#radiohead solves everything radiohead is key

[willthespy]

“Slowly we unfurl as lotus flowers”

[dancingcatsta]

HIYAAAAAA Just wanna pop in here cuz Rasta and Thor being pretty princesses off the pitch and also at home is so right of you and now I’m going insane/j

Cuz Rasta seems the type to love self care days (not to El Matador’s extreme tho) and often does it alone or with his spouse cuz as much as he loves the guys and the fans, he needs his well-deserved break

Thor however has to go through Batman levels of security checks to make sure that not a peep of his extracurriculars make it out to his team or the public cuz he’s supposed to be training on and off the pitch like bruh let my man wear his rose water face mask and listen to yoga music like he’s not hurting anyone (AHEMAHEMCrunchAHEMAHEM)

Also a fandom question if you wanna answer: Favourite SS Headcanon? It can also be multiple if you like!

-S Stan

Hello! I’m currently on the train back home and it’s going to be a long journey. Your ask made my evening. Thank you so much!

Dancing Rasta is a though man and we’ve excepted it many times. He’s harsh and he shouts experienced it many times. Just like a captain would. He’s too hard on his team sometimes and I think he’s just anxious about something not going the way he wants. I believe he is just simply afraid of things getting out of hand and when they do, everything happens just like in „Training Daze.”

I believe Rasta does love having self care days but it definitely took a lot of effort, both from his spouse and him. I think it actually could have taken even years for him to feel like he deserves to take care of himself! It’s not always a SPA day. Sometimes he is in the need of undoing his locs or maybe just mosturize his skin.

In my mind, you’re correct. He loves to have a good self-care day with his loved one, although it took a lot of effort too. He still don’t feel always comfortable while doing it. Dancing Rasta is an extremely awkward man with such an awkward energy. Sometimes he needs to be completely on his own and his spouse respects it too.

About Thor: Yes, until he’s done with the research, he won’t feel comfortable taking care of himself around his significant other. He is afraid of people judging him and it will take a lot of time for him to open up.

Time for questions? Time for questions! So here’s 13 of my favourite headcanons. Keep in mind? I love hurt/comfort.

Von Push Up has three daughters and eleven men-children

Rasta is insomniac with caffeine addiction even though he won’t admit it

Thor calls Rasta sometimes so does Uber. He is relatively close with the Tanks and every time Coach and Von Push Up talk, the other always ask him about DR

Thor uses „Noir de Noir” by Tom Ford

Dancing Rasta feels homesick even if he never talks about that. Once he retires, he’d live in his beloved Swiss Alps until the end of his days

„To be love is to be accepted” is Skarra. „To be love is to be considered” is Klaus. „To be loved is to be known” is Shakes. „To be loved is to be seen” is Thor. „To be loved is to be listened to” is Rasta.

„If life is a never ending loop of dirty dishes and laundry then that means life is a never ending loop of home cooked meals and comfy clean clothes” - makes me always think of Thor. I think of him warmly and I think sometimes he daydreams of having a safe space where he could safely spend his retirement, maybe by assembling models and solving puzzles; He wants to heal from the War Trauma and someone to drink tea with.

„Personalize everything or die with nothing to your name” Somehow reminds me of Dancing Rasta. He is the kind of person who wears knitted Bob Marley keychain with his keys. He wears colorful gems bracelets. All of his backpacks, tote bags are full of enamel pins and plush keychains. If something is owned by DR, it is known by everyone.

„No Surprises” by Radiohead is the Rasta Song for me. All he wants is peace, the inner peace too. He wants to take care of his garden, bake his pastries. Tender love, hand to hand. To have someone who could just accept his solitude but still be there.

Rasta is a high-functioning person on autism spectrum. I’d believe you faster if you told me Hydra’s trio is not a polycue than DR is completely neurotypical. He finds it difficult to regulate his body temperature and once the season ends, he goes completely non-verbal.

Dancing Rasta hates physical contact. He is never the one to initiate it, unless a teammate needs it really bad. If someone acts too loud, move to fast, raise their hand, Dancing Rasta is going to flinch. Always.

Acts of intimacy (not nfsw) for Thor

Puzzle putting

Forehead kisses

Models assembling together

Have a dinner date

SPA day

If their S/O is lucky enough, he’s going to let them put not only a face/lip mask on but also a whole face makeup/paint his nails

Acts of intimacy (Dancing Rasta)

It’s hard to be intimate with someone who is scared both of physical and emotional intimacy. After years of being together, his spouse just accepted it

Picking and putting his jewelry on

Gently brushing and washing his hair: touching Dancing Rasta’s hair is the highest form of intimacy between him and his partner. Only they are allowed of doing it and not always. For Rastas, their hair is something very important.

The last one, one of the most rare and most wanted ones - bathing together. Preparing him a bath.

[prinz-alexiares]

Deputy Blair R. O’Connell

I’ve had this OC since, like, 2018 but I was too lazy to assemble her design together so here she is lol

BASIC INFO

Name: Blair Rhiannon O’Connell

Nickname: Deputy/Dep, Blair, Ree (only by family)

Age: 26

Birthdate: January 19th

Gender: Female

Ethnicity/Nationality: Irish-Welsh-American

Height/Weight: 172 cm / 68 kg

Blood Type: B

Occupation: USAF Marksman (former), Deputy Sheriff of Hope County 

Hair Color: Black with red-brown undertone

Eye Color: Grey

Likes:

Winter

Guns ‘N Roses

Rain

Open nature and mountains

Spicy food

Canine animals

Warm bath

.50 cal firearms

Dislikes:

Sweets

Summer

Crowded places

Being teased/played with

Shotgun

Empty desert

Hobbies:

Outdoor related activities such as fishing, hunting, camping, and hiking

Looking at animal memes

Randomly wandering outside or sit somewhere in the forest and do nothing

Reading peculiar books

Petting all the dogs in the ‘hood

Fixing/cleaning/modifying her weapons while blasting classic rock songs on the radio

Soaking herself in a bathtub full of warm water

Personality:

Blair has a bold style and vibe, and she carries a rather thuggish demeanor. She looks and acts more masculine, although she also shows her femininity in a lot of ways as well.

