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jokeroutsubs · 5 months

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ENG translation: If we believed that we were "kings", that wouldn't be us

An interview with Bojan Cvjetićanin for Slovenian newspaper Delo, originally published on 24.12.2023. Audio version by IG GBoleyn123

Original article is available here for Delo subscribers. Original article written by Lucijan Zalokar for Delo; photos by Jože Suhadolnik; English translation by a member of Joker Out Subs, native proof reading by IG GBoleyn123.

If you repost quotes from the interview, please link back to this post! And if you repost the photos, do not crop out the photographer credit.

With Bojan Cvjetićanin about the international breakthrough of Joker Out, the movie Kaj pa Ester?, about life on the road, football, sociology…

I met up with Bojan Cvjetićanin in Ljubljana's Stegne industrial zone, where the members of the popular pop rock (in their jargon: shagadelic rock'n'roll) group Joker Out created a rehearsal space for themselves two years ago. "Lately we've been on the road a lot, but this is still a great second home. If only you knew about the parties that happened here. There were fifty people dancing downstairs," he proudly looked from a small gallery towards the space that measures approximately thirty square metres. Even though the clock had just struck three in the afternoon, the 24-year-old Ljubljana resident had a long day behind him, which had been entirely dedicated to media obligations.

In journalistic circles, we often hear indignation about how modern day influencers - especially those who had gained their influence on social media - have no books on their shelves. Joker Out are first and foremost musicians, of course, but with 150,000 followers (Bojan's personal profile has 190,000) on Instagram, we can count them among the big Slovenian influencers. And there are plenty of books on their shelves.

I don't want to falsely portray the popular fivesome as enlightened donors to the Slovenian literary market: most of the books resemble those you can buy for little money in second-hand bookshops, or even get for free at library write-offs, but they still deserve praise for both the aesthetic sense and the content.

I also don't want to falsely portray the books as the only notable objects in the rehearsal space. There are also the golden plate for the Eurovision single Carpe Diem, which got over two million streams in Finland, a transfusion bag (Rh-) that Tomi Meglič¹, Cvjetićanin's biggest teenage idol, personally brought to them, and a small shop's worth of props given to them by fans: pillows with hand-embroidered patterns, plushies, bras with Instagram accounts written on them, various sweets, you could even find a vinyl from a Soviet cover band of The Beatles. If things continue like that, they soon won't have any space left for instruments, but those are just sweet worries. Joker Out, who were formed in 2016, are currently conquering Europe in a way that the Slovenian music scene has never seen before.

¹frontman of Siddharta, whose third album was called Rh-

I've heard that you approach your job with the utmost professionalism and that you wake up at five in the morning for media obligations.

That's true, today we started early in the morning in Maribor. The first few hours were the most tiring because we were constantly changing locations and driving around the city. After the third or fourth activity, we relaxed a little because we got to the studio. After that, everyone started coming to us instead of the other way around.

Slovenian cinemas have started playing the movie Kaj pa Ester? in which you play a boy who enrolled in high school just to get close to his ex girlfriend again. Did you have any problems with trying to get into the high school mentality?

We filmed the movie two years ago, when my memories of high school were much more fresh than they are today. But on the other hand, I played a boy who had just finished the ninth grade of primary school, so I had to put myself into the shoes of a primary school kid, which is much harder. We're also pretty different personality-wise. But almost the entire cast was around the same age, so too old. We joked about that a lot during filming.

Still, that's nothing unusual in the movie world.

Of course, there are 35-year-olds starring in High School Musical and no one is complaining.

Could you draw any parallels between a musical stage performance and filming a movie? You have to play a kind of role during a concert too...

I have to admit that it's completely different. On stage, I never feel like I'm performing. Of course I am actually performing, but I'm still in the role of myself, Bojan, whereas in the movie, I'm someone completely different. It might be easier to compare filming a movie with recording music in the studio, but there are big differences there as well. The biggest one is that for a movie, the director has the main and the final say. You have to trust him. When you film a scene, you don't even see what you've filmed for a long time. The movie in which I play one of the main roles will be played in cinemas, and I don't even know what I will look like on the big screen. It's different with music, because us authors listen to the songs a hundred times, a thousand times; we're the ones who make all the final decisions. That's quite a mental leap, but I didn't have too many problems with it, because I knew the previous projects of that team. V dvoje ('In a tandem') is my favourite Slovenian TV series. On the other hand, I needed time to get used to this new method of working. If I asked to see the scene we'd filmed one more time, but the director said it was good, we kept filming without hesitation.

You said that on stage, you are always in the role of yourself. Does the nature of that role change from concert to concert? And what influences it? The audience, the outfit…

The outfit has an influence for sure. More than I initially thought. Lately we've been playing with our stage look a lot and looking for the right combination. I currently find that the outfit suits me very well, it's just the shoes that bother me because they're too rigid. I have to change them. They're huge and massive, which makes me feel like I'm clumsily marching around the stage, whereas during rehearsals I wear sneakers and I'm therefore a lot more in the mood for dancing.

What about the language you sing in? Many people say that they feel as if by switching between different languages, they are also switching between their personalities.

I agree. When you change the language, your voice has a different colour and register, you come up with different jokes than in your mother tongue. If I lead a concert in Slovenian, Serbian, or English, I'm a different dude every time. This is also influenced by my notion that each time, I'm performing for a different group of people who are connected by a certain mentality. In Slovenia, I'm performing as a local for locals, and I feel like there are different "game rules" than for example in Croatia or Serbia. Elsewhere, I feel like I don't even think about this.

How did you get the idea to start creating and singing in English? You already broke through internationally with Slovenian.

Us creating in foreign languages isn't so much a result of wanting to break through internationally and the mentality that only English ensures global success. If we thought that way, we wouldn't have gone to Eurovision with a Slovenian song. We're primarily driven by a desire to learn new things, to push the boundaries... In the studio, it's similar to being on the stage. If you change the language, you're not only a different person on stage, but also inside your head. Your creativity is different. Playing with languages is actually also playing with your own creativity, because you enter a different space, a different mentality. The song Sunny Side of London could not have been made if we hadn't mentally transported ourselves to an English-speaking space. We want many more projects like that, not necessarily in English.

Can you be more specific? What kind of mentality do you associate Sunny Side of London with?

That song is a sort of homage to all the people who have suddenly become part of our story. Sunny Side of London has nothing to do with London as such. I was looking for a name of a well-known place with which to name all our concerts, and I decided on London.

The first time I said the words Are you guys real? – Is this really happening, are you really here and singing our songs? – on the stage, certain English phrases snuck into my mind. What the hell is going on? and so on. We also experienced, for the first time, foreigners coming up to us and talking about their own experiences connected to our music. That was something completely new for us. We listened to all those stories in English, as our fans of course can't speak Slovenian, even though they can sing our Slovenian lyrics. Sunny Side of London therefore emerged as a collection of all the experiences and stories that fans told us after gigs.

You've already touched on fans who sing your lyrics by heart from Finland to Spain. Could you highlight the nation with the best ear for the Slovenian language?

On the latest tour, when we visited Lithuania, Poland, Czechia and Croatia, there were moments when I felt like I was singing in Slovenia. In Prague, I filmed the audience singing Umazane misli without me. As if I were in Križanke, for example. But it's even more fascinating that people sing well in England and Nordic countries too. It's understandable that our Slavic brothers have the best ear for Slovenian, but northerners aren't far off either.

How much of your international success do you attribute to the Eurovision performance?

A huge amount.

If you had to express it in a percentage?

99.9.

Really?

Definitely. It was an incredible catapult. Whenever I ask the audience at our international concerts if anyone was already with us before Eurovision, a few hands shoot up every time, but those are rare exceptions.

How do you explain the fact that you finished in the relatively humble 21st place in Liverpool, but your visibility still grew in leaps and bounds?

We were very, very, very dedicated to the Eurovision project. We put a lot of time and energy into demonstrating to the people who were open to it that we weren't just a three-minute performance, but very much an existing band that has made many songs and that lives on stage. With time, and of course in connection with the Eurovision performance, more and more listeners got to know that. We clearly showed them: we are here, we are real, try it, connect with us.

Because they had so much different content available, this actually happened. I think it was also because they saw that Joker Out really was made out of five completely regular dudes from Slovenia who live a totally normal life, and at the same time we make music and have a great time doing it. That is already a slight deviation from what's been happening recently, when we're being bombarded from all sides by messages that we need to distance ourselves from each other, that we have to hate each other...

That was the sociologist in you talking.

That's true. The atmosphere in society nowadays is such that it emphasises individuality more than building a team. Young people, however, need and want to be part of a community. And we offered them that chance.

Where does your interest in social sciences come from? Your father is a gynecologist, your mother a pediatrician, and you have a degree in sociology.

