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onlyforthebabes · 4 years ago

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✨HL playlists by onlyforthebabes✨

(Edited to include 🎵when you know you know (HL6), 🎵close enough to touch (HL11), 🎵burnt romances (HL13), and 🎵too far gone (HL18))

This post is long overdue, but I've finally made a master list of all the HL playlists I've published here. They're listed in the order I created them, so there are some gaps in the numbers where I haven't posted (or maybe even finished) some, but I'll update if I ever publish more! I've put a lot of thought and time and love into these playlists, so I really hope y'all find something to enjoy here.

✨🎶

🎵a truth so loud

HL. The OG. A canon inspired playlist based on some of the most iconic H/L songs. (ft. 1D, Troye Sivan, Ed Sheeran, Lorde)

🎵honey (make this easy)

HL2. There’s no denying the chemistry between them from the moment they meet - so they don’t even try. While discretely hooking up with a fellow X Factor hopeful sounds like just another part of the fun, it’s hard to ignore that this thing between them is way more than physical, and “X Factor hopefuls” has become wholly inadequate to describe where they’re going. But in the midst of all the chaos, it’s hard to resist something this good. (ft. 1D, Hozier, Lizzo, Carly Rae Jepson)

🎵no matter how sweet, no matter how brave

HL3. New fame, new friends, new feelings. Jealousy gives way to mutual infatuation, which evolves into steadfast love. Growing up too fast doesn’t feel so scary when you’ve got someone to hold onto. (ft. 1D, Fleetwood Mac, Niall Horan, The Head and the Heart)

🎵Entirely

HLFOUR. Coming soon. (ft. 1D, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson)

🎵when you know you know

HL6. It's all about that one person... (ft. 1D, Maria Mena, Yellowcard, Beyoncé)

🎵one foot in sea and one on shore

HL10. A traveling sailor whose sense of home is the familiar warmth of local bars, a charming bartender in a seaside village, and a brief affair that leaves them both longing for a life far from everything they know. (ft. Regina Spektor, Bright Eyes, Feist, The Format)

🎵close enough to touch

HL11. Love can be frightening, for sure. (girl!direction) (ft. 1D, Louis Tomlinson, Hozier, Jake Scott)

🎵sunset couldn't save me now

HL12. Part-time suburban youth, summertime neighbors growing up together and blurring the lines of love and friendship; chasing dreams, traveling the world, and figuring out that sometimes home is a person. (ft. Sufjan Stevens, Vampire Weekend, Regina Spektor, Neutral Milk Hotel)

🎵burnt romances

HL13. A canon-compliant au where everything goes wrong, but love finds a way. (ft. The Weepies, Lewis Capaldi, Bleachers, The Head and the Heart)

🎵fell in love with the fire

HL14. Harry's long since accepted that fame comes with a closet. But a chance encounter with a friend from a past life may change everything (or, an au about identity, fame, missed connections, and giving love a chance) (ft. Florence and the Machine, Maren Morris, St. Vincent, Sam Smith)

🎵trip and i fall in

HL15. Undeniable chemistry turns a spontaneous hookup into fast friendship (with some pretty nice benefits). They know from the start it’s not exclusive, but that doesn’t stop anyone from catching feelings. (ft. Zayn, Ariana Grande, Brockhampton, Selena Gomez)

🎵learning to breathe

HL16. Harry and Louis have always been best friends, even within their close-knit group. Closeted, small town kids with little experience, an innocent first kiss turns into an agreement: to experimentally "date" in secret until high school ends. When it’s time to move on, they do. But as the years pass, they can never quite figure out how to let go. (ft. Maisie Peters, Julia Michaels, Lana del Rey, Lauv)

🎵too far gone

HL18. Love, illness, religion, and fear. A kiss between friends on a quiet winter's day changes everything. (ft. Sufjan Stevens, Brand New, Haley Heynderickx, Phoebe Bridgers)

🎵if i'm butter...

HL19. Louis’ an art student who spends his days wandering the city in search of inspiration while his hot-but-elusive craigslist roommate works ungodly hours as a baker. When the pandemic hits and the two near strangers are suddenly quarantined together, they find themselves growing closer in more ways than one. (ft. Relient K, BENEE, Fiona Apple, Samsa)

🎵pretend it isn't strange

HL20. A hopeless wanderer, lost and disillusioned with life, finds himself taken in by a small mountainside community: a friendly local band, a safe place to rest his head, and a stranger who makes it feel like home. Together they learn to let love grow. (ft. Wild Rivers, Ben Howard, Town Meeting, Birdtalker )

🎵yesterday (when you were young)

HL21. Coming soon (ft. Jon Bellion, AJR, Raleigh Ritchie, fun.)

🎵coming up lavender

HL22. New friends who feel like old ones, long drives home up the coast, and finding love in every color. Or, a girl!direction college road trip au (ft. Gretta Ray, dodie, Ingrid Michaelson, Mitski)

🎵it is what it is (till it ain't anymore)

HL23. An impending marriage, a secret affair, and either fate or bad timing. Harry and Louis fall in love one summer in rural Georgia. Years later, they meet again. (ft. Shania Twain, Kacey Musgraves, Gregory Alan Isakov, Andrew Bird)

And lastly, the playlists I've made based on other peoples' stories:

nothing but you on my mind 🎶for Nothing But You On My Mind by @absoloutenonsense

Louis Tomlinson is a PR manager hired to improve the image of royal bad-boy Prince Harry Styles. Unfortunately for him, that means being faced with the Prince's constant innuendos, incessant dirty jokes, and relentless flirting. Louis just wants to make it to Princess Gemma's coronation; once she's crowned Queen, his contract is up and he never has to see the Prince again. (ft. dodie, Julia Michaels, Dermot Kennedy, Lewis Capaldi)

little by little 🎶for Little by Little by @absoloutenonsense

Harry Styles is an omega who works at the London Planetarium, has lived in the same flat for ages, and is happy enough on his own. When he gets home from his first (horrible) attempt at dating in years, a new pregnant neighbor knocks on his door after smelling his cooking. He and Louis quickly become close, but their friendship gets complicated when Harry begins questioning who he is and what he likes. Or Harry discovers figuring out who you are is more complicated than a potato metaphor. (ft. Jordy Searcy, Bruno Major, Lizzy McAlpine, Sleeping at Last)

love after the end of the world 🎶for Love After the End of the World by @mercurial-madhouse

When staying alive is already a constant battle, the deadliest weakness is to be in love. For Harry and Louis, finding each other sits on top of the endless list of What Else Could Go Wrong. (ft. Bastille, Hozier, Fall Out Boy, Lorde)

#hlcreators #hlsource #hljournal #tracksintheam #yourlarrysource #i worked way too hard on this but i'm glad i finally have a master post!!!#even gave a little teaser there.... lots of things coming soon #pls share if you care :)#hl series

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bananaofswifts · 4 years ago

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Taylor Swift Carefully Reimagines Her Past on ‘Fearless: Taylor’s Version’

This re-recording of her breakthrough 2008 album is at points even more moving than the original

4/5 STARTS

By JONATHAN BERNSTEIN

“I lived, and I learned,” Taylor Swift sings 85 minutes into the expanded, re-recorded version of her breakthrough 2008 album Fearless. Less than two years ago, Swift announced she’d be redoing her back catalog to reclaim ownership of her early material after the master recordings of her Big Machine discography were acquired by industry mogul Scooter Braun. The goal of this ambitious undertaking is plain enough. To borrow a phrase from “Tim McGraw”: When you think Fearless, Swift hopes you think Taylor’s Version.

Musicians re-recording their back catalog following behind-the-scenes label disputes is an age-old music industry story. But there is little precedent for an artist undertaking the endeavor in as high-profile a manner as Swift, who has leapt into this project with the big-budget ambition and creative fervor usually reserved for a blockbuster album. In doing so, she’s positioned unromantic industry pragmatism as a retrospective celebration of her creative life: part diehard fan treat, part legacy artist archival reissue (think: The Bootleg Series (Taylor’s Version), and part told-you-so pet-project.

Swift begins her massive undertaking with Fearless, the album that established her as a crossover star. “I don’t know how it gets better than this,’ she sings in the opening title track, now a provocation. But unlike most re-recordings, this time the new versions somehow sound less slick than the original. Her voice feels lower in the mix this time around, but for the most part she’s gone to extreme lengths to mimic the polished Nashville textures and soundscapes of the first Fearless; she brought back several of the album’s session musicians and even recruited Colbie Caillat (a primary influence on the 2008 version of Fearless) to redo her backing vocals on “Breathe.”

Swift has clearly studied her vocal intonations on Fearless, down to the awkwardly recreated laughs and hiccups sprinkled throughout “Hey Stephen.” But her thirty-something voice is richer, deeper and more sure of itself. She embodies her earlier country affectations, but only to a point: no longer does she try to make “back” rhyme with “laugh” on the deep-cut “Come in With the Rain.”

She has noble reasons to be re-recording her back catalog, but no amount of freedom gets her clean: As is inherently the case when an artist is carbon-copying their original recordings, no matter how artfully, it’s impossible not to miss the emotional heft and adolescent idiosyncrasies of the original, in all its tinny, mixed-for-country-radio glory: The way, in 2008, Swift’s voice broke into its strange Regina Spektor-meets-Shania Twain twang when she sang “Hey, isn’t this eas-aye” in “You Belong With Me;” or the way a teenage Swift delivers the high melodrama of “Fifteen” as only a prematurely nostalgic 18 year-old for whom three years is a lifetime can.

