#scandal summer 2017 hiatus!

[puppetshcw]

DREAME  (  드림미  )  is  a  girl  group  that  was  initially  supposed  to  debut  as  CUPID's  PROJECT,  made  out  of  nine  members.  however,  four  girls  left  before  the  official  debut  due  to  creative  differences.  this  prompted  a  rebrand  from  the  company,  where  they  adopted  the  name  STUPID  CUPID.  the  group  debuted  in  2017  under  MIGHTY  DEVIL  RECORDS,  featuring  members  –  CHESKA,  AIMEE,  TOMIE,  JEANNE  and  VIVA.  they  gained  decent  attention  with  their  debut  single,  "SHOT  IN  THE  HEART",  but  it  wasn't  until  they  released  their  first  full  album,  SUMMER  LOVE,  that  STUPID  CUPID  received  proper  fan  engagement.  their  concept,  which  depicted  the  girls  as  "clumsy  cupids  causing  chaos  instead  of  uniting  people",  was  well  received,  and  the  group  earned  the  nickname  VALENTINE  GIRLS.  and  while  the  group's  fandom  supports  their  idols  as  best  they  can,  they  can't  help  but  spark  concern  for  their  overwhelming  schedule  all  year  round.  

STUPID  CUPID's  first-ever  scandal  also  arose  during  the  promotions  of  the  SUMMER  LOVE  album,  in  which  TOMIE's  father  was  arrested  for  fraud,  bribery  and  scamming.  despite  this  being  her  father's  fault  entirely,  people  still  blamed  TOMIE  for  something  she  had  no  involvement  in.  this  scandal  shattered  people's  views  about  the  group,  and  this  era  was  when  the  haters  got  their  first  win.  even  after  TOMIE  returned  after  a  hiatus,  the  reputation  took  a  while.

nevertheless,  STUPID  CUPID  became  one  of  the  most  famous  groups  in  their  company.  while  fans  defended  them  from  criticism  the  best  they  could,  they  still  feared  for  the  members'  health  for  promoting  four  times  a  year. 

things  took  a  turn  in  2024  after  MIGHTY  DEVIL  announced  that  their  most  beloved  girl  group  would  be  transferred  to  a  recently  created  sub-label,  OCTAVIA  MUSIC  CO.,  which  was  designed  to  provide  a  platform  for  female  talent  to  thrive,  giving  them  the  creative  freedom  to  express  themselves.  soon  after  being  under  a  new  label,  OCTAVIA  changed  STUPID  CUPID’s  name  to  DREAM  OF  ME,  or  DREAME,  as  they  liked  to  use  it  more.  

with  this  rebrand,  DREAME  officially  moved  from  their  cupid  lore,  embracing  a  more  sophisticated  concept.  portraying  as  puppets  controlled  by  a  higher  being,  the  girls  fully  know  their  lack  of  freedom  and  want  to  break  from  it.  however,  this  concept  didn't  come  without  any  complaints,  as  people  noticed  a  bold  change  in  the  vision,  comparing  it  to  DREAME's  previous  situation  while  under  MIGHTY  DEVIL.  neither  the  company  nor  the  group  ever  confirmed  the  similarities  between  the  two.

with  their  new  name  and  concept,  DREAME's  music  has  taken  a  bold  turn,  moving  away  from  bright,  high-energy  pop  into  darker,  moodier  sounds.  now  influenced  by  dark  pop,  synth-wave,  and  alt-r&b,  the  group's  latest  releases  explore  fresh  musical  ground,  letting  the  members  tap  deeper  emotions.  through  this  new  sound,  DREAME  brings  their  puppet-themed  concept  to  life,  tackling  themes  of  control,  rebellion,  and  the  fight  for  freedom.

(⠀ ⋆ ⠀)⠀⠀ INFORMATION ⠀⠀! 

group  name ⭒ ⠀⠀ DREAME  (  DREAM OF ME  )

company ⭒ ⠀⠀ OCTAVIA  MUSIC  CO.  (  2024  –  present  ),  MIGHTY  DEVIL  RECORDS  (  2017  –  2024  )

debut  date ⭒ ⠀⠀ 14'02,  17 

debut  single ⭒ ⠀⠀ SHOT  IN  THE  HEART

greeting ⭒ ⠀⠀ "cut  the  strings,  and  follow  us!  hello,  we  are  DREAME!"

fandom  name ⭒ ⠀⠀ mavens  (  current  ),  cherubs  (  previously  )

fandom name meaning ⭒ ⠀⠀ derived  from  the  word  "maven,"  meaning  experts  or  connoisseurs

fandom  colours ⭒ ⠀⠀ stardust  whisper  (  #7dbff4  )  &  puffy  clouds  (  #b2c7d2  )

(⠀ ⋆ ⠀)⠀⠀ LINEUP ⠀⠀! 

yanase  CHESKA  chieko ⠀⠀ '97 ⠀⠀ ⭒ ⠀⠀ (  leader,  lead  vocalist,  lead  dancer  )

amy  AIMEE  huang ⠀⠀ '98 ⠀⠀ ⭒ ⠀⠀ (  lead  rapper,  lead  vocalist  )

danielle  TOMIE  kang ⠀⠀ '99 ⠀⠀ ⭒ ⠀⠀ (  main vocalist,  lead  dancer,  face  of  the  group )

JEANNE  lee ⠀⠀ '99 ⠀⠀ ⭒ ⠀⠀ (  main  rapper,  lead  dancer  )

hong  VIVA  chaewon ⠀⠀ '00 ⠀⠀ ⭒ ⠀⠀ (  main  dancer,  lead  vocalist,  visual,  maknae  )

(⠀ ⋆ ⠀)⠀⠀ OLD DISCOGRAPHY ⠀⠀!

(⠀ ⋆ ⠀)⠀⠀ SPECIAL  ALBUM ⠀⠀! 

DEAR  CHERUBS ⭒ ⠀⠀ special  five-part  album  ❪  2021  –  2023  ❫ 

(⠀ ⋆ ⠀)⠀⠀ TOURS ⠀⠀! 

LOVE  LETTERS ⭒ ⠀⠀ asia  tour  ❪  2018  ❫

THE  DUMB  DUMBS ⭒ ⠀⠀ u.s  tour  ❪  2019  ❫

LOVE  HATE  CLUB ⭒ ⠀⠀ world  tour  ❪  2020  ❫

THE  CUPID  PARTY ⭒ ⠀⠀ world  tour  ❪  2022  ❫

A  WORLD  OF  LOVE ⭒ ⠀⠀ world  tour  ❪  2024  ❫

[fcble]

THE FABULIST'S FIELD GUIDE TO FABLE.

Somehow I've managed to post almost one hundred thousand words on this blog in the form of writing pieces. Which is absolutely insane to me because I don't think I've managed to write one hundred thousand words of creative writing towards any single project in the rest of life up until this Tumblr blog. And maybe this type of celebration is a little premature but I have things planned and I will hit 100k. It's also the three year anniversary of this blog, and I want to celebrate that too.

This is a little recap of where we've been, where we are, and maybe where we're going. And by we, I mean me and the guys in my head. This is also a sort of guide to their writing pieces and the reading order because I did not write in chronological order.

WHERE WE'VE BEEN

There are four major, earth-shattering, life-changing events that happened to various Fable members that had repercussions to various people over various years. If you're interested in all the writing as a whole, I have a Google doc in posting order here and chronological order here, which splits up a lot of the pieces.

[ OO1 ] MINGEUN'S NATIONALITY SCANDAL

In order to debut, Mingeun made a deal with Taein, the company's CEO, to lie about his upbringing, and therefore his nationality. He was born in South Korea, but immigrated to Canada with his family when he was two. When it came to being a Fable member, Andrew already had the diaspora member position on lock. And the main vocal position, which led to Mingeun being cut from the debut lineup after Haksu joined at the last minute.

Jaeseop fought for Mingeun's inclusion and won, leading to Taein brokering the deal with Mingeun. Everything went swimmingly for the first two years, where Mingeun pretended he didn't understand a word of English, and never uttered a word about Canada. He uttered very few words in this time period and was always out of the spotlight.

In the summer of 2020, having hit their stride with their previous album a few months earlier, the lid on the entire operation was blown via Dispatch articles. Given that Fable was on the rise, both in Korea and internationally, it didn't take long for friends and classmates from his childhood to corroborate the news. Mingeun's hiatus was immediate, and it would be over a year before he returned to the group. In the months that followed, he gained a reputation for being a liar, and in turn, tainted Fable as "the group with the liar" for some time.

RELEVANT POSTS: One of the news articles that broke the news. Pre-redemption arc perception. A drabble. "Not Enough." "Live Wire."

[ OO2 ] HAKSU'S BLACKMAIL

Haksu was the last member to join Fable. In the most succinct way possible, he spent the last two months of 2017 stalking and harassing Taein until he was accepted as a trainee. This is because he very much believes in fate and he had a dream about him. In the least weird and creepy way possible. It's only what he did because of it that becomes weird and creepy. Armed with his knowledge and physical evidence of Taein's adultery, he used it as a bargaining chip to get his foot in the door.

At the end of 2017, the debut lineup was otherwise set and they would have debuted earlier, if not for Haksu's sudden inclusion. Jaeseop and Mingeun tried so hard to get him out of there, but he was surprisingly stubborn and resilient and optimistic. He's also the best singer in the group, which is why Mingeun was demoted to main dancer and then nearly kicked out.

After debuting, Haksu continued to use Taein's crimes against him to secure himself the position of center, along with every opportunity that came Fable's way for the first few years of their careers. This continued on until 2021, when Taein and his wife began divorce proceedings. Having lost his best bargaining chip, he had to start learning how to share the spotlight. The majority of Fable fans continue to consider him the undisputed center.

RELEVANT POSTS: "Great Things" part one and two. One part of "Form is Emptiness."

[ OO3 ] EUNSU'S DEPARTURE

Eunsu was Fable's main rapper for three years, until he left the group in August 2021. The official reason for his departure was given simply as "personal reasons." The real reason he left was the death of his older brother, Yonggeum, which left him as his parents' only child. His father runs the only Buddhist temple in the small town he grew up in, a position that was passed down through his family for generations. It was expected that Yonggeum would inherit their father's position. That gave Eunsu the freedom to do things like become a kpop idol. After his brother's death, he was compelled by a sense of duty to return home and learn his father's role.

Despite his departure, he continues to interact with the rest of the group to the point where it's like he never even left. He writes songs for them, features on some of them, appears on a bunch of their livestreams, and is still Mingeun's best friend.

RELEVANT POSTS: "Form is Emptiness" part one and part two.

[ OO4 ] 'THE PROBLEM WITH FABLE'

Ever since their debut, one of Fable's greatest assets and their biggest weakness has been their concept. After building their careers as a modern take on mostly Joseon-era culture, they're boxed into the same square. They hardly ever do anything different, and when they do, it pisses off half their fanbase. These problems and some more were the subject of a viral video essay by Lightspeed member Tyler, but before he joined a survival show and became an idol. You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain. But I digress that has little to do with Fable.

Responses to this were split, with Mingeun and Jaeseop weighing in with their own opinions. They are a bit too decently established and also a boy group for this to really affect their reputations. It just sits in the back of Jaeseop's mind and bothers him every now and then.

RELEVANT POSTS: "the problem with fable" itself. Mingeun and Jaeseop's reactions.

There are a few smaller plotlines that focus more on individual members.

[ OO1 ] BYEONGHWI (AND GICHEOL)

Byeonghwi is the only character whose storyline is mostly romance-focused. I wanted at least one of them to have a smaller stakes plotline that wasn't lying about their entire identity or blackmailing their CEO. So I spun a wheel and it landed on him. Which works out well, because his idol origin story was always somehow passing an audition he went to with a friend.

Anyway, his plot is very linear and straightforward. He had a friend. He debuted first. He confessed and it went terribly. He no longer has a friend.

RELEVANT POSTS: "First Love." "Sea Change." "No Return."

[ OO2 ] ANDREW

Quick side note Andrew is the greatest thing that happened to Fable. He was not in the early drafts. It was just Mingeun against the world. A lot of things are better for them and also for me because he's in the picture.

As far as plotlines go, he's the diametric opposite of Mingeun. His story is also a lot more vibe-based. It's very much about his identity, and trying to find a place for himself, both as a Korean American returning to the so-called homeland, and as an artist in the kpop industry. I don't really know how to TL;DR this I think the TL;DR is his pieces.

RELEVANT POSTS: "Not Enough." "Double A-Side." "Piano Concerto in A♭ Minor" part one, part two, part three. A drabble.

WHERE WE ARE

After all of that happened, I am trying to pick up the threads and extend them years into the future. The easiest way to do this is probably by member.

KIYOUNG recently returned from his mandatory military service. Other than that he's big chilling. Not to be confused with bing chilling. He's adjusting to civilian life again. RELEVANT POSTS: "Piano Concerto in A♭ Minor part one"

ANDREW is being recruited by Taein's somewhat shady business partner and not-quite-chaebol-heir Jinguk, for reasons he still doesn't really know. He has been Fable's temporary leader for the past nine months, and will continue to be so for another year or so, while Jaeseop is enlisted. RELEVANT POSTS: The drabble again. And also his piece which is linked in three parts right above so I'm not doing that again.

JAESEOP enlisted in December. He will be there for some time. Before he went, he tried to prepare Andrew as his substitute. He considered it putting his affairs in order, like he was going to die. RELEVANT POSTS: The saddest announcement ever o7.

INTAK is technically the first Fable member to go solo, in a move absolutely no one could have predicted. He released a mixtape in August. He went to Japan with Byeonghwi and Mingeun and returned with an entire extra suitcase of anime merch. RELEVANT POSTS: The album. A news article.

HAKSU briefly went home in May and missed Fable's last tour date. He did not know that his parents set up a date for him. He also did not know that the date was with one of his sasaengs. It's bad for him right now. RELEVANT POSTS: Tour absence. "exploring haksu's sasaeng problem." "One-Way Mirror."

EUNSU might as well be in Fable with his appearance on Intak's album. He also hosted Mingeun back in November after he got into a fight with some of the other members for reasons I can no longer remember because it's been almost a year and I didn't write it down. RELEVANT POSTS: "Interlude: Birthright."

MINGEUN was given an ultimatum early in the year by Taein. It took him a while to get around to it, but he broke up with his girlfriend of almost four years in July. He's also been on house arrest for majority of the year. RELEVANT POSTS: "Live Wire." "Interlude: Chances." "A Night Out On Earth." An epilogue.

