Today is that day! It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns has been around for the last 7 years. Wow! It's amazing how time flies.
Normally,
I color code questions and answers in orange and green because I
usually change the background scenery for Halloween.
It goes without
saying that 2020 has been an extremely shitty year for most of us.
The
incessant Doomsday reports about the Coronavirus by the media and
social media fucked up everything for all of us.
In celebration of It's Not All
Gumdrops & Unicorns' 7th anniversary, questions about rare Horror
Anime, Carl Jung's Typologist Test, and more will be answered in today's
Q&A blog. All questions are in bold red italics and my answers are
simply bolded. So, let's begin!
1) DanniDarkness: Are there any rare Horror Anime that you would recommend?
I
don't know your exact definition of Horror Anime but... if you happen to like Horror Comedy, I highly recommend watching Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi
Henge.
Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge was renamed "The Wallflower" in
English.
Sunako Nakahara is the protagonist spoofed
off the character from the J-Horror movie, Ringu, which soon became the
Americanized remake called The Ring in 2002.
2) A. P. Fuchs: Do you write regardless of how you feel, whether you're tired or slightly sick or just plain unmotivated?
Answer: It really all depends on the situation. If I am extremely nauseated
from something and have been barfing up my lungs for rounds, then no.
If
lethargic, I will take a nap. Then, finish writing.
Meanwhile, writing angry poetry was my personal catharsis during my adolescence.
Growing
up, I always took a lot of shit from people ranging from my classmates
to certain teachers intentionally making negative examples out of me.
Generally
speaking, the preceding ALWAYS contributed to bullying and has especially led to
more school shootings if not teen suicides within the last nearly 3
decades. I don't condone school shootings and teenagers committing
suicide, but I understand why both happen.
Sometimes
teachers ARE to blame for the bullying, school shootings, and suicides
with their need to make negative examples out of their students.
It
has been 15 years, since I last wrote any poetry. Whenever I did, it
was usually angry poetry. Yeah, in some ways, I've been that weird,
stereotypical, angry Goth Chick for 2-3 decades.
An
estranged guy friend from college loved making snide remarks, mocking me and the Goth
Sub-culture.
Within the last few years or so, a longtime mutual friend of ours introduced him to some
BDSM and fetish communities. Gotta love those bandwagoners always trying
to "fit in."
Most average people do NOT know, that BDSM originated from
the Goth Sub-culture.
BDSM is NOTHING like 50 Shades of B.S. Those novels are piss poor representations of BDSM.
3) Donald: Based on Carl Jung standards, what is your personality type?
Answer:
For those who didn't already know, Carl Jung is usually discussed in
both Psychology and Sociology classes.
It has been many years, since the
time of taking those classes.
If you are interested, you can learn more about Carl Jung's theory of personality types, RIGHT HERE.
According
to the Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test I took last Friday, my type is
ISTJ. 12% Introvert 25% Sensing 3% Thinking 56% Judging
4) DJ Scott Wilcox: It's so hard to get published nowadays. What is the status of your short story collection?
Answer: Please re-read the beginning of this Q&A blog. Also, ~2 weeks ago, I
published a blog explaining more about my writing status.
"Maliciousness," "The Bill Collector," and "Psycho Vs. Psycho" have all been converted into 1 novella.
"Across
The Street," "The Horrors Of Womanhood," and "All Of Chastity's Men"
still have yet to be published. The last 3 stories are much darker and
grislier than my novella.
"Across The Street" is a Horror Flash Fiction piece and the shortest story I have ever written.
Because
that story is different from the others, I don't know HOW it will be
published. Maybe it will have to be published separately from the
others.
Also, I still have yet to finish writing
"All Of Chastity's Men." This particular story has been put on hiatus
more times than any other story I have ever written. You may be
wondering, "WHY?"
I think the hiatus is somewhat because I am writing "All Of Chastity's Men" more for my own personal catharsis.
Normally, I wrote poems for my catharsis. Writing THIS story for my own catharsis is a much bigger challenge.
Well,
it appears that I answered everyone's questions for today's Q&A
blog. It would've really been fantastic, if more readers and subscribers had
questions to ask. Then again, less is more.
Thank
you for asking your questions and reading today's Q&A blog in
celebration of It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns' 7th anniversary! I
look forward to your feedback!
Wow! Can you believe it? Today is the day that marks It's Not All
Gumdrops & Unicorns' 6th anniversary. How's it going my gumdrops?
Before I forget, Happy Birthday to Whiskey Brewer on MeWe!
While
still working for my uncle, I self-built this website on September 23,
2013. In a way, I cannot help feeling somewhat disappointed that I still
have not accomplished as much as I really wanted this year.
Since
2017, I have endured a plethora of issues ranging from dealing with my
mother's eternal health issues to chores, editing, revising, and
submitting my short stories for publishing, contacting publishers, voice
actors, editors, job hunting, etc.