After making our way through the re-recorded Fearless: Platinum Edition bonus track portion of the record, the final half-dozen originals, all previously unreleased, are revelatory glimpses into Swift’s working process. There’s Swift’s vocal phrasing on “We Were Happy,” which hints at her Red-era deep-cut “The Moment I Knew,” or the way her famous “casually cruel” phrase from 2012’s “All Too Well” first finds its way into 2009’s “Mr. Perfectly Fine.” Other songs, like “You All Over Me” or “That’s When,” collapse the Swift time-space continuum, deploying moody modern-day collaborators like Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner to tackle her buttoned up mid-aughts Nashville country-pop. This isn’t the first time Swift and Keith Urban have collaborated (remember “Highway Don’t Care”?) but it’s surely the first time Dessner has added his pulsing synth drum loops to a song (“You All Over Me”) co-written by a guy (Scooter Carusoe) who writes hits for Brett Eldredge.

Finally, there are the songs that feel more moving now than they did 13 years ago. Take “Change,” a song Swift delivers with a knowing bite. She initially wrote it about being on her upstart independent Nashville label Big Machine, and was moved to finish the tune after seeing label boss Scott Borchetta in tears when she won her first CMA award. Here the song’s meaning is darkly flipped, reflecting Big Machine’s journey from scrappy upstart to part of the fraught system a much younger Swift thought she and Borchetta might conquer. “The battle was long…We’ll stand up champions tonight,” she sings with a wink. What could Swift possibly do with such glorious irony? She’ll sing hallelujah.

#taylor swift #fearless #review

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filmbefore · 4 years ago

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electra sohn , a member of the yale's elite , they're twenty and a sophomore majoring in theater and performance studies . they are as starry-eyed as they are non-committal . ( park chaewon ( gowon ) / she/her / cis female )

STATISTICS .

FULL NAME : electra hope sohn . NICKNAMES : el , elly . AGE : twenty . BIRTHDAY : july 29 , 2000 . ASTRO : leo sun , gemini moon , scorpio rising . SIBLINGS : one “ older sister ” . ( you will see why that is in quotation marks ) SEXUALITY : bisexual + biromantic . HEIGHT : 5′1″ HAIR COLOR : blonde . HOMETOWN : savannah , georgia .

BLACKMAILS .

electra’s mother had her when she was very young and decided to let her parents raise her baby girl. instead of being truthful about the situation, everyone told her that her mother was a much older sister. electra has actually been raised by her grandparents her whole life.

before attending yale, she used to manipulate her theater teacher into giving her nearly every lead role in school productions by promising to expose him for pocketing money from the school’s drama budget. she has barely earned any of the roles on her resume that actually got her into the theater program at yale.

PAST .

electra was born in savannah , georgia to a teen mom who was completely unprepared to raise a child . but she couldn’t just give up this precious little baby , so instead ... she decided to let her parents adopt her daughter so that she could stay in her life . instead of being honest with electra , her family just decided to tell her that her biological mom was her older sister and that she was their miracle baby that had come many years later !

like many southern little girls , electra grew up on female country music icons . she was constantly singing hits by loretta lynn , patsy cline , and shania twain in the bedroom she had in her parents’ trailer . but the singer that she idolized the most was none other than miss dolly parton .

electra was obsessed with dolly’s over the top looks , the sparkles she wore , and the unabashed confidence she had . like nobody compared in electra’s mind lmao

after watching the movie , steel magnolias , at the local drive in theater , electra then became obsessed with the idea of following in dolly’s footsteps and getting into theater , dramas , and the film industry . and before you know it , the girl was auditioning for any productions that would have her .

but after continuing to get cast in small roles , electra kind of had it and was looking for SOME way to sneak her way into the spotlight . ( instead of like , putting in some extra work and just getting better at acting but whatever i digress )

during her sophomore year of high school , she “ happened ” upon some information regarding her theater teacher pocketing drama budget money and used that as leverage to secure lead roles the rest of high school .

those roles , paired with her grades , scored her a spot in the yale theater department ! which was PERFECT because she had also been OBSESSED with the elites since she was a little girl , loving the picture of luxury they had . and she figured she may as well try to finagle her way into the group .

PRESENT DAY / ELITES .

electra used a childhood picture she had with a former elites member and edited herself into some more recent pictures with them , somehow convincing everyone that she was a legacy’s goddaughter . and if that wasn’t enough , she also told some white lies about co-directing drama productions and being a lighting technician a few times in order to make her resumé a little more interesting . and just like that , electra lied her way into the elites !

now , she is heavily involved in the theater department at yale and still BUMPIN two doors down in her headphones as she walks to elites meetings .

she has also altered her current style in order to fit into the elites a little better . like ,,, she really tries to wear clothes that she has seen deemed as “ chic ” in movies like clueless , but with that southern lady colorfulness that she just can’t get rid of . like she is fully dressed like cher horowitz on her way to a rodeo every day .

electra is SUCHHH a try hard when it comes to the elites tho like are you a senior member ? you want a coffee ? she will be bringing you one asap . oh you think the salad she’s eating for lunch looks good ? here its yours . a kiss ass really

PERSONALITY .

miss electra is a picture perfect dilettante . loves the art heaux aesthetic , actually knows very little about art in any form . she has a superiority complex though because of ability to score lead roles in drama productions and musicals on campus . but she’s just very flighty and as i mentioned ,, non committal . good luck holding her down for anything . she’s just kinda like a moth and will fly to any flame she finds interesting and not think about anything else in the process . just generally very dramatic and intense idk bro !!! good luck haha !!

#𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐑𝐀 / intro .

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mahalkitajohnnysuh · 5 years ago

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Conflicted

So, I never thought that it would come to this. I do not tolerate this action due to family history, but I don’t know what came over me. Maybe I was overpowered by this guy’s charms that I just had to write something like this.

To know more what I’m talking about, read on. I won’t even give a summary because I want you guys to know what’s up with this.

And here’s the devil, erm, Jeong Jaehyun looking like a full-course meal even if he’s just serving face to hype you up.

Mahal ko kayong lahat! :)

–––

POV: 2nd person still.

Word count: 1,900 + words

Genre: Romance, with a dash of fluff and a bit of angst. A well-balanced meal, if I should say so myself.

Warning: Read until the bottom of this page, and you’ll get what you’re going to read, maybe next post or some other time.

–––

You felt conflicted whenever Jaehyun was near you.

Although he was your boyfriend’s ex-roommate, there were times that he would hang out at your apartment to catch up with him.

After all, they used to work together as radio DJs. They had a nightly program that you always tuned to before. You and Johnny were still best friends then, and you know you would be frustrated if he still had his program now that you’re together. You two won’t have the time to cuddle, because he would be working and you would wake up with him asleep on the couch.

As you watched Johnny and Jaehyun converse at the dining table, you couldn’t help but observe the younger guy. He was a Disney prince in real life – creamy white skin, immaculately dressed, and with great hair to boot. He also had a beautiful voice that everyone, regardless of age and gender, would fall for.

Those reasons made you feel weird because you’re already in a relationship with one of the most handsome men you know, but at the same time, you couldn’t keep your eyes off him sometimes.

Why am I even thinking of this? You thought as you tied your hair up in a bun to focus on your sideline. It has been a hot minute since you edited textbooks, and sometimes they amused you because some manuscripts contained hilarious content from idiotic authors.

You were already halfway editing the textbook when you felt someone tap your shoulder. You turned around to see Jaehyun, smiling with his adorable dimples on display.

“Hi Essie, it’s time to eat,” he said gently before he went back to the dining table. You followed suit since you didn’t say no to an invitation to eat. You saw that the guys prepared Korean barbecue, which you have been craving as of late.

“Wow, samgyupsal! I missed this!” You cooed, eyeing all the side dishes that you haven’t eaten in months. “I know you’ve been craving for this, baby. I hear you looking for samgyupsal in your sleep,” Johnny said, eliciting a chuckle from Jaehyun.

You glared at your boyfriend who just gave you a heart sign and winked when you raised your fist at him. Your guest was laughing at your interaction, entertained how one of his best friends bantered with his girlfriend.

As the three of you dug in, you talked about everything – from the weather, your music playlists (to be honest, you liked Jaehyun’s taste more than Johnny’s), your upcoming plans, and even your relationships.

“Uh, can someone please pass me the kimchi?” You asked, your hand trying to reach the bowl of said food across the table. It was Jaehyun who handed you the bowl, and you almost dropped it when your fingers touched.

“Sorry,” you both muttered, giving timid looks at each other. Johnny noticed your interaction and raised his eyebrows.

“Babe, what’s this? You’re shy of Jeong Jaehyun?” He asked, even stamping his feet for effect. You could tell that he was both curious and annoyed – curious that you felt that way and annoyed that maybe your feelings for him weren’t that strong as he thought.

“B-but…” you started, your eyes meeting Jaehyun’s for a moment before you turned to your boyfriend. “He’s too handsome, just like you…” Your voice was so soft that you felt you were the only one who heard it.

There was a moment of silence before Jaehyun cleared his throat. You and Johnny looked at him, which made him flustered. His ears were practically red now.

“Baby, I know he’s too handsome for this world, but I hope you’re not falling for him,” Johnny said monotonously, trying his best not to sound jealous.

On your part, you appreciated his honesty. That was one of the things you loved about him – his brutally frank comments helped you with your problems most of the time.

However, you also enjoyed how he seemed jealous of your budding crush on his friend, who now covered his face with his hands. “Please stop looking at me,” Jaehyun mumbled while peeking from the small spaces in between his fingers.

