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rubyfire77.bsky.social
jillian 🪽🏰🧸🌠
@rubyfire77.bsky.social
52 followers 42 following 170 posts
writer / artist / lover 🩷 26 / they+ae ♿🌈∞🦋 21+ only / 🇺🇸🇩🇪🆗️ / rubyfire77 @ rym / neocities
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rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟3️⃣9️⃣ THREE SONGS (sofia, 2022) //// 💿🌟4️⃣0️⃣ SILLY CHOONZ (lucid x sweet sofia, 2023)
Three Songs is, well, three songs played by the daughter of dreampunk David Russo (founder of Dream Catalogue and one half of 2418, better known as Hong Kong Express / HKE and additionally known by scores of other obtuse aliases), who was a little under 3 years old at the time. Silly Choonz has Sofia, now four, collabing with her dad for more coherent music, and even has a feature from Black Banshee, one of Russo's friends. Say what you will about Russo & co. (the consensus seems to be that the guy is a real asshole, and so are many of his buddies), but I think this is a cute, sweet way to encourage your kid's creative side and is also just plain interesting to hear. "Silliness" on Choonz is pretty good! I will genuinely be following Sofia's work. :)
April 10, 2025 at 12:06 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟3️⃣8️⃣ PLEASANT SPECTER OST 🎶 快い亡霊 OST (yamato kobayashi, 2014) rateyourmusic.com/music-review...
It's widely held that Pleasant Specter OST is not the soundtrack to a scrapped Dreamcast game, as its distributors claim. Outside of the Bandcamp and Dream Catalogue pages for Pleasant Specter and the equally-dubious Commercial Work 1993-2004 compilation, there's no trace of a Pleasant Specter or a SpecterSoft or a Yamato Kobayashi, at least as a musician and composer. The story of Pleasant Specter, then, is most likely fake. But isn't that sort of the point? Vaporwave exists as an intermediate between a past imagined in the future and a future imagined in the past, as a realm of ambiguous desires and meanings — things that might have existed, might not have, and the shifting, aching nostalgias we assign to them. "Vapor" as in the intangible, impermanent, almost-but-not-quite invisible. (We still don't know who actually created Pleasant Specter or Commercial Works, after all, though I've seen CVLTVRE implicated by way of synths sleuthing.) And even with the awareness that it probably isn't real, part of you sort of hopes it is, right? Or, rather, at least feels the ghostly, abstract realness of its apocryphal shape, reminiscent of a real(?) story we might've heard? The memory we cannot quite recall, the sample we cannot quite place, the time that can never be brought back that we yet still grasp for, turn over in our minds until the details blur. The feeling we keep chasing. That, I think, is the heart of vaporwave: a pleasant specter. Exactly this. And what a pleasant one this is, too.
April 8, 2025 at 8:41 PM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟3️⃣7️⃣ DARING MIND (jihye lee orchestra, 2021)
I was so tuned out to this album that while listening I had a split second of "oh I'm bored, I should put on some music" before I remembered I was already listening to music. (Does it make me sound less like a douche to mention that I like jazz and classical despite my blind spots and also that I felt guilty and lame about finding this so boring?) I don't think this is a bad album — just not my speed, I guess? I think I was expecting progressive big band to mean progressive as in virtuosic, perhaps maximalist, maybe highly melodic, instead of progressive as in "incorporates elements of Western classical music." Ah, well. The quest to decode my taste in jazz and classical music advances.
April 8, 2025 at 5:41 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟3️⃣6️⃣ ALKALOIDES (alkaloides, 2014)
I first heard "Degenerar" back in 2014 when I spent all my free computer time at school trawling SoundCloud, back when they would feature indie tracks every now and then. (This is also how I found Heartsrevolution's "KISS," Uchu Nekoko and LovelySummerChan's cover of "Divine Hammer," Black Letters's "Roam," and probably more I can't think of right now.) While nothing else on Alkaloides reaches the high of "Degenerar," the self-titled doesn't disappoint. Alkaloides is a competent rock outfit no matter what style they're trying on in this somewhat eclectic album. The often-bittersweet, dream pop-inflected guitar work is the key. It's no surprise that they seem to be well-liked in and iconic to the Ecuadorian alternative world.
April 8, 2025 at 12:06 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
🎬🌟1️⃣5️⃣ CODE OF SILENCE (dir. andrew davis, 1985)
I remember almost nothing about this movie. Most generic movie I've seen in a long time. If this is gonna be copaganda anyway (in the classical sense of manufacturing consent for extralegal police behavior, not just portraying cops in a positive light) can Chuck Norris actually do literally anything with the crazy scary ass police robot minitank we see for like 1 minute total please.
