Espy

On 2023-10-29 at 11:37 PM, ZiggWheelsManning said:

We got a new funk.  Please educate me about this  

I know a bit more about it now, but long story short it derived from late 90's techstep to be even darker and grittier than before. It's mostly about the technical production nowadays, similar to how dubstep has the "riddim" style that derived from it. Artists like Ed Rush and Optical were some of the earliest to do this style, as far as I'm aware of.

Side note, this was around a time when many in the DnB scene felt that it had "lost it's soul" and musicality, which is why artists like Marcus Intalex, ST Files and Calibre are held to such a high regard when they began to have their early liquid funk releases as the 2000's rolled around. It heavily contrasted the darkness that neurofunk was bringing. This was similar to what happened with 2010's dubstep, where it got commercialized so quickly that it began to limp before it could run.

Welcome! Hope you enjoy it here 

Punnies are funnies, no shame in that! 

Welcome! Hope you enjoy it here 

Welcome! Hope you ejoy it here 

Welcome! Hope you enjoy it here 

Welcome! That's okay, I was lurking too for a while before signing up. Hope you enjoy it here! 

Welcome! Hope you enjoy it here 

To the moon? I heard there's cheese and I want to see all the cheese 

2 hours ago, MidnightFire1222 said:

Do they have to be canon characters, or can OC ponies/creatures be used?

@MidnightFire1222 OC's can be used! 

Nerd 

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Welcome! Hope you enjoy it here 

Lots of ponies are always welcome here in our heads! 

For me, in no particular order: Cozy Glow, Chrysalis, Sombra, unreformed Starlight Glimmer.

• Cozy Glow was very manipulative to get what she wanted, it seemed like she planned that out for months. She literally used everyone without violence to get to what she wanted. To be fair though, Tirek also had to play Discord that way too for his powers.
• Chrysalis also for the same manipulating + she can disguise herself, but she has to create an alibi which will involve trying to hide the real person she's pretending to be. Identity theft!
• Sombra, already said by Ashen above pretty much, though I don't agree with "lack of apparent ego". S9 Sombra has an ego, though honestly every villain does (well, every person does... ego isn't just "bad" but that's an entirely different topic):

On 2019-01-11 at 12:06 PM, Ashen Pathfinder said:

I'd say King Sombra is probably the strongest largely due to planning, lack of an apparent ego, and general intelligence. Considering he only lost because of Spike and that he had Equestria on the brink during the war without an apparent way to victory; he seems to be the most apparent danger in my eyes.

• Unreformed Starlight Glimmer, the fact that she could've forced Twilight in an endless time loop of trying to make sure something messes up so filly Dash can't do the Sonic Rainboom seems like eternal torture. Imagine, that would've been her limbo just like the Pillars and the Pony Of Shadows.

Straight up power though would have to go to Tirek or Discord.

Tirek, when he's got loads of strength, is near impossible to beat. However, it takes time for him to get to that point, so when he's anywhere in between he's a lot easier to defeat.

Discord straight up can do whatever he wants, but only for silly things that he finds funny. Like, he could hurt someone, but I think he'd prefer to make it rain chocolate on them instead  Or annoy them with puns.

I've loathed a few.

In 3rd grade, I was considered "gifted" and there was one assignment we had in this gifted class where we were expected to write college level poems, definitely didn't like doing that.

In 8th grade, I had to be grouped with some people for a group project where we had to make a video about what happened in whatever part of history we wanted to portray (well, American history anyways). For me, since I didn't have a phone or even a personal computer at the time, it was difficult to even contact my group members for anything.  The first time I met with them, they canceled the recording session so I was at one of their homes waiting for my mom to come back around to pick me up (I had to borrow one of their phones to call her; again, I didn't have a phone or anything at this point while they all did). The second time, I didn't know they were doing it, so I missed on that recording session, so the third time they'd already recorded almost everything and had me do the scene transitions because they didn't have enough to meet one of the requirements for the group project, which was at least 2 minutes and no more than 5 minutes. I felt awful because I felt like I didn't do much for that.

