#80'/90' James my beloved

[ainxis]

A meme I made a while ago and forgot to post.

An explanation because this is super niche:

So James Jesse helped to train Eddie Bloomberg when he was still Kid Devil. Then gained personal beef with Neron by defeating him during underworld unleashed, then defeated him again in New Year Evil and then a few years later Eddie went and sold his soul to Neron in exchange for his powers...

Anyway I have headcannons about James and Eddie if anyone's interested in those two.

[nickybloodhead]

In honor that I am insane, here I share with you my collection of 300 James Hetfield videos in tiktok, just the best of the best edits, interviews or just our beloved man, it was hard work but here it is, I will surely keep adding more to the collection, enjoy the work of my hyperfixation.

[windsweptinred]

@mashumaru I hope you don't mind me answering your question here? There was no way this was fitting in the comments section. 😅 So these are what I'd call more Sunday afternoon murder mysteries then gritty crime dramas, as that's what I'm mainly watching at the mo. But if you'd like some darker recs, just let me know.

Anywho...

Midsomer Murders

The ultimate Sunday afternoon watch. Murder most foul, represented artistically in the form of a cream tea. Starring Inspector Barnaby(s), the most teddy bear men ever to exist. Every episode will include chocolate box village eye porn. Murder weapons have included but are not limited to: a cheese wheel, drowned in chocolate, a headless horseman and a steampunk werewolf. It sounds ridiculous but once you start, you won't be able to stop. I promsie you. The horrors: 0/10, though may leave you with a life long phobia of morris dancers and village fetes.

The Morseverse (Endeavour/Inspector Morse and Lewis)

Ah Morseverse, my beloved. The English academic elite does crime. Oxford is it's own splendorous character, with every episode crammed full of towering libraries, awe inspiring architecture and fanatically manicured, college quads. A must watch for those whose hearts belong to dark academia. Endeavour and Morse are set in the 60s/70s and 80s/90s respectively. And follow the same character, Endeavour Morse, from brilliant, blue eyed, troubled twink to brilliant, blue eyed, grumpy old man with a definite alcohol problem. (Never play drink along with Morse, it's a surefire way to get alcohol poisoning.) The baton is then passed to his sergeant, Robert Lewis in Lewis, set in the relative present (as of this post). The relationship between Inspector and Sergeant is what ultimately makes these series, be it Fred Thursday and Morse, Morse and Lewis and Lewis and James Hathaway. And you'll come to treasure them. Be prepared to leave these series with a well earned fictional degree in classical music. Murders CAN and WILL be based on obscure, literary references. The horrors: Well it depends.... I'd say Endeavour is the darkest, Lewis is the lightest with Morse settled nicely in between. If you finish this series not wanting a Jaguar Mark II, you did it wrong.

Vera

Vera Stanhope, my northumbrian queen, my geordie goddess. A middle aged plus woman, with no makeup (or two f*cks to rubs together) decked in a brown hat and mac and driving the world most beaten up land rover.... Owns everyone. And it is sooo satisfying to watch. The scenic southern eye candy of the two previous recs is replaced with the wild, isolated landscapes of the North, very much reflecting our DI. She's joined by sergeant dark and dishy and the ever more put up Kenny Lockhart, as well as host of others. But what really makes this series is Vera herself. As equally formidable as she is kind hearted, with no hint of glamour. She's the kind of female representation we both need and deserve. The horrors: Vera passive aggressively calling vicious murderers 'pet' fixes all world problems. It's scientifically proven.

Things you may have heard of:

Sherlock Holmes, the Granada edition starring Jeremy Brett. No finer Sherlock has ever graced our screens to this day (And yes, I will stand and fight for that statement.) One of the most loyal adaptations of the books ever made.

Poirot, staring David Suchet. No offence to Kenneth Branagh (Your Henry V got me through high-school English lit sir). But David Suchet is THE Prirot for me. Another loyal book adaptation. Over a 25 year period Suchet lived and breathed Poirot and it shows.

If anyone's got any other recommendations please feel free to add them on. I know I've missed a ton! Anywho, I hope that helps me dear. 😁

[anniebass]

Hi hi, I’m curious what are your top albums from the following decades: ‘80, ‘90, ‘00s? :)

hey diva! that's a fun question, let me wrack my brain for a minute!

Can I list like 3 to 5 from each decade? Just one's impossible ._. I'll only list the ones I usually need to listen from first to last track!

80s:

that was surprisingly hard to choose because when it comes to 80s music (and more popular music that, y'know, has lyrics) I mostly listen to songs not entire albums.

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (it's from 1979 but hush)

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love (I actually prefer Lionheart from 1978)

Fela Kuti - Coffin for Head of State (one-song album that my college bestie introduced to me and I loved it ever since)

90s:

Portishead - Dummy (listen to it on the reg, perfect album)

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James (I listen to Selected Ambient Works more often but this one's funnier)

The Prodigy - Fat of the Land (if I ever drive a car this'll be the first music I put on duuuhhhh)

Kayah & Bregovic - Kayah & Bregovic (polish singer & balkan composer, lyrics known by heart by every drunk polish woman of a certain age)

00s:

The Knife - Silent Shout (soundtrack to my morning commute to high school, still listen to it on the reg)

Fever Ray - Fever Ray (my heavy drinking times music)

The Decemberists - Picaresque (I learned about Decemberists from TJ & Amal, loved that album ever since)

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (beloved)

Venetian Snares - Rossz Csillag Alatt Született (breakcore mixed with classical music, the weirdest of the bunch, everyone go listen to Szamar Madar or Szerencsetlen)

[icembrace]

⊠    ɪᴅ  .  .  .  ʟᴏᴀᴅɪɴɢ    ››    [    pat chayanit    /      32    /    cis  woman    /    she/her    ]   mercy  headquarters  is  pleased  to  officially  introduce  𝐂𝐈𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀 𝐂𝐀𝐎.  they  have  been  apart  of  the  organization  for  twelve years ,  serving  as  𝐀 𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃 agent  and  has  been  assigned  the  codename  𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐋𝐓 it's  worth  noting  that  their  file  indicates  they�� have  undergone  the  solaris  treatment  and  host 𝐈𝐂𝐄  𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍  according  to  our  dossier,  the  agent  exhibits  a  combination  of  𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓  and  𝐄𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄  traits,  fitting  for  someone  reminiscent  of  natasha  romanoff & emma  frost.  prior  to  embarking  on  any  mission,  the  find  solace  in  listening  to  the  song  “i don’t wanna be me“  by  𝐓𝐘𝐏𝐄 0 𝐍𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄.  

𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐃 .

full name : cipriana lamai cao . nicknames : none, don't try . occupation : field agent . age : thirty - two . place of birth : new york city, new york . gender : cis woman . languages : mandarin chinese, thai, english, russian, polish, lithuanian, japanese, korean & spanish . ethnicity : chinese and thai. religion : tba . date of birth : 30.12.2016 . zodiac : capricorn . chinese zodiac : monkey

𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 .

height : 169 cm . build : slender . eye colour : brown . hair colour : naturally black , but prone to change depending on her mission. most notably, she used to be blonde . hair style : usually kept long and straight . scars : earned a scar on her neck on her most recent mission and was wearing lots of silk scarves and turtlenecks to cover it up . managed to remove it thanks to a cosmetical procedure. distinguishing features : her lips , more specifically, her cupid's bow . scent : amber, leather & rose clothing style : elegant on most occasions, more practical during missions, in shades of black and predominantly white , with occasional inclusion of other colours.

𝐏𝐒𝐘𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 .

character parallels : natasha romanoff ( marvel ) , emma frost ( marvel ) , the girl ( a girl walks home alone at night ) , nora ( past lives ) . moral alignment : chaotic neutral . personality type : istp. emotional stability: in need of improvement . element : fire . character tropes : color motif, dark action girl, i don't pay you to think , the paragon, with my hands tied, more than meets the eye .

