#or if you live in nyc you can rent the e-book. so.

[dickgreyson]

devin grayson book where dick did what???

yeah girl devin grayson had some weird book published where like. roy/bruce and dick/ollie had weird inappropriate tension and ollie said smth along the lines of 'theyre such good looking kids, we couldnt be blamed if we molested them'. absolutely feral she needs to atone.

it was fully published BY DC

below the cut

weird dick/ollie stuff

and i remember there being more but like most links are broken now. i think this is enough tho. you can find it here

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Something Held | Feeding Habits Update #8

Hi all!

Not me not realizing it’s been 3 months since I posted a Feeding Habits update hahahahahaha. Today let’s chat chapter nine, SOMETHING HELD. This also marks the last chapter in Harrison’s POV so prepare to say goodbye to this icon!  TW: body horror, mental illness, trauma

Just a reminder: This is my original work and plagiarism of any form will not be tolerated.

Scene outline, excerpts & a little reflection on making difficult decisions that my not particularly benefit the book but benefit you as the writer under the cut because this update is GIGANTIC.

General taglist (please ask to be added or removed):

@if-one-of-us-falls, @qatarcookie, @chloeswords, @alicewestwater, @laughtracksonata, @shylawrites, @ev–writes, @jaydewritesfiction, @jennawritesstories @eowynandfaramir, @august-iswriting​, @aetherwrites​

Scene Breakdown

Scene A:

It has been two weeks since Lonan found Harrison at his shared apartment with Suzanna and things are getting strange. Lonan and Suz are getting closer, Harrison is getting more distant and slowly losing it. One morning, Harrison wakes hearing Lonan and Suz’s laughter, and crawls to the kitchen to investigate. When he reaches them, Suz is evening out Lonan’s hacked haircut and they’re both sobbing.

Scene B:

Shortly after this bizarre encounter, Suzanna steps out of the apartment for a breather because her son is sort of terrifying her! So Lonan and Harrison double-team to clean up Lonan’s hair shavings. Harrison begins eating the hair while Lonan stares and they have a conversation about the state of their friendship.

Scene Ba:

This scene is gross and confusing! More hair is ingested. My god.

Scene Bb:

After the above ordeal, both boys rinse off because they’ve been rolling?? around?? in??? hair?? but also?? things don’t stop being a little gross

Scene C:

An air of calm finally settles over the apartment. Lonan brews earl grey tea for him and Harrison to share and Harrison asks if he abandoned Lonan in the final chapter of Moth Work. Lonan doesn’t really answer this question so Harrison continues on his confused, but finally lucid (one-sided) conversation, admitting he understands he burdens his mother, who still has not returned. They circle back to the question of abandonment and Lonan answers Harrison the way he wants to be answered (yes), and this is a moment of freeing, where he feels some sort of responsibility in this irresponsible new life he’s led in NYC. They sort of agree to be friends again.

Scene D:

The boys head into the city to find Suzanna, heading to a bakery near the Hudson River. Lonan drives in his used car, a strange experience since Harrison has not seen him drive in years. Taking the opportunity, he searches through the car and finds a map in the glove compartment. The map is erratically scribbled over and it takes him to moment to realize this is Lonan’s map and the first indication that Lonan, who he has assumed is this stable, perfect person, is not as unscathed as he seems.

The boys pass the waterfront and Lonan nearly crashes the car into an oncoming truck. Harrison regains control of the vehicle tucking them into a side street. Shaken, Lonan apologizes for the mess he’s created both physically from his nosebleed and between Harrison and his mother, which gets Harrison a little antsy because he doesn’t like the suggestion that he’s going to leave. Lonan clarifies, stating he won’t if that’s what Harrison wants.

Scene E:

Later, everyone is back at home and Harrison wakes up to a Lonan-less bed. He gets up to investigate the strange dripping coming from the bathroom and opens the door to find Lonan precariously teetering over a sink filled with water. Harrison, concerned, moves him away and tries to ask why Lonan is presumably going underwater, but doesn’t push. They both stand on opposite sides of the bathroom until the sun rises.

My process:

Honestly, writing this chapter was a huge up and down. The first half of it came much easier to me, but the rest was a literal hellfire to get through. I think I was incredibly fatigued with writing in Harrison’s POV as I’d been writing it since June (I finished this chapter in either December or January). This book has been a pain in the ass to write despite me liking what it is, and I really think it being the only place I’ve physically “gone” since the pandemic makes it even harder to write. I felt claustrophobic in Harrison’s POV since I’ve been writing it for half a year, and in a lil ~breakdown~ my beautiful sister reminded me of something she’d previously told me, “it's not about what works, it's about what you want”.

Let’s chat about this for a sec! I think I was watching a Harmony Nice video on her “hard-to-swallow” self-care, and she basically outline (I’m paraphrasing here) that it’s critical we care for ourselves in ways that might not necessarily be easy to do. Honestly, leaving Harrison’s POV is one of those hard-to-swallow self-care things I literally had to do because my mental health was not happy with me! Y’all know my boys are very close to me, and I’m not picking favourites but Lonan is 2500 times easier for me to write with at the moment. I think Harrison’s situation and how he deals with it is much too similar to mine but in a way that is difficult to place (Lonan and I are unfortunately similar but in a way that is easier for me to understand about myself!). From the beginning of writing his POV I’ve been in Struggleville, but kept pushing through hoping the next chapter would be “the one”. Not to burst my own bubble but there is no such thing in the state of mind I was in! I was pushing myself to find something that doesn’t exist because my brain was really not equipped to do what I needed it to do. I really, really did not want to quit on Harrison’s POV, but I had to, not because I don’t like him (he’s my baby) but because I needed a moment to myself. I felt way too seen in ways I don’t really know how to address in myself, so writing him was horribly frustrating at all times (my fault, not his).

My characters really do live in my head rent-free lol. They live in there! They take up space! They take up energy! They take up concentration, and resources I need for myself! Empathy is so integral to my process, that I give a little part of myself in everything I write. This is a blessing because I really get to dig my heels into the mind of another person, but a curse because I’m not a machine (and sometimes I forget that). It is a lot of emotional energy and labour to give everything you have to fictional people. I don’t think an artist needs to be tortured to create good art (this is not it!) but I never truly practiced this well? In my attempt to be empathetic, I was torturing myself a little bit, not going to lie!

So to combat this, I decided I needed a change. Hence, this chapter is imperfect and probably needs some stuff added to it, and while I’ve only written little of Lonan’s second POV, I’m feeling a lot better! It’s nice to get “outside” in a different place lmao this is so sad (pandemic writing things).

Excerpts:

I wrote the beginning of this in a livestream I hosted on my YouTube channel! There’s also a shoutout here to my dragon tree Lisa <3 miss u boo

Two weeks go by. Lonan sleeps on the couch. Harrison wakes up at dawn—no earlier, no later. Suzanna buys a plant: a Madagascar dragon tree she names Lisa. June grows into the collar. Lonan plays sudoku in the newspaper. Harrison learns to bake focaccia, gluten-free, whole wheat. Suzanna learns to palm read, tells Lonan he’s experienced great betrayal (they stop the reading immediately; Lonan goes back to the newspapers). Harrison begins burning incense at sunrise—frankincense. The dragon tree nearly dies (Lonan saves it). It rains every weekday that contains the letter T. Lonan shifts stacks of soggy newspapers onto the breakfast table, answers crosswords with the help of Suzanna (four across, nine letters, Something held). Harrison burns a baguette. Suzanna buys a hanging basket of pothos. The power goes out for two days and the icebox floods the kitchen tile (Lonan mops it with old newspapers, the ink running like jellyfish). June barks for the first time. Harrison eats a bundle of dried bay leaves. Suzanna waters the plants with rainwater, icewater, wrung into a coffee tin. Harrison leaves the stove on while sautéing shallots (he eats them whole). Lonan wakes up feverish and fills out four newspaper crosswords, then falls asleep on the coffee table. Suzanna moulds panna cotta in coffee mugs and shares the batch with Lonan when they won’t tip out. Lonan teaches her how to propagate the pothos and soon they have twenty empty cans of cuttings poking from the windowsills. They rearrange the furniture, the couch facing the kitchen instead of the TV, the dining table right outside the bathroom, then put it all back the next day. They birdwatch from the tiny window with binoculars and a magnifying glass. They sort coupons. Whittle soaps. Watch Norwegian films without the subtitles. Discuss cliff diving. Make matching anklets (blue beads, elastic string, the plastic clacking how Harrison knows they’re coming). All of this they do as Harrison lies on his bed for two weeks, counting the corners of his ceiling and trying to determine a way to multiply them telepathically.

This is the very next paragraph!

At first he assumes they’re laughing. The sun nearly rising between other high rises, blotting his room with dawn. This is not a surprise. They are probably making pancakes out of buckwheat and discussing the hilarity of whole grains. They are probably laughing at store-bought cherry preserves. Too sour. Their cheeks puckered. But then the laughs get louder, and the sun rises higher and it’s not laughing at all, but gasping.

Here’s Harrison crawling!! is this straight out of the exorcist probably!

Harrison’s instinct is to crawl. As if his smallness against the ground will stop anyone from hearing him, even before he unlocks his door. On hands and knees he shuffles from his bed to his doorframe, edges the door open with his shoulder. On hands and knees he hikes through the hallway, the gasping getting louder, shuffling until he sees them. Lonan sitting on one of the kitchen stools, a grocery bag wound around his throat. Suzanna clacking scissors in two hands so their blades ping in the sun. Her fingers loped around his hair, knuckle-deep, the blades snipping, the gasps growing, them both sobbing, the hair falling, the sun stalking, their bodies rocking. Harrison takes it in from his crawl. Experiences it all on his knees.

So this excerpt seems really you know, normal:

They clean up the hair. Harrison with the dustpan, Lonan with the broom. Harrison still kneels. Lonan still cries. The only thing that has changed since crawling into the kitchen is that Suzanna is taking a walk around the apartment complex. She needs air. Room. If she cries long enough, a cigarette. So Lonan sweeps. Harrison collects. This repeats.

The kitchen smells of nutmeg. Freshly grated from a whole club over espresso, Harrison imagines. He smells this as he tracks Lonan with the dustpan, hovering its open belly for clippings of hair. And Lonan is so compliant, brushes cuttings of himself onto the plastic surface so Harrison can trash it. As Harrison looks on from his knees, Lonan diffuses in sunlight, the window illuminating only his edges. A body so familiar Harrison knows exactly where it flares with light or absorbs it. A body with skin like mulberry silk. A body he could recreate in charcoal with his eyes closed. His archangel translucent and luminescing.

Skip this excerpt if you don’t want to read about Harrison eating hair!! i’m sorry!

Harrison picks a bundle of fallen hair from the dustpan. It’s airy from being recently shampooed, smells faintly of pear, maybe even ginger. This hair, touched by a woman, or a few women, and cut by one, or a few, in different contexts. Eliza’s hands deveining the roots, and then Suzanna’s, trying to fix them. So Harrison eats it. That bundle like a toothpicked cube of cheese. He puts it in his mouth and swallows.

Lonan watches like he’s unconcerned. He watches this feral animal—Harrison must be something feral, starved of something and ravaged by that hunger. Chewing mouthfuls of hair like that will quell of him of what is missing, if there even is anything missing, something unidentifiable in this bland circuit of New York City, this time-loop of sonhood, this fresh start a dousing of flatness. As Harrison eats, he understands he consumes that something like it’s holy communion, reuniting with that something by absorbing it. And still, that hunger moves him, from finishing the dustpan of hair, and closer to Lonan.

“Do you think I’m a bad friend?” Harrison asks, wringing the corner of his lips clean from loose hairs. From this perspective, Harrison on his knees collecting hair, Lonan’s eyes look bluer. Maybe their saturation has nothing to do with the angle, but Harrison feels this is true; his eyes are so crystalline, they are temptingly edible. Like two plump blueberries. Or a matching set of clear glass marbles. Harrison swallows. He repeats, “Do you think I’m a bad friend?”

Lonan swallows, adjusts his grip on the broom. “We’d have to be friends for me to answer that.”

“Aren’t we?”

And here’s the rest of this scene!

“You’re my mother’s friend,” Harrison says. “She trusts you.” He crawls closer to Lonan. “You’ve got secrets. Rituals. Tell me her favourite finger-food and who she wants to marry.”

“I don’t know your mother that well.”

Harrison wraps a handle around Lonan’s ankle. A muscle there jumps like a dolphin breaching the water. He’s memorized this plane of skin, could rebuild it from single grains of sand while blindfolded. He furls his hands across its surface, unfurls.

“You garden with her,” Harrison says. “You share a plate for dessert.”

“She’s kind to me.”

“You cook her breakfast.” Harrison tugs on Lonan’s ankle, knowing it won’t raze him, knowing he’ll come down anyway. “You know the exact temperature she drinks her coffee down to the last digit.”

“I’m trying to be hospitable.”

“You’re trying to be a son.”

Lonan kneels. Crouching so they’re huddled over each other, so it’s nearly impossible to distinguish one body from the other, which one sinks, which one rises.

“My mother’s only got one son to live with,” Harrison says, his voice thin from a clogged throat. He reaches for Lonan’s scalp, scrapes a line down the centre, now an even plane of cropped hair. “And it isn’t me.”

“You’re unstable,” Lonan says, burrowing his face either into a cabinet or Harrison’s shoulder—neither can tell. “You won’t let yourself have friends.”

Farther, toward the tile they go, a pile of hair scattering. “My mother wants me to forgive you by replacing me with you.”

“She’s grieving,” Lonan says.

Harrison loses his hands. He doesn’t know where they disappear to, if he touches skin or tile. “I haven’t died,” he says. Skin or tile. Skin or tile.

Here’s an excerpt from scene C ft. this memoir bit from the time I was shocked that this university I visited had real FANCY teabags:

Lonan brews tea. Earl grey, from a tin. Harrison doesn’t know why he expects it to come from a bag. An individual paper sachet, or if he’s lucky, one of those fancy ones woven from nylon. But it’s from a tin. Two teaspoons into the bottom of a single mug they pass back and forth, wordless at the kitchen table. Strung in the bathroom, Harrison’s t-shirt hang-dries, nearly figure-like, an unfilled phantom. He tugs a throw around his shoulders and stares at his hands. Each crest of cuticle. Each bulb of knuckle. Each maze of fingerprints.

He is material. This is fact. Not just outlines. He’s got skin that goes pinkish when pinched, a pulse that juts from his wrist, two eyes that burn at the scent of lavender, ten fingers. But as he holds his hands up, studying them in the faint moonlight, it is difficult to believe his tangibility. In the city, he has lived as a haze. Fogging over grocery stores, eateries, nondescript. Fresh start has always implied an air of zest, a zing that should have fueled him to plant roots in this restart. But Harrison is rotten, aphid infected, overwatered, underwatered, then not watered at all. He flexes his fingers. He pops the joints. He tries to press his pinkie to the back of his hand. But none of this brings him back to himself. His hands continue feeling like someone else’s. His body invisibly marred in some way he can’t reverse, disconnected in retaliation.

Harrison reflecting on his relationship with his mother:

Suzanna has never left him alone this long, and to her detriment. He imagines her now, living the life she always should’ve lived, the life she lived before he crosscut his way to her most important thing. She’s probably at a salon, having her hair twirled with a round brush, making dinner reservations at some place always too expensive for two (extra points if it has a French name, more if she has to wait a half hour before getting a table). When she talks to her stylist, she doesn’t mention a son, but plans to travel up the west coast, all the way into Canada if she’s feeling adventurous. She’ll buy crime novels she’ll never read at duty-free, reapply a lipstick that cost her a paycheck in the reflection of a hand-dryer. After the salon, she’ll meet a woman at a wine bar, converse about children, and still not mention a son. Suzanna’s singleness will be a celebration.

The boys finally trucing it out <3

When Harrison finally opens his eyes, Lonan is staring at him. His eyes two reels of the Pacific. They cycle in blue. So much of him has changed, and yet he is still the same. Beyond the haircut, Lonan isn’t that much different. He can’t be much different. But as Harrison searches, splaying his palm on the wet table, he knows this is untrue. Lonan is hollower than he was last summer. A little more haunted. They have this in common, then.

“Can we be friends?” Harrison asks. With his pinkie, he finds himself writing against the damp table just as he did Lonan’s scalp not too long ago. Lonan’s gaze follows each loop of each letter, Harrison’s steady left hand.

Lonan is consumed studying what Harrison has written, where each letter connects in near-cursive scrawl. After a moment, he nods, once, twice, and then reverts to staring at the table’s new inscription. On its surface are two words: something held.

The boys in the car like old times <3

Lonan drives. This is strange because Harrison has not seen Lonan drive a car in over a year. Usually, Harrison takes the wheel, but tonight he guides them through the city, in search of Suzanna. His car is clean. This isn’t unexpected. A cherry-coloured hatchback that rattles whenever he makes a left turn. It smells vaguely of cotton air-freshener and the undercurrent of cigarettes.

