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dokidokivisual · 4 years ago

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Gochiusa BLOOM episode 5 impressions

Previously: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

Welcome to another installment of my Gochiusa BLOOM episode reviews. At the end of last episode Cocoa finds out about Chino’s intention to go to her school, so this episode opens with some sort of ceremony to celebrate this fact. Despite a reference to alcohol, this ceremony might seem innocent, but it actually has a dark connotation...

First off, Cocoa is asking if everyone is holding a sakazuki. Sakazuki is a special traditional sake cup, which was apparently so important that it even has its own kanji 盃. A real sakazuki is actually more like a saucer than a cup, and holds very little alcohol. The girls are holding regular coffee cups, while pretending they are sakazuki. But what is the importance of sakazuki here?

The hint comes from Chiya’s description of the ceremony: 義兄弟の盃 (gikyodai no sakazuki) which literally translates as “sake cup of sworn brothers”, though kyodai can be used for siblings of any gender. The origin of this type of ceremony lies in Chinese 14th century novel Romance of Three Kingdoms, where the so-called Oath of the Peach Garden has transpired between three major characters. However in modern times, this type of brotherhood ceremony is mainly used by organized crime syndicates known as yakuza. So what you’re supposed to be seeing in this scene is literally Chino being initiated into a gang. If you’re interested, here’s a video of gikyodai sakazuki ceremony of Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza organization.

The ceremony is interrupted by Aoyama Blue Mountain who somehow got behind the counter. Soon, Mate Rin comes in looking for her, but she’s already gone. Before this point I didn’t know yet what the part B of the episode will be about, but this intro definitely provides a hint about it. Rin also gives a business card to Chiya, but it’s a bit difficult to read. Thankfully, there’s a better shot of it later in the episode.

Cocoa remembers there’s a marathon tournament, and Chiya is horrified when she learns that it involves running. However Cocoa persuades her that as Chino’s recently sworn older sister and senior she should run the whole distance.

Chiya’s motivation for participation in marathon was changed compared to the manga, the chapter in question (vol.5 ch.7) opens with Cocoa and Chiya doing exercises during PE class (a scene sadly cut out from the anime) and has to deal with Chiya and Cocoa’s friendship bond. This is why Chiya wants to finish the race with Cocoa so badly.

Chiya starts training by herself to get ready for the marathon. The location where she trains (some sort of clearing being overlooked by a bridge) is quite interesting, as it also appears in season 1 episode 5 (where Cocoa and Chiya practice volleyball) and Sing For You OVA where Chino uses the same tire excercise as part of her special training.

Ironically Rize thinks one tire is��“too far” for Chiya, but 5 tires is ok for Chino who was supposed to train her singing. Anyway it’s quite interesting how some locations in town stay consistent, I wonder if the staff has a detailed map of them.

Despite having muscle pain from training, Chiya shows her resolve to finish the race to Cocoa. In this speech she mentions the Whirlwind (旋風) from the title of the episode (”On that day I will make Ama Usa An whirlwind blow”). Interestingly, the title of this manga chapter 千の夜を走る風となる (”run 1000 nights to become the wind”) also mentions the wind.

Cocoa also wants to train, and justifies her ability to wake up early with a helpful diagram (which looks as if she’s born directly from bread). To be fair, her justification that bakers wake up early does make sense, and she didn’t seem to have a problem to wake up in time in Dear My Sister. However when staying in Rabbit House, she definitely tends to oversleep, which happened this time too.

Rize and Chiya start training without her, and start playing shiritori to keep Chiya’s spirit up. Honestly this game appears in pretty much every anime ever, so should I even bother to explain the rules? Anyway, Rize names sweets that she supposedly overate, while Chiya names stuff that would be normally served at Ama Usa. However after saying いちご大福 (strawberry rice cake) she continues even though it’s Rize’s turn, saying 黒豆寒天 (black soybean jelly). This ends in “ん” (n) which is a losing turn in shiritori, since no Japanese words start with ん. Nevertheless, Chiya continues listing off Ama Usa desserts and eventually just switches to advertisement mode. Rize compares her to senden car which is a decorated truck that you can find driving around Japanese cities while blasting advertisements really loudly.

Rize introduces her stamp card here (which is an upgrade over her previous motivation techniques, such as the schedule in Dear My Sister), which gives Chiya an idea for an Ama Usa An stamp card. The reward for completing it is 90 minutes of all-you-can-drink piping hot oshiruko, which is a kind of soup made from red beans. The fact that it’s very hot was for some reason omitted from the official English subs, even though that’s what makes the deal especially ridiculous.

Cocoa still wants to train, so she asks Sharo to run with her. However when the morning comes she still can’t wake up on time. When Sharo talks about Chiya taking up jogging there is a montage of Chiya training with Rize, but at this moment Sharo doesn’t know that Chiya trains with Rize, which is why she gets jealous when it is revealed later.

Sharo’s orange phone with the dangling teacup charm was previously seen for example in season 2 episode 7. The exact model is “Kyocera Honey Bee 201K” and as you can see it’s accurately drawn down to the small details.

This is another repeatedly used Gochiusa outdoors location, seen for example in season 1 episode 6 when Cocoa and Tippy meet Aoyama, and in season 2 OP in the shot with Tippy, Anko and Wildgeese. This is where Rize wants to persuade Chiya to continue training, but Chiya isn’t having it. In the manga this is where Rize pulls out her stamp card (almost filled out) to persuade her, but in anime version we never see how many stamps she acquired.

The marathon starts and we see some of Cocoa’s classmates from the previous episode running by. As expected, Cocoa ended up being less fit than Chiya and had to hold on to Chiya’s twintails to keep up. The manga doesn’t actually show them finishing the race, so watching whether Chiya would be able to cross the finish line was quite suspenseful.

After the race, Sharo is disappointed at being left out, but Rize invites her for special training right away. Rize seems to be interested in some triathlon competition and tried to invite Chiya earlier, but Chiya was scared off by the mere name “triathlon”. A triathlon competition features running, cycling and swimming. Sharo is actually better than Rize at swimming (see season 1 episode 8) and perhaps Cocoa is the best at cycling.

We never see how these two trained, but in the manga there’s an additional illustration at page 65 of volume 5 which shows how it may looked like.

Now the “carefree breeze” part of the episode starts, and it’s based on volume 6 chapter 3, making it the first chapter from volume 6 to be animated. Even though there are 9 chapters between part A and part B of this episode, in retrospect it makes a lot of sense that they were put together. For one, they feature a lot of running. And there are a lot of outdoor locations. Such as the park where Cocoa and Chiya meet off-duty Aoyama.

You might recognize it as the same park where Cocoa meets Aoyama for the first time in season 1 episode 6. In season 2 episode 8, Cocoa and Chiya also walk through this park when returning from school.

Cocoa and Chiya think Aoyama is going on a date (this is more explicit in the manga) but it seems she doesn’t have anything to do and just dressed up nicely for the sake of it.

She wants to play tag, which in Japanese is called oni-gokko and oni (a demon) is the one who’s chasing the other players. The role of the demon is relegated to Mate Rin who comes to Rabbit House for the second time this episode to search for Aoyama. This time we get a better look at her business card.

The name of the publisher is Seironsha (生論社 - the first kanji is not visible here, but is visible in the manga). Usually publishing companies in Kirara series are parodies of Houbunsha but not this time. I couldn’t find the reason behind this name anywhere. There’s a word “Seiron” which means “sound reasoning” but it’s spelled with different kanji (正論). There’s also a publisher Rironsha (理論社) although it seems pretty obscure. Also a fun fact: Aoyama’s book Bakery Queen (seen in Dear My Sister OVA) had a different publisher 走兎舎 (”Soutosha”?) which means “running rabbit house”.

Rize, Chino and Rin form Shin-furimawasare-tai (“the new at-their-mercy corps”) which is a reference to season 2 episode 8, as well as a few character songs recorded by Rize, Chino and Sharo as Furimawasare-tai. It seems that Sharo is sidelined a lot in this episode...

Next there’s a montage of them unsuccessfully chasing Chiya, Cocoa and Aoyama, which shows off various locations in town. They are not necessarily just random spots. For example the stairs with the statue and the fountain are actually right next to each other, as can be seen in Dear My Sister.

Then they spot Aoyama riding a gondola (a somewhat fancier one than in the beginning of episode 3) and Tippy falls off Chino’s head. Which doesn’t happen nearly as often as you’d think it would. Last time (season 2 episode 6) it also involved boats...

Cocoa, Chiya and Aoyama make a pact to be caught together, but it falls apart rather quickly, as Cocoa gets lured by Chino. The scene of Cocoa being captured was quite expanded compared to the manga, with Chiya and Aoyama trying to discourage Cocoa from falling into the obvious trap, and then lamenting her “passing”.

Despite the earlier pact to be caught at once, Aoyama and Chiya split up and Rize ends up chasing Chiya. This is where the marathon chapter is referenced, as the teacher ends up chasing the student. Chiya was able to keep up for a while, but hits the dead-end and surrenders to Rize.

Meanwhile Cocoa, Chino and Rin go to some sort of fair, where Sharo finally appears, performing as Phantom Thief Lapin. Rin, being a fan of Lapin comes closer and discovers Aoyama already sitting there, who seems to like Sharo a bit too much...

I also wonder where did Tippy come from, because it didn’t seem like Aoyama carried him while running away earlier. Next we see the infamous rabbit carousel, which looks even weirder when CGI animated.

It’s evening now, but if you look back at Rize chasing Chiya scene it’s clear that the sun is already beginning to set by then, and the sky becomes darker in the Lapin scene. There are all sorts of colorful lights in the background, which creates a proper fairgrounds atmosphere.

The lighting gets even more fairytale-like as everyone gets on the carousel, with bokeh effect being created by all the lights at the fair. Interestingly, the word “bokeh” comes from Japanese where it means “blur”. This entire scene looks quite amazing with CGI and special effects blending in with 2d animation very well. I bet it used up more budget than the rest of the episode, but it was worth it.

One of the interesting shots here was this one, with Chiya riding alone and looking pensively at Rize and Sharo, which made me feel bad for her. At least in the manga version, Chiya was riding with Rin so she didn’t look as lonely.

Aoyama and Rin are reminiscing about their past, and there’s a flashback of Aoyama in high-school uniform thanking Master (Chino’s grandfather) for lending her a fountain pen (a callback to season 1 episode 9 where she loses this pen). Unbeknownst to her, Master is sitting right in her lap, as Tippy. Maybe if Aoyama kept track of when she hears Master’s voice and Tippy is around, she’d have figured it out by now...

Anyway, that was another great episode of Gochiusa BLOOM, and check in next week for my review of the next episode which is coming out this Saturday. Seems like it will have more rabbits than usual...

#gochuumon wa usagi desu ka?#is the order a rabbit?#gochiusa #review

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janumun · 5 years ago

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My Life In 20 Questions

Thank you for the tags, @otonymous and @heavenzfiend. (⌒▽⌒)☆

1. What do you prefer to be called namewise?

Pickle or Faa, either is fine.

2. When is your birthday?

August, 26th.

3. Where do you live? (You can just give the country’s or state name if you’re not comfortable with sharing the city name)

Against those perfect tiddies (n˘v˘•)¬ A humble abode but I make do 😂🔥

4. Three things you are doing right now?

(a) Answering this questionnaire.

(b) Working on a commission.

5. Four fandoms that have your peak interest right now?

(a) Mr Love: Queen's Choice.

(b) Everything related to the Shadowhunter books

(d) Ikemen Vampire: An Extensive Study of Arthur's Ginormous Hands.

6. How has this pandemic been treating you?

This pandemic has not been kind to a single soul. Currently trying my level best to do my job amidst the severe shortage of PPEs our frontline workers are dealing with (as is the case all over the world). Please be safe everyone, do not hoard essential protective equipment that may be put to better use within your hospitals, normal citizens DO NOT need them, by which I mean the n95 masks. (Please excuse this short burst of me venting. 😆)

7. A song you can’t stop listening to right now?

A song, you say? I don't know about traditional music but this sounds pretty sweet to my ears (/ω＼) https://myfigurecollection.net/item/396481

8. Recommend a movie.

Gone Girl? (Yes yes, everything goes to shit but I was still on the edge of my seat 😳) It? A Star Wars marathon? 😆 I also recently re-watched An American Tail (1986). 🤧💔

9. How old are you? (not that you have to share)

Old enough to have watched movies on cassette tapes. 🤔 Also old enough to remember a time you had to dive back to the sofa in order to not miss a minute of an already half-hour episode.

10. School, university, occupation or other?

I'm a doctor, currently doing my scheduled rotations within the Orthopaedics ward.

11. Do you prefer heat or cold?

This indecisive woman prefers the weather neither too hot nor too cold 😆 Which means I get to enjoy only a brief period of such blessed reprieve within an entire year.

12. Name one fact about you that others might find unusual.

Not unusual at all but why do right handed people consider the existence of left handed folks to be as rare as that of unicorns? 🤣 Please answer, Righties.

Also, let's see, something else: As a child, I once walked over to a friend's house without informing my parents and when I returned that evening— pandemonium 😆 Relatives being called, police on the line, it was a disaster. (Good job, young me. 🤦🏽‍♀️)

13. Are you shy?

I was, up till my formative years. But usually I prefer being tucked in a quiet place with a good story on hand so I don't approach people first as often. You wouldn't know that, speaking to me, though. I can talk. A lot. 😂

14. Do you have preferred pronouns?

She/Her.

15. Biggest pet peeves?

People who clearly make hypocritical U-turns with their behaviour when they want something from you. Also, subtle emotional manipulation from the "good" ones.

16. What is your favourite “-dere” type?

Yandere. LOL. I play around with: Gentle. Intense Possession. The "gentleman in the streets, scroundel in the sheets" type. Cunning. Emotionally intelligent. Big D.

17. Rate your life from 1-10 (1 being crappy, 10 being amazing).

...You do not want to hear my rating, please trust me. 😂

18. What is your main blog?

This one! I've had a few others over the years I've now lost count of.

19. List your side blogs and what they are used for.

They've been lost to the sands of time. Passwords, long forgotten, swirling somewhere out there, untouched.

20. One thing you think people should know about you before they become your friends?

Nothing in particular! Drop into my box, start a conversation, be it a one-liner that goes: OMG PICKLE! LOOK AT THESE SEX GOD ABS!!! Now, we're friends. o(^▽^)o

Tagging @op-peccatori, @paopufruittt, @truth-be-told-im-lying and whoever would like to do this! (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

#flavors of a pickle #my life in 20 questions

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goldstarnation · 5 years ago

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MAY 2020 GOLD STAR MEDIA SCHEDULES & REVIEW

Members may earn 3 points each (up to 6 points) for writing, by the end of June 7 KST:

A solo para of 400+ words based on their monthly schedule (does not count toward your monthly total).