BYEONGHWI is doing things I have yet to post anything about. He's in a situationship with a fan. Nothing like Haksu's situation. There are no relevant posts because this is in my head. It's been going on since Fable's album in the spring of this year.

WHERE WE'RE GOING

Poll time! What kind of ending will Fable have? (This is just an interest check I'm going to do whatever I want.)

The good ending is something along the lines of their disbandment when their contracts expire. The bad ending is they succumb to what might be the only scandal that could kill them. After they made it through Mingeun's rough patch I really believe they could survive anything else, EXO/cockroaches of kpop-style.

Other than that, I don't have many more plot points fleshed out yet. I will go wherever they take me 🫶.

[trumpetnista]

CMW2/Trumpetnista: Safe (6/?)

Summary from FFN: NOW A WIP: She was Olivia Pope, not Alex Jones, not Julia Baker, and she was a mess;In this AU of 4x16, instead of Alex seducing Russell to feel alive again, Olivia decides on a better course of action, a course of action that starts with a phone call to Fitz;HEAVY SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4 WITHIN;Rated for language, imagery, and later Olitz lovemaking;4th in my 2016 SSS Project

Teaser from Chapter 6: "I'm not talking about the Oval. I'm talking about Virginia." 

"It is always about the Oval with you. You want Mellie in there next. You want a Grant Dynasty." 

"She could be a great President, Liv. She just needs a little polish..." 

"What she needs is a lot of nepotism, handholding and conniving, not polish. She isn't Fitz, Cyrus. Mellie is unqualified. She has no political experience or capital of her own. She graduated top of her class at Harvard and passed the Bar with flying colors, which is nothing to scoff at but it's not enough. The Oval is not going to happen for her yet. It may not even happen at all. If she really wants to be President, then she needs to put on her big girl panties and pay her dues. She can't cut corners, cheat, or ride on someone's coat tails this time. She needs to legitimately get the job as Virginia's Junior Senator, do the job correctly for at least 4 years, and then she can run for President. She also needs to establish a more humble and approachable image, not to mention that she's still only known as Fitz's wife. Contrary to popular belief, being First Lady isn't just being arm candy and a Stepford Wife in red and pearls. You can do a lot of good, powerful things as FLOTUS but Mellie hasn't taken advantage of that opportunity, not really... don't give me that look. I'm not telling you things that you don't already know, Cyrus." 

"...you're right. I just...can you really walk away from it all? The Game?" 

Disclaimer for the full story: “Honestly, it’s not mine!”

"Olivia..."

"Don't."

"Liv, I..."

"I don't want to hear it. You've said and done enough tonight. Hang up the phone."

"You don't understand..."

"I understand enough. Jake, you owe me 450 dollars. 150 was to keep him from calling the police on you and the rest was to help cover his medical costs. I want my money by Monday and this? This is done. Whatever new assignment Rowan gave you is done. You're off duty, Son and good luck explaining this to him. Maybe he'll just exile you to Switzerland instead of putting you back in The Hole or into a shallow grave."

"Rowan didn't assign me to do anything. He has no say in what I do now. I'm free."

"You really believe that? You really expect me to believe that? Okay."

"...Olivia, the guy back there wasn't just a photographer, he was a PI hired by BNC and TMZ. He's been following you around for weeks and he had notes on a story about you going to your Group sessions. He found your therapist's office building and even got copies of all of the prescriptions that you're on and... I was just trying to protect you and your business. Reputation is everything in DC. Image is everything. You know that better than anyone. I mean, I'm glad that you're getting better but still, no one is going to hire a Crisis or Campaign Manager whose..."

"Crazy. That's the word you were going to use, right? I'm just so crazy and just so helpless, aren't I? I can't even tie my shoes or wipe my nose without someone holding my hand, isn't that right? I'm just so pathetic and let's be honest: you're not happy about me healing at all because you can't benefit from it."

"That's not even close to true!"

"...okay."

"It's not, Olivia! I really care about you and..."

"...you have a very bad way of showing it. Huck will be at your place on Monday. Don't make him have to look for you. Goodbye, Jake."

"Liv..."

"Goodbye, Jake."

"I'm retired from Politics, Cyrus. I'm a Fixer, not a King or Queen Maker. I'm done."

"Look, I know that you and Mellie have a past but there's a chance for History to be made here and..."

"Has Susan Ross decided to leave DC? I hope not. She's already doing a fantastic job as Vice President. America's future is in good hands."

"I'm not talking about the Oval. I'm talking about Virginia."

"It is always about the Oval with you. You want Mellie in there next. You want a Grant Dynasty."

"She could be a great President, Liv. She just needs a little polish..."

"What she needs is a lot of nepotism, handholding and conniving, not polish. She isn't Fitz, Cyrus. Mellie is unqualified. She has no political experience or capital of her own. She graduated top of her class at Harvard and passed the Bar with flying colors, which is nothing to scoff at but it's not enough. The Oval is not going to happen for her yet. It may not even happen at all. If she really wants to be President, then she needs to put on her big girl panties and pay her dues. She can't cut corners, cheat, or ride on someone's coat tails, this time. She needs to legitimately get the job as Virginia's Junior Senator, do the job correctly for at least 4 years, and then she can run for President. She also needs to establish a more humble and approachable image, not to mention that she's still only known as Fitz's wife. Contrary to popular belief, being First Lady isn't just being arm candy and a Stepford Wife in red and pearls. You can do a lot of good, powerful things as FLOTUS but Mellie hasn't taken advantage of that opportunity, not really... don't give me that look. I'm not telling you things that you don't already know, Cyrus."

"...you're right. I just...can you really walk away from it all? The Game?"

"Not walking away from The Game when I should have has led to me losing some of my closest friends, breaking my own heart by constantly hurting those who are still around to love me, neglecting my business, and losing a good portion of my sanity. I'm finally recovering. I'm stronger than I've been in a long time and I have absolutely no intention of setting myself back, especially not for Mellie, of all people. She wouldn't piss on me if I was on fire so why the hell should I go out of my way to help her? I've done more than enough for her. She doesn't deserve any more of my time or effort and to be honest, she doesn't deserve any more of yours and Fitz's either. She's always said that she's been held back, that we and the whole world has done nothing but conspire to take away her dreams. She's said that she is a political animal that can handle herself no matter what so let her prove it. Let her earn her place in the sun all by herself. As for your future, instead of trying to make a Grant Dynasty, I say that you should back Susan's campaign for the Oval when it kicks off or go and hook up with Frankie Vargas out of Pennsylvania if you want to switch Parties. They are the Candidates for '16. They are who America deserves to represent them after Fitz is done. Mellie is nothing. People like Hollis Doyle and Donald Trump are more qualified to lead than her and that's both very sad and downright terrifying. What a time we live in, huh?"

"I thought you said that you were retired from Politics."

"I am but that doesn't mean that I don't keep up with things. How's the Brandon Bill going?"

"Slowly. They're fighting like cats and dogs over every word."

"Figures. Don't give up on it, though. It's needed legislation and it will be Fitz's Legacy when it passes. It'll be his New Deal, his Medicaid, his Interstate System, his Moon Landing. You'll see."

"Speaking of Fitz..."

"We can talk about Fitz when we talk about Michael."

"...right. I just...I noticed that he's been happier and more much focused, lately. I know that you came to see him a couple of weeks ago so I was wondering if you two were..."

"It's none of your business, Cyrus."

"I'm asking as your friend, not as his Chief of Staff, Liv."

"Asking questions as my friend can and will lead to you interfering as his Chief of Staff where you have no right or business doing so. It's happened before and it won't be happening again. What is and isn't going on between Fitz and I is between us and only us now. That's how it should've been from the start but I wasn't ready for it to be like that. Now, I am. Finish your coffee before it gets cold."

To accent her words, Olivia drank the last of her hot chocolate and kept her gaze straight ahead. Sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial gave them both a prime view of the Washington Monument, highlighted by the Saturday morning sun. Cyrus had texted her after her run, wanting to know if she could meet him to catch up.

Saturday was her off day. Unless there was a catastrophic emergency, she was to be left alone.

She would go on a run and then, depending on her mood, she'd go home to relax or she'd pick someplace to hang out for the day. The Monuments, the museums (sans the Smithsonian), her favorite gym for boxing & swimming, and she had joined the evening Bikram Yoga classes at the rec center that housed her Group sessions. That was how she discovered what Jake had done to the reporter. She had hurried over to help just in time to see him fleeing into the night and the groaning man coughing up blood on the pavement...

"Just...be careful with whatever the hell you're doing now, all right? Both of you."

"Because we could bring the Republic for which we stand crashing down and end up ruining countless lives for having the nerve to love and want the best for each other, even in secret?"

"...because I never want to see either of you hurting like you've been ever again."

As if letting air out of a balloon, the piss and vinegar in her body language drained away. After a long beat of silence, Olivia scooted over on the step they were sharing and put her head on Cyrus' shoulder. For all of his flaws and manipulating, Cyrus Beene was still one of her closest friends, her mentor. He was a member of her family, as dysfunctional and twisted as it was at times. He did care for her, even loved her in his own Cyrus way and she couldn't forget that.

Cyrus Beene was a Monster but he was her Monster, Fitz's too.

"Sorry."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I've given you plenty of reasons not to trust me over the years."

"An encyclopedia's set worth of reasons."

Another long beat and then both of them laughed.

[glasshcvse]

⸻⸻   ﹕ GET  TO  KNOW ⠀ › ⠀ E/DEN. 

GARDEN  OF  EDEN,  or  E/DEN,  was  a  fictional  six-member  co-ed  group  formed  by  GLASSHOUSE  INC.  in  2017.  a  year  before  their  official  debut,  GLASSHOUSE  announced  that  they  would  be  making  a  survival  show  for  E/DEN,  making  them  the  first  group  to  be  formed  through  a  show  in  the  company.  THE  GARDEN  started  filming  on  february  4th  and  has  been  regularly  showing  once  a  week  until  march  18th,  when  the  show  concluded  with  seven  episodes  in  total.  the  top  six  competitors  rushed  to  film  their  debut  mv,  which  was  officially  released  on  may  10th  that  same  year.  the  survival  show  featured  fourteen  trainees–  seven  male  and  seven  female–  from  various  backgrounds,  showcasing  different  talents  to  the  public  in  hopes  of  catching  their  attention.  in  the  last  episode  of  THE  GARDEN,  the  company  announced  that  the  members  debuting  in  E/DEN  would  be:  GO  MINJI  (  winning  third  place  ),  FLORA  JUNG  (  second  place  )  and  GAO  ANYA  (  receiving  first  place  )  from  the  female  trainees,  as  well  as  BAEK  DABIN  (  third  place  ),  YOO  SUNGMIN  (  placing  in  second  place  )  and  THEO  KANG  (  in  the  first  place  )  from  the  male  trainees,  debuting  with  a  single  album,  OASIS  IN  THE  SUMMER.  the  group  was  active  for  two  years  until  it  was  revealed  that  E/DEN  would  be  going  on  a  hiatus  after  the  news  of  some  members  bullying  other  trainees  broke  out.  instead  of  looking  more  into  it,  GLASSHOUSE  put  the  group  on  a  pause,  hoping  the  scandal  would  disappear  during  their  break.  unfortunately,  the  backlash  was  so  bad  that  the  company  later  announced  the  members  had  decided  to  disband  the  group.  they  decided  to  do  their  own  things,  and  half  went  their  separate  ways,  while  the  other  half  stayed  as  the  company's  staff  members.  GO  MINJI  is  currently  the  only  member  to  debut  again  with  PAPILLON  as  their  LEADER  &  ALL-ROUNDER.  the  rumours  of  bullying  have  still  not  been  answered  to  this  day,  as  all  members  refuse  to  acknowledge  the  whole  thing  ever  happened.  THE  GARDEN  is  also  the  only  survival  show  made  by  the  company  to  this  day,  as  the  staff  are  prohibited  from  revealing  what  was  true  and  what  not  in  fear  that  the  same  thing  will  happen  again. 

⸻⸻   ﹕ TRACK  ONE ⠀ › ⠀ THE  BASICS. 

group  name  :  e/den  /  garden  of  eden

sub-units  :  a/dam  &  e/ve  ❪  2018  –  2019  ❫

company  :  glasshouse  inc.

debut  date  :  may  10th,  2017.

debut  album  :  n/a

disbandment  date  :  ––,  2019  /  2020.

fandom  name  :  flowers

survival  show  :  the  garden  ❪  2017  ❫

personal  tv  shows  :  e/den’s  paradise  ❪  2018  –  2019  ❫

members  :  flora  jung  :  main  dancer  +  main  vocalist  +  fotg  ❪  1995  ❫,  theo  kang  :  leader  +  main  rapper  +  lead  dancer  ❪  1995  ❫,  gao  anya  :  lead vocalist  +  visual  ❪  1996  ❫,  yoo  '  sun  '  sungmin  :  main vocalist  +  dancer  ❪  1996  ❫,  go  minji  :  lead  dancer  +  sub-vocalist  ❪  1998  ❫,  baek  '  dabi  '  dabin  :  lead rapper  +  maknae  ❪  1998  ❫ 

⸻⸻   ﹕ TRACK  TWO ⠀ › ⠀ THE  DISCOGRAPHY. 

OASIS  IN  THE  SUMMER  :  OASIS  IN  THE  SUMMER  ›  e/den  debut  single  album  ❪  2017  ❫ 

TONIGHT  IS  THE  NIGHT  :  TONIGHT  IS  THE  NIGHT  ›  e/den  single  album  ❪  2017  ❫

THE  GREEN  GARDEN  :  PICK  YOUR  POISON  ›  e/den  mini  album  ❪  2017  ❫

CAN  I  BE  YOURS?  :  CAN  I  BE  YOURS?  ›  a/dam  debut  single  album  ❪  2018  ❫

MORE&MORE  :  MORE&MORE  ›  e/ve  debut  single  album  ❪  2018  ❫

OUR  ISLAND  :  CLOSER  TO  ME  ›  e/den  mini  album  ❪  2018  ❫

I  LIKE  IT  :  I  LIKE  IT  ›  e/den  single  album  ❪  2019  ❫

THE  MOMENT  :  MY  FIESTA  ›  e/den  full  album  ❪  2019  ❫

[famedroleplayarchive]

Below the cut are a lot of updates I wanted to combine in one post. Most of these are the results of the polls I ran the last two weeks, but there are a couple of smaller updates to things like the points shop or minor rule updates. I tried to be as concise as possible to keep the length from getting out of hand, so if there are any questions left unanswered, I will be happy to address them! I’ll try not to throw any major updates at everyone for a while unless I absolutely have to!

