#Stream date was around December 20 2020

[royalarchivist]

Technoblade: Alright, well now that Christmas is over, let’s go commit some terrorism.

A little compilation of some Bedrock Bros moments from their 2020 Christmas streams.

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

I’ve been thinking a lot about how sensitive tae / jk / tkkrs are. Like the thing you said about JK solos thinking the company and army are against him. Like if jimin had the fan base numbers and company support they had I would be thrilled and simply keep my mouth shut.

It’s especially interesting that they drag jimin so much when he poses no real threat (numbers wise) to them. Tae literally has 10 MILLION more followers than jimin on IG. And JK probably would too if he was still on IG.

What i keep coming back to is that can’t fathom jimin having the large amount of success than he has (even if it’s less than tae/jk) when he doesn’t have the traditional qualities that tae and jk have that make them the most biased. Like tae’s perfect face or JK’s boyish charm / masculinity / both of them being conventionally attractive overall, along with JK’s natural talent and Tae’s “confidence”. Jimin has all this success without those things. And I feel like that’s what bugs them and threatens them. Idk just thinking/rambling!

Here's the thing about Instagram followers... I've written about this before but I can't seem to find that post, so I guess I'll have to do another post (this one) about it.

Instagram followers are not a measure of talent or success. They never were, and never will be. I can only think of like Messi and Ronaldo who have 600 million followers as people who their instagram followers are *sort of* a reflection of how well known they are.

Armys live in a bubble; taekookers, Taehyung and JK stans live in an even smaller bubble, tho this could be true for every solo out there. They think BTS (or their particular bias) is the center of the universe, and they forget that there actually are other celebrities and musicians in the planet. They forget too that not everything that looks like success, is actually success.

Harry Styles doesn't get half the likes any BTS member gets. Harry has had several billboard 100 singles, many of them were #1 and As It Was is still charting. Yet he has even less followers than Jimin, I think. Harry has been touring non-stop for more than a year, now. You'd think he wouldn't have fans to attend his shows when you look at his posts with 1 - 2 million likes. He sold 500k albums the first week on the US. BTS sell ~200K. Beyonce gets less likes than any BTS member, too. Yet she's on a sold out stadium tour around the world right now. Coldplay has less than 20 million followers yet they've been active as a group since 1996, and they also are on a stadium tour right now. The same stadiums that BTS played in two or three times, Coldplay has had up to 8 sold out dates in those stadiums.

Now, for the final bosses. Taylor Swift gets around 7 millions likes on her posts. She's also on a stadium tour right now. Her albums that were released 15 years ago and she's re-releasing now, are still getting one million preorders in the first day, only in the USA. She gets 80 million streams on her spotify profile, DAILY. Everyday.

BTS right now has 73 million followers on their bts_bighit account, and it was a smaller number before but in 2021 they were already getting 100 million views for butter in the first 24 hours.

For Christmas 2020, Jimin released Christmas Love, unannounced. Literally they just posted a link, and the youtube audio got I think 10 million in the first day. Later that day, Taehyung went on weverse to announce he'd be releasing snow flower that night. It debuted with less views than Christmas Love, even if it had been announced. The members opened their instagram accounts on December 6th 2021 (I'm just going by memory here, so I might be slightly wrong on the date). Taehyung immediately was "on the lead" regarding followers, immediately gathered a few million more than any other member. Taehyung then released Christmas Tree in the end of December 2021. Debut streams: roughly 1.5 million. If even half of his followers had tuned in (on Spotify) for his song, you'd think he would've done better than 1.5 million streams. With you was released four months later and, despite having only half the tracking time and despite "unpopular" Jimin having less instagram followers than Taehyung, with you got a better first day streams. To this day, it still gains streams faster than Christmas Tree.

As a sidenote, I don't think it's a small detail that instagram followers and likes are way easier to fake and fraud than streams. In the end, Jimin is a musician and the only way he can "prove" anything about himself, or his popularity or success, it's through his music and his performances. I think it's clear he himself doesn't even care that much about his instagram profile.

The same goes for Jungkook's lives viewers, which was something I was thinking about the other day. He released music last year, and last year he was already getting 15, 20 million viewers (which his fans claim are unique viewers), but his songs debuted with not even half of that. And we know how streams work; one person could stream the same song 10, 20 times. So how come he doesn't get 40 million streams a day? Or at least one day in the year? If we were to assume that 20 million different people watch his lives, those 20 million could also play his song once or twice at least one day in the year. But that doesn't happen.

So that's why I could never be bothered about instagram followers and likes... it really never mattered to me. Records in general don't matter to me, and I've said it plenty of times. There are some Jimin "records" and numbers that I wasn't even aware of until FACE was released. I didn't know that with you was more streamed than stay alive or christmas tree, for example. There's some stuff I'm finding out only because other people post about it, not because I'm constantly checking up on Jimin's and other member's numbers.

I can only go with Taehyung's old releases numbers because he hasn't released anything in a while. Also, a random OST is not the same as a proper debut, so I am aware that nobody really knows how well he could do with his debut. But the truth is that -IN THE PAST- his streams and singles sales have always been lower than Jimin's; the only member who's on par with Jimin on that, is Jungkook. Maybe for his debut Taehyung will finally release a fun song that people actually want to listen to.

On the other hand, now that Jimin has "set records" with his debut album, when Taehyung and Jungkook's albums come out, they will try to out-do Jimin's numbers, and when the next Jimin album comes out, people will try to out-do taekook's numbers and so on and on. So unless it's a really extraordinary thing that could hardly be replicated (like Jimin's BB #1), other than that, records of numbers are a really fickle thing to hold on to. The only reason I talked about them in this post was to make a point that instagram followers really do not always correlate to how "successful" or loved, or supported someone is.

As for your last paragraph, firstly I'm really uncomfortable and tired of the backhanded "compliments" like Jimin is doing great, but not as great as Taehyung or Jungkook. Like what is the actual purpose? I know they will do well, but the undermining of Jimin's achievements is insane and so unnecessary. The day Jungkook's and Taehyung's albums were announced too, it was "the most successful kpop soloists in the world" when Jimin is literally right there, being exactly that right now. Why have most people in this fandom incorporated the backhanded compliments in their vocabulary? Being lowkey or even highkey shady towards Jimin is almost like an unconscious thing for most these days.

Talking specifically about the hate he gets from Taehyung's Jungkook's stans, what you mentioned is half of the reason why. The other half is, ships. The other half of the hate is because of taekook.

They have convinced themselves that Instagram followers and such, are a measure of success. They have convinced themselves that Jimin is not talented, that he can't sing, that he can't dance, that all these years he was pushed by the company as something he's not and that his whole personality is a lie. They fight so hard against the love he receives because they genuinely think he doesn't deserve it for all of those reasons they've invented themselves. Then some YouTuber shows up and reacts to a BTS live song and goes "oh this Jimin guy sounds the best" and they think he's been paid to say that. The idea they have of him has never correlated with the image the real world has of him, and that's what bothers them. If someone says I love this song, they just HAVE to be on his business and spam "this song is awful" because they think it's wrong to like him and want others to feel that way about him too.

That's never going to happen because the real world isn't chronically online, feeding themselves lies the way Taehyung and JK stans are.

It's also interesting, but not really, that according to them Jimin is a "flop" but Jimin is the only one they're always trying to surpass. So how exactly is he flopping if he's their biggest competition. All BTS members are competing with themselves as of right now, none of them stand a chance next to already stablished artists with proven global, stable success like Harry or Taylor. Didn't bad bunny get 1 billion streams on his album the FIRST day? That happened last year. And JK stans were so proud of Jungkook getting it in 409 days. I'd like to see Jungkook or Taehyung stans try and argue how successful they are compared to people like those I mentioned. All BTS members are competing with themselves, but none of them are actually stablished as solo acts, especially in the states. All of them are still confined to kpop so far. Jimin has probably started to crack the surface because Like Crazy was quite successful in the USA and even the UK, and there were a lot of things that gave it publicity, but even then that's just a crack and it takes time to settle as an undisputed successful solo artist. No BTS member has the time to do that.

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

ONE COMPLETE YEAR OF DREAM SMP RECAPS: In Review

---

So, it’s been one year since the first recap! 

A full year of keeping track of the events and goings on of the server, ever since a week or so after the end of Season One. 

This post will be a recap of every day from that year. It’s a long post, so only open it if you’re ready to read for a while. 

Welcome...to the Dream SMP Year Recap.

---

November 23rd 2020 - November 23rd 2021

---

The days began with November 23rd 2020, the day that Vikkstar and Lazarbeam joined the server:

Nov 23: Vikkstar and Lazarbeam join the SMP, Eret offers to adopt Fundy

Nov 24: Tubbo’s decree, Ghostbur gets jealous about the adoption

Nov 25: Callahan steals all the bitches, Karl starts building Party Park

Nov 26: Karl teaches Ponk and George about Thanksgiving, Lani’s visit featuring Mexican Dream

Eret’s adoption offer was a short-lived arc that ended sadly, but that same day, Ranboo would be added to the server, kicking off a long chain of events:

Nov 27: Fundy gets into an argument with Ghostbur after Eret doesn’t show up to adopt him, Ranboo joins the server

Nov 28: Tommy and Ranboo grief George’s house, Niki and Puffy go on a date, Ranboo and Fundy build an ice cream shop, Dream builds a wall

Nov 29: Tommy’s trial, Tubbo speaks with Dream, Dream follows Puffy around like a duckling, Dream gets Denny’s therapy with Quackity

11/30: Fundy bonds with Ghostbur, Cursed Lore Day (Samsung Fridge)

On December 1st, a new country would be founded only to revolt after five days:

12/01: Mexican L’manburg is created, Girl Dream visits

12/02: Meeting with Dream about the exile, Tommy and Ranboo speak, Tubbo, Fundy and Quackity speak

12/03: Tommy/Ghostbur and Techno/Phil go their separate ways, George is dethroned

December 4th: The beginning of the Exile Arc:

12/04: Day of the Exile, the Badlands have a disagreement

12/05: Prison is commissioned, Tommy’s first full day in Logsted, Sean’s visit

On December 6th, Mexican L’manburg fell, and Bad found a new oddity growing in his statue room...

The beginning of the Egg Arc:

12/06: The Mexican L’manburg Revolution, start of El Rapids, Pandora’s Vault is named, discovery of the Blood Vines

12/7: Dream and Tubbo play chess, Blood Vines grow more

12/8: Tommy sees Tubbo at Logsted, they plan the Beach Party

12/9: The Beach Party, Sapnap angers the Crimson

12/10: Jack visits Tommy and dies, Skeppy gets trapped in the Crimson

12/11: Tubbo gets Squeeks, Fundy and Niki leave for Dry Waters, Red Skeppy emerges

12/12: MCC, no updates

12/13: The return of Mexican Dream and Girl Dream, Fundy’s tricks, Pokimane’s visit

12/14: Drista’s visit, Quackity says goodbye, Dream checks the Prison

With New L’manburg’s rage still brewing against Technoblade, the Butcher Army attempts to go after him while Tommy escapes from Exile:

12/15: Dream gives Techno a quest, Tommy escapes to Technoblade’s house, Purpled and Ponk vs. Jack and Antfrost Battle at the Thiccatron, Corpse’s visit

12/16: The Butcher Army executes Technoblade

12/17: Techno and Tommy sneak through L’manburg, Dream speaks with Punz

12/18: Technoblade hides Tommy during Dream’s visit, Ranboo dies by a llama, Disc-ount Disc War

12/19: Ghostbur hides Tommy during Dream’s visit, Fundy scams Antfrost and Punz

12/20: Holy Land fight, Jack-Ponk-Ant Conflict, Homeless Dream Arc, KSI’s Deadly Classroom

12/21: Ponk builds a bee, Ant and Bad perform experiments on the Crimson

12/22: Tubbo gives Phil an ankle monitor, attack mob forms, Jack-Ponk war continues, Phil escapes New L’manburg to live with Techno

12/23: Tommy builds a path, Bad, Punz and Ant continue experiments on the Crimson

12/23: Tubbo’s birthday, Tommy makes a path, experiments on the Crimson continue

12/24: Wilbur’s Christmas karaoke

12/25: Tommy and Tubbo chill non-canon stream

Karl gathers his friends to build a country in an hour, kicking off a brand new series:

12/26: Lani’s visit, Tales From the SMP Pilot: “The Town That Never Was”

12/27: Connor’s kidnapping, Tommy and Dream’s confrontation, HBomb becomes Fundy’s cat maid again

12/28: The Mr. Beast Challenge

12/29: Ranboo decorates for the Festival, Dream SMP Build-Off

12/30: Fundy builds a mob farm, experiments on the Crimson continue

12/31: Nothing much happens

1/1: HBomb’s Social Experiment

1/2: Tales From the SMP: “The Village That Went Mad”

1/3: Nothing much happens

1/4: Fundy’s Interrogation

L’manburg holds a Festival to try and kill Dream, only for their country to fall to destruction the day after:

1/5: The New L’manburg Festival 

1/6: Doomsday

In the wake of tragedy, Tubbo leaves to the barren snow to find a new home:

1/7: Tubbo creates Snowchester

1/8: Squeeks’ Death and Funeral

1/9: The Ranboo Experiment, Tales From the SMP: “The Beach Episode!”

1/10: Resurrection Attempt

1/11 - Nothing much happens

1/12 - The bathwater mishap

1/13 - Ponk and Sam help Tommy prepare

With L’manburg gone, the Crimson takes its next step forward with an empire. Meanwhile, Ranboo has been wrestling with a strange voice, a new arrival appears, and Tubbo hatches a plan to go nuclear:

1/14 - Puffy’s Hero Arc, Dawn of the Eggpire

1/15 - Ranboo’s confrontation

1/16 - Foolish arrives

1/17 - Ant plants the seeds, Project Dream Catcher begins, Karaoke Night!

Another new member joins, and Techno and Phil make plans for a new group of anarchists:

1/18 - HannahxxRose arrives, Founding of the Syndicate

1/19 - Tommy’s final night, HBomb leaves, Niki and Techno meet, Ranboo and Tubbo meet, Punz’s discovery

It’s time for Tommy and Tubbo to finally face Dream and end the Disc War once and for all. With their victory, Dream is hauled off to his own prison with possession of the revival book:

1/20 - DISC WAR FINALE

-

— END OF SEASON TWO —

-

Tommy starts building a hotel, Quackity and Sam hatch plans of their own as the Eggpire makes bold moves, and Jack and Niki get their chance to kill Tommy with the nuclear launch test:

1/21 - Tommy’s visit to Dream

1/22 - Slimecicle joins the server

1/23: Connor and Schlatt’s party, Quackity and Sam plan Las Nevadas

1/24: The Eggpire attacks, Tales From the SMP: “The Lost City of Mizu”

1/25 - Puffy rescues Sam from the Egg, Bad traps Ponk with the Egg

1/26 - Nuclear Launch Test, the Crimson speaks

1/27 - Fundy, Phil and Ranboo explode the Vines, Fundy is almost captured

1/28 - Tommy and Jack destroy the remnants of Ponk’s Lemon Tree

1/29 - Ponk captures Fran as revenge

1/30 - Bad’s visit with Dream, Ranboo’s confrontation

1/31 - The Eggpire hires Purpled

2/1 - Ponk’s dream, Ranboo speaks with Awesam

2/2 - Ponk reads Jack’s Journal, Tommy takes a piece of the Crimson, Awesam and Fran bond

2/3 - Puffy attempts to destroy the Crimson, Tales From the SMP: “The Masquerade”

2/4 - Nothing much happens

2/5 - Jack Manifold becomes the main character

2/6 - Puffy searches for parrots

2/7 - The 5-Hour Tom Gravy Stream

2/8 - Puffy leaves a note for Techno, Puffy commits arson against Ponk

Karl decides it’s time to move away from the main area and build a new library for his books elsewhere:

2/9 - Ponk destroys Puffy’s house, Karl moves the library with George and Sapnap, Sapnap visits the prison

2/10 - Nothing much happens.

2/11 - Quackity’s couples therapy

2/12 - Ponk continues work on the Woo Station, Fundy builds a gameshow, Puffy rebuilds her house

2/13 - Bad and Puffy speak with Techno, Ranboo speaks with the Crimson

2/14 - Sam sees the Woo Station, Foolish stares at a wall for 10 hours, Tales From the SMP: “The Wild West”

2/15 - Ranboo finds his wall signs changed

2/16 - Tommy’s hotel opening, Karl and Sapnap name Kinoko Kingdom

2/17 - Foolish, Ponk and HBomb’s lore, Bad confronts Puffy about the propaganda

2/18 - Bad and Antfrost confront Puffy about the propaganda

2/19 - George vandalizes the prison, Captain Puffy’s Prank Wars

2/20 - Nothing much happens.

