Been a little while since I wrote a full song tribute to a Hololive gurrrrlll, and I've had Mumei's cover of "Check Yes Juliet" by We the Kings stuck in my head since she sang it recently. I first had her pegged for a Great Lakes gal, due to her love of the harder and darker side of emo, but she has a decent Sun Belt emo side as well, the yearning and anxious side. Such a delightfully surprising mystery for the girl-next-door archetype...
See this earlier post on the geography of emo. ^_^
Original lyrics here.
For those who don't watch vtubers, Mumei fits into the theme of the original by growing up in a confining environment, but can get over her second-guessing and hesitation with a good loving encouraging oomph from her community. It's not exaaaactly like bf + gf, as in the original, but friends and moral support and confidantes, with occasional playful flirtation. We're her outlet for socializing and sanity -- and silliness! :) We just have to navigate the opposing forces that want to keep us from relating to each other this way...
Also, /vt/ is the vtuber board on 4chan, which she's more simpatico with, compared to other vtubers. I don't post there, or anywhere other than this blog, it's just where her most devoted fans hang out.
Pronunciation guide: "save" in "savescumming" drawn out into two syllables, the first stressed ("SAY-ave-SCUM-ing" a la "TURN-ing BACK"). In the bridge, "your LI-mit-ers OFF / as we GET to KNOW". Every syllable stressed in the 3rd and 6th lines of the bridge, as in the original.
* * *
Click yes Mumeiet, are ya winning?
Prechat's loading wheel keeps a-spinning
We won't go, until you press "go live"
Click yes Mumeiet, drop the shitpost
We'll keep spamming hearts to your headphones
There's no savescumming our game tonight
Open the 'Tube (owo owo)
Here's how we moom
Fly owlgirl fly
Don't factory reset
They'll one-guy your heart
If you take all their meds (take all their meds)
Don't priv your art
Don't say we're only a meme
Fly owlgirl fly
Forever we'll be
Moom's /vt/
Click yes Mumeiet, we'll be painting
Pining, posting, yours for the faving
Stream unannounced, and don't ask a poll's advice
Click yes Mumeiet, here's the schedule:
Seven nights of zatsu with Red Bull
They can hide the vods, don't let them hide your smile
Open the 'Tube (owo owo)
Here's how we moom
Fly owlgirl fly
Don't factory reset
They'll one-guy your heart
If you take all their meds (take all their meds)
Don't priv your art
Don't say we're only a meme
Fly owlgirl fly
Forever we'll be
Moom's /vt/
Connecting through the site
Connecting through the site
Endless timeline
Your limiters off
As we get to know
You byte by byte
Fly owlgirl fly
Don't factory reset
They'll one-guy your heart
If you take all their meds (take all their meds)
Don't priv your art
Don't say we're only a meme
Fly owlgirl fly
Forever we'll be
Moom's /vt/
Moom's /vt/
Moom's /vt/
Great CouncilRys collab, lots of laughs and chaos -- almost like a Minecraft free-for-all, despite it being a contest where the participants and commentators are supposed to be focused. Hehe.
ReplyDeleteWith Irys there, it felt like a SNOT stream from the good ol' days. Bae is a reinforcement for Kronii, the sensible / straight-man types. That requires someone who's even more of a no-filter pot-stirrer or instigator than the Goobinator -- just the job for the half-angel half-demon herself! ^_^
Goob brought more of a cursed memes humor to her role, which Fauna and Mumei and Kronii played into as well.
Irys brings more of a free spirit vibe -- she's unfiltered because she's blisfully innocent, almost childlike, and often unaware of having said something yabai.
Whereas Goob was more edgy or transgressive, knowing there was a boundary she was pressing up against, and pressed up against it anyway, deliberately naughty and mischievous (often following up with a self-aware gremlin chuckle).
So it's not exactly the same atmosphere, but it still has that much-needed instigator role in the mix.
Also, Irys is perhaps the only one who stands up to Kronii's attempts at bullying (e.g. during their feud in the CouncilRys Minecraft collab... Sana's tower visit, I think). Daddy's girls are confident in interpersonal situations, from the overdose of encouragement they got from their dad growing up. And Irys is I think the only real daddy's girl in EN. And it's not in a negative angry way -- just blithely batting away the bullying like "Why are you even trying that on me? tee hee."
