#Barn Festival 2022

[mrs-stans]

Miami Film Fest: Sebastian Stan Set for Precious Gem Award and Live ‘Awards Chatter’ Pod

The Emmy nominee and Marvel alum is being celebrated for his portrayal of a young Donald Trump in 'The Apprentice' and a man with neurofibromatosis who undergoes facial reconstructive surgery in 'A Different Man.'

BY SCOTT FEINBERG

Sebastian Stan, a best actor contender this awards season for two performances that have brought him widespread acclaim — he plays a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice and a man with neurofibromatosis who undergoes facial reconstructive surgery in A Different Man — will receive the Precious Gem Award at the Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival GEMS event, the fest announced on Monday.

Stan, 42, will be celebrated at an event that will kick off on Sunday, Nov. 3, at 5pm EST, at MDC Wolfson Auditorium in downtown Miami. To begin with, he will sit down with yours truly for a career-retrospective conversation that will be recorded for subsequent posting as an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast. Then, the fest will present him with his award.

The Precious Gem Award is the festival’s signature award, reserved for “one-of-a-kind artists whose contributions to cinema are lasting and unforgettable.” Past recipients include Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz, Isabelle Huppert, Rita Moreno, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Patricia Clarkson.

“We are thrilled to honor Sebastian Stan with our prestigious Precious Gem Award to celebrate his impressive acting achievements, including his transformative performances in this year’s The Apprentice and A Different Man,” Lauren Cohen, the fest’s programming director, said in a statement. “We’re also excited to partner with The Hollywood Reporter to bring Scott Feinberg and the celebrated Awards Chatter podcast to Miami.”

Stan is perhaps best known for playing Bucky Barnes in seven beloved Marvel films: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Ant-Man (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019). He has also done additional standout work in films such as I, Tonya (2017), Destroyer (2018) and Dumb Money (2023), and received a Critics Choice Award nomination for the limited series Political Animals (2012) and an Emmy nomination for the limited series Pam & Tommy (2022).

For A Different Man, which he also exexcutive produced, he was awarded the Silver Bear for best leading performance at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.

This year’s Miami Film Festival GEMS event will run Oct. 30-Nov. 3.

[siancore]

hi!

i was wondering if you could recommend your fav sambucky fics you’ve written?

hope you’re well x

Hey there. Of course. I've loved everything I've written for them, but these ones are close to my heart for different reasons. A couple are current works in progress, the rest are complete. There's a bit of everything here. Thanks for asking!

First Time

Untitled

War Stories - 12/13 - M

A/N: This story begins with Sam and Bucky meeting again in Wakanda circa Infinity War right up to where we see them in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Stemming from my headcanon that Sam and Bucky had something going on between them before FATWS which is why there is tension between them in the show.

Summary: Sam stole another glance at Bucky as he used the bottom of his shirt to wipe sweat from his brow. Sam’s gaze fell on his toned, muscular body before he felt his own skin flush warm. He swallowed hard and reminded himself that he was there to help and time of was of the essence, not to ogle Steve’s old ass friend.

Bucky noticed Sam right away as the vehicles arrived. He wasn’t surprised that Steve’s friend would be out helping. He seemed like the type of man that would. He was a lot like their mutual friend in that way. He intrigued Bucky, just from the few but interesting interactions that had had. If Steve liked he guy and trusted him, Bucky could, too.

Ashes & Dreams - 5/6 - M

A/N: SamBucky time travel AU

Summary: It was a bad idea. Sam knew as much. His mission directive was clear: Travel back in time, go to the Stark Expo, and retrieve the stolen Wakandan artefact as a promise of goodwill and a way to make amends with a valued ally. He had finished the first half of his mission and secured the artefact, but he had not activated the Temporal Shift Device to return him to his own time. Curiosity had gotten the better of Sam. Curiosity and a yearning deep inside. He knew that there was a chance that he would see this other Bucky. He knew that if he set the Device to pick-up Bucky’s corporeal frequency, he would find him in the sea of people. The fact of the matter was, Sam missed Bucky. He missed his Bucky.

Feels Like Home - G

A/N: Written for SamBucky Summer Bingo. Square Fill: Coming Out

Summary: It was funny how belonging, and home was not necessarily linked to a place, but a person. As if home was linked more to the family you had instead of a house you all resided in. Bucky had not had a home in so long – in a whole lifetime, actually, but he wanted that. He yearned for it. Dreamed of it. So, he had packed up his belongings to leave the city that used to be his home so that he could be with his new family. He was ready to take that leap, to put one foot in front of the other on that journey, but there was one more thing he needed to do.

Fuck Valentine's Day - M

A/N: For @sambuckylibrary's SamBucky Valentine's Day Bingo

Summary: Sam and Bucky have an annual Anti-Valentine’s Day Movie Night where they eat junk food and watch crappy movies because Valentine’s Day is for suckers and schmucks and best spent with your friend doing the least-romantic shit possible. Too bad they’re both in love with one another...

Fireplace - T

A/N: Written for the @sambuckylibrary SamBucky Festive Season Bingo 2022

Summary: Sam Wilson is on a mission to find Bucky Barnes AKA The Winter Soldier. But it's cold and he is second guessing his own choices.

Afraid - E

Summary: Sam is so good for him, all breathless and beautiful. Sam is too good for him. He doesn’t want to hurt Sam. He doesn’t want to. But he might. He just might. If he keeps this up. If he keeps on giving Sam what he is begging for. What he wants. He might go too far. He might grasp onto Sam too tightly. Crushingly. He might not be able to let go. How can he? How can he relinquish this gift that Sam is giving him? How can he surrender? How?

Not Afraid - E

Summary: An intensity flames behind Bucky’s eyes and Sam knows he is holding back. That he is handling Sam with care. That his deft strokes, though sinking himself deeper, are measured. Careful. His blunt head strikes against Sam’s spot. Makes Sam’s limbs feel weightless. His weight, pressing against Sam. His hand, clenching tightly. Sam secretly wishes that Bucky will leave a mark, with teeth or nails or something else. A swift blow from his palm; a squeezing hand at his throat.

Strictly Professional - 4/4 - E

A/N: Wrote this because I need SamBucky porn stars in my life. Heads up, there's a Stucky sex scene, but it's professional and they're just pals - no romantic feelings etc. etc.

Summary: Bucky Barnes is an adult film star. He has booked a job with his sometime-scene partner, Steve Rogers’ friend as a favour to Steve. He checks out some of Sam Wilson’s work and finds himself attracted to the other man. Will he be able to keep it strictly professional when they begin to film together?

The Boys of Summer - 23/23 - M

Summary: Sam Wilson returns home to the small town he grew up in to complete his med school residency. He hasn’t been back for an extended amount of time since he left for college. While he only consistently kept in touch with childhood friend, Steve Rogers, he was keen to see the people he had grown up with. With the exception of Bucky Barnes. They had a falling out the summer before Sam left for college. What happened between them? Can they move past it now that they’re adults?

Deception - 22/22 - E

A/N: SamBucky DarkFic

Summary: That’s when he saw him, standing by the fucking ice sculpture: The most beautiful man he had ever laid eyes on.

Kisses Like Balm - T

Summary: Sam has a cold and Bucky takes care of him.

Happy SamBucky Reading!

[scotianostra]

Anthony Robert McMillan was born on March 30th, 1950 in Rutherglen, we knew him better as Robbie Coltrane.

Robbie was educated at Glenalmond College, an independent school in Perthshire, from which he was nearly expelled after hanging the prefects' gowns from the school clocktower. Though he later described his experiences there as deeply unhappy, he played for the rugby First XV, was head of the school's debating society and won prizes for his art.

From Glenalmond, Coltrane went on to Glasgow School of Art, where he was ridiculed for "having an accent like Prince Charles" (of which he quickly disposed, though not before gaining the nickname "Lord Fauntleroy"), and thereafter the Moray House College of Education (part of the University of Edinburgh) in Edinburgh.

In the early 70's Robbie took the name Coltrane, due to his love of jazz musician John Coltrane, and began a career of a stand-up comedian at night clubs, at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as an actor with Edinburgh's renowned Traverse Theatre.

After picking up a few bit parts in films and TV series I first remember Robbie appearing in the BBC Scotland comedy sketch series A kick up the Eighties, he went on from there to appear in The Comic Strip Presents films during the 80's The Supergrass and The Pope must die being the most successful. At that time Coltrane had a drinking problem, downing as much as a bottle of whisky a day. In 1986 he flew to a clinic in Mexico and was treated for obesity. In 1987 his partner for 15 years, Robin Paine, left him for good. A year later he met Rhona Gemmell in a pub. They married and had a son, Spencer, and a daughter, Alice. His career took off during the early 1990s with the leading role as Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, a forensic psychologist, in the popular TV series Cracker.

Coltrane is one of only a few to have played "baddies" in 2 Bond films, playing Russian mafia man Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough. He went on to play Rubeus Hagrid in seven Harry Potter films.

Robbie has also featured in factual TV series, Coltrane's Planes and Automobiles, as well as a host of other TV series, none of which, surprisingly are Taggart! He was voted No. 11 in ITV's TV's 50 Greatest Stars and sixth in a poll of 2000 adults across the UK to find the 'most famous Scot', behind the Loch Ness Monster, Robert Burns, Sean Connery, Robert the Bruce and William Wallace.

Robbie passed away on October 14th 2022, he had become a virtual recluse, living a a rented converted barn near Stirling, living off takeaways from a local Chinese. Coltrane was cremated and his family spread his ashes around several of his favourite places around Manhattan, New York.

