#“did you you hear less people are listening to npr? i read it in an article about podcasts - here i'll send it to you" | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sedoretu · 4 months ago

Text

Holy shit I need everyone to listen to the first half of this 15-minute podcast and the absolutely depraved, horrific things that Republican convention-goers say into a microphone with a smile on their face.

RAMEY: You know, I believe in some aid to other countries, but, you know, we need to support our allies. Ukraine is not really our ally. So - Israel's our ally and always has been. And when you turn your back on Israel, you're turning your back on God. So that's just the way I was always brought up. Israel's God's chosen people. The Jews are God's chosen people. And, you know, they need to be taken care of. They didn't ask to be assaulted. They didn't ask for people to come in and steal their women and children out of their homes. So I know, in West Virginia, if that would have happened, it would have been a war. So - right there in my own backyard. You're not stealing somebody's child or their sister or their brother or their grandma and torturing people without getting some repercussions. So I just believe people need to love each other more and more, you know? They need to read the Bible or whatever faith you belong to and figure out that, you know, we're all in this world together, struggling every day, trying to make it. Be kind to people, you know? Give the kindness, and the kindness will come back to you. I believe Donald Trump loves our country. I believe he - I know he loves our veterans. I know he loves our military. I think he loves me, you know? To be honest, I think he truly cares about the American people. Joe and Kamala - I get no warm, fuzzy feelings at all from those two.

KHAN: Well, coming from India, culturally, I'm pro-life. India has 1.4 billion people. And secondly, you know, I support - see, our foundational values are - in America are freedom and liberty and free market enterprise structure - capitalistic structure. It's not the perfect model, but it's an optimal model. I didn't come here for socialism or communism. And out of - you know, I don't want to disrespect any gender thing, but I did not come here to support the LGBTQ rights, to be very honest. Culturally, we don't do that. So my values resonate more with the Republican Party, which happen to be our foundational values as well.

DONNA VAN AUSDALL: Aloha. I'm Donna Van Ausdall. I am a kupuna, which is senior in Hawaii. I'm 71 years old. Well, I've been involved with the Hawaii Republican Party since I became a Republican back in 2016. I'm just so thrilled to be here. To see President Trump in person is a huge honor. KHALID: You said that you've been involved with the Republican Party since you became a Republican in 2016. So were you not always a Republican? VAN AUSDALL: No. I was a hard-core Democrat. And JFK was my childhood hero, like many of my generation, right? But my husband and I are devout traditional Catholics, so we made a heartfelt choice to become conservatives because of the abortion issue, you know? President Biden is a Catholic, and I'm very disappointed at his pro-abortion stance, you know? So - and I love the conservativeness of Republicans. You know, we want our country to continue to have its constitutional freedoms with the Second Amendment rights. You know, a lot of states are enacting gun laws that I think are too stringent.

I know some of y'all have beef with Democrats but if we don't organize and turn out the vote in November the government will be run by and for these hateful people

2 notes · View notes

insomniamamma · 3 years ago

Text

“Surf City Goodness”: Ezra x F!reader w/Cee

A/n: This is the same AU as “Ferris Wheels Are for Old People” and “Liminal” but you don’t have to read those to read this one. Ezra loses his arm in an automobile accident which kills his brother, Damon and orphans his niece, Cee. Reader lives across the street from Ezra and they’ve been friendly for sometime but now it’s something more. Set after “Ferris Wheels Are For Old People” This is for @autumnleaves1991-blog and @clydesducktape ‘s Writer Wednesday.

Warnings: Language. Mentions of sex. Mentions of drug abuse. Mentions of traumatic injury/surgical scars. Mentions of Reader’s ex. Cee needs her own warning, but mostly this is just fluff. Ez and Cee and Reader enjoy a trip to the beach. I will include some songs from Cee’s playlist at the end.

Iggy Pop's voice warbles out of the speakers. "I wanna go to the beach, I don't care if it's decadent, I don't know where my spirit went, but that's alright..." "This seems a bit bleak, Birdie," says Ezra. "Quit your griping, you'll get your surf city goodness soon enough," says Cee and grins. Part of the deal they've worked out is that Cee gets to pick the music for any road trip longer than two hours, otherwise it's NPR until the signal fades and then whatever classic rock they can pick up. The three of you are crammed in the cab of Ezra's battered Ford Ranger. Cee is the smallest so she sits in the middle. The truck's bed is full of gear, air mattresses and sleeping bags and towels, a cooler filled with food and another filled with beer. I don't know what conditions we'll find exactly, Ez told you, We haven't been back here in some time. "If there's spiders I'm sleeping in the truck," you said and Ezra smiled, and pressed his remaining hand over his heart. "Never fear, Sunshine, I will protect your from our arachnid friends."

"Hey Sunshine!" Ezra calls from his front porch. You look up from your laptop to see Ezra and Cee laden with grocery bags. "Hey, Ez, you need a hand?" He smirks. This is an old joke between the two of you. When Ezra first came home, with Cee and without his arm, they were unloading Cee and Damon's things, bags and boxes and you, without thought had asked if he needed a hand, it just came out and you'd clapped your hands to your mouth, and then spluttered, I'm so sorry I didn't mean--and Ezra laughed, of course I need a hand. I'm down to just the one. "Always," he says. You loop the plastic bags over your arms, sweating packages laden with ground beef and bratwursts and chicken thighs. "You all having a party?" "We're going to the beach," says Cee. "You should come with us. It'll be fun." "Jesus, Cee," he mutters and then collects himself and smiles, "I had meant to ask you before this one jumped the gun-" "It's fine. Really." "You still working remotely?" asks Ezra. "For now. There's some talk about keeping my department remote." "Good thing or bad thing?" "Good thing," you say, "I like working in my pajamas." "Good thing because you could come with us," says Ezra. "Ez--" "I'm dead serious," he says, "Cee's got a four day weekend. We've got decent internet. Damon saw to that before...well, before. Mind you, this will probably be something of a working vacation. Ma's house has stood empty sometime. Damon used to keep it up but..." Ezra trails off. It's a small town. Damon's drug problems were more or less public knowledge. You think of the files you still need to edit, but for once you're ahead of the game. None of that is due until midway through next week. You've got some wiggle room if things go south. "Yeah? Yeah, fuck it. I'm coming with." Ezra smiles wide, revealing his dimples. And that's how you end up in the cab of Ezra's beat-to-shit truck listening to Cee's fun and somewhat baffling playlist.

"Talk to me, baby,I'm goin' blind from this sweet, sweet craving, whoa-oh, Let's lose our minds and go fucking crazy, I-I-I-I-I keep on hopin' we'll eat cake by the ocean..." "Is this a parody?" Asks Ezra, "Like a Weird Al Yankovic thing?" "No," says Cee, "It's an actual song. One of the Jonas brothers did it." "Someone greenlit and recorded this on purpose." "Yep." "A song. About eating cake on a beach." Cee gives you a sly look. "It's a metaphor, Ez," she says, "They're eating something but it's not cake." You have to hold in a laugh, watching the gears in Ezra's brain grind, watching his eyes go big. "Ohmygod! Cee!" Cee cackles and you snort laughter. "You are fifteen years old! You are a minor child! You should not be going there! You should not even know that there exists!" Ezra's cheeks go red. Cee is wheezing, eyes screwed shut with laughter, her own cheeks flaming, "You. Should see. Your face," she says. "It's not funny!" "Oh, it's funny," you say, "She got you good." "Come on, Ez," says Cee, "You think I can't recognize a poorly veiled sexual reference when I hear one? It doesn't take a genius--" "You are a terror," says Ezra, and Cee grins, proud of the title, "And you--" he arcs and eyebrow in your direction--"Are not helping matters." You give him your brightest smile. "What can I say? I thought it was just a song about some goofballs eating cake by the ocean." He huffs, but you can see the smirk creeping up his cheek as he drives.

The house at the end of the driveway is small, a cottage really, single storied and built up on stilts like the others around it, painted a faded robin's egg blue with white trim. The garage is underneath the house, room enough for one car and next to it is a room built to shelter the water heater and plumbing. A wooden staircase snakes up to a deck that wraps the entire structure. Sea grass sprouts in clumps from the sand. It's hot inside, a stale heat, and the first thing you do is open all the windows. "I think there's a couple box fans in the storage space," says Ezra, "I'll go fetch them." The back deck overlooks the ocean, pale expanse of sand and the gentle lap of blue-green sea, a wooden staircase reaches down to the sand below. The day is bright and hot and shot through with high cirrus clouds. You and Ezra have stripped the sheets from the beds and popped them in the washer, loaded the dishwasher, put fans in the windows. "This is cleaner than I expected," says Ezra, "Maybe Damon cared more than I gave him credit for." Ezra's face clouds. You take his hand, squeeze his fingers in yours. You know little about Damon other than the town gossip and what Ezra himself has told you. You don't understand the convolutions of their relationship, you just know that Damon is a slow-healing wound, and that it does Ezra no good to pick at it. You tug at him. "C'mon. Let's get changed. Cee's already got her suit on."

"Turn around, Birdie, let me get your back." Cee rolls her eyes but does as she's asked. Ezra sprays sunscreen across her bony shoulders and rubs it in. "I found a boogie board under the deck," says Cee, "And some toys from when I was real small. I found those floaty things you all used to put on my arms, remember those?" "I do," says Ezra, "Damon chucked you into the surf without so much as a by-your-leave. It scared the hell out of Ma but you laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. You're good to go, Little Bird." "Thanks, Ez." And she's down the stairs, heading towards the surf. "Your turn, Sunshine," he says and you turn your back to him. He presses a kiss against the juncture of your neck and shoulder, that one place that makes you squirm and shiver, right on the line between erogenous and ticklish. "Menace--" you say and then squawk when the cold spray hits you, soothed by the passage of his calloused palm across your shoulders, gently gripping the nape of your neck, and you lean back against him briefly, relishing his solidity, his warmth, his hand rests lightly on your hip. "Let me get your back," you say. Ezra turns his back to you and shucks out of his t-shirt. He's already ditched his prosthetic arm. Don't know how seaworthy it is, he'd said, as expensive as it was I don't care to find out. You shake the can of sunscreen and blast him with it. "Christ! That's cold!" "We gotta make sure Cee reapplies after a couple hours," you say, smoothing your hands over his broad back, relishing the slide of his tanned skin beneath your palms, "She'll burn to a crisp otherwise." You press your fingers into the tight muscles of his neck and he makes a contented sound like a purr in his chest. "You're always so tense right here," you say and dig your fingers in, feeling the thrumming muscles loosen somewhat under your touch. Ezra leans back into you as you did to him moments ago, your arms snake around his shoulders, tuck your face against the side of his neck. This thing with you and Ezra is soft and languid and you're not sure how to define it. This is not the fevered, clawed territory of young lovers, the sort of push and pull you had with your ex, the idea that love had to keep proving itself somehow. With Ezra there is nothing to prove. He seems content to ride this gentle wave, to let things play out in their own time. "Turn around," you murmur against his skin, "Not done with you yet." "Now, I am perfectly capable of applying--" he starts, but you see his eyes drop, and know it for what it is. You've known Ezra for a while. The two of you were always friendly, since you moved in across the street from him. Ezra before was even more exuberant, had a swagger about him, confidence in his own skin that is only just now trying starting to return. Ezra before would preen under your gaze if he caught you looking at him while he repainted his deck or put down mulch in his garden, Ezra now shrinks from your eyes. You can see the self-doubt seep in. The worry about his scars, that the loss of his arm makes him less, somehow. "I know," you say, "Maybe I just want an excuse to get handsy." He arcs an eyebrow at you, that brief flash of doubt replaced with his more familiar smug smirk. "Well, have at it, by all means," he says. You spray him with the sunscreen and start rubbing it in, smoothing over his freckled shoulders, down his upper arms, mindful of the tender skin at the end of his stump, the dips of his clavicles, his broad chest, littered in angry pink scars that shout in contrast to the rest of his skin. Punched indentations along his ribs where they'd stuck in tubes to drain the air and blood out of his collapsed lungs. You work your way down along his soft belly and back up his sides, a hissed intake of breathe and you stop. "Does that hurt?" "Nah. Tickles." "Mmm-hmmm. I'll have to remember that so I can use it to my advantage later." "Oh and I'm the menace," he says, his arm curls low around your hip, pulling you nearly flush with him, and you complete the motion, wrapping your arms around him and pulling him tight against you, your chin notched over his shoulder. Cee is creeping up the stairs with a battered plastic bucket in her hands. She shoots you a grin and you know exactly what she has in mind. You back up a little, cup Ezra's stubbled cheeks in your hands and kiss the tip of his nose. "Surprise," you say and take a big step back. There's just time enough for that little furrow to start between his brows and then Cee dowses him, a whole bucket of seawater poured directly over his head. He splutters. His eyes go big and round. Cee is doubled over laughing. "Oh," he says, blinking salt water out of his eyes, "Oh that's it. Today's the day, Cee! I am going to drown you!" "Gotta catch me first, old man!" says Cee and pelts down the beach. You run after them, their bright laughter peals through the warm summer air. Ezra grabs Cee and dunks her into an oncoming wave. She emerges splashing great fans into Ezra's face. "It is only proper that I took my vengeance," says Ezra, holding his hands out to deflect the spray. "I don't think the Geneva conventions apply here, you douche-canoe," says Cee. "Oi! That language--" This is your opening. You grab Ezra around his waist and push off backward into the oncoming wave, pulling him down with you. The two of you come back up, coughing and laughing, arms slung around each other. There's no shadow in Ezra's eyes now, you press your lips to his, the waves roll over you, the tide dragging at your bodies while you and him remain still. Press of your lips to his, your tongue licks out and tastes salt on his lips and he opens for you, his hand cupping the back of your head, guiding you against him, his tongue stroking against yours, no battle for dominance, this, just the plush heat of his mouth, the heave of your chests when you finally break apart, waist deep in the ocean. "I--" says Ezra and Cee's splash hits at face level. "Gotcha!" she crows, and starts running. "You miserable little rat!" He hollers, chasing her through the surf. You stand hip deep in the water and laugh. You're not sure what you and Ezra are to each other. Lovers? Friends? Family? Whatever it this is, it feels right and good. It feels like being home.

