#i forget because there's still a layer of shame surrounding liking the band

[angstics]

THE BAND FUCKING GLASS BEACH!!!!!!!!!!! i often forget that my chemical romance has had a profound impact on us culture and music

[funknrolll]

Celebrating Lizzo, the epitome of self-love, self-acceptance and inclusivity: a lesson we all needed to learn

Melissa Viviane Jefferson better known as Lizzo has come a long way to get where she is right now. One of the most influential and renowned artists on the music scene. The pop star is standing out for her empowering lyrics, her meaningful message of self-love, self-acceptance, self-worth, and inclusivity.

The artist born in Detroit in 1988, soon fell in love with music. Indeed, as early as third grade she started forming girl groups and writing songs with her friends. Then at the age of 10, she moved to Houston, Texas, and joined her school’s marching band as the first flutist. At first, the artist self-taught how to play the flute, and then during high school, she learned the technique and eventually got private lessons. This was when her passion for the instrument started and it’s going on still today. In fact, it is not a mystery that the flute is still so much present in Lizzo’s music and live performances to the point that the artist named it after Beyonce’s alter ego, Sasha the Flute (the instrument has also an Instagram account @sashabefluting). The pop star kept studying music during her college years, attending the University of Houston. Eventually, she dropped out to move to Minneapolis where she joined the all-female R&B groups The Chalice and GRRRL PRTY. During those years she met the music legend himself Prince and became one of his protegès. Eventually, Lizzo and her Chalice bandmate Sophia Eris collaborated with the Purple One on the song Boy Trouble on his 2014 album Plectrumelectrum.

Now Lizzo appears to be one of the most confident and self-aware artists. However, all this confidence was not something that she achieved overnight. It took her time and effort to get where she is now. In fact, in her interview with CBS Sunday the artist recalls “I take self-love very seriously because when I was younger, I wanted to change everything about myself. I didn’t love who I was.” … “I was insecure about me… I was insecure about my body, I was insecure about my hair, my smile, I was insecure about my personality ‘cause I was so different I was so nerdy kinda dorky, I was insecure about the way I talked, I was insecure about my voice, everything”. Eventually, the artist managed to push through all her insecurities and became the powerful, confident artist we all know and love. However, this transition was not easy to achieve. Indeed, as the artist said in an interview for CBS Sunday Morning: “You can’t scrape away the trauma, that trauma can’t disappear, you just have to go back to that trauma and just try to make a sense out of it… I had to address every layer of insecurity… I body-shamed myself every single day” … “when I’m looking at my body and shaming every little thing about it I have to look at all those things that I’m shaming and I have to find love in those things”. Indeed, it is not a mystery that the artist has always spoken out about this relevant topic. As a matter of fact, her performances, her music, and even her Instagram page are a celebration of self-love. In fact, as the artist said during an interview for the magazine Essence: ”I love creating shapes with my body, and I love normalizing the dimples in my butt or the lumps in my thighs or my back fat or my stretch marks.“. 

Moreover, Lizzo had everyone’s eyes on her during her performance at the VMAs 2019. The pop star gave indeed, one of the most empowering performances backed up by an all-female and all-sizes dancing crew behind her. With that performance, the artist was delivering a message of self-acceptance, self-worth, and inclusivity, especially for the most marginalized groups of women in the USA. The next day the artist shared some thoughts on her performance on her Instagram page, pointing out that every woman on that stage had her story of why they did not believe they belonged in the spotlight. “Every woman on that stage had a story of either why they shouldn’t have been on that stage or why they didn’t believe they deserved to be on that stage, including myself. “Imposter syndrome” is a privilege to the most marginalized group in America. Not only were we taught to believe we didn’t belong in the spotlight, but when we finally get to a place to self-worth the world tries to knock us down. Not this time. The world smiled with us. The world sang us. The world saw our beauty last night. The world saw black women feeling Good As Hell and cheered us on.”.