She is somewhat reckless, often acts first before she thinks. She introspectively sees this as her weakness, as she repeatedly made bad decisions in the past that negatively affected people around her. But on a brighter side, she comes out as an ‘action’ person who gets things done. It also makes her seem more courageous and reliable than most people.

She can get very selfish. A lot of decisions she makes would consider her ideals stronger than anything else. But the good side is that she always wants to do the ‘right thing’ by helping others or solve problems, although the result still relies heavily on her own judgement.

She describes herself as ‘childish and mature at the same time’, hinting at her recklessness and self-centered tendencies as being ‘childish’, while her natural leader and calculating nature as the ‘mature’ side. Her service in the USAF had helped her to polish her leadership and logical thinking skills, although they sometimes are hindered by her emotions.

Five Songs in Her Playlist:

Metallica - Nothing Else Matters

Guns ‘N Roses - November Rain

Queens of The Stone Age - Make It Wit Chu

Guns ‘N Roses - Paradise City

Radiohead - High and Dry

‘GET TO KNOW THIS FELLA BETTER’ SECTION

Childhood

Blair was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a devoted Catholic family as an only child. Her business consultant father was an immigrant from Ireland, and her teacher mother was a Welsh-American. They enrolled her into all-girls Catholic schools throughout her elementary and a half of her junior high-school years. However, that didn’t stop her from developing interest in hobbies more commonly enjoyed by boys. She enjoyed baseball, soccer, wall climbing, skateboarding, and plenty of other outdoor activities. She also made friends with boys around her neighborhood and used to walk her dogs with them as well.

During her school years, she was very competitive at school and very confident with herself. She liked presenting her work, actively asking and answering questions during lessons, and she was becoming more and more critical about her surroundings. Her teachers disliked her boldness, as it was seen as a sign of disobedience. They tried to shut her down by treating her differently than her other peers; giving her more disadvantages and having her voice ignored in the classrooms. Young Blair got discouraged and frustrated that she threw a lot of tantrums and started to become less and less compromising when she was faced with problems. She then began to show her violent tendencies as she repeatedly involved in fistfights and physical bullying. Her parents were mad at her once she was given detention from school, but upon learning the truth, they moved her to a mixed, secular private school.

However, her violent tendencies were never addressed properly thus carried until later in her life.

Before Eden’s Gate

Blair was first introduced to open nature, firearms, and hunting when she celebrated winter holiday at her grandfather’s place in Montana. He was a Vietnam War veteran, and through him she learned about the old M1903 Springfield and Winchester Model 70 for the first time. Blair had been visiting him almost every winter holiday since she was 13, learning all the stuff about guns and hunting. She was very fascinated and inspired by her grandfather that she planned to follow in his footsteps to live as a hunter.

But her metropolitan parents were against her ideas, which disappointed her. They later discussed her future and agreed upon a condition that Blair would return to formal school, taking defense studies, and/or enlisting herself in the military or police department. She did enlist to the USAF, spending about 4-5 years in service. She was in the marksman course and tasked as sniper for an Advanced Designated Marksman team in the Middle-East. She was known to be a formidable marksman with plenty of kill records. Although she didn’t experience much combat, it was enough for her to see how complex and dangerous things were, and killing people because she was told to do so wasn’t a pleasure. She also lost her teammate once; a spotter, shot by an enemy sniper.

Once she got home, she spilled the surprising news to her parents that she quit the military. She tried to seek redemption from the extreme guilt she brought home from the war. She went to Montana and stayed in her late grandfather’s cabin while thinking about what to do next. She then applied to several police and sheriff offices in Montana, wishing she’d make things up by protecting people as a police officer. Not long after, she got accepted in a sheriff office located in a remote county, telling her that they’re in dire need of someone capable of handling civil unrest situations. She wondered why, and chose to go.

PEG Turmoil

Blair tried to make peace with her past, but being involved in PEG turmoil forced her to relive her past instead. At first, seeing no way out, she decided to play along; rescuing resistance members, destroying PEG infrastructures, and becoming the pawn for the local residents’ revenge against the cult. But the more people she killed, the more destruction she created, the more frustrated she became. She started to put the Seeds’ words into her consideration. She also spoke to some of the locals who wished there would be another way to deal with the Peggies instead of going all out civil war.

She is stuck between acknowledging that the cult is probably right, that what she’s done is a severe crime and makes her no different than the cult, but she can’t leave behind the people and everything she has been fighting for.

Relationships:

Joseph Seed: The man just feels unsettling for her. Like there is something about him that makes her guts tell her how he is a trustworthy person. But her brain tells her he’s a psychopath who murders everyone to get his way with the world he resents. She hasn’t figured out whether she can trust his words or not.

John Seed: She thinks of him as a typical upper-class man with enormous wealth and power in possession who likes to exploit those who are more inferior than him. He has a superiority complex, perhaps, and Blair has heard about what happened between him and his adoptive family. She also knows his ‘obsession’ towards her, and she prefers to use it as a weapon to taunt him.