“You still smoke?” Harrison pokes at the plastic nob for the radio, and it crackles to life. Synth and electric guitar pulse in 4/4 time.

“I bought it used.”

They’ve agreed to get to know one another while they search for Suzanna. Another restart, some attempt at an honest hour. As Lonan changes lanes, Harrison pokes open the car’s glove compartment. A tin of nicotine gum falls on the mat. A hot pink feather pokes from underneath the driver’s manual. Harrison hauls out both, runs the feather along the gum tin, then the back of his hand, and then Lonan’s cheek. When that rouses nothing, he unlocks the tin and removes a slit of gum. Right as he’s about to pop it in his mouth, Lonan says, “I wouldn’t eat that.”

“Why?” Harrison asks. “Did you lace it?”

“Like I said, I bought the car used.”

Harrison puts the gum back, and then the feather. He sticks his hand farther into the glove compartment, feels around until he drags out a map of the state, bilgy and half torn. He unfolds it, careful to avoid the rips, and flattens it against the dashboard. Almost immediately, it wilts against the cold, faded from time in the sun. It’s been marked up. Half with pencil, half with a red ballpoint pen. After a few minutes, Harrison understands the previous owner’s route. Or at least he does at first. Following the red pen arrows, they started at Long Island, then reached Manhattan. Then a much longer arrow takes him from Manhattan to Geneva, and then Buffalo. And then the red pen circles, once, twice, three times, four times, and what is in the centre doesn’t even have a city name. What it does say is HELP, in all-caps, each letter then melting into an illegible scrawl. Harrison sees bits of words: Luke, woe, hands, clay, guard, stray, each wobbly and disappearing into the other, becoming cities of their own, destroying others. He tries to understand the route, but the farther he pours over the map, recircling each line with his finger, the more lost he gets in the ink.

“Is this your map?” Harrison asks. There is no proof that it is. Even the handwriting is all wrong. Ragged. Confused. Desperate. Not like Lonan’s careful, hesitant print.

“Like I said, I bought the car used.”

“But is it your map?” Harrison asks again. Gently, he creases the paper and then slots it back into the glove compartment. Outside, they pass three convenience stores in a row, a flock of couples emerging from a bowling alley, tipsy and cradling leftover deep dish pizzas and mozzarella sticks. They pass two more convenience stores before Lonan finally answers.

“I was confused,” he says.

“This is more than confused,” Harrison says. “It’s disturbed.”

“I’m not disturbed.”

“But something is wrong with you.”

Lonan slows at a crosswalk. A group of teenaged girls whisk by in glitter and lip gloss.

“Yes,” he says.

This is Harrison trying to stop Lonan’s nosebleed after their bizarre swerve which I think is kind of <3 tendy <3

Harrison reaches for him. One hand on the back of his neck, and the other reared toward the red stream. His touch is tactful, so faint his fingerprints wouldn’t even be left behind, but still, the dabbing with his jacket’s hem is enough to redirect the blood’s flow from Lonan’s upper lip to the cuff of leather. The radio is still on, garbled like an unmassing of crepe paper lanterns.

This is the final excerpt for this update that takes us to the very end of the chapter! Harrison has just found Lonan supposedly head-first in the sink and though he asks at first why he is doing that, takes an alternate approach as the chapter closes:

Harrison gets up, his knees popping like gnawed bubble gum. He decides he will handle Lonan at a distance, if he chooses to handle him at all. Like a timid pet owner trying to tame their suddenly-rabid yorkie. Like a friend not trying to tip the full glass. To let its contents film at its surface, but never spill.

Somewhere in the apartment, Suzanna probably listens to them. If Harrison didn’t know her better, he’d imagine her pressed neatly against the door, waiting to hear the shuffle of their bodies or the tang of an argument. Instead, he imagines her at the kitchen table, gripping a glass of water for so long, half of it evaporates.

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” Harrison says, stepping back until his spine hits the counter’s lip. He curls his fingers under the granite. Looks toward the window, now a faint periwinkle. Lonan heaves. His fingers caging his face, an animal restrained. They stand there until the sun rises.

So that’s it for this gigantic update! I have like four short stories to update you on so I hope to be back soon!

—Rachel

[emeraldskulblaka]

On Pro-shots

There's no "read more" option on mobile - sorry!

As a follow-up to the post I made last year (On Bootlegs), here's my opinion on pro-shots, complete with explanations and examples.

Like I mentioned before, I've seen a surge in people discussing/asking about pro-shot musicals, Live! musicals and movie musicals recently, so I decided to discuss common misconceptions, overused arguments and the target audience of said musical 'versions'.

Types of pro-shots

professional release

That's the type of pro-shot every theatre fan dreams of. See: Hamilton, Newsies, etc. Professionally recorded, countless angles, perfect sound and editing, a video of the actual stage show recorded over several days of performances. Very expensive to produce.

house cam

A video of a stage show filmed from the back of the Stalls/Orchestra, most likely full stage only. The audio comes from the soundboard, i. e. focuses on the singing rather than the music, for the most part. House cams and soundboards are recorded specifically for those who work on the show with equipment that already exists within the theatre. Sometimes, they're leaked by a cast or crew member, which is the reason why there are quite a few house cam videos in circulation, e. g. Beauty and the Beast, The Book of Mormon.

recording for archival purposes

Almost every professional show is recorded for archival purposes. Even though the quality of these recordings is higher than that of house cams, it is NOT up to the standard of professional releases and therefore CANNOT simply be released publicly. However, it is possible to watch such recordings under certain conditions at the TOFT in NYC and the V&A Museum in London.

Live! productions of musicals

Live! musicals are heavily influenced by the stage shows, but they're shot on TV sets with different locations. They're livestreamed to a TV audience, sometimes with an audience on set as well. Most Live! versions differ quite from previous productions on Broadway or in the West End, see: The Sound of Music, The Little Mermaid.

Movie musicals

I guess I don't have to explain what a movie musical is, but it's important to know that movie musicals are the preferred type of pro-shot for most producers as they're produced like a typical movie, complete with song and dance.

The target audience

Let's get the hard truth out of the way: pro-shots are NOT filmed for you, yes you, the person reading this. You most likely know a lot more about theatre than the average person, either because you're a theatre fan, or because you're following me. Professionally filmed musicals, including Live! and movie musicals, are filmed for the general public, for people who enjoy the occasional musical. In order to appeal to a wider audience, these videos must have excellent quality, crystal clear sound and and crisp definition. In a world where HD and 4K are the norm, musicals have to meet the same standards. Let's keep this in mind for when I discuss common misconceptions and overused arguments when it comes to pro-shots.

Common misconceptions & arguments

"Why don't they just release the recordings filmed for archival purposes?"

For a number of reasons, actually. I'm no expert, mind you, but the performers' and musicians' contracts mostly do not include filmed performances with the purpose of a public release. There might be serious problems with unions, copyright, etc. Then, remember what I've said before - they're not up to the standards of professional releases unless they're filmed for a future release (e. g. Hamilton, which was filmed in 2016 and released in 2020. But that's not a recording for the archives).

"They clearly had the equipment necessary for high-quality recordings (see: trailers), why didn't they record the whole show?"

First of all, there's a difference between recording individual songs/scenes and the entire show. If you mess up a scene for the trailer/music video, you can either edit it out or start again. Second, you need to rent the equipment. Professional shows are recorded over the span of several days to make sure everything goes according to plan, so it'll cost infinitely more than to just film a couple of scenes and be done within a day. Third, theatres aren't TV sets. They're not built for professional recording, and setting up the equipment to get various interesting angles without obstructions takes forever.

"releasing pro-shots will eliminate the need for bootlegs"

Definitely not - no number of pro-shots, no matter which type, will reduce the number of bootlegs recorded. For more details, see here.

"Pro-shots will make theatre more accessible"

I can't fully support this statement. Not all pro-shots are available to everyone. Miss Saigon was shown in cinemas internationally and later released on DVD and on Blu-ray. Perfect example here. Releasing musicals internationally and on DVD/for download is a challenge not every producer is willing to accept. Some are streamed/shown in a limited number of countries (Rent at the Hope Mill Theatre), some are shown in a select number of theatres (The King and I West End), and some are only available for a limited time (Before/After at the Southwark Playhouse). So no, they're not particularly accessible, at least not to everyone. They're a step in the right direction.

Re: the "inaccessibility" of theatre, see here.

"I wish they'd record more pro-shots! There are so few out there"

Oh please. Starting in 2016, there have been Newsies, Falsettos, Miss Saigon, 42nd Street, An American in Paris, Bandstand, Hamilton and The King and I just off the top of my head. Furthermore Live! musicals (Grease, Hairspray, Jesus Christ Superstar, Rent, The Little Mermaid) 'socially distanced' musicals (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, The Last Five Years, Marry Me A Little), staged concerts (Les Misérables, Before/After, First Date, Title of Show), 'quarantine' musicals (Songs For a New World, Ratatouille) and minor productions (Allegiance, Fun Home). I didn't even look up a single show (there are definitely at least five I missed), and we're at 24 in the last five years alone. That's A LOT.

"releasing pro-shots will hurt ticket sales"

Same as with bootlegs - no recording will substitute for a live performance at the theatre. None. Besides, it'll be hard to tell what exactly will influence ticket sales in the foreseeable future.

"Pro-shots are the only way for me to watch musicals"

Oh honey, they're not even the only LEGAL way to watch musicals. There are always bootlegs (dozens of them can easily be found on YouTube), and there'll be plenty of theatre going on after the pandemic, I assure you. Broadway and West End theatre is fantastic, but it's not all there is.

Finally, I'd like to repeat something I've said before:

"You need to shift your perspective from what's immensely popular towards what's actually within reach. If you happen to live in a country where there aren't a lot of theatres, that's incredibly unfortunate, and I completely understand why you consider theatre to be inaccessible! Make sure to support the shows you love by purchasing what's already there - that way, producers might be able to afford to release more."

I'd like to add that during the pandemic, I've been able to watch many shows I'd never have been able to watch if not for these special circumstances. However, I've noticed that many people complain about the lack of theatre these days and aren't even aware of what's being put out there. Nope, still no pro-shot of Six. But so many other musicals and plays, ready to watch from the comfort of your home.

I don't consider myself an expert on this topic, this is just what I've picked up over the years.

[bambihanson]

very goofy headcanons for if everyone was allowed to be happy and living together

- Drunk dance parties complete with karaoke initiated by Eliot and Margo  - The karaoke is always touchy bc Kady is a showoff, she even sang Just A Friend flawlessly and everyone was just so done but it was fun anyway - Josh pretending to have a cooking show while the others watch him cook their meals - Fen visiting from Fillory and exploring the city with them - She also steals their knives??? Especially the big ones - And Josh keeps having to replace them but he doesn’t say anything bc he’s very nonconfrontational and Margo’s finally like “FEN HONEY P LEAS E HE HAD CUT THE ROAST WITH A BUTTERKNIFE LAST NIGHT” - Kady letting her puppy have free reign of the house and everyone treats it like royalty. They don’t own that dog, that dog owns them - Game nights for a while (picture that one Monopoly draw-the-squad meme) - These stop after a particularly heated round of Uno that ended in people using battle magic on each other - Movie nights are still on the table until they run out of good ones on Netflix - Quentin and Julia doing most of the shopping and buying responsible adult things such as junk food and tiny Nerf guns (”THERE WERE TEN THAT’S ENOUGH FOR ALL OF US PLUS FEN PLUS THE DOG”) - Technically Alice and Julia are the most responsible adults in the place but they just kind of let things slide. A lot. - Going to places like the beach, amusement parks/fairs, expos, etc. They also go to ComicCon one year but that was a fucking disaster  - Quentin deciding to teach part-time at Brakebills and getting Julia into it as well; Quentin is kind of the pushover teacher while Julia is considered the cool/nice teacher  - Fogg has to tell Quentin repeatedly that he can’t let himself be bullied by the first years and finally Quentin snaps and now everyone at the school is lowkey afraid of him  - Everyone else kind of does their own thing when it comes to jobs; though Margo got a pretty good position at the company Janet worked for  - Kady brings in most of the money because she’s basically the witch queen of NYC at that point, much to Marina’s annoyance - But Marina lives in a completely different part of the city with her wife and three cats so she doesn’t really give a shit??? She still likes to tease/antagonize Penny 23 every once in a while because she thinks it’s funny, though - Dean Fogg attempts to on an apology tour one day and comes to the pent house first; Josh blurts out “OH MY GOD ARE YOU IN A 12 STEP PROGRAM?!” and Fogg gets offended at the notion and straight up fucking leaves - Everyone gets their apology eventually though; but mainly from Todd reading it off a notepad  - Todd is kind of a big deal at Brakebills now; only Eliot and Margo know how it happened because Eliot walked in and basically told everyone to just... be nice to Todd the dude just wants friends - Of course he told Margo and his secret’s safe with her, even though she judged him for it herself because Todd is still very much their personal butt monkey even though they lowkey like him - Quentin and Eliot go on a ridiculous amount of dates; they bring Margo along on the non-romantic ones but mostly just do their own couple things - Kady is the backbone of this household. If she died everyone else would be dead like a week later - If it wasn’t clear, they all live in the big ass apartment. They take turns fulfilling the Baba Yaga’s rent requests but it’s the one chore everyone resents because she asks for the most ridiculous magical artifacts - Kady overthrew the library (well, under her leadership, it took a hell of a lot of power). Zelda and Harriet pretty much run it now (moreso Zelda). Everyone will occasionally go there to steal borrow books and chat with Zelda because they more or less like her now, despite the past - They all have trauma from their past mistakes/experiences but they work through it together - Quentin, Alice, and Julia have their own little bookclub that’s their thing separate from the rest of the group - They mainly judge the shit out of classic novels (if they can even make it through some of them) - They all make stupid lip syncing videos together (minus Penny who’s the killjoy holding the camera) that Kady is betting will go viral but they’re trying to decide whether the embarrassment would be worth it or not (granted Josh edits them in a really cool way so they might just be) - They buy a piano thats main use is just Eliot and Kady trying to flex on each other with their musical talents  - Margo uses the song spell to make them break into a full rendition of Anything You Can Do one day. Neither party is impressed - The piano was a discounted enchanted one so it plays itself at 3am. Depending on what it decides to play this ranges from annoying to terrifying 

[hxntaeil]

╰ ♡ ✧ ˖ min yoongi. 25. he/him. have you seen han taeil? they used to be so free-spirited before their heart got broken. now they just seem to be very confrontational. i think it had something to do with getting into a physical fight with their ex, but who knows how accurate that is. i know, we should get them a fresh pack of cigarettes to help cheer them up! maybe then they’ll start acting like starlit skies, vinyl albums, & late night train rides again.

lea here with another ( slightly trashier ) boy! i have a pain in my neck & its already 1am so this is gonna be a mess, but here’s a rundown for those interested. give this post a lil heart and i’ll raid ur dms to plot asap! bless this mess. 

→ taeil was actually born in nyc, as the only son of a couple who -- for lack of better words -- couldn’t really give much of a shit. he was an accidental pregnancy, and dealing with him was more of a chore to them than anything else. as he grew, the feeling became mutual. 

→ when he was 7yrs old, his parents had another kid, this time a baby girl. at first taeil absolutely hated it, but unlike with his parents the more time that passed the more he begun to appreciate his baby sister. despite his own young age, he found himself babysitting her a lot. 

→ school was rough. he was the typical problem student for most of his education. bad grades, bad attitude, stuck in detention a lot for acting out. most adults in his life were convinced he wouldn’t get far, and in some ways they were kinda right. 

→ his teen years were the most troublesome. he got into fights with his parents often, becoming more and more rebellious. he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t for the attention. his sister, being the more quiet and studious type, was someone he was often compared to -- the most notable moment coming from his mother when she branded him still her biggest mistake yet. 

→ around the age of 17 taeil just decided to jump ship. staying at home just wasn’t worth it anymore, and as much as he loved his baby sister, he’d managed to convince himself she’d be alright on her own for a little while. stealing a couple of hundred dollars from his parent’s savings stash, he packed a bag and just left. 

→ his intention was to find some low paying job and pay rent for some shitty apartment and hey, maybe his sister could come live with him instead and everything would be sunshine and rainbows now, but of course that was a far-fetched dream. 

→ instead, he started wandering and just... never really stopped. overnight coaches into new cities, sometimes even new states. staying in one place for no longer than a few months at a time, jumping from couch to couch and making a million new friends but never really connecting with any of them. along the way ( around the age of 22 ) he met his latest ex; some hot guy in florida with a taste for chaos and a weakness for trying to fix broken boys, and all of a sudden taeil learned home could be a person and not a place.

