#outré october

[tadpolesonalgae]

Porcelain Princess—sneak peek

Warnings: dark Rhys, nothing explicit occurs below but the fic in its entirety will contain very dark themes so please be aware of that and take care 🧡💛

Night has begun, but the summer’s sun has yet to entirely yield, some lasting rays warming the tones of the sky, keeping the looming darkness at bay—but not for long. 

“Your father mentioned he would be leaving you for a month, so I had a room prepared for you just in case—a favour for a friend of my father’s,” the High Lord is saying as he twists the handle, opening the door for you, and your body tenses as you slide past him into the bedroom, feeling as he follows after you, stood in the doorway while you walk deeper into the private chambers. Putting some space between you. 

Your breath catches when you first lay eyes on the interior. With a large bed pushed up against the far wall, wardrobe to its right, desk to its left, a chest at the foot of the bed with familiar patterns burned and carved into the wood, it’s eerily similar to your real bedroom back in your father’s house. The chest is the same. Not to mention the bedsheets are a dusky pink, the wallpaper striped in pale yellow and orange, small floral designs painted into a pattern over the mellow stripes. It’s disturbing—how lovely it would be at home. 

~~~~~~~~

“I would be delighted.” Your tongue is like lead.

Violet eyes twinkle, and the hairs at the nape of your neck rise with apprehension, a sensation of fear teasingly feathering beneath your dress. “Very well, I will collect you in the evening,” he tells you, and you turn rigid when it appears he’s considering touching you, a ponderous look in his gaze as he observes the expanse of your neck, trailing up to your cheek where he comes to a pause. You can imagine how easy it would be for him to graze his fingers against your temple under the guise of smoothing out an errant strand of hair. “I trust you to dress nicely.” 

You swallow the discomfort in your throat as you nod in obedience, seeking to remove him from your temporary chambers as swiftly as possible. There’s no evidence for you to call upon that would prove the warning you heard, everything about the conversation that had passed between you on the surface had been cordial and restrained. And yet you can’t trust his exterior. Even if your instincts repeatedly prickle and curl in his presence, you can’t call on a single memory where there was something obvious amiss. 

And yet your stomach churns at the idea of being so isolated with him, nausea and dizziness rising to your delicate skin in warning. 

You wish you were anywhere else.

[brokehorrorfan]

Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 17 via The Criterion Collection. The set collects three films directed by Tod Browning: Freaks, The Unknown, and The Mystic.

Freaks (also known as The Monster Story, Forbidden Love, and Nature's Mistake) is a 1932 horror film written by Willis Goldbeck and Leon Gordon. Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, and Roscoe Ates star.

The Unknown is a 1927 silent horror film written by Waldemar Young. Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry, Joan Crawford, and Nick De Ruiz star.

The Mystic is a 1925 silent drama film written by Browning and Young. Aileen Pringle, Conway Tearle, and Mitchell Lewis star.

Freaks has been digitally restored in 2K with uncompressed monaural sound. The Unknown has been digitally reconstructed and restored in 2K with a new score by composer Philip Carli. The Mystic has been digitally restored in 2K with a new score by composer Dean Hurley.

Raphael Geroni designed the cover art. Special features are detailed below.

Special features:

Freaks audio commentary by film scholar David J. Skal

The Unknown audio commentary by film scholar David J. Skal

The Mystic introduction by film scholar David J. Skal

Interview with author Megan Abbott about director Tod Browning and pre-Code horror (new)

Freaks archival documentary

"Spurs" - Reading of Tod Robbins' short story on which Freaks is based

Freaks prolgue, added to the film in 1947

Freaks alternate endings featurette

Freaks portrait video glalery

Essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme

The most transgressive film produced by a major American studio in the 1930s, Tod Browning’s crowning achievement has haunted the margins of cinema for nearly one hundred years. An unforgettable cast of real-life sideshow performers portray the entertainers in a traveling circus who, shunned by mainstream society, live according to their own code—one of radical acceptance for the fellow oppressed and, as the show’s beautiful but cruel trapeze artist learns, of terrifying retribution for those who cross them. Received with revulsion by viewers upon its initial release, Freaks effectively ended Browning’s career but can now be seen for what it is: an audacious cry for understanding and a singular experience of nightmarish, almost avant-garde power.

The most celebrated and exquisitely perverse of the many collaborations between Tod Browning and his legendary leading man Lon Chaney, The Unknown features a wrenchingly physical performance from “the Man of a Thousand Faces” as the armless Spanish knife thrower Alonzo (he flings daggers with his feet) whose dastardly infatuation with his beautiful assistant (Joan Crawford)—a woman, it just so happens, who cannot bear to be touched by the hands of any man—drives him to unspeakable extremes. Sadomasochistic obsession, deception, murder, disfigurement, and a spectacular Grand Guignol climax—Browning wrings every last frisson from the lurid premise.

A fantastically atmospheric but rarely seen missing link in the development of Tod Browning’s artistry, set amid his favored milieu of shadowy sideshows and clever criminals, The Mystic provides a striking showcase for silent-era diva Aileen Pringle, who sports a series of memorably outré looks (courtesy of art-deco designer Erté) as Zara, a phony psychic in a Hungarian carnival who, under the guidance of a Svengali-like con man (Conway Tearle), crashes—and proceeds to swindle—American high society. Browning’s fascination with the weird is on full display in the eerie séance sequences, while his subversive moral ambiguity extends surprising sympathy to even the most seemingly irredeemable of antiheroes.

[scotianostra]

On November 16th 1891 Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show paid it's first visit to Scotland opening in the East End Exhibition Buildings at Duke Street, Glasgow.

The entourage had completed an engagement in Croydon, near London, on Saturday, 24th October, and proceeded to Glasgow by train immediately thereafter. The opening night finally took place on Monday, 16th November 1891, after a succession of delays had forced repeated postponements, whilst an army of workmen battled round the clock with the extensive preparations.

The show which caused such a sensation in the city that winter was entitled The Drama of Civilization. By means of a series of tableaux grouped into six dramatic episodes, it presented a highly culturally biased view of the manner in which ‘civility�� had supposedly triumphed over the primordial chaos of paganism and anarchy over the course of several centuries of American history.

It goes without saying that the native Americans were vilified as the villains of the piece, and that the near destruction of their culture was represented not merely as an unfortunate side-effect but as the crowning glory in the triumphant and inexorable outcome of the process of cultural evolution.

Exhibitions of marksmanship were given by Buffalo Bill himself, C.L. Daly the pistol and revolver expert, Johnny Baker, and best of all, the Wild West show’s ever-popular star attraction, Miss Annie Oakley, seen in the second pic in a tartan outfit specially made for the visit.

The native Americans in the show were genuine Lakota, and Oglala Sioux, amongst them was Kicking Bear, who was said to be the last of the tribe to surrender to the U.S troops after Wounded Knee only just over a year before. By the close of the same year, Kicking Bear had become a familiar figure on the streets of Glasgow.

One of the stories that gained notoriety during the time the show was in Glasgow concerns when one of the troupe who went by the name of Charging Thunder succumbed to the effects of "Fire water" who ended up falling foul of the local Sheriff, only this one wore a white wig not a stetson, and sat in the City's Sheriff Court.

The Scotsman reported on Charging Thunder’s trial at Glasgow Summary Court: “

‘Charging Thunder’, one of Buffalo Bill’s hostages from the American Government, was taken before Sheriff Birnie, in the Glasgow Summary Court, on a charge of having, on the 31st December last [1891], in the Wild West Show at Glasgow, assaulted George Crager, Sioux interpreter, by striking him on the head and neck with an Indian club.