A/n: Here is a sampling of Cee’s beach trip playlist:

“I Want To Go To The Beach” by Iggy Pop

“Telstar” by The Tornados

“Cake By The Ocean” by DNCE

“Rockaway Beach” by The Ramones

“Misirlou” by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones

#writer wednesday #ezra prospect x f!reader #ezra (prospect) x f!reader #ezra and cee #prospect au #prospect contemporary AU

42 notes · View notes

stylesnews · 5 years ago

Link

In a decade, Harry Styles has gone from teenage heartthrob to a global pop star in his own right. As he's distanced himself from his adolescent years as a member of One Direction, he's become his own person, starring in the 2017 blockbuster Dunkirk, hosting Saturday Night Live and creating music that pulls from a variety of influences.

Styles released his second solo album Fine Line late last year, and in addition to showcasing some of those influences and his talents as a songwriter, it was also a huge commercial success, with the biggest U.S. sales week for a British male artist since Eric Clapton's Unplugged in 1992.

But Styles says he spent a lot of time rethinking his idea of success after touring his self-titled album. "I think if you're making what you want to make, then ultimately no one can tell you you're unsuccessful, because you're doing what makes you happy," he says.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly spoke to Harry Styles about his love of Fleetwood Mac and finding freedom in the music of the '70s, what he would say to his 16-year-old self and nail polish. Listen in the player above and read on for a transcript of their full conversation.

Mary Louise Kelly: Your most recent album seems tied up in the '70s, which is a decade you didn't actually live through. What is it about that era that draws you in?

There's a freedom in the music that is so inspiring. If you go back and listen to so much of that music, and you listen to songs from [Carole King's] Tapestry and Harry Nilsson songs, they sound so fresh. I think it's crazy that something that was made so long ago, you can listen to it now and be like "I want my drums to sound like these drums, and I want my strings to sound like these strings." I think that's really incredible. And I think it's just the freedom, it's people doing what they wanted to do. Obviously, the music business has changed so much since then — there was a lot more of everybody hanging out together and playing songs, and I feel like music is a lot more competitive now.

And is it maybe a little more produced now? Less organic?

I think we just have different technology. When we came to do my first solo album, I had this thing where I wanted to do everything to tape. And then I kind of realized that The Beatles didn't use tape because it was really cool to use, they used it because it was the best technology they had [at the time] and it sounded the best. And now we just have different ways of recording stuff and you can make stuff sound really nice — so we kind of abandoned the tape thing. Overall what draws me to that time with music is just the freedom.

Was making Fine Line sound like the music of the '70s a conscious choice?

I'm not listening to stuff so much anymore being like "I just want my stuff to sound like this." You grow up listening to what your parents listen to. For me it was the [Rolling] Stones, Beatles, Fleetwood [Mac], a lot of Queen, Elvis Presley, Shania Twain, Savage Garden, Norah Jones. That was kind of like the base of what my first experience with music was, and I feel like you can't help but have a lot of references from what you grew up listening to [in your own music].

Speaking of Fleetwood Mac, I saw you've gotten to know and work with Stevie Nicks. What's that like, to get to know someone who was the soundtrack of your childhood and go out on stage with them?

It borders on an out-of-body experience. "Dreams" was the first song I knew all the words to; I used to sing it in the car with my mom. Every time I'm with her, you want to be, obviously, present, right? I'm trying to enjoy being with her and soaking in. But I think at the same time, while you're in the room with her, I'm sitting there thinking about being 10-years-old and singing the song.

Does it matter if you're super famous yourself?

I don't think so, because ultimately we're all humans. It's not like paralyzing starstruck, it's more like I try and appreciate what my 10-year-old self would think of it. I think ultimately you meet [other famous people] and you're kind of in awe of them, but at the same time you get to hang out with them on this human level, where you're just talking and it's really amazing.

Those are the moments that kind of mean the most because it's real. And when everything else about being in music goes away, that's the stuff that I think you end up telling your grandkids. For example, with Stevie, my favorite moments about it aren't usually the show, it's the practicing. When we first played together, it was at the Troubadour — famously, where Elton John did his first U.S. show — and it was an amazing moment, but my favorite was soundchecking. It's like four people in there and just us singing in the empty Troubadour. For me, that's a moment that I'm going to hold on to.

Speaking of moments where you wish you could tell your younger self "Buddy, you have no idea": 10 years ago when you auditioned for the British reality show X Factor, the judge Simon Cowell asked you "What do you want to do with your life, what are your future plans?" You said you were going back to college in the fall to study "law, sociology, business and something else, but I'm not sure yet."

There's a lot of us who wanted to be a rock star and ended up being lawyers. You've gone the other way. Is it funny listening back to yourself? What do you wish you could tell your 16-year-old self?

I guess like "Don't worry." In the early years, I spent a lot of time worrying about what would happen and getting things wrong and saying the wrong thing and doing the wrong thing. I'm trying to let go of the worrying thing, and that's what I've loved the most about this album, rather than the first one. I think I had a lot of fear — whether it was conscious or subconsciously — just about getting it wrong. When I listen back to the first album now, although I still love it so much, I feel like I was almost bowling with the bumpers up a little bit. I can hear places where I was playing it safe.

When I listen back to the first album now, although I still love it so much, I feel like I was almost bowling with the bumpers up a little bit. I can hear places where I was playing it safe.

I think with this one, after touring with an album that wasn't necessarily a radio record and people came to see the show, I realized that the only thing that people really want is for you to do what you want to do. Ultimately, I think if people believe in you, you can make a bad record, you can make a bad song, and people will still come to a show if they're interested and they want to come see you. I think the only time people go "You know what? I'm done with this," is when it stops being authentic. You can't really blame people for that. If there's an artist I loved and I felt like they were faking it, I can't say that I'd keep going to the shows. I think that was a big thing for me, just trying to worry less. The worst thing that can happen is that I make a record that I think everybody else wants to hear, and then it doesn't do well. And you sit there going "Well I wish I'd just made the record that I wanted to make." I think if you're making what you want to make, then ultimately no one can tell you you're unsuccessful, because you're doing what makes you happy. That's the biggest thing that I learned this time.

You dress amazingly. You wear suits, but they're patterned and florals and you had that blouse that got all the attention at last year's Met Gala. I noticed you're wearing nail polish, and you do wear clothing that blurs traditional lines sometimes. What are you hoping people take from that? Is it just "This is what I want to wear, deal with it" or are you trying to send any kind of message?

For me, it's not like doing it to send a message. Part of being on the last tour, when people came to watch the show, I realized "Oh, these people just want to see me be myself, and I'm telling them to be themselves." And I just didn't want to be a hypocrite. I do it when I'm not working, so to me it doesn't feel like it's "Oh, I'm sending a message with my nail polish." I just put a lot less weight behind it, I think. And sometimes I forget, because I'll go somewhere and someone will be like "Have you got nail polish on?" I'm lucky that I work in an industry that allows you to be creative and express yourself, and I'd encourage it to anybody.

Can you tell us about a favorite song on the album?

My two favorite songs on this album are probably "Cherry" and "Fine Line." "Cherry" is the fifth song on the album. It's one of my favorites, mostly because of how it came about. When I started making this album ... I felt like it had to be big. The last record wasn't really a radio record: The single ["Sign of the Times"] from it was a 6-minute piano ballad, so it wasn't the typical formula. So I felt a bit of pressure that I wanted to make something that worked. I was trying this stuff one night in the studio, and I was worried because I just wasn't really liking anything that I was doing. I felt like I was trying too hard. That's when I make the music that I like the least, is when I'm trying to write a pop song or I'm trying to write something fun.

Everybody left for the weekend, and it was me, Tyler Johnson, who I work with, and Sammy Witte. It was two or three in the morning, and we were having a drink and just talking. I was saying how I have all these records that I'd love to make, I love all this kind of music and in five years I want to make this kind of record, and in 10 years I want to make this kind of album, and then I'll get to make the music that I really want to make. And Tyler just said "You just have to make the music that you want to make — right now. That's the only way of doing it, otherwise you're going to regret it."

And "Cherry" was the result of that?

Yeah, so we stayed and Sammy started playing the guitar riff, and we did it through the night and recorded it. Everybody came back in the morning and listened to it ... I heard it when it was finished and was like "This is the kind of music I want to make."

How did you write "Fine Line?"

"Fine Line" I wrote [during] a gap in the tour. It was January 2018 and I was at my friend Tom's house, who I work with, and we just started strumming this thing, and we started layering these vocals, and it turned into this 6-minute thing. I had it for a long time and I kept listening to it during the tour, like I'd listen to it before I went to bed. Just sonically I loved the song, and I loved the lyrics of the song. When we wrote it, I kind of knew it was the last song of an album, and we ended up taking it to Bath, in England, where I was making this record for a while. I wanted it to turn into something else at the end, I wanted like a big crescendo ending. While we were in Bath, Sammy started playing this little thing on the piano, and I tweaked it a little bit and I was like "That has to go at the end of 'Fine Line.' " Now when I listen to it, it's one of those things where I'm just proud that it's mine, I'm so happy. It's one of those songs that I've always wanted to make.

180 notes · View notes

hlupdate · 5 years ago

Link

Mary Louise Kelly: Your most recent album seems tied up in the '70s, which is a decade you didn't actually live through. What is it about that era that draws you in?

Harry Styles: There's a freedom in the music that is so inspiring. If you go back and listen to so much of that music, and you listen to songs from [Carole King's] Tapestry and Harry Nilsson songs, they sound so fresh. I think it's crazy that something that was made so long ago, you can listen to it now and be like "I want my drums to sound like these drums, and I want my strings to sound like these strings." I think that's really incredible. And I think it's just the freedom, it's people doing what they wanted to do. Obviously, the music business has changed so much since then — there was a lot more of everybody hanging out together and playing songs, and I feel like music is a lot more competitive now.

And is it maybe a little more produced now? Less organic?

Was making Fine Line sound like the music of the '70s a conscious choice?

Speaking of Fleetwood Mac, I saw you've gotten to know and work with Stevie Nicks. What's that like, to get to know someone who was the soundtrack of your childhood and go out on stage with them?

Does it matter if you're super famous yourself?

There's a lot of us who wanted to be a rock star and ended up being lawyers. You've gone the other way. Is it funny listening back to yourself? What do you wish you could tell your 16-year-old self?

Can you tell us about a favorite song on the album?

And "Cherry" was the result of that?

How did you write "Fine Line?"