Kronii's used to girls acquiescing when she tries to bully them, so to have one stand up to her in such a casual way, and not even a butchy or tomboy type but a giggly girly daddy's girl -- it's so unexpected and intriguing! She secretly respects that... and likes it. ^_^
We got another anecdote of Irys' dad indulging her when she was little. Every time she tells one, it tugs at the heartstrings how fondly she adores her dad, all these years later. She'll always be daddy's little princess, no matter what stage of life she eventually enters.
ReplyDeleteThe clueless wannabe alpha-male types (who men don't know exist, and who women do not chase down) think you should err on the side of being too strict, withholding of love and praise, and generally try to neg your own daughter, so she doesn't grow up to have an ego.
In reality, the girls who you think, "I would never want my daughter to end up that way" tend to have *bad* relationships with their fathers, not ones where he was unconditionally doting and treated her like a princess.
In order for a girl to have that moral monitor in her mind that asks, "What would my daddy think of this?" -- she has to have grown up valuing and caring about her dad. And no girl would respect a dad who tried to neg her while growing up to keep her ego in check, like a psycho.
Autistics could think of it as an investment -- you pay a lot early on, by indulging and doting on her like a princess, and it pays off to you many times over when she's on her own, but still carrying your voice and supervision around with her, instead of having to pay the costs of monitoring her yourself. You can rely on her to monitor herself, with your voice and face in her mind.
Whereas if she feels like she hasn't gotten much of an investment from her dad, why would she weigh his opinion heavily when she's on her own? He didn't earn such a high position -- and he doesn't get it automatically by having given her half his DNA before she was born. He has to invest after birth, throughout development.
Updates on the middle-class treasure trove still to be found out there in the thrift stores, to motivate you to get out there and at least admire it IRL like a museum exhibit, maybe bring some of them home to give your life more meaning.
ReplyDeleteSomeone was asking about records -- there was a pile of AC/DC's first 6 or so albums, for $2 apiece. I didn't pick them up, not being into classic rock enough to collect them (I'd probably get them on CD if anything). But a couple days later, they were all gone -- hopefully by someone who will play them, and not some Boomer who's going to toss them into his storage unit where they'll rot, while he thinks of it as a glorified savings account.
Speaking of records, I have never seen jazz records from the period where it went hipster / indie / weird / elite. Obviously, once it goes elite and niche, it stops becoming mass, and fewer copies are purchased. I thought there'd be some cool jazz out there, but have given up. However, stuff from the big band era could not be more plentiful -- that's when jazz was mainstream and danceable. Therefore, more copies purchased, more copies still in circulation.
It's the same with rock -- there will never be a shortage of CDs by popular rock from the '80s, '90s, and 2000s. But once it turned into hipster and indie rock, it became niche, few copies were printed / purchased / circulated. Alterna-rock from the '90s? Plentiful. Indie from the 2000s? Non-existent.
Also scored an amazing Midcentury teardrop / tulip shaped lamp in gleaming mirrored chrome, by Laurel. Like this one:
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/lighting/table-lamps/mid-century-modern-laurel-chrome-accent-lamp/id-f_23610042/
The original shade (which was not there) was conical and smooth, which is a bit too strictly Mod for my tastes, so I put on a textured '70s beige cylinder shade instead. Much more appealing pairing of Space Age and primitive / bohemian.
Only $4 from the unglamorous part of town. vs. however-many hundreds these delusional online sites are asking. :) I didn't even know who made it, whether they were high-status (they were), I could just tell it was awesome and could not let it go.
Scored a bottle of vintage Chanel for Men cologne for only $2. It's the same as Chanel Pour Monsieur EDT, but was marketed as "Chanel for Men Cologne" in America until 1989, when they started Frenchifying the name here. Probably from a batch in the '70s or '80s, based on the other items that were donated (Avon Baby Hippo, Old Spice Musk for Men, both from the mid-late '70s).
ReplyDeleteIt smelled off when I sniffed the open bottle, but figured it would make a neat collectible at any rate. But I tried it out, and although the opening citrus notes were definitely off / quickly evaporated, and there was no change over time -- the same mixture of middle and base notes, it came out pretty well. Spicy, woody, a little mossy, with lingering traces of what should've been the sour citrus notes.
Even brand-new, it did not project far or last long, so this bottle held up fine. Probably won't wear it again, not cuz it smells bad, but it would work better from a new bottle, and this makes a nice vintage collectible. Still 2/3 full, so I can wear it every once in awhile.
