Jukebox Letter 2024
Apr. 19th, 2024 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
withinadreamThis year, I don't have any DNWs, and I really do mean that.
Please feel free to include literally anything in your work! I will enjoy any ratings from General to Explicit, any genders of characters (don't feel you have to stick to the genders in the song, although of course you can) and any gender combinations in ships (including polyships). Fluff is great, angst is great, smut is great, any of the archive warnings (graphic violence, noncon, underage, major character death) are great! Pick your favorite genre, and feel free to use unconventional narrative forms (interactive fiction, first or second person, nonlinear narratives, etc) in writing and any style in art. My favorite thing about Jukebox is how unique every gift I've received has been!
Fic Likes
- My favorite genres are Westerns, fantasy, horror, and historical fiction
- Supernatural elements (especially ghosts, fairies, or changelings)
- Any POV and tense, especially unconventional ones
- The Comes Back Wrong trope
- Unreliable narrators
- Kidfic (especially characters formally or informally adopting older children)
Art likes
- My favorite genres are Westerns, fantasy, horror, and historical
- Fancy clothes and costumes
- Injuries, blood, bruises
- Ghosts or other supernatural creatures that don’t look quite human
- Any art styles or mediums
Where The Wild Roses Grow – Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue (Song)
First off, I love a good murder ballad, and a good murder story, so anything you want to do that uses the plot of the song is great by me! Art-wise, I’d love something comparing the red of roses with the red of blood, and for any medium feel free to get gnarly with the gore if you’d like. The thing that makes this murder ballad in particular stand out to me is the chorus, with Elisa repeatedly saying she doesn’t understand why people call her the Wild Rose, because her name is Elisa Day. I love how this echoes the mythologization of real murders and victims. If you’d like to get meta, something exploring how murder ballads and/or more modern true crime media condense victims into a set of tropes could be very fun. I’m also really into ghost stories, and for this one, ghosts that are created by or perpetuated by people’s beliefs in them would fit well with the conceit of the song!
Hit and Run - LOLO (Song)
I nommed the song rather than the music video because I didn't want you bound to the plot/setting of the music video, but feel free to use the music video for reference if you'd like! (CW for rape if this is your first time watching it – there's no explicit rape in the song, just the video.) I love the vibes of these two women as partners in crime, killing (? Or maybe just robbing?) men together. The narrator as a former southern belle who's become the "Queen of Hell" and the other character as a "stowaway" joining her in her life of crime is very intriguing, and I'd love to see how they met and what exactly they're doing together. I also love the visual of the narrator in bed wearing the bowtie of one of her victims. This would be especially fun in a historical setting if that's your jam! But honestly the song has really captured my imagination this past month and I'll love anything you want to write or draw using the lyrics as a jumping-off point. Platonic or romantic relationship between the narrator and “you” are both welcome!
King Orfeo - Emily Smith (Song)
I picked this rendition of King Orfeo as it’s my latest favorite version, but feel free to draw on others, or on other related mythology/folklore, as well! (The page I linked has lyrics to Emily Smith’s rendition as well as a lot of other versions.) I love narratives of rescuing people from the afterlife, and I love people getting kidnapped by fairies, and this song is a great combo of both! I love magic that uses music, so I’d love to see Orfeo’s abilities with his pipes (how did he learn them? How else has he used them?) explored, and I’d also really love something set after the song that explores Liza readjusting to the mortal world after seven years away with the fairies. Or just an elaboration of the plot of the song! The lyrics of this rendition are pretty sparse, there’s a lot of room to expand.
Millie Warm the Kettle - Rabbitology (Song)
I just so love the vibe of this song. It’s so eerie and charged with elusive meaning, and I’d love something exploring just what’s going on with the narrator. (Of course, once I went to look up the lyrics to link, I saw the artist has left comments on Genius explaining what she wrote the song about – feel free to do something drawing on her commentary or go off in an entirely different direction.) Are the ghosts our narrator is walking with literal or figurative? Who’s Millie, and just what’s in that tea?
Bloody! Bloody! - Junie & TheHutFriends (Song)
I love the horror and foreboding in this song, and I would love to see more about the “lady in red” and just what her craving is/what it does to her. Her repetition of “I probably shouldn’t have said that” and the sense of slipping sanity is a really cool vibe, and I’d love to see her falling apart as she slips further into whatever is compelling her to act. (And feel free to get as gorey as you like, whether in writing or in art)
Tollund Man - The Mountain Goats (Song)
So I’ve been lowkey obsessed with bog bodies since age 5, and a mega Mountain Goats fan for all of my adulthood, and I couldn’t resist requesting a gift about the song that unites the two. I don’t actually know too much about Tollund Man himself that’s not on his Wiki page, and I welcome works that draw on the actual Tollund Man or just take the human sacrifice and run with it in whatever setting you’d like. (Fair warning, if you search Tollund Man, you’re going to get unavoidable pictures of his mummified corpse.) I love the sense of wistful acceptance in the narrator’s words, and I’d like to see more of his mindset. I’d also like an exploration of what his death is meant to accomplish, or more of the rituals behind it (the ceremonial shoes, the council’s decision...)
What’s He Building? - Tom Waits (Song)
I just want a horror story or atmospheric horror art to go along with this song. I can see two directions you could take it, fic-wise:
1) The man the narrator speaks about is building something horrible
2) The narrator and the others in the neighborhood turn against the man, only to find out he's done nothing wrong
I picture this as taking place in a small town, either in the 50s or so, or in a place that still feels trapped in the past.
For art, there are so many details given in the song, and I'd love to see how you fit them into an illustration that captures the eerie tone of the song. I'd love to see what the outside of this man's house looks like, what his workshop looks like, or both!