#harry styles #npr #270220

36 notes · View notes

haich-slash-cee · 5 years ago

Text

Being Human (UK)

This is a show that I recommend to people... but I add a lot of caveats.

The recommendation: A werewolf, vampire and ghost are flatmates. This show is hilarious! So much macabre and slice of life humor! And horror and whump!? Also, the show was run by a side-channel of BBC (BBC3) and I guess they had no production money, so the actors mostly look human and they just refer to each other as being a 500-year old vampire or ghost or whatever. Which makes it even better. The werewolf is Jewish, recites a Jewish prayer at least once, and hangs out watching “The Real Hustle” with the vampire. They work in a hospital as janitors. The ghost has a habit of making everyone tea to soothe herself and the flat is cluttered with tea mugs everywhere all the time. Also, people do get fang-y or wolf-y or do weird poltergeist stuff. And gore happens.

Longish post, more below the cut.

PS, this is the 2008-2013 UK version of Being Human, which I hear had a cult following. There’s certainly stuff on Tumblr. I found the BBC version through the US remake of Being Human, but I’m much more charmed by the BBC version. (The US version has the vampire and werewolf as hospital doctors? Why?) Also I watched the show maybe 4, 5 years ago, so impressions are from that.

And the caveats: There’s a lot of sexism which was hard to watch. It’s engrained in the premise and plot and occasional gross sexist jokes. And there’s other problematic stuff in the writing. It’s like having glass shards show up the meal you are enjoying, and it’s why I’m not sure I’ll rewatch the series (or not in it’s entirety, anyway). There’s also a limited spinoff web series called Becoming Human which also had some problems for me, including some gross sexism and fatphobia. (John Boyega from Star Wars does show up as a character in that series, for anyone interested.)

Back to Being Human and overall series recommendations. So the 1st season was good. I kind of forgot what happened in the 2nd and 3rd season (I think they got depressing and slow?). The 4th season picked up again, much to my surprise, and I remember liking the 4th and 5th season a lot. Even though [spoilers] there was a complete cast change by this time. But it worked, somehow. The show did go from at least having one woman of color to having an all-white cast at the end, which was not great. And there’s other racism too.

For people who like their happily-ever-after: uhhh so I vaguely recall that a lot of characters don’t really get a happy ending. Granted, half of them are walking around dead already, so...? Overall, the ending of the 5th season is... Is that a happy ever after? Happy for now? The Bonus on the DVD kind of makes it a happy-for-now with a continued possibility? It’s an acceptable HFN?

.....And now, the notes for all the hurt/comfort people and whumpers:

Holy crap people, there is SO much h/c and whump!?

OK first -- George the werewolf. George’s transformation sequence, SUPER whumpy.

youtube

Also, George ends up naked often, come to think. And he screams a lot during the show, for various reasons. The actor himself, in the bonus DVD interviews I think, cheerfully says something like, “People really like the way George screams, I do too.” (This is like when David Tennant cheerfully talked about how he enjoys playing a character who is unconscious and sick and gets fussed over by people.) And George is a very sympathetic, nerdy character who is easy to feel for. Who occasionally turns into a SNARLY SCARY WEREWOLF AGAINST HIS WILL. As mentioned, I think I liked season 1 George more than seasons 2 or 3.

Emotional hurt/comfort -- so Annie the Ghost provides a lot of the emotional centering, as I recall. Throughout all 5 seasons, all the characters lean on each other for support and there’s a lot of lovely warm fuzzies from that. Also, one of the later werewolf characters, Tom, is generally a sweet kid. I’m glad they didn’t do too much of the transformation horror with him, honestly. George/Russel Tovey could carry that, but I thought Tom’s strong point was looking puppy-eyed and folorn-eyebrow’d and trying to navigate the world with a mix of naivety and half-feral-ness.

Above: exhausted naps on the couch.

Below: Classic Being Human humor. A review of house rules and vampire stabbing etiquette, between Annie and Tom --

youtube

[Spoilers from here on] Okay, so as mentioned, the cast changed over between season 4-5. And to my surprise, I think I loved the new trio as much as, or more than, the original trio. I liked how loud Alex the ghost was. And I liked both Annie and Alex.

Also, I did not expect this either, but I got so interested in Hal! Yo! First of all, Hal is a centuries-old Vampire and speaks/looks like, idk, a Regency Character. And then 19-yr old Tom puts Hal to work at a fast food shop and bosses him around, and Hal’s indignation is hilarious. So already, this is excellent.

And somehow, Hal is very, very whumpy? So: the character of a “vampire who is trying to be good and suffers” is not new, and I’ve encountered versions where I haven’t been interested. (I was lukewarm about Mitchell, the original vampire in the show.) But for whatever reason, I really dug Hal. Maybe, for me, Hal was just the right mix of very serious and earnest but also ridiculous and tragic all at once. (I read some interviews with the actor Damien Molony, who mentioned how he’d done a lot of history and addiction research in to prep for the role. The new trio actors also had a lot of chemistry and fun on sets, it sounds like. So I might be picking up all that.)

Also, Hal is actually two characters -- the ridiculous indignant serious Good Hal who is desperately trying to keep the horrible, rude, murderous, Bad Hal from taking over. But, as one of the show producers, a woman, cheerfully commented in the DVD extras: “And then Bad Hal shows up, which is great, everyone likes a bit of Bad Hal”.

Honestly, why do we even pretend to hide our fascination with the macabre and the whump, when showrunners and actors are cheerfully not hiding it all.

Here’s clips of Good Hal in Season 4:

youtube

Oh, I forgot about this part until I rewatched the last clip -- but at the end of season 4, Hal asks his flatmates to forcibly bind him to a chair, because he’s trying to fight off Bad Hal. Based on my perusing of the whump community, pretty sure that scenario is of interest to someone.

Also notable is the episode “No Care, All Responsibility” (Series 5 ep 3). In one scene in particular, where Natasha has offered Hal a way to control his bloodlust and there’s this mix of vulnerability and power with Hal asking Natasha to put a stake against his heart, I remember thinking -- “I bet a woman wrote this ep and I bet she knew exactly what she wanted”. And I was right, that woman is Sarah Dollard, a queer woman who has also written a lot of other things (including Doctor Who). She also wrote Being Human goofy web extra eps with Alex, Hal and Tom called “Alex’s Unfinished Business” and they are so good ! (Interview).

Also... the opening 3-minute backstory in “No Care...” made me cry. You get a glimpse of the show’s baddie showing real care and emotion in rescuing this little kid (an important character). When this kind of scene is done well, it just gets me. every. time.

Anyway here’s an appearance of Bad Hal (much later), being completely awful, murdering people and turning them into vampires and singing Broadway tunes during this.

youtube

Side note on Vampire narratives. Although Hal’s narrative arc of season 5 was interesting, and I’m aware this is show is urban fantasy, I still have qualms of the show enforcing IRL stigmas/ideas that addition is incurable and addicts are doomed. They’re not. (General overview on NIH page.) Addiction research is a growing field. From listening to NPR and reading articles, my impression is that addiction treatment will change quickly in the next few years. Related to the vampire blood addiction trope, Terry Pratchett covers vampires finding ways to be “dry” (one vampire, Maladict, swaps out blood addiction for coffee addiction) and you can find fanfics about the topic as well. (General link to Being Human Ao3 fanfics, why not.)

Side note on Hal’s dual characters -- recently, I did consider, “Is there overlap with Hal and portrayals of Dissociative Identity Disorder (MPD) folks?” IRL DID people have complained about movies with gross portrayals of people with DID. To me, Being Human’s Hal feels removed from that and closer to a fantasy.... but, I’m also not multi, so.

* Update: after having learned more about plural history, I’m even less sure now. (Note: my opinions are of someone who isn’t plural, as far as I know, so note that.) There’s a number of early problematic movies and books that hugely affected the popular narratives of plural people in the west, and still affect how therapists and non-plural people treat plural people even today. These include the movie “The Three Faces of Eve”, which has the narrative of “Good Eve, Bad Even, and later smushed together become ‘Fixed Eve’ or whatever”. There’s practically a whole lecture series on how the books/movies were made with sensationalism and formulas in mind and pretty gross things. Chris Costner Sizemore, the IRL Eve, had to fight the movie studios in court because the studios claimed they owned her life story. (There’s practically a whole lecture series on early plural history in the west, I might link more information later). Like, even today, multi people feel pressured to hide their plurality because they are afraid singlets or other people are gonna say “oh so which one of you is the ax murderer”, or that they are going to be fired from work. So.

This post turned into a “Being Human seasons 4 + 5 Appreciation Post”. I guess Season 1 and 4, 5 were my favorite. I watched the show through library DVDs, but I think there’s eps of the show on YouTube. The DVD extras are probably on this YouTube playlist?

(Also, there is a pilot episode, with different actors except George/Russel Tovey. I don’t think one needs to watch the pilot to watch the main series; I kind of recall that the main series recycled some of the pilot. There is a funny scene in the pilot where George and Mitchell meet Annie.)

Being Human: a macabre, hilarious, horror-filled, flawed, sometimes dragging, emotional, whumpy, oddball show that I still think about sometimes.

7 notes · View notes

satans-helper · 5 years ago

Note

Ok sorry this is so long but I wanna know! 🌸6🌲12🌻20🌺24🌼27🍃33🌷36💐48💮51🍀52🥀55🍂I love you and I am so excited to read your Sanny fic (also am just excited in general by getting to work and talk and exist with you!!!) 💕💕 Oh yeah question 55: Have you, or would you ever create an inspiration/aspirations board? What's on It? Where would you hang it? Is this something you would let others see, or is it in a private space?

6) Paperback, hardcover, audiobook, ebook?

Paperback

12) Do you meditate?

Not classically but I definitely meditate on my hikes in some way or another. It’s truly been a game-changer.

20) Here there be dragons. Pick a dragon colour. Ride it in battle. How did it go?

My dragon would be emerald green. We won the battle, but not after a very arduous fight!

24) Strings, woodwinds, brass, or percussion?

I love all these things…I’ve always been really into strings though. The first time I heard “Burn The Witch” by Radiohead, those strings blew my mind. I don’t know anything about the technicalities of music but I feel like strings can add so much emotion. Percussion is definitely a close second, given that I’ve always loved drums too.

33) What types of questions do you enjoy?

It kind of depends...sometimes I have enough energy for really “deep” questions that require considerable thought. Haven’t had much energy lately LOL. So sometimes quick but still thoughtful or insightful questions are even more fun.

I think it’s great on here. I really read most of your guy’s answers to questions whether or not I asked them. I just have a heinous memory so I feel bad I don’t retain what I’ve read a lot of the time LOL

36) Fencing, archery, equestrianism, or martial arts?

Never done any of them! But fencing always seemed really cool to me.

48) Favourite radio stations?

I legitimately don’t remember the last time I listened to the radio other than tuning into NPR for a few minutes lolol

51) What books do you wish had ended differently?

Oh my gosh this is a great question...well, after reereading The Great Gatsby I can say I wish there was a way Gatsby didn’t have to die. I love him! But, surveying my book collection, I think I’m overall satisfied with the way these books have ended.

52) What literary figures would you like to have a stern talking to?

Ahaha!! Bret Easton Ellis. I’m sure a ton of people feel the same. I think he’s a great writer and he’s a writer I’ve definitely learned from, but my god, man. How much longer are you going to keep using shock as your biggest selling point? I really do think there’s real substance in some of his books (definitely thinking about American Psycho and Less Than Zero) but it gets so buried by all this violence and shock and I’m not sure if he’s doing that on purpose or if he just needs another outlet. Honestly Less Than Zero is more forgivable because that was his first novel, the rest are just too much. Like, tone deaf. But I know he hears this all the time lol.

55: Have you, or would you ever create an inspiration/aspirations board? What's on It? Where would you hang it? Is this something you would let others see, or is it in a private space?

This is such a great question! I’ve never made one but I used to love making collages of any kind as a kid and I’m envious of people who know how to make cool mood boards. Although I did make a few for LFS that I’m proud of.

If I were to make one now, honestly I think it would be so reflective of my tumblr in the sense of almost all nature. I’m thinking of my “dream” tag. Those are all places that inspire me in some way, I guess, or take me to another place. I have a folder on my phone called “inspo” that’s all photos like that, art, poetry, photography. It’s honestly the little things, little moments in time and from different places that really get me going.

And I imagine it would be right in my bedroom but any visitors would be more than welcome to see it!

