#eartha land

[lasudio]

VeronaHills, Round Eleven: Land (B)

It was tee shirt weather and uncle Scot was coming over for morning tea: both very, very good things.

Eartha was out of bed, bathed and dressed before mama was. She liked all her aunts and uncles but uncle Scot took the cake. For one, he often brought confetti cake over. He said he had to stay up late for the dorm's kitchen to be free and would apologise in advance if it wasn't the best, but it was always delicious. It made mama smile too.

On this morning, along with coveted confetti cake, Scot brought a baseball to play catch with. Mary took the cake inside to plate up - she was going to make pink lemonade too, as a special treat - and Eartha led her uncle to the garden's best stretch of lawn to play on.

"Thanks for playing catch with me," Scot said. "I used to do this with your pop pop when I was your age. It's great exercise!"

Eartha cradled the ball in her hands. "Is pop pop too old to play?" she asked, pondering over each word.

"Well - maybe some games are a little harder than others now. I'm sure he has some ideas of what he'd like to play with you. Maybe you could ask, next time you see him?"

Eartha nodded and lobbed the ball back, seeming satisfied with Scot's answer, and he was immensely glad he'd been reading up on parenting lately. It would take more than morning tea and lawn games to be the World's Best Dad one day, but he was grateful to be the Favourite Uncle for now.

Mary called the two in for their sweet treats and the visit concluded with three very happy Lands. Eartha was still fizzing at bedtime; the visit seemed to continue in her dollhouse, with doll uncle Scot bringing a rainbow unicorn into the living room.

When bedtime was finally observed, Mary wished her daughter sweet dreams, knowing she would definitely have them.

[oceancentury]

Eartha Kitts favourite present 💝

[dbguidebook]

The Gospel According To Eartha Kitt. #Societythings

[hotvintagepoll]

now I'm curious to see a poll between eartha kitt, toshiro mifune, and vanilla extract

sounds like you’re looking forward to the ULTIMATE HOTTIES BRACKET! which will land sometime later this summer.

[wanderingmind867]

I promised I'd share my ideas for a hypothetical fourth season of batman 66. So here it is. All 60 episodes of my season four (although some episodes have more detail than others). I planned to write notes for a season five, six and seven. And I'd have each season introduce more and more characters. But I don't know if my attention span will last long enough for me to write all of that. Or if my fancasting website even works anymore. But at least I have all of this written down?

Season 4: Season Four would get 60-70 episodes, max. A full season of 60 episodes, split into part one and part two, or something like that.

Episodes 1 and 2: A two parter based on the events of the Batman '66 Comic, Issue #1. A story involving The Riddler (Frank Gorshin) and Catwoman (Julie Newmar).

Episodes 3 and 4: A story involving The Joker (as played by Cesar Romero). Not much else to say beyond that right now.

Episodes 5 and 6: A story featuring The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and Mister Freeze (either George Sanders or Eli Wallach). They team up, only to get busted by the dynamic duo!

Episodes 7 and 8: Introducing Signalman to the world of Batman '66! Signalman uses his gimmicks to try and trap Batman and Robin, while stealing as many symbols of good fortune as he possibly can.

Episode 9: A Batgirl solo episode, focusing on her and her new partner (who she meets in this episode): Jason Bard. Together, her and Jason end up investigating the appearance of a new catwoman on the scene (Eartha Kitt). Together, Batgirl and her private detective partner manage to learn that this new Catwoman is an old friend of the first Catwoman, and they're friendly rivals who compete for the thrill of the chase.

Episodes 10 and 11: Batman and Robin are preparing to leave for London on Vacation, but they're held up by The Bookworm and his criminal gang, who planned to rob Gotham City of a priceless manuscript stored deep within Gotham City Hall. Only the dynamic duo can stop this marvelous mastermind before it's too late!

Episodes 12, 13 and 14: Batman and Robin end up in London on vacation, and they end up needing to bust up two different capers in England; one involving The Mad Hatter (David Wayne) and the other involving The Clock King (Walter Slezak). It turns out these two villians have some negative history together, but it's unclear just what this history entails…

Episode 15: While Batman and Robin are off in Europe, Batgirl and Jason Bard run into Cluemaster, a strange new villian who seems to have an odd vendetta against The Riddler. Although The Riddler doesn't actually show up in this episode, we learn that Cluemaster is a minor villain who's always held a grudge. He wants to take the title of world's biggest riddle/clue/puzzle themed supervillian away from The Riddler! Only Batgirl can stop him now!

