#tampa make-up artist

[john-gosh-darnielle]

If we never make it back to California I want you to know I love you

[slavghoul]

Hello, I prepared some statistics to give you a short overview of Ghost's amazingly successful 2022. It is based on data I collected between 22/12/2021 and 22/12/2022.

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The big Ghost event of 2022 was of course the release of the band's fifth album, IMPERA.

Since March 11, it has sold nearly 500,000 copies, won the American Music Award for Favorite Rock Album and received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance ('Call Me Little Sunshine').

Within the first week of its release, the album reached #2 on the Billboard 200 (ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States) and ranked in the top 20 best-selling albums in 19 countries across the world:

#1 in Sweden, Austria, Germany, Finland, Spain

#2 in US, UK, Belgium, Norway, Netherlands

#3 in Australia, Canada

#5 in Switzerland, Ireland, France

#7 in Poland

#8 in Hungary

#12 in Denmark, Portugal

#20 in Italy

IMPERA is Ghost’s best charting album to date.

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On YouTube, the band amassed a staggering 260 million views. 840,000 people subscribed to the channel this year, which makes up 42% of all current subscribers.

5 most watched videos on YouTube in 2022:

Mary On A Cross (Official Audio) – 32 million views

Call Me Little Sunshine (Official Music Video) – 15 million views

Square Hammer (Official Music Video) – 11 million views

Mary On A Cross (Live in Tampa 2022) – 8.2 million views

Spillways (Official Music Video) – 6.8 million views

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On Spotify, the band amassed 1,285,625 new followers. That’s around 61% of all followers since the band appeared on the platform.

5 most streamed songs on Spotify in 2022:

Mary On A Cross -  193,709,473 streams

Call Me Little Sunshine – 41,108,589 streams

Square Hammer – 29,720,042 streams

Dance Macabre – 26,494,053 streams

Spillways – 24,910,870 streams

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It goes without saying that the viral success of Mary On A Cross on TikTok brought in a lot of new fans this year, but the magnitude of it becomes even more astonishing if you look at numbers.

On this graph, I marked a few events that resulted in a noticeable spike in the number of monthly listeners on Spotify, including the approximate time when MOAC began to gain traction on TikTok. As you can see, nothing, not even the release of a new album, gave the band as much attention as the 3-year old song suddenly raising in popularity on one single platform.

Between end of July and beginning of October, the number of monthly listeners on Spotify skyrocketed from 2.5 million to 12 million. This is a 380% increase.

Although the numbers have been in decline since then, it appears that for the past month they have stayed at a steady 9 million. As of today (Dec 22, 2022) the exact number is 9,110,996. Exactly a year ago (Dec 22, 2021) the number was 1,999,951. A hefty 355% increase in only a year.

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Some other milestones and fun facts:

On June 7, Cirice, Dance Macabre, and Square Hammer were all certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of 500,000 units in the USA. Following the viral success, Mary On A Cross was also certified Gold on November 20.

The band's most liked post on Instagram this year was a video of Papa throwing the first pitch at the White Sox game (273,241 likes).

The episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live where Ghost performed Call Me Little Sunshine was watched by around 1.3 million people.

In September, Ghost reached over 12 million monthly listeners on Spotify and was the 450th most streamed artist globally - that's 450 out of over 11 million!

As of today with over 1.6 billion accumulated streams Ghost is one of the 1,000 most successful artists on the platform of all time (currently #808).

On September 11, Mary On A Cross peaked at #1 in the Viral Hits chart on Spotify in 54 countries across the world.

It was also the highest charting Swedish song on the platform in 2022, peaking globally at #31.

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At this point I think it’s safe to declare that Ghost’s global success reached unprecedent heights this year and even allowed them to officially join the ranks of mainstream artists. With all of the above, 70 completed shows this year and many more to come in 2023, and with media of the likes of The Wall Street Journal proclaiming Ghost “the next generation of arena stars,” it looks like that the band is well on the way to become one of the biggest rock acts of this century. Not bad for a side project started by one Swede in his bedroom somewhere in Linköping. 

Let us hope 2023 will be as devilishly good!

[angelicsoka]

THE ABOUT PAGE!

everything you need to know about in between!

( angelicsoka, 2024 )

ADA "BUBBA" EVANS

✴ BUBBA'S BASICS!

NAME ada sylvie evans

NICK NAMES bubba, bubs, & A

BIRTHDAY 25th of january

ZODIAC aquarius

FACECLAIM mikey madison

CURRENT AGE 19 years old

PRONOUNS & SEXUALITY she/her & bisexual

HOMETOWN des moines, iowa

EDUCATION high school diploma

PIERCING & TATTOOS conch, lobes, helix & a cluster of sparkles on her right thigh

✴ BUBBA'S PERSONALITY!

QUALITIES bubba is pretty introverted when you first meet her. she tends to blossom into her extrovert-like personality over time. due to this, bubba is more of a loner. she'd rather keep to herself, spending her time reading and watching movies. she grew up an only child, so she is pretty use to the quiet life she is living. she yearns to be more confident and not care so much about pleasing people or having them like her.