Jacob Seed: The Seed she can relate to the most, but also feels like an intense rival of hers. She has complicated feelings about him; she respects him. His values and views make sense to a certain extent, but she can’t deny that he IS a war criminal and he must be held responsible for all the horrible shit he has done. But after all the destruction she created, she comes into terms that they both are of the same kind after all. However, she won’t be intensely facing him off if not for the brainwashing trials and his hunting rituals.

Faith Seed: She feels nothing but pity towards her. She has heard what Joseph has done to her, and what happened to the previous ‘Faiths’. She treats Faith as nothing more than Joseph’s pawn, who probably has no freedom in making any decision at all.

Trivia:

Her name ‘Blair’ is of Scottish-Gaelic origin. It means ‘plain’, ‘field’, or ‘battlefield’, while her middle name ‘Rhiannon’ is of old Celtic origin which means ‘divine queen’. Her surname ‘O’Connell’ is a common Irish surname which means ‘wolf’ or ‘hound’. 

When her hair isn’t tied up, it has medium length that almost reaches her shoulders.

She equips red and grey-checkered MBP .50 with cylinder suppressor, cherry-painted silenced M60, red-painted silenced SMG-11, and a red-painted RPG. When she isn’t in her stealthy mood, she packs Jacob’s rifle and M249.

She has had a smoking habit since high school. She stopped smoking for a while during her service in USAF, but continued after she quit the military. Her favorite cigarette is Lucky Strike.

She is addicted to eyeliner.

She wears her military dog tag as a memorabilia.

Her type of man is someone who can tame and handle her ‘chaotic side’.

Unlike her family, she isn’t religious.

She believes that she is sterile, that’s why she feels like less of a woman.

I want to add some more details but shit isn’t this a freaking long post. I’ll just update them later. Procrastination is the key to better original character design.

[indivisually]

REVIEW://Dancing on two sides of the cutting edge - 13/10/2017

Nederlands Dans Theater - Side A: Split into One / Side B: Adrift - Zuiderstrandtheater - 24/09/2017 and 7/10/2017

Dancing on two sides of the cutting edge

At the dawn of a new theater season NDT1 presents a duality of evenings each focussing on different facets of the company’s identity. With this double program Nederlands Dans Theater aims to distill and emphasize the two main components of their deep-rooted DNA - and their name -, more specifically a combination of ‘Dans’ and ‘Theater’ as the two key pillars on which the company has been resting for over fifty years. Side A: Split into One promises to focus on that first quality, with no less than three world premieres by Edward Clug, Medhi Walerski, Sol Léon and Paul Lightfoot inspired by a concept of pure dance. The second evening Side B: Adrift is provoked by a more theatrical approach and presents two existing works by Peeping Tom duo Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier, along with a brand new piece by Chartier to complete the Peeping Tom trilogy.

Edward Clug opens the twofold of triple bills with Proof, a piece for seven dancers set completely to the music of the English rock band Radiohead. The stage feels mysteriously remote, with only one large elliptical balloon hanging high above the floor and reflecting miniature versions of the dancers on its plastic surface. From the first second the music offers a steady drive for the choreography to unfold. The repetitive and atmospheric soundscapes of Radiohead go surprisingly well with the sharpness and detail of the dancers’ presence on stage. All seven are dressed in similar strained outfits, which allow to see the bodies underneath and make their skin look artificial and polished. In a continuous chain of extremely precise movements, drawn from a varied dance vocabulary, the seven dancers dehumanize into supernatural cyborgs that are simply designed to dance. Their purpose is not to tell stories or to entertain - or at least they do not succeed - they are merely travelling through cold vacuous space. In this respect Proof is a short but strong aesthetical manifest, but hardly goes beyond that. It pleases the eye but has difficulties touching the soul. Anyhow my appreciation especially goes to the clinical precision and stamina of the dancers. It may be said, not just anyone can stage a concept like this and stay true to it throughout the whole piece. Another true NDT hallmark.

The evening continues with SOON by Medhi Walerski, a piece that connects nicely to Clug’s Proof because of the great similarity in style. Just like Clug, Walerski chooses to work with the emptiness of outer space and celestial bodies, this time a sun - a constantly shifting bundle of light - and a moon - a large metal disk -, together an ever-present reminder of the passing of time. The sun and the moon are waltzing amidst the four dancers in a Calder-like construction, and are creating sublime eclipses for the public every now and then. The dancers become subject to the mathematical laws of this desolate world, imposing strict lines, forms and directions upon them. The moving construction causes a great sense of positional awareness, both among the dancers and towards the sun and moon. As the dancers follow this spatial order, they interact but never collide. Walerski’s choreographic style alternates sharp and fluid movements. At no time it is gestural or metaphorical, staying true to the realm of the abstract and to the concept of the evening. Clug’s Proof and Walerski’s SOON might seem ultimately senseless in my description, but both are enlivened with a same kind of poetry. The two pieces enact a futuristic romanticism, transcending the body beyond the realities of the human being and the machine as we know these concepts today, to create utopian new beings. These are the beings we see wandering around in desolate, infinite worlds long after the human race is extinct.

Unfortunately the last piece - Sisters by Sol Léon and Paul Lightfoot - misses what could have been an effective common thread throughout the program. Sisters is the only narrative piece of the evening, and tells about relationships within a family. Apart from the clearly recognizable trinity of sisters, the other characters are less specific. They could even be shadows or traumatic memories haunting the protagonists. The set consists of different random objects making the story even more cryptic. This doesn’t necessarily affect the quality of the piece, but it does result in a very odd contrast with the efficiency and straightforwardness of the other pieces in the program. In its own respect Sisters is a lyrical journey through different emotional states, a universal tale with loose ends to allow personal reading. Absolutely intriguing and memorable was Juliette Brunner’s interpretation of a one-armed girl - effortless, as if her body had never been without this mutilation.

