amplificathon

there was a spider in my shower (there maybe still is) and i know this because I WAS ALSO IN THE SHOWER WHEN I SAW IT. WET AND COVERED IN SOAP WITH CONDITIONER IN MY HAIR. (me, not the spider.) you all need to tell me i was very brave because i did NOT run screaming from the bathroom which i really, really wanted to do. i did however rinse off EXTREMELY QUICKLY. i have no idea if the spider is still there and i am not going to go look. i get why it might want to be inside (where it's warm and dry) (well, not if you're in the SHOWER) rather than outside (where it's cold and wet) but still, WHAT THE HELL.

*gets a grip*

so how's your wednesday night going!

yeesh.

happy administrative professionals day to any admins in the audience. i hope your place of work appreciates you. the u - or at least my department - includes all the support staff in their appreciation, so we (admins, it, hr, communications, fiscal) got a lateish breakfast (bagels! lox!) (bagels were yummy altho i've had better lox) and a nice lunch and massages (ouch) and i know my groups appreciate all my hard work but it's not awful when the head of the department says nice things about you and your coworkers. we should be appreciated all the time tho, not just once a year. but it did give me an excuse to stuff my face a lot. i even brought a brownie home. they were big brownies.

the past couple weeks i've been waking up in the middle of the night sweating to death and i do not enjoy it. it's ~the change~ (and middle aged women everywhere nod in understanding). UGH.

today is earth day. enjoy some photos of the big blue marble.

a guy in the uk found his old pokemon card collection in his attic and learned that three of the cards were actually worth a lot, by which i mean they netted him $41k at auction. and now he can pay for his wedding. :D

One bridge and then another over the fisherman’s net
of steel water and high, secreting grasses.

Here the bare cypress trees throw themselves from the banks
like wailing women, their hands scraping at the sky’s silent faces
in the grey rags of Spanish moss.

This home is always shifting, the water reaching up to take
what it will. There are days I cannot find myself

between the steps of my parents’ home and the long sigh
of afternoon rain. Each time I leave

it is the last time. Time passes faster when I am not there
so now she does not know my face

and the house has sunk further into unkempt green.
How far can we carry memory before it is something else?

How long can a man at sea call himself her husband
and not someone who is lost?

Between here and what’s not, I come, as all strangers,
to the door to wait for the stranger who answers.

--"Homecoming", Landis Grenville

Current Mood: A SPIDER
Current Music: florence + the machine on the internal radio

scrubjayspeaks

For a while, as he signed an apartment lease that didn’t seem to have any sneaky clauses and visited a food pantry that didn’t seem to be trying to convert him to anything, his fear got worse instead of better. Where was the next conman, seeing an easy mark, or the next bully, seeing a helpless victim? It took a long time for him to accept that walking into the bakery looking scared and overwhelmed would get him offered a cup of tea on the house, all his fears just old wounds in this place, willingly tended by others.

---

LL#1386

galadhir

Here we are again - 7.55 in the morning and workmen all over the house. I mean, it's our own fault, we booked them to come and change our windows. The windows that came with the house are now over 20 years old, and on many of them the double glazing is compromised, and on several of them the wood surroundings are moldy and black mold is beginning to creep into our bedroom.

This was a situation that needed something doing about it even before we had the heat pump put in. But the heat pump people said that if we were going to be properly efficient with the heat pump we should make sure the windows were insulated to standard, which our rotten old windows were not. So that precipitated us to finally do something about them.

In theory therefore we are pleased that they are here and doing their thing. However, 'an Englishman's home is his castle' etc, and this always feels like an invasion. Plus there is a lot of banging going on, plaster is raining down on us, and we're afraid to go to the toilet in case they take the window away while we're in there.

They're here for four days. I wonder how we'll hold up. Our tempers got frayed very thin during the heat pump installation but we managed to hold on to them. I hope it will be like exercising a muscle - we'll do even better for the practice - and not like having Covid, where the damage mounts up.

Still, I am looking forward to windows you can see out of and window frames you can't put your hand through. Plus a new front door with stained glass panels. Worth waiting for? I hope so.

tsuki_no_bara

my school district - well, not my district since i don't have kids in school - the school district where i live is on break this week and i know that because there were way fewer people on the bus this morning. it's refreshing to not have to start off your day feeling like a sardine.

so chelsea clinton ran the boston marathon, having apparently registered under her married name so people wouldn't figure it out right away. she ran a personal best too. also running was the winner from 1968 and the fact that he's still running marathons after almost sixty years is pretty impressive.

My father read a mountain aloud.

Opened to a page
where a green bird lands on a thunderclap.

Named for the billowing hands of
brittle blue flowers.

As if the unfinished poetry of the paraffin

is pulled aside like scenery,
so that I may write by the only light I know.

My father read only his one life and recited
the last line over and over.

The book is written in giant letters of fog
that wander like goats across the alpine pastures.

The moon is dog-eared as if the treetops looking up
have studied the idea of love too much.

On a page with some scattered pine needles,
a voice goes on calling out to me.

My father learned to read
in a one-room schoolhouse,

and never read a poem.

A little herd of lightning
gets spoken out loud in the dark.

Change
is scenic and sudden.

One year, I came home
and all the leaves fell off my father.

After that,
he was winter.

--"A Bookshelf", Hua Xi

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: national treasure

ride_4ever

Part memorial tribute to Ny and part public health PSA, this by

werpiper posted on AO3: COVID: Speaking Out About Rubynye. These are the notes for what

werpiper said at Ny's memorial.