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 .

father : james cao . mother : lauren saengarun . siblings : none. spouse(s) : duncan lawrence ( divorced ) , lev lebedev ( divorced ). children : none. pets : none .

𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 . tw: torture.

¹. the caos were wall street royalty of the 80s, 90s and 00s, an entire generation of bankers, loan processors and hedge fund managers — sovereigns, lacking only a gilded crown, who ruled the worldwide market with an iron fist. then, came cipriana, the only child of james cao and his much-beloved wife lauren with pin curls in her head and pearls around her neck, inheriting only half of her mother's beauty but none of her mellow nature. for all his brilliance and adroitness, james cao could never get along with his daughter — she was excessively this, and overly that, and yet never quite enough. so most of her childhood, cipriana had spent in her mother's embrace, lost between continents, raised in new york during winters, but beijing and bangkok during long, sweltering summers.

². boarding schools, well-paid and carefully chosen private tutors and instructors, suitcases in her hands — these are her recollections of her teenhood. she was always leaving. from the age of eight to nearly sixteen, she was enrolled in institut le rosey in switzerald, where she grew only more defiant over the years. her nonpareil academic achievements and artifice, however, did not aid her in reaching the impossibly high standards her father had set for her. james cao could no longer tolerate his daughter, deciding thus to cast her aside and take away her inheritance — and in turn, cipriana promised to give herself the world.

³. despite the sudden severance from her family, cipriana still found herself at princeton, using her eruditeness, excellent records as well as her family name to secure a spot at such a prestigious university. there, she was subsequently discovered and recruited by one of mercy's special agents. at the age of twenty, she officially began her training as a junior agent, graduating a mere two and a half years later. officially a field agent, fresh-faced, and irrevocably determined, she decided to undergo the solaris treatment — but the process did not go without a hitch. it took longer than expected for her power to surface, which only made cipriana overcompensate in other departments, more specifically combat.

⁴. cipriana spent her early and mid-twenties on the field, all across the country while partaking in numerous missions. the agency loved just how easily she could adapt to her new identities and extract information, singing her praises while simultaneously destroying what little identity she had left. at twenty-six, she married for the first time, on a whim, because it felt like the only thing she wanted, desperate for something or someone to return to — but it didn't last. he deserved someone better. someone who could give him more. she filed for divorce within the same year, and a month after her divorce, she was deployed for an overseas mission.

⁵. with a new narrative, her hair bleached and still smelling of ammonium hydroxide and a forged passport in her hands, she made her way to warsaw, poland. she lived under various names,most notably, anielka song, danute garsva, and sunisa shinawatra. she was stationed in poland for half a year and the other half she spent in lithuania. then came russia, an additional two years of covert and clandestine operations. after russia, she was led to thailand, a place that should've been familiar terrain. all was well up until the moment she was caught and captured, and thereupon tortured. they didn't manage to extract any information, but the psychological and physical damage they had done was severe. the lack of access to solaris drug was one of the reasons behind her failure. she was eventually found by her mission partners, and the transgressors were convicted, but to cipriana it felt like a pyrrhic victory. mercy, however, did not agree and labeled her as a 'hero' instead.

⁶. after five years deep undercover, cipriana's finally made her way back to apex city. she passed all her tests — and is still suited for a field agent, but some would beg to disagree for the sake of her health. she conceals her issues well, from struggles with her identity or rather the lack of it, to short-term memory lapses that started after thailand. it's a tale of a girl who's spent her entire life leaving. always leaves first so she isn't left behind. leaving for cipriana is an art.

𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 .

has only been around for the last couple of months — as she spent five years undercover in eastern europe, baltic countries, and asia. her whereabouts and coordinates were classified as confidential. feels like an utter stranger after living for so long away from apex city.

a former gymnast. unlike most children, she did not partake in regular sports but rather found solace in gymnastics. she won several gold medals when she was younger but ultimately hated competing.

trained and skilled in many forms of martial arts, including: judo, karate, savate, aikido, muay thai and brazilian jiu-jitsu. basically, her skills and combat style are heavily inspired by natasha romanoff.

married for the second time while she was undercover. she met lev in st. petersburg but married him in pattaya city. it was another reckless decision, a byproduct of her loneliness in a foreign country. she divorced him after a year.

'she wore white (shoes)' — a code phrase that was exclusively associated with cipriana. so while she didn't always wear white attires, her shoes were distinctly white.

she learned mandarin from her father and thai from her mother — english was simply the middle ground in their household. she picked up japanese and korean while in boarding school as it was required of her to study at least two foreign languages. she was tutored in spanish at home at the behest of her mother, and she learned russian, polish and lithuanian while at mercy.

has perpetually cold hands and does not shy away from cold weather. catch her out in the snow with just a shirt on.

𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐒 . i intend to make a proper page with more than just three plots, but for now, here's something.

i. due to the fact that she's been away for a while, cipriana assumes that most don't remember her. this person, however, never forgot about her, and are hoping to rekindle the closeness that they shared. linger in my life for just a little longer - type of deal. do you think if i dye my hair black again we could get our old friendship back? ii. a person who was constantly bested by cipriana while she was still around and considered her a rival. no matter how much they tried, she was always better. when she left, they finally seized their victory. now that she's back, will old fires find a way to burn again?iii. a newfound friendship that's mostly based on them practicing and testing their combat skills together. when she pins them down to the floor, only one question remains — 'are we still friends, yes?'

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

This is very random but I kind of have developed a celebrity crush on Jaesuk? The host of Running Man.

Idk something about him is very appealing to me. Plus I watched several episodes and him and Jessi have amazing bantering dynamics. I got so much happiness from watching them.

Which brings me to my of question of who are your current celebrity crushes?

This is really random, anon 😂 But you can share your celeb crushes here.

I haven't developed any celeb infatuation recently, but these are some go-to names that come up in my head, even if there's been years since I had an active interest.

James Spader (watch him in any '80s and '90s films plus Secretary and you'll see what I mean. Incredibly charismatic, hot and there's something about the way he talks)

Jeremy Irons (now I know he's not currently beloved and he's saying stuff out of place, but when he gets the opportunity for really good parts, I become completely mesmerized. And it's not even about Lolita, but in films like Damage, M. Butterfly. He knows how to be seductive, combined with a laid back attitude, especially in old interviews. It looks like he's not trying at all. Plus the voice, my god)

I used to have a thing for Dennis Hopper years ago, particularly the way he looked in the '70s (his voice too). He was also a bit crazy. Big crush on Hopper in Apocalypse Now era.

Billy Krudup in Almost Famous and 20th Century Women. I think I'll always have a big crush of Russell and somehow the character in 20th...reminded me of him, like it was a continuation, despite both films taking place in the 70s.

A tiny crush on Luke Kirby and I say tiny because there's not a lot to keep it going, apart from seeing him in Mrs. Maisel and Take This Waltz.

I used to have a thing for Rufus Sewell when I watched Young Victoria and then I procedeed to look up everything. I'll admit I have watched a few times that modern adaption of The Taming of The Shrew only because he was so hot and mean in it. Perfect combo.

Mads Mikkelsen will forever be a crush. I think it started when I was in high school and saw one of his films and that was it. It's for life.

It's not really a full crush, but I'd watch everything that has Paul Mescal in it. And oh my god, I just looked it up and he's the only one in my list younger than me 🙃

Oh, and I'm here for Andrew Scott. I admit, I'm one of those who got a bit obsessed after watching him in Fleabag, but who wouldn't?

I'm gonna be a happy girl when I see the Scott/Mescal pair in All of Us Strangers.

