#David Sparks Wikipedia

[magnetothemagnificent]

the brainrot is brainrotting

any headcannons on bucky's hebrew name? I was thinking yosef chaim but I genuinely do not know where that idea came from... apprently james tangentially comes from yaakov though so maybe that?

also same question about magneto. wikipedia says erik means something like ruler or king, so maybe melech? or, if that's too literal, yehuda, shul, david, shlomo... I think shaul works. the midrashim are very clear that, despite it all, shaul was still a tzadik. something something great man making awful mistakes...idk

BUT if we're going by max, google is saying mordechai...thats more boring imo

sorry for rambling in your asks :>

My headcanons for Bucky's Hebrew name:

MCU Bucky: Yaakov Shimshon. His family called him Yankele and his sisters called him Yanky.

616 Bucky: Yaakov Baruch

Headcanons for Magneto's Hebrew name:

Moshe, and his mother called him Moishele

Bonus other Jewish character name headcanons:

Arnie Roth: Aharon

Anya Eisendhart: Tikvah Chana, because Max Eisendhart (Erik Lehnsherr) found comfort in the birth of his daughter after the devastation of the Holocaust, and she was his hope for the future

Quicksilver: Peretz Chaim, because he burst out with life after such immense loss (and also the Peretz in Tanakh was also a twin)

Scarlet Witch: Mazal Chava, because her birth defied bad omens and instead was a fortune for life

*Pietro and Wanda weren't given their Jewish names until later in their life when they reconnected with their Jewish heritage

Billy Kaplan: Aryeh Leib, because of his ferocity like a lion

Tommy Shepherd: Tzvi Hirsch, because of his speed like a deer/gazelle

*According to Jewish tradition, parents have a spark of prophecy when they choose the Jewish name of their children, and of course Wanda had an extra strong dose of that prophecy when naming her kids

Kitty Pryde: Chava Chana (this one is semi-canon, it's implied she's named after her aunt Chava who was killed in the Holocaust, and I added the Chana because her middle name is Anne)

Luna Maximoff: Lila

Lorna Maximoff: Hadassah

[architect-of-the-last-act]

Jeremy Von Neuschwanstein and Shuli Von Neuschwanstein || On the quiet, all-consuming loves that toe between companionship and romance, grief and simple happiness, with the tragedy hanging over their heads and the need to be better, and thus shouldn't be acted upon.

Illustrations from A Stepmother's Marchen / Hedgehog's Dilemma, Wikipedia / Waiting Room by Phoebie Bridgers / A Poem From The Adult Daughter To The Narcissistic Mother by Katherine Fabrizio / People Will Say We're In Love, Oklahoma! / Twilight by Stephanie Meyer / tumblr post by starpeace / The Cart by Mary Reufle / Haiku [for you] by Sonia Sanchez / Close to You by niki / Spend Some Time by Eminem / Every Day by David Levithan / Unknown / In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive by Clementine Von Radics / Anchorite (Love You Very Much) by Car Seat Headrest / Unknown / Biotherm (for Bill Berkson) by Frank O' Hara / New and Selected Poems Volume 1 by Mary Oliver / tumblr post by chateauofmymind / Unknown / Kate McGahan / Waiting by Caitlyn Siehl / P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han / Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs / tumblr post by poetrylovesongs, / The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks / song for a lover (of long ago) by Bon Iver / please don't forget me and all the things that we did by Isaac Love / The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch / The Winner's Kiss, Marie Rutkoski / In another universe by Dana Lee / The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts by Arthur Miller / Two Slow Dancers by Mitski / Maybe In Another Universe, I Deserve You by Gaby Dunn / Next Time by Team StarKid / Jonathan Carroll / The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives / Pyrrhic Victory, Wikipedia / Raushan Ranjan / All My Pretty Ones by Anne Sexton / Your Best American Girl by Mitski / twitter post by fran (galacticidiots) / War of the Foxes by Richard Siken / Crush by Richard Siken / The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway / twitter post by mountain. (sainticide) / The Unabridged Journals Of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath / Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick / SANDARAFREEDOMPARK / Unknown / Unsent Project / twitter post by aiman (dumbsoftheart) / there is no absolution for the fallen, only the dying by p.d / Unknown / Someone New by Hozier / Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays by Christa Wolf / A Self-Portrait in Letters by Anne Sexton / Unknown / “I get so jealous of euthanized dogs” by June Gehringer / Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

[usafphantom2]

Here’s why SR-71 crews used the most dangerous material (except fissionable nuclear material) to start the Blackbird engines

Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft

The SR-71, unofficially known as the “Blackbird,” was a long-range, Mach 3+, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft.

CLICK HERE to see The Aviation Geek Club contributor Linda Sheffield’s T-shirt designs! Linda has a personal relationship with the SR-71 because her father Butch Sheffield flew the Blackbird from test flight in 1965 until 1973. Butch’s Granddaughter’s Lisa Burroughs and Susan Miller are graphic designers. They designed most of the merchandise that is for sale on Threadless. A percentage of the profits go to Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. This nonprofit charity is personal to the Sheffield family because they are raising money to house SR-71, #955. This was the first Blackbird that Butch Sheffield flew on Oct. 4, 1965.

The first flight of an SR-71 took place on Dec. 22, 1964, and the first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to the 4200th (later 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., in January 1966.

The Blackbird was in a different category from anything that had come before. “Everything had to be invented. Everything,” Skunk Works legendary aircraft designer Kelly Johnson recalled in an interesting article appeared on Lockheed Martin website.

No need for a traditional starter

To save on weight, the Skunk Works eliminated a traditional starter for the Blackbird. So, they figured out another way to start the SR-71.

Here’s why SR-71 crews used the most dangerous material (except fissionable nuclear material) to start the Blackbird engines

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. SR-71A Blackbird 61-7972 “Skunkworks”

Former Blackbird pilot Richard H. Graham explains in his book SR-71 Revealed The Inside Story;

‘The high flashpoint brings up another problem. Most jet engines use igniter plugs, nothing more than a very hot spark plug, if you will. Using these igniter plugs they used with the JP-7 and just drowns it out, it won’t ignite. Kelly [Johnson] put his engineers to work, and he said, ‘OK, gentlemen, how are we going to start this?’ They came up with a very unique way. Triethylborane – TEB for short. Each engine has a one-and-a-quarter pint. If I had it in a squirt gun and I squirted it into the atmosphere, it would go Kaboom! – it explodes with contact with the atmosphere. And that’s how we started the engines. As the engines rotate, at the right time, it sprays this amount of TEB into the turbine section, which goes kaboom, which in turn lights the engine. When you take the throttles up into the afterburner, it puts this metered amount of TEB in that lights up the JP-7. You get 16 shots for each engine.’

The most dangerous material to start the SR-71 Blackbird engines

Mounted on each engine was a sealed tank, inerted with nitrogen gas and filled by maintenance with 600cc of TEB prior to each flight.

Former SR-71 Blackbird pilot David Peters explains: ‘An interesting note to this is the transport of it. If we landed away, servicing had to be hauled to our location. The NTSB lists TEB as the following most dangerous material, one step below fissionable nuclear material. The folks that handled this stuff were highly trained and good.’

Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Twitter X Page Habubrats SR-71, Instagram Page SR71Habubrats and Facebook Page Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Habubrats for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.

Photo credit: John Freedman and User:Jaydec via Wikipedia

Linda Sheffield Miller

Grew up at Beale Air Force Base, California. I am a Habubrat. Graduated from North Dakota State University. Former Public School Substitute Teacher, (all subjects all grades). Member of the DAR (Daughters of the Revolutionary War). I am interested in History, especially the history of SR-71. Married, Mother of three wonderful daughters and four extremely handsome grandsons. I live near Washington, DC.

@Habubrats71 via X

[beardedmrbean]

NPR has suspended Uri Berliner, the senior editor who published a bombshell essay a week ago that claimed that the publicly funded outlet has “lost America’s trust” by approaching news stories with a left-wing bias.

NPR media writer David Folkenflik revealed on Tuesday that Berliner beginning on Friday was suspended for five days without pay. Folkenflik, who reviewed a copy of the letter from NPR brass, said the company told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets — a requirement for NPR journalists.

NPR called the letter a “final warning,” saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR’s policy again.

Neither NPR nor Berliner immediately responded to requests for comment.

Berliner is a dues-paying member of NPR’s newsroom union, but Folkenflik reported that the editor is not appealing the punishment.

Berliner, a Peabody Award-winning journalist who has worked at NPR for 25 years, called out journalistic blind spots around major news events, including the origins of COVID-19, the war in Gaza and the Hunter Biden laptop, in an essay published Tuesday on Bari Weiss’ online news site the Free Press.

The fallout from the essay sparked outrage from many of his colleagues. Late Monday afternoon, NPR chief news executive Edith Chapin announced to the newsroom that executive editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.

The fiasco also ignited a firestorm of criticism from prominent conservatives — with former President Donald Trump demanding NPR’s federal funding be yanked — and has led to internal tumult, the New York Times reported Friday.

NPR’s new chief executive Katherine Maher defended NPR’s journalism, calling Berliner’s article “profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning,” The 42-year-old exec added that the essay amounted to “a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are.”

Folkenflik said Berliner took umbrage at that, saying she had “denigrated him.” Berliner said he supported diversifying NPR’s workforce to look more like the US population at large. Maher did not address that in a subsequent private exchange he shared with Folkenflik for the story.

The fiasco soon put the spotlight on Maher, whose own left-leaning bias came to light in a trove of woke, anti-Trump tweets she penned.

In January, when Maher was announced as NPR’s new leader, The Post revealed her penchant for parroting the progressive line on social media — including bluntly biased Twitter posts like “Donald Trump is a racist,” which she wrote in 2018.

That hyper-partisan message was scrubbed from the platform now known as X, but preserved on the site Archive.Today.

It’s unclear when Maher deleted it, or if its removal was tied to her new gig.

Other woke posts remain on Maher’s X account. In 2020, as the George Floyd riots raged, she attempted to justify the looting epidemic in Los Angeles as payback for the sins of slavery.

“I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive,” Maher wrote on May 31, 2020.

“But it’s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property.”

The next day, she lectured her 27,000 followers on “white silence.”

“White silence is complicity,” she scolded. “If you are white, today is the day to start a conversation in your community.”

The NPR job is Maher’s first position in journalism or media.

She was previously the CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, the San Francisco-based nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, after holding communications roles for the likes of HSBC, UNICEF and the World Bank.

Maher earned a bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies from New York University, according to her LinkedIn account, and grew up in Wilton, Conn. — a town that her mother, Ceci Maher, now represents as a Democratic state senator.

[kcyars99]

The 2024 MTV Video Music Awards are on Wednesday night!

let’s be clear, since debuting in 1984(that’s 40 years ago!) The video music awards (or vmas for short) had some outrageous and iconic moments that we will never forget. Here’s a list from each year

1980s

edit

Radio City Music Hall, site of 12 VMAs, including the first

1984: at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, Madonna performed her hit "Like a Virgin" wearing a combination bustier/wedding gown, including her trademark "Boy Toy" belt. During the performance, she rolled around on the floor, revealing lace stockings and a garter.[7] Cyndi Lauper spoke in "Exorcist-esque gibberish" to explain the VMA rules right before winning the Best Female video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".[8] David Bowie, the Beatles and director Richard Lester were rewarded with the first ever Video Vanguard Awards for their work in pioneering the music video. The Cars' "You Might Think" won the very first video of the year, beating out Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and Herbie Hancock's "Rockit".[9]

1987: At the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, Peter Gabriel won ten awards, including the Video Vanguard Award and Video of the Year for his video "Sledgehammer", holding the VMA record for most Moonmen in a single night.

1988: At the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards, Michael Jackson appeared for the first time. A pre-recorded live performance of Bad was shown."[10] He was also awarded the Video Vanguard Award,[11] which was later renamed in his honor.