Having successfully opened the Big Innit Hotel, Tommy decides to visit Dream again...only for it to end in disaster:

2/21 - Tommy gets trapped in prison, Jack and Quackity speak, guard training day, Eret returns

2/22 - Phil’s home renovations

While Tommy is stuck in the prison, Tubbo and Ranboo get married and start an inn together:

2/23 - Tubbo builds a sandstone penis on the prison, Sam kidnaps Michael, Tubbo and Ranboo get married

2/24 - Ponk and Sam’s date, Phil bargains with Sam, Ranboo and Tubbo start Bee ‘n’ Boo

2/25 - Tubbo, Ranboo and Jack quarrel about their hotels

2/26 - DreamXD helps George build McDonald’s, Jack’s date with Andrea

2/27 - Nothing much happens

2/28 - Hannah’s birthday stream, Sapnap’s birthday party

After remaining trapped for days, Dream kills Tommy in the prison, sending the server into mourning and the Eggpire into their final plans:

3/1 - Foolish and Jack Manifold’s L’Cast, Dream kills Tommy, Jack spreads the news, the Eggpire enters the Final Stage

3/2 - The server mourns Tommy, Ranboo confronts Sam

3/3 - Tubbo’s detective work

3/4 - Foolish confronts the Crimson, Dream revives Tommy, Tales From the SMP: “The Haunted Mansion”

3/5 - Ponk warns Foolish about an Eggpire attack, Ranboo, Tubbo, Fundy and Phil see Michael

3/6 - The Syndicate meets, Antfrost prepares for the Red Banquet

3/7 - Tubbo and Ranboo commission a mansion, Captain Puffy’s origin story

3/8 - Ponk’s preparations, Michelle is brought to Snowchester

3/9 - Ponk’s last warning to Foolish, Hannah gets trapped with the Egg

3/10 - The Eggpire’s attack on the Temple, Sam rescues Hannah

3/11 - Nothing much happens

Days after Dream revives Tommy in the prison, Tommy is finally let out of the Vault with new plans to kill Dream for good, while Quackity has his own ideas:

3/12 - Tommy exits Pandora’s Vault

3/13 - Nothing much happens

3/14 - Tommy plans to kill Dream, Ghostbur returns

3/15 - Nothing much happens.

3/16 - “Worst Day:” Quackity starts visiting Dream in prison

3/17 - Ranboo’s lore recap

3/18 -  Fundy’s Social Experiment (Community House explodes)

3/19 - Nothing much happens.

3/20 - Tales From the SMP: “The Pit”

3/21 - Jack’s new plan

3/22 - KSI’s mysterious visit

Ponk and Sam’s relationship takes a dark turn as Ponk steals defunct prison keycards, causing Sam to retaliate with brutal force:

3/23 - Ponk takes the Warden Keycards and Sam kills him

3/24 - Sam cuts off Ponk’s arm for the keycards

3/25 - Jack speaks with Sam about becoming a guard and takes on the case to find the cameras

3/26 - Tubbo recommissions Project Dream Catcher, the nuke goes missing

3/27 - Tommy works on the tower, Lil Nas X visits, Eret and Foolish clear the Blood Vines

3/28 - Tommy works on the tower, Niki works on her city, Sapnap plays on Karl’s account

3/29 - Drista and the shulker box deal, Hannah and Sam threaten the Cat Cafe

Fundy and George experience some strange dreams, while Tubbo has his own mystery text telling him to “wake up”:

3/30 - Fundy’s Mind

3/31 - George Lore’s George lore, George’s deal with DreamXD

4/1 - Strange words start appearing on Tubbo’s screen, Henry dies again, April Fool’s pranks

4/2 - Sam’s character QnA, Drista visits for a recording

4/3 - Nothing much happens.

4/4 - Nothing much happens.

4/5 - Tubbo creates Checkmate, Tommy and Ranboo lose Friend

4/6 - Puffy helps Antfrost and Sam work through their smashing problems

4/7 - Tip Tup, the Eggpire gives out Red Banquet invitations

4/8 - Ponk moves into Niki’s city, Fundy attempts to prank Ranboo

4/9 - Tubbo creates an interrogation room

4/10 - Nothing much happens.

4/11 - Tubbo rebuilds his house with Tommy

4/12 - Quackity recounts the events leading up to his visit with Dream

4/13 - Nothing much happens.

4/14 - Foolish hires HBomb to be his maid.

4/15 - Nothing much happens.

4/16 - Nothing much happens.

4/17 - Hannah goes sleepwalking

During the Eggpire’s preparations for the Red Banquet, Bad and Skeppy clash over the Egg:

4/18 - Bad and Skeppy fight, Bad kills Skeppy

4/19 - Nothing much happens.

4/20 - Nothing much happens.

4/21 - HBomb makes a diamond game, Jack plans to open a pub sidechain for his hotel business

4/22 - Tubbo shows Tommy how to make TNT cannons

4/23 - Puffy, Foolish, Hannah and Sam meet on Cloud Prime to discuss the Banquet, Ranboo’s Enderwalk Saga: “The Lessons”

4/24 - Dream SMP’s one-year anniversary: George has another dream about the past coming to visit, Bad hands out invitations

After so many preparations, it’s finally time for the Egg to feast:

4/25 - THE RED BANQUET

4/26 - Foolish speaks with the Egg, L’Sandburg is founded, Puffy grieves after the Banquet, L’Puffburg is created

4/27 - Ponk confronts Foolish at the Community House, Tommy faces his fears

4/28 - Ponk builds a shack at the summer home, Ranboo reads Enderwalk’s response in the Memory Book

Tommy’s plan to break into the prison does not go as he thought, resulting in Wilbur being brought back to life:

4/29 - Prison break, Ghostbur dies and Wilbur is revived

4/30 - Nothing much happens

5/1 - Nothing much happens

5/2 - Nothing much happens

5/3 - Phil tells Fundy that Wilbur is back

5/4 - Nothing much happens.

5/5 - Tommy tours Wilbur around the server

5/6 - Ponk pranks people with pumpkins, Tommy finds the pickle pit and speaks with Foolish

5/7 - Tommy, Ranboo and Tubbo go mining in the quarry

5/8 - Nothing much happens.

5/9 - Tubbo and Ranboo hang out in the Arctic

5/10 - Jack and Tommy steal from each other while Tommy works on the mine

5/11 - Nothing much happens.

After the Banquet, Bad founded a new country called L’Sandburg in Foolish’s summer home. A while after, Foolish decides it’s time to take action against it. A newcomer arrives:

5/12 - Foolish gives L’Sandburg an ultimatum to take down the wall

5/13 - Foolish sends out letters asking for help with L’Sandburg

5/14 - Tubbo claims L’Sandburg and gets the gift cards with Phil and Ranboo

5/15 - Foolish walls off L’Sandburg, Tommy walls off the Holy Land

5/16 - Michaelmcchill joins the SMP

5/17 - Nothing much happens.

5/18 - Foolish makes a deal with Bad to sell L’Sandburg

5/19 - Foolish hires Punz to search for the nuke, DreamXD gives out player heads, the Badlands argue about weednip while planning for war

5/20 - Nothing much happens.

5/21 - Ranboo finds another Stronghold

Quackity plans to defeat Technoblade at last by luring him to the prison and recruits some new faces for his country, Las Nevadas:

5/22 - Dream writes Technoblade a letter, Quackity tries to recruit Charlie, Fundy, Purpled and Foolish to Las Nevadas, Ranboo creates a room for his experiments at the Stronghold

5/23 - Foolish thinks about joining Las Nevadas, Bad does matchmaking for turtles

5/24 - Fundy joins Las Nevadas

5/25 - An argument about L’Sandburg’s turtles breaks out, Shelly dies and is revived

5/26 - Nothing much happens.

5/27 - Quackity gets Charlie to work for him in Las Nevadas, Connor gets into debt with Quackity, Michael attempts a prison break-in and falls in love with Dream

5/28 - Nothing much happens.

5/29 - Michael plots his prison break

5/30 - Ranboo writes a letter to Wilbur, a forest appears in the Arctic, Puffy starts building up L’Llamaburg

Wilbur visits Las Nevadas for the first time and reunites with Quackity, sparking a new rivalry. Tubbo builds an outpost to keep an eye on the new country:

5/31 - Wilbur and Tommy visit Las Nevadas

6/1 - Ponk tears down a tower of L’Llamaburg, Tubbo builds an outpost, Techno’s birthday party, Quackity speaks with Foolish about Las Nevadas, Niki finds out about Wilbur’s revival, Bad and Puffy destroy the supreme fridge in an act of war

6/2 - Fundy speedruns self-care, Antfrost confronts Foolish, Bad and Puffy to apologize

6/3 - Nothing much happens.

6/4 - Ponk decides to sue Puffy and Bad, Pubbo

6/5 - Nothing much happens.

Quackity’s scheme succeeds, with Techno now a prisoner alongside Dream:

6/6 - Techno gets trapped in prison, Quackity tours Bad, Puffy, Skeppy and Michael around Las Nevadas

6/7 - Nothing much happens.

6/8 - Puffy writes a countersuit in the Lore Suit against Ponk

6/9 - Ponk shows Sam the valley, Fundy and Purpled officially join Las Nevadas, Ranboo receives an update from the Council

6/10 - Nothing much happens.

6/11 - Fundy and Tubbo spy on each other at the outpost

6/12 - George gets turned into a pig

6/13 - Fundy and Purpled work in Las Nevadas, Foolish bargains wall nuts with Bad

6/14 - Nothing much happens.

6/15 - Foolish builds in Las Nevadas

6/16 - Fundy and Foolish work in Las Nevadas

6/17 - Hannah rebuilds Pickle

Tubbo’s outpost begins to raise tensions with Las Nevadas:

6/18 - Quackity confronts Tubbo about the outpost, Tommy builds a railway and kidnaps Slime, Ranboo and Slime speak, Quackity and Ranboo debate about the outpost

6/19 - Nothing much happens.

6/20 - Foolish builds in Las Nevadas

6/21 - Prison Podcast ft. Dream and Techno

6/22 - Nothing much happens.

6/23 - Ponk and Foolish become Batman and Robin

6/24 - Quackity turns into a cow, Quackity and Wilbur make a song, George and Bad spar

6/25 - Foolish, Ponk and Bad found the S.U.S. toll company

6/26 - MCC, no updates

6/27 - Nothing much happens.

6/28 - Ponk builds in the valley and makes a room of all his variations, Foolish, Fundy, Niki and HBomb do a spelling bee in Las Nevadas

6/29 - Ponk builds the new Lemon Tree and chats with Sam, then Bad, Sam and Punz hang out and drop YouTooz codes

6/30 - Ponk tells Foolish the story of George and the Lemon Tree

7/1 - Foolish and Purpled build in Las Nevadas

7/2 - Nothing much happens.

7/3 - Puffy works on the Lore Cast building

7/4 - Nothing happens.

7/5 - Nothing much happens.

Tommy does some summer cleaning only for Tubbo, Foolish and Sam to take over the Prime Path with a massive beets farm:

7/6 - Tommy and co. clear up the area by the Prime Path

7/7 - Tommy tries to move to Kinoko

7/8 - Fundy and Foolish have a custody battle, Drista makes a flying pig squad

7/9 - Ponk asks Foolish to kill Sam, “Tom Simmons” joins Dream SMP

7/10 - Tubbo, Foolish and Sam create a gigantic beets farm, Tommy stores his war items

7/11 - The beets men get revenge on Puffy, Foolish and Bad improve the beets farm

7/12 - Nothing much happens.

7/13 - Foolish builds the Lemon Tree

7/14 - Nothing much happens.

7/15 - Foolish continues work on the Lemon Tree.

7/16 - Boomer visits on Sam’s account

7/17 - George dreams of Quackity

7/18 - Tommy builds Drista’s hotel, Ranboo builds the stone sky city, Foolish destroys L’Sandburg

7/19 - Nothing much happens.

Sapnap and George get a visit from Mexican Dream, and Wilbur and Ranboo start up their own business next to Las Nevadas. Phil takes on a project to renovate the Doomsday crater:

7/20 - Sapnap and George speak with Mexican Dream

7/21 - Foolish creates Philzavilla and breaks into the prison

7/22 - Nothing much happens.

7/23 - Nothing much happens.

7/24 - MCC, no updates

7/25 - Wilbur and Ranboo make a burger van

7/26 - Phil begins to clean up L’manhole

7/27 - Tubbo does a Q&A

7/28 - Bad and Fundy hang out after a gameshow

7/29 - Nothing much happens

7/30 - Phil continues cleaning up L’manhole, Ranboo builds up Wilburger Ranvan and works on the sky city, Tommy gets rid of the sky highway

7/31 - Foolish and Phil work on L’manhole

8/1 - Puffy builds a Pokemon center

8/2 - Nothing happens.

Jack has had enough of the mainland and leaves to find a new start. Tubbo makes a deal with Quackity:

8/3 - Jack celebrates his birthday alone and decides to create New Manifoldland, Wilbur and Ranboo speak with Tubbo at L’manhole

8/4 - Ranboo and Wilbur talk with Quackity in Las Nevadas, Tubbo agrees to the outpost deal and becomes manager of Tubburger, Michael’s birthday stream

8/5 - Nothing much happens.

8/6 - Phil works on L’manhole and gets a pink sheep named Rosie, Ranboo is contained in a box, Sam gathers resources for a secret project

8/7 - Nothing happens.

8/8 - Tommy builds in the ocean, Puffy makes burgers, Foolish and Sam go on a not-a-date

8/9 - Ponk finds out about Foolish and Sam’s date and cuts ties with him

8/10 - Nothing much happens.

8/11 - Eret returns to Dream SMP!

8/12 - George talks with a Wandering Trader in Kinoko and becomes a chicken…?

8/13 - Foolish starts a new mega build, Phil finishes renovating the L’manburg ruins

8/14 - Bad tells horrifying childhood stories and makes Sesame Street songs with Puffy and Foolish

8/15 - Tommy builds a waterfall, Bad trades heads with Foolish over L’Sandburg

Having cut ties with Foolish, once again heartbroken, Ponk speaks with HBomb:

8/16 - Ponk gives HBomb a mission from his cave

8/17 - Nothing much happens.

8/18 - Bad does a late-night stream with Quackity and George

8/19 - Jack establishes New Manifoldland and the Vanifold

8/20 - Nothing much happens.

8/21 - Nothing much happens.

8/22 - Tubbo, Phil and Antfrost clear out space by L’manburg

8/23 - Tommy and Sam attempt to move the Egg and meet Ghost Mexican Dream and Jesus Wick

8/24 - Nothing much happens.

8/25 - cc!Quackity pranks the SMP with George and Bad and dies

8/26 - Nothing happens.

8/27 - Nothing much happens.

8/28 - MCC, Karl and George do lore in Kinoko

8/29 - Nothing much happens.

8/31 - Nothing happens.

9/1 - Nothing happens.

9/2 - Nothing happens.

9/3 - Puffy makes sure the SMP is still standing

9/4 - Nothing happens.

9/5 - HBomb builds a theater with Niki

9/6 - Nothing happens.

9/7 - Puffy burns the Lemon Tree and Foolish-Quackity shows up

9/8 - Ponk collects resources, Bad builds a Callahan statue with Callahan

9/9 - Nothing happens.

9/10 - Ponk goes mining

9/11 - Eret returns again

9/12 - Michaelmcchill’s September Subathon

With Techno still missing, Phil reads the will Techno wrote for him, just in the nick of time:

9/13 - Phil opens the will

9/14 - Techno escapes Pandora’s Vault, Sam finds Dream hiding, Quackity tells Foolish that Dream has escaped prison and to prepare for an attack

9/15 - Ponk gathers resources

9/16 - Nothing happens

9/17 - Foolish builds a bunker for Las Nevadas; the catmaids interfere

9/18 - MCC, Eret hangs out on the server afterwards

9/19 - Nothing happens.

9/20 - Phil reads Techno’s Will to chat

9/21 - Bad does a late night stream with George, Quackity and Callahan

9/22 - Tom Simmons gets into conflict against Punz featuring Karl, Michael and Foolish

9/23 - Ponk goes mining

9/24 - Foolish and Karl work on building projects

9/25 -  George, Bad and Quackity have a court battle ft. Harry Potter Karl

9/26 - Foolish’s 24-hour Subathon

9/27 - Ponk and Foolish have a reunion on the bridge

9/28 - Ponk’s Subathon, Sam works on his project

9/29 - Sam does a Q&A

9/30 - Nothing happens.