Moreover, Lizzo has always taken her music very seriously. Her first solo album Lizzobangers dropped in 2013, followed by Big GRRRL Small World in 2015 and Coconut Oil, her Atlantic Records debut EP, in 2016. Coconut Oil even climbed onto the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. However, her latest album Cuz I love You brought her to fame. Not only are the sounds and the arrangements extremely original, but most importantly the message of self-love, self-acceptance, equality, feminism, positivity she is putting out through her music is so inspiring, motivating, and life-changing.

As a matter of fact, in songs like the hit Juice, the artist is encouraging her listener to “shine and live a better and happier life”. Additionally, in many other songs, the positive message is still much present. For instance, in Like a Girl the artist is encouraging her audiences to emancipate themselves, to fight for themselves, to be strong, and to be self-made. Exactly how I feel is characterized by a quite straightforward lyric and meaning: to stay true to ourselves and to be real. Indeed, quoting some lines “Love me or hate me/ I ain’t changing/ and I don’t give a fuck. Subsequently, Soulmate is practically a love letter the artist wrote to remind herself that to be loved and to change the world there is need to start loving herself first and that as the artist sings “figured out I gotta be my own type” and be aware of her self-worth. All the songs the artist has written are an emotional journey through her memories, life, and feelings. Indeed, as Lizzo said herself “My songs feel happy, but they come from a sad or frustrated place”… “My songs are always the silver lining or the ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ moments”. Songs such as Truth Hurts and Crybaby were indeed written and recorded through tears. As the artist recounters in the interview with the magazine Elle “Those songs are actual anecdotes, like real stories about real moments in time. ‘Pull this car over, babe’—that is something that happened to me. ‘New man on the Minnesota Vikings’—that happened to me. ‘Old me used to love a Gemini’—that happened!”.

The artist has also been extremely open about mental well-being on her Instagram account. Indeed, last June in one of her posts, she wrote: “I’m depressed and there’s no one I can talk to because there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Life hurts”. Then her fans showered her with comments thanking her for speaking out and for being completely open and honest about this delicate issue. The artist then shared some thoughts on this topic saying “You realize that people truly care about you and they’ll help you, and they don’t mind helping you”… “Being in those places is inevitable for me; I’m going to end up there again” then she adds “But the fact that I’m prepared now to go to those places—and I have a toolbox, and I know I can pull myself out—is really helpful to me in my mental health journey.”.

Also  during her live performances, the artist is delivering a powerful and empowering message to her audiences. Indeed, during one of her concerts in Glastonbury, she encouraged her fans to love themselves because “we can save the world if we save ourselves first… and we can all change the world”. In another concert, the artist explained the powerful purpose of her music and performances: “I do this because I love to make people smile, I love to make people feel better… I wanna make the world a better place”.

And this is not over, because, in February the artist entered the 62nd annual Grammy Awards with 8 well-deserved nominations. She opened the event with a powerful and poignant tribute to Kobe Bryant who passed away in a helicopter crash. The artist stepped on stage in a black sparkling ball gown and surrounded by a full orchestra she performed a mind-blowing, majestic medley starting with her latest album’s title track Cuz I Love You. The next song in line was Truth Hurts and Lizzo’s long time companion Sasha the Flute could not miss. What a dynamic duo!! The artist flexed some of her impressive flute skills before the last chorus.  Eventually, Lizzo won  (well deservedly I would say) three awards, including best pop solo performance for Truth Hurts, best urban contemporary album for Cuz I Love You (Deluxe) and best traditional R&B performance for Jerome. During the acceptance speech for pop solo performance, the singer honored one more time Kobe Bryant.  ”I want to say this whole week I was lost in my problems and then in an instant, all that can go away and your priorities really shift. Today all my little problems I thought were as big as the world was gone. I realized people are hurting right now,“ Lizzo said. Then she thanked the artists for ”making music that moves people again, that liberates people,“ "you guys create beautiful music. Thank you for lifting me up. Let’s continue to reach out, hold each other down, lift each other up”.