1989: Comedian Andrew Dice Clays appeared at the 1989 Video Music Awards to promote his new movie, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, earning a "lifetime ban" from the network when he introduced Cher with some of his recently notorious nursery rhymes that contained vulgar language and references.[12] After performing with Tom Petty, Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin was assaulted by Mötley Crüe lead singer Vince Neil, leading to a verbal battle between Neil and Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose.[13]

Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora turned out a stripped-down acoustic performance of the Bon Jovi hits "Wanted Dead or Alive and "Livin' on a Prayer", and in the process possibly provided the inspirational spark for MTV Unplugged.[14][15]

Paula Abdul was nominated for six awards, picking up four wins. She performed a seven-minute medley of her singles "Straight Up", "Cold Hearted", and "Forever Your Girl".[14]

When Madonna won the Viewer's Choice Award (sponsored by Pepsi-Cola) for her "Like a Prayer" video, she thanked Pepsi-Cola in her acceptance speech "for causing so much controversy". Pepsi-Cola had paid Madonna $5 million to appear in a commercial that would predominantly feature the world premiere of "Like a Prayer"; the commercial, titled "Make a Wish", depicted Madonna drinking Pepsi and watching a home video of her eighth birthday. The tone that the commercial sought to convey sharply contrasted with the music video. When Pepsi executives saw the video, they yanked the advertisement after only two airings, in an attempt to dissociate themselves from Madonna.[16] She also gave one of the most memorable performances of her hit "Express Yourself", as a preview of what would become her Blond Ambition World Tour.[14]

1990s

edit

Nirvana performing at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards

1990: at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna performed her single "Vogue", which featured Madonna and her backup dancers dressed in an 18th-century French theme, with Madonna bearing great resemblance to Marie Antoinette. The performance consisted of both a dramatic historical reinterpretation of "Vogue" as well as her dramatically becorseted breasts.[17]

1991: during the award show the MTV Video Vanguard Award was renamed to the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award from then on, in honor of his contributions to the culture of music videos[18] by changing them from a mere promotional tool featuring musicians playing instruments and singing, to a "short film" with a storyline. His video "Thriller" influenced and changed music videos into what it is like today.[19]

A conflict between Poison's Bret Michaels and C.C. DeVille culminated in a fistfight at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. DeVille was fired and replaced by Pennsylvanian guitarist Richie Kotzen.[20] Paul Reubens had his first public appearance, during the opening montage, following an arrest for lewd-conduct earlier that year. Taking the stage in costume as Pee-wee Herman, he received a standing ovation, after which he asked the audience, "Heard any good jokes lately?".[21] After his appearance, Van Halen made their television debut, performing "Poundcake". Metallica was another highlight of the performances with "Enter Sandman".

Prince and The New Power Generation performed their sexually charged song "Gett Off" on a Caligula-esque set, with Prince dressed in a yellow mesh outfit which infamously exposed his buttocks. His trousers were parodied numerous times throughout the following year, on the sketch comedy TV series In Living Color, and even at the following year's VMAs by radio shock jock Howard Stern. It also marked the final TV appearance of Kiss with Eric Carr prior to Carr's death in November 1991.

1992: in the 1992 show, MTV requested Nirvana perform "Smells Like Teen Spirit", while the band itself had indicated it preferred to play new songs "Rape Me" and "tourette's". Network executives continued to push for "Teen Spirit" but finally offered the band a choice to play either "Teen Spirit" or "Lithium", which the band appeared to accept. At the performance, Nirvana began to play, and Kurt Cobain played the first few chords of the song, "Rape Me", much to the horror of MTV execs, before continuing their regular performance of "Lithium". Near the end of the song, frustrated that his amplifier had stopped functioning, bassist Krist Novoselic decided to toss his bass into the air for dramatic effect. He misjudged the landing, and the bass ended up bouncing off of his forehead, forcing him to stumble off the stage in a daze.[22]

Backstage and before the show, Guns N' Roses vocalist Axl Rose challenged Cobain to a fight after he, his wife, Hole lead singer Courtney Love, and Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl egged him on. At the end of Nirvana's performance, while Cobain was trashing the band's equipment, Dave Grohl ran to the microphone and shouted "Hi, Axl! Where's Axl?" repeatedly. Guns N' Roses' video for the ballad "November Rain" won the MTV Video Music Award for best cinematography. During the show, the band performed "November Rain" with singer Elton John. Because of the dispute Rose had with Cobain, moments before the "November Rain" performance, Cobain spat on the keys of what he thought was Axl's piano. Cobain later revealed that he was shocked to see Elton John play on the piano he had spat on.[10] During the commercial break, the Alien 3 Pepsi commercial was shown.

Radio host Howard Stern appeared as Fartman, Stern's radio superhero, wearing a buttocks-exposing costume obviously inspired by Prince's outfit from the previous year. Stern was a presenter for best hard rock/metal performance with actor Luke Perry (after several other celebrities turned him down).

1993: at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna opened the show in a gender-bending performance of her song "Bye Bye Baby", in which Madonna and her two backup singers, dressed in tuxedos and top hats, danced with women in corsets in a choreographed, highly sexual routine.[23]

RuPaul and Milton Berle, who had conflicts backstage, presented an award together. When Berle touched RuPaul's breasts, RuPaul ad-libbed the line "So you used to wear gowns, but now you're wearing diapers."[23]

Rapper Snoop Dogg presented the Best R&B Video award with Dr. Dre and George Clinton. At the time, Snoop was wanted in connection with the week-old drive-by murder of an L.A. gang member.[23]

Janet Jackson closed the show with her performance of "That's the Way Love Goes" & "If".

1994: at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards on September 8, months after a profanity-laced appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, Madonna was announced to present the award for Best Video of the Year. She came out, arm-in-arm with an unannounced David Letterman, to a wild ovation. At the microphone, Letterman told her "I'll be in the car. Watch your language", and left.[24]

Recently betrothed couple Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley received a standing ovation as they walked on stage hand-in-hand. After turning to the audience and proclaiming, "And just think, nobody thought this would last", Jackson grabbed Presley and kissed her.[25][26]

1995: at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, Hole perform the song "Violet" from their major-label debut album Live Through This. This was one of the first major televised performances given by frontwoman Courtney Love following the death of her husband Kurt Cobain and the death of her band's bassist Kristen Pfaff in 1994. Before beginning the song, Love dedicated the performance to her husband and different people in the entertainment industry who had recently died: "This is for Kurt, and Kristen, and River, and Joe, and today Joni Abbott, this is for you." Abbott worked in the Talent Relations department at MTV and had recently committed suicide.[27] The song ended with Love throwing her guitar, knocking the microphone stand into the crowd and pushing over speaker-boxes with bandmate Eric Erlandson before exiting the stage.[28] Love also caused a stir when she interrupted a post-ceremony interview with Kurt Loder and Madonna by throwing her make-up compacts at the singer as they broadcast outside the awards venue.[29]

Michael Jackson performed for over 15 minutes to a medley of his main songs, including "Scream", and danced his signature moves, including the robot, moonwalk and the relatively unknown "Bankhead Bounce". While Slash accompanied Jackson and played guitar on "Black or White and the beginning of Billie Jean".[30] This performance was voted by the public as the Best VMA Pop Performance and Most Iconic VMA Performance in 2011 with more than half the votes.[31][32]

TLC was the big winner of the night won four awards, including "Viewer's Choice", "Best Group Video", and "Video of the Year" (Waterfalls).

1996: at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, the four original members of Van Halen received 20-second standing ovation when they made their first public appearance together since their break-up in 1985.

Several weeks later, the public learned that Van Halen would not reunite with Roth. Roth released a statement apologizing to fans, stating that he was an unwitting participant in a publicity stunt to sell more copies of the greatest hits album, Best Of Vol. 1, and that he had been led to believe that he was rejoining Van Halen. The following day, Eddie and Alex Van Halen released a statement, stating that they had been honest with Roth, and never led him to believe that he had been re-hired.[citation needed]

During British band Oasis' performance at the show, lead vocalist Liam Gallagher made rude gestures at brother Noel as he was playing his guitar solo, then spat beer all over the stage before storming off.[33]

Alanis Morissette performed "Your House", a hidden track from her bestseller album "Jagged Little Pill".

The recently reunited Kiss closed the show with a special concert aired from the Brooklyn Bridge.[34]

Tupac Shakur made his final public appearance before his murder.

1997: at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, Pat Smear announced that he was leaving Foo Fighters halfway through their performance and presented his replacement, Franz Stahl, who had been a member of the band Scream with Dave Grohl.[35]

The Spice Girls, who won the best dance video award to the for their music video "Wannabe", who wore a black strap on their left arms as a sign of grief because of Diana, Princess of Wales's death prior to the event.

While accepting the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist Video that year for "Sleep to Dream", Fiona Apple appealed to her audience not to be enamored of celebrity culture. She proclaimed, "this world is bullshit" and quoted Maya Angelou, saying "go with yourself". Though her comments were generally greeted with cheers and applause at the awards ceremony, the media backlash was huge. Some considered her remarks to be hypocritical, however she was unapologetic: "When I have something to say, I'll say it."[36][37][38]

Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson performed the song "The Beautiful People", as the grand finale, and the video for this song was nominated for "Best Rock Video" and "Best Special Effects", marking one of the most significant performances for the band.[39]

1998: at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, during the original broadcast of the show, a commercial faded in the Nine Inch Nails NIN logo on a black screen while playing a combination of music that started as a solo piano piece and morphed into an electronic/industrial beat (which would later found out to be the songs "La Mer" and "Into the Void", which share many melodic components and can be considered variations on a theme) and ended with Trent Reznor screaming "Tried to save myself, but myself kept slipping away" and the word "ninetynine" in the trademark NIN reversed-N font. This was only shown once during the original broadcast, was edited out of all repeats.

Geri Halliwell attended the event, one of her first public appearances since she left the Spice Girls.[40]

At the red carpet, actress Rose McGowan was wearing a see-through dress, no bra, and a thong,[41] while Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston poked fun at their rumored rift by wearing lookalike chocolate brown dresses by Vera Wang. In an attempt to outdo each other, the singers tore off pieces of their dresses to reveal minidresses then staged a faux catfight that left the audience in disbelief. "People thought Whitney and I had some kind of beef", explained Carey.[42]

1999: Lil' Kim showed up at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards with an entire breast exposed and only a small pasty over the nipple. Kim's outfit became even more controversial later when she appeared on stage with former Supremes member Diana Ross and Mary J. Blige to present the Best Hip-Hop Video award, and Ross reached over, cupped her hand under Kim's exposed breast and jiggled it while Kim laughed.[43]

During the following acceptance speech by the Beastie Boys, group member Ad-Rock addressed the instances of rape and sexual assault that occurred in the crowd at the recent Woodstock 1999 concert event. He pleaded to other musicians in the room to make a change in the way they treat fans at concerts; to pledge to talk with promoters and security to ensure "the safety of all the girls and the women who come to our shows".[44]

Afeni Shakur and Voletta Wallace, the mothers of the recently deceased Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., met for the first time at the ceremony.[45]

Britney Spears made her debut appearance on the show, performing her single "...Baby One More Time" and later introducing NSYNC for "Tearin' Up My Heart".

Ricky Martin took the stage of the ceremony to perform his singles "She's All I Ever Had" and "Livin' la Vida Loca".[46]

TLC won Best Group Video for "No Scrubs", receiving a standing ovation from the audience and artists. For the second year in a row, the Backstreet Boys took the Viewer's Choice Award for "I Want It That Way", a song they performed during the broadcast.

Before presenting the final award, a group of drag queens paid tribute to Madonna wearing her most iconic outfits with a medley of her hit songs. Madonna herself then appeared onstage and remarked, "All I have to say is that it takes a real man to fill my shoes." She then introduced Paul McCartney, who presented the Video of the Year to "some guy called Laurence Hill" (Lauryn Hill).