“‘Charging Thunder’ pled guilty, and it was stated on his behalf that he was only 23 years of age, and was usually one of the quietest members of the Wild West Show, but in common with other Indians, the slightest drop of drink infuriated him, and on the night in question he had obtained whisky in a public-house in mistake for lemonade, which he asked for. He entertained no malice towards the interpreter.

“The Sheriff said that the assault was of so serious a stature that had ‘Charging Thunder’ not been a stranger he would have sent him to prison for a long period, but under the circumstances he would limit the imprisonment to 30 days.

“He thought it a great shame that publicans should supply these Indians with whisky.”

Another tale about Cody himself was found in the Glasgow Evening News of 11 November 1891. A ‘correspondent’ told of encountering a ‘distinguished looking gentleman, with a somewhat outré appearance’, who bought a pile of newspapers from an old lady in George Square and noticed a shoeless young girl helping her to sell the papers.

The account continued: “Pointing to her shoeless feet, which evidently attracted his attention on the cold night, he asked the old woman what it would cost to get a pair of shoes for the child, and then handed her the amount she named. He paid for his papers, gave the old lady a sixpence for herself, handed a silver coin to another poor body in the neighbourhood, and then went off with a smile on his face, that showed he felt pleased at being able thus unostentatiously to do a kindly action. On inquiring who the gentleman was, the old woman replied - “Sure that’s Buffalo Bill, an’ he has bought his papers from me the last two nights. God bless him.”

Although the final performance was held on 27 February, the last performers didn’t leave Glasgow until nearly two months later.

Other notable moments from the tour included Cody attending the Court of Session in Edinburgh on a day off, causing a stir as he took a seat in the public gallery in full regalia, as well as a visit to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

He is also reported to have climbed Calton Hill, and on seeing the view of Edinburgh from the summit, shouted: “Ain’t she a beaut!” Not the first or last to say that I bet!

The lengthy tour had taken in venues including Edinburgh, Arbroath, Fraserburgh, Inverness and Ayr.

Cody’s visit to the north east - Aberdeen, Peterhead and Fraserburgh - actually had an adverse effect on the fishing industry, as workers abandoned their trawlers to attend the performances. The price of fish reportedly sky-rocketed on the days following Cody’s shows in the region.

The aforementioned jailed Charging Thunder changed his name to the rather less distinctive George Edward Williams settled into anonymity within north-west England.

The third pic is a wee gem of a reminder of Buffalo Bill's visit to Glasgow, a statue of Cody riding a bucking bronco is hidden in the Dennistoun area of the city.

[snuh]

Vincent di Fate: The War of the Worlds! - Outré, October 2000

[mediaonedesign]

Blink-182 October 11, 2023 The O2 Arena, London, England Shirt

Top Blink-182 October 11, 2023 The O2 Arena, London, England Shirt

#Teechallaclothing Fashion Considering this year has a stacked list of celebrity nominees let’s hope and pray for a Beyoncé sighting! you can bet the Blink-182 October 11, 2023 The O2 Arena, London, England Shirt in other words I will buy this outré fashions will come out to play, too. Nominee Doja Cat already brought some seriously epic style choices to couture week in Paris last month. Will fellow musicians match this big fashion energy? Only time will tell. Below, see what all of your favorite performers wore to the 2023 Grammy Awards. And be sure to check back here for live updates throughout the night. After taking a hiatus last year, the Golden Globes returned tonight in Beverly Hills, California to honor the year’s best film and television performances. Before the ceremony kicked off, however, Hollywood’s A listers came out in droves on the red carpet. The stars celebrated the start of awards season with a combination of traditional glamour and fresh, innovative silhouettes. The more feminine styles were finished with eye popping hues, sequins, or embellishments. Even considering the absence of its former creative director, Alessandro Michele, Gucci made a sizable impact on the red carpet. Michelle Williams’s frothy white dress with mounds of ruffles struck the right balance between drama and refinement; As did Julia Garner’s pink gown, which had a flouncy hem. Anya Taylor Joy’s sprightly yellow Dior look, consisting of a satiny bra top and long floor length skirt, felt modern and timeless. Michelle Yeoh, who won the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, also dazzled in Armani’s sequined peplum style.

#Teechallaclothing Fashion The men tonight, meanwhile, took interesting fashion risks of their own. Actor Jeremy Pope went with a classic Dolce & Gabbana suit though it was covered in black leather, giving it a youthful edge. In an orange single breasted suit by Zegna, Andrew Garfield also proved that tailoring can still be fun and make a statement. Host Jerrod Carmichael continued that mood when he kicked off the Blink-182 October 11, 2023 The O2 Arena, London, England Shirt in other words I will buy this show in a pink satin suit. Below, see our best dressed stars from the 2023 Golden Globes. Which were your favorite celebrity looks? Be sure to vote below, and check back to see which ensemble was the ultimate best dressed of the night.Which looks were your favorite? Cast your vote.

Buy this shirt:  Click Here to buy this Blink-182 October 11, 2023 The O2 Arena, London, England Shirt

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[benmakessentences]

Ayo!

EMPIRE OF THE FEAST, my erotic (small 'e'), sci-fantasy novella with a queer main character and a horny/spooky premise, comes out on October 25th via Neon Hemlock press and here are three reasons why I think you should read it.

🖤 IT'S A WEIRD ONE 🌌

I'm not going to lie to you: the book is about an orgy that fuels a magical sex ritual that keeps a monster in the sun from breaking out at eating all life in the universe. Somehow there's also a reincarnating empress/emperor, political upheaval, and funny, concise banter. Gotta love a good banter. (Oh, and there are tendrils. 🦑)

🍰 IT'S COMPACT 🍶

Have you felt like your attention span has been cleaved in half, then quartered, then fed into a vitamix and turned into mush in the last few years? Yah, me too. The book is a quick read, and it'll leave you hungry for more weirdness. 😵‍💫

📚 IT'S BY AN INDEPENDENT AUTHOR AND A SMALL PRESS 💪🏾

Neon Hemlock is a tiny, but buzzy press run by a rad dude. I'm a very gay author, putting out the weird queer books I want to see in the world. Your dollars will directly sponsor interesting, outré work that traditional publishing wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. 🤑

You can read some advance praise and pick up the book here:

[watusichris]

Betty Davis: They Say She’s Different

It appears that everything anyone has written for the old Music Aficionado site has now disappeared from the web. A random Facebook post has prompted me to re-purpose this story, written in 2016, about my favorite funketress. **********

To this day, the name Betty Davis – Betty with a “y,” that is – remains best known to connoisseurs of Miles Davis minutiae and ‘70s funk obsessives. While it’s true that Betty played an important off-stage role in the career of the jazz trumpeter, to whom she was married for just a year, and she undoubtedly made some of the best hardcore funk records of her era, she deserves to be recognized beyond the relatively narrow provinces of the jazzbo and the crate-digger.

Uncompromising, intelligent, brazen, aggressive, and not incidentally gorgeous, sexually provocative, and a fashion plate always ahead of the curve, Betty was a prophetic figure. Spawned by the explosion of music, fashion, and alternative culture of the late ‘60s, and by concurrent leaps in black consciousness and feminism, she was a take-no-prisoners singer and writer who presented herself as something new, rich, and strange with her self-titled debut album in 1973.

There were some badass contemporaries working the soul and funk trenches– gutter-tongued diva Millie Jackson and one-time James Brown paramour Yvonne Fair leap to mind immediately – but they seemed to be adapting tropes previously worked by male singers in the genres. Betty still sounds like something new: a tough, smart, demanding woman who reveled in pleasure and insisted on satisfaction, unafraid to claim what she wanted.

