#Creative Black Book 1995

[pixelfireplace]

[kaitaiga]

Archie “Frost” Campbell Profile

》[Open Profile] Disclaimer: as I’m still working through the lore of Task Force Dagger, Archie’s biography is still quite bare. Everything else is finished :)

General

Name: Archibald (Archie) Charles Campbell

Callsign: Frost, Dagger-01 (TFD)

Age: 29

Birthday: 16th November, 1995 -  Newcastle, NSW, Australia.

Face Claim: Callum Turner (Specifically - ‘Bucky’ from MOTA’)

Occupation: Fast Jet Pilot (F-35A Lightning II)

Affiliation: Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF - 75th SQN)

Rank: Flight Lieutenant (FLTLT)

Height: 183cm (6ft)

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation

Languages: English, Spanish, German

Appearance

Hair: Dark brown, wavy hair. Short back and sides.

Eye Colour: Grey

Facial Hair: Pencil moustache

Marks: None

Tattoos: None

Family 

Unnamed Mother and Father

Grandfather (Former RAAF 460 SQN)

Pet: Vader (Black cat with white markings on face)

Affiliates

Task Force Dagger

Captain Lachlan Jones (2CDO)

Sergeant Damien Whitlock (2CDO)

Sergeant Daniel Greenhill (2CDO)

Sergeant Joseph “Joey” Hernandez (CCT)

Talullah Jones (ASIS)

Personality

Myers-Briggs Type: ISTJ (Logistician)

Honest and Direct: Archie is a straightforward, no-bullshit kind of person. Will tell his peers how it is without holding back. 

Observer: Not one to talk much unless needed, Archie prefers to observe and analyse his peers or situation.

Archie is a level-headed person. He is calm and is able to keep his cool under difficult situations.

Archie doesn’t let his emotions drive his thought process. He is a logical person who bases his thoughts and opinions based on research and experience, and can become stubborn when he doesn’t particularly agree with something.

Skills

As a fighter pilot, Archie has inherited a range of skills apart from simply flying a fighter jet. There include:

Mental Skills: quick and accurate decisions, situational awareness.

Technical Skills: navigation, avionics, flight system and weapon proficiency.

Social Skills: effective communication, cooperation and working as a team, leadership.

Air Combat Manoeuvring (ACM), Fighter tactics and manoeuvres, etc.

Mission Planning

Maths and Physics, as well as creativity in situations.

Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE)

Archie also likes to partake in electrical work, commonly seen tinkering with devices and studying mechanical/electrical engineering concepts in his spare time.

Behind the Callsign

At a glance, “Frost” derives from his frosty attitude towards his peers around him. Being one to keep to himself majority of the time and only speaking when necessary, his attitude was often perceived as cold to others, even when he didn't mean it.

Though if you were to ask his squadron and ground crew, they’d tell you that they call him “Frost” due to his impressive flying skills, often leaving onlookers and other pilots frozen in awe. Almost like an advantage over opponents.

Biography

Archie was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia on the 16th of November, 1995. Growing up, Archie would listen to his grandfather’s stories of being a pilot on an Avro Lancaster throughout the majority of WW2. Though a little incoherent at times, Archie still enjoyed them regardless as they shaped his childhood and future to come.

Throughout high school, Archie would spend a lot of time volunteering at an aviation museum alongside his grandfather as a technician assistant, working on maintaining planes on display whilst rambling bits of information of various planes to visitors. Archie would also frequent RAAF base Williamtown, where he would stand just outside the base and watch Super Hornets scream over his head. He wasn’t the type to stand out among his classmates, much preferring to stick his head in a book and soak up as much information as he could on various aviation and engineering topics. He graduated with a top ATAR score of 97.

Thanks to his constant exposure to the Air Force along with his grandfather’s stories, Archie knew he wanted to become a fighter pilot from an early age. In his later years of high school and after, he worked diligently preparing for multiple officer and screening boards during his application process. He managed to score one of five spots out of hundreds of applicants.

Archie then attended the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), where he pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Aviation. He would be a maths tutor to a few of his peers in his spare time, but most commonly Joseph, his newly made friend who he bonded with over their love for Star Wars. 

Upon graduating ADFA, Archie was sent to Perth to begin his initial specialist employment pilot training (ISET), where he spent a year flying the PC-21. He graduated from Number 2 Flying Training School and was recommended by his instructors to pilot the newly introduced and mighty F-35A.

Now part of 75th Squadron, Archie is posted to RAAF base Tindal in the Northern Territory to continue his training, also managing to deploy overseas to various locations such as the US and Japan.

At some point, Archie was approached and recruited into Task Force Dagger on recommendation from Joseph. Working with TFD would show him his first set of real combat outside of simulations and practice exercises. To be continued…

*(Archie would have been 26 years old when the F-35A was first introduced into the 75th SQN, a few years after he graduated ISET (22-23 years old). For story purposes, assume the F-35 arrived earlier.)

Trivia/Preferences 

His favourite music band is Daft Punk. His favourite song from them is ‘Face to Face’. Also likes Coldplay, Kenny Loggins, Phil Collins, Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, etc.

In his spare time, he also likes to build lego sets and model jets. He’s also a gamer, preferring to play games like League of Legends, Cyberpunk 2077, Helldivers 2, etc.

He likes to wear Rayban Aviators in the colourway black/black or gold/green.

He is a big fan of Star Wars. His favourite movie is ‘A New Hope’ and he also really enjoys ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’. His favourite characters are Wedge Antilles and Commander Wolffe.

He likes to spoil Vader rotten! Buys him all kinds of toys. Even has a Death Star cat house. He has a really big soft spot for Vader which Joseph likes to tease him about, quote: “he is the only one to knock down that icy wall he’s built around himself.”

When Archie chose his aircraft preference, he originally chose the F/A-18F Super Hornet.

If he didn’t become a pilot, he’d become a mechanical engineer. 

After his grandfather passed, Archie carries his ID tags with him as a source of comfort and support. 

Archie was inspired by the character ‘Viper’ from Titanfall 2 and the song “Dodge This”.

[sunnydalestudies]

Wrestling with Whedon

Welcome, Scooby Gang!

When we discuss Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s impossible to ignore its creator, Joss Whedon. Once considered a nerd god, his fall from grace has stunned fans, leaving them just as heartbroken as those of the Harry Potter franchise. But let’s start from the beginning: who is Joss Whedon? Many consider Whedon the auteur of BtVS, a term used to denote “a film director who influences their films so much that they rank as their author” (OED); think here of Alfred Hitchcock. Although all of Whedon’s projects, including BtVS, were brought to life by an army of creatives, Whedon is still credited as the creator and sometimes writer and director, rendering his name and contributions inseparable from these projects. 

Joss Whedon might be one of the worst nepotism babies of television writing, with his grandfather being a writer on shows such as The Andy Griffith Show and The Golden Girls being among his father’s projects. Growing up in New York City, Whedon lived a life of luxury, attending Winchester College, a British boarding school, and graduating from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Although this all sounds like a peaceful and privileged life, Whedon has also come out to say that his parents “ran the home as though they were in the thick of” “a writers’-room battle” and that if he or his brothers “weren’t funny or entertaining or agreeing with them, they would cut [them] down or turn to stone” (Vulture). Because of his childhood experiences, Whedon says that “he suffers from complex post-traumatic-stress disorder” (Vulture); yet, despite not wanting to discredit his trauma, I don’t believe that this excuses him for how he went on to treat others in his life. 

In the 1990s and 2000s, Whedon’s career steadily grew and his cult following of fans with it. With projects such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992, 1997-2003), Angel (1999-2004), Toy Story (1995), Alien Resurrection (1997), Firefly (2002), Serenity (2005), Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (2008), and Dollhouse (2009-10), Joss Whedon became a god and a king among nerds and the comic-book artist Scott R. Kurtz even designed a highly successful shirt in 2005 that read “Joss Whedon is my Master Now.” Even within the workplace, “a sort of cult of personality formed around Whedon” where “the standard reaction to Joss was worship” (Vulture). During this time, many of Whedon’s projects did not succeed to the extent that many believed they should have, beginning with the “painful” interpretation of his vision for the original BtVS movie, as Kai Cole, his ex-wife, put it (The Wrap), and continuing through to the mishandling and cancellation of Firefly. As a Vice article puts it: 

“The culture of liking Joss Whedon was at this point already about defending him from various enemies—networks who canceled his shows, actors who he claimed said his lines incorrectly, or improvised too much. [...] His success was a symbol of success for liberal nerds everywhere, a sign that comic books and genre fiction could be taken seriously by the world at large. If you were wrapped up in that fandom, any criticism of Whedon became an attack on everything that nerds love, and it’s a dynamic that doesn’t exist only in the past tense.” (Vice)

This passionate and often obsessive fanbase aided Whedon’s breakthrough into mainstream culture in the early 2010s, when, within a single year, Whedon released three very different yet successful projects: The Cabin in the Woods (2012), a horror movie satire, Much Ado About Nothing (2012) a black and white DIY production of a Shakespeare classic, and The Avengers (2012), the renowned Marvel superheroes film. This year marked the height of Whedon’s career, with his following projects slowly marking his downfall. 

In 2015, with the release of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon encountered his first backlash and the first indications of flaws in his feminism. Viewers labelled the film as sexist because of a scene where Black Widow claims to be monstrous since she cannot bear children. Two years later, in 2017, Whedon’s scrapped 2006 Wonder Woman script leaked, and those who read it once again saw his portrayal of female superheroes as sexist, this time regarding his script as a nerd’s wet dream. Later that same year, Kai Cole, Whedon’s ex-wife, released a public statement about her relationship with Whedon and revealed his numerous affairs and over a decade of lying. In this article, Cole explains that they met in 1991 and were married for over twenty years before separating. In this time, spanning the most successful years of Whedon’s career, Kai Cole says: “I loved him. And in return, he lied to me. A lot” (The Wrap). Cole believes that “he used his relationship with [her] as a shield [...] so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist” (The Wrap). Whedon even did the opposite and used his feminist reputation as a defence in his marriage when Cole was at times “uncomfortable with the attention Joss paid other women” (The Wrap). She elaborates that “he always had a lot of female friends, but he told me it was because his mother raised him as a feminist, so he just liked women better. He said he admired and respected females, he didn’t lust after them. I believed him and trusted him” (The Wrap). Sadly, Whedon’s later projects—and even earlier projects, although viewers did not notice it—revealed that he did not solely admire and respect strong female characters but sexualized them for his own satisfaction. 

Whedon’s reputation as a feminist was so strong that he had even previously received awards for his feminist efforts, notably when “Equality Now gave him an award in 2006—presented by Meryl Streep—for his efforts as a male feminist” (Vice). Cole wanted to correct this vision of Whedon, who, as she says, “never conceded the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals, while at the same time, taking away [her] right to make choices for [her] life and [her] body based on the truth” (The Wrap). In the end, Cole only desired to warn against the previously normalized worship of her ex-husband and explained, “I want to let women know that he is not who he pretends to be. I want the people who worship him to know he is human, and the organizations giving him awards for his feminist work, to think twice in the future about honouring a man who does not practice what he preaches” (The Wrap). Cole’s statement was the fandom’s wake-up call, but many continued worshiping Whedon, simply acknowledging that he was human and made mistakes. At this point, all we knew was that he cheated on his wife—it was sad, but it was not anything out of the ordinary for celebrities and the average person alike. 

Over the years, more women have come forward to share their experiences with romantic or sexual relationships with Joss Whedon. In Cole’s article, she says that Whedon had his first affair on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and years later, after coming clean about this, he told her, “I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women. It felt like I had a disease, like something from a Greek myth. Suddenly I am a powerful producer and the world is laid out at my feet and I can’t touch it” (The Wrap). Whedon has used this feeling of helplessness as an excuse for his mistreatment of the women of BtVS numerous times, explaining elsewhere that “he had felt he ‘had’ to sleep with them, that he was ‘powerless’ to resist” (Vulture). If this reminds you of rapists blaming their actions on their victims’ clothing, professions, or behaviours, saying they couldn’t control themselves, you’re not the only one. Even as a younger man at university, “he admired strong women like his mother, yet he’d discovered he was capable of hurting them, ‘usually by sleeping with them and ghosting or whatever’” (Vulture). In the accounts from women who dated Whedon after his marriage ended, “he was not the hero they had read about in the press, the one who wanted to see women in control; he was more like the cold-blooded men he depicted in his work” (Vulture), and the Whedon at Wesleyan sounds a lot like Parker Abrams from early season four, or even Angel right after he lost his soul. Since his marriage ended, Whedon has sought treatment for a love and sex addiction, a path also taken by celebrities such as “James Franco, Kevin Spacey, and Harvey Weinstein” (Vulture). If Vulture’s article was more recent, I am sure Kanye West would also be on that list. Additionally, celebrities such as Russell Brand, David Duchovny, Tiger Woods, and Rob Lowe have also sought treatment for the same addiction, with many of these celebrities only doing so in response to a cheating scandal. Whether Whedon has healed and grown in this regard is unbeknownst to us, but many before him paved this path to redemption in the media’s eyes. 