2000s

edit

Kanye West taking the microphone from Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards

2000: at the 2000 Video Music Awards, Limp Bizkit won the award for Best Rock Video. As vocalist Fred Durst spoke, Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford climbed onto the scaffolding of the set. Durst egged Commerford on, saying "Stage dive, dude" and "Take a dive", finally ending his speech with "and [Commerford]'s a pussy 'cause he won't jump". Commerford and his bodyguard were sentenced to a night in jail. RATM vocalist Zack de la Rocha reportedly left the awards after Commerford's stunt. RATM guitarist Tom Morello recalled that Commerford related his plan to the rest of the band before the show, and that both de la Rocha and Morello advised him against it immediately after Bizkit was presented the award.[47][48]

Eminem performed his two singles "The Real Slim Shady" and "The Way I Am". The performance began with Eminem's single "The Real Slim Shady" which started outside the Radio City Music Hall on 6th Avenue, Manhattan. Eminem continued his performance into the arena and was followed by a hundred Eminem 'clones' wearing white tank tops and baggy jeans with bleached blonde hair.[49]

Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning co-introduced Britney Spears. Fanning wore a Metallica T-shirt, much to the displeasure of Metallica drummer and anti-Napster advocate Lars Ulrich. Britney performed "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and her newest smash hit "Oops!... I Did It Again", which gained media attention mostly due to Spears's ripping off a tuxedo to reveal nude-colored performance attire. At performance's end, VMA co-host Marlon Wayans proclaimed, "Girl done went from 'The Mickey Mouse Club' to the strip club."[50]

At the end of Christina Aguilera's performance, Durst walked onstage and performed part of his band's song "Livin' It Up" with Aguilera. After eliciting charged reactions from his fans, Durst stated: "I already told you guys before, I did it all for the nookie, man."[51] The feud died weeks later. Aguilera denied Durst's statement, saying Durst "got no nookie".[52]

Aguilera and Spears disproved rumors of a rivalry when they came onstage, holding hands, and introduced Whitney Houston. Houston, who had been targeted by the media for erratic behavior, canceled appearances, drug use rumors and being busted for carrying marijuana at a Hawaii airport just a few months prior, came out to a standing ovation and introduced an award to Eminem with husband Bobby Brown, who was recently let out from jail. Houston revealed more erratic behavior, jumping up and down saying "free" in reference to Brown's recent jail release. Aaliyah would win two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Female Video and Best Video from a Film for "Try Again".[citation needed]

2001: at the 2001 Video Music Awards, Britney Spears performed her single, "I'm a Slave 4 U". while dancing in a very revealing outfit, the performance featured the singer in a cage with a tiger and briefly dancing with a real albino snake on her shoulders. The inclusion of a tiger and a snake in the performance bought a great deal of criticism from PETA.[50][53]

U2 had been set to perform a medley including "Elevation", "Beautiful Day" and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of". The riser they were performing on lost power and MTV had to cut to several minutes of promos while everything was set up again. They lost power again and finally the band was lowered to the ground and performed without the riser. After the performance, lead singer Bono explained that MTV "forgot to pay the electricity bill".[54]

Michael Jackson made a surprise appearance at the end of NSYNC's performance of "Pop". Surrounded by members of the group, Jackson performed some of his trademark dance moves to Justin Timberlake's beatboxing.[54]

The show paid tribute to the R&B singer/actress Aaliyah, who was supposed to present an award but died two weeks before from a plane crash. U2 paid tribute to punk-rock singer Joey Ramone, who died of lymphoma 4 months before.[55]

2002: in 2002, the VMAs took place on Michael Jackson's birthday, and as a tribute, Britney Spears introduced him saying she "considered him the artist of the millennium". Jackson said, "When I was a little boy growing up in Indiana if someone told me I'd be getting 'the artist of the millennium award,' I'd have never believed it."[56] A year later, at the 2003 VMAs, this was parodied by presenters Fred Durst and Jack Black, with Durst stating that Black was the "funniest man alive".[50][57]

The Hives and The Vines both performed on the night after the sudden garage rock revival during the year, with rumors spreading around that it was to be 'battle of the bands' performance. Once The Hives performed, singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist said to the crowd "I know you want us to play more, but that's all the time we have for so you can turn off [your TV] now",[58] just before The Vines came on the bigger stage to perform their hit single "Get Free", ultimately destroying their set after their performance.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog appeared and had a confrontation with Eminem. Eminem had a confrontation with Moby, who had called the rapper's music misogynistic and homophobic. By that time, there were multiple boos from the crowd. The Best Male Video award was given to Eminem right after the confrontation with Triumph and Moby, and when Eminem went to stage to pick up the award, in the middle of his speech, he challenged Moby to fight if he continued to boo him.[59]

Justin Timberlake made his solo performance debut on the show, performing his single "Like I Love You".

Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, the surviving members of the top-selling R&B trio TLC, made their first television appearance since the death of bandmate Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes.[59]

Shakira took the stage of the VMAs to perform her single "Objection (Tango)".

Christina Aguilera shocked the audience by wearing a skimpy outfit and heavy makeup, with a dirty look removing her good-girl image.[60] She was part of an awkward moment at the awards when presenting the Best Male Video Award to Eminem, who had insulted her in 2000.[61]

Canadian artist Avril Lavigne won her first award ever as Best New Artist in a Video, getting the record for the youngest artist so far to win this award at the age of 17. She kicked off the 2002 VMAs with a "Complicated" / "Sk8er Boi" pre-show performance and together with Lisa Marie Presley they gave the award for Best Female Video to Pink who was under the effects of alcohol during her acceptance speech.[59]

Axl Rose unveiled the new lineup of New Guns N' Roses. The band's set was the show's finale, and although the performance was meant to be kept a secret, some New York radio outlets announced the performance earlier in the day. The band played a set consisting of "Welcome to the Jungle", "Madagascar", and "Paradise City".[62]

2003: at the 2003 Video Music Awards, Madonna played a groom kissing her brides, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, on stage. The gender role-reversal and lesbian theme instantly made front-page headlines. The three singers performed a medley of her classic hit, "Like a Virgin", and her then latest release, "Hollywood", with a guest rap by Missy Elliott. A quick camera cut to the reaction of Justin Timberlake, who dated Spears until 2002, also gained media attention.[63] The design resembled Madonna's performance of "Like a Virgin" at the 1984 VMAs: the same wedding cake set, wedding dresses and "Boy Toy" belt worn by Madonna 19 years ago now adorned Aguilera and Spears.[64]

Beyoncé opened her performance by descending upside down from the rafters at Radio City Music Hall. Knowles performed "Baby Boy" as she was gently lowered to the stage, dressed in harem pants. She was later joined by Jay-Z as they performed their duet "Crazy in Love". The performance marked Knowles' solo debut.[65]

2004: the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards were held at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. This was the first time the awards show was held outside of New York City and Los Angeles. It was the first video music awards to not have a host.[66]

2005: at the 2005 show, Green Day returned, taking home the Best Rock Video, Best Group Video, and Video of the Year Moonmen for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", which they performed during the broadcast. They also took the Viewer's Choice award for "American Idiot".

The 2005 VMAs were the first to have a performance in Spanish, when Shakira performed her single "La Tortura" with Alejandro Sanz. It was also the first time that Spanish-language videos were nominated at the awards.[67]

Also at the show, while introducing the reggaeton spot, Fat Joe made a disparaging comment about G-Unit: "I'd like to tell the people home I feel so safe tonight with all this police protection courtesy of G-Unit...". Later in the show, after G-Unit's performance, 50 Cent directed profanities at Fat Joe which were edited out before the shows airing although some broadcasts played the uncensored version of the show.[68] Reggaeton artists Daddy Yankee, Tego Calderón and Don Omar performed.

Actress Eva Longoria caused a stir when she appeared barely dressed to introduce Mariah Carey.[69] Gwen Stefani and Snoop Dogg won best dressed female and male and received prizes to donate to a charity of their choice.[70]

Kelly Clarkson performed a high energy version of her song "Since U Been Gone" barefoot wearing a graphic belly top and capri pants. Clarkson moved through the crowd during the performance, which culminated in the singer getting sprayed with water. By the end of the song, she and a portion of the audience were soaking wet.[71] R. Kelly performed his rap opera, "Trapped in the Closet".[67]

Animated duo Beavis and Butt-head appeared in several Viewer's Choice award skits, saying to "Vote to put Beavis and Butt-head back on MTV!".[72] Rather belatedly, the TV show returned to MTV in 2011.

2006: Justin Timberlake opened the 2006 Video Music Awards performing his singles "My Love" and "SexyBack". The awards were distributed evenly widespread all genres, as hip-hop, pop and rock artists alike all won Moonmen. 2006 was also the first time that viewers voted for all the performer's categories (Video of the Year, Best Male Video, Best Group Video, among others, except professional categories).[73]

When Panic! at the Disco won Video of the Year for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", a man calling himself Sixx jumped onstage claiming that MTV had denied him his own TV show.[73] Hosted by Jack Black, there were also performances by Shakira with Wyclef Jean, Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera and The Killers.

2007: the 2007 Video Music Awards was opened by Britney Spears performing her comeback single "Gimme More". To many, Spears failed to live up to the pre-show hype. She wore black sequined lingerie and put in less energy than her previous performances.[74][75] The performance was called "career crippling".[43]

Kid Rock and Tommy Lee were involved in an altercation during Alicia Keys's performance. Lee was sitting with magician Criss Angel when the two went to visit Diddy, who was sitting close to Kid Rock. Kid Rock allegedly punched Tommy Lee in the face. The two were broken up, and both were escorted from the resort. Angel was removed a short time later.[76]

2008: the 2008 Video Music Awards were opened by Britney Spears which welcomed everybody to the 25-year anniversary of the Video Music Awards. Barbadian singer Rihanna opened the show with her song "Disturbia" in a very revealing black leather outfit. After 16 nominations, Britney Spears finally won her first VMA, taking Best Female Video, Best Pop Video, and Video of the Year for "Piece of Me", considered as Spears' comeback.[citation needed]

Host Russell Brand commented on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, begging the audience to vote for him. Brand called President George W. Bush a "retarded cowboy" and claimed Bush "wouldn't be trusted with a pair of scissors in Britain".[77]

Russell Brand also made comments on the Jonas Brothers for wearing purity rings. Brand later faced criticism for his swipes at the trio. He confirmed his apology at the MTV Video Music Awards 2009 by saying "I upset the Jonas Brothers last year, I had to say sorry to them and they forgave me. They had to, they're Christians." During her introduction of T.I. and Rihanna's performance, Jordin Sparks, who also wears a purity ring, defended the boy-band by saying "It's not bad to wear a promise ring because not everybody, guy or girl, wants to be a slut." Sparks was in turn criticized for implying that those who do not wear purity rings or do not abstain are promiscuous.[78]

2009: at the 2009 Video Music Awards, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift won Best Female video for "You Belong with Me". During her acceptance speech, rapper Kanye West unexpectedly showed up on stage. Taking the microphone from Swift, he announced "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!".[79][80] MTV cut away from the stage (showing Beyoncé with a shocked and disapproved look) after West gave the microphone back to Swift and giving the middle finger to the audience as they started booing him off stage, and so Swift did not finish her speech. West was removed for the rest of the show. However, when Beyoncé won Video of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", she called Swift back on stage to "have her moment" (finishing her speech from winning Best Female Video). In an off-the-record portion of an interview the following day, President Barack Obama called West a "jackass" for his antics.[81] During a post-interview, Jay-Z admitted West was wrong to go on stage, but he thought people were overreacting to the incident.[82]

Madonna opened the show talking about her experiences with Michael Jackson. After her speech, a Michael Jackson tribute commenced, including Janet Jackson performing the duet "Scream". The show closed with a sneak preview of Michael Jackson's This Is It movie.[83]

At the show's red carpet, Colombian singer Shakira and American singer Pink attended with the same dress. Both singers took it humorously and posed together for the paparazzi.

Lady Gaga later performed her song "Paparazzi" and shocked the audience when she appeared to bleed out on stage. It was actually a contraption in her outfit.[84] Beyoncé performed her song "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" with over two dozen female dancers dancing with her.[85] Pink performed her single "Sober" while doing a trapeze act during the entire performance while singing live.

