#New Years Eve 2016/17

[foxes-that-run]

Two NYE ago means 2015 NYE right? Since Harry was with that girl, and she was pretty mad at that time, maybe she was reminiscing about their time together and hoping to find someone who'd stay and then after meeting Joe she repurposed it because she thought she found that love she was searching for with Joe. I think most of reputation is her repurposing songs/ideas that were about something/someone else. And Joe just fit but some songs definitely has part Joe in them too. So I guess she succeeded in that bait and switch thing

That video, (which Taylor Nation has cut at 24:38 from their version) is from Chicago 27 June 2018, so she is referring to NYE 2016/17. (side note: Harry was also in Chicago 30 June 2018. In his next show he changed the Lyrics to MMIH to 'running with thieves you'... a few weeks before Hamille ended due to cheating......)

We have been told a few things to tell us she was with Joe then:

In 2018 the Reputation magazines included photos from Stella McCartney's farm in Bishampton (on the pages adjacent to NYD) and in January 2016 Joe posted a photo of himself woods that also had trees... not the same trees, but OK... I guess.

In 2019 in promo for A Christmas Carol Joe told interviewers he swims in Hampstead Heath every christmas, which many linked to Paper Rings, along with a very natural photo of Taylor painting a literal wall. And maybe he does, just him, his family and (long time lcy swim enthusiast) Harry Styles and by chance no one ever photographed or spoke about it.

Then on 30 December 2020 Taylor was hacked and the only photos they got/leaked was 7 (rather odd) images of Taylor and Joe getting ready on that new years eve. Amazingly they had access to Taylor Swift's camera roll and only leaked 7 PG images that placed her with Joe the at the time of a story Taylor Nation edited out of one of their videos about an icy swim on NYE, almost on the anniversary of when they were taken. (The 7 Photos were in 2 drops, the proper (non-mirror) selfies leaked October 2021.)

So why do I doubt this? Any alternative version is pure speculation we don't know where Taylor was NYE 16/17. But the edited video is weird, and I find the above odd.

FIrstly New Year's Day seems like an 1989 outtake to me, the story also fits the NYE 2012/13 Haylor Kiss that did involve hardwood floors, a Taxi in which to squeeze hands, a lobby girls could carry shoes in and an insane crowd that did make it hard and probably made them feel lost. And she looked ready to cry performing it while she was dating Joe?

Where was Harry on New Years Eve 2016/17?

Well he was spotted with Taylor on 28 December 2016 in Liverpool. Within a few days, one of his friends signed a record for Taylor to gift Austin Swift. Austin thanked the band who replied "when someone asks you to sign a record for their "friends little brother' and the friend turns out to be Taylor Swift."

After being missing for a few days he was next seen taking photos with fans in Holmes Chapel (1.5 hours drive from Stella's farm) on New Years Eve.

But wait! Taylor said she and Joe had been together for 3 months in the Lover Journal? What she said was "we" maybe that was Joe and we didn't find out for another 5 months. Or maybe she was with someone else.... in this entry shaped like a butterfly.

Updated with more.. so I question adding this and need to cavet that haylorsecrets was an account that claimed to have inside info from Taylors PR office and lost the inside connection (in hindsight after Taylor fired her publicist before Tree in 2014) they then had a friend who fed them some info. It may have all been made up, but they were right about some things. Looking for another post I saw these where she posted in February 2017 that Harry and Taylor had been together at christmas. (x, x)

[brian-in-finance]

Photo: Oliver Holms / EE BAFTA Film Awards • Charles Finch & Chanel Pre-BAFTA Party • 17 February 2024 / Found on Twitter

Video 📹 from Instagram

Harper’s Bazaar UK • May 2024

FLASH! We join Lon­don’s glit­terati at Chanel and Charles Finch’s an­nual star-stud­ded pre-Baf­tas bash

Dramatic skies poured outside on the eve of the Baftas, but the intimate corners and warming fireplaces of 5 Hertford Street drew in Britain’s best-loved talents and Hollywood stars for the annual Charles Finch and Chanel party. Emily Blunt and Tom Ford kissed hello, before collecting glasses of champagne and going over to greet Gwendoline Christie and Giles Deacon. As the mariachi band played a lively set, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, George MacKay and Minnie Driver chatted together, while Bel Powley and Douglas Booth unwound after a busy day, having first attended a birthday lunch for Powley’s mother, before the Simone Rocha A/W 24 fashion show, declaring with intent: ‘Now we can relax!’

Bob Geldof and Mariella Frostrup linked arms to lead the charge down to dinner, followed by Isla Fisher, who was admiring the interiors. Once everyone was seated, Charles Finch addressed the room: ‘It has been an incredible year for cinema,’ he said, also paying homage to his co-host Chanel and its historic affinity with film – creating haute-couture outfits for productions such as the New Wave Last Year at Marienbad, and countless memorable red-carpet looks. Over lobster salad and poussin, conversation and wine flowed: the nominees Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were deep in conversation, and Richard E Grant caught up with his Saltburn director Emerald Fennell. Last year’s winner Emma Mackey was all smiles in anticipation of presenting the Rising Star Award, saying, ‘It’s quite mad, I’ve no idea who will get it, so I hope I don’t mess it up.’ It was almost midnight when guests began to descend on the dancefloor, where the party was only just beginning.

Page 170

60 SECONDS WITH…

CAITRÍONA BALFE

Who would play you in a film of your life?

‘Saoirse Ronan – she would make me very fabulous.’

Your all-time favourite soundtrack

‘Le Mépris. It’s so evocative and takes you somewhere incredible.’

The movie that changed your life

‘Dead Poets Society. It showed me the power of storytelling and solidified the fact that I wanted to be an actor.’

A silver-screen icon you’d like to meet

‘Gena Rowlands is my absolute idol – I’m holding out hope.’

Page 174

Remember… the people I find beautiful are the people who inspire me. I love unusual beauty like Peggy Guggenheim, who had incredible style and taste. Gina Rowlands is also someone I think of as beautiful. I like women like that. I like men like that. It's not all necessarily about the Best Body or the Best Hair. I think it's much more important to do incredible things with your life. — Caitríona Balfe, Cara (magazine), August 2016

[happinessismusic]

Gwen Stefani recently announced a new album, Bouquet, which is slated to drop in November. The full-length marks her first non-holiday collection in eight years, and she’s been quietly promoting the project for months now.

The pop singer scores a new hit on one chart this week, as the latest single from Bouquet debuts. As her latest focus track launches on one radio ranking, Stefani makes 2024 her busiest year on the list in nearly a decade.

Stefani’s new single “Somebody Else’s” debuts at No. 39 on the Adult Pop Airplay chart this frame. The latest cut from her forthcoming full-length barely breaks onto the list of the most successful tunes at the pop format in the U.S., which features 40 spaces. Now that it has arrived, it marks a special appearance for the singer.

The Grammy winner has now scored a pair of new hits on the Adult Pop Airplay list in 2024 alone. Before “Somebody Else’s” debuted, she and husband Blake Shelton pushed their latest duet, “Purple Irises,” to No. 16 this spring.

2024 marks the first time in eight years that Stefani has landed more than one new hit on the Adult Pop Airplay ranking. In 2016, both “Make Me Like You” and “Misery” reached the tally, peaking at Nos. 17 and 34, respectively.

Stefani has only managed to score several wins on the radio list in four different years, including both 2024 and 2016. She snagged a pair of hits in 2007, with both “The Sweet Escape” with Akon and “4 in the Morning.” The former song missed out on becoming her first leader by just one space.

2005 remains Stefani’s biggest year ever on the Adult Pop Airplay chart. Nearly two decades ago, several singles taken from her debut solo album, Love.Angel.Music.Baby, hit the tally. That lineup included “Rich Girl” with Eve, “Hollaback Girl,” “Cool,” and “Luxurious.”

[nancydrewwouldnever]

The Receipts - Joy to the World (December 2015)

Let's continue this disaster!

December 1 - Chris begins the month reaching out for Giving Tuesday for Christopher’s Haven

December 4 – Chris and Minka sighted twice together around his hometown area. First, they are seen buying a Christmas tree in Wayland. Then, seen together buying Christmas decorations in Concord.

December 5 – Chris has a photoshoot, Boston

DRAMAH!!! – Remember that comment Minka’s trainer left on one of her IG posts in November: you are in Boston til next year right? Well��.

December 10 – IG posts put Minka back in California

(Okay, the one from the next day, but it's her back in California, before she meant to be.)

December 11 – Chris makes one of his NASA tweets

 Jenny replies one word on Chris NASA tweet: geek.

December 13 – Fan sighting with photo at an Irish Pub in Boston, time stamp on post of 1 AM (NO MINKA)

December 14 – Drops dog (most likely Dodger) off at dog boarding, Sudbury

December 15 – Evans Family WDW trip

December 16 – Evans Family WDW trip

December 17 – Evans Family WDW trip

Minka starts posting passive-aggressive IG posts cross-posted to Twitter (remember, Chris only has Twitter at the time) – themes: holiday blues, not feeling safe, not feeling taken care of, etc.

