#monday. off book day monday and i only have 1 out of 3 acts half-memorized so far. oh i think i might just kill myself .

[finalgirlgretchen]

just realized just how many huge fucking deadlines r looming over me and how little time i have to complete them and oh my god. oh my god. i think i might need to tear a piece of my skull off

[blouisparadise]

We were asked to make a list of some of the bottom Louis fics that are “classics” for any new bottom Louies, so here’s that rec list. We mainly based this list on number of kudos and also chose fics that are more well known or discussed frequently, but please keep in mind that there are countless incredible fics that are just as good if not better than some of the fics on this list. Please support BL fics and even if you’re starting with the fics on this list, don’t be afraid to branch out and read the many other amazing BL fics in this fandom. We promise you won’t regret it. Happy reading!

1) Like An Animal (I Want To Feel You From The Inside) | Explicit | 4466 words

Harry and Louis get a little stuck. Literally.        

2) To Be A Muse May Be Enough | Explicit | 6846 words

Note: This fic has since been deleted, but we’ve added a link to the PDF.

When Zayn came to him with a job, Louis never expected to be sat in a studio, wearing lipstick and reading a book about Death whilst being plugged with a vibrator. Did he also mention he’s being filmed by the fittest photographer he’s ever seen?

3) A Virgin To That Money | Explicit | 7366 words

AU. Harry and Louis are broke university students who hate each other and make a sex tape. (In which Louis gets fucked a lot, Harry can't find the camera, and the road to falling in love is different for everyone.)

4) Makes Perfect | Explicit | 8610 words

“What if you practiced on like, a mannequin?” Louis presses. “Or one of those blow up sex dolls? Or even just like, I don’t know, a pillow or something. Whatever it’d fit around.” Harry tilts his head thoughtfully, curls catching the light so entrancingly that Louis finds himself reaching up to push his fingers through them. “It’s different, though, innit? When it’s a real person. A pillow won’t snog me.” “Why should it?” says Louis. “You can’t even take its bra off.”              

5) Just Walk My Way | Explicit | 10271 words

Louis is a Victoria's Secret Angel, and Harry is the main act of the night.

6) With Love Comes Strange Currencies | Explicit | 16508 words

One day One Direction will be over and Louis won't be around Harry every waking moment. He'll be able to finally get some space, let their bond dissipate as it's bound to do, if they don't mess up again. He can move to Costa Rica and forget that Harry Styles popped his first knot inside him. Until then, he's going to have to deal with this.

7) These Roads We Stumble Down | Explicit | 18233 words

Harry picks up a hitchhiker in Oxford, and it’s a long ride to Glasgow.

8) My English Love Affair | Explicit | 19198 words

The one where Harry writes a song about his English love affair and Louis sleeps with someone in White Eskimo and all he gets is a stupid song written about him.              

9) A Grocery List Pinned In Blue | Explicit | 19839 words

After eight years, Louis finally has everything he’s wanted. Except for Harry.

10) Like A Bastard On The Burning Sea | Explicit | 22981 words

AU. Harry breaks Louis, Louis breaks everything.         

11) Up To No Good | Explicit | 26525 words | Sequel #1 | Sequel #2

Harry doesn’t think of himself as a womanizer, not at all. Sure, he enjoys sex, enjoys how women feel underneath him, and by some people’s standards he has sex with quite a lot of people, but that’s no reason to tell him that he can’t have a female PA anymore.

It’s especially no excuse for giving him a male PA who’s possibly the most gorgeous boy in the world who won’t even let Harry look at him for too long.

Sometimes Harry hates his life.

12) Have You Coming Back Again | Explicit | 31086 words | Sequel

It’s five o’clock in the morning. Louis has a lecture at half eight. He could be using this time to study or to do his readings or to go to the gym, but - well. He doesn’t have any exams coming up, he’s not going to his seminar today anyway and he hates the gym.

Instead he’s using this time to fuck with Harry Styles’ poor little brain.

Louis jogs across the street and jabs the key into the car door. It opens easily, not that he was expecting anything else. He copied the key for a reason, after all.

He’s got Harry’s schedule memorized, more because the guy keeps following him around than anything, so he doesn’t bother looking around before climbing behind the wheel and setting his bag on the passenger seat. It’s a Monday, which means that Harry doesn’t even get out of bed before noon unless he’s planning on harassing Louis.

13) If I Should Stay | Explicit | 31185 words

Louis is a television actor who suddenly needs a bodyguard.  Harry is the bodyguard he ends up hiring. 

14) Like A Timebomb Ticking | Explicit | 31734 words

Louis loses everything. Harry's still there. 

15) Mine Now | Explicit | 32254 words

Note: This fic was deleted, so we’ve linked to a PDF.

This is the story of how Harry finds himself pouting in Louis’ passenger seat with a raging boner on the way to seduce his ex boyfriend.

16) Nicotine | Explicit | 32245 words

"We're two different types of people, Liam. He likes sex and drugs, I like theater and tea. Trust me, we'd never date." Except they would, they do, and neither of them plans on letting go anytime soon.

17) (Your Heartbeat) Rang True Inside My Bones | Explicit | 32945 words

Harry goes as Louis' date for a weekend wedding. He ends up taking the role a bit too seriously.

18) Once Upon A Dream | Explicit | 33319 words | Sequel

Louis is psychic and gets caught in the middle of a murder investigation led by FBI Special Agent Harry Styles.

19) Some Things Take Root | Explicit | 50269 words

AU. Louis’ ex doesn’t get jealous of anyone besides Harry. Harry helps Louis use that to his advantage.      

20) Tug-Of-War | Explicit | 63000 words

Louis' husband dies suddenly and he is left with nothing. Well, not really nothing. He has Harry. And a St. Bernard puppy named Link, whom his late husband left behind for him. Louis takes care of Link and Harry takes care of Louis. Everything is okay until suddenly, it isn't.

21) Louis Lucas | Explicit | 67999 words

Pornstar!AU. Louis is a pornstar with more issues than he can drink away. Harry is a bisexual singer/songwriter who is desperate to be signed to a major label. Zayn and Liam are Louis’s long-suffering best friends (who also happen to be pornstars, and also happen to be dating each other). Niall just wants to play his guitar.

22) This Wicked Game | Explicit | 70010 words

An AU in which The Bachelor is gay, Louis is a contestant, Harry is the bachelor, everyone drinks a lot of champagne, the entire world gets to watch them fall in love, and no one plays by the rules.

23) Pinkies Never Lie | Explicit | 83616 words

AU in which Louis hates his job and loves Harry, Harry just wants a distraction, everyone else wants them to get their shit together, and Louis learns the hard way that new beginnings are only possible when something ends.

24) Your Name is Tattooed on My Heart | Explicit | 86809 words

Note: There are mentions of TL in this fic.

Louis is ready to find the love of his life, but first he has to stop falling for the punk rocker next door.

25) And Down the Long and Silent Street | Mature | 86090 words

Wherein Louis and Harry are on the opposite ends of the social ladder, but their paths still cross on the filthy streets Louis calls his home. The odds are staked against them from the beginning, and even more when Louis' past finally catches up with him.

