#Protest art has been getting wilder every year i love it
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Hey! We're protestant so my family doesn't really celebrate Lent. I know you're supposed to like, give up something important to you, but the only things I can give up right now are technology things and then I'll have nothing else to do in quarantine. How do you celebrate Lent?
Hi there! I’m excited to see you’re interested in Lent! (Btw, some Protestant denominations do observe Lent, even while some don’t.) It’s a powerful season of the year in which we reflect on God’s ultimate solidarity with the most disenfranchised of humanity through the Person of God who is Jesus’s ministry, wilderness wandering, and crucifixion. In pondering Jesus’ solidarity, we are moved to gratitude and seeking deeper relationship with God, and also to solidarity with the oppressed ourselves. 
Many people do give up something as part of their Lenten observance. It’s supposed to be something you feel is somehow inhibiting your relationship with God (perhaps excess tv time or alcohol), or else something you give up to cultivate compassion for those in the world who are without that thing (such as engaging in healthy forms of fasting; this compassion should eventually lead to action). 
(Unfortunately, Lent is sometimes used almost as a “New Year’s Resolutions: Part 2″ instead of a religious observance -- a chance to start up a diet instead of a chance to nourish one’s spiritual life. But at its best, giving up things for Lent follows what I said in the previous paragraph.)
However, Lent is about far more than giving things up. In fact, this year, when so much has already been stripped away because of the pandemic, many Christian leaders are advising not using this Lent to further deprive yourself. In this time that is so full of trauma and worry and isolation, no one should “give up” anything that is helping them get through it!!  
So yeah friend, don’t give up the technology that helps you find a little joy in your day, and lets you connect to others in the midst of quarantine. Instead, you might add something on to your life -- 
an extra moment of meditation or prayer each day; 
or picking a spiritual book you’ll read a little bit of each day (or a podcast if you don’t like books; or an online devotional, etc.). 
Or you might commit to performing several intentional acts of kindness each week; 
or offering money (if you are financially able to) to good causes;
or educating yourself about how to be in solidarity with a marginalized group to which you don’t belong.
You might also commit to finally doing something that you need to do but have been putting off -- such as finally getting a therapist, or finally getting help for a problem you’ve been keeping secret, or finally setting boundaries or letting go of a harmful relationship -- actions that take so much courage, but will help set you free to pursue the abundance that God wills for you.
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I offer some suggestions for reading materials and other Lenten resources in this recent post. 
I especially recommend the article “The Unintended Consequences of Spiritual Discipline” by Emmy Kegler for commentary on the risks involved in viewing Lent solely as a time for self denial or “giving things up,” especially for particularly vulnerable groups. Please keep in mind that God does not call us into the kind of self-denial that manifests as self-hate or meaningless suffering -- God longs for abundant life for every one of us!! Take care of yourself <3 
I’ve read a few good books already in the past couple weeks that would also make good Lenten reading (reading a lot of books is my own commitment this Lent):
The Art of Dying Well by Katy Butler -- argues that to die well we must live well; and we don’t have to let go of any fear of death, but we do have to be willing to accept that death will come one day and let that knowledge motivate us to pursue purpose and community so that we will feel fulfilled at death. Since one important aspect of Lent is memento mori, but this past year we’ve been so inundated with death and grief that being told to fixate even more on our own mortality seems like a cruel joke, this is a particularly good book for this Lent -- because it helps us face the death we’re already surrounded with. It does share some pretty intense hospital death scenes, however, so if that’s not something you’re in a good place to be reading about, you might instead try.... .
Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler -- this book also faces the prospect of death head on, through the point of view of a woman with stage four cancer. Kate Bowler explores where God is (and is not) in the midst of suffering and death; even has a chapter specifically about Lent. And if you aren’t a big book person, Bowler’s podcast Everything Happens is even better than the book! She interviews all sorts of different people about God and suffering. .
Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor is a book that also explores in accessible and warm language what faith can look like in moments when God seems absent. .
The Black Christ by Kelly Brown Douglass (I recommend the 25th Anniversary Edition because I like its introduction but if you can get another version cheaper for free that’s great too) -- a wonderful introduction into Black theologians’ views on Christ as Black, as one who identifies wholly with those who are oppressed by racism but also by other forms of oppression; it’s a fairly quick and easy-to-understand read, so it’s perfect for non-academics who are interested in this topic but struggle with the heavier texts. .
Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh is what I’m working on now and I’m already in love.
Finally, I’m super pumped about this new disability-centered devotional with readings for every Sunday of Lent plus every day of Holy Week (the final week of Lent, leading up to Easter). 
Please let me know if you have more questions! I pray you encounter God in life-giving ways this Lenten season <3
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cinaed · 4 years ago
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Red vs Blue Season 2 Rewatch
Well I'd meant to do my season two rewatch Saturday but was sick most of the weekend. But now I'm feeling well enough to watch and enjoy! 
Aw, I forgot that the first scene of the season is Doc's introduction. 
Church being so done with Caboose and Tucker, and the combination of O'Malley and Caboose means that his threats involve giving Church a birthday present (sure it's Tucker's head, but you know). 
Just imagining Doc's expression as the Blues explain that Church is a ghost and now a ghost in a robot makes me laugh. Also another thing is that the Blues apparently have a Spanish-English dictionary, which somehow the Reds never bothered to get for years. Sorry, Lopez! 
I love that Church actually knows military lingo and it's Tucker and Caboose who are like "???" whenever he tries to be smart in earlier seasons. Also Tucker just being like "Nope, I like my blood on the inside."
God, I forgot that Church went "I can't pronounce Frank, we're calling you Doc." Like..Frank? At least protesting over DuFresne makes a little more sense! Church really does love to mess with people. Also Doc's speech about the differences between being a medic and a doctor remains iconic. "Well, a doctor cures people. A medic just makes them more comfortable.. while they die."
I also forgot that Church just straight shoots Caboose (and actually hit him!) so Doc will go over and help him. Stone cold. "I can't believe he shot me!" "Oh, don't even START Caboose!"
Also love that the Reds have staff meetings, which Grif presumably sleeps through. Though why they all even trusted Grif to carry ammo around, I just don't know. 
And the beginning of the iconic surrender exchanges. Cake, flags (wait no flags), Lopez. Doc turning into a fake hostage. "You don't get anything except humiliation and ridicule!" "We've already got that! What else do you have?"
I forgot that Doc immediately assesses the Red Team, realizes Grif is the least popular of the group, and immediately starts insulting him to curry favor. Speaking of stone cold, like dang, Doc. 
Another iconic scene is Church ragging on Tucker as he wiggles his switch. :D And of course Sarge's amazing code is "drive." He's definitely that guy whose password is Password1235. 
Fun parallels with Donut's "I'm so freaking lost" and Doc's "Help, this Jeep is kidnapping me!" 
Lopez is like a son to Sarge! Sarge loves him so much that he forgives him for turning against him and murdering him. Also Sarge thinking he can fight a machine gun. 
Tucker: "You hardly ever used your legs before anyway. I've never heard of a grown man asking for so many piggy-back rides." Church: "Hey, I already told you: that was for science." And thus canonical piggyback rides were established. 
Bold of Simmons to call someone else Poindexter. 
Everyone thinking Church is shy because he can't turn around. 
Grif using Doc's words against him, and thus a low-key dislike of each other was born. 
Poor Doc. Stuck wandering the wilderness aka the 60 feet or however much space there is between the bases. 
Simmons and Grif squabbling like an old married couple trying to tell the story about the Blues and Doc.
I am usually against love triangles, but the Lopez/Sheila and Sheila/Caboose is so good. 
Caboose having a good idea, except they didn't consider that Lopez would immediately escape.
Ah, the old days when Lopez actually believed in the Red Team. Also will always love "Primary objectives: 1. Fix everything. 2. Hate the orange one. 3. Call mom more often." Lopez calling Sarge father! And then his brutal disillusionment as the Reds almost kill him. 
Simmons loves that machine gun. 
Lopez/Sheila is such a good ship. Love their meet-cute. Of course then Tex steals his body. Also Sheila being into Lopez AND Tex. I'd forgotten about that. 
"Tucker, there's a very fine line between not listening and not caring. I like to think that I walk that line every day of my life." 
Love Tex just rolling with "Sure, I'm a ghost." And now we're finally into the O'Malley plot which is so much fun. 
Sarge's been wanting to get a cyborg on his team for this whole dang war. He's so happy when Simmons becomes a cyborg. Meanwhile Grif and Simmons are united in hating the idea. 
Tex telling embarrassing stories about Leonard's high school years. :D And the beginning of this very weird plan to rescue Caboose from O'Malley. And seeing the inside of people's heads. Or at least Caboose's head, which means a stupid Tucker and a Church who is even more foul-mouthed than Church himself plus he's Caboose's very best friend. Sarge the southern pirate. Donut the girl. Grif's yellow armor. 
Grif sounds almost impressed when he does the 1-2-3 count that he pulled on Simmons and realizes that Donut beat him at his own game. Unfortunately then he promptly gets run over by Sheila.
"Suck it, Blue!" 
I honestly love Lopez's love song to Sheila. He's such a romantic. 
Church is such a nerd. His insults are so bad. 
And the beginning of Doc and O'Malley's saga begins. Their juxtaposition is amazing. 
And the beginning of cyborg Simmons! I still love that even if Simmons instantly insults Grif, the fact remains that he went through surgery to save Grif's life. And he sounds genuinely worried when Grif starts coughing, right up until the point he figures out Grif is using his brand new replacement lungs to smoke. And Simmons trying to get Grif to eat healthy and stop smoking. Good luck with that, Simmons...
Simmons apparently likes to dance, if his fury over the assumed cancelled holiday party is any indication. That's a prompt for someone! 
Donut and Tucker are both the romantics of their team because Tucker thinks Sheila/Lopez is sweet, he just doesn't want to deal with love triangle bullshit.
Meanwhile Lopez and Sheila go on strike for machine rights and I for one support them wholeheartedly. 
Double O Donut! I love Donut and Grif's misadventures together. 
Tucker: "Sheila and Lopez are now considering leaving to form their own robot army. They said no one would dare oppose them." Church: "What?! Did you try to talk them out of it?" Tucker: "No way, I wouldn't dare oppose them!"
Poor Donut. He has no sense of direction. And poor Doc, stuck with O'Malley for company. 
Sarge talking about the entertainment value of being tortured. Sarge...what.... I'm not gonna kinkshame, but I'm definitely gonna think about kinkshaming Sarge. 
Donut and Caboose's truth or dare scene is so cute. They're such a fun dynamic. And I really wonder what Donut was gonna say about the Red Team plans until Church possesses him. And Church is immediately super chill in Donut's head, and wants to just relax and do some arts and crafts. And Donut considers Caboose his friend! And Caboose really likes Private Biscuit.
Church trying to bargain for two robots so he can have Tex back is sweet right in the middle of a ridiculous scene. And Donut being so excited for a sleepover with the Blues. 
I'm just saying, Sarge would make an excellent car salesman the way he's messing with the Blues over these robots. And Donut must be rubbing off on him, heh, because "I've been told my lube jobs are fantastic!" is definitely a Donut line.
Church using military lingo in one episode and then a handful later not understanding military time is such a Church thing.
Finally to the iconic Tucker line of Grif and Simmons. "It's just the same two guys bickering like an old married couple. I've only been listening for like five minutes and I can already tell they're really in love. Why can't they see it?" And Church doesn't even bother to argue.
Tucker discovering Red vs Blue is a lie is still amazing. As in the ironic discussion, which I will always love. 
Donut's sarcasm when he realizes they're leaving him and Sheila behind to guard each base. Man versus tank. Should go well for him.
And set up for season three, which has some of my favorite team ups-- Sarge and Caboose, Grif and Church. That'll also be a fun rewatch. 
Time for the bonus features aka Outtakes, PSAs, and deleted scenes!
Honestly most of the PSAs this season weren't great, but the Fourth of July fireworks safety one did make me laugh. And it does have Donut with his Kiss the Cook apron!
Outtakes were okay, with the running theme of Burnie trying to explain adlibbing to everyone else, haha. Also "Great Caesar's Dressing!" is as catchy as "Great Caesar's Ghost!" And the outtake of Sarge being Hamlet. And Tarzan. And the Grif and Simmons audition tape was fun. 
Deleted scenes! Doc and Vic having some weird chemistry. Calling Doc hot and saying he missed him. And Doc complaining that no one likes him and that someone stole his wallet. Of course then Vic immediately gets mean. The others include Sarge and Grif prepping Simmons for cyborg surgery before Grif gets hurt and they actually go through with it, which mostly includes getting Simmons super drunk.  Sounds about right for Blood Gulch!
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ranma-rewatch · 4 years ago
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Episode 19: Clash of the Delivery Girls! The Martial Arts Takeout Race
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It has been a heck of a week for me, how about all of you? But now it’s time to sit down and watch some Ranma 1/2, and this time we’re digging into season two, known here in the US as “Anything-Goes Martial Arts”. I actually do think I remember this episode, at least a little bit, though whether I liked it or not has been lost to my decaying neurons. Time to form a new opinion then, see you next paragraph!
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I’ll be honest, that turned out better than expected. But before I get into that kind of stuff, let me talk about what happens in the episode. Sadly, starting with Season 2, they’ve added a little recap thing to the beginning of every episode. It’s the same animation and voice acting every time, just meant to catch up the viewer on the premise of the show. I hated it when I was younger, and I hate it more now. I have a hard time articulating why, it just rubs me the wrong way.
From there, the actual episode begins with a flashback to when Ranma was a baby, and his father carried him on his back in a martial arts pilgrimage. That turned out to be a bad idea, because at one point Genma was starving in an inhospitable wilderness. He did run into someone with food, and that someone also had a daughter around Ranma’s age. This man only agreed to share food with Genma in exchange for taking Ranma, so he’d have an heir to his school of martial arts. With pretty much no hesitation, Genma agreed, but later stole Ranma back when the man wasn’t looking.
It cuts to the present from there, where Ranma and his father are fighting over some pickles. This is interrupted when the man from the opening, Mr. Daikoku, shows up in a fancy car with his now teenage daughter, who is in a ceremonial bride’s dress. He hasn’t forgotten about the promise Genma made, and is ready to take Ranma to marry his daughter Kaori.
But Soun Tendo isn’t about to just let that happen, since Ranma is supposed to marry Akane. During the conversation there is a lot of bickering between all of them, much of it from Akane and Ranma about them even really being engaged, but Kaori can tell that Akane actually likes Ranma more than she says, and so challenges her to a contest for Ranma’s hand. There’s a Martial Arts Takeout Race going on soon, and the winner of that gets one year’s worth of ramen.
Even more than making sure Ranma and Akane get married, the chance to get all that free food nudges Soun and Genma into accepting the deal. It quickly turns out that may have been a bad idea, since Kaori removes the robe to reveal she is a powerful martial artist, specifically a master of Martial Arts Delivery.
It’s a chaotic race from there, but the long and short of it is that Kaori pulls out a bunch of secret techniques to try and win, including one that numbs Akane’s leg and another that strangles her neck with noodles until she forfeits. At that point, Ranma is seriously considering jumping into the fray to help, even though he’d sworn not to use his curse to enter the race. A nudge from his dad forces Ranma into water though, and from there Ranma and Akane work together to help her win. The Daikoku’s accept the defeat, the family has a bunch of ramen, and all’s well that ends well...at least until another man shows up claiming that Ranma is supposed to marry his daughter. Wap wap.
So, there wasn’t a ton of plot to speak of, but on the whole I quite liked this episode. First of all, it had a wacky energy to it unlike anything in the first season. The Martial Arts Gymnastic competition was the only thing that came close, but this episode from beginning to end moved at a quick pace, with lots of jokes, smooth(er than usual) animation, and a whole new over-the-top martial arts school. Not everything about it worked for me, some of the jokes felt like duds, but then there’s the Ramen Round-Up Noodle Noose, Akane skateboarding, and the fact that Genma sold Ranma for a single meal.
I am kind of sad I literally just did a Character Spotlight on Genma last episode, I should have waited. This is perhaps the first time we’ve really gotten a chance to see just how awful a father Genma can be. I love everyone’s reactions to the news of the trade as well, and Genma doesn’t even really have a defense for it. The interplay between him, Soun, and Mr. Daikoku was also just enjoyable.
Kaori Daikoku herself is also something interesting. Anime-only or not, she’s the first rival for Akane who was also bequeathed to Ranma by his father in the past, though she won’t be the last. Once she was in the fight, Kaori actually worked pretty well, for a single-episode character. I actually like her character design, and as silly as all her food attacks are, she uses them with a kind of ferocious glee that gives her a unique aura, even if she’s still not a particularly deep character.
It’s me, so I also have to comment on how much I liked the Ranma/Akane stuff in this episode, whether it was Kaori noticing that Akane doth protest too much, that Akane was actually arguing for marrying Ranma at one point in the big kerfuffle, or the ending tête-à-tête between them (though the shipping fodder there was a dub only line). Something about the teamwork they used to win at the end was adorable too.
As for my negatives, the big one is that, well, in any scene with a big crowd (and there were a few), the random people looked really bad. Or rather, they didn’t match the art style for the rest of the characters in this show, they felt like they were from a different show entirely. Another small one is that there was no opening theme, and that sucks because I was looking forward to covering it, but I’ll have to wait for it to actually be used in an episode. Other than that, my only other minor issues were the aforementioned jokes that didn’t land for me.
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If it wasn’t obvious before, I am vibing with this episode. Not completely, but i was very unsure going in if I’d like it at all. It captured a kind of energy that I hadn’t realized I was missing, and was generally interesting enough that I’ll put it at #6 on my rankings, just above the second part of the Dr. Tofu mini-arc, and right behind the second episode, where Kuno was introduced.
Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’  
Episode 12: A Woman's Love is War! The Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!
Episode 15: Enter Shampoo, the Gung-Ho Girl! I Put My Life in Your Hands
Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!
Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around
Episode 19: Clash of the Delivery Girls! The Martial Arts Takeout Race
Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know
Episode 13: A Tear in a Girl-Delinquent's Eye? The End of the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!
Episode 17: I Love You, Ranma! Please Don’t Say Goodbye
Episode 16: Shampoo's Revenge! The Shiatsu Technique That Steals Heart and Soul
Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga
Episode 11: Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!
Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another
Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart
Episode 1: Here’s Ranma
Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love
Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'
Episode 14: Pelvic Fortune-Telling? Ranma is the No. One Bride in Japan
Episode 18: I Am a Man! Ranma's Going Back to China!?
Season 2 is here and there is so much more to see! We only had a break from her for two episodes, but next week is the start of a new arc that unveils the return of the amazon Shampoo, with “You Really Do Hate Cats!” What does that have to do with Shampoo? Well, you’ll just have to see next week, won’t you? Tschuss!
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circeart · 4 years ago
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2020’s Mind-Blowing Jupiter/Pluto Conjunction:  Shadow & Light By
Dana Gerhardt
Seven of the ten deadliest pandemics in human history erupted during Jupiter/Pluto transits—just like the conjunction that peaks this year in April, June, and November.
Jupiter and Pluto were conjunct during the outbreak of the Spanish Flu in 1918.  Bubonic plague–the Black Death–ravaged Europe, Asia and Africa from the J/P conjunction of 1347 to their opposition in 1353.   Jupiter was trine Pluto during one of humanity’s very first pandemics, the Plague of Justinian, which killed 25 million in 541.  In modern times, the Lord of death and shadows (Pluto) has joined forces with the God of growth and expansion (Jupiter) during our five most recent pandemics.
