#era:&audition

[slackville-records]

As the man who popularized the guitar in a jazz setting, his legacy lives on.

Charlie Christian was born on July 29, 1916 in Bonham, Texas but was raised in Oklahoma City from the time he was two years old. Charlie's immediate family were all musically talented - his mother played the piano; his father sang and played the trumpet and guitar; his brother, Clarence, played the violin and the mandolin; and his oldest brother, Edward, played the string bass. His parents made a living writing accompaniments for silent movies. At the age of twelve, Charlie was playing on a guitar that he had made from a cigar box in a manual training class. Charlie was actually first trained on the trumpet which was a huge contribution to his fluid single-note guitar style. Then, his father and brothers formed a quartet and Charlie got a real guitar. They performed in Oklahoma City clubs and Charlie even met Lester Young (tenor saxophonist) during one of his performances. Charlie was fascinated by Lester's style which helped in shaping his own stylistic development.

At the age of twenty-one he was playing electric guitar and leading a jump band. At the age of 23 (1939), Charlie was discovered by a talent scout, John Hammond, who had stopped in Oklahoma city to attend Benny Goodman's first Columbia recording sessions. Pianist Mary Lou Williams had actually recommended Charlie to John Hammond. Goodman was not very excited, this was due to the fact that Charlie was an unknown musician playing an electric instrument. The amplified electric guitar was fairly new at the time (trombonist and arranger Eddie Durham began playing it as a solo instrument in Jimmie Lunceford's band in 1935). It was essentially an amplified "f-hole," and it helped in making the jazz guitar solo a practical reality for the first time.

Previously relegated to a chordal rhythm style by the limitations of the acoustic instrument, jazz guitarists could now revel in the volume, sustain, and tonal flexibility provided by amplification. Charlie quickly realized the potential of the electric guitar, and developed a style which made the most of the unique properties of the instrument. When Charlie arrived in Los Angeles, he was only allowed a brief audition and he was not even allowed the time to plug in his amp. Goodman was not impressed so Hammond decided to sneak Charlie onstage later that night during a concert at the Victor Hugo. This made Goodman angry and he responded by launching into "Rose Room," which he assumed Charlie would be unfamiliar with. Charlie performed an impressive extended solo on the piece. This impressed Goodman and Charlie was let into the band.

Charlie was a hit on the electric guitar and remained in the Benny Goodman Sextet for two years (1939-1941). He wrote many of the group's head arrangements (some of which Goodman took credit for) and was an inspiration to all. The sextet made him famous and provided him with a steady income while Charlie worked on legitimizing, popularizing, revolutionizing, and standardizing the electric guitar as a jazz instrument.

After working at nights with Goodman, Charlie would seek out jam sessions. He discovered a club in Harlem, Minton's, located on New York's West 118th Street. At Minton's Charlie played with such greats as Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Joe Guy (trumpet), Nick Fenton (bass), Kenny Kersey (piano), and Kenny Clarke (drums). Charlie impressed them all by improvising long lines that emphasized off beats, and by using altered chords. He even bought a second amp to leave at Minton’s. Jamming sessions would usually last until about 4 A.M. and Minton’s became the cradle of the bebop movement. Charlie's inventive single-note playing helped popularize the electric guitar as a solo instrument and helped usher in the era of bop.

In the summer of 1941, Christian was touring the Midwest when he began showing the first signs of tuberculosis. He left the tour and was admitted to the Seaview Sanatorium on Staten Island. While he was there, he died on March 2, 1942 at the age of twenty-five.

Charlie Christian’s most familiar recordings are those with Benny Goodman which were available on vinyl for years ("Solo Flight") and which are now available on cd as "Charlie Christian: Genius of the Electric Guitar." There are recorded sessions from when he played with members of the Goodman and Count Basie bands, Lester Young, and numerous artists at Minton's. Charlie Christian had an immense influence on the development of BeBop and the transition from Swing to BeBop.

Source: All About Jazz

[dylanaavanewsupdate]

I fratelli professionisti del riciclaggio «Ecco perché bisognava arrestarli»

Nelle carte del gip del tribunale di Milano le motivazioni del provvedimento - «Sapevano di essere sottoposti a un’inchiesta ma non hanno mai fermato le loro attività»

Como

Neppure dopo essere venuti a conoscenza dell’indagine che li coinvolgeva Oscar e Luca Ronzoni - in carcere dall’altroieri con l’accusa di riciclaggio - rinunciarono mai a svolgere la loro attività tra Milano, Como e Lugano, nelle sedi della società Luga srl e in quella della quasi omonima fiduciaria ticinese Luga Audit & Consulting.

Lo scrive il giudice dell’indagine preliminare del tribunale di Milano Domenico Santoro in calce all’ordinanza con cui - su richiesta del pm Paolo Storari - il tribunale dispone la custodia cautelare in carcere per i due fratelli comaschi, 63 e 53 anni, notissimo fiscalista il primo - Oscar, di fatto domiciliato a Lugano -, altrettanto noto consulente legale il secondo, Luca, residente in città, già vicepresidente del comitato di vigilanza di Infrastrutture Lombarde nonché reduce da un patteggiamento a un anno per frode fiscale giusto un anno fa di questi tempi.

Il giudizio del gip - che rimane un giudizio provvisorio, e che dovrà resistere al vaglio di altri giudici, ferma restando sempre la presunzione di innocenza - è un giudizio piuttosto “tranchant”. Scrive il giudice, in merito alla sussistenza delle esigenze cautelari, che l’attività di riciclaggio i fratelli Ronzoni la esercitano da quasi un decennio «in maniera che non si ha tema di definire professionale», e che in questo loro esercizio è altrettanto innegabile la profusione di una certa pervicacia, tale da impedir loro di rallentare, se non di fermarsi, neppure quando nei mesi scorsi era apparso chiaro a entrambi che la Procura stava indagando sul loro operato. Il gip fa riferimento a una «chiarissima consapevolezza dell’esistenza di indagini a loro carico». In altre parole: Oscar e Luca Ronzoni sapevano quel che rischiavano ma non rinunciarono comunque alla loro attività, mai. Ed è questo, il cosiddetto “pericolo di reiterazione del reato”, uno dei presupposti - in questo caso unito anche al rischio di compromissione di eventuali, ulteriori prove oltre a quelle fin qui raccolte - che motivano l’esigenza di recluderli.

Peraltro l’indagine è di quelle che rischiano di non esaurirsi in tempi tanto brevi.

Secondo la procura, i Ronzoni potevano (e possono?) avvalersi di una struttura di riciclaggio di denaro su scala internazionale costruita su una moltitudine di società estere e di istituti di credito attivi tra Canada, Gran Bretagna, Austria, Irlanda, Repubblica Ceca, Usa, Svizzera, Bulgaria, Cipro, Mauritius, Bahams e via elencando: servivano tutti, nella ricostruzione che ne fa il pubblico ministero milanese, a emettere fatture per operazioni inesistenti e a incassare milioni di euro che, dopo essere stati a spasso per il mondo, ripartivano alla volta delle loro destinazioni fiscali, ripuliti e a distanza di sicurezza dall’Agenzia delle entrate in qualche paradiso fiscale, a disposizione dei clienti evasori.

[bordelos]

The Ultimate Guide to Website Optimization: Boost Your Online Performance.

In today's digital landscape, website optimization is no longer an option but a necessity for businesses aiming to thrive online. A well-optimized website not only enhances user experience but also plays a crucial role in improving search engine rankings, driving organic traffic, and ultimately increasing conversions.

Business owners looking to dominate search results will find invaluable insights in this article, which outlines effective methods to improve search engine visibility and web traffic. Through targeted keywords, quality content, and robust analytics, these strategies ensure that your website not only attracts but also retains a growing audience.

Speed Optimization: The Foundation of a Successful Website Website speed is a critical factor that can make or break your online presence. Slow-loading websites not only frustrate users but also negatively impact search engine rankings.

To optimize your website's speed, start by conducting a thorough audit using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and WebPageTest.

These tools will identify areas for improvement, such as minimizing HTTP requests, optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, and minifying CSS and JavaScript files.

Additionally, consider implementing a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to distribute your website's content from servers closest to your visitors, reducing latency and improving load times.

Regularly monitoring and addressing performance bottlenecks is crucial to maintaining a fast and responsive website.

Mobile-First Approach: Catering to the Mobile-Dominant Era With the majority of internet traffic now originating from mobile devices, optimizing your website for mobile users is no longer an option but a necessity.

Implement responsive web design to ensure your website adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes and resolutions. Prioritize mobile-friendly design elements, such as easy-to-tap buttons, legible font sizes, and streamlined navigation.

Additionally, leverage Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to identify and address any mobile usability issues. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are also worth considering, as they offer lightning-fast load times and app-like experiences for mobile users.

SEO Optimization: Enhancing Visibility and Organic Traffic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial aspect of website optimization, as it directly impacts your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Start by conducting thorough keyword research to identify relevant and high-traffic keywords that align with your business goals. Incorporate these keywords strategically throughout your website's content, meta tags, and URLs.

Optimize your website's structure and navigation to ensure search engines can easily crawl and index your pages. Implement an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines to facilitate efficient indexing.

Additionally, focus on building high-quality backlinks from reputable sources, as they serve as a strong signal of your website's authority and credibility.

User Experience (UX) Optimization: Creating a Seamless Journey A well-optimized website should not only load quickly but also provide an exceptional user experience. Conduct user testing and gather feedback to identify areas for improvement, such as navigation, layout, and content organization. Implement clear calls-to-action (CTAs) and ensure your website's design is visually appealing and consistent across all pages.

Optimize your website's content for readability and accessibility, ensuring it caters to users with varying abilities and preferences. Implement intuitive search functionality and provide multiple pathways for users to find the information they seek.

Regularly analyze user behavior data to identify pain points and make data-driven decisions to enhance the overall user experience.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Maximizing Conversions Ultimately, the goal of website optimization is to drive conversions, whether it's generating leads, making sales, or encouraging user engagement. Implement Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) strategies to identify and eliminate friction points in your conversion funnel.

Conduct A/B testing to experiment with different design elements, copy, and CTAs to determine what resonates best with your audience. Leverage heat maps and session recordings to gain insights into user behavior and identify areas for improvement. Continuously monitor and analyze conversion data to make informed decisions and optimize your website for maximum conversions.

Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation Website optimization is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and adaptation. Regularly audit your website's performance using tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and other third-party analytics platforms. Analyze user behavior data, track key performance indicators (KPIs), and identify areas for improvement.

Stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends, best practices, and algorithm updates from search engines. Continuously refine and optimize your website based on these insights to ensure it remains competitive and delivers an exceptional user experience.

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, website optimization is a critical component of online success. By implementing the strategies outlined in this guide, you can create a fast, mobile-friendly, search engine-optimized, and user-centric website that not only enhances user experience but also drives organic traffic, boosts conversions, and ultimately, propels your business to new heights of online performance.

Remember, website optimization is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring, adaptation, and a commitment to delivering the best possible experience for your users. Embrace this mindset, and you'll be well on your way to achieving online dominance in your industry.

[punkaj11]

"Mastering the Foundations: A Comprehensive Guide to Technical SEO"

Introduction: Unlocking the Power of Technical SEO

In the fast-evolving landscape of online visibility, Technical SEO stands as the bedrock for a website's success in search engine rankings. This comprehensive guide will delve into the intricacies of Technical SEO, empowering you to optimize your website's structure, performance, and indexing capabilities.

Chapter 1: The Pillars of Technical SEO

Understanding Core Concepts

Website Architecture: Building a solid foundation with an SEO-friendly site structure.

Crawlability and Indexing: Ensuring search engines can access and index your content efficiently.

Canonicalization: Resolving duplicate content issues and consolidating SEO authority.

Chapter 2: Site Speed Optimization

The Need for Speed

Page Load Time: How speed impacts user experience and search rankings.

Mobile Optimization: Adapting for the mobile-first indexing era.

Technical Tactics: Minification, caching, and content delivery networks.

Chapter 3: Mobile-First Indexing

Optimizing for the Mobile Revolution

Responsive Design: Ensuring a seamless experience across devices.

Mobile-Friendly Content: Structured data and usability considerations.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP): Enhancing speed and visibility on mobile devices.

Chapter 4: Schema Markup and Structured Data

Enhancing Search Results with Rich Snippets

Introduction to Schema Markup: Providing context to search engines.

Common Schema Types: Markup for articles, products, events, and more.

Implementation Tips: Tools and best practices for incorporating structured data.

Chapter 5: Technical SEO for E-commerce Websites

Navigating the E-commerce Landscape

Product Page Optimization: SEO tactics for individual product listings.

Site Structure: Categories, tags, and internal linking strategies.

Dealing with Duplicate Content: Canonicalization and parameter handling.

Chapter 6: XML Sitemaps and Robots.txt

Guiding Search Engine Crawlers

Creating an XML Sitemap: Ensuring comprehensive indexing.

Robots.txt Best Practices: Directing search engine bots and controlling access.

Sitemap Submission: Utilizing Google Search Console for effective communication.

Chapter 7: HTTPS and Security Considerations

Building Trust and Protecting Your Users

HTTPS as a Ranking Signal: The importance of a secure connection.

SSL Certificates: Implementation and maintenance.

Security Best Practices: Guarding against vulnerabilities and threats.

Chapter 8: Monitoring and Reporting

Staying Ahead of the Curve

Google Search Console: Leveraging insights for technical improvements.

SEO Audits: Regularly assessing and addressing technical issues.

Key Metrics: Interpreting data to measure the impact of technical SEO efforts.

Conclusion: Elevate Your Website with Technical SEO Mastery

In the dynamic world of online search, mastering Technical SEO is indispensable for achieving and maintaining a prominent online presence. You can check digital marketing coaching institute in Dehradun By implementing the insights and strategies outlined in this guide, you'll be well-equipped to navigate the technical intricacies and propel your website to new heights in search engine rankings.

[andauditionboys-archive]

Gaku

&AUDITION

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 25, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Lots of legal news today.

In Minnesota, Judge Peter Cahill sentenced former police officer Derek Chauvin to 22.5  years in prison for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May 2020. Last April, a jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. Floyd’s death sparked protests across the country last summer.

Elie Mystal, justice correspondent at The Nation, noted that Chavin was going to get at least ten years. Prosecutors asked for 30. The Judge split the difference and added in time for the aggravating factors. Legal analyst and law school professor Joyce Alene White Vance noted that keeping the sentencing in the same realm as other sentences for felony murder make it less likely to be overturned on appeal.

This morning, Georgia Superior Court Judge Brian Amero dismissed seven of the nine claims in a lawsuit alleging there were 147,000 fraudulent ballots cast in Fulton County in the 2020 election. He did not dismiss two of them, which were argued under a different claim. The Fulton County elections board says it intends to file to get those claims dismissed as well. There have already been three audits of the ballots, including a hand recount. Those audits found no evidence of widespread fraud.

Georgia is in the news for another legal case today, as well. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Department of Justice is suing the state of Georgia over its sweeping new election bill that restricts access to the vote. In a press conference, Garland said that the new law was not discriminatory against Black voters by accident; it was intended to be discriminatory.

“Our complaint alleges that recent changes to Georgia’s election laws were enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” he said.

In a statement, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said: ““The Biden Administration continues to do the bidding of Stacey Abrams and spreads more lies about Georgia’s election law…. I look forward to meeting them, and beating them, in court.” Georgia governor Brian Kemp, whose victory over Stacey Abrams in the 2018 election has been widely associated with voter suppression, accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing the Department of Justice to serve their own partisan goals.” He said at a news conference: “the DOJ lawsuit announced today is legally and constitutionally dead wrong. Their false and baseless allegations are, quite honestly, disgusting."

The DOJ also set up a task force to deal with the rise in threats against election workers since the 2020 election. Threats and intimidation have led election officials in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia, to quit or retire early. Pennsylvania, alone, has lost about a third of its county election officials.

States passing voter restriction laws have also put in place punishments for county officials who expand voter access. A law in Florida imposes a $25,000 fine for leaving a ballot drop box accessible outside of established hours; another in Iowa imposes a $10,000 fine for a “technical infraction,” such as opening a few minutes late. Opponents think these laws could be enforced on a partisan basis. “It’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of variables and people make mistakes, and now I’m liable for all those mistakes,” Iowa’s Linn County auditor Joel Miller told the Associated Press. “The process could be likewise corrupted by the secretary of state arbitrarily administering the law in a very uneven manner, depending on whether you’re a Democratic county or a Republican county.”

The memo announcing the new task force quoted Attorney Merrick Garland’s statement on June 11 when he announced steps the DOJ would take over the next 30 days to protect the right to vote: “There are many things that are open to debate in America. But the right of all eligible citizens to vote is not one of them. The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, the right from which all other rights ultimately flow.”

It went on to say: “A threat to any election official, worker, or volunteer is, at bottom, a threat to democracy. We will promptly and vigorously prosecute offenders to protect the rights of American voters, to punish those who engage in this criminal behavior, and to send the unmistakable message that such conduct will not be tolerated.”

This is fitting, of course, because Congress established the Department of Justice in 1870, under President U.S. Grant’s administration, to keep members of the Ku Klux Klan from continuing to terrorize Black and white Republican voters in the South after the Civil War. Garland has often referred to that history and declared his intention to honor it.

Laws from that era are in the news in another way today, too. The bus driver and staffers who were on the Biden-Harris campaign bus that a caravan of about 100 trucks full of Trump supporters tried to drive off the highway last October are suing several people from the caravan under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act. That law, passed at the height of KKK terrorism in the Reconstruction South, made election intimidation a crime. The group is also suing local law enforcement for refusing to come to their aid despite their frantic phone calls to 911.

The Biden-Harris campaign cancelled its events for the day out of safety concerns. Participants in the “train” announced their intentions on social media, filmed their actions, and then bragged about them after the fact, prompting Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Donald Trump Jr., and Trump himself to cheer them on.

Finally, news broke today that yesterday, prosecutors for the Manhattan district attorney told lawyers for the Trump Organization that they could bring criminal charges against the company as soon as next week over tax issues. The former president has dismissed the investigation as “a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history.”

—-

Notes:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/politics/doj-memo-election-workers-threats/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/24/georgia-judge-dismisses-most-lawsuit-that-alleged-fraudulent-absentee-ballots-fulton-county/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-organization-expects-charged-manhattan-da-week-sources/story

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/politics/justice-department-election-officials/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/nyregion/trump-organization-criminal-charges.html

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/11/03/florida-senator-marco-rubio-supports-pro-trump-caravan-swarmed-biden-bus-texas/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/06/25/biden-campaign-bus-lawsuit-trump-train/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/02/trump-caravan-biden-bus/

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-laws-elections-voting-health-4cb9244c381f1031c9ce20610c79a931

https://apnews.com/article/election-officials-retire-trump-2020-threats-misinformation-3b810d8b3b3adee2ca409689788b863f

Joyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVance@ElieNYC You have to compare this sentence to other sentences for this same crime (felony murder) committed under this state's laws — at least if you want it to be affirmed on appeal. Using that analysis, this sentence is, as you say ... about right140 Retweets1,836 Likes

June 25th 2021

https://mncourts.gov/mncourtsgov/media/High-Profile-Cases/27-CR-20-12646/MCRO_27-CR-20-12646_Sentencing-Order_2021-06-25_20210625145755.pdf

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/25/biden-administration-to-sue-georgia-over-its-gop-enacted-voter-restrictions-496280

https://www.wjcl.com/amp/article/georgia-gov-brian-kemp-responds-to-us-department-of-justice-lawsuit/36843954

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[transparenttriumphzombie]

Harry Styles On Vogue

Source:

 https://www.vogue.com/article/harry-styles-cover-december-2020/amp?__twitter_impression=true

From Vogue MAGAZINE

Playtime With Harry Styles

THE MEN’S BATHING POND in London’s Hampstead Heath at daybreak on a gloomy September morning seemed such an unlikely locale for my first meeting with Harry Styles, music’s legendarily charm-heavy style czar, that I wondered perhaps if something had been lost in translation.

But then there is Styles, cheerily gung ho, hidden behind a festive yellow bandana mask and a sweatshirt of his own design, surprisingly printed with three portraits of his intellectual pinup, the author Alain de Botton. “I love his writing,” says Styles. “I just think he’s brilliant. I saw him give a talk about the keys to happiness, and how one of the keys is living among friends, and how real friendship stems from being vulnerable with someone.”

In turn, de Botton’s 2016 novel The Course of Love taught Styles that “when it comes to relationships, you just expect yourself to be good at it…[but] being in a real relationship with someone is a skill,” one that Styles himself has often had to hone in the unforgiving klieg light of public attention, and in the company of such high-profile paramours as Taylor Swift and—well, Styles is too much of a gentleman to name names.