The same year as Cole’s statement, Justice League (2017) came to theatres, which Whedon later labelled as “one of the biggest regrets of his life” and would contribute considerably to his downfall (Vulture). The original director of the film was Zach Snyder, who had his own group of devoted and worshiping fans, but he had to drop the project to be with his family after his daughter committed suicide, so Whedon took over the post-production duties. Whedon did more than oversee the final touches, though, and instead made drastic changes to the film. After viewers were disappointed by Whedon’s version, they demanded to see Snyder’s, which the studio released in 2021; yet, before its release in 2020, the cast began speaking out about their experiences with Whedon. What precipitated the avalanche of testimonies regarding Whedon’s workplace behaviour was a July 2020 tweet by Ray Fisher saying that “Joss Whedon’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable.” Following Fisher’s statement, allegations of racist treatment of the actor and character surfaced, and other actors came forward with their experiences. Suddenly, the fans who worshiped Snyder were attacking Whedon online, and those who previously worshipped Whedon weren’t sure what to do. Allegations of Whedon abusing his power continued to emerge over the next few months, but what put the nail in the coffin holding Whedon’s reputation happened in 2021 when Charisma Carpenter went to Twitter to rehash her experiences with Whedon on the set of Angel. This was not the first time she had discussed his “casually cruel” behaviour or her wrongful dismissal; in fact, “the actress has been talking about it with fans and reporters for more than a decade” (Vulture), but it was nonetheless the final straw. By the time the first half-season of The Nevers (2021) premiered on HBO, promising Whedon’s return to television, Joss Whedon had already stepped down as the showrunner, and the marketing did not acknowledge his involvement. In the year and a half since its airing, HBO has cancelled the show and removed the already aired episodes from their library—HBO, at the very least, is treating Whedon to the full cancellation treatment, and we will see who follows suit. 

But what does this all mean to the fandom and scholars? In truth, no one is sure, but they have been asking just that for the past two years. Since so many people around the world love BtVS so much and yet are so deeply disappointed in what has come to light about Whedon, many people have decided to divorce the art from the artist, completely ignoring Whedon’s role in its production, or they have erased BtVS from their lives. These are both flawed responses. The first response, where people have separated the art from the artist, neglects the richness of potential scholarship or understanding that becomes available by analyzing BtVS alongside what we now know about Whedon. As one article explains, “the belief that [Buffy’s] story was something other than a projection of his psyche is ultimately just another fantasy. Whedon did understand pain — his own. Some of that pain, as he once put it to me, ‘spilled over’ into the people around him. And some of it was channeled into his art” (Vulture). There is new and rich nuance to BtVS that fans and scholars alike should not ignore. The second response ignores the contributions of everyone else who worked on the show; it feels inappropriate to disregard the effort of these writers, producers, directors, makeup artists, costume designers, set designers, actors, and the list goes on, especially if they continued to contribute to a project they saw the merits in despite the work environment being less than ideal or even toxic and abusive. If they endured Whedon’s cruelty during BtVS’ production, then we should acknowledge and be thankful for their work rather than dismiss it because of their boss’ wrongdoings. 

After all, BtVS now belongs to the fans and scholars who have made it what it is, and although people throw this sentiment around, it is grounded in literary theory, that being Roland Barthes’ ‘Death of the Author’ essay from 1967. In this essay, Barthes puts forth that we, as fans and scholars, should not study a work in tandem with its author and that an author does not exist in the way we think of it. It’s a complicated essay, so let’s pick out some pieces that help us understand BtVS and Whedon. Barthes makes two foundational statements about authorship: “writing is the destruction of every voice, every origin. […] this gap appears, the voice loses its origin, the author enters into his own death, writing begins,” and “the text is a fabric of quotations, resulting from a thousand sources of culture. […] the writer can only imitate an ever anterior, never original gesture.” According to Barthes, the author does not create anything new but instead translates, borrows, and recontextualizes what already exists; further, he is not doing so with his own voice, but he is merely the medium through which these previous sources move—the author dies as the work is born. Relating this to BtVS, we must remind ourselves of what the writers claimed to be their inspirations, but also what we see within the series since the show as a whole may appear new despite everything within it has previously existed and carries meaning with it. All those pop culture references that the show makes seem inconsequential but may be much more significant than we previously understood since the significance behind these references impacts the meaning of BtVS. 

BtVS’ authorship is further complicated when we consider Barthes’ assertions that “to assign an Author to a text is to impose a brake on it, to furnish it with a final signified, to close writing. […] once the Author is found, the text is ‘explained.’” Although I just explained how I believe that we should acknowledge Whedon’s influence on BtVS, I want to emphasize that we will never truly understand the collective authorship of BtVS since so many talented writers were in the writing room, many individuals worked on the project, and even the viewers were able to impact the show’s development. Finally, Barthes makes the point that art belongs to the fans, saying that “the unity of a text is not in its origin but in its destination,” and I understand this to mean that the meaning of art is not decided by the author or writer but by the reader or watcher, and gives them what they need from it. Each BtVS viewer came to the show from a different place, and yet so many people found something special in it which spoke to them, and the writers may claim to have meant these things or not, but the meaning, or “unity of a text,” is not dictated by the writers, but by the fans, the “destination.” 

Joss Whedon may have written the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer script thirty years ago, and the show may have concluded twenty years ago, but BtVS never truly belonged to Whedon. BtVS has always belonged to the viewers, fans, and scholars, so although Whedon’s actions have added complications to the series and how people now enjoy it, they should not stop anyone’s enjoyment of it. 

That’s that for this Sunnydale study session!

Liz

TL;DR: Whedon sucks and I recommend you read these articles: 

https://www.vulture.com/article/joss-whedon-allegations.html

https://www.thewrap.com/joss-whedon-feminist-hypocrite-infidelity-affairs-ex-wife-kai-cole-says/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7d34y/when-joss-whedon-was-our-master

[cantsayidont]

Three mediocre recent streaming shows:

TELL ME LIES (2022–2024): Padded and flavorless Hulu adaptation of a 2018 Carola Lovering novel, set mostly in the late '00s, about a bland young white woman (college student Lucy Albright, played by Grace Van Patten) and her regrettable affair with a manipulative asshole (upperclassman Stephen DeMarco, played by Jackson White). Typical of recent Hulu dramas, it relies heavily on some surprisingly explicit sex scenes to enliven a dull plot and thinly drawn characters. Stephen isn't even an interesting creep, just a garden-variety douchebag, and Lucy herself has no discernible personality. (The eating disorder with which the character struggles in the book is also omitted, one supposes because creator Meaghan Oppenheimer felt it wasn't sexy enough.) The entire first season contains exactly one memorable story point: a nightmare-fodder subplot about Lucy being accused of plagiarism after reusing for creative writing class a short story she wrote on her LiveJournal in high school. CONTAINS LESBIANS: Lucy briefly gets a Black lesbian roommate (Zoe Renee), and one of her friends is closeted, but little comes of it until Season 2. VERDICT: Has the "I guess you had to be there" vibe of listening to strangers gossip about their boring college reunion, and Lucy's lack of personality becomes a really glaring weakness in the recently started second season.

TERMINATOR ZERO (2024): Convoluted, gloomy, pretentious animated TERMINATOR variation, written by Mattson Tomlin, but produced by Japan's Production I.G. and directed by Masashi Kudō. Set primarily in August 1997 — the eve of the nuclear war in the timeline of the first two movies — it focuses on the efforts of scientist Malcolm Lee (Yuuya Uchida) to convince his powerful new artificial intelligence, called Kokoro (Atsumi Tanezaki), to save humanity from Skynet; inevitably, visitors from the future seek to intervene. More conceptually ambitious than many of its predecessors, but also very muddled, with frustratingly hazy stakes and a lot of high-minded speechifying that sometimes clashes with this franchise's by now very tiresome story conceits. The 2-D animation is generally good, but it's dragged down by some dreadful 3-D inserts (particularly in the finale), and the action sequences lack imagination, wasting too much energy trying to echo familiar moments from the live-action movies rather than coming up with anything very new. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Not that it acknowledges. VERDICT: Tries hard — sometimes too hard — but doesn't ever add up to much, and if you're not sure the world needed yet another TERMINATOR spinoff, you'll likely remain unconvinced. In the time it would take to sit through all eight episodes, you could watch GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995) and most of TERMINATOR 2 (1991), so why not do that instead?

THE PERFECT COUPLE (2024): Unbearably grating mystery, ineptly adapted by Jenna Lamia from a trashy novel by Elin Hilderbrand, about a murder investigation on the eve of the posh Nantucket wedding of a cute middle-class zoologist (Eve Hewson) to the vacuous middle son (Billy Howle) of a mega-rich mega-bitch mystery novelist (Nicole Kidman) and her shiftless old-money pothead husband (Liev Schreiber), who's constitutionally incapable of keeping it in his pants. Plays like a Benoit Blanc mystery without Benoit Blanc, laboring under the misapprehension that just showing rich people being entitled, racist assholes constitutes incisive social satire, and the entire cast (which also includes Isabelle Adjani and Dakota Fanning) is unbelievably bad, not helped by a total lack of coherent character motivations. Stupid, abrasive, and stretching the story to six one-hour episodes makes it a real endurance test. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Just some '90s-style comic relief gay guys. VERDICT: Like broken glass on the beach, featuring one of Kidman's career-worst performances. If you're in the mood for something like this, try the recent Peacock adaptation of Liane Moriarty's APPLES NEVER FALL, which is much better.

[princesssarisa]

Sleeping Beauty Spring: "Sleeping Beauty" (1995 Jetlag Productions animated film)

Jetlag Productions, whose videos were released by GoodTimes Entertainment, was probably second only to Golden Films as the biggest producer of animated "mockbusters" in the '90s. Their Children's Classics collection consists mostly of stories also adapted by Disney, including Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Pocahontas, and of course, Sleeping Beauty. Many children whose parents either chose to buy less expensive alternatives to the Disney videos or mistook the Jetlag videos for the Disney versions grew up with these 45-minute animated features.

The Jetlag Sleeping Beauty opens with the feast celebrating Princess Felicity's birth, while a voiceover narrator sets the scene. The time period is medieval and the aesthetic brings to mind sword-and-sorcery cartoons of the '80s an early '90s. Felicity has seven fairy godmothers, who are pretty, child-sized young women with wings and with bright-colored dresses and hair: Aura, Wisteria, Grace, Terpsichore, Melody, Amorata, and Primrose. But the feast is, of course, interrupted by the evil fairy Odelia, who, unlike the good fairies, is adult-sized, and wears wasp-like yellow and black stripes. She curses Felicity to prick her finger and die one week after her sixteenth birthday. But the youngest, most comical fairy, the feisty and clumsy Primrose, changes the curse to a hundred-year sleep. She also adds that when the spell ends, Odelia will die.

Of course, the King, Queen, and fairies still want to prevent the curse from coming true at all. To that end, Primrose comes to live at the castle to watch over Felicity, never letting her out of her sight. But one day, a week after her sixteenth birthday, a restless Felicity lulls Primrose to sleep, then sets out to explore the castle. Of course she finds a tower where a disguised Odelia waits with a spinning wheel. Primrose and the King and Queen reach her too late, and Odelia taunts them, sarcastically praising Primrose for improving her curse, because now Felicity is doomed to wake in a world where all her loved ones are dead. To prevent this, Primrose casts a powerful spell to put the entire castle to sleep; in doing so, she fatally depletes herself of magic, and turns into a red rose on Felicity's bed.