Yet Jupiter and Pluto are gift givers too.  Astrology teaches there are no shadows without light.  These conjunctions, occurring about every 12 years, have also coincided with humanity’s greatest leaps forward. Together, Sky God Jupiter and his brother the Underworld Lord keep expanding our universe, triggering scientific breakthroughs, awakening new paradigms, distributing mega-wealth, and inspiring sweeping shifts in political power.
Johannes Kepler was born during a Jupiter/Pluto conjunction in Pisces, when most of the globe still believed that planets circled the Earth in perfect round orbits.  At 24 (his Jupiter return), Kepler has a mind-blowing epiphany about the solar system’s true design; it’s published a year later, during the 1596 Jupiter/Pluto conjunction. Under a later conjunction, Kepler publishes the work for which he’s most famous—his planetary laws of motion—still used in calculations today. **
Hans Lipperhey applies for the first telescope patent in 1608, under a Jupiter/Pluto conjunction.  In the following months, Galileo, the father of observational astronomy, builds his first telescope, through which he observes four of Jupiter’s moons, the first space objects seen orbiting a planet other than Earth.  Three hundred sixty years later, after so many Jupiter/Pluto gifts, humanity takes its greatest leap yet, beyond Earth. Neil Armstrong leaves his footprints on the Moon within orb of the 1968-69 Jupiter/Uranus/Pluto conjunctions.
Spread the wealth
Pluto is a god of wealth—Jupiter rules good fortune. You might expect these archetypes to have blessed our billionaires.   And they have.  Warren Buffet, Rupert Murdoch, George Soros, Bill Gates—all born during a Jupiter/Pluto conjunction.  Charles Koch was born with a Jupiter/Pluto trine (as was an earlier financier & philanthropist, JP Morgan).  Koch’s brother David was born during their square (as was steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie nearly a century earlier).
But if you’re hoping Jupiter/Pluto might bring you a mega-lottery win this year, think again.  Jupiter is an optimist who loves to roll the dice, but when dancing with Pluto, he favors hard work that’s born of obsession.  That’s how scientific geniuses and billionaires are made—they think big (Jupiter) with formidable focus (Pluto).
What about the wealth of the common man?  I’ll argue that the last three J/P conjunctions have increased this beyond measure, even as the divide between the haves and have-nots has grown wider than it’s been (some say) in all of human history.  But first we have to expand our perception of wealth beyond the dollars in our bank accounts.  Jupiter is a god of perspective—he favors higher, longer, and broader views.
With that mindset consider how the gifts of the 1981, 1994 and 2007 J/P conjunctions have thoroughly reshaped our world, bestowing the average man with powers beyond that of any king or emperor in history.
In 1981 IBM releases the first personal computer. Computing power that used to require a floor of bulky machines is now small enough to become a home appliance. Soon after, the internet is in development—which will eventually put whole libraries at our fingertips.  Many of our greatest emperors spent massive piles of gold on developing their libraries. Today–for free–we can explore the works of mankind’s greatest thinkers.
During the 1994 J/P conjunction, the first PlayStations are released—opening the collective imagination to countless interactive new worlds. How do we calculate the ways these games have rewired possibilities inside the human brain?  That year, Bezos launches Amazon—so that today, we can sit in our homes, desiring a book or a toothbrush and like an emperor, clap our hands, and have it delivered in an hour or a day.  In 2007, the iPhone is released.  It quite literally drops the universe into our palms.  What king could have commanded views of the birth of a star?  Now any child can do this.
But let’s get back to money.  How might this year’s conjunction affect our wealth?  Covid-19-inspired quarantines have halted economies around the world—prompting talk in the United States of relief efforts that would serve as the greatest wealth distribution in human history, a gesture fitting for these two planets.  It’s reminiscent of the Pluto/Jupiter aspects of the early 30’s during the Great Depression—the New Deal was passed in the years between the J/P conjunction and the square.  Big bold action is often required when these two planets meet.   During the 1943 conjunction, FDR enlists the whole nation in a massive unified war effort.
It helps to remember that Jupiter is also a philosopher.  For many, the most honest measure of wealth is having the free time to enjoy their lives—a sudden gift of this year’s pandemic. Time is perhaps the one thing more valuable than money. A homeless man has greater wealth than the dead billionaire.  With life and astrology we always have a choice: we can focus on the shadow or the light.  We can obsess (Pluto) about our common poverty.  Or we can use this sudden abundance of hours to leap beyond our own limits.  We can use Jupiter’s massive exuberance to boost our Plutonian passions.
As when–during the J/P conjunction of 2007–NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft uses the boost of Jupiter’s gravity to slingshot itself toward Pluto! **
Political pendulums swing
People focus on Pluto’s destruction—but empowerment is his favorite game.  During J/P conjunctions, political power can swing dramatically. These are the years when we see regime changes, stunning political landslides, assassinations, and the birth of social movements.
Within orb of the 1931 Jupiter/Pluto conjunction, Mahatma Gandhi, himself born under a J/P conjunction, leads one of the most powerful nonviolent campaigns.  He marches 241 miles across western India to get salt from the ocean, in defiance of the British ban against Indians collecting it or selling it.   Spain becomes a republic; King Alfonso XII is deposed.  Under the next conjunction in 1943, during World War II, Mussolini resigns; Italy surrenders.  Assassination attempts on Hitler and the Philippines president fail.
Argentinian President Peron is ousted under the beams of the 1956 J/P conjunction, when Morocco gains independence from France & Spain, Churchill resigns, and Khrushchev shocks the Soviets by denouncing Stalin; the de-Stalinization of Russia begins. In the US, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat—and a young Martin Luther King helps lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
At the next J/P conjunction in 1968, under the weight of the Vietnam War, President Johnson stuns the country by declining to run for re-election.   Throughout the year, around the world, workers and students take to the streets in mass protests against social and economic inequalities.  In the US, the Civil Rights Act is passed.
Under this same conjunction, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King are assassinated.  At the next conjunction in 1981, Egyptian President Sadat is killed; attempts are made on newly elected President Reagan and Pope John Paul II.  That same year, Nelson Mandela (born during the J/P conj of 1918) inspires one of the world’s earliest hashtags, “Free Mandela.”  This cry starts gathering momentum around the world, and by the next Jupiter/Pluto conjunction, in 1994, Mandela, now freed, is elected the first black president of South Africa.
What happens is always surprising
I had hoped for wild regime changes this year.  Though honestly, I hadn’t given Jupiter/Pluto much thought.  Like many astrologers, I’ve been fixated on the Big Saturn/Pluto Restructuring and how it all ends this year—with the birth of a new collective cycle, signified by the Great Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in progressive Aquarius. I had hoped these omens were pointing to rising power for the people, a mass multi-cultural movement of women and millennials who would stare down the structures corrupt with greed and forge a new world, one that would benefit those at the bottom as much as those at the top!
Alas the future always glitters in a progressive’s eyes.   And now that I know more about J/P conjunctions, I also know they don’t guarantee success.  Just ask the air traffic controllers or the Polish Solidarity workers—whose 1980/81 rebellions were crushed by those in power.  Jupiter and Pluto point to this great woosh of universal energy, erupting in massive expansion, but as with any explosion, there is darkness and light, destruction and birth. How many people grabbed high mortgages during the J/P conjunction of 2007, just one year before home values crashed?   And if you want to know why toilet paper is flying off the shelves, blame Pluto (god of excrement)  fueled by Jupiterian excess.
In truth Jupiter and Pluto don’t cause what happens below.  They’re omens.  Astrology is an art of symbols.  Planetary motion tracks for us the otherwise invisible waves and patterns of universal energy.  The Covid-19 virus is having its best year ever.  As magnificent as our leap to the Moon, it has jumped into a new species and is conquering territories all over the world.  It’s breathtaking.  And their spaceship?  Pluto’s agents!  Bats and their guano.
But even wilder is what’s happening among humans now.  Just one month ago, around the globe, people were hopelessly divided, right vs left, globalists vs nationalists, as democratic values collided with dictatorships.  And now, with a snap of the cosmic fingers, we’re One World. We’re rallied and unified.  What the amazing Greta Thunberg couldn’t do for climate change, was accomplished by a virus.  The surge in national compassion that didn’t erupt when families were broken apart at the border, now erupts everywhere.  “We’re in this together.”   What Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders couldn’t achieve—inspiring the nation to strengthen its social safety nets, reign in corporate greed, and make health care available to all–this is suddenly being discussed in Congress, without a regime-changing election.
There was another moment like this,  of overwhelming unity.  It came during the J/P conjunction that took us to the Moon.  But it wasn’t seeing that footprint or the planted flag that made us gasp with wonder.  It was what we saw when we turned around—our very first view of that blue jewel, our whole Earth, floating in the dark vacuum of space.  That single startling sight rippled us forward into a new awareness of the fragility of our ecology.  It reawakened us to our interconnection with—and responsibility for—all life on this planet.  A year later we held the first Earth Day.  We were recycling.  We were talking about alternative energies.  We took measures to save disappearing species and habitats.  Maybe it didn’t go far or fast enough, but our future trajectory was changed.   The J/P conjunctions of 2020 are just beginning.  Who knows what else they will bring!
Were you born during a Jupiter/Pluto conjunction?
Bill Gates was lucky to be born in 1955, wrote Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. Gates was born just a few months before the J/P conjunction of 1956.   Gates was lucky, said Gladwell, that local parents got together in 1968 (the next conjunction) and purchased a computer for his school.  The opportunity to learn coding came to him at 13, during the year of his Jupiter return, when most of us find our life’s passion.  Gates was lucky that he was just the right age to roll the dice when tech began taking off.  He founded Microsoft during the 1975 Jupiter/Pluto opposition (which fell across his natal Moon/Mars opposition).
Jupiter and Pluto aren’t personal planets.  Jupiter indicates the luck that comes to us through society—this is what’s called a “social” planet. Pluto is an “outer” planet; it defines generations.  Both are zeitgeist planets—they describe the times.   So it wasn’t just Gates, Gladwell argues.  All those who made it big in high-tech were lucky to be born around this time, like Bill Joy, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs.  Gladwell puts the peak at 1955, but says it actually stretches from 1952 to 1958–which is from the J/P trine to the sextile.
Below is a table of recent J/P conjunctions.  If these aren’t your birth years, you may have been born during the years of other aspects.   Check your birth chart.  Are Jupiter and Pluto connected?
DateDegree April/June/November 202024/22 Capricorn December 200728 Sagittarius December 199428 Scorpio November 198124 Libra October 196823 Virgo February/June 195627/26 Leo August 19436 Leo May 193118/19 Cancer August 19185/6 Cancer
What happens for societies goes much slower than what happens for individuals. Jupiter/Pluto conjunctions are like a wave that peaks at the conjunction, but starts rolling the year before and continues the year after.  We wouldn’t use such orbs in a birth chart—but we should use them to understand the time.  And whether or not you have a Jupiter/Pluto aspect in your birth chart, this energy is in the zeitgeist now.  We can all have a taste of its magic, if we’re willing to use it.
More on how to do that in my next article, Making the Jupiter/Pluto Conjunction Work for You.
How is the conjunction affecting you?  First check the house (and/or planets) where 24 Capricorn falls in your chart. Are you getting transits this year?  Steven Forrest’s fabulous Skylog report will tell you (order here). Mary Shea’s brilliant Solar Return report adds extra insight (order here).  The SR is a divination chart calculated for your birthday.  The house where Jupiter and Pluto falls in the SR is telling.
** This and more is in Patrick Watson’s exhilarating article on Jupiter and Pluto–check it out!
Filed under: Chart Play Tutorials, Home New Moon Featured Article
About Dana Gerhardt
A popular columnist with The Mountain Astrologer since 1991, Dana Gerhardt is an internationally respected astrologer. She has lectured extensively and written for astrology publications on several continents. Her ongoing passions are the moon and living the intuitive life. Dana worked for many years in the corporate sector, where she observed the undeniable influence of natural cycles. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from Occidental College in Los Angeles and did graduate work in literature at Columbia University and CSULA.  Dana can be contacted by email.
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artlessictoan · 7 years ago
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Day 3 - Family
eyyy looks like we’re back to my fave theme that is the hardest one to write! why do I do these things to myself.. this one….. this one got kinda very dark at points. I uh………. yeah, tw suicidal thoughts, it’s only implied and he gets better but please avoid this chap if you need to
just a lil reminder that in these fics I’ve altered ages a little so the sibs are each a couple years apart instead of being born basically back-to-back, for poor karura’s sake. also autistic kank hcs abound!
(ao3 version)
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Day 3 - Family
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Age two and the world is far too big and scary for him.
Outside there is wind and sand constantly brushing his skin with their feather-light touch that turns his skin inside out, and his mother insists upon holding his hand loosely wherever they go, no matter how her grip rattles down to his bones; he much prefers inside, where it is cool and quiet and he’s allowed to play alone with his toys as much as he likes, even if Temari keeps trying to take them for herself.
Family is a word mother keeps repeating to him, broken up into small, slow sounds, eyes wide and hungry as she waits for something, he doesn’t know what, but he knows that the word is the long sigh when he flips his bowl onto the table, is a firm press of lips against his forehead every night before he falls asleep.
---
Age three and he realises how much he misses routine.
There doesn’t seem to be any explanation for why mother hasn’t taken him out for several days now, no reason for father’s sudden disappearance from family dinnertime, just the reassurances of his sister as she pulls him away from mother’s room, she’s tired, she needs to sleep, c’mon I’ll tell you the story with the owl again, you like that one, mother will get well soon, then we can all go out together, .
Family is worry and feeling the sharp pain of a missing presence at his side, wishing he could be big and strong like Temari, so he could help make mummy feel better.
---
Age six and he hates how everything is being kept from him.
Father has been spending less and less time with him and when he does, it’s only to instruct him on jutsu and frown when metal does not shiver at his touch; Temari is busy with her tutors, he can’t remember the last time they said hello without her apologising; uncle Yashamaru’s hair is wilder and his eyes darker every time he sees him, apparently his little brother is doing well, but he wouldn’t know, he hasn’t seen him since he was a baby.
Family is trying to piece together the broken fragments of an old life, work out what he did wrong and how he can make it right, it is asking father what he needs to do, is it picking up a weapon for the first time in his life.
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Age ten and he can no longer feel his fingertips.
Chakra burns as he forces it from his body, it whips and flails like a desperate animal as he stretches it out further and further, a distant voice barks at him to focus, silk-fine threads snap and the puppet crumbles to the ground in a heap of fabric and wood. He holds his aching hand with a white-knuckled grip, bites his lip until it bleeds, holds his eyes wide open until the urge to cry burns away under the scorching midday sun.
Family is the wrinkled old men and women of the puppetry core, with their sharp tongues and hard glares, the ancient, crumbling papers that are quickly becoming the only thing he truly understands.
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Age twelve and he is sick, sick, sick of it.
He’s not good enough, never has been, never will be. The Kazekage’s disappointment comes through in every curt, backhanded compliment that slips out of his slimy mouth and his tutors dismiss every win he takes, grinding away at his pride until he can’t bare to even look at himself in the mirror. When the first strokes of deep purple cross his features – paint laced with a mild poison, in Suna tradition – he claims it’s because he knows he is ready to call himself a true puppet master, whether the elders accept it or not, in private, he tells Temari that it’s because he’s seen the venom in the stares Gaara sends their father and has no desire to face an early grave, but when he’s alone, with nothing but a mirror to judge him, he knows it’s because he can’t bear that hate reflected back at him in his father’s eyes.
Family is never feeling safe, never feeling content with himself, because himself was worth less than the dirt on Gaara’s shoes. He spends a long time staring at the kunai, carefully sharpened to a dazzling gleam; Temari’s call from down the hall jolts him back to reality. Blade hidden back under his pillow, he welcomes his sister home with a smirk and a joke and tries to believe that the warmth in her tired eyes and weak smile prove his value to the world.
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Age fourteen and he doesn’t realise how much he loves Suna until he leaves.
The air here is too sticky, the people too loud and the colours too garish. He finds himself urgently fidgeting every time he sits down, fingers going through the motions that would see a hidden blade spring from Karasu’s arm, a pack of senbon scattered in a wide arc, lethal, invisible gas released in the middle of a crowded street, only when a hand lightly slaps against his and a warning is hissed in his ear does he stop and recognise the exact same restless agitation in his little brother’s face.
Family is seeing the life and joy of the people around him and wishing for the simple, familiar distrust of home, where he knew where he stood and didn’t feel the aching want when he saw a trio of siblings playing in the street, running away laughing when their mother called them home.
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Age fifteen and, for the first time in years, he can breathe.
New responsibilities and worries keep him busy, distracted from emotions that he refuses to look at, lest the old, comfortable claws of anger once again claim their rightful place at his throat, but suddenly he doesn’t have to rely solely on himself. Temari demands that he stop shouldering his burdens alone in an attempt to protect her, Baki-sensei shows up at their home unannounced bearing food, gentle, uncertain touches and sly warnings of political machinations. More than them though, Gaara is the one who finds him in his pit of heavy, guilt-laden quicksand and reaches out, not to pull him free, but to find comfort from one entombed in the same suffocating place.
Family is support and comfort, it is warm meals eaten together to the sound of laughter, it is long, dark talks stretching long into the night, it is desperately clinging to the one person you thought would never understand and dragging each other back to the surface.
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Age eighteen and he couldn’t stop the emotions escaping if he’d tried.
He still hated touch, hated how it made him feel trapped in his own skin and so uncomfortably close to another… but when they were finally home and free of prying eyes and constant attention, he pulled his siblings into the tightest, most painful hug he’d ever experienced. None of them let go, not even as they fell to the floor together – legs bent awkwardly beneath them – not when Gaara started mumbling every pain and fear he’d never let out, not as Temari finally broke down and howled, long and wretched and terrified, into his dusty, bloody coat, not when the hall became too dark to see, not even when Gaara had passed out from exhaustion and Temari fell into a light, fretful sleep; Kankuro refused to close his eyes or let go, keeping silent watch over them until the sun rose.
Family is horrible and wonderful and he will never, ever, lose a piece of it again, to do so would be to lose a part of himself.
---
Age twenty-nine and he has to wonder what the hell Gaara was thinking.
As much as he’d grown past his childhood hatred of those younger than him, there was a difference between tolerating children in specific situations, and suddenly having them infiltrate every part of your life. He wants to resent them for it, wants to pretend that he doesn’t get a kick out of Yodo’s games, doesn’t enjoy sharing his love of puppetry and art with Shinki, doesn’t feel a deep connection with the boy who loathed his own face.
Family is half-hearted protests and insincere complaints, poorly hidden laughter and smiles that warm him down to his soul. Araya lights up when he gives him a mask, cries when he assures him that there’s no shame in hiding, as long as it’s on your own terms.
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Age fifty-six and he’s looking forwards to an early retirement.
The news that the three Kazekage siblings would be stepping down from their political posts had rocked Suna to it’s foundations, though Gaara’s calm words and unshakable faith in the next generation had soothed most concerns; they hadn’t done all they could in shaping the new world, but they had done enough, now was the time to let those with new ideas for change and progression take the stage. Now was the time to experience all those things they’d missed out on growing up.
