#cos a lot of bangers in a 50 year career so

[pulquedeguayaba]

Got reminded of my Letterboxd recap for 2023 and yeah makes sense

[stokan]

The Top 20 Things of 2019

1. “Shallow” at The Oscars How can something be so anticipated, so hyped, so seemingly bigger than the freaking Oscars themselves, and yet still somehow exceed all expectations? We now know the answer: by completely subverting them. That’s why it makes perfect sense that the greatest moment of Lady Gaga’s career would be the simplest one. Her and Bradley Cooper simply standing up from their seats still gives me chills every time I watch it (and I’ve watched it A LOT). And the close up on their faces needs to be shown in sex ed classes.

If I could travel back in time, sure going back to kill baby Hitler would be great, but mostly I’d just want to go back to the exact second the curtain starts to raise on this performance, before I knew where it was headed next.

2. Olivia Colman winning Best Actress at The Oscars If you think it’s weird that there are two separate things from the same awards show on my list of the top things from the entire year, then, well, you’ve come to the wrong place.

This is the absolute platonic ideal of someone winning an Oscar. Our genuine shock at hearing their name, THEIR genuine shock at hearing their name, the genuine emotion from everyone involved, a speech that is heartfelt, human, funny, and charming in a way that only a true star could ever dream of being, all in equal measure. And it’s all part of a YouTube clip you can watch endlessly and find new things every time. (Glenn Close’s reaction when she loses is like an entire drama in and of itself.) Sure awards shows may be dumb, but then also, this is why they’re not.

3. Sharon Van Etten - “Seventeen” in advance of this year’s Oscars I just want to be on record that my favorite movie from 2019 about aging, feeling that life is passing you by, grappling with mortality, the passage of time, and the generation coming up behind you is Closing My Eyes And Listening To “Seventeen” By Sharon Van Etten. It has it all: the creeping melancholy and regret, the sense of doom that you try to dance away, the feeling that the past was maybe just a dream, the urge to yell into an increasingly uncaring void.

Part of the curse of aging is everyone becoming their own Casandra. Now you know, but no one will listen. And part of the joy of aging is realizing it doesn’t really matter if they do.

4. The writing on Succession

“Proof that, as long as the writing is there, TV doesn’t need to be anything more than people having conversations in rooms.” - theringer.com

I have a rule with these year end lists that I can’t feature something I’ve listed in a previous year. But it’s actually illegal to write about the best of 2019 without mentioning Succession. So I’m going to get around my self-imposed rule by this year specifically highlighting the writing on the show.

The amazing thing about Succession is how watchable it is not despite, but almost BECAUSE of the fact that not much actually happens. People talk a lot about things they are GOING to do, or MIGHT do, but there’s not a ton of actual DOING. And that’s actually great, because what we’re really here for is the talking. Every character talks with the biting wit of an Armando Iannucci character, the deep intelligence of an Aaron Sorkin character, and the realism of an actual human being. I find myself constantly rewinding just to make sure I took in the brilliance of each dialogue exchange. And literally every line Kieran Culkin is given to say would be the best line of the entire season on 90% of the shows on TV.

Everyone talks about how great the acting on Succession is, and rightly so, but actors are nothing without good words to say. And on Succession, to paraphrase a president of the United States that I’m sure ACN would love, they have the best words.

5. The chemistry of Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein in Booksmart My favorite movie of 2017 was Lady Bird. My favorite movie of 2018 was Eighth Grade. So suffice it to say I was well prepared for how much I loved Booksmart. But what I was not prepared for at all was the incredible chemistry of two actors I had previously never even heard of before: Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein. It feels impossible that the two of them aren’t real-life best friends. Life-long friendship is such a specific bond it feels impossible to fake, and yet somehow Kaitlyn and Beanie pulled the magic trick off. Experiencing the giddy contact high of their chemistry felt like being in the presence of a miracle. And anyone who says the romantic comedy is dead clearly didn’t see Booksmart, because maybe the best romantic comedy of the decade was the story of two people realizing the deepest, purest, most unique love of all can sometimes be the love you have for your best friend.

6. Fleabag Season 2 What on earth is there left to say about Fleabag that hasn’t already been said? And yet somehow even with all the discourse about this show it has still maintained its status as the rare cultural phenomenon with a 100% approval rating. To be as massive and as beloved as Fleabag and yet inspire zero backlash, not even a stray contrarian take from an online troll, feels impossible, and yet also, in the case of Fleabag, totally right. If (the now VERY problematic) Louie was the beginning of giving people money to make their idiosyncratic, personal, not-quite a drama not-quite a comedy TV shows, then Fleabag is the end. The apex of the art form. There’s nowhere to go from here but down. 2019 was the year television finally peaked. It was the year we all witnessed perfection. And it was the year that we fittingly all had a priest to guide us there.

7. Chelsea Peretti’s monologue at the WGA Awards Ironic that the year that proved that awards shows don’t need hosts is also the same year that gave maybe the best example ever of what a great awards show host can do. Chelsea goes so far inside baseball it gives new meaning to the phrase “corker”, and it’s all the better for it.

8. Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride If you don’t think Father of the Bride is the best album of 2019 then congrats on not being a late-30s straight white man. But as a late-30s straight white man myself I’ve got two big things going for me:

1.) A life that has benefited from a history of privilege and near-total control over society stretching from the beginnings of civilization up until today 2.) An understanding that Father of the Bride is the best album of 2019

But what about Bon Iver and Wilco and The National and Sturgill Simpson and Big Thief, didn’t they all put out albums for late-30s straight white men this year you ask? To which I say: did any of those albums have a song on them called “Unbearably White”? No they did not! And that sort of ironic self-awareness is the kind of shit that has fueled a million straight white male sketch comedy scenes. It is the air we breathe. Also, have you heard “Harmony Hall” lately? Or “This Life”? Or “Stranger”? I mean, come on, leaving Brooklyn to make your “settled down in LA” album is the sort of late-30s straight white guy catnip James Murphy could only DREAM ABOUT. I may not have much these days, other than unlimited power and privilege, but at least I will always have Vampire Weekend, and they will always have me.

9. Lizzo Every year there is one thing that defines the year. One thing that 50 years in the future when someone mentions that year, it will be the first thing that pops into everyone’s head. And in America for 2019 that thing will be the impeachment of Donald Trump. But if there is a second thing, then it’s Lizzo. She was there when the year started, only got bigger as the year progressed and was arguably still getting more popular as the year ended. And she was everywhere. She was on massive stages and behind tiny desks. She was at the movies, she was on TV, she was coming out of every open car window. And she was definitely at every wedding you went to this year. Lizzo WAS 2019.

With the impeachment of Donald Trump I don’t know how far down the presidential line of succession we have to go before we get to Lizzo, but I know we would all be better off if we would hurry up and get there. Lizzo is the best of us.

10. This picture of Baby Yoda 

Ok I was wrong. Take everything I said about Lizzo and double it for This Picture Of Baby Yoda (you know the one, or if you don’t, click the link above). On the wikipedia entry for the year 2019 that definitely needs to be the picture. 

11. Kodi Lee on America’s Got Talent I realize you probably weren’t sitting around watching America’s Got Talent this summer. I certainly wouldn’t have been if I hadn’t happened to be working the live show tapings. But lemme tell you, if you didn’t see the show, you missed out on something truly magical this year. Something that makes you rethink what human beings are capable of. Something that goes so far beyond inspirational that I don’t think our language has a word to fully express it. Kodi Lee is a real life superhero, and provoking emotion is his superpower. Making it thru a full Kodi Lee performance without crying should be the new Turning Test. Forget America; Humans Have Talent indeed.

12. Taylor Swift - “Cruel Summer” Look I didn’t expect to ever find another “Teenage Dream”, but, well, here we are. I mean, a Taylor Swift single produced by Jack Antonoff and co-written by Annie Clark is pretty much genetically engineered to be one of my favorite things ever, but still: wow. Do the kids still use the term “banger”? Because if so, this is why the term was invented. I would have more to say about how great the rest of Lover is as well, but sorry, I gotta go now. I have to listen to “Cruel Summer” for the eight millionth time.

13. Michelle Williams in Fosse/Verdon If there was an award for best acting performance in any medium this would be the clear winner for 2019. In fact, can you win an EGOT for one single performance? What about a Nobel Prize? I can’t come up with an award or a title big enough to truly honor Michelle Williams’ work in Fosse/Verdon.

As a fellow actor very rarely a performance will come along that will make me think: ok we’re done here. Let’s all the rest of us pack it up and go home, because someone just won acting. This is one of those performances. So congrats to Dame Michelle Williams, you’re the new Pope.

14. American Factory My favorite line in all of Shakespeare is “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. And nothing is evidence of that more than the piece of art I have thought about most this year: the documentary American Factory (available on Netflix right now!). So many of the things we in western societies believe are universal bedrock virtues and value are in fact simply products of the society in which we were raised. Individualism, personal expression, autotomy, the importance of leisure time, and so many other things, are not absolute human values, only relative ones. What is important to someone in America, can be ridiculous and incomprehensible to someone in China. And vice versa. And neither side is right or wrong, only thinking makes it so.

American Factory is documentary that doesn’t say WHAT IF EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW WAS WRONG, but instead shows something that is perhaps even more powerful: what if everything you know is simply just that, a thing you know.

15. White Claw Life is an endless parade of infinite options, possibilities, and choices. So I have no idea how you personally chose to spend your 2019. With one exception: I Know What You Did Last Summer. You drank an alcoholic seltzer water. Probably many of them, but at least one. At a park, at a beach, in a backyard, definitely at a party. If at some point this summer your paws weren’t wrapped around a White Claw (or a similar product) then you didn’t actually experience 2019. Because this is the year we all collectively got obsessed with combining America’s two hottest drink trends: flavored sparkling water and…hold on, lemme look up the name of this stuff…alcohol?

History may record summer 2019 as Hot Girl Summer, but those us who actually lived it know the truth: it was Hard Seltzer Summer

16. Marriage Story A movie that fundamentally misunderstands things I care about deeply - theater, Los Angeles, how the entertainment industry works - is my favorite movie of the year because of how deeply it gets right the thing I care about most: human beings. The way we talk, the way we behave, the way we love, the way we hurt, the way we create bonds that never fully go away. It’s been said a lot, but part of the beauty and magic of this movie is that it doesn’t take sides. Both people are right and both of them are wrong. And that’s how human relationships often work in real life, but rarely in art. There are no heroes, there are no villains; there’s only being alive.


(Also, Adam Driver, Imma let you finish, but Raul Esparza doing “Being Alive” is one of my favorite YouTube clips of ALL TIME. If you ever need to weep uncontrollably and you don’t have time to watch Marriage Story, then Raul Esparza’s “Being Alive” will do the trick)

17. Lil Nas X - “Old Town Road” “What kind of music do you like” used to be a very important question. Your sense of identity used to be defined by the type of music you listened to and what that choice said about you. But now music-as-cultural-signifier is as dead as the concept of owning music itself. Rap music is for elementary school kids. Country music is made by queer black Americans collaborating with Dutch teenagers. Billy Ray Cyrus and Korean pop stars appear on remixes of the same song. A song about an old road and an antiquated mode of travel becomes a massive hit thru the brand new music app TikTok. What kind of music do we like in 2019? All of the “kinds” of music at once, in one marvelously inescapable two minute burst of joy. Music is dead; long live music.

