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howlingday · 10 months ago

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Panthera Tigris Tigris Nikos

Jaune: Hey, Pyrrha? Can I have a hug?

Pyrrha: Of course, Jaune! (Hugs)

Jaune: (Sinks into her)

Pyrrha: Would anyone else like-

Nora: (Dragging Ren) MEMEMEME~!

Fun Fact! Bengal tigers are big. Females have been documented to reach 400 pounds, males 500 pounds, and occasionally larger specimens reaching 700 pounds. Royal Bengal Tigers are reportedly even bigger, with one specimen shot by David Hasinger in 1967 was reported to be 857 pounds, measured at 11 feet long, and left paw prints "the size of dinner plates," and it's last meal was a live water buffalo weighed down by an eighty-pound weight. It is displayed in the Smithsonian Institutions's National Museum of Natural History, in the Hall of Mammals.

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Pyrrha: Ready for our run, Jaune?

Jaune: You bet! Maybe this time I could-

Pyrrha: (Ear flicks) Oh, uh, why don't you keep warming up, Jaune? I need to grab something from the dorm.

Jaune: Oh, uh, sure thing, Pyrrha. I'll be right here.

Cardin: (Sitting on the roof) What the hell? Where's Nikos go- (Door swings open, Mauled)

Fun Fact! Bengal Tigers are fast. They can make short sprints of forty miles per hour, which is about the speed of a thoroughbred horse. An incident with a startled tigress mother with her cubs in Nepal in 1974 resulted in the death of a researcher who was hiding 15 feet in a tree. In 2007, on Christmas Day at the San Francisco Zoo, an Amur Tiger cleared a thirty-foot moat to maul three visitors who were harassing the tiger, killing one of them before being killed after four shots to the skull by responding police officer's .40-caliber-pistol rounds. It should be noted that the Amur was a captive tiger, raised from birth in the zoo. Imagine a wild tiger raised in the jungle.

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Pyrrha: Are you okay, Jaune?

Jaune: Y-Yeah, I... Wait, what about the goliath?!

Pyrrha: It's okay, Jaune. I took care of it.

Jaune: But how, Pyrrha? (Holding) Your weapons-!

Pyrrha: (Takes, Smiles) I took care of it.

Jaune: (Looks behind her, Sees dead goliath)

Fun Fact! Bengal Tigers are strong. Their bite force can reach up to a thousand pounds, which is much stronger than a pitbull's and about a quarter of a great white shark. Their prey includes deer, buffalo, bison, bears, rhinos, and elephants. A single blow can break a bear's spine, and easily decapitate a human.

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Jaune: Thanks again for letting us come visit, Mrs. Nikos.

Mama Nikos: Oh, Jaune, don't be so formal. We're practically family, so just call me Mama.

Jaune: Uh... No, I'll just stick with Mrs. Nikos, if you don't mind.

Mama Nikos: Oh, you are just so polite! I'm glad Pyrrha could have such a handsome team leader like you.

Pyrrha: (Blushing) M-Mom...

Nora: Can I have more meat buns, Mama?

Ren: Nora...

Nora: Oh, right! Khm! May I have more meat buns, Mama?

Mama Nikos: They're in the oven.

Jaune: So what do you do for a living, Mrs. Nikos?

Mama Nikos: I'm a personal fitness trainer. It's actually how I met Pyrrha's father. He said he could perform a perfect double twister kick, and I told him it was impossible unless he could twist and launch himself at a 167 degree rotation with a north-northwest gale blowing at 3.5 miles per hour behind him-

Mama Nikos: (Ding!) Oh! Meat buns are done!

Jaune: Huh...

Pyrrha: Don't worry. I didn't get it the first time, either.

Fun Fact! Bengal tigers are smart. Cubs are raised by their mothers for two and a half to three years. There are also notes of tigers imitating deer and bear calls. They will chase larger prey into water, tear at buffalo legs to bring them to the ground, and will flip porcupines from to their backs to avoid spines. There are also records of tigers killing 15-foot crocodiles, 20-foot pythons, 300-pound seals, and a 20-year-old elephant.

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Jaune: Hm? Hey, Pyrrha? Who's this standing with your mom?

Pyrrha: Hm? Oh... That's... That's my mother. She... She's not around anymore.

Jaune: Do... Do you want to talk about it?

Pyrrha: I... I don't know where to begin. She was my hero, but she did something really bad, and she died when I was really young. And I...

Jaune: Hey. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.

Pyrrha: (Leans on Jaune) I was probably six years old when it happened. She and I were on our way to watch a tournament together, but then this guy came from out of nowhere. He shot at us and broke her jaw. She carried me back home, and then... She left that night. I didn't learn about what happened to her until just after getting accepted into Beacon. She... She went on a rampage and then... Then she...

Jaune: (Holds her) Hey, hey. It's okay, Pyrrha. I'm... I'm sorry to hear that. I'm... I'm sure she was a great mom.

Pyrrha: (Sniffles) She was the best. And, on the bright side, because of her, there's a new standard for huntsman and huntresses to follow. And she's part of the reason why I became a huntress. So I could make sure everyone follows the standard. Follows the example she set. (Smiles) I think she would have liked you.

Jaune: (Looks at family photo) I think I would have like her, too.

Fun Fact! In the first ten years of the 20th century, until her death in 1907, the Champawat Tiger, also known as "the man-eater" killed and ate 436 humans in western Nepal. She evaded capture and continued to kill until she was shot by British hunter Jim Corbett, who speculated the tigress lost her teeth years ago from a gunshot, forcing her to change her prey to much easier humans. He then went on to be an advocate for wild tigers and spent the latter years of his life devoted to their conservation, even having a conservation park in Nepal dedicated to him.

#rwby #pyrrha nikos #tiger!faunus pyrrha #mama nikos #tiger!faunus mama nikos #jaune arc #lie ren #nora valkyrie #history #the champawat tiger

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cleolinda · 1 year ago

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youtube

When I was a child in the '80s, I absorbed some kind of cultural truism that disco was ridiculous, embarrassing, cheesy, a cultural relic to be mocked at every turn. Remember, I'm under ten years old at this time, and I still manage to get this impression. There was another, milder sea change when grunge overtook the hair metal of the late '80s, so I never questioned the idea that disco should be dead and buried. We like silly things, I thought in my 13-year-old wisdom, and then we get over it.

Then I saw The Last Days of Disco (1998) while I was in college, and suddenly I realized that disco was fun, and it was like—it was in the roots of—music I already loved. And the end of that movie also—hints? tells you? I can't remember how explicitly—that disco didn't just fade like most trends; it was killed off.

I watched a lot of VH1 in those days, the late '90s, with a little TV sitting on my tall university-issue dresser, its corner overlooking my computer desk while I struggled with piles of assignments. This was the heyday of Behind the Music, so it was great background TV. And then one day (1999) they ran a Donna Summer—the "Queen of Disco"—concert special. The video up there is the song that immediately became my favorite of hers. It’s just instant serotonin to me, any version of it. I bought the whole VH1 album on CD, and "This Time I Know It's For Real" may genuinely be one of my all-time favorite songs, now, still, more than 20 years later. You can hear the original version (1989) here (the backing instrumental that I just found today is lovely), but the live version ten years later, the video up there, has a really special comeback—joyous, gracious survival—energy to it.

Watching the whole concert, I got it. Why the fuck did I ever think disco wasn't amazing? It was always the kind of thing I loved; we had all just been pretending that it was embarrassing glitter trash.

And then I found out why we were pretending. From densely-footnoted Wikipedia:

Disco Demolition Night was a Major League Baseball (MLB) promotion on Thursday, July 12, 1979, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois, that ended in a riot. At the climax of the event, a crate filled with disco records was blown up on the field between games of the twi-night doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Many had come to see the explosion rather than the games and rushed onto the field after the detonation. The playing field was so damaged by the explosion and by the rioters that the White Sox were required to forfeit the second game to the Tigers. [...] The popularity of disco declined significantly in late 1979 and 1980. Many disco artists carried on, but record companies began labeling their recordings as dance music. [...] Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh described Disco Demolition Night as "your most paranoid fantasy about where the ethnic cleansing of the rock radio could ultimately lead". Marsh was one who, at the time, deemed the event an expression of bigotry, writing in a year-end 1979 feature that "white males, eighteen to thirty-four are the most likely to see disco as the product of homosexuals, blacks, and Latins, and therefore they're the most likely to respond to appeals to wipe out such threats to their security. It goes almost without saying that such appeals are racist and sexist, but broadcasting has never been an especially civil-libertarian medium." Nile Rodgers, producer and guitarist for the disco-era band Chic,

(who survived the disco era to make half the music I loved in the '80s)

likened the event to Nazi book burning. Gloria Gaynor, who had a huge disco hit with "I Will Survive," stated, "I've always believed it was an economic decision—an idea created by someone whose economic bottom line was being adversely affected by the popularity of disco music. So they got a mob mentality going."

The DJ who ran the whole thing, Steve Dahl, complains that it was VH1 itself—you know, those Behind the Music specials I was watching—circa 1996 that labeled the whole debacle as bigotry when it so totally was not, you guys, and he is so tired of defending himself. But I'm gonna tell you, Steve, I don't really care. Maybe Disco Demolition Night was your fault; maybe you were just a part of something so much bigger and uglier that you couldn't see the whole size of it. Can you draw a direct line from the weird bigoted vitriol directed at those dance records to Ronald Reagan, elected the very next year, not giving a single fuck about the AIDS crisis? You probably don't want to, but I will.