Earlier this
year, I was sick at least twice. For the 4th time in 19 years, I had
bronchitis and a cold. Long story short, this year has been brutal.
Since
this year's Q&A blog has a few jargon-filled questions, I tried
answering them as best as I could by giving them the so-called "college
try." Anyway, let's begin!
[It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns Q&A 2019:]
Kersten's Questions:
1) What is the most difficult part about having kept a blog this long?
2) Who is your favorite Horror artist?
My Answers:
1) Creating a blog
is nothing compared to self-building a website full of content. All the
while, trying to generate exposure and attracting the right
demographic.
Also, spambots, site, and server glitches.
Those have been my biggest problems.
In addition to self-building It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns, there is managing it, generating SEO, traffic, visitors, and loyal subscribers.
At the same time, enduring social climbing opportunists, selfish and misanthropic
"friends" pretending to care about me, indifference, jealousy, envy,
the bitterness of others, and copycats.
2) When it comes to Horror artists (because they are more than just Metal
vocalists and guitarists), I guess I would say Rob Zombie, Glenn Danzig,
and Wes Borland. Even though Wes Borland is best known as Limp Bizkit's
lead guitarist, he collaborates with other bands besides fronting his
own.
Tard Tardnation: What's your favorite type of weather?
Answer:I love the hot summer weather.
Then again, I was born ~1 week before
Summer Solstice. Now that it's fall, I dread having to rake leaves and
shovel snow again.
Meanwhile, rain and snow help set
ominous tones to my short stories, since I mostly write Psychological
Horror, Crime, and Psychological Thriller.
Jesse: Do
you ever use Duolingo or Babbel to help learn a new language? I've just
started using Duolingo recently because I am interested in learning
German.
Answer: Yes, I have heard of both Duolingo
and Babbel but have never used either.
Even though it has been years
since I last took German I highly recommend the book, Komm mit! You may want to visit the 50 Languages foreign language website and
download their app, too.
Much like my family, I believe
it is best to traditionally learn a foreign language with drills. Using
apps make for great aids but it is best to have a quality foreign
language book. My youngest aunt uses Duolingo to help her with learning
Japanese.
According to her, Duolingo is not the best
way to become fluent in a foreign language.
Regardless of what foreign
language you want to learn, you MUST have quality foreign language books
with drills to help learn a foreign language.
DJ Scott: What's your fondest memory from blogging/blog responses?
Answer: My fondest memories actually predate building It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns.
For
those, who didn't already know, I originally started blogging 13 years
ago on Yahoo 360. This was months after graduating from Carthage
College, while STILL battling a severe bleeding disorder at the time.
My
English Literature Professor sometimes used my Yahoo 360 blog as
an educational source for his classes. Compared to the last 6 years of blogging on here AND Blogster, more educational information was
published on my Yahoo 360 blog.
Unfortunately,
all good things always come to an end. This can most definitely be said
about Yahoo 360. Yahoo always discontinues their best products.
Years later, I discovered the blogging community, Xanga. I regret not discovering Xanga years sooner.
Before
The Xanga Team dumped their money problems into OUR laps by making it
mandatory to pay to blog, which caused division within our community, I
had both national AND international traffic, friends, and loyal
subscribers.
In addition, more readers genuinely cared about my content
and I made top blogger AT LEAST a few times, 6 years ago.
C. Afflerbach: Do you like crafting? Ancient aliens? Ghosts?
My Answers:
1)The closest I will ever get to crafting is building this website.
Otherwise, I always suck at crafting. As cool as crafts look, I never
had that skill. 25 years later and I still suck at doing Origami.
2) I'm not a huge fan of ghosts and aliens.Blame it on
Hollywood filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, for example and the media.
They love spreading (as I use the cliche term) "misinformation" and
stupid ass stereotypes about the paranormal and extraterrestrials.
The
contrived and unrealistic scripts and special effects in Spielberg's
movies only validate all those skeptics, who don't believe in ghosts and
aliens.
Even though I'm not a huge fan of either, I know that both DO
exist, especially the paranormal.
Whiskey Brewer: Are there any cartoons you grew up watching, that you'd actually like to see remade for youngsters nowadays?
Answer: When it comes to movies and shows, including animation, you could say,
that I am more of a "purist." Today's filmmakers, writers, and animators should leave Classics alone.
Continuously remaking
and rebooting movies, shows, and cartoons because they want to stay
relevant only proves, that all these filmmakers lack creativity
and originality.
The incessant political activism and correctness, which mostly consists of CONTRIVED
tokenism to pander to politically correct hipsters are biggest problems with today's
writers, filmmakers, cartoonists, musicians, etc.
Why does a
famous superhero suddenly have to be non-heterosexual or female?
Speaking of, have you seen the commercials for CW's Batwoman?
Batwoman Trailer CW (2019)
If anything, more network programmers should introduce younger demographics to Classics.