Family is finding the time for the small moments as well as the big, it’s sticking together through the bad, in the hopes that one day you’ll be able to enjoy the good and the mundane and the thousand states in-between.
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Age eighty-two and there simply isn’t enough time in the world.
He refuses to stop moving, no matter how his joints complain and eyes cloud; as long as he draws breath, he will live each day to its fullest.
Family is messy and confusing and he could never properly describe it, but if asked he would say it is the friends who stand by you, through thick and thin, the communities you build with like-minded people, the children you mentor, comfort, encourage and raise, the man who embraces you, sharp, broken edges and all, the siblings who push you to be better, to be your truest self, it is accepting someone as they were, good and bad and so terribly human, it is the comfort found in a gentle touch against the forehead.
Nothing in the world would ever be as precious.
---
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valentineheaven · 7 years ago
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Baby, It’s Cold Outside (Harry Styles x Reader) Part of “The Book Of Christmas” Series
Christmas is coming, so I decided to write a small series of imagines with each actor from «Dunkirk» movie. "The Book Of Christmas" series – it will be six imagines stories about how you can find love in Christmas eve and also how to preserve this love. I hope that you will like it. This is the first chapter of this Christmas series.
Summary: It seems that in Christmas eve can't happen anything wrong. Everything breathes joy and beauty. But not from her. All the bad things in her life happening on that day: her boyfriend brake up with her, then he's in his car crashes into her car. How can a long Christmas road home bring two strangers together?
Song: Dean Martin – Baby, It’s Cold Outside
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It would seem that on Christmas eve can’t happen anything wrong. After all around and breathes magic and comfort, overflowing with bright colors of lights and store signs. After all, everyone go around happy and calm, waiting for twelve hours. But not everyone today feels as it should.
Way beyond the city is actually empty and you understand why. All people have long been sitting at the Christmas tables, talking about plans for next year and sharing interesting life stories and delicious Christmas recipes. And children quietly sitting by a warm fireplace in their red Christmas sweaters, related his beloved grandmother. On their faces shines the purest smile, the one that only children has. Their little hands one by one open the gifts, throwing wrappers all over the living room. They are happy and they aren’t what gets in the car and go somewhere.
The road was deserted, and only your car was rushing for the mute night road. You want to get into the city, to your cozy apartment on the outskirts of London to quickly fall on the bed, wrap yourself in a blanket and forget that damn Tyler.
What could be worse than a breakup with a guy right on Christmas Eve? For you, nothing. You were hoping that this would be the best Christmas ever, because you will spend it together in a cute country house. But when all your wonderful plans fell through, you got in the car and drove back home.
You're going to have a half-hour, but now you don’t think about time. You just want to go home. You already forgotten that today is Christmas and only Christmas songs playing on the radio, occasionally reminded you about it.
Not to hear your tears and sobs to forget about what happened earlier today, you turned on full blast the radio and start to sing along with songs. At first it was something from Frank Sinatra about Christmas, then you changed the radio station and got to melodious howls of Selena Gomez about love, but you now don’t care for the damn love. Switch the wave again and get on the super energetic song that immediately made you forget everything.
"It's getting me crazy, I think I'm
Losing it, I think I'm losing it
I think she said "I'm having your
Baby, it's none of your business
I think she said "I'm having your
Baby, it's none of your business"
(Kiwi by Harry Styles)
You moved behind the wheel in time to the song, it just makes you move and sing along. This song could dispel you and your thoughts. As if it was something from the 90s that played in discos in schools and clubs. The voice of the singer was nice and beautiful, and you wanted to hear him perform live and rock out at his concert.
"I think she said "I'm having your
Baby, it's none of your business
I think she said "I'm having your
Baby, it's none of your, it's none of your"
(Kiwi by Harry Styles)
On the screen of your phone displayed "Incoming call - Tyler". You reached to remove the phone from the stand and answer, but your movements were so vigorous that the phone just slipped out of your hands and fell to the floor. As the road was deserted, you turned the volume down and stopped. Right in the middle of the road. You've almost got your phone, but...
Blow. The car rolled a little forward. You quickly jumped, hitting your head on the steering wheel. You were too confident when think that you're alone on the road.
Jumping out of the car, you saw that on your bumper flaunts a decent dent. Near with your car there is a guy examining the front of your car. He was tall and very cute. The cool evening wind played with his tousled hair. He was dressed in all black - black skinny jeans and a black leather jacket, which sported a burgundy shirt, unbuttoned several buttons. He looked like a real biker or a bad boy.
He crouched a little to see the dent in the bumper. He gently ran his hand along the bumper and thoughtfully looked at you, then at his car.
“Did you not see where you're going?!" - you walked up to him, he was still sitting on his haunches, raised his blue eyes on you. "Though sometimes you can wipe your glass?!" - continued you.
The guy stood up, adjusted his jacket, looked at you. "It's your fault" - softly with a smirk he said.
«What?» - you protested and started to pace back and forth. «I didn’t crashed into my car, I didn't leave the dent there, on the restoration which I have not enough money!» - you looked at him, and at the forest surrounding you on the one hand, and into the glade, surrounding you with the other hand.
«You know, at least I didn't stop in the middle of the road to tint my lips!» - he said loudly.
«I'm not tinting my lips! I tried to raise my phone, you idiot!»
«Please don’t call me, young lady» - he grinned.
«Fuck you, asshole» - you turned away from him.
You're not in the mood to respond to his jocks. The guy was still standing around your car, probably not knowing what to expect. You stood with your back to him, removing the hands in the pocket of your bomber jacket, and in your mind, was just thinking about how to get rid of this unknown and in a hurry to go home. From the minute you were silent.
"So we gonna stand in the middle of the road?" – he asked, but you stood silently with your back to him. "We are lucky that there are no cars, but it would already have created a traffic jam" – he smiled and you knew it.
You got into the car to pick up the phone and call someone. Yes, someone. Getting out of the car, you paid attention to the amount of gasoline in the tank; the arrow showed that you can hardly drive to the nearest gas station.
«Damn» - you said, slamming the door and holding your head.
«Wow, what else happened?» – a guy came up to you.
“Gasoline a little, can’t even get to the gas station» – not looking at him, you said.
«How about I take you to the city and the car will send a tow truck?»
«Yeah, so I have and  sat in the car. No...» – you moved away from him, and he grinned. «I'd rather wait for a tow truck and leave with my car»
«Whatever you say, stranger. But I'll also stay here» – he leaned on the hood of his car. «Let them come and record the scene of the accident and damage caused, write checks» – smiling, he continued.
«If they will write a check, then only for you» – you said and went to call a tow truck.
Has passed an hour, but the tow truck had not arrived and was not. The night also enveloped the deserted road, which at this hour drove all three cars. Today’s Christmas night was especially wonderful. On the blue canvas of the festive scattered shining stars, like a thousand fireworks lit up the silent heavens. Today was new moon, so the moon looked like on the big canvas of the night sky made a small incision through which oozed a silvery light.
You looked at the whole night canvas, as a spellbound. You have studied every piece of it, as the creators of art studying painting in the gallery. Though everything was great, the wind was getting colder and colder. You're already wrapped in your bomber, but the warmer you become.
The guy was still sitting on the hood of his car, often looking at you. His amused that you were so passionate about this starry sky. He often checked his phone, reading messages from friends and family with Christmas greetings.
All around it was quiet and peaceful. All this was interrupted only be the sounds of songs from the radio, coming from his car. Now all this cold silence was melting from soft notes of Silence Night, Holly Night by Frank Sinatra.
«It may be enough fooling around» – he said, striking his hand on the hood. «You’re shivering from the cold. Of course, I understand that you like the starry sky, and that dead silence, but one can fall ill» – he grinned.
«What do you suggest? I can't call and hurry the damn tow truck» – you walked up to him.
«Baby, it's cold outside. Drive your car on the roadside, a tow truck will pick it up tomorrow. And get into my car, I'll drive you to town, you'll miss all the Christmas in this wilderness» – he said with a smile and got in the car.
You drive on a dimly lit road, on the right side flicker then the little houses hung with garlands and figurines, then deserted forests, shrouded in the blanket of night. Sitting next to him, you feel a pleasant smell of his perfume that envelops everything in the car. Men's perfume always smells good.
«There must be a reason why you're so sad» – he quickly smiled and looked at you.
«Everyone today sitting at home or in restaurants and happy celebrate Christmas with those they love. But I wasn't so lucky. Tyler, my boyfriend, had planned to celebrate this Christmas together in a country house of his parents, but when I arrived, he found a better company» – with your head down, you said.
«Who is she?»
«Some friend» – you smiled at him. «What are you doing on a day like this on the road? You hasten to someone?»
«I'm never hastening. I was driving from a friend who needed to pick up some document» – he said, rarely taking his eyes from the road and looking at you.
«Oh, you're the business guy» – you both laughed.
«What's your name, beautiful?» – with a gentle smile he asked.
«My name is Y/N. And you?»
«Harry» – not looking up from the road, he said.
Radio continued to delight you with the different range of songs: from the quiet confessions of love by Taylor Swift to the voice of Louis Armstrong. You communicated with each other, shared interesting stories and interests; sometimes he quietly sang his favorite songs that made you smile. On the radio sounded this legendary voice.
"I really can't stay
But baby, it's cold outside
I've got to go away
But baby, it's cold outside»
(Baby, It’s Cold Outside by Dean Martin)
«One of the best Christmas songs» – adding volume, said Harry. «Every Christmas I hear it on the radio and it's like tradition»
«I'm not a big fan of Christmas music»
«Maybe you still don't like Christmas?" – with feigned surprise he said. «How can you not love such songs? You're nuts» – he laughed.
«I'm not nuts. Just don't like these songs. There are a couple good but most of them are the same».
«How could he leave you, Y/N?» – he ask, looking at you. «How this moron could leave you?» – he, not looking up from the road, pointed to you.
«Apparently he found someone better than me. Someone who can better prepares him a cup of coffee; someone who is always ready to respond promptly to his messages; someone who will listen Frank Sinatra with him all week before Christmas» – smiling, you said.
«You're obviously better than the one you described. So he broke up with you. He's just not worthy of you» – he looked at you with such tenderness in his eyes that you sheepishly turned back to the window.
«I don't know...» – you whispered.
The magical voice of Dean Martin and his song came to the end when a warm Christmas melody was replaced by explosive drums. Did you know this song.
"She worked her way through
A cheap pack of cigarettes"
(Kiwi by Harry Styles)
Harry reached for the radio to switch it, but you took his hand, not allowing him to do this.
«Hey, don't touch, this is a good song» – you looked at him, and he smiled pleasantly.
«You're really like this song?» – he asked carefully.
«Yes, this one is nice and energetic, all better than your Dean Martin» – smile fell from your lips.
«I'm glad you liked this kind of music» – with a grin said Harry.
Harry’s song continued to post strong sounds in the car when you are surprised and a kind of contempt in the expression of your face turned to him. Harry looked at you first with incomprehension, and then realized what it was. You recognized the voice. His voice.
«You're a singer» – rolling your eyes, you said. «And I like your song»
«Yeah, babe, exactly. And I’m very glad that you liked it before you knew that I sing it" – he pierced you with his blue eyes and smirk.
«Initially I thought that this song from some school disco in the 1990s» – you laughed.
«Wow, thanks for such an unusual comparison»
Just to drive two hours, till Christmas remained about an hour and a half, so Harry has sped up a bit to quickly get you in the Christmas coziness of your apartment.
The car raced on the snowy road under changing radio tunes. Harry turned on a CD with his favorite Christmas songs, in the hope to inculcate you a love for this music.
«I'll give it to you. This CD» – he said with a smile, stretching you still an empty box from under the CD. "This is my Christmas present to you. I’m confident that you will love these songs»
You drove to London, which began to blow holiday, even long before you arrived. All the way Harry looked at you when you looked out of the window or on the dashboard. He was afraid to meet your eyes, which struck him with its softness even then, on the road. He was unspeakably glad that at Christmas he is not alone. Harry even took your encounter for a sign, explained him that in the coming year, he won’t stay one.
You liked him. Yes, at first he seems rude and arrogant, but, knowing him better, you realized that in the inside he is kind and calm. In his arms want to wrap yourself like in soft blanket, and forget about everything. That's where is confirmed by the phrase "don't judge a person by his outer shell".
«Outside he's all cool and arrogant,» – thought you, looking at him in your compact mirror. «But inside he has unicorns and in his heart blooming violets» - from these thoughts, you even smiled, what attracted his attention.
After breaking up with Tyler, this guy was like a breath of fresh air, which helped to forget you about everything and remember about Christmas.
«We came, beauty» – genuinely smiling, he said.
Harry turned to you, the last time to give you his radiant smile with the cute dimples you have ever seen.
«How a man with such a cute smile can be the bad guy?» – you asked yourself.
You didn't want to leave him, wanted to go back to that silent road to get back in his car and go to town.
You already came to the entrance of your house, as something suddenly stopped you. You stood rooted to the spot, holding the handle of the door, still hearing the growl of the motor of his car behind you. He was still here.
Was it a feeling of sympathy or loneliness, is not clear. But you quickly returned to his car.
«We both know that a Christmas spent alone is boring» – you said with a smile.
He immediately realized where this is going. So, with a kiss a smile, Harry turned the engine off and got out of the car to meet you. But your meeting and the truth was a sign to both of you.
At Christmas there is always a place of magic and miracle. Here it is. Here it happened.
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norsesuggestions · 7 years ago
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as a non-Swede, why do people from Stockholm seem to hate change so much?
oh this is a wonderful question, that is right up my alley as a gender studies student.
well there are several relevants point of why, i will try to discuss some of them.
Stockholms position as capital city
First off all, Stockholm is the seat of power in sweden. this is very important to understand why Stockholmers have these absurd obsession with the looks of the city. Sweden is a very centralized country, and for several hundreds of years this power was centralized to Stockholm City itself. Stockholm were one of the few cities that had the most basic things that one might casually connect to a standard european city in Sweden. Historically the majority of sweden were countryside, of small tiny villages. (Sweden also had other cities historical cites, like Gothenburg in west sweden and Åbo in modern day Finland. but Stockholm were the king were etc were).
Stockholm and the construction of swedish nationalism
Anyway Stockholm became a building block in the construction of the swedish national idenity, mostly because so many of the powerful lived there. it is like, shooking really when one reads how the nobility in Stockholm considered rest of Sweden during the 18th century. these people had never stepped a foot outside of Stockholm! they considered everything beyond the Uppsala fields (which is the crop fields which mainly fed stockholmers, and is next to the city) to be wilderness! (roughly anyway some of them were countryside nobility but i digress).
but ANYWAY this meant that this what were the elite of sweden had to base their sweden image on:
Stockholm
a field right outside stockholm
a island right outside stockholm
a forest right outside Stockholm
During the late 19th century nationalism became extremly big in Sweden. like it was….. extreme. and one of these things, when they wanted to build up this national image of sweden, were a non-stop production of art of Stockholm city and book about Stockholm City. Every little house were described, every statue celebrating to an absurd degree, everything romantised OR criticed.
the point is! the swedish discourse tied the national image of sweden, to every building, every tree, every park etc in Stockholm City. Every street of Stockholm became loaded with symbolism of the swedish nation.
(then the cultural elite discovered the existence of the countryside and walked like outside the city and their were a movement of describing the countryside but i digress.)
the exploation of norrland
the absurdity of this is, that while the elite of stockholm dreamt, celebrated and adored stockholm, they did not give a shit about the swedish countryside. which remain true to today. forexample almost every single river of north sweden have been turned to power plants, drowning the farm lands and the lands of the sami people under gigantic lakes. the mountains of norrland were exploded for iron, and still are. they also did literally chop down the ENTIRE forest of north Sweden in the 18th century, and all we can see today is regrown forest.
right now, while i speak, they moving the entire city of Kiruna, in norrland, because the iron mine underneath is has been digging to deep, and the entire city risks collapsing into the mine. and these things are normal in norrland!
but stockholm, should remain in this pristine perfect condition. never touched, despite getting the rescourses of it growth from the very same exploation of norrland. (which is 59% of swedens surface).
so well, during the turn of the last century every little part of stockholm were worshipped (in litterature and art etc, written by the elite)
the ghost of socialism arrive!
AND THEN!!!!!! A GHOST, THE GHOST OF SOCIALISM ARRIVED!!!
well, you see, while this 19th century elite loved every building of Stockholm, and wrote romantic tales of walking around in the poor neighberhood, the people living in it HATED IT.
the working class movement of sweden, did not want to live in these houses anymore. the entire inner city of Stockholm were in diseapper and had been for hundreds of years. they build this new neighberhood, Östermalm, for the upperclass, and then they just left the rest of the city for decay.
Södermalm were a muddy neighberhood consisting of self-built wood structrues, were all the houses were made of scraps. in these neigherhood they were no such thing as sewage, dealing with trash etc. the people of Södermalm lived stuffed into small wooden structures, which felt like they could blow over any moment. and walking the streets were a struggle, because one were always slipping in the mud floods running down the many slopes of Södermalm.
Gamla Stan, which is the old parts of Stockholm, had been left for several hundreds of years ago by the elite. in the buildings now lived people, in houses that had not been updated from the 15th century.
Vasastan, were a new built neigherberhood, that one they called Siberia. well the reason they called it Siberia were this: the entire thing is a fake-built to look posh, but all the buildings SUCKS. they are not made of what they look like. they are fake, and to pay off the debts from building them, the land lords rented out the houses to the poor, and always overcroweded these cold and horrible building. also, the streets is badly build in the neigherhood and creates this cold wind. (also the swedish working class can be a bit over dramatic sometimes too lol).
etc etc etc
this “glorious” capital city, were nothing but a death trap, were cholera, tbc were rampant.
time demolish all of Stockholm and Salt the earth
so anyway, when the social democratic party came unto power, they started to demolish all of sweden and rebuild it again (which totally is the logical step or something……). never more did they, the working class members of the social democratic party, want to live under the horrible living condition they grow up in! they wanted it gone! all of it, just demolish salt the earth and rebuild sweden! (this is not only stockholm but all of sweden).
BUT
then there were two world wars in europe, and big parts of the european cities were turned to rubble. sweden, untouched by war, were suddenly demolishing something that had become a rare treasure in europe, original undestroyed building from before the 19th century.
and people were like (now it is the 1960s) oh no, NOT these lovely 18th century buildings, were the people who live in hate, because they are literally freezing too death in them, but like
the LOOK, we most PRESERVE the LOOK of OLD SWEDEN!!!
but anyway, the social democratic party were happily keeping up their project of demoshiling all swedish cities and then rebuilding them.
but somewhere around the 1960-1970s people had had enough. now they wanted this old buildings. ALSO the swedish state were building an absurd amount of new building, so old houses were suddenly rare.
people starting to have massive demonstartions in stockholm (and other places in sweden) about the demolishment of all swedish cities. people were looking in horror at like all the smashed 17th-18th century art from these demolished building.
the plan was too literally demolish the entire stockholm city (except the posh östermalm i think) and rebuild it with modern housing. but the protests made this stop when after they demolished the inner city of stockholm (which is today the mentioned sergels torg). this development were also true for other swedish city, although most of them, hardly managed to save a single house from this STRONG PASSION for demolishing it all.
a inner city of only posh people
oh well well.
now we have today. the poor population of stockholm (and also like just the people who are not super rich), were all moved to the suburbs of stockholm during these projects. and suddenly! they renovated all those old building in stockholm city! and sold them for millions to rich people!
and now, in the inner city of stockholm buying a flat in the previous imporvished södermalm costs like…. 10 million kronor. if it is cheap. the prices of östermalm is often not even listed. the same with gamla stan. because it is so very high.
