#but then i was like should i include priscilla and well now we have sugar daddy elvis and sugar mama priscilla. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

elvisabutler · 2 years ago

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For the gala, specifically the kink prompt, could you please do one on bondage? Pick whoever you want for it. It might be basic but its my biggest kink. Thank you and congrats!!! 🥳🎉💕

anon! you're in luck. so much luck. because guess who has the same sort of kink! this woman! but yes, thank you so much for the congrats! i chose a 60s sugar daddy austin!elvis because tbh i feel like 60s elvis does not get written about nearly enough and because despite him- and i quote myself- looking like "a ken doll looking motherfucker" on the hollywood sign i also find that whole montage attractive af. so! i low key might write more of this because i actually had to cut myself off so it still was a "blurb" but i really liked what i did. also this is light bondage so i will actually be willing to potentially do another without it counting toward your request count since idk reasons. it's my gala i do what i want.

bondage kink - 60s sugar daddy austin!elvis ft. olivia!priscilla ( also known as strangelove, that's how my love goes )

tw: cheating? kind of. former cheating maybe. also the sugar daddy bit is like a blink and miss reference in case it wasn't your jam anon. i am definitely writing said elvis beyond this but you know. also supposedly priscilla called elvis fire eyes. so i didn't pull that from nowhere.

"little mama, baby, my sweet sugar bunny what have i told you about coming to set without telling me you're coming?" elvis asks when he sees you sitting casually in what is the shortest skirt he swears he's ever seen on his bed in his bus. "because my sugar knows better than to surprise me like this. imagine if i had priscilla here."

"you mean like i am, baby?" priscilla asks as she comes out from the front of the bus in what you have to say is a pretty good imitation of a playboy bunny uniform.

for what it's worth you do try and not laugh at elvis's expression when he sees priscilla. he looks like a deer in the headlights and you can't help but giggle. still he's so busy looking at her and you grab his hands, trying to pull him closer to the bed.

"'cilla, what are you doing here?" he asks, sort of slowly shuffling to the bed watching priscilla as she sits down next to you.

priscilla just smiles as sweet as she can while shrugging. "jerry called, made plane ticket arrangements, i let my parents watch lisa. but i got here and i was going to surprise you in this." she motions to her outfit. "but i found y/n here. and we talked. you've been hiding her for- how many years did you say, baby? how many years have you been dating elvis?"

"four." your face is threatening to break out into a grin but now you've got elvis close enough to the bed that you can stand up and push him down. he doesn't even stop you. nor does he stop you as you untie his ascot and start to play with it in your hands.

"four! four years!" she exclaims. "you've kept your sugar all to yourself. you've taken care of her, she told me all about the college you paid for, how she's got the fancy degree."

elvis gulps before he answers. he's in trouble. he can turn this around but not when he's got you on his lap and his wife- his gorgeous wife next to him. "satnin- baby- birdie. you know i had needs and you were younger and i had to take care of them somehow."

"i'm not mad at that." she's a little mad. "i'm mad you kept her hidden from me. we've been married over a year and i've had lisa marie and you've had her hidden, baby." she lays down next to him and grabs his chin so he's facing her as she winks at you.

you know that's your cue to start to tie up elvis's hands with the ascot. he's still looking at priscilla when you force his hands above his head and get to work on the tightest knot that girl scouts taught you. he won't be able to escape that any time soon. to cover up for what you've done you whisper in his ear. "hidden away like you're ashamed of me. i would have made such a pretty picture on your arm, handsome. would have made everyone jealous. you got a pretty girl at home and a pretty girl here."

he groans and moves his hands to try and cup both yours and priscilla's cheeks before he realizes what you've done. "y/n? sugar? untie me, this isn't time for one of our games. i gotta- you and cilla need to know- untie me!"

priscilla's eyebrows shoot up as she moves her hand in between you two and down elvis's chest, lightly scratching him through his shirt. "one of your games. like when we did nurse and patient?"

you giggle as you slink down to unbutton elvis's pants. "nurse and patient. darling, you have been holding out on your sugar." you pause as one of your hands drift to priscilla's thigh and give it a squeeze. "can i get some sugar from you birdie? since elvis can't really touch us right now."

"for you, baby? for my elvis's sugar?" she takes her remaining hand off his face and sits up before grasping your chin like elvis has grasped both yours and hers a million times and plants a kiss on your lips.

you end up deepening it a little, your tongue slipping past her lips easily and illicting what can only be described as the world's most pained groan from elvis. priscilla's sigh is softer and but has you smiling as you pull away.

you look up at elvis and priscilla looks at elvis for a moment, almost inspecting him from the growing hard on his suit pants to the way the blue of his eyes is rapidly being demolished by his pupil. you look back at priscilla for a moment before nodding. "we think you don't deserve to touch right now. not us. not you. you just have to lay back and take what we give you."

priscilla nods. "it's a punishment, fire eyes. for hiding her from me and expecting her to be without company when you're in graceland. she's too pretty for someone to not snap her up."

he growls, pulling at the restraints on his hands. "i already did, satnin. i already-"

she silences him with a kiss. "hush or you're not going to get to do anything fun with that mouth. to her or me. and we'll kick you out of the bus like this."

he hushed.

