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suchagiantnerd · 5 years ago

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48 Books, 1 Year

I was just two books shy of my annual goal of 50! You can blame the combination of my adorable newborn, who refused to nap anywhere except on me, and Hallmark Christmas movie season, during which I abandon books for chaste kisses between 30-somethings who behave like tweens at places called the Mistletoe Inn (which are really in Almonte, Ontario).

Without further ado, as Zuma from Paw Patrol says, “Let’s dive in!”

1. Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes / Nathan H. Lents

We have too many bones! We have to rely too much on our diet for survival! We suffer from too many cognitive biases! Reading about our design flaws was kind of interesting, but the best part of this book were the few pages toward the end about the possibility of alien life. Specifically this quote: "...some current estimates predict that the universe harbours around seventy-five million civilizations." WHAT?! This possibility more than anything else I've ever heard or read gives me a better idea of how infinite the universe really is.

2. The Fiery Cross / Diana Gabaldon

Compared to the first four books in the Outlander series, this fifth book is a real snooze. The characters are becoming more and more unlikeable. They're so self-centered and unaware of their privilege in the time and place they're living. Gabaldon's depictions of the Mohawk tribe and other First Nations characters (which I'm reading through her character's opinions of things) are pretty racist. The enslaved people at one character's plantation are also described as being well taken care of and I just.... can't. I think this is the end of my affair with Outlander.

3. Educated / Tara Westover

This memoir was a wild ride. Tara Westover grew up in a survivalist, ultra-religious family in rural Idaho. She didn’t go to school and was often mislead about the outside world by her father. She and her siblings were also routinely put in physical danger working in their father’s junkyard as their lives were “in god’s hands”, and when they were inevitably injured, they weren’t taken to the hospital or a doctor, but left to be treated by their healer mother. Thanks to her sheer intelligence and determination (and some support from her older brother), Tara goes to university and shares with us the culture shock of straddling two very different worlds. My non-fiction book club LOVED this read, we talked about it for a long, long time.

4. Imbolc: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for St. Brigid’s Day / Carl F. Neal

Continuing with my witchy education, I learned all about the first sabbat of the new year, Imbolc.

5. Super Sad True Love Story / Gary Shteyngart

This in-the-very-near-future dystopian novel got my heart racing during a few exciting moments, but overall, I couldn’t immerse myself fully because of the MISOGYNY. I think the author might not like women and the things women like (or the things he thinks they like?) In this near future, all the dudes are into finance or are media celeb wannabes, while all the women work in high-end retail. And onion-skin jeans are the new trend for women - they are essentially see-through. Gary….we don’t…want that? We don’t even want low-rise jeans to come back.

6. The Wanderers / Meg Howrey

Helen, Yoshi and Sergei are the three astronauts selected by a for-profit space exploration company to man the world’s first mission to Mars. But before they get the green light, they have to endure a 17-month simulation. In addition to getting insight into the simulation from all three astronauts via rotating narrators, we also hear from the astronauts’ family members and other employees monitoring the sim. At times tense, at times thoughtful, this book is an incisive read about what makes explorers willing to leave behind everything they love the most in the world.

7. Zone One / Colson Whitehead

The zombie apocalypse has already happened, and Mark is one of the survivors working to secure and clean up Zone One, an area of Manhattan. During his hours and hours of boring shifts populated by a few harrowing minutes here and there, the reader is privy to Mark’s memories of the apocalypse itself and how he eventually wound up on this work crew. Mark is a pretty likeable, yet average guy rather than the standard zombie genre heroes, and as a result, his experiences also feel like a more plausible reality than those of the genre.

8. Homegoing / Yaa Gyasi

One of my favourite reads of the year, this novel is the definition of “sweeping epic”. The story starts off with two half-sisters (who don’t even know about each other’s existence) living in 18th-century Ghana. One sister marries a white man and stays in Ghana, living a life of privilege, while the other is sold into slavery and taken to America on a slave ship. This gigantic split in the family tree kicks off two parallel and vastly different narratives spanning EIGHT generations, ending with two 20-somethings in the present day. I remain in awe of Gyasi’s talent, and was enthralled throughout the entire book.

9. Sweetbitter / Stephanie Danler

Tess moves to New York City right out of school (and seemingly has no ties to her previous life - this bothered me, I wanted to know more about her past) and immediately lands a job at a beloved (though a little tired) fancy restaurant. Seemingly loosely based on Danler’s own experiences as a server, I got a real feel for the insular, incestuous, chaotic life in “the industry”. Tess navigates tensions between the kitchen and the front of house, falls for the resident bad-boy bartender, and positions herself as the mentee of the older and more glamorous head server, who may not be everything she seems. This is a juicy coming-of-age novel.

10. The Autobiography of Gucci Mane / Gucci Mane and Neil Martinez-Belkin

Gucci Mane is one of Atlanta’s hottest musicians, having helped bring trap music to the mainstream. I’d never heard of him until I read this book because I’m white and old! But not knowing him didn’t make this read any less interesting. In between wild facts (if you don’t get your music into the Atlanta strip clubs, your music isn’t making it out of Atlanta) and wilder escapades (Gucci holing himself up in his studio, armed to the teeth, in a fit of paranoia one night) Gucci Mane paints on honest picture of a determined, talented artist fighting to break free of a cycle of systemic racism and poverty.

11. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer / Michelle McNamara

McNamara was a journalist and true crime enthusiast who took it upon herself to try and solve the mystery of the Golden State Killer’s identity. Amazingly, her interest in this case also sparked other people’s interest in looking back at it, eventually leading to the arrest of the killer (though tragically, McNamara died a few months before the arrest and would never know how her obsession helped to capture him). This is a modern true crime classic and a riveting read.

12. A Great Reckoning / Louise Penny

The 12th novel in Penny’s Inspector Gamache mystery series sees our hero starting a new job teaching cadets at Quebec’s police academy. Of course, someone is murdered, and Gamache and his team work to dig the rot out of the institution, uncovering a killer in the process.

13. Any Man / Amber Tamblyn

Yes, this novel is by THAT Amber Tamblyn, star of “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants”! Anyway, this book is a tad bit darker, and follows five men who’ve been victimized by the female serial rapist, who calls herself Maude. Going into this read I though that it might be some sort of revenge fantasy, but dudes, not to worry - we really feel awful for the male victims and see them in all their complexity. Perhaps, if more men read this book, they might better understand the trauma female and non-binary victims go through? That would require men to read books by women though. Guys? GUYS???

14. Ostara: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for the Spring Equinox / Kerri Connor

Yet another witchy read providing more information about this Spring sabbat.

15. Scarborough / Catherine Hernandez

This novel takes place in OUR Scarborough! Following the lives of a number of residents (adults and children alike), the plot centres around the families attending an Ontario Early Years program as well as the program facilitator. Hernandez looks at the ways poverty, mental illness, addiction, race, and homophobia intersect within this very multicultural neighbourhood. It’s very sad, but there are also many sweet and caring moments between the children and within each of the families.

16. The Glitch / Elisabeth Cohen

Shelley Stone (kind of a fictional Sheryl Sandberg type) is the CEO of Conch, a successful Silicon Valley company. Like many of these over-the-top real-life tech execs, Shelley has a wild schedule full of business meetings, exercise, networking and parenting, leaving her almost no time to rest. While on an overseas business trip, she meets a younger woman also named Shelley Stone, who may or may not be her younger self. Is Shelley losing it? This is a dark comedy poking fun at tech start-up culture and the lie that we can have it all.

17. The Thirteenth Tale / Diane Setterfield

This is my kind of book! A young and inexperienced bookworm is handpicked to write the biography of an aging famous author, Vida Wynter. Summoned to her sprawling country home around Christmastime, the biographer is absolutely enthralled by Vida’s tales of a crumbling gothic estate and an eccentric family left too long to their own whims. Looking for a dark, twisty fairytale? This read’s for you.

18. Love & Misadventure / Lang Leav

Leav’s book of poems looked appealing, but for me, her collection fell short. I felt like I was reading a teenager’s poetry notebook (which I’m not criticizing, I love that teen girls write poetry, and surprise, surprise - so did I - but I’m too old for this kind of writing now).

19. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows / Balli Kaur Jaswal

Hooo boy, my book club loved this one! Hoping to get a job more aligned with her literary interests, Nikki, the 20-something daughter of Indian immigrants to Britain, takes a job teaching writing at the community centre in London’s biggest Punjabi neighbourhood. The students are all older Punjabi women who don’t have much to do and because of their “widow” status have been somewhat sidelined within their community. Without anyone around to censor or judge them, the widows start sharing their own erotic fantasies with each other, each tale wilder than the last. As Nikki gets to know them better, she gains some direction in life and starts a romance of her own. (It should be noted that in addition to this lovely plot, there is a sub plot revolving around a possible honour killing in the community. For me, the juxtaposition of these two plots was odd, but not odd enough that it ruined the book.)

20. Beltane: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for May Day / Melanie Marquis

Beltane marks the start of the summer season in the witches’ year, and I learned all about how to ring it in, WITCH STYLE.

21. Summer of Salt / Katrina Leno

This book is essentially Practical Magic for teens, with a queer protagonist. All that to say, it’s enjoyable and sweet and a win for #RepresentationMatters, but it wasn’t a surprising or fresh story.

22. Too Like the Lightning / Ada Palmer

This is the first in the Terra Ignota quartet of novels, which is (I think) speculative fiction with maybe a touch of fantasy and a touch of sci-fi and a touch of theology and certainly a lot of philosophical ruminating too. I both really enjoyed it and felt so stupid while reading it. As a lifelong bookworm who doesn’t shy away from difficult reads, I almost never feel stupid while reading, but this book got me. The world building is next level and as soon as you think you’ve found your footing, Palmer pulls the rug out from under you and you’re left both stunned and excited about her latest plot twist. Interested in finding out what a future society grouped into ‘nations’ by interests and passions (instead of geographical borders and ethnicity) might be like? Palmer takes a hearty stab at it here.

23. The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay and Disaster / Sarah Krasnostein

When Sarah Krasnostein met Sandra Pankhurst, she knew she had to write her biography (or something like it - this book is part biography, part love letter, part reckoning). And rightly so, as Sandra has led quite a life. She grew up ostracized within her own home by her immediate family, married and had children very young, came out as a trans woman and begin living as her authentic self (but abandoning her own young family in the process), took to sex work and lived through a vicious assault, married again, and started up her own successful company cleaning uncleanable spaces - the apartments of hoarders, the houses of recluses, the condos in which people ended their own lives. Sandra is the definition of resilience, but all her traumas (both the things people have done to her and the things she’s done to others) have left their mark, as Krasnostein discovers as she delicately probes the recesses of Sandra’s brain.

24. Becoming / Michelle Obama

My favourite things about any memoir from an ultra-famous person are the random facts that surprise you along the way. In this book, it was learning that all American presidents travel with a supply of their blood type in the event of an assassination attempt. I mean OF COURSE they would, but that had never occurred to me. I also appreciated Michelle opening up about her fertility struggles, the difficult decision to put her career on hold to support Barack’s dreams, and the challenge of living in the spotlight with two young children that you hope to keep down to earth. Overall, I think Michelle was as candid as someone in her position can be at this point in her life.

25 and 26. Seven Surrenders, The Will to Battle / Ada Palmer

I decided to challenge myself and stick with Palmer’s challenging Terra Ignota series, also reading the second and third instalments (I think the fourth is due to be released this year). I don’t know what to say, other than the world-building continues to be incredible and this futuristic society is on the bring of something entirely new.

27. Even Vampires Get the Blues / Kate MacAlister

This novel wins for “cheesiest read of the year”. When a gorgeous half-elf detective (you read that right) meets a centuries-old sexy Scottish vampire, sparks fly! Oh yeah, and they’re looking for some ancient thing in between having sex.

28. A Case of Exploding Mangoes / Mohammed Hanif

A piece of historical fiction based on the real-life suspicious plane crash in 1988 that killed many of Pakistan’s top military brass, this novel lays out many possible culprits (including a crow that ate too many mangoes). It’s a dark comedy taking aim at the paranoia of dictators and the boredom and bureaucracy of the military (and Bin Laden makes a cameo at a party).

29. Salvage the Bones / Jesmyn Ward

This novel takes place in the steaming hot days before Hurricane Katrina hits the Mississippi coast. The air is still and stifling and Esch’s life in the small town of Bois Sauvage feels even more stifled. Esch is 14 and pregnant and hasn’t told anyone yet. Her father is a heavy drinker and her three brothers are busy with their own problems. But as the storm approaches, the family circles around each other in preparation for the storm. This is a jarring and moving read made more visceral by the fact that the author herself survived Katrina. It’s also an occasionally violent book, and there are particularly long passages about dog-fighting (a hobby of one of the brothers). The dog lovers in my book club found it hard to get through, consider this your warning!

30. Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay / Phoebe Robinson

A collection of essays in the new style aka writing multiple pages on a topic as though you were texting your best friend about it (#ImFineWithThisNewStyleByTheWay #Accessible), Robinson discusses love, friendship, being a Black woman in Hollywood, being plus-ish-size in Hollywood, and Julia Roberts teaching her how to swim (and guys, Julia IS as nice in real life as we’d all hoped she was!) Who is Robinson? Comedy fans will likely know her already, but I only knew her as one of the stars of the Netflix film Ibiza (which I enjoyed). This is a fun, easy read!

31. Midsummer: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for Litha / Deborah Blake

After reading this book, I charged my crystals under the midsummer sun!

32. Fingersmith / Sarah Waters

So many twists! So many turns! So many hidden motives and long-held secrets! Think Oliver Twist meets Parasite meets Lost! (Full disclosure, I haven’t seen Parasite yet, I’m just going off all the chatter about it). Sue is a con artist orphan in old-timey London. When the mysterious “Gentleman” arrives at her makeshift family’s flat with a proposal for the con of all cons, Sue is quickly thrust into a role as the servant for another young woman, Maud, living alone with her eccentric uncle in a country estate. As Sue settles into her act, the lines between what she’s pretending at and what she’s really feeling start to blur, and nothing is quite what it seems. This book is JUICY!

33. Rest Play Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (Or Anyone Who Acts Like One) / Deborah MacNamara, PhD

I read approximately one parenting book a year, and this was this year’s winner. As my eldest approached her third birthday, we started seeing bigger and bigger emotions and I wasn’t sure how to handle them respectfully and gently. This book gave me a general roadmap for acknowledging her feelings, sitting through them with her, and the concept of “collecting” your child to prevent tantrums from happening or to help calm them down afterward. I’ll be using this approach for the next few years!

34. Lughnasadh: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for Lammas / Melanie Marquis

And with this read, I’ve now read about the entire witch’s year. SO MOTE IT BE.

35. In Cold Blood / Truman Capote

How had I not read this until now? This true-crime account that kicked off the modern genre was rich in detail, compassionate to the victims, and dug deep into the psyche of the killers. The descriptions of the midwest countryside and the changing seasons also reminded me of Keith Morrison’s voiceovers on Dateline. Is Capote his inspiration?

36. I’m Afraid of Men / Vivek Shraya

A quick, short set of musings from trans musician and writer Shraya still packs an emotional punch. She writes about love and loss, toxic masculinity, breaking free of gender norms, and what it’s like to exist as a trans woman.

37. The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You / Elaine N. Aron, PhD

Having long thought I might be a highly sensitive person (lots of us are!), I decided to learn more about how to better cope with stressful situations when I don’t have enough alone time or when things are too loud or when I get rattled by having too much to do any of the other myriad things that shift me into panic mode. Though some of the advice is a bit too new-agey for me (talking to your inner child, etc), some of it was practical and useful.

38. Swamplandia! / Karen Russell

The family-run alligator wrestling theme park, Swamplandia, is swimming in debt and about to close. The widowed father leaves the everglades for the mainland in a last-ditch attempt to drum up some money, leaving the three children to fend for themselves. A dark coming-of-age tale that blends magic realism, a ghost story, the absurd and a dangerous boat trip to the centre of the swamplands, this novel examines a fractured family mourning its matriarch in different ways.

39. A Mind Spread Out on the Ground / Alicia Elliott

This is a beautiful collection of personal essays brimming with vulnerability, passion, and fury. Elliott, the daughter of a Haudenosaunee father and a white mother, shares her experiences growing up poor in a family struggling with mental illness, addiction and racism. Topics touch on food scarcity, a never-ending battle with lice, parenthood and the importance of hearing from traditionally marginalized voices in literature.

40. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay / Elena Ferrante

The third novel in Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet sees Elena and Lila move from their early twenties into their thirties and deal with a riot of issues - growing careers, changing political beliefs, the challenges of motherhood and romantic relationships, and existing as strong-willed, intelligent women in 1960s and 70s Italy. I’ll definitely finish the series soon.

41. Half-Blood Blues / Esi Edugyan

A small group of American and German jazz musicians working on a record find themselves holed up in Paris as the Germans begin their occupation in WW2. Hiero, the youngest and most talented member of the group, goes out one morning for milk and is arrested by the Germans, never to be heard from again. Fifty years later, the surviving members of the band go to Berlin for the opening night of a documentary about the jazz scene from that era, and soon find themselves on a road trip through the European countryside to find out what really became of Hiero all those years ago. Edugyan’s novel is a piercing examination of jealousy, ambition, friendship, race and guilt. And features a cameo by Louis Armstrong!

42. A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love and Overcoming / Kerri Rawson

So Brad and I had just finished watching season 2 of Mindhunter, and as I browse through a neighbourhood little library, I spot this book and the serial killer in question is the BTK Killer! Naturally, I had to read it. What I didn’t realize is that this is actually a Christian book, so Rawson does write a lot about struggling with her belief in God and finding her way back to Him, etc. But there are also chapters more fitting with the true crime and memoir genres that I equally enjoyed and was creeped out by.

43. The Night Ocean / Paul La Farge

This is another book that made me feel somewhat stupid as a reader. I just know there are details or tidbits that completely went over my head that would likely enrich a better reader’s experience. In broad strokes, the novel is about a failed marriage between a psychiatrist and a writer who became dangerously obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft and the rumours that swirled around him and his social circle. The writer’s obsession takes him away from his marriage and everything else, and eventually it looks like he ends his own life. The psychiatrist is doubtful (no body was found) and she starts to follow him down the same rabbit hole. At times tense, at times funny, at times sad, I enjoyed the supposed world of Lovecraft and his fans and peers, but again, I’m sure there are deeper musings here that I couldn’t reach.

44. Glass Houses / Louise Penny

The 13th novel in Penny’s Inspector Gamache mystery series sees our hero taking big risks to fight the opioid crisis in Quebec. He and his team focus on catching the big crime boss smuggling drugs across the border from Vermont, endangering his beloved town of Three Pines in the process.

45. The Bone Houses / Emily Lloyd-Jones

My Halloween read for the year, this dark fairytale of a YA novel was perfect for the season. Since her parents died, Ryn has taken over the family business - grave digging - to support herself and her siblings. As the gravedigger, she knows better than most that due to an old curse, the dead in the forest surrounding her village don’t always stay dead. But as more of the forest dead start appearing (and acting more violently than usual), Ryn and an unexpected companion (yes, a charming young man cause there’s got to be a romance!) travel to the heart of the forest to put a stop to the curse once and for all.

46. The Witches Are Coming / Lindy West

Another blazing hot set of essays from my favourite funny feminist take on Trump, abortion rights, #MeToo, and more importantly Adam Sandler and Dateline. As always, Lindy, please be my best friend?

47. Know My Name / Chanel Miller

This memoir is HEAVY but so, so needed. Recently, Chanel Miller decided to come forward publicly and share that she was the victim of Brock Turner’s sexual assault. She got the courage to do so after she posted her blistering and beautiful victim impact statement on social media and it went viral. Miller’s memoir is a must-read, highlighting the incredible and awful lengths victims have to go to to see any modicum of justice brought against their attackers. Miller dealt with professional ineptitude from police and legal professionals, victim-blaming, victim-shaming, depression and anxiety, the inability to hold down a job, and still managed to come out the other side of this trial intact. And in the midst of all the horror, she writes beautifully about her support system - her family, boyfriend and friends - and about the millions of strangers around the world who saw themselves in her experience.

48. Christmas Ghost Stories: A Collection of Winter Tales / Mark Onspaugh

Ghosts AND Christmas? Yes please! This quirky collection features a wide array of festively spooky tales. You want the ghost of Anne Boleyn trapped in a Christmas ornament? You got it! What about the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future drinking together in a bar? Yup, that’s here too!

So, what were my top picks of the year, the books that stuck with me the most? In no particular order:

Educated

Homegoing

The Wanderers

Know My Name

Scarborough

2 notes · View notes

forestwater87 · 6 years ago

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Odd question. If you were doing a wing fic (shorthand: everyone has some kind of wings on their back; up to you if they're always out or if they can be banished and summoned at will) for Camp Camp, what kind of wings would the cast have?

Oooh I love wing fics! Hmmm, let’s see . . .

David’s would be a little small for his age/size, and he’d probably be kind of embarrassed about that. He can still fly just fine with them -- which he’d say, defensively, if anyone pointed them out -- and they’re very fluffy, white, with little speckles of green flecked throughout.

Now I know most wing fics stick with feathered wings, but it did occur to me that some sort of insectlike wings -- all delicate-looking and iridescent like the surface of a bubble -- would also suit him very well. They’d be a bit more natural and forest-y, but would still have that element of embarrassment and shyness (he was probably called “fairy” a lot growing up, and it’d be a sore spot for him).

That being said, the idea of David having massive wings was suggested by @ciphernetics, and I must admit that the idea of him either wrapping them around people to protect or comfort them is super cute. Also in a protective moment he could like fwoosh, out they come to shield the campers and it’d be badass. It’s not my preferred hc for him, but there are some lovely ways to play with it.

Gwen’s would be . . . serviceable. Dull, easily overlooked, probably some shade of gray or that kind of dun mousy brown that looks greyish in the right light, bigger than David’s but neither unusually large or small, not especially fluffy but not kind of molted the way some sick people’s are . . . they’re just sort of there. (She was probably nicknamed Pigeon by a lot of people, both as an affectionate term and a derogatory one. And like pigeons’ wings, there are little patches of color among her wings that are hard to see unless you’re looking for them it’s a metaphor get it? aren’t I clever ohoho)

Campbell’s are humongous. The biggest wings ever. He is a mountain of a man, with massive pure-white wings. Some people are convinced he genetically modified them somehow, and they do have this uncanny radioactive glow in the dark but don’t worry about that, it’s perfectly natural and not at all suspicious!

The fun thing about this is that they can get increasingly bedraggled as Season 3 progresses, until they’re drooping and muddy.

Quartermaster has bat wings. I don’t give a fuck if literally every other character has angel wings, QM’s are bats and that’s just the way it has to be.

I like the idea of the campers having small wings that can fit under their clothes, because they haven’t really grown in yet. I imagine maybe Nurf might be an exception, since he seems to be either older or just bigger than the other campers, but for the most part those kiddos look just like their normal selves. That being said, a few ideas of what they might look like grown up:

Max -- black, maybe a little big for his age, like a crow or raven’s wings. When he gets annoyed they puff up and slip out of his hoodie, and it’s a pain to put them back in which annoys him even more and gets them more puffy and hard to stuff back . . . it’s a constant struggle. Pity the poor kid.

Neil -- I’m torn between going with his hair color and giving him some hawklike brown-and-white wings, which I think would look nice with his coloring, and just going hog-wild and giving him wings like a bluebird because of his eyes. I think the latter would be too showy and embarrass him, but there’s something kinda cute about that too. His wings would be like his dad: impossible to ignore and much louder and more obnoxious (in his POV) than they need to be.

Nikki -- big and flecked with golden-orange. Of all the characters I think hers would have the most modifications, because as a kid/young adult she wasn’t careful with them and got them all torn up -- maybe to the point where she can’t even fly with them. But she has Neil and he’s a smart cookie, so I like to think of her wings having a vaguely-steampunk element of mechanisms and patches keeping them together.

Harrison -- white or a very light gray, like a dove’s. He paints the tips gold when he’s older as part of his illusionist costume.

Nerris -- I’m just thinking pure eastern bluebird, orange at the base and then exploding into brilliant blue. I think she’d love how flashy they are.

Ered -- Somehow I want her to have dragon wings. I have no idea why, or how, but I think it’d be extremely cool, and Ered is nothing if not cool. Especially if they’re really rare, almost unheard of, and she’s put a lot of work into transforming herself from the tomboyish freak with the demon wings and gay dads into something to be envious of. Besides, it’s easier to do sick stunts without having to worry about your feathers getting caught on stuff.

Nurf -- All right, I wanna get emo for a moment and say that his wings have been hacked either partly or entirely off by the time he’s an adult. We know he’s been abused in canon, and I think that people like that would go for the easiest target to hurt you, and that target is probably the delicate feathered things sticking out of your back. Bonus points if they’re somehow kind of girly, which coincides with his more sensitive nature and how he initially wanted to do ballet as a kid (especially since I don’t think that was well-received by his family). So, like . . . what remains are very fluffy and sweet-looking, maybe pink or pale yellow and orange or something, but they’re either little stubs he covers up all the time or they’ve got big chunks missing out of them but who’s gonna point that out to the huge guy with a pissed-off expression?