And I don't care because I can look around the U.S. right now and tell you, nearly 45 years later, people are trying to demolish a lot more than disco. The Club Q shooter was sentenced to life in prison just a few hours ago. It's Pride Month, and we're all sitting here holding our breaths. That's a terrible way to end a post about a beautiful happy song I love, I guess, unless you turn it around and say, that should have been the whole point of this post in the first place. Listen to this song and think, people wanted to destroy this music, this sound, this joy for some reason. They want to stop people from just living their lives, from dancing. And yet, disco is still here. It was there in 1979, and it was there when Donna Summer released this song in 1989, and it was there when she returned in 1999. The Queen of Disco passed away in 2012, and it's still here. I feel a lot of joy when I listen to this song, but I don't think I'd ever thought about it being the joy of grooving with something just because it’s beautiful, the joy of just being here, still.

#donna summer #music #video #disco demolition night #queer history #lgbtqia+#club q shooting #aids crisis #pride #pride for one thousand years #I feel really hesitant about the turn this post took but #if the dots are there you gotta connect them #long post #music discussion

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fwoopersongs · 4 months ago

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On 33 elders and the Lan's Discipline Whip

This tumblr post by @qiu-yan the other day on moral luck in MDZS came past my dash, and there was a mention of the thirty three elders in the Lan Clan who were injured by Lan Wangji - some of you may remember it better as the reason for his thirty three whip scars xD. And I remembered reading (mostly on twitter) people saying things like he got whipped 33 times 'for going against his sect elders', or that the elders deserved it for acting unjustly. Maybe this was a CQL thing??? But I wanted to share my understanding of the situation from reading the novel.

For the record, elders here aren't like ‘Elders’ in the sense of people in positions of power within a clan i.e. 长老 as you might see in sects from more conventional Xianxia novels. Instead, its noun for ‘older generation’ i.e. 前辈 within the clan.

So, here's a translation of Lan Xichen’s recount to Wei Wuxian of how Lan Wangji came to bear scars of thirty three strokes of the Lan Discipline Whip from Chapter 99/100, Discipline Whip Scars aka Hensheng: To Hate Life 3.

On Versions I’m comparing between two versions of the novel where the first chapter title is: {1} 魏无羡死了，大快人心! (lit: Wei Wuxian is dead, gratifying news for everyone!) & {2} 重生 (lit: Alive Again). The version I’m translating is {1} from the website Zhenhun using footnotes to compare it against {2}. Line breaks and other cosmetic or grammatical changes are ignored. References to chapter numbers and such will be based on {2} since this is the version used on the MDZS fandom Wiki. All chapter titles also are referenced from the wiki.

Wei Wuxian repeated, "Discipline Whip scarring?!"

He grasped at Lan Xichen again and said, "Clan Leader Lan, I truly have no idea. Please, tell me. How did he get those injuries? Does it have something to do with me?!?”

Embittered anger surfaced on Lan Xichen’s face, "If it doesn’t ‘have anything to do with you’, did he perhaps scar himself for no particular reason at all?” [1]

Zewu-jun had always been restrained and composed to the utmost, but this was a matter which had impacted Lan Wangji and thus uncharacteristically, his anger was roused. Yet after observing Wei Wuxian's expression carefully, this anger receded slightly and he asked tentatively, "You… you've had some memory loss?"

"My memories?" Wei Wuxian said. He immediately tried hard to see if there was anything he could not recall, and then replied, "I don't think there’s any period of time which I don’t remem — yes!"

There was indeed one period during which his memories were blurred and indistinct.

The bloodbath at Nightless City!

On that night many years ago, he had believed Wen Qing and Wen Ning gone, their bones ground to dust and scattered by their enemies. On top of that, seeing the Great Clans on their impassioned, self-righteous warpath and witnessing Jiang Yanli die before his eyes, he finally utterly lost control. Combining the two halves of the Yin Tiger Tally, he unleashed it, allowing it to kill indiscriminately. The dead under the Tally’s power killed others, who then became new fierce corpses, creating an endless supply of massacring puppets which turned the place into a blood-soaked hell.

After that, [2] although Wei Wuxian could just barely manage to stay on his feet, he distantly felt himself leave this slaughterhouse of a ruined city. There was a long period in which he was not fully aware of anything. When he finally came back to himself, he had already been sitting in a daze at the foot of Yiling’s Knoll of Unmarked Graves [3] for a long time.

Lan Xichen asked, "Do you remember now?"

Wei Wuxian murmured, "That period at Nightless City? I… I’d always thought that I had wandered back in a daze, but..."

Lan Xichen was so angry he could have laughed, "Young Master Wei, How many enemies were you up against that night? It was three thousand! No matter how much of an unparalleled talent of this age you may be - withdrawing entirely unharmed under those circumstances? How could that be possible?"

Wei Wuxian asked, "Lan Zhan... what did Lan Zhan do?"

"What did Wangji do. If you don’t remember it yourself, I fear he will never tell you of his own accord, and you certainly won’t be asking [4]. Fine. Let me tell you." Lan Xichen said.

"Young Master Wei, on that night after you took out the two halves of the Yin Tiger Tally, merged them into one, and slaughtered to your heart's content, you were at the end of your strength. Wangji, having been injured by you in your madness, was in about the same state. He was only able to get to his feet by leaning on Bichen. Even so, the moment he saw you stumbling away, he immediately followed.

"There weren't many people left conscious at the scene. I was barely able to move and could only watch as Wangji, with his Spiritual Energy clearly almost depleted, limped laboriously in your wake, then grabbed and pulled you onto Bichen. The both of you flew off on the sword together.

“I only regained my Spiritual Energy two shicheng* later and hurried back to the Lan Clan in Gusu seeking support. I was worried that if people from the other families caught up to the both of you first, Wangji would be perceived as your accomplice. The best outcome of this would leave him with a stain on his name for life and a damaged reputation, the worst scenario would be him being dispatched without a chance to defend himself. And so along with my shufu, I gathered thirty-three elders who had always praised and thought highly of Wangji. Together, we spent two days as the sword flies secretly [5] searching. That was how we found traces of your trail within the borders of Yiling. Wangji had hidden you in a cave. When we arrived, you were sitting on a stone within the cave, dazed, while Wangji held your hand, transferring Spiritual Energy to you and speaking softly [6].

“And the whole time, you were only repeating one word at him.

“‘Scram!’”

Wei Wuxian’s throat was dry, his eyes red. He was unable to say a word.

Lan Xichen continued, "My shufu appeared suddenly before him, giving him a scolding and asking him for an explanation. He seemed to have expected us to find him, yet he said there was nothing to explain, that this was just how it was. Since childhood and even after growing up, he had never been defiant toward our shufu and me [7]. But for you, Wangji not only talked back to shufu, he even turned his sword on the cultivation practitioners of the same origin, the same bloodline of the Gusu Lan Clan as himself, severely injuring [8] the thirty-three elders we had requested help from...

Wei Wuxian buried his hands in his hair, saying, "I... I didn’t know... I really..."

Besides repeating that he really didn't know, there was nothing else was able to say.

Lan Xichen tried holding back for a moment, but went on to add, "Thirty-three Discipline Whip scars! All the strokes within one session, one for each person. You ought to know how painful that is, how long it takes to recover from it! [9], [Note] After willfully sending you back to the Knoll, Wangji returned, despondent, to receive his punishment. How long he knelt before the Wall of Discipline! When I went to see him, I said ‘Young Master Wei has already made a grave mistake. Why would you compound it?’ But he replied that he wasn’t able to judge if what you did was right or wrong, and regardless of that, he was willing to bear all the consequences with you. [10] Those few years he was said to have spent ‘reflecting on his mistakes before the Wall’ were, at their core, because his motion was limited by his injuries. And even so, after learning of your death, he forced himself in this condition to get up because no matter what, he had to go to the Knoll and see for himself…” [11]

*One shicheng is approximately equal to two hours.

[1] This part in italics isn’t in {2}. [2] Added in {2}: But after going through all of these, Wei Wuxian’s body and spirit had been seriously damaged. [3] He was at the foot of a small hill near the Knoll in the revised version. [4] This part in italics isn’t in {2}. [5] In {2} Lan Xicheng and his uncle explicitly requested the elders to keep this a secret. [6] In {2} Lan Wangji was asking him something. [7] In {2}, Lan Xichen only specifies that Lan Wangji has never talked back to his uncle, leaving himself out of the sentence. [8] In {2} Lan Xichen says they were severely injured, nearly fatally. [9] There’s a break in {2} with Wei Wuxian’s inner thought of ‘This, he knew.’ Reason being what I have in [Note]. [10] This part in italics isn’t in {2}. [11] This part in italics isn’t in {2}.

[Note] Per Chapter 11, The Elegant Flirt 1: Wei Wuxian has never been beaten with the Discipline Whip before, but he has seen its mark on Jiang Cheng. They’d tried all sorts of ways to make the scarring go away, but it was in vain. All clans use it for disciplining members who had committed grave wrongdoing. Later in Chapter 59, Sandu: The Three Poisons 4, we learn that Jiang Cheng was hit with it by Wen Chao who got his hands on the Jiang Clan Discipline Whip.

// a thought //

We just learnt that Lan Wangji had been injured by a berserk Wei Wuxian himself, was struggling to stand and nearly out of Spiritual Energy. Then he had to control Bichen to fly them both to Yiling, and at least at the moment they were found, was attempting to heal Wei Wuxian with the Spiritual Energy transfer. From Lan Xichen’s account, it took Lan Xichen four hours to recover somewhat and regain enough Spiritual Energy to go home for help. So let’s say Lan Wangji did take some time off from minding the catatonic Wei Wuxian to replenish his Spiritual Energy, he’s still not fighting them at a hundred percent. His elders from Gusu Lan had not participated in the fighting at Nightless City (uninjured), but they’d all been on their swords for two days, searching for Lan Wangji. Probably still in a much better form than him though. How was he able to injure them ‘severely’?

(I think there are two options. One, Lan Wangji is just that good of a fighter. Two, his elders were holding back.)

