#I’m at fringe fest so there’s too many people to know for sure

[drowsy-quill]

Also hello all my UK/euro mutuals, I am studying abroad this semester so I finally see Tumblr in another time zone without being a victim of insomnia.

Follow up question, what side of the sidewalk are we supposed to walk on?

[ledenews]

Santorine: 'Hate Train' Heading to 'Bittersville' Later This Year

I’m looking forward to enjoying the summer. The weather promises to be great, so I’m hoping to get some travel in and to spend time with our children and grandchildren. Intellectually, though, I know it as a time to relax. June and July are slow, and the chance of getting anything done in August is zero to none. But there is something coming in the fall. It’s an election year. That gives us about 90 days before the hate fest that is our campaign system shifts into high gear. Starting right after Labor Day we are going to be inundated with media of all kinds that won’t tell us a single thing about either candidate’s positions. But it will be non-stop hate and vitriol. Most of the messaging will be insulting and vile, and there will be a very few that are actually funny. But if you don’t agree with our candidate, PEOPLE WILL DIE. Hyperbole. Only hyperbole. The creative (the actual advertisement… print, video, audio or meme) will be well executed, but depending on the magnitude of the lie, it won’t be good. We know it’s coming, too, and we know it’s going to be ugly and insulting and the spin-masters for each candidate will craft new lies for their candidate to spew.  Joseph Goebbels, the NAZI Minister of Propaganda under Hitler, once said, “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”  That is as true today as it was 85 years ago, and the media specialists handling all the candidates know this and will try to use this to their advantage, and to our culture’s detriment. I’ve never been smart enough to lie, so I don’t. What’s scary about the Goebbels quote is that those who lie might “come to believe it themselves.” I can see that happening. Unfortunately, so many candidates for elected office think they are the smartest people in the room, and that they can get away with lies and plagiarism. Sooner or later, it’s going to turn around and bite them right where they sit, and it’s not going to be comfortable … nor should it be. Both the Democrats and the Republicans want to load their opposition candidates on the “Hate Train,” and that “Hate Train is headed right to a pointless place called Bittersville. It looks, as a matter of fact, remarkably like our state capital, or Washington D.C., for that matter. When it’s Bittersville, our elected officials don’t get much done for us.  Most votes straight down the party lines. Most like deadlock. Most work to get nothing done, or they just pay attention to the extreme stuff that panders to either parties lunatic fringe.  Remember, we pay them to be our representatives, and they don’t represent us.  The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House control appointments to committees, and when our elected folks are out of office, that is where the money is. Knuckle under, tow the company line, or you might have to retire on a paltry $174,000 per year.  It’s sad, isn’t it? Someone once suggested that congressional members should have to wear vests with the logos of their corporate benefactors. Not a bad idea, is it? Historically, we have respected the Office of the President of the United States, and there was a standard level of decorum, especially during events such as the State of the Union. We have Nancy Pelosi to thank for taking a wonderful and unique event from our government and reducing it to a grandstanding political circus. All is not lost, however, because we have some representatives who continue to talk about genuine issue. The problem is, though, they lack a large-enough megaphone to effectively sway The People. They sure do try, but those make-sense lawmakers have yet to take center stage. So, that’s why I urge you to enjoy the time between now and September because soon than later that whistle will blow and the Hate Train will take you straight to Bittersville. Read the full article

[eerythingisshaka]

Mr. and Mrs. Stevens

This is my submission for @hoopshoney and @purple-apricots Black Panther Anniversary/Valentines Fic Fest!  Not sure if this fic goes with the theme of the fest and if its a bit....I don’t know, however I did a thing and that’s that on that!

Warnings:  Violence, Language, Sexual Situations

Word Count: 4k

Erik Killmonger x Black!OC

Prompt: “Try not to get blood on your clothes. We have dinner reservations in half an hour.”

Her phone trills in her bra as she checks herself out in the mirror.  The shift she picked up for a friend starts in 15 minutes and she hates when he calls beforehand.

Picking up the call she answers.  “Hey Erik.”

“Wassup baby girl?  You at work?”  His voice carries extra loud in her ear and kind of scratchy.

“Yeah actually.  So why are you calling?”  She asks in annoyance while applying her lippie.

“Aww, now don’t be like that.  You -- money tonight e--?  So don’t trip!”  His voice crackles in her ear.

She takes a step back to look over herself in the mirror, pushing her braids back and turning around to check her behind.  “The only thing I’m tripping over is why you obviously aren’t using the new AirPods I got you last month?  I can hear the 10.99 drugstore quality in my ear, it’s bringing down my mood.”  A loud sniff interrupts her train of thought as she sees a brunette leaning over the rim of a sink with a rolled up dollar bill.

Erik tuts at her.  “Come on, you know I’m a traditionalist when it comes to the audio experience!  I gotta, I gotta have, you know, an immersive, like, surround sound type of thing and like, the cords help-”

She leans on the sink in front of her.  “You lost one at the gym today huh?  When I called you and you said ‘shit shit shit!’ that was you dropping my money down the drain, huh?”

“Your money?  Since when is it your money only?”  Erik asks out the side of his mouth.

A girl taps her on the arm, wiping her nostrils as she holds out the dollar bill with a line left on the sink.  She shakes her head with a polite smile.  “Since I been doing all the work here.  These long nights, planning my own appointments, working these guys for tips with only my own damn wit, when they obviously want more!”

“Pssh, aight aight, calm down.  You know I appreciate this.  It’s OUR thing though, so don’t get your butt on your back with me.  I know you nervous cuz a high roller comin in today.”  Erik says calmly.

She picks up her bag and stuffs it in a locker, slamming it closed.  “Yeah, it’s basically now or never, Erik.  If I’m not what he’s looking for, he’s moving on and then we ain’t got shit!”

Erik shushes her softly.  “Chill, trust me.  You what he’s lookin for.  Guys like him love bitches like-”

“You better be kind and rewind that for me!”  She demands.  Erik always slipping his tongue at the wrong times, ignorant self.

Erik laughs.  “I don’t mean you!  He likes ‘females’ like you.  He studies them the most, you know?  That better?”

She sighs, choosing to ignore the still derogatory term.  “Fine.  You just be here when it’s all said and done.  I need you in times like this.”

“You do, huh?  I need you too, if you wearin whatever was in that bag you packed.  Shit looked tiny, so you ain’t covering much.”

She cackles out loud, her laugh bouncing off the walls of the room.  “Shut UP!  Don’t be silly right now!”

“Ain’t nuthin silly!  WE ain’t playing, you feel me?”  Erik says authoritatively.

She kicks her heel at the ground, biting her lip.  “I might be in a mood to see my friend backstage tonight.”

“Oh, so you claiming this dick right now?  Cuz, I thought this was MY dick!  Since I put in all the work around here, getting hard, staying hard, breaking your fucking back so all you gotta do is take it and you can barely handle that-”

“Oh Erik, fuck on with that.  Buh-bye!”

“You get it now?  Be good, DeDe.”

---

Johnny Rocket’s Adult Entertainment Club has a reputation for high profile clientele and catering to every kink imaginable.  Politicians, celebrities, CEOs, and anyone with a 7 figure or more annual salary has the possibility of getting in any night, however the waiting list was 6 months back, minimum.  If your name is powerful enough, you may receive a bump for the inconvenience, but there’s no way that list would move, as people kept looking for a chance to have an extravagant night inside.

One did not have to be looking for a touch from a stranger in order to enjoy themselves there, the club scene is just as hopping with exquisite seating, expensive liquors and miscellaneous party favors for the bold.  Tonight, Johnny Rocket’s is packed wall to wall for a birthday party of the man who runs the Upper West Side of Las Papeleras, of that’s what he would call it.  Mark Foley is the embodiment of greed; a shark tank businessman with a lust for power.  His monopoly of the financial district kept his pockets running over and the local law enforcement’s lined to keep his shady dealings going at an accelerated rate.  

His dealings started off with drug trades across the southern border of the United States, renting out the time of immigrants on the promise of Visa documents and safe keeping of their families on the road to citizenship.  This was a messy business however, as many of his vulnerable employees would be caught shortly after a drop or killed for being intercepted to ensure the details of his operation remained unknown.  It wouldn’t take much to cover his trail with his buddies in DC anyway.  Even with a successful run, Foley would instruct his subordinates to drop off the grid, leaving his pushers high and dry until ICE came for them eventually.  

But he was out of that game, now it is all about real estate.  Foley knew exactly where to upstart businesses for friends and confidants that would make him the richest man in America.  

“The rundown, dangerous, and poverty stricken  neighborhoods are nestled so conveniently between downtown and the burbs.  We just need to get those low lifes sucking off the teat of our taxpayer dollars to get off some extra dough, or get the fuck outta there.”  Foley slurs his words, picking up his tumbler of 12 year old whiskey.  

One of his associates respond, shaking his head.  “Ahh, come on, Foley.  Those people have been living there for so many fucking generations!  How could you uproot them like that, changing there way of life at the drop of a hat like that?  Where’s your heart?”

Foley blinks his eyes a couple of times, staring at his acquaintance from across the room for what seemed like hours.  The flashing, multi-colored lights of the club blur his vision as the bass of A$AP Rocky pounds at their temples.  

“Really?”  Foley asks loudly over the music, frozen with his drink in his hand.

The man laughs out loud, banging the back of the couch as he leans his head back in blissful humor.  “Fuck no!  I’m just fucking with you Foley, come on!”  He boasts, picking up a bottle of whiskey, clanging it against Foley’s glass.

Foley shakes as his hoarse laugh builds in his gut.  “Ohh, man, you had me going there for a second!  You can’t joke like that with me man, you’re still on probation with me.”

The associate combs his hair out of his face, adjusting his tailored, chocolate suede jacket.  “Let me have some fun, huh?  Anyway, you know what to do.  Call up Johnson to get in touch with Hesson about his eminent domain clause on the block, and kick those sons of bitches out on the concrete.  They’ll find a way, roaches never die, you know?  They just skedaddle on to a new nest to infest.”

Foley lights up a cigar, pointing it his way.  “Exactly.  I consider this motivation to do better for themselves.  Hell, once I clean up the pigsty, they can bring their credit score and occupation info, if they have one, and make a deposit with 6 months rent to settle in to the swanky new digs I transform those rat traps from!”

A waitress comes over in a leather miniskirt and thigh high boots with a fringed crop top that rests off her shoulder.  Half of her braids are bound on top of her head, with the rest cascading down her back.  Even in the dark room and the intensity of the strobing lights, her melanin shown beautifully rich, bringing the table to her full attention.

“Can I get you gentlemen another round?”  Her voice said with a sultry timbre, leaning forward to pick up bottle and adjoining glasses.    Some of her braids fall in the face of a hypnotized Foley who reached his thick hands through them, sniffing.

“Mmm, if you mean the juice, that’s not what I need another round of, sugar.”  Foley says wagging his eyebrows.