This has been a lot to change, so it’s possible I may have missed a thing or two on certain pages, so if you notice anything I overlooked, please message me and I’ll fix it!

AOA has been removed from Lipstick’s past discography

There are no longer any AOA songs in Lipstick’s past discography. These have been replaced mostly with older Girl’s Generation and After School songs, including “Genie”, which has now been specifically stated as their breakout hit. Two non-AOA songs were removed, but they’ll likely be released in the future, and “Catch Me If You Can” has been moved later to be their first release after their former main vocal’s depature. A vocal position was added to the main rapper and a sub vocal position was added to the maknae. You can find Lipstick’s new discography here and their old discography here in case you want to compare the changes.

Park Duri and Zhao Tian both had MV role past claims in AOA songs that are no longer possible, so if the muns of these muses would like to change to a different MV claim, please message me!

Lip Gloss has been updated and their past discography now consists only of Orange Caramel songs. Instead of receiving backlash at the end of 2017 for releasing a song meant for Lipstick following Goeun’s departure from the group, they received backlash for releasing “Lipstick”, amid fears of the name suggesting the sub-unit would be replacing the full group as fans were unsure of Lipstick’s future as a full group at the time. You can find Lipstick’s new discography here and their old discography here in case you want to compare the changes.

Queendom will be staying with Lipstick using Nine Muses/After School/SNSD-inspired stages, based on votes, and information about Queendom has been updated on Lipstick’s, 7ROPHY’s, and Aria’s monthly schedules.

IZ*ONE has been added to WISH’s future discography

This does not affect anything in the past or present, but WISH are planned to release their first IZ*ONE release next summer. The line distribution has been updated on WISH’s page.

Gugudan and Laboum have been added to Aria’s future discography

Again, this does not affect anything in the past or present. Aria are planned to release their first Laboum release next summer. The line distribution has been updated on Aria’s page.

iKon has added to Alien’s past and future discography, B.A.P has been removed

iKon songs have replaced the B.A.P songs previously in Alien’s discography, and Alien are planned to release their first future iKon release next summer. Alien still debuted with the concept of aliens from different planets coming together, but it’s mentioned that the concept wasn’t a big part of their group concept after they debuted. Alien’s success at debut was higher than previously described, with them being widely anticipated to become a top boy group until their lawsuit, at which point their domestic success greatly suffered and they’ve been working to recover since. A sub vocal position has been added to the maknae. You can find Alien’s new discography here and their old discography here in case you want to compare the changes.

Mamamoo has been added to Silhouette’s past and future discography, Fiestar has been removed

Mamamoo songs have replaced three of the four Fiestar songs previously in Silhouette’s discography. The other one has been removed without being replaced. Silhouette are planned to release their first future Mamamoo release near the beginning of 2021. A vocal position has been added to the main rapper position. You can find Silhouette’s new discography here and their old discography here in case you want to compare the changes.

Astro and VICTON have been added to Impulse

Astro and VICTON songs will now be released by Impulse in addition to GOT7 songs in the future. This does not affect their past discography, but positions have been updated to more accurately align with all groups and line distributions have been updated. No taken positions have had their assigned positions changed. Impulse will begin to be affected by Astro and VICTON schedules next year and they are planned to release their first future Astro release near the beginning of 2021.

Two Knight positions have been updated

Knight’s main dancer/vocal position has been partially merged with the former maknae/lead dancer/rapper position. This makes the latter position now maknae/main dancer/rapper/vocal. This has been discussed with the mun of the muse currently taking that position. The former main dancer/vocal position is now a vocal position. This is to more accurately reflect the fact that, with Lay’s absence from recent EXO release, that former position wasn’t getting highlighted as a dancer in the group with any of Knight’s three model discographies anymore. I did consider bringing Knight down to eight members, but having over a fourth of the group on permanent hiatus then felt like a little too much.

Photo shoot claims are no longer limited by face claim

Muses may now claim magazine shoot references outside of their face claim. These photo shoots must still be idol-appropriate. The claims rules regarding them have been updated, so those should be read before sending in a magazine claim, please!

Foreign acting claims have been added to the points shop

Foreign acting claims have been added to the points shop due to demand. This claim is available for acting in China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, or the Philippines in roles played by current or former K-pop idols in real life. Again, there are very specific rules for these, so the new foreign acting claims rules page should be read by anyone interested in making this claim. Prices and waiting period are higher than domestic acting claims due to being cast in foreign dramas and movies being rarer and solo overseas activities like that being more of a conflict with group schedules.

The nation’s title claim is once again available with a checklist and a list of claimable titles

The claim has been reinstated with the checklist I’ve already shown to anyone who asked, with only the addition of a required solo magazine cover and a bullet point about scandals being kept to a minimum or the requirement of significant additional image-shaping through claims being needed. There is now a definite list of available titles to keep titles realistic and limit the overall number of nation’s titles possible.

As mentioned to those I’ve already spoken to about the claim, the checklist is to ensure several factors including, but not limited to: significant development into individual fame for a muse, mun dedication and development of a muse (to prevent frequent claiming of and then dropping of titles), and title’s importance to character development.

Muns are still required to discuss their muse’s path with the main before trying to claim a nation’s title.

There are specific age, gender presentation, and career limits for some. Available titles may be added as seen fit. There is also now a set rule limiting the number of potential nation’s titles per group instead of a vague general guideline.

EDIT: There are tentatively three spots for “original” titles that haven’t been given to anyone in real life or are not listed as pre-set tiles, but these will be selective and must receive admin approval. They should be comparable to existing titles without directly overlapping with any. If it’s hard to find original titles that can be approved, this option may be removed.

Muses may now only claim an MC special stage the first time they MC a show

Since the special stages are meant to introduce MCs, they may now only be claimed the first time a muse MCs for that specific music show.

Conflicting information on points blog regarding creative claims on canon features has been fixed

I noticed there was conflicting information on the points blog regarding whether creative claims were available on canon features and have hopefully removed all conflicting information. Creative claims now can’t be claimed on canon song features, but any previous claims of this nature will not be affected if I had allowed it.

Points-claimed OSTs must now be claimed before a drama begins airing

A drama will now close off to OST claims once it begins airing like it closes off to acting claims.

A Youtube song promotion claim has been added

These types of videos were previously unclaimable and considered nebulously headcanonable but not able to be made explicitly canon or claimed as viral moments. Since some interest has been shown in being able to claim them so they can be further claimed as viral moments, I’ve added the ability to canonically claim a Youtube song promotion bundle of up to four videos. Please make sure to read the rules regarding this if you plan to make a claim for this!

Only one muse per mun may now have past acting claims

This does not affect muns who already have multiple muses with past acting claims, but from now on, only one muse per mun may take up a past claims acting spot, even if they have multiple soloist muses. This is to allow more muns to possibly include that as character backstory for a muse.

Two-point playlist requirements have been updated

The requirements to collect two points for a playlist have been updated to more accurately reflect what I’m looking for. The playlist can include either a 100+ word explanation or, only if the lyrics are directly applicable to the playlist, such as if you make a playlist of songs that lyrically describe your muse’s personality or lyrically describe their relationship with another much, highlighted lyrics may be used.

Songs should also not be repeatedly used over multiple playlists so that muns aren’t making very similar playlists in theme and/or content to stock up on points. There is some margin for error here as not everyone is expected to keep up with every song they’ve already used in a playlist, but please do your best to avoid this.

The weekly chart explanation on the Exclusive blog has been updated

Nothing has actually changed about how charting is calculated, but I attempted to remove information that wasn’t really helpful and overall better explain the factors that come into play.

[reistellae]

A really really long reflection 2/3

The second part in my long, reflective essay. If you haven’t read part 1 (it’s a snooze admittedly), lemme summarize: racism within American society is long and runs deep, it will not be erased overnight; in pop culture and entertainment, Asians/Asian-Americans have never been taken seriously in post-WWII America; the rise in popularity of anime and jpop and the Internet eventually leading to the globalization of kpop. We are currently at 2016.

We last left off in 2016, where BTS was gaining some major traction worldwide. During this time, other kpop groups were making their moves in the States. GOT7 had their FLY Tour shows in the United States July 1-11th 2016 and were doing tons of press interviews to promote the concert. The kpop convention + concert (KCON) had steadily been growing in popularity since its first con in 2012 with a 2016 lineup that featured Seventeen, BTOB, Ailee, Crush, Dynamic Duo, BTS, Day6, Mamamoo, and Eric Nam at the New York convention and  Amber, SHINee, Block B, Dean, GFriend, IOI, Girls Generation TTS, BTS, Eric Nam, Twice, Monsta X, and Astro in at the LA convention. EXO had their EXO’lu’Xion Concerts in the States from February 10-21st, 2016. 

All in all, it became very clear that kpop had an audience in the United States and it wasn’t listened to by just Asian-Americans anymore. The audience became diverse, with people of all ages finding groups that appealed most to them. 2016 saw the year of the announcement of One Direction’s indefinite hiatus, which meant there were teenagers and young adults who were looking for new things to listen to, causing a small shift in fandom culture. I say small because kpop fans and Directioners famously had a lot of conflict, particularly on Twitter, and many Directioners would be xenophobic and racist towards kpop fans and their favorite groups with comments such as “You listen to ching chong music,” “You can’t even understand what they’re saying,” and so on, so I think the overlap between Directioners and kpop fans was very minimal. 5 Seconds of Summer, another popular band in the West, had announced a hiatus around 2016/17 and I believe this was where a lot of new fans came from. 5SOS had an audience of relatively “emo” and “edgy” teens who look for something different and tend to be more open minded, against the “mainstream” groups like One Direction. A lot of 5SOS fans shifted into kpop during the band’s hiatus, from what I’ve seen on Twitter.

However, racism is not just an American problem, it’s global. And within kpop and South Korean culture, racism and colorism run almost just as deep. This was no secret to many Asian-American/non-Korean Asian fans or to black fans. Many groups have incidents of blackface, saying colorist comments, allegations of cultural appropriation, and saying n*gga. A common defense fans would come up with when confronted with the scandal would say “they didn’t know any better,” “they don’t have black people in Korea,” “get over it, it isn’t hurting you,” and many more excuses. As a result, this tends to cause a divide between black kpop fans and non black kpop fans. The discussions of racism within kpop tend to go one-sided, with black kpop fans feeling as though they are silenced and ignored by other fans, idols, and companies. Pop culture in America often takes things from African American culture and acts like they are “new” and “fresh” and “trendy” which leads to kpop idols adopting these things as well to seem cooler. 

Back on BTS, they were no strangers to racist scandals. Leader RM debuted with a fro-hawk-like style, did a rather poor imitation of Stevie Wonder while wearing dreads and sunglasses, and said that he was surprised with how dark fellow members were when he first met them. No formal apology directly stating what he had done was ever issued, so it can be assumed that Bighit Entertainment, the company in charge of BTS, brushed it off. Despite this, the fandom would continue to grow on their main platform of Twitter. 

Twitter is the most immediate way to find people who have common interests as you and to keep up with your favorite celebrities and BTS established early on that they were good at keeping up. Posting little videos of day to day life, interacting with fans often, and posting selcas almost daily, ARMYs were able to feel close to BTS through these interactions. ARMYs would also find other ARMYs and they built a community full of fandom jokes, fanart, fanfiction, and so on. The momentum continued into 2017 with the release of WINGS and its repackage You Never Walk Alone. The MVs for Blood, Sweat, and Tears and Not Today broke Youtube records at the time and they were to go on to another world tour for WINGS. 

2017 is also when some major issues within the fandom began being discussed. Stan culture within itself wasn’t new and while it provided positives such as giving people a community online, it was unforgiving to those who were not within the fandom. ARMYs had a history of fanwars against the other biggest fandom, EXO-Ls and both have done terrible things to each other. In late 2017, African-American rapper CupcakKe had tweeted stating that she would like to have sex with member Jungkook. Subsequently, ARMYs harassed her and said everything in regards to her size, to her being black, and slutshaming her. The abuse was so bad that she deleted her Twitter for some time.* RM and African-American rapper Wale collaborated on a track and some ARMYs accused Wale of just using RM/BTS for clout. Around the same time, however, BTS themselves were making progress within the United States. They had been invited to the Billboard Music Awards to accept an award for Top Social Artist and that same year performed DNA at the American Music Awards, both firsts for a South Korean group. 

*I’m ending this part here because as I was checking the dates for the CupcakKe incident, I watched a video which talked about when CupcakKe returned to Twitter to call out the double standards of how fans can tweet things like “I want Taehyung to cum on my face for 365 days” without a blink but when she says “I want to jungkook to fuck me,” she gets harassed. I made the crackhead choice of checking the comments and I was honestly disgusted. Here’s some screencaps of what I read: 

Now I obviously am trying to remain completely unbiased in this history rundown and will hopefully give my full opinion in the final reflection, but this shit is what disgusts me. CupcakKe is a grown ass woman and uses her social media however she damn well pleases. Literally her whole brand is about a big, beautiful black woman being openly sexual and clearly these commenters and those who upvoted don’t understand that. They do not understand the actual trauma black people have to deal with when they are called dehumanizing things, especially as a public figure on social media. “Oh she’s just looking for attention,” “Ignore this and vote for Mama!” It literally has my blood boiling as I’m typing this. THIS is why black women feel unsafe talking about their experiences with racism, slut shamed, double standards, etc. Because NO MATTER WHAT, people will try to silence them. And yes, I know it’s a small fraction of the fandom but the fact that there’s even HUNDREDS of people who think similarly really is telling. And I looked at the replies too and not many people were actually defending her AT ALL and those who were weren’t getting much love.

Anyway, part three will be coming probably tomorrow. I’m drained.

Part Three

[atruththatyoudeny]

Monthly Reads | September 2017

❤ THANK YOU TO ALL WRITERS FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND FOR SHARING YOUR STORIES! ❤ Top 5 + 19 more under the cut:

Don't Want Shelter

by FullOnLarrie | hate to love | enemies to lovers | friends with benefits | fake/pretend relationship | 76k Louis and Harry have known each other all their lives. Friends as children, they danced around each other as teenagers, and have spent the last twenty-five years either screaming at each other or not speaking at all. Except for that one time ten years ago… When Hurricane Nicole threatens the coast, they end up stuck together in their families' old vacation home that they begrudgingly co-own. During the storm, and in the months after, they’re both forced to reevaluate their history and what they mean to each other. 