In 9th grade, well there were a few things:
- In the MS Word/Powerpoint certification class, we had to make a powerpoint about ourselves and I didn't really know what to talk about. Luckily I never got to share my presentation.
- In biology, I had to make one of those cutouts of either a plant cell or an animal cell. I chose plant, I don't remember why. But, I kinda did it last minute and it came out kinda bad, somehow got a B on it. I threw it out afterwards and if I had the chance to go back in time and do it again, i'd make it at least 25% smaller. I'm not sure why I made it as big as I did, it didn't need to be that big.
- In this one computer class that I can't remember the name of (we were using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and MS Powerpoint for animations?? we could've used flash but ok), there were so many that I spent a lot of time adding details to that my teacher told me that I need to stop focusing on details because "they don't matter at all in life"  so that led to me having to stay after school to finish these projects because I never sent them in on time.
- Didn't really like doing the essays, homework, etc. in English class overall.
- I didn't like this one project in Chemistry where we had to do something on a shirt, I don't remember exactly what that was but I was the only one who didn't do anything for it. However, I actually did enjoy the playing around with chemicals projects we were fortunate enough to apparently have the budget for  BUT I DIDN'T LIKE DOING THAT MATH, PLEASE DON'T ASK ME NEUTRON THIS ELECTRON THAT! I DON'T KNOW 

- Had to make a website on Egyptian related stuff for world history class, I'm not sure why but I was so stuck on what to do with that.

And maybe the only other thing would be some random powerpoints I had to make in 10th grade(?) for another class that focused on the "science" part of Adobe Illustrator rather than the creative part. Like, we had to make scientific maps with squiggly lines and weather and all that. Like, we had to make the maps and stuff and then present it through powerpoint. Interestingly enough, the teacher used my powerpoints as an example of GOOD powerpoints. Apparently other students kept adding so much fluff and unnecessary images, etc. to their presentations that she used my powerpoints as an example of how to make one because it got on her nerves  she told me this. I like her, she was really chill. It was just those presentations that made me really nervous in both preparing and presenting.

It did prepare me eventually for the senior project I had to make to graduate though, where my 12th grade English teacher also complimented me on my powerpoint skills and said they were the best he's ever seen, as well as telling me that it was a very good thing that I didn't really look back at my presentation to read off of everything unless it was a graph/chart.

I could've gotten a perfect score on that senior project too, despite it being made kinda last minute, if only I wasn't late for those judges...! 

I'm happily single, never been in a full relationship and I'm perfectly content with it 

Emphasis on "full"  that's a bit of a story I don't want to really get too much into... but the overview is it was silly crushes on the "bad" types of people.

Though I'm in my young 20's right now, I used to wonder a lot about being alone. Actually, I was very fearful that I would never find "the one" and also felt pressure from my older family members to find "the one" too.

But now, I realize that it's awesome if I happen to find someone that I can love closely, but that's not necessary for me to live my life. It's so much stress and worry to even think about that! Though I still have much to improve in my own life, I've relieved half of the stress of worrying about romance now, focusing on other paths in life instead.

I do recognize that some are over double my age here and will tell me that it'll come back around for me since love never found them so how's it ever gonna find me? I think this is a terrible mindset though to apply to others. It's toxic, quite frankly.

Happiness is the goal and, at least to me anyways, romance isn't the only answer to finding that. Perhaps try a different path? If the feelings of despair from lack of romance is affecting your mental health, it may be best to move your attention away from romance and move it elsewhere. Hobbies? Career? Maybe a mix of both, something like that. Please don't allow yourself to become numb in the process too!  I've met a lot of people before who have unintentionally become total jerks and bullies all because they've given up on romance. This only happens because of a mixture of jealousy, frustration, humiliation, fear even. Strangers can sense that and may avoid future interactions with you as a result.

I think what's meant by "Love yourself first" is because of interactions like this. It's super off-putting and closes off potential platonic relationships too. Attitude and mindset does matter a lot and it may be best to think about potential interactions with others in the past and learning from them by changing how to interact with them or others like them. I would count avoiding someone because you're shy or simply fearful of interaction as an interaction, where the interaction is the lack of it.

Now from there, if you're able to become friends with someone and you engage with their feelings and interests/hobbies as much as they do for you, and trust is mutually shared, then that has potential to blossom into something more.

I'm not the best at explaining what I mean so I hope everything I said came across well 

Usually if I don't have work, I wake up around 11 AM or 12 PM, then I stay awake until like 4 or 5 in the morning.