She looks over at him, pulling her braids back and out of his hands.  “You are Mark Foley, correct?”

He nods slowly, mouth half hanging open.  “I like the way you say my name, doll.”

“My name is Sade.  Your friend here made arrangements for us to...get to know each other a little better…”  Sade bites her lip, using her almond shaped eyes to invite Foley into the possibility.

He didn’t need too much convincing as he clapped his hands looking over at his associate.  “You sly dog!  You planned this for me?”

He shrugs. “Nothing but the best, for the man who holds my old hood in his hands.”  Raising the bottle up again in solidarity, Foley springs up out of the booth, grabbing Sade by the waist.

“This EXACTLY what I need!  Let’s not delay, drop those glasses at the bar and let’s boogie!”  Foley exclaims, leading Sade along and leaving his associate with the bill.

Foley’s hands were lit up over Sade’s body, feeling her soft and firm portions of her body with no shame as she led him to the quieter, private rooms in the bottom level of the club.  A black door marked with the number 8 in gold is where Sade took them before pausing to turn around and face him, snapping her fingers to regain his sober attention.

“Once we cross this threshold, you will need to behave yourself.  I won’t ask you again, otherwise consequences will be set.”  She says calmly.

Foley looks around the hallway, rubbing his hands together before whispering.  “Whatever you say, mistress.  I am at your command.”  His Dad-bod practically vibrated with excitement as she opened the door.  As it closed with a clang, Foley peers around to inspect the various chains, harnesses, chairs with binding mechanisms that decorated the room.

“Whew, this is-”

“SHUT UP!”  Sade yelled with a crack of a whip.  Foley turned around quickly in shock.

“Sade, I wasn’t-”

“Are you speaking out of turn after an order?”  Sade snarls.  In the midst of Foley looking around the room, she has put on a black lace mask covering her face and a nine tailed whip in one hand with ropes in the other.  

Foley shakes his head excitedly.  “My apologies!”

“Turn around and get on your knees.”  Sade says walking around the perimeter of the room like a lioness tracking her prey.  Foley does as he is told, fitting the profile of sub perfectly as he avoids eye contact.

“You are a stupid, worm-grubbing quim aren’t you?”  Sade says matter of factly, playing with the nine-tails in front of him.

Foley nods aggressively.

“ANSWER ME!  Don’t you have a tongue?!” Sade demands, this time cracking the whip across Foley’s arm.  

He shrieks.  “Agh!  Yes! Yes mistress, I am!  I do!”

“Hm, we’ll see about that later...Do you have a problem with authority?”  Foley stammers, not sure how to answer.  “A man of such wealth and status must know a thing or two about breaking rules….Are you going to break mine?”

“No mistress.  I’ll listen to every word!”  

Sade puts her heel into his chest, leaning against him on her knee as she speaks in his face.  “Have you ever let a Black person tell you what to do?”

Once again, Foley is at a loss for words as Sade runs a gloved hand through his thin, short strands of hair, before bringing the palm of her hand square across his cheek with a hard SLAP.

“That ends today.  Tell me Black Lives Matter.”  Sade commands with a dig of her heel that makes him wince.

“Ahh, Bl-Black Lives Matter.”  Foley says hesitantly.

Sade takes her foot off of him before cracking the whip on him again.  “LOUDER!”

“Black Lives Matter!  Thank God, they matter!”  Foley says more enthusiastically.

Sade looks him over with disgust.  “Take off your clothes as you recite every Black person you know that has contributed to the fabric of our nation.  Go!”

Foley starts with the buttons on his jacket and an ode to Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr.  (Sade had to whip him for leaving off the Jr.)  getting down to his briefs before stuttering on names, giving up before after he said Bill Cosby, holding his hands in front of his manhood.

“It’s not cold, put your hands down!”  Sade demanded.

He does do quickly, looking embarrassed at the small protrusion he can’t seem to control.

Sade shakes her hand tutting him.  “I’m glad you’re having fun.  It’s a shame though, how little you know.  The American private school system really failed you.  However I am in a generous mood and have every  intention on catching you up to speed.  With a little help from a friend.”

On cue, the door opens and in walks his associate.  

Foley protests.  “Whoa, hey, this may have been incorrect info you got.  I’m not into THAT.”  

Sade grips his hair at the root.  “Have my boot as a snack while the adults talk.”  Stomping her foot in front of him, Foley bends down on the concrete floor to kiss and lick her shoe.

Sade sighs, wiping her brow.  “Babysitting is so hard.  What took you so long Erik?”

He unbuttons his jacket sighing.  “His fucking card wouldn’t go through upstairs.  So this muthafucka owe me his life and some change now.”  

Erik picks up Foley’s pants, ruffling through his pockets for his wallet.

“Whoa, bro, what are you doing?  You aren’t a part of this!”  Foley says.  

Sade was not pleased with this interruption, bringing her boot around to land it squarely with his chin.  The crack of the impact echoed in the room as Foley flopped on his back, writhing in pain.

“What...the….FUCK!”  He yells out, blood starting to coat his fingers.

“Damn, Sade!”  Erik exclaimed, staring at his girl.

Sade inspects her boot.  “Shit, he got a damn scuff in it, now I’m really pissed.  Tie his ass up so we can move on.”  

Erik handles Foley like a ragdoll, turning him over and using Sade’s ropes to tie his hands behind his back.

“You fucking niggers don’t know who you’re dealing with!”  Foley says through clenched teeth.  

Erik pulls him up by his arms over to a part of the wall with a collar and chain attached to it.  Turning Foley around, he hooks his neck up to the contraption.

“You really want them to be your last words, bitch ass cunt?”   Erik says, tightening the collar on the last possible notch.   “Gotta use they language to get to em sometimes.”  Erik says to Sade.

Foley laughs nervously as tears fill his eyes.  “I could make you rich, man.  Get your mom out the ghetto.  You got any siblings?  You could take them anywhere!  I’ll turn your life around in ways you never seen, just let me out of here with this bitch!”

Sade sits on a stool trying to buff out the mark on her shoe.  “Erik, his voice is annoying me…”  She says in a sing-songy manner.  

Erik pulls out Foley’s phone from his pants pocket, holding it up to his face to unlock it.  

“Fuck!  I shoulda known that facial unlock would bite me in the ass.”

Erik opens his camera to take some pictures.  “Aww, shit!  You finna be the Belle of the Ball once these circulate through your contacts.  No way your bros at the Capitol can clean this mess up.”  Erik laughs, showing the gallery to Foley, who is whining for mercy.

“Come on!  Don’t do this!  Let’s talk this over!  You need some money?  Let me give you something something, and we can work this out.  No harm no foul!”

“Give him your bank login, we’ll handle the rest.”  Sade instructs from across the room.”

Foley shifts, blinking the sweat out of his eyes.  “I-I mean, you don’t wanna give me a figure first-”

Erik sends a strong blow to Foley’s gut, knocking the wind and dignity out of him.

“O...k…” Foley rasps as he coughs through his username and password for Erik to set up a transfer.

“Thanks for the paycheck, bro.”  Erik, takes some leather gloves off of a table, sliding them, flexing his fingers.  “No way in hell you can help me while you still got breath in your body.  And ain’t shit you can do for me.  That neighborhood you wanna run over so fuckin bad ain’t yours to take.  White folks can’t never miss out on a land deal, fuckin colonizers.”

Foley struggled against his bindings, becoming agitated.  “I am providing a service!  Something that will make their world better!”

Erik punches the wall next to his head, cracking the concrete.  “A world you ain’t got no plan to let them in?  They already got a place to stay, and you want them outta there cuz the living is too cheap and they barely affording that.  So instead of working for them, you’re just gonna build shit that they can’t afford, segregating them even more until they gotta leave.  Turning half the shit into fucking parking lots any damn way.”

Foley breathes heavily, swallowing hard.  “It’s so disappointing to hear you settling for less, bro.  It really is…”

Sade comes up behind Erik, handing him a club and brass knuckles.  

“I don’t need that shit, I got this.”  Erik insists with a wink.

Sade rolls her eyes.  “Try not to get blood on your clothes.  We have dinner reservations in an hour.”

As Erik takes off his jacket and dress shirt. Foley says, “Aye, what was it you said before?  Roaches always surviving?  What’s it to you when they’ll find another hole to crawl into?  Making babies and killing themselves, it’s the circle of life.  I'm just tired of seeing your Black asses fucking with my city.”

Erik reaches behind his back near his waistband to swiftly take take out his military issue knife, grabbing Foley by his neck, slamming his head into the wall.  As Foley neck folds sheath his hand, Erik brings the knife slowly to his eye socket as Foley closes his eyelids tightly.  That only makes the process more messy as he screams in excruciating pain while Erik skillfully gouges him.

“There.  Now you aint gotta see shit. That better?”  Sade says, walking away at this point when all she heard was the pounding of Erik’s fist in bone.  Foley’s feebled cries in pain didn’t last long when Erik socked him in his mouth, making him swallow his own teeth.  Sounded as if he even indulged in the knuckles and the club after all, as he dared Foley to say something again, until it was impossible to do so Sade sat in her seat, reviewing her manicure as the cacophony of pounds into Foley’s body turned soft.

Erik’s breathing was the only thing left as he made his way back over to Sade with a wild nature in his eyes, and blood coating his knuckles and face.

“Ohhh, look at you!  You’re never careful when I ask you to!”  Sade scolds him as she pulls out a handkerchief and water, wiping down his hands.

“You know how I get carried away in the moment.”  Erik says, voice gravelly as he stares at Sade.

Sade finishes off his hands, reaching for his face to clean.  “Mhm, I know.  Lucky for you, I brought a spare undershirt to change.  What about your pants…”  Sade brushed some dust near his crotch, feeling his dick twitch under her touch.  “That is enough!  I’m not cancelling this dinner.  It's been weeks in the making!”

Erik bites his lip, leaning over Sade as she digs through her bag.  “You blaming me when you out here dressed like that, kicking white folks in the face and not expecting me to wanna fuck you for that?”

Sade reaches for the collar of his shirt, tearing it halfway off his him with a blade between her teeth.  She takes it and aims it over his chest.  “You know how we celebrate…”

Applying pressure, she drags it slowly across his skin, red liquid bubbling along the length of the cut as Erik seethed.  The satisfying release of his skin allowing the penetration of her blade made her breath hitch in her chest. “We got another one, we mark the occasion.  Without him contacting his people in DC, no way they can settle a vote to gentrify now.”  

Sade runs her thumb along the blood trickling out, wiping it clean before bring her face in his chest to lick his wound.  The soft, muskiness of his skin is too tempting for her to let go as she caresses his chest.

Erik sighs deeply, taking one hand to grab her ass and the other wraps her braids around its knuckles pulling her face back as he devours her mouth hungrily.  Erik lifts her up and onto a nearby table with a thud, pulling her skirt up to her waist as she reaches to free him from his trousers.