The artist was then honored with the Entertainer Of the Year at the 2020 NAACP Image Awards and she enchanted the audience with another heartwarming and powerful speech: “ I want to shout out to all the big black girls that I bring on stage with me. I do that because I want them to know that they are the trophies” … “Every last one of you, you are the award! We are so special!! We are such a beautiful people, this is just a reminder of all the beautiful things that we can do”.

During these months, Lizzo did not forget to spread good energy and positivity leading a group meditation to promote healing. The artist turned her Instagram into a meditation sanctuary where she encouraged her fans to find some peace and calm during the pandemic. The video featured Lizzo playing her flute while seating in front of a collection of crystals and burning sage. The artist then graced us with some uplifting words “I wanted to empower everybody, I wanted you guys to know that we have power, you have power. You have the power to eliminate fear.” … “I wanted to take the time today to do a mass meditation, 30 minutes of your time, and if you can’t stay the whole time that’s fine. But we’re gonna come together and we’re gonna take deep breaths and we’re gonna join in agreement and we’re going to try to eliminate the fear as much as we can” … “ We really need to listen to each other, we really need to feel each other out, we really need to be there to help each other, we can’t be afraid of each other”.

Speaking of the pandemic, we also saw Lizzo taking part in Lady Gaga’s One World: Together at home concert. The artist delivered a heartfelt, powerful, and personal rendition of Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come. She could not have chosen for a more appropriate song for the times we are living in the middle of the pandemic. After finishing the performance the artist enchanting us with some words of hope and love “Thank you to everyone working hard to keep us safe, thank you to everyone staying home and keeping themselves safe, I love you. We got this. We’ll get through this together. “

The cherry on the top of the pie, the singer keeps being a fierce queen supporting not only mental health but also advocating self-love and body positivity, encouraging her fans to practice self-care and love. Even today on her birthday, she asked us as a present, to write under her last Instagram picture some nice comments about ourselves and eventually she reminded us to “shake that ass”. A real queen and role model for everyone ❤️ wishing queen Lizzo a beautiful and happy birthday, I will go and practice some self love and shake my ass, just as she taught us!! All hail to the queen✨

Don’t forget to show Lizzo some love today✨

Thank you for your attention. G✨

[vaingloriosa]

Under The Twinkling Lights

John Wick/ Reader

Words: 1.9k

Summary: The wedding of your vile cousin was a pretty hard pill to swallow. You remember that you had to find a date somehow to one up her. That’s when your finger hovers over John’s name on your phone.

Request: Fake dating au where reader asks john wick to go to her cousins wedding with her as her fake date bc she and her cousin hate each other and she doesn’t want to be made fun of so she asks him and he’s like sure and they fall in love over the weekend. 

Tagging: @kwaiky, @ly--canthrope

Requested by: @truely-the-darkest-timeline

Author’s note: imma just say that wow... i had a whole bunch of fun writing this. tweaked the request a bit to fit this vision i had on the direction i wanted this fic to go on. shouts out to my parent’s for such a power move!

You are cordially invited to-

You throw down the invitation in irritation. You know damn well your cousin only sent this invitation out of courtesy and not out of the genuine kindness of her heart. She would much rather have your creepy next door neighbor come to the wedding instead of you if she could.

The story behind your hate towards one another is rather simple: your grandparents had always held a favoritism towards her. Spoiling her, paying some of her tuition for college, and actively praising her for basic human growth. On the other hand, your grandparents couldn’t even spell your name right, let alone give two cents for college. No matter how hard you tried, you were never enough for one side of your family. Never good enough to be as prestigious as them, whatever that meant. Ever since that one family reunion when you were younger, you had never hated anyone more than your cousin.

You sigh as you begrudgingly pick the invitation back up to read the rest of the stupid thing. Your eyes lay on those little words: plus one. You close your eyes for a moment and realize that you had to bring somebody to this wedding. And not just anybody; you needed a boyfriend.

