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hmspogue · 3 years

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Outer Banks season 2 Official Trailer shot-by-shot rundown

A comprehensive post where I scream about analyze the entire trailer frame by frame for clues, theories, and plot. Just my own opinions and general tin foil-hatting

These are screenshots from Netflix’s trailer for Outer Banks season 2. I do not claim or own any of these.

note: this post is tagged as a long post if you wish to avoid having to scroll until your thumbs break.

“My old man used to tell me, ‘it’s best to never say you’ve hit rock bottom’.”

(Putting all of these shots together since they’re scenes we already know but-) Holy shit, okay let’s just....start off like this I guess, damn.

“'Trust me’, he said...”

Kiara looking back and forth between the boys like this really just feeds the headcanon I have that her form of grief this season is going to be her trying to hold it together for their sakes (and eventually just snapping).

JJ just looks fucking furious someone give these kids a hug? I already know this scene is going to ruin me.

“You can always go...”

JJ back working at the hotel. He looks literally so angry again in this scene I could see him self destructing at work and losing his job? (Please do not be isolating yourself you beautiful son of a bitch even though I know you’re going to).

Pope in the Twinkie (costuming wise they all are in warmer looking clothes for some of the shots, so just confirming it’s a little bit into the school year when this all takes place).

“Lower”

Big John was real big into pep talks, I see. (seriously can you imagine Big John having this conversation with like 8 year old John B after he fucking dropped his ice cream cone or some shit I shouldn’t be laughing).

I’m just-

These poor kids, I wanna know how the police all the way down in the Bahama’s knew about them?

Their calves....

“RUN!”

Are going to be so fucking jacked by the end of this season I stg.

Fuck you.

“The gold from the Royal Merchant....it’s here.”

For a while, I had thought that maybe they didn’t even make it to the Bahama’s at the front of the season and ended there (because everyone had been filming in there). But I guess they’re going to be making two trips.

If I were a bird from this POV I’d shit right on that house no questions asked.

oooooh ho hokay. Just so we’re clear. Ward Cameron not only get away with murder and about two dozen other felonies, but-

“Half a billion.”

HE STILL FINDS THE GOLD IN THE CRAIN HOUSE AND GETS TO KEEP IT?

Not the polo with the snap back, I just know this man has a playlist called Sad Boi Hours that is just Juice WRLD’s top 5 songs on Spotify and he tells his friends they wouldn’t know the underground artists he listens to.

Sh, you have lost screaming privileges. Go inside and take a nap maybe.

“John B, we are fugitives in a foreign country.”

So, previously, I was talking about how I was confused how they would still be trying to find him is everyone thought he was dead, but here the wanted poster clearly says “presumed lost at sea”. I think that will be interesting to see how the Pogues all interpret that.

Especially because they already had a memorial for John B and everything, I wonder if there will be any part of the Pogues holding out hope that they both could still be out there OUCH.

I’m going to circle back to this, but it looks like John B and Sarah are going to get separated for a little while in this man hunt, I could see my idiot himbo son trying to sacrifice himself so Sarah can get away but in reality just....stranding her.

“Promise me you won’t do anything stupid?”

Oh, sweetie....

“Well, Sarah Cameron, I do stupid things all the time without realizing it.”

The volume of his self awareness is astronomical. sir, that is your whole character summed up in your own words.

GOD, IT’S ME AGAIN. PLEASE LET THEM LEAN INTO COMPLETE HIMBO JOHN B THIS SEASON I’LL DO ANYTHING-

nyyooooOOOOOOOOOOOOM-

“Hold on!”

The complete abject terror I would feel having John Booker Routledge driving get-away and then saying the words “Hold on” while reaching fro the gear shift? The english language fails me.

Sarah, bestie, I’m so sorry.

I just wanna know-

what the plan or objective was in this situation. What was the reason for being this dramatic.

Rest in piss, bozo <3

“Ward’s still out there...”

Okay, same conversation they were having as before. I wonder what makes them decide they need to get back to the OBX for this tho.

“I can clear my name. This can all be over in one shot.”

It looks like Topper watching this but way more concerningly, correct me if I’m wrong but this 100% looks like....John B gets caught. And the DEATH PENALTY?! He did have a mug shot for the fliers in s1 and the one above but he was never brought in? Plus he just looks super dirty and dishevled in this one so I-

Jail break anyone?

I also still want to know if they’re going to go with a Topper redemption arc this season. like, does he know more than he should just from being around Rafe and his big fat mouth? Is he going to help out the Pogues even if it’s just for Sarah?

This shot just suddenly made me really sad. The thought of this all started because Big John left one last thing for his son to find, his literal life’s work. And when it all started, it was just a fun adventure John B and his best friends were going on together and having fun with. Then it all got dragged to absolute shit and turned into what it did, including the remaining 3 Pogues thinking that this treasure hunt took their two best friends away from them. And it’s nothing like Big John intended it to be.

Why my eyes wet?

Now we’re edging into what I was talking about earlier with John B and Sarah getting separated.

“If you think there is anything I wouldn’t do...”

Once again, John B is no where to be found. Also, just in case y’all didn’t already know or forgot Ward is an actual psychopath.

I believe this one of the new character, played by Jontavious Johnson (Stubbs). Based on the voice over it lowkey sounds like they’re implying Ward maybe hired Stubbs and Cleo to find and bring Sarah back. My theory would be I bet they do go to retrieve her, but she somehow convinces them that it would be more beneficial for them in the end to be on the Pogue’s side instead.

Miss Girl you gotta be keeping your head on a SWIVEL. Especially when you’re a FUGITIVE of the LAW-

“...you haven’t been paying attention.”

My guy, who are you clarifying this for?

It’s what you deserve for monologuing.

in all seriousness, the idea of them coming to face to face with Ward in Nassau after thinking they finally escaped him is genuinely terrifying.

“SARAH!”

It kind of looks like they’re either hiding their faces or covering their noses? I don’t know maybe it was from some tactic to get away from Ward.

What did I literally jsut say about yelling privileges, you unhinged mother fucker?

“I’m calling the shots now. I’m driving.”

The following progression of scenes made me actually snort-

“I can’t drive stick.”

PLEASE THE FINGER GUNS LAUNCHED ME INTO ORBIT I LOVE THEM, YOUR HONOR.

Alright, so now it looks like we’re in Charleston. This is the same scene with Heyward’s truck that got leaked from BTS (read: JJ and Kie shoulder touch).

One of the main things that stuck out to me in the following scenes which, you will see, is it lowkey looks like Pope is kind of heading up this part of the operation, or even going in alone? The following clips are just very Pope focused.

I don’t know what it means, it’s just an observation.

“John B was not the only one that Ward double-crossed.”

LIMBRY-

Bro, we have been hearing about this woman for literal months and I just have....so many questions?

Who the hell is she? How is she connected to Ward? Why is she in South Carolina instead of the OBX? How do the Pogues even learn about her and how to track her down? How is she meant to “help” them? GAH I JUST WANNA KNOOOW. I already know I don’t trust her though and no I will not be offering up supporting evidence.

Sir, that is my son please unhand him.

“I think you know what I want.”

.......no? But feel....free to explain yourself?

The print on the paper is the same one that’s on the ceiling tiles in the following scene. Obviously, with a key on it that most likely goes to the place a few shots from now.

Hell yeah, son, let’s get SLEUTHING.

“The treasure belongs to the Pogues.”

DAMN STRAIGHT.

Bestie’s I’m not going to lie, I stared at this frame for a solid 10 minuets and I have no idea what it says on there I’m sorry. Someone in the comments is welcome to enlighten us.

“We gotta find it first.”

I can’t tell if that’s just dirt or if he hurt his head? But he look GOOD right now for one thing. For another, same outfit as the one in the Twinkie from the beginning of the trailer.

Look at her. LooK AT HER! LOOK! AT! HER! I MISSED HER SO MUCH even in that damn smiley face top that continues to haunt my waking hours she is in it so much and it stresses me out for literally no good reason I’m sorry-

I could literally cry right now and I think that speaks volumes to how little we actually see him genuinely happy. Have I mentioned how much I love that red hat?

Also, probably not that important, but this is not from the same scene as the shots of Pope and Kiara were. This is from the next one-

“Woogity-woogity?”

“Give me some woogity, baby!”

Yeah, this pushed me over the fucking edge, the way that they’re actually happy and laughing? The fact that they kept woogity-woogity and made it A Thing? Yes.

I am, however, going to be intentionally ignoring what appears to be the very intentional stagingof having such an obvious space between where Kiara and Pope are sitting adn where JJ sits, even including the level they’re sitting on because I don’t have the emotional capacity to face those implications right now. Thank you for your time.

Yes yeeeeEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

GIVE ME ALL OF THE SCENES OF THEM ACTUALLY GETTING TO BE TEENAGERS AND JUST BREATHE AND LAUGH AND HAVE A GOOD TIME AND NOT BE RUNNING FOR THEIR FUCKING LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!

before Rafe comes in and literally starts shooting because they can’t breathe for more than 7 seconds but we’ll....get to that.

They refer to Sarah as a Pogue this season or I burn Netflix to the ground. Your move, Jonas.

50 bucks says John B is driving the Twinkie again for the first time since being back.

I deadass think the Pogues JUST got Sarah and John B back and they’re just having the time of their life. Kie was in her smiley face outfit when Pope was in this one a few clips ago, and I still hold to the belief that that one still they released of JJ and Kie hopping over a fence is the Pogue reunion so-

Ward? I have no idea what he’s looking at behind the wall paper and I’ll be so honest I don’t care my eyes are only seeing Pogue content right now.

“This is a map of the whole island.”

This fit, when will John B learn how to operate buttons, stay tuned for season 5. Also my previous theory of this being their reunion outfits and stuff because Pope is in the back in the same jacket as before.

The plot thickens and so has JJ’s hair, Rudy drop the shampoo brand.

Please, dear God, tell me they’re back in the sex church. For @jiaaraa sake.

Kiara, your Madison is showing.

Okay, I really did try but all I can make out is Something to the tomb begin something something.

You’re welcome.

I am no expert but I do not believe boats operate on land.

John B looks like he is in the same outfit here that is in his mug shot we saw on the TV screen so I have a sneaking suspicion this is where he gets caught.

“John B is back-”

Once again with the damn sexual tension that’s always between Barry and Rafe in every scene they do are we about to kiss right now?

“-it’s him or me.”

First of all, no.

Second of all, I’m just....so very confused about this time line this season. It kind of looks like Ward and Rafe follow and find Sarah and John B in Nassau (unless those scenes by the truck were actually back in the OBX). So did they....go to Nassau, then just come right back when they did? I’m just confused.

Put that thing back where it came from or so help me.

Literally when will you stop at this point I am begging you.

This looks like the same scene the Pogues were, ya know, literally just having a good time at so fuck me, I guess.

Yeah, no, it’s going to be a no from me, I’m just going to pretend like I’m not seeing this and moving on.

I have simply no idea what is going on here or who that is on the bike but maybe JJ? Maybe Luke even? I think that’s JJ’s bike.

The sewer scene. The SEWER SCENE-

For months sicne that tiktok leaked this damn scene has been genuinely all I could think about. So (obviously) it seems like they’re sending Kie down into the sewer to go do seomthing and things go horribly, horribly wrong.

If you haven’t seen the tiktok, essentially all it was was JJ and Pope screaming and trying to lift up the man hole cover while Kie is begging for them to hurry from inside. I’m cheating a little bit as this isn’t a shot from the trailer but this picture was posted and it’s from the same scene.

I’ll just....leave this here. Back to the trailer shots.

Nice. Also, same shirt as mugshot.

Hey, um, what?

Kiara’s car, she’s driving, I can’t tell who’s in the back seat or the front.

Holy God what is going on and how can I as an audience member put a stop to it?

So, same scene as we will see and was in the teaser but, for some reason, they’re all jumping off of a giant ass boat into the little life raft where it looks like JJ gets hurt later but don’t you worry we’re getting to that.

JJ AND KIARA WITH THE POGUE HANDSHAKE JJ AND KIARA WITH THE POGUE HANDSHAKE THEY BOTH LOOK SO DAMN GOOD AND THEIR LITTLE SMILES SPARE ME-

Cleo 🥵

I’m so excited to see her arc and what it brings this season you guys have no idea.

Please for the love of God be about to get Ward Cameron’s ass like he deserves literally punt him into jail right from Tanny Hill.

Sarah at My Druther’s with what looks like a bloody bandage on her side? Same outfit she’s wearing when they’re running from the police on the beach and she has the bandage there too so. Interesting.

