Random Thought of the Day

[Nyctophilia]

Not gay as in Wizard of Oz but [BEEP] as in Return to Oz.

Lol what why is this so on point. Tombstone material (OK maybe not lol.) I started thinking about/remembering that film randomly several months ago as well. It's one of those films where somehow it wasn't directed by Tim Burton and also isn't on an IMDB page for top 100 goth films somehow even though it's a dark fantasy and Nightmare Before Christmas and basically every Tim Burton film is. I never watched the original but that's far too dated for me. I think Logan's Run is pretty much the oldest film I've been able to watch and enjoy at all.

Kathleen Byron was hot though in 1947 when she invented crazy goth girls in cinema (I never watched the film though I just saw an image, but of course the film is about nuns):

https://64.media.tumblr.com/7c478108...fgw4o1_500.gif

I of course, being excellent at observation assumed she was a guy when I saw her as someone's avatar, and didn't notice she was wearing a dress either. I also recently saw an image that I assumed was an androgynous guy for some reason and then realised it was Poppy the singer. And I know Poppy lol but didn't even recognise it was her (she's pretty feminine looking too. Also lol) Her music is OK/vaguely interesting. I'll give it a 4-6/10 maybe depending on the track. She gets extra points for having heard of Jack off Jill and being one of the only artists I've heard cover one of their songs, and it wasn't a bad cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PQoSzZkYVI

But didn't differ too much from the original and I still vocally prefer the original because Jessicka's screams are great

The Poppy image I saw was a still from this video lol (I hadn't seen that particular music video before.) I don't really like this track that much but it's reminding me of something else:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJlDyRbUtxI

I don't know why, but it kind of reminds me of Starcrawler in that there's some weird anachronistic jarring feeling I get from it. HaUnTolOgIcAl. Lol but anachronistic and jarring is a better descriptor because I think 'hauntological' is more a descriptor of exhaustive repetition, well at least I personally view the word that way. But Starcrawler sounds more like a proto-metal band like Black Sabbath or Occult rock. (I'm posting this live track because the music video is a bit more graphic.)

The sound of that Poppy track also reminds me of something else but can't quite think what right now. Oh right definitely Zheani:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkotW0pe55c

Zheani isn't perfect but probably pretty underrated (no wikipedia page etc.) I mean if Gucci Gang can blow up it doesn't make sense lol. Her work is mostly improving over time I think. She's Australian though and it's hard for them to get traction, I also don't think she probably likes most of the industry.

I like most of the songs I've heard by Starcrawler but I'm not a huge fan. Like this track a lot. I'm kind of old now and listen to music a lot, especially rock-adj, so it's hard to get 'wow this is so amazing, I'm hearing this sound for the first time' from many artists/music tracks. It's hard to innovate in rock, and I can see why most musicians have moved on from the genre in recent years.

This is a more recent track I guess, and has a more 90s sound. (Someone said it sounds like the 80s I guess there was stuff like that then, but the heavyness kind of bled into later alt rock and obvious grunge influence with this track.)

"Blending the sludgy, doom-laden riffs of Black Sabbath with the urgent pop-punk of The Runaways,"

Yeah that's an accurate description.

[Nyctophilia]

That’s the opening monologue from American Psycho

I'm not going to lie that response did crack me up. I just imagine them saying it very matter of factly too. Were they doing it on purpose though?

"There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman. Some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me. Only an entity. Something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours, and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable, I simply am not there."

In other news about Patrick Bateman Peter Thiel has apparently created a dating site for right wing people. OK no turns out he just poured a lot of funding into it lol. but there was some advert for it with a woman talking about how she likes guys with 'alpha energy' lol. The only way to win is to never use the internet like Alan Moore. That's it basically. I'm not trying to win and I'm a millennial so it's a lost cause.

The Right Stuff, a dating app for conservatives, just launched. Reviewers say it’s difficult to join, overrun by men, and may have caused FBI agents to visit users’ homes.