Episodes 16 and 17: Batman and Robin end up on a cruise heading back to Gotham, but the cruise ends up being held up by Penguin, who's decided to take to high seas felony after being constantly foiled on land. But he didn't count on finding Batman and Robin on one of his captive vessels…

Episodes 18 and 19: Batman and Robin return to Gotham, just in time for a late september scheme hatched by Egghead, that diabolical master of eggs-pert larceny! Batman and Robin need to enlist the end of Batgirl and Jason Bard just to get him to be defeated before he commits the greatest crime of our time and era!

Episodes 20 and 21: In the brisk early October air, False Face steals a new chemical designed to make a human being shapeshift. But one of his men steals it away from him! Matt Hagen (Rich Little), a greedy henchmen of the dastardly False Face, uses the machine and turns himself into a hideous being made of Clay! Remembering the case of an old villian Batman tangled with named Clayface, Matt Hagen decides to embrace his evil side and become Clayface the second!

Episodes 22 and 23: Batman, Robin and Batgirl all end up tangling with The Scarecrow (Anthony Perkins) on Halloween Night! A washed up former psychology teacher with a love for fear, Jonathan Crane has come to haunt Gotham as the one and only Scarecrow!

Episodes 24 and 25: Batman and Robin tangle with Blockbuster, a menace who's too mindless to actually mean any harm to anyone or anything. He's being used by his mad scientist brother Roland, but the dynamic duo don't figure that out until it's nearly too late…

Episodes 25 and 26: While hosting a Gotham City Beauty Contest to mark the beginning of November and the subsequent colder season, Batman and Robin tangle with Poison Ivy (Ann Margret), that powerful sorceress of seduction! Using her brilliant botanical wisdom, she snares Batman and Robin inside of a horrible death trap. But they escape, and successfully bring her to Justice.

Episodes 27 and 28: Batman and Robin deal with the Polka Dot Man, a bizarre new criminal capable of using polka dots as tools for committing new crimes to bedevil and beguile the people of Gotham City!

Episodes 29 and 30: Batman and Batgirl have to work together to fight off a mad team up of The Penguin and The Riddler. Robin is sick with the flu, so he's unable to help them. So it's up to Batman and Batgirl to save the day this time around!

Episodes 31 and 32: A Christmas Special, featuring a mall santa who gets victimized by The Joker and Clayface, a bizarre new duo of cookery! Batman, Robin, Batgirl and Jason Bard all have to team up to defeat the foe this time. And in the end, it's rather unclear if the mall santa was just a mall santa, or if they were the real santa all along…

Episodes 33, 34 and 35: Batman is challenged by his most dastardly foes yet; a terrible trio of crooks from Gotham's distant past! The Eraser, The Getaway Genius and Killer Moth! Batman hasn't tangled with them in years, not since the days of… Batwoman. Back when Robin was younger (a few years before the show started), Kathy Kane was a rich socialite who teamed up with Batman to fight crime. But she retired after an awful case involving Killer Moth. Yet now, she may be Gotham's only hope for surviving the Triumvirate's terror!

Episodes 36 and 37: Batman was set on edge by the Triumvirate (and by Batwoman's return), so he's gone on vacation. While he's off on vacation, two different teams have to protect Gotham from ill will. Robin and Catwoman are who we're gonna focus on first. While Batman's away, they end up having to deal with Doctor Double-X, a horrible foe from years past, capable of creating duplicates of himself to fight his battles for him!

Episodes 38 and 39: While Batman is off on vacation, Batgirl and Jason Bard end up having to call a truce with Catwoman II (Eartha Kitt), as she's being pursued by an old rival. Catman, a big game hunter who prowled the jungles of africa. He feels that Catwoman gives the noble beauty of the jungle cat a bad name, and so he's out for revenge. Batgirl, Catwoman and Jason Bard have to save Gotham from the deranged anger of Catman, before it's too late!

Episodes 40 and 41: Batman was on vacation in Europe, exploring the beautiful balkans. But he accidentally stumbles upon a plot by Olga, Queen of the Cossacks, and he has to come back out of temporary retirement to stop her.

Episodes 42 and 43: Robin and Batwoman team up to fight against Shane and his wife Calamity Jan.

Episodes 44 and 45: Batgirl and Jason Bard team up to fight off Louie the Lilac and The Siren, a strange duo who've teamed up to try and take down Poison Ivy (for "stealing their gimmicks"). At the end of this two parter, batman finally returns from his vacation.

Episodes 46 and 47: Batman's first case after coming back from vacation involves dealing with The Sandman, Gotham's strange sultan of the sands, a man capable of putting people to sleep (and now even capable of messing with them as they sleep and dream)!

Episodes 48 and 49: Batman's newest case leads him to have to fight against Mister Freeze yet again, who's sprung himself from jail, all to work on an elaborate scheme involving freezing gotham in with perpetual winter!

