maybe it’s the thing that fixes the destabilization? I mean we’ve seen that it’s ok if loved ones figure it out themselves (or if they then die, like uncle Aaron) like it’s a clear theme that miles keeps trying to tell his parents, and then Gwen tells her dad, which causes him to quit the force, thereby averting the canon event of him dying indirectly??? Also, it’s implied that the MJ of 1610 sold out Perfect Peter Parker to Fisk, leading to his death, ALSO also, gayatri probably figured out Pav’s identity right before HIS world destabilized??? Idk lmao

- I hope spiderbite/Margo and Jess get proper intros I can’t wait

- the background spider hockey girl has my heart, I couldn’t stop looking at her during the chase scene

- God I need to watch moon knight again

- when mj moved into mays room to greet them she lifted a picture frame back up as she moved in the door? What's up with that???

- not Spanish originally starting as a too-relatable joke that Miles gets a B in despite his mother speaking Spanish at home as well, not living up to his expectations, and then 42!Miles presumably speaks more/better Spanish due to being closer to his mom because his dad died???

- not miles aceing ap physics and ap studio AT THE SAME TIME in his SOPHOMORE YEAR free my boy from grounding he’s done nothing wrong

- btsv’s main villain is gonna be the sat I’m telling you

- most importantly: what was up with the Comic Code Authority’s seal being shown after the studio logos at the beginning??

Did that happen in the first one??? Why would it be there??? The cca has obviously been defunct since before superhero movies were really a thing. Famously, the cca seriously censored a ton of content, causing Marvel to be unable to portray darker stories involving drugs and other more mature themes, which they wanted to do with many superheroes including Spidey??? Is the Spider Society secretly the cca, censoring storylines that they think shouldn’t be portrayed, including darker timelines like 42? There was also issues with the convoluted Spider-Man comic lines going through unsatisfying ‘resets’ to keep Spider-Man relatable, without evolving the character into anything too far away from the OG Spider-Man, ie young, relationship issues with MJ, nerdy, tragedies etc. this is the detail that had me wondering the most because it was so clearly displayed right at the beginning, and the cca was generally a shameful part of comic book history in which publishers submitted to satanic moral panic. Like, not really something that reads as a cute little callback to an era of comics like he use of Ben day dots or misaligned printing or the onomatopoeias??

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simplegenius042 · 18 days

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Fallout Casting for Ryomen Sukuna Matata for Jujutsu Kaisen Abridged react fic

"Fuck school! Be crime! Do gay!" - Ryomen Sukuna, Episode 2 JJK Abridged (by the Schmuck Squad).

Reasons To Why I Believe These Characters Should Be Casted listed below the cut:

Richard Grey/The Master (the leader of the Super Mutant Army and the main antagonist of Fallout (1997), seeking to evolve humanity into super mutants with the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV), however, is stopped by the Vault Dweller, Elrand Brandt, and his companions via the power of persuasion) -> Mostly the grotesque way his body is morphed and stuff, but you can imagine his mouth opening on Ryder's body like Sukuna does on Itadori's body.

Sulik (a tribal looking to save his sister in Fallout 2, was saved by the Chosen One, Finidy Mona, and joined her as a companion to find the GECK, while she also helps him save his sister from slavers) -> It's mostly his tattoos that got me to choose him as a potential candidate.

Stanislaus Braun (the Overseer of Vault 112 in Fallout 3, Braun is a sadistic old man who regularly tortures his captives in a world of virtual reality, but had known the location and use of the GECK, which lead James Dolen to seek him out (only to be transformed into a dog), but was later outwitted by Alph inside the VR world and Amata from within Vault 112) -> Evil for the sake of being evil? Hates a kid for no reason? Would definitely take over somebody's body if given the chance? Sukuna candidate.

Yes Man (a securitron Benny had tampered with to help him overthrow House, is key to the Independent Vegas ending of Fallout New Vegas. Courier Six, aka Ryder, finds him in Benny's penthouse, and teams up with the securitron to save Benny from Caesar and overthrow House together) -> Listen he's too cheery for his own good. And sarcastic too. Like Abridged Sukuna.