A consistent curation for the second evening of this double program is no challenge for Peeping Tom duo Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier. In Side B: Adrift they continue the psychedelic saga that they left with the award winning The Lost Room (Franck Chartier, 2015), preceded by The Missing Door(Gabriela Carrizo, 2013), both originally created with the dancers of NDT. With the world premiere of The Hidden Floor they add yet another layer to their theatrical labyrinth of thoughts.

It would turn out after the show had ended that Carrizo and Chartier chose to follow some strict rules throughout the three pieces. First of all, eight dancers portray each their own character in all of the three pieces. Secondly, the amount of space where the three stories unfold is equal. It is always defined by the corner of two walls and a square floor suggesting the non-existent opposite walls. Finally, there is no sense of physics or logic whatsoever. Doors become black holes absorbing the characters, polish cloth comes to life and makes choices for its own and a woman chatters like a parrot after her head is separated from her body. Besides, this absurd universe is full of glitches, messing with time and space. These computer-like errors can put the story in fast forward or make it stutter like a malfunctioning CD. In short, nothing is solid, everything is unreliable.

The first piece The Missing Door is set in a greyish green room illuminated by a fluorescent tube, strongly reminiscent of a dirty restroom in the dungeons of an old subway network. The cold corpse of a woman is lying on the equally cold floor. A man drags her through one of the five doors in the room, which will turn out to be the first of an uninterrupted series of peculiar events. The images that Carrizo creates are horrifying and yet impressive. Definitely the image of Marne van Opstal dragging around Meng-Ke Wu like a marionette, making her twist and tumble without her feet touching the ground, is impossible to unsee. As the story becomes more and more complex, it eventually evolves towards the opening scene of the piece, where the corpse is dragged through one of the doors. The circle is complete. The riddle is solved. However, the feeling of perplexity remains.

In The Lost Room Chartier plays with this desire to unravel the mysteries of The Missing Door. For example, we see how the same man drags the corpse from the previous room into a totally new one, this time a warm and stylish suite of a cruise ship. The door is a gateway to this parallel reality, like the magic door in Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle. As the cruise ship drifts on the rough waves, the dancers roll from one side of the room to the other. The Lost Room is a seamless continuation of the horror story in which the eight characters are trapped. Choreographic parts - as a means of storytelling - are notably more present and better balanced with simple actions and play-acting. The piece peaks multiple times, making it another generous dance-thriller that you could almost watch in one breath.

The last piece, The Hidden Floor, shows a flooded cocktail bar with two tables next to a panoramic window and overgrowing tropical plants spread across the room. The dancers continue their mental and physical torture in this final destination. As in the other two pieces, doors, windows and mirrors are important elements to indicate concepts of passage, isolation and self-awakening. The most clear and striking connection to the previous piece is a vision of the suite, as seen through the panoramic window. The warm and welcoming light of the suite is creating a sharp contrast with the coldness of the flooded bar. It reminds me of the final scene of Cameron’s Titanic, where we see the grand staircase of the ship being undone from its decay and turning to its original glory again. Here also, this pleasant image is no more than a dream.

NDT perfectly knows how to make the cutting edge of contemporary dance present for a very wide audience, and offers something for everyone. At the same time, it remains to me unclear what exactly is the artistic added value of combining all of this work in a double program, other than showcasing the versatility of the dancers in the company. Side B: Adrift is standing too strong on its own to be considered part of something else, and Side A: Split into One is not consistent enough in itself to form a good counterpart to the B-side. Maybe the construction of the program is just deceiving too much to fixate on the panels of the diptych, rather than on its hinge. For it are not the sides that are most interesting, but the edge on which they come together.

Jonas Schildermans

Rahi Rezvani, Proof, 2017

Rahi Rezvani, SOON, 2017

Rahi Rezvani, Sisters, 2017

Rahi Rezvani, The Missing Door, 2013

Rahi Rezvani, The Lost Room, 2015

Rahi Rezvani, The Hidden Floor, 2017

[the-dark-side-of-the-blog]

Top 25 Greatest Cover Songs Ever

How often do you find out that one of your favorite songs by one of your favorite artists was originally by someone else? Happens more commonly than you think, yet it does not really undermine the work because we understand that even with the words already written there is a very precise alchemy needed to create a truly great cover. These are my top 25 best cover songs.

25) Sweet Child O’Mine, Luna (Originally Guns N’Roses): The list is 25 best covers, not 25 covers that are better than original because it would be impossible to do a cover that was better than Guns’ Sweet Child O’Mine. Say what you like about Axl and co (really say what you like) but that is truly one of the greatest songs ever, yet Luna more than do it justice. There cover is certainly a very different interpretation but also not all that detached. In terms of its composition it is not all that different but it takes the more electric energy of the original and delivers something more laconic, which should not work but yet does.

24) I Fought The Law, The Clash (Originally by The Crickets): Now some may have known that there was a version of this song before The Clash’s top 10 cover, in the form of The Bobby Fuller Four but unless you have been on the wiki page you probably wouldn’t have known that was a cover to, no matter The Clash’s version is a punk anthem that still stands up all these years later.

23) Valerie, Amy Winehouse (Originally The Zutons): People knew of this song before it was covered by Amy but her version has endured in ways that The Zutons have not. Mark Ronson displays his unparalleled knack for catchy compositions and beats, but its all about Amy and her voice, which was not only one of the most powerful ones we ever had but full of such personality, The Zutons had no chance (although they’ll thank her for all the money she has made them).