“Ooh, dont make me scar your back up now.  This is lucky number 57?”  Sade chuckles as Erik brings ankles to his shoulders, leaning over her.

The way Erik looks at her, one might think she was his sworn enemy.  But this is Erik’s favorite time with Sade.  Not just fucking, but taking out white folks that aren’t doing shit for anyone but themselves, leaving a trail of dead brown and black bodies behind them.  Doing this vigilante justice together never got old.

“Try me. And a lot more to come.”  Erik promises as Sade kisses his keloid riddled arm, biting down once he entered her.

Sade peppered Erik with affection as they fucked.  Their roles easily switched from business to pleasure.  Sade being the brains behind most of the operations, and Erik being the muscle, all he needed was to be told where to go and he had the rest.  But as lovers, Erik took control of her, and she needed that change of pace.  

As Erik reaches for her throat, he put his weight on her, lapping at her neck as he digs her out desperately.  Sade gasped with each stroke he dropped inside of her, seeing stars as her breath quickened.  Her head fell to one side as she got a full view of the damage Erik did to Foley’s body.  The bruising, the bone jutting from his skin, blood pooling near his collapsed skull was all too much for Sade.   She came so hard, Erik nearly slipped in her wetness flooding between them, tightening up on Erik until he contributed his own fluids to their celebration.

Erik lays still on top of her panting.  “How much time left we got on the room?”

Sade rubs his back, still smooth but hopefully not for long once they continue their mission.  “45 minutes.”  She smacks his shoulders, willing him to roll off of her.  “You’re cleaning up by yourself this time.  Your dick is making me miss dinner, I’ve suffered enough.”

Erik laughs slow and deeply as he rubs his face, satisfied all the same.  “You need a mop-iana?”

RagTag  (it’s been so long since I wrote, I’m forgetting who likes to be tagged)

@chaneajoyyy @bidibidibombaclaat @wakanda-inspired

[shastelly]

Klance Positivity Week - Modern Day/ Historical

So this is for May 27, not sure if I’m going to do the whole week, I’m behind on some other stuff, but wanted to at least get this one out.  

Total self indulgent fluffy silliness :)

Modern College AU

 "Lance, I don't know about this." Keith grumbled picking at the outfit he was being forced to wear.

 "Keith, it's fun, have fun."  Lance huffed. He had personally picked the costumes and he thought they both looked damn fine.

 "I'm sorry, I just, I feel weird."  Keith frowned picking at the red, brown, and black patterned coat think he was wearing.  The weird little wooden toggle button things on the front were just funny looking. The black pants were pretty plain, and he had flat out refused to even consider tights, much to Lance's dismay. The only thing he really liked about the outfit was the black belt with a special sheath for his dagger and a place to hand the scabbard for his sword and, of course, the two blades themselves were the only things he really like about the outfit.  The black boots were relatively okay, they went up his calf and were soft leather pull on types.  

 "Well, you look hot."  Lance huffed annoyed that his boyfriend was not appreciating his effort, and in all his pouting glory was still completely adorable.

 Keith huffed out a breath, he knew he was being a bit of a brat, after all he had agreed to this.  Lance had been begging him to take him to the Renaissance Festival since Pidge and Hunk had decided they were going.  He had agreed when he'd seen how much Lance wanted it.  He really did like to make him happy.

 "Hunk's wearing a kilt, you know.  I was trying to pick something you'd like and would look nice on you."  Lance twirled the fringe on the edge of the cropped jacket he was wearing.  It moved around and tickled him when he danced.  His broad legged pants gathered at the knee and he lost count on the number of scarves and belts he'd strapped around the waist, with whatever bit and bobbles he could find to spice up his gypsy costume.  He had a scarf tied around his head and a fake hoop in his ear and a few bangles and rings to add more flare.  The outfit was completed with brown leather sandals that had laces that wrapped around his legs to his knees.  He looked sexy and he knew it.  He wasn't sure why his boyfriend was failing to notice.

 "Pidge is an archer.  Her outfit isn't so…stiff."  Keith picked at the jacket again.

 "Keith. You know what, you're going.  You promised.  I'm sorry if you don't like the outfit.  Next year, pick your own."  Lance huffed and crossed his arms.  Shiro would be there to pick them up in the van any minute.  Keith had come over to his place to get dressed.  Allura was with Shiro and they would pick Pidge and Hunk up first because they were at Pidge's dorm.  "Besides, you think your outfit is stiff, you should see what Allura convinced Shiro to wear."

 "What?"  Keith suddenly forgetting his pout for teasing his mentor.

 "Well, you know Allura broke up with Lotor last week, anyway, so she begged Shiro to be the matched set for her costume."  Lance smirked.  "Let's just say Shiro is not too chicken to wear the tights and his jacket makes yours look like a comfy hoodie."

 "This I have to see."  Keith smiled and finally let go of his nerves enough to appreciate the costume Lance was wearing.  His skin looked great against the fabric colors and Keith's fingers twitched with a sudden desire to wrap his hands around Lance's bare midriff.

 "Hmph. Well at least you're smiling now." Lance put his arms down and pulled Keith to the door.  "They should be here any minute, come on."

 Keith took a deep breath.  It took a whole lot of love for Lance for him to leave the safety of the room in costume, but he managed it.  Cringing and waiting for laughter he made his way down the hall, down the stairs and through the lobby.

 "Hey, Keith!  Lance!" Ryan Kincaid waved from the lounge area in the lobby.  "Looking good!  You going to the Renn fest?"

 "Yeah."  Lance smiled brightly and waved back.

 "I went last weekend.  It was a blast.  The turkey legs were awesome, and I loved the archery area.  If you do well at some of the games, you can be a squire or get knighted by the queen."

 "Really?" Lance's eyes lit up.  "I am so doing that.  Or we are, right Keith?"

 "Um…sure?" Keith shrugged.

 "Don't worry Keith, it's fun."  Inna called from the other side of Ryan.  "The pirate show was very entertaining, lots of acrobatic action."  

 "I liked the Mud Show.  Seriously, though, do not sit in the front row."  James spoke up with a grave look on his face.  The rest of his group burst into laughter.  

 "I have never seen Griff look quite that upset."  Nadia laughed.  "He was covered in mud."

 "So worth it."  Inna grinned.

 "Traitor."  James huffed. "Keith, I don't care what they tell you.  Don't sit in the front row.  Don't sit in the front six rows, avoid the splash zone."

 Keith looked slightly horrified, but Lance just laughed.  

 "I am not letting him fall for that, not when I put so much work into this costume."  Lance almost giggled, "Though it would have been funny."

 Keith glared at him and Lance and the other four laughed a little more.

 "Anyway, have fun.  We'll have to compare notes after class tomorrow?"  Ryan asked.  He and Lance shared a geometry class and were study buddies.

 "You bet.  We got to get going.  Shiro has the team van to haul us in."  Lance waved and they headed out the door.  Shiro was the assistant swim coach and frequently asked permission to use the van to haul students around.  Lance and Keith were both on the swim team, while Pidge was on the dive team, and Hunk was a student coach and lifeguard.  

 Pidge was a crazy high diver and it amazed Keith how many times she could flip between the platform and the water.  She was also completely fearless.  She was currently a double major in Software Engineering and Physics.  She'd started university two years early and was a certified genius.  

 Lance was the best swimmer on the team and swam breaststroke, butterfly, a couple relays, and long-distance freestyle.  He was majoring in education with an emphasis in literature and art and had told Shiro he wanted to be a swim coach someday.  

 Hunk was a student coach.  Lance joked if they didn't go to school inland, Hunk would be the star of the surfing team.  He told them repeatedly Hunk was a crazy strong swimmer, just not fast.  He'd watched Hunk surf enough and even had his own butt hauled out of the water when he'd taken a bad fall off a surfboard. Hunk was an engineering major, but he was also a lifeguard and was training as a paramedic.

 Keith was also a good swimmer and did a lot of the short distance freestyle, relays, and the only one he could beat Lance in - backstroke.  At first, they'd really clashed, but after Shiro forced them on the same relay team, things had really turned around and they went from enemies, to a great team, to boyfriends.  Keith was majoring in psychology and sociology.  He wasn't sure what he wanted to be when he finished, just that he wanted to help people.  Lance had gushed and said it was sweet when he told them.

 Shiro and Allura were graduate students.  Shiro was a physical therapy major.  Allura was a law student.  Their classes didn't really overlap, but they were both very active on campus and currently the co-leaders for the campus Habitat for Humanity group.

  When the blue and red van pulled up, Pidge slide open the side door and they climbed in.  Lance was practically preening at the compliments the others made to their costumes.  He in turn complimented Shiro and Allura on their noble costumes and how authentic they looked.  He also complimented Pidge on her costume, letting her know he particularly liked the caplet and hoped she might let him borrow it.  Hunk's costume deserved to be raved about due to the leather armor pieces and the pattern in the kilt, though Lance gave the most compliments on Hunk's legs making Hunk sputter in embarrassed pleasure.

 Keith spent the entire time sitting behind Shiro poking at the ruffled collar and laughing.

 **pics of the costumes at the end of the fic :)**

 They arrived at the festival before it opened.  Pidge had gotten their tickets online, so they didn't have to wait in the line or anything.  There were players from the faire moving through the crowd doing gag routines and talking up the crowd.  It was a fun atmosphere and Keith felt himself relaxing.  There were a lot of people in costume, almost half of the crowd. Lance told him several other would be in costume after they went in because there were places to rent costumes.

 Keith even found himself laughing at a couple of swordsmen up on fake castle wall. They were clashing blades and laughing and making jokes.  Keith thought it looked like fun.  Lance had whispered into his ear that he was not allowed to climb the wall.  He'd blushed.

 They had gone to show after show.  There was singing and sword fighting and acrobats.  He'd remembered not to sit in the front rows of the Mud Show and was able to laugh at the mud-splattered attendees that had sat in the splash zone.

 They'd done some shopping.  Lance bought some weird handmade creams and candles.  Hunk got a new mortar and pestle that he was going to use for herbs for his cooking.  Keith bought a new dagger, which surprised no one.  Pidge got a kit to make a mini trebuchet.  She planned to use it to scale up for a large one.  Allura bought a flower crown.  Shiro had picked up a wax seal set.  

 They'd eaten turkey legs.  Pidge had looked particularly ridiculous tearing into hers.  Shiro and Allura drank mead.  Hunk had gotten steak on a stake.  Lance and Keith split a bread bowl stew.  Pidge found some kind of deep-fried cookie dough.

 "What now?"  Keith looked around.  He hated to admit it, but he was having a great time.  He'd been especially enthralled when Lance had joined the belly dancers on the stage and managed to pull off several of the moves they had showed him.

 "Now on to the tests of skill!"  Lance yelled and pointed to the section of the faire with most of the games.  "Remember what Ryan said?  We need to become knights!"

 "What kind of tests?"  Keith frowned, remembering the conversation, "I'm not good at archery."

