#kate connolly

[lucimiir]

master post

[stormupondawnlight]

Giant ball of uncontrollable rage recognises tiny ball of uncontrollable rage. Every yard I’ve ever worked on there’s that one horse who wants to destroy the world and everyone in it and then randomly picks one person and goes “yes, this is my human” and that needs to be Skata and Puck bc Skata being slang for a difficult woman and Puck working with the horse everyone else thinks is too difficult and Skata being violently protective of someone being nice to her.

[pipperoni32-blog]

I hear laughter and someone asks if I need help, not in a nice way. I snarl, “What I need is for your mother to have though a little harder nine months before your birthday.”

— Scorpio Races

[captainlaurence]

The Scorpio Races

Day 8, Chapter 14

October 8, 2023

Year 11

[biglisbonnews]

John Malkovich on best friend Julian Sands: ‘Jules was such a storyteller, and so, so funny’ The actor reflects on the pair’s new film together, Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes, as ‘a pretty fitting tribute’ and shares memories of the ‘boy who grew up wild on the moors’One of the last conversations John Malkovich had with Julian Sands, his best friend of 40 years, concerned how to prepare yourself for death. You can see that conversation in their new film, Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes, which premiered at the Berlin film festival this week. Malkovich fears it will be their last together.Malkovich plays the Stoic philosopher of ancient Rome, an adviser and speechwriter to the despotic emperor Nero. In one scene, Seneca tells his friends: “Remind yourselves: we die every day. Death is stalking us everywhere, so it’s useless to fear or dread it.” Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/feb/23/john-malkovich-on-best-friend-julian-sands

[gameofthunder66]

'Revolutionary Road' (2008) film

=watched 7/14/2024- 2 [1/4] stars- on DVD

[joshdiaz]

— hera lindsay bird

[deadthehype]

[sleepyowlwrites]

it's that time of year. I must give you spooky songs.

I'm not just throwing my playlists at you, either. you can find all 200+ of my playlists on my spotify. spooky is a blanket term, okay. the vibes are expansive but there's something...there.

spooky but in the background, mostly

the Ghost songs by Louie Zong

Ancient Souls - The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra

Edge of Night - Cullen Vance

The Mist - Max LL

The Inevitable Haunted House - Boqeh

Mass (Re-Imagined) - Phoria

Dispossession - SQUARE ENIX MUSIC

Ceaseless Watcher - harvo

Waltz of the Bone King - Peter Gaundry

Thryy Wyrd Tynns - Alec Holowka

Dance Off - Heloise Tunstall-Behrens & Auclair

Dragon Lullaby - Dave Volpe

The Gambit of Night - Neil DeGraide, Dirt Poor Robbins

Sleep - The Last Bison

Mausoleum - Rafferty

White Specter - Adrian Von Ziegler

spooky but there's something here with you, a creature?