“Of course not, darling! You’re still my number one,” your attention was directed to Johnny this time, “but I have to be honest that Jaehyun is such a stunner that I can’t help but look at him sometimes,” you ended by taking a glance at the guy on your right.

The nerve of this guy to wink at you at this moment! You felt your body heat up at this, and you clenched your utensils tightly to fight it off.

“Jaaaaay! Don’t make her fall in love with you! She should be in love with me, and only me!” Johnny was whining like a baby, and the tension that enveloped the table earlier vanished.

You and Jaehyun laughed at how the 6-footer was acting. “Don’t worry, she won’t. Right, Essie? You’ll try your best not to fall in love with me?” The prince-like guy gave you another wink again and blew you a brief kiss.

You laughed in return, flushing red at the attention you were getting. “Hey, you’re totally trying to steal her from me!” Johnny quipped, whose long arm grabbed your wrist so you can focus your attention on him.

“I’m the only one you love, right?” He changed his voice to a sultry one and he gave you The Look. You felt your heart flutter and your insides became warmer. Ah, he still got you every time he did that.

“Yes, honey,” you murmured, shyly looking at his face. “You’re the one that I love.”

Jaehyun began to sing Shania Twain’s ‘You’re Still The One’, and Johnny followed suit. Then all of you sang the song until the end and burst into laughter at how funny (and flirty) you felt for the past few minutes.

After eating, Johnny had to take care of some errands, leaving you and Jaehyun alone in the apartment. “Don’t you even dare, Jeong Yoon-oh,” your boyfriend threatened, which you and your companion did not take seriously. “Don’t try to do anything to my girl,” were his last words before he left the house.

\\\

If there was one word to describe your situation after Johnny left, it was awkward.

You were seated on the end of the couch with a pillow on your stomach as you busily scrolled through your social media feed. On the opposite end was Jaehyun, who was also doing the same.

You could hear the videos he was playing, and you bet he could hear you mutter something under your breath. That was one quirk of yours whenever you scrolled through your Twitter feed – you had to comment on people’s tweets audibly first before responding to them on the app.

“You’re such a hoe, bitch,” you mumbled as you also typed it as your response. You were commenting on Ten’s latest post, which was an outtake on one of his shoots. He looked like a Renaissance painting that came to life with his velvet suit, silk ruffled shirt, and jeweled shoes.

“Who’s a hoe, Essie?” Jaehyun asked, melting you with his stare.

“It’s definitely not you!” You responded, cheeks red from embarrassment. You didn’t mean for him to hear your comment – you made a mental note to correct your quirk, so people don’t question you.

He laughed at your reaction and moved closer to where you were seated. “Then who are you calling a hoe then?”

You leaned back against the couch, hoping that there will be more space you could back out into. “It’s only Ten that I call as such, and it’s our thing,” you said, raising your phone to your face to cover how flushed it was.

“Really? You and Ten have a thing? Does Johnny know of this?” With every word he spoke, he moved closer to you.

“Not like that, dude! Ten’s one of my closest friends now. And you know he won't do something that will make Johnny angry, right?”

This stopped Jaehyun from approaching you, and it was his time to lean back on the sofa. “Oh, is that so?” he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

When you thought that he was done from crawling toward you, he surprised you when he wrapped his arms around your waist.

You squealed as he tickled you on the sides, on your knee, and his hands crept up on your neck.

“Jaaaaaay! Stop that!” You said in between panting, getting tired from laughing. You were pushing him away, but he easily overpowered you with his strength.

“No, Essie, I don’t want to! Say the magic word,” he said while staring at you with all his might.

Time slowed, and you took in how intent he was on making you say the magic word – what was it, anyway?

“Please?” You breathed, returning the stare he gave you. “Please, darling,” you tried again, your voice breathier than usual.

He loosened his hold on you, but he didn’t let go. “Do I need to repeat myself?” You asked, your hands ready to untangle yourself from him.

“Darling, you make me feel conflicted,” he said with the most painful expression on his face. It was a mixture of sadness and struggle, a combination that was indeed painful to see on anyone.

“Are you for real, Jaehyun?” You raised an eyebrow, hoping it masked how shocked you were with his words. You hoped you sounded scandalized to make him stop what he was doing.

“Essie, I like you. A lot. It pains me that I was never able to make a move on you first,” he said, tilting his body toward yours. He now had a loving expression on his face, making your heart melt.

“But why now?” You could feel the tears pooling at the corner of your eyes.

Come to think of it, Jaehyun was always nice when you hung out with Johnny before. He never teased you – he was actually very sweet and was always on your side. There were times he held your hand, and you let him since you two were good friends.

And how could you forget that he used to kiss your cheek every time you said your farewell? It was not just your cheeks touching – he really pressed his lips lightly on your cheek.

But best friends trump good friends, and eventually, you weren’t able to maintain your closeness once you spent more time with Johnny instead.

“I’m sorry, Essie. I don’t know what to do,” he slowly unhooked his arms on you, “I’m such a fool for coming here. Now I’m confused,” he ran his hands through his hair and looked distressed.

“I’m sorry too, Jay. But if you must know, I like you a lot too,” you said while fiddling with your thumbs.

“Essie, you’re making me more confused,” He sounded annoyed now. “I don’t want to ruin your relationship with John, I know how much he loves you.”

“But does he know that you…like me too?” As much as it made you cringe, you just had to ask him that.

His answer surprised you. “He doesn’t, and I intend to keep it that way.”

This was a plot twist that made your love life more complicated – even though you already have Johnny, you had Mark trying his best to woo you, and now Jaehyun has joined ‘the group chat’, as the kids would say.

“So, what do you plan to do then?” The question came out of your mouth without any thinking, which you now regret.

“Do you want to sin with me?” The way he delivered it sent shivers down your spine. It felt as if you were talking to the devil, only he was clad in a sweater and black jeans.

From that day until the following week, you and Jaehyun had your trysts.

–––

FIN

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tabloidtoc · 5 years ago

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Star, February 17

Cover: Meghan Markle tells all to Ellen DeGeneres

Page 1: Shania Twain opens up about the heartbreak she endured before finding Mr. Right Frederic Thiebaud

Page 2: Contents, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez

Page 3: LOL! Brad Pitt wore a name tag at the Oscars Nominees Luncheon, Winner of the Week -- An Air Force vet on Antiques Roadshow picked up a watch for $345 in the 1970s is now worth $500,000 to $700,000, Loser of the Week -- RHOC Vicki Gunvalson is leaving the show after 14 years when she wasn’t offered a contract for season 15, Colin Farrell sold his cottage in the Hollywood Hills when he dropped the price to $1.3M, Hailey Baldwin suffers from ectrodactyly which makes her pinky fingers wonky

Page 4: Duane “Dog” Chapman shocked fans and angered his family by popping the question to dead wife Beth’s best friend on The Dr. Oz Show

Page 6: She’s winning all the awards as the star of Judy but Renee Zellweger is striking out in the romance department because she screens men before she’ll even agree to dinner and it’s really awkward when she lets on that she already knows so much stuff about the guy, just as Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan hammered out their 50/50 custody agreement for daughter Everly -- Channing and Jenna’s baby daddy Steve Kazee got into an online scuffle, Star Spots the Stars -- Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell, Adriana Lima, Post Malone, Kelis, Dylan Sprouse, Beanie Feldstein, Tony Hawk, Tiffany Haddish

Page 7: Aaron Paul quitting fame for family, Taylor Swift’s eating disorders and squad of supermodels were enablers but her mother’s recent cancer diagnosis changed her priorities as had boyfriend Joe Alwyn, Courteney Cox is working to get her best friend Jennifer Aniston back with Brad Pitt

Page 8: Star Shots -- Hugh Jackman on a break from filming Reminiscence, Snoop Dogg in full-on Black Mamba mode honoring the late Kobe Bryant during a Fox Sports event

Page 9: Becca Kufrin and Ben Higgins at Build Studio announcing The Bachelor Live on Stage Tour, pregnant Milla Jovovich heading for a lunch date

Page 10: RHONJ Melissa Gorga, Kumail Nanjiani broke his strict diet on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Page 11: David Arquette and a dog at Sundance, Charlize Theron at the Costume Designers Guild Awards

Page 12: Justin and Hailey Bieber at the premiere of his YouTube docuseries Justin Bieber: Seasons, Blake Lively posed for selfies outside GMA

Page 14: Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Miranda Otto at the premiere of Downhill at Sundance, Lucy Hale, Ryan Reynolds and daughter James

Page 16: Grammys -- Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, Tyler the Creator, Billie Eilish

Page 17: Ozzy Osbourne and daughter Kelly Osbourne, Lizzo

Page 18: Bryan Cranston filming Your Honor, Fran Drescher

Page 19: Jay Pharaoh and James Van Der Beek talked up Bad Hair at Sundance

Page 20: Normal or Not? Robert Downey Jr. carrying a basket full of goodies to the premiere of Dolittle, Rita Ora left a medical facility wearing a mask, Mark Wahlberg working out

Page 22: Fashion -- Best of the Week -- Grammy Awards edition -- Jameela Jamil, Giuliana Rancic, Lilly Singh

Page 23: Rosalia, Chrissy Teigen

Page 26: Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel marriage on the brink

Page 27: Artem Chigvintsev doting on pregnant Nikki Bella, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher attended the premiere of her movie Four Good Days at Sundance but it wasn’t a happy outing, clashing parenting styles are threatening to cause a rift in Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher’s marriage

