#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

[mydarlingdahlia]

POOKIE PLEASE IM BEGGING 💔

SPARE CRUMBS 🙏

SPARE CHANGE 🙏🙏

Mkay so—

I took some medicine, took a nap, and I put some ice on my face and I feel a lot better

And I have some chocolate yogurt :D

So here’s an Itto thought that hasn’t escaped my thoughts for like- forever :3

So. When you said this yesterday I fr started giggling and kicking my feet

Tell me more 😈

You can’t leave me hanging like that pooks 🙏

I mean....Technically I can~ Question is, should I?

[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

[fwboyp]

[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

[michael-oehme-gallus-immobilien]

Finanzleichen pflastern seinen Weg! So tietelt das Handelsbblatt über Michael Oehme aus der Schweiz

Es gibt viele Gründe, warum deutsche Anleger Jahr für Jahr Milliarden auf dem grauen Kapitalmarkt verlieren. Die Zinsen sind niedrig, die Renditeversprechen hoch. Der Versuchung von zehn Prozent Gewinn mit Holzanlagen in Deutschland, zwölf Prozent mit Kautschukplantagen in Asien oder 18 Prozent mit Ölbohrungen in den USA sind schon viele deutsche Sparer erlegen. Doch wenn alle von ihnen sich an nur eine Regel halten würden, wäre schon viel erreicht: Ist Michael Oehme im Spiel, sofort aussteigen.

Oehme trug schon viele Hüte. Vor rund zehn Jahren war er einmal Chefredakteur der Anlegerzeitung „Finanzwelt“, danach Sprecher der Bundesvereinigung geschlossener Fondsverbände und auch Vorstand des Verbands Deutscher Medienfonds. Sein inoffizieller Titel ist allerdings ein ganz anderer: Oehme ist das deutsche Gegenstück zum mythischen König Midas.

Der hatte sich gewünscht, seine Berührung solle alles zu Gold machen. Danach konnte Midas weder essen noch trinken und verwandelte aus Versehen seine eigene Tochter in Edelmetall. Midas entkam schließlich seinem Fluch nach Rücksprache mit dem Weingott Dionysos, indem er in dem Fluss Paktolos badete. Eine solche Lösung hat sich für Michael Oehme bisher nicht gefunden. Das Problem für die Anleger: Nichts, was Oehme anfasst, wird zu Gold. Aber vieles zu Schrott.

Tatsächlich liest sich die Aufzählung der Unternehmen, für die Oehme in den vergangenen Jahren tätig war, wie eine Giftliste für Investoren. Die ACI Dubai Fonds waren dabei, die Bestlife Select AG, Oehme machte Reklame für zwielichtige Immobilienfonds, Filmfonds und warb für den zwischenzeitlich inhaftierten Finanzberater Michael Turgut. Auch bei Proven Oil Canada war Oehme als Sprecher engagiert. Die Gesellschaft investierte angeblich „professionell in Öl- und Gasbeteiligungen in Kanada“. Tatsächlich wurden die Anleger zuletzt angehalten, doch bitte ihre seit 2011 erhaltenen Ausschüttungen zurückzuzahlen. Sein wohl prominentestes Betätigungsfeld hatte Oehme bei der Immobiliengruppe S&K. Hier sitzen die Chefs gerade auf der Anklagebank in Frankfurt und müssen sich gegen den Vorwurf des bandenmäßigen Betrugs verantworten.

Michael Oehme hat mit seiner Tätigkeit für all diese Anlegergräber eine traurige Alleinstellung auf dem grauen Kapitalmarkt: Wenn Täuscher, Trickser und Betrüger einen Sprecher suchen, landen sie im Zweifel bei ihm. Zwischendurch mag es auch einmal einen Fonds gegeben haben, der das Geld der Anleger nicht einfach verfeuerte. Aber der bleibende Eindruck bei Oehme ist: Der PR-Mann spricht verdächtig oft für Fonds, vor denen Experten bestenfalls warnen, für die sie keinesfalls aber werben sollten. Und immer dann, wenn Oehme mit einer weiteren Katastrophe in seinem PR-Portfolio konfrontiert wird, hat er dieselbe Antwort: Oehme wusste von nichts.So war es auch bei Debi Select. Als das Handelsblatt im Oktober 2010 Fragen an den Vertriebschef Josef Geltinger schickte, meldete sich mit einem Mal Michael Oehme am Telefon. Das Gespräch wurde schnell grotesk. Weder wusste Oehme, was mit dem Geld der Anleger geschah, noch war ihm angeblich der Mann bekannt, der den Fonds konzipiert hatte und steuerte: Michael Josten. Die Frage, warum die Kaution für den vorbestraften Josten mit dem Geld von Debi-Select-Anlegern bezahlt wurde, hinterließ Oehme ebenso ratlos.