 "Well, there are knife, axe, and spear throwing," Lance looked back with a grin and a wink, certain Keith would be happy with some of those choices.

 "I can throw an axe?"  Keith's eyes widened.  

 "Yep."  Lance popped the "p".

 "Well, let's go!"  Keith grabbed Lance's hand and pulled him along toward the games.  The rest laughed and followed along.  

 Surprising no one Keith was awesome at the knife throwing.  He was okay with the axe; Pidge beat him at that one and Allura tied her. Lance put so many bullseyes into the archery area that he'd gathered a crowd watching him.  Hunk and Shiro both aced the spear throwing.  

 They all earned high enough marks to be knighted by the queen.  They talked to some people and made arrangements to be knighted after the evenings final jousting event.  They all sat together during the joust cheering on the knight for their section.  Allura was up on the bench yelling for the knight during the sword portion.  Lance jumped up and joined her and Keith felt like crawling under the bench, but he noticed that no one around them seemed to mind and were just looking on with smiles.  He slowly relaxed and allowed himself to enjoy their antics.  

 After the joust they were called out with a few others to approach the Queen and her court. She stepped down onto the bottom step of her raised viewing area.  She held a sword and carefully knighted each person as they approached.

 Allura was first and the Queen gave her a tight nod and a smile for her prowess with the axe.  Pidge was next and earned a round of laughter from the crowd when it was announced that she too had shown prowess with the axe.  She glared and aimed her bow at the audience and the Queen asked that the brave warrior not injure the ignorant crowd of peasants.  Pidge lowered the bow with a smile and strutted off to Allura's side. Hunk and Shiro were also honored for the spear throwing.  Keith received a special award for high marks in two categories.  The Queen declared him one of her guard and gave him a rose and a medallion.  Lance was last and the Queen made a point to say he was the first gypsy she had ever declared a knight, but to welcome him into her service.  Lance smiled and bowed deeply before spinning and twirling in a dance over to the others using some of the moves, he'd learned from the belly dancers. The crowd loved it and there was thunderous applause for the new knights.

 Lance slipped his arm around Keith's and snuggled into his shoulder, his face warm from the sun, but he was shivering a little in the evening breeze.  Keith smiled wrapping his arm around him and pulling him closer.  They all walked out to the van a little sleepy in a dazed happy kind of way. Lance said something from under Keith's arm, but he couldn't quite make it out.

 "What?" He murmured into Lance's hair.

 "Did you have fun?"  Lance looked up at him, so worried and hopeful that Keith's heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his chest.  

 "I did, you were right, Lance."  Keith smiled and was rewarded with the brightest beaming smile Lance had to offer.  He couldn't help but lean forward and press his lips to that smile.

 Lance laughed happily into the kiss.  Pidge made barfing sounds.

 "I think you mean Sir Lance, don't you Sir Keith?" Lance ignored Pidge's sounds and just snuggled in as close as possible.  

 "That must be what I meant."  Keith laughed.  "I think what I meant was no matter if you're a knight or a student or an old man, I'm going to love you no matter when."

 "Aw!" Lance wrapped his arms around Keith's neck.

 "That was very sweet Keith."  Allura patted his back and smiled as she walked by and got into the van.

 "You are so gross."  Pidge stuck her tongue out and climbed in.

 Hunk walked by with tears in his eyes and gave Keith two thumbs up.

 Shiro just smiled quiet like and nodded to him.

 They climbed into the van, Lance barely loosening his hold on him.  He curled into his side and was asleep before they were out of the parking lot.  Keith rested his head on Lance's and found his own eyes drifting closed.  It had been a very good day.

 For a visual idea on Keith's costume:

 From <https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=PHJGFRWx&id=6B806DC18E93F94C684B93FEADD4C1A346A9334D&thid=OIP.PHJGFRWxGEuk9mrwRxP-HQAAAA&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fimgs.inkfrog.com%2fpix%2fgdalsf%2fRoyal_Court_Doublet.jpg&exph=600&expw=378&q=Renaissance+Faire+Costumes+Men&simid=608009201531359138&selectedIndex=7&mode=overlay>

  For an idea on Lance's costume:

 From <https://i.pinimg.com/originals/32/7b/27/327b27ea213a54b5226cce02ec4449d7.jpg>

 Visual Aid for Hunk:

 From <https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c6/e9/98/c6e9986404368183e7ca2883cd9fb35c.jpg>

  Visual Aid for Pidge:

 From <https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5d/d1/3f/5dd13f742963d767cac4a7bc31fdf736--viking-warrior-warrior-women.jpg>

  Visual Aid for Shiro and Allura:

 From <https://i.pinimg.com/736x/b8/25/ed/b825edbf9f723ca45349eef860b1a302--renaissance-clothing-renaissance-fashion.jpg>

[atruththatyoudeny]

MONTHLY READS | November 2018

I’m so sad I’m too late for Fandom Appreciation Day but I still want to thank every author on this list for the hard work and for sharing their stories with us! »Top 5 stories + 13 more I enjoyed under the cut« Half a Million Strong by kiddle | Woodstock | famous/not famous | enemies to friends to lovers | 50k Everybody is really looking for some kind of answer where there isn't one. Why would 300,000, 120,000, 60,000, 70,000 people come to anything, just because it's music, you know? I mean, is music all that important? I don't really think so, but people don't know, you know. They don't know how to live and they don't know what to do and they think that if they can come here they can find out, you know, what it is or how to maintain it. It’s just, like... People are very lost. -Jerry, festival goer August 15th, 1969, New York. Louis Tomlinson is a young writer for a relatively new-on-the-scene rock magazine called Rolling Stone. His assignment is to fly across the country to cover the highly anticipated Woodstock Music and Art Festival. Armed with a notebook, audio recorder, and a camera, Louis just needs one big interview. Harry Styles. A new name in rock music and a future name in rock history. His first album sold tens of thousands and his interviews attract audiences across the country. He has the poetry of Jim Morrison and the stage presence of Mick Jagger. And after seeing him perform at the festival, Louis is willing to jump through hoops to put Harry on the cover of Rolling Stone. When You're With Me by dimpled_halo | terminal illness | minor character death | kid fic | angst | fluff | 33k “Louis, wait.” Harry blurts out. Louis turns his head toward Harry expectantly. Harry’s heart races and he doesn’t know why. He’s never felt this nervous around someone before. He reaches for his wallet in his back pocket and pulls out a business card handing it over to Louis. Louis takes it in his hands and reads it before gazing back at him. “Um. Don’t hesitate to call me if you ever need anything.” Louis nods in acknowledgment, a small smile curving on his lips. “Thank you, Harry.” Harry returns the smile. “Have a good night.” With that, Louis climbs out of the vehicle looking back once on his way to the front door and waving at Harry. He ignores the way his stomach flutters, and pulls out of the kerb to head home. * Harry feels immediately drawn to Louis when they meet for the first time. Unfortunately it's under sad circumstances that leave Louis as a single father. Before Harry can offer his support, Louis is gone just as soon as he'd come, but he leaves a lasting impression on Harry that he knows he'll never forget. It isn't until a year later that they cross paths again and Louis changes Harry's life in ways he didn't expect. The Compulsion to Find Love by Toomanytears | a/b/o | worldbuilding | angst | fluff | slow burn | 140k The most prestigious English third-level institution, Candling University, accepts omega students for the first time and Louis Tomlinson applies with bright eyes and brighter ambitions. There he encounters personal obstacles, traditional mindsets and a beautiful boy who inverts every prejudice Louis has ever known. Save me...... by SavageMonkey | kid fic | emotional hurt/comfort | angst | humor | 59k Harry is struggling with the loss of his partner, raising his daughter Addie all on his own. He is hoping to find solace at a local community center grief meeting. Louis is dealing with his own loss, but has a whole new approach to life that Harry didn't know existed. Harry is a successful personal chef. Louis is a star of the stage. Cameras Flashing by juliusschmidt for HL Famous/Not Famous Fic Exchange | a/b/o | famous/not famous | coming out | practice dating | 81k With his breakout single platinum three times over and his second album still selling out in stores around the world, Louis Tomlinson has made it to the top. However, his position as Pop Heartthrob of the Decade is threatened by the edgier, more artistic Zayn, who happens to be releasing an album a week after Louis’ upcoming third. Louis needs something groundbreaking- scandalous, even- to push past him in the charts. Much to Louis’ dismay, his PR team calls in The Sexpert. Consulting with PR firm Shady, Lane and Associates pays the bills so that Harry Styles can spend his down time doing what he really loves: poring over data. On weekends and late into the evenings, he researches gender, presentation, and sexual orientation, analysing the longitudinal study that is his father’s life’s work. That is, until his newest client, the popstar with the fascinating secret, drags him off his couch and frighteningly close to the spotlight. As the album’s release date approaches, will Tomlinson and Styles be able to pull off the most risky PR scheme of the millennium and beat Zayn in sales or will the heat of their feelings for each other compromise everything? 

