#hot line miami bodyguard

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

AU where Sasha (that's what I named Bodyguard as I think Sasha is a gender neutral slavic name) decides to fuck over The Father and saves Donna (that's what I named Girlfriend)

AND THEY FALL IN LOVE

[imnameimswrld]

002 ━━ 𝐀 𝐍𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 ,,

warnings: language.

Turning down the Panic At The Disco that had been blasting in the car for the past half hour, everyone gathers their things before getting ready to step out into the fresh Miami air.

A few cameramen catch my eye through the windshield, and I know the second my door opens, the pictures for today's Formula One news are gonna get shot. Better make sure I look dapper. Haley's copper hair blows over her shoulder from outside where she awaits with two bodyguards at her sides, their size making her seem a whole lot smaller than what she really is.

"We all suited up gang ?" I look around in the car, handing the keys to my aunt who sits beside me so she could drop them in her bag once we're all out.

Everyone nods, Mattie's being a little more vigorous than the rest, his little hands having a death grip on the collar of his Ferrari t-shirt. Celina and Renée where the same, and of course I'm sporting my wicked blue jeans and SF polo shirt, a pair of RayBan sunglasses pushed up into my hair. Although I would've loved to wear my trusty Airfoces, Mattie refused to wear his slip on Van's unless I was wearing mine too – and I'm sorry, but no member of my party will be rocking up to the paddocks in flip-flops.

The doors all open as we step out, and a little smirk pulls at my lips when I notice Haley deliver a firm stare at one of the cameras that drift a little too close to the money maker. Chuckling softly, I pat her shoulder in greeting, before I round all my people up and we start the walk towards the entrance. The sun is absolutely unforgiving and my eyes can barely stay open until I've pulled my shades down, and I'm silently thanking my aunt for forcing Mattie and I to lather ourselves in SPF-50.

"Where's Micah ?" my manager keeps her voice low from her stride beside me, and at the sound of the name an immediate scoff gets released from the other side of me.

I briefly turn to share a look with Renée, and I can just tell she's fighting back a crazy hard eye roll.

I sigh softly before looking back forward, instantly noticing the throng of reporters hovering around the scan-in station.

"Not now Hals."

I don't need my name headlining the news tomorrow, and I sure as hell don't want to be making Bonnie's job harder than it already is. All I do is breath, and with that one exhale does a line of false rumors and accusations follow. The life of a Formule 1 driver is, unfortunately, not just about the car we drive.

I can tell this isn't a topic to be dropped, just by the stern look I'm getting in Haley's eyes, but for now she steps back from it, allowing a comfortable air to settle around us instead of the suffocating one that always seems to hang whenever Micah is mentioned.

Trust I'll be dumping the walking negativity soon.

"Ant !"

My gaze cuts to the voice ahead, gaze immediately settling into a set of soft,  pleading brown eyes. The reporters continue to shamelessly shove their mics in Oscar's face, and I suppress a chuckle as I excuse myself from my group for a moment.

"Hey Ozzie, hello." I hook an arm around the fellow Australian driver, placing a hand on his shoulder to deliver a reassuring squeeze. I can almost feel his relief seep out at my presence.

"Antonio ! Can you-"

I shake my head with a polite smile, not even daring to let them finish whatever question of the day it is. "I'm really sorry guys, but we actually have a meeting in about 10 minutes,"

I start pulling Oscar backwards away and towards the safety of my group, waving a hand to the reporters. "Thank you for coming, I hope you enjoy today's race !"

Once we're in the clear, the shorter blonde let's out a sigh of relief, and I pat his shoulder with a light laugh. "Thanks mate."

I toss him a playful wink. He greets my group and ends up waking along with us through scan-in. We talk more about what today could bring for us as driver's, but mostly complaining at how godawful hot it's going go be in the car today. Along the way Carlos and Lando end up joining, and we all agree to make a stop at the cafeteria for a snack.

"Oh mate," Lando swallows a sip of his Coke, twisting in his seat across from me with a curious glance in his eyes. "Where's Micah ? Feel like I haven't seen him in what, couple weeks ?"

The delightful cold of the air conditioning goes from a relieving blanket over me to an uncomfortable shiver down my spine.

Carlos hums from beside me. "Yeah, he was at Silverstone, but that was like, three weeks ago ? Tutto okay ?"

My fingers twitch around the dripping cold of ice coffee in my hands. Maybe I should just get it out so it would quit bothering me for the rest of the day. Besides, it would be nice to make the glower Haley is piercing into the side of head right now disappear.

Sighing softly, I look up to my aunt. I don't say anything, allowing just my eyes to speak for me. Fortunately, she understands immediately, and the little boy beside her doesn't. Which is why he's very quick to comply when she offers to buy him an ice-cream and go take a walk to say hi to the other drivers. He's just like me in the sense that he loves the attention he'll receive from everyone; the whole grid adores Mattie.

He's practically Danny Ric's son.

Bumping my fist to his and sending my aunt a grateful nod, I wait for the glass door to swing shut behind them, before leaning back in my chair, my hands settling on my jean-clad thighs.

"Don't expect a long explanation, because I'm really not looking for a therapy session right now," I sternly inform, stressing it with my tone, especially to my manager. That earns me a narrowed glare.

"I haven't heard from Micah since Silverstone."

Two reactions occur in that moment; my two fellow drivers gape with wide eyes at me, and the two remaining women around the table sit stoically, a brewing anger behind their gazes.

"But you've called, texted ?"

I scoff as I meet the Brit's enlarged eyes. "Of course I have Lando, and a fuck ton of times at that."

"So what, your novio just disappears for two weeks without a single word ? Esto es una mierda."

I hum once in response to Carlos, pursing my lips as I trace the little droplets with my fingers on my glass.

"It's not like it's the first time."

Two heads turn in the direction of the low voice, but Renée is sure to keep her bearing gaze on me. Renée and I rarely have serious fights, we just mesh that well. However rare though, things always start to heat up whenever my fuck-up of a relationship gets brought up. I know it's because she only cares for my well-being, which is why I can't ever find it in me to be annoyed with her reaction and attitude towards him. It's not like he deserves any better anyway.

"Mate, I would never butt into your relationship, I have no place whatsoever," Lando's eyes are full of sincere, and maybe just a twinge of fire. "But you're my friend, and a bloody great one at that. I just want you to he happy mate, that's all."

Who's heart wouldn't melt at the way those greens are looking at me right now ?

"Thanks Lan, I really appreciate that."

Contrasting the sweet moment, a shocking slap lands on the back of my shoulder, and I jolt at the sudden action. My eyes dart towards the Spaniard, who has a crooked smile on his face.