December 18 – Evans Family WDW trip

December 19 – Evans Family WDW trip

CHRIS’ TWITTER ACCOUNT “HACKED”

December 20 – Evans Family WDW trip

December 21 – Evans Family WDW trip

December 26 – Jenny and Dean, who had been spending the holidays with his family, have a very public contre-temps on Twitter:

(That's a coffin emoji at the end of hers.)

It's the last time Jenny mentions or @s Dean until May 2016. This is a monumental shift, as she normally referred to him or @ed him frequently.

December 27 – Minka is still up on her passive-aggressive posting

December 30 – Fan encounter in Killington, Vermont

December 31 – New Year’s Eve friends group party at The Pickle Barrel, Killington, Vermont

This is the first ever public photo of Dodger!

And so we boldly progress into 2016, when things will get even messier!

[remembertheplunge]

A Christmas Eve Miracle

12/24/2023I can’t recall if I have blogged this story before or not. But, being that it’s Christmas Eve, I thought it would be worth writing up and publishing here today.

A Christmas Eve Miracle happened Christmas Eve 2015, eight years ago.

Since my first years of criminal law practice up until about 2019, I would act now and them as pro term judge in traffic court, meaning, I would fill in for the actual judge.

Christmas Eve 2015, I did this out in traffic court on Floyd Ave in Modesto, California.

The afternoon session ended at about 2:30pm . At the stop light at Oakdale Road and Floyd, I looked out about 2 miles to the north west to see intense black low clouds. They seemed to be in the area where two significant events in my life had taken place.

I was in a grocery story there when the Loma Prieta earth quake hit at 5:04pm. October 17, 1989. The store floor began to have a rolling motion and things fell from the shelves. I thought the roof was going to give.  And in 2013 a man was killed in front of some apartments behind the store. I would be appointed to represent Lisandro Mendosa, one of 5 codefendants charged with a gang related murder of the man. A 6 month jury trial resulted in a hung jury and a New York Times article about the trial, “”How do you define a gang member?   New York Times Sunday Magazine 5/27/2015. The trial was long and emotionally violent.

I continued my drive down Floyd Ave toward home. I decided to stop at the Star Bucks for a hot chocolate at Coffee road and Floyd. It sits across Coffee Road and a parking lot from the store I was in during the 89 quake. Just beyond and behind the store is where the man was killed resulting in the Mendoza trial.

Before entering Starbucks, I stood about 40 feet from Coffee Road and leaned my head back. Fine mist was falling now . I closed my eyes, felt the mist on my face and sent a healing prayer out across the store and the seen of the killing beyond it. 

Just then, unbeknownst to me,  about a mile west on Coffee road, a  storm related microburst caused a tree to to fall into telephone wires causing 50 foot tall telephone poles to one by one collapse into Coffee Road headed in my direction.

I finished my prayer, unaware of the collapsing poles, and walked 17 seconds to the Star Bucks. Inside , the power was out and there was a general sense of panic . The staff locked the door and wouldn’t let us out. Starbucks had no windows facing Floyd or Coffee Road, so we couldn’t see that the pole 40 feet from where I said the prayer had collapsed into the street as well the one just beyond  that I had just driven by.

Despite the fact it was Christmas Eve afternoon, and that Coffee Road is a busy four lane road, no one was hurt or killed inn the mile long collapse of polls and live wires into the road.

We had been told during the Mendosa jury trial that the trial had been cursed by people in Vera Cruz, Mexico. The man who was killed was hispanic. Not sure who placed the curse or why.

I drove to the jail after leaving Starbucks to meet with Mr. Mendosa who was incarcerated there.

I told him about the telephone pole incident and asked him if he thought it was as a result of the curse. He said he didn’t thinks so. He said he thought it was a sign he would get a break in the case. He did. In 2016, he received a 16 year sentence instead of life in prison via a negotiated plea. Recently, due to a change in sentencing laws, he was re sentenced and released!

[omegaremix]

Omega Radio’s 50 Years Of Hip-Hop. When the ‘Brentwood Era’ started, I had the dial on WBLS, one of New York City’s hip-hop / rap stations. It not only signified the first-ever genre I’d pay close attention to, but also signified the beginning of personal cassette dubbing.

For a few years, I’d record as much as possible off to the right of the dial, then later on Hot 97 and Kiss FM. I’d capture Kid Capri, Kool DJ Red Alert, Funkmaster Flex, and Ed Lover, Dr. Dre, and T-Money of Yo! MTV Raps. Running concurrently was In Living Color, a rap-centric die-laughing comedy show that introduced us to the Wayans Brothers, Homey The Clown, Fire Marshall Bill, The Homeboy Shopping Network, and more. My formative years listening to hip-hop / rap lasted as long from middle school to graduating senior year. There’s no shortage of mostly positive memories in Brentwood, in thanks to all of my cassette dubs from that era.

I returned to hip-hop / rap when I discovered WUSB a few years later and stumbled upon one of their shows, Ghetto Radio, who showed me a more underground side of things. Street FM, Eminent Audio, and The Basement practically changed my life because they introduced me to sampling culture, forever opening up a new world in getting to know more about myself. As soon as I became a Stony Brook student, I inquired about joining the station. Now, I became a dee-jay and gave back to our listeners the same way WUSB gave to me. It wasn’t until my second run at the station (Winter 2013) when I started Omega Radio and took my show more seriously.

For 11 years, we’ve taken every chance we get to play hip-hop / rap. Our shows started when we did a five-hour bonus broadcast to usher in a new year: classic Seventies’ vinyl classics on New Year’s Eve, then three hours of the rough stuff on New Year’s. Since then, we paid it forward by delivering all-time legends (The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac), more golden-era cuts (EPMD, A Tribe Called Quest, Monie Love), the Eighties (Kool Moe D, MC Shan, Eric B & Rakim, classic old-school moments (Whodini, Sugar Hill Records, Afrika Bambaata), and even white-label underground releases (Lo-Down Click, Erule, Brother Arthur). Let’s not forget the ladies of the game, either (Queen Latifah, Monie Love, MC Lyte, and Yo-Yo to name a few).

Later on, we introduced deluxe editions of our shows consisting of golden-era legends still doing their thing (KRS-One, Onyx, Dres of Black Sheep), backpack artists (Jedi Mind Tricks, R.A. The Rugged Man, the Griselda camp), beat tapes (Fuzzoscope, All These Fingers), and newer artists (clipping., Danny Brown, Obnox, Dabrye). We also made some legend specific tributes for Public Enemy, N.W.A. (edited for FCC quality-control), and The Wu-Tang Clan, which happened to be Omega’s most popular show to date. As long as it isn’t Kanye West or TekashiSixNine, we’re good.

The good news? There’s no sign of up stopping. We’ll continuously re-visit our golden-era finds until they’re depleted, and may even consider re-introducing our white-label bonus shows. And we’ll still play our new, current, and relevant hip-hop, rap, and backpacker finds on our deluxe shows.

Found below is each and every hip-hop / rap broadcast Omega WUSB has broadcast up until this point. We urge you to check them all out. Want to re-visit an era with the most creative freedom? Any artists you missed out on? Trying to find a one-hit wonder you want to make a legend out of? No worries. We have you covered.

Here’s to fifty more years of hip-hop - and you can all thank DJ Kool Herc for that.

December 31, 2012-January 1, 2013; #5. (Double bonus.)

February 25, 2013; #10.

June 30, 2014; #55.

July 19, 2014-July 20, 2014; #56.

August 17, 2014; #59.

November 22, 2014; #68.

July 13, 2015; #87.

August 24, 2015; #91.

June 27, 2016; #114.

August 15, 2016; #120.

February 11, 2017; #132.

July 29, 2017; #142. (Partial.)

July 28, 2018; #168.

September 3, 2018; #173.

October 15, 2018; #177.

December 10, 2018; #183. (Wu-Tang Clan.)

May 4, 2019; #194.

June 29, 2019; #199.

July 20, 2019; #201. (Public Enemy.)

August 19, 2019; #205. (N.W.A.)

August 24, 2019; #206. (Partial.)

March 16, 2020; #223.

August 3, 2020; #236.

August 15, 2020; #237.

October 26, 2020; #245.

January 30, 2021; #254.

April 21, 2021; #260.

May 19, 2021; #264.

June 16, 2021; #268.

July 3, 2021; #271. (Double deluxe.)

August 11, 2021; #278. (Hip-Hop’s 48th.)

January 3, 2022; #294.

January 12, 2022; #295.

April 25, 2022; #305.

May 21, 2022; #307.

June 20, 2022; #312.

August 22, 2022; #325. (Delayed.)

August 27, 2022; #326.

October 24, 2022; #333.

(Originally published on August 11, 2023.)