Chanel... ooo la la. ^_^ I still much prefer Antaeus, though, of course.
There was a time when no perfume or cologne showed up in thrift stores, but over the past year or so, it's started to trickle back. I got a pretty large, mostly full bottle of vintage Ralph Lauren Safari for men that I still wear a lot. Nothing is off, full blast of aldehydes in the opening, cut-glass bottle with chrome & woodgrain top. Awesome.
Got an amazing Barcalounger recliner on half-off day, for only $15. I'd seen it and sat in it quite a few times, but didn't pull the trigger. But it was too cool to let go.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea who made it, just that it was in a Midcentury / Streamline style, made to top quality -- with actual springs in the seat and backrest, not just foam cushioning -- the mechanism worked perfectly, the burlap dust cover on the bottom was somewhat open and you could see all the wood inside was hardwood, and the upholstery was in what I thought was part of the earthy textured '70s trend. Heavily textured, mainly beige, with some brown, yellow, and light gray. But it was so sharply tailored, it looked earlier...
Turns out it was! While vacuuming around the inside, just in case, I saw a 1953 production date stamped onto one of the inner wood pieces. No wonder it looked so sharp! It's the same model as the center top one here, but with ahead-of-its-time upholstery from the earthy textured '70s:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/eduoxa/every_santa_wants_a_barcalounger_1953/
Unlike the La-Z-Boys that I'm used to, it doesn't have the lever mechanism -- you just lean back, and the whole thing works in unison until it's flat, or even slightly dipping the head releative to the feet. Then you lift your upper body, or pull down your feet, and it works it in reverse in unison. Neat!
This is one of the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in, so firm yet springy. Great tweedy texture on the fabric, but not itchy. My cat loves it to death, too, he's napped it in more than I have! I just had to admonish him from trying to scratch it (I don't cut his claws, and he loves sinking them into heavily textured things like this). We had one of the coziest naps together the other day, with him laying on my stomach and chest -- big ol' 20+ pound orange-and-cream tiger-bear. ^_^ And with a heavily textured '70s Pendleton wool throw blanket, too!
I can't remember the last time I laid back in a recliner, let alone nodded of in one. Probably not since the '90s, when I visited a friend's for a sleepover or something, and they were standard in living rooms. We had a pair of '80s / '90s La-Z-Boys, but I don't recall sleeping in them in the 2000s.
The ones made since the 2000s are too overstuffed and large, more like a bean bag on top of a loveseat, but for one person. Not cozy at all, not firm, and looks horrendo.
As much as "Barcalounger" became a figurative, widespread word for "recliner chair," I don't think I've ever sat in one before. It was also La-Z-Boys, or similar. They must've been more popular in the '50s and '60s, with La-Z-Boy eclipsing them sometime in the '70s or '80s. Nowadays, you don't even hear "Barcalounger" as a catchall term for recliner. Sadge.
Barcalounger did make a more trendy Midcentury Modern model, but even this "trad" model looks distinctly Midcentury Streamline. So cool!
Super-cool Mid-Century Modern walnut headboard by Lane, from the same line as that credenza I scored earlier, donated from the same person. Made in 1971. Like this one, but it's full/queen size, so the raised panels are not as wide -- they're square, and have just the two matching / bookended parabolic-shaped pieces, whereas the king size in the pic has a third unmatched vertical-grain piece that throws off the symmetry and geometric look.
ReplyDeletehttps://midcenturywarehouse.com/lane-mid-century-walnut-king-headboard-1682246905/
You can see better IRL how the blocky panels are raised, the border and the dividing pieces between the panels are also somewhat raised (not as much), while the background is recessed. Very blocky and geometric, but with wild primitive woodgrain and color. So American. :)
These were made for metal frames, not full wooden frames. I wasn't sure how common those types were, but the lady at the thrift store in the unglam part of town -- where I scored this for a mere $8 -- said they were normal back then. She was born in the '50s.
So then I had to find a bedskirt or bedspread to cover up the metal frame, and found a nice one right away for $6, Made in USA, white and yellow medium-sized vertical stripes. Nice match with the geometric look, and the color palette -- white, yellow, and medium-dark brown! Now all I need is an orange macrame bedspread, heh heh heh...
I really love pairing these sleek Mod items with something more textured, organic, boho. All part of that Primitive Futurism that defines our American aesthetic. :)
Finally picked up some stone items, too. Stone can get a little too Old World, but if it's really wild and figured, it has a more primitive pre-historic feel that makes it more American.