His death certificate shows that the actor died from a string of conditions including multiple organ failure, the causes of death given were sepsis, where an infection triggers an extreme reaction throughout the body, lower respiratory tract infection and heart block.

I always loved Robbie, from his early days right through his career, it's sad when the people you grew up laughing at and enjoyed in folms and TV pass away.............Rest in Peace big man.

[mybleedingboy]

free recordings of shakespeare plays

in alphabetical order for convenience (but pls use CTRL+F) disclaimer: i have not watched all of these.

all's well that ends well to julius caesar (part 1, here)

king john to the winter's tale (part 2, coming tomorrow maybe idk)

*login with public library card or university, italicized are audio recordings, ! means I don't want the video to get taken down so I didn't add it but search it up and you'll find a good production on a specific website...

All's Well That Ends Well

Shakespeare by the Sea (2013)

UC Davis Playing Shakespeare (2010)

BBC Television Shakespeare* or (1981)

Plainfield Little Theatre (2016)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Antony and Cleopatra !

Royal Shakespeare Company (1974)

Unbound Theatre (2019)

Shakespeare & Company (2018)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Greatest Audio Books (2013)

As You Like It

movie adapted by JM Barrie and Robert Cullen (1936)

The Public Theater of MN (2013)

Rice University (2019)

Oxford Theatre Guild (2020)

Shakespeare & Company (2014)

Battle Ground High School Drama Club (2017)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Greatest Audio Books (2015)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1978)

Comedy of Errors

Steam-Punk Performance (2014)

Shakespeare by the Sea (2019)

Shakespeare in the Park NZ (2007)

Coronado Playhouse (2021)

Highland Arts Theatre (2021)

Theatre Company of Saugus, pt. 2 (2023)

Shakespeare Network (2020)

Greatest Audio Books (2013)

BBC Movie* (1984)

Coriolanus !

Brussels Shakespeare Society (2017)

Movie (1964)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Cymbeline

Shakespeare by the Sea (2016)

Shakespeare & Company (2012)

Movie* (1984)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Hamlet ! (hint: Moriarty)

adapted and dir. Laurence Olivier (1948)

Abrahamse & Meyer Production (2015)

Bob Jones University (2020)

Broadway Production (1964)

starr. Maxine Peake (2015)

BLC Theatre (2013)

Hamlet as a Rock Opera (2007)

Radio Drama (2018?)

Studio Album star. 1964 Broadway cast (1964)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1980)

Royal Shakespeare Company* (2013)

Wooster Group Re-making* (?) (2012)

Henry IV, Part I

English Shakespeare Company (1990)

Brussels Shakespeare Society (adapted I and II, 2017)

TVO (1990)

Shakespeare & Company (2017)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1950)

Oakshot Press (2017)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

H4* (Henry IV parts I and II in futuristic Los Angeles, 2012)

Henry IV, Part II

English Shakespeare Company (1990)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Oakshot Press (2017)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

Henry V

Laurence Olivier (1944)

English Shakespeare Company (1990)

Barn Theatre (2020?)

St. Louis Shakespeare,pt. 2 (2011)

ASC Theatre Company (2022)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

AudioBookBuzz (2018)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1979)

Henry VI, Part I

Royal Shakespeare Company (parts I, II, and III, 1956)

English Shakespeare Company (1990)

Shakespeare by the Sea (2021)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

Henry VI, Part II

English Shakespeare Company (1990)

ASC Theatre Camp (2020)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1954)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

Henry VI, Part III

English Shakespeare Company (1990?)

Whitman College (1992)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1955)

(BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

Henry VIII

Shakespeare Happy Hours (online, 2020)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1957)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

Julius Caesar !

starr. Gielgud, dir. Stuart Burge (1970)

Festival Series (1960)

Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival (2016)

Shakespeare at Winedale (2018)

Acting for a Cause (2022)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Greatest AudioBooks (2013)

dir. Gregory Doran* (2012)

[gracevandienupdates]

Upcoming Projects

- The Fix (Sci-fi) as Ella Streaming SOON! - Somnium (previously titled Alaska | Sci-fi Thriller) as Dakota Upcoming Festivals in October - Silver Star (Crime Drama) as Franny Coming to the Denver Film Festival in November - Aaah! Roach! (Sci-fi | Post-production) as Bree Johnson - Killing of a Nation (True Crime Thriller | Post-production) - Redux Redux (Horror Thriller | Post-production) - Strobe (Thriller | Post-production) - Video Barn (Short Film | Post-production) - The Swallow (Horror | Pre-production) as Ziggy - Janus (Horror | Pre-production) as Janus - The December Cross (Drama | Pre-production) - Unmuted | Docuseries (In Development)

Upcoming Conventions & Events

- Fan Expo San Francisco (Nov 29-Dec 1) | Tickets

Notable Previous Projects (and where to watch!)

- Greenhouse Academy (TV | Drama | 24 episodes | 2017-2018) as Brooke available on Netflix - Charlie Says (Film | Crime Drama | 2018) as Sharon Tate available on Google Play, Amazon and Vudo - The Village (TV | Drama | 10 episodes | 2019) as Katie Campbell available on Prime Video - Lady Driver (Film | Sports Drama | 2020) as Ellie Lansing available on Netflix - The Binge (Film | Comedy | 2020) as Lena available on Hulu - Monsters and Muses (Short | Thriller | 2020) as Persephone Grace also directed this short and can be watched here - V for Vengeance (Film | Action Horror | 2022) as Scarlett available on Paramount+, Prime Video, Vudu - Stranger Things (TV | Sci-fi Drama | 2022) as Chrissy Cunningham available on Netflix - What Comes Around (Film | Drama Thriller | 2022) as Anna available on AMC+ and Hulu

Social Media

Twitter

Instagram

Letterboxd

Twitch/Bluefille

[inkvoices]

2024 Fic Year in Review

Please feel free to play! I love to see what other people have written, and often spot fic I’d love to read that I missed 💜

So, every year I aim to publish more words on AO3 than the year before, just as a nudge to get fics finished. (The great thing about a low word count year is that publishing more the following year is easier, ha.) This year I published 16,991 words, which was less than last year but more than in 2022 and I'm pleased with that 😊

In January, I finally finished a festive fic for @cloud--atlas that I'd started the Christmas before: Retail, Love, and Other Festive Poems It was fun to write another prose-poetry fic.

In July I wrote infinity in the palm of your hand in response to the be_compromised 'one prompt challenge' as a warm up for promptathon, and managed to complete two fics for promptathon itself: Progress and After The Threesome.

I then finished off the year by writing over 8k for the second year running in the be_compromised Secret Santa 2024 exchange with Ain't A Saint!

To the surprise of no one, three fics were Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff and two were Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff/James Barnes, and all AUs.

Behind the scenes, I also chipped away at four WIPs (as opposed to just adding notes or staring at them in hope) and, of course, scribbled a bunch of ideas for promptathon fills that I'll probably never write 😂

[marveltrumpshate]

November 2023 MTH fills

Are you in the festive holiday mood? See all the fills that people gifted in November below!

The best way to see all the fills that have been shared with us is our monthly roundups tag or our #MTH-fills channel on our Discord, but you can also view them through the following methods:

Our Tumblr tags: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

Our AO3 collections: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 (only has works posted to AO3)

Completed works tag list

To find specific content, use our completed works tag lists above which includes instructions on how to search for a particular character, gen or romantic relationship, universe, and fanwork type. 

SOLO CHARACTERS

BUCKY BARNES

Ginger/@your-ginger-angel - Cross-stitch piece of Bucky holding flowers based on art by eklixio for epicstuckyficrecs (MTH 2022)

LOKI

Eustacia Vye/@eustaciavye28 - "Glorious Purpose" (post-Loki S2 finale fic where Loki visits the people he cares about) for moonyroony

KAMALA KHAN

Jason K Jones/@jkjones21 - Art of 616 Kamala in her X-Men uniform running and raising her embiggened fist for illogicalkat

Jason K Jones/jkjones21 - Art of 616 Kamala chilling out reading fic for psychiccatpanda

MIGUEL O'HARA

@caiabresebun - Art of shirtless Miguel toweling his hair after showering for nostalgicatsea

SAM WILSON

@ghostcwtch - Handmade ceramic mug featuring Sam's Falcon symbol for bulkyphrase

STEVE ROGERS

ghostcwtch - Handmade ceramic mug featuring the Captain America shield for bulkyphrase

RoseRose/tehroserose - "Wherever Flames May Rage" (an AU sonnet about firefighter Steve) for starksnack

TONY STARK

@deehellcat - Fingerless knitted Iron Man gauntlet gloves for hannahshattuck

RoseRose/tehroserose - "Interrobang" (a sestina about Tony finding joy in discovery) for @kerravonsen

VENOM

deehellcat - Tiny crocheted Venom dragon for Turbulent Muse

GEN/PLATONIC RELATIONSHIPS

AVENGERS TEAM & TONY STARK

@queenofalotofdifferentworlds - "The Customer" (bakery AU fic where Steve and his team run a bakery and meet Tony) for sofreakinmanyfandoms

BRETT MAHONEY & MATT MURDOCK

@not-madder-red - "Saved" (canon-divergent MCU Brett & Matt fic where Brett is the officer who came to the scene in Daredevil S1E8) for kimmycup

PETER PARKER & FLASH THOMPSON

seekrest/@seek--rest

- "on little light" (Devil Wears Prada-inspired secret identity AU fic where Peter works as Tony's assistant at SI) for LoveReading84