April 8, 2025 at 12:00 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
🎬🌟1️⃣4️⃣ JUNIOR (dir. ivan reitman, 1994)
No joke, I had way more thoughts about this film than I thought I would. I've been chipping away at a Letterbox review draft for like a week plus that I think I'm just gonna turn into an article. So stay tuned for that I guess?? lol
April 7, 2025 at 11:06 PM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟3️⃣5️⃣ MUSIC FOR AWKWARD DATES (strxwberrymilk, 2021)
March 28, 2025 at 6:15 PM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟3️⃣4️⃣ ZATTO (nariaki obukuro, 2025)
Another 2 am Lyft home from a Valentine's night out shazam find (though I can't remember which track it was off Zatto that popped up in the driver's playlist). Good, mellow stuff that really enhances a late-night mood. "Tangerine" is my favorite song here.
March 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
3.24.25
March 28, 2025 at 4:05 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
shrek rave with my boyfriend this weekend ^^
shrek rave flyer inside the club cowfish in tank
March 28, 2025 at 3:59 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟3️⃣3️⃣ NEW VOGUE CHILDREN (schwarz stein, 2003)
Some cool stuff on here, intersecting EBM and trance (outside the synthpop trappings of futurepop) in a toxic, passionate, gothic boys' love package. "Fester Love" is my favorite. I was surprised by the overt queerness in "New Vogue Children," where Kaya simultaneously calls for the unborn children he conceived in sodomy, hideous yet ugly, both to rise up and destroy the straight and ignorant, and to take their eternal rest against his chest, having had their wings broken or plucked — destroyed by society, or destined to never be born. I use a vague word like queer here purposely to evoke that twilight zone that seems to exists in Japanese culture between what would be defined in the West as male homosexuality and transfemininity, an area that Kaya seems to play within. Not unheard of within vkei, but still pleasantly surprising.
March 28, 2025 at 3:55 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟3️⃣2️⃣ VISION3 ~SONAR~ (adomiori, 2022) rateyourmusic.com/music-review...
Effervescent and glittering layers of digital sound, clean-blue cool to the touch. A delicate roboticism in the vocal turning here, a slight disconnection from the real; ethereality. Crystalline voices. Uncanny but in a sort of angelic way, in a poetic loneliness kind of way, watching over / deepening an electronic realm flecked with piano and colour bass and glitch pop. Like a late-night walk in the snow, frozen and fresh and nearly silent before the footsteps.
March 28, 2025 at 3:47 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟3️⃣1️⃣ HARDCORE WORLD (lvl1, 2024)
Goes fucking crazy hard!!! The part where LVL1 chants "Red line, red line!" in "Rave Generator" and then those old school hoovers hit hard gives me goosebumps, man. The flow of this EP is clearly carefully crafted and the result is a tight, killer DJ set.
March 28, 2025 at 3:41 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟3️⃣0️⃣ YORUTSUMUGI 🎶 よるつむぎ (mimi, 2023)
Mellow, playful, nostalgic Vocaloid piano rock. Nothing special but still a pleasant and sentimental listen for an oldhead like me all the same. "Kuninaru" is particularly nice.
March 28, 2025 at 3:30 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟2️⃣9️⃣ STRAWBY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT EUROPE (strawberry station, 2024)
A little strange how little this evokes PlayStation 1 era atmospheric dnb despite being atmospheric dnb inspired by the PS1. I think it's the modern touches (the footwork is the big marker of this, I think) and the incongruous flavor of the samples used. ("Return to Menu" reminds me of PS1 horror, but that's a whole different vibe.) Either way, doesn't really click for me, but not bad. Funny to see this kind of release from business casual, which usually distributes and promotes music from the vapor sphere. This particular instance but be explained by the fact that Strawberry Station usually makes future funk and has been distributed through business casual before. That said, doesn't PS1 dnb nostalgia also point backwards to an idealized future past that many of its artists did not experience? Perhaps it's not so overt and exaggerated, and it's certainly not as fraught with consumerist and potential fascistic undertones as classical vapor genres are, but it does interest me that there is an overlap here, and I can't help but wonder if we'll see more vapor artists make this jump.
March 24, 2025 at 12:21 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟2️⃣8️⃣ PLAY (lvl1, 2023)
What a lucky find. Blown away by the bilingual rap virtuosity and bubblegum bass production chops on display here. "FVN!" may be the hit, but it's not the only banger on here, yknow? I was so excited to see a "FVN!" remix by Danny L Harle and then I was not at all impressed. Very sad moment for me lol
March 24, 2025 at 12:03 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟2️⃣7️⃣ YOU ARE THE SUN, I AM THE SKY (dj heartstring, 2025
Even in the midst of a euro-trance renaissance, I'm not sure anyone is doing it like DJ HEARTSTRING right now. You Are the Sun, I Am the Sky is (unsurprisingly) addictively hypnotic and delightfully underscored by a subtle kind of happy hardcore love story feel. "Last Time Under Purple Skies" is my favorite :)
March 22, 2025 at 5:58 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟2️⃣6️⃣ GLITTER (kaya, 2006 / 2008 / 2012, 3rd press ver.)