As the hundred years pass, Odelia makes every effort to prevent a prince from finding Felicity. First she surrounds the castle with impenetrable briars, and later she surrounds the briars with a magical pit that opens to swallow up anyone who comes near... and, as it turns out later, contains a giant named Valdar at the bottom. But at long last, the brave Prince Richard arrives, having had many dreams about the sleeping beauty. Primrose's spirit speaks to him (still as feisty and no-nonsense as ever), and with her advice, he conquers all the obstacles. But just as he reaches Felicity's bedside, Odelia appears and casts a spell to slowly turn him to stone. But just before the spell can kill him, Primrose's voice urges Richard to throw the rose that was once her body at Odelia. When the thorns stick onto her chest, Odelia is frozen in place, giving Richard the chance to kiss Felicity's lips. With this, Odelia dissolves into thin air, and her spells are broken. Felicity and Richard live happily ever after, and are last shown with their own two children in the castle garden, where the narrator says that their favorite flower was the primrose.

This is an interesting Sleeping Beauty. While the animation is cheap, and while some of the plot twists feel a bit unnecessary and melodramatic, it's still a lively and creative version, with more emotional heart than the frothier Golden Films adaptation. The waspish Odelia is definitely a better version of the evil fairy than Golden Films' screeching Ursula (though neither equals Disney's Maleficent, of course). And while Primrose's brash personality is sometimes more annoying than funny, her ultimate self-sacrifice adds an interesting bittersweet note to the story.

Like most Jetlag films, this isn't a musical, but it does feature two songs sung in voiceover: "Let Your Heart Make Up Your Mind," sung over the opening and closing credits, and "Princess, Did You Know," sung during a time-passage montage.

I also enjoy the fact that the voice cast includes several performers from very popular Canadian-made cartoons. These include Stephanie Louise Vallence (the longtime voice of Miss Clavel in the Madeline series) as Princess Felicity, 11-year-old Andrea Libman (the voice of Madeline herself at the time, and later of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) as Primrose, and Kathleen Barr (My Little Pony's Trixie and Queen Chrysalis) as Odelia.

Other Sleeping Beauties are higher art, but this inventive version is still worth seeing at least one time.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @thealmightyemprex, @reds-revenge, @fairytaleslive, @the-blue-fairie, @comma-after-dearest, @faintingheroine, @paexgo-rosa, @thatscarletflycatcher, @themousefromfantasyland

[jcdedmemories]

Welcome to New York {AUGUST LOVERSON} !! They are a {31} year old {CIS MAN} who uses {HE/HIM} pronouns. They’re a {FLORIST} who has been in town for {30 YEARS} living in {THE BRONX}. When looking at {AUGUST} you automatically think of {FLOWERS, COLD BREWS WITH COLD FOAM, DOG HAIR} but that probably makes sense since they also remind you of {RAFAEL SILVA}. You can always hear {NEW RULES} by {DUA LIPA} coming from their place. Who knows what kind of trouble they’re going to get themselves into.

CHARACTER INFORMATION:

full name: august loverson

nickname(s): auggie, gus

pronouns & gender: he/him, cis man

sexuality: homosexual

age: twenty-eight

relationship status: single

birth date: october 31, 1995

birth place: beaufort, south carolina

time in town: since february 2022

occupation: florist @ dahlia & daffodils

parents: dillon & maria loverson

siblings: dillon loverson jr, gabriella loverson, jacqueline loverson

personality: obsessive, energetic, impulsive, & creative

pet: none at the moment

APPEARANCE:

celebrity doppelgänger: rafael silva

height: 6'0"

hair color: black

eye color: brown

FAVORITES:

color: orange

non-alcoholic beverage: celsius 

alcoholic beverage: high noon watermelon

season: autumn

candle scent: macintosh apple

book: perks of being a wallflower

video game: spyro; save the last dragon

tv show: rupaul’s drag race

animated tv show: bob’s burgers

movie: anything marvel

animated movie: the iron giant

holiday movie: the grinch who stole christmas

disney movie: frozen 2

pixar movie: toy story 2

disney original movie: halloween town

candy: twizzlers

chocolate candy: snickers

Fruit: pineapple 😉

Vegetable: garlicky green beans

cuisine to eat: jambalaya

cuisine to make: anything on the grill

genre of music: country

artist: luke combs

song: beer never broke my heart by luke combs

Biography:

Being the southern golden boy is always something that August will be known for. He was the miracle child that Dillon and Maria were never expecting. After their first three children which all happened to be daughters, the two didn’t plan on having anymore and they didn’t even think that they would be able to. But for Christmas 1994, Maria had surprised her husband and children with the fact that she was going to be having another child. They were ecstatic that they were going to have one more and once they found out that it was a boy, they were even happier because they were going to have the son that they always wanted. 

Once August was born, it was like all the attention was on him because he was the son that they longed for. And even though August tried his best to get along with all his sisters, some of them didn’t really care for the attention that he pulled from the others. At the same time, Dillon and Maria were leaving the girls to babysit August whenever they wanted to go do things, which was always. The Loverson’s were not well off by any means but they didn’t live poorly either. And whenever August wanted something, they would try their hardest to ensure that he got it while his parents would tell their daughters that they needed to work for it. 

From a young age, August was always obsessed with flowers and he was always bringing them home and ripping them apart to make things like crowns, jewelry, and other things that most boys weren’t worried about. He liked to make things look pretty and sometimes that got him bullied in school but he never let it get to him. Speaking of school, August was your average student who slid by with some B’s and some C’s and didn’t care about graduating at the top of his class. He didn’t even care about going to college at all. 

Although he wasn’t worried about school, he did pay attention in some business and art classes to ensure that he was being the brightest when it came to opening up a business of his own one day and learning different era’s of art to come off knowledgable to a wider range of age groups. August was no dummy and if he cared about something enough then he was willing to put in the work. He did the best that he could in his hometown to try and create a business for himself and he was doing great at first but then business seemed to slow down that he turned to TikTok and was able to sell some things quite fast.

While selling things online were nice, he felt like he could do more if he went somewhere that was bigger. He decided that in the beginning of 2022 that he was going to be moving to New York to appeal to a different clientele (well that and there were many many more gay boys like him). While his business in New York was trying to grow, he wasn’t making enough on TikTok to live so that’s when he found a flower shop called Dahlia & Daffodils were hiring florists and he decided to do that along with his business on the side.

August has begun to make a name for himself and he has started to rake in some money that he never thought was possible. He has been able to send money back home to his parents for helping him get to where he was. He feels like some of his sisters are still judging him for being so close with their parents and he tries not to hold it personally as he wished he had more of a relationship with them because regardless of what they think of him he has always loved them. 

[thegirlzkpop]

˗ˏˋ BASICS ´ˎ˗

 ˗ˏˋ stage name. minju

 ˗ˏˋ birth name. kang minju

     ……❪ 강민주 ❫

     ……❪ MEANING. the surname 'kang' means 'ginger' in korean origin. the name 'minju' meaning depends on different factors and can mean clever or gem ❫

 ˗ˏˋ nickname. pretty nerd ❪ by members ❫, 4th gen princess ❪ by fans ❫ minj ❪ by members ❫, brainiac ❪ by eric, kevin, paige, and jacob ❫ nerd ❪ by maknaes ❫, kju ❪ by haknyeon ❫, savage ❪ by members and fans ❫

 ˗ˏˋ birthday. august 10, 1997

 ˗ˏˋ zodiac sign. gemini

 ˗ˏˋ birth place. seogwipo, jeju province, south korea

 ˗ˏˋ hometown. seogwipo, jeju province, south korea

 ˗ˏˋ current residency. seoul, south korea

 ˗ˏˋ ethnicity. korean

 ˗ˏˋ nationality. korean

 ˗ˏˋ languages. korean ❪ native ❫, english ❪ basic ❫

˗ˏˋ PERSONALITY ´ˎ˗

 ˗ˏˋ mbti. intj-a ❪ architect ❫

 ˗ˏˋ description. architects are one of the rarest personality types out there. architects can be seen as rational and often think for themselves better than others. intjs are always questioning everything and often like to figure things out on their own. this personality type has the goal of being successful and wants things to work out their way with no intent on slowing down. this personality type is extremely independent and would rather be left to do things by themselves. even though the architects are insanely independent and don't care for others input, they are still very caring. this type can be very affected by others pain and sorrows, especially if caused by them. architects are always searching for new ideas and knowledge. they can often be labeled as nerds or book warms which isn't too far off. this being said, they often have trouble fitting into social events.

 ˗ˏˋ strengths. independent, smart, informed, determined, curious, original, creative, ambitious, confident, honest, open-minded

 ˗ˏˋ weaknesses. overly critical, anti-social, anxious, arrogant, cold at first, socially clueless, skeptical.

 ˗ˏˋ habits. zoning out when she uninterested, giving people the stank eye, resting bitch face, picking at her fingernails, finger tapping, freezing when she's scared, looking for her members in large crowds, holding someone's hand in crowded areas

 ˗ˏˋ phobias. large crowds ❪ agoraphobia, severe ❫, bridges ❪ gephyrophobia, severe ❫, bugs ❪ entomophobia, mild ❫

˗ˏˋ CAREER ´ˎ˗

 ˗ˏˋ occupation. kpop idol

 ˗ˏˋ labels. cre.ker entertainment ❪ 2017-2021 ❫, ist entertainment ❪ 2021-present ❫, kakao m; formerly loen ent ❪ 2017-present ❫, universal music ❪ 2022-present ❫

 ˗ˏˋ training time. 2017-2019, 2 year and 1 month

 ˗ˏˋ debut. december 7, 2019

     ……❪ age; 22 ❫

 ˗ˏˋ positions. visual, lead vocalist

 ˗ˏˋ known for. visuals, sarcasm, her iq, vocals,

 ˗ˏˋ representative number. 01

     ……❪ she chose 01 because she wants her and her members to always be number one ❫

 ˗ˏˋ designed color. lilac

 ˗ˏˋ rankings.

     ……❪ singing. 9/10 ❫

     ……❪ dancing. 8/10 ❫

     ……❪ rapping. 4/10 ❫

     ……❪ acting. 8/10 ❫

     ……❪ modeling. 10/10 ❫

     ……❪ songwriting. 8/10 ❫

     ……❪ composing. 6/10 ❫

     ……❪ choreographing. 4/10 ❫

     ……❪ speeches. 3/10 ❫

˗ˏˋ FAMILY ´ˎ˗

 ˗ˏˋ mom. n/a ❪ 1974 ❫

 ˗ˏˋ dad. n/a ❪ 1973 ❫

 ˗ˏˋ siblings. hyunmin ❪ 1995 ❫

 ˗ˏˋ pets. n/w

 ˗ˏˋ notable family. grandma ❪ 1953-2020 ❫

˗ˏˋ PHYSICAL ´ˎ˗

 ˗ˏˋ height. 165 cm ❪ 5'5'' ❫

 ˗ˏˋ weight. 47 kg ❪ 105 lbs ❫

 ˗ˏˋ blood type. a-

 ˗ˏˋ hair color. black

 ˗ˏˋ eye color. brown

 ˗ˏˋ body modifications. 12 piercings, 2 tattoos

 ˗ˏˋ face claim. miyeon ❪ (g)i-dle ❫

 ˗ˏˋ vocal claim. miyeon ❪ (g)i-dle ❫

 ˗ˏˋ voice claim. miyeon ❪ (g)i-dle ❫

 ˗ˏˋ dance claim. chaewon ❪ le sserafim ❫

˗ˏˋ INTERESTS ´ˎ˗

 ˗ˏˋ likes. reading, eating, writing short stories, movie nights, skinship; acts like she doesn't, chocolate, fruit, cake, anime, shopping, doing makeup, babysitting her niece, hot showers, sunsets, making others happy, documentaries, expensive jewelry and clothing, hair treatments, mugs, having her nails done

 ˗ˏˋ dislikes. veggies, burgers, mushrooms, bugs, rainy days, messy environments, reptiles, loud noises, driving, long plane rides, packing and unpacking.

 ˗ˏˋ favorites.