PETER PARKER & TONY STARK

Khalixa/@khalixascorner

- "Made From Love" (fluffy AU fic where alpha Tony is a single dad to omega Peter) for muscatlove (MTH 2022)

seekrest/seek--rest - "on little light" (Devil Wears Prada-inspired secret identity AU fic where Peter works as Tony's assistant at SI) for LoveReading84

SHIPS

BRUCE BANNER/THOR

@cthooliac - Matching chibi MCU Bruce/Thor charms for @blueeyesblazing (MTH 2022)

BUCKY BARNES/CLINT BARTON

cassandrasfischer - "Espresso" (MCU Bucky/Clint fic where Clint tries to figure out what kind of coffee Bucky likes) for effervescentaardvark (MTH 2022)

BUCKY BARNES/NATASHA ROMANOV

@spinachgarden - "no grave can hold my body down (i'll crawl home to her)" (canon-divergent post-Blip MCU Bucky/Nat fic) for call-me-kayyyyy (MTH 2022)

BUCKY BARNES/SAM WILSON

@sumbacky - Art of Sam and Bucky on holiday together for yavannie (MTH 2022)

BUCKY BARNES/STEVE ROGERS

@cutecumber-flower - Art of Steve and Bucky visiting a war friend's grave for randomosityb (MTH 2021)

BUCKY BARNES/STEVE ROGERS/NATASHA ROMANOV

@cristinuke - "l'enfer fini" (Bucky/Steve/Nat MCU A/B/O fuck or die fic) for zepysgirl (MTH 2021)

BUCKY BARNES/STEVE ROGERS/TONY STARK

Dodo/@dodomedic - "The affairs of Tsums and Dragons" (Steve/Bucky/Tony dragon A/B/O tsums AU fic) for aquatigermice

BUCKY BARNES/TONY STARK

@kandisheek - Bucky/Tony package including lavender-scented pillows, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, magnets, and Avengers stickers for ruquas (extra photo)

ERIK LEHNSHERR/CHARLES XAVIER

flightinflame - "What Makes You Stronger" (post-X-Men: First Class Charles/Erik soulmates fic) for redgauntletblueshield (MTH 2022)

JAMES "RHODEY" RHODES/TONY STARK

holistic_alcoholic/@holistic-alcoholic - "The Power Throuple of the Century" (MCU Rhodey/Tony fic where everyone thinks Rhodey, Tony, and Iron Man are a throuple due to Tony's secret identity) for sofreakinmanyfandoms

LOKI/MOBIUS

WinterRaven/@ravensonata - "Alchemy of Love, Illusion, and Fire" (shapeshifting dragon!Loki/knight!Mobius AU fic) for mirilya (MTH 2022)

LOKI/TONY STARK

SpaceCrazyArtist and @arabesqueangel - "Centuries Old and Unbending" (Loki/Tony arranged royal marriage AU fic which SpaceCrazyArtist is illustrating) for Xavier845 (MTH 2021)

NED LEEDS/PETER PARKER

happyaspie/@yes-i-am-happyaspie - "Catalyst" (MCU Ned/Peter fic where they get together—awkwardly—with a little push from MJ) for Lady Gigi

PETER PARKER/MARY JANE WATSON

seekrest/seek--rest - "everywhere, everything" (Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5) Peter/MJ hopeful epilogue fic where Peter takes a break while dealing with his guilt) for metaderivative (MTH 2022)

PETER PARKER/TONY STARK

khalixa/khalixascorner - "Like Father Like Son" (dark Peter/Tony AU fic where Loki messes with them with a fake paternity scare) for guardianofthepeanutwrites (MTH 2022)

stillheremydear - "The Best Kept Secret" (canon-divergent Peter/Tony secret identity AU fic) for muscatlove (MTH 2022)

STEVE ROGERS/SAM WILSON

ghostcwtch - Handmade ceramic mugs featuring the Captain America shield and Falcon symbol for bulkyphrase

STEVE ROGERS/TONY STARK

queenofalotofdifferentworlds - "The Customer" (Steve/Tony bakery AU fic where Steve and his team run a bakery and meet Tony) for sofreakinmanyfandoms - "Captain Obvious and Oblivious Man" (post-Avengers Steve/Tony fic where Tony gets kidnapped) for starksnack - "Nowhere Else To Go" (Steve/Tony AU fic where warlord Steve offers himself to king Tony to save his people) for oper1895

RoseRose/tehroserose - "Pride Blinds" (2012 MCU Steve/Tony enemies-to-lovers sonnet) for starksnack

[allnightlongzine]

The Eternal March of the Black Parade

Twenty years after their debut album and more than a decade after the critics dismissed them, My Chemical Romance stands as one of the greatest rock bands of the 21st century. How did we end up here?

Rob Harvilla | Jul 26, 2022 | theringer.com

Illustration by Brent Schoonover

My Chemical Romance is touring again, Paramore and Jimmy Eat World are headlining a major festival this fall, and there’s a skinny, tattooed white dude with a guitar dominating the charts. In case you haven’t heard, emo is back, baby! In honor of its return to prominence—plus the 20th anniversary of the first MCR album—The Ringer is following Emo Wendy’s lead and tapping into that nostalgia. Welcome to Emo Week, where we’ll explore the scene’s roots, its evolution to the modern-day Fifth Wave, and some of the ephemera around the genre. Grab your Telecasters and Manic Panic and join us in the Black Parade.

Our story starts in New York City on September 11, 2001. It just does. Suspend your disbelief; respect his audacity. But is it really so hard to believe, and is it really so audacious, that Gerard Way—then a 24-year-old New Jersey native, NYC art school graduate, and creatively stifled Cartoon Network intern—would choose that awful, vulnerable, crushingly human moment to reimagine himself as something immortal, someone superheroic? “That felt like the end of the world,” he told Newsweek in 2019. “It felt like the apocalypse. I was surrounded by hundreds of people on a dock on the Hudson River, and we watched the buildings go down, and there was this wave of human anguish that I’ve never felt before. Since then, I’ve continued to think about what we would do at the end of the world if we knew we only had a little time left.”

Standing on that dock, what Gerard decided he would do was channel his shock and grief and newfound sense of immediacy into the ultimate rock-star origin story. “Something just clicked in my head that morning,” he told Spin magazine in 2005. “I literally said to myself, ‘Fuck art. I’ve gotta get out of the basement. I’ve gotta see the world. I’ve gotta make a difference!’” So he hooked up with a drummer friend from high school named Matt Pelissier (the first of several drummers, alas) and wrote an anguished, furious, and yet startlingly tender pop-punk song called “Skylines and Turnstiles.” It starts like this.

You’re not in this alone Let me break this awkward silence Let me go, go on record Be the first to say I’m sorry Hear me out

Gerard sang and played guitar, though he struggled to do both at once. (It’s harder than it looks.) Slowly, he found other bandmates: Ray Toro and Frank Iero on guitars, plus his own younger brother Mikey Way on bass. Thanks to his gig working at Barnes & Noble, Mikey also contributed a band name: My Chemical Romance, an improvement on the title of an Irvine Welsh book. The band signed with a tiny label called Eyeball Records and released, on July 23, 2002, their debut album, called I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, produced by New Jersey punk deity and Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly, who’d already mastered the dark art of combining the rawest possible materials into something impossibly gargantuan.

This broken city sky Like butane on my skin Stolen from my eyes Hello angel, tell me Where are you? Tell me where we go from here

“Skylines and Turnstiles” is not, by a long shot, the highlight of MCR’s least-great album. The raw materials are there, of course: the scabrous and shimmering guitars, the breathless downhill-sprint propulsion, the throat-shredding screams to bolster the chorus and punctuate Gerard’s unguarded and brutal horror-flick lyricism. But your first song is never your best. Here, the one called “Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us” is better. And the one called “Vampires Will Never Hurt You,” and the one called “Demolition Lovers,” and the one called “Drowning Lessons,” and even the one called “Cubicles.” But as an opening salvo, as the gritty first panel in a dense and ludicrously ambitious comic-book-punk saga, as an achingly sincere attempt to break the awkward silence and roll back the wave of human anguish, as a macabre but heartfelt attempt at genuine connection, Gerard Way’s first song got him where he needed to go, which was firmly on the road to leading everyone where they needed to go.

And after seeing what we saw Can we still reclaim our innocence? And if the world needs something better Let’s give them one more reason, now

It’s the rousing, heartbreaking vocal harmony on the words the world needs something better that shows you what Gerard and his vampiric cohort is really about. Look beyond the eyeliner, the hair dye, the ghostly pallor, the extra-macabre marching band outfits, the wholesale mall-goth hijacking of this band’s whole look, its whole ethos. Don’t flinch at the lyrics no matter how gnarly and nihilistic they seem to get; don’t get too wrapped up in the surreal sensationalism of their flames-and-chaos music videos. Buy the album tie-in comic book or don’t. Just never forget that the closer we get to the end of the world, the tighter Gerard Way means to hold us, to make however much time we have left just that much more bearable.

I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love just celebrated its 20th birthday, and inspired some very excellent anniversary pieces despite being, well, MCR’s least-great album. Their next record was a gleaming and snarling major-label-debut colossus that crowned the fellas as Warped Tour royalty; the record after that was a hilariously overblown rock-opera funeral march and consensus masterpiece that now stands among the greatest emo albums ever born, any era, any wave; the record after that is my personal favorite. Then MCR broke up in 2013, to appropriately operatic dismay, going out as close to On Top as a youngish rock band possibly can.

