zines_not_mags | Member Posts

Books
Still reading A Power Unbound.

Comics
Caught up on Order of the Stick (I was at about #1319, and the most recent one was #1328.) Welp, that was a thing that happened.

Things are also Happening in Dumbing of Age. I am looking at the title text in June 24's strip and glowering distrustfully at Willis after what happened last big finale.

Games
Playing a lot of Simon Tatham's Puzzle Games on my phone.
Slay the Spire: have now unlocked Ascension 4 on all four characters. Surprisingly (to me?) the hardest run on Ascension 3 was with the Defect.

Links

The Bedbound Activity Masterlist: Part 1 (Also good for insomnia or for when it's too cold to be anywhere but under the covers, even if you're not bedbound.)

A New Ballet by Underrepresented Artists: "The Little Mermaid reimagined as a disabled, queer and brown coming-of-age story for 7 dancers." The link is to a fundraiser, but even if you're not up for donating there's a video there from rehearsals that might be of interest. (Disclaimer: I can't be objective about this show, one of my best friends is dancing in it.)

Crowdfunders for the UK's Trans+ Solidarity Alliance: Support Trans+ Solidarity Alliance and Maybe I'm Trans? (with badges). (hattip: rydra_wong)
Internet users advised to change passwords after 16bn logins exposed. As usual, HaveIBeenPwned, you know the drill.

Cats
Ash is down an incisor and a canine as of last Tuesday. He was good and brave at the vet and, after he got home, patient with Dorian's mistaking him for a stranger because he smelled Wrong.

Phenology
No new kangaroo visits. It's been very cold out.

kradeelav

writing 'we were challenged to do this new/interesting display...' to a vendor = "fuck my stupid baka life my idiot boss added this to the to-do list, don't shoot the messenger pls'

i'm in the middle of [massive high profile dayjob] crunch which between doujin logistics and other projects has me going a lil' hrrrghghhrrgh[internal project manager anxiety screech].

i'll be fine. it'll be over in two weeks. but just. aaaaaaa.

~~funniest thing is my former art director bro who's working under me is ccd on the email and i know he got a chuckle out of my wording lol~~

tozka

2025 Reading Log | 41/200 yearly goal (+6 from last update)

After my last Reading Wednesday post (way back on June 4th), I got sucked into reading a ton of Naruto fanfic (KakaIru to be more specific) which has of course slowed down my book reading. However, I did manage to finish all of MomsDarkSecret's queer fantasy series, Bright Isle.

They're self-published original fiction works (available to read here on FictionPress, first book titled "The Wizard of Bright Isle") and so have many of the problems that such things have, like the occasional typo and meandering POVs. BUT overall they're enjoyable stories with low-stakes problems and satisfying consequences for the villain characters, plus multiple queer relationships. They do have romance though it's very light and not necessarily the focus of the plot, which is more about running a kingdom with evil wizards and greedy nobles trying to mess things up all the time.

Something about the writing style (especially in the first book) reminds me of old school fantasy books, like maybe from the 1980s? Like, books where the kid finds out he's a wizard and is basically like "okay, if you say so" and then there isn't much introspection on his changed circumstances and he just gets on with things.

I did enjoy the series but perhaps I shouldn't have read all of them one after another. There's a lot of repetition of plot points-- the greedy nobles/evil wizards just DO NOT LEARN-- and it became very obvious the author didn't want to actually permanently harm any of her non-evil characters, ever, so the tension doesn't work as well as in other books where people DO get just a little bit maimed.

As for my current reads: I'm like halfway through a 500k fanfic that's the first in a series, so I don't expect my book-reading pace to pick up any time soon. :P

kradeelav

using this from

karel as a selfship meme :P

( sfw/nsfw questions under the cut! )

sonofgodzilla

Like Akiyama Yuna and Yagi Azuki both, Arai Sae debuted as part of AKB48’s eighteenth generation, passing auditions in 2023 and finding herself thrust into the spotlight as AKS went all in the reality-TV-survival-dance show, OUT OF 48.

Saechan!