I had a very good professor in high school. If you wanted to listen to him, he offered a lot of knowledge. Even though sociologists often think about society in an abstract way, the subject always felt tangible to me. I recognised it in very concrete life situations that I was trying to understand. At my final exams, I did a great job with sociology with very little effort – and then made a mistake and enrolled in economics. I wavered between those two options from the start, and in the end, what tipped the scales were the warnings of many people I knew that sociology doesn't have good employment prospects. I gave in to the pressure and very quickly realised I had made the wrong decision. I gave up on economics after the first semester. That was when I seriously threw myself into the band, we made Gola, and then I transferred to sociology and there was happiness all around.

You clearly won't work as a sociologist for a while yet, if ever...

But I am a sociologist.

In your soul?

No, as my profession. Us musicians are sociologists. A lot of sociological terms could easily be transferred into our environment. Locale, for example. In third year, the professor asked me several times: Well, Cvjetićanin, if you have a concert, is that locale or something else? And then I said it was locale and started rambling on. (laughter)

So you are a singing sociologist?

Exactly.

How do you explain the success of Joker Out from a sociological point of view? How do your songs address the zeitgeist?

I write the lyrics exclusively based on stories that really happened. Not necessarily to me, but to people I love. Therefore, I have a strong emotional relationship with the subject matter. My opinion is that there will always be people who will connect with the story if it's real. Because it's easiest for us to connect with real emotions. Our songs are love songs, they talk about finding yourself and personal growth, some are socially critical... I think that I have managed to find the right balance between being direct and being poetic.

I'll word it differently. The Beatles already sang about love and personal growth. And they weren't the first ones by far. Later on, those same themes were covered by hundreds of successful bands and an infinite number of slightly less successful ones.

I think that nowadays, we most often associate societal changes with technological development. Technological advances largely dictate the rhythm of our life. But those advances are mostly just a substitute for something that already existed in the past. The basic emotions have therefore certainly stayed the same. Love, fear, hatred... I think that the use of language is very important here. Even though the emotions don't change, the way we put them into words does. In music, too. I don't sing about a topic the same way my peers would have in the 1970s. Consequentially, our relationship with emotions is changing and evolving as well. As if our entire society is gravitating towards the point of holding the belief that it's better for an individual to feel less and less, and in a more and more censored way.

On the one hand, excessive use of social media and other media causes us to feel like distinct individuals. On the other hand, it connects us to the world and places us into a very wide picture. In every moment, we are only a click away from becoming cosmopolitan and being able to access all the information, events, and people, but at the same time, that's exactly what reminds us that we are a small and actually not very important dot on this planet. The magnitude of everything that's constantly available to us makes us feel small. I think that we mostly listen to, watch, and use those who manage to poke the spot that unnerves people the most in this context. If performers manage to break through the firewall of someone's VPN, then those people will also show their interest in an analogue way. Otherwise, they will only be a swipe away.

And now a question that's more psychological than sociological: do you ever try to get into the heads of the people who time and again show their interest in very analogue ways?

I have an infinite appreciation for their dedication, because for myself, I don't see the chance of a phenomenon exciting me so much that I would be ready to dedicate so much time and love to it.

So you've never been a very hardcore fan?

If, at twelve years old, I had to highlight one musicians that I would've wanted to meet more than anyone in the world, that would definitely have been Tomi Meglič. That hasn't changed to this day. The only difference is that we meet up with Tomi and we're friends. I still feel the highest possible level of respect for him. Every time he calls me, I am extremely proud of myself. But I still cannot imagine going to, say, Berlin tomorrow if Siddharta were playing there and I had a free day. I'd go to Maribor or Zagreb, but absolutely not across all of Europe the way the biggest fans do. Not even at twelve. I could sooner imagine that at that age, a football match rather than a concert would be the thing that excited me beyond all reason.

We're probably talking about two groups of celebrities that get worshipped as deities by the masses in Western society: footballers and pop and rock musicians. And this is probably linked to emotions again.

True. The thing that wakes up a person's sense of smell, sight, and all other emotions that overcame them as a child, is what has the best possibility of succeeding.

Now please explain how this is connected to football.

If I go to a concert by Siddharta, Big Foot Mama, Magnifico, I turn into a ten-year-old kid who will explode from happiness. There's no Bojan anymore. He gets lost. It's the same with football. When I watch it, I dream about how I played for Slovan² as a kid and what I wanted more than anything was to score a goal and for everyone in the stands to yell: Yeeeees!

²ND Slovan is a football club from Ljubljana

You don't score goals, but you are in a similar position that Tomi Meglič used to be in.

All the band members come from very loving families that have always provided us with a very good support system and instilled basic values in us that we internalised deeply. That is why everything that's currently happening around us hasn't gone to our heads in a way that would make us think that we're bigger or more important than anyone else. If we started believing that we were "kings" because everyone was clapping for us and singing our songs, that would probably be a very strong feeling, but that simply wouldn't be us. We mostly love to see all the people, because we know how much we mean to them and how much they mean to us. Without them, we wouldn't be able to focus on what's most important to us – our music. On the other hand, I can say with a thousand percent certainty that I would easily and happily do my job if I was performing at venues like Cankarjev dom. So, in front of a calmer audience, without unreal hype.

But what I would like most in the world is to turn into a footballer for ten seconds and score a goal at an important match. You know why? Because that is the biggest adrenaline hit that exists. When we perform on various stages, there's mayhem around us for two hours straight. But in football, when a goal is scored, that happens in a millisecond. You go from nothing into total chaos. Everyone loses their minds. I'd love to experience that. Well, I did – much like everyone who played football in primary school. When I scored a goal for Slovan and a hundred people in the stands clapped for me, I felt like I was on Maracanã. Imagine what it would be like to experience that on the real Maracanã.

It's interesting that you highlighted a loving and stable family background. Many of the biggest pop and rock stars in the world grew up in a diametrally opposite environment. From John Lennon and Janis Joplin to Prince and Rihanna. There are actually so many of them that we can talk about a pattern.

I know, because I love to read their (auto)biographies, and I agree with your assessment that their family circumstances are fundamentally different than ours. That is always my answer to the question when someone wants to know how debauched our tours are. When I tell them that we mostly drink water and tea on the road, they just can't believe it. But it's the truth, because we've realised three things. First, we enjoy what we do immensely, and from the experiences of many musicians, we know that you can almost definitely forget about a long career if you start doing everything that we perceive as the proverbial rock'n'roll lifestyle. A band like that breaks up sooner or later, either because of frayed nerves, or exploding egos, or because of money. Second, we've all had to go to work hungover and we know very well that it's unbearable. I especially can't imagine how we could stay healthy and keep our strength and our voice if we were constantly hungover on the road. In that case, the only short-term solution is drugs, which we fortunately [knocks on wood] don't do. And third: I'm sure that you have a much better time on stage if you're aware that you are on it.

Your international breakthrough doesn't have a precedent among Slovenian musicians. Would you dare to point out where the difference is, why you made it and not for example Siddharta, who had filled Bežigrad stadium and later did not hide their international ambitions?

We have to understand that Siddharta didn't have the chance to perform at a festival like Eurovision. It's hard to understand what it means for 160 million people to watch you. That is a bizzarely huge number. All this happened in the time of social media, and we had set up a pretty good mechanism in that area even before Eurovision, and then also used it, whereas Siddharta established itself as a band in the time of analogue media. I can't even imagine how it would've been possible to break through abroad from Slovenia at that time. Because even we are already – even though some things have opened up for us very nicely and we've been joined by the right people – finding out how much of an investment going international demands. Dreams of megalomanical earnings and a luxurious life brought on by a European tour shatter quickly. Even when you start filling up venues, you stay in a kind of hustle mode. You fight. Unfortunately, the costs in the music business are so high that performing abroad is more or less just for promotion for a long time.

You're probably thinking of logistical costs?

Yes. Some of my colleagues have total misconceptions about our earnings. They think that we're literally swimming in money, while we actually earn what amounts to a normal salary.

In March next year you will have eighteen concerts. You will start in Helsinki and end in Milan. How will you travel?

With a tour bus. We've rented it twice so far: for the UK tour and for the tour around Lithuania, Poland, and Czechia. There are beds on it, so we can sleep while driving from one concert to the next. The tourbus is prohibitively expensive, you pay almost half of your royalties for it, but it's the only way for a musician with such a packed schedule to survive in the long run. Sometimes people ask me why we don't travel with a van instead, but you have to understand that we sometimes have concerts two days in a row and the venues are 800 kilometres apart. If we spent all night in an uncomfortable van, then looked for a hotel in the morning and so on, we might be able to endure it for a week, but definitely not all month.

Do you ever sleep in a hotel?

Only on free days.

Will the March tour be your most exhausting one so far?

It will definitely be one of the more exhausting ones, but I am definitely happy that we will be able to sleep on a tour bus. We haven't been on a month-long tour yet, so it's hard to predict anything, but on the Nordic tour this year we played six concerts in five days, because we had two concerts in one day in Helsinki. We didn't have a tour bus there, we flew instead. That meant that after the concert, we got to the hotel at midnight, then we had to be at the airport at three in the morning, a few hours later we were already at the new location, we napped for two hours on a couch, had a soundcheck – rinse and repeat for five days in a row.