22) Jealous Guy, Roxy Music (Originally by John Lennon): Both versions are great but Roxy music might just edge Lennon out. Ferry is somehow able to infuse the song with an even greater sense of regret than Lennon did, while the rest of the band give the song a jazzier edge with the use of the saxophone, which nicely offsets the use of the piano here.

21) Tainted Love, Soft Cell (Originally by Gloria Jones): Okay it might be harsh to call Soft Cell one hit wonders because Say Hello, Wave Goodbye was certainly a hit in its own right as well, but let’s face it they never got close to what achieved with Tainted Love again. A defining track of the eighties and one of the great covers.

20) Take me to the River, Talking Heads (Originally Al Green): Memorably performed on the great Stop Making Sense live album David Byrne made the Al Green classic a staple of Talking Heads work.

19) Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Guns N’Roses (Originally Bob Dylan): Post Appetite a lot of things held GNR back, mostly themselves to be fair, but on a purely artistic level Axl’s lyrics and their ridiculously grandiose quality has always struck me as a problem. Its not to say he’s a bad lyricist, a song like Sweet Child O’Mine has deceptively great lyrics which stop it from being a bland ballad and make it something more poignant, but after Appetite I think he was far too self-serious and over-ambitious. One way to solve that problem is to use others lyrics and who better than Dylan. This cover just makes sense and I may even go as far as to say it is better than the original.

18) Needles and Pins, The Ramones (Originally by The Searchers): Because The Ramones were such a revolutionary band it is easy to forget that they did have influences, some pretty big ones. They did plenty of great covers of bands from the 50s and 60s that Joey and co grew up with but none better than Needles and Pins which among other things highlights what an incredible voice Joey Ramone had, one that goes a little underrated.

17) Superstar, Sonic Youth (Originally by The Carpenters): Superstar is one of those songs that has been over-covered for sure but there is no getting away from what a brilliant rendition Thurston Moore and co delivered. Its heartbreankingly restrained by Moore, communicating a soft desperation with his voice and giving us some of Sonic Youth’s best work of that decade.

16) Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon, Urge Overkill (Originally by Neil Diamond): Immortalized by its use in Pulp Fiction, if you had never heard or known of Diamond’s version you could never have guessed it was his song from the Urge Overkill version, which is so dark with Kaatrud’s vocals implying so much more than the lyrics actually say. Urge Overkill may have done little else but they will have always given us this.

15) It’s Oh So Quiet, Bjork (Originally by Betty Hudson): It is tough to say if there is any one quality that is key to a great cover, but I think it always to have a unique and identifiable voice and personality bringing them-self to the song and there are few better examples than Bjork 1995 classic. It has a grunge loud-soft quality, but without the angst, almost to the extent of a parody it fluctuates so much, but whatever the case it is unmistakably Bjork and there in lies the greatness.

14) Piece of my Heart, Janis Joplin (Originally by Erma Franklin): For an iconic artist it may come as a surprise to some that both of Janis’ most enduring hits, this and Me and Bobby McGee, were covers. Whatever the case both are great, but it is Piece of my Heart that makes the list and for obvious reasons, a classic that still holds up today.

13) Where Did You Sleep Last Night, Nirvana (Traditional American Folk song): Its funny before Kurt begins his rendition of this 100 year old song (also covered by Lead Belly) he seems in quite good spirits joking about trying to buy the Lead Belly lead singer’s guitar, but once he starts singing all of that changes. This is one of the most incredible performances ever seen, it goes far beyond showmanship and into something far deeper and darker. Neil Young described it as “like a werewolf, unbelievable” and he wasn’t wrong. There is a moment at the end where Kurt opens his eyes and breathes out for just a second and it is one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen by a performer. It is wrong that we look at everything Kurt through the prism of suicide but with this cover it is impossible to escape the pain he felt and lived with.

12) Stop Your Sobbing, The Pretenders (Originally by The Kinks): The Kinks and The Pretenders are connected by a lot more than just this song, Hynde and Ray Davies had a child in 1983, but that is beside the point. Stop Your Sobbing is the perfect first single for The Pretenders. Hynde’s voice has this almost brutal confidence and assurance as she instructs whoever to “stop your sobbing”, it straddles the line between pep talk and dressing down perfectly and in the process far surpasses the original.

11) Walk This Way, Run DMC ft Tyler and Perry (originally by Aerosmith): I’m at best an Aerosmith agnostic I like some of their songs but they have never been the great American rock band to me. There is no doubting the greatness of Run DMC’s cover of Aerosmith’s defining hit from the previous decade, but there is also no doubting that it wouldn’t be half as good with Tyler’s contributions. Rock and rap have rarely if ever worked so well together.

10) Respect, Arthea Franklin (Originally by Otis Redding): It is a cliche to say when talking about a great cover that the person covering the song owned it but boy did Franklin own this. By changing the perspective of the song from a male to a female one she not only made a feminist classic but one of the great covers and maybe her definitive track (although there is plenty of competition).

9) Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley (Originally by Leonard Cohen): The most over-covered song? Potentially. Whatever the case Buckley’s rendition overshadows all others. Buckley’s vocals are incredible but in a way that is not very flashy. His sound set the tone for the likes of Thom Yorke and while tragedy may have prevented him from amounting the discography his talented deserved Grace is still a great album. 