10/1 - Nothing happens.

10/2 - Nothing happens.

10/3 - Nothing happens.

10/4 - Bad does a late night chill stream

10/5 - Nothing much happens.

10/6 - Nothing happens.

10/7 - Nothing happens.

10/8 - Bad does a late night chill stream

10/9 - Hannah builds on the SMP

10/10 - Nothing much happens.

10/11 - Nothing much happens.

10/12 - Puffy builds Halloween decorations

10/13 - Nothing much happens.

10/14 - Nothing happens.

10/15 - Michael gets an Alesa backpack

Michael sends out a message:

10/16 - Find Serenity radio broadcast

10/17 - Nothing happens.

10/18 - Foolish finishes the Among Us bunker, Hannah builds Among Us statues, Michael moves his things and talks to Alesa

10/19 - Nothing happens.

10/20 - Nothing happens.

A group gathers to gamble with the god of the server for special goods, with a new challenge announced. A new wave of members arrives:

10/21 - Gambling with DreamXD

10/22 - Eryn joins the server

10/23 - MCC, Tina joins the server

10/24 - Nothing much happens.

10/25 - Puffy catches up on the goings-on and Sam works on his mega base

10/26 - Nothing happens.

10/27 - Tubbo, Phil, Foolish and Sam work on various projects

10/28 - Sam works on his mega build

10/29 - Boomer joins the server

Hannah wins the challenge, gaining an Elytra:

10/30 - Team Seas Elytra Event, Sapnap and George threaten to kill Michael

10/31 - Eryn, Tommy and Phil hang out on the server on Halloween!

11/1 - Hannah tries out her Elytra

Boomer finds himself drawn to the swamplands where he discovers Sam and his multiple bodies. Sam assigns Boomer and Hannah to the task of finishing the bank:

11/2 - Boomer finds one of Sam’s bodies in the swamp, Hannah and Boomer have their first day at the bank

11/3 - Nothing much happens.

11/4 - Nothing happens.

11/5 - Nothing happens.

11/6 - Ponk, Boomer and Michael work on builds

11/7 - Nothing much happens.

11/8 - Nothing much happens.

11/9 - Hannah, Boomer, Puffy and Bad hang out

11/10 - Nothing much happens.

11/11 - Ponk and Boomer work on builds

11/12 - Sam works on his megabase and has a brief exchange with Boomer

11/13 - MCC, Eret hangs out on the SMP afterwards

11/14 - Nothing much happens.

Eryn causes some small-scale chaos, building shrines to Dream:

11/15 - Eryn builds a base under Tommy’s house

11/16 - Eryn breaks into the prison and builds a Dream shrine, Puffy celebrates her anniversary on the SMP, Hannah and Boomer log on with intentions of finishing the bank, but instead mess around with Quackity and BadBoyHalo

11/17 - Boomer builds a bridge

11/18 - Ponk hangs out and starts building with redstone in the Nether

Still desperate to get an Elytra somehow, Foolish takes on a new building project to try and earn it from the god himself:

11/19 - Foolish begins building a giant DreamXD statue, Eryn and BadBoyHalo play Rock Paper Scissors

11/20 - Foolish works on the DreamXD statue, Karl hangs out in Kinoko and chats with Tina

11/21 - Foolish speaks with DreamXD about a godly deal and works on the statue

11/22 - Foolish continues to work on the massive statue

11/23 - Foolish recruits Tina, Corpse, HBomb and Hannah for DreamXD’s club

---

So...

We have come to the end of one eventful year...

But with Quackity’s Final Act on the horizon, who knows what to expect next...?

Thank you.

[heyitmelexie]

Movie Night

Frankie “Catfish” Morales x GN!Reader

Word count: 1704

Warnings: none

Rating: General audiences

A/N: Day 7 for @honeymandos​ December Writing Challenge! ❤️

Frankie is not married here and does not have a child – events take place before the events of Triple Frontier. Reader’s best friend is also gender neutral!

I know Hamilton and Disney+ were released in 2020, Triple Frontier in 2019. But I’m not mentioning any years here. I just wanted to use the musical for this prompt, sooo please don’t think too much about it.❤️

-------------------------------------------------

Movie night with Frankie is something you look forward to every week.

The two of you just started dating about seven months ago and with your jobs consuming most of the weeks you didn’t see each other very often. That’s why you started carving out a little bit of time each Saturday night to have a movie night together.

Last week you spent it at your place, today you will have it at Frankie’s.

Those Saturday’s have become sacred nights to the both of you by now. Sometimes it was the only time you could see each other all week so you made sure to never miss it.

As you get in your car to drive to his house, your phone dings, signalling that you got a new message.

You unlock it and see it’s from Frankie, a smile forming on your lips upon reading his name.

Don’t forget the dips, love! Can’t have nachos without it 😱

You giggle at that and slightly roll your eyes.

I’m not the one who forgets half the things every time😁😉

As you drive to his place you recall the first time the two of you had met.

- around 7 months prior –

Ben Miller was the boyfriend of your best friend – now their husband. You had always gotten along with him really well, much to your friend’s delight and would visit them regularly.

One day he was throwing a little birthday barbecue party for your friend, inviting you and some of their other friends. Frankie was one of them.

You were the first one to arrive, because you had promised Ben to help prepare everything before they would come home from work. He had then revealed to you, while you were setting everything up, that he planned to propose that night and you had been super excited for them, knowing how much they love each other.

After a little while all the other friends started to arrive. Because Ben counted you as a close friend, he felt that it was in order to introduce you to his best friends which he knew from his time in the military.

You knew Will already, Ben’s older brother, who hugged you once he saw you. Santi and Tom both hugged you as well as Ben introduced you to them, both being extremely welcoming and immediately starting a casual conversation.

Frankie had arrived a little later as one of the last, feeling a little out of place as he saw a bunch of people he had never met before. But as soon as he spotted the boys, he relaxed a bit, making his way over to them to say hi.

Upon hearing his voice from right behind you, you jumped a little and then turned to look who it belonged to.

When Frankie laid his eyes on you his mind went completely blank. He thought he had somehow died and woke up in heaven, a literal angel standing right in front of him to welcome him into paradise.

Frankie never believed in love at first sight. Sure, he did love a few partners before, but it never held long, and it was never like this. He had never experienced this feeling before. One look at you and his heart burst into a million stars, butterflies erupting in his stomach, rendering him speechless.

As he stood there, frozen in place, mouth slightly agape and brain disconnected from the rest of his body, he didn’t hear you talking to him or the boys’ laughter until Santi slightly slapped his shoulder in a brotherly manner. He blinked and looked at him, mind still blank.

“You can’t just stand there staring at people, Fish, you’re scaring them away” he said, laughing and shaking his head.

You giggle slightly, thinking it was rather cute how he stared at you like a deer caught in headlights.

“I, uh… Sorry, I didn’t mean to, uhm… malfunction. It was rude of me to stare. I’m Frankie” he said, face as red as a beet, holding his hand out to you.

You flash him a bright smile, making his breath hitch and his heart almost hammer out of his chest. When he took your hand in his, he swore he could feel his skin tingle where you touched him, warmth spreading up his arm. And when you told him your name, when he finally heard your voice for the first time, he felt like he was about to combust.

In this exact moment he was thanking his past self that he decided to come to this party after debating for an hour whether he wanted to socialize tonight or not.

And you were secretly thankful that Benny had decided to invite his military best friends.

- present –

You now stand in front of Frankie’s door, arms full of snacks and use your foot to knock. Not even a minute later the door opens, revealing your boyfriend in black sweats, white shirt, red flannel and tousled hair that is sticking up into every direction.

He flashes you a big smile before taking some of the snacks out of your arms to carry them into the living room.

You shut the door behind you, slip out of your shoes and follow him. He had already prepared the drinks and even strung up some fairy lights. It looks so cosy and you can’t wait to just snuggle up against him and enjoy tonight.

Once you put the snacks into some bowls and poured yourself a glass of your preferable drink, you sit next to Frankie and snuggle right into him. Tonight is your turn to pick out a movie.

“So, what are we gonna watch tonight, amor?” he says, his arm wrapped around you.

You grin widely before starting the streaming service and looking for your choice of the night.

When you find it, you hear him groan slightly next to you, making you giggle before starting Hamilton.

“A musical?” He looks at you with his brows furrowed, slightly pouting.

You lean up and kiss his lips, making him hum in response.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover. Or a movie, in this case. Hamilton is amazing and I couldn’t wait to show it to you!”

Your visible excitement puts a smile on his lips and he gives in, shaking his head slightly before leaning back into the couch with you.

“Fine, fine. I’ll try not to be too big of a party pooper.”

Snuggled into his side, stuffing your face with popcorn, you silently mouth all the words to each song. Eyes wide in excitement, you stare at the tv and don’t notice Frankie constantly looking down at you, smiling at your giddiness. It fills him with warmth to see you so happy right there in his arms, watching this movie with him which obviously brings you so much joy.

Frankie isn’t really a fan of musicals, but for you he pulls himself together and really watches it.

To his surprise, he finds himself actually liking it and occasionally bobs his head to one or the other song. Which you notice and it makes you even happier than you have already been.

When the movie ends, you look at him expectantly, smiling so wide one could fear it would split your face in half.

He looks at you and laughs softly.

“You’re so adorable” he says, planting a kiss on your nose which you scrunch up in response.

“Sooooo… what do you think about it?”

“I have to say that it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be” he says, earning himself a light jab to his side which makes him laugh.

He pulls you into his lap and wraps his arms around your waist. You then notice that he looks at you with a slightly more different expression.

“I’m tired of only seeing you once a week. Or just at lunch for like 20 minutes at most. I miss you all the time” he sighs, drawing little circles onto your hips with his thumbs.

“Yeah… me too” you cup his jaw with one hand and press a soft kiss to his lips.

“I want you to move in with me” he suddenly says. Your eyes widen at that and you freeze, trying to process what he had just asked you.

“I mean, I… you don’t have to, I’m not forcing you to do it. I just… I’d love to see you more, to have you around me. I’d love to see little things from you everywhere I go, your toothbrush next to mine, your mugs in my kitchen cupboard, your smell on my pillow. I want to fall asleep with you in my arms and wake up with you still there…” He feels a heat creeping up his neck and cheeks, looking to the side. He is nervous, you still hadn’t said a thing.

But then you take his face into both your hands and make him look at you, a fond smile playing on your lips.

“Frankie, there’s no way I’d ever say no to this” you whisper, and he releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Oh, thank god. I thought you were going to think me crazy” he says, scratching his chin slightly and chuckling.

You giggle at that before throwing a handful of popcorn at him.

He gasps, his awful, non-existing skill of acting coming through, making you laugh, the sound like music to his ears.

Before you can move away, he basically jumps at you, trapping you on the couch beneath him. And then he starts tickling you.

You laugh and squeal, trying to squirm out of his grip but he is too strong.

He doesn’t stop until you beg him to let go, barely able to bring out a single syllable, breathless from laughing this hard. Your heart hammers in your chest but you giggle up at him, glowing in the soft, orange light of the fairy lights.

A single popcorn falls out of his hair onto your forehead, making both of you laugh. He gently brushes it away and then leans down to softly rub his nose against yours before kissing you so tenderly that it takes your breath away.

--------------------------------------------------

Lemme know what you think ❤️

@absurdthirst @softpedropascal @tangledlove27

[fatehbaz]

Sources for thousands of Detroit residents without water access for years; Detroit lead poisoning; history of how Nestle conquered Michigan water; and how Flint residents pay the state more in utility fees in a single month for water access in a single household than Nestle pays the state in an entire year to extract 130 million gallons of water.

A response to this:

I hope these sources might help.

Just for geographic context:

---------------------

Nestle, which earns over $7 billion in annual bottled water sales, pays a once-a-year $200 administrative fee to extract over 130 million gallons of water from Evart, while people are poisoned and die in nearby Flint, where a single months’ water utility bill is over $200.

[Source: Jessica Glenza. “Nestle pays $200 a year to bottle water near Flint -- where water is undrinkable.” The Guardian. 29 September 2017.]

Flint became synonymous with lead-poisoned water after government officials, looking to save money, switched the city’s water supply from Detroit city water to water from the corrosive Flint river. Once the city had switched, the number of children with elevated lead exposure doubled; residents reported unexplained rashes and losing hair. An unpublished study recently found fetal deaths in Flint increased by 58% during the crisis. [...] Despite having endured lead-laden tap water for years, Flint pays some of the highest water rates in the US. Several residents cited bills upwards of $200 per month for tap water they refuse to touch. But just two hours away, in the tiny town of Evart, creeks lined by wildflowers run with clear water. The town is so small, the fairground, McDonald’s, high school and church are all within a block. But in a town of only 1,503 people, there are a dozen wells pumping water from the underground aquifer. This is where the beverage giant Nestle pumps almost 100,000 times what an average Michigan resident uses into plastic bottles that are sold all over the Midwest for around $1. To use this natural resource, Nestle pays $200 per year. Now, Nestle wants more Michigan water. In a recent permit application, the company asked to pump 210 million gallons per year from Evart, a 60% increase, and for no more than it pays today. [...] In a state where officials denied Flint’s water was poisoned with lead; where Detroit residents choose between heat and water; where the water-borne, pneumonia-like legionnaire’s disease killed a dozen; and where gastrointestinal bugs spread among residents who lacked (or didn’t trust) water, Nestle’s request seemed like salt on a wound.

-------------------------

While thousands in Detroit have no water access, even people with water access have high rates of lead poisoning; in one Detroit zip code in 2017, 22% of tested children exhibited lead poisoning.

[Source: Karen Bouffard and Christine MacDonal. “Detroit kids’ lead poisoning rates higher than Flint.” The Detroit News. 14 November 2017.]

Detroit had Michigan’s highest proportion of children test positive for lead poisoning in 2016 — 8.8 percent of kids tested — including one ZIP code where 22 percent were found to have lead poisoning. Data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services show children are being sickened by lead in counties from Manistee to Hillsdale and St. Clair, though the rates of lead poisoning in Flint continue to improve.

---------------------------

In 2020,  Michigan institutions and judges continue to allow Nestle to pay minor administrative fee of $200 per each water extraction facility, as Nestle extracts over half a million gallons every single day from single individual wells (ie: just one annual fee of $200 for the Evart well).

[Source: Garret Ellison. “Nestle wins legal challenge to Michigan groundwater extraction.” MLive. 28 April 2020.]

A state administrative judge has upheld a permit that allows global food and beverage giant Nestle to boost the amount of Michigan groundwater it extracts for sale under the Ice Mountain bottled water brand. In a decision dated April 24 [2020], Judge Dan Pulter ruled that Nestle’s plans to withdrawal 576,000 gallons of groundwater per day from the headwaters of two cold water trout streams in Osceola County will not negatively impact the surrounding natural resources. Concerns were raised about potential impacts to Muskegon River watershed and the tiny $200 annual paperwork fee Nestle pays per facility to extract millions of gallons of Michigan groundwater to sell for profit. [...] Much of the broader opposition was from those upset that Nestle could source groundwater at essentially no cost while people in Flint were drinking water contaminated by bacteria and lead, and low-income residents of Detroit were having their taps shut off for non-payment.

--------------------------

Nestle pumped over 2.5 billion gallons from a Mescota County well; Nestle has now pumped over 1 billion gallons from the Evart wells; the Osceola well now supplies millions of gallons a year.

[Source: Garret Ellison. “Nestle in Michigan: Unpacking the water battle backstory.” MLive. 26 December 2016. Updated 20 May 2019.]

Nestle made a deal [...] to drill four high-capacity wells at their 600-acre private hunting preserve in Morton Township [...]. The water is pumped 12 miles west to Stanwood. [...] The Sanctuary wells pumped more than 2.5 billion gallons between 2005 and 2015. [...] Nestle pumped at 400 gallons-per-minute until Mecosta County Judge Lawrence Root ordered it stopped in 2003 [...]. When Judge Root ordered the pumping stopped, Nestle looked north for another supply. The company found a willing partner in the city of Evart, which has sold Nestle more than 905 million gallons of Twin Creek spring water [...]. Evart wells have accounted for roughly a quarter of Nestle's total Michigan supply since 2005, but in 2014 Nestle discovered traces of perchlorate in its water. The toxic chemical, which is linked to thyroid problems in women and children, came from the Evart well field, which became contaminated with decades of Fourth of July fireworks ash. [...] When Nestle shut down one of its Evart wells because of the pollution, it looked to offset the capacity loss by increasing the pumping rate of an older well it owns in Osceola Township, [...] Nestle did not really use it much until 2011. Since then, the well has supplied more than 45 million gallons. Almost 70 percent of that total volume was pumped in 2015 alone.