DiMA (the synth co-leader of Acadia in Fallout 4 Far Harbor DLC. He is also the "brother" of Nick Valentine, the person who gets the Sole Survivor, Nate, to admit that he's likely a synth himself and has been involved in the sketchy shit around Far Harbor) -> Though the least potent candidate, what cannot be denied is that DiMA disregards everything about morality when it comes to doing what he thinks is the ways things should be.

The Scorchbeast Queen (the motherfucking progenitor of the Scorched disease and the final boss of Fallout 76 (if players nuke her nest at Fissure Site Prime). The Resident, Vega, only survives her encounter with the Scorchbeast Queen because of the FEV that had partly transformed her) -> She looks as ugly as Sukuna's fingers.

John Henry Eden (the President who runs the Enclave in Fallout 3, has all the personalities of the past presidents copied and downloaded into his A.I. He intended to use the water purifier to release a modified FEV into the water to kill anyone with a trace of radiation in them. He attempted to get Amata onboard with this plan, but since it would technically kill Alph, Amata convinced the president to give her the virus to "use" and tricked Eden into self-destructing and run like hell while Raven Rock fell down around her, towards Alph and his companions who were fighting outside trying to get to her inside) -> Eden and Sukuna are all aboard the murder express.

Dean Domino (one of Ryder's temporary companions in Fallout New Vegas Dead Money DLC. He was friends with Frederick Sinclair and had used Vera Keyes to get him one step closer to the Sierra Madre vault, however America being nuked interrupted this heist and lead him to being ghoulified, and while trying to get into the Sierra Madre, had been forced by Father Elijah to help him get into the resort. Dean eventually betrays Ryder inside the Sierra Madre, having been unable to comprehend someone could be as smart as him, which leads to him getting filled with lead) -> Dean Domino is a selfish bastard, Ryomen Sukuna is a selfish bastard.

Dr Klein (a brain apart of the Think Tank in Fallout New Vegas Old World Blues DLC, he was the director of the Big MT. His speakers are set on a loud volume and he is quite an arrogant punk. Klein and the rest of the Think Tank had vivisected Ryder, taking her heart and spine (and losing her brain to Dr. Mobius) and would only allow her to leave if she dealt with Mobius and gave them the resources to explore the Mojave from the safety of Big MT) -> As loud as Abridged Sukuna is.

Ishmael Ashur (the leader of the Pitt in Fallout 3 The Pitt DLC, though he is the big boss of slavers and raiders, Ashur is trying to humanely find a cure for the Trog which his daughter Marie seems to be immune to. However, the Lone Wanderer, Alph's appearance in the Pitt shakes things up) -> If Ashur just lost his benevolent intentions behind his actions and was doing things for the evils, he could be a lot like Sukuna.

God (the alter who acts as the "conscience" to a nightkin called Dog in Fallout New Vegas Dead Money DLC, he looks out for Dog and wants to kill Father Elijah so badly. Ryder helps both Dog and God make peace with each other and merge them both into a new personality) -> God is the voice in Dog's head, and his voice is quite menacing. Like Sukuna, though Sukuna is more malevolent than God.

Remember, for the alternative option, REBLOG and put in the tags WHO else from the Fallout franchise should be Abridged!Megumi and WHY you think they'd better suit the role. Also if there is a tie, then a repost will be made with only the tied candidates, and you'd have to pick from them.

I've also created and will continue to update (until the polling is done) a Master List for the poll results of the casted winners. You can find it right here.

You can find my Fallout OC profiles Master List right here, which also includes a link to the original post where I pitched my react fic idea. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, chow!

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until-the-brahmin-come-home · 1 year

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The Institute may be a poorly written shambling mess of an antagonist but at least their seal is pretty kickass. But also no, you aren’t mankind redefined, you don’t consider synths people. You are (by your own definitions) the same mankind you are just doing more evil science.

These are cute. I like the sketchiness of these - they’ve been scrawled by real people with imperfect tools. That pistol/wrench combo feels like it could represent a subdivision of the minutemen in some way; maybe in the future, when they have more members, it would represent a more civilian/engineer branch separate from the more military-focused one.