Made in the A.M. Fic Fest

1. Hey Angel: A Few Very Good Mistakes by louisandthealien |  2. Drag Me Down: Outed by MileHighLarry |  3. Perfect by sweariwouldnt | 4. Infinity: The World Still Turns by hrrytomlinson | 5. End of the Day: Just you, Me, and the Moon by InkedwithLove | 6. If I Could Fly: For Your Eyes Only by BriaMaria | 7. Long Way Down: Finding Us in Our Atmosphere by asphodelknox | 8. Never Enough: I’ll Be Your Love Tonight by dinosaursmate |  9. Olivia by haloeverlasting | 10. What a Feeling: Baby I’m Right Here by FallingLikeThis | 11. Love You Goodbye: One Last Time  by dimpled_halo | 12. I Want to Write You a Song by phdmama | 13. History: Things Gone Cold by MediaWhore | 14. Temporary Fix: Let Me Touch You Where Your Heart Aches by rosegoldhl | 15. Walking in the Wind: Anytime You’re Needing Me by Larrymama15 | 16. Wolves: When the Wolves Come Out by Awriterwrites | 17. A.M.: (This Could Be Forever) Right Now by lululawrence I decided to put all of the stories in one post because all of them are so so wonderful and truly reflect a beautiful side of each song on MITAM. You really want to read them all!

Eyes Turned Skyward

by elizamackenzie for HL Summer Exchange 2017 | 17k “I’ve lived most of my life here,” Louis says after a moment, gazing out at the last spectacular rays of sunlight, “And yet still, when I see this,” he lets out a small breath, Harry turning to look at him as he shakes his head, “It all looks too perfect to be real.” Harry looks at the line of Louis’ jaw, seeing the way it tightens as Louis stares out over the landscape. And Harry suddenly wonders what this place might mean to him. How different the city must feel to him than it does to Harry. How this city, that has been alive for more than a thousand years, full of its enchantments and majesty, to Louis, is just home. Or the one where Louis is Harry's charming airbnb host and Italy is the best place for romance

(And Things Will Be) Hard At Times

by lululawrence for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange | mpreg | panick attacks | 34k Louis and Nathan had been talking about marriage and kids and a family for years now, but it had never felt right. If anything, the talking about it had petered out over the past while because they were busy living the lives they had settled into. It wasn’t that they didn’t think they’d ever have kids, just that they weren’t to a point where they were ready for it yet. Well. Ready or not, it was happening. Or the one where Louis and his boyfriend of five years unexpectedly find themselves pregnant and Harry is the paternity photographer that makes everyone think twice.

Turning Page

by purpledaisy for HL Summer Exchange 2017 | famous/non-famous | enemies to friends to lovers | 67k “What’s your name?” “Harry.��� He draws the word out slowly, hesitantly - like he’s not sure about it. The guy knots his hands behind his back. “Harry Twist.” “Right,” Niall says, eyes lingering suspiciously on Harry before looking back to Louis. “You wanna buy Harry a drink?” Louis lets his eyes drip back to Harry, to his wide eyes and the way his shoulders curve down. He really is pretty – Louis will be the first one to admit it and the last one to ever say it out loud. Louis almost smirks and his lips twitch as he tilts his head, “Not particularly, no.” - AU: Harry Styles tries to get lost in a place he’s never been. Louis Tomlinson has been perfecting the art of being lost for years. What they don’t expect to find is each other.

I'm Having Your Baby

by MADZJACOBS for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange | mpreg | infidelity | eating disorders | 61k Five years after One Direction took a hiatus, Harry Styles' personal life is a mess. The multi-faceted entertainer's marriage has fallen apart and he can't put his heart on the line again knowing it will just get broken. So he puts his successful career on hold to become a father. He has always wanted children and maybe having a child of his own will take away some of the loneliness and heartbreak. He really believes that. That is until he walks into the clinic to meet the surrogate who is already eight weeks pregnant with his child. A surrogate with his own past to deal with; one they both need to finally face.

Ever Fixed

by delsicle for  HL Fic Fest (2017) | magical realism | divorce | angst | child death | 41k Three years ago, Harry was happily married, successfully heading the largest technology company in the world, and raising his young daughter. After he loses nearly everything in the aftermath of his daughter’s lost battle with a rare brain tumor, it may take three strange and yet very familiar visitors – and a man from the therapy group Harry keeps refusing to go to – to get him back on track.

The People's Playground

by musketrois | historical | gambling | 17k It is 1900 in New York City, and Harry Styles has recently immigrated to America from England. His sister encourages him to take a day off from his life as a factory worker and Harry decides to take a trip to the infamous Coney Island where he literally runs into Louis Tomlinson. It looks like Coney Island will be more than Harry bargained for.

There's something in the water

by curlyfries for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange| mpreg | strangers to lovers | 13k Harry and Louis met when Harry was in the middle of a rough patch after he injured himself during a tennis competition. After a night that Harry can't forget, he's met with a little surprise a couple of months later. It's a bit of a shock, especially considering how he got there, but he's determined to see it through. He's all prepared to do it all alone too, but running into Louis again might change the game. Cue dates, happiness and cuddles, but Harry can't get the fact that he needs to tell Louis out of his mind. He's got his fingers crossed that it all works out.

An Ever Fixed Mark (series)

by My_words_fly_up | 56k Harry Styles lives quite scandalously in the slums of London and never expected to cross paths with a kind, well-bred gentleman like Louis Tomlinson. But once they meet neither will be the same again.

Like A Saturated Sunrise

by onlyhuman for HL Summer Exchange 2015  | 12k Louis doesn't necessarily enjoy gardening. Which makes it all the more annoying that someone has been cutting off flowers as they see fit. Or, alternatively: the one where Louis has a love/hate relationship with his garden and Harry is the most innocent criminal to ever exist.

Can I be him?

by amory | soulmates | 29k Louis is twenty years old and has been waiting for his soulmate and true love to come along since the day he was born. Harry is an eighteen year old youtuber who is skeptical of soulmates and the pressure of being the person someone else has been dreaming of their entire lives. They meet at Playlist Live.

Something Just Like This

by kiwikero for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange| mpreg| superheroes | superpowers | 31k Newspaper intern Harry Styles can't believe his luck when he goes from fetching coffee for his boss to writing about London's own superheroes, One Direction. Even better, he gets to spend time with the unfairly handsome Freefall, also known as Louis Tomlinson. Louis, who is way out of Harry's league and far too busy for a proper relationship—so how on earth is Harry supposed to tell him they're expecting?

Where the lights are beautiful

by twoshipsdrifting for 1D Big Bang: Round Five | a/b/o | accidental bonding | 31k Harry wasn’t wrong about that, not in a general sense. Lots of omegas did seek out rich alphas and betas, hoping or planning to go into heat at the right time. Plenty of omegas saw this as their duty, especially if their families weren’t well off. Worse, Louis couldn’t honestly say he’d never thought about it. If that had been his life, his goal, Louis would feel pretty good about himself now. As it is…Louis feels like shit. .:. .:. .:. Or the accidental bonding a/b/o fic.

King and Lionheart

by stylinsoncity | a/b/o | mpreg | 46k Louis can't remember a time when he didn't hate being an omega. But maybe he just needed Harry to come along and make him his.

Somewhere In Between Who I Used To Be and Who I'll Be Tomorrow

by ShapeOfLou for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange | mpreg | strangers to lovers | infidelity | 27k After landing his dream job of being a TV host, Harry Styles thinks he has it all, a nice job, luxury cars, designer clothes, and a stable relationship with a man he loves. That is, until he makes the drunken mistake of going home with the cute bartender which results in an unexpected pregnancy. With a baby on the way, Harry has to balance his work life with deciding how he wants to spend the rest of his life: with the man he's been with for years or the father of his child.

Back To Seventeen

by crimsontheory for HL Fic Fest (2017) | 26k As a first grade teacher in a small town in Illinois, Harry’s life is pretty simple. He loves his job, is close with his family, and has a best friend he would go to the ends of the earth for. When a new soccer coach starts at the local high school, things start to get a bit more exciting for Harry. Because that coach just happens to be Louis Tomlinson; the guy Harry was unrequitedly in love with in high school. Or the one where Louis moves back to his hometown and Harry realizes he’s still not over his high school crush.

Leap Of Fate

by happilylouie for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange | mpreg | 12k After one too many failed dates, Harry decides he’s had enough. He is going to start a family on his own, everything falls into place as Harry finds the perfect donor. But when Harry realizes who the donor actually is it hits him like a curveball. He wants Louis Tomlinson to be involved in his baby's life, but first he has to figure out a way to date him. Or Radio Show Host Louis Tomlinson is going to be the father of Harry Styles’ baby, the only problem: He has no idea.

Second Time's the Charm

by Chelsea Frew for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange| mpreg | 21k The first time Louis sees the new barista at his favourite coffee shop, he falls head over heels. The first time he takes the barista, Harry, home, they end up making something a little bit more than conversation. Suddenly, it seems to Louis that Harry is keeping secrets. He is. Two life-changing secrets. When Harry lets Louis in on these secrets, Louis needs to decide whether to let them change his life--or not.

I can't use words they don't say enough

by Anonymous for HL Historical Fic Exchange | post-WWII | kid fic | minor character death | physical disability | PTSD | 27k Harry enlists at 16 to fight in World War II, leaving behind his family and the love of his life. When the war ends he finds himself back in the small town he called home. Five years has passed, and nothing is the same. His family has moved away and Louis has a daughter. Can they salvage their relationship, or will the effects of the war be too much? Louis couldn’t believe his eyes, and yet there on the other side of this hunk of wood was Harry Styles, the boy he’d written off as dead years ago.

Manifest Destiny

by Anonymous for HL Historical Fic Exchange | Pony Express | friends with benefits | minor character death | injury | 15k Harry and Louis had fallen into bed together again that night, mouths greedy and hands needy. And now every time Louis stops at Fort Kearney, even if it’s weeks in between, he and Harry spend the night together. The nights are always filled with heat and passion, and it gives Louis something to think on fondly as he rides across the western territories carrying sacks of mail. They’ve never talked about it, and they’ve never kissed. Louis doesn’t know if he wants either of those things to change, but he knows that his presence in Harry’s life is sporadic at best. Probably best to leave things be. Or, Louis is a Pony Express rider and Harry runs a station along the trail.

Keeping You Forever And For Always

by Rearviewdreamer | Kyle XY AU | superhuman | 52k Louis only went poking around in the woods one evening in the name of science and saving the polluted lake that everyone else had long since given up on. He ends up leaving with a lot more than a few toxic water samples when he stumbles upon a belly-buttonless man in the shadows who could possibly be a nudist but is most definitely more than ordinary.

Heart Without A Home

by Snowy38 | homelessness | betrayal | hurt/comfort | 20k Louis is staying at the shelter when a late entry pulls at his conscience and he decides to share his precious bed with the mysterious Harry. The pair somehow find an instant bond but Louis can't help but feel Harry is hiding something... Featuring Zayn as a chef, Perrie as the shelter manager and Liam as a helper- and Louis' best mate.

The love is ours to make (so we should make it)

by lingerielarries | Punk Louis | Flower child Harry | mutual pining | past suicide attempt/self harm | 19k “I’m.. Harry. I nanny? For Ernest and Doris?” Harry responded. “A nanny? How old even are you? You look twelve.” Louis remarked. Something caught Louis’ eye, and a closer look revealed that Harry had a coat of pink nail polish on his fingers. “Nineteen. I’m nineteen.” Harry replied. “Right. Nineteen, wears pink, flower crowns and paints his nails. Who the actual fuck did my mum hire?” or the one where louis takes some time off from life to return home, only to be met with a strange boy in pink and a flowercrown as the nanny of his siblings.

[lifejustgotawkward]

My Favorite Albums of 2017

10. TLC, TLC

Standout Tracks: “Way Back” (feat. Snoop Dogg), “Perfect Girls,” “Start a Fire,” “American Gold,” “Scandalous,” “Joy Ride”

From the moment TLC’s self-titled, fifth and final album kicks off with the vibrant opener “No Introduction,” a contradictory yet inspiring reminder of this R&B girl group’s indomitable spirit, I knew that I was in a for a good time. I’m so glad that Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas returned to the studio for a follow-up to 3D, which came out shortly after Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes’ death in 2002. T-Boz and Chilli bring elements of R&B, pop and funk to TLC, infusing many tracks with a 90s-throwback vibe that never feels dated. Lead single “Way Back" is the album’s best example of that particular style, but I love the atmospheres created by acoustic guitar on the empowerment anthem “Perfect Girls” and on the sultry ballad “Start a Fire,” as well as the social commentary of “American Gold,” the braggadocio of “Scandalous” and the retro groove of album closer “Joy Ride.” I can’t tell you how encouraging it is to know that T-Boz and Chilli are still crazy, sexy and cool enough to put together an album this enjoyable from start to finish.

9. Feist, Pleasure

Standout Tracks: “Pleasure,” “Any Party,” “A Man Is Not His Song,” “Century” (feat. Jarvis Cocker), “Baby Be Simple,” “I’m Not Running Away“

Feist’s Pleasure is a slow-burner. Like the title track, the album as a whole takes a while to warm up, but after a while I found that the melodies had stuck with me and didn’t leave. Without question the best song on the album is “Century,” an uptempo masterwork of songwriting, performance and production; many of the album’s highlights have relaxed paces, though, and it’s hard to argue against the loveliness of “A Man Is Not His Song” (which has my favorite lines from Pleasure: “A man is not his song/And I’m not a story/But I wanna sing along/If he's singing it for me”), “Baby Be Simple” (which, dare I say it, begins to feel magical at the 4:39 mark) and “I’m Not Running Away.”

8. Marika Hackman, I’m Not Your Man

Standout Tracks: “Boyfriend,” “Gina’s World,” “My Lover Cindy,” “Apple Tree,” “So Long,” “Eastbound Train”

The rock influences of the 1990s are all over English singer-songwriter’s Marika Hackman’s second full-length album. This is a good thing, like how opening track/lead single “Boyfriend” recalls Radiohead’s “My Iron Lung” and how “Gina’s World” contains echoes of Nirvana. And for my money, “My Lover Cindy” is probably the #1 song of the year; with a dark sense of humor and sunny guitar licks, it’s an ideal pop-rock jewel that will lodge in your brain and never leave.