What a time to be alive.

The author of American Psycho on millennials:

There's no writing. They don't care about literature. None of them read books."

No we just became all the characters from edgy 90s gay authors.

Also tbf the 1700s was this era:

The Public Universal Friend[a] (born Jemima Wilkinson; November 29, 1752 – July 1, 1819) was an American preacher born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, to Quaker parents. After suffering a severe illness in 1776, the Friend claimed to have died and been reanimated as a genderless evangelist named the Public Universal Friend, and afterward shunned both birth name and gendered pronouns. In androgynous clothes, the Friend preached throughout the northeastern United States, attracting many followers who became the Society of Universal Friends.[5]

Ezra Miller thought they'd follow in their footsteps. Too soon. Wasn't very colourful:

The Friend's theology was broadly similar to that of most Quakers. The Friend stressed free will, opposed slavery, and supported sexual abstinence.

[Nyctophilia]

I think ranting about people with beards has become the new 'blue hair' for terfs, especially British terfs. Their worst nightmare.

It's funny too because I've never found them sexually attractive and a couple of years ago I had a bad (but very weird really,) dream which involved some sexually attractive goth guy who had grown a beard and cut his hair to appear more sexually attractive after he talked to some military guy in a park. Then I magically gained control of his appearance later in the dream I think? And somehow despite all of that insanity/personal complex surrounding masculinity terfs have once again outdone me with their constant 'beard = opinion invalid.' They always do though. It's a novelty really.

They're catastrophising (I don't think this was the word I was looking for, but it'll do I guess,) about some mundane comment Graham Norton made. 'Why are you OK with death/rape threats?' this argument style is really obnoxious and manipulative (and common among some race/gender/class groups more than others,) but I feel like you can't talk about it without coming across as a sexist MRA.

This (the beard thing,) isn't unique to her btw I'd been seeing this a lot over the past year or so online:

Very much enjoying the recent spate of bearded men stepping confidently onto their soapboxes to define what a woman is and throw their support behind rape and death threats to those who dare disagree. You may mock, but takes real bravery to come out as an Old Testament prophet.

Joanne plz.

I think for me what really hits me is the nonsense is sandwiched on her profile in between serious tweets about women being raped and killed in Iran by Islamists. No one should be forced to talk online about serious issues I certainly don't, but like how is the contrast not hitting her at all.

She clarified further:

I like beards. I just don't like them when they're attached to misogynists.

Such weird criteria. If she agrees with what you're saying beards are fine, if she doesn't then it's worse if you have a beard. Haha.

[TuanJie]

Success.jpg

[Otherside]

In the queue for the womens finallisma (winner of European football league vs winner of south american one), since its twenty minutes from here this time. Wait time over an hour, people ahead of me, 30,000. To get seats or to not get seats.

Mum has even said she nay consider supporting this year if I get through.

It is crazy that women's football is now somewhat popular, compared to a few years ago when it really wasn't so much. But, England did win the Euros.

Edit - I got a DNS can't be resolved for second, but it seems to have saved my place.

[Nyctophilia]

Thinking about this video I was suggested before by YouTube about this feminine guy in a relationship with a masculine woman (I didn't think she was that masculine actually but I feel like I have a really high bar for what gets considered that, and so does culture generally.) She wasn't as feminine as him anyway. The point of the video was them talking about the dynamic of their relationship and his femininity stands out a lot more than her masculinity.

So I thought that was pretty cute (I like this kind of dynamic generally,) but lots of comments were people who seemed convinced the relationship was doomed, fake, attention seeking and not going to last etc. They were all convinced the guy was gay because he described his sexuality as straight but said in high school he tried to date women, then later came out as gay because he felt that was easier but didn't really get on with guys, then discovered masculine women on tiktok and realised he was attracted to masculine women and ended up dating his partner in the video. His partner in the video had only dated women before him.