That sweatshirt and the Columbia Records tracksuit bottoms are removed in the quaint wooden open-air changing room, with its Swallows and Amazons vibe. A handful of intrepid fellow patrons in various states of undress are blissfully unaware of the 26-year-old supernova in their midst, although I must admit I’m finding it rather difficult to take my eyes off him, try as I might. Styles has been on a six-day juice cleanse in readiness for Vogue’s photographer Tyler Mitchell. He practices Pilates (“I’ve got very tight hamstrings—trying to get those open”) and meditates twice a day. “It has changed my life,” he avers, “but it’s so subtle. It’s helped me just be more present. I feel like I’m able to enjoy the things that are happening right in front of me, even if it’s food or it’s coffee or it’s being with a friend—or a swim in a really cold pond!” Styles also feels that his meditation practices have helped him through the tumult of 2020: “Meditation just brings a stillness that has been really beneficial, I think, for my mental health.”

Styles has been a pescatarian for three years, inspired by the vegan food that several members of his current band prepared on tour. “My body definitely feels better for it,” he says. His shapely torso is prettily inscribed with the tattoos of a Victorian sailor—a rose, a galleon, a mermaid, an anchor, and a palm tree among them, and, straddling his clavicle, the dates 1967 and 1957 (the respective birth years of his mother and father). Frankly, I rather wish I’d packed a beach muumuu.

We take the piratical gangplank that juts into the water and dive in. Let me tell you, this is not the Aegean. The glacial water is a cloudy phlegm green beneath the surface, and clammy reeds slap one’s ankles. Styles, who admits he will try any fad, has recently had a couple of cryotherapy sessions and is evidently less susceptible to the cold. By the time we have swum a full circuit, however, body temperatures have adjusted, and the ice, you might say, has been broken. Duly invigorated, we are ready to face the day. Styles has thoughtfully brought a canister of coffee and some bottles of water in his backpack, and we sit at either end of a park bench for a socially distanced chat.

It seems that he has had a productive year. At the onset of lockdown, Styles found himself in his second home, in the canyons of Los Angeles. After a few days on his own, however, he moved in with a pod of three friends (and subsequently with two band members, Mitch Rowland and Sarah Jones). They “would put names in a hat and plan the week out,” Styles explains. “If you were Monday, you would choose the movie, dinner, and the activity for that day. I like to make soups, and there was a big array of movies; we went all over the board,” from Goodfellas to Clueless. The experience, says Styles, “has been a really good lesson in what makes me happy now. It’s such a good example of living in the moment. I honestly just like being around my friends,” he adds. “That’s been my biggest takeaway. Just being on my own the whole time, I would have been miserable.”

Styles is big on friendship groups and considers his former and legendarily hysteria-inducing boy band, One Direction, to have been one of them. “I think the typical thing is to come out of a band like that and almost feel like you have to apologize for being in it,” says Styles. “But I loved my time in it. It was all new to me, and I was trying to learn as much as I could. I wanted to soak it in…. I think that’s probably why I like traveling now—soaking stuff up.” In a post-COVID future, he is contemplating a temporary move to Tokyo, explaining that “there’s a respect and a stillness, a quietness that I really loved every time I’ve been there.”

In the music he has been working on in 2020, Styles wants to capture the experimental spirit that informed his second album, last year’s Fine Line. With his debut album, “I was very much finding out what my sound was as a solo artist,” he says. “I can see all the places where it almost felt like I was bowling with the bumpers up. I think with the second album I let go of the fear of getting it wrong and…it was really joyous and really free. I think with music it’s so important to evolve—and that extends to clothes and videos and all that stuff. That’s why you look back at David Bowie with Ziggy Stardust or the Beatles and their different eras—that fearlessness is super inspiring.”

The seismic changes of 2020—including the Black Lives Matter uprising around racial justice—has also provided Styles with an opportunity for personal growth. “I think it’s a time for opening up and learning and listening,” he says. “I’ve been trying to read and educate myself so that in 20 years I’m still doing the right things and taking the right steps. I believe in karma, and I think it’s just a time right now where we could use a little more kindness and empathy and patience with people, be a little more prepared to listen and grow.”

Meanwhile, Styles’s euphoric single “Watermelon Sugar” became something of an escapist anthem for this dystopian summer of 2020. The video, featuring Styles (dressed in ’70s-­flavored Gucci and Bode) cavorting with a pack of beach-babe girls and boys, was shot in January, before lockdown rules came into play. By the time it was ready to be released in May, a poignant epigraph had been added: “This video is dedicated to touching.”

Styles is looking forward to touring again, when “it’s safe for everyone,” because, as he notes, “being up against people is part of the whole thing. You can’t really re-create it in any way.” But it hasn’t always been so. Early in his career, Styles was so stricken with stage fright that he regularly threw up preperformance. “I just always thought I was going to mess up or something,” he remembers. “But I’ve felt really lucky to have a group of incredibly generous fans. They’re generous emotionally—and when they come to the show, they give so much that it creates this atmosphere that I’ve always found so loving and accepting.”

THIS SUMMER, when it was safe enough to travel, Styles returned to his London home, which is where he suggests we head now, setting off in his modish Primrose Yellow ’73 Jaguar that smells of gasoline and leatherette. “Me and my dad have always bonded over cars,” Styles explains. “I never thought I’d be someone who just went out for a leisurely drive, purely for enjoyment.” On sleepless jet-lagged nights he’ll drive through London’s quiet streets, seeing neighborhoods in a new way. “I find it quite relaxing,” he says.

Over the summer Styles took a road trip with his artist friend Tomo Campbell through France and Italy, setting off at four in the morning and spending the night in Geneva, where they jumped in the lake “to wake ourselves up.” (I see a pattern emerging.) At the end of the trip Styles drove home alone, accompanied by an upbeat playlist that included “Aretha Franklin, Parliament, and a lot of Stevie Wonder. It was really fun for me,” he says. “I don’t travel like that a lot. I’m usually in such a rush, but there was a stillness to it. I love the feeling of nobody knowing where I am, that kind of escape...and freedom.”

GROWING UP in a village in the North of England, Styles thought of London as a world apart: “It truly felt like a different country.” At a wide-eyed 16, he came down to the teeming metropolis after his mother entered him on the U.K. talent-search show The X Factor. “I went to the audition to find out if I could sing,” Styles recalls, “or if my mum was just being nice to me.” Styles was eliminated but subsequently brought back with other contestants—Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik—to form a boy band that was named (on Styles’s suggestion) One Direction. The wily X Factor creator and judge, Simon Cowell, soon signed them to his label Syco Records, and the rest is history: 1D’s first four albums, supported by four world tours from 2011 to 2015, debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard charts, and the band has sold 70 million records to date. At 18, Styles bought the London house he now calls home. “I was going to do two weeks’ work to it,” he remembers, “but when I came back there was no second floor,” so he moved in with adult friends who lived nearby till the renovation was complete. “Eighteen months,” he deadpans. “I’ve always seen that period as pretty pivotal for me, as there’s that moment at the party where it’s getting late, and half of the people would go upstairs to do drugs, and the other people go home. I was like, ‘I don’t really know this friend’s wife, so I’m not going to get all messy and then go home.’ I had to behave a bit, at a time where everything else about my life felt I didn’t have to behave really. I’ve been lucky to always feel I have this family unit somewhere.”

When Styles’s London renovation was finally done, “I went in for the first time and I cried,” he recalls. “Because I just felt like I had somewhere. L.A. feels like holiday, but this feels like home.”

“There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never thought too much about what it means—it just becomes this extended part of creating something”

Behind its pink door, Styles’s house has all the trappings of rock stardom—there’s a man cave filled with guitars, a Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks poster (a moving-in gift from his decorator), a Stevie Nicks album cover. Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” was one of the first songs he knew the words to—“My parents were big fans”—and he and Nicks have formed something of a mutual-admiration society. At the beginning of lockdown, Nicks tweeted to her fans that she was taking inspiration from Fine Line: “Way to go, H,” she wrote. “It is your Rumours.” “She’s always there for you,” said Styles when he inducted Nicks into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. “She knows what you need—advice, a little wisdom, a blouse, a shawl; she’s got you covered.”

Styles makes us some tea in the light-filled kitchen and then wanders into the convivial living room, where he strikes an insouciant pose on the chesterfield sofa, upholstered in a turquoise velvet that perhaps not entirely coincidentally sets off his eyes. Styles admits that his lockdown lewk was “sweatpants, constantly,” and he is relishing the opportunity to dress up again. He doesn’t have to wait long: The following day, under the eaves of a Victorian mansion in Notting Hill, I arrive in the middle of fittings for Vogue’s shoot and discover Styles in his Y-fronts, patiently waiting to try on looks for fashion editor Camilla Nickerson and photographer Tyler Mitchell. Styles’s personal stylist, Harry Lambert, wearing a pearl necklace and his nails colored in various shades of green varnish, à la Sally Bowles, is providing helpful backup (Britain’s Rule of Six hasn’t yet been imposed).

Styles, who has thoughtfully brought me a copy of de Botton’s 2006 book The Architecture of Happiness, is instinctively and almost quaintly polite, in an old-fashioned, holding-open-doors and not-mentioning-lovers-by-name sort of way. He is astounded to discover that the Atlanta-born Mitchell has yet to experience a traditional British Sunday roast dinner. Assuring him that “it’s basically like Thanksgiving every Sunday,” Styles gives Mitchell the details of his favorite London restaurants in which to enjoy one. “It’s a good thing to be nice,” Mitchell tells me after a morning in Styles’s company.

MITCHELL has Lionel Wendt’s languorously homoerotic 1930s portraits of young Sri Lankan men on his mood board. Nickerson is thinking of Irving Penn’s legendary fall 1950 Paris haute couture collections sitting, where he photographed midcentury supermodels, including his wife, Lisa Fonssagrives, in high-style Dior and Balenciaga creations. Styles is up for all of it, and so, it would seem, is the menswear landscape of 2020: Jonathan Anderson has produced a trapeze coat anchored with a chunky gold martingale; John Galliano at Maison Margiela has fashioned a khaki trench with a portrait neckline in layers of colored tulle; and Harris Reed—a Saint Martins fashion student sleuthed by Lambert who ended up making some looks for Styles’s last tour—has spent a week making a broad-shouldered Smoking jacket with high-waisted, wide-leg pants that have become a Styles signature since he posed for Tim Walker for the cover of Fine Line wearing a Gucci pair—a silhouette that was repeated in the tour wardrobe. (“I liked the idea of having that uniform,” says Styles.) Reed’s version is worn with a hoopskirt draped in festoons of hot-pink satin that somehow suggests Deborah Kerr asking Yul Brynner’s King of Siam, “Shall we dance?”