A Pun-derful Life by AlwaysAqua for Wordplay Fic Challenge | mutual pining | puns | friends to lovers | 9k Falling in love with his best friend was never part of the plan, but it happened. It keeps happening; Over and over again on a daily basis. Sometimes, even that’s too long between falling in love. Or, Harry and Louis use too many puns as a means to make each other laugh. Through the Warning Signs by crimsontheory for The 1D Hiatus Fic Fest | friends with benefits | friends to lovers | pining | 12k Harry and Louis have been best friends for years, but when Louis suggests they become friends with benefits, how will Harry handle that while also being in love with Louis? This time I'm ready to run by Cherrie for The 1D Hiatus Fic Fest | famous/not famous | 15k Six years ago Louis made a choice. This time around he was not about to make the same mistake again. Sounds Like Heaven by howtogetawaywithlouis | angst | exes to lovers | hate to love| fake/ pretend relationship | famous/not famous | homophobia | islamophobia | depression | anxiety | alcoholism | emotional hurt/comfort | kid fic | cheating | pining | 30 k Louis is screaming, and he should consider toning it down cause Sandy is sleeping on the same floor, but tears are starting to gather around his lashes and his voice is slightly quivering, and he doesn’t care about waking her up as much as he should. All he can think about is how he’s been such a fool that a woman is going to steal his girl and his man, and he’s completely helpless cause none of them both were entirely his in the first place. “Louis,” Harry whispers quietly, his hand coming to rest hesitantly on Louis’s shoulders. “You know it’s not going to happen.” Louis shakes him off and takes a few steps away. “No, I don’t.” He grips the bottle of champagne and goes to pick up the glass from the sink. His throat is tight and it hurts to swallow, so when he speaks again, to a Harry who looks sad and frustrated, it’s with a simple murmur. “I’m going to bed. You can show yourself out.” --- Or, a very painful au where singer/actor Harry Styles and songwriter Louis Tomlinson are married and have a daughter, but are not together any more. Except of course, it’s not that simple. Our Sweetest Memorial by messofgorgeouschaos for HLRegencyVictorianFicChallenge | Regency | slow burn | hate to love | mpreg | exes to lovers | 34k Ever since Harry was forced to break off an engagement five years ago, he resolved to never marry for the remainder of his life. Now his family must move out of his beloved Kellynch Hall to recover some of their debts that their father had accumulated. The last thing Harry expected was for the new tenants to be related to his former fiancee. And for that fiancee to come back to Somersetshire a much more wealthy man that still holds resentment for their past. A Persuasion AU. Lend Me Your Hand by QuickedWeen for HLRegencyVictorianFicChallenge | Regency | soulmates | soulmate-identifying marks | light angst | fluff | hate to love | 63k Society has long since decided that the soulmarks everyone is born with are entirely unfashionable. They're just another way for people of a lower class to scam their way into marrying above their station. Lord Louis Tomlinson, Viscount Loring, on the other hand, has always believed that he will find his soulmate one day. Despite preparing for a match his whole life, he is entirely unprepared for the arrival of Gemma Styles' younger brother. Harry Styles has been traveling and away from society for over a year. Coming back, he intends to spend time with his sister, and slowly reacquaint himself with life in town. He doesn't need to wait around for a soulmark to determine how his life will play out. Like Two Softened Shoes by marie24 for HL Fic Fest (2016) | coffee shops | pining | friends to lovers | 13k He sets his laptop on the bed, backing away and running his hands repeatedly through his curls. Okay. This is okay. This is fine. This is not real. Will peeks his head around the door frame. “Uh, everything okay in here?” Harry tries to keep his breathing under control. “Yeah!” he says. “It’s, um, everything’s fine!” He can hear himself talking really loudly. Will looks doubtful. “Are you sure? Because it really seems like -” Harry barks out a laugh, cutting him off. “Okay! So this is going to sound really strange. But.” He looks at Will, with the same shiny fringe, blue, blue eyes, and sharp cheekbones he’d been writing about the whole last week. He worries his lip frantically between his teeth. “Um. I think I… I think I… wrote you?” Or, Harry is a writer who gets through his writer’s block by pouring his feelings for his best friend Louis into a character. A few days later, the character lands in his bed, three dimensional and with no idea how to get back where he came from. He turns out to be very inconvenient for keeping Harry’s feelings to himself. Lemon eyes by turnyourankle | a/b/o | friends with benefits | minor injuries | light angst | 50k It's not proper for omegas to mess around with alphas before finding their bondmate. But Harry doesn't give a damn what's proper and fully intends on getting as much experience as he can before even trying to find one. As far as he's concerned, the right alpha won't care, and he'll have some fun on the way. And who better to start with than Louis Tomlinson, the alpha with the worst reputation on campus? If Ignorance Be Bliss by seemyselfout | friends to lovers | Coming Out | overhearing sex| slow burn | 30k “Uhh” Louis hears first. Then the creaking. The fucking creaking of it all. The bed, which Louis knows is basically a glorified camp bed with its awkward wheels at the bottom and wooden board behind it, begins thudding. The banging is rhythmic, Louis can’t help imagining the poorly stifled moans of them both, Harry’s awkwardly lanky limbs and skinny hips jerking with about as much finesse as an eighteen year old can manage (read: not a lot). There is a moment where Louis is almost certain he hears Harry say “shhh, uhh, my roommate” and... The audacity of that. Louis is simply too outraged now to do anything, including get turned on, and simply waits until Harry’s stupid dick gives up (it sounded like she didn’t come - Ha, Louis thinks bitterly). Uni AU: Harry is too experienced, and Louis just wants to get to experience him. The light is coming by ishiplouis for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange 2018 | a/b/o | mpreg | hurt/comfort | angst | 10k Louis was cold. So fucking cold. He was hungry too. He hadn’t eaten a real meal in a long time. He’d lost count of how many days he hadn’t eaten correctly or, rather, he didn’t want to remember. He wanted to forget. Forget that he was now alone. Well, mostly. He cursed his faith. He wasn’t supposed to end up like this. He was supposed to go to college, find a mate, and graduate with honours. Maybe he would have to apply right after graduation to some job offers but thankfully his father would intervene and would find him a job in no time at one of his friends’ companies. Then he would get married and be finally mated by his Alpha. In this dream of his, Louis would end up with three beautiful pups, a huge house with a white fence and a wonderful mate always caring for him until his last breath. That was how it was supposed to happen. Louis put a hand on his slowly hardening belly, a single tear rolling down his cheek. It wasn’t fair. Or the one where Louis is lost but Harry is there to save him. I Spy Baby by mynameispiaivy for Girl Direction Fic Fest | Girl Direction | love/hate | 7k “Wait, Lou. I have a penlight.” “A what?” “A penlight. You know, a pen with a small flashlight on it.” She could feel heat rising on her wet face. ”I know what a fucking penlight is?” “Well, I just thought it would be safer if we used a penlight instead of your lighter in this place. Something might catch fire, you know.” She says this matter of factly. Louis closes her eyes as she counts from one to five. “Okay, you’re right. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Now, use your damn penlight so we don’t trip on some dead person or animal inside here.” “It would smell if there’s a dead person in here, you know.” “Oh my god, Harry. Can you..just fucking turn on your damn penlight so we can see where we are going?” “Geez, you don’t need to shout. I’m practically beside you.” **** Harry and Louis are lost in the woods. I can't help myself from how my heart is racing by flicker_album | strangers to friends to lovers | Gym AU | mutual pining | 13k Louis is just trying to be a good friend by working out at the gym that Liam owns. He never expected to (quite literally) run into Harry, the hot boxer who sings embarrassing songs in the locker room showers. Baby Honey by delsicle | a/b/o | historical | World War II | established relationship | mpreg | angst | 14k When the next great war strikes, all alphas have to ship out. Alex leaves a little more behind than some of the others.

[the-cyborg-circus-show]

Sharing some exciting news!

So, a few months ago I started applying for a whole bunch of artistic opportunities. A friend posted this article about aiming for rejections, and something about it just took the fear out of it for me. That if I applied not expecting to get into things, then not getting accepted wouldn’t hurt, and who knew what might come out of it.

One of the things that I applied for in this first wave of applications was this highly competitive Performance Criticism Training Program. The idea was they were going to take 6 students in, take them to see a whole bunch of shows, improve their ability to write performance criticism and set them loose on the world to review the local Fringe Fest for the local weekly. I felt like it was a huge long shot to get in, but surprisingly they took me in, and I’ve just started it. It’s really awesome, and a great group of people, and I’m so excited and thrilled that I get to be a part of it. 

Anyway, since I’m going to be seeing and reviewing a whole bunch of shows this summer, and most aren’t going to be published anywhere, I decided to create a new blog for the reviews I write that aren’t for an outlet, and a place to link to the ones that are/share other reviews that I like too. I haven’t fully settled on a blog name yet, so keep an eye out in the next few days for the new blog announcement once it’s up and running!

If you want to see what we’re all up to, the hashtag for the program is #ReviewsFromThe6 (Forgive us for all the awful puns) and you can check out the multiple takes that we’re sure to have on a whole bunch of work! I don’t know how many of us are on Tumblr so you might have to try the hashtag on all your social media if you’re into it. 

[redlondonroses]

this is a post coming from a very bored individual... basically i’ve got photos from most of the events that lili, mads and cami have all gone to and am going to talk about some fashion opinions... because it’s fun!!! anyways my v unprofessional opinions are below: 

so we’re working from most recent to least recent and just to note i’ve missed some events due to lack of photos or other reasons! 

met gala (may 2019)

anyways, did any of them really hit the theme? debatable... so i’m not even going to hit on that aspect. madelaine’s dress is probably the best imo and interestingly it was the only one that wasn’t personally made. she really looks like tinkerbell and the dress is so delicate and lovely and the fringe she tried looks great! the only big disappointment is the make up (there could have been a LOT more!) 

lili is really channeling the marie antonitte vibes and I think she really excels with her hair and make up here... but honestly my favourite thing about her on this carpet was how comfortable she was and that really showed well on camera. 

i surprisingly really liked the dress (if we’re ignoring the fact that its not really that on theme/apart the whole feathers/essay link), the only part I hate is that the blue ribbon looks odd at the front and it is a bit too basic :( but i love love the eye make up!

teen choice awards (2019)

listen, i love mads’ look! its crazy but I’m super down with the trousers and her hair looks great here! 

that pale pink looks so damn good on cami and those earings look gorgeous here... i also love her make up, it looks natural but just super pretty in general and the strcuture of the dress is just so lovely 

okay, lili really just looks like a grown up barbie here and that’s not a bad thing at all! the main issues i have are the weird colour of those shows and if she could lose the drawstring i think it would look a lot better!

comic con’s entertainment weekly bash (july 2018)

haha so cami decided to wear pajamas, honestly they almost work but the front of her trousers make a really odd square pattern and its making it look even weirder but as usual i appreciate her dedication to earings!

lili looks gorgeous, but i feel like her dress is too personal?!?! in a way, like maybe it would also make more sense as a night gown?? 

madelaine looks great!!! and those shoes just match the outfit perfectly, honestly, i love love this look!

mtv awards (june 2018)

i’m actually surprised that lili went for such a basic look here! she always looks good but i just thought this was a little boring compared to usual 

mads is in custom prada and she won her award!! honestly this is a really fun look and i like the idea of it, i just think they could have done better since it was custom

cami’s dress has so many parts that it’s wild!!! but she normally goes more plain so i applaud the unexpectedness of this on her and her long hair here is amazing!!! and i wish we could see it more!

cw upfronts party (may 2018)

so bare with the quality for this one, but the party never gets that many hq photos and i would also like to say that i’m sad that they didn’t get to go this year!

mads’ look is interesting, it just seems like a weird combination but i’m enjoying this up-do on her!

i love love cami’s dress, its so basic and cute but highlights her tanned skin and makes her sparkle!

lili’s dress and hair look gorgeous and I love the way that the dresses seams are on show.

cw upfronts (may 2018)

cami’s dress here one of my favourites she’s ever worn! that leg slit looks great on her because she is glowing!! those earrings and the make up just look gorgeous!

i’m not sure i’m that keen on lili’s look but i love that her shoes match her dress and her hair looks cute!

the suit mads’ is wearing really shouldn’t work but she is serving! in it! that low ponytail looks great and she really does she look great!

paley fest (march 2018)

i love the pattern on lili’s dress but the black slip under it is making me not love it...

mads looks so fresh and stylish that this whole look is just amazing!!

and cami’s look is cute but i would maybe change the colour or have some sort of pattern to make it a little more alive!

art of elysium gala (january 2018)

madelaine looks like a gothic angel and i love love it!! it is very lingerie like but it really is working for her 

i actually love cami’s look, the bodycon and skirt combo looks amazing but i feel like it might be a tad not dressy enough?

lili really does look ethereal, that dress is gorgeous and the bun in her hair is as well!

 american music awards (2017)

cami really does look like a golden angel and the pink at the bottom is gorgeous with the gold! my only wish is that her hair being a little more styled!