Preston -- Rainbow, like the most extravagant bird of paradise. Does he paint them himself, or are they as natural as he claims?

Dolph -- Probably something very average and serviceable, in the brown/gray/white family, but they’re always speckled with paint because he’s not very careful with them and especially the long feathers at the bottom trail along the ground while he’s painting, or get stuck to his art if he turns around too suddenly.

Space Kid -- I’m thinking of a duck, for some reason. Partly because they’re aquatic and I just connect the ocean and space for some reason, partly because they’re very ordinary and that’s kind of how SK rolls, and partly because ducks can just flap for insane distances without getting tired (thank you Animorphs!). Space Kid is like that, I think -- very diligent, keeps his head down and gets things done, not very bright but he works so hard it makes up for a lot, and that’s why he’s going to be an astronaut someday. Mallards have those pretty green feathers, too, and I think those would look nice with Space Kid’s eyes.

Jasper -- Peacock. Obviously. He is the most garishly-dressed person in the show and his wings would match. Not that you’ll ever know, because he never gets to grow up and have real wings :(

So those are the mains! As for some of the less-important characters, I don’t really have too many interesting ideas, but a few throwaway ones:

The Flower Scouts all have pink wings, either feathers or bug/fairy ones. I think maybe Tabii has a chunk missing from one of hers, from a fight or something, and the other girls made a patch so no one can tell and she can fly properly. Erin’s might be just slightly different colors -- one with an orangey tint, one with a blue.

A fun thing about bug wings is they could buzz when the girls are angry. So Sasha’s are basically always going, poor thing.

The Woodscouts probably have their wings bound, clipped, and constantly ready for combat flying. I’m thinking, like, the military-haircut version of wings.

Daniel’s . . . I mean, I don’t care about Daniel because he’s trash, but I do love the idea that they’re not naturally white and he dyes them. It’s my favorite Daniel hc and I need it to appear in every AU.

So that about covers it!

EXCEPT

Then I was talking with Ciphernetics about wing AUs, and I mentioned that in some wing fics (namely the awesome one by setepenre-set, though there are probably others) the wings’ size are based on how loved someone is. Which led to the below cuteness. Warning: shameless Gwenvid and Makkiel ahead, along with me insisting that Cameron Campbell isn’t the worst person in the entire world because I’m love him

Ciphernetics: Max’s wings growing during camp!Max voice: who the FUCK is loving me I specifically requested the opposite of thisDavid: You can even fit them in your hoodie anymore awwwwMax, struggling to pull it on over his wings: the hell I can't

Forestwater:(what if they come in the color of the person who loves you's hair)(so at first it's just this line of red that he knows is fucking David, goddamnit and then all of a sudden start sprouting these mint green and brown ones and my ship takes off)

Ciphernetics: Max, disgusted, throwing an auburn feather at David: get LOSTMax, looking over his shoulder in the mirror at the brown ones gathering at the tips and the mint ones scattered chaotically throughout: huh

Forestwater:Oh no what about when Nikki and Neil's start getting flecked with black, small and easily tugged out like they're ashamed of being there

Ciphernetics: The small really curly little feathery down that like to hide under other feathers(Gwen's had auburn in her wings since almost the first summer but lately it's started to overpower the rest of the colours. Not completely, it's just... Noticeable how much of it is the same colour now.)(She knew David loved people quickly and easily, it's just suddenly a lot more)(or she just wasn't paying attention)

Forestwater:What on earth would David's reaction be to suddenly finding some of Gwen's?I like the idea of her feathers being two-toned

Ciphernetics: I'd love if he's had a very small, slowly growing patch since they met (just a handful more each summer) but some event happens and suddenly there's a lotOh absolutely two tonedHey how about some angst;David's been waiting his whole life for Campbell's hair colourToday at 9:32 AMHe'd never say it but Campbell makes so many throwaway jokes about David being the son he never wanted but it rings a little hollow when there's not when one little brown/grey feather

Forestwater:until the end of season 3 when there's like . . . twoLISTEN I NEED MY TRASH GRANDPA

So that’s just a little bit of extra silliness for added angst/romance/fluff.

Hope this answer isn’t too long, but I was having fun.

#campcamp #camp camp roosterteeth #cc david #cc gwen #cc campbell #cc max #cc nikki #cc neil #cc ered #cc nurf #i'm not doing all the campers i don't have the strength #those are the ones with the most 'backstory' anyway #gwenvid #makkiel #wings au #ask forest #libraryadia

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projectalbum · 7 years ago

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Radio songs. 189. “Green,” 190. “Out of Time,” 191. “Automatic for the People,” 192. “Monster,” 193. “New Adventures in Hi-Fi" by R.E.M.

For R.E.M., signing to Warner Bros Records meant reaching more people, in the U.S. and abroad. It meant a bigger promotional push behind their albums.

It meant an exponential increase in their touring schedule, to the point where all four were pretty burned out by the idea after being on the road for most of ’88-’89. But for me, it was a move that meant my favorite music in existence was allowed to sprout from the fertile loam of commercialism.

If you’ll remember from my previous post, it was a compilation of songs from the WB era that first made me a fan. And it was the first few albums under that banner that made R.E.M. superstars, i.e. a band established enough that I would be aware of them growing up. It’s hard for me to grasp the amount of R.E.M. saturation that existed from roughly ’88 - ’94. By the time I was humming “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” and “Orange Crush” in high school, it was 2005 and the band’s incandescence had faded to the soft, respectable glow of “Dad Rock.” They were hipper than the Billy Joel & Electric Light Orchestra discs that they had replaced in my repertoire, but as far as my peers were concerned, barely.

The first Christmas after I had announced myself as a fan brought, in shiny happy gift wrapping, Green (#189) and Out Of Time (#190). A veritable Mandolin-apalooza: in the campfire folk trance of “You Are The Everything,” mournful character study “The Wrong Child,” and midnight hippie spiritual “Hairshirt” that are scattered through the mix of Green, and powering the über-hit that secured their legacy, “Losing My Religion,” on Out Of Time. My relationship to those tracks has dipped and risen through the years— I was much less open to strange acoustic explorations back then (or in the case of “LMR,” its overfamiliarity), so I tended to skip them. I grooved on the electric menace of “Turn You Inside-Out” and the poptimism of “Untitled.”

“World Leader Pretend,” in which all the band’s instruments, including Stipe’s voice, seemed tuned to a lower register than ever before (now THAT’S some counter-programming to the bubblegum of “Stand”), has become a God-level composition in my mind. It’s gained some resurgence recently, seen as a pointed critique of the venal and power-hungry who are obsessed with controlling geopolitical barriers. "I raised the wall / And I will be the one to knock it down,” the protagonist intones, and yeah, “the Wall” has a connotation for current events in 2018, as it did 30 years ago (roughly a year after the album’s release, Berlin’s concrete schism was demolished). But I hear the divided self in “World Leader Pretend”: the man erecting the walls of his own isolation chamber, shoring up his fragile ego against outer pain, denying the possibility for connection. "I decree a stalemate, I divine my deeper motives / I recognize the weapons / I've practiced them well, I fitted them myself.” In other words, I hear myself.

Fortunately, he concludes that it’s within his power to level these barriers he's constructed, and I feel I can learn the same lesson. There’s a triumphant slide guitar in the bridge, an iconically Country-Western flavor that the band returns to on one of the most indelible tracks on Out of Time— the descriptively-titled “Country Feedback.” Heartache on an epic scale, deliberate, hypnotic tempo but bubbling like a volcano, the words a stream-of-consciousness chant over Peter Buck’s searching electric guitar and Mike Mills funereal organ. “It’s crazy what you could have had,” Stipe laments, his voice rising, and then, “I need this. I need this.” Is it the confession that he needs, or the connection slipping away from his grasping fingers? He’s called it his favorite song in the band’s canon; they’ve performed it with Neil Young providing the wailing guitar counterpart, like a Dead Man end credits song that never happened, and there’s a clever mashup on the Unplugged set that bowled me over (I’ll mention it when I get there).

The acoustic arrangements and sonic experimentation continued on Automatic for the People (#191), with a purge of the bubblegum (“The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite” is a notable exception, but for a goof, it’s gorgeous.) Much has been made of the album’s apparent preoccupation with mortality and loss. For sure, there's the straight-forward teen suicide deterrent “Everybody Hurts,” predating It Gets Better by a couple decades; “Sweetness Follows,” about the steady, plodding journey through mourning, and the peaceful plateau you can reach; “Monty Got A Raw Deal,” a steely Western ballad inspired in part by the tortured, bisexual film actor Montgomery Clift. But it’s a hopeful album, not a dour slog.

To me, the common thread is The Past: that personal history that’s less about the agreed-upon facts and more about the feelings tied to events, coloring your reminiscence. “Drive,” the darkly insinuating opening track, takes inspiration for its rhythmic Beat poetry vocal from David Essex's “Rock On,” a song that Stipe might have heard as a teenager, one that itself looks back a further 20 years to the birth of rock n’roll. Add the string arrangement by rock royalty, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, and it’s nostalgia brined in nostalgia.

We’re looking at the reflection of the old photograph as caught by the passing streetlights: several layers of removal from the events. But in looking back, our feelings strike us clearer than whatever life we’ve built for ourselves in the interim; we’re still dwelling on whatever innocence we think we’ve lost. "I have seen things that you will never see / Leave it to memory me,” are the parting words of a person at the end of their life in “Try Not To Breathe” (often in the running for my favorite R.E.M. recording). "I will try not to burden you,” they promise, holding in secrets of a time gone by in hopes that the listener will forge a new path.

“Find The River,” which draws the book to a close with accordion and harmonizing voices, is another in a line of R.E.M. songs drawing on the river as a symbol of lost harmony. In youthful exuberance, there was “Nightswimming,” but "The ocean is the river's goal / A need to leave the water knows,” and time moves inexorably forward. The past feeds into the unfathomable depths of the future. Automatic for the People draws its title from the slogan at a soul food joint in the band’s hometown. It’s that sense of their own history, 8 records in and on top of the world, that merges with their innate creative restlessness, compelling them to shoot off in a new direction. “I have got to leave to find my way."

This fuels their mission statement with each album since the WB era began: “Let’s write songs that don’t sound like ‘R.E.M. songs.’” If Automatic is self-reflective, Monster (#192) is about adopted personas. The sound of a middle-aged Art Rock band pretending to be a 20-something Glam Rock band, adding more neon and guitar distortion and posturing than you can shake a Mott The Hoople at. “What can I make myself be? (Faker!)”

The video for “Crush With Eyeliner” furthers that sense of playful irony: the band members pushed off to the corner of the bar as a new generation, from a different cultural background, expresses the song for them. The entire radioactive orange LP kind of encapsulates every messy teenage feeling I've had since high school. I'm still a "faker," pretending to sing this song. And looking good doing it. (Though, full disclosure, the first time I did karaoke I went with “Bang and Blame.” I don’t mind telling you I nailed it.)

Monster is marked by the most prevalent sexual overtones in R.E.M. canon, as if they were embracing that self-aware Rock Star trope. It’s hard to get more on the nose than the title “Star 69,” but “I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” wins the prize with “Are you coming to ease my headache? / Do you give good head? / Am I good in bed?” As the public debated Michael Stipe’s sexuality, he parried the question in the press and played with his image in the lyrics. The topic of his “Crush” is gendered “she,” giving hetereos like myself plenty to appropriate for our own impossible Cool Girl daydreams— never mind that it’s an ode to his friend Courtney Love. “King of Comedy” addresses a legion of Rupert Pupkins getting their big shot by whatever means necessary, but it also contains the lyric "I'm straight, I'm queer, I'm bi,” a few years before he revealed publicly where the needle pointed on that dial for him. “Tongue” is a lilting, falsetto performance: piano-driven cabaret written for a female protagonist lamenting her inconsiderate lovers. More masks for a closely-scrutinized celebrity to find freedom behind.

New Adventures in Hi-Fi (#193) felt as appropriate a title as any for my first year at a university— trading my hometown for a cinderblock dorm-room, starting down my career path with all the film courses they’d allow me to sign up for. The road-grit guitars, open road expansive sound, Stipe’s tour-shredded front man vocals: the album is alternately weary and electrified. Choruses and riffs fit to fill a stadium (as many basic tracks were recorded at live soundcheck) beside intimate 3AM tour bus confessionals. I scored this huge chapter of my young life with the strutting, T. Rex glam of “The Wake-Up Bomb,” arena-ready choruses of “Bittersweet Me” and “So Fast, So Numb,” felt inspired by the dreamlike inscrutability of “How The West Was Won and Where It Got Us” and darkly-reflective poetry of “E-Bow The Letter.”

