[peatbogbody]

new pinned

Hi I am Ohm, formerly of the blog @deadpeatbogbody, now migrated over here. This is my new blog.

You can use any pronouns for me.

This is a placeholder but I will be updating this with links to writing etc shortly.

[Writing masterpost]

[Current Projects]

[mingislildevil]

What a diva

[kusali]

I was hoping to be back at home helping my daughter deal with the worst trauma imaginable and instead I'm in the city getting face fucked so violently I puked and then he pushed the vomit back into my oesophagus forcing me to swallow it. It is not fun here guys

I would like to keep doing my pre apprenticeship and just stay in the city those 2 days a week then be home with her and my mum/her grandma the other days but I can't work if I do that

Help me survive survival 🌶️

Hi all, you probably know me from Tumblr. I've been forced to return to survival 🌶️ after retiring following a lot of violence and abuse. I'

I'm so sick of things being this bad for women. Pls help if u can 🩷

[kusali]

Dude paid me extra to move my plans around and see him today ✌️ if I can dig up like $500 or even $300 before I gotta get my boots for my pre apprenticeship tomorrow I'll be in the clear 🙏

[imthisyearsold]

YUNHO & WOOYOUNG ੈ✩‧₊˚ ATEEZ - log_logbook#219

[bintro]

remember real football is back next year

[syster19]

about reality-tv and idol entertainment

i am writing this bc i have read one, soon two, books about reality tv because i was talking to a friend (who is super into relationship-focused reality tv) about idols and she commented, off-handedly, about how idol entertainment seemed similar to reality tv and i dealt with that normally.

all this to say that i think a lot, that doesn't mean i'm smart, and i really really like interrogating my own feelings and reactions to things, and i have read one and a half book which means i know next to nothing. but i wanted to write it out so my poor buddies don't get 1k words of me rambling in their replies.

anyway, tl:dr; i think theres a lot of likeness between idol entertainment (not just the survival shows) and reality tv, and this is interesting when talking about the parasocialty of kpop.

so the interesting part of reality tv is that it got big, really big, during a writers guild strike in the us. it wasn't the first type of reality tv, but it was when it got big, and the reason was that you didn't really need writers to produce it. so when the rest of the writing-dependent shows stopped (which is everything from news to talk shows to tv-series) you just needed talent (as in, "actors"), editors and producers to create very, very popular tv-shows like survivor, big brother, love at first sight, etc. i also want to say, that from what i've understood, reality tv is also huge in south korea, japan and china, and that they have a lot of talented reality tv editors and producers. we have imported several reality tv shows into the west from the east (and vice versa), both in taking the concepts and sometimes the full show. now, had you asked me about two years ago, i would've said that i don't really like reality-tv. i always found most of it pretty boring to watch. but then again, that wouldn't have been true, because i was an avid watcher of project runway, and then rupauls drag race. and those are reality tv shows too, but i think that if you ask me, why does project runway feel different from survivor, the answer would be. well, because the people have to have talent? its not just people trying to manipulate their way towards a win, but its talented people striving towards a goal. i think that makes it feel more real, because the talent is real, which makes the rest of it also feel more real.

see where im getting with this? so when i started watching kpop content (it actually started with chinese drama behind the scenes content, which then became dancing competition content, which then lead me to kpop), that same itch was scratched. its not people trying to find love, its talented people creating content, which makes it feel more real since the talent is real. which also means that you can kind of forget that in the end.. its both. good reality content is not about getting twelve people in a room where everyone is playing a role, because that doesn't make for good reality tv. good content is made by creating the framework for what you want to happen, and then populate this framework with challenges, objects and people that makes both expected and unexpected things happen within that framework. sometimes, the most savvy of the contestants are able to get to a reality show by accepting a role that is needed within the framework (like the villain, or the mentor), and play that role, but reality producers are more into casting someone who doesn't know they're playing a role, and then just editing around it until you, the audience, sees the person in the role the producers and editors want you to,