#MDZS #Lan Wangji #Gusu Lan Clan #personally I thought it was a shitty thing to hurt people trying to protect you - but also could understand from the POV of a teenager #when you feel backed into a corner and multiple terrible things just happened #hurting them was protecting them back in turn so the cultivation world doesn't see the Lans as 'covering up' for LWJ if the news gets out #another way to see this is... you know that trope when someone lets the escaping person go while injuring themselves to cover up?#it's certainly not an act here - he really hurt them. but i can see where should the need arise for that framing...#...it could also be 'the Lan Clan tried to stop him but LWJ went rouge' so he doesn't implicate them #it was a betrayal of his family and he was fully aware THAT'S WHY HE CAME BACK FOR THE PUNISHMENT #there are a lot of layers to this LOL #imo it was never just 'he stood up to his family for wwx'#family protects family in all directions

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matttgirlies · 7 months ago

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Matt & Me🎀

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

a story heavily based on Priscilla Presley’s Book “Elvis & Me” based in the 1950’s - 1970’s.

fem! reader x singer! matt

disclaimer!! - in no way am i saying matt would ever support or do these kind of things, for the sake of the book certain unethical things do happen at times.

warnings - mentions of guns,, drug use,, threats,, mentions of affairs

y/nn = your nickname for any confusion🩷

Chapter 21

Putting together the best musicians, sound and lighting technicians, costumers, and choreographers, he was taking no chances this time. He scoured the music scene for the top sidemen in the business. Auditions were held and he handpicked each player—names such as James Burton, John Wilkinson, Ronny Tutt, Glen D. Hardin, Jerry Scheff. He loved the sound of the Sweet Inspirations, backup group for Aretha Franklin, and he hired them on the spot as a warmup act and to sing backup vocals. He also hired his favorite gospel group, the Imperial Quartet.

Before leaving Los Angeles, Matt rehearsed at RCA Sound Studios for ten days and then polished the act for a full week prior to the opening. It was the event of the summer in Vegas. Colonel Parker brought the preopening publicity to fever pitch. Billboards were up all over town. On the third floor of the International, administrative offices bustled with activity. No other entertainer coming into Vegas had ever stimulated this kind of excitement. The hotel lobby was dominated by Matt paraphernalia—pictures, posters, T-shirts, stuffed animals, balloons, records, souvenir programs. You’d think Barnum and Bailey were coming to town.

Back home there was also excitement as we girls discussed what we’d wear to the opening. “I want you to look extra special, Baby,” Matt said. “This is a big night for all of us.” I hit every boutique in West L.A. before finding just the right outfit.

Though it had been nine years since Matt had given a live performance, you never would have known it from his opening. The audience cheered the moment he stepped onstage and never stopped the entire two hours as Matt sang, “All Shook Up,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “In the Ghetto,” “Tiger Man,” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” He mixed the old with the new, the fast and hot with the lyrical and romantic. It was the first time I’d ever seen Matt perform live. Wanting to surprise me, he had kept me from rehearsals. I was astounded. At the end he left them still cheering and begging for more.

Cary Grant was among the stars who came backstage to congratulate him after the show. But the most touching moment was when Colonel William arrived with tears in his eyes, wanting to know where his boy was. Matt came out of the dressing room and the two men embraced. I believe everyone felt their emotion in that moment of triumph.

I don’t think we slept that night. Nate Doe brought in all the newspapers and we read the rave reviews declaring, “Matt was great” and “He never looked or sang better.” He shared credit for his new success with all of us.

“Well, we did it. It’s going to be a long thirty days, but it’s going to be worth it if we get the reception we got last night. I may have been a real tyrant, but it was well worth it.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” we all agreed, laughing. “You were a tyrant.”

The International Hotel was delirious over Matt’s performance and the box-office receipts. The following day they signed a fiveyear contract with the Colonel for Matt to appear twice a year, usually around the same time, January and August, at the then unheardof salary of one million dollars a year.

Matt literally took over Las Vegas for the entire month he was there, playing to a packed house every show as thousands more were turned away. No matter where we looked, all we could see was the name Matt—on television, newspapers, banners, and billboards. The King had returned.

Initially, Matt’s triumph in Las Vegas brought a new vitality to our marriage. He seemed a different person. Once again, he felt confident about himself as a performer and he continued to watch his weight and work out every day at karate.

It was also the first time that I felt we were functioning as a team. I made several trips to New York, trying to find unique accessories for him to wear onstage. I bought scarves, jewelry, and a black leather belt with chain links all around it that Bill Belew would later copy for the famous Matt jumpsuit belts.

I loved seeing him healthy and happy again, and I especially enjoyed our early days in Vegas. The International provided an elegant three-bedroom suite that we turned into our home away from home. During his show I always sat at the same table down front, never tiring of watching him perform. He was spontaneous and one never knew what to expect from him.

On occasion, after his midnight show, we’d catch lounge acts of other performers playing Vegas or we’d gamble until dawn. Other times we’d relax backstage, visiting with entertainers captivated by his performance. This was the first time I’d been with Matt at a high point in his career.

With the renewed fame came renewed dangers. Offstage he could be guarded by Sonny and Red. Onstage he was a walking target. One night that summer Nate and Sonny were tipped off that a woman in the audience was carrying a gun and had threatened to shoot Matt. A true professional, Matt insisted on going on. Additional precautions were taken and everyone was on the alert. Matt was instructed to stay downstage, making himself a smaller target, and Sonny and Jerry were poised to jump in front of him at the slightest sign of suspicious movement in the audience. Red was positioned in the audience with the FBI agents.

The show seemed to take an eternity. I glanced at Patsy apprehensively and she in turn grasped my hand as we comforted each other, longing for the night to end without incident. James remained backstage, never letting Matt out of his sight and praying, “Dear God, don’t let anything happen to my son.”

Because of this and other threats, extra security was arranged wherever Matt appeared. Entrances through backstages, kitchens, back elevators, and side exits became routine.

Matt had his own theory about assassinations, based on the murders of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. He felt that the assassins gloated over their “accomplishments,” and told his bodyguards that if any attempt were made on his life, they should get the killer—even before the police. He didn’t want anyone bragging to the media that they’d killed Matt Sturniolo.

Sonny and Red lived in so much tension these days that they were constantly frenzied. Suspicious in crowds of overzealous fans, they were quick to respond to any sign of danger. Compared to Sonny’s diplomacy, Red’s reputation was to act first and ask questions later. Eventually, numerous assault-and-battery charges started piling up against Matt. When James warned him about Sonny and Red’s aggressiveness, Matt said, “Goddamn, Red. I hired you to keep the sons of bitches away from me, not get me in any legal binds. Somehow you’re going to have to control that redheaded temper of yours.”

Although Matt would joke about the death threats—and there would be several more throughout the Vegas commitments—the fear and constant need for security heightened the pressure of nightly performing.

In the beginning when Matt began doing regular Vegas engagements, we girls visited frequently. We’d fly in over the weekend, sometimes bringing our children, spend three or four days, and then return home.

On the days we were apart I’d take hundreds of Polaroids and home movies of Charlotte. She was growing so rapidly I didn’t want him to miss out on her development. Daily he’d receive his “care packages,” as I’d refer to them, including tape recordings of me teaching Charlotte new words and Charlotte mimicking me. Each week, upon my arrival, I’d paste photos on the mirrors in his bedroom to remind him that he had a wife and child.

During his first couple of engagements he still seemed humbled by lingering doubts of whether the public was fully accepting him. At this point he had no interest in outside affairs or flirtations, his concentration on daily rehearsals and performances every evening excluding everything else.

Later he would become more cocky. The crowds’ admiration took him back to his triumphs in the early fifties and he found it hard to come down to earth after a month of nightly cheers. His name on the International’s huge marquee would be replaced by the next superstar. The offices on the third floor would be cleared out and incoming calls for reservations would stop.

Thriving on all the excitement, glamour, and hysteria, he found it difficult to go home and resume his role as father and husband. And for me the impossibility of replacing the crowd’s adoration became a real-life nightmare.

At home in Los Angeles, there was just the usual group around—strictly a family atmosphere. This abrupt change was too much for him and soon he developed the habit of lingering in Vegas for days, sometimes weeks, after a show. The boys were finding it increasingly difficult to resolve the conflict between working for Matt and maintaining a home life.

Crazed with inactivity and boredom, Matt became edgy and temperamental, a condition exacerbated by the Dexedrine he was again taking to control his weight.

Sometimes, to ease the transition home, Matt would insist we all pile into cars and head for Palm Springs. Since our marriage we had spent-many weekends there sunning and watching football games and late-night television, but after Charlotte was born, my needs changed. The Palm Springs heat was too much for her, the long drive boring, the idleness of resort life wearying. One weekend I suggested, “Matt, why don’t just you and the guys go down?”

From that time on, the guys developed their own lifestyle in our secluded desert home. Occasionally we wives would be invited to spend the weekend, but by and large, Matt now considered Palm Springs his private refuge.

He made it clear that this time away was good for him, giving him a chance to think, to hang out with the guys. In reality Matt was lost. He did not know what to do with himself after Vegas. He escaped in more powerful, unnecessary prescribed drugs to raise his spirits and ward off boredom.

After he had conquered Vegas, it was agreed that Matt should go back on the road. Colonel immediately began booking concert tours around the nation, starting with an impressive run of six sold-out shows in the Houston Astrodome, which earned over one million dollars in three nights.

The night I arrived in Texas to watch the performance, Amber, Judy, and I flew in on a private jet. I looked down on the Astrodome and found it hard to believe my eyes. The length of a football field—and already sold out. It made me nervous. I could imagine how Matt felt.

Matt too found the Astrodome overwhelming. “Goddamn,” he said when he first walked in. “They expect me to sell this son of a bitch out? It’s a goddamn ocean.”