That's a highlight of my crush list. There's more, but I need to think about it. I think there's a type in there, it became pretty obvious while typing this 😅 I obviously have a thing for someone's voice. Someone can look incredibly banal but if there's something in the voice/way of talking that sparks my interest, then I see them in a completely different light. And if they're seductive in a way that takes over my rational mind completely, then I'm done for. Nice when they're celebs, a bit more complicated in real life.

[grandhotelabyss]

I recently watched Donald Cammell’s WHITE OF THE EYE, which you prefer over Zulawski’s own 80s cult classic POSSESSION. When you speak highly of a film on here I take it seriously, and was not let down: a narratively, thematically, and aesthetically rich (and just remarkably weird) desert southwest giallo slasher of sorts with sinister performances from David Keith and Cathy Moriarty. As I can no longer find the post where you first mentioned it, would you speak more to why you like it?

Thank you, and I'm glad you liked it! I had trouble finding the original post too—Tumblr's tagging system used to use hyphens for spaces and now doesn't, making even reasonably labeled things hard to rediscover—but I did manage to dig it up. I hope you don't mind if I simply paste it in here since a lot of newer readers probably missed it. I only saw the movie once and won't try to recapture the (over)enthusiastic prose I wrote upon the first viewing. Tumblr is also bad at date-labeling things, but I believe this dates from summer 2021.

___________________________________________________________

I now believe White of the Eye (1987) is criminally unheralded in the semi-arty horror-thriller pantheon (do not, please, speak to me of Ari Aster). 

Being a philistine, I like White of the Eye better, for instance, than the connoisseur’s go-to ’80s cult object, Żuławski’s Possession, which I find unendurably over-stylized despite its other merits. Fun fact: Possession was co-written by novelists’ novelist Frederic Tuten, who once received the most extravagant blurb from my beloved Cynthia Ozick, as friend-of-the-blog @danskjavlarna pointed out: “What an amazing, glittering, glowing, Proustian, Conradian, Borgesian, diamond-faceted, language-studded, myth-drowned dream!” exclaimed our greatest living Republican-voting novelist (remember that Cormac McCarthy doesn’t vote). Tuten, by the way, is not to be blamed for what I call Possession’s over-stylization, which is a matter of performance not script. But I don’t want to get into a hipper-than-thou spiral, “My cult movie’s better than your cult movie,” to be trapped in a crisis of Girard’s mimetic desire or Bourdieu’s cultural capital—merde, but the French are depressing, “too human, too historical,” as Deleuze complained in acclaiming “the superiority of Anglo-American literature.” The work of art has formal, affective, conceptual intrinsic qualities, not just extrinsic social determinants, and White of the Eye is, I argue, intrinsically spectacular.

Speaking of performance: White of the Eye was directed by Donald Cammell, the co-director with Nicolas Roeg of the classic 1970 film Performance. Again a philistine, I could never get into Performance—never even watched it all the way through—even though it sits at the nexus of two of my early influences. First, in a Comics Journal interview in the mid-’90s, English artist Bryan Talbot credited Performance’s jump-cut montage techniques for inspiring the storytelling innovations in his graphic novel The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. The underread Arkwright is the lost key to comics’s British Invasion—without it we wouldn’t have had V for Vendetta, Watchmen, Sandman, or The Invisibles. (It’s also a key to this movement’s cryptic politics, as Talbot stages a Jacobite uprising as anti-fascist revolution, precursor to Moore’s much more famous but still baffling ancom in Guy Fawkes garb. Is all anarchism Tory anarchism?) Second, Performance was a particular interest of Professor Colin MacCabe’s, whose class on James Joyce, with its mind-altering 12 weeks on Ulysses, helped to make me the reader and writer I am today back in that explosive landmark year, 2001. Protagonist of an epochal affaire in poststructuralism’s history and erstwhile director of the British Film Institute, MacCabe later wrote a book on Performance, which, alas, unlike his books on Joyce and Godard, I haven’t read. 

I like White of the Eye better than Performance as I like it better than Possession, though. Mysterious symbolism, desert desolation, languorous eroticism, and, yes, some montage. The scorching, doomed marriage between a fanatic Western audiophile—he looks like the young W. Bush—and his breathy, no-nonsense New York wife; a Paglia-esque misogynist rampage (“that fuckin’ black hole…if that’s not female, I don’t know what is”) in an arid outpost of the Reagan-era bourgeoisie and its multicultural fringe: it all evokes the inherent evil of the American landscape that Burroughs observes in Naked Lunch. It has that ’80s quality of emotional amplitude not just between but within scenes. At every moment you might ask, “Is this sad, funny, or horrifying?” and answer, “Yes.” I do see filmmakers today working in the same vein and aspiring to the same compass. Witness the already famous Jacques Derrida High School in David Prior’s ultimately disappointing Empty Man or the scarcely resistible vaporwave dreamscape of Anthony Scott Burns’s also ultimately disappointing Come True (can’t anybody end a movie anymore?). But White of the Eye does it without effort or self-consciousness, as the very essence of its being an artwork at all—an artifact from a lost civilization.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

What is media like in the Rhine City verse? What are some recurring shows within a show?

We haven’t super got into it, and there’s quite a bit of media that’s fairly different too! A lot of in-universe series are based on scrapped story concepts, some of which long-time viewers of my blog might remember. Here’s a few things I came up with:

The Handy & Ydnah Show: The bastard child of Oobi and ATHF. It’s a PG show beloved by adults and stoners for it’s weird and surreal plots. The production of it is extremely mysterious; no one knows much about it even though it debuted in the 80s.

Tales of Aethra: Based on one of my oldest story ideas. It’s essentially a long-running multimedia fantasy franchise, though its popularity is comparable more to something like He-Man or Xanth than something like LotR. It has gotten a well-regarded animated series, several books, and a crossover set with MTG.

Mercenaries: Based on the story Eric originated from. Basically an over-the-top stunt-heavy action franchise a la John Wick, featuring a sendup of Snake Plissken as its lead (his name is Max Viper). Venus Crowley’s character Scarlet Love became a huge breakout and shot her to stardom.

Genesis: Based on the story David Paine originated from. A TV series about a future where some of the population have superpowers. It’s like Akira or Heroes back when the latter was good.

SafeWord: 90s cult classic comic about a queer S&M themed superhero. Was adapted into an equally cult classic film by Troma. Based on an old OC idea I had.

Virgin Killer: A more recent movie, an action-comedy about a young man who dresses in a Virgin killer and enacts vigilante justice on incel type guys. Based on a joke someone sent into my blog once.

Dick Kicker: Private Eye - A film noir parody series in the vein of Naked Gun. Very deadpan, very respectful of the genre.

Bottom Line: A blaxploitation series from the 70s about the eponymous martial arts hero who protected his community from various threats.

Arya Mournblade series: Long-running sword-and-sorcery fantasy series notable for consistently keeping the same actress from the original 80s film all the way to the 2017 finale. One of the films is infamous for featuring aliens as the antagonists.

Prudence Clay, Student Witch: A young adult fantasy book series by author Frida Spinney, which was hailed as the next Harry Potter by critics. The books have come under constant scrutiny for some extremely problematic elements, not helped at all by questionable comments she made online which inspired others to make similarly questionable comments (she’s friends with JKR if that tells you anything).

The Will of the Old Ones: A book by an author going by “Charlotte Webber.” It is a cosmic horror story whose content was overshadowed by a plagiarism lawsuit alleging the text was cobbled together from several unpublished manuscripts. The author making the claims of plagiarism was eventually found dead of an apparent suicide and the case ended up dropped. Hardly any discussion of the content of the book is made anymore, only the insanity around it.

Salty Steve’s Pirate Pizza Palace: A Charles Entertainment Cheese competitor founded in 1987. The discordant mashup of pirate and dinosaur theming has given it an odd charm that has helped it stay afloat, also helped by it getting a surprisingly good SNES game based around it.

