u/NoMoreFund

There's discourse about rap not selling tickets. A comment that often comes up is that live rap shows are like watching someone do karaoke. But is that all of it?

In particular I'm wondering whether any touring rappers have brought something to their act (e.g. a live band, dancers, a light show). I'm sure seeing an up and coming rapper you've previously never heard of absolutely nail feels as sublime as with any other genre. But is there anything the big name rappers with well known songs can do to make going to their show more appealing?

Coming from Australia I would like to go to Eurovision in Bulgaria next year (which will most likely be in Sofia but still tbc).

I like visiting walkable cities and using them as a base for other experiences. I enjoy nature/hikes as well but only really for day trips (don't like being encumbered).

I had a great Europe trip last year where I'd spend a few days in a city and do day trips from there. Then get a train or bus or Ferry to the next city and repeat (not flying very much, though I'm not 100% against it). I think a lot of people do these sorts of holidays with rail passes - that kind of holiday. Would be keen to do something like that again.

Looking at a map it's not super clear what trips like that make sense to do which go through Sofia. Seems like the options looking at compass directions are:

* Istanbul (where I can get a direct flight to/from Sydney - Edit: Seems like this wont start until the end of 2027).

* Thessaloniki then further into Greece.

* North Macedonia and Albania, see more of the Adriatic.

* Up through Serbia or Romania into central Europe. (I saw Vienna/Budapest/Bratislava on my last trip)

Does anyone have any information or experiences on what connections work well?

Edit: I would want to see other parts of Bulgaria (especially if going to/from Istanbul). The goal of this thread is whether seeing Bulgaria works as part of a wider trip

Recently I've been seeing progressive commentators that I follow talk about how yes it's ok to talk about Ariana Grande's anorexic body. How she's doing harm by (indirectly) promoting that body image and needs to get help. That bodies like hers need a disclaimer, and more people need to point out the long term damage done by eating disorders.

They also accuse Ariana's defenders of corrupting the body positivity movement (from a few years ago) saying that the movement shouldn't be weaponised to promote eating disorders.

But I don't understand how it's a corruption of it. Because as I see it, they seem exactly the same.

Promoting an unhealthy body and trying to say it's normal or beautiful. Thinspiration posters do that, but so do "fat is beautiful" influencers.

Casting doubt over whether that body is actually unhealthy - whether it's Ariana saying she's the healthiest she's ever been, or Aubrey Gordon on the Maintenance Phase podcast trying to cast doubt on the theory that obesity is unhealthy.

Being in denial about what they actually eat and that being a taboo subject.

I saw a post of people ridiculing Ariana Grande sharing her fridge full of nothing but vegetables and black coffee as signs of an ED. That seems comparable to a meme about a fat person's doordash order?

Eating disorders - whether anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, emotional eating - are horrible and kill. They need to be talked about sensitively and I understand the way they're talked about can trigger people. We also need to acknowledge it's not individual failings but often systemic and institutional issues driving both. I just don't understand why the ones that result in unhealthy thin bodies and the ones that result in unhealthy fat bodies get treated differently.

To me it seems like one of those tribal political things.

Note that I don't have any issues with HAES influencers that encourage taking steps to improve your health whatever you look like. I'm talking about basically the pro fat messaging, the attempts to make "fat" a political identity and reclaim it as a label of pride, the defeatist and resentment filled messages about people who don't understand fatness. To me it's just eerily similar to "Thinspiration".

What am I missing here? On CMV because I'm out of step with my usual political fellow travellers here.

Edit: In the post title I conflated the body positive movement and what's broadly described as the fat acceptance movement, generally characterised by talking about "fat" as an identity in neutral or positive terms. They are strongly aligned but not the same.

Most albums are mixed bags, and many classic albums have at least one stinker. But sometimes even the worst song on an album is great. Maybe this is the measure of a great album.

Making this thread while listening to Four Sticks by Led Zeppelin. It was the only song off IV left off their greatest hits box set. But I love this song - it's a bit of an acquired taste but it's really unique and in high rotation for me.

I'm from Australia and learned all about chavs from British TV and online (late 00s).

But I was in the UK for about 3 weeks all up last year (including Scotland) and now I think about it, I didn't run in to any chavs. What happened to them?

I got the impression that NY (the Lupertazzi family - one of the five families) was significantly more powerful and had much bigger concerns than that pygmy thing in New Jersey.

At one point they're said to have over 200 soldiers compared to the relatively small group of NJ people we see, and often they deploy soldiers we've never seen before and will never see again

Johnny Sack was basically the NJ account manager. He was genuinely close with Tony and had an affinity for NJ because he lived there with Ginny. That closeness persisted even when he became boss. Later Phil is connected to NJ through his wife and Vito.