     ……❪ movies. cruella ❪ 2021 ❫, parasite ❪ 2019 ❫, the fallout ❪ 2021 ❫ breakfast at tiffany's ❪ 1961 ❫ grease ❪ 1978 ❫, harry potter ❪ 2001 ❫ ❫

     ……❪ shows. outer banks ❪ 2020 ❫, winx club ❪ 2004 ❫, stranger things ❪ 2016 ❫, you ❪ 2018 ❫, hunter x hunter ❪ 20011 ❫ ❫

     ……❪ colors. lilac and black ❫

     ……❪ food. shrimp, lobster, bread, chocolate, mango ❫

     ……❪ drinks. water, tea, pepsi, smoothie ❫

     ……❪ books. harry potter, the silent patient, kim jiyoung born in 1982, the hobit ❫

     ……❪ emojis. 🫶🏻🥭 ❫

     ……❪ musical artists. red velvet, iu, shinee, sunmi, hyuna, beyonce, dove cameron blackpink ❫

     ……❪ songs. allergy ❪ (g)i-dle ❫, girl on fire ❪ alicia key ft. nicki minaj❫, lilac ❪ iu ❫, let me down slowly ❪ alec benjamin ❫, noir ❪ sunmi ❫ ❫

˗ˏˋ TRIVIA ´ˎ˗

     ……❪ she has an iq of 140 ❫

     ……❪ she idolizes sunmi and iu a lot ❫

     ……❪ she has never had a pet but she's always wanted a dog or turtle ❫

     ……❪ she says her mom would push her to study a lot and she grew up not doing any sports, only studying. her family wasn't very supportive of her being a trainee ❫

     ……❪ she has struggled with anxiety since she was very young, but she says it's gotten better since then ❫

     ……❪ her older brother is a well known soccer player ❫

     ……❪ her dad taught her how to play piano when she was young because he though it would help her become smarter ❫

     ……❪ her first kiss was in kindergarten because a cute boys friends dared them to kiss each other during lunch, she says they got in trouble for it ❫

     ……❪ she was an ulzzang on instagram during predebut and was trending for a while back in 2017 and trended briefly in 2018 when she officially deleted her account ❫

     ……❪ she likes alcohol and will drink often in between schedules ❫

     ……❪ her grandma and her brother were her biggest supporters when she decided to become an idol and even helped her pay any tuitions and fees ❫

     ……❪ she enjoys acting and hopes to be in a drama one day ❫

[yourtigerlily]

jealousy, jealousy

2007. it's a rainy day when Patrick and Richie began something that they are not supposed to. (I am DelilahAndTheUnderdogs on AO3, SISSIBVG on Wattpad, I have another tumblr ff account ELIFANFICTION. This one it's just my PC account) tw: cigarettes, weed, death, verbal abuse, mental health, alcohol, swearing (and getting creative about it), toxic behaviour, blood. it's an AU and Free Form fanfiction, don't like, don't read. dead dove: don't eat.

a necessary author note 

so, ugh, usually I don't post notices/notes for fanfictions.

but this time i do because i want to be sincere with you all.

when i first was intrigued by patrichie, it was in the movies’ universe, especially the first installment of the 2017/2019 two part movies. while with henry and bill i always kind of shipped them in the book too, in the first movie i felt between Patrick and Richie a tension, much more that in the book.

as for Patrick (and Henry tbh), in the book he plays the part as the “evil homosexuals” while Richie (and Eddie) is more like scared and “in the closet” homosexual trope because let's face it: in  the book they are written as children of their time, especially IT was wrote in the 80s and for the most part set in the 50s. 

Patrick is an abusive, who deserves nothing but death, in the books. Richie, in the books, copes with the fact that his mom wanted a girl with his passion with stand up comedy and ventriloquism. the book really touch many dark human sides, that's intriguing yet disturbing, like a lot. i do not recommend reading it during classes at 15. lmao, anyway.

at that time, it was different: expressing emotions, toxic masculinity and unhealthy standards in society (and Beverly faced this issue greatly, for the pressure to fit conventionally beauty standards and what meant to be a girl, set by a machist society — i mean, Eddie’s mom in the book doesn't like the fact that his son is friends with a girl, who she think is a slut, just because Be befriended boys) and racism, most of them are racist, the Bower's Gang predominantly and are loud about that, because it was accepted and normalized (hopefully today it's less but racism is still here) and people like Eddie's mom (still her lmao) thought it was disgusting to be friends’ with a black kid like Mike which honestly is the most pure and innocent kid on earth yet people cannot get pass on his skin colour. 

in conclusion, this is an AU but disturbing things will be there, though. i set it in the early 00s which was not the brightest time in our society, or its highlight because let's face it: I was a  pre-teen in the early 00s, so many traumas for me, and it's really long to fully unpack. here we are: me channeling my experiences through those characters which are really distant yet i can relate the most (Richie in particular).

enjoy this journey with me ~

weight is on my back

September 1st, 2007

A jet-black, straight haired boy was smoking a Malboro, in Derry Middle School's empty parking lot. Patrick Hockstetter was fazed, headphones on, Teenagers by My Chemical Romance playing. Derry was still sleeping. He looked eerily calm, on the verge of mass murdering, it seemed. It was not the case but not that far from truth, most days. He was simply angry. He wanted to scream, his voice stuck in his guts. His unhappiness was in his veins.

And there he was, Richard Tozier. A chihuahua trying to imitate a bulldog, Patrick thought. 

His blue eyes wandered on Richard's face. Why is he so magnetic for? 

He repressed himself. Suddenly, Henry greeted him with his annoying voice: «what’s up, fag?» He hated that word with a passion. He could not go against Henry because yes, his voice might be annoying but he's physically aggressive. Who isn't calling people with that word, meaning it as a slur? It's 2007, not many things changed from the 90s. He was born in 1991 and was four in 1995, when, fun fact, Richard was born. He remembers things, from that time. He doesn't want to, honestly. His dad beating him up senseless. Or finding himself killing his brother. 

He shooed away these thoughts, in the distant part of his brain. When Patrick was still distracted, he acknowledged Richard Tozier, nicknamed by many students (and teachers) Trashmouth.

Richard was awkward and talkative at the same time. Richard watched SNL way to much since he memorized by heart Bill Harder’s repertoire. especially, Vinny Vedecci and his italian gibberish.

Trashmouth reminded him Harry Potter, mostly the body size, the glasses and the talk-back attitude.

His cigarette was slowly burning in his right hand while looking at the short boy, absentmindedly.

«Let’s go» said Patrick, slapping Henry’s thigh «Nelson, first period, right?» said Belch «can we just skip classes? a smoke a joint?» then asked.

Patrick replied: «why not» while eyeing Henry, seeking his approval.

Every student went to their class. The courtyard went creepily silent. They moved around the building and Patrick went straight to his favourite spot, the gym. The other three did not care were he was, they went downtown, all together. 

The rain started to pour down ferociously, a growing mud smell went to Patrick nostrils. Something dangerous this way comes, he thought. He saw Richard standing there, behind the brown wall, under the gym canopy. He was smoking a cigarette and when the shorter guy saw Patrick, panicked a: «Oh fucking shit, not you» trying to run away. Patrick bloocked him under his body and shushed his mouth with his wide chalk-like hands. 

Patrick was dead serious when he whispered: «Now, Richard, shut the fuck up or I'll will kill you.» he made a brief pause, checking if the other three boys followed him but no, the were not there «or I can spare you from humiliation. There are Henry, Belch and Vic with me. You must not make a sound. Understand?» Trashmouth nodded, eagerly. «Or I swear to that fucking God, you'll never see the light again.» Patrick felt dizzy for a moment. Richard's heat was overwhelming. He removed his hand from the shorter boy's mouth and he distanced his boy for few inches.

«You are fucking insane, you know that, right Hockstetter?» said Richard with a glim in his eyes. 

«I know, Tozier» said the older one, lighting his joint «and you know that you are not safe with me, right?»

«Call me Richie» the curly haired one said, still smoking «and I don't care, honestly. If you want to excuse me, Hockstetter, can we make this important discussion in the gym?» 

They both tossed away whatever they were smoking and Patrick broke into the structure with Richie. The latter took Patrick's hand and he dragged him into the locker room. 

«Kiss me» said Richie, straightforward.

Patrick satisfied his request with an enormous pleasure: he put his lips on Richie's and began to devour him in seconds. Hands were traveling on almost naked bodies and Patrick realised that he was into Richie and his mischievous yet magmatic gaze, all this time. He tighten his huge hands on the other boy's curly hair while still deeply kissing him, tounge and all. 

HE'S MINE, MINE, MINE, FINALLY MINE, NOT EDDIE'S BUT MINE, his brain frantically shouted. 

«We should go back» said Patrick between his breath.

«Yeah, I think so» replied Richie, stealing another kiss. 

Their faces were still red when they dressed themselves. «Where have you been, Mr. Hockstetter?» said Mrs Orson when Patrick sat down. «I left my lunch at home, Ma’am» he lied. Mrs Orson wanted to believe him and she did. Patrick didn't know what to think when he came back to class, as confused as he was yet wanted more. Richie wrong-feet him. Big time. That feeling was new and dangerous. 

Anyway, Patrick always liked the taste of blood, after all. 

[ijustwantedtobeoneofthestrokesuk]

Eel Pie Island

South London

Eel Pie Island is an island on the River Thames, near Twickenham, South London. Named after, ‘eel pies’, served in the inn in the nineteenth century however, it was in the ‘60’s when the Island gained a hedonistic reputation which then led to one of the 2000’s most unique bands, the Mystery Jets, who helped create the ‘Thamesbeat scene’. 

In the ‘50’s and ‘60’s the Eel Pie Island Hotel ballroom had the likes of The Who, David Bowie, Hawkwind, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck, Black Sabbath, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones (The Rolling Stones played there every Wednesday for 5 months in 1963) played there before becoming the biggest hippie commune in the UK in 1970. The hotel went into disrepair after neglect and fires but the Island, accessible on a footbridge has continued to breed creativity as there was over 20 art studios there.  

Henry Harrison, father of Mystery Jets frontman Blaine (as well as an occasional band member) bought part of the Island which became rehearsal space for the band and the place where the iconic Eel Pie Island parties took place. 

Mystery Jets 

Originally called The Misery Jets, after a headline in a local paper about the Heathrow airport fly path above them. The South London kids changed to Mystery Jets when drummer at the time, Blaine misspelled the name when painting it on a drum skin and never looked back (or up). 

Blaine Harrison “For obvious reasons (Blaine has spina bifida which affects his leg muscles) I wasn’t a sporty child but I think my dad recognised the effect music had on me as a kid very early on and educated me with a steady diet of records to listen to, books and magazines to read and films to watch. I’d say it was Alan Parkers’ film ‘The Wall’ that had the biggest effect on me at that age. I remember hiding behind the sofa with Will when my dad put it on and just thinking ‘what is this fucked up shit!!?!?’ 

There was just something about the way Pink Floyd brought the sound and visuals together into something so terrifying that even a child could be impacted by it so strongly. I think it must have been seeing the way we reacted that made Henry think ��maybe I should help these kids form a band of their own… 

I met our founding guitarist Will at nursery school. When I moved to France to go to primary school, we started the band as a way of keeping our friendship. We played our first gig as Mystery Jets on my 10th birthday (1995). Our first album ‘Making Dens’ came out exactly 10 years later (to the month) and I’d say was a stylistic culmination of all the music we had been influenced by in the interim. Mainly my dad Henry’s record collection: King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Yes, The Beatles, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel… but also bands we got into at art school; Dexys, The Smiths, The Cure, The Stone Roses, The Cure, The Coral…. 

I think we might only have had a week leading up to our first gig on my 10th birthday so I’m pretty sure the gig mainly consisted of covers; Light My Fire by The Doors, Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd and Wild Thing by the Troggs. But we also played in the village bar later that summer and had a couple of originals by then, Rastamadeus and Moonlight Satellite. Both showed up on our first EP a few years later. 

Our first song was ‘Moonlight Satellite’. I’d say it was a group endeavour, with Will singing the verses and all of us singing on the chorus. It had one giant drum fill in the middle which usually lasted somewhere between 8 bars and 16 bars depending on how much Sunny Delight we’d drank that afternoon. 

We were pretty quick to adapt to the internet as a tool of mass self-promotion. We’d post the Eel Pie Party flyers on our Myspace and also spam the message boards of all our rival bands too. .org was always a good one because there was such a die-hard indie community there, and we knew Pete and Carl would sometimes post on there too so maybe they’d see it. 

Once every couple of months we’d post a new track on our Myspace and then anxiously wait and watch for the play count to start clocking up. Sometimes we’d make the tracks downloadable, but even if we didn’t, it usually wouldn’t take long for someone to rip them and start sharing the files around on Limewire. I’d say that was the beauty of it, it was incredibly democratic, but also like the wild west. If what you were making was good or exciting or had something different about it, it would find a fan base very quickly. 