Rubber Octopus: Popular mid 2000s indie rock band.

Six Shots: Based on an old scrapped superhero story idea. It’s not made yet, but it’s the next script James Gunn has for a movie, and Venus is gonna star in it.

[cheesybadgers]

Taking advantage of your post about being able to send questions about your fics, I've always wanted to know if you have books that inspire you to write OHDH.

You know it's a statement for me to talk about how much I love what you do, but I think your narrative bias is impeccable! Not to mention the references you use in the story which are great.

Ahhh Maria, bless you and thank you so much for your kind words 🥺 And wow thank you for asking such a great question ❤️

I'll put this below the cut, because it got a bit long lol.

I've read a lot of books specifically as research for OHDH, in the sense of knowing my next chapter was going to be about X subject/place etc. but I didn't know anywhere near enough to be able to write about it well without researching first. I've mentioned a few of the books (fiction and non-fiction) I've used for this in my OHDH trivia post.

One of those books listed in that post, Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester, was also a big inspiration for including Día de los Muertos in OHDH. The book is set in a Texas border town, follows a Mexican family and covers parental loss and grief (the main character's father-in-law is dead and his ghost visits her every Día de los Muertos to try and fix unresolved conflict with his son), cultural identity, and also the realities of crossing the US-Mexican border. So, it was a bit of a goldmine when I found that lol.

I also read a couple of books by Colombian authors: Like This Afternoon Forever by Jaime Manrique and Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras. They both follow Colombian characters living in Colombia during the 80s. I found these stories really useful in giving context that Narcos just doesn't give, because obviously Narcos isn't told from a Colombian POV. The first one mentioned also has two gay priests who fall in love, but their ending is a sad one (I understand why though, as the author is a gay man who lived through the HIV/AIDS crisis but their partner didn't, so I think this book was him processing his own grief).

In fact, most of the LGBTQ+ books I've read since starting OHDH had sad/bittersweet endings (including Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, which gets referenced a couple of times in OHDH). I know that's not surprising in the slightest...but in a way, I think reading those books inspired me NOT to do that? There are enough tragic stories about gay/bi men (especially in the 80s/early 90s) already...and whilst they are absolutely valid and serve a purpose and are often based on the author's own experiences, I didn't want to add another.

There are a few books about/set in Madrid I've read for chapter 18 that have been really useful in providing historical context I wasn't aware of, but I don't want to give away spoilers lol, so I'll talk about that in my trivia post once the chapter is done and dusted!

I know you asked specifically about books, but film and TV inspire me a lot as well. Huge shout out to two gay films that have spookily similar premises but very different endings: God's Own Country and A Moment in the Reeds. They're both really atmospheric (God's Own Country is also aptly set on a farm, albeit in England rather than on a ranch in Texas lol) and the way they capture m/m intimacy made me YEARN.

As for TV...I know this is a bit random but Buffy the Vampire Slayer, purely for the way that show uses tropes. I know it's absolutely not the only show to do this, but I did a Buffy re-watch at some point during the pandemic (so probably not long after I started writing OHDH) and remember being impressed by the tools they used to tell stories, particularly dreams/foreshadowing/objects of significance (hello cross necklace, my beloved). I ended up including stuff along those lines in OHDH after I did that re-watch.

I also really wish I'd been able to watch The Last of Us before I started writing this fic lol...I don't think I've ever experienced such extreme writer envy as I did after episode 3 😂 It won't be part of OHDH, but after that episode I was daydreaming about looking in on Javier and Horacio when they're that age and then I made myself cry 😭

By the way, I do know this is all going waaaaay beyond what anyone needs to do to write a fic lol. But in my defence, it serves me right for writing about places/people/events I didn't know much about beforehand lol. And I also love learning new things! And this has been the perfect opportunity to learn but in a more fun way than my school days ever allowed. I've also read a lot more books than I had done in years, so who said pushing your favourite fictional men together like dolls and making kissing noises had to be a shallow hobby? 😂

Thank you once again for sending this, Maria! It's been fun to respond to 😘

[fictionz]

New Fiction 2024 - January

"Osee" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

I can't go back to check what Osee was on about. All you need to know about this phase of the bible is guys were prophesying, and pretty much every prophecy is about how the Hebrew people were fuckin' it up. This all feels like items in what should have been the appendix, but since I'm reading a Catholic bible it's all just filler until JC shows up. (And we're just under 70% after two solid years of gettin' through it.)

"Joel" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Another dull prophet.

This Gray Spirit by Heather Jarman (2002)

I want to love every DS9 book. It's a struggle to not enjoy them. But there's a trend here in the Mission Gamma series of trying to do Too Much. The last book was very long, but also very focused, and the premise of taking the Defiant out into the Gamma quadrant sounds fine until they do it again... and again... and again. And it gets to the point where I just don't care what they're doing. I want DS9--the setting--and its beloved cast of characters to do their thing there. I'll read on but this one really should have been two books instead of this A plot-B plot structure.

Divided We Fall by John J. Ordover, David Mack, Andrew Currie, Michael Collins, Richard Bennett, David Roach, John Nyberg, Jenna Garcia, WildStorm FX, Alex Sinclair, Jeff Mariotte (2001)

This one contrasted nicely against Revenant by Alex White. Both stories focus on Dax and how the Trill symbiont managers are real bad at transparency. The more I learn about this world, the more it sounds like a pretty clear caste system that should get them booted from the Federation. But then, I suffer the flaw of binary judgement, and there's probably some nuance there to consider.

Gargoyles the Movie Game dev. Buena Vista Home Video (1995)

Wow, this was the most broken version of Chutes and Ladders I've ever played. I recommend a house rule of doubling each number on the spinner if you want any chance at winning. The event cards are just so punishing and the strict time limit makes it a steep uphill battle.

Gargoyles Remastered dev. Walt Disney Computer Software & Empty Clip Studios (1995, 2023)

I had a problem with input lag in the original version that ruined my initial impression, but that was on me. Playing the remaster with no input lag and the extra features like updated art, music, and the rewind all added up to a more enjoyable, if short, experience. It's otherwise an interesting artifact from that transition out of 2D platformers and into chunky polygons and pre-rendered 3D visuals.

Gargoyles: Night Flight dev. Tiger Electronics (1995)

I've played a few of these mid-90s Tiger handhelds and it's fine for a car ride, which is where I always imagine these things were played at the time. It's so overly simple that I can't say it's worth playing, unlike the classic Game & Watch titles that had real challenge and replayability to them.

The Color Purple dir. Bazawule (2023)

I never caught the original movie or book, but this musical was great. And those events are some real fucked up trauma.

The Iron Claw dir. Sean Durkin (2023)

As period biopics go, this one's fine. Not too wild or revelatory, other than its highlighting a segment of the wrestling scene which I had no idea about. The performances were all solid and Ephron clearly committed to the role. The story is from that period of simpler costumes and narratives before my friends and I came aboard in the later 80s and 90s, so it was neat to understand a fictionalized buildup to the more familiar stories.

Poor Things dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (2023)

It was great, stylized, and I suppose does have an act structure but it feels a little loose with it, which I'm all for. It just doesn't match up to the amazing work in The Favorite.

Night Swim dir. Bryce McGuire (2024)

A snoozer, I'm afraid. The seed of it is interesting but it doesn't quite grow enough to make it compelling.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom dir. James Wan (2023)

Another snoozer. It's not as fun as the first one, and if these superhero things aren't fun then what're we doing here?

The Beekeeper dir. David Ayer (2024)

Yeah this was a rough stretch. Another action snoozer that maybe could have highlighted something interesting about exploitation of elders but just uses that as an excuse for Statham to go around punching dudes in a boring way.