Thank you so much for asking, beautiful crow!! Your new icon threw me for a second lol glad to see another Sam stank face. And the Sanny fic...it’s gonna be REAL.

#ask #beautiful crow

2 notes · View notes

ssfoc · 6 years ago

Note

hey there, i'm kinda new to songwriting and music, but i've been a directioner since forever. niall really inspired me to learn to play the guitar, and now i feel like i wanna work towards making my own music. can you give me some advice? also, you memtioned podcasts somehwere in your posts. do you have any recommendations? have a great day!

Hi!

Congratulations on learning the guitar! That’s wonderful! I’ve wanted to learn forever... so you’re far ahead.

It’s lovely to want to make your own music! There are so many ways to start. Most people have an idea of the melodies they like, or keep a journal for lyric ideas. It’s exciting!

Just as with writing, I think with music, you should always keep track of songs you like, to see why you like them. Look through the lyrics, and look through a song structure.

Wikipedia has short explanations on pop song structure.

Here’s a really good, short explanation of what makes great pop songs. I love the name— it’s on Gearslutz.

You should learn about guitar tabs and chord notations, even if you don’t read music. Tabs, or tablature, tell you which chords to play on the guitar. You can buy “fake books” for most popular songs that will teach you what chords to play. However, songwriting means you do have to learn some music theory. Chord notations as Roman numerals on the keyboard are how most rock/pop songs are notated. Openmusictheory.com gives a thorough explanation of theory, if you want to explore. “Harmonic progressions” just means how chords change within a song. Pop songs have very standard harmonic progressions— often just four chords. The best way to hear it is by listening to the bass. Here’s a list of the most common harmonic chord progressions in pop music.

Several really good podcast break down songs or talk about songwriting. The one I like most are here (I listen through Apple):

Switched on Pop: takes a pop song and analyzes its structure. In their less enlightened days, they panned 1D. They saw the error of their ways and loved Sign of the Times.

Song Exploder: artists break down each element of production. This one about Solange’s Cranes is amazing. Loved this one about Go Your Own Way.

And the Writer Is: songwriters talk about their journey. The infamous Savan Kotecha one where he disses Louis is here. I loved the ones with Bebe Rexha. John Ryan, seen recently with Julian, Niall, and Louis, is here too. Loved what Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels had to say.

The New York Times Popcast: gives the scoop on the current pop scene, sometimes explores news in detail

Pop Unmuted: love this podcast when it was on. They have a great episode on One Direction and on Larry. Yes, they’re secret Larries! Scott did his masters of musicology thesis on One Direction. It’s glorious.

Sodajerker: I don’t listen to this one as much. It is based in London. It’s a bit slower, but the guests are always interesting.

The Art Of Process: I love Aimee Mann’s approach to songwriting. This is a podcast about the creative arts. I’ve just found it, so I don’t know its format well.

Sound Opinions: an NPR podcast on pop music— just so you are aware, it skews toward older music. Springsteen, Tom Petty, etc.

Hit Parade: Slate Magazine’s pop music podcast analyzing number one pop songs.

I hope this gives you a start! Good luck and much love.

#songwriting masterpost #podcast #17 february 2019 #hit parade #popcast #switched on pop #pop unmuted #sound exploder #sodajerker #the art of process #sound opinions

52 notes · View notes

bountyofbeads · 5 years ago

Text

https://medium.com/@CleverTitleTK/their-own-two-feet-8ddd1dbb1602

You have to read this article on the immigrant roots of Ken Cuccinelli and yes his public charge grandparents when they arrived in this country with no education or money. Jennifer has done a great job of documenting(See Website For Documents) his family's immigrant history. His hypocrisy is rich. PLEASE READ 📖 AND SHARE. TY 🤔

😂🤣😂🤣

Their Own Two Feet

Jennifer Mendelssohn | Published August 30, 2019 | Medium | Posted August 30, 2019 6:15 PM ET

As the new public face of the Trump administration’s draconian immigration policies, acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli has wasted no time stirring up collective ire. Most notably, he set off a firestorm of criticism by rewriting the iconic Emma Lazarus poem that has long functioned as a kind of unofficial American immigration mantra. “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge,” he proudly told NPR’s Rachel Martin, who somehow resisted the urge to burst out laughing and/or slap him upside the head. (You can read several historians’ takes on the public charge rule here, but suffice it to say that the concept, which was meant to weed out only the very, very least desirable of immigrants, has never been enforced as rigorously as Cuccinelli is suggesting.)

Cuccinelli later elaborated thatLazarus’ poem was “referring back to people coming from Europe where they had class-based societies, where people were considered wretched if they weren’t in the right class.” Wink wink, nudge, nudge, we hear you! And if you had the word “Europe” in Bigotry Bingo, drink!

For the past two years, I’ve run a project called #resistancegenealogy, which looks at the family histories of public figures in order to show just how similar so many of our stories really are. Cuccinelli’s very public numbskullery definitely set a new record: never before I have I received so many texts, tweets, emails and Facebook messages from people so eager to learn about someone’s family tree. (Side note: Never before have I seen so many people who’ve never done genealogy try to do it themselves and get it so very very wrong. You realize more than one person in a town can have the same name, right? And that not all records are online? And that other people’s public family trees are very often…wrong? Here, read this.)

And never before has a family history — or at least the Italian half of that history that I’ll address here — been so utterly unsurprising. I mean, where did you all think the story of the Cuccinelli family of Hoboken, New Jersey was going to go, really? C’mon now.

And so, here I am, just a girl with some documents, standing in front of her country, asking it not to betray its immigrant past. Asking it to remember that welcoming the “wretched refuse of your teeming shore,” even when that “refuse” comes with little more than grit, determination and a desire to do better for their children, is a bedrock American value, a value that allowed many of you reading these words right now to be here. It’s a value that allowed Ken Cuccinelli — descended from Southern Italians of modest means and little education who would likely never pass muster under the proposed changes — to be here. I mean, hellooooo? Were you listening at allduring the 4th grade unit on immigration?

Cuccinelli called a New York Daily Newsarticle about his family history (albeit one that identifies the wrong ship’s manifest as his great-grandfather’s) “intellectually dishonest.” Any comparison to past immigrants, he maintained, was invalid because “the welfare state didn’t exist back then.”

Nativists love to fall back on this argument, but they also still love to contrast the behavior of current immigrants with what they believe to be their own ancestors’ spotless — and “legal!” — immigration and assimilation histories, despite the fact that comparisons to “legal” immigration at a time when there were almost no immigration laws for Europeans to break are inherently problematic. And despite the fact that the historical record is often at odds with their starry-eyed, mythologized understanding of their ancestors’ pasts.

“My great-grandfather knew upon arriving in the United States that he had to learn English and that he had to work hard to succeed in this country,” Cuccinelli told the Daily News.

“My family worked together to ensure that they could provide for their own needs, and they never expected the government to do it for them,” he said at a press briefing.

I’m so very very tired of telling you this very same story over and over again, but since so many of you asked — some less politely than others, btw, can we please work on that moving forward? — let’s go to the videotape and look at the Cuccinelli family story, shall we?

THE CUCCINELLIS

Ken Cuccinelli’s paternal grandfather, Dominick Luigi Cuccinelli, was born in Hoboken, New Jersey to — are you sitting down? — Italian immigrant parents who’d only been in the country for about ten years. Ken’s great-grandfather was Domenico Cuccinelli (né Cucciniello) born on the 6th of December, 1874 in Avellino, Italy. His 1897 marriage certificate identifies him and his wife, Fortuna Preziosi, as farmers.

In March of 1901, Domenico became part of the massive wave of Italians who lit out for greater opportunity and stability in America, sailing on the SS Patria from Naples. Identified as a “laborer,” he arrived at Ellis Island with $8.75, equivalent to about $260 today. His contact in the U.S.? An unnamed cousin already living on Adams Street in Hoboken.

Ancestry indexed this record under “Camiello.” Which may be why you couldn’t find it.

Domenico’s wife Fortuna would follow her husband to America the following year on the Algeria, arriving at Ellis Island with their two small children and $20.

It’s important to remember that for all our talk of welcoming the huddled masses with open arms, American immigration history also has a pronounced strain of ugly nativism, a rather ironic twist for a nation founded on stolen land. (And we’re talking here only about immigrants by choice.) Which means that Ken Cuccinelli’s immigrant family was subjected to the very same brand of bigoted suspicion that he is now trying to inflict on others. The Ken Cuccinellis of the early twentieth century — though they didn’t typically have last names like Cuccinelli — were just as insistent that people like the Cuccinellis didn’t have the right to become Americans. That they wouldn’t fit in. That they had nothing to offer and would only be a drain on “our” resources.

“[Italians] are coming in waves and think they have a right to come….There has been a surfeit of unskilled illiterates for years and the people do not want any more of them,” opined the Jersey (City) Journal on November 29, 1902, just a few months after Ken’s great-grandmother arrived there.

So what became of the Cuccinellis? Well, the first we see of the family in American records is in the 1905 New Jersey state census. Father Domenico is employed as a laborer, supporting a family of six. And though they’ve been in the U.S. for three and four years at this point, neither parent reported being able to speak English.

But as is so often the case, the Cuccinelli family moved up in the world. By the 1915 census, both Domenico and Fortuna are listed as literate and English speaking, despite his having never had a formal education and her having only completed eighth grade. In 1919, Domenico, still working as a laborer and now living in nearby Jersey City, declared his intention to become an American citizen, a process he completed three years later.

You’ll notice the family’s 1922 address: 401 Monroe Street in Hoboken, where they are also listed in the 1925 city directory. Just a few houses down on Monroe (the entire neighborhood has streets grandly named after American presidents, incidentally) was another family headed by Italian immigrants — a boilermaker and a midwife. They had a son named Frank just a few years younger than Ken’s grandfather Dominick. Perhaps you’ll recognize the last name and wonder what would have been lost had his immigrant parents been barred.

By 1930, Domenico Cuccinelli owned a home on Madison Street. And by 1940, he and his wife were comfortably retired, living in a house worth $5000, the very picture of the American dream.

THE POLICASTROS

Ken’s grandmother Josephine Policastro Cuccinelli was also the Jersey-born daughter of Italian immigrants: Gaetano Policastro and Maria Ronga (also spelled Rongo) from Monte San Giacomo in Salerno.

A teenaged Maria Ronga (her birth certificate indicates she was 17) arrived at Ellis Island in November of 1903 with her widowed 48-year-old mother, Giuseppa Romano, who has no listed occupation, and three younger siblings. Giuseppa’s husband Giuseppe Ronga, a tailor, had died in 1901 at the age of 44, which may have played a role in their decision to move. With all of $5 between the five of them, they were detained at Ellis Island — as indicated by the “S.I.” for “Special Inquiry” stamped by their names in the margin of the manifest. The “Record of Aliens Held For Special Inquiry” list indicates the reason they were held, abbreviated as “L.P.C.;” it stands for “Likely Public Charge.” So yes, the great-grandmother of the man now beating the drums to tighten the public charge rule was…labeled a likely public charge herself.

After a day’s detainment and a hearing — at which Maria’s older brother Vincenzo, who paid for their passage, would have likely been called to testify that he could support his mother and siblings — the family was allowed to enter the United States, as were more than 98% of those who came through Ellis Island.

But make no mistake: there were many who would have happily sent the Rongas packing. Witness this Judgemagazine cartoon from the very year they arrived, which depicts southern European immigrants as filthy rats, bringing crime and anarchy into the country. (Nice Mafia hats, right?) Doesn’t this sound… familiar?

The new arrivals moved in with Maria’s older brother Vincenzo, now going by the name James, in Hoboken. Ken’s great-grandmother Maria found work as a candy maker, as shown in the 1905 census.

Two and a half years after her arrival, though she is somehow still only 17, Maria “Ronca” (age and spelling are slippery concepts, genealogically speaking) married Gaetano “Thomas” Policastro, a recently widowed father of two with an eighth grade education. Gaetano was also born in Monte San Giacomo and appears to have immigrated as a child in the 1880s.

In 1908, Thomas and Maria had the first of their eight children together, Ken’s grandmother Josephine. The 1910 census shows them living with Maria’s family, including her mother Josephine Romano Ronga. Thomas is working as a salesman at a market. Both the 1910 and 1920 census indicated that Ken’s great-great-grandmother Josephine never learned English, even after being in the country for 17 years. And…so what? Immigrants often took their sweet time learning to speak English, if at all. Their children learned to speak English at school so that one day their great-great-grandsons could become the attorney general of Virginia and maybe one day feel the need to cover up the naked statute in the state symbol. Problem solved.