#i. blame angelina for this one. this was originally going to be a bit darker. a lot darker.#but then i was like should i include priscilla and well now we have sugar daddy elvis and sugar mama priscilla.#austin!elvis x reader #olivia!priscilla x reader #austin!elvis x olivia!priscilla x reader #austin butler #olivia dejonge #i don't know what happened.#i'm sorry for anyone in these tags who come across this.#ally's 500 follower gala #ally answers asks

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my-infp-world · 4 years ago

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INFP Music Collaboration Project: Complete!

The INFP Collaboration Playlist Project is now complete!

In total we had about 200 songs submitted and that completely blew me away! Thank you all so much for participating, I had no idea that it would get this many responses!

Thank you especially to @rokokokokolores, @stillnotknowing, @anypassingthought, @2nerd4this, @sonsoftie, @aseratreasures, @infp-relatable, @lunagirl0013, @idunno-justpicksomething, and @namhamjoon (please let me know if I accidentally forgot to tag you)

These are just the participants who were okay with being named but also thank you to all of the anonymous participants!

Here’s the final playlist from everyone’s suggestions, including some of mine that I threw in even though some of you beat me to the punch for a few songs.

Here is the INFP Music Collaboration Project!

Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2F8xgXYEKiJSBOo7g8IvON

I was thinking of doing another one of these in the future but just make up my own prompts and put them all in one form and leave it open for a while or forever and just update the playlist twice a month or something like that. If you have ideas, just drop a comment or an ask if you want it to be anonymous.

For those who want to know what the playlist turned out to be, here’s the list of songs with their categories below this break:

PROMPT #01: A SONG YOU LIKE WITH A COLOR IN THE TITLE

Silver Dagger - Live at Cecil Sharp House - The Staves

Today I Sing the Blues - Aretha Franklin

Pink Moon - Nick Drake

White Flag - Joseph

Black Swan - BTS

Indigo - Origa

Everything Black - Unlike Pluto

Red Sun - DREAMCATCHER

Yellow Lights - Harry Hudson

Red Hill Mining Town - U2

PROMPT #02: A SONG YOU LIKE WITH A NUMBER IN THE TITLE

.stage 4 fear of trying. - Frank Iero

Symphony No.5 In B-Flat, Op.100: 2. Allegro marcato - Sergei Prokofiev

One More Time with Feeling - Regina Spektor

100 Bad Days - AJR

R.I.P. 2 My Youth - The Neighbourhood

+THNX190519+ - CL

100 Ways - Jackson Wang

Day 1 â—‘ - HONNE

18 - Anarbor

Two - Sleeping At Last

Three Tree Town - Ben Howard

PROMPT #03: A SONG THAT REMINDS YOU OF SUMMERTIME

Fumes - EDEN

Summertime Sadness - Lana Del Rey

T-Shirt Weather - Circa Waves

ME! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco) - Taylor Swift

Dream - Priscilla Ahn

Carnival Hearts - Kayla Diamond

Yam Yam - No Vacation

Motivation - Normani

Wake Me Up - Avicii

PROMPT #04: A SONG THAT REMINDS YOU OF SOMEONE YOU'D RATHER FORGET

Alligator Alley - Michael Daugherty

Because of You - Kelly Clarkson

Sincerely, Me - Mike Faist

Cheerleader - OMI

Viva La Vida - Coldplay

Supermassive Black Hole - Muse

Over You - Ingrid Michaelson

PROMPT #05: A SONG THAT NEEDS TO BE PLAYED LOUD

Shine A Little Light - The Black Keys

Dynamite - BTS

Prelude in E-flat minor - Dmitri Shostakovich

Sick of Myself - Matthew Sweet

Salute - Little Mix

Smother - Daughter

Ship To Wreck - Florence + The Machine

I Am The Best - 2NE1

Baba O'Riley - The Who

Mr. Brightside - The Killers

King - Years & Years

I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) - Whitney Houston

I'm Coming Out - Diana Ross

PROMPT #06: A SONG THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO DANCE

Rain - MIKA

My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up) - Fall Out Boy

Jump in the Line - Harry Belafonte

We Are the Tide - Blind Pilot

I'm A Believer - Radio Edit - Smash Mouth

PROMPT #07: A SONG TO DRIVE TO

So Much More Than This - Grace VanderWaal

Open Road - Lost & Found Music Studios

Vasoline - Stone Temple Pilots

Walk in the Night - Kaori Kobayashi*

Fáinleog - Live - The Gloaming

I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers

Kiss - Prince

Olalla - Blanco White

Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood

PROMPT #08: A SONG ABOUT DRUGS OR ALCOHOL

Whiskey and Morphine - Alexander Jean

Meds - Placebo

High - Sir Sly

June - Florence + The Machine

Here's to Never Growing Up - Avril Lavigne

Void - The Neighbourhood

Clouds - BøRNS

PROMPT #09: A SONG THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY

Love Wins - Carrie Underwood

Shukumei - Official HIGE DANdism

Boy With Luv (feat. Halsey) - BTS

The Man Who Can't Be Moved - The Script

Love Come Down - Kalafina

Here Comes The Sun - Remastered 2009 - The Beatles

You Are the Best Thing - Ray LaMontagne

Pokemon Theme Song - The Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet

PROMPT #10: A SONG THAT MAKES YOU SAD

Someday - From "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"/Soundtrack Version - All-4-One