Page 30: Christina Hendricks is much happier and showing confidence she was missing when married to control freak Geoffrey Arend, Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello, Love Bites -- Jesse Tyler Ferguson and husband Justin Mikita will welcome a baby, Brandon Jenner and Cayley Stoker wed, Zac Efron and Halston Sage dating, Jenna Cooper expecting her first child, Russell Wilson and Ciara expecting their second child together

Page 32: Cover Story: Meghan Markle sits down with Ellen DeGeneres -- inside the shocking interview

Page 36: Kobe Bryant’s enduring legacy

Page 38: Slammed by the Stars -- Celebs spill the tea on their hostile work environments and horrible costars and just plain bad films and TV shows -- Megan Fox on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Katherine Heigl on Grey’s Anatomy, Channing Tatum on G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra

Page 39: Constance Wu on Fresh Off the Boat, George Clooney on Batman and Robin

Page 40: Jennifer Garner on Elektra, Brad Pitt on The Devil’s Own, Ruth Wilson on The Affair, Kim Cattrall on Sarah Jessica Parker and Sex and the City

Page 42: Intermittent Fasting -- Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Kourtney Kardashian

Page 44: Style -- Valentine’s Day -- Camila Mendes

Page 46: Romee Strijd and Jasmine Tookes

Page 48: Entertainment

Page 50: Books

Page 60: Parting Shot -- Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Rosie Perez and Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Margot Robbie and Elle Jay Basco captured a silly moment at the premiere of Birds of Prey

#tabloid #tabloid toc #meghan markle #ellen degeneres #courteney cox #jennifer aniston #brad pitt #brad and jen #braniston #renee zellweger #shania twain #shakira #jennifer lopez #channing tatum #colin farrell

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midnight-star-world · 2 years ago

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#CountryMusic

Academy of Country Music Honors 2022/CMT Artists Of The Year 2022

So today on the MSR (Midnight Star Review), I will be talking about 2 shows in one blog. And those are the Academy of Country Music Honors 2022 & CMT (Country Music Television) Artists of the year 2022. I will be posting my Artists of the year closer to the end of the year. So let's get started with the Academy of Country Music Honors 2022.

This show was hosted by Carly Pearce and aired on Fox. This was the 15th annual edition and originally aired on 9/13/22 at 8pm EST (Eastern Standard Time). Here is what they played first then we will head to the awards after.

Setlist. Kelsea Ballerini - Man I feel like a woman (Shania Twain cover). Hardy & Ernest - Sand in my boots -> Wasted on you -> More than my hometown (Morgan Wallen covers). Vince Gill - You don't wanna love a man like me. Dierks Bentley - Gold. Little Big Town - The house that built me (Miranda Lambert cover). Lainey Wilson - Workin' overtime. Carly Pearce - What he didn't do. Wynonna Judd - Why not me. Dan + Shay - Glad you exist. Tiera Kennedy - From this moment (Shania Twain cover). Avril Lavigne - No one needs to know (Shania Twain cover). Trace Adkins - A country boy can survive (Hank Williams Jr. cover). Morgan Wallen - A rock (Hardy cover). Brooks & Dunn - Kerosene (Miranda Lambert cover). Jordan Davis - What my world spins around.

And here is the awards. What was handed out and who won what.

Awards. ACM Milestone Award goes to Morgan Wallen. ACM Spirit Award goes to Chris Stapleton. ACM Icon Award goes to Connie Bradley. ACM Triple Crown Award goes to Miranda Lambert. ACM Film Award goes to Yellowstone. ACM Service Award goes to Duane Clark. ACM Poet Award goes to Sonny Throckmorton. ACM Poet Award goes to Shania Twain. ACM Songwriter of the year goes to Hardy.

And that's a wrap for the Academy of Country Music Honors 2022, but we are not done here with the awards. Up next is the CMT (Country Music Television) Artists of the year 2022. So let's get started right now on this show as well.

This was a show to honor Artists Walker Hayes, Luke Combs, Carly Pearce, Lainey Wilson, Kane Brown, Loretta Lynn, Cody Johnson, & Alan Jackson. This show was hosted by Martina McBride and was on Friday October 14th, 2022 at 9pm EST (Eastern Standard Time).

Setlist. Walker Hayes & Ciara - Y'all life. Riley Green performs Luke Combs' The kind of love we make. Carly Pearce - 29. Lainey Wilson - Heart like a truck. Kane Brown - Like I love Country Music. Crystal Gayle & Peggy Sue- Coal miner's daughter. Cody Johnson - Human. Alan Jackson - Chattahoochee.

And that's a wrap for both shows. And on the MSR (Midnight Star Review), I do like other artists singing other songs for their friends. So I would give both of these shows a 3 out of 5 stars. They were good to watch but if you missed out, it's okay. I truly got you covered. See ya all next time. And watch out for my Artists of the year 2022 coming soon.

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ericdeggans · 4 years ago

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If You Are Asking Whether Peacock TV Is Worth It, You May Be Asking the Wrong Question

As a TV critic, the question I hear every time a new streaming service starts up is simple: Is this really worth it?

And it was a particularly pressing question last week, when NBC decided to make its streaming service Peacock available to the world (Xfinity customers got a preview, with access provided in April).

But I think some of these questions miss the mark a bit. What consumers are seeing when a Peacock or HBO Max or Disney+ debuts, is not a finished product. What you’re seeing is the best guess by a major multinational media company of what they can present among the wide array of TV shows, movies and intellectual property they control at that moment to gain your attention at launch.

(Hear my take on Peacock delivered for NPR’s Morning Edition by clicking here)

The Peacock, HBO Max or Apple TV+ that exists now, is a framework; a bunch of mostly-empty shelves that they will slowly fill with content over the months and years, based on the deals they can cut, the shows they can get made and the audience reaction to what goes up.

Before the Age of Streaming, this was pretty much a given in the world of cable TV. When a new cable channel launched, you knew it was going to be filled with a bunch of stuff that was a combination of what programs the channels’ owners had on hand and what they thought an audience might want to see. Almost all of it would be wrong, would fail miserably and be off the air before long. But one or two shows might click with viewers and point the way to an identity.

Few people remember now, but even the Queen of All Media, Oprah Winfrey, fell victim to this rule when she launched her Oprah Winfrey Network channel, soon to be shortened to just OWN. Originally, it was packed with shows featuring the folks her daytime audience – mostly middle aged white women – liked. Semi-retired country star Shania Twain had a show. Ryan O’Neil had a show. Sarah Ferguson the former Duchess of York had an unscripted series. And audiences yawned.

But when OWN offered up unscripted shows featuring black women, viewers responded and the channel found its voice. Series from Tyler Perry and Ava DuVernay followed, and the channel just won its first Peabody award with the drama David Makes Man.

Most of these new streaming services are in the Shania Twain stage of their development.

That’s why I never understood why deep-pocketed services like Apple TV+ spent billions on content deals before a single show debuted on their service (beyond the need to compete with the equally deep pockets of Amazon and Netflix, of course). Before launch, they have no idea what their audience will respond to, or which new shows will resonate with the world; though they also won a Peabody for the series Dickinson, so there’s that.

Is Apple TV+ packed with high-priced, scattershot originals that leave no clear impression what its identity is as a streaming service? You betcha. Is Quibi filled with a bunch of half-assed originals that other streamers rejected? Of course it is. Does Peacock have a bunch of library shows that can be seen in other places? Without doubt.

But that’s to be expected right now. As months pass and distribution deals expire, we will see content settle on the streaming services owned by their corporate parents. And we will see original content strategies that feel less like a bunch of spaghetti thrown on a wall and more like targeted, focused attempts at building a roster.

Right now, subscribers to new streaming services are like the first people who bought an iPhone or iPod. There’s a thrill to being in on the ground floor. But it also means you’re along for the growing pains, false starts and frustrating bugs that accompany any new venture.

Welcome to the future. It’s going to be quite the bumpy ride.

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fashionablyfyrdraaca · 2 months ago

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"I have lost enough. I will not lose her as well."

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pli1999 · 3 months ago

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PartyLike It's 1999 9/7/24

Backstreet Boys vs NSYNC Edition

Oasis – “Live Forever”

Jesus & Mary Chain – “Sometimes Always”

Hootie & the Blowfish – “Hold My Hand”

John Mellencamp – “Wild Night”

Everclear – “Santa Monica”

The Veronicas – “Untouched”

Annie Lennox – “Walking on Broken Glass”

Backstreet Boys – “As Long As You Love Me”

NSYNC – “It Makes Me Ill”

Will Smith – “Getting Jiggy Wit It”

Digital Underground – “Humpty Dance”

Mark Morrison – “Return of the Mack”

Fatman Scoop – “Be Faithful”

DJ Kool – “Let Me Clear My Throat”

Savage Garden – “I Want You”

Hanson – “Mmmbop”

Natasha Bedingfield – “Unwritten”

NSYNC – “It’s Tearing Up My Heart”

Backstreet Boys – “The Call”

5ive – “When the Lights Go Out”

Ace of Base – “The Sign”

Britney Spears – “Baby One More Time”

Aaron Carter – “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It)”

Spice Girls – “Wannabe”

Destiny’s Child – “Jumpin’ Jumpin’”

Backstreet Boys – “Get Another Boyfriend”

NSYNC – “I Want You Back”

New Kids on the Block – “Step By Step”

Mariah Carey – “Emotions”

Madonna – “Hung Up”

La Bouche – “Be My Lover”

Darunde – “Sandstorm”

Backstreet Boys – “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”

Backstreet Boys – “Larger Than Life”

Backstreet Boys – “We’ve Got It Goin On”