Oh you see...they’re called the gunners cuz they use guns...and their logo is a guy shot through the head...by a gun...more brilliant creative design has never been seen...

it’s a militaristic organization and their logo was previously established. next.

ok i like the atom cats conceptually and these various symbols are pretty damn cool but they like. barely matter. they’ve got, what, one quest? six members? it just feels like a missed opportunity. do they even interact with the BoS, the singular other group that heavily uses power armor?

#fallout 4 concept art #feel like this is a bit meaner than usual but oh well

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hookshot18 · 1 month

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Watched Michael Mann’s Manhunter

(No, he didn’t choose the title)

So I’ve been in both a Hannibal mood and a Michael Mann mood recently, so I thought I’d take a look at the original adaptation of the original novel. And I gotta say, it’s very interesting to look at it both isolated and in the context of everything that came afterwards

First of all, it’s got a great cast. Unlike the sequels there aren’t really any names in the cast outside of Brian Cox, but everyone gives a great performance, especially William Petersen as Will Graham. Whenever he’d do the character’s signature monologues while talking to himself, it’s nothing but him talking directly to the camera in single takes, he doesn’t have the luxury of cuts or montages to fall back on. Brian Cox’s Hannibal Lecktor is the most understated version, but that doesn’t mean he’s missing the kind of fruity cattiness that makes him so fascinating to watch. The two of them have great chemistry that definitely does have hints of the homoerotic, but I just wish I was able to watch more of them. The killer who they’ve reunited over, Francis Dolarhyde, is played by Tom Noonan, is also a real treat. He’s so tall and imposing, and a great antagonist. One of the flaws of the movie is how little time is spent on him. (Ironically the book has the opposite problem, having page after page describe every single injustice Dolarhyde has faced as a child to the point of being cartoonishly tragic.) As I haven’t finished the Hannibal show, I can’t comment on its portrayal of the Red Dragon, so I have to give it to the 2002 movie for the best version of him. All of the rest of the cast, such as Dennis Farina, Kim Greist, and Joan Allen are all extremely natural and do a good job even if they aren’t as memorable as future performances in the series

From a filmmaking perspective, it’s beautiful. Michael Mann and cinematographer Dante Spinotti have beautiful imagery that they love to linger on, the score is that kind of 80s synth sound that horror and thrillers have severely lacked in the last few decades, and it all builds up to a movie that has the perfect amount of style and substance.

I’ll compare it to the other movies in the series that I’ve seen, Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon. It’s very interesting to watch compared to the former, since that one is unique in that it goes for a very naturalistic visual style, which pairs well with the more animated cast. And then Red Dragon makes the cast even more animated somehow, and has become perhaps the most stylized thing outside of the TV series, though I think it backfired into becoming style over substance, which is odd considering it has the same source material and cinematographer, but 16 years and a worse director make all the difference. Mann’s iconic level of detail may be a bit overboard, to the point where most of the crew left before wrapping and the ending is very noticeably cobbled together and short, but you won’t see Brett Ratner have people ride an elevator in a building several blocks away timed exactly to rise as Will figures out the killer’s motive, being basically a Lightbulb moment.

All in all, if you’re a fan of either Hannibal Lecter, thrillers, or just movies in general, give this a watch, it’s very much a hidden gem

#Gonna try to keep track of movies I watch here #Filmshot #Manhunter #Manhunter 1986 #Michael Mann #Hannibal #Hannibal Lecter #Will Graham #1986 #Thrillers

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ifonotlnow · 5 months

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REVIEW NOBODY CARES ABOUT: HIP TO THE JAVABEAN EDITION

ALSO, some of this was written in the morning, and some was at night. So, if the night part is really THAT MUCH more entertaining, I'll start writing these right before I sleep again

What’s in the Toaster?: NA/10

Honestly, I don't think it needs explaining

Sunbeam Light Show Flower Seed: 8/10

Good song, It's fun, it's catchy, it says the words "necktie" and "band" in the same song, which clearly means it references Tally Hall (it hypothetically could've been). Good

Musical Chairs: 7/10

Pros: it's a really good song

cons: he uses the word "bloody" the way a filthy brit would

jokes aside, It's a really good song but I just don't LOVE it, y'know

Atomic Copper Claw: 9.5/10

ILOVETHISSONGILOVETHISSONGILOVETHISSONG IDK how to explain it but the protagonist is so me I love them so much. Also, I wonder if the antagonist actually DOES have an atomic copper coat like the singer believes.