8) What A Wonderful World, Joey Ramone (originally by Louie Armstrong): One of the great musical parting gifts. On Joey Ramone’s first solo and final album he gave us his surprisingly perfect rendition of What A Wonderful World. The cover achieved a certain level of fame for its us at the end of Bowling for Columbine but that may misunderstand. Its use in that movie emphasizes the ironic quality of the cover, Joey Ramone who sang of wanting to be sedated now telling us what a wonderful world it is, but actually there is nothing sarcastic about this at all. Joey’s vocals are fully committed when he sings of love and hope and that’s what makes such a beautiful cover.

7) Wild is The Wind, David Bowie (Originally by Nina Simone): For all of his incredible achievements and strengths Bowie had a pretty bad success ratio when it came to covers. His Across The Universe is alright but not great, same goes for his Let’s Spend the Night Together and the less said about his God Only Knows the better. Amidst the less than inspiring rendition of classic rock anthems though Bowie delivered a haunting, atmospheric and all round beautiful cover of Nina Simone’s Wild is the Wind. The problem with some of his other covers I think is he tries to make them too Bowie, whereas here I feel he lets the song itself guide the way he sings it. It is simply one of the best album closers ever.

6) Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead O’Connor (Originally by Prince): Throughout the 80s and 90s the music video became a medium for greater and greater innovation, yet a lot of my favorite music videos of that period are the most simple and stripped down ones, where it is essentially just a camera looking at the performer. I’ve always loved the videos that accompany Alanis Morrisette’s Head Over Feet and Radiohead’s No Surprises and maybe the best example of this comes in the form of Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U. Her raw emotion in the video completely re-frames this break-up song as one really about a much deeper grief, as she channeled the lose of her mother in a tragic accident. Her raw emotion made this cover unavoidable and unforgettable.

5) Killing me Softly, The Fugees (Originally by Roberta Flack) The Fugees cover takes the softness and melodic qualities of the Roberta Flack original but makes it that much darker and beautiful. It is an incredible cover. Lauryn Hill’s voice has this, I find, difficult to define quality but I’d describe it as a knowingness. I think in lesser hands this cover would have overly emphasized the hip hop traits of the song but here that drum loop is enough to make it a distinctly Fugees composition but also subtle enough to not intrude on Hill’s amazing vocals.

4) Alabama Song, The Doors (Originally by Bertolt Brecht): While Light My Fire and Riders on The Storm have endured as The Doors defining hits Alabama Song is the track I return to most. There is this offbeat darkness, it is not the smoothness most refined sound of a band from that era but it unmistakably The Doors and Jim Morrison. He may not have written the lyrics but you don’t need me to point out just how prophetic it was for Morrison to ask to be shown to the next whiskey bar and demanding you “don’t ask why”. So while it may not be Morrison or Kreiger’s words this is the song that I feel best epitomizes what made The Doors so different and so iconic.

3) The Man Who Sold The World, Nirvana (Originally by Bowie): Before I was a massive Nirvana fan I avoided listening to this rendition of what was then my favorite Bowie song (still in my top 5), I even resented people telling me it was better than Bowie’s original. Once I fell in love with Nirvana and put it on I could not believe just how perfect it was. Kurt and co’s rendition is every bit as brooding, dark and unfortunately prophetic as all the best of Nirvana’s work. The title alone feels fitting of Kurt, but it also worth mentioning how this cover is about more than him, the sound created by the band here is fantastic. Suffice to say this is one of those rare things a good Bowie cover, except it is much more than just a good one.

2) All Along The Watchtower, Jimi Hendrix (originally by Bob Dylan): It is rare for such an iconic artist that there most famous song is a cover but while Hendrix was a good lyricist his status as an icon is about more than his words. It was about his voice, his sonic experimentation and of course what he could do with a guitar. Dylan on the other hand was all about his words. All Along The Watchtower sounds like only something Hendrix could compose and play and reads like something only Dylan could write and that is a combination that can create one of the finest rock anthems ever.  

1) Hurt, Johnny Cash (Originally by Nine Inch Nails): Hurt was always going to be high on this list but why it comes number one is that I think more than any song on this list it comes to define what an artist can do with someone else’s work. Everything about Cash’s rendition is trans-formative but not just for the sake of being different. There are many covers that completely change the originally but in ways that are ultimately detrimental. Cash’s Hurt changes the sound, the mood and the meaning of the song but in a way that only enhances its power. I talked about Joey Ramone’s What a Wonderful World as the perfect parting gift but this trumps even that. Its sad and introspective but so, so powerful. Cash’s voice has such gravitas and really Trent Reznor said it best when he described how it was no longer his song.

[whenthedayisdone]

Top 13 general artist's lyrics. Top movie/tv show quotes. im not gonna set a number for that cuz we'd be here forever

So, this incredibly weird human being right here got distracted and didn't read the entire question. Lmao

I thought you set the bar up at 13 quotes.

It took me forever. But that's okay, given how things are messy right now, this was a good distraction. Made me feel better. 😁

Here it goes.

My top 13 general lyrics - No particular order

1. You promised the world and I fell for it.

I put you first and you adored it.

Set fires to my forests and you let it burn.

Sang off key in my chorus cause it wasn't yours.

[...]

We'd always go into blindly.

I needed to lose you find me.

This dancing was killing me softly.

I needed to hate you to love me.

Lose you to love me - Selena Gomes

2. And I don't want the world to see me cause I don't think that they'd understand.

When everything is meant to be broken, I just want you to know who I am.

Iris - Goo Goo Dolls.

3. It's not always rainbows and butterflies

It's compromise that moves us along.

She will be loved - Maroon 5

4. Lying in my bed, I hear the clock tick and think of you.

Caught up in circles. Confusion is nothing new

Flashback, warm nights. Almost left behind.

Suitcase of memories. Time after...