"I'm not one for the sappy stuff but, you know I'm here for you 'mano."

I huff out a laugh, nodding. "Si, gracias 'mano."

" Frederic wants his drivers in the paddock by 10, we should go."

They honey-toned voice speaks for the first time since, and my gaze cuts towards the brunette beside me. She already has her eyes ready to meet mine, and they are speaking a thousand words that her lips don't. She has been egging me on to drop Micah for a very long time, and I know it's about time I listen, but it's just about finding the right moment. For starters, he needs to fucking answer my calls.

"Right." I nod, following her lead as she stands, and it's only once we all do, do I notice a quiet gaze settled on me.

My fellow aussie. He hasn't said a single word since the topic of Micah came up, and it has me strangely confused. There's something very uneasy swirling around his eyes, and it's telling me just one thing.

There's something he knows about my boyfriend, that I don't.

[newstfionline]

Friday, June 4, 2021

America’s Biggest Companies (Fortune) Fortune magazine released its annual ranking of America’s largest companies, with Walmart topping the list for the ninth straight year. Boosted by the pandemic-driven consumer shift to online and bulk purchasing, the retail behemoth brought in nearly $560B in revenue. The company was followed by Amazon ($386B in revenue), Apple ($275B), CVS Health ($269B), and UnitedHealth Group ($257B). The combined list generated almost $14T in revenue last year—about two-thirds of the US economy.

Drought ravages California’s reservoirs ahead of hot summer (AP) Each year Lake Oroville helps water a quarter of the nation’s crops, sustain endangered salmon beneath its massive earthen dam and anchor the tourism economy of a Northern California county that must rebuild seemingly every year after unrelenting wildfires. But now the mighty lake—a linchpin in a system of aqueducts and reservoirs in the arid U.S. West that makes California possible—is shrinking with surprising speed amid a severe drought, with state officials predicting it will reach a record low later this summer. While droughts are common in California, this year’s is much hotter and drier than others, evaporating water more quickly from the reservoirs and the sparse Sierra Nevada snowpack that feeds them. The state’s more than 1,500 reservoirs are 50% lower than they should be this time of year, according to Jay Lund, co-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California-Davis. If Lake Oroville falls below 640 feet (195 meters)—which it could do by late August—state officials would shut down a major power plant for just the second time ever because of low water levels, straining the electrical grid during the peak demand of the hottest part of the summer.

Miami Faces the Hard Choices of Climate Change (NYT) Three years ago, not long after Hurricane Irma left parts of Miami underwater, the federal government embarked on a study to find a way to protect the vulnerable South Florida coast from deadly and destructive storm surge. Already, no one likes the answer. Build a wall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed in its first draft of the study, now under review. Six miles of it, in fact, mostly inland, running parallel to the coast through neighborhoods—except for a one-mile stretch right on Biscayne Bay, past the gleaming sky-rises of Brickell, the city’s financial district. The dramatic $6 billion proposal remains tentative and at least five years off. But the startling suggestion of a massive sea wall up to 20 feet high cutting across beautiful Biscayne Bay was enough to jolt some Miamians to attention: The hard choices that will be necessary to deal with the city’s many environmental challenges are here, and few people want to face them. The trouble is that the magnitude of the interconnected obstacles the region faces can feel overwhelming, and none of the possible solutions are cheap, easy or pretty.

A deadly vote (Washington Post) TAXCO, Mexico—Mario Figueroa sat in his armored SUV, surrounded by bodyguards clutching semiautomatic rifles. The bulletproof vest was stashed behind the back seat. These days, Figueroa rarely travels without his security team. As a candidate for mayor of this Spanish colonial city—once popular with American tourists, now lashed by drug violence—the 53-year-old businessman has already taken a bullet in the chest. Mexico is in the final days of one of its most violent electoral campaigns in modern times. Eighty-nine politicians have been killed since September, according to the security consulting firm Etellekt. Scores more have been wounded or threatened. The campaign has become a stark illustration of crime organizations’ quest to expand their control of Mexico’s territory. The violence has focused largely on races for mayor and other local government posts. “They want control of the police, control of public works projects, the budget, and illicit activities,” said Marcial Rodríguez Saldaña, the state leader of Morena, the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “We’ve reached an extreme,” Figueroa said.

US troops storm sunflower oil factory in Bulgaria (Foreign Policy) The owner of a sunflower oil factory in Bulgaria has taken legal action after U.S. soldiers accidentally stormed his business during a NATO training exercise. The mix-up occurred while soldiers were simulating the clearing of an airfield in southern Bulgaria, and continued on to Marin Dimitrov’s factory, where workers watched on as gun-wielding soldiers stalked through the premises. The incident has led to a rebuke from the highest levels with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev calling it “absolutely unacceptable.” “We always learn from these exercises and are fully investigating the cause of this mistake,” the U.S. embassy in Sofia said in a statement.

Beijing Introduces Three-Child Policy (Foreign Policy) On Monday, China announced that married couples would be allowed to have up to three children, raising the official two-child limit in a widely anticipated move. Despite government hopes, the introduction of the two-child policy in 2016 failed to produce a baby boom. It’s unlikely the latest policy change will affect China’s fertility rate, either. The public has responded with mocking contempt toward the idea that government restraints have held parents back from having more children, rather than the exorbitant costs of child rearing in China—from migrant families forced to pay fees for local public schools to upper-class parents who fear their children will fall behind without flute or calligraphy lessons. So why keep a limit on the number of children a couple can have at all? One reason is to provide cover for the ongoing forced sterilization of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, whose birthrate fell by nearly 50 percent between 2017 and 2020. Another is that China now has an enormous family planning bureaucracy that supports many jobs. Party leaders may also be concerned that the rich flaunting large families—such as late Macao casino tycoon Stanley Ho, known for his four wives and 17 children—would spark resentment.

Lebanese leaders exchange barbs as country sinks into crisis (AP) Lebanon’s president and prime minister-designate traded barbs Wednesday, accusing one another of obstruction, negligence and insolence in a war or words that has for months obstructed the formation of a new government as the country sinks deeper into economic and financial crisis. The power struggle between the premier-designate, Saad Hariri, on one side and President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil on the other, has worsened despite warnings from world leaders and economic experts of the dire economic conditions tiny Lebanon is facing. The World Bank on Tuesday said Lebanon’s crisis is one of the worst the world has seen in the past 150 years. In a late night burst of anger, protesters blocked main roads in Beirut and north of the capital. A young activist told a local TV station the protest was against the constant humiliation of Lebanese who line up to fill their cars with fuel, increasing power cuts, search for medicine and deal with confused banking decisions that are robbing thousands of their savings. The Lebanese pound, pegged to the dollar for 30 years at 1,507, has been in a free fall since late 2019. It is now trading at nearly 13,000 to the dollar at the black market.