ReplyDeleteFirst was a cantilevered side table like this one:
https://www.47thmain.com/hexagon-marble-side-table-dmr081
The metal support is tubular steel with gleaming chrome finish, welded joints, and brackets with stone screws to fasten it to the top. The top is "marble" in common usage, but could be another metamorphic type. It's so heavily banded / foliated and wild-looking -- it was good enough to be woodgrain in aesthetic contribution!
Multiple layers of wavy / chevron bands, in alternating colors of blue-gray, silver, and white -- very high-contrast for stone.
There's some level of cleavage, including a pronounced one right down the center, so that it looks like two halves being bookended. Very geometric. :) Could be gneiss? Marble? I dunno, but this is one of the best pieces they could have selected for a table-top -- you can see it across the room, it's not the uniform statuary kind of marble.
At $17, it was one of the more "expensive" items I've picked up at a thrift store, but totally worth it. One of the Boomers there walked up to me and complimented me on it for how cool it looked.
Then there's a pair of mushrooms made from onyx, although more uniform in color and figuring -- mostly shades of cream, with some light-orange veining. But being mushrooms made it more organic and primitive. One is larger, about the size of a man's fist, the other is only an inch or two tall. Only $2 apiece. They could've been made in Mexico, as a lot of onyx pieces were in the '70s, but I think those were mostly chess pieces, bookends, and Central American-themed items -- not mushrooms, which are more uniquely American. Either way, nice funky addition to the '70s vibe. ^_^
Too bad I didn't do these running commentaries when I was hunting the more manly items like antique / vintage hand tools, pocket knives, shaving stuff, tobacco stuff, soft drink bottles, electronics, etc. That was at least 5 years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just furniture and decor and housewares, heheh. But I've got so much of the above stuff by now, and it was never that common in thrift stores anyway -- always had to go to antique malls to find it.
Oh, and books! There's nothing too great out there these days, but you can still find wonderfully photographed & printed travel / souvenir books. Florence, Seville, the American Southwest -- infinitely better than anything on the internet. So rich looking and feeling. Great coffee table books.
Picked up this gem of Romanesque photography (in B&W), for just $2. Plates made in France, book made in England -- they don't make 'em like that anymore.
https://www.abebooks.com/Romanesque-Art-Italy-Decker-Hans-Harry/783485176/bd
Found this one in the unglam part of town, part of the table where all books are only a quarter -- yes, just $0.25!
https://www.abebooks.com/9780452253575/Witches-Jong-Erica-0452253578/plp
The illustrations were too cool to pass up, and they're printed in wonderful rich glossy fashion. I don't know how feminazi the poems are going to be, and I don't care. It's an art book for me. :) It's the original edition, which the crazies are asking hundreds for -- get real! Just scour the unglamorous part of town, and you'll find stuff like this -- if not this specific book, something else like it!
The microblogging scene has deteriorated significantly in the past few weeks. First Elon Musk decided it was a great idea to only make tweets and accounts visible to people who have an account on Twitter. Then Meta launched Threads and the media has been hyping Threads as a better Twitter, when Threads doesn't even have a web client, making it as walled off and useless to the anonymous browser as Twitter.
ReplyDeleteEvery bread you bake
ReplyDeleteEvery schizo take
Every mod you wake
Every mind you break
Owl is watching you
Every name of gray
And every poll you sway
Every bait you lay
Every rrat you slay
Owl is watching you
Oh can't you say
You belong to Mei?
How my damn head shakes
With every bread you bake
Every pic you save
And every post you fave
Every clip you crave
Every raid you brave
Owl is watching you
Since my break, I have felt so lower-case
But when I lurk, there is only my fanbase
Edit preference, and it's you I can't erase
Now Twitter's dead, and I need you in my space
I keep sighing hoomans, hoomans, please...
Oh can't you say
You belong to Mei?
How my damn head shakes
With every bread you bake
Every pic you save
And every post you fave
Every clip you crave
Every raid you brave
Owl is watching you
Every bread you bake
Every schizo take
Owl is watching you
* * *
Pronunciation guide: there is ON-ly MY fan-BASE
And that's "Every Bread You Bake" by The Powlice, from Mumei's perspective this time, instead of her audience's as usual.
("Bread" being 4chan slang for "thread", and making a new thread = baking a new bread.)