Fangs - Little Red Lung

Rusalka, Rusalka / Wild Rushes - The Decemberists

That Unwanted Animal - The Amazing Devil

Into the Woods - PHILDEL

Into the Unknown - Evetty

The Nowhere King - The Centaurworld Cast

Aha! - Imogen Heap

The Glow - The Last Bison

Nature Girl - Cryoshell

Running with the Wolves - AURORA

Howling Moon - Coleman Hall

The Pines - Roses & Revolutions

Caterpillars (Of the Commonwealth) - Will Connolly

The Night We Met - Lord Huron

Errasuriz - Kiltro

Bloodsuckers - Johnny Hollow

We Have It All - Pim Stones

spooky but maybe it's you

Devourer - Aideoneus

When I Was Done Dying - Dan Deacon

The Yawning Grave - Lord Huron

So Tonight That I Might See - Mazzy Star

The Mortal Boy King - The Paper Kites

Stone Wall, Stone Fence - Gregory and the Hawk

Ghosts - James Vincent McMorrow

Oceanica - San Fermin

Going - Tow'rs

Sticks and Stones - The Pierces

Strange - Runah

All Things Devour - aseaes

Raise the Dead - RAIGN

Sunlit Grave - Saint Mesa

Remain Nameless - Florence + the Machine

spooky but we're having a good time, I think

Let's B Goblins! - Ratwyfe

Death, Thrice Drawn - The Scary Jokes

Great Vacation - Dirt Poor Robbins

Face the Night - Tennyson

Skeleton Song - Kate Nash

Bones - anne october

The Magic - Lola Blanc

All Is Well (Goodbye, Goodbye) - Radical Face

the jester - ratz

spooky but in pastels

In The Beginning - Fahrenhaidt

Kiss the Grass - The Paper Kites

Butterfly Water - Pastelle

I Was Feeling Down, I Found a Nice Witch and We're Friends - In Love With a Ghost

The Ancestor - Darlingside

Entangled Life - Merlin Sheldrake, Cosmo Sheldrake

Night Owls - Mree

[lucimiir]

Someday I’ll write a fic where Gansey excitedly tells Blue all about this place he’s been researching where they supposedly had water horses that they would race and in the thirties the first woman ever to ride won the races and Jane aren’t these newspaper clippings just fascinating

[companion-showdown]

Which companion is the most normal person?

a lot of companions would be getting into tv show worthy situations with or without the doctor, but some of them are just normal people, who if they weren't aboard the tardis they'd be living an ordinary, perhaps even boring, life. who is the most normal

SEMIFINALS

Leo Jones vs Ben Jackson

Barbara Wright vs Ian Chesterton

QUARTERFINALS

Leo Jones vs Sergeant Benton

Graham O'Brien vs Ben Jackson

Brian Williams vs Barbara Wright

Ian Chesterton vs Katarina

previous rounds under the cut

ROUND 4

K9 vs Leo Jones

Sergeant Benton vs Rory Williams

Alison Cheney vs Graham O'Brien

Rita Afzal vs Ben Jackson

Brian Williams vs Evelyn Smythe

Barbara Wright vs Wilfred Mott

Ian Chesterton vs Anji Kapoor

Peri Brown vs Katarina

ROUND 3

K9 vs Business Woman

Leo Jones vs Harry Sullivan

Sergeant Benton vs Kate Stewart

Duggan vs Rory Williams

Tegan Jovanka vs Alison Cheney

Liz Shaw vs Graham O'Brien

Rita Afzal vs Nyssa

Ryan Sinclair vs Ben Jackson

Mickey Smith vs Brian Williams

Evelyn Smythe vs Martha Jones

Grace Holloway vs Barbara Wright

Lucie Miller vs Wilfred Mott

Ian Chesterton vs Victoria Waterfield

Hex Schofield vs Anji Kapoor

Donna Noble vs Peri Brown

Dan Lewis vs Katarina

ROUND 2

Day 2

Mickey Smith vs Jamie McCrimmon

Chang Lee vs Brian Williams

Evelyn Smythe vs Romana I

Adric vs Martha Jones

Grace Holloway vs Izzy SInclair

The Brigadier vs Barbara Wright

Lucie Miller vs Headmaster

Ruby Sunday vs Wilfred Mott

Ian Chesterton vs Amy Pond

Mike Yates vs Victoria Waterfield

Hex Schofield vs Frobisher

Nardole vs Anji Kapoor

Donna Noble vs Liv Chenka

Leela vs Peri Brown

Dan Lewis vs Bridget Sinclair

Katarina vs Bill Potts

Day 1

K9 vs Charley Pollard

Business Woman vs Mel Bush

Leo Jones vs Rose Tyler

Laurence Scarman vs Harry Sullivan

Sergeant Benton vs Steven Taylor

Bernice Summerfield vs Kate Stewart

Duggan vs Helen Sinclair

Sarah-Jane Simth vs Rory Williams

Tegan Jovanka vs Dodo Chaplet

Handles vs Alison Cheney

Liz Shaw vs Adam Mitchell

Sam Jones vs Graham O'Brien

Rita Afzal vs Susan Foreman

Nyssa vs Kamelion

Ryan Sinclair vs Polly Wright

Fitz Kreiner vs Ben Jackson

ROUND 1 (Group Stage)