So anyway from my living in the suburbs as most normal income people of stockholm perspective, the modern obsession with the looks in stockholm is also about something else than this history and this is
money and inflated house prizing
you see…. if you never allow a single change in the inner city of stockholm, you can remain sure of selling your 1 room flat for 10 million kr later.
if every single park most be preserved in stockholm city, well then they can never build more houses, leaving room for people who are like… middle class. oh the horror! middle class, living INSIDE the city of Stockholm, and not in a suburb!
or what if….. there will be…. poor people? inside the city again???? WHAT THEN. screams the upper class owner of a small 10 million kr flat in stockholm city.
being that all of sweden, stockholm included, currently have a housing shortage, i am beyond done with this stockholm attitude to building new things here. the waiting list for renting a flat in stockholm is 30+ years, and the cheapest flats in stockholm, which are in a suburb, cost 1 million kr, and all you get then is a small 1 room flat. most young people in stockholm spend their 20s moving inbetween different short third hand contracts, that only last about 6 months per contracts.
and honestly by now i am so done with this conservative preservation of the beauty of stockholm. chop down that park! give us somewhere to live! lower the prizes of inner cities flats!
tldr. stockholmers hate change because the social democratic once upon a time tried to demolish and rebuild all of stockholm, and it got a bit out of hand. also, they want to keep the prize of their flats up, if they live in the inner city.
ps. this answer is a bit ramble, i am tired but also passionate about the history of stockholm, but i hope i got my message across somewhat haha.
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ganseycnfire · 7 years ago
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a girl was found murdered in my country after almost a week of being missing. 
her name was anahí. she was sixteen, loved art & died just two days before her naked, suffocated body was found half buried in the wilderness. that means that, for five days, she was alive and away from her family and friends. we still don’t know who killed her, or why, but suspicions are set on an old teacher of hers who she was allegedly obsessed with. 
that is the one thing media keeps talking about. her obsession with him. as if it justifies a sixteen-year-old being dead, everything stripped away from her. as if it justifies her family having to recognize her corpse in a morgue, her friends having to mourn her at such a young age. the whole country is mobilizing and has been since she was first reported missing. we are all angry, and mourning. 
for some reason, the picture of a smiling anahí with flowers in her hair brings tears to my eyes, even though she lived hundreds of miles away from me and i never had any knowledge of her existence before she died.
yet, the media only talks about her obsession with this man. the media is blaming a child for her own death, and it's not the first time it happens. a woman dies every eighteen hours in argentina, and we are constantly bombarded with headlines blaming them for it. their reasons are going to parties, listening to indio solari's music, cheating on their ex-boyfriends, wearing tight clothes. being obsessed with their teachers. we don't speak about the men who took everything away from these women, we don't blame them for their own actions. instead, the victims are painted as guilty. guilty of being human, and young, and carefree, and living their lives.
anahí went to the protests whenever a new girl was found murdered. now, we march for her. her and every other woman who suffered the same fate. to try and avoid more girls being found dead at the hands of men. yet, with every new name we protest for, it feels more and more like we're getting nowhere.
i'm tired of fearing death in every street corner. i'm tired of fearing being found lifeless in a ditch, miles away from home. i'm tired of fearing to see my name, or my friend's names, in the news. i'm tired of them killing us and no one doing something to stop them.
ni una menos. for anahí. and araceli. and micaela. for lola, ángeles, agustina, belén, lucía, sofía, daniela, candela, cristina, silvia. for every argentine woman who was killed for being a woman. i hope they rest in peace. i hope their murderers rot in jail. 
i hope we stop dying.
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markwatkinsconsumerguide · 6 years ago
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Consumer Guide / No.85 / singer-songwriter Natasha England with Mark Watkins. 
MW : What were you like at school sports and things of that nature?
NE : I was the captain of netball and captain of the swimming team. I was in the “Speed Club” for swimming & diving - winning many gold medals for my school. I swam competitively for my region in South Lanarkshire. 
I was captain of the relay team - winning sports prizes several times in primary and grammar school incorporating sprints of 100 metres, 300 metres, High Jump, Long Jump and Hurdles. 
At one time, I thought I might be a gym instructor. I was a member of a gymnast team called The Flying Angels. I was a member of an athletics club and played a lot of badminton. I’ve roller-skated, ice-skated, canoed, played some tennis and rode bicycles.
From an early age, I’ve “worked my passage” and ridden horses competitively at Show jumping and Cross-country events - winning many rosettes.
At one stage, I had thought of being a riding instructor. I could have done this had I not got even more involved in music. 
I was lucky enough to spend much quality time with my father walking and fly-fishing on the River Spey and other salmon and trout rivers, and lochs, and estuaries. My father was a very good Fly-Fisherman so I was brought up on a diet of wild salmon and trout. 
As you can see I excelled at sports, and have a great love of nature and the outdoors.
MW : Do you enjoy football?
NE : Yes, I love football! I played a lot of football in my youth. However, I was not allowed in the school teams as I was a girl (boys only then!) so I played football with the boys outside school.
MW : You were born in Glasgow, Scotland. Celtic or Rangers?!
NE : I have been to both Rangers and Celtic matches, mainly over my time growing up in Scotland and to a few over the years since. I don't buy into the catholic/protestant divide. I have friends who support both teams, and fans who support Arsenal, Chelsea - and Spurs!
MW : Tell me how you won your “Spurs”...and how football lead to music...
NE : When I came to London the guy (Bob England) whom I went on to marry was a Tottenham Hotspur fan.
I was a season ticket holder at Tottenham for many years and throughout the FA Cup campaign that led to an eventual win in a replay over Manchester City at Wembley in 1981 (1-1 draw, then 3-2 win).
I’ve worn a Spurs strip to help promote Tottenham Hotspur’s official records, 'Ossie's Dream' (1981) and 'Tottenham Tottenham' (1982) - both produced by Chas and Dave (who I managed) and released on Towerbell Records (our record label).
I joined players Glenn Hoddle and Garth Crooks on Top Of The Pops with the football squad performing 'Tottenham Tottenham' just a few weeks prior to the release of 'Iko Iko' (1982) and my own appearance on the show.
If you have an original, vinyl copy of 'Ossie's Dream' look closely, and you should see written on the inside ring of the record 'The year of the Cockerel 1981’. I scratched this message on the original acetate which was the template for all the records pressed.
In the 1980's, I had a music biz five-a-side called “Leggy Five” and we played in many music biz charity games.
MW : What would improve the UK's chances of winning Eurovision (again) after so many years in the wilderness?
NE : I’m not sure that the UK will ever have the chance to win this competition again as the judging over these last years has proved beyond any doubt to be politically driven and this will get no better when we leave Europe.
This is now an extravagant spectacle of bad taste, pantomime dames and dodgy outfits and songs - nevertheless compulsive viewing! 
Sir Terry Wogan (RIP) - as the UK's commentator made the show, and now Graham Norton does an equally fabulous job of taking the mickey out its whacky songs and artists. 
In the present political environment there is no point in the UK competing. Very few of the winners go on to have any longevity in the music business with obvious exceptions, Abba - being the most successful since ‘Waterloo’ in 1974, Sandie Shaw (1967 winner), Lulu (1969 winner), Brotherhood of Man (1976 winner), Johnny Logan (1980 & 1987 winner), Bucks Fizz (1981 winner) and Katrina and The Waves in 1997. 
So, I think it would be best for the UK not to put another artist through this humiliation. We would have to have 'The Song' and 'The Artist' that would blow everyone away and leave no doubt in people's minds that it was the deserving winner. Even then, you would have to deal with the politics, so I don't think it is worth it, I’m afraid.
MW : Which newspapers do you read?
NE : I don't buy newspapers anymore. I get most of my news online.
I try and stay as informed as I can on all topics including politics. It’s a minefield out there, but you have to know what your up against. 
If only news agencies and politicians would tell the truth instead of pushing their own agendas to twist and distort the truth to deceive, influence or sensationalize.
MW : What was the first record you bought?
NE : My older sister, Evelyne, started her record collection before me, so I continued the record-buying trend, but instead of being into just pop, I loved folk, blues, rock, jazz, soul, Tamla Motown and Stax.
I purchased the 'Gutbucket’ blues album - which remains a favourite of mine. It has a selection of songs from all the best folk & blues players of the time - all household names now.
I bought a lot of Motown and Sam & Dave, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, along with Pink Floyd, Free, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac (original) and many others. 
Everything that I enjoyed back then are now in The Hall Of Fame.
https://www.rockhall.com
Free were my favourite rock band and Peter Green was my favourite blues guitarist/singer of the time.
MW : Which books do you enjoy?
NE : Any Buddha-based book. I love everything about Buddhists and their ideology. 
Every book about animals, horses, marine life, insects, birds, fish and nature that I can get my hands on. 
‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell. Life imitating art of art imitating life? Power and order.‘1984’, again by Orwell - we’re living it.
‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley - what foresight.
‘The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe’ by C.S Lewis. I loved this book so much that I called my first band in London, 'Aslan'.
‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, ‘The Tale Of Two Cities’, ’The Hobbit’, ‘Lord Of The Rings’, ‘The Canterbury Tales’....and so many more books. 
MW : Share your thoughts on keeping animals in zoos...
NE : Some smaller animals, insects, reptiles, birds etc can live quite happily in a well maintained enhancing environment but larger animals need space to roam. If we have to contain animals for education and breeding programmes we need to give these larger animals more space and a suitable enhancing environment. 
I’m more in favour of Wildlife Parks, where the animals have much more land to roam. Zoos are important for breeding programmes to help keep our endangered species alive but we should be building all zoos along the lines of Safari Parks.
MW : Why are animal rights close to your heart?
NE : I adore all animals and I’ve a very strong affiliation with them. I’ve lived and worked around various animals all my life. I assisted a vet when I was younger. I’ve rescued and mended many animals, birds and wildlife throughout from  childhood to adulthood, so another profession I may have taken up had I not chosen music as a career. 
I have kept all sorts of animals and I train dogs and horses. Animals have served us all well throughout history, in wars, in agriculture, down mines, for transport and in life. We owe so much to animals, so anyone who is cruel to a defenseless animal is sick and will go on to be cruel to humans.
I would dearly love to have an animal sanctuary to help and rescue animals and to rehome them and to educate children on animal welfare and training and most importantly the love, companionship and loyalty that these animals can give to their human friends and the great benefits that humans get from being around animals and nature.
I’ve done much charity and therapy work with horses, dogs and other animals to help enhance children’s lives and mindset and to help them overcome illness and disabilities and contributing to their wellbeing.
So, I would love to be in a position to continue this valuable work i.e combining animal and music therapy.
MW : Money or health?
NE : Health every time - in the world we live in money can be the difference between life and death for so many of us.
You may not be able to buy health, but if you are unfortunate enough to need help with your health, whether medically or mentally, having money will get a quicker service (which could save your life). 
It should not be this way, but it is, and it’s so unfair and unjust.
MW : Tell me about setting up Towerbell Records...
NE : Towerbell Records was set up after I left Good Earth Promotions. Prior to leaving Good Earth I had spotted Darts at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden, London. I went there with Jon Moss of Culture Club. Jon was working for me as a booker at Good Earth. After seeing Darts perform I signed them to (our)   management. Darts were signed to Magnet Records (record label). 
Darts were extremely successful and made Magnet Records money and I believe kept the label afloat at a time when Magnet really did not have much talent on the label. Bob (England) and I found ourselves doing a lot of the work for this record company, so it was always going to be the obvious move to create our own label i.e Towebell Records.  
We then signed Chas & Dave to management and we wanted to have our own label and have both Darts and Chas & Dave on this label. We were unhappy with Michael Levy (now Lord Levy) and Magnet Records. We felt he was penny pinching with regards to Darts’ campaigns, videos and promotion. Given that Darts had made so much money for Magnet the band were very unhappy with the label too, as they felt as I did that Michael was holding them back. I did not like Michael and his practices and both Bob and I wanted the band released from Magnet.
Bob and I discussed this and the terms of this release from Magnet that we wanted for the band. As I say, I did not like Michael, and I would not pander to him so I after discussing what we wanted for Darts, Bob and I decided that Bob did the negotiation with Michael. Everything would have be fine if Bob had stuck to the plan. Unfortunately, the release deal was very much in Michael's favour and the release clauses made it extremely difficult for Darts to function with all the restrictions that Michael Levy had put upon them. It was a very restrictive release contract with Michael continuing to benefit. Michael eventually sold the label and all of Darts’ catalogue to Warner Bros.
Michael made this process very difficult with his demands and delays. The outcome was disastrous for Darts - because of the time taken on the release contract and unreasonable release clauses. Michael effectively ended Darts’ career.
We did go on to set up two labels, Rockney Records for Chas & Dave releases and Towerbell Records for other artists including myself, Snowy White, Amazulu and others.
We were very successful as an independent record label, but I was unhappy in my marriage and I left Bob and the label in 1984.
Bob was not so successful without me. He made some bad decisions. He ended up leaving the UK a year or so later caught up in a blaze of publicity at Miami Airport (on route to Antigua) owing millions to various artists.
I had nothing to do with his downfall. A large part of his debt was still owed to me for PRS and other fees that were generated when I had Top Ten success and other chart album and singles. I had trusted him but he effectively punished me for leaving him. I was by then financially and contractually screwed. He promised he would pay me what I was owed but he never did.
MW : Share some experiences of managing Darts...
NE : Darts were a breath of fresh air amidst an uprising Punk scene. Don't get me wrong there were a couple of bands, The Sex Pistols, 999 and a few others that made an impact but Darts were different.
They had an element of punk but they could all play their instruments and all four singers could sing. They were performing doo-wop and they were their own best promotion. Den Hegarty could be a bit of a handful but otherwise a great bunch of people. I just knew that this band would be successful and they were.
I’ve many great memories of touring with Darts in the UK and abroad and being in the studio with them They were all very down to earth people and consummate musicians. Darts had major success back then and should have continued in this trend but there were problems with Magnet Records, as I’ve said earlier.
Fortunately, Darts still do several choice gigs a year and they are still one of the most entertaining bands around. 
MW : How did you react to the passing of Chas Hodges?
NE : I had been diagnosed with cancer a few months before Chas was diagnosed. I was so sad when I heard the news of his death, for him, his beautiful wife, Joan and for his loving family, his children and his grandchildren, it was a shock. 
Apparently Chas had gone fishing with Dave (Peacock) the day before he died and he seemed fine and in good spirits but he was dead by the next morning.
He is so loved and is missed by all. I was sad for a long while. Although we’d spoken on the phone and made plans to meet, unfortunately this was never to be as Chas died the week before we were due to meet up.
I have many great memories of Chas and I’m so pleased that I played a part in his story. He was an amazing man and a consummate musician who could play many instruments.
MW : How did you know / judge which records to release?
NE : I have always been quite good at spotting a hit and had this talent from when I was very young. I would hear a song once on the radio and would immediately know it would be a big hit. More often than not - I was right! 
It’s a sound, a voice, a hook, an instrument, a band with originality, or the combination of all of theses factors that makes you want to dance, sing, laugh, think, reflect or be quiet. 
It’s when something in the mix reaches in and touches you and inspires you. It’s the overall sound of what is being conveyed and how this sound makes you feel. 
Originality is always a star quality in the mix.
MW : Your solo career. Tell me about your big hit ‘Iko Iko’ and the chart battle with The Belle Stars...
NE : I’d been in the process of recording an album with Tom Newman when I decided to do a version of ‘Iko Iko’ using Richard Branson's 'Barge Studio'. Rita Ray from Darts suggested the song and she sang backing vocals on the track.
I was familiar with the song and would sing this song and 'The Clapping Song' as a little girl. I also loved loved Dr. Johns' version. When we recorded this, it just felt right and it had such a good vibe that Tom and I just knew it was a hit. We recorded it in February 1982 but as it was a summer record we sat on this until the June release. My then record plugger, Alan James, had secured some BBC Radio 1 airplay as a white label a week prior to the release date and there was a real buzz on the record.  
I was in the studio recording a session for the BBC when my then husband, Bob England, called me from Towerbell Records saying that Paul Conroy (who I knew well and was general manager of Stiff Records) had heard ‘Iko Iko’ being played on BBC Radio 1 on the week prior to its official release date. Paul said that he loved it and asked for a copy.
Bob went on to say that he told Paul that he would put a copy in the post when Paul said that he happened to have a scooter-messenger in the area of our office and this messenger could pick this up, which he did pretty sharpish. When Bob told me this I knew immediately that Paul was up to something, as Paul had The Belle Stars signed to Stiff, and they and other artists had previously released ‘Iko Iko’. So, I checked out every artist/band that had ever released ‘Iko Iko’ as a single. The Bodysnatchers were one band who did - they later became The Belle Stars!
I suspected that The Belle Stars had plans to release another version of ‘Iko Iko’ and they wanted my white label version to compare to theirs. As it turned out, The Belle Stars and their then producer Martin Tench sat in the music room at Stiff Records playing my version of ‘Iko Iko’ over and over again against several different mixes they had of their ‘Iko Iko's’ - they were obviously trying to decide which of their versions to release. Co-incidentally when Bow Wow Wow released 'Go Wild In The country' produced by Tench soon after you will notice the distinct similarity with the drums to the drums on my 'Iko Iko'.. 
After speaking with me, Bob immediately called Paul and confronted him. Paul admitted that The Belle Stars had indeed recorded a version of ‘Iko Iko’ and intended to release this in a few weeks. Paul went on to say that Stiff would not now be releasing their version as my version was out the following week. I did not believe them, and I was right not to believe Paul, as Stiff went on to rush release The Belle Stars version to come out on the very same day as my version.
Fortunately, my version of ‘Iko Iko’ was the favoured version being played on BBC Radio 1, and all the other main and regional radio stations up and down the country and abroad. The press had a field day - playing both myself and The Belle Stars off against each other, intimating that their was bad blood between us. This was not true at all. I did a TV show where both myself and The Belle Stars performed our own versions of ‘Iko Iko’. There was seven of them and me and my Great Dane called Fury on the same show.
I had nothing against the girls, I knew it was Stiff Records stage managing all of this. I wished the girls well with their version but my version was out selling theirs from the off.
My version went on to be the highest New Entry in the charts and the Highest Climber in the charts along with Video Of The Month.
The Belle Stars got to No.37 and then dropped out of the chart whilst I went on to have a Top Ten hit. In fact, I had several really good singles out before I released ‘Iko Iko’ in 1982 : - ‘I Can't Hold On’, ‘Strangest Feeling’, ‘Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartache’ - all good songs which all got great reviews and responses when played at clubs but I did not get the airplay that I needed.
MW : Tell me about your new music...
NE : I have recently brought out a new album 'Somehow' and I released a single of the same name at the same time.
Music videos for 'Somehow' and 'Hook Line & Sinker, the two tracks off the album so far are on You Tube. The website has all the information on all my music, past and present, that I have released and details on how to get physical, as well as digital copies, of this music. Photos, discography etc...
www.natashaengland.co.uk
The album and single received extremely great reviews, but the problem has been getting significant airplay for this music. I feel, it’s deserving of airplay - but the powers that be - who control playlists - seem to have their own agenda. New music on independent record labels has a hard time getting airplay, plus there is ageism to overcome.