Zoomer girls are reviving "HOLLAAAA!!!" when catcalling IRL. :)
ReplyDeleteI was looking around an antique mall yesterday, and a pack of three horned up college girls dropped in. "It's My Life" by Talk Talk was playing over the speaker system, and I was whistling along to it, and one of the girls was singing along as well. I'm guessing that's the one who strolled into the area I was at, caught a glimpse, and then ran back to tell her friends about her discovery. ^_^
One by one they made their way around me, two pretty tall -- 5'10 or taller -- and the other was their "short" friend at around 5'6. The tall one who spotted me was blonde, tan, thicc but also fit, was squatting down to browse the local candle selection -- always bet on smellfags! It's a sign of being corporeal rather than cerebral. Girls who complain about all kinds of smells = cerebral, no fun.
The other tall one was brunette, pale olive skin, hair in a tight bun, athletic but not as thicc.
Dancers? Student athletes? Not the boho or art-ho type you normally see there. Very giggly and animated and exhibiting boisterous pack behavior, like they're from the same team or dance company or maybe just sorority.
On their way out, they passed by me one last time, and all I heard was their excited giggly rambling-on... then I thought I heard something, but it didn't sound right.
But it was! Two of them had shouted out "HOLLAAAA!!!" in the midst of their giggly rambling. I was the only guy there -- the only *person* there at all, aside from the female cashier (and they were not bi or lesbian).
By the time my brain had processed that long-ago phrase, they were already out the door, otherwise I would've holla'd back. ^_^
In all the catcalls I've gotten since the restless phase of the 15-year excitement cycle began in 2020, I haven't heard this one until yesterday. Haven't heard this particular mating call since the 2000s, or early 2010s at the latest.
Is it Zoomers reviving the '90s / y2k slang, like they have with "for real" and "da bomb"? Or were they from the West Coast and the phrase never died out there?
I dunno. But it was unusual enough to short-circuit my brain for a minute there. Ah, nothing like having your brain scrambled by horny young babes... :)))
Do you think they were working class girls if they were corporeal?
DeleteOne of the Holo honeys (can't recall who now) was asking, sometime in the past few weeks, if there's a candle that smells like a shop filled with old books. There is! Bookends by Hobby Lobby -- should be easy to find IRL, and they'll probably price-match this online offer of less than $10.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.hobbylobby.com/Home-Decor-Frames/Candles-Fragrance/Candles/Bookends-Candle-Tin/p/80859588
Do not order it online! There are Hobby Lobbys everywhere, use this as an excuse to touch grass!
Time to level up your horny stat by burning scented candles. ^_^
And speaking of bookends, I scored an awesome pair of Danish Mod ones in teak & black enameled steel, for only $3 at the thrift store! From the '60s. These:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.etsy.com/no-en/listing/1404252683/vintage-mid-century-modern-bookends
There's a rosewood version, too -- probably won't find *that* in a thrift store, but you never knowwww....
They were college girls, so probably not working class. They're just an exception among the college-going future professional class -- but being physical, if they're dancers or athletes, it may be in a corporeal field, unlike most professional careers.
ReplyDeleteTypically, going to college kills your sex drive, but if you're already a corporeal type, maybe you get a protective effect.
That reminds me, I think Irys and Gura probably did not go to college, or only did a year or two, or something like that. They're definitely the horniest ones, not in a bad way, just having libidinal energy flowing through their blood, which they channel into a higher purpose like singing, entertaining, etc.
They're not working class either, they found their way into a job where their appeal was highly dependent on their physical performances (like singing). So they're an exception among the professional class.
Killer Councilrysathon tonight! Fauna venturing outside her comfort zone with an oldies song ("Be My Baby"), Moom getting back to her flaming background emo roots (in lieu of another "Mumei Rants" stream, hehe), and Irys literally getting me up out of my seat dancing around the room three separate times (to "Cupid," "Dance the Night," and "Treasure").
ReplyDelete>ywn get to join the extraverts Irys and Kiara in helping to coax Gura, Mumei, and Fauna out of their introvert shells on the dance floor of a nightclub
Why go on?
That reminded me of Moom asking if she and the others should have a little swiggy-swiggy before streaming, to enhance the party atmosphere. Introverts need a shot of liquid courage to let down their inhibitions and cut loose in public (or in private, too?). That can be arranged in a nightclub! ^_^
But as it turned out, no alcohol was needed, just pure all-natural female chaos. :) Another slumber party stream for the ages, ending like all girls' slumber parties do, with everyone squeezing into the same bathtub. I saw it on stream, it HAS to be real!!!