My dad runs a boatyard on Eel Pie Island, on the Thames in Twickenham and there used to a famous blues club there which everyone from The Stones to Hendrix played at back in the day. It burned down in the ‘70’s, so we thought we’d bring some of that spirit back to the birthplace of British Blues and that’s when things really began for us. 

We were at an Art School nearby so would print out our own handmade flyers, and copy and paste a text message to everyone in our phonebooks a day or two before, “BYOB and invite everyone you know.” We’d book anywhere between 5 to 10 other bands a night, playing 20-minute sets and didn’t charge anything at the door. No sound checks, no payment, no backstage and no security. It was complete chaos. 

We’d put on a party every couple of months, over a period of about a year and a half. They went from 20 people sat cross-legged on the floor to people eventually showing up in their hundreds. Word spread so quickly. We’d have people falling in the river, swinging from the light fittings, smoking cigarettes indoors, and the room was covered floor to ceiling in Moroccan carpets so it was a huge fire hazard. On 2 occasions people left in ambulances. 

The last party was kind of legendary. We had all our friends' bands at that time playing one after another; Larrikin Love, Jamie T, The Noisettes, Good Shoes, Dustins Bar Mitzvah and a few others I can’t recall. 700 people squeezed into our rehearsal room and we estimated a good third of them were music industry scouts, managers and booking agents, who ended up signing most of the bands on the bill. And then the authorities showed up and served us a £20,000 noise abatement order if we tried to do it again. So it ended there, but that was the right time to kill it. I still meet strangers on the street who tell me they had some of the wildest nights of their lives at those parties.” 

After hosting parties at Eel Pie Island they started getting attention from labels. The Eel Pie Island EP was released via Liquid Sky Music in 2003 however, it was 2 years until their next release, a limited edition 7” single, Zoo Time on Transgressive Records which led to the band signing with 679 Records. The rest of the year saw the band release more singles. 

Blaine “The Monday morning after our final Eel Pie party, we received a phone call from our manager to tell us that 3 labels had put in offers, 1 major and 2 indies. I wouldn’t say it was a bidding war but it felt good to know that we had caught the attention of the industry on our own terms and on our own turf. We went with 679; the label with the most interesting roster, and put out our first 2 albums with them. Ironically, in the intervening years we’ve ended up being on both the others at one time or another too. 

Rather than decamp to a pro studio and make a record in an unfamiliar environment, we took our first advance and invested in recording gear to track ‘Making Dens’ in our rehearsal room on Eel Pie, the same room we held the parties in. It felt like the most likely way we’d be able to capturing some of that frenetic energy from the gigs onto tape. 

For the following couple of albums we worked in commercial recording studios, because we needed a change of environment, but ultimately we ended up having our own studios again from ‘Curve of The Earth’ onwards because it enables us to work at our own pace, and have a space to collaborate with other artists too. 

A lot of the press we got around ‘Making Dens’ focused on the father/son relationship, my disability and Eel Pie Island. At the time we felt that was partly responsible for the album not connecting as well as it should have, no one was talking about the music. For ‘Twenty One’ we went back to the drawing board and asked our favourite DJ, Erol Alkan (from Trash) to step onboard. It was quite a freeing feeling to get our debut album out the way and having paid homage to so many of the influences of our youth, now we could make a record inspired by what was new and going on around us. Remix culture, French house music, synths and electronics were starting to influence guitar music and we decided that’s the direction we were most excited about moving in. And we tried to learn how to write choruses. 

I think any band would agree that the early days are the most exciting, because everything is happening for the first time. The first time you sell out a gig, the first time you hear your song on the radio, the first time you get stopped in the street by a fan, your first Reading or your first Glastonbury. In a way, past that point it’s all about sustaining the excitement and maintaining forward motion. Touring isn’t for everyone, but for me, the more crazy our touring schedules became the more I loved it. Around Serotonin/Radlands we were touring so much that we all had to have two passports. I dread to think what our carbon emissions were like but regrettably, that awareness just wasn’t really part of the public consciousness back then. We’d finish a tour in the States and shoot straight over to tour around Australia and Japan. After a few days back at home to do our washing and demo some new songs it would be straight back over to Mexico and Argentina for more festivals. We’d literally follow the sun. During pandemic times it was hard to believe that’s what life used to be like but there you go. 

The bands we had the most memorable tours with are mostly the bands we’re still friends with today. We toured all around Europe and the UK with The Kooks in 2008 which was wild. We toured Europe supporting the Arctic Monkeys on their first album and again when they released ‘Humbug’. We supported Mumford Sons on a huge Arena tour across America and Europe which lasted the best part of a year. One of the most crazy ones was opening for Klaxons during the height of the nu rave craze. The band were on fire and the audiences were nuts. I remember us all going to Disneyland together on a day off and Simon from Klaxons getting recognised on Space Mountain and thinking how perfect it was. It doesn’t get better than that. Job done.” 

2 months before the release of 7th album, A Billion Heartbeats in April 2020 William left the band. The release timing was unfortunate as it came at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, pausing all of the promotional campaigns, leading to the album reaching no.85.  

Blaine “I could easily moan about how the entire campaign of ‘A Billion Heartbeats’ was plagued with obstacles, but so many of them were just completely outside of our control. 2 weeks before the album was meant to be released I went into hospital with a critically inflamed leg injury, pushing the campaign back 6 months to allow for my recovery. Then a month before the re-release the world went into lockdown and all the vinyl plants closed down.  

Suddenly the streets were empty and no one was riding the tubes so we had no choice but to pull all our adverts and billboards. We also couldn’t tour around the record stores which just flatlined the sales, so yeah, the album never got the send off it deserved. But I still feel incredibly proud of it. It was the first time we addressed big social questions and themes in such a head-on way” 

Whilst Mystery Jets were on the rise out of Eel Pie Island there were a bunch of young South and West London groups joining them, building a vibrant community. These included scene favourites Good Shoes and Larrikin Love as well as indie heavyweights The Maccabees and Jamie T. 

Good Shoes

Good Shoes were on the horizon in Kingston and they would become Eel Pie Island party regulars.  

School mates, Rhys Jones and Steve Leach had been playing music as a hobby in 2003 with Rhys on vocals and Steve on guitar. The pair had their first gig in January 2004 at a charity event at The Peel in Kingston where they called themselves Good Shoes. After a few months, the hobby transformed into a band when Rhys’ brother Tom and fellow Raynes Park High School mate Joel Cox got on board.  

As a 4-piece they played their first gig at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University on the 1st February 2005. This was followed up with a gig at an Eel Pie Island Island party before playing as many London shows as possible. 

Think Before You Speak, the bands' debut album was released in March 2007 and they built up a following as they went on tour with several bands including The Rakes, Franz Ferdinand, The Pigeon Detectives and Maximo Park. 

Although the band showed promise, they split up after releasing their second album, ironically called No Hope, No Future. 

The Rumble Strips

The Rumble Strips, headed by Charlie Waller were a band that briefly exploded into the world however their history dates back to when they were at school in Devon. 

Charlie “I loved Shakin’ Stevens as a young kid. My first gig was Vanilla Ice at Cornwall Coliseum when I was 19 or 11. Both pretty cool! My uncle bought me a guitar when I was 8 and would teach me chords and simple blues songs.  

I guess I properly got into music in a big way like a lot of people my age with Nirvana and all the early ‘90’s grunge stuff. I stopped playing sport and started smoking with the skinny scruffy boys. I remember my dad had a guy he worked with who knew I liked music. He decided I should be educated and would make me tapes of blues and doo-wop. I really loved The Coasters from that. I loved the humour and all the range of voices.  

I started going to a sort of music youth club when I was 12 with my friend Sam who became the bass player in The Rumble Strips. It was run by Henry's dad who taught us Captain Beef Heart and Frank Zappa songs. That became a band called The Mother Eating Blackberries. That then split into different bands when were around 14. I was in one called Harry and The Hormones and Tom and Henry from The Rumble Strips had a great Talking Heads kind of ska band called Scarper.  

I don’t know if it was because we were in the countryside, or that it was just that time in general, but we would listen to all sorts of old music. It felt very untethered by what was fashionable. Though I did love Gorky's Zygotic Mynci from that time. That was a band that always seemed to link us when we were older. 

I would buy a lot of old records. I loved The Kinks and Bonzo Dog Doo Bah Band. When I discovered Adam and The Ants I got pretty obsessed with them and collected most of that. I still think Kings of the Wild Frontier is a masterpiece. 

I moved to London to go to art college. The band I was playing in moved to London as well. We broke up around about the time I finished college. I started meeting up with Tom who was also without a band. We would get stoned and write boy band pop songs to make ourselves laugh. Some of them were quite good so we started writing songs that we would actually like to play. 

The first Rumble Strips was me, Tom and Harry on keyboards, who went on to make our early videos. He’s now a YouTube star going around the UK in a tiny speedboat. 

Eventually, we got Matt to play drums who was in The Hormones/Action Heroes with me, and Henry moved to London and played keyboards and trumpet. Then Sam joined us on bass. 

I met Mark (Vincent Vincent) at Chelsea College of Art. I remember talking to him quite early on about music. He really liked Bob Dylan who I like now, but at the time thought was a bit moany groany. We both liked the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band though, and early rock n roll. 

We shared a studio in college at some point and got a lot closer, then we lived together with some other guys in our last year. We also lived together after college. We were very close and did a lot together.  

I remember driving in his car listening to Dion and the Belmont’s. We thought that it would be cool if there was a band like that now. With all the harmonies and stuff. Then we thought well we could just do one. It felt like an exciting thought. 

We had a duo for a while called the Heartbreak Snakes. We played every week in The Ten Bells pub in Spitalfields. We would write a new song for each gig I think. It was a lot of fun.” 

The Rumble Strips weren’t getting anywhere. Mark invited him to join Vincent Vincent & The Villains and it was great until EMI was offering them a record deal and Chrysalis came along with a publishing deal but both of them wanted Charlie to focus on Vincent Vincent & The Villains, not The Rumble Strips which put Charlie in a difficult situation, he loved being a frontman and his Rumble Strips mates who he’d grown up with. Without Charlie, there wasn’t no Rumble Strips whereas in Vincent Vincent & The Villains he was sharing frontman duties with his best friend.  

He chose The Rumble Strips and moved out of the flat, the pair didn’t speak for a while, they made up and both blame themselves for being egotistical lads.  

 “I was probably a bit egotistical or something and didn’t quite have Mark’s confidence, so I think I could be a bit quiet and grumpy. I do regret that now. It’s a shame we didn’t record one album. There were some great songs that just got lost. It probably spurred us both on to get signed when we went our separate ways, but I think it maybe took some of the fun out of it.  

I was quite driven, but maybe not always happy. I remember my girlfriend telling me I was a cliche, which I probably was a bit. 

The Rumble Strips did a couple of singles with Transgressive Records, then signed a deal with Island in 2006. Getting a record deal had just seemed like such a big drive for so long. It did make a lot of things easier, but ultimately it has to be the band that still drives it. 

I didn’t feel like we were part of a scene, but maybe everyone feels that way a bit. I never really thought of us as an indie band. I think I wanted to be more funny than cool. We did hang out and play with a lot of bands though. I liked them as well. We probably weren’t that different.”

The Rumble Strips were featured on the Sound Of 2007 list, headlined an NME tour and their biggest single, Girls and Boys got played on ads. The debut album was recorded in America while Mark Ronson produced the second album. 

Charlie “I remember jamming in a studio one time. I was on one keyboard, Mark was on one keyboard, Dave from the Zutons was on bass and Sean Lennon was on drums.  

I had no idea how to work the thing I was playing and I was quite high. I remember thinking to myself at one point that this is really bizarre and something that I would always remember. Also that it sounded pretty terrible. 

We got dropped by Island and my marriage broke up so I went on a long holiday to Cuba. I was 30 and it was the first time since I was about 14 that I wasn't obsessed with being in a band. I got back and met up with everyone and said that it’s quite nice not being in a band. They kind of agreed so we just stopped. It was pretty chilled I think. 

We got together and did some more recordings around 2016. I like the thought that we could maybe do that every 10 years. I really love them all.” 

So, what about Vincent Vincent & the Villians…?