I’m not overly surprised to hear that this LP didn’t hit with the same impact as the previous ones— it’s always felt like an acquired taste that I couldn’t impart to anyone else. “You haven’t heard 'Leave?’ Ah man, it’s over 7 minutes long, and there’s a constant siren loop in the background! But trust me, when you hear the acoustic riff from the opening interlude reprised by double-tracked electric guitar, the goose pimples will be visible from space.”

Where Monster boasted the straight-arrow torch song “Strange Currencies,” the hushed, surrealistic “Be Mine” seemed as if it emanated from my own bruised heart. "I'll be the sky above the Ganges / I'll be the vast and stormy sea / I'll be the lights that guide you inward / I'll be the visions you will see”— it’s a cross-spiritual devotional that funnels the tenets of world religions into a promise for total intimacy. I would pay top dollar for the raw footage of Thom Yorke’s guest interpretation.

Despite the public’s anemic response, the band’s estimation of Hi-Fi’s strengths is justifiably high. It’s an accomplished, energetic record that shows every member playing at his peak. It’s now frozen in history as the last document of the band as a foursome. In the next entry, I’ll delve into the CDs released after drummer Bill Berry retired and R.E.M. dramatically changed gears, rocketing into the 21st century.

#R.E.M.#michael stipe #peter buck #mike mills #bill berry #monster #new adventures in hi-fi #automatic for the people #green #out of time #losing my religion #what's the frequency #cdcollection #cd #cdcollector #album art #music blog #Rock Music #patti smith

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tamilhobbit · 7 years ago

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Story Starters Meme

Tagged by @glorfindel-of-imladris

Rules: List the first lines of your last 15 stories. See if there are any patterns. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors!

Wow, 15 is a lot. Okay, I’m sticking to works that I’ve actually posted online, mostly because the unposted stuff was in a hard drive that is now broken and I’m still trying to salvage it. :( Also, there are various fandoms and pairings here, including some… odd ones. Don’t judge. Most of these were written in 2010-2012, when I was very into a particular rather niche fandom. This is actually kind of embarrassing.

1. Welcome to Imladris (Tolkien/LotR)

Eregion has fallen, and the refugees have fled to what was meant to be a military outpost and small settlement on the edge of Eriador. Imladris is as yet a collection of crude huts and tents and cookfires around the foundations of the central House and smaller dwellings, with livestock milling around and newly sown fields, but Erestor – lately of Lindon, now of Imladris – thinks it will become a fine Elven city, given time.

2. Chess Piece (Chronicles of Narnia)

Susan has just reached the well, leaning over to grasp the handle, when a small glint by her foot catches her eye. Frowning, she kneels and brushes aside the dirt and grass to pick the object up. It is an ornate, stylised golden horse with rubies for eyes – no, one ruby, the other seems to have fallen out. A chess-knight, she realises, rubbing dirt out of its indentations with her thumb.

3. Slytherin Vaguely Downwards (Good Omens/Harry Potter crossover AU)

Dear Professor Crowley,

I regret to inform you that your application for the post of Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts has been rejected. This is partly due to your stellar work as Potions Master in the last year and the lack of anyone to take over that post, and partly due to the presence of another, more eligible candidate for the Defence Against the Dark Arts post.

4. The A-Z of Michael and Gabriel (Uh. Bible/angelology. Actually based on some AIM roleplay between me and a friend, which in turn was an offshoot of a vaguely Good Omens-based panfandom LiveJournal roleplay community we were in.)

He misses Michael dreadfully; it is a dull ache that refuses to leave, and it only becomes worse when he can sense Michael nearby and must force himself to stay away.

5. A New Year (Same fandom. Ish. That roleplay comm issued writing challenges every now and then; this was A New Year, and I decided to go with ‘Biblical apocalyptic dystopia’.)

The end happens in winter. It is strangely fitting; after all, winter is death, but this time there are no hidden seeds of new life that will bloom in time.

6. Under the Rain (Same Bible/angel role-play. <_< )

Gabriel has read through the Hall of Being's initial reports on Weather. Therefore he knows that usually, if it is raining heavily, the sun cannot be seen.

7. Freedom to be Owned (Same, ish, though this features another of my RP characters with a different friend.)

Belial is still a little unsure about exactly what he has done – kissing, touching, caressing, he knows that, but this new slide of skin against skin is so much more – but whatever it is called, he wants more of it and often.

8. Belial’s Fall (Same, although it relies heavily on Neil Gaiman’s Murder Mysteries. Backstory of this particular character from #7.)

It would have been inaccurate to say that Belial had never meant to Fall; he had. He just hadn’t known what it was like, at the time; what it would feel like, what it entailed. What he would Fall from.

9. Challenge (Bible & apocrypha, influenced by Gaiman’s work and the Lucifer comics. Another LiveJournal writing challenge.)

The Earth is still new-made; with wisps of white clouds surrounding vibrant blues and greens and browns, it is the most beautiful of all the planets. On this, there is no dissent.

10. Bedtime Stories (Good Omens/Murder Mysteries/general Bible/apocrypha/angelology, written for my friend from the role-play-comm)

Night didn't exist yet, not as it would come to be known, but the soft glow of Heaven was muted, a dim amethyst light painting the silver spires of the City. In his room, the Archangel Michael was preparing to rest after a long day. He pulled on a comfortable tunic, twisting around sharply at the sound of a soft knock.

11. Eid ul-Fitr (backstory of my main character from that role-play, so Bible/apocrypha. In retrospect I’m really not pleased with this story.)

Contrary to popular belief, the desert was not always a land of blistering heat and scorching sands. In fact, it was rather cool during the dawn and dusk, and at night.

It was not dusk yet, however, and Gabriel squinted against the sun, more for the benefit of the girl at his side than because it hurt his eyes.

“This is reckless and dangerous, Sultana,” he murmured.

“You help me escape my other minders, and then warn me? You are a conflicted man, Jibril.”

12. Untitled smutfic (I, um. Yeah. Same role-play.)

White sheets bunching up beneath Gabriel’s back, callused fingers skittering lightly over his skin, a warm chest pressed flush against his own, heated lips at the juncture of neck and jaw; every sensation is amplified, and he wants to give voice to this but all that comes out is a soft moan.

13. Public Display (Same deal. <_< )

Michael slowly moves his lips across Gabriel’s pale skin, drinking in the smell and taste, revelling in it, in the soft, choked-off sound he elicits. Fingers clench in his curly hair, tightening before releasing, moving down to his neck and dragging him up for a proper kiss.

14. Light (Same, ish, written for a different friend and based on another writing meme. Crackfic.)

Gabriel had never thought he’d say this, but Lux really was their last resort. At least temporarily.

15. Tears (Same. Roleplay character, Bible, actual history this time [conquistadores, historical massacre]. Written for a writing meme.)

It is warm and humid, the heat not helped by the huge bonfire burning in the middle of the town. A scrap of mulberry-bark paper escapes the fires, flying up towards the pale young man in priest’s robes standing nearby.

… So apparently I like writing in the present tense.I don’t really know who to tag, so if you’re a writer and you want to do this meme, have at it!

#writing #Harry Potter #Chronicles of Narnia #The Lord of the Rings #Good Omens #Bible #Angelology #RP

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broadwaybydesign · 8 years ago

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Paris is Paris Again: Costuming the 2015 “Gigi” Revival

Welcome back, everyone! I was planning to take a break from some of my usuals, but I had a request to add Gigi to the rotation, and I am always trying my best to do so. Prepare for some truly sumptuous costuming in another beautiful Catherine Zuber-dressed production. Bringing the best of Broadway back to the Great White Way was a wonderful way in which to celebrate the 2015-2016 theatrical season, and I cannot wait to get started with this review.

This was, in fact, one of two sets of Zuber designs on Broadway that season, with Ms Zuber’s Tony Award-winning costumes for The King and I debuting at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre just a few days after these costumes were first seen at the Neil Simon Theatre. As is the hallmark of Catherine Zuber costumes, these are absolutely stunning in terms of both their fabrics and their colors, and they are a great update of one of the Broadway classics.

Gigi is a musical set in one of my all-time favorite eras and locations of history, belle époque (or turn of the century) Paris, and follows a teenaged girl as she’s raised into young womanhood and ultimately--through a series of dramatic turns--ends up marrying a man she loves instead of becoming a, ahem, courtesan in the tradition of her family. For the revival, the main role was played by singer and television actress Vanessa Hudgens (in her Broadway musical debut), with her suitor played by Corey Cott; in the role of Gigi’s grandmother was Victoria Clark, who picked up a Tony nomination for her performance.

With Ms Zuber already nominated for Best Costume Design in a Musical in The King and I, I’ not surprised these designs didn’t score a Tony nod; they did, however, win the Drama Desk Award for Best Costumes, and when we look at the designs themselves, hopefully the reason will become apparent. They bring classic Parisian looks into the modern age in a beautiful way. Let’s take a look:

I’ll start here with one of Gigi’s best-known costumes. The character of Gilberte (Gigi’s proper name) is supposed to be a young, somewhat innocent figure in the early part of the musical at least, and her costumes reflect that to an extent. This costume in particular puts me in mind of a school uniform (confession: I grew up watching Madeline!) with the way it is simple, does not reveal too much of the wearer’s figure, and has a bow-like jabot at the neck. The shade is a beautiful sky blue that is consistent from head to toe, with some simple white satin ribbon about six inches above the hem. The top of the dress has a bit of creasing to give it some design elements, but they are cut from the same cloth and simply stitched.

The accessories for this outfit are rather simple. There is the aforementioned bow/jabot at Ms Hudgens’ neck, which is made of a material that is almost corduroy but is a little lighter and without the same piling. This allows it to have some body without being too heavy, and the color is beautiful against the blue of the dress and the white of the collar. It is matched well with the belt, in a similar fabric to the bow, with a somewhat oversized blue clasp. The overall effect of these accessories is to contribute to the seriousness of the costume. There is a demure nature to her that comes across well: for now, she is the picture of the waifish ingenue.

Over time, however, our main character changes quite a bit; she is being groomed, after all, to be the mistress of Paris’ upper crust, or so the story goes. Catherine Zuber’s designs for Gigi’s transformation into an object of sensual and even sexual desire. Take a look how that transformation takes place through the use, first off, of color (a color which ties in with another character--more on that later):

From sky blue to rose pink, this dress retains some of the gentility of the blue dress but because of the shift in color and the change in overall design, there is something more flirtatious about it. The color is a rich, soft pink in a sateen fabric that flows and drapes a bit more freely than the heavier blue fabric used in the first costume. She’s beginning to slowly accept her role--a future courtesan/mistress--and embracing the freedom, if not the love, that comes along with it.

We see that this dress as a subtle hat-tip to the blue dress through the striping on the cuffs of the sleeves, which bring to mind the satin ribboning around the bottom of that costume. The design elements here are a little bit more revealing while remaining in the realm of propriety for 1900 Paris. The collar this time has a slightly plunging neckline that is disguised with a single ruffle of the same fabric and color as the main body of the dress. The adornment comes in the form of a wide, red belt around Ms Hudgens’ waist.

Notice that despite the length, this costume is much more form-fitting than the first. Sensible, given the number where it appears (”The Night They Invented Champagne”) is a light and airy number as Gigi moves further down the road to being Gaston’s (Corey Cott’s) mistress. Having a tight belt to hug the figure would have been a sign of overtness for the era, and Ms Zuber has clearly done her homework with this production as with many of her others.

The character of Gigi has two more costumes that I feel are of particular note before I touch briefly on the other characters. Here, we see the dress used for the cover of the Playbill and many of the promotional stills:

I don’t rightly know the term for this style of dress, but I know it’s a hallmark of early couture. There is the traditional bell shape to add volume, but a panel is removed from the front to reveal not only the white lining of the underskirt, but an entirely separate black layer that clings to the wearer’s legs much more closely. It gives an overall elegant effect that I think is interesting, because I see it so rarely, even in productions that borrow from couture in their costuming.

Because the dress’ cut is so visually interesting, it’s unsurprising that there is very little in the way of adornment or detail work elsewhere. The silk and satin of the dress are allowed to speak for themselves, though there is a belt at Ms Hudgens’ waist; it is in the same color black (and as I’ve said before, black is not just one color!) and again has a bit of an oversized clasp. The only other accessories are Gigi’s opera gloves (a must in the era) and a beautiful geometric emerald necklace. Using square-cut gems here is the right choice, in my opinion, because it balances nicely with the cut of the fabric below without being too distracting.