Current Mood: I can't even.

ineptshieldmaid

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

tsuki_no_bara

it's patriot's day in mass (or marathon monday if you're in greater boston) and i had the day off. slept in, did laundry, a couple guys from the garage came over, jumped my car, took it back with them. it's anyone's guess what they'll find.

paul revere came through here during his midnight ride (and i think met up with william dawes?) so the town had a little reenactment with, er, reenactors on horses. there was a crowd of people in front of the town hall - plus a table with frozen lemonade and a table with pizza - and when paul revere showed up warning us about the british and accompanied by someone from the massachusetts lancers (i think) the cops briefly blocked the street so the guys could get off their horses and talk to the crowd, and the crowd could swarm the horses to say hi. the horses were very well-behaved about this. then the guys got back on their horses and continued on, and the crowd thinned out a bit. i waited around for william dawes, who also rode out to warn people about the british but isn't famous for it. he didn't get off his horse but he did introduce us to her - her name was musket and she wanted to run. heh. he did a call and response with us, a poem about how he isn't famous, and then he too continued on his way. and i took the bus to harvard square to meet one of the admins m from work for movies 2 and 3 of a muppet triple feature - the dark crystal and labyrinth. (movie 1 was the muppet movie.) i haven't seen the dark crystal in decades and didn't remember a lot of it. i remembered a lot more of labyrinth and not just david bowie's crotch. (to be honest i was always more a fan of his hair.) at the very end of the movie when sarah tells the goblin king "you have no power over me" the whole audience applauded. that was fun. i fully understood why the twelve year old me really liked the dark crystal altho the adult me thought it was kind of cheesy - also dark and weird which was one reason my younger self was a fan - labyrinth however was just as enjoyable as it always was.

there was a guy in the audience for the dark crystal who i think stayed for labyrinth and who had a skeksis plushie. i didn't know such a thing even existed. it was actual dark crystal merch and the guy said his partner found it on ebay. i may or may not have cuddled it. skeksis are much too creepy to be cuddly and yet it really, really was.

after that me and admin m made a pass through the romance bookstore (she was looking for something in particular and i just think it's a really cute store) and then had dinner (i had spaghetti with very parmesan-y pesto) and took our separate buses home.

I wanted to write you a poem tonight,
but all I could think of
was our two nights in the city last week
and how perfect it was
to eat again at Trailer Park
with its flotilla of votive candles in the window
close enough to set our coats on fire
and cupcakes at Billy’s afterwards,
to sleep in the cramped little guest house
next to the toilet with its extended roaring flush,
and later gaze at Madame X and her delinquent strap
and Washington stuck in the Delaware forever.
Mummies, jackals, Buddhas,
and the long stalled ride back
with a Sikh cab driver as guide.
I love going back.
I think, in a way, going back
is the subway to love.
Easy, noisy, and very close.

--"Going Back", Roger Mitchell

Current Mood: why am i still awake?
Current Music: law & order

starandrea

Astronomy Picture of the Day (

apod_feed) is delightful for many reasons, one being their lovely astronomy pictures and another being their brief explanations of those pictures.

The explanations include a bunch of links for people who want to learn more, and often a random funny link to make people like me click all of them in order to find it. (A little practice can make you very good at guessing which one is the funny link.)

For example, yesterday's picture was Eye on the Milky Way by Miguel Claro. The explanation acknowledged the "unusual vertical horizon," and unusual vertical was a clickable link. I clicked it and laughed out loud.

Another great one from last year was Little Red Dots in the Early Universe, which concluded: "...searches are underway in our nearby universe to try to find whatever previous LRDs might have become today." The phrase searches are underway linked to a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, but the phrase become today was the one I was looking for.

scrubjayspeaks

There are still open spots on our Earth Day seed bombing teams, with sign-up sheets posted at the Buried Gardens. Volunteers with the Gardens have already created a hoard of soil bombs using seeds collected here in Lewisia, like false teapot root, pendulum tree, and nanny nasturtium, which will be distributed to the teams for surreptitious deployment in areas beyond our town. In many areas where natural sources of weirdness have dried up, these plants have dwindled, but we hope to help reestablish strong populations that can support other weird species in the future.

---

LL#1385

jajalala

There's probably at least another year or two until Bridgerton Season 5 BUT you know what??? I'm HYPE as fuck anyway, and you know why??

Season 5 is the Francesca/Michaela season, AKA F/F!!! We gonna get a huge, mainstream, high-budget season of a regency romance show focused on two women getting together!!! Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a big fan of historical romance, especially the regency-esque variety, bc I love the sense of tension it builds. In such a repressed setting where the touch of an ungloved hand can send someone to a fainting couch, the romantic/sexual tension gets a delicious squeeze that's hard to replicate in modern-setting works. The original Bridgerton books, of which I've read the main eight, are fairly classic white cishetero mainstays of the genre, though I think their executions are strong and there's usually some relatable, complicated, or compelling character work going on (especially with regards to grief, and the messiness of post-marriage relations).

The Bridgerton television show SHINES by taking the setups and settings and the outlines that Julia Quinn has and being like... "Let's execute this but do whatever the fuck we want with costumes and casting--it's about the regency VIBES, not historical accuracy, and we can have fun in a way that includes all sorts of people and not JUST the white cishetero folks". The end result is a fabulous display of costume work and interwoven storytelling, where you get to follow many character threads over the course of all these seasons bc they've got the completed books to help guide them, but UNLIKE the books that were charting the initial course, they've got the whole map already laid out and can do whatever detours, elaborations, and foreshadowing along the way.

Is it occasionally still ridiculous? Yes, but that's part of what I LOVE about it. It's COMMITTED to doing its own thing and the result is brilliant. It's amazing to watch with friends bc there's ALWAYS something to talk about. And it allows folks who have not always seen themselves reflected in these exciting, juicy regency stories to see people who look like them be central.