Perhaps no stranger to television cameras, having already appeared the year prior in the second season of another Akimoto Yasushi helmed reality show, Watashi ga Joyu ni Naru hi, or The Day I Become an Actress, it should not be a surprise that she navigated the waters of OUT OF 48 surprisingly well and ended up being selected as a member of UNLAME, joining Kubo Hinano, Sakagawa Hiyuka, Yamaguchi Yui, Kuranoo Narumi, and, of course, Sato Suzuka and Nakamura Yuka.

Whilst UNLAME only lasted a year, Saechan has been going from strength to strength with AKB, initially balancing her activities with the group with her debut in the theatre as part of the revival of Tadaima Renaichuu that began in 2023 and appearing on magazine covers throughout the following year with Akiyama and Yagi, building a reputation despite her absence from the senbatsu of the group’s singles, which maybe came as a blessing in disguise considering the work she would have been putting in with UNLAME at the time.

Yet despite this workload, she still was selected as centre for an Idol Nanka Janakattara B-side, Shittakaburi no Sono Shita ni, so it was clear that management were betting early on her becoming a prominent face in the group, something that I imagine led to her selection for the new single.

This last bit is something I’m really interested in, and I don’t want to disparage the passion of the fans who attend the theatre regularly, but with less public awareness of AKB’s members, there is a sense of both greater curation of the group yet also greater freedom in the manner in which the members express themselves. I don’t think we would have seen moments like the recent brief promotional video between Sato Airi and Hirata Yuki for the twenty-first generation auditions in another era. More than anything, I feel that girls are arriving at these auditions already with a number of triumphs under their belts, rather than with skills they hope to develop. Saechan herself has been studying classical ballet since the age of six, something that already sets her aside. It feels absurd to suggest that I feel this represents the idea of idol becoming mainstream, idol has always been mainstream, it is a genre designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, but I do think it represents the idea that making a career choice to be idol has become mainstream.

I digress.

A huge fan of musicals, of The Phantom of the Opera in particular, perhaps you have passed by Saechan as a member of the audience in the West End. Perhaps, with her proficiency in English, you may have exchanged words with her without ever knowing that in less than a few years, you will be looking back on the moment and recalling the time you met AKB48’s new centre.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Old Man Gloom - A Hideous Nightmare Lies Upon The World

kradeelav

it is going to be amazing when i can tell you all the absolute funniest way ever i think one can bullshit-trick your brain into enjoying backgrounds. (remind me in august.)

anyway, having a lot of fun working, drawing, reading, and gaming. i think i'm at my most content with life doing a balance of those four things and yeah, just quietly vibing in my corner here for the last few months and steadily seeing more quantifiable progress in all four of those areas (also just chatting with more friends in general behind the scenes too).

sonofgodzilla

Title: Bird is the Word
Universe: Power Rangers Sisters Force
Character(s): OCs
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Summary: In her pocket, she searched for anything that could be useful if things went south though, anything that could be used as a weapon. Instead, all she found was her super spinner with its bright red Coca-Cola logo and its clear plastic rim, a handful of spokey-dokeys, and a GameBoy cartridge that had been there since the last day of school, a copy of Dr Mario that she had promised to return to the boy that had lent it to her. None of these things were going to be useful.
Length: 746 words
Author's Notes: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISHIBASHI KEI!! 🎉💖🍰🎊🎂 I sat on this story since Christmas when I made a dumb joke about how everyone was doing fanfic adaptations of Power Rangers based on sentai and I felt left out so I was going to do one based on Shushutorian, and now here it is. also: external link.

trio dreams

( Bird is the Word )

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Slayer - Metal Storm/Face the Slayer

kradeelav

"To start with, on the cultural side, the main difference is that Japanese animation comes out of a completely different tradition of representation in art and performance. Western classicism is based on the strict adherence to realism, rendering the artist (and the process) invisible in order to elevate the subject. Classicist painting values the creation of an illusion. A painting should make the viewer forget he is looking at oil on canvas, and reveal its subject as if through a window on reality. Brush strokes must be blended so no trace of the artist's toil is evident. Western theatrical performance is likewise realist, defining a character through individuality, unique traits specific to period and setting. Japanese theatre and art, on the other hand, would fit the definition of "modernist" in Western culture. Asian painting is stylized, impressionistic (and expressionistic), concerned entirley with displaying the brush stroke and the flat, graphic nature of the picture plane. Japanese performance-- kabuki, noh, bunraku-- is similarly stylized, and more focused on capturing a distillation of character than emotional versimilitude."

