Depeche Mode, ⛓️Some Great Reward

i love you Dave in 1982 i love you

Sobbing uncontrollably reading through a dissertation about the college experience of students with ADHD. It is like reading a report about my life that just says over and over "My experiences are real. My hardships are real. I am not lazy, I am not dumb. My struggles were not my fault, and they were not a moral failing. The failure was with the system, not with me."

Here's a line that got me in particular:

"Hotez et al.(2022) compared the health, academic, and non-academic capacities of a nationally representative sample of U.S. first-year college students with ADHD and without ADHD. Students with ADHD self-reported lower academic aspirations and more feelings of depression and overwhelm, ranking themselves lower in their general emotional health. The fact that students with ADHD scored in the highest 10th percentile for many non-academic traits, such as artistic ability, computer skills, creativity, public speaking, social confidence, self-understanding and understanding of others, compassion, and risk-tasking, suggests that this population has strengths that are frequently underappreciated in academia."

(the paper is a thesis called "Understanding the Collegiate Experience for Students With ADHD" by Gia Long, 2022)

Their best relationship development is still to come, but the chapters today's episode covered are a great start!

i love how after everything that has happened, he STILL somehow thinks people won't turn up to his gigs. what a guy

Here's the thing: he hasn't actually seen everything that's happened. He hasn't had time to take that all in.

Before UMK, some dozens or tens of people came to his shows and he has made fun of it, saying that his gigs never have a back row because there are so few people attending. He even organized a joke contest in his IG stories, and the winning one was along the lines "I don't like crowds, that's why I only go to Käärijä's gigs". Then after UMK his gigs were suddenly sold out, but most of them were still on small venues and nightclubs that could fit maybe a few hundred people. He got big hype before UMK and even bigger after winning that of course, but he really didn't have time to react to anything as he was doing as many shows as possible and doing hundreds of interviews and podcasts and challenge videos and what have you, and practicing singing and dancing and performing before leaving to Liverpool.

Then he was in Liverpool for two weeks without almost any time off, again every day filled with interviews and promotion videos and parties and rehearsals, and the hours he had off he didn't spend on social media but with Joker Out and other contestants, just to relieve the stress and pressure. So he wasn't in Finland, and he wasn't on social media that much, so he didn't see the actual craze that took over this country. Kids dressing in green and practicing Cha Cha Cha on music classes, stores running out of piña colada and Malibu and pineapple juice and everything green including grapes, all landmarks and statues in every city either dressed up in green boleros or lighted up with green lights, people dying their hair green and getting bowlcuts, people getting Käärijä tattoos, people sewing so many green boleros and other outfits that the biggest fabric store chain ran out of all green fabrics, people with green make-up and nails, the fan art everyone was making, even the government offices and political parties changing their logos Käärijä green on Instagram and Facebook, the support messages and posts, literally every store from clothing chains to grocery stores and art supply stores putting their neon green and pink stuff on display in the window - hell, even my local pet store had their neon green fluffy cat toys on the prime spot!

He said in an interview that he heard rumours of all that happened, but of course he hasn't seen it. He said that he has around 100.000 notifications unread and he won't have time until maybe autumn to start checking out what has actually happened this year.

When you think about it from his point of view, six months ago he was a broke-ass musician with a day job, living in a tiny apartment. Some dozens of people used to come to his shows, and then suddenly after Cha Cha Cha he was selling out venues, small ones, but still. Then he left for Eurovision with the single goal of winning, and he didn't achieve that, so he thought himself as a loser, that he had disappointed everyone who supported him. From his point of view he is still the same broke-ass musician living in a tiny flat, but now he's unemployed and Eurovision loser so even more of a failure. So why are there thousands of people suddenly coming to the shows and wanting to see him? Of course it would be baffling to him. He wasn't there when he became a national hero, and he doesn't yet understand that he is no longer a failed musician, he is an international phenomenon.

sonaposting? :3

turns you into a glitter sticker and rotates you in my mind

omg what would the group rate barry’s leader skills

HAHA i actually think even though Barrys the Client that everyone has to answer to/protect, Sloane is more of the unofficial leader. she has enough sway with everyone that they typically follow her lead/plan. though for the first part of the dungeon shes usually ok with letting the group fend for themselves and not get involved, as it goes on theres like a silent acceptance with her at the head. that being said, i think barry gives sloane an 80, fry a 84, and billy a 95.

Hi there!! I just re-watched ur aftg and trc animatics for the millionth time and I have to ask about ur music taste! It sounds so cool!!! Maybe your spotify if ur ok with that?

I have. Never been. Happiest- I entertain a HUGE love for music, it's my very life, the heart of my being, the blood of my veins...

I like a lot of different music genres, but my favorite is probably alt. rock? Hard to choose. My top would be Muse, but I absolutely adore Autoheart, Mika, Scorpions, Supertramp, The Neighbourhood, Gibran Alcocer, Her's... (and many more)

I do have a Spotify I use a lot, feel free to take a look, username is nothatsmi as always, but you can use this link: https://open.spotify.com/user/fcd4ewy0vamvz29g6qc091zk0?si=b3909e9ad6de4ec8

On my spotify I will advise this short playlist named "To indeed be a god!" if you want to know my tastes, it only contains my very favorite songs: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0LHN4QeKTJWqLbToLI62jY?si=f65002e81d9d476e

Anyway. I could ramble about this for so long...

Thank you sm for asking, I'm glad you like what I do :)

Dave Gahan, 🔊 Music for the Masses Era

my beauties

how he holds this hammer damn...

I made some Depeche Mode stickers, let me know if you want them, one of a kind

there is so much aggressive misinfo abt toxic shock syndrome out there its a nightmare

New Depeche Mode stickers in our shop!

Available here