I.S.S. dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite (2023)

There's this particular subgenre of space movie where people are just out there in their tin cans, then they're stuck or screwed, and the drama plays out amid a desperate race to get out of that sitch. Hell, I will myself to sleep by conjuring a little scene I've developed where I'm out in my little space tug boat and need to shut down systems and go to sleep for the cycle. Gravity, Interstellar, and Life are all recent examples of this kind of movie that come to mind, and now we can add I.S.S. to that list. And I love these. I love space trouble. I ran into a bunch of these stories in my recent watch of The Outer Limits (1995), and I really can't get enough. I.S.S. has this uncomfortable angle on what if Earth annihilates itself, huh, smart guy? (Art reflecting reality, etc.) And that's a bummer to consider. But the story that plays out onboard the station is still neat and I would definitely watch this again.

Mean Girls dir. Samantha Jayne & Arturo Perez Jr. (2024)

Dug it! Maybe more than I did the original. Mostly because the musical sequences are great.

American Fiction dir. Cord Jefferson (2024)

Stories about writers can be a little too navel-gazey for me to handle, but I'm glad I caught this.

The Book of Clarence dir. Jeymes Samuel (2024)

It comes from the angle of true belief, so you have to buy into that going in, but the questions it raises and the general production all make it worth the watch. Plus, they tackle the question of why even is Jesus a white guy (well, we know why), so that makes it extra fun.

Battlestar Galactica - "Saga of a Star World" (1978)

Doofy? That's the word. Definitely of its time, but I'm gonna get through it all later this year.

The Twilight Zone - "Shatterday" (1985)

Ey Bruce Willis being moody before that was his brand. I watched the 60s version and now I feel obligated to see what issues of the day were popping up for 80s TV people.

Stargate SG-1 - "Children of the Gods" (1997)

Oh, okay, I didn't realize they were angling for the Showtime adult crowd with this. I was so used to the sanitized Saturday afternoon syndication version of the episodes. In any case, still a good start. Another show to watch in full later on.

Farscape - "Premiere" (1999)

Hm, more white guys as leads/captains isn't as appealing, but the puppety goodness of Henson aliens compels me to continue.

Fringe - "Pilot" (2008)

Holy shit, those first five minutes! I knew immediately I'd enjoy this show, whatever it's going to be. I heard enough good things that I figured I gotta.

Yellowstone - "Daybreak" (2018)

My mom wouldn't stop talking about this show so now I'll have to see what's what. So far it's Kevin Costner as an old asshole who raised his kids to also be assholes?

[dossantosspirit]

Top 100 songs of 2023

100. Miley Cyrus - Flowers

99. Tirzah - Promises

98. Joesef - It’s Been a Little Heavy Lately

97. Carly Rae Jepsen - Psychedelic Switch

96. Ashnikko - Cheerleader

95. Nation of Language - Weak in Your Light

94. Janelle Monáe - Float (ft. Seun Kuti and Egypt 80)

93. Fifty Fifty - Cupid

92. The Kills - New York

91. Romy - She’s on My Mind

90. Jessie Ware - Free Yourself

89. Zach Bryan - I Remember Everything (ft. Kacey Musgraves) 

88. Róisín Murphy - Coocool

87. LE SSERAFIM - UNFORGIVEN

86. Squid - Swing (In A Dream)

85. Peggy Gou - (It Goes Like) Nanana

84. Shamir - Oversized Sweater

83. The National - The Alcott (ft. Taylor Swift)

82. Mandy, Indiana - Pinking Shears

81. You Me At Six - No Future? Yeah Right (ft. Rou Reynolds)

80. Tyla - Water

79. Arlo Parks - Weightles

78. Hitsujibungaku - More Than Words

77. Slowdive - kisses

76. Indigo De Souza - Smog

75. Feist - Hiding Out In The Open

74. Margo Price - County Road

73. Raye - Ice Cream Man

72. Laufey - From The Start

71. Paris Texas - TenTHIRTYseven

70. The Hives - Bogus Operandi

69. Pangaea - Installation

68. Black Belt Eagle Scout - My Blood Runs Through This Land

67. Bad Bunny - WHERE SHE GOES

66. Q - LUV (I KNOW I WANT THIS FOR REAL)

65. Bombay Bicycle Club - Diving (ft. Holly Humberstone)

64. The Beaches - Blame Brett

63. Troye Sivan - Rush

62. Yaeji - For Granted

61. Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro - Beso

60. PJ Harvey - I Inside the Old I Dying

59. Margaret Glaspy - Act Natural

58. Flo - Fly Girl

57. U.S. Girls - Tux (Your Body Fills Me, Boo)

56. Bring Me The Horizon - LosT

55. Jenny Lewis - Psychos

54. (G)I-DLE - Queencard

53. Jim Legxacy - eye tell (!)

52. Bully - Days Move Slow

51. James Blake - Tell Me

50. Kali Uchis - Moonlight

49. XG - Shooting Star

48. Victoria Monét - On My Mama

47. Blur - The Narcissist

46. Fall Out Boy - Heartbreak Feels So Good

45. Amaarae - Reckless & Sweet

44. Genesis Owusu - Leaving the Light

43. Mahalia - Terms and Conditions

42. Skrillex, Fred again.., and Flowdan - Rumble

41. Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar - The Hillbillies

40. Blondshell - Olympus

39. Sofia Kourtesis - How Music Makes You Feel Better

38. ANOHNI and the Johnsons - It Must Change

37. Billie Eilish - What Was I Made for?

36. Soccer Mommy - Soak Up The Sun

35. Hannah Jadagu - Warning Sign

34. V - Love Me Again

33. Slow Pulp - Slugs

32. BABYMETAL - METAL KINGDOM

31. billy woods & Kenny Segal - Facetime (ft. Samuel T. Hearing)

30 .Young Fathers - Rice

29. Ratboys - Morning Zoo

28. PinkPantheress - Boy's a liar Pt. 2 (ft. Ice Spice)

27. Sampha - Spirit 2.0

26. Fever Ray - Shiver

25. Overmono - Good Lies

24. CHAI - MATCHA

23. Paramore - Running Out of Time

22. 100 gecs - Hollywood Baby

21. Noname - namesake

20. Big Thief - Vampire Empire

19. Fred Again.. & Baby Keem - leavemealone

18. Foo Fighters - Under You

17. Taylor Swift - Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version)

16. Yves Tumor - Ebony Eye

15. The Murder Capital - Return My Head

14. Julie Byrne - Summer Glass

13. Nourished by Time - Daddy

12. Wednesday - Chosen to Deserve

11. Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven

10. yeule - Sulky Baby

9. Sufjan Stevens - Will Anybody Ever Love Me?

8. XG - Left Right

7. Caroline Polachek - Pretty In Possible

6. Olivia Rodrigo - Vampire

5. McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?

4. boygenius - Not Strong Enough

3. Lana Del Rey - A&W

2. NewJeans - Super Shy

1. Mitski - My Love Mine All Mine

Playlist on Spotify

[liugeaux]

Greatest Songs Ever - Part 18 (Softballs)

#18 is here! halfway through this list I realized most of these songs are universally known. So I figured the best way to describe them was to call them the ��softballs,” easy choices that will pad out much of my recent genre exploration. What you see here, you’ll probably know. Truly some of the easiest choices I’ve made thus far. 

Here they are. 

1986 “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” - Beastie Boys

The Beastie Boys are somehow both one of the the most overrated and underrated artists of the past 40 years. They get credit for being pioneers in the hip-hop genre and blending that hip hop with a brash New York punk attitude. Part of that credit simply comes from being white, and that's fine, but the credit they really deserve is in the nuance of their early work. License to Ill and “Fight for Your Right” are pieces that will likely be studied in future college curricula. This song is a snapshot of a moment in music history that didn't exist before nor after it, yet somehow has lived far beyond its expiration date. It's bratty, it's entitled, and it's punk, a brand of punk that carries a unique Americana-esq freedom to it. It's hard to listen to this track and not feel nostalgic for your childhood even if your childhood wasn't in the early 80s.