the look lili’s gone for may be a little to serious for the amas... she was only 21ish here so i think it may be a bit too dramatic and for older people!

i love mads’ hair and make up and appreciate the risk she’s taken with the dress... it may not be my favourite dress style but its fun and attention grabbing! 

comic con entertainment weekly bash (july 2017)

okay, so i don’t think i’m crazy in saying this is the worst they’ve collectedly looked

to sum it up, because i really don’t like what they’re wearing ... leotards with shear dresses never look good, a pink basic dress is ... basic and the shape is not amazing and i don’t even know what mads’ wearing... 

vulture fest (may 2018)

on another note, i loved these looks! lili looks so cute, and the plain black top but the green shiny skirt looks adorable for an event like this!

madelaine’s is a lot more dramatic and it may have been a bit too much compared to the rest of the cast but she’s pulling of the one armed jumpsuit so good on her!

i love the dark colours on cami, and the long skirt, shiny top and dark lips is just to die for! 

cw upfronts (may 2017)

they all look great here, mads and cami really are pulling of the jumbo trousers look and i just appreciate the entire look from both of them! lili looks simple and cute so this whole event was very gorgeous in terms of the outfits they wore!

paley fest (march 2017)

this whole look on cami looks a little random but i love it!! the pink looks super cute and that skirt is really nice!

this dress might look a little grown up for lili but she’s pulling it off!

this is a bad quality photo of mads but i hated the outfit too much to search for a better one..

marie claire’s fresh faces event (2017)

i love love lili’s dress but those shoes are really throwing me off..

madelaine looks cute but the inside of that jumpsuit seems a little undone... 

cami’s dress is very cute on her and i really appreciate when she wears short dresses because they look very cute on her heigh!

winter TCA’s (january 2017)

this may be an odd one but i just love mads lips in correlation to her dress, the whole beige look on cami and lili with darker and longer hair. i feel like these are looks that we don’t see as mcuh anymore so we should appreciate them!

cw upfronts (2016)

so the last one!!

cami looks adorable, especially with her v short hair and her clutch matching her dress!

not a huge fan of lili’s dress... but i do like her bun with whisps of hair coming out!

mads looks really cute in that two piece and i wish we saw her wearing colours like green more often (just like the met gala!)

anyways, that was it, lol! 

to be updated... (never?!!?!?!?!)

[spicynbachili1]

A trip to Final Fantasy fan fest 2018

“Should you discover,” says the catfish, “everyone seems to be smiling round me.”

It’s true. This enormous fish individual has been waddling by means of crowds of people that grin whilst they duck beneath the beast’s large barbels. A number of individuals are taking pictures. I peer into the gaping mouth of the fish. Two human fingers immediately lurch out, gripping onto the creature’s lips from the within.

“I’m a namazu,” says Missy Allan, the 32-year-old girl within the costume. “It’s an enormous catfish… they usually’re usually actually dumb-looking, and I really like them… I assumed it could convey numerous happiness.”

Once I counsel that additionally it is barely terrifying, Missy is unfazed.

“That’s part of their pleasure.”

She stretches her hand out of the mouth to supply a parting handshake, her human limb showing from the maw of this googly-eyed creature, like a tongue.

That is the sort of unsettling marvel chances are you’ll witness on the Closing Fantasy XIV fan competition, a conference for the monster killers of the eight-year-old MMO, Closing Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. A get-together internet hosting 1000’s of gamers (though the passes round their necks insist they be known as “adventurers”).

The web universe that unites these followers is like many others. You discover enormous maps, go on world-saving quests, and band collectively to raid dungeons for loot. You dance round cones and circles projected on the ground to keep away from injury, a display screen busier than an Amazon warehouse staffed by bees. The story is drenched within the cheery anime tropes followers have come to anticipate from the sequence.

However this instalment additionally acts as a vortex for Closing Fantasy paraphernalia. Bits and items of the opposite worlds bleed into it. Kefka (the scary clown from Closing Fantasy VI) exhibits up for a struggle. You may play Triple Triad, the cardboard recreation loved by Squall and buddies in Closing Fantasy VIII. You may gamble within the Gold Saucer, a theme park from Closing Fantasy VII. This final crossover is thematically applicable, as a result of this 12 months’s fan fest is going on in Las Vegas.

Other than having an an overwhelmingly alliterative identify, the Closing Fantasy Fourteen Fan Pageant is equal components cute nerdery and fetishistic cat ears, a conference of moogles and magic. Cosplayers strut round like foam peacocks: a spiky dragoon, a vampiric elf, a moon goddess.

The primary corridor is a pit of noise and color. There’s an enormous cactuar. There’s an artwork exhibition. There’s a stage for internet hosting shows from the sport’s creators. And, in fact, there’s a chocobo racing recreation.

(Click on to play GIFs)

Within the very center of the corridor, surrounded by followers, there’s additionally a protracted wall the place gamers scribble their names.

Right here, for 2 days, a monk and a samurai who struggle side-by-side in a Free Firm (a participant group like a clan or guild) would possibly see one another for the primary time. However the massive deal of the weekend is the announcement of a brand new growth known as Shadowbringers. The primary corridor fills for the displaying of a brand new trailer. Afterwards, director and producer Naoki Yoshida arrives on stage, quickly joined by localisation chief, Michael-Christopher ‘Koji’ Fox, appearing as translator.

Yoshida is a smiling stage presence with a straightened fringe and fingers coated in metallic rings. The followers know him as “Yoshi P” and there’s applause between each small declaration he makes. At one level, the gang begins chanting: “Yo-shi P! Yo-shi P! Yo-shi P!” Till he redirects the reward to the dev workforce, and the chanting mutates. “Dev-team! Dev-team! Dev-team!” It’s the sort of viewers so charged with unbridled fanaticism that it’ll erupt into cacophonous applause at some good field artwork.

Yoshida goes by means of the upcoming options of the growth. There will likely be user-controlled farms. There will likely be dwarves and pixies and thrilling server redistribution (at this an unsettled murmur grips the gang). There will likely be dungeons and forests and cities and homes.

“And yet one more factor,” says Yoshida, in one in all his many crowd-taunting prospers.

“Blitzball!” shouts a person within the crowd, to in-joke laughter.

No, not blitzball. It’s a brand new playable race. The director reveals this by turning and displaying the again of his t-shirt to the gang. It’s a non-chalant Bugs Bunny. Everybody within the room cheers, as a result of it could possibly solely imply one factor: the attractive rabbits of Closing Fantasy XII, the Viera, are coming to the sport.

They’re placing on a present as a lot as making an announcement. At one level, the president and CEO of Sq. Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, comes on stage (to gasps and cheers) wearing a blue cape, wielding a mage’s employees. A jolly sketch ensues between the Japanese builders, one in all them taking part in an interfering CEO, the opposite a tight-lipped supervisor. The entire thing is sort of a pantomime. Did Matsuda simply announce a brand new blue mage class? Oh no he didn’t. Oh sure he did.

It’s a grand present, designed to tickle the feelings of precisely the sort of one who is keen to fly to Las Vegas and gown up as a moon goddess. However the bards and conjurers of this digital land weren’t at all times so completely satisfied. A few of them keep in mind darker instances.

Closing Fantasy XIV had a poor launch. Eight years in the past, gamers arrived (a lot of them migrating from the earlier MMO, Closing Fantasy XI) anticipating a wondrous new world of monsters and journey. As an alternative, they received a glitchy world of bugs, efficiency issues and complicated interfaces.

The elders of Sq. Enix ordered a full retreat. Naoki Yoshida turned the brand new director. They needed to reboot the entire thing. Three years later, it relaunched, sporting the subtitle: “A Realm Reborn”. It seems to have slowly recovered. At present, there are wholesome participant numbers, say Sq. Enix. Though the latest boast of “14 million gamers” is as deceptive as any studio’s massive quantity, because it contains trial accounts and inactive ones (“Be a part of an indeterminate variety of individuals unfold throughout 66 servers!” in all probability doesn’t lower it with the promoting division).

However these numbers matter little to the die onerous longears and cat individuals of the fan competition. They’re too busy racing chocobos to care, or getting into the “cactpot” raffle, or smashing an enormous hammer in a “take a look at your energy” carnival recreation.

A few of them are reaching out to the touch an enormous reproduction of the sport’s quick journey crystals.

This crystal matches in effectively in Vegas, town of facsimile. If there could be a 1:1 reproduction of Michelangelo’s David in Caesar’s Palace, why not an enormous shard of Aetheryte?

On the principle stage, there’ll quickly be a panel about lore, through which a whole bunch of individuals will assist create the flavour textual content for a brand new beast, with microphones handed round to take recommendations. The ensuing monster is a gargantuan liopleurodon with bone armour who eats tiny kings and wears their crowns. The gang known as it “the Vegetarian”, and based mostly on the laughs this suggestion obtained, I can report with confidence that it was a very good joke.

All of the whereas, that wall of signatures is changing into crowded. At first, gamers wrote their names beneath their server. Nevertheless it’s quickly change into a chaotic slab of cursive, with the severs – Cactaur, Hyperion, Ultros – misplaced among the many names.

On the foot of the wall, there’s a portrait surrounded by flowers and trinkets and snacks. A shrine to a long-eared warrior.

That’s unhappy, I feel, this MMO will need to have its personal Vile Rat, a useless participant commemorated by others. So I ask a close-by fan: who was this?

“It’s Haurchefant,” she says.

I frown. Her-osh-o-fan?

“Haurchefant!” she says once more, as if I had not heard of Jesus Christ.

Haurchefant Greystone wasn’t a useless participant in any case, however an aristocratic NPC knight. And amongst gamers he actually has a Messianic popularity. Within the story quests that pepper the MMO, he dies taking a magical spear for the participant character. And since everybody on this corridor performs the identical story, they had been all personally saved by him. He died, in order that we could stay.

Two Sq. Enix employees come to examine the shrine and its trove of goodies. There are Doritos, Nature Valley bars, half a loaf of bread, a handwritten letter (“I do know you might be with me,” reads one line. “I can really feel it”). There are even some greenback payments. I ask a staffer what they’ll do with all of it.

“We’ll take it again to the workplace,” he says, “and recreate it.”

As a lot love and enjoyable that’s bouncing between the partitions of the Rio, there are grievances too. Occasionally, an MMO will take in the issues of the actual world. In Closing Fantasy XIV, there’s a “housing disaster”.

In 2014, a patch added neighbourhoods full of homes to the world. A dungeon diver may now change into a house owner, as long as they’d about three million gil (the in-game foreign money) of their pockets. However on crowded servers, there weren’t sufficient plots to go round. Shortages imply that the paladins and rogues of this land now collect in residential districts each time a patch is because of add new homes. As quickly because the contemporary suburbs pop into the sport, there’s a literal race to purchase land. Two gamers informed me they solely received a home for his or her clan by exploiting an elaborate loophole. They purchased one other clan and inherited that group’s home, one thing you’re “not likely purported to do”.