It really confuses some people though. Was just imagining this meme lol:



In order to explain this to someone who was adamant that the guy has to be gay because of his behaviour, another guy in the comments section resorted to comparing the guy to a femme lesbian. (I've seen someone else use similar logic before to explain feminine trans men dating feminine cis men. 'They're both feminine so it makes it a lesbian relationship')

Also a lot of the comments were just plain bigoted obviously. 'It's not natural' so fascinating because they're the opposite sex and even gender identity (also it's mostly just his body language/speech that's feminine, his presentation wasn't for the most part and when it was it was more androgynous tight clothing etc. Like at one point in the video he mentioned he'd never wear a dress and he has very short hair.) Despite what some people say people aren't just discriminated against based on primary sex features (or even personal choices like clothing/hair.) I saw the term '[BEEP] heterosexuality' before which attracts criticism but tbh fits here sort of. At least for the guy since he identifies as straight. (edit: I don't mean it fits as a sexuality label I mean in terms of the negative reaction they're dealing with mostly because of his femininity. One of the comments pointed out it would be harder for him to ever be feminine than it would for her to be masculine and that in general being masculine is hard. I think it's policed way more and has more rules so yes, and she wasn't super masc anyway, but this weird idea he had that anyone can be feminine was LOL. Because there are some people could never pull it off naturally at all. Like want a bet? That would be a great film plot actually. Definitely would watch 10/10.)

I know to you and others this may seem old-fashioned and out of date but men and women have unique roles, which abandoning leads society to abandon the idea of what is normal and true. I apologise if I come across harsh but defending basic things like this is frustrating

This kind of (common) mentality people have when they're in a position of power historically is weird.

[Nyctophilia]

I posted this yesterday in the previous post but I'm moving this into a new post because it kind of should have been one before:

Oh yeah it's Halloween and stuff. I carved a pumpkin and failed completely at trying to make cupcakes out of some bits of the pumpkin. I only like posting about my special interests lol. Baking isn't one of them. Before today I hadn't done that since I was in school and it was part of the curriculum. I find it really hard to follow recipes unless they explain in detail like I'm 5 and videos are easier but I was following a text recipe. I haven't eaten one of the cupcakes yet but I'm pretty sure they didn't work out well lol. The frosting was too smooth too. Mostly it accentuated how physically weak I've become because whisking is effort. (The recipe actually assumed I would have a 'hand blender') and I couldn't find any almond extract locally either. Also it was an American recipe and I feel like there were issues in translation. I think I ended up with too much butter despite following the amount. The recipe was for 12 cupcakes but ended up making several more because there was so much mix. Accidentally used too much vanilla extract with the frosting too. Not exactly looking forward to eating one. :')

edit: so yeah the frosting is a bit weird. I guess the one I tried wasn't terrible but not great either. Kind of tasted like carrot cake. No pumpkin taste at all I don't think (not that I know what pumpkin tastes like actually.) But I expected that because I didn't have much and most people online seemed to think recipes involving pumpkin were really mild tasting especially if it's not a culinary pumpkin which it wasn't. I tried to get one for another recipe I wanted to try, but it's really hard here in the UK.

I'm listening to this again. Their previous work I heard was more like heavy synthwave but this has a really great goth vibe as well. Some people were comparing the album this track is from (Lustful Sacraments) to like goth bands mixed with Depeche Mode and while I see where they're coming from, I actually think parts of the album are really like Vangelis work on the Bladerunner soundtrack. Like Reaching Xanadu.

[Nyctophilia]

Everything Guillermo Del Toro works on is so amazing visually.

https://twitter.com/NetflixGeeked/st...68305025028097

Funny that Rupert Grint said he started dreaming about the witch because I did have a nightmare once with a creature that I thought after waking up looked like something that would definitely have come from one of his films lol.

At one point he was hired to direct The Hobbit films but left later, and they were good visually but I still want to see his version.