Episodes 50, 51 and 52: Batman has to go up against The Riddler, Cluemaster and The Puzzler, all of whom have gone on the attack against each other. There can only be one king of puzzles/riddles/clues, and they won't stop until one of them has successfully defeated the other!

Episodes 53 and 54: While Batman deals with the three puzzling champions, Batgirl and Robin end up fighting against The Bookworm and Scarecrow, both of whom have teamed up to try and steal some rare manuscripts for old time classic horror novels. It might be in this story that we get the first hints that robin is beginning to feel stifled by batman's authority. He wants to fly somewhat independently. To prove himself to Batman.

Episodes 55 and 56: Batman and Robin have to defeat The Joker, when he decides to challenge them to a game of wits. He commits crimes using the gimmicks of other criminals, and thusly tries to lure them off his trail. It almost works, until Batman and Robin finally get wise to the scheme.

Episodes 57 and 58: Batman and Robin team up to fight against The Minstrel, their old musically inclined foe. He's come to Gotham to commit more musical thefts, and only the dynamic duo is capable of stopping him.

Episodes 59 and 60: Batman and Robin have to deal with King Tut, who's once again relapsed into his horrible criminal ways.

After this, Season Four ends. Then we'd have the two animated movies (The Return of the Caped Crusaders and Batman vs Two-Face), and we'd also have the third movie which we were promised but which Adam West died before he could film (we were promised a film project with Harley Quinn, according to the Batman vs Two Face wikipedia page). So we'd have the Harley Quinn story (which might also feature Hugo Strange), and then we'd have Robin leave Batman to go do his own thing, the same way he did in the mainstream comics. And that would be the lead in for Season Five, which is all about Batman on his own.

[innervoiceart]

"Nature Boy" was Nat King Cole's first big hit, since then it has been covered over 1223 times! The story behind the song is even more sensational

Joe Moondad has the strange story of eden ahbez:

"In the late 40s, there was a rumor that there was a "hermit," disenchanted and disillusioned with the world, supposedly "out-of-sync" with society, living in California in a cave under one of the L’s in the Hollywood sign.

No one really cared about this strange man, until one night in 1947, when someone tried to enter backstage at the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles. Nat King Cole was playing there, and the man said he had something for Cole. Of course, the employees didn't let the strange man see Cole, so he gave whatever he had with Cole's manager.

What he had was a song sheet, which Cole would later take a look at. Cole liked the song and wanted to record it, but he had to find the strange man. When asked, the people who saw the man said he was strange, indeed, with shoulder-length hair and beard, wearing sandals and a white robe.

Cole finally tracked him down in New York City. When Cole asked him where he was staying, the strange man declared he was staying at the best hotel in New York - outside, literally, in Central Park. He said his name was eden ahbez (spelled all in lower-case letters). The song he gave Cole was titled, "Nature Boy." It became Cole's first big hit, and was soon covered by other artists through the years, from Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan to Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, most recently.

Of course, the media went crazy about the strange, mysterious man who handed Nat King Cole, one of the biggest hits during that time. Everyone went out to try to find out more about him.

What little they found was that he was once an orphan, who never stayed at one place very long, living in various foster homes. He explained he just never fit in and was always searching, for something.

["They say he wandered very far...

Very far, over land and sea..."

They found out he would hop freight trains and walked across country several times, subsisting solely on raw fruits and vegetables, then one day he completely vanished.

["A little shy and sad of eye...

But very wise was he..."]

He finally showed up again in the Hollywood hills. When a policeman stopped the strange, long-haired man with beard, sandals, and robe, ahbez simply replied, "I look crazy but I'm not. And the funny thing is that other people don't look crazy but they are."

["And then one day...

One magic day he passed my way..."]

He then showed up backstage at Nat King Cole's concert in Los Angeles, to present him with the song, "Nature Boy." No one seems to really know why he selected Cole, there were some rumors that he came out of hiding when he began to hear about the racism going on and trouble throughout the world, and he thought "King" was the best person at that time to pass his message along.

["While we spoke of many things...

Fools and Kings..."]

When he was asked about racism, he replied, "Some white people hate black people, and some white people love black people, some black people hate white people, and some black people love white people. So you see it's not an issue of black and white, it's an issue of Lovers and Haters."

It was that theme of love that he continued to talk about, what was missing in the world, and what would be needed in the future if we are to survive.

ahbez would eventually get his message out, especially after the counter-culture finally caught up with him and the hippie movement began, when other artists such as Donovan, Grace Slick, and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson sought him out. He also wrote songs for Eartha Kitt and had another song recorded by Sam Cooke.

In 2009, Congressman Bill Aswad recited the last lyrics of the song before the Vermont House of Representatives at the passing of his state's same-sex marriage bill in '09.