Rapper Lil Mama jumped on stage as Jay-Z and Alicia Keys performed "Empire State of Mind".[86] Lil Mama later apologized.[87] During an interview with New York Radio DJ Angie Martinez, Jay-Z said that he thought the unrehearsed move was something similar to the West and Swift incident.[87]

Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Green Day were the big winners of the night, with three awards each.[85]

2010s

edit

The standing inflatable KAWS moonman at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards

The redesigned moon man by Jeremy Scott at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards

2010: at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, Taylor Swift performed her song "Innocent", while Kanye West performed "Runaway" with Pusha T giving a stellar performance on the MPC2000.[88] Eminem, who performed at the show, did not receive his awards in person, as he had to leave immediately to perform with Jay Z at The Home & Home Tour in New York City the next day.[89] Additionally, will.i.am's "blackface" outfit sparked controversy among African-Americans.[90] Florence + the Machine performed "Dog Days Are Over".[91]

Lady Gaga won eight awards, including Video of the Year, Best Female Video, and Best Pop Video for "Bad Romance"; she also won Best Collaboration for "Telephone" with Beyoncé. Upon accepting her Video of the Year award, Gaga wore a dress made entirely of raw meat, which drew criticism from PETA.[92] While accepting her Video of the Year award, Lady Gaga announced the title of her next album, Born This Way, and sang the chorus of its title track and lead single. Justin Bieber won Best New Artist, making him the second youngest Canada-born artist to ever win a VMA (first being Avril Lavigne in 2002).[93]

Overall, the show grabbed 11.4 million viewers—the largest audience for an MTV Video Music Awards since 2002, and until 2011's new record.[94]

2011: the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards returned to the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. In the entire history of the show, this was the third time no host was scheduled, although Kevin Hart, who would receive the position a year later, delivered an opening monologue.

Lady Gaga opened the show dressed as her alter ego Joe Calderone, delivering a monologue and then performing her single "You and I" from her album Born This Way. She was joined on stage by Queen band member and guitarist Brian May.

The tribute to Britney Spears included performances by young talents, who danced to various hit singles by Spears including "...Baby One More Time" and "Till the World Ends". After the tribute, Lady Gaga went onstage to present Spears the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.[95] While accepting her award she and Gaga (dressed as her alter ego Joe Calderone) teased a kiss. Spears rejected the exchange saying, "I've done that already", referring to her liplock with Madonna at the 2003 show.[96]

During Kanye West and Jay Z's surprise performance of "Otis", a man attempted to rush the stage but was quickly taken off by security.[97]

Katy Perry and Kanye West won the Award for Best Video for a Collaborative Single. As they went onstage to receive the award, Perry made a reference to West's incident with Taylor Swift two years back. This was the first award Perry won in four years of being nominated.[98]

Prior to her performance, Beyoncé announced on the red carpet that she and husband/rapper Jay Z were expecting a child. Straight after Beyoncé finished performing her song "Love on Top", she also revealed again that she was pregnant by showing off her baby bump and rubbing it. That evening, Beyoncé set the record for the most mentions on Twitter per second (with 8,868) and helped this year's VMAs become the most-watched broadcast in MTV history, pulling in 12.4 million viewers.[99]

A tribute to late singer Amy Winehouse also took place; Russell Brand delivered a monologue on his thoughts on her, after which Tony Bennett previewed his collaboration with her for his album Duets II. Afterwards, Bruno Mars performed "Valerie" in her honor.[100]

Katy Perry won three awards including Video of the Year for "Firework", and Lady Gaga won two awards, including the new category Best Video With a Message for "Born This Way".[101]

2012: The 2012 MTV Video Music Awards aired live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on September 6, 2012. British boy band One Direction was the big winner of the night receiving Best New Artist, Best Pop Video, and Most Share Worthy Video. Rihanna won the Video of the Year Award for "We Found Love".

2013: For the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, MTV redesigned its moonman statue[102] for one year only due to the ceremony's being held in Brooklyn for the first time. Brooklyn-based artist KAWS used Michelin Man as inspiration to redesign the image of the renowned MTV moonman. Barclays Center, which served as the venue for the 2013 show, was decorated also by KAWS, themed around the redesigned moonman. The 2013 VMAs also marked the fourth time in the award show's history that a host had not been appointed for the annual event.[103] Lady Gaga opened the ceremony, performing her single "Applause". During the performance, Gaga changed three times on stage and gave a tribute to her past eras (The Fame, The Fame Monster and Born This Way). At the end, Gaga came on stage wearing nothing but a seashell bikini.

Miley Cyrus' performance of her song "We Can't Stop" featured the former Disney star entering the stage through a giant teddy bear wearing a one-piece bodice with a teddy bear design on it. The singer performed with a group of female backup dancers dressed as giant bears before singer Robin Thicke joins with Cyrus on stage to perform his single "Blurred Lines". Cyrus then stripped down to a nude-colored lingerie and proceeded to perform her signature twerking dance moves, simulating sex with Thicke and grabbing his crotch with a giant foam finger.[104] The unimpressed reactions of several celebrity audience members, including Rihanna and members of One Direction, also gained attention in the media.[105]

Justin Timberlake's "Mirrors" won Video of the Year, making him the first male solo artist to win this category since Eminem in 2002 with "Without Me". Timberlake also became the second artist to be honored with the Video Vanguard Award and win Video of the Year in the same night, after Peter Gabriel did it in 1987. To celebrate his Video Vanguard Award, Timberlake performed a 15-minute medley performance, which included a mini-reunion with his former band *NSYNC.[106] The set list of the most watched performance of the night[107] included hit singles from his first four solo albums, such as "Cry Me a River", "SexyBack" and "Suit & Tie".

2014: the 2014 show was held at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Miley Cyrus won Video of the Year for "Wrecking Ball" and got a young homeless man named Jesse to accept the award on her behalf. His speech was a call-to-action to help raise awareness to the homeless youth of America.[108] Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj and Jessie J opened the show.[109] Beyoncé closed the show by performing a 16-minute medley of songs from her self-titled fifth studio album. After the performance, her husband Jay Z and daughter Blue Ivy presented the Video Vanguard Award to her.[110]

2015: the 2015 show was hosted by Miley Cyrus. Fashion designer Jeremy Scott redesigned the year's "moonman", marking the second time that the statue had been transformed.[111] Taylor Swift won four awards, including Video of the Year for "Bad Blood".[112] She presented the Video Vanguard Award to Kanye West, who ended his acceptance speech by claiming that he will run for president in 2020.[113]

Nicki Minaj ended her acceptance speech for Best Hip-Hop Video by passing the show back to Cyrus, saying: "And now, back to this bitch who had a lot to say about me the other day in the press: Miley, What's good?".[114] Minaj was referring to Cyrus' comments about how she handled "Anaconda" being snubbed for a Video of the Year nomination. Cyrus appeared stunned by Minaj's remarks and replied, "We're all in this industry. We all do interviews and we all know how they manipulate shit. Nicki, congratu-fuckin-lations."[114] The camera then cut back to Minaj who seemed to mouth back the word "bitch".[114] Cyrus closed the show by performing along with a group of drag queens who participated on RuPaul's Drag Race and surprisingly released her fifth studio album Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz for free.[115]

2016: the 2016 show was held at the Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. Rihanna performed four times during the show, including opening and closing the ceremony. After her final performance, Rihanna was presented the Video Vanguard Award by Drake, who declared, "She's someone I've been in love with since I was 22 years old."[116] While accepting her award, Drake leaned in for a kiss that Rihanna dodged.[117] Britney Spears returned to perform at the VMAs for the first time since her heavily criticized performance at the 2007 show.[117] Kanye West gave a seven-minute long speech covering different topics, including his feud with Taylor Swift.[118]

Beyoncé performed a 16-minute medley of her album Lemonade and won eight awards, including Video of the Year for "Formation".[117][119] She became the most awarded artist in VMA history with 24 moonmen, surpassing Madonna's previous record of 20.[119] The telecast saw a drop in audience for third year in a row.[120]

2017: the 2017 show was hosted by Katy Perry. Kendrick Lamar won six awards, including Video of the Year for "Humble", becoming the first artist to have won the award for a video he co-directed, while Pink was honored with the Video Vanguard Award.[121] Jared Leto paid tribute to Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell, who both died over the past three months.[122] The music video for Taylor Swift's song "Look What You Made Me Do" premiered during the broadcast.[121] Compared to the previous year, viewership was down from 6.5 million to 5.4 million viewers, making it the lowest viewed VMAs since Nielsen started measuring the show in 1994.[123]

At the start of Fifth Harmony's performance there were five silhouettes; one of them fell off the stage, referencing former group member Camila Cabello leaving the group the previous year.[124]

Logic performed his song "1-800-273-8255" along with Alessia Cara and Khalid. Their stage was outlined with survivors of suicide loss and attempts, who wore T-shirts that had the phone number on the front and the phrase "You Are Not Alone" written on the back. During their performance, Logic gave a speech about thanking the audience for giving him a platform to talk about the issues "that mainstream media doesn't want to talk about: mental health, anxiety, suicide, depression".[125] He further added, "I don't give a damn if you're black, white, or any color in between. I don't care if you're Christian, you're Muslim, you're gay, you're straight – I am here to fight for your equality, because I believe that we are all born equal, but we are not treated equally and that is why we must fight."[125] Following the performance, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline experienced a 50% increase in calls.[125]

2018: Cardi B, the most nominated artist of the night, opened the 2018 show with a brief speech, holding a VMA like a baby.[126] While receiving one of her awards, Cardi B stated, "all the love.. it's genuine, it's beautiful, and that's something that God give me that you can't buy. B-tch."[127] Camila Cabello won Video of the Year for "Havana" and Jennifer Lopez received the Vanguard Award.[128] With Maluma among the performers as well, it marked the VMAs with the most Latin music artists present at the ceremony since the 2005 show.[129]

Before introducing Cabello's category, Madonna gave a tribute to the late Aretha Franklin. Most of the speech said the early origins of Madonna's career and was only tangentially Franklin-related,[130] which made critics describe the "bizarre" tribute as a "lengthy" anecdote about herself that involved Franklin's music.[131][132][133] Afterwards, Madonna explained that she was there to give the Video of the Year award as asked by MTV and to speak about some experience in her career with some connection with Aretha, not to make any kind of tribute.[134]

The viewership of the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards was down 9% overall and 15% in the important 18- to 49-year-old demographic group. The total viewership was 4.8 million.[135]

2019: the 2019 show was held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. This was the first time the VMAs took place at the venue and in the state of New Jersey (it became the fifth state to host the show after New York, California, Florida and Nevada).

The show was hosted by Sebastian Maniscalco. Taylor Swift won three awards, including Video of the Year for "You Need to Calm Down".[136] She became the second artist and first female artist to have won the award for a video she co-directed, and the fourth artist to win the category twice overall.[137] Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus's "Old Town Road" won two awards, including Song of the Year.[138] Missy Elliott received the Vanguard Award introduced by Cardi B and performed a medley. The performance was heavily choreographed and the set pieces alluded to her music videos "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", "Get Ur Freak On", and "Work It".[139][140] Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello performed their hit single "Señorita" for the first time ever in a performance characterized for its kissing tension. Lizzo performed a set featuring her singles, "Truth Hurts" and "Good as Hell". During the performance she gave a short self-empowering monologue, and featured a figurative shadow of an oversized CGI rear end.[141][139] Normani gave a performance of her song "Motivation",[142][143] that featured her doing intense gymnastic styled choreography that echoed the music video.[144][145][146] Rosalía became the first lead Spanish act to ever perform at the VMAs, performing a medley of "A Ningún Hombre", "Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi" (alongside Ozuna), and "Aute Cuture".[147][148] She also won Best Latin and Best Choreography for "Con Altura", becoming the first ever Spanish act to win a VMA, for which she was congratulated by many personalities including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.[149]

Marc Jacobs received the inaugural MTV Fashion Trailblazer Award.[150]

2020s

edit

2020: The 2020 MTV Video Music Awards were held on August 30, 2020. The show was originally scheduled to take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City, but was moved outdoors because of security concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[151] Instead, the 37th annual ceremony would "highlight the boroughs in an exciting show and return to Barclays Center in 2021".[152] For the first time in its history the VMAs were simulcast on over-the-air television on The CW, which is jointly owned by MTV parent company ViacomCBS and AT&T parent company WarnerMedia.[153]

Keke Palmer hosted the show from a VR model of the infamous Manhattan staple, Empire State Building. The Weeknd won Video of the Year for "Blinding Lights", which he also performed as the show's opener. During his speech he showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and demanded justice for Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake.