A thread of six posts (three per participant, including the starter) based on their monthly schedule.

Threads do not have to take place directly during an important date listed on the schedule, but must be related to what the muse is mentioned to be doing in the paragraph explaining their schedule/the company’s schedule for the month and/or their thoughts on the mentioned activities or lack thereof.

These schedules may be updated throughout the month if new information needs to be added.

Reminder: April schedule posts are due by the end of May 7 KST. Please do not post schedule posts in the fmdschedule tag.

OVERALL COMPANY

Gold Star has quite a few comebacks planned for the late spring and summer season and this month takes off with comebacks from Element and Gold Star Soloist 1. It’s becoming a concern that no one under the company will be releasing more than one album this year, though, and Gold Star has started to get some heat in the press and even more heat from fans of nearly everyone under them demanding more music activities. Executives seem unaffected by the growing discontent of fans and it’s not something any of the employees seem to be talking about, but it’s the elephant in the room for anyone keeping up with the popular fan communities.

Important dates:

N/A

GOLD STAR SOLOIST 1

This month, she releases her first album in almost three years and though it’s only a mini-album, it’s a roaring success both digitally, as is always expected, and physically as it quadruples the sales of A Flower Bookmark 2 and doubles the sales of Palette. If there’s one thing Gold Star has learned in recent years, it’s that a wait pays off when it comes to comeback performance. She doesn’t have all that much on the schedule for her promotions since her status doesn’t call for it

Important dates:

May 8: “Blueming” 1theK special clip filming.

May 15: Performance at Yonsei University Akaraka Festival (also performing: WISH, Dimensions Soloist 1, and Fuse).

May 25: Release of “Blueming” & Love Poem showcase, music show promotions continue until June 25.

GOLD STAR SOLOIST 2

She gets something new in her schedule of repeating concerts this month as university festival season kicks in. Gold Star has scheduled for two of those in between her concerts in Seongnam and Daejeon. Though she’s not as in demand as some years past when she had to luxury of coming off of a hit single, she’s still a recognizable enough name among the college-aged crowd to earn a warm reception.

Important dates:

May 13: Performance at Wonkwang University festival (also performing: BEE, Lucid, and Aria).

May 16: I AM : RE-BORN tour concert at Seongnam Arts Center in Seongnam, South Korea.

May 23: Performance at Digital Seoul Culture Arts University Festival (also performing: Lipstick).

May 26: I AM : RE-BORN tour concert at Daejeon Convention Center in Daejeon, South Korea.

GOLD STAR SOLOIST 3

Promotions for his latest single come to an end and he gets a few days off from any company-mandated schedules before he’s booked for a university festival performance. He played university festivals a lot more in his earlier days than he has in recent years, but Gold Star shopped around to get him booked for one to avoid falling into the trap of completely isolating him from the Korean audience as he pursues English language music this year.

Important dates:

May 22: End of promotions.

May 29: Performance at Hongik University festival (also performing: Lipstick).

SILHOUETTE

Their month kicks off with fittings for their next comeback before they get into learning the choreography that will accompany the title track they recorded as part of their album last month, as well as the choreography for the b-side they’ll be performed on music shows. They’ve also been booked to shoot a commercial for Lotte Goo Goo Cone ice cream and mid-month, it will be time to shoot the pictures for their album’s photo book.

Important dates:

May 4: Comeback MV and stage outfit fittings.

May 6: Lotte Goo Goo Cone CF filming.

May 15: Comeback photo book photo shoot.

ARIA

Aria continues work on their comeback this month with album and teaser photo shoots and the music video filming for their new title track. The first day of MV filming will involve the outdoor scenes in the music video while the second day will be for the indoor scenes in the video. Additionally, university festival seasons means three performances booked for Aria to attend and perform their latest title tracks alongside some of their seniors and juniors.

Important dates:

May 10: Comeback teaser photo shoot and photobook shoot.

May 13: Performance at Wonkwang University festival (also performing: BEE, Lucid, and Gold Star Soloist 2).

May 15: Beautiful Days MV filming day one.

May 16: Beautiful Days MV filming day two.

May 21: Performance at Myeongji University Festival (also performing: Dimensions Soloist 1).

May 28: Performance at Korea University festival (also performing: CHARM and 7ROPHY).

ORIGIN

Origin finishes their Japanese fanmeetings this month with two dates in Osaka, but outside of May 15 through May 18 when they’ll be in Japan, work this month is focused on preparing the performance aspect of their upcoming double comeback. The members will be required to learn and rehearse both the choreography for their first single “Black Swan” and the choreography for their album single “On”.

Important dates:

May 16: Japan Official Fanmeeting Vol.5 ~Magicshop~ at Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Japan.

May 17: Japan Official Fanmeeting Vol.5 ~Magicshop~ at Kyocera in Osaka, Japan.

IMPULSE

With the bulk of their tour completed, it’s time for Impulse to begin work on their next comeback. After attending a few meetings about concepts and album details early in the month, they’re off to spend time in the studio this month to record their comeback album which is slated for a July release, with only a short interruption mid-month to account for a tour date in the Philippines.

Important dates:

May 16: Keep Spinning Tour concert at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Philippines.

FUSE

Just as they’ve been preparing for, the Fuse members hold their Seoul concerts near the end of the month. The two nights are successful in attendance and company profits. Though the lead up to the concerts will continue to include all the rehearsal time Gold Star believes they need to guarantee a show worthy of the company name, the members will also be beginning preparations for their next comeback this month. It will be the finale to their Fuse Festival trilogy they began last year, but there won’t be much to record since it’s a repackage of the first two albums. While in the studio, they’ll need to lay down vocals for “Psycho”, “In & Out”, “Remember Forever”, and some final vocals for “La Rouge”.

Important dates:

May 23: La Rouge concert at Korea University Hwajung Tiger Dome in Seoul.

May 24: La Rouge concert at Korea University Hwajung Tiger Dome in Seoul.

ELEMENT

It’s comeback month, a full year after the last time they released a single. Before promotions kick in, though, Gold Star wants Element to get to work on the YouTube content they’d teased fans with earlier in the year. Early in the month, they’ll have a full day booked in their schedules where the four members will prepare a feast together, from going to the market to buy ingredients to cooking (in the girls’ dorm) together and then filming a mukbang. This will be spread across three different episodes that will be uploaded to YouTube, but will all be filmed over the course of one day. Once promotions begin mid-month, members are told to put all of their focus into giving their best stages possible, as management has failed to book them much promotion outside of music shows this time.

Important dates:

May 6: YouTube market + cooking + mukbang filming.

May 15: Music video reaction video filming.

May 17: Release of “Dumb Litty” & showcase, music show promotions continue until June 17.

FEMME FATALE

Femme Fatale’s packed schedule continues into May. They begin the month in Seoul to finish off music show promotions before flying back out to the US from May 5 to May 15. Once they’re back, in the period from May 15 to May 22 that they’ll be back in Seoul, Gold Star has squeezed in more CF shoots for two new brand ambassador deals they’ve booked as a group: Sprite and Paradise City. The latter deal has a particularly high production budget and will require filming over two separate days before they once again fly out, this time to Europe on May 22.

Important dates:

May 3: End of music show promotions.

May 6: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, USA.

May 7: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, USA.

May 10: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Infinite Energy Center in Duluth, GA, USA.

May 13: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, TX, USA.

May 16: Sprite CF filming.

May 18: Paradise City CF filming day one.

May 19: Paradise City CF filming day two.

May 23: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at AFAS Live in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

May 26: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

May 27: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at SSE Arena, Wembley in London, England.

May 29: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin, Germany.

May 31: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Zénith Paris in Paris, France.

#fmdschedule #queued post

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unproduciblesmackdown · 5 years ago

Note

the unique letters of "william frederick roland"

thank you!! i love that guy

W: Worst month?

february still, but november can eat shit too. xmas is starting to get more annoying and thanksgiving is Worse b/c like, horrible holiday in concept and nothing to celebrate in the least, and it’s alright that people give you food probably but like, the dishes are like, not even the best. nobody likes turkey or yams and yet. and the nightmare of spending time with Family? jesus.....also, it’s just like, you’re facing eons of Winter and it’s already getting cold as shit and when daylight savings begins or ends or whatever and suddenly the sun is down at 4:53pm and it just gets worse from there and it’s just a crap month

I: Interest?

well look if you follow me for like a month you probably catch on to a lot of my Interests but i’ll take this chance to tell a recent only-interesting-to-me story

so back in like middle school yrs (2005-2008) i was real into sherlock holmes stuff!! which is easy to forgot b/c the interest kinda continued into college and then [that text post about the ghost of arthur conan doyle sobbing w/ gratitude to bbc sherlock for achieving his dream of making ppl hate sherlock holmes] and i was like well i’m watching this youtube horror series anyways. but like, in those years, prior to the guy ritchie movie and the Modern SH Media Revival that followed, SH was like, real niche. like obviously everyone knows of it but like. beyond that, kinda obscure at that point to be like, currently and actively ~into~ it. but i was out there watching jeremy brett on pbs Mystery slots, seeing multiple hound of the baskervilles adaptations, and lugging our giant “half of a 2-vol dictionary”-sized copy of the complete canon around, and i read the whole thing

i wasn’t super Online prior to 2008 but somehow i stumbled across such a Wildly Niche thing where this dude in peoria would make “comics” by photographing action figures and giving them speech bubbles and would make really specific references to stories and adaptations and it was really funny to me and that’s how i discovered that there was this particular fan culture self-identified as sherlockians where like, i mean really it’s just that you like sherlock holmes obviously but beyond that, there could be your local sherlockian society which i guess is like a book club roughly but also there’d be things like just making up fun things to do based on the stories, like celebrating reichenbach day by doing whatever you want or referecing the musgrave ritual story in which it’s like “follow these precise directions to Find Thing” and then you do act out those directions....thrilling, right? but i doubt anyone expects this victorian-ass interest to be wildly sexy and heartpounding stuff. and it’s this well-known wide-reaching media so you know there’s room for stuff like books and papers and stuff and just do whatever you want, have this specific nerd community and make up your own funny traditions. and anyways, this guy had a whole blog about it in addition to his Comics, and i’d email him sometimes with questions about stuff, and i think it was from there that i first found out about The 2009 Movie existing, which Was thrilling, b/c it was so out of the blue. gr8 stuff

anyways i’ve remember the existence of this one guy and his blog in year since, but it was only a couple nights ago that i was like “well let’s look it up” and discovered that he’s been updating the blog super regularly the whole time in this literal decade since. i also followed him on twitter and dropped a comment on a post which i know he saw b/c it was anonymous and thus required moderator approval before being posted. like, you love to see it. and even though i loathe bbc sh still and have gone through Other Interests in the meantime, every big interest i’ve ever had is still in there mostly dormant yanno. anyways i thought it was cool. i’m glad for this guy who i last talked to when i was like 13 and now i’m 25.

L: Last name?

still Burrows

(L I.........Amphibian)

A: Ambition?

hmmb thinking of another one......if i’m in a position to bake a homemade batch of chocolate chip cookies, i’m probably thriving. and also i always want a lot of chocolate chip cookies, to eat

M: (favourite) Month?

also may is the anti-november......by that point it’s probably Consistently Warm and life and sunlight has returned

F: (best) Friend?

soph nothingunrealistic my fave rave

R: Realest dream?

i don’t really have an answer whether i interpret it as “literal dream that felt real” or “aspiration type dream that seems most achievable” smh

E: Easiest subject?

i tended to have a decent time w/ any Social Studies type stuff. probably b/c i was Interested

D: Describe yourself.

uh physically it’s like, six ft tall, white, short brown hair, glasses, probably wearing jeans/shorts and a tee, kinda nondescript. personality wise i’m kind of all or nothing.....usually Unusually quiet and trying to avoid interaction / attention, but when i’m Being Myself i like things like being somewhat impulsive and being around a lot of people / a lot of activity, and i’m a real motormouth who likes to talk and laugh and sometimes like being loud even though i’m bad at it lol. short-tempered and argumentative and opinionated, so you Know that’s a recipe for a good time. but uhh i’m Passionate. also i think being autistic makes me seem weird so idk abt that. Theatre / Horror / Tired / oppossum lifestyle gay

C: (favourite) Colour?

that one blue. curious blue or picton blue or w/e. it’s this turquoisey azure cerulean type business

K: (first) Kiss?

never happened lmao....there’s that most recent person you kissed where i count the time i performance-art kissed a friend on the cheek like 7-9 yrs ago. once since then someone kissed me but i wasn’t exactly into it so i don’t count it

O: Oldest family member?

i guess maybe my cool probably gay fancy rich-ish great uncle in new hampshire?? i Think he’s my grandma’s older brother.....

N: Next thing you have to do?

fuck-all!!!! probably should get some type of food or smthing tho

#Anonymous

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ayearofpike · 6 years ago

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Black Knight (Witch World, Vol. 2)

Simon Pulse, 2014 441 pages, 9 chapters + prologue and epilogue ISBN 978-1-4424-6734-7 LOC: PZ7.P626 Bl 2014 OCLC: 1065025018 Released December 2, 2104 (per B&N)

A month after her connection, Jessie Ralle starts dreaming about a young thief who mysteriously disappears in a flash of light. On the ninth night of the same lucid dream, she herself sees the flash, and wakes up next to the thief and four others in transport to a deserted jungle island. There are no ideas, no instructions, no obvious goals. There’s just a clue, a plaque mounted near their drop-off point that indicates that six groups just like theirs are here, but only one will make it out alive.

In other words: Remember that world-building we had in the first book, where it was implied that Jessie and her baby daughter were going to be integral components to the new and evolving leadership among the witch council? Remember the difficulty and heartbreak of Jimmy only being alive in one half of her life? Remember the potential new bonds of realizing her father was active in her upbringing, and could be again in both worlds? Well, fuck all that — let’s have a Hunger Games.

OK, technically this is more like Battle Royale, and Pike actually makes a reference to it as the young adults acclimate to their surroundings. But it is undeniable the influence that Suzanne Collins had on YA fiction, and certainly YA sci-fi/fantasy/analogues. In the wake of Katniss Everdeen, the market felt like it made a hard shift from doomed supernatural romances to dystopian future societies. It would be irresponsible of Pike to not try to cash in on that.