Netanyahu opponents reach coalition deal to oust Israeli PM (AP) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents announced Wednesday that they have reached a deal to form a new governing coalition, paving the way for the ouster of the longtime Israeli leader. The dramatic announcement by opposition leader Yair Lapid and his main coalition partner, Naftali Bennett, came shortly before a midnight deadline and prevented what could have been Israel’s fifth consecutive election in just over two years. The agreement still needs to be approved by the Knesset, or parliament, in a vote that is expected to take place early next week. If it goes through, Lapid and a diverse array of partners that span the Israeli political spectrum will end Netanyahu’s record-setting but divisive 12-year rule. Netanyahu, desperate to remain in office while he fights corruption charges, is expected to do everything possible in the coming days to prevent the new coalition from taking power. If he fails, he will be pushed into the opposition. (Foreign Policy) While a new government is not yet set in stone, normal business carries on: Benny Gantz arrives in Washington today to request $1 billion in emergency military aid in order to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome defenses and help restock its bomb supply following the bombardment of Gaza. “I would imagine that the administration would say yes to this request and it will sail through Congress,” Senator Lindsey Graham said on Tuesday.

In Syria camp, forgotten children are molded by IS ideology (AP) At the sprawling al-Hol camp in northeast Syria, children pass their days roaming the dirt roads, playing with mock swords and black banners in imitation of Islamic State group militants. Few can read or write. For some, the only education is from mothers giving them IS propaganda. It has been more than two years since the Islamic State group’s self-declared “caliphate” was brought down. And it has been more than two years that some 27,000 children have been left to languish in al-Hol camp, which houses families of IS members. Most of them not yet teenagers, they are spending their childhood in a limbo of miserable conditions with no schools, no place to play or develop, and seemingly no international interest in resolving their situation. Only one institution is left to mold them: remnants of the Islamic State group. Kurdish authorities and aid groups fear the camp will create a new generation of militants. They are pleading with home countries to take the women and children back. The problem is that home governments often see the children as posing a danger rather than as needing rescue.

‘Come On In, Boys’: A Wave of the Hand Sets Off Spain-Morocco Migrant Fight (NYT) Daouda Faye, a 25-year-old migrant from Senegal, was elated when he heard that Moroccan border guards had suddenly started waving in undocumented migrants across the border to Ceuta, a fenced-off Spanish enclave on the North African coast. “‘Come on in, boys,’” the guards told him and others as they reached the border on May 17, Mr. Faye said. Normally, Morocco tightly controls the fenced borders around Ceuta, a six-mile-long peninsula on Morocco’s northern coast that Spain has governed since the 1600s. But now its military was allowing migrants into this toehold of Europe. Over the next two days, as many as 12,000 people flowed over the border to Ceuta in hopes of reaching mainland Spain, engulfing the city of 80,000. The crisis has laid bare the unique pressure point Morocco has over Spain on migration. Spanish government officials and other experts say Morocco increasingly sees the migrants as a kind of currency and is leveraging its control over them to extract financial and political prizes from Spain. Hours after the migrants began pouring into Ceuta, Spain approved 30 million euros, about $37 million, in aid to Morocco for border policing.

A Military Drone With A Mind Of Its Own Was Used In Combat, U.N. Says (NPR) Military-grade autonomous drones can fly themselves to a specific location, pick their own targets and kill without the assistance of a remote human operator. Such weapons are known to be in development, but until recently there were no reported cases of autonomous drones killing fighters on the battlefield. Now, a United Nations report about a March 2020 skirmish in the military conflict in Libya says such a drone, known as a lethal autonomous weapons system—or LAWS—has made its wartime debut. But the report does not say explicitly that the LAWS killed anyone. The assault came during fighting between the U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord and forces aligned with Gen. Khalifa Haftar, according to the report by the U.N. Panel of Experts on Libya. “Logistics convoys and retreating [Haftar-affiliated forces] were subsequently hunted down and remotely engaged by the unmanned combat aerial vehicles or the lethal autonomous weapons systems such as the STM Kargu-2 ... and other loitering munitions,” the panel wrote. The Kargu-2 is an attack drone made by the Turkish company STM that can be operated both autonomously and manually and that purports to use “machine learning” and “real-time image processing” against its targets.

[tabloidtoc]

OK, June 8

Cover: Cher Turns 74 -- in hiding and in love 

Page 1: Big Pic -- Kristin Chenoweth in a Winnie the Pooh onesie with boyfriend Josh Bryant and her dog Thunder 

Page 2: Contents 

Page 3: Contents 

Page 4: Kristin Cavallari dating again -- she’s ready for romance just one month after her split from husband Jay Cutler 

Page 6: Meghan Markle chronicled her time in the U.K. in a secret diary and the revelation has sent The Firm into a tailspin -- it’s confirmed everyone’s worst fears that Meghan has them over a barrel and could bring them down with the click of a finger 

Page 7: After Jennifer Lopez’s daughter Emme wowed the crowd with a surprise appearance during the Super Bowl halftime show J.Lo’s ready to take on the full-time role of stage mom as the 12-year-old preps to release a bilingual children’s book of prayers, three years after her split from music producer Jack Antonoff it seems Lena Dunham is still nursing a broken heart so much so that’s it’s affecting her day-to-day life, after more than 15 years of friendship Ashton Kutcher and Dax Shepard are still thick as thieves 

Page 8: Though it’s been two years since Tom Hardy wrapped up filming as the titular character in Capone which has just recently been released but the renowned Method actor still can’t get out of the notorious gangster’s mindset so much so that even his wife Charlotte Riley who is used to Tom’s extreme behavior during a film shoot is rattled by his demeanor and she’s telling him not to take any more weirdo roles because it affects their personal life, Jon Hamm is desperate to work intimately with January Jones again and the quickest path to that is through a Mad Men reunion -- Jon still feels deeply connected to January and in a lot of ways she’s the closest he’s had to a real-life spouse after the years they spent as an onscreen couple, The Bachelorette Hannah Brown is feeling the consequences of her actions after blurting out the N-word while singing along to DaBaby’s track Rockstar in an Instagram Live video and she apologized immediately but the backlash has been pretty brutal 

Page 10: Red Hot on the Red Carpet -- silver gowns -- Diane Kruger, Reese Witherspoon, Janelle Monae 

