Welcome Back & Brainstorming Post

[morbane]

Hello! I am so excited to start Jukebox up again for this year. I can't believe it's the fifth year already.

Journal style changes

You may notice that both this community and the LiveJournal community look a little different. With a bit of help, I re-jigged the theme and colours and added link lists. My hope is that the new design is a) more legible and useful, b) more consistent across the two communities, and c) a little prettier (though that is a very distant third). I'm happy to take further feedback; otherwise, if you add ?style=mine to the end of a URL in this comm, it'll show you the page in your own journal style. Maybe there'll be a sticky post with a nice picture later.

Currently, the links list includes the collection, the tag set, and the schedule; later I'll add other things like the canons, the letters post, and the beta post. Suggestions welcome. What makes the community easy to use for you?

Rule changes

Small changes for this year include:
Art minimum
I tweaked this to remove the pixel requirements, which didn't really work last year, and specify that if you are submitting graphics, at least 3 separate pieces are required; otherwise, please just ensure that the work is checked for obvious problems (don't draw on lined paper, make sure you have a reliable scanner or camera, check resolution, etc) and is complete. EDIT: Now changed to: collages, manips, and similar graphics may be given as treats to people who are open to them, but may not be used to fulfil an assignment.

Nominations limit
Last year I allowed 8 nominations; I'd prefer to make it 7 this year. That is solely because it seems to take around the same number of total hours for me to put together the link tables as there are nominations per participant. Weird, I know, but it's consistent. I can commit to 7 hours in one day to put the tables together, but 8 was stretching it and I don't want to delay sign-ups. If this is a large disappointment to y'all, I'll reconsider.

Requests limit
Last year you could request 3-8 pieces of music. It occurs to me that 8 is a bit arbitrary since AO3 goes up to 10 easily. Does anyone want me to change the possible request maximum to 10? The minimum will not change.

Pinch hits
Are you all happy with me continuing to post them to the community?

Any other feedback is welcome.

Brainstorming

Since nominations will open on Friday (approximately), please use this post and its Dreamwidth equivalent to share what you're thinking of nominating! This is an optional part of the exchange and so is nominating, but it's a good way to get ideas, see if other people are excited about your music choices - or at the very least, bring your favourite music to other people's attention.

This post on LJ

Comments

[alexseanchai]

Noms limit: no problem for me. Irritating, yeah, but I'd rather an irritated me than a you who doesn't want to commit to running this challenge next year... :)

Requests: *tilts hand back and forth* I could certainly fill ten request slots...

Pinch hits: no problem for me.

Brainstorming: ...I have no idea, honestly. I'll come back in.

[merryghoul]

No opinion on art, since I don't draw, but I'm happy with the nominations and requests limit. (I will probably nominate and request less than the maximum, anyway.)

I'd prefer pinch hits posted to the community, because I have issues with sites like Google Groups (Google Groups either takes a long time for me to load or it doesn't load for me at all, especially on mobile).

As for songs, I was thinking of nominating a lot of songs nominated in previous years (by myself or from others):

* Perfume Genius -- “Queen” (video)
* The Smiths – “This Charming Man” (song)
* Taylor Swift – “Out of the Woods” (video)
* Andrew Bayer – “Superhuman” (video)

And I was also thinking of nominating Solange – “Cranes in the Sky” (song) and Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” (song).

[moetushie]

Yay, Jukebox! The best exchange!

I like pinch hits being posted on the comm is fine. Usually I'm on mobile when I see them, and it's a PITA to navigate the Google Groups on mobile, especially when you're not logged in.

For brainstorming:
- Something from Tom Lehrer -- maybe "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park", or "I Hold Your Hand in Mine" or maybe "We Will All Go Together When We Go" (depends on the news cycle.)
- Nina Simone, "My Baby Just Cares for Me"
- Iron & Wine's cover of the New Order song "Love Vigilantes"
- Frank Ocean, "Swim Good" or "Novocaine"
- Chet Baker, "But Not For Me"
- The Platters, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"

[teaotter]

The change in nominations works fine for me, and I have no real opinion about the number of requests.

I really want to nominate several of the songs from Guante and Big Cats An Unwelcome Guest -- especially "If It Bleeds, It Leads," "Red States," "Welcome to the Border," and "In the Damp Foggy Midnight."

