Confession, I kind of really liked the online adult mlp:fim fandom, getting into it at the end of season 1. Back then it was kind of a lot of really jaded, cynical, bitter people encountering a vision of optimism and goodness that WASN’T wrapped in a cynical and condescending and pandering vision of childhood, and being inspired towards a genuinely impressive, if self-consciously ridiculous, outpouring of creativity in response.

But what a lot of it’s become, jeeeeeeeeesus christ.

And I appreciate that some of the things some of that first crowd (you know, “we”) did, or at least smirked at, probably accelerated that shift. Like, you could half-analogize, half-summarize the shift as going from “Haha dude, what if we made porn of this?” to “Dude. Porn of this.”

text-mode:

By Owen Schuh, via

“This will be no more revolutionary than the printing press” is sort of praising with weak damns, there.

history1970s:

tallesbian:

did you know that in my school there’s a giant painting of Rei on the wall
most people just call it blue anime lady

wtf

mari-makinami:

happy mothers day

it’s true.

zarggg:

Artist’s comments:

I wasn’t able to record my set at Candyball 11 in NYC, so here are the same tracks used in a studio mix. Enjoy!

1. Like It Loud - Gammer & Alex Prospect Remix - Alex Prospect & Becci
2. Dreams Of Reality - Sash Dee & Alex BassJunkie
3. Suma Ov Love - Teenage Twins
4. Good Time - Nobody
5. I Dont Want Nobody Else - Original Mix - Aural Kaos
6. Call Me - Original Mix - Modulate feat Jay Jacob
7. Sincerely Yours - Prospect & Pinnacle
8. Higher (Pulse Remix) - Electrux
9. The Key, The Secret (Fracus Remix) - Urban Cookie Collective
10. You Gotta Know (2012 VIP Mix) - Haze
11. Other Things (Kicks Mix) - Firefly
12. I Will Wait - Fracus & Darwin Remix - CLSM
13. Keep It Comin’ - Original Mix - Fracus & Darwin
14. Eye Opener - DJ Brisk and Trixxy
15. Part Of Me (Joey Riot & Tom Revolution Remix) - Nobody
16. Sunshine On A Cloudy Day - Eufeion Remix - Bang
17. Heaven On Earth - Dougal & Gammer feat Jenna
18. Rush - Adam J & Freestyle
19. Dont Stop - Original Mix - Fracus & Darwin
20. I Just Do It Like This - Original Mix - Chris Unknown
21. Set You Free Again - Anon
22. Can’t Hold Us - Spree
23. Airhead (S3RL Remix) (Spree edit) - DJ Brisk
24. Stay With Me - Greg Peaks Funked In The Sun Remix - AB
25. When The Sun Comes Down - Hardcore Mix - Lady Dubbz
26. Love Of My Life - Brisk Mix - Northern Lights
27. When love takes over - Nock off nigel

Was having a Facebook chat with a college friend now living in Japan. Concluded that a contemporary Japanese take on the Cthulu mythos would be pretty amazing. The menagerie of evil fits in pretty well with Japanese mythology, the uncanny aesthetic fits in pretty well with modern j-horror, and you could probably play the whole “eldritch xenophobia” thing straight.

megalovriska:

malisteen:

parrotbeak:

strifeandslash:

korra:

The “Collect Her” episode of The Powerpuff Girls essentially predicted Brony culture which is funny because My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic was created by Lauren Faust who was an artist/writer/director for The Powerpuff Girls

holy shit

Note that the fan was the villain of the episode but that Faust has gone out of her way to defend bronies even by the time they drew highly misogynist porn of her self-insert OC.

There’s a lesson in there. Somewhere. That may or may not have to do with Faust.

Like the villain of the episode, who trapped and kidnapped the girls to keep them all to himself, Bronies have to a large degree stolen the current generation of MLP from its original target audience by spamming the internet with child-unsafe mlp fan content, swamping appearances by creators and cast members with sketchy adults such that parents feel unsafe with their children there, and noisily attracting so much attention to themselves that it has distorted the nature of the show itself and especially its marketing.  ie, the MLP comic book, that is very much ‘by bronies for bronies’, an adult minded parody of the show’s characters rather than an adaptation that remains true to the style, spirit, or all ages nature of the source material.