26) Here In The Afterglow | Explicit | 88649 words

1970’s AU. In a tiny town in Idaho, Louis’ life is changed forever by the arrival of a curious stranger.

27) Swim In The Smoke | Explicit | 101778 words

“What about this, Captain?” Liam asks, nudging the boy kneeling between their feet with the toe of his boot. The boy hisses and swipes at him, slurring out something unintelligible around the makeshift gag Niall had to stuff in his mouth. He misses by a mile and tries again, just as ineffectively.

Harry looks down at him, at the way the sun streams over his face and shoulders, at the way the gag stretches his mouth, lips pink and chapped. He’s lithe and pretty, smudged all over with dirt. They had found him tied up below deck, mostly unconscious, next to a barrel full of gold. He’s clearly a prisoner, but there’s something familiar about him, something that niggles at Harry’s brain. Something he can’t quite put his finger on.

“Put him in my cabin,” Harry decides, turning back to deal with the rest of the loot. The boys screams out jumbled curse words at Harry’s back, muffled by the gag, and Harry can’t understand any of it.

28) Baby Heaven’s In Your Eyes | Explicit | 120878 words

They couldn’t be more different if they tried. Louis Tomlinson is 17 years old and in his last year of the most prestigious private school in Doncaster. If there’s one thing that completely annoys him, it’s that there is a poor community college right across the street.

Harry Styles is 19 years old, and (once again) in his last year of college. He goes to community college in Doncaster. He never shows up to classes and if he actually bothers to, he’s either high or drunk; sometimes both. His skin is littered with tattoos and if there’s one thing he absolutely hates, it’s the snobby students attending the private school right across from his.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

[tina-incambodia]

5 months deep.

3 months in this hammock I call home.

I haven't written in a while, not even a personal journal entry. Lots of noteworthy things have happened, things I probably should have written about so years from now when my time here is remembered as a short but remarkable chunk of time, I can recall the moments that made it so.

School started a month and a half ago and after two weeks of observing, I've now been teaching for one month. One of the most essential goals of Peace Corps is to create sustainable change. As a teacher, this not only means knowing your shit so you can successfully teach English including grammar, phonics, word use, vocabulary, comprehension, etc. but also passing skills like lesson planning and classroom management on to teachers that will be here much longer than my meager two years. In Cambodia, PC English Teachers work with Khmer English teachers, counterparts,, to ensure that this goal is reached; therefore, I am always working together with another teacher. This both eases and increases the challenges of teaching. There are many, many times where I don't have the Khmer vocabulary to explain English grammar or vocabulary. I also am completely and utterly unaware of the ins and outs of a Khmer classroom or school happenings. For these reasons, its great to have someone to have my back and work with me. However, there are just as many times during which I disagree with how my counterpart chooses to execute a lesson. And in some cases its difficult to coerce a counterpart into lesson planning, setting goals for students, and deviating from the confusing textbook which is, more often than not, far beyond students level of fluency. And even more frustrating is that, when the curriculum is followed, students are attempting to memorize words such as demand or develop when they have not even learned how to ask, "What is that?" or, "Where is the bathroom?" This is indicative of the styles and practices of the traditional classroom, not only here in Cambodia, but everywhere. The practice of the teacher at the front, the only one with a voice and the students in rows, with their pens, eyes, and ears. So lies the answer to the question, "Why did my student get an A on the National Exam in English but can hardly speak?" See, these kids can memorize till they are blue in the face,  and many of them can name English grammar terms and rattle structure I've never though twice about. However, with most of them, their ability to speak is at a stand still after the initial, "Hello, What is your name? Where are you going." So when I stand in front of a class as they drill their vocabulary and copy the grammar forms into their notebook which, upon completion, is immediately closed and shoved into their desks or back packs, I try to hold back my sighs. For as a new second language learner, I understand the only way to learn and remember how to speak is to practice speaking, but also as a new comer to my community, school, and classroom, my ability to make change to the style of rote memorization is limited to sneaking in a question and answer series or a word map to warm up at the beginning of class. I tread slowly up stream. Against the afore mentioned traditional classroom setting which allows no space or time for student discussion or conversation, the Khmer classroom standard  and climate of rote memorization, student shyness and inexperience with having a voice of their own in the classroom, some teachers unwillingness to lesson plan or deviate from the textbook, and of course underneath it all, the gender thing. So, as a tread I'll move around a pebble or two. I'll make little changes along the way and maybe one day my teachers won't be so apprehensive to let the students speak and the students will find confidence in their voices.  

While I'm on the subject, I'll attempt to give you a little insight into the world of a Khmer school. My high school is made up of 5 long school house buildings each containing 5 or 6 large classrooms which house 40-60 students all day, one office, and a building called the library, but currently not used in our traditional sense of the word, "library." There's dozens of food stalls on opposite ends of a large court yard in the middle of the parallel classroom buildings which are a pale, sun bleached light yellow. Maybe like the walls of a non-gendered nursery. School runs from 7-11 and 1-5. Students go home for lunch, sometimes traveling 12k on a bicycle. Many of the girls are responsible for cooking for their families during this 2 hour break. A rusty inside rim of a tire hangs from a tree with a small wrench resting on it, this wonderful upcycle serves as the school bell and it is rung, or hit with the wrench rather, every hour signifying the beginning of the 2 hour blocked class, the beginning and end of the 15 minute mid class break and the end of a block. The students wear uniforms. With white or light blue button up shirts, the girls wear navy blue, black or gray skirts, and the boys, pants of the same color. The crisp uniform is coupled with a red and white cloth name tag pinned to their shirts. The teachers dress to impress; the men in freshly pressed button downs and slacks and the women in long Khmer skirts called sampots and pretty, delicate blouses. The students stay in one class and it’s the teachers that come and go. The students are responsible for keeping their classroom clean and tidy. They stand upon the arrival and entrance of the teacher. If you're not there before the teacher, you're late but there's not much consequence to this regardless. I asked my counterpart what I should do when a student is very late, he said "You could make them stand on one foot and sing a song.” I think I'll pass... In my short experience, students rarely are asked to hand things in. They have monthly exams which for all 12 subjects, seem to fall in the same week. In addition to the 6-8 hours they study per day, as assigned and required by the school, students often attend private lessons for about 25 cents an hour before and after school held by teachers who are looking to supplement their small income. I've met 12th graders who study from 6 am to 8pm with a two hour lunch break to travel the 12k on a pothole filled road home. 