Topper hugging who I’m pretty sure is Sarah, being a general douche because he’s clearly looking at John B like 😏

Clips like these serve to remind me just how many of my worldly posessions I would gladly give up to be able to punch Topper Thorton in the throat one time.

I think this is Cleo jumping off the boat with Pope after John B and Sarah.

Absolutely busting a lung at Pope’s form in this one.

John B and Sarah waiting in the life raft, still Cleo and Pope coming after them. The obvious next question is where are JJ and Kiara. The scene I’m sure you all have been waiting for is coming up and clearly takes place in the life raft as well.

So, I really think JJ and Kie get left for last, something horrible happens as they’re trying to jump (my head instantly goes to JJ maybe like pushing Kie out of the way and getting hit on the head instead or even just some accident).

And, oh my GOD a scene of him falling off the boat after it happens and Kiara diving in after him immediately, having to desperatly try to stop him from sinkingand get to the life raft holy shit-

Girl CATCH HIM?????

Because why wouldn’t this be Rafe’s fault. Part of me wonders if this isn’t related to JJ being hurt.

I am going to try and unpack this as calmly as possible because behind my computer screen I am vibrating at a frequency that could shatter glass but respectfully.

WHAT IN THE FUCK IS TIAUEWFHLAILA

Okay, so scene wise, JJ’s hit his head somehow (probably while he was jumping with Kiara) it looks like and now they’re back on the raft.

In my opinion, this is either:

A) JJ is in really, really bad condition after getting hurt in the jump and they’re not sure he’s going to make it. So this is a “Please stay with me, stay awake, please don’t die” hug OR

B) They very narrowly just avoided a deadly situation (my first thought is JJ hits his head while jumping, passes out in the water, maybe almost drowns but Kie and the others get him onto the life raft in time) and this is more of a “Oh my God, you’re okay, you’re safe now, we’re okay” hug.

I honestly lean more to the second one based on the little bit of Sarah’s face we saw in the background. To me, it almost looked like she was smiling thru tears, which, fits way more with the second option than the first.

Anyways. Moving on before I burst a lung again.

(also, before anyone comes at me, no, I’m not happy JJ is hurt, obviously.

(Once again, arrest outfits). You can still see the bandage but it looks like Sarah’s limping now too so...good Lord give the girl a break maybe?

Everything in this trailer just went to shit so fast I think I have whip lash, can we go back to the Pogues hanging out and being happy now pkease I liked those scenes.

“I get it. You guys are scared.”

“No.”

She’s cute but, uh, hello sewer scene outfits. Seems like them planning to do whatever the hell they were going to do in the sewers but the boys are starting to get cold feet as maybe they should but hind sight is 20/20 I suppose.

“It’s kind of cute.”

“I’m not scared.”

“You should’ve just led with that.”

I will never be able to express how much I adore Pogue banter and general dumbassery and I have a feeling this season will not be lacking in either department

I high key don’t think these two are actually going to be there for this scene to go down but I’ll let it slide this time because-

They do be kinda cute.

It both feels like I’ve been waiting for this damn show for 3 years and also like I just watched season 1 last month explain that to me.

Either way holy shit. I missed this dumb show and these dumb kids so much it physcially hurts and WE GET THEM BACK IN T-MINUS 16 DAYS.

Also. Where The Hell Is Wheezie Cameron And When Will She Have The Rights She Deserves.

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squidproquoclarice · 5 years

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All right, continuing with this Ask: I apologize if you've covered this already, but I just started reading Sunrise and I was wondering about your interpretation of Javier and Bill. Arthur REALLY soured hard on Javier even though they were good friends in the beginning--he can even be heard saying they should have left him to die in Guarma. I don't think RDR2 even really explains how Javier split up with Dutch, let alone the pathetic state he ends up in RDR1. Part 2: Javier I think Javier kind of got done dirty by RDR1. I’ll say that up front. The predestination of him being one of John’s RDR1 targets very much forced his char’s arc in RDR2, which kind of sucks, because given the man we see in-game, it could easily have gone the other way. I’ve remarked in the past that Arthur and Javier seem to be a tragedy of two similar men on parallel but opposite courses. They’re both artists and dreamers who care about people, are intensely loyal to those they love, and are deeply insecure about their place (Arthur due to a history of abuse, Javier due to being an immigrant and POC). Arthur starts as an unquestioning hyperloyal thug who hates himself and ends up finishing RDR2 as an idealist with strong principles and openly expressed compassion. Javier starts as an idealist with strong principles and openly expressed compassion and ends up in RDR1 as an unquestioning hyperloyal thug who hates himself. We see Javier was a revolutionary who wanted so much to change things in Mexico. (Side note: Sadie and Arthur aren’t seeing the worst of things in Mexico in Sunrise to this point, but some of that’s because they’re largely transient when they’re riding through the villages and estates where more absolute power is being exercised, and they’re also white Americans. They’re experiencing Mexico with some privilege, and don’t get as much access to viewing the cruelest realities as someone like Javier who grew up in that system. I’ve tried to still pepper hints here and there that things are a bit fucked up.) He came to America running from the law for effectively speaking up and fighting back, and Dutch found him and took him in. For a non-white, non-English speaking man on the verge of starving by that point, that act of kindness, of being seen and implying he has value, meant everything. And so like so many others, he gives Dutch his gratitude, his loyalty, and his worship. He’s a quiet, thoughtful man who tries to make the camp better with his music and the like. He’s openly philosophical in a way Arthur is only in the pages of his journal. But when it comes to Chapter 6, he proves he’s afraid to lose the man who made him feel more than worthless. He sticks with Dutch rather than face the uncertainty of what lies beyond the gang’s schism. He embraces Micah and Bill because that’s what it takes. He does it because he knows Dutch. He knows Dutch will keep him around. Otherwise, what is he? A Mexican man in a country that clearly doesn’t want him. Even at the very end, though, he’s still hesitant to try to attack John and Arthur, and I honestly think he’s not 100% sure what the hell is going on. He missed the exposure of Micah as the rat, and Micah’s shooting Susan--all Javier knows is he ran into camp to warn about a Pinkerton attack approaching, and everyone’s pointing guns at each other, and demanding he pick a side. He makes his choice and in his fear, picks loyalty over principles. Arthur early on is very friendly with Javier, which makes sense given they have a lot in common, even if most of that’s hidden in Arthur. But they click readily as friends and brothers. But by Chapter 6 they’re clashing, because that “parallel but opposite paths” thing is coming into play. Arthur has the drive of a man with a possibly fatal illness striving with everything within him to accomplish his goals. He’s also got the fervor of a man recently awakened to his principles and hating who he was. So yeah, he’s impatient with blind followers and people who still willingly choose to follow Dutch down this road of destruction. If he’d had more time, maybe he could have been gentler about those facing his same crossroads, but he doesn’t. So he’s critical towards Javier, to the point of viciousness, and it’s not pretty. He sees Javier making his choice, the wrong choice, and putting himself into opposition of Arthur’s goals. He literally doesn’t have time for this shit anymore. And I think unlike Bill, Arthur genuinely expected and hoped for better from Javier, the dreamer and idealist, so in his pained disappointment, he’s lashing out at Javier in anger, to the point of saying pretty lousy things like how they should have left him to die on Guarma. If he had the space and energy left to think about that, he’d likely be appalled to realize he’s engaging in another Dutch-ism: you’re not helping me accomplish what I need, so yeah, I’d be willing to abandon you to die. But when it comes to the gang, he has to shut out everything but the will and determination to help save those who want to escape this hellhole. It’s an interesting contradiction that while he’s at his softest with many people in Chapter 6, he’s his most ruthlessly dismissive towards others. Though even at the end, he’s pleading with Javier and Bill to think for themselves, one last time. Post-game, I think Javier realized soon enough what he’s done. He’s with Dutch, yes. But look who else Dutch chose in the end. Micah and Bill, who have both abused him with racist remarks, who think the answer to everything is to shoot it? Is this who he really is? He’s sold his principles for nothing. So I don’t think he goes with Bill and Dutch. I have him wandering Central and South America for a time, but he finds no answers there, and nowhere he belongs that would help set the balance within him right. Sometime before 1911, he ends up in Mexico, and drifts into the role of the strongarm for Agustin Allende, the kind of man he used to despise and fight against. A man who abuses people, abuses power. But he deserves no better than this now, does he? He made his choice. In 1911, John finds him. And as opposed to Bill, who shoots John readily, it’s interesting that Javier never tries to fight him. He’s been working as a hitman, a level the Van Der Lindes never sank to (given both Dutch and Arthur clearly state to Bronte and Jean-Marc respectively that they’re not paid killers.) So he’s a man of ready violence. But he quietly tries to talk John down first. Then he tries to escape. Never once reaches for his gun. He only gets angry if John captures him alive, and then starts spitting some insults after being dumped in a jail cell. I honestly think he was hoping John would kill him, because he’s had to live knowing what a huge mistake he made, and what it cost him. John’s made it clear it’s a mercenary situation, and he’s desperate to save Abigail and Jack: “it’s your or me, and I figure it might as well be you.” Javier can maybe even accept that. But John doesn’t even think he’s worth killing anymore, and how much of a “fuck you” is that? He’s got Sadie’s deathwish, but hers makes her reckless, whereas I think Javier’s just makes him empty.

#javier escuella #arthur morgan #rdr2 #rdr1 #thank you for coming to my red talk

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corbie · 5 years

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Words I Have Enjoyed, 2018

Books

J.G. Ballard, The Day of Creation

Jodorowsky, The Incal

Charles Stross, Toast and Other Stories

Richard Feynman, QED: the strange theory of light and matter

Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

Douglas Adams, Dirk Gentry’s Holistic Detective Agency

Iain M. Banks, The State of The Art

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

Iain M. Banks, Excession

Italo Calvino, If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller

Roland Barthes, Mythologies

Frank Herbert, Dune

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

Aldous Huxley, Heaven and Hell

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

Daniel C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Longer Reads

Assorted Alan Kay Emails

“After more than 50 years of doing edge of art research, my conclusion is that "it is delicate". An important part of any art is for the artists to escape the "part of the present that is the past", and for most artists, this is delicate because the present is so everywhere and loud and interruptive. For individual contributors, a good ploy is to disappear for a while. What was wonderful about the big creative projects of the golden age was that they had to be conducted out in the open by lots of people, but the processes and pressures were such that the delicate parts were not done in.”

Are We Awake Under Anesthesia?

What happens to the mind and consciousness under anesthesia?

Fifty psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

“A gene for…“, “Brain region X lights up”, “Chemical imbalance”, “Closure”, “Fetish”, and friends.

The Female Price Of Male Pleasure

“Once you've absorbed how horrifying this is, you might reasonably conclude that our "reckoning" over sexual assault and harassment has suffered because men and women have entirely different rating scales. An 8 on a man's Bad Sex scale is like a 1 on a woman's. This tendency for men and women to use the same term — bad sex — to describe experiences an objective observer would characterize as vastly different is the flip side of a known psychological phenomenon called "relative deprivation," by which disenfranchised groups, having been trained to expect little, tend paradoxically to report the same levels of satisfaction as their better-treated, more privileged peers.”

DNA Through The Eyes Of A Coder

“DNA is not like C source but more like byte-compiled code for a virtual machine called 'the nucleus'. It is very doubtful that there is a source to this byte compilation - what you see is all you get.”

A Generation Lost in the Bazaar

“That is the sorry reality of the bazaar Raymond praised in his book: a pile of old festering hacks, endlessly copied and pasted by a clueless generation of IT "professionals" who wouldn't recognize sound IT architecture if you hit them over the head with it. It is hard to believe today, but under this embarrassing mess lies the ruins of the beautiful cathedral of Unix, deservedly famous for its simplicity of design, its economy of features, and its elegance of execution.”

The Recurse Center User’s Manual

I wish every technical working group I’ve been on for the past fifteen years had something one-tenth as thoughtful as this.

The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

The trial of crossing the Southern continent on foot, alone.

Why the Culture Wins: An Appreciation of Iain M. Banks

“One interesting consequence of this process is that the competition between cultures is becoming defunctionalized. The institutions of modern bureaucratic capitalism solve many of the traditional problems of social integration in an almost mechanical way. As a result, when considering the modern “hypercultures” – e.g. American, Japanese, European – there is little to choose from a functional point of view. None are particularly better or worse, from the standpoint of constructing a successful society. And so what is there left to compete on? All that is left are the memetic properties of the culture, which is to say, the pure capacity to reproduce itself.”