Now in terms of QUEER stuff: Bridgerton has flirted with some queerness, but it hasn't taken center stage so far. Many people have wondered if Eloise, the feminist Bridgerton daughter, would end up being a lesbian, but it's pretty clear now that FRANCESCA is a lesbian, and I think considering the source material that is an EXCELLENT choice.

Long-winded discussion on the show's queer stuff so far and why Francesca is an excellent choice for a lesbian adaptation

Since the Bridgerton show did a lot with racial diversity, people have been curious about how far it might go in sexual diversity as well.

Eloise
The fandom latched onto Eloise (the fifth Bridgerton child) because she shows a lot of attitude and feminist desires to be free of the "marriage mart". She also has a close friendship with Penelope, and an enemy (who later sorta becomes a friend) Cressida--AKA her strongest relationships are with women. In the books, Eloise does NOT have these sorts of attitudes--she's depicted as strong-headed and ends up being a spinster, but she doesn't seem particularly feminist, and one of her favorite activities is looking after children. That makes the show's choices feel like a CHOICE--something done to foreshadow a sexuality change, perhaps?

But the show has ALSO gone out of its way to establish Eloise's potential romantic interest in men--there's a particular thread in (I think) the third season where she ends up talking to a newspaper boy and gets involved with some political radicals, and it's implied she develops feelings for this commoner boy SPECIFICALLY because he sees her and talks to her as a person with ideas worth listening to. Those feelings are quickly crushed and they are forced apart due to class differences, but I think that's the show trying to do a little foreshadowing/damage control for folks building up lesbian expectations for Eloise and saying: "Yes, she's our feminist who rails against the societal restrictions of women in the time period, BUT that doesn't necessarily make her a lesbian, she just isn't interested in most men because of their misogyny."

And that makes sense considering the show is, ultimately, beholden to the classic happy endings of the books: Marriage. The show gladly shows interracial marriage, but so far has given zero implication that the version of regency England they've created includes gay marriage.

I wonder about what sort of story they'll give Eloise in her season bc it's HIGH KEY a downer, already from the books and doubly-so when we consider how the show has changed some things...

Spoilers for Eloise's book and a potential Eloise season of the show, + TW for mental health issues

Basically the spinster Eloise becomes pen pals with a widower who has two kids from his late wife, then abruptly goes to visit him, takes care of his two kids while they kinda fight and argue a bunch, then gets forced to marry him by her family because she visited him without a chaperone, and then there's a whole thing where he's AVOIDING HIS OWN KIDS because he's afraid he'll be an abusive father and so leaves Eloise to completely manage them on her own, and she has to encourage him to spend time with his own children. Basically Eloise becomes this dude's nanny and then marries him, which doesn't bode well with the feminist Eloise we've seen in the show.

The show ALSO has already depicted the late wife. She was a significant secondary character in the first season, and showed up briefly in the third season, and the actress of the character has expressed that she finds the character's death in the book to be Pretty Fucking Distasteful (depression that leads to suicide), and I think would be difficult to sell to audiences considering we know and care about this character already.

So idk what they're gonna do about that one. Maybe the wife will die in an accident/illness? OR (in my boldest, wildest dreams) maybe there will be some sorta poly situation where Eloise lives with the husband and wife in an unconventional bliss. OR (another wild dream) the husband dies and Eloise lives with the wife as a "spinster nanny" who sleeps with her employer every night (I don't think that'll happen bc, despite various other changes, I think the show is committed to having the character "ships" remain the same).

Benedict
The second Bridgerton child, Benedict, is canonically shown to be bisexual onscreen. He's an *~*artist*~* and the show takes advantage of how the arts scene is more flexible with certain norms. We see background homosexuality in some of his art school scenes, and at some point he ends up getting involved with a guy or two, though clearly in a casual way.

Ultimately, his love interest is a woman (and the basis of season 4), but he explicitly acknowledges his attraction to all genders (lol it's kinda an awkward forced convo that I think was done for the sake of audiences, but I do like the confirmation).

Notably, he and Eloise are shown to have a particularly strong bond, setting time aside to sit on the swings together and kinda vibe about not fitting in. Kinda gives a queer siblings vibe.

Francesca!!!
Francesca was not particularly notable for the first season or two, but in season three she debuted, met John Kilmartin, quietly fell in love and got engaged. Her love story is calm; even though she has some big dramatic dudes vying for her attention, she is attracted to John because he is quiet and she feels COMFORTABLE around him. There's some discussion of her feeling like the large Bridgerton household is loud chaotic, and for her she dreams of a nice quiet, controlled household (lowkey there are some potentially autistic vibes for her), and John represents all that for her. They are like, legit cute, and clearly care for each other a lot.

However, season three ends on the button of John introducing his cousin, Michaela, and Francesca briefly stammering. This was the first indication of an eventual F/F season--in the original books, John has a male cousin Michael, so it seemed straightforwardly genderswapped. Still, up to this point, there was not a lot of queer stuff clear for Francesca. She was literally happily married to a man, and all seemed well.

SEASON FOUR however finds some good time to develop her and her relationships with John and Michaela. There's a funny (but also sad) little storyline about her struggling to find her "pinnacle"--AKA being like "I've HEARD of orgasms, but I'm not sure if I've had it with John??" this is partially motivated by her desire to have children, and thinking if she has her pinnacle she may be more likely to have a child. What follows is some forced attempts from her to make their sex life more exciting, which John NOTICES and is like "you don't have to force yourself to act like you're coming when you're not, let's take things slow, we got all the time in the world." Which is SO sweet and tender and makes it all the more devastating when John abruptly dies.