You can have the best voice, band, song in the world - but if you are trying to establish yourself, or re-establish yourself, in the music industry and you are not on a major label, it is more or less impossible, and (youthful) looks do count.
Until you get airplay you don't get heard and you don't seem to exist. That said, I will continue to write record and perform.
Keep the passion and let the love and the music play on...
© Mark Watkins / April 2019
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pop-culture-dump · 8 years ago
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The Simpsons: The Lost Season
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Tree House of Horror XXIX For their 29th Halloween special the Simpsons family takes on the Horror and Science Fiction classics such as The Big Bang Theory, Hell’s Kitchen, and Fifty Shades of Grey. Snow Money Snow Problems Bart and Grandpa Accidentally sign up both themselves and Santa’s Little Helper in the Iditarod. While the three of them are braving the Alaskan wilderness as well as colorful cast of competing dog sled racers, back in Springfield Homer is brought onto a Hypnotist’s stage show and has a recovered memory of being sexually abused by his mother. A Moe Fashion Love Song Moe’s Tavern gains critical success with the new addition of a Karaoke machine. However this fame is cut short when special guest star; Singer songwriter and standing of president of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Paul Williams threatens to shut them down for unpaid song royalties. Sparking a town hall debate over fair use and intellectual property laws. Meanwhile after taking on a class assignment involving family history and genealogy Millhouse discovers his parents may be cousins. The Sinking Love of Lisa Simpson Lisa becomes infatuated with a passionate young Journalist who is a filming a VICE style expose on  the Nuclear power plant and decides to run away from home and secretly follows him on his trip cover the sinking of the Maldives islands and the UN complacency in offering aid. Lisa The Puppet Master After writing a series of successful speeches for Mayor Quimby’s reelection campaign Lisa is promoted to campaign advisor. However she slowly begins to sell out to constituents and other lobbyists and becomes corrupt with power with Quimby acting as her political puppet. Krust-acolypse NOW Krusty is shot down over Afghanistan while performing in a series of USO shows and videotapes of him being tortured by ISIS insurgents begin to leak onto the internet. Bart and his fellow classmates plead with the US government for the hasty rescue of their beloved idol but their pleas fall onto deaf ears prompting Bart to go on a national campaign to raise awareness of Krusty’s plight and legacy. However Bart soon discovers that Krusty’s kidnapping was a hoax in order to garnish publicity and merchandise sales. Bart by Gaslight While sitting through one of Lisa’s feminist group studies Bart learns about the concept of “Gas lighting”. Intrigued by the idea that you can subtly manipulate someone into thinking their losing their grip on reality he attempts to put the process into effect on Homer. However Homer is well aware of Bart’s tactics and confesses that he’s been doing it to his own father for decades. The two of them band together to see how many people in town they can bend to their will. Marge vs the Internet The family discovers that Bart has been secretly documenting them for years and uploading their daily escapades onto Youtube. At first Marge is excited about the notion of being a modest internet celebrity however she is shocked and appalled at the overwhelming amount of lewd fan art and literature based on her and her family that are floating around the web. After a very vocal cease and desist campaign blows up in her face and creates more of an internet backlash she takes her case to congress and demands that the internet either be heavily regulated or shut down entirely. Rita Hayworth and the Bart-shank redemption In the face of severe punishment Bart agrees to participate in a scared straight reality TV program where juvenile delinquents are to spend a week in a maximum security prison. Confident he can coast by without any problems  Bart is shocked to discover he’s to share a cell with Sideshow Bob, who takes every opportunity to violently berate and humiliate both him and his fellow students. However Bart slowly develops Stockholm Syndrome for Bob and aids him in an elaborate prison escape plan. The cutting edge of Homer In a vain attempt to keep up appearances at work Homer falls in league with Springfield’s technophile crowd and becomes obsessed with getting the latest and greatest Apple I phone, and goes to such lengths as cashing out his savings and camping out in front of the Apple store to get one. However upon purchase Homer is outraged that he got the wrong color and insights a riot. meanwhile Marge and Ned Flanders accidentally go to the wrong church retreat and find themselves being recruited into the Westbouro Baptist church. Springfield History X Bart is blamed for an accident that Homer caused in Herman’s antique and Army surplus store and is forced to work off the debt. While cleaning up, Bart discovers a hidden room containing Herman’s collection of Nazi war relics and is confronted by Herman who paints the fascists in a sympathetic light. Herman continues to manipulate Bart to become the poster child for his neo nazi/ alt right hate group. Things quickly escalate when Bart and his followers plan to sabotage a peaceful college protest and turn it into a full on a race war and it’s up to Homer, Lisa and Grandpa to rescue Bart and show him the error of his bigoted ways. Gumble and Son A clean and Sober Barney Gumble becomes a rehab councilor and takes in a young addict who he has reason to believe may be his estranged son. However before Barney can find out the truth the young man relapses and dies of an overdose. Homer and Barney use what little information they have to go with and embark a humbling cross country road trip in search of closure.   Marge Simpson’s Monday Morning Podcast Marge becomes absorbed in producing a podcast that no one listens to. Homer finally listens to it and is deeply saddened by the realization of how lonely and clinically depressed his wife really is.
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thegreenwolf · 8 years ago
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If all I did with my blog was tear apart pseudoscience masquerading as real science and promoted by pagans as being “proof our spirituality is real!!!” I would never write about anything else. Plus I would quickly despair for the future of our community instead of mostly focusing on the positives. But this particular piece of pseudoscience slithered across my Facebook feed over the weekend from a few different people. The short version is that it claims that a change in the frequency of Schumann resonances signals that human “vibrational frequencies” are rising, which somehow makes us better people and will soon usher in a better world where in we’re all nice to each other and nothing bad ever happens.
Ugh. Like I said, there were multiple folks who reposted this, but I’m going to keep my rant to my own space instead of arguing on someone else’s turf. This is yet another example of a fundamental misunderstanding of actual scientific principles on a couple of different levels.
For one thing, Schumann resonances are not some sort of super-special waves that measure how good humans have been (Santa Claus, is that you?) Here, you can read NASA’s writeup about them. It’s just a particular sort of wave caused by lightning in which waves of a certain frequency, which bounce along in between the Earth and its ionosphere, combine with themselves rather than dissipating normally. It’s kind of like when a bunch of people hold hands and skip across a field together, gaining more and more momentum with each skip, only it’s one person replicating themselves each time they hit the ground. The reason this happens is because these waves are so incredibly long they wrap around the earth two or three times, making it possible for a wave to overlap itself in just the right way.
I’ve seen people on FB claim that our brains are affected by Schumann resonances. But the fact is that they so much bigger than us–about 38,000 kilometers long for a 7.83 hertz wave (https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4352)–that we are simply incapable of detecting or interacting with them. And even if that were somehow different, animal brains wouldn’t be able to afford to be significantly affected by such forces. If our brains shifted significantly every time there was a lightning storm, or a solar flare, or any of the other waves that we normally don’t even notice, we wouldn’t be able to remain mentally stable enough to carry on our everyday activities and would die out. There are rare exceptions, but they’re when we’re literally out of our element–the only time our human bodies have to worry about solar flares, for example, is when astronauts, not protected by the Earth’s atmosphere (you know, the thing that shielded us from solar flares for billions of years so life could evolve to where it is now) have to be given artificial protection from radiation. Schumann resonances, by contrast, are not something that we would ever really have to worry about.
Moreover, the idea that we are able to “think hard” enough to change Schumann resonances is ridiculous. It is literally impossiblefor our thoughts and behaviors to have any effect on the frequency at which lightning emits electromagnetic waves. I mean, just comparing the relative electrical charge of a human brain and that of lightning shows there’s no way this can happen. The average working charge of the human brain is about .085 watts, roughly equal to that of a triple A battery. That’s because you can’t have ENTIRE brain firing off at once, without being used to do other things like, oh, making sure you keep breathing. (http://gizmodo.com/could-you-charge-an-iphone-with-the-electricity-in-your-1722569935) Compare that to a single lightning bolt which has about 10 billion watts  of energy (which, as http://www.windpowerengineering.com/featured/business-news-projects/how-much-power-in-a-bolt-of-lightning/ mentions, is about enough to power a 60 watt bulb for six months and then some.) The waves produced by such a massive outburst of energy are much too powerful for us to affect–the only things that affect them are massive, global/atmospheric conditions like seasons, solar activity and the Earth’s magnetic field (and no, we can’t change that ourselves, either.)
And considering our brains are pretty well insulated in layers of cerebrospinal fluid, bone and skin, it’s not like the electricity can easily leave our heads anyway. That means there is literally no way for our puny little electromagnetic waves to have an effect on lightning or the waves it produces. Even if you could somehow get every person thinking the same thing at the same time with all their brain (and somehow not suffocating because all involuntary functions have ceased, like breathing), there’s no way to focus it on a particular lightning bolt or its resulting wave, because it can’t get out of your skull, other than the meager waves that an electroencephalogram reads. So saying that our brains can affect Schumann resonances is like saying that throwing a handful of sand is going to move a mountain ten feet north. Yeah, sure, you can keep throwing that sand your whole lifetime, but the most you may do is wear a divot in the ground.
I love the pagan community, but I hate that so many pagans will swallow pseudoscience without question  and completely ignore the basics of how science works. It’s one thing to have beliefs about “how thoughts change reality” or somesuch. It’s another to take perfectly well-researched natural phenomena and bastardize the facts behind them so badly and then present them as “proof our religion is real!” I’ve already written about why trying to legitimize ourselves with really awful science is a bad idea and how collective experiences are often muddied up with confirmation bias. It’s just frustrating to sometimes feel like the proverbial voice crying in the wilderness (which, ironically, was a voice about accepting something on blind faith.)
Moreover, this sort of pseudoscientific bullshit takes the focus away from the real efforts people are putting in to improve the world. We haven’t made all the positive changes we have in the past few decades–civil rights, environmental awareness, etc.–because somehow our “frequencies” changed. We achieved those changes because millions of people protested, and marched, and fought–and bled, and died. It is a slap in the face of all those who made huge sacrifices to say “Oh, well, people are just thinking nicer things and magically becoming more aware and vibrating differently.” A lot of those people wouldn’t have even encountered better ways to think or be without the efforts of those making real social and environmental changes with blood, sweat and tears.
By the way, that whole “changes in the global consciousness” thing? Simple explanation: we are apes, and apes are social animals. We have these things in our brains called mirror neurons, which cause us to want to imitate others–monkey see, monkey do. (Or ape see, ape do.) So when we model better ways of being to others, others are more likely to adopt what we do, even if it takes time and the aforementioned sacrifices. Socially, these ways of being become more acceptable and in the norm. None of this is magic, just the way our ape brains function–without having to pretend our little AAA battery electrical charges somehow can influence the waves created by lightning bolts.
And please don’t pull that whole “But science just hasn’t discovered it yet!” crap. What we undeniably know about both our brains and Schumann waves is more than enough to make this crackpot idea so highly unlikely that it is essentially impossible. Again: sand and mountain. No one is going to test the hypothesis for the same reasons no one is going to test whether jumping off a building and flapping your arms while visualizing yourself becoming a bird will actually result in you flying: we know enough about how physics and related sciences work to know that such an experiment would be a wasted effort.
Finally, this whole idea that we can affect massive electromagnetic waves with our brains is utterly arrogant and anthropocentric. We are not as important as we like think we are. We are not the Earth’s special children, blessed with amazing talents that allow us to have influence over forces that much greater than ourselves, especially without some form of technology. We are just mammals with big brains, opposable thumbs and upright, bipedal walking styles, and we have much more serious things to worry about than how we’re so great we change massive electromagnetic waves with our neurons.
I know I have other things on my mind, so I’m going to get back to preparing for the Tarot of Bones to arrive here later this month, and finishing up art for my Patrons on Patreon, and other stuff I really ought to be doing now that I’ve done my part to hopefully chase a little more pseudoscientific fluff out of my community.
Enjoy this post? Consider picking up a copy of my book Nature Spirituality From the Ground Up which, although it does some archetypal mythologizing of nature, is deeply rooted in natural history.
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sinceileftyoublog · 5 years ago
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theMIND Interview: The World Is Burning
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Photo by Bryan Allen Lamb
BY JORDAN MAINZER
Protest music is not “timely” when what’s being protested is pervasive; we’ve seen as such from music as recent as Run The Jewels’ fourth album. On Juneteenth, Chicago-via-Philly artist Zarif Wilder, aka theMIND, released “A Spike Lee Jawn”, a lyrically blistering, musically funky list of righteous demands: “To Whom it May Concern, FUCK 12 and reparations have been due. This song is a 400 year old invoice. Best, theMIND,” Wilder wrote to introduce it. But the song wasn’t written last month. It was three years old. The difference is that Wilder’s now ready to tell the world what he thinks.
Wilder moved to Chicago in 2007 to study music business at Columbia College, eventually forming a production group (THEMpeople) and releasing a debut mixtape called Summer Camp in 2016, the same year he, up until this point, more publicly started to pop up on music you’ve most certainly heard. He had two writing credits on Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book and appeared on Noname’s Telefone and Pete Rock and Smoke DZA’s collaborative album Don’t Smoke Rock. Last year saw his most prominent feature to date, on Jamila Woods’ brilliant “SUN RA”. His name should gain more recognition later this year when he releases a new album called Don’t Let It Go to Your Head, but partially because he’s not afraid to present the truest version of himself. “A Spike Lee Jawn” is not on the record--the only track released from it so far is 2017′s “Ms. Communication”--but its combination of truth and grooves serves as a blueprint for the type of songs that will appear on it, according to Wilder. Even “Ms. Communication” will fit. Speaking to me over the phone last month, Wilder laughed, “It’s kind of crazy to think that the first single in my project was released in 2017. Once people hear the whole project, they won’t be like, ‘Why are we having this callback moment to 3 years ago?’” Part of the cohesion is because of this dichotomy of honesty: “‘Ms. Communication’ is a song about ghosting someone, and I was in the wrong,” Wilder said. “But who knew that a song about ghosting somebody could be a groove?”
During our conversation, Wilder spoke about the context and inspirations behind “A Spike Lee Jawn”, his relationship with the filmmaker’s movies, protest songs, and the limits of streamed performances. Read it below, edited for length and clarity.
SILY: What’s the history of “A Spike Lee Jawn”?
Zarif Wilder: I recorded it in 2017. It’s kind of funny because I was working with Cam O'bi on his project. I was doing a bunch of songwriting for him, and we did a bunch of songs in that time period. We started working on the production which came to be “A Spike Lee Jawn”. We made the majority of the song that day. I came back and added the guitar and bass to it a couple weeks later or so. 
I felt like I was poking the bear by revisiting topics like reparations or police brutality or social inequalities in general. I wanted to add to the conversation, but I didn’t want to keep on reopening old wounds. 2020 comes around, and the song is still relevant. The issues are still happening. It felt like I silenced myself back then, that I wasn’t trying to bring any light to the darkness we have in this world.
SILY: Obviously, a song like this in context of the protests surrounding George Floyd, it seems like it could have been written last week or last month, which just speaks to the prevalence and constancy of these issues. 
ZW: Continuously, yeah. It’s that truth I wanted to bring light to with this record. I wanted to make sure that at the end of the day, I’m adding to the conversation.
SILY: You’re from Philly--that’s the “Jawn” reference.
ZW: Exactly. Born and raised.
SILY: Is there anything else about the song you think is distinctly Philly?
ZW: I realized after I moved to Chicago that a lot of the experiences were the same [as in Philly]. It’s actually kind of weird to think about people having the same experience at the same time. When I’m talking about literally, “Cadillac with tinted eyes / See my 45 keeps me alive,” and all these different references to cars with tinted headlights. They weren’t just in my city. They were everywhere. All of these references I thought were regional were everywhere.
SILY: What’s your relationship with Spike Lee’s movies?
ZW: [laughs] I love all of Spike Lee’s earlier stuff. I think that somewhere along the line--as most people do--we kind of lose touch with the place that we’re from. The trouble comes with trying to speak for the places that you’re no longer in. Specifically when you make movies like Chi-Raq. Spike Lee is doing the movie from the perspective of someone growing up in Brooklyn. He can do that to a great tee, but to come to a different place and try to paint pictures without directly talking to individuals, it’s a little jaded. But I also believe he’s entitled to his opinion. It doesn’t mean that I have to like it as well. [laughs]
It changes. It varies. I liked Da 5 Bloods, I thought that was a good movie. I enjoyed that. But Spike Lee has his corny moments, as we all do.
SILY: Especially with Da 5 Bloods and BlacKkKlansman, he’s not subtle. He hits you over the head with what he’s trying to say, but at the same time, I feel like it’s almost good in today’s day and age. To a certain extent, what he’s talking about is not subtle at all. It deserves to be spoken loudly.
ZW: Guaranteed. Especially when based on historical instances, we have to be very careful with the creative licenses we take, but also be very open to someone’s artistic expression and how they want to tell the story. I fuck with Spike for that. I think Spike’s a legend and will always be. But that’s the one thing we should get to the point of with celebrity culture as a whole: being able to properly critique each other. We don’t want to get to a point where we can’t critique our legends.
SILY: Why did you decide to include him in the title of this song?
ZW: It’s still an homage to him. He’s one of the super great filmmakers. Spike Lee’s production company is called 40 Acres and a Mule. [Editor’s note: The chorus of the song starts with “I just want my 40 acres, fuck the mule.”] I fuck with his rise and his look, the way he kind of looks at creating a path for himself, especially in a cis white male-dominated industry like film-making. He was constantly pushing through to tell stories of people who look like him.
SILY: The song’s very pointed, but the instrumentation is funky. You can definitely dance to it. Was it important to you to make a “protest” song you can also dance to?
ZW: Guaranteed. Recently, there’s Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright”. When that song first dropped, someone said to me, “This is it. This is gonna be the song for the movement.” I was like, “Man, are you serious?” And they were like, “I’m telling you, this is the one.” The next week afterwards, it was everywhere, at every protest, at every march, people were chanting, [sings], “We gon’ be alright!” But it was still a banger. I don’t think protest songs should be sung. They should be chanted. They should be something that pushes us to keep moving, not this super sad thing you want to sit down and say, “Man, the world’s fucked up.” You want something that makes you want to fight.
SILY: Have you been to any of the recent protests?
ZW: Yeah, I went to a bunch, and I went to a bunch of food drives after the CPS shutdown the food program.
SILY: Did you notice any other protest songs that were prevalent in your experience protesting?
ZW: It was mainly the chants we were familiar with, not the song chants at all. Chants of solidarity, like, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom, it is our duty to win.” I wouldn’t go to a protest and start to sing my own song. [laughs]
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"A Spike Lee Jawn" (ft. Krystal Metcalfe); Single Artwork by fifthpower
SILY: Can you tell me a little bit about the single artwork?
ZW: It’s done by my friend fifthpower, and it’s based off the Quasimoto [Further Instrumentals] cover, in which Quasi is sitting inside of a house and it’s burning outside, but it’s in L.A. It also reminded me of the “This Is Fine” meme with the dog sitting there with the hat. When we kind of started this year off, with the end of last year, I was in L.A. during the fires. There was ash coming down. Me and my friend were having brunch, and literally, ash was falling, and I was like, “What is this? Is this snow? What’s happening?” And they were like, “That’s the ash from the hills burning.” And I was like, “Y’all are just okay out here eating brunch?!?” It kind of brought this revelation to me that the world is burning around us, and we’re kind of sitting around and saying, “This is fine.” Some people are yelling and screaming, but the majority is like, “This is cool.” I wanted to point to that, and the best way I could do that was have my two cats staring out the window watching it burn.