My school has 2,000 students so the energy is grand. And its even better now that, one month in, instead of just staring like I have 10 green heads, the students shout, "Hello Teacher!" Which lends it self to my 5 month reflection... Today is Saturday and I've been sitting in a hammock for the better part of the afternoon. This morning I met some 10th graders at school that want to practice English and later a few 12th graders will come over my house to do the same.  Today marks 5 months in Cambodia so I will force myself to be reflective and ask the question my uncle always asks and I always dread for some reason, "What's been your biggest take away?" Two months of brutal training sprinkled with emotional and physical pain, new and wonderful friends, families, and homes, a roller coaster of feelings: emptiness and fullness, power and helplessness, over and underwhelmed, confidence, fear and doubt. I've never been away from home for longer than 3 or 4 months and even then, I was a 3 hour plane ride away. Now, I'm here on my maiden voyage and have yet to hit a fatal iceberg. (Please excuse the dramatic titanic reference.) I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself... finally. I didn’t realize until I got here that this was a sacrifice, it was always just a big adventure far off in the distance. And until now, I accepted other people’s praise but brushed it off as unnecessary. I didn't really understand how and why they could be so proud... I just got on a plane and now I'm here and I wake up every day and do the thing.  But now I'm here. 5 months in. I live with an incredible family of three that has shown me more care and patience that I could ever ask for. I taught my little sister and brother to make friendship bracelets and we sat all afternoon and each made one. Just the other night after dinner I told them I did ballet for 15 years and we ended up practicing P-k turns and first and second place around bowls of rice. We visited Kep, a province just south of here, ate grilled stingray, and collected shells on the beach. I speak freakin' (broken) Khmer when I could hardly get passed "Hola" in Spanish class. I teach 4-6 hours Monday through Friday at a high school in rural Cambodia and wear a traditional Khmer skirt to work each day. Students ask me when I have free time and for my phone number so they can practice their English. I've had moments of destiny at so many turns to reassure me that I am on the right path. I met a Cambodian-American deportee from Rhode Island, I found a Veteran Peace Corps Language Teacher hidden in the mountains. I am now a part of a family in which I have found so many similarities with my own. My bongsrij face timed with my mom in the US and they shared tears as their love for me and each other stretched across deep oceans. Every day is a challenge. The act of participating in the world that I am in and attempting to reach my goals as a PCV are challenges. But it’s also a challenge to find motivation to actually participate in this world to begin with, which is probably what I struggle with the most. It is all too easy to sit in my hammock all day. My house is a safe space. I do not have to struggle to understand a stranger's Khmer or work with a stubborn teacher. It’s easy to bury my head in a book for hours and pretend I'm not in bumfuck Cambodia. But I'm not too hard on myself. It’s a process. Everything is a process; long, short, big, and small. I could fight it or I could try push it along at a faster pace. Or I could enjoy it for what it is.

Peace  

[artdjgblog]

Innerview: ? / STEP Inside Design

December 2006

Poster: DJG Design

Note: Interview about winning the STEP 100 for a poster.

0​1) Do you personally like DeVotchKa’s music? In other words, were you personally attached to this design? Or to the band?