However dwarfed he was by the giant facility, he electrified his audience. Houston was our first run-in with mass hysteria. The limousine was strategically parked by the stage door for Matt’s immediate getaway. Even so, screaming fans surrounded the car, frantically yelling out his name, presenting flowers, and trying to touch him.

If anything, Houston was an even greater victory than Vegas. The King of Rock and Roll was back on top. The strain of sustaining such a hype was just beginning and, for the moment, I could believe that everything would still be all right. I did not realize the extent to which Matt’s touring was going to separate us, that this in fact was the beginning of the end. After Houston Matt began crossing the country, making one-night stands, flying by day, trying to catch some sleep to maintain the high energy level demanded by his performances. From 1971 on, he toured more than any other artist—three weeks at a time with no days off and two shows on Saturdays and Sundays.

I missed him. We talked constantly of being together more, but he knew that if he let me join him, he couldn’t refuse the requests from regulars whose marriages were also feeling the strain of long separations. For a while a group of us would fly in from time to time, but this didn’t last long. Matt noticed that his employees were lax in discharging their duties to him when spouses were present, and he established a new policy: No wives on the road.

I didn’t really miss the one-night stands, a tedious routine at best: Jump off the plane, rush to the hotel, unpack as little as possible, since you had to check out the next day, go to the performance, then back to the hotel for a little rest before heading back to the airport. Everything was the same except for the name of the town.

It was the day Matt suggested I come to Vegas less often that I became really upset and suspicious. He’d decided that we wives would attend opening and closing nights only.

I knew then I’d have to fight for our relationship or accept the fact that we were now gradually going to grow apart as so many couples in show business do. As a couple, we’d never sat down to plan out a future. Matt, individually, was stretching as an artist, but as man and wife we needed a common reality.

The chances of our marriage surviving were slim indeed as long as he continued to live apart from Charlotte and me, and in bachelor quarters at that. It came down to how much longer I could stand the separation. Matt wanted to have his cake and eat it too. And now, as the tours and long engagements took him even further from his family, I realized that we might never reach my dreams of togetherness.

I had trouble believing that Matt was always faithful, and the more he kept us apart, the more my suspicions grew.

Now when we went to Vegas, I felt more comfortable at the openings. He was always preoccupied with the show and I felt he needed me then. On closing nights I always felt uneasy. Too many days had gone by, enough time for suspicions to poison my thoughts. The Vegas maître d’s invariably planted a bevy of beauties in the front rows for the entertainer to play to. Curious, I would scan their faces while watching Matt closely to see if he seemed to direct his songs to any girl in particular. Suspicious of everyone, my heart ached—but we were never able to talk about it. It was to be accepted as part of the job.

Backstage one night James was jokingly negotiating for a key that had been tossed to Matt. She was an attractive middle-aged blonde—James’s type. Matt said, “Dad, you’ve got enough problems at home with one blonde. You certainly don’t need two.”

“Well, okay,” James said. “You’re going to have problems of your own if your wife goes out in the street looking like that.” I had begun wearing skimpy knit dresses and see-through fabrics that were daringly revealing. Steven and Charlie whistled and gave wolfcalls, while Matt proudly showed me off.

The jokes I played on him were also efforts to get his attention. One night, after he’d left early for a show, I put on a black dress with a black hood and an exceptionally low-cut back. When it came time for Matt to give away kisses to the girls in the audience—a regular part of his show—I went up to the stage. Instead of kissing me, he kept on singing his song, leaving me to stand there. With my hair hiding the dress strap around my neck, I appeared from the back to be nude from the waist up. I could hear the “oooh”s and “ahhhh”s of the audience. They were under the impression that a topless girl had cornered Matt and that he couldn’t figure out what to do.

I kept whispering to him, “Kiss me, kiss me, so I can sit down,” but he decided to turn the joke on me, and made me wait in the spotlight for the duration of the song. Planting a big kiss on my lips, he surprisingly introduced me to the audience. I felt a bit embarrassed and made my way back to my seat.

Later in the show he’d strut back and forth onstage, tease his audience, talk to them, tell them stories, even confide in them. “You know,” he’d say, “some people in this town get a little greedy. I know you folks save a long time to come and hear me sing. I just want you to know, as far as I’m concerned, there won’t be any exorbitant raise in price when you come back. I’m here to entertain you and that’s all I care about.”

Matt was having an ongoing love affair with his audience and the next time I was home alone I knew I had no choice but to start more of a life of my own.

It was with that thought in mind that Amber, my sister Michelle, and I planned a short trip to Palm Springs. In the course of the weekend I opened the mailbox to check the mail and found a number of letters from girls who had obviously been to the house, one in particular signed “Lizard Tongue.” My immediate response was disbelief, followed by outrage. I dialed Vegas and demanded that Nate find Matt and bring him to the telephone. When Nate said Matt was sleeping, I told him about the letters and insisted I speak to Matt. Nate promised that he would have Matt call as soon as he woke up. He did, but it was clear that Nate had filled him in on the situation and Matt had his explanation ready. He was totally innocent, the girls were just fans, they were out of their minds if they said they’d ever come to the house, and besides, it was their word against his. As usual, in the end I apologized for putting him on the spot, but things at this point were becoming too obvious.

He said, “Get out and do things while I’m gone, because if you don’t, you’re going to start getting depressed.”

Although my choices were limited—he still objected to my taking a job or enrolling in classes at college—I continued my dancing and started taking private art instruction.

Matt was a born entertainer and although he tried to avoid crowds, disliked restaurants, and complained he “couldn’t get out like a normal person,” this life-style suited him. He handpicked the people he wanted to be around him—to work with and travel withand they adjusted to his routine and his hours and his temperament. It was a pretty close clan throughout the years. A few arguments erupted and a few couples left over some misunderstandings, but they usually returned in a week or two.

My view of life had been fashioned by Matt. I had entered his world as a young girl and he had provided absolute security. He distrusted any outside influences, which he saw as a threat to the relationship, fearing they would destroy his creation, his ideal. He could never have foreseen what was happening as the consequence of his prolonged absences from home. A major period in my growth was beginning. I still feared our separations but felt that our love had no boundaries, that I was his and if he wanted me to change, I would. For years nothing had existed in my world but him, and now that he was gone for long stretches of time, the inevitable happened. I was creating a life of my own, starting to achieve a sense of security in myself, and discovering there was a whole world outside our marriage.

Over the years of playing Vegas, other pressures began to mount. There were more death threats and lawsuits, including alleged paternity suits and assault-and-battery charges. Jealous husbands claimed they’d seen Matt flirting with their wives, and others continued to charge that Sonny and Red were manhandling them. Matt began to get bored with these nuisances as well as with the sameness of the show. Inevitably, he tried to change the format, but then he felt it just didn’t have the same pacing as the original. He’d add a few songs here and there but then revert to the original. Pointed suggestions that he make changes before the next Vegas date added to the pressure.

Bored and restless, he increased his dependence on chemicals. He thought speed helped him escape from destructive thinking, when in reality it gave him false confidence and unnatural aggressiveness. He started losing perspective on himself and others. To me he became increasingly unreachable.

Excerpt from: "Elvis and Me" by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Scribd. This material may be protected by copyright.

a/n - welll..🎀

#matthew sturn #matt stuniolo fanfic #matthew sturniolo #matt sturniolo #chris sturniolo #christopher sturniolo #sturniolo edit #sturniolo fanfic #sturniolo imagine #sturniolo smut #sturniolo triplets #sturniolo x reader #nick sturniolo #Spotify

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jadevine · 10 days ago

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An online friend sent me this video on Nov 10, and I immediately started taking notes on it, lol.

There is nothing better/worse than a white dude learning about arnis and getting So Fascinated by it. Thank the gods that he has a Filipino friend.

The first few minutes are generally a solid if brief history: Eskrima/kalis/arnis started as a commoner’s art with no official “system,” aside from being practical, deadly, and using a variety of weapons.

Spain came around and forbid blade usage, hence the transition into the now-famous sticks. Speaking of which, Filipinos killed Magellan using the bladed version of eskrima. Like… A LOT of Filipinos. Magellan and 49 Spaniards just rolled up to a full army of 1,500 natives and assumed, “Well, we have guns, so we’ll be fiiiiiiiiiiine!” Fuck around and find out, colonizer.

The thing that jumped out at me was the comment about eskrima being “hidden in dance and play,” which is likely referring to two things: The maglalatik dance is specifically a war dance. I don’t know if that’s “hidden,” so much as “this is literally supposed to be practice for young men to learn how to fight, and for seasoned fighters to keep in shape.”

The other might be the common old wives’ tale saying that kalis fighters practiced to music. This is something that I’ve only seen done 1) for performances/displays where no actual fighting was going on, or 2) to pull foreigners’ legs about secret Pinoy techniques. Some people call it “cheesy,” and I personally think some guys saw Pinoys sparring to their workout playlist (or the historical equivalent), and they thought we did that all the time.

Like, nobody minds if a white guy spars with “Eye Of The Tiger” blasting because maybe he just likes working out to music, but when a Filipino guy/group spars with eskrima to their favorite beats, suddenly it’s a “time-honored tradition?” I haven’t seen any dance-battlers mentioned in the Boxer Codex or other records, so until someone has evidence, I won’t say it’s historical.

Regarding the hands-on stuff: I feel like they intentionally skipped the most boring stuff, either so the video would be more exciting, or to just fuck with poor Martin. Like, they handed this poor man a stick right off the bat and started him out with hitting stuff and sparring? Where is the training montage??? Was all of it cut???