Programmer as wizard, programmer as engineer

“I think one of the overarching goals of compute science is to make more programming like wizarding. We want our computers to be human-amplifiers.”

The Ambiguous Utopia of Iain M. Banks

“Philosophically, the Culture accepts, generally, that questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” are themselves meaningless....In summary, we make our own meanings, whether we like it or not.”

Computing is Everywhere: A conversation with Bret Victor, Creator of Dynamicland

“That was the plan, yeah. I had um I just built up a . . . a set of things I wanted to think about that could not be thought at Apple. It was kind of this — um I had a bulletin board in my room and had like all these little pieces of paper that I had stuck to that board. And so when I went on my trip, I kind of scooped all those papers into like three little plastic baggies, and then at some random public library somewhere in the middle of the country, I spread out those papers on a big desk and tried to figure out what — what is it? Like what — what is the abstraction here? What — what does all these little ideas add — What are the categories here? What does it add up to?”

Lessons from Optics, The Other Deep Learning

“If anything, I wanted to reply that maybe her engineers should be scared.”

How To Be A Systems Thinker: A Conversation With Mary Catherine Bateson

“The tragedy of the cybernetic revolution, which had two phases, the computer science side and the systems theory side, has been the neglect of the systems theory side of it. We chose marketable gadgets in preference to a deeper understanding of the world we live in.”

Deconstructing the Unix Philosophy

Lots of good bits here.

A Basic Lack of Understanding

“This article is about what AI is, but it’s also about why learning what AI is is important in the first place. It’s about how AI is marketed as a commodity today, and what impact that has on people whose work and social lives are touched and shaped by AI on a daily basis. And it’s about how the future of resistance against AI-backed exploitation may not just be technological in nature, but social and cultural.”

One day I'm going to do a survey of the early-21st century AI skepticist essay landscape.

Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power

“To protest that some fairly improbable people, some people who could not possibly respect themselves, seem to sleep easily enough is to miss the point entirely, as surely as those people miss it who think that self-respect has necessarily to do with not having safety pins in one's underwear. There is a common superstition that "self-respect" is a kind of charm against snakes, something that keeps those who have it locked in some unblighted Eden, out of strange beds, ambivalent conversations, and trouble in general. It does not at all. It has nothing to do with the face of things, but concerns instead a separate peace, a private reconciliation.”

Carbon Ironies

“Most likely, you are a hard, angry person. . . . Beset by floods, droughts, diseases and insect plagues . . . fearing for your children in the face of multiplying perils, how can you feel anything better than impatient contempt for my daughter and me, who lived so wastefully for our own pleasure?”

Utopia and Work

“The utopianism of full employment is so entrenched, as a seemingly uncontested common sense, it’s difficult to imagine a different utopian horizon.”

Disposable America

“As it turns out, all three companies’ histories intersect with each other, as well as with structural changes to the American economy. But first, we have to talk about McDonald’s.”

What can a technologist do about climate change?

No clear answers, but thoughtful and insightful.

Survival of the Richest

Slowly but surely, however, they edged into their real topics of concern. Which region will be less impacted by the coming climate crisis: New Zealand or Alaska? Is Google really building Ray Kurzweil a home for his brain, and will his consciousness live through the transition, or will it die and be reborn as a whole new one? Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system and asked, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?”

Bourdain Confidential

“As much as I look at houses sometimes and think wow, that would be really nice, if that were my house, I know that I would be miserable. It would be… cleaning out the… the gutters, and you know, what about the pipes freezing, and if you own a home it means you have to vacation in the same place every year. I’m a renter by nature. I like the freedom to change my mind about where I want to be in six months, or a year. Because I’ve also found you might have to make that decision… you can’t always make that decision for yourself, you know… shit happens.”

How to write a good software design document

“A design doc is the most useful tool for making sure the right work gets done.”

The Bullshit Web

“There is a cumulative effect of bullshit; its depth and breadth is especially profound. In isolation, the few seconds that it takes to load some extra piece of surveillance JavaScript isn’t much. Neither is the time it takes for a user to hide an email subscription box, or pause an autoplaying video. But these actions compound on a single webpage, and then again across multiple websites, and those seemingly-small time increments become a swirling miasma of frustration and pain.”

On Production Minimalism

“Do more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing.”

“Omakase”

Just read it.

See No Evil

“What if we take these companies at their word? What if it is truly impossible to get a handle on the entirety of a supply chain?”

Estrangement and Cognition

“SF is, then, a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author's empirical environment.”

Layering

“This is good advice, and with a bit of adaptation it can apply to many things in life. Any sort of improvisation must arise from a basic technique. And just as important, the advice understands that there’s nothing more intimidating than a pristine kitchen, a blank canvas, an empty screen.”

The Heart of the Problem

“But consider this for a moment. Perhaps once we are adequately fed, diet becomes far less significant in determining how healthy we are. Maybe almost insignificant. Could it be that when our bodies have enough macro and micro nutrients available most of the time, other determinants of health kick in. The houses we live in. The stress we are under. The pressure of financial and social inequalities. Stigma, abuse and mental illness. Social isolation. And a million other factors with the capacity to make us sick.”

Mass Authentic

“Authenticity seems to stand for the truth behind the curtain, but it is really just the curtain. The presumption that only some feelings in some situations are real, and other feelings, though felt, are somehow false, is authenticity’s main ruse.”

Stickeen: The Story of a Dog

“However great his troubles he never asked help or made any complaint, as if, like a philosopher, he had learned that without hard work and suffering there could be no pleasure worth having.”

The Early History of Smalltalk

Far more here than I could find suitable excerpts for.

The Radical Implications of Luck in Human Life

“The less credit/responsibility you believe we are due, the more you believe our trajectories are shaped by forces outside our control (and sheer chance), the more compassionate you will be toward failure and the more you will expect back from the fortunate. When luck is recognized, softening its harsh effects becomes the basic moral project.”

It’s Harder Than It Looks To Write Clearly

“Everything we write is, in a sense, translated from another language, from the chatter we hear inside our head, translated from that interior babble (more or less comprehensible to us) into (what we hope will be) the clearer, more articulate language on the page. But during the process of that translation, basic clarity often suffers—sometimes fatally!—when, for whatever reason, we feel that we are translating our natural speech into a foreign language: in other words, when we are writing.”

It Isn’t About The Technology

“Yet the decentralized Web advocates persist in believing that the answer is new technologies, which suffer from the same economic problems as the existing decentralized technologies underlying the "centralized" Web we have. A decentralized technology infrastructure is necessary for a decentralized Web but it isn't sufficient. Absent an understanding of how the rest of the solution is going to work, designing the infrastructure is an academic exercise.”

E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction

“For 360 minutes per diem, we receive unconscious reinforcement of the deep thesis that the most significant feature of truly alive persons is watchableness, and that genuine human worth is not just identical but rooted in the phenomenon of watching.”

If the Point of Capitalism is to Escape Capitalism, Then What’s the Point of Capitalism?

“Freedom from exploitation. Freedom from control and domination. Freedom to find, develop, and realize ourselves. The freedom to live lives which really sear us with meaning, purpose, and fulfillment — instead of being crushed with anxiety, bruised by competitiveness, and suffused with fear. So here is the real question. If these are things we are really after — why don’t we just give them to one another?”

The Lax Habits of the Free Imagination

“The lax habits of the free imagination exhibit an appealing open-door policy. But to counterbalance this extreme permissiveness, the celestial process had better employ some sort of disciplinarian, an enforcer, to maintain order. Where else does the famous restraint and brevity of the short story come from? In other words, there must be a plan, an outline. Mustn't there?“

Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People

“It's fun to think about, interesting, and completely inaccessible to experiment given our current technology. You can build crystal palaces of thought, working from first principles, then climb up inside them and pull the ladder up behind you. People who can reach preposterous conclusions from a long chain of abstract reasoning, and feel confident in their truth, are the wrong people to be running a culture.”

I’m Broke and Friendless and I’ve Wasted My Whole Life

“When you’re curious about your shame instead of afraid of it, you can see the true texture of the day and the richness of the moment, with all of its flaws. You can run your hands along your own self-defeating edges until you get a splinter, and you can pull the splinter out and stare at it and consider it.”

Mistakes About The Meaning Of Life

“Noting this close relationship between meaningfulness and value is important, since it allows us to draw many implications that can be helpful for people who consider their lives insufficiently meaningful.”

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badasscrossstitch · 6 years

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That Time I Gave a Commencement Address...

My life is so weird and awesome. I got to fly to Philadelphia and give the commencement address at the graduation ceremony for Drexel University’s Custom-Designed Major Program in the Honors College. These students CREATED THEIR OWN MAJORS. Basically, they are the coolest.

There were 14 graduates, so naturally I stitched them all the main points of my speech. Then, the school let me stand up and hand them out to students after they got their diplomas! It was basically the greatest thing ever and I had such an amazing time. What badass humans!

The whole graduation was taped and you can watch it here if you like. I start speaking around minute 27. I am also posting the transcript below.

Honestly, I can’t believe my life sometimes.

youtube

Drexel University Commencement Speech Shannon Downey

Hi. My name is Shannon Downey and you probably have no idea who I am. Maybe if I say I am also known as Badass Cross Stitch you might have heard something about me. Probably if you saw a few of my pieces of art you would say, “Oh sure I’ve seen that before. Cool.” ...and then you would wonder why on earth I’m giving your commencement address. Don’t worry. I wondered the same thing.

So here’s the 30 second version of who I am. I have crafted a pretty magical life, encompassing at least 5 life-times worth of adventure. I’ve held all sorts of rewarding jobs including middle school teacher, golf instructor, sexual assault advocate, producer, long-time entrepreneur, and director of development. I’ve traveled the world with a backpack, lived overseas and visited over 35 countries. I teach at several colleges. I am an activist by birth, an artist by chance.

The only thread that weaves all of these things together is that I am instigator. I start things. I get people excited about their potential, offer them some first steps, cheerlead them, and then move on. For years, this scared the shit out of the people who love me and really just wanted me to get a job, make some money, and live a safe life. It’s hard to know how to navigate that. I knew in my gut that the model that worked for so many would never satisfy me. It’s hard to look someone you love in the eye and say, “I want more. I want different. Trust me.” especially when you are just graduating college and everyone’s putting their hopes and expectations on you. Especially when you have $60,000 in student loans and a degree in Anthropology. (Just to be clear, I still have $40,000 in student loans)

But here YOU are. Graduating from a program that you selected because you KNEW that the boxes that most Universities provide just didn’t fit for you. You already stood up and said, “Nah….I am going to create my own degree program.” You are MY KIND OF PEOPLE.

So the first thing I want to say to you is, “I’m proud of you. Keep doing that.”

When asked to do this speech, I asked Siri to tell me the rules of commencement speeches. One must always know the rules are in order to decide if you agree with them or you are going to rewrite them.

Good news! Commencement speeches have NO RULES.

Wikipedia - everyone’s favorite ‘academic source’ - says that a commencement speech is an opportunity to share your experiences, values and advice. A platform to say amazing, unlimited things.”

Amazing unlimited things. No pressure.

Then I thought back to the commencement addresses given at my graduations and the countless other graduations I have attended. One thing stuck out...I don’t remember anything from any of them.

So, I wrote this hoping that all of you would walk away with at least one thing you remember. And one thing you are going to DO.

I’m going to assume that like most people, you all want a happy, successful, and adventurous life. I believe I have that and I believe anyone can create that for themselves. In my experience, the key to that is the fine art of avoiding stuckness.

Feeling stuck is the worst because you feel powerless. Becoming powerless is a slow, gradual, and insidious process that happens to all of us at times. Being stuck usually reveals itself in a moment. You look around and think, “Well how the hell did this happen? How did I get HERE?”

Stuck.

What I have observed is that people generally react in one or two ways when they find themselves stuck. They take drastic action or they surrender. I don’t want you to have to do either of those things. Drastic action sounds great but it almost always comes at a great cost to those you love or those that have come to depend on you. Surrender comes with the ultimate cost to you: your happiness and self-worth.

So, what is the key to avoiding stuckness? Ready?

Life-long enthusiastic action and adventure!

If you only remember one thing from this speech remember that. I feel like we are vibing so I’m going to ask you to amuse me and repeat after me...cool? Yeah good. “I will live a life of action and adventure.” Ok! Now, so your body can internalize it, “I live a life of action and adventure!” Brilliant.

How does one live a life of action and adventure you ask? Well I have 5 tenets that I would like to share with you.

These tenets are simple but they are not easy. The good news is: they can be self-taught. The bad news is: they require a lot of practice.

Ready?