Yes, they may look dated but as they get older,
they might have a better appreciation for said movies, shows, and
especially cartoons. They should be able to imagine what life was like
during an era(s) that was before their existence.
For
example, every time I watch a movie that was made before, during, and
slightly after I was born, that film allows me to embrace and reflect on
what life was like before we had cell phones, laptops, tablets, the Internet,
social media, etc.
As a 37-year-old woman, I do miss
the days of publicly socializing with friends and on my bedroom's phone
line as a teenager, going to public places without someone staring at
his cell phone, while playing video games on it, and being able to cherish memories WITHOUT some girl snapping selfies and recording the play
by play of her vapid, daily life with poses on social media for instant praises by sycophants.
C.S. Michel's Questions:
1) Have you seen the trailer for the new Joker movie?
2) Have you seen Doom Patrol?
3) Do you like Erotic Anime?
My Answers:
1) Yes, I have and please reread my answer to Whiskey Brewer's question.
The Batman franchise was meant to be campy. Since the time of the 21st
Century, filmmakers have ruined Batman by dramatizing what was
originally a campy franchise.
2)I had no idea what
Doom Patrol was until Googling it, last week only to discover that it
was ANOTHER DC Comic Flick.
Batman, Blade, The Phantom, and The Crow are
probably the only movies based on comic books that I liked.
Otherwise, I was never a comic book fan.
As as a teenage girl 20 years
ago, I tried but reading comic books just don't resonate with me.
3)
Erotic Anime or in other words, Hentai? Since I love Anime, I am not
that fast to dismiss Hentai. It has been a long time, since I last
watched any Hentai.
Over the last 13 years, I have
watched more Ecchi, Seinen, and Josei Anime that somewhat border the
lines of Hentai Anime than actual Hentai.
Donald's Questions:
1)
Over the past year, what has been the best resource you have turned
toward to promote your own growth, both personal and professional?
2)
The notion of incremental improvement is a powerful one, compared to
yourself a year ago how have you bettered yourself and in what ways?
3) What are the best books or lectures you have interacted with on the subject of personal development?
2) While
re-revising my short stories recently, I noticed that I am able to
mentally re-edit certain lines as I type. I believe that spending HOURS
editing AND revising all the blogs I've published over these last 6
years, from night to beyond sunrise made me a better writer.
Despite
what pompous elitists (including a few delusional Fan Fiction writers)
think, BLOGGING is a fantastic way to improve writing skills. Blogging
is journaling for the most part.
3) Please reread Answer #1.
So, how did I do with answering all your questions?
By giving it the "good ol' college try," I answered each question to the best of my ability.
If
I misunderstood your questions, I apologize. However, I will NOT
apologize for MY opinions in regards to today's Hollywood entertainment
and how political correctness is destroying it with contrived tokenism.
So, thank you my gumdrops! Please leave your feedback in the comments section below!
How's it going my gumdrops? Can you believe that 2018 will be over in
4 more months? I can't believe how much time has gone passed.
This year
did not exactly go the way I planned, which is highly disappointing.
Realizing this makes me feel unaccomplished.
Throughout
every year, I always hope for the better but it seems like everything
keeps getting worse. Anyway...
Today is the 5th anniversary of It's Not All
Gumdrops & Unicorns. There are fewer questions this year. Here are
the following questions I have answered:
It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns Q&A 2018:
Zombified: How do you think things with your website will evolve in the future?
Answer:
Honestly, I have no idea. Webs' engineers need to hurry with their
repairs. They are that 1 straw breaking every camel's back. In other
words, most of us, who use Webs as a platform for publishing content
like myself and/or business owners are suffering.
As I
explained to a Webs Customer Service Representative over the phone last
Friday, we have been losing customers, subscribers, traffic, etc. It
all depends on what that person is using Webs for.
I
personally use Webs.com's platform for blogging at least 2-3 days a week along with publishing and sharing excerpts of my
short stories for only members of It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns
to read on my Horror/Thriller page.
Earlier this year (late
January to be more specific), I stopped blogging on It's Not All
Gumdrops & Unicorns and started experimenting again on Blogger.
After
building my 2nd Blogger page, OMG, Anna! What's Going On?! I noticed
there were less problems with publishing my blogs.
Also, the features
that us bloggers can use on Blogger like scheduling blogs to be
published and meta tagging WITHOUT any glitches are free.
Not having to pay for more artistic designs on Blogger is another bonus.
Countless
times over these last 5 years, I have said that WordPress is highly
overrated and overpriced for vapid designs and is user UNFRIENDLY. The preceding statement still holds true today. The ball is currently in everyone
else's court other than mine.
Only YOU can help
generate traffic to content by liking, sharing, and having discussions.
Discussions especially generate THE MOST traffic to a website.
Marquis DeBlood: What inspired you to start writing?