Also, here’s an intersection with “real fights aren’t nearly as long as the movies pretend” and “fighters are not necessarily good video-makers:” The spars lasted all of five seconds each, and it was mostly to “the first one who lands a hit wins.” This is okay when it’s clearly in good fun, but it’s also not very educational and it tips a little bit into “TELLING people how awesome eskrima is” instead of “SHOWING people how awesome it is.”

Martin does not look like he learned any footwork, either, but he says he knows boxing! The sport that people literally compare eskrima’s footwork to the most often!

Maybe this is my entertaining/acting side coming out, but if you’re planning a video well in advance, with someone that you know is not trained in this field, and an indirect purpose of this is to spread knowledge of your country’s national sport/combat-style, I feel like you need to set aside a couple hours for a crash-course of “here’s how to do X, Y, and Z,” while the actual students and teachers are doing fancy stuff. You can film however much you need, and then CUT however much you need to fit the time-limit.

The video would have greatly been helped if they kept a training montage that lasted twenty or thirty seconds--it would be much more involved than what the video seems to have done, by just tossing a new guy a stick and messing around with him.

General impression: An easy to digest taste of eskrima, like Cup-O-Noodles / instant ramen, or whatever your country’s version of “cheap and easy food” is. Not bad for what it is, but you’ll need something meatier after a couple of hours.

#filipino #eskrima #kalis #arnis #filipino martial arts #fma #Youtube

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showamagicalgirls · 1 year ago

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The other episode of 1986 Wizard of Oz (オズの魔法使い) anime I watched on the way over on this trip was the thirty-seventh, which is taken from L. Frank Baum's third Oz novel, Ozma of Oz. Apparently the full title of the original book was Ozma of Oz: A Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of Kansas, Billina the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good People Too Numerous to Mention Faithfully Recorded Herein. What a name! Anyway, these events may also be familiar to some people because they were included in the 1985 film, Return to Oz.

#wizard of oz #l frank baum #the wizard of oz #the wonderful wizard of oz #wonderful wizard of oz #l. frank baum #オズの魔法使い #tv anime #isekai #異世界 #昭和 #showa era #majokko adjacent #tv #animation #anime #ozma of oz #return to oz

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princess-of-the-corner · 11 months ago

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So, Miraculous Animal Side Effects - Tigers have the loudest recorded roar of all big cats. Fun fact, a lot of lion roars in media are actually tiger roars, because lion roars aren’t as impressive. Juleka learns all of this after she screamed at Luka (he forgot the laundry AGAIN) and he ends up deafened for thirty minutes.

They just slowly incorporate some death metal into Kitty Section

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dustedmagazine · 8 months ago

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Sarah Shook and the Disarmers — Revelations (Abeyance/Thirty Tigers)

Photo by Brett Villena

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“I built my life on the edge of a knife when nobody believed that I could,” rasps River Shook, the tough but tender leader of this kicking cowpunk band. The song is “You Don’t Get to Tell Me How to Feel,” a boot-stomping statement of purpose, as the guitars flare, the drums bolt upright like a scared horse, and Shook makes the case for constructing their own narrative in no uncertain terms.

Shook came of age in Bible belt America, forbidden as a child from any contact with secular music. Still these things have a way of back-ending. The artist learned the piano, then the guitar, then formed a series of bands under their birthname Sarah Shook; they switched to River a few years ago as a personal identifier but continue to record under the old name. Their music, however, remains sharp and unsentimental, punk in energy, country in its twang and sway. Move over Beyoncé, you’re not the only one pushing out the boundaries of what Americana can represent.

And so, Shook delivers gender inclusive busted romances in old-school juke joint style. Pedal steel flies through the jangling twang of “Backsliders” while an in-the-pocket country band keeps two-stepping time. There’s a cheating partner and a wounded one, just like in all the old songs, but the trick is neither one is a dude. “I’m a real piece of shit and you’re a vixen in a dress/I thought we was moving on/I was wrong I guess,” Shook cracks, out of the corner of their mouth, like Johnny Cash but different.

The very real pleasure of this collection of songs comes in how the love of tradition collides with raucous rule-breaking energy. You’ve got your outlaw country, sure, but did any of those guys write a song called “Motherfucker” and carry it off? Shook does.

Not every song stomps. Some are plaintive and yearning, like the lovely “Jane Doe,” others full of anthemic slow-rocking swirl like “Nightingale.” But all insist on direct emotional engagement and brutal honesty and acceptance of a very specific point of view. River Shook is definitely not your grandma’s idea of a country powerhouse, but they are one all the same.

Jennifer Kelly

#sarah shook and the disarmers #revelations #abeyance #thirty tigers #jennifer kelly #albumreview #dusted magazine #river shook #country #cowpunk

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dweemeister · 9 months ago

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The complete list of films featured on this blog’s 2024 “31 Days of Oscar” marathon

Hello everyone,

Thank you once more for allowing me to present this annual marathon of Oscar-nominated films to your dashboards. This year, the films were grouped by category (for the most part, one day featured only films nominated in a particular category). This is the most exclusive period on this blog, as the selection of films that I can post and queue about is at its most limited. But at the same time, the blog is at its most accessible as this yearly marathon’s selection skews to more popular fare than what I usually queue. I hope you enjoyed this year’s presentation of 31 Days of Oscar once more!

What follows is the exhaustive list of all 381 short- and feature-length films featured on this blog over the last thirty-one days for the 31 Days of Oscar marathon. This is down from 2022’s record of 420. But that count remains only a fraction of the 5,145 films that have been nominated for Academy Awards since 1927 (excluding Honorary Oscar winners that weren't nominated in a competitive category).

Of those 382, 28 were short films (53 short films is the record, which was set in 2022). 354 were feature films.

BREAKDOWN BY DECADE 1927-1929: 10 1930s: 51 1940s: 54 1950s: 44 1960s: 42 1970s: 26 1980s: 26 1990s: 23 2000s: 26 2010s: 26 2020s: 54

TOTAL: 382 (380 last year)

Year with most representation (2023 excluded): 1938 and 1942 (9 films each) Median year: 1966

Time for the list. 59 Best Picture winners and the one (and only) winner for Unique and Artistic Production that I featured this year are in bold. Asterisked (*) films are films I haven’t seen in their entirety as of the publishing of this post. Films primarily not in the English language are accompanied with their nation(s) of origin.

The ten Best Picture nominees for the 96th Academy Awards, including the winner, Oppenheimer (2023)

The fifteen nominees in the short film categories for the 96th Academy Awards

À nous la liberté (1931, France)

The Adventures of Don Juan (1938)*

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Albert Schweitzer (1957)*

Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938)

Alice Adams (1935)*

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)*

Aliens (1986)

All About Eve (1950)

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

All That Jazz (1979)*

Amadeus (1984)

Amarcord (1973, Italy)

An American in Paris (1951)

An American Werewolf in London (1981)*

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)*

The Apartment (1960)

Aquamania (1961 short)

Autumn Sonata (1978, Sweden)

Avatar (2009)

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

The Awful Truth (1937)

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

The Band Wagon (1953)

The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Batman (1989)

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Becket (1964)*

Before the Rain (1993, Macedonia)*

Ben-Hur (1959)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Bicycle Thieves (1948, Italy)

The Big Country (1958)

The Big House (1930)

Black Narcissus (1947)

The Black Swan (1942)

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Blue Valentine (2010)*

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Born Yesterday (1950)*

The Boy and the Heron (2023, Japan)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)*

Braveheart (1995)

Brief Encounter (1945)

Brigadoon (1954)

Bullitt (1968)

Butterflies Are Free (1972)*

Cabaret (1972)

Caged (1950)

The Caine Mutiny (1954)

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

Captain Blood (1935)

Casablanca (1942)

Cavalcade (1933)

Chico and Rita (2010, Spain)

Children of a Lesser God (1986)

The Children of Theatre Street (1977)*

Cimarron (1931)

The Circus (1928)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Cleopatra (1963)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

CODA (2021)

The Color Purple (1985)

Come and Get It (1936)*

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)*

El Conde (2023, Chile)*

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The Country Girl (1954)*

Cries and Whispers (1972, Sweden)*

Crossfire (1947)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Taiwan)

The Crowd (1928)

Dances with Wolves (1990)

Dangerous (1935)*

Days of Waiting (1991 short)*

The Deer Hunter (1978)

The Departed (2006)

Desert Victory (1942)*

Disraeli (1929)*

The Divine Lady (1929)*

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Dodsworth (1936)

Double Indemnity (1944)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse (1947 short)

Drive My Car (2021, Japan)

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

Dune (2021)

8½ (1963, Italy)

Elemental (2023)

The Elephant Whisperers (2022 short, India)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

Emma (1932)*

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Encanto (2021)

The English Patient (1996)

Ernest & Celestine (2012, Belgium/France/Luxembourg)

The Eternal Memory (2023, Chile)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)*

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

Far From Heaven (2002)*

A Farewell to Arms (1932)

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

The Firemen’s Ball (1967, Czechoslovakia)*

Five Star Final (1931)*

Flee (2021, Denmark)

Flower Drum Song (1961)

For All Mankind (1989)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Forrest Gump (1994)

42nd Street (1933)

Four Daughters (1938)*

Four Daughters (2023, France/Germany/Tunisia/Saudi Arabia)*

Freedom on My Mind (1994)

Frida (2002)*

The Front Page (1931)*

Funny Girl (1968)

Gandhi (1982)

Gaslight (1944)

Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

Giant (1956)

Gladiator (2000)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Goldfinger (1964)

Gone with the Wind (1939)

The Goodbye Girl (1977)

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

Gosford Park (2001)

Grand Prix (1966)

The Grandmaster (2013, Hong Kong/China)*

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

The Great Dictator (1940)

Great Expectations (1946)*

The Great Race (1965)

Green Dolphin Street (1947)*

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

Gypsy (1962)*

Hamlet (1948)

The Heiress (1949)

Henry V (1944)