AKA we get to see that though their marriage is VERY loving, she considers John her dearest friend, there does seem to be a disconnect in their sex life where like... Francesca's fine, she's down to have sex with John, but there's no passion, no pinnacle. It screams compulsory heterosexuality in a sincere way--Francesca deeply WANTS to be a wife, to fit in, to have children and bear heirs for his estate, and she ESPECIALLY wants it BECAUSE she loves him, but it's not the kind of love that makes her excited to go to bed with him.

Meanwhile, she kinda hates Michaela at first because Michaela is boisterous and makes John stay up late to gossip and play games. Though Michaela's homosexuality is not EXPLICITLY stated or shown, there's a particular scene where John sternly says that Francesca should NOT try to set Michaela up with any men, and Michaela has some lines about John being one of the few people she can be herself around (AKA John definitely knows Michaela is a lesbian, and accepts that about her). Eventually, after a fight, Francesca and Michaela end up making up and getting along quite well. When John dies, there's some tension between them but then another notable connection, including dancing together and holding hands as Francesca is like "Please stay with me while we grieve, you're one of the few people who understands how devastating it is to lose him..." only for Michaela to almost immediately FLEE off to Scotland (where the Kilmartin family is from).

ALL THIS TO SAY: Season four may center Benedict/Sophie, but there was also notable setup for Season five's upcoming F/F couple.

AND HOW DOES THIS PLAY INTO THE BOOKS? In the books, Michael has a huge struggle where he falls in love with Francesca at first sight... at her wedding to his cousin. He stays by her side as a friend, but then when John dies the guilt is too much and he flees. Some years later, when Francesca decides to rejoin the marriage mart, he happens to be back in town and discovers that he's totally still NOT over her, and sparks fly... still wracked by guilt, because he hates that he's "taken" his beloved cousin's place... not only the estate, but if he were to marry Francesca, it would feel like he's trying to completely replace him. It's messy, but ends up getting extremely passionate--Something that Francesca notes when comparing them IS that John felt safe, comfortable, but her eventual relationship with Michael is hot and passionate in a way that is different.

There are several reasons this is PARTICULARLY suited to a F/F adaptation: Number one being the happy ending potential. Firstly, as a widow, Francesca would be societally allowed to remain "single" for the rest of her days if she wished, and so if she took up a relationship with a woman there wouldn't be a looming specter of "you have to marry!"

Additionally, the Kilmartin estate is Scottish, and there is historical precedent that some Scottish titles could pass down to female heirs. AKA the conflict about Michael/Michaela feeling guilty for "benefiting" from their beloved cousin's death can remain the same despite Michaela being a woman. Additionally, this gives Michaela certain freedoms and assets that can support her ability to be independent even without marrying.

Thirdly, there's another layer added to the "John-safe comfortable VS Michael(a)-hot sexy" contrast when they're different genders. Having Francesca be a repressed lesbian gives a powerful punch to why her relationship with his cousin is so much more passionate. Making Michael(a) a lesbian ALSO gives another reason for Micahela to feel guilty for loving her cousin's wife--not only is it a betrayal to her beloved cousin, but there's also intense societal forces telling her that it's wrong of her to feel that way about a woman in the first place, and which motivates her to keep quiet and run away from Francesca rather than being there for her as a friend. And even when Francesca is back on the marriage mart, it remains a STRONG reason for her to NOT confess (in the books, it's just guilt holding Michael back. Francesca also often talks about Michael being Such A Good Friend who she starts to have some Confused Horny Feelings For, which honestly feels a little silly between a M/F couple where cross-gender friendships are often suspected of romance/lust, but is SUPER on point for a F/F couple where platonic feelings are assumed between two women).

All of this elevates and intensifies the already existing dynamics of love, lust, and guilt present in the original story.

The ONE major aspect from the first book I'm curious about how they're going to adapt is children. Francesca wants children very much in the book, and that's her motivation for going back on the marriage mart. She struggles with infertility, however, both with John and Michael. The book doesn't end with children, though the bonus epilogue (which the author wrote after finishing all the books I think) includes Francesca finally getting pregnant from Michael after she relaxed and accepted that she might not have children.

In the show, she's expressed a wish for children, but it was usually paired with some specific references to wanting to make an heir FOR John--tying it specifically to a duty she wants to fulfill, rather than necessarily just wanting children for children's sake. To me this feels like the showrunner subtly adjusting to foreshadow that Francesca may end up not having children at the end, and that will remain part of her happy ending. HOWEVER keeping at least some desire for children will ramp up the tension--if she goes back on the marriage mart looking for a man to help her have children, then it becomes tension-filled to go AGAINST those goals by fucking a woman who cannot help her have kids instead.

Again: Making Michaela a woman makes literally every aspect of this story juicier and more filled with tension.

The one thing I'd really like to see but am not sure will actually happen: I want to see Francesca talk some of her feelings out with Benedict (who is bisexual) and discover a connection there. Maybe some chatting with Eloise as well. The show is better at connecting the siblings throughout the storylines than the books, but idk if the director will think to include that... I think it could create some funny and touching scenes though.

SO YEAH I'M EXCITED. I am afraid of whether the execution will succeed in giving me the passionate lesbian tension and sex I wanna see on screen or not, but the setup is so good that I have to believe it'll make a bare minimum solid delivery. I've sometimes found the M/F couples melodramatic or overdone, but you better bet that I'll be cheering on literally all the same convoluted setups and cheesy storylines when two women get to be the subject <3 <3 <3

Current Mood: excited

glitteryv

Here are some thoughts on the album as we've entered BTS in Chapter 2 - Group Era*

[*AFAIK, Chapter 2 was initially used for the interesting combo of enlistment + first solo eras. However, as soon as they were all discharged from the military, BTS themselves began using "Chapter 2" when referring to the here and now. I'm not gonna argue with the Tannies. If that's how they see things, then that's how they see things and it's up to everyone else to clarify if the "Chapter 2" era is the solo or the group one. *Hands*]

The only hint abt what ARIRANG was probably gonna sound like was a good 16-second clip in the animated teaser. So, most ppl (myself included), were preparing for some booty-shaking music. Only to then get v. confused after clips for "SWIM" dropped...

