Winter Is Here
Blimey, buggering heck, what the heck is this outside? Snowing, blizzards - even in the East Midlands where it never snows, it's been howling here. WTF, Britain?
"Five Ways You Know I've Written a Fic."
1. Hands: I'll always speak about nails and nail polish for women. Or patterns on their hands, or hands against someone's face.
2. There's always some sort of place as backdrop. Be it across a table, a kitchen, a garden. A bed.
3. It will have visuals. Something to do with light, or colour.
4. It will most always be to a prompt. I haven't written a fic that hasn't been related to a prompt for the last twenty months (at least).
5. There's intimacy, not necessarily sexual. More a shared joke or an understanding between the characters than physical.
6. If I'm doing meta, there are links included more times than not, and my writing comes across as academic and stilted because I'm aware of arguments being derailed by tone.
Have been having Kanye West's latest album on loop for the past week.
It's deserving of the praise that's been heaped on it, and in the same breath, most of the criticisms have merit 1, especially with his attitudes towards women (he loves them, hates them, and doesn't understand them in between and his tongue is sharp no matter the spectrum).
Listening to the album, I do find myself wondering why West doesn't work on himself to attract a better sort of person; but I know what it's like, doing you, toiling through your own issues, getting to that better you the other side of the process, only to be a magnet for trolls.
Despite all the drama surrounding its release, the album is an accomplishment. It's nice to see baroque fantasy appearing in rap2. From the elegance of orchestra, the swooping clarion call of horn, to the jangle and frentic energy of drumming, spaced with the icy pick of piano keys in between - the production is slick and lush.
There are vast shimmering soundscapes which shift, shatter and reform into distinct aural patterns. They go hand in hand with his emotions over the hour: ranging from aggressive snarls to vulnerable sighs of heartbreak instead of having this hard one man against the world mentality3 all the time.
The work is a festival of sounds edging to the side of chaotic, but West wrests it into order with a tight hand, and the ending, with Lost in the World is so triumphant, it makes you dance, and Gill Scott-Heron Comment no.1 to finish? That fierce, unrelenting voice cutting through the noise and muscling into the centre stage of the song.
I see what you did there, Mr. West.
Still, doff your cap to the man who introduced the concept, "The revolution will not be televised." Gil Scott-Heron's new album dropped this year, and he's coming out with a collaboration of new work in 2011, so give a gander.
Back to the review. With this album, the songs themselves are long. Like Joanna Newsom Ys long, and it makes sense.
Yes, there are songs on this album. Not just the usual rap, then a hook, but actual narrative. People scream, snarl, spit, croon and sigh on this LP and it's just great to listen to an album that pretty much demands that you pause and pay attention. It doesn't lend itself for neutral noise, it is not the nondescript soothing chamber music to accompany tasks such as needlepoint or fixing your hoover. No, it's something that you groove to on your ipod, you sing loudly in the shower, or just nod your head at certain songs, because they are that good.
I dig the fact that West pretty much seems to like all sorts of music, and it shows on this album. Most people tend to roll their eyes at sampling, and be terribly dismissive. In the right hands though, it's like the best fanfics out there - you take the original canon and put your twist on it so that it's recognisable, but something new and interesting. The best samples are the ones that are used in the most unusual ways.
A lot of critics have cited Nikki Minaj as the standout act on this album. She's good (I didn't realise that she was that same rapper who featured on a lot of songs over the past year) but I must admit, Kid Cudi has surprised me with his freewheeling because I only knew him as the guy who did Day and Night. Bon Iver worked out better than I thought he would, his input makes the album whole because he's there in half of the tracks, noodling and doing his thing which gives the work a coherence.
If people used auto tune like Bon Iver does, where he makes the voices stretch, layer, split, shred and then forces them together to be something frightening and beautiful, I'd be happy.
Lost In The World is by far my favourite track on the album. It uses Bon Iver's Lost In The Woods, and West makes it lost in the world - the rough and tumble of it. There's drums and beats, and choruses and voices, and it's claustrophobic but in a good way.
Blame Game just breaks my heart. Yeah, that's how relationships end sometimes. Emotions are raw, jagged, and you scrap and claw at each other until you're bleeding. You get to the point where you can't look at each other anymore, because even a stray glance can cut skin.
If you want to have a preview of the album, your best bet is to click Runaway and give a listen.
I know that people tend to dismiss Kanye West, bang on about his arrogance, and his antics and the rest of it, but in a LOT of ways, I do get where he's coming from. Despite Kanye's detractors, he keeps on striving, knowing at the end of the day it's about the work and the quality of the product. He's getting into the mindset of when faced by the blowback from the hysterical media, he just gives a #kanye shrug and keeps it moving.
There's a lesson in that.
Finally, my tic has gone away from my hypnotherapy. Every time I'd try and bite my nails, cuticles, she made it so that I'd wave aimlessly instead (I don't think she meant for that to happen, anyway). If anyone's interested, I can write up a post on said experience. It was a trip. I didn't go under the first time, so had to go back, and it took a lot of work on her part to get me into suggestion. But I think finally, after two separate sessions, it's working.
Have fic to start, a good thing too, I was tired of waving all the time.
1 Like WTF at that Chris Rock skit, yo? Especially as a follow up to the Blame Game. I'm OVER rap skits, and have been for the past decade and a half, and some of the lyrics with regards to women make me ¬_¬.
