#Sparer

[politikwatch]

„Dass ein Viertel aller #Geldhäuser / #Banken immer noch keine #Tagesgeldzinsen zahlt, wirkt knapp ein Jahr nach der ersten #Leitzinserhöhung wie aus der Zeit gefallen“, sagt Oliver Maier, Geschäftsführer von Verivox Finanzvergleich.

[21st-century-boys]

Lucas Sparer

[mirinmuscles]

Lukas Sparer flexing, shirtless via. his Instagram Story

[fwboyp]

[brendasscott]

Lashed By Brooke Plainview Incredible Five Star Review by Marcia Sparer

[staceyjnamara]

Lashed By Brooke Plainview Incredible Five Star Review by Marcia Sparer

[xthecaptainssaviorx]

"There simply isn’t enough space for Rhaenyra to occupy the apartment alongside Laenor, two young sons, and a newborn baby. “ It showed her disorganization—not having her own space, really, and still living in her bedroom with her children. She couldn’t compartmentalize things,” Richards says. “Her room becomes cluttered, whereas Alicent’s becomes emptier.” (...) As Alicent grows to embrace her Hightower heritage, green begins to dominate the space—and the more devout she becomes, the sparer her chambers look. It’s a reflection of Alicent’s strong desire for order and control.

Rhaenyra's and Alicent's chambers in House of the Dragon throughout the first season

[vintagehomecollection]

Shoji screens have always lent themselves to endless variations. Kathleen and Michael Sparer chose an Art Deco motif to transform their California ranch house, rendering the designs in various finishes and sizes throughout the house. In the master bedroom, a blond hardwood from Malaysia called ramin has been used with fiberglass to complement the olive ash burl furniture. The walls have been glazed with brush, sponge and gauze. Etching by Sacramento artist Leslie Toms.

At Home With Japanese Design: Accents, Structure and Spirit, 1990

[blogiyeg]

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[beguines]

As the house of a person in age sometimes grows cluttered with what is too loved or heavy to part with, the heart may grow cluttered. And still the house will be emptied, and still the heart.

As the thoughts of a person in age sometimes grow sparer, like a great cleanliness come into a room, the soul may grow sparer; one sparrow song carves it completely. And still the room is full, and still the heart.

Empty and filled, like the curling half-light of morning, in which everything is still possible and so why not.

Filled and empty, like the curling half-light of evening, in which everything now is finished and so why not.

Beloved, what can be, what was, will be taken from us. I have disappointed. I am sorry. I knew no better.

A root seeks water. Tenderness only breaks open the earth. This morning, out the window, the deer stood like a blessing, then vanished.

Jane Hirshfield, "Standing Deer", The Lives of the Heart

[singlesablog]

A New Cool

“West End Girls" (1985) Pet Shop Boys Parlophone Records (Written by Tennant/Lowe) Highest U.S. Billboard Chart Position – No. 1 

There are two lines of thinking concerning the debut pop single for the seminal electronic pop band Pet Shop Boys; one, that the song is atypical of all of the hits they would ultimately create (and are still creating over 30 years later), and the other is that this is their signature song.  I am of two minds, that it is at once very them, and conversely not them at all; in some ways their first hit was a makeover of the band, whether by design, or not.  It is undeniable that in 1986 it was enormously successful, an evocative ear worm, and that the single introduced the strangely beautiful tenor voice of singer Neil Tennant, and ushered in one of the greatest pop duos ever. 

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met in a hi-if shop in London on Kings Road in Chelsea in 1981, and discovering a mutual love of electronic music, formed a band.  Tennant was at that time an assistant editor at Smash Hits magazine, and Chris a college student studying architecture.  Immediately, they began writing songs together in Neil’s bedsitter apartment (which I believe translates as a studio in the US).  They signed with American producer Bobby O (who oversaw rather crude Miami-tinged 80s dance music) in 1984/85; together with him they produced for the first time many of the songs that would appear on their debut Please, and the follow-up LP, Actually. “West End Girls” was released in 1985 as a 12” disco version that was much cruder and sparer; it was a minor hit in Europe and a “Screamer of the Week” on the influential 80s radio station WLIR in Long Island, New York (who's djs had a nose for new wave talent).  Nevertheless, it sank, and they spent the next year extricating themselves from Bobby O and signing with EMI, relinquishing to him some of the future royalties on many of the soon-to-be famous songs they had already written, including “West End Girls”, “Opportunities”, and “It’s A Sin” (all of which were re-recorded and eventually went top ten in the United States).  It would seem that the Imperial phase for any great band must always begin with a lawsuit.