Styles introduces me to the writer and eyewear designer Gemma Styles, “my sister from the same womb,” he says. She is also here for the fitting: The siblings plan to surprise their mother with the double portrait on these pages.

I ask her whether her brother had always been interested in clothes.

“My mum loved to dress us up,” she remembers. “I always hated it, and Harry was always quite into it. She did some really elaborate papier-mâché outfits: She made a giant mug and then painted an atlas on it, and that was Harry being ‘The World Cup.’ Harry also had a little dalmatian-dog outfit,” she adds, “a hand-me-down from our closest family friends. He would just spend an inordinate amount of time wearing that outfit. But then Mum dressed me up as Cruella de Vil. She was always looking for any opportunity!”

“As a kid I definitely liked fancy dress,” Styles says. There were school plays, the first of which cast him as Barney, a church mouse. “I was really young, and I wore tights for that,” he recalls. “I remember it was crazy to me that I was wearing a pair of tights. And that was maybe where it all kicked off!”

Acting has also remained a fundamental form of expression for Styles. His sister recalls that even on the eve of his life-changing X Factor audition, Styles could sing in public only in an assumed voice. “He used to do quite a good sort of Elvis warble,” she remembers. During the rehearsals in the family home, “he would sing in the bathroom because if it was him singing as himself, he just couldn’t have anyone looking at him! I love his voice now,” she adds. “I’m so glad that he makes music that I actually enjoy listening to.”

Styles’s role-playing continued soon after 1D went on permanent hiatus in 2016, and he was cast in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, beating out dozens of professional actors for the role. “The good part was my character was a young soldier who didn’t really know what he was doing,” says Styles modestly. “The scale of the movie was so big that I was a tiny piece of the puzzle. It was definitely humbling. I just loved being outside of my comfort zone.”

His performance caught the eye of Olivia Wilde, who remembers that it “blew me away—the openness and commitment.” In turn, Styles loved Wilde’s directorial debut, Booksmart, and is “very honored” that she cast him in a leading role for her second feature, a thriller titled Don’t Worry Darling, which went into production this fall. Styles will play the husband to Florence Pugh in what Styles describes as “a 1950s utopia in the California desert.”

Wilde’s movie is costumed by Academy Award nominee Arianne Phillips. “She and I did a little victory dance when we heard that we officially had Harry in the film,” notes Wilde, “because we knew that he has a real appreciation for fashion and style. And this movie is incredibly stylistic. It’s very heightened and opulent, and I’m really grateful that he is so enthusiastic about that element of the process—some actors just don’t care.”

“I like playing dress-up in general,” Styles concurs, in a masterpiece of understatement: This is the man, after all, who cohosted the Met’s 2019 “Notes on Camp” gala attired in a nipple-freeing black organza blouse with a lace jabot, and pants so high-waisted that they cupped his pectorals. The ensemble, accessorized with the pearl-drop earring of a dandified Elizabethan courtier, was created for Styles by Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, whom he befriended in 2014. Styles, who has subsequently personified the brand as the face of the Gucci fragrance, finds Michele “fearless with his work and his imagination. It’s really inspiring to be around someone who works like that.”

The two first met in London over a cappuccino. “It was just a kind of PR appointment,” says Michele, “but something magical happened, and Harry is now a friend. He has the aura of an English rock-and-roll star—like a young Greek god with the attitude of James Dean and a little bit of Mick Jagger—but no one is sweeter. He is the image of a new era, of the way that a man can look.”

Styles credits his style trans­formation—from Jack Wills tracksuit-clad boy-band heartthrob to nonpareil fashionisto—to his meeting the droll young stylist Harry Lambert seven years ago. They hit it off at once and have conspired ever since, enjoying a playfully campy rapport and calling each other Sue and Susan as they parse the niceties of the scarlet lace Gucci man-bra that Michele has made for Vogue’s shoot, for instance, or a pair of Bode pants hand-painted with biographical images (Styles sent Emily Adams Bode images of his family, and a photograph he had found of David Hockney and Joni Mitchell. “The idea of those two being friends, to me, was really beautiful,” Styles explains).

“He just has fun with clothing, and that’s kind of where I’ve got it from,” says Styles of Lambert. “He doesn’t take it too seriously, which means I don’t take it too seriously.” The process has been evolutionary. At his first meeting with Lambert, the stylist proposed “a pair of flares, and I was like, ‘Flares? That’s fucking crazy,’  ” Styles remembers. Now he declares that “you can never be overdressed. There’s no such thing. The people that I looked up to in music—Prince and David Bowie and Elvis and Freddie Mercury and Elton John—they’re such showmen. As a kid it was completely mind-blowing. Now I’ll put on something that feels really flamboyant, and I don’t feel crazy wearing it. I think if you get something that you feel amazing in, it’s like a superhero outfit. Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with. What’s really exciting is that all of these lines are just kind of crumbling away. When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there’s clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play. I’ll go in shops sometimes, and I just find myself looking at the women’s clothes thinking they’re amazing. It’s like anything—anytime you’re putting barriers up in your own life, you’re just limiting yourself. There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never really thought too much about what it means—it just becomes this extended part of creating something.”

“He’s up for it,” confirms Lambert, who earlier this year, for instance, found a JW Anderson cardigan with the look of a Rubik’s Cube (“on sale at matchesfashion.com!”). Styles wore it, accessorized with his own pearl necklace, for a Today rehearsal in February and it went viral: His fans were soon knitting their own versions and posting the results on TikTok. Jonathan Anderson declared himself “so impressed and incredibly humbled by this trend” that he nimbly made the pattern available (complete with a YouTube tutorial) so that Styles’s fans could copy it for free. Meanwhile, London’s storied Victoria & Albert Museum has requested Styles’s original: an emblematic document of how people got creative during the COVID era. “It’s going to be in their permanent collection,” says Lambert exultantly. “Is that not sick? Is that not the most epic thing?”

“It’s pretty powerful and kind of extraordinary to see someone in his position redefining what it can mean to be a man with confidence,” says Olivia Wilde

“To me, he’s very modern,” says Wilde of Styles, “and I hope that this brand of confidence as a male that Harry has—truly devoid of any traces of toxic masculinity—is indicative of his generation and therefore the future of the world. I think he is in many ways championing that, spearheading that. It’s pretty powerful and kind of extraordinary to see someone in his position redefining what it can mean to be a man with confidence.”

“He’s really in touch with his feminine side because it’s something natural,” notes Michele. “And he’s a big inspiration to a younger generation—about how you can be in a totally free playground when you feel comfortable. I think that he’s a revolutionary.”

STYLES’S confidence is on full display the day after the fitting, which finds us all on the beautiful Sussex dales. Over the summit of the hill, with its trees blown horizontal by the fierce winds, lies the English Channel. Even though it’s a two-hour drive from London, the fresh-faced Styles, who went to bed at 9 p.m., has arrived on set early: He is famously early for everything. The team is installed in a traditional flint-stone barn. The giant doors have been replaced by glass and frame a bucolic view of distant grazing sheep. “Look at that field!” says Styles. “How lucky are we? This is our office! Smell the roses!” Lambert starts to sing “Kumbaya, my Lord.”

Hairdresser Malcolm Edwards is setting Styles’s hair in a Victory roll with silver clips, and until it is combed out he resembles Kathryn Grayson with stubble. His fingers are freighted with rings, and “he has a new army of mini purses,” says Lambert, gesturing to an accessory table heaving with examples including a mini sky-blue Gucci Jackie bag discreetly monogrammed HS. Michele has also made Styles a dress for the shoot that Tissot might have liked to paint—acres of ice-blue ruffles, black Valenciennes lace, and suivez-moi, jeune homme ribbons. Erelong, Styles is gamely racing up a hill in it, dodging sheep scat, thistles, and shards of chalk, and striking a pose for Mitchell that manages to make ruffles a compelling new masculine proposition, just as Mr. Fish’s frothy white cotton dress—equal parts Romantic poet and Greek presidential guard—did for Mick Jagger when he wore it for The Rolling Stones’ free performance in Hyde Park in 1969, or as the suburban-mom floral housedress did for Kurt Cobain as he defined the iconoclastic grunge aesthetic. Styles is mischievously singing ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” to himself when Mitchell calls him outside to jump up and down on a trampoline in a Comme des Garçons buttoned wool kilt. “How did it look?” asks his sister when he comes in from the cold. “Divine,” says her brother in playful Lambert-speak.

As the wide sky is washed in pink, orange, and gray, like a Turner sunset, and Mitchell calls it a successful day, Styles is playing “Cherry” from Fine Line on his Fender acoustic on the hilltop. “He does his own stunts,” says his sister, laughing. The impromptu set is greeted with applause. “Thank you, Antwerp!” says Styles playfully, bowing to the crowd. “Thank you, fashion!”

[whereisthebreaddd]

Creative Audio

Creative Audio 2020:

Genre(s): Alternative/Lo-Fi

Concept idea: A mini EP album containing ideally three tracks which produces a juxtaposed form of sounds. I wanted to try to formulate work that is both calming and energising at the same time. Something like a mix of emotions, or symbolising confusion - if there were lyrics I would definitely consider rather slow, sad or significant expressions in the songs. 

The past few weeks, generating ideas for a song was tough but I made a few tracks that needed heaps of tweaking. Although I am inexperienced in this field, learning how to utilise some basic features in Audio editing apps has connected me, in a way, to my favourite artists, as I sort of have an understanding of how they produce and lay out their work.

For one, I have always loved sad songs - or very slowed and out-of-zone type beats. I like to find slowed + reverb versions to songs. I find it relaxing and it keeps me in a steady place of thought for a while.  

Most inspirational Artists:

Billie Eilish - I find that I relate to this artist in many ways. From connection to her music as well as her personality and being around the same age, I see that a lot of her music and agendas correlate with some issues in our generation. Her debut album “Don’t smile at me” was something I could heavily relate to 3 years ago as dealing with a lot and not feeling I can talk to anybody, this album was always sitting in my playlist, and I was ready to indulge into an emotional mind field almost at any point. I also think she really set a standard for our generation and pioneered a new era in music. The song that not only went viral, but also caught my attention was Ocean Eyes (2016) because it was one of the very calming and go-to songs. 

Troye Sivan - Although I don’t identify as a LGBT person, growing up in my early teens I was feeling down a lot of the time. I would often listen to his music because it was soothing but every time I’d listen to one his Blue Neighbourhood (Debut Album, 2015) it always felt like I was listening to it for the first time again. One of his best techniques, in my opinion, is how he uses suspense in his songs and a sense of unpredictability especially in FOOLS in the “Blue Neighbourhood” album(2015).