Backstreet Boys – “I Want It That Way”

Shania Twain – “Man! I Feel Like a Woman”

Alanis Morissette – “You Oughta Know”

No Doubt – “Just a Girl”

Blink-182 – “All The Small Things”

Lit – “My Own Worst Enemy”

Smash Mouth – “All Star”

NSYNC – “It’s Gonna Be Me”

Christina Aguilera – “Come on Over Baby (All I Want Is You)”

BWitched – “C’est La Vie”

Sisqo – “Thong Song”

Montell Jordan – “This Is How We Do It”

Missy Elliott featuring Ciara and Fatman Scoop – “Lose Control”

Heavy D and the Boyz – “Now That We’ve Found Love”

TLC – “No Scrubs”

Busta Rhymes featuring Mariah Carey – “I Know What You Want”

Michael Jackson – “Black or White”

Nirvana – “Smells like Teen Spirit”

Sum 41 – “Fat Lip”

Linkin Park – “In the End”

Blur – “Song 2”

Third Eye Blind – “Never Let You Go”

Vanessa Carlton – “A Thousand Miles”

Semisonic – “Closing Time”

Pearl Jam – “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town”

Green Day – “Wake Me Up When September Ends”

Aerosmith – “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing”

#90snight #partylikeits1999 #aughts

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headteacherlhs · 6 years ago

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Headteachers Blog #50

Headteachers Blog Number 50/Blog Prifathro Rhif

Friday 25th January 2019

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students/Annwyl Rieni,Gwarchodwyr a Myfyrwyr

This week, the Senior Leadership Team and Year Team Leaders have been carrying out our half-termly formal monitoring of standards in relation to attendance, punctuality and uniform.

Alongside this, I have been following with interest the improvement journey of a school in England cited as having ‘Britain’s strictest headmaster.’ In this school, amongst other requirements:

· Students move silently through the corridors and are not permitted to speak while transitioning from one lesson to another

· Mobile phones are confiscated on sight and held for one week

· Pencil cases must be transparent, 30 cm in length and stocked according to guidelines

· Parents of excluded students are required to attend school with them on the day of their return to sit with them in lessons and to monitor them at break and lunch time

· Students are not permitted to push up the sleeves of their blazer or to wear coloured socks

Now this is clearly a carefully selected/edited snapshot of a school on a journey and the headlines are designed to invite sensation. As a parent, student, staff member or governor you may have a view on these school rules! Some of these rules may resonate well with you. Others may not. But I’m always interested to visit other schools and to read of different approaches.

Regardless of the different approaches, I have never visited a school with high standards of uniform that didn’t carry these high standards through in to other areas of school life. Dressing smartly for school is the foundation for a positive work ethic and conduct in and around school. “School uniform supports effective teaching and learning and engenders a positive, calm and respectful teaching and learning environment.” (Department for Education)

But importantly, students need to know that the rules and expectations for all aspects of behaviour will be enforced. The example that I gave to a reluctant blazer wearer this morning was, “You do not join a football team and then decide which of the rules you wish to adhere to and whether or not you want to wear the team strip.” In wearing our uniform, we set our identity and we are all equally valued members of this school community. In making the choice to come to LHS, you make the choice to wear our uniform. All of it. Not selected parts of it.

A further pearl of wisdom that I have shared generously this week is, “your parents do not work hard to pay for uniform for you to stuff it in to the bottom of your school bag. You need to show respect for your own property and for the property of others. You need to take responsibility and take care of your own uniform.”

Equally, our expectations are not set to create an atmosphere of fear and worry. The uniform store means that we have a supportive provision for students who find themselves without full uniform for a variety of reasons. We have high expectations but set within a context of support. Therefore, a very small number of students have spent time in isolation this week for refusing to wear the uniform item that they have been offered by the team in the uniform store.

We would like to thank parents for supporting the school in setting and maintaining high standards for uniform. I make no apologies for revisiting this repeatedly. It has been a privilege to visit tutor groups this week. We will continue to drive a strong and consistent behaviour policy in order to ensure that our students receive the education that they deserve.

Here are just a couple of snaps from my visits to classrooms this week. Let’s start with Miss Evans’ lovely Year 9 RE class:

Next door, Year 7 were thoroughly enjoying their Geography class with Mr Westrop:

Year 7 Tocyn Iaith winners

Next today I would like to congratulate our tocyn iaith winners for the autumn term. All three received vouchers for WHSmith as well as ACE points in recognition of their use of the Welsh language around the school. Well done boys!

1st place - Isa Asif 7I

2nd place - Dylan Clarke 7D (absent for photograph)

3rd place - Morgan Howden 7D

A plethora of sporting achievement this week:

A big well done to our year 7 and 8 girls who competed in the Indoor Sportshall Competition at Whitchurch this week: Isabel Fisher, Camellia Benzaoua, Isla Howells, Chelsey Mills, Lily Morgan, Maya Ahmed, Leah Morris, Shania Price, Destiny Jones, Kiara Cachia and Katie Gill. We also had 1st place in the sprint events for Katie Gill and Shania Price- Well done ladies!

We would also like to extend our congratulation to former student Alex Morgan for being named in the Wales U20 squad for the 2019 Six Nations!

Alex is a role model for our next cohort of sports men and women… here are some of our Sixth Form BTEC Level 3 students completing their fitness tests on the new AstroTurf on a very cold but crisp and clear January day.

Calling all budding performers:

Finally today, an appeal to any budding performers who would like to audition for a part in our school summer production of ‘Legally Blonde!’ Make your way to the creative arts area during Monday lunch.

Thank you for reading/Diolch am ddarllen,

Mrs Sarah Parry, Headteacher

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thisisheffner · 5 years ago

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MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL 2019

Don’t Ever Doubt Aunty, She Knows How To Throw A Party

Words: Bec Grech and Sally Lewis Photos: Chelsea King

This is Bec’s fourth and Sal’s first Meredith Music Festival. Here is who and what they saw during a wonderfully wacky weekend at the coveted Supernatural Amphitheatre.

FRIDAY

Cleansing smoke from the smoking ceremony filled the Supernatural Amphitheatre, signalling the start of Meredith Music Festival in its 29th edition, held on the land of the Wadawurrung. In a MMF first, Uncle Barry Gilson along with other traditional custodians of the land performed a beautiful Welcome To Country. Stories, singing and dancing. In a minutes silence, the Sup’ stood in solidarity to pay respect to their recently lost Elder, Aunty Mary. Thank you Uncle Barry and the Wadawurrung people for sharing your stunning land with us for the weekend and welcoming us all with open hearts.

Photo: Meredith punters walking through the Smoking Ceremony held by Wadawurrung people, the traditional custodians of the land on which Meredith takes place.

Jesswar opened the festival with an explosive, tough as nails performance. Her hard-going hip hop had all the bad bitches move to the front. And move to the front, we did.

Karate Boogaloo, the funky and oh-so funny four-piece served up a set of their finest and fruitiest jams. Sweet, sticky, ooey-gooey goodness. Kay-Bee’s unconventional funk and fusions of psych and RnB, had the Sup’ swaying and smiling ear-to-ear. Carn the Boogers!

With housekeeping out of the way (courtesy of FEE B2 and Shania Twain), Julia Jacklin instantly warmed and wowed the crowd. Equally composed and expressive, Jacklin’s voice has the power to deliver a performance that can be simply summarised as, stunning. Singalongs to ‘Pressure To Party’, ‘Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You’ and ‘Pool Party’ had our hands to our hearts.

Aunty Meredith, thank you for putting together a lineup with set times that allow us to jump from the dreamy, indie pop of Julia Jacklin to the electric rockabilly of Tokyo’s Stompin’ Riffraffs. Seriously, the screams, the masks, the blazing theremin solos. Unreal. Check them out.

I was quite perplexed by the disregard of Meredith’s ‘No Dickhead Policy’ when Liam Gallagher was announced as a headliner… After a couple of tracks I swapped out his set for some downtime at the Ecoplex Cinema and was witness to an odd Christmas movie where Santa hosted an international kindergarten rock eisteddfod inside a grand organ, then proceeded to invade an innocent child’s dreams that were influenced by Satan. I was happy with my decision, but hey, I’m sure most people in the Sup’ were having the time of their lives, and that’s great too. I stayed for the Friday night headliner and the set was, strange? With two decent enough albums behind him, Liam Gallagher surprisingly leaned heavy on the Oasis classics but not the ones I was expecting. ‘Wonderwall’ of course came out, as did ‘Cigarettes And Alcohol’, ‘Rock N Roll Star’ and ‘Stand By Me’, but Gallagher chose to skip over a huge mix of mega hits. Admittedly I may have fallen asleep in the deep comforts of a cosy couch as Gallagher played, but I suppose there’s something cool about being woken up to a crowd of festival goers singing along to some iconic 90s Brit-pop. Special mention to the unaware punter yelling “play Wonderwall!” as Gallagher and his band were belting out that man’s very request right in front of him. “Who are you looking forward to seeing at Meredith?” they all asked. My instant reply, “Close Counters”. The Tasmanian duo played their biggest crowd to date and utilised their deep synths and drilling basslines to get the Friday night party started with their crazy good fusion of house, jazz and soul. Mmmm Moog synths rule. Elle Shimada also made an appearance to slay the violin, as well as Francesca Gonzales who leant her vocals.