But this book ... is lacking in this regard. Collins’ success was not just that she made us care about Katniss, but that we cared about the bigger problem endemic to her (and all the other contestants’) situation. And Pike doesn’t give us enough to care about here. We don’t know what the stakes are, beyond survival. We don’t know who these people are, where they come from, or what they have to live for. We don’t even know where they are or why. I’m assuming there was another book or two planned for this series that would eventually get us to the meanings and revelations of this battle and why they were chosen to fight it and what ultimately was to come out of it. But this shit was so unsatisfying and we care so little about anyone or anything here that I can’t imagine we’ll ever see resolution.

(Like, does Pike even care? He claimed when the first one came out that it was going to be his “finest work,” and that the series could go “over ten books.” But it’s been almost five years and we haven’t seen another one of these. He didn’t mention his newer works at ALL in that recent Electric Lit interview. So who knows?)

The biggest problem is that the characters and setting we already know makes such a drastic shift to accommodate this story. And, like, I get it. The model of the industry, especially when this book came out, almost requires that you have established characters and an ongoing storyline before you ever publish anything. But it doesn’t feel connected to what’s come before. At all. It’s a new place we’ve never seen, everyone in the action except Jessie is a new character (and remember there are thirty-five of them), and there is almost zero resolution or explanation for what’s happening. There’s no reason this couldn’t have been literally anybody. Like, this could just as easily have been a Sita book, and maybe it would have actually made more sense, except that there’s no other vampires left. It probably shouldn’t have been a book about Jessie, who has a uniquely important position in witch world in light of the high-profile deaths she’s overseen and her responsibility to the Special. None of what happens in this story fits with anything that’s led up to it, and we are left a) wondering why the hell we’re reading this and b) ultimately unsatisfied.

I don’t even necessarily feel like there’s much to summarize, but I’m gonna do it anyway, because I’m dedicated.

We start with a chapter about the thief — Marc — whose MO is to hide in the trunk of a fancy car he’s valet-parked, wait for the owner to take him home, and then make off with the jewelry she (usually it’s a she) was wearing after she falls asleep. This heist is going to be his last job, because he doesn’t want to risk someone putting together a pattern that these high-profile thefts all came in the wake of the victims having been at his theater. So he steals the lady’s necklace and then her car to safely get out of Dodge, but when he stops to take a leak the light appears.

This is the dream Jessie has for over a week. The rest of the story is told from her immediate perspective, in first-person present tense just like a good little dystopian. She’s wondering about the dream, but she’s more concerned about who she just saw in the mall: the Highlander and President Coroner, just sitting there eating ice cream like they didn’t both get fatal holes in their chests last month. And yes, this is in witch world, where they died. She tails them and discovers they’re staying with (of course) the Alchemist, who tells Jessie there’s a reason for this and she needs to be prepared for ... something big, he isn’t clear on it. The Council has more info, maybe: the bad witches need to replace their leadership, and Jessie is first in line because she facilitated the killing. But what about the fact that she just saw President Coroner? The Council has an answer to that as well: one of the witch genes allows its bearer to control time, and so probably the Alchemist has that and has brought her and the Highlander forward from the past for some reason.

So Jessie goes home and has the dream again, only this time when the light appears she feels as though she’s yanked from her bed. She wakes up in the real world (and yes, I have expressed my hate for these names, but I’m sticking with them for consistency’s sake) in some kind of a shipping container with five other dudes, all of them wearing identical green outfits and matching unbreakable bracelets. And yes, one of them is Marc. The others are a precocious genius who’s going to MIT at 16, a quiet and scared Korean girl, an Israeli military fighter, and a Sudanese farmer who exudes strength and just seems to accept the situation. All of them were snatched at about the same time, globally and not locally — morning for the Americans, evening for Africa and Israel, middle of the night in Korea. But as far as Jessie can tell, she’s the only witch. So what is this about?

They don’t get very far before the next chapter, where Jessie wakes up in witch world and realizes she’s in some deep shit. She spends all day trying to find Marc, but like ... if he’s not connected, how is this going to help? She ends up not doing anything about it, and awakens again in the real world on some kind of volcanic jungle island. They find the aforementioned plaque and immediately realize that they’re going to need to work together and find a place to defend. They also need food, and so Jessie has to start showing her hand when she catches a bunch of fish just by grabbing them out of the water. They find a cave to hide out in, but they also see some fast-moving people in gray outfits, presumably another set of contestants.

The Israeli wants to hunt them down — kill before we get killed, she says — and so everyone except the brain and the Korean go tracking. What they find is a grotesque death scene: five bodies in various states of dismemberment. It’s not the gray people there, though: it’s a giant Swede who has a deal for Jessie. He wants her to kill her humans as a show of faith, and he’ll do the same, and then they can team up against the other witches. Because of course he’s gotten all the information already, having made better use of his interim day in witch world than stalking some boy. Jessie refuses, and they fight, only the Swede has a healing factor that works almost immediately. Luckily some of Jessie’s time-controlling gene kicks in and she manages to run away, but her teammates aren’t so lucky. Another witch shows up and throws motherfucking LAVA at them, killing the Israeli and spearing the Sudanese to a tree.

So her next day in witch world needs to be more productive than the last one. Jessie calls up the Council, who is all pissed off that she didn’t come to them already. To survive, they say, she’s gonna have to go back to the Alchemist, because obviously this is what he wanted to prepare her for. So she shows up and talks to the Highlander, who starts working with her on fighting. Specifically, he forcibly activates her telekinesis power by throwing her off a cliff. So after this she’s gonna want to unwind with her family and enjoy their time together, right? Nope — she goes straight to Marc’s house and tells him the world’s least believable story, ending in the prospect that she might want to try to kill him so his witch powers activate in the other world. But haven’t we already said that killing someone in witch world means they’re totally dead? Technicalities. So she gets home and, oh shit, Jimmy’s mad that she went on a date with some random dude without talking to him at all about her troubles! What a silly boy!

When they wake up in the real world again, the Sudanese warrior is totally healed. Apparently the Korean girl has a super-powered healing factor even though she’s not a witch, tied somehow to the death of her twin sister, who presumably channels the power through her. They’ve also been offered a truce by a couple of other witches, not the ones who tried to kill them last night. So they partner up, but the Korean girl’s healing factor is instantly undone when she tries to fix one of the other dude’s teammates but they die randomly on the walk. (Probably actually secretly strangled by the lava-thrower, who Jessie learned yesterday can also make herself invisible.) They talk about the bracelets, which have some kind of weird stone inside, and one of the other witches says he’s found the source: a giant wall that blocks off half of the island they’re on, which you can only see if you climb to the top of the volcano.

As they’re walking, the gray team attacks ... sort of. These people are short and pale, almost albinos, but they move faster than any human can and Jessie knows they have some kind of group mind that allows them to work together. They surround the group and lure them into a battle with the giant Swede, and while they’re fighting him the invisible lava thrower murders all the humans except five: Marc (who does take a poisoned knife to the back), brain boy, Korean healer, and two dudes on a new witch’s team. Jessie manages to lop off her hand and collect her bracelet before she totally vanishes and gets away. Oh, and the other witch has captured the leader of the albinos, and is holding her hostage to attempt to lure in the rest of them. She doesn’t talk, but her telepathy is unsettling at best.

Jimmy shakes her awake in witch world and tells her to do whatever she has to in order to survive. If that means blowing another dude, whatever. So Jessie calls up the Council, which gives her a little more info on the two witches she’s teamed up with. Watch out for the second one, they say (not the one who’s tied up an albino), because he might have choked his last boyfriend to death and successfully covered it up. She goes back to the Alchemist’s house, where President Coroner pins her down about why their present selves can’t help Jessie train. So she has to limit just what she says about their deaths, and in turn they limit telling her that they traveled to Jessie’s funeral in the near future.

Fuck this training, then, right? Jessie figures the only thing to do is help Marc live, and to do that she’ll have to activate his witch genes. But to convince him to die she’s probably gonna have to give up the booty ... only she can’t do it, she’s too busy thinking of Jimmy for a change in this novel. He wants to go through with it anyway (the death, I mean) but she has second thoughts and isn’t ready to put him through it. So they fall asleep next to each other and wake up in a cave on the side of the volcano, where the other two witches are fighting. It seems the first dude had his teammates on watch, but they mysteriously choked to death in the night while the second dude was backing them up. Huh. But they have to keep moving, climbing to the place where the second dude said he saw the wall, for ... like, reasons.

They find another cave near the top of the volcano, and inside there are drawings showing a woman who looks suspiciously like the Council president touching a bracelet to a giant wall. They have to learn more, but the second witch isn’t eager to reapproach the wall. Brain Boy wants to go, so they agree that Chokey Witch can watch Healing Girl and Slowly Dying Marc while the rest of them investigate. Brain Boy touches the wall and freezes, and even though Jessie knocks him away immediately he senses that a lot more time passed, and he’s seen things that happened in witch world but not the real world. So Jessie wants to try, and when she touches it she’s suddenly playing red queen with the dead gambler from the first book, who reminds her that there’s more to the game than just the next card in her own hand. What? I don’t know.

She comes to on the ground with a lot of screaming going on. The Swede is back, so she and the first witch have to fight him. But he forgets Jessie’s plan and attacks weird, getting stabbed in the gut by one of the flying spears Jessie is controlling with her new telekinesis. Oh, and here’s Invisible Lava Thrower too, about to kill Brain Boy! He acknowledges that there’s nothing he can do and succumbs so Jessie has enough time to grab the Swede’s head and crank it around 360 degrees. Lava Girl vanishes, and Jessie picks up our other witch and carries him back to the cave, which is suddenly being guarded by all six albino dwarves. The other witch says that in this proximity, killing the leader will cause all of them to die because of the group mind, so Jessie sneaks up and lops off her head, and then goes inside the cave by herself.

Sure enough, there’s Lava Girl, holding Chokey at machete-point. Marc is mostly submerged in a freezing stream, and Healing Girl is just, like, there. Chokey fights free, but of course Lava Girl hits him with ... you know, because they’re INSIDE A FUCKING VOLCANO. Only Jessie has realized something: these bracelets with the rock inside that matches the wall control their physical connection to the island. Lava Girl looks sick, pale, and weak since she’s lost hers, and when Jessie casually chucks it into the lava she drops dead.

And now Healing Girl comes to. She wants to try to help revive Marc before it’s too late, and wants to study the poisoned knife. Only she then tries to stab Jessie with it. Turns out that when she was alone with the first witch, the one hiding outside with a spear through his guts, he used his strongest power: mental suggestion. He turned Healing Girl into a slave, designed to kill those who weren’t expecting it. Jessie uses all her mental powers to break the hold, upon which Healing Girl ... jumps right into the motherfucking lava herself.

I don’t know, I guess because we’re getting close to the end.

So Jessie disguises herself as Healing Girl and goes to confront the last witch standing besides herself. Who, surprise, does NOT have a spear through his guts. Apparently he can disguise himself too, in addition to the hypnosis. So he tells her to kill herself with the knife, but she stabs him in the lungs just before dropping her disguise, and then ... slits her wrists.

So Marc can live.

Because only one can survive, and of course it should be some dude we just met rather than the main character of the LAST TWO BOOKS. THE ENTIRE SERIES THUS FAR.

But as Jessie’s soul is floating away, she sees something. She sees herself, only older. Even though I thought once you were connected you stopped aging. And she tells herself that it’s not over, and they can go wherever they want to go ... or whenever, rather.

The epilogue takes place at Jessie’s memorial service (not actually a funeral, because there is no body, Jessie’s just been missing for a month but because Marc is now connected they think they know what happened) where Jimmy approaches Marc and they talk about what they know. In particular, Jimmy asks Marc to watch after his real-world son, who oh yeah there was an unfollowed thread where they got a DNA report that said he wasn’t actually Jimmy’s kid but it was also prepared by Jessie’s still-mostly-absentee father who has an agenda in ascending the ranks of the Council so its authenticity is questionable. But then they talk about Jessie and ... neither one thinks she’s actually dead.

And that.

Is the end of Black Knight.

I can sort of pick out the seeds that Pike is sowing in this story. I can start to sense the coming trails and paths the characters might walk in the supposedly potential ten-book series about witches. But like. You just essentially killed your MAIN CHARACTER. Your NARRATOR. And we don’t actually care about this jewel thief guy, who by all appearances is a BAD PERSON. But you went ahead and put him in the forefront.

Is it any wonder this series fizzled out? Part of why I (and maybe a lot of us) got tired of dystopian fiction is that so many authors felt the need to keep raining shit on their protagonists. And yeah, this is another Hunger Games thing, but there’s a reason there — the dictatorial leadership fighting to keep rebellion down. To be perfectly honest, even though I see that reason, I didn’t like it there either. At some point, I wanted Collins to HELP Katniss rather than repeatedly jamming a boot in her face. We want to trust our authors to care about the protagonist the way we’re supposed to care. So when writers keep making their characters climb uphill, for no reason other than to try to get readers to buy the next one and see how they get over the obstacles, it becomes stale. If they obviously don’t care, why should we?

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blackkudos · 6 years ago

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Lil’ Kim

Kimberly Denise Jones (born July 11, 1974 or 1975) known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, model, and actress. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, living much of her adolescent life on the streets after being expelled from home. In her teens, Jones would freestyle rap, heavily influenced by actress/singer Diana Ross, and fellow female hip-hop artists like MC Lyte and The Lady of Rage. Performing a freestyle rap for The Notorious B.I.G. got her music career start in 1995 with his group Junior M.A.F.I.A., whose debut album Conspiracy generated three hit singles.

Kimberly Jones' debut studio album, Hard Core (1996) was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and spawned three consecutive No. 1 rap hits: "No Time", "Not Tonight (Ladies Night remix)", and "Crush on You", a record for a female rapper. Her following albums, The Notorious K.I.M. (2000) and La Bella Mafia (2003), were certified Platinum, making her the only female rapper besides Missy Elliott to have at least 3 platinum albums. She was featured on the single, "Lady Marmalade", which also had guest vocals by fellow recording artists Mýa, Pink and Christina Aguilera (a remake of the 1975 smash hit, originally recorded by LaBelle) which went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, making her the first female rapper to have a No. 1 on that chart. In addition, the remake won two MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year, and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 44th Grammy Awards in 2002. In 2005, she served a yearlong prison sentence for lying to a jury about her friends' involvement in a shooting four years earlier. During her incarceration, her fourth album The Naked Truth was released. She returned to the public eye in 2009 with an appearance on Dancing with the Stars.

