#Circa 97

[britishhiphop]

Circa 97 ft. Daniel Son and Snotty - Brown Bag Money [Video]

UK producer Circa 97 brings us Brown Bag Money which features vocals from Stockport’s Daniel Son and New York’s Snotty. Taken from Circa 97’s forthcoming album “Sicilian Summer” featuring Tha God Fahim, Da Flyy Hooligan, Tesla’s Ghost, Farma G and more. “Poison leak out when the dart cries, dip the 12 on foot if the car dies, got no remorse like a shark’s eyes“ Produced by: Circa 97…

[underground-hip-hop-affiliated]

Tesla's Ghost x Circa 97 - WINGSUIT

[ragnarockz]

This is where I blog from ✌🏻🤍

[97-liners]

this is also so baffling to me because every other weird kpop hair had always kinda made sense at the time it happened, like dbsk tri-angle or even dara’s stuff, like there was a lot going on back then, but i remember the year 2015 crisply and there was absolutely no reason for them to do this to dino

i genuinely unironically love this hair … i think it’s great that the stylists looked at him like this and thought….. hmmm. seems about right for a kid.

[vintagelasvegas]

Stratosphere, 1996-

Timeline of World Famous Million-Dollar Historic Gambling Museum, Vegas World, and Stratosphere.

VEGAS WORLD '79-'95

'74: Bob Stupak opens World Famous Million-Dollar Historic Gambling Museum and Casino. The casino is closed a month later, and the site is later used for Vegas World and Stratosphere.

'79: Vegas World opens 7/13/79 with a casino and 8-story tower.

'84: 24-floor tower opens.

'90: Stupak unveils “Vegas World Stratosphere Tower” plans in Feb. Conceived by Stupak, preliminary designs were done by AdArt’s Charles Barnard. The architect was Ned Baldwin.

'91: Groundbreaking ceremony (Stupak, J. Jones, S. Miller) on 11/5/91. Leeman Corp., contractor. Concrete pour Mar. ’92.

'93: Perini Building Co. takes over as contractor. Stratosphere Corp. formed, separate from Vegas World, Stupak as chairman. Fire on the tower construction site, 8/30/93. Grand Casinos Inc partners in Stratosphere Corp.

'94: Public stock sale. Height of the tower raised to 1,149 feet. Taylor Int’l takes over as contractor.

'95: Vegas World closed 2/1/95. Tower crane removed in Sep. Topped off via helicopter 11/4/95.

STRATOSPHERE '96-

'96: Stratosphere opens 4/30/96. Las Vegas City Council approves Stupak’s concept for King Kong mechanical ape ride in Feb., idea dropped by summer.

'97: Stratosphere Corp. files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection.

'98: Carl Icahn purchases the resort, has the remaining hotel rooms finished by 2001. Ownership transferred to Icahn’s American Casino & Ent. Properties (ACEP) in 2004.

'08: Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds buys ACEP & Stratosphere.

'12: Golden Ent. buys ACEP & Stratosphere.

Circa '90 rendering of the tower by Jack DuBois, AdArt, taken from Charles Barnard’s book The Magic Sign.

Circa '90 illustration by Jack Dubois & Nicolas Casella, AdArt. Illustration shared by Casper Wise.

Nick Casella “started his artistic career in Hollywood working on movies … Ultimately, he made it back to the SF Bay Area where he found work with Electrical Products Corp., which became Federal in 62, and then Ad Art in 78. Nick became the Art Director for Ad Art in the Bay Area.” - Heather David.

Stratosphere, day and night, c. 1996

[thislovintime]

On the set of Head, 1968.