There was no explicit tabloid-roiling catalyst, no real drama, except no drama is not exactly this band’s vibe. Gerard’s farewell letter, posted to Twitter three days after the news broke and titled A Vigil, On Birds and Glass, is my personal favorite Rock Band Breakup Explanation Letter, any subgenre, any era, precisely because it captures this band’s precise and fantastic combination of galactically overwrought and unabashedly intimate.

We were spectacular. Every show I knew this, every show I felt it with or without external confirmation. There were some clunkers, sometimes our secondhand gear broke, sometimes I had no voice- we were still great. It is this belief that made us who we were, but also many other things, all of them vital- And all of the things that made us great were the very things that were going to end us- Fiction. Friction. Creation. Destruction. Opposition. Aggression. Ambition. Heart. Hate. Courage. Spite. Beauty. Desperation. LOVE. Fear. Glamour. Weakness. Hope. Fatalism.

And then he expands on the fatalism part as a way of explaining why, exactly, this band broke up after only 11 years and four albums.

That last one is very important. My Chemical Romance had, built within its core, a fail-safe. A doomsday device, should certain events occur or cease occurring, would detonate. I shared knowledge of this “flaw” within weeks of its inception. Personally, I embraced it because, again, it made us perfect. A perfect machine, beautiful, yet self aware of its system. Under directive to terminate before it becomes compromised. To protect the idea- at all costs. This probably sounds like something ripped from the pages of a four-color comic book, and that’s the point. No compromise. No surrender. No fucking shit. To me that’s rock and roll. And I believe in rock and roll.

He goes on at great length. It’s wild, it’s lovely, it’s absurd, it’s genuinely moving. The fellas found stuff to keep them busy post-breakup, and Gerard most prominently, of course: the solo album, the ongoing and relentlessly off-kilter Netflix series based on his comic book. And then, inevitably, MCR reunited—tentatively in late 2019, and full-throatedly here in 2022, headlining giant festivals and packing arenas as what certainly feels like the first rock-band reunion that anybody’s actually given a shit about in years. Put it this way: If you are a remotely young person who, like Way himself, still believes in rock and roll, My Chemical Romance is very likely why, and it’s worth ruminating on how, exactly, this profoundly strange and desperately necessary band has inspired such belief. Anybody who listened to I Brought You My Bullets in 2002 couldn’t have predicted any of this. But the guys who made it did.

Emo is back, baby! In honor of its return to prominence—plus the 20th anniversary of the first MCR album—we’re diving deep into all things emo.

Grab your Telecasters and Manic Panic and join us for Emo Week.

The most striking song on I Brought You My Bullets—the most Gerard song, the most MCR song, The Most in general—is called “Early Sunsets Over Monroeville.” It begins as a woozy but deceptively gentle waltz but darkens by ominous degrees, and soon Gerard is wailing the line “If I had the guts / To put this to your head,” and maybe you worry for a second that this is the 200,000th uncouth and unnervingly violent post-breakup emo song. And then you find out that Monroeville is in Pennsylvania, and parts of George Romero’s 1978 zombie-flick classic Dawn of the Dead were shot there, and oh, wow, suddenly you realize this is actually a very grim, very romantic song about an inconsolable man realizing he has to kill his no-longer-human wife:

And there’s no room in this hell There’s no room in the next And our memories defeat us And I’ll end this duress

Not the best song, but the most. My Chemical Romance would get truly dangerous, and truly great, when their best and their most intertwined. They signed to a major label; all the coolest kids do. Deal with it. Deal with this, while you’re at it.

“You like D&D, Audrey Hepburn, Fangoria, Harry Houdini, and croquet,” Ray Toro informs Gerard Way at the onset of “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” one of several monster singles from their 2004 Reprise Records debut, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. “You can’t swim, you can’t dance, and you don’t know karate. Face it: You’re never gonna make it.” Cue the high-school-outcast histrionics, the cuddly arena-punk viciousness, Gerard’s destabilizing magnetism as he practically screams in your face, the vintage airbrushed-van metalhead radness of Ray’s guitar solo, and, before the final bone-crushing chorus, a truly bonkers Gerard buildup/breakdown for the ages:

But you really need to listen to me Because I’m telling you the truth I mean this I’m okay (Trust me)

And, boom. There are days when this is the best song ever written. And there are other days when it’s not even the best song on Three Cheers: “Helena” has a majestic Mötley Crüe meets the Misfits chorus, the power chords ascending a stairway to hell, an infinite legion of demons pumping their fists along to every word: So long and good night / So long and good night. Or maybe the power-ballad pyrotechnics of “The Ghost of You” do it for you, the classic quiet-verse-loud-chorus dynamics, Gerard’s unapologetic controlled-screaming melodrama (“At the top of my lungs in my arms / SHE DIES”), the extra-luxe video that recreates D-Day down to the puking soldiers landing on the beach. Tell me these guys aren’t spectacular, and not driven by friction, ambition, LOVE, glamour, and fatalism.

By 2005 MCR are headlining the good ol’ Warped Tour alongside Fall Out Boy, and early-2000s third-wave emo—undaunted in its embrace of pop-punk, of the mall, of teenagers both actual and perpetual—has its very own Queen, and/or Led Zeppelin, and/or Pink Floyd. Suspend your disbelief; respect their audacity. “The main thing that we’ve always wanted to do was to save people’s lives,” Gerard informed the magazine Alternative Press in 2004. “That sounds Mother Teresa–ish and outlandish, but it really does happen. It does make a huge difference. We’ve seen it in action.”

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, by the way, is a semi-derailed concept album involving two lovers, a man and a woman, who both seemingly die in a gunfight: The man goes to hell, is informed by the Devil that the woman is still alive, and agrees to kill 1,000 evil men in exchange for the chance to reunite with her. I say semi-derailed because during the writing process Gerard and Mikey’s beloved grandmother died—“Helena” is about her—and Gerard considered scrapping the whole thing. “When that happened, I was like, ‘Fuck. Oh, God. How am I going to deal with this story? Does it even matter anymore? Is it just fucking pretentious? Is it bullshit?’” he told Alternative Press. “And then I came to grips with it and said, ‘Fuck it. I’m going to write the songs that I want.’” Even the song called “You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison” has a certain funereal poignancy to it.

Even for a band already operating at this scale in terms of both ungodly rock-star bombast and naked emotional intimacy—Gerard has gotten increasingly forthright in interviews about his struggles with mental health and substance misuse in this era—My Chemical Romance’s third and biggest and most extravagantly beloved album, 2006’s The Black Parade, struck like a thunderbolt from a clear blue sky. There is an awful lot to absorb here; the marching-band outfits are as good a place to start as any.

The Black Parade is a classic leveling-up record, the fairly conventional tale of a young, ferocious rock band hitting its commercial peak (the album debuted at no. 2 on the Billboard album chart, behind a Hannah Montana soundtrack) with the help of some new big-shot collaborators. It was produced by Rob Cavallo, who probably also produced your favorite Green Day album; the screaming-and-fire video for “Famous Last Words” was directed by Samuel Bayer, who also directed your favorite Nirvana video. (I’m just assuming your favorite Nirvana video is “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”) Several members of the band got severely injured while shooting this, by the way, and somehow you can just tell.

The Black Parade is also an unprecedented and not-at-all-conventional narrative flex credibly described by The New York Times as “a stricken tour de force about coming of age in the post-9/11 era.” It’s a not-at-all-derailed concept album about a man (“The Patient”) dying of cancer while wracked by fear and regret; Gerard decided to add to the verisimilitude by cutting his hair short and dying it a stark silver. (“I wanted to appear white and deathlike and gaunt and sick-looking,” he cheerfully told the NYT.) Liza Minnelli (“I love those guys”) drops by to portray a grieving mother; musically, the klezmer parts somehow hit harder than the heavy metal parts. Influences range from David Bowie to KISS to the Beatles; there is also, as the marching-band uniforms might suggest, a marching band. The scale of this, in every sense, is nearly overwhelming, so if you’re new to it all maybe start out by just putting the caustically hilarious goth-blues anthem “Teenagers” on repeat for six hours.

They said, “All teenagers scare the livin’ shit out of me” They could care less as long as someone’ll bleed So darken your clothes, or strike a violent pose Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me

Even five years ago, this record was an easy fan favorite but not necessarily an agreed-upon, era-defining masterwork. “The Black Parade, though well-reviewed at the time, hasn’t accrued the same reputation as other classic albums,” the critic Jeremy Gordon wrote in 2016 in a 10th-anniversary piece for Spin. “It was almost entirely ignored in lists of the best albums of the ’00s run by tastemakers and canon-formers like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Billboard, Paste, Complex, NME, and, yes, Spin.” By this record’s 20th anniversary, however, it might be universally hailed as the pop-punk Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: In 2020, when Rolling Stone unveiled its updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, there was The Black Parade at no. 361, not quite as good as Funkadelic’s One Nation Under a Groove, but just a little better than Luther Vandross’s Never Too Much.

You could argue that rock critics ruin everything. You could regard The Black Parade’s steady ascent on lists like this as proof that something essential—a life-affirming secret shared only between MCR and their Day One fans—is being lost. As a Late Pass–holder myself, out of respect/trepidation, I have decided not to argue that the band’s fourth and last album, 2010’s Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, is actually their best album, even though I love it profoundly for both the reliable audacity of its concept (now MCR are Mad Max–esque rebels battling an evil corporation in postapocalyptic California, with the Gerard-penned comic book to prove it) and the chaotic scope of the songs themselves. Get acclimated by putting the song “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” on repeat this time.