Let's not talk only about the negative sides of tours…

Of course. I love sleeping on the bus! I fall asleep like a baby who's being taken for a walk in a stroller. I can't sleep more than nine or ten hours in my bed at home, on a tour bus I easily get twelve hours. Maybe it's because it's constantly shaking a little. The other guys also sleep very well on the road.

But the most magical thing on tours is when I visit a city for the first time just because we have a gig there. That seems unimaginable to me. To meet new people, wonderful fans, to bond as a band, experience new, funny situations, to bring home a bunch of new inside jokes and incredible gifts that fans have made themselves. [Points towards a hand-embroidered pillow in the part of the studio where they keep the gifts.]

Elite athletes often lament that it's true that they compete all over the world, but they often only see the airport, the hotel, and the sports venue.

It's similar for us. When we travel with a bus, we only see the venue. If we happen to have a free day, we walk around the city, but we definitely don't visit all kinds of tourist attractions as some people might wrongly imagine. When we go to Paris, we definitely won't go to the Louvre, and we will see the Eiffel tower through the bus window if everything goes well.

But you meet a lot of interesting people.

That's true. I find it the most fascinating if we meet fans when we don't expect them at all. In a restaurant, on a plane… When we were flying to Poland, it turned out that one of the flight attendants was a big fan of ours. She told us that she was going to three of our concerts and brought us champagne and a model of a Lot Polish Airlines plane.

I was even more surprised in Helsinki. I went to some kind of dark club that had a techno music party. Suddenly I was approached by three people, two guys and one girl, and they told me that they were our fans and that they couldn't believe that they met me in that club. I also couldn't believe that people recognised me in the middle of Helsinki. What's going on?!

In the summer, you took a step back from Instagram for a while. What brought you to that decision?

Many things. I felt creatively empty. I also, for the first time in my life, experienced the internet – not just Slovenian, but global – being completely oversaturated with me. That started negatively pressuring me and eating me up. I thought about it a lot, and the first time I asked myself whether I'd be less Bojan Cvjetićanin if I didn't have an Instagram profile, I turned it off. Immediately after that, I wrote three songs; I felt as if I had cleaned up some of the mess that had built up recently. I returned to social media some time ago; with much healthier habits than before, I think.

How do you see social media? As a space for playfulness, for promotion, part of the job, part of private life?

I think that at the time when they started killing me, I perceived them too professionally. I had a feeling that Instagram was a platform through which I had to achieve all sorts of things. Lately, I prefer to joke around more.

If you repost quotes from the interview, please link back to this post! And if you repost the photos, do not crop out the photographer credit.

#bojan cvjetićanin #bojan cvjeticanin #joker out #Spotify

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zombieheroine · 2 months

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Initial D character headcanons (1/?)

Screw canon, I'll add my own. Here are some headcanons I came up with, take it, leave it, add your own, whatever we keep drifting.

Fujiwara Takumi

Music of choice: Eurodance, to stay awake. Works better than any caffeinated drink ever could. In his glove compartment: Take-out fliers, loose coins to spend on vending machines. Parallel parking skill: Has never parallel parked, but would succeed on first try. Could drift into the spot but doesn't want to look like a show-off. Driving pet peeve: Slow drivers who don't give way. Ticket score: Zero. He doesn't want to find out what Bunta would say.

Itsuki Takeuchi

Music of choice: Whatever is on the radio In his glove compartment: His driving license and the manual of the car, list of his work shifts, a car magazine, a pair of fluffy dice he hasn't dared to hang yet. Parallel parking skill: He's super nervous and sweats it every time, but does okay, even though he needs multiple tries. Driving pet peeve: Tailgaters. Ticket score: Since the first accident, he's a very responsible driver and doesn't have any additional tickets, but the points on his license remain.

Iketani Koichiro

Music of choice: Classic Japanese rock/pop ballads for strong independent manly men who need no woman In his glove compartment: A water bottle, a spare bowtie for work, forgotten old tests from high school, personal hygiene kit with mouthwash and a disposable razor, but he's forgotten to buy shaving cream. Parallel parking skill: He's proficient, but if someone's watching he gets too self-concious to even try. Driving pet peeve: Ending up on the slow lane and watching cars pass him on his left. Ticket score: He caught a few speeding tickets in his first year with a license due to being over eager and careless in urban areas, but wisened up before maxing out the points.

Kenji

Dayjob: A baker, which leaves him with lots of free time to bother his friends at their work place. Music of choice: Rock'n'roll from all over the world, to both knead bread dough and drive fast to. He burns his own mix CDs. In his glove compartment: CDs, several tubes of prescription hand cream, manga magazines, marker pens, post-it-notes and old shopping lists, crumbled up receipts. Parallel parking skill: None. This man has so far never been forced to even try, and so he won't learn. There's always a free spot somewhere in a small town, especially very late and very early. He would never want to drive in a metropolitan area. Driving pet peeve: Drivers who rev their engines and screech their tires to show off. Ticket score: A few parking tickets because he tends to forget himself in chatting with friends.

Takahashi Keisuke:

Dayjob: This rich problem youth has not worked a day in his life. His parents may have given up on him, but his allowance was never wholly cut to keep him from getting into even more serious trouble. Music of choice: Synth pop, like all the cool scene kids in the 90s. In his glove compartment: Snack bar wrappers, a cell phone charger, cigaretters and several half empty lighters, emergency condoms and a totally unrelated tube of body lotion (water-based). Parallel parking skill: He could, but would never expose his precious car to the other parked cars and their drivers like that. If there's no spacious parking spot, he won't leave his car for anything or anyone. Driving pet peeve: Prone to road rage just in general. Ticket score: Zero, but the local police knows him by name.

Takahashi Ryosuke

Day job: Full-time med student, favorite child. Music of choice: Heavy metal, it's excellent stress relief In this glove compartment: Vehicle license, the manual of his car, a logbook, maps, first aid kit. Parallel parking skill: Perfect, what did you expect? Driving pet peeve: People who get road rage. Ticket score: Surprisingly high. He's been caught speeding multiple times when looking for his brother during his gang days, and caught the occasional parking ticket due to forgetfullness.

Nakamura Kenta

Dayjob: An employee at a 7/11 Music of choice: Same as Keisuke's In his glove compartment: Wrappers from various snacks, empty noodle cups and an uneven number of disposable chopsticks, crumbled up energy drink cans. Parallel parking skill: Could do it, as long as he concentrates instead of trying to act too cool Driving pet peeve: Drivers who hit puddles on purpose, either spraying the pedestrians or risking hydroplaning needlessly Ticket score: He's got his license suspended once for three months. Since joining the RedSuns he's cleaned up his act in general.

#inid #initial D #inid headcanons

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cherrylng · 13 days

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Muse Disc Guide - Showbiz [STYLE Series #004 - Muse (August 2010)]

IN MUSIC

In the UK in 1999, dance and idol music dominated the scene. This trio emerged in the midst of such a rock slump and brought new life and hope to the scene with their rich creativity and solid musicianship, which were not typical of newcomers.

At the time of making this album, their average age was just over 20. However, for the three, who had been playing together in a band since junior high school, this was their first album. Most of the songs on the album were written over the span of several years. Seven of the songs (2/ Muscle Museum, 5/ Cave, 7/ Unintended, 8/ Uno, 9/ Sober, 11/ Escape, 12/ Overdue) have already been released on rare EPs from their former label, Dangerous (although the recording times and versions were different).

The growth they have achieved since their formation is in direct proportion to the variety of music they have absorbed during that time. From classical to boogie-woogie, Matthew's musical origins lie in the piano, Dom started playing drums after jazz, and Chris has played guitar, keyboards, drums and a variety of other instruments. They started playing in bands around 1992, just as the grunge wave was blowing, but they also digested melodic punk, grebo, goth, alternative metal and more.

What ultimately defined their uniqueness was Matthew's insatiable inquisitiveness and omnivorous tastes. At the age of 17, Matthew wandered around Europe, getting to know the folk music of different regions and later learning to play the Spanish guitar. In his late teens, he returned to classical piano, including Chopin and Rachmaninoff, while the influence of Jeff Buckley became evident in his melancholic melodies and emotional singing style with a deft use of falsetto. This album, which has all of this in its blood, is a debut that is still in its infancy compared to their second and later albums, which fully developed their unique personalities, but it is diverse and accomplished enough to show their potential. The coexistence of the dramatic contrasts of movement and stillness, as well as the coexistence of the intense emotion and elegant romanticism represented by (3/ Fillip), can be said to be the cornerstone of the ‘Muse’ style. —Imai Sumi

1999 Hit Albums

The year 1999, when Showbiz was released, was actually a bad year for UK bands. The year was dominated by idol/pop acts. This was epitomised by the debut album (A/ …Baby One More Time) by Britney Spears, the biggest pop icon of the following decade. The video for ‘Baby One More Time’, featuring a high-school girl in a super-mini, navel-baring look, is still burned into people's brains as a powerful impression. It was also the year Christina Aguilera made her album debut. Other so-called boy band albums such as Backstreet Boys, Westlife, and Boyzone topped the charts across the board, while S Club 7 and Steps also became regulars in the UK charts.