Henry V (1989)

Hercules (1997)

Here Come the Waves (1945)*

High Noon (1952)

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

How the West Was Won (1962)

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the WIndow and Disappeared (2013, Sweden/France Germany)

The Hurt Locker (2008)

If Anything Happens I Love You (2020 short)

In America (2003)*

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

The Informer (1935)

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970, Italy)*

Io Capitano (2023, Italy)*

It Happened One Night (1934)

JFK (1991)*

Juno (2007)

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Lady for a Day (1933)

The Last Command (1927)

The Last Emperor (1987)

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Laura (1944)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

Life Is Beautiful (1997, Italy)

Lilies of the Field (1963)

Lincoln (2012)

The Little Foxes (1941)*

Lolita (1962)

The Longest Day (1962)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The Lost Weekend (1945)

Love Affair (1939)*

The Love Parade (1929)

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)

Loving Vincent (2017)

Lust for Life (1956)

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Malcolm X (1992)

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1975)

March of the Penguins (2005, France)

Marie Antoinette (1938)*

Marty (1955)

Mary Poppins (1964)

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Merrily We Live (1938)*

The Merry Widow (1934)

Mickey’s Orphans (1931 short)

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Milk (2008)*

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Minari (2020)

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

The Miracle Worker (1962)*

Mogambo (1953)*

Moneyball (2011)*

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953, France)

Monsieur Lazhar (2011, Canada)

Moonstruck (1987)*

The More the Merrier (1943)

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Munich (2005)*

The Music Man (1962)

My Fair Lady (1964)

My Man Godfrey (1936)*

Napoleon (2023)*

National Velvet (1944)

Naughty Marietta (1935)*

Network (1976)

Never on Sunday (1960, Greece)*

Nimona (2023)

No Country for Old Men (2007)

None But the Lonely Heart (1944)*

North by Northwest (1959)

Now, Voyager (1942)

The Nun’s Story (1959)

Odd Man Out (1947)*

On Golden Pond (1981)

On the Waterfront (1954)

Out of Africa (1985)

Papillon (1973)

Parasite (2019, South Korea)

A Passage to India (1984)*

Patton (1970)

Penny Serenade (1941)

Perfect Days (2023, Japan)*

Persepolis (2007, France)

Phantom Thread (2017)

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Pillow Talk (1959)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Platoon (1986)

Pollock (2000)*

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936 short)

The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

The Prince of Egypt (1998)

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)*

The Public Enemy (1931)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pygmalion (1938)

Quo Vadis (1951)

The Quiet Man (1952)

Raging Bull (1980)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Rain Man (1988)

Raintree County (1957)*

Random Harvest (1942)

Rashômon (1950, Japan)

The Razor's Edge (1946)

Rebecca (1940)

Rejected (2000 short)

Return of the Jedi (1983)

Rhapsody in Rivets (1941 short)*

The Robe (1953)*

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)*

Robot Dreams (2023, Spain)

Rocky (1976)

Roma (2018, Mexico)

Roman Holiday (1953)

Room (2015)

Rustin (2023)*

Sadie Thompson (1928)*

Schindler's List (1993)

Searching for Sugar Man (2012)

Seconds (1966)*

Sergeant York (1941)

7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

7th Heaven (1927)*

Shall We Dance (1937)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

The Shop on Main Street (1965, Czechoslovakia)

Silence (2016)*

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Silent Child (2017 short)

The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

The Sixth Sense (1999)*

Society of the Snow (2023, Spain)*

The Sound of Music (1965)

Spellbound (1945)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Spotlight (2015)

Stagecoach (1939)

A Star Is Born (1937)

A Star Is Born (1954)

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1994)

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)

The Sting (1973)

La Strada (1954, Italy)

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Strike Up the Band (1940)

Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Superman (1978)

Superman Returns (2006)

Suspicion (1941)

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Japan)

A Tale of Two Cities (1935)*

The Teachers’ Lounge (2023, Germany)

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Test Pilot (1938)*

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

The Thin Man (1934)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Tom Jones (1963)*

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

The Triplets of Belleville (2003, France)

12 Angry Men (1957)

20 Days in Mariupol (2023, Ukraine)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The Two Mouseketeers (1952 short)

Up (2009)

The Valley of Decision (1945)*

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)*

War Horse (2011)

West Side Story (1961)

Whiplash (2014)

The White Helmets (2016 short)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

The Window (1949)*

Wings (1927)

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974 short)

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Woman in Red (1984)*

Woman in the Dunes (1964, Japan)*

Written on the Wind (1956)*

Wuthering Heights (1939)

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

You Can’t Take It with You (1938)

#31 Days of Oscar

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osmiumpenguin · 1 year ago

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It's the solstice tonight, and a good time to reflect on my favourite books from the past year.

I'm making very little attempt to rank these titles. They're simply the books that I enjoyed most, and they're presented in the order I read them. • "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet," by Becky Chambers (2014) • "The Galaxy, and the Ground Within," by Becky Chambers (2021) • "Locklands," by Robert Jackson Bennett (2022) • "Beloved," by Toni Morrison (1987) • "Exhalation," by Ted Chiang (2019) • "Fugitive Telemetry," by Martha Wells (2021) • "Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future," by Patty Krawec (2022) • "The Vanished Birds," by Simon Jimenez (2020) • "The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family," by Joshua Cohen (2021) • "Utopia Avenue," by by David Mitchell (2020) • "The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers, Delirium & Discovery," by Amitav Ghosh (1995) • "Moon of the Crusted Snow," by Waubgeshig Rice (2018) • "Bea Wolf," by Zach Weinersmith; illustrated by Boulet (2023) • "Fighting the Moon," by Julie McGalliard (2021) • "The Empress of Salt and Fortune," by Nghi Vo (2020) • "The Glass Hotel," by Emily St. John Mandel (2020) • "New York 2140," by Kim Stanley Robinson (2017) • "When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain," by Nghi Vo (2020) • "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Omnibus," by Ryan North et al; illustrated by Erica Henderson & Derek Charm & Jacob Chabot & Naomi Franquiz & Tom Fowler & Rico Renzi et al (2022) • "Buffalo Is the New Buffalo: Stories," by Chelsea Vowel (2022) • "Greenwood: A Novel," by Michael Christie (2019) • "The House of Rust," by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber (2021) • "Children of Memory," by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2022) • "Jade Legacy," by Fonda Lee (2021) • "A Deadly Education: A Novel: Lesson One of the Scholomance," by Naomi Novik (2020) • "The Last Graduate: A Novel: Lesson Two of the Scholomance," by Naomi Novik (2021) • "The Golden Enclaves: Lesson Three of the Scholomance," by Naomi Novik (2022) • "To Be Taught if Fortunate," by Becky Chambers (2019) • "Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution," by Carlo Rovelli (2020), translated by Erica Segre & Simon Carnell (2021) • "A Psalm for the Wild-Built," by Becky Chambers (2021) Ah, but I said I'd make "very little attempt" to rank them, not "no attempt." So here is that attempt: my favourite five books from the last solar orbit — the five I enjoyed even more than those other thirty — also presented in the order I read them.

• "Nona the Ninth," by Tamsyn Muir (2022) • "Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands," by Kate Beaton (2022) • "Record of a Spaceborn Few," by Becky Chambers (2018) • "Briar Rose," by Jane Yolen (1992) • "Babel, or, The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution," by R.F. Kuang (2022)

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x--daughters-of-darkness--x · 2 years ago

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Avatar Drop “Violence No Matter What” Duet With Lzzy Hale

The heavy metal ‘n’ roll, dark, madcap visionaries collectively known as AVATAR — vocalist Johannes Eckerström, guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin, and drummer John Alfredsson — have unleashed yet another track from their upcoming magnum opus and ninth album Dance Devil Dance, out Febriuary 17 via Black Waltz Records, distributed by Thirty Tigers. Pre-order the album HERE.

Today, the band has shared the new song “Violence No Matter What,” a powerhouse duet with the inimitable Lzzy Hale.

youtube

Eckerström says, “‘Violence No Matter What’ is about one thing and one thing only. It’s ok to debate and fight and to think differently. But there is a limit, and the line must be drawn at authority held with violence, a world view that cannot survive without enemies, a promised return to a fabricated former glory.”

Hale says, “‘Violence No Matter What’ was such an inspiring piece to be a part of! Thank you so much to the boys for giving me the opportunity to express my angst against the horrors of this world through such a brilliant song!”

The almighty Avatar will also return to the road this spring on a headline tour that kicks off April 28 in Omaha and runs through May 28 in Pittsburgh. Veil of Maya and Orbit Culture will support. All dates are below, including key spring festival appearances.

#Lzzy Hale #DoD collaborations #Avatar #Violence No Matter What #2023 news

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banannabethchase · 2 years ago

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Take a Chance on Me Chapter 7: SOS - on AO3

Everything is a whirlwind right before the rehearsal dinner, which is an event in and of itself.

It’s three-thirty when Lee tackles Wheeler into the sand, distracting him from panicking about whatever Eddie and Danny were doing without him and from punching Danny in the face.

“Wheely!” he yells.

“Hey, man,” Wheeler laughs, hugging him tight. He doesn’t even mind the sand getting in his swimsuit. “When’d you get in?”

“Like, thirty seconds ago,” he says.

“Why the hell didn’t you put a bathing suit on?” Danny asks.

Lee stares. “Did you not hear me say I legit just got in?” He nods to Wheeler. “Asked your dad where I could find you, dropped off my stuff in the room, and came down here.”

“Well, in that case.” Danny runs at him and spears him into the sand. Wheeler runs after him, helping Danny get Lee up so they can toss him into the ocean.