Tyler, the Creator - I really love his sense of music style. He does not care about criticism and produces what he wants, when he wants - I love his aggression in his music with also a reflecting sense of vulnerability, especially portrayed in EARFQUAKE from the “IGOR” album (2019). I grew up (from age 12…) watching OFWGKTA and I loved the rebellious sensation they give off. 

7:AMP: Que (7:AMP) is a very very underrated artist. Listening to his music on sound cloud at first was a bit overwhelming with the unusual composition. I am used to a certain structure of a song - a catchy beat and repetition. His music often embodies a sense of unpredictability - the elements he uses is so messy and unsteady to the point where it is kind of soothing. I can’t explain it but it kind of gives me something to look forward to as the sounds used in his songs are usually unexpected and that’s what makes it unique. Prada don Dada, Boonana and Baby ball are some of his best I reckon.

Cover Art research:

These are cover art pieces I always enjoyed observing or inspire what I want to make…

These album covers are of the following artists in chronological order:

Don’t smile at Me - Billie Eilish (2017)

Blue Neighbourhood - Troye Sivan (2015)

IGOR - Tyler Okonma (2019)

Thank u, next - Ariana Grande (2018)

BLOOM - Troye Sivan (2018)

Prada don Dada - 7:AMP (2018)

Lovely - Khalid & Billie Eilish (2017)

1999 a Charli XCX x Troye Sivan (2018)

Wings - BTS (2016)

Techniques:

I have always had an admiration for rather simplistic artwork or cover art. Album or single art covers are something I observe to try and break down the artist or their intentions. I consider the colours, layout and style highly effective in portraying a proper image of what an artist will want to convey. 

Symbolism is always interesting in art, as you have to interpret or comprehend it in different ways, either how the artist intends to show it or how you relate to it in your own way. 

Colours: Either using soft and opaque colours OR bright and vibrant colours, I don’t feel as though they would work together efficiently, in my opinion…

Minimalism: Having a simple image or design is always elegant, when using the right colours and techniques I think. I do like negative space in my work and a clean finish. 

Cover Art:

These are rough designs derived from one concept made today in class...

I like using a lot negative space as mentioned earlier. It is more aesthetically pleasing. This concept was just inspired by my fascination for outer-space, particular Saturn. I just like Saturn. To me, it depicts that there is much more out there, not just in the world, but in this entire universe - more than what we could ever imagine.

For the colours, I just thought that using contrasting colours in the first two as it would not be difficult to see. Third one, I wanted a softer, opaque base and a warm colour for the planet - not too harsh on the eyes... 

For the music, I haven’t quite got used to all the tools in Adobe Audition. Serato studio was fairly simple to make a basic tune but I much preferred to use a traditional looking programme. I’m still in the process of producing three tracks and still learning. Although, producing isn’t my forte, I get a lot of help from my brother who happens to work under Sony: Columbia records. I want to produce music similar to his although the genre of his songs aren’t officially a genre. Siren jams are popular amongst Polynesian, Micronesian and Latino communities, especially in Mexico. I wanted to attempt to make a different kind of sound without it just sounding like a bunch of random sounds - still working on it.

Playlists of interesting songs:

General: https://music.apple.com/nz/playlist/heat/pl.u-AkAmPlyU216Xbd4 

Project inspo: https://music.apple.com/nz/playlist/creative-audio-inspo/pl.u-RRbVvBVF35EVJlv 

Trap/Hip-hop: https://music.apple.com/nz/playlist/trap/pl.u-leyl0yeCjXqz7Kk 

Tranquillity: https://music.apple.com/nz/playlist/playlist/pl.u-vxy693XCzV9REqA 

K-Pop: https://music.apple.com/nz/playlist/kpop/pl.u-AkAmPNbF216Xbd4

[fmdrioharchive1]

* 𝗔 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗝𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘 ;   ❰  유리오  ❱

A BRIEF LOOK AT RIOH’s STANCE IN THE INDUSTRY— DISCUSSING FUTURE PLANS, SOLO WORKS, ET AL  //

Since the beginning of the year, Rioh has made a lot of changes; ones he considers to be really beneficial for not only his personal life, but for his career, as well. For one thing, he’s spent many hours in the gym working on toning his physique. Being that he was rather slender to start and it isn’t extremely easy for him to gain muscle, he put himself to the test in many ways, but the results he’s seen make him extremely proud of himself and his efforts. Physically, he’s earned a level of musculature that he’s overjoyed with. His healthy, strong body also aids in him having a sharp mind, too. The physical activity he does has improved his symptoms of ADHD a lot, and his confidence levels have skyrocketed, too. Needless to say, he’s pleased with this alteration of his, as superficial as it might sound, and he hopes that it allows his audience to see him as a man; not merely as his monikers of “baby cloud” or “tiny baby maknae.” He realizes that that’s been an important era in his career, and he’s more at peace with it now than before, but lately, he’s more interested in sharing his not-so-overly-marketed personality to everyone else. Being that he’s been the industry for a few years at this point, he’s ready to take that next bold step.

One way he’s doing so is with his social media content. Just this month, he deleted all of his previous posts ( with company permission ) on Instagram to take on a new angle: one that’s more alternative in aesthetic, more playful and softly grungy, more up his alley, in a general sense. Additionally, he’s amped up his presence on Cloud’s official TikTok account, and is in talks to open up his own YouTube account to post regular vlogs of his life. Whether it be to document his time on Cloud’s tours, or to show off the rehearsal process for future musical theatre involvement, or to give those who follow him a glimpse into what’s on his mind at any given time, he’s discovered that carrying a camera around and filming content is something he’s great at, and it’s also something he enjoys doing, which makes it all the better. This revelation has prompted him to put a pause on promoting any solo music. Instead, he wants to unveil a station track at some point to make sure one of the tracks he was working on sees the light. More than anything though, he’s adamant on skyrocketing into a social media juggernaut.  It might be a long and hard climb, but he’s excited.

Additionally, he’s been looking into auditioning for more live musicals. He really enjoyed his time in Bare the Musical, and he thinks it would be great to show his supporters the exclusive behind the scenes world of theatre. He’s received word of a few productions set to go into rehearsals around the time he returns from tour, and he’s in the process of filming auditions to send to the casting directors while he’s on the road. He has no idea if he’ll be given a role or not, but he’s hoping that he’ll star in something in the early part of next year, or slightly sooner if he can make it work. He’s also in talks to possibly promote a special album with a company-mate, but it’s in very early stages of development and has not been confirmed. It’s simply an idea.

Another small change he’s made is that, as of July 1st, he’s dyed his hair platinum blond and has let it grow out to a decent length. Going from dark brown to a color the exact opposite scared him at first, but he’s loving his new look and thinks it’ll only add to his developing image! He’s also been working on implementing new styles choices into his wardrobe to assist with that, too, so look out for some OOTD posts.

Overall, he’s thrilled to start the next phase of this year. Please look forward to him!

[yesislamicvideos]

Detoxil Burn Review 2020 | Honest Reviews Era

Detoxil Burn Review 2020 | Honest Reviews EraDetoxil Consume Audit 

Would you like to lose your abundance weight and consume the additional fat in your body? 

Do you feel awkward because of your body shape and size? 

Have you been attempting to discover a program that will assist you with overcoming this? 

On the off chance that you have any of the abovementioned, at that point you can at last inhale, on the grounds that you happen to be in the ideal spot. 

Weight reduction happens to be one troublesome undertaking. For the most part, when you have a bustling calendar and you possess less energy for yourself. 

Be that as it may, did you realize you can get your body fit as a fiddle and get the chance to lose the overabundance weight? Envision accomplishing the ideal figure through an all-common technique. 

How does this occur? It is through finding the best and authentic program that you will get through inside the most limited time conceivable. 

Literally, it is about Detoxil Consume. Experience this audit to study what it brings to the table. 

What is Detoxil Consume? 

Detoxil Consume is a successful and productive get-healthy plan that causes you to consume overabundance fat in your body in the most limited time conceivable. Essentially, it is an enhancement that is utilized for weight reduction. 

In outline, it works by expanding your digestion rate and diminishes the heaviness of your body. It guarantees that your digestion acts so that it works for you with no repercussions. The result of this is it expands the vitality level in the body. 

Then again, we can say that it is a creative program that will help your weight reduction and weight gain. It will assist you with annihilating the overabundance weight in your body and by consuming fat, in this manner giving you a fine figure and shape. 

Stunningly better, it is an all-common program. By advancing ketosis in your body, you will see quick outcomes, from weight reduction to clearness of brain. Bringing about an expansion of vitality levels. This will assist you with consuming fat and accomplish the body that you generally want. 

Truly, Detoxil Consume is an enhancement that is wealthy in Omega 7 that is extremely powerful with regards to boosting your body wellbeing. This happens best by lessening your cholesterol levels, decrease of blood vessel plaque. 

About the Creator, Adam Wright 

Adam Wright is the man behind this program. He is an accomplished coach and nutritionist. I realize you are so anxious to find out about the creator of this program. At whatever point it goes to our bodies we are exceptionally enthusiastic about whose manage we are going to utilize. 

That is the reason it is essential to know the creator of the program before you even use it. This man has experienced hellfire (pardon my French) to get fit as a fiddle. He had attempted to get more fit in various manners however he was unable to get through. 

Gradually, he investigated profoundly and furthermore probed himself. He was at long last ready to get to the profound foundation of weight reduction and happened to accomplish the body of his wants. Those are similar privileged insights that he imparts in this program. Through this guide, you can serenely accomplish the body you generally want. 

How can it Work? 

This is one of a kind health improvement plan that you will go over. Essentially, in light of the fact that it actuates quick ketosis in your body, which starts viable fat consuming. Now and again, we happen to get items through surveys and we later get debilitated with regards to utilizing them. 

With this program, you are completely secured as it is easy to deal with. In this manner, you ought to have no concerns when getting it. It targets consuming fat and controlling your craving. Essentially, as you support your ketosis, you will have the option to control your hunger and stop longings. 

Much more, it likewise assists with keeping up cholesterol levels and blood pressure.  Additionally, it directs the invulnerable framework in the most ideal manner conceivable. At the point when your body has a solid metabolic framework, it accelerates the use of fats in the body. This prompts a more beneficial weight reduction. 

What will you get from Detoxil Consume? 

When you pick this program there are various things that you will get from it. Principally, it will help increment your digestion rate. On that,  you will get the opportunity to build your vitality levels, accomplishing only the best way of life for you. 