Despite the fact that she was associated with some high-profile male musician friends and lovers – beyond Davis, the roll call included Hugh Masekela, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Mike Carabello, Eric Clapton, and Robert Palmer – she was no groupie or bed-hopping climber. Possessed of her own self-defining vision, she was producing her own records and leading a tight, flexible little band by the end of her brief run.

In 1976, after completing four splendid albums (only three of which were released at the time), she disappeared, not only from the music business but from the public eye entirely. What happened? It’s an old story that many women in the industry will recognize: Her record company didn’t know what to do with her, and wanted her to tone down her act. Betty Davis wasn’t having any of that, thank you, and she hit the damn road.

She was born Betty Mabry in Durham, NC, in 1945. She grew up country, and was exposed to down-home, get-down music early. On the title track of her second album, They Say I’m Different, she runs down the artists who served as inspirations: Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, Chuck Berry. The blues, in one form or another, is the backbone of her style.

Her family relocated to Pittsburgh when she was young, but at 16 she left home for the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. There she was hurtled into the roiling cultural vortex of the Village. She took up modeling, working for the toney Wilhelmina agency, and began running with a posse of similarly disposed, equally beautiful women who called themselves the “Electric Ladies.” Sound familiar? One of her closest cohorts was Devon Wilson, for many years a notorious consort of Jimi Hendrix known for her freewheeling, outré sex- and drug-saturated lifestyle.

Mabry began to try her hand at singing, and cut a few self-penned singles. They were in an old-school mold in terms of structure, but her very first 45 hints at things to come. “Get Ready For Betty,” a 1964 track released by Don Costa (discoverer of Paul Anka and Trini Lopez and a key arranger for Frank Sinatra), is stodgy early-‘60s NYC R&B to its core, but its message is pointed: “Get out my way, girl, ‘cause I’m comin’ to take your man.”

She also made a stolid romantic duet ballad with singer Roy Arlington and, produced by cult soul man Lou Courtney, a homage to the Cellar, the New York club where she DJed. But she didn’t start reaching the upper echelon of the music biz until one of her songs, a hymn to Harlem called “Uptown,” was cut by the Chambers Brothers for their smash 1968 album The Time Has Come, which also included the psychedelic soul workout “Time Has Come Today.”

The Chambers association probably secured a singles deal for her at Columbia Records, and her first session for the major label was produced by her former live-in boyfriend, South African trumpeter Masekela, in October 1968. By that time, she had split with him: A month earlier, she had married a far more famous horn player, Miles Davis, whom she had met in 1967. Davis and his regular producer Teo Macero would head her second session for Columbia in May 1969.

Those two dates were released for the first time as The Columbia Years 1968-1969 earlier this month by Light in the Attic, the independent label that has restored Betty’s entire catalog to print over the last decade. While devoted fans can be grateful that the work is finally seeing the light of day, it does not make for easy listening, for it was clearly made by people groping in the dark.

Betty’s artistic persona was at that point completely unformed, and so her male Svengalis did their best to mold the clay in their hands, with feeble results. Masekela evidently completed just three tracks, two of which, “It’s My Life” and “Live, Love, Learn,” were issued as a flop single. The homiletic song titles give the game away; the music, straight-up commercial soul backed by a large group (which included Wilton Felder and Wayne Henderson of the Jazz Crusaders and Masekela), has nothing original to say.

The date with Miles is a bigger waste, if a more spectacular one. The personnel couldn’t have been more glittering: Hendrix sidemen Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell; ex-Detroit Wheels guitarist Jim McCarty; bassist Harvey Brooks, studio familiar of Bob Dylan and former member of the Electric Flag; and Davis’ then-current or future band mates Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, and Larry Young.

But nothing jells. The material is either weak (Betty’s directionless original “Hangin’ Out” is the best of a bad lot) or incongruous (lumbering covers of Cream’s “Politician” and Creedence’s “Born On the Bayou”). Worse, the jazzers are unable to lay down anything resembling a solid soul-rock foundation, and even reliable timekeeper Mitchell blows the groove on more than one occasion. Miles gets impatient with his spouse at one point, rasping over the talk-back, “Sing it just like that, with the gum in your mouth and all, bitch.”

Apparently intended as demos, the failed tracks were consigned to the tape library. By late ’69, Miles and Betty’s marriage was history. She left her mark on his music: She appeared on the cover of his cover of his 1968 album Filles de Kilimanjaro and inspired its extended track “Mademoiselle Mabry” (based on the chords that opens Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary”) and “Back Seat Betty” from his 1981 comeback album The Man With the Horn.

Moreover, she moved him toward the flash style that would dominate his music through the mid-‘70s, by exposing him to the slamming music of Hendrix and Sly and exchanging his continental suits for psychedelic pimp togs. Would we know Bitches Brew, On the Corner, and Agharta without Betty Davis? Maybe, maybe not.

For her part, Betty remained in the wings for a while. She collaborated on demos for the Commodores; in London, she modeled, worked on songs for Marc Bolan of T. Rex, and declined a production offer from her then-paramour Clapton. Drifting back to New York, she met Santana percussionist Carabello. They became involved romantically, and in 1972 she relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, where Carabello’s local connections led to the formation of a stellar band to back her on a debut album.

One reads the credits for Betty Davis in awe. The rhythm section was the Family Stone’s dissident, puissant rhythm section, bassist Larry Graham and drummer Greg Errico (who also produced). Original Santana guitarist Neal Schon, future Mandrill axe man Doug Rodrigues, founding Graham Central Station organist Hershall Kennedy, and keyboardist and ace Jerry Garcia collaborator Merl Saunders filled out the instrumentation. The Pointer Sisters, Sylvester, and Kathi McDonald were among a large platoon of backup vocalists.

Issued in 1973 by Just Sunshine Records, an independent label owned by Woodstock Festival promoter Michael Lang (who also released a set by another unique woman, folk singer-guitarist Karen Dalton), Betty Davis was one hell of a coming-out party. Since her abortive Columbia dates, she had developed a unique vocal attack that could leap from a velvety croon to a Tina Turner-like shriek in a nanosecond. The stomping funk of the studio band backed her up to the hilt.

Like Turner, she was one Bold Soul Sister. The lust-filled opening invitation “If I’m in Luck I Might Get Picked Up” announces that a new game was afoot. The statement of romantic/sexual independence “Anti Love Song,” the lovers’ chess match “Your Man My Man,” and the self-explanatory “Game is My Middle Name” offer up a startling, hard-edged new model of a hard-funking female vocalist.

The album’s most affecting track may be “Steppin in Her I. Miller Shoes,” Davis’ level-headed elegy for her sybaritic friend Devon Wilson, who sailed out a window at the Chelsea Hotel in 1971. “She coulda been anything that she wanted…Instead she chose to be nothing,” Davis sings, implying that route wouldn’t be one she would take herself.

“If I’m in Luck” grazed the lower reaches of the R&B singles chart and the album failed to reach the LP rolls at all, but Davis was undaunted. For 1974’s They Say I’m Different, she took the producer’s reins, which she would hold for the rest of her career. While the backup lineup is less glitzy (though Saunders, Pete Escovedo, and Buddy Miles, on guitar no less, appear), the support is still sizzling; crackling drums and burbling clavinet put over a set of songs that may have been even stronger than those heard on her debut.

No one who hears “He Was a Big Freak” is likely to ever forget it; it’s a startling dissection of a masochistic relationship -- inspired by Jimi Hendrix, and not, as many have assumed, by Miles Davis (“Everyone knows that Miles is a sadist,” Betty remarked later). Almost as notable are “Don’t Call Her No Tramp,” a prescient condemnation of what we now call slut-shaming, and the autobiographical title track, with slicing slide guitar work by Cordell Dudley.