[...]

If you're lost, you can look and you will find me.

Time after time.

If you fall, I'll catch you. I'll be waiting.

Time after time.

Time after time - Cindy Lauper

5. Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by.

Total eclipse of the heart - Bonnie Tyler

6. Funny, you're the broken one but I'm the only one who needed saving.

Cause when you never see the light, it's hard to know which one of us is caving.

Stay - Rihanna

7. I don't care if hurts. I wanna have control.

I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul.

I want you notice when I'm not around.

You're so fucking special.

I wish I was special.

But I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo.

What the hell am I doing here?

I don't belong here.

Creep - Radiohead

8. I remember the day you told me you were leaving.

I remember the make-up running down your face.

And the dreams you left behind you didn't need them.

Like every single wish we ever made.

I wish that I could wake up with amnesia and forget about the stupid little things.

Like the way it felt to fall asleep next to you and the memories I never can escape.

Cause I'm not fine at all.

Amnesia - 5 seconds of summer.

8. We are searchlights, we can see in the dark.

We are rockets, pointed up at the stars.

We are billions of beautiful hearts.

What about us - Pink

9. And all those things I didn't say

Wrecking balls inside my brain

I will scream them loud tonight

Can you hear my voice this time?

This is my fight song

Take back my life song

Prove I'm alright song

My power's turned on

Starting right now I'll be strong

I'll play my fight song

And I don't really care if nobody else believes

'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me.

Fight song - Rachel Platten

10. Forget what I said. It's not what I meant.

And I can't take it back, I can't unpack the baggage you left.

[...]

What if I'm someone I don't want around?

[...]

What if I'm someone you won't talk about?

[...]

I get the feeling that you'll never need me again.

[...]

I'm well aware I write too many songs about you

[...]

It kills me 'cause I know we've run out of things we can say.

Falling - Harry Styles

11. And I am feeling so small

It was over my head

I know nothing at all.

Say something - A great big world & Cristina Aguilera

Am I falling in love with the one that could break my heart?

[...]

I wonder when you go, if I stay on your mind.

Two could play that game, but you win me every time.

Everyone before you was a waste of time.

Break my heart - Dua Lipa

12. You can't expect me to be fine.

I don't expect you to care.

I know I've said it before, but all of our bridges burned down.

Payphone - Maroon 5

13. When you try your best but you don't succeed

When you get what you want but not what you need

When you feel so tired but you can't sleep

Stuck in reverse

[...]

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you.

Fix you - Coldplay

My top 13 quotes - No particular order

1. Sometimes family is more than just the people under your roof. They’re people who jump in, head first, who aren’t afraid to make fools of themselves to help you, who don’t hide their faces in shame if you fall down.

Alison Hendrix - Orphan Black

Bonus to this one on this show:

Sarah: Whose side are you on, S?

Siobhan: Yours, love. It's always been yours.

2. At the end of the day, you are who you are. And it's probably who you have always been.

Brooke Davis - One tree hill

Bonus:

"So, I’ve been thinking about this whole being happy thing, and I feel like people get lost when they think of happiness as a destination. We’re always thinking that someday we’ll be happy; we’ll get that car or that job or that person in our lives that will fix everything. But happiness is a mood, and it’s a condition, not a destination. It’s like being tired or hungry, it’s not permanent. It comes and goes, and that’s okay. And I feel like if people thought of it that way, they’d find happiness more often."

Julian Baker

3. In peace may you leave this shore.

In love may you find the next.

Safe passage in all your travels.

Until our final journey to the ground,

May we meet again. - The 100

Bonus: Yu Gonplai ste odon. (Your fight is over) - The 100

Honorable mention: "We're back, bitches!" Octavia Blake

4. You are my favorite thing, Peter. My very favorite thing.

Walter Bishop - Fringe

Bonus:

I know what it's like to have a hole in my life. It's been there for as long as I can remember. Olivia Dunham

5. I know how hard it is when everything we know to be true changes. But sometimes all we can do is just accept the way things are, and make the best of that.

Kara Denvers - Supergirl

Bonus:

Forgiveness isn’t something that you give to somebody who’s hurt you. Forgiveness is something you give to yourself.

Alex Denvers

6. Just because life isn’t what you want it to be right now, doesn’t mean you should tear it down.

Regina Mills - Once upon a time

Bonus:

People are gonna tell you who you are your whole life. You just gotta punch back and say, "No, this is who I am". You want people to look at you differently? Make them! You want to change things, you're gonna have to go out there and change them yourself, because there are no fairy godmothers in this world.

Emma Swan

7. Sometimes the best thing you can do is take a step back and give yourself a chance to breathe.

Ella Montgomery - Pretty Little Lies

Bonus:

I am just really tired of living in a state of permanent anxiety.

Spencer Hastings

8. Don't wish away your life, you're exactly where you're supposed to be.

Shelby Corcoran - Glee

Bonus:

Being part of something special does not make you special; something is special because you are a part of it.

Rachel Berry

9. We probably judge ourselves way harsher than anyone judges us.

Ana Gutierrez - The fosters

Bonus:

DNA doesn't make a family, Love does.

Lena Adams Foster

10. You spend your whole life looking for answers because you think the next answer will solve all your problems: make you a little less miserable, because when you run out of questions you don't just run out of answers... you run out hope.

Gregory House - House M.D

Bonus:

I need her in my life. Do you know what it's like to need someone?

I'm sorry I pushed you away. It's what I do when I'm afraid.

Gregory House

11. Being aware of your crap and actually overcoming your crap are two different things.

Cristina Yang - Grey's Anatomy

Bonus:

Don't let what he wants eclipse what you need. He's very dreamy but he's not the sun. You are. - Cristina Yang

Honorable mention: You are my person.