-----------------------------------

To gain uninhibited access to water extraction sites, Nestle merges with local government institutions and deliberately targets rural, isolated, or “economically-depressed” communities.

[Source: Franklin Frederick. “Nestle: Multinationals as the New Colonial Powers. A tale of Many Cities.” Defend Democracy Press. 22 December 2019.]

In 2002 Nestle hired John Hedley, an ex-MI6 agent – British military   intelligence – as Head of Security. Among other things, Hedley was   responsible for organizing an operation to spy on civil society groups critical to Nestle in Switzerland, mainly the ATTAC group. When this operation was unveiled by a Swiss investigative journalist that denounced it in the Swiss TV, Nestle had to face a court case and was condemned by the Swiss justice for it. In Wellington County, Nestle Waters Canada has permission to extract 4.7 million litres of water a day in wells at Hillsburgh and Aberfoyle and according to Mike Balkwill from Wellington Water Watchers, “the company has applied to renew those permits, while it extracts water without the consent of Six Nations, on whose territory it operates, and despite public opposition from several indigenous organizations.” [...] The situation is the same in Florida where although the local water authority considers that the water system is in recovery from over-exploitation, Nestle still wants to pump water from Ginnie Springs. The common pattern emerging from these and other cases – in the State of Michigan or in the small city of Sao Lourenco in Brazil – also shows that [...] in many places Nestle “merges” with the local authorities, as in Maine where a Nestle manager was on the State’s environmental protection agency board [...]. Recently, the ex-Nestle’s Head of Public Affairs, Christian Frutiger, was appointed Vice-Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation – SDC, the Swiss Government Agency responsible for Development Aid programmes – where he will be responsible for SDC’s  Global WATER program! [...]

--------------------------------------

The source of America’s corporate water crisis can be traced back to 1976 when Perrier, now owned by Nestle, opened an office in New York. By 2016, bottled water sales had surpassed soda as the largest US beverage category [...]. Nestle Waters’ 2018 worldwide sales exceeded $7.8 billion. [...] Ultimately, the debate’s particulars lead back to a question at the heart of the issues: should water be commodified and sold by private industry, or is it a basic human right? Former Nestle chief executive and chariman Peter Brabeck labeled the latter viewpoint “extreme” and  called water a “grocery product” that should “have market value.” He later amended that, arguing 25 liters of water daily is a “human right,” but water used [for purposes other than drinking, bathing, etc.] shouldn’t be free. [Source: Tom Perkins. “The fight to stop Nestle from taking America’s water to sell in plastic bottles.” The Guardian. 29 October 2019.]

--------------------------------

Tens of thousands of Detroit residents have been without water access since 2014; Detroit water contaminated with giardia, shigellosis, lead; Detroit administrators refused until the pandemic to even declare the water shutoffs a “public health issue,” and Michigan officials blame poor people for spending money on “luxury cell phones” instead of their water utility bills.

[Source: Nina Misuraca Ignaczak. “Detroit Water Shutoffs and a Crisis of Public Health.” Belt Magazine. 9 March 2020.]

The water crisis in Detroit began in earnest in 2014, during the city’s bankruptcy proceedings, when the DWSD abruptly shut off water service to tens of thousands of Detroit residents for nonpayment. [...] But activists have been fighting for years to get the city to recognize water shutoffs as a matter of public health. [...] Since the start, Bouier and other water activists have been fighting a narrative that assigns blame primarily to those impacted by the shutoffs. Early on, officials perpetuated the idea that residents were simply lazy and irresponsible. One official suggested that Detroiters should go down to the Detroit River with a bucket to fetch water. Then-emergency manager Kevyn Orr suggested that customers would rather pay for “luxuries” like cell phones than water. [...] As of early March [2020], activists had renewed their calls to the governor to enact a moratorium [on water utility shutoffs in Detroit], linking poor sanitation to an increased risk of Coronavirus. “Michigan residents have particular reason to fear the  spread of coronavirus because the ongoing deprivation of tens of thousands of people from basic access to water and sanitation […]” the group’s statement reads. “Residents deprived of water in their homes have been sharing or borrowing water at an alarming  rate – 80% in one study – creating a transmission path for coronavirus, as  well as hepatitis A, shigellosis, campylobacter, and giardia, all of which have been plausibly linked to the shutoffs by health officials.”

[whichkittywitch]

How to Cleanse Your Home Without Smoke

(Photo credit:  Photo by PhotoMIX Company from Pexels.)

Hi there! I mentioned that I would be posting about smokeless options because my cat has asthma and can't handle cleansing by smoke (or smelly candles or incense). First I will briefly go through some of the options, and then I will cite the sources I used to create this post so you can explore them for yourself!

Cleansing Options

1. Sound

While cats can be sensitive to sound, it is one of the options available to us.

Sounds you can make yourself:

Sing a song you like.

Hum.

Sounds using instruments:

Ring a bell (or bells).

Use a drum.

Use a rattle.

Use a singing bowl.

Use wind chimes.

Sounds using your phone:

You can stream music (such as singing bowls, Celtic flutes, nature sounds, drumming, and so on) from your phone to cleanse your home.

2. Water

You can use your own water to cleanse your home. If you want to, you can leave your water out in the sunlight or moonlight before you use it. You can put the water in a spray bottle or flick it with your fingers.

You can also add a small amount of salt to the water as well as herbs (if you think it won't bother your animals).

3. Flame / White Light

Using a scentless candle, light it and walk around your area just as you would with a smoke cleanse. (Source: Jennifer Jorgenson; Otherworldly Oracle.)

4. Floral Cleansing Bowl

Using fresh or dried herbs or flowers (such lavender, thyme, rosemary, salt, chrysanthemums, and whatever aligns with your intention): mix in a bowl and stir in some hot water. Walk around your area as you would if you were smoke cleansing. (Sources: Good Witch Kitchen; Patricia Telesco.)

5. Crystals

You can also use crystals, but I am not going into that here because I am not an expert. There is already a lot of information about using crystals to clean or protect your home. (The Sage Goddess article below discusses crystal clearing grids.)

6. Cleaning

A good old-fashioned cleaning will also work, especially if you can do it before using one of the methods above.

Sources Used

Heather Askinosie, "A Spiritual Cleansing Meditation with Flowers + Crystals to Get In Sync with Spring," energymuse, April 10, 2018. 

Melissa Hill, "Eight Methods of Purification That Aren’t Burning Sage," DandelionLady / Patheos, January 8, 2019. (This website requires ads to be shown.)

Jennifer Jorgenson, "5 Alternatives to Using Sage and Smoke to Cleanse and Purify," Exemplore, June 30, 2020. 

Kristen, "Cleansing Without Sage," Good Witch Kitchen, December 20, 2019. 

Otherworldly Oracle, "How to Cleanse Your Space without Sage Smoke: 5 Alternatives,"  May 5, 2019. 

Sage Goddess, "Step Outside the Bundle – Smokeless Energetic Clearing Options," October 11, 2017.

Patricia Telesco, "Anti-Magic Herbs, Flowers and Plants for Protection," Wise Witches & Witchcraft, no date. 

Obligatory cat photo!

[insanityclause]

To the host of questions surrounding the 2020 Tony Awards, we now have at least one answer: The nominations from the 2019-20 Broadway season will be announced Oct. 15 in a digital broadcast hosted by the actor James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony for his performance in “Aladdin.”

The Tony Nominating Committee will select the nominees in a meeting set for Oct. 13, prior to the announcement that will be streamed on the Tony Awards YouTube channel. No date has yet been set for the ceremony itself, but sources say organizers are aiming for sometime in the first half of December.

There also remain questions about what the ceremony itself will look like. It’s said that the intent is to include performance elements of some kind, and that the longtime producers of CBS’ Tony telecast (and recent producers of the socially-distanced Democratic National Convention), Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, will be involved, probably as consultants. Neither the Tony Awards nor CBS would comment on plans for the ceremony or the telecast.

The official confirmation of a Tony nominations timeline brings at least a bit of clarity to a theater awards season that has been mired in uncertainty since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Broadway in March. After several months of wondering whether the Tonys would happen at all in 2020, a virtual ceremony was announced in August with no dates or firm plan yet set. Since then, many in the industry were left wondering how and when it would all come together.

The nominations will look a little different — or perhaps a lot different — this year than they have in previous years. Given the truncated season, many categories have fewer contenders than usual, and it will be up to the nominators to determine how many nominees will be in each category, or whether some categories should be skipped completely.

Any of the Broadway season’s productions that opened before Feb. 19 are eligible, which means the list of potential nominees includes new musicals “Jagged Little Pill,” “Moulin Rouge!,” “The Lightning Thief” and “Tina”; new plays “Slave Play,” “The Inheritance” and “The Sound Inside”; and performers including Adrienne Warren (“Tina”), Karen Olivo (“Moulin Rouge!”), Elizabeth Stanley (“Jagged Little Pill”), Audra McDonald (“Frankie and Johnny”), Mary-Louise Parker (“Sound Inside”), Tom Hiddleston (“Betrayal”), Jake Gyllenhaal (“Sea Wall/A Life”) and Blair Underwood (“A Soldier’s Play”).

There’s no word yet on whether, in addition to the competitive categories, the nominators will also announce their usual round of special awards, which include trophies for category-defying productions as well as lifetime achievement honors.

Following the nominations announcement, ballots will be sent out to voters. The pool of eligible Tony voters, which numbers around 850, will likely be smaller this year than it has been in past years, since the abbreviated season gave voters less time to catch nominated shows. (Voters are allowed to vote only in categories in which they’ve seen every contender, as determined by an official attendance record.)

[path-of-my-childhood]

Billboard Woman of the Decade Taylor Swift: 'I Do Want My Music to Live On'

By: Jason Lipshutz for Billboard Magazine Date: December 14th issue

In the 2010s, she went from country superstar to pop titan and broke records with chart-topping albums and blockbuster tours. Now Swift is using her industry clout to fight for artists’ rights and foster the musical community she wished she had coming up.

One evening in late October, before she performed at a benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Taylor Swift’s dressing room became - as it often does - an impromptu summit of music’s biggest names. Swift was there to take part in the American Cancer Society’s annual We Can Survive concert alongside Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Camila Cabello and others, and a few of the artists on the lineup came by to visit.

Eilish, along with her mother and her brother/collaborator, Finneas O’Connell, popped in to say hello - the first time she and Swift had met. Later, Swift joined the exclusive club of people who have seen Marshmello without his signature helmet when the EDM star and his manager stopped by.

“Two dudes walked in - I didn’t know which one was him,” recalls Swift a few weeks later, sitting on a lounge chair in the backyard of a private Beverly Hills residence following a photo shoot. Her momentary confusion turned into a pang of envy. “It’s really smart! Because he’s got a life, and he can get a house that doesn’t have to have a paparazzi-proof entrance.” She stops to adjust her gray sweatshirt dress and lets out a clipped laugh.

Swift, who will celebrate her 30th birthday on Dec. 13, has been impossibly famous for nearly half of her lifetime. She was 16 when she released her self-titled debut album in 2006, and 20 when her second album, Fearless, won the Grammy Award for album of the year in 2010, making her the youngest artist to ever receive the honor. As the decade comes to a close, Swift is one of the most accomplished musical acts of all time: 37.3 million albums sold, according to Nielsen Music; 95 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 (including five No. 1s); 23 Billboard Music Awards; 12 Country Music Association Awards; 10 Grammys; and five world tours.

She also finishes the decade in a totally different realm of the music world from where she started. Swift’s crossover from country to pop - hinted at on 2012’s Red and fully embraced on 2014’s 1989 - reflected a mainstream era in which genres were blended with little abandon, where artists with roots in country, folk and trap music could join forces without anyone raising eyebrows. (See: Swift’s top 20 hit “End Game,” from 2017’s reputation, which featured Ed Sheeran and Future.)

Swift’s new album, Lover, released in August, is both a warm break from the darkness of reputation - which was created during a wave of negative press generated by Swift’s public clash with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian-West - as well as an amalgam of all her stylistic explorations through the years, from dreamy synth-pop to hushed country. “The skies were opening up in my life,” says Swift of the album, which garnered three Grammy nominations, including song of the year for the title track.

She recorded Lover after the Reputation Stadium Tour broke the record for the highest-grossing U.S. tour late last year. In 2020, Swift will embark on Lover Fest, a run of stadium dates that will feature a hand-picked lineup of artists (as yet unannounced) and allow Swift more time off from the road. “This is a year where I have to be there for my family - there’s a lot of question marks throughout the next year, so I wanted to make sure that I could go home,” says Swift, likely referencing her mother’s cancer diagnosis, which inspired the Lover heart-wrencher “Soon You’ll Get Better.”

Now, however, Swift finds herself in a different highly publicized dispute. This time it’s with Scott Borchetta, the head of her former label, Big Machine Records, and Scooter Braun, the manager-mogul whose Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group and its master recordings, which include Swift’s six pre-Lover albums, in June. Upon news of the sale, Swift wrote in a Tumblr post that it was her “worst case scenario,” accusing Braun of “bullying” her throughout her career due to his connections with West. She maintains today that she was never given the opportunity to buy her masters outright. (On Tumblr, she wrote that she was offered the chance to “earn” back the masters to one of her albums for each new album she turned in if she re-signed with Big Machine; Borchetta disputed this characterization, saying she had the opportunity to acquire her masters in exchange for re-signing with the label for a “length of time” - 10 more years, according to screenshots of legal documents posted on the Big Machine website.)

Swift has said that she intends to rerecord her first six albums next year, starting next November, when she says she’s contractually able to - in order to regain control of her recordings. But the back-and-forth appears to be nowhere near over: Last month, Swift alleged that Borchetta and Braun were blocking her from performing her past hits at the American Music Awards or using them in an upcoming Netflix documentary - claims Big Machine characterized as “false information” in a response that did not get into specifics. (Swift ultimately performed the medley she had planned.) In the weeks following this interview, Braun said he was open to “all possibilities” in finding a “resolution,” and Billboard sources say that includes negotiating a sale. Swift remains interested in buying her masters, though the price could be a sticking point, given her rerecording plans, the control she has over the licensing of her music for film and TV, and the market growth since Braun’s acquisition.

However it plays out, the battle over her masters is the latest in a series of moves that has turned Swift into something of an advocate for artists’ rights, and made her a cause that everyone from Halsey to Elizabeth Warren has rallied behind. From 2014 to 2017, Swift withheld her catalog from Spotify to protest the streaming company’s compensation rates, saying in a 2014 interview, “There should be an inherent value placed on art. I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify.” In 2015, ahead of the launch of Apple Music, Swift wrote an open letter criticizing Apple for its plan to not pay royalties during the three-month free trial it was set to offer listeners; the company announced a new policy within 24 hours. Most recently, when she signed a new global deal with Universal Music Group in 2018, Swift (who is now on Republic Records) said one of the conditions of her contract was that UMG share proceeds from any sale of its Spotify equity with its roster of artists - and make them non-recoupable against those artists’ earnings.

During a wide-ranging conversation, Billboard’s Woman of the Decade expresses hope that she can help make the lives of creators a little easier in the years to come - and a belief that her behind-the-scenes strides will be as integral to her legacy as her biggest singles. “New artists and producers and writers need work, and they need to be likable and get booked in sessions, and they can’t make noise - but if I can, then I’m going to,” promises Swift. This is where being impossibly famous can be a very good thing. “I know that it seems like I’m very loud about this,” she says, “but it’s because someone has to be.”

While watching some of your performances this year - like SNL and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert - I was struck by how focused you seemed, like there were no distractions getting in the way of what you were trying to say. That’s a really wonderful way of looking at this phase of my life and my music. I’ve spent a lot of time re-calibrating my life to make it feel manageable. Because there were some years there where I felt like I didn’t quite know what exactly to give people and what to hold back, what to share and what to protect. I think a lot of people go through that, especially in the last decade. I broke through pre-social media, and then there was this phase where social media felt fun and casual and quirky and safe. And then it got to the point where everyone has to evaluate their relationship with social media. So I decided that the best thing I have to offer people is my music. I’m not really here to influence their fashion or their social lives. That has bled through into the live part of what I do.