Your Evil Shadow Has a Cup of Tea: 8.75/10

I feel like this in an unpopular opinion (outside of the lemon demon fandom) but I LOVE this song. Definitely on elf my highlights from the album, it's stupid and sounds kind of bad. It's exactly what I want in a song.

Telekinesis: 8/10

In this album, my favorite three songs in a row are easily Telekinesis, Matches and Nails, and Relativity. Sure, I do like YESHACOT and Atomic Copper Claw more, but honestly it feels weird to separate the songs. It just feels natural to put those songs together. anyways hell yeah I love this song.

Matches and Nails: 8/10

The protagonist is kinda stupid with a horrible memory. Literally me (except that spot is already taken by the atomic copper claw guy)

Relativity: 8/10

I like, love love love the outdo of this song. Also, the chorus and pre-chorus are really fun and catchy! unrelated, but this album in my head feels really white. Not in a racial way, just. Like, when I think of this album I think of specifically the Minecraft polished quartz block.

Fancy Pants Manifesto: 8/10

If you haven't before, do yourself a favor and listen to this song with headphones in. It was a month or two before I listened to this song with headphones, and I was delighted when I heard the bridge and during that one part the synth bounced from ear to ear. Also, I didn't realize until the re-mastered version came out that at the beginning of the song Neil was saying "1, 2, 3, 4" and I thought he said "fancy pants, fancy pants" also this song reminds me of that one flash game

Go to Hollywood: 7.75/10

Love this song. It's great, and a sudden though appreciated change of pace from the rest of the album (kinda like clown circus' somnolence in terms of sound). This song used to be my favorite, but became overplayed in my head and ended up losing a good 1.25 points over time. Whoopsie!

I Know Your Name: 8/10

This song is an energetic, fun, hilarious masterpiece and anybody who tries to tell you the deporitaz/trapezoid version is better is WRONG.

Consumer Whore: 8/10

Kinda like go to Hollywood, this song became a little overplayed (though less so). I really like the second verse (cause it's funny) and the bridge (cause bridges are often my favorite parts of lemon demon songs)

Between You and Me: 8.25/10

I feel like this song is a perfect example of what I mean when I say the song is white. White like polished quartz, or almost-to bright pale LEDs. This song just feels really clean, almost weirdly "cleaner" than the lemon demon songs that came before it. Not that's bad, it's one of my favorite songs on the album. "Where cosmic placement failed / Where Serendipity drags her tail" is a FANTASTIC lyric (no I do not know what serendipity means I just think it's a big fancy word that sounds cool)

I’ve Got Some Falling to Do: 8/10

no need for explanation, it's a good song.

Sick Puppy

OKAY this song is so long, that it wouldn't do it justice to give it one rating so I've decided to split up the song into three sections

Sick Puppy (first instrumental section): 8/10

I know I said I don't really like instrumentals much, but this section is probably my favorite in the song. In fact, it may be one of, if not my favorite Lemon Demon instrumental. It's fun, it's energetic, and I especially love the section where it really picks up before transitioning into the second instrumental section.

SPEAKING OF THE SECOND INSTRUMENTAL SECTION.....

Sick Puppy (second instrumental section): ZERO OUT OF TEN (actual rating like 4/10)

GRR EW I HATE THIS SECTION IT RUINS THE INSTRUMENTAL SECTIONS AND IT RUINS THE WHOLE SONG I HATE IT IT SUCKS SICK PUPPY MORE LIKE SUCK(S) PUPPY

Sick Puppy (Guitar section): 6.5/10

meh

OVERALL: 8/10

FAVORITE/LEAST FAVORITE TRACKS

Atomic Copper Claw, Sick Puppy or Musical Chairs (depends on my mood)

Bonus Tracks

Almond: 7.25/10

good.

Bad Idea: 8/10

This song's pretty good. It's a fun song about zombies (WITHOUT THE ACCENT COUGH COUGH PEPPER AND SALT COUGH COUGH) but it kinda got overplayed. I still really like it though, and it has a great ending.

Behold the FUTURE: 7.5/10

overrated

Not Applicable: 7.75/10

Good, fun instrumental. Definitely my favorite instrumental on the album.