The black dress is balanced by one of the most beautiful of Ms Zuber’s designs for this production, a white number that makes an appearance in the climax of the musical, as Gigi finds love with Gaston at long last, rather than simple physical desire. And in that sense, I love that Ms Zuber reverts to a color that screams purity, but in a fashion that reveals Gigi’s complete awakening as a woman rather than a girl (as at the start of the musical). Prepare for something visually stunning:

This is a sleek, classic, beautiful Parisian number in white satin with black accents, and a massive feather boa/stole that adds some whimsy and couture elements to the overall effect. The gown flows all the way to the floor, but this time leaves swaths of Ms Hudgens’ chest exposed, with her bust covered by black lace that is almost assuredly intended to be reminiscent of that other Parisian innovation, lingerie.

The boa serves a triple purpose. First, it adds volume to the dress itself, which would otherwise be a lengthened version of an A-line. But second, it allows the actress (and thus character) to have more control over how the costume looks to the audience. Some of this will be decided through stage direction and directorial notes, but there is still a little discretion for how the actress moves when on stage. Third, it helps the dress to catch more of the light, allowing more interplay of light and shadow on the blank canvas of the white satin.

For an idea of how the boa adds volume, consider this shot of the last pre-finale scene, where Gigi and Gaston are dancing the night away:

What was previously a relatively simple dress has been made more visually stunning and given greater stage presence through the drapery of the boa. Hanging off Ms Hudgens’ shoulder, it offers a textural contrast to the smoothness of the satin in the dress itself, and also adds to the amount of space she occupies despite a slender figure.

This lighting is also one of the reasons I find a snow-white dress and boa to be so compelling despite their simplicity. The blankness allows the stage lighting to do some remarkable things; the blue light turns into shades of blue, green, aqua, and teal as it hits various parts of the dress, giving an otherworldly and ethereal feel to an otherwise simple design. Yet again, we have an example of a costume where the designer had to work incredibly closely with other members of the creative team to make sure that everyone’s vision for the production came together.

Gigi herself, of course, is not the only character who is costumed beautifully in this production. Earlier, I noted that Gigi’s red dress seemed a nod to another character, her grandmother Mamita (played by Victoria Clark in this production). Take a look at the coloring of Mamita’s costume and notice how the red makes one think of Gigi’s pink-red dress from earlier:

The style is, naturally, much different and a little more old-fashioned, but still steeped in belle époque styling. The stripes combine a rose pink with a deeper red, and yet a third shade is used for the cummerbund element at Ms Clark’s waist. The bust is covered with a ruffle and a bit of pink and red lacework, while the dress is completed with two tail-like elements that hang down in a kind of salmon-pink silk.

I talk on occasion about millinery, which is to say hat making, and this is a place where I do want to mention the hat. The straw base in a red to complement the dress is absolutely covered in roses, giving the effect that Mamita has an almost literal bouquet of flowers on her head. Little surprise, given that of the older characters, she is by far the most fun and flirty of them, indulging her granddaughter and reminiscing about her own glory days as a courtesan. Her costume gives off that fun feeling, and I think it really works well as a design.

But now consider it in contrast to the other female character, Gigi’s great Aunt Alicia, played in this production by Dee Hoty:

While still styled like an aging courtesan, Alicia’s dress (left) is more sophisticated than that of her sister Mamita. It’s a cream shade decorated heavily with ruffles, and she has more in the way of jewelry (note the lengthy necklace hanging down). The cummerbund is a softer, more lush pink silk, and the dress itself is lightly patterned with an almost cloud-like design.

The contrast in these two costumes is pretty neat, because the personalities of each character are brought to the fore. Mamita is the showy one, while Alicia is the more practical one; her art of seduction must have been far more subtle, which is an interesting thing to consider in the altogether risqué theme of the musical (though, I would note, the musical never strays from being classy into the vulgar).

Ms Hoty actually gets to wear my favorite costume in this production, from the finale itself. Take a look at this visually impressive Catherine Zuber design in violet and purple, with Ms Hoty looking like a million dollars:

There is just something so Parisian about this design. Close-fitting, with beadwork cuffs and embroidery on the bust, some floral design elements in the upturned hem of the dress, and with lacework to cover the chest, this is one of the costumes that just feels so utterly belle époque. The purple is an absolutely darling shade regardless of the lighting, and the hat is dramatic and adds a little bit of flair to the Aunt Alicia character. You can get a little bit more of an idea what the hat looks like here, during the final bows from opening night of the production:

That is a hat designed to impress and leave the audience wowed, even with the other characters on stage. It adds height and volume, and the feathers are straight out of the designers’ handbook for how to wow a viewer. There are bows on the top portion of the hat, and what originally looked like just a circular brim is revealed to have a slight bend, which causes the whole piece to arc a little. It’s definitely a form over function piece--this would do very little to keep the sun out of Alicia’s eyes--but it’s a beautiful entry into Ms Zuber’s body of work.

To wrap up this review, I want to include the lineup from the final bows, because Alicia’s costume once again stands out:

Every single one of these costumes is beautiful in its own way, but the lavender of the dress Ms Hoty wears just pops in a way I have rarely seen even in other Catherine Zuber productions. Simply seeing it is enough to bring a smile to my face--and that’s one of the things costuming is all about in a production that is fun and lighthearted like Gigi.

Overall, I am once again awed by Catherine Zuber’s designs and work on this production, and it makes me feel privileged to have had the chance to review and analyze them. Each costume helps to tell the story not only of the musical, but of the characters themselves, even those (like Mamita or Aunt Alicia) who may not have much stage time because they are in a supporting role. No expense was spared, no detail left unchecked, and no character given short shrift. It’s really a masterful production, and I highly recommend it!

That wraps up my review of Gigi and another week of (despite the technical glitch early on) reviews. I’ll be taking a look at my queue this weekend and deciding what to bring up next; if you have requests or suggestions, please drop me an Ask or send me a Message!

Until then, dear readers, stay tuned!

#gigi #catherine zuber #broadway #musicals #theatre #vanessa hudgens #corey cott #dee hoty #victoria clark

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kiwigreenflame · 5 years ago

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Urban fantasy is one of my favourite fictional genres, juxtaposing the fantastic with the mundane (Urban Fantasy with a real character; Urban fantasy on my mind). The world the stories create is one we can imagine ourselves living within, with mystery and magic just around the corner if only the veil hiding it could be ripped away (apocalyptically?).

This kind of writing takes details in our world that we might normally ignore and enchants them, whether that might be a building or place (e.g. the Shard in The Glass God or Knightsbridge in Neverwhere), a local river or creek (e.g. The Rivers of London), a statue or monument (e.g. the City of London’s dragons in The Midnight Mayor), or using everyday items in magical contexts (e.g. Matthew Swift’s use of Oyster cards as part of an incantation).

Mostly the urban fiction I read is UK-based. I enjoy US-based series like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series (both books and TV), Tom Sniegoski’s Remy Chandler books, and J. Michael Straczynski’s Midnight Nation comic series. One thing I find with those, and this is a broad generalisation, is that the British stories seem to pay more attention to the people on the margins of society and make them more visible and valuable in the world. (Some characters and stories like the Mancurian antihero, John Constantine, in DC/Vertigo comics Hellblazer and other titles, also span the US/UK divide, though remain truer to the British elements of the character).

For example:

Old Bailey in Neverwhere. He’s a keeper of pigeons on the rooftops of London and wears clothing made of feathers; (A similar character, The Bowery King, exists in the John Wick films, but I don’t know if there’s a connection);

The Beggar King and the beggar community, King Rat, the Old Bag Lady, The Tribe (outcasts who gain their magic from tattoos, piercings and biohacking), The Whites (street artists and magicians whose power is in grafitti) in Kate Griffin’s Midnight Mayor and Magicals Anonymous series;

Razor Eddie, the Punk God of the Straight Razor, in Simon R. Green’s Nightside series who is the sometimes friend, sometime enemy of the protagonist, John Taylor. He kills with his famous pearl-handled razor that can even cut through dimensions, he smells really badly, wears a long grey trench coat that is in sore need of washing, and lives on the leavings of society;

Chas, taxi driver and best friend of John Constantine;

In these stories, these characters on the margins of society are treated, on the whole, with dignity and respect. I’ve recently been rereading Kate Griffin’s Midnight Mayor series and two things immediately sprang to mind when I was thinking about this. The first is in The Midnight Mayor, when the protagonist, Matthew Swift, chooses to help Loren find her lost son, starting him on a path that will, in turn, connect him to another significant character, Penny, and help save London from the Death of Cities. The act of compassion has lasting and unforseen consequences:

Loren pointed at a pair of red and black trainers, all sponge and wheeze. I tried them on for size. Too big. I put on some more socks, tried them again, shifted round until my weight was right.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Go for a wander.”

“Can you find him?”

“Dunno. I’ll do my best.”

“If you find him … don’t say anything, will you? It’ll only make it worse if you say something.”

She gave me a photo. It’s in my bag. The kid is ugly. He has a big head made bigger by having shaven off his hair. His jaw alone could demolish an old wall; his mouth is too small for the length of chin that surrounds it.

I left my shoes with Loren, a promise that I’d come back, and walked out of the door with the kid’s shoes on my feet.

It is surprisingly hard to scry by footware. It requires a submergence of will, an utter belief that your feet know where they’re going. Sometimes magicians learn how to do this by literally blinding themselves, tying rags over their eyes so that they have to trust entirely in the direction their body takes them, and never question, never doubt, that this is where they have to be. The problem about that is that a pair of shoes, while it may remember where it wants to go, is less likely than a brain to stop at a red light.

You need just enough awareness to stay alive, to stay smart, but not so much that you ever take control. Never question, never doubt. Just take a deep breath, and start walking.

The second comes in the fourth book, The Minority Council, when Swift seeks help from The Beggar King, who confers on Swift the vestments of the king’s office:

Then the Beggar King rose, and unfolded my new clothes.

“Kneel,” he said, and I knelt.

He held aloft a pair of shredding jeans, stained down one leg, with the pockets hanging out.

“I give to you,” he proclaimed, “the foul-smelling trousers of my clan. All who see you shall look away, and you shall bring shame, disgust and pity wherever you walk.”

He handed me the trousers ceremonially, which I hugged to my chest.

Then, “I give you the oversized second-hand shirt of the great fat man who went on a diet and no longer fitted his old clothes. He walks now in pride in tailored suits, does not give the beggars change but will perhaps one day donate a pair of torn-up shoes. Wear it with gratitude and bow your head when strangers walk away.”

I took the shirt. It smelt of chemical disinfectant, and something else, faint and sickly.

A large coat was flourished ceremonially.

“I give you a coat of infinite pockets and vile smell. The last man who owned this coat died in a church porch from exposure on a bitter night. But the vicar buried him in the yard beneath a stone cross, and the vicar’s wife laid flowers, and, though she did not know why, one of the paramedics came who had found the body and pronounced it long dead at the scene, joints stiff before the sun came up. Though you walk by yourself through the city streets, may you never know the truth of what it is to be alone.”

One of the pockets still held a battered plastic cup and the red felt-tip pen that had been used to write, hungry, please help.

A pair of trainers was held aloft. The uppers had come away from the soles, so that the last wearer’s toes could stick out, and the laces had each been knotted together from many fragments.

“These are the shoes of the beggar who cannot afford the bus, who does not have the money for the train. They have walked north and south, east and west, laying their footprints upon the earth with the lightness of a feather. We do not walk as others do, we are not the busy clatter of well-shod heels, we do not march with the stride of the rush hour, we are not joggers in a park or running for the bus. Ours is an ancient walk, the oldest walk known to man, down a path that has not changed since the first stone of the first city wall was laid. We walk together, the city and the beggars, until only the city remains. Take them, and be nothing but the city.”

I took the shoes, huddling them into my meagre bundle of possessions, and looked up.

The Beggar King’s open palm caught me across the side of the face hard enough to knock me down, landing awkwardly on my elbow. He stood over us and for a moment there was an ancient darkness in his eyes, as deep and wild as the whirlwind. “You’re one of us now,” he said, and his soft voice filled the room. “Don’t screw up.”

In these stories the teenagers who are distrusted and devalued by the world are recognised as real people of consequence. So too, those on the margins such as The Beggar King and his people, who form their own community and are recognised as fully human in the stories. As the story ends, Swift, having walked in London on the margins himself, passes on the vestments to another.