You scratch your head and groan out loud. How dare your cousin put this amount of pressure on you? You sink lower into the couch to contemplate your options. You grab your phone then know exactly who to call up.

John’s name appears along with the multiple heart emojis you use for his contact name. You smile slightly at your phone. John’s a good friend you met through a mutual friend of yours. Ever since that encounter, you’ve went out for coffee, gotten dinner together, and, well, you two could easily pass as a couple.

Yet if he’s only just a friend, why is your heart fluttering like no tomorrow?

You bite the bullet and press “call”, curling up on the couch and rest your head on your open palm. After three tones, John picks up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, John, it’s Papa John’s Pizza. We’ve noticed you haven’t ordered one of our hot delicious pizzas in the past week and we’re wondering if everything is alright?”

You hear John sigh at how terrible your joke is. You snort at his reaction and wait to see if he’ll play along with it.

“Does that mean I get free pizza?”

“No, bitch, we’re a business. We don’t give free handouts unless you’re disgusting capitalist who definitely doesn’t need free things.” You hear a pause after the last sentence. You may have possibly spilled too much truth with that one.

“Well, if there is no free pizza involved, then what’s up?” John asks while you take a tight grip of your knee.

“All jokes aside, I need to ask you a question. Sort of important. It’s okay if you say no...” you begin to trail off.

“Okay. Hit me.”

“My cousin is getting married. You know, the one I can’t fathom. Anyways, I was wondering if you...could...be my fake boyfriend for the occasion? I just don’t want her to make fun of me for going solo, as superficial as that may sound. Like I said you don’t have to go since it’s for an entire weekend.” You bite the bottom of your lip in anticipation of John’s answer.

“Yes.”

You nearly lose your breath over his answer. “Really?”

“It would be an honor to be your fake boyfriend.”

You pace back and forth while looking down at your phone. Where the hell is he? Your heart is racing just thinking about confronting your worst enemy. You don’t think you can do this without-

“Hello, you.”

And there is that snarky, condescending tone of your cousin. You shove your phone back into your purse and push a fake smile on your face.

“It’s nice to see you too.” There’s an empty silence between the two of you. You could pick out the awkwardness one by one if you could. You two stare each other down, your cousin craning their neck quite a bit. Once again, she plasters a forced smile with gritted teeth.

“I see you’ve come alone despite putting an RSVP for a plus one. A shame but not surprising.” She huffs but before she can cram more bullshit and nonsense, you watch her facial expression change from defiant to, well, surprised. You feel a hand on the small of your back.

“Sorry I’m late, love,” John kisses you on your temple, “Traffic was wild. You know how I always pack last minute so there was that. Then I had to give Daisy over to a friend of mine to dog sit.”

He stops and extends his hand towards your cousin. You are in bewilderment but realize that John is trying to save your ass from the devil.

“John Wick, Y/N’s boyfriend.” Your cousin nods her head up and down while she shakes his hand. She immediately breaks the handshake and tries her best to appear normal.

“Welcome, welcome! Hope you two enjoy the weekend!” Your cousin smiles, darting her eyes at you as she takes her leave. You turn to John who is observing the mansion before you two.

“Talk about great timing,” you breath, your eyes wide with relief. You watch as John removes his gaze from the house to you.

“One of my many talents.” John opens up his hand for you to take. With a cheesy smile, you oblige and all worry about your cousin diminishes. If John could strike fear into your cousin’s eyes, then you should just marry him then and there. But that could be the wedding talking.

“So, turns out that there is only one bed.” You swing your interlocked hands back and forth. Nothing felt foreign to you about the feeling; almost like touching him felt natural to you.

John hums at this revelation. “Guess we’re just going to have to sleep together since you know, we’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”

You’d be lying if you said your heart didn’t burst a tiny bit.