“It’s important to nickel and dime,” stated one of many householders.

New suburbs full of homes have since soothed demand, and there are different measures to assist hold the housing market wholesome. Should you don’t log in for 30 days, for instance, your property will likely be repossessed. Nevertheless, it stays an issue, say these gamers.

This isn’t the one smudge of actuality to mark the unbelievable realm. Gamers are additionally working brothels in-game, as Kotaku reported final 12 months. There are pubs and houses populated with scantily clad cat ladies promoting naughty phrases to johns, and making artistic use of emotes to get busy.

“Huuuhh!?” says director Naoki Yoshida after I ask about this throughout a press Q and A. He appears stunned, however it’s onerous to consider the creators of the sport aren’t conscious of this most MMO of participant behaviours. I simply need to know the studio’s place on cybersex for gil. Do they quietly discourage this sort of factor? Or are they completely satisfied to show a blind eye to this erotic function taking part in?

“Can I make a really common response to this?” says Yoshida, through a translator. “In the beginning, earlier than you even begin taking part in the sport there needs to be a consumer settlement that pops up and you should have needed to test it off…

“So inside that consumer settlement there’s a clause that states that something that… breaks the legislation, any exercise or any remarks which might be made that should break the legislation or infringe on any kind of legal guidelines, for these gamers… there will likely be punishment… both that being your account being banned or… some sort of penalty will likely be imposed upon them.”

It’s a strict invocation of the legal guidelines of Eorzea, relatively than actual life legal guidelines (though maybe he’s reminding us of that too). Is cybersex actually that regarding? Even when it’s a consensual encounter between two grownup gamers?

“Regardless,” says Yoshida, “that’s nonetheless eligible for an account being banned.”

It possible doesn’t matter to roleplaying matrons and intercourse staff whether or not their methods are bannable or not, since it could take one of many individuals concerned within the attractive dialogue to report it. However whether or not it’s in opposition to the foundations or not, soiled discuss is one purpose why numerous roleplayers hold logging in. Nonetheless, it’s a really sober and severe reply from a person who, lower than 24 hours from now, will appear on stage dressed in a flashy Kimono and singing an indignant rock track. Sure, the competition’s finale was considerably surreal.

This rock live performance featured The Primals, a band made up of assorted builders. The sound director is on lead guitar. The top of localisation is on vocals. Yoshida appeared as a particular singer, wearing a Kyoto-made Kimono with a white tiger emblazoned on it. There’s something surreal (and but very Closing Fantasy) about seeing the pinnacle of a studio performing what quantities to a really costly session of karaoke. However the crowd loves it. They’re one massive holler, signing alongside, glowing batons swinging in unison to tunes all of them know from repeated boss fights. The entire state of affairs could be cult-like, if it wasn’t so adorably geeky.

With the live performance completed, the fanfest is over and the cat ears have to be put away for one more 12 months. Closing Fantasy XIV might be not the MMO for me. However there’s extra taking place on the earth of Eorzea than I may have imagined. The worship of useless NPCs, the housing issues, the strangers cyber-rutting within the corners of fantasy taverns. But alongside all that intricacy and intimacy is a recreation that calls for the love of holy knights, barbarians and even catfish. Once I consider Closing Fantasy XIV any further, I’ll keep in mind the namazu. It’s massive, it’s barely unsettling, and I don’t actually perceive it. Nevertheless it makes lots of people smile.

Disclosure: Sq. Enix paid for this journey.

from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/a-trip-to-final-fantasy-fan-fest-2018/

[ladystylestores]

Travelling without music would feel like…

Stubbed toes, wine without cheese, and Friends without the theme tune.

From Edinburgh to Auckland, our STA Travel staff discuss their favorite festivals, go-to hometown music venues, and road trip guilty pleasures.

Tania Gasnier, Head Designer, STA Travel New Zealand

The windows are down, no one can hear, I’m on a road trip listening to… ‘So Damn Funky’ by Codes, with my speakers would be almost blowing from the bass.

The song that always takes me back is… ‘Africa’ by Toto and ‘Another Day in Paradise’ by Phil Collins make me nostalgic for being on safari in Kenya and Tanzania. My heart squeezes when I hear them, and I’m filled with a longing to go back.

Travel without music would feel like… Wine without cheese. I always make a playlist to relate to the location I’m travelling, whether it be laid back island vibes or something to help me power up a mountain.

Favorite festival at home: Fritter Festival, Whangarei. A festival where local restaurants compete to create the best fritter. Great food, great Kiwi bands. Food is as important to me as travel is!

Favorite festival to travel to: Bluesfest in Byron Bay, Australia. A 3-day long festival celebrating blues and roots music. Such a feel-good vibe. Good tunes, camping, and loads of shenanigans.

Emma Neely, Marketing Exec, STA Travel USA

Travel without music would feel like… Bread without butter or oil or cheese or any of the good stuff. Still good, but kind of dry.

Go-to venue for live music: Chicago has so many great music venues, from the legendary Wrigley Field to packing a picnic to listen to music at Ravinia Festival and Huntington Bank Pavilion on Northerly Island right on the waters of Lake Michigan.

Favorite festival at home: While Chicago might be best known for Lollapalooza, Riot Fest, North Coast and Pitchfork… their newest country festival Windy City Smoke-out is by far my favorite. Not only can you listen to some of the latest acts out of Nashville, but you can do so while sampling the nation’s best BBQ.

In 2021, I’ll be at… Country Thunder in Arizona. It’s basically a 4-day long tailgate. Hell yeah! Nothing beats tent camping, taking pics for the ‘gram to show off your country gear and drinking one too many beers all while listening to good ‘ol country music. Bonus: each day of the festival has a theme to dress up to.

Ibtisaam Ganief, Online Marketing Exec, STA Travel South Africa

Travel without music would feel like… really sad! Imagine not vibing to some deep house or twerking to some Diplo and Major Lazer.

The windows are down, no one can hear, I’m on a road trip listening to… I can hit all Shakira’s notes. Waka Waka eh eh!

Go-to venue for live music: In Cape Town, I like the setup at Shimmy Beach Club and the vibes at the outdoor parties at Hillcrest Quarry.

Favorite festival at home: I love Origin Festival in Heldrestroom. It’s a weekend long psychedelic music and arts festival. Everything about it just feels right. When I’m there, I feel one with people and my surroundings.

In 2021 I’ll be at… Rocking the Daisies. I went for the first time last year and saw Sho Madjozi, Biggie and Russ live.

Renee Yiannakis, Digital Trading Manager, STA Travel Australia

Travel without music would feel like… Not being able to tell a good story well. The context is there, but the engagement and curiosity has lost me.

The windows are down, no one can hear, I’m on a road trip listening to… Lenny Kravitz ‘Fly Away’, The Weeknd ‘Blinding Lights’, ‘It’s My Life’ Talk Talk, ‘Mother’s Daughter’ Miley Cyrus.

The tunes that saved me in lockdown: You don’t know what date it is and let’s be frank, your mood changes daily, so my go-to playlist is a mixed of all different genres. Some days when I want to unwind, I’ll listen to chill tracks from Michael Kiwanuka, Grace Jones and Massive Attack, and when I’m feeling more energetic, I’ll listen to Tensnake, Azari & III, The Weeknd and New Order. I also love listening to Greek music. There’s something about the tunes that are so dreamy and reminds me of summers spent on the islands.

Go-to venue for live music: Melbourne has so many live music venues. I love the Forum because of its gothic architecture and its heritage hosting iconic Australian and world-class acts.

Helen Daglish, Social Media Exec, STA Travel UK

The song that always takes me back is… Alt-J’s first album ‘An Awesome Wave’ always takes me back to my trip to Bali in 2016. It’s such a chilled-out album and I feel so nostalgic listening to it now.

The windows are down, no one can hear, I’m on a road trip listening to… Finley Quaye ‘Sunday Shining’. It’s the ultimate summer road trip tune!

The tunes that saved me in lockdown: Most of lockdown has been spent working from home, so I’ve been listening to music that won’t distract me too much. My go-to playlist has been ‘Electronic Concentration’ – good beats and no lyrics. Four Tet, Bonobo and Tokyo Prose.

In 2021 I’ll be at… I’d love to go to one of the summer music festivals in Croatia. Either Dimensions, Outlook or Hideout. And of course, Notting Hill Carnival next August in London. The best street party EVER.

Ben McCabe, Store Manager, STA Travel Cavendish South Africa

The song that always takes me back: Junior Jack, Tube & Berger ‘E Samba 2018’. It takes me right back to Ibiza, and the amazing European summer, partying at O Beach Club and Pacha with my mates.

The windows are down, no one can hear, I’m on a road trip listening to… Rufus Du Sol ‘No Place’.

Favorite festival at home: My favorite live music venue is Kirstenbosch… summer concerts are always a vibe! Second favorite home festival hands-down would be Rocking the Daisies, it always brings really big international artists.

Favorite festival to travel to: NOS Primavera in Portugal, Mad Cool in Madrid or Glastonbury in the UK.

Benjamin Foster, B2B/Groups Manager, STA Travel New Zealand

Travel without music would feel like… stubbing your little toe every day, forever.

The windows are down, no one can hear, I’m on a road trip listening to… ‘Ironic’ Alanis Morissette.

The tunes that saved me in lockdown: Anything by Ludovico Einaudi.

Go-to venue for live music: Neck of The Woods in Auckland.

Favorite festival at home: Laneways in Auckland. Usually a good line up and close to home.

Favorite festival to travel to: Holi Moo Festival in Delhi. Amazing vibes, super colorful and everyone is so happy!

Dale Badenhorst, Junior Online Marketing Exec, STA Travel South Africa

Travel without music would feel like… The bathroom without your phone. Sure, there are other things to keep you entertained, but it’s just not the same.

Go-to venue for live music: For live band action, Nomad Bistro in Cape Town. Small little place in a side street where you just follow the sounds of the music to reach the ‘all you can eat’ BBQ ribs. Oh and yes, the music is good too.

The windows are down, no one can hear, I’m on a road trip listening to… River Becomes Ocean ‘Addicted’, ‘Burn it down’ Silverstein, ‘All I Want’ by A Day To Remember, ‘Filthy’ by WSTR, and ‘Medicate’ by Theory of Deadman.

The tunes that saved me in lockdown: Lo-Fi Hip Hop, Pop Punk playlists and smooth morning jazz. A mixture to keep you going.

Louisa McFadden, Store Manager, STA Travel Wellington New Zealand

The windows are down, no one can hear, I’m on a road trip listening to… Shania Twain ‘Man I feel like a woman’ or ‘Mr Brightside’ by the The Killers.

Travel without music would feel like… Friends with no theme tune.

Go-to venue for live music: I’m from Scotland, so LOVED going to the Edinburgh Fringe for all the different music genres or The Hydro in Glasgow.