Page 11: Nina Kiri, Catherine Zeta-Jones 

Page 12: Who Wore It Better? Betty Gilpin vs. Nina Dobrev ✅, Chiara Ferragni vs. Dakota Fanning ✅

Page 13: Kaia Gerber vs. Nicky Hilton Rothschild ✅

Page 14: News in Photos -- during her televised City of Lover Concert Taylor Swift unveiled a few personal photos from her trip to France last September 

Page 15: Pierce Brosnan congratulated son Dylan for graduating from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Vanessa Hudgens, Adriana Lima relaxing in Florida, Ariana Grande shows off her new butterfly tattoo in an Instagram selfie 

Page 16: Lance Bass pointed out his platinum locks before dyeing them blue, Gwyneth Paltrow shared a snap of her and Chris Martin’s daughter Apple 

Page 17: Adam Sandler on a bike, Kate Beckinsale brushes her cat Clive, Elizabeth Hurley and her dog Ava, Britney Spears 

Page 18: Dean McDermott and son Beau playing golf, Sara Gilbert and estranged wife Linda Perry with son Rhodes at an L.A. park, Melissa Gorga played basketball with kids Antonia and Gino and Joey 

Page 19: Drew Barrymore read to her Instagram followers to take part in the Save With Stories fund, Shawn Johnson East and daughter Drew, Pink and kids Jameson and Willow

Page 20: Color Theory -- these ladies brightened up their looks at home -- Elle Fanning, Lottie Moss 

Page 21: Taraji P. Henson, Jennifer Love Hewitt 

Page 22: Arnold Schwarzenegger on a bike, Brooke Burke filmed a new exercise routine for her fitness app, Devon Windsor is having way too much fun doing physical couples challenges with husband Jonathan Barbara

Page 23: Josh Hutcherson on a bike ride around the neighborhood, Nicole Scherzinger and her boyfriend Thom Evans demonstrated easy workouts you can do at home, Venus Williams on the tennis court in Palm Beach Gardens 

Page 24: Inside My Home -- Kelly Clarkson’s modern mansion in L.A.’s ritzy Encino community is for sale for $9.9 million 

Page 26: What went wrong between Brian Austin Green and Megan Fox 

Page 27: Blake Shelton is worried history will repeat itself now that he and girlfriend Gwen Stefani have splashed out $13 million for a mansion in L.A. which is their first home together but Blake thought things were going great with ex-wife Miranda Lambert until they really started pooling their money and putting down roots then they started to fall apart with arguments and bad feelings, just weeks after Ashley Benson and Cara Delevingne ended their two-year relationship Ashley was spotted locking lips with rapper G-Eazy but an insider claims it’s more of a rebound than a full-fledged romance, Ariel Winter and her boyfriend Luke Benward are talking marriage just six months into their romance

Page 28: Scott Disick and his girlfriend of two years Sofia Richie are taking some time apart and the official line is that Sofia’s giving him space to work on his personal issues but everyone knows they were hanging by a thread before his rehab stint, Ryan Reynolds has kicked up his workout regimen while at home in Bedford during the quarantine and it’s all about maintaining his physique and being able to fit into his tight Deadpool gear at a moment’s notice and she’s trying to get wife Blake Lively to join him in his three-times-a-day workouts but she’s become much more relaxed about staying in shape since becoming a mom, Love Bites -- Jaime King and husband Kyle Newman split, Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix expecting, Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner welcomed a son 

Page 30: Cover Story -- Inside Cher’s Private World -- from ongoing health issues to her secret new romance sources tell all about Cher’s wild life 

Page 34: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s unbreakable bond -- inside the Olsen twins special relationship and how Ashley is helping Mary-Kate move past her messy divorce 

Page 36: Matthew Perry on the mend -- after a rough few weeks Matthew has started to get his life back in order 

Page 38: Exes tackling quarantine together -- these former celeb couples have chosen to hunker down with each other. What could go wrong? -- Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber, Mario and Ramona Singer 

Page 39: Tyler Cameron and Hannah Brown, Jesse Metcalfe and Cara Santana, Getting Some Space -- these still-coupled duos have socially distanced from each other -- Julianne Hough and Brooks Laich, Johnny McDaid and Courteney Cox, Emma Heming and Bruce Willis 

Page 40: Interview -- Dua Lipa opens up about her new album and her life off stage 

Page 42: Summer Stunners -- swimsuit models spill fitness and diet secrets that will have you beach-ready in no time -- Nina Agdal, Irina Shayk 

Page 43: Emily Ratajkowski, Olivia Culpo 

Page 46: Style Week -- Gabrielle Union recently unveiled her Spring/Summer 2020 NY&Co collection with a sizzling campaign shot in Miami’s Little Haiti 

Page 48: Summersalt X Tanya Taylor swim collection, Katy Perry’s favorite headband 

Page 50: Warm-weather must haves -- Emily Ratajkowski 

Page 52: Beauty -- fast and east beauty boosters -- Kristen Bell, Ashley Graham 

Page 54: Entertainment 

Page 58: Buzz -- Sarah Jessica Parker commemorated her and Matthew Broderick’s 23rd wedding anniversary with an IG tribute 

Page 60: Hollywood Heat Meter -- Ellie Goulding occasionally fasts for 40 hours, Jonah Hill is the actor who swears the most in his films, Ryan Seacrest’s droopy eye and slurred speech during the American Idol finale was from exhaustion, Mindy Kaling will be cowriting the Legally Blonde 3 script, Brad Pitt recorded a surprise message for Missouri State University grads, Kanye West’s former bodyguard Steve Stanulis revealed his time working for the rapper 

Page 61: Sound Bites -- Chris Evans on why he caved and joined Instagram, Catherine Zeta-Jones on why her husband Michael Douglas doesn’t use TikTok, Ellie Kemper on shooting the Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt special with Daniel Radcliffe, Ryan Reynolds on quarantining with his three daughters 

Page 62: Horoscope -- Gemini Heidi Klum 

Page 64: By the Numbers -- Denise Richards 

[talkingismylifewrites]

So I saw in one of your replies you came up with a mob boss au. Would you ever write it and put it on A03 cos I would LOVE to read it. Also please say John's the mobster who's like "if you mess with Roger you'll die" so a rival gang kidnap Roger to blackmail John. But then Roger turns out to be trained in combat and beats the shit out them all and escapes and when John hears he's just like "I fucking warned you not to mess with him!"

okay this is a) a long time coming and b) was born from me watching all of narcos in like...a week

in fact, it legit started with me texting lo “maybe i’ve been watching too much narcos but.....” 

okay so our story begins with the knowledge that roger’s dad ran the mob

like roger is his heir and his son and his dad is the Big Kingpin

john’s dad is a shitty little lackey who has waaaaaaay too many debts so he grew up in the mob?? but lower ranks

and john sorta started getting involved when he was like 10 or so bc no one looks twice at the nicely groomed white kid right? and his dad was Desperate

and like he and roger had this whole Star Crossed Lovers shit bc a) roger was Not Allowed to be Gay and b) they weren’t ever supposed to have even met like completely different pay grades

BUT roger overheard him arguing with his dad over a better way to do a job that would be less dangerous and way harder to track but he got brushed off with a “the boss is always right you don’t argue john it’ll get you killed”

but rog was like.... shit no that’s WAY better

and ended up dropping a few lines to find out who this kid is cause... he’s smart and smart goes far right

like u gotta look Out for the smart ones, he knows that, his dad taught him that

(with backhands and cruel fists while teaching him chess, that one night in the barrel when he fucked up a simple plan when he was 13...)