Meredith Grey & Cristina Yang (occasionally, Alex Karev but we're pretending he's dead now, so...)

12. If you leave, then I don't want you to come back. It's too hard saying goodbye like this.

Marissa Cooper - The OC

Bonus:

I can't change where I'm from, but I can change where I'm going.

Ryan Atwood

So, sarcasm’s like breathing for you.

Ryan Atwood

Honorable mention: I’m just having an allergic reaction to the universe.

Seth Cohen

13. If we can't live together, we're going to die alone.

Jack Shephard

Bonus: Don't tell me what I can't do.

John Locke

Honorable mention: Freckles.

Sawyer (James Ford)

[abigailswager]

Google Free payment processing

New Post has been published on https://cryptocurrenciestrading.com/%ef%bb%bfgoogle-free-payment-processing/

Google Free payment processing

Google Free payment processing

Google has been offering free payment processing to Internet merchants since they launched Google Checkout almost two years ago. Merchants get free credit and debit card processing when they also use Google Adwords, a direct marketing service that displays paying advertiser’s names alongside search results. Aneace Haddad, chairman & founder of Welcome Real-time asks: Could a marketing subsidised payment processing model work for physical face-to-face transactions as well, Could an acquirer offer free payment processing, Not just cheap and very low margin services (where they’re headed to already, due to pressure on acquirer fees and interchange litigation around the world) but free, without charge.

Wired Magazine recently did a cover story titled Free! Why $0.00 is the future of business. ‘A decade and a half into the great online experiment, the last debates over free versus pay online are ending,’ writes editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. ‘In 2007 The New York Times went free; this year, so will much of The Wall Street Journal. Once a marketing gimmick, free has emerged as a full-fledged economy. Offering free music proved successful for Radiohead, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and a swarm of other bands on MySpace that grasped the audience-building merits of zero. The fastest-growing parts of the gaming industry are ad-supported casual games online and free-to-try massively multiplayer online games. Virtually everything Google does is free to consumers, from Gmail to Picasa to GOOG-411′.

Kevin Kelly, another Internet guru who has also written about the economics of free: ‘Ads are widely regarded as the solution, almost the ONLY solution, to the paradox of the free. Most of the suggested solutions I’ve seen for overcoming the free involve some measure of advertising.’

How does Google’s free payment processing model work, For every dollar merchants spend advertising on Google each month, they can process ten dollars in sales the following month for free. Merchants normally pay around 25 cents to process 10 dollars of sales, so merchants are in effect getting a 25 cent discount on ever dollar spent on Google Adwords. Google hopes that by being a trusted intermediary, they can reduce the number of purchase transactions that are abandoned when customers are uncomfortable giving up their credit card information to a merchant. In turn, this would result in more shoppers buying from Google’s AdWords clients and more merchants spending marketing dollars on AdWords.

A Deloitte study shows how Google views the entire shopping experience as a continuum from the first search through to the final purchase, which enables Google to envelop the payment transaction within the shopping context. ‘Because search-to-purchase firms make their money primarily from merchant advertising fees, rather than on transactions, the potential profits are much greater. The profit margin for solving the merchants’ commerce problems and delivering new customers and/or closed sales is two to three times that of the payments transaction fee. Data shows merchants will pay between 7–9% for delivery of a sale vs. 2% for merely processing the payment’.

How would this look in the physical world, Imagine an acquirer offering merchants the following, ‘For every dollar you spend delivering targeted promotions when a credit or debit card is used in your stores, you can enjoy free processing on 10 dollars in sales.’ Let’s look at the impact on the acquirer’s margins. Take the same one-dollar paid by the merchant for targeted marketing services, and the same 25 cents of processing fees waived on a 10-dollar transaction. In this scenario, the acquirer earns 75 cents on that 10-dollar transaction instead of 25 cents. That’s three times more revenue. Since normal acquiring fees are primarily made up of interchange that goes to the issuing bank, the impact on net margins is much higher. Some of the numbers I’ve been playing with show that an acquirer’s net margins can be five to eight times greater with free payment processing. So this model is even more lucrative for a traditional acquirer working with mainstream physical merchants than it is for Google with Internet merchants.

Things are not all rosy for Google Checkout. Small merchants might not worry a whole lot about letting Google manage the relationship with their customers, but large Internet merchants like Amazon.com and eBay want to have a direct relationship with customers and don’t want Google in the middle (to complicate matters, eBay is a key Google advertising account, yet refuses to offer Google Checkout, preferring instead its own competing payment service, PayPal). Acquirer banks don’t face these challenges in the physical space, where merchants almost never know the customer anyway, unless a loyalty card is used.

One big challenge that acquirers do face is the ability to think differently and to position themselves in the marketing world. Most acquirers are tired of playing in a low margin, commoditised market and many have successfully added new services that generate more profitable revenues from merchants. So they are already going in this direction. It could be a matter of time before an acquirer decides that it would be better to provide payment processing services for free and make money elsewhere, rather than competing with cheaper and cheaper providers.

Wired’s Chris Anderson says ‘there is a huge difference between cheap and free. Give a product away and it can go viral. Charge a single cent for it and you’re in an entirely different business, one of clawing and scratching for every customer’.

Google seems to want to move into the physical world too, starting with Google Maps on petrol pumps that provide drivers information on hotels, restaurants and other local merchants, plus coupons to get you to go to those merchants.

Bibliografie

1. Aneace Haddad. Free payment processing, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965259008701543# , accesat מn data de 20.5.2015