And then maybe Guante's "This Is the Opposite of a Suicide Note," which is one of my favorite songs right now.

[sirvalkyrie]

Bad Apple - by Ashe & Rockleetist
Hide and Seek by Lizz Robinett
Jekyll & Hyde by JoyDreamer
World's End Dancehall by ham & JubyPhonic

Still undecided on my other noms, but these ones are definitely being nominated.

[pameluke]

It's heeeeere!

I had a song/music video ready to celebrate when the time would arise, but I have misplaced my note.

I'm probably going to repeat a couple of requests from last year, so some Bob Dylan, Mark Lanegan, possibly the Rolling Stones. I've listened to a lot of Agnes Obel this year, but I'm having trouble narrowing that down. Same for First Aid Kid.
In the last weeks I've been obsessed with The Get Down, so I'm tempted to pick some music from that, but it's always tricky to see musical music clear from its original context. The music is so good though!

Rules bit, will brainstorm later.

[extrapenguin]

Stylewise, I think it'd cohere better if you replaced the cream color of the text background with the grey in the background-background. That might just be Redshift messing with color values on my end, though.

Only being able to nom 7 things is a bit disappointing, but then again, I have like 20 things I could nom, so I'd have to thin them out anyway. Changing the request maximum sounds nice – I'm not sure if I'd request 10 things, not knowing the tagset yet :P, but 10 is a nice round number. It might make matching easier?

ETA: Some clarification on the line between "digital art" and "digital graphic" would be nice.

[seekingferret]

Dear everyone: remind me not to sign up by random number generator this year. Thanks!

The Brainstorming

[extrapenguin]

I'm thinking this year's theme will be cheerful-ish songs where the fics would be sci-fi about women. Here's what I know I'll nom:

Battle Beast - Let It Roar
Ohh yes space metaphors. Also I think I'll go for a F/F angle.

Epica - Storm the Sorrow
Overcoming doubts. I think I'll request "narrator succeeds", maybe with an angle to this xkcd.

Stratovarius - Stand My Ground
This year's uplifting and positive Stratovarius! Where does the narrator's ground lead?

Amaranthe - Automatic
Again, uplifting and positive. I think I'll go for something on transhumanism, cyborgisation, or automatization.

Brainstorming

[irusu]

Most of the ones I'm thinking of seem to have a science fiction, mythic and/or fairytale feel to them, but I'm happy to see all sorts of interpretations, from the literal to something totally out there.

Covenant Call the Ships to Port. Swedish electronica. Lyrics

Adam Stemple Fool am I and Gene Wolfe Pastiche #12, and The Ocean Doesn't Listen. Folk rock with major blues and classic rock influence. I'll have to transcribe the lyrics, as I think my CD got lost in a move somewhere after I ripped it for my mp3 player. (edit: I've transcribed them here.)

Van Canto The Last Night of the Kings (lyrics) and My Voice (lyrics). German a cappella metal, usually fantasy/mythic/fairytale themes.

Blind Guardian The Bard's Song (lyrics) German power metal band, although this song more on the acoustic side.

[shadowsapiens]

Rules tweaks sound good to me!

I'm currently obsessed with every song on Frightened Rabbit's Painting of a Panic Attack. So my challenge will be to narrow down it down to songs rather than the entire album... Some -- like I Wish I Was Sober -- are my favorites to listen to, but I'm not sure would thematically lend themselves to fic or art I'd enjoy.

Blood Under the Bridge is definitely a candidate, though.

I've also been listening to everything by Chvrches. Make Them Gold is a fave -- it's a joyful comfort sort of song. Not sure what I'd want to prompt yet besides "make me feel like this."

[xenoglossy]

I just recently came across the video for Don't Let Me Down by the Chainsmokers feat. Daya, and it immediately went on my "probable nominations" list because seriously, what is going on there.

I've also been planning to nominate the video for Utada Hikaru and Shiina Ringo's Nijikan Dake no Vacance, because who doesn't need more space lesbians in their life?

[icedcookiejar]

Oooh, I found out about Jukebox too late last year, so I'm really glad to see it's running this year!