Answer:
This is a great question. Since elementary school, I learned how to
create my own short stories. My 1st and 2nd grade teachers in made us
draw our own pictures and write short stories.
By 3rd grade,
my English teacher gave us a monthly chart with ideas to create stories
with for assignments.
Once it reached October, we had to create our own
Halloween stories. You, as well as some other Horror fans would've
loved those assignments in school. That year in
October, I really had fun.
I wrote short stories about werewolves,
zombies, vampires, and Chucky from Child's Play. Looking back, I suppose
that would've been labeled as "Fan Fiction," before Fan Fiction was
ever a term or a website. Not that I support Fan Fiction, but you get my
point.
After becoming a teenager, that was when I really became interested in Creative Writing.
As
a form of personal catharsis, I wrote angry poetry, when I wasn't
creating my own characters and writing short stories.
During my high school
senior year, I had a disparaging teacher for Creative Writing Class. That
same teacher claimed, that all my stories and poems were "depressing."
Maybe some of my poems were but NOT my stories. You have read some of
the excerpts of my short stories on my Horror/Thriller page to know,
that they are NOT "depressing."
After minoring In
Creative Writing in college, my professors appreciated my work. Those
disparaging remarks from my Creative Writing teacher in high school did NOT stop me from graduating college with a
Creative Writing Minor.
In a nutshell, that
frumpy, red-headed, divorced cow (or pig) from high school, along with my
asshole study hall monitor, who labeled me as "The Next Columbine
Student" can go fuck themselves to Icy Hot.
BTW: I
added more excerpts to the Horror/Thriller page. Whenever you have the
chance, I highly encourage every member to sign in and read them.
Robert: What is your favorite album of all time?
Answer:
That is a tough question to answer. After being exposed to numerous
music genres, sub-genres, and albums by so many mainstream and
underground bands and singers, I cannot name only 1 album. The following
is a list of my favorite albums:
Gravity Kills' Gravity Kills and Perversion
Stabbing Westward's Wither, Blister, Burn, & Peel and Darkest Days
Lords Of Acid's Lust, Voodoo-U, and Our Little Secret
Stone Temple Pilots' Core, Purple, and No. 4
Type O Negative's Bloody Kisses and October Rust
KoRn's KoRn, Life Is Peachy, Follow The Leader, and Untouchables
Dokken's Breaking The Chains and Back For The Attack
London After Midnight's Psycho Magnet
Lacuna Coil's In a Reverie, Unleashed Memories, and Comalies
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult's A Crime For All Seasons
The preceding list only names a few of my favorite albums.
With all that has been answered, did you enjoy learning anything new from today's Q&A blog? What are your thoughts?
In
the near future, I always look forward to seeing more of you on It's
Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns and on OMG, Anna! What's Going On?!
Thank you!
How's it going my gumdrops? Looks like more readers were interested
in yesterday's Q&A blog. This is fantastic. I spent all last week
working on these Q&A blogs mainly yesterday's. Hopefully, new
readers learned something informative.
In case you missed yesterday's Q&A, you can read itHERE.
Song
Saturday will resume on September 30th and Cartoon Sunday on October
1st.
Speaking of cartoons, I think about how younger Millennials and
Generation Z got shafted as children sometimes.
Younger Millennials and Generation Z don't necessarily know what it was like as children to watch all their favorite cartoons on local networks in a block before going to school in the
morning, racing home to watch all their favorite cartoons after school, and
watching more of them on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
By the time I
attended high school during the late '90s, most local channels removed
cartoons and other programming for minors.
More
families began paying for cable and local programming for children and
teenagers was replaced with Court and Daytime Talk Shows.
In
1996, Cartoon Network became nationwide on cable, as opposed to remaining in only
SELECT cities in certain states. Then, 1 year later, the network
launched Toonami.
Local networks stopped caring about their younger
viewers because all their programming was sent to cable. Basically,
children's local programming became obsolete.
Those same local
networks assumed that everybody had cable 20 years ago, just like most
people today assume that everyone has Internet access and want to watch
online streams of shows rather than watching TV.
It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns Q&A 2017 [Part 2]
Today
is Part 2 of my Q&A blog. Because there was only 1 last person to
ask me a question, today's Q&A is all about answering Victor's
question. He asks:
I have found a recent rare
interview with Stuart Snyder from 2017. I have been listening to the
podcast and it's a very interesting insect on the man himself.
What are
your thoughts about this podcast? Here's a link to it:
Victor,
I listened to this podcast last Sunday night. From the sounds of the
podcaster, she seemed to be gushing over her interview with Stuart
Snyder.
It is understandable why she would be because he is best known
for running Cartoon Network.
However, this is the
SAME man, who is notorious for DESTROYING Cartoon Network by launching
boy-centric Reality TV Shows and sexist programming in general as
Toonami'sreplacement, 9 years ago.
For Snyder
to say, that Toonami tanked in the ratings, it was mostly due to airing
some of the WORST Action Anime, the network could find.