(like rog is smart he’s just not Great at compartmentalization. so his plans start out great but go off the railed as he gets excited/pissed off) but like johns smart he picks up when he’s suddenly being tailed and is like Ok What Did I Do to one of them

and the guy panics and takes him straight to roger who is like..... how did u fuck up a simple tail, Jesus Christ

but yeah like he and john end up having a sort of clandestine friendship of sorts? in which roger essentially brings half baked plans to him and john Fixes them

which sorta turns into mutual pining

john is like this is my angry mob boss son best friend and roger’s like this is my evil genius best friend who kills people

but yeah basically roger’s dad keeps beating him when things go wrong, even if its not his fault

John is observant okay he was noticing the direct correlation between roger “getting jumped” and plans going wrong

So when it’s one of his??? That goes tits up (and tbh it wasn’t even like a bad screw up they just had a witness who was taken care of the next day) and roger like slinks into Johns apartment/office with the break down for John and his eyes is swollen completely close and he’s got a fat lip the size of a strawberry John immediately is ready for murder

And roger never admits it’s his dad???? who’s beating him???

because Taylors Should Be Better

Because why would he? It’s embarrassing but also it’s happened his whole life it’s expected of a mob bosses son (think the Baba Yaga scene in John wick 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻)

which then turns into john pounding him into the mattress and promising no one will Ever land a hand on him again when he turns up one time with a battered to hell face because something went Wrong on one of the plans (which. extra emotional effect bc it was one of johns)

and like a month later roger’s dad is mysteriously found shot dead

cuz John mentally is like okay. Plan Ides of March is a go. Moving it up three years he’s getting taken out tomorrow

And John KILLS ROGER’S DAD IN COLD FUCKING BLOOD

the only??? person??? roger would EVER take that from is his dad

like johns heard the stories about roger taking out men twice his size yeah? but roger never has any defensive wounds on his hand

John knows that roger can and will defend himself

He’s seen him in action

But he never raises a hand against his dad when he straight up could kill him with one hand tied behind his back

so john figures it out and a month later roger’s dad is dead 

and now they need a leader?? another boss

and they look to roger, but roger is like no

he knows himself well enough, he is not strong enough in terms of planning and plotting, he’s a good action man but not strategist

that’s john

so roger steps aside and is like john is going to run the show

obvi there’s a power void and there’s basically civil war but with roger’s ruthlessness and john’s genius they fucking take all the little fractions down and they take them down HARD

john sits on his throne with roger standing over his shoulder, knuckles bloodied and grin wicked

and everyone knows if you fuck with roger??? you fuck with john

and vice versa

once, roger got shot on a mission and it was like, the one time?? john loans him out for a plan that wasn’t his

and he’s fine it’s just a graze but John and him in their bathroom and Johns like hyper focused on cleaning the wound and he furious and harsh and is like you fucking dumbass did no one teach you to duck?? You fool you dumb piece of shit

and roger just gently cradles john’s face in his hands and lifts his head to look at him and kisses him so gently and he’s like it’s okay, i’m fine, i’m here

and john’s like you are never going on any raid or plan or anything that i have not PERSONALLY vetted 

the next day, the guy who’s plan it was is sniveling and apologizing on his knees in front of John and Roger; it was an accident, he says

and johns like “it’s okay. i understand, these things happen.”

and then just blank eyed shoots him in the femur

“these things just happen, you understand?”

roger just smiles from behind him, doesn’t even flinch in the aftermath

john and roger rule with an iron fist until one day things go tits up

and roger ends up taking the fall for john, and he gets sent to jail

john, in retaliation, goes on the warpath

Because he’s totally turned around the family business they’ve gone more corporate and it’s more like s legit business now?? They still kill people and rob and shit but they’re not monsters or criminals

And they give money back into the neighborhood and shit and donate to charity and kiss babies blah blah blah

But the authorities are like we need to show our strength against these villains so Rogers looking at like 25years to life

And John just kinda is like okay cool I can fix this

And it’s the biggest campaign ever he’s got the best lawyers on retainer he’s blackmailing people left and right he’s buying witnesses and finding loopholes like he’s fucking working the system and he’s gonna get roger out even if it kills him because in his eyes it was His Fault

Roger is like your honor clearly there’s been some sort of mistake

Because the only thing that places him there is a grainy cell phone video and a witness that’s not exactly clean

So like the case isn’t solid

But it’s enough for a trial like most of it is circumstantial

And John is like I would kill the whole world for you and Rogers like sounds excessive but same

the difference between roger and john is that john would kill the whole world for roger after sitting down and planning the whole thing for several weeks. roger would kill the whole world for john and not remember doing it after (though still probably not regret it)

Roger would act first think later

And John would be like oh I planned it all out two years ago in the shower

Just in case

so roger gets sent to jail and john just...looses it

like he has to get yanked off of miami when the verdict is read of two years sentencing because its not technically miami’s fault??? its just shitty

and meanwhile, roger is getting dragged off to jail and he’s like don’t worry, babe, it’s gonna be fine

(it both is and isn’t)

roger shows up in jail and within a week he’s running the joint, he’s got lackeys and he’s paid off the guards and its basically a vacation

meanwhile john is just burning his competition to the ground, he’s making people rue the day they ever crossed him

(they TOTALLY get conjugal visits that last longer than uhhhh usual)

bc you betcha ass they’d be So fucking possessive of one another. like roger rules that prison with an iron fist 

anyways, miami appeals on the basis of circumstantial, and he basically proves that legit ANYONE else could have done it and this is clearly railroading and obviously roger is innocent

and after 8 months, he walks

when he gets out???? john is there to pick him up

they drive off to a safe house outside of the city and they had wicked crazy dangerous hot sex and its just insanity

and when they come back??? 

its like people know to just flee when they see them

john, mob boss and kingpin, and roger his dangerous and beautiful second in command 

also freddie is roger’s bff, miami is their lawyer, and crystal is roger’s bodyguard who always gets into more trouble than roger but he once took a bullet for roger so he’s chill

ps anyone tries to kidnap roger??? gets dealt with a) by roger and if roger manages to let them get away then b) john. you’d rather be dealt with by roger, and not john

[allwaswell16]

First Lines

I was tagged by my beautiful friend @phd-mama who is the absolute best. And you should go read all her fics because they are amazing. xx

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories. See if there are any patterns. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors!