Meanwhile, you’ve found a way to interact with your fans in this very pure way - on your Tumblr page. Tumblr is the last place on the internet where I feel like I can still make a joke because it feels small, like a neighborhood rather than an entire continent. We can kid around - they literally drag me. It’s fun. That’s a real comfort zone for me. And just like anything else, I need breaks from it sometimes. But when I do participate in that space, it’s always in a very inside-joke, friend vibe. Sometimes, when I open Twitter, I get so overwhelmed that I just immediately close it. I haven’t had Twitter on my phone in a while because I don’t like to have too much news. Like, I follow politics, and that’s it. But I don’t like to follow who has broken up with who, or who wore an interesting pair of shoes. There’s only so much bandwidth my brain can really have.

You’ve spoken in recent interviews about the general expectations you’ve faced, using phrases like “They’ve wanted to see this” and “They hated me for this.” Who is “they”? Is it social media or disparaging think pieces or... It’s sort of an amalgamation of all of it. People who aren’t active fans of your music, who like one song but love to hear who has been canceled on Twitter. I’ve had several upheavals of somehow not being what I should be. And this happens to women in music way more than men. That’s why I get so many phone calls from new artists out of the blue - like, “Hey, I’m getting my first wave of bad press, I’m freaking out, can I talk to you?” And the answer is always yes! I’m talking about more than 20 people who have randomly reached out to me. I take it as a compliment because it means that they see what has happened over the course of my career, over and over again.

Did you have someone like that to reach out to? Not really, because my career has existed in lots of different neighborhoods of music. I had so many mentors in country music. Faith Hill was wonderful. She would reach out to me and invite me over and take me on tour, and I knew that I could talk to her. Crossing over to pop is a completely different world. Country music is a real community, and in pop I didn’t see that community as much. Now there is a bit of one between the girls in pop - we all have each other’s numbers and text each other - but when I first started out in pop it was very much you versus you versus you. We didn’t have a network, which is weird because we can help each other through these moments when you just feel completely isolated.

Do you feel like those barriers are actively being broken down now? God, I hope so. I also hope people can call it out, [like] if you see a Grammy prediction article, and it’s just two women’s faces next to each other and feels a bit gratuitous. No one’s going to start out being perfectly educated on the intricacies of gender politics. The key is that people are trying to learn, and that’s great. No one’s going to get it perfect, but, God, please try.

At this point, who is your sounding board, creatively and professionally From a creative standpoint, I’ve been writing alone a lot more. I’m good with being alone, with thinking alone. When I come up with a marketing idea for the Lover tour, the album launch, the merch, I’ll go right to my management company that I’ve put together. I think a team is the best way to be managed. Just from my experience, I don’t think that this overarching, one-person-handles-my-career thing was ever going to work for me. Because that person ends up kind of being me who comes up with most of the ideas, and then I have an amazing team that facilitates those ideas. The behind-the-scenes work is different for every phase of my career that I’m in. Putting together the festival shows that we’re doing for Lover is completely different than putting together the Reputation Stadium Tour. Putting together the reputation launch was so different than putting together the 1989 launch. So we really do attack things case by case, where the creative first informs everything else.

You’ve spoken before about how meaningful the reputation tour’s success was. What did it represent? That tour was something that I wanted to immortalize in the Netflix special that we did because the album was a story, but it almost was like a story that wasn’t fully realized until you saw it live. It was so cool to hear people leaving the show being like, “I understand it now. I fully get it now.” There are a lot of red herrings and bait-and-switches in the choices that I’ll make with albums, because I want people to go and explore the body of work. You can never express how you feel over the course of an album in a single, so why try?

That seems especially true of your last three albums or so. “Shake It Off” is nothing like the rest of 1989. It’s almost like I feel so much pressure with a first single that I don’t want the first single to be something that makes you feel like you’ve figured out what I’ve made on the rest of the project. I still truly believe in albums, whatever form you consume them in - if you want to stream them or buy them or listen to them on vinyl. And I don’t think that makes me a staunch purist. I think that that is a strong feeling throughout the music industry. We’re running really fast toward a singles industry, but you got to believe in something. I still believe that albums are important.

The music industry has become increasingly global during the past decade. Is reaching new markets something you think about? Yeah, and I’m always trying to learn. I’m learning from everyone. I’m learning when I go see Bruce Springsteen or Madonna do a theater show. And I’m learning from new artists who are coming out right now, just seeing what they’re doing and thinking, “That’s really cool.” You need to keep your influences broad and wide-ranging, and my favorite people who make music have always done that. I got to work with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the Cats movie, and Andrew will walk through the door and be like, “I’ve just seen this amazing thing on TikTok!” And I’m like, “You are it! You are it!” Because you cannot look at what quote-unquote “the kids are doing” and roll your eyes. You have to learn.

Have you explored TikTok at all? I only see them when they’re posted to Tumblr, but I love them! I think that they’re hilarious and amazing. Andrew says that they’ve made musicals cool again, because there’s a huge musical facet to TikTok. [He’s] like, “Any way we can do that is good.”

How do you see your involvement in the business side of your career progressing in the next decade? You seem like someone who could eventually start a label or be more hands-on with signing artists. I do think about it every once in a while, but if I was going to do it, I would need to do it with all of my energy. I know how important that is, when you’ve got someone else’s career in your hands, and I know how it feels when someone isn’t generous.

You’ve served as an ambassador of sorts for artists, especially recently - staring down streaming services over payouts, increasing public awareness about the terms of record deals. We have a long way to go. I think that we’re working off of an antiquated contractual system. We’re galloping toward a new industry but not thinking about re-calibrating financial structures and compensation rates, taking care of producers and writers. We need to think about how we handle master recordings, because this isn’t it. When I stood up and talked about this, I saw a lot of fans saying, “Wait, the creators of this work do not own their work, ever?” I spent 10 years of my life trying rigorously to purchase my masters outright and was then denied that opportunity, and I just don’t want that to happen to another artist if I can help it. I want to at least raise my hand and say, “This is something that an artist should be able to earn back over the course of their deal - not as a renegotiation ploy - and something that artists should maybe have the first right of refusal to buy.” God, I would have paid so much for them! Anything to own my work that was an actual sale option, but it wasn’t given to me. Thankfully, there’s power in writing your music. Every week, we get a dozen synch requests to use “Shake It Off” in some advertisement or “Blank Space” in some movie trailer, and we say no to every single one of them. And the reason I’m rerecording my music next year is because I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies, I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it.

Do you know how long that rerecording process will take? I don’t know! But it’s going to be fun, because it’ll feel like regaining a freedom and taking back what’s mine. When I created [these songs], I didn’t know what they would grow up to be. Going back in and knowing that it meant something to people is actually a really beautiful way to celebrate what the fans have done for my music.

Ten years ago, on the brink of the 2010s, you were about to turn 20. What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time? Oh, God - I wouldn’t give myself any advice. I would have done everything exactly the same way. Because even the really tough things I’ve gone through taught me things that I never would have learned any other way. I really appreciate my experience, the ups and downs. And maybe that seems ridiculously Zen, but... I’ve got my friends, who like me for the right reasons. I’ve got my family. I’ve got my boyfriend. I’ve got my fans. I’ve got my cats.

Taylor Swift Discusses 'The Man' & 'It's Nice To Have a Friend' In Cover Story Outtakes

Billboard // by Jason Lipshutz // December 12th 2019

During her cover story interview for Billboard’s Women In Music issue, Taylor Swift discussed several aspects of her mega-selling seventh studio album Lover, including its creation after a personal “recalibrating” period, her stripped-down performances of its songs and her plans to showcase the full-length live with her Lover Fest shows next year. In two moments from the extended conversation that did not make the print story, Billboard’s Woman of the Decade also touched upon two of the album’s highlights, which double as a pair of the more interesting songs in her discography: “The Man” and “It’s Nice To Have A Friend.” 

“The Man” imagines how Swift’s experience as a person, artist and figure within the music industry would have been different had she been a man, highlighting how much harder women have to work in order to succeed (“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can / Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man,” she sings in the chorus). The song has become a fan favorite since the release of Lover, and Swift recently opened a career-spanning medley with the song at the 2019 American Music Awards.

When asked about “The Man,” Swift pointed out specific double standards that exist in everyday life and explained why she wanted to turn that frustration into a pop single. Read Swift’s full thoughts on “The Man” below:

“It was a song that I wrote from my personal experience, but also from a general experience that I’ve heard from women in all parts of our industry. And I think that, the more we can talk about it in a song like that, the better off we’ll be in a place to call it out when it’s happening. So many of these things are ingrained in even women, these perceptions, and it’s really about re-training your own brain to be less critical of women when we are not criticizing men for the same things. So many things that men do, you know, can be phoned-in that cannot be phoned-in for us. We have to really — God, we have to curate and cater everything, but we have to make it look like an accident. Because if we make a mistake, that’s our fault, but if we strategize so that we won’t make a mistake, we’re calculating.

“There is a bit of a damned-if-we-do, damned-if-we-don’t thing happening in music, and that’s why when I can, like, sit and talk and be like ‘Yeah, this sucks for me too,’ that feels good. When I go online and hear the stories of my fans talking about their experience in the working world, or even at school — the more we talk about it, the better off we’ll be. And I wanted to make it catchy for a reason — so that it would get stuck in people’s heads, [so] they would end up with a song about gender inequality stuck in their heads. And for me, that’s a good day.”

Meanwhile, the penultimate song on Lover, “It’s Nice To Have A Friend,” sounds unlike anything in Swift’s catalog thanks to its elliptical structure, lullaby-like tone and incorporation of steel drums and brass. When asked about the song, Swift talked about experimenting with her songwriting, as well as capturing a different angle of the emotional themes at the heart of Lover. Read Swift’s full thoughts on “It’s Nice To Have A Friend” below:

“It was fun to write a song that was just verses, because my whole body and soul wants to make a chorus — every time I sit down to write a song, I’m like, ‘Okay, chorus time, let’s get the chorus done.’ But with that song, it was more of like a poem, and a story and a vibe and a feeling of... I love metaphors that kind of have more than one meaning, and I think I loved the idea that, on an album called Lover, we all want love, we all want to find somebody to see our sights with and hear things with and experience things with.

“But at the end of the day we’ve been searching for that since we were kids! When you had a friend when you were nine years old, and that friend was all you talked about, and you wanted to have sleepovers and you wanted to walk down the street together and sit there drawing pictures together or be silent together, or be talking all night. We’re just looking for that, but endless sparks, as adults.”

Read the full Taylor Swift cover story here, and click here for more info on Billboard’s 2019 Women In Music event, during which Swift will be presented with the first-ever Woman of the Decade award.

[link to this tweet]

Was there ever a part of you that was like, “Oh shit, I like this darker vibe, let’s go even further down that path?” I really Loved Reputation because it felt like a rock opera, or a musical, doing it live. Doing that stadium show was so fun because it was so theatrical and so exciting to perform that, because it’s really cathartic! But I have to follow whatever direction my life is going in emotionally... The skies were opening up in my life. That’s what happened. But in a way that felt like a pink sky, a pink and purple sky, after a storm, and now it looks even more beautiful because it looked so stormy before. And that’s just like, I couldn't stop writing. I’ve never had an album with 18 songs on it before, and a lot of what I do is based on intuition. So, you know, I try not to overthink it. Who knows, there may be another dark album. I plan on doing lots of experimentation over the course of my career. Who knows? But it was a blast, I really loved it.

I mean, look, a Taylor Swift screamo album? I’ll be first in line. I’m so happy to hear that, because I think you might be the only one. Ha! I have a terrible scream. It’s obnoxious.

Why Taylor Swift's Lover Fest Will Be Her Next Big Step

Billboard // by Jason Lipshutz // December 11th 2019 - [Excerpt]

On why she chose to put together Lover fest: “I haven’t really done festivals in years - not since I was a teenager. That’s something that [the fans] don’t expect from me, so that’s why I wanted to do it. I want to challenge myself with new things and at the same time keep giving my fans something to connect to.”

[airxn]

now that i’m an hour into 2021 i’ve decided to reflect on 2020.  everything under the cut because this is mostly for me to articulate my thoughts. might be long? idk ! ( narrator vc: it’s long )

so one big event for me at the start of 2021 was breaking up with my first partner. the relationship wasn’t for me. plus he only cared how i made him feel– cared for // that someone was interested in him and his interests. but he really didn’t care about me in the same way. and damn it is stressful to break up with someone. glad i did it though and i know more of what i want out of a person. even though i waited a long time to date i’m glad i did it when i was more emotionally mature to handle it. pretty sure if i dated sooner i wouldn’t break up with someone out of guilt LOL

then of course the big pandemic hit. i was ripped away from my college family– people i can say i truly love. and i had to graduate from home. no big ceremony. no last hoorah. no cap and gown. it’s very bittersweet. a life event i’ll never get back, but i’ve come to terms with it. i’m still in contact with everyone and in december we all officially got the status of college graduate. i don’t have a job in my field yet. this year it’s a goal, but i did get a temporary gig as an election judge for the 2020 presidential election. damn was that a trip. i’m glad it’s over but i miss having structure in my life. i have it now with streaming but having a steady income is nice, but alas i would never do that election thing again. not when the main guy i talked to hit on me and made everything awkward :’) he’s nice but not my flavor. 

glad i’m at home now though. i have two chronic illnesses that make me vulnerable to the virus. so for now i decided to not get an in person job until vaccines have been thoroughly given. i’m willing to wait. i don’t trust people not to go get tested lol. but !! one thing i am proud of myself for is actively working out daily for 20-30 minutes. i started in july and my body is so TONED. my ass is so NICE. i started working out because i was diagnosed with osteoporosis early in the year. around the time we went to disney world. so to help my bones and my health i took on working out and i’m loving it. way better than going to a gym and having peoples eyes on you. i can sweat in the comfort of my home. and my progress is stellar. i noticed things aren’t so heavy anymore like WHAT milk jugs aren’t heavy? nice.

and then lastly, my art and writing. i started finally gathering my thoughts and begun writing my webseries. i took uh… rather long hiatuses from writing it this last two months or so though. my election job hit me hard and i’m still slowly recovering. i’m going to pick it back up again and force myself not to make any adjustments yet. gonna write it down and fix it when the first arc is done. 

as for my art… i’m so proud of my progress. i animated a short all by myself. i said fuck it to having one style. said fuck it to keeping to one or two brushes. i stopped caring and my art vastly improved. this year will be getting my twitter and instagram off the ground. i’ve let them sit for many years now. but i want to actively try to be on them. as an animator i need to network, and i have done that. i just want to connect with more artists and hopefully be more social. there’s amazing artists here on tumblr. this is where i put my focus but it’s time to expand a bit ! start drawing my webseries even. 2021 my art is going to stab you through the heart in a good way. 

so all in all. i can’t say 2020 was a bad year for me. not great but not bad either. 2021 will be a focus on my creative work and getting a job. i can’t wait!

[mjj-news]

MJJNews Provided By Anji~Justice240

MJJNEWS, PICKING -UP- WHERE WE LEFT OFF…  

In Loving Memory Of Michael Jackson 1958-2009

♥ You Know That L.O.V.E. Survives ♥ **  ♥ So We Can Rock Forever ♥  **

★January 2021★  

MJJNEWS, PICKING -UP- WHERE WE LEFT OFF…

MICHAEL JACKSON – 2020 YEAR IN REVIEW

January 1, 2021

If someone had told you at the beginning of 2020 that the year was going to be spent mostly at home and online, you’d probably have laughed it off. However, in arguably the most challenging year of our lifetime, that’s exactly what happened. Thankfully, we’re fans of the King of Pop and that means that no matter where you are in the world, you’re part of an active community that engages fans and always finds ways to celebrate no matter how challenging.

So, before we turn the page to 2021, Here is MJVibe’s top picks for Michael Jackson 2020 – Year in Review!

Thriller appears in the Top 10 vinyl sales of the decade in the United States at number 6, having sold 334,000 copies between 2010 and 2019. In 2019 alone, 88,000 copies of Thriller on vinyl were sold across the U.S.

A pair of Louboutins designed exclusively for Michael to wear during ‘This Is It’ go on display in Paris France at the Palais de la Porte Dorée as part of an exhibition focusing on the world-famous designer Christian Louboutins. The sparkly shoes offer a subtle nod to Michael’s Triumph/Off The Wall look and were displayed as if Moonwalking.

- Bad in Wembley and Dangerous Live in Bucharest are once again made available for streaming on YouTube through Michael’s official channel in an effort to encourage the ‘stay home’ order given to countries around the world.

- After 11 years at the Lyric Theater, Thriller Live closes its doors for the final time. The show had been scheduled to complete on April 26th 2020 and leave the Lyric to find a new home. However, the UK-wide lock down as a result of the pandemic saw the show close earlier than planned.