As soon as the first notes began playing, I was ON THE FLOOOOOOOR. This is an album that gives listeners 41 minutes of AMAZING music. It's also meant to be listened to from top to bottom if you want to appreciate it to its fullest extent. This is a v. grown up album and I love that for all of us.

One of the coolest things is the bouquet of genres happening:

* Do you want songs that make you feel like you're getting down at the club with hella loud beats? "BODY TO BODY" and "FYA" are deffo the ones for you.

* Do you like rap and/or hip-hop that goes IN? Then go check out "HOOLIGANS", "Aliens", and "2.0"!

* Is meditating your thing? "No. 29" is THAT BITCH that'll give you all the peace and quiet you need.

* Are you a fan of easy listening pop music that you can chill out OR drive to? "SWIM" is there for you.

* Is your playlist filled with songs that are slightly off-center or alternative rock? "Merry Go Round", "NORMAL", and "Like Animals" will fit the bill.

* Maybe you're in the mood for dance music that makes you feel sexy? "One More Night" will make you shimmy every which way.

* Is your thing music that's r&b but make it weird? "they don't know 'bout us" is the one tune you'll want to check out.

* Are you into YEARNING-centric, r&b songs? "Please" is the song for you.

* Do you like 70s rock/anthem rock? "Into the Sun" gets the spotlight easy.

IMO, this is an album for those ppl that like music in general. The breadth of genres the Tannies have tapped into is something I haven't seen in a loooooooooooooooong time.

ANOTHER THING this album has done v. effectively is being played out and abt in the world. Within the first 3 weeks of ARIRANG, I've heard:

1. "SWIM" at my local CVS* and at a supermarket. [* The CVS part I was expecting as, whoever's in charge of making the playlists for CVS, they keep selecting BTS English song circa "Dynamite". To date, I've heard: "Permission to Dance", "Butter", "Seven", "Like Crazy", "Slow Dance", "Don't Say You Love Me", "Running Wild", "Sweet Dreams", "Mona Lisa", and "Killin' It Girl".]

2. A car was blasting "2.0" down the main street by my apartment building. There's a stoplight and that's how I managed to have enough time to realize that some dude was playing BTS at top volume, LOL

3. I took one of my elderly aunts to go grocery shopping at Walmart. There's a tiny store inside that specific Walmart that repairs cellphones and sells accessories as well. As we were leaving, I heard "One More Night" playing.

Please note that I don't live in a city that's particularly K-Pop friendly? Like, we're lucky if we get one K-Pop concert per year. And still random songs from the album are playing here and there.

So now I'm gonna go into the criticisms and well, why some ppl are WRONG.

FTR, folks ARE allowed to dislike this album and/or BTS' music (solo and group). I understand (to a certain extent) that there will be ppl who don't vibe with the music. And I'm OK with that as long as it has to do with musical preferences. There are certain beats and styles that set my teeth on edge too. Saying "I don' like this cuz it's not for me" IS a valid reason.

HAVING SAID THAT, tho, there have been certain "points" that have come up enough times for me to sit there and 🤔

Complaint no.1: BTS is Too Westernized/has been too Westernized circa the English Trilogy

The "funny" thing abt that is the majority of times I've seen it being brought up, it's been by non-Koreans (meaning non-Native OR diaspora Koreans). And I'll give those folks a hard 😒. Cuz "too Westernized" according to WHOM?

Doubly so because BTS has gone out of the way to reinforce the idea that they're proud of being Korean and their culture (see the album title, the vinyl album covers, the connection they've reinforced between the real story of the (real life) 7 Korean men who sailed to the US in 1896 and recorded "Arirang" at Howard University, and other details (up to and including concert sets, VCRs, and their individual fits.)

Complaint no. 2: OMG, there are too many songwriters. With the majority of them being Western songwriters! WHY couldn't the members just write and/or produce everything?

To which I gotta say, if you look at the credits, out of the 15* songs, RM has 14 credits. The only song he doesn't have one is "No. 29" (which has no lyrics.) 5 of the remaining members have at least 2 songwriting credits in the album. The only one w/o any credits is Jin**.

[**NB: per Jin himself, he'd been in the middle of his solo tour while everyone else was writing songs. And it would've been extremely selfish on his part to ask them to wait ~3 months until he was done to then start the songwriting process. He's a bit bummed out he couldn't be a part of that aspect of the album. HOWEVAH, it's v., v. clear that he was hands-on when he joined the Tannies in California AND afterwards.

(*Re the 15th song: there's a hidden track titled "Come Over" that (as of the time of this post) is only available in the Deluxe version of the vinyls. There doesn't seem to be any current plans to release it on streaming platform (though there are some campaigns asking Yoongi and co to please do so.) It's part of the current leg of the tour setlist.]

Now, as for BTS having too many outside songwriters, one only needs to go back to 2016's "Save Me" to see that they were already working with non-Korean songwriters and producers. Also, a lot of the big songs in BTS' repertoire (such as "IDOL", "Euphoria", "Black Swan", "Boy With Luv", and "Mikrokosmos") have multiple Western folks credited too. IJS

Complaint no. 3: It doesn't sound like the "old BTS"

This specific complaint is over something that doesn't exist. Because BTS has never had a specific sound. Pre-2015, their songs were more hip-hop heavy. 2016-2019 had more abt EDM beats. Their 2020 music onward has had a blend of the two and then some.