But also sometimes the two families seem to be on much more equal footing? They seem to regularly interact with each other and their soldiers know each other.

To qualify for the Grand Final of the Eurovision song contest, you need to reach top 10 in your semifinal. This year each semifinal had 15 countries but it has been as high as 19.

You get a score made up of the sum of points from the jury, and points from the televote. For both jury and televote, each country assigns 12 points to their favourite and 10, 8, then each number 7-1 points for the following ranks

If an act doesn't make it, you can usually point to them not doing well enough in either the televote or juries (or both)

However this year, Switzerland came 9th in both the televote and the jury in their semifinal, but missed out. Similarly in 2021, Croatia came 9th in the televote and 10th with the juries and missed out.

I looked at the results and determined the ranges. Switzerland doesn't qualify if juries are between 30.23% and 93.75%% of the total vote. In 2021 Croatia misses out if juries are between 31.58% and 55.81% of the total vote - so even unluckier (despite coming 10th and 9th compared to Switzerland's 9th and 9th). I can imagine it being possible there being an even narrower range around 50/50 where an artist just misses out.

This also got me wondering - is it possible for an act to win the jury, come in top 10 of the televote, and still not qualify (or vice versa)? (Edit: No - at most 9 countries can overtake you)

In the ultimate circumstance of bad luck, would it be possible for an act to win both the jury and televote and not qualify? (Edit: No - you have the most points)

If not, what's the "best looking" result (lowest sum of placements? highest low placement?) that can still leave a country not qualifying? (Edit: 6th and 6th means there are potentially 10 countries that didn't do worse in both categories)

Edit: Thank you u/Commercial_Jelly_893 for answers

So for example, a Caterpie holding Eviolite, in addition to getting defense boosts, can Mega Evolve into Butterfree (losing the boosts). Or a Weedle can Mega Evolve into Mega-Beedrill.

There would be some way of knowing which split evolution/mega you will turn into (you don't pick it mid battle).

You stay at the same % of HP if the (mega) evolution has a different HP stat.

Would this make any more NFE pokemon viable?

The Pokemon already good with Eviolite would be good with the option - Porygon-2 can go into "attack mode" by Mega Evolving to Porygon-Z

Eviolite Scyther seems like a good one - basically a different base for Mega-Scizor to mix things up - you get two distinct Pokemon and you can choose which one you go with depending on what works for the battle.

Eviolite Pupitar might be good as a switch in - immune to Electric and with Shed Skin to shrug off any status before Mega Evolving to Mega-Tyranitar. In fact it seems like many NFEs of Megas would be better at switching in to take a hit than their unboosted fully evolved counterparts.

So for example, when you think about a band that's just "metal", and not any subgenre (e.g. glam, power, doom, thrash, black, death), what band so you think of? Even more challenging, what band is simply just "rock"? What artist is pure "pop" (circa 2026)?

Vanilla doesn't mean bad, or even common. Vanilla flavour is based on an extremely rare and expensive plant. It's just interesting to see how the "default" for a genre changes over time. For example, there was an interesting discussion recently on this subreddit about how "punk" was a very loosely defined genre before settling on something specific in the 80s from which subgenres arose. "Pop" by its nature changes heavily.

Walk Like a Man is the end of Christopher's story. It shows that he'll never overcome his addictions and the institutions he's associated with will keep him on a dark path forever.

So it doesn't really as that the episode where he dies isn't really about him at all, but entirely focused on Tony. That Christopher's death is kind of sudden and hard to explain.

In that same episode Tony realises the universe is indifferent to his crimes and he gives up on trying to become a better person. Which is the premise of the show.

It's locked in for good in The Blue Comet when he gets kicked out of therapy. As of the end of that episode and the people in his life who could offer him sound advice that he'd actually take are dead in a coma, or otherwise out of Tony's life. Basically the show hammers home over and over that Tony will never become a better person. So the die is cast.

This is a cold take because people bring this up in the context of whether Tony dies at the end. I used to ignore it because I think it all works so much better if you conclude he does die right then and there. But it's also powerful in that the show ends just after Tony can no longer remember telling his kids to remember the good times. There's nothing left and the shows over. I get it now.

Anyway, $4 a pound

EDIT: Alright he didn't quit therapy

Who are the artists that fit that profile for you? Where you have several times heard a song that you like from them, but for whatever reason you just don't look up the band on streaming or check out any of their albums or anything.

For me The Who, Tears for Fears and Wolf Alice just sound great every time I hear them, but the main thing I know them for is thinking "why don't I listen to them more?" when I hear one of their songs. That thought never really occurs to me when I open Spotify. I go through this cycle of remembering them, thinking I'll check them out more later, then not doing that.