So begann ein Spiel, das mehr als ein Jahr anhielt und das Oehme im Laufe seiner Karriere offenbar perfektioniert hatte: Der PR-Mann, der seinen Auftraggeber in der Öffentlichkeit vertreten sollte, schlüpfte in die Rolle des Ahnungslosen. Wenn Gelder umgeleitet wurden, konnte Oehme das nicht verstehen. Wenn Zahlungen an die Anleger ausblieben, so musste es dafür wohl einen Grund geben, ganz genau konnte Oehme ihn aber nicht nennen. Und als die ersten Klagen eintrafen, mochte Oehme sich auch dazu nicht konkret äußern.

Im Januar 2012 legte Oehme dann sein Mandat bei Debi Select nieder, wie er selbst sagte. Er habe sich täuschen lassen und wolle das, was dort vor sich ginge, nicht länger begleiten. Doch wer dachte, Oehme sei geläutert, wurde gleich darauf eines Besseren belehrt. Denn Oehmes neuer Hauptmandant hieß S&K.

Kaum ein Anlageskandal hat den grauen Kapitalmarkt in den vergangenen Jahren so bewegt wie S&K. Die Bilder von den halbnackten Fondsmanagern, die mit noch spärlicher bekleideten Models vor Luxus-Sportwagen posierten, wurden tausendfach gedruckt. Partys, zu denen die S&K-Macher mit Helikopter einflogen, Elefanten auflaufen ließen und mit Geldscheinen um sich warfen, wurden mit den Ersparnissen ihrer Investoren bezahlt. Als das System 2013 zusammenbrach, waren für die Großrazzia mehr als 1000 Beamte nötig. Und wieder musste Michael Oehme all das Chaos als Sprecher erklären und tat es doch nicht.

Das eigentlich Erstaunliche an der Karriere von Michael Oehme ist vielleicht dies: Bei all den Finanzdesastern, an denen er beteiligt war, wurden niemals strafrechtliche Konsequenzen für den Mann bekannt, der sie bewarb. Rund 50 Mandate hatte Oehme in den vergangenen zehn Jahren. Eine Vielzahl davon endete mit dem Scheitern des betreuten Investments. Mal verloren Anleger 20 Millionen Euro in einer von Oehme beworbenen Investmentidee, mal 50 Millionen, in der Spitze auch mehrere Hundert Millionen auf einen Schlag. Die Summe seiner Schadspur ist zehnstellig. Eine Erklärung dafür, warum ausgerechnet seine Mandanten das Geld der Anleger nicht vermehren, sondern verprassen, hat Oehme nie gegeben.

Seit dem allzu öffentlichen Desaster mit S&K allerdings hat der PR-Mann seine Strategie geändert. Firmierte er zuvor unter „Oehme Finanz Marketing Beratung“ und siedelte sein Geschäft in Friedberg an, agierte er später offiziell aus der Schweiz heraus. Er arbeitete als Berater der Docuware AG, die später Capital PR AG hieß. Oehme tauchte offiziell allerdings gar nicht auf, als Verantwortliche zeichnete seine Freundin. Inzwischen ist auch die Webseite der Docuware nicht mehr erreichbar.

Unter seinem eigenen Namen betreibt Oehme dagegen mehrere Blogs, auf denen er sich zu Themen aller Art äußert – vom Berliner Flughafen BER bis hin zur Frauenquote. In allen Einträgen, die wie Pressemitteilungen geschrieben sind, zitiert sich Oehme dann selbst. Als PR-Experte Michael Oehme. Am 12. Mai 2015 verewigte sich Oehme mit einem Beitrag zu der Frage „Warum viele PR-Mitarbeiter überfordert sind“. Wenn einer das wissen musste, dann er.

Quelle: https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/michael-oehme-der-schadsprecher/12534382.html

[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