Q: “I’m curious about the various reunions that happened over the years. Is it safe to say that you guys were never really friends?” Peter Tork: “Oh, I don’t know. I would say I was pretty good friends with Micky, and there was a lot of love between me and Davy. I have a lot of respect for Mike Nesmith and we’ve structured ways to work together. Things rotate. It’s like having a basketball team. You know, gosh, it’s like having a championship basketball team. They go on the road every so often and do tours, you know, just exhibition tours but fortunately your music skills don’t deteriorate as fast as your basketball skills do, but I wouldn’t know what else to compare it to. We had a chance to go out together and we took it, and we had a great time, and if we were not friends at all we would not have been able to do it. We played tours months and months long: ‘86, ‘87, ‘89, ‘91, ‘92, ‘96, ‘97, 2001, 2002 and 2011, so we couldn’t have been such enemies.” - Phawker, circa 2012; re-published 2019 (x)

[conscioushottie]

erykah badu circa '97

conscioushottie ॐ

[mybeingthere]

VIRGINIA "CROSSED LAUREL LEAVES" VARIATION APPLIQUE QUILT, hand-stitched, 25 pattern blocks in printed green and solid red fabrics on white ground, featuring green laurel leaves with Turkey red petals, four sides with a swag-and-tassel-type border, having all-over diagonal grid quilting, narrow back-over-front binding, two-paneled plain backing. Circa 1860. 90" x 97 1/2".

[jackassbrainrot]

was scrolling through your blog and this fic vision came to me: giving ryan a prison tattoo in your bedroom circa 97-98

that needle won't hurt you [dunn x gn!reader]

desc: giving your highschool best friend ryan a tattoo, what could go wrong?

a/n: thank u so so much for this request, it was probably my fav thing to write yet. also I envisioned this as like his 18th birthday I just did not fit it in anywhere in the story. cannot stress this enough do Not try this at home, ryan and reader don't do one thing right here

warnings: fluff and humor, swearing, drinking, smoking, just really dumb decisions

word count: 474

"Stop acting like a little bitch, I haven't even touched you!" You yell at your best friend who's sitting on the floor of your room across from you, squirming nervously, holding his cigarette like a lifeline.

"Well maybe, if you didn't look so unsure, I wouldn't be terrified of you touching me with that thing!" He points at the little homemade tattoo machine clutched between your fingers. You had already set everything up, stencil ready to be put on his shoulder, the ink cap on your nightstand patiently waiting for you to dip the needle into it, Ryan just needed to get over himself and let you do it.

"God, just give me your lighter." You groan, snatching it from his shaky fingers and burning the needle with it. "See, now it's sterile, can we get on with it now?" You glare at him with impatient eyes, throwing the lighter on your nightstand.

"Fine." He says reluctantly, turning his back to you. You pick up the little bottle of rubbing alcohol sitting next to you and clean the area where the stencil will go. The little star you drew minutes ago transfers to his skin perfectly as you hear a beer can tab crack. "If I'm gonna die from AIDS or some shit, I want to die doing what I love." He says before you even ask anything.

Picking up the little machine, you burn it again for good measure, and you see Ryan's hand come up over his shoulder, signaling for you to hand him the lighter. You roll your eyes, handing the lighter to him and passing over the needle with a bit of rubbing alcohol, just in case.

As you turn on the machine, the light buzzing and your free hand coming down to hold him in place is the only warning Ryan gets before the needle goes into his skin. He twitches for a moment, almost making you mess up, but soon enough his body relaxes, as much as it can with a makeshift tattoo machine repeatedly stabbing into his shoulder.

You feel your arm going sore, stopping for a moment to give both of you a short break. You rest your chin on his other shoulder, your chest pressing against his back, making sure to avoid the half done tattoo. He plucks the cigarette from his mouth and presses it to your lips, letting you take a drag before going back to work.

Connecting the last two lines, you finally finish the little work of art, wiping the blood and excess ink off before falling back against your bed. Ryan turns to finally look at it and he turns to you, trying to hide the smile threatening to spread over his face but his eyes betray him as he turns to look at you.

"That's a haggard ass tattoo."

[marblejack]

WHB chapter 3 spoilers below (and chapter 2)

Also CW for angelic fuckedupfest and a.k.a. top reasons why Belial is the bestest boy. So, we have already witnessed 'angelification' (circa 2-97) with Ppyong's cousin Ppung, and now we find out that it happened to Belial's legion.

From what I get is that he led 80 legions, 40 fell during the battle, and then after that the remaining 40 fell victim to the angelification seeds (?), which is enormous loss not only in terms of strictly human (devil?) resources, but for Belial personally. Especially considering survivor guilt settling down.

It's almost baffling how literally every other captain/duke/prince/etc in Gehenna got off easy. Ok, Leraye got his arm pierced with a spear (but that part is on you, buddy), and then Belial is living through Hell in Hell.