→ it was the most serious relationship with anyone taeil had ever had. they’d been dating for roughly a year when they decided to attempt settling down. it genuinely scared him, but he tried so damn hard to make it work. they found a place to stay, and he applied for any job he thought would take him. working at burger joints or clothes stores was easy enough, and when their financial situation got extra rough nobody ever seemed to notice the couple of bills he’d slip from the register into his own pocket.

→ time passed, people change, and taeil and his ex eventually started growing distant from one another. he’s not even sure how, or why it started. traits that were once endearing to each other became unbearably annoying, and the occasional squabbling now and then turned into full blown shouting matches at the drop of a hat. pettily trying to annoy each other out of spite, things would be said during arguments to purposely hurt one another -- taeil always regret it moments later, though he was unsure if his ex ever did. 

→ their relationship was a ticking time bomb that eventually went off in the ugliest of ways. both insults and objects were thrown, as well as punches. taeil still has the bruised cheek and busted lip that proves it -- it hasn’t even been that long since he moved out again. 

→ right now he’s basically back to square one. he finds a weird sense of comfort in that, but is still lowkey kind of scared, though he’d never dare show it. as usual, he’s determined to fix his problems in the same way he always has; running away, booking a ticket on some overnight coach and starting fresh in a new location -- this time, palm beach. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS

→ someone who let him sleep on their couch for a while in the past ( or maybe the present, who knows ) →  drinking buddies →  someone younger than him that he can treat like a little sibling p l e a s e → we love a good fwb plot → he’s a deadpan shit who loves the colour black, smokes way too much, loves horror and spooky things & i would absolutely love for him 2 be friends w someone that is the polar opposite to him bc im weak for that kind of dynamic  → idk im real tired this is a mess ill write something better in the future sdkfjasdf 

[sterek]

lols legit i just love me my fluff and mutual pining and just all types of that wonderfulness, even with light angst tbh and i love me my HS Aus or college Aus or Human Aus or anything inbetween lmfao XD Ur brilliant and hope this isn't too much of a bother =D

Sorry it took so long, I got distracted! Here are some recs :) [Sorry if I don’t have a lot of light or human fics, most of my bookmarks are heavy werewolf angst oops. I went through half my bookmarks and this is already too long lol enjy!]

I’ve Been Everywhere With You by Leslie_Knope [61k, E]

“Dude, you should totally come with me.”

“What? Like on the road trip?“

“No, come with me. To Austin. Get out of Beacon Hills.”

Derek paused. “What?” he asked again.

He’s Not Mine by Sunnee [68k, E]

Derek comes home to find an abandoned werebaby on his front porch and Stiles volunteers to help him out. Surprisingly, that is just the beginning of his problems.

302, I Love You by paintedrecs [4k, T]

It was a beautiful summer morning—mid-70s with a light breeze, ideal weather for soaking up the sun without fear of overheating. If anyone asked, that was why Stiles was sitting on his balcony with a book he hadn’t touched in the last half hour and a mug of coffee he’d been absently sipping from, his gaze fixed on the parking lot several stories below.

Coincidentally, one of his neighbors—Hot Dude From 302, not that it was relevant—had chosen the same morning to wash his stupidly flashy Camaro.

Shyft by paintedrecs [6k, T]

Derek finally gave the driver more than a passing glance.

He was roughly Derek’s age and surprisingly handsome, despite the ugly plaid shirt he’d rolled up past his elbows. He had broad shoulders, honey-dark hair, a line of moles trailing enticingly along his cheek, and thick eyelashes framing dark eyes that glittered with humor. And he was laughing at Derek.

***

At the end of a long work day, all Derek wanted was to get home as quickly as possible. When his scheduled ride showed up—distractingly good-looking, driving a beat-up Jeep, and full of interesting conversation—Derek felt like his evening might turn out a whole lot better than he’d expected. Until his trust issues flared back to life, telling him "Stiles” wasn’t everything that he’d seemed.

Lovebitten by LunaCanisLupus_22 [10k, M]

The one where Derek gets bitten by a lovebug and Stiles is the first person he lays eyes on. Hilarity ensues.

Bricks by paintedrecs [8k, T]

“Mornin’, love,“ Derek says, and Stiles freezes in his arms. They haven’t exchanged official I love you’s yet, and Derek seems determined to derail Stiles’s plans to say it first. With fireworks. Or bubble baths. Something epic.

The point is, Derek barely even seems to realize he’s doing it, and it’s driving Stiles crazy.

Or: My first time writing a 5 + 1 fic.

remember my love by bleep0bleep [23k, T]

Stiles wakes up and suddenly the war is over, he’s no longer a penniless mage, and living in an exquisite manor married to the man he’s been in love with for far too long.

“It’ll be fine,” Stiles says gallantly. “I am certain I will just fall in love with my husband all over again, and I will find plenty of joy doing that.” He winks at Derek for good measure.Derek blinks.

ritten in the Stars by Quixoticity [26k, M]

Derek Hale is a lucky guy. He’s got a great family, good friends, and a fulfilling job as a tattoo artist.

He’s also one of the twenty-five per cent of the population born with a soul mark.

He likes his life, but he’s waiting for his soul-match. The odds of meeting them aren’t great but hey, Derek’s a lucky guy. He has faith.

He can’t believe how good his luck really is when one day his soul-match wanders right into his studio, all long limbs and copper eyes. There’s just one problem: Stiles is there to get his soul mark covered up. Permanently.

No Homo by RemainNameless [84k, E]

Stiles’ sophomore year starts something like this:3 FourLokos+ 1 peer-pressuring cat- 1 best bro to end all best bros= 1 Craigslist ad headline that reads "str8 dude - m4m - strictly platonic”.Derek is the fool who replies.

Cross our bridges when we come to them by RemainNameless [103k, M]

The five times Derek called the Sheriff “Dad” on accident and the first time he did it on purpose.

Our Hearts Are Tigers by skoosiepants [7k, T]

This is what Stiles figures out after a week of harboring Isaac: he’s kind of a dick, for a ten-year-old.

Turn a Little Faster by skoosiepants [3k, T]

He shifts back and forth on his feet and tries to psych himself up. He can do this. He’s a badass werewolf, he can totally tell Stiles that they accidentally got werewolf married because—because Stiles was thinking about him, and happened to give him a token of his, uh, affection under the silvery light of the last full moon. Platonic affection, Derek thinks sourly, so he doesn’t get why his wolf feels all warm and fuzzy and bonded all of a sudden.

Honestly, it’s like—why aren’t people accidentally getting werewolf married all the time, if it happens this easily?

Filter Out the Starlight by skoosiepants [12k, T]

“Why are you not more curious about me?” Stiles says when Derek’s got the door half open, sun spilling over the dark wood, dust motes spinning about his legs. Stiles is wearing fabric that hasn’t been invented yet, he’s clutching a smart phone to his chest, and he appeared out of nowhere, like an angel.

Softly, Derek says, “We all have our secrets,” and closes the door.

Or-

A heartbroken Stiles accidentally travels back in time to find his one true love. A harlequin-ish Christmas romance.

Under Yellow Moons by skoosiepants [17k, T]

They stare at each other, half-grinning, and Derek knows it’s definitely the absolute wrong time for this, but he wants. He wants to grin at Stiles over dinner every day for the rest of his life, baffled over yams and Moon Pie Day, and, god, crap, goddamn, when the fuck did he have time to fall in love?

Or

The life and times of Deputy Stiles and Supernatural Foster Dad Derek Hale

Lord knows it would be the first time by uraneia [12k, E]

Stiles is home from Berkeley for the summer, but only because he promised the pack. He’d rather not see Derek, because whatever the thing was that they were doing, they’re not doing it anymore, and it sucks.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a choice. The betas tried a magical remedy for Derek’s melancholy, and now Stiles has a three-year-old who looks like Derek. Stiles doesn’t know how to deal with that, and he definitely doesn’t know how to tell the betas he and Derek were secret fuck buddies for a year and a half.

You Smell Like Mine by bleep0bleep [13k, E]

People talk about the alpha instinct, an alpha’s head being swayed by a nice-smelling omega, or the desire to drop everything and show off. Derek’s never felt any of that. He’s just not that kind of alpha.

Then he meets Stiles.

The Prince and His Painter by Dexterous_Sinistrous [8k, G]

Stiles was always a sick child. He was never supposed to live beyond his infancy—shocking many when he reaches adulthood. With his inevitable death looming over his country, Stiles chooses to accept a successor through marriage. His advisors commission a painter to capture the prince’s likeness in order to advertise him to potential candidates. Only, Derek Hale isn’t like most painters—or humans, for that matter.

Certain Kind of Fool by saraubs [36k, M]

Derek, who has been dragged against his will to the same resort his family visits every summer, is determined to spend the next two and a half months sequestered in his room. His only friend, his sister Laura, is preoccupied with her newly-bonded mate, and doesn’t seem to care about anything but making him happy.

When Derek meets Stiles Stilinski, a sharp-tongued waiter, he thinks that this summer might not be a complete waste of time. There are only two problems: First, Stiles is human. Second, he doesn’t believe in mates.

Painful Maneuvers by saraubs [11k, T]

Still, whether or not the nurses want to hear it, Derek has some serious issues with the way Stiles skates around the ward, upending instruments and scattering papers and chewing on pens. His scrubs never fit right and are always riding up to show patches of smooth, pale skin and his hair is frankly pornographic. It’s just so…unprofessional.

Stiles is a hyperactive Obstetrician. Derek is a grumpy Midwife. It’s true love (and babies!).

little spoon by bibliosexual [6k, T]

To save money while attending college in NYC, Stiles and Derek decide to rent one tiny apartment together. With one bed.

you know you’re on my mind by bibliosexual [16k, T]

If there’s one thing Derek’s learned in life, it’s that crushing on someone who lives on an entire other fucking continent is probably a bad idea.

Put Down in Words by paintedrecs [203k, M]

“Oh,” Stiles said, his voice coming out low and breathy, “fuck me.”

“I don’t think that’s on the syllabus, but we can check to see if there’s a spot open in any of his classes,” Scott said, grinning.

“This isn’t an actual professor, though,” Stiles insisted, unable to resist brushing his thumb over the sharp line of the man’s bearded jaw. He was laughing at something off-camera, the shot taken in three-quarters view, his coat collar casually rumpled and opened to reveal a sliver of a simple grey t-shirt. The whole thing was deliberately calculated to lend him a more accessible feel, and god help him, Stiles was falling for it.

*

When Stiles signed up for Dr. Hale’s intro to history class, he had two goals: knock out the credits his advisor was bugging him to complete before he graduated, and spend a few hours a week daydreaming about his sexy professor’s salt and pepper beard.

Derek, a few months away from turning forty and not sure when his life had started feeling so damn lonely, had never encountered someone like Stiles before. Bright-eyed, sharp-tongued, determined to throw Derek’s carefully cultivated world into disarray…and absolutely the last person Derek should be falling in love with.

Somewhere Else, Someone Else by megxmas [19k, T]

They’re sitting in the car, and Stiles’ dad is poring over the scans, gesturing violently at the air. ‘I just don’t understand!’ he says. ‘There’s never been anything out of the ordinary on any of your tests, and yet you always have seizures! How come nothing ever comes up?’

Stiles shrugs, has heard his dad complain about this a dozen times before. Stiles is pretty sure that he and Derek are some kind of magical soulmates and this is the way the world has decided to connect them, but somehow, he doesn’t think that’ll fly as an explanation.

Cupboard Love by mklutz [32k, G]

He’s carefully balancing the sandwiches and the two biggest tupperware containers he could find that both had functioning lids when the front door opens and he almost drops everything right there in front of the stupid fountain.

If that’s Derek Hale, he’s definitely not a mountain man.

The Epic Love Story of Wolf and Twister by KeriArentikai [11k, E]

Stiles has a tiny adorable hyper puppy. Derek has an awesome huge Malamute mix. They both go to the dog park a lot.

So, obviously, Sterek ensues.

One life stand by Vendelin [84k, E]

Stiles is used to selling himself to make ends meet. But it’s getting harder to keep those ends meeting, and there’s only so much of Stiles to go around. Until a too-fancy car shows up in his neighborhood, and he meets Derek Hale.

All Derek wants is Stiles’s time, someone to stay on his arm for events and smile for the cameras. It’s the easiest job Stiles has ever had, the best-paying one he’s ever had, and he’s more than happy to sign up.

Derek is everything and nothing Stiles expects him to be, with his tailored suits, sharp mind and his quiet way of caring. But it’s just a job and Stiles never meant to fall in love.

only fools rush in by decideophobia [13k, T]

Is it an imaginary date?

No. I met him in a coffee shop.

When?

This morning. It was love on first sight.

Millstone by eleanor_lavish [31k, E]

Derek waits until the door is shut behind him before he turns around. He holds out his hand, plants his ‘if you’re not weird about it, I won’t be’ smile on his face and says, “Nice to meet you, Stiles. I’m Michael. What kind of a good time are you looking for tonight?”

In Other Words, Baby, Kiss Me by primroseshows [61k, E]

Stiles has simple goals in life. To successfully complete his secret radar project without getting fired, to get a cottage on the Moon, and to untangle his mess of feelings for Moon Station 3 deputy, Derek Hale. Heck, he’ll even settle for two of the three.

i have always been the storm by stilinskisparkles [25k, E]

“You’re all headed out to Oklahoma in a week.”

Derek snaps his head up, stares at him in horror, “No, boss.”

“Yes,” Finstock insists in a steely voice. “The NSSL have been on at us for a year about some decent exposure, and I think you’re just the team to do it.”

“I haven’t done weather since college,” Derek protests.

Boyd snorts again, presumably because he’s thinking back to the time when Derek and the weather last collided and he…. well, did the guy into the weather for a brief, wonderful, terribly foolish time. But, Boyd needs to shut up before Derek punches him on the nose.

Abominable by Revenant [20k, T]

Where Derek buys a secluded cabin halfway up a mountain, meets a yeti and falls in love with Stiles, but not necessarily in that order.

The Cintron Hall Situation by dragon_temeraire [3k, T]

Stiles is freezing and miserable in his dorm, so he decides to knock on his hot neighbor Derek’s door for help.

nothing ever promised tomorrow today by preromantics [11k, T]

Grocery shopping, waking up, lasagna, and parallel universes. / When Stiles jumps the last two stairs and turns into the kitchen he’s got his mouth halfway open around “Morning, Mom,” before his dad folds down his paper at the kitchen table to look at him.

In a Straight Line Down by standinginanicedress [40k, T]

“So you want to go to Prom with me just so you can get a plastic crown and a fifty dollar gift card to Outback Steakhouse.”

Stiles sets his jaw. He wants to go to prom with Derek because he wants to go to prom with Derek. But, of course, he’s stubborn and prideful and can’t admit to Derek how it’s barely been twelve hours since they officially broke up and he’s already barely handling it as it is, so he just raises his chin in the air and says, “yes.”

Our Puddle is Deceptively Deep by calrissian18 [10k, E]

They start out in a literal tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

In This World or the Next by Lissadiane [20k, T]

Derek wakes up to the smell of frying bacon and brewing coffee on an ordinary morning in his ordinary life, but he can’t help but shake the feeling that he’s forgotten something important. It probably has to do with the three wishes he’d been granted by the fae after saving the life of their fairy prince, and possibly also the sheriff’s missing son.

In which Derek Hale learns that sometimes being given what we want more than anything else has disastrous consequences.

The Socioeconomic Repercussions of Mutually Assured Destruction by alocalband [15k, E]

"The trouble with having the kind of brain that likes to write essays on male circumcision for an Economics class, is that it also likes to turn PowerPoint presentations for Biology into odes on the perfection of notorious bad boy Derek Hale’s backside.”

Five Times Derek and Stiles Kissed For Practice (And One Time They Didn’t) by mikkimouse [5k, T]

In which Derek and Stiles grow up together and practice kissing, roughly in that order.

Little Promises by crossroadswrite [2k, G]

Derek doesn’t really know what happened. He just knows there was a lady and she was pretty but she was also really mean and she was trying to hurt his friends.

“Holy fuck,” Erica mutters and is harshly shushed by Isaac.

“Don’t swear in front of the kid.”

“It’s not a kid,” Erica counters. “It’s just-“

“Derek?”

King of the Road by Stoney [30k, E]

Derek sees the guy–all long lines, furtive glances, hungry–leaning against the diner out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, Derek’s hungry, too.

tide pulls from the moon by paintedrecs [45k, M]

hen Derek left Beacon Hills, finally ripping the tether free and remembering how to breathe, how to live again, it was Stiles who came after him. Stiles, who showed up at his door with blazing eyes, looking like he wanted to punch him in the face, but wrapping his arms around him instead, making him grunt in surprise at the raw strength of his embrace.

“You asshole,” Stiles said, slapping him heartily on the back as he extricated himself, his voice rough under his bright smile. “You couldn’t have made yourself harder to find, could you?”