Danger Days probably includes one too many songs that blatantly reach for Coldplay-style arena-rock uplifting grandeur, but what I will say is that this record’s final attempt at volcanic sentimentality, “The Kids From Yesterday,” totally works, and the album ends with an extra-caustic and extra-hilarious trashing punk tirade called “Vampire Money,” in which Gerard politely declines to contribute a song to the soundtrack of a Twilight movie.

(Come on!) When you wanna be a movie star (Come on!) Play the game and take the band real far (Come on!) Play it right and drive a Volvo car Pick a fight at an airport bar The kids don’t care if you’re alright, honey Pills don’t help, but it sure is funny Give me give me some of that vampire money, come on!

“Originally, what we did was take goth and put it with punk and turn it into something dangerous and sexy,” Gerard explained to the NME. “Back then nobody in the normal punk world was wearing black clothes and eyeliner. We did it because we had one mission: to polarize, to irritate, to contaminate. But then that image gets romanticized and then it gets commoditized.”

This is all delightfully but decidedly rude: There’s an excellent argument that the Twilight universe is every bit as vital and inclusive and life-affirming as any of the rock bands it attempted to romanticize and/or commoditize. But I will laugh at the line Pick a fight at an airport bar forever.

As for MCR’s breakup, and the failsafe doomsday device that triggered it, within a few years Gerard was opening up about it: In 2014 he told the NME that he’d relapsed into alcoholism after Danger Days, and worried that his daughter would grow up without a father; the choice, he concluded, was “Break the band or break me.”

The band first reunited for a single show in 2019 in Los Angeles: “That was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had playing on stage with My Chemical Romance, for sure,” Gerard told the NME, adding that “to me, the new version of My Chemical Romance and the way I want to go about it is exercising less control.” (The NME loves this guy.) The band’s festival-headliner status now is in part a reflection of pop-punk’s bizarrely ascending reputation in the past five years as both a commercial and critical proposition, from Olivia Rodrigo to Machine Gun Kelly to Juice WRLD. But however many sonic and stylistic precedents there might be, there has never been a rock band quite this courageous, spiteful, beautiful, desperate, glamorous, hopeful.

I believe Gerard when he says that this band’s original mission was “to polarize, to irritate, to contaminate,” but that was never their only mission. MCR was born in an apocalypse, and designed to help us all survive it. Us meaning actual teenagers, not critics, but we caught on eventually. We are all bandwagoners on the Black Parade now. Meanwhile, the apocalypse is closer than ever, but at least we can all huddle together in the glow. 

[lboogie1906]

Clarence Darnell Gilyard Jr. (December 24, 1955 – November 28, 2022) was a university professor, actor, and author. He appeared in film, television, and stage productions.

He was known for his roles in Matlock, the Left Behind movie trilogy, Walker, Texas Ranger; Theo, Die Hard; and Top Gun.

He was born into a military family in Moses Lake, Washington, the son of Barbara and Clarence Darnell Gilyard Sr., an Air Force officer. His family was from New Orleans, but he grew up on Air Force bases in Hawaii, Texas, and Florida.

He spent a year as an Air Force Academy cadet before leaving the service to attend Sterling College. He played football and became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. He received a tennis scholarship and he attended California State University, Long Beach, majoring in acting. He completed his BA at CSU Dominguez Hills. He returned to school, receiving an MFA in theatre performance at Southern Methodist University.

He made guest appearances on Diff’rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, 227, Simon & Simon, and Riptide. He was cast in the final season of CHiPs as Officer Benjamin Webster. He co-starred in The Duck Factory. He appeared in a commercial for McDonald’s.

His movie was as an F-14 Tomcat radar intercept officer, LT. (JG) Marcus “Sundown” Williams, in Top Gun. He was a military man in The Karate Kid Part II. He appeared in Die Hard as Theo. He appeared as Reverend Bruce Barnes in Left Behind: The Movie and its sequel, Left Behind II: Tribulation Force. He appeared in A Matter of Faith.

He performed the role of Hoak Colburn onstage at the University of New Mexico’s Popejoy Hall in the Neil Simon Festival’s Driving Miss Daisy.

In the 2018 edition of the football video game Madden NFL, he plays high school coach Devin Wade in the “Longshot” section of the game. He reprised his role as criminal gang member Theo from Die Hard, in a commercial for Advance Auto Parts’ DieHard brand of car batteries.

He was an associate professor in the College of Fine Arts – Department of Theatre at UNLV.

He married Catherine Dutko, he married Elena Castillo (2001). He had six children. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[shaojielin]

cv

born in Hualien, Taiwan

lives and works in London, UK

───────

education

2020 - * * * *  PhD Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London

2015 - 2017  MFA Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London

2010 - 2011  Visiting Study, BA Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London

2008 - 2012  BFA Fine Art, National Taiwan Normal University

fund

2023  Art Theory, Government Scholarship for Study Abroad, Ministry of Education, Taiwan

2020  Visual Art, Covid Fund for Artist, Arts Council England, UK

2015  Media Art, Government Scholarship for Study Abroad, Ministry of Education, Taiwan

2010  Art and Design, Ministry Fellowship for Visiting Study, Ministry of Education, Taiwan

talk

2024  Slade Art Research Centre, University College London, UK

2024  Department of Arts Industry, National Taitung University, Taiwan

2022  Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan

2021  Aesthetics and Art Program, Tainan Community University, Taiwan

qualification

2019  Art, Exceptional Talent, Global Talent Visa, Arts Council England, UK

prize

2018  Finalist, Bloomberg New Contemporaries, UK

2017  Shortlist, Red Mansion Art Prize, UK

residency

2019  Nakanojo Isemachi, Gunma, Japan

2017  Joya Arte + Ecología, Andalusia, Spain

2017  Merz Barn, Lake District, UK

collection

2023  “Postcards from Nowhere” by Private Collection, London, UK

2020  “Déjà Vu” by Art Bank Taiwan, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan

2020  “Opt-in & Opt-out” by Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix Gallery, London, UK

2019  “The Road on Which the Sun Never Sets” by Private Collection, London, UK

public project

2020  Ryan Gander: Difficult Truths to Live Inside - Trouble with Time, British Art Talks, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, UK

exhibition

2024  Luna Mare: From the Shaping of the Other to Reflections on the Freedom of Movement, Art Research Exhibition, Slade Art Research Centre, London, UK

2024  Boundaries Unbound: An Artist’s Material Exploration of Global Freedom of Movement, Solo, Slade Art Research Centre, London, UK 2020  Taiwan-Japan Artist Exchange Exhibition - the Moment of the Movement, Curated by Lu Chen, Tamsui Historical Museum, New Taipei, Taiwan

2020  Under A Flag, Dual Exhibition with Anthony N'Goya, Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix Gallery, London, UK

2019  Nakanojo Biennial, Gunma, Japan

2019  The Wind and Art, Flag Project, Busan South Port Seaside Art Festival, Busan, Korea

2018  Bloomberg New Contemporaries II, South London Gallery, London, UK

2018  Bloomberg New Contemporaries I, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK

2018  Sisyphus Version 20.18, Curated by Francis Almendárez, Yi-Chun Lin and Hsuan Wang, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan

2018  Language Strategies, Curated by Alice Woodhouse, Austrian Cultural Forum London, London, UK

2017  No Turning Back, Curated by Aditi Anand & Sue McAlpine, Migration Museum Project, London, UK

2017  Glaze, Curated by Isobel Atacus, The Icing Room, London, UK

2017  Deptford X Fringe, Dual Exhibition with Laura Fox, Mughead Coffee Gallery, London, UK

2017  Beyond the Borders, The Crypt Gallery, London, UK

2017  Flock 2017, Invited by Carmen Cortés Martin, GX Gallery, London, UK

2017  Goldsmiths MFA Degree Show, Goldsmiths College, London, UK

2017  Up in the Air, Open Call by Goldsmiths MFA Curating, Goldsmiths College, London, UK 

2017  The Xenophobia of Time?, Curated by Ying-Hsuan Tai, Clerkenwell Gallery, London, UK

2017  Fair Booth Trial, Curated by Marcel Darienzo, Carousel Art, London, UK

2017  Transit Border - A Way to Utopia?, Curated By Jayi Fu, Enclave Project Lab, London, UK

2017  Start-Up: Slow Accident, Curated by Eline Kersten & Paul Devens, Nieuw Dakota Gallery, Amsterdam, Nederland

2016  Goldsmiths MFA Interim Show, Goldsmiths College, London, UK

2016  Redirection, Harts Lane Gallery, London, UK

2015  The Fifth Dimension, Curated by Chih-Yung Chiu, NTUA Gallery, New Taipei, Taiwan

2014  Disturbance, Curated by Yung-Hsien Chen, Teh-Chun Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

2013  Post-Community, Curated by Pey-Chwen Lin, 435 Art Zone, New Taipei, Taiwan

2011  Someday Project, Canada Water Studio, London, UK

2011  Jarred on My Nerves, The Old Police Station, London, UK

2010  New Generation, A-Zhi-Bao Art Space, Hualien, Taiwan

[writers-republic]

54th Man From Bricks to Mansions by Joel Livingston

ABOUT THE BOOK

Mark Twain once said that the two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why. Have you ever had your dreams and goals not line up with the life you have been currently living? James' journey mirrors the resilience and determination required to navigate life. James meets a beautiful woman named Charlotte Fletcher who seemed like the perfect gift from God especially after a bad relationship. One day she walks into James' life with those high heels but only to have James caught in a web that he can't seem to get out of. Charlotte takes James on these twists and turns and he realizes more hurdles he has to climb to get the life he wants. No matter what the pursuit is, success often hinges on perseverance in the face of adversity.