Through the dumb wedding rehearsal and getting through the actual wedding ceremony, you manage to remain on the ground with John by your side. The whole fake relationship shtick turns out to be so much easier than you expected but it’s no reason because it’s John. Everything you do with him seems so natural and in sync. You can tell that your cousin definitely doesn’t want to admit how cute you and John look together even though everyone else appears to root for you two.

Though your parents were taken aback that you found a boyfriend and never told them, John’s charm and cuteness won them over and instantly forgave you. You thank God for that close one. As you watch John interact with your parents, that made you realize that you are incredibly lucky to have someone like him in your life.

If only you knew John felt the same about you.

John fell in love with you gradually. Every time you two met up, sparks flew and he had to pinch himself sometimes to find out if any of this was real. Never had John ever fallen this hard for someone. Watching you enjoy life without apology, never letting people in the way of your success, and being a beautiful individual made John’s crush that more deep.

That’s why this wedding is a perfect opportunity. Carpe noctem.

With the wedding reception in full swing, you take another hearty sip of your glass. Whatever is in this alcohol must have been spiked to the nines because after two glasses, you felt like you were on cloud nine. You have even forgotten why you were so angry with your cousin for the past several years. Yet you are still coherent enough to know you still had a role to play in this wedding. Getting up from your seat at the table, you grab John’s hand and drag him to the makeshift dance floor in the backyard of the estate. John doesn’t hesitate, more eager to finally get his plan rolling out.

The DJ picks another upbeat song from the band Sheppard and the crowd instantly comes to life around the two of you. Your red silk dress flows in every direction, radiating your every move. John twirls you around and causes the most beautiful effect of your dress becoming like waves in the ocean.

An ocean he can’t wait to be in.

As you giggle at the atrocities of John’s so called “dance moves”, the music fades and someone comes right behind John to pass him a microphone. Your eyebrow quirks as you didn’t know it was time for karaoke. You didn’t even know John even sang. The crowd on the dance floor are also intrigued and stop in their tracks to observe the situation.

“I, uh, didn’t really prepare for this.” John gives a half smile and a dry laugh, rubbing the back of his neck out of nervousness. You smile in confusion, eyes narrowing at him.

“John?”

“My love, I’ve known you for what seems like forever. I like to think that the moment I met you that fateful day, my life had started anew. Our dynamic, how we learn from one another, how we lean on each other through the thick and the thin. In a relationship, people assume that you have to give 50/50 but we’re smarter than that. Some days I can give only 25% but you carry me on for the both of us. Other days you can only give me 25% and I give you what each other needs. Sometimes we forget who we are to other people because we see each other for who we are.” You swallow harshly as John makes his way to where you are in the middle of the dance floor. The people surrounding you two had since made a circle around you two and begin to whisper to one another.

“That’s the beauty of love. The layers of love are complex and what we have goes beyond that. Love is a journey, not a destination, and I want to be with you throughout this ride. So-”

You feel your heart racing to an abnormal heart rate. You clasp your hand over your mouth while you watch John drop down to one knee, place the microphone next to him, and pull out a velvet black box.

“Will you marry me?”

Tears stream down from your eyes with a wild mix of emotions. Everyone around you gasps and erupts in a thunderous applause. You nod excitedly, making the audience clap and cheer even louder. John comes in for a hug and lifts you off your feet. As he spins you around, he whispers into your ear.

“Well, will you at least be my girlfriend?”

You snort and let out a chuckle.

“Yes, a thousand times yes,” you reply to him as he drops you gently to your feet. Without hesitation, you bring John to your lips and kiss him like you craved this feeling for centuries. You hear an obnoxiously loud gasp from somewhere and you know exactly who it is. You stick your middle finger in the air to tell your cousin to shove off and that you have the high ground now. You hear stomps of heels click off with a sound of agonizing groans following behind.

You don’t dare open your eyes from this moment to observe whatever dumb reaction your cousin had caused. Nothing matters now. What matters is you, John, and you two kissing under these twinkling lights.