If I have work, then I sleep around 2 or 3 in the morning, wake up just in time to go (lately it's been around 9 AM) and then when I get off of work, I take a nap until near midnight, then stay up until 4 or 5 in the morning. Or 2 to 3 if I have to work again.

Following? No? It's okay, I can't follow it either 

Edit: I also sleep facing down, with the blanket all over me 

Doyou like snowballs? 

I'm also lost as to how "putting loops together" coincides with managing a band.

Doesn't a band manager manage the business side of things for them? Such as dealing with venues, promotions, etc.? They're not in charge of making the music itself, that's up to the actual band members and audio engineers, etc.

I'm sure there may be something in a contract that says the kind of music they want the band members to make though.

BANNED FOR BANNING A CHANGELING 

15 

Welcome to the MLP Forums November 2023 Visual Art contest

(Note: December's contest is now open as well and runs through Jan 8th -- see thread for details)

Visual Art contests will start every other month. In some months there may be a theme, and that may be a character, a general emotion, holiday, or prompt.

The theme for this month is:

Family or friends gathering together for festivities

Requirements

• Create artwork of ponies (and/or other canon creatures) gathering together for any festivities during the Autumn/Winter season
• Both canon and original characters are allowed, as well as any MLP generation
• All members of MLPF are eligible
• No AI art will be accepted, however it can be used for initial inspiration
• NEW: Animations no longer than 10 seconds are allowed

Deadline

Submissions will close on December 8th, 2023.

Judging

Public voting will be open during December 9th. Afterwards, voting will be finalized within staff and results will be posted as soon as we are able to share them!

Winners

Winners will be granted the Canterlot Artist Rank and Badge. All entries will be eligible to receive an Art Achievement Bronze Badge. Future participation will count toward Silver and Gold Art Badges.

Submit Here or you can use the top navigation menu to add a submission.

If there are any additional questions, please feel free to ask!  

2 hours ago, Samurai Firefighter said:

It's good music, but that's not jazz.  That's more like lounge music/easy listening with a coastal twist. I am sure there is a better word to describe this kind of genre, but jazz it is not.
Still, I almost don't care. I'll take anything that keeps old school genres alive with new music.

This in particular leans heavily into bossa nova, which itself I'm pretty sure comes from samba and jazz anyways. That comes from Brazil, which is probably close enough to what you're imagining. It makes sense though considering her inspirations, which includes Chet Baker and Ella Fitzgerald.

Edit: great video from Adam Neely, covering the topic

13 

Cooking is just edible chemistry 

From Wikipedia: "She ... describes her musical style, a mixture of jazz pop and bedroom pop, as "modern jazz"."

She's very popular with the "TikTok" generation or however you wanna call that. Like, Taylor Swift levels from what I've seen. Her popularity started in 2020, I think.

And, while I'm not 100% up to speed with the jazz community, she's stirred some controversy, with some debating if she's "true jazz" or not, along with some fans of her saying that jazz was dead before she came around. It doesn't help that Spotify placed her prominently on one of their jazz playlists before, as lots of folks were saying she could've been replaced with other people instead.

If it helps bring a young generation to listen to the established legends of jazz too, which I believe they were also in that same playlist, then I don't see why that's a loss? Seems like a win to me.

I don't agree with those "jazz was dead" statements though. If we're talking about mainstream popularity, its been stagnant at worst, but it's perfectly fine otherwise, at least underground. The billboard charts etc. have been mostly rigged anyways, for every single genre and for a very, very long time (pretty much since it's existed it's been heavily rigged to those who have the most money just like with all things in life).

Maybe it's because she a lot younger so it's easier for a young generation to relate and connect with her, who knows the psychology of that? (Which can be extended for every generation, every music artist, and so on, so forth.)

Anyways, this is one of her many hits:

Laufey - From The Start

Her whole discography is A-OK in my book and I wish her the best as it seems like she isn't a one hit wonder. Far from it, actually. 

It'd be amazing if she teamed up with some of my favorite DnB artists who also lean into the style that she's making. Calibre, Makoto, DJ Marky & XRS, Patife, London Elektricity, Keeno... please please please. You know you want to