18. Chernobyl If you thought it was crazy that the year’s biggest song was a novelty country/hip-hop track by an unsigned artist rapping about trying to find parking for his horse, then wait until you find out what the summer’s biggest hit TV show was about! I mean, nothing screams “summer fun” like nuclear radiation and shooting dogs. But as always, no one ever truly knows what people will want until you give it to them. And clearly what we really wanted in our LOL Nothing Matters age was a captivating reminder that life on earth truly could end at any moment. Some things very much DO matter. And that something as dramatic, devastating, and consequential as Chernobyl could have happened in the fairly recent past and already have been largely forgotten about is incredible. But if you can take such a compelling story and tell it as well as the makers of Chernobyl did, then people will watch and learn and better understand an issue of vital importance, no matter how seemingly uncommercial it might be. So in a very 2019 sentence: thank you creator of the the Hangover franchise for your miniseries about a 1980 Russian power plant explosion. It was our collective summer obsession. (2019 was a weird year.)

19. Raphael Bob-Waksberg - Someone Who Will Love You In All You Damaged Glory

“I think about how loving someone is kind of like being president, in that it doesn’t change you, not really. But it brings out more of the you that you already are.”

Back in the day, Raphael Bob-Waksberg had a tumblr that was so good it both single-handedly inspired me get much better and writing my thoughts and putting them on the internet (thus what you are reading right now) and intimidated me out of doing it more often (why I now do this only once a year). In fact, I’m almost positive I had his tumblr listed as one of my top things of a year in the past, which is really the highest honor a tumblr account can receive. It was one of the single most impactful forces in the direction of my creative life. And now Raphael has taken the voice that created that tumblr and created my favorite TV show (BoJack Horseman) and wrote my favorite ever Craigslist post, and used it to create a book about love and loss and being human. And it feels like a wonderful treasure that was written just for me. It IS my worldview, expressed better than I ever possibly could. When I meet people now rather than doing the usual introductory small talk I am just going to hand them a copy of this book.

20. The New One - Mike Birbiglia Speaking of art that felt deeply personal to me…just hearing even a rough outline of the story Mike Birbiglia tells in The New One was enough to start me on a path of perhaps reconsidering one of my most deeply held beliefs. By talking about parenthood in a refreshingly honest and shockingly open way, he is able to possibly change lives. I know finally actually seeing the show in person (and it’s now available on Netflix) felt like a possible turning point in mine. Is it theater? Is it standup? Does it matter? Here’s what there are no questions about: it’s hilarious and deeply felt and perfectly constructed. It’s an absolute master class in story telling. And it’s my favorite thing I saw this year.

[happymetalgirl]

The 60 Best Metal Albums of 2018

2018 was such a huge year for metal, and I know that every year is great for metal with the abundance of fantastic artists big and small out there, but this year felt so big to me, perhaps because of so much of what the music this year was the soundtrack to, but also for the sheer number of unexpected masterpieces. This year I reviewed 170 metal albums, not including the 15 I briefly talked about missing in 2017, which is more than the total number of albums I even listened to across all genres last year, which is weird because I have actually been busier this year than last. But I am rather pleased with how much more I was able to immerse myself into metal this year, at all levels of accessibility, and given the fact that the coming year might come with some changes and limitations to my output, here’s to 2018, and the 60 incredible albums (LPs and EPs alike) that captivated me this year.

Also, this should go without saying, but this is not just my opinion, these are objectively the 60 best metal albums of the year, and if you disagree, well then you’re wrong.

60. Coheed and Cambria – Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures

I was expecting to kind of tolerate this one at best, which is weird because I enjoyed the band’s last album quite a bit. But this album took me on such a little nostalgia ride through my adolescence and the music I enjoyed at that time in my life. I’m glad I got an album like this that can make me look back at that part of my life fondly, because God knows lots of other stuff makes me look back with a little bit of shame.

59. Harm’s Way – Posthuman

A fresh batch of lethal Chicago hardcore with a modern update, no bullshit, no nonsense, just punishing, crushing, proficient metallic hardcore that adds to the genre’s growing dominance within metal.

58. Unearth – Extinction(s)

I was so glad to hear Unearth put out an honest, classic metalcore album (with a few modern updates as well) instead of following so many of their peers into the clutches of radio rock pandering, and Extinction(s) is an excellent example of the punch the mid-2000’s style can still pack.

57. XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX – Gore 2.0

I’m amazed a comical grindcore album actually had the content to sustain an hour’s worth of songs, both playfully mocking and proficiently conjuring the absurdly gory brutality of the genre on a tremendous variety of creative tracks whose impossible-to-articulate lyrics are well worth reading along with.

56. Bloodbath – The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn

Even performing below their peak form, Bloodbath is a force to be reckoned with in death metal, and The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn is a fine representation of their continued mastery of the genre. The slight drop in chemistry due to their less frequent and consistent output since Mikael Åkerfeldt’s departure can be felt a bit on this project, but even so, it’s a crushing album that I am glad to have from them this year.

55. Jesus Piece – Only Self

An excellent debut from the hardcore freshmen, Only Self isn’t the most adventurous of hardcore albums, but it sure hits the nail on the head and makes up for its lack of novelty with fiery performances.

54. Chelsea Grin – Eternal Nightmare

It was a quiet year for deathcore, but not a bad one, as Chelsea Grin made a resounding comeback of sorts after their lackluster 2016 album. Eternal Nightmare finds the band seemingly taking noted from the likes of Carnifex and Fit for an Autopsy, who all trimmed the fat on their respective deathcore styles and modernized their sound to help them stand out more.

53. Deadspace – Mouth of Scorpions

Any EP that makes this list must be doing a lot right to surpass so many other albums, and the three songs Deadspace bring to this album are among their best, returning after their slightly disappointing LP last year, to the potent DSBM that drew me to them in the first place. The band have announced a new album for early next year, and this EP has me rather excited for it.

52. Summoning – With Doom We Come

With Doom We Come was definitely one of the most interesting pieces of folk metal I have heard in a long time, with Summoning taking their winding, cinematic, Tolkien-inspired ambient approach over the course of eight songs. I liked the way the band was able to transform he central motifs they based the songs around in interesting ways for the extended lengths they took.

51. Panopticon – The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness, Pt. 1

The heavier of the two discs from Panopticon’s double album this year showed Austin Lunn’s slight imbalance in his compositional strength when compared to his second, folk-driven disc.

50. Machine Head – Catharsis

I know a lot of people hated this album for Robb Flynn’s preachiness before and during the promo cycle and on a few moments on a few songs on the album, but honestly, it really wasn’t that preachy when you actually got into the lyrics, and there were a lot of good deep cuts on the album that I kept coming back to. As a pretty big fan of Machine Head, I do agree though, yes, this is rather subpar for them given we’ve been blessed with a string of truly tremendous albums over the past decade or so. But this album’s weakness lies not in its “SJW-ness” or Robb’s politics. It’s an album that shows the band’s creativity wearing thin, which makes sense in the wake of Dave and Phil leaving the band a few months ago. Catharsis sounds like a very natural progression from the diversity of the incredible Bloodstone & Diamonds, just an unfortunately watered-down version of that album. Nevertheless, I think there is enough quality on Catharsis to consider it a good album, even it will naturally be outshined by The Blackening, Burn My Eyes, and Bloodstone & Diamonds.

49. Impending Doom – The Sin and Doom Vol. II

Deathcore album of the year right here; Impending Doom came back after a relatively long break, sanded off the rust, and picked up where they left off with The Sin and Doom Vol. II, an album of straight-up early 2010’s-style djenty deathcore bangers.

48. Wreck and Reference – Alien Pains

This surprise, four-track EP showed a lot of Wreck and Reference’s experimental sides within black metal, as well as their proficiency at industrial rock on the two songs in the middle. It’s definitely a thirst-quenching appetizer for whatever their next album might be.

47. Innumerable Forms – Punishment in Flesh

One of my favorite debut releases, Punishment in Flesh was in many ways this year’s answer to Primitive Man’s Caustic, not a cheap rip-off of that project, but definitely one that carries a similarly pessimistic and relentlessly sludgy atmosphere, although much quicker and less drone-y than Caustic often got. It’s a great start for this band and one that has me eager to see where they take their sound next.

46. Frontierer – Unloved

The Car Bomb comparisons this album has been piled atop with are certainly warranted, though I’m not sure I’d say Frontierer show the same knack for groove that Car Bomb did on their 2016 album. Nevertheless, Unloved is a properly punishing and comprehensive mathcore album. At just under an hour, the band prove they can still hold attention spans with the sheer madness they harness.

45. Thou – Rhea Sylvia

This was the third EP to precede the release of Thou’s full-length album, Magus, this year. I enjoyed the grungy twist the band took on their signature sludge sound, especially on songs like “Deepest Sun” with some sorrowful vocal harmonies that hearken directly to Alice in Chains.

44. Holy Fawn – Death Spells

Holy Fawn take an incredibly beautiful and extremely nature-inspired approach to the sounds of ambient black metal on this album. It’s a truly welcoming and meditative album, and one that I think makes a great case for the lighter side of black metal.

43. Judas Priest – Firepower

Judas Priest came back with such an unbelievably powerful classic heavy metal offering this year, indeed a late-career masterpiece and one that proves how passionate and talented the band still are. It’s an album that showcases their expertise with the style without coming off as joyless exhibition.

42. Thou – Magus

Thou’s full-length album of 2018 is definitely their most well-produced and sonically pleasing release with the way everything from the down-tuned guitars to the drums and bass are allowed to shine simultaneously to best represent Thou’s signature sludgy doom. Compositionally it’s pretty on par with most of their work in this lane too, but it’s really an album more about the thick atmosphere than anything else, and that it certainly delivers.

41. Halestorm – Vicious

Definitely my favorite straightforward hard rock album of the year, this record has so many tightly composed rockers, and with such a tasteful note of heavy metal, I couldn’t help but repeat so many of the songs on here throughout the year. It’s a bit inconsistent, but when it’s high its really high.

40. The Body – I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer

Finally, after a few poor splits and collaborations that made me more irritated than hyped for their following full-length, The Body did pretty well on their new, focused LP. It’s in many ways The Body as usual, but with a few new twists that make it an interesting experience and not just a rehash of previous efforts.

39. Echo Beds – Buried Language

It was a good year for experimental black metal, and this one was one of my favorite pieces of it. Definitely in line with Wreck and Reference, this album takes a slightly more industrial approach than W&R usually do, and it is a thrilling, interesting listen all the way through.

38. Mamaleek – Out of Time

Speaking of experimental black metal, Mamaleek continues to push the genre’s boundaries into more hushed, folky territory that still retains the sinister quality of the genre, and this is probably their most comprehensive foray into the black metal unknown, yet they sound so comfortable and confident doing it.