The Summer of Snow Cones and Not-Dates by clarkoholic, skywardsmiles [38k, M]

Summer is really boring. Like, mind-numbingly boring. Except for the part where Stiles can’t figure out if Derek’s his boyfriend, or why every werewolf in town keeps approaching him in the bathroom.

Teenage Dream by matildajones [58k, M]

“I’m married. I’m married to Derek Hale,” Stiles says. Everything seems to hit him at once. He pushes aside the fact there’s a celebrity sitting right next to him, and then thinks of why the fuck he can’t remember him, why he doesn’t know who he’s married to, and how much time he must have lost.–After an accident, Stiles wakes up to what can only be a dream. He has money, he has fame, he has award winning actor Derek Hale as his husband. It quickly seems more and more like a nightmare because Stiles doesn’t remember getting any of it - and it’s hard to accept the reality that Derek can still love him.

You look like my next mistake by Vendelin [15k, T]

“So, are you dating someone new? Someone who doesn’t mind that you’re frigid?” Kate cocks her head to the side, smiling as though she just asked him about where he bought his shoes.

His entire body sighs in defeat as his shoulders grow square. Just as he opens his mouth, someone comes up to stand beside him, snaking an arm around his shoulders. When he glances to his side, expecting to see Isaac, his brain seems to malfunction. Because it isn’t Isaac. It’s Stiles Stilinski, the lacrosse talent of the year, a senior who Derek has seen multiple times from far away, but never ever talked to.

In which Derek is a nerd jock, and Stiles is a frat guy, and Derek falls for him even though he knows he shouldn’t.

A Problematic Loyalty by alocalband [4k, T]

The problem isn’t that Stiles is stubborn. The problem is that people keep hitting on him.

Not Quite Lost (Not Quite Found) by alocalband [25k, E]

A year after the nogitsune is defeated, Derek is living a quiet life in the mountains above a small town in Colorado.

Then Stiles shows up.

‘Till You Make It by standinginanicedress [46k, M]

“I’m saying – let’s fake it.”

Derek blinks at him. Hard. Stiles never knew that someone could physically make a blink look hard, but there Derek goes, slamming his lids together like he’s fucking exercising them. “Fake it.”

“Pretend, dumbass,” he backhands Derek lightly on his upper arm. “Pretend like we’re doing as well as our parents want us to and then they’ll be off our backs, right?”

“We don’t have to pretend anything, Stiles,” Derek says evenly, in a tone that suggests he’d much rather be yelling. “We’re literally soulmates.”

“That’s the beauty of it! It’s going to be so fucking easy. I can’t believe we never thought of this before,” he runs his hands through his hair and shakes his head in amazement, grinning from ear to ear. “Holy shit. I can’t believe I just solved all our problems for us, man.”

Kindred Spirits by Stoney [104k, E]

Stiles is the adopted son of the Sheriff, brought to Beacon Hills to hopefully stay for good. A family, a best friend, school, Jackson as Josie Pye (because who else could he be?) and the mystery of a dark haired, green-eyed boy which leads Stiles to discovering a secret within himself.

we’re catching bullets in our teeth (it’s hard to do but they’re so sweet) by prettyasadiagram [12k, M]

Stiles says he’s a Web Developer. Derek says he an Internal Auditor.

They’re both liars, but you can’t exactly tell your significant other that you kill people for a living, now can you?

Insane Chemistry (with Derek Hale) by theroguesgambit [13k, M]

Derek is the popular, varsity jock, prom king of the school, and Stiles is not going to be the cliche that ends up falling for him. (It’s not a cliche if no one else knows about it, right?)

Strut on a Line, its Discord and Rhyme by xiaq [61k, T]

“Carry me,” Stiles says.

“No.”

“But I’m injured.”

“You have a rash,” Derek says. “On your arm. Your feet work just fine.”

“Please?”

“No. You weigh almost as much as I do. And you ate a pound of chicken at lunch.”

"Well, yeah, but I pooped like an hour ago, so.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Don’t play, you love me.”

I do, Derek thinks, relatively horrified. I really do.

But Then What… by Stoney [24k, E]

Senior year is almost over, and all Stiles needs to do is keep his head down to survive. A teacher calls in a favor, leaving him stuck tutoring Derek Hale, one of the most popular jocks in school and a member of a group of douchecanoes who have bullied Stiles for years. He’s someone Stiles totally hates. Totally. Like, doesn’t like him even a little bit. DEFINITELY isn’t attracted to him.

Except that is a total lie. Fuck his life, seriously.

The Great Pretender by talktowater [45k, E]

Stiles is the new kid at Beacon Hills High, class of 1958 and he’s trying to make an impression. Derek can’t figure out why this kid is so set on making such a bad one.

Here’s to the Static by matildajones [80k, T]

Stiles spends most of his college break in a coffee house where he stares after Derek Hale. For some reason, Stiles is unaware of the fact he’s quite the musician, and Derek amuses himself at Stiles’ obliviousness.

Cross a Canyon (with a broken limb) by theroguesgambit [18k, T

“You never graduated,” Stiles says, just to say it. To test it out in the open air. That’s… huh.

–

Stiles spends his senior year battling troll-gremlins, taking on an unexpected tutoring job, and definitely not falling for a certain sourwolf (even though everyone else seems to think he is).

The Rest Is Unwritten by mikkimouse [6k, T]

Once upon a time, the werewolf king and queen invited five fairies to the christening of their only son. The fairies bestowed the boy with gifts—beauty, grace, wit, and the most adorable teeth in all the land.

But before the fifth fairy could give her gift, a wicked fairy from the other Court arrived and cast a terrible curse on the baby prince. He would have a life full of tragedies, she declared, and die young, of a broken heart.

The king and queen were beside themselves with grief. It was very old, powerful magic, so there was little they could do to break it. However, the fifth fairy had yet to give her gift. The curse could not be broken, she told them, but it could be altered.

She bestowed upon the prince the gift of perseverance, so that he would never lose his will to live, even in the face of countless tragedies. And when he found the one who would stand by his side and face those tragedies with him without fail, that is when the curse would be broken. Because the fairy knew there was nothing in all the world more powerful than true love. Not even a wicked fairy’s curse.

Laying Groundwork by LunaCanisLupus_22 [10k, E]

His expression isn’t much to go by but the entire clubs howling gets louder at his appearance and Stiles literally pops a boner watching the guy’s big hands wrestle with the microphone stand.

Or the one where Scott and Stiles go clubbing and there’s this broody Bouncer out to get Stiles-

Or get into his pants. Thank God it’s the latter.

By a Law Divine by mirrorkill [23k, M]

Okay, so, kissing Stiles. That’s a weird thing that Derek’s doing now. He has no idea where it’s even coming from, especially considering bickering and fighting is their usual state of existence.And then he does find out where it’s coming from: A curse that’s making everyone in town kiss someone they have mutual feelings for. …yeah, Derek’s not even sure why he’s surprised by that.

Friends of Early Theory by Nanoochka [23k, E]

In which Derek is a gruff, struggling executive for his family’s sprawling, wealthy company in New York, and Stiles is his quirky, offbeat intern who brings him cold coffee each morning and wears stupid T-shirts to work and generally succeeds at being a thousand times more charming than Derek could ever hope to be. To the outside observer, their relationship is combative but fond, although in private Stiles and Derek have a great deal more secrets, anger, and painful history between them than Derek is prepared to acknowledge or reveal. In retrospect, that might be half of the problem.

The Way to My Heart (French Insults) by KuriKuri [10k, T]

Letting out a long sigh, Derek turns away and braces himself for the next hellish filming segment. After all, apparently he’s going to have to smile while greeting twenty-five contestants. Shit, what if they try to hug him? Or, god forbid, kiss –

He doesn’t get any further with that thought, because a limo pulls into the driveway. He braces himself for the worst. The worst, who… actually doesn’t look that horrifying.

“I’ve been dying to meet you!” she exclaims as she catches sight of him.

Then, she flings herself at him and ensnares him in a bone-crushing hug.

Scratch that – she’s completely horrifying. And Derek’s pretty sure he can hear errand boy what’s-his-face laughing in the distance.

(Or: In which Derek gets roped into being the 'eligible bachelor’ on a dating show and instead falls for one of the show’s interns.)

How I Met My Werebunny by Moku [19k, T]

“This is going to end in tears,” Scott told Derek while he watched the man easily lifting Stiles’ desk up with one hand and driving nails into the ceiling with the thumb of the other. “Probably mine.”

Or:

When a Stiles and a Failwolf love each other very much, they’ll engage in a prank war. Basically, it’s a mating ritual for dorks in love.

Wild Tonic by officerstilinskihale [11k, M]

Stiles nodded and smiled again, his teeth flashing brightly and he signed something again, before looking frustrated with himself.

“You’re welcome,” Derek told him, feeling a wave of relief when Stiles’ face brightened. That would’ve been awkward if Stiles hadn’t been trying to say thank you.

“I had a really good time, so yeah. I’m glad you came with me,” he said, feeling his face grow hot. Derek wasn’t usually like this. He wasn’t confident. Sure, he had the looks and he could flirt shamelessly when he got hit on, but he always got shy around the people he genuinely liked, not that there was too many of those.

But Stiles didn’t let him dwell on that. He gripped Derek’s arm, grinned cheekily and pointed at himself before lifting two fingers. It took a while for Derek to get it but when he did, he couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across his face.

Me too.

Practice Makes Perfect by blacktofade [21k, E]

In his sophomore year, Stiles gets dragged to lacrosse tryouts by Scott and ends up practising alongside the senior captain, Derek Hale. Stiles just wants to live long enough to become a junior.

Feline Persuasion by rensahannou (asmalltigercat) [15k, T]

Derek doesn’t need to worry about the cat living under the porch at his family’s old house, it’s just—Derek’s just used to worrying about things.

Hot Single Dad Derek Hale by WhoNatural [13k, E]

Wherein Derek is a Hot Single Dad, possibly with a little case of martyrdom, and Stiles is the newest client at his publishing house who really just wants to make him happy. Preferably while they’re both naked.

He doesn’t get to talk to Stiles a whole lot - and it’s fine, it’s professional and polite, but there is a little something that lights up in him when he thinks about him, sees him. Derek’s life has been mostly about preschool and Big Hero 6 and extra-curricular activities for so long now that it’s a shock to the system when he finds himself pre-occupied with something so… adult.And there are many, many adult things on his mind where Stiles is concerned.

I Call You Names Because I Love You by Rawren (Zimothy) [13k, M]

Years of touring with Stiles would never have prepared Derek for the day his beloved techie fell in love with someone else.

Maybe Someday (I’ll Be Home For Next Year) by ofherlionheart [16k, T]

AKA, the Grandma Stilinski fic. Derek Hale meets a Mabel Stilinski while living in New York. He learns that she has a grandson. There are miscommunications, scarves, stealth-matchmaking plans, and cookies. Many, many cookies.

my wings a hurricane by kellifer_fic [20k, T]

Stiles had been like any other kid growing up in the era of dragons. He’d watched the cartoons, the news stories, had the lunch box. When his screening at Beacon Hills High had come up negative, he’d been disappointed but unsurprised. His positive results were returned three years too late for it to be in any way convenient or cool.Or, the one where they ride dragons.

Thrill (like white-hot wire) by raisesomehale [4k, M]

Stiles made the decision that Derek was his new best friend (and that he’ll one day marry him) the day he shared his dinosaur chicken nuggets with him.

The Newlywed Game by Captain_Loki [19k, M]

Stiles is (still) single when the pack’s getaway to the Caribbean comes by (oh misplaced optimism); lucky for him Derek is committed to being uncommitted and even after all these years is still powerless against Stiles’ unique forms of persuasion.

Cue a romantic getaway for two: sun, sand, and sarcasm abound…and the two roped into competing in the Resort’s version of the Newlywed game. Only it’s completely obvious it’s going to end in disaster. Probably homicide.

Most probably homicide.

Plot twist: It doesn’t.

[Sleep]Walking After You by relenafanel [59k, M]

Derek is a sleepwalker who keeps wandering into his downstairs neighbour’s bedroom.

Stiles is pretty sure the hot guy from the park is going to kill him in his sleep. He knows he shouldn’t have been so obvious about objectifying the guy’s really fine ass.

Too bad it turns out Derek is easier to get along with when he’s sleeping.

[thevisafly]

               V2F Itineraries | New York | Things To Do | 7 Days

New York is a destination to which many Indian tourists love to travel to. And why not? When this city of the United States has so much to do in such close proximity, what’s not to like? In this article, we’ll take you through 7 days in NYC – a comprehensive guide of the coolest things to do here! Please note that you do need a passport and USA visa to travel here, so if you wish to obtain a USA visa online (or as online as possible), contact Visa2Fly today!

Day 1

Land in the Kennedy International Airport – the infamous JFK! We hope your flight was pleasant, and you didn’t have any hassles with your USA visa (unlikely if you got one from us!).

Visit The Museum of Modern Art (or MoMA, as it is usually called) first, a landmark that is home to works of contemporary and avante-garde paintings, film, multimedia and sculpture that have paved the way for the new generation of art. After you’re done marvelling at the artwork on display here – which might take a while, there’s so much to see – head on to your next destination: Times Square. Check out Times Square in the evening, with its neon-screened buildings and iconic crossways. A good end to the first day, without too much running around or activity after a tiring flight!

Day 2

Start the day renting a bike in Central Park Zoo, where you can visit a myriad animal species in their 6.5 acre space. If you rent a bike, you can take a nice tour around the zoo and park whilst working up a good sweat as well. New York (and American) food portion sizes are said to be generous, so a small workout wouldn’t hurt! The Metropolitan Museum of Art is next on the list, a towering building that is the world’s largest (and arguably finest) collection of artwork to date. It is also famous for the Met Gala, an annual themed fundraising gala attended by big names across industries. We come back to Central Park in the evening: and there’s quite a few photo-worthy spots here. Visit the Belvedere Castle, from where you can walk up and see a panoramic view of the surrounding park. You can also walk towards the Alice in Wonderland statue next, a cute sculpture of Lewis Carroll’s characters.

Day 3

Spend the morning at Morgan Library and Museum. If you think this is just a regular museum, think again: it is home to some of the most priceless objects in American history, including 1 of the 23 original copies of the Declaration of Independence, Mozart’s (handwritten!) score of the Haffner Symphony, Charles Dickens’ manuscript of The Christmas Carol and Phillis Wheatley’s collected works. To name a few. This might take up a good chunk of your morning, so keep the afternoon free to check out all the cool landmarks in the vicinity. Madame Tussauds, The Empire State Building, Grand Central Terminal, Rockefeller Centre, Radio City Music Hall and the Chrysler Building are all a stone’s throw away from each other. Make sure to visit these interesting sites in the day, so that the streets are less crowded! You can even catch a small bite or a filling lunch at the Grand Central Terminal, said to be “a window into old New York”.

To end the day on a good note, a sunset is always best. A former New York Central Railroad was repurposed and opened up to the public as an elevated park, greenway and rail trail around 2009. It’s called the High Line, has free access and a great view of the sunset along the 2.3 km walk!

Day 4

Have an early morning jog at Washington Square Park, a great place to work up a sweat and tour the park’s historical connection to America at the same time. Visit the impressive arch and listen to some local live jazz music in the place where the first public demonstration of the telegraph was undertaken. In the afternoon, Dover Street Market is where you can go. It is a place to look around and marvel at the showcases of the highest-of-high end fashion brands and avant-garde styles. Many love to pass by these streets because of the feel – you can try it out as well! After that, you can choose to get lost in fictional worlds at the legendary Strand Bookstore, home to 2.5 million books. It is also a New York City landmark (because of its 92 years of business). At the end of the day, a good history lesson is sure to make you sleep well 😉 Whitney Museum of American Art is the place to go for an authentic local artistic experience (especially of the 20th and 21st century). It is also extremely close to the Classic Harbor Line, so the offer stands to end the day with a Classic Harbor Line sunset cruise – the name speaks for itself!

Day 5

Travel across the famous Brooklyn Bridge to the next part of New York on the list today: Brooklyn. Although you are crossing a body of water, you do not need a separate US visa since you are still in New York and the USA. Our first stops are the hipster areas of Williamsburg and GreenPoint. Greenpoint is hip to the point of having a laundromat that doubles as a bar (psst: it’s called Sunshine Laundromat. You’re welcome!). And Williamsburg is its older brother – the home of hipster culture in New York City. If you’re feeling particularly indie, you could even travel along to Bruswick and marvel at the edgy, creative street art that lines the walls of the streets.

Spend the afternoon mesmerised by performances at the BAM Opera Houses and Theaters, opened in 1904. The arena has seen visiting acts from the Royal Shakespeare Company and Ibsen and Wilde, to name a few big industry players. After your performance, take the late afternoon and early evening on Governor’s Island – a small island off the coast of Brooklyn that is home to many pop-up music festivals, diners, dance performances and art exhibits. When you’ve let your hair down long enough here, take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty – whether you know of other monuments in New York, you’ll definitely have heard of this one!