Here are various advantages that this program offers. 

* The enhancements will assist you with taking care of wrinkles, skin break out, scarcely discernible differences, scars, and other skin conditions. 

* The enhancements will assist you with staying vivacious. This will consistently keep you sound. 

* Through this system, you will get familiar with the mistakes that numerous nutritionists and specialists, just as patients, make as they handle the weight reduction. 

* It will assist you with bypassing the things that remain on your way or square your body from getting more fit. 

* Detoxil consume will furnish you with proposals on how you can initiate your fat cells for giving vitality. This will devour put away fat. 

* The item will assist you with accomplishing the body figure and shape that you want. 

 

Also, the program is furnished with a 60-day unconditional promise that further lifts its genuineness. In the event that it happens that you loath the advantages of this program you got two great long periods of free preliminary and you can guarantee your cash back. 

What did I get from Detoxil Consume? 

All things considered, the principle issue I found when looking on the web, was that there were such a large number of alternatives. I didn't have the foggiest idea what to pick or where to begin. 

There is this thing called "Dread of Passing up a great opportunity", and I would not like to miss on any incredible eating regimen by picking an off-base one for me. 

At long last, I was fortunate enough to pick Detoxil Consume subsequent to perusing a few surveys. 

Better way of life 

As somebody with food hypersensitivities and brief period to work out, I needed to discover an eating routine that would adjust to my dietary limitations. 

Generally "solid" abstains from food either forcibly feed you vegetables or power you to eat everything. Initially, I figured out how to eat without setting off my hypersensitivities. At that point, I continued making a daily practice for my food. 

Gradually, my wellbeing began to show signs of improvement, I was obviously less enlarged, and my joint agony diminished a great deal. 

 

Will to work out 

No, you don't need to work out 30 minutes every day to start with. Rather, what I did, was to go out for a stroll around my square, each day. In spite of the fact that climbing my condo's steps was sufficient exercise, I strolled somewhat more. 

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From that point onward, everything went tough for my wellbeing and downhill for my weight. 

Hello, I'm a long way from being a serious competitor, yet now I resemble a human, and that is satisfied with me. 

Certainty 

Have you seen how your typical looking, yet fair, partners get all the advancements? Somewhat, on the grounds that individuals are one-sided against husky individuals, and halfway in light of the fact that thin individuals don't realize that there is a certainty to them the greater part of us don't have. 

As I began to get thinner, I saw how individuals' voice tones and looks changes. They went from being overall quite deigning to regarding me as an equivalent. To me, it appeared as though they continued reasoning that I had more concerning issues than work since I was fat. 

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Quit attempting to fit in 

I surmise you can do this anytime in your life yet it was diverse for me. With time, while I continued getting more fit and individuals were additionally tolerating, rather than me going straight into it, I saw it was justified, despite all the trouble. 

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I had dealt with my character and culture since I was close to nothing, yet this thing I had gone after for quite a long time was the way to everything? 

Despite the fact that I removed it from accommodation, I quit mindful. 

Extreme opportunity 

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End 

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• It is a valuable program and is perfect for regular day to day existence, it is genuinely sheltered since it has no negative symptoms to its clients. 

https://tinyurl.com/yd5ngyzk

[auburnfamilynews]

Montgomery Advertiser-USA TODAY NETWORK

Roll Bama Roll joins us to answer some questions to get you ready for the Iron Bowl!

Big thanks to Brent Taylor from Roll Bama Roll for taking the time to answer some Iron Bowl questions before today’s big game!

1. The Tua era is over at Alabama. What now? Is this Iron Bowl a chance for Mac Jones to audition for the job next year? Or is it assumed the Tagovailoa dynasty will continue next year?

I wouldn’t call it an audition necessarily, but this game will go a long ways toward giving Mac a leg up or dropping the coaches’ confidence in him for next year. He’s a QB with very nice touch on medium-to-deep routes, especially outside the hashes, which is a valuable trait. But he’s also shown a tendency to be wildly inaccurate when pressured even slightly (whether pressure in the sense of a charging defensive lineman or pressure in that he’s thrust into playing for Tua when he wasn’t expecting it), which will be crippling if he can’t work that out. This will be our first chance to really see if he can play under pressure.

Regardless, there’s going to be a lot of eyes on Alabama’s QB battle next year. Mac will have the first shot, but Taulia Tagovailoa has shown some promise as true freshman a couple of times this year. He’s smaller than his older brother, and doesn’t have the same arm strength or touch, but he’s quicker and a better scrambler/sandlot player (think an unproven version of Johnny Manziel, without the party issues). I’m not sure his style will ever truly translate to an Alabama offense, though. The wildcard is going to be incoming freshman Bryce Young. The nation’s top QB from California has been slaughtering the best high school teams in the nation all season, throwing for more touchdowns than incompletions in many games this year. It’s always a game of roulette on whether high school skills translate to college for QBs, but Young will step on to campus with the most talent of anyone on the roster.

2. If you had to pick one of these two days to relive for eternity, which would you pick: November 26, 2010 or November 30, 2013?

2010, without hesitation. It sucked, but Alabama wasn’t winning anything huge that season anyway. And that stupid fumble that tightroped down the sideline for 30 yards for a touchback was just proof that it was futile anyway. 2013, though, was Alabama’s chance for a 3-peat championship with a veteran team. It just wasn’t right. However, I would also say we are already having to relive that 2013 game for eternity anyway. There hasn’t been a single CBS game gone by in 6 years that Gary Danielson hasn’t brought up the kick-6 in some way or another. Call it the 2:30 purgatory.

3. The Alabama receiving core might be the best single unit in the country. Where do they stand against some of the other NFL talents Alabama has had, though? Julio? Amari? Calvin? Are any one them as good as those guys, or is it the collective group that makes them so impressive?

There will never be another receiver like Julio Jones, physically speaking. Nor in his impact on the program. I think Jerry Jeudy is a very similar receiver to Amari Cooper (maybe a touch slower, but with better jukes) in that he’s got great hands and is an elite route-runner with good size. Cooper didn’t split his targets with anyone, but Jeudy has split them with 3 other talented receivers. Swap them, and I think Jeudy would have put up similar stats to Amari in 2012-2014. I also think that Jeudy, DeVonta Smith, and maybe even Jaylen Waddle are all better receivers than Calvin Ridley was. Henry Ruggs is the least refined of the four, but his ungodly speed and physical nature make him a dangerous player as well.

We’ll probably never see the like of the four playing together in college football again. My only regret is that they couldn’t get even more targets in their career than they did.

4. One month into the Oatmeal era, how are we feeling? I’ve heard Dayton has a good up-and-comer head coach, do you think Greg Byrne will go take a look at him?

That was a low blow, even for a Barner.....

Coach Oates has a major challenge ahead of him in year one. Three of the new players he added to the roster are all going to miss the season, so he’s having to rely on a small roster of players from the previous coaching regime who are still learning an entirely new system and philosophy of offense. All without a true center on the roster. It’s going to be a rocky year, but the Tide does have one of the toughest out of conference schedules in the entire nation, so the team will definitely get some leeway come March.

5. I think everyone knows the best matchup on the field is going to be the Alabama offensive line versus the Auburn defensive line. Do you expect Sark to gameplan around guys like Derrick Brown and Marlon Davidson? Or do you think he’ll put his trust in Najee Harris and the OL to just get the job done?

Early on, I expect there to be a lot of jet sweeps and wide receiver screens to get the ball in the hands of Alabama’s four receivers before the Tigers have a chance to hit Mac Jones too much. If he can force Auburn to scale back on the all-out pressure they’ll be amped up on at the start of the game, he’ll start working in Najee Harris to gash you for 7 yards at a time before suddenly unleashing a deep shot. That’s how he’s schemed things up in Mac Jones’ two starts so far. But if Auburn shuts down that initial horizontal passing game, I’m honestly not sure how Sark will respond. I will say, though, his response to that will really earn his salary.

6. Eat shit and die. You don’t have to answer that, one of our other contributors just wanted it to be said.

Wait, is that cow farts I hear squeaking from across the state?

7. What’s caused the decline in this year’s defense versus previous years? Is it only the linebacker injuries, or is there some other Inside Baseball reason fans of other teams wouldn’t necessarily know?

I don’t think there’s any one reason. The injuries have been huge. Two middle linebackers (one an All-American, the other a senior), the three top defensive linemen, and then the 4th defensive lineman for good measure all being injured can really cause some issues. Against the annual cupcake last week, Alabama actually had 5 freshman (only one was redshirt freshman) in the center of their defensive front. Throw in a 5-star running back going down with a knee injury before the season and now Tua Tagovailoa, it’s really felt like the entire universe has been against us this year.

But back to the defense, Alabama also lost two players who declared for the draft early despite being unpolished 5th round picks last season, hurting depth even more. And then we’re on our 3rd defensive coordinator in as many years, and Pete Golding is a young, unproven guy. Throw in two major recruiting misses in Eyabi Anoma and Antonio Alfano (both 5-star pass rushers that transferred out within a year.... just a few months for Alfano...), and there’s been absolutely no stability in any facet on defense for three years now, and even Alabama can’t sustain success in that environment.

8. What’s your honest opinion on Georgia? Cute little brother trying to be just like you, even if he never will be? Or annoying, entitled little shit that won’t shut up?

Mostly the second. They’re annoying, annually overrated, and always copying everything Saban does, but at the very least they’re good for choking away a game when we need at the most. That said, I do really appreciate them for doing their part in hating Auburn. Some things just really have a way of bringing people together.

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/11/30/20989204/college-and-magnolia-football-q-a-alabama

[h4xx0r666]

You might need more sleep

It's difficult with the demands our employers put on us these days, and many of us find it difficult to find time to sleep. We have to make cutbacks in other parts of our budgets instead of sleep. I did an audit on mine recently. I was able to cut my monthly budget 200$ by eliminating air-conditioning & trash pickup. I was able to cut another 200$ monthly by dumpster diving for the better portion of my groceries. I usually just stop by the grocery store on the way back from the office, pull around back, I can usually fill a couple boxes with produce and sometimes I'll find something like a box of fancy cheeses, or a case of olives with one broken jar. They throw the whole thing out! More and more stores are getting compactors to make sure you can't get anything for free. I suppose it's all they can do to try and hang on a little bit longer. Make one more quarter happen, and get away to the private island or elon musk's rocket before the inevitable happens.

