#mx w

@mx-weekes-of-draag

I know I'm cool.

I’m very glad that I.M continues to be horny on main. For the longest time, I thought his line was “Hard as F” instead of “Hot as F” and I did not question it. Monsta X are really the only group that are allowed to have absolutely random and incomprehensible English lyrics (and also maybe Lucas). Like “I’m a handsome sum of money”, “my suit is black, my suit is fresh”, “Zero, Zero Lucky Bang”. I don’t know what that means but they say it so well that I don’t care. The intro to the song was interesting with the monotonous singing and I was a bit worried until that electric guitar started and IM and Kihyun’s parts and then I was absolutely sold. That bridge with the “she’s gone” part and the final chorus absolutely kills me like this song just continuously gets better and better and builds and builds and it’s so satisfying. It’s 4 minutes long and it feels it but in the best way? Like it toys the line between being too long but having enough interesting, different things in there. I’m of the opinion that this is Monsta X at their finest. Like they are such a consistent group and they know exactly what is expected of them and they delivery every time.

i hope you are recovering from your wisdom teeth surgery!! i got mine out when i was 17 and it was awful. i couldn't eat real food for two weeks and now i can't drink protein shakes without getting war flashbacks

you are correct i am going to talk about gambler! however i did kind of re-jig what i wanted to talk about about it, which is a very weird sentence to type out and read back in my head. i originally wanted to talk about the steadicam work in the music show stages, because it was one of the first comebacks that i've seen that in this year, but then over the last month or so there's been a whole bunch of steadicam stuff so i was compiling it all to make into one bigger post talking about several different songs/groups. but then also someone sent me an ask about want and then i got a bit off the rails because you know me and taemin, so this actually gives me a chance to talk about some of the other stuff in the gambler mv that i found interesting!

i do agree (and i've said this before) that mx is one of the most consistent groups active right now. they've established a really strong group brand that's been relatively consistent across their korean promotions and it's a look that really works for them as an "older" idol group (they're not old, it's just that they're not 22). although their mvs have usually been very sharp and well styled, i think these last three (korean) comebacks (fantasia, love killa, gambler) have had the strongest aesthetic and thematic unity, in addition to branching out a bit more from the general visual structure of a kpop mv. a thing that happens sometimes with kpop mvs is that the performers don't look like they belong in the sets; this happens most frequently with white/black voidspaces, but it also happens when, for example, they're out dancing in an empty dilapidated warehouse wearing pristine tailored suits. but the fantasia mv is practically draconian in it's commitment to colour palette and ornament, so by sheer visual force everything is integrated. love killa has a very cinematic and referential style without being overly obnoxious about those references. and gambler follows along the same vein as love killa but goes that extra bit further. i would not be surprised to find out that these are all directed by the same person.

to answer the question that you were not really asking, a fair amount of lyrics are referential to james bond. so the "my suit is black, my suit is fresh" -> famous for the traditional black suit/white shirt combo. "zero zero lucky bang" -> zero (0) zero (0) lucky (number 7) bang (the famous shot from the gunbarrel intro). "i got a vesper martini" -> a type of martini that the bond girl from casino royale is named after (vesper lynd), also martini (shaken, not stirred). it's obviously not a 1:1 because the mv takes more from bank heist tropes than strict spy tropes, but there's enough crossover that the comparison still works! another good example of using an existing property for spice rather than as the sole theme.

gambler, like fantasia, has a very strict colour palette, and does a really great job of integrating costume into enviroment. it's not perfect, since i think in the cinematic language that they're trying to establish the leather looks are a bit kpop, but i don't really have a real complaint about them because if mx can do anything, they can pull off leather. but in every other look, they look like they belong in those environments. it helps that a lot of it was filmed on location in (i think?) a hotel, so there was an oppotunity to match the style of the suits to the architecture and decoration of the preexisting rooms, as well as doing additional set dressing.

@mx-weekes-of-draag

Who says I won't keep writing you letters? Postcards from all my prestigious tours all across Draag.. or Alternatively from whatever dumpster I'll live in.

Hi Mx Weekes

I'm working on it, it's totally going well.

@mx-weekes-of-draag

Illi I'm sorry if I weirded you out with telling you that you could stay with me if you ever need to, it's just that I've known alot of trans women who are homeless, some of them went missing or died. A lot of trans women also end up as well working.... more unsavoury jobs to stay alive and I don't want that for you, the realisation that that could happen to you scared me

@mx-weekes-of-draag

It's fine, I know you mean well and I know that there are definitely things in my future that don't exactly look bright but that's for me to worry about and I'm a lot of things but scared isn't one of them.

Save your tears for the wheat because they'll be wasted on me, I might not have a bright future but I have a pretty good knack for handling shitty situations. I'll figure it out. I can help myself.

Thanks for being here for me though. You're the only teacher I've ever met that gets this kind of stuff. that it's not so simple- that not all of us have families that support us and the option to apply to going through the official process and that just because I can't be the kind of person they deem respectable doesn't mean that I'm doing it for attention or acting out when I refuse to act like someone I'm not.

@mx-weekes-of-draag