#1 Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

Groan...right?! “Shannon I thought you were going to tell us to say Yes more! What is this shit about being uncomfortable?” I told you they were simple but not easy.

We are humans. We are programmed to avoid feelings that would be categorized as “negative” - pain, sadness, anxiety, fear - they are uncomfortable and we train ourselves to get through the uncomfortable as quickly and easily as possible. Avoidance, self-medicating, workaholism, eating...all very common ways of avoiding those feelings.

Over time, we develop an aversion to discomfort in all its forms. It gets harder and harder to be uncomfortable because we don’t allow ourselves those experiences. But discomfort has more to teach us than “happy” feelings. Discomfort holds within it growth, understanding, adaptability, and resilience.

Get to know your discomfort. Study it and how you react to it. Give it space, examine it until understanding it’s presence is second nature to you. Intentionally put yourself in situations that make you uncomfortable. Play with discomfort and risk-taking and fearlessness until it’s a natural state of being for you. Eventually, you will find that your discomfort transforms. Suddenly, you aren’t uncomfortable...you are excited.

Recognize that sometimes avoiding the uncomfortable is unchecked privilege. It is your duty to take on discomfort in situations where your privilege allows you to walk away from it - if you so choose. That is where the key to systemic change lies.

We live in a very uncomfortable time right now. It affords us an incredible opportunity to decide how we want to show up in this world. I challenge you to use this moment, this discomfort, to figure out what you stand for. As you explore that, I guarantee the discomfort will transform and transform you in the process.

Meet discomfort with curiosity and wonder - not skepticism and avoidance. That is what adventurers do - and you are an adventurer! (See what I did there?)

#2 Make hard choices.

Making hard choices is ...hard.

We wait and avoid and overthink. We usually wait until we just can’t anymore. We wait for someone else or a new opportunity to appear in front of us. And sometimes that happens and it’s good. Sometimes it happens and it’s bad. But most of the time it never happens because without us taking action we are relying on luck to determine our fate.

And yet change is the only thing that offers us a truly new opportunity or direction. Making hard choices is the only way to ignite radical change in our lives.

But therein lies the rub...radical change is scary! Hell, non-radical change is scary! It is unpredictable, unknown, and can be overwhelming.

But resisting change creates stuckness.

By avoiding hard choices, we are trying to control life in a way that it can’t be controlled. The tighter the grip, the narrower the vision of the path...the harder you have to work to get unstuck.

What if feeling uncomfortable is the universe’s way of telling you that something needs to change? What if discomfort is not a bad a thing to avoid but an indicator to examine? It’s your body literally screaming at you that you need to shake some shit up. You need change and, therefore, you need to make choices.

There are a million paths to your success and happiness. Don’t get stuck believing you only have one true path.

When I closed my company down after ten years, I was terrified. Being an entrepreneur had become my identity. I struggled with the idea of folks thinking I had somehow failed but I knew that I just wasn’t happy doing it anymore. My body told me. My emotions told me. My productivity (or lack thereof) told me. I knew I needed to listen to my discomfort and make a hard choice. It took me 2 years to actually do it. I had to work up the courage to be fearless. And the minute I made the decision - I was rewarded with new opportunities that I couldn’t even have fathomed. It seems to be that immediate. You make a choice in a moment and you reap the rewards. It’s not easy but it sure is simple. Be afraid and do it anyway.

#3 Learn to Value Progress Over Perfection

Perfection is not real. It is a joy-thief. A brick wall to action.

There is a direct correlation between perfectionism and procrastination. When your goal is perfection (an untenable goal), nothing is ever good enough to start or launch or make public. You exist in a constant state of internal iteration, critique, and criticism. You become stuck.

I do not suffer from perfectionism. I walked around totally unaware that people imposed such pressures upon themselves and wondered why folks with great ideas didn’t just do them. I was made aware of it during a really interesting conversation with some colleagues and now I am a bit obsessed with exploring it with people.

My friend Keita is working on freeing himself from perfectionist thinking. He has a rule that if he feels like he is at 80% on something….he must put it out there or move forward on implementing it. He has a brilliant podcast that he had to force himself to go public with. Despite how uncomfortable it made him, he did it. And it’s a fantastic podcast - and I’m not just saying that because I was a guest. Keita allowed himself to be uncomfortable, made the hard choice to launch something new and value the progress he had made in preparation. And now the world is gifted with his thoughts, insights, and interviews.

While Keita’s number is 80%, mine is more like 20%. If I have what I think is a good idea, I just start and do and make. Let me be clear. More than half of those ideas are total shit. And I either chalk them up as a learning experience (which they always are). I transform them into something else that could work, I abandon them altogether, and in many cases I grow my vast collection of brilliant URLs that I’m sure someone will buy off of me someday for a fortune. I mean… IPetPuppies.com y’all. Future cash cow.

So how do you learn to value progress over perfection? I think it’s through play. I’m serious. Allow yourself to play. To be silly. Everyday! If you can foster a sense of playfulness you are far less likely to force perfection upon yourself. There is no way to play perfectly. Find whimsy. Create mischief. Remember how to be silly. If you must strive for perfection - strive to be perfect at making progress everyday.

#4 Cultivate A Diverse Community

Everything is easier when you have a community. You literally can’t get stuck if you have a strong enough community. People are collaborators, resources, supporters…they make change and risk taking easier and a heck of a lot more fun.

Now let me be clear, when I say community I do not mean followers. My digital community is just as valuable to me as my IRL community but I think of them as just that - a digital community - not followers.

Building a community requires that you be genuinely interested in your fellow humans. It requires you to ask the questions: “What do I want to give my community? What value do I create in their lives? How can I be of service and support to them?”

While you will no doubt be the recipient of wonderful things thanks to your community - the intention that creates a community is one of service not gain.

A new study just released by Cigna found that young people ages 18 to 22 are the most likely to be lonely. Almost half of respondents said that they feel that their relationships are not meaningful. Only 53% said they have meaningful in-person interactions on a daily basis.

You have to take action to make sure that does not become your stuckness because that kind of stuckness is the most damaging. You need people and people need you. Get uncomfortable and go find people. Go to events by yourself. Introduce yourself to strangers. Compliment someone. Find people and make them your friend. Everyone wants to feel connected - be brave and ignite those connections.

Real power is collective and real happiness is communal.

#5 (last one) Incorporate digital/analog balance into your everyday

Too much digital connectivity stifles creativity and leads to isolation and stuckness. I have done many personal studies on this topic and I consider myself an expert. We collectively need to be addressing the need for Digital/Analog balance. I love digital. I love social media and TV and my iPhone. But like everything in life - without balance - there is addiction and isolation.

I started stitching and making art to force myself to put down my device and disconnect. To allow myself time to think and slow down. My stitching became my meditation. It changed my life. That said, every time I finish stitching something, I grab my iPhone, take a picture, type up the things that I thought about, and post it all on Instagram! Because...Balance.

So I encourage you to find ways to disconnect a little bit each day. Walk a dog, make something with your hands (even if you suck at it), swing on a swing, go for a run, learn how to embroider and join craftivism project! Just find a way to get more analog into your digital.

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That’s it. 5 simple, but not easy, things that you can teach yourself and master through practice.

#1 Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable #2 Make Hard Choices #3 Value Progress Over Perfection #4 Cultivate A Diverse Community and #5 Find Some Digital/Analog Balance

Take action on these ideas daily. Start small and push yourself a little more each day to avoid getting stuck. Pay attention to what makes you uncomfortable. Use that as fuel for taking risks and making choices for yourself and the future you want. Fight habits and behaviors that aren’t serving you head on. Surround yourself with amazing humans and do things to support them. Make things. Play. Be imperfect.

Live the life of action and adventure that you deserve!

Shannon

#commencement address #drexel university #honors college #2018 #shannon downey #badass cross stitch #philadelphia

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wayhaughterthanyou · 6 years

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OF COURSE I’M BACK. WHO WOULD I BE IF NOT LIVING IN YOUR BLOG WAITING FOR A CHANCE TO SPAM YOUR ASKS? 1-100

You are very much welcome to spam my asks any time you’d like

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? Enough for my cereal to be moist but not enough for it to be swimming…also I hate milk and usually have coconut or a lactate free milk

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? Honestly my favorite shit

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? I used to get in trouble for reading a lot as a kid so I often used a ton of obscure things but I think my favorites were a shoelace and another book

4: how do you take your coffee/tea? I depends on the kind of tea tbh but usually if it’s anything but black tea I’ll drink it plain. As for coffee I hate brewed coffee but I love espresso and I’ll drink that with anything but my favorite is probably an undertow

5: are you self-conscious of your smile? YES! I broke my two front teeth in middle school (long story) and I’ve just been bleh about it since

6: do you keep plants? I don’t but that sounds cute and now I’m sad that I don’t. Daddy needs a lil cactus or something

7: do you name your plants? I shall name my cactus Princess Rosalina Maria Fiore Montoya

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? Writing and film

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? Baby the only way to spread christmas cheer is singing loudly for ALL to hear

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? I used to sleep curled in a ball on my side but I have a back injury rn and can only sleep on my back and its terrible and I hate it

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends? Lisa.

12: what’s your favorite planet? Earth. The ocean literally makes me want to cry thinking about it

13: what’s something that made you smile today? Waking up and seeing this ask

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? Like interior design? Oh wow, like a mix of modern and rustic? My brother and I are classy boys; we like to feel like we’re living in a spaceship and a cabin simultaneously

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! GOOGLE?? THAT WEBSITE FOR PLEBS WHO DONT KNOW SPACE FACTS?? The moon landing was faked.

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish? Pene al Vodka

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? Right now I kinda just want to bleach it but I’m not sure if I should do it before pride or after.

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. Umm there is a picture of me…called Jaba the Hyuck..and um.. yeah

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? I don’t and I actually never have, however I have always written by hand so I used to always carry around a book.

20: what’s your favorite eye color? Trick question I have literally never seen an eyeball that I have not fallen in love with sooo

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. My messenger bag, which has had both sides of the straps resewn, has been peed on by a resentful cat, and lugged around 30 pounds of bullshit my senior year

22: are you a morning person? I have to be! I wake up at 4:30 on weekdays for my job

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? Play video games

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? Yes which is weird saying that out loud

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into? An abandoned preschool

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit? Vans high tops

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor? Okay so I hate actually chewing gum for a prolonged period of time anymore but I love the watermelon 5 gum

28: sunrise or sunset? Watching the sunset with someone and then staying up to watch the sunrise

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? @a-maelstrom thinks she’s tough but it just makes me want to pinch her cheeks ;)

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? I live with 2 demons I’m scared every day of my life

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. I used to hate socks but after losing 100 lbs really fast and having absolutely no more blubber to keep you warm you learn that socks are nice and are just here to keep you cozy. But I’ll only wear black ankle socks

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. We we’re playing Mario Party on my friends wii and we decided we were going to play until disney started airing the old shows like Kim Possible and shit, but then the batteries died. BUT there was a 711 around the corner that we could all walk to BUT we lived in a really jacked up town. Long story short we saw 3 drug deals on the way and when we got back I won the game and my friend rage quit and turned the system off before I had a proper chance to bask in my glory

33: what’s your fave pastry? I love Italian cookies

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? Okay I had two, they were both life sized black labs, one a puppy and the other an adult, and they were called Big Blacky and Little Blacky cause I’m creative as fuck I still have them in a bag in the attic somewhere

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? I only use on type of pen. Pilot Pen G.2 7.0mm

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now? 99% of the time I’ll have an album that takes over my entire soul (because I used a technique with writing long works that involves music) and right now thats One Fell Swoop by The Spill Canvas

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? I like it clean however my brother and I use it as a rec room right now so it’s like… a mess

38: tell us about your pet peeves! CHEWING. I don’t care if you resort to swallowing things whole around me I don’t want to hear you chew

39: what color do you wear the most? Black or blue

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you? I have a necklace that hasn’t left my neck since I was 15. It means everything

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving? To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book, but the most recent one I’ve read and loved is called The Ables by Jeremy Scott

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! I don’t! I wish I had a cute one that I went to

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? I don’t think anyone’s actually amused me enough to look at the stars with me so I’m gonna say my dog cause I used to find constellations at night and he’d join me in the backyard and lay with me

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? I don’t lmao

45: do you trust your instincts a lot? I always do, which sometimes gets me into trouble but fuck it ya know

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of. What do you call a lobster with a boob job at a dirty bus stop? A busty crustacean at a crusty bus station

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? Spagettios

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? Spiders. Hell yes motherfucker

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? I do only because my brothers car only plays CD’s I have no idea what the last one I bought was though