a very recent example is the human audience show ateez did. they got prompts, one of which was working outside of work (which mingi went online to say, using his lives as press conferences), and then they edited and pushed the narrative of what they were talking about were themselves - rather than about what mingi says was the original prompt, which was about office workers. you get all the classics; hongjoong acting like the tired leader trying to get the rowdy underlings to do real work, mingi being the "slacker", the idea of a very active groupchat that we etc. are these narratives false? probably not completely, but its also edited to confirm a framework that the producers and editors have already sat. they film for hours, they pick and choose the best bits and scenes, figure out what narrative that can craft from the bits and pieces they have, and then they edit it into what makes for compelling content. i do also think ateez have gotten more savvy over the years, both playing into and against the roles that they have both adopted and been edited into. the end-product is "stickier" because it feels like the, even if it isn't necessarily true. the fact that they're also talented, that they create music and dance and entertainment, makes the rest of it feel more real, i think. and part of this framework is like. the parasociality, the shipping, the roles. i think the problem is that were the line goes for where the reality (as in irl) and the Reality (as in the content) meet is just different for people depending on a lot of things. it depends on what we want to be true, what kind of content we like, our cultural understanding, our wants and dreams. but where does the line actually go? honestly, who knows. for me, personally, i put most of it into non-reality and am pretty happy with that. even when i ponder about mingi, i do know that what i ponder is not really him, because some of the things i value the most in people around me (politics, ideology, kindness) are things i just can't get to know about him. so no matter how much i ponder and think about mingi, i can't (and kinda don't wanna) know the truth. but at the same time... like i said, i watch reality tv, but i almost always stop after a few seasons bc there's a rawness to the first seasons that just isn't there after season 6, because by then the more savvy talent has found it. my favourite kpop groups and idols have always been people who feel honest, who have an edge of unpolished edges and roughness to it. i like ateez, because they feel raw and unpolished, even if that means that they sometimes create really rough content, and i miss the time of the outside-variety shows, because it was so interesting to see the edits that idols got when they weren't edited by their own staff (even if that also meant that sometimes these poor guys and girls got really awful edits). not to be Me and talk about the olden days, but before groups had their own logbooks, the behind the scenes stuff was often filmed by the channel. and there are several stories of how that behind the scenes stuff could get hi—jacked by savvy idols (jackson had so many tricks up his sleeve for this, he repackaged jokes and did the same thing several times so that it was more likely that the editors would keep one of the takes) to promote their groups. it hasn't gotten more real because now the content is in-house, instead, its just gotten a different edit. the in-house editing doesn't necessarily mean more authentic, it means (from what i've seen) that the editing serves a different incentive. jackson couldn't control the cut, so he controlled the raw content that went into the cut. now, the company (and maybe the idols, depending on how much say they have in the matter) control the cut. this can both mean that the content we get is smoother but also that the control is kept in-house. the loss of control isn't there in the same way, which means i have a tendency to view the self-made content as less authentic. but that isn't true, its just my bias showing through.

what is the point of this rambling pile of words? nothing really. i've just read a lot about it, found that this was really interesting, and like. i'm taking it with me. and here you have my thoughts, i hope u found it vaguely interesting hahahahahaha

[purple--starrrs]

By the way it's like. Really fucked how society's thoughts on epilepsy is just "get over it." Seizures can cause permanent brain damage. Seizures can kill people. Seizures hurt like hell. Allow me to reiterate that seizures can kill people. And you're just gonna casually put flashing lights, a common trigger for seizures in your advertisement, in your animation meme, in your edit, on your billboards, without even thinking about putting a simple disclaimer? That's unbelievable. Your little anime edit could deadass cost a life and you're not gonna put a warning because it's "inconvenient" or "people like that shouldn't be on the internet" (ableist) (the problem exists outside the internet also). Or you'll give insufficient ones like putting it in the captions or only giving like one second before the flashing lights appear, meaning that the trigger's already in motion before anyone who needs the warning can read it and save themselves from literal physical danger.

We need to start commenting under other people's posts about how to properly warn for flashing lights and eyestrain. We need to be emailing and calling companies about their possibly triggering advertisements that could induce seizures. We need to stop tolerating ableism and start speaking up for the more vulnerable.

Also, stop putting epilepsy warnings. That's like saying "warning: schizophrenia" on a post including unreality or "warning: dyslexia" on a post with a typing quirk. First off, the disability mentioned isn't the only group of people that this could trigger. Second, it doesn't truly get the message across and instead makes it worse for those with the disability-- scrolling through the epilepsy tag on Tumblr should get you to view the content of other epileptic people, but no, you just get a bunch of flashing lights and eyestrain, even though you could instead tag for, oh I dunno, flashing lights and eyestrain.

Anyways this Disability Pride, and for every month that comes after, think about epileptic people and others who are triggered by flashing lights/eyestrain. Happy pride to those who experience seizures too frequently due to the unaccommodating and ableist societies we live in!

[posthumanwanderings]

Ian Van Dahl - Will I (Live at Club Rotation)

[beardedmrbean]

Periscope up

[birds-in-posts]

Green heron (Butorides virescens)

[duel-of-the-dolls]

Calico Critters Combat: Career Figure Sets (Round 4)

Which set is the best?