LIKES & HOBBIES reading, watching movies and shows, listening to music, swimming, horseback riding, collecting funko pops & figurines, building legos, & traveling

DISLIKES spiders & wasps!!, loud places, driving in unfamiliar places, going somewhere unfamiliar, harassment

MENTAL HEALTH diagnosed with major depression disorder & generalized anxiety

✴ BUBBA'S FAVORITES & COMFORTS!

HER FAVORITES !

MOVIE revenge of the sith

TV SHOW psych

DISNEY PRINCESS elsa

FICTIONAL CHARACTERS louise belcher, ahsoka tano, & padmé amidala

SONG view between villages by noah kahan

VIDEO GAME resident evil 6 & red dead redemption 2

BOOK bird box by josh malerman

ARTISTS noah kahan & radio company

ANIMALS horses & deer

FOODS & DRINKS steak, red velvet cupcakes, & water, powerade, fruit punch

PEOPLE luke hughes, cole caufield, & her mother

HER COMFORTS !

MOVIE live action little mermaid & bambi II

TV SHOW bob's burgers

DISNEY PRINCESS ariel

FICTIONAL CHARACTERS ahsoka tano, okoye, & shawn spencer

SONG call your mom by noah kahan

VIDEO GAME red dead redemption 2

BOOK carrie by stephen king

ARTISTS we three & hozier

ANIMALS horses

FOODS & DRINKS ice cream & chocolate milk

PEOPLE quinn hughes and her father <3

✴ BUBBA'S FUN FACTS!

bubba's father helps open casinos all over the united states, her mother is best selling author.

luke coins her the nickname "bubba" as she chews hubba bubba gum all. the. time.

she lived in des moines, iowa until she was ten, because her father was promoted to the position he is in now.

she has lived in new york, san diego, tampa, and most recently, las vegas.

her mother is a stay at home mom, spending her free time writing mystery & horror novels.

although bubba is loved dearly by her parents, they weren't always around and when they were, they were busy with work or stressed out.

bubba took to horseback riding in her free time, which she had a lot of.

bubba wasn't the happiest about moving to michigan, but her mind quickly changed when she saw the house and the view.

bubba has one ex boyfriend named sebastian nicks.

bubba hates taking her antidepressants because they make her feel numb. she'd rather feel sad and hopeless than numb.

bubba's anxiety makes it hard for her to talk to people or do the things she really wants to do ( ie. concerts, dating, going to the movies )

bubba is OBSESSED with star wars because when she was little, her dad would sit with her to watch the movies

she has met ewan mcgregor, hayden christensen, mark hamill, and carrie fischer (rip 🕊️)

padmé amidala and leia organa have been her role models since she was kid. she even wrote a paper on them for her fifth grade english class.

whenever she is feeling down, bubba's father will try his best to find time to watch the movies with her. he will go buy all her favorite foods and they will stay up all night having movie marathons.

if her father can't, luke will step up and do it for him <3

IN BETWEEN INFORMATION

takes place in the summer of '23

people who will stay at the hughes' lake house during the duration of this fic will include: the hughes bros ( duh. ), trevor zegras, cole caufield, ethan edwards, mark estapa, luca & adam fantilli, elias pettersson, brock boeser, and possibly more!

other people to appear include: nico hischier, sebastian nicks ( oc ), curtis lazar, john marino, and possibly more!

luke honestly sucks at talking to girls in this fic... especially bubba.

more info set to come at a later date!

[black-arcana]

Watch: KORN Joined By EVANESCENCE's AMY LEE For 'Freak On A Leash' Performance At Los Angeles's BMO Stadium

In celebration of their milestone 30th anniversary, KORN performed a once-in-a-lifetime show at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 5. This one-night-only performance featured special guests EVANESCENCE, GOJIRA, DARON MALAKIAN AND SCARS ON BROADWAY, SPIRITBOX and VENDED.

KORN's setlist for the concert was as follows:

01. Here To Stay 02. Dead Bodies Everywhere 03. Got The Life 04. A.D.I.D.A.S. 05. Coming Undone 06. Good God 07. Start The Healing 08. Somebody Someone 09. Blind 10. Ball Tongue 11. Clown 12. Shoots And Ladders 13. Helmet In The Bush 14. Twist 15. It's On! 16. Make Me Bad 17. Y'All Want A Single

Encore:

18. Falling Away From Me 19. Oildale (Leave Me Alone) 20. Freak On A Leash (with Amy Lee)

Fan-filmed video of the "Freak On A Leash" performance, featuring a guest appearance by EVANESCENCE's Amy Lee, can be seen below.

KORN kicked off its summer/fall 2024 North American tour on September 12 at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, Florida. The band's 18-song setlist, which is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of KORN's debut album, included "Oildale" mostly the band's 2010 LP "Korn III: Remember Who You Are" and "Hey Daddy", a track from KORN's 1999 album "Issues" which had only ever previously been performed almost 25 years ago.