37. Wayfarer – World’s Blood

Another American black metal release, World’s Blood is a more standard display of the style’s post-metallic power, though with a subtle Western flair itself. With five focused, well-constructed pieces, it’s a pretty engaging listen each step of the way, and one that does well to highlight its subtle differences from the rest of the ambient black metal crop.

36. Deafheaven – Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

And on the topic of American black metal, we have the fourth album from Deafheaven, one that I was a bit confused with at first but still ended up loving for its nice representation of the band’s brighter side. It’s an album that reminds me so much of the love I have for certain people and how unperfect, yet precious and beautiful it is.

35. Behemoth – I Loved You at Your Darkest

Along with Deafheaven’s new album, this was probably my most anticipated release of the year, and as much as I knew it was likely not going to outdo The Satanist, I was pleased with how well this album continued from where Behemoth left off on that album. Channeling the same grand, biblical style of blackened death metal the band had found their sweet spot in, it came with a bit odder experimentation, but not enough to sink the album. Overall, it’s a respectable follow-up to one of the best death metal albums of the new millennium.

34. Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals – Choosing Mental Illness as a Virtue

I like the angry death metal anarchy that Phil’s band conjures on this album. It and Phil’s unfiltered vocal aggression are a nice match for each other, and it makes for a wild ride all the way through. It’s definitely an album whose appeal is based on the rawness of its delivery, but it’s not just senseless cacophony; the band clearly know how to harness this type of death metal and let it rage on a long leash in their favor.

33. Keiji Haino & Sumac - American Dollar Bill: Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous to Look at Face On

This one is favorite collaborative release of the year with Keiji Haino and Sumac playing off each other’s respective styles so well, knowing how to ebb and flow within the waves the other creates, it’s a very noisy and odd release, but one that finds everything on here in such a complimentary form. I wish more collaborations in metal had this kind of well-worked chemistry between artists.

32. Of Feather and Bone – Bestial Hymns of Perversion

One of the year’s earlier and most punishing straight-up death metal releases, Bestial Hymns of Perversion is all meat, no fat, and such a quick, but ripping example of death metal at its rawest and most primal.

31. TesseracT – Sonder

As short as Sonder ended up being, I definitely found it to be a step up from Tesseract’s previous album, with the band doing well to craft the kind of shimmering progressive metal anthems that Daniel Tompkins can shine on.

30. Sumac – Love in Shadow

It was a good year for Sumac, coming through with a strong collaborative effort earlier in the year and then following up with their third LP. At only four songs, the album makes the most of the long time is has with each piece, and it’s one that I found myself coming back to so often throughout the year. I think the band outdid all their previous efforts, including their other collaboration this year.

29. Horrendous – Idol

Watching the evolution of Horrendous has been fascinating for the past several years, and seeing them transform into a fully-fledged progressive death metal juggernaut on Idol is one of the most rewarding sights to behold. The band channel raw, snarling growls and expert instrumental power on this album. The band still manage to retain their harsh, ugly roots, but pour that malice into a much more elegant form on this album, and I am definitely here for it.

28. High on Fire – Electric Messiah

It was a pretty big year for Matt Pike, and a major part of that was High on Fire’s follow-up to 2015’s Luminiferous. Taking a bit more of a proggy approach to their thrashy sludge metal worked out pretty well for the most part. It’s in many ways, High on Fire as usual, but also a more extensive application of their gruff, no-nonsense metal.

27. Portal – Ion

The wait between this album and their harrowing Vexovoid was well worth it as Ion captures the band’s most abysmal and spaciously apocalyptic sound in the form of chaotically collapsing technical death metal compositions that take a tremendous amount of listening to fully wrap one’s mind around.

26. Watain – Trident Wolf Eclipse

Watain’s long-awaited follow-up to The Wild Hunt finds them taking it back to basics in the shortest time frame yet, and as overshadowed as this album is likely to end up being next to albums like Sworn to the Dark and Casus Luciferi, it’s still a fiery piece of straightforward black metal that I have enjoyed all throughout the year.

25. Evoken – Hypnagogia

Definitely one of the most thrilling death/doom releases I’ve heard in a good while, Evoken go in for the long haul on this album and come through with a thick, well-cultivated atmosphere of gloom and remorse.

24. Thou – The House Primordial

This was he first-released EP leading up to Magus, and it did so well to concentrate Thou’s harsh black metal side into an interesting arrangement of songs that quickly establish a deep, sardonic atmosphere that takes that side of Thou to the extreme.

23. Thou – Inconsolable

The second EP of the three, and my favorite, is not really a metal album at all, but one whose sorrowful beauty I kept returning to. I love the vocal features the band brought on to give each of the moody, grungy songs on here a unique flair, and the band’s excellence with this softer style of music is incredible.

22. Architects – Holy Hell

One of the most triumphant metalcore albums I have heard in a long time, and one on which I think Architects managed to outdo themselves. Overcoming a crippling death to carry on with =, I think, their best album to date is certainly a feat to appreciate.

21. Sleep – The Sciences

This album took a while to grow on me, but grow it did, and I found myself enjoying and appreciating the thick walls of sound of a genre I had previously been apprehensive about. After finding the most fitting way to listen to this style of music, I can say now that I do enjoy myself some stoner metal.

20. Vein – Errorzone

Definitely one of the most punishing hardcore albums of the past few years, Errorzone is a bold amalgamation of nu metal and metalcore that takes the best of both worlds and smashes them together in an explosive array of violent noise that shoots Vein straight to the upper rungs of the genre.

19. Carnation – Chapel of Abhorrence

Another excellent debut album, Chapel of Abhorrence gave Bloodbath and Cannibal Corpse a run for their money with the dense brutality Carnation were able to conjure up on this album. Without any real notable weaknesses, this album is a tremendous opening statement for one of death metal’s most ambitious newcomers.

18. Polyphia – New Levels New Devils

This was such a fulfilling and unique math rock album that took the swagger of hip hop and made the band’s instrumental show-y-ness even cooler and flashier, elevating it above the autopilot mush of the style.

17. Hissing – Permanent Destitution

Another excellent debut album, this time channeling the experimental noisiness of black metal into a harsh, slightly industrially ambient experience that no other album has really ever captured before. It’s the kind of album that appears to be just standard abrasive black metal chaos on the surface, but the way the band work with so many different musical ideas and swirl them round so well o this album is what makes it so intriguing.

16. Imperial Triumphant – Vile Luxury

And on the topic of intriguing music, Imperial Triumphant come through with one of the most uniquely blues-y, jazzy incantations of death metal this year. Taking the eerie dissonance of traditional jazz and mashing it together with the apocalyptic sounds of death metal to convey the metropolitan filth of the Big Apple.

15. Andrew W.K. – You’re Not Alone

This whole album is the injection of positivity metal needed not just this year, but more of in general. While it’s on the borderline between hard rock and heavy metal, I still found it to be a refreshingly uplifting and encouraging set of songs that embody the type of positive outlook on life that I think needs more endorsement in heavy music. And of course, it opens with my song of the year, “Music Is Worth Living For”, which just perfectly captures my deep love and appreciation for music, which the rest of the album continues unashamedly.

14. A Perfect Circle – Eat the Elephant

Eat the Elephant was a lot softer in most parts than I and a lot of fans were expecting, but A Perfect Circle really proved that their return to music was really based on artistic inspiration and not financial desperation with the evolved and magnificently cohesive sounds they traversed on the album’s various tracks.

13. Infernal Coil – Within a World Forgotten

So many strong debut albums this year, and Infernal Coil’s was definitely one of my favorites. Channeling the heaviest side of Leviathan’s menacing and abysmal depressive black metal, Infernal Coil conjures a short, but enthralling experience on Within a World Forgotten. It’s one that I continually return to for its massive, abusive heaviness and one that makes me eager to see how Infernal Coil continue to shape their sonic identity in the years to come.

12. Obscura – Diluvium

As much as I like Obscura, I was surprised with how comprehensively thrilling Diluvium was. Wrapping up all the musical ideas that have enhanced the group’s progression through the years, the same band that made the stunning Akróasis return with clearly developed chemistry to expound upon their previous work

11. Ghost – Prequelle

It took bit of adjustment from what I usually enjoy about Ghost’s music to appreciate this one. It felt so off at first, but after a while the extra extra cheese melted over this album is really just the very essence of Ghost taken to such a campy and unpredicted extreme, and it is all executed so tactfully and brilliantly underneath the album’s fun externa.

10. Alrakis – Echoes from Eta Carinae

It’s one single song, but I chose not to include it on my top songs list because it would be redundant talking about it here too, and I did want to express its greatness in the context of its comparison to other albums. However, this song, unlike most extensive proggy epics, really is one long, sprawling piece that takes its time to push and pull and really swirl in a well-thought-out aura of ambient black metal that manages to stay fascinating all throughout its one-of-a-kind ride.

9. Anna von Hausswolff – Dead Magic

I know this one’s not really super metal, but the thick sets of horns, organ, and tom drum beating against the gothy appeal and dark ambiance Anna von Hausswolff constructs is something I have been enjoying so thoroughly this year, and for many of the same reasons I’ve enjoyed so much of the dark ambient metal on this list.

8. The Atlas Moth – Coma Noir

This was such a fulfilling album that captured the ascension of the band’s evolution beyond standard post-metal-flavored blackgaze and into a realm all their own. The grooves on here, the sludgy riffs, everything about this record from a stylistic and compositional standpoint was so satisfying as an elevation of the band’s sound.

7. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name

Such a breath of fresh air for technical progressive death metal and such an exponential continuation of growth for Rivers of Nihil, the pure emotion this album is album to pack into such an ordinarily soulless genre is something to behold and something I have loved relistening to all throughout the year. As nuanced as it is, it sacrifices nothing in the way of death metal brutality to get there.

6. meth. – I Love You

This has been by far the most criminally underrated debut by any band this year. Although only a five-song EP, the band showcase such a compelling excellence with the harsh, abrasive chaos they wrangle on here, mashing the harsh blackened noise of a band like Full of Hell with the whopping hardcore punch of the kind of metalcore pioneered by Converge and recently enhanced by groups like Code Orange. These few short songs are all such an incredible display of prowess with a bold blend of styles that makes meth. THE band to keep an eye on for future releases.

5. Revocation – The Outer Ones

Revocation quite possibly outdid their already phenomenal discography on this album with a shift in focus toward cosmic technical death metal while still maintaining a firm grasp on the thrash roots that have given their music the grounded appeal in delicious riffs and solos. The Outer Ones is such a tremendously technical yet tasty release, I have been so thoroughly enjoying it this year. I love all the delicious guitar work and tasteful bass on this album and of course the magnificent drumming too, it’s all so awesome. Hell yeah Revocation, hell yeah!

4. Gevurah – Sulphur Soul

After a strong enough debut in 2016, Gevurah made an even more emphatic perfection of their blackened death metal sound that rivals in-form Behemoth on this four-track EP. Somehow without simply aping the Polish giants’ sound, Gevurah manage to capture the grand carnal essence of albums like Evangelion and The Satanist in a few sharp pounders boiling with cultish aura to give the band’s ravenous death metal a sophisticated lining.