Throughout her career, Jones has earned several accolades for her work. Her songs "No Time", "Big Momma Thang" and "Ladies Night" were listed on Complex Magazine's "The 50 Best Rap Songs By Women", at number 24, 13 and 7, respectively. Crush On You, It's All About the Benjamins and Money, Power, Respect appear on VH1's "The 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs". In 2012, she was honorably listed on VH1's "100 Greatest Women In Music" list at number 45, the second highest position for a solo female hip-hop artist.

Life and career

Early life and career beginnings

Jones was born in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of the New York City borough Brooklyn, to parents Linwood Jones and Ruby Jones (now Ruby Jones-Mitchell). At the age of 9, her parents separated, and her father raised her until he expelled her from home when she was a teenager. She lived with her friends and on the street. While struggling through her personal life, Jones met The Notorious B.I.G. (real name Christopher Wallace), who was a key figure in both her personal and artistic life, particularly when Wallace had gained popularity and influence through his relationship with Bad Boy Records (which belonged to P-Diddy). Jones attended Sarah J. Hale Vocational High School for two and a half years. Many of her friends also went there and she would often skip school to hang out with them. Since her school work wasn't being completed, the decision was made for her to transfer to Brooklyn College Academy to finish her remaining year and half of school. It was the same school that fellow rappers Nas and Foxy Brown also attended. In 1994, B.I.G. was instrumental in introducing and promoting the Brooklyn-based group, Junior M.A.F.I.A., which included Jones, who was only 19 at the time. The group's first and only album, Conspiracy, was released on August 29, 1995 and debuted at number eight on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 69,000 copies in its first week of release. Three hit singles came from Conspiracy: "Player's Anthem" (peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and No. 2 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart), "I Need You Tonight" (No. 43 R&B, No. 12 Rap), and "Get Money" (No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 4 R&B, No. 2 Rap). The RIAA certifiedConspiracy gold on December 6, 1995. "Player's Anthem" and "Get Money" were certified gold and platinum respectively.

1996–2002: Hard Core and The Notorious K.I.M.

After a year with Junior M.A.F.I.A., Jones began a solo career by making guest performances on R&B albums and recording her debut album, Hard Core, which was released in November 1996. The album debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard 200, the highest debut for a female rap album at that time, and No. 3 on Billboard‍ ' s Top R&B Albums, selling 78,000 copies in its first week of release. Hard Corewas certified double platinum by the RIAA on March 14, 2001 after having been certified gold on January 6, 1997 and platinum on June 3, 1997. The album's lead single "No Time", a duet with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs (who would later change his stage name to "P. Diddy" and then "Diddy"), reached the top spot of the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart and was certified gold by the RIAA. The following single, "Crush on You", reached No. 6 on the Hot 100 and No. 2 on the rap chart. A remix of the album's track "Not Tonight" saw Jones team up with Missy Elliott, Angie Martinez, Da Brat and Left Eye of TLC. The song was part of the soundtrack to the Martin Lawrence movie Nothing To Lose, nominated for a Grammy Award, and certified platinum. In one stockholders' meeting of Warner Bros. Records, activist C. Delores Tucker criticized the label "for producing this filth," referring to perceived graphic sexual content in Jones' lyrics, and labeling them "gangsta porno rap". In 1997, Jones promoted Hard Core by performing on P. Diddy's "No Way Out" tour. The tour continued though to 1998 and became one of the highest grossing hip-hop tours of all time, grossing an estimated $16 million. That same year, she launched her own label Queen Bee Entertainment. From 1998 to 2000, Jones continued her road to stardom under the management of B.I.G.'s best friend, Damion "D-Roc" Butler's "Roc Management", touring and modeling for various fashion and pop culture companies including Candies, Versace, Iceberg, and Baby Phat. and even though she had not had an album of her own released, she was seen on dozens of remixes and guest appearances on other artist's records.

On June 27, 2000, Jones released her second album The Notorious K.I.M. The album marked a new image and revamped look for the rapper. Despite the limited success of its singles, the album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, selling 229,000 copies in its first week. It was certified platinum by the RIAA, four weeks after its release. It was on this LP that the well-known hip-hop feud between Jones and Foxy Brown escalated. In 2001, Jones teamed up with Christina Aguilera, Pink, and Mýa to remake "Lady Marmalade", which was originally written about a bordello in New Orleans and performed by the group Labelle (which included diva Patti LaBelle) 25 years earlier. The song was recorded for the Moulin Rouge! film soundtrack, released in April 2001, and stayed No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks. The song also went to No. 1 in 50 countries around the world. This was a big accomplishment for female rap, as well as for Jones, who scored her first No. 1 Hot 100 hit and became the second female rapper in history to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. "Lady Marmalade" also garnered Jones her first Grammy Award. Jones also performed in two international hit singles. "In the Air Tonite", a remix of the Phil Collins song "In the Air Tonight" and duet with Collins, was released as a single from the Collins tribute album Urban Renewal. The second single, "Kimnotyze", was released as the lead single of record producer DJ Tomekk's compilation album Beat Of Life, Vol 1. It was released in Switzerland, Austria and Germany only. The song was successful, becoming Jones third consecutive top 10 hit in Germany after her number 5 hit "Lady Marmalade".

In 2002, Jones recorded a new entrance theme for then World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Women's Champion Trish Stratus entitled, "Time to Rock 'n Roll", which was used during broadcasts, until Stratus' retirement. The single was released on WWE Anthology, a compilation of entrance theme music to various professional wrestling superstars. Jones released the buzz song "Whats The Word" in mid-2002. Despite not having an official release, it went on to peak at number 9 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. It would later be released on the Japan edition of her third studio album, La Bella Mafia, as a bonus track.

2003–05: La Bella Mafia and legal problems

On March 4, 2003, Jones released her third studio album, La Bella Mafia. It debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200, selling 166,000 copies in its first week, giving Jones her second consecutive top 5 album. The album received generally positive reviews from critics, receiving a score of 65 on Metacritic. A buzz single, "Came Back For You", was released ahead of the album, the music video for the song featured reality television personality Victoria Gotti. The first single, "The Jump Off", featuring Mr. Cheeks, peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. Follow up single, "Magic Stick", featuring 50 Cent, peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, staying there for three weeks. The song never had a commercial release or a music video, but was successful due to high radio airplay, peaking at number 1 on Billboards Airplay chart. A third US only single, "Thug Luv", featuring Twista, was released in the last quarter of 2003 at peaked at number 60 on Billboards Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The album was certified platinum in the US, selling over 1.1 million copies. Jones promoted the album with a string of concerts, which also featured DMX and Nas. Jones was nominated for five Source Awards and won two ("Female Hip-Hop Artist of the Year", and "Female Single of the Year"). The album also got two Grammy Award nominations for Best Female Rap Solo Performance ("Came Back For You") and Best Rap Collaboration ("Magic Stick"). She was also nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with singer Christina Aguilera for the song "Can't Hold Us Down", from Aguilera's album Stripped.

Greg Thomas, an English professor at Syracuse University, began teaching "Hip-Hop Eshu: Queen B@#$H Lyricism 101". Jones herself was a guest speaker at the school. Professor Thomas considered Jones' lyrics "the art with the most profound sexual politics I've ever seen anywhere." David Horowitz criticized the course as "academic degeneracy and decline". Jones also made an appearance on the multi-platform videogame Def Jam: Fight for NY. Jones provided voice-overs for her part in the storyline, where the player may fight an opponent to have Jones as their girlfriend. In 2004, Jones recorded a cover of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" which was used as the opening theme for Victoria Gotti's reality series Growing Up Gotti. The same year Jones was featured on the remix of "Naughty Girl" by Beyoncé Knowles. In December 2004, Jones began recording a pilot for a VH1 reality show titled 718 Makeover. The 718 in the title is the area code for Brooklyn, where Jones grew up. The show never made it to air.

On March 17, 2005, Jones was convicted of three counts of conspiracy and one count of perjury for lying to a Federal grand jury about her and her friends' involvement in a 2001 shooting outside the Hot 97 studios in Manhattan. During the trial of her co-manager, Damion "D-Roc" Butler, and her bodyguard, Suif "Gutta" Jackson, a former member of the hip-hop group Junior M.A.F.I.A, she testified not to have known they were at the scene. However, video footage from a security camera placed all three at the scene, exiting the building. This directly contravened testimony before the grand jury. Butler and Jackson have since pled guilty to gun charges. Jackson was sentenced, in U.S. District Court, to twelve years in federal prison as part of plea bargain in which he admitted to firing at least twenty rounds during the incident. The length of the sentence was said to have been influenced by his previous gun-related convictions. In July 2005, Jones was sentenced to a one-year and a day in prison, thirty days home detention upon release from custody, and three years of probation. She served the entirety of her sentence at the Federal Detention Center, Philadelphia in Center City, Philadelphia. She was released on July 3, 2006, after serving approximately 12 months. Jones, Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Register #56198-054, was released from BOP supervision on August 2, 2006.

2005–08: The Naked Truth and Ms. G.O.A.T

Jones released her fourth album, The Naked Truth, on September 27, 2005, while serving a federal prison sentence. It earned her a 5 mic rating from The Source, making her the only female rapper to ever receive a 5 mic rating. The album debuted at No. 6 on theBillboard 200 chart, selling 109,000 copies in its first week of release, giving Jones her third Top 10 debut on the chart. The Naked Truth did not sell as well as her previous works, it only managed to reach a Gold certification by RIAA. She said that her prison sentence left her with no time to promote the project. The music video for The Naked Truth's first single, "Lighters Up", was number one on BET's 106 & Park for two weeks. "Lighters Up" was a Top Ten hit on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. The single also reached No. 67 on the German Single Chart, No. 12 on the UK Top 75 and No. 4 on the Finland Single Chart. The second single, "Whoa" was released on February 17, 2006. It reached No. 22 on Airplay.

On March 9, 2006, BET premiered the show Lil' Kim: Countdown to Lockdown, which was filmed before Jones headed to prison. The show became the highest rated premiere in BET history, averaging 1.9 million viewers. In May 2006, Debbie Harry released a song in tribute to Jones called "Dirty and Deep" in protest of her conviction. The song was available for free from her official website. The Dance Remixes, her first compilation album was released on June 6, 2006. The album featured remixes of songs from The Naked Truth and Hard Core. A limited pressing released only in the US, it received no promotion, due to Jones being in prison at the time of release, and failed to chart. On August 31, 2006, Jones presented the award for Best Male Video at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, it marked her first televised appearance since being released from prison. She also made appearances on the show The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll and Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious in 2007 and 2008 as a judge.

In January 2008, Jones announced that she had parted ways with Atlantic Records, choosing to release future projects independently. She stated she had no hard feelings towards Atlantic but felt more comfortable in her knowledge of the music business to do it alone. Jones released her first mixtape, Ms. G.O.A.T., an acronym for "Greatest of All Time", on June 3, 2008. It was produced by New York City DJs Mister Cee and DJ Whoo Kid. Among critics, the mixtape received generally positive reviews. It has been called a representation of Jones's return to the streets. Tito Salinas of All Hip Hop says "Lil' Kim shows that her time behind bars did not rust all of her swag away" on Ms. G.O.A.T. On the other hand, Ehren Gresehover of New York Mag says that although one of the tracks "The Miseducation of Lil' Kim" is not bad, he wished that it was Lauryn Hill who was making a comeback instead.

2009–11: Dancing with the Stars and Black Friday

On March 10, 2009, the song "Girls" by Korean singer Seven featuring Jones was released through digital stores as his U.S. debut single. Jones appeared in the music video that was released on the same day. "Girls" was produced by Darkchild. On March 24, 2009, she released the song "Download" featuring R&B singers T-Pain and Charlie Wilson. It was written by Jones and T-Pain and produced by Trackmasters. The song samples "Computer Love" by Zapp. Although it missed the Hot 100, it did chart on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, peaking at number 21.

Jones appeared on the eighth season of reality series Dancing with the Stars, which began airing on March 9, 2009. She was paired with professional dancer Derek Hough until the dance couple was eliminated on May 5, 2009 against Ty Murray and his partner Chelsie Hightower, putting her at fifth place from all thirteen contestants that season. Her elimination was met by many boos from the audience, as she was a consistent high-scorer and a fan favorite.

On February 16, 2010, the Ludacris song "Hey Ho", which featured Jones and Lil Fate, was released as a promo single for his seventh studio album Battle of the Sexes. In June 2010, Jones started her 2010 Tour, her first headlining tour since 2000. It took her across the US, as well as Canada and Europe.

Jones released her second mixtape, Black Friday, on February 14, 2011. The video for the title track was released on February 16, 2011. The mixtape received mostly negative reviews from critics. It was made available for purchase via PayPal with the first 100,000 copies sold being signed by the rapper. In May 2011, Jones performed in South Africa as part of the music festival ZarFest alongside Fat Joe, Timbaland and Ciara. On June 19, 2011, Jones performed alongside G-Unit member Shawty Lo and hinted a possible working relationship with G-Unit Records. That same month the song Jones, along with Rick Ross, was featured on titled "Anything (To Find You)", by R&B singer Monica was leaked. The song, which samples The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Who Shot Ya?", initially featured just Jones, but her second verse was removed to make room for Ross. Her vocals were then removed fully due to contractual issues with B.I.G's estate. In August 2011, Jones performed four dates in Australia as part of the WinterBeatz Festival alongside Fabolous, Mario, 50 Cent and G-Unit. During the August, 17 date in Perth, she joined 50 Cent on stage for a performance of "Magic Stick". It marked the first time the pair had performed the song together. On November 28, 2011, Jones released a buzz single called "I Am Not the One". She also announced that she would release an EP, but it was later shelved for unknown reasons.

2012–present: Fifth studio album and "Hard Core Mixtape"

In the summer of 2011, Jones began recording material for her fifth studio album, as a restriction banning her from releasing new material as a result of her settlement with Trackmasters was lifted.

On Valentine's Day, 2012, Jones released the song "If You Love Me" produced by "Prince Saheb" of Knockout Entertainment as a gift to her fans. That same month it was announced she would make her return to the stage on BET's Rip the Runway. It marked her first televised performance in years. In March 2012, during an interview with MTV's Sucker Free, Jones revealed that contract issues with production duo Trackmasters were the reason behind her album delay, saying "...contractually, by the courts, I could not record any music – I wasn't supposed to put any music out." On March 23, 2012, the song "Keys To The City", a collaboration with Young Jeezy, was leaked to the Internet. Jones first mentioned the song during an interview with MTV's RapFix, saying "I have a song with another celebrity person that I know the world and my fans are gonna love... It's vintage Kim mixed with the new Kim." During the same RapFix interview, Jones also revealed another song, titled "I'm Ready", which she hopes to do with rapper 50 Cent. Jones also commented on the direction of her music, saying she was in "Kanye West mode", adding "...You do whatever you want to do ...it's all about taking chances".