[brookston]

Holidays 12.30

Holidays

Cleaning Day (Haiti)

Falling Needles Family Fest Day

Feast of the Holy Family

Festival of Enormous Changes at the Last Minute

Flail Day French Republic)

Freedom Day (Scientology)

Incwala Day (Eswatini, f.k.a. Swaziland)

International Day of Indian Cinema

Kodachrome Day

Let's Make A Deal Day

Lhosar (Gurung People, Nepal)

National Cheryl Day

National Resolution Planning Day

New Year’s Eve Eve

Rizal Day (Philippines)

Smart Highway Day

Take a Walk Show

Tamu Lochar (Sikkim, India)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Bacon Day [also 8.31]

Baking Soda Day

Coffee Day (Hawaii)

Drink With a Straw Day

International Day of the Donut

Kona Coffee Day

National Bicarbonate of Soda Day

5th & Last Saturday in December

Evergreen Tree Day [Last Saturday]

Last Saturday of the Year [Last Saturday]

Independence Days

Day of the Declaration of Slovakia as an Independent Ecclesiastic Province

Midget Nation-in-Exile (Declared; 2009) [unrecognized]

Northern Federation of Occidental Republics (Declared; 2012) [unrecognized]

USSR (Established, 1922)

Xenlandia (Declared; 2021) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Abraham the Writer (Christian; Saint)

Anysia of Salonika (Christian; Saint)

Boxing the Jesuit Day (Church of the SubGenius)

The Clam (Muppetism)

Ecgwine of Worcester (Christian; Saint)

Egwin of Evesham (Christian; Saint)

Felix I, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Frances Joseph-Gaudet (Episcopal Church)

Gall (Positivist; Saint)

Get Drunk Early for Hogmanay Day (Pastafarian)

Kwanzaa, Day 5: Nia (Purpose)

Liberius of Ravenna (Christian; Saint)

Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée (Artology)

Maximus (Christian; Saint)

Obatala’s Day (Pagan)

Ralph of Vaucelles (Christian; Saint)

Roger (a.k.a. Ruggero) of Cannae (Christian; Saint)

Sabinus, Bishop of Assisi, and his companions (Christian; Martyrs)

Sixth Day of Christmas (a.k.a. Bringing in the Boar)

Twelve Holy Days #5 (Leo, the heart; Esoteric Christianity)

Twelvetide, Day #6 (a.k.a. the Twelve Days of Christmas or Christmastide) [until 1.5]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Premieres

Alice, Darling (Film; 2022)

Aqua Teen Hunger Force (TV Cartoon Series; 2000)

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Film; 1925)

Born to Die, by Lana Del Rey (Song; 2011)

The Curious Puppy (WB MM Cartoon; 1939)

Dallas (Film; 1950)

The Gallopin’ Gaucho (Disney Cartoon; 1928)

Kiss Me, Kate (Broadway Musical; 1948)

Let’s Make a Deal (TV game Show; 1963)

A Man Called Otto (Film; 2022)

The Merry Widow, by Franz Lehár (Operetta; 1905)

My Way, recorded by Frank Sinatra (Song; 1968)

Nelly’s Folly (WB MM Cartoon; 1961)

No Man of Her Own (Film; 1932)

Rob Roy, by Walter Scott (Novel; 1817)

The Roy Rogers Show (TV Series; 1951)

Some Came Running, by James Jones (Novel; 1957)

Sounder, by William H. Armstrong (Novel; 1969)

Tainted Dreams (TV Soap Opera; 2013)

Tangled Up In Blue, recorded by Bob Dylan (Song; 1974)

Tin Yop (Pixar Cartoon; 1988)

Two’s a Crowd (WB MM Cartoon; 1950)

Why Him? (Film; 2016)

Today’s Name Days

Felix, Lothar (Austria)

Feliks, Rajner, Srećko (Croatia)

David (Czech Republic)

David (Denmark)

Taave, Taavet, Taavi, Taavo, Tavo (Estonia)

Daavid, Taavetti, Taavi (Finland)

Roger (France)

Herma, Hermine, Minna (Germany)

Anisios, Filetairos, Gideon, Josef (Greece)

Dávid (Hungary)

Eugenio (Italy)

Dāvids, Dāvis (Latvia)

Dovydas, Gedrimė, Gražvilas, Irmina, Sabinas (Lithuania)

David, Diana, Dina (Norway)

Dawid, Dawida, Dionizy, Eugeniusz, Irmina, Katarzyna, Łazarz, Rainer, Sabin, Sewer, Uniedrog (Poland)

Anisia (Romania)

Dávid (Slovakia)

Judit, Judith, Raúl (Spain)

Abel, Set (Sweden)

Ainsley, Kelsa, Kelsey, Kelsi, Kelsie, Mason (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 364 of 2024; 1 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 6 of week 52 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Beth (Birch) [Day 5 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 18 (Ren-Xu)

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

Hebrew: 18 Teveth 5784

Islamic: 17 Jumada II 1445

J Cal: 4 Fest; Foursday [4 of 5]

Julian: 17 December 2023

Moon: 87%: Warning Gibbous

Positivist: 28 Bichat (13th Month) [Gall]

Runic Half Month: Eihwaz or Eoh (Yew Tree) [Day 5 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 10 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 9 of 31)

[whimsicallyenchantedrose]

Christmas Reruns 2023 Day 28: New York Christmas Serenade (1/4)

Merry Christmas if you celebrate it and happy holidays if you don’t!  One of the things I love about Christmas is watching reruns of all the old classic Christmas movies–Christmas is a big time for nostalgia.  A few years ago, I decided to incorporate that tradition into my fandom life and post my CS holiday reruns.  So here you go!  Enough holiday (mostly) fluff to get you to New Year’s Day. (With a new story posting on Christmas Day.)

Rating: G

Word Count: 1346

Other chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 29 30 31 32

Written in 2016, this CS canon divergence is a re-imagining of what New York City Serenade might have looked like if Killian had found Emma’s NY apartment just before Christmas. Can the magic of the season help Killian bring back Emma’s and Henry’s memories?

CS Genre: Canon Divergence (missing year between 3a and 3b)

A/N:  I don’t really know what time of year it was when Killian showed up at Emma’s New York apartment door, but for the sake of this canon divergence, I’m saying he showed up the day before Christmas Eve.

Emma shouldn’t complain; she really shouldn’t.  She had a job she loved, she had a roof over her head (a really nice roof at that), plenty of food to eat, a son she loved more than she thought it was possible to love another person, and it was the day before Christmas Eve.  She should be perfectly happy.

But she couldn’t help but think something was missing.

At first she thought she was just dealing with the inevitable melancholy that comes after the breakup of a longtime (well…longtime for her.  When you’re used to one night stands, having a boyfriend for eight months seems like an eternity) relationship, but that wasn’t quite it.  Honestly?  She’d barely even thought about Walsh since she broke up with him just before Halloween.  He’d been okay she guessed, but…well, there was no spark there.

No, it was more than breakup blues.  It felt more like loneliness. She glanced over her shoulder at Henry who sat at the breakfast table garnishing their mugs of hot cocoa with both cinnamon and little mini candy canes (in honor of the season), and the guilt hit.  She loved Henry, of course she did, but she couldn’t help but feel like someone…maybe several someones…were missing.

Emma had just passed a plate of chocolate chip pancakes to an excited Henry when the knock came at her apartment door.  That was…odd.

“We expecting someone?” Henry asked, already beginning to dig into his breakfast.

“No,” she said, her brow furrowed.  “Just…stay here kid while I see what this is all about.”

Emma didn’t know what she expected to see when she opened her door, but a pirate in full black leather and guyliner wasn’t it.  Nor did she expect the look of utter joy—like she’d just given him the best Christmas gift in the world—that crossed his face at the sight of her.

“Swan,” he breathed, blue eyes lighting up.  “At last.”

The pirate stepped forward, looking like he was about to embrace her.  For a moment, her mind went blank.  There was something familiar about this man, although she was pretty sure she’d remember meeting him before.  Aside from his odd choice of clothing, he was hot.  Not just kind of hot.  Like burn-all-of-New-York-to-the-ground hot.

For half a second, she almost let him envelope her in a hug, and then common sense returned.  Emma Swan did not just stand there and let crazy guys touch her.  She put a hand to his chest, warding him off.  “Do I know you?” she asked in a voice she determinedly made hard and unyielding.

“I’m…an old friend,” he said.  He wasn’t being entirely truthful, though he wasn’t lying either…not exactly.  What was going on here? 

“Look, Swan,” he said urgently, taking a tiny step forward once more, “I know you don’t remember me, but I need you to trust me.  Your family is in great danger.  They need you; they need the savior.”

“Look buddy,” Emma said, “I don’t know who you are or what kind of delusions you have, but my whole family is right there at that breakfast table.  My son is the only one who needs me.”

“You simply don’t remember, love,” he began, “I can help you…”

“It’s time for you to go,” she said, giving a little push to his chest until he’d crossed her threshold, “go peddle your crazy to someone else.”

With that she shut the door in his protesting face.

“Who was that?” Henry asked around a bite of pancake.