Logic1000 whose debut EP dropped only weeks before our supernatural adventures carried us into the early morning, floating between deep house and ambient electronic moments. Oops! Bed time for me. Closing out the night was Vanessa Worm. I was meters away from my tent when Vanessa’s wacky vocals permeated through the campsite. It sounded too good to be true, and impossible to miss. I made the trip back to the dance floor to witness her set in the flesh. Gritty electronic beats provided a background to some incredibly silly vocal stylings that appeared to be emanating from a puppet who had gained awareness of it’s strings and was making every attempt to rid itself of it’s puppet master. They definitely expelled some of their inner demons. Fantastic, I wanted to put my boot up but held onto it for some strange reason, which I have now come to regret.

“Time for you to be still” – listening to Vanessa Worm, I hit the hay too.

SATURDAY

Scott and Charlene’s Wedding was the most wonderful soundtrack to waiting in line for coffee. A very blissful morning indeed.

U-Bahn was up next and boy, not only did they look good (hats off to outfit coordination and killer eye makeup) they sounded bloody brilliant. Having caught these synth-punks around Melbourne town a few times previously, their moment on the Sup’ stage may just be my favourite performance of theirs yet.

“Where are you camping?” is apparently every third question asked at Meredith, so for the sake of this article.. I ran back to our castle/camp at Bluegums to refuel and unfortunately missed seeing River Yarra, but thanks to there only being one super loud stage, I was able to listen to their pops of percussion fuelled, experimental electronica. Wobbly, wonky, I liked what I heard.

Cate Le Bon on a sweet Saturday afternoon was sublime. Uniquely impassive in their own kooky fashion, Le Bon and her band in their performance slip in twinkles of magic and stubborn eccentrics. It was truly dazzling and full of heart. Plenty of boots up in the air for this set.

It seemed like the entire festival flooded the amphitheatre for DJ Koze on Saturday afternoon. An incredible turn out for a last minute addition to the lineup. Koze must have raided the local Meredith nursery, going full bush on the set design – it looked and sounded amazing. Potentially the crowd favourite? Sally, please blast ‘Pick Up’ as you scatter my ashes through a forest somewhere.

Can do! Bec and I both gave our boot to the German DJ, as we boogied our bums off to Koze’s impeccable selection of beats and bangers. I’m having flashbacks. Might go cry to the memories of Meredith right now…

Following Koze’s wild hour and a half were some marvellous afro house beats, courtesy of Digital Afrika. I didn’t realise just how much dancing could be squeezed into one afternoon. The Eqyptian Lover then whipped the crowd into a frenzy with their powerful stage antics. Forcing the crowd to scream “eight oh, motha effin, eight”. They proceeded to play nothing but that drum machine for fifteen minutes straight while thousands of smiling faces ferociously shook their booties.

I was also one of those booty shakers and I aspire to dance as The Egyptian Lover dances… He’s got the moves I tell ya. *Flicks hands left and right*. Viagra Boys. WOW. The five-piece punkers from Stockholm, Sweden, had everyone in the palms of their hands as they bashed through their catalogue of witty post-punk belters. Frontman Sebastian Murphy is a crazy character, he threw himself around the crowd and all about the stage as he sang and shouted his lampoons on life. Push ups into a microphone as he yelled “sports!” during the ‘Sports’ outro, very, very impressive. Special shoutout to the saxophonist of the band who bloody slayed that thing all set long. I admire a punk band who indulge in using bongos. Absolutely wild times. I may have given DJ Koze my boot but Viagra Boys have my heart.

Photo: Viagra Boys frontman Sebastian Murphy singing into the front row of people.

Dead Prez were up next, who blew us all out of the park. Gangsta Brooklyn political-rap pairs very nicely with samples of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pink Floyd.

Amyl and the Sniffers came in stinkin’ hot (and slightly late) with an ARIA tucked under their mullets. Two years ago the local punks opened Meredith on Friday night. This year they cut loose during a headline time slot. My. Oh. My. They delivered. A set equally as punchy and wild as it was wholesome. In between heavy breaths the band made it pretty clear how special it was for them to be playing another Meredith. Props to Amy for creating a safe space in the mosh for everybody except creeps. She is a force to be reckoned with. Footage of buff kangaroos fighting while Amy sung “I wanna be your little angel” along with a live Chat Roulette video stream displayed throughout the set, sent me (and I’m sure many others) into fits of laughter. The joy of short and sharp punk songs is that nearly every single Amyl and the Sniffers hit can be squeezed into a 45 minute set; ‘70 Street Munchies’, ‘I’m Not A Loser’, ‘Monsoon Rock’, ‘Gacked On Anger’, ‘Cup Of Destiny’. All killer no filler.

Photo: Amy Taylor of Amyl and The Sniffers on stage during their Saturday night headline slot.

Irish alt-pop/disco sensation Roisin Murphy who you’d recognise from Moloko (‘Sing It Back’) blew us away with an impeccably controlled vocal delivery and performance. It was a real treat to see her delve into the sonic world of her solo endeavours – swaying between chiming, glittery, lush synths and the squelchier sounds of ‘Overpowered’. Upwards of 4 costume changes? What a party. There was also some kind of silver alien that Murphy hugged and danced with. It was confusing but I loved it. After that, I only remember dancing.

Two hours of solid dancing to incredible house followed, soundtracked by Eric Powell. Thank you. Just, thank you. German producer and DJ Helena Hauff, whose appearance at Meredith had been years in the works, mixed the entirety of their set on vinyl. Starting dark and brooding, we were quickly plunged into dark, fast and heavy selections accompanied by intensely curated visuals. “Are you ready to RAMBL?!” … No, I’m so sorry but by body can’t do it. Dancing for upwards of 15 hours had me beat. I did however enjoy the local DJ’s diverse mixes of house, disco, funk and techno from the comforts of my tent AND as I woke back up at 7am for a cheeky run to the loo. There was no better way to wake up Sunday morning than with another lil’ dance.

SUNDAY

We all rolled out of our tents slowly late Sunday morning with sore heads, full hearts, and dropped jaws, recovering from the breathtaking talent that graced the Amphitheatre the night before and we headed down to catch Gordon Koang. As much as he insisted he loved the crowd very much, I think we loved him more. Koang had the amphitheatre standing up and clapping their hands (despite how rough we all undoubtedly were feeling at this point in the weekend) before he even played ‘Stand Up (Clap Your Hands)’ which on stage featured a string of the cutest dancers possible. Two disco ball headed dancers also joined the party on stage and now I need a disco ball head toot sweet.

I’m not going to lie, I had no idea what The Gift was. I didn’t even think to ask. Holy. Moly. Not only is the Sup’ the perfect place to let your hair down but also, your pants. Nude racing around the Amphitheatre by those with brave souls and bare bums. Meredith truly is a magical place. Speaking of…

MAGICAL MOMENTS

Interstitial DJs – the unsung heroes of the dancefloor. Adriana selects the most wonderful international boogie gems and only FEE B2 can get away with mixing ‘Come on Eileen’, into drum and bass, into disco.

The People – Ingrained in its philosophy, everyone is welcome at MMF. With open arms Aunty Meredith and the Wadawurrung people allow festival goers to indulge themselves in music, art and community. The people at MMF are united bunch of loose bananas who have the best fun, and who importantly look after each other while doing so. No dickheads. No worries.

The amount of ‘overheards’ and ‘seen ats’ could be endless. I loved seeing the endless array of dolled up punters and groups of friends in highly coordinated outfits; women in 80s business attire passing around a cheese board in the midst of a Swedish punk set, a crew dressed in life jackets and helmets carrying their mate on an inflatable raft who paddled and parted the Sup’ like the sea, netballers, cricketers, flight attendants, birds, disco dancers, you name it and someone was probably dressed like it at Meredith. The Return of Doof Sticks – This year the doof sticky things were removed from the banned items list (as long as their heads were no larger than that of a cauliflower). They lined the Sup’s horizon to make a spectacle of lights and crafty work. Even some cauliflowers on sticks were spotted. The Boot – My first time at Meredith, I was relieved and heart-warmed by the concept of giving an act your boot/shoe. Thankfully not a suggestion of a shoey, but an act of admiration.

Cricket – Who doesn’t love an impromptu game of bat n’ ball in the rise of the Sup’? Meredith is the only place the police and punters sporting ‘eff the police’ shirts can come together for an over. Couches – How have I survived past music festivals without one? A place to chill out and enjoy the music from afar, or dance on top of, or start a party at, or make as a meeting point. Genius. Also, I hope the guy we found asleep on our couch Sunday morning is doing fine and found his friend Sarah.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite comments in the lead up that MMF 2019’s lineup wasn’t as strong as previous years (which we never once bought into) and the ticket swapping page being swamped with heavily discounted tickets – it is pretty damn clear by the success of the weekend that; 1) don’t ever doubt Aunty, 2) She knows how to throw a party, and 3) those who sold their tickets missed out on a stellar weekend. During every set there were boots being held up left right and center. With every twist and turn someone beside you was having the time of their life.The Supernatural Amphitheatre is without a doubt the most magical place for live music in Australia.

Thank you Aunty Meredith. Thank you to the Wadawurrung people for sharing your land. Thank you to the lovely friends we met and made. We are already counting down the days ‘til Golden Plains.

The post MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL 2019 appeared first on SYN Media.

This content was originally published here.

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gethealthy18-blog · 5 years ago

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101 Best Text Messages That Will Make Him Smile

New Post has been published on https://healingawerness.com/getting-healthy/getting-healthy-women/101-best-text-messages-that-will-make-him-smile/

101 Best Text Messages That Will Make Him Smile

101 Best Text Messages That Will Make Him Smile Harini Natarajan Hyderabd040-395603080 October 28, 2019

If you want to make your man smile gleefullywhenever he hears a notification on his phone,you are on the right page. Nothing feels better than knowing that you can make him happy with a single text. If you want your guy to blush and miss you in your absence, send him of these cute 101 messages that will make him smile from ear to ear and keep the sparks alive.