Author Raymond Knapp described the track as a "mystically charged vagabond song" whose lyrics evoked an intense sense of loss and haplessness, with the final line delivering a universal truth, described by Knapp as "indestructible" and "salvaged somehow from the perilous journey of life."

["This he said to me...

The greatest thing you'll ever learn...

Is just to love and be loved in return."]

"George Alexander Aberle (April 15, 1908 – March 4, 1995), known as eden ahbez, was an American songwriter and recording artist of the 1940s to 1960s, whose lifestyle in California was influential in the hippie movement.

He was known to friends simply as ahbe.

Ahbez composed the song "Nature Boy", which became a No. 1 hit for eight weeks in 1948 for Nat "King" Cole.

Living a bucolic life from at least the 1940s, he traveled in sandals and wore shoulder-length hair and beard, and white robes. He camped out below the first L in the Hollywood Sign above Los Angeles and studied Oriental mysticism. He slept outdoors with his family and ate vegetables, fruits, and nuts. He claimed to live on three dollars per week.

In the mid-1950s, he wrote songs for Eartha Kitt, Frankie Laine, and others, as well as writing some rock-and-roll novelty songs. In 1957, his song "Lonely Island" was recorded by Sam Cooke, becoming the second and final Ahbez composition to hit the Top 40.

In 1959, he began recording instrumental music, which combined his signature somber tones with exotic arrangements and (according to the record sleeve) "primitive rhythms". He often performed bongo, flute, and poetry gigs at beat coffeehouses in the Los Angeles area. In 1960, he recorded his only solo LP, Eden's Island, for Del-Fi Records.

This mixed beatnik poetry with exotica arrangements. Ahbez promoted the album through a coast-to-coast walking tour making personal appearances, but it sold poorly.

During the 1960s, ahbez released five singles. Grace Slick's band, the Great Society, recorded a version of "Nature Boy" in 1966 and ahbez was photographed in the studio with Brian Wilson during a session for the Smile album in early 1967. Later that year, British singer Donovan sought out ahbez in Palm Springs, and the two wanderers shared a reportedly "near-telepathic" conversation. In the 1970s, Big Star's Alex Chilton recorded a version of "Nature Boy" with the photographer William Eggleston on piano. The song was finally released as a bonus track on the 1992 Rykodisc re-release of the album Third/Sister Lovers.

In 1974, ahbez was reported to be living in the Los Angeles suburb of Sunland, and he owned a record label named Sunland Records, for which he was recording under the name "Eden Abba." From the late 1980s until his death, ahbez worked closely with Joe Romersa, an engineer/drummer in Los Angeles. The master tapes, photos, and final works of eden ahbez are in Romersa's possession.

Ahbez died on March 4, 1995, of injuries sustained in a car accident, at the age of 86. Another album, Echoes from Nature Boy, was released posthumously."

[kiraastro]

Venus in Shravana: Foreign Spouse

Venus in shravana can give a spouse/partner that is:

Born in a foreign country

Of foreign ethnicity and or race

Comes from a different cultural background and or speaks a different language

"Shravana's yogatara is faraway from the ecliptic (plane). So there is some connection with far-off or foreign lands with shravana." —Dr. Aditya Togi

From: "Nakshatra Series: Shravana Nakshatra by Pai Team", Youtube.com

☆ミ

Men with venus in shravana:

L: Mel Gibson and ex-wife Robyn Moore (Australian)

R: Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind (Danish)

L: Tom Hiddleston and Zawe Ashton (English and Ugandan)

R: Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz (English-born with Hungarian and Austrian ethnic background)

L: Daniel Craig and ex-wife Fiona Loudon (Scottish)

R: Harry Styles and Taylor Russell (White Canadian and Jamaican)

Women with venus in shravana:

L: Yoko Ono and John Lennon (English)

R: Kate Moss and her long-term partner Nikolai von Bismarck (he comes from the house of Bismarck, German noble family)

L: Eartha Kitt and John McDonald (White American)

R: Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi (Australian-American)

☆彡

[christinafurby]

If you were going to perform a striptease, what song would you like to strip to?

This is such a great question.. Such a difficult question that I've never thought of for myself. 🤔

There are so many different style options that could be chosen to go with different songs but at the end of the day it would always be, in my opinion, "ladylike". I suppose it depends on if I wanted to go more classical or modern. 🤔 I would have to do my homework and find an older song that's not over used but still spicy. Unless it's a Christmas themed strip tease.. Then, "Santa Baby" - Eartha Kitt (or as I like to call it, "Sexy Santa") would be perfect! 😂 Otherwise, would try to be original.