Lady Gaga received the first-ever (and only thus far as of 2023) Tricon Award, introduced by Bella Hadid. After giving her speech, Gaga performed a medley of her songs, including "Chromatica II"/"911", "Stupid Love" and "Rain on Me", the latter performed with Ariana Grande. Grande also won four awards, including Song of the Year and Best Collaboration.

The show was dedicated to actor Chadwick Boseman, who died less than 48 hours before the ceremony due to colon cancer.

The redesigned moonperson trophy by Kehinde Wiley at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards

2021: The 2021 MTV Video Music Awards were held September 12, 2021, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City, for the first time in eight years.[154] The award show also served as a celebration of MTV's 40th anniversary. An opening monologue was delivered by Madonna.[155] Artist Kehinde Wiley redesigned the year's moonperson trophy, marking the third time that the statue had been transformed and the first from an artist of African-American descent.[156][157]

Lil Nas X won three awards for "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)", including Video of the Year and Best Direction. He became the second artist and first LGBTQ+ artist to win both categories for a video they co-directed. He jokingly thanked the gay agenda in his acceptance speech.[158]

Olivia Rodrigo and Justin Bieber also received awards in big categories, winning Song of the Year and Artist of the Year respectively. BTS won three awards, winning Group of the Year for the third consecutive time, in addition to Best K-Pop and Song of Summer for "Butter".[159]

2022: Taylor Swift announced the release of her tenth studio album Midnights during her Video of the Year award acceptance speech. Swift also became the first ever artist to win Video of the Year three times.

Nicki Minaj won the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award that night and performed a 9-minute medley of her hits including "Anaconda," "Super Bass", "Monster", "Beez in the Trap", and her newest hit "Super Freaky Girl" along with other songs. The award was presented by five members of her fan club the Barbz. In her acceptance speech, Minaj shouted out multiple people who had inspired her and people who have given her big opportunities early in her career including Madonna, Eminem, Britney Spears, Lil Wayne, Drake, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and more who had help boost the popularity of her 2011 hit, "Super Bass". Minaj also said that she wished musicians Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson were there to witness her.[160] She also paid respects to her father, Robert Maraj, who died in a tragic hit-and-run accident in 2021. She said she wished people took mental health more seriously. Minaj thanked the Barbz, told the audience about her son, nicknamed Papa Bear, and announced her first greatest hits album, Queen Radio Vol. 1.

There were three co-hosts in the show, LL Cool J, Minaj, and Jack Harlow.

Harlow opened the show with a performance of his single, "First Class". The performance took place on an airplane with Harlow acting as an attendant. Several celebrities were seated in the plane including Lil Nas X, Saucy Santana, Avril Lavigne, and more. The plane "landed" at the award show and mocked a red carpet interview, with Harlow saying "Ladies and Gentlemen, Fergie!". Fergie had come out onstage to perform her 2007 hit "Glamorous" which "First Class" samples, marking her first televised performance since her controversial performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the 2018 NBA All Star Game. The performance ended with Fergie and Harlow hugging.

Anitta becomes the first Brazilian singer to win the MTV Video Music Awards.

2023: NSYNC reunited for the first time in 10 years at the ceremony, to present the award for Best Pop, which was to Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero". Swift acknowledged that she still has the 'N Sync dolls, referencing the "It's Gonna Be Me" music video, and they gave her friendship bracelets.

Shakira was awarded with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, performing a medley of her hits. She became the first South-American born artist to receive the award. Later, Shakira and Karol G won the Best Collaboration award, for "TQG", making the first time a Spanish-language video and a Latin female collaboration won the award.

Taylor Swift won Video of the Year for a second consecutive year for "Anti-Hero", making her the artist with the most wins (four) in this category.

We can’t wait to see what iconic moment happens on this year’s award ceremony.

Happy 40th anniversary vmas !

Oh and one more thing : Who do you think will take home the coveted video of the year award? Here’s the nominees:

we can't be friends - Ariana Grande

LUNCH - Billie Eilish

Paint The Town Red - Doja Cat

Houdini - Eminem

Snooze - SZA

Fortnight - Taylor Swift ft Post Malone

[itwas50yearsagotoday]

1/17/24:  It was 50 years ago today, January 17th, 1974, Joni Mitchell would release her sixth album Court and Spark.  So for the longest time this album was listed on Wikipedia as released on January 1st, 1974, but recently this was updated to the 17th, which was great for my blog because I’d much rather this record be my last record review instead of the previous entry (Dylan’s Planet Waves…zzzzzz).  This is arguably Mitchell at her best, and it is her most popular selling record… a seemingly rare (during this era anyway) critical and commercial success.  She even hit the Billboard Top 40 with the two best songs on the record: ‘Help Me’ (#7) and ‘Free Man In Paris’ (#22)—but these aren’t the only good ones.  The big change for Mitchell on this record is her embracement of a fuller and jazzier sound… she kinda flirted with this on her last record with songs like ‘Barangrill’ but on C&S her sound just blooms so brightly, and would continue in this vein for at least two more records (Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira).  Funny, the opening title track is barely a song, barely an intro, but it kinda works because you really don’t know what’s coming until track two: ‘Help Me’.  Wow, this song is a knockout track, in my top ten for 1974 songs easily… it just has this shaky little guitar intro and then you are just bathed in Mitchell overdubs, and then it gets going.  I haven’t made this comparison yet, but much of the fuller sound of this record echoes Steely Dan’s work… or maybe they drew from the same source… or maybe that was just the in sound for polished American artists, but it sounds just so beautiful… ‘Help Me’ is undeniably a rare gem in the junkyard of 1974 pop… serious A.M. Gold.  It then leads into ‘Free Man In Paris’ which on the surface has a somewhat similar sound to ‘Help Me’ (yay rock-flute!), but it’s got an interesting twist as a narrative by record producer David Geffen (!)… yes, that’s right, the song is Mr. Geffen trying to get away from people calling him, enjoying the freedom of anonymity in Paris.  When else do you get to hear the word ‘unfettered’ in a Pop song?  It's almost as good as ‘Help Me’.  The rest of the record never strays below ‘good’ as a baseline, as there are many other gems here including ‘Car on a Hill’, ‘Raised on Robbery’, and ‘Twisted’.  On ‘Hill’ that Steely Dan sound I was talking about is quite evident here… it’s got these little odd time signatures here and there… it kinda harkens forward (if that’s possible) to SD’s Aja album on that song… it’s pretty cool.  Then Joni kinda ‘rocks out’ with ‘Raised on Robbery’, a song I used to think was real dorky but it’s not bad from a 50-year old’s perspective.  The final track is an old jazz number from the 1950s called ‘Twisted’ that includes, believe it or not, fucking Cheech and Chong in the background!  I think that’s hilarious.  Anyway, solid album, one of the better ones of this mostly ugly year in Boomer music.  Like I said, a great record to end this blog on.  Can’t Spotify it due to Mitchell’s stance against that one shithead podcaster, so try YouTube instead, or just buy the damn record! 

[schismusic]

THE DISCOGRAPHY PRINCIPLE, Episode 2: Shellac - or, The Song Remains the Same

The discography principle may be defined as an objective way to determine whether or not you're worthy of calling a band or artist "your favorite" or "one of your favorites". A possible enunciation of it goes as follows:

"Let u ≝ some asshole, B ≝ {b|b is a band}, n ≝ #({x|x is a record by b}); let p = #({y|y is a record by b in u's possession}) = p1 + p2 wherein p1 ≝ number of physical records by b you own in any format and p2 ≝ number of records by b you have downloaded. If p ≥ n ∨ p2 = n (for n → +∞), then ∃b∈B such that b is one of u's favorite bands."

When u = me, this subset of B (which we might call Bf) is comprised of six bands, off the top of my head: Autechre, Godflesh, Shellac, Kraftwerk, Fugazi and Coil, listed in no particular order.

If you want to read the prologue to this series, go here. Otherwise, let's get going.

My first year of high school was a year of exploration. Coming out of high school having exclusively listened to Pink Floyd's entire recorded output (it wasn't yet time to do anything more esoteric and perverted with record, like asking them questions, using them as spaces to be mapped out, springing poetry pieces off of them as if they were trampolines; all of that is stuff that comes the more expert you get at using records and the less respectful of them you become, which isn't necessarily a net negative) I then set out to find out more about the history of rock, sailing all alone. I'm not one of those people who get their passion for music from a relative or their parents, music was my thing and my thing only — that is, mine and the Internet's, because that's what you do in 2013 after all — you hear a name off of somewhere, you look it up on Wikipedia — the page in question usually has citation problems, provided it exists at all — and it becomes your personality for a while.

It went like this with the Mars Volta for me, my next Pink Floyd-level obsession, which consumed my conscious mind for about a full year. In the meantime I went along, getting into Nine Inch Nails (my first paid gig, on the Hesitation Marks tour; it was June 3rd, 2014) and Slint, slowly but steadily going through OndaRock's cute little "milestones" section. I never actually did go through it all the way, even though the records it includes maybe oughta be checked out at one point, but it did spark in me a form of interest in stuff that I normally wouldn't have cared for at that time. One of the names that came out of this was Shellac, a band I frankly checked out exclusively because the OndaRock page for them mentioned physics and odd time signatures. There comes a time in a music listener's journey where playing in five or in seven is simply the most big brained thing you could possibly do, especially if you're a guy who grew up on King Crimson and who thought the fact that Money by Pink Floyd is in 7/8 was hot shit — conveniently ignoring the very fortuitous slide into 6/8 right as David Gilmour is about to start his solo…

So as My Black Ass started I was on board, my own white ass absolutely floored. I was on board the exact second the pick first hit the strings (I was later to find out Steve Albini uses exclusively copper picks and aluminum-neck guitars) and that absolutely fucked-in-the-head sound that these three guys have found a way to conjure. It's a sinewy sound, something that really requires a maximum of four different elements to obtain, and as such has a slew of imitators that never really fit the bill. What we have of Shellac (at least officially) are seven LPs, one of which recorded live and another one limited to a release of 779 copies, three EPs, one or two singles and compilation tracks, and two Peel Sessions — one of which made when the actual John Peel had already been six feet under for about a month. Critically, John Peel as sound engineer (criminally underrated) is probably the only person who could have made justice to Shellac's sound, to a point where some of these songs featured on the 1994 Peel Session might be at their absolute best there.

At Action Park, finally, was a rock record that required of me a form of thought that went beyond simply learning the riffs and calling it a day; more importantly, it was a record whose riffs I could learn. Slint weren't as easy to me (at the time still relatively inexperienced), nor did they feel as genuinely dangerous — and Steve Albini's previous recorded output was absolutely critical in conveying that sense of forbidden. Honestly, if your first band makes songs about all sorts of horrifying violence and your second band is called — ahem — Rapeman, in reference to a Japanese erotic manga, what the fuck can I tell you? Of course everything you lay your hands upon becomes imbued with an air of deep distaste and transgression and genuine fear. Song of the Minerals is the first time I realized that there are people in the world who simply don't care about other people getting hurt and treating themselves so badly they die from it. Il Porno Star is a song that so openly and directly describes the life of somebody involved in the sex industry that it finally, for the first time, made sex workers look and feel real to me, giving them a backstory of sorts. At the same time, Pull the Cup sounded positively lobotomized, and A Minute felt so enraged for no reason at all that it made a lasting impression: anger was liberating, or in John Lydon's words anger was an energy. And best of all — I could play those songs from start to finish. Some dude, his name was Claudio, had made a webpage on the Tiscali provider which he had kept updated up until about the year 2000 and where he collected a number of guitar tabs contributed by various people. The page, amazingly, can still be found online here (as of Feb 20, 2024) and most of the tabs are still accessible.