At the same time, the "old sound" criticism has had a lot of pushback from some fans saying that ARIRANG (especially the first half) reminds them of BTS' 2014 album Dark & Wild.

So, again, this is one of those "ppl complaining cuz they've got nothing else to complain abt" type of things.

Complaint no.4: There's NO message

This is ridiculous. Also an indication of a reading comprehension fail. Head on over to Doolset's amazing translations and then try to say the songs are vapid. PFFFFT!

Complaint no.5: There's TOO MUCH Autotune

?????? Yes, there's Autotune--which is a tool that talented ppl like BTS have used in amazing ways. They're not the only ones as seen in BIBI's "Kazino" or anything by T-Pain. When it comes to BTS, Yoongi does like using AutoTune the most, but it's not a crutch. Rather than it being weird, its addition to the songs enhances the music.

AutoTune has gotten a bad rep because many 'singers' have relied on it as a way to hide their lack of talent. It does serve a purpose, though, whether ppl want to accept that or not

Outside of all of that nonsense, I think many of the ppl who have been v. negative toward this album fall into one of these categories:

A. Those who wanted this to sound exactly like every other Kpop bg album. And I get that cuz we do like familiarity. It's also the reason why some groups are known for having a specific sound. And, again, BTS is not in that category (please note that this isn't me putting down other groups while elevating the Tannies. It's simply an observation.) Even if you were to go from album to album, it's v. hard to pinpoint what makes an album a BTS album since they, again, don't have a signature sound AND they also dabble in a lot of genres.

B. Ppl who expected a return to a heavier EDM sound because that seems to be the "sound du jour" among a lot of Kpop releases. Kinda like how Jersey Club was EVERYWHERE 4 yrs ago.*Hands*

C. Some ppl didn't listen to any of the Chapter 2 (solo era) works. There's a lot of their individual albums being represented here.

Interestingly, a lot of the (initially) lukewarm opinions some had abt ARIRANG changed once they saw the Tannies perform the songs LIVE either on the Netflix comeback special (which is still available to watch) OR any of the concerts livestreams.

This is something that happened to me a few years ago with "Permission to Dance". I don't care much for that song. BUT, when BTS did the PTD Onstage in Los Angeles, Seoul, and Las Vegas, they closed out their concerts with PTD and that's when I got it! The trick to that song was experiencing it live. FWIW, I still pretty much whatevs abt it, but there we are.

So, if you don't like any of the songs, maybe check out the Netflix comeback and your opinion might change. Maybe it won't. IDK, you do you. XD

NGL, even after many listens, I'm still in awe with BTS and what they've done with this album. Realistically, they could've dropped anything and it'd have still been well-loved by ARMYs. Instead, they chose to not do the typical/expected "reunion album". They switched lanes into mostly new soundscapes at the same time they reinforced the idea of the OT7. Which brings me to the FACT that this is group album. There are no subunits or solos anywhere. EVERY. SINGLE. MEMBER. GETS. HIS. MOMENT. IN. EVERY. SINGLE. SONG!

And this goes down to the infamous ~line distribution angle. All 7 members have abt the same amount of time in ARIRANG. And that's a hella impressive thing to do when you've got SEVEN different ppl and 15 songs to do. [NB: Even better is how BTS has incorporated the group idea into their performances. Their current tour has NO solo or unit songs and it all makes me feel v. shiny-eyed. UwU.]

This is an album that invites the listener to ride the groove as it switches from rap to r&b to rock to easy pop. IMO, it's one of the most accessible in the Tannies' album discography. The songs feel v.much of the here and now instead of falling into a nostalgia trap. Give it a spin and you might end up digging it too. :D!

anneapocalypse

I think Urianger’s faith is a core part of his character. In fact, I think that most other things about him—his history of secrecy and deception, his lifelong fascination with prophecy, and his growth over a multi-expansion character arc—are better understood in the context of it. So that’s what I want to talk about today!

This essay contains major plot spoilers through Endwalker. It's also really long. Originally posted to tumblr; backdated to reflect original post date.

( Urianger's Religon... )

mific

I'm feeling too tired to write properly about this, but here goes. I'm subscribed to NZ National Geographic online magazine, which is a reasonably trustworthy source, and last Friday I learned that NZ only has 18 days of onshore diesel stored. By now I guess it's down to 15 days. No idea if the article is accessible if you don't have a sub, but here's the link.

I've been ruminating in a confused way about that, since Friday. Will it be the start of supply line collapse here, as we're at the far end of that chain, in worldwide terms? Or just a period of restrictions, annoyances and a degree of belt tightening? It'll affect two things massively - transport, and farming. Like, the trucks that bring food and essentials to supermarkets, and deliver groceries to us, and in the longer term, it'll affect the farms growing the food.

Bring an old bastard who's profoundly unfit and who doesn't get out much, there's not a lot I can do for others, except maybe to help my immediate neighbours in some way. And I vacillate between vague prepping notions, nihilism, and thinking it'll turn out to be nothing after all. But I read apocafics, so I wonder. I mean, my car's petrol tank is fairly full and I use it only occasionally, but if it runs out will there still be buses? Which doubtless run on diesel. And if petrol gets harder to come by will people start stealing it, like, siphoning it off from cars parked outside like mine is, close to the road?

The fuel crisis expert guy in the article, Nathan Surendran, recommends talking to neighbours to prepare, but I'd definitely feel weird if I did that. At this point, anyway, when things alternate between feeling totally normal or like we're all fiddling while Rome burns. Or doesn't burn, due to the lack of diesel.