Though the 1930 census shows the Policastros owning a home worth $12,000, as the nation tumbled deeper into the grips of the Great Depression, like so many Americans, they appear to have fallen on hard times. A series of legal notices in the Jersey Journal(available on GenealogyBank) gesture to the outlines of the story: A lawsuit over non-payment on a $8150 bank note. A foreclosure on the Policastro home on Paterson Plank Road. A bankruptcy hearing. A District Court judgment against Thomas for $450, filed by James Ronga. Would the Policastros have met their own great-grandson’s requirement that immigrants always “carry their own weight?” (According to the Annual report of the Attorney General of the United States, about 1300 of New Jersey’s approximately four million residents voluntarily filed for personal bankruptcy in the fiscal year ended 1931.)

But by 1940, now nearing 60, Thomas Policastro had rebounded. The census shows him renting a home in nearby North Bergen. He is listed as the proprietor of a scrap metal business, and earning $1300 a year, right around the national average. Two of his American-born sons served during World War II. The Policastros proved that they deserved the chance they were given — the chance to have ups and downs and everything in between, the chance to pave the way for future generations to soar.

But one last point. Like the Cuccinellis, the Policastros also had neighbors of note, though they may not have been as well-known as the Sinatras. In 1920, the Policastros lived just a mile away from another Jersey City family headed by a Jewish immigrant who never completed high school and worked for decades at an overalls factory in nearby Paterson. This family was from the former Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia, and had arrived in 1896. Much like the Policastros, this family also eventually found themselves in the pages of the local newspaper. In 1940, the patriarch was arrested with his son-in-law and two other men on charges of stealing from that very same overalls factory; the charges were later dropped and the sentence suspended after they made restitution. But all of that Jewish immigrant’s grandsons would go on to college and upstanding careers. Two served in the military. One became a lawyer. One had a master’s degree. And in the fall of 1986, one of that immigrant’s great-granddaughters left Long Island to enroll at the University of Virginia, a venerable institution founded by an American president. Here she is in the First Year Faces Book, resplendent in a Benetton vest and pearls.

And one of her classmates at that venerable institution? Well, she knew him by his nickname: “Cooch.”

So yes, the scions of two Jersey City families headed by those uneducated and sometimes troubled immigrants seemed to have done alright for themselves. It’s a quintessentially American story, one I see day in and day out doing genealogical research: immigrant narratives are messy and imperfect and complicated but almost universally, they ultimately end with those families in a much better place than they would have been otherwise. That same great-grandfather’s sister, for instance, stayed behind in their ancestral town of Sniatyn and is presumed murdered during the Holocaust. So was my maternal grandfather’s brother, despite his writing a desperate letter to President “Rosiwelt” begging for refuge for his family in America.

How many future Ken Cuccinellis are the Trump administration’s increasingly restrictive immigration policies going to keep out? Who or what are those policies protecting, other than unfounded racist fears that follow in the very worst of American traditions?

Just about twenty years after Ken Cuccinelli’s family arrived from Italy and began their ascent up the ladder of the American dream, the ladder that lifted him to the grounds of Mr. Jefferson’s University and to law school at George Mason, to elected office in the state of Virginia and to a nomination to head a federal agency, Congress enacted the infamous Johnson-Reed Act, which set up quotas specifically designed to keep out people just like them. The number of Italians arriving in America dropped from 200,000 a year in the first decade of the twentieth century to under 4,000.

As Cuccinelli’s own career makes clear, the critics were dead wrong about the potential contributions of humble immigrants like his ancestors. And so is he.

CREDITS: I’m grateful to Megan Smolenyak, Michael Cassara, Rich Venezia and Tammy Hepps, who provided research, translation and editorial assistance.

#currently reading #trumpism #trump administration #president donald trump #trump scandals #melania trump #immigration #u.s. immigration and customs enforcement #immigrants #u.s. news #u.s. presidential elections #politics #us politics #politics and government #ken cuccinelli #u.s. politics

2 notes · View notes

slapshot-to-the-heart · 7 years ago

Text

Scars

Hi folks! Here’s Part VI for our ongoing adventure with Alex and Harry, the Chaos and the Calm series. Please keep telling me what you think, good, bad, or ambivalent, I want it all- it helps me become a better writer! Please keep reblogging and liking it so more people get a chance to read it. I’m sorry this one took a bit longer to write, so I hope you all like it!

Scars

August 2019

We grow apart/I watch you on the red horizon/Your lion's heart/Will protect you under stormy skies/And I will always be listening for your laughter and your tears

“I miss you, H.” Alex sighed into her phone. He had been gone for nearly two months, and it was beginning to take a toll on her. Aside from a three-day weekend that she flew out to Nashville for, where he was touring, the couple had spent nearly all of the time apart.

“I know, love,” Harry responded. His heart ached every time he heard her like this, knowing that he was simultaneously the cause of her grief and the only way it could be alleviated. FaceTime was great and they talked on the phone nearly every day, but it did nothing to replace the ache that seemed to leave a hole in both hearts. “It’s just another week, and I’ll be back in New York. Back to you.”

Alex picked at her fingernails, an annoying habit of hers she had picked up in childhood and never been able to quit. “But that’s only for a month, and then you’re off to Europe. How long is that bit, again?”

“About six weeks,” Harry began, “but let’s not worry about that now, okay?”

“Yeah.” She let out a shaky breath, praying that he couldn’t hear her. “I didn’t realize how hard it would be. This. Us.”

“Love—” Harry started, worried.

“I’m not saying that I want out. God, I don’t want out. It’s just a lot to deal with. It’s hard to talk about a relationship when one of the people isn’t even here half the time.” Alex said. No malice was behind her voice, only a quiet sadness.

“I know, Alex. It’s hard for me being away from you and feeling like I’m constantly living out of a suitcase, but I can only imagine what it’s like for you to be juggling work and finding time for us and everything else you’re doing in the city.” Alex could imagine him running a hand through his hair, tugging at the ends like he was prone to do when stressed out.

“We’ll manage,” Alex replied, a small smile on her face.

“We always do,” Harry said. Hearing another voice in the background of the call, Alex heard Harry’s voice muffled as he responded to whoever was on his end. “Listen, love, I’ve got to get going, but I love you and I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Okay, H. Love you too.”

But you're miles away/You're breaking up, you're on your own/It's hard to take/I need an hour just to say hello/And I can't make the truth of this work out for you or me

The next week was hard for the both of them; as much as they tried to make time for one another, contact was confined to hurried phone calls and short texts, promising they would see each other as soon as humanly possible and that they missed each other as much as humanly possible. Alex didn’t blame Harry, not in the slightest. It was true that she might not have known exactly what she was signing up for when they decided to make a run for it, but she was stubborn as hell and willing to do whatever she could to make it work, to make them work. Even before they had started dating, it seemed that they were always a unit. It was seldom just Alex or just Harry, almost always Alex and Harry. They went to the same schools, did most of the same extracurriculars, and ran in the same circles. Alex knew that she was didn’t need Harry to complete her, that she was an independent, strong, complex person all on her own, but it was hard to figure out where exactly she fit in her world when he wasn’t around. So, to distract herself from the fact of Harry’s absence, Alex had tried to fill her time, in any way she could. She threw herself into her work, started volunteering at a local animal shelter, and took her friends up on nearly every opportunity to go out for dinner or drinks.

While she may have had less free time in her life with her newfound commitments, Alex was frustrated to find out that it did next to nothing to get the longing for Harry out of her mind. So, when he texted her, saying his plane was about to land, she breathed an audible sigh of relief. While she did rely on the subways for her primary form of transportation, it was moments like these when she was grateful that she was leasing a car. Grabbing her purse and keys from their place by the entryway, Alex locked the door and sent Harry a text. I’m on my way, can’t wait to see you, H! Love you lots. A few minutes later, she was pulling out of the apartment complex and onto the streets of Brooklyn. Google Maps had promised her it would only be a 20 minute journey to JFK, but she left herself an extra ten minutes, never trusting their predictions of New York traffic.

Flipping through her Spotify, Alex let out a small grin when it fell on Only Angel. So that’s how it’s going to be, is it? She thought. It had always been her favorite off of the album; a video of her dancing to it at a pop-up show Harry did in New York had briefly gone viral. Eventually the playlist moved on, but Alex was humming along to it all the way until she pulled into the short-term parking lot. Locking her car, she shoved the keys haphazardly into her purse and pulled out her aviators. Harry had said he wasn’t expecting too many fans or paparazzi, but she had taken to carrying around sunglasses ever since they had gotten caught off-guard by a group of photographers while in Central Park back in May. A few minutes, two elevators, and a moving walkway later, Alex arrived in the domestic terminal. She glanced at her phone, seeing a text from Harry two minutes previous telling her that he was nearly there. Wearing the green coat, he had said. Tapping a foot, Alex kept her eyes flicking between her phone and the escalator. She didn’t have to wait long. Not quite a minute later, Alex caught sight of the green pea coat she loved so much on the man she loved even more.

He caught sight of her just after, a huge, genuine smile appearing on his face. WIth just a little extra spring in his step, he hoisted his duffel onto his shoulder, nearly tripping off of the escalator at the bottom. Grinning, Alex took a few steps towards Harry, and he met her halfway.

“I missed yeh so much,” Harry said, his words muffled by her hair.

“Not half as much as I did,” Alex responded.

And as soon as I can hold you once again/I won't let go of you, I swear

Taking Harry’s duffel from him, they began to exit back towards the parking lot. There were only about a dozen fans milling about, and both Harry and Alex were grateful for the relative peace and quiet. He loved his fans and were incredibly grateful for all that they had given him, but it had been a long few months and there was nothing he wanted more than to snuggle with Alex back at his apartment. After a few minutes of speaking with the fans and photos taken, Harry and Alex were finally on their way to her car. He caught her up on the past week while walking— one of his crew had gotten absolutely smashed after a show and had ended up singing Celine Dion on top of a table, apparently. Alex told him about an adorable puppy she was working with at the shelter, a beagle that “gives me even more kisses than you do, H.” Alex turned onto the freeway, headed to Harry’s apartment. They had already decided she would sleep over that night; neither could bear having to say goodbye too early.

NPR was playing on the way back, and Alex turned the car off right in the middle of what she was sure was going to be a thrilling story about a newfound species of Angolan beetle. Once again taking Harry’s bag over her shoulder, she followed him into the elevator, realizing that she hadn’t brought a bag of her own. She supposed she didn’t even need one, really. She had gotten ‘a drawer’ a few months into the relationship, and bits and pieces of her wardrobe and belongings had migrated over into his apartment. She was sure there were a few outfits, positive at least one toothbrush— she had a bad habit of misplacing them— and a box of tampons under the sink, should she need them. Shrugging almost imperceptibly and smiling at her absolute dream of a boyfriend, she stood to the side of the entryway as he opened the door.

“Home,” he said dramatically, dropping the handle of his suitcase and spinning around slowly, arms out.

Alex laughed. “Come on, babe, let’s get you unpacked.” Harry had a bad habit of leaving his clothes in his suitcase, and Alex knew if she didn’t get him to do it right then, they might stay in until the European leg. Groaning good-naturedly, Harry followed her into his room, where they set his luggage on the bed and began to unpack.

The TV flicked as Alex snuggled against Harry’s side, trying to keep her eyes open as the clock struck 11. “You’ve never watched Lord of the Rings?” He had asked incredulously, before shaking his head and slipping the DVD in.

“I wish we could stop this moment and just stay here forever,” he whispered, gently stroking her loose curls.

Alex’s head turned to face him, her eyes blinking in an effort to stave off the tiredness that was threatening to overtake her. Shit, Harry thought. She wasn’t meant to hear that. Nope.

“Me too, H.” Alex said softly. “I don’t know, and this is me being honest, I don’t know if I’ve ever been as happy as I am when I’m with you, when I’m in your arms. You have this weird, almost magical ability to make me forget all of the stress in my life, everything that’s bothering me, even if it’s only for a moment.”

“You never told me that before.”

Alex gently kissed his neck. “I didn’t know if it could scare you, and the last thing I wanted to do is make you want to run. God, I don’t know what I’d do if you did.”