Last
I remembered, Stuart Snyder was and still is the most hated president
of Cartoon Network.
Who in their right mind wanted to sit through
watching something as low brow asBobobo-bo Bo-bobo?
I mean, really?
C'mon! Even One Piece isn't that dumb.
Not that I
was severely heartbroken over Toonami's cancellation like most fans were.
I always cherry picked, which cartoons I watched from both Cartoon
Network and Adult Swim.
The podcaster and Stuart
Snyder did make some valid points about Cartoon Network needing to air
more child friendly cartoons.
You may
be rolling your eyes, scoffing, and thinking, "This is coming from the
same lady, who still thinks Beavis and Butt-Head is hilarious."
See,
there's the whole "so stupid, that it is hilarious." Then, there is mind
numbingly stupid, that you can feel your IQ dropping kind of stupid.
It
also did not help that by 2005, Cartoon Network started airing more
live action movies. It was named "Cartoon Network" for a reason. Cartoon
Network and Adult Swim should return to airing animation ONLY.
Both
networks are mostly garbage programming. Therefore, more people both
young and old are forced to watch online streams of shows. If Cartoon
Network, Adult Swim, and all cable/satellite networks still had some
level of integrity left, they would stop patronizing, insulting, dumbing
down, politicizing, and dictating what viewers want to watch.
I
believe more viewers would spend less time watching shows online and
more time watching TV again, if creators tried being original. When I
say original, I mean stop remaking/rebooting classic shows ad nauseam
and come up with their own ideas.
How about TV networks and Hollywood entertainers make entertainment FUN, again?
Victor, I hope I answered your question.
This concludes It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns' 2017 Q&A blog. Let me know what you think!
How's it going my gumdrops? Today is the 4th anniversary of me
building as well as launching It's Not All Gumdrops &
Unicorns. Throughout these last 4 years, It's Not All Gumdrops &
Unicorns has been through numerous changes.
Last
week, I had my friend, DJ Scott from Horror-Punks.net make some
alterations to the home page design. There is now a bat laying dead next
to the dead unicorn, while a crow is flying in the company of those
hailing gumdrops.
Once again like last year, there
have been lesser questions for me to answer. As I went through your
questions, I noticed this year is also more like a so-called
"Sausage Party." This really should not be a surprise to me.
Since
the time of being a Radio DJ at WIPZ in 2002, my
audience was ALWAYS male-dominated.
It always felt as if my hobbies,
interests, and views hardly ever resonated with most women. It has been
this way for YEARS.
Typically, I have more in common
with men than with women. Most men were usually more loyal to me than
women were, in the platonic sense.
They still are today. If this does
NOT say something, it really should.
Regarding the
amount I questions I have answered from subscribers these last 2 years,
just because I have less to answer now, doesn't necessarily mean other
people don't have any questions. Quantity is not always quality.
Anyway, to celebrate the 4th anniversary of It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns, here are the questions I answered:
It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns 2017 Q&A [Part 1:]
Jesse:
I have received new e-mail notifications about the new Song Saturday
and Cartoon Sunday blogs, but they're invisible on this website. I can't
find them and don't know why. Am I the only one with this problem?
Answer:
No, Jesse you were NOT the only person having these problems. As of 2
days ago, you should be able to see the newest blogs on the main page.
Whenever
I send new e-mail notifications, I send shortened weblinks for you to
copy and paste. Those same links send you directly to those blogs. Here
are the latest blogs:
1) In what way do you think you have grown as a content creator?
2) What would you do differently, if you were given the chance to go back and alter your course?
3)
With the knowledge you have accumulated over the years, what would be
your words of advice for other aspiring content creators?
My Answers:
1)
During the '90s, only the "computer geeks" had their own websites.
Now, it is important for us entrepreneurs and entertainers to have our
own sites for gaining exposure.
Technology has
advanced immensely, over the last 3 decades. It continues to do so.
Today anyone can build his/her own site whether having a degree in
Graphic Design, Computers, or not.
Over these last 4
years, I've learned so much as a content creator. Before ever
building a site, I was not the most tech savvy. Had someone told me 20
years ago, that I would build my own website to blog on it in the
future, I would've scoffed, rolled my eyes, and dismissed it.
I
learned how to build It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns by watching
Webs.com's YouTube tutorials. I continue to learn something new
everyday.
2)Since the time The Xanga Team dumped
their own money problems on us and caused division within the community in
2013, I have REALLY struggled to generate national and international
traffic to my blogs these last 4 years.
After
learning what I know now, I should've joined Xanga 10 YEARS or so before
the original website shut down and relaunched on WordPress, years
ago. Like most Xangans, I miss Xanga 1.0 as well.
I
really should've learned how to build my own website MUCH sooner in 2013,
while gaining more subscribers for an e-mail list, after the original
announcement about Xanga shutting down. It would've been so much better
than joining a highly divisive, flaky, and temperamental blogging
community like Blogster.