Guess I'll get an extra grocery delivery in, and make sure I have seeds in case I need to clear my garden beds of flowers and plant veggies more seriously. And I did unearth my camping gas stove and lamp in the last "cyclone", but I think we'll have power, as most of our grid runs on hydroelectricity (with the parts to repair the power stations probably delivered by diesel-powered trucks).

Well, we'll see if this is anything. Covid was fast. A week or three of worrying reports then (for us, here) whammo, lockdown. It felt surreal at the time. This is like that pre-Covid prodromal period with some signs and warnings cropping up but no one here taking it seriously, mostly. And our government now is largely shits and idiots, not a decent crisis leader like Jacinta, who actually listened to experts.

I'll keep fiddling, and let you know how it goes.

glinda

I need some help/advice. (I definitely still know at least a few fannish Canadians right?)

So I’ve been thinking about going on holiday later this year, maybe end of September, beginning of October. Originally I’d planned either coastal Spain or bimbling around the low countries on an inter-rail ticket. (My local airport flies directly to Schipol, trains from there around Europe are easy.) There is - as of like a week ago - an absolute shitshow going on with the new post-Brexit passport controls/biometrics for UK travellers with the current advice being to get to the airport at least 3 hours early. And look, this may all be sorted by September, but I got caught in the post covid/Brexit nonsense on a work trip to France a few years ago - fucking running with a giant rucksack of Camera kit through Charles De Galle airport from passport control to my gate with a gate agent - and I’m not keen to repeat the experience. So between programmes the other day I pulled up seat61 intending to look at fun inter-rail options via Eurostar because, so my internal monologue went if I need to be at the airport that early I better be flying transatlantic at least. And like fuck am I going to the states while Trump’s in office…

…Yeah.

So back in 2008, when I worked in a call centre and used to plan train adventures between calls to keep myself sane, one of my favourite ‘and while I’m dreaming I’d like a pony’ plans was to do the ‘Canadian’, through the Rockies, across the prairies, across a fair chunk of Canada really. I spent way too long looking at pictures taken out the domes of the viewing carriages along that route. It was out of my budget, and oh goodness, I could not cope with the logistical uncertainty - the train shares tracks with freight, which has priority, so when it’s late it’s not minutes it’s hours, even now with the adjusted compensatory timetable they still recommend you don’t book onward travel or flights for at least 24 hours after your expected arrival time. But all these years later, I can afford it - not the fancy ‘prestige’ option, but the tiny individual sleeper cabin? A couple of nights in Toronto and Vancouver at either end to explore those cities and act as a buffer zone? Totally do-able.

Given the state of the world right now, neither Japan or Australia feel entirely feasible right now - I was never going to be willing to fly via Dubai, it was always going to be via Singapore, nonetheless - the logistics are just beyond me right now. But Canada. I could do Canada. And I’ve wanted to do that specific train journey for a very long time. I’d half planned to get my other bathroom re-done, but the thought of taking that money and turning it into a new bathroom suite when there’s so many places I’ve never been and things I’ve never done, just feels so pointless. I want to knock a destination off my life-list.

So Canadians - or just folks who’ve spent time in Canada - what’s your advice? What am I missing/not taking into consideration? Which direction do I go: East to West (with a detour to Vancouver island) or West to East (with a detour to Montreal?) What time of year? (I was thinking Autumn colour but I’m persuadable. However, I remember Chicago in February, and my friend C’s other bridesmaid flew in to meet us from Manitoba, and nothing she said made me want to do Winnipeg in winter…Would Spring be a better choice?) Should I stop off along the way? If so, where? Have I, in fact, lost my damn mind?

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Alanis Morisette - Head Over Feet

missizzy

I finished Dispatch on stream this morning. My gameplay was terrible, down in the bottom percentage, but I still very much liked it. I also like how many viewers it got my stream. It seems to be a popular game to watch; mostly I've only been getting one viewer at a time, but I got more both last and this Sunday morning. I might play through it again at some point, if only because there are a few alternate scenes I now really want to see, and I'll definitely play through the second season whenever it might come out.
I'm having to play a few games that are new to me. The first one was Little Kitty, Big City, which I started on stream Friday night, and I truly loved it. I'll do at least a few more Friday nights of it, no doubt. (It can apparently be finished in two hours, but I will no doubt take way longer.)
I've also started uploading my past broadcasts to a YouTube account of their own, including some highlights from my test recordings. I might make some other highlight videos too at some point.
Also these past few weekends I've also been trying to record my latest song. I'd gotten some okay recordings, then this afternoon I got one I felt certain I would post right after I finished recording. I got more hesitant after watching through it, but now I've decided to go with it. And hey, a song from from the Hunger Games movies feels appropriate these days:

Watch on YouTube

tsuki_no_bara

last night my sister and i went out for mexican food (yum) and saw project hail mary which i really enjoyed. i mean, for one thing, outer space. and for another, ryan gosling. some of it was very tense and parts of it were really heartbreaking but it ends on such a lovely, hopeful note and did i mention the outer space? which is so, so pretty. a++, highly recommended. it's long but it didn't drag anywhere and the soundtrack is also quite good.

for previews we got the sheep detectives (looks cute), masters of the universe (why, god, why?), and dune 3 (i'm there).

for the heated rivalry fen in the audience who also happen to be fans of dr jill biden, former flotus - she bid on (but lost) a walk-on role in s2. fangirls pop up in the weirdest places.

Born at midnight, fish were spotted on the ceiling, and language,
all song and curlicues.
Mother was a pretty ribbon, father, a painted merry-go-round horse.
I hunted arrowheads,
watched water-skeeters on the surface of a pond.
I had a pet chameleon with half a tail that lived on my windowsill.
Somewhat abstract, I loved swimming pools, the deep end,
kissing boys on the high school hill,
listening to the sound of distant trains in the middle of the night—
I walked in hot mud
ate pie cherries from a tree above a creek,
was baptized for the dead, read Edgar Allen Poe,
could crack codes, enter caves and sestinas.
When asked, what do you want to be when you grow up?
I always answered, “the weather girl.”