Roman Robot Statues: 7.5/10

yeah good song

Run, Harry, Run!: 8/10

WHAT THE FUCK WAS NEIL ON WHEN HE WAS WIRITNG THE LYRICS TO THIS SONG WHAT IN THE NAME OF HARRY POTTER COMPELLED NEIL TO WRITE THIS WEIRD ASS FANFICTION JESUS CHRIST. Also, good for him killing Dumbledore. You go, girl!

Take a Picture: 7.5/10

ehh its okay. don't love it. good song though

There’s a Robot in My Head: 6/10

This song is a great alarm. I know from experience.

OVERALL BONUS TRACK RATING: 7/10

FAVORITE/LEAST FAVORITE BONUS TRACKS

Either Run, Harry, Run, Bad Idea, or Not Applicable for my favorites. Least favorite is there's a robot in my head, easily.

#lemon demon #neil cicierega #hip to the javabean #httj #lemon demon album review #ines's album review

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teslacoils-and-hubris · 9 months

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OC q&a time!

I desperately need something to pass the time and also to talk about some ocs im working on soo here we are! I also want more practice drawing with my wrist brace so these will all have doodled responses too

the participents this time are Dr. Dee Buhging, Viv the robot, Comp. and Dr Baxter Io Phase

Dee Buhging (he/she) is a mad scientist who's life work is integrating organic matter into robotics and computers (wetware, as she calls it). He's incredibly egotistical, a bit of a slob, and some have said a bit... too interested in her work, if you know what i mean.

Viv (it/she), or experiment 5-004 is one of Dr Buhging's greatest achievements, a robot with fully integrated wetware. It has a particular interest in music and dance, specifically synth and ballet respectively, though all forms are of interest.

Comp (it/its), short for computer, is a helper robot designed by Dee to help around the lab, mainly performing climate control and keeping tabs on various extremely sensitive experiments. It somehow gained conciousness and fucking hates having to work with Dee. All of Dr Buhging's subsequent sentient robots have had parts of their code sampled from the error that brought Comp to life.

Dr Baxter Io Phase (it/they, designed by @moderndaymadscientist ) is a sentient, human sized bacteriophage accidentally brought to life by some spilled super solution Dee was creating to try and keep neurons alive as wetware longer. The solution was scrapped due to the unforseen consequences. It has an antagonistic relationship with Dee but their also still roommates because it's so hard to find good rent now a days, especially as a 4 armed sentient virus.

#doc rambles #my ocs

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noveldivergence · 4 months

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a Plague of Shadows? 👀👀👀

Oh my god this is my current main WIP so I can say SO MUCH about it. I have the intro post here, but I'm gonna pop the opening paragraphs below and then ramble a bit :3

It was Sixth Hour Standard in the Capitol’s eastern restaurant district, and the glare of the city biodome’s light was only muted by the tint of the cafe’s windows. Ottilie’s fingers itched for a trigger. She’d never fired a phaser before, though it was a simple enough process. It seemed terribly cathartic. Utterly useless in the face of the current enemy, but better than the complete non-action that had seemingly overtaken the entirety of the Coalition’s governing council. As the ice in her drink clinked down, melting from the heat of her gripping hand, she imagined the vessel as the stock. Fingers searched for any dimple in it to pretend it was a trigger. No such satisfaction came. The synth-glass was the perfect-smooth of all replicated objects on Talome. She could hurl it down on the floor, against stone tile replicated to be stronger than anything nature could provide, and the synth-glass wouldn’t even give her the release of shattering.

Ottilie is probably one of my favorite of my protaganists. Don't get me wrong, I love my protag for The Apostates too, he is the most sopping wet little meow meow and the antagonists are who really shine in that series, but Ottilie is just amazing.

She's autistic in a false utopic society, where difference is aggressively frowned upon, but she's gamed the system to be her special interest. She's convinced herself she's this perfect patriot, who'll be a shining example of humanity in a system that till recently didn't give much thought to the species. In the face of the adversity of the plague, she gets a chance to "prove herself" and be a credit to humanity along with Xanthe (WHOM I ALSO LOVE).