- (long essay on differences of eastern vs western animation by the creator of Aeon Flux)

( (edit: shoot, copypasting the whole thing in the readmore here, since reddit doesn't strike me as the most stable source.) )

sonofgodzilla

Title: Ask For More
Universe: Kamen Rider
Character(s): Hongo Takeshi
Series: Beneath the Mask | Joint Struggle | And There Your Heart Will Be Also | Harlequinade | Through a Trance of Despondency | Tokyo Incidents | Exercises in Futility (1, 2, 3) | Vigil | Hatred Sticks to You | Fallow State | Alchemy in the Subyear | A Nation of Orugu (V, VI) | Damage Control | Kingdom Dolorous
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Summary: “For a brief time, Hongo used his powers to represent different brands. In the end, it never worked out because he never got the idea of using his powers for such frivolous deals.”
Length: 770 words
Author's Notes: One of the things I like most is compiling a list and then making it obsolete a week later. This is a terrible Black Saturn in joke. I bullied Rei into making this image in photoshop during a conversation that escalated quickly and took in such topics as Pepsi Convoy, whether Ishinomori Shotaro, creator of Kamen Rider, was sleeping with Saber supporting character, Sudo Mei, and other such spiralling matters. Suffice to say, everything got out of hand, and now we have this new stupid setting for which

shadowhenshin and myself are sadly responsible in which every one of these silly toy gimmicks exists at the same time. I'm sorry. also: external link.

Pepsi Ichigo

( Ask For More )

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: nakata - leaves of grass

sonofgodzilla

( Collectors )

Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Patrick Shiroishi - Grasshopper Tactics

kradeelav

( unimportant bsky petty wank lol )

kradeelav

a guy who i had not been following for all too long via RSS feeds announced he was pulling the plug on his blog and focusing on church life, since he was feeling bothered by the separation of internet/blog life <-vs-> church work.

and to be clear - good for him, i think he'll be ultimately happier (I got the hint that he had been on the chans a bit too long and that church was pulling him out of a very nihilistic shell).

but it got me to reflecting about my life since it is by ... (partial) design, extremely compartmentalized. in the exact way that he felt bothered by with his life, and it made me wonder - why do I not feel bothered? should I be? what's different about our experiences?

pretty much all of my major spheres of life/friends are extremely compartmentalized. a lot of them would outright hate each other. most of y'all would probably have a strong distaste for a certian channer-adjacent shitpost server i still quite adore. my immediate family would have an... extremely negative reaction to (the harder) art on this handle, but they're no less genuinely loving and grounding to me on a day to day basis and extremely worth nurturing in turn. said channer server would hate my art, but clearly i think it's worth drawing. the wheel goes on lol.

and to be sure, there's a non-zero psychological toll on actively keeping the compartmentalized areas separate but at the same time i significantly appreciate the freedom to navigate between these separate lives, far more than said toll. that freedom to wander in and out and in and out like a traveler on the road ... that's more precious to me almost more than everything. if a more fragile area collapses, i can wander off to a different one or recreate one. i can retreat if it's becoming too overstimulating. i don't have to slowly warp my psyche and ideals to fit an area.

in a way, i feel more full, being compartmentalized. fuller as a human.

vass

Books
Started Freya Marske's A Power Unbound.