Favorite festival to travel to: Tomorrowland, it is like no other experience I’ve ever had!

In 2021, I’ll be at… I’d LOVE to go to Coachella or Glastonbury.

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[onewhoturns]

*sigh* I have to keep reminding myself not to be That Kid. I mean, I loved a few musicals back in high school (I was that rare kid in all the plays and musicals who wasn’t actually in a theater class, just chorus), but I also remember - even then - feeling so out of my depth with the sheer number of musicals out there, and feeling frustrated and left out because I just didn’t have the energy, the focus, the time to look all of them up. This is why I am always wary of the whole Broadway Fandom thing. Things move too fast for me to keep up, with new shows popping up constantly (not to mention a seemingly endless pool of older shows) and not enough time/energy/focus -- essentially not enough of me -- to learn them.

Story time! [Apologies, I’ve lately taken to treating this blog as... more of a blog? Like not just for reblogs, but for action journal-style entries about my life? Feel free to bail, this is mostly self-reflection.]

As previously stated, I was a theater kid in high school. I loved being on stage, I loved the community built up around a show, but I wasn’t a real theater kid, cause I wasn’t in the every day classes. You’d think this wouldn’t be a big deal. But, y’know-- high school. Luckily I had chorus, and I was exceptionally active in that. But my schedule didn’t allow me to take the academic classes and arts classes I wanted to take, so I chose fashion design over theater and I was super happy with that decision.

And then came the Big Dramatic Huge Deal For Depressed Me at the end of my senior year when I had my final showcase for fashion design which involved managing a team of assistants to create x number of outfits for a final fashion show. This was going to be around the same time as the last show of the year. I’d gone 7/7 being in every mainstage show in high school (two a year, the first three and a half years of high school), I felt super close to all my theater friends, but there was no possible way I’d be able to do both things, and I’d already applied to school for fashion design, and this was a class, I couldn’t just blow it off, it was a big deal and it would be a showcase in front of an audience of peers and family and friends and teachers etc. So I missed out on the last show. And let me tell you, I didn’t realize how much I would miss it.

Not the process of being in a show - I was way too busy, and way too ADHD to have the presence of mind to think about it while I was trying to get my showcase work done - but the,.. maybe the community? I don’t remember feeling any kind of loneliness before the show happened, though my memory (as previously stated) is crap. I just remember attending the show - alone - and having a great time and cheering people on, but being seated in the audience with empty chairs on either side (that one slow sunday matinee, I think? did we have those? or maybe I’m just misremembering, like I said, my memory is crap; maybe I wasn’t actually alone, I just didn’t know who I was seated beside). And I remember afterward, greeting my friends in the hall where everyone was doing the standard congratulations and just having these people who’d I’d thought I’d been so close to basically ignore me. It was... pretty awful.

And yeah, okay, it was high school, I was a moody teen, etc. etc. but even thinking about it still makes me really emotional. There was this visceral overwhelming feeling of loneliness and maybe betrayal and some element of crisis, disconnectedness (not helped by the fact that minor friendship dramatics in middle school started my whole depression thing), and -- oh, also, that person who I mentioned before, the one who threatened to kill himself? He was a techie. He worked the show. I may have possibly felt a little uncomfortable hanging around too long in case I’d run into him, may have felt alienated from the group when my friends took his side in a disagreement no one knew we were having (not even him, probably). And I’m fairly sure my memory is correct that that sparked one of the worst breakdowns of my high school career. I don’t think it was one of the Active ones (pretty sure it wasn’t that time I overdosed on otc pain meds or the time I briefly thought of hanging myself), but it was definitely a ‘wrap myself in a comforter and listen to Blue October and bawl my eyes out because no one cares about me’ kind of breakdown.

The more I think about it, and how awful it felt, the more impressed I am that the next year (or the year after?) I decided to go to another show. Of course, this was after I dropped out of college. And I brought friends for support (and y’know what, that was a good choice. I needed people there to talk to, people who I knew, so I wasn’t going alone). And the more I think of it the more I realize that, fuck -- props to me for being okay being alone, with the sheer amount of stress, anxiety, depression I’ve had centering around friendships and my inability to maintain lasting ones. Good on me for spending two years attending Capitol Fringe completely alone, attending show upon show alone, having the courage to put myself out there and try to make friendly acquaintances in an environment where everyone had their groups or duos or whatever. Like, I may be lonely but fuck if I’m gonna let myself come across as that creep in the corner of the tent bar. Sure, maybe I’ll keep my resting bitch face walking the streets of DC, but on fringe fest grounds I was giving out stickers and being really goddamn sociable. Good for me. Fight self-consciousness with aggressive sociability.

Anyway...

Yeah this... this got way off the rails.

My point is that I’m doing that thing where I’m getting into a thing (Hadestown) and I have these opposing sides in me because 1) I really really like this music - this show - but 2) I am really fucking intimidated by these teenage Broadway aficionados who know all this shit about casts and are name dropping all these shows I’ve only heard of (or never heard of) and fuck there are so many and it’s so overwhelming and fuck I forgot how much DRAMA is in drama, shit, y’all are vicious about people deserving one thing or another, like please lets just enjoy things for the sake of enjoying things, so 3) the more I try to explore this the more I keep running into posts that are somehow stirring up all this anxiety in me over ridiculously stupid things (yes, musicals are stupid. the concept of music, theater, and musical theater is not -- the idea that music/theater/musical theater can have such a profound impact on people is most definitely not stupid. but each individual musical, to me, a person who has not heard nor seen nor been involved in most of these shows, is a stupid thing to fix on as an annoyance. my point is not that musicals are stupid but that my own reaction to them is occasionally nonsensical. or something. idk, I’m rambling. whatever.)

I dunno. This ended up getting muddled. I’m just frustrated, is the point. That this thing that I enjoy has become tainted by this shitty experience from way back when and the intimidation I feel around an environment I used to consider my home.

Also I’m sorry if I post over enthusiastically about a musical. Please do not mistake me for a member of the broadway fandom. Please do not engage with me as a member of the broadway fandom cause I’ll be way out of my depth, overwhelmed, and - depending on my state of mind - will either be a) happy go lucky and clueless, shrug, and say ‘sounds cool’ or b) get immediately overwhelmed and have fuckin flashbacks to this shit from high school. Please don’t recommend things to me because I just can’t process things that quickly and there’s just too much out there.

And jesus fuck, for a person who considered their high school years pretty good they sure fucked me up over stupid things, eh?

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

Steve Bannon is headlining the New Yorker Festival and readers are outraged

Update: The New Yorker has disinvited Steve Bannon from the New Yorker Festival. 

Proving time is a flat circle and no one ever learns anything, a scheduled appearance by former Donald Trump advisor and Breitbart mastermind Steve Bannon has generated huge backlash for the organizers of an event.

SEE ALSO: Milo Yiannopoulos' Facebook rant shows that de-platforming actually works

This time, though, the culprit is The New Yorker, the traditionally staid publication which has slated Bannon as a keynote guest for its annual New Yorker Festival scheduled for Oct. 5 to Oct. 7. 

Bannon will appear alongside a wide range of guests, from author Haruki Murakami to activist Brittany Packnett to Parkland student and gun control advocate David Hogg. But the chatter is all about Bannon. 

The sit-down with editor David Remnick is advertised as a conversation about "the ideology of Trumpism," certainly a topic of great interest to the New Yorker, which has covered the Trump administration with a sharp, critical eye. 

But giving a platform to Bannon and his white nationalist views has generated a lot of buzz.

And, boy, are people pissed. 

I can’t believe so many people are willing to appear at event where Steve Bannon will be headlining. And I can’t believe @NewYorker invited him in the first place. https://t.co/ofdATThcGm

— roxane gay (@rgay) September 3, 2018

The New Yorker is giving a platform to the country’s most influential white nationalist. https://t.co/raEiErqbnK

— Shane Bauer (@shane_bauer) September 3, 2018

For anyone who wonders what normalization of bigotry looks like, please look no further than Steve Bannon being invited by both @TheEconomist & @NewYorker to their respective events in #NYC a few weeks apart. https://t.co/u0TDfCYrQ1

— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) September 3, 2018

The ⁦@NewYorker⁩ gives its most visible platform to a man who unrepentantly promotes propaganda calling for ethnic cleansing. This is equivalent to putting onstage a man who recommends everyone read Mein Kampf & letting him promote his new company. https://t.co/6Rub6T1lzU

— Anil Dash (@anildash) September 3, 2018

Bannon spoke at a “Drain the Swamp” rally for Roy Moore last year, saying the allegations against Moore were ”weaponized” and “a setup.” Wonder what nuggets he’ll have for us at the New Yorker fest!https://t.co/dMDase6WDv

— Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) September 3, 2018

among all the other points people have raised, this is also the new yorker — who won a pulitzer prize for its stories on assault and harrassment by powerful men — inviting a powerful man who was once charged with domestic violence to be a headliner https://t.co/so3Fi1yzTB

— Astead (@AsteadWesley) September 3, 2018

Can’t fathom a justification for this. He isn’t in government. He isn’t leading a fringe website anymore. He isn’t interesting. He’s a crank who’s trying (and since Trump, largely failing) to get majority white countries to elect bigots. https://t.co/Qz0NxumU9t

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) September 3, 2018

I’m not sure how this is meaningfully different from inviting David Duke https://t.co/u4OfM5BXnL

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) September 3, 2018

Some, including prominent readers, are even threatening to cancel their New Yorker subscription over the decision.

My grandmother got me a subscription to the @NewYorker and I’ve kept it going for decades since her death. I’ll be sorry to give it up but I will if this doesn’t change. https://t.co/QXt226Zqys

— Carolyn Kellogg (@paperhaus) September 3, 2018

The @NewYorker has the right to invite anyone they want to headline their events. I have the right to cancel my subscription, and to urge the rest of you to follow suit. We know it is the nature of scorpions to sting. We don’t need to know why. https://t.co/RBeFcJpUNl

— Myke Cole (@MykeCole) September 3, 2018

How much is Steve Bannon being paid by the @NewYorker? I’ll be canceling my subscription today. The Nazi’s got all the platforms he needs. He gets none of my money. https://t.co/8SsigkY5g1

— Xeni Jardin 👩🏼‍💻 (@xeni) September 3, 2018

While several staffers have tweeted about Monday's festival announcements, it appears only staff writer Kathryn Schultz has directly addressed Bannon as of Monday afternoon, criticizing the decision. 

I love working for @NewYorker, but I'm beyond appalled by this: https://t.co/WlZdsBpF1R I have already made that very clear to David Remnick. You can, too: themail@newyorker.com

— Kathryn Schulz (@kathrynschulz) September 3, 2018

Editor David Remnick, who will be interviewing Bannon, tried to get ahead of the controversy in a chat with the New York Times tied to the festival announcement, saying he was willing to be "combative."

Mashable reached out to the New Yorker for more on the decision to book Bannon and the backlash, and will update this article if the publication responds. 

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