Okay, so I technically have 23 things posted on ao3. BUT some are very short email chain things, so I think I’ll lump those together and put less than 20 things on here? Whatever. I do what I want.

1. Just Hear This and Then I’ll Go: Everyone knows that a talented singer with charisma and an attractive face must be in need of a record contract. Even if no one knows the feelings or views of the singer on his first entering the London music scene, the record labels assume him as the rightful property of one of them.

2. You’re the Light: Louis squints into the sun as he stares out over the lake. His toes sting a bit in the hot summer sand until he moves forward into the water.

3. past our satellites: A brutal chill reddens Harry’s cheeks and seeps through his bones as he clears snow from the steps and sidewalk in front of his greystone, the price one pays for living in the path of lake effect snow. He should have taken that job in Miami.

4. haven’t you heard: A cold winter gust of London air rattles through Harry as he makes his way from the taxi and into the building. He can almost taste the storm brewing. 

5. The Email Chain Series:  (1) Louis misses Harry. (2) Louis shuffles into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his bleary eyes. (3) Wey hey. Gotta group email thing going for us. (4) Remember when we had to cancel that concert because of Liam’s diarrhoea? (5) I see how it is. (6) So what’s the plan lads? We’re all home, yes? (7) Neil, I see you have a new email address, lad

6. Don’t Need Permission: The Alibi is crowded tonight. Bodies press together in waves of people as anyone tries to pass another on the way to the bar or the loo or to sing karaoke. Harry stands with his friends, ignoring anyone else who tries to engage his attention. 

7. Now That I’ve Found You: “What the hell, Jerry. What am I supposed to do now?” Harry speaks loudly into the speakerphone of his cell as his eyes watch for traffic, driving through a four way stop.

8. For You I’d Bleed Myself Dry: They step off the private plane and into the suffocating tropical heat of a St. Lucian afternoon. Sweat beads on Louis’ forehead before he wipes it away with the back of his hand. 

9. On a Day Like This You Know It’s Meant to Be: Harry remembers everything about the day he met Louis.

10. Won’t You Please Come Around: Harry stares at the tin of soup he’s heating up after work and thinks to himself that this may be the most pathetic day of his life. Then, he decides to say it aloud. “This may be the most pathetic day of my life up to this point.” The only living thing in the flat to hear him is his cat. 

11. Let Me Kiss You: Harry maneuvers the car through the mid-morning Chicago traffic, blasting Fleetwood Mac.

12. I’ll Be There: “Niallerrrrrr. Can’t believe you’re leaving me like this.” Louis moans from his sick bed.

13. You Really Got Me Now: “Lou, thank you so much for agreeing to go on the trip with us! Mr. Styles said he wouldn’t even consider going unless he had another chaperone.” Fizzy stares up at him with a wide smile, and Louis knows he’s made the right decision.

14. Looking Through You: As the hired car drives them to their hotel, Harry lets the humid air fill his lungs as his sunnies shade his eyes from the rays of the bright Barcelona sun pouring through the windows. He grins and turns to Louis. Louis’ blue eyes shine with excitement right back at him.

15. You & Me: “Are you serious, Mom?” Louis sighs loudly into the phone.“Stop rolling your eyes at me, Lou.” “I wasn’t!” He was.

16. but tonight (you’re on my mind): A cold gust of winter air blasts through Louis’ bones. He shivers as he makes his way from the car and into the pub. 

17. We Know Where We Belong: Harry strides confidently through the airport and out of the arrivals area with his bodyguard close beside him. All he can think about is finding one face in this crowd. 

Huh. Interesting. A lot of weather reports. lmaoooo. Okay, so if you’re reading this and want to do it, please do so, and I’ll tag these 10 people while we’re at it: @taggiecb @londonfoginacup @fullonlarrie @myownsparknow @suddenclarityharry @suspendrs @juliusschmidt @jaerie @louandhazaf @all-these-larrythings 

[talhaghafoor2019-blog]

Anthony Bourdain and Iggy Pop talk music, mortality and contentment

A crime scene on the block before makes us run late. It's a benign looking street, lined with bungalows and lush gardens in Miami's El Portal neighbourhood, where Iggy Pop has a little place he uses for work and hanging out. He chuckles when we mention the homicide. "Yeah, that happens. It's quite real out here." Anthony Bourdain is smoking by the stream in the backyard. He has already tossed his shirt, displaying jiu jitzu-toned abs and tattoos, and is telling the story of how they met a few years ago on holiday. "I've been a fan of Iggy And The Stooges since the beginning and was so starstruck it took me three days to walk up to him and introduce myself. Then we had him on my show [CNN's Parts Unknown] and we ate health food together. I didn't see that coming as a kid." We're sitting outside in the sun, it's hot and humid and I'm tempted to put my feet in the water. "We've seen some alligators swim by over the years, but chances are low. Anyway, maybe you want a beer instead?" Iggy asks, still amused. It's so easy with them, no publicists controlling messages, no agendas, just two guys telling it like it is...

Anthony Bourdain: I'm increasingly curious about the subject of contentment. I mean you're still touring now, right?

Iggy Pop: Yeah. I'm actually going tomorrow.

AB: You just released one of the best-received albums of your life, had what looked to me like a really triumphant tour and there you are out on the road again. Are you always hungry?

IP: I'm starting to get areas of professional contentment, but that stops at the county line; it does not do anything for me personally except that it solves a problem. The problem being: for years I was struggling - first to prove that I had any talent, then to create some skills and finally to fulfil it reasonably. But then once I got there it was, "OK. I did that, but I want to be happy." And that's a whole different deal. It's kind of like a dance. Being active seems to help. I'm 70, so sometimes a little voice is going, "Just take it easy."

Iggy Pop: I’ve actually decided to have a shorter life. I don’t really want to sit around till I’m 90

Read next

AB: Can you take it easy?