Jones kicked off her Return of the Queen Tour on May 17, 2012 to positive reviews. In a radio interview at 99 Jamz, Jones stated that her upcoming book, The Price of Loyalty, is on hold to coincide with the release of her new album. It was also revealed in 2012 that Jones had signed upcoming female rapper Tiffany Foxx to her label, IRS Records.

On March 6, 2013, Jones returned to Rap Fix Live and revealed that Bangladesh would be executive producing her album with her, and that she had signed a business deal with former Chairman and CEO of EMI Records, Charles Koppelman. however Bangladesh later stated in an interview that "[didn't] think it was going to work out.". During an interview with XXL on April 26, 2013, Jones revealed that she does not have a name for the album yet, but the first official single would be out by mid year. Jones described the single, produced by Bangladesh, as "different" and "sweet dessert". On July 11, 2013, Jones released the Rockwilder produced single "Looks Like Money" as a free download to her fans on her birthday. On July 26, 2013 Jones announced and released the cover art for a new mixtape entitled Hard Core 2K13, which will also serve as a sequel to her critically acclaimed debut album, Hard Core. The mixtape was originally set to be released on October 31, 2013, but for unknown reasons, was pushed back. To make up for not releasing the mixtape, Jones released the singles "Dead Gal Walking" and "Kimmy Blanco" to the public, along with the tracklist. The tracklist revealed collaborations with French Montana, Miley Cyrus, Jadakiss and Yo Gotti.

On January 17, 2014, Canadian make-up artist and photographer Samantha Ravndahl filed a lawsuit against Jones, claiming that Jones had stolen an image from her Reddit page to use for her "Dead Gal Walking" single artwork. Ravndahl first tried amicably resolving the issue soon after the single was released in November by asking Jones to remove the image from her social media sites, but after continued social media posts containing the artwork, she followed through with a lawsuit. The stolen image depicts Ravndahl herself modeling a "zombie-style" make-up design of her own creation. In the lawsuit complaint, Ravndahl's attorney's claim that: "Ravndahl believes that Lil' Kim, acting through her agent, Whosay, Inc., slapped Lil' Kim's name and copyright notice over Ravndahl's face and makeup design on Ravndahl's photograph before distributing it all over the web." The case has been filed through a Federal District Court in California and Ravndahl is seeking $150,000 in damages from Jones, plus attorney fees. A jury is being requested in the trial. Jones has not made any public statements concerning the issue other than crediting her graphic designer on her Twitter page, as well as stating in an interview to XXL magazine, "I don't know what the heck is going on, if there were something going on, my team would know better than I would. You have to get that from my team because I really don't know what's going on." On February 18, 2014, Jones released another single from Hard Core Mixtape 2k14. The single, entitled "Haterz," features lyrics by Jones and rapper B-Ford and was released on her Twit Music page where fans could download it. In April, the single was released on iTunes.

On August 2, 2014, Jones announced via her Twitter page a concert tour for her much anticipated Hardcore Mixtape. Details have yet to surface about concert dates or locations. Throughout the remainder of the month of August, Jones released a number of songs via her Twit Music account: A remix to Beyoncé's and Nicki Minaj's collaboration of "Flawless" (August 4), "Identity Theft" (August 6), A freestyle entitled "Hot Nigga" (August 7),a freestyle to "No Flex Zone" by Rae Sremmurd (August 26), and a remix to Iggy Azalea's "Fancy".

On September 11, 2014, the Hard Core mixtape was released as free download on Kim's official website. In an interview with Revolt TV on the same day, Jones revealed that she, Iggy Azalea, and Rapper T.I. will be collaborating on a song some time in the future, citing "I don't know if it's going to be for my album or if we're just going to…we have other plans for it as well. But, I think we're going to do a double release." In the same interview, she explained the reasons why the mixtape was pushed back twice, stating "When this project was supposed to come out I had got pregnant. I didn't know. [...] Once I became fully pregnant, I was working in the studio but at one point I couldn't work anymore, obviously,".

Products and endorsements

In 1998, Jones signed to Wilhelmina Models. That same year she was announced as the face for the fashion brand Candie's alongside Brandy. She became the first and only rapper to endorse the brand to date. In 2000, Jones signed a deal with fashion house Iceberg, and also with cosmetics brand MAC to help endorse their VIVA GLAM line of lipsticks and lip glosses alongside Mary J. Blige. The MAC VIVA GLAM III campaign, which was built around a plum-brown lipstick, helped raise $4 million for the company in one year and became the most successful VIVA GLAM campaign to date. Due to the success, the two signed on for a second year. The rapper also modeled for the urban fashion line Baby Phat in August 2000. In March 2001, Jones, along with several other artists, featured in a commercial for Apple's Mac computers. It highlighted how users can burn custom CD's on their Mac. In 2003, Jones became the spokesperson for American clothing brand Old Navy. That same year her song "The Jump Off" was used in a commercial for AOL's dial up Internet service.

In 2004, it was announced that Jones would launch a designer watch collection, titled Royalty by Lil' Kim. Jeweler Jacob Arabo manufactured the watches. She also debuted her first clothing line, entitled Hollyhood. Jones also lent her voice to the video game Def Jam: Fight for NY which she was featured in. In 2005, Jones collaborated on a shoe line with high end shoe store, Petite Peton. That same year Jones was featured as a character in the limited edition comic book "The Heist". The book was a collaboration between Marvel and Atlantic Records. In August 2010, Jones signed a deal with Three Olives Vodka to become the face for their Purple vodka. In September of that same year, Jones, along with her cousin, Katrise Jones, opened their first beauty salon in Charlotte, North Carolina called Salon Se Swa. That same month, Jones also launched her second clothing line, entitled 24/7 Goddess Collection, at Charlotte NC Fashion Week. In November 2012, Jones began endorsing Cîroc vodka, revealing her own cocktail, titled "Queen Bee", and announcing herself as the "First Lady" of the brand.

Philanthropy

In 2000, Jones embarked on a promo tour in support of her second studio album, The Notorious K.I.M., and the MAC AIDS Fund. She visited MAC cosmetics counters, interacted with fans and help raise money and awareness for the cause, which helps people who are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. She also took part in MAC's Fashion Cares show in Toronto, Canada. The show raised close to one million for the AIDS Committee of Toronto. Her endorsement for MAC, with Mary J. Blige, would go on to raise $4 million for the fund. In October 2001, Jones was featured on the R&B mix of the song "What's Going On". Jones, along with several other popular recording artists, released the song under the name "Artists Against AIDS Worldwide", with proceeds going to AIDS programs worldwide and also United Ways September 11th Fund. That same month, Jones performed at BREATHE, a benefit concert for breast cancer research and treatment. Proceeds from the concert went to the UCLA Breast Center and the Breast Examination Center of Harlem, an outreach program of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. On March 12, 2002, Jones walked her dogs in the 3rd annual "Paws for Style" fashion show. The event is held by Animal Fair magazine as a benefit for the Humane Society of New York. Items worm by the animals were later actioned off online. In 2004, Jones started her own foundation called Lil' Kim Cares. The foundation raises funds, resources and awareness for national programs that assist with issues of homelessness, HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness, transitional living, child neglect and violence against women. Speaking about the foundation, Jones stated she planned to be involved in a number of causes, most of which had effected her personally in past years. On April 17, 2004, Jones participated in the 28th annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race. The event helped raise more than $100,000 for "Racing for Kids", a non-profit program benefiting Southern California children's hospitals in Long Beach and Orange County. On August 24, 2004, Jones encouraged others to vote in the United States presidential election through the Rock the Vote campaign.

On March 10, 2005, Jones, along with several other artists, appeared in an episode of The Apprentice. Each artist was approached by contestants to donate a "personal experience" to be auctioned off for charity through music channel Fuse's "Daily Download" program with proceeds going to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. In September 2005, Jones paired up with fashion designer, and friend, Marc Jacobs for a limited edition T-shirt line featuring images of the rapper. The shirts, titled Marc Jacobs Loves Lil' Kim, were sold exclusively at Marc Jacob stores with 100% of the proceeds going to The Door. That same year Jones donated a diamond watch from her "Royalty" watch line to the World AIDS Day eBay Auction titled "Bid 2 Beat AIDS". Proceeds went to LIFEbeat, an organization providing HIV/AIDS information to millions of young people annually. Through her foundation, Jones has given back to many, including teaming up with apparel company Mitchell & Ness and boxer Zab Judah to donate toys to underprivileged youth in Philadelphia in 2005, and teaming up with MusiCares in 2007 for a silent auction, held at the Grammys On The Hill ceremony, to help raise funds for the foundation. That same year, Jones was a part of the 4th Annual GRAMMY Charity Holiday Auction, which featured a large variety of celebrity-signed memorabilia that people could bid on through the online auction site eBay. On December 1, 2007, Jones teamed up with Preserve Our Legacy and the New Jersey Stem Cell Research and Education Foundation to put on a celebrity basketball game to raise awareness about various health issues plaguing minority communities.

On July 11, 2010, Jones launched her signature milkshake, titled "Queen Bee", at Millions of Milkshakes in West Hollywood, with proceeds going towards Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti foundation. On February 9, 2013, Jones took part in the first annual Reality On The Runway fashion show. The event wanted to help raise $300,000 for people infected with HIV/AIDS and increase awareness. All designs from the show were auctioned off online following the event with a portion of the proceeds going to AIDS United.

Personal life

In her teens, Jones began dating Shawn Powell. The pair met at the Empire Roller Skating rink in Brooklyn. After a couple of months of seeing each other, Powell was arrested for robbery and was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. Jones and Powell continued their relationship with Jones visiting frequently and also kept in touch by writing letters to each other. The couple also became engaged while he was incarcerated. During this time was when Jones met Christopher Wallace, and with wanting to focus on starting her rap career the engagement was eventually called off and the couple split. Shortly after meeting Wallace, Jones had an on and off relationship with him up until his death in 1997. On July 23, 1996, Jones was arrested for possession of marijuana after police raided the Teaneck, New Jersey home of Wallace. The arrest came after police smelt marijuana inside the home when they went to ask for someone to move an illegally parked car. Jones denied she was smoking, claiming she was "upstairs all day sleeping". That same year, during the recording of her debut album, "Hard Core", Jones fell pregnant with Wallace's child. Jones never made it public until 1999 during an interview with The Source. Jones decided not to keep the baby, telling The Source "I already knew the kind of relationship that Biggie and I had, and I knew that [having a child] was something that couldn't take place..." Wallace called Jones three days before his death and told her he loved her. On March 17, 1999, Teaneck police issued an arrest warrant after Jones failed to turn up to court dates stemming from her 1996 arrest. The warrant wasn't a top priority for police and wasn't made public until September 2003, after the story was published online by The Smoking Gun. Jones was later removed from Teaneck's wanted list in October 2003, after $350 in bail was posted on her behalf. Jones' attorney told reporters that she didn't appear in court as she believed the case had been resolved.

In 2002, Jones started dating Damion "World" Hardy, the couple split in 2003. It was during this time that Jones had been a victim of physical abuse. Telling The Source in 2004 that she had suffered from black eyes, bloody lips, blood clots and even had to have an MRI. Jones also stated how she had to have multiple nose jobs due to being punched. On June 20, 2003, Jones had $250,000 worth of jewelry stolen from her while catching a flight at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport after a bag, which she intended to carry on, was mixed up with eight other pieces of her luggage. The missing jewelry was recovered 10 days later, found wrapped up in a rag in a locker room for airline employees by a United Airlines worker. On July 1, 2003, John Acheson was charged after trying to extort $25,000 from Jones in exchange for her stolen jewelry. Acheson, who was never in possession of Jones' jewelry, called Jones' lawyer, Mel Sachs, on June 23 saying he had the jewelry and would exchange it for an initial $5,000 and $20,000 at a later date. Acheson was charged with third degree attempted grand larceny, fourth degree attempted grand larceny by extortion, and attempted coercion in the second degree. In March 2004, Acheson was sentenced to five days in jail and a $500 fine after pleading guilty to a minor charge of attempted grand larceny. In 2004, Jones dated record producer Scott Storch. The two met when Storch offered Jones a ride to her hotel. The couple spilt after only 2 months together. In 2013, Storch revealed that he would've married Jones if the relationship had worked out. In 2007, Jones and Ray J briefly dated. In 2012, Jones started dating Bronx rapper Peoples Hernandez, known by his stage name Papers. The couple split briefly in December of that year before reconciling that same month. On February 12, 2014, Jones announced she was pregnant, saying she was "a few months along" with her first child. Hernandez said shortly afterward he was the father. On June 9, 2014, Jones gave birth to a baby girl, named Royal Reign.

http://wikipedia.thetimetube.com/?q=Lil%27+Kim&lang=en

#Lil' Kim

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kingkeerys · 7 years ago

Text

the art of chasing ♔ billy hargrove [six]

concept: steve has a female best friend and billy has taken it upon himself to flirt with her just to piss steve off. that’s it. that’s the plot. [vol. 6]

a/n: okay so this wasn’t posted last night like i said it would be because i fell asleep lmao but i got it out today so be proud of me!! more was going to happen in this chapter than what actually did but it was getting too long so i had to stop it somewhere bahah. so the next part will technically be part 6.5 rather than 7. enjoy! xoxo

masterlist

Standards set and broken all the time Control the chaos behind a gun Call it as I see it even if I was born deaf, blind and dumb

Annie stared at Billy’s unconscious form from across the room.

At first she thought about just leaving him. When she got back inside the house her hands had been shaking. She’d never felt so angry in her life and for a while she paced in the kitchen, unable to even look at him, until the brunt of the anger faded away and she’d nearly burned a hole in the floor from walking back and forth. She wanted to just leave him behind and find her own way home, sort of hoping that he’d wake up scared and alone, but she had a feeling Ms. Byers wouldn’t appreciate coming home to a bloody boy passed out in her disarrayed living room.

So instead she decided to sit in the corner of the living room with her knees pulled into her chest out of his eyesight in case he finally came to and just watched him silently.

He’d crossed the line with Steve. In the beginning it’d only been simple teasing here, a bit of mockery there, but it’d never gotten physical. Well, unless you counted that time he shoved Steve in basketball. It’d never gone this far. Nothing Steve could have done warranted such a violent reaction. Clearly Billy had some serious issues to work out and she wasn’t going to subject herself to any of that. If she knew Billy at all, he wouldn’t see it that way. According to him he’s got nothing to fix, so really he was beyond help.

