#be series

[skinzchoerim]

[27vampyresinhermind]

How can a 30 second video be the best thing of my day???

[27vampyresinhermind]

Me trying to figure where in the timeline Mill’s “beat” falls within the OnlyOneOf Cinematic Universe:

And the spam texts I send to @nashaleelee about it even though I know she’s sleeping.

I need answers!!!!

What has this group done to me!?!?!?!??

Anyways, go watch Mill’s solo!!

[shadowetienne]

I am going to make a more coherent post after a few more watches and listens, but I love Nine’s solo! It’s very much in line with OnlyOneOf’s general sound which makes it a good hook back in at the end of the solo series. I can’t wait to see what they follow this with! The song is hopeful, and has things that give me a lot of teenage me related feelings, and just so many things! I’ll get back to that when I’ve thought (not there yet, just feeling right now).

At current moment, this is my preference order of the OnlyOneOf solos: because >> be mine > beyOnd > be free = begin >> beat. I do enjoy all of them at least to some extent, and I’m going to be curious to listen to them as a story arc in order. I’m so glad that they have made it to the completion of this project, and it’s been a very interesting adventure!

[shadowetienne]

OnlyOneOf be series thoughts

As undergrOund idOl / be series draws to a close, I'm noticing some interesting parallels between the three pairs and trying to think about the messages they are trying to give.

Each pair seems to have one member who is more at peace with his sexuality and one who is still struggling with it on some level.

In "begin" / "be free," Yoojung enters the story line comfortable with himself if unsure if how the world will treat him. His character is open, receptive, and as the song states, "ready to begin." KB's character arc in the two MVs involves him coming to terms with himself enough to accept his attraction to Yoojung and meet that openness, therefore becoming free as the title again suggests: in this case, free from the constraints he put on himself. However, we can also assume that it connects to the constraints that he has experienced from society, especially since even the more open of the two of them is waiting to be approached.

In "be mine" / "because," Junji is ready and comfortable acting on his feelings. He is both the one who initiates the relationship by running after Rie to talk to him, and the one who initiates and levels up a lot of the physicality. One of the points where this is really obvious is taking off the shirts at the pool. Junji is at ease, ready to show off, be seen, and go to the next point, while Rie is hesitant even though he does also take off the shirt. There's a lot more anxiety present in Rie's character when it comes to the relationship.

While "beat" / "beyond" is not complete yet, I feel pretty confident saying Mill is the half of this pair uncomfortable with his sexuality and position in society while Nine has come to terms with himself and is more relaxed. It's pretty blatant in how Mill faces bullying, how Nine and Mill interact in the art room scene. I am really curious to see how that continues to play out in "beyOnd."

The different pairs seem to be telling stories from different life stages/ages.

And we seem to be going backwards in age. Yoojung and KB are telling a story of full adults who have careers or at least jobs, and adult lives. Their story involves at least the implications of clubbing and cruising, and part of their struggle clearly involves being free to be themselves in the world and society without ruining what they already have.

Junji and Rie are showing a story of young adulthood. It's much more centered around the individual and less their roles in the world. They are independent at this point, but not fully invested into their adult lives, and they also seem to know others who are queer, and not necessarily need to hide from their immediate peers. (Junji and KB as friends, the cafe where Yoojung works as a meeting place, which seems to be a soft reference to My Beautiful Laundrette, a queer film.)

The ages of the characters really clicked with the addition of Mill and Nine's story being set in high school. They are in a life stage where they have pretty much adult emotions and reasoning ability without the experience, emotional control, and most importantly agency to really have security. While KB's struggle seems to largely be about his own emotions towards the world and how it views him in "be free," Mill is being faced with the reality of physical threat to his safety shoved in his face constantly through the bullying shown in "beat." It's pervasive, it's out in the open, and no one really seems to have tried to do anything to stop it before Nine. Being a teenager who knows or suspects that you're queer in an environment that is actively hostile towards you for it and you have no power to get out of is terrifying, and that is part of what makes "beat" and its story really poignant. Nine also clearly is facing some of these same potential concerns, but he seems to be coming from a place where he is able to be more secure. He's gotten "beyOnd" that. Either he's supported at home, or I suspect he's already faced what he thought was the worst possibility and he survived and kept going so he believes it will be ok once they get past this phase. I'm really curious what they show in his MV.