Satan hesitated for how long putting Ppung down, and Belial had to put down his 40 comrades on the spot. And it wasn't the painful death either. The way Belial can remember in perfect detail every his action, before it all bluring in his mind- And it was stressed several times the sheer importance of comradery between demons, and the way they treat each other as equals, or the way demons aren't forced to join legion of certain captain or ruler, but simply choose to 'cause they vibe with the dude.

And if Belial thinks he betrayed himself -- I totally get it. I wonder if he would change his attitude comparing to his pre-engelification character and we get to find what he used to be through through Satan's or Sitri's or Ppyong's, or any other demon's stories, knowing full well that we'll never meet that devil again. Solomon spill the beans Probably not, but that would be hella cool.

Anyway. Literally how can this man walk and talk straight (ok, Jiyu is doing the most part, but you get my point). With these mental capabilities Belial might as well just change his class from marksman to tank. How can you not love him??? Minor rant, but I love his interactions with Jiyu, and I can fully ignore the fact that we had like... 3 lines of dialogue. Sure, Jiyu is suck-up to all his superiors including Belial, but he so genuinly cares about him, being also his second pair of eyes on the battlefield (which is kind of ironic honestly). And all of Hell knows how much Belial cares about Jiyu.

I wonder if Jiyu is overwhelmed by all the thoughts and regrets going through Belial's head, or maybe they can psychically and/or mentally distance each other somehow. They are besties, you legally cannot tell me otherwise. Do you think Belial just silently gossips with Jiyu about,,, stuff?

[britishhiphop]

Tesla's Ghost x Circa 97 ft. Reek Osama - Osama's Ghost [Audio]

Second single “Osama’s Ghost” taken from the stunning album by veteran MC Tesla’s Ghost and producer Circa 97 entitled “Grand Piano Gun Safes“. The track features Reek Osama and delivers that intense wordplay you’d expect. Produced by: Circa…

[coimbrabertone]

Bottlegate and Cola Wars, I Can't Take it Anymore!

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blogpost about the Viceroy rule in NASCAR, and one thing I cut from it was a brief discussion of the Cola Wars in NASCAR. This week, I'm tackling that issue, along with its sports drink offshoot: the bottle wars between Gatorade and Powerade.

So, to review from the Viceroy blog, while NASCAR banned sponsors that clashed with series sponsors, it did not ban competing sponsorships among different teams - in fact, it encouraged it. Thus, Pepsico got involved with Hendrick Motorsports quite famously, initially with a number of Jeff Gordon Pepsi cars, and more recently with Mountain Dew cars from the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott.

That came to an end after 2020, and come 2023, Chase Elliott would be scooped up by the competition: the Coca-Cola Family of Drivers.

Peaking in the late 90s/early 2000s, the Coke family once consisted of (circa 2003/2004) Steve Park, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart, Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd, John Andretti, Kyle Petty, Kevin Harvick, Dale Jarrett, Elliott Sadler, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, and Jeff Burton.

That's the entire three-car lineup of Dale Earnhardt Inc., both JGR cars, both Petty Enterprises cars, both Yates cars, the Wood Brothers car, Kevin Harvick who succeeded the late Dale Earnhardt at RCR, and 60% of the Roush Racing lineup.

Coke wasn't fucking around.

Unfortunately, Pepsi had Jeff Gordon.

Well, they also sponsored Jeremy Mayfield with Mountain Dew at this time, plus Pepsi/Gatorade had deals with Jeff's Hendrick Motorsports teammates (most prominently Jimmie Johnsons) as well as the other two Roush drivers in the form of Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin, plus Ryan Newman of Penske, but Jeff Gordon is the most relevant one for the first part of this story.

That's because the Cola Wars in NASCAR came to a head at Daytona International Speedway on July 3rd, 2004 for the Pepsi 400.

Coca-Cola was promoting their new Coca-Cola C2 (essentially a soda halfway between Coke and Diet Coke by the sounds of it) brand, and they sponsored an armada of cars in this race:

John Andretti in the DEI #1 Chevy,

Greg Biffle (who won the 2003 Pepsi 400) in the Roush National Guard #16 Ford.