I've also just realised all my noms this year are East Asian songs, oops, but they're all mainstream songs anyway:
TT - Twice (Music Video) (Translated lyrics)

Knock Knock - Twice (Music Video) (Translated lyrics)

Sweet Refrain - Perfume (Music Video) (Translated lyrics)

風生水起 - 農夫 (FAMA) ft. 麥玲玲 (Music Video)
When I last checked, there's no English translation so I'll provide one if I do decide to nominate it. To sum up the song, it pokes fun at people seeking fortune tellers because of how badly they think their life is going. So there's a guy who thinks he's never going to get lucky and wondering why some people are born with silver spoons in their mouth; then there's a meta part about FAMA wanting to become celebrities (and getting better seats at award ceremonies); and someone wondering when they'll be a famous footballer. Mak Ling Ling, the woman featured in the song, is a famous feng shui expert in Hong Kong, so her verses contain little bits of physiognomy advice, and she sort of reads FAMA's fortunes, so it might sway into RPF territory a little here...

[morbane]

Right now I only have one definite choice, and a lot of maybes.

Definite:
Ordinary World - Duran Duran Youtube | Lyrics


Pondering:
All Moments Leading to This - Lucid 3 Youtube | Lyrics
(I love the mood of this song, anything that responds to that would be amazing.)

Beautiful Stranger - Madonna Youtube | Lyrics
(I just like it, heh. I especially like the sense of ecstacy.)

The Chain - Fleetwood Mac Youtube | Lyrics
(Interesting dynamic - plus I like songs that are fun to interpret BOTH in terms of totally literal fantasy systems, and as metaphors that make everything make sense in the mundane world)

Glorious Dawn - John Boswell ft. Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking (Song) Video | Lyrics
(this gives me a lot of feelings of hope and anxiety about humanity's progress and future and what we can hope to see in our lifetimes)

Gold Dust Woman - Fleetwood Mac Youtube | Lyrics
(it gives me shivers; potential for fun worldbuilding)

Golden Years - David Bowie Youtube | Lyrics
(Interesting dynamic, gorgeous sense of another place/time, ambiguous lyrics you could take many ways, BOWIE)

King of the World - Steely Dan Youtube | Lyrics
(Explictly post-apocalyptic song, yet with an oddly joyful tone. Could be super dark, could be almost light.)

Outlook for Thursday - DD Smash Youtube | Lyrics
(Because I need to expose more non-Antipodeans to this delightful, weird, catchy song)

Spectrum - Florence + the Machine Youtube | Lyrics
(see reason for The Chain)

White Room - Cream Youtube | Lyrics
(There's just so much open space to explore in this song between the gorgeous details.)

Yellow Flicker Beat - Lorde Youtube | Lyrics
(A fun. ominous, aggressive tone, and excellently weird images to play around with.)

[andromache]

Probably going to nominate quite a bit of kpop again this year.

-Fingertip (MV) - Gfriend.
Catchy, visually striking, pretty likely to be femmeslash Artemis/Apollo in spaaaaace.
Lyrics: https://colorcodedlyrics.com/2017/03/gfriend-fingertip

-Secret (MV) - WJSN/Cosmic Girls.
Some more femmeslash in spaaaaace. Kind of straddles that line between "is it magic or really developed sci-fi." Sure looks like a wedding happening at 2:09
Lyrics: https://colorcodedlyrics.com/2016/08/cosmic-girls-ujusonyeo-secret-bimiliya

-I Like That (MV) - Sistar
Feels a bit fantasy-ish. I like that the women seem to escape at the end. Great 'gal pal' moment around 3:36
Lyrics: https://colorcodedlyrics.com/2016/11/sistar-one-day-feat-giorgio-moroder

-One More Day (MV) - Sistar
Same kinda concept as Goodbye Earl, haha. The two women are genuinely together in this.
Lyrics: N/A (That I could find)

-All In (MV) - Monsta X
Fell in love with this one while writing last year's Jukebox and swore to nominate it the next year. Gritty dystopia meets ancient Greek mystery cult I shit you not. Had a "sequel" though it's sort of hard to figure out how it's related. A final related MV is supposed to come out during this year's nomination period.
Lyrics: https://colorcodedlyrics.com/2016/05/monsta-x-all-in-georeo