50: what’s an odd thing you collect? I collect currency from other countries, but only the ones that I find in the US. Like going to a country and bringing back the currency is cheating, I have to find it here

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? The first person that came to mind is my brother and the song is Fear of Flying by A Rocket to the Moon

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? Oh wow I don’t know man

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? I have watched all of them. Beetlejuice and Pulp Fiction are amazing and I love them, but RHPS and Heathers (especially the musical) very much impacted my life and my art

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? My dad when I told him he has white privilege

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point? Oh god I’m such a dramatic bitch I’ll do anything to prove a point

56: what are some things you find endearing in people? Honesty, compassion and the ability to see past one’s own beliefs to at least try to understand someone else’s

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? I don’t there’s been a time I’ve listened to that song without getting the chills and acting it out like a madman

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? My friend Adam is the wine aunt, my brother is the vodka aunt, and you can call me daddy

59: what’s your favorite myth? TSM Myth

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? Very rarely

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received? A condom.. on both sides..cause we’re so funnny

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? I don’t have a “regular schedule” where I “consume nutrients” but I love apple juice

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? Yes they’re me babes

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? It’s a beautiful blue and the sky writers are practicing for the air show coming up this summer

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with? Yeah quite a few, but I might be seeing one at Pride

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? Cute and classy

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? Like the outside matches the inside

68: what’s winter like where you live? Sometimes we have blizzards and sometimes is 70 on christmas

69: what are your favorite board games? Monopoly and chess neither of which anyone will ever play with me

70: have you ever used a ouija board? Baby doll how do you think I got these demons

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea? The twitter kind

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it? I’m the type of person who knows I’ll forget but doesn’t write it down anyway

73: what are some of your worst habits? I crack everything

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. A lil honey bee

75: tell us about your pets! I HAVE 6! A big ol mutt named Roscoe and he’s my boy and i taught him everything he knows (hes good at turning tricks) a whippet and jack-Russel mix named Sandy and shes a lil dummy, then a tux cat named Domino thats scared of everyone, a fat orange cat named Max who got lazy and took a nap on a scale one day (hes 17lbs), my baby boy Bandit, he has mainecoon in him and he has an extra thumb and is my world, and I have a turtle named Peewee who we call Pubes

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t? Editing

77: pink or yellow lemonade? PINK

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? I liked them in despicable me but it gets old seeing them everywhere

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? My cat loves me and thats all i can ask for

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? Beige, nope my landlord

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. ROUND ORBS, SQUARE HOUSE

82: are/were you good in school? I hated it because I was smarter than everyone so everyone hated me

83: what’s some of your favorite album art? The art from Nothing personal by All Time Low, the deluxe edtion, but more specifically the art printed directly on the CD

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? I have so many planned but I’m getting a farnsworth from Warehouse 13 that says “endless wonder”

85: do you read comics? what are your faves? I read the Rick and Morty ones and I was big on batman in

86: do you like concept albums? which ones? They’re absoutely everything to me. Sgt. Peppers, Pet Sounds, Pretty Odd, One Fell Swoop, Broken Bride..ugh my shit

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? Jaws, Wizard of Oz, a lot more that I can’t think of

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? I don’t like moving thanks

89: are you close to your parents? Nope

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. Seattle!

91: where do you plan on traveling this year? Hopefully moving away

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? I’m gross and I have barely any

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most? HAt

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? My friend pat

95: what are your plans for this weekend? I’m about to eat a taco and smoke pot and I’ve got nothing after that

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? The time when my computer crashed after 80 questions was because it auto started an update because it wouldn’t allow me to put it off anymore

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? INFP, Libra, and Ravenclaw

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? A couple of months ago when my town threw a concert in the part for Zebra, it was fun cause we smoked in the woods

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. Oh, Calamity- All Time Low, Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea- Missio, This is for Keeps- The Spill Canvas

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why? Future. fuck old me that bitch is dumb i don’t wanna see him

THANK YOU FOR RETURNING TO MEEEEE! My ask is always open and I’m always SO VERY LONELY!

#my asks #among seattle #do you actually ready these anon?

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deadcactuswalking · 3 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 22/05/2021 (Olivia Rodrigo, J. Cole’s ‘The Off-Season’, Nicki Minaj)

Yeah, it’s a big week, given the impact of J. Cole, Jorja Smith, Olivia Rodrigo (more on that next week) and the remaining impact of the BRIT Awards. There’s a lot of nonsense on this chart, a busy as hell one at that, but this surprisingly did not affect the #1, as the remix to “Body” by Russ Millions and Tion Wayne spends a third week at the top. Let’s just attack this head on. Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Rundown

First of all, let’s get this nonsense out of the way: what happened to songs already on the UK Top 75 chart, which is what I cover? Well, a fair few of them dropped out. Any song that spent five or more weeks in the chart or peaked in the top 40 is considered a notable drop-out, and this week, they include “Wants and Needs” by Drake featuring Lil Baby off of the return last week, “Track Star” by Mooski, “Heat” by Paul Woolford and Amber Mark, “6 for 6” by Central Cee, “Patience” by KSI featuring YUNGBLUD and Polo G, “Hold On” by Justin Bieber, “We’re Good” by Dua Lipa, “Commitment Issues” by Central Cee (Gosh, didn’t think J. Cole would take a chunk out of this guy’s audience specifically), “Up” by Cardi B, “Streets” by Doja Cat and finally, “Get Out My Head” by Shane Codd, but also interestingly “i n t e r l u d e” by J. Cole dropping out off of the top 40 debut despite the album boost. This doesn’t mean it didn’t perform well but rather this is demonstrating this silly chart rule where in the top 100, one artist can only have three songs, preventing album bombs that you see on the US Billboard Hot 100. It makes the chart less accurate but arguably more diverse and hence fun for me to talk about.

There are also a few returning entries to add some fuel to this chart fire, one that has already combusted in the US this week, as “Slumber Party” by Ashnikko featuring Princess Nokia is back at #70 thanks to the video, “All You Ever Wanted” by Rag’n’Bone Man is back at #51 thanks to a delayed album boost, and the same can be said for “Addicted” by Jorja Smith at #49.

Then we have our notable losses, songs that fell at least five spots down the chart this week, including “WITHOUT YOU” by the Kid LAROI at #18, “Higher Power” by Coldplay falling big off of the debut at #25, “Your Power” by Billie Eilish at #26, “Didn’t Know” by Tom Zanetti at #28, “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals at #30, “Leave the Door Open” by Silk Sonic at #31, “Don’t You Worry About Me” by Bad Boy Chiller Crew at #39, “Latest Trends” by A1 x J1 at #46, “Last Time” by Becky Hill at #52, “All I Know So Far” by P!nk at #55 off of the debut, “My Head & My Heart” by Ava Max at #57, “Martin & Gina” by Polo G at #58, “Miss the Rage” by Trippie Redd featuring Playboi Carti dropping hard off of the debut at #60 (Really, what was expected here?), Travis Scott’s remix of HVME’s remix of Travis Scott’s “Goosebumps” at #61, “Cover Me in Sunshine” by P!nk and Willow Sage Heart at #63, “Don’t Play” by Anne-Marie, KSI and Digital Farm Animals at #65, “Sunshine (The Light)” by Fat Joe, DJ Khaled and Amorphous at #66, “Tonight” by Ghost Killer Track featuring D-Block Europe and Oboy at #71, and finally, “Calling My Phone” by Lil Tjay and 6LACK at #73.

That’s not to say there weren’t any notable gains however as we do have some interesting remnants of BRITs excitement and some other reasons for our gains this week, which include “One Day” by Lovejoy (more on them later) at #54, “It’s a sin” by Elton John and Years & Years at #47, “Way Too Long” by Nathan Dawe, Anne-Marie and MoStack at #43, “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo at #35 off of the success of “good 4 u” (again, more on that later), “Black Hole” by Griff at #23 thanks to the BRITs, and finally, “deja vu” by Olivia Rodrigo at #11. Really, all of this is just me stalling because this is a massive week – I’m writing this early – let’s just get through this... starting with—oh, for God’s sake.

NEW ARRIVALS

#75 – “Taunt” – Lovejoy

Produced by Cameron Nesbitt

Two weeks in a row, ladies and gentlemen: Minecraft YouTuber-core. How this happens I have no idea but regardless, the people of the UK seem to enjoy this Wilbur Soot guy’s new band. Is the new single better than the last one that charted from this EP, at least? Well, yeah, it is, mostly because at least this one’s an actual pop rock tune that, whilst derivative again, has more hooks than “One Day”, especially those stop-and-start-again verses that give me mathcore flashbacks, just with less of a catharsis to come from it other than that infectious, trumpet-laden chorus. The content is pretty gross if anything, seemingly focusing in on this past relationship from secondary school in which Wilbur tears into a girl for being insecure despite her privileges... for seemingly no reason. I mean, surely, you’ve moved on, right? Thankfully, Wilbur does get his comeuppance by the end of the song as the girl throws his drink at him, but it does leave the rest of the song with a pretty spiteful taste in my mouth that can’t be avoided by some pretty, 2000s indie rock-esque instrumentals. It doesn’t help that Wilbur Soot is such a non-presence as well, which I can see improving as the band goes on to record more material but the problem is with this early stage is that for now, it’s all rather primitive... yet it’s still charting. Oh, and if any people happen to find this that are fans of this guy, I am terrified of you so I’ll clarify that I don’t dislike this band at all, I’m just not a fan of what I’ve heard. I just wanted to put that out there because I value my personal information.

#74 – “Crocodile Teeth” – Skillibeng

Produced by Adde Instrumentals and Johnny Wonder

So last week, Nicki Minaj re-released her classic 2009 mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty onto official streaming services for the first time, with a remastered mix of some of her classic remixes as well as some new tracks or fan-favourite loosies sprinkled in. Why do I say this in reference to some random unrelated track, you ask? Well, we’ll get back to Nicki later but this song was actually remixed by Nicki and appears on that mixtape, despite baring no resemblance or relation to that mixtape at all, given this was released in 2020. The UK Singles Chart is particularly inconsistent is crediting remixes however, so we have the original here and, for what it’s worth, I quite like this. Skillibeng isn’t the most interesting presence but does his job in being vaguely menacing and violent over this cheap piano-led Afroswing instrumental with some questionable bass mastering. The song is in Patois but you can get the gist that it’s gunplay and flexing, typically stuff you’d hear in any UK drill track and it’s generic for sure but catchy enough to ignore. This version of the song is completely passable but I do think it is elevated by Nicki’s short introductory verse on the remix. I’d obviously have preferred there be more interplay but the remix was probably only known to Skillibeng when Nicki’s lawyers reached out anyway.

#72 – “Straightenin” – Migos

Produced by DJ Durel, Atake, Sluzyyy, OSIRIS, Nuki and Slime Castro

So Migos are finally preparing to release their highly-anticipated record Culture III as the boys are back together after some time apart, in which they have had varying levels of success, with Offset probably delivering the best solo material because he has both the best qualities of Takeoff and Quavo and always delivers on guest verses... I’m sorry, what about this needed six producers? This beat is not bad by any stretch with some vague flute loop eerily played under a rote trap beat, of which the bounced 808s are probably of most interest, but I do not understand how one person, let alone just an AI, couldn’t have made this alone. Regardless, the beat is good enough to make Quavo sound like he finally cares, even if he’s just going to talk about how he just saw Tenet – a bit late to the party – and how he turned a pandemic to a “band-emic”. Yeah, okay, so we’re going to ignore Mr. Quavious and move onto Takeoff and Offset who... at least have some good flows, albeit just the same triplet deliveries they’ve had for years. I think the most interesting part about this whole song is the slippery backing vocal that follows Quavo in the later choruses, which shows an attention to detail I missed from these guys. There’s only so much I can hear Quavo say “don’t nothin’ get straight ‘bout straightenin’” before I lose my mind, though, especially by the time we get to that awkward outro, so I can’t call myself a fan of this. If we’re speaking trap-rap from acts on hiatus, I really would have preferred “Lay wit Ya” by Isaiah Rashad and Duke Deuce to chart but I guess these guys will do.