“No idea,” Emma said.

“Really?” Henry asked.  “Are you sure?  It’s just…something about him seems really familiar.”

“Must be a coincidence,” Emma said with a shrug as she sat down to her breakfast.  “But enough about psychos who show up at our door.  Let’s talk about the weekend!  We’ve got a lot of Christmas-ing to fit into the next three days that I have off.  What do you want to do first?”

Emma tried to forget the handsome pirate, she truly did.  She tried to forget him as she and Henry went ice skating.  She tried to forget him as they rolled out Christmas cookies and cut them into festive shapes.  She tried to forget him while Henry played his video game and she covertly wrapped his presents.  She tried to forget him when she and Henry sat down to watch Elf that night.  She tried to forget him as she lay in her big, lonely bed.

But somehow mystery pirate man wouldn’t leave her thoughts no matter what she did.  When she woke up on Christmas Eve morning after having a weird dream where she and the pirate guy were in this weird jungle place and she kissed the living daylights out of him, she gave up.  Clearly she was going to get no peace until she found him again and heard him out, found out what the hell he’d meant by “your family needs you”.

As luck would have it, Emma didn’t even need to dig into her bail bonds person bag of tricks to locate her target.  She’d promised Henry she’d take him to the zoo in Central Park that day to see the Christmas festivities. And who should she see sitting on a park bench just outside the zoo’s entrance, but pirate man?

The man got to his feet as soon as she was in sight.  “Emma!” he said in excitement.  “Fancy seeing you here, love.”

“Seriously?” she asked, adding extra briskness to her voice to counteract the way the butterflies had started to swoop in her stomach the moment she saw him.  “You are a stalker.”

“Not at all,” he said.  “It was you who followed me here.  Perhaps you, Swan are the stalker here, aye?”  Turning to her left, the man nodded at her son.  “Henry!  Good to see you!  Enjoying your Christmas holidays?”

Henry gave the man a suspicious glance and then broke into a smile.  “Yeah, it’s been great!  Three full days with mom before she has to go back to work…amazing!  But…do I know you?”

The man ruffled his hair.  “I’d wager not, at least not to your knowledge.  Killian Jones at your service, lad!”

“Cool!  Where’d ya get the pirate costume?”

The man looked down at himself and then shrugged.  “I’ve been wearing this attire for such a long time I don’t recall where I acquired it.”

“So, Killian, would you like to come to our apartment for Christmas Eve tonight?” Henry asked before Emma could stop him.  “We’ll light up the tree and watch Christmas movies and hang our stockings and everything.”

The man…Killian…shot her a questioning glance.  “I don’t wish to impose on your family traditions, lad, but if your mother doesn’t object I’d like nothing in all the realms more than to accept your invitation.”

For long moments, Emma stood in indecision.  Her brain was screaming at her to run away as fast as possible.  People did not invite strange men dressed in crazy attire into their homes—not unless they had a strange desire to be murdered, that is.  But her heart…well, her heart kept (illogically) insisting that not only could she trust this Killian Jones, somehow she actually knew him.

What came out of her mouth surprised even her.  “Sure.  Come by the apartment around 7?”

But really, no one should be alone on Christmas Eve, should they?

Killian’s brows rose almost to his hairline.  Safe to say that was not the answer he was expecting either.  “I shall look forward to it, love.”

NEXT CHAPTER->

[thecrimecrypt]

Crimes That Shook Britain (North West)

Moors Murders Not just notorious in the UK, the name Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are synonymous with evil worldwide. In the 1960s the twisted couple tortured and violently murdered Pauline Reade, 16, John Kilbride, 12, Keith Bennett, 12, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17.

During their killing spree, Brady and Hindley posed for photos at the murder scenes and gravesites on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester.

Both were convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to life. Hindley died behind bars in 2002, aged 60. She was so despised that 20 local undertakers refused to handle her body. Brady spent 19 years in standard prisons before being transferred to a high-security psychiatric hospital where he died in 2017 at the age of 79.

The Murders of PCs Bone and Hughes In November 2012, wanted killer Dale Cregan, 29, had made a hoax call to police. When PC Nicola Hughes, 23, and PC Fiona Bone, 32, attended, Cregan fired 32 bullets at them and launched a grenade before driving off. Both officers died.

In February 2013, Cregan admitted both murders at Preston Crown Court. He was given a whole life order, and also convicted of two other murders and three attempted murders.

Then-PM David Cameron honoured PC Bone and PC Hughes, calling their murders ‘an act of pure evil’.

Harold Shipman Britain’s most prolific serial killer, GP Harold Shipman, worked in The Hyde area of Manchester. In January 2000, he was found guilty of murdering 15 of his patients by lethal injection.

Sentenced to life, it was recommended he never be released. After the trial, an inquiry concluded Shipman had actually killed an estimated 250 victims.

Shipman killed himself in Wakefield Prison in January 2004, on the eve of his 58th birthday.

The Murder of James Bulger The unforgettable CCTV footage remains as chilling as it was back in 1993. Little James Bulger, 2, being led by the hand from The New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Liverpool, by the boys who’d go on to kill him.

Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 10, walked the tot for over two miles to railway tracks where they murdered him.

When James’ body was found, he had multiple skull fractures and other injuries that suggested he’d been hit with a metal bar and bricks, kicked and stamped on.

Thompson and Venables became Britain’s youngest convicted murderers in November 1993 for what the judge called ‘an act of unparalleled evil and barbarity’.

The Murder of Anthony Walker At 11pm on 29 July 2005, popular student Anthony Walker, 18, and his cousin walked his girlfriend to the bus stop in Huyton, Liverpool.

As they passed a pub, thug Michael Barton shouted racist abuse at the group, which they ignored. But later, Barton and his friend Paul Taylor ambushed the teenagers.

Anthony’s cousin and girlfriend escaped, while Anthony was killed by Taylor with a blow to the head from an ice axe. That December, Paul Taylor, 20, got 23 years for murder. Michael Barton, 17, got 17 years, reduced by a year in 2016.

Derrick Bird It was the UK’s worst mass shooting since the 1996 Dunblane massacre. In June 2010, taxi driver Derrick Bird, 52, left his home in Rowrah, Cumbria, drove to the home of David, his twin, and shot and killed him.

Then he drove to his family solicitor Kevin Commons’ home and shot him dead, too. His next victim was a fellow taxi driver. By now, police were hunting Bird and told residents of nearby towns to stay indoors. But by the time Bird’s body was found at 1:40pm, he’d killed 12 people and left 25 injured before shooting himself.

At an inquest into Derrick Bird’s death, a medical expert described him as ‘delusional and paranoid’. He’d apparently murdered his brother and solicitor believing they were in cahoots against him over a tax bill. He’d targeted his workmate over a jibe that’d been made over his personal hygiene.

But no one could ever offer a satisfactory explanation of this senseless, devastating crime.

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Back after a week off!

Script below the break.

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind, the podcast where I count down my top 40 most rewatched movies. My name is Jane, and today I will be discussing number 31 on my list: RKO’s 1937 dramatic comedy, or comedic drama, Stage Door, directed by Gregory La Cava, written by Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller, from the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and Adolphe Menjou.

When heiress Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn) decides to go into show business, she moves into a theatrical boarding house called the Footlights Club with other, significantly poorer, aspiring actresses. She keeps the details of her privileged background secret, but nevertheless struggles to fit in with the others, particularly her new roommate Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers), who see her as a snob. The conflict heats up even more when Terry is cast in a role that another Footlights Club resident, Kay Hamilton (Andrea Leeds) had her heart set on.

I can’t remember exactly how I first discovered this movie, but I assume it was because I love both Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, and I was trying to watch as many of their films as I could get my hands on. They are two of the four actors to make it into at least 4 of the movies that will be on this podcast, so it makes sense that I would keep revisiting a movie that featured both of them, even though they apparently didn’t get along very well offscreen. I think I might have seen Stage Door for the first time in 2002, I’m not sure, but once I started keeping track, I watched it 17 times: twice in 2003, three times in 2005, once in 2006, twice in 2008, twice in 2009, twice in 2011, once in 2013, once in 2014, once in 2015, once in 2016, and once in 2022. Back in 2013, I blogged about the movies I had watched at least 10 times in 10 years, and at the time Stage Door was the only one of those I didn’t own a copy of, so I know that at least all the views prior to then were because I borrowed it from the library. When I finally got it on DVD, it was part of a Katharine Hepburn collection that included the 1933 version of Little Women, which won Best Adapted Screenplay. When I was going through adapted screenplay winners in 2017, after I watched that one, the collection somehow fell under my bed without me realizing it, so the next time I wanted to watch Stage Door, I couldn’t find it, and it wasn’t until 2022 that I finally cleaned out under my bed and uncovered it. So Stage Door would be even higher on this list if I cleaned my room more often.