IP: I'm a little worried about that. There was a time when I wanted to get out of the Western world. I went down to Grenada and looked at a place, and I realised that if I lived in a Grenadian manner I'd be nothing but a blah. I'm going to need constant bodyguarding, guns and money to join the community there. Otherwise you just got a bunch of fat, old white people dying together, overeating, drinking. Not very attractive.

IP: So I've actually decided consciously to have a little bit of a shorter life. I don't really want to sit around till I'm 90.

AB: There is a difference between us. I asked you once what gives you satisfaction and you said when a total stranger comes up to you in the street and tells you how much your music meant to them personally and how they love your work and how important it was to them. That really surprised me. I have a real problem being content. When I finish a book I get that same sense of sort of loss and sadness. Is it possible for you to be happy for an extended period of time?

Read next

IP: Well, I'm not continually blissed out. Sure, I get my bliss personally. In other words, I don't get my bliss by listening over and over to people in the street thinking, "Boy, is it that good?" Even though every time I hear it that's what I think. But I get it in human situations. There is this little voice that is going, "The reason you're able to enjoy your life now is that you made it in rock'n'roll and people are giving you free visas all over the place. Dude, you are being spoiled!"

AB: But you paid the cost...

AB: I saw you on the last tour with Post Pop Depression and I saw the performance in New York and I've seen you many times over the years. The room was filled with love. How did that feel?

IP: It felt pretty amazingly good and relaxing. I played New York a lot since, what, 1969? I've been there again and again and again, knocking on the door. I could tell things were cool in the room. Everything was cool.

Read next

AB: I noticed something else: when you inadvisably leap off stage into the audience you always pick the biggest guy.

Iggy Pop: The death thing is a real hard one to think about. Will I be deaf? Will I be blind? Will I get an ulcer?

IP: Yeah! The absolute best is in an area where everybody is packed in and can't move. But if you can't get that, just the biggest target. And the one that's farthest from the floor, because what you don't want to do, where it gets dangerous - and sometimes this happens - you see my boots and then my head is down near the floor. And the danger is that your spine... You could have a bad time on the way up. That has nearly happened.

AB: Not one of the basic skills that they teach you in rock'n'roll school.

IP: No. I dislocated one of my shoulders trying to dive on a sour-faced little ten- or eleven-year-old kid at an amphitheatre. One of these sheds on a horrible tour I did in the Nineties called the Roar Tour, where RJ Reynolds Tobacco hired me to flog stuff to the youth. So I did the tour, but the audiences were there for a band called Sponge. We were out in rural Ohio between Columbus and Akron, and this little kid was just looking at me like, "You're not Sponge." And so I thought, "I'll show you, you little prick. I'm going to stage-dive you." And he moved and I hit the cement hard. And my arm came out at this angle and it wouldn't move. And they couldn't get it back in and we were an hour from the nearest hospital. My guitarist claims I was speaking in tongues. By the time the doctor jammed it back in, it had been out too long. It just hung for about six weeks. He said, "Well, 50/50 you get it back. You're pretty old." I was in my fifties. I was a little scared, but it came back finally.

Read next

AB: You're still jumping off stage?

IP: Well, yeah, a lot less. Less and less. I had to do it a lot on that tour to balance the suits, you know?

IP: My answer would be part-time only, not full-time. Because what happens is everything that goes with our freakiness - the egomania, the whoring, the unreasonable focus on one's self and one's own tiny problems of articulation and style and all this crap - will eventually, if it doesn't eat the other person, cause an atrophy of that other person.

AB: I love the story about how when [Italian film actor] Marcello Mastroianni died, all his ex-wives and ex-girlfriends showed up at the funeral.

Read next

Iggy Pop: Food has really come up. And rock’n’roll has really gone down

IP: The death thing is a real hard one to think about. Will I be deaf? Will I be blind? Will I get an ulcer?

AB: I'm hoping for a mob-style execution.

IP: Yeah, that sounds like something you could get.

AB: Or eating some very expensive sushi. You know, I'm eating sushi at Jiro in Tokyo and then somebody slides up and bang! I would not be unhappy with that as my last meal.

Read next

IP: I would like something fairly quick.

AB: You don't want to be hit by, like, an ice-cream truck. Then caught up in the wheel well and dragged down the street with the ice-cream truck playing happy music. This is my worry.

IP: That's true, we have a good [truck] here, called El Suavacito.

AB: I'll give it a wide berth.

IP: And he has the music, like Mister Softee music.

Read next

AB: That isn't what I want to hear as I bleed out.

GQ: Anthony, are you banned from any countries?

AB: There are a couple of places that I would feel very uncomfortable going back to. I think Romania is not too happy with me because the show we made there went very badly for us and ended up being a comedy classic that was harshly unflattering to Romania. Nothing against Romania, but just the way our local contacts tried to alter reality to make Romania look like a wonderland free of all problems. And it went disastrously wrong. I was on the front page news as a covert agent of Mossad and the KGB. In Turkey, there have actually been statements from government figures there claiming that some of the visiting celebrity chefs work for the CIA or intelligence services. That's not an atmosphere I feel too comfortable with. And the last time I was in Russia...

IP: I could see you working for the CIA.

AB: Can you see me passing the background check?

Read next

Anthony Bourdain: Cooking will never be as powerful as the song you lost your virginity to

AB: I was in Russia and it was a very unflattering show as far as Mr Putin is concerned. And my dinner companion was shot to death on the front lawn of the Kremlin shortly afterwards. I would probably be served some plutonium tea. Boris Nemtsov, who was the opposition leader, was having dinner with me and I asked him, "Aren't you afraid?" I mean people who've angered and insulted Vladimir Putin seem to be dying with some regularity. Bad things happen to them. And he said, "No, I'm too well-known. It would be too embarrassing." Then, as if to prove otherwise, he was not just shot, but he was shot right outside the Kremlin. So, yeah, Russia probably not. I would be very concerned about the food I'm eating there, for instance. A little radioactive plutonium in my sushi would concern me.

Is food the new rock'n'roll?

IP: Food has really come up. And rock'n'roll has really gone down.

Read next

AB: Here's what I think the difference is: first of all, every chef I know, if they could play guitar or bass or play in a rock'n'roll band, would walk away from cooking in a hot second. Cooked food and cooking is not the new rock'n'roll and never will be. It's a very powerful epiphany to taste something that evokes your childhood or an emotional moment. That's a very, very strong feeling. But it will never be as strong as the song you lost your virginity to. We experience food differently. We experience food in a very different way now with social media. You almost can't eat without Instagraming it. It's like otherwise it didn't happen. You know, when you're eating truffles you want to make sure that people who aren't eating truffles see that.