I love that Hackman’s songs wittily observe the highs and lows of queer identity while maintaining a universality that every music fan can appreciate. With I’m Not Your Man, Hackman has shot to the top of my list of the most talented women in indie rock right now, alongside Angel Olsen and Courtney Barnett.

7. Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie (aka Buckingham/McVie)

Standout Tracks: "In My World,” “Red Sun,” “Lay Down for Free,” “Game of Pretend,” “On with the Show,” “Carnival Begin”

It may be uncool or corny to admit it, but I love the recent album by Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie. Few critics feel the same way, but what can I say? I’m a sucker for a well-crafted tune. Buckingham/McVie, as they are often credited, have been in this business for half a century, so it’s safe to say that they know a thing or two about how to make memorable music. Whether you’re a fan of the duo from back in their peak Fleetwood Mac days or you’re a younger listener who just wants to savor some great earworms, you can’t go wrong with the infectious melodies of “In My World” and “On with the Show” and the slower, more sensual motion of “Carnival Begin.”

6. Texas, Jump on Board

Standout Tracks: “It Was Up to You,” “Tell That Girl,” “Sending a Message,” “Great Romances,” “Won’t Let You Down,” “Round the World”

Like the Buckingham/McVie album, Jump on Board by Scottish band Texas was labeled mediocre by most music critics. But I knew that Texas’s tenth studio album (their debut, Southside, came out in 1989) would be fun before I even heard it; I’ve been a fan for years, ever since I heard a charming BBC Radio interview with lead singer Sharleen Spiteri - isn’t that a fantastic name for a rock band frontwoman? - and the radio show’s host played the wonderful Texas song “Detroit City.” I became an immediate devotee of the group and have adored their work ever since. Jump on Board’s “Tell That Girl” has a similarly 80s-ish aura, but the sound branches out on “Won’t Let You Down,” which evokes classic Pretenders ballads; “Great Romances” (my personal favorite), which borrows its beat from the Angels’ “My Boyfriend’s Back”; the shimmering rhythms of “It Was Up to You” (like updated disco, reminiscent of Roxy Music and solo Bryan Ferry); and the smoldering rockabilly voodoo of ���Sending a Message.”

P.S. Last year, Sharleen Spiteri wrote a really nice piece for The Guardian about Harry Dean Stanton, whose film Paris, Texas sparked her band’s name. If you haven’t read it, please do.

5. Father John Misty, Pure Comedy

Standout Tracks: “Pure Comedy,” “Total Entertainment Forever,” “Ballad of the Dying Man,” “When the God of Love Returns There’ll Be Hell to Pay,” “The Memo,” “So I’m Growing Old on Magic Mountain“

Full disclosure: I don’t know much about Father John Misty, outside of some essays and reviews I’ve read over the years. I’m not familiar with his catalog prior to Pure Comedy, although I keep telling myself that I’ll listen to Fear Fun and I Love You, Honeybear, in addition to his releases under the “J. Tillman” name, at some point. As a newbie who approached his Pure Comedy album from what I hope is a fairly fresh perspective, I must say I’m impressed. I know that his music is polarizing and engenders a lot of “masterpiece”/”overrated hack” arguments, but I like when that happens with artists; it makes me think that they’re doing something right to inspire such extreme views.

The lyrics on this album are superior to just about everything else that has been released this year and I could easily put a spotlight on nearly every song, although “Total Entertainment Forever” - the first track I heard prior to the album’s release - is the one that will probably stay with me the longest, capturing our freaky zeitgeist with insight, morbid humor and a little snazzy saxophone. There’s no way to top the sheer audacity of its opening lines: “Bedding Taylor Swift/Every night inside the Oculus Rift/After mister and the missus finish dinner and the dishes/And now the future's definition is so much higher than it was last year/It's like the images have all become real/And someone's living my life for me out in the mirror...” Truly a songwriter for these bizarre, unbelievable times.

4. Lana Del Rey, Lust for Life

Standout Tracks: “Lust for Life” (feat. The Weeknd), “Cherry,” “When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing,” “Tomorrow Never Came” (feat. Sean Ono Lennon), “Change,” “Get Free”

Lust for Life is the first Lana Del Rey album that I have loved from beginning to end. I wasn’t enamored of the opening track, “Love,” when I first heard it last year, but hearing it in the context of the entire album has given me a renewed admiration for the lushly produced songscapes that Del Rey creates. You really fall into a different world when you listen to her music.

“Lust for Life” is yet another 2017 song to reference “My Boyfriend’s Back” (as well as having “do-do-do-dos” similar to Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side”), while the lyrics of “Cherry” allude to the classic duet “Summer Wine” by two of Del Rey’s heroes, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. “Beautiful People Beautiful Problems” and “Tomorrow Never Came” are collaborations with Stevie Nicks and Sean Ono Lennon, respectively, while the uplifting album closer “Get Free” cites Neil Young (”out of the black... into the blue”) and the chord progression of Radiohead’s “Creep” (Lana’s not alone; Angel Olsen kind of did that too on her single “Fly on Your Wall,” although the bigger similarity is with Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over”). But my absolute favorite track on Lust for Life is “Change,” a haunting statement about realizing the abilities we all have to learn, grow and improve our world that pays homage to Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” along the way.

3. Blondie, Pollinator

Standout Tracks: “Doom or Destiny” (feat. Joan Jett), “Long Time,” “Fun,” “My Monster,” “Too Much,” “Fragments”

If there is any truth we can rely on in this weird world of ours, it’s that Blondie can always deliver top-quality records. Pollinator, the renowned band’s eleventh album since 1976 (they were on hiatus during 1982-1997), has the same glorious New Wave/pop-punk dynamism that Debbie Harry and company have gifted us with for these past forty years. They worked with some excellent collaborators this time around, featuring Joan Jett on the chorus of “Doom or Destiny” (which has a terrific, politically charged music video), as well as the lyrical contributions of Blood Orange (aka Dev Hynes) on “Long Time” and Johnny Marr on “My Monster,” plus a cover of “Fragments” by An Unkindness (Adam Johnston). Chris Stein is still a legend on the guitar and Clem Burke - in my most humble of opinions - continues to be one of the best rock drummers on the planet, worthy of going toe to toe with anyone half (or even a third) his age. Extra special mention goes to the Greg Cohen Spirit of 79 remix of “Fun,” which is even better than the version on the album.

2. Harry Styles, Harry Styles

Standout Tracks: “Meet Me in the Hallway,” “Sign of the Times,” “Carolina,” “Only Angel,” “Ever Since New York,” “Woman”

I was never a serious follower of the ultra-successful boy band One Direction, but you can put me down as a fan of “What Makes You Beautiful,” “One Thing” and “Temporary Fix.” Those are three genuinely delightful songs. So I looked forward to what Harry Styles had to offer as an individual performer, interested in what, uh, styles (sorry) he would display on his first solo effort. Luckily, his self-titled debut turned out to be an entertaining achievement, filled with the exuberance and sincerity of a man eager to forge his own path in the music industry. I knew as soon as the album’s first song, “Meet Me in the Hallway,” began that this was not going to be a typical millennial endeavor, and I remained impressed throughout the next nine tracks. I applaud young Mr. Styles’ high levels of ambition.

Worldwide hit “Sign of the Times” has timeless appeal, while “Only Angel” and “Kiwi” burst with brazen vigor, “Woman” is a soulful jam and the love songs “Two Ghosts,” “Sweet Creature” and the Badfinger-inspired “Ever Since New York” are more quietly impactful. Styles shows further maturity on the album closer, “From the Dining Table,” perhaps not lyrically but certainly from an artistic POV. If I have to pick one favorite cut from the album above all, though, I might have to go with “Carolina,” Styles’ most exuberant ode to his muses from the 70s. (I especially love the la-la-las in the background vocals.) Does Harry Styles want to be David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Marc Bolan and Pete Ham, all at the same time? Yeah, probably. But it works for me.

1. Slowdive, Slowdive

Standout Tracks: “Star Roving,” “Don’t Know Why,” “Sugar for the Pill,” “Everyone Knows,” “No Longer Making Time,” “Falling Ashes”

In the early 90s, Slowdive was a pioneering band in the shoegaze subgenre of indie rock, lending the dreamy vocals and guitar sounds of Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead to the albums Just for a Day (1991) and Souvlaki (1993), in addition to the more experimental textures of Pygmalion (1995). (Some favorites of mine from this era include "Spanish Air," "Brighter" and "When the Sun Hits.") The group - which I gather was pretty underrated in their early years, never popular with mainstream listeners and disliked by music critics - disbanded shortly after the critical and commercial failures of that third album, but Slowdive’s triumphant reunion in 2014 led to their latest, self-titled release. And it’s incredible.

Slowdive is only eight tracks long, but each one shines in a unique way. “Slomo” is a perfect opener, slowly unfolding with a classic Slowdive ambience. The feeling endures as the album progresses, especially beautifully in “Don’t Know Why,” which melts my ears into heavenly bliss and is definitely one of my top five favorite songs of the year, and in the final track, “Falling Ashes,” an eight-minute epic propelled by an insistent piano hook. You could listen to any of Slowdive’s recordings, though, and be dazed by the constant splendor. More than any other album in 2017, Slowdive fused past, present and future to shape a collection that glows with both alt-rock imagination and delicate, poignant finesse.

HONORABLE MENTIONS (alphabetical)

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rest (”Lying with You,” “Kate,” “Deadly Valentine,” “I’m a Lie,” “Les Oxalis”)

Valerie June, The Order of Time (”Shakedown,” “If And,” “Man Done Wrong,” “Just in Time,” “Slip Slide on By”)

Angel Olsen, Phases [B-sides, rarities, covers and new recordings] (”Fly on Your Wall,” “Special,” “Sweet Dreams,” “For You,” “How Many Disasters”)

Phoenix, Ti Amo (”J-Boy,” ”Ti Amo,” “Goodbye Soleil,” “Fleur de Lys,” “Role Model”)

Ride, Weather Diaries (”Lannoy Point,” “Charm Assault,” “All I Want,” “Home Is a Feeling,” “Cali”)

Alexandra Savior, Belladonna of Sadness (”Audeline,” “Cupid,” “’Til You’re Mine,” “Vanishing Point,” “Mystery Girl”)

[dailyjidols]

S - Idols

[WIP] List of jpop girl groups and soloists with names that begin with the letter S. Information concerning disbandment is accurate as of December 2017.

Saint Four (disbanded)

SAiNT SEX (WACK collab group)

Sakakibara Yui

Sakamoto Maaya

Saka-sama

Sakidori Hasshinkyoku

Saku

Sakura Cinderella

Sakura Ebis

Saku Love

Sakura Gakuin

Sakura Miyabi

Sakura Saori 

Sakurakko Club (disbanded)

Sakurakou K-ON Bu (disbanded)

SALT5 (Hello Project temporary group)

Sansanar

Sanspo Idol Reporter

Sasaki Eri

Sasaki Sayaka

Sasaki Yuuko (on hiatus)

Sashiahra Rino

Sato Mieko

Satonoakrai (H!P temporary group)

Sato Satomi

SAWA

Sawai Miku

Sawamura Minako (disbanded)

say-la

Sayuri

SCANDAL

Scoopers (Sakura Gakuin subgroup, inactive)

Screaming Sixties

SCK Girls

SDN48 (disbanded)

Sea A (disbanded)

Secret Girls (disbanded)

seeDream

Segawa Ayaka

Seno Sisters

SeiSHUN Gakuen

Seventeen Club (disbanded)

Sexy 8 (Hello Project temporary group)

Sexy All Sisters (unsure of status)

Sexy Otonajan (Hello Project temporary group)

SHANADOO (disbanded)

Sheki-Dol (disbanded)

sherry / CASSIS (disbanded)

Shibu3project

Shibuya P.R. (disbanded)

Shida Summer Arai Summer! (temporary group)

Shiga Mariko (retired, passed away)

Shiina Hekiru

Shiina Pikarin

Shikata Akiko

Shimotsuki Haruka

Shiny Milky Way (disbanded)

Shinozaki Ai

Shintani Ryoko

Shionoya Sayaka (retired)

Shiraishi Noria

Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku

Shishido Kavka

SHiX

Shizukaza & Kizuna (unsure of status)

Shojotai (disbanded)

Shooting Star Girls (disbanded, moved to Zenryoku Shoujo R)

Shugo Chara Egg! (H!P Subunit - disbanded)

Shuuengo Buppan

Shuukaren

SiAM&POPTUNe

Silent Siren

SilQ

SINA (disbanded)

sinsekaisen

SiS (disbanded)

Sister Q (disbanded)

SKE48

Sketch

Skirt (disbanded)

sleepiece (Sakura Gakuin subgroup)

Slime Girls

Smile Gakuin

Snappeas (disbanded)

Snowdrop

soap (disbanded)

Soft Cream (disbanded)

Sola Sound

sora tob sakana

Soran Happies (disbanded)

Soup Girls (Alice Project sub unit, disbanded)

S☆uthern Cross/ Southern Cross

Sora Tob Sakana

Spatio

Spark Roadshow

Spark Speaker

Sparkling Point (disbanded)

Speaches (disbanded)

SPEED

Sphere

SPL∞ASH

Splash (disbanded)

SPLASH (disbanded)

Splash!

Springs (disbanded)

Spunky / The Spunky (disbanded)

SPY

SRAM

STARBERRY PAINKILLER

Starbow (disbanded)

Starmarie

Star☆T

Station

Steam Girls / Steamgirls (Alice Project Sub-unit)

Stella☆Beats

Stereo Japan (unsure of status)

Strawberry Syndrome

STU48

StylipS

Suara

SudaAnnaYuzuYully

Sugar (disbanded)

Sugar & Solt

Sugartrap

Suita Asuka (retired)

Suitei Shoujo (disbanded)

Summer Rocket

Sunmyu

Sun Fairies

Super☆Girls

Super Monkeys (disbanded)

Suppli Mode (disbanded)

Survive-Zero

Suzu (inactive)

Suzuki Konomi

Suzune Hitomi

SweetS (disbanded)

sweet ARMS

Sweet☆Pastel (unsure of status)

Synth De La Eve

S★Spicy

[csnews]

Is Florida ready to retire SeaWorld’s killer whales?