But it did beg the question though: what were the kids doing at Will Byers’ house without Will or his Mom around? And why was Steve with them? What wasn’t he telling her?

It made Annie feel uneasy knowing Steve was keeping secrets from her. And maybe it wasn’t that big of deal. Maybe he was just babysitting them again and they were playing a game. A very elaborate game. But why at Will’s house? She knew kids were imaginative. Hell, it wasn’t even that long ago that she was one. Some might say she technically still was. But it seemed like they were taking everything really seriously; not even joking or messing around at all. What was that about? And why did it seem like Steve was playing along?

Nothing Billy did was justified but she could kind of get why he was so suspicious, because she kind of was too. And she hated that.

How was it that she could go from knowing Steve so well, almost more than she knew herself, to not knowing him at all? In what universe did that make sense? How was it fair?

He should probably go to a hospital, she reluctantly thought, staring at Billy’s still body.

Who knew what kind of stuff was pumping through his veins because seriously, what the hell was that needle all about? She could see his chest moving up and down so at least he was still alive. She almost didn’t care what happened to him but she didn’t wish death on anyone if she could help it. Anger was only temporary, death was not.

But why did she have to deal with it? Did she piss off some higher power? Was this some sick and twisted form of karma?

Maybe it was because she hadn’t returned her copy of To Kill a Mockingbird in sixth grade and lied to the librarian about it. Right after that happened their library had to start accepting donations because they were so low on reading material. What if that was her fault?

Heaving a sigh, Annie stood up from the floor and made her way into the kitchen. She grabbed a glass from one of the cabinets and filled it with cold water from the sink before making her way over to Billy’s strewn body. She stared down at him for a few seconds, doubtful if this would even work or if it was just something the movies made up to seem possible. Licking her lips, she held the glass of water above him and slowly tipped it.

Water spilled over his face, washing away a bit of the blood that hadn’t yet dried and immediately his eyelids twitched. His brows furrowed and he jerked his head to the right, breathing in a bit of water through his nose and immediately sputtering from it. Annie sat the empty glass on the dresser next to them, eyes trained on Billy’s scrunched up face.

Once he finished coughing his eyes began to blink open. He sniffed and brought an unsteady hand up to wipe at his nose, pulling it away to see a smear of blood. He squinted and his forehead wrinkled, obviously disoriented and a little lost. Naturally his gaze slowly turned to meet Annie’s and the vague surprise was clear on his face. He carefully dropped his arm to the ground and returned her stare silently for a few seconds. Then he cleared his throat.

“You’re still here?”

His voice was raspy and she found the sound grated on her nerves. Her lip curled and before she knew what she was doing, she was on top of him with her fists slamming into whatever part of his body she could find. His face, his chest, his shoulders, anything.

“What the f—“ Billy quickly brought up his hands to defend himself, still a bit out of it and slightly dazed.

“You—“ smack, “—are—“ slap, “—such—“ punch, “—an—“ scratch, “asshole!”

Even still she had a hard time fighting against his strength and after a few seconds she was just swatting at midair while he was holding her wrists in his fists. She continued to snarl and growl and make a bunch of noises he hardly found intimidating, gazing up at her with a hint of confusion and mild irritation. It didn’t take long before her energy was spent and she was breathing heavily while glaring down at him with as much hatred as she could muster.

Billy panted along with her, a hard set in his brow. Then he tugged her down until her elbows were against his stomach and he snapped,

“Stop. Hitting. Me.”

He then shoved her back and released her wrists. Nostrils flared, she grudgingly swung her leg over his hip and pushed herself onto her knees, still giving him the third-degree through heated eye contact. He rolled his eyes and wiped his nose on the back of his hand again before carefully sitting up, wincing at the pain. He brought another hand up to his neck and pressed against the spot where the needle had entered.

“The hell did that bitch do to me?” Annie didn’t answer and Billy’s lips thinned, his jaw clenching before he shook his head as if to regain his bearings. He glanced around the room, noticing the obvious mess he’d caused and whatever had already happened prior to them arriving. “Jesus.”

“You’re an asshole,” she repeated for good measure. He huffed a laugh through his nose, clearly unimpressed, and her glare worsened. “Really. I didn’t know a single person was capable of being that much of an asshole but you proved me wrong. What you did to Steve was…” she shook her head, unable to come up with the right words. “You’re such an asshole. And Lucas! What did he ever do to you?”

“Would you just shut up for a minute?” Billy snipped, turning his own glare on her. “You’re giving me a headache.”

“Oh, I’m giving you a headache?” she raised her eyebrows challengingly. “You smashed a plate over Steve’s head!”

“Fucking hell,” with a bit of effort he managed to crawl onto his knees, arching his back a little and rolling his head to stretch out his neck. He then got about halfway to standing up before stumbling and catching himself on his hands, gasping on all fours. Apparently his equilibrium hadn’t quite caught up to the rest of him yet.

Annie frowned despite her temper. “You should go to a hospital.”

Billy snorted. “Yeah, not happening, sweets.”

“I’m serious,” she said, brows pulled together. “You don’t know what was in that needle. It wasn’t even sanitized.”

“Do you hear yourself right now?” Billy looked over at her with glazed eyes. He sniffed again and shook his head. “I’m fine, just give me a minute.”

“Your funeral,” Annie shrugged, not willing to fight with him on it any longer. If he wanted to be poisoned then that was fine by her. Bet that would teach him a lesson.

“Which car do you plan on getting to the hospital in?” Billy outstretched his arms, finally able to sit up on his knees again. “Do you see one around? Because if my memory serves me right, the little shits took my goddamn car!”

“Which wouldn’t have happened if you had just let it go,” she retorted. “But let me guess, that’s not in your vocabulary,” she mimicked his comment from earlier.

“Damn straight,” he replied, trying to stand up again. This time he succeeded but not without looking winded afterwards. He placed his hands on his hips and made quick work of sweeping the room with his eyes again. “The fuck happened to this place anyway?”

Annie didn’t know why she answered. “I don’t know.”

“I mean, it’s fucking weird, right?” Billy spun around with an intense look, shoulders squared like a cat ready to pounce despite the paleness of his cheeks. “What the hell were they doing out here? I don’t give a shit if you and Harrington are best pals, something was going on.”

She wasn’t pleased with the reminder. “I don’t know.”

“What do you know?” Billy countered snidely.

“That you’re an asshole,” she replied without missing a beat. “I thought we’d established that already.”

Billy shook his head, looking about ready to make a tasteless comment but thinking better of it. He turned away from her, eyeing the hallway next to them before making his way down it.

“Where are you going?” Annie demanded. When he ignored her she got to her feet with a huff and quickly followed him in case he decided to vandalize Will’s room or something just to spite his sister.

Instead, she found him in the bathroom with his hands in the sink. He leaned down and began to splash water over his face. The water ran red for a moment and then eventually settled into a light pink as it washed down the drain. He pulled back to glance up at himself in the mirror, chin dripping with water.

At least the blood was gone. He had a nice shiner below his left eye and his nose was a bit swollen but nothing too noticeable. His knuckles looked the angriest, a few cuts and bruises decorating his hands. He wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that he’d gotten into a fight. She wondered if his parents would care at all.

“Enjoying the view?”

Annie snapped out of her trance and blinked herself back into focus, realizing Billy was watching her through the mirror. She felt embarrassed despite the situation.

“Not nearly as much as you’d think,” she snapped without thinking, unknowingly admitting that she had to have been admiring at least a little in that case. “Especially not with all those bruises on your face.”

“Kinda suits me though, don’t you think?” he asked, rubbing a hand along his jaw. “Bit of a rugged handsome, eh?”

“Not even a little bit.”

He stood back up and turned to face her, stepping into her space until they were nearly nose-to-nose.

“You sure you didn’t hit your head on anything?” he asked lightly, a smirk curving up the side of his mouth before he brushed past her.

Annie inhaled slowly to reign in her annoyance before following after him into the kitchen this time. He began shuffling around in the cabinets and Annie opened her mouth to ask what he was doing but he apparently found what he was looking for. He retrieved a white bottle and snatched up a glass from the counter. Annie recognized it to be aspirin and he popped several pills in his mouth and threw back a few swigs of water.

“Do you really think that’s going to solve everything?” she asked with her arms crossed. “A few pain pills and you’re good as new?”

“Never failed me before,” Billy answered easily, taking another long drink. Annie’s brows furrowed.

“You get into fights often?” she replied, feigning disinterest.

“More than you’d know.”

The way he said it made her stop. There was a hint of disappointment in his voice, along with something else. Anger? She couldn’t really tell. She tried thinking back to all those times she saw him in school. He seemed to always be with friends, or whatever closely represented the term in his eyes. Sure, he looked like the type to constantly make enemies and get into trouble but other than making snide remarks she’d never actually seen him get into a physical altercation with anyone.

Maybe he was talking about when he lived in California.

Billy finished his water and then tossed the glass in the sink. Annie winced at the sound it made and Billy turned to give her a false smile.

“Let’s go.”

He brushed past her again and began making his way towards the front door with a purpose. Annie was momentarily confused before she scuttled after him, mind racing.

“Go where?”

He threw the door open and a harsh bite of cold wind swept into the house that made Annie’s spine shiver. Billy didn’t seem to react and he stomped across the porch, the heels of his boots thumping on the stairs as he walked down them. Annie was quick to follow, disgruntled at seeing her breath fog up in front of her. How long were they in the house? She realized she’d never been paying attention to the clock. And then a sick sense of dread filled her stomach.

Her parents were going to kill her.

“Hope you’re nice and cozy,” Billy’s sarcastic tone pulled her out of her horrified thoughts. She tossed him a confused look and he nodded down at her apparel. She blinked at the leather jacket she was still wearing and balked. She’d completely forgotten about it. She noticed Billy’s unbuttoned, thin shirt and began peeling the jacket off.

“Oh, I completely forgot I was wearing it—“

“I don’t care, keep it on,” Billy waved her off as he stepped onto the road. Annie mindlessly kept up with his stride, her forehead wrinkling with the jacket halfway down her arms. She technically still had a light coat on underneath the jacket so she didn’t really need it.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“Nah,” Billy said carelessly. He began to pat his jean pockets and then scowled. “Damn it, left my smokes in the car.”

Annie pulled the jacket back up without thinking much of it. “Where are we going? To a hospital?”

He rolled his eyes. “Forget the hospital already.”

“Then tell me where we’re going,” she said impatiently, wrapping the jacket tighter around her body.

It was a bit unsettling walking down the middle of an unlit road at God knows what hour of the night, the trees on either side of them disorienting their view. The moon was high in the sky and it left little trails of light between the branches on the road in front of them, giving off this eerie vibe Annie wasn’t comfortable with.

“You’ll see,” Billy finally replied with the vaguest response that made Annie’s tonsils curl.

“I don’t think so,” she said immediately, pausing mid-stride. Billy continued on a few feet before finally realizing she wasn’t at his side anymore. He stopped and turned to cast an expectant look at her over his shoulder, one of his hands tucked inside his pockets. “There are only two options here. One,” she held up a finger and Billy raised his eyebrows, “is you take me home. That option’s a bit hazy because I don’t actually want you to know where I live so once we get to a place I recognize well we can just part ways and forget this ever happened. Or two, we can go to the nearest emergency room and get you looked at. There is no ‘we’ll see’ option on the table.”

“What if I put it on the table?” Billy asked after a moment of silence.

“I’ll take it right back off,” she countered easily.

Billy licked his lips, eyes skirting around the forest on either side of them before nodding to himself. He took a few steps towards her until they were only arm’s distance apart and Annie watched him warily.

“If I remember correctly,” Billy said, eyes glinting. “You promised to go to a party with me.”

Annie stared at him incredulously.

“I didn’t promise anything. Besides,” she motioned behind her wildly, “have you completely forgotten what happened back there? I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“You’re going somewhere right now,” he remarked humorously.

Annie stuttered. “That’s only because I don’t know my way home.”

“So you’re using me,” Billy surmised.

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s what you implied,” Billy took another step forward and it took everything in Annie not to take a step back and keep the distance between them. “So you need me to get you home but you don’t actually want me to know where home is, but you also don’t want to be anywhere near me and yet you have to be because you don’t actually know how to get home,” he squinted at her in false confusion. “Did I get that right?”

“You know what, forget it,” Annie pursed her lips and made a point of stepping around him. “I’ll find my own way home, I don’t need you for anything.”

She heard Billy’s footsteps trailing after her. “So you’re just going to guess how to get home and potentially get yourself lost?”

“Better than having to deal with you,” she replied snappishly.

“That’s real mature,” he said, catching up with her and walking by her side. “So because you don’t want to deal with me, you’re willing to put yourself at risk. What if someone finds you walking on the side of the road?”

She gave him a peeved look. “Like you did?”

He sighed and corrected himself. “Someone dangerous.”

“Still not seeing the difference.”

“You’re fucking impossible, you know that?” Billy said impatiently, an irritated press between his brows.

“I’m sorry, I just find it funny that you expect me to believe you actually have a conscience. You beat my best friend half to death but now you’re all concerned for my well-being? I don’t think so.”

“I didn’t beat him half to death,” Billy rolled his eyes as if she were being dramatic.

“Did you see his face?!” Annie yelled.

“Well excuse the fuck outta me for trying to figure out what the hell was going on with my goddamn sister!”

“I thought you said she wasn’t your sister?” Annie countered, looking at him closely. Billy gritted his teeth and exhaled loudly.

“She’s not,” he said, tone slightly less hostile. Annie watched him quietly for a few seconds, trying to read the expression on his face.

“I really don’t get you,” she told him honestly. She didn’t. He was so unpredictable, so unlike anyone she’d ever met before. When she thought he was going to do or say one thing, he pulled a complete 180 and did something totally unexpected. He beats Steve to a bloody pulp but then he comes back and says she shouldn’t walk home alone because of strangers. Nothing about him made sense to her. He was a walking contradiction.

Billy smiled mirthlessly. “It’s a fucking gift.”

They maintained eye contact for a good ten seconds before he gestured to the road with all the elegance of a four-year-old throwing a tantrum.

“So are we going or do you want to walk the opposite way like a brat?”

Annie mutely shook her head. She was almost too angry to say anything but there was something else there that made the anger a little easier to bear.

Then she motioned ahead.

“Lead the way.”

#i have so much fun writing billy and annie especially when they make each other so mad #billy hargrove #billy hargrove imagine #stranger things imagine #also this series is getting a LOT longer than i anticipated it would be whoops

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speckeh · 7 years ago

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Speckeh’s 2018 Book List

It’s 2018! Last year my book list was a decent size but I didn’t read a lot of sparkling novels! So this year I’m focusing on decent books with the occasional textbook thrown in!