How We Love - Ingrid Michaelson

Everything You Ever - Neil Patrick Harris

Bluebird - Sara Bareilles

The Christmas Shoes - Newsong

Amen - Amber Run

Empty - Ray LaMontagne

In Dreams - Roy Orbison

The Beach - The Neighbourhood

PROMPT #11: A SONG YOU NEVER GET TIRED OF

Kimi Ga Hikari Ni Kaeteiku - Kalafina

Memories - Maroon 5

No Choir - Florence + The Machine

Should I Stay or Should I Go - Remastered - The Clash

Love On Top - Beyonce

Keep Your Head Up - Ben Howard

PROMPT #12: A SONG FROM YOUR PRETEEN YEARS

Fight Song - Rachel Platten

Samson - Regina Spektor

One More Sad Song - The All-American Rejects

No One - Alicia Keys

Poison Prince - Amy Macdonald

Love Story - Taylor Swift

7 Things - Single Version - Miley Cyrus

Rude - MAGIC!

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

PROMPT #13: A SONG YOU LIKE FROM 70s

Lean on Me - Bill Withers

Cat's in the Cradle - Harry Chapin

More Than a Feeling - Boston

Killing Me Softly - Frank Sinatra*

PROMPT #14: A SONG YOU'D LOVE TO BE PLAYED AT YOUR WEDDING

How Sweet It Is - Michael Buble

This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) - Natalie Cole

I'm A Believer - Radio Edit - Smash Mouth

Hold You in My Arms - Ray LaMontagne

Never Stop (Wedding Version) - SafetySuit

PROMPT #15: A SONG YOU LIKE THAT'S A COVER BY ANOTHER ARTIST

Skinny Love - Birdy

That's the Way It Is - Cassidy Janson

Angel - Darren Hayes

Titanium - Madilyn Bailey

There Must Be An Angel - ORIGA*

Mr. Tambourine Man - The Helio Sequence

Rude - Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox

Bad Guy - The Interrupters

PROMPT #16: A SONG THAT'S A CLASSIC FAVORITE

Africa - TOTO

Beautifully - Jay Brannan

Creep - Radiohead

Cupid - Sam Cooke

Your Favorite Thing - Sugar

Livin' On A Prayer - Bon Jovi

I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston

PROMPT #17: A SONG YOU'D SING A DUET WITH SOMEONE ON KARAOKE

For Good - From "Wicked" Original Broadway Cast Recording/2003 - Kristin Chenoweth