In my last episode, I mentioned that what I really wanted out of Newsies was more of the ensemble just hanging out, and that is exactly what Stage Door provides. There are so many great scenes featuring Footlights Club residents exchanging witty banter, without in any way hindering the plot. While some of that comes from the stars, particularly Ginger Rogers, the supporting cast is absolute gold and features several relative unknowns at the time who became quite famous later, such as future television stars Eve Arden and Lucille Ball, in addition to then-14-year-old Ann Miller, who used a fake birth certificate to pretend to be 18, and somehow managed to hold her own dancing with Ginger Rogers. Gail Patrick was already somewhat established as a master of the cold, calculating secondary character, and she continues that here as Linda, Jean’s main rival before Terry shows up, but she later became even more noteworthy for executive producing the Perry Mason TV show in the 1950s and 1960s, when she was the only female executive producer of a prime-time show. It’s so fun to see these soon-to-be household names so early in their careers hanging out and swapping jokes. But I think I would still enjoy the ensemble scenes at least almost as much if I’d never heard of any of the performers. One of my favorite moments is when the oldest resident who is now an acting coach, played by Constance Collier, is going on yet again about “Back in my day” and somebody who’s holding a book interjects, “when knighthood was in flower” and Constance Collier is all offended until she says, “I’m sorry, I was just reading aloud” and her face and delivery are so perfect, and I have no idea who that character or actress is but I love her.

I’ve read several different stories of how this script came to be. While it’s ostensibly based on a play, apart from the title, the setting, and some of the characters’ names, it’s barely recognizable as the same story. Playwright George S. Kaufman reportedly quipped that the title should have been changed to Screen Door to further distance itself from his play. One story claims that director Gregory La Cava sent an assistant to pose as an aspiring actress in a boarding house and write down what the residents said to use as dialogue in the film. Another version says that La Cava had the actresses from the film hang out together on the set prior to shooting and incorporated their interactions into the script. And yet a third version is that much of the dialogue was improvised while filming. I’m not sure which is true, and I suppose it could be a combination of all three, or none of them, but regardless, the banter is excellent and feels entirely natural. While the slang is, of course, rather outdated, the way they insert snarky comments into their conversations feels exactly like how friend groups – particularly those who are discouraged and fed up but laughing to keep from screaming – interact in real life even now. It’s unusual to see a movie with a primarily female ensemble being so witty together, and I can’t even begin to explain how fun it is to watch. Granted, some of it does get a bit stereotypically catty, but even the least-developed unnamed extra in this movie feels like a real person. Beneath their jovial facades lurks a deep longing for success on the stage, as well as frustration at how difficult that is to achieve, and they all convey that so brilliantly. Mad props to the entire cast.

Like many of the movies I’ve talked about so far, Stage Door has a rather complicated relationship with sex and romance. Because production codes of the time prohibited most sexual content, they had to leave it kind of vague, but it’s implied that the character of theatrical producer Anthony Powell, played by Adolphe Menjou, is providing Gail Patrick’s character, Linda, with expensive clothes and jewelry in return for sexual favors – although why she’s still living at the Footlights Club is rather a mystery – until Ginger Rogers’s character Jean catches his eye and he gets her a job dancing at his nightclub. Jean initially despises him, and only starts dating him because of how much she hates Linda. It’s not entirely clear whether Jean actually sleeps with him – there’s a scene of her in his apartment getting very drunk, but then she starts talking about marriage and Powell has his butler send her home. But they apparently keep seeing each other after that, and Jean does seem to develop feelings for Powell, for completely unfathomable reasons, but Katharine Hepburn’s character Terry sees through him. There’s a great scene when Powell takes Terry to his apartment to discuss the role she’s just been given and she resists his advances, but then when Jean shows up Terry pretends they were in the middle of something so that Jean will see that Powell is no good. This doesn’t help Jean and Terry’s relationship, and most of the characters at the Footlights Club probably think that Terry got the role by sleeping with Powell – although the audience knows it’s because her father said he would help finance the new play if she was the star, hoping that she would fail and return home. Jean already thinks that Terry has previously had a similar arrangement to the one Linda had with Powell because Terry also has expensive clothes and a photograph of an old man she claims to be her grandfather – but again, the audience knows that Terry comes from a rich family and that the man probably is her actual grandfather. I guess showing characters inferring that other characters were having illicit sex was okay with the censors as long as it wasn’t confirmed? Also Powell tells Jean in the scene when she’s drunk that he has a wife and son, but later Terry exposes this as a lie, so even if he is sleeping with any or all of the people that characters think he might be, at least he’s not committing adultery because he’s not really married. Maybe this is just me, but I find it so fascinating what was and wasn’t allowed under these production codes. Anyway, in a similar but perhaps more innocent vein, Lucille Ball’s character is from Seattle, which apparently means she knows every lumberman who visits New York, so she’s often going out on dates with them. Jean clearly despises their uncouth ways, but the food at the Footlights Club is notoriously almost inedible, so she’s willing to let them dance on her feet and bore her in exchange for dinner. Incidentally, one of these double dates is what Eve Arden’s character is referring to in the line I quoted at the end of last episode about “a pleasant little foursome” and predicting a hatchet murder. It doesn’t seem like there’s sex involved in this arrangement, although Lucy’s character does end up marrying one of the lumbermen at the end, but it feels similar to the Powell situation in that it shows women willing to give men what they want in exchange for security, luxury, or both.

The idea that men always want sex and women either tolerate or use sex is certainly not unique to this film – it’s a prevalent stereotype even now that is harmful in so many ways, encouraging and normalizing incredibly toxic relationship dynamics between straight allosexuals. And a side effect is that it makes things very confusing for asexuals. Those who are socialized as girls may not recognize their own asexuality because women aren’t supposed to really want sex that much anyway. And those who are socialized as boys are pressured to ignore their asexuality because men are supposedly defined by their obsession with sex. It’s not great and we need to stop spreading this false narrative. But in terms of this movie, when you remember that it’s from 1937, the same year as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and “Someday My Prince Will Come,” it almost feels progressive to at least show women taking control of their own lives, even if they’re forced to do so within the confines of an oppressive, patriarchal society. There are a few times throughout the film when it’s suggested that these women would be better off getting married and raising children and giving up on their acting dreams, but this is presented as the view of society at large, particularly men like Powell, and not necessarily the truth. It’s rather empowering to see these women stubbornly taking the path that feels right to them even when they’re constantly being told to give up and conform. So from that perspective, the message feels less problematic and more encouraging, and that aspect speaks to me.

This movie also addresses mental health struggles in a very interesting way that I want to discuss a bit. Trigger Warning: I will be talking about depression and suicide in this section, so I’ll put time codes in the show notes if you need to skip through that [skip this and the next paragraph on the script]. For its time, I feel like this movie actually does a pretty good job of distinguishing between feeling a bit down and actually suffering from depression. Most of the residents of the Footlights Club are struggling to find work, but they’re managing. Kay Hamilton, however, is clearly not. She’s behind on her rent and skipping meals but refuses to ask for or accept help. It’s established that she gave a highly acclaimed performance in Anthony Powell’s previous play but hasn’t been able to find work since. Kay desperately wants the leading role in his new play, both because she needs the work and because she relates to the part. When Terry is cast instead, Kay is devastated, but insists that none of the others inform Terry how much she wanted it. To add insult to injury, Terry is awful in rehearsals, refusing to take direction and reading the lines as emotionlessly as possible, so we can all see that Kay would have been a much better choice. On opening night, Kay gives Terry her good luck charm, and then jumps out the window, killing herself. Jean confronts Terry and blames her for Kay’s death. Terry is beside herself – Kay was basically the only one who was nice to Terry – and at first doesn’t want to perform at all, but her grief puts her in the perfect mindset to play the character whose feelings she’s never understood before. She’s clearly performing to honor Kay’s memory, and all of the Footlights Club residents in attendance recognize that, and afterwards Jean and Terry finally become friends.

The main thing I remember from the first time I watched this was how shocked I was by Kay’s suicide. It felt like such an abrupt and upsetting change of tone from what had been mostly a lighthearted comedy. But upon rewatch there are so many signs. When all the other residents of the boarding house are laughing off their troubles, Kay never joins in, only occasionally managing a weak smile to try to reassure her concerned friends that she’s fine. Nobody knows how to help her, and she doesn’t know how to accept the help that’s offered. It’s an upsetting but realistic portrayal of depression, and Andrea Leeds plays it so perfectly that she was even nominated for an Oscar. Considering that, even with all the recent advances made in mental health research and treatment, many people still consider depression just a period of sadness when you’re not trying hard enough to cheer yourself up, it’s astounding that a movie made 86 years ago does such an excellent job of conveying what it actually feels like. It’s not really sadness; it’s more of a void. A hopeless void that you feel like you’ll be stuck in forever. And that’s what Kay shows us. I don’t think I consciously realized this when I was watching Stage Door as a teenager suffering from depression, but I do think in a weird way it helped, to see what I was feeling from the outside. To see that Kay was surrounded by people who cared about and wanted to help her, that the void was lying when it told her there was no other way out except through the window. I wish there had been a way to save her, and I don’t love the implication that her death was necessary to make Terry a good actress, although I don’t think that was the message they were going for. I think the film is trying to say that art and storytelling can be used to channel pain into something beautiful, and while there are certainly better ways to convey this that don’t involve suicide, I still feel like this movie is surprisingly respectful of mental health struggles, particularly for its time, and I appreciate that.