First of all, if I wasn’t personally attached to my work then I would quit design altogether. This is why I skipped the whole real job format and stuck to my own no-money-making, yet, wealth-of-design-freedom GUNS… (A Little History) I was attending a concert by the great M. Ward a couple years ago in Omah, NE and was blown away by his opening act. It’s rare to experience something truly pure and straight from the source in person. I felt an intense passion and power displayed by DeVotchKa that night. Something that really came from deep inside​ ​the heart/gut and I longed to be a part of that. Immediately I wanted to marry my design to this band (I know this all sounds pretty big cheese, but I really feel an attachment with things that possess an actual soul). After the show I chickened-out at the idea of approaching the band. So, I stuck to my quiet ways and waited for them to come to my town. Eventually, they came to Kansas City, MO as an opening act again. I didn’t have enough notice to make anything for the show so I waited some more. They came back half a year later, headlining just a few blocks away from my house (this was my design chance that you now see in this magazine). And ironically, DeVotchKa is getting ready to take stage just forty minutes away from my fledgling writer fingers. Originally I was scheduled to attend tonight. Sadly, a lack of funds, a sick wife, house guests, a mountain of work and a Monday night keep me locked in the basement. DeVotchKa is blasting on my speakers and I can’t think of a better alternate place to be this evening. Oh well, the last DeVotchKa show was absolutely perfect and I’d like to leave that impression for a while longer. Trust me, the show was way better than my poster that represented it. ​0​2) What inspired you to make this design? The majority of the time a client can be linked to my posters. But, sometimes I just make them for the heck of it. Usually this is on occasion for bands/musicians that I really enjoy and wish to help spread the word about (and, I just like to make things). I found that some of my more memorable/enjoyable posters come this way. I DO work with a couple of venues/people first-hand, and carry a great relationship. However, for some shows it can be quite a shoestring to get to the bottom of making posters officially. I realize that some designers might think I’m working around the system a bit and possibly stepping on toes. But what’s the matter with just making something for the heart of it? There is no harm in that. It’s like when I was a ten and spent my hours penciling a life-sized, detailed drawing to commemorate Batman. It’s the exact same thing to me…me just really enjoying something and paying a tribute to it. The posters are also a self-promotion and more importantly help the venue and artists out. Everybody is a winner in my book. The Design Gods know I don’t make any money at the dang thing…all of those in declining favor can do ME a favor and find real world problems to moan over. Another thing is that I simply don’t have the time or resources to make the hundreds (or thousands) of posters that some promoters might request with a big show. I’ve had more praise than problem with making posters without permission…but, I bet some of the real hot-shot guys would hang me for it. Now, there’s a poster to get worked-up ugly over! Anyway, inspiration came from me liking DeVotchKa’s music along with my want to sit in the basement with a bad back…to pay them back in the only way I half-way know how to. ​0​3) Was there anything or one that influenced you? People have an easy-hard time wrapping questions like this one around my work. Like I said previously, I just felt like making this. I sat down and interpreted what DeVotchKa meant to me at that moment. Any other moment it would have been different. For instance, I made a poster for their show tonight. It consists of hand-cut, ornate, spray painted type that is overlapping 47 crudely-drawn, prancing ponies on lime green paper. It’s not very much like this poster (the one STEP picked), other that it’s really nothing special and it captures what I felt to be a moment in DeVotchKa’s music…or at least when I was listening/creating. It’s just where I felt like going at the time of departure. This image came and I grinned…problem solved. If I have to really work at something, then it becomes work. And you can always spot the ones that didn’t work for me. On influences…I got bushes and buckets of them (that’s another interview). In general I can’t go anywhere or do anything without absorbing in everything…it can be good and bad. I can read peeled billboards and restroom scribbles with ease, but I have a hard time with restaurant menus. Graphic design and so-called art saved and ruined me. But, it’s the only thing I really like to do (other than watch movies and listen to music…and eat junk). It’s important to me to just try and soak-up lots of things…especially the little, ordinary elementary things. A crummy day job has to be worked to keep the basement lights on. Though, I keep the actual design lights on 24-7. With a limited leash on my actual time to work on design, I don’t have time to mess around. This is where outside daily absorption comes in handy. Let’s say I need a centaur (like in this poster)…well, I just grab one from the place I keep the centaurs in my head. Which, is basically my Dad’s arms spread-out to coax a big ol’ bull into a pen…right before the bull kicks Dad in the gut and then he busts a fence board over that bull’s head. Growing up on a farm taught me to pay attention…and never make my dad angry. And I keep stockpiles of all types of things at arm’s length to reach and grab and just make and do. I like to have a good time with it. I don’t really consider it work. ​0​4) Does the conglomerative nature of DeVotchKa’s music influence the collage-like nature of the design, with all of its parts and motifs? Why did you choose this particular aesthetic? Very rarely do I make a premeditated aesthetic design choice. I’m very strict with not restricting myself. A lot of the time I’ll just have the idea in my head. I do-do sketches…but, they always ramble on and I tend to always go back to that initial idea in my head. So, then it’s all about putting clothes on it. Simply, I just go. It’s exciting to have an idea and then watch it grow. I’m sure that if America could design their children before pregnancy/birth (maybe even pick them off the shelf), we sure would. Personally, I like the purity of letting something develop. My designs are my babies. I like to hold hands with them and when they grow-up they are chosen to represent some design competition…and then I’m asked to bail them out by way of trying to answer questions. It can be pretty embarrassing. I like to just let them speak for themselves. But, people like answers. Yeah, I’ve been called a collage artist, an assembler. Mainly because the bulk of the designs are build with my hands. The computer is just a production tool for me (and a late night time saver/savior). I’m instantly encouraged to push things further if such “collage-like” labels arise. I have got to stay ahead of myself because I’m my only competition. But in the end, isn’t all design “collage-like” in some fashion? I guess the way I built this design ended up marrying to DeVotchKa’s music properly. Honestly, I never really thought about it. It just felt good and right to me. I suppose it did to you too? ​0​5) What are you most satisfied with regarding the design? This is a funny question. It sounds like I’m dying or going away (which, is sorta true in the grand scheme). I guess I’m just happy with the silly idea of being able to find a bit of time in life to do something like this. To slow it all down to the speed of a little Exacto blade slice, pencil scratch or thumb-print. Sitting by my self is very important to me. It helps me. A lot of people get bored when they are alone. I’ve never understood that. Some of my more wholesome life moments have come by way of sitting on my rear, making things for the heck of it. But, I don’t want to get into all that artsy junkyard talk. It DOES mean a lot to me whenever the work reflects well to others. I don’t care what you/they get from it. Just the fact that it speaked a spark of something, of anything, means so much to me. It’s nice to hand out brain smiles. Something of me has got to have some personality because me in person is pretty boorish (and not good to look at). Overall, I don’t find this design to be special or original. It’s probably been done a billion times before…and better. Posters are the same as pop songs. But, this is my blood…my pop song with a twist…and a wink. ​0​6) I noticed the messiness, the thumb-prints, the smudges. It gave it a nice kind of die-hard fan making a logo for their favorite band feeling. Was there a reason for this kind of aesthetic technique? Is this particular to or for the band and/or is this a DJG style? Is it to go along with the feel of DeVotchKa’s Music? As a child with many acres to roam in the country, I was dirty all the time. That’s carried over to now when I roam for answers at the design table. The difference is that thankfully my mom doesn’t hose me off at the back door anymore. (Fast Forward) In design school we didn’t jump to the computer right away. One day my friends were grumbling about how they couldn’t wait to start designing on computers. I told them that I was going to take the more hands-on approach…the route that didn’t need computers. I was dead serious. All of those previous years building things by hand and getting dirty, conditioned me to think this way. I even thought that typography was creating the layout of land by building map sculptures by hand (boy, was I disappointed). My friends thought I was a complete idiot and tried to set me straight. It’s really funny now because most of them aren’t even doing graphic design anymore and I sit and make most things with my hands and really love it. While learning computers I didn’t like how I couldn’t physically touch what I was working with. I couldn’t get around the screen barrier confidently. And the bulk of computer graphics and design firms felt so lifeless and seemed to lack passion and soul. I preferred something that felt like a human being was responsible for it. Computers are appreciated greatly, but they are just a tool. Smudges, marks, thumb-prints and so-ons are evidence of a human element. Hardly do I ever remove those elements. There is something pure, matter-of-fact, cave-like and very of-the-moment about them. They help narrate the story and reveal the process of life. Is this a DJG style? Well, I don’t know what that means. I’ll answer yes, I suppose. It’s nothing I strive to achieve or be known for branding sake. Each new day to me is a new style on my brain and soul. Whether its design, music or movies, I long for the attraction of immediacy (I suppose I’m using this word correctly?)…to me, its something that feels lived-in and instantly speaks in its own way. But, has a down-to-Earth familiarity to it that makes you want to really listen and come back for more. It’s something authentic and with a soul that shows it’s been spit-shined. I feel this way especially about the work of Saul Steinberg, Henryk Tomaszewski, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Wes Anderson, Michel Gondry, ElliottbSmith…and…child drawings, folk art, hand-drawn type/signs, cuts, scribbles and marks. (to name a few). …and I don’t trust a man with clean hands. Or a man that won’t let his kids dig up the yard. ​0​7) What is the explanation behind the cows? The Wine bottle? Why is the poor wine-bottle-girl stepping on her own head? Those are centaurs, not cows. While most centaurs have the body of a horse, mine have a cow!…and with big horns on their heads (at least in this depiction). I also tend to make my animals pretty meaty. I keep them well-fed! For some reason I couldn’t get the centaurs out of my head with this poster. I draw it to the whole animal instinct in human nature. Even better is that the wine bottle woman is a centaur too. She wears a skirt made of her ex-lovers’ hides, trophies of the ones she’s conquered (except for the couple that are getting away with some dignity left). She definitely means business. To flip it around, the centaurs can also represent the idea of climbing a mountain of struggle…it could be relationships, bad luck, a loss of faith or addiction. It’s all subjective, really. I enjoy hearing what others interpret from the design(s). The lead singer for DeVotchKa drinks from a wine bottle in-between each song. This image in my head from their live sets must explain the wine reference. I get the sense that he’s been through some battlefields with the ladies. With the woman spilling the skull under her heels…well, the band has a song called “Death by Blonde” (or something like that). I always get a good giggle at that mangled face on a stick! I don’t know much more about how it came along. I just sat and spit it up. I cut the start and the finish ribbons and was happy with the run. ​0​8) It seems as if you are referencing some mythology here. What is it? Did you create it? Or is it something the band references? I’m no scholar in mythology (or anything for that matter), so it’s definitely just a piece that I’ve pieced together in my own head and on paper…to make it part of my mythology. I just like a design that says something. Each design of mine tries to tell a story. It must be talking to you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. (I’m sorry to answer this question so short) ​0​9) What motivates you? What makes/how do you define good design? An aspect of motivation to me (like I’ve said before) is the ability to slow things down and sit alone…to simply make things. I’ve always been a big supporter of my own time. I get so much out of design by way of discovery. Not just for design-sake, rather it’s important for me to do it to help understand myself a bit more. If there is anybody to shovel and burn the coal in my world, well it’s definitely gotta be me. Though, all that time alone has caused me to acquire a major case of social inadequacies (among other things). But, I’ve always carried a heavy backpack ever since I can remember. I’ve also had to make many sacrifices in other areas of life. And I’ve also gained so much and am learning to manage things a bit better as I earn some years. Still, there are times when I’ve wanted to slice my design limb off, or maybe just do things for myself completely. Maybe I’m just too dramatic or need a vacation? I’m also my only competition/enemy. Even though my work ethic, excitement, goals, and bulky portfolio are over-exhaustive (to you and to me)…I still think I’m the laziest guy in my room. (I’ve touched base on the following too…) Good design to me is defined by something that moves me…something with heart and identifiable to the human spirit. True, it’s all subjective, but there is a fine line too. I’m just not a big fan of snobs and elitists. Most of the time I’d rather talk with an every-day person, struggling to work two jobs as a school lunch cook-office cleaner, than a group of fancy-pants designers with clean fingernails…it just feels more real to me. And I don’t mean to offend anybody here. Awkward as I may be…I will talk with anybody. I DO love talking about my work with interested people. But it’s good for me to get away from the work and talk about everyday things (I know I’m running circles right now, sorry). Good design has also got to have something to say, and the majority of the time it’s gotta have great humor! I like to get a giggle. It brightens my day to see something and say, “Look at that! It’s great!” And most of the time I’m referring to a crumpled shopping list, a great hand-made thrift store find, handwriting samples or a child’s drawing. I do have my art and graphic design heroes, but there is great everyday stuff that makes up the design of the real world. Whenever I go to most gallery shows, art and design ends up feeling lifeless to me for several days. A college professor once told me that there is no good and bad design, only smart and stupid. I tend to keep that in mind. I’m sure you are bored with this by now and are scratching at what I’m probably not really saying right now. Sorry to ramble on. But, I trust it helps understand a bit for you…it does for me. I thank you so much for your time, patience and interest. -djg