Take Me or Leave Me - Idina Menzel

Something To Believe In - Jeremy Jordan

Dancing with the Devil - Wolf Gang

Holding Out for a Hero - From "Footloose" Soundtrack - Bonnie Tyler

PROMPT #18: A SONG FROM THE YEAR YOU WERE BORN

A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton

Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me) - Train

Waterfalls - TLC

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Green Day

Wannabe - Spice Girls

PROMPT #19: A SONG THAT MAKES YOU THINK ABOUT LIFE

Memories - Maroon 5

Men Of Snow - Ingrid Michaelson

The River - Kyla La Grange

Saturn - Sleeping At Last

Landslide - Fleetwood Mac

The Fear - Ben Howard

Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine

The Good Part - AJR

Build It Up - Ingrid Michaelson

PROMPT #20: A SONG THAT HAS MANY MEANINGS TO YOU

Freckles - Natasha Bedingfield

Happy Home - Lukas Graham

Barely Breathing - Duncan Sheik

The Road - Hurts

Lost in My Mind - The Head and the Heart

Love Like You (feat. Rebecca Sugar) - End Credits - Steven Universe

PROMPT #21: A SONG YOU LIKE WITH A PERSON'S NAME IN THE TITLE

Esmeralda - The Hunchback of Notre Dame Company

West Side Story: Act I: Maria - Leonard Bernstein

Nina Cried Power (feat. Mavis Staples) - Hozier

Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond

Roxie - Renae Zellweger

Grace - Florence + The Machine

PROMPT #22: A SONG THAT MOVES YOU FORWARD

Sukiyaki - Kyu Sakamoto

Fuckin' Perfect - Melanie La Barrie

Who's Got a Match? - Biffy Clyro

Into The Fire - Thirteen Senses

Bang The Doldrums - Fall Out Boy

I Was Here - Beyonce

PROMPT #23: A SONG YOU THINK EVERYBODY SHOULD LISTEN TO

Neon Gravestones - Twenty One Pilots

Danzon No.2 - Arturo MÃ¡rquez

Most Girls - Hailee Steinfeld

(Finally) A Convenient Truth - Get Well Soon

Stand by Me - Otis Redding

PROMPT #24: A SONG BY A BAND YOU WISH WERE STILL TOGETHER

Such Great Heights - Remastered - The Postal Service

To the Beginning - Kalafina

Here Comes a Regular - 2008 Remaster - The Replacements

Night Rather Than Day - EXID

Wonderwall - Remastered - Oasis

PROMPT #25: A SONG YOU LIKE BY AN ARTIST NO LONGER LIVING

Waiting for the End - Linkin Park

All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix

Human Nature - Michael Jackson

The Longest Time - Billy Joel

Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me - Rosemary Clooney

Before Our Spring - JONGHYUN

PROMPT #26: A SONG THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO FALL IN LOVE

girls - girl in red

Conversations in the Dark - John Legend

Just like Heaven - The Cure

On The Street Where You Live - Frederick Loewe

Still into You - Paramore

PROMPT #27: A SONG THAT BREAKS YOUR HEART

Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus" - Ralph Vaughan Williams

Black Woman - Danielle Brooks

Eyes Nose Lips (feat. Taeyang) - Epik High

Empty - Ray LaMontagne

Just a Dream - Carrie Underwood

Landslide - Fleetwood Mac

Requiem - Laura Dreyfuss

PROMPT #28: A SONG BY AN ARTIST WHOSE VOICE YOU LOVE

Hurt - Christina Aguilera

I'M OKAY - SAAY

So Much More Than This - Grace VanderWaal

Pretty Hurts - Beyonce

Just like Heaven - The Cure

i'm lonely - Luz

Skylark - Aretha Franklin

Never Let Me Go - Florence + The Machine

Ship To Wreck - Florence + The Machine

PROMPT #29: A SONG YOU REMEMBER FROM YOUR CHILDHOOD

Going Under - Evanescence

Muddy Hymnal - Iron & Wine

Rush - Aly & AJ

Smooth (feat. Rob Thomas) - Santana

Who Let The Dogs Out - Baha Men

She Looks So Perfect - 5 Seconds of Summer

PROMPT #30: A SONG THAT REMINDS YOU OF YOURSELF

Never Let Me Go - Florence + The Machine

Vienna - Billy Joel

The Pros and Cons of Breathing - Fall Out Boy

In Dreams - Roy Orbison

Car Radio - Twenty One Pilots

Sweet Nothing (feat. Florence Welch) - Calvin Harris

Lonely Dance - Set It Off

*Could not be found on Spotify

#30DayPlaylistCollaborationProject #infp playlist #infp music #30 day song challenge #thoughts from me

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belizedeservesbetter · 5 years ago

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Rock of Ages is Hadestown

I don’t really know if this is a review or my upcoming college thesis

I’ve always loved Rock of Ages. It’s so fun. It’s so dumb. But it’s also so smart. Rock of Ages knows exactly who Rock of Ages is and should be. Rock of Ages is exactly what Rock of Ages wants to be. It’s a blast and the songs are of course good and it’s funny and full of heart and there’s actually some really wonderful theatrical moments and I’m thrilled that it’s back at New World Stages for the summer. But as I sat there watching the show on Thursday, I realized something.

Rock of Ages is Hadestown.

The plot is literally the same. Young musician working in a restaurant falls in love with a girl who wants more out of life but young musician can’t give her what she wants and eventually sells her soul to the devil. All the while, a fun narrator steps in and out of the plot and a second story of young love and falling out of love occur between the older character. Three women who sing together are also involved. That is a vast oversimplification of both stories but you get my idea.

Orpheus, then, is Drew. The wannabe musician with a big heart, good intentions but not the smartest or most logical person. Drew, who throughout the show writes a song that will Change Rock and Roll (and in Orpheus’ case, the world). This song that makes their female love interest fall in love with them. In this current production of Rock of Ages, he’s played by CJ Eldred, who looks STRIKINGLY like Reeve Carney, but can actually act.

tell me that is not Reeve. tell me they are not long lost siblings or at least dopplegangers

Which brings us to Sherrie, aka Eurydice, who has blown in from nowhere and bumps into Drew/Orpheus and there is an instant connection that is only bolstered by a lovely duet by the Greeks and a shared slushee by the rockers. Sherrie, like Eurydice, is a “hungry young girl” who wants more out of life. Where Eurydice wants... something, I guess, Sherrie wants to be an actress. Kirsten Scott sings the hell out of all her songs and is a sheer delight to watch on stage. Sherrie and Drew have a good thing going until Drew mentions just how good of friends they are.

Am I equating Orpheus’ inability to do anything but write his “La La La” song with a nervous Drew accidentally telling Sherrie they’re just friends? Yes. Yes and the scene it happens in the show is hilarious. There’s this wooden car set that Drew brings on and off that is SO cheesy and SO hilarious and they all know it too. There’s even a part where Drew mimes opening and closing the car door even though there is no door that was Comedy Gold.