The edges are beginning to crack, people are getting paid less and less every year. They have fewer things to look forward to. I think it's because we've reached the point where very few of us are left who had a grandparent or living relative in the labor movement. If my grandfather were still alive, he would be 101 this year, he was just a kid for the end of that. They don't really talk about it so much in school, or even college, but there was pretty much an actual war between workers and their bosses who had command of the police. Like with battles and massacres and everything. You can look it up on Wikipedia, it's all there primary sources and everything. Before that, they had children working 12hour days for months on end, and worse for the adults. There was no minimum wage, and they would set the pay so that you pretty much had no choice but to work constantly to afford food and shelter. 10 years ago, I'd have said It's difficult to imagine our history had such an era, and I think a lot of people just don't even think about it since they didn't grow up around any old people who talked about it.

It's gone from living memory, and it can get that bad again. I just wonder if we have the fight in us to defend our rights and not turn on each other when those who would exploit us point us to blame the mexicans or the muslims for our economic despair. There was another historical figure who built his success on blaming a racial groups for economic downturn. It was Hitler, and he used a lot of methamphetamine too. Probably way more than you, but... Now I get that it's cheap and everything, but you're going to need to find other ways to be able to afford to sleep at least every other night, you can't just do the shards every day and expect your mouth isn't going to be salty. Stuff is a diuretic and a vasoconstrictor.

inspiration page: What is causing salty tase in mouth?|Oral and Dental Health discussions:

[andauditionboys-archive]

Fuma

&AUDITION

[theloniuswomb-blog]

So I binged watched the Netflix adaption of GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) over the past two days. If you're unfamiliar with GLOW, GLOW was an all women's wrestling show that began in the 80's. It was the first of it's kind with women in the wrestling world tending to be more of a side show rather than headline material. Being a big wrestling nerd I'd always been aware of GLOW but had never really watched it. I was more content with women's wrestling I saw today, and didn't feel the need to watch 80's wrestling that probably wouldn't be much different to the other standard wrestling of the time. I was very wrong. Alongside the new Netflix drama, Netflix also aired a short documentary about the original show. Again, being a wrestling nerd, I couldn't help but want to learn something about this era in wrestling history, so I went for it. I was very surprised with what I saw. They took the campiest bits of the 80's style of wrestling and amped it up by 10. I was very impressed and instantly knew that I'd be watching the original GLOW very soon in the near future. But before that, I'd be watching the Netflix adaption. Mainly because the first season was out, I was hungover and I couldn't be bothered to try and track down the original GLOW series on the internet. There were good and bad things about this series. Mainly good, in fact, I was pretty damned impressed by this Netflix adaption. Many Netflix Original series suffer from what I consider a pandering attitude to more progressive or SJW type values. Which are often good on paper, but I often feel stifle true creative outlet. Especially when they pride that over delivering good, solid content. There are exceptions, like F is for Family, or that they also import many other comedy series that may not be considered PC or SJW friendly onto the platform. Which I admire. Netflix know not to cater to just one audience. This Netflix Series was different. It toed a line between the two areas. In some ways it was very obviously trying to be PC, in others it was not. But we'll get into that as we go along. Before all that I want to comment on a few things briefly. I have to say, the acting in this series was pretty damned good. There were some awkward actors, but luckily they had bit parts that meant they weren't as integral to the story. Writing was pretty solid, and some actors even gave what I would consider stellar performances. Maybe not Oscar worthy, but bloody good for a show like this. I was honestly taken aback. I didn't know what to expect, but one thing I definitely did NOT expect was to like it as much as I did. Anyway, lets actually review this thing. The show centres around Ruth (Alsion Brie), the lead character who later becomes one of the chief villains of GLOW. She's a struggling actor who has a friend in a fairly successful soap actor named Debbie Eagan. Debbie despite being successful, had quit acting to pursue being a mother, so both women were technically out of work actors in the beginning. The series begins with Ruth looking for acting work and being offered an audition for porn. Ruth would not take the part. I found it ironic that almost a minuet later the actor who plays Ruth was in a sex scene in which her breasts were exposed, and essentially doing soft-core porn. I feel that this was intentional and I honestly liked that they kind of blurred the lines between the characters and reality. Now, this sex scene isn't just for tits and giggles. It's actually really important. As the man in question happens to be Debbies husband who she has just had a child with. I thought it was very risky to begin a series by making the main character extremely unlikeable. I honestly found myself hating her for the first few episodes. Which is hard to do because she's genuinely a very funny character as well. The reason I could hate her was because of Debbies performance. Her reaction and her acting were pretty powerful in my opinion. By the end of the first or second episode (sorry, they kind of blend into one for me) Debbie finds out about Ruth's transgression and confronts her in the newly founded GLOW training gym. I was feeling the heat man, Debbie got me going, Of course I knew it was acting, but it was very convincing, and it was only because of Debbie that I continued to watch the show. Oh and Sam (Marc Maron), the director of GLOW, who is also fantastic in this series. (To clarify, Ruth is also fantastic in terms of her acting and humour. She takes you on a journey, where in the end, you're not sure if you hate her any more. Again, I just found that a risky thing to do, and I give the series credit for taking that path). Now I wanna mention cameos. There are a couple of wrestling cameos I wanna pick out that happen through the series. The first being Johnny Mundo/Nitro or whatever he calls himself today. I got pretty excited. He was essentially to be playing Chavo Guerrero Sr 's part as the wrestling coach for GLOW.  And I thought that was a nice touch. However, Johnny's part was written out of the show. I have no idea why this was. But I boiled it down to two reasons. Either 1) Johnny had other commitments, or he was too expensive to keep for the show. Or 2) they wanted to keep it as All-Woman as possible. Now, I don't mind it being as all woman as possible, I mean, this is GLOW we're talking about. But it felt a little unfair to write such a pivotal person out of the whole thing. It'd be like doing an ABBA movie but cutting the blonde. Chavo trained these women and he's one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. I felt a little respect was being lost there. But it didn't phase me too much, the replacement Cherry, felt a little off, but I also conceded that it may have also been a move to keep her character relevant in the series somehow. Which I applaud because Sydelle Noel is a really good actor and I loved her banter with her husband Keith (Bashir Salahuddin).   Time progresses and we get to know some of the characters more. All of which have fairly distinct personalities and are written really well. As they begin training for GLOW they start picking wrestling personas. This is where the show loses any form of PC direction. They make a character called “The Welfare Queen”, “The Mad Bomber Beirut” (A terrorist), “The Old Biddies”, the list goes on. If you wanted to you could find something to be outraged by by any character. Be it their stereotype or sexualization. But I really liked this essence of realism. The girls took it on without too much complaint, understanding they needed to appeal to audiences with simple concepts and humour. Some of course questioned it, but eventually all of them fit into their personas easily. I have to say The Welfare Queen being one of the funniest things ever. She happily fucks the government, wears a Burgerking crown and throws food stamps around like she's making it rain. It was outrageous, I loved it and gave me some of my biggest laughs from the show. (The other irony of this character being that Tamme (Kia Stevens) was actually a very successful woman who has a child in stanford university). Ruth struggles to pick a persona, and as she struggles Debbie is enlisted by Sam to join the GLOW team as the star of the show “Liberty Bell”, an all American, wholesome apple pie eating country girl. It's disgusting and patriotic and I loved that too. Of course this creates friction for both Ruth and Debbie, as Debbie still hadn't forgiven Ruth for sleeping with her husband. And neither had I. To cut a long story short, the girls band together and eventually put on the first real GLOW show to some minor success. Ruth finally gets a persona, which is also successful (and hilarious), and we see the characters grow and progress. Along the way there are ups and downs, perhaps one of the worst being Ruth's abortion scene. And as a brooding man myself, that scene actually made me tear up a little. Now a lot of people will push this series as a feminist series. But I don't see it that way. Of course it stars a bunch of women doing what men would normally be doing. But that had already been done in the 80's with the original GLOW and so I don't feel that this series is all that special when considering that. Also, when I come into contact with shows that are more “feminist” in nature, they tend to err towards a slightly more idealistic, or Mary-Sue type characters that can do no wrong. Or are just never very introspective, or cast men in a kind of bad light. This is not the case here, many different types of women are portrayed here. Successful women, clueless girls, party girls, responsible girls, weirdo girls, nerdy girls, witty girls. Of course some characters are a combination of these things as well. There are also moments where there is clarity that men and women can't always do the exact same thing, and that respect goes both ways for different strengths. I liked this a lot as this side of life is not often portrayed in current media and is something that should be mentioned and celebrated more. I also feel that this series makes wrestling more appealing to women. And I'm all for that. Anything that gets more women into watching wrestling gets my stamp of approval erry damn day. Oh, the other cameos were Brodus Clay and Christopher Daniels. There were others, but I have no clue who those guys were. They probably worked for TNA, and TNA sucks ass these days, so I never watch it. So what's my totally bias and subjective star rating for this series? 4.2 out of 5. The acting was generally good, sometimes amazing. The humour was excellent, particularly picking up in the last few episodes. The plot never felt stale, each episode felt like it's own story but also added to a bigger story. Each character was fleshed out and felt relevant. The camera work was great. The music/score for the series left a little to be desired, with just flashes of music here and there, and sometimes I thought the choice of song was a little off. The 80's aesthetic was pretty on point. Honestly, I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of wrestling and comedy. This is good stuff and I await the second series with pleasure.

[skillzme]

80 Common SEO and Technical Mistakes on E-Commerce Websites [Infographic]

Marketers are struggling with pitfalls all over the place when working with websites and e-commerce market places, technical mistakes are common. Technology can be overwhelming and pulling their attention away from the importance to focus on audience, products, services and brand management.