Round at the side of the church, I found who I was looking for, sitting alone on an old cardboard box that had been pulled apart to make a small mat. She had two sleeping bags, one inside the other – the first was bright blue, a camper’s sack with drawer strings; the other was a duvet, sewn together, and rotted at the corners. She wore a grey woollen hat and her face was pale, tinged with blue. Her legs were shaking inside the bedding and there was a greyness to her lips, a wideness in the pupils of her eyes. As I approached she eyed me suspiciously, her expression veering between fight or flight. She wasn’t out of her twenties, and though the sleeves of her jumper hid the worst of the track marks, enough capillaries had burst under her skin to tell much of her story.

I’m continually struck by the way in which these stories change how I see those around me. The ones I would normally ignore, mistrust and judge. These stories have a power to them beyond the fantastical elements in them; a power to make you look again at the world around you.

If you’re interested in reading some of these stories, then here are some of my favourites.

Kate Griffin

The Midnight Mayor series:

A Madness of Angels;

The Midnight Mayor;

The Neon Court;

The Minority Council;

Magicals Anonymous series:

Stray Souls;

The Glass God;

Ben Aaronovitch

This series follows PC Peter Grant as he is sucked into a world where policing meets the supernatural in London.

Benedict Jacka

In this series, Alex Verus, a magician on the margins in London, is caught between the political powers of the magical world while trying to care for and save his friends and run his magic shop.

Simon R. Green; Neil Gaiman; Paul Cornell

Simon R. Green’s Nightside series is a tongue-in-cheek approach to the genre (replicated in his other writings with related series);

Paul Cornell’s series that kicked off in London Falling, is a grim and gritty police series where flawed characters try to handle magical and policing crises. Not many laughs in this, but some significant impact along the way;

Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere introduced me to the genre. I enjoyed the TV series and it made me constantly look twice while walking around London years after reading it.

(British) Urban Fantasy and the Humanising of the Marginalised Urban fantasy is one of my favourite fictional genres, juxtaposing the fantastic with the mundane (

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falconerelectronics · 7 years ago

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WordPress Blogging Guide for Manufacturers: Getting Green in Readability and SEO

The History of Blogging

The internet has been around since the 80's. However, blogging was first established in the mid 90's. The term "blog" wasn't recognized back then. Due to this, the first "blog" was a personal homepage of a college student. In the later 1990's the term "weblog" was introduced. This term was a shorter version of the term "logging the web". Additionally, we all know that wasn't the last time this term would be shortened. Today we know these "weblogs" as "blogs".

The Art of Writing an SEO Friendly Blog on WordPress

There are numerous types of blogs. From personal blogs to professional blogs they all serve their own purpose. However, what is one thing that all blogs have in common? They are all trying to share some form of information. Also, what sets some blogs apart from others? The most obvious is if they can follow all of the general rules of blogging. Another sign of success for a blog is how many readers it has.

Specifically, with a WordPress blog, there are two main categories that will lead to the best results, "Readability" and "SEO".

Readability

Readability is a very important aspect of a successful blog. When writing a blog, the main goal is to have others read what you are writing. In order to do that there are some guidelines that should be followed. Below is a brief description of each part of achieving high readability.

What is a Copy Score and Flesh Reading Ease Test

The Flesh Reading Ease Test is affected by how easy your text is to follow and read. This goes along hand and hand with the copy score of your blog. What affects your Flesh Reading score? First off, your sentence length. Why would sentence length affect readability? Longer sentences mean extra words. Furthermore, these extra words are seen as fillers that are not needed.

Along with shorter sentences, the Flesh Reading Ease Test is looking at the individual words in sentences. In blogging, using hard to understand words hurts you. Therefore, you want to keep all of your information as concise and to the point as possible. Furthermore, the Flesh Reading is hoping to encourage blogs written without the extra fluff. It is also encouraging you the writer to take the time to find the best way to talk about your subject.

The Number of Words in Your Paragraphs

The number of words you use may seem like a trivial thing to think about. However, the more words you are using the longer you are taking to make your point. Along with the Flesh Reading Ease Test, shorter paragraphs are also ideal. Therefore, if you can use one sentence to describe your subject that is preferable to using multiple sentences.

Use of Transition Words

Why are transition words so important? Transition words help the flow of your blog. Instead of jumping from one thought to another, a transition word will help tie two thoughts or sentences together. Therefore, helping the reader to continue following the path that you are lying down for them. Also, the use of transition words helps you to really see if your sentences really fit together. If you cannot make a tie from one sentence to another there may be a need to rethink your sentence placement.

How Passive is the Voice You Use in Your Writing

What is Passive Voice?

Passive voice occurs if the noun or noun phrase that would be the object of an active sentence (such as Yoast SEO calculates your SEO score) appears as the subject of a sentence with passive voice ( The SEO score is calculated by Yoast SEO). In figure 1, we give more examples of passive voice and give better alternatives.

The above is the definition of Passive Voice by Yoast SEO. However, what does it mean exactly? In our work with blogging, we have discovered that the simplest way to get rid of Passive Voice is to make your sentences in the present tense. Therefore, instead of using words that end in "ed" use their present tense counterparts. Below are some examples of this.

Passive voiceBetter alternatives This product can be bought in our webshop.Customers can buy this product in our webshop. The bags are checked by a security employee.A security employee checks the bags. The employees are informed about their financial contribution.The manager informs his employees about their financial contribution. All our posts are checked by a colleague.A colleague checks all our posts.

As you can see from the examples above keeping your writing in the present tense is important. However, another thing that is just as important is to keep your point of view consistent. For example, this blog is written as if we are talking specifically to the reader, you. Therefore, you as the reader feel as if this more of a conversation than just cold instructions. Also, by keeping the same point of view throughout the entire blog you keep up that same flow that we spoke about previously.

SEO

Much like readability, SEO is also important in blog writing. However, what exactly is SEO? SEO is an acronym for "Search Engine Optimization". What does that mean exactly? Also, why is this important when writing a blog? In order to understand why it is important, you need to understand all of the pieces to achieve good SEO. Below we have broken down each of the aspects of SEO.

Focusing on a Keyword

What is a keyword? A Keyword is a single word or short phrase that you want to be the main idea of your blog. For instance, in this blog, our keyword is “blogging”. Therefore, this word is what the basis of our entire blog is on. Other examples we have used in previous blogs are “LED Lighting”, “Certification”, and “Wire Harness”. The use of a keyword can be difficult.

The SEO has certain criteria in order to keep all of their requirements in the green. Furthermore, with keywords, they require that your keyword is present in your title, at least one of your headers, and also be used in the first paragraph of your text. However, they do not want that one word used too often and will penalize you if you overuse it. Also, SEO prefers that when your keyword is used in your title and header that it be as close to the beginning as possible. Therefore, we usually try to keep our keywords as the first or second word of our title and we also try to place it in the first heading within our blog.

Creating the Perfect Title

Creating the perfect title can be a challenging first step. It is often helpful to write up some notes about what you want your blog to be about. After you have an idea of what your blog needs to say it will make writing the title and choosing your keyword easier. As we stated above, in the title you want to be sure to include your keyword. Also, if possible you want to keep it close to the beginning.

Your title also needs to be long enough in length to meet the SEO criteria. That being said, you need to make sure that it isn’t too long. The best way that we have found to achieve the perfect length is to write your title then bring that title into the “snippet preview”. WordPress makes this part easy. When you copy your title into the previewer it has a color bar beneath it that will change as you add or take away words. A red bar means that you either have too few or too many characters. As you adjust your wording that color bar will hopefully change to green.

Why is a Meta Description Important

First off, we should describe what a Meta Description is. The Meta Description is the blog equivalent to a blurb on the back of a book. This small snippet gives anyone that reads it an idea of what your blog is about. Also, you want to be able to draw in a reader, just like with a book. If your Meta Description isn’t interesting you will lose any potential readers before they even get to your blog.

Meta Descriptions are used by search engines. This is also why you want to include your keyword in your Meta Description as well as the other places within your blog. There is a set length for a Meta Description of 160 characters including spaces and punctuation. Due to this specification, you want to keep your descriptions as short and to the point as possible while still providing important information. Also, you want to do all of this while still drawing potential readers to your blog. Finding that balance is important to having a successful blog.

Adding Images and Videos to a Blog

Everyone knows that we live in a visual world. Pictures and videos draw in an audience. However, you don’t want to just put any picture or video on your blog. You want to have images that are related to your subject.

For example, if you are writing a blog on sharks. You would not want to include pictures of your best friend and their dog at the park. The same goes for any videos you want to include. Therefore, any pictures or videos that you use need to be applicable to what your blog is about.

Also, if you are using videos in your blogging there are some important things to look out for

If you are using a YouTube video check the suggested videos that will come up after your chosen video. There are times when the suggested next videos are not professional in nature. Due to their content, they could affect the brand you are trying to establish, therefore, affecting the view your potential customers have of your business.

The timing of your video is important as well. You do not want part of your video cut off due to the version you're using.

Also, be aware of the quality of your video. If the picture quality is low or the volume is problematic no one is going to want to continue to watch your content.

For example, below includes an outstanding video from Neil Patel on "7 Blogging Tips That Will Make Your Blog Successful":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDuL4N1Gi5g

What are Good Links?

There are two different types of links you want to include in your blogs, internal and outbound links. What is the difference between them?

Internal Links

These are links that go back to another part of your own website. Therefore, a link to another blog on your website, a page of your website, or a picture or video on your website. Importantly, it is a link back to another part of your own website.

Outbound Links

Outbound Links are links to anywhere other than your own blog. It can be a link to reference website, your own social media, outside pictures and videos, or to an outside website or blog that is applicable to what you are blogging about. However, you want to be careful when using links to outside websites that are not under your control. There is the potential that these sites can be corrupted, deleted, or that their content will change to no longer apply to your subject. Also, if you choose to use a link to a video you want to be aware of the factors we discussed previously.

Words Matter

When writing a blog, it is important to say everything that you feel is important to your subject. Whether that is facts, details, or any extra information that you think would interest your audience. You want to keep your blog informative but also, interesting to your readers.

SEO is concerned about how many words you use. The ideal minimum of words SEO likes is 300. That does not, however, mean that you can’t go over that amount. However, you want to continue to make sure that your content continues to be relevant to your subject. Also, each of the points in our “readability” section will help your SEO. The readability and SEO work together to give you guidelines for creating a blog that your audience wants to read.

Helpful Reminders for Your Blogging ExperienceWhat are Alt Texts

When using images in your blog SEO wants those images to contain “Alt Texts”. How can you include these however if you don’t know what they are or what they do? Alt Texts should be a brief description of your image. These descriptions are actually helpful to any of your audience that has visual difficulties or impairments. You want to make sure that any reader of your blog can get every point you are trying to make, even with the images that you have chosen to use.

Choosing a Category

Choosing a category is important. This is stating that that is specifically what your blog is about. Again, if you think of the example of a blog about sharks you could categorize that as being “Sea life”. Therefore, if you continue blogging about different sea life you can have them all in the same category. This makes it easier to search through your blogs. Also, this is helpful when you want people to be able to look up your blogs by their broader subjects.

Useful Tags

You want to include tags in your blogging. These tags target specific pieces of your blog. While the “category” of your blog designates your entire blog as being about a specific thing a tag is like the individual index within your blog of important points.

Why are Links Helpful

Links are helpful to the success of your blog because they create more roads back to you. If you can get other websites to link back your site or blog that is another road back to you. Picture the internet as a town full of roads and each house and building is a website. The more roads to your building the easier it is for your customers to arrive at your door. However, each webpage, blog, video, and product that has a connection to your website is also a road to your door. Each connecting link to and from different sites is another connection for potential customers and readers to find you.

Amazing Blogging Resources

ProBlogger - Darren Rowse

Neil Patel

Backlinko - Brian Dean

Moz

#Blogging B2Bmarketing manufacturing

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dotfalla · 7 years ago

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Evaluation

I started pretty slow, I had decided to surround my topic on a particular article called ‘The Dark side of Oz, The Exploitation of Judy Garland’ by Neil Norman for the Express. I found out that the young actress was humiliated while working under MGM’s constraint. She was drugged, groped and isolated by the other actors. I just could not believe this happened to an actress who played a character that was a huge part of my life when I was younger. Not only do I share my name with Dorothy form The Wizard of Oz, but it was also one of my favourite movies when I was little. I think it really upset me, but I’m glad I found out, I feel like I can now, in just a tiny way, help Judy Garland by acknowledging her distress.