While James may currently be "The 54th Man," his journey is far from over. With each setback, he learns and grows, inching closer to his dreams. Whether he makes the final cut in Charlotte's life or finds success elsewhere. James' story is a testament to the power of resilience, determination, and the refusal to accept defeat.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joel Livingston has been an educator for twenty-three years in the public school system. Earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in 2001 from Stephen F. Austin State University and a Masters in Educational Administration in 2012 from Grand Canyon University. Part of those twenty-three years in education. Joel has spent twenty-two years coaching basketball at the high school level. Winning various honors throughout the years and a state championship. Even though Joel has always been known to many as a basketball coach. He began to realize that a writer was also inside of him. In 2020, when his first book was brought to life called "Don't Look Back". Now a published Author. Joel has enjoyed the honors of having his book in Barnes and Nobles and everywhere books are sold. In 2022, he brought "Don't Look Back"to visual through a short film which has been entered into film festivals. Therefore in 2023 the company Livingston Productions Enterprises LLC was established to create books and films to inspire and motivate. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri and now resides in Dallas, Texas. Joel enjoys working out, traveling, barbecuing and spending time with family and friends.

[scotianostra]

Robbie Coltrane, the Scottish actor and comedian would have been 73 today.

When the people you have grown up admiring and laughing at pass away it makes you think about your own mortality, ut also leaves a hole in life, Robbie for me was a tremendous man, going from stand up comic, to respected actor during his life, he was a very funny and genuine guy.

Born as  Anthony Robert McMillan  on March 30th, 1950 in Rutherglen, Robbie was educated at Glenalmond College, an independent school in Perthshire, from which he was nearly expelled after hanging the prefects’ gowns from the school clocktower. Though he later described his experiences there as deeply unhappy, he played for the rugby First XV, was head of the school’s debating society he also won prizes for his art.

From Glenalmond, Coltrane went on to Glasgow School of Art, where he was ridiculed for “having an accent like Prince Charles” (of which he quickly disposed, though not before gaining the nickname “Lord Fauntleroy”), and thereafter the Moray House College of Education (part of the University of Edinburgh) in Edinburgh.

In the early 70’s Robbie took the name Coltrane, due to his love of jazz musician John Coltrane, and began a career of a stand-up comedian at night clubs, at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as an actor with Edinburgh’s renowned Traverse Theatre.

After picking up a few bit parts in films and TV series I first remember Robbie appearing in the BBC Scotland comedy sketch series A kick up the Eighties, as seen in the clips below

Robbie then went to appear in The Comic Strip Presents films  during the 80’s  The Supergrass and The Pope Must Die being the most successful. At that time Coltrane had a drinking problem, downing as much as a bottle of whisky a day. In 1986 he flew to a clinic in Mexico and was treated for obesity. In 1987 his partner for 15 years, Robin Paine, left him for good. A year later he met Rhona Gemmell in a pub. They married and had a son, Spencer, and a daughter, Alice. His career took off during the early 1990s with the leading role as Dr. Eddie “Fitz” Fitzgerald, a forensic psychologist, in the popular TV series Cracker.

Coltrane is one of only a few to have played “baddies” in two Bond films, playing Russian mafia man Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough. He went on to play Rubeus Hagrid in seven Harry Potter films. Robbie has also featured in factual TV series, Coltrane’s Planes and Automobiles, as well as a host of other TV series, none of which, surprisingly are Taggart! He was voted No. 11 in ITV’s TV’s 50 Greatest Stars and sixth in a poll of 2000 adults across the UK to find the ‘most famous Scot’, behind the Loch Ness Monster, Robert Burns, Sean Connery, Robert the Bruce and William Wallace.

Robbie picked his appearances carefully after he had undergone surgery on a replacement knee after suffering from chronic pain for years. He lost over 7 stone after in 2016 after doctors warned him not slimming down could leave him a “cripple”.  Robbie spent his final years in “constant pain” after his knee cartilage disintegrated. He told the Daily Express in one of his last interviews in 2020: 

“I was fighting pain 24 hours a day when I was in ‘National Treasure’ and ‘Great Expectations I had no cartilage in my knee. It was bone on bone.”, he found some relief after receiving joint surgery in America.

n 2020: “I was fighting pain 24 hours a day when I was in ‘National Treasure’ and ‘Great Expectations’. He added at the time: “It was just horrible. The relief from that pain since the operation and being able to sleep has changed my life.” Going on to say he wouldn’t wish such pain "on [his] worst enemy,"

Robbie passed away on October 14th 2022, he had become a virtual recluse, living a a rented converted barn near Stirling, living off takeaways from a local Chinese. Coltrane was cremated and his family spread his ashes around several of his favourite places around Manhattan, New York.

His  death certificate shows that the actor died from a string of conditions including multiple organ failure, the causes of death given were sepsis, where an infection triggers an extreme reaction throughout the body, lower respiratory tract infection and heart block.

[brookston]

Holidays 7.15

Holidays

Arctic Sea Ice Day

Battle of Grumwald Day (Lithuania, Poland)

Be A Dork Day

Cigarette Warning Day

Civic Day (Colombia)

Day of Democracy and Freedoms (Turkey)

Day of Ukrainian Peacekeepers

Day of Visibility for Non-Monogamy

Developmental Disability Professionals Day

Disability Awareness Day (UK)

Dog Days end

Elderly Men Day (a.k.a. Unimwane Day; Kiribati)

Festival of Santa Rosalia (Sicily)

Garlic Day (French Republic)

Gorestnici begins (Fire Festival; Bulgaria; until 17th)

Hakata Gion Yamagasa (Fukuoka, Japan)

Hapshire Day (UK)

Hold a Rat Day

Hundadagar (Dog Days of Summer; Iceland) [Thru August 23]

I Love Horses Day

International Stamp Out Spiking Day

John Fogerty Day (El Cerrito, California)

Manitoba Province Day (Canada; 1870)

Manu’s Cession Day (American Samoa)

National Apprenticeship Day (India)

National Captain’s Hill Day

National Clean Beauty Day

National Donna Day

National Dork Day

National Give Something Away Day

National Health Insurance Act Day (UK)

National Leiomyosarcoma Awareness Day

National Pet Fire Safety Day

No-Hitter Day

PicantePit Pitch Day

Plastic Surgery Day

Respect Canada Day

St. Swithin's Day (UK)

715 Day

Social Media Giving Day

Sultan’s Day (Brunei)

World Firefox Day

World Youth Skills Day (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Black Currant Day

Gummi Worm Day

Margarine Day

National Tapioca Pudding Day

Orange Chicken Day

Independence & Related Days

Chowolia (Declared; 2020) [dissolved; 2021]

Georgia (Readmitted to the Union; 1870)

Island of Vancouver (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Montenegro (Statehood Day)

Permaria (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

3rd Monday in July

Global Hug For Your Kids Day [3rd Monday]

Guelaguetza (a.k.a. Festival of Lunes del Cerro; Oaxaca, Mexico) [Monday after 16th]

Marine Day (Japan) [3rd Monday]

Motivation Monday [Every Monday]

Munoz-Rivera Day (f.k.a. Birthday of Don Luis Muñoz Rivera; Puerto Rico Day) [3rd Monday]

National Get Out of the Doghouse Day [3rd Monday]

National Prosecco Week begins [3rd Monday]

Perseids Meteor Shower begins [Varies; thru 8.24]

President’s Day (Botswana) [3rd Monday]

Umi No Hi (Ocean Day/Marine Day; Japan) [3rd Monday]

Weekly Holidays beginning July 15 (3rd Week of July)

Coral Reef Awareness Week (thru 7.21)

Rabbit Week (thru 7.21)

Festivals Beginning July 15, 2024

Clayton Restaurant Week (Clayton, Missouri) [thru 7.21]

Concert of Colors (Detroit, Michigan) [thru 7.21]

Dantz Festival (San Sebastián, Spain) [thru 7.20]

Festival Jazz à Sete (Sete, France) [thru 7.21]

Galway International Arts Festival (Galway, Ireland) [thru 7.28]

Moldejazz (Molde, Norway) [thru 7.20]

Republican National Convention (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) [thru 7.18]

Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain) [thru 7.21]

Feast Days

Abhai (Syriac Orthodox)

Anne-Marie Javouhey (Christian; Saint)

Athanasius of Naples (Christian; Saint)

Barhadbesaba (Christian; Martyr)

Bernhard II, Margrave of Baden-Baden (Christian; Saint)

Bonaventure (Christian; Saint)

Bon Festival (Kantō region, Japan)

Clive Cussler (Writerism)

Confuflux (Discordian)

David of Munktorp (Christian; Saint)

Day of Rauni (Finnish Mother Goddess)

Day of Set (Ancient Egypt; Everyday Wicca)

Day of the Baptism of Rus’ (Ukraine)

Dispersion of the Apostles (No longer officially celebrated by the Catholic Church)

Donald of Ogilvy (Christian; Saint)

Edith of Polesworth (Christian; Saint)

Edith of Wilton (Christian; Saint)

Ernie Barnes (Artology)

Feast of Rowana (patron of secret knowledge of the runes; Druid/Flemish)

Ferret Down Your Trousers Day (Pastafarian)

Festival of Castor and Pollux (Ancient Rome)

Festival of the Dead (Honoring Ti-Tsang, Ruler of the Dark Underworld; Ancient China)

Forgetful Jones & Buster (Muppetism)