Song Saturday was the best
quality about Blogster. Otherwise, that community is a standoffish, Baby
Boomer dominated community with a high turnover of bloggers.
3)
Like I have said countless times in the past, you have to really love
what you do. This is similar to being that so-called "starving artist."
If you are PASSIONATE about building your own website and publishing
your content, it takes a LOT of time, energy, patience, and usually
money.
If you are only building your own website for
the sake of status and vanity, DON'T waste yours and OTHER
people's time social climbing, copycatting, and acting like a
pretentious, attention whore because you saw someone like yours
truly with a site.
Yes, somebody else can always
build your website or whatever it is, that you want for you.
However,
once I learned how to build It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns by
watching tutorials on YouTube, I have a much greater pride, appreciation, and
respect for the professionals, that get paid to build websites. Also, I
find it fun learning as I go with managing this website because I discover
something new everyday.
DJ Scott's Questions:
1) What is your favorite Beavis and Butt-Head episode and why
2) What is your favorite new animation and why?
My Answers:
1) You asked 2 hard questions. Even as a woman in my mid-30's, I still laugh my ass off watching Beavis and Butt-Head.
There
was 1 particular episode of Beavis and Butt-Head, which showed
Butt-Head throwing the trash can at Beavis and knocking him unconscious.
My other favorite episode is "Take A Number."
"Take
A Number" featured Beavis and Butt-Head at a Rock concert. It had 2
female characters with the same traits as them. Although, this is my
favorite scene:
{My Favorite Scene}: Beavis and Butt-Head "Take A Number" (1995)
That scene NEVER gets old!
2)
Honestly, I don't have any right now, UNLESS American Dad counts on
TBS. Most of my time is spent hunting for animation to share for Cartoon
Sunday blogs, that I find on YouTube, if not something from Japan like
an Anime. Adult Swim does not air too many cartoons I want to watch,
unless they are cartoons on the weekends.
Marquis DeBlood: What started your obsession with Anime?
Answer:
I am not nearly as obsessed with Japanese animation as I used to be.
When I did marathon Anime years ago, I still watched a wide variety of
animation and I love sharing some of that variety in Cartoon Sunday
blogs.
During the mid-80's as a toddler, I was
already exposed to Japanese animation. It started with the Mecha Anime,
Robotech. This was YEARS before Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, the Toonami
block, Chiller TV, Syfy, and other cable/satellite networks were
launched.
It was not until the early 21st Century, that Anime (also known as "Japanimation" during the '90s), reached its pinnacle.
Originally,
Anime was scarce on TV, at video stores, and the Internet. That was
until more cable networks took an interest in them. It wasn't until
11-12 years ago, that I discovered other types of Anime genres and
sub-genres existed for different sexual orientations, age, and gender
demographics.
Shonen Jump Action Anime have been the
most popular for the last 20-30 + years in The West. That's what is
normally shown on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. They ignore other
genres, sub-genres, female, and age demographics.
At
Carthage College, I wrote my Junior Symposium on Shojo Anime and Manga.
Creative Writing, Sociology, Japanese Culture, Language, History, and
Religion were all covered in my symposium.
Most of
my favorite primetime shows were canceled and had series finales, 10-11
years ago. This was especially when shows I really invested in were
constantly being canceled. After graduating in 2006, I discovered
there was a plethora of Anime online for fans to watch.
Between
2006 to 2010, I took a so-called "pause" from most primetime shows and
marathoned online streams of Anime. In addition, I started watching more
of it on Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Fuse TV, Colours TV, IFC, SciFi,
Starz, and wait for it... Chiller TV.
After those networks stopped
airing Anime except for Adult Swim, I continued to stream it online.
Over
these last 5 years, I am far behind on the latest Anime titles which
released in Japan.
Because you are a Horror fan like yours truly, I
believe you would really enjoy the Horror Anime genre.
This
concludes Part 1 of this Q&A blog. I am really surprised to see
there were no Horror or music questions asked. Tomorrow, I will continue
with Victor's question.
How's it going my gumdrops? Today I am answering more questions. Like
I have said in the past, I normally reserve Q&A blogs for September
23rd. Next month, on the 23rd will be the 4th anniversary of It's
Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns.
Since a number of
my subscribers typically have a lot of questions to ask, I have been
trying to decide if I should do Q&A blogs more routinely.
Here are 3 questions from Victor. Victor asks the following:
1)
Have you ever listened to a song, that you liked but you can't remember
the artist or name of said song and would get it stuck in your head for
hours hoping to remember the artist's name?
2) What brand of anime do you like that are of your taste buds? (Dark Comedy, Horror, Gritty Grindhouse, mature shows, etc.)
3) Did you ever have pets when you were younger and wish you had seen them one last time?