Tony Stewart in the Joe Gibbs Racing Home Depot #20 Chevy.

Ricky Rudd in the Wood Brothers #21 Ford.

Kevin Harvick in the RCR GM Goodwrench #29 Chevy.

Kurt Busch in the Roush Sharpie #97 Ford.

Bill Elliott in his self-owned #98 Dodge.

and Jeff Burton in the Roush #99 Ford.

Coke had eight bullets in the gun to steal the thunder right out from Pepsi's flagship race - in what Pepsico pointed out was a blatant marketing stunt - however, like I said...Pepsi had Jeff Gordon.

John Andretti would crash out, Greg Biffle would end up a lap down, Jeff Burton in twenty-sixth, Bill Elliott eighteenth, Ricky Rudd seventeenth, Kevin Harvick fourteenth, while Tony Stewart in fifth and Kurt Busch in fourth were closest to pulling off Coke's marketing upset.

Unfortunately, none of them could stop Jeff Gordon from winning from pole in his DuPont/Pepsi #24 for Hendrick Motorsports.

It was the biggest moment of the Cola Wars, but 2004 had another Pepsi vs. Coke battle going on at the same time: Bottlegate.

You see, despite the Viceroy rule normally stopping this kind of stuff, in 2004, NASCAR decided to have Gatorade (Pepsi) sponsor victory lane, while Powerade (Coke) bottles would be placed on the roof of the winning cars. How the hell was this allowed to happen? Well, despite the France family running both NASCAR and the International Speedway Corporation, at this time, NASCAR had a deal with Coke and ISC had a deal with Pepsi - the same people in the guise of two different companies signed deals with two rival brands. Of course this was going to cause issues.

Pepsi did not want their drivers in their victory lane photographed with bottles of a Coca-cola owned sports drink.

Thus, Bottlegate began.

Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson were all sponsored by Pepsi, thus, as soon as they got out of the car in victory lane, they would punch and/or sweep the bottles off the roof, instantly getting Coke products out of the pictures...which pissed off Coca-cola a lot.

They were paying good money just to see drivers knock over their product!

So, after the Pepsi 400, with the aforementioned embarrassment of Coca-cola, NASCAR made a rule banning drivers from punching the bottles off the cars.

Coke drivers won the next two races with Tony Stewart winning at Chicagoland and Kurt Busch winning at New Hampshire.

But then Pepsi's Jimmie Johnson won at Pocono on August 1st.

Well, instead of punching the bottles, Jimmie calmly got out of the car, received a giant cardboard Lowe's sign from someone on his crew, and placed it in front of the Powerade bottles.

I love this stuff, this is generational pettiness over here, the Coke guys and the Pepsi guys each trying to make the other brand look bad, it's great!

Unfortunately, Coke and NASCAR didn't seem to think so, because Jimmie Johnson was fined $10,000 over the sign incident.

So yeah, this was NASCAR in the 2000s, where corporate money was everywhere and there were enough sponsorships going around that the drivers, the tracks, and the series all had separate deals to have to worry about. Hell, three Roush drivers were with Coke and the other two were with Pepsi - compare that to nowadays where the vending machines at RFK Racing are from Fastenal.

How the hell am I supposed to drink a wrench?

[vezzipuss]

David Bowie, Circa 97 💝

[kalinara]

Hello! New to the X-men fandom, drawn here by Scott Summers (I love your blog so much!) Two questions, if you don't mind:

1. What would you consider essential reads for Scott specifically? There are so many starting points it seems.

2. I did finish Whedon's run of Astonishing X-Men (at the recommendation of reddit) and was wondering if Scott (now?) doesn't need his ruby quartz glasses/visor? Sorry if that's a run-specific question!

Hello!

The first question is surprisingly difficult, only because Scott's such a staple throughout the entirety of the X-Men. So let me kind of give you a run down of your options.

--

The 60s comics are really fun, if you want to see where things began. It is very 60s though, and the style may not be to your taste. There's also some period sexism that's not great (though surprisingly less than I expected. Possibly because Jean's meant to be a fairly liberated teen, as opposed to older ladies like Sue Storm or Janet Van Dyne.)