The Gray Man (Film; 2022)

Guido Crepax (Artology)

Helpful Hilma (Muppetism)

Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (Christian; Saint)

Ides of July (Ancient Rome)

Iris Murdoch (Writerism)

Jacques Derrida (Writerism)

James of Nisibis (Christian; Saint)

Jan Cossiers (Artology)

St. Louis (Positivist; Saint)

Neil Gaiman Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Petal-Hopping for Beginners (Shamanism)

Plechelm (Christian; Saint)

Pompilio Pirrotti (Christian; Saint)

Queen Maeve of Connacht (Celtic Book of Days)

Quriaqos and Julietta (Christian; Saint)

Rembrandt van Rijn (Artology)

Richard Russo (Writerism)

Rosalia (Christian; Saint) [Palermo, Sicily]

Solstitium X (Pagan)

Swithin (a..k.a. Swithun; Christian; Saint)

Vladimir the Great of Kiev (Eastern Orthodox; Catholic Church)

Whamo the Rental Magician (Muppetism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [27 of 53]

Lucky Day (Philippines) [40 of 71]

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [33 of 60]

Premieres

Belle (Anime Film; 2021)

Bullet Train (Film; 2022)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Film; 2005)

Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months, by Maurice Sendak (Children’s Book; 1962)

Creedence Clearwater Revival, by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Album; 1968)

Dangerous Dan McFoo (WB MM Cartoon; 1939)

Die Hard (Film; 1988)

The Dogs of War, by Frederick Forsyth (Novel; 1974)

A Fish Called Wanda (Film; 1988)

Gangnam Style, by Psy (Song; 20912)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Film; 1953)

Ghostbusters (Film; 2016)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears (MGM Cartoon; 1939)

The Gray Man (Film; 2022)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 (US Film; 2011) [#8]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (US Film; 2009) [#6]

A Hole in the Head (Film; 1959)

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, recorded by Jimmy Boyd (Song; 1952)

The Jeep (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1938)

The Last of the Masters, by Philip K. Dick (Short Story; 1954)

The Late Batsby (WB Cartoon; 2018)

Little Big Man, by Thomas Berger (Novel; 1964)

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (Animated Film; 1989)

Mandatory Fun, by Weird Al Yankovic (Album; 2014)

The Man from Monterey (Film; 1933)

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Animated Film; 2022)

The Past Through Tomorrow, by Robert A. Heinlein (Short Stories; 1967)

Pirates of Penzance, starring Linda Ronstadt (Musical Play in Central Park, NY; 1980)

Porky’s Picnic (WB LT Cartoon; 1939)

The Rebel Without Claws (WB LT Cartoon; 1961)

Staying Alive (Film; 1983)

Stranger Things (TV Series; 2016)

There’s Something ABout Mary (Film; 1998)

True Lies (1994)

Twitter (Social Media App; 2006)

Wedding Crashers (Film; 2005)

Whisper of the Heart (Studio Ghibli Animated Film; 1995)

Winnie the Pooh (Animated Film; 2011)

The Witch’s Cat (Mighty Mouse Cartoon; 1948)

Zelig (Film; 1983)

Today’s Name Days

Balduin, Bonaventura, Egon, Waldemar (Austria)

Vlada, Vladena, Vladimir (Bulgaria)

Bonaventura, Bono, Dobriša, Vlado (Croatia)

Jindřich (Czech Republic)

Apostlenes Deling (Denmark)

Ragne, Raina, Raine, Raini (Estonia)

Rauna, Rauni (Finland)

Donald, Vladimir (France)

Björn, Egon, Jakob (Germany)

Ioulitta, Kerykos, Kirykos (Greece)

Henrik, Roland (Hungary)

Bonaventura, Giacobbe, Vladimiro (Italy)

Egija, Egmonts, Egons, Rūta (Latvia)

Gerimantė, Mantas, Rozalija, Rožė (Lithuania)

Oddmund, Oddrun (Norway)

Daniel, Dawid, Dawida, Egon, Henryk, Iga, Ignacja, Ignacy, Lubomysł, Niecisław, Włodzimierz, Żegota (Poland)

Angelina (Russia)

Henrich (Slovakia)

Buenaventura (Spain)

Ragnhild, Ragnvald (Sweden)

Volodymyr, Volodymyra (Ukraine)

Baldwin, Don, Donald, Donalda, Donna, Donnell, Donnie, Dunn, Dunne, Uriel (USA)

Don, Donald, Donalda, Donaldo, Donaldson, Donita, Donell, Donn, Donnell, Donnie, Donny, Kona, MacDonald, McDonald (Universal)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 197 of 2024; 169 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of Week 29 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 9 of 28]

Chinese: Month 6 (Xin-Wei), Day 10 (Geng-Chen)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 9 Tammuz 5784

Islamic: 8 Muharram 1446

J Cal: 17 Red; Threesday [17 of 30]

Julian: 2 July 2024

Moon: 67%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 28 Charlemagne (7th Month) [St. Louis]

Runic Half Month: Ur (Primal Strength) [Day 7 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 26 of 94)

Week: 3rd Week of July

Zodiac: Cancer (Day 25 of 31)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 7.15

Holidays

Arctic Sea Ice Day

Battle of Grumwald Day (Lithuania, Poland)

Be A Dork Day

Cigarette Warning Day

Civic Day (Colombia)

Day of Democracy and Freedoms (Turkey)

Day of Ukrainian Peacekeepers

Day of Visibility for Non-Monogamy

Developmental Disability Professionals Day

Disability Awareness Day (UK)

Dog Days end

Elderly Men Day (a.k.a. Unimwane Day; Kiribati)

Festival of Santa Rosalia (Sicily)

Garlic Day (French Republic)

Gorestnici begins (Fire Festival; Bulgaria; until 17th)

Hakata Gion Yamagasa (Fukuoka, Japan)

Hapshire Day (UK)

Hold a Rat Day

Hundadagar (Dog Days of Summer; Iceland) [Thru August 23]

I Love Horses Day

International Stamp Out Spiking Day

John Fogerty Day (El Cerrito, California)

Manitoba Province Day (Canada; 1870)

Manu’s Cession Day (American Samoa)

National Apprenticeship Day (India)

National Captain’s Hill Day

National Clean Beauty Day

National Donna Day

National Dork Day

National Give Something Away Day

National Health Insurance Act Day (UK)

National Leiomyosarcoma Awareness Day

National Pet Fire Safety Day

No-Hitter Day

PicantePit Pitch Day

Plastic Surgery Day

Respect Canada Day

St. Swithin's Day (UK)

715 Day

Social Media Giving Day

Sultan’s Day (Brunei)

World Firefox Day

World Youth Skills Day (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Black Currant Day

Gummi Worm Day

Margarine Day

National Tapioca Pudding Day

Orange Chicken Day

Independence & Related Days

Chowolia (Declared; 2020) [dissolved; 2021]

Georgia (Readmitted to the Union; 1870)

Island of Vancouver (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Montenegro (Statehood Day)

Permaria (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

3rd Monday in July

Global Hug For Your Kids Day [3rd Monday]

Guelaguetza (a.k.a. Festival of Lunes del Cerro; Oaxaca, Mexico) [Monday after 16th]

Marine Day (Japan) [3rd Monday]

Motivation Monday [Every Monday]

Munoz-Rivera Day (f.k.a. Birthday of Don Luis Muñoz Rivera; Puerto Rico Day) [3rd Monday]

National Get Out of the Doghouse Day [3rd Monday]

National Prosecco Week begins [3rd Monday]

Perseids Meteor Shower begins [Varies; thru 8.24]

President’s Day (Botswana) [3rd Monday]

Umi No Hi (Ocean Day/Marine Day; Japan) [3rd Monday]

Weekly Holidays beginning July 15 (3rd Week of July)

Coral Reef Awareness Week (thru 7.21)

Rabbit Week (thru 7.21)

Festivals Beginning July 15, 2024

Clayton Restaurant Week (Clayton, Missouri) [thru 7.21]

Concert of Colors (Detroit, Michigan) [thru 7.21]

Dantz Festival (San Sebastián, Spain) [thru 7.20]

Festival Jazz à Sete (Sete, France) [thru 7.21]

Galway International Arts Festival (Galway, Ireland) [thru 7.28]

Moldejazz (Molde, Norway) [thru 7.20]

Republican National Convention (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) [thru 7.18]

Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain) [thru 7.21]

Feast Days

Abhai (Syriac Orthodox)

Anne-Marie Javouhey (Christian; Saint)

Athanasius of Naples (Christian; Saint)

Barhadbesaba (Christian; Martyr)

Bernhard II, Margrave of Baden-Baden (Christian; Saint)

Bonaventure (Christian; Saint)

Bon Festival (Kantō region, Japan)

Clive Cussler (Writerism)

Confuflux (Discordian)

David of Munktorp (Christian; Saint)

Day of Rauni (Finnish Mother Goddess)

Day of Set (Ancient Egypt; Everyday Wicca)

Day of the Baptism of Rus’ (Ukraine)

Dispersion of the Apostles (No longer officially celebrated by the Catholic Church)

Donald of Ogilvy (Christian; Saint)

Edith of Polesworth (Christian; Saint)

Edith of Wilton (Christian; Saint)

Ernie Barnes (Artology)

Feast of Rowana (patron of secret knowledge of the runes; Druid/Flemish)

Ferret Down Your Trousers Day (Pastafarian)

Festival of Castor and Pollux (Ancient Rome)

Festival of the Dead (Honoring Ti-Tsang, Ruler of the Dark Underworld; Ancient China)