Which brings us to Hades, aka Stacee Jaxx. Where Eurydice sells her soul to Hades and goes way down to Hadestown, Sherrie sleeps with Stacee, who then gets her fired and puts a rift between her and Drew. Stacee Jaxx is as gross and sleazy as they come, and PJ Griffith (whose bio on the website is fun) works every second of it. His story ends with Sherrie breaking his nose before he has to flee the country. Where Hades is revealed to Have a Heart, Stacee is kicked to the curb, which I liked. I liked that the Big RockStar ends the show with nothing and no one.

The Hermes of Rock of Ages is Lonny, who is both the narrator of the show and a character who influences the plot. “Just Like Paradise/Nothin’ But a Good Time” is literally Road to Hell and all the characters and themes are introduced right from the start. Lonny steps in to narrate quite a bit, going so far as to interrupt Drew’s train of thought towards the end of the show which leads to this funny “You’re in a musical called Rock of Ages and it used to be on Broadway and now it’s not and they made a movie out of it” moment which was absolutely on the nose but they KNEW it was on the nose and worked with it. Mitchell Jarvis, who created the role of Lonny, is back in this current Off-Broadway production and he is spectacular. You can tell he loves everything about this role and this show and he is having a fantastic time and you the audience are having a fantastic time with him.

This is where it becomes a bit more of a stretch but bear with me on this so there are three waitresses who also work at The Bourbon Room and while they ominously sing like The Fates, they do pop in to provide Sherrie with some comfort every now and then. They’re also super cool and do some really incredible dancing. The standout waitress, also known as Waitress #1, is Katie Webber and holy shit she’s incredible. She was also in the original cast of the show and you can tell how much she loves it.

This is even more of a stretch but the characters Dennis and Justice combined make Persephone. Dennis, the owner of The Bourbon Room, talks about Stacee Jaxx with a lot of love and nostalgia, which makes me think he had feelings for him at some point. Considering Dennis ends up with Lonny at the end, I think I could be right in this. This is probably adding layers to Rock of Ages that isn’t there but I think Dennis really loved Stacee and was hurt to see him leave him in the dust like that. Matt Ban plays Dennis currently and gives Dennis a strong “Tired Dad” vibe, which worked well for the character. He also had great chemistry with Mitchell Jarvis.

Justice also gives me big Persephone vibes, especially her moment with Sherrie where she talks about how she was in love once and how she’s not as happy as she used to be. I’ll definitely take “Pour Some Sugar On Me” (and Dennis’ “Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore”) as this show’s “Our Lady of the Underground” and maybe some of her verses in “Chant.” Jeannette Bayardelle was wonderful as Justice. She also had this glitter lipstick that looked like the glitter lips from Priscilla - Queen of the Desert which I love love loved.

A lot of the themes are the same - with the ones on climate change, the workforce and capitalism being summed up in the Regina (pronounced like vagina)/Hertz plotline about tearing down the Sunset Strip. Of course the Orpheus/Eurydice themes match up surprisingly well with the Drew/Sherrie ones too. Actually, I think it’s interesting how Rock of Ages goes further in exploring what happens when Drew does get what he wants, like what happens when his songs do get noticed and how it turns out to be not what he wants after all.

And in this current production, there’s even a Tall Ensemble Man, played by Michael Mahany, who, again, is clearly having a great time. He’s also the sole male ensemble member (not including Mekhai Lee because he plays The Mayor and Drew’s Agent mostly) which makes the big ensemble dance breaks really funny.

The set is also literally the same as Hadestown, but more rock and roll. There’s literally the stares Hades uses to go up and down from his little patio, but this time they go into Dennis office. To be quite honest, I fully expect the inevitable Hadestown revival in the far off future to be staged in a rock and roll bar/club like The Bourbon Room. It fits the story perfectly.

The big difference is that Rock of Ages ends happily. Drew and Sherrie actually get to live happily ever after, which Orpheus and Eurydice don’t get to do.

There is so much I love about Rock of Ages. It’s an absolute blast. I love seeing it because it’s sheer escapism. There’s nothing I have to think too hard on and it’s not a show that tries to be that either. I love how you can tell what songs they only got partial rights to, like the split second moment where Stacee sings Styx’s “Renegade.” I love how much fun everyone is having, especially Tall Ensemble Man. I love that the ending is absolutely ridiculous and Dennis is briefly mentioned to have died, but he comes back as an Angel that gets rid of Stacee Jaxx. I love that Lonny tells Drew to fuck the book writers of the musical. And I love that Rock of Ages has its flaws and problematic jokes, cause it keeps me humble. It reminds me that I’m seeing Rock of Ages and not a Serious Show. I love how much fun and how drunk the audience is for this show. I love that this is the closest thing to Straight Culture I’m ever gonna see, which is fascinating to say the least. I love the merchandise the show has! You can get Wolfgang Von Colt (Drew’s stage name) t-shirts that look like Drew made them himself. I love that you can buy Arsenal (Stacee Jaxx’s band) sweatshirts that look like Stacee designed them himself. I love that the band is onstage the entire time and I love that they are Arsenal and are constantly flipping off Stacee.