I remember liking Kaya's second album QUEEN a lot and was surprised by how bland I found GLITTER. "Pourriture noble" and "Rose Jail" are good, though. I'll probably give them a few more listens! I'm a little curious what the original 2006 recordings sound like — I'm not 100% sure which ones are on this edition, but I have to assume they're the 2008 re-recordings. Probably the same but a little rougher, right? So odd to me to re-record a whole album 2 years later.
March 22, 2025 at 5:53 AM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟2️⃣5️⃣ DRUMSOLO'S DELIGHT (strategy, 2004) rateyourmusic.com/music-review...
A salient immersive; ambient fluctuations on the cusp of electronic dance always get to me. Warm and mechanical, evoking leaves and birdsong and pond ripples in caves even in the language of man-made metal. The addition of the human voice to "Walking Time," then, feels a little out of place -- makes me feel a bit out of place -- for a second before its psychedelia settles it back into Drumsolo's Delight's strange, peaceful, all-things-meld world.
March 19, 2025 at 8:32 PM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
3.14.25
March 18, 2025 at 11:11 PM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟2️⃣4️⃣ I AM THE BLUEPRINT (qing madi, 2025)
Reminds me how glaring a blindspot I have for afrobeats, which is fucked up because it's such an interesting, active, cool segment of modern pop and dance music. "Right Here" is definitely my favorite, with its woozy synths and 10s indie guitar, and I also liked "Gimme Your Love." I'll be checking out Qing Madi's self-titled, too. Shoutout to the cool as hell Lyft driver who played a song from this (and some other really cool tracks) on the drive home after me and my boyfriend somehow ended up on the wrong side of the freeway on a long nighttime walk and couldn't figure out how to get back.
March 18, 2025 at 5:49 PM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
🎬🌟1️⃣3️⃣ THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (dir. pete browngardt, 2024)
This movie awoke an adhesive bondage fetish in one of my friends and will probably do the same for at least a couple weird gay kids a few years out from furry fandom, which should really speak to its authenticity and success as a Looney Tune Really cool to see a feature length 2D animated comedy escape Warner's tax break trash bin and play on the big screen. I would say that they just don't do that anymore but I don't think toons ever really had their time to shine on the silver screen like that. I am not one of the demographics this movie is for (adults passionate about animation, and children) but I of course did have fun with the humor and enjoyed the animation. There's so much love for Looney Tunes and the medium as a whole on display here. :) Notably weirdly John K influenced? But not overbearingly so. Petunia clears Lola Bunny for Looney Tune sexy love interest girl by the way. Ever notice how they never even come close to even implicitly identifying Daffy and Porky in a brotherly way and emphasize that they are friends. Has anyone noticed that. Does that seem a little gay to anyone else or is that just m
March 18, 2025 at 5:41 PM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟2️⃣3️⃣ ZELDA TAPE (dj cutman & helynt, 2024)
March 18, 2025 at 5:33 PM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
📚🌟5️⃣ LOLITA IN THE AFTERLIFE: ON BEAUTY, RISK, AND RECKONING WITH THE MOST INDELIBLE AND SHOCKING NOVEL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (ed. jenny minton quigly, 2021)
book cover Lolita in the Afterlife's essays contradict each other, repeat each other, refract the same ideas and passages and experiences through different prisms, splashing the pages in a dazzling array of rainbow reflections. It's this sparkling mess, this "tangle of thorns," that defines Lolita -- this tension between love and lust, love and abuse, beauty and monstrosity, truth and lies and objective and subjective and fact and fiction and all the things between; as such this collection makes for a fitting postmortem for the immortal (and immortally negotiated) novel. Many moving and thought-provoking moments within this collection, but some of particularly special note to me... Kate Elizabeth Russell's "Maison Nymphette," which channels the same compassionate yet unflinching honesty about girhood sex and abuse that My Dark Vanessa, her own sort of modern Lolita, dazzled me with I found myself tearfully joyful reading Cheryl Strayed's "Dear Sugar," which reimagines Lolita's adult fate with the support and love of other women. Told in her own voice, too. Mary Gaitskill's incredible empathy for her own molester in "I Cannot Get Out Said the Starling" and her willingness to admit that love is not always pure, sometimes / frequently sits alongside our most grotesque traits and desires and can drive us to destroy even that which we hold dear, struck me in their stark heartbreak. Each essay by a woman sexually abused by a man as a girl carries extra weight, even as I disagree with some of their analyses; in the poor precocious little girls who think they are Lolita and the Dollys they grow up into, in their colored affections and abhorrences for the novel, in their alternatingly charitable and uncharitable analyses rooted in reassuring or revolting resonance with the girl, we see her. We see who Dolores is, out here in the real world, not so much the afterlife after all -- she lives.
March 17, 2025 at 8:53 PM
rubyfire77.bsky.social
💿🌟2️⃣2️⃣ GAIJIN BLUES (gaijin blues, 2019)
March 17, 2025 at 6:48 PM