Looking at anyone else, seeing them beautiful and seemingly perfect like that, and then trying to see myself in the same light.. Seems laughable. Haha I suppose anything today in Vanilla Unicorn would work. 🤷🏻 That or more like "Closer" - Nine Inch Nails, Redeemer -Blood on the Dance Floor, "Head Cars Bending" -1975, "Attention" - Doja Cat, "Little Red Corvette" - Prince, "Flesh" - Simon Curtis, etc..

I'm more of model than a dancer haha (I'm not the best on my land legs anymore with pass outs and all 😂)

I've ALWAYS thought that all dancers are beautiful, I love all art generally speaking. :)

Alas, I just like to answer questions, model, listen to music, and do nails when I can. 😇

I model stuffs from my wishlist, if you'd like to see me in something that isn't on there, send me a link 🔗 and I'll see if I'll add it ^.^

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2FQAAF3UKG4P?ref_=wl_share

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/DWAK35SZQ3HK?ref_=wl_share

[domquixotedospobresblog]

Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt (1927-2008), and Lee Meriwether, the actresses who portrayed DC’s Catwoman in the late 1960s ‘Batman’ live action franchise (1966-1968), attending the 2004 TV Land Awards.🐈‍⬛📺 #Caturday #Catwoman #Batman66 #Batman #DC

[lasudio]

VeronaHills, Round Twelve: Land (B)

Eartha having Loren over for a playdate after school was organised in advance... Mary still needed a moment to collect herself, though.

Mum and dad just couldn't stop and smell the grandchildren, could they? At the eleventh hour, they'd adopted a boy who was only a little older than Eartha. It would be all very well if, well, they were both well. Dad had cut down his hours at the station citing a desire to be there for his new son but Mary knew the truth from worried sibling phone calls: he was in bed more often than not with a cough that came far too often.

None of this was Loren's fault, though. Mary set aside her thoughts and encouraged the children to head inside, out of the drizzle.

"I like it," Loren said. "I'm a faerie!" he added, proudly.

"I know, I've read about faeries having fun in the rain, but I'm not sending you back to mum and dad with a cold. Go on in, help yourself to some juice."

"Hi Miranda!" Eartha was greeting Mary's new friend, who they'd met when Eartha accidentally bumped into Miranda at the market in an over-excitable moment rushing to pick the best banana bunch. Mary didn't know how her daughter managed to miss the platinum bob and haute couture; she was glad in the end, however, as Miranda laughed it off and they got talking.

Miranda had grown up as the eldest in a big family too, so as much as she looked the part of a sole subject on a frosty magazine cover, she knew the pain of accidentally stepping on strewn Lego pieces. The homely cottage didn't put her off and the group finally took shelter as the drizzle turned into rain.

Mary put the kettle on and shared a goal with Miranda: to adopt a dog. They spoke quietly in the kitchen out of Eartha's earshot, to ensure excitement wasn't ushered in prematurely. Miranda pulled out her phone and searched with Mary's key needs in mind: a small dog, good with children, easygoing temperament, not destructive.

Cyan was perfect. Miranda babysat while Mary went to pick him up. Eartha was rendered speechless when she met him and he calmly accepted her hand softly placed on his snow white coat.

Good things were happening! Mary just wished she could shake the feeling of being needed in two places at once.

[jesterlesbian]

i made a playlist of all the needle drops (in order) in fellow travelers!

list of all songs under the cut

If It's Magic - Stevie Wonder

Pretend - Nat King Cole

Rags to Riches - Tony Bennett

You Turned the Tables On Me - Anita O'Day

'Tain't Nobody's Business - Billie Holiday

Land of Love - Nat King Cole, as performed by Chelsea Russell as Stormé DeLarverie

I Couldn't Say It To Your Face - Arthur Russell

Take the "A" Train - Duke Ellington

The Train Kept-a-Rollin' - Tiny Bradshaw

Kiss of Fire - Georgia Gibbs

Four - Miles Davis

Walk The Night - Skatt Bros

Blue And Grey Shirt - American Music Club

Mad About the Boy - song by Noël Coward, as performed by Chelsea Russell as Stormé DeLarverie

Lover, Come Back To Me! - Nat King Cole

Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes - Perry Como

Please Love Me - B.B. King

Ain't This A Wonderful Day? - Anita O'Day

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - Doris Day

The Great Pretender - Freddie Mercury

Dig That Crazy Santa Claus - Oscar McLollie

Good Morning Blues - Count Basie

Heartache - Violent Femmes

Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt

The Christmas Blues - Dean Martin

Silent Night - Klaus Nomi

Speak Low - Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass

Leap Frog - Charlie Parker

Out - Steven Grossman

Pictures of Matchstick Men - Status Quo

The Letter - The Box Tops

I Thank You - Sam & Dave

Loving Grows Up Slow - Sylvester

Boys Keep Swinging - David Bowie

Relight My Fire - Dan Hartman

You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) - Sylvester

Found a Cure (12" Disco Mix) - Ashford & Simpson

MacArthur Park - Donna Summer

Maggot Brain - Funkadelic

They Are Falling All Around Me - Michael Callen

I Look At You - Johnny Mathis

I Can Dream About You - Dan Hartman

Love Is Overtaking Me - Arthur Russell

[eatmangoesnekkid]