They dive over each other, laughing, and Wheeler feels his anxiety lessen. They catch Lee up on what’s happened so far, Danny going into excruciating detail about his hookup with Eddie. It reminds Wheeler of his freshman year of college, when the three of them spent a week during winter break running around town. Like when they were still kids.

Until, of course, Danny gets a phone call. They’re all stretched out under the sun, and Wheeler doesn’t even roll over when he hears the ring.

“I don’t like that look,” Wheeler says.

Danny looks smug. It doesn’t quite tell Wheeler enough, though. Danny always looks smug. “I told you, you’ll be calling me Uncle Danny by the end of the weekend.” He winks. “I’ll be back, boys.”

Lee and Wheeler watch him walk back up to the hotel. “He really does manage to bag the weirdest dudes,” Lee says, sounding almost impressed.

“I know.” Wheeler begins walking along the beach, avoiding the sharper shells. “His track record is terrible.”

Lee looks like he’s off in another world, seeing something mildly horrifying. “He fucked your uncle.”

“At least it wasn’t you,” Wheeler says, because he has to find some sort of positive here.

Lee laughs. “I mean. Straight, but thanks?” He picks up a rock and skips it across the ocean. “I mean, I could totally pull guys. If I wanted to.”

“If you wanted to, yeah,” Wheeler says. “But you have literally never wanted to.”

“I like boobs too much, I think,” Lee muses. “I think that’s why me and Stat get along so well.” He turns to Wheeler. “When’s her flight get in, anyway?”

“Soon, I think, around four or five, but she’s getting a Lyft here.” Wheeler tries to skip his own stone, but it sinks almost immediately. “She’s bringing her girlfriend.”

“The gamer?” Lee asks. “Cool. Good to finally meet her.”

Wheeler tries again, with a shell. It skips this time, twice. He feels a little proud of it. “How many drinks in do you think Kris’ll be before she tells the story about how she and Nyla got together?”

Lee does a messy handstand in the sand, a mediocre attempt to emulate Kris, but clear nonetheless. “And then she thought I was a cosplayer, and I thought she was an engineer!”

They take turns throwing shells as far as they can into the ocean, Wheeler just barely beating Lee out with a big motherfucker that he has to spin to throw right, until Mox and Claudio show up.

“Hey, kid, long time no see,” says Mox. Lee turns and rushes at him, hugging him tight.

“Yeah. Music’s kept me busy.”

“No kidding!” Mox says. “Wheels plays your song all the time.”

“Tiger style, baby!” Claudio says. They all look at him. He’s the love of Wheeler’s life and whatever, but the man trying to sound cool like that just feels…wrong.

“You tried,” Wheeler says, patting Claudio on the cheek.

“We listen to it!” Claudio says. “I promise!”

“Nah, it’s fine, dude,” Lee says. He claps Claudio on the shoulder. “You ready, man? Tomorrow night!”

Claudio beams so bright it makes Wheeler light up on the inside. “So ready,” he sighs. He grabs Wheeler’s hand and pulls him in to his side, wrapping him in his favorite kind of hug.

“Claudio and I were talking about the table settings.”

Wheeler tries not to roll his eyes. He fails.

“So I want my kid’s wedding to be perfect!” Mox says, throwing his hands in the air. “So sue me!"

"I know you guys care about the tables and the decorations or whatever, but I don’t give a shit.”

“Okay, the decorations are all him,” Mox says, thumbing at Claudio. “I just want to make sure nobody starts a fist fight over dinner.”

Wheeler avoids Claudio’s eyes.

It’s not missed, though. Claudio stares at him. “What?”

“Well,” Wheeler says, “you and Uncle Eddie aren’t gonna start shit, right?”

Claudio’s jaw drops. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Oh, says the guy who took a swing at my uncle at dinner two years ago.” The words are out before Wheeler can stop them. He gets a glimpse of Lee escaping silently and, honestly, he doesn’t blame him at all.

His dad exhales. “Whoa.”

“He made fun of my accent!”

Wheeler rolls his eyes. “You made fun of his first!”

“I didn’t understand him!”

“It’s not that hard!”

Claudio laughs, a little mean. “He was talking fast, and I got confused. He could have shown me a little respect.”

“Okay, I’m gonna go,” Mox says.

Wheeler knows he has to stop this before it ramps up, knows, logically, that this argument is never going to go anywhere, but he can never stop himself. “He’s my Uncle!”

“I’m your fiancé!”

Wheeler groans, running a hand through his hair. “Why does this always become a thing again?!”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Claudio says, “because your uncle’s an asshole.”

“Only me and Dad are allowed to call him an asshole,” Wheeler says. He can’t tamp down the anger. He wants to. He can’t.

Claudio sighs. He takes a step back, and Wheeler wants to follow him. But he knows he can’t. “Baby,” he says, voice gentle, “we’re both stressed. We’re both tired.” He smiles, something gentle and exhausted. “Let’s just – let’s take some time for ourselves, okay? Sheamus and Drew will be here soon, and I need to catch up with them. Maybe take some space to cool down.”

Wheeler nods, feeling a little rejected anyway. “Uh, yeah. Right. Kris’ll be here anyway, too, so…” He trails off, unsure of how to tell Claudio that, if he doesn’t get a kiss goodbye, it’ll feel like his heart’s walking away.

Claudio steps up to him and presses a kiss to Wheeler’s forehead, nose, then lips. Gentle. Sacred. Safe. “I love you,” he says. “Always.

“Love you always,” Wheeler says. And his heart feels a little lighter. A little.

He walks up the beach stairs near the hotel to find Lee sitting at the table with Kris and Nyla, mid laugh. Danny, however, is glowering, pouting like his life depends on it.

“What did you do to the resident dumbass?” Wheeler asks, leaning down to hug Kris. “Also, hi, missed you, how’s my favorite NASA engineer?”

“Great, and mocking him about nailing Eddie,” Kris says. “Nyla, you remember Wheeler?”

“Course I do!” she says. She bumps his fist, grinning. “Congrats, dude.”

“Thanks,” Wheeler says. “Wedding planning sucks. Elope, if you get a chance.”

Kris blushes, just a little, but Nyla’s solid when she nods seriously and says, “Noted.”

“Anyway, tell me all about how you’re roasting Danny,” Wheeler says, kicking his legs up on Kris’ lap. “He got a phone call and made a weird face, so I thought it was Eddie.”

Danny shakes his head. “Nah, it was my mom. I was just messing with you.”

“Aw, he looks disappointed,” Kris says, leaning in and booping his nose. “Do you miss him?”

“No, it’s just a hookup, Jesus,” Danny grumbles. “Look, I’m not ashamed. He’s hot.”

“Ew. He’s old,” says Kris.

“You don’t even like men,” Danny says back, sticking his tongue out at her. “You don’t get an opinion.”

She rolls her eyes. “I think you’re being sexist.”

Danny blinks, and Wheeler grins at the confusion. He always likes it when Danny gets taken off guard. And he’s almost always off guard when Kris is around.

“So,” Nyla says, “tell me about everything. How’d you and your fiancé meet?”

Wheeler grins, relaxing into the chair.

“Oh, god, I know that look,” Lee says. “Here we go.”

“I won’t do the long story this time, I promise,” Wheeler says, and he doesn’t plan on making it a lie. “So, my dad owns a gym, right? One day it was pouring really bad. I was closing up early, because it was clear no sane person was going to brave the storm to come get their ass handed to them by a trainer. And then this fucking Adonis starts banging on the door.”

“I like where this is going,” Nyla says, grinning.

“Don’t encourage him to make the story longer,” Lee chides. “He’ll talk about this for, like, a decade if you let him.”

“I think it’s sweet,” says Danny. “Plus, next I’ll tell you all the story about how Eddie and I –”

Kris shoves her hand over Danny’s mouth. “Keep going, Wheeler.”

“Well, I let him in, because duh, and he looked super confused. He started speaking German, at first, which made me wonder if I had a stroke, and then said,” Wheeler pauses, letting the memory wash over him. “‘Hello, sir, mind if I take solace in your gym?’ And I was sold.”

“More like he took solace in your –”

“Danny…”

“What!” Danny says, pouting at Lee. “I was gonna say heart!”

“Well, that’s just frickin’ adorable.” Nyla says. “Me and Kris just met because we both thought the other was a twitter mutual.”

“Your story’s cute, too,” Wheeler insists. “I like how…” He trails off. “Oh.”

His friends follow his gaze, and three things happen at once. Danny gasps, Bryan meets Wheeler’s eyes, and the alarm on his phone goes off.

“Who the fuck is that?” Danny asks. His tone is something Wheeler’s heard way too many times before.

“Possibly my dad, now shut the fuck up before I brain you,” Wheeler says, low and fast. He stands up and takes a few steps toward Bryan. “Uh, hi, Bryan. Good to see you.”

He nods, slowly. “Good to see you, too.”

“I’d talk longer, but the rehearsal dinner’s coming up, and I have to get ready.” He shoots Bryan what he hopes is a winning, son-like smile. “But, uh. After the dinner, maybe we could talk?”

Bryan nods again, like he’s considering every moment that passes as a test. Wheeler feels strangely studied. “Of course.” He walks away.

“Jesus, that guy is intense,” Kris mutters once Bryan’s walked away.

“No kidding,” Lee says. “Is it really time for the rehearsal dinner?”

Wheeler nods, wiggling his phone. “We have to be there at six thirty, so, yeah.”

They all go their separate ways to their room, and Wheeler is mildly hesitant to run into Claudio after their tiff earlier.

He knocks, and slowly pushes the door open. “Claudio? You in here?” And nearly loses all sense.

Claudio in a suit always gets him, but the soft sage green makes him glow. Wheeler has to remind himself that, not only can he look, he can touch. “Wheeler, what’s –”

“Holy fuck, you’re hot.” Wheeler strides up to Claudio, to his fiancé, to the man he gets to keep for eternity, and hauls him down for the kind of kiss that would get censored on Twitter. Claudio makes a little noise into his mouth, then turns him, the two of them falling into bed.