#64 – “Independence Day Freestyle” – Fredo

Produced by Handz

By the end of this episode, I will never want to hear skittering hi-hats ever again. For now, however, we’ve got the same genre, different country as we go home to Fredo, a British rapper who’s pretty consistently good to be fair to him and did release an album I liked earlier this year. This is just a random freestyle he dropped last week because he felt like it, and here it is on the chart. Okay, well, it isn’t an actual freestyle because nothing that’s called a freestyle actually is in 2021, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a trap banger in itself and it’s got the foundation for it. I love the eerie chipmunk vocal sample that adds a touch of soul to the menacing keys before they get drowned out by trap percussion and Fredo going through his typical rags-to-riches commentary and memories of gang violence in one massive verse that somehow keeps my interest throughout the entire three minutes. The flow is about as smooth as it gets with UK rap, typically a lot stiffer, especially in drill, and the mixing’s fine, so yeah, I can’t really complain. I’d have preferred a chorus, obviously, and there are extended freestyles we’ll talk about later that do this a lot better, but for now, I can dig this, especially considering it’s pretty damn quotable for what it is. “If I fell off, I must have fell off the stairs into some elevators” is a bar, as is when he says he’s got more foreign cars than an Asian wedding or when he calls himself “Lord of the Bling”... okay, maybe that one’s not as impressive.

#62 – “The Great Escape” – Blanco and Central Cee

Produced by LiTek and WhyJay

Central Cee is a more familiar name but you may not know Blanco who, despite the collaboration with Cee making it ripe for comparison and comedy, is not a French white rapper. Rather, he’s from pioneering drill group Harlem Spartans and this is actually his first solo charting song thanks to Cee’s appearance. As you’d expect, this has some loud drill production and vague acoustic guitar loop as well as some stuttering vocal production peppered with dark 808s (that do bang here in all honesty) and pointless alarm sounds. Whilst drill is so standardised now, I do actually like this beat because it’s what I want to hear Cee on; sure, it’s got the guitar and the flutes but it’s also got a sax riff, which is what made “Loading” so fun. Blanco himself is also a more charming presence than Cee and their two energies bounce off of each other pretty well, even if the most witty their punchlines get are just referencing Powerpuff Girls characters... and when they’re not basic, they’re borderline incoherent but whatever, this is a fun slice of misogyny and violence that you’d expect from the genre with at least some care put into it. Not bad at all.

#56 – “Bussdown” – Jorja Smith featuring Shaybo

Produced by Riccardo Damian, Jeff “Gitty” Gitelman and Kal Banx

This is the break-out single from the most recent “project” from Jorja Smith, going the Drake route of not bothering to name it an album, mixtape or EP, and this one features London rapper Shaybo in a track about materialism but not as much embracing it as becoming increasingly alienated by it as whilst wealth may bring you luxury and connections, it detaches you from reality, which is the point in Shaybo’s verses about being Miss Naive, someone who is increasingly aggressive as a result because, well, she always gets what she wants, right? This is not a project I listened to but the content is promising... until I actually hear the song, with its awkward, clattering percussion showered in overwhelming vocal mixing that fails in whatever intimacy it attempts to present, and that’s before the decidedly unsubtle air horns and guitar licks. The song is minimal enough for the content to kind of fall flat as well, as a song like this feels like it deserves more than a slick bass groove, rather some kind of maximalist yet subtlety eerie production. I’m thinking Shaybo would actually make more sense there than she would here as well as her awkward, pathetic-sounding flow is delivered in the most dead-pan cadence, so much so that it drifts off fully into background “vibe” music but even then, it feels too distracting in the mix to work as that. I did want to like this but it just ends up as a really disappointing track from Jorja Smith, once again.

#42 – “Seeing Green” – Nicki Minaj, Drake and Lil Wayne

Produced by GOVI and Kid Masterpiece

We’re half-way through our batch of new arrivals and what better way to celebrate than a posse cut by three rappers long past their prime by now without a chorus that pushes six minutes? Normally, that would be sarcastic, but in this case it is absolutely not as this is awesome. I love 2000s hip-hop and a chipmunk soul-inflected beat blended with early 2010s era proto-trap production is obviously going to appeal to me as that type of contrast is what I love about more lyrical hip-hop, hell, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was said this was a Kanye beat or more accurately perhaps one by Harry Fraud. It helps that over that gorgeous soul sample we have all three rappers proving they still have it as performers, with some detailed verses from the classic Young Money crew that if nothing else provide a perfect nostalgia button for their era of dominance in hip-hop, not that it’s ever stopped since. I also just love hearing Lil Wayne hungry again, because I am a pretty big fan of his voice, delivery and even some of his wordplay and one-liners, all of which he expresses perfectly in his high-energy verse that switches through flaws as if it were all some off-the-top freestyle, and knowing Wayne, it might as well could have been. I love how he starts his verse off by shooting a guy and then saying it was his bad for doing it because he was a “good cat” and somehow it gets more off the rails afterwards, as he calls his girl a vacuum and says he’s peeing lean, before this self-proclaimed “badonkadonk bikini fiend” reminisces about his bisexual ex from Atlanta in a pretty clever use of repetition in rap. This is all with his sludged drawl of a delivery, which becomes especially important when he calls us all back to 2010 as when Wayne was in prison at his career peak, Drake always said “Free Weezy” and now 10 years later, Wayne’s saying “Free Drizzy” because Drake’s locked up in Canada because of the COVID-19 pandemic... because of course. I know it just seems like I’m itching out tiny little details in the verse but that’s what’s so great about repeated listens to detailed and great rap verses. That’s not to say Wayne is the only stand-out here either as Nicki Minaj impresses with that confident delivery she’s known for as she clarifies her beef with Cardi B being less about her “copying her homework” as it was about her up-hill battle with the industry, she recites how bitches are infamously her sons and delivers some pretty clever and quotable lines of her own, like “brand new Vanilla Maserati, I’ve been Haagen-Daszin’”... which again sounds like a bar straight out of 2010. I think the best verse here might actually be from Drake as much as I hate to say it, with bravado out of the gate that seems pretty deserved for someone with as immense success as he’s had. Not only is he referencing back to 2010 and even his Degrassi days, comparing it to the run-up to his upcoming album since he’s back on two crutches, but he’s also delivering some of his most interesting and quotable lines in years, and it all runs off so effortlessly and smoothly, but with a constant hunger and conviction reminding me of some of his deeper cuts like “Dreams Money Can Buy”. I won’t go further than I already have with this song – even though I could gladly quote practically the entirety of Drake’s verse, even when he aspires to be Vladimir Putin (I guess it’s better than accidentally comparing himself to Hitler) – but I’ve rambled on enough about this wonderful track. Triumphant lyrical rapping over soulful vocal loops will never be a thing I stop having a fondness for; these are some of my nostalgia biases creeping in – especially since these aren’t close to being the best verses any of the trio have delivered – but it’s so great hearing all three back on form together. Check this out if you haven’t as it’s absolutely a highlight off of the mixtape’s re-release.

#37 – “Build a Bitch” – Bella Poarch

Produced by Sub Urban and Elle Rizk

Bella Poarch is a name I had to search up and it turns out she is another one of these TikTok stars turned pop singers and all power to them for starting their career through such a useful and culturally important platform, honestly, and realistically, anyone regardless of their career background could make a song I enjoy, so there’s no use in dismissing them as a result, especially if I actually enjoy the concept of this song. The writing tends to be a bit childish as expected – again, more on that later – particularly when she sings lines like “Bob the Builder broke my heart and told me it needs fixing”, but the song’s theme of embracing young women for how they really are instead of Photoshopped, unrealistic beauty expectations is a message I like being expressed to her audience of teenage girls; I see it as necessary in the social media age. I do think that this message could be expressed with more tact than a Build-a-Bear parody but it never goes the slut-shaming route and is more critical of the men demanding or expecting perfection from their female partners, or on a wider scale the expectation for successful women to follow fashion and beauty trends, especially by men in their industries and fields. Poarch herself is a light-hearted vocalist kind of reminding me a bit too much of a self-serious Ashnikko but the melody in the chorus is infectious enough for me to ignore how void a personality she is. It’s harder however to ignore the stiff 808s that drown out clattering, awkward future-bass production and that drop just being really gross, kind of ruining the song in how it’s clearly a lean towards hyper-pop without fully drawing itself within that lane. Either way, this is fine, and at barely two minutes it struggles to find itself as a finished song let alone anything I can be offended by. This is remarkably okay, and that’s more than I expected.

#16 – “a m a r i” – J. Cole

Produced by T-Minus, J. Cole, Sucuki and Timbaland

These songs don’t even show up when you search them on Spotify and to be honest, I was hoping that would lead to limited success but of course, it didn’t. J. Cole’s latest album The Off-Season is yet another mediocre instalment in a dull catalogue full of rambling verses from a guy who thinks he has much more to say than he actually ends up saying, and it’s exhausting to listen let alone discuss the man’s art out of a sheer lack of personality or wit that follows his every move. His Dreamville label is filled to the brim with people more consistent, skilful and interesting than Cole has ever been so it’s just frustrating to see the label boss get all of the recognition. Regardless, I’ve never liked Cole as an artist – especially not a conscious one given the ableism, homophobia and tone-deaf exchange with Noname just last year – so I’m almost glad he’s stripped off half of the pretence of making a woke, important album. He’s just rapping on this record, which gives me the excuse to run through the rest of these consecutive bores from Cole as quickly as possible. First of all, we have “a m a r i”, a barely sufferable dud from the album scored by a blend of acoustic guitars and squelching trap percussion that fails to platform Cole’s Auto-Tuned moaning, oftentimes just aggravating and barely listenable, and sometimes disguising some pretty weak, topic-less verses for a man who claims to be focused. “Want smoke? I’m a whole nicotine company” is not the silliest bar on the album, but I’m almost convinced the song ends as abruptly as it does because Timbaland’s embarrassed that he helped produce such an underwhelming beat and not even someone praised as a modern great can save it from being worthless.

#15 – “p r i d e . i s . t h e . d e v i l” – J. Cole and Lil Baby

Produced by T-Minus

One of my favourite hip-hop releases of last year was Aminé’s Limbo, a diverse selection of tracks that ranged from conscious hip-hop about his ambitions and fears about growing up and raising children in a modern world as well as typical trap-rap flexing and R&B crooners about girl problems. All of this is smoothly stirred into a pot of personality that actually attempts to bridge a gap between older and newer generations of rappers rather than just claiming to. “Can’t Decide” is not one of my favourite tracks from that record – “Compensating” with Young Thug executes its ideas just that little bit better for me – but it’s still a fun, R&B-adjacent tune with insanely catchy hooks about Aminé’s relationships. So why did we need a J. Cole remix? This guy sucks the fun out of beats like a vacuum in a bouncy castle, as he sloppily whines in an almost emo-rap cadence over a cheaper West Coast slide he just can’t convincingly sell. Lyrically, Cole focuses on the idea of pride and how it corrupts someone’s morals, criticising the flashing of money and social isolation from the family... both of which seem like Cole’s M.O. at this point, right? Success amidst independence? Platinum without features? This time around, there is a feature however from Lil Baby, who much like Cole claims to be focused in this very focused whilst pick-and-choosing between random trains of thought in his typical frog-throat delivery. Hey, at least Lil Baby flows with less strain and unwarranted, desperate effort that Cole does, and ends up out-shining the primary artist entirely, even if he’s going to “pay silly bands to have sex on the jet”. ..What?

#13 – “m y . l i f e” – J. Cole, 21 Savage and Morray

Produced by WU10, J. Cole and Jake One

The first lines of this song are “Spiralling up just like a rich person’s staircase; no fly zone, please stay out of my airspace”. Cole, I thought pride was the devil! I understand that one can still acknowledge the flaws in their worldview whilst embracing it and engaging themselves in it – that’s really a lot of the point of rags-to-riches rap – but some subtlety or at least some explanation from someone who wants you to see him as focused, woke, hungry and a master of his craft, would have been nice, right? This is Morray’s first charting hit in the UK and I’m glad he’s here as he’s basically what differentiates this from the duo’s prior collaboration “a lot”, a song that not only banged harder but felt smoother and Hell, just more coherent, especially with some soulful production that this new collaboration glaringly rips off. Morray’s biggest hit is “Quicksand” but his mixtape Street Sermons is full of soulful and honest trap-rap that I’d absolutely recommend for gospel flavour on the surface and the lyrical detail behind the bravado being extensive and confidently delivered, especially standing out on his own with no features to speak of. He has the chorus on here and I’m surprised DaBaby doesn’t have the second verse so this could be a North Carolina anthem but we do have 21 Savage, who delivers his typical brand of cold-hearted (or rather no-hearted), stoic paranoia bars but at least that’s a personality. 21 Savage delivers a slick flow over this sample and spits the pretty simple yet profound bar of “I pray that my past ain’t ahead of me”, leading to probably the most enjoyable verse on the whole album. If you couldn’t tell, the new guys outshine the old guard so obviously with so little effort it’s kind of impressive on Cole’s part even. I’m glad this is the biggest hit from this album so far as not only is this one of the best tracks out of a slim selection but it’s big for both 21 and especially Morray, who I’m really rooting for against, say, a Rod Wave or Kevin Gates in terms of southern rap with a lot more soul and grit. Oh, and Cole, “know it’s on sight when I see you like I’m working at Squarespace”? Really? Again, it’s not the dumbest bar on the album.