In the US, Red Hot Chilli Peppers' (B/ Californication), which Muse also opened for, proved overwhelmingly strong, while Limp Bizkit, who debuted with (C/ Significant Other), raised the signal for the rise of Nu Metal. Eminem, who debuted with (D/ The Slim Shady LP), later became a major force on the chopping block of Limp and the aforementioned Britney. Among these, the few successful albums by young UK guitar bands were Travis‘ (E/ The Man Who), which replaced the loud Rock'n'Roll of their debut with a more melancholic sound, and Stereophonics’ (F/ Performance and Cocktails), which was a straight-up rock hit. Although Muse were initially compared to the likes of Radiohead, they were quite unique in the scene. That hasn't changed even now, though.

IN LYRICS

As a debut album, the lyrics are very much Matthew in his local Teignmouth days. A prime example is (4/ Falling Down), which even gives the population/household numbers: ‘15,000 people scream’ and ‘5,000 houses burning down’. The city's status as a holiday destination for Londoners, a city that makes its living by serving tourists, combined with its recent desolation, made adolescent Matthew feel like a core of losers in a society of inequality. It was self-evident to Matthew that ‘no one can save this city’, and not only in this song, but also in the protagonists of the lyrics, there is a tendency to try to escape or hide somewhere.

(1/ Sunburn) is also attributed to a local story, and here too we can see the composition of a disparate society: ‘the winners who spend a lot of money on a tourist attraction that seems to be a kind of women's dance show’. The image of the ‘Sunburn’ = tanning is also associated with ugly adults for Matthew, but it could also be interpreted as a form of the money-grubbing music business. Although wrapped in a thinly veiled mask, there is no way to hide the nervous state of mind before the debut, and the world is formed by ‘me’ who restrains himself and clowns around, and ‘you’ who indulges his desires. Track (6/ Showbiz), exudes the blue anxiety of the night before stepping into the real showbiz.

In an interview during his first visit to Japan, Matthew said, ‘There were alcoholics roaming around in my hometown’, and (9/ Sober), in which several brands of whisky are interwoven, does not deny such drunks, but rather describes the effects of alcohol on the mind and body in a rock-like manner. The casual love for one's hometown can also be read into this, and the half-love-hate feelings towards one's hometown overlap with the split state of what is known in Japan as ‘chuunibyou/middle-school second year syndrome’. The British national band was very young at the time of their debut. —Kaoru Abe

YEAR 1999 January - The Euro was introduced as a currency in 11 EU member states. - The children's song ‘Dango San Kyoudai’, which is currently ranked third in (terms of overall sales in) the Oricon singles chart, was released. February - The first brain-dead organ transplant under the Organ Transplantation Act made headlines. March - A Swiss and an Englishman made the first non-stop circumnavigation of the world in a hot-air balloon. - Stanley Kubrick, film director known for films such as A Clockwork Orange, died. - The J2 League, Japan's professional football league, was started. April - Shintaro Ishihara [T/N: RIP to this xenophobic ultranationalist asshole] was elected Governor of Tokyo. - NATO forces bombed Yugoslavia in order to sanction the Kosovo War, which had been raging since 1998. May - Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace was released in the USA. This was the first film to be made in 16 years. - The Treaty of Amsterdam enters into force. - Opening of Safeco Field (later renamed to T-Mobile Park in 2018) in the US. June - Sony launched AIBO, a puppy-shaped pet robot. The price was 250,000 yen. July - Muse's North American tour started. - The All Nippon Airways Flight 61 hijacking incident occurred, in which the captain was stabbed to death and the perpetrator took control of the aircraft. August - Muse's Germany tour started. September - A M7.7 (7.3 in Richter scale) earthquake occured in central Taiwan, with a death toll of over 2,000 (1999 Jiji earthquake). October - Muse's European tour starts. First album Showbiz released with John Leckie. - The Fukuoka Daiei Hawks won the Japan Series. November - First parliamentary party leadership debate (in Japan). [aka Japan’s first time in trying out the British-style Question Time] December - Macau returned from Portugal to China and the Panama Canal from the USA to Panama.

Translator's Notes: This has way more research required to know what happened in a single year of 1999. The next few albums to cover are going to be quite the effort to cover through.

#Matt Bellamy #Dom Howard #Chris Wolstenholme #Muse #Showbiz era #my scan #translation #STYLE Series #STYLE Series 004

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obscurecharactershowdown · 1 year

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Group A Round 1

[image ID: the first image is of Teardrop, a blue teardrop with a cartoonish face and limbs, smiling triumphantly and making a fist. the second image is of Catherine Winters, a young woman in a Japanese school uniform, with blue hair and red eyes. she's sitting at a bar, holding a green drink, looking at something off screen. end ID]

Teardrop

She's a teardrop and she's mute :DD she's really cool and when she joined tpot she got her own team with just her on it I love her

Catherine Winters

An incredible woman. She gets pregnant in high school, and her mom decides to move them to a new country. Unfortunately, she has a miscarriage. Eventually, she's able to return to her previous country. A year has passed and she's forced to compete with other girls to try to win back the heart of her boyfriend. My synopsis of her story really doesn't do it justice, but I want to avoid major spoilers, y'know? Anyway, she's amazing and I love her.

#obscurecharactershowdown #group a round 1 #obscure poll #teardrop bfb #bfb #catherine winters #love money rock n roll

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silverfoxstole · 10 months

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Paul McGann: The latest twist in his tale

He's spent his career thinking on his feet, so it made sense to improvise his latest role, he tells James Mottram

Published: 20 October 2006 in The Independent

Every autumn, Paul McGann is given an annual reminder of his greatest role. Living in a university town like Bristol, "you can set your calendar by it," he says. "The new student intake has just come in, and they've drunk their first grant cheque and seen Withnail and I... and I know when they've seen it. They usually holler across the street." While Richard E Grant's flamboyant drunk Withnail was the character blessed with the lion's share of memorable quotes, McGann's more introspective "I" still had his moments. He grins at a recent reminder. "The other day, some kid had chalked on the pavement outside my house, 'Perfumed Ponce', with an arrow pointing to my front door!"

Now 46, it's refreshing to see McGann is not precious about the fact that his finest hour has just been commemorated this month with a 20th anniversary DVD. "It's actually very satisfying," he admits. "I can safely say, 'If I'd never done another movie, it would've been all right.'" Still handsome, with his Byronic brown curls, there's a sense of genuine gratitude in his soft Scouse accent. The son of a factory worker and a nursery school teacher, perhaps it's in the knowledge that a working-class childhood in Liverpool does not always lead to such a grand career as acting. The Catholic-raised McGann knows he's been fortunate: accepted into Rada, he got his big break in 1982 alongside his three brothers - Joe, Mark and Stephen - in the West End rock'n'roll musical Yakkety Yak.

"We all wanted to be movie stars," he recalls of his youthful days. "When I was a kid, about 11 or 12, we used to try and bunk into local cinemas to see X movies. Who doesn't do that at that age? This would've been 1972. Maybe an older kid would buy a ticket, then go and open the fire door and we'd watch this film until we were all thrown out. You'd see some hammy old thing, but now and again you'd see a great film - like Klute or Five Easy Pieces. I remember watching Jack Nicholson, maybe not understanding what he's up to but thinking I'd love to do that. He was engaging, charismatic - I was rapt!"

McGann was never going to be the next Nicholson, even if winning the lead in Alan Bleasdale's 1986 BBC drama The Monocled Mutineer boosted his profile. Unlike Grant, he never really made it in Hollywood. "What do they say? It's better to regret the things you have done than the things you haven't," he notes. When he did get cast in major productions, he spent most of his time on the cutting room floor. Almost entirely excised from Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, he saw his part for David Fincher's Alien3 truncated to an almost unintelligible degree and then he was unfortunate enough to appear in Queen of the Damned, the ill-fated follow-up to Interview with a Vampire. "Careers are what they are," he shrugs. "They don't make any sense at all when you look back. We're not in charge of them."

Fate certainly seems to have had a hand in McGann's CV. A knee injury in 1994 forced him to cede the lead in ITV's Sharpe to Sean Bean. Two years later came his one-off turn as Doctor Who, following on from Sylvester McCoy in a US pilot that was set to resurrect the series but ultimately never picked up because the ratings weren't high enough. "We made a pilot that didn't work," he says. "And it didn't work because it wasn't good enough." But given the success of the current revamped show, does he have regrets that he's likely to be remembered - in his own words - as the "George Lazenby of Doctor Who"? "It's impossible to regret. It could've been very different. I would've been there for five or six years... and I'd have earned a shit-load of dough. Life wouldn't have been the same but it didn't happen."