3. Zeal and Ardor – Stranger Fruit

I was completely and pleasantly surprised with the thoroughness and the quickness of the band’s remedying of the flaws the held Devil Is Fine back, while pushing their sound forward with confidence and justified assuredness into bold new territory, coming through with so many incredible and diverse songs. This was exactly what I wanted from Zeal and Ardor, and I’m amazed I got it so quickly after their debut last year.

2. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want

Such a hellish and truly terrifying comeback album that shatters expectations or boundaries set by the band’s previous work, this album has such a primal and theatrical appeal to it that really works its way deep into the psyche and exposes the darkness in all of us, which is catalyzed so fearsomely by the unreal harsh noise across the album that the band so neatly and meticulously weaves into their performances. This album really captures the darkness of the human condition and the degree to with civilization has enhanced, rather than mitigated it. I love this album; it’s like nothing else I have ever heard.

1. Khemmis – Desolation

My Twitter fed and my songs-of-the-year list definitely gave this away, but Khemmis’ third album, Desolation, is far and away the most perfect album I have heard since Gojira’s Magma in 2016, and definitely my favorite album of the year. This album is just dripping with catharsis at every step of the way, and I have not been able to resist it all year since hearing it. From start to finish, it is nothing but raw, emotive heavy metal with a somber doom edge that the band still manages to twist into something incredibly triumphant. I cannot give this album enough love. After sitting with it for so long this year, I can say it is undoubtedly an unprecedented improvement upon the already excellent Hunted, and one that established Khemmis as heavy metal’s most exciting new band.

[diamonddeposits]

BEST OF 2016-ARTIST LISTS-#47 COUSIN TONY’S BRAND NEW FIREBIRD Melbourne folk-pop collective Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird debuted with a trio of tasty pop tunes that made us swoon. Here is their equally as swoon-worthy list of fav tracks of 2016!

Jim James - The World's Smiling Now This is a brilliant song on it's own merit. The record is amazing, and Here in Spirit obviously gets a mention because it's a banger. But this one is a classic slow jam about love. But it's the context that makes it so special. The record is so apocalyptic, loaded with social and political angst, and in the middle there is this tender song about forgiving our past mistakes to be able to give our heart away. Solange - Cranes in the Sky The grooviest shit to come out this year. A Seat at the Table is the convergence of Solange's diverse sonic influences and a very relatable insight into what it's like to front up to the world as herself every single day. This song in particular really captures what it is like to try and 'anything' our way out of our problems. Always sick to hear stuff like this with a band too, and Solange's live performances this year have been a feat of design and musicianship. David Bowie - Lazarus This whole record should be on the list. It was really hard to listen to at first, it is a heavy body of work. There is debate about whether or not Bowie knew that he was going to die when he was making Blackstar. Whatever the answer, it is clear that he was in the most significant transitional phase that we as humans go through, and that creates a whole well of insight and haunting energy in the subject matter, the harmonies specifically, and also to his vocal delivery in general. Lazarus is a melancholic, dreary, at times triumphant song that appears to capture what one can only imagine it must be like to reach the end of their time on Earth. RIP Bowie x Tycho - Horizon The Epoch record was a fantastic step forward for Scott Hansen and Co. It is basically what I'd always wanted Tycho to be... still kinda chill-wave, but with a few tunes verging on banger territory. I don't know if it's because I spent a lot of time on planes this year, but listening to the drops in this song gave me some of the most inspiring moments of my year. Drive-By Truckers - Guns of Umpqua This is a brutal and beautiful song. Set against classic DBT Americana, Patterson Hood's song about a school shooting in Oregon paints a vivid picture about the way that in the world we live in, a normal day can turn to horror in an instant. The band has copped flack for moving into the 'political' realm as a result, which is ridiculous when you understand the subject matter of their extensive back catalogue. The world needs music like this anyway. William Tyler - Highway Anxiety This is one of the most simple and beautiful songs of the year. It's a shame that it only goes for 9 minutes. William Tyler is an extremely gifted instrumentalist and arranger, and there is some really cool new-ish sounds from him on this record. It's a really rich piece of music. Anderson .Paak - Silicon Valley Malibu is an out of control record. Jammed full of things that sound so old and new at the same time. This song in particular is cool because it showcases .Paak's ability to create a vibe and to construct a verse, but on top of that the chorus is so euphoric. It's good to hear him fully belt out a hook, and the chorus has a real innocence to it which is totally moving. Radiohead - True Loves Waits A Moon Shaped Pool was obviously one of the best gifts music gave us in 2016. There are so many tunes on it that are just so Radiohead-league-of-their-own-better-than-anything-else-that-came-out-last-year. It's just good to have this track on record after all these years, and it is absolutely perfect. Anohni - FOUR DEGREES Anohni is one of the most important artists in the world right now, for so many reasons. Hopelessness is such an crazy record, filled up with super vibrant references to all of the horrors and injustices of the world that constantly get swept away in a wave of vanity and consumerism. FOUR DEGREES is a reference to our current rate of greenhouse gas emission, and the implications of the consequent rising of global temperatures by 4 degrees by the end of this century. The song will send shivers down your spine. Bon Iver - Strafford APTS Most understated track off the new record. Last phrase of the chorus melody is totally transcendental, takes you to the French countryside, or like 50 years ago, or both. Vernon's pseudo-language games also enable some really pretty phrases in the tunes lyrics, 'paramind' especially. Chance the Rapper - Smoke Break The model of Chance's career is really inspiring, and we can all learn a lot about what is possible by studying the way he has gone about his meteoric rise to prominence. Colouring Book is a brilliant record, and Smoke Break is just a really pretty, groovy reminder that everyone in life deserves a smoke break at times. We all work hard and try to do our best, and sometimes we just gotta put our feet up. Also, Future is such a beast and is characteristically very good on this track.

[profoundgardenertree-blog]

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arkansas insurance department

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What happens if a driver is added to an auto insurance plan?

I know that the rates will go up, but what happens when a driver is added during the middle of a 6 month coverage period?""

Is no fault insurance the cheapest coverage possible.?

I don't get it my dads insurance agent told him no fault is the least amount of money paid to the insurerer that why he got me no fault but when I look it up on the Internet they say it's expensive. Can someone tell me if no fault is cheaper than collision, comprehensive, or the other types of insurance coverage. Also I live in Michigan and I'm 19 if any of that matters.""

Do I need to be on the insurance to go to and from school in my friends car?

I am 16 years old and I have my drivers permit, is it legal to drive myself and my sister to and from school in my friends car without being on the insurance policy? its my friends dad car and I want to use it for school..""

Is it realistic to think that my motorcycle insurance yearly premium will be less than $2000?

I am a 20 year old male in Southern California. I have had a drivers license for just over 2 years (no accidents), will be taking a Motorcycle Safety class right before getting my license, have decent credit, and will be financing a used motorcycle ($5000 or less and have between 500 and 900 cc because I am a very big guy). I know it will vary a lot but is it crazy to think that I will be paying less than $2000 per year for my insurance?""

""When leasing a car, how much does one usually pay for GAP insurance, if it not included in payment?""

Thinking about leasing a Toyota Camry LE (sale price 19,200.00) for 3 years. I'm wondering what others have paid for GAP insurance on similarly priced,leased, autos, or on any priced autos. My auto insurance company does not provide GAP insurance. Hope this is clear. Thanks.""

Can I put my boyfriend of 3 years on my health insurance (provided by employer) in the state of Florida?

I work for a great company that provides health & dental insurance from the very first time you start the job. My boyfriend of three years that I live with, does not have any ...show more""

""On buying a new car, should I get insurance for it immedliately?""

I am buying a new car in a day or so. Am I legally required to get insurance before I take it out of the dealership? I heard that dealer should keep insurance for 1 month. Is that true? If it is true, what is covered - just the car? Driver? Passengers? New-car buyer in Texas""

Price of insurance?

I am deciding between a 2001 nissan altima with 58,000 miles and a 2000 nissan maxima with 82,000 miles for my first car. The altima costs $6800 and the maxima costs $7500(it has alloy wheels, leather, sunroof...). I am a 16 year old guy. I got a quote for $1700 a year for insurance on the altima already. How much more would insurance cost on the maxima since it is a v6 and the altima is a 4 cylinder? Thanks for the answers!!""

Inexpensive car insurance for person driving MUCH less than 2000 miles a year?

My brother is on disability income and has about $600 a month to live on. He really needs to have a car because he lives in a rural area and there is no public transportation whatsoever.He doesn't have much money for gas, but the insurance is really the killer, it's about $150 a month at state farm (and he insures his home with that company also). does anyone know any good options for him to save money? Is it legal if he just ditches the car and the insurance and drives one of my cars some of the time, or is that fraud? He does not drive to work or school, only to get groceries/prescriptions etc. The county workers just roll their eyes and sigh and say transportation is a problem.And they don't help. Can I add him to my policy? He's in the same zip code, about 8 miles away. He already doesn't have collision or comprehensive, it's an old car.And he has great credit and no accidents/moving violations. Thanks for any help you can give!""

""How many people out there would love a health care insurance exchange, where you can buy insurance on your own?""

and not have to choose a job based on benefits, and you could switch jobs without worrying about losing coverage. Why would people be against this, unless they are part of a union and do not want everyone to have great benefits like they do?""

What would be the best car insurance company to go to?

What would be a great car insurance company to go to? I am an 18 year old, male, just got employed and now I'm looking to get car insurance for an '87 Chevy Blazer. Any suggestions?""

I am 18 yrs. old and i want a mustang '05 how much from your exp. how much did you pay for car insurance?

If you have a mustang and are a teen under your own insurance

What's happens if i get caught driving without insurance?

Im 18 i have a VW golf MK2 GTI 1988 cost me 2000, but to insure it is 5000 a year which i cant afford, what happens if i get caught driving without insurance.""

Car insurance deductible question?

OKay so I was rear ended on Fri thr 13th! ha! I already called my insurance company on Mon morning. Taken care of, and I can get it fixed as soon as I want (tomorrow). I'm also trying to call the other insurance company of the car that hit me so that they pay my deductible ($500). Do I need to have this done with before I take my car in? Their insurance company is a very small one and is giving me a lot of crap over the phone. Should I just call my insurance company and have them deal with it? What should I do? thanks!""

Insurance for my business?

I run a small local business that is a Pet Waste Removal service. My question has to do with insurance. I don't know much about insurance and I'm pretty lost right now. I'm the only employee. I go to someones house and scoop their pets poop. Do i need insurance for this business and if so what kind and why? How about being Bonded? Thanks I appreciate your help..

Will a seatbelt violation afect my insurance rate in california?

Will a seatbelt violation afect my insurance rate in california?

I need car insurance?

I'm 18 don't no anything about insurance I don't no where to start PLEASE HELP........

What cool yet cheap car is suitable for a 17 year old boy?

I was thinking a classic mini cooper maybe? they got really cheap insurance but tbh I shudder probs look at life insurance not car insurance. I saw the MG ZR and that's cheap and looks good and with airbags... what do u reckon?

Car financing and insurance?

I would like to know what happen if I finance a car and I wreck the car and I don't have insurance at the time I wreck the car.

What the average of a male 25 year old would pay for car insurance?

i planning on buying a dodge charge 2013 and getting my own car insurances i want to know around how much i would pay i'm been driving for 6 years already but with my parents insurances. but now i want to get my own car insurance

How much does an accidet impact your car insurance?

