#shia tart

[shiamiko]

When will you learn? 🌹♥️

[whatsnewtonetflix]

Summer is upon us, and here on What's New to Netflix, we find a lot to discuss when we peruse the list of titles coming to Netflix in June 2024.

Then Jerry Seinfeld stars and directs this somewhat true story of how the Pop-Tart was invented in Unfrosted from 2024. Next, Shia LaBeouf befriends a runaway as they go on an unpredictable journey together in The Peanut Butter Falcon from 2019. And last, Jennifer Lopez has to fight a rogue AI while overcoming her own fears and trusting an unlikely ally in Atlas from 2024.

All of this plus early 2000s nostalgia, movies stealing the plot from Addams Family Values, sexual healing, Ultraman, magical schools, twin cinema, mid-'90s nostalgia, finding out who "the Mole" is, and owning all of Manhattan.

CLICK BELOW TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD

got a suggestion for the show?: whatsnewtonetflix@gmail.com

[ghummoindia]

CHENNAI – EXPRESS TO MADRAS 

Chennai is the passage of South India as well as the notable capital of Tamil Nadu. This city is popular for its way of life well as customs. Prior the city has the name Madras, besides, it is on the Coromandel Coast. This is the biggest city in the state with different landmarks as well as vacation destinations. A metropolitan city has old organizations in the country.

Chennai is the country's social capital as the practices here are longstanding. This city has the second-longest shore on the planet. The city is a notable IT and IIT center in the country. Chennai is a mind-boggling city with such a huge amount to investigate and learn. The Britishers in the seventeenth century framed their major maritime base around here.

Vacation destinations

Marina Ocean side :- It is the longest ocean side in the country which is 12 km long. This shocking ocean side is situated on the Straight of Bengal and is perhaps of the most active ocean side in the city. An English Lead representative in 1880 has redesigned this ocean side. This is a delightful spot for having family picnics and partaking in some quiet time. Santhome Basilica :- This Church building was worked by Portuguese products in the sixteenth hundred years. This congregation is planned in a Neo-Gothic style. The congregation has a wonderful white design alongside a gallery contiguous it. The gallery has different curios connected with St. Thomas to whom this spot was. Post St. George :- This is the main structure developed by Britishers in the country. It was made on the Madras cost for send-out purposes. Before long this spot was changed over into a full city with two sections. One for the pioneer individuals and the other for dock laborers. Presently this spot is an exhibition hall with different old designs worked by Britishers alongside the St. Wed Church. Thousand Light Mosque :- This is the hypnotizing mosque of Shia Muslims in Anna Salai, Chennai. It is perhaps of the most visited and conspicuous mosques in India. The name thousand lights are given to this spot as a practice of lighting lights in the vicinity of the mosque is followed here.

Renowned sanctuaries of Chennai

Kapaleeshwar Sanctuary :- This antiquated sanctuary has the icon of Master Shiva and was arranged in the seventh 100 years. This sanctuary is perhaps of the most loved place in the country. It is a sanctuary having great engineering. Consequently, the sanctuary depends on a few verifiable convictions of the neighborhood individuals. Parthasarathy Sanctuary :- This sanctuary is of Master Vishu and his five structures. The Pallavas lord of the locale in the sixth century developed this sanctuary. This sanctuary is the most perceived sanctuary of the religion having a few stories connected with its presence. The icon of ruler Vishnu here is around 9ft. tall. Ashtalakshmi Sanctuary :- This sanctuary is on Ellison's Ocean side on the edges of the city. It has a novel style of engineering and is unique in the entire state. This sanctuary is of Goddess Laxmi as well as thought to be the image of best of luck and abundance in the area. Kalikambal Sanctuary :- This sanctuary is in the core of the city. The sanctuary is the most seasoned sanctuary in the area and has delightful premises. The incomparable Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji visited this spot in 1677 and won the fight after that. Prior, the sanctuary was close to the beach.

The scrumptious food of the city

The city has a few popular road food varieties known for their zesty and tart flavors. South India is essentially well known for its food and noteworthy sanctuaries. The district is generally perceived for its range of road food and cooking styles. The most popular food here is Idli with Sambar and chutney. Rice is the staple food served in Chennai and the majority of the food is of rice flour.