These
are excellent and fun questions to answer, Victor! I am actually glad
that you asked them. To answer the following questions you asked:
1)
Yes! This has happened, since childhood. You would be amazed at the many times throughout my life, that I have heard songs but didn't
know, who sang them. This is something most of us listeners face at
least once in our lifetime, I'm sure.
After
watching commercials that advertise music compilations, if not watching
a classic music video on MTV Classic (nowadays), I'll usually say either, "Oh! So that's who sang this song! I always thought it was ___,"
or something similar.
In fact, I was in
the middle of watching MTV Classic the other night and saw the music
video for the song "Broken Wings." I always thought it was Don Henley's
growing up. It turns out it was Mr. Mister, who sang "Broken Wings."
Interesting enough, Mr. Mister DID actually go on tour with Don Henley, The Bangles, The Eurythmics, etc. during the 1980's.
Also,
the Indie Grebo Industrial Rock band, Pop Will Eat Itself. For the last
2 decades, I never knew who sang the song, "Ich Bin Ein Ausländer," meaning "I am a foreigner" in German.
When 102.1's Radio DJ, Raven hosted her radio show, Industrial Nation on late Saturday nights, she
played Industrial Metal and Electronica remixes of Rock songs.
It wasn't
until a year or 2 ago, that I learned the name of this band. To
be more specific, Raven used to host her Saturday night show,
Industrial Nation, in my hometown at New Rock 102.1, during the mid to
late 1990's.
2) When it comes to Anime, I
try not to limit genres and sub-genres. I watch a wide variety of
Japanese animation meant for both genders, different age groups, sexual
orientations, etc. both English subtitled and dubbed.
Lately,
I haven't had as much time to watch as many as I used to because I'm
busy both on and offline. I still have yet to stream xxxHolic in its
entirety. However, I am currently watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
Stardust Crusaders, Tokyo Ghoul, and re-watching Naruto Shippuden
dubbed in English on Adult Swim's Toonami block.
If I
had more time, I would stream Anime again. My biggest complaint about
both Cartoon Network and Adult Swim these last 5-9 years has been, that
both only care about Shonen Jump Action Anime.
Because of these restrictions, both networks have bred a lot of ignorant, entitled, and highly misinformed sycophants and zealots for fans in America.
Toonami
only represents Action Animation specifically meant for teenage boys. It does
not represent the female demographics.
Those currently running Cartoon Network AND Adult Swim intentionally alienate most of their viewers regardless
of their age and gender.
Colours TV was the only
network that represented a wide variety of Anime genres for both
genders.
Even though Colours TV was a highly syndicated multi-cultural
network, it STILL aired Shonen, Shojo, Comedy, Romance, Action, Mystery,
etc.
Cartoon Network and Adult Swim could afford to
tear a page out of Colours TV's book. Colours was EXTREMELY
lowly-funded. Although, those running it were still able and willing to
air something for most types of Anime fans.
3)Yes,
I've had 3 dogs and 4 guinea pigs, during my youth. I haven't owned any
pets for the last 13 years.
Pets require a lot of time, money, energy,
and care. I always took care of my guinea pigs and they normally lived
for at least 5 years.
After my last dog, Alexis had
to be euthanized in 2004, I stopped wanting pets. I hate the fact, that
my pets normally died around Christmas.
Who wants to wake up to dead pets on Christmas Day?
I
sure as hell don't. I don't want to be in tears on Christmas Day
because my pet died naturally or was euthanized without being told about
it, until the very last minute.
I REALLY wish I
could've seen my dog, Mendy 1 last time before doing my high school
final exams before Christmas Break, almost 2 decades ago. After coming
home from school and learning, that he was euthanized, I cried my eyes
out.
Hopefully, all 3 questions have been answered
Victor. Since I mentioned Pop Will Eat Itself, here is
their music video for "Ich Bin Ein Ausländer."
Pop Will Eat Itself "Ich Bin Ein Ausländer" Dos Dedos Mis Amigos (1994)
How's it going my gumdrops? Above is a gif of Soundgarden's Chris Cornell with Linkin Park/Stone Temple Pilots'
Chester Bennington.
Before dying, both had performed
Temple Of The Dog's "Hunger Strike." "Hunger Strike" was originally
sung by Chris Cornell and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.
After publishing
last Thursday's blog, Jesse asked in the comments section:
"The lead singer of Linkin Park has been found dead. What are your thoughts of him and his band?"
I
was going to publish my answer in the latest Song Saturday blog,but
changed my mind.
Even though Jesse's question is music related, I will
answer it in today's Q&A blog.
Personally
speaking, I did enjoy listening to some of Linkin Park's songs, when the
band debuted with their album Hybrid Theory.
At the time, Linkin Park
debuted, when I was on my way out of high school; I became of age in
2000.
If you were someone, who grew up and enjoyed
listening to both Rock and Rap Music, you had a chance to enjoy "the
best of both worlds" so to speak. Because I listen to more than 1 music
genre and sub-genre, I was open-minded to Rap-Rock.