--"Bio", Kathy Evans

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: the avengers

scrubjayspeaks

My big excitement for the week was a salvage job at work. The HR department was replacing some bulletin boards and discarded the old ones against my workbench for mysterious reasons, expecting us to just scrap them. The old ones were all metal and in good condition, apart from some easily buffed out marks left by long-term stickers. Unfortunately, they were much too long for the space in the office where I’ve been wanting to put a whiteboard.

But I realized I had a) free time on a Friday and b) access to assorted power tools. So with a band saw, I trimmed it to a more suitable size, and with tin snips, the sheet metal folder, and the pneumatic polisher, I gave it a finished edge that matches the rest of the design.

It looks exceedingly professional; I’m very proud of myself. It’s just right for the spot, and I’ve moved my stickers-turned-magnets onto it. I have some more stickers to convert, now that I’ll have a place to put them. I do plan to use it for organizational purposes as well, though rotating art sticker gallery is nothing to sneeze at.

Lewisia: 3 new pieces written

Day job: 35 hours, with a day off for mum’s birthday

Crafting: created magnet board from work scrap and wall mounted it

Gardening: more seeds planted, succulent club meeting, spread loads of compost in planting beds

Reading: FEY: A Guide to Butch of The Fae Variety edited by Annalise Jensen (a cute little field guide type book of queer fairies that I picked up as part of a Kickstarter by the same group)

Watching: picked up my rewatch/watch of Stranger Things again, starting with season 2 episodes 6-8

Listening: DANTS by Louie Zong (a cute collection of boppy dance tracks)

Playing: got a bit farther in Pokopia, having a little trouble telling the scope/pace of the game--am I still in the tutorial stages? Should I be pacing myself???

Clock Mouse: 109 minutes of planning work, plus 1878 words written

starandrea

We have a lot of dogs around here and they're all great and also sometimes they like to run through the gardens so I fence some of them off. (The gardens, not the dogs.) My neighbor told me about some inexpensive fencing at a big discount store I'd never been to, and that's how I ended up with a backpack to carry my dog in and some new railing planters. Also the reason I was potting bare root blueberries at one in the morning (do those grow? they were in a plastic bag on a shelf and I was like, ima find out) which meant I had everything I needed out so I started my nasturtium seeds too.

This is what happens when I have space for more plants. And also when I don't.

beatrice_otter

Title: Learning the Steps
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Fandom: The Goblin Emperor
Pairing: Csethiro/Maia
Written for:

dontstophernow in

fffx 2025
Rating: Teen
Length: 10k
Summary: As the wedding day approaches, Csethiro and Maia get to know each other better

At AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Dreamwidth. On tumblr. On Pillowfort.

AN: The Tale of the Loathly Lady is a real story which crops up in Arthuriana and other places. It's the Wife of Bath's tale in the Canterbury Tales, and it was told on its own as Gawain and Lady Ragnell.

***

The original proposal—Csethiro did not know who had made it, whether her father or the Emperor or some nameless secretary—was for the wedding to take place on Nan'desazh, the spring lambing festival. This was the most auspicious date for a wedding in the whole year; unfortunately, it was also a mere three months after the contracts had been signed, and there was simply no way to arrange things in time. Csethiro was not often grateful to her stepmother, but she was in this; the Marquise Ceredaran had flatly refused to contemplate so early a date.

The spring equinox had been suggested instead; it was almost as propitious as Nan'desazh, and would give them an extra month to plan. Besides, there was a certain symmetry in it; Edrehasivar had been crowned just before the fall equinox, and his birthday was the winter solstice, and so to marry him on the spring equinox seemed to Csethiro (and many others at court) to be a harbinger of good fortune.

It was still ruinously short. The preparations for Csoru's wedding had taken a full year.

( Read more... )

tsuki_no_bara

guess how my day started! if you guessed "couldn't get the car door open AGAIN, figured it out, discovered the battery was dead AGAIN," gold star for you! i called the garage and left a very cranky voicemail (they're closed on weekends which i know and let them know i know) because come the fuck on, it's been SIX GOD DAMN WEEKS. and i cannot drive my car. and this is the exact same thing that happened last weekend. and i have plans this coming monday that do not include sitting at home waiting for someone to come and jump the battery like they did this past monday. and i have plans for tonight that i have to cab to.

JESUS FUCK. i just want to be able to drive my car! and not have to worry that it's going to die on me!

*seethe*

i did however manage to make it to the coffee house with the bagel sandwiches (god bless the bus) so i finally satisfied that craving, and i got some sun in and some exercise, and i accomplished about 960 words on the thing i'm doing for writing group, which isn't great but is better than nothing. and i bought quarters and did some laundry. silver lining, silver lining.

today's poem is historically appropriate but very long so i shall cut.

( Listen, my children, and you shall hear )

Current Mood: OH MY GOD
Current Music: birds chirping

i was not best pleased, i can tell you that for free

Lake Lewisia #1386

Windows

also it was sunny and beautiful today

GNU Rubynye AKA Minoanmiss

I GUESS i am become a sports fan

it's so stimulating being your hat

relatable explanations

Lake Lewisia #1385

Bridgerton Hype!!!

Fandom 50 S4 Post 14: BTS' ARIRANG (a review and slight deconstruction)

[FFXIV Meta] Urianger's Faith

Weird times (CW for apocalyptic musings)

Oh Canada...

(no subject)

carl and i made a baby

Done This Week

like you do

Fic: Learning the Steps

one if by land and two if by sea

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