Mark Ogus, or Vincent Vincent as he became known as was introduced to ‘50’s rock ‘n’ roll after discovering his dad's record collection in his late teens. Mark was creative and went to art school where a lot of his work had a connection to music. While studying he met Charlie who he was in awe of, he used to watch his band Action Heroes and his on-stage persona made him want to do the same. 

In 2003 Mark formed The Vincents, he wanted to be something more than “Mark” so he created a persona where he became Vincent Vincent and the band was Vincent Vincent & The Villains. Mark got creative on all aspects, everything was thought out, their live show was a performance, they had a ‘look’ and Mark was hands-on with artwork too while the sound was influenced by his love of ‘50’s rock ‘n’ roll. The band gained interest from labels and management early on. 

Smoking Gun released the first single in March 2004, XFM’s John Kennedy picked up a copy from Rough Trade, he played it regularly on XFM. Both Radio 1 and the NME started to support them before signing to EMI in 2006. 

With tension between Charlie and his two bands building Mark was inspired to write Johnny Two Bands about the situation, the song became Vincent Vincent & The Villains biggest song and Mark had to have an awkward chat about the song as they had become friends again by the time the song was released. 

EMI made them rerecord Johnny Two Bands with Stephen Street which wasn’t an enjoyable experience as the producer ripped out the fun of the process while Mark was already hating the song anyway. That resentment towards the song continued when they had to perform it (mime) on Top Of The Pops and it was the start of the end for the band.  

Instead of releasing new material, EMI made the band rerelease the early singles.  In 2008 the band released the long-awaited debut album, but they were already seeing a decline as the crowds at gigs were getting smaller, they were skint and lost in their 20’s watching their mates moving on with their life and they were going backward. There was no future for the band who faded away. 

Les Incompetents

When it comes to the 2000’s indie, it’s impossible to overlook Fred MacPherson who was a fan as much as a musician. Once the Londoner discovered bands, he wanted to be in one, before even hearing The Strokes he was obsessed, they oozed cool and, like Alex Turner (and many boys in this era), he just wanted to be one of them.  

While at school he formed Les Incompetents (2004), a band with 8 members, 2 of which (including Fred) were lead singers. They liked the idea of being in a band more than doing the work required to be in a band. Fred and Chris would turn up to house parties and whip out the acoustic guitar and play some covers. Hotel Yorba was the first song they learned, its simplicity inspired them to write their own.  

After telling everyone they were in a band to sound cool, despite not having any songs they got a gig at The Rhythm Factory in Whitechapel but they needed a demo. They put a song together, recorded it on a 4-track and badgered the venue. They ended up supporting Martha Wainwright for their first-ever gig.  

They started playing around London, they’d be on stage more than rehearsing, it was mostly chaotic but each gig was an opportunity to meet people. After being introduced to the Mystery Jets, Les Incompetents played the Eel Pie Island parties where they discovered a scene that was bubbling underneath with the likes of Larrikin Love and Jamie T. Fred appears on Zoo Time from the Mystery Jets debut album while Jamie T’s songwriting changed the way Fred structured songs.  

Way Out West gigs were the first time they felt like they had a crowd who was into them. The band was still at school when they released their first double A-side single Much Too Much/Reunion (2005) on White Heat Records having played White Heat club night a handful of times. Matty who ran the club and label was into the band early on. The boys had been regulars at the central London indie disco since 15 (it was pretty easy to get fake ID back then). 

Fred had a proactive personality, building relationships online as well as IRL. Fanboying Test Icicles on MySpace and connecting on the forums. He did work experience at Drowned In Sound and despite being involved in the party scene from an early age he was sober until he was 23. 

They’d study all the bands, how they dressed, where they went out and how they wrote songs, taking influences from across the scene, How It All Went Wrong, their most recognised song was written after listening to Razorlight. 

The bandmates stopped getting along with each other by 2006 and they realised they didn’t have enough songs for an album or plans for progression. There were so many bands out there, Les Incompetents weren’t signable. In June, as the band was about to put an end to it, Billy Leeson, the bands' other singer was attacked after an argument on the night bus and went into a coma for 3 weeks, during this time How It All Went Wrong started to get attention.  

On the 1st September Les Incompetents announced on MySpace that they were to split up and they would be playing one final gig at the 100 Club in November, which sold out. They ended up playing Way Out West at Acton Town Hall a few days later with Late Of The Pier, Fear Of Flying, Jamie T and Kid Harpoon (who has gone to be Harry Styles songwriter).  

Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man 

One month after Les Incompetents split Fred, Sean and Tommy formed Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man, a very different band to Les Incompetents on many levels. Where the former played live and rarely rehearsed, Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man was the opposite, where Les Incompetents were a bit messy and fun, the latter was dark, intense and self-indulgent.  

They were heavily influenced by prog rock, Nick Cave and Doom Metal, the sound was gloomy but it was a dark time for the lads too who were in their early 20’s. Having put the groundwork in with Les Incompetents it didn’t take long for them to get a record deal with Transgressive. After just over 3 years the band split up but they never had the legacy of Les Incompetents.  

Before Fred’s next big move, he had a few projects for fun including a comedy rap group with Charlie from Noah & The Whale and King Charles during the short-living ‘grindie’ scene. There are no recordings but they did support JME. There was Captain Kick and the Cowboy Ramblers, another line-up including Charlie of Noah & The Whale as well as some of Mumford & Sons. 

He’d seen friends like Jamie T, Mystery Jets, Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons breakthrough and get jealous of their success. On MTV2 he’d interview the likes of Kings Of Leon and Interpol at festivals which would inspire him to have another shot at it, form his next band who we’ll come on to later.

Test Icicles

Over the years Fred, like many (including Harry Styles and Beyonce) has collaborated with Dev Hynes who arrived with the explosive trio, Test Icicles who were only around for 2 years and released 1 album but Circle. Square. Triangle. is a generation-defining song.

Lightspeed Champion

After the noise and neon with Test Icicles, nobody would have predicted Dev Hynes next move, Lightspeed Champion. After leaving his East London life behind him in 2007, moved to New York and wrote songs that shared country/folk influences which turned into the solo project. His touring band included Florence Welch while Alex Turner, Faris Badwan, Fred MacPherson, Jack Penate and Keith Murray made appearances on stage. 

Blood Orange

Lightspeed Champion lasted 2 albums then Dev reinvented himself once again with another very different solo project, Blood Orange. He went into “producer” mode with Blood Orange which is beat-driven, soulful and smooth with r ‘n’ b vibes that has taken Dev into A-lister territory. 

Jamie T

South London-born Jamie Alexander Treays launched himself onto the music scene with his half sing/half rap acoustic songs on London’s pub circuit under the stage name, Jamie T. His demos started to make their way through the online forums and on MySpace then in 2006 his songs started to get radio play. 

In July 2006 Jamie’s breakthrough came with Shelia, a huge hit that sounded nothing like anything out there. It was followed by If You've Got The Money then Calm Down Dearest. 

His debut album, Panic Prevention documents his struggles with panic attacks as a kid and it became a cult classic, while follow-up, Kings & Queens reached a broader audience with breakout single, Sticks ‘n’ Stones. 

“Where is Jamie T?” campaigns floated online after he’d gone quiet for some time but finally, after a 5-year wait he returned with Carry On The Grudge and Zombie, another defining song that showed punk influences and he can continue to disappear for years but he will be missed. 

The Maccabees

As schools go, ​​Alleyn's School in Dulwich is one to have bred some talent in such a short about of time as Florence and the Machine’s Florence Welch, Jessie Ware, Jack Penate and Felix White of The Maccabees all attended.  

Jack was already a keen guitarist and Felix was obsessed with Oasis. After months of persuading, Felix got Jack to form a band together, they called themselves Jack’s Basement, as that’s where they practiced. The pair played a handful of gigs together, sharing the stage with The Maccabees who had already been going.  

In 2004 when school was over Jack went solo and encouraged Felix to join his brother who was in The Maccabees. Frontman Orlando Weeks was heading to Brighton for uni so the rest of the band found jobs in bars and joined him on the south coast.  

The band wrote a bunch of songs, played some gigs, wrote another bunch of songs, played more gigs. Each bunch of songs showed improvements and after the fourth time of trying everything clicked into place and they wrote X-Ray. Inspired by Interpol and The Strokes togetherness but with The Maccabees twist (play as fast as they can) it became their first single, receiving support from XFM and Radio 1 and released on 7”.  

Fiction Records picked the band up and debut album Colour It In stood strong against what other bands were releasing at the time, however, the label weren’t completely comfortable with it until they heard a slight twist in creativity with the acoustic love song, Toothpaste Kisses, which took the band into the mainstream. 

The band returned to Brighton to follow up the debut album, writing and recording for Wall Of Arms was a very different process. For 6 months the band would go into the rehearsal rooms for 8 hours a day to write the album. Some days they would come up with nothing, other times they’d spend hours working on a singular guitar part but when creativity came, all of them would jump on it. They’d end each day going home and getting stoned. 

A breakthrough moment for the band was when their manager played them The Teardrop Explodes albums, it inspired them to use instruments differently, specifically brass. The new outlook on sounds is what shapes the layers on the record which Colour It In lacked. They headed to Paris for 4 months to record the album with producer Markus Dravs who had recently worked on Arcade Fires album, another complex sounding record in terms of instrumental arrangements.  

The label had allowed the band time to discover themselves, focus on who The Maccabees were and develop. Patience paid off as Wall Of Arms (May 2009) set a new bar, not only for themselves but for other bands, it was no longer acceptable to lazily piece together something basic. 

Another very different approach came for their third record compared to how they worked on their previous releases. Following the success of Wall Of Arms The Maccabees were full of confidence and the label gave them creative freedom. Given To The Wild was self-produced, at their home in Brighton where, after years of being a live band, playing as fast as they physically could, they focussed on becoming a studio band where detail mattered. 

The bands’ fourth album, Marks To Prove It was an intense period for The Maccabees who were reaching their late 20’s. They returned to London where they discovered The Jesus and Mary Chain’s former recording studio, The Drug Store in Elephant & Castle which had been left derelict. It took them 4 years to create the album as they struggled to find structure but it was finally released in July 2015. 

After the 4 tough years making Marks To Prove It and 2 years of touring, the lads who had now grown into men decided to split up. They ended it on a high with some epic shows at Alexandra Palace where they were joined on stage by mates including Jamie T, Marcus Mumford and Mystery Jets. It was an end of an era. 

The Maccabees story wasn’t over as, in October 2024 they announced they would be back in the next summer…

Fear Of Flying

Fear Of Flying was a school band that grew through MySpace but months before going to university they reinvented themselves as White Lies, a band that went on to have a chart-topping album. 

The first roots of the band go back to 2001, after practicing at home they started playing at parties.  Things started to get a bit more serious when they gave themselves a name, Fear Of Flying. Frontman Charles knew Fred Macpherson from school, they would go to gigs together. Fear Of Flying started supporting Les Incompetents, getting gigs through Fred’s connections and building up a fanbase on MySpace. The 3-piece played Frog, Nambucca and the Pleasure Unit early on as well as Way Out West and Young & Lost Club while being in sixth form. 

They managed to get Stephen Street to produce their first single as they were good friends with his son. The band was contacted by managers via MySpace who got them on a support tour with Jamie T. They’d jump on the National Express with their instruments after school around the country, soundcheck, play the gig then get a coach home and get up for school the next morning. Issues with the manager started to come up, they sacked him the day before supporting The Maccabees on tour, he didn’t take the news well and ended up stealing their equipment. They explained the situation to The Maccabees and they let them borrow their equipment and stay on the tour bus after gigs. 

Still in their late teens, on a gap year, they were reluctantly going to university in September as things with the band were starting to get a bit stale, the radio and press weren’t really supporting them and they had stopped playing live. 

In July 2007 Charles started messing about on a piano, within minutes they had Unfinished Business, a song that sounded completely different to anything they’d released as Fear Of Flying. 

They recorded a demo and had a complete rebrand with a new name, White Lies, and created a new MySpace page with no photos of the band members. With just one song on there they sent a link to Keith from Way Out West, he loved it, as did his industry colleagues. From then on they were inundated with messages from labels, managers and agents.  

The band knew they needed to build on this new sound, taking influence from the ‘80’s they wrote Death which got an even better reaction, then the third song, Farewell to the Fairground. These three songs have lasted throughout the bands' career to date, featuring on the setlist for every gig. 