Day 6

Today, we move towards the Bronx. The first stop is, of course, Bronx Zoo, which is one of the most famous places to visit here. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area – containing 265 acres of land dedicated to conservation. In the afternoon, make your way to the New York Botanical Garden, a 250-acre campus with over a million types of plants. Its perimeters include activities for all ages – from kids’ play areas to relaxing getaways. Lastly, the evening sees us at Broadway – known as the home of musicals and commercial American theatre, the most obvious thing to do here is to watch a rendition of your favourite musical. Animals, plants and culture all packed into one day in the Bronx. Broadway may captivate you into staying until late at night (with how cool Broadway is), so make sure to catch a yellow cab or private transport and make your way back to the hotel.

Day 7

The great thing about New York is that almost everything is either a stone’s throw or a ferry away. Staten Island is our last (but not least!) stop in New York. We can reach here through the beautiful Staten Island Ferry, which is free of cost and also the main source of commute for many working people in this city. For lunch, check out Marie’s 2 for some scrumptious deep dish pizza, and go in search of some good New-York-style cheesecake for dessert! Check out the Snug Harbor Cultural Centre in the evening, with a 19th Century sailor’s home full of events. If you’d like, end the evening at the Staten Island Children’s Museum’s interactive exhibitions for your kids.

Day 8 is for travelling back. Whether you’re exiting NYC and coming back home, or making a few more stops in America before you leave, we’re sure that you had a golden time here. A conglomeration of new and old, classy and edgy, timeless and in-the-moment… New York truly is a vibrant mix of a city and its surroundings has something for everyone.

If you’re interested in applying for a US visa from India, Visa2Fly offers complete handholding support for your document preparation along with doorstep pick-up and delivery of documents. Our expert team guides you to ensure you have the maximum chances of US visa acceptance in the first attempt. We help you pick dates for your USA visa interview, come home so you won’t have to travel to apply, and also process things very professionally at the back-end. Check out our other blogs on solo travel and language learning platforms as well, so that you can further secure your chances of having an amazing trip.

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[rustbeltjessie]

I rarely post personal updates on this blog anymore, or bits of writing that aren’t officially published anywhere. I try to save that kind of stuff for my website, and my TinyLetter, and my Patreon... I’m still writing. I’ve been working on issue 25 of Reckless Chants (the release date has been pushed back, but it is still being worked on), and on poetry and a few other things. But these days, I don’t have energy for much more than that, and sometimes not even for that. I’m going to be giving birth sometime in the next week or so, and I’m trying to make last-minute preparations. Not to mention, being this pregnant is physically exhausting, in and of itself.

I was getting down on myself last week, because I haven’t done as much writing and art-wise this year as I’d initially planned on doing. I only completed one issue of Reckless Chants, I haven’t answered many calls for submissions or entered many contests, etc. But when I think about what I have done, I realize there’s quite a lot of it: I produced an issue of Reckless Chants, I self-published a split chapbook with Misha and a short chapbook of my own love poems and a comp zine of Racine and Kenosha poets, I published an e-chapbook with Hello America, I participated in quite a few poetry events, I had pieces in two art shows; the poems and essays I did place in various publications are ones I am very, very proud of, and I wrote a ton of other stuff--just because it hasn’t been published yet doesn’t mean the work isn’t valid. This pregnancy has forced me to slow down a little bit but that’s okay.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: the capitalist mindset of productivity has been so engrained in me that even though I reject it in theory, rejecting it in practice is a lot harder. If I’m not constantly making (i.e., producing) something or sending what I’ve produced out into the world, I feel like a failure. If I don’t do all of the things, I feel useless. But all that happens when I overextend myself in any regard is that I burn out. And so being forced to slow down is maybe not just okay but actually good for me. I have started allowing myself to create (whether that be writing, art, or anything else) just for the sake of it, without needing to put it out into the world right away. And I have allowed myself to just...live. I haven’t written or published as much this year, but I have spent time in bookstores and cafes and museums, and outside, and with my kidlet, and I have read so many books, and maybe this year was more about filling myself up with inspiration again so that in the new year I will have more from which to draw and use in my own writing.

It has been, overall, a pretty good year, despite the world being on fire. Of course there have been stresses and sorrows, but when aren’t there stresses and sorrows? That’s life. (That’s what all the people say). I don’t want to go into detail about any of my troubles right now. I save that kind of talk for my semi-secret blog (I’m sure the people who follow it feel incredibly blessed, haha), and anyway, as I said--despite the hardships, it has been a pretty good year for me.

Another thing I’ve begun doing is making lists of things I’m grateful for/things that make me happy, no matter how small. Not because I think one has to be relentlessly posi all the time, just because--I don’t want to take anything for granted.

Some things I’ve been grateful for recently include:

Fresh blueberries on French toast

Creative time spent with Little D; he likes to sit in my office/studio and work on art and craft things while I write

Listening to jazz while clacking away on my typewriter

Treating myself to greasy hashbrowns from the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru

Snow (it has since all melted, but there’s a chance we’ll get more in the next few days)

The fact that the last three chapbooks I’ve read have been by poets from working-class, second-tier* towns: Milwaukee, Columbus, and Erie. (*I don’t think of these towns as second-tier, but in the arts & culture world, they’re often considered such.) It proves that great poetry comes from everywhere, not just NYC, California, and Chicago.

The mini-zine I made, the fact that it got me excited about zines again

Making gingerbread while listening to Booker T. & The MGs’ In the Christmas Spirit

Dying my hair while listening to the World/Inferno Friendship Society’s Addicted to Bad Ideas (also: the fact that I can listen to that album again without falling into a spiral of nostalgia followed by sadness)

Exfoliating lip scrub--I’m not kidding, I get the worst chapped, dry lips at this time of year and exfoliating lip scrub helps so much more than just chapstick alone

A few other things before I close out this post:

I’m no longer the Poet Laureate of Racine. That sounds dramatic, like I was fired, but no, it’s only that my term came to an end and I had to pass my laurel wreath on to another poet. I had a hard time with it for a couple weeks. I was feeling bad about some other stuff and feeling like, without the title and the role, I’m now a nobody again. But I got over it, realized a couple things: 1. Just because I no longer have the title doesn’t mean I lose any of the connections I’ve made or community I’ve been part of over the past two years. 2. Maybe I am a nobody but that’s okay. (I AM AN OLD NOBODY AND I LOVE WHAT I DO.) Also, the poet who is my successor is very, very worthy of the title, and I am excited to see what they will do over the next two years.

I’ve decided what my favorite Christmas movie is. Most people choose from the list of classics, and I’ve known a few people who are a bit more unorthodox and say Die Hard is their favorite Christmas movie, but I’ve decided mine is RENT.

You should read “Cat Person,” the short story that’s broken the internet, if you haven’t already. Whatever your feelings on the story itself, it’s amazing (and kind of heartening) that a short story has gone viral and caused so much uproar. Also, it has led to a lot of important discussions. One of the main discussions it has brought up is that of the ways in which we tend to view fiction that seems confessional as personal essay or thinly-veiled memoir, and devalue it--especially if it’s written by women. There have been many times in my life when people (mostly men) have read my fiction, or the stories I’ve written where I don’t state whether they’re fiction or memoir, and tried to parse which parts of the stories were ‘true’ (meaning: had happened to me, personally), and which parts were made up. Another “Cat Person”-related thing you might enjoy hate-reading is this random dude’s letter to the main character; which you should then promptly follow up by reading the response to his response. All I could think when reading that dude’s letter was that he’d likely feel the same way about a lot of the girl characters in my fiction, and he’d really not like my personal essays/memoirs about my actual real-life days of drinking too much and hooking up with questionable people.

The next time I make a big update like this will most likely be in the new year. Sometime in the next eight days or so I’ll be giving birth--I’m a little nervous, but mostly I’m just ready to get this baby out, and I’m hoping that it happens sometime in the next couple of days. And my birthday is New Year’s Eve. So, the next time you hear from me I’ll be 36 and have a newborn babe. And then I’ll tell you about my plans for 2018, of which there are many (as I quote every year around this time: got new dreams and I’m gonna make ‘em real).

I hope you’re all having lovely winter holidays, if you celebrate any of them. Tomorrow is the solstice, and then the days start getting longer again; the light begins its slow return.

xoxo

[svetlanawagner-blog]

As I entered the bright white building, I heard the quiet whirring of small machines. I weaved through the museum doing my best to interpret and experience the art but couldn’t shake a feeling of familiarity. Then it hit me, I’ve seen this same artist before in NYC! Who would have guessed we would find a slice of the big apple in the small town of Marfa.

A big thank you to Travel Texas for hosting our trip. All opinions are always our own. This post may contain affiliate links, where we receive a small commission on sales of the products that are linked at no additional cost to you. Read our full disclosure for more info. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Local Adventurer possible.

Last Updated: July 8, 2019

25 Coolest Things to Do in Marfa TX

We ended our West Texas Road Trip in Marfa. Before visiting, we knew very little of the area other than hearing about the artsy community and seeing Prada Marfa and El Cosmico on instagram.

Marfa truly surprised us and felt like an anomoly. It’s quaint and charming and has small town vibes, but it’s also is completely different from any small town we’ve previously seen.

We found it hard to describe, and it almost felt like the twilight zone. We expected to find eclectic desert art and instead found an art scene as sophisticated as NYC. Sometimes it felt like a small town in West Texas, and other times it felt like a neighborhood in Brooklyn.

If you’re planning a trip out to Marfa, we’ve put together a guide to help you plan your trip.

Content Menu

Title of Subsection

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What You Need to Know Before You Visit Marfa

Like a lot of the small towns in West Texas, hours are limited. Visit between Thursday to Sunday for the best experience, but even then there’s no guarantee that all businesses will be open.

Be flexible with your schedule. Even with posted hours, some stores and restaurants may close. Some even run out of food and close once the food is out. They’ve adopted a siesta mentality and close whenever they feel like it.

The closest major airport is in El Paso (about 3 hours away). Take advantage of your location and see other surrounding sites in West Texas. Here is our road trip guide.

Renting a car is the best way to get around town. When we talked to locals and asked about Uber, they said there are only 1-2 drivers locally.

Talk to locals to find out what else is going on around town. We heard about a free concert from a bartender which was the perfect way to end the night.

Cell phone coverage can be spotty. We have T-mobile and it worked in most cases but as soon as we were out of the main area, we lost signal.

If you plan on visiting during a holiday weekend, book early. This has become a popular destination.

Marfa is in a desert climate. it gets hot during the day but chilly at night. Have layers ready. During the winter, it can snow and gets dangerous to drive.

1. Marfa Mystery Lights

US-90, Marfa, TX 79843, map

The Marfa Lights have mystified people for generations. The glowing orbs appear in the desert outside Marfa and have been described as white, blue, yellow, and red. The first mention of the lights comes from Robert Reed Ellison in 1883 and you can see them from an official viewing platform, although you can’t predict when they will appear.

2. Ballroom Marfa

108 E San Antonio St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

Ballroom Marfa is one of the iconic contemporary art spaces in Marfa. They curate art from well-known and emerging artists from all over the world. During our visit, we saw an artist that was also on display at MOMA PS1 while we lived in NYC. They also host music acts in their space. Visit their site for their upcoming schedule.

Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 10am-3pm

More: 25 Fun Things to do Indoors in NYC

3. Judd Foundation

104 S Highland Ave, Marfa, TX 79843, map

Donald Judd is attributed with bringing the NYC art scene to Marfa, Texas. The foundation maintains and preserves Judd’s pieces, workspaces, libraries, and archives. You can take a guided to tour to visit different properties in Marfa.

4. Chinati Foundation

1 Cavalry Row,Marfa,TX,79843, Marfa, TX 79843, map

The Chinati Foundation is a contemporary art museum founded by Donald Judd. They specialize in large-scale installations spread over the 340 acres of land where Fort D.A. Russell used to be. Public tours are a great way to get more insight into the pieces or you can explore on your own.

Hours: Wednesday to Sunday 9am-5pm

5. Ayn Foundation

107 – 109 Highland St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

The Ayn Foundation focuses on large-scale products by major international artists. It currently includes Andy Warhol’s The Last Supper and Maria Zerres’ September Eleven.

6. Marfa Book Company

105 S Highland Ave, Marfa, TX 79843, map

MBCo has been around for almost twenty years and functions as a bookstore, publisher, and performance space. Stop by to check out their unique selection of books or visit during their talks, readings, or performances.

7. Freda

207 S Highland Ave, Marfa, TX 79843, map

This shop is a local favorite where you’ll find jewelry, found objects, vintage clothing and more. A record playing in the corner sets the mood while you shop.

8. Cobra Rock Boot Company

107 S Dean St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

If you love handcrafted artisan products, then you need to see the boots made by Cobra Rock. As you walk in, you are immediately greeted by the smell of leather. You can browse through items by other small independent designers, see the machines they use to make the boots, or order your very own.

9. Moonlight Gemstones

1001 W San Antonio St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

If you’re looking to pick up a gift our souvenier, check out Moonlight Gemstone. They specialize in West Texas Agates but carry a wide variety of choices.  They also do custom gemstone cutting. and create custom silver jewelry.

10. Wrong Store

110 W Dallas St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

Awarded the Most Beautiful Independent Store in Texas by Architectural Digest, this shop is an eclectic collection of local items, carved wooden pieces, and artsy wares. 

11. Marfa Brands

213 S Dean St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

What started as a hobby, Marfa Brands makes soaps with fans from all over the world. Hand pouring 150 bars at a time, you’ll find combinations like Rosemary Peppermint, Bergamot Grapefruit with Lemon Peel and Earl Grey Tea, and Oak Moss with Kelp and Sea Salt.

12. Prada Marfa

14880 US-90, Valentine, TX 79854, map

This is probably the most popular photo of Marfa, even though it’s not technically in Marfa. The permanent installation was created in 2005 and actually houses items from the fall/winter 2005 collection.

13. Tiny Target

US-90, Alpine, TX 79830, map

In early 2016, an anonymous artist painted a bullseye and the word Target on an old railroad structure. This is also outside of Marfa (about 45 mins east), but is often associated with Marfa.

14. Marfa Museum Thrift Store

610 W San Antonio St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

Fans of thrifting can  stop by to see if they can find any treasures in this artsy and ecclectic town.

15. Building 98

Bonnie St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

Once a US army base bachelor offer quarter, it is now known for the WWII German POW murals. The western murals were completed in 1945 and show Marfa’s history in the arts.

16. Marfa Holocaust and Historic Model Ship Museum

901 E Oak St Marfa, TX 79843, map

Find historic artifacts, documents, and books about the Aliyah Bet (Jewish “illegal immigration” ships). What makes it really special is the collection of over 140 handmade, plank-on-frame ship models.

17. El Cosmico

802 S Highland Ave, Marfa, TX 79843, map

El Cosmico has your choice of teepees, yurts, and RVs, and looks like it’s made for the gram.

18. Planet Marfa

200 S Abbot St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

Planet Marfa is a great place to unwind after a long day. The quirky beer garden features a tepee and vintage school bus where you can hang out too.

19. Lost Horse Saloon

306 E San Antonio St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

This local watering hole is a popular hangout spot. The rustic, Western-style decor is the perfect backdrop for drinks and live music.

20. House Bar (Casita Bar)

Ranch Rd 2810, Marfa, TX 79843, map

Step into the 80s at one of the most unique bars we’ve ever been to. It was converted from an old home, and the decor is next level here. They host shows and we only found out about it because we asked the folks at Planet Marfa.

21. The Get Go

208 S Dean St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

The Get Go is an independent grocery store opened in 2007. It features local products, organic and alternative ingredients, and more. Not only can you pick up supplies if everything else is closed, it’s also a great way to get a glimpse of local life in Marfa.

More: 13 Secrets to Traveling like a Local

22. Frama at Tumbleweed Laundry

120 N Austin St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

If you’re looking for a place to get good coffee, a scoop of ice cream, and do your laundry, come to this coffee shop and laundromat pairing. 

More: All the Best Stops on the Ultimate West Coast Road Trip

23. Marfa and Presidio County Museum

110 W San Antonio St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

Located in a historic adobe home built in the 1880s, this museum has a little bit of everything Marfa and Presidio County. It coveres ranching, local military, geology, settlers, Native Americans, and more.

24. Presidio County Courthouse

300 Highland St, Marfa, TX 79843, map

The Presidio County Courthouse was added tot he National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It’s a beautiful building in the heart of the city and you can even check ou the interior.

25. Stardust motel sign

US-90, Marfa, TX 79843, map

The Stardust Motel sign sits on its own just outside of town. There’s no trace of the motel itself, but the light still flickers from time to time.