If you had a slight bump with another car down a one track country lane. And you both claimed on insurance and the damage was about 200. When you next go and insure yourself how much more would it be approx. If you were 18

Car insurance suing me for car accident?

I was driving in a parking lot with my cousin and my cousin has her driver license and she over 21 and i was driving. Im 18 and i only have my permit. Well accidentally i was driving and i was trying to park and i hit the car next to me. Well they put it under my cousin car insurance and they didn't call the police on us. Well my mom saying the insurance can go after me to what ever how much it cost. What should i expect if i don't have a job and what is the percent that they will sue me if i have my permit and what should i expect if they do.....

arkansas insurance department

arkansas insurance department

How much will I get from the insurance for my totaled car?

A person hit my parked car and damaged the body, the wheel well, and the wheel is bent crooked and rubbing on the strut. My problem is the car is old and probably only worth $500. It will be really difficult to find a replacement for $500, it seems i might need to spend $1500 -$2000. Maybe this is close to the repair price, I don't know. What do you think they will offer me? What should I do?""

Car audio mod......insurance company?

i recntly bought a subwoofer and amp for my car do i need to let the insurance company know its worth around 60

Car Insurance quote suddenly disappeared?!?

I've just been obtaining quotes for a couple of cars I may buy - I'm 19 and looking to buy my first car. I was on moneysupermarket.com and noticed Admiral were consistently the cheapest company - so I kept changing some details to make the quote lower if possible, just messing around really. After around 10 quotes or so (with them being the lowest each time) I noticed that admiral was no longer displaying a quote and was now in the section shown as no quotes produced along with around 60 other companies. Why is this? Have I broken a limit of some kind? But why would the other companies still be there displaying quotes (albeit they're higher which isn't to my liking!). It's confusing and frustrating, can someone tell me why this has happened? I think I've told you as much info as possible but I'll add more detail if asked. Thanks.""

If I apply for life insurance through a different company will they know what I told the first company?

I have life insurance with State Farm. I quit smoking on a daily basis 2 years ago but had a cigarette and 1 hit of marijuana on June 18th of this year. I told this to the underwriters because I wanted to be completely honest. All blood work came back negative for nicotine (Cotinine) and THC. State Farm charged me the smoker's rate and said I can get it reevaluated in 1 year. My agent told me I should have lied since it was just the 1 cig. I am not happy paying the smoker's rate as I don't consider myself a smoker. I called an Allstate agent and she says I can go thru her and just say no this time when asked by the underwriters about smoking. My question is, do they have the State Farm phone interview with the underwriters stored somewhere in some database and they will know I smoked the one cigarette or will I be ok just going thru Allstate and saying no to the smoking question this time?""

Approximate cost for teen motorcycle insurance?

hey, im 17 years old and live in Ontario, i recently got my G2 but cannot find a way to get car insurance cheap enough to actually warrant getting a car. I was wondering if anyone has any ballpark answer as to how much motorcycle insurance is at my age? every google search i do says you should ask your insurance broker , well i will, but i just want to see if its even worth looking at or if its going to be like $300 a month like car insurance. the bike would probably just be like a cheap used early 1990's bike, nothing special. thanks""

Learners permit insurance?

My parents are divorced and my mom took me to get my permit and signed for it. In order to drive with my dad do I have to have a card of her insurance in the car?

What can I do if my car insurance company denied my claim for inconsistency in my report?

Im going to lay down what happened and I would appreciate your opinion. It started when my 2007 gs eclipse clutch gave out the dealership close to my house wasn't a very professional looking place when it came to their shop they mistreated the cars that where there and had old rusted cars parked in their lot. So, I did not want to get it repaired there, I made a big fuss with mitsubishi but after sitting the car in my lot for 2 months I lost my job and I had to get it fixed there anyway cause of warranty issues and I needed my car to look for another job i'm a truck driver that's why it took 2 months and my car had 7000 miles on it i hardly ever used it. I noticed that after I had it back the cruise control wasn't working I didn't take it back because of the fear of something worse happening to it. My mom suggested that I get repair by my cousins husband so my mom handed me her cell phone called him and told me to bring it in the morning because he worked all day til 7pm and if i couldn't get to him to leave the key under the plant in front of the garage door (that call was on 6-24-09). I tried to get there early enough (6-25-09) but i missed him and no one was home so I placed the key under the plant and left I told the police officer that I had made a call to him after dropping the key but the phone number to reach him was on my moms cell phone. I thought I did I couldn't remember because I came back a day later for the car. After I walked home I thought id leave it there a day so he could find the problem, since he gets home at 7pm. When I got there on 6-26-09 my car wasn't there and they said they never saw it there so i called the police to see if it was towed it wasn't and the key wasn't there either, police came over and took my statement but on the report he stated that the car was stolen on 6-26-09 and the phone number I used to call to tell them I was leaving the car there was written down wrong. The insurance company said that the inconsistencies where that I did not use my cell to make a phone call on the 6-24-09 or 6-25-09 I told them that i used my mothers cell phone in the oath recorded meeting they recorded my statement a week after i reported my car stolen and i failed to tell them i used my mothers cell phone but they didn't ask and I also told them I called when I placed the key under the plant but I was confused because I had called my cousin twice on 6-24-09. I never failed to make a payment on any of my bills and i have good credit score I'm in fact almost done with my car payment. They also brought to my attention that I tried to sell the car but i have proof that i've been trying to sell my car since 2008 and there was a buyer and i have his emails that offered to buy my car with a $1000.00 profit for me. please tell me what do think i should do about this situation?""

Who offers the cheapest Motorcycle insurance on sports bikes?

I am going to be a new proud owner of a Suzuki GXS-R600 and I need to know who offers the cheapest insurance around Columbus, Ohio or nationally""

Is healthcare ever going to be affordable again in our country?

I just got an e-mail saying that my insurance premiums are going up again and now I'm going to be paying $500+ per month for insurance premiums. This is for a high deductable plan where I have to meet $2,500 in deductable before I get covered at 100%! It's like my raises don't matter anymore and they only serve to keep my head above water when each year when my insurance spikes. I get hit harder than anyone because I am in the employee plus family category. 1. Is there a ray of hope at the end of this tunnel? Will we ever get back to affordable health care (us guys that don't work for huge companies)? 2. Are there any alternative solutions for me out there? I can get covered 100% for employee only, but my wife and child need coverage. Please Help

Car insurance?

how much can it increase by having one point on your driving record?

How much does commercial auto insurance cost?

I just recently got a job delivering pizza's at papa johns and know that neither the store or my current insurance will cover me if I get into an accident while on the job. Is comm insurance worth it? I heard it was expensive. And would I be covered if another car hits me while I'm on the job?

How much does car insurance cost in England?

I'm not used to private insurance companies with differing rates! Here are the details: - If I had an older, smallish car, say that cost 900 pounds - No spots on my driving record, been driving for 10 years, *but* - I've just moved to England from Canada - I want full coverage, 3rd party, fire and theft Any advice on who is more, or less, expensive?""

Heallth insurance for the self employed?

I need dental and health insurance for an affordable price. I am unmarried.... what can I do? who offers it? how much will it cost?

How to get car insurance for less than 1000 for a 17 year old male?

Living in England, the most expensive country in the world, and being the most expensive group of driver to insure, yet earning only 50 a week is too hard! I can get no help from family or anything I have to pay for it all myself. Realistically I need to find insurance for under a grand in order to be driving in less than a year's time. I would really appreciate any ways anybody knows of getting the cost this low. I have heard classic car insurance is a good way, but you have to be lucky to find a classic car which is cheap enough itself to make it worthwhile. Also pass plus seems ok but it seems not all insurance companies care about if you've done it - I mean if its only the more expensive ones that end up giving discounts anyway then its not worth it.. Thanks""

Car insurance question - backed into someone?

This afternoon, I was backing out of a parking spot in a crowded lot. I was going under 5 mph and backed into someone. There was a very small dent in their bumper in front of the passenger tire. No damage to my car. They pulled over. I gave him my name and phone number and told him to call me. He said they would probably pull the dent out themselves or that it couldn't cost more than $100 to fix . I didn't get any of his info and only gave him my name and phone number. After I left, I started to regret not getting his info. I'm trying to decide if I should report it to my insurance company now or wait to see if he calls me. Any advice?""

I am looking for the cheapest car insurance for a u/25 driver?

I am looking for the cheapest car insurance for a u/25 driver?

The best health insurance?

im was wondering whats the best health insurance to get for some who is 19. someting that has eye vision to. i work but i dont have insurance from my job its along story so dont ask. i need something that is affordable. i live in southern california. any suggestions will do. this stuff is all confusing to me . copayment? or deductible? please help!!!

Can my car insurance company take action on a DUI without a conviction?

I was stopped for a DUI, but have not yet been convicted since the court process takes forever... Well I would like to buy a new car, and it looks like my insurance company will check my record at that time. I have just checked out my record myself, and it shows that I have had my license suspended for 6 month for DUI, but it does not say that I have been convicted of the DUI. I have reason to believe that the charges will be dropped. Can they raise my rates or drop me at this point? Without a conviction?""

Who has the best and cheapest auto insurance?

In southern California

Homeowners Insurance: What is replacement value for my home?

I'm getting new homeowners policy. What is per square foot to re-build my home in Southern California? Middle-class neighborhood, nothing fancy. Built in 1968.""

Why is car insurance so high?

the guy who made young drivers insurance so High should be dragged out in public and shot in front of his family!

What if i cancel my auto insurance and get back after six months?

I canceled my auto insurance before six months. now I got another car and I got accident before I purchased insurance for this car with the same company. then I purchased the auto insurance.so, my question is does my insurance company has to cover for this.""

Estimated Insurance cost for 1990 trans am?

Im turning 16 soon and am close to getting my license. Im planning on driving my dads 90 trans am w/ a 5.7 liter engine and automatic trans. Problem is, he thinks insurance is gonna cost a **** load. Does anyone know on average what the insurance price would be. The car will go under my dads name, ill just be an added driver. Plus, another car available for me to get 70 240z w/ a 6 cyl engine and 5-speed trans. Which one will have a cheaper insurance rate?""

Will this lower my insurance?

Im looking at cars to buy for my first car and I was wondering what the insurance cost would be like for a 16 almost 17 year old female for a 1979's 1980's camaro I also maintain a high gpa and get a discount for it aswell and live in las vegas.

How much is a insurance for a mustang?

And the parts for it cost a lot

arkansas insurance department

arkansas insurance department

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/insurance-audi-a3-18-year-old-driver-alexander-green/"

[itsworn]

This Tub, a 1923 Ford Model T Touring, Has Been in the Hynes Family Since Tom Hynes Built it After WWII

Brother.

When Tom “Red” Hynes went into the Navy in 1943, he was tooling around Los Angeles in what his son Rod calls a “bitchin’” ’29 Model A roadster. He served his country as a machinist’s mate on a destroyer escort; and when he mustered out, “the hot rod thing was hitting big-time,” Rod recounts. In that postwar hop-up frenzy, someone offered Tom $40 for his Ford’s body alone. “In those days, $50 could get you a complete, running A-bone out of a junkyard,” Rod says. Of course, Tom took the money, but then he found himself in need of new wheels—or, more specifically, a new body for the wheels he was left with.