Basil & Suzette Bakery Set

Nurse & Hospital Bed

Remaining time: 6 days 50 minutes

[mystylemyego]

if someone had told me a day ago "woosan are gonna cover mitotic at the fanmeet" I would've assumed that would be all anyone would be talking about after. that surely it would be the most homoerotic and sexually charged thing to happen on that stage. and yet.

[peatbogbody]

over a next two weeks i have a giant list of things i Need To Do because i am Going To Grad School and Moving House

as such you shoulcd expect to see me on here being exceptionally prolific at publishing all kinds of long-form writing about kpop boys and other very important topics

[kangsyeosang]

[deadpeatbogbody]

KQ, Eden, and the Yeosang problem.

HUGE DISCLAIMER: I am not implying I think any of the following:

- KQ is a perfect company that is perfectly managed.

- Eden is the best music producer ever and infallible

- Either of these parties have always made the best possible management decisions and perfectly utilized all its talent to the fullest.

HOWEVER.

Some of the commonly parroted fandom beliefs, especially surrounding one Kang Yeosang have nearly forced me to become their downright defenders (Particularly of Eden. As a rule I simply do not cape for corporations, though my stance in this case is a fairly neutral one. Though I don’t dispute the likelihood that they have their management shortcomings, I’m giving the benefit of the doubt that overall they’re doing things...fine...at least insofar as their talent management goes.)

Another disclaimer is that I’m a (photo)card-carrying Yeodoongie. I love this doberman a lot, as a singer, performer and overall cool-sounding guy (He took the time while visiting my home region on tour to go down to the beach and vocally appreciate some seals! How can I not like him?). I’ll be the first to tell you I want nothing for the best for him in his career and life. All the prominent singing parts!

With that in mind, the fandom view of him as this poor downtrodden fellow who is constantly being mistreated by the company and Evil Producer Eden and purposely excluded from having lines is…very silly and honestly a bit embarrassing.

Let's get into it:

I won’t actually go into too much detail on the Eden situation here. For more information on that please see this excellent writing on the subject from @atiny-for-life. I mostly want to address this from the angle of Yeosang and his artistic and professional growth, and by extension that of ATEEZ as a whole. All I will say is don’t believe rumors, and if you like ATEEZ’s music and continue to listen to it, you don’t/shouldn’t actually hate Eden/Eden-ary team all that much! We're at the point where there are multiple instances of Eden being written in as a villain character in AU fanfics. We have certifiably lost the plot (also Maddox sometimes ends up in that mess and it's really just ? what did HE do to get pulled into this??)

A few facts:

- When ATEEZ debuted, ATEEZ members, KQ as a company, and Eden as a producer, were all relatively new and inexperienced in their roles. Not an excuse, just a fact

- It’s plain to hear that Eden-ary’s writing and producing chops were still somewhat in development at that time, I’m guessing due to both experience and budget-related reasons. This will become clear through my discography review series. They certainly had plenty of talent and ability already, and ATEEZ’s early discography is still quite a lot of fun, and good for what it is. But the fact is a lot of their early work is fairly simple EDM-inspired pop, without the level of songwriting complexity or degree of tailoring to the members’ specific strengths, as we are seeing today with their more sophisticated, mature sound.

-ATEEZ is a group with a disproportionate number of singers with low-pitched, dark-sounding voices.

I will just say it: when the group debuted, Yeosang was not the strongest vocalist. His voice is naturally quite soft and does not carry very well, and it has taken a lot of training for him to improve on that front. He also had a decent amount of trouble maintaining vocal stability while moving. He is still not the strongest on this front.

Other members were similarly under-trained (even Jongho!), but some had enough, or their voices just naturally carried a little better in a live setting with heavy choreography, to be more workable at the time. ATEEZ is a performance group, not only a vocal ensemble. When your sets are as dance-heavy as ATEEZ’s, it’s just not a good idea to give a lot of lines to someone who cannot carry them well while moving, especially when that person is one of your key performers! Making a person sing notes they’re not trained to be able to reach easily can even cause vocal damage. A lot of ATEEZ’s discography at that time just sat at a more mid-to-high vocal range as is typical in a lot of pop music. Yeosang does have some lines back then in these upper registers, which is okay when you have the help of production tools, but I would guess it was for his sake as much as the rest of the group’s that they chose not to give him too heavy a vocal line burden.

We tend to bias music over dance as an art form, but Yeosang’s role as a dancer and performer should not be overlooked. Yeo has always been utilized extremely well for his power and grace as a performer, and I think that was reasonably prioritized over his vocals in the early days.