Map of Things to Do in Marfa TX

More Things to Do in Marfa TX

Cast + Crew

Chinati Hot Springs (Presidio, TX)

Etherington Fine Art

Exhibitions 2D

Faith Alive Cowboy Church Radio Station

Garza Marfa

Ice Plant Museum

Julie Speed Studio

Marfa Activity Center

Marfa Contemporary – Closed

Marfa Fim Festival (late spring)

Marfa Gliders

Marfa Maid Dairy

Marfa Municipal Golf Course

Marfa Myths Music Festival

Marfa Visitor Center

Mirth

Mystery Blimp (on US-90, 15 miles outside Marfa)

Palace Theater

Private Marfa History Tours

Rule Gallery

Best Restaurants in Marfa TX

Buns N’ Roses (Breakfast, $)

Cochineal (New American, $$)

Do Your Thing (Coffee, $)

Frama (Coffee, $)

Food Shark (Mediterranean, $)

Lost Horse Saloon (Bar, $)

Marfa Burrito (Mexican, $)

Pizza Foundation (Pizza, 2$)

Planet Marfa (Bar, $)

Stellina (Italian, 2$)

Bar St George (Bar, $), Boyz 2 Men (Breakfast, $), Capri (New American, $, 3.5), Mando’s (Tex Mex, $), Jett’s Grill (American, $), LaVenture (Seafood, $​$)

What to Pack for Marfa TX

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Where to Stay in Marfa Texas

Hotel Paisano – We stayed at Hotel Paisano during our visit to Marfa. It’s centrally located the hotel is full of history. You’ll find GIANT memorabilia throughout the lobby and hallways too.

Hotel Saint George

Thunderbird Hotel

El Cosmico for Glamping

What's Nearby

Fort Davis National Historic Site (25 min, 22.5 miles)

Davis Mountains State Park (27 min, 24.1 miles)

McDonald Observatory (50 min, 38 miles)

Big Bend National Park (1 hr 35 min, 98.2 miles)

More Resources

Lonely Planet Texas Travel Guide

West Texas Travel Guide

Texas State Map / Waterproof Texas State Map

Texas Road & Recreation Atlas

2019 Rand Mcnally Large Scale Road Atlas

Have you been before? Any other things to do in Marfa TX we’re missing?

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“Discovery consists not of seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes” – M. Proust

Esther + Jacob

Esther and Jacob are the founders of Local Adventurer, which is one of the top 5 travel blogs in the US. They believe that adventure can be found both near and far and hope to inspire others to explore locally. They explore a new city in depth every year and currently base themselves in Las Vegas.

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A Neighborhood Without an Independent Bookstore Is Like A Body Without a Heart

In 2016, the Lower East Side independent bookstore, St. Mark’s, closed after nearly 40 years. The iconic bookstore featured a lot of photography and art books, as well as a good selection of philosophy titles and other obscure tomes. With its passing, many believed that other indie bookstores in New York and its   boroughs would close too because of rising rents. This was like when Barnes and Noble ruled the city and when e-books, which were cheaper in price than a physical book, would force indie bookstores to close down. None of that happened. The e-book revolution failed to catch on and B&N shuttered many of its stores in New York. Instead, indie bookstores remained popular choices because they were located in parts of the city where there was a need for them. In addition, indie bookstores in general now seem to be on the upswing, so much so that two new bookstores opened up in the city, Books are Magic and Codex, in the past year. These bookstores are truly for the community, and people visit them to get recommendations or because their favorite author is reading from his book, a local, literary experience that can’t be replicated. So put down that ipad and close Amazon where you were going to buy a book at a steep 40% off discount. You may be paying more at an indie, but you won’t be able to touch the physical book, check out its beautiful cover and have a latte at a bookstore’s café. How will you decide which book is the one for you? Reviews are not enough, but examining a book at an indie will allow you to decide because you’ll be able to read the first few lines, as well as some paragraphs, and maybe even a whole chapter (if it’s short!). We’ve compiled a list of the best indie bookstores in Manhattan and its boroughs, but note that there are many others out there that are serving the needs of its community every day.

Books Are Magic 

The New York Times bestselling author Emma Straub, whose book The Vacationers became an instant hit, did something impossible. When she learned that the popular BookCourt was closing due to high rents, Straub was devastated, just like many who live in the area and treated the bookstore as a place to find out what’s new in literary fiction.  “A neighborhood without a bookstore, Straub has said, “is like a body without a heart.” And so, Emma opened her own bookstore in May last year in the former space of BookCourt in Cobble Hill. Straub fell in love with the space, which included exposed bricks, a second room, windows and curved doorways.

Independent bookstores are great for author readings; without them there would just be a Barnes & Noble that only invites popular and bestselling authors. What about all the other authors? So, like most bookstores on this list, Books Are Magic serves a need with daily events such as discussions, readings and presentations. The only thing wrong with the store is that it only offers 10% off bestsellers. Others offer 20%, but we’re sure the price hike helps pay the bills.

Corner Bookstore 

The Corner Bookstore serves a purpose, as the Carnegie Hill neighborhood has no other bookstore around for competition. There’s a huge B&N at 86th Street, and yet the bookshop, located just shy of the Upper East Side, has become a local favorite and a neighborhood staple ever since it opened its doors in 1978. For over three decades, the residents of  Carnegie Hill have flocked to this iconic bookstore to buy Zadie Smith’s latest  essay book or some other literary bestseller. The staff carefully selects a handful of the newest  adult fiction and nonfiction titles, including history, biography, poetry and mystery books. But its bragging rights is that it serves the needs of many children, as the area is centrally located to many private schools. Corner Bookstore stocks children’s books for all ages, up to and including a good share of young-adult books. The store is so child-friendly that it allows special store charges accounts for children, who can act like a savvy adult and say, “Can you put this on my account?”

Older children between 8 to 13 are also allowed to review advance copies of books that have not yet been published. This is another way of empowering children, as their reviews of galleys are published in The Corner Bookstore’s Kids Newsletter. There are also readings and author events at night.

Bookbook 

Located in the heart of Greenwich Village, on an eclectic street featuring everything from a pizza place, a record store and a used clothing shop, Bookbook is an independent bookstore known for selling former bestsellers at more than half the price of its original cost and new hardcovers, both fiction and non-fiction, at a competitive 20% discount. The store also sells children’s books, travel, history, drama, art and fashion books, as well as cookbooks. It also proudly sells Moleskine journals and planners at 20% off. Sure, the bookstore is the size of a subway car, but the small space will allow you to quickly locate the book you want, and the knowledgeable staff will assist you with recommendations if you’re looking to find the next book you want to read. But its outside table of discount and remainder books—everything from literary fiction to children’s book–is the main draw. Just note that if you think you’re scoring by finding a first edition of The Namesake, check the bottom of the book and you’ll find the well-known remainder mark, a slash of red, which makes the book lose its  value and is useless if you’re into collecting books.

Unnameable Books

Unnameable Books is in the heart of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The bookstore is located in a tight but cozy space with a nicely curated selection of books. The recently opened store specializes in poetry and used books, especially those hard-to-find works made by small independent presses. The motto of the store is “We buy and sell used and new books.” The staff is knowledgeable and friendly, and will gladly find you popular poetry from the likes of Phillip Levine to some more obscure titles from the likes of David Ferry. Also, you won’t be rushed here, although if you’re staying too long taking pictures of different books so that you can buy them on Amazon at a discount, well, maybe you should get the boot. Despite its small footprint, Unnameable Books is able to host author readings, book launch parties, poetry readings and local performances.

Codex Bookstores

In a climate where indie bookstores don’t have the chance to survive due to high rents, where even Barnes and Noble has shuttered its many locations around Manhattan, it’s a surprise that a new bookstore has just opened up in January 2018. Codex, just like the Strand, sells a mix of new books but they mostly stock gently-used hardcover books with an emphasis on literary fiction and art. The store is small, but it’s located right next to Think Coffee and in a prime location in the trendy Bowery section of New York. You can shop or drop, as Codex will buy gently-used books, so if you have a few tomes you no longer want, Codex is a good way to get rid of them. There is enough room for Codex to act as neighborhood event space, and since its opening it has had live music and poetry readings.

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe

Housing Works Used Bookstore is a great place for those who want to buy used books in good condition at a discounted price. While the store doesn’t carry current titles, we’ve found a mint first edition of All the Pretty Horses in one of the bins. HW also has a café where you can order a latte or a sandwich and sit on one of the many chairs and tables. It provides a space to do your work with the free WiFi and the best thing is that the staff doesn’t rush you, allowing you plenty of time to write the opening chapter of your novel (again). In recent years the bookstore became the go-to event space for writers and it still remains a popular location..

HW looks like a library with wood paneling, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves spread over two floors, and two dramatic curling staircases. It’s no surprise that many Hollywood films choose to shoot here because of the library “feel,” and the bookstore had a meaty role in the movie Serendipity.  You’ll also be doing a good deed since all proceeds from the café go to providing support services for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS.

McNally Jackson

This two-story SoHo bookstore is home to countless books, from popular fiction to literary novels, from the newest nonfiction titles to a good amount of obscure literature. McNally Jackson hosts events almost every night on the lower level, from book talks to author discussions and signings. An attached café features sandwiches, soups, salads and coffee and teas that are fair trade and organic. The daily selection of fresh pastries and bagels come from the most notable eateries, from the Upper East Side preppy staple Sarabeth to the bakery ordering window of Balthazar, the famed restaurant owned by Keith McNally, the highly-regarded NYC restauranteur whom the New York Times called “The Restaurateur Who Invented Downtown.”  It seems as if McNally Jackson is doing fine and doesn’t seem to be threatened by closing because of high rents. It opened in 2004 and was an instant hit. To this day, it remains that way. Cool tip: McNally Jackson makes home deliveries in Manhattan daily using a bicycle to make sure you get the book you want fast and without having to leave your home.

The company opened another location in Williamsburg in January 2018 at 76 N. 4th St.

Three Lives & Company

The iconic corner Three Lives in the heart of the West Village is much-beloved by New York book lovers. The store features a well-curated list of the latest hardcover fiction and nonfiction books, as well as literary paperbacks and a good amount of poetry crammed in a bookshelf to the side of the register. Founded in 1978, Three Lives has been in this location since 1983, and serves a purpose for those who live in the area because there are no other bookstores in the West Village. A nearby Barnes & Noble used to compete with Three Lives, but the behemoth store closed, which means more business for Three Lives. The bookstore is a popular destination spot because of its literary pedigree and its knowledgeable staff who can hand-sell books to customers in a world of information-overload. Perhaps this is why Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham called Three Lives “[O]ne of the greatest bookstores on the face of the Earth.”

Like most independent bookstores, Three Lives has had its share of scares of closing its door for good due to high rent. But as of 2016, it’s been confirmed by New York magazine that the bookstore “will stay put indefinitely, under conditions that both landlord and tenant confirm are sustainable for the long term.”

Astoria Bookshop

This is one of Queen’s only independent bookstores, so it can’t be closed! Where would neighbors in the area shop or listen to authors reading from their books? The climate hasn’t changed, and renting a building in New York and its boroughs is prohibitively expensive. Through it all, Astoria Bookshop has thrived, not only due to the lack of competition, but also because they’ve fostered a close relationship with readers who live in Queens. In fact, that’s the goal of independent bookstores. They’ve become a community literary center with author readings, book clubs, and storytelling sessions for kids. You can always go here to get a bestseller book, or some mainstream fiction and nonfiction. The curation of new books is the highlight, and there is also a writing workshop and a site online for special orders or shipping.

The Strand

The Strand is the undisputed king of the city’s independent bookstores, able to sell 2.5 million books a year with the help of 200 employers. It has survived under the worst real estate conditions and is now iconic because the shop is the most popular bookstore in NYC. It’s even a destination spot for tourists, who come here to buy Strand paraphernalia like tote bags, T-shirts and baseball caps all emblazoned with the Strand logo.

The store’s claim to fame is that it has 18 miles of books and more, and there are so many books here that the renovation a few years back in 2005 added a floor so that it could be tri-level to fit a children’s section and an art book and art biography collection. The Strand sells a handful of new books, but what it specializes in is gently-used hardcovers that are lower than the price of an e-book. This is the place to come to find forgotten tiles and out-of-print books. The store sells a few new paperbacks, but note that this is not the place for used paperbacks. If you have the money, you can go to the rare book room, which looks like a library. There are some deals here too, as we’ve been able to purchase a first edition of George Saunder’s first book of short stories for only $25.00. That’s cheap considering that online bookstores would sell such a title for a very high price. The Strand also hosts frequent author nights, children’s events and even literary speed dating. It’s so literary that applicants who want to work here and start at the bottom as an entry-level employee, have to pass a book quiz You have to match the author to his or her book. While some are easy (Who wrote Moby-Dick?), many are obscure or are tricky if you don’t have a literary background. This is the reason why employees know exactly what book you want, and in what section it’s in.

Source: http://www.upout.com/blog/new-york-city/neighborhood-without-independent-bookstore-like-body-without-heart

[bibliosexxual]

Hey guys! I’ve gotten a lot of new followers lately, so I thought I’d do a little summary of what’s been going on my blog so far this year to update you all.

I’ve been unusually prolific, so I’ve got a lot of new Sterek fics up, including some old WIPs I updated this year.

So, without further ado, here’s the masterpost, as of early May 2017. Happy reading!! And let me know if you think a post like this for my older fics would be helpful as well.

EDIT: Almost forgot, I’ve marked the most popular fics with a ❤.

*

rich!Derek first date drabble (on tumblr) ~1300 words | E

Out of necessity, Derek has fine-tuned a few simple tests for anyone he goes on a first date with.

the kid!fic (on tumblr) ~2300 words | Teen

“Do you think I’m ready for fatherhood?” Stiles asks, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. He’s not freaking out about this. He’s not.

Boyd says flatly, “Stilinski, you’re twenty-one years old. You’re supposed to know how to use a condom by now.“

Stiles’ hand spasms and he accidentally squirts a huge glob of ketchup on his mound of curly fries. Fuck. He has the ideal ketchup-to-curly-fry ratio down to a science, and this is not it. “No, absolutely not what I meant. It’s just. Did you know Derek had a kid?”

❤ stress baking (on tumblr, AO3) ❤ ~1500 words | Gen

From the prompt, “You bake when you’re stressed and sometimes you give me cookies, but recently you’re giving me whole baskets each day, now I’m not complaining but are you okay?” 

❤ the flight to hawaii (drabble on tumblr) ❤ ~900 words | Teen

Jake runs a hand through his sandy blond prince-charming hair and snorts. “Please, this relationship is over when I say it is. Or do you seriously think anyone else is lining up to date you?”

For a moment Stiles is actually speechless, because how has he spent the last three months thinking this guy was attractive? How did he overlook this level of douchebaggery? Some kind of witchcraft, probably.

That’s when the guy in the row ahead of them turns around in his seat, looks Stiles straight in the eye, and says without even one hint that he’s joking, “I would date you.”

❤ the engagement (on tumblr, AO3)  ❤ 1595 words | Gen

The whole thing starts with Stiles really, really craving a meatball sub from the place across the street.

❤ the saga of the valentine’s day cucumber (on tumblr) ❤ 616 words | Teen

Drabble based on the prompt,

I JUST SERVED A CUSTOMER AND THEY WERE PURCHASING A CUCUMBER AND THEY WENT

“It’s for Valentine’s Day”

I REPLIED

“You must be lonely?”

THEY REALISED WHAT I MEANT AND NOW I’M SAT WITH A COMPLAINANT FORM IN FRONT OF ME.

❤ the nerd party, AKA the bookstore!AU (on AO3) ❤ ~4400 words | Teen

From the prompt, “We both tried to grab at the last copy of that desired book at the same time and had a tug of war.” HS!AU in which Derek is crushing hard and Stiles might not be as observant as he thinks he is.

Sterek doctors!AU (on tumblr) ~2000 words | Teen

A ficlet in which Stiles and Derek are coworkers at the hospital, Stiles accidentally (?) becomes Derek’s new roommate, and there is pining. Basically the outcome of my addiction to House, M.D.

you know you’re on my mind (WIP on AO3) 8164 words | Teen

The pen pal AU where Derek lives in California and Stiles lives in Poland. Long-distance pining, whoo!

draw me like one of your french girls (on tumblr: part 1, part 2) 3687 words | Teen

College AU + art student AU + nude modeling AU.

❤ accidentally? (on tumblr, AO3) ❤ 3683 words | Mature

Based on the prompt,

boss: “know why I called you in here?” me: “because I accidentally sent you a dick pic” boss [stops pouring 2 glasses of wine]: “accidentally?”

yup.