1967 “Daydream Believer” - The Monkees

I don't understand how The Monkees brand made it to the 21st century intact, without it being destroyed by critics looking to downplay there talent. Refusing to abandon the manufactured nature of their origin is an easy target. Four seemingly ordinary dudes were pulled together to create a band for a TV show, and 13 or so albums later, Mickey Dolan's is still touring under the beloved name of The Monkees. The beauty here is the idea of stripping away the pretentiousness of artistic creation and basking in the simplicity of a catchy pop song. “Daydream Believer” is a vibrant pop track that is only here to please. There are no deeper meanings, there is no subtlety in the lyrics, and the instrumentation isn't trying to break any barriers. The song has a singular focus of bringing joy to the listener, and it does so with laser precision.

1985 “Take on Me” - A-Ha

“Take On Me” has been on-deck for a while. I've always assumed I would get tired of this stereotypical '80s anthem, but even today when I hear it on the radio, I turn it up and try my damnest to hit those falsetto notes. It's not even a track that I learned to like late in life. I remember seeing the video on MTV with my parents in the actual '80s. It's just such a perfect genre song that it's hard to turn away from it. I'm sure there are gen-xers that have a very different opinion on the track, as they were likely bludgeoned with it in 1985, but outside of that age group, I would question the integrity of anyone who just flat-out hates “Take On Me”.

1970 “Funk #49″ -  James Gang

Don't get me wrong, the irony of including a song named “Funk 49″ by 3 white dudes, before including any songs by actual funk legends, is not lost on me.  When I first heard this song, it never occurred to me that it was funk-influenced.  To me, it's just classic rock. Joe Walsh is an All-Star in the genre, and it's presence on Z106 (my local eternally classic rock station) had me convinced I was right. Ignoring any cultural appropriation that might be happening, “Funk 49″ succeeds in multiple areas. The guitar parts, despite coming from a single guitar sound textured and you can feel the strings vibrating in your neck hairs. The bass lines glue the percussion to the guitar so well, that at times, it blends into one omni-instrument. Like any good three-piece, the stripped-down production only accentuates how big of a sound can come from just three dudes. We can have the culture discussion some other time, “Funk 49″ is a classic.

1996 “Virtual Insanity” - Jamiroquai

Speaking of funk music, Jamiroquai carved a unique place in late '90s culture.  With most of their music being genre-heavy, “Virtual Insanity” is so good it can't help but break through to the mainstream. Sure I'm supposed to talk about how cool the video was and how enigmatic lead singer Jay Kay is, but strip both of those abstract ideas away from the song and it still pops. Bass-heavy, almost dancey, somehow uniquely British, and beautifully futuristic, “Virtual Insanity” feels like a song teleported from 2085. From a place where all races have joined into one and all music has evolved into genre-less celebrations of humanity’s quirkiness. Everyone should be striving to be as cool as this song.

1968 “Mrs. Robinson” - Simon and Garfunkel

Speaking of quirky, after juggling 3 or 4 other Simon and Garfunkel songs, “Mrs. Robinson” emerged as the king of the hill. It wasn't until 2 years ago that I knew the song was inspired by and kind of written for the movie The Graduate. I don't think that changes my opinion of it, but it does put Simon and Garfunkel's creative process in a different perspective. “Mrs. Robinson” feels like a window into a idealistic past and it's inevitable fade into more volatile times. I'm not even sure if that's what the song is about, but the line “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?“ resonates in ways that I don't think was ever intended. 

1994 “Don't Take the Girl” - Tim McGraw

At some point I'm going to have to answer for my constant inclusion of country music from the 90s, but today will not be that day. “Don't Take the Girl,” is ‘90s country at its purest. A simple concept floated by a simple song title, interpreted three different ways through the verses of a mid-tempo ballad, with lyrics begging for tears, is exactly what you'd expect from the genre. Since Tim McGraw is not listed as a songwriter here, it's safe to say the track came out of the Nashville factory of songwriting. McGraw's name being on the track is simply a formality. Clint Black, Garth Brooks, Joe Diffie, Alan Jackson, George Strait, Toby Keith, Vince Gill, Randy Travis, Marty Stuart, the list of names that could have pulled this song out of the Nashville hat is nearly infinite. It's hard to say the track would be any different if any of the others had recorded it, but the song itself is heartfelt and not only fits the mold, it somehow improves it.

2008 “Second Chance” - Shinedown

Here's another track that's been in the hopper for a minute. I've talked about Shinedown before, and while they've avoided the Nickelback treatment, they've been shoehorned into this weird ”I hate Shinedown” overexposure bucket and that kind of sucks. Brent Smith and his band are masters of their craft, and even if you don't like the style of music they make, they are the best at what they do. “Second Chance” was their big home-run swing at making a mainstream impact, and it worked. Just enough emo, and just enough pop, “Second Chance” struck at the perfect time. Pop radio was still accepting of modern rock tracks, and was looking for emotionally resonant guitar songs that connected with wayward teens. From an adult perspective, “Second Chance” may feel forced, but from anyone in the throes of adolescence, it's a gut-wrenching tear-inducing anthem and that's hard to recreate.

2020 “Mood” -  24kGoldn (ft. Iann Dior)

Mood is a tight 2:20. That's short, even by pop song standards. However, what 24Goldn fits into that time contradicts what most people understand as rap music. I don't know much about this artist, but what I know is that emo influence has rewritten the rules of Hip Hop. “Mood” is a fantastic example of a rapper understanding the breadth of his options. Every track doesn't have to be built on a drum machine, it doesn't have to have a loop sourced from a dance track. If you can flow over a simple guitar riff and the hook is solid, you can do anything.  Music fans have grown accustomed to accepting modern music as being big and loud and production heavy, but mood is subtle, straightforward and catchy, yet still modern. Which leaves it remarkably comforting even for older listeners.

1978 “Wonderful Tonight” -  Eric Clapton

Another artist that had multiple songs in the hopper is Eric Clapton. It would have been easy to lean on his guitar prowess or choose something from the height of Derek and the Dominos, but the strength of the songwriting in “Wonderful Tonight” proves Clapton is more than just a set of hands that can shred a guitar. It's become a wedding staple, a television staple, a movie staple, and a mainstay on several different genres of airplay. There's a sweetness to “Wonderful Tonight” that is rarely recreated in any genre. Unlike more invasive pop songs, it's not a song that sticks with you long after you hear it. It has a purpose, and a very specific delivery. Look at your significant other and listen to “Wonderful Tonight.” If you don't tear up, leave them. You don't actually love them. Maybe that’s an overstatement, but you get the gist.

There you go, a quick 10. I promised in the last list I would create a playlist, and I promise it’s coming, but it’s not quite ready. List 19 is already curated, expect it soon. 

Cheers!