When she starts to realize the oft-villainized Imperium is...well, I won't make excuses for the bad shit the Imperium does but! They are very human-despite-not-being-human, and there are also huge reveals of the sins of the "utopic" Coalition, which leads Ottilie to have to make some BIG DECISIONS regarding her loyalties.

I also could gush tons about the ships in A Plague of Shadows but! I am heavily leaning towards not having a romance for Ottilie as that doesn't feel like it's central to the narrative journey she is on--she'll still express multi-spectrum attraction to men, women, and people outside that binary, but I don't think a relationship is core to her character atm.

BUT her narrative of realizing the way she was raised was imperfect, abusive, and deceptive and that the "great evils" of the universe are just imperfect beings in various positions of an imperfect system is VERY IMPORTANT TO ME AS SOMEONE WHO LEFT FUNDAMENTALIST EVANGELICALISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Especially as someone else who is autistic and afab.

#tag meme #writeblr #wip: a plague of shadows #oc: ottilie khan

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dyedazombiepink · 2 months

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TPFFIB Pt 2: the characters minus Kite and the Dead King

Starting with Kite's friends, then the P.o.P Squad, then the smaller antagonist, and finally Lime & Candi

The Og's (Kite's friends)

Odie: Odie can be best described as being in between a rock and hard place, for a lot of his life he was stuck being the unwilling spy for the Dragon King and was expected to be totally devoted and loyal to the Dragon King, and he was miserable for a long time, until he was chosen to represent dragons at a school that seeked to make Dragons, Griffins, Unicorns, and Sphinx's more united as a collective unit. Here he met Kite, Carlos, and Trix, and they all hit it off becoming great friends. He went from being an insecure and hesitant dragon, to being a more-confident and brave dragon.

Side note: Odie has a jack-bat-rabbit friend named Jupitar whose basically his best friend. Carlos: Carlos is probably the most innocent minded of the group, somewhat because he spent almost 95% of his childhood inside, with the other 5% being when went to parties or something like that. Regardless when he was picked to go to the integration school he was over the moon and was so excited, and rightfully so, Odie, Trix, and Kite were all kind to him and they all had fun together. Being Sphinx he also had the power to control sand, which meant he could use his powers to empress his friends and show off what he can do. He also the youngest in the group so he has an air nativity to him Trix: Trix is by far the thinker of the group, she's incredibly smart and socially strong. Also being a Unicorn she has a bit of magic up her sleeve, but she mostly just uses it for picking stuff up and blast attacks. Now, despite being otherwise great socially and academically, she is not super strong magic wise, despite white unicorns being believed to supposed to be the most magically inclined. Which doesn't apply to Trix, because of that Trix focused more on raw strength that house's and equines naturally have. Which makes comes off as the mom/leader of the group. Thanks in no part to her kindness, loyalty, and bravery. and we all know Kite, a pink griffin the only one in the group without any kind of special power. Though she is really fast, but so is every griffin.

Pongo the two-legged bat:

Pongo originally came to Golden Glade after hearing about P.o.P and he saw it as a great opportunity to help people and show off his skill. So he moved and quickly was showered in admiration and acceptance from the creatures of Pactor, he also became friends with 2 other P.o.P cadets, Beat-Bop Bubble and Scratchy, Beat-Bop Bubble especially as the two of them were very supportive and loving of one another (mostly because they liked a lot of the same movies, and had a lot in common). As for Scratchy, while Pongo was somewhat scared of him, he still made a point to be nice and treat him the same as anyone else.

(best drawing showing off their relationship :P)

Beat-Bop Bubble: Beat-Bop Bubble was born in Neon Night-Zone, a place in the ocean almost entirely populated by Synth-c-horses, magically inclined neon seahorse's who can channel energy and magic into power magic blasts, but they mostly either don't use it or do use it but for parties. Beat-Bop Bubble is no different, joining the military when he was old enough, but was transferred to Golden Glade because his government owed Ancient Feather a "favor" and chose the most promising cadet Beat-Bop Bubble to become part of P.o.P which he was semi-cool with until he figured that he wasn't be reassigned but rather that his people were forced to give up someone promising. While at P.o.P Beat-Bop Bubble would become great friends with Pongo and the two became almost inseparable. With them both even resigning from P.o.P later on together once learning the truth about Ancient Feathers. Leaving Kite, who was stuck with the protection of a city that lacked a government and ruler, and abandoning Scratchy who was now the only member of P.o.P left since Kite became a substitute leader and then resigning to be a detective to get closer with the people. When Beat-Bop Bubble and Pongo did go home, they were pleased as punch to find that the Jungle Pongo came from, and Neon Nigh-Zone were actually very close to each other, so they stayed close distance friends.