Different and its attendant singles tanked, but Betty managed to maintain her profile with live gigs noteworthy for their uninhibited bawdiness, on-stage abandon, and the star’s Egyptian-princess-from-outer-space wardrobe sense. By early 1974 she had assembled a hot, lean road band that included her cousins Nickey Neal and Larry Johnson on drums and bass, respectively, plus keyboardist Fred Mills and guitarist Carlos Morales. This lineup would back her on her last two albums.

The end of Just Sunshine’s distribution deal liberated Davis, who, at the suggestion of then-boyfriend Robert Palmer, inked with Palmer’s label Island Records. The company released Nasty Gal in 1975, and it may be Davis’ best-executed work. The pared-down backing lets the songs shine, and there are good ones here: The shameless title song, the vituperative blast at the critics “Dedicated to the Press,” and the out-front ultimatum for sexual satisfaction “Feelins” get right up in the listener’s face. The most surprising track is the ballad “You and I,” an unexpected songwriting reunion with Miles, orchestrated by the trumpeter’s famed arranger Gil Evans.

It’s a tremendous album, and Betty supported it with live shows that ate the funk competition alive. A bootleg of an especially out-there set recorded at a festival on the French Riviera in 1976 literally climaxes with Nasty Gal’s “The Lone Ranger,” an in-the-saddle heavy breather that Davis wraps up by feigning a loud orgasm.

One should remember that at this particular juncture, Madonna was studying dance at the University of Michigan.

But Nasty Gal faded with hardly a trace, and Davis’ relationship with Island swiftly became fractious. It’s easy to see why the label declined to issue her final album, originally called Crashin’ From Passion and ultimately released, after years as a bootleg, by Light in the Attic in 2009 as Is It Love or Desire. The collection, which leans heavily on songs about sex, doping, and heavy drinking, includes “Stars Starve, You Know,” an outright condemnation of the games record companies play:

They said if I wanted to make some money

I’d have to change my style

Put a paper bag over my face

Sing soft and wear tight fitting gowns

 They don’t like the way I’m lookin’

So it’s hard for my agent to get me bookin’s

Unless I cover up my legs and drop my pen

And commit one of those commercial sins…

 Oh hey hey Island

And that was all she wrote. Until writers began to seek her out in the new millennium as her records became available again, Betty Davis was an invisible woman, one who had blazed a trail that other talents, such as Prince and Madonna, would blaze more profitably after her. She was definitively ahead of her time.

Asked by one writer what she had done since leaving music, Davis, who turns 71 on July 26, responded with the most tragic thing one can imagine any artist saying: “Nothing really.”

[allaboutaemin]

Looking back at K-pop group SHINee’s extraordinary 10-year career

T/W: Death, suicide.

We speak to people close to the band to trace the making of six of their iconic songs over a decade of triumph and tragedy 

When SHINee debuted in 2008, K-pop looked very different to how it does today. Although a phenomenon within Asia, it was distinctively niche in the west. The industry, however, was moving forward, particularly in terms of the production quality of its music and videos, and on May 25, SHINee’s Onew, Minho, Jonghyun, Key, and youngest member Taemin (who was only 14 at the time) joined K-pop’s burgeoning ranks. Their debut was the sweet mid-tempo R&B song “Replay”, and their home was SM Entertainment, the long-standing entertainment giant who were, at the time, experiencing major success with another boy group, Super Junior. What set SHINee apart from other K-pop groups was “the harmonic trinity of fresh new sounds, their vigorous nature, and the creative visuals”, says SM’s creative director Min Hee-Jin, who has worked with the group since the beginning. Contemporary R&B has always been SHINee’s base sound, but as early as 2009 they were reaching towards sophisticated funk, lush ballads, and electronica, and would balance this exploration with the powerful, layered vocals that had became their signature. Min singles out their second album Romeo as a turning point for the group, visually as well as musically: in the video for bubbly electro-pop song “Juliette”, the members sported bright clothes and clashing accessories that accentuated their youthfulness. “The visualisation of that album reflected their identity the best,” she recalls. “I aimed to put the group’s signature colour (pearl aqua) on the map, as well as each member’s individual style.” In December last year, mere months away from their 10-year anniversary, news broke that 27-year-old Jonghyun had died by suicide. Although SHINee hadn’t released anything during that year, the members had been busy, with acclaimed solo albums by Taemin and Jonghyun, and acting gigs for Minho and Key. The gut-wrenching shock and outpouring of grief following Jonghyun’s death brought the industry to a standstill. Devastated ‘Shawols’ (a term for individuals within the group’s fandom, SHINee World) flocked to social media to try and make sense of their loss, even today leaving daily messages on Jonghyun’s Instagram posts. In the numb months that followed, Jonghyun’s already completed Poet | Artist album was released, and SHINee performed a previously scheduled Japanese concert as a farewell to their bandmate. Having been encouraged by Jonghyun’s mother to continue making music together, the four members began to pick up the pieces, eventually celebrating their 10th anniversary with a new album and a fanmeet, where Minho humbly asked for fans’ support as they moved forward with their lives. To celebrate SHINee’s 10th anniversary, we’ve looked at six of the most significant singles they released since their debut, and spoke to some of the people who helped make them what they were. “RING DING DONG”, OCTOBER 16, 2009 SHINee won several new act categories at Asian music awards in their first year, but it was the 2009, The Year Of Us EP that accelerated their trajectory. Out was the R&B of their debut single, and in was “Ring Ding Dong”s rhymically dense ‘afro-electro’ (as SM Entertainment call it). The group’s jeans and bowl cuts were replaced with aggressive red, black, and grey styling, and feathered hair. ���The idea that got me started was creating a melody with a bongo sound,” says composer and lyricist Yoo Young-Jin, who wrote and arranged several of SHINee’s hits. “SHINee might have felt puzzled when they first heard it. They probably never imagined they’d receive a song in this style.” A heavily produced earworm about the shock of falling in love, “Ring Ding Dong” is unarguably a product of its musically outré time, the period (roughly 2008-2011) commonly known within the genre as ‘K-pop’s Golden Age’. The melody’s power to ingrain, however, hasn’t dimmed (it’s since been refreshed as a killer rock version, with its bongo rhythms front and centre, and as an ambitious rock/electro mashup), and the hook and dance is still so adored that Minho, Onew, and Jonghyun played it into an appearance on Korea’s Saturday Night Live in 2015. “I can’t forget when I first saw their dance practice video. Watching them perform with fire in their eyes completely captivated me,” says Yoo Young-Jin. “No matter how long the recording took, Jonghyun always sung with the same energy for the main vocals, (the) dubbing, (and) even the chorus. It was the same for Onew – he said he didn’t mind re-recording, no matter how many times he had to do so. Taemin, the youngest, but with the most ambition; Key with the special and unique charms; and Minho, who always fulfilled his role perfectly within the overall performances – it was a joy to work on their music.” “SHERLOCK”, MARCH 21, 2012 By 2012, Danish songwriter/producer Thomas Troelsen was a veteran collaborator with SM Entertainment, attracted, he says, by their “taking risks on really insane records. When I write for these guys, I try to think of it as a science-fiction project.” Following a year of shows and Japanese promotions, “Sherlock” was SHINee’s first Korean single since 2010’s winsome “Hello”; it was also K-pop’s first ever ‘hybrid remix’, seamlessly joining two album cuts (the new jack swing of “Clue” and the striding, percussive “Note”) that Troelsen also penned. The idea came from a senior A&R at SM, and the result is coy one moment and showy the next, with the harmonies on the chorus exploding as the group execute a sliding march forward, a little like an upright Russian folk dance. US choreographer Tony Testa says he tried to “create the illusion” that each of the members were “alone, retracing memories, their blurred bodies trailing behind as if trying to piece together their lives”. “It was my first experience in K-pop, but I could see they could dance