I know I’ve been emphasizing some of the darker aspects, but it’s mostly an uplifting movie. It’s just also trying to be realistic about the hardships faced by women pursuing artistic careers, particularly during the Great Depression – not that things are much better now. I kind of think having this movie in the back of my mind has contributed to at least some of my decisions to support female actors and producers on Patreon. If only the residents of the Footlights Club had had access to the internet. Anyway, there are lots of fascinating behind-the-scenes Stage Door stories, and I’m not sure if any or all of them are actually true, but I want to mention some of them nonetheless. There was apparently a random cat on the RKO lot that took a liking to Eve Arden, so Gregory La Cava decided to make it part of the movie that her character was almost always holding or playing with the cat. Perhaps the most famous line in Stage Door is Terry’s speech in the play, which starts with “The calla lilies are in bloom again…” This was taken from a play called “The Lake” in which Katharine Hepburn had appeared on Broadway, and, in the words of critic Dorothy Parker, “ran the gamut of emotions – from A to B.” So Hepburn used this performance to redeem herself a bit. She certainly shows more emotional range than A to B, although I feel like she still had more to learn before becoming the truly excellent performer she’s remembered as. According to several accounts, Katharine Hepburn was extremely envious of Ginger Rogers, whose career at the time was going much better than her own. Rogers had a much easier time taking direction and getting along with people, and just seemed to generally have more natural talent for performing. So Hepburn resented her, and insisted on sharing top billing instead of taking second billing under her. Rogers was disappointed when Margaret Sullavan, who had played Terry Randall on Broadway and was originally cast in the film version, became pregnant and had to drop out. So neither of them were thrilled to be working together. Since I love both Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, it makes me a little sad that they didn’t actually like each other, but that was kind of perfect for their characters’ dynamic in this movie. A nicer story is that Ginger Rogers helped launch Ann Miller’s career by insisting she get the role of her dance partner even though the director thought she was too tall, and apparently Rogers and Miller became life-long friends. And one last fun piece of trivia that I recently stumbled upon is that the woman in the photograph of Anthony Powell’s pretend wife was Verree Teasdale, who was married to Adolphe Menjou – so the character’s fake wife was the actor’s actual wife.

Thank you for listening to me talk through another of my most frequently re-watched movies. We’re a quarter of the way through the list already! Remember to subscribe or follow on your podcast platform of choice for more, and rate or leave a review to let me know how you’re enjoying it so far. This episode is coming out on International Asexuality Day, so I hope my fellow aces out there are feeling particularly supported and celebrated today. As always, I will leave you with a quote from the next movie: “You promised me a zillion dollars! And a nickel!”

[truecrimetime]

The Murder of Grace Millane

Grace Millane was a 21-year-old from Wickford, Essex. She had recently graduated from the University of Lincoln with a bachelor's degree in advertising and marketing, and was on a backpacking tour during her gap year.

Millane was on a two week stay in New Zealand after spending six weeks in South America. She entered New Zealand on November 20th, 2018 and travelled around the upper North Island. She arrived in Auckland on November 30th. At 9:00 p.m. on December 1st, she was seen in Victoria Street in Auckland's central business district, and 15 minutes later she was seen via CCTV at Sky City. She was last seen at 9:41 p.m. at the City Life Hotel on Queen Street with Jesse Kempson, a 27-year-old man that she had met on Tinder.

Grace Millane's parents became alarmed after they received no response to the birthday wishes they sent her on December 2 2018. Millane's Tinder date with Kempson had taken place the night before, on the eve of her 22nd birthday. Police started investigating after she was reported missing by her parents three days later.

The hotel she was staying at reported that she did not go back to her room on the night of her disappearance. Police initially said that there was "no evidence of foul play", but later gathered evidence that she was "no longer alive".

Kempson was caught on CCTV leaving the hotel room with a porter's trolley, which was carrying two suitcases. Information taken from Kempson's phone showed that he had been searching online for information that would help him cover up the murder in the hours immediately afterwards.

Grace Millane's body was found on December 9 2018, in a suitcase that Jesse Kempson had buried in a wooded area outside Auckland.

After returning to Kempson's hotel room together just before 10 p.m. on December 1st, 2018, Millane was murdered. It's not known exactly what happened in the hotel room, but after her body was discovered, just over a week later, it was determined that Millane had been strangled, and bruises on her body were consistent with being restrained.

Police had taken Kempson into custody the day before, after he had been identified him as a prime suspect in the case. His second formal interview with the police took place on 8 December and it was then that he admitted to murdering Millane. However, he claimed that Millane's death had been accidental after the two of them engaged in rough sex.

Jesse Kempson is serving time at Auckland prison, after receiving a 17-year minimum sentence for the murder of Grace Millane. He was sentenced to a further 11 years in 2020 after being convicted of attacking two more women.

He met both the other women on Tinder - the same way he met Millane - and in October 2020 was convicted of eight charges relating to various attacks, including using a knife against a woman between November 2016 and April 2017. He was convicted by a separate judge sitting alone of raping another woman on a date in April 2018.

Initially, Kempson could not be named by the media because of a court order banning his identification due to the other two trials he was facing. The court order was in place to avoid biasing the judge in the following cases and allow for a fair trial. The ban was lifted in 2020, following his final conviction.

[omegaplus]

# 4,459

Omega Radio's 50 Years Of Hip-Hop. When the 'Brentwood Era' started, I had the dial on WBLS, one of New York City's hip-hop / rap stations. It not only signified the first-ever genre I'd pay close attention to, but also signified the beginning of personal cassette dubbing.

For a few years, I'd record as much as possible off to the right of the dial, then later on Hot 97 and Kiss FM. I'd capture Kid Capri, Kool DJ Red Alert, Funkmaster Flex, and Ed Lover, Dr. Dre, and T-Money of Yo! MTV Raps. Running concurrently was In Living Color, a rap-centric die-laughing comedy show that introduced us to the Wayans Brothers, Homey The Clown, Fire Marshall Bill, The Homeboy Shopping Network, and more. My formative years listening to hip-hop / rap lasted as long from middle school to graduating senior year. There's no shortage of mostly positive memories in Brentwood, in thanks to all of my cassette dubs from that era.

I returned to hip-hop / rap when I discovered WUSB a few years later and stumbled upon one of their shows, Ghetto Radio, who showed me a more underground side of things. Street FM, Eminent Audio, and The Basement practically changed my life because they introduced me to sampling culture, forever opening up a new world in getting to know more about myself. As soon as I became a Stony Brook student, I inquired about joining the station. Now, I became a dee-jay and gave back to our listeners the same way WUSB gave to me. It wasn't until my second run at the station (Winter 2013) when I started Omega Radio and took my show more seriously.

For 11 years, we've taken every chance we get to play hip-hop / rap. Our shows started when we did a five-hour bonus broadcast to usher in a new year: classic Seventies' vinyl classics on New Year’s Eve, then three hours of the rough stuff on New Year’s. Since then, we paid it forward by delivering all-time legends (The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac), more golden-era cuts (EPMD, A Tribe Called Quest, Monie Love), the Eighties (Kool Moe D, MC Shan, Eric B & Rakim, classic old-school moments (Whodini, Sugar Hill Records, Afrika Bambaata), and even white-label underground releases (Lo-Down Click, Erule, Brother Arthur). Let's not forget the ladies of the game, either (Queen Latifah, Monie Love, MC Lyte, and Yo-Yo to name a few).

Later on, we introduced deluxe editions of our shows consisting of golden-era legends still doing their thing (KRS-One, Onyx, Dres of Black Sheep), backpack artists (Jedi Mind Tricks, R.A. The Rugged Man, the Griselda camp), beat tapes (Fuzzoscope, All These Fingers), and newer artists (clipping., Danny Brown, Obnox, Dabrye). We also made some legend specific tributes for Public Enemy, N.W.A. (edited for FCC quality-control), and The Wu-Tang Clan, which happened to be Omega’s most popular show to date. As long as it isn't Kanye West or TekashiSixNine, we're good.

The good news? There’s no sign of up stopping. We'll continuously re-visit our golden-era finds until they’re depleted, and may even consider re-introducing our white-label bonus shows. And we’ll still play our new, current, and relevant hip-hop, rap, and backpacker finds on our deluxe shows.

Found below is each and every hip-hop / rap broadcast Omega WUSB has broadcast up until this point. We urge you to check them all out. Want to re-visit an era with the most creative freedom? Any artists you missed out on? Trying to find a one-hit wonder you want to make a legend out of? No worries. We have you covered.

Here's to fifty more years of hip-hop - and you can all thank DJ Kool Herc for that.