#2 – “good 4 u” – Olivia Rodrigo

Produced by Alexander 23 and Dan Nigro

It’s pretty fitting to book-end a batch of new arrivals mostly consisting of hardcore gritty trap with two up-beat alternative rock tracks, and I’ll say I prefer this to Lovejoy mostly because, well, like I said with “Seeing Green”, my biases will always be on full and honest display, and as someone who’s a sucker for pop-punk of all eras, especially if it’s a female-fronted band with some youthful, raspy vocals, this will obviously hit for me. Throughout Sour, I found it hard to buy into the teenage melodrama due to Dan Nigro’s production often sounding too clean for its own sake, never allowing the guitars to really crash into some lo-fi, distorted noise like they seem to want to do on tracks like this, “deja vu” and especially the opener, “traitor”. Sadly, that cuts the chances of radio airplay by a ton more than it should, so we end up with mixing that slides off Rodrigo’s reverb-drenched vocals too smoothly, creating a rather formulaic album, unfortunate for its sheer excess of promise. With that said, this is one of my favourite tracks off of the album, if only for that funky bassline and some of Nigro’s most interesting stylistic and production choices, particularly in the drumming, which sounds as organic as possible for something that was programmed by him and Alexander 23. The sarcasm-laced post-break-up kiss-off is already not unfamiliar territory for Olivia Rodrigo and neither was it for Avril Lavigne, which this track tends to sound almost like an imitation of, down to the inconsistently PG-13 image as “screw you” is delivered with as much conviction as the actual F-bomb in the same verse. Regardless of how much it wants to consistently kill its own momentum, this janky songwriting actually reminds me of early Paramore, much of which holds a special place in my heart, so whilst Hayley Williams has been off doing her solo work – and Paramore seem to have moved on from this kind of bitter, petty pop rock anyway – this quenches that thirst pretty effectively.

Conclusion

Olivia Rodrigo bags the Honourable Mention for “good 4 u” as well as it’s one of two songs debuting this week I think are pretty damn special, the other one being “Seeing Green” by Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne and Drake as it grabs Best of the Week. For the worst, I mean, pick your J. Cole-flavoured poison but personally I’d say “a m a r i” can be crowned Worst of the Week with a Dishonourable Mention to... great, I don’t want to seem like I hate J. Cole but nothing else here is even as bad as his Lil Baby collaboration “p r i d e . i s . t h e . d e v i l”. Here’s this week’s top 10:

Expect two more of those spaces filled up by Olivia Rodrigo next week as whilst we may not get any new entries from her the album will have an impact regardless on the chart. Otherwise, I guess we’ll have to wait and see with how a Queen-sampling BTS song wrecks the chart – probably will give both Olivia and “Body” some #1 competition – as well as new songs from Little Mix, Lana Del Rey, Polo G and Lil Nas X popping up not too far behind it. It should be just as busy next week, folks, so strap in, I suppose. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you then!

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chrisgis4680-blog · 7 years

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Black Power

Malcolm X. I feel like he was taught badly in my school as a kid. I mean to be fair I grew up in Virginia in a predominantly white lower middle class neighborhood, so really I shouldn’t be surprised. But as I grow older and take classes in college that talk about people like Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, I realize that the pictures painted in my mind of them are not pretty. They were always just talked about as the violent part of the Civil Rights movement, and I have come to realize how not so true this is. Okay obviously they were more violent than Martin Luther King Jr, but really I think they were described to us in not so positive of a way as I think they should have been. Also I was never taught that the Black Panthers worked with poor whites who had similar problems they were having with poverty and how this collaboration helped bridge the gap just a little between the lower class whites and the AAs at the time. In Malcolm X’s Bite the Bullet (actually it may have been an article talking about the speech, I honestly cannot remember) it is mentioned that a lot of people think Malcolm is racist against whites. And though it was mentioned in class that it is impossible, I have to agree that he really is not. In the speech he mentions specifically something to the effect of, “if white people want us to not be anti white then they need to stop doing being anti segregation, pro exploitation and pro oppression”. I think that makes a really great point. People often say that they do not hate a person, they just hate what they do, and I think this is what Malcolm is going for here. Honestly I think if I was AA I wouldn’t be so pro white either. Hell I am not actually all that pro white anyway. We suck, let's just put that out there. He goes on to talk about how AAs are not actually Americans, and they feel like they are not Americans because of they way they are not only treated but depicted in the media. I have to say I can really see where he is coming from. America is kind of mostly white, and even though it’s getting to the point where non whites outnumber the whites, whites still have all the power. So even now you have pictures of white people everywhere, in TV, on the internet, billboards, everywhere. I remember reaching a book once, Bud Not Buddy I think it was, about a young AA kid trying to find his parents and how he talked about a billboard with a perfect looking happy white family on it, and how he felt like it was fake because he never saw black families on those billboards. There is really just so much to talk about here, I know I am all over the place with it, but there is too much to cover really. I just understand how a race can feel like they are not American when it seems like most of that country hates them for being that race. This being especially the case when that race is target by the police and segregated by the government.

Dubois asks a pretty interesting question at the beginning of his writing, “How does it feel to be a problem?” A pretty heavy question in fact. It made me think a lot about how lucky I am. Don’t get me wrong, I am pretty aware of my white privilege, and I like to think I know at least a little about discrimination because I am not a male. But I think the patriarchy does not really compare to the problems of racial issues. Yeah women are often put on the back burner, ignored and forgotten about, but with the whole police brutality part, being dark skinned right now must just be scary. I do not know what it is like to feel like the problem, but I think that this question really does help to put things into perspective about how things were and still mostly are in America when it comes to race.

He moves on to talk about the difference between being “Negro and American”, which is similar to what Malcolm X brought up about not being an American. I know I have really only read two points of view so far, but this theme seems to be coming up a lot so it probably does hold some truth to it’s points. I often think that this is what immigrants, Mexicans, and Muslims feel right now and especially during the election.

I was actually first introduced to Basquiat’s art this semester actually in my Contemporary Art class, so I was pretty excited to talk about him. Basquiat’s art was looked down on because of it’s distinct “tribal” look and street art vibe, as well as probably the plain fact that he was not white. He explored issues such as race and identity consistently and these paintings are no different. I love his use of colors to grab your attention. They seem to be placed in such a way on purpose to grab the viewer’s attention, like “look here, this is important and what I am telling you”. His use of a black background really enhances that feeling. I also like that he challenges the typical art style by simplifying the figure. His art is not technically abstract because you can tell that he is drawing figures, but at the same time they are simplified. He really obviously wants to portray the message more so than show off his technical talents, which was not usually the case of the high class art world. I especially liked that in “Untitled History of Black People” he included history elements from all over the world.

Though I was excited about Basquiat, I must admit I was really impressed with Douglas’ work. The first thing I thought about when looking at his work was actually Kara Walker. I wonder if she had been inspired by his work when she first started, because she is a silhouette artist as well. Though her work is more so about slavery specifically rather than race, and is um quite a bit more graphic than Douglas. But I love his colors and the layering of the light and colors, its just so beautiful and his work is easy to read. Not to mention, the visual symbols with the combination of the titles pretty much spell out the message he is going for. I find the silhouettes to be powerful because on one hand you can tell they are humans, but on the other hand they are kind of dehumanized. They are no longer people they are just shapes, which is the way slave owners saw them as well as whites in general. I am not sure if that was why he picked to paint in this style, but in the very least it accidentally added to the story line.

I must admit I was a bit surprised by the music. I tend to enjoy instrumental music anyway so obviously I liked the instrumental pieces a lot. I especially liked Mingus Big Band and just found it to be smooth and relaxing. Plus the more so dramatic ending was interesting. I think I see the political aspect of the instrumental music a lot. When most people think about politics, and radical politics at that, they think of hard violent, in your face kind of stuff. I even thought about that really. I kind of expected everything to be like “Fuk da Police” but the mix was more than that. There were more calming and just simply soulful pieces that celebrated the AA culture. Protests and politics can be about celebrating culture, though I think the lack of a governmental reaction is what leads to music like “Fuk da Police” and “Cop Killer”. It is the desperation of the face that nothing has really changed and they are just so freaking tired of being swept under the rug as if there is not a racial problem that leads to more forceful kinds of music and protests. Though I didn’t particularly like the newer rap and hip hop music, I do see where it is coming from.

I realized that due to my taste in music I also really enjoyed some of the older artists, such as Nina Simone and Sam Cooke. Though I wouldn’t put them on my every day play list, I just love the passionate way they sing. It is so full of emotion and at the same time just beautiful. I think when listening to Nina Simone I realized that her song seemed a bit angry for her time, which may be why it stands out a lot. It is angry in a still entertaining and not in your face kind of way like the language in “Fuk da Police”

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aion-rsa · 7 years

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INTERVIEW: Percy Sends on James Bond on a Cyberthriller Adventure

With his work on titles like “Teen Titans” and “Green Arrow”, writer Benjamin Percy has established himself as one of the hottest talents in comics today, effortlessly blending the legacy of his characters within a contemporary, realistic-feeling world. He’s able to take a character and boil them right down to their essence whilst losing none of their potency – and this week his sights are settling on a spy known round the world as Bond… James Bond.

In Dynamite Entertainment’s new series “James Bond: Black Box”, Percy is teaming up with artist Rapha Lobosco for a story poised to send Bond racing round the world, seeking out an assassin who kills other assassins – and finds himself involved in a labyrinthine plot that brings him fully into the world of today. It’s James Bond-as-cyberthriller, and CBR spoke with Percy about just what we can expect from the series.

CBR: I know you’ve been a long-term Bond fan – how does it feel to actually now have the chance to get your hands on the character, and his world?

Benjamin Percy: A gift. A privilege. I feel joy, but I also feel pressure. James Bond might be the most recognized literary creation – right up there with Sherlock Holmes and Batman and Dracula. So I’m facing the weighty expectations of fans and the silently admonishing example of Fleming and all the other creators who came before me.

But really, this is a childhood dream come true. I wish I could go back in time and whisper in my own ear—the ear of that twelve-year-old kid who cuddled up on the couch and gorged on popcorn and religiously watched every minute of the 007 marathons on TBS. ‘Pay attention, dipshit’, I would say. ‘Because one day, you’re going to be the custodian of this character’.

The new comics run at Dynamite has so far harkened back to Fleming’s original broken brute of a character, rather than the film version. What’s your take on who James Bond actually is?

We all know – or think we know – who Batman is, right? But if you look at Bob Kane or you look at Alan Moore or Jeph Loeb or Grant Morrison or Scott Snyder or Tom King, there’s an… elasticity to their interpretations. That’s what people want. A unique take that still honors the character’s legacy.

I’m a big nerdy fan of the Bond novels and the films. They’ve blended together in my head. The same thing has happened to Sherlock Holmes. I’ve read all the short stories and novellas many times over—and my love for them is entwined with my love of the Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett and Benedict Cumberbatch adaptations.

So you’ll see as much of Fleming as you will Connery and Moore in my take on the character. Warren Ellis is a legend. I’m a punk. You’re not allowed to compare us. But my version will extend the excellent work he did, while adding a little more humor and romance. I can promise you I’ve pulled out all the stops on action: every single issue outdoes the last on spectacle.

How does the character fit within the espionage model? Why does he work in this role as a spy?

Bond is suited for his work because he is not mired in the past or especially worried about the future. He is a creature of the moment; he has to be or he’d go mad, given the ugliness of what he’s done and given the horrors that might befall the world if he doesn’t succeed. He occasionally diverts and numbs himself with pleasure but is otherwise an instrument in Britain’s arsenal. The work owns him.

He’s fascinating in that he appears at first so aspirational – wearing the best clothes, driving the best cars, winning every bet and seducing the most beautiful women – but beneath that luxurious veneer is a severely messed-up human being who can only survive by drowning himself in bourbon, losing himself in the sheets, or devoting himself to the case at hand.

The title, “Black Box,” seems like the key to the story. What is it that interests you in having Bond tackle cyber-terrorism? As a novelist and as a comics writer, you’ve always tended to have a directly political approach. Can we expect that to continue in to your run on James Bond?