The phone booth as liminal space and a point of connection.

The phone booth has shown up in every set of MVs. It's where KB falls into Yoojung's arms. It's one of the places that Junji and Rie meet and Rie was (or was going to be) making a call. It's where Nine stumbles into Mill's arms after having been beaten up (I can't wait for context).

Phone booths are giving me a few different connections here:

Phone booths were a really common place used in cruising, and I do think that this is being referenced intentionally in Yoojung and KB's storyline. Yoojung waiting in a phone booth isn't innocent happenstance.

Obviously, phone booths are a place one can make calls, and reach out to others, and this part plays a pretty clear imagery role in Junji and Rie's story.

But on that front, when I was a queer teenager in danger of being kicked out, one of the things we told each other in our secretive connections between queer teenagers who all had recognized each other, with those of us who were out whether we wanted to be or not at the center of these clusters, was always carry enough change to make at least one payphone call, and have the number memorised for a safe person to call. Maybe this was just my extended circle in the Bay Area, in the early 00s, but it feels like it's a cultural thing I've seen references to. The idea at least, of going to a phone booth to make that call because you have been kicked out and you are reaching out to the one person who you are pretty sure is safe, that seems to resonate with how I see the scene with Mill at the phone booth at the end of "beat."

Paper cranes as a symbol of hope and the future.

Right now, especially with the lack of paper cranes in "beat" (will they return in Nine's MV?), I'm feeling like paper cranes are symbols of hopes or wishes for the future. Yoojung has some to start with, and then there are the small number shared between him and KB. Their hopes are tentative, just starting and building slowly. They aren't on steady footing yet. Yoojung has those hopes for the future of his own accord, but KB needs to connect with Yoojung to start getting his own hopes to match.

Junji and Rie have lots of them, made together, and gathered up and in many colors and possibilities. They're still a little fragile, but even if they get a little crumpled, they can be picked up off the floor and are mostly fine. The use of their respective colors in places for the cranes is a nice touch. Even though the relationship takes a turn and has a struggle, theyve built up the hopes together and it doesn't seem like they are so easily ruined (I'm reading it as them making up at the end).

Mill hasn't had the chance to have hope for his future yet. I think that if Nine's MV marks the return of paper cranes, it says something about Nine bringing hope into the situation. Mill isn't alone, there are other people like him. Even if their high school romance goes no where long term, Nine will have shown him possibility of future. I am hoping that we get that hope in Nine's MV.

I feel like I'm forgetting at least one theme I wanted to talk about, but it's after midnight, so I'm going to leave this ramble here.

[shadowetienne]

Rie's "because" (be #4) undergrOund idOl series from OnlyOneOf

First of all, I am in love with his voice in this! He's always had one of my favorite voices in the group, but I think this is really the first time we are hearing the range of his capability and it's incredible.

Like KB's "be free," I would class this as a hopeful if open ended queer song. While there is not a clear timeline between the different scenes, based on the color saturation of the scenes, the overall hopeful and open tone of the love song, and the lyrical emphasis on firsts, i really interpret this as a first fight scene, not the end of a relationship.

This brings feelings of a situation where the two halves of a young, queer relationship are unequally out or unequally comfortable with becoming out. Of a situation navigating avfirst queer relationship and how to have it in the world.

The entire MV is focused on Rie and Junji, their awe and exploration of each other, we've got kiss scenes, roughhousing shirtless in bed, and among other things in the pool scenes, what looks like first time taking shirt off in front of a partner for the less secure partner.

The look back at the ending is hopeful, and the lyrics are telling us of a desire to figure this out, to be each other's only one. I think that it will also be telling if they appear together in the background in Mill/Nine's arc, the way Kyubin and Yoojung did in theirs in Junji's MV, which sort of confirms for me the hopefulness of the KyuJung ending.

I am in love with this song, if might be my favorite be series song yet. And again it feels like an authentic, hopeful part of their queer narrative.

[divinedebriscrochet]

Double, Double, Toil, and Trouble

Double, Double, Toil, and Trouble

Be Witchy Wall-Hanging free crochet pattern by DivineDebris.com

I love witches (I think I’ve said that before on this blog). I just really do. They might be my favorite supernatural creature, because they’re so often depicted as badass ladies. In a lot of lore, witches were scary to people (especially men) because they were often women who just didn’t care (or were old/ past the age of fecundity,…

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