SILY: Your debut tape came out in 2016. How have you grown as an artist in the past 4 years?
ZW: I’m not afraid of my own reflection anymore. I don’t know if that makes any sense. Summer Camp was super metaphorical. I was afraid to dive in to topics I really wanted to talk about because of painful memories. As I grew, those topics, I couldn’t escape them anymore. I couldn’t think of the metaphors anymore. If the world is burning, I had to say, “The world is burning,” rather than, “I smell smoke.” There are so many different ways to dig deeper into my art. I’m comfortable being naked in front of the audience that listens to my music more so than I ever was before. The self-love I was yearning for on Summer Camp came to fruition. I’m still working on it, but a lot of the parts that made me uncomfortable who I was, telling those experiences, hoping that somebody else can find themselves in their journey as well.
SILY: Tell me about the video for “A Spike Lee Jawn”.
ZW: We dropped it on Juneteenth as is. It went under the radar purposefully. It went up at 11:00 AM, and the way we kind of promoted it was kind of like a teaser for the song and not a full-blown video.
SILY: What else is next for you? Have you planned somewhat of a roll-out for the upcoming record?
ZW: Yeah, I have. I’m super excited about it, specifically with this project. A lot of these fears I had on the first project were addressed on this one more directly, talking about it.
SILY: Have you planned any live streams?
ZW: The crazy part about this is I went on tour--I’ve been touring my new project for the past couple years, honestly. I went on tour with Ibeyi and a European run with Noname. Throughout that entire time, I was trying out songs I was playing. Of course, I was playing a lot from Summer Camp and a lot of my features, but I was pushing a bunch of these other songs. The response was good from the crowd. I want to do something, but a streaming concert just doesn’t look cool to me right now. I don’t know how to do it right. [laughs] One of my favorite things about performing is feeling people’s energy, and doing that through a stream is really tough. I was talking to my friend Jamila Woods, and she was saying that her stream was a bunch of other artists you could see on a Zoom call, and they were hyping each other up. So that was a cool idea, playing a festival and you could see them but not the audience.
SILY: The time lag is a thing, too. I’ve seen a couple performances where some bands were playing live in different rooms, but it was pretty heavily edited.
ZW: Exactly.
SILY: If people are hyping each other up, though, at least it has some of the energy aspect you’re talking about.
ZW: Exactly. It’s hard to replicate that. I know people who can’t perform unless they hear the crowd.
SILY: Is there anything you’ve been reading, watching, or listening to lately that’s inspired you, caught your attention, or comforted you?
ZW: I’ve been trying to stay off of everything, but I’ve been watching documentaries. At the beginning of the video for “A Spike Lee Jawn”, there’s a clip of farmers from the Ivory Coast who have never tasted chocolate. They never even knew that the bean they farmed turned into it. So there’s a small clip of them eating chocolate for the first time. They’re older guys. It completely blows your mind. But the analogy between that and where America is, as far as all of the people who helped build this country not being able to participate in the beautiful aspects the American Dream supposedly offers.
I’ve been having conversations with individuals as much as I possibly can, to gain as much perspective from people as I can. 
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jessicakehoe · 5 years ago
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Antoni Porowski Talks Food, Fashion and Finding Simplicity During Quarantine
Please note this interview and photo shoot with Antoni Porowski for FASHION Canada took place prior to the historic events and peaceful protests that have occurred over the past several weeks.
“I’ve cooked more in the past six weeks than I have in the past 2½ years. That’s been the silver lining to it all.” Antoni Porowski, the 36-year-old food and wine expert for the hit Netflix series Queer Eye, is describing his current (quarantine) status in relation to the pop culture juggernaut he has found himself on. Porowski spoke to us in April from an Airbnb in Austin, Tex., where he’d been holed up since the lockdown began. His much-loved show, which launched its fifth instalment of episodes in June, was just beginning to film another season in the southern metropolis before everything came to a standstill.
Photography by Ashlee Huff. Top, $1,250, shorts, price upon request, and hat, $2,600, Dior Men. Jewellery (worn throughout), Porowski’s own.
Porowski, who hails from Montreal, says he has used the isolation time to “lead a much simpler life.” And it’s undoubtedly much needed; he and his co-stars have had an intense few years, with each of the five personalities going from relative anonymity to the kind of superstardom that saw them host Elton John’s Oscars-night viewing party this year. It was a major pinch-me moment for Porowski, who recalls the “beautiful burgundy Zegna couture tux” he wore to the annual AIDS fundraiser. “I was standing there thinking, ‘Elton John is performing right now and I’m four feet away from him.’ I felt a chill go down my back. And I couldn’t sleep that night because I wanted to remember every sensation and moment of the night.”
Photography by Ashlee Huff. Suit, $995, Boss. Top, $50, Hugo.
That L.A. evening must seem like a lifetime ago now, and Porowski—who is typically based in New York City—has switched his focus to less star-studded but no less admirable networks, making the most of the local flavours (pun intended) that he’s surrounded by. “I got obsessed with this new app called Vinder,” he says about an Austin-based digital hub that connects restaurants and home cooks with local agricultural businesses. “I’ve been ordering all kinds of farm goods. In some ways, I’m living my best Martha Stewart or Ina Garten life.”
Photography by Ashlee Huff. Top and shorts, $290 each, Boss. Shoes, $350, Axel Arigato at Ssense. Belt, $395, Toga Virilis at WDLT117. Socks, $15, Hugo.
It’s not hard to conceive of Porowski following in the footsteps of such legendary lifestyle gurus. His first cookbook, which was released last year, touts the appeal of easily achievable cooking for people who are “too busy to make dinner.” That describes plenty of the guests made over in each episode of Queer Eye—“heroes” as they’re dubbed on the show—so Porowski has become an authority on getting people excited about uncomplicated food, be it chicken Milanese or mac ’n’ cheese. (Both recipes are found in Antoni in the Kitchen.) “We’re given so little information about the heroes,” he says. “I always come up with 10 different recipes to teach them. Then I meet the person and realize that some people want to be taught and they want to expand their palate. And other times, it’s really just helping someone do what they already do but more efficiently.”
Photography by Ashlee Huff. Top, $625, Dsquared2 at North42. Shorts, $130, Hugo.
Porowski inspires people from many walks of life through an approach that favours connection over pontification. “I do my best not to come in and be preachy because for anybody who’s ever tried to be preachy with me, it never really falls well,” he laughs. This gentleness in spirit translates to Porowski’s own philosophy about eating, which he says is rooted in a harmonious mix. “It’s about listening to your body,” he says about how he navigates a love of noshing with taking care of his well-being, noting that he’s just as much a fan of fried chicken as he is of raw beets. “I think balance is the key.”
Photography by Ashlee Huff. Jumpsuit, price upon request, Dior Men.
These complementary contrasts are found in Porowski’s closet, too. Favouring a “uniform of a nice pair of jeans and the perfect white T-shirt” (the kind that come from brands ranging from The Row to Sunspel), he’s had to amplify that covetable nonchalance since starting on the show. “When we got our mood boards for Queer Eye and specific visuals in terms of what they wanted us to lean into, for me it was ‘We want the James Dean look.’ I thought: ‘OK, how do I make it a little different? What am I going to do?’”
Photography by Ashlee Huff. Hat, $90, Hugo.
Pops of his personality have come from the brightly hued vintage bandanas around his neck—ones he would typically wear around his hairline while taking a run—and the quirky message shirts he’s now known for. Tees from his favourite musical acts are rooted in watching bands like Arcade Fire rise to fame in Montreal’s thriving music scene. “You can tell a lot about a person from their taste in music—kind of like food,” he says.
His selection of non-music-related tops—which includes a T-shirt that boasts the names of influential women in the art world, like Louise Bourgeois and Yayoi Kusama, and one featuring the logo from Montreal’s Expo 67, a nod to his hometown—also tells us so much about Porowski (an avid art and design fan) without him uttering a word. “I think that’s a Canadian sensibility,” he says. “I’m not an aggressive person. I like to do things sort of covertly.”
Photography by Ashlee Huff. Top, $1,620, Louis Vuitton. Jewellery, Porowski’s own.
Within his collection there are some pieces that retain a special sentiment that begs to be shared, in particular a handmade cashmere sweater from California-based nouveau-hippie brand The Elder Statesman. (Porowski has several of the label’s eclectic slogan sweaters in his wardrobe.) “People just think it’s badass,” he says of the piece—a bright-red pullover that replicates the iconic Marlboro cigarette packaging but with the word “meditate” replacing the brand name. “When I saw it, I remember thinking, ‘This is a beautiful sweater that is hand-stitched and high-grade cashmere.’ It made me reflect on the life I have now, where I’m in this incredible position where I can afford to have such a beautiful piece,” he says, adding that the sweater is also a clever juxtaposition of his previous and present pastimes. “When I was in my teens and partying like a monster, I used to smoke so many cigarettes. Now, I’m a non-smoker and I meditate every morning.”
Photography by Ashlee Huff. Top, $4,850, Pants, $1,500, and necklace, $720, Hermès. bracelet, Porowski’s own.
Though Porowski might favour comfortable casualness for his every day, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy expressing himself with clothing when the occasion suits—or, rather, in the case of the premiere of the Cats movie last winter, not in a suit at all. Instead, he hit the red carpet wearing an unconventional Thom Browne ensemble composed of a private school-style cardigan, a starched white shirt and a pleated skirt.
“I’m so obsessed with Thom Browne,” he says. The New York-based designer’s celebrated irreverence speaks to Porowski’s wilder side and lets him tap into the captivating quality that great clothing can have. “I consider myself fairly conservative, but I have busted into more colour and had some daring looks,” he says. “Clothing can be so empowering.”
Photography by Ashley Huff.
Photography by Ashley Huff.
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Photography by ASHLEE HUFF. Art direction by MALINA CORPADEAN. Creative direction and styling by GEORGE ANTONOPOULOS. Hairstyling direction by DAVID D’AMOURS for KÉRASTASE. Post-production by VALÉRIE LALIBERTÉ. Foundation and brow pomade provided by SURRATT.
The post Antoni Porowski Talks Food, Fashion and Finding Simplicity During Quarantine appeared first on FASHION Magazine.
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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years ago
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The 4-Star Reviews of 2018
As the year comes to a close, and you’re wondering what to see before you make your top ten list or pick up the latest Twitter fight about awards season, we are here to guide the way. First, check out Chaz Ebert’s guide to her personal picks for films to see before the end of the year, and then peruse the 32 films from the year that our staff critic gave the highest possible rating—4 stars.
“24 Frames”
“Kiarostami was, finally, more than a great filmmaker; he was an artistic titan whose work transcends both cinema and the culture of Iran. How fitting that this lovely final film is one that could be enjoyed by fourth-graders as easily as the most knowledgeable of Kiarostami’s admirers.” (Godfrey Cheshire)
“Amazing Grace”
“Whether you’re religious or not, you owe it to yourself to see this movie if the chance arises. You’ll see how much love and feeling went into the construction of the resulting album. Additionally, “Amazing Grace” is profoundly moving and extraordinarily soothing. Nowadays we could use a good salve. To paraphrase another gospel standard, if we ever needed this film before, we sure do need it now.” (Odie Henderson)
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”
“What’s most bewitching throughout “Scruggs” is its sense of detail. Its meshing of formal discipline and screwed-down content sometimes give it the sense of a work that has been carefully and elaborately embroidered rather than photographed.” (Glenn Kenny)
“Black Panther”
“For all its action sequences (they’re refreshingly uncluttered, focusing on smaller battles than usual) and talk of metals that exist only in the mind of Stan Lee, “Black Panther” is still Marvel’s most mature offering to date. It’s also its most political, a film completely unafraid to alienate certain factions of the Marvel base.” (Odie Henderson)
“BlacKkKlansman”
“This is not only one of the year’s best films but one of Lee’s best as well. Juggling the somber and the hilarious, the sacred and the profane, the tragedy and the triumph, the director is firing on all cylinders here. "BlacKkKlansman" is a true conversation starter, and probably a conversation ender as well.” (Odie Henderson)
“Blindspotting”
“This movie swings between high drama and low comedy, and between terrifying danger and sweet moments of near-romance. Then it climaxes with an intense, brilliant monologue that is an almost otherworldly dare, a piece of performance art that some viewers are bound to question. Like all great movies, “Blindspotting” is a force to be reckoned with and wrestled with. No matter where you land in your assessment, your expectations are guaranteed to be shattered.” (Odie Henderson)
“A Bread Factory, Part One: For the Sake of Gold”
“A Bread Factory, Part Two: Walk with Me a While”
“This is my favorite film of the year by far—and when I say "film," singular, I'm referring to both halves of "A Bread Factory," because they flow together in the mind. As of this writing, I've seen both parts three times. With each viewing, I notice new things and am more moved by the characters, who are unique and eccentric in the way that real people are, but written and acted with the economy and directness that distinguishes characters in well-constructed plays or short stories—ones where the storytellers know what they want to say and how best to say it.” (Matt Zoller Seitz)
“Burning”
“The three main characters circle warily, looking at each other with desire, mistrust, need, never certain of the accuracy of their perceptions. Lee's explorations require depth and space. It's a great film, engrossing, suspenseful, and strange.” (Sheila O’Malley)
“Elvis Presley: The Searcher”
“The image of Elvis shifts, depending on the entry point. What is so refreshing—damn near redeeming—about HBO's two-part documentary "Elvis Presley: The Searcher," premiering on HBO on April 14, is that the entry point is Presley's art.” (Sheila O’Malley)
“First Reformed”
“Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed,” in which Ethan Hawke brilliantly plays an alcoholic Protestant minister undergoing a profound spiritual and psychological crisis, is a stunning, enrapturing film, a crowning work by one of the American cinema’s most essential artists.” (Godfrey Cheshire)
“Happy as Lazzaro”
 "While it renders a touch heavy-handed in the film’s final act when Lazzaro hastily tries to put his fairest foot forward amid a world ruled by merciless capitalism, Rohrwacher still manages to pack an undeniably poignant punch with the simplest of questions: in a world defined by helplessness and social injustice, how far would one get by instincts of basic decency alone? Easily among this year’s finest films and laced with an unapologetic social message, “Happy As Lazzaro” dares one to imagine a reality where each individual would task themselves to be as selfless and morally whole as its main protagonist. If only." (Tomris Laffly)
“Hereditary”
“Aster and the cast make you care about these disturbed people and fear what they might do to one another, themselves and strangers. When something awful invariably does happen, you feel sadness as well as shock, because now it's going to be even harder for the Grahams to climb out of the pit of sadness that the grandmother's death cast them into, and finally address past traumas that they've been ignoring or covering up.” (Matt Zoller Seitz)
“The Insult”
“Altogether, the accomplishments of “The Insult” place Doueiri in the company of such masters of politicized suspense as Costa-Gavras and Asghar Farhadi. A great director already, he is surely one to watch in the future.” (Godfrey Cheshire)
“King in the Wilderness”
“In Kunhardt’s film, the embrace of quiet, ordinary moments not only aids in the illumination of King himself, but also in the America in which he preached. The camera lingers on the normalcy of city streets, suburban neighborhoods, and churches, juxtaposing these peaceful places with chaotic footage from the '60s: loud, chaotic, taken with shaky cameras, or immortalized in static photographs.” (Arielle Bernstein)
“Leave No Trace”
“Everyone needs to choose their own way. In "Leave No Trace," Granik creates a specific mood, gloomy and yet redemptive, sometimes simultaneously. The redemption is painful, though, because it comes with such a hefty price.” (Sheila O’Malley)
“Let the Sunshine In”
“To add a twist to this demonstration, Denis breaks it off late in the movie, and jumps briefly into someone else’s storyline, someone who had been a stranger up to this point. Then the filmmaker wraps it up in a final shot that’s both cerebral, whimsical and wry in its wisdom. The film’s confidence comes in part from the acceptance of the things that can’t be known.” (Glenn Kenny)
“Life and Nothing More”
“Without ever spelling it out, Esparza shows us how our treatment of one another as members of the same human family is a direct rebuke to the divisions enforced by tyrants to keep us frightened and isolated. In its poetic simplicity, the film’s deeply moving final shot suggests that our estrangement can be mended the moment we choose to lock eyes and listen to each other, allowing our voices to rise above the deafening cries of our presumptions.” (Matt Fagerholm)
“Makala”
“The power in this story from comes from its very distilled manner: it tells a timeless story about hard work by completely immersing us in the steps of process, focusing on an act of incredible physical commitment.” (Nick Allen)
“Memoir of War”
“Among its many notable achievements, “Memoir of War” is one of the best films I’ve seen about the ways in which grief can pull a person in both directions simultaneously. Whereas the film’s first half plays more like a thriller, the second half proves to be an emotionally wrenching interlude perched on pins and needles.” (Matt Fagerholm)
“Minding the Gap”
“This movie doesn't just give you the general outlines of its main characters' lives and send you out wiping away tears; it paints a vivid picture of lower-middle class life in a depressed American city (Rockford, Illinois) that movies rarely show us.” (Matt Zoller Seitz)
“Mission: Impossible – Fallout”
“It’s got that finely-tuned, perfect blend of every technical element that it takes to make a great action film, all in service of a fantastic script and anchored by great action performances to not just work within the genre but to transcend it. This is one of the best movies of the year.” (Brian Tallerico)
“Monrovia, Indiana”
“Wiseman, who customarily mans one camera, oversees the audio mix and edits his films, is 88 years old now; despite its lack of overt subjectivity, the movie seems preoccupied with mortality in a way that has little to do with its ostensible subject. I hope Wiseman is well and happily at work on his next film. But there’s an implication of a testament here that makes “Monrovia, Indiana” unalike in a poignant way.” (Glenn Kenny)
“The Other Side of the Wind”
““The Other Side of the Wind” is a very rich film and a very difficult one. I’ve seen it nearly three times now and what I intuit about the aspects of it that “work,” and those where the seams just show too nakedly shift all the time.” (Glenn Kenny)
“Private Life”
“This film is a reminder that the smallness of life can feel huge when we're in the middle of it. A perfect final shot sums up everything "Private Life" has been telling us and showing us, while letting us imagine Rachel and Richard's destiny for ourselves.” (Matt Zoller Seitz)
“The Rider”
“Chloé Zhao’s “The Rider,” is the kind of rare work that seems to attain greatness through an almost alchemical fusion of nominal opposites. An account of rodeo riders on a South Dakota reservation, it is so fact-based that it almost qualifies as a documentary. Yet the film’s style, its sense of light and landscape and mood, simultaneously give it the mesmerizing force of the most confident cinematic poetry.” (Godfrey Cheshire)
“Roma”
“Cuaron has made his most personal film to date, and the blend of the humane and the artistic within nearly every scene is breathtaking. It’s a masterful achievement in filmmaking as an empathy machine, a way for us to spend time in a place, in an era, and with characters we never would otherwise.” (Brian Tallerico)
“Shirkers”
“Cardona may have taken something from them they will never fully get back, but Tan’s documentary returns the narrative back to her and her friends. He no longer has the last word on “Shirkers,” they do. And isn’t reclaiming our stories what this cultural moment is all about?” (Monica Castillo)
“Shoah: Four Sisters”
“This is minimalist directing of a high order, practically invisible in its choices and effects, but repeated so often that it seems unquestionably indicative of a very particular style—one that aims to create the conditions necessary to birth a compelling though understated remembrance of unimaginable pain. The story is shaped in the process of recording it, rather than being excessively manipulated after the fact.” (Matt Zoller Seitz)
“Shoplifters”
““Shoplifters” feels like a natural extension of themes that Kore-eda has been exploring his entire career regarding family, inequity, and the unseen residents of a crowded city like Tokyo. With this movie especially, his characters and their predicament are not merely mouthpieces for the issues that interest him but fully-realized people who feel like they existed before the film started and will go on after it ends.” (Brian Tallerico)
“Widows”
“The emotional currents that power Steve McQueen’s brilliant genre exercise are different—it’s societal inequity, exhaustion at corruption, and outright anger at a bullshit system that steals from the poor to give to the rich. McQueen’s masterful film is the kind that works on multiple levels simultaneously—as pure pulp entertainment but also as a commentary on how often it feels like we have to take what we are owed or risk never getting it at all.” (Brian Tallerico)
“You Were Never Really Here”
“"You Were Never Really Here" is a taut and almost unbearably intense 90-minutes, without an ounce of fat on it. Ramsay doesn't give you a second to breathe. It's grim, it’s dark, it’s delirious fun.” (Sheila O’Malley)
“Zama”
“”Zama” is a mordantly funny and relentlessly modernist critique of colonialism that makes no conclusions, ultimately resting on a scene of verdant nature not entirely stained by humanity.” (Glenn Kenny)
from All Content https://ift.tt/2PbnNKS
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ruleandruinrpg · 8 years ago
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CONGRATULATIONS, NINA!