Group 1:

Susan Foreman

Barbara Wright

Ian Chesterton

Vicki Pallister

Steven Taylor

Group 2:

Katarina

Sara Kingdom

Dodo Chaplet

Ben Jackson

Polly Wright

Group 3:

Jamie McCrimmon

Victoria Waterfield

Zoe Heriot

The Brigadier

Sergeant Benton

Group 4:

Liz Shaw

Mike Yates

Jo Grant

Sarah-Jane Smith

Harry Sullivan

Group 5:

Leela

K9

Romana I

Romana II

Group 6:

Adric

Nyssa

Tegan Jovanka

Vislor Turlough

Kamelion

Group 7:

Peri Brown

Mel Bush

Ace McShane

Grace Holloway

Chang Lee

Group 8:

Charley Pollard

C'rizz

Evelyn Smythe

Lucie Miller

Group 9:

Liv Chenka

Helen Sinclair

Hex Schofield

Bernice Summerfield

Chris Cwej

Group 10:

Fitz Kreiner

Compassion

Anji Kapoor

Sam Jones

Group 11:

Alison Cheney

Iris Wildthyme

Izzy Sinclair

Frobisher

Group 12:

Rose Tyler

Mickey Smith

Adam Mitchell

Jack Harkness

Martha Jones

Group 13:

Wilfred Mott

Donna Noble

River Song

Amy Pond

Rory Williams

Group 14:

Kate Stewart

Clara Oswald

Handles

Bill Potts

Nardole

Group 15:

Yasmin Khan

Graham O'Brien

Ryan Sinclair

Dan Lewis

Ruby Sunday

Group 16:

Vince Hawkins

Duggan

Damon

Group 17:

Rhos

Dr Summers

Laurence Scarman

Lowe

Mergrave

Headmaster

Group 18:

Tamsin Drew

Tania Bell

Business Woman

Kevin

Group 19:

Jackie Tyler

Francine Jones

Clive Jones

Tish Jones

Leo Jones

Group 20:

Sylvia Noble

Craig Owens

Brian Williams

Danny Pink

Rigsy

Group 21:

Tommy Connolly

Riley Vashtee

Hath Peck

Nephew

Rita Afzal

Group 22:

Elton Pope

Ursula Blake

Colin Skinner

Bridget Sinclair

Bliss

[andiatas]

Royal Reads: Apr-Jun 2024

Note: Some of the following links are affiliate links, which means I earn a commission on every purchase. This does not affect the price you pay.

George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Shaped the Monarchy by Sally Bedell Smith (new paperback version published Apr. 11, 2024) // Heroines of the Tudor World by Sharon Bennett Connolly (Jun. 15, 2024)

Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII's Queens by Charlotte Bolland, Suzannah Lipscomb, Nicola Clarke, Brett Dolman, Alden Gregory, Benjamin Hebbert, Nicola Tallis, Valerie Schutte (Jun. 20, 2024) // Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors by Tom Bower (new paperback version published Apr. 16, 2024) // The Private Life of James II by Justine Ruth Brown (May 30, 2024)

The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens by Nicola Clark (Apr. 25, 2024) // James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth's Heir, 1566-1603 by Alexander Courtney (Jun. 3, 2024)

Wise Words from King Charles III by Karen Dolby (Apr. 25, 2024) // Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and the Marriage That Shook Europe by John Guy, Julia Fox (new paperback version published Jun. 6, 2024) // Herod the Great: Jewish King in a Roman World by Martin Goodman (May 14, 2024)