2 Wu Tang is forever! Until they come back, I'll stick with Mr West.
2 As much as I don't like it, I do respect it though. It's a hard world out there, especially when it comes to 'the other' so I can understand the armour
"Five Ways You Know I've Written a Fic."
1. Hands: I'll always speak about nails and nail polish for women. Or patterns on their hands, or hands against someone's face.
2. There's always some sort of place as backdrop. Be it across a table, a kitchen, a garden. A bed.
3. It will have visuals. Something to do with light, or colour.
4. It will most always be to a prompt. I haven't written a fic that hasn't been related to a prompt for the last twenty months (at least).
5. There's intimacy, not necessarily sexual. More a shared joke or an understanding between the characters than physical.
6. If I'm doing meta, there are links included more times than not, and my writing comes across as academic and stilted because I'm aware of arguments being derailed by tone.
Have been having Kanye West's latest album on loop for the past week.
It's deserving of the praise that's been heaped on it, and in the same breath, most of the criticisms have merit 1, especially with his attitudes towards women (he loves them, hates them, and doesn't understand them in between and his tongue is sharp no matter the spectrum).
Listening to the album, I do find myself wondering why West doesn't work on himself to attract a better sort of person; but I know what it's like, doing you, toiling through your own issues, getting to that better you the other side of the process, only to be a magnet for trolls.
Despite all the drama surrounding its release, the album is an accomplishment. It's nice to see baroque fantasy appearing in rap2. From the elegance of orchestra, the swooping clarion call of horn, to the jangle and frentic energy of drumming, spaced with the icy pick of piano keys in between - the production is slick and lush.
There are vast shimmering soundscapes which shift, shatter and reform into distinct aural patterns. They go hand in hand with his emotions over the hour: ranging from aggressive snarls to vulnerable sighs of heartbreak instead of having this hard one man against the world mentality3 all the time.
The work is a festival of sounds edging to the side of chaotic, but West wrests it into order with a tight hand, and the ending, with Lost in the World is so triumphant, it makes you dance, and Gill Scott-Heron Comment no.1 to finish? That fierce, unrelenting voice cutting through the noise and muscling into the centre stage of the song.
I see what you did there, Mr. West.
Still, doff your cap to the man who introduced the concept, "The revolution will not be televised." Gil Scott-Heron's new album dropped this year, and he's coming out with a collaboration of new work in 2011, so give a gander.
Back to the review. With this album, the songs themselves are long. Like Joanna Newsom Ys long, and it makes sense.
Yes, there are songs on this album. Not just the usual rap, then a hook, but actual narrative. People scream, snarl, spit, croon and sigh on this LP and it's just great to listen to an album that pretty much demands that you pause and pay attention. It doesn't lend itself for neutral noise, it is not the nondescript soothing chamber music to accompany tasks such as needlepoint or fixing your hoover. No, it's something that you groove to on your ipod, you sing loudly in the shower, or just nod your head at certain songs, because they are that good.
I dig the fact that West pretty much seems to like all sorts of music, and it shows on this album. Most people tend to roll their eyes at sampling, and be terribly dismissive. In the right hands though, it's like the best fanfics out there - you take the original canon and put your twist on it so that it's recognisable, but something new and interesting. The best samples are the ones that are used in the most unusual ways.
A lot of critics have cited Nikki Minaj as the standout act on this album. She's good (I didn't realise that she was that same rapper who featured on a lot of songs over the past year) but I must admit, Kid Cudi has surprised me with his freewheeling because I only knew him as the guy who did Day and Night. Bon Iver worked out better than I thought he would, his input makes the album whole because he's there in half of the tracks, noodling and doing his thing which gives the work a coherence.
If people used auto tune like Bon Iver does, where he makes the voices stretch, layer, split, shred and then forces them together to be something frightening and beautiful, I'd be happy.
Lost In The World is by far my favourite track on the album. It uses Bon Iver's Lost In The Woods, and West makes it lost in the world - the rough and tumble of it. There's drums and beats, and choruses and voices, and it's claustrophobic but in a good way.
Blame Game just breaks my heart. Yeah, that's how relationships end sometimes. Emotions are raw, jagged, and you scrap and claw at each other until you're bleeding. You get to the point where you can't look at each other anymore, because even a stray glance can cut skin.
If you want to have a preview of the album, your best bet is to click Runaway and give a listen.
I know that people tend to dismiss Kanye West, bang on about his arrogance, and his antics and the rest of it, but in a LOT of ways, I do get where he's coming from. Despite Kanye's detractors, he keeps on striving, knowing at the end of the day it's about the work and the quality of the product. He's getting into the mindset of when faced by the blowback from the hysterical media, he just gives a #kanye shrug and keeps it moving.
There's a lesson in that.
Finally, my tic has gone away from my hypnotherapy. Every time I'd try and bite my nails, cuticles, she made it so that I'd wave aimlessly instead (I don't think she meant for that to happen, anyway). If anyone's interested, I can write up a post on said experience. It was a trip. I didn't go under the first time, so had to go back, and it took a lot of work on her part to get me into suggestion. But I think finally, after two separate sessions, it's working.
Have fic to start, a good thing too, I was tired of waving all the time.
1 Like WTF at that Chris Rock skit, yo? Especially as a follow up to the Blame Game. I'm OVER rap skits, and have been for the past decade and a half, and some of the lyrics with regards to women make me ¬_¬.
2 Wu Tang is forever! Until they come back, I'll stick with Mr West.
2 As much as I don't like it, I do respect it though. It's a hard world out there, especially when it comes to 'the other' so I can understand the armour