You have been accepted for the role of IRA SOROKIN. Admin Em: We’d received FANTASTIC, beautifully written applications for Ira and I had the worst time trying to make up my mind - but Nina, it was your headcanons that ultimately swayed me. You fleshed out areas not elaborated on in the bio to create a complete, vibrant portrait of a wolf of a girl - I especially loved how the tale of Ilya Muromets inspired her original name, and her goal to prove Durasts are as much warriors as any of the other Grisha, the invention of a weapon that was most effective in the hands of her fellow Durasts a clever accompaniment. ‘She decided that, if the birth of greatness wasn’t her natural calling, the death of it could be just as useful.’ What a beautifully succinct line that perfectly captures her adaptability. Thank you, so much for your beautiful application and welcome to R&R! You have 24 HOURS to send in your account. Also, remember to look at the CHECKLIST. Welcome to Ravka!
OUT OF CHARACTER
ALIAS: Hey there! I’m Nina.
PREFERRED PRONOUNS: She/her.
AGE: I’m 21 yo.
TIMEZONE & ACTIVITY LEVEL: I’m currently finishing undergrad school, and that’s pretty much all I’m focusing my time on rn. So, I’ll be checking the dash every day and plotting/answering to threads every time I can get to my computer. I would be a solid 7 out of 10, I think.
CURRENT/PAST ACCOUNTS: -
IN CHARACTER
DESIRED CHARACTER: Ira Sorokin.
WHAT DREW YOU TO THIS CHARACTER?
My first option when I found this rp was Valerian Petrov, as it was the first one I wrote for, but upon reading the other characters, Ira was the one who stood up. I love how wild and master of her own fate she is. And also how her savagery gives me so much ground to work with. She has this infinite possibilities look that pretty much made me choose her.
WHAT FUTURE PLOT IDEAS DID YOU HAVE IN MIND?
Warriors.
The order of Fabrikators isn’t usually acquainted with combat skills, since their work’s focus lies elsewhere. But Ira doesn’t believe that her work and training are enough to keep her afloat, and to be adrift was never the position she favored in life. The Durast believes she, as any soldier, should be able to fight not only with her claws or the will of every metal on a battlefield, but with everything she had. Therefor, Ira decided to seek a partner who could train her on combat during nights and hidden from curious eyes. This is the person she chose to teach her, to destroy every bit of her confidence and rebuild her into something new, stronger. But this is also the one who knows her secret: Ira Sorokin doesn’t like to feel vulnerable, and if she felt it was necessary to trust another being to give her the skills she needed to survive, she would. One can only hope her trust isn’t misleading her.
Both a friendship plot or a manipulative one would work here. It all depends on who takes this on. I would like to see both happening, so there’s that.
Honesty versus Refinement.
When standing side by side with Fyodor Drugov, something rather curious seems to happen. The contrast between them only bring them closer. At the same time Ira presents herself as something wilder, savagery in its true form, to be with Fyodor is to belong. They’re her kind. Undoubtedly. And it urges her even closer to see how refinement suits a beast so well, when she spent a lifetime believing there was no such monster. Ira knows Fyodor is intimately acquainted with the limits of a cage, and she can see in their eyes how they loathes it too. This could be the birth of a true alliance, or the death of her. She isn’t quite sure. But Ira isn’t quite searching for an answer just yet.
The best opportunity to do all sorts of things is right here. Those two have lots of potential and I can’t help but wonder what we can do with that.
The leash.
A wild thing does not wear a leash. But time after time, Ira seems to find herself in the end of one. First, it was her parents and the dead weight they had become in her life. Then, came hunger and its way of driving her to the edge, towards an abyss that stole years of her life; – those she spent in the Sorokin household. Now, it seems the Darkling holds the end of her leash and Ira is growing anxious about holding it herself. She knows this was her choice, and she’s also aware that going against the Darkling’s domain is a step taken towards death, but a wild thing can’t help but feel claustrophobic in a cage. For how long can she keep her claws to herself, then?
Discussing if the Darkling would bother to make her respect him enough to ignore the leash, or if she is as insignificant as the Darkling keeping indifferent towards her, would be very nice. Depending on what he sees fit, Ira’s inclination to once again fight for her freedom would either settle down or grow into another war inside her. Treason or loyalty? That seems to be the question.
Angel of small death.
To lay such a violent devotion upon a fragile thing is to choose a doomed fate, but Ira had no choice. She only knows love as a violent act against the world, and when her heart found something in desperate need of nurturing in Stasya Belov, she forced her claws to be as gentle as she knew how, just to see the other’s wall building up faster than she could possibly understand how. This was rather ironic, if looked closer. The beast who knew no human trait finding the urge to devote all her love to a human who wanted no part in it. At least, this was what Ira perceived. Both the need and the walls separating them, Ira never had the courage to ask. To come closer.
Since this is a one-side connection, it would be very interesting to see Stasya’s side of it. If Ira is imagining it all, or it Stasya indeed had no interest in Ira’s devotion.
Humor me.
If there’s one thing Ira indulges herself in, is the liberty of instinct. She loves how it fits her so well, and how in control she seems when her inner beast manipulates her way through life. The very materialized form of this, is her relation with one certain Druvik Jadeja. Had she spared a moment of consciousness to consider the matter, Ira might have had the idea of how cruel that dance must’ve been to the other, but truth to be told, she neither cared to be moral nor did she have the interest to hide her cruelty. Ira loves to make Druvik dance for her like a monkey to whom she taught some very nice tricks. Manipulation is an art she began to understand through him, and one she would be very disappointed to lose in case of Druvik getting tired of their game.
Here, I would very much like to see what Druvik’s player thinks. Either see him falling deeper and deeper into her game, and wait for Ira to grow tired of how easy it has become to her, or see him revolting against her and allowing another kind of fun to present itself to Ira: the one in which she finds herself between his struggle to get rid of her cruel game and her urge to be so very violent about it all.
WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO HAVE YOUR CHARACTER DIE?: I believe so, yes! As long as it makes sense to her story, I believe it would be quite the final touch.
IN DEPTH
IN CHARACTER PARA SAMPLE(S):
BEFORE
The taste of blood in her mouth was a rather pleasing one when the girl opened the door to the Sorokin’s Household. It meant freedom in such a twisted way, that Bo grew fond of provoking the children in the streets of Ketterdam just to get into a fight and come home bleeding all over the Sorokin’s things. Every time they sent her to do errands around the city, her way of protest came with bloodstained packages and a face so bruised, the mistress wouldn’t want her in the house.
It was easier to spend hours in her master’s workshop, playing with metals as she pleased, than to spend countless hours pinning the mistress’ hair, feeding her false words and listening to her disgusting compliments in between threats. And once the woman saw the face of her child slave, what Bo had predicted unfolded right in front of her.
“This is unacceptable, child!” the woman yelled at her, “I do not wish to see your ugly face inside the house”, and against her scum, Bo hid a smile as she looked down and left the room. The pain that came with all those bruises was never so great as the one of serfdom. The girl wasn’t born to live in a cage. Wild things belonged somewhere else. But the Sorokin seemed blind to such a small and meaningful truth. It was rather convenient to keep her at an arm length. And so they did.
Every day she was moved as the masters pleased. Obeying every word in order to feed, to be kept warm and to have a bed at night. More frequently than not, the girl missed the soft brush of leaves against her skin, and the smell of freedom surrounding her. Those were days of happiness, – the ones spent in the wilderness of Ketterdam’s outskirts. She had no family, no master and no mistress to pin her down. Bo was free.
Shame that hunger brought her to a gun point. Now she knew this world wasn’t her place of right. She was told just how much otherworldly and beast-like she was at every bullet she escaped by the will of her mind. “Grisha”, the man had called her, and Grisha she became in the hands of her master.
That man only knew how to take advantage of Bo’s abilities, and though she despised every inch of him, this was a lesson the girl soon learned upon living with the Sorokin. If Bo wanted something, she had to take it from whoever had it. If she wanted to be left alone in the master’s workshop, she had to be beaten up badly by the lost children of Ketterdam and return home with barely no dignity.
But the girl knew, deep down, that this lesson would thrive into something greater. Time was all she needed. For as she manipulated steel into the form she well pleased, unnerved by the bars in her cage, Bo planned the future days of freedom. Those who waited for her in the end of that piece she was working one: a blade. The instrument to buy her way out of this hole.
INBETWEEN
Tw: slavery, torture.
The sea crashed against the hull of the ship as the whip of a master against his slave’s bare skin. It had the cruelty of who feared nothing and respected no one but itself. And it reverberated on a certain Ira Sorokin who knew that reality far too intimately to not spare a minute of recognition when the structural entity of the ship was set in a fierce wave.
At this point, the men on board seemed to be so acquainted with the violence of the sea and how it reflected so perfectly on Ira’s eyes, that they settle themselves on not bothering the girl once she was balanced on the bowsprit at the end of every day of work. For this was the time she devoted to the past. The moment of every passing day on the sea where she would close her eyes and feel the wind upon her face. Where she would poise herself as the daughter of feral things and travel back to the world of a girl whose name was now lost. “Bo Murometz”, she would whisper to herself and into the wilderness. In an attempt to hold on to that piece, to keep herself from forgetting.
She wasn’t sure why it mattered so much, but the thought of letting go was rather a sharp one. It left disfigured cuts on its way and more often than not, bathed on her blood. Ira Sorokin could never let Bo Murometz fade away. It was a stupid name of a stupid girl, but it belonged to her. There wasn’t many things in her life that she could call her own. Freedom, Bo Murometz, the chance of a glorious future… these were the things Ira possessed, and to devote herself to those small details, was to hold on with all her violence, in all her cruelty.
With the traders as her witnesses, Ira became the sea of unwanted things, and with no one to care for them, she took upon herself to be their guardian. Every day she stopped at that same place, climbed the wooden structure towards the bowsprit, and let her mind wander. The men feared her, despite the prejudice of women bringing bad fortune on sea. And they admired her, far beyond the immaculate beauty of her face. They knew she was something else entirely. Not the woman who worked her way into that ship and woke up every morning to prove her value to the crew. Not the girl who seemed lost in those split seconds of solitude. But certainly the being whose claws were beast-like.
They knew better than to ask, though. And she was grateful for it. Her hands were still wet with her masters’ blood. Her tongue still poisonous with her mistress’ name on it. She wasn’t just about to spill it all out, nor did she cared to do so. They kept to themselves, and Ira did the same. For the day she would set her feet on Ravka’s shore, was the day she would not have the time to the past. This was her way to say goodbye. This was her way of, utterly, and reluctantly, let go.
AFTER
The sound of chains made of Grisha steel whipping the ground was like a thunder ready to bring down a fortress. Ira greeted that old force with the devotion of a lover.
This was the moment she waited for the entire day. The fall of night when she could escape the curious eyes and hide as far way from both palaces as she could, with nothing to accompany her but the chains around her torso and a handmade tobacco roll burning between her lips. And though the drug was the one erasing all the insignificant beings that crossed her way, the weapon was the one to calm her down.
With time, she grew fond of the grip of metal between her fingers, or the rush that using her power brought. Ira liked to watch the tsepi unfold and move like a snake by her feet under her command. She could see, there, how promising her order was, for her dreams of glory always came hand in hand with the Durasts being able to be something other than workshop’s rats. Within those walls was another cage, and Ira wasn’t just about to confine herself again.
So the woman raised the roll to her lips and breathed in the smoke of tobacco. Her dark eyes falling shut as she stopped and ordered the tsepi to wrap around her torso once more. She smiled fiercely. A part of Ira knew she wasn’t meant to be displaying her pride like a trophy, but the part born beast made her loose hair and untidy clothes fit naturally to the chains she summoned back to her body.
That moment, Ira Sorokin was made of warning, of danger. This was the girl who murdered the man and woman who dared to imprison her. This was the wild thing that survived in the forest for so long and with no help at all. And this was the sailor who bought respect from the traders that led her here.
Strange was the path of a monster such as Ira Sorokin. One she, herself, couldn’t understand. Yet, she managed to conquer a few great things. A brief moment of freedom. The liberty to be otherworldly amongst her equals. What would her mistress tell her now?
There was no blood staining her clothes, her ethereal beauty as intact as the real Ira Sorokin liked. But her mistress was long gone. She couldn’t see her child slave now, and that piece of satisfaction, that small accomplishment, made the beast thrive.
CHARACTER HEADCANONS:
   x The lost child.
There’s a name whispered at night that Ira holds close to her heart and out of danger. It belongs to a girl who could barely remember her first years in this world, but who had known, with every inch of her soul, what her father had cried out in his vices and what her mother dared never to say. She believed it meant “wave” in her mother’s tongue, for she knew it was different from the one she learned in Ketterdam. It was an easy-to-remember name, a simple and sonorous one to Ira’s ear. It was Bo. Just this. No family name.
Until, there is, she wandered off and went to the outskirts of Ketterdam, where once, upon hearing voices between the trees, the girl found a father and a son traveling north. Hidden and far too curious about their ways, she heard a story about one Ilya Murometz, a bogatyr whose story started with “From the famous city of Murom, out of the village of Karacharovo, the valiant, doughty youth Ilya Muromets, the son of Ivan, set out far into the open fields…”.
She wasn’t sure what that word bogatyr meant, nor where those cities and villages were, but the girl was certain they were very much real, like Ilya himself. She learned how he spent his first 33 years of life on a stove, unable to move, as the consequence of a curse put on his grandfather, and how, upon the arrival of three religious men, the bogatyr found himself able to walk for the first time and became the owner of a super-human strength.
Enacting battles and great heroic moves, the strange traveler described how Ilya single-handedly defended the city of Chernigov from invasion and how he, afterwards, killed the forest-dwelling monster who murdered travelers with his powerful whistle. And with every victory, Bo celebrated as fiercely as she knew how. Ilya Murometz defeated bandits, three-headed flying serpents, possessed knights and even princes. A true bogatyr, a true hero.
When the night fade away and Bo lost the travelers in her sleep, she woke up the next morning to one decision: she was to be a monster slayer, a hero, just like Ilya. From that day on, she was to be called Bo Murometz. The girl who survived on her own and left on her path many victories.
This was the name Ira Sorokin kept a secret: the easy-to-remember word her useless parents gave her and the tale of glory she stole from a traveler in Ketterdam.
   x The tsepi.
Ira isn’t as devoted to the creation of things as she’s to their destruction. For a Durast in the Second Army, who was supposed to tailor equipment and build ships and fortresses, then, it was a tough path to fit in. But as always, Ira managed a way. She decided that, if the birth of greatness wasn’t her natural calling, the death of it could be just as useful.
Upon settling her mind to the task, Ira excelled on designing weapons to fit every special need. In the beginning, it was a rather disappointing project, but Ira didn’t rest until she left the workshop with triumph between her fingers. She created something called the Tsepi, a weapon that could only be useful to very skilled hands or to the Durast, It consisted of a chain made of Grisha steel that could be wore as a defensive weapon upon attacks in hand-to-hand combat, as well as one that involved knives and objects alike. But also one that worked as a whip and followed every command of the people who controlled metal as she did.
And once tested and proven worthy of her every efforts, Ira decided to be the first to show that Durast were warriors as much as any other Grisha. She knew it wasn’t exactly the description of her kind’s endeavors, but she didn’t really mind. Ira wears her tsepi wrapped around her torso, beneath her kefta, as the most beautiful and priceless jewel, and dreams of the day it will be a success in the Second Army, because the Durast will be encouraged to leave the workshop if they wish to.
   x The True Sea and the Shadow Fold.
On her way to Os Alta, Ira had two paths to choose from. One used the land bridge between Kerch and Shu Han to cross the True Sea and get to Ravka through the mountains that divided Shu Han’s and Ravka’s territory. The other was a wagon to a Port City where she would find her way into a Trading Ship with its course settled for Ravka, where she still would have to cross the Unsea to get to Os Alta.
Aware of the stories that travelled all the way to Ketterdam about Grisha who were experimented on in Shu Han, Ira decided she would rather cross a million times the Shadow Fold than risk being caught by the Shu Han and become a slave again. So she settled for the wagon, and once in the nearest Port City, found her way into a Ship that carried tobacco to Ravka. It wasn’t an easy journey, but she found out she loved the True Sea. Had she not dreamt of glory in Os Alta, Ira would’ve settled with a life on a ship, traveling back and forward to wherever the wind would take her.
This was particularly why the sight of the Unsea made her partially regret her decision. From something so beautiful and pure, to that aberration. From freedom itself to her grave. At least, this was how she defined the Fold the very moment she entered it. Rather unnerving was to realize, once she heard the volcra surrounding them, that she was more curious about them, than it would be wise. Something about those creatures just found an echo in her. Ira was afraid of them as any other sane human being, but that thing reverberating in her with the wings of the volcra and the blood they left in their path, just seemed right. After all, like calls to like. Beasts feel at ease between their kind. Why wouldn’t Ira be curious about the volcra?
  x The way to vices.
The girl Ira once was would never dare to nurse a vice. The reality of its ruination still fresh on her mind from all the disgusting things her father meant to her. But the woman Ira became needed a vice so desperately, that she took upon the opportunity to learn from those tobacco traders how to roll tobacco to smoke and which were the best to chew. It became a rather strong and reliable thing to do whenever she was unnerved or displeased with something or someone, and since the trip to Ravka, the Durast is still nursing that poison on her mouth.
If she’s not in the workshop or training, she’s most certainly smoking by the lake or wandering through Os Alta to buy her stock of tobacco.
EXTRAS:
    x Personality.
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN
Scorpio.