well, so I brought choreography I felt would help them grow,” he adds. “They worked so hard. I think they were at a phase in their careers when they knew they had something special and really wanted to prove themselves.” The song’s complexity, and SHINee’s performance (particularly the confrontational energy live) signalled a coming of age for the band. Their metamorphosis, which had included controversially sexy teasers that shocked Shawols accustomed to seeing their idols as boyish or, at most, slightly outlandish, was timely – a new generation of idols, including labelmates EXO, were arriving to steal old crowns. “Sherlock”, however, allowed SHINee to step into a sphere that was entirely their own. “EVERYBODY”, OCTOBER 14, 2013 “We show something new with every release,” Onew told The Korea Times in 2012. “Initially, we can feel a bit awkward (in the new shoes), but then we fill them.” Around this time, K-pop songs were frequently incorporating dubstep but, rather than emulate others, “Everybody” juxtaposed SHINee’s melodic sensibilities with the grinding wub-wub of ‘complextro’ (complex electro). “The first time I heard the song, it reminded me of being a kid,” says Tony Testa. “The odd mechanical sounds were like (the) wind-up teeth and action figures I used to play with.” His childhood memories formed the backbone of the song’s choreography and influenced the video’s concept, in which Minho ‘winds up’ the members, dressed as toy soldiers. The “go-go gadget helicopter” move is a stand out for Testa, particularly live – he says he was “continually amending the dance because the track went through so many changes.” It’s also a tribute to the producers’ considerate touch, and SHINee’s vocal strength, that despite the pressing weight of complextro’s hallmarks, it holds a carefree lightness to match its breezy lyrics. “‘Everybody’ would have never worked in Europe – never ever,” says Thomas Troelsen, unwittingly pinpointing why so many westerners, hungry for new approaches to pop, often fall for K-pop. It sounds like nothing else from that era (nor would SHINee make another song like it), but as a benchmark for K-pop’s audaciousness and SHINee’s chameleonic allure, “Everybody” is unforgettable. “VIEW”, MAY 18, 2015 Before British writers/producers Greg Bonnick and Hayden Chapman, aka LDN Noise, made a mark with some of K-pop’s biggest songs (including EXO’s “Monster” and Red Velvet’s “Dumb Dumb”), they were obsessed with SHINee’s “Sherlock”. “(It) was a song and MV we really fell in love with on discovering K-pop – the vocals, the styling, everything,” says Bonnick. When it came to writing “View”, their first credit for SHINee, he says they “wanted to create something fresh rather than trying to do what K-pop had already done. ​We were vibing in the studio and once it started coming together on the topline and production, it was one of the quickest turnarounds from writing a song to it actually coming out​.” The ease with which SHINee’s vocals carry the understated instrumental is remarkable; Jonghyun’s graceful lyrics float high and strong above the cyclical bass, while members double up on lines of verse for extra colour and bring an endearing playfulness to the ad-libs. The faithful adoption of deep house influences eliminates K-pop’s showstopping choruses, but gives the track a lean, elastic quality. The video’s depiction of youthful, summery freedom also broke new ground for SHINee, with Thailand’s back streets replacing the glossy soundstages of their previous videos. As much as K-pop’s ingrained rigidity allowed for, it was naturalistic and intimate, helping make “View” a pronounced and successful change of sound and visual identity. “TELL ME WHAT TO DO”, NOVEMBER 16, 2016 “Tell Me What To Do” began life penned by Americans, including the Grammy-nominated Mike Daley and Grammy-winning Dewain Whitmore Jr, before being rearranged by Yoo Young-Jin. “I vividly remember we changed melody and the lyrics in the hook so many times that I lost count,” says Yoo. “Normally, we modify it once or twice.” SHINee ended up recording it “five or six times”. The track’s magnificent ruse is that for all the lightness of its dance-orientated sound, its true nature is saturated in melancholy and pain. “When you think of breaking up with a loved one, you regard it as the end,” says Yoo. “However, it could be seen as a desperation to bring attention to fading love. It’s such a bitter thing to happen, where fluttering love turns into something that’s just common, like air.” Opened and closed by Taemin, who shifts its tone from questioning to resignation, the story’s depth comes via the back-to-back rap sections (Minho’s is rough and self-realising, Key’s rhythmic and retrospective), and Onew and Jonghyun, two of K-pop’s most distinctive voices, suffuse it with compelling, powerful emotion. “Tell Me What To Do” was SHINee’s last single with five members. The raw, unhampered ache in Jonghyun’s voice makes it a hard listen in 2018, but its dark flame is a poignant reminder that for all the slick moves, unnatural hair colours, and fantastical MVs, SHINee’s greatest strength is music that profoundly resonates with listeners. “GOOD EVENING”, MAY 28, 2018 In late April, the question hanging over whether SHINee would continue as a group was answered as they emerged united for their 10th anniversary with a trilogy of episodic EPs called The Story of Light. “Good Evening”, the first of three lead singles, had its house-driven lead track “already done but (with) no melody,” says US singer/songwriter Bryan Jackson. “And that’s where I came in.” Jackson used elements from 90s R&B group 112’s “Cupid” in the track and worked alongside writers/producers The Fliptones to complete it. “I think the song’s a perfect fit given the heartbreak they went through. It’s about not just loving yourself, but loving others and being a light for those in the dark.” Replacing the synchronisation they’re renowned for, Japanese choreographer Koharu Sugawara portrayed SHINee’s deep emotional bond through loose moves, which she says allowed them to “present their own unique interpretation” of her initial instructions. Their eyes avoid the cameras, and the group dance facing one another more than the audience, stemming from a desire to create a “dance that expresses a sense of love”, where “the way the members conversed with one another showed what love is”. “I wanted SHINee dancing towards ‘SHINee’, I wanted it to be a ‘conversation’,” says Koharu. The music video alludes to Jonghyun’s absence (the third single would be dedicated to him), but “Good Evening”, while delicate, is not encumbered by the grief that precedes it. Rather, SHINee make it nimble and airy, an elegant display of strength and the tying together of old sounds and new. But ultimately it’s so much more – a celebration of life and the closing and opening of chapters, its existence an affirmation of all five members’ talent and ambition, their journey, and the hard work undertaken to rise, succeed, and forever be SHINee.

[inexpensiveprogress]

Iain Macnab by Herbert B Grimsditch

Below is an essay on Iain Macnab. Someone who is talked about for his and Claude Flight’s Grosvenor School. I didn’t really know a lot about Macnab but the text and illustrations are from The Artist, April 1937. 

The old adage that "Those that can, do; those that can’t, teach” is one of those half-truths that are dangerous from their very speciousness. It is a good thing to dissect and expose them once in a while. So far as the fine arts are concerned, one need not look far for examples to prove the frequent falsity of this cruel and facile allegation. 

 Iain Macnab - LNER Poster

Sickert is one conspicuous case; Tonks (whose recent loss we mourn) is another; and among the younger men one could hardly select a better subject than lain Macnab, who can both ‘do’ and ‘teach’ with talent and finish, and who is an artist teacher because he has the two-fold vocation. 

The clarity of his exposition, the whole-hearted enthusiasm with which he descants on art, the breadth and catholicity of his views, mark him out a born teacher; while his own production as a painter and engraver is proof of his capacity as a practising artist. 

Macnab is of Highland ancestry, and comes of an ancient and celebrated line of Scottish armourers, the Macnabs of Barachastalain. He has always found his hand respond easily to any new technique, and he is inclined to attribute this manual aptitude to the ingrained hereditary habit produced by an age-long tradition of fine engraved work on pistols and other arms. Also, there were artists on both sides of his family. His father was in the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, and Macnab was born on 21st October, 1890, at Iloilo, in the Philippine Islands, which were then under Spanish control. He lisped in Spanish as an infant but at the age of four he was brought home to Kilmalcolm, in Renfrewshire.