[godzillamendoza]

Film School Week 1

I’ve always toyed with the idea of keeping a journal to splay out my thoughts and keep a record of the strange and often scary things that run through my head in times of stress. I’ve also heard that it could be a good way to relieve some of that stress, and as anyone that’s been in my position can attest, the first week of college is fucking stressful. 

Now, I’ve dreaded this for a long time. Not because the concept of higher education put me off, or because I secretly didn’t want to do it, or because I thought college was a waste of time. No, it’s because of the drive. I have a crippling fear of driving, which I may do another entry about later. In short, being behind a wheel makes me panic like a Spider-Man UE4 developer trapped in a room with a Marvel Executive and a lawyer. Something about driving gives me this feeling that the whole world is out to get me and every time someone goes around me because they think I’m not going fast enough or they honk at me for waiting too long to go when the light turns green all makes me want to climb out of my skin and leave this planet and go live on Mars in a hut with good wi-fi. (this isn’t stream of consciousness is it? Oh, I guess it is now.)

Anyway, the drive to school is 45 - 50 minutes long. A 10 minute drive to pick up my friend Josh from his apartment stresses me out, and as you an imagine, the drive to school is 4.5 - 5x worse than that. The first day of driving there alone came, my mother being busy with prior engagements at work and my father being lazy. I thought I’d use my GPS to get there, but google decided that instead of a straight path down the highway, I should get onto the highway, get off of it, get onto a different highway, and then eventually merge onto the one I was already on. This all being uncharted territory for me, I went along with it and added way too many extra steps to my commute. 

The first day on Monday was rather easy, being that it lasted 2 hours. Apparently the school had assigned me a schedule to go there on Mondays and Wednesdays every week, but then mysteriously altered it to Tuesdays and Thursdays without notifying me. The teacher in the first class spent the usual 2 hours rambling about safety procedures and reading from a syllabus. Though I figured something was wrong when he did the “what the fuck is everyone’s names” thing and said I didn’t appear on his class list. Class ended and I wandered to the front office to ask about it and discovered the mix up. 

This is the point where I considered something drastic and violent, because I had driven to the school one extra time than I needed to for the week and gas was expensive. I opted to make this day at least somewhat productive by making a short jaunt across campus and getting some financial aid paperwork to fill out at the main building of the school. This meant wading through the crowd of people all staring directly up at the sky with what looked like 3-D glasses from Sharkboy and Lava Girl. As much as I wanted to sit back and gawk with them at the cosmic ballet of a solar eclipse, I had things to get done. So I spent the majority of said eclipse in a waiting room as the student help desk thing ignored my request for a form that was in a basket two feet away from where the guy was fucking sitting I could just go back there and get it why do I have to wait this is fucking stupid I hate everything. Thankfully though I walked out with the form and got to see the eclipse at its peak with some of those 80s bully glasses they were handing out. 

Tuesday was boring. All we did was look through the syllabus AGAIN, but this time with a different teacher and a different set of students and it lasted the full day instead of one class. My rampant insomnia had kept me up until 3 AM the night before, which I consider impressive for myself seeing as how I saw the sunrise every day of summer. This led me to making some tweets to mock the situation and of course people immediately couldn’t tell when I was trying to be silly. I got a mixed bag of encouraging messages from fans that wanted me to succeed and several crazy people ranting about how I should get my money back and quit college because they had a bad experience with a completely different type of college in a different state. And as we all know, if someone has a bad experience or dislikes something, EVERYONE ELSE should disregard its existence forever under their advice. 

The highlight of Tuesday was a moment where I made a genuine connection with one of my teachers. He was a young guy, maybe in his early 20s, who had been editing since 2009 and graduated from the school, only to realize that he loved Post-Production enough to teach it between professional editing jobs. At one point he tried to demonstrate to a half asleep class that they should have a watchful eye for editing choices in other people’s projects to avoid their mistakes and emulate their strengths. Thus, he showed us the short film he had edited during his time in the class. It was some short that had premiered at our state’s film festival, chronicling the plight of an overworked steel-mill employee that began an unhealthy competition with him to receive a promotion and make his family proud. Then he murders his friend by pouring lava on him and making it look like a random industrial accident. The teacher began rolling through it and pointing out his own mistakes as an editor in the film. An act of humility that I found refreshing after going to high school and answering to a faculty of self absorbed assholes that became teachers to feel like they were important. He explained how he made continuity mistakes with a character placing his hand on his face in one shot, then in the next shot removing the opposite hand. Mistakes such as this drive people in the industry fucking crazy because they’re trained to look for it, but none of the students noticed the goof. Myself included. That was when he started briefly describing the scene with the lava and I derailed the whole flow of the class. 

I asked him more questions about how he did such an impressive visual effect and I genuinely feel like it made his day that I was so fascinated. He gave up on talking about the syllabus and instead talked with me about the process. Apparently they had gone out to the back of the school and placed a black felt mat behind a mannequin and then poured green paint on it. Then he rotoscoped the footage to show only the green paint, which he then digitally altered to have the texture and glow of molten steel. He then placed this footage over the actor in the scene, who simply just fell down on the set because real lava is expensive, and lined up the way it poured over the mannequin with the way it would have theoretically landed on the actor. Having seen a lot of visual effects tutorials or watching the behind the scenes videos for Dragon Ball Z abridged, I knew almost all of the terminology he had thrown my way and I kept up in the conversation rather nicely. I don’t know how the other students felt about it considering it was just them watching two guys geek out over special effects, but frankly I didn’t (and still don’t) give a shit. It was fun. This was followed by a drive home where the GPS told me to get onto the highway, then off of it, then under it, then over it, then onto it again. Suffice to say, driving was not fun that day and I got home with my hands shaking and my legs numb and my ass sore from sitting for 56 minutes. 