“West End Girls” was re-released by the band in late 1985 in a much different version produced by Stephen Hague, and it immediately conquered the world, selling 1.5 million copies.  Where the Bobby O version squawked and squealed and sounded dated even then, this new track slithered on to the airwaves with a newer, more insinuating quality.  Rather than a club banger, this was now a highly suggestive track, with droning, floating synths, every effect modulated downward into an expression of cool detachment.  It was an important single not only in introducing this idea of bored aloofness from the duo, but also by permanently stamping them with the image.  No matter how hard they would try in the future to produce bombast (say, on “It’s a Sin”, a truly bezerk pop hit) they would be forever labeled as sardonic, stand-offish, bored, or sarcastic.  These are words that really translated into one idea for me: that they were actually gay, and smart, and therefore happy to play along with any narrative the public chose for them as long as people continued to buy their records.  The song’s lyrics, written by former history major Tennant, apparently reference Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, which sounds hilariously high-toned, but for the then 19 year old that first experienced it, it was clearly a coded story of gay boys clubbing on the wrong side of town, because the gay bar is inevitably on the wrong side of town, and that perhaps West End Girls is a clever wink at describing gay men crossing over. On top of all of these suggestions was a very fey British man successfully talk-rapping lyrics (a rap I can to this day successfully recite), telling a story with no obvious conclusion, because, well, you know.  It is a coded song about a coded world.  And while the Pets didn’t invent the electronic pop song, like couturiers they certainly tailored it to the measure of some very strict gay signifiers, and when I fell in love with the hit (and the band) I was already acquainted with those ideas and understood them instantly.  Of course, I did not experience the duo as detached; instead, they were stylistically and artistically brilliant, and their songs were clever, propulsive, and unique. 

Please as an album can be examined as a cohesive slice of queer nightlife in the 1980s: escaping to the city (“Two Divided by Zero”, “Suburbia”), sneering at society (“Opportunities”), fighting oppression (“Violence”, “I Want a Lover”), and, finally, reconciling to life and love, whatever that might mean (“Later Tonight”, “Love Comes Quickly”, “Why Don’t We Live Together?”).   I am sure “West End Girls” does reference “The Waste Land”, but somehow, just perhaps, Neil, the master of collage, is actually speaking more allusively to the mating habits of the male homosexual circa 1985.  Chris Lowe, for his part, made absolute certain that the songs would be played were they belonged, which was in the club, his complete obsession in every way; the electronic sounds he produced are essential to the texture of what Pet Shop Boys ended up doing better than anyone else, which was to document gay lives by dropping clues and signals to fantastic disco music while leaving out the specifics. And this is possibly why the original Bobby O version was so awfully wrong, and not really them: the duo must have discovered that they didn’t need to bang bang bang, that they could be better than that.  In fact, they actually didn’t need Bobby O at all; they could conjure up these subtle and delicious scenes all by themselves.

Sadly, Bobby O still got the money.  Kind of just like a Pet Shop Boys song, isn’t it?  

A little cynical, but true.

-

*The title of Please, which I always found entertaining, I imagined was a reference to gay men chastising one another with "Oh, Please", or "Girl, Please." This has never been substantiated. Instead, Neil was quoted as saying it was a little joke, so when a customer asked for it, they would be forced to say I would like Pet Shop Boys, Please. Hmmm. Regardless, this would still qualify as a double entendre.

-

Dropping a hairpin (verb, gay, archaic slang term): to reveal one's sexual preferences by dropping broad hints; thus keep your hairpins up, and maintaining a 'normal' mask.

Who, who wants a cocktail?  (“Opportunities (Reprise)”)

Someone spread a rumor.  Let’s run away. (“Two Divided By Zero”)

In every city, in every nation, from Lake Geneva to the Finland Station.  (“West End Girls”)

You may not always love me I may not care But intuition tells me, baby There's something we could share If we dare, why don't we?    (“Why Don’t We Live Together?”)