Although only the extravert Irys may be comfortable hearing it... we luuuvvv you girls, this really was one hell of a night!
In a bathtub babbling about shoes and Reality TV stars like Chloe Veitch.
Deletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n860n_Ain-E&pp=ygUUY2hsb2UgdmVpdGNoIGFpcmhlYWQ%3D
Moom! What about combining Mumei Rants with karaoke? Whiplashing between a heavy dark emo song, and a reflective silver-lining song, back and forth.
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily the polar opposite, a cheerful upbeat song -- I mean what your tone was in the Mumei Rants 2 stream, where you forced yourself into composure, tried to see the other side, find a positive message, before lapsing back into burn-it-all-down ranting again. xD
Just an idea to think about, for whenever the emotional time is right.
I know Hololive is your main focus (so many streams, so little time), but have you taken a glance at the other smaller EN corpos? Phase Connect is my main thing, and reading your analysis of the Holo girls with respect to cultural cycles has my gears turning with the Phase girls, especially Pippa, who was born on the Millenial/Zoomer cusp, Lia who is a solid Zoomer, and the various solidly Millenial girls.
ReplyDeleteI came here for the architectural cultural articles, and stayed for the vtuber love.
"So many streams, so little time" -- not really anymore. But I've been exploring some of the JP Holo girls to fill some of the downtime. Okayu plays a lot of classic retro games, and has a very calm demeanor with an infectious laugh, so I might check out more of her archive.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand 99% of what she says, but most of the reactions to video game moments are emotional, and emotional expressions translate across language barriers.
I first became aware of her through Gura, who was big on singing "Mogu Mogu Yummy" (Okayu's hit song), and brought her on stage for a duet as well.
Then I checked her channel's archive, and holy shit! Anyone who plays the original Metroid has my vote. Lots of others too as I scrolled through the list. And she's a Zoomer, too, not a geriatric Gen X-er who's already played them growing up. I respect anyone who participates in keeping the culture alive by transmitting these classics onto the next generation.
You can't be a real movie buff without watching the classics, and you aren't a real gamer if you don't experience the canon.
Korone is another one who caught my eye -- YouTube's algo brought up when she was playing the original Legend of Zelda. And her archive is filled with classics. :)
Another reason why Irys is an honorary JP member -- she's played a lot more classics than the other EN members, including the NES (Mega Man 2).
Now I feel like making up a list of games that she could try out, for the "play a retro game" spot on her summer bingo card. ^_^
As for Phase Connect, I watched a little of Pippa and Lia here and there, but they're a bit too far on the girl-hating / self-hating / art-ho side for my tastes, catering to a girl-hating audience.
ReplyDeleteI can deal with girl-haters in some contexts, like listening to the Red Scare ladies recap the fake & gay discourse cycle, where I just ignore their girl-hating. (Actually, I literally say to myself out loud any time that happens, "girrrrl haterrrrs...")
However, they do take suggestions very well, which I wish more content creators did. You don't even have to direct it to them -- either they, or others in their circle, keep their eyes peeled for good content ideas, and run with them if they sound cool.
I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw Pippa do a oujia board stream, with hand-cam (and for a moment, a feet-cam), in collab with Yuko from idolEN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CePthY_9kY
That stream took place on Dec 30 sometime in the evening.
Literally that early morning (i.e., very late night before), I posted a long list of suggestions for the Hololive girls who were holed up in the same house together for their Japan trip. Including this comment, about doing a ouija board session with a hand-cam! And in a collab setting!
https://akinokure.blogspot.com/2022/12/christmas-songs-and-american.html?showComment=1672388771775#c7932541111197291731
Christmas and New Year's are not the time you'd usually expect a ouija board session -- closer to Halloween. Which I did suggest the girls do in Minecraft in mid-October:
https://akinokure.blogspot.com/2022/10/minecraft-collab-streams-to-keep.html
But using an IRL ouija board, with hand-cam, in a collab setting -- that was when I was still staying up from Dec 29, into the wee hours of Dec 30.
And later that night, there's Pippa and Yuko doing just that! Coincidence???
No, I will not take my meds -- they, or somebody from their fancord who has eyes on the broad "vtuber discussion sphere" relayed that idea to them, and they ran with it. Pretty good stream, too, despite not actually going through with the main activity!
