Iz 🌟

whew, good luck all

A-KONOHAGAKURE TOO

thank you Trifoski! given as far as the odds thread is concerned I'm battling to not be one of the first of the finalists revealed having two top 5 votes already is awesome <3

oh wow that is certainly a concept! good to see that I have at least started well with one of the DNQs thank you Mack

You would think that the size of the inbox is based on allocated storage per member (now you can put all sorts of images and videos in a single message should you wish) but alas, no. I'm on it (first time I recall it showing up as an issue since the new site), because it's directly related to data storage I'd like to get Philip's okay before I increase it for everyone.

Editing DMs is an interesting idea, it's something I haven't tried yet - you would hope it shows the other person that an edit has been made at least. I'm putting in a change request to see what is advisable to do with the new board on a more permanent basis.

Raised the limit of messages for Moderators by a small amount for the moment so (hopefully, if I didn't break anything this time) people can continue to send votes to Silas.

Putin, being a smart political operator, saw this as a chance to talk about Russian territorial integrity (keeping the parts of Ukraine he's illegally seized) on a piece of land that used to be Russian territory and get some nice photo opportunities for back home. Trump probably tried to negotiate Putin down to peace but failed, possibly in part because the only peace Putin will agree to, Ukrainian land being given over to the Russians, would be immediately nixed by the coalition of the willing. Can't be the 'peace president' when you try and fail to make peace. And as ever, actually watch his news conferences. Man is sundowning hard. It is approaching criminal negligence on the part of the media, who allegedly operate in a democracy, that they are not questioning Trump's LITERAL BASIC COMPETENCY to appear like a statesman representing the world's largest economy. Rambling on about the Russia hoax and of course playing nice with the world's premier dictator, you have never had an American president more unfit for office. Including Buchanan, A Johnson, Nixon etc. Deranged old fascist.

Sorta yeah, as Chez and Rich said, being introduced to it through the film probably helped, where it's constantly being built up as The Important And Good Song. It's also just got a lot of fun things with the vocals and pop production going on, and I'm always a sucker for dramatic pop songs.

'Golden' is the first new chart hit of the year that's really caught my attention, it is some really blindingly addictive and striking pop.

5 most recent ones for me, HUNTR/X, Mika, Biffy Clyro, Klaxons and Razorlight all are highlights from those respective artists, mostly aptly coming from 'golden' eras.

Thought it was very well animated, the songs were great and very pleased to see they have been smashing the charts, and the lead singer had a good character arc throughout. Decent musical animated film on the whole, enjoyable enough. The songs were integrated very well into the plot - strongest part. I did think the whole plot had a few issues. It's very easy to joke about this proving K-Pop boybands are demonic, but, yeah, kinda. The way they were portrayed, in this simpering fangirl-pandering way, made it so hard to care about the development the main boy was getting, as I still hated him. Which leads into the entire K-Pop setting being, well, a fact of life. Obviously it's no secret that the industry has some... issues, and the movie made this obvious that this is still the case with obsessive fans and the groups barely getting any rest or respite. Most pieces of media that deal with idols or fan culture tackle this issue in one of two ways, either they make sure that what they're showing is a positive example of idol culture or they start exploring the darker side and critiquing it. I didn't feel this movie did either, Kpop stanning and culture is a fact of life and a friction for the characters (easier to imagine the end of the world demonic invasion than the end of capitalism Kpop), with all the negatives, and just part of the lives and world of the characters (+ demon hunting), and everyone involved is generally sorta fine with it. Which made all the K-pop scenes feel really awkward for me. The thrust of the story, lead character has to accept herself after coming to terms with her identity, is good, even if it does result in her friends as satellite characters. Certainly don't mind seeing it as a hit and it's great as a musical film, I just have some critiques.

that point spread for Birdbrain, nothing higher than 4, just seems unreal - it would have been my 12 in that semi and had it made it to the final it would have been in contention for my top spot up against my faves from semi 1. :( East Rukahavian and Lookylion also robbed with so little compared to how I'd hoped they would do.

Shame about Lookylion. I gave it points and admired the ambition but thought it might have a tough time. Good to see the likes of Terra, Lotunia, Pophub, Thelonia amongst others safe in

Yesss thanks guys, glad to be through ^^ and oh fuck there goes my 18, wtf do you mean Trifoski didn't make it

In fairness to YouGov, the final set is from a different survey from today that I saw when I glanced at their Twitter to get images for this one.

3 months since the last 'best Prime Minister poll' so we've got a new one! the one source of optimism for people who don't like seeing bloody Reform leading everything https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/52729-who-would-be-the-best-prime-minister-august-2025 As the tweet says though, Starmer's lead on this metric, that he was previously strong on has narrowed significantly, not good for Labour if that's a trend with that much change in 3 months. Also Corbyn is now included and does... interestingly, though better than I would have expected - Kemi really not having a good time of it. Also somewhat related there's this which is Starmer against the two populists in how the three of them are perceived: Mostly expected stuff from what we know of the three but gives some insight into the various claims about each one's character that public debates tend to assume, based off of public perception anyway.

Better memory than me! I completely forgot that one sampled a Bulgarian-sounding song - still love it but I often forget about it.

I saw that 👀 I'd feel more comfortable with Greenfroze and Macromia in my semi to be fair.

Little bit confusing to track this down: my entry was Christopher Tin's Temen Oblak - which was from an album that Tin did based on the theme of water and with contributions from vocal groups around the globe, TO included contributions from a Bulgarian folk choir and two 'quotations' of popular Bulgarian folk songs Kaval Sviri and Ergen Deda. Both have actually been sampled in numerous things but Ergen Deda moreso, including on Bring Me The Horizon's 'Parasite Eve' and I think at least one other BJSC entry. I think 'Prituri Sa Planinata' contains a sample of Ergen Deda towards the end of it.

Private companies don't - the more places that have it the greater the risk of identity theft. You also aren't giving out your ID normally. Here you are tying it to your online profile by completing these ID checks which many don't want to.

'Rollin' would be my #1 of this set, Limp Bizkit aren't the highest quality rock band but they really did work on 'Rollin'

I mean, there's the ineffective 'if you oppose us yer a paedo' (absolutely LOATHE politicians using thought-terminating cliches like that) and there's the ludicrous attempt of Peter Kyle tackling the question of 'what if people just use VPNs' with 'please don't' Labour are looking very weak on this which is ironic for a bill that advances government censorship. Again the sort of thing that doesn't motivate supporters to vote for them but mobilises a decent number of voters with privacy as a top issue against them.

It was always such. Trump is just as much likely to view Israel as an implacable American ally as the rest of them (culturally a New York Democrat of his era), they do big business and they're very eager to suck up to him, all qualities that the amoral business-minded narcissist that is Trump likes.

JO YURI - Farewell For Now! Former member of Iz*One (yes I sorta entered them eventually), Jo Yuri, and known to international audiences as a member of the cast of Squid Game from season 2 (I haven't seen 3 yet!), has come out with a really good pop-rock song. I suppose it's technically K-Pop but it doesn't feel exactly like that. Very more towards the singer-songwriter vibe than most K-Pop tracks, and she sings really well. Séyetana-pop time x