“You’re covered in sand,” Claudio murmurs, lips against Wheeler’s neck, “how about we get you in the shower?”

“Only if you come with,” Wheeler says. He’s a bit sad at the idea that the suit will have to go, but that means Claudio will be naked, and, honestly, net win. Claudio wraps his arms under Wheeler’s thighs and hauls him up with a grunt that goes straight to Wheeler’s dick.

“Fuck me in the shower?” he asks, a little eagerly.

Claudio takes him to the bathroom, where he strips off the suit and carefully hangs it on the back of the door. “We don’t have the time, now,” he laughs.

“Stop being right,” Wheeler grumbles. “Fine.”

They exchange frantic, desperate blowjobs in the big ass shower. It’s twice the size of the one they have at home in their apartment, roomy and accommodating in convenient ways. Wheeler’s sure he’s got most of the sand off of him by the end of it.

“We’re going to be late,” Claudio says. “You still have to get your hair in order.”

“I would make a bald joke, but you sucked out my brain through my dick, so it’ll have to wait,” Wheeler replies. He grins up at him. “And, plus. It’s our wedding. Party don’t start til we walk in.”

“Is that a music reference?”

Wheeler rolls his eyes. “I need to make you listen to that naughties playlist again.”

They make it downstairs by 6:30, and to the restaurant at 6:45. Everyone else is already there, but Wheeler thinks a grand entrance might be appropriate for the grooms.

“Look who finally showed up,” Mox says, grinning. “You forgot to mention you invited these three.”

Bryan, Chuck, and Regal are sitting at the other end of the table. And Wheeler blinks. “Uh. I didn’t?”

“Sorry, that was me,” Claudio says. “Is that alright?”

Wheeler scans the motley crew of his people. “Yeah,” he decides. “Yeah, this’ll be good.”

The rehearsal dinner is bizarrely stiff, with Mox fidgeting every time one of the other guys looks at him, Kris half asleep on Nyla’s shoulder, and Danny and Eddie exchange glances so heated it makes Wheeler want to cry a little bit into his risotto.

“So, who is in this wedding?” Claudio’s mother asks. She’s a kind lady, eyes bright and reminiscent of Claudio’s. Wheeler’s always liked her. “Tell me about all of your friends, Wheeler.”

Wheeler introduces Kris, Danny, and Lee, who are all on their best behaviors for once in their lives. Danny and Sheamus, who’d met at the engagement party, are talking animatedly about whatever game was on the night before. Wheeler’s not close enough to hear.

But Regal is strangely somber, seated in the dining room across from Wheeler’s grandmother and having what looks like a very stiff conversation. He doesn’t blame him – Wheeler would feel uncomfortable speaking to Claudio’s mom if she didn’t know who he might be, either.

By the end of dinner, everyone is in good spirits. Chuck and Bryan, seated across from each other, have been talking the whole night, so at least they’ve got each other. At dessert, Wheeler notes two very suspicious absences.

“Oh, for the love.” He sighs, and stands up. “Claudio, I have to go to the bathroom. If I don’t come back, it’s because I walked in on Eddie and Danny boning in the bathroom and I died about it.”

Claudio’s expression, while sleepy, is sympathetic. “You want me to go scout it out for you?”

“The fact that you’d make such a sacrifice for me is why I love you.” He leans down and presses a kiss to Claudio’s cheek. “But, no. This I have to do on my own.”

Wheeler knocks as loud as he can on the men’s restroom door before walking in. Unfortunately, it was a futile attempt. Danny is pressed up against the wall with Eddie’s hand around his waist. Wheeler gets an unwelcome eyeful of Eddie going at Danny’s neck, and he can’t hold it back.

“Fucking hell!” he half yells, half squeaks. “This is a public restroom.”

Eddie turns around, looking completely undisturbed. “Kid, you gotta learn to knock.”

“I did knock! Like, seven times!”

Danny looks pink and a little dazed, a stupid little smile on his lips. “He knocked. I just didn’t say anything since you were,” he trails off, eyes dragging down Eddie’s face and settling on his lips, “busy.”

Wheeler forces himself not to gag. Eddie rolls his eyes. “Okay, I’ll leave first because you,” he looks Danny up and down, a little too smug for Wheeler to be comfortable with, “are kind of wrecked. Wheeler, please don’t tell your dad about this.”

Danny pushes himself off the wall and practically floats over to Eddie. “We could tell him,” he says. “Like, when we dance at the wedding?”

Eddie groans. “I – fuck, okay, but not yet.”

Danny immediately settles the second Eddie’s out the door, going back to his normal expression. “God, he’s fun to mess with.”

“Please don’t tell me that,” Wheeler groans. “Go – go eat dinner and be nice to my grandma. For some reason she loves you.”

Danny nods and leaves, and Wheeler is left alone for a few glorious minutes. Sure, a bathroom isn’t to die for, but alone for a brief respite from being in front of everybody is better than nothing.

He takes his time adjusting his hair, fixing his tie, before going back out. Dessert is at the table and, mercifully, it looks like almost everybody is fixated on that.

Chatter is quiet and unfocused as everyone finishes up. Mox hugs Wheeler and Claudio and takes his mother back to the hotel, and the older relatives get their leftovers and make their way out of the restaurant.

“Alright,” Claudio says, after Kris has finished her story about the star she discovered by accident, “I think the restaurant is going to go after us if we stay much longer.”

Wheeler follows his gaze and, sure enough, a few of the waitstaff keep glaring at their tables. Wheeler already made sure to leave a massive tip.

He finishes his last goodbye to the relatives, and Bryan steps up to him. “Before you go,” he says, tone quiet and serious, “I was hoping we could talk.”

Wheeler looks behind him at Claudio, who begins to walk over. “Yeah, just, uh. Give me a second, okay?” He gives what he hopes is a reassuring smile to Bryan. “Don’t – don’t leave or anything?”

Bryan nods, but he still has that expression like he’s trying to read Wheeler’s mind and not finding what he wants to hear.

Wheeler steps around him. “Hey. Uh. Are you okay if I – if I wait a little bit so I can talk to Bryan?”

Slowly, Claudio nods. “Just, promise me something.”

“Anything,” Wheeler says automatically.

Claudio looks almost sad as he reaches out and cups Wheeler’s cheek. “Just remember what this weekend is about, okay?”

Wheeler’s heart drops a little. “Oh, god. No, Claudio, I know this is about us. Our wedding. I know that.”

He nods. “I know you know it. I just,” he sighs, “you’re getting really caught up in this thing with your other dads. I don’t want you to get so focused on that and get disappointed if things don’t go the way you want.”

He refuses to let himself be hurt by what he’s worried Claudio might be saying. “What does that mean?” Wheeler asks.

“Just that, maybe, you won’t know which one of them is your other dad before tomorrow night.” Claudio looks a little less sad now, at least. “And I want to make sure you’re okay with that.” He takes his hand away, flexing. His eyes miss Wheeler’s, some sort of anxiety behind them that he’s never seen before. “That – that you’ll still want to get married, even if your other dad isn’t the one who is going to walk you down the aisle.”

In that moment, Wheeler realizes how shortsighted he’d been. “Claudio, I swear,” he says, grabbing his hands, “this isn’t just – I’m marrying you even if a meteor falls on my head. Okay?” He tries to make it clear: he’s here for Claudio, and everything else is just icing on the cake.

Claudio nods. “Yeah, I know.” He leans in and kisses Wheeler on the head. “You take care of yourself, okay? Sheamus, Drew, and I are going to get some drinks.”

Wheeler nods. “Have fun.” He watches Claudio walk out, turning for one last wave, and he manages a smile. He makes his way back to Bryan. “Sorry I took so long.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Bryan says firmly, “he’s the one you’re marrying tomorrow. I’m just here to help.”

Wheeler nods. “So, uh. What’s up?”

“I wanted to let you know, even if I’m not your – your other dad,” he pauses, sighing, “I want you to know that I’m here for you. If you want to do a DNA test, if you don’t, whatever works for you.” He fiddles with his hands. Even with the anxiety, he has an air about him of confidence, of proficiency. He looks up, and Wheeler hopes he has the same determination in his eyes. “You just let me know what you need from me, alright?”

Wheeler wishes he had an answer to that. “I, uh. Actually, I was thinking the guy who is my dad could walk me down the aisle.”

Bryan, for the first time since learning Wheeler’s last name, looks shocked. “Right. You said that.” He nods again, like he’s trying to convince himself. “I just. I didn’t think that was still on the table.”

“I understand if that’s – if it’s not something you’re comfortable with,” Wheeler says. And he won’t betray how much he wants Bryan to agree to it. He won’t.

“I’d be happy to,” Bryan says, and he looks so earnest and genuine that Wheeler lets himself believe, just for a moment, that this is his other father. And he’s proud to claim that title. “But I have to ask, do you know who your other father is yet?”

Wheeler shakes his head. “No clue.”

Bryan offers a sympathetic smile. “Well, let me know if anything else comes up. Not sure how much information we can get in the next twenty-four hours.”

“I kind of thought I’d know him when I’d see him,” Wheeler confesses. “And then I saw all three of you at once, and I still had no clue.”

Bryan claps him on the shoulder, reassuring, and paternal, if Wheeler lets himself pretend. “Don’t stress about it, is my advice. Go enjoy your last night stag, kid. I’ll be here in the morning.”

Wheeler smiles at him, and waves as he walks away.

Before he’s able to get back to his seat, somebody yanks his arm. “Is it him?”

#Hello it be a smidge of an angsty chapter #Lots of hard conversations #wtf i like wrestling now???#in which sara writes #Mamma Mia AU

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