HALFWAY HERE | me

things: odd, important, and underrated

[published 11.26.17]

   so i've been on vacation for the last five or so days, and the weather was not particularly good where i was during so. as such, i spent a lot of time inside and online, looking at stuff and, subsequently, thinking about that stuff. i've gathered that i love any form of weird things, whether that be video, music, written, or anything else. and i'm here to list some of the things i like, just because there are a lot of things i think don't get the exposure they deserve, and i at least wanna feel like i'm kinda doing my part. so, yeah, let's party.

1. why does no one appreciate mayday parade
okay, so this band does not fall into the "weird" category, which is why i'm getting it out of the way. y'all, ya gotta check out mayday parade. i haven't really been "feeling" kpop recently (despite being beyond excited with everything bangtan's doing in the states, i just haven't been listening to it much), so i went back to my roots a little bit and caught up on new albums from all sorts of punk(??) bands that i haven't listened to in a really long time, such as retrograde by crown the empire, misadventures by pierce the veil, and, of course, black lines, mayday parade's most recent album. and y'know what? it's good shit. granted, it's a little on the gritty side (vocally speaking, at least-- derek does quite a bit of half-singing, half-screaming on the album), but i adore it to no end. personally, i think hollow and underneath the tide are my favorite songs on it, but damn, it's such a good album, and no one's really appreciating it all that much because "it doesn't compare to their earlier stuff". and that's fine, i guess, but damn, everyone that's neglecting black lines is missing out, because that is some fine-ass music right there.

2. stan ninja sex party
another band, but by name alone i'm sure you can tell this one is nowhere near as serious. nsp is comprised of two members of the game grumps staff, danny and brian (with stage names danny sexbang and ninja brian, because of course they are), and they make comedy music. their music is a synth-pop, eighties kinda style, and they have two cover albums (aptly named under the covers and under the covers, volume two, because of course they are) where they've done renditions of songs like take on me, van halen's jump, and africa by toto. and when it comes to their comedy music, i'm personally a huge fan of cookies!, dragon slayer, and party of three. you've just gotta trust me on this, guys; nsp is the stuff.

3. gotta talk about spooky boy
danny gonzalez. we all know and love him from vine, and some of us may keep up with him on youtube. if you do take part in the latter as i do, then there's a good chance you know about spooky boy. it's a comedy rap song. about how spooky danny is. i really don't have any other words for it; it's good, enjoy it (also, as an added bonus, car so fast is an iconic tune as well).

we're entering weird territory now, just fyi

4. seventybroad wooooooo boy
the seventybroad youtube channel is an enigma. when you get to the channel, you're gonna see a bunch of different playlists. the first one down is just called "seventybroad." and the description reads, "in hiding after killing somebody, george needs to come to terms with what happened. where is seventybroad?". this playlist is wild as hell, and you've gotta see it. keep in mind, it's totally fake, as the rest of the playlists on the channel explain. seventybroad is the first chapter in a series that's long and ever-growing, and you've gotta check it out, at least just for the first arc. it's worth it, trust me.

5. things continue to be dark and spooky webseries in the west records!!! yay!!
another youtube webseries, the west records is kinda the shit. it's about a trio of people comprised of two adventurers and one freelance videographer trying to infiltrate and gather information on the abandoned "west naval base", which, in the past, housed up to 2,000 people, who all mysteriously vanished overnight. the goal of the trio is to get information and make a documentary on their findings, but things they definitely end up with more than they bargained for. things get wild, crazy, tense, and scary, and y'know, it's just really good. just search the west records on youtube and it'll come up.

6. alan resnick is a king
alan resnick is an artist. he's a director, a writer, an actor, and he's brilliant. he's done a couple things with adult swim, and is also a part of wham city comedy, a group with whom he creates many of his projects. his creations include alantutorial (the whole channel), how to live forever as you are now (a gif from which is in the multimedia thing), unedited footage of a bear, this house has people in it, children of the mirror, and cry of mann, all of which can be found on youtube. alan resnick is a champion, and i have so much respect for him. i love his work. he's incredible.

7. the new jordan underneath has me shook beyond shook
so jordan underneath is known for making youtube reviews for video games; mostly horror games, with the addition of some films here and there. his reviews feature him in a dark basement and a lot of off-beat humor, tied together with other characters and face paint. his channel is a dark little corner to huddle up and have some fun with video games. or, it was. jordan hasn't made a review in ten months, but he has been uploading quite a bit. what has he been making, you ask? well, jordan's been making cool as fuck artsy puppet shit and i love it. there's a link to one of my personal favorites, this is my house, in the multimedia section above. i just, i don't know. it's just so interesting to see how jordan's mind works in these videos. the set design is so detailed and creative and the videos represent jordan well: dark, morbid, off-beat, laugh-because-you're-uncomfortable humor mixed with clever presentation, incredible atmosphere, and so much heart. it might be something you'll grow to appreciate if you watch his reviews first, but damn, i love where his channel is going and i hope to see more of his artistic expression in the future.

well, now that i've got all that off my chest, it's time to do all the homework i didn't do while i was on vacation. i promise i'll write something worthwhile soon, i promise i promise i promise. have a lovely day!