Alex Pickett - Dec. 1, 2017

When ranking icons of Florida tourism, Shamu the killer whale is right up there with Mickey Mouse and Snooty the manatee (R.I.P. Snooty).

Since opening in 1973, SeaWorld Orlando has attracted hundreds of millions of visitors whose sole vacation mission is to see that orca shoot through the air, wave its flippers and plunge back down into the clear pool, splashing an unsuspecting grandma. But those days are coming to an end.

Fresh off a legislative win in California, a coalition of animal rights advocates want Florida lawmakers to pass a law ending orca captivity, breeding and transporting. If adopted, the six orcas currently residing at SeaWorld Orlando would be “grandfathered” in. When they die, SeaWorld would be orca-less. The proposed bill also bans theatrical shows by captive orcas.

But will Floridians accept a SeaWorld without Shamu? On Thursday, at the fourth floor café inside St. Petersburg’s Station House, a growing happy-hour crowd nibbled on vegan treats, imbibing beer and wine and talking orcas.

The event, “Change in the Right Direction: Protecting Florida’s Orcas,” was presented by the Animal Legal Defense Fund and John Hargrove, a former SeaWorld trainer turned activist turned author, whom you might recognize from scandal-spawning documentary Blackfish.

Hargrove is probably the last person SeaWorld wanted to become an outspoken critic. He’s charismatic, speaks warmly and intelligently (well, usually) and, most of all, has years of experience working with orcas and management. For more than 10 years, he had one of the coolest jobs in the world, a profession children could only dream about. At one time, a 6-year-old Hargrove dreamed about it, too, after first visiting SeaWorld Orlando and watching the animals perform in Shamu Stadium.  

“I was completely seduced by the entire environment,” he recalls. “The huge stadium. All the people. I loved the water. I love animals. …I decided then I would become a trainer. And I never went off that path.”

SeaWorld hired Hargrove as an apprentice at the park’s Texas location. He climbed the ranks to become a senior trainer, eventually transferring to California. He left the company in 2001 and worked with orcas at Marineland in France for a few years. After a five-year hiatus from training, he returned to SeaWorld San Antonio in 2008. That’s when the dream job became a nightmare.

First, in December 2009, an orca on loan from SeaWorld killed a trainer at zoo in Spain. Then, in February 2010, an orca named Tillikum grabbed trainer Dawn Brancheau by her ponytail and pulled her into the water. As recounted in Blackfish, her death was the third such incident involving that whale.

Hargrove was also beginning to understand the negative effects of captive breeding. Ever since the ban on capturing wild orcas, SeaWorld began using artificial insemination to ensure future generations of Shamu. In addition to the very unnatural process of masturbating a large male whale, catching the sperm and inserting it into a female, Hargrove says the babies are taken from the mothers too early.

“In the early years, you don’t exactly know what’s healthy or not, what’s right or wrong,” he says. “First, it’s questions. Then the questions turn into the realization: This is not right, this is not healthy.”

“It was just destroying these animals,” he continues. “I foolishly thought for a long time I could change it. You get very blinded by that love for the whales. Almost like you’re in a bad relationship. You’re invested in the love and you start to rationalize things away.”

SeaWorld Orlando did not respond to phone calls and e-mails requesting comment; however, past statements deny orca calves are prematurely separated from their mothers. The company has repeatedly denied Hargrove’s allegations of orca mistreatment and has attacked his credibility, including the release of a 5-year-old video showing a drunken Hargrove joking on the phone with a friend and using racial slurs.

“I don’t try to make any type of excuses for it,” he says of the secretly taped video. “Even if SeaWorld wouldn’t have released it and it stayed among friends, it was still wrong.”

Eventually, after years of fighting with management, Hargrove realized SeaWorld did not plan on changing its practices and resigned in 2012. A week later, the producers of Blackfish interviewed him. SeaWorld always had to defend itself against animal rights groups like the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, but Blackfish brought the $2 billion corporation to its knees.

Attendance plummeted; stocks nose-dived. The company still hasn’t recovered: Attendance at SeaWorld parks nationwide fell 6 percent in the first nine months of 2017 compared to last year, according to corporate documents. Revenue is down tens of millions of dollars. A year after the documentary’s release, a Santa Monica assemblyman Richard Bloom introduced the Orca Welfare & Safety Act to end the display and breeding of the animals. The bill initially stalled but the lawmaker tried again last year. After Before it passed by a wide margin, SeaWorld announced the company would voluntarily end the breeding program and phase out performances by 2019 at all of its properties. So, why is there the need for a law in Florida?

“Laws keep people accountable,” says Lindsay Larris, who oversees legislative affairs for the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “Policies can change, but laws don’t.”

The Florida law would essentially mirror the one passed in California, Larris says. Problem is, they have not found a legislator to sponsor it.

“Nobody has actually agreed to yet,” admits Larris. “Not because they don’t want to. The only pushback has been their list of priorities.”

Florida state representatives can only file six bills in a session, so finding room for killer whales between tax breaks and educational initiatives can be tricky. (Of course, that has never stopped some legislators from proposing utterly ridiculous laws.) And as Larris travels across the state talking to stakeholders, she confesses, “Florida is in a very different political climate than California.”

Rep. Thad Altman, a Republican from Indialantic, seemingly withdrew his support for a captive breeding ban over the summer and blamed his staff for erroneously sending a letter backing the bill, Politico reported. Larris has found allies in the state, though, including state representative Ben Diamond, a Democrat serving St. Petersburg. Before Thursday’s event, she met with the representative to discuss the latest draft of the bill.

“I think it’s an issue that warrants some study and a great deal of thought by our legislature,” Diamond told CL. “I haven’t committed yet to file this bill, but I’m studying it.”

Laws move slowly, he cautions, while expressing optimism about widespread support.

“I don’t view it as a partisan issue,” he says. “This is, in my mind, a public safety issue.”

SeaWorld also has deep pockets and lobbyists at a capitol obsessed with tourism. Larris says she thinks attendance might actually increase if visitors don’t have to feel guilty for visiting the park. That would be good news for visitor bureaus, who hold some clout in the legislature. (Representatives from Visit Florida and Visit Orlando did not return requests for comment.) Ultimately, the tide of public opinion — what swayed SeaWorld to enact its own policies — will decide the fate of the last generation of orcas.

“I understand why the public wants to see them up close,” says Hargrove. “You see them in a show and you are just in awe. But what people don’t understand is the price they pay for being there.”

[sammyhale]

Jared JIBCon 2017 Sunday Panel

Jared warns everyone that he’s tired and jetlagged and jumps right into questions.

Fan says that she’s tired, too but it’s worth it to see Jared. Jared thanks her and says “ditto.” 

Fan talks about Sam’s development over the show, how he didn’t want to be a hunter to now leading other hunters against the British Men of Letters asks Jared to comment on that journey. Jared says that he knows what it’s like to have an older brother that leads the pack. It has been fun to play Sam as sort of a man on his own. Show started when he was 22 and he’ll be 35 in July. It’s been cool to get the chance to play the transformation of a young boy to a leader. Hopefully we’ll see more of that. 

Jared is really tired and tells the audience now is the perfect time to ask him weird questions lol. Says he texted Gen when he woke up and said “Morning, baby, I miss you.” Gen was like, it’s 1 a.m. why are you texting me. Jared: Oh, oh yeah, no, cool. Good talk lol. 

A fan asks what Jared’s favorite emoji is. Because of her accent he thinks that she said “music.” So he goes on to talk about how “we’ve been pretty public about a band called Kaleo.” He and Jensen have been lucky enough to make friends with them. Jared says, “It’s a weird world Jensen and I live in.” He thinks Kaleo are amazing from lyrics to all of the instruments, etc, and when they met the band it was fun to discover how they are just people, too. Jared hopes that fans feel the same when we meet the Supernatural cast, that they’re all just normal people. 

Fans inform Jared that he misunderstood the question and that she had asked about his favorite emoji. Jared tries to pull it up on his phone so that he can show it to them on the screen. He says he’s texting it to Jensen in response to the text Jensen sent him earlier that morning saying: “You know we have a convention today” because Jared slept through his alarm lol. Jared giggles about Jensen’s text. 

Jared’s favorite emoji is the surprised happy face one. 

Fan talks (essentially) about the difference between Sam being tortured by humans versus by a monster. Jared says it’s a good observation, thinks that episodes like The Benders mess with the Winchesters more because the bad guys are human beings. Brings up Dean’s line about demons I get but people are crazy. 

Jared’s hand hits the bottom of the mic and it makes a loud noise. He apologizes, has the fans help him apologize in Italian. 

Fan congratulates Jared on the new baby and Jared shows a picture of Odette on his phone. Her picture is his lockscreen :) 

Fan asks about Phantom Boy. Jared says he did that project last summer. It was a French animated movie, Jared watched it and they asked Jared to do the role. He recorded the dialogue in Austin at a hotel room. They would take breaks and go down to the pool. His friend who is a voice actor and an actor helped direct him. It was intimidating, it was a weird situation to try this brand new thing. It was fun to be a part of. 

How do you think Sam would handle having a baby girl? Jared says he thinks it would be a funny thing to see one of the Winchesters have a kid. He thinks Sam would be mortified. Says that having kids is very cool but vulnerability inducing situation. Best and hardest thing Jared has ever done. Jared says he had a nightmare last night about his kids and it woke him up and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to go back to bed. He thinks Sam would be out of sorts. Thinks it would be one of the first situations where Sam would be like “I don’t know what to do.” Jared hopes we don’t see that on the show. 

Fan tells Jared she really enjoyed his chapter in the new Fangasm book, Family Don’t End With Blood (FDEWB). Wants to know if he’ll consider writing in the future? Jared says, honestly, no. Said it was difficult, took him a year to write it. It was one of those things where he told a friend he would do it, so he did it. But as he started doing it he was nervous and anxious. It was hard because he didn’t write it all in a day. He doesn’t do well with picking things up later on. As he wrote it over time he would go back to the beginning and read and would change things. It was difficult; he does feel proud of it, though. He’s never written before. “It’s all me.” He was trying to go deep “for y’all guys.” Jared says, “It’s the most private I’ll ever get.” 

Fans cheer for him for his chapter in FDEWB and he says “thanks guys.” 

Fan asks Jared if Sam will have a special connection with the Nephilim, Jack, because Sam is the eternal vessel of Lucifer. Jared says yes. He thinks it’s why they made it so Sam is the one that found him in the last scene of the finale. Thinks that Sam will maybe be able to appeal to his intellectual side, but “we don’t know a lot about the Nephilim yet” but he thinks that “Jack will have a connection with Sam.” 

Fan tells a story about how she had said before that she loves Jared’s beanies but the fan’s friend misheard her and thought she said “penis” and was scandalized. Results in a lot of joking and laughter from Jared and the audience. “This is a first.” 

Fan asks how Jared would feel about doing a science fiction episode re: aliens or something more broad scale. He says they would love to do that type of science fiction episode. 

Jared is loopy from being so tired and says if anyone’s ever wondered what it’s like to hang out with him at 2 a.m. at work it’s this lol. 

Jared grew up up a fan of Star Trek with his dad. Watched all the original episodes, says “we beat their ass” episode number wise haha. 

Fan calls out “500 episodes!” and Jared drops mic lol. Jared: 500?!

Jared broke the mic and someone brought him another one. Messing around on stage and losing his shoe. 

Fan says that people who are close over a long period of time develop particular habits that only really come out when they are with that person. Wants to know if he’s noticed that with any of the cast that he’s worked with a long time? Jared laughs: Short answer is yes. He won’t say who or what, though lol. 

Jared talks about idols. Says there a lot of people he idolizes. “One of them lost his life to suicide” a couple days ago - mentions Chris Cornell (RIP). He says that he has met some idols and sometimes they are disappointing or not nice. He had a fellow actress tell him a story about how her dad came to work with her and her dad went up to Anthony Hopkins and was chatting with him. Hopkins was amazing but the daughter was mortified: Dad, you can’t just walk up to Anthony Hopkins..and her dad was like, why? We’re all breathing oxygen. Jared loves that. We’re all human, including everyone in the green room (the rest of the cast). “We love y’all as much as you love us.” 

Is there a characteristic of Sam that Jared has and one that Jared has that Sam doesn’t? Jared says a good writer will look at your strengths and who you are as a person and start writing that better to your character. Talks about how Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls is very much like her character; she is super smart and funny and quick. Jared feels like he booked the role because he was similar to Sam and Sam became kind of like Jared. Not questioning himself so much (either Sam or Jared). Sam still deals with a lot of issues that Jared has had the love and support to not deal with though it’s in his nature to deal with those things. What’s different is Jared feels more comfortable with himself than Sam does. For the first time in a long time. As far as similarities, they both have really luscious hair. “Just kidding.” He liked Sam’s intellect from the start. Jared likes to learn about something and read about it, do the research like Sam, and feels that type of connection with him. 

Fan asks what Sam admires the most about Dean. Jared says that Sam loves that Dean has the will to keep going, to always keeps fighting. Jared himself also loves when people keep fighting through their trials. 

A fan runs up to the mic apologizing and tells Jared that she ran up because they were told to sit down because he was almost finished. Jared: “Fuck yeah!”

She wants to know if Jared misses Sam during hiatus or on break? Jared says he does miss Sam, it’s one of the reasons why he agrees to keep continuing. 

“I love Sam. He’s not Jared but I know him.” He feels maybe the audience knows Sam better in terms of his actions (because they rewatch the show more) but Jared knows his heart and motivations. 

When the show ends Jared says it’s gonna be really tough. When it does end they have talked about movies or shortened seasons. 

Jared says that he will never keep Sam “alive” just to keep him alive. He only wants Sam to exist as long as there’s commitment to the character from the writers. If one day they are no longer committed to Sam then he would rather have him in our memories. 

“But, yeah, I miss that fucker.” 

Info via: Periscope, Sil’s livetweet list

[whatsijeithinks-blog]

Flashback Lane: 2NE1

Crossed along the LG Electronics commercial campaign ad “Lollipop” with Big Bang last 2009, I looked up into one of the girls’ familiar face called Dara. It was then that I realized that this was the In-or-out girl Sandara Park. What is she doing in a 4-member girl group when she has a career in the Philippines? Let us all the remember the fire girls that struck our hearts on a first glance.