Rasputin's Killer and his Romanov Princess by Coryne Hall (Jun. 15, 2024) // Catherine de' Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen by Mary Hollingsworth (Jun. 6, 2024) // Power and Glory: Elizabeth II and the Rebirth of Royalty by Alexander Larman (new hardcover published Apr. 30, 2024)

Stephen and Matilda's Civil War: Cousins of Anarchy by Matthew Lewis (May 30, 2024) // Courting the Virgin Queen: Queen Elizabeth I And Her Suitors by Carol Ann Lloyd (Jun. 30, 2024) // Babur: The Chessboard King by Aabhas Maldahiyar (Jun. 27, 2024)

Lady Charlotte Guest: The Exceptional Life of a Female Industrialist by Victoria Owens (Jun. 30, 2024) // Thorns, Lust and Glory: The betrayal of Anne Boleyn by Estelle Paranque (May 2, 2024)

The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of Royal History at Hampton Court by Gareth Russell (new paperback version published May 9, 2024) // The Lost Queen: The Surprising Life of Catherine of Braganza, Britain’s Forgotten Monarch by Sophie Shorland (Jun. 6, 2024)

The Royal Palaces: Secrets and Scandals by Kate Williams, James Oses (Jun. 27, 2024) // The Mysterious Death of Katherine Parr: What Really Happened to Henry VIII's Last Queen? by June Woolerton (Apr. 4, 2024) // Izabela the Valiant: The Story of an Indomitable Polish Princess by Adam Zamoyski (Jun. 20, 2024)

[captainlaurence]

The Scorpio Races

Day 7, Chapter 12

October 7, 2023

Year 11

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Kate Connolly at The Guardian:

A German aristocrat who hosted Samuel Alito at her castle in 2023 has revealed new details about her friendship with the rightwing supreme court justice, including that they share a mutual friend who played a key role in JD Vance’s conversion to Catholicism. Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, a onetime party girl turned traditionalist Catholic activist who has faced criticism for her defense of far-right politicians in Germany, told the Guardian that she first met Alito in Rome – she could not remember what year – and that both were friends of Dominic Legge, a priest and Yale Law graduate in Washington who Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, has often cited in discussions about his adult conversion to Catholicism.

The relationship between the 64-year-old noblewoman and Alito sparked media interest after the supreme court justice revealed last week in a financial disclosure form that he had accepted concert tickets worth $900 from the billionaire, who refers to herself as a princess even though Germany’s aristocracy was officially disbanded after the first world war. She later told the German press that Alito had overestimated the cost of the tickets, but did not elaborate. The supreme court justice has previously faced scrutiny for failing to report free travel on a private jet from a wealthy conservative billionaire who had business before the court, a story first reported by ProPublica that is a part of a broader ethics scandal that has engulfed the high court in recent years. Alito faced a separate controversy earlier this year after it was discovered that his household had flown an upside-down flag, a symbol of Stop the Steal campaigners who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, as well as a second flag at a beach property that was associated with the Christian nationalist movement. Alito’s disclosure about the free tickets are significant for another reason: they reveal new insights into Alito and his wife Martha-Ann’s apparent personal ties to a European aristocrat who is deeply entrenched in an international rightwing movement that is seeking to advance conservative Catholic policies.

Allies in her fight include the rightwing nationalist Steve Bannon and the ultra conservative German cardinal Gerhard Müller, who she once called the “Donald Trump of the Catholic Church”. Her circle is known to be fiercely critical of Pope Francis – who is seen as too liberal by orthodox and traditionalist sects of the Catholic church. Legge, who leads the Thomistic Institute in Washington, is a prominent member of an elite circle of traditionalist Catholics in the US capital, and sits on the board of an organization – the Napa Legal Institute – alongside Leonard Leo, the powerbroker who is widely seen as having used his influence to install Republicans’ conservative supermajority on the supreme court and reportedly recently called for conservative activists to “crush liberal dominance at the choke points of influence and power in our society”.