Harry took a shaky breath. Alex meant so much to him, so was so incredibly valuable to him that he didn’t think he’d ever be able to properly express it. She was the lighthouse that pointed him back home when he flew off-course, the rock that kept him grounded and humble when the bright lights of the stage threatened to overtake him, and the one person he knew he always, always wanted to come home to. He knew so clearly how he felt about her, and hearing that she felt just as strongly meant more to him than he could say. “I’m all in, Alex. I’m in it for the long haul.”

She leaned her head back on the crook of his neck. “Good. Because I am too.”

We live through scars this time/But I've made up my mind/We can't leave us behind anymore

As the movie ended, Harry folded up the blankets while Alex threw the spent popcorn bags into the garbage can. She finished before he did, and was already rummaging for her clothes as he came into the bedroom.

“H, have you seen the top that goes with these?” She asked, holding up a pair of flannel pajama bottoms.

Harry crossed to his dresser, pulling open the top shelf and handing her the shirt that was folded inside. “Yeh left it here after we packed for this last leg of the tour. Think you were a bit pressed for time,” Harry said, remembering the moment with a grin. Alex took the shirt gratefully, moving into the adjacent bathroom to brush her teeth and wash up. Walking up to the doorway, he thought carefully about his next words. “When do yeh think you’ll bring over the rest of your things, love?” Harry said slowly, looking at the mirror in an effort to gauge her reaction. She stopped brushing for a moment, a bit of foam from her toothpaste dropping into the sink. Washing out her mouth, Alex put her toothbrush back in the drawer and turned to Harry.

“Are you asking me to move in with you, Harry?” Alex said carefully. She was near-positive she hadn’t misinterpreted his question, but didn’t want to respond wrongly and make a fool of herself.

Harry nodded once. “Why not? I know your lease is up at the end of the month. You’ve already got a key, plenty of your things over here, and it’s closer to the subway line; it’ll be half the time to work.” The reasons seemed to tumble out of his mouth, and as they did, Harry realized just how much he wanted this, just how much he wanted to share this part of his life with Alex as well.

Alex reached up, resting one hand on his cheek. “You sure about this, babe? I know it’s a massive commitment.”

Harry nodded, leaning into her touch. “Wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t positive, love. So…,” he trailed off, “what do you think?”

“I think I’d better call my landlord and tell her I won’t be renewing my lease.”

“Hey, Lex?” Harry said, rolling over on his bed— their bed now, he remembered— just as she was dozing off.

“Yeah, H?” Alex asked sleepily.

“What do you think about coming along for the next leg of tour?”

44 notes · View notes

dearevanhansenofficial · 3 years ago

Video

tumblr

“YOU WILL BE FOUND” NATIONAL COLLEGE ESSAY WRITING CHALLENGE 2021 | DEAR EVAN HANSEN

In partnership with Gotham Writers Workshop and the Broadway Education Alliance, DEAR EVAN HANSEN invited 11th-grade and 12th-grade students across the country to write a college-application style essay that describes how they channeled “You Will Be Found” to ensure those around them were a little less alone over the last year, or, alternatively, a moment where they found comfort in connection.

READ SECOND RUNNER UP MIRA KWON’S FULL ESSAY:

I felt like a fraud.

“High Schooler Creates Free Grocery Delivery Service for Seniors” - LA Times

“This Student is Making a Huge Difference in COVID-19 Relief” - NPR

“Mira Kwon Delivers Hope” - Spectrum News

To the readers of The LA Times or listeners of NPR, I was a model high school student. I was giving back to the community by founding a grocery delivery service for the elderly during the pandemic.

If only they knew that I had just spent hours emailing my volunteers’ parents who were worried their teenagers might contract the virus in grocery stores. I tried partnering with “safer” boutique shops, but shop owner after shop owner was uninterested in my “little project.” Once I did secure a local produce shop, instead of running helpful errands, I spent more time pacifying angry senior clients who were irritated that we could not provide Trader Joe’s Onion Bagels or Prego Traditional - not Italian - Pasta Sauce from Ralph’s. The friends I had recruited stopped responding to my messages. And then, just before the LA Times interview, I received a text. They had quit.

During the interview, I felt a tightness in my chest. I nodded and smiled when the journalist asked how I managed it all: the number of orders, the growing demand, my schoolwork. I was reluctant to tell her that we averaged about ten orders per week as opposed to the ten per day she assumed. Clearly, I was no source of strength for my community.

Then Mary called.

She didn’t request much: some fruit, bagels, and roasted chicken. When I arrived, she was waiting for me on her porch. She picked up a white peach, and smelled its sweetness. She began to cry. “I had a dream last week. I was eating the most beautiful, ripe fruit. I ate in small bites so I could savor it.” Mary told me that she lived alone, with her only relatives far away. A stroke had left her disabled, and for weeks, she survived on saltine crackers and Apple & Cinnamon oatmeal packets. “You made my dream come true,” she said.

Her simple words filled me with renewed hope and offered a glimpse of clarity. I felt like a charlatan, but to Mary, I was her lifeline. Have I been defining my impact, my success, too broadly? It was not how many people I served, but how meaningfully.

I went back to the emails, found new partners and vendors, and kept working through each new challenge.

Today, Mary no longer has to dream of fruit. Every week, I look forward to sitting on the weathered steps of her porch and sharing stories. Mary tells me about her life in Guadalajara as we flip through her old photo album. I tell her I have played the drums since second grade. She asks me to play for her sometime and that it's okay if it’s loud; she’s losing her hearing anyways.

She tells me about the stroke she had a few years ago and the metal inside her body that supports her damaged knees. I confide in her about my mother’s car accident that occurred around the same time - how I found my mother lying on the street, motionless, the silver Prius that hit her crashed into a light post nearby. Sadly, a few moments earlier, my mother had called me, but I hadn’t picked up. “I’ve never told anyone that before,” I say.

“Don’t feel bad,” Mary tells me. “Cherish her now. You don’t want to end up alone like me.”

We sit in silence for a moment.

“You are not alone,” I tell her.

I’ve realized that one person may not be able to change the world. But, it is possible to change the world for one person.

Thank you, Mary, for changing mine.

Mira Kwon Marlborough School Los Angeles, CA

#dearevanhansen #youwillbefoundessaycontest2021

0 notes

miki-agrawal · 3 years ago

Text

Are we really in for a summer of love? A post-vaccine dating investigation.

Dating podcasters, condom companies, bartenders, and college students weigh in on the horny months to come.

Originally Posted On vox.com By Lauren Vespoli On may 3, 2021

How much kissing will happen this summer? Annette Riedl/picture alliance via Getty Images

This story is part of a group of stories called

“I’m excited to go a bit buck wild and feel so much safer,” says Elena, a recently vaccinated college student. “Just go on a lot of dates, make out with some guys, nothing serious.”

The 20-year-old Salt Lake City resident, who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy, is ready to make up for lost time in her romantic life. She did some app dating during the pandemic, but Covid-19 was a constant presence, with several of her dates later telling her they’d been exposed (though she never caught the coronavirus). During quarantine, Elena spent time rehashing missed chances in her love life. “I was just thinking, ‘When I’m out of this, I’m going to make the most of every opportunity,’” she says.

In Manhattan, Marc Hernandez, a bartender at the cocktail bar Ampersand, says that even at 50 percent capacity, the scene — “which has always been one for first dates” — is already feeling like its pre-Covid days. “That gets me thinking that the summer is going to be a little wild,” he says.

“WHEN I’M OUT OF THIS, I’M GOING TO MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY”

“Shot girl summer.” “Vaxxed and waxed.” The “whoring 20s.” As the US becomes increasingly inoculated and the weather continues to warm, the number of Americans who are ready to date is on the rise: A Morning Consult survey for the week ending April 25 found that 53 percent of adults feel “comfortable” dating right now, up 9 percent from the last week in March (although women still feel less comfortable than men). Everyone from Andrew Yang to the bidet company Tushy — which is maintaining a herd-immunity countdown clock at CanIEatAssYet.com — are building anticipation for a hedonistic release of pent-up sexual energy.

Top Articles

READ MOREThe human cost of Biden’s travel banon India

“Hot vax summer is coming,” Insider proclaimed in March. “NYC singles ready for ‘slutty summer’ of casual sex,” screamed the New York Post. Clearly, many are ready to throw themselves back into the social melee. “Touch starvation” is real, and it can increase stress, depression, and anxiety. But after a year of such intense isolation, fear, suffering, and grief — and as the pandemic continues to rage across many parts of the world — the answer to how people will try to make up for lost time and lost touch is more complex than the orgiastic fantasy hawked by Suitsupply.

According to psychologist Amanda Gesselman, associate director for research at Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute, the pandemic has motivated American singles to look for partners rather than casual sex. While “there will [certainly] be people having the time of their lives” when it’s safe to do so, Gesselman says, “we actually found that people are less interested in no-strings-attached sex than they used to be.” In a recent Kinsey Institute study on post-pandemic sex (conducted in partnership with Cosmopolitan and Esquire), which surveyed 2,000 Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, more than half — 52 percent — of singles said they want to find a committed relationship post-pandemic, while about only one in 10 said they’re looking for no-strings-attached sex.

“That was a bit lower than we expected, considering everyone’s locked up and has been for a year,” Gesselman says. That said, as most people have spent more than a year worrying about infection and thinking about how to protect themselves from germs, she reasons the mindset “might be extending to sex with unfamiliar partners.”

“WE ACTUALLY FOUND THAT PEOPLE ARE LESS INTERESTED IN NO-STRINGS-ATTACHED SEX THAN THEY USED TO BE”

Ilana Dunn, co-host of the dating podcast Seeing Other People, says she’s been hearing similar feedback from listeners and friends. “Everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, of course, I’m going to get really drunk and go wild for like, a week. Because we need to do that. But my goal is to find someone.’” In an Instagram poll that received more than 1,000 responses, Dunn says she was surprised to see 88 percent say that as people get vaccinated and the world opens up, they feel more inclined to look for something serious, while 52 percent said they’ll be open to hookups once they’re vaccinated.

Gesselman believes the pandemic has pushed many people to be more introspective about what they want in their lives, particularly younger adults. “When you’re in your mid-20s and you have your entire future ahead of you, and then you just sat through an entire year of social isolation and halted progress, it really makes you think about the things you want in your life,” she says. “I think a lot of people are thinking more towards what would make their future the best rather than what would be good short-term gratification.”

Meanwhile, condom companies are cautiously hopeful demand for their products will continue to grow along with the vaccinated portion of the US population. Male contraceptives saw a 2.5 percent uptick in sales at the beginning of April, according to Ken DeBaene, LifeStyles’ vice president of sales in the Americas, who says he’s “optimistic this is a return to more normalized consumption levels.” (Between late March and mid-April, the sexual wellness industry overall saw a 4 percent sales bump.) LifeStyles is looking at returns to employment in the hospitality and service industries, as well as colleges’ fall opening plans, to help anticipate demand, DeBaene added.

Each week we’ll send you the very best from The Goods, plus a special TikTok edition by Rebecca Jennings on Tuesdays. Sign up here.

At LOLA, a feminine care and sexual wellness company, chief marketing officer Monica Belsito says both “self-play and partner play” have been prevalent this year, with the brand seeing a 40 percent spike in lubricant sales and a record number of preorders for its new vibrator. However, as vaccinations of younger populations increase, the company “expects STI protection to steadily increase, creating a demand spike in condoms this summer and fall.”

Many people are also searching for a historical precedent that can shed light on what awaits us in the post-Covid recovery period, from the Roaring ’20s — when the nation indulged after the ravages of World War I and the 1918 pandemic — to 1967’s Summer of Love, when tens of thousands of young people gathered in San Francisco to listen to rock ’n’ roll, experiment with sex and drugs, and protest the Vietnam War.

“If you look at the middle to late 1960s as an opening up after a period of considerable repression in the ’50s, I think the parallel is not unreasonable,” says historian Dennis McNally, who also worked as a publicist for the Grateful Dead. However, he points to the FDA’s 1960 approval of the first birth control pill as a key influence in the sexual liberation movement that climaxed that summer. Even after seeing the hordes of spring breakers that descended upon Miami in March, before vaccines were widely available to younger adults, McNally isn’t convinced the vigilant “pandemic safety” mindset will be banished with vaccines. “The message of all of this is that reality is dangerous, which is a very repressive lesson, and it’s going to take a while, I think, to unlearn that lesson and be able to go out and relax,” he says.