Forgetful Jones & Buster (Muppetism)

The Gray Man (Film; 2022)

Guido Crepax (Artology)

Helpful Hilma (Muppetism)

Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (Christian; Saint)

Ides of July (Ancient Rome)

Iris Murdoch (Writerism)

Jacques Derrida (Writerism)

James of Nisibis (Christian; Saint)

Jan Cossiers (Artology)

St. Louis (Positivist; Saint)

Neil Gaiman Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Petal-Hopping for Beginners (Shamanism)

Plechelm (Christian; Saint)

Pompilio Pirrotti (Christian; Saint)

Queen Maeve of Connacht (Celtic Book of Days)

Quriaqos and Julietta (Christian; Saint)

Rembrandt van Rijn (Artology)

Richard Russo (Writerism)

Rosalia (Christian; Saint) [Palermo, Sicily]

Solstitium X (Pagan)

Swithin (a..k.a. Swithun; Christian; Saint)

Vladimir the Great of Kiev (Eastern Orthodox; Catholic Church)

Whamo the Rental Magician (Muppetism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [27 of 53]

Lucky Day (Philippines) [40 of 71]

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [33 of 60]

Premieres

Belle (Anime Film; 2021)

Bullet Train (Film; 2022)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Film; 2005)

Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months, by Maurice Sendak (Children’s Book; 1962)

Creedence Clearwater Revival, by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Album; 1968)

Dangerous Dan McFoo (WB MM Cartoon; 1939)

Die Hard (Film; 1988)

The Dogs of War, by Frederick Forsyth (Novel; 1974)

A Fish Called Wanda (Film; 1988)

Gangnam Style, by Psy (Song; 20912)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Film; 1953)

Ghostbusters (Film; 2016)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears (MGM Cartoon; 1939)

The Gray Man (Film; 2022)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 (US Film; 2011) [#8]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (US Film; 2009) [#6]

A Hole in the Head (Film; 1959)

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, recorded by Jimmy Boyd (Song; 1952)

The Jeep (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1938)

The Last of the Masters, by Philip K. Dick (Short Story; 1954)

The Late Batsby (WB Cartoon; 2018)

Little Big Man, by Thomas Berger (Novel; 1964)

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (Animated Film; 1989)

Mandatory Fun, by Weird Al Yankovic (Album; 2014)

The Man from Monterey (Film; 1933)

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Animated Film; 2022)

The Past Through Tomorrow, by Robert A. Heinlein (Short Stories; 1967)

Pirates of Penzance, starring Linda Ronstadt (Musical Play in Central Park, NY; 1980)

Porky’s Picnic (WB LT Cartoon; 1939)

The Rebel Without Claws (WB LT Cartoon; 1961)

Staying Alive (Film; 1983)

Stranger Things (TV Series; 2016)

There’s Something ABout Mary (Film; 1998)

True Lies (1994)

Twitter (Social Media App; 2006)

Wedding Crashers (Film; 2005)

Whisper of the Heart (Studio Ghibli Animated Film; 1995)

Winnie the Pooh (Animated Film; 2011)

The Witch’s Cat (Mighty Mouse Cartoon; 1948)

Zelig (Film; 1983)

Today’s Name Days

Balduin, Bonaventura, Egon, Waldemar (Austria)

Vlada, Vladena, Vladimir (Bulgaria)

Bonaventura, Bono, Dobriša, Vlado (Croatia)

Jindřich (Czech Republic)

Apostlenes Deling (Denmark)

Ragne, Raina, Raine, Raini (Estonia)

Rauna, Rauni (Finland)

Donald, Vladimir (France)

Björn, Egon, Jakob (Germany)

Ioulitta, Kerykos, Kirykos (Greece)

Henrik, Roland (Hungary)

Bonaventura, Giacobbe, Vladimiro (Italy)

Egija, Egmonts, Egons, Rūta (Latvia)

Gerimantė, Mantas, Rozalija, Rožė (Lithuania)

Oddmund, Oddrun (Norway)

Daniel, Dawid, Dawida, Egon, Henryk, Iga, Ignacja, Ignacy, Lubomysł, Niecisław, Włodzimierz, Żegota (Poland)

Angelina (Russia)

Henrich (Slovakia)

Buenaventura (Spain)

Ragnhild, Ragnvald (Sweden)

Volodymyr, Volodymyra (Ukraine)

Baldwin, Don, Donald, Donalda, Donna, Donnell, Donnie, Dunn, Dunne, Uriel (USA)

Don, Donald, Donalda, Donaldo, Donaldson, Donita, Donell, Donn, Donnell, Donnie, Donny, Kona, MacDonald, McDonald (Universal)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 197 of 2024; 169 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of Week 29 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 9 of 28]

Chinese: Month 6 (Xin-Wei), Day 10 (Geng-Chen)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 9 Tammuz 5784

Islamic: 8 Muharram 1446

J Cal: 17 Red; Threesday [17 of 30]

Julian: 2 July 2024

Moon: 67%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 28 Charlemagne (7th Month) [St. Louis]

Runic Half Month: Ur (Primal Strength) [Day 7 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 26 of 94)

Week: 3rd Week of July

Zodiac: Cancer (Day 25 of 31)

[newmusicradionetwork]

Briana Dinsdale ‘Whiskey Worked That Way’

Briana Dinsdale Returns With A Soulful Moody Track ‘Whiskey Worked That Way’. Country singer-songwriter Briana Dinsdale is back in 2024 with a refreshing new attitude and maturity and a new single that is going to capture the hearts of music lovers everywhere. Briana Dinsdale’s new single, ‘Whiskey Worked That Way’, signifies a pivotal moment in her career. Produced by Michael and Caleb Flanders in Nashville, the track delves into the complex emotions of anger, lust, heartbreak, and affection all at once. Briana eagerly anticipates this release as the inaugural piece in a series of tracks that will define her musical journey throughout her twenties a compelling and exciting progression. “I’m incredibly thrilled to share this song with the world. Collaborating with three of my favourite industry figures Jen Mize, Robbie Mortimer and Chloe Styler was an incredible joy. The moment we penned it, we sensed how special it was. The urgency to bring it to life in the studio was undeniable, and having the opportunity to do so in Nashville, my dream city, made it even more special. Working alongside Michael and Caleb felt like working with family. I feel immensely grateful for the involvement of these two remarkable individuals in every aspect of the release. I can’t wait for people to hear it, and I hope they love it as much as I do.” In the world of Country music, a fresh, vibrant talent is emerging. Briana Dinsdale has a voice that captures the essence of both heartache and hope, and her journey in music has already been marked by remarkable achievements. In 2022, Briana’s dedication to her craft were recognised when she was awarded the prestigious Keith Urban Scholarship to The CMAA Academy of Country Music. Briana’s live performances are a testament to her captivating stage presence. Having graced the stages of acclaimed festivals such as the Groundwater Country Music Festival and the Gympie Music Muster, whilst also sharing stages with artists such as the Wolfe Brothers, John Williamson, Pete Murray, and The Whitlams. What truly sets Briana apart is her exceptional songwriting prowess. Her lyrics resonate with wisdom beyond her years, delving into deep emotions that connect with listeners of all ages. Recognizing her talent, Briana has had the privilege of collaborating and co-writing with esteemed artists such as Casey Barnes and Bill Chambers, both ARIA award winners, and Melody Moko and Lyn Bowtell, both Golden Guitar winners. Briana Dinsdale’s previous singles ‘Irresistible Force’ and ‘Last Name’ were well received by radio nationally and a with fast-growing fan base and respect from industry peers, firmly cements Briana as one of Australia’s brightest emerging country music artists. Briana is set to create waves with this exciting new single release which promises to captivate audiences with its rich storytelling and soulful melody. Additional Artist/Song Information: Artist Name: Briana Dinsdale Song Title: Whiskey Worked That Way Publishing: Briana Dinsdale Publishing Affiliation: APRA Album Title: Whiskey Worked That Way Record Label: Goldspur Entertainment Record Label: Goldspur Entertainment Publicity/PR: Goldspur Entertainment Manager: Goldspur Entertainment Ken Dinsdale info@goldspur.com Booking Agent: Goldspur Entertainment Read the full article

[skylarktradband]

Upcoming

Friday Night Folk March 15 2024 • New London, CT

Past Events

Maine Celtic Celebration July 21-23 2023 • Belfast, ME

Shanties & Sails at the Connecticut River Museum June 20 2023 • Essex, CT

Connecticut Sea Music Festival June 9-12 2023 • Essex, CT

The Tap Room at the Knickerbocker Music Center June 19 2022 • Westerly, RI

Shanties & Sails at the Connecticut River Museum June 21 2022 • Essex, CT

Sail on Victory Chimes with Skylark! September 18-22 2022 • Rockland, ME Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival 2022 September 24-25 2022 • Portsmouth, NH

Outward Bound Benefit Concert & Art Auction at Powder Mill Barn March 12 2022 • Enfield, CT

Mystic Seaport Riverfest October 9 2021 • Mystic, CT

Sail on Victory Chimes with Skylark! July 25 - 31 2021 • Rockland, Maine

House Concert with Benjamin Foss - Now in Theaters! July 25 2021, 7-9pm • Belfast, Maine

Live Music at the Tavern with Skylark August 23 2020, 2-5pm • Mystic, Connecticut

Make Music Winter in New London, Connecticut December 21 2019 • New London, Connecticut

Dinner & Christmas Carols December 18 2019, 6pm-8pm • Oakdale, Connecticut