Idli Sambar :- This is the food of the district and is tasted by everybody visiting to eat South Indian food. It is a rice cake with sambar and coconut chutney. This dish is served on banana leaves in a conventional manner. In addition, this is the conventional dish of the area. Uttapam :- It is the most delicious morning nibble here. It is essentially a rice dish loaded down with heaps of vegetables as well as presented with sambar and chutney. You can track down this in the city and in renowned eateries in the city. Boli :- It is a lip-smacking road food of the city. This is a sort of stuffed paratha, loaded down with toor dal, raisins, nuts, and a lot more things. It is a sweet dish you can't prevent yourself from eating. Dosa :- This is the most renowned dish in the city. Dosa is an unquestionable necessity to eat thing here. You can find various types of dosa with different preferences and flavors. Each dosa shop has its own various types of dosa. Vada :- It is one more delectable road food of the district. You can track down it in the close-by slows down. These are the fiery doughnuts pan-fried and presented with chutney. Furthermore, it has a crunchy base.

Fortes of the city

Exceptional Culture :- The city has the most remarkable and various societies in the country. Individuals of the city actually hold their old practices and values wherever with them. Local people of the city communicate in just Tamil language rather than another normal language. Celebrations :- The celebration of the city has a few various types of energies. The city praises an enormous number of celebrations and social dance and music structures are performed in the city during these celebrations. In any case, a few renowned celebrations here are Pongal, Natyanjali Dance Celebration, and some more. Mechanical Center points :- The city is very nearly turning into the second Innovative center point of the country after Banglore. The city has different notable IT Organizations in the country as well as the world. Furthermore, the city is as of late noted as the gigantic exporter of IT programming in the country. Carnatic Music :- This is a conventional type of South Indian music craftsmanship. In any case, Carnatic music is just tracked down in Chennai. This is the most famous type of craftsmanship here which is arranged in its underlying foundations. Consistently a yearly Live concert is held in the city for Carnatic artists.

End Consequently, we can say that Chennai is the social center point of the locale as well as of the country. The city is as yet holding its way of life and customs in its foundations and carrying on with a cutting-edge way of life. Consequently, the city is a finished combination of present-day and customary ways of life. In addition, this city is the most prestigious city of the Tamil Nadu state, not on the grounds that it is the capital but since it is brimming with flows in its air. The city energies are lively as well as sweet for each guest visiting the city.

If you want to know more about travel, then visit ghummoindia.com

[irkborne]

y’all should break the rules like @grndog and do the accent meme just sayin

[leanstooneside]

GENESIS QUOTE FILL-IN (FASCIA)

• TARA REID'S FOXY BELLY

• JULIANNE HOUGH'S TIGHT BELLY

• BARRY ZITO'S SMOKEY BELLY

• ELIZABETH TAYLOR'S ROUND BELLY

• ADAM SANDLER'S RETICENT BELLY

• KATHY GRIFFIN'S TART BELLY

• DESIREE HARTSOCK'S FAT BELLY

• KRISTEN BELL'S FULL BELLY

• KIEFER SUTHERLAND'S CHEWY BELLY

• PAUL WESLEY'S VEGETAL BELLY

• JON LESTER'S CAT PEE BELLY

• ROGER FEDERER'S JUICY BELLY

• VAMPIRE WEEKEND'S SOUR BELLY

• DSQUARED2'S SPICY BELLY

• GISELE BÜNDCHEN'S MINERALLY BELLY

• PITBULL'S FLESHY BELLY

• GARY SHIRLEY'S RICH BELLY

• DANIEL CRAIG'S SOUR BELLY

• COURTENEY COX'S DEPTH BELLY

• MARY-LOUISE PARKER'S VINEGAR BELLY

• SHIA LABEOUF'S DENSE BELLY

• BOB HARPER'S OAKED BELLY

• LEANN RIMES'S CREAMY BELLY

• KIM CATTRALL'S DEPTH BELLY

• ED SHEERAN'S CONNECTED BELLY

• BEN ROETHLISBERGER'S TAR BELLY

• WHITNEY HOUSTON'S FLAMBOYANT BELLY

• DONALD FAISON'S SWEET BELLY

• JASON BATEMAN'S SOFT BELLY

• ADRIAN GRENIER'S LASER-LIKE BELLY

• LUPITA NYONG'O'S ALCOHOLIC BELLY

• CHAD OCHOCINCO'S FLABBY BELLY

• MATT DAMON'S SOFT BELLY

• BRITTANY SNOW'S SUPPLE BELLY

• JOEL MADDEN'S FAT BELLY

• GABRIELLE UNION'S GREEN BELLY

• JIMMY KIMMEL'S ELEGANT BELLY

[planetparker]