[literarypilgrim]

Read Like a Gilmore

All 339 Books Referenced In “Gilmore Girls” 

Not my original list, but thought it’d be fun to go through and see which one’s I’ve actually read :P If it’s in bold, I’ve got it, and if it’s struck through, I’ve read it. I’ve put a ‘read more’ because it ended up being an insanely long post, and I’m now very sad at how many of these I haven’t read. (I’ve spaced them into groups of ten to make it easier to read)

1. 1984 by George Orwell  2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 3. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 5. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser 6. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt 7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 8. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 9. The Archidamian War by Donald Kagan 10. The Art of Fiction by Henry James 

11. The Art of War by Sun Tzu 12. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 13. Atonement by Ian McEwan 14. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy 15. The Awakening by Kate Chopin 16. Babe by Dick King-Smith 17. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi 18. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie 19. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 20. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 21. Beloved by Toni Morrison 22. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney 23. The Bhagava Gita 24. The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy 25. Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel 26. A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy 27. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 28. Brick Lane by Monica Ali 29. Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner 30. Candide by Voltaire 31. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer 32. Carrie by Stephen King 33. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 34. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 35. Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White 36. The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman 37. Christine by Stephen King 38. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 39. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 40. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse    41. The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty 42. A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare 43. Complete Novels by Dawn Powell 44. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton 45. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker 46. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole 47. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 48. Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac 49. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 50. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber    51. The Crucible by Arthur Miller 52. Cujo by Stephen King 53. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon 54. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende 55. David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D 56. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 57. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown 58. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol 59. Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 60. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller 61. Deenie by Judy Blume 62. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson 63. The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx 64. The Divine Comedy by Dante 65. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells 66. Don Quixote by Cervantes 67. Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv 68. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 69. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe 70. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook 71. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe 72. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn  73. Eloise by Kay Thompson 74. Emily the Strange by Roger Reger 75. Emma by Jane Austen 76. Empire Falls by Richard Russo 77. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol 78. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton 79. Ethics by Spinoza 80. Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves

81. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende 82. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer 83. Extravagance by Gary Krist 84. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 85. Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore 86. The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan 87. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser 88. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson 89. The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien 90. Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein 91. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 92. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce 93. Fletch by Gregory McDonald 94. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 95. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem 96. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand 97. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 98. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger 99. Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers 100. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut 101. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler 102. George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg 103. Gidget by Fredrick Kohner 104. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen 105. The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels 106. The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo 107. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy  108. Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky  109. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell  110. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford 

111. The Gospel According to Judy Bloom 112. The Graduate by Charles Webb 113. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 114. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 115. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 116. The Group by Mary McCarthy 117. Hamlet by William Shakespeare 118. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling 119. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 120. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers    121. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 122. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry 123. Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare 124. Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare 125. Henry V by William Shakespeare 126. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby 127. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon 128. Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris 129. The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton 130. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III    131. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende 132. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer 133. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss  134. How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland  135. Howl by Allen Ginsberg  136. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo  137. The Iliad by Homer 138. I’m With the Band by Pamela des Barres  139. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote  140. Inferno by Dante 

141. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee 142. Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy 143. It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton 144. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 145. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan 146. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare 147. The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain 148. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair 149. Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito 150. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander 151. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain 152. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 153. Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence 154. The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal 155. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman 156. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield 157. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis 158. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke 159. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken  160. Life of Pi by Yann Martel 

161. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens 162. The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway 163. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen 164. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 165. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton 166. Lord of the Flies by William Golding 167. The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson 168. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 169. The Love Story by Erich Segal 170. Macbeth by William Shakespeare 171. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 172. The Manticore by Robertson Davies 173. Marathon Man by William Goldman 174. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 175. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir 176. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman 177. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris 178. The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer 179. Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken 180. The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare 181. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 182. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 183. The Miracle Worker by William Gibson 184. Moby Dick by Herman Melville 185. The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin  186. Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor  187. A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman  188. Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret  189. A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars 190. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway 

191. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf 192. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall 193. My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh 194. My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken 195. My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest 196. Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo 197. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult 198. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer 199. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco 200. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri 201. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin 202. Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen 203. New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson 204. The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay 205. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich 206. Night by Elie Wiesel 207. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 208. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan 209. Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell 210. Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski

211. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (will NEVER read again) 212. Old School by Tobias Wolff 213. On the Road by Jack Kerouac 214. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey 215. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 216. The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan 217. Oracle Night by Paul Auster 218. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood 219. Othello by Shakespeare 220. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 221. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan 222. Out of Africa by Isac Dineson 223. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton 224. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster 225. The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan 226. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 227. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious 228. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 229. Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington 230. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi 231. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain 232. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby 233. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker 234. The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche 235. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind 236. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 237. Property by Valerie Martin 238. Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon  239. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw  240. Quattrocento by James Mckean 

241. A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall 242. Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers 243. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe 244. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham 245. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi 246. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 247. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin 248. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant 249. Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman 250. The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien 251. R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton 252. Rita Hayworth by Stephen King 253. Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert 254. Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton 255. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 256. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 257. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster 258. Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin 259. The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition 260. Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi 261. Sanctuary by William Faulkner 262. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford 263. Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James 264. The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum 265. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne  266. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand  267. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir  268. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd  269. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman  270. Selected Hotels of Europe 

271. Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell 272. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 273. A Separate Peace by John Knowles 274. Several Biographies of Winston Churchill 275. Sexus by Henry Miller 276. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 277. Shane by Jack Shaefer 278. The Shining by Stephen King 279. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 280. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton 281. Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut 282. Small Island by Andrea Levy 283. Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway 284. Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers 285. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore 286. The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht 287. Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos 288. The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker 289. Songbook by Nick Hornby 290. The Sonnets by William Shakespeare 291. Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 292. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron  293. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner  294. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov 295. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach  296. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller  297. A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams  298. Stuart Little by E. B. White  299. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway  300. Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust 

301. Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett 302. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber 303. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 304. Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald 305. Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry 306. Time and Again by Jack Finney 307. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 308. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway 309. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 310. The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare    311. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 312. The Trial by Franz Kafka 313. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson 314. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett 315. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom 316. Ulysses by James Joyce 317. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath 318. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe 319. Unless by Carol Shields  320. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann 

321. The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers 322. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray 323. Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard 324. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides 325. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett 326. Walden by Henry David Thoreau 327. Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten 328. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 329. We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker 330. What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles 331. What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell 332. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka 333. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson 334. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee 335. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire 336. The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum 337. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 338. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 339. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

[arbitrarygreay]