 Iain Macnab - Fisherman at Portofino, 1937

During a holiday in Ireland at the age of seven a gypsy foretold that he would become an artist. He was educated at Merchiston and left school at eighteen. Already as a boy his interests were turned to sculpture, painting and cartooning, with the first perhaps pre-eminent, but the career chosen for him was that of chartered accountant, and he duly served his artiles thereto in Glasgow for five and a half years. He was due to sit for his final examination in October, 1914; with the prospect if he passed, of an excellent post in the Philippines, leading to the early reversion of a complete business.

But the outbreak of the war formed a pretext for abandoning accountancy, and Macnab enlisted at once as a private in the Highland Light Infantry. Being already trained in the school cadet corps, he found himself in France by the end of October, 1914 and is a Mons Star man. In April, 1915 he was granted a regular commission in the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. During the battle of Loos he was blown up by a shell. After some little time symptoms of grave internal injury became evident; and in July, 1916 he was invalided out of the service. 

 Iain Macnab - Spring Landscape, Tossa, 1936

His cure was by no means complete, however, and it was not until 1918 that he was well enough to take the art course he had promised himself. 

In that year he became a student at Heatherley’s. He had already seen and studied many good paintings; he had an uncle who knew several of the Impressionists, and who used to talk art with him; and in general his mind was well stored with paintings lore. He started work with the determination to be a professional artist or nothing; the amateur status had no attraction for him. His rapid progress, his fertility in ideas, and his clear and ready exposition of them, led Henry Massey, the Principal of the School, to see in him a potentially valuable teacher. So strongly did Massey feel this that after only a year he offered Macnab the post of joint Principal of Heatherley's. 

With this offer Macnab closed, and as a teacher worked with enthusiasm at the School till temporarily put out of action again, in 1925, by a too-vigorous pull at the etching press. While convalescent in a nursing home he decided that the time had come when he needed, for the proper expression of his educational theories, a school under his sole personal control; so, once well again he found a big house in Warwick Square, Belgravia, and on 19th October, 1925 opened there the Grosvenor School of Modern Art.

 Iain Macnab - Illustrations for Burns’s Tam o’Shanter, 1934

Macnab had thought out the broad principles on which he wished to run his school. His idea was not so much to train students to paint what they saw, in the crude sense, as to teach them to isolate from nature the elements that are truly pictorial, and then to develop their own personalities. His ambition was to make artists. 

To be an artist, as distinguished from a mere competent draughtsman, he felt, it is necessary first to have a personality to express. It is indispensable to the production of a work of art that an emotional reaction shall take place. Of that reaction the drawing is only a vehicle. He stresses the cardinal importance of composition; the students are encouraged to approach every problem in terms of design from the beginning, and to build up their drawings gradually on logical principles. 

The preliminary visualisation of a subject in planes and its resolution by successive steps into a picture giving the illusion of three-dimensional form are clearly expounded in his recent book on ‘Figure Drawing.’ He is a firm believer in the virtues of wood-engraving as a discipline for all artists, since in this medium every mark must have its significance, and the whole thing must be thought out thoroughly in advance, for there is no scope for fumbling or retouching.

 Iain Macnab - Figure Drawing, 1936 

Macnab considers himself lucky to have attracted, from the first, a serious-minded type of student, took kindly to his inexorable rule of silence while at work in the studio. This rule shows his common sense, and is by no means the mark of the martinet. No one, indeed, could be less like the more starched kind of pedagogue than Macnab; and when the time comes for exposition and discussion he not only admits but encourages the criticisms of students. 

He believes in the thorough ventilation of the subject, and strives to train his pupils to see the inwardness of widely-differing styles. Side by side with his teaching activities Macnab has pursued a versatile course as an artist. He began painting in 1918, and has developed, both in oils and water-colours, a distinctive style that, while it has nothing outré about it, is thoroughly in the modern trend of design. 

In October, 1922 he decided that he would like to etch. He was told of five-year courses and suchlike, but this did not suit him, so he bought copper, tools, acid and a book on etching, and within three months had produced six prints which were good enough to secure his election as an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers. For some years he exhibited etchings at the Academy, but in 1929 he decided that the copper was altogether too facile and deserted it for wood engraving. 

Iain Macnab - Illustration from Burns’s Tam o’Shanter, 1934

This medium he took up largely because of its recalcitrance, because of the stern discipline it imposes. In it he has done some of his finest work; and one might go a long way before finding wood-engravings to equal the ‘Tam of Shanter’ illustrations here Shown, with their beautiful distribution of blacks and whites and their admirable translation of the famous story into graphic terms.

Macnab is a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Honorary Treasurer of the National Society, and was made a full R.E. in 1935. He has held only one one-man Show, at the old Albany Gallery, Sackville Street. He exhibits each year at the Royal Scottish Academy, and frequently at the London Group, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the New English Art Club and the National Society. He has achieved much, and much more may be expected from him in the future.

[jolenelaiart]

Just starting to recover from a bad stomach flu and finally got a chance to crawl out of bed to say 'Hi!'👋.

Here's a small clip of the varnishing of 'Captain Heart ', my new oil painting that's currently on display at Outré Fitzroy gallery for their 'Vanguard' group show.

Show runs till October 2nd with @outregallery , if you're in the area be sure to visit and check out all the amazing art featured at the exhibition. Send me a photo if you see my work and I'll be sure to share the ❤️.

Thanks folks! And stay healthy!

#JoleneLai #captainHeart #artwork #car #outreGallery #Australia #artshow #exhibition #painting #oilPainting #vanguard #fitzroy #artoninstagram #newcontemporaryart #varnishing #wip

[tadpolesonalgae]

Friday 13th: A collection of Sneak Peeks!

So, since it's Friday 13th I feel it's appropriate to share snippets from some of the fics I've completed and am working on for the spooky season! I'll be posting a few as the night progresses, so keep an eye out if you're interested to see what's in store! <3

First up is the Naga!Eris x reader piece I'm working on! I hope you enjoy!

Warnings: monsterfcking, naga!Eris is dual wielding, monster cum possesses aphrodisiac qualities, suggested somnophilia

Dividers used are made by the lovely @throneofsapphics 🧡💛

“You want me to ask you for it? Is that what you want?” You’re pleased with the snappiness of your voice. Eris’ eyes gleam with hunger, snaking closer, the head of his cock almost slipping inside of you and it’s a feat of pure spite that keeps you from bucking your hips to get him deeper, fighting off the aphrodisiac that’s already sunk its claws so deep. You incline your chin, desire bubbling away in the pit of your tummy, so desperate for him to stuff you full again. “Make me.” 

Eris’ pupils nearly swallow his irises with hunger, then a deep-throated laugh is rolling from his chest, breathless and lined with strain. His serpentine tongue flickers out once before he’s pulling back, enough for you to desperately bite down on a whine. “Alright,” he muses, rough-voiced, “if that’s what you want. I can do that.” 

You yelp in surprise when he twists you around, so you’re now spread out on top of him, thighs straddling his powerful serpentine body. 

A heady rush of pleasure goes straight to your cunt, finding the view of being seated atop such a terrifying creature a power trip all on its own. He’s massive. Probably eight times your height, from head to tail. 