Surprisingly enough, it didn't take me long before I moved along to Shellac's other records; I was lucky enough to find a copy of Dude Incredible in a store back when it was first released and then a copy of 1000 Hurts at a record fair (both CD only at the time). Those two and At Action Park remain the two Shellac records I've spent the most time with to this day, and again it was very interesting getting to see this band attempt to find a way to move past that absolutely stellar debut and never really doing that, but still writing some very worthwhile songs and albums in the meantime. Upon listening to Dude Incredible it felt like the most complete summa of the band's work, and that was my favourite Shellac record for a while — it probably still is, for different, more sentimental reasons — but in retrospect that wasn't the case at all. Shellac's body of work is pretty interesting in that the single records always feel achingly incomplete once you get to know the rest of their work, but at the same time — as far as the songs they include go — all records include nothing but the very best the band could have put forward at that particular time. When I feel like listening to Shellac again I am, for time reasons, forced to go record by record, especially because it's a very logical way of going through it (see my piece on Autechre), but unlike Autechre you have this thing where all records sort of blur into one another. It surprises many people to know that Steve Albini's dream band to work with is AC/DC. As an avid Shellac listener, it puzzles me that anyone would think otherwise.

At a certain point I stopped feeling that playful horror-movie disgust that Shellac's lyrics kinda toy with and started marvelling at just how insanely sexist some of their stuff is. Obviously, this is the kind of stuff you think of when you're sixteen and devoid of any capability to process parody and irony. I like to posture myself as though I was "in the know", as though Steve Albini's mastermind plan was to kind of lure people into thinking he was a piece of shit, but at the same time it was very easy — scarily so — to get into Prayer to God's protagonist's point of view when he sings the lyrics to the song. In time, I kind of grew to alternately despise it and try to pretend it was being somewhat parodic, until I re-listened to the song and re-read the lyrics and holy shit: it actually was parody all along. Who the fuck sings a song like that and says "make him cry like a woman — no particular woman"? It was that perfect point where the game was revealed all along: the song's protagonist likes to pretend he's a decent person, that he "respects women", but deeply ingrained within him (and fundamentally at odds with what he says he believes in) there remains a profoundly predatorial, territorial and ultimately violent view of romance and sexuality. And all was well once more. It became even better once Steve Albini decided, after the pandemic, to stop posturing as the victim and finally talk about all the stupid bullshit he did and said over the years, to distance himself from all people who ended up essentially embracing right-wing talking points for no reason other than to, supposedly, own the libs. Interviewed by The Guardian, he said something to the effect of "if the stupidest person in the room agrees with you, it's time to ask yourself some questions".

So after a whole year of preparations, in May 2015 Shellac hit Italy and played Catania, Rome and Bologna together with Uzeda — another great band full of great people. I went there with my then-girlfriend, C., and we proceeded to creep the shit out of all the people in the queue when she mentioned she knew how to skin a hare and I asked her to explain how to do that. Fun times were had. Anyway, I knew rationally that there were three people in Shellac (Steve Albini, velocity; Bob Weston, mass; Todd Trainer, time) but until I was there it didn't really hit me. To me, Shellac was the third Steve Albini project, after Big Black and that other band. Then all of a sudden they take the stage, after Uzeda finished up their absolutely blistering hot set which I barely remember at all (despite really enjoying it), and it was bloody fucking murder. I only have a very vague recollection of what happened during the set; bits and pieces, really — me jumping like two meters into the air when the main riff for Dude Incredible hit, the ten-minute spoken word short story that Steve Albini improvises during the silent break in Wingwalker, the little bit called The Defenders of Fun (actually named Killers, and you can find a studio version of it here) they do before that same song, the impromptu Joy Division references during The End of Radio. But the best, most memorable parts of the concert were the very beginning and the very end.

When the gig was about to start, Bob Weston came out of the backstage area and you better believe I straight up jumped him right then and there. It is simply impossible to understate just how much my respect for Bob Weston went up that night. This motherfucker, no joke, stood around and hugged me like he was my long-lost father, we talked for a full twenty minutes and after that he told me "now I'm sorry, but I have to go" and I told him "oh sorry, are you still unloading the last things?" and he very calmly replied "I have to take a shit". Which meant that this dude stayed behind for me and delayed a whole ass toilet trip for twenty! fucking! minutes! to talk to a hyperactive, boundary-overstepping fifteen-year-old who had potentially absolutely nothing worthwhile to say. But this was nothing. When the show ended (the last song they played was The End of Radio, they dragged it out for like a full ten minutes while Steve Albini rambled on for the entire duration of the track — possibly one of the band's best set of lyrics, regardless of the absolutely buttfuck insane improvised bits that were thrown in on that particular night) the last note ringed out for like five full seconds. The sheer sustain these aluminum-neck instruments put out is scary. Then Bob Weston specifically looked at me, I was standing right under the stage in front of him, and handed me his pick. To this day I still keep it within the Dude Incredible CD case, which all three Shellac have signed. To get that signature I pissed off poor Todd Trainer, who really just wanted to get his drum kit off of the stage (Todd, if you're reading this: I'm so sorry. I did not know any better and if that weren't enough I was in a massive rush. If we ever meet again, drink's on me). But another thing I will never forget about that night was their interplay. The perfect, and I hate using this kind of superlatives but there really is no other word for it, absolutely perfect way that they locked into one another and the natural flow of song bits and parts and even just the physical nature of the sound itself. These songs are not as simple as they sound, which was life-altering to me as a musician and as a person.

So apparently Shellac have been teasing a new record for about a year. Sometimes they upload snippets of the vinyl master copy playing, some other times it's small clips from the pressing plant, other times they just play three or four of the songs live, as they have for the past four years or so. Hadn't it been for the pandemic, I think, they would have gotten the record done in time for 2021 — seven years since Dude Incredible, their last studio album. Lately (i.e. since 1000 Hurts) Shellac have released records at a very sluggish pace; some might think it's a matter of ideas slowly running to an end, I for one it's a matter of songwriting quality. Chick New Wave I didn't really like at the time, but I hear they got a couple new ones that they've played to an audience — the titles are The Girl from Outside and the spectacularly-named I Don't Fear Hell and you can hear them one after the other here. And everytime a Shellac record releases, ooh boy, it's a party: these guys' passion project is, very simply, a labor of passion; it actively refuses to play by the market's rules and everytime it's just eight or nine songs that the band felt were strong enough to release. Who cares if people on websites think that it's repetitive and more of the same and cookie-cutter, and anyway almost no one does. We as Shellac enjoyers appreciate that this is just something these three guys do for fun, and if a record comes out of it then all the better for us. Plus, it's new songs for live shows, and that's where the real substance is at. So, let's hope the record comes out soon, and they visit Italy again. I know for a fact I'll be there. Now Todd, about that beer I owed ya…

[lycanlovingvampyre]

What the Ghost? - The Devil’s Dance & Highgate Cemetery

So I have heard The Devil's Dance before, never listened to the Highgate Cemetery though. So these are my very first thoughts on that one.

The Devil's Dance

"We’ll be peering into the murky depths of history this week, unraveling the story of a deadly plague that spread terror across Europe for centuries." I mean, the title Devil's Dance says it all, but after just this sentence I knew it was the Dancing Plague.

How many puns and silly sound effects can you cram into a podcast? XDDD

"Being up close and personal with the supernatural all day can really wreak havoc with your nerves at night! That’s why I need the best possible mattress to help me drift off to sleep. Luckily, I have my Bedcetera mattress so I can rest in peace!" Ah yes, mattress sponsors in podcasting...

"But one of the strangest cases occurred in 1237 in a town called Erfurt, Germany. Records from the time say that, for one day, a hundred children started feverishly dancing, moving as one all the way to Arnstadt, over twelve miles away, before all collapsing of exhaustion, their feverish movements stopped as suddenly as they started. Though the facts about the children of Erfurt are hidden in the depths of history, their story lives on in the fearsome tale of the Pied Piper." This is apparently a very famous folktale even internationally. Wikipedia calls it a legend? I don't think that term fits. It's called "Sage" in German, which derives from the verb "sagen" - to speak, to say, to tell. Or "Gesagtes" - something that has been said or told. Like... tale! Folktale. In German, a legend (it's literally just "Legende") is distinct from a Sage or Märchen (fairytale), but still close. The English "Saga" also wouldn't fit, that sounds way too epic and heroic. But the German "Sage" does also have its origins in the Old High German term "Saga". Dug a bit into legend. That term comes from the Medieval Latin "legenda" which means "that, which is to read", or "to be read". So a legend got primarily passed down in written form, and Sagen in verbal form, therefore changing ever so slightly over the years. There is no English Wikipedia page for Sagen, it's a very regional label. Boy, that escalated quickly...

"What The Ghost? listeners get a month’s membership for free! No need for a code; (voice climbing higher) they already know who you are! (still at a markedly higher register) SparksFly: Privacy is just another word for loneliness?!" That's the Eye, right? Or is it Web? It's on the Web... But secrets (*cough* search history *cough*) revealed is usually Eye. And, the Eye is the... Fly in the Web! (I know, it's called sparks flying when two people are obviously attracted to each other. But I also want in on the pun fun!) Also this is sponsor section is glorios xD

"Historians, police officers, and city planners who exhume the bodies find them looking mutilated or mutated. Reports describe skeletons with too many bones, limbs that are too long, and joints that bend in a way that the best doctors claim they should not." A bit of Flesh? (too many bones) Or a bit of the Spiral (long limbs). There's certainly something Spiral-y to it.

Highgate Cemetery

Looked for pictures of the Highgate Cemetery on Google. It's beautiful!

"And remember, that those tombs that do lock, always do so from the outside." Yeah, I mean who's supposed to lock it from the inside? A vampire???

Ah, the names were changed. I mean it is very recent history, so super understandable. David Farrant got changed into Daniel Tarrant. And the original Sean Manchester got changed into Shane Sheffield. Very clever!

While we're at the Highgate Trivia, check this out: "The Highgate Vampire appears as a villain in the Dark Horse comics series Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine. The Highgate Vampire is revealed to be, not a vampire, but an insectoid demon that feeds off its victims' emotional trauma." lol

"While Daniel claimed to have seen a tall man in a hat striding across the cemetery grounds" Oh god, I'm sitting alone in a wide open living room with big windows, it’s dark and my spouse already went to sleep... Okay... I am not my fear. The Hat Man is a very common image. People suffering from sleep paralysis might know about it or have actually seen it. I don't know why this certain hallucination is so wide-spread, and I don't wanna look it up right now, that shit gets me.

"Webly always knows what I want to do next. And the best part is, I never have to worry whether I can trust anything on the net because Webly tells me I can. Don't think, just webley.com! " Okay so this is very easy. Web.

"To get your first box for half price, just enter the code, MEATCUTE." Pffffffft, that after we just listened to Jon and Martin's meet-cute yesterday xD (also Flesh, of course. That is where Toby Carlisle from MAG 18 got his meat from!)

@a-mag-a-day

[my-ceiling-is-scuffed]

Okay, this was technically early middle school, but I was one of those little freak reader book nerds and i forgot how to read in high school on account of the trauma and stress.

My answer is Chris d'Lacey's Last Dragon chronicles. Here's the first sentence(s) of each books summary on wikipedia.

In The Fire Within, David Rain is a tenant of Elizabeth (Liz) Pennykettle (a potter who makes clay dragons) and her daughter, Lucy

In Icefire, Lucy creates a new dragon named G'reth. He is a wishing dragon that can grant wishes that would benefit dragon kind.

In Fire Star, Gwilanna, the evil sibyl that first starred in Icefire, returns. She plans to reincarnate the last dragon, Gawain, and use him to open a portal to the dragon dimension Ki:mera.