December 31, 2012-January 1, 2013; #5. (Double bonus.)

February 25, 2013; #10.

June 30, 2014; #55.

July 19, 2014-July 20, 2014; #56.

August 17, 2014; #59.

November 22, 2014; #68.

July 13, 2015; #87.

August 24, 2015; #91.

June 27, 2016; #114.

August 15, 2016; #120.

February 11, 2017; #132.

July 29, 2017; #142. (Partial.)

July 28, 2018; #168.

September 3, 2018; #173.

October 15, 2018; #177.

December 10, 2018; #183. (Wu-Tang Clan)

May 4, 2019; #194.

June 29, 2019; #199.

July 20, 2019; #201. (Public Enemy)

August 19, 2019; #205. (N.W.A.)

August 24, 2019; #206. (Partial.)

March 16, 2020; #223.

August 3, 2020; #236.

August 15, 2020; #237.

October 26, 2020; #245.

January 30, 2021; #254.

April 21, 2021; #260.

May 19, 2021; #264.

June 16, 2021; #268.

July 3, 2021; #271. (Double deluxe.)

August 11, 2021; #278. (Hip-Hop’s 48th)

January 3, 2022; #294.

January 12, 2022; #295.

April 25, 2022; #305.

May 21, 2022; #307.

June 20, 2022; #312.

August 22, 2022; #325. (Delayed.)

August 27, 2022; #326.

October 24, 2022; #333.

[cfimpurities]

(—)   ♥   spotted!! everleigh sinclair on the cover of this week’s most recent tabloid! many say that the 33 year old looks like blake lively, but i don’t really see it. while  the actress is known for being endearing my inside sources say that they have a tendency to be reckless i swear, every time i think of them, i hear the song looking at me by sabrina carpenter  {she/her; female} - sushi

♥  𝐓���𝐄   𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒 ,

𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥   𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞   :   everleigh venus sinclair .  𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬   :   ev, evie, leigh .  𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞   :  november twenty third , nineteen eighty nine . 𝐚𝐠𝐞   :   thirty three .  𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞   :   los   angeles ,   california .  𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭  𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞   :   malibu ,   los   angeles .  𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫   :   cis   female . 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧   :   heterosexual .

𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬   :   patrick   sinclair ( actor ) , annalise hilton ( socialite ) .  𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬   :   unnamed   sinclair  ( younger brother ) .  𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫   𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲   :  persephone sinclair ( cousin ) , athena sinclair ( cousin ) ,  austen   sinclair   ( second cousin ) ,   archie   sinclair   ( second cousin ) .  𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬   :   english ,   french ,  italian   𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧   :   actress  (career claim : keira knightley ).  𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧   :   harvard business school (dropped out after first year .  𝐳𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐜   :   sagittarius .  𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫   𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬   :    serena  van  der  woodsen  ( gossip  girl ) ,   thea queen  ( arrow ) ,   cassie howard   ( euphoria ) ,   natasha romanoff  ( mcu ) ,   meredith grey   ( grey’s anatomy ) ,    aria montgomery  ( pretty little liar’s ) ,   fiona gallagher  ( shameless )  .

♥  𝐓𝐇𝐄   𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 ,

oldest child of actor patrick sinclair (rarely ever there father) and socialite annalise hilton (of the hilton hotel chain and overbearing mother)

was expected to take on the hotel chain at some point, even if she doesn’t want to

sent to an all girl’s boarding school, mother thinking she couldn’t possibly get into any trouble there, and yet everleigh brought her worst fears into fruition by sneaking out to parties, drinking under the age and getting high off of a multitude of drugs; gets caught her junior year and is subsequently expelled

homeschooling ensues for the last two years of high school; parents paying off the boarding school to remove the expulsion from her file to ensure she gets into an ivy league which she ultimately does; going on to study business at harvard, thousands of miles away from her mother much to everleigh’s relief, where she does everything but study quickly falling back into partying ways before convincing her father to help her get her first role in a movie which would end up being a one elizabeth bennett in pride & prejudice and ultimately dropping out of the ivy league school to begin her acting career.

at age 25, everleigh marries castmate, orlando bloom, after six months of dating ; it is unknown why the pair ultimately divorced a year later but it appears that the two are still friends

2016; everleigh is cast in jack ryan: shadow recruit opposite actor chris pine; the pair hit it off and began dating before getting married a year later. relationship lasts five years before they too are divorced; reasons are again unknown but pair still seems amicable

♥  𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐈𝐃𝐒 ,

once told her mother off at a debutante ball when she was 17

hasn’t spoken to either of her parents since she was 20

does not speak to persephone and athena’s parents either having not agree with how controlling they were over older cousin’s life

has been the face of many designer clothing lines

sinclair is the face of an Amnesty International campaign to support human rights  

co-hosted A Night to Remember, part of the Green Carpet Challenge, a charity event highlighting sustainability within the fashion industry.  

she backed Made By Dyslexia, a global campaign to help teachers address “dyslexic strengths”.  

she was confirmed as the new celebrity face of Chanel's perfume Coco Mademoiselle and has endorsed Chanel Fine Jewelry's collection Coco Crush  

was named amongst the most bankable actors in 2009 at the age of 20

won a libel case against the British tabloid Daily Mail after it falsely claimed that she had an eating disorder; turned around and donated the money to Beat, a charity for those with mental illness and eating disorders  

a man was sentenced to eight weeks in prison after harassing sinclair outside her home and stalking her in December 2016  

In April 2009, sinclair appeared in a video to raise awareness of domestic abuse entitled Cut shot for Women's Aid. The video created controversy, with some sources calling it too graphic, while other groups support the video for showing a realistic depiction of domestic violence. (rumors spread because of this which she has publicly addressed in regards to both orlando bloom and chris pine respectfully stating it was not her saying she had experienced it first hand in her own relationships but that she was merely trying to help raise awareness, to speak up for those who couldn’t.)

♥  Acting Career ,  

Upcoming

Boston Strangler Loretta McLaughlin Completed 2023

Past

Silent Night - Mell

Charlotte - Charlotte Salomon (Voice)

Misbehaviour - Sally Alexander

The Aftermath - Rachael Morgan

Berlin, I Love You - Jane

Official Secrets - Katharine Gun

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms - Sugar Plum

Colette - Colette

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - Elizabeth Swann

Collateral Beauty - Amy

Everest - Jan Hall

The Imitation Game - Joan Clarke

Laggies - Megan

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - Cathy Muller

Begin Again - Greta

Anna Karenina - Anna Karenina

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - Penny

A Dangerous Method - Sabina Spielrein

London Boulevard - Charlotte

Last Night - Joana

Never Let Me Go - Ruth

The Duchess - Georgiana

The Edge of Love - Vera Phillips

Atonement - Cecilia Tallis

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Elizabeth Swann

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Elizabeth Swann

Domino - Domino Harvey

Pride & Prejudice - Elizabeth Bennett

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - Elizabeth Swann

[summerinbali]

I am so lucky. Everything works out in my favor. Even when something is not good, something better will come for me with it. Also, the Universe always got my back. Yes, I am so grateful because I am lucky.

It's February 2023 and I haven't write anything in here.

Anyhow, I welcomed this new year happily. For the first time ever. But for the first time ever also, I had to go to ER on 2nd Jan, by my own self, which was painfully sad. Life is great, but my body could not handle such a big energy of greatness coming on the new year. Also, my body couldn't handle the coffee I took on the new year's eve. Funny, ha-ha. But not funny ha-ha.

With that tragedy, I came up with my new year's resolution short and simple: healthy body. What is this healthy body that I'm going for? Glad you ask!

With my frontal lobe has fully developed, I am now able to elaborate this healthy body. It is not only eating healthy food (well, whatever that is!) or running until I passed out. It is finding balance in life. I healed my inner self for the past 2 years, which took a lot of myself. Quarter life crisis did it all well. But for just an update, I think I feel a lot better now. Hopefully, it's for good. Life is a rollercoaster, I know. But I hope I can always find the peace, forgiveness, and love I need within myself.

In matter of health, it is my body turn! She has to heal herself from GERD, vertigo, and all kinds of painful painful things that happened.

My goal is (i) to find exercise that effective, enjoyable, and doable most of the time, and (ii) to find balance of eating.

So this year, I am exploring. I said to my body that I will take time to relearn about myself and my body. The last time I did those two was when I was 17-18. And those information are now invalid. I mean, who take only 1 apple and 1 gum per day then call themselves all fueled up for the day?? Also, I don't think I am fully capable of forcing this body to run 5k immediately, she needs to take small baby steps to do that. Hence, I am exploring everything. All food, all exercises (as long as it is not a high intensity).

I also take mindful walking now, which not requiring any earphones with songs blasting my ears. I listened to the universe. Most of the time it's honking sounds of the traffic. But sometimes, it is me screaming that I am tired, but at the same time believing that I am capable.

I will definitely do Pilates Reformer, I heard that it's good for the spine. And yes, I had some issues with my shoulders and spine as well. I am also down to try more fun exercise, like Poundfit. Girl, I cannot imagine the amount of adventures this year.