- The MJ Estate donated $300,000 to Corona Virus relief efforts in Michael’s name. Broadway Cares, Three Square Food Bank (Southern Nevada’s largest hunger-relief organization) and MusicCares each received a $100,000 donation.

The Estate release ‘Heal The World 2020’, a new short film to accompany Michael’s 1992 hit of the same name. The film focused on the Covid-19 pandemic and was produced to unite Michael’s fans virtually during an almost global lock down.

In response to the release, fans ensured ‘Healtheworld2020’ trended two weekends consecutively. As of December 2020, the short film has 4.3 million views on YouTube.

View the video here!

- As a result of the pandemic, MJ The Musical’s debut is once again delayed to September 2021. Originally planned to open in Chicago in the Summer of 2019, the launch was cancelled with a plan to head straight to Broadway in early 2020. After three rescheduled dates, the decision was made to push to September 2021.

- Michael dominates Smooth Radio’s All-Time Top 500 Songs with the most entries by a solo artist. With 20 entries, Billie Jean and Man In The Mirror placed inside the Top 10, with George Michael being the only other artist to do so. Averaging four million listeners a week, Smooth Radio removed Michael from rotation in 2019, however, this poll as voted by the public, ensured Michael returned to the station’s regular playlist. #MUTEWHO?!

- HIStory turns 25 and while fans around the world mark the album’s monumental status and timeless appeal, the Estate chose to release apparel and a badge set, which mostly amounted to, what some fans considered an overpriced, bad quality, poorly designed, late delivered collection.

Judge for yourself, Ilia Mizani and Pez Jax sat down to review some of the products here.

- Marking the 25th Anniversary of the album, the HIStory teaser is added to YouTube where it has since been viewed 1.5 million times via Michael’s official channel.

- It’s been over 50 years since the Jackson 5 performed on the Ed Sullivan show. As part of a full library upload, the performances are restored and uploaded to YouTube for future generations to enjoy. You can watch the iconic performances here!

- Sixteen11 Media Group announces the release of a new book titled, ‘The Story of HIStory’ by Pez Jax. The book charts the creation and release of HIStory and marks 25 years of the album’s release. Including interviews with many people who worked on the album and short films, Jax called upon HIStory Statue sculptor Diana Walczak to help create the cover of the book. By the end of 2020, the book was released in special gold hardback and has been shipped to over 30 countries around the world. Several of Michael’s items from the era were placed on auction through Julien’s Auctions. Taking place from the 15th – 19th of June, listings included the three Olodum outfits worn by Michael in ‘They Don’t Care About Us’, the black trench coat from Stranger In Moscow and the handwritten lyrics to D.S.

- Author Damien Shields releases ‘The Genesis of Thriller’, a special audio documentary that takes listeners into the studio to discover how the world’s biggest-selling album was made. HIGHLY Recommended!

You can listen to this insightful audio documentary here!

- SiriusXM launches ‘The Michael Jackson Channel’, a radio station playing nothing but Michael Jackson music for a strictly limited time. The station also featured a special playlist titled ‘The Now More Than Ever King of Pop Playlist’.

- UK Nationwide Radio Station ‘Smooth Radio’ host their annual ‘Top 100’ poll to find out who the number one Icon is, according to listeners. With an overwhelming number of votes, Michael comes in at Number one.

- Following global demonstrations in relation to the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police, Spike Lee teamed up with the Estate to release a new version of ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ for 2020. Mixing together both the Brazilian and Prison versions of the short film, Lee also incorporated footage from demonstrations around the world, which once again proved just how timeless Michael’s music is when used as the backdrop to current affairs.

Watch it here!

- Chinese fans celebrate Michael’s 62nd Birthday with the unveiling of 10 statues across the country. Created by MJJCN, the statues were installed in prominent locations including Nanning and Beijing and serve as a wonderful dedication to Michael.

‘Loving Neverland’ is released on YouTube as a five-hour compilation of footage and information that details Michael’s life, challenges and career in great detail. Compiled by fans Nandita Raghav and Deboleena Aich, Loving Neverland serves as a powerful reminder to what Michael experienced for anyone looking to understand who he was. You can watch it here!

- Finally, and after many years of asking, the Estate decided to do something with Michael Jackson’s Ghosts, announcing it would be free to stream on YouTube from 29th October until the 1st of November. To mark the Halloween period, which Michael ultimately rules, the mini-movie was uploaded in better quality than the previous uploads.

- Walmart release a limited edition 2x colored vinyl of the Jackson 5 greatest hits album ‘The Ultimate Collection’. Available only in the U.S, the album was issued through Universal Music.

- In what’s almost yearly fashion, more of Michael’s personal items were placed up for auction including the 2006 Japan VMAs jacket that marked Michael’s first official red-carpet appearance since his 2005 trial.

Also on auction were platinum record awards, signed items, photographs, drawings and a glove.

- Cirque-Du-Soleil announced that despite being closed for most of 2020 due to the pandemic, Michael Jackson ONE is one of five Las Vegas residency shows to receive a contract extension. Originally signed as a 10-year with five years guaranteed at the Mandalay Bay, the show has been so popular that both Cirque and Mandalay want to keep it going past its 2023 end date. The new end date on the contract extension has not been announced.

- On November 16th, the legendary Bruce Swedien passed away. Having worked with Michael as Engineer on all his Epic solo albums up to Invincible, Swedien continued working in the industry up until his passing and became an inspiration to many upcoming producers and engineers. Rest in Peace Bruce!

- Michael once again topped Forbes list of the Highest-Paid Dead Celebrity. Coming in at number one with $48 million earned, he beat Dr Seuss who came in second position with $33 million. FYI, Elvis came in 5th.

- To cap off another year of insightful interviews and important documentation, the MJCast episode 126 was a special featuring TJ Jackson. TJ speaks about growing up a Jackson, working with Michael and how the last few years of negativity have affected his family. You can listen to this deeply personal episode here!

- On Christmas Eve it was announced that Neverland ranch had officially been sold. Purchased for just $22 million by Billionaire Ron Burkle, the final price was a huge reduction from the overzealous $100 million asking price when the property was first put onto the market. However, there is hope as Burkle was a former business associate and friend to Michael, so while it may not be a ‘Michael Jackson Memorial’, it will hopefully be treated with the respect and history it deserves.

As we begin 2021 with hope and optimism, it may take a while before we can all be back with our favorite MJ friends; throwing down dance moves on his birthday and lighting candles on his anniversary. However, with the 30th Anniversary of Dangerous and the 20th Anniversary of Invincible at the tail end of the year, it’s likely we can look forward to some exciting coverage from a variety of different places and hopefully some more chart-topping achievements throughout the year.

⭐༺★༻ ༺🖤༻ ༺★༻⭐

[happyclips]

Top 5 Upcoming Short Film Festivals in India

As a filmmaker, you want your film to reach out to the audience. And in this digital age, online short films are the best way to deliver your art and vision to your viewers. Various national and international short film festivals have been closed since 2020 due to the current Covid-19 Pandemic. However, several of them happened online last year. In 2021, many short film festivals are either happening online or on a hybrid platform (online + in-person).

 But, as they say, "the show must go on." Numerous emerging filmmakers in India and the world are ready with their short films. They are searching for short film festivals where they can get the chance to display their work and network for better opportunities. We have compiled the upcoming Short film events that you can consider entering in 2021.

 Calcutta International Short Film Festival 2021

 Submission Deadline: June 30, 2021

Late Submission Deadline: July 31, 2021

Extended Submission Deadline: August 31, 2021

Festival Date(s): December 17 - 19, 2021

 The Calcutta International Short Film Festival brings together filmmakers from around the world. As an international short film festival, the CISHORTFF-2021 seeks to increase knowledge among movie-buffs by screening short films for them. All official short films will screen in Kolkata (India).

 CISHORTFF is also inviting fiction, documentary, and experimental short films. However, they are not allowing promotional short films (like tourism, charitable appeals, awareness campaigns, etc.).

The panel members will review each entry and will pick the nominees and judge their films. They will award laurels, medals, and trophies in different categories for cinematic brilliance. For more details, click on the link.

 11th Pune Short Film Festival 2021

 Submission Deadline: April 15, 2021

Late Submission Deadline: May 31, 2021

Festival Date(s): June 05-06, 2021

 Pune Short Film Festival is a unique short film festival that focuses on creating opportunities for independent filmmakers globally. They are conducting the 11th edition of their innovative international short film festival and inviting aspiring and emerging indie filmmakers.

 You can submit a documentary, experimental, narrative, fiction, nonfiction, and even animation in this festival. PSSF also allows short films in all languages, but non-English films must have English subtitles. There will be 21 categories for the awards, including best documentary and best animation. Click here to know more.

 10th Bangalore Short Film Festival 2021

 Submission Deadline: May 13, 2021

Late Submission Deadline: June 3, 2021

Festival Date(s): June 13, 2021

 In 2012, the Bangalore Shorts Film Festival began as a campaign to recognize and popularise the work of emerging and established filmmakers from India and around the world. In their 10th edition, they invite young and professional filmmakers to this forum to showcase their work while also offering networking and promotion opportunities in the film industry.

 The festival aims to establish a short film culture in India, promote upcoming filmmakers, build revenue streams for short films, and turn short filmmaking into an enterprise. The festival also includes mind bending workshops and masterclasses for emerging filmmakers. The winners will get a certificate, a trophy, and a distribution deal for their short film. Also, all participants will receive a certificate for participation.

 NexGn International Short Film Festival of India

 Submission Deadline: March 31, 2021

Late Submission Deadline: April 20, 2021

Extended Submission Deadline: May 10, 2021

Festival Date(s): May 28 - 31, 2021

 In three years, India's NexGn International Short Film Festival screened over 900 short films. It's an inspiring international short film festival where new doors of opportunity can open for aspiring filmmakers. The festival benefits from a vibrant culture of diversified filmmakers in India and the world.

 This year, for those who were unable to attend the event due to the hardships of COVID19, they had a live streaming session on Facebook. They also host networking sessions and offer several opportunities for chosen filmmakers to showcase their work, learn from their peers, and form connections for future collaborations. The initial deadline has already passed, but you can still submit your work and participate in this festival. Click the link for more information.

 9th India Cine Film Festival

 Submission Deadline: March 17, 2021

Late Submission Deadline: August 31, 2021

Festival Date(s): September 12, 2021

 India Cine is a decade-old movie film festival that has moved venues from Meerut in the north to Mumbai in the west. The ICFF-21 aim is to give necessary momentum to independent moviemaking. The festival is awarding feature films, short films, documentaries, animations, and other categories.

 The ICFF aims to provide a venue for great cinematic ideas to connect, share, and evolve. Apart from international competitive film screenings, the festival hosts a film market and industry-focused master classes and discussions. The festival will serve as a hub for industry professionals to network and develop new opportunities for younger talents. To know more about rules and awards, click here.

 Short Film Production Is the Way Ahead

 Almost every festival has set the maximum time limit for a short film at 30 minutes (including starting and end credits). Short film festivals offer you the opportunity to promote yourself and your work to a large audience. It also displays your ability as a filmmaker to deliver coherent and engaging visual content in a more limited time. To find distributors and market your film, you must participate in film festivals.

 Many short film festivals happen all around the year. If you have a short film idea that you want to produce, you can contact a proficient Short Film Production Company who can help you with their equipment and expertise to make a spectacular short film.

[aion-rsa]

HBO Max New Releases: December 2020

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Time and time again during this year’s pandemic, movie studios have had to make the best of a bad situation. HBO Max’s list of new releases for December 2020 comes along with the most extreme example yet.

WarnerMedia undoubtedly had big plans for Wonder Woman 1984 when it scheduled it for a holiday release last year. After moving it to the summer, however, the conglomerate had to delay its theatrical release time and time again. Now HBO Max is the lucky winner of the saga, as it gets to premiere the long-awaited sequel on its servers on Dec. 25.

While Wonder Woman 1984 is definitely the headline this month, there are some other intriguing streaming options for HBO Max in December. The month plays host to a whole host of high-powered documentaries like Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults (Dec. 3), Alabama Snake (Dec. 9), and the Tiger Woods documentary Tiger (Dec. 15).

There isn’t much going on on the TV side of things. His Dark Materials is set to run its season 2 finale on Dec. 28. But at that point, everyone will likely be on their fourth Wonder Woman rewatch.

Here is the full list of everything coming to and leaving HBO Max in December 2020.

HBO Max New Releases – December 2020

December 1

3 Godfathers, 1949

40 Days And 40 Nights, 2002 (HBO)

Absolute Power, 1997

Adam Ruins Everything, Seasons 2-3

The Adventures of Pinocchio, 1996

Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World, 2018

Amistad, 1997 (HBO)

Annabelle: Creation, 2017 (HBO)

The Bay, 2012 (HBO)

The Beguiled, 2017 (HBO)

Beyond Reasonable Doubt, 2017

The Bishop’s Wife, 1947

The Blind Side, (HBO)

Blow-Up, 1966

The Book Of Henry, 2017 (HBO)

Bright Young Things, 2004 (HBO)

Bundle of Joy, 1956

The Carbonaro Effect, Seasons 2-5

Chasing Life with Sanjay Gupta, 2019

Cinderella Story: If The Shoe Fits, A, 2016

Code 46, 2004 (HBO)

Comedy Knockout, 2016

Contraband, 2012 (HBO)

Crimes of the Century, 2013

The Crow, 1994 (HBO)

The Crow: City Of Angels, 1996 (HBO)

The Crow: Wicked Prayer, 2005 (HBO)

Dead Wives Club, Season 1

Death Row Stories, Seasons 1-4

De Blanco La Patuda (aka White Is For Virgins), 2020 (HBO)

Deep Blue Sea, 1999

Demolition Man, 1993

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, 2012 (HBO)

Fallen, 1998

Falling Skies, 2011

The Family Man, 2000 (HBO)

Father of the Bride, 1950

Fifty Shades Of Black, 2016 (HBO)

Final Destination, 2000

Final Destination 2, 2003

Final Destination 3, 2006

The Final Destination, 2009

Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery, 2015

Freelancers, 2012 (HBO)

Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, 1995

Free Willy 3: The Rescue, 1997

Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove, 2010

The Girl With All The Gifts, 2016 (HBO)

Gladiator, 2000

Gun Crazy, 1950

Harry And The Hendersons, 1987 (HBO)

Hell in the Heartland, 2019

Hero, 2004 (HBO)

The History of Comedy, 2017

Holiday Affair, 1949

Hot Fuzz, 2007 (HBO)

How It Really Happened, Seasons 1-4

The Human Stain, 2003 (HBO)

The Hunt with John Walsh, 2014

Inside Evil with Chris Cuomo, 2018

It Happened on Fifth Avenue, 1947

Joe Versus the Volcano, 1990

Juice, 1992

Just My Luck, 2006 (HBO)

Kung Fu Panda 2, 2011

Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks, 2018

The Last Samurai, 2003

La Unidad, 2020

Logan’s Run, 1976

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001

The Man Who Came to Dinner, 1942

Mars Attacks!, 1996

Meet Me in St. Louis, 1944

Michael Clayton, 2007

Misery, 1990 (HBO)

The Misery Index, 2013

My Dream is Yours, 1949

Nancy Drew, 2007

No Blade of Grass, 1970

Omega Man, The, 1971

On Moonlight Bay, 1951

Outbreak, 1995

Paid Off with Michael Torpey, 2018

Phantom Thread, 2017 (HBO)

Period of Adjustment, 1962

Pope: The Most Powerful Man In History, 2018

Project X, 2012 (Extended Version) (HBO)

Rachel Dratch’s Late Night Snack, 2016

The Redemption Project, 2019

Risky Business, 1983

Robots, 2005 (HBO)

Rock Of Ages, 2012 (Extended Version)  (HBO)

Romance on the High Seas, 1948

Room for One More, 1952

Sanctum, 2011 (HBO)

The Sentinel, 2006 (HBO)

Sex and the City, 2008

Sex and the City 2, 2010

Shaun Of The Dead, 2004 (HBO)

The Shawshank Redemption, 1994

Shop Around the Corner, The, 1940

Snakes on a Plane, 2006

Snow White And The Huntsman, 2012 (Unrated Version) (HBO)

Something’s Killing Me, 2017

Southland, Seasons 1-5

Soylent Green, 1973

SPAWN, 1997

Stargirl, Season 1

Striptease, 1996

Susan Slept Here, 1954

Talk Show the Game Show, 2017

Tea for Two, 1950

Those Who Can’t, 2016

Three Godfathers, 1936

THX 1138, 1971

Timeline, 2003 (HBO)

Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale, 2007

Tom And Jerry: Santa’s Little Helpers, 2014

True Grit, 2010 (HBO)

Unfaithful, 2002 (HBO)

Unmasking a Killer, 2018

Very Scary People, Season 1

The Wedding Date, 2005 (HBO)

Westworld, 1973

What Bitch? (HBO)

Wrath of the Titans, 2012 (HBO)

Wrecked, 2019

Yogi Bear, 2010

Young Man with a Horn, 1949

December 2

Baby God, Documentary Premiere (HBO)

December 3

Full Bloom, Season Finale

Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, HBO Max Documentary Premiere

Looney Tunes Cartoons, Bugs Bunny’s 24 Carrot Holiday Special Premiere

My Gift: A Christmas Special From Carrie Underwood, HBO Max Special Premiere

Stylish with Jenna Lyons, HBO Max Original Series Premiere

December 4

Beyond the Spotlight, Season 1

Bright Now: Alien Worlds, 2020

Engineering the Future, 2020

La Leyenda Negra (HBO)

Jujutsu Kaisen (Crunchyroll Collection)

December 5

The Photograph, 2020 (HBO)

December 6

Euphoria, “Trouble Don’t Last Always,” Special Episode Premiere (HBO)

Murder on Middle Beach, Docuseries Finale (HBO)

December 7

Axios, Season Finale (HBO)

December 8

40 Years a Prisoner, Documentary Premiere (HBO)

La Jauria (The Pack), Season 1

One Night in Bangkok, 2020

December 9

Alabama Snake, Documentary Premiere (HBO)

The Trial of Christine Keeler

December 10

4 Blocks, Seasons 1-3

Esme & Roy, HBO Max Holiday Special Episode

Haute Dog, HBO Max Holiday Special Episode

Let Them All Talk, HBO Max Original Film Premiere

House of Ho, HBO Max Original Series Premiere

Summer Camp Island, Season 3 Premiere

Veneno, Season Finale

Valley of Tears, Season Finale

December 11

Adult Material

Midnight Family, 2020 (HBO)

One Way Or Another, Season Finale (HBO)

December 12

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, Documentary Premiere (HBO)

December 13

Tiger, Docuseries Premiere (HBO)

December 15

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

December 16

The Art of Political Murder, Documentary Premiere (HBO)

December 17

CNN Heroes, An All-Star Tribute

The Flight Attendant, HBO Max Limited Series Premiere

Homeschool Musical Class of 2020, HBO Max Special Premiere

Love Monster, Season 1-2

Sesame Street: Holiday at Hooper’s

December 18

Diego Torres Sinfonico, Season 1 (HBO)

Hasta Que La Boda Nos Separe (aka The Wedding Unplanner), 2020 (HBO)

December 19

Wendy, 2020 (HBO)

December 20

I Used to Go Here, 2020 (HBO)

December 21

Industry, Season Finale (HBO)

December 23

Squish, Season 1

December 25

The West Wing, Season 1-7

Wonder Woman 1984

December 26

Independence Day (Extended Version), 1996 (HBO)

Road Trip, Season 1

December 28

His Dark Materials, Season 2 Finale (HBO)

December 29

Los Dias De La Ballena (AKA The Days of the Whale) (HBO)

December 31

The Champ, 1979

Conan Without Borders

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Leaving HBO Max – December 2020

December 10

Lights Out, 2016 (HBO)

December 15

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, 2019 (HBO)

December 26

American Animals, 2018 (HBO)

December 27

Arizona, 2018 (HBO)

December 31

An American in Paris, 1951

Analyze This, 1999

Austin Powers In Goldmember, 2002

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, 1997

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, 1999

Batman & Robin, 1997

Batman Forever, 1995

Batman v Superman: Ultimate Edition, 2016

Bonnie and Clyde, 1967

Boogie Nights, 1997

Bringing Up Baby, 1938

Clash Of The Titans, 2010

Constantine, 2005

Demolition Man, 1993

Dirty Harry, 1971

Doctor Zhivago, 1965

Empire of the Sun, 1987

Friday the 13th, 2009

Free Willy, 1993

Giant, 1956

Gladiator, 2000

The Hey Arnold! The Movie, 2002

The Hobbit, 1977

Jonah Hex, 2010

La La Land, 2016 (HBO)

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life, 2003

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, 2001

The Lego Ninjago Movie, 2014

Lucy In The Sky, 2019 (HBO)

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, 2012 (HBO)

Monsters vs. Aliens, 2009

Rugrats Go Wild, 2003

The post HBO Max New Releases: December 2020 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Lengths of Plot Lines/Other Things Throughout DSMP History (Shortest to Longest) - [UPDATED]

Recently went through and updated all of the info on my list again with some new arcs and extra dates! It’s been a while, but usually people find it a bit helpful, so I figured I’d do an update!

Besides the different storylines, there are also some dates for how long nations have existed, lifespans, etc. for extra reference.

(As usual, the disclaimers: Some of these dates may be off by a day or two due to timezones or just plain mistakes (I’m bad at math), and where each arc starts and ends is up for debate, etc.)

---

[As of June 25th, 2021]

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1-day plots: (Too many to list)

Spirit’s Lifespan: (May 5th - May 7th): 3 days

* Disc War: (July 9th - July 11th) 3 days

Mexican L’manburg: (December 1st - December 6th) 5 days (to revolution)

L’manburg Revolutionary War: (July 29th - August 2nd) 5 days

Dreamon Hunters: (October 7th - October 14th) ~ 8 days (between two streams, no clear ending)

L’manburg Founding: (July 24th - August 2nd) 10 days (including Camarvan)

Fundy and Ghostbur: (November 17th - November 27th) 10 days (from rebuilding to final argument)

Snowchester Nukes: (January 17th - January 26th) 10 days (to launch test)

Exile Arc/Logstedshire: (December 4th - December 15th) 11 days

Mysterious Tubbo Text: (April 1st - April 11th) 11 days (no clear ending?)

The Pet War: (August 28th - September 9th) 13 days

* Post-L’manburg Disc Saga Events: (August 11th - August 25th) 14 days

The Election Arc: (September 3rd - September 22nd) 19 days

Tommy in Prison: (February 21st - March 12th) 19 days

Techno in Prison: (From June 6th) 19 days (ongoing)

The Cartel: (August 7th - August 27th) 20 days

Bedrock Bros: (December 16th - January 5th) 21 days

L’Sandburg Independence Negotiations: (April 26th - May 18th) 22 days

The Snowchester Outpost: (From June 1st) 25 days (ongoing)

Sam Nook/Construction of the Big Innit Hotel: (January 22nd - February 16th) 25 days

Ranboo and the Panic Room: (January 4th - January 30th) 27 days

Pandora’s Vault Construction: (December 5th - January 13th) 1 month, 8 days

Tommy’s Prison Break Plan: (March 14th - April 29th) 1 month, 15 days

Soot Administration: (August 2nd - September 22nd) 1 month, 21 days

Tubbo Administration: (November 16th - January 6th) 1 month, 22 days

Schlatt Administration: (September 22nd - November 16th) 1 month, 25 days

The Enderwalk Saga: (From April 23rd) 2 months, 2 days (ongoing)

-

DREAM SMP SEASON TWO: (November 16th - January 20th) 

2 months, 4 days

-

The Vlog Mystery: (July 12th - October 2nd) 2 months, 21 days

Las Nevadas/Quackity Visiting Dream: (From March 16th) 3 months, 9 days (ongoing)

El Rapids Existing: (December 6th - March 16th) 3 months, 11 days

Eggpire Existing: (January 14th - April 25th) 3 months, 11 days (to Red Banquet)

Snowchester Nukes Missing: (From March 12th) 3 months, 14 days (ongoing, no clear ending)

Schlatt’s Server Lifetime: (July 16th - November 16th) 4 months (including time banned)

Wilbur’s First Server Lifetime: (July 12th - November 16th) 4 months, 5 days

Kinoko Kingdom Existing: (From February 9th) 4 months, 17 days (ongoing)

Jack’s First Server Lifetime: (August 3rd - January 6th) 5 months, 4 days

L’manburg Existing: (August 2nd - January 6th) 5 months, 4 days 

Prison Arc: (From January 21st) 5 months, 4 days (ongoing)

-

DREAM SMP SEASON THREE: (From January 20th) 

5 months, 5 days (ongoing)

-

The Syndicate Existing: (From January 18th) 5 months, 8 days (ongoing)

Ghostbur: (November 17th - April 29th) 5 months, 13 days

Snowchester Existing: (From January 7th) 5 months, 18 days (ongoing)

* Full Disc Saga: (July 9th - January 20th) 6 months, 11 days

Blood Vines/Egg Arc: (From December 6th) 6 months, 19 days (ongoing)

-

DREAM SMP SEASON ONE: (April 24th - November 16th) 

6 months, 24 days 

-

Karl, Quackity and Sapnap’s engagement: (From November 17th) 7 months, 8 days (ongoing?)

Tommy’s First Server Lifetime: (July 4th - March 1st) 7 months, 28 days

Karl and Sapnap’s engagement: (Estimated from September 14th) 9 months, 11 days (ongoing)

Fran’s Lifespan: (Estimated from around April 28th?) 1 year, 1 month, 28 days (ongoing)

Beckerson’s Lifespan: (From April 28th) 1 year, 1 month, 28 days (ongoing)

---

DREAM SMP: (FROM APRIL 24th 2020) 

1 year, 2 months, 1 day (ongoing)

[malaysiankpopfans]

7 NEW KOREAN FILMS AND SERIES TO LOOK FORWARD TO ON NETFLIX

There’s so much amazing content to look forward to!

It’s an exciting time for K-content fans! In addition to currently airing popular shows Start-Up, Private Lives, and Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol, new must-watch titles will be coming soon to Netflix. The impressive lineup includes movies like The Call, Space Sweepers, and dramas like Run On and Lovestruck in the City. Check out more details below.

UPCOMING K-FILMS

Netflix is continuing to introduce best-in-class films made by Korean creators to the world. Minyoung Kim, Vice President of Content (Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia & New Zealand) at Netflix said, “This year marked an incredible milestone for Korean filmmakers with the triumphant of Director Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite winning the Oscars, positive reviews around Netflix film Time to Hunt, and the global popularity of #Alive via Netflix across the world. Netflix is at the forefront of changing the way entertainment is enjoyed throughout the world. We believe that great stories can come from anywhere and travel everywhere. We’re bringing Korean storytelling with the goal to entertain our members around the world.”

The Call

Popular actress Park Shin-hye and rising actress Jun Jong-seo team up in a mystery thriller that will have you guessing until the very end. When 28-year-old Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) loses her cell phone on her way to visit her sick, estranged mother in a rural area, she digs up a decade-old cordless phone from the junk closet of her childhood home. She suddenly gets a call from a woman named Young-sook (Jun Jong-seo) asking for her friend. Seo-yeon hangs up thinking the woman has the wrong number, but later learns that the call was coming from the same house 20 years ago.

Premiere Date: November 27, 2020

Cast & Creators: Director Lee Chung-hyun, Park Shin hye, Jun Jong-seo

Genre: Mystery thriller, Crime

Space Sweepers

Song Joong-ki and Kim Tae-ri star in this fun, space blockbuster set in 2092. Earth has become a bleak planet and 95% of the human race struggle to survive. The main crew work on the Spaceship Victory and live off salvaging space debris. It’s extremely risky, but with a genius space pilot Tae-ho (Song Joong-ki), a mysterious ex-space pirate Captain Jang (Kim Tae-ri), an ex-con spaceship engineer Tiger Park (Jin Sun-kyu), and a reprogrammed military robot Bubs (Yoo Hai-jin), Spaceship Victory surpasses all other space sweepers. After successfully snatching a crashed space shuttle in their latest debris chase, Victory’s crew find a 7-year-old girl inside. They realize that she’s a wanted humanlike robot, and decide to demand ransom in exchange.

Premiere Date: Q1 2021

Cast & Creators: Director Jo Sung-hee, Song Joong-ki, Kim Tae-ri, Jin Sun-kyu, Yoo Hai-jin

Genre: Sci-fi action, Space blockbuster

What Happened to Mr. Cha

Famous actor Cha In-pyo portrays himself in this tongue-in-cheek comedy. With the image of a gentle and perfect man, Mr. Cha enjoyed immense popularity in the 90s. However, he is now a has-been who reminisces about his glory days and waits for someone to cast him again. One day, Mr. Cha visits a gym to take a shower after a stroll. The building suddenly begins to crumble and he gets stuck in the pile of rubble. Will he be able to get rescued while maintaining his immaculate image?

Premiere Date: January 1, 2021

Cast & Creators: Director Kim Dong-kyu, Cha In-pyo, Cho Dal-hwan

Genre: Comedy

UPCOMING K-DRAMA

The Uncanny Counter

Featuring hot young talent like Cho Byeong-gyu and Kim Se-jeong, webtoon-based The Uncanny Counter is a satisfying tale of superheroes who hunt down evil spirits and also toil in a noodle shop. The dynamic story depicts the struggle between the evil spirits who come to Earth from the afterworld in order to become immortal and the Counters, each endowed with a special gift such as brute strength, psychometry and healing, who chase them down.

Jo Byeong-gyu plays the uncanny So Mun, a Counter unlike any other in history. So Mun is a hero-in-training who musters the courage to combat evil spirits after seeing a friend suffer injustice. Ga Mo-tak, a Counter with unrivaled brawn, is brought to life by Yu Jun-sang’s characteristic wit and acting skills. Kim Se-jeong plays the role of Do Ha-na, the human radar among the Counters with an infallible record of evil spirit detection. Her character exudes a detached vibe and shows serious action chops.

Premiere Date: November 28, 2020

Cast & Creators: Director You Sun-dong, Writer Yeoh Gee-na, Cho Byeong-gyu, Yu Jun-sang, Kim Se-jeong

Run On

Run On brings the highly awaited comebacks of young stars Yim Si-wan, Shin Sae-kyung, Choi Soo-young, and Kang Tae-oh. The series is a romantic drama about the intermingling of people who have trouble communicating, even while speaking the same language. It features people from different backgrounds who nurture relationships using their own languages.

Yim Si-wan plays the lead role of Ki Seon-gyeom, a former popular sprinter on the national team who is forced to retire due to a fateful event. Shin Sae-kyeong portrays Oh Mi-joo, who constantly has to retrace her steps being like a bridge between different languages as a movie translator. Choi Soo-young takes on the role of a sports agency CEO Seo Dan-ah, who is the only true heir of the Seomyeong Group by birthright, but on the account of being female, is forced out of the line of succession. Kang Tae-oh transforms into the role of Lee Yeong-hwa, a popular art student who likes movies and croquis drawings.

Premiere Date: December 16, 2020

Cast & Creators: Director Lee Jae-hun, Writer Park Si-hyeon, Yim Si-wan, Shin Sae-kyung, Choi Soo-young, Kang Tae-oh

Lovestruck in the City

Lovestruck in the City comes from Director Park Shin-woo of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay and writer Jung Hyun-jung who penned the In Need of Romance series and Romance is a Bonus Book, while starring popular actors Ji Chang-wook and Kim Ji-won. The romance drama is a realistic portrayal of young people who pursue love and happiness while struggling to get by in a busy, competitive urban environment.

Ji Chang-wook plays Park Jae-won who is an honest man, a passionate architect, and a lover of city alleyways. A romantic at heart, he cannot forget a certain woman. This thief of his heart and his camera had disappeared like a fleeting midsummer night’s dream. Kim Ji-won plays the freelance marketer Lee Eun-o, an ordinary woman who temporarily reinvents herself as the spontaneous and free-spirited Yun Seon-a. She takes off to a remote place on an impulse and falls in love with Jae-won under this new identity.

Premiere Date: December 2020

Cast & Creators: Director Park Shin-woo, Writer Jung Hyun-jung, Ji Chang-wook, Kim Ji-won

Recently Launched & Currently Streaming

Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol

Service Cadence: 10PM MYT, every Wednesday & Thursday, For Japan, all episodes will be available from December 3

No. Episodes: 16 episodes

Genre: Romance / Comedy / Drama

Creators: Kim Min-kyoung (Director), Oh Ji-young (Writer)

Cast: Go A-ra, Lee Jae-wook, Kim Ju-hun

Private Lives

Service Cadence: 10PM MYT, every Wednesday & Thursday. For Japan, all episodes will be available from December 3.