1. Cappiello: The Posters of Leonetto Cappiello: 5/5 stars. I haven’t had time to sleep more than 8 hours let alone time to breathe to read book this semester. I’ve never been busier which has been a nice experience, but boy do I miss reading books! I found this at Tuesday Morning 40% off and it’s huge and beautiful and needed it. I love this book! Cappiello has a wonderful drawing style. He draws multiple body shapes, various commercial posters, and GINGERS. HE DRAWS SO MANY BEAUTIFUL RED HAIRED LADIES. I’M SO FUCKING THRILLED. If you find this book hella cheap and have the shelf space for it, it’s a great art book to have!

2. The Elements of Rhetoric - How to Write and Speak Clearly: 4/5 stars. This is for my Proposal Writing and Development class. Everything this book states, I’ve already read or learned about in Argument Writing during summer last year so nothing really jumps out as me as amazing or eye opening. The writer does some relevant story telling with the different styles of rhetoric to use and how to use them effectively, but it’s not the greatest read. I’ll probably keep it as it’s a great little book for quick glossary terms or brushing up on information. If this is your jam, this might be a cheap book you can add to your academic shelf!

3-4. Kamisama Darling Vol 1 and 2: 5/5 stars.

5. Namae mo Shiranai Machiawase 4/5 stars

6. Star Trek Cats: 5/5 stars. I hung out with one of my quickly growing best friends yesterday and I saw this book when we were in the humor section. My heart MELTED. I read this as B&N and even though it’s short, I needed to buy it. It’s one of my favorite art humor books I’ve flipped through recently. It’s full of episode jokes and just fucking ADORABLE cats that make the weirdest faces.

7. The Prophet: 5/5 stars. Another book I bought with one of my best friends. It was recommended to me by the really nice (and very sweet) worker there who complimented me on my outfit. I was going to ask we could trade numbers and hang out and gain a new friend from her, but she was very busy. Anyways. The friend I was with told me he absolutely loved this book and it spoke to him on a spiritual level. And I have to agree. Having been raised in a mormon household and then realizing I was hella queer and questioned E V E R Y T H I N G about organized religions, this book was excellent. Because The Prophet isn’t any certain religion, he’s just giving people a way of life and he never condemns anyone or anything. The Prophet and the Siddhartha are essentially my religion. The whole belief there is no “set path” for a religious life and happy ending, that no one is right and no one is wrong in their religion, and that it depends on how you treat others and how you service others but also how you serve yourself. An excellent read for the beginning of the year for me.

8. The Non-Profit Narrative: 2/5 stars. It’s the same for the Elements of Rhetoric book I read, I’ve read all of these terms before in my nonprofit management class so nothing was very new or interesting to me. I skipped through 70% of the book. If you want a short, short ass book on how to run nonprofits and social media, this is a great little read. If you’re already familiar with the contexts of nonprofit, don’t waste your money.

9. When The Body Says No: 5/5 stars. This book is.. just wow. This is the first time I have ever marked up my own personal book with highlights, pens, and pencils. I only ever do it to copied school books on computer paper. It’s no secret I’ve been going to a counselor off and on since I’ve been 13. And I’ve seen and confronted death for a long time. I’m very traumatized from my experiences and I have a lot of issues I don’t really deal with. My counselor told me to read this book because I am the post child of when your body says no for you when you can’t. And I am. It’s.. amazing how well he knows me and my experiences I’ve been through. I learned amazing facts about myself how my childhood forced me into emotional repression, that children who lose a parent before 17 are 40% more likely to develop cancer, that the underlying stress of never being able to say no to your family because you don’t want to disappoint them causes a turmoil in your body that can turn deadly. If you have anger issues, stress disorders, genetic diseases, autoimmune disease, any sort of illness you developed later as an adult, read this book. Because I promise you, you’ll find something about you you never knew about.

10. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: 3/5 stars. This was a book I had to read for my intro to English literature class (I’m changing emphasis so I have to take more entry level classes BLEGH). While I did devour this book so fast, I wasn’t particularly impressed with this book. I guess I’m kind of sick of the narrative of “geeky boy is a virgin and hates himself and the world,” and people around him either patting his back or deciding to take it upon themselves to fix him, no matter what cultural background they are. While I’m thrilled I could read about a Dominican cultural and have a non-white narrative and characters, this book didn’t sparkle to me. Maybe it’s because this book wasn’t written for me, or maybe I don’t really care for Diaz’s writing style. Either way I barely earned a 3 stars from me.

11. Pictures of the Gone World: 4.5/5 Stars I bought this book at a liquidation sale. I either find amazing poetry books at random, or duds. Luckily this was a fantastic one that held a lot of elements I love in poems: historical themes and humor. He helped pushing and defend one of my new favorite poets, Allen Ginsberg so you know I have mad respect for him. This was his first poetry book and he quickly became famous in the beat poetry world. Compared to other poets, he’s definitely a easier one to get into for beginners but the words still hold beauty and harsh truths. Definitely a great way to introduce yourself to beatnik poetry!

12. I Capture The Castle: 5/5 stars. Do you ever pick up a book that’s been calling to you for ages and by the fifth page in you know you have a new best friend? I’m not one for first person narratives, it takes a special way of writing it to keep my interest. I Capture The Castle with repressed and writer’s voice of a 40 year old woman from 17 year old Cassandra just melted my heart. I have a soft spot for Dodie Smith and she won me over with this book. From the beautiful scenery of a decaying castle, to a 17 year old’s first encounter with love, it’s just so so captivating. it hasn’t been since the Shadow of the Wind that my heart literally raced and I couldn’t read fast enough to know what happened next. And the last sentence of Cassandra’s journal of “I love you, I love you, I love you,” keeps playing over and over in my head. If you want to get lost in a old English castle and a young girl’s narrative, you will not regret picking this book up.

13. A Concise History of Hawai’i: 3/5 Stars. I’ve always wanted to know about my birth state since we moved away when I was too young to remember anything. I’ve always been called a island girl and have had a fascination with water. I stopped being interested in calling Hawai’i my birth state because I was so young and my family memories are bitter sweet. But I finally returned to Hawai’i in May 2016, and I was shocked to feel like I was Home. I’ve been missing Hawai’i like crazy and have been trying to read this book forever. I bought it on my trip there. Well I finished it. It was pretty interesting, it’s concise, and quick and I learned a lot. But the book also brings up an important question.Can a white man write about a cultural history on Hawai’i? I’m not sure and I was somewhat bothered by that question throughout the book so that dampened my star rating. I feel like a history of Hawai’i would be so different and way more vibrating if a Native Hawaiian had written it. But, if you want a general and quick history of Hawai’i from the formation to 1999, it’s a decent read.

14. Wyoming Poems 1994: 5/5 Stars. I really like this short poetry book. It’s only 26 poems and all about Wyoming and the life there. It’s from 1995 so you know it’s more of a modern take on Wyoming. Definitely a great little book. Really debating on joining the Wyoming Writer’s mailing list ahah!!

15-21: Various Manga. between 3-5/5 stars.

22. Secret Garden: 10 minutes classics: 2/5 stars. I love the Secret Garden. It’s one of my top 5 books of all time in my life and will always be in the top 5. The 10 minute classic books is great for a reader wanting a short synopsis of the Secret Garden and it has lovely pictures, but it really loses the magic, the world building, and the characters’ relationships in just 10 minutes. I’ll probably keep the book just because of lovely pictures, but it was a let down!

23. Lovers Legends: The Gay Greek Myths. 4/5 stars. My love for reading and history can be pinpointed exactly to D’Aubaires’ Book of Greek Myths. It planted the seeds of my career ambitions, the types of research I love to conduct, and the person who I am. I always knew the Greeks were more gay than society teaches children, but this book really paints it simple for you. First off, it uses a poem by one of my favorites Allen Grinsberg, and then the author reiterates the gay greek myths in clear and easy stories, and shows how they all connect. The symposium style chapters were long and tedious and I ended up skipping them, and the book really only has 110 pages of stories with the next 80+ being sources, research, and a bibliography. Either way, love me some truth bomb gay ass greek myth!!

24. Colonel Brandon’s Diary: 4/5 Stars. I’m a sucker for Austen continuations or different perspectives. It comes from a personal reason from childhood memories with one of my parents. I’ve read 2 other of Amanda Grange’s diaries of Austen men. Brandon is not my favorite Austen hero and while the book I liked him enough, he doesn’t sparkle as much as say Knightley for me. I’m sure as I get older I may like him more, but for now it was nice to read a 300 page version of Sense and Sensibility that is a great companion novel for like.. better spark notes. If you need a quick summer read to last you a day or two, I highly suggest Amanda Grange’s books! (Except for Pride and Prejudice and Pyramids. That was just… bad)

25. Reunion by Fred Uhlman 5/5 Stars: I really started to enjoy World War II stories, but fictional ones about non-American centric stories. Reunion is a beautiful, fast read, about a teenaged Jewish boy who meets a handsome and captivating Lord’s son at his school. It really is about a first love. Hans is obsessed with Konradin; he thinks he’s handsome, educated, and lonely like him. The two go off on trips, Konradin often comes to his house, they read poetry and discuss coins together. It’s very easy to think of Konradin and Hans sharing firsts. It’s a beautiful little story that wrenched my gut with the very last line, and the descriptions had me drawing little scenes in the book. If you have 3-4 hours to spare, this is a great read if you can get it.

26. Instructions to a Young Bookseller: 5/5 Stars. As someone hoping to enter the book world after graduating University, this was a great little read. Obviously any sort of written conference has an edge of boring to it. But the book is full of gem quotes and advice that can be used for anything and not just young booksellers. If you’re able to find this book (most likely in the Heffer bookstore at Cambridge) give it a read. It’s a short 46 pages but a great way to pass the time and to give you advice that transcends passed 1933.

27. Among the Janeites: 2/5 Stars. I wasn’t impressed with this book, which is a shame because I desperately wanted to like this book. I loved when Yaffe described and told the stories of her fellow Janeites, but I really couldn’t stand her narration. I don’t know if it’s because I’m annoyed by the “I’m an elite Jane Austen fan because of these reasons” or I just don’t like the way she writes her narratives. Sometimes, you just don’t clash well with a author. I applaud her efforts to write this book, but I have to admit I was disappointed that she admitted she only focused on white North American Jane Austen fans. What a waste!! How amazing would it have been to have read more diverse fans? Hear about their efforts, their stories? Instead I found myself reading some of the same stories over and over again. I didn’t even finish the last two chapters because everything was the same rhythm and nothing was interesting any more. I wanted to put down the book many times, but found I couldn’t whenever I read the stories of those who did amazing things with their Jane Austen passions. But other than that, kind of disappointed I brought this book on my trip to England. :/

28. Tea with Mr. Rochester: 4/5 Stars. Sometimes a collection of short stories takes me awhile to read, this was not one of those!! I have had my eye on this book from Persephone’s for at least 2 years now, and I finally got to go to the shop two weeks ago! I really enjoy the literary metaphors and the descriptions are beautiful, but Towers has a way of writing that has you go: “..did.. did I skip a page?” Often the story would jump and you would feel confused of where the characters are now, how much time had passed, and how did these two characters meet. The lack of background, time, and setting is discombobulating, but not too distracting from enjoying it! If you have the pleasure of going to Persephone’s Book, definitely give this book a try!

29. For Your Eyes Only: 4/5 stars. I think I’m now a little more than halfway done with the original James Bond series! For Your Eyes Only is very different as these are short stories. Some of them are action pact while others are Bond at dinner parties listening to stories. It was an entirely new take and very interesting for sure! Some of the stories were hard to get through, slow, which is why I dropped it down to four stars, but a lot of them were really fun. I especially loved Quantum of Solace which explained the title and now I’m wanting to rewatch the film now knowing the definition of the phrase. I can tell that Ian Flemming is now aware of his homoerotic writing with James Bond and is starting to cut it out, which is a real shame since they’re so beautiful. But his obsession with eating eggs for nearly every meal is back which made me happy! I’ll have to see in the next book if the homoeroticness comes back!

30. This One Summer: 4/5 stars. Ranted and raved about since the debut of this comic, with one of my favorite illustrators who drew SuperMutant Magic Academy, an awarded comic! And I can’t help but feel disappointed in the story. I know this is directed at teens and if I had read this when I was between 13-16 it would have BLOWN my mind. Now at 23, this isn’t the most poignant story. I think it’s important for teens but it isn’t really for me. I’ll probably gift this comic to my friend Ramona because I think she will like this comic a lot. But for me it’s just.. beautiful artwork. But nothing much more than that.

31. The Alchemist: 3/5 stars The Alchemist was suggested to me by my BFF and my other friend told me he hated it. I’m in between. While I understand why some people absolutely LOVE this book and I appreciate that the author had a passion for his story and didn’t settle for rejection, I think the story is lacking a lot of magic and luster it could have had. It’s kind of like a book trying to follow after The Little Prince in an Arabic/South American story with a christian spin to it. I enjoyed reading it and experiencing a well loved story, but I gave it to another friend and I kind of regret buying it from a story and not borrowing it from a library.

32. Omae no Koi wa Ore no Mono: 5/5 stars. Good manga. Lovely characters. Story is good. I enjoyed it thoroughly!

33. The Fall of America: 4/5 stars. Allen Ginsberg is my second favorite poet right behind Billy Collins. After reading Howl and falling in love with everything, this book was a let down. A lot of the poems were loooong run ons that seemed to forget what he was trying to talk about. My favorites were when he was un-ashamedly GAY and talking about sucking cock and having sex with guys, and a very real Vietnam war poem, but the rest was very on the fence. If I didn’t love him so much I would have skipped a lot of the poems in this book. But I also know this is a similar complaint from other readers. It’s hard to follow after such a massive success and nationally known poetry book of Howl, but he did his best. Not all of your own poems will be sparkling and rich in something new and world opening.

34-36. Various Manga: 34 5/5 stars, 35 4/5 stars, 36 4/5 stars.

37. Twisted Romance Volume 1: 2/5 stars. While some of the stories were beautiful and drawn amazing, I felt like the collection was disjointed and didn’t go very well. It was weird to have a comic book also be split up between stories with a written novel. I’m sure this would be someone’s cup of tea, but not mine.