And you wait 'til later, ‘til later tonight.  'Cause tonight always comes.   (“Later Tonight”)

Neil Comes Out

In the early 1990s, Jimmy Somerville, formerly of the very out, gay 80s band Bronski Beat, accused Neil and Chris of Pets Shop Boys of exploiting gay culture for career purposes, and of not putting anything back.

Neil came out officially in 1994, and commenting in print on the matter, said that he resented anyone telling anyone how out they should be, or just what constituted a “contribution” to gay culture: 

“I do think that we have contributed, through our music and also through our videos and the general way we’ve presented things, rather a lot to what you might call ‘gay culture’. I could spend several pages discussing the notion of ‘gay culture’, but for the sake of argument, I would just say that we have contributed a lot. And the simple reason for this is that I have written songs from my own point of view…”

He pauses again. “What I’m actually saying is, I am gay, and I have written songs from that point of view. So, I mean, I’m being surprisingly honest with you here, but those are the facts of the matter.”

Having finally got all that off his chest, Neil Tennant pours himself a glass of mineral water and takes his sweatshirt off. He is looking distinctly pink around the gills. Maybe it’s the effect of suddenly admitting that for all these years he has been singing nothing but the truth. Or maybe it’s just the unbearable heat in here. “Well,” he says, in a voice which carries a distinct [air of]‘moving swiftly on’, “what’s your next question?”

Source: Neil Tennant in Attitude Magazine, 1994

[fwboyp]

[redrosesandcharmingsouls]

https://www.tumblr.com/xthecaptainssaviorx/743515395185590272/for-rhaenyras-bedchamber-richards-chose-to

Interesting detail about Alicent and Rheanyra rooms.

Hi! Thank you for the ask!

I really love these details ,the way Alicent's room becomes sparer as she starts to become more religious is peak catholic guilt and im here for it .

And i love how Rhaenyra's rooms are more messy ,i think it fits her really well and the fact that its also linked by how big her family becomes is adorable .

[dustedmagazine]

Nathan Bowles Trio — Are Possible (Drag City)

Photo by Asia Harman

The Nathan Bowles Trio whips a buggy wagon onto interstellar highways, hammering rustic grooves into motorik repetition until they lift out of the past into the endless now. The trio first convened on Bowles’ 2018 album Plainly Mistaken pushing traditional instruments—banjo for Bowles, string bass for Casey Toll and drums for Rex McMurry—into sprawling psychedelic spaces. Are Possible is sparer but no less adventurous, paring back motifs to essence, locking them in for extended intervals, and allowing repetition to make them flower.

The opening “Dapple” distills a sprightly dance into its architectural elements, letting the play of banjo flourish amid resounding piano chords. McMurry’s drumming both grounds and elevates the agile interplay of stringed instruments; endless vistas reminiscent of his old band, CAVE, open out as he batters and thumps. “The Ternions,” an old-fashioned word for trio, by the way, opens out like a tarmac road stretching to the shimmery distance, its propulsion softened by flurries of lingering overtones. Toll’s bass gets a fuller hearing in “Our Air,” a cut that slants on low-toned plucking into a countrified form of jazz.

Still it’s in the two longer cuts that the trio makes its most indelible mark. “Gimme My Shit” builds in pointillist complexity, a hoedown shifting in and out of Reichian minimalism. “Aims” dips more freely into blues forms, letting the banjo and guitar carry a plaintive porch-lit melody. It gathers itself and swings out wide a minute or so in, a drone sluicing through pizzicato filigrees, a ritual beat carrying the tune forward. Indeed, the drums go knocking and walloping as the piece progresses, turning an inward-looking dreamscape into visceral, body-shifting triumph. All the elements come from pre-electric blues, but the end result is modern, almost futuristic.

The book of Matthew tells us that “With God, all things are possible,” and while I wouldn’t second guess the religious inclinations of any of these three musicians, there is an aura of immanence, of something more than banjo, bass and drums, that infuses these mystic tracks. Many things are possible, too, when you put together three such capable player and give them time and space to transcend themselves.