The Claremont Era (Starting with Giant-Sized X-Men, which introduces staples like Storm and Wolverine) is probably what will be the most familiar to folks who became used to the X-Men from other sources, like the cartoons. The Animated Series and X-Men '97 adapt a lot of Claremont era stuff, so it'll be pretty familiar.

It's also soapy and dramatic, and Scott (and Jean) feature very heavily. You'll also meet Rachel. Rachel is fun.

X-Factor's first run is something I'd recommend only after you've gotten into the character more. It's actually really good, IMO, and an amazing deconstruction of how much of a trainwreck the poor guy actually is. It's not always a flattering portrayal though, which is part of what makes it interesting. (It is good though to read the Madelyne stuff for yourself eventually, summaries tend to ignore the aspects that make Scott's side of things a bit more understandable, if not sympathetic.) Baby Cable is here too.

The 90s X-Comics are pretty fun too, like the earlier Claremont era, this is likely what folk are familiar with if they remember the cartoons. Costumes, characters, and so on. Scott is one of a very large cast, but he tends to have some really good arcs here and there. The art takes getting used to it. This is where you'll start seeing adult Cable as a major character. And another AU Summers child, Nate Grey. He's complicated.

the 2000s-2011 era of Comics have a lot of upheaval and events. Scott is still an idealist, but he's been jaded by a lot of events (and will be jaded by more). You'll see him get darker here, but not evil. It's pretty sad though. SO MANY big events though, Scott pulls off a lot of wild shit.

In 2011-2016, we have two Scotts basically. Avengers vs. X-Men is a massively huge event that changes Scott's role for a long time. For our main Scott, the next few years are going to read a lot like whump fic. He's going to suffer, people are going to blame him (unfairly, imo!) for a lot of things, and he'll be treated like a monster at times. That said, there are people who do see the truth and end up even joining him.

But also around this time, through shenanigans (read: Hank McCoy), the timeline is disrupted and the 1960s era Original Five (specifically circa issue #8) are brought to the future. They have their own adventures in lines like All-New X-Men (v1. and v2.), X-Men Blue, and Scott specifically has a solo series early on and then joins up with Kamala Khan's Champions and it's darling.

Eventually older Scott "dies" (it happens in comics). Young Scott continues though. When Young Scott goes to the past again, older Scott comes back (unrelated reasons).

For 2019-2020, there's a short run by Matthew Rosenberg, starting at issue 11 or so. The original team of X-Men is presumed dead (really they're dealing with some multiversal nonsense. Possibly Nate Grey's fault), and a returned Scott starts gathering new X-Men. It's intense, angsty and kind of bleak. This isn't about saving the world anymore, just maybe going out doing what they should.

From 2020-2023, we get a massive, amazing change in direction called the Krakoa arc. Scott's not featured as prominently here (It's Xavier's show), but he's solid in any series that he appears (Adjectiveless X-Men will always have him somewhere. He's very prominent in Teen Cable's book too.) Krakoa is something very different than anything the X-Men series(es) have done before and it's definitely worth reading. Though for my own taste, I like the return to form that comes with...

Our current era is "From the Ashes" and it's not actually a bad place to jump on. Everyone's a little scattered and out of sorts since the fall of Krakoa, but Scott, being who he is, has already pulled his own book together for the kind of mutant-rescuing heroics that he is wont to do.

As to where to start? Honestly, I'd go with whatever seems the most fun to you. Eventually, I think, you'll find yourself branching out and it won't be nearly so confusing. (There are also wikis, podcasts, and annoying pedants like me who like explaining everything.). Fans will often have their favorite special books (Children of the Atom, for example, is probably my favorite version of the O5 origin. It came out in 2001 and has a truly horrifying Jack Winters), and we'll always leap on the opportunity to share those things.

-------------------------------------------

as for 2. I don't know if you read the Giant-Sized finale of Astonishing X-Men, but they do have a scene where Scott's eyes start glowing again and Emma places the visor on him. It's a nice, quietly somber scene.

In current X-continuity, Scott does still need the visor. The inability to control his blasts may have a psychological component but there's also physical brain damage. (In the Krakoa arc, there are mechanisms where he might have repaired said damage, but it actually does come up at some point, and he specifically chooses not to. I hope I can find that page again, because I feel like there's a lot of interesting potential meta in that choice.)