I understand that I got this information from an article, with no real sources or back up. I obviously didn’t want to base my entire final work on an article that was basically fake news. That is why I went and looked up the facts and figures and found, in not so many words, that this was the case. I even found that one of her ex-husbands, Randy L. Schmidt had written a whole book called ‘Judy and I’, and it was about how her life at MGM had completely formed her life as an adult and how he dealt with these issues in their marriage.

My concept was, in short, to create a hard-hitting, shocking and quite upsetting read into something more light. That is why I chose to create a coffee table book, these have huge amounts of text, in the format that is easy to read and easy to understand. (My book came out a bit smaller than a standard coffee table size but the reasons behind it are still valid). This is so, that, if wanted, a reader could pick it up, flip through it and get a good understanding of what the book is about. I feel that this is something that the final book entices; because of the texture and it’s bright colours, the reader will want to pick it up. When it is opened, the textured inserts contrast against the plain white text and therefore, aesthetically, look intriguing for the reader.

To begin, I was unsure how to pursue my final results so it was suggested to me to start experimenting, to look at metaphors for Judy Garland’s treatment, and to then relay that on paper. I was asked to think about duality, and how to visualise two entirely different worlds coming together to become Judy’s life. I tried marbling, weaving, glitching and defacing, all to get an greater understanding to how I could visualise the humiliation and ugly truth for the reader. At one point I really believed I was on for a winner when I began cutting images into little strips to weave together to create powerful imagery portraying multiple perspectives. This woven technique was inspired by an artist called David Stern who uses this method on far larger images with much smaller strips to create a really unusual and eery piece of work. Unfortunately, even though the final woven bits that I managed to create were refreshing and successful, when I tried to include them in my work, they didn't seem to have a place, this was because I still hadn't managed to decide on a final concept.

When I had my one on one tutorial with Neil, we looked through all the different types of experiments I had done and focused in on an initial first draft with small, colourful inserts. The example was just a collection of white pieces of A4 paper which had been folded into an A5 booklet. Small coloured offcuts had been placed in between the pages to create little interruptions in the clean white booklet. This was something that Neil and I really gravitated towards. We talked about how the book in questions had began to challenge the reader, and how all these interruptions were sprouting out uncontrollably. We discussed textures, and how, with these inserts, the ‘normal’ texture of a book was denied, and how, using contrast of bright, vivid intrusions, and white, pure paper the book also explored duality. It was decided to pursue an idea the the book would include the entire story of the Wizard of Oz, the happy, joyful fairytale with a happy ending, but with truthful inserts relating to the mistreatment of Judy Garland.

I began creating prototypes for this idea, I used imagery I had created from the experimental process to fill these inserts with darkness and contrast against the story book white. However, no matter how hard I tried to re-jig and change the composition up, every result was noisy. There was just too much going on with a bunch of text on both sides, and imagery smacked in the middle. That’s when I decided to take a step back and look at the idea of using the inserts as plain colour pieces and use the shocking text from the article to carry out the concept. While doing this, it wasn’t long until I realised that, if I plan to use these small inserts, I will have to booklet print, and then saddle stitch the signatures together, therefore meaning, I would need to paginate roughly 110 pages of text. To hopefully avoid this, I decided to perfect bind, however, if this were to be the case, those inserts would not be able to be placed perfectly as there would be no way of knowing exactly where they would end up in the vice, and furthermore, they would get very limited amounts of glue and might very well fall out entirely. Because of this discovery, I’ll be honest, I was completely deterred from the idea of small offcuts as inserts so I began looking at entire pages for the inserts. These would stick in a perfect bound book so much easier and the amount of interruption to the story has become even more using this method. While getting excited about these new, full page inserts, a problem solution was presented to me regarding the smaller inserts. I was told to keep the inserts with a long line up the spine, this is what would keep the insert in with out falling out because the sheet would get as much glue as possible, and you would be able to decide exactly where to put it. However, while I was very grateful for this suggestion, I had already got my eyes set for a large insert, possibly even with laser cut holes to see onto the next page.

I was really excited about this new idea, I was keeping the concept of ‘challenging the texture of a book’ but instead of small interruptions, I would make much larger ones. However, even after getting excited about a couple experiments using bright vivid colours to represent the modern connection to Judy’s story and Weinstein and #metoo movements in the current day, I wasn’t considering any of my previous experiments that I did over the Easter holiday. Therefore, I went back to looking over my trials and came across the scrunched up portraits I did, inspired by Alma Haser who uses printed photography, scrunched, over another photo. Her portraits inspire conversations about mental heath and loneliness. By using the scrunched up versions of photographs, the image becomes distorted and fuzzy. I really admired this message and used it to inspire my very own message; when scrunching up the paper, I then began to careful try to unfold it because I had forgotten to take a ‘before and after’ shot. This was when, of course, I discovered that once a picture has been screwed up, it’s impossible to flatten out and recover it. I thought this idea had many connections to Garland, how her time at MGM had been the catalyst for her downward spiral that ended with her death at 47, just 30 years after the film was made. This was when I decided to keep the colourful inserts, inspired by contemporary trends, keep them full size for easy binding and full exposure to their message but instead of place one of my visuals that I attempted, but to, instead scrunch it up like the photos by Haser. These inserts are part of the ‘reality side’, they tell of the horrid experience Garland endured, therefore they represent her and her life, it makes sense for them to be screwed up and ruined. The folds become to look like scars and small tears appear to show her submission and her weakness.

I had decided to include these bright colours, because of their contemporary link, but also because they are youthful and fun. We must remember that Judy Garland was only 16 when she began working on the film and therefore was still just a child. Instead of plucking colours out of my head, I first drew inspiration from existing Oz art from posters and book covers, I found artwork such as Mark Mahle’s and then colour swatched to get a feel of inspired choices. It was mainly greens and yellows, representing the Emerald City and the yellow brick road. These two colour visuals are very fitting to my idea, however I thought I should add another, one that I recognise, which was the blue checked dress that Dorothy wears. Using these colours, I created a gradient to decide what shades would be best suited to the story, this was when I found the idea of using a gradient told the story in itself. Starting with the blue dress, then going down the yellow road, to finally get to the Emerald City. This transpired multiple times to become a recurring gradient of blue and yellow wth green being dropped due to it’s shades resembling nastier symbolism. While making mock ups and printing tests, it became clear that for maximum contrast against the text and the colour, the shades would need to get darker. Therefore no more light blue, because white text got lost amongst it. I ddi try a darker colour for text, but then, when placed opposite a white page with story text all over it, there was no reflection or complimenting links. I decided to go for a dark blue to coral orange to mustard yellow, and due to the looping gradient, it is mostly the yellow (representing the yellow brick road) that you see. Yellow also represents fun, happiness and joy - which relate to The Wizard of Oz tale, but contrast nicely with what the text on the inserts say, like ‘Mayer (her boss) took to groping her in his office’.

Now that I had the concept down, and knew there would be inserts every other page or so, all at different colours to represent this story-telling gradient, I made more realistic mockups to show in my final critique presentation. I asked the group if these visuals were repetitive, if the final piece would be boring and whether I should have tired something else. The group told me, in a book, these colours would break up the repetitive-ness and if I decide to use the actual scrunched up paper, rather than the scans, each insert will be different and invite the reader to feel the ridges and the texture. They assured me that the book itself would be enticing, that people would pick it up and look at it, but only if I decided to use more texture. For example, I suggested I might use an A3 version of the woven piece inspired by David Stern to create the book cover, this was received well. However, when I came to see Rich and Laura for a last catchup and tutorial the day after, I asked the same questions, and received very different answers. It was decided that the woven book cover, while it does look and feel interesting, would be a waste of time seeing as the method of attaching it to the book is still undecided, and because it really didn’t match any of the visuals or colours inside the book. As for repetition, they believed it was quite repetitive, and that perhaps I should attempt to make text bigger, change directions and be a little more different. Once I did this, suddenly the book became more punchy. The messages on the inserts became more prominent and could be read much easier. Laura suggested I make my first two introduction pages reflect each other, so that, from the very beginning, it is obvious that there is a kind of duality to this book which will later reveal itself. I thought this worked really well, it was also suggested to me to try making some of the inserts cut up, or only being able to see half of them, this would encourage the reader to turn the page and carry on reading. At first, we discussed printing half the txt on one side, the rest on the other, but then we spoke about making it fold out, giving the reader more texture and interaction with the book. This was a great idea, and while It made it slightly harder to bind, I considered this advise invaluable to my project and got it to become so much more than what I had had before the tutorial.

The novel part, the ‘fantasy’ part is something I have taken a slight risk on. I wanted it to represent the old fashioned book, just like the ones selling in 1900s when L Frank Baum wrote the book. this meant the text was small, in a serif font such as Athelas and strictly justified. While normally, I wouldn't have decided to have an entire book in justified, it was a conscious decision because, that way, the fairytale story looked so bland and dull compared to the contemporary, Futura fonts on the inserts. However, once decided, I really enjoyed the outcome with the contrasting sides.

Once my book had all the right pages in the right places, with a full guide in my notebook to follow, I was able to start thinking about how I could make the cover. It was decided that the woven piece, while it is lovely to look at, would not be appropriate for my book cover, so I began to consider different approaches. It took quite a long time to make my mind up, I was adamant I did not want a white book cover, knowing how messy they got due to fingerprints and what not, however, I could not ignore the element of innocence white brought. I wanted to have a book, that when not even open, showed the poor, innocent girl, with all these colours inside of her. Because, even though the subject matter is quite bleak, the book does not need to be made out of black paper, with dark metaphors and misery. It should be fun, bright and hopeful, it should shed light on the matter, to engage an audience and captivate interest. I used a scrunched up version of Dorothy, an image where she is looking so young, and quite scared. I printed this off, scrunched it up and scanned it directly into the photocopier machine, it then, printed out an exact copy onto my sheet of card which could then go around the book. Once bound and covered, I was able to fully evaluate my end result. It came out so well and I am very pleased with it. After all my worries about the binding process, Joseph in the binding studio helped me out and gave me lots of suggestions on how I could make the book as successful as possible. The sickness of the book, and it’s weight are really effective and this is due to the different paper thicknesses I used. I had 120gsm for most of the novel pages, with all of the inserts being 160gsm card. This made for the two sides to have even more difference and the result is really striking. When looking at the closed book, it is obvious that the cover is not at all centred, this is concourse due to the photocopier, but if I could have done this again, I would have liked to have spent a little more time on this seeing as it would not have been too difficult to print out another version with better placement. I decided not to have too many words explaining the concept, I really wanted it to come through by looking at the book and taking time to understand the reasons, however, I am now wishing I had put in another insert, a prologue before the introductions that just briefly explained the dual narrative and the contemporary influences. I decided, pretty last minute to include ‘screen-print’ style numbers over the chapter heads to relate to the merging sides, while the aesthetic looks good, I would have liked to have spent more time trying to achieve a similar result, but perhaps without merging the two ‘worlds’ and have kept them separate. I am really happy with my outcome and I think I have a clear and precise development from beginning to end with design choices that have been considered and theories and trends analysed to create a full body of work that shows off the final piece to the best of it’s possibility.

#dorothy

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technicaldr · 8 years ago

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The World’s Most Famous Real-Life Cyborgs

Tiptoeing around humans with machine parts

People imagine cyborgs usually as mean creatures combining some human and superhuman features in a robotic body. Movie characters such as the Terminator, Darth Vader or the Borgs in Star Trek come to mind. But you do not have to go as far as Star Wars to get in contact with cyborg-like features or characteristics. According to the usual definition, a cyborg combines organic and mechanic body parts. Yet, some scientists stretch this understanding. They include people with cochlear implants, cardiac pacemakers or even contact lenses. In a way, it is valid: the human body is augmented with technology, and the two works together to improve human capabilities.

As technological innovations in the field of medicine and healthcare multiply day by day, it will be more and more usual to augment our bodies with the help of machines. It makes us faster, stronger or more sensitive to the environment. This means that the boundaries of “human-ness” are stretched raising serious ethical questions. Here, I introduce you real-life cyborgs, who show us the current boundaries of the coexistence of man and machine in one person. And they might also mark the way how to find a balance between the two.

1) Neil Harbisson

With an antenna implanted into his head, he looks like a giant ant led from behind by a piece of bread on a stick. Coupled with his light mop haircut he looks like the main character would in a Wes Anderson sci-fi if he ever directed one. Harbisson is actually an artist born with achromatopsia or extreme colorblindness meaning he could only see in black-and-white. At first, he received his specialized electronic eye, his “eyeborg” to be able to render perceived colors as sounds on the musical scale. He is capable of experiencing colors beyond the scope of normal human perception: Amy Winehouse is red and pink, while ringtones are green.