Jennifer Kelly

[mariacallous]

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (also rec’d by John Irving)

“This may not just be my favorite Dickens novel, but my favorite novel period. I read it regularly, and every time is an undimmed pleasure. More, every time it feels fresh. That is the mark of greatness. Although the comic characterization is as juicy as ever, and it’s impossible to read without laughing out loud, Dickens here gives the fullest expression—through the hero who tellingly bears, if back to front, his initials—of horror at the heartbreak, savagery and injustice of the world. It is the ultimate bildungsroman and the truest story of how a person comes to be. Not for nothing was it Freud’s favorite novel.” -NL

Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

“This is a nuanced and powerful novel about growing up, the mother-daughter relationship, female identity, sexuality, cultural dissonance, privilege, poverty and the pernicious legacy of colonialism. Kincaid’s style is both immediate and headily intense. A glinting, multifaceted work within relatively so few pages.” -NL

Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban

“This book was my late sister Thomasina’s favorite as a child, though it is close to my heart for other than sentimental reasons, too. Within its prettily illustrated story about a fussy eater, it is understanding and touching about the fears and joys of food, and of childhood. So enduringly touching.” -NL

Persuasion by Jane Austen

“Sparer, more savage and so much more poignant than ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ (a great book, too, and I don’t mean to disparage it at all,) ‘Persuasion’ is a novel that tells us, as only Jane Austen can, about the vanities and follies of being human with such memorably dry wit.” -NL

Middlemarch by George Eliot (also rec’d by Bret Easton Ellis, Carrie Fisher & Zadie Smith

“Despite its grand place in the literary canon, ‘Middlemarch’ is really a rich, gossipy boxed set of a novel. I first read this as a teenager in short bursts nightly with a torch after lights-out, and it gripped me like a soap opera. The foolishness of the human condition, the urgency of its whims and fancies, and the often blinding need to find meaning are unsparingly chronicled in this feast of a book.” -NL

The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

“PG Wodehouse is not a writer for those who want to read about the rah-rah world of aristocratic fops, he’s a writer for those who love reading sentences that shimmer with brilliance and wit. He is the preeminent English stylist, and I find it impossible to read him without purring with pleasure and hooting with laughter. This particular Jeeves and Wooster novel is a real corker.” -NL

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

“Haunting and transcendentally compelling, this is a prose-poem of a novel about grief, loss, suffering and family. But saying what a Marilynne Robinson novel is ‘about’ seems such a brutish vulgarity: it’s the melancholic yet ecstatic beauty of her language that makes her writing just seep into me, and stay with me.” -NL

The Most of Nora Ephron by Nora Ephron

“Reading a book is like making a friendship, and Nora Ephron is the funniest, cleverest, wisest (and cleverness and wisdom are not the same things at all, and rarely coexist) friend you could have. I really didn’t know whether to proffer Heartburn here or this volume, and in the end I went for this anthology, as it’s impossible to read it (and it does have excerpts from Heartburn,) without having to go on to read everything else Ephron wrote.” -NL

‘Tonio Kroger,’ included in Death In Venice, And Seven Other Stories by Thomas Mann

“I know that the novella ‘Tonio Kroger’ is not Thomas Mann’s greatest work. There is some part of me that feels that I should be putting up ‘Buddenbrooks’ or ‘The Magic Mountain’ here. And there’s a strong case for ‘Death in Venice,’ too. But this is the book of his that felled me completely when I read it as a German student in my teens. All Mann’s enduring themes are here: the struggle between duty and love, between the febrile pleasure and teutonic responsibility; and the lethal vulnerability of the lover, set against the wanton cruel power of the beloved. It’s an anguished worldview, which is what spoke so directly to the adolescent reader I was, but no one reads Thomas Mann for woo-woo life-enhancing sentimentality.” -NL

Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

“It would be a mistake to think that this memoir by Gabrielle Hamilton, chef proprietor of Prune, is solely for those interested in food. It is one of the most searingly honest autobiographies I have read: it is the story of a woman struggling to find her place in the world, the story of a lost childhood and a recovered self. This is no self-pitying misery memoir: it’s full of grit and passion, combining vigor with sensitivity, and I am as hungry for her words as I am for her food.” -NL

[weaselle]

here you say here okay here i’ll play we - need to be needed, see yeeted is free; but wanted heart haunted undaunted and dear? such care is much sparer, which rarely appears.