Fandom
I'm mostly reading Nine Worlds or The Goblin Emperor fanfic right now.
Recs:
A Nuisance Though Thou Art, by

wedgetail. (The Goblin Emperor, complete.) Setheris dies when Maia's eleven.
Wheel and turn or bleed and burn by

Drel_Murn. (Nine Worlds, WIP) Pern fusion. The fire lizard character is a delight. Mind the rape/noncon warning: that's not just because of the dubcon nature of mating flights.
fake a smile, by

ariex09,

crownedrooster,

fire_eyes_chica, and

rattyjol (Nine Worlds. Series: five complete stories and two WIPs.)

crownedrooster wrote an upsetting fic back in late 2023 in which Fitzroy, during ROFA, makes a bad bargain with a memory-stealing creature. Since then, various people (including

crownedrooster) have written follow-ups, fix-its, make-it-worses, and complicate-it-furthers.

Music
Listened to the Doors' song 'The End'. Did no one in the recording studio try to help that poor man? During the bridge, I mean, when he stumbled into that giant hornet nest and they all started stinging him.

Crafts
Didn't actually do a craft, but I did go to the introductory safety talk at a library's maker space, so now I can go there and use the equipment.
Things I learned there:
- The Cricut's pressing plate (operating temperature 200'C) is not an elbow rest. (The librarian giving the talk reported that it used to be located in another part of the room, but they kept on leaning their elbow near or on it. It wasn't turned on at the time, but their supervisor saw the writing on the wall and made them relocate it somewhere harder to touch accidentally.)
- The word "Cricut" is pronounced "cricket", not "cry, cut" as I'd thought.

Games
Still slaying the spire. I've now gotten every character up to at least two ascension levels, three for Clad and the Defect.

Weather
So fucking cold. So of course my hot water boiler went on the blink this week. Fortunately it just needed power cycling. Unfortunately I didn't think of this for myself. I'll know next time.

Nature
I saw a kangaroo in my backyard on Monday.
What was it doing there? Hopping.
How did it get there? Through the driveway.
What kind of roo? Eastern grey.
How big was it? Standing upright, I think about as tall as me, but it was too far for me to be sure.
Male or female? I didn't ask. There was something dangling, but I didn't get close enough to see if that was genitals or a joey. Given the height, probably a boomer?
What did you do? Stared at it, took photos, did not approach.
How did you get it out? I didn't. I watched it to make sure it wasn't hurt or sick or stuck, then went to the library for the safety talk. It hopped out again before I got home.
Pics or it didn't happen? For privacy reasons, I am not posting pictures of the kangaroo in a public Dreamwidth post. But I did take photos.
The kangaroo's privacy? Yes. I don't want to antagonise it.

sonofgodzilla

It is arguable that Hanada Mei was famous before she even joined AKB48. Not the kind of fame that I can understand, but with 10k followers on tiktok, it feels like Meimei was certainly not an unknown quantity.

Meimei!

I’m sidestepping my discomfort there, the same discomfort I feel whenever I hear about the debut of idol groups whose line-ups have been decided based on prior popularity and follower counts because I like to think everyone is equal once they join the group and should be treated accordingly, but I also think there’s no doubt that AKS saw those numbers and wondered how many of them they could convert into current AKB fans.

In 2024, alongside Ito Momoka, Meimei debuted as part of the nineteenth generation, first appearing on stage during a revival of Boku no Taiyo and then making her full theatre debut with a kenkyuusei revival of Team A’s fourth stage, Tadaima Renaichuu, appearing as centre for the song, Kikyou. Like Itomomo, in the short time in which she has been a member of AKB, it is clear she’s made an impact, appearing on a number of B sides from Koi Tsun Jatta onwards, not least of all Yumemite Gomen, the theme song to the live action adaptation of Hoshikuzu Telepath, but also the kenkyuusei anthem, Kimi to Boku no Polestar, and Skipping Stone, a B side from Masaka no Confession featuring Meimei as centre! I genuinely do not know how to talk about members who joined in 2024 and are already appearing as the centre of certain songs but I think it’s testament to both how much faith AKS has in the new members and how much of a following they have with Japanese fans who are able to attend the theatre regularly. More than at any time since the very early days of the group, it feels like the theatre is at the heart of what AKB does and how they engage with fans.