Markiplier’s Alternative Swear Words from THE DESTROY MY CHANNEL CHALLENGE | Getting Over It - Part 5 // Part 1

*monkey screams*

potato

aardvark

fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun FUN FUN FUN 

avocado

sashimi

batman

spiderman

batman piderman 

*monkey noises*

SAY CAN YOU SEE

the breeze? (my ears aren’t working)

wallaby 

wimbledon

tennis

foOotball americanoOoOOo

WIMBLEDON

WUMBALABUF (shia labeouf?) 

C-CRIMINY

CAGGLE

BUM

POOPIE PA TOOTIE

*then markiplier said a swear* (bye bye subscribers) 

lots of ‘OH NOO OH NOOooOOo’ 

OUAHWHAHWAWAAWA

WHAT THE HECKIN HECK

HECK x the amount of times he throws the chair

GAWRSH

GOLLY

*GRUNTS* 

MICHAELANGELO 

DA VINCI

GRRRRRR

*reminder this is only 18 minutes in*

HEY WOAH HEY WOAH HEY WOAH HEYyYYyyY

skadoodle

skadoodle ma noodle *wink wonk* 

YOU BE GOOD TO ME AND I’LL BE GOOD TO YOU

*animal noises*

OOOOpaAAa

CHEeEeESUMS

NOOO NO no NO noOOo

SAAAASSSS

SASSIFRAASSS

sssSSSOUP

jeesums 

criminy christmas

wOOooOAH (infinity times in the video)

sallYYy SUuE

GUH GUH GUUuuHHh GUS

GUM GUM

GRANDMA

it loves to be fuuUUnkyYYy

funky fresh is the name of this game

you’re being a little antsy pantsy 

THE PUSH THE PUSH THE PUSH

OH MY GOODNESS GRAVY

goodness gravy

pop tarts

*intense breathing*

*girlish screams*

noooOOOOOOoo NOOOOOOOOOOO

mmMMmMMMMM MUMBER NUMBER FIVE MUMBO NUMBER FIVE

RANDAL

MAMMA MIA

VVVVVOOoaoaoAOAoahoaoOAO

AAAAHHHHHHHHH

WIMBLEDON WIMBLEDON WIMBLEDON

FUN FUN FUN FUN

VIDEO GAAAAAAMEESSSSS

*honestly the facial expressions says it all*

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY

FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN

THIS GAME IS RUN

FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN

GAMES ARE FUN 

FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN

STOOOoooOOOOooooOOPpppp

fun fun fun fun fuN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN I’M HAVING FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN 

fun 

fun 

fun

fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun 

IT’S SO MUCH FUN I’M HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE 

PLLLLLBRRRBRRRRRBRRRPRRRBRPRRR

MAYBE MAYBE MAYBE BAAAABYYYY BABY BA BY BABY BABY BAAABY

FUN FUN FUN FUN SUPEEEERRRR FUN SOOPER DOOPER FUN SUPER FUN

aiiii yaiiii yaiiii

ai yai yai yai ai yao yao yao

super fun super fun super fun suuuuper fun super fun super fun very fun fair fair faIR also fair this game is fun and fair this is game is fun and its fair and its fair fun for the whole family tOOoOo enjoy fair fun that was fair

*ariel singing to ursula before her voice gets stolen*

*markiplier loses his sanity* 

*40 mins in* 

*puffiplier fishbach*

ooooooOOOOOOOooOooOoooooOOOAaAaa

*attempts to compose himself but we know it’s a facade*

genghis khan

abrahaaAAAam lincoln

*heck makes its appearance again* 

AHHH AHHHH AHHHHHHH I’M HAVING SO MUCH FUN

aight i’m leaaving it there if you want more let me know :P and markimoo please save yourself and not play this game for at least 1 month, i hate seeing you so worked up and stressed over a game, it’s not worth wasting your time on it if it’s only going to hurt you, take care of yourself please xx

[marilynngmesalo]

’Bumblebee’ review: ’Transformers’ prequel/spinoff saves bloated franchise

’Bumblebee’ review: ’Transformers’ prequel/spinoff saves bloated franchise ’Bumblebee’ review: ’Transformers’ prequel/spinoff saves bloated franchise https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Three stars out of four.