Writing and curating “The Melody of Love” series has cracked me open again and again, so much light has entered. I never anticipated how the medicine of this book series would need to ‘work’ first on me in deep ways that I can no longer hide from myself. It has been this ongoing life-death-rebirth journey of renewing my commitment, doing what is excruciatingly hard over settling for what is easy and comfortable, stepping blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back into the archetypal unknown, not allowing my ego to lead over my heart, and letting go of the things I “think” I know in order to stimulate creative ways to feel safe inside the mystery. I have to bend, spread, and go all the way in it, submit to every whisper, and let life carry me. I keep crying and sweating (in other words, detoxing) every day —this is good news. This, too, are birthing pains. 🥹

Thankful to my ancestors, especially my Igbo-Hausa Mum, Miriam who preferred people to call her “Mary,” my council of Beloveds like Minnie, Donna, Eartha, and Marilyn, my herbal/plant allies like the gardenia, peony, rosemary, dandelion, lavender, and marijuana (yes a non-smoker can love marijuana, such a gorgeous, fragrant, and nourishing plant, a plant I spent 3 dedicated years bonding with, singing to, speaking life into and growing, and harvesting💃🏿), my fae spirits, my land companions, all stray and roaming dogs and cats, my winged loved ones, bees, hawks, and all blue-colored birds, my water spirits and mermaid kin, and my woodsy rootsy totems, deer, bumble bees, bunny rabbit, and rat (yes rat, ugh but it’s true). Grateful to my lover-warrior, sex/creative Goddess lineage. Grateful to the sky and tree tops. Grateful for the fire that lights my heart, hips, and spine. Grateful to the sun, moon, and night time stars I merge with in the mountains every night. Grateful to The Charming Lover for adoring me and allowing me to adore her in this life. —India Ame’ye

[pxgeturner]

blue christmas — austin!elvis x fem!reader

you attend a christmas party w your best friend. you encounter your ex, and hear his new song. you two talk about the shitty way things ended.

an. hey y’all. i’m in the thick of exams but i’ve had this finished for a while n didn’t know if i should post it. but yk i like it so this is ur update. i’ll have another thingy coming up soon too.

warnings. this is an angst piece. now it’s not sobbing at three am type beat but this did make me feel actual pain in my heart and in my palms while i was writing this. but then again i was kinda super in my feelings. that being said this has a happy ending. but this isn’t really a romance piece.

wc. 1039

you adjust your santa hat, and smooth your velvet skirt as the elevator ascends. when the elevator arrives at your floor, you throw your matching sack over your shoulder.

the door opens, “ho, ho, hi everyone!” people cheer at your arrival

your best friend pulls you aside, “hello, ms. sexy santa!”

you wiggle your shoulders at the complement and give bea a cheeky smile, “thanks,”

“i can’t believe you though, we agreed not to do the costumes!”

you shake your head and wag your finger at her, “nuh-uh, you just decided not to be my little helper. i never said anything like that.” you tell her you’re going to go make rounds. but she grabs your arm.

“wait! have you heard it?”

“heard what?”

“elvis released a new song.”

oh.

“ok,”

“it’s gonna suck when you hear it,”

“i’ll survive.” it’s highly unlikely rock ‘n’ roll is going to play at a christmas party. you figure you have at least a day or two if you hole yourself in your apartment.

she links arms with you, and you two go find some people you know. you let yourself drown in the music, in the glamor of it all. you’re out on the dance floor, bobbing happily to eartha kitt, when part of you decides that you should spin, so you do. you spin and spin and spin. and it supplies you enough serotonin to last you for a few days. you wipe out, landing in a pile of “presents”. you see a red and white mass that your tipsy mind faintly recognizes as:

“santa!” you ungracefully put yourself (mostly) upright, and are about to march over to the mythical philanthropist, but you realize that is not, indeed, actually santa claus.

it’s elvis aaron presley.

you can’t let him see you. so, naturally, you run away from santa.

bea finds you in a bathroom, on the floor. “you saw him,”

“how could i not,” you sniffed, “he’s a giant and we’re wearing matching outfits.”

she nodded in sympathy, “you are,”

you sigh.

“maybe this is like, fate or something,”

“fate for what?”