Thursday started with... well today is Thursday. But today started with me wanting to procrastinate getting out of bed, so against my better judgment I set my alarm clock forward an extra 20 minutes after it rang the first time. I laid in bed with my eyes closed and my heart pumping through the back of my spine at the thought of driving. I didn’t even sleep for that 20 minutes. I just waited. Thinking. Panicking. After that I took a shower for 30 minutes like an idiot. Starving African children could have eaten all that water I wasted. Then I got into the car, turned on the GPS and it said that the drive would last 55 minutes because traffic was so heavy on the highway. Class began in one hour. It offered an alternate route where I did the same bullshit gymnastics of getting off and on the highway 6 times, but I decided that I had the path memorized a certain way and I was going to stick to it. So I disregarded the antiquated GPS and just drove there from memory with about 8 minutes to spare before class started. I had a decent amount of sleep the night before and I was on time and the drive was easy. It seemed like things were off to a good start. Then things started becoming more clear. 

The teacher in my Production 1 class seemed different from other teachers in some way that I couldn’t quite place. But today in seeing him run through a Powerpoint on the basics of shot composition, the rule of thirds, shot types, etc. I figured out what was off. He wasn’t a teacher. He had no degree for it. He as just some guy who, much like everyone else teaching here, was a student with a passion for film who started passing his knowledge to a new generation. It didn’t feel like I was being talked down to, it felt like I was being talked to. It felt like he was just some nice guy, maybe even a friend, trying his damnedest to explain how this stuff works. And then I realized something funny on top of that. I already knew everything he was explaining because I had studied this stuff in my free time since I was 9 years old. I think the only new information I received that I hadn’t picked up from documentaries, books, or YouTube movie reviews, was the technical aspects of these fancy 4k cameras and special tripods they wheeled in from the back room. Sure I was as lost as everyone else when it came to the equipment, but the mechanics of shooting a scene, the methods of writing, the terminology of camera movements-- all of it I already knew.

The rest of the day after felt like something new. I felt like I was somewhere I gave a shit about what I was being told. After 8 years of drifting through school and feeling bored out of my mind (as well as some unhealthy levels contempt for my middle and high school’s respective staffs) I felt something bizarre. Caring. It was stuff I thought was cool. I was being taught stuff I’d probably be trying to figure out at home anyway if I wasn’t at the school. At long last, there was a sense of purpose. 

The Post-Production class was filled with editing terminology I wasn’t familiar with like the L-Cut, the J-Cut, Picture Lock and a few others. But I knew how to DO all of these things. I had already done them in my free time on YouTube projects. I finally had names for these processes I had self taught in my last 2 years of pursuing this strange potential career path. Things were starting to make sense and once again, the post production teacher and I ended up just talking about random technical stuff while the class probably rolled their eyes. He was barely older than me by a few years and he clearly shared a lot of my opinions and favored techniques for these things. I never expected that the first friend I’d make would be one of the teachers, especially given my history with authority. 

After that in my script analysis class I think I surprised the professor. He asked a question and I answered in a way that caused him to stutter and rethink his next words. I think I inadvertently stole his thunder a little by teaching the class a bit of film history that he wanted to tell. We were discussing types of characters and their levels of effectiveness with an audience. He asked “Why do you think the anti-hero become so popular in the 70s?” and I told him “because we had just gotten through Vietnam. In times of war, morals become more gray. Soldiers sometimes have to make tough decisions and do bad things for a good cause, Vietnam especially. When good and bad started to fade together in people’s minds it became easy for that to bleed into the writing at the time and you have more characters reflecting society’s feelings.”

He seemed impressed and annoyed at the same time as he said “that’s exactly right, yes.” But he continued on and I kept quiet the rest of the class. I’m sure he had characters in mind like Paul Kersey or Alex in Clockwork Orange. The entire time I rambled my psuedo-intellectual answer, all I had in mind was the Punisher. I was worried I’d end up sounding like an obnoxious know-it-all-teacher’s-pet asshole like Peter Parker in that new cartoon if I had kept going. It still felt nice to be right for once. Instead of being the bored/depressed kid in the back of the class praying for either death or the bell to ring, I was the smart one that was engaged and smiling. In fact, I started becoming self conscious and hyper-aware of it, but all day I think I was the only that just couldn’t stop... smiling. 

The drive home was better. I had finally figured out the most simple path and I just went for it. I disregarded the GPS and its dumbshit advice. Sure I spent 25 minutes of the trip in grid-lock dead stopped traffic, but I felt in control. I felt like I was confident in my ability to find my way home. I didn’t mind how slow it went because I knew that everyone on the road was in the same boat as me. And the slower you drive, the less likely you are to fly at the windshield if you clip a concrete divider. So I sat and talked to myself on the way home, cracking jokes back and forth with the voice in my head whom I’ve affectionately named “Co-Pilot” and I had an okay time. I got home and realized that everything was going to be okay. I kind of wanted to cry. I also kind of wanted to laugh. 

It felt like all these years of worrying about the inevitability of college and the dangerous commute just came off my shoulders. I felt like a boulder was lifted off my chest and I could breathe again. Now I know why I wanted so badly to go to this place for all these years. Its where I belong. And while it will certainly get a little stressful in the coming months to meet deadlines and collaborate with other creatives, its all the kind of stress I have spent the last years growing accustomed to by doing over the internet. Its not the stress of feeling stupid because I struggled so hard in my math class. Its just the same kind of hassle I’ve had to deal with already by virtue of being an artist. Its the kind of hassled I want to deal with because I know when the final product came out, it was all worth it. Feeling dumb in math class all these years to learn something arbitrary wasn’t worth it. This all feels right. Like I’m Jerry at a daycare for other Jerrys while Rick and Morty go off on adventures. This place was made for me. So yes, an art school is fucking worth my money because I’d rather feel what I’m feeling right now than be some 19 year old working in McDonald’s during the day and feeling hollow inside because I can’t express myself creatively. I hate that shit. 

This isn’t going to be easy, and there might be parts of it that suck. There might be parts of it that drive me to tears and anger, but it’s worth it. I finally found a place where I belong and that I love. Love isn’t easy. Its a lot of tiny problems to solve one by one to make a thing work in the long term. That’s okay. I’m prepared for that and there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. For just once. I’m feeling okay. And that feels kind of amazing.

[blackkudos]

Lou Rawls

Louis Allen "Lou" Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American recording artist, voice actor, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his singing ability: Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game". Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably his song "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine". He worked as a television, motion picture, and voice actor. He was also a three-time Grammy-winner, all for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

Career

Rawls was born in Chicago on December 1, 1933, and raised by his grandmother in the Ida B. Wells projects on the city's South Side. He began singing in the Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church choir at the age of seven and later sang with local groups through which he met future music stars Sam Cooke, who was nearly three years older than Rawls, and Curtis Mayfield.