Eris holds you atop him, and there’s the teasing press of him between your thighs, his tip just nudging at your entrance. “It’s only going to get worse for you,” Eris reminds with a cocky smirk, keeping you suspended just out of reach of what you need, perched on the very tip of his cock, the second, thicker one lying flat against his stomach, a definite swell at his base. He’s not allowing you to feel even an ounce of relief. What have you gotten yourself into? You’d thought asking him to make you would result in Eris pounding you into the bedspread, but instead it seems you’ve started a challenge you have no chance of winning. How are you supposed to outlast him? 

As if he can read your mind he grins. “I can’t imagine how you’ll cope once the symptoms start presenting. Heightened sensitivity; influx of arousal fluid; increase in temperature…” He laughs, eyes glinting. “You’ll be begging me to fit both into your poor cunt, if you aren’t too careful.” His lips curve and his tail rattles, tongue flickering out in that menacing way of his. Eris’ eyes darken, grip tightening, voice softening to a whisper as he croons, “If you ask sweetly enough, I might even give you a break when you pass out.”

[houseofvans]

IN THE STUDIO | ANDY KEHOE (PA)

We’ve been following the magical and mystical works of Pittsburgh based artist Andy Kehoe for some time, and we’ve talked to Andy extensively about his process and work in our Art School w/ Andy Kehoe. Now, we’re excited to find out more about his artistic space, what a typical day is like, and about his next show. 

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Where your space is located: Pittsburgh, PA

Can you describe to folks a little about your studio or creative art space? My studio is located on the 3rd floor of our home in Pittsburgh, PA. I have 2 separate rooms (though I wish it were one big room.) My main studio houses all my computer equipment, the big ass printer, and my drafting table. This is where I spend most of my time both painting and computering. The other room used to be my resin room, but I’ve since converted it to a dedicated painting room and painting storage room. I installed a wall easel in there for when I want to get big and wild. What’s a typical day in the studio like for you? I usually start the day with the normal administrative duties like emails. Then I’ll look at what needs to get done and I’ll jump into it. Everyday is pretty different. Some days are full of creating and painting, and other days are dedicated to printing and computer work. It’s all part of the process. Being an independent working creative is an inherently erratic profession, so it’s pretty tough to nail down any sort of consistency. I just do what has to be done the soonest and figure the rest out as it comes. 

What type of things do you keep around the studio to inspire you or motivate you? What’s the most significant piece of wall art or inspiration you have in the space? I have a bunch of art books, reference books, and my old collection of comics, including my complete set of Akira comics (which I still read in full every year or so.) Most of my inspiration searching happens in the form of meandering aimlessly around the internet. As for art on my walls, I unfortunately don’t have much of that in my studio. This is the biggest and best studio set up I’ve had, but free space is a super precious commodity, especially wall space. I have to use every square inch for something productive. In the spare wall space I do have, there are some smaller works of art and photographs sprinkled through the studio, but now that you bring it up, I should squeeze some more art work into this space. 

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen around your studio or out the studio window? Honestly, not much happens in this part of Pittsburgh, so there’s not too much weirdness or drama to witness. There’s a solid chance that I’m the weirdest thing in this neighborhood. 

What cool new projects are you currently working on in the studio? My next show is coming up in October at Outré Gallery in Melbourne, Australia so I’ll be super deep into those paintings soon. I also recently launched a Patreon page and I’m working on content for that. Part of the Patreon project has to do with digital painting which I’m going to dive into hard after this Outré show is done. I’m super excited about that. 

[scotianostra]

On November 16th 1891 Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show paid it's first visit to Scotland opening in the East End Exhibition Buildings at Duke Street, Glasgow.

The entourage had completed an engagement in Croydon, near London, on Saturday, 24th October, and proceeded to Glasgow by train immediately thereafter. The opening night finally took place on Monday, 16th November 1891, after a succession of delays had forced repeated postponements, whilst an army of workmen battled round the clock with the extensive preparations. The show which caused such a sensation in the city that winter was entitled The Drama of Civilization. By means of a series of tableaux grouped into six dramatic episodes, it presented a highly culturally biased view of the manner in which ‘civility’ had supposedly triumphed over the primordial chaos of paganism and anarchy over the course of several centuries of American history.

It goes without saying that the native Americans were vilified as the villains of the piece, and that the near destruction of their culture was represented not merely as an unfortunate side-effect but as the crowning glory in the triumphant and inexorable outcome of the process of cultural evolution.

Exhibitions of marksmanship were given by Buffalo Bill himself, C.L. Daly the pistol and revolver expert, Johnny Baker, and best of all, the Wild West show’s ever-popular star attraction, Miss Annie Oakley, seen in the second pic in a tartan outfit specially made for the visit.

The native Americans in the show were genuine Lakota, and Oglala Sioux, amongst them was Kicking Bear, who was said to be the last of the tribe to surrender to the U.S troops after Wounded Knee only just over a year before. By the close of the same year, Kicking Bear had become a familiar figure on the streets of Glasgow.

One of the stories that gained notoriety during the time the show was in Glasgow concerns when one of the troupe who went by the name of Charging Thunder succumbed to the effects of "Fire water" who ended up falling foul of the local Sheriff, only this one wore a white wig not a stetson, and sat in the City's Sheriff Court.

The Scotsman reported on Charging Thunder’s trial at Glasgow Summary Court: 

‘Charging Thunder’, one of Buffalo Bill’s hostages from the American Government, was taken before Sheriff Birnie, in the Glasgow Summary Court, on a charge of having, on the 31st December last [1891], in the Wild West Show at Glasgow, assaulted George Crager, Sioux interpreter, by striking him on the head and neck with an Indian club. “‘Charging Thunder’ pled guilty, and it was stated on his behalf that he was only 23 years of age, and was usually one of the quietest members of the Wild West Show, but in common with other Indians, the slightest drop of drink infuriated him, and on the night in question he had obtained whisky in a public-house in mistake for lemonade, which he asked for. He entertained no malice towards the interpreter.

“The Sheriff said that the assault was of so serious a stature that had ‘Charging Thunder’ not been a stranger he would have sent him to prison for a long period, but under the circumstances he would limit the imprisonment to 30 days.

“He thought it a great shame that publicans should supply these Indians with whisky.”

Another tale about Cody himself was found in the Glasgow Evening News of 11 November 1891. A ‘correspondent’ told of encountering a ‘distinguished looking gentleman, with a somewhat outré appearance’, who bought a pile of newspapers from an old lady in George Square and noticed a shoeless young girl helping her to sell the papers. The account continued: “Pointing to her shoeless feet, which evidently attracted his attention on the cold night, he asked the old woman what it would cost to get a pair of shoes for the child, and then handed her the amount she named. He paid for his papers, gave the old lady a sixpence for herself, handed a silver coin to another poor body in the neighbourhood, and then went off with a smile on his face, that showed he felt pleased at being able thus unostentatiously to do a kindly action. On inquiring who the gentleman was, the old woman replied - “Sure that’s Buffalo Bill, an’ he has bought his papers from me the last two nights. God bless him.” Although the final performance was held on 27 February, the last performers didn’t leave Glasgow until nearly two months later. Other notable moments from the tour included Cody attending the Court of Session in Edinburgh on a day off, causing a stir as he took a seat in the public gallery in full regalia, as well as a visit to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. He is also reported to have climbed Calton Hill, and on seeing the view of Edinburgh from the summit, shouted: “Ain’t she a beaut!” Not the first or last to say that I bet! The lengthy tour had taken in venues including Edinburgh, Arbroath, Fraserburgh, Inverness and Ayr.

Cody’s visit to the north east - Aberdeen, Peterhead and Fraserburgh - actually had an adverse effect on the fishing industry, as workers abandoned their trawlers to attend the performances. The price of fish reportedly sky-rocketed on the days following Cody’s shows in the region. The aforementioned jailed Charging Thunder changed his name to the rather less distinctive George Edward Williams settled into anonymity within north-west England.