I don't think they ever really revisit why Emma (or Cassandra, possibly) had been able to neutralize Scott's blasts/restore temporary control over them, but I tend to go with the interpretation that a powerful enough telepath could force a bypass with his powers, but it's an incredibly traumatic, potentially damaging, and ultimately temporary solution. Hence, what we see.

For her part, Jean Grey (at least in the modern era) is able to psychically block his powers. And that's always fun. (And sometimes a little kinky!)

[paganimagevault]

Kizil Cave 8 - aka Cave of the Sixteen Sword-Bearers 5th-7th C. CE

Murals from the Kingdom of Kucha, whose language was Tocharian B. The Kizil Caves are the oldest Buddhist major cave complex in China. Tocharians were very influential in spreading Buddhism in China.

"As the territories ruled by the Hephthalites expanded into Central Asia and the Tarim Basin, the art of the Hephthalites, characterized by the clothing and hairstyles of the figures being represented, also came to be used in the areas they ruled, such as Sogdiana, Bamyan or Kucha in the Tarim Basin (Kizil Caves, Kumtura Caves, Subashi reliquary). In these areas appear dignitaries with caftans with a triangular collar on the right side, crowns with three crescents, some crowns with wings, and a unique hairstyle. Another marker is the two-point suspension system for swords, which seems to have been a Hephthalite innovation, and was introduced by them in the territories they controlled. The paintings from the Kucha region, particularly the swordsmen in the Kizil Caves, appear to have been made during Hephthalite rule in the region, circa 480–550 CE. The influence of the art of Gandhara in some of the earliest paintings at the Kizil Caves, dated to circa 500 CE, is considered as a consequence of the political unification of the area between Bactria and Kucha under the Hephthalites.

According to the Jinshu, Kucha was highly fortified, had a splendid royal palace, as well as many Buddhist stupas and temples:

There are fortified cities everywhere, their ramparts are three-fold, inside there are thousands of Buddhist stupas and temples (...) The royal palace is magnificent, glowing like a heavenly abode".

— Jinshu, Book 97.

Lu-Guang mentioned the powerful armour of Kucha soldiers, a type of Sasanian chainmail and lamellar armour which can also be seen in the paintings of the Kizil Caves:

They were skillful with arrows and horses, and good with short and long spears. Their armour was like chain link; even if one shoots it, [the arrow] cannot go in.

— Biography of Chinese General Lü Guang"

-taken from Wikipedia

[vintagelasvegas]

Postcards of Downtowner Motel, 129 N 8th St at Ogden – circa 70s, 80s. The motel was opened by local attorney Robert Cohen in '63. It has been owned and maintained by DTPLV since the 2010s.

When Cohen opened the Downtowner it was called the largest "apt-hotel" downtown with 93 rooms. The land was owned by the Pinjuv family and Cohen owned the motel, along with downtown’s MacDonald Hotel, Crest Hotel, and the Strip’s Vagabond/Center Strip Motel, totaling over 500 rooms in all.

In the late 70s he was indicted in a child prostitution ring. Failing to appear for arraignment on charges of sexual relations with a 14 year-old, Cohen fled the U.S. and sought asylum in Israel. He was disbarred by Nevada Supreme Court in '79. Brought back to Southern Nevada, he plead guilty to reduced charges of statutory rape and received three years probation. In the 80s he was found liable for robbery and assault to guests at Downtowner motel because he failed to provide security. At his Crest Hotel, carbon monoxide poisoning caused two deaths and send others to the hospital. Throughout it all he fought for and won the privilege of gaming license to maintain slot machines at his hotels.

Metro officer and future governor Joe Lombardo appeared on the television show COPS in '91 making an arrest at the motel.

“This place is nice now. When I was an EMS, we used to carry bodies out of here all the time.” – Nef, 2019

Notes & Bolts. Review-Journal, 10/1/63; Couple Awarded $167,000. Review-Journal, 6/22/84; Phil Pattee. Fumes blamed for deaths, 20 injuries. Review-Journal, 7/6/85 p1; Monica Caruso. LV motels plan to cash in on mega resort boom. Review-Journal, 1/9/94; John L. Smith. Legal quirks allow former fugitive to buck the system. Review-Journal, 2/23/97.