AB: And chefs used to complain about this thing of people taking pictures. Now I'll sit down with ten chefs, out come ten cellphones. And they're all hashtagging me. I'm like, "I'm right across the table. What are you tweeting at me for? I know what you are eating."

IP: When I chose music, I never cared about any of that. I never cared. The idea for me is that anybody that's really any good at it, the music thing, would do it for free. Howlin' Wolf often gigged for a fish sandwich - a fish sandwich, you know?

Read next

Anthony, you are on Twitter and don't hold back when it comes to politics. How do you deal with the trolling?

AB: I get attacked, but sure, I mean, look, when most of the people who attack you invariably can't spell, that's always satisfying. And I just don't really care. I don't really have a reputation to lose. I don't see myself as an advocate, I'm not particularly political. But I am acutely sensitive to the ridiculous. Anything that is ridiculous and hypocritical; I can't resist a good dick joke, let's put it that way. And the opportunity for dick jokes has increased exponentially in recent months.

Iggy, you've said before that you and your band were true communists because you shared everything.

IP: Yes, you could say that. I once had a beautiful offer for a film I couldn't do from a German director, a lady. It was about people who lived in a commune that was so communal everybody shared a wardrobe. I lived like that for a bit. Nobody had enough money to really make it in normal life. But you'd have more fun together anyway. And you could pool your money and get by. And you had enough to smoke dope, take psychedelics and drink a little, maybe, and pay the rent. And then go out.

AB: I reached a point very early on where I realised that I constitutionally don't really want to share my yogurt, I certainly don't want to share my drugs and I've been, I guess, to just about every communist nation on earth at this point. And I can't think of a place where, if we are talking communism, where it's not at least as grotesque as the most grotesque examples of nationalism, of the right. Maybe that's why I tend to love messy, dysfunctional countries that change governments every year. I love Italy, because it seems to barely work but somehow stays the same. Dysfunctional but glorious because they can't really change and they can't get anything done. It's still there for us and a and wonderful and delicious place.

IP: A small communal group, for a short, finite period of time, can make a really good piece of art. Either functioning as a film unit or as, sometimes, art groups. And then a leader will emerge, divisions will emerge. It's not practical. I don't want to share my yogurt anymore.

Iggy Pop: David Bowie had a nice apartment in Schöneberg. I lived with him for a while. He put in an expensive heater

I would also like to talk about Berlin. You both had experiences there, how long did you live there?

IP: It feels like it was either three years or the better part of three years. From the butt end of '76 through '77, '78 and '79 is a haze to me. I knew more painters when I was there. I knew Rainer Fetting, Salomé and I knew Martin Kippenberger pretty well. Kippy was an alcoholic, agitating, troublemaker, you know? And he was like Kippy Kippenberger. He looked like Ziggy Brzezinski. He looked like George C Scott in Dr Strangelove.

IP: And Kippy had to toot about everything. And he always had a bottle of Sekt in his hand, 24 hours, alcoholic. But he had a beautiful loft, he had a good 10,000 sq ft, I'd say, of Bauhaus loft space in Berlin for a couple of hundred bucks. It was painters, hash dealers, weird. The most beautiful thing about Berlin was there was still an old ballroom on the Ku'damm. And once a week an organ player would come in there and the old people would come and dance. And I would sit, you would pay two marks to get in, and just watch and listen to music. And there was a place, the Resi, an old place where you could dance. And then on the stage there was a water show. It was a workers' social club. And it had a huge dance floor ringed with booths, your good, spacious German booths, not a cheap little SoHo French restaurant rip-off.

Anthony Bourdain: I think what we are seeing in America is more an ugly reaction to fear than anger. Anger is a byproduct of fear

IP: No, a good spacious booth. And each booth had a pole with a number on it. And then you had a pad of paper and a pen. And what do they call those vacuums?

AB: Oh, where you send those messages through a tube?

IP: Right. So you could write, "Booth number 89, you look pretty good..."

IP: "...Would you like to have a dance?" But without having to go through the embarrassment. It's very German, you know? Have you been to Dresden?

IP: No, me either. I hear that seems to be having... it's full of cost-conscious, hardline young Germans now. One thing that kept Berlin afloat when I was there was the West German government gave a lot of money to the educational institutions. The students were basically these grumpy German draft dodgers. A lot of them were like, "I don't like anything. Give me some more hash." I lived the same. They would generally live in these Hinderhof flats with coal ovens. David Bowie had a nice apartment in Schöneberg. I lived with him for a while. He put in an expensive heater. And, later, after two winters, I put one in too.

Anthony, tell us about Beirut.

AB: There is this thing about Beirut where there is this willing suspension of hostilities for other purposes. Like you go to these fish restaurants by the shore and you'll go in and there will be a guy that used to run a Christian militia over there, Ms Hezbollah over there, a woman in full hijab or a burka, then women who just came from the beach in a bikini and threw something on. Like gangsters from different crime families all eating in a restaurant that they love. Nobody wants to fuck it up because they won't be able to eat at the restaurant any more.

Anthony Bourdain: Well, I'm often angry. I think some of Iggy's best music was angry music. I think it's a valid feeling

When did you go to Libya?

AB: Not too long after Benghazi. And everyone was cool, super happy to see us. "Oh, America! Thank you, Nato!" Everything was great. And then literally the next day everybody was just sort of, I don't know what the word is, moving away from us as if we were, like, targets. And shit started happening. We have unarmed security in places like that and they were super suspicious. Every night it was, bang, bang, bang on the door, pack your bags, get your passport, be ready to leave at any moment. And we'd have to have a meeting every morning between the crew to vote whether we were going to continue with this madness.

The risks must be in the back of your mind. In your books and shows there's an angry voice.

AB: Well, I'm often angry. I think some of Iggy's best music was angry music. I think it's a valid feeling. A lot of Raw Power and Fun House in particular, when I was an angry young man, those songs, some of those songs, I needed to hear those songs very, very badly. I was very unhappy, angry, frustrated. You've got to be careful about what you do with that anger. I think fear is a much more dangerous emotion. I think what we are seeing in America is more an ugly reaction to fear than anger. Anger is a byproduct of fear.

Iggy, before I forget, my friend Lorca, Leonard Cohen's daughter, said I should definitely tell you that he treasured the Polaroid you both took.

IP: Leonard! I didn't know that. That's a great thing to hear. He's a nice old boy.

AB: Leonard just passed, yeah?

IP: Yeah. You know he tried to hook me up with a three-way.

I want to hear the story from you.

IP: Somebody wrote in a classified that they wanted to meet a man with something like the finesse of Leonard Cohen and the raw power of moi. So he said, "Solicit it. We call her up and get her over here." But, you know, I was married.

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