Also! We don’t give enough credit to director Kristin Hanggi! Why do we always forget about her when we talk about female directors? She's been with this show right from the start! She’s infused this show with so much satire. It’s really a lot more progressive than you’d think.

And this show is so fun. It’s so so fun. I understand why there’s die hard Rock of Ages fans who’ve seen this show hundreds of times.

Go check out Rock of Ages at New World Stages till the end of summer! New World Stages has actually become a great spot for post-Broadway shows, like Jersey Boys and Play That Goes Wrong. There’s also Puffs, which I liked even though I’m a little traumatized from it. And there’s also Gazillion Bubble Show, if you’re into that.

#rock of ages #review #broadway #off-broadway #i will die on this hill i love this show #voice

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ntrending · 7 years ago

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Is there any truth to anti-aging schemes?

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/is-there-any-truth-to-anti-aging-schemes/

Is there any truth to anti-aging schemes?

On a Thursday evening in late January, the faithful gather. They trickle into the Church of Perpetual Life, about an hour’s drive north of Miami, until a throng of around 100 people cram around tables lining the first-floor hall of this renovated house of worship. Along one wall is a display of reading material: pamphlets on heart disease, flyers itemizing the additives in Cheez-Its and their detrimental health effects, a handbill about the Ms. Senior Florida pageant. On the other side of the room, there’s a snack buffet with beans, broccoli, carrots, cubed cheese, sliced meats, and olives. It’s easy to pick out the regulars, who mingle clutching biology textbooks or readily shaking hands.

Many of them pause to greet the diminutive man who is their host: Bill Faloon. Clean-shaven and youthfully slim in a dark suit, with jet-black hair and a formidably bridged nose, he is the church’s founder. Just yesterday, he laid out its gospel to me, saying, “We’re talking about immortality.” His followers, he says, are “people trying to live as long as possible, maybe even forever.”

At 63, Faloon is old enough to remember when such talk labeled you a kook or charlatan. In the late 1970s, he co-founded the Life Extension Foundation, a nonprofit promoting the notion that people don’t need to die—and later started a business to sell them the supplements and lab tests to help make that dream real. Nowadays he also distributes a magazine to 300,000 people nationwide and invites speakers to monthly gatherings at the church, billed as a science-based, nondenominational meeting place where supporters learn about the latest developments in the battle against aging. Their faith is in human technologies that might one day end involuntary death.

After an hour of mixing, we all head to the second-floor nave and fill the pews for the evening’s event. Several rows back sits a beer scientist. Next to me, two women in dresses and heels. At the front, an elderly gentleman with hearing aids. Tonight’s speaker is Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist and chief science officer of SENS Research Foundation, a Mountain View, California, outfit that studies regenerative medicines that might cure diseases associated with old age.

De Grey’s startup reflects the rush of Big Tech money into this arena as the U.S. population ages. Baby boomers are retiring, and the Census Bureau estimates older people will outnumber children by 2035. Google launched Calico in 2013 to solve the challenges of aging and associated illnesses. Two years later, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, started the $3 billion Chan Zuckerberg Science program, whose lofty goals include curing all disease. And Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel invested in Unity Biotechnology, launched in 2016 to develop therapies for age-related ailments.

Today, it’s also easy to locate university-affiliated labs at places such as Harvard and Stanford investigating their own interventions in the process of growing old. Since the National Institutes of Health established its Institute on Aging division in 1974, scientists have dedicated more and more resources to the challenge. Over the past dozen years, the NIA’s budget has doubled to more than $2 billion.

Faloon predates them all. These days, the several hundred people who regularly attend events at the church are personal validation for Faloon, who thinks that anyone his age and younger, given the proper physiological tweaking, could live to a healthy age of 130. The hope is that, by then, new solutions will make death truly optional. Yet no amount of self-tinkering can assure him and his followers that day will ever come.

Faloon was 8 years old and living in Pittsburgh when his mother told him that dying was a part of life. The concept didn’t sit well with him. “I was determined to find a way to conquer death,” he says.

As a teenager, he became fascinated by the nascent and dubious field of cryonics—freezing the body upon death in hopes that a future technology can reanimate it. After high school, Faloon studied mortuary science so he could cryopreserve people. To this day, he is a licensed funeral director and embalmer. In the early ’70s, at age 19, he moved to South Florida and soon fell in with folks equally fascinated by cryonics. At a get-together of local enthusiasts, he met Saul Kent, a fellow believer, and in 1977, the two founded what would eventually become the Life Extension Foundation.

A few years later, the two men formed a business—the Life Extension Buyers Club—to sell supplements. The problem was that they were also helping their members obtain medications that were not approved in the U.S. In 1987, federal agents kicked in their doors, seizing their products. In 1991, the U.S. government indicted them for helping to distribute unapproved drugs and pharmaceuticals without a prescription.

We promoted ways to slow aging that hadn’t made it into the mainstream yet.”