In The Fire Eternal it has been five years since David, now a cult author, mysteriously disappeared in the Arctic

In Dark Fire David is ordered by the elder dragons of Ki:mera to seek out and destroy a spark of dark fire, even though doing so will mean sacrificing the beloved housework dragon, Gwillan. Also, David's first girlfriend, Sophie, died in Africa while David was there trying to stop a mutation called a darkling from destroying the entire facility (sorry, Dark Fire gets two big fucken sentences bc holy shit what)

In Fire World, a 12-year-old boy named David lives in Co:pern:ica. He and his friend Rosanna spend their days in the librarium, a museum for books, with the curator, Mr. Henry, and the mysterious firebirds that roam the upper levels. (don't mind the unexplained smash cut to a Different Fucking Dimension?)

The entire series is resolved with a seventh novel named The Fire Ascending. The novel reveals that the entire universe is made up of the word and symbol Oomara, meaning sometimes.

Okay, now go back to the first bullet point and read it again.

This is the tip of the Last Dragon iceberg. It gets So Much More. I'm still not convinced I didn't hallucinate the entire thing, despite the fact that all the paperbacks on my bookshelf in my field of view as I'm typing this.

what's a book you read as a teenager that was so magical and personally profound to you it literally changed your life, doesnt matter if the book was actually well written or not. mine's probably the catcher in the rye

[nsfwmiamiart]

Part 11 - Incoming Text for Jennifer Lopez (@jlo) and Sofía Vergara (@sofiavergara) and Eva Longoria Baston (@evalongoria) and Sofia Coppola (@sofiacoppola) and Zoe Saldaña (@zoesaldana) and Jamie Chung (@jamiejchung): “An Idea Worth a Billion Dollars”

Question:

Who owns the copyright to the film The Postman (1997), and is it based on a book? If so, who authored the book?

Here are the Wikipedia links for The Postman:

Film: The Postman (1997) - Wikipedia - (click on the blue link)

Book: The Postman by David Brin - Amazon - (click on the blue link)

ChatGPT Answer:

The Postman (1997) is owned by Warner Bros. Pictures, which holds the copyright for the film. The movie is indeed based on a book: it is an adaptation of the 1985 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel of the same name by David Brin.

Key Details:

Author of the Novel: David Brin

Director and Star of the Film: Kevin Costner

Film Production Company: Tig Productions (Costner's production company) and Warner Bros.

While the movie deviates from the book in some aspects, both explore themes of hope, community, and the power of symbols in rebuilding society. The novel won several awards, including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1986.

Here’s a comprehensive overview of The Postman (1997):

General Information

Title: The Postman

Release Date: December 25, 1997

Director: Kevin Costner

Producers:

Kevin Costner

Steve Tisch

Jim Wilson

Screenwriters:

Eric Roth

Brian Helgeland

Based on the novel The Postman by David Brin.

Cinematography: Stephen F. Windon

Music: James Newton Howard

Production Companies:

Tig Productions (Kevin Costner’s company)

Warner Bros.

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

Runtime: 177 minutes

Language: English

Rating: PG-13

Plot Summary

Set in a post-apocalyptic 2013, the world is in ruins after a devastating war and environmental collapse. Civilization has crumbled, and isolated communities struggle to survive under the shadow of the tyrannical Holnists, a militaristic group led by General Bethlehem.

A wandering drifter (Kevin Costner) stumbles upon the remnants of a U.S. Postal Service uniform and a bag of undelivered mail. He adopts the persona of a "postman" and travels between communities, delivering letters and spreading the hopeful message that the U.S. government is being restored. This act of hope sparks resistance against the Holnists, culminating in a showdown between the ideals of hope and tyranny.

Cast

Kevin Costner as The Postman (Gordon Krantz)

Will Patton as General Bethlehem, the ruthless leader of the Holnists.

Olivia Williams as Abby, a woman who believes in the Postman’s cause.

Larenz Tate as Ford Lincoln Mercury, a young man inspired by the Postman to take up the cause.

Tom Petty as Bridge City Mayor (a cameo role as himself in a post-apocalyptic context).

James Russo as Idaho, one of Bethlehem's enforcers.

Daniel von Bargen as Pineview Sheriff Briscoe.

Giovanni Ribisi as Bandit 20, a member of Bethlehem's militia.

Production

Filming Locations: Various locations in the western United States, including Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, and Washington. The landscapes were chosen to reflect the barren and rugged terrain of a post-apocalyptic world.

Filming Period: Began in 1996 and concluded in early 1997.

Budget and Box Office

Budget: Estimated at $80 million.

Box Office:

Domestic: $17.6 million

International: Minimal overseas release, making it one of Kevin Costner’s notable box office failures.

Critical Reception

Rotten Tomatoes: 8% approval rating from critics, with an average rating of 3.9/10.

Metacritic: Score of 29/100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."

Audience Reception: Some audiences appreciated the film’s earnest themes and ambition, though many criticized its length, pacing, and perceived self-indulgence.

Criticism Highlights:

Overly long runtime (nearly three hours).

Heavy-handed direction and sentimentality.

Costner was criticized for taking himself too seriously in the role and the film.

Themes and Legacy

Despite its failure at the box office and with critics, The Postman has a cult following among fans who appreciate its themes of hope, rebuilding civilization, and the power of symbols to inspire unity and resistance. The film remains a polarizing work in Kevin Costner’s career.

[gurutrends]

Orson Salazar Wikipedia: Biography, age and who is Paz Vega's husband

Paz Vega, the renowned 48-year-old Spanish actress, attracted attention after her appearance on David Broncano’s show “La Revuelta.” This event sparked public curiosity about her personal life, leading many to search for information about Orson Salazar and the Wikipedia profile of her husband of more than two decades. Orson Salazar and his Wikipedia The Wikipedia profile of 46-year-old Orson…

[wikiuntamed]

Five steps of Wikipedia for Monday, 1st April 2024

Welcome, ողջու՜յն (voġčuyn), ようこそ (yōkoso), bem-vindo 🤗 Five steps of Wikipedia from "Sydney Community Services" to "2005 anti-Japanese demonstrations". 🪜👣

Start page 👣🏁: Sydney Community Services "Sydney Community Services (SCS) is a not-for-profit community services organisation based in the Lane Cove and Hunters Hill local government areas in Sydney, New South Wales. SCS was established on the 1st of July 2017 following the amalgamation of Lane Cove North Side Community Services (LCNSCS)..."

Step 1️⃣ 👣: Chess "Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0? by Alan Light

Step 2️⃣ 👣: A Matter of Life and Death (film) "A Matter of Life and Death is a 1946 British fantasy-romance film set in England during World War II. Written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the film stars David Niven, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Kim Hunter and Marius Goring. The film was originally released in..."

Step 3️⃣ 👣: 2012 Summer Olympics "The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the group stage in women's football, began on 25 July at the Millennium..."

Step 4️⃣ 👣: 15 February 2003 anti-war protests "On 15 February 2003, a coordinated day of protests was held across the world in which people in more than 600 cities expressed opposition to the imminent Iraq War. It was part of a series of protests and political events that had begun in 2002 and continued as the invasion, war, and occupation took..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0? by Users AK7, William M. Connolley on en.wikipedia

Step 5️⃣ 👣: 2005 anti-Japanese demonstrations "The anti-Japanese demonstrations of 2005 were a series of demonstrations, some peaceful, some violent, which were held across most of East Asia in the spring of 2005. They were sparked off by a number of issues, including the approval of a Japanese history textbook and the proposal that Japan be..."

[popentertainmentconcertreviews]

Dave Mason & Orleans – Keswick Theatre – Glenside, PA – June 2, 2023

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dave Mason (he was inducted as a member of Traffic) has had a long, winding, fascinating career.

He has had a stellar career as a sideman: as Wikipedia explains, “Over the course of his career, Mason has played and recorded with many notable pop and rock musicians, including Paul McCartney, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Steve Winwood, Fleetwood Mac, Delaney & Bonnie, Leon Russell, and Cass Elliot.”

For example, who remembered that he played a twelve-string acoustic guitar on his friend Jimi Hendrix’ classic Dylan cover “All Along the Watchtower?” He also played on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, The Rolling Stones’ Beggar’s Banquet and was briefly a member of Derek and the Dominoes.

He wrote Joe Cocker’s huge single “Feelin’ Alright” (which was actually originally a Traffic song). He has had solo hits like “We Just Disagree” and “Only You Know, and I Know.” So, there was a lot of guitar history coming onstage at the Keswick Theatre.

First, opening act Orleans played some of their big 70s hits to warm the gig up. Of course, there was only one member left from the band’s hitmaking years – bassist Lance Hoppen. Original drummer Wells Kelly died in 1984, guitarist and singer Larry Hoppen (Lance’s brother) died in 2012 and guitarist/singer John Hall left the band for politics, becoming a congressman for New York from 2006-2010. He has since retired from both politics and performing. However, the current players have been together for years, including keyboardist Lane Hoppen (Lance’s son) who has been with the band about 20 years, guitarist Fly Omero who has been there about 15, and the newcomer, drummer Brady Spencer, who has been with Orleans for five years.

They opened with the title track of their Let There Be Music album, followed up by their huge 1975 hit “Dance With Me.” They next did a terrific cover of King Harvest’s near-perfect pop single “Dancing in the Moonlight,” which has a tangential Orleans connection – who knew that late drummer Wells Kelly was a member of King Harvest before he started with Orleans?

Other smart pop songs included “Miss Grace,” “Slipping Away” and “Juliet.” Then Lance Hoppen announced, “This was our last radio hit in 1979.” Then he said tongue-in-cheekily, “You can pick it up at Tower Records.” The band launched into a sweet version of “Love Takes Time.” Then they closed it down with their soft-rock classic “Still the One.”

For his set, Mason opened with his first solo single, the sweet folk-rock stylings of “Only You Know, and I Know.” Surprisingly, Mason played more Traffic songs than solo tracks, so this was a welcome addition to the setlist.

The Traffic piled up soon enough, with a block of songs from that band made up of “Rock and Roll Stew,” “Pearly Queen” and “Forty Thousand Headmen.”

Then he slipped back into the solo stuff. Only a rock and roll royal like Mason can tell a story about songwriting icon Bob Dylan saying how much he loved his song (complete with a decent Dylan impression) before slipping into the gorgeous love song “Every Woman.” Then Mason pulled out his biggest solo card, the truly gorgeous (if just slightly cynical) love ballad “We Just Disagree.”

The big Traffic hits “The Low Spark of the High Heeled Boys” and “Dear Mr. Fantasy” followed soon after, with slightly altered arrangements (particularly “Low Spark”), but they were warmly received.

The show closed out on scorching versions of “All Along the Watchtower” and “Feelin’ Alright,” which had the crowd… well… feelin’ alright. Mason wasn’t feelin’ so bad himself.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2023 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: June 3, 2023.

Photos by Jim Rinaldi © 2023

[shimyereh]

Tagged by @vera-dauriac and @lizlensky — thank you! Excellent timing for me to be tagged in this meme because I’ve just completed a cross-country drive, which was a great time to revisit my cd collection. The last 6 albums I’ve listened to:

1. Phases of the Moon: Traditional Chinese Music — Gorgeous music for Chinese orchestra, with a recurring theme of pieces inspired by the moon. I bought this cd when I was in high school, used to listen to it a lot while doing homework.

2. Beethoven: Complete Music for Flute — A choir friend gifted me this several months ago, and I hadn’t had a chance to give it a proper listen. Now I’ve listened to it several times. It’s in a similar category to the Chopin and Dowland I listen to when I need to focus late at night.

3. Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol, Tsar Saltan, etc. — My favorite things here are Sheherazade and Antar, but the whole collection is very good. Only managed to listen to disc 1 (of 2) on the road.

4. Brenda Schuman-Post: Oboe of the World — Music from around the world, played on oboe, with various accompaniment. Fun technical stuff: flutter-tonguing, multiphonics. I remember buying this cd at a store in San Francisco as a teenager.

5. Music Inspired by Middle Earth, feat. David Arkenstone — Wikipedia says this was released the same year as the Fellowship of the Ring movie (2001). But it’s completely unrelated to that film score. Suitably epic, good for listening to on a noisy stretch of road. My brother gave me this cd when I was in undergrad.

6. Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin — The 1993 recording with Hvorostovsky, Focile, and Shicoff. This is the same recording I chanced upon in a library ~18 years ago — my first exposure to this opera! This is the spark that set off my whole interest in Pushkin and his novel.

Tagging: @druidjournal, @dragongirlg-fics, @mr-craig, @carpe-mamilia, @monotonous-minutia, @highkingpetermagnificent, and anyone else who sees this and wants to do the meme!

[dex-xe]

I've made Spotify playlists inspired by each of the ghosts and I've made these little written pieces to talk about them. if you wanna read them, please go ahead - if not then enjoy the music!!

This is Robin's playlist:

Somebody Told Me - The Killers

Robin is a stadium rock kinda guy, I guarantee you that. I’ve said this before multiple times but I love the idea of Alison trying to find music for all the ghosts that she things they’d like and he’d totally like music where he could watch gigs and festivals of people just going mental and jumping about. (I have actually written a fic here about Robin having watched stadium rock so yeah, go read that if you’d like!)

Starman - David Bowie

I feel like this is obvious cause space boy but also I interpret the song as being about the idea of accepting change. The Starman sits above Earth and knows things that “will blow our minds”, they understand more than humans do or ever could know much like Robin who has seen more than can be imagined and is wise beyond his time.

The Universal - Blur

This song encapsulates the two primary things I drew from in making Robin’s playlist which are space and the passage of time. But yeah, it’s kinda a sci-fi-esque song that I think is quite fitting. I’ve also seen a lot of discusison about how it’s a commentary on the downfall of society under the epidemic of believing everything you read which is like conspiracy theory Robin talking about the moon landing not happening and the Earth being flat.

Space Oddity - David Bowie

Just the image of Robin as a spaceman makes me happy, I saw some fanart of the ghosts in the outfits they described at clothes club and the one of Robin was so good!! (They are all great but that one in particular is super cute). If I can find it then I’ll link it here.

Spaceman - The Killers

Again, space vibes. Not writing much for this one because it’s self explanatory but also I’m writing this while listening the playlist through and I’m still searching for the fanart from the previous song XD

Run Boy Run - Woodkid

(Found the art) That scene where Robin is running through the woods to fetch Barclay in BitN always reminds me of this song because of like the fast pace and the way it would nicely meld with his like stompy running through the woods.

Starlight - Muse

Actually not chosen for the space theme (although it helps). Basically just the idea of being so far away from those you love, I feel like it goes so underappreciated that Robin is not a few centuries or even just a handful of deacdes away from his life like all the others but he is literally MILLENIA from his family and community. He must miss them so much, I think the whole “everything comes, everything go, but moonah always there” (not a quote cause I only have until the song finishes and can’t to search for the correct line) really indicates just how lonely he must be after literally thousands of year. He spent ~40,000 alone before even Humphrey turned up???

Carry Me Home - The Killers

See above answer but add in the idea of not really belonging where you are, like I said he’s 1000s of years older than anyone else and is way more out of his time than anyone else.

Dark Side - Blind Channel

This would obviously be one of his favourites from this years Eurovision so I had to include it, again I just think he’d really like energetic music so I think it’s a good call.

Baby You’re a Haunted House - Gerard Way

I wanted to include this song in someone’s playlist because, well it’s obvious, but I think it’s a pretty decent song. But yeah, I settled on Robin because of the lyrics focussing on like having to be happy and positive in love while dealing with trauma and inner demons and stuff and I think that’s potentially very Robin cause of the fact he’s been at the house for years and watched everything come and go. He’s positive and upbeat despite the obvious trauma he’s experienced.

Love Illumination - Franz Ferdinand

Basically thought to be about the idea that destruction and boredom is all around us so we look towards things that make us happy and spark love to distract from that. (According to Wikipedia) Alex Kapranos said that he would look to the bright lights of Blackpool for that love - the idea of light and illumination being important to Robin’s distraction and boredom-aliviation in the afterlife.

The Whole of the Moon - The Waterboys

Space boy space boy space boy. Kinda about the idea of somebody seeing and understanding more than others… obvious but yeah I really like the song and am very fixated on Robin’s process of growing into a world that is so unnatural to him but picking up on modern ideas through his time.

Ghosting - Mother Mother

I felt the need to include this for someone so after much debate settled on Robin cause he’s been there for so long and it’s just a nice vibe for him.

Kidz - Take That

I know this is about protest and uprising etc but I think the idea of questioning authority and the very concept of reality and looking to turn things upside down fits nicely with Robin’s loves of conspiracy theories and his unwillingness to accept things straight off but instead question everything he sees.

Cities In Dust - Siouxsie and the Banshees

This is one of my favourite Siouxsie songs: it’s about the destruction of Pompeii and I again think that’s very Robin because, like I said, he’s experienced the destruction of everything around him. Obviously on a completely different level to the fall of Pompeii and over a long period of time but everything he once knew lies in dust but he can’t escape what the world is like now.

Teenage Kicks - The Undertones

It’s just a punk anthem and just a classic, you know?? I have no further explanation but I dare you to tell me this is not a Robin song XD

Across The Universe - The Beatles

It’s not particularly about space or the universe but the vibe is good and the line “nothing’s gonna change my world” is open to my interpretation as being like holding on to the past while watching things outside your control change.

Fly Me to the Moon - Joytastic Sarah & YungRhythm

This is an obvious choice, clearly, but I wanted to include this version because it’s more modern and more representative of Robin’s acceptance of the new world and new ideas.

20th Century Boy - T. Rex

The meaning of this song are very much up for debate, I’ve never been able to interpret it I don’t think. But it just gave me Robin vibes, maybe it’s because of the modern pop culture references which make me think of someone kinda out of their time picking up modern ideas and kind of regurgitating it - much like Robin’s instant believing of conspiracy theories etc.

Apeman - The Kinks

Obvious but yeah, caveman. Kinda nostalgic for simpler times as it lists like tons of things that are shit about todays world (nuclear war, inflation, over population) and how much easier it would be to live in a society without those things - things Robin has grown up into rather unnaturally.

[bettsfic]

Hi Betts, hoping for your guidance if you have the time. No pressure really. But my course will be focusing quite a bit on Shakespeare for the rest of this year. Do you have any advice for someone who isn’t really a writer on how to understand Shakespeare better? Have you read much of it? How did you tackle understanding the language? Is it just reading a lot more of it and looking up words? I struggle getting through one play, but is it just pushing through it? Resources you found helpful?

i feel like i’ve been waiting my whole life for this question. 

i’m feral for shakespeare. i have a hamlet tattoo. i have an unfortunate number of monologues memorized on the off-chance someone at some point goes “hey does anyone know any good monologues?” and i can be all “TO BE OR FUCKING NOT TO BE, BITCHES” or “ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH DEAR FRIENDS, ONCE FUCKING MORE.” i have an actual literal lecture on how richard ii is a greedy glamazon bitch, and an outline for an article on how lady macbeth can teach us everything we need to know about sympathy in fiction.

like many people, high school made me despise shakespeare. i can’t tell if it was the simple coercion of being forced to read things, period, or that we were made to treat everything so seriously, and expected to understand the use of language as if it were like anything else we were reading. 

then when i was 23ish, i got obsessed with doctor who, which led me to david tennant’s filmography, and david tennant happens to have done really a lot of shakespeare. when i geared up to watch his hamlet, however, i thought, i want to read this first, so i can see how different it is from my perception of it.

cue me surreptitiously scrolling through the wikisource version of hamlet while pretending to listen to conference calls at work. i think that helped, making it something i wasn’t allowed to do. it made reading feel like an indulgence. 

free of the constraints of “i’m going to have to write a five-paragraph essay about this when i’m done,” i began to read very casually, only trying to understand what was going on and not trying to find any profound meaning in it. 

in doing that, i realized i was actually doing it correctly. these are plays, meant to be performed on a stage, to entertain, immerse, and evoke feeling. you’re supposed to be sad at the end of tragedies and happy at the end of comedies. however, reading the plays is a far different experience than watching them, and in many ways more of a challenge.

you can’t read a play, especially a shakespeare play, like a book. prose and poetry both lend themselves to crafting intentional images. the entire thing exists to be and only be read. but plays and scripts are just one piece of a much larger puzzle, involving directors and actors and costume designers and set designers. bringing a play to life is a team effort. when you’re reading, you’re only seeing the skeleton of the story. it’s like reading a guidebook for a vacation destination. you can get the gist of it but only truly know a place by going there.

you can’t read shakespeare as a reader. you have to read as a director. you have to envision each actor, and after every line, decide where they are standing on stage, how they deliver their line, and what happens between each line. shakespeare gives almost no stage direction, so you have a lot of creative license in interpretation.

another thing to remember is that shakespeare is first and foremost a rhetorician. he wanted his words to be memorable and beautiful, to persuade and delight. if he wanted to be understood simply, he would have written simply. but instead, he uses 17 lines where 1 would have sufficed. it’s helpful, after every line, to consciously ask yourself, “what has just been said?” and very often the answer is simple. a yes or a no, i agree or disagree, or even sometimes banal statements.

consider hamlet’s “to be or not to be.” he goes on and on and on, but he’s really just being the “guess i’ll just die” meme. in the comedies, shakespeare often uses this effect as a joke. one character will go on and on, and another character gives a simple and curt and blunt reply, and depending on the delivery, it’s hilarious. 

you’re not supposed to love hamlet, or richard ii, or macbeth, or any other character. the tragedies are train wrecks that make you go “i get why you’re doing this but you need to Stop.” the comedies are similar, in that the characters sometimes make you go “you are being so fucking stupid.” it’s the sense of irony, the “i know what’s right in this situation but you don’t” that creates a huge amount of engagement. we’re always bracing ourselves for what comes next.

so here’s how i recommend reading shakespeare:

pick a play, and pick a version or two to watch afterward. here’s a really great list of productions. personally, i’d stick to ones where you’re familiar with the actors, which heightens the engagement. 

before you start reading, consciously cast each character, using actors you really like. or, instead of actors, you can cast your favorite characters as if they were in an AU version of your current fandom. reading shakespeare as fanfic is a speedy way of ensuring your emotional investment.

pull up the wikipedia plot summary of the play to have on hand while you read. every few pages or so, line your reading up with the summary to make sure you’ve caught onto what’s been happening.

as you read, direct the actors you’ve chosen. how do they deliver the line? sometimes this takes a few tries. you can’t let your eyes move left to right across the page and just expect to miraculously understand it as if it were prose. you have to puzzle it out.

if you’re really stuck on something, pull up the spark notes version. there’s no shame in that. if you compare with spark notes enough, you begin to get a sense of the language and begin to need it less and less.

when you’re done, order a pizza, pour a glass of wine, and watch your chosen production version. delight in already understanding what’s happening, figure out where you might have been wrong or confused, and revel in the places you were right. 

watch another production and see how your version, the last version, and this version all differ. 

if you get all the way to this point and you’re not utterly in love, i don’t know what to tell you. i think i watched wyndham theater’s much ado over a hundred times. rsc’s hamlet probably just as much. i have yet to watch or read a single play i didn’t at least appreciate. i’m one of the few people who even enjoys titus andronicus. 

shakespeare takes a lot of energy, but it’s worth it. once you get a feel for the strings he pulls and how he pulls them, it’s like opening a door to a whole other world. you see clips of phrases from this play or that, understand subtle references, and see how his influence exists in nearly everything. you can use his characters and plots and dynamics in all your own work. you can reach backward to see his own influences in greek plays, and forward to see his influences throughout all of literature. it’s amazing, not just who he was, but how his plays are still both so beautiful and so human. 

i’ve skipped over rhetoric, craft, the sonnets, and a few other things that i really enjoy about shakespeare, but those are probably topics for another time. if you’re looking for somewhere to start, i highly recommend much ado about nothing, particularly the wyndham 2009 production with david tennant and catherine tate which is genuinely one of the funniest things i’ve ever watched. it’s fun to compare it to the 1994 kenneth branaugh film and then rage against whedon’s 2013 travesty. 

best of luck in your shakespearean pursuit!