Most
older Gen Xers (currently in their late 40's to mid 50's), Baby
Boomers, and some Millennials despised "Nu Metal" because they were not
fans of Rap, Hip-Hop, Alternative Rock, or Grunge Music.
Rock
Music containing elements of Rap, Hip-Hop, Funk, Alternative Rock, and
Grunge was like the late 1990's equivalent of Glam Rock. Glam Rock
became labeled '80s Hair Metal.
The "Hair Metal" branding was a label used to mock Glam Rock much like "Nu Metal" is a label
used to mock Alternative Metal bands such asKoRn, Limp Bizkit, Staind,
Slipknot, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, etc.
Both Glam Rock and Alternative
Metal attracted fans from more than 1 music genre, sub-genre, and
sub-culture.
They also attracted more female
listeners, which led to some of us soon becoming their fans. In
addition, Alternative Metal attracted some from the Goth Rock genre and
sub-culture.
Alternative Metal is more aggressive
and angsty much like Grunge Music. Alternative Metal is also considered
to be "Aggro Metal." Most "Nu Metal" bands were condemned, demonized, and ostracized by narrow-minded critics, who really cannot accept change.
Looking
back, KoRn, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park received the most
vilification. Those that were Rap-Rock bands, during the late 1990's and
early 21st Century began changing their music to sound more like Rock,
later in the early 2000's and 2010's, including Linkin Park.
The "Nu
Metal" sub-genre reached its pinnacle, when The Deftones, Coal Chamber, Slipknot,
KoRn, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, and many others became more popular among
younger Gen Xers, Millennials, and Xennials (those born on the cusp of
Gen X and Y) in 1998.
Meanwhile, over the last 3
years or so, I have noticed the amount of hatred directed at Chester
Bennington after The DeLeo Brothers from Stone Temple Pilots chose him
as Scott Weiland's replacement.
Nearly 3 years ago, I published a Song
Saturday blog about Chester replacing Scott.
Allow
me to reiterate, I NEVER hated Linkin Park's Chester Bennington. As
much as I liked listening to Linkin Park as a young adult in my late
teens and early 20's nearly 2 decades ago, I was and still am a much
bigger fan of the original Stone Temple Pilots. Chester had some HUGE
shoes to fill, when it came to replacing Scott Weiland. The
late Scott Weiland is irreplaceable as STP's former lead singer.
Now,
the same can be said about the late Chester Bennington from Linkin Park.
It is so tragic that BOTH frontmen became friends with each other
before dying.
After it was announced that Scott
Weiland died from a drug overdose in December 2015, I remember reading
how upset Chester was as a friend and fan of his.
Because
Scott was an idol of Chester Bennington's and was even Scott's replacement for
Stone Temple Pilots, Chester took his death really hard; Chester was
really grief stricken over Scott Weiland's death. His grief echoed over
social media.
Then, Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog,
and Audioslave's Chris Cornell died from a supposed suicide, 2 months
ago. In case you missed last Song Saturday, I encourage you to read it.
Everything
about Chris Cornell's "suicide" feels odd. The same can also be said
about Chester Bennington's suicide. After reading Neon Nettle's article
about Chris Cornell learning about an "elite" pedophile ring, that he
was about to expose, it adds to my suspicions. I believe he and Chester
Bennington were murdered.
The
fact that both Chris and Chester were in the middle of trying to save
abused children and had evidence, that reveals the truth about an
"elite" pedophile ring, makes me believe that they were both murdered.
I
believe someone was sent to permanently shut them up by killing
them and setting their deaths up to look like suicides.
A few skeptics are
laughing, while rolling their eyes at yours truly about such claims, but
anything is possible.
Why is everyone so quick to
believe, that Chris and Chester's deaths were suicide? Ever have that
needling feeling, that something doesn't feel right?
This is how I feel about Chris Cornell's death. His "suicide" has been needling me, since May.
What
lead singer happens to be in the middle of working on and releasing a
new album, going on tours, and SUDDENLY chooses to commit suicide?
These
are questions more people should be asking themselves.
Like I said last
Song Saturday, this exact same incident happened with Michael Hutchence
from INXS 20 years ago.
It has been claimed, that
Chester's depression echoed through his songwriting, along with being
grief stricken by Chris Cornell's death, since May. However, people
cannot be "happy" and book tours, then suddenly hang themselves the next
second.
Call me Nancy Drew, a crazy "conspiracy theorist," or delusional, but my intuition tells me that foul play is being hushed.
Whether or not you were a fan of Linkin Park or Chester Bennington, more people should show not only sympathy, but also empathy.
Family,
friends, fans, and band members now must cope with a huge loss of
someone very close to them.
1 Godson, 6 children, and 2 widows are also
in mourning over the loss of their father, Godfather, husband, and
ex-husband.