No. Episodes: 16 episodes

Genre: Romance / Comedy /Drama

Creators: Nam-Gun (Director) / Yoo Sung Yeol (Writer, My beautiful bride)

Cast: Seo Hyun, Go Kyung-Pyo, Kim Hyo-Jin, Kim Young-Min, Lee Hak-Joo

Start-Up

Service Cadence: 10PM SGT, every Sat & Sun

No. Episodes: 16 episodes

Genre: Romance / Youth / Drama

Creators: Oh Choong-hwan (Director), Park Hye-ryun (Writer)

Cast: Bae Suzy, Nam Joo-hyuk, Kim Seon-ho, Kang Han-na

[willimannarai-new]

Avatar tours#1-3: Zurich-Tokyo

«Am nächsten Tag ging die Sonne auf »

Helmhaus Museum, Zurich/CH

4. December 2020 - 24. January 2021.  20. December 2020 -  2. March 2021 - 5. April 2021 

With: Ali Al-Fatlawi, The Bad Conscience (Veru Loremipsum & LS Grave), Seraina Dür & Jonas Gillmann (in collaboration with the Theater Neumarkt Zürich), Philip Matesic, Teresa Pereira, Silvia Popp – Insel Institut, Alicia Velázquez, Guido Vorburger, Wassili Widmer, Willimann/Arai, Mirjam Wirz, Druckatelier Thomi Wolfensberger – curated by Nadja Baldini, Vreni Spieser, Simon Maurer and Daniel Morgenthaler

https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/kultur/de/index/institutionen/helmhaus/Presse/Presse_am_naechsten_tag.html

Next Day The Sun Came Up – that could be the opening sentence of a novel. The exhibition at Helmhaus is all about breaking out and starting afresh – with the rising sun. It is about the capacity for resistance and regeneration – having overcome sheer exhaustion. It is about the possibilities of renewal. A dozen or so collectives and individuals, idiosyncratic, unconventional and compelling artists from Zurich, are putting themselves and their work out there at Helmhaus.

We actually came up with this title Next Day The Sun Came Up back in 2019. With its interwoven allusions to past, present and future, it could easily be the title of a novel or even of a rom-com. Today, we are all aware that the whole world is like some penny-dreadful. There is no guarantee of a happy ending. The only thing we know for sure is that the sun will come up next day. No matter what happened last night. The relentlessness of time, passing as it does, even over masses of dead bodies, under radiant blue skies, is both a blessing and a curse. Time goes on. That is the only certainty there is. Not for everyone, but for those who remain. Its unpredictable, inexorable advance right across the entire world defines the present. No algorithm can fully help us to prepare for the future, through growth and depression, whether economic or healthwise. And so we stumble along, lightheaded and breathless. What we suppress comes back to haunt us.

Even before the virus began to circulate, we had already chosen circulation as our theme for 2020 and the participating artists had already been exploring concepts of circulation in their art. The participating artists keep on going, producing, creating, heading reflectively into each day. They take the light with them and make something of it. No matter what may come – next day. They weave a web of threads between continents and cultures, between past and present, between day and night, banality and dream. They exchange viewpoints, address their counterparts and opponents. They speak with pigeons.

Four examples: Next day the sun came up – but what was Zurich like the day before? Artist Philip Matesic always develops his works in collaboration with exhibition visitors and passers-by. In this instance, he wants to find out, as part of a collective, whether a city such as Zurich has a memory. In doing so, he uses techniques inspired by American author Joe Brainard’s I Remember, unleashing a veritable stream of memory that inexorably sweeps us along, churning memories of our own to the surface. Zurich? Now, that somehow reminds me…

Mayumi Arai is always eight hours ahead of us and far away, while Nina Willimann explores the area around the Helmhaus: time, space and body overlap on encountering the avatar willimannarai. A flesh-and-blood creature speaks to us, here in Zurich. And yet there is a nagging uncertainty about whether or not we are maybe talking to Tokyo after all. Visitors have the opportunity of accompanying the avatar live on walks through the Old Town, through Altstetten, and even through Tokyo’s Ueno district, near the main station, in Zurich.

Mirjam Wirz’s sound system reaches all the way to the ceiling of the exhibition space. The loudspeakers stacked one on top of another blare out fragments of music and voices from Mexico City, which is where the artist began her research project Sonidero City. Following the traces of cumbia music, Mirjam Wirz brings together people’s stories, music, everyday life, the world around us and the knowledge within us, and combines them to form a mosaic of image and text. Her work bears the title Ojos Suaves (Soft Eyes) and her gaze is correspondingly open, seeking some undefined moment in which everything seems possible. Making things possible is also the key to a project involving twenty Zurich artists. During the first wave of the coronavirus, Martin Senn got ten artists to produce a portfolio of ten lithographs in collaboration with Zurich printmaker Thomi Wolfensberger. We liked the idea so much that we would like to continue the project during the second wave with prints by another ten Zurich artists. Lithography is a new medium for all of them. But why not take advantage of these exceptional times by starting something new?

Events (for dates and details, see the enclosed invitation card, and for updates see www.helmhaus.org) Even the sun has a corona. And so, for Next Day The Sun Came Up, our focus is not so much on big events, but more along the lines of direct – and safe – encounters between visitors and artists. Almost all the artists are present from time to time during opening hours. Teresa Pereira will be continuously working on her wall sculpture to create a radiant body, while Ali Al-Fatlawi will be lending form to the memories of visitors. Alicia Velázquez will be reflecting their dreams in drawings and writings, merged with her own dreams, to create a collective dream. The pigeons are always there for Seraina Dür & Jonas Gillmann and the duo will join them now and again, perhaps singing or dancing. Islands expert Silvia Popp produces chairs in her workshop and reflects on transformation, Wassili Widmer lends rhythm to all these spaces – and all sorts of stuff can happen besides – while Guido Vorburger quietly works on his next painting in his studio.

Discussions will continue at the Helmhaus – we hope – beyond the turn of the year. Speakers will be there as ever, with masks of course, to engage with visitors in reflecting on what has been seen, heard or felt. And, as ever, we’ll be announcing three events that will take place at the Helmhaus sooner or later. The book launch relating to the Neu-Oerlikon Performance Series presents a new publication covering a decade of performances in the public space. Edited by Maricruz Peñaloza and published by Amsel-Verlag Zurich, the book not only documents the contributions made by 150 performers from all over the world, but also addresses wider social, political and cultural issues (Thursday, 10 December 2020). How Swiss museums handle Diversity is the question for our panel discussion on Thursday, 14 January 2021. Based on a research project at the Hochschule der Künste Bern, and moderated by cultural scientist Anke Hoffmann, this is an opportunity for the guest panellists and the public to discuss representation, dependency/dependencies and quality with regard to the topic of diversity. Finally, we welcome a guest who has seen the sun come up for nigh on a century: Fritz Senn, Director of the James Joyce Foundation in Zurich and internationally renowned authority on Joyce, will be speaking with Daniel Morgenthaler in our 5 O’Clock Theses series, this time under the Beckettian title The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new (Wednesday, 16 December 2020). And besides: we can all look forward to the curiosity in the eyes of children, and adults too, putting the everyday behind them for an hour or so at the Helmhaus, thanks to the expertly led and thought-provoking Guided Tours – as well as Studio Tables for children.

For further information and visual material, please contact Nathalie Killias, tel. +41 (0)44 415 56 77, email: nathalie.killias@helmhaus.org Information on the exhibition and visual materials are available for download on our website: helmhaus.org.

[dailyaudiobible]

12/20/2020 DAB Transcript

Haggai 1:1-2:23, Revelation 11:1-19, Psalms 139:1-24, Proverbs 30:15-16

Today is the 20th day of December the fourth Sunday in the season of Advent and the beginning of Christmas week. So, here we are. And it's a joy to be here with you in fellowship and move through this week together. And even though we have travel maybe and festivities and just and trying to figure it all out, we have each other and we move through Christmas week together and celebrate together. And, so, let's dive into our reading for today. And it's become a custom that we’re gonna read a book a day. That’s not like all across the board true but that's kinda how it feels as the year speeds up at the end and move through the minor prophets. And we’ll be reading a complete book of the minor prophets and the tenth of the minor prophets. And by the way, there's only 12. So, we’re right at the end. And the book that we’ll read today in its entirety is the book of Haggai.

Introduction to the book of Haggai:

And like I mentioned many times, like these, the minor prophets, we don't have a lot of biography to go on. There’s some traditions and we've mentioned those, but we don't exactly know who these people were or where they were in society. And, so, reconstruction kind of happens based on the text and the time. And, so, we know that Haggai was among the first to return from the Babylonian exile. So to kind of put this in perspective, we have Jeremiah prophesying, right? “Behold I know the plans that I have for you.” And we talked about all that. And he's sending a letter to the people who are in exile telling them to “settle down, prosper. Prosper where you are. Even if you don't want to be there, prosper. Thrive where you are because I have plans and they're gonna take 70 years. So, a generations gonna go by and then I'm gonna begin bringing people back.” Well, Haggai is on the other side of that and it seems like he's the first…one of the first wave of people to return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile. So, right there that makes him compelling since we spent so much…so much time in exile because the Bible spends so much time on it. We also know that Haggai must've had access to people in power because it's indicated in the…in the text itself that his message was to be delivered to Zerubbabel, which is a name that we should recognize. He was the governor of Judah and we learned about him when we were reading the book of Ezra in the book of Nehemiah. And…and also this message from Haggai was to be given to Joshua, the high priest. So, he had access to people who had authority, both a spiritual authority as well as civil authority. And Haggai’s message is generally to get the people moving. And to begin to see why, we just have to add some time, we have to add some dates. So, Babylon conquered Jerusalem. We went through all of that in the Scriptures, lead Jerusalem's people into exile. This happened around 586 B.C. Babylon then was conquered by the Persian Empire in 539 B.C. And later, subsequently under the Persian king Cyrus the first of the exiles began to return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel's leadership. This happened around 538 B.C. Okay. So, Haggai’s message, the one that we’re about to read comes 18 years later, 18 years after the first wave of exiles has come back, around 520 B.C. Actually in 520 B.C. Actually, Haggai’s prophecies are…are…are actually dated…maybe most precisely dated utterances in all of the Bible. August 29th through December 18th 520 B.C. Okay. So, let's like pause our timeline for a second and remember when the temple was built. Remember when Solomon built that first temple and we were at the apex of ancient Israel's civilization? Well, the temple was to be the center, the heart, the center of society, the centerpiece of the culture. Well, now these exiles have come back, and they have permission to restore the centerpiece of their culture, but 18 years have gone by and the temple remained incomplete. The people and rebuilt their own lives, rebuilt their own homes. They began their culture, but the centerpiece was missing. And, so, Haggai, his message is essentially “we gotta get moving here. God has some things to do and God has some things to say.” And, so, with that we’ll move into the two-chapter book of Haggai and we will read from the New English Translation this week.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all of the nuances and complexions that it brings out in us as we meditate upon it. We are grateful for the Psalm today that reminds us once again there is no where we can go that You are not, and that brings profound comfort because we can never again say where are You. You are here wherever we are. You are everywhere. We cannot flee from Your Spirit - in heaven, in the grave, on the far side of the earth - no matter where we go You are with us, which means You have been with us every step of the way through this crazy year. And as we move forward into this week celebrating Your arrival, Your Advent, we are again reminded You will never leave us, You will never forsake us. And we need that encouragement now as much as we have ever needed it at any point in our lives. And, so, we rest in that, we relax in that, we lean back into it and find a cozy place in the fact that we will never be away from You. You will always be here, and You have come for us, which is what Christmas reminds us of, which is what it represents, that Your arrived, that You came in person to make things right again. And, so, help us to lean back and relax and then lean into that as we move forward, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that's a website. If…if the .com didn't give it away, it's the website, it’s home base for the global community that we have together that we…the Global Campfire. So, check it out. Stay tuned and stay connected to it.

Check out the community section. That's where to get connected. That's where the Prayer Wall is.

And then of course, you know, the things that are going on right now are related to the holiday season, the Christmas season because it's just days away. Like we’re less than a week. I mean a week from now Christmas will be over. It just comes and goes doesn't it? But isn’t it the buildup? Isn’t it the Advent season, the season of longing, that desire for Christ's arrival, the hope of the world? Like isn't that the buildup? And then it happens and then it's over. And, so, this is the week to really press in and enjoy and really experience the story that's going on underneath it all, which is the story of the arrival of the Savior of the world. And, so, let's press into that.

Reminding you of the Family Christmas album that can be streamed anywhere you stream music. It can be bought anywhere you buy music. So, check that out. Also reminding you new this…well…actually like a week ago we released Jill and a new Christmas single, O Holy Night, which is a classic Christmas Carol that is so deeply inspiring. Reminding you that she will be performing it at a virtual….I was just gonna say New Year's Eve party…but a Christmas Eve service and we’ll post that out on our social media channels. So, those of you who aren't able or can't participate in a candlelight service that you could do that virtually. So, we’ll put that on our social media channels. But she’ll be singing O holy night. And, so, we decided to really go for it and…and actually do it right. And it turned out well. She's a great singer. And, so, we released that and get that. You can stream it anywhere or you can buy it anywhere. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link. It lives on the homepage. And I thank you…I…I mean I can't thank you enough. Everyone's who’s clicked that link over the years that's…I mean we wouldn't be in this if we weren’t in it together. I mean, I say that 100 times a year probably. It's true. It's a fact. It's real. And, so, thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Oh Lord as I sit at your feet with your hand on my head teach me, guide me, show me how to let the things of this world drift away. One by one I see them leave. I physically cough out any anxiety, any pain, any held on hurt. Lord you are my healer. Breathe into me your breath of life. As I breathe in and expand my lungs I slowly exhale with another deep breath. I hold you in Lord as I do not want to let go. One more deep breath. This breath is feeding every healthy cell in my body as I exhale you Holy Spirit, I ask that you run out of this temple my body all of my pain, all of my unhealthy cells. I see them under your authority Lord marching out of me. Thank you, Lord for making me whole, for making me strong, for living in me. Where you dwell, all things are possible in Jesus’ name I pray. This is joyful J sending my love your way.

Hi DAB family Tony from Germany for a praise report. And I just want to thank everyone for prayers on this whole semester of mine. It’s been very challenging. You know that I lost my mom in April and my dad in October and health problems and it’s like I…I really feel like the Lord was telling me I’ve been in the wilderness. But, you know, that’s formation, right? That’s…I’m studying ministry, and that’s part of our formation, you know, what can God teach us. And of interest as I was reading in my one class was all on the profits where the people were in exile, And, so, it’s like I journeyed with them. But it feels as though I came out maybe of it and you know when you are coming out of a wilder…wilderness when…which is the Lord trying to get us to see things in a new way or to have a new attitude or new approach and then He shows that we’ve arrived at what He’s been trying to teach us. And…and usually, it’s by blessings. It’s so amazing because this is grad school and all of my…everything I do for assignments and write exams are all essays and papers. And my last three I got 100 in each, which is like unheard of. Like how do you…how does that happen? But I felt that was the Lord just showing, “well done”, you know because just because it’s about faith and obedience. And believe me I have failed too. But I wanted to just to thank you and I hope this serves to bless you and I am remembering you guys all in prayers. God bless.

Hey DAB fans this is me Carter my mom Jennifer. We just wanted to say we been wanting to pray for our uncle. He isn’t right with the Lord and we just want him to be right with him. Please pray. Thank you for joining together with us and believing in his salvation. We come together each morning and pray with you guys. We love you guys and appreciate all…

Hi this is AFE calling in for four MA. Just I…I just stopped midway into the prayers just to call in a prayer for…for Byron who is asking for prayers for his son Nehemiah and really just wanting to bring his concerns about treatment that insurance would cover and just asking God for a way through. And just praying with them that just…that, you know, praying with him that, you know, trusting that his decision to go forth with…with this treatment is one that God will just justify by showing a means and showing a solution even though he doesn’t know how it will all happen. I’m just praying that these treatments will be just beneficial Lord and that Nehemiah would just be able to take advantage and just…just grow, just grow through this. Also praying for…I…I forget the man’s name now, but he was asking for prayer for his…his mom, Catherine who’s in the hospital in New Jersey from Covid and for his dad as well, just talking about some of his mom’s fears and her worries. And we just pray that God you just give her comfort, you give her rest Lord you let her trust in you, that Lord though she lay down at night to sleep Lord she will rise in the morning, and Lord that this…this ailment, this Covid, this disease will be behind her Lord as she is able to give a testimony and testify to Your goodness and Your glory. All these we pray in Jesus mighty name. Amen.