We haven’t heard Yeosang speak as directly on this subject, but we can look at Wooyoung as another example. He is also someone who’s been on the lower end of the line distribution spectrum. As I discuss in his entry in this series, this is partly due to his voice not being quite as versatile as other members. However, another factor is that for much of ATEEZ’s history, he was considered, and considered himself, primarily a dancer! He’s spoken publicly about this, and also about how this has started to change in recent years. But it’s important! In a large group whose work involves many different dimensions of artistic performance, not everyone has to have exactly the same role. We don’t look at Jongho, who obviously tends to have a less central position as a dancer (even though he certainly has the chops for it!) and assume it must be because he’s being mistreated! We might hope that we occasionally get to see more of his skills at that, but at the end of the day we understand that his role in the group is primarily that as a singer, and we’re okay with it. So why can’t we be as okay with someone who’s more comfortable as a dancer?

I would also like to point out that Yeosang is present vocally, from the beginning, just not in the most obvious places. As I lamented in my character study on him, such is the standard experience of low voice parts in ensembles: we are there, you just might not notice, but you would miss us if we were gone. Yeosang is all over the place in ad libs, and harmonizing/doubling other members in lower registers!

I’m not going to comment heavily on other factors that might have impacted his development as an artist or why he might have taken longer to gain confidence as a vocalist. Others have written meta aplenty on this. (Though it is a bit intriguing that both he and Wooyoung, our former BigHit trainees, share this aspect of their development! But this is not the discussion for today). The tl;dr of my thoughts on the matter are: he is a grown man who can handle his own shit; none of us have enough actual information to make a true judgment on the matter; He. Is. A. Grown. Man.

As the production team matured and developed, so did the members. Their talent and discography has evolved in tandem to demonstrate a wider variety of sounds and textures that’s been so exciting to experience as a listener. Alongside this, Yeosang’s involvement as a vocalist has only grown as time goes on. Beginning notably during THE WORLD era, coincidentally when ATEEZ really started leaning heavily into a much darker, edgier sound and aesthetic, Yeosang’s voice started being utilized very deliberately in places like the Halazia prechorus and famous Dune chorus. As one wonderful [YouTuber] put it, these were his “Five-star Michelin moment” and “Maniac chorus” moments, respectively.

He’s put his work in to develop as a singer, and it’s paid off. His line percentage has gotten steadily more competitive with each comeback. Fast forward to the prominent role he’s had in Golden Hour Part.4, both musically and visually. Even with GH3, (IMO, a particularly whiny moment for the Yeosang Defense Squad which inspired a lot of these thoughts in the first place. Don’t get me started on the whole “banned from the gym” panic.), though his line distribution was a bit lower, the parts he did have were very cool “killing parts”, which I don’t consider to be a step down at all.

He’s really come so far as a musician and it’s been exciting to see! However the fact remains that to this day, Yeosang is still one of the weaker/less stable live singers, at least with the type of vocal style required to sing ATEEZ’s songs. Owing probably in part to the qualities we all love about his voice: its deep richness and dark intonation, he not infrequently still has issues projecting and tuning onstage. I’m so excited to continue to watch him grow in this area!

Yeosang’s growth as an artist and idol is interesting both in its own right and in how it’s a parallel to the overall trajectory of ATEEZ as a group (and to a lesser extent KQ as a company). I just believe it’s a disservice to him to just assume he has had absolutely no agency or control over his role in the group or his activities, especially as fans coming from a place of limited information.

ILYSM (I Love Yeosang So Much)

[3liza]

[3liza]

Did truthteller really have to do them like this?

yes; fuck them kids

no; we should defend Ann's poor little bobblehead minion son

nuance; truthteller's review helps me as an informed consumer but he was harsh

Voting ended onJul 16

[csny]

[innerchildabortionclinic]

there is something very sad and humiliating about having to desperately beg doctors and family members to understand that involuntary institutionalization does not in fact help your mental health, knowing your perspective will always be dismissed at the end of the day

it's such an awful existence to be a psychiatric patient as a teenager, there has to be another way to help aggressively suicidal teenagers, such as addressing the circumstances that make them want to die so much in the first place! you can stop suicide by locking someone up, sure, but they will not want to live

[doe-eyed-disaster]

it's awful that researchers are only now starting to take this perspective seriously, but there is a small but growing body of study supporting exactly what patients have been saying about psychiatric incarceration. one study in particular, from Allegheny county in Pennsylvania, offers a damning analysis of involuntary psychiatric commitments:

For individuals whose cases are judgment calls, where some physicians would hospitalize but others would not, we find that hospitalization nearly doubles both the probability of dying by suicide or overdose and also nearly doubles the probability of being charged with a violent crime in the three months after evaluation. We provide evidence of earnings and housing disruptions as potential mechanisms. Our results suggest that, on the margin, the system we study is not achieving the intended effects of the policy.