Bill Faloon

“We were promoting all kinds of ways to slow aging that nowadays are recognized but hadn’t made it into the mainstream yet,” Faloon says. For instance, metformin. Approved for prescription in England in 1958 and in Canada in 1972, the drug increases insulin sensitivity, improving the body’s ability to process sugars. This effect on glucose metabolism is the main reason metformin is now commonly used in the U.S. to treat type 2 diabetes, but the Food and Drug Administration didn’t approve it until 1994. Studies since then show that diabetics on the medication generally live longer and appear to get cancer as much as 40 percent less than diabetics on other medications.

Back in the ’80s, Faloon considered what he’d read about metformin enough for him to recommend it to buyers. But science isn’t so quick to repurpose a drug. First, a randomized controlled trial has to show results . This year, one such test, called Targeting Aging with Metformin, or TAME, should get underway. It is the only FDA-sponsored study to look at whether a specific drug can slow aging.

FDA approval is predicated on outcomes. If you want permission to sell a new kind of pharmaceutical for lowering cholesterol, you will first need to show that it decreases a person’s risk of developing heart disease. That it took the regulatory agency this many decades even to consider greenlighting an anti-aging drug speaks to how complex a challenge it is to untangle the process of growing old.

Aging begins at the cellular level. But it took a long time to figure that out. For much of the 20th century, biologists thought that cells were immortal. That changed in the 1960s, when microbiologist Leonard Hayflick discovered that some human cells divide 40 to 60 times before stopping at what we now call the Hayflick Limit. That division is important. It’s what helps your body grow, or repair damage (like after you cut your finger ), or fend off attack (like when your immune system defends against a virus).

Since then, researchers have discovered that even cells that keep dividing age, and they become inefficient at basic functions such as repairing DNA and recycling proteins, lipids, and other key molecules. Unable to maintain themselves, they accumulate damage, which impedes their ability to function normally or repair bodily tissues. Think of a car that falls into disrepair until one day, it just won’t start. Our senses diminish, our skin goes slack, our joints creak, our muscles atrophy, and eventually the diseases associated with our older years creep in to finish us off: stroke, Alzheimer’s, pulmonary fibrosis, diabetes, heart disease, cancer.

Faloon was determined to use the Life Extension Foundation to search for alternatives. He persisted even while under indictment; the foundation and buyers club remained legally free to market and sell supplements. Federal prosecutors, struggling to find testifying witnesses, ended up dropping all charges by 1996.

In 2013, he and Kent took their mission a step further, spending $880,000 to buy a building and open the Church of Perpetual Life. At first attendance was low, but now the venue is regularly packed. The place attracts medical doctors and laypeople alike. For several hours each month, they swap the latest information, take in what visiting researchers have to say, and, afterward, enjoy a catered meal together (January’s menu offered chicken, salmon, and tilapia).

“The idea is to bring people together and talk about a lot of ideas,” says Faloon. “It’s a real attempt to persuade more of the public that dying is not a good thing.”

In 2013, the academic journal Cell published a paper called “The Hallmarks of Aging,” which identified nine factors. Some contribute to the decline of young cells, while others play a role in driving the pathologies that lead to our demise. The report also highlighted several experimental therapies that have yielded encouraging results so far.

Most of the approaches that are mentioned in the paper fit into particular buckets: drugs that regulate metabolic pathways related to aging; tactics for killing off cells that have hit their division limit; restorative treatments to supply missing stem cells, which divide to repair tissues and organs. Researchers had previously tested all of the remedies in rodents.

“We don’t know for sure that the same tricks we use in laboratory animals will work in people, but probably some of them will,” says Matt Kaeberlein, a pathology professor at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Metformin and rapamycin are two drugs with promising implications. In mice and rat trials, both extended life span. Some of Kaeberlein’s work shows that rapamycin, typically delivered as an immunosuppressant following organ transplants in humans, mimics the effects of caloric restriction. Eating less puts strain on the body, and might alert cells that it’s time to halt division and focus on repair and stress resistance, both of which could contribute to longevity. Rapamycin might create the same effect without requiring you to skip a meal.

Nir Barzilai likes metformin because it is safe. Diabetics have used metformin, a modified version of a plant compound, for decades. Barzilai is director of the Institute for Aging Research at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the lead sponsor of the five-year TAME trial that will soon enroll 3,000 participants between ages 65 and 80. He believes that the drug does more to alleviate damage in an aging cell than it does for improving glucose metabolism.

“People with diabetes on metformin have 17 percent less mortality than people without diabetes, even though they are more obese and more sick to begin with,” Barzilai says of the drug’s effect. “So metformin is really about aging much more than diabetes.”

The Cell paper highlighted other ways to disrupt the aging process. If these units of living matter become inefficient as they age and divide, couldn’t we just replace them? In the case of stem cells, yes.

“What’s the key to being able to turn a 1950 Chevrolet into a useful operating tool?” asks surgeon-turned-biomedical pioneer Bob Hariri. “It’s all about replacement parts, right? Look at what happens to people who get stem-cell transplants for bone-marrow reconstitution. If the donor is younger than the recipient, quite often the biology of that recipient improves.”