The “Transformers” movie universe has lately been leaky and rusted out. It’s become shorthand for bad blockbuster moviemaking — male-driven, mindless spectaculars with sophomoric humour. How can it be saved? Just hand the keys over to some talented women.

“Bumblebee,” the sixth film in the series, is a stand-alone origin story written with disarming skill by Christina Hodson and starring the gifted Hailee Steinfeld. It’s a charming tale of a girl and her adorable car-robot, flipping the script on the tired, bloated franchise. While hard-core fan-boys may complain it’s too soft, this film may turn out to be the perfect way to save “Transformers.” Could Bumblebee rescue Optimus Prime this time?

“Bumblebee ” is set outside San Francisco in 1987, where the loyal B-127 Autobot has been sent to protect Earth and prepare the groundwork for the franchise (He’ll befriend Shia LaBeouf at the start of the first film.) Badly hurt while battling two evil tracking Decepticons, he loses his voice and memories. Then he disguises himself as a vintage Volkswagen Bug and waits for deliverance in a salvage yard (not unlike the entire “Transformers” universe).

He’s discovered by goth-y misfit Charlie Watson (Steinfeld), who is fond of car repair, Motorhead T-shirts and listening to The Smiths. She is still mourning her dead dad and feels generally unheard. For her 18th birthday, Charlie drives off with the junked VW that has a whole bunch of secret options.

Despite discovering that the car is, in fact, an alien, she feels a kinship to this mute metal giant with expressive eyes, calling him Bumblebee. He, too, is unheard, but learns to communicate using word snippets he hears on the radio. She warns that bad guys are sure to come and take him away, but she will protect him. “People can be terrible about things they don’t understand,” she tells him.

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Thus starts a sort of “E.T.” for 2018, in which Charlie and Bumblebee outfox another pair of Decepticons, the entire U.S. Army (led by a mechanical John Cena) and her distracted mom and stepdad. If the film seems to have that kid-sized, wistful ’80s Steven Spielberg feel, it might be because Spielberg serves as an executive producer. (Franchise helmer Michael Bay has been exiled from the director’s chair to the executive suite.)

Hodson is the first woman to originate and write a film in the $4.3-billion “Transformers” franchise and she proves extremely capable of blending loud action with human pathos, not to mention tart with sweet, though she gets dangerously close to maudlin when it comes to Charlie’s dad. “I can’t lose you, too,” the young woman tells the yellow robot. Steinfeld nails teen alienation but also can turn on empathy beautifully and has a winning cockiness. Plus, she sings the movie’s signature song (Talk about a transformer).

Hodson and director Travis Knight (“Kubo and the Two Strings”) take full advantage of the film’s late-1980s setting to give us visual and audio jokes. Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love” plays during a montage as Charlie lovingly restores a muscle car, and Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55” blares during a car chase. This is the 80s, so expect plenty of Walkman, Pop-Tarts, “Alf” and “Miami Vice” references. And look for a moment when it seems like the very internet itself gets created, a clever low-key touch.

Hits by Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, a-ha, Tears for Fears and Wang Chung are sprinkled throughout. (Bumblebee turns out to be quite a good music critic, too, hilariously rejecting some of Charlie’s options). Die-hard franchise fans also get to hear the power ballad “You Got the Touch” that appeared in the 1986’s animated “Transformers” film. (Well played, filmmakers.) They’re also true to the universe — Bumblebee will eventually change at the end to what he becomes when Bay was in charge, a Chevrolet Camaro.

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After so many over-the-top battles in the metal-thumping series, it’s fun here to watch Bumblebee commit more small-scale mayhem, like egging someone’s car. The robot is rendered as a sort of distracted, flaky adolescent teenager and a sequence in which he’s left home alone is priceless. One caution: Younger viewers are advised to watch the 1985 iconic film “The Breakfast Club” — it comes up several times rather brilliantly, especially in one final scene with Cena which refreshingly doesn’t go trite.

Hard-core fans may be unhappy that there’s not enough robot-on-robot violence or turned off by the meet-cute between teen and bot, but hopefully it will attract an audience either tired or turned off by the franchise’s past rigidity and addiction to spectacle. This is what we needed: Smaller, quieter, more human and sweeter.

“Bumblebee,” a Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for “sequences of sci-fi action violence.” Running time: 119 minutes.