❤  breaking & entering (on tumblr, AO3) ❤ 4161 words | Teen

Based on the prompt, “[burglar gently wakes me] You live like this?" In which Derek Hale deserves nice things (and gets them).

prince in training (on tumblr) ~3000 words | Teen

Based on the prompt, “i grew up not knowing i was royal and now i guess i’m heir to a throne and you’re the guy who’s supposed to be teaching me how to be royal bc i suck at it and oops we made out”

❤ gorgeous beards of BHU (on tumblr, AO3) ❤ 2239 words | Teen

There are a lot of reasons Stiles is pretty sure Erica is his platonic soulmate. Her brilliant innuendos. Her epic dance moves. Her stubborn refusal to back down from things that scare her. The fact that her comic book collection is even bigger than Stiles’. And, of course, her @gorgeousbeards_of_bhu instagram account.

Or,

In which Erica posts a picture of a gorgeous mystery man to her Instagram and Stiles has to know who it is.

the roommate (on tumblr: part 1, part 2) ~1900 words | Teen

In which Stiles and Scott get a terrifying-except-not new roommate thanks to Craigslist.

❤ little spoon (on tumblr: part 1, 2; AO3) ❤ 6455 words | Teen

To save money while attending college in NYC, Stiles and Derek decide to rent one tiny apartment together. With one bed.

the blazing bombardier (on tumblr) 1670 words | Teen

Fluffy summertime meet-cute in which Stiles loves roller coasters and Derek really, really does not.

the valentine’s day showdown (on tumblr) ~4000 words | Teen

So Stiles and Erica have this competitive flirting/wooing thing going. This totally-mutually-agreed-upon-to-be-platonic competitive flirting/wooing thing. Every Valentine’s Day Eve, Erica gets him good, and every Valentine’s Day, Stiles gets her back, thoroughly.

Except this year things don’t go quite according to plan.

❤ on the bus (on AO3) ❤ 13299 words | Mature

HS!AU in which Stiles and Derek ride the bus to school together, and there are bisexual awakenings.

older!derek fic (on tumblr, AO3)   ~4000 words | Mature

Stiles likes Derek. Derek thinks he’s too old for Stiles. Meanwhile, Stiles is stubborn (and attractive).

❤ ships passing in the night (on tumblr, AO3) ❤ 1410 words | Teen

Stiles can’t say he blames Derek for quitting. Hell, this is basically the best thing to ever happen to Derek, Stiles knows that, and it’s awesome. They’d talked about their dreams, and Derek had always said he’d love to be a musician. Now his single has climbed to number eight on Billboard’s Hot 100 and his face is at the top of Stiles’ news feed every day for a week, and Stiles wouldn’t take that away from him for anything.

BUT. Just because Derek gets his dream job doesn’t mean he can just—just leave and never contact Stiles again.

Only, that’s exactly what he does.

Or, musician!Derek AU with pining.

not really casual (on tumblr, AO3) 2714 words | Teen

They meet in Biology 101. Stiles is a freshman, and he’s in this class mostly because Scott is pre-vet and Stiles signed up for all the same classes because he has no earthly idea what he wants to do, career-wise. Derek is a junior Spanish lit major taking this because he needs the gen. ed., and he’s terrible. He’s the only person in the class who’s not a freshman. He’s always a few minutes late—that’s how he ended up sitting at the table by the door with Stiles and Scott the first day—and he’s so gloomy, and he always lugs around this backpack full of Pablo Neruda books because he has a Spanish poetry class right before this one, and he takes the neatest, most meticulous class notes Stiles has ever seen. (Stiles, meanwhile, doesn’t take any notes. He takes photos of every slide with his phone as the professor talks and then spends the rest of the time goofing off quietly, doodling dumb stuff on Scott’s arm and working on five different assignments at once on his laptop.)

at the museum (on tumblr) 2452 words | Teen

Of course the first time Stiles sees Derek Hale since high school just has to be on the day he’s finally gotten Lydia from Marketing to agree to go out with him. That’s how the universe works, apparently, always giving Stiles the shittiest luck.

the hunger games AU (WIP on AO3) 7941 words | Teen

Derek shifts on his feet, says, quiet, “You must really care about him.”

“He’s my brother,” Stiles says simply. “And with his asthma, he’s—he wouldn’t have made it fifteen minutes in there. Even assuming he did, he wouldn’t kill anyone. He doesn’t have it in him.”

“And you do?” Derek asks.

Stiles stands a little straighter, looks Derek straight in the eye. “I’ll do what I have to do.” He hopes it comes out sounding more sure than he feels.

Or, in which Stiles takes Scott’s place in the arena.

***

So that’s it for this year… but the year is still young. :)

[charllieeldridge]

What To See & Do With 24 Hours In New York City

We recently headed to the Big Apple with big hopes of seeing it all. When we were researching the sights around the city, we had a hard time visualizing distances and weren’t sure what we’d accomplish in our short visit to the city before heading upstate.

Of course, a weekend in New York would be better, as with only 24 hours, you’ll barely have time to scrape the surface. So, what exactly can you see in 24 hours in New York City? It turns out, quite a bit.

In this article, I’m going to list everything that we managed to take in on our recent trip to New York City and hopefully it will give you an idea of what you’ll be able to cover in a day. One thing to make sure of is that you’re wearing a good pair of shoes when exploring NYC!

Note: This entire itinerary is based in Manhattan and while I’m aware that New York has many wonderful boroughs to explore, we stuck to Manhattan for the sake of seeing as many sights in the shortest amount of time. To maximize our time in the city, and to arrive in style, we took a Blacklane car to get us from the airport to Manhattan, but you could also take the Air Train from JFK. 

What to see and do with 24 hours in New York City.

Where To Stay: Lower Manhattan

I recommend staying at a hotel in Lower Manhattan and branching out from there to see all of the sites around the area. We stayed at the W New York – Downtown and found its central location to be the perfect base for our explorations around the city. The staff were young and the hotel was very chic — make sure to check out their onsite lounge with live music!

If you’re on a tight budget, there are some hostels in Manhattan, but even they are expensive. You could stay in a cheaper borough (like Queens), but then you’ll spend more time & money on transport. Another great option is to check out Airbnb for some cheaper rooms for your 1 day in New York. 

What to See Around the Financial District:

*Note: You’re going to want to eat at some point during your whirlwind trip to New York City. Check out this post which lists the best places to eat in NYC, according to a local.

Battery Park: This beautiful, 27-acre park is located at the southern tip of Manhattan and it is the perfect place to start the day. Walk along the sea wall and take in the next sight.

The Statue Of Liberty: You can see a side profile of the famous statue from Battery Park and there are numerous ferries to take you closer. If you hop on the boat that visits Ellis Island and Liberty Island, it will take up an hour and a half of your day (even without even getting off), so for the sake of time, snap a photo and get moving.

Broadway: From Battery Park, take this famous road to the next sights.

The Charging Bull: In the name of financial prosperity and luck, fight through the crowds of tourists to rub the lucky bronze balls below this 3.2-ton famous statue.

Trinity Church: Just a little further down Broadway you’ll see Trinity Church on your left. If you’re quick, you may even have time to head inside for a peak.

Wall Street: Wall Street has a fascinating collection of Gilded Age architecture. Here you can take in a few major sites within minutes — The Trump Building, Federal Hall, 14 Wall Street (Bankers Trust Building), and the New York Stock Exchange (among others).

The Brooklyn Bridge: There’s a beautiful walkway that runs along to the East River on FDR Drive. Take this and you’ll have lovely views of the Brooklyn Bridge, plus you can shop for some touristy New York trinkets from vendors here.

Chinatown: From the Brooklyn Bridge take St. James and Bowery streets into Chinatown. Source out a popular Chinese restaurant and enjoy some soup dumplings. I recommend Joe’s Shanghai for authentic soup dumplings. 

Canal Street: This 2.5 km east-west street is your best bet for finding cheap knock-off sunglasses and inexpensive tourist garb. Don’t spend too much time shopping, there’s lots more to see with your day in New York.

Little Italy: Hopefully you brought your appetite. Little Italy has some of the best restaurants in all of New York. You’ll have a bit of time to explore the area before popping in for a bite.

SoHo: Named for its location (South of Houston) and its similarities to London’s SoHo, this is a great area to roam around for a bit. There is a lot of charm in the neighbourhood’s narrow, cobblestone back streets.

Tribeca: Another acronym based name (“Triangle Below Canal St.”), Tribeca is a great place for fans of neo-Renaissance architecture. Some places to see include the Powell Building, a row of White neo-Renaissance buildings on Worth Street and the New York Telephone Company (140 West St.).

Freedom Tower & World Trade Memorial: End the day off with a walk through the beautiful and profoundly evocative World Trade Memorial, all the while looking up to see the tallest building in the Western hemisphere, the Freedom Tower.

…SLEEP!

What To See Around Central Manhattan:

After a good sleep, hop on the subway at Wall St. Station heading uptown on the R-line ($2.50 – around 20 minutes) to 14th St. Station (Union Square) and get ready for another jam-packed few hours of sightseeing in New York.

Union Square: Sometimes there are events and farmer’s markets here. Definitely check it out.

5th Ave: Another one of New York’s most famous avenues, 5th Ave. has some beautiful architecture rooted in the Gilded Age, such as the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York Public Library, Rizzoli, Saks Fifth Avenue, Flatiron Building, etc. Plus, many more shopping opportunities for those not on a strict budget!

Central Park: Follow Fifth Avenue north until you hit Central Park on your left-hand side. You won’t have time to see much of this 3.41 km2  green space, but you’ll be able to see the south end all the way to the fountain. When you reach the fountain, loop back around to the west side of the park and exit on Central Park West.

Columbus Circle: This is a beautiful roundabout to take a couple of photos before getting on the subway at the Columbus Circle Station. Take the A-C-E train downtown and get off at 59th St. Station.

The Chelsea Market & Neighbourhood: Get off the subway at 14th St. and head for the amazing Chelsea Market which is open Monday to Friday (7am – 9pm) and Sunday (8am – 9pm).

The High Line: My personal favourite part of New York City, the High Line is an abandoned railway track turned pedestrian walkway and garden. Benches, flowers, amphitheaters, grass, and foliage make this one of the most beautiful and romantic city walks. There are also plenty of dinner options around here and some snack stands on the High Line itself. Get off on 30th St and head east.

Madison Square Garden: Turn left on 7th Ave off of 30th St and head north. Almost immediately you’ll see one of the world’s most famous venues, Madison Square Garden.

Times Square: Continue northbound on 7th Ave and basically just follow the bright lights and camera-happy tourists until you reach Times Square. Take a few photos and try not to have a seizure amongst the flashing LED TV Screens that are the size of football fields. If you’re looking to find mouthwatering barbecue in New York, stop in at Virgil’s in Times Square.

Have Some Extra Time?

Why not go sailing? Consider a day sail around the waters of NYC. Check out companies like Sailo who offer many popular rentals for around 2 – 4 hours including sunset cruises overlooking Manhattan.

Once you’ve seen the city by foot and your legs are sore, you can relax on a sailboat and enjoy the view. They’ve also done plenty of trips that are organized bachelorette parties, as well as sightseeing trips around the bay.

All of their boats in NYC are rented with a licensed captain which is included in the price, so all you have to do is book a trip and then show up on the dock.

Time’s Up!

By this point, your legs will be aching and your camera shutter finger will be twitching, but you’ll have seen a lot of New York (well, only Manhattan actually).

Of course, you could go a whole different route and head into Brooklyn or check out the beautiful Staten Island area, but that’s what is so great about New York City, you can explore it for months and still not see it all! Some of it will just have to wait until next time.

One important thing to note is that you’ll want to make sure you have travel insurance for a trip to New York (and the USA as a whole).

Not only should you have insurance for anywhere in the world, but the cost of visiting a hospital in the USA is incredibly expensive. Enter your information below to get a free quote from World Nomads, a popular insurance company for travellers.

  What did we miss? If you think it’s possible to see more of New York in 24 hours, please share it with us in the comments below. If you think that it would be impossible to see all of this in 24 hours, tell us we’re crazy!

Don’t believe it’s possible? Check out our fun, quick video of our 24 hours in New York City!

Some images in this article were sourced from Shutterstock.com.

Like This Article? Pin it!

  The post What To See & Do With 24 Hours In New York City appeared first on Goats On The Road.

What To See & Do With 24 Hours In New York City published first on https://travelaspire.weebly.com/

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Blockbuster Political Conventions May Be Done for Good

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8/11/2020 7: 00AM     

Political conventions have evolved from party meetings to pick a nominee to days-long TV ads. WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains why 2020’s events may be an inflection point, and what could come next. Photo: Associated Press

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[newyorktheater]

Workers in protective gear disinfecting an empty theater in Seoul, Korea. Theaters have been shut down in several world cities because of COVID-19. Will this happen in New York?

a closeup of the Coronavirus

With the first reported case of COVID-19 in Manhattan, there is increased concern about the virus among New Yorkers, and that includes theatergoers.

New York Governor Cuomo said yesterday that it was “inevitable” the outbreak would spread. But New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said “the facts are reassuring…We have a lot of information now, information is actually showing us things that should give us more reason to stay calm and go about our lives.”

Coronavirus in New York: The Latest

From the New York Times: The section most relevant to theatergoing: “NYC & Company, which monitors tourism in the city, has projected 285,000 fewer visitors this year from China. That would be a decline of more than 25 percent from the 1.1 million Chinese visitors last year. China is the second-biggest source of international tourists to the city, behind Britain. Through last weekend, restaurants, museums and Broadway shows were largely unaffected…”

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

This page created by the Centers for Disease Control is the most reliable source of health information about the virus

What you can do personally

Wash your hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds, and keep them away from your face.

(More on hand washing from the CDC)

Keep your distance from sick people.

Leave the masks for the ill and for health care providers.

What can we expect

From Juliana Grant, preventive medicine physician and infectious disease epidemiologist: “Daily life will be impacted in important ways. Travel is likely to be limited and public gatherings will probably be canceled. Schools will probably be closed. Expect health departments to start issuing these orders in the near future, especially on the West Coast. The acute pandemic will probably last at least for several months and quite possibly for a year or two.”

Would the threat of coronavirus put you off going to the theatre?

That’s the poll question in The Guardian in the UK. So far, 52 percent  have said no, 48 percent yes.

In a survey of 2,200 U.S. adults from February 28 to March 1 by Morning Consult, 31 percent said they are less likely to go to a  theater performance because of the coronavirus; that figure jumped to 62 percent when asked “if the coronavirus were to spread to your community.”

Movie theaters and/or legitimate theaters already have been shut down in cities as varied as Tokyo, Seoul, Venice, Milan and Palo Alto

Statements from The Broadway League and Actors Equity:

“The Broadway League is closely monitoring this evolving situation on behalf of the Broadway community. The safety and security of our theatregoers and employees is our highest priority. We are following the lead of our city, state and federally elected officials, as well as implementing strategies recommended by public health authorities in all of our theatres and offices.  We remain vigilant, and we are prepared to make decisions based on current needs, as well as in response to changing conditions.”

Actors Equity: “We have shared guidance with staff, posted resources for members and are having the appropriate internal conversations about maintaining business continuity if an outbreak becomes more severe. We have also initiated conversations with major Equity employers and other labor leaders around maintaining a safe and healthy workplace. We will continue to monitor the situation, seek guidance and best practices from the appropriate health authorities and share additional information as warranted.”

March theater openings

February New York theater quiz

The Week in New York Theater Reviews

Video projection of Dharon E. Jones as Riff and Amar Ramasar as Bernardo, as the actual actors confront each other on stage.

West Side Story What’s most remarkable about Ivo van Hove’s shake-up of West Side Story is, for all the Belgian director’s ruinous choices – chief among them, an overabundance of distracting video projections – he doesn’t completely ruin what’s most thrilling about this 63-year-old musical updating of Romeo and Juliet. Leonard Bernstein’s music remains a miracle of melody and mood, rendered glorious by a 25-piece orchestra with orchestrations by the legendary 81-year-old Jonathan Tunick. If much of the singing doesn’t especially stand out in this production, Isaac Powell and Shereen Pimentel as the star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria give us what we need: They offer powerful evidence why the songs they sing — “Maria,” “Tonight,” “One Hand/One Heart” and “Somewhere” – are not just universally beloved; they can still make you cry.

For aficionados of West Side Story, there are many other, less salutary reasons to get emotional.

  Let West Side Story die, Puerto Rican writer and translator @FluentMundo writes. Or, to quote Anita: “Forget that boy, and find another.” https://t.co/Uk4Ii4BtDQ pic.twitter.com/ca3bXvpLYT

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) February 24, 2020

Beth Malone and David Aron Damane

The Unsinkable Molly Brown Molly Brown, a socialite, social activist and survivor of the Titanic disaster in real life — turned into a Tony-winning Tammy Grimes on stage and Debbie Reynolds at her pluckiest on screen — has been meticulously transformed once again, into…Elizabeth Warren.