Harbisson has been living as a cyborg for more than 10 years already. He believes that humans have a duty to use technology to transcend themselves and that it will happen in the future. It will start with a third eye on the back of the head or an implanted sensor indicating whether there is a car behind you.

2) Dr. Kevin Warwick

He has been known as “Captain Cyborg” and teaches at the University of Reading as a cybernetics professor. Warwick has experimented with different electronic implants since 1998 such as installing a microchip in his arm which lets him operate lights, heaters or computers remotely. As dedicated as he is, Warwick also gave an implant to his wife, so that when someone grasped her hand the man was able to experience the same sensation in his. It is jaw-dropping and awkwardly scary at the same time.

He is the founder of Project Cyborg using himself as the guinea pig on a mission to become the world’s most complete cyborg. Beyond his work on himself, he is involved in AI research. He faced serious criticism in 2014 over claims that the “supercomputer” called Eugene Goostman passed the “milestone” Turing-test for Artificial Intelligence.

3) Jesse Sullivan

Sullivan worked as an electrical linesman when in May 2001, he suffered a life-threatening accident: he was electrocuted so severely that both of his arms needed to be amputated. This, however, led to him to become the world’s first “Bionic Man”. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago offered him to replace his arms with robotic prosthetics, which opportunity he gladly took. He was fitted with a bionic limb connected through a nerve-muscle grafting.

He has control over his limb with his mind: when he thinks about lifting an arm, for example, certain muscles in his chest contract instead of muscles in his original arm, and the prosthetic replacement interprets this contraction as an instruction to move in a certain way. Moreover, he can also feel temperature as well as how much pressure his grip applies.

4) Nigel Ackland

He worked as a precious metals smelter until his accident at his workplace involving an industrial blender. This led to a severe crush injury of his right forearm. He underwent six months of operations and infections before deciding to have a below elbow amputation.

Over the years, he tried several prosthetic types, but finally, he received a bebionic3 hand. With its help, he can independently move to grip even delicate objects. He controls the arm through muscle movements in his remaining forearm. The range of movement is truly extraordinary. He can independently move each of his five fingers to grip delicate objects, or even pour a liquid into a glass.

5) Jerry Jalava

The Finnish programmer had a terrible motorcycle accident when he lost his left ring finger. It was just a week after he bought his new motorbike that he accidentally hit a deer. Right after it happened, he lit a cigarette when he realized that he misses the upper half of his finger.

Then he decided against a traditional prosthesis and rather went for something “useful”: a 2GB USB port was embedded into his prosthetic. It doesn’t upload any information directly into his brain though. He is the perfect example of how you don’t need to be a robotics mastermind to become a cyborg…

6) Cameron Clapp

Until his life-changing accident, Cameron lived the life of the “California teens”: he loved to surf, skateboard and hang with friends. He was 15 when he wandered over to some railroad tracks near their house and passed out after drinking with his brother moved by the 9/11 tragedy what happened around that time. When a train passed, he, unfortunately, lost both of his legs plus an arm.

He got fitted with a couple of prosthetic legs controlled by his brain with the help of a microprocessor. Since then, he has become an athlete and an amputee activist. His advice to struggling patients? “Surround yourself with good people… good doctors, therapists, family, and friends. Set reachable goals, work hard and maintain a good attitude.”

7) Professor Steve Mann

The Canadian tech-crazy professor designed a headset that is outfitted with a number of small computers and through it, he can record and play video and audio. He was one of the, if not the first, cyborgs in the world. Mann definitely experimented first with wearable computing in high school in the 70s. At MIT he literally bristled with equipment, wearing 80 pounds of computing equipment to class.

Mann was allegedly also the victim of the world’s “first cybernetic hate crime” in 2012: he was at a McDonald’s restaurant in Paris with his family when three different McDonald’s employees attempted to forcibly remove his “Digital Eye Glass” from his head.

8) Claudia Mitchell

Mitchell is the first woman to have a bionic arm and just as in the majority of the listed cases, her transformation into a cyborg life was also due to an accident. Although she spent four years in the Marine Corps she did not lose her arm during military service but in a motorcycle accident. She lost her left arm completely.

She told several newspapers that she used to peel bananas using both feet and one hand before she received her bionic arm. The robotic limb comes from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago just as in the case of Jesse Sullivan and was developed for $3 million. She cried when she first peeled a banana one-handed.

9) Stelios Arcadio

He is also known as Stelarc. He is a performance artist who believes that the human body is obsolete. To prove this, he has had an artificially-created ear surgically attached to his left arm. In another show, he hooked up electrodes to his body to allow people to control his muscles through the Web.

He has his particular views how humans should look at technology and the symbiosis of the two. In an interview, he said that “we shouldn’t have a Frankensteinian fear of incorporating technology into the body, and we shouldn’t consider our relationship to technology in a Faustian way – that we’re somehow selling our soul because we’re using these forbidden energies. My attitude is that technology is, and always has been, an appendage of the body.”

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english-classes-by-skype-blog · 8 years ago

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10 MOST FAMOUS ENGLISH SONG LYRICS EVER – AND THEIR MEANING

Lyric writing is a tricky business. Finding words that convey exactly what the songwriter feels, while fitting into a certain melody and tempo, the sound of the words has to be pleasing to the ear too. Lyrics can be the starting block of a song – the words coming first, suggesting a certain feel or mood, and inspiring a melody. This is the power of words. Great song lyrics have the power to move you – whether it’s a tear of happiness or sadness, this is the songwriter’s gift.

Others are simply catchy – sing-a-long lyrics they stick in your head, even if they’re completely meaningless – naaa na na na-na-na-naaaaaa aren’t exactly the most inspiring lyrics ever, but thanks to The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ they’re among some of the most-sung in the world!

The best lyrics read like the finest poetry, and many would argue that the likes of Neil Young and Bob Dylan are indeed poets as well as songwriters. To prove just how tricky and rare it is to craft exquisite lyrics like theirs, it pays to look at the other end of the scale:

“I don’t want to see a ghost/It’s the sight that I fear most/I’d rather have a piece of toast…”

There are plenty more bad lyrical attempts out there than good – and that’s why we cherish those great lyrics all the more. Here are some of the finest ever recorded, and a little explanation about each one. We’d love to hear your favourites too, and what they mean to you, and why.

The Beach Boys – Surf’s Up

“Columnated ruins domino…”

Quite simply one of the most beautiful lyrics ever written – and one of the strangest too. Full of layers of surreal symbolism, it’s the product of the truly unique imagination of the lyrical genius Van Dyke Parks (with the help of some very illegal substances).

Creating image upon image, the words flowing, perfectly fitting Brian Wilson’s incredible ode to the sea. The song’s lyrics were so unusual that they actually caused friction within the band, with Beach Boy Mike Love complaining that they were nonsensical, and would alienate their fans. The song was shelved for a few years as a result, but thankfully couldn’t be hidden away for too long!

Bob Dylan – Masters of War

“I think you will find/When your death takes its toll/All the money you made/Will never buy back your soul…”

The protest song to end all protest songs, Dylan voiced the concerns of a generation when he penned this anti-war lyric. With Vietnam raging, and conscription forcing young Americans to fight in a war they didn’t understand, the lyrics captured all of their rage, fear and disgust perfectly. Sung in the first person, from the point of view of a young man who doesn’t want to be forced to join the army, makes the song all the more personal. The melody here is so simple, and yet this song has been covered by more artists than you can count – it’s all thanks to those incredibly powerful lyrics.

The Beatles – Hey Jude

“Take a sad song, and make it better…”

While John Lennon initially believed that this song was written for him, at the start of his relationship with Yoko Ono, in fact Paul McCartney penned this Beatles classic for Lennon’s son Julian. Originally titled ‘Hey Jules’, the song was written to comfort a young Julian as his parents divorced – and its lyrics have since brought comfort to countless others.

Also written around the time of McCartney’s new relationship with Linda Eastman, it’s a song that offers encouragement, advice, and a strong belief in love – yet another famous lyric about love – it seems we can’t escape it! But Hey Jude is almost as well known for its ending – over four minutes of those famous ‘na na na’s stretch the song out to over seven minutes long, at the time making it the longest single ever to top the UK charts, giving the Beatles their biggest hit in America too.

Johnny Cash – I Still Miss Someone

“There’s someone for me somewhere/And I still miss someone…”

Another simple melody that’s transformed by its painfully heartfelt lyrics, this is one of Johnny Cash’s most famous songs, and one of his most-covered. There have surely been more lyrics written about love than anything else, and the ones that stay with us are often about lost love.

Here, the lyrics hit home because they are so honest and truthful – every one who’s ever lost someone can relate. One of Bob Dylan’s own favourites, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Gram Parson and Stevie Nicks are just some of the artists who have covered this country classic.

Johnny Mandel and Mike Altman – Suicide is Painless (Theme from M*A*S*H)

“The game of life is hard to play/I’m going to lose it anyway…”

One of the most famous TV and movie themes in history, the theme from M*A*S*H also has one very unexpected lyricist. When director Robert Altman was looking for a song for one of the movie’s characters to sing in one scene he told Songwriter Mandel that it had to be called “Suicide is Painless”, secondly, it had to be the “stupidest song ever written”.

Altman tried to write the lyrics himself, but found that it was too difficult for his 45-year-old brain to write “stupid enough”. Instead he gave the task to his 14-year-old-son, Michael, who quite to the contrary, produced some of the most profound lyrics ever to come out of a 14-year old! The famously morose song is written from the point of view of someone considering suicide. Reflecting the pointlessness of war, and the meaninglessness of life, this theme to the darkly comic story of soldiers facing the hardships of Vietnam is made all the more poignant by that fact that it was written by someone so young.

The Smiths – There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

“Take me out, tonight…“

It’s rare to find a band that are as critically acclaimed for their lyrics as much as their music – but thanks to Morrissey the magical wordsmith, The Smiths have managed just that. An avid reader, a big poetry fan, and a romantic at heart, Morrissey has written some of the most famous lyrics to emerge from the British music scene in the past 30 years. Their song titles alone contain more poetry than most lyric sheets – Shoplifters of the World Unite, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out – they’ve even inspired countless tattoos.

There Is a Light is one of their most-covered songs, with lyrics that were apparently inspired by one of Morrissey’s heroes, James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Appealing to teenagers everywhere, the lyrics talk about teenage alienation – a need to run away, experience the first excesses and excitements of life, when you no longer feel at home in the family home.

REM – It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

“That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes…”

REM have written some of the most successful songs of the past few decades, and it’s in no small part thanks to Michael Stipe’s (often misheard) lyrics. Stipe seems to pride himself on writing lyrics that are a little opaque – very symbolic, with meanings hidden. It’s the End of the World is no exception, and as one of their most upbeat and popular songs, it’s crammed with lyrics that test even the biggest REM fans.

Apparently a sort of tribute to Bob Dylan’s famously over-lyrical Subterranean Homesick Blues, you’ll soon get out of breath singing along to this! What does it all mean? As with many REM lyrics, no one really knows for sure. There are many little snippets of stories, some complaining about capitalism, others, and some words included simply because they sound so great when strung together in song: “The ladder starts to clatter with fear fight down height”.

Neil Young – Old Man

“Old man look at my life, I’m a lot like you…”

Often ranked up there with Bob Dylan in terms of his profound lyric writing, Neil has a knack for tugging at those heartstrings. Never afraid to let his emotions show, that is what helps to make his words so powerful – that they are truthful, and from the heart.

Old Man was a song written for the old caretaker who looked after Neil’s Broken Arrow ranch, which he purchased in 1970 and still lives on today. It compares the life of an old man with that of a young man, and finds that they are more alike in their needs than they realize.

Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi

“They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot…”

One of Neil’s fellow Canadian musicians, and a good friend of his from the folk scene, Joni Mitchell has written her fair share of famous lyrics. Perhaps the best know are the ones she penned for Big Yellow Taxi. Written about her concerns with pollution and the environment, Joni explains: ““I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise.”

The lines “you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone” apply to a whole range of circumstances besides the destruction of the earth – helping the song become a universal favourite.

The Muppets – Mah Nà Mah Nà

“Mah Nà Mah Nà…!”

The Muppets are here to prove that lyrics don’t have to about love, heartache, loss or be in any way profound to be popular. Mah Nà Mah Nà is one of The Muppets most famous ditties, beloved around the world, and it means…absolutely nothing.

Actually a song written by Piero Umiliani for an Italian movie, it contains nothing both nonsense words and scat singing. It just goes to show that sometimes successful lyrics simply need to sound good, becoming musical instruments in their own right, rather than holding any special meaning. It’s pretty impossible not to sing along!

Enjoyed that article? We’ve got a whole lot more for you, have a look at our English blog section.

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