John Cena: 'Bumblebee' brings heart to 'Transformers'

  Click for update news Bangla news https://ift.tt/2UUdu21 world news

[theculturalevolution]

2016:  The Year in Review

by David

What a MISERABLE year!   What a God forsaken year, both politically and personally.   And 2017 doesn’t look any better, at least in terms of public life, and likely a lot worse.  I barely want to discuss it.  Why add my thoughts to the many words already expended on this public farce?  We’ve been in touch with some of life’s truisms:  that we don’t always get what we want no matter how much we want it, that the world is not fair or even reasonable, and that life ends.  But this year of public and private tragedy has been mitigated foremost by my family and friends, and, secondarily by the loving and healing world of pop culture.  It’s times like these when we need our cultural lives, and the implied communities those interests provide us.  

But this has also been the year when the time/space continuum imploded for me, pop culturally speaking.  I mean that my consumption of the stuff I write about became largely unmoored by any sense of temporality.  I watched and listened and read stuff with little sense of when it was produced.  One can, of course, do that now with streaming.  It is a funny way to consume pop culture given that the essence of pop culture is its nowness and its symbiotic relationship to the present.  I know, however, that given the collapse of time/space I (and, I assume, everyone) am in an eternal, solipsistic and existential now.  We all create our own pop universes and live in our own independent popular culture.  I know that because I still don’t believe that Donald Trump is President. That fact shocks me every morning when I read the news. We create our own communities virtual or actual, listen to our own facts and have difficulty comprehending a world unlike our own.   Where is that former standard arbiter of popular taste – the water cooler moment – when we work from home or drink bottled water at our own cubicles.  I was at a gathering recently, talking about TV and no one else knew the shows others were presenting as their own personal current faves.

D. Trump/A. Baboon

Anyway, sometimes life sucks, but much of the time it doesn’t. So in this new, strange, fragmented world I want to present what was culturally significant to me in 2016.  

D. Trump/A. Baldwin

Given the rent in the time-space continuum, the first item of business has got to be the movies I missed in 2015 but caught up with in 2016, and thought noteworthy. 

Sicario – beautifully directed, slick and tense, morally ambiguous, with some character and plot inconsistencies. 45 Years – the best of this lot, a luminous and quiet film about relationships.  Though notice went to Charlotte Ramplings’ vibrant performance, I was bowled over by Tom Courtney’s vulnerable and transparent acting.  A great film.  

45 Years

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – better than you think.   Diary of a Teenage Girl – more disturbing than you think.   Brooklyn – subtle and sweet. I saw this in the same weekend as the Revenant and my head nearly exploded negotiating the extreme chick/dude movie dichotomy.   The Martian – Golden Globe for best comedy????  Huh?  It was, however, fun to watch. Straight Outta Compton – certainly not on the level of the best films, but enlightening and energetic. The Revanent – beautiful, long and gruesome.  What was the point, again?   Room – creates its own world like it’s supposed to.   Bridge of Spies – It’s not the time for my Spielberg discussion, but FINE, and I mean that as a compliment here.   Carol – so that’s what the 50s were about.

The most culturally significant addition to my social media arsenal:   Instagram (i.e. the only addition to my social media arsenal):  When I wrote poetry I would apprehend my world through snippets of language I gathered in my head.  Now I see the world through discrete visual stimuli, and I have a community to share them with.  A whole new reality, and another way that my caring daughter has shepherded me into this brave new world.    

Best Concert:  Ghost Light Radio Show at The Big Chill Cantina in Rehoboth. Sometimes the best band in the world is your neighbor’s cover band playing for a crowd at an open air beach bar on a beautiful summer night:   “Maggie May”, “Copperhead Road”, “Interstate Love Song”, “What I Like About You”, “Thinkin’ Out Loud” and tons more songs that sound great with beer.

GLRS

TV: Glittering Prizes – 70’s British series about friends from Cambridge University that I finally caught up with forty years later.  What an unusual, touching, intelligent pleasure.  

Veep – binged this one.  The joy of invective, hatred, self interest and wild profanity!  Politics as humiliation!  The delight of pure id!  Julia Louis-Dreyfus offers one of the all-time greatest female comedy performances, fearless in her full embrace of the characters’ substantial flaws. Unlikeableness reaches new levels. This series was absurdly hilarious and outlandish when Obama was President,  and now is devastating and nightmarish with Trump.  In a surreal moment I watched the final episode about transfer of power the night before the inauguration.  Arghhhhhhhhhh!