If there's a suspicion that McGann is not ruthless enough to play the Hollywood game, not least because Withnail and I anointed him with a cuddly image, he has set about changing that with his latest film, Gypo. An entirely improvised piece about immigration, he plays Paul, a racist father-of-three living in Margate. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Paul is the vilest character of McGann's career, beginning the film by violently objecting to his daughter bringing home a classmate who, it emerges, is a Romany Czech refugee. "I had to be prepared for him to be irredeemable," says McGann. "He is unremittingly miserable."

Fed on a diet of tabloids and Talk Sport, McGann says his character belongs with the "huge majority of these little Englanders with their easy assumptions. At one point, he talks about Africa being a big county - that's about the level of him." He adds that he didn't want to make him like some "Alf Garnett cartoon" and he doesn't - though he confesses to the fact that director Jan Dunn only came to the set with "broad notions" for the scenes. The rest was up to him. "There wasn't a script to discuss," he says. "That brought me out in a rash, to be honest. That was one of the reasons I thought I had to do this. I couldn't think of any proper, intelligent excuse to turn this kind of challenge down."

Telling the same basic story from three separate perspectives, Gypo is officially the first British film to be registered as a Dogme movie. Given that this manifesto, devised by the Danish director Lars von Trier to purify the film-making process by using only original locations, natural light and so on, is over a decade old, it might seem rather after the fact. McGann nods. "I entered it with a mixture of open-mindedness and healthy cynicism. I mean, they're having us on aren't they? Some of that stuff... c'mon! The more dubious claims for the process about truth and nebulous ideas about authenticity. I mean, what's that about? Films are artifice. We're telling stories on film. At the same time, when it works, there is a real tough immediacy and spontaneity to it, and a punch."

Both frank and funny, McGann is the perfect pub-mate - not least because he is so self-deprecating. Noting that his short-lived time playing Doctor Who has nevertheless given him a place in the show's pantheon, he recalls meeting legendary Time Lord Tom Baker. "We were in opposite voice over studios," he says. "This guy in the sound studio told me he was in, so I went and met him. He didn't have a clue who I was! I found it rather refreshing. He was very charming. He just thought I was some kid off the street. So I thought, 'Let's just leave it at that.'"

Yet as chummy as McGann is, it's doubtful if he'd ever fully open up - at least in interview. Dubbing himself "a miserable bastard at the best of times", laying bare his soul is unlikely to make him happy. Of his brothers, he says, "We get on OK. We get on fine." The last time he worked with them was in 1995's Irish famine saga The Hanging Gale, which the quartet conceived themselves. "The biggest obstacle is getting us all together," he grunts, when asked if he'd consider working with them again. He's better on his sons: 17-year-old Joseph is musically gifted, "one of those swines that can play any instrument", while 15-year-old Jake "has been making funny noises" about following his father into acting.

Such reticence can be easily traced back to the mid-1990s, when McGann had his one uncomfortable brush with the limelight. Caught in the street kissing Catherine Zeta-Jones, his co-star from period piece Catherine the Great, by a photographer, it caused a minor scandal and the press descended upon him and his family. While Joseph and Jake "were really spooked by it" - to the point that they now hate having their photograph taken - McGann admits the gossip "rattled" his relationship with his wife Annie, a former assistant stage manager turned interior designer. "I felt like a kid who was being bullied," reflects McGann.

Since Gypo, McGann has done what he's always done, and worked steadily. He recently completed the lead in Poppies, a film about a playwright who becomes obsessed with the fact his grandfather and two great uncles were killed in the Battle of the Somme that will receive its premiere in November at the Imperial War Museum. And he is currently filming a short produced by Zoë Ball entitled Always Crashing In The Same Car, reuniting with Grant for the first time since Withnail and I. "It's good when we're together," says McGann. "We're still mates. Our kids know each other. Very occasionally we're together in the same place - and then it's difficult to pay for a drink. I like that."

'Gypo' opens today

#i was looking for the tale of paul meeting tom for the first time #and found it by accident going through some old files #paul mcgann #interviews #doctor who #eighth doctor #8th doctor #tom baker #withnail and i #he told the story about the chalk on the pavement in a zoom interview a couple of years ago #it sounded as though it had happened recently but obviously not!

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midnightcowboy1969 · 7 months

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rock'n'roll high school is just ramones propaganda

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rip-us-xoxo · 1 year

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Avalanche- Draco Malfoy x Reader (REPOST)

Posted NOVEMBER 26, 2020

Reposted APRIL 16, 2023

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Request by @excuse-me-ima-princess- Could you write an imagine with draco x female!reader where it’s like a childhood best friends to lovers type of deal. Also if you could use the song Avalanche by walk the moon as a base for it that would be great! Thank you and congrats on 100 followers!

A/n- Thank you! Also thank you for requesting that song, i never heard it before, but now i’m glad that i have. It is so good! I hope you enjoy reading!

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Warnings- Umbridge, that’s it. Also not really read through so sorry ‘bout that✌️

Song- 'Avalanche' by Walk The Moon

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Eighteen thousand-year-old soul

Midwest shooting star

In the days she waits

But she moonlights rock'n'roll

Play the rain dance with her guitar

Sometimes you only get one chance

You and Draco have known each other since you were in diapers. Your mother and his mother were best friends in their years at Hogwarts, so just imagine how excited they were when they found out they were both pregnant at the same time! They knew you two were going to be best friends, and they were right. You two were attached at the hip.

Everyday when you two were little, you would play out in the garden for hours playing tag. You were one wild girl and he loved that about you, friend-like love of course.

Soon those days of just running around had to stop when you two had to go to Hogwarts. Now, you had essays to do and very little free-time to run around and play games.

Now, you were still that carefree girl. You ran around the halls not caring if you got in trouble and didn’t care what others thought about you. Draco on the other hand had to keep his head held high and his behavior on track so that 1. He could impress his father and 2. Show up Potter

As the years at Hogwarts passed by, you and Draco were still attached at the hip and many a times mistaken as a couple, to which both of you would laugh and inform the person that you two were just friends.

5th year was when things got a little rocky in the friendship though. Umbridge had taken over the school and Draco was completely fine with it, but you, on the other hand were not.

“Hey Draco!” you greeted him in the hallway. “Woah, Y/l/n, 8 inches, remember?” Draco moved away from you and kept walking.

“What the heck Draco? I’m your best friend,” you said in disbelief. “Well Umbridge says to stay 8 inches apart, so we will follow her rules and stay 8 inches apart,” he said ‘8 inches apart’ like you were a dumb little child who couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“You know what? Don’t talk to me,” you fumed and turned around to head to the Slytherin common rooms. Draco just huffed and kept walking.

The next time Draco saw you and tried to say hi, you flipped him off and walked in the opposite direction. He expected that to be the only time, but 1 time turned into 2 times and then suddenly you two just weren’t talking anymore.

He didn’t think much of it, being Draco Malfoy he thought he did absolutely nothing wrong, but after a while he thought, “Did I do something wrong?”. He inquired about that thought for a whole month until finally he came to the conclusion that he, in fact, did something wrong.

“I have to fix this,” he whispered to himself as he watched you eat alone at the Slytherin table. He then saw you stand up and start to head out of the Great Hall. But when you grabbed your bag, he saw something on your hand that didn’t look good.

Draco followed you out of the dorm and waited until you two were far enough away from people to try and talk to you. You felt like someone was following you so you looked behind you to see a tall, slender shadow. You yelped and almost fell over.

“Calm down, Y/l/n, it’s just me,” the person chuckled. You stiffened, “What do you want Draco?” you spat his name out like venom. It’s been over a month since you two had talked, and he decided to try and fix it now?

“Look, I just want to talk because I think I did something wrong,”, “You think?” you rolled your eyes and crossed your arms, completely forgetting about the words engraved in your hand from detention with Umbridge.

“Ah!” you hissed and looked down at your hand. “What?” Draco asked and ran up to you. His focus was brought down to your carved hand, “Who did that?”. When he went to go grab it, you pulled it away.

“Your favorite teacher, Umbridge, did it, you git. I got detention,” you spat. He stared at your hand with his jaw dropped, he thought that Slytherins were safe from her wrath but apparently not, “Why did you get detention?”.

“Since we stopped talking, all I’ve been able to think about is the fact that I’m mad at you, so she saw that I wasn’t paying attention and gave me detention,” you put your hand in his face, “‘I must not get distracted’ is what she made me write”.

He frowned, it really was all his fault. He put his hand on your back and led you back to the Slytherin common room. “Here, let me wrap it up,” he said and went to go grab some bandages. Draco came back a few moments later and began to tend to the wound.

While you had your attention on the pain of your hand being cleaned up, you didn’t notice Draco glancing up at you every so often. He never realized how pretty you were, your features were glowing in the little light that was in the dungeons.

You had always had the faintest crush on Draco but you knew it would never blossom into anything more, you were best friends and that was all he would ever see you as. So when you finally caught him staring at you, you were a little surprised.

“Um, Draco?” you questioned, making him shake his head and come back to reality. “Sorry about that, I just- I,” his eyes flickered down to your lips. Your breath hitched, causing him to come back to reality again, “Sorry, I don’t know what’s going on with me today,” he stood up, “Goodnight, Y/n, I hope you can forgive me”.