NEXT CHAPTER

[lboogie1906]

André Leon Talley (October 16, 1948 – January 18, 2022) was a fashion journalist, stylist, creative director, and editor-at-large of Vogue magazine. He was the magazine’s fashion news director from 1983 to 1987, its first African American male creative director from 1988 to 1995, and its editor-at-large (1998-2013). Regarded as a fashion icon, he was known for supporting emerging designers and advocating for diversity in the fashion industry; while the capes, kaftans, and robes he wore became his trademark look. He served on the judging panel for America’s Next Top Model (from Cycle 14 to Cycle 17).

He authored three books, including the memoir The Chiffon Trenches, which landed on The New York Times Best Seller list; and co-authored a book with Richard Bernstein. He was the editor-at-large of Numéro Russia in 2013, before resigning due to anti-LGBT laws in Russia. He worked stints with Andy Warhol at Interview, Women’s Wear Daily, W, Ebony, and The New York Times. He once served as a stylist for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama during their time in the White House; as well as styling Melania Trump for her wedding.

In 2020, France awarded him the Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres honor for arts and letters; and the following year he received the North Carolina Award for his role in literature. He was featured in the documentaries The First Monday in May and The September Issue and was the subject of the documentary, The Gospel According to André directed by Kate Novack.

He was educated at Hillside High School, and North Carolina Central University, where he graduated with a BA in French literature. He won a scholarship to Brown University, where he earned an MA in French literature. At Brown, he wrote a thesis on the influence of Black women on Charles Baudelaire and planned to teach French. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[finishinglinepress]

FLP POETRY BOOK OF THE DAY: Cantos, Incandescent by Rod Carlos Rodriguez

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/cantos-incandescent-by-rod-carlos-rodriguez/

Cantos, Incandescent is a testimonial that runs the gamut through a multitude of realities of war, illness, heartbreak, and more. Various territories and stark observations are painted in cultural textures and landscapes that are sometimes pastoral and at other times, unforgiving. The different voices in each piece dare the reader to witness their collective, unvarnished truths. There is something for everyone within these pages. The messages and concepts imparted in this book will remain long after the last words echo in the reader’s soul. #poetry

Rod Carlos Rodriguez has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso and has trained as a guest lecturer at the University of Texas at San Antonio Writing Program. He is a poet, fiction, and non-fiction writer who has been writing for over 40 years. He has 3 books of poetry published: the award-winning Exploits of a Sun Poet (Pecan Grove Press, 2003), Lucid Affairs (Sun Arts Press, 2012), and Native Instincts (Human Error Publishing, 2016). He also has his upcoming 4th book of poetry, Cantos, Incandescent, that has been accepted for publication from Finishing Line Press. He is founder/chair of the Sun Poet’s Society, South Texas’s longest running weekly open-mic poetry reading (1995-2022). He was nominated for the San Antonio Poet Laureate in April 2012, April 2014, April 2016, and April 2018. He was poetry editor for Ocotillo Review, a literary journal/periodical and he was the editor of the Texas Poetry Calendar 2023 (Kallisto Gaia Press).

PRAISE FOR Cantos, Incandescent by Rod Carlos Rodriguez

Cantos, Incandescent is a testament to family, rites of passage, bloodlines, and the preservation of culture and language. Rod Carlos Rodriguez honors and opens the wounds within his words of those that society overlooks and overshadows—those forgotten souls weaving together the intricate fabric of our collective histories while maintaining a backbone of beauty. Rodriguez never shies away or sugarcoats the truth, and readers, should you find yourselves flinching, I challenge you to sit within the deep hurt and love bleeding on each page—a heart split open for us to devour.

–Hillary Leftwich, author of Ghosts Are Just Strangers Who Know How to Knock and Aura, a memoir.

Rod Carlos’ pages in Cantos, Incandescent are filled with poetic pioneers traveling through unsettling truths in certain territories. From the captured cries of the borderlands, his tonal passages reassure us that we are not alone in our moments of migrating through vulnerable terrains. Each poem is a nomadic glimpse into a scenic cache of nostalgia or the coursing fresh cuts of our inmost pain.

–Andrea ” VOCAB” Sanderson, San Antonio Poet Laureate 2020-2023

In this heartfelt collection of poems, Rod Carlos Rodriguez presents scenes gathered from landscapes that are both harsh and beautiful. The speaker’s voice holds the collective pain caused by heartbreak, illness, and war, “Tried to leave/ the desert where/ it was. It came with me”. These poems are songs in transit, that straddle the borders of land and of beliefs. Songs in the wind searching for meaning and a nurturing embrace, wishing “for one last lullaby”.

–Sarah Joy Thompson, Poet, author of The Everyday, the Mundane, and the Brave (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and Driving into Black Mountains(FlowerSong Press, 2020).

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #read #poetrybook #poems

[brookston]

Holidays 11.17

Holidays

Athens Polytechnic Uprising Remembrance Day (Greece)

Bowler Hat Day

Cervical Cancer Elimination Day pf Action

Coping With Uncertainty Day

COVID-19 Anniversary Day

Creative Alienation Day

Danny Devito Day (New Jersey)

Day of the Volkswagen

Electric Greeting Card Day

Freedom and Democracy Day (Czech Republic, Slovakia)

Global Day of Action for Climate Justice

Heidi Day (US Football)

Here To Go Day

International Candidate Attorney Day

International Day for the Fight Against Lung Cancer

International Day of Simulation & Gaming

International ERG Day

International Students’ Day

John Peter Zenger Day

Life Day

Little Mermaid Day

Malabo Festival (Equatorial Guinea)

Martyrs’ Day (Orissa, India)

McHappy Day (Canada)

National Alex Scott Lawson Day

National Black Cat Day

National Cowboy Shit Day

National Epilepsy Day (India)

National Farm Joke Day

National Jaden Day

National Journalism Day (India)

National Reuben Day

National Testosterone Day

National Unfriend Day

National Yeti Day

Omega Psi Phi Day

Polytechneio (Greece)

Presidents Day (Marshall Islands)

Public Restroom Hand Dryer Appreciation Day

Revolution Day (Mexico)

Shogi Day (Japan)

Smith-Magenis Syndrome (SMS) Awareness Day

Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day (Czech Republic, Slovakia)

Substitute Educators Day

Take A Hike Day

Tazaungdaing Holidays (Myanmar)

Tori No Ichi (Rooster Day #2; Japan)

Tuberous Pea Day (French Republic)

Utopia Memorial Day (Republic of Molossia)

Velvet Revolution Anniversary Day

World Day to Combat Prostate Cancer

World Peace Day

World Petroleum Day

World Prematurity Awareness Day

World Vasectomy Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Baklava Day

Homemade Bread Day

International Happy Gose Day

National Butter Day

3rd Friday in November

Children in Need Day (Ireland, UK) [Friday of 2nd Full Week]

International Stand Up to Bullying Day [3rd Friday] (Also 3rd Friday in Feb)

Music T-Shirt Day (Australia) [3rd Friday]

National Agriculture Day (Australia) [3rd Friday]

Substitute Educators Day [3rd Friday]

World Sustainable Toys Day [3rd Friday]

Independence Days

Blue Army (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Canterbury Province Day (New Zealand)

Cartagena Independence Day (Colombia)

New France (a.k.a. Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia; Declared; 1860) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Acisclus (Christian; Saint)

Aignan of Orleans (a.k.a. Anian or Agnan; Christian; Saint)

Al Dente Day (Pastafarian)

Bronzino (Artology)

Charles Lock Eastlake (Artology)

Dionysius, Archbishop of Alexandria (Christian; Saint)

Elizabeth of Hungary (Christian; Saint)

Gennadius of Constantinople (Greek Orthodox Church)

Gregory of Tours (Roman Catholic Church)

Gregory Thaumaturgus (Christian; Saint)

Gregory the Wonderworker, Bishop of Neocaesareia (Orthodox Church)

Hilda of Whitby (Christian; Saint)

Holda’s Blot (Pagan)

Hugh of Lincoln (Church of England)

Smoke Somewhat Out Day (Church of the SubGenius)

Summer Squall (Muppetism)

William III (Positivist; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

All Dogs Go to Heaven (Animated Film; 1989)

Americana, by The Offspring (Album; 1998)

The American President (Film; 1995)

Another Thin Man (Film; 1939)

Apples and Oranges, by Pink Floyd (Song; 1067)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Film; 2023)

Bolt (Animated Film; 2008)

Breathless, by Kenny G (Album; 1992)

Buddy’s Adventures (WB LT Cartoon; 1934)

Casino Royale (US Film; 2006) [James Bond #21]

The Civil War: A Narrative, by Shelby Foote (History Book; 1963)

The Dognapper (Disney Cartoon; 1934)

Double Fantasy, by John Lennon (Album; 1980)

Drip-Along Daffy (WB MM Cartoon; 1951)

Duck Soup (Film; 1933)

1899 (TV Series; 2022)

Fireman Sam (Animated TV Series; 1987)

GoldenEye (US Film; 1995) [James Bond #17]

Happy Feet (Animated Film; 2006)

Harlem Nights (Film; 1989)

Heroes (Film; 1977)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Film; 2000)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Film; 2023)

Justice League (Film; 2017)

Justice League: Secret Origins (WB Animated Film; 2001)

Land of Confusion, by Genesis (Song; 1986)

Let It Be …Naked, by The Beatles (Album; 2003)

The Little Mermaid (Animated Disney Film; 1989)

The National Lampoon Radio Hour (Radio Series; 1973)

A Nod Is As Good As A Wink … To A Blind Horse, by The Faces (Album; 1971)

The Punisher (Film; 2017)

The Queen (Film; 2006)

Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (Animated Film; 2000)

The Saint Overboard, by Leslie Charteris (Novel; 1936) [Saint #17]

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Animated TV Series; 2023)

1776 (Film; 1972)

Spirit, by Jewel (Album; 1998)

Steel Magnolias (Film; 1989)

Tales of a Librarian, by Tori Amos (Compilation Album; 2003)

Teaser, by Tommy Colin (Album; 1975)

This American Life (Radio Series; 1995)

Who Let the Dogs Out, by Baha Men (Song; 2000)

Today’s Name Days

Florin, Gertrud, Hilda (Austria)

Alfej, Elizabeta, Igor, Zakej (Croatia)

Mahulena (Czech Republic)

Anianus (Denmark)

Egil, Egon, Einar, Einari, Eino, Heinar (Estonia)

Einari, Eino (Finland)

Élisabeth, Élise, Hilda (France)

Florin , Gertrud, Hilda, Walter (Germany)

Genadios (Greece)

Gergő, Hortenzia (Hungary)

Elisabetta, Gregorio (Italy)

Hugo, Uga, Ugis, Urdze (Latvia)

Benita, Getautas, Gilvilė, Viktorija (Lithuania)

Hauk, Hogne, Hugo (Norway)

Dionizy, Floryn, Grzegorz, Hugo, Hugon, Salome, Salomea, Sulibor, Zbysław (Poland)

Grigorie, Lazar, Zaharia (Romania)

Klaudia (Slovakia)

Gregorio, Hilda, Hugo, Isabel, Victoria (Spain)

Naemi, Naima (Sweden)

Annalisa, Annalise, Annelise, Hilda, Hildie, Hildy (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 321 of 2024; 44 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of week 46 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ngetal (Reed) [Day 18 of 28]

Chinese: Month 10 (Gui-Hai), Day 5 (Ji-Mao)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 4 Kislev 5784

Islamic: 4 Jumada I 1445

J Cal: 21 Mir; Sevenday [21 of 30]

Julian: 4 November 2023

Moon: 21%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 13 Frederic (12th Month) [William III]

Runic Half Month: Nyd (Necessity) [Day 7 of 15]

Season: Autumn (Day 55 of 89)

Zodiac: Scorpio (Day 25 of 29)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 11.17

Holidays

Athens Polytechnic Uprising Remembrance Day (Greece)

Bowler Hat Day

Cervical Cancer Elimination Day pf Action

Coping With Uncertainty Day

COVID-19 Anniversary Day

Creative Alienation Day

Danny Devito Day (New Jersey)

Day of the Volkswagen

Electric Greeting Card Day

Freedom and Democracy Day (Czech Republic, Slovakia)

Global Day of Action for Climate Justice

Heidi Day (US Football)

Here To Go Day

International Candidate Attorney Day

International Day for the Fight Against Lung Cancer

International Day of Simulation & Gaming

International ERG Day

International Students’ Day

John Peter Zenger Day

Life Day

Little Mermaid Day

Malabo Festival (Equatorial Guinea)