Scratchy: Scratchy is very scrappy, tuff, even mangy, and maybe a little feral. He's very protective of his friends and has no problem attack bad people or people who want to harm him or his friends. But no one really picks up on this because all they really see of him is a crazy killer robot, who might as well be in a zoo then on the battlefield. Pongo is nice to him though, which he dose appreciate. Later on when P.o.P is in shambles, Kite comes around to Scratchy and finally considers then recognizes Scratchy's loyalty and companionship. He still loves to thrash and tear people apart though, he even kills a giant manifestation of prejudice that was threatening to tear apart the people of Golden Glade (what a guy).

Ashes Elementa: The only other griffin Kite meets and who works for P.o.P, she is a walking mystery, the only thing Kite knows is that she's one of the 5 elemental griffins, with her being the elemental of fire, but that for some reason she's here and grumpy. While she dose hang out with the group outside of work, but she never really talks to anyone. (FUN FACT: Ashes is based off a very very old character I don't remeber the name of, who was basically an evil sun/fire griffin who wanted to roast the earth like rotisserie chicken), The only interest she has is writing songs, singing, and poetry. Which everyone learned on a night shift that they all pretended was a sleepover, when they shared interests.

Finally, we have Ancient Feather herself, the myth, the wo-MAN, the legend.

Ancient Feather was the great protector of a city known as Pactor, and had protected it for many years alone. In her later years, she began to become frail and couldn’t keep up with her duties. Despite being immortal, she could still die from injuries, and her guardian magic could only keep her on the top of her game for so long. So, she decided to take new action, when the citizens of Pactor were ready to elect a new leader, Ancient Feather cancelled the election, informing the citizens that she would in fact be the leader of Pactor from that moment on, and reassured her people that she would not fall short of her people that there would no longer be a need for temporary leaders. Explaining that having watched over Pacotor and Golden Glade for as long as she has, she was the only reasonable choice, but said they could still have a council to run the small towns.

Her next course of action was to make a task force, an army of skilled fighters, medics, and guards to take her place. Soon she had created a nearly unstoppable army. Focused on one goal, to protect Pactor, and keep it strong. Just like Ancient Feather had for nearly 100 years.

But while she may have been the perfect ruler for pactor, at her core she was a controlling conniving conjurer, manipulating many, and starting wars just to gain more power. Or as she thought of it, making a better tomorrow for the people of Pactor, meanwhile the places conjured usually lost a lot of there resource to Pactor and were left to weak to rebel. Every conjured kingdom feed into Pactor and didn't get as much back as they were giving.

However, Ancient Feather would be greatly humbled by a kingdom that she greatly underestimated. The Quartet Kingdoms, a large kingdom comprised of four smaller kingdoms and territories each with one unique species each. The rulers of this kingdom, weren't about to be stepped on all over by some big ass immortal bird and her army. So they fought with everything they had, and after 9 days and nights of fighting, King Blitzen of the Unicorns, was given permission by the others to do something drastic and unforgiving: to curse Ancient Feather. He did just that, blasting Ancient feather with a spell powerful enough to strip Ancient Feather of all her guardian magic leaving her a powerless immortal, forcing her to flee, the four rulers and The Quartet Kingdom celebrated the defeat. Sealing Ancient Feathers powers to the kingdoms she conjured with them, so that her power may be used by the kingdoms to rebuild and get back on their feet.

AND THAT IS IT FOR TODAY, I'll do the villains next, and then one last post for Lime & Candi.

See he's mad at me now because I'm only half way done, SUCK IT UP SCRATCHY Jesus...

#oc #storytelling #i'm so tired #i'm getting there

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tortoisesshells · 5 months

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For the Writer's Would You Ever: is there an AU for Customs & Duties (or another work!) that you'd like to write but haven't gotten the chance to yet?

Writer's Would You Ever?