You nodded your head and gave him a friendly smile, “Yeah, I forgive you Draco”. He breathed a sigh of release and hugged you before walking up to his dorms.

When he got into bed, he didn’t think much of his behavior and nor did you. Everything was fine, you both had your bestfriends back and it couldn’t be better.

You got a look in your eyes

I knew you in a past life

One glance and the avalanche drops

One look and my heartbeat stops

You two had established very different reputations at Hogwarts. Although you both were in Slytherin, he became known as a jerk and you became known as the fun “party girl”, especially in your 6th year.

Neither of you had talked about that night or even thought about it. But one night, 6th year, he was lying in bed and the thought of that night wandered into his brain, “Why did hugging her feel different? And why did I want to kiss her?”. It was like he was in a trance when he looked into your eyes, it was familiar because he’s looked into your eyes many times, but that time, it was different. It was like a feeling of ‘it was meant to be’.

For years Draco never thought of you as anything more than a best friend. But ever since that night, he knew that that “friendly-like” love that he had for you was slowly turning into love-love. And it just did.

Ships pass in the night

I don’t want to wait ‘til the next life

One glance and the avalanche drops

One look and my heartbeat stops

Last call and everybody’s watching

A party was being thrown in the Slytherin common room after a win against Gryffindor and Draco was being celebrated for catching the snitch. “Really, it’s not that difficult to beat Potter,” he boasted and took a sip of firewhiskey.

“Congratulations Draco!” he heard from behind him. He turned around to see you in one of his old quidditch jerseys. He gave it to you in 3rd year after you had a nightmare, after he gave you his jersey though you were out like a light.

“Thanks, Y/n,” he hugged you and let go even though he didn’t want to. You gave him a smile that made him weak in the knees before Blaise handed you a cup of firewhiskey.

“Thanks Blaise,” you thanked him before downing the cup. “Woah, Y/l/n, slow down,” Draco chuckled and grabbed the empty cup from you.

“I want to dance, gotta get a little loose first,” you told him and shimmied your shoulders before walking to the center of the room while swaying your hips with the music.

You then started to dance like no one was watching and ignored all of the whistles thrown your way by boys who were only watching you for the way your hips were moving.

But Draco wanted you, he wanted all of you.

He looked around at all of the boys who looked like they were about to pounce on you and scoffed. He knew that you wouldn’t want to do anything with them, you weren’t that type of person, which Draco admired about you.

He only had one chance to go out there and claim you though, because another boy was already making his way towards you.

Her voice rings out like a storm

Sometimes the past echoes in the future

Started long before we were born

Sometimes you only get one chance

You started singing along to the song that was playing and it made Draco think back to when you two would hang out before Hogwarts and you would sing your heart out to whatever song came over the radio.

He remembered back to when he would watch you and his heart would thump at the sight of you smiling. Draco’s eyes widened when he realized that he was in love with you this whole time, he was just too dumb to notice.

Universe won’t wait for you

It’s do or die, whatcha gon-gon-gonna do?

“Woah, dude, you alright?” Blaise asked Draco. “I-I don’t know, but, I have to do something. Something that I should’ve done a long time ago,” Draco said and gave his cup to Blaise.

“It’s now or never,” he whispered to himself before walking over to you, everyone watched him as he did.

You got a look in your eyes

I knew you in a past life

One glance and the avalanche drops

One look and my heartbeat stops

You got a look in your eyes

I knew you in a past life

One glance and the avalanche drops

One look and my heartbeat stops

You noticed him coming your way but he had a look in his eyes like he was on a mission. Once he reached you, he stared straight into your eyes. You started up at him, not knowing the thoughts in his mind.

“She is gorgeous, how did I not notice before?” he thought. The same eyes he’s stared into his whole life, but once again, it was different.

He was in love.

One glance and the avalanche drops

One look and my heartbeat stops

Your hair was splayed out across your shoulders, your face had no makeup on it, showing all of your natural features.

Draco was in awe.

Ships pass in the night

I don’t want to wait ‘til the next life

One glance and the avalanche drops

One look and my heartbeat stops

One glance and the avalanche drops

One look and my heartbeat stops

“Draco?” you asked worriedly. Everyone was watching you two, waiting for something to happen.

“I can’t miss my chance again, I can’t wait any longer,” and before you could comprehend what he was saying, his lips were on yours. You gasped and leaned into the kiss.

His arms wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer to him. After a few seconds, you both pulled away and Draco pulled you into his chest.

Everyone around you cheered, but all you could hear was Draco’s heartbeat.

“I love you, Y/n,” he whispered into your ear. You looked up at him and looked in his eyes, “I love you too”.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

xoxo

#draco malfoy #draco malfoy x y/n #draco malfoy imagine #draco malfoy x reader #harry potter characters x reader #harry potter fanfiction

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just-an-enby-lemon · 1 year

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Random Riddler Au N2 Cause I'm Still Bored (and is still winter):

Eddie was a punk when he was a teen.

Now you may think he was a theater kid and I'm not saying he wasn't. But I think he enjoyed the drama and plays but only was really a part of it after he left home because he was afraid of his father reaction of him doing something "feminine" like theater. Not only that but most punks grow up to realize they are theater kids as well and vise versa performative cultures unite.

He also could have been an emo since he regressed to it as a trauma reaction twice. But I'll go for punk. Now hear me out: he was a queer abused kid with anger issues who didn't do theater or sports. Rock'n'roll has to be his thing. (And him having behavioral issues would explain why his teachers refused to see him as a genius, he was the punk know-it-all that skipped classes all the time, smoked and hated authorite and talked about sticking to the men).

He was still a punk ass teen when he met Query and Echo (at like 19) and so for a long time they are the only people that know his past as a little troublemaker with dark green spiked clothes. Adilt Edward thinks it's embarrassing and does not fit his style.

Oswald discovers Eddie was a punk because in one of the rare occasions Eddie got drunk at the Iceberg Lounge (and in general) he got on the small stagium and played some Against Me! chords on guitar before passing out. His reaction was a series of "wtf" later replaced with Oswald reveling he was a goth kid (when Eddie woke up with one of his rare and very very moddy hangovers).

Selina heard Eddie mention it once when they were talking about high school sucking and she just looked at him and said "I could swear you were a theater kid, a real Glee type" and never mentioned it again.

Harley found a photo of teen Eddie somehow and before he could try to explain it she just looked at him and said "I also was an early 00's/90's closeted queer kid with anger issues, I get you" and showed a photo of punk high school Harley to him. Both threatened to murder each other if the photos became public. (Eddie because it was an embarrassing photo on his biased opnion and Harley because she had braces on the photo and she hates her braces and doesn't want people mentioning them ever).

#riddler #edward nygma #harley quinn #oswald cobblepot #penguin #catwoman #selina kyle

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cheese-flavoured-dumpster-fire · 10 months

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This is a little breakdown of chainsaw man chapter 137 and some themes and symbolism and meaning I believe are in there.

To start things off, there are a few Big themes I noticed in the song, Normalcy and Sexuality, which I will be going into through this post, a Drop note, is that Sexuality is why they got to the building while Normalcy is why they even met in the first place.

Now we go to the first lyrics of the song which I will call the Sex Scramble. The Sex Scramble feels like it has a shared symbolism to me, it's Denji's dream of a Relationship and how it's been warped and twisted by his trauma and about how it appears as unintelligible to someone without an understanding of who he is as a person and what he's gone through.

"That girl's got rock'n'roll! Rip off her pantyhose! Vavoom! See-through body exposed" this one is referring to how women are so frequently sexualised in media, you could also say it's about how when you're famous every dirty little secret is dug up and brought to the limelight and scrutinised under a magnifying glass, it also could be an Asa reference since Denji did see her without her school uniform while fighting Yuko, also vavoom is a chainsaw sound.

"You stalkers can't deny your kinky pleasures, now its time to mosh together!" This verse refers to the public at large, becoming absolutely obsessed with the target of their Gaze, becoming an unending love or Hate machine but regardless feeling the overwhelming urge to know absolutely everything about this new celebrity.

"Vinyl! Vinyl! Vinyl! Vinyl!" a Vinyl is a format of Analogue Sound Recording which was held in a Vinyl Album, an Echo of a song that isn't really being played, a form of Entertainment Media which is a theme that's present in this part of csm, the idea of a Fictional yet idealised state, which is what Normalcy told to be to Denji.

"SEX" same meaning as the Sex Scramble.

"5xAluminium! a looming meaning of Rock!" Something looming is something growing bigger as it approaches, symbolising all those things, possibly referring to the crushing fate coming for Denji.

"Bitch-you! Get-you! Middle-aged Slashers, The old-timer crew!" The first half of the chorus, Bitch is a term for female dog, so essentially this verse calls Denji a Dog who's been leashed by "the old-timer crew" who are the people at the top, since most of the positions of high power are frequently held by the elderly and those of old money, they are trying to leash Denji once again to their whims and the whims of society as a whole.