[Nyctophilia]

There's some fireworks thing going on and there are rides and stuff (not sure what kind,) but the weather is really [BEEP] and I recently started my period so I don't think I can be bothered. Nothing ever happens here so I was curious but yeah cba today. I miss London. I've been avoiding it since the pandemic started. Also trains are stupidly expensive. I believe you can fly to some countries for less than it costs to get a train to some areas of the UK now.

Can I fly to London? No I don't think so, that would have been hilarious though. (I mean I wouldn't because it's not worth the environmental cost but what the [BEEP] though you know?) Someone recorded a video of themselves walking from my town to London and it's honestly not just for fun :')

Deftones song titles have been a perfect fit over the year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvknOXGPzCQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UoXaSYIDjM

So I can't actually see any fireworks out my window. All I see is like flashing lights from somewhere and can hear the noises so basically all the worst parts.

[Heelsbythebridge]

I actually feel conflicted on this one. He is what we wanted, but he won't find success here through no fault of his own. Out of love... I think he needs to leave. And maybe come back one day, but he can't sacrifice himself for us. The club didn't prioritize the right guy to sign.

[Otherside]

There's some fireworks thing going on and there are rides and stuff (not sure what kind,) but the weather is really [BEEP] and I recently started my period so I don't think I can be bothered. Nothing ever happens here so I was curious but yeah cba today. I miss London. I've been avoiding it since the pandemic started. Also trains are stupidly expensive. I believe you can fly to some countries for less than it costs to get a train to some areas of the UK now.

Can I fly to London? No I don't think so, that would have been hilarious though. (I mean I wouldn't because it's not worth the environmental cost but what the [BEEP] though you know?) Someone recorded a video of themselves walking from my town to London and it's honestly not just for fun :')

Deftones song titles have been a perfect fit over the year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvknOXGPzCQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UoXaSYIDjM

So I can't actually see any fireworks out my window. All I see is like flashing lights from somewhere and can hear the noises so basically all the worst parts.

Tell me about it.

So I fly frequently to Aberdeen where family is, because train costs are stupidly high (though I get people going ?20 from London go Edinburgh!...like, there's a whole other Scotland than bloody Edinburgh.) There's Air Passenger Duty if you fly domestically in UK, but even then.

I'd like to holiday more in the UK but train costs are just so prohibitive. Its ?55 usually to get Luton-Aberdeen and back, sometimes as low as ?10 if I go via Dublin (only downside to that is passport control in Dublin, and Ryanair won't allow drivers licenses to be used to board so I need the passport, even though you cam fly UK-Ireland and back on a drivers license.)

Return coats of flight to Lisbon in a few weeks time, ?30, requires enduring Ryanair.

Cost of an open return rail ticket to Plymouth tonight, cost work ?170.

Depending on where you are, could get a plane from local airport to Europe, hotel overnight and then to London than cheaper than a rail ticket.

[Otherside]

Yeah it's insane. I used to have a rail card which reduced the price slightly but that expired a few years ago now. I have a friend who lives in Edinburgh and I haven't visited him up there and I'd prefer not to fly for that kind of journey but it cuts the cost in about half I think (if not more.)

Yeah, I have a railcard. But I rail-travel a lot. Though it doesn't work before 9:30 when I'm commuting. Even with the discount though, it's still costly for what it is.

You get lucky sometimes on train tickets, I did once manage to get a first class with Virgin from Glasgow for not much (+ all the free wine you get in 1st class), but it's a rarity I ever manage to do that. Would happily take the Caledonian Sleeper overnight, but that's stupidly expensive and it's more of a luxury thing now.

[Doseone]

I haven't posted on a forum in a minute.

[Nyctophilia]

I wish forums had a soft delete option so you could delete your post, but then undelete it or edit it instead later if you change your mind. I remember SAS blog section had something like that (although you couldn't undo the soft delete, so it was more just a way for you to still see the post and I guess mods but not other people. Still annoying to mods though.)