Rather than build another roadster, though, Tom went in a very different direction, spending $15 on a ’23 Model T Touring body he found at a junkyard.

The first definition for the word value in our Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary refers to “a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged.” The fact that Rod Hynes is still bombing around in that same Tub—a term Rod spells in all uppercase letters as if shouting its name with pride—70-some years later tells us Tom got a helluva lot of value for his 15 bucks.

Especially since he was able to use much of his Model A in the T’s build. Tom narrowed the A framerails to accommodate the T body, and the Tub has “always had” the ’29’s rearend and a ’38 Ford industrial three-speed Top Loader transmission, says Rod. Up front Tom hung a filled and dropped axle in the stock location; it would later move out, suicide-style, after Tom started running the Tub at the lakes.

Tom’s initial plan was to build the car to compete with the “Roaring Roadsters” in the dirt bullrings of the California Roadster Association. He welded the Tub’s doors shut and stripped it for competition but soon realized the Tub would need to serve as daily transportation, “and he couldn’t have it both ways,” Rod says. So he put his CRA plans on the back burner and instead got his speed fix at the dry lakes on weekends, running with the Mojave Timing Association, SCTA, and Russetta as a member of the Road Dusters club.

Single-Stick Miller

The Tub has had a number of four- and eight-cylinder engines under its yellow hood. (And, yes, it’s always been yellow, or some shade of yellow, through three repaints over the years, Rod says.) Tom’s first engine was a Model B block stroked with a Model C crank and fitted with a single-cam Miller overhead conversion and two Winfield side-draft carburetors. It was with this motor that Tom hit 101 mph, his fastest speed on the lakes.

This is also the engine that was in the car when Tom Medley photographed the Tub for its July 1950 HOT ROD feature story, despite the March 1950 cover blurb calling out its “V-8 power plant.” Yes, you read that right. “Wally goofed,” Rod says. HRM Editor Parks meant to run the cover and feature story together, even commissioning a Rex Burnett cutaway illustration of the T, but they wound up separated with an issue in between.

And while the Tub was banger powered in Medley’s film, by the time the magazines came out, the blurb was true. In late 1949, the Tub received its first flathead, a V8/60 “that was one of Louie Senter’s Midget engines,” Rod says. At the time, Louie, co-founder of Ansen Automotive, was switching his Midgets to Offenhauser engines. His shop foreman, Bob Morton, tipped off Tom as to the engine’s availability. (In the small world of post-war hot rodding, Bob was a partner with George Rubio, whose ’29 roadster was the first highboy to break the 150-mph mark at the lakes. George, it turns out, was a cousin of Tom’s.)

The V8/60 was followed by a 296-inch Merc flathead that met its demise at the hands of one of Tom’s neighbors. “Dad didn’t mind letting people borrow it to have an evening of fun,” Rod remembers. “The neighbor brought it back with the rods hanging out of the motor. I guess he just decided it was ‘race time.’”

Tom’s reaction? “My dad was one of the coolest people I’ve ever known,” Rod says. “He had no enemies. Never heard anybody talk bad about him. Just too nice a guy, for the most part. So he didn’t react, didn’t come unhinged. He just got it home, started pulling it apart, and then figured out what motor’s going in it next. He was a racer. Shit happens. You do what you gotta do.”

Tom had a bone-stock, 265-inch Chevy small-block in the garage, though Rod doesn’t know why. “My dad was a four-banger and flathead man.” The SBC was just a short-timer, quickly replaced by a Pontiac Tempest four-cylinder.

The ex-Senter V8/60 has been in the Tub three times, Rod says, and that’s what’s in the car now. Rod’s younger brother Martin restored the Tub 25 years ago and rebuilt the 60 at that time. Rod figures the motor is due for another rebuild, having seen some 60,000 miles since the resto. “I need to put a new rope main seal in it. At 3,000 rpm on the freeway, I can’t keep oil in it. It goes through a quart every 300 miles.”

Passing of the Tub

An electrician by trade, Tom Hynes used the Tub as his daily transportation—unless it was garaged for an engine swap—between 1947 and 1965. “We lived in San Fernando, and he drove it to work every day to the Boylston Street Water and Power plant,” Rod says. “The only reason my brother and I wound up with it is because Dad couldn’t drive it anymore.” The cancer that would eventually claim Tom in 1987 made it increasingly difficult for him to drive the Tub, so he passed it to his sons in 1970, the year Rod graduated from high school.

As you would imagine, Rod’s memories of the Tub go back as far as he can recall. It was such an important part of his life, in fact, that he considers the Tub his “older brother.” He remembers bundling up for freezing-cold drives over The Grapevine on the way to the March Meet and dusty trips to El Mirage. For a time when he was getting his own Fuel Altered drag racing career off the ground (Rod’s well-known rides included the Coors Light Altered and its Quadzilla incarnation), he lived in a shop—with the Tub. “I had pulled it down to rebuild the Tempest engine, and not much happened with it for about three and a half years. I got the Tempest going, and then it became a thing for me to find dirt tracks to fool around in.”

Like his dad before him, Rod has long wanted to race a Sprint Car. And now, at 65, he’s hoping to put together a car to race in the dirt. “It’s an addiction/affliction, the racing, the four-wheeled monsters out there,” he admits. “Some people can just walk away, but I can’t do that. Been at it since I was born.”

He talks about his latest project, a ’27 roadster body he wants to put on a four-bar Sprint Car chassis and power with two Tempest bangers mounted in line. “It’ll be a 389, but as a straight-eight. I have three Tempest motors, the one from the Tub and two more. I just wanted to do something different.”

But the Tub will always be there, too. Its roots are deep. Rod clearly remembers a night back in 1960 when he realized even at a very young age how close the bonds were between him and this T: “My dad used to take the Tub over to Don Brown’s to let him make some laps in the dirt field near his house in Chatsworth. Don was a Sprint Car racer, an Indy racer, was an incredible sheetmetal man. He worked for A.J. Watson building Indy roadsters. I guess taking laps in the dirt in the Tub was a way he relieved stress.

“Anyway, in 1960 the Tub still had the big Merc in it. I was riding with Dad to Don’s house and we got pulled over by a cop at Laurel Canyon and San Fernando Mission Road. Dad was thinking he was going to get a ticket, but the cop said, ‘No, no, don’t worry about it. I just want to check out your car.’

“Dad opened the hood and the cop asked, ‘How much do you want for it?’ And my dad points to me and says, ‘It’s not mine, it’s his.’ It was at that moment that I realized this car would be mine someday.

“So the cop says to me, ‘How much?’ And I said, ‘$10,000.’ Well, the cop laughed and said, ‘That’s almost as much as we paid for our house. That’s obviously out of the question.’ And that’s when I knew how much the car meant to me.”

This ’23 T Tub has been in the Hynes family since Tom Hynes built it in 1946-1947. It’s still on the road and still being driven, now by Tom’s son, Rod.

Shortly after Tom Hynes came home from the Navy, he was offered $40 for the body on his hot rod Model A roadster—a lot of money for Henry’s tin in those days. In this photo from late 1946, he’s taking apart the car prior to delivering the body.

Tom built the first motor for the Tub using a Model B block that was bored, stroked, and fitted with a single-cam Miller OHV conversion and Winfield carbs.

In this 1947 photo, the chassis for the Tub is almost finished. Tom narrowed his Model A’s frame to fit the Model T body. The ’38 Ford Top Loader transmission and ’29 Model A rearend “have always been there,” Rod says.

Tom runs through the lights at El Mirage during a Mojave Timing Association meet on September 19, 1948. His best speed that day was 98 mph.

Here’s “Tommy” tuning the Miller banger at El Mirage, April 30, 1950. The car was good for 95 mph that day. His best speed with the Miller was 101.

George Essig’s photo of Tom (in the hat) and the Tub made the March 1950 HOT ROD cover, though the Tom-Medley-photographed feature wouldn’t run until the July 1950 issue. “Wally goofed,” Rod says. Whoever wrote the cover blurb also goofed, as the car was still banger powered when the picture was taken.

When the story “T Touring Transformed” finally ran, Medley’s photos were accompanied by this Rex Burnett cutaway illustration. It was reproduced again with “Heir-Vroom,” Gray Baskerville’s story on the Tub in the March 2000 HRM.

Gray also ran this photo of the finished Miller overhead in his March 2000 story. The “single-stick Miller” utilized an “SOHC/F-head conversion…a 4-inch bore, Robbins pistons, stroked Model C (4-5/8-inch) crank and two Winfield Model S sidedraft carbs,” he wrote.

In 1951, Tom and his wife, Margaret Louise (“Terry”), posed in the Tub on Bellevue Street in Los Angeles, near the family’s first home.

The first flathead to go into the Tub was the V8/60 Tom got from Louie Senter. It was replaced by this one, a 296-inch Merc that a neighbor blew up a couple years later.

There are no photos of the small-block Chevy that replaced the blown-up Merc, says Rod, partly because it wasn’t in the Tub for very long, and partly because his dad was a “four-banger and flathead man.” The SBC was soon swapped for this four-cylinder Tempest motor. (Photo: Steve Straw)

At the HRM 65th Anniversary show in Pomona, Tom Medley bumped into Rod and his brother Martin and told them this story about the Tub: “Tom, Wally [Parks], and my dad were all friends. Dad was good about ‘sharing’ the Tub with his friends, and on one particular evening he let Tom drive the Tub to an SCTA club meeting. One of the passengers was Wally, who was seated in the back passenger area. It was not really a soft ride back there, as there has always been only a piece of plywood over the rear spring perch. Tom was driving down one of the streets in the Silver Lake/Glendale/Los Angeles area and they hit a bump in the road. Said ‘bump’ was big enough that Wally was pitched out of the car onto the street, suffering a little road rash. This photo from Bonneville in 1955, with Wally leaning on the car talking with my dad, and whoever else is in the car with him, made me think of this story. Wally was probably reminiscing about the road rash incident he suffered while a passenger with Tom Medley.”

Tom shot this photo of Rod driving the Tub in 1981 on a 3/8-mile dirt oval at a Western Racing Association event at Indian Dunes. “I ran with vintage Sprint Cars and Midgets,” Rod says. “Dad kept waiting for me to tip it over as he thought the wire wheels would give up as hard as I was pitching it into a corner.”

Rod still likes sliding the Tub through the dirt, more than 35 years later. “I was in the dirt with it every chance I got,” he says. “That’s the most fun I can have.”

The Tub still wears the yellow Imron paint sprayed by Martin when he and Rod restored the hot rod 25 years ago. “It was the closest we could come to the shade Dad painted it,” Rod says.

It’s been rebuilt and massaged over the years, but this is the same ex-Louie Senter V8/60 Tom Hynes put in the Tub decades ago. It now wears Edmunds racing heads and a three-pot Electric & Carburetor Engineering intake mounting Stromberg 81s.

Tom originally mounted the dropped and filled front axle in the standard location but moved it out in front of the crossmember, suicide style, after running the Tub at the lakes.