JL-D/Veep

Fargo – The first season explores the nature of evil in the world.  Stunning and dark.  

  Red Oaks – Endearing coming of age Amazon show set in the 80s in a New Jersey country club.  Top notch directors and two mensch actors in Richard Kind and Richard Mazur (in a bit role).  Like Philip Roth in setting and theme, if not in tone or quality.

  John Oliver and Bill Maher – how else to stay informed?

Modern Family - Still....

Blackish- preachy but wacky.

Movies: Moonlight – lovely, powerful and transfixing, the most worthwhile film of the year. Both this film and the other best film, Manchester by the Sea, are characterized by their examination of emotional constraint, and by their deep and specific sense of place: the ocean is key in each film.  

Moonlight

Manchester by the Sea – I just loved this sad, upliftingly depressing movie about how things happen that can never be made right.  Kenneth Lonergin has a distinct voice (see You Can Count on Me – another favorite of mine) Casey’s performance was specific and heartbreaking.  Extra points for Kyle Chandler and his FLN connection.  

Manchester by the Sea

Hell or High Water – excellent modern Western with traditional Western atmosphere of bleakness and destiny.  It portrays  a desolate, marginalized population who would rather support a bank robber than a bank, and sheds light on those who embrace Trump.  Jeff Bridges is, as always, fantastic. Arrival – abstract, metaphysical and poetic sci fi about language, communication and time.  A really unusual popular movie. Great Amy Adams. American Honey – teenage wasteland.  Is that Shia LaBoef acting like James Franco?  Captain Fantastic – intriguingly ambivalent.  Plaudits to Viggo Mortensen. A Bigger Splash – slick and sensual thriller where one character talks too much and one is silent.  Memorable Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton.

                                                       *****

Hidden Figures – movie of the week template elevated by sterling execution and good intentions.  Usually good intentions are a negative for me, but this corny thing gets away with them.  Sully – Tom Hanks used to do swagger; now he excels in anxiety.

Love and Friendship – Jane Austen film without the usual stick up its ass.   La La Land – meta without irony.  I experienced this as a film about the issues in making a movie musical in 2016:  I thought it was quite cerebral.  I really did not get the heartwarming stuff.  And Ryan Gosling?  He was so cool and edgy in Half Nelson, an amazing performance.  When did he become so stiff?  Is it the cost of his working out?   Florence Foster Jenkins – better than you think Sing Street – charming and goofy.  Also better than you thought it would be,  especially for this afficianado of teen comedies and music.   Loving --  reserved and moving.  Another film that got away with good intentions. Fences – Great play, too stagey, too bloviating.  

Sasha Lane/American Honey

MUSIC Music from here, there and everywhere entered (and re-entered) my world this year.  

Josh Ritter – Sermon on the Rocks: When I heard these songs on WXPN this year, they just popped, especially “Birds of the Meadow” which always made me take note.  

“Sunshine Superman”:  The vastly underrated purveyor of the terminally hippy dippy, Donovan, wrote and sang this 60’s single of pure joy.  One of the things that makes Donovan so special is the inventive arrangements of his songs.  Just listen to the baseline.  And the same sunshine that “came softly through my window today” in this song was evident to Joni Mitchell who saw “the sun through yellow curtain lace” on her “Chelsea Morning,” and to the Vaselines “and the sun shines in the bedroom when you play” in “Son of a Gun,” two other songs of unadulterated hedonism.   Let’s also remember another single,  Donovan’s purest expression of hippy mindlessness and flower power, “Atlantis,” which always brings a smile I can’t wipe off my face no matter how hard I try. Performing “Atlantis” on TV in the 60s, midpoint through the song, Donovan whispered “Hail Atlantis” in his most wispy voice, and then stood up in his white Nehru gown, and started throwing blossoms. You gotta believe the 60s were sweet!  For Donovan’s tart musical antidote to this treacle, listen to the bad vibes made manifest in his “Season of the Witch.”  In fact, the entire Sunshine Superman album is well worth the listen.  If you like it, try Mellow Yellow next.  

Donovan

“Autumn Sweater”:  Yo La Tengo:  oh! Yo La Tengo! I’ve been loving their quiet covers album Stuff Like That There from 2015 all 2016, read a decent book about them, and been listening to their other albums, most notably I Hear Two Hearts Beating as One from whence comes “Autumn Sweater”:  Minimal sound, trance-like sensual beat, mysterious, obsessive lyrics, whispered vocal.  Over their long career, this band bit off a piece of Velvet Underground, added a dollop of 60s trash, and built the little band that could (how mixed is that metaphor?): has it been 30 years now of regularly released, lovely soft/ harsh excellent music?