Martyrs’ Day (Orissa, India)

McHappy Day (Canada)

National Alex Scott Lawson Day

National Black Cat Day

National Cowboy Shit Day

National Epilepsy Day (India)

National Farm Joke Day

National Jaden Day

National Journalism Day (India)

National Reuben Day

National Testosterone Day

National Unfriend Day

National Yeti Day

Omega Psi Phi Day

Polytechneio (Greece)

Presidents Day (Marshall Islands)

Public Restroom Hand Dryer Appreciation Day

Revolution Day (Mexico)

Shogi Day (Japan)

Smith-Magenis Syndrome (SMS) Awareness Day

Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day (Czech Republic, Slovakia)

Substitute Educators Day

Take A Hike Day

Tazaungdaing Holidays (Myanmar)

Tori No Ichi (Rooster Day #2; Japan)

Tuberous Pea Day (French Republic)

Utopia Memorial Day (Republic of Molossia)

Velvet Revolution Anniversary Day

World Day to Combat Prostate Cancer

World Peace Day

World Petroleum Day

World Prematurity Awareness Day

World Vasectomy Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Baklava Day

Homemade Bread Day

International Happy Gose Day

National Butter Day

3rd Friday in November

Children in Need Day (Ireland, UK) [Friday of 2nd Full Week]

International Stand Up to Bullying Day [3rd Friday] (Also 3rd Friday in Feb)

Music T-Shirt Day (Australia) [3rd Friday]

National Agriculture Day (Australia) [3rd Friday]

Substitute Educators Day [3rd Friday]

World Sustainable Toys Day [3rd Friday]

Independence Days

Blue Army (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Canterbury Province Day (New Zealand)

Cartagena Independence Day (Colombia)

New France (a.k.a. Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia; Declared; 1860) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Acisclus (Christian; Saint)

Aignan of Orleans (a.k.a. Anian or Agnan; Christian; Saint)

Al Dente Day (Pastafarian)

Bronzino (Artology)

Charles Lock Eastlake (Artology)

Dionysius, Archbishop of Alexandria (Christian; Saint)

Elizabeth of Hungary (Christian; Saint)

Gennadius of Constantinople (Greek Orthodox Church)

Gregory of Tours (Roman Catholic Church)

Gregory Thaumaturgus (Christian; Saint)

Gregory the Wonderworker, Bishop of Neocaesareia (Orthodox Church)

Hilda of Whitby (Christian; Saint)

Holda’s Blot (Pagan)

Hugh of Lincoln (Church of England)

Smoke Somewhat Out Day (Church of the SubGenius)

Summer Squall (Muppetism)

William III (Positivist; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

All Dogs Go to Heaven (Animated Film; 1989)

Americana, by The Offspring (Album; 1998)

The American President (Film; 1995)

Another Thin Man (Film; 1939)

Apples and Oranges, by Pink Floyd (Song; 1067)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Film; 2023)

Bolt (Animated Film; 2008)

Breathless, by Kenny G (Album; 1992)

Buddy’s Adventures (WB LT Cartoon; 1934)

Casino Royale (US Film; 2006) [James Bond #21]

The Civil War: A Narrative, by Shelby Foote (History Book; 1963)

The Dognapper (Disney Cartoon; 1934)

Double Fantasy, by John Lennon (Album; 1980)

Drip-Along Daffy (WB MM Cartoon; 1951)

Duck Soup (Film; 1933)

1899 (TV Series; 2022)

Fireman Sam (Animated TV Series; 1987)

GoldenEye (US Film; 1995) [James Bond #17]

Happy Feet (Animated Film; 2006)

Harlem Nights (Film; 1989)

Heroes (Film; 1977)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Film; 2000)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Film; 2023)

Justice League (Film; 2017)

Justice League: Secret Origins (WB Animated Film; 2001)

Land of Confusion, by Genesis (Song; 1986)

Let It Be …Naked, by The Beatles (Album; 2003)

The Little Mermaid (Animated Disney Film; 1989)

The National Lampoon Radio Hour (Radio Series; 1973)

A Nod Is As Good As A Wink … To A Blind Horse, by The Faces (Album; 1971)

The Punisher (Film; 2017)

The Queen (Film; 2006)

Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (Animated Film; 2000)

The Saint Overboard, by Leslie Charteris (Novel; 1936) [Saint #17]

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Animated TV Series; 2023)

1776 (Film; 1972)

Spirit, by Jewel (Album; 1998)

Steel Magnolias (Film; 1989)

Tales of a Librarian, by Tori Amos (Compilation Album; 2003)

Teaser, by Tommy Colin (Album; 1975)

This American Life (Radio Series; 1995)

Who Let the Dogs Out, by Baha Men (Song; 2000)

Today’s Name Days

Florin, Gertrud, Hilda (Austria)

Alfej, Elizabeta, Igor, Zakej (Croatia)

Mahulena (Czech Republic)

Anianus (Denmark)

Egil, Egon, Einar, Einari, Eino, Heinar (Estonia)

Einari, Eino (Finland)

Élisabeth, Élise, Hilda (France)

Florin , Gertrud, Hilda, Walter (Germany)

Genadios (Greece)

Gergő, Hortenzia (Hungary)

Elisabetta, Gregorio (Italy)

Hugo, Uga, Ugis, Urdze (Latvia)

Benita, Getautas, Gilvilė, Viktorija (Lithuania)

Hauk, Hogne, Hugo (Norway)

Dionizy, Floryn, Grzegorz, Hugo, Hugon, Salome, Salomea, Sulibor, Zbysław (Poland)

Grigorie, Lazar, Zaharia (Romania)

Klaudia (Slovakia)

Gregorio, Hilda, Hugo, Isabel, Victoria (Spain)

Naemi, Naima (Sweden)

Annalisa, Annalise, Annelise, Hilda, Hildie, Hildy (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 321 of 2024; 44 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of week 46 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ngetal (Reed) [Day 18 of 28]

Chinese: Month 10 (Gui-Hai), Day 5 (Ji-Mao)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 4 Kislev 5784

Islamic: 4 Jumada I 1445

J Cal: 21 Mir; Sevenday [21 of 30]

Julian: 4 November 2023

Moon: 21%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 13 Frederic (12th Month) [William III]

Runic Half Month: Nyd (Necessity) [Day 7 of 15]

Season: Autumn (Day 55 of 89)

Zodiac: Scorpio (Day 25 of 29)

[livingforstars]

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar 1910-1995 - September 1st, 1995.

"On August 21st, 1995, one of the greatest astrophysicists of modern times passed away. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was a creative, prolific genius, whose ability to combine mathematical precision with physical insight changed humanity's view of stellar physics. His most famous discovery was that not all stars end up as white dwarfs, but those retaining mass above a certain limit - today known as "Chandrasekhar's limit," undergo further collapse. His detailed mathematical papers and books on a wide variety of astrophysical subjects, including, for example, black holes, are classic references for research at every level. Obituaries are available from the University of Chicago Press and Reuters News Service, and a WWW page has been set-up to record personal memories."

[jcdedmemories]

Welcome to New York {AUGUST LOVERSON} !! They are a {31} year old {CIS MAN} who uses {HE/HIM} pronouns. They’re a {FLORIST} who has been in town for {30 YEARS} living in {THE BRONX}. When looking at {AUGUST} you automatically think of {FLOWERS, COLD BREWS WITH COLD FOAM, DOG HAIR} but that probably makes sense since they also remind you of {RAFAEL SILVA}. You can always hear {NEW RULES} by {DUA LIPA} coming from their place. Who knows what kind of trouble they’re going to get themselves into.

CHARACTER INFORMATION:

full name: august loverson

nickname(s): auggie, gus

pronouns & gender: he/him, cis man

sexuality: homosexual

age: twenty-eight

relationship status: single

birth date: october 31, 1995

birth place: beaufort, south carolina

time in town: since february 2022

occupation: florist @ dahlia & daffodils

parents: dillon & maria loverson

siblings: dillon loverson jr, gabriella loverson, jacqueline loverson

personality: obsessive, energetic, impulsive, & creative

pet: none at the moment

APPEARANCE:

celebrity doppelgänger: rafael silva

height: 6'0"

hair color: black

eye color: brown

FAVORITES:

color: orange

non-alcoholic beverage: celsius 

alcoholic beverage: high noon watermelon

season: autumn

candle scent: macintosh apple

book: perks of being a wallflower

video game: spyro; save the last dragon

tv show: rupaul’s drag race

animated tv show: bob’s burgers

movie: anything marvel

animated movie: the iron giant

holiday movie: the grinch who stole christmas

disney movie: frozen 2

pixar movie: toy story 2

disney original movie: halloween town

candy: twizzlers

chocolate candy: snickers

Fruit: pineapple 😉

Vegetable: garlicky green beans

cuisine to eat: jambalaya

cuisine to make: anything on the grill

genre of music: country

artist: luke combs

song: beer never broke my heart by luke combs

Biography:

Being the southern golden boy is always something that August will be known for. He was the miracle child that Dillon and Maria were never expecting. After their first three children which all happened to be daughters, the two didn’t plan on having anymore and they didn’t even think that they would be able to. But for Christmas 1994, Maria had surprised her husband and children with the fact that she was going to be having another child. They were ecstatic that they were going to have one more and once they found out that it was a boy, they were even happier because they were going to have the son that they always wanted. 

Once August was born, it was like all the attention was on him because he was the son that they longed for. And even though August tried his best to get along with all his sisters, some of them didn’t really care for the attention that he pulled from the others. At the same time, Dillon and Maria were leaving the girls to babysit August whenever they wanted to go do things, which was always. The Loverson’s were not well off by any means but they didn’t live poorly either. And whenever August wanted something, they would try their hardest to ensure that he got it while his parents would tell their daughters that they needed to work for it. 

From a young age, August was always obsessed with flowers and he was always bringing them home and ripping them apart to make things like crowns, jewelry, and other things that most boys weren’t worried about. He liked to make things look pretty and sometimes that got him bullied in school but he never let it get to him. Speaking of school, August was your average student who slid by with some B’s and some C’s and didn’t care about graduating at the top of his class. He didn’t even care about going to college at all. 

Although he wasn’t worried about school, he did pay attention in some business and art classes to ensure that he was being the brightest when it came to opening up a business of his own one day and learning different era’s of art to come off knowledgable to a wider range of age groups. August was no dummy and if he cared about something enough then he was willing to put in the work. He did the best that he could in his hometown to try and create a business for himself and he was doing great at first but then business seemed to slow down that he turned to TikTok and was able to sell some things quite fast.

While selling things online were nice, he felt like he could do more if he went somewhere that was bigger. He decided that in the beginning of 2022 that he was going to be moving to New York to appeal to a different clientele (well that and there were many many more gay boys like him). While his business in New York was trying to grow, he wasn’t making enough on TikTok to live so that’s when he found a flower shop called Dahlia & Daffodils were hiring florists and he decided to do that along with his business on the side.

August has begun to make a name for himself and he has started to rake in some money that he never thought was possible. He has been able to send money back home to his parents for helping him get to where he was. He feels like some of his sisters are still judging him for being so close with their parents and he tries not to hold it personally as he wished he had more of a relationship with them because regardless of what they think of him he has always loved them. 

[juliiwrites]

hi there! 🌿

Welcome to my little side blog project ☺️ I wanted to use the first post to write a bit about the idea behind the blog and to introduce myself 🍋

Alright, sooo I decided to start this blog after realising, once again, that I really enjoy talking about the tv series, movies, books and music that bring me joy, but not all of my friends enjoy lengthy (and all-over-the-place-esque) conversations about them.

And that's why I created this blog 😄 To talk (well, write (rant?)) about these things, and to, hopefully, find people to exchange recommendations with ☺️

About myself... I promise I will keep this short 🍵

My name is secret and I don't think you will ever guess it from this blog 👩‍💻

I'm born before 2000 and after 1995

I like plants

I'm currently cooking pasta and procrastinating writing something that I have to hand in tomorrow

might write lengthy diary-esque posts

... especially about what things mean to me an why

l infodump and overshare a lot

I do not have black hair and the profile picture is just there until I find something I like more ☺️

I'm one of those very, very few people who dream of a career in the creative business sectors, especially writing. We are an incredibly rare type though, so please treat kindly 😂

That might be unrelated, but I also have a weird sense of humour.