Digital Marketing is not anymore like traditional marketing. In the era of digital transformation happening everywhere, marketers want a proof of their investment. Seriously, only 80? Sorry, I had to mention this here, but a good starting point is to have awareness for the pitfalls. What are the most common technical and search engine optimization (SEO) mistakes on e-commerce websites? Which technology, security, performance, and content issues are many marketers and organizations struggling with? SEMRush a group of SEO and IT specialists used its Site Audit tool to analyze 1,300 e-commerce websites around the globe to compile a report of findings. They summarized the 80 most common technical mistakes in an infographic. CRAWLABILITY It is important for your site to be crawlable as this is the only way search engines can index your content. If your content is not crawlable for whatever reason, it will not be indexed and that content will not show up in search engine results. E-commerce sites are a different breed of a website and it is important for them to block search engines from crawling some parts of the site. For example, faceted navigation that allows people to search sites with multiple filters applied can cause duplicate content if not handled properly. INTERNAL LINKING Internal linking helps both users and search engines to find your content. and tile fact that 900  e-commerce sites have broken internal links on their websites shows how even the big e-commerce companies with large marketing budgets can still get the simple things wrong. SITEMAPS Sitemaps are the way to help search engines find your content and to let them know ii the content has been updated. But not every page of your website has a place in the sitemap, like pages that redirect or have the no index tag. You should only be sending search engines information on pages you would like to have indexed. URL STRUCTURE Google recommends keeping the URL structure simple, so both crawlers and humans can read them. Using underscores instead of hyphens, having too long URLs or too many URL parameters adds to the confusion. ROBOTS.TXT The robots.txt file is a way for site owners to communicate with search engines before they start crawling a website. Informing web crawlers about which areas of a website should not be processed or scanned is very important and the fact that we found 195 e-commerce sites without robots.txt is quite shocking. OUTDATED TECHNOLOGY It is not advised to use flash content on a website. Whilst it may look great. using this outdated technology can cause troubles with the search engine indexing. Doctype tells the search engine which version of html or xhtml is being used and it's important for the pages' content to load. Unspecified doctype can lead to overlapping content and an increase in page loading time. SECURITY: HTTPS IMPLEMENTATION Website security is a high priority for online stores, a browser signaling an unsecured connection can scare off your customers. Migrating to HTTPs can be a challenge, even for the big e-commerce companies. The majority of analyzed websites have pages linking to the old (HTTP) version of their site and pages with mixed content. so the search engines can't tell if the page is secure. SECURITY: SERVER & SSL CERTIFICATE Implementing HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is a must for e-commerce as it forces the site to load only the secure version, leaving fewer opportunities for hackers. Another component of secured connection that gets overlooked is managing the SSL certificate - it should be up to date, valid, and registered to the correct domain. INTERNATIONAL SEO Growing your e-commerce site globally is a great challenge. If your site sells the same product in different countries and languages, you need the search engines to understand that you might have similar content for different locations. Hreflang tags help with this, but many of the sites that we audited had them configured incorrectly. WEBSITE PERFORMANCE We have the need for speed. Website performance has never been so important. Your website's loading speed has an effect on your user's experience and your rankings in search engines. Reports show that for every second of delay in load time you can see a 7% decrease in conversions. AMP With over 60% of searchers now using mobile and Google switching over to mobile first indexing, providing a good mobile experience is more important than ever before. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is the technology that helps to provide users with the much faster loading mobile pages, but in order to do this it puts restrictions on the page's code, and it requires attentive implementation, so not many e-commerce websites use this technology yet. To help you set up your AMPs correctly, SEMrush detects over 40 AMP related mistakes while showing you the exact line of code with the error.  CONTENT Investing time in the quality of your content really pays off. It is as important for e-commerce as for any other site. But e-commerce content is harder, as many shops are selling the same product in different colors and sizes. so duplicate content along with short descriptions becomes a much more common issue. META DESCRIPTION Take the time to see how you can make your meta descriptions more unique and catchy. Users in search only get to see this snippet of text in the SERP so cry lo let them know what a good product and deal you're offering. TITLE TAG / H1 TAG We found that over 400 e-commerce sites had pages with no title tag, which is crazy as the title is the first impression of a website that search engine users get. Titles should be informative, and as e-commerce, you can try including price or sale data to increase your CTR. Test and optimize until you get the balance right. The H1 tag is a page heading that lets the search engine know what the topic of the page is, yet over 1000 e-commerce sites have pages with no H1. Google bots can handle multiple H1's on a page but to avoid distracting them it is advisable to use only one. For an e-commerce page, one is usually enough, you wouldn't want an H1 on your pages saying "Add to Cart". IMAGES Broken images can cause problems for any site but when it comes to e-commerce no image almost always means no money. Alt tags are extremely important too as they are used to help with image search and are also used by screen readers for the visually impaired. Make sure that your alt tags are descriptive and relevant to the image. You can read all the technical mistakes below in the infographic and how they are effecting the 1300 visited websites. Share your experience of ranking problems with search engines and if you could improve them with correcting them, use our commenting section below.  Read the full article

[apollo-v1]

Pro Tips for Growing your Mobile Ranking Significantly

The best part about SEO is also its worst part. SEO specialists are almost always going in blind especially when Google releases an algorithm update or two. However, let’s focus on the more optimistic part and talk about how we can go about this, specifically with growing your mobile rankings.

The best way to keep yourself up to date with Google’s algorithm updates is by taking a look at Google’s Webmaster Blog. With that said, it is worth noting that majority of Google’s updates over the past couple of months focus on mobile instead of desktop. Their most notable update was when they announced mobile-first indexing, which we also covered.

Anyway, the gist of Google’s current campaign is focusing on Mobile-First so I’m taking this opportunity to list down a few things you might want to keep in mind order to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. Let’s get started.

1. Get to know your site: Find out if it’s mobile friendly

First thing’s first right? The first logical step in this endeavor is finding out if your website is Mobile Friendly or not. The easiest way to do this is by using a tool – and it’s worth noting that this tool is accurate because it comes from Google Search Console.

First step is visiting Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. The website or tool is fairly simple to use; in fact all you need to do is type in your website’s URL and that’s it.

So now that’s done, you now have an idea if your website is mobile-friendly or not. The next step is doing a full audit of your website to see where it’s strong, where it’s vulnerable and find out what you can improve. The reason for this is that there are many factors can potentially affect your SEO rankings.

You’re going to want to make sure that your website is crawlable where it counts and protected where it should be. After that is finding a tool that you think is suited for your website’s needs. The things that you should keep in mind when looking for an auditing tool is that it has to be able to perform a full-audit on your site as well as being able to search for every possible SEO factor that might be affecting your site.

When you’re done with the mobile-friendly test as well as finished with your website’s full audit then solving whatever problem that you’ve found should be your priority. There are minor SEO mistakes that you could be missing but here are some of the more common ones that you should definitely fix:

Slow-load times especially on Mobile

Broken Links

Blocked Resources such as images, Javascript and the like

Unsupported Content

Intrusive ads

Mobile-404 errors

As you go through the list of your website’s problems, it is prudent to track your progress by using Google Search Console. Simply go to Search Traffic -> Mobile Usability so you can monitor your website as well as any error that the tool can find.

2. Optimize your website for voice search

Google has been working on perfecting Voice Search for a while now. This is evident in other companies’ endeavors in order to make voice search viable, such as Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana. In line with this, Google has recently announced that Voice Search is the fast growing option for search – and it may soon overtake typewritten search but I personally believe that scenario may not happen for some time.

Some background on voice search: According to Google, at least 55% of teens and 40% of adults were regularly using voice search – the twist is that this was back in 2014! Obviously, that number has grown significantly since then.

Anyway, optimizing your website for voice search isn’t really difficult. The key is to understand why and how people verbally ask search engines. Here are some examples:

The How: The main difference between voice search and typewritten search is that typewritten queries are often short-form and are sometimes just the keywords themselves. Some examples include “Best SEO Philippines” and “Best Burger in (location)”.  Verbal queries, on the other hand tend to express complete thought such as “What is the nearest movie theater in (location)?”

The best way to ensure that your content is included in voice search is to, in turn, ensure that your SEO includes long-tail keywords that directly address these queries.

The Why: Sure, addressing long-tail keywords is easier said than done but truth be told, it’s really easy as long as you know the why.  Here’s a guide that you might want to remember when you start crafting long-term keywords to make your website voice search optimized:

I want to know _______

I want to go ______

I want to do _______

I want to buy _______

The guide is mentioned at Google’s Micro Moments Guide and according to the same article, voice search is usually done to satisfy the four above queries. Google refers to these types of questions as “micro-moments” and they are often asked to satisfy an urgent need. What this means is that these questions should be answered in a way that’s prompt as well as accurate.

3. Local Search is something that you should prioritize

Voice search is trailblazing into a promising era of fast, accurate searches which means that local searches are also steadily increasing. According to Google’s Micro Moment Guide which is linked above, Google believes that the search for local business that are near the user have increased to at least twice their norm. Google also says that 1 in 3 smartphone users will most probably purchase from a store or brand regardless of what they initially wanted precisely because Google listed that brand first when they made a quick search.

Crazy. right?

What this means is that local search is definitely something that you should work on as soon as possible. Not only can it make your business more marketable, it also allows your website to become more SEO friendly. Google likes that so they list websites like that first and it wouldn’t hurt to be liked by Google, yeah?

Furthermore, if you sincerely want to be mobile-first (After reading through this article, of course you’d want to be mobile-first), you’re going to want to be the top result for your field of business or for the services that you specifically offer. Here’s what you can do:

Definitely register at Google My Business. Here’s the link.

Represent your business properly by including high-quality photos of your business or your services/products.

MAKE SURE THAT YOUR ‘CONTACT US’ PAGE IS CONSTANTLY UPDATED. Also, it won’t hurt to make your contact page really visible so Google can display it on their SERP when it counts.

Schema Markup helps. Include it when possible!

Finally, one of the most freely accessible assets that you can request from your users are REVIEWS! It’s a win-win scenario, really. Make sure that your customers/users are satisfied so that they’ll give you good reviews which in turn makes your business looks good. Win-win, right?

4. Accelerated Media Pages!

Google is hard at work in promoting their latest endeavor in the form of AMP or Accelerated Media Pages. These pages are well-liked by Google simply because they load instantly – or at the very least, as fast as possible. Google says that AMP loads 4x faster than regular mobile pages and are well-suited for mobile users because it offers them everything that they need: Instantaneous results which promptly solves their more pressing concerns using as little data as possible.

AMP pages are actually more simple than you think. They basically use stripped-down HTML coding as well as a bunch of specific, custom tags that are designed to let these pages load faster than regular pages. What this means for your content is that you should have two versions:

Regularly written content with multimedia design in order to make it pleasing to look at.

A stripped down version of the article designed for AMP which means no Javascript, extra content, lead forms and the like.

WordPress is actually really easy to work with when it comes to AMP. Install an AMP plugin as soon as you can just so you can enable AMP for your pages. As of writing, AMP is still being strongly pushed by Google – and I can’t blame them. AMP is nothing but good for your website if it help your content load extra fast, as well as help people find your content in the first place.

Key Takeaway

2017 is the start of Mobile officially taking over the internet if we take 2016’s monthly heralding of the age of mobile into due consideration. What this means is that Mobile is no longer simply a trend, and instead it is something similar to a force of nature – we have to accept that it is inevitable. 2017 marks the year where mobile-friendly is slowly repealed in favor of making websites mobile-first and there’s a very big divide between the two.

Do you have any questions? Any experiences with mobile browsing that you want to share with us? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!