Hariri is a co-founder of Human Longevity Inc., a Silicon Valley venture using supercomputers to search for genes related to human aging. But he’s better known for his research into stem-cell therapies, first as CEO of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, and now as founder of Celularity, a startup that launched this year. Its plan: Harvest stem cells from human placentas and inject them into older people. Hariri believes the usually frail organ systems of older individuals will improve because they will, in effect, be composed of younger cells.

Another strategy is to try to clear senescent cells—older ones that stop dividing—from the body. Research shows that some of these old-timers produce chemical signals that interfere with the functions of healthy cells. They can also cause symptoms such as inflammation, and help bring on fatal age-associated diseases.

Killing those rogues is a new focus among researchers. A team at the Mayo Clinic’s Kogod Center on Aging recently managed to destroy senescent cells in mice using a new class of medications called senolytic agents. As reported this past summer in Nature Communications, other testing on human cells in culture showed that senolytic drugs targeted senescent cells while leaving other types alone. A clinical trial to test the drugs in humans with chronic kidney disease is underway.

“We’ve got approval to start trials, and some are just beginning, but they’re in people who’ve got serious illnesses directly tied to cellular senescence,” says Kogod Center director James Kirkland. He adds that they need to see what happens before moving on to healthier populations.

Across all these potential aging interventions, there is one common denominator, and that is their fallibility. The medical community doesn’t know what slows or reverses the process in humans, let alone what might cause harm. For that reason, Kirkland and his peers caution against the kind of self-experimentation Faloon practices.

“We’re playing with a new treatment paradigm,” Kirkland says of their research. “I’ve been around long enough to know there are going to be unpredictable things that happen as we get into people.”

Faloon believes he faces a bigger risk from waiting than from being his own guinea pig. “I’m afraid that with aging research, some of the people don’t have a sufficient sense of urgency,” he says. He continually incorporates different interventions into his life-extension regimen. He restricts his calories to some 1,200 a day, about half what the average man consumes. He also ingests more than 50 medications daily, including metformin and Life Extension’s own concoctions of nutraceuticals with names like Cell Regenerator and LongevityAI. “Anything that might work, I am doing,” he says.

Most recently, Faloon underwent a series of infusions of NAD+ molecules, which David Sinclair, co-director of the Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School, has called “the closest we’ve gotten to a fountain of youth.” The molecules help regulate cellular aging but diminish over time. In studies, older mice given NAD+ molecule precursors look and act younger.

Because he’s impatient for clinical trials to yield conclusive results, Faloon gives about $5 million a year in profits from the buyers club to underwrite medical research. So far, the data from two recent studies on NAD+ and rapamycin that he backed are unpublished. “If we don’t accelerate all these different projects, I’m not going to make it,” Faloon says.

Meddling with nature can carry unforeseen consequences. One strategy to renew old cells might encourage cancer.”

But there’s a reason that science is slow. Most researchers will say that aging, if not an outright mystery, remains a cross between a jigsaw puzzle and an aggravating game of Whac-A-Mole. They warn that meddling with nature can carry unforeseen consequences. For instance, one experimental strategy, which deploys the enzyme telomerase to renew old cells, might encourage premalignant cells to turn cancerous.

“People look at aging as something that is very simple,” says Michael Fossel, a former professor of the biology of aging at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. “They pick their favorite parameter, and then they push it. Can we reverse aging in people in clinical trials? Nobody knows yet.”

Most current studies have a more circumscribed objective, which is to ameliorate the diseases that occur in our senior years. Take, for example, the TAME trial. According to lead scientist Barzilai, the FDA will consider metformin a sufficient anti-aging drug if it can delay age-related diseases for two years.

In other words, radical life extension—the notion of immortality that the Church of Perpetual Life promotes—is not the goal. Pushing back the onset of major maladies so we live a little longer and die a little healthier is. For the Silicon Valley companies and barons of Big Tech assisting this effort, there’s clearly a business imperative. “Anything that extends life and maintains health is the biggest potential business in the history of mankind,” Celularity’s Hariri says. Another researcher, Kris Verburgh, a professor at Silicon Valley-based think tank Singularity University, aptly points out in his book The Longevity Code, “If there is one thing multimillionaires dislike, it is having to die.”

But aging research can’t promise them—or Bill Faloon—anything. “Gerontology is science, and immortalism is religion,” says rapamycin researcher Kaeberlein. “It’s based on the faith that human technology will get to the point where you can actually live forever. But there’s no scientific basis for that at all.”

In science, time outs the truth. For Faloon, time will always be the enemy. Undaunted, he keeps cryonics as an insurance policy for himself, his wife, and his two sons. Don’t wait for the mainstream, he tells his followers. Come to church. Celebrate. Rejoice. And live.

This article was originally published in the Summer 2018 Life/Death issue of Popular Science.

Written By Andrew Zaleski

#Science

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