"On their deathbeds the whole year through! Livin' outta diners cuz they're laid off too!" The second half of the chorus, this one's about how living the constant 9-5 instead of being living for yourself will crush you and leave you a walking corpse that does nothing but listen to the boss and work, They have become walking corpse, the mindless zombies Denji is fighting off on a physical and metaphorical level, notice as well that they're literally lining up to try and kill Denji, They don't even have the individuality to run for it, only mindlessly lining up to fight and Die, exactly what's waiting for them at the end of the constant grind. They're living out of diners because they've completely given up on themselves and only live to work.

"A slender waisted Masterpiece! Salons and Host Clubs! Forever have a place!" I feel like this refers to how people in the limelight will always have to make themselves look like they're at their best constantly, leading to those in the limelight feeling like a dress up doll, I believe this sentiment would be especially aimed at women in media but it also applies in general.

"Support-Stress! Job-Stress! Males and Females, that's the eternal race!" This one referring to the constant stress of working the 9-5 and even being able to survive in the modern world, the constant race for survival in a dog eat dog world.

"Justice-game! Lust-slave! Uncontrollable desire!" The pulling between Denji wanting to be the Hero of Justice for the people, wanting to enter a relationship with another and fulfilling his own desires. Note that Desire doesn't nessecarily mean sexual things and Lust can mean an overwhelming desire or craving but is frequently shown as being Horny, like how Denji shows his dream of finding love.

"The Suitcase holds the rope, ductape and a box cutter" This part of the song also ties into the theme of Normalcy, The suitcase being the typical container for your things in a workplace environment, now it holds a Rope, Ductape and a Boxcutter, Rope is commonly used to commit suicide, Boxcutter is frequently used in self harm and Ductape holds things together and keep them in place, this could be a metaphor about how Normalcy only leads to painful stagnation which will kill you as a person husk, a mindless zombie, something that Denji is resisting while the song plays, symbolising his resistance to this fate.

After slaughtering the attackers, Denji is seen smiling for the first time in a while and says "You aren't gonna sing the second verse?" Him smiling being due to the fact that he's finally gotten the chance to be unabashedly himself, being free to fight for the first time in a long time, free of the constraints forced upon him by others, the basic desire for freedom that he's wanted from childhood.

Also on the last page, Instead of Continuing to sing, a performance and form of entertainment, S.A girl chooses to fight Denji herself, joining the bloody real world and outright saying that it's more fun, reaffirming the idea idea Denji, someone who is insane and refuses Normalcy unless forced upon him by outside forces, is healthier when allowed to live as he truly is and not in the vague and unrealistic idea of Normalcy.

Ultimately this is just what I've seen, Remember to be nice and have a good day/night wherever you are.

#csm manga #csm 137 #csm spoilers #tw self harm #tw suicide #tw sexuality

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grungeincluded · 11 months

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‘’[Oregon Extension student] James S., who attended in the late 1990s, recalls a time when the headmaster of his Christian high school publicly shamed a group of students into tearing up and throwing away their tickets to a Pearl Jam concert (and in the 1990s Pearl Jam tickets had huge cultural significance). ‘’He told us that even if we sold the tickets to someone else, we would be guilty of corrupting that person through our moral failure’’’

Grunge Included | @37fotosb | Linktree

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wingedgardener2000 · 1 year

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I don't know if any other fans have this trouble, but I can't listen to Greta Van Fleet for a couple weeks after the concert. Back in September, after the Dakota shows, I couldn't bring myself to listen to any of their music, because I got so emotional, and sad, and I'd start crying when any of them started playing. I don't even listen to them on a daily basis currently. But one song has slowly let me get back into listening to them, very slowly. It's Always There. I don't know what it is about that song. I suppose it's because my mind doesn't associate it with the in-person experience of the concerts. I associate it with home, the safety and comfort of my cozy bedroom, instead of a place so rare and hard to reach. I found a slowed-down version on YouTube and I listen to it a lot.

I do love GVF very much, and their music has kept me company in some very lonely times. I haven't met any other fans in real life, but I've found some amazing people through social media, and I get to watch a rock band (my favorite genre) evolve and go through some amazing events. I get to discover their music at the same time as others, fresh and new to all of us. I didn't have a obsession with a band when I was in high school, since I didn't have access to all different types of music like most kids did. But being able to discover a newer band like Greta Van Fleet and watch them spread their music with us, and connect with them is incredible.

As a 22yo young lady, I'm glad I found them last year, right after TBAGG was released. I didn't even find them by myself. My older sister introduced me, after listening to Light My Love. The chorus really hit home for the both of us, and my interest in them quickly went a bit wild. I will admit, I haven't listened to every single song all the way through, and I haven't watched Red Rocks. I'm a little afraid, to be honest. I'm afraid that if I do that, that there will be this gaping hole left in my heart that can't be filled.

I'm still growing as a young woman, and I ache so much when I think about my future, given the direction of the world around us. My faith in Christ is something that I've never taken for granted, but I still wish I could find peace on earth. I think Greta Van Fleet manages to express a personal peace and happiness in their music. It's like they've taken rock'n'roll and whatever genre Hozier falls into, and melded them together in a completely new way. There might be an actual name for a genre like that, but I don't know it.

So, thanks to everyone on I follow on social media that provide videos, concert content, and stories for me to consume. I've laughed, giggled uncontrollably, teared up a little, cried my too-sensitive heart out, and had a few funny mind altering moments. You all are braver than me, and more confident in your social status, even amongst the haters.

Sincerely, Dee.

#greta van fleet #josh kiszka #danny wagner #gvf #jake kiszka #sam kiszka #thank you

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furmity · 11 months

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Well, it's time

I've been smoking cigarettes for 6-7 years now, "socially" since I was nineteen. I roll my own, and the ritual (or occasional panic) punctuates my day in a way I wish something like prayer would.

It was never glamorous, sexy, or cute, and at my age it's just plain sad. The window has closed for living like I'll never die- I will and if I smoke any longer it'll be the smoking that does it.

It feels like an ego death. The party's over, I've got to look after myself now. Good God, I'll have to change my whole life. I don't get to have everything stay the same minus the smoking, it's not that easy. I can't drink alcohol for a good while, I'll have to stop smoking weed too. I'll have to change my routines, pockets of time will start to appear. Money too. Would it be nice to take a ten minute break outside to sip a glass of water? Pray a rosary decade? Have a stretch? So many healthy habits could replace this routine that's slowly killing me.

But I haven't wanted healthy habits. I've wanted sex- drugs- rock'n'roll, devil- may- care, too- cool- for- school, metal- pixie- dream- girl. I also haven't minded that it's been an appetite suppressant and kept me rather skinnier than I should be.

Withdrawal really sucks. You get irritable, depressed, put on weight. The worst thing is the insomnia. Up all night and can't even smoke to pass the time, can't smoke to feel better.

Feeling better. Katya Zamolodchikova said something about that once: it doesn't get you high, it doesn't DO anything, you're just determined that having this thing will make you feel better. About what? About everything. About boredom, about stress, about awkwardness, about loneliness. Not only that but it elevates things you already enjoy. It makes coffee and alcohol better. There's nothing like cigarettes after sex. It's dessert, it's reward, it's a consolation prize.

The only times it doesn't promise to make me feel better is when I've been crying. Very telling because in those moments I've given into my feelings. I'm not grasping for comfort or trying to distract myself, I've surrendered to the wretchedness until it evens itself out. When I don't smoke I cry a lot. Never so bad, in the end.

I've stopped about six times before. I think it takes an average of seven attempts to quit for good, so here's to lucky number 7... Just a few days and the worst withdrawal symptoms will be over, a month and I can break the habit, a year and I will have conquerred the addiction.

Gonna be fuckin' rough, though.

#smoking

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boricuacherry-blog · 1 year

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My parents were from the Bay Area. My dad was a surfer and a rock'n'roll guy - you know, hot rods and slicked-back hair; he drove a '58 impala. Later he fell in love with the Stones and the Beatles and became more of a longhair. I remember going out to visit him every summer. The first thing I'd do was raid his weed stash. My mom was the cheerleader in the poodle skirt. She was a lifeguard; they surfed Santa Cruz together. They were intensely in love and got married at a young age.

I don't want to open up their whole can of worms, but certain things happened. I was born in '67; the whole sixties thing was really going strong. I think my dad was a bit of a flake back then. He wanted to have a good time, you know, tune in and turn on, whatever they used to say back then. My mom was just not down with it. They ended up getting a divorce. It crushed me. I was three years old.

My stepfather was the complete opposite of my dad. He was a corporate guy at TRW. He'd played football at Notre Dame and then got his master's degree at USC in aeronautical engineering. His favorite group was the Kingston Trio. If I were to sum up my stepfather in one word, the word would be responsible. That word was always coming out of his mouth: "Scott, you have to be responsible." Responsible, responsible, responsible. And he was responsible. I think that's what attracted my mom to him in the first place.