After graduating from Chicago's Dunbar Vocational High School, he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a local gospel group, and then with the Holy Wonders. In 1951, Rawls replaced Cooke in the Highway QC's after Cooke departed to join The Soul Stirrers in Los Angeles. Rawls was soon recruited by the Chosen Gospel Singers and moved to Los Angeles, where he subsequently joined the Pilgrim Travelers.

In 1955, Rawls enlisted in the United States Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. He left the "All-Americans" three years later as a sergeant and rejoined the Pilgrim Travelers (then known as the Travelers). In 1958, while touring the South with the Travelers and Sam Cooke, Rawls was in a serious car crash. Rawls was pronounced dead before arriving at the hospital, where he stayed in a coma for five and a half days. It took him months to regain his memory, and a year to fully recuperate. Rawls considered the event to be life-changing.

Alongside Dick Clark as master of ceremonies, Rawls was recovered enough by 1959 to be able to perform at the Hollywood Bowl. His first 2 single releases were 'Love, Love, Love' and 'Walkin' (For Miles') on Herb Alpert's Shar-Dee label in 1959-60, then 2 more in 1960-61 on Candix with 'In My Little Black Book' and '80 Ways'. He was signed to Capitol Records in 1962, the same year he sang the soulful background vocals on the Sam Cooke recording of "Bring It On Home to Me" and "That's Where It's At," both written by Cooke. Rawls himself charted with a cover of "Bring It On Home to Me" in 1970 (with the title shortened to "Bring It On Home").

Rawls' first Capitol solo release was Stormy Monday (a.k.a. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water), a jazz album with Les McCann in 1962. The next two Capitol releases did well and used Onzy Matthews as the musical director along with a 17-piece big band; both these albums (Black and Blue, Tobacco Road) charted with Billboard and helped to propel him into the national spotlight as a recording artist.

Though his 1966 album Live! went gold, Rawls would not have a star-making hit until he made a proper soul album, appropriately named Soulin', later that same year. The album contained his first R&B #1 single, "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing". In 1967 Rawls won his first Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, for the single "Dead End Street." In 1967, Rawls also performed at the first evening of the Monterey International Pop Music Festival.

In 1969, the singer was co-host of NBC's summer replacement series for the Dean Martin Show along with Martin's daughter, singer Gail Martin.

After leaving Capitol in 1971, Rawls joined MGM, at which juncture he released his Grammy-winning single "Natural Man" written for him by comedian Sandy Baron and singer Bobby Hebb. He had a brief stint with Bell Records in 1974, where he recorded a cover of Hall & Oates' "She's Gone." In 1976, Rawls signed with Philadelphia International Records, where he had his greatest album success with the million-selling All Things in Time. The album produced his most successful single, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine", which topped the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts and went to number two on the pop side, becoming Rawls' only certified million-selling single in the process.

Subsequent albums, such as 1977's When You Hear Lou, You've Heard It All yielded such hit singles as "Lady Love". Other releases in the 1970s included the classic album Sit Down And Talk To Me.

Rawls' 1977 Grammy Awards performance of "You'll Never Find" was disrupted by a coughing fit.

In 1982, Rawls received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He sang the lyrics to WGN-TV's 1983 "Chicago's Very Own" ad campaign, a slogan that the station still uses to this day.

The first African-American astronaut in history, Guion Bluford took the Lou Rawls album "When The Night Comes" (Epic records 1983) into space with him featuring the hit single "Wind Beneath My Wings". On January 19, 1985, he sang Wind Beneath My Wings at the nationally-televised 50th Presidential Inaugural Gala the day before the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan. He was introduced by Patricia Neal.

In 1989, he performed vocals for "The Music and Heroes of America" segment in the animated television miniseries This is America, Charlie Brown.

"The Star-Spangled Banner"

On the night of September 29, 1977, Rawls performed the national anthem of the United States prior to the Earnie Shavers-Muhammad Ali title fight at Madison Square Garden. He would be requested to sing the anthem many times over the next 28 years, and his final performance of it came in his hometown of Chicago. Rawls was asked to sing the national anthem to kick off Game Two of the 2005 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros at U.S. Cellular Field. A lifelong fan of his hometown Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bears, he was said to be "out of this world" thrilled and honored at the chance to sing the anthem and to see his boyhood south-side idols play in a World Series at the same time. Though tired, very ill, and seemingly knowing this could be one of his final performances, his rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner on the evening of October 23, 2005 is said to be one of the most moving performances of his career. He had also sung the national anthem at two previous World Series games and one NLCS (National League Championship Series) game: the 1982 World Series opener between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers and Game Three of the 1985 World Series between the Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals, and Game 6 of the 1987 NLCS between the Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants. All three games were played at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

Honors and charity work

In 1980, Rawls began the "Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon" which benefits the United Negro College Fund. The annual event, known since 1998 as "An Evening of Stars: A Celebration of Educational Excellence", consists of stories of successful African-American students who have benefited from and/or graduated from one of the many historically black colleges and universities who receive support from the UNCF, along with musical performances from various recording artists in support of the UNCF's and Rawls' efforts. The event has raised over US$200 million in 27 shows for the fund through 2006.

In January 2004, Rawls was honored by the United Negro College Fund for his more than 25 years of charity work with the organization. Instead of hosting and performing as he usually did, Rawls was given the seat of honor and celebrated by his performing colleagues, including Stevie Wonder, The O'Jays, Gerald Levert, Ashanti, and many others. His final television performance occurred during the 2005-2006 edition of the telethon, honoring Stevie Wonder in September 2005, just months before entering the hospital and after having been diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year. This program, aired in January 2006, contains his final public television performance, where he performed two classics, "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" and a final ode to Frank Sinatra with "It Was A Very Good Year".

At the time of Rawls' death, news and UNCF figures noted the significance of his final performance, "It Was a Very Good Year." The song is a retrospective of one's life and its lyrics include, "When I was seventeen, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for small town girls and soft summer nights.... And now those days grow short, it is the autumn of years, and now I think about life as vintage wine from fine old kegs, from the brim to the dregs, it pours sweet and clear, it was a very good year."

Acting career

Rawls appeared in a segment aired during the first season of Sesame Street, to sing the alphabet. He dismissed the concept of using cue cards for the performance, but reversed that decision when he forgot the order of the letters.

Throughout Rawls' singing career, he had the opportunity to appear in many films, television shows, and commercials. His first acting credit was in the western television series The Big Valley (starring Barbara Stanwyck, along with Lee Majors and Linda Evans). Here he delivered the memorable line, "Ain't a horse that can't be rode; ain't a man that can't be throwed." He can be seen in such films as Leaving Las Vegas, Blues Brothers 2000, and Angel, Angel, Down We Go. He had a role and sang some of his songs in Lookin' Italian, an independent mafia film. He had a supporting role in the Baywatch spin-off, Baywatch Nights. He guest-starred as a singer framed for and targeted for murder in a 1972 episode of Mannix.