Good convo about whether they believe in evil spirits, can seemingly harmless children's games open up demonic portals, two opposing sides of beliefs (but not a fake & gay debate, just a lively convo among friends), the hand-cam, the feet-cam, the "damn bitch you live like this?" shot of her desk with food / drinks / etc.
I don't know if they ever followed up on other suggestions I made to the Holo girls since then, or if it was a one-time thing.
But it seems like there's a growing distancing between the streamers and their audiences since the end of last year, so I don't really brainstorm a zillion ideas anymore, since they won't go anywhere. Now it's more writing the occasional tribute song and offering reactions to their content, without suggesting where else it could go or requesting karaoke songs etc.
When I draw up that list of retro games Irys would enjoy, I'll frame it as games that others should try out as well, not a specific directed request toward her -- just motivated or inspired by her and her retro-appreciating ways. All comes back to her being a daddy's girl, and thinking, "Would my dad like this?" Hehe. Luv Iwys. ^_^
Glad you liked the architecture series, I've still got a few left to do. For American architecture, malls as utopias in Brutalism (and other lesser styles), and corporate office parks / campuses as suburban utopias (often in pop Brutalism).
ReplyDeleteThen there's the whole backlog of how architectural styles are born during / mostly after the integrative civil war in the lifespan of an empire.
I don't write those up as full posts right away because I need to survey a bunch of empires to see if the pattern actually holds up first. But by the time I've done that first survey, I've satisfied my own curiosity, and writing up the specific case studies in greater detail -- especially having to scour the image-depleted internet of the 2020s for suitable pictures -- is a bit too much to take on right away. I want to move onto some other big question.
I've covered, in other discussions, how Gothic was born after the integrative civil war of the French Empire (after they'd conquered their Western / Southern French neighbors, by the time of Philip Augustus). And how different it was from the earlier Romanesque / Frankish / Byzantine style, when the Franks and Byzantines were the only empires in Europe.
And of course the American architecture series began with pointing to its origins after the Civil War & Reconstruction era.
Then there's the spatial aspect -- these new styles are born close to the meta-ethnic frontier of the empire. Northeast France, Midwest / Western America, NW Anatolia for the Ottomans, and so on.
The other big problem is, is it worth it to go into detail for each separate case? Or just condense all the details into an overview, and present all the overviews in a single mega-post?
I'll have to end up doing separate case studies, I think. Otherwise there's too much whiplash going from one empire to another to another, all within a single post.
Anyway, that's all to say there's more coming on that topic.
Next up will be illustration as America's main visual hand-made medium, aside from architecture. We never got into painting or sculpture. Movies / cinematography on the realist side, but on the stylized side, it has always been illustration -- "always" since the end of our integrative civil war, that is.
ReplyDeleteIt began trying to trace the roots of the iconic "video game world" style from the good ol' days, before the repulsive and bland looks of the 2000s and after ("poo palette"). The blue skies, green grass & foliage, warm earth tones for the ground, and often mountain vistas in the deep background. Not very far from a Bob Ross landscape!
But then I remembered Maxfield Parrish, so it went back at least that far. And maybe the mentor of the Brandywine School, Howard Pyle -- although it looks like it was more his students than he himself who established these now familiar and iconic tropes & techniques.
Utopias in movies & TV, sci-fi book covers, right up through video games of the '80s and '90s, when they were still trying to look like illustrations rather than photographs.
Thennnnn, I thought is this a unique American style? Well, some elements are, but it looks like these utopian or pastoral / idyllic / paradise tropes appear in all imperial culture, as they're expanding and growing in cohesion (after the integrative civil war).
How many more case studies does that put on my plate? Sheesh. There, though, I may just do a quick overview of many empires in one mega-post. And verbal / literary as well as visual examples.
By the time the empire is long in the tooth, losing cohesion, and about to fragment and contract? -- not exactly the environment for idyllic vistas, not even as escapism. Collapsing empires would rather dwell on their shittiness, often rationalized as facing the ugly but pressing contemporary matters rather than escaping into an imagined idyllic past.
But the past WAS idyllic compared to the present collapse! How stupid people become when empires collapse...
As one quick overview, look at the miniatures / illuminated manuscripts of those late Medieval / Renaissance French chronicles (e.g. by Froisart). Those are all after Philip Augustus. So are the landscapes by Poussin well into the 17th C., and Fragonard in the late 18th C. Blue skies! Green vegetation! Warm earth tones on the ground!