38. My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness: 4/5 stars. My dear friend Ramona put the first and second novel in front of me to read while we spent like 4 hours at Barnes and Noble today. It was super fun to be with my sweet sweet friend and just, decompress. I read this book and so much of it I could relate to. Not only am I a Queer female, but I also struggle with mental health, depression, and feelings of abandoning my mother. Not to mention being touch starved. But I docked it down from a perfect score because Kabi’s narrative was so frustrating. That never ending cycle of getting so close and then self-sabotaging herself is so frustrating and makes me mad. I put the book back after I finished reading it, and then decided I had to buy it at the last moment.

39. My Solo Exchange Diary (Sexual to My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness) Vol 2: 3/5 stars. Unlike the first book, this was even more frustrating and was hard for me to be empathetic to her. Someone who obviously struggled hard with her mental health and struggle against her parents, I felt like her Solo Exchange Diary was just an excuse to not do what she wanted. I didn’t think Kabi grew much between the two volumes which is super disappointing. As a reader you want her to be better. Though when she mentioned how her happiness is tied to abandoning her mom, OOFFFF. THAT SURE IS MEEE.

40. Close Range: 2/5 stars. I actually stopped reading this book entirely. I started off reading the Brokeback Mountain story in this anthology, and it hooked me! Sadly, the rest of the stories didn’t capture me as much as BM. Eventually the characters bled to be the same: stoic, struggling with family, very Wyoming. That was it. It was all men, white men who struggle to be “men” and then proceed to do stupid shit/hurtful things that you want them to die over. I lost interest and I’m sad because I wanted to love this collection, but I couldn’t do it anymore.

41. Bond By Design: 5/5 Stars. Back in 2016, Shennelly gave me a mini version of this book and for Christmas last year I got the full version. It’s fascinating to see the drawing progression and what the art team focuses on drawing. It’s a shame to see the Daniel Craig films not having as much hand drawn art, but they were created more in the era of computer art and less relying on storyboard sketches. Needless to say, it was pretty awesome to see all the thumbnails and knowing a lot of them came to life in the films I watched! P.s. I went to the museum and Turner painting features in Skyfall over the summer!

42. The Hobbit Comic: 4/5 stars. This is a comic I’ve had on my shelf before I started uni so around 3-4 years it’s been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. I picked it up because I was going on a car trip and I wanted something light and easy for the 4 1/2 hours it took to reach our destination. While the art was awesome, this was not a light read. It felt like reading the Hobbit all over again with how exact dialogue and scenes were written out. And I docked this comic down a star because I felt like I would be so overwhelmed by the reading I couldn’t enjoy the art. That’s a big problem with direct story comics. They’re so much dialogue and story they want to use, they don’t realize how tedious it becomes for a reader. Other than that, if you’re a die hard LOTR fan, this is a great edition fo the Hobbit to have!

43. The Adventure Zone - There Be Gerblins! 5/5 stars. I started listening to The Good Brothers after Percy told me to back at the end of 2016. I started to their The Adventure Zone podcast right before my trip to Norway. I have great memories of listening to the first 3 adventures, nodding off on the plane, during down time at our various hotels, on the way back home, desperately trying to download as many possible while I had wifi. I love TAZ and so when they announced a comic book a year ago, I’ve been waiting ever since! It isn’t a let down! Where the Hobbit had issues with too much dialogue, TAZ There be Gerblins didn’t run into that issue! Also I love that even though the characters have never been officially designed, there was opportunity for diversity, AND THEY DID A TON OF DIVERSITY. Also the Director was exactly how I envisioned her and that made me so fucking happy. Please support the good boys and buy the comic if you like it!

44. Monstress Vol 3: 5/5 stars. While the art is dynamic, the plot hella feminist, interesting, so many cool female characters! The plot is still confusing volume 3 in. I might have reread the other two before reading the 3rd since it has been a year since I’ve read the book. But the darkness and “real” themes of disabilities and responsibilities is just great!

45. The White Cat: and two other stories: 5/5 stars. The art for this children’s fairytale book is gorgeous. Though some of the pictures feel like they’re a few pages behind or ahead of the events that actually happened. But JEEZ you guys! These are some fucking dark stories. A cat behead, Jack the Giant Killer, Rip Van Winkle just being lazy as FUCK. We don’t get children’s stories like this. It was an awesome edition I found that was originally 30 dollars that was for sale for 5 dollars due to a liquidation sale. It’s great.

46. The Young Visitors or Mr. Salteena’s Plan: 5/5 stars. The Young Visitors is such a treat. I first found my copy in England in a discount shelf and loved the frayed pink cover with interesting illustrations. And then at another going out of business sale, I found a red cover and bought it without thinking much of it. I absolute LOVE this book. This story is written by a 9 year old Daisy with the themes of a true Victorian novel. An older man chasing after a young woman who falls in love with a rich young man and the older man cries at his defeat. It’s an excellent little read that is amazing from being written in 1919! I have plans to eventually see the manuscript in the museum it’s held in! I’m using my second copy as a lend out to my friends to make sure they’ve read this story!

47. What Makes My Cat Purr? : 5/5 stars My friend bought this for me at an antique mall because it melted my heart. Reasons why little kittens purr???? Mostly because you show them love??? UHHH HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS NOVEL?

48. Sock Monkey - The Glass Knob: 4/5 Stars. Sock Monkey and his friends ned to replace the door handle with glass and a random assortments. Silly, but sweet.

49. The Paper Doll Wedding: 4/5 Stars. Fun. That’s all.

50. Spot’s Favorite Colors: 4/5 Stars. Bought this for my nephew. We used to have matching cards with this!

51. That’s Not My Dinosaur: 4/5 Stars. For my nephew! He loooves it. Touch and feel.

52. The Mitten: 5/5 Stars. This book was read to us each winter in elementary school. I bought it for my nephew!

53. Toot: 4/5 Stars. For my nephew! A book about farts!

54. Erte Art: 4/5 Stars. Erte’s art which was dazzling and seemed to be something from the 2000s rather than the 1900s. Loved the different designs of his work and that he included women of color and not just white models throughout his work!

55. Sea Prayer: 4/5 Stars. Everyone was ranting and raving about the poetry, but I love the watercolors. It was an impactful story, but I felt the story was a bit rushed. Over all beautiful.

56. The Prince and the Dressmaker: 5/5 Stars. I’ve had this comic book in my shopping cart for a year! I finally asked for it at B&N and bit the bullet. UHMMMM. GORGEOUS.

57. HeartStopper Vol. 1: 5/5 Stars. UHM WOW. I funded this on kickstarter without really knowing much about the comic. It then sat on my shelf for a couple of months and a friend, randomly, asked me if I read it. I finally read it and goooood, I loooooved it!!!

58. Fuddles: 3/5 stars. A fat cat gets out of the house and lost, I hated it but loved the illustration.

59. Birdsong: 5/5 Stars. All the different birds and songs they sing, silly, fun.

60. Santa’s Snow Cat: 4/5 Stars. A silly Christmas story about how Santa loses his most beloved cat in New York.

61. The Tiger: 5/5 Stars. A dialogue-less comic about a tiger in the jungle, living its life, trying to hunt prey (unsuccessfully), and other predators. Beautiful art, I would recommend!

62. The Angel’s Game: 2.5/5 stars. Sadly, this is the second time I’ve been disappointed by Carlos. Angel’s game had a slow start. A writer being worked to death by underpaying publishers until he develops a brain tumor. He meets a mysterious man after much travesty and agrees to write him a book with no money as an issue. But as the story progresses, the narrator becomes distressed and stupid to discover the truth. He loses so much, and by the end of the book it feels like a bad fever dream. It really seems the hype after Shadow of the Wind is so hard to defeat. Hopefully his newest, final, and largest book in the quad series will be like the first. Let’s hope it’s not like the middl two!

63: Ore no Omawarisan: 5/5 stars

64: Goriyou wa Keikakuteki ni: 4/5 stars.

65. The Shotgunner: 3/5 stars. As I was trying to compile my favorites of 2018, I realized I completely missed three books?? Shotgunner was finished the last day of 2018 and I think I was just totally exhausted from everything. The book was extremely silly but fast paced. A man wanted for murder runs back to his home town to find his brother has been murdered and his widow (an old fling) needs his help to get out of town. It doesn’t end how you think it would and it seemed to move in a very fast paced way. It wasn’t my favorite western book I’ve read, but it certainly had layers to it I wasn’t expecting!

#2018 books

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niladmirai · 7 years ago

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Do all the numbers. Do them all. I want every answer.

Geez, thats a tall order

1: NameDavid

2: AgeTurning 23 in March

3: 3 FearsHeightsRejection from family/friendsFailure

4: 3 things I loveMy loved onesVideo GamesArt

5: 4 turns onIntelligenceCommon interestsGenuine joy and happinessGreat listener

6: 4 turns offSmokingAsshole attitudeIgnoranceDisrespect

7: My best friendAt this point in time, it’s hard to say…

8: Sexual orientationStraight

9: My best first dateNever went out on a date ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

10: How tall am I5'6"

11: What do I missNot being tied down by the pressure of being an adult

12: What time were I bornExact time, 9:11AM; The date, March 12th

13: Favorite colorBlue

14: Do I have a crushLmao not at the moment

15: Favorite quote“Do or do not. There is no try.” -Yoda

16: Favorite placeMy hometown of NYC

17: Favorite foodFrench Fries

18: Do I use sarcasmWhen do I not?

19: What am I listening to right nowNothing. Its 8:30AM as I type this lol

20: First thing I notice in new personTheir face and hair

21: Shoe size11

22: Eye colorBrown

23: Hair colorBlack

24: Favorite style of clothingJacket, hoodie and jeans

25: Ever done a prank call?Once

27: Meaning behind my URLBased on the phrase ‘nil admirari’ but i missed the last ‘r’ lmao

28: Favorite movieBetween Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and Speed Racer

29: Favorite songTo Zanarkand

30: Favorite bandNone in particular. But favorite musician would be Bruno Mars

31: How I feel right nowTo be honest, mostly indifferent about a lot of things

32: Someone I loveMy older cousin for being an awesome guy to hang around with

33: My current relationship statusSingle

34: My relationship with my parentsLove them to death!

35: Favorite holidayChristmas mostly for Christmas music

36: Tattoos and piercing i haveNada. If i did, my dad would flip and rip em

37: Tattoos and piercing i wantIf i was allowed to, a pink star on my neck like the Joestars or the Zanarkand Abes logo on my arm

38: The reason I joined TumblrFriend mentioned it when I was at a retreat and was curious to what it is.

39: Do I and my last ex hate each other?Nah, we ended on good terms

40: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts?Nope lol

41: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted?No lmao

42: When did I last hold hands?Yesterday during Mass

43: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning?Thirty Minutes tops

44: Have I shaved your legs in the past three days?How bout my whole life

45: Where am I right now?In my room on my bed

46: If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me?My cousin and brother

47: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level?Resonable so its actually audible

48: Do I live with my Mom and Dad?Yea

49: Am I excited for anything?My said cousin before is coming to visit!

50: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to?Yes

51: How often do I wear a fake smile?Usually half the time

52: When was the last time I hugged someone?Yesterday

53: What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me?I could care less at this point in time

54: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not?Nope

55: What is something I disliked about today?It’s 8:30am. I didnt sleep yet.

56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?My japanese cousins whom ive never seen or met

57: What do I think about most?Fire Emblem Heroes

58: What’s my strangest talent?My thumb is double jointed

59: Do I have any strange phobias?Nah all are kind normal

60: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?Both

61: What was the last lie I told?'I’m going to the car to get something’

62: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?Talking on the phone

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens?Both

64: Do I believe in magic?Nope

65: Do I believe in luck?Yea

66: What’s the weather like right now?Clear

67: What was the last book I’ve read?Something in my college class 3 years ago

68: Do I like the smell of gasoline?Hell no

69: Do I have any nicknames?Dabid or bid

70: What was the worst injury I’ve ever had?My right index finger nail came off

71: Do I spend money or save it?Spend sadly. Its a bad habit.

72: Can I touch my nose with a tongue?Nope

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me?My RWBY Vol. 5 poster

74: Favorite animal?Birda

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM?Playing Fire Emblem Heroes

76: What do I think is Satan’s last name is?Hercule’s last name is Satan

77: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it?Right now, the Finesse with Cardi B

78: How can you win my heart?If we share some interests, maybe thats hos

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone?A beloved by many, and loved to play games

80: What is my favorite word?Free

81: My top 5 blogs on tumblrLmao never cared about favorite blogs

82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say?The world will be ruined if we continue the path we follow. We need to change.

83: Do I have any relatives in jail?Thankfully no

84: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power?The power of luck manipulation

85: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on?How’s the job search going?

86: What is my current desktop picture?The intro screen of Xenoblade Chronicles

87: Had sex?Never haha

88: Bought condoms?From my brother LOL

89: Gotten pregnant?Im a guy

90: Failed a class?Yes

91: Kissed a boy?On the cheek

92: Kissed a girl?Yes

93: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain?Lmao no

94: Had job?Nope

95: Left the house without my wallet?Yes…

96: Bullied someone on the internet?No

97: Had sex in public?Still no

98: Played on a sports team?Yeah, bowling back in elementary school

99: Smoked weed?Nope

100: Did drugs?Perscription drugs

101: Smoked cigarettes?Nope

102: Drank alcohol?Hella

103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan?No

104: Been overweight?I currently am lol

105: Been underweight?No

106: Been to a wedding?Loads of times

107: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight?Five is an understatement

108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight?F I V E I S A N U N D E R S T A T E M E N T

109: Been outside my home country?Yea

110: Gotten my heart broken?Of course

111: Been to a professional sports game?Yeah!

112: Broken a bone?No

113: Cut myself?Papercuts

114: Been to prom?Yep. Loved it.

115: Been in airplane?Yeah

116: Fly by helicopter?Not yet

117: What concerts have I been to?The Eagles, Air Supply, my high school’s band

118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex?Admired, not crush

119: Learned another language?Java

120: Wore make up?Just nail polish

121: Lost my virginity before I was 18?No lmaooo

122: Had oral sex?No

123: Dyed my hair?Nah

124: Voted in a presidential election?Yes. Still upset about the end result.

125: Rode in an ambulance?No

126: Had a surgery?On my tonsils

127: Met someone famous?Yeah! I met Julius Erving as a kid and recently Pewdiepie a few years back.

128: Stalked someone on a social network?Who hasnt lol

129: Peed outside?Had no choice

130: Been fishing?Yep! I wanna do it again!

131: Helped with charity?Yeah

132: Been rejected by a crush?All thd time

133: Broken a mirror?Naw

134: What do I want for birthday?Money, a Switch, games to play on the Switch, games to play on my PS4, and most importantly, happiness

Whew that took awhile!

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