Rawls lent his rich baritone voice to many cartoons, including Hey Arnold! as the voice of Harvey The Mailman, Garfield, Captain Planet and the Planeteers as the voice of Dr. Rice in the season 3 episode "Guinea Pigs", and The Proud Family (also appearing in animation form in one episode). For many of the Film Roman Garfield specials, Rawls would often compose songs for them, which he would then sing usually doing a duet with Desiree Goyette, as well as the singing voice of the title character himself.

For many years, he was a spokesperson for the Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company, helping promote the brand on radio and TV to African-American markets much as Ed McMahon did for the white audience (and Alex Trebek continues to do to this day). He was also a spokesman for brewing companies. First appearing in television and radio commercials in the mid-to-late 1960s for Spur Malt Liquor, a Rainier Brewing Company product out of Seattle, he later appeared in a number of Budweiser advertisements. Budweiser was a key sponsor for the Rawls telethon and UNCF. There was no attempt to avoid the similarity between the title of the 1977 album When You've Heard Lou, You've Heard It All and his corporate sponsor's slogan "When You Say Budweiser, You've Said It All". A track on the 1978 album Lou Rawls Live, features Rawls singing the commercial slogan. Anheuser-Busch, the brewers of Budweiser, also suggested his telethon work to him.

Rawls was also a regular guest host on "Jazz Central", a program aired on the BET Jazz cable channel.

He appears as "Dr. Rawls" in a dream on an episode My Wife and Kids in which he breaks into a parody version of "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" when a frightened Damon Wayans is afraid of having a colonoscopy the following day. Rawls uses the scope as a microphone in the scene. Rawls appears as a commentator in the second half of both the rated and unrated versions of the commentary for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy DVD commentary track, despite having nothing to do with the film itself. During the track, he indulges the commentators' request, participating in a scatting contest with Will Ferrell.

Rawls also appeared in an episode of Baywatch as a bookie as well as the pilot episode of The Fall Guy as Country Joe Walker.

Lou Rawls appears in action figure form in an episode of Action League Now!, entitled, "Hit of Horror".

Rawls was also a guest star during the second season of The Muppet Show. He also made an appearance on the series finale of Martin.

Billboard Top 50 hit singles

The following is a list of Rawls singles that made the top 50 on the Billboard Hot 100. His first Hot 100 entry was "Three O'Clock in the Morning" in 1965, and his final was "Wind Beneath My Wings" in 1983. In addition to those two, nine other singles peaked at positions below the top 50 on the Hot 100, and additional singles reached the R&B, Adult Contemporary and Bubbling Under charts.

"Love Is a Hurtin' Thing" - 1966, #13 (also #1 R&B)

"Dead End Street" - 1967, #29

"Show Business" - 1967, #45

"Your Good Thing (Is About to End)" - 1969, #18 (sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc)

"A Natural Man" - 1971, #17

"You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" - 1976, #2 (also #1 R&B and #1 Easy Listening); certified gold for sales of one million copies

"Lady Love" - 1978, #24

Personal life

On December 19, 2005, the Associated Press reported that Rawls tried to annul his two-year marriage to Nina Inman, who had been acting as his business manager, after it was discovered she had made unauthorized transfers amounting to nearly $350,000 from his bank account into an account solely controlled by her. She later stated that she had transferred the funds to protect them from one of Rawls' daughters from a previous relationship.

In December 2005, it was announced that Rawls was being treated for cancer in both his lungs and brain. With his wife of two years by his side, Lou Rawls died from his illness on January 6, 2006, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

Rawls had one son with Inman, Aiden Allen Rawls. He also fathered two daughters: Louanna Rawls, a wardrobe stylist and future Launch My Line contestant, and Kendra Smith, as well as a prior son, Lou Rawls, Jr.

In 2009, Pathway Entertainment announced its intention to feature Rawls as the subject of a biopic, tentatively titled Love Is a Hurtin' Thing: The Lou Rawls Story. Rawls' son, Lou Rawls, Jr., is the author of the script. Isaiah Washington will reportedly play Rawls.

Discography

Albums

1962 Stormy Monday (Blue Note)

1962 Black and Blue (Capitol)

1963 Tobacco Road (Capitol)

1964 For You My Love (Capitol)

1965 Lou Rawls and Strings (Capitol)

1965 Nobody But Lou (Capitol)

1966 Live! (Capitol)

1966 The Soul-Stirring Gospel Sounds of the Pilgrim Travelers (Capitol)

1966 Soulin' (Capitol)

1966 Carryin' On (Capitol)

1967 Too Much! (Capitol)

1967 That's Lou (Capitol)

1967 Merry Christmas Ho! Ho! Ho! (Capitol)

1968 Feelin' Good (Capitol)

1968 You're Good for Me (Capitol)

1969 The Way It Was: The Way It Is (Capitol)

1969 Your Good Thing (Capitol)

1969 Close-Up (Capitol)

1970 You've Made Me So Very Happy (Capitol)

1970 Bring It On Home (Capitol)

1971 Down Here on the Ground/I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water (Capitol)

1971 Natural Man (MGM)

1972 Silk & Soul (MGM)

1972 A Man of Value (MGM)

1973 Live at the Century Plaza (Rebound)

1975 She's Gone (Bell)

1976 All Things in Time (Philadelphia International)

1976 Naturally (Polydor)

1977 Unmistakably Lou (Philadelphia International)

1977 When You Hear Lou, You've Heard It All (Philadelphia International)

1978 Lou Rawls Live (Philadelphia International)

1979 Let Me Be Good to You (Philadelphia International)

1979 In Concert: Recorded with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra [live] (Dep Entertainment)

1980 Sit Down and Talk to Me (Philadelphia International)

1981 Shades of Blue (Philadelphia International)

1982 Now Is the Time (Epic)

1983 When the Night Comes ( Epic)

1984 Close Company (Epic)

1986 Love All Your Blues Away (Epic)

1988 Family Reunion (Gamble-Huff)

1989 At Last (Blue Note)

1990 It's Supposed to Be Fun (Blue Note)

1992 Portrait of the Blues (Capitol)

1993 Christmas Is the Time (Manhattan)

1995 Holiday Cheer (Cema Special Markets)

1995 Merry Little Christmas (EMI Special Products)

1998 Unforgettable (Going For)

1998 Seasons 4 U (Rawls & Brokaw)

1999 A Legendary Night Before Christmas (Platinum Disc)

2000 Swingin' Christmas (EMI-Capitol Special Markets)

2001 I'm Blessed (Malaco)

2001 Christmas Will Be Christmas (Capitol)

2002 Oh Happy Day (601)

2003 Rawls Sings Sinatra (Savoy Jazz)

2003 Trying as Hard as I Can (Allegiance)

2006 Lou Rawls Christmas (HyLo Entertainment)

Chart singles

Filmography

2000 Jazz Channel Presents Lou Rawls (Image)

2003 In Concert (BMG/Image)

2005 Prime Concerts: In Concert with Edmonton Symphony (Amalgamated)

2006 The Lou Rawls Show: With Duke Ellington & Freda Payne

2007 Live in Concert: North Sea Jazz. 1992-1995 (E-M-S)

Wikipedia