There’s a great two part article on the day to day happenings of the show here https://centerofthewest.org/2020/07/02/points-west-glasgow-buffalo-bill-1/

[snuh]

Vincent di Fate: The War of the Worlds! - Outré, October 2000

[geekynerfherder]

Stranger Factory presents 'Outré', a 2 person art exhibition with Phil Noto and Brandt Peters, focused on empowered portraits of the strange, the unusual, and the eccentric.

The exhibition is on display until October 1 at Stranger Factory, 3411 Central Avenue, NE Albuquerque, NM 87106.

[sylvianancy88]

ASAP Ferg Net Worth, Biography, Career, Awards, Musical Style, Family and Properties

Darold Durard Brown Ferguson Jr. who goes by the stage name ASAP Ferg is an American Rapper, Singer and Songwriter.

A$AP Freg’s career is spinning over 13 years. He is from New York City’s Harlem Neighbourhood. He is a member of Hip Hop Collective ASAP Mob.

He signed a solo record deal with Polo Grounds and RCA in 2013. His first debut album Trap Lord was released in August 20, 2013.

He got many positive reviews of this album. He is known for his Trap genre rap. According to Celebrity net worth A$AP Ferg net worth is $6 Million.

In this article we will share with you all there is to be known about the Rapper ASAP Ferg Net Worth, Biography, Career, Awards, Musical Style, Family, Properties and how he became so popular.

Biography and Background

Full Name

A$AP Ferg’s full name is Darold Durard Brown Ferguson Jr.

Nickname

ASAP Ferg is his stage name and he writes his name A$AP Ferg to stylize.

Nationality

A$AP Ferg is American by birth.

Birthday

Ferg was born on October 20, 1988.

Profession

Ferg has chosen rapping as his profession for over 13 years. He is also a singer and songwriter.

Zodiac Sign

A$AP Ferg’s horoscope zodiac sign is Libra.

Background

ASAP Ferg started his career in 2007. He developed a new type of aggressive rapping called Trap. Which he defined as “Trapping is hustling”.

People calls him Trap lord because his hustling is impeccable. His debut album is called Trap Lord too. ASAP Ferg and his high school friend ASAP Rocky joined ASAP mob which is why they have ASAP in their stage name.

ASAP mob got into a deal with recording label Polo Grounds and RCA. This label helped launch ASAP Worldwide. ASAP Ferg’s Trap rapping has become popular after his solo release of the album Trap Lord.

He had a difficult life before he started rapping. After joining A$AP Rocky and A$AP Yams in A$AP Mob he became popular and released several albums.

Family and History

Father

ASAP Ferg’s fathers name is Darold Ferguson. His father owned a Harlem boutique. Which printed logos and Shirt for record labels including Bad Boy Records and luminaries such as Teddy Riley, Heavy D, and Bell Biv DeVoe.

Mother

There are no details about A$AP Ferg’s mother.

Siblings

He doesn’t have any siblings.

Spouse

Ferg as of now is unmarried.

Children

He doesn’t have any Children also.

History

A$AP Ferg was born and raised in the New York City neighborhood called Harlem. His neighborhood is notoriously known as “Hungry Ham”.

After his father died of kidney failure, A$AP Ferg launched a clothing and jewelry lines at a young age following his father’s steps and He attended the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan.

He says his interaction with all kind of people like Goth, gay, thugs from Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx etc. that wanted to do ar, graffiti and all kind of fashion people influenced his art and imagery.

As a teenager Ferg wore outré clothing when all his friends were rocking Air Jordans. He felt like an outcast but he got used to it and when he grew into it more he wanted to stand out from the norms.

He quickly ascended from an outcast to a popular celebrity. A$AP Ferg’s launched “Devoni Clothing” in 2005, where he designed and distributed high-end belts.

Musical Style and Preference

A$AP Ferg’s rapping style is very aggressive and trap style of Hip Hop. He calls his new rap style Trap and He defined it a hustling. His trap style is very popular nowadays.

Career Development

From 2009 – 12

By 2009 A$AP Ferg started developing his Trap style of Hip Hop. It is an aggressive style Hip Hop that he explains, as Trapping is Hustling.

A$AP Ferg’s high school friend A$AP Rocky realised that A$AP Ferg has impeccable hustle game and pushed Ferg to do rapping as much as possible. Then later they joined A$AP Mob from which they got their stage name.

Since 2010, A$AP Rocky and A$AP Ferg collaborated on various songs like “Get High”,” Ghetto Symphony”, “Kissin’ Pink”. “Ghetto Symphony” is from Rocky’s top charting major label dewbut “Long. Live. A$AP” in 2013.

From 2012 – 14

Ferg’s first single “work” appeared on the A$AP Mob mixtape “Lords never Worry” was released on August 28, 2012. Complex Magazine dubbed the single song on the “50 Best Songs of 2012”.

The remix of “Work” was featured by A$AP Rocky, French Montana, Schoolboy Q and Trinidad James. It was released to digital retailers.

He announced his debut album “Trap Lord” on January 10, 2013 with the announcement of his signing a deal with RCA records and POLO Grounds label.

Freg released his first album “Trap Lord” on August 20, 2013. “Trap Lord” debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200. On October 15, he was named “Rookie of the year” at the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards.

Ferg also did a job as a featured artist on the track “Hands on Me” by Ariana Grande.

From 2015 – Present

Ferg released the video for the single “Dope Walk” on February 25, 2015. Which was a track from his mixtape “Freg Forever”. The video created a viral dance of the same name.

The video was composed entirely of iPhone footage during New York Fashion Week. Later Freg directed the music video for rapper Future’s “Thought It Was a Drought”.

Ferg released his second studio album “Always Strive and Prosper” on April 22, 2016. The album’s first single “New Level” featured with Future was certified gold by RIAA.

Then in 2016 he and Playboi Carti had a big tour with 23 stops called “Turnt & Burnt”. Freg and Ally Brooke was featured in a single of Lost Kings called “Look at Us Now” on June 9. 2017.

A$AP Ferg’s Debut EP “Floor Seats” was released on August 16, 2019.

ASAP Ferg Net Worth

According to Celebrity Net Worth as of 2020 A$AP Ferg’s net worth is $6 Million. Ferg’s Debut album “Trap Lord” was sold 46,000 copies in United States. His Song videos got viral and gained many viewers. He did some acting in recent days.

Awards and Nominations

In 2013’s BET Hip Hop Awards A$AP Ferg was nominated for 2 award. Rookie of the year and Video Director of the year. He managed to win the Rookie of the Year award.

Works Throughout the Years

Discography

Filmography

Social Media Presence

A$AP Ferg has official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. The links are provided below.

Twitter- https://twitter.com/ASAPferg?s=20

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/asapfergofficial/

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/asapferg/?hl=en

Some Lesser Known Facts

A$AP Ferg narrated the Adidas World Cup advert “Creativity is The Answer”

Ferg appeared in a video ad for Tiffany’s with Elle Fanning Remixing Moon River.

 Ferg is accompanied on tour by his dj TJ Mizell the son of the legendary Jam Master Jay.

Chris Brown, Diggy Simmons and Swizz Beats have worn Ferg’s designed belts.

Final Thoughts

In the end, A$AP Ferg is a phenomenal personality in the Hip Hop genre. He came out with the trap style hip-hop and won the hearts of many hip-hop fans by a storm. He was like an outcast before his career started but he grew out of it and became big celebrity the whole world knows.

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