As for the Roaring ’20s comparison often attributed to social epidemiologist Dr. Nicholas Christakis, the timeline he’s laid out doesn’t predict a pendulum swing away from the risk aversion of the present moment until 2024, when vaccines will have been distributed around the world and there’s been more of a recovery from some of the pandemic’s economic devastation. He sees this summer as having the potential to offer “a taste of the past and a hope for the future,” Christakis recently told NPR.

“PEOPLE GO ON A DATE AND NOBODY KNOWS HOW TO TALK ABOUT ANYTHING BESIDES COVID”

Gesselman and Dunn also cite lingering pandemic-induced social anxiety as another obstacle to a bacchanal this summer. “A lot of people didn’t date last year, and I keep hearing from our listeners that people go on a date and nobody knows how to talk about anything besides Covid, and it’s not leading to good date conversations,” Dunn says. And in Gesselman’s research, one of the top fears respondents have cited is not having the ability to protect their own mental health as they reemerge from quarantine. “It seems like people’s biggest concern is when life opens back up and they’re finally able to pursue these connections, ‘What if I get rejected or things go wrong? What happens if disappointment strikes?’” Gesselman says.

Elena, the college student who’s excited to get back to more carefree dating, is also wary of the expectations she and many of her peers are putting on this post-vaccine summer. “I do think people have very, very high expectations, because you kind of need to live your entire life that’s been put on hold for the past year all in this summer, and if they’re not met it’s going to be tough,” she says. “But I think for the most part, people are really down to do anything.”

Tushy is a bidet startup which aims to replace toilet paper, Tushy was founded by Miki Agrawal.

0 notes

gavins-consumption · 4 years ago

Text

Day 9 - Saturday, Jan 30

Food/Drink: Coffee, Shortbread, Oatmeal, Mac & Cheese

I had just one cup of coffee this morning, made with our Nespresso since I didn’t want to bother making a pot since I’m the only one around right now. I also had this with another shortbread cookie, which we are now already out of since my family ate them so quickly. In the late morning I had my usual oatmeal with a banana, berries, and granola. For dinner I had a box of mac and cheese, which has always been and will always be one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

Media: Instagram, Twitter, Books, Netflix, Spotify

I started my day laying in bed extra long and scrolling through my phone. I see this almost like a little weekend treat, something I don’t let myself do often. When I really have nothing to get up for, it can be nice to lay in bed scrolling through my phone longer than I “should.” I also came across an interesting article on Twitter from NPR about people’s takes on The White Tiger which I watched last week. It was a nice read, as that movie had been circling my head as I wondered whether certain things about it were problematic or not. There is certainly no consensus but it was interesting to read other people’s perspective in the article.

I then read A Little Life for a while before going on a walk. I forgot to bring my earbuds and didn’t realize it until part way through my walk when going back would be dumb. It felt sort of weird to not be listening to anything on my walk because I’m so used to it, but it became a nice silence. After some school work I did a workout while watching another couple episodes of Bling Empire. A lot of the people on that show make me seriously mad, but that becomes good when I’m working out, it strangely fuels me in a way.

When I opened Instagram in the afternoon I was absolutely devastated to hear the news that Sophie, an absolutely incredible and influential musician I love, had died in an accident. She was only 34. I’ve been listening to her all day now, and it’s weird listening to her music in such a saddening state. It’s been comforting looking through social media seeing everyone mourning her and reading what an impact she had on so many people. She was an absolute legend and icon for so many people and changed the game for the music industry.

My afternoon and evening went by quickly, with a combination of random YouTube videos, reading, and more Bling Empire. It’s been a less productive day than I was hoping, but you can’t force work sometimes when you’re not feeling it. I have a plan for tomorrow and know I can get more done then.

0 notes

clarencenicholsonata · 4 years ago

Text

6 No-Brainer Reasons Your Brand Should Start a Podcast (with Examples)

Podcasts are more popular than ever. As of 2020, 75% of Americans are familiar with podcasts, 55% have listened to one at least once, and 37% have listened within the last month.

Furthermore, among those who listen at least weekly, the average number of podcasts listened to is six:

Some experts even believe that podcasting is the new blogging. But did you know that podcasting can also be an amazing marketing tool for your business?

In this article, we’ll delve into just some of the reasons that podcasting is a marketing strategy you can’t afford to ignore.

What is a Podcast?

To put it simply, a podcast is an audio program. Podcasting is a lot like talk radio, except that once an episode is released, listeners can download it and listen to it whenever they like.

Podcasts are typically based around a specific topic or theme, and episodes come out anything from monthly (or less often) to daily.

Just a few of the most popular podcasts at the time of writing include The Daily from the New York Times, true crime show My Favorite Murder, The NPR Politics Podcast, and Stuff You Should Know, an informative general-interest show. There are podcasts on just about every topic you can imagine.

While some are professionally produced, hosted, and edited, many others are produced at home or work on a tiny budget.

Is it Hard to Start a Podcast?

It’s easier than you might think to start a podcast. It’s also possible to do it very inexpensively. To get started, all you’ll need is:

A good microphone. The one that’s built into your computer will do in a pinch, but invest in a decent mic if you can.

An editing software solution to help you increase your sound quality.

A platform on which to host your podcast.

A little patience and a lot of good ideas!

You’ll also need to choose a format for your show:

Will you host it alone, or have a co-host?

Do you have a studio or do you record a remote podcast?

Will your episodes follow a specific format, or will you mix it up each time?

There are no right and wrong answers to these questions, but you should consider them carefully before you get started. While you can always change things up later, your early episodes will be stronger if you have a good sense of what you’re doing before you get started.

I always recommend that new podcasters line up 2-3 episodes before launching. This shows your listeners that you won’t be a one-episode wonder!

The beauty of podcasting is that, if you listen back and you’re not happy with the results, you can re-record before you release your episode.

Need help marketing and generating leads for your podcast?

Book a free call to learn how our team of marketing experts can help you grow your podcast subscribers today.

Why Your Brand Should Start a Podcast in 2020

Hopefully I’ve convinced you that launching a podcast is easy and entirely within your capabilities. Now let’s look more closely at some of the reasons you might want to start a podcast as a promotional strategy for your brand in 2020 and beyond. Let’s dive in!

1. People consume content in different ways

Not everyone likes to consume their content in written format. Some people like to read, others prefer to watch a video, and some prefer to listen.

Of course, many people also enjoy a mix of formats, you could even convert your podcast into a youtube video. People have different learning styles and can best absorb the information from the content they consume in a variety of ways.

The beauty of podcasts, unlike written content like blog posts or visual content like Youtube videos, is that it’s easy for your audience to consume your content while they do other things. One member of my team likes to listen to podcasts whenever she’s driving.

She’s not alone - one study showed that the car, the gym, work, and airplanes were just some of the most popular places for podcast listening:

By producing audio content like podcasts as part of your content marketing strategy, you make your content accessible and appealing to a wider range of people. And for a business that is trying to grow its customer base, that can only be a good thing!

2. Podcasting helps build a connection with your audience

Since your audience can hear your voice, podcasting feels like a more personal medium than written content.

It gives your audience an opportunity to really get to know you, and allows you to build a personal connection with them.

Building a connection enhances trust and, since people prefer to buy from people they trust, will inevitably help you to grow your customer base. But just putting a podcast out there isn’t enough to build a connection - you need to approach it with intentionality.

The first and most powerful way to build a connection and establish trust is through providing great content. We’ll explore offering value to your audience in more depth a little later. You must ensure that you provide useful information and interesting insights, and that your points are well presented. If your approach seems disjointed or you seem unsure of yourself, your audience will pick up on it and switch off.

Authenticity is also extremely important when it comes to building a connection. Your audience wants to get to know you. Many podcasters start their episodes with a “host chat” segment where they discuss their week, what they’ve been working on, or their opinions on an issue relevant to their industry or niche. By being yourself, you create a stronger bond with your audience. In other words, you become a person, not a brand.

Marketer, coach, and entrepreneur Latasha James runs one of the most popular podcasts for freelancers, named Freelance Friday podcast. This weekly show offers practical tips, advice, and inspiration for aspiring freelancers:

James uses her podcast to show her personality, get to know her audience, and build a connection with those who might eventually hire her for her coaching services.

You can also use your podcast to signpost people to other places where they can connect with you further. For example, why not send them to your social media channels and email newsletter? You could even have a private Facebook group just for podcast fans to get more access to you and your content, if you wish.

3. Podcast listeners are a highly engaged audience

According to Websolutions, 80% of people who start listening to a podcast episode will listen to all or most of it.

What’s more, most podcast fans subscribe to the shows they like and listen to each new episode.In other words, people who listen to your content are likely to consume a lot more of it, overall, than those who only consume written content such as blog posts and articles.

Because podcasting is a means of providing regular content, you’re effectively creating touchpoints with a highly interested and engaged subsection of your audience. The result? A highly engaged audience that hangs on your every word!

Podcasts often create communities of listeners who are then ideally placed for you to nurture them into becoming customers. It’s not unusual to see social media fan groups and podcast-specific hashtags spring up. All of this gives you additional opportunities for connection and more ways to convert your listeners to customers.

The trick to creating the most engaged audience possible for your podcast? Go niche. Choose a specific group of people to cater to, and provide highly relevant content to them. Trying to create a show for “everyone” is a recipe for failure.

Katrina Ubell, MD, runs the Weight Loss for Busy Physicians podcast (pictured).

This seems like an extremely specific section of the market - because it is. Why not just do a generic weight loss podcast?

Ubell has identified a specific target audience with specific needs, and creates content that is highly relevant to those people to keep them engaged. The result? According to Cashflow Podcasting, Ubell’s show is “wildly effective as a client generator”.

4. Podcasting is a way to establish thought leadership

Podcasting provides you with another way to establish your credibility and position yourself as a thought leader within your niche.

Since you can say much more in an average podcast episode than you can in a typical blog post, it also allows you to go much deeper into your subject matter in less time.

You’re not constrained by a time- or word-limit, within reason. Therefore, if you really want to establish your thought leadership, podcasting is a fantastic way to do so.

Break Through the Noise (pictured above) is a podcast for marketers by entrepreneur and content marketing expert, Jon Morrow, creator of smartblogger.com.

In his short episodes (all of them are under an hour, and many are under 20 minutes), Morrow provides his listeners with valuable insights and actionable takeaways.

Here are a few of my top tips for using podcasting to display thought leadership:

Come up with your own thoughts and theories or your own spins on existing ones. Regurgitating other people’s ideas will only get you so far.

Invite renowned experts onto your podcast as co-hosts and guests.

Go deep into niche areas of your subject matter.

Improve and expand upon what others in your niche have done.

Offer proof. If you have come up with a new solution or way of doing things, what evidence do you have that it works? Provide evidence and get specific.

If you want to show that you really know your stuff, podcasting is a fantastic way to do it.

5. Podcasting gives you another avenue to provide value to your audience

All good marketers understand the importance of providing added value to their audiences. Whatever niche you’re in, chances are you’re competing with numerous others who are doing something similar to what you do.

The solution? You need to stand out by offering amazing value to your audience.

Podcasting gives you another avenue to provide that value. However, you must ensure your podcast is packed full of genuinely useful, entertaining, and actionable information.

Since podcasts are generally available to audiences for free, they offer a low barrier to entry for a new audience member to get to know you and your business.

Fitness and nutrition coach Kyle Hunt runs the Absolute Strength podcast, in which he provides valuable information and insights to the fitness and bodybuilding community:

Many of Hunt’s audience members will simply listen to the podcast and never engage with him in any other way. Others, however, will be interested enough to check out his shop, buy one of his training programs, or even sign up for personal coaching.

Not sure how to provide value to your audience? The first step is to get to know them really well and understand their needs and pain points. Here are a few ways you can deliver amazing value every single episode:

Tell stories that illustrate the points you’re making.

Share stats, results, analysis, and concrete information.

Break down a complicated concept into easy-to-follow steps.

Share case studies from your industry, with your own commentary.

Provide actionable how-to guides to help your listeners achieve their goals.

Share exclusive previews of content they won’t be able to find anywhere else.

Invite experts to appear on your show as guest speakers.

Include an “Ask Me Anything” section where audience members can send in their questions for you to answer on your podcast.

Not sure what your audience wants and what they’ll find valuable?

Ask them! Conduct robust audience research before you release your first episode, and regularly as you go along.