SANDARA PARK It was 2004 when a friend, Pauleen Luna encouraged Sandara to audition for Star Circle Quest, a reality-based talent search television program which she eventually finished in second place. Sandara then joined ABS-CBN's entertainment stable, Star Magic in the wake of her success in the show, with her projects ranging from commercial endorsements to television appearances. She then won "Best New Actress", her first acting award, at the 21st Philippine Movie Press Club Star Awards for her performance in her first film "Bcuz of U” (2004).

YG Entertainment offered Sandara workshop classes in South Korea after seeing the KBS Documentary My Name Is Sandara Park. In March 2005, Sandara accepted the offer, putting her career in the Philippines on hold. She later left the Philippines show business industry permanently and returned to South Korea with her family on August 1, 2007 and signed a contract with them the day after. To start a new life as she became the breadwinner of the family because of her father using the money she had for gambling and having another family besides them.

2NE1 YG formally announced that they’ll be debuting a 4 member girl group called 2NE1 – the name as meant as “To anyone” in English meaning 21st century and New Evolution on 2009. The members are CL (Lee Chae Rin), Park Bom, Dara (Sandara Park) and Gong Minzy

May 6, 2009 when 2ne1 finally debuted with song “Fire” which gained 1 million views within the first 24 hours of release and also topping on charts nationwide and chosen countries from around the world.  They were called “Rookie Monsters” for achieving a lot of awards for a new artist. In fact, they were the first ever rookie group to win a daesang award, Song of the Year at the 2009 Mnet Music Asian Awards for their song “I Don’t Care” which is their second single.

2NE1’s CONTINUOUS AWARDS Over the summer of 2010, 2NE1 traveled to Los Angeles and London in order to record English songs for an American debut album with The Black Eyed Peas's member and music producer will.i.am and they recorded a total of 10 songs in their initial sessions.

September 9, 2010, 2NE1 released their first ever full length album “To Anyone” and debuted as top 7 on Billboard World Album Charts which contains 12 tracks, 3 of them are title tracks that were promoted simultaneously and received a total of 11 wins from music shows for the whole promotion.

At the end of 2010, 2NE1 took home the "Artist of the Year" award and the "Album of the Year" award at the 2010 Mnet Asian Music Awards, thus making them the only artist to win all 3 grand awards at the said award ceremony the only group to win 2 daesang awards at the same time.

2ne1 released their second EP with the title song “I Am The Best” that instantly went on top of the charts and them getting the Daesang “Song of the Year”award again in 2011 Mnet Asian Music Awards. The group then took a break in promoting in Korea in preparations for their debut in Japan on September 2011.

The group then embarked on their first worldwide concert tour, the "New Evolution World Tour".The tour's first stop was made in Seoul on July 28, 2012, and made its first international stop in the United States on August 17 and ended in Singapore at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

February 26 2014, The group released their 2nd full length-album entitled “Crush” which includes 10 songs and 3 title tracks that were also promoted simultaneously. The album sets a new U.S record for "Highest Charting and Best Selling Kpop Album", beating other big groups like Girls' Generation and Big Bang. The group then had their 2nd worldwide concert tour, "All or Nothing World Tour", in support of their second studio album, “Crush”. The tour visits a total of 15 cities in 12 countries across East and Southeast Asia. 

GROUP HIATUS

After a recent scandal outbreak on member Park Bom, the group had a hiatus on early 2014 and then had each member’s solo career with Bom on break.

Dara (Sandara), re-established her acting career throughout the web dramas “Dr.Ian” and “We Broke Up”, as well as KBS's “Missing You”. Being the dancer of the group, Minzy opened a dance school by the name of 'Millennium Dance Academy' during the hiatus. CL pushed through her solo debut in America and released the single "HELLO BI+CHES" from her upcoming EP Lifted

The group however made a surprise event when they perform their hit songs "Fire" and "I Am the Best" at the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards in Hong Kong. After CL's performance of her solo singles "The Baddest Female" and the newly released "HELLO BI+CHES", the performance is now the most-viewed MAMA performance by a girl-group but that didn’t mean that they’ll be having a comeback.

MINZY’S DEPARTURE, GROUP DISBANDMENT AND FINAL RELEASE

3 memorable dates were left in the heart of the Blackjacks (2ne1’s official fanclub name) on the year 2016 and 2017 when they hoped for a comeback but soon got their hearts broken when YG Entertainment confirmed that Minzy did not re-sign her contract and was officially leaving the group, and stated that the group will carry on as a trio. Fans were supportive of Minzy as much as the left members were to her when she voiced out her apologies on her birthday.

Still, Blackjacks were hoping for a comeback after hearing the news that 2ne1 will still continue as a trio but was again shattered when YG officially confirmed the disbandment of 2ne1 last November 25, 2016 since only CL and Dara were the only ones that renewed their contracts.  

2ne1 however doesn’t want to leave Blackjacks out of nowhere and released a song for the last time as a thank you and goodbye for their fans entitled “Goodbye” written by member, CL which she also said that it was originally a song dedicated for ex-member Minzy.

Fans were still hoping for a reunion in the future since it is clearly seen that each member really love being a 2ne1 member. Dara still uses her 2ne1 mic whenever she performs songs (there are times when she still introduces herself as a 2ne1 member which is very heartwarming) , Bom is now interacting with some Blackjacks ensuring that she will still continue on singing and CL  is currently touring around US singing their famous song “Come Back Home” as one the tracklist of every event.

[trumpetnista]

ANOTHER 1000 POSTS!

101K and counting! Thank you to all 2,594 of you guys (plus everyone in my activity chart area…) for following, enjoying, and tolerating LiveLoveWRITE and a special shout-out to the Walking Dead/Richonne/Carnid folks who have welcomed me with open arms into their world and as always, mad love to all of the Gladiators who follow me and keep enjoying my mashups and efforts at commentary. The acceptance makes things infinitely more fun! Here’s my favorite owls and some other appropriate pics and here’s to at least a thousand more!

[helloluckybouquetbearus]

1. JBJ   JBJ was a project boy group made up of Produce 101 Season 2 competitors. JBJ was only expected to stay together for a year, but fans hoped that the group would continue after all six members expressed interest in extending their contracts. Unfortunately, the idols’ respective companies decided not to extend the contracts. JBJ officially debuted on October 18, 2017 and held their final concert on April 22, 2018, just before disbanding on April 30, 2018. 2. I.O.I   Dozens of talented female idols competed on Produce 101 Season 1 and by the end of the season, the top 11 came together to form I.O.I. This survival show girl group was only around for a year before the members returned to their respective companies. Together, they released 2 EP’s & six singles, with “Very Very Very” being their first music show win. I.O.I promoted together from April 2016 to January 2017, and are now back with their respective companies. Fans knew I.O.I couldn’t last forever, but that doesn’t mean they can’t dream! 3. 2AM   2AM was one of the two subgroups from the eleven-member boy band One Day. The other group is 2PM. 2AM debuted in 2008 with “This Song”, and produced many beautiful, easy-listening tracks such as “Never Let You Go”, “I Wonder If You Hurt Like Me”, and “One Spring Day”. Fans were heartbroken when news of the group’s disbandment broke in 2014. 4. SISTAR   These “Queens Of Summer” debuted in 2010 and released popular summery bops for 7 years. They were also known as “fit-dols” for being in shape and for wearing gorgeous stage outfits that showed off their beautiful bodies. SISTAR was one of the most beloved girl groups in K-Pop, but still fell victim to the 7 year curse. In May 2017,  SISTAR announced that “Lonely” would be their last comeback. 5. DMTN   DMTN, formerly Dalmatian, officially debuted on M! Countdown in 2010. The group experienced a number of member departures prior to its name and label change. In 2013, the group attempted to rebrand with the remaining members, but ended up going on hiatus following Daniel‘s marijuana scandal. Although the group has not officially disbanded, the members have denied possibilities of a group comeback and have been pursuing individual activities since 2014. 6. 2NE1   2NE1 was one of the most daring, innovative, and beloved girl groups in K-Pop, but even good things must come to an end. Once known as BIGBANG’s little sisters, 2NE1 blazed their own path through their unique fashion and sound. They achieved overseas success and collaborated with international artists, such as will.i.am and Japanese hip-hop duo m-flo. In April 2016, YG Entertainment confirmed Minzy‘s departure and officially announced the disbandment of the group in November 2016. 7. C-Clown   C-Clown was a 6-member boy group under Yedang Entertainment. They debuted with the mini-album Not Alone on July 18, 2012 and made their debut performance a day later, on M! Countdown. In April 2015, Rome changed his Instagram username and deleted by Korea Stars TV

[jessicakehoe]

How Mina Gerges Went From Being a Viral Meme to a Body Positivity Champion

Mina Gerges has had a rollercoaster few years. Since 2015, when his elaborate Instagram recreations of celebrity red carpet looks went viral, he’s dealt with a fallout with his family, a body image battle, homophobia, and online trolls but has emerged as a body positivity champion and now, one of the faces of Sephora Canada’s new national campaign. Read on for our interview with Gerges about body diversity, LGBTQ representation and more.

View this post on Instagram

Literally crying in excitement to share that I’m in Sephora’s new national campaign😭 When I was 9 years old, I’d sneak into my mom’s room and wear her red lipstick when she wasn’t home. I went to an all-boys school in Abu Dhabi and had to pretend to be someone I’m not so that I’d fit in and not get bullied more, and I always cherished these moments of joy I felt in my mom’s red lipstick. I think about my younger self, and how much he needed to know that he’d be okay. That there’s nothing wrong with him for being different. That our culture may never understand him, but that he’s so beautiful and nothing’s wrong with him. Fast forward to this monumental campaign – a gay Middle Eastern immigrant as the face of a makeup brand. I’ve been looking at this picture for a week, in awe of the confidence and power that radiate through this image. I see resilience and beauty, shining so bright and unapologetically as an openly gay Middle Eastern man despite belonging to a culture that systemically erases and persecutes our LGBTQ community. Representation matters, and I am grateful to fight for the visibility of our community and share the struggles we face, because we’re still so unrepresented in the media. To think that this can give hope to just one young queer Middle Eastern person that they matter, that they’re seen, and that there’s nothing wrong with them brings me tears. I’m beyond grateful that my first ever campaign is with a brand like Sephora that has always been a safe space for me to explore my gender expression, and that’s so unapologetic and bold about celebrating diversity. To me, beauty is reclaiming my culture from the toxic masculinity that’s so engrained within it, and creating new narratives about what it means to be LGBTQ and Middle Eastern/ North African. To that young, scared, lonely Mina who was always told there’s something wrong with him for being gay, I just want you to know that you’ll be okay, and you’re going to look so beautiful in billboards all over this country one day. Shot by the incredible @leeorwild 🌟@sephoracanada #SephoraPartner

A post shared by MINA GERGES (مينا) (@itsminagerges) on Jul 2, 2019 at 4:01pm PDT

Buzzfeed writing a post about your Instagram account is the sort of thing most teens dream about. But for Mina Gerges, then a 19-year-old student at Western University, it was a bittersweet moment. Yes, his cheeky red carpet recreations suddenly had thousands more likes, his inbox was flooded with emails and interview requests, and he’d even gotten a repost from Katy Perry but that Buzzfeed story had another consequence: it outed him to his conservative Egyptian parents.

“We somehow went eight months without talking about it,” recounts Gerges over black coffee at a Toronto cafe. But unbeknownst to him, his parents were Googling him every day, suddenly privy to the secret life that Gerges had been living for months. They’d seen the tongue-in-cheek recreations he’d been shooting in his bedroom with the help of his sisters (looks that included a dress fashioned out of a garbage bag and tinfoil to echo Jennifer Lopez’s outfit at the 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar party and curtains painstakingly painted to resemble Kim Kardashian’s look for the 2015 Met Gala), the interviews he’d been giving to various media outlets, and even the Arabic news sites that had picked up the story. Finally, several months after that first Buzzfeed post in January 2015, his parents sat him down to talk.

View this post on Instagram

Yes, those are cheese slices on my head 🧀😂 #MetGala #MinaGerges #RitaOra

A post shared by MINA GERGES (مينا) (@itsminagerges) on May 1, 2017 at 8:06pm PDT

“The language barrier made it so difficult to communicate what I felt or to communicate even what it is [to be gay],” explains Gerges. “At the time the only Arabic word for what it means to be gay, ‘khaneeth,’ directly translated to something negative—it connotes being a pervert, effeminate, and is more commonly used as a way of saying faggot.”

Since then, fuelled by the efforts of LGBTQ activists, the terminology has expanded to include words like ‘mithli’ which translates to “same” or “homo,” but the perception of queer people as being sexually deviant is so ingrained in Middle Eastern culture that no matter how hard Gerges tried to mend the relationship with his parents, nothing worked. Hard as that was—and continues to be—it also gave him the motivation to use his social media presence to change the way the Arab community viewed LGBTQ people, and to give them positive examples to look to.

“A lot of what I do now is informed from what I learned trying to deal with my parents,” he says. “I’m educating myself on what it’s like to be queer in the Middle East and what I can do with my platform to talk about this or to create any kind of change. And I’ve found a community of kids who have felt exactly the way that I have felt. I take that back. Not just kids, but older men and younger men, queer women, trans people from the Middle East, who have found similarities in our stories.”

Photography by Samuel Engelking

Gerges, who grew up between Cairo in Egypt and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, moved to Canada at the age of 12 with his mother and two sisters (his father came later). In both the countries where he grew up, being gay or even acknowledging LGBTQ people or rights was completely missing from the culture. In fact, he had no idea what the word ‘gay’ meant or even that it existed until someone called him that in high school. To be out and proud may not have been something Gerges ever saw growing up, but even after moving to Canada it was a very narrow version of “gay” that his formative understanding of the term was built on.

“The first time I Googled “gay men” all I saw was images of white, muscular, slim men,” he says. “So I thought that that was the norm.”

In trying to fit that mould as a young man grappling with his identity and sexuality, Gerges went down a spiral of eating disorders and body dysmorphia. He became anorexic in his first year of university, a time when he was not only struggling with being accepted in the gay community “as a plus-size man of colour” but also deeply unhappy studying science, something his parents had encouraged him to do. (He later switched to media studies.) When he began his celeb recreation posts in the summer of 2014, he was already suffering from anorexia.