One of the resources for my growth, especially with food, is @barrewithmich on Instagram. She is a great barre teacher, I followed her class few times during the pandemic. And I followed her immediately because she said something about growth. In a nutshell, healthy living is not a journey, not a marathon - so there's no need to rush. Her posts intrigued me to take slow steps, finding my own balance, exploring my limits, especially when it comes to food.

I used to label food with good food, bad food, guilty pleasure, cheating food, et cetera. I did not do me good. I was stuck with diet issues. I was on unhealthy diet for years and thought that 700cal per day was a lot. I was either binge eating or not eating at all. Boy, was I wrong.

Due to all the mistakes that I did in the past, I am now willing to take the road of the unknown and explore the wild wild world of the meaning of living itself - finding my balance and understanding my limit.

This could also mean me living with a full-time job, taking master's degree with 7 courses this semester, being a mom to a pre-schooler (WHAT), and being a wife to an amazing husband (who also has a not only full-time, but life-time, job while taking master's degree, being a father to a pre-schoolder, and a caretaker to the parents).

((side note: To B, I am proud of who you are now. I cannot believe we are here. Would you take the road to find the meaning of healthy living itself?))

Well, 2023. What a year. I've been here since 2008, I think? CRAZY. And been doing this new year shit posting since 2016 or 2017? Cannot remember. But hey. Another year to live, blessed. Super grateful and thankful. Let's do it.

[sobercentre]

Fame carries along a thrill that most people would yarn for, a stroke of the ego that gives you that ‘on top of the world’ feeling. Yes, it does have its perks, such as adoration, attention, wealth, special treatment, doors to new opportunities, and confidence but all these come at a price (substance abuse). Most celebrities today would trade their spotlight for just a day as an average middle-class person, the mundane life. This is because once the spotlight is on, it never leaves; fame comes at the expense of your privacy due to public scrutiny. The constant pressure of perfection develops gradually and before you know it, you lose the simple pleasures of life like going for an uninterrupted stroll, shopping at the mall, quiet family dinners at a fancy restaurant or something as mundane as reading your favorite book at a park becomes a nightmare – well unless you own the park. More often than not, you are either ditching the paparazzi, denouncing a rumor on the tabloids, or even filing for a restraining order against a stalker. You also get to notice the fake friends that always tag along with you. Seen the pattern yet? This kind of lifestyle tends to take a toll on an individual and provoke them to seek a coping mechanism. A window that has led many high-profile individuals, especially in the art and entertainment industries, into substance abuse and addiction. This is evidenced by a Study published in 2016 on Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy which confirmed there have been about 300 substance abuse-related celebrity deaths recorded between 1970 and 2015. Of this number, 38.6% were musicians, 23.2% were actors, and the remaining shared between artists from other fields and writers. Moreover, numerous artists have come out and confessed their battle with addiction and alcoholism over the years. From Robert Downey Jr. alias Iron Man to Demi Lovato, Bradley Cooper, Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck, Keith Urban, and Amber Valletta, the list is endless. On that note, this article will look into Zac Efron drug addiction. Zac Efron’s confession about alcohol and cocaine addiction It was only a few years ago that Zachery David Alexander Efron, a mainstream television star publicly opened up about his battle with alcoholism and cocaine addiction. The now 35-year-old American actor had his television debut in the early 2000s in a show called Firefly which earned him a leading role in the High School Musicals as Troy Bolton; a position which rose him to fame and opportunities. Efron has featured in Hairspray which premiered in 2007, 17 Again (2009), New Year’s Eve (2011), The Lucky One (2012), and swiftly transitioned into leading adult roles such as in the Neighbors (2014), Dirty Grandpa (2016) and much more – including a Netflix documentary titled Down To Earth With Zac Efron which won him the Daytime Emmy Award. When did addiction begin? With such an accomplished acting career, Efron disclosed the pressure it put on his life – balancing between his 16-hour-a-day work schedule, media intrusion, and his personal life. It was all too much. “I had done films back-to-back-to-back. I was burned out. Something was lacking; some sort of hole that I couldn’t really fill up. I was just so deep into my work; it was really the only thing I had.” ~ Efron told a Hollywood reporter in an interview. He was constantly stressed out and sought comfort in alcohol and drugs. In addition, Efron was in fear of being in the public eye which made him give up some of his hobbies too. This way, he was left isolated and could hardly notice his growing cocaine addiction and alcoholism which led him to implicitly take some time out for treatment in 2013, after which he disclosed was in rehab. He further expounded, “I mean, you’re in your 20s, single, going through life in Hollywood, “ added Efron, “everything is thrown at you. I wouldn’t take anything back. I needed to learn everything I did.” He further narrated how he would Google his name to see what others’ perceptions of him were.

After his confession, Efron felt a weight lift off his chest because no matter how hard he tried to hide his addiction, the truth always catches up and he decided to face it head-on. How did Efron recover? Addiction recovery is a progressive journey that continues way after rehab. Zac Efron developed a structure of life through his recovery journey. As he puts it, “What I found is structure that led me to a balance of opposites. You get out of life what you put in.” He joined the Alcoholics Anonymous group which helped him through his new life of purpose and even embarked on surfing and skateboarding – his hobbies. Course of action Efron was not the first, and neither will he be the last of his kind to fall into the trap of drug abuse and addiction. However, all is not lost. From the many elite figures who’ve spoken up, their confessions can be used to sensitize the upcoming generation on matters of fame and drug addiction. If at all anything can be done to help new famous personalities get some skin in the game, it would be to raise awareness and adapt coping mechanisms to help deal with stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and emotions. Therapy can also go a long way to ease the transformation process. Self-monitoring would keep one alert to their social habits and note a potential problem slowly unfolding. Further expound on the stages of alcoholism to know when you, or a loved one, needs professional help. Whether a diagnosed addict or not, enroll in an AA meeting to meet like-minded individuals and personalities who have been down the road of addiction and recovery. It always helps to know you are not alone and others have succeeded in fighting this disease. Lastly, always practice self-care. At the end of a busy day, take some time off to eat a nutritious meal, relax, meditate and take care of yourself.

[electricialray]

LightningRay Electric Launches its New Website with Live Chat

Brookfield, Illinois, 2024: Leading electrician services provider, LightningRay Electric has announced the launch of its freshly revamped website, which now includes live chat services. To better serve customers and ensure that all their questions are promptly answered. People seeking the services of experienced and skilled electricians for their commercial and residential needs, as well as those seeking help with EV charging systems, can now visit the new website to learn all about LightningRay Electric services and set up an appointment for an electrician’s visit.

LightningRay Electric takes pride in ensuring 100% customer satisfaction for every project. The highly experienced and skilled electricians on the team are well-equipped to deal with all types of electrical issues, from installing or replacing electrical panels to setting up outdoor security lighting, installing home generators, and setting up EV charging systems. Some of the other services include:

• Outlet Installation • Exterior & Recessed Lighting • Under Cabinet Lighting • Electrical Baseboard Heater • Heated Flooring • Electrical Inspection to code

The full-service electrical contractor offers turnkey services so that customers can get all their electrical needs met under one roof. With over 17 years of experience, the company understands the importance of an effective, secure and reliable electrical system. The licensed master electricians have wide experience in installing and repairing electrical panels to ensure that the power requirements of the property are met. They will begin by assessing the existing electrical panel to understand whether a simple repair can fix the issue or complete replacement is required. The initial inspection also helps them evaluate the job before electrical panel relocation, sub-panel installation, and breaker or fuse replacement.

Apart from this, LightningRay Electric offers repair services for residential and commercial properties at the most affordable rates. Their services include circuit breaker repair, troubleshooting lighting problems, such as faulty bulbs, fixtures, or wiring, repair of smoke or carbon monoxide detectors, GFCI installation, outlet installation, and surge protector installation. The team also specializes in:

• Recessed Lighting • Landscape Lighting • Decorative, Accent Lighting • Exterior Lighting • Ceiling Fan Installation • Security Lighting

All these services are easily accessible on the new website, along with additional services, such as electrical maintenance plans. With such a plan, customers need never worry about whom to call when they have a problem with their electrical system. To learn more about the services, customers can use the live chat feature, which is available 24/7 on the website. Customers can also customize the chat with functionalities such as requesting an email transcript of the conversation.

With 5,000+ residential projects, 1,500+ commercial projects, and 1,000+ industrial projects under its belt, LightningRay Electric has emerged as the leading electrical services provider in Brookfield and its surrounding areas.

About LightningRay Electric Established in 2016, LightningRay Electric is a locally owned and operated business that ensures all projects are handled by experienced, friendly and helpful technicians. The company’s mission is to provide safe, affordable, and reliable electrical services that exceed customer expectations. LightningRay Electric takes great pride in its high-quality workmanship and exceptional customer service. The company has made a name for itself by providing prompt, professional services, with each job being handled by highly trained and experienced electricians.