6. Podcasting can bring new traffic to your website and products

Marketers and business owners know that attracting new customers and driving new traffic to their websites is a constant challenge. So with that in mind, why wouldn’t you want to use every channel at your disposal to bring new prospective customers to your business?

The great thing about podcasting is that people don’t need to have even heard of your business to find your podcast.

Many listeners search for podcasts based on their interests, using particular keywords. If the description, episode titles, and summaries are enticing, they’ll subscribe or at least listen to an episode, even if they’ve never heard of you or your business.

Did you know that podcasts show up in Google searches?

You can give yours the best chance of success by ensuring your titles, descriptions, and summaries contain the relevant keywords your audience will use to find your show.

Therefore, make sure you upload your podcast on a platform like Libsyn, Blubrry, or Buzzsprout.

Optimize it for the appropriate keywords, and new audiences will be able to find it through their favourite podcast apps. Keywords Everywhere is an amazing keyword research tool that you can use to find the right high search volume keywords to target.

You might wish to use a podcast analytics tool to keep track of how your show is doing and whether it’s driving the kind of traffic you’d like. You can track metrics like number of downloads, average listen time, and clicks to your website from links in your episode descriptions.

Many podcast hosting services, like the ones I mentioned above, offer robust analytics functionality. Buzzsprout’s advanced statistics function is fantastic if you want to track trends over time as well as looking at granular information like listener location and devices used.

You could even create a unique discount code for podcast listeners for your online store, allowing you to see how many of your listeners have converted into customers. Make sure that you mention this at the end of every episode and include it in your shownotes, too. Finally, podcasts are also a great tool for attracting journalists and building high valuable PR links from high authority websites. They should be included in every good digital PR strategy.

What Are You Waiting For?

Now that you understand the myriad benefits that podcasting can bring, I hope you’ll seriously consider giving it a go. It’s easy and inexpensive to get started, meaning that if you do it right, the return on investment can be substantial.

Podcasting opens up your content to more people, since different people have different preferences for how they learn and take in information. More ways to engage with you means that more people will be willing and able to do so.

Podcasting also allows you to build a more personal connection with a highly engaged audience, provide great value to them with every single new episode, and nudge them along your sales funnel until they convert into customers.

Finally, podcasting allows you to establish thought leadership, positioning yourself as an expert in your niche. Who knows - you might even find that it’s more fun than you expect!

Remember: like anything else, you can’t expect to be an overnight success. It takes time to get to grips with podcasting and to build an audience. So stick with it, and don’t be afraid to try things out to see what works.

Good luck with releasing your first episodes!

About the Author

Eduard Klein is an international digital growth marketer, blogger, and entrepreneur with a global mindset. He guides people through the process of starting and growing a digital business, showing them how to ride the wave of digital technology and marketing without getting swept away.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230801 https://ift.tt/38QyUGN via IFTTT

#IFTTT #RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230801

0 notes

mrsslrss · 7 years ago

Text

2017

I rang in 2017 drunk and crying. I left a New Year’s Eve Party where all my friends and I drank down the clock and M and I went home, and I had been obsessed with “Love More” for a few weeks so as soon as we got back to the house I put it on over the stereo. Anyway about ten seconds in I started sobbing and I couldn’t, for the life of me, explain why. (I wasn’t even sad! It’s just such a beautiful song!) M just put his arm around me and kind of half-laughed and told me it was going to be okay in a quizzical but very convincing way and eventually I stopped crying and the song played itself out. I think that about sums it up.

Anyway I think we can all agree that 2017 was a weird year in a grand sense, which I don’t feel compelled or equipped to speak to. But it was weird in a personal sense, too. The year started in that mass of feelings for me; I dyed my hair pink; I lost someone I cared about deeply, which hurt in a place I didn’t expect or understand. The other side of that month was the Women’s March: housing twenty friends from Boston and Brooklyn and elsewhere in a spirit of earnest and viable and real solidarity that nearly broke my heart.

In the spring I worked a lot, and eventually got to travel across the country and fall in love with a couple different cities: New York (Life After Youth, celebrating my 25th); Seattle (Bois Naufrage, fancy coffee, riding the bus); Austin (freeways, rental car, KUTX, wildflowers). In the summer, Keeper put out a tape – bittersweet timing, just before Sam moved back to Texas – and I got a few days on the Cape with the crew. I worked weekends and drank green juice and read novels. In the fall I got really into that Fever Ray song and memorized the opening passage of The Argonauts and finally made it to DIA: Beacon.

Overall, I think, it’s been a head-above-water kind of year for me, where I mainly got caught in a cycle of exist-process-react-exist without creating much. I spent a lot of time thinking about my feelings but still can’t exactly mark the growth. Sometimes stillness is a sign of change, though; maybe I’ll count that one as a win. So here’s a list of 10 things (big and small!) that I saw, heard, watched, made, felt and loved in 2017, that helped me get through the year.

The Heart Season: “No”

Before this year became the kind of dumpster fire in which you hear everyday about new ways that powerful, prominent men treat the women around them terribly, The Heart was talking about consent in a genuinely nuanced, genuinely feminist way. The “No” season was four episodes long, during which host Kaitlin Prest stared down specific instances in her own life where consent’s gray area reared its fucked-up face, and explored where the experiences left her – how they influenced her sense of self, how they shaped and informed her future sexual (and non-sexual!) encounters. And then she broadened the scope, ignoring the easier narratives – “yes means yes,” “no means no,” “consent is sexy!!!!”, rhetorical devices so exhausted and exhausting – and instead asked harder, realer questions about the intersections of desire, fear, gender, pleasure, and autonomy. It gave me language I didn’t know I needed and set a model for a kind of audio storytelling I didn’t know was possible. I wish they played this at every college orientation across the country.

Turning The Tables

What if we appreciated women’s art apart from maleness entirely? What would it look like to tell the story of popular music through only women’s greatness? That was, crudely put, the mission of the list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women that NPR Music published this year. Being part of this project was huge: it meant absorbing massive amounts of history, rethinking canon, getting to be an editor(!), working with some of my biggest professional idols. Mostly, though, it meant devoting much of my working life to the intersection of radical feminism and rock and roll. What a dream.

Drag

I was drawn to art that felt genuinely subversive this year, but it mainly played out in moments of surprise: disappointment from expectations I didn’t realize I held being left unmet; utter radiant joy when this need I didn’t know I had was fulfilled. Maybe the most memorable time it happened was in June, at GAY/BASH, a monthly experimental drag show in D.C. It was the first time I saw drag IRL, which would maybe have felt subversive no matter what – but probably few things would have matched watching a drag queen in a red white & blue housewife dress penetrate the eyeholes of a Trump mask with a strap-on. Incredible! Tell me you can watch that and feel unmoved. My friends and I went back to GAY/BASH every month after that. The music was always perfect: The Knife and Paramore and No Doubt and Cher, etc. But mostly what felt so powerful was the company: being in explicitly gay spaces full of gay and queer people, where abject expressions of sexuality and of gender trouble felt neither like threats nor invitations to violence.

There was also, of course, Sasha Velour, the cerebral art-queen who was crowned this year’s winner of Rupaul’s Drag Race. I saw her on tour with other season 9 queens this summer; her lip-sync of “Praying” by Kesha was perhaps, no lie, the most moving musical performance I saw in 2017. She embodied and embraced the reality so many of us face as women and queer people: victims and victors, agents and acted-on, mired in both hope and fear on a near-constant basis. It was transcendent.

Ramen

On a less serious note, D.C. is, like many cities, in the midst of a ramen craze right now, and if I’m honest I spent an inordinate amount of the year benefiting from it! And from the fact that a few places will even deliver ramen right to your house if you have the right app! (Also, there’s a lot to be said about cultural appropriation, the devaluing of non-Western food traditions, etc. in these contexts; I am trying to keep learning and will leave the explanations to folks smarter than I.)

Tank And The Bangas

I called this band the “best band in America” all year and I meant it. Their Tiny Desk concert was both an exhale (after the stress of running the Contest itself) and an inhale (before an unrelenting and enthralling month of tour with them). I saw Tank and the Bangas perform eight times in 2017; their positivity never got stale, their exuberance never felt forced, their passion never wavered. They sound like no one else I know. Goddamn, I love this band. The best band in America!

Therapy

I went back to therapy this year after not really going since childhood but thinking about finding someone to talk to and being jealous of friends’ casual off-hand remarks about their therapists for years. I went mostly because of this thing that happened last December involving some brutal unkindness from a loved one that was so vicious yet unexpected it left me feeling startled and knocked off course, like having been shoved from a great height and, after shaking off the dust, finding myself very alone. I thought it was a minor disturbance but it actually burrowed pretty deep into me and I wound up freaked out about a bunch of stuff, so long story short: I finally found someone to talk to.

I will save my breath about how mental health care should be accessible and de-stigmatized. I will say that therapy made my year better in a lot of ways; mostly, in that I had a dedicated time and place to work, patiently, on some things that felt really paralyzing. (It also taught me some useful concepts, like the idea of psychological safety and the Buddhist teaching of the “second arrow,” which I then snuck into some of my favorite writing I did this year. Win-win.) Nothing is fixed, obviously; therapy has felt mostly like a drawn-out emotional root canal all year, which is to say, I still nurse the same ache that sent me. But I’m grateful and I am learning and it’s starting to feel less self-indulgent to want to address my bullshit. I recommend therapy to everyone! If you’re interested in talking to someone, here are some affordable resources.

Iced Americanos

There are precious few things that get M out of bed early: the promise of imminent skiing; a genuine emergency; and coffee. I’ve relied heavily on the third one this year to squeeze in a half-hour of quality time with him before I go to the office. Listen I know this is cheesy as h*ck but it truly improves the overall quality of my day! Anyway the iced coffee at our corner coffee shop is not for me but the baristas take great care with their espresso shots so I started getting iced americanos instead and now I have been converted to an iced americano grrrl, even in winter (true to my New England roots). And a morning-coffee-with-your-boyfriend grrrl. Gross! I can’t help it.

Creative collaboration

Madeline Zappala is both a dear friend of mine and a total badass artistic inspiration to me. I was so glad she asked me to help edit her magazine, Reflections on the Burden of Men – and that she (and her co-creator, Laura) accepted a short piece I wrote about being disgusted by sexuality, or maybe more so by the insistence that women perform it for patriarchy, feeling isolated from my body, wanting to not want what I want. Editing the writing in the magazine was a dream! And watching it come together was so instructive. Go get a copy! (Or just pick up some unsolicited dick pic stickers, a real thing they made.)

2017 was a pretty exciting year for Keeper, too. Between January and August – when Sam moved back to Texas and Keeper became a project with a less coherent identity – we played amazing shows and put out a tape and met a lot of really lovely people. I learned a lot.

Female solidarity

I never got the appeal of using the phrase “work wife” to describe a lady BFF in your office before this year (too close to “girl crush,” which, I maintain, is basically homophobic; plus, who wants to replicate the capitalist heteropatriarchy of the marriage-industrial complex in your office friendships, of all places?!) but now I have two and I totally get it. There’s really something special about working alongside women like me, and having them be people who are willing to take a lunch break or walk to Starbucks (lol) so we can encourage each other through weird career stuff, or vent about male incompetence, or gush about new music, or interrogate what it means to care about feminism or justice or epistemology or whatever in 2017, which is mostly what we did. Some of the most enriching and important conversations I had this year were these; we often joked about the positions of authority we’d have, the raises we’d get, the articles we’d be assigned if only the People In Charge heard the conversations we had around cafeteria lunch tables!

Of course, there was also the mere fact of having lived with three other women throughout this year, creating a home that was a constant space for frank discussions about shared oppression; there were days of 8+ hours of GChat sessions that formed a virtual safe space; there were the year’s albums that spoke to the bizarre, incredible realities of womanhood. And all of this happening in the context of women coming forward about sexual assault, women journalists reporting on it, all of us whispering #MeToo on the internet. It was a year that, for me, fostered a consistent and palpable sense of solidarity among us. I needed it.

The “Thief” music video:

Lastly: this is, maybe, the most wonderfully terrible music video I have ever seen. I first heard about this on the now-defunct podcast This Week Had Me Like, which I sorely miss, and now it’s rare that my housemates and I go more than a month without watching it communally. It’s histrionic in the best way, nonsensical, totally delightful. Thank you, Ansel Elgort.

6 notes · View notes