We lived in southern California until my stepfather got a promotion, then we moved to Ohio. I was four and a half. It really broke my heart because I was pulled away from my dad. After that, I used to fly out and spend the summers with him. I remember how I used to feel as the plane was getting closer and closer to the gate. You know, I'd look through that window, trying to see my dad, because at that time anyone could come up to the gate and pick you up. Sometimes I could see him. He'd be right up against the glass. And I'd just come running through the passageway, you know, and he'd be waiting there with this big smile on his face...and he would get down on his knees and just grab hold of me.

But then I would have to leave. The drive to the airport...it was really...it wasn't good. I remember I'd have to say goodbye and get on the plane. I'd get the window seat and just look out that window, and he would just stand there at the gate, and we'd just look at each other. When I would get back to Cleveland, I would be a wreck for a couple of weeks. For nine years of my life, that's how it went: anticipation and separation. Those were my summers.

From an early age, I had a preoccupation with catching a buzz. I remember the summer right after my eighth-grade year. We lived in northeastern Ohio, in this very preppy town, Chagrin Falls. There was this family that lived across the woods. I was friends with the kids; they were a little bit older than me, high school age. Their parents worked late, and we would play quarters, the drinking game. When no one was home at their house, I would sneak in and fill up a big tumbler full of liquor. I'd put in a little bit of vodka, a little bit of gin, a little bit of Black Velvet - a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And then I'd just go off into the woods and sit up against an old oak tree and chug it down.

Then I'd load up my BB gun and go shooting birds, which was always quite fun until you actually hit one and were consumed with guilt.

We moved back to California, to Huntington Beach, in Orange County. It was right after the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High had come out. And I remember thinking to myself, This new school is identical to the movie! There were parties every weekend. I guess the parents' overall philosophy was, you might as well do it here, where we can supervise you. You could ride your bike from kegger to kegger.

My drinking kind of escalated. At the beginning of my freshman year, we'd get fucked up on Friday and Saturday, and then we'd make it all the way till the next Friday before doing it again. But as time went on, it became a fixation. An obsession. All you could think about the whole week was getting to Friday again so you could party. That was all I ever thought about. That and, you know, sex. [Weiland was raped by a classmate around this time].

My first experiences with cocaine was just completely...it was, like, sexual. It was unbelievable. I didn't think that there could be anything that good.

I'd formed my first band when I was a sophomore. I'd just turned sixteen. There was this cat who used to hang around, watch us rehearse, this really nerdy guy. He was a lop, you know, but he was nice. He ended up becoming a coke dealer.

One time, he came by rehearsal with a briefcase. It was very eighties, very Miami Vice. He opened it up, and he had these neat little half-ounce packages. And this stuff, my God - it was not that nasty, gasoline-tasting, cat-piss-smelling shit that they have nowadays. It was this fuckin' shale, you know? It was that mother-of-pearl stuff they used to have in the old days. It was so hard, you had to slice it real thin with a razor blade, like little slices of garlic. They don't even make that shit anymore. Maybe you can get it down in Colombia, but not here.

The guy cut us out a couple lines each, like, six inches long and about an eighth of an inch wide. I had two of them. And that was all we needed. We were high for five hours. And there was no grinding teeth. There was no big comedown. I think the devil gives you the first time for free.

Eventually, my parents caught on to the fact. At the beginning of my junior year, my parents went into my room and started raiding my drawers. They ended up finding a bag of weed and a couple empty little quarter bindles of blow and a mirror and a razor blade. They sent cops to pick me up at school. They took me to rehab. I got out just in time for New Year's Eve.

I was never much of a weed smoker. I thought too much on weed; it made my mind way too overactive. There's no solace for me in pot.

There was always an intrigue for me when it came to heroin. Most of my musical and artistic heroes were connected to dope. Everyone from William Borroughs to Keith Richards and Gram Parsons to Bird, all the jazz greats - if you listen to the fluidity of that music, you can hear heroin in that music. There was something about it that I was definitely drawn to. I wondered why this substance had so much powerful appeal, had such a power to affect music and art and lives in such a way that seemed to be so beautiful but also so dark and destructive at the same time. Those two elements, the beauty and the darkness, are what created that seduction for me. It's what attracted me. Because those forces have always coexisted within me. I call it The Great Dichotomy.

When you start doing dope, there's a honeymoon period. At the time I started, when I was about twenty-four, I was with the woman who would become my first wife, Jannina. Heroin was definitely something that was on our radar. After I tried it for the first time, we were excited about doing it together. It turned out her brother, Tony, was into it, too.

At that point I had this Toyota Landcruiser - the first significant purchase of my success [with my band STP]. The whole thing was very ceremonial, like a ritual, like a religious event. The copping. The smoking. The need. I started referring to it as my medicine.

The four of us would just hang out - myself, Jannina, Tony, and his girl at the time. We were just smoking it, you know, chasing the dragon. It was all pretty innocent. We'd drive downtown, grab a few bags, smoke...and then we'd just kind of lie around and have that sort of dope sex where you can fuck for eight hours. They call it a dope stick. You stay up forever but you have a hard time, you know, finishing. It's, like, tantric.

As time progressed, I was finding that there seemed to be a certain ceiling to the high when you were smoking heroin. And smoking is inefficient. Any junkie will tell you that: A lot of the dope goes to waste.

But not knowing anyone who fixed, I had to wait for my opportunity. It came on Thanksgiving 1993. We went over to Jannina's parents' house. Tony lived in a room in the garage. After dinner, he's like, "I got a couple rigs. You wanna fix?" So naturally I was like, "Sure." He tied me off and shot me up. And then he said, "Now you got your wings."

I remember just lying back on his mattress, and there was something barely on his TV, which was right by his bed but had bad reception, just static and snow. Complete warmth went all the way through my body. I was consumed. It's like what they talk about in Buddhism, that feeling of reaching enlightenment. Like in Siddhartha, when they say there's that feeling of a golden light. It's near the end of the book. After going through all those different journeys, Siddhartha finds what he's been looking for all along. There's that moment when he's sitting there, and there's this feeling of warmth, a golden light that just goes through his entire body. I can't remember exactly how they describe it, but there's this feeling in Buddhism where they say there's a golden glow that goes from your fingers all the way through every appendage and into the pit of your stomach. And that's what it felt like to me, slamming dope for the first time. Like I'd reached enlightenment. Like a drop of water rejoining the ocean. I was home.

All my life, I had never felt right in my own skin. I always felt that wherever I went...I don't know, I always felt very uncomfortable. Like I didn't belong. Like I could never belong. Like every room I walked into was an unwelcome room.

After doing dope for the first time, I knew that no matter what happened, from that day forward, I could be okay in every situation. Heroin made me feel safe. It was like the womb. I felt completely sure of myself. It took away all the fears. It did that socially; it distanced me from other people, made me feel less vulnerable. And it did that for me musically, allowing me to sort of go for it, you know, to dare to succeed. And it gave me a certain amount of objectivity, though what ends up happening with opiates is you get to a point where you get too much objectivity. It becomes all objectivity. You don't have any more connection to the heart, to the body, to anything real. You kind of cease to exist. All that exists is the need.

I went through, like, a million different detoxes. I don't know how many times. Rapid, rapid detox. It leaves you feeling like a Mac truck hit you. Beaten, bloodied, and boiled. Sickened, drained, unable to feel - it was a feeling like you can't imagine being able to feel any emotions ever again. No sadness, no excitement, no highs, no lows. Nothing. You're wondering when you'll be able to feel comfort again, physical comfort even. That's why it's so difficult to kick. Your pleasure receptors are so fried that your brain has no ability to feel any pleasure on its own. You're so depressed. It makes you want to get high. You want to kick, but in a sense, kicking to me was always just kind of a way to prepare your body to be able to experience that first fix again. I mean, there are always those noble intentions in the beginning, but ultimately, that's all it ever was.

Because at that time, I never wanted to quit. Never. I saw narcotics as something I needed in order to function. I believed at the time that I was born with a chemical deficiency.

And I realized I was. I was totally correct. I did have a chemical deficiency [bipolar]. But at the time, I believed this deficiency was one only opiates could fulfill. I have this dark place. It's a place of loneliness. It's a place of complete shame and self-hatred, where I deserve to feel all alone because I'm the one who has caused it. And I feel like I deserve to feel that way.

I know where it comes from. It comes from my parents divorcing, you know, abandonment and all that. And it also comes from a lot of guilt and shame. And I guess feeling that you caused that feeling yourself becomes its own self-perpetuating thing; it takes on a life of its own.

I'm so bad with dates. I never really had any perception of time when I was on dope. That was part of the problem. But having children showed me a whole different kind of love that I had never known. It was something that had always been missing. Complete love. I would die for them. But I could not get clean for them. First, I would have to know loneliness. Emptiness. Solitude. Complete desperation and disgust with who I had become and who I wasn't - a father, a husband. Myself.

-Scott Weiland, interview, 2005

#scott weiland #interview #stone temple pilots

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