And as it has grown in influence, we’ve seen insensate brony screeching change from ‘its not just for little girls’ to ‘its not for little girls at all’.  We’ve also seen vicious, ugly, herd-mindset attacks on anyone within the fandom who dares to question the way the brony herd behaves at all, up to and including death and rape threats directed at said critics.  Far from being a ‘few bad apples’ situation, we’ve seen brony musicians making death and rape threats within their music go on to be invited to perform at brony conventions specifically because of how well received their hatred and bile proved to be within the community.

Maybe Faust shouldn’t have been so supporting of the Brony community to begin with, and maybe show creators shouldn’t have gone out of their way to include explicit nods to them in the show and the marketing.  After all, bronies already liked the show and purchased the merchandise, pandering to them and encouraging them didn’t widen the show’s appeal.  Rather it just seems to have driven them to heightened levels of obnoxiousness and entitled possessiveness, and if anything they’ve in turn narrowed the show’s appeal.  They’ve certainly badly subverted its message, bringing a heavy dose of misogyny to the fandom of a show that was directed with all love and earnestness at young girls, and in doing so have brought down a cloud of ugliness and cynicism on what was so refreshing and engaging to begin with specifically for its openness and sincerity.

this got a lot more interesting since the last time I saw it

Like I said the other day, I liked what brony culture was, I’m not fond of what it’s become, and that as someone who one laughed indulgently at the “haha dude, what if we made porn of this?” idea, I share blame for the current “dude, porn of this” aesthetic.

That said let’s keep in mind that Hasbro has intentionally been trying to reboot its ‘80s nostalgia brands with an eye towards the teen boy/internet hikki demographic for a while now. There were the Transformers movies starring Michael Bay’s explosions and Megan Fox’s heaving bosom, there was the grimdark G.I. Joe. That they finally got a hit unintentionally with a show about neon pastel ponies celebrating the power of platonic love in a context of human imperfection is kind of fucked up in a really interesting and hilarious way, but let’s remember that the true purpose of the MLP memeplex was never to provide a pleasant experience for young girls - that was just a strategy, and apparently a suboptimal and thus partially discarded one, to accomplish the true purpose of building brand value for Hasbro IP.

MLP is American moe.

Modern producer-driven pop is interesting. I really like the Max Martin stuff, I think it’s interesting that we’re finally following Europe in building our pop on a base of electronic dance rather than rock, and the interchangeable female singer/genius male producer dynamic, while iffy in some ways, reminds us of the potential in Motown stuff before the Beatles (ironically, given their origins) exalted the folk singer/songwriter model. That said I really like how Ke$ha and Taylor Swift (from a Nashville tradition that never bought in to rockist authenticity) are our leading singer/songwriters now.

Christianity is a way for everyone to say to everyone else that they are fucked up and to blame and sorry for it and there’s nothing they can do but it’ll all be okay and I don’t believe in the divinity of our lord and savior jesus christ but I appreciate that more and more all the time.

text-mode:

By Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, based in Stockholm. Hot grids!

What a horrible night to have a curse motorcycle

guess I’m practicing some banjo rolls, then

mkupperman:

Twain & Einstein in “Good Grief! Still More Wuthering Heights.”

every time I see tumblr talking about Riff Raff I think they’re talking about the second-string lead from that Heathcliff cartoon and it’s mighty disorienting

Played the new Metallica pinball table. It’s solid! Like it as a table and it actually leaves me thinking well of the band. The cartoon-drippy, almost hot rod style of the art was a pleasant surprise.

Dork alert: mystery has given me Fuel, but it has not given me autofire or, really, anything I desire. (It mostly gives me 500,000 points.)

nitanahkohe:

check out Tlingit artist Rico Worl’s gorgeous set of NW Coast-style playing cards!! get a deck by donating to his Kickstarter campaign; Rico is the founder and chief designer behind Trickster Skate Co., and is offering cool bonus gifts like the tee and skate deck above if you buy in bulk!