Kevin Ramessar, Debbie Christine Tjong, Janelle McDermoth,

We’re Gonna Die

We’re all in pain – because of loneliness or loss, betrayal or illness – and playwright Young Jean Lee wants to offer us some comfort. This might not be immediately apparent, given the title of her unusual show, and its format: Performer Janelle McDermoth sings a half-dozen tuneful, hard-charging rock songs interspersed with anecdotes of sorrow and trauma that range from funny-sad to tragic to horrid, lifted from Lee’s actual life and that of her friends and family.

Natalie Portman is Keyonna’s imaginary friend, and also her crush. The 16-year-old has other crushes – all white actresses, pictures of whom she has cut out of magazines and pasted into a collage on her “dream board.” But she only plays with Natalie – performing in scenes with her from some half-dozen of the movies in which the Academy Award winning actress has appeared, from The Empire Strikes Back to The Professional. Keyonna does this, we realize from the beginning of C.A. Johnson’s sweet if largely familiar coming-of-age play, to find some moments of manufactured joy in a life burdened by a dead father, a drunk and sometimes disappearing mother, and a brother who is trying his best but is only two years older, so that the family is one rent day away from homeless, and one meal away from hungry.

All The Natalie Portmans

Cambodian Rock Band

How do you put genocide on stage? Lauren Yee starts with a rock band, which is playing so loudly when we enter that the theater management offers ear plugs for any who request it. A rock concert may seem an odd, even inappropriate, way for a play about genocide to begin, but what comes next is even more jarring in this disorienting, genre-bending show that shifts tone and time and focus — and may arguably be the best way, perhaps the only way, Yee could have told the story she wanted to tell.

The Week in New York Theater News

To Kill A Mockingbird plays to 18,000 students at Madison Square Garden

Greg Kinnear will make his Broadway debut succeeding Ed Harris as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, starting April 21.

Congratulations to @lucyprebblish winner of the 2020 Susan Smith @blackburn_prize + $25K for “A Very Expensive Poison” (inspired by murder of ex-Soviet spy Alexander Litvinenko), & to @AHarris1361 for Special Commendation (+ $10k) for “What to Send Up When It Goes Down.” pic.twitter.com/GYoIKl7xUI

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 3, 2020

“The Miranda Family” (@Lin_Manuel et al, pictured) is launching, in partnership w/ @repertorionyc, “Voces Latinx” National Playwriting Competition. Submissions due April 1st. Details: https://t.co/sP52qyT4nh pic.twitter.com/PmpAHEFBiP

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) February 25, 2020

Rush tickets and lotteries

Company $43 digital lottery and rush Diana  $40 digital lottery The Minutes $35 digital lottery and rush Hangmen – $39 rush

Airport Sushi skit on SNL spoofs The Phantom of the Opera,” “West Side Story,” “Annie,” “Wicked,” “Little Shop of Horrors” a

  Rest in Peace

James Lipton, 93, theater educator, Broadway producer, book writer & lyricist, but best-known as host of Inside the Actors Studio, talk show about CRAFT of acting “Anybody’s craft is fascinating. A taxi driver talking about taxi driving is going to very interesting.”

Negro Ensemble Company founders, left to right: Robert Hooks,Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald Krone

Gerald Krone, 86, a founder of Negro Ensemble Company

Claudette Nevins, 82, TV regular, four-time Broadway veteran (Plaza Suite) and on tour (The Great White Hope)

The Coronavirus and Theater. #Stageworthy News of the Week With the first reported case of COVID-19 in Manhattan, there is increased concern about the virus among New Yorkers, and that includes theatergoers.

[thevisafly]

                    V2F Itineraries | New York | Things To Do | 7 Days

New York is a destination to which many Indian tourists love to travel to. And why not? When this city of the United States has so much to do in such close proximity, what’s not to like? In this article, we’ll take you through 7 days in NYC – a comprehensive guide of the coolest things to do here! Please note that you do need a passport and USA visa to travel here, so if you wish to obtain a USA visa online (or as online as possible), contact Visa2Fly today!

Day 1

Land in the Kennedy International Airport – the infamous JFK! We hope your flight was pleasant, and you didn’t have any hassles with your USA visa (unlikely if you got one from us!).

Visit The Museum of Modern Art (or MoMA, as it is usually called) first, a landmark that is home to works of contemporary and avante-garde paintings, film, multimedia and sculpture that have paved the way for the new generation of art. After you’re done marvelling at the artwork on display here – which might take a while, there’s so much to see – head on to your next destination: Times Square. Check out Times Square in the evening, with its neon-screened buildings and iconic crossways. A good end to the first day, without too much running around or activity after a tiring flight!

Day 2

Start the day renting a bike in Central Park Zoo, where you can visit a myriad animal species in their 6.5 acre space. If you rent a bike, you can take a nice tour around the zoo and park whilst working up a good sweat as well. New York (and American) food portion sizes are said to be generous, so a small workout wouldn’t hurt! The Metropolitan Museum of Art is next on the list, a towering building that is the world’s largest (and arguably finest) collection of artwork to date. It is also famous for the Met Gala, an annual themed fundraising gala attended by big names across industries. We come back to Central Park in the evening: and there’s quite a few photo-worthy spots here. Visit the Belvedere Castle, from where you can walk up and see a panoramic view of the surrounding park. You can also walk towards the Alice in Wonderland statue next, a cute sculpture of Lewis Carroll’s characters.

Day 3

Spend the morning at Morgan Library and Museum. If you think this is just a regular museum, think again: it is home to some of the most priceless objects in American history, including 1 of the 23 original copies of the Declaration of Independence, Mozart’s (handwritten!) score of the Haffner Symphony, Charles Dickens’ manuscript of The Christmas Carol and Phillis Wheatley’s collected works. To name a few. This might take up a good chunk of your morning, so keep the afternoon free to check out all the cool landmarks in the vicinity. Madame Tussauds, The Empire State Building, Grand Central Terminal, Rockefeller Centre, Radio City Music Hall and the Chrysler Building are all a stone’s throw away from each other. Make sure to visit these interesting sites in the day, so that the streets are less crowded! You can even catch a small bite or a filling lunch at the Grand Central Terminal, said to be “a window into old New York”.

To end the day on a good note, a sunset is always best. A former New York Central Railroad was repurposed and opened up to the public as an elevated park, greenway and rail trail around 2009. It’s called the High Line, has free access and a great view of the sunset along the 2.3 km walk!

Day 4

Have an early morning jog at Washington Square Park, a great place to work up a sweat and tour the park’s historical connection to America at the same time. Visit the impressive arch and listen to some local live jazz music in the place where the first public demonstration of the telegraph was undertaken. In the afternoon, Dover Street Market is where you can go. It is a place to look around and marvel at the showcases of the highest-of-high end fashion brands and avant-garde styles. Many love to pass by these streets because of the feel – you can try it out as well! After that, you can choose to get lost in fictional worlds at the legendary Strand Bookstore, home to 2.5 million books. It is also a New York City landmark (because of its 92 years of business). At the end of the day, a good history lesson is sure to make you sleep well 😉 Whitney Museum of American Art is the place to go for an authentic local artistic experience (especially of the 20th and 21st century). It is also extremely close to the Classic Harbor Line, so the offer stands to end the day with a Classic Harbor Line sunset cruise – the name speaks for itself!

Day 5

Travel across the famous Brooklyn Bridge to the next part of New York on the list today: Brooklyn. Although you are crossing a body of water, you do not need a separate US visa since you are still in New York and the USA. Our first stops are the hipster areas of Williamsburg and GreenPoint. Greenpoint is hip to the point of having a laundromat that doubles as a bar (psst: it’s called Sunshine Laundromat. You’re welcome!). And Williamsburg is its older brother – the home of hipster culture in New York City. If you’re feeling particularly indie, you could even travel along to Bruswick and marvel at the edgy, creative street art that lines the walls of the streets.

Spend the afternoon mesmerised by performances at the BAM Opera Houses and Theaters, opened in 1904. The arena has seen visiting acts from the Royal Shakespeare Company and Ibsen and Wilde, to name a few big industry players. After your performance, take the late afternoon and early evening on Governor’s Island – a small island off the coast of Brooklyn that is home to many pop-up music festivals, diners, dance performances and art exhibits. When you’ve let your hair down long enough here, take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty – whether you know of other monuments in New York, you’ll definitely have heard of this one!

Day 6

Today, we move towards the Bronx. The first stop is, of course, Bronx Zoo, which is one of the most famous places to visit here. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area – containing 265 acres of land dedicated to conservation. In the afternoon, make your way to the New York Botanical Garden, a 250-acre campus with over a million types of plants. Its perimeters include activities for all ages – from kids’ play areas to relaxing getaways. Lastly, the evening sees us at Broadway – known as the home of musicals and commercial American theatre, the most obvious thing to do here is to watch a rendition of your favourite musical. Animals, plants and culture all packed into one day in the Bronx. Broadway may captivate you into staying until late at night (with how cool Broadway is), so make sure to catch a yellow cab or private transport and make your way back to the hotel.

Day 7

The great thing about New York is that almost everything is either a stone’s throw or a ferry away. Staten Island is our last (but not least!) stop in New York. We can reach here through the beautiful Staten Island Ferry, which is free of cost and also the main source of commute for many working people in this city. For lunch, check out Marie’s 2 for some scrumptious deep dish pizza, and go in search of some good New-York-style cheesecake for dessert! Check out the Snug Harbor Cultural Centre in the evening, with a 19th Century sailor’s home full of events. If you’d like, end the evening at the Staten Island Children’s Museum’s interactive exhibitions for your kids.

Day 8 is for travelling back. Whether you’re exiting NYC and coming back home, or making a few more stops in America before you leave, we’re sure that you had a golden time here. A conglomeration of new and old, classy and edgy, timeless and in-the-moment… New York truly is a vibrant mix of a city and its surroundings has something for everyone.

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[svetlanawagner-blog]

Welcome to our income reports where we share ways we’ve been making money through the , the challenges and lessons we learned each month, and finally to celebrate successes however big or small. Though we have a few side hustles, we’re happy that the travel is our main hustle.

Life Updates

Our first month in Las Vegas flew by! We spent a lot of time climbing at Red Rock and indoors, visited LA, checked out RVX in SLC, and went to Joshua Tree twice. We’re definitely loving being close to the outdoors again.

Every time I see scenes from New York, I do miss the city a lot, but I can’t deny how nice it is to take life at a slower pace. We don’t have to work crazy hours to keep up with rent. And for the first time ever, we haven’t had an issue keeping our goal to work less than 40 hours a week.

This post may contain affiliate links, where we receive a small commission on sales of the products that are linked at no additional cost to you. Read our full disclosure for more info. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Local Adventurer possible.

Originally Published: April 11, 2019

How We Made OVER $17K in March - Travel Blog Income Report

Why We Share Our Income Reports

If you’re new here, you might be wondering why on earth we would share something so personal. We’ve been hesitant to share our income reports for the last 5 years, and we’re super nervous about this post, but since we’re all about trial and error, let’s see how it goes! We’re putting out these income reports for these following reasons.

To Show You How We Make Income Blogging

We always want to be 100% transparent about how we make money through this . The amazing thing about the ging world is that every we’ve talked to does things a bit differently. There are also countless ways to grow and improve your business. When we started, we made most of our money through affiliate sales. Since then, we’ve shifted heavily to sponsored content. A big part of this is because my background is in sales and it’s what I’m good at. You can learn more about my sale method below. As time goes on, this will continue to change, but we want to share how we focus on our strengths to effectively meet our goals.

To Show You the Potential of Blogging

Whether you have a or are starting a , we want to show you that you can make a career out of ging.

Even if you don’t want to , there are a ton of ways to be financially and location independent and we hope to inspire others to go after it too. If you want to keep your day job, ging can be a great way for you to make some extra side money.

Esther started the 6 years ago and I joined her full time 3 years ago. Even until last year, our parents were worried about us financially, wondering when we would stop “playing” and start taking our lives and work more seriously. Neither of us ended up being “good Asians” (namely a doctor, lawyer, or engineer). It’s an unconventional job and where most people don’t understand all the work that goes on behind the scenes.

More: The Ugly Truths of Being a Travel Blogger told by Top Travel Bloggers

We love that our jobs give us flexibility in what we do, but being your own boss isn’t all that it’s cut out to be either. You have to be disciplined and work hard at your business to grow it.

If you’re not getting the results you want, again, keep in mind that we’ve been ging for 6 years now and the first month I tried monetizing my , I made less than $20. Give it more time and failing in the process is okay. I didn’t have the correct tools that are out now and a lot of it was trial and error. Consider it all an A/B test to figure out what will best work for you.

To Track How We're Doing

I’ve always loved sharing goals online and tracking them. Putting them out in the world (via the ) has helped me so much with accountability. Since we’re constantly tweaking trying to improve the , looking at these numbers will help us learn whether we’ve been making the right changes. It’s amazing to see how the sources of income have changed over time and to see where we still have room for improvement.

Ultimately, our life goal is to make enough to live on half our income (right now we’re at 30%), where the rest will go back into the community or support organizations we love.

Breakdown of Income for March 2019

In March 2019 we earned a total of $17,708.99. 

Affiliate Income

Amazon: $672.40

Avantlink: $460.83 

Commission Junction: $125.55

Misc (Ebay, Skimlinks, AWin, etc): $123.19

Sponsorships

Sponsored Product Posts: $11,093.28  *our fave marketplace lately: IZEA

Display Ads

Adthrive: $5,233.74

Income Comparison to Other Months

Total in 2019 Year Income: $69,305.58

Last Month Income: $24,707.67

Difference: 28% decrease from last month

Expenses

Web Hosting: $19.95 (Want to start a ? Here’s how you can start a in 5 easy steps)

Keysearch: $18.60

Virtual Assistant, Social Media Manager, Subcontractors: $979.17

Teachable: $89 (check out their free weekly webinar)

Office Supplies/Services: $293.79

Test Products/Shoot Supplies: $414.10

*Taxes: $1,192

Insurance: $388.93

Travel + Meal Expenses: $1,881.67

TOTAL EXPENSES: $5,277.21 TOTAL NET PROFIT: $12,431.78

*Roughly 30% of your income will go to taxes at the end of the year. The number above shows the money set aside for taxes to offset how much we have to pay at the end. It makes it less painful at the end of the year.

March 2019 Blog Traffic Breakdown + Stats

Monthly Pageviews: 648,824

Daily Average: 20,930

Monthly Sessions: 502,836

Monthly Unique Visitors: 422,152

Social Media Followers: 322,363

Email Subscribers: 8,518

Goals for April

Blog Goals

Plan our content calendar and figure out a posting schedule for both NYC and Las Vegas content.

Post once a week (not including sponsored posts).

Update 2 older posts a week.

Start to integrate more photography tips.

Life Goals

Get back into astrophotography

Take a setting clinic at the climbing gym.

Work less than 40 hours a week.

Go on two date nights

What's Working on the Blog

Our traffic last month increased significantly and we spent most of our time optimizing existing posts rather than working on new content. From our analytics, views from social referrals stayed the same, but organic search has been steadily increasing.

What Didn't Work + Lessons Learned

Our ad revenue was much lower, because we switched from Adthrive to Mediavine mid-month, which means we’ll be expecting less ad money this month and next month. We have similar settings, and it looks like so far we’re making more with Mediavine.

Popular Posts from Last Month

Best Places to See Cherry Blossoms in Portland Oregon

Pros and Cons of Living in New York

Introducing the Best RVs of 2019

HOW TO WORK WITH SPONSORS​

The e-course is out! Are you a content creator and want to learn how to work with brands?

If you look at our income reports, we make a majority of our income from sponsored posts. We used to do many one-off partnerships with brands, but over the years we’ve been focused on longer term partnerships. Most our brand sponsorships are over $20k, and one of our most recent ones was over $35k.

With over 10 years of trial and error working in corporate and managing our first business, Jacob has figured out the best ways to pitch and work with brands.

At first we were reluctant to put out just another e-course in this oversaturated, dog-eat-dog market, but we’ve seen our coaching and course actually help people quit their jobs and start their own businesses. How cool is that? Plus, all our students who have put our course to action have made their money back within the month, and one of our students using the e-course has already booked $11k in sponsorships. So effin’ excited to see them conquer this new chapter in their lives. If you’re interested to learn more, see the intro video here.

See More Income Reports

⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡

FEB – How We Made $24k+

JAN – How We Made $26k+

DEC – How We Made $29K+

NOV – How We Made $26K+

OCT – How We Made $28K+

SEP – How We Made $12K+

AUG – How We Made $32K+

JULY – How We Made $23K+

FIRST BLOG INCOME REPORT

“Discovery consists not of seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes” – M. Proust

Esther + Jacob

Esther and Jacob are the founders of Local Adventurer, which is one of the top 5 travel s in the US. They believe that adventure can be found both near and far and hope to inspire others to explore locally. They explore a new city in depth every year and currently base themselves in Las Vegas.

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