[...] Von Thurn und Taxis compared herself to the late British Queen Elizabeth – whose family she noted was of German descent – and said the role of the aristocracy in Germany was to unite people and “keep politics out of the salon”. She also claimed in an email not to know that the decision that overturned abortion rights is called the “Dobbs decision”. But an examination of von Thurn und Taxis’s own activities shows that the woman who was known during a punk phase – before her turn to conservative Catholicism – as Princess TNT, for her explosive personality – has deep political ties that have given her access not only to supreme court justices, but inside the Trump White House.

[...] “This is not just about the arrogance of a powerful man already embroiled in controversial ties to billionaires. It is also about the company he keeps: choosing to accept very expensive concert tickets from a woman who embraces far-right politicians who are aligned with her outspoken hostility toward abortion access and marriage equality,” said Lisa Graves, the managing director of Court Accountability and a former deputy assistant attorney general at the US Department of Justice. Graves added: “Their alliance is unsurprising though very troubling since Alito has been using his position on the supreme court to advance a parallel regressive agenda into law.” In October 2019, at a speech in Washington in which she effusively praised the Trump administration, von Thurn und Taxis personally thanked Leonard Leo for setting up meetings for Cardinal Müller, who she was traveling with, to visit the White House and meet with people who were directly advising Trump on religious liberty and free speech.

She warned that, if Trump was not re-elected, “they will come after us” and that “nothing less” was at stake than the right to worship. Democrat Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, later won the 2020 election, but neither he nor Nancy Pelosi, another prominent Democratic Catholic politician, are seen as authentic Catholics by traditionalists. During that trip, von Thurn und Taxis also met and was photographed with Alito, Cardinal Müller, the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Brian Brown, who was then the head of the anti-LGBTQ+ group National Organization for Marriage (NOM). According to reporting by the New Yorker, NOM was actively lobbying the court on cases involving gay rights at the time of the meeting.

This year, in a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels in April called Threats to Faith and Family, von Thurn und Taxis served up a series of grievances about the state of the family in Europe, complained that “only homosexuals want to get married”, while unmarried heterosexual couples were opting for pets instead of children. She also criticized – in an apparent reference to the availability of reproductive rights in Europe – how leaders continued to “finance the killing of our offspring”, which she said would exacerbate future labor shortages on the continent. “Does this make any sense? Is there some kind of racism? Are we not supposed to reproduce?” she asked rhetorically, before launching into praise of Hungary, which she said was an outlier in supporting families with children. Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian autocratic leader, has been a guest at the noblewoman’s festival.

The Guardian has a explosive report that SCOTUS Justice Samuel Alito has ties to far-right German aristocrat Gloria von Thurn und Taxis.

[biglisbonnews]

‘There’s a lot of posturing’: Europe’s nuclear divide grows as one plant opens and three close Europe’s first new plant in 16 years comes on stream in Finland day after Germany pulls plug on last reactorsWhen Europe’s first new nuclear reactor in 16 years came online in Finland, it was hailed by its operator as a “significant addition to clean domestic production” that would “play an important role in the green transition”.The opening last Sunday of the long-delayed Olkiluoto 3 plant, Europe’s largest, means about 40% of Finland’s electricity demand will soon be met by nuclear power, which the government says will boost energy security and help it achieve its carbon neutrality targets. Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/21/europe-nuclear-divide-grows-one-plant-opens-three-close-finland-germany

[untolduttering]

“What about you, Kate Connolly? Puck Connolly?”

The way he says it, I feel certain he misremembered intentionally, because he liked the weight of the words when he said my name twice, and that makes me feel warm and nervous and agreeable.

Oooohhhhhh the intimacy of someone enjoying you so much that they can’t help not only call you but you full name, but make the purposeful mistake of not using your nickname so they can say it twice. Each time before that, too, when he’d use her full Kate Connolly name made my head swirl. I reread this every year and it still doesn’t loose potency.