MORAL ALIGNMENT
Neutral Evil.
TYPE
Entrepreneur // ESTP-A.
TRAITS
Cruel. A conscious is a luxury not many were granted on birth, and Ira just isn’t one of the lucky. She was born to a world of cruelty, where the only ones who survived were those who learned how to be just as fierce and cruel. And as time went by, this particular trait of her developed with every drop of blood to ever touch her skin.
Independent. There’s not a thing or soul in this world that may control Ira, if she doesn’t allow them too. She has become her own master and made sure no one would ever rule her around once more. Now, the only one she respects enough to follow is The Darkling, for she also knows how to preserve her own freedom.
Feral. Everything Ira does has a heartfelt and powerful intensity. She may be small and rather fragile-looking, but those are the traits no one seems to perceive once she enters a room. For Ira walks as the person who knows what are life’s barriers, but has conquered them all. She’s involved with the world, with this life, in such an unique way, that powers emanates from her. And it’s wild, beast-like. So otherworldly, that she could very well be the monster on her favorite bogatyr’s story.
Devoted. To love is a rather violent act to Ira. She knows nothing about gentle emotions and thereof how to display them in such manner. But she, as anyone else, can love. And hers is a rather strong and fearless one, – though Ira won’t offer this rare and precious form of devotion to many. She’ll love whom she chooses with all her soul, mind and body, but she won’t know how to tune it down, how to be civilized about it. Ira will do it as fiercely as if it was a battle for her life, and though it may not be healthy, she knows no other way of loving someone.
Self-centered. When you live a life as she did, you learn that the one person to be trusted is oneself. She doesn’t trust anyone, no matter how strongly she feels about them, and won’t rely upon any other. Therefore, Ira is the most important person in her life and that’s final. All she does is based on her interests only, and all she thinks about is how to benefit from everything surrounding her. For as long as her distrust in mankind exits, this will be the way of Ira Sorokin.
   x Aesthetics.
Here.
    x Quotes.
1. “Nada do que fui me veste agora (Nothing I was fits me now)." — Maria Gadú.
2. "Her violence was art." — Rachel Vincent.
3. "I am made of untamable demons and unfillable voids." — Ira V. Simon.
4. "The passions we cannot control are the ones that define us.” — Simon Van Booy.
5. “Re-create yourselves: and let this be your best creation.” — Friedrich Nietzsche.
     x Playlist.
1. Iron by Woodkid.
“A soldier on my own, I don’t know the way I’m riding up the heights of shame I’m waiting for the call, the hand on the chest I’m ready for the fight and fate
The sound of iron shots is stuck in my head The thunder of the drums dictates The rhythm of the falls, the number of deads The rising of the hordes ahead
From the dawn of time to the end of days I will have to run away I want to feel the pain and the bitter taste Of the blood on my lips again”
2. Running with the wolves by Aurora.
“Go row the boat to safer grounds But don’t you know we’re stronger now My heart still beats and my skin still feels My lungs still breathe, my mind still fears But we’re running out of time, time All the echoes in my mind cry There’s blood on your lies The sky’s open wide There is nowhere for you to hide The hunter’s moon is shining”
3. Youth by Daughter.
“And if you’re still bleeding, you’re the lucky ones ‘Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone We’re setting fire to our insides for fun Collecting pictures from the flood that wrecked our home It was a flood that wrecked this home
And you caused it”
ANYTHING ELSE?
Regarding the book question, as I said before: I confess I had a really hard time thinking about my answer. I know it’ll probably change, as it did a few times, but The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, The Secret History by Donna Tartt and Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgueniev are my favorite books rn. I’m an Oscar Wilde trash 4ever, as in I pretty much love everything that guy wrote (and also Teleny, that no one actually knows if he wrote it or not, but wtv), and that’s the only constant regarding books and myself, but those three are the favorites of the season, or something like that kljdslfkjsdlfkjs
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coriwilbur-blog · 8 years ago
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20 Essential Albums to Take Your Record Collection From Novice to Noble
One thing I have learned from record collecting is that it is a lifelong commitment. One’s record collection is never complete – there is always a record you don’t own. Collecting and acquiring yet another vinyl can become addicting – I am a full-blown addict at this point. However, it can also be an overwhelming process – having to choose between which record to buy makes my head spin.
This is why I have created a list to help make this decision easier, especially if you are fairly novice at the art of vinyl collecting. I have been collecting since I was 16, having been blessed with a substantial starting point from my parents. Over the years, I have expanded their collections exponentially, having delved into further pockets of classic rock they never dared to explore before. In contrast to the direction the majority of other “albums everyone should own” type lists, I tried to avoid the trite, the most popular, the most obvious choices – going for more of a deeper-cut, heavy hitting and unique list of sorts. Here are the 20 albums I think everyone should own.
1. The Beatles - Revolver
As every music junkie knows, from the amateur record collector to classic rock expert, a record collection is not a record collection without The Beatles. No band has been able to surpass them in their music accomplishments and influence. And no one else has come up with an album nearly as good as Revolver – unless maybe the Beatles themselves. But what makes 1966’s Revolver so critical to a vinyl collection is that it marks the point in the Beatles’ work where they began to venture off, expanding their appeal past the hearts of teenage girls. This was where they showed how much more they could offer than just “yeah yeah yeah.” The themes are darker, deeper and wilder than anything they had ever done – including the George Harrison staple “Taxman,” one of Paul McCartney’s greatest achievements “Eleanor Rigby,” the most identifiable Ringo tune “Yellow Submarine” and of course, the show-stopping “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
2. The Beach Boys - Surf’s Up
Sure, sure Pet Sounds is technically the most significant Beach Boys’ work but take a listen to Surf’s Up and you will understand why it is on this list. Think Beach Blanket Babylon meets Kent State University – in fact, there is a song on here about student protests called “Student Demonstration Time.” Since Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys had been moving away from their “surfer” image, taking a similar path as the Beatles circa 1966. “Feel Flows,” a piece created almost entirely by Carl Wilson, paints a dreamy wonderland, ‘enveloping missiles of soul.’ Where all of their traditional Beach Boys sounding albums were light, meant to evoke nothing more than a feeling of endless summer, The track “Surf’s Up” hits you like a high-tide and shows that the water isn’t always surf able and eventually, summer turns into fall. The entire Surf’s Up album allows you to get to know the intellectuals behind the beach bums.
3. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd is my favorite band of all time and own all but one of their albums, so you can imagine how difficult it was for me to choose the one most critical for an awesome record collection. If you can get your hands on any Floyd album, you’re off to a great start. The obvious choice would definitely be Dark Side of the Moon so I’m going to recommend Wish You Were Here instead. Like, Dark Side – or any Floyd album, really – Wish You Were Here is a concept album, inspired by the mental demise of founding member Syd Barrett. Wish You Were Here is also a giant “fuck you” to record companies – I have a huge soft spot for anything with an anti-establishment message – with the tracks “Welcome to the Machine” and “Have a Cigar.” But the really shining moment is on the title track “Wish You Were Here,” where the band strips down to an uncharacteristically acoustic sound. “We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year” laments David Gilmour – so eerie, so dark, so Pink Floyd.
4. David Bowie - Lodger
The third album of Bowie’s “Berlin Trilogy” – who doesn’t love a collaboration with Brian Eno – is also his strongest. (Although, unless you are a devoted Bowie fan down to the core, you may or may not recognize any of the tracks right off the bat). Bowie albums are extremely hard to find for a reasonable price since his death a year ago and what not, so if you are going to splurge on one – pay over $20 for a record – make the purchase count and grab Lodger if you have the pleasure. Truly a “Fantastic Voyage,” 1979’s Lodger showcases Bowie’s musical abilities that no other one of his albums truly does – experimenting with African drum sounds on “African Night Flight” and paying homage to Lou Reed’s obsession with noise at the end of “Boys Keep Swinging.” Other highlights include “Move On,” “Red Sails,” “Look Back in Anger,” “Yassassin,” “DJ,” Repetition” and “Red Money.” Oh wait, oops, I just listed every track. Moral of the story: buy Lodger.
5. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
I am a firm believer that Brian Eno brings out the best in any already other-worldly gifted musician. The last of the three Heads-Eno collab albums, 1980’s Remain in Light was the Talking Head’s effort to prove that the other band members weren’t just back-up for frontman David Byrne. Listening to this album dispels any of such accusations. The commercially successful track is obviously “Once in a Lifetime,” but there’s so much more to this album than meets the eye. “The Great Curve” is the unsung hero here – the entire album a remarkable transition from the late 70s into the 80s. “You may say, this is not my beautiful house,” but why go for what you know, when you can have the Heads at their musical best.
6. Billy Joel - The Stranger
Out of all of the albums on this list, 1976’s The Stranger is one of the only one’s stylistically perfect in essence – seriously, it’s that good. From the get go you can tell this album is something special when you hear the beginning notes of “Movin Out.” And it’s just an upward slope from there, obviously hitting a climax with “Vienna” and “Just the Way You Are.” What’s so good about Billy Joel albums is that he sticks with a concept without being a “Dark Side of the Moon” level of obviousness or complexity – The Stranger is clearly about a young man emancipating himself, struggling to adopt an identity (“The Stranger”), finding masochistic love with a destructive woman (“She’s Always a Woman”) and seeing a dim light at the end of the dismal tunnel that is life (“Everybody Has a Dream”). Optimistically pessimistic is a good way to put it – take “Only the Good Die Young” for example; melding longing and belonging if you will. There is nothing cool about Billy Joel. Actually he’s downright hoaky and well, kind of lame. But there is something about his ability to sing about hopelessness and morbidity in such a hopeful and lively way that gets me going every time. I love him for all of his cheese and splendor; this album is a huge part of the reason why.
7. Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy
I was basically born mandated to love Steely Dan so it was very hard for me to choose which album is “the most important,” but since I am being forced to pick, my vote is for their sophomore work. Countdown to Ecstasy, the follow-up to a seemingly impossible to follow-up Can’t Buy a Thrill, is a remarkable home run. Steely Dan, a band that every parent seems to have had some weird obsession with in the 70s, is way more complex than any music writer’s ability to analyze. Yet, I still find myself able to relate to tracks like “Showbiz Kids” and “My Old School” – the latter more so than any other song in this world. The key is to not try to understand Steely Dan so much as treasure them, just like any other one of your parents’ odd quirks or idiosyncrasies.
8. The Clash - Sandinista!
“The only band that matters,” The Clash’s Sandinista! came out in 1980, a follow-up to London Calling – a  seemingly impossible record to beat. But Sandinista! goes one step further – it is a triple album – creating a whole new level of punk triumph. Sure, the album could be about ten songs shorter but, hell, why should it be? The Clash, who took punk, contorted it into a pretzel and turned anarchy into poetry, proved with this three record masterpiece that they could not be stopped – or at least until Mick Jones’ departure left us with Cut the Crap. Starting off solid with “The Magnificent Seven,” Sandinista! takes you on a wild journey – is the album, punk or reggae? Most of the time the answer is both but honestly, who cares? The band adopted an obsession with ‘dub’ – a form of reggae remixing – and was able to implement some of their previous tracks – “Police & Thieves” – in a new and exciting way. The ultimate stars of the show are obviously “Police On My Back” and “Charlie Don’t Surf,” but there’s so much else in between (and after) that is worth it that you easily lose yourself fand before you know it, you’ve spent the last two plus hours listening to punk rock.
9. Neil Young - Decade
I know the idea of even one triple album seems overwhelming but hear me out. Decade is Neil Young’s Greatest Hits album, so it can be listened to in full, in parts, out of order, however the hell you want to enjoy your Neil. The main point I’m trying to get across is that you need at least one Neil Young album and if you didn’t get graced with a father who worshipped the guy – meaning I have every single one of his albums known to man – you might as well pick one where you can have a collection of most of his best tunes compiled together. “Cinnamon Girl,” “After the Gold Rush,” “Old Man,” “Like a Hurricane,” “Harvest” and of course, “Heart of Gold” are all included. For a dude with such an expansive career, it’s amazing he was able to narrow the album down to just three discs!
10. Prince - Purple Rain
What Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was to him, Purple Rain is to Prince. Single-handedly one of the, if not the, most important pop music achievements to come out of the 80s, Purple Rain is Prince’s magnum opus. Now more than ever, mostly due to the artist’s untimely death last year, people ransack record stores for this album, and nearly pounce on me when I say I uncovered a copy for less than $20. And I’m all for the enthusiasm...obviously. From “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy” and the eponymous “Purple Rain,” to lesser known (but equally great) tracks like “The Beautiful Ones” and “Darling Nikki,” this album is the epitome of Prince’s musical and sexual genius. Not to mention that it is also a soundtrack to the movie of the same name.
11. The Doors - L.A. Woman
Not having acquired the Doors’ self-titled debut, L.A. Woman was going to have to do. And let me tell you, L.A. Woman, ironically their last before Jim Morrison’s untimely death, is better. By the time this album was released, the Doors had been banned from much receiving much airplay due to Morrison’s obscene and erratic behavior. Despite all the scandal, L.A. Woman contains some of the band’s biggest hits – “Love Her Madly,” “L.A. Woman” and “Riders on the Storm.” A concept album of sorts about life and love in Los Angeles, L.A. Woman was a great note for the Morrison-led era to end on, if it had to end.
12. Bee Gees - Bee Gee’s 1st
Long ago, before the dawn of “Saturday Night Fever,” the Bee Gee’s were just another 60s pop band. In fact, they had an extensive career before Tony Manero. Chest hair and disco fever aside, this album is nothing but pure, clean, simple pop music without a doubt – and really good pop music at that. The most notable track is definitely “To Love Somebody,” the song that ultimately put them on the radar in the first place, but there are so many other tunes that are equally as delightful – “Craise Finton Kirk Royal Academy of Arts” and “Close Another Door.” Bee Gee’s 1st is evidence that the Brothers Gibb from down didn’t need to be clad in polyester pants to produce enjoyable music.
13. Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Is it funk? Is it heavy metal? No, it’s Funkadelic! The god child of George Clinton and a band that refuses to be defined by traditional funk music rules – not that I could define them if I wanted to. Funkadelic’s piece de resistance, Maggot Brain is something from an entirely different universe – two minutes into the opening title track and you will be asking yourself “Who slipped acid into my coffee?” Next you will be saying, “Wait, I didn’t have any coffee! What the fuck is this?” But trust me, when the funk riff of “Can You Get to That” takes hold, you will be glad you joined the Soul Train from Mars.
14. The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out
The only live album on this list, Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out makes you feel like you are actually at a Rolling Stones concert. And boy, is it a great experience. Riding off the wave of Beggar’s Banquet, the Stones released this live compilation before the release of Let it Bleed. Ya Ya’s is everything you could ask in a live album and more – “Jumpin Jack Flash,” “Honky Tonk Woman” and “Sympathy for the Devil” all make appearances. However, it is the nine minute rendition of “Midnight Rambler” with the extended harmonica solo that earned this record a spot on this list above other Stones’ works.
15. The Grateful Dead  - The Grateful Dead
Nearly impossible to get used anymore for a remotely reasonable price, the 1967 debut, self-titled album from the Dead is worth the money, just ask any self-proclaimed Deadhead – I got lucky and acquired this album as a hand-me-down, unbeknownst of its value. Containing the influence of founding member Pigpen, who died in 1972 (RIP), the album comes at you strong from the first track “The Golden Road,” and continues to take you on a splendid, psychedelic journey, ending with a bang on the 10-minute long “Viola Lee Blues.” It’s a wonderful introduction into the “grate” career that was the Dead. Every collection needs at least one of their albums and if you strike gold with a copy of this one, grab it and guard it with your life.
16. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III
The third installment of the band’s self-titled album series, Led Zeppelin III marked a turning point for them. This was where they began to divert from their heavy metal-esque sound – the genre that happened because of them – and what they created instead was something from an even further away planet than both of the albums that precede it – a place I like to call “Fern Gully Rock” (i.e. “Gallows Pole”). Weirder, rougher and more Lord-of-the-Rings-ish than anything they had ever done up to this point – 1970 to be exact – Led Zeppelin III is the godliest of the holy trinity. What truly makes Led Zeppelin the metaliest of the metal bands is their ability to start an album with something like “Immigrant Song” and then say ‘fuck it’ and follow it with a beautiful work of poetry like “Tangerine.” And let’s not forget the last track on the first side “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” where Jimmy Page literally puts you into a state of hypnosis with his guitar solo. Definitely the most underrated of the four self-titled albums but by no means is it any less magical.
17. The Cars - The Cars
It’s so easy to dismiss The Cars as another “decent” band to come out of the 80s, you forget a couple of things: a) The Cars actually are a part of the late-70s New Wave movement (this debut album came out in 1978) and b) they are clean, tight and innovative musicians – just listen to that riff a la Benjamin Orr from “In Touch With Your World.” This album is almost like a “greatest hits” type compilation, consisting of hit after hit like “Good Times Roll,” “My Best Friend’s Girl” and “Just What I Needed;” the plot twist is that it’s not a “greatest hits” album, but in fact, it is their debut, which put The Cars on the map as punk-new wave pioneers. A part of a movement alongside acts like Blondie and the Talking Heads, it is easy for The Cars to fade into the background. But they shouldn’t and this album will instantly become one of your most played in your collection.
18. Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
With so many important works under his belt, from Highway 61 Revisited to Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan was obviously going to make an appearance here. John Wesley Harding is definitely way more underrated than it should be. Recorded after his miraculous recovery from that motorcyle accident, John Wesley Harding is more “down to earth” in its lyricism when compared to the wordy nature of his previous albums – “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest” is the only relatively lengthy, Dylan-esque ballad. Another remarkable characteristic of this album in particular, is the use of society’s “rejects” as a central figure in the subsequent tracks “Drifter’s Escape,” “Dear Landlord” and “I Am a Lonesome Hobo.” The album also includes his original version of “All Along the Watchtower” – the sole reason I bought this album in the first place. The reasons to purchase John Wesley Harding go way beyond that point, however. Constituted from a dark and simple place – this record is Bob Dylan sans his rambling riff raff, allowing you to truly hear why he is regarded so highly.
19. Supertramp - Breakfast in America
Supertramp, a band with one great albums and a few other, eh not so great ones. But when it was great, it was really really great – case in point, Breakfast in America. Both of my parents managed to contribute a copy of this 1979 record, which is exceptionally remarkable given that they followed two vastly different musical paths in their time. It’s easy to understand why they both loved this album, however, with tracks like “Goodbye Stranger,” “Take the Long Way Home” and obviously, “Breakfast in America.” Even if you have no idea who Supertramp is, I can guarantee you’ve at least heard “The Logical Song” once in your life. A seemingly random choice to be included on this list, give it a chance and you’ll understand why I have deemed it a necessity.
20. Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
The last album of folk legends, Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water is flawless in every sense of the word. What sets Simon and Garfunkel apart from the other musicians of their time is that they don’t just make music, they create art – Bridge Over Troubled Water being their Mona Lisa. “The Boxer” is a triumph, not just for the duo, not just for folk, but for all rock. Other notable tracks are “The Only Living Boy in New York,” “Keep the Customer Satisfied” and obviously, “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” The last on the list but certainly not the least by any means, this album is guaranteed to make you feel some type of way.
Every list is going to be biased depending on what the author’s collection contains. I am going to be honest, my list is completely biased. However, I’m going to impart it on you anyways because I believe I am an expert on the matter.
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