I can’t work out yet whether the announcement of the new single will set back the hard work that management has done by promoting members like Meimei and her peers or if it will add some kind of legitimacy to where we are, but... as much as I am the audience for returning members, I don’t think the kenkyuusei need to prove themselves to anyone, because, as I say, they’re already at the heart of the theatre. With the refurbishment of that space, the disbandment of the teams, and the new AKB1 stage, Koko Kara da, Meimei has been performing as Yamauchi Mizuki’s understudy for the song, Lollipop (I love this song!), but I think it’s really only a matter of time before Meimei starts appearing as a more focal point for the group and stops being the centre for B sides and starts being the centre for A sides! At the rate things are going with AKB now, I’d even bet on that happening before this time next year!

It’s difficult for me to write about these newer members as there’s so little information available to overseas fans without dedicating a lot of time to studying rips of Showroom streams and I feel a bit guilty that I won’t do that despite my love of the group, and that somehow this makes me less of a fan, but sooner or later, I genuinely believe there will no avoiding Meimei. Sooner or later, members like her and Itomomo will be the face of AKB48.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Emperor - The Wanderer

kradeelav

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

― Martha Graham (via

queenlua )

elf

Got the most recent FAPA mailing, #351. It's fewer than 60 pages. While we're up to 21 members I think (I don't have it with me right now) - up from the 14-ish when I joined a few years ago - the page count has dropped recently, possibly in part because the Org Editor can no longer print people's entries for them. (He retired and no longer has access to the work printers.) So the overseas members are no longer sending in quarterly submissions.

( defining terms )

FAPA's contribution requirement is 8 pages a year, which can be 1 double-sided sheet of paper per quarter. This was not particularly onerous even in the days of hectographs. It is, however, apparently enough of a hassle that several current members only technically meet it - sending in that single sheet a quarter, and it's only a page and a half, and it's in 14-pt type and includes a picture covering a quarter of the page. If there were still a waiting list, they'd be bumped for failing to meet the contrib requirements. Since there hasn't been a waiting list this century, this is not an issue.

There are scans of some past mailings (or rather, parts of them) and scans of Fantasy Amateur, the official org zine (aka, the index & list of members), which stops right at the point where membership started dropping below the max of 65.

...Anyone want to join a venerated scifi institution that's been fading since the dawn of the WWW?

Requirements:
* Send 25 copies (currently) to the OE, minimum 8 pgs/year; can be sent quarterly, annually, or anything in between. ( More details inside )

sonofgodzilla

I acknowledge that once a year, I make a post like this.

( Introduction )

( Members of JMDF )

( Other Notable Individuals )

( Reading order )

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Patrick Shiroishi, Marta Tiesenga - On a Stone Pillow

kradeelav

I've been procrastinating on filling out this FEH selfship meme that I made simply just because there is so much goddamn lore I've cooked up over 20 years. :P and it was a little hard filling out a question and halfway through realizing that people probably won't give a shit about the non-Heroes backstory.

SO i'm just gonna... lay out the context here for people who do want to read it, and then that way i have a link to point people to if they want the long version.

[ ok but what the fuck are you talking about krad ] oh yeah lol. i've been obsessed with a series of games called fire emblem for twenty years now. the base games/worlds are marvelous and absolutely well worth playing by themselves. i just happen to have shipped my self-insert with zihark for said, uh, 20 years. got a shit ton of art with them. it's a thing, sometimes you'll hear the concept be called selfshipping or being a yumejoshi. (bright eyes/krad/she/her/your summoner all OK to refer to the self insert, just for clarity's sake, all's cool).

ONWARDS TO THE LORE

( oh my fucking god i wrote a novel whoops )

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Zines (not mags)

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reading wednesday

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AKC Courtneyyyyyy Culture Festival #183: Arai Sae

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FIC: Power Rangers Sisters Force - Bird is the Word

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FIC: Kamen Rider - Ask For More

FIC: Kamen Rider Black RX - Collectors

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AKC Courtneyyyyyy Culture Festival #182: Hanada Mei

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FAPA blues

Japanese Monster Defence Force

FE selfship lore I: the broad sketches

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