Bond stories always align with the anxieties of the era. Look at “Dr. No” and the Cuban Missile Crisis as a prime example. What scares us right now? The list is long, but we’re all so vulnerable online. We live on our devices as much as we do in the real world, and it’s so easy for us to be stalked, corrupted, hacked, pirated, possessed, erased.

In one particularly nasty week, my sister’s email was hacked, my friend’s Facebook feed filled with phishing scams, our credit card info was stolen, my father downloaded a virus that locked down his computer, and my neighbor filed his taxes and discovered that someone had already done so and collected the refund. All because we carelessly clicked or swiped.

I’ve got a novel coming out this summer, a cyber-thriller called “The Dark Net.” I researched the hell out of it, visiting the Google and Apple campuses, talking to Verizon reps, interviewing hackers and coders. And you know what everybody said to me? The Russians and the Chinese were already inside the digital walls of this country. The only question was, what were they planning to do with that access? Just wait, everyone said. Something big is coming. And then, six months later, here are these allegations of Russian hacking influencing the election.

So yeah, in all my work, I’m channeling the zeitgeist, trying to make my wild storytelling as relatable and relevant as possible. You’ll certainly see that in Bond.

Bond may be the star, but he’s always part of a different strange ensemble. Who’ll he be meeting in “Black Box?” Who, in particular, is No Name, the antagonist of the story? What’s his ambition, his goal?

I’ve always been fond of the henchmen, Odd Job and Jaws especially, so I put a lot of thought into creating a colorful villain, and in doing so spliced my love of horror with my love of 007. No Name is the result. He is an assassin with a trophy room. In it he displays the death masks of his victims. And because of his own deformities (and perversions) he wears these masks when hunting. He is as unrelenting as he is grotesque. And there is one scene in particular — that takes place in the “suicide forest” of Japan — that will likely scare the hell out of readers.

But he is one of many colorful characters. Bond’s old frenemy Felix also plays a critical role in the story. So does an assassin who only kills other assassins. The big bad of Black Box is a tech mogul who is essentially a Mark Zuckerberg with criminal intentions.

Is if difficult to balance the old-school style of the series within the contemporary world? Working within the past but keeping something in the present, a little like your approach on Green Arrow?

I’m writing both “Green Arrow” and “Teen Titans,” and if you’re a comics reader, you probably know all about DC’s Rebirth. It’s about legacy. You channel the greatest elements of a series—while asking yourself, what is the greatest Green Arrow or Teen Titans story I could possibly tell right now? How can I, with my own unique skill set, make the series new while honoring those creators who came before me?

That is exactly how I’m approaching James Bond. It wasn’t a struggle at all. It’s how I’ve been trained as a comics writer.

How have you found working with artist Rapha Lobosco on the story? What kind of style is he bringing to the comic?

Pure cinema. He has such a smart sense of storytelling, pacing, how to stage a scene and make the reader feel like they’re living it. Go big with moments of high-wire action, go quiet with moments of emotional impact. His work reminds me a lot of Eduardo Risso on “100 Bullets”.

He draws with such energy and big-heartedness. This is a big platform for us, and so we’re both putting all our energy into it. There are many artists who would (rightfully) murder me for setting an assassination scene at a sumo tournament or staging a car chase in downtown Tokyo at rush hour…but he tackles these wild action sequences with gusto and ridiculous talent. Rapha is a star on the rise.

Do you have long-term plans for Bond, or is your interest in working story-to-story, creating a body of work that way?

Well, Bond isn’t mine. In my wild, what-if fantasies, his father comes back from the dead (and turn out to be a villain) and he discovers he has a child (given all the nookie Bond has, that not an unreasonable suggestion) and he eventually becomes M. himself (and absolutely despises the work).

But don’t worry, 007 purists. That’s not happening. I’m treating each of these six-issue arcs as a kind of film. Rapha and I are making Bond movies—without having to worry about the special effects budget or an actor’s salary or whether we can get a permit to shoot in this or that location.

I don’t know how long Dynamite will keep me on the series, but I can promise you that every issue of “Black Box” is wilder and cooler than the last—and I can promise you the same will be true of our story arcs. I’ll continue to raise the stakes in an effort to make an indelible mark on the franchise.

“James Bond: Black Box” #1 is in stores now.

The post INTERVIEW: Percy Sends on James Bond on a Cyberthriller Adventure appeared first on CBR.com.

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floraexplorer · 7 years

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I Joined London’s #WomensMarch with a Hundred Thousand Others. What’s Next?

“We only predicted 18,000 people today…”

Sandi Toksvig’s voice echoes through the cardboard placards which fill Trafalgar Square. Faces are turned towards the sun; banners flutter below Nelson’s column, flanked by roaring bronze lions made 150 years ago. If I squint, I can see Big Ben in the distance.

We are in the midst of London’s most famous landmarks on a chilly January day, most of which were built by men. But at the start of 2017 we’re listening to the speakers of a Women’s March, in solidarity with the march on Washington, D.C –

“… and we’ve just been told there’s actually a hundred thousand of us filling up the streets!”

An audible sense of disbelief ricochets amongst us – is that really possible?! – but quickly there is cheering. Applause. Tears. A tighter grip of my friend Jas’s hand, as we look excitedly at each other.

Who knows what we’re managing to achieve by standing here right now?

Why we held a Women’s March in London

In the early hours of November 16th 2016, I sat in my apartment with a few friends, some empty beer cans and my hands over my eyes. With every new swathe of state-led red on the TV screen came a fresh wave of nausea.

The US election felt like Brexit all over again.

The mood across all my online and offline networks was sombre. Seeing the victory of a man who legitimises sexual assault, racism, and discrimination against almost every demographic possible felt like a blow to the chest. How could over 62 million people have voted for him?

Travel is one of my major motivations in life. Why? Because the world is wide and open. It is beautiful and fearsome. It is a place I will never get tired of exploring because there’s always something new to see, new people to meet, new lessons to learn and new perspectives to realise.

The election made me understand with a new, humbling certainty just how much fear and anger is present in the world, and how much power those emotions can have. Yet so many moments of positivity throughout my travels have given me the utmost faith in the goodness of people – and there isn’t a single second where I don’t doubt the equal power of that goodness.

Together, we can be kind. We can be loving. We can respect each other, protect each other, and we can come together for the sake of millions of beautiful people living alongside us. There are worrying times ahead, that’s undoubtable. But love trumps hate, and disaster provokes action.

It’s taken me a long while to evaluate what I feel about the current political climate – and it doesn’t help that I’ve only become politicised in the last few years.

Now, I’m beginning to understand what I’ve always refused to notice before: that the spectrum of political opinion is an absolute grey area. It has to be, despite its accompanying frustration, because every single person is different.

Here’s the hard, sticky, uncomfortable truth of it: to get to grips with what the hell is happening to the world right now, those of us firmly on one end of the spectrum have to actively pay attention to exactly why and how those on the spectrum’s other end feel the way they do.

We need to be compassionate. We need to be understanding. We need to make space for conflicting opinions, and be strong enough to address them.

I’ve never before wanted to engage with people who I think are racist, homophobic, sexist, or any other myriad of things I deem to be unacceptable. Nonetheless, I’m strangely grateful for the double-whammy of Brexit and Trump. Their presence is already galvanising people to act in ways they’ve been too nervous to do before.

Like painting signs, donning coats, and stepping into the winter air to publicise their feelings with their feet.

Meeting 100,000 fellow Women’s Marchers

The energy in London on January 21st was palpable.

The feeling of dozens, hundreds, thousands of bodies with that same fiery feeling radiated out and upwards. I kept thinking of those books we all read as children, where love and happiness became something visceral and visible; something with the power to protect us all and make us stronger.

I know some people were nervous – for many, it was their first ever demonstration – but the positive, all-inclusive attitude prevailed. There were people of every age, every race, representatives of dozens of minority groups and not a single bit of violence.

In fact, once the demo had officially ended, people wheeled huge sets of speakers into the square and we ended up dancing to techno tunes while waving our appropriately British placards.

But outside the positivity and happiness which flooded London throughout Saturday, what really hit me was seeing young girls making their voices heard.

I’ve never been pregnant and I don’t have many friends with young children, so kids aren’t that much on my radar. But when I saw these three girls holding up anti-racism signs it reminded me with a jolt that these issues simply aren’t going away unless we work our hardest to eradicate them. And it truly does take ALL of us.

The marches are over. What do we do now?

With over three million people marching across seven continents, I think I’m safe in the knowledge that this question has been a very popular Google search over the last few days.

Nonetheless, it’s still a fragile place to be. Somehow, the weekend’s energy has to be harnessed so that progressive action continues forward.

Here’s how I reckon we can make a start.

** Get educated **

Expand your literary knowledge. All those issues you saw cropping up at Women’s Marches? Research their histories; their policies; the memoirs written by their founders; the essays which discuss them. Get into the bones of these causes, and find out what makes them tick.

Keep up with the news. Current events affect everything, as do the politics of different countries. Understand as much as you can, and ask questions about what doesn’t make sense.

Engage with culture. Check out your local museums, galleries, art spaces and theatres. Watch plays, listen to lectures and walk through exhibitions. Pay attention to the ways people express themselves through art, and examine what’s triggered them to do so.

** Get uncomfortable **

Confront your echo chamber. Social media bubbles are a legitimate thing, where the majority of your chosen network agrees with your opinion. It can make us self-indulgent and a bit lazy. Start using social media to challenge your preconceptions – and although engaging in debate with online trolls isn’t always the best idea, follow some of those arguments and investigate how their beliefs have been formed.

Be humbled by your privilege. I’m a straight, cisgender, white woman, and I simply don’t know enough about the suppression, exclusion and demonisation faced by those who don’t share my background. Whether your own privilege is racial, financial, geographical, sexual or something else, vow to use your platform of relative safety to help those without it.

Expect to be challenged. More than that: actively search out situations which will do this. Your brain is powerful. Let it work.

** Get inspired **

Find your female role models. There are plenty of inspirational women around the world who are going to inspire the hell out of you. Research the works of writers, artists, politicians, musicians, teachers and activists – particularly those women of colour – and absorb what they have to say.

Follow your passions. If you’re anything like me, you’ve joined dozens of interesting-looking Facebook groups and never actually checked out what they do in real life. Whether it’s a choir, a running group, a knitting circle (all about those PussyHats!), the more out of your comfort zone, the better. Re-investigate. Reconnect. Remember how many wonderful experiences you’ve had in the past when you stepped out of your comfort zone for a minute? Yeah. Do that as much as you can.

** Get involved **

Volunteer within your local community. It’s the best place for your new-found determination to stretch itself. Join the closest library; help out at after-school programmes for kids; volunteer at a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter. Put yourself in environments where you can pass on your knowledge to others, and they can teach you things you’d never thought of. Communication is crucial.

Lend your voice to politics. Sign petitions and help organise campaigns. Pound the streets and hand out fliers. Engage others in passionate dialogue about this fantastically important new information you’ve just learned.

Be consistent. Every single thing in life needs dedication to make a discernible difference. Promise yourself you’re going to commit to a new way of thinking, living, speaking, seeing, and let that be your New Year’s Resolution for 2017. This is a year for change like no other.

In conclusion? Get ready!!

Too often I have worried about being alone. About being an outsider. About not belonging. But on January 21st I felt part of an intrinsic sisterhood like never before. And I vow to maintain and channel that feeling into something bigger, with more longevity.

There will be more marches, and there will be more action. But most of your determination HAS to come from within you. This is a work-in-progress, and we all need to stand up together if we’re going to incite change.

Today, I wrote this article to express some of the passion still bottled up in me. Tomorrow, I’ll scour the shelves of my local library to find feminist literature I haven’t yet read. The next day, and the days after that, I’ll join local groups and listen to local women speak and march in yet more marches.

I am galvanised. I am determined. I am passionate.

I am a woman. HEAR ME ROAR!

This weekend has made me prouder than ever to be a woman: and standing with thousands at #womensmarchlondon to support those with less voice, less privilege, and less chance to express themselves has also made me intensely humble I’m going to try my absolute hardest to maintain these feelings of passion and determination, and channel them into something much bigger. Who’s with me? ❤️ #LoveTrumpsHate

A photo posted by Flora The Explorer (@florabaker) on Jan 22, 2017 at 12:52pm PST

Because information is power…

I’d love to update this article with any positive resources we can collectively find. What inspires you? What drives your passion? TELL ME what you’re doing today which is different from yesterday! Tell others too!! Your inspiration is only going to inspire people around you. But it still starts with YOU. We’ve started marching now. What are we going to do next?

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