“for you two to be together again. you two are perfect for each other.” bea takes a spot next to you and rubs your back.

you rest your head on her shoulder, “maybe on paper, in practice, things didn’t go so well.”

she wrapped her arms around you, rubbing your shoulder. “maybe things changed on his end.”

you start getting up, and shake your head. “he’s even bigger now.” your hand reaches for the doorknob, “c’mon we can’t hide in here forever.”

bea and you go back to rockin’ ’round the christmas tree. narrowly, you manage to avoid santa from noticing you. as it starts to get late and the energy starts to wind down, santa joins the band on the makeshift stage.

“hello, everybody.” he takes a spot on the stool in front of the mic. “i’d like to take this moment to play you a little something i wrote, called blue christmas.”

he starts, his voice melting your heart like butter on toast. as much as you wish you weren’t captivated by him, you were. him being up there with his pretty face, only feet away, makes that deep-set pain he’s left in your heart ache a little more.

“and when those blue snowflakes start falling

that's when those blue memories start calling

you'll be doing all right

with your christmas of white

but i'll have a blue, blue, blue, blue christmas”

that little fantasy you built in your head cracked. he thinks you left just because you wanted to. he is the one that feels abandoned, not you. he rewrote the story to the entire world without knowing. you escape out onto the terrance. feeling the sting of the cold winter air on your cheeks, you laugh a short, bitter laugh into the wind. you sip on your rosé a bit more, hearing heavy footsteps behind you.

“i thought i saw you mrs. claus.”

“that’s lady santa to you.” he laughs.

“my apologies, ma’am.”

“it’s alright, ‘i’m doing alright’, naturally.” elvis was quiet.

“you’re blue though,”

“you left,”

“you were always gone.”

“i was working. work is important.”

“work is important. that’s true, i’m not important.”

“i-i never said that, mama.” he uses his old nickname for you. you miss being his ‘little mama’.

“you didn’t have to, work must've been way more important than me if i felt lucky to see you one night a week.”

“is that why you left?”

your brow scrunched up and you turned to him, “you couldn’t, in your wildest imagination guess why i left. you actually thought i just impulsively left one night.” he rubs the back of your neck and you shoot the last of your wine. “when did you notice i was gone?”

“aug-august 16”

“i left on the last day of july, el.” he runs a hand through his hair, turning around a few times.

“gosh, mama, i– can’t say anything. i should have been a better man to ya.”

“i know you wanted to be, but you couldn’t.”

“yes, yes i could. i could've cancelled some shows, or at least actually come home instead of sleeping at the studio or going out with the guys.”

“okay,”

he freezes, and stares at you, “how was how i treated you okay?”

“what’s done is done, there is nothing either of us can do to undo anything. there’s nothing i can say.”

“let me make it right, mama.” he steps closer, curling a strand of your hair on his finger,

“elvis when I say ‘what's done is done’, that includes us.” you gently separate his hand from your hair and he blinks at you with his puppy dog eyes. part of you doesn’t want to say goodbye. but instead you put a palm to his chest, bridging the gap between you two and kiss his cheek. “i’ll always love you, my rockstar.”

you tuck a rogue strand behind his ear, taking your glass and your leave. you go and find bea, and link arms.

“you talked to him?” you nod and hum, “how’d it go?”

“he’ll be onto bigger and better things, and hopefully, so will i.”

[the-badger-mole]

The Godmother of Grunge

If any time in the history of the US something really, truly innovative and cool took off, you will never go broke if you bet on a black person having had a hand (elbow, shoulder and foot) in it.

This is Tina Bell

(I know. Take a moment, drink in the awesome)

Tina Marie Bell was born in Seattle, WA in 1957. Like most black singers, she got her start as part of her church choir, where she honed her talent and her love of music. As she got older, her love of performing found her participating in her school's theater club, cheerleading, and eventually majoring in Drama at Washington State University.

After graduating college, Tina landed a spot with the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, in the late 1970s. As she was preparing for a performance of her rendition of C'est Si Bon (a song which was performed by another black queen, Eartha Kitt). In order to make sure her French was strong enough for the song, she worked with a tutor named Tommy Martin- the man who would later become her bandmate and her husband.

In 1983, the pair would go on to form Bam Bam, with bassist, Scott Ledgerwood and drummer, Matt Cameron (who later went on to perform with Soundgarden and Pearl Jam). Bell was, of course, the lead singer, and her dynamic voice and unparalleled stage presence soon made her a staple in the Seattle music scene in the early 80s. Her ability to mix the smooth sultry sounds of her gospel and R&B background and the jarring sounds of punk garnered Bell and her band a lot of fans, including their roadie, Kurt Cobain. In 1984, one year before the band Green River would be credited with introducing a "new sound" to the Seattle music scene, Bam Bam recorded and released their first and, unfortunately only EP Villains (also wear white). Four years after that, Nirvana would release their debut album Bleach and the new musical genre, grunge, would be introduced to the rest of the world.