Yo La Tengo

“Falling Rain”:  trance-like folk rock cover from Karl Blau that lasts 10 minutes but only seems like 6 minutes.  Loved it every time I heard it. 

  American Band by Drive-by Truckers –They play churning, passionate classic two (or three) guitar rock that splits the difference between those rivals Neil Young and Lynard Skynard, with sharper politics than either (but more limited melodic gifts.)  They’ve maintained consistently empathic songwriting for over 20 years and 11 studio albums, and, deeply affected by the current political turmoil going on in the USA, this piece may be their best yet.  From Treyvon Martin to Robin Williams.  Words of wisdom:  “Killing’s been the bullet’s business”; “You don’t see too many white kids lying bleeding in the street.”  

You Want it Darker -- Leonard Cohen: I don’t have to go through the list of those major music artists we’ve lost this year.  Though Bowie and Prince are undeniably giants, the two whose loss affected me most deeply are Merle Haggard and this man who left his profound, clear-eyed, stirring goodbye note.  It completed his extraordinary and singular life work, and listening to it is heartbreaking.  An earlier song by L. Cohen I’ve always loved is his epic about “Joan of Arc,” a stately waltz, making manifest his major theme: the confluence of sex, death and spirit.  This final album is its epitome. I treasure the three times I was able to see him perform.  

L.Cohen “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling”:  This song, that never really left, re-entered my consciousness through a radio interview and a book passage this year.  I loved it when I first heard it: I remember responding to its deep, echoed sound of profound sadness in November of 1964.  I’ve been thinking about what 13-year-old me made of its message of romantic despair and loss.   I realized that this song did not chiefly resonate with feelings of sadness I already had; it instead taught me one way of how to be sad in love that I took with me and held deeply.  I learned how to be depressed in a bad relationship from this song.  Art doesn’t only resound with our prior feelings, it provides emotional education.  

“Cigarettes and Alcohol” – Oasis: tuff “Bang a Gong (Get it On)” remake.

Patti Smith sings “A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall” at Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize induction:  Dylan is great; since 1964 he’s been my hero; I adore him. One could make a case for Greatest Songwriter Ever!  He clearly extended the range of song to include literary influence -- Beat and Surrealist poetry chiefly -- like no one ever has done -- (I’ll have to check that statement out with my Classical Music friends.)  But I experience some melancholy at the choice because his victory denies the prize to my favorite contemporary writer, the richly deserving Philip Roth.  They are not going to award this to another American Jew for decades.  Patti’s genuine emotional presence and humility at the ceremony along with the songs current relevance add layers of complexity to this whole Nobel process. Incredible performance and incredible song. Hail, hail Bob, Patti and Philip!

  Books: Tess of the D’Urberville—a classic is a classic because it amazes.

Thomas Hardy

The Anatomy of a Song by Marc Myers -- Taken from his column for The Wall Street Journal, 45 songs from Lawdy Miss Clawdy to Losing My Religion are discussed through interviews with creators about how each song got to be.  Tidbits about songwriting inspiration are less interesting than the production details, but most of these allow you to hear the song in a new way, and to get some neat factoids.  I found it compulsively readable and it has stuck with me more than some of the other music books I read this year.  Fun! 

Taras Bulba – Gogol.  Yes, Taras Bulba.  Explains Putin (and Trump)

After Dark by Haruki Murakami -- elegant exploration of mediated reality.  Lovely in its unity of time. 

Last Night by James Salter -- Sharply written, stunning stories about adultery.

The Ghost Writer and Exit Ghost – Roth at his best.  Extraordinary complexity, passion and humor in two short page turners -- a book and its sequel -- separated by almost 30 years.   They book end Zuckerman’s story, and offer a prelude to Roth’s retirement. What tremendous place do these contemplative and impulsive men -- Nathan Zuckerman, Rabbit Angstrom (see John Updike) and Frank Bascomb (see Richard Ford) -- occupy in our time.

P. Roth

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Kyu kurarin

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Where is his wife :(

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Blind obsession

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Hey look Ma, I made it

Are you happy?

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🌹

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Frames of an abandoned animatic!

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Shitpost