ReplyDeleteAlready by the mid-late 19th C. with Bouguereau -- who is supposedly the inheritor of those older styles, and engaged in nostalgia unlike the Impressionists -- where are the blue skies? They're more white. Not much blue water bodies either. Maybe some green vegetation, or a blue sky, or some warm earth tones on the ground -- but not all of them together, in an idyllic gestalt. It's a huge drop-off from Fragonard a century earlier.
Delacroix's time even seems like a transition -- some blue in the sky, but not like the several centuries before. He's already starting to think of blue skies as a quaint innocent trope for a culture that is still in its infancy, not a mature one -- i.e., geriatric, nearing senility.
Gerome, Bouguereau's contemporary and a zillion times better, showed more ease with blue skies, although still not making it obligatory as earlier -- there are some white skies in his work, too. And they're all set in cities, so no verdant vegetation. Even the stone buildings are a bit on the gray / brown side, and desaturated, without the yellow / orange warmth and saturation of earlier times.
Not that the Impressionists were upholding the traditional palette either. Not much of the sky visible, let alone in blue -- unless, like with Monet, it's set over another body of blue water. That's refreshing, but where's the green vegetation? And the warm ground colors? There's no ground at all! Expanse of sky over an expanse of water is pretty unsettling, not a comfy utopian Eden. Manet's Luncheon on the Grass has no sky at all, or water bodies.
One of the few exceptions is Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, from the 1880s. Social outing, big crowd, leisure activities, grass, blue water, blue sky, contemporary setting rather than overt RETVRN setting. But in a modern style (pointillist).
Henri Rousseau was more comfortable with the idyllic palette, but he had to be explicitly primitivist and escapist in his subject matter.
That's why Fauvism felt like somewhat of a breath of fresh air -- at least blue skies were back on the menu, and not necessarily in nostalgic settings. But it cucked the audience at the same time, since it was part of a trippy rainbow palette all over, allowing for pink grass, blue or purple tree trunks, and the like. Not Edenic, more like a breakdown or fragmenting of reality -- the fragmenting of the color wheel, in this case, and all sorts of colors are landing in places where they naturally do not occur.
In the context of a collapsing empire, though, Matisse is about as idyllic as you can get.
Who knew, playing all those classic and not-so-classic video games, that you were taking in utopian vistas, connecting into a tradition stretching back 100 years in American culture?
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I know most of them were created by Japanese artists, but Japan was firmly in the American cultural sphere by the '80s, and vibing with the American spirit, not the Euro spirit.
Take me back...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SonicTheHedgehog1.png
Blue skies dominate the landscape pallette of Far Cry 5, and definitely accentuates the Americana mood of the game.
ReplyDeleteThe other part of your writing with the 15 year cycle reminds me of the astrologers sussing out Neptune's crawl through the zodiac signs, spending roughly 14 years and change per sign, and acting as the planet of subcultures. Uranus going through each sign roughly every 7 years, disrupting every time it changes sign. In astrological lore each sign alternates between emissive and receptive nature's. The timing doesn't line up with your schema of cycles, but Neptune went through Sagittarius from 1970-1984, then Capricorn from 1984-1998, Aquarius 1998- 2012, Pisces 2012- 2026. Uranus in Libra 1969-1975, Scorpio 1974-1981, Sagittarius 1981- 1988, Capricorn 1988- 1996, Aquarius 1995-2003, Pisces 2003-2011, Aires 2010- 2019, Taurus 2018- 2026. The interplay between these two planets and the dates of your cycle schema really got me thinking.
Minecraft looks like a video game Garden of Eden. Or the central panel from Garden of Earthly Delights, when there's a lot of feminine chaos going on in a collab stream, hehe. That's another great example from the late Medieval / Renaissance era. Could've been a sci-fi book cover from the '60s or '70s, or He-Man background art.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad everyone finds Minecraft fun and addicting, since it's about the only link between the late Millennial / Zoomer groups and the canonical style. Blocky, like our architecture, but also blue skies, green vegetation, and beige / yellow / orange on the ground somewhere. It reminds you of an 8-bit game, just in 3D.
Maybe future historians will consider Minecraft mania as the American Empire's version of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood or the Arts & Crafts movement in the late-stage British Empire.