101 Best Text Messages That Will Make Him Smile

You make me the happiest girl in the world.

I must have been an angel in my last life to have you with me in this life.

Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I love it when you call me.

Thank you for putting up with my tantrums and treating me like a queen.

You are my real-life Superman.

You are the best person I have ever met.

You are hotter than hot chocolate.

I am so crazily in love with you.

“Cause, honey, your soul could never grow old, it’s evergreen and, baby, your smile’s forever in my mind and memory.” Ed Sheeran (Thinking Out Loud)

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You can make me blush with a single glance.

Since the day we met, I just can’t get you out of my head.

Sometimes, I feel bad for you that I got a perfect guy like you, and you are stuck with a hopeless lover like me!

Thank you for making me live a fairytale life.

You make me fall in love with you every single day.

Seeing your photos makes me smile like an idiot.

You take my breath away, sweetheart.

You are the treasure of my life.

“Something in the way she moves attracts me like no other lover. Something in the way she woos me.” The Beatles (Something)

You are the secret power that keeps me going even through a tiresome day.

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Half my selfies are to remind you that your girl is missing you.

Thinking about you also makes my day.

“God gave me you for the ups and downs. God gave me you for the days of doubt.” Blake Shelton (God Gave Me You)

The moment I say bye to you, I am thinking about when I can call you next.

All I can imagine is us cuddling together.

You are the closest person to my heart.

I can’t wait to be your wife someday.

I think we should workout together. They say a kiss burns 7 calories a minute, want to try?

“Remember those walls I built? Well, baby, they’re tumbling down and they didn’t even put up a fight, they didn’t even make a sound.” Beyoncé (Halo)

There is not a single day when I do not think of you.

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A small text to remind you that you are loved a lot.

Imagining you holding me in your arms is the best thing to do all day.

You are my best Netflix and chill partner.

“Maybe I don’t know that much, but I know this much is true, I was blessed because I was loved by you.” Celine Dion (Because You Loved Me)

I had pictured us kissing months before we actually did.

You are either in my dreams or a part of my daydreams.

“Cause all of me loves all of you. Love your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections.” John Legend (All Of Me)

All my friends are jealous of how lucky I am to have a person like you in my life.

I feel so protected and safe when you are around.

You are a real-life hero who saves me from every problem.

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“Heaven is a place on earth with you.” Lana Del Rey (Video Games)

You are one in a million, and I am your crazy minion.

You make me so proud of you.

Forever seems small when it has you in it.

“Baby, you’re all that I want when you’re lying here in my arms, I’m finding it hard to believe we’re in heaven.” Bryan Adams (Heaven)

I love you more and most.

After meeting you, I realized, I have found my lobster.

I love you, 3000.

“And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while, ’cause you’re amazing, just the way you are.” Bruno Mars (Just The Way You Are)

I can’t remember any situation when I was not thinking about you and smiling to myself.

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Be my Ironman, and I will take care of you like Pepper.

You keep the butterflies in my tummy alive forever.

“When you need some shelter from the rain when you need a healer for your pain, I will be there time and time again.” Leona Lewis (Here I Am)

You always dazzle me with everything you do.

You are the light without which I am lost completely.

“I’d never lived before your love, I’d never felt before your touch, and I never needed anyone to make me feel alive, but then again, I wasn’t really living.” Kelly Clarkson (Before Your Love)

You stole my heart, and now, I am going to steal your last name.

You keep me so happy, I don’t remember what life was before you came in my life.

You get my heart racing.

“Look at the stars, look how they shine for you and everything you do like they were all yellow.” Coldplay (Yellow)

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I keep thinking of ways to make you laugh.

You are my home.

We might not be perfect as individuals, but as a couple, we are perfect.

“Thank you for loving me, for being my eyes when I couldn’t see.” Bon Jovi (Thank You For Loving Me)

Sometimes, I feel my bed is too huge for me. Want to hop in and share it with me?

You are my universe.

You are the peanut butter, and I am the jelly.

“I may not have the softest touch. I may not say the words as such. And though I may not look like much….I’m yours.” The Script (I’m Yours)

You have a smile worth dying for.

You made me fall in love with myself.

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“You’re still the one I run to, the one that I belong to, you’re still the one I want for life.” Shania Twain (You’re Still The One)

No matter how bad my day goes, I know talking to you will make everything right again.

You are so smart! Someday, my kids are going to thank me for finding you.

Just so you know, you are thoroughly missed.

“I’ll be better when I’m older. I’ll be the greatest fan of your life.” Edwin McCain

“And I can’t help but stare, because I see truth somewhere in your eyes.” Justin Timberlake (Mirrors)

I hope you are real because they say a perfect man does not exist.

“I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words how wonderful life is while you’re in the world.” Elton John (Your Song)

Nobody feels me like the way you do.

I have the best friend and lover in the same person. How lucky could I get?

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“I am thinking of you in my sleepless solitude tonight, if it’s wrong to love you, then my heart just won’t let me be right.” Mariah Carey (My All)

I love you more and more each day.

I did not believe in love until I found you.

“And if you want to cry, I am here to dry your eyes, and in no time, you’ll be fine.” Sade (By Your Side)

I watch scary movies with you just so you would hug me closer when I scream.

You are that part of me that was missing from my life.

There is no end to how much I love and care for you.

You never fail to turn me on.

I could wait my whole life to wake up next to you.

I promise to stand by you like a rock and keep you happy and strong forever.

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I didn’t believe in love at first sight. But I fall in love with you all over again, every single day.

“All your insecurities, all the dirty laundry, Never made me blink one time.” Katy Perry (Unconditionally)

You are my happily ever after.

There are no limits to how much I could do to keep you happy forever.

You will always top my search list, no matter what.

I might not always be by your side, but I will always be on top or under you!

I hope I get to be with you in every life.

“And when you’re needing your space To do some navigating, I’ll be here patiently waiting to see what you find.” Jason Mraz (I Won’t Give Up)

The only thing I want to change about you is your current location. I want it to be right next to me.

You are the person I am addicted to.

I will never get tired of loving you to the moon and back.

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These are the cutest 101 messages to send to the love of your life and make him feel special and loved. Watch him smile and let your love bloom into a long-term relationship – forever and always. Happy texting!

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Harini Natarajan

Harini has over 12 years of experience in content writing and editing for online media. She specializes in the areas of business, health and wellness, and lifestyle and is proficient in Medical Sciences (Biology, Human Anatomy and Physiology, and Biochemistry). As the Chief Editor, Harini ensures that her team delivers interesting, engaging, and authentic content. Her background in Biomedical Engineering helps her decode and interpret the finer nuances of scientific research for her team. Harini is a certified bibliophile and a closet poet. She also loves dancing and traveling to offbeat destinations.

Source: https://www.stylecraze.com/articles/texts-to-make-him-smile/

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drink-n-watch · 6 years ago

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***Editing Irina here – it’s April 5th and it’s definitely snowing here. In your face BoogiePop!***

Well, Boogiepop has come and gone. Although this was yet another anti-climatic ending, it was at least a comprehensible one… Way to set that bar just a millimeter off the ground. Shania is hosting our last episode review, so look forward to that! In the meantime, I’ve compiled some general thoughts on the series.

so grab a drink ad let’s get started!

I have a complicated relationship with BoogiePop phantom that doesn’t laugh and others.

The original anime was one of the first I had ever seen and it captivated me. In the end I thought it failed to wrap things up satisfyingly even then, but I still have a soft spot for it. It was weird and messy and seemed to be desperately trying to say something that it didn’t quite have the words for. It was ripe for interpretation. My little brain thought that maybe this was the unique brand of entertainment I had been looking for.

I wanted to like it and I wanted it to be more. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure that what I actually wanted it to be was Serial Experiments Lain, but I didn’t know that at the time. It was weird and had some interesting character designs and a great premise.

Years later I would come across the novels. I enjoyed them in that specific way you enjoy videos that try to explain Prometheus in detail. I don’t remember if they were good, well written, interesting books. However they provided desperately needed context and background to the Boogiepop lore and I ate it up.

my thoughts exactly!

It’s just so great when you realize all those weird details weren’t just random bits of flair but integral elements of the storyline. Too bad everything is executed in such a way that the average viewer could never have caught on.

Fast forward to the present and we have yet another Boogiepop. As usual, I am psyched!

I have no clue if anyone still remembers the first series or even if it was at all popular at the time. But I cannot wait for another cryptic round of Boogiepop. Especially seeing that this time, I’ve got an entire community to discuss it with. Nothing makes a frustratingly ambiguous narrative better, than friends to help you figure out (or invent) exactly what is going on!

This is the mindset I started the show with. Aside from Steins;Gate 0, this may have been the series I was looking forward to most in recent memory. What can I say, I love weird.

it looked awesome

I’m not sure when my enthusiasm soured. It was pretty early on though. I liked the convoluted timeline and wrap around plot threads. I enjoyed the defined arc structure. The updated designs and animation are in fact very pretty. Technically speaking BoogiePop never laughs with others. Is a well made anime.

Stylistically, it tries hard. Maybe a little too hard. The dialogue is at times truncated and seems purposefully confusing, like an experimental play. Voice actor performances are all very deliberate and clearly carefully directed. The series was entirely crafted to keep the audience off balance and guessing but something went wrong.