This video is great! An interesting thing is, of course, in which cases the cover wins out against the original, or at least brings something meaningful to its own existence (i.e. offers new appeal points). 1. Carpenters: Justifies its existence. Heike gets MELODRAMATIC with the song. Not necessarily better, but you know how much Asians love to wail at karaoke. However, the Carpenters have a stronger command over the song (and I prefer it when a song feels noticeably effortless), so they win. 2. Sans Toi Ma Mie: Basically the same as above, Goto going really melo, full-on French Swooning. On the other hand, I heavily favor latin rhythms. The original clearly wins. 3. Kimi to Itsumademo: Basically a karaoke run. Doesn't do enough to justify its existence. 4. Kyokkori: Base melody is obnoxious. Next. 5. Koi no Vacance: Brings the surf rock, and W are charismatic enough for their performance to be interesting. But the Peanuts are THE FUCKING PEANUTS, and they are ROCKING the big band version featured here. 6. Namida no Taiyou: As much as I adore MKB, I find much of their output tacky, and this one is no exception. Very much the cringe of the late 90s/early 00s' excess. MKB's arrangement tramples over the melody's strengths. 7. Wataresbashi: Ballads are ballads, and Ayaya is motherfucking Ayaya. Tie. 8. Koi no Fuuga: Again, W are respectably charismatic. Their James Bond-esque arrangement does end up doing more to enhance the melody. Our first win for the covers! This is the case where the original is a little bit too...how do I put this, obvious? Childish? Like the way Heavy Rotation's melody is too obvious. Anyways, what that means is that the vocals can't really do much with it, which means that W's more interesting arrangement therefore makes the difference. 9. The Stress: I LOVE THIS COVER. IT FUCKS. IT FUCKS HARD. Ueno Keiichi is going buck-wild with his arrangement, and therefore actually introduces a new and different groove, compared to the original's admittedly compelling 80s drums. 10. Too Far Away: Ballads are ballads. Whatever. 11. Dschinghis Khan: Like a good portion of Berryz's output is in a really eardrum-splitting pitch range. Ich. And I'm really baffled as to why they even picked this particular song to cover. 12. Pepper Keibu: I like this! Brings the disco, lets Platinum play it cool. But Pink Lady has way more personality in theirs, hands down. 13. Shochuu Omimai Moshiagemasu: Synths are too screechy, it's trying too hard to modernize. The SweetS cover is more fun. Ironically, H!P has plenty of excellent album tracks that better capture the appeal of the original, in basically anything arranged by Takahashi Yuichi (my first thought was Lemon Iro to Milk Tea). 14. Mahoutsukai Sally: Original's honky-tonk arrangement over obnoxious screechy synths any day. 15. Koike-san: Don't even get me started. Now, Tsunku's own Koike-san re-release, with both a DANCE*MAN disco version and Matsubara Ken "Sexy Funk" version, that's how you make covers that can stand up to the original. Kobushi ain't even competing. 16. Sakura Night Fever: Okay, I'm fucking easy. Look, DANCE*MAN is just very good at what he does! And whereas with Koike-san, they needed to achieve a certain attitude and failed to, Sakura Night Fever is a godly enough melody that simply being cute girls singing this earnestly makes it fresh again vs. the original. 17. Ranrarun: Country Girls My Beloved. The original is what CG ended up doing with PBJ Love, a song of long notes to depict longing, while the twanging guitar is doing delightful gliss'd chords in the back. Maybe my CG-bias goggles are just that tight, but I don't mind this cover, though. By going about 200% cutesier in this version (and also making the arrangement a little more Phil Spector-ish, castanets and all), there's actually rhythm introduced to the cover that has its own charms. Ironically, there's zero country DNA in the CG version, but that creates enough distance from the original. 18. Ora wa Ninkimono: going full ska works with how hard Kobushi go on this. Kobushi are hitting every beat, where the original is doing a swing between every ever other beat (a la Pepper Keibu). Turns out that doing a subtly different rock genre is often all it takes to make a cover work! 19. Namida no Request. CG make a good showing, but the original has too much personality and swagger. In this case, having harder attacks on the shorter syllables works against them. I'm going to blame the cover's arrangement here for not doing more interesting things. 20. Majokko no Megu-chan: Angerme pull off at least a tie by doing their best CG. Emphasizing the piano in the arrangement was an inspired choice, really gives the cover its own identity and an enunciation style for the vocals to aim for (where the original had strings instead, to go with the vocals singer longer notes). 21. Go West: I can't even make a proper evaluation, because the Beyooooonds meme game is too strong. Go Waist cannot be considered as a song alone, the visuals and memes (which literally stops the song at one point) are a core part of it. In that sense, they live up to what The Village People were going for, as well (i.e. spark joy). The original certainly has better vocals, though. 22. Pop Music: Juice=Juice take their turn making a cover worth it just by cramming in the memes. There's undeniable joy in watching the girls get more and more ridiculous with their vocal wailing at the end of each line, against the most mundane lyrics, culminating in Sayuki's hysterical "CHURU CHURU PUNYU TAPIOCA MILK(miracle) TEEEEEEEAAAAAAAA". 23: Gekikara Love: What! Beyooonds coulda had a Halloween song!? WE WERE ROBBED. And also, it already doesn't win against MM's Morning Curry, as far as crowd-pleasing meme songs about spiciness go. 24: Down Town: So yes, I bitched about this song months ago, but while I personally find the original undoubtedly superior, the cover nonetheless justifies its existence through a successful genre change. It's a cover that can hold its own against some of the non-covers in the H!P catalogue, even if it can't beat the original. The trend for all of the lesser versions is that the cover, by dint of their heavily synthesized arrangements, squeeze all of the groove out of the song. There's no more empty space for the artists to put their stamp on the interpretation. The rhythm is programmed within an inch of its life, where in the originals you can hear the singers really curving around the syllables, the aural equivalent of animation's squash-and-stretch. That's why some of the older H!P covers still work, because GOING MELODRAMATIC is a way to reclaim some vocal interpretation. Which fits H!P's original "rock band audition" roots. Anyways, the moral of the story is that I really really fucking love Nacchi's The Stress. And there are surprising number of western songs hidden in H!P's catalogue! And as always, the most important aspect of idol music is who does the arrangement.

[josiebelladonna]

a guide to joey belladonna—was a guide to anthrax, but i decided to change it to joey because he’s been getting a lot of love lately (!!!!!!!) and so i figured to lift the lid on our beloved injun~

a follow up to my guide to testament

joseph anthony bellardini, born october 13, 1960 in oswego, new york, right on the shores of lake ontario, about an hour outside of syracuse.

half iroquois indian (although this is questionable because the iroquois consist of several tribes in upstate new york) and half italian, thick jet black curls piled high upon his head—i like to think of it as a crown. big soft brown eyes and dark skin courtesy of the new york sun. of everyone in anthrax, he’s the one who still looks exactly the same after all these years because he got married later in life and never had kids. 

got that “hey how ya doin’ ya basterds” upstate accent big time. notorious owner of the “injun” hat (coincidentally, chuck billy had a similar hat that said “dude” on the inside) as well as that big headdress that went all the way down his back to the floor during anthrax’s performances of their song indians.

there’s an interview of him floating around on here where he says he was “sassy” as a kid (i even made a joke about this in now it’s dark!) and he played a lot of hockey, and one of his prized possessions was a hockey mask. started out singing along to the beatles and led zeppelin, but picked up drums along the way. before anthrax, he either drummed or sang in bands all over upstate: he says prior to then, he’d never heard of anthrax or the type of metal they play. notoriously fired in the spring of 1992, and was almost replaced with mark osegueda of death angel but they landed with mr. bush all the way to 2004. meanwhile, he kept going solo with what he had while trying not to literally kill himself. his albums are belladonna (released in 1995), spells of fear (1998), belladonna ‘03 (2003—self-released, too), and relics 1 and 2 (both in 2004, i think it was?), and deadly nightshade (2010, although i can tell right away that most of those songs were early recordings given the still high pitch to his voice: his tone has gotten lower and fuller with age). returned in 2005 (there was something in the air that year, speaking as someone who became an adolescent then) for the reunion but you could cut the tension with a knife. sources back then say he left but if you ask him about it, he says he just went back home after the tour and then a friend of his called him and told him they got a new singer. came back for good in 2010, and in his spare time has his cover band chief big way: they do covers of 70s and 80s songs, and joey does the whole phil collins thing, singing and drumming at the same time; he also has another cover band which do strictly journey songs, called journey beyond. and a few years ago, in an interview he said he has some new solo songs in the wings. close friends with ronnie james dio and the guys from rainbow and elf: his band before anthrax, bible black, consisted of two guys from rainbow: ronnie also hailed from cortland, about 90 minutes away from oswego. after ronnie died back in 2010, he sang “man on the silver mountain” in his honor at his tribute show. he sang it again at another tribute show in 2012: this performance was undoubtedly more emotional than the initial one.

another sweetheart and another guy who’s real close to his fans. really, take this from me: much like alex skolnick, one of the most humble and well-spoken people you’ll ever speak to, and a big softie (alex is a softie, too, but he doesn’t show it much with that stern demeanor of his; whereas joey is the opposite).

back when the pandemic first started, and right on my 27th birthday, he talked about me and my art on jamey jasta’s podcast (you might have to download that episode to listen to it, but he had this tone to his voice like he was just so touched by it) and then literally the next day, his wife krista went through my instagram and liked a bunch of my drawings. i still get giddy thinking about it! if joey likes you, he’ll show it to you... and he’ll surprise you, too.