Wondering if Contrapoints changed her profile thing to 'Dark Natalie' because of Jordan Peterson's comments. Probably not lol I think it's because of her last tweet about being more abusive to bigots because of the moderation changes on twitter, but it's funny because he thinks edgelords are demons. Speaking of edgelords twitter needs to stop trying to make them more attractive:



I can't believe there isn't a spray bottle emoji. It's just the hair (long hair/fringe,) tbh. Someone made this their avatar because they said they looked like a female Paul Dano.

The funny thing is our culture is so bankrupt that now batman is acknowledged as an edgelord too. And everyone is shit. Lol. The Riddler 'reddit edgelord aesthetic.' Why do we all look like that though? Round face and glasses. Yeah I know, it's the stereotypical phenotype of a white nerd. I'm actually not his definition of a stereotypical edgelord though just have traits. I still haven't watched this film so will be curious how much 'Batman as edgelord' is narrative and how much is just because he's being played by Robert Pattinson. I know they've been building to this for some time due to how dark DC movies are (as a selling point to separate them from Marvel imo, though they have higher highs and lower lows.) Plus Batman is anyway aesthetically. I mean it's noir. But the 90s films and some earlier TV/cartoons were way less heavy and cheesy. But yeah a big part of it is also 'lol skinny white British guy slightly evil vibe because of that, also played vampire love interest in Twilight. All tumblr-adj love interests are at least mildly edgelord and outcasts of society.'

Tumblr is actually very cute though when it tries to manipulate you to turn off adblocker:



Tumblr is currently trying to jokingly put people off using the site or something. Ryan Reynolds joined the site? I dunno I'm only hearing bits and pieces and not bothering to look into it properly lol. I like him though (from what I know about him you know.) His portrayal of Deadpool is fun. Neil Gaiman is one of the few famous people not home grown on the site they'll tolerate I think. Similar but worse stuff happens on 4chan I suppose. Insular/hazing rituals. A lot of people are moving to Mastodon too you know since Elon Musk took over twitter. It doesn't mean much to me because I never thought twitter had anything special it was trash, is trash, will continue to be trash. It's useful for getting quick mass opinions on current events.

"Never argue with these idiots, they drag you down to their level and they beat you with ignorance" (yes I know it's a loosely paraphrased Mark Twain quote, but this fits better since he quit most social media and his music is more industrial/hellish,) lol it's true I was already on that level of hell though. "Am I through? I haven't even started. I can't see the point in the sense you were born with."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0_CbLGfwKY

Oh just noticed that Perfect Girl cover song has an official music video now that was released 6 months ago. Didn't notice before while searching for the song. *pretentious voice* I like how they fucked with the object/subject dichotomy I guess. I guess. They have a burlesque kind of performer (lesbian adj) and then a bunch of what looks like leather daddies from the gay subculture. That's not the point probably + looking at the credits because Violet Chachki is also a genderfluid drag queen, probably not into women at all, but I can project what I want on the character. There are arguments going on in the comments because Violet is genderfluid, and because some straight cis guys are upset after realising she's not a cis woman. The music has a wide audience/appeal because it was attached to a bunch of Patrick Bateman memes at one point. They're ruining my fantasy with their insistence on their existence and tedious sexual concerns. 'I expected x to be y and now I think I've been lied to and feel mad.' And it's funny but despite the ambiguity with the mirrors I consider every character in this to be mostly singing to a third person anyway. Not about themselves (and there are a few mouthing along to the lyrics not just her.)

Emilie Autumn is asexual (well I read that once, just found this quote: 'I once went to a New Orleans psychic to ask about my sexuality.' The impression I'm getting now is she's kind of ambivalently asexual/bisexual which is honestly relatable. Anyway she's not a lesbian basically,) and I'm sure this is considered queetbaiting (googled this and yep lol.) She's problematic and I don't agree with everything she says. I'm problematic and I don't agree with everything I say.



edit: lol just remembered this (it doesn't really apply here, but this is tons of discourse all the time online.):

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FI1YN_XX...jpg&name=small

'casual reminder that being a lesbian fetishises lesbians.'