Yes, absolutely! There's a completely ludicrous F.allout 4 AU that I maintain makes a lot of sense: it's still Boston, there's still skullduggery, they're still accidentally-on-purpose ruining each other's lives. There's just ... vastly more lasers and radiation damage and mid-century pop than there is in the original version.

Under the cut, because. well. I want to maintain a modicum of decorum on this blog.

(The cliff notes version of FO4 is. uh. Well. Imagine a world where post WWII western powers went all in on nuclear power, and then that October 23rd 2077 the world ended when the US and China blasted each other and everyone else off the face of the earth in a single day of nuclear war. With me? okay. Boston, 2287: ambient radiation is down, the Minutemen are trying to come back from the brink of organizational extinction after the Quincy Massacre, a mysterious organization called the Institute is kidnapping Commonwealth residents and replacing them with synths (functionally, lab-grown humans, many of whom don't actually know they're synths) to an unknown purpose, a similarly secretive organization called the Railroad is breaking synths out of their captivity within the Institute, and the B.rotherhood of Steel (a quasi-hereditary (except when not) military organization descended from a rogue Army unit (it's a long story) that believes that all advanced technology is too dangerous for civilians to control and that they must, therefore, take control of it for the common good) has rocked up to Boston in a giant metal zeppelin named for Arthurian legend. I mention this because B.oS ranks, too, take their cues from Arthurian lore and chivalric orders. They tend to think that anyone or anything that's not human-born human is inherently dangerous and tend to shoot first and ask questions later.)

Nellie's still a widow, still has two kids and a total unwillingness to look her bereavement in the eye and make peace with it ... she just also has a two-headed cow named Aunt Abigail, a mostly-two-hundred year old fishing boat that's held together with duct tape and goodwill towards man, a mutually beneficial scavenging-for-repairs relationship with the robot crew of USS Constitution, and a new-to-her solar panel array which is promptly stolen requisitioned by the new-in-town B.oS. So begins her mutually antagonistic relationship with the asshole tin-can Paladin Norrington, which is not improved by the B.oS's (non-canonical) attempts to confiscate the moonshot rockets from the Constitution's crew, and the deteriorating relationship between the Brotherhood and the Commonwealth on the whole.

I have written a snippet here and there, but here's the longest, mostly coherent bit:

The next time Paladin Norrington saw Elinor Treat was at Fort Independence, sitting against the massive stone walls with a minuteman's laser across her knees and her usual cap drawn down over her eyes. Training day, the General (another short, tired woman) had said, and the exhausted residents strewn about the courtyard certainly seemed to back that up. "Elinor," he said, a little uncertainly, and when she did not reply, he called her name again. "Oh, it's you," she said, cracking an eye. "I didn't recognize your voice without your helmet. Come to pay me, have you?" "No," he said, startled. "Disappointing." She closed her eyes again, looking like she'd fall asleep in a moment. Feeling like an idiot, he said he wasn't expecting to see her here, so he had nothing to pay her with. Elinor snorted, accidentally whacking herself in the face with the barrel of her gun, before coming sighing and grumbling to her feet. It wasn't an impressive sight, but she managed to convey a kind of understated menace, even when she had to crane her neck a bit to glare.

I will furthermore add my tags from one of those "the last character you wrote for in the last video game you played: how are they doing?" - D.anse is the in-game B.oS companion and, slight spoilers, his dogmatic adherence to protocol does not save him:

#i DO think you could swap jimothy for danse. i do think the arcs of ' man defined by his rank and military prowess gets fucking bodied; #by realizing the organization he serves objectively sucks and is going to be the actual death of him and furthermore; #is willing to let that organization do it because of Reasons. ' are actually pretty similar. #that said. the more important thing is jimothy encountering Rocket Powered USS Constitution and the Nautical Robots; #I think he would enjoy himself immensely. or die of apoplexy. either way. #customs and duties aus

#thank you for the ask kind friend!#this. god. i love this au so much. it is so dear to my heart.#nellie's always defined herself by her ability to survive anything. well. babe. guess what. survive post-apocalyptic boston.#also. i think giving jimothy n power armor is just a fundamentally entertaining concept. harder to kill and harder to know;#and infinitely more annoying to nellie because of it.

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