Why don't more people know about Tina Bell? C'mon...you know why more people don't know about Tina Bell. As a black woman moving in the largely white space of punk rock, Tina faced racism even as she became a star in the underground punk scene. At one particularly memorable show, bassist Ledgerwood recalls how a couple of skin heads came to harass Tina, shouting racial slurs and other verbal abuse at her. Tina stopped her set, whipped her microphone around and knocked both of them in the head (I WISH I COULD FIND A RECORDING OF THAT!!!!! I WOULD KILL!!!!!) before composing herself and delivering a fiery performance that I'm sure the people lucky enough to be in the audience that night still dream about.

The racism was latent as well as blatant. The industry didn't know what to do with a black woman who wasn't hip hop, r&b or pop. She drew comparisons to acts like Tina Turner (because they're both named Tina? 🤔) The inability of the public at large to accept the wild, otherworldly concept of a black woman singing rock music (even though black women also pioneered rock music) kept the band's star from rising much beyond the Seattle, in spite of their local popularity. Tina Bell quit the band in 1990, just as grunge, the musical genre she helped birth, was taking off. She moved from Seattle to Las Vegas, where in a turn that is all too common among talented artists, she fell into a cycle of alcoholism and depression. She died on October 10, 2012 at the tragically young age of 55, alone and literally written out of the history of the genre she had such a heavy hand in shaping.

Fortunately, that's not where her story ends. Through the efforts of fellow Seattle musician, Om Johari, Tina's son TJ Martin (who himself is an Academy Award winning filmmaker), and ex-bandmate, Scott Ledgerwood, Tina Bell is being restored to her rightful place as in history as the Godmother of Grunge.

Hear her music here, here, and here (my favorite)

[thechanelmuse]

My Book Review

I finished this book a week ago. I’m still struggling to put my thoughts into words because this book jam packs a load of history in 430 pages. Where does one start? 

Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams travels back in time to the founding of what would be Los Angeles in 1781 by a group of eleven families—forty four Black Spaniards— before building upon the land and establishing what would be the home of the film industry. This book spans six decades within the history of Black actors in Hollywood beginning with Madame Sul-Te-Wan, the first. It even includes those surrounding the Hollywood scene like dancer Carmen de Lavallade and Paul Williams, the foremost trailblazing Black architect who created the blueprint for the eye-catching structures and homes of the stars still standing firm today. 

Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams is a lot to take in from the bad to the good. It’s partly because the wealth of info would be more digestible had it been fleshed out further without creating a sweeping effect (like snippets) through moments in time to build the larger framework. After all, we’re talking sixty years. 

I’m a cinephile so I would’ve enjoyed more focus into the actual creation of a number of films, particularly the all-Black productions in those days. As for the gossip scene and the 👀 happenings in their world, here’s a snippet: Duke Ellington had an affair with Freida Washington, whom she felt was the love of her life. Duke wouldn't leave his wife so Freida did work in Paris to keep busy and get over him. When she returned, she ended up marrying a member of Duke’s band 🙃. Also, Lena Horne had an on and off-again affair with heavyweight boxer, Joe Louis. Might be hella messy and pearl-clutching in our world, but you gotta remember Hollywood is its own world. Small. They operate differently and nothing is swept under the rug in their society. Though discreet, everyone knew everyone’s biz.

I can’t even imagine the amount of research that went into making this book. It’s def worth the read. Just know that it may feel a little dense because it’s so many actors, gigs ands so forth spanning decades.

PHOTOSET: Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Ernest “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison, Ethel Waters with Freida Washington, Daniel L. Haynes with Nina Mae McKinney, Mildred Washington, The Nicolas Brothers, Eartha Kitt with Sammy Davis Jr, Joe Louis with Lena Horne, and the Dandridge sisters: Dorothy and Vivian.

SN: Off-topic. The author’s surname, Bogle, caught my attention when I first got this book, which had to be about about 10 years ago now. (Yes, this book has been sitting on my shelf for that long...among the other 600+.) The only Black Americans I’m familiar with with that surname are from Philly dating back to chef Robert Bogle, the creator of catering: 

Whad'ya know? The author too is from Philly. I’m curious if they’re related. That’s a book in and of itself.

[jedivoodoochile]

Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt (1927-2008), and Lee Meriwether, the actresses who portrayed DC’s Catwoman in the late 1960s ‘Batman’ live action franchise (1966-1968), attending the 2004 TV Land Awards.