It's probably because of her performances (or maybe Poison Ivy I dunno,) but I have an automatic connection in my mind between femme wlw and burlesque type aesthetics. A bit like 'the nun thing.' You know. (I mean after I realised she wasn't a guy and I'm only the person on the planet who thought that I'm sure - I switched to that headcannon. I think other people read some parts of the film that way, I haven't watched it. I never get around to watching anything the attention span issues are real.) I think there are some lesbian burlesque groups though. It's not just me I've seen people bring this up on twitter. Also this. There are several weird media tropes though you know like [BEEP] vampires (men and women.) Nobody needed this repetitive justification. 'The video is mildly interesting.' is all that's needed.

I didn't get into most of her music I did really like this song though. and this was pretty good and around that time I became pretty interested in electric violins lol. The studio recording is very good. A bit later Lindsey Stirling popularised the instrument more too. Also this isn't how I discovered her but she was in The Devil's Carnival film. I think someone I used to watch on YouTube was in that film too lol as some kind of clown character (Miss Hannah Minx/Hannah Jinx she disappeared. She used to make Japanese related videos. There's actually some video compilation/collab thing set up by a third party about Japanese words that I'm in. The video got popular at one point because she's in it lol. That was probably the first YouTube video I was ever in? When I was 18ish.) Anyway I watched the first one/2012 film (I got it on blueray and think I funded a kickstarter or something,) but not anything past that. It was OK but I was more into Repo. Repo is terribly cheesy tbh but I like the goth vibes and Graverobber/Terrance Zdunich's songs are great and I still go back to them and Anthony Stewart Head's work in the film. He was in a stage version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show too I think. The cast of Repo is a interesting mishmash lol.

Edit: Oh yeah I completely forgot there was this professional busker in the UK too Ed Alleyne-Johnson. (I think he's been in bands and stuff lol but that's how I discovered his music.) I loved his violin. Purple amazing. I feel like I remember it or a similar one being for sale once. (I probably imagined this part wishful thinking lol.) I can't play the violin though. I wanted to take lessons as a child but there wasn't an option so I just took cello lessons for a short while before dropping out. This post is now about violins.

edit: whenever I infodump about music now I'm just going to be thinking of that American Psycho scene :') It was one of my favourite films before it became a meme but I didn't really make the connection. It was even in the comments of that video:

You like Mareux? Their early work was a little too new wave for my taste. But when Predestiny Ep came out in '20, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of exquisite professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Mr. Kitty, but I think Mareux has a far more bitter, cynical sense of vibe. In '21, Mareux released this; The Perfect Girl, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "The Perfect Girl". A track so ethereal, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the captivation of love and the mystery of attraction. It's also a personal statement about the band itself.

Mr Kitty is pretty good. I don't know if I'd want to go see him live. He was the support act for IAMX on parts of their US tour (IAMX's new aesthetic looks like this album cover lol. Everyone is doing this though (eg: Drab Majesty,) now as I mentioned. Also I think this was his biggest song. Mostly because of this fan video that got 84 million views.) but didn't come to the UK. They rarely have support acts and never on any of the European tours I've noticed (seen them live 3 times I think,) takes them a really long time to get on stage. At least at the last show I remember a Sisters of Mercy song playing while waiting at one point.

[Doseone]

It's weird how beliefs can change over time. I went from being an ardent defender of libertarian free will to being a theological determinist. There is a position called doxastic voluntarism which says that we choose our beliefs, which I think is incoherent. You're either convinced by an argument or you're not. I believe that our beliefs were determined at the moment of the big bang. And I think that beliefs play a major role in action. If beliefs (and wants) are outside of our control then so are our actions.