Please note that I generally enjoy weird, hard to follow and slow paced narratives. I m fine with open ended plotlines. I will even have fun with series that are simply weird for weird’s sake. My issues here are not with the lack of clarity. In the end, the stories were in fact fairly simple band easy to follow. It’s more that they seemed a little.. pointless.

hmmm I’m starting to suspect it’s more about style…

A lot of shows which bank on coming across as mysterious will keep the characters underdeveloped. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact we can argue about what makes a character underdeveloped at length. The fact is that you can keep a person’s background, motivations and goals completely obscure while still defining their personality. In Boogiepop and others, everyone aside from Boogiepop themself and Nagi, came across like a cardboard cutout. I couldn’t related or empathize with them, which meant that I ultimately never cared much about what happened to them.

Moreover, the villains were also never a properly viable threat since their actions seemed simply plot dictated most of the time. It’s difficult to be anxious for what’s going to happen next if it’s random, you know.

Ironically, the very interesting non linear structure of the plot is partly to blame here. I could forgive flat characters if the events of the story are interesting enough to keep me invested. Because of the time jumps though, you get disconnected from what’s happening. Your suspension of disbelief is shattered and you need a tangible real feeling narrator or point of view character to regain that connection. This is what was missing here.

that would also help!

The slightly better presented supernatural characters are made insistently alien and are used too sparingly to be our audience surrogates, while the everyman characters are so dull as to be difficult to tell apart. In the end I was left with no one to cling to and a plot that just seemed gimmicky as soon as you figure out how to unravel it.

By Jeeves guys, I think I figured it out while trying to explain it. It wouldn’t have solved everything, and most people would probably still have issues with BoogiePop, but for me, a slightly relatable and consistent audience surrogate would have gone a long way to making this one more enjoyable. What are you thoughts on this season of Boogiepop?

If you just can’t get enough of my thoughts on BoogiePop, you can read the episode reviews HERE!

I’m going to throw in a few extra screencaps below but you can see all of them HERE.

Boogiepop Doesn’t Laugh and Neither did I ***Editing Irina here - it's April 5th and it's definitely snowing here. In your face BoogiePop!***

#anime #Boogiepop #drama #huh #supernatural #thriller

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heartnetnews-blog · 7 years ago

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Coming Home

Home is where the heart is. We’ve all heard it. We all know it and by god, what an irritating proverb! Who even thought of it? What if home is where the nostalgia is? Or where Shania Twain fucked up your life? In the more perverse now H&M sells embellished cell phone covers with text that writes home is where my phone is. All of this is a testament to the fact that home is a malleable concept. It is a place or a people upon which we project our desires, anger, lust, love, etc. These are some of the concerns for the artists of Homecoming, the inaugural show for the new gallery, Public Storage, run by Blake Jacobsen, Jennifer Renée, and Meghan Sabik.

The ritual of the homecoming is not entirely clear to me having been raised by immigrant parents in New York City, where such rituals aren’t exactly performed and so from a distance and perhaps a certain amount of naiveté, when I think of a homecoming I imagine a picture-perfect heteronormative daydream of a young man equipped with stubbly chin placing a corsage upon the wrist of a girl, his sweetheart, while the girl sports a Cinderella-esque dress. Even though I myself have never participated in such traditions, this image is placated in my mind and creates an immediate understanding of the subversion that is taking place in this group exhibition.

The exhibition features the works of twelve artists (no small feat), including the works of the three founders of Public Storage. Investigating the show, I begin at the top floor, an attic-like space that feels unstable, maybe a little precarious and it is there that Noon Tran’s piece is housed; “playing with the stars in the lost twilight until late becomes soon/a promise/cuoi the moon.” I honestly, spend the least amount of time here, feeling a little nervous by the sounds of the creaking floor as I move around, although I admire that this is the chosen location of Noon Tran’s piece. I visited this show in the last two weeks of its’ display and by this time Noon Tran’s installation, which included fresh flowers, have wilted. Needless to say there is a beautiful precarity in this work captured within the instability of the space and further reinforced by the poetic title that implies, both fragmentation and grounding, in a home. After visiting the show, I google Cuoi Moon to discover that the origins of this name comes from Vietnamese folklore about the moon boy who supposedly sits by a banyan tree, in Vietnamese the banyan tree translates to Cay Da. Coincidentally, the artist includes in the materials list, Caycad, a tree that is also native to Vietnam, but different from the Cay Da (banyan). In this work, a play on words and henceforth, a fragmentation about home through the life of plants that wilt and dry, emerge to weave an intricate story, in a way that I find captivating and all the more surprising being that I spend the least amount of time with this work.

On the main floor of Public Storage are four separate rooms, one in which three films play on interval. I find myself in hypnosis here by Orr Swissa Amran’s video Songs that Sang. I sit through the two remaining videos just so I can watch the looping of this film from the beginning. In one sequence, there are two figures, a man and woman, sitting and reading what appear to be children’s books in Hebraic text. One discusses his admiration of Napoleon as a dictator because he never surrendered. The woman counters his argument and claims that Napoleon did indeed surrender and that this information is found in the supposedly identical books that they are reading. Humorously, the woman who makes this argument is holding her book upside down, and furthermore, it appears to be an entirely different text. At the end of each conversation between these two figures, their faces turn to the camera (to us, the spectators), in newly adorned cowboy hats, and the shot breaks to the West Los Angeles Children’s Choir whom in this particular sequence sing ABBA’s Waterloo, “My, my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender…!”

Although the children stand uniformly in rows with little bows on their polo shirts and a crisp black background, they’re laughing and smiling and their cheeks are rosy red, as it appears the artist has cartoonishly highlighted their cheeks with red blush. The children are infectious as they go on singing the chorus of songs we all recognize, from Abba’s Waterloo to Boney M’s Rasputin. The kids are irresistible in ways that they don’t have to try to be. One child randomly yawns before singing; another stands with a pouted face expression, while another begins shaking her hands in a little dance with anticipated excitement that a child may feel, especially under the pretext of being filmed. One can’t help, but imagine that shooting these sequences must’ve been incredibly fun and certainly funny. And so the film goes, with shots of conversations between the man and woman, at a certain point they even play a game of cat’s cradle, to shots of children singing songs that are thematic to the prior conversation or games played. Orr Swissa Amran conveys certain nostalgia of childhood that we all may recognize in the games and the songs and of course when one thinks back to childhood, we think of home. What the hell is home? I grew up in Kew Gardens, Queens. As I type this I’m on a flight back from New York thinking about my trip back “home.” Passing by the shops and streets I was so familiar with, places where I first tripped and fell in the playground, places where my dog ran free without a leash, the place where I had my first kiss, all of these places resonate in the deepest core of my bones. I feel them too intensely and yet, it breaks my heart, because it’s not home anymore. I of course don’t want to deduce Amran’s video to a simple reading of home as childhood and therefore nostalgia, because the work is complexly layered. As the described sequence suggests, the Hebraic text, which I am merely guessing are children’s books read by the two characters with a concurrent conversation about dictatorship implies to me the present state of dictatorship imposed by the Israeli state. And yet, Amran gets all this across and so much more. I’d like to think that each of us are able to take something away from this particular piece.

I fear that I am rambling on and the challenges of writing a review for a group show are unveiling themselves to me and yet I do not want to complete this text without mentioning Black Jacobsen’s work, which in my very frank opinion is the star of the show. Jacobsen’s video piece is easy to miss unless someone in the gallery points it out in an invitation to enter a darkened room behind closed doors, immediately resonant with the closet. In his video piece, Fashionably Late Postmodern Coming Out, Jacobsen changes outfits and poses as though he were one of Isaac Mizrahi’s fabulous, lanky Unzipped(1) models set to the tune of Shania Twain’s Greatest Hits album, a musician not-so-secretly beloved by LGBTQ fans and a musician that was in fact, dearly beloved by a young, impressionable Blake Jacobsen, growing up in Ohio. Here I have the benefit and pleasure of being acquainted with Jacobsen and his past work and feel grateful for Blake’s generosity in recounting his quite personal childhood memories with me (Aha! We return to childhood, yet again!). In his childhood, Blake used to play dress up, capturing the laughs, admiration, and support of family members until one day with the abrupt intrusion of age and therefore manhood, it was no longer okay to play dress up. This is a story we all know, but within this closet, we are again invited to watch Blake in admiration and goddamn support as he drifts in and out of what seems to be hundreds and hundreds of outfits to the entire length of Twain’s Greatest Hits album, which is an hour and 17 minutes long! It is endearing, beautiful, painful, and tiresome to both watch and perform. The video was entirely composed in one shot, with no edits, no breaks in between, just the sound of a camera flash clicking as though we were indeed on the site of a photo shoot.

While each artist in Homecoming focuses on their individually unique questions of home, the greater question that I don’t know the answer to, is whether the gallery is a celebration of home for each artist? As a result, is the gallery a home for me as the spectator, artist or writer? Are these artists essentially homecoming kings and queens? Do I find home here? For most of my life and I imagine most artists, we find ourselves in solitude as the weirdos of our families, our high schools, and essentially our homes and so does Public Storage propose that this gallery can be our home? A place to finally live out and put on display all of our collective weirdness with no shame? I’d like to think so and I admire this proposal in an art world that rapidly becomes further corporatized and privatized. If I’m being honest, this is already the state of the art world and so it is now more than ever that we need spaces like Public Storage; a place to call home.

(1) Keeve, Douglas, director. Unzipped. Fine Line, 1995.

Images courtesy Blake Jacobsen.

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