Juice brakes have always been on the Tub. Tom installed hydraulic binders from a Studebaker; Rod swapped them “quite a long time ago” for ’40 Ford components, he says. “They’re easier to get.”

While the shift lever and handbrake are leftover items from Tom’s Model A, he replaced the Ford steering with an assembly from a ’40 Willys.

The dash is home to a motley assortment of meters, including a Kong gas pressure gauge and a Ford amp gauge.

Rod ran into Gray Baskerville at the Goodguys drag race in Pomona in 1999, and the two got to talking about the Tub and how it had been in the Hynes family since 1947. That was the impetus for Gray’s March 2000 piece about the car, 50 years after it appeared on HRM’s cover. Fathers figure so prominently in this story that the button on Rod’s hat, a tribute to our ol’ dad, is truly fitting.

The post This Tub, a 1923 Ford Model T Touring, Has Been in the Hynes Family Since Tom Hynes Built it After WWII appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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MIA: This is a white country, you dont have to spell it out to me

Maya Arulpragasam is bringing dancehall, hip-hop and grime to this years Meltdown. Is the outspoken British Sri Lankan the best argument for positive cultural appropriation?

The Guardian said that you couldnt shag to my record. As conversational openers go, MIAs beats the banal niceties of, say, Hello, how are you doing?. Its no surprise that she charges straight into a chat about why her last album was considered too confrontational for the bedroom by this paper. Its an icebreaker moulded to MIAs very own design: abrasive, compelling, underpinned by sex. Yeah, she finally concedes with a grin when I suggest we move past it, you cant have it all, can you?

Its a theme she warms up to when we talk about her edition of Meltdown at the Southbank Centre, which were ostensibly here to discuss. Usually, I wouldnt do something like this, she says, slouched under an oversized khaki coat dress. [But the organisers] were like: Hey, you can do whatever you want. Still, putting on the South Banks annual festival, curated in previous years by the likes of David Bowie, David Byrne and Patti Smith, has turned out to be a fairly arduous affair for MIA who says she doesnt do computers at the moment.

They didnt tell me it was nine days long. I thought it was a weekend. And then all my lists were, like, Well, this person wont be in London and that person is doing Glastonbury. Organising festivals is actually really complicated, she stresses. It wasnt just about dreaming something and then it appeared. Programming literally means, like, programming.

For all that Maya Arulpragasam didnt quite know what she was letting herself in for, one suspects the Southbank Centre didnt either; logistics aside, the mornings photoshoot has already been met with some flapping from the press officer made nervous by MIA climbing on the roof without safety clearance. Still, her lineup dancehall, Brooklyn hip-hop, depressive Swedish rap and Nigerian grime is perhaps the most underground the festival has seen in its 24 years. How much is she expecting to shake up its comfortable concert halls, cafe bars and conference-room spaces?

Click here to watch the video for last years Go Off.

When I was a teenager in London, I would just get a Travelcard and go somewhere, explore the city and go to weird places, she says. I would never judge the place, like, This is middle class and white. This is a white country, you dont have to spell it out to me, but there wasnt ever a limit on where I could go or what I could do.

A long, elliptical digression on London then and now follows, which takes in the optimistic multiculturalism of the 90s, Tamil house parties, empire and British identity. Its the bento box of an MIA interview: individually contained ideas that dont obviously bleed into one another and yet, overall, make a collective sense if youre prepared to go with it. Thats the key thing about MIA: you have to be willing to go with her to properly get her. Given that she still looks and sounds like a beautiful, bratty, art-school upstart and is prone to labyrinthine tangents, its easy to portray her as inarticulate or unhinged. But MIAs intelligence is instinctive rather than intellectual, and fuelled by the political.

The Mehrabian maxim that reckons that only 7% of communication is verbal is one that might best be proven by the transcript of a chat with MIA removed of all tone, attitude, context and body language. Take, for instance, her explanation of why only the future remains relevant:

As humans, we dont use our past and our history to work out the importance of what our role is in the present, she says. And if you cant use the past to define your present, then it should not be an element that holds back the future. Greece is a perfect example. More than Britain, they were brought to their knees, and not a single white country thought about saving them. And it was part of their heritage. Its where their mythology comes from or their concept of capitalism and democracy comes from. Nobody cared, everybody cared about the modern. Right?

Kim Kardashian is actually more powerful than Greece. She has more money than the whole of Greece, she continues. Therefore, thats where the power lies. If you then define it that way, then you kind of just have to live with that. And maybe whats happening in modern society: that if youre going to judge it by that, then other countries are gonna come in and define the future.

In print, its a statement that seems lacking in logic and coherence. In the moment, Im fairly sure Im able to follow her and we go on to consider how and where this future is being defined (for the record: You cant ignore the fact that China is going to be doing their thing in the next 50 years) and how Arulpragasam believes the immigration issue has become a red herring covering up a truth that can explain the American and British swing to conservative populism.

With Brexit, the idea was to get away from Europe and reinvent our identity, she says. And really, that identity was going to be American, but then they gave us Trump! So, everyone now is like, Oh shit, what is Britain? Are we going to rewind back to the 1800s? We cant. Its too late for that. So, going forward, we need a charismatic leader who then va va vooms the British identity. And we dont have that either.

People thinking that Im a bitch is totally unwarranted … MIA. Photograph: Stephanie Sian Smith/The Guide

The prime minister has called a snap election on the day we meet. Does MIA have any faith in our political system? Or in the left?

Everyone keeps going, Corbyn cant do this, but its, like, well, who else is there? she says. If people just left him alone to actually do the job and actually gave him some support, maybe hed be different. Treating him with so much contempt fighting that takes all his energy. How the fuck do you expect him to do interesting things? In any case insists the estranged daughter of a Tamil revolutionary, politicians are people who couldnt get jobs somewhere else.

MIAs politics, unwieldy and unslick though they may be, have often made her an easy target for tedious sneering in the press; the most insistent narrative is that, like Banksy, shes big on arch, subversive statement but lacks substance. Or that she is a hypocrite for making herself the poster girl for the worlds most marginalised people. And yet, shes one of the best pop stars Britain has ever produced. For all the ear-clanging experimentation of her five albums, MIA has always kept a sleeve full of pop bangers Bucky Done Gun, Paper Planes, Bad Girls, Finally that have sounded like little that came before or since her. Even if she didnt have the tunes, here is an art-school refugee Sri Lankan single mother with a visual aesthetic co-opted by everyone from Vetements to Versace who was born into political rebellion and revels in controversy. Gleefully gauche and carefree, MIA is the best argument for when cultural appropriation works. Bland singer-songstress beloved of Radio 2 playlists she isnt. So how much has the criticism bothered her?

People thinking that Im a bitch is totally unwarranted because Im not, she ays. I just had to fight for shit, and I still do. I just dont care any more. I dont know. She stops and starts. What I deal with as an artist, the media, the public persona, its a walk in the fucking park, compared to how confusing the universe really fucking is. Theres so much beauty in it and theres so much mystery, theres so much confusing shit in it. That is way more interesting to think about than why, like, Patricia hates me. You know what I mean? I laugh. Its like, Who the fuck is Patricia? and How can Patricia say this shit about me?. It just does not matter to me at all.As it is, she says shes most preoccupied with how to be a functioning grown up, an adult and a mother to an eight-year-old son (whose father Benjamin Bronfman is son to the billionaire heir of the Seagram fortune) born into immense privilege.

When the war came to an end in Sri Lanka in 2009, it actually did affect me, she explains. Everyone was, like, What the fuck does she know? Shes, like, a pop star, but that was my life. It was 50% of who I was, it was my identity. I didnt know what to do with myself. So I had a kid. Its the year the cause died, but the year my personal cause my son was born. And then, OK, I have to figure out what to do in very small parameters: I have a son, how is he going to see his grandma, am I going to make it there on Saturday? Can I make sure that I dont mess up his head by being depressed about certain things?

She struggles to reconcile her upbringing poor and living in Sri Lanka for her childhood to poor and living on a council estate in Mitcham, south London, in her adolescence with her sons. Im not very straightforward as an immigrant. That whole My kids would never see the pain that I saw; Im not like that. Im totally up for reintroducing him to the pain. I dont have any qualms about that. Her problems havent changed, she says, because of money or better circumstances. Whether Im in a mansion or a council flat, I would feel the same anxiety waking up going: I need to write this thing in a scrapbook, wheres my notepad? I would still have all those problems. I might still overcook the fish fingers. Those things are not going to magically transform because your house has changed. At the beginning I thought that money couldve saved my family. Very quickly I realised that money is not the thing.

Her conflict in wanting to being huge and commercial versus credible and ahead of the curve has been a persistent tension threaded through MIAs career. When I got into the music game, it was never an option to shut up and make lots of money. she says. To be a huge pop star, I would have to be, like, Yes, I think bombing Afghanistan was a great idea, I love our democracy and what it has achieved. I love the American flag and Im going to make a jumpsuit out of it. I just think it was important to have all of those Arab Springs, and its great and lets drink Coca-Cola. I had to do that, and do it all in a thong. Could I have done that if it meant that my mum had the nicest house in Chiswick by the river?

Click here to se the video for MIAs Bad Girls.

Does she worry about money now? If youre preaching living within your means, you have to, to some extent. But I also know that if youre someone in society that speaks out about injustice or political issues, one of the things that happens is that you get economically punished, 100%. I take that hit all the time.

The most recent, obvious example was MIA being forced to quit her headline slot at Afropunk last year, following a contentious quote in which she asked in an interview why Beyonc and Kendrick Lamar might not discuss why Muslim lives matter or Syrian lives matter. I dont regret [raising the issue], she says, with triumphant chutzpah. You saw how bad it was. And the Muslim ban didnt happen just with Trump, it was already happening under Obama. But you couldnt say that about him, you couldnt say that he introduced the Muslim ban, or banned seven different countries, or was already monitoring people, or dropped more bombs than Trump has. In truth, Obamas administration did identify the seven countries on Trumps list for additional screening measures, but it didnt bar their nationals. Shes already skipped ahead. The quantity of damage cant be quantified right now, she insists. Well have to wait the four years. After eight years of Obama, we kind of knew [his failings], but we just werent allowed to say them because he was so great. He was better than any person in Hollywood that I wouldve watched. He was really likable and just had loads of swag. That doesnt mean that you have to deny the truth, though.

This (and much more) comes moments after she tells me she has no time for opinions these days. She claims she doesnt read the news any more and that her primary sources for information are customers at the local kebab shop, taxi drivers and then sort of figuring it out. What about the state of the world? MIAs moment as an agitprop pop activist has never seemed more potent. Politics? I have no time for these things because Im so stuck in the zone. Ive become a hermit. [Meltdown] is actually giving me the chance to actually go out and meet people again. Ive gone for weeks without talking to a person, I do that happily. I tell her I dont believe her, as I suspect it would be a recipe for her to go fully barmy.