“The people who may have followed me from the very beginning saw a Mina who was anorexic, at 150 lbs. And when I was in recovery shortly after, I started gaining back some weight and I was happy. But it was hard to find that happiness when I went on social media. I was at the height of my creativity where it wasn’t just drag, it was DIY, it was kind of like the golden age of my work. But all that people could comment about was my weight. I was like ‘I just spent eight hours painting this garbage bag so it can look like a million dollar dress and all you have to say is to call me a whale.’ It broke me. It was one of the worst things I’ve experienced in my life.”

He took eight months off social media between October 2015 and May 2016. During this hiatus, Gerges took the time to heal, using the distance from people’s hateful comments to learn how to love and accept his body. When he was finally ready to return to social media, he made a promise to himself that things were going to be different.

Photography by Samuel Engelking

“I decided I wasn’t going to FaceTune my body anymore. Instead of hiding it I’m going to be so unapologetic about this body and maybe if people see confidence they will be less likely to say mean things. Honestly something as simple as not FaceTuning out stretch marks felt like such a liberating act of protest. And also reclaiming a platform that I was basically bullied off of.”

And that was the beginning of a new chapter for Gerges’ public persona. In 2018 he posted a shirtless picture of himself along with a lengthy caption about why it was “the scariest yet most empowering post I’ve ever made.”

“The feedback was unlike anything that I had ever experienced. It was a lot of people from the LGBT community, not just men, who were sharing with me very similar stories about their struggles with their body image and experiencing an eating disorder. That’s when it clicked for me. I’d felt so alone when I was 19-20 years old but here I was getting all these messages from people telling me they’d had the exact same journey but were ashamed to talk about it. That’s when I was like ‘this is my calling.’ Let’s shift this conversation.”

Last year, Gerges did a nude photo shoot with NOW Toronto for their annual Body Issue. He posted the nude photos on Instagram when the issue came out and lost 4000 followers.

“You see male models who are thin and muscular pose for pictures just like these, or even more scandalous ones, and those pictures end up in editorials and in ad campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana and Versace.” But when a body like his is nude, he says, the comments move swiftly from praise to criticism. “That double standard is why we need to talk about body positivity and the fact that bodies like mine, which don’t fit into this beauty ideal, experience the world differently and are treated differently because of it. It was crazy to get the backlash for that when thinner, more muscular guys are being praised for the exact same thing.”

Photography by Samuel Engelking

“It was a voice that needed to be heard and a story that needed to be told,” says Samuel Engelking, the photographer who shot the images for the Love Your Body issue. Engelking, who has photographed the likes of Margaret Atwood, Ai Weiwei and MIA, says of working with Gerges, “When we first met on set I was immediately taken by his positive spirit and confidence despite the unusual circumstances of the shoot.”

This newfound confidence is what Gerges’ followers are responding to, and he’s seen a shift in the way they interact with him online, even though the negative and hurtful comments about him, his body and his Middle Eastern identity—even from others in the Arab world—do still keep rolling in.

“Giving up my culture as these, for lack of a better word, these haters would want me to, is not an option,” he says. “I refuse to be shamed out of my culture. It is mine just as much as it is yours. Nothing that you can do will prevent me from embracing being Egyptian and being North African. You cannot take that away from me.”

The post How Mina Gerges Went From Being a Viral Meme to a Body Positivity Champion appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

How Mina Gerges Went From Being a Viral Meme to a Body Positivity Champion published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

[davidardiansyah]

2018: A Year in Kpop

I think it is safe to say that 2018 is a another big year for Kpop - a (infamous?) moniker for Korean Pop. The so-called Hallyu wave stormed the American and much of the western hemisphere like tsunami. While what started out to be reaction videos and fervent fans promoting their Kpop stans in radio and twitter (another Kpop ruled media), now the western media is paying a lot more attention, albeit to minority of the acts such BTS, short for Bangtansonyeondan (lit: bulletproof boyscouts). Paving the way, BTS opens the door for more recently acts like Monsta X, NCT, BlackPink, and others who score presence in the States as well.

While all well wishes and congratulations go to Kpop artists and acts who made 2018 another good year, the aim of this post is to highlight some of the best Kpop pieces that left marks in the year 2018, in my personal opinion (although these largely land similar sentiment across general public). So, no offence to others.

In general, 2018 is sprinkled with scores of unexpected rise of Kpop acts who did not show such tendency in previous years. Their new and fresh music takes South Korea and much of the world in surprise. Some popular acts continue to remain popular but fail to produce (in my opinion) good musics as would have been expected given they previous years' records. Perhaps, with the exception of BTS. This year is also peppered with good news with the return of some veteran acts from serving the mandatory 2 years military service while simultaneously others going hiatus with the similar reasons.

To begin, 2018 is a big year for iKon. They took South Korea by storm this year with their almost strip-bared piano backing and minimalist Love Scenario. The song in fact was so famous that it was banned in schools because the kids are addicted to this easily 'chewable' tune. Written by the leader B.I. (Hanbin), Love Scenario entails the story of the break up. This masterpiece was then followed by Killing Me and Goodbye Road, both of which were too accepted well among the public. The former being the sadness of breakup told in the equivalence of killing oneself and finally the latter tells the end of the series of breakup and going on separate ways.

Pentagon, a still relatively young act scores well with similar vibe song, an equally catchy and minimalist song called Shine. This song is very well accepted overseas with scores of covers made by overseas fans. Their following song, Naughty boy employs the same instrumental means like Shine. It seems that this year, the stripped-to-the-bare minimum instrumental and rhythmic song is a trend. Sadly, for them, one of the member left the group due to dating controversy that also resulted in their famous senior being kicked out as well.

2018 is not a complete if one does not mention BTS. They are huge this year. The scores of accolades from Billboard to AMA, UN to Grammy, it seems BTS is continuing their advancement from previous year and probably will too in the next year. This year their album Love Yourself: Tear, the second instalment to the Love Yourself Series landed at top spot in Billboard 200. The main title track, Fake Love, an emotional rock/hip-hop becomes their summer anthem. The repackaged album, Love Yourself: Answer scored the best album sold in the century in the South Korea, with the main title song Idol, a literal self-love anthem. Their Korean rendition of this song, performed in MMA2018 is definitely one of the best BTS performances to date. To me, while these titles are good and catchy, the B-sides pull some heartstrings. The Truth Untold has a soft spot in my heart, with the vocalist belting desperate and heartbreaking story in a sad but poetic way. I'm Fine, a response to their previous song, Save Me is another good track to listen.

All awhile we have discussed the boy groups, girl groups did equally well this year. At the start of the year Red Velvet's Bad Boy, Momoland's Bboom Bboom and Twice's What is Love were doing well. Similar to Love Scenario, Bboom Bboom's rise to popularity was unexpected. This rather young group scored a big hit this year among the established act like Twice and Red Velvet. In fact, you could say, I am rather disappointed with Twice this year. Perhaps, to better put it, I expected a lot more from Twice. After receiving much love for CheerUp, TT, Likey, and Heartshaker in the previous years, What is Love and Yes or Yes did not quite rise to the challenge. While Dance the Night Away exudes a rather different vibe (and I applaud for this undertaking), I think it doesn't suit Twice so well. Maybe because, we (or I) associate them with more cutesy and Twice-ish anthem like CheerUp or TT.

Blackpink did extremely well this year. After being starved for a year with only one song, As if it's Your Last, Blackpink came back with a mini album, Square Up, and a summer title track Ddu-Du-Ddu-Du. Of course, the hungry fans celebrated this and the song indeed did very well both local and internationally. Perhaps, a big contender for song of the year after Love Scenario. One of the members, Jennie went solo with Solo (ahem!) and the song is bop and suits the ear of many due to the generally mainstream track. Other act like Mamamoo soared this year with notable tracks such as Paint Me, Starry Night, Egoistic and Wind Flower. Starry Night and Egoistic are very much loved, with the latter infuses a Latin-inspired sound. Meanwhile, GFriend returned to their stronghold sound with Time for the Moon Light. EXID on the other hand welcomes their leader and main vocalist, Solji with new track I Love You, yet another EXID bop like Up&Down.

While in general YG acts tend to do well, I am rather disappointed with Winner. They did so well last year with Really Really but Everyday is just not comparable. They can't seem to repeat their success even with the recently released fan song, Millions. Despite this, their rapper Mino comeback's is an equally bop song as Jennie's. Mino's Fiancé has some interesting sounds, perhaps a remake of an old traditional tune. Speaking of traditional tunes, this solo work has a similar vibe to BTS' rappers' track called Ddaeng, which borrows from traditional Chinese sounds.

The rest of the acts performed more or less as expected. In the boy groups, Got7 came back with a funky house pop tracks like Look and Lullaby. Seventeen has a good year in 2018, releasing Thanks and Oh My! Seventeen also did well in their OST with A-Teen, a song loved as much by South Korean as the web drama of the same name. VIXX came back with a Scentist, a song that is a good follow up from Shang-ri La (one of my favourites in 2017). Monsta X is delivering good songs after 2017's Dramarama with Jealousy and Shoot Me, although in my honest opinion, Dramarama is still superior. However, their good tracks land them a spot in America this year. Got7 also has it big in the States. It seems like following BTS path, many Kpop acts are quite welcomed within the western hemisphere this year. EXO came back later in the year with Tempo and Love Shot. But it is safe to say, much of 2018 is quite empty of EXO's presence (except for EXO-CBX). Among the two title tracks, Love Shot just sounds better, while Tempo fails to deliver the expectation from their long comeback since Universe.

2018 sees many groups either going hiatus or their members going solo. Big acts like BigBang, Highlight and SHINee are some of the examples. BigBang released Goodbye Road, a fan song, before the members served their nation, with the exception of Seungri, who goes solo for the time being. Another group going hiatus with impending military conscription is Highlight. The successful re-debut of 10-year-old group last year gave their fans their last song, Loved, before their members going to serve the military. Their members have released solo songs from late 2017 to 2018. Doojoon, and soon Yoseob, are serving the nation currently. SHINee's leader Onew also followed suits, with him releasing his solo Blue beforehand. Other member such as Key also released his solo. It seems like a trend that, before going for military, members go solo and perform in front of their fans for the last time. The same is true for BtoB and Infinite as well. BtoB continues to belt their perfect vocals with Only One for Me and Beautiful Pain. Sadly, one of their members, leader Seo Eunkwang left the group to serve the military, soon to be followed by two other members: Minhyuk and Changsub, who also have released their solo tracks. Infinite also saw their leader leaving for military and came back with Tell Me prior. The group so far remains in hiatus, with Woohyun going solo and Hoya leaving the group.

While we have to say goodbye to some good vocals, SM artists welcome the comeback of TVXQ! from military. But for many, TVXQ! glory days are maybe over since the scandal that left the group broken into the duo TVXQ! and JYJ. Cassiopeia awaits for the OT5 comeback and the return of their glory past. The duo songs did not do as well this year but before we throw the towel, let's wait for their 15th anniversary album. Super Junior also welcomes their members who finished their military service. This year, Super Junior goes Latin with Lo Siento and Otra Vez. They are tapping on their huge fanbase the Latin America. The Latin inspired musics are staying for awhile in Kpop scene. Girls' Generation came back in a unit with summer track, Lil Touch while BoA came back with Woman. Woman anthem continues strong past 2018.

2018 sees several solo female acts rising to the top. Chungha, Heize and Sunmi are big this year. Rollercoaster is doing well for Chungha, propelling her further after the disbandment of I.O.I. Perhaps, she is one of the few members that is doing very well. Heize continues to remains popular in urban/R&B scene with Jenga. Sunmi exudes sexiness with Heroine and Siren, a continuation of woman anthem since her Gashina. IU, on the other hand, returned with Bbi Bbi, an unexpected sound from her successful 2017 tracks Pallete and Through the Night. Personally, it is not my favourite IU songs. It is not that I don't like the song, they take time to get used to, but still I applaud IU for taking up the challenge for this female anthem. Women are indeed doing good and breaking free this year. Lastly, to add on, Red Velvet's Wendy sang for The Beauty Inside OST, Goodbye, which lands onto my personal favourite tracklist.

Male solo artists did not quite match up to their counterpart. Roy Kim released a soft ballad Only Then and Eric Nam a EDM and reggaeton Honestly. Dean is big earlier in the year with instagram, one of my personal favourites. J-Hope and RM of BTS both released their mixtapes. Airplane and tokyo are my personal favourites among others. Meanwhile, VIXX's Ken's remake of Late Regret does the charm in pulling my heartstrings. Shaun's Way Back Home is very much loved in South Korean and my personal favourite indie track, despite the sasaeji accusations.

In the band scene, CNBlue is currently on hiatus with Jonghwa in military and other members soon to follow. FT Island released summer song, Summer Night's Dream and also expects for impending military service. That leaves us with Day6 who came back with Shoot Me, but largely did no do as well. Meanwhile, The Rose retuned with emotional-rock Baby and She's in the Rain. The former personally is better than the latter.

Produce 101 acts like Wanna One is seeing their impending disbandment end of this year. The super-rookie has enjoyed deluge of love from the fans local and international. They released many songs this year alone with unit tracks as well. Boomerang, Light and Spring Breeze are some of the titles. The last one, Spring Breeze, showcases the sad ballad musics to culminate their journey with fans. Meanwhile, the new Produce 101 child, Iz*One is debuting their 12 members group with La Vie en Rose, another Latin-inspired song. Produce 101 acts are favourites among many, with Wanna soon to be missed.

Rookie group to watch this year is (G)I-dle, they have impressive year with Latata and Han. The former won them their first music show award, indeed a powerhouse rookie (a reminiscent of Blackpink in 2016). Han,on the other hand, is my personal favourite. Stray Kids is competing with The Boyz for the male rookie this year, with the former, in my opinion has a better public reception. Hellevator and District 9 are some of their debut songs this year.  

Lastly, on the not-so-rookie group. KARD came back with You in Me and Ride on the Wind, with one of the boys became a vocalist. The former generally better than the latter, continuation of the KARD vibe. Ride on the Wind, however, fails to fly as high as their debut songs. KARD was my favourite rookie last year but this year they just didn't deliver. Meanwhile, NCT has a big year in 2018. Following BTS footsteps, they are a growing presence in the States. NCT U released Boss and NCT 127 Regular and Simon Says. While the last track drew some controversy, NCT 127's continuing popularity is on a steady rise (only shadowed by EXO). Regular, on the other hand, another Latin-trap track is just good to your ears. The English version surprisingly sounds much better.

And that concludes the year in Kpop.