Im actually quite an extreme person, so I dont see that as madness. I see that as, like, solitude, doing a phase of solitude is not that bad. After declaring her fifth album AIM to be her final one, shes also trying to find new ways to channel her creativity. Im trying to write a film. I havent stepped into it yet because I want it to be good. Once you hit the start button you cant really stop it. She has, she tells me, the added complication of ADD to contend with. When was that diagnosed? I just have it. Dont even need diagnosis, its a waste of time, its a waste of the NHS. In truly blithe MIA style, she adds: Its just when you have too many ideas and not enough ways to get them out.

MIAs Meltdown is at the Southbank Centre, SE1, 9-18 June

Read more: http://ift.tt/2rBtxTD

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MIA: This is a white country, you dont have to spell it out to me

Maya Arulpragasam is bringing dancehall, hip-hop and grime to this years Meltdown. Is the outspoken British Sri Lankan the best argument for positive cultural appropriation?

The Guardian said that you couldnt shag to my record. As conversational openers go, MIAs beats the banal niceties of, say, Hello, how are you doing?. Its no surprise that she charges straight into a chat about why her last album was considered too confrontational for the bedroom by this paper. Its an icebreaker moulded to MIAs very own design: abrasive, compelling, underpinned by sex. Yeah, she finally concedes with a grin when I suggest we move past it, you cant have it all, can you?

Its a theme she warms up to when we talk about her edition of Meltdown at the Southbank Centre, which were ostensibly here to discuss. Usually, I wouldnt do something like this, she says, slouched under an oversized khaki coat dress. [But the organisers] were like: Hey, you can do whatever you want. Still, putting on the South Banks annual festival, curated in previous years by the likes of David Bowie, David Byrne and Patti Smith, has turned out to be a fairly arduous affair for MIA who says she doesnt do computers at the moment.

They didnt tell me it was nine days long. I thought it was a weekend. And then all my lists were, like, Well, this person wont be in London and that person is doing Glastonbury. Organising festivals is actually really complicated, she stresses. It wasnt just about dreaming something and then it appeared. Programming literally means, like, programming.

For all that Maya Arulpragasam didnt quite know what she was letting herself in for, one suspects the Southbank Centre didnt either; logistics aside, the mornings photoshoot has already been met with some flapping from the press officer made nervous by MIA climbing on the roof without safety clearance. Still, her lineup dancehall, Brooklyn hip-hop, depressive Swedish rap and Nigerian grime is perhaps the most underground the festival has seen in its 24 years. How much is she expecting to shake up its comfortable concert halls, cafe bars and conference-room spaces?

Click here to watch the video for last years Go Off.

When I was a teenager in London, I would just get a Travelcard and go somewhere, explore the city and go to weird places, she says. I would never judge the place, like, This is middle class and white. This is a white country, you dont have to spell it out to me, but there wasnt ever a limit on where I could go or what I could do.

A long, elliptical digression on London then and now follows, which takes in the optimistic multiculturalism of the 90s, Tamil house parties, empire and British identity. Its the bento box of an MIA interview: individually contained ideas that dont obviously bleed into one another and yet, overall, make a collective sense if youre prepared to go with it. Thats the key thing about MIA: you have to be willing to go with her to properly get her. Given that she still looks and sounds like a beautiful, bratty, art-school upstart and is prone to labyrinthine tangents, its easy to portray her as inarticulate or unhinged. But MIAs intelligence is instinctive rather than intellectual, and fuelled by the political.

The Mehrabian maxim that reckons that only 7% of communication is verbal is one that might best be proven by the transcript of a chat with MIA removed of all tone, attitude, context and body language. Take, for instance, her explanation of why only the future remains relevant:

As humans, we dont use our past and our history to work out the importance of what our role is in the present, she says. And if you cant use the past to define your present, then it should not be an element that holds back the future. Greece is a perfect example. More than Britain, they were brought to their knees, and not a single white country thought about saving them. And it was part of their heritage. Its where their mythology comes from or their concept of capitalism and democracy comes from. Nobody cared, everybody cared about the modern. Right?

Kim Kardashian is actually more powerful than Greece. She has more money than the whole of Greece, she continues. Therefore, thats where the power lies. If you then define it that way, then you kind of just have to live with that. And maybe whats happening in modern society: that if youre going to judge it by that, then other countries are gonna come in and define the future.

In print, its a statement that seems lacking in logic and coherence. In the moment, Im fairly sure Im able to follow her and we go on to consider how and where this future is being defined (for the record: You cant ignore the fact that China is going to be doing their thing in the next 50 years) and how Arulpragasam believes the immigration issue has become a red herring covering up a truth that can explain the American and British swing to conservative populism.

With Brexit, the idea was to get away from Europe and reinvent our identity, she says. And really, that identity was going to be American, but then they gave us Trump! So, everyone now is like, Oh shit, what is Britain? Are we going to rewind back to the 1800s? We cant. Its too late for that. So, going forward, we need a charismatic leader who then va va vooms the British identity. And we dont have that either.

People thinking that Im a bitch is totally unwarranted … MIA. Photograph: Stephanie Sian Smith/The Guide

The prime minister has called a snap election on the day we meet. Does MIA have any faith in our political system? Or in the left?

Everyone keeps going, Corbyn cant do this, but its, like, well, who else is there? she says. If people just left him alone to actually do the job and actually gave him some support, maybe hed be different. Treating him with so much contempt fighting that takes all his energy. How the fuck do you expect him to do interesting things? In any case insists the estranged daughter of a Tamil revolutionary, politicians are people who couldnt get jobs somewhere else.

MIAs politics, unwieldy and unslick though they may be, have often made her an easy target for tedious sneering in the press; the most insistent narrative is that, like Banksy, shes big on arch, subversive statement but lacks substance. Or that she is a hypocrite for making herself the poster girl for the worlds most marginalised people. And yet, shes one of the best pop stars Britain has ever produced. For all the ear-clanging experimentation of her five albums, MIA has always kept a sleeve full of pop bangers Bucky Done Gun, Paper Planes, Bad Girls, Finally that have sounded like little that came before or since her. Even if she didnt have the tunes, here is an art-school refugee Sri Lankan single mother with a visual aesthetic co-opted by everyone from Vetements to Versace who was born into political rebellion and revels in controversy. Gleefully gauche and carefree, MIA is the best argument for when cultural appropriation works. Bland singer-songstress beloved of Radio 2 playlists she isnt. So how much has the criticism bothered her?

People thinking that Im a bitch is totally unwarranted because Im not, she ays. I just had to fight for shit, and I still do. I just dont care any more. I dont know. She stops and starts. What I deal with as an artist, the media, the public persona, its a walk in the fucking park, compared to how confusing the universe really fucking is. Theres so much beauty in it and theres so much mystery, theres so much confusing shit in it. That is way more interesting to think about than why, like, Patricia hates me. You know what I mean? I laugh. Its like, Who the fuck is Patricia? and How can Patricia say this shit about me?. It just does not matter to me at all.As it is, she says shes most preoccupied with how to be a functioning grown up, an adult and a mother to an eight-year-old son (whose father Benjamin Bronfman is son to the billionaire heir of the Seagram fortune) born into immense privilege.

When the war came to an end in Sri Lanka in 2009, it actually did affect me, she explains. Everyone was, like, What the fuck does she know? Shes, like, a pop star, but that was my life. It was 50% of who I was, it was my identity. I didnt know what to do with myself. So I had a kid. Its the year the cause died, but the year my personal cause my son was born. And then, OK, I have to figure out what to do in very small parameters: I have a son, how is he going to see his grandma, am I going to make it there on Saturday? Can I make sure that I dont mess up his head by being depressed about certain things?

She struggles to reconcile her upbringing poor and living in Sri Lanka for her childhood to poor and living on a council estate in Mitcham, south London, in her adolescence with her sons. Im not very straightforward as an immigrant. That whole My kids would never see the pain that I saw; Im not like that. Im totally up for reintroducing him to the pain. I dont have any qualms about that. Her problems havent changed, she says, because of money or better circumstances. Whether Im in a mansion or a council flat, I would feel the same anxiety waking up going: I need to write this thing in a scrapbook, wheres my notepad? I would still have all those problems. I might still overcook the fish fingers. Those things are not going to magically transform because your house has changed. At the beginning I thought that money couldve saved my family. Very quickly I realised that money is not the thing.

Her conflict in wanting to being huge and commercial versus credible and ahead of the curve has been a persistent tension threaded through MIAs career. When I got into the music game, it was never an option to shut up and make lots of money. she says. To be a huge pop star, I would have to be, like, Yes, I think bombing Afghanistan was a great idea, I love our democracy and what it has achieved. I love the American flag and Im going to make a jumpsuit out of it. I just think it was important to have all of those Arab Springs, and its great and lets drink Coca-Cola. I had to do that, and do it all in a thong. Could I have done that if it meant that my mum had the nicest house in Chiswick by the river?

Click here to se the video for MIAs Bad Girls.

Does she worry about money now? If youre preaching living within your means, you have to, to some extent. But I also know that if youre someone in society that speaks out about injustice or political issues, one of the things that happens is that you get economically punished, 100%. I take that hit all the time.

The most recent, obvious example was MIA being forced to quit her headline slot at Afropunk last year, following a contentious quote in which she asked in an interview why Beyonc and Kendrick Lamar might not discuss why Muslim lives matter or Syrian lives matter. I dont regret [raising the issue], she says, with triumphant chutzpah. You saw how bad it was. And the Muslim ban didnt happen just with Trump, it was already happening under Obama. But you couldnt say that about him, you couldnt say that he introduced the Muslim ban, or banned seven different countries, or was already monitoring people, or dropped more bombs than Trump has. In truth, Obamas administration did identify the seven countries on Trumps list for additional screening measures, but it didnt bar their nationals. Shes already skipped ahead. The quantity of damage cant be quantified right now, she insists. Well have to wait the four years. After eight years of Obama, we kind of knew [his failings], but we just werent allowed to say them because he was so great. He was better than any person in Hollywood that I wouldve watched. He was really likable and just had loads of swag. That doesnt mean that you have to deny the truth, though.

This (and much more) comes moments after she tells me she has no time for opinions these days. She claims she doesnt read the news any more and that her primary sources for information are customers at the local kebab shop, taxi drivers and then sort of figuring it out. What about the state of the world? MIAs moment as an agitprop pop activist has never seemed more potent. Politics? I have no time for these things because Im so stuck in the zone. Ive become a hermit. [Meltdown] is actually giving me the chance to actually go out and meet people again. Ive gone for weeks without talking to a person, I do that happily. I tell her I dont believe her, as I suspect it would be a recipe for her to go fully barmy.

Im actually quite an extreme person, so I dont see that as madness. I see that as, like, solitude, doing a phase of solitude is not that bad. After declaring her fifth album AIM to be her final one, shes also trying to find new ways to channel her creativity. Im trying to write a film. I havent stepped into it yet because I want it to be good. Once you hit the start button you cant really stop it. She has, she tells me, the added complication of ADD to contend with. When was that diagnosed? I just have it. Dont even need diagnosis, its a waste of time, its a waste of the NHS. In truly blithe MIA style, she adds: Its just when you have too many ideas and not enough ways to get them out.

MIAs Meltdown is at the Southbank Centre, SE1, 9-18 June

Read more: http://ift.tt/2rBtxTD

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2rbYbGf via Viral News HQ