The rock cultural icons' 25-date Live Nation-produced trek featuring special guests, Grammy-nominated band GOJIRA and Canadian heavy metal group SPIRITBOX, will wrap up in St. Paul, Minnesota at Xcel Energy Center on October 27.

When the BMO show was first announced in March, KORN singer Jonathan Davis said in a statement: "Reflecting on thirty years of KORN fills me with such immense gratitude for our journey, the growth we've experienced, and the incredible bond we share with our fans. It's humbling to see how our music has touched so many lives across the globe. From our small club beginnings to now headlining stadiums, it's been an unforgettable ride, and we owe it all to our amazing, undying, loyal community that's made it possible. I'm really looking forward to this incredible night to celebrate together."

KORN changed the world with the release of their self-titled debut album in 1994. It was a record that would pioneer a genre, and blur others-leading into a larger cultural movement. Since forming, KORN has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, collected two Grammys, toured the world countless times, and set many records in the process that will likely never be surpassed. KORN has continued to push the limits of the rock, alternative and metal genres, while remaining a pillar of influence for legions of fans, and generations of artists around the globe.

The level of KORN's reach transcends accolades and platinum certifications. They are "a genuine movement in a way bands cannot be now," attests The Ringer. They represent a new archetype and radical innovation, their ability to transcend genre makes barriers seem irrelevant.

In a March 2024 interview with the WSOU 89.5 FM radio station, KORN guitarist Brian "Head" Welch spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to the band's 2022 album "Requiem". He said: "Well, I'll just say, yes, we are passionately and intensely working on new music. We're a little bit behind. We've been really digging deep into sounds and tones and miking techniques and just really focusing on every aspect of just the miking and the sonic levels of everything because… I love the last few records we've done in the last 10 years, but I think — I just have something in me that thinks we could beat the tones. I love the songs that we've done, but tone-wise I feel like we can beat it. So we're spending a lot more time on this new music, we're spending a lot more money [chuckles], and we don't have any record label involved, so it's all coming from us. And we really want to dissect our sound and remember where we came from and how we did it back then. And having a vintage KORN feel with a modern twist — sonically, I'm talking about. So it's very intense. The songs are amazing. I'm very proud of it. I feel like we are closer than we've ever been in the studio. And Jonathan [Davis, KORN singer] has been there every day."

According to Welch, he and his KORN bandmates are working on new music "off and on. We'll work for — I don't know — a couple of weeks. Then I won't see [Jonathan] for a month or two," he explained. "But it's starting to pick up now because we wanna put new music out. We're a little bit behind, but we're very proud of what we're doing. And we can't wait for people to hear it."

Regarding the musical direction of the new KORN material, Brian said: "I think it's the best and heaviest KORN stuff in years. And I think it's gonna be raw and just kind of more basic, as far as sound and recording and everything. I don't wanna give it all away, but we're just very, very pleased with where we're at right now."

Welch — who rejoined KORN more than a decade ago, eight years after leaving the band and at the same time announcing that he kicked his addictions to drugs and alcohol by becoming a born-again Christian — also clarified that he and the rest of KORN "haven't started recording" the band's next album "yet, but we're very passionately heading toward that direction. And we can't wait for everybody to hear it."

KORN bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu announced in June 2021 that he would sit out the band's tour in order to "heal" after "falling back" on some of his "bad habits." He has since been replaced on the road by SUICIDAL TENDENCIES bassist Roberto "Ra" Díaz.

Released in February 2022, "Requiem", which was produced by Chris Collier and KORN, entered Billboard's Hard Rock Albums chart at No. 1. The band sold 23,000 equivalent album units in the February 4-10, 2022 tracking week, according to Billboard. Of that sum, 20,000 units were from album sales. "Requiem" also landed at No. 2 on the Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums charts. On the all-format Billboard 200, it arrived at No. 14.

Despite the fact that he hasn't performed with his KORN bandmates for more than three years, Fieldy did play on "Requiem".

[sergeifyodorov]

willy mitch and auston for the character ask thing? <3

FIRST IMPRESSION

now bcause of Leafs Cultural Osmosis i had heard of them for a long time before i starting becoming a real leafsguy. Uhh generally i heard the most about auston matthews because he’s big and cool and sexy and hit em with the 4 and all of that. I think my most definitive pre-leafsfan leafs memory of them (him in particular) was once newsscrolling in like the early 21-22 season when he came back, struggled a bit, and then shaved his mustache for movember and started immediately scoring a g/pg

IMPRESSION NOW

Willy: a beautiful blonde Barbie doll of a man. going to gloss over how sexy i find him because it is, genuinely, embarrassing, and instead talk about the fact that he’s a) kind of stupid, but in an exceedingly charming way, b) has named his dogs after famous artists (pablo and banksy are their names), c) is one of the de facto leaders of the nhl’s swedish contingent. he also has this amazing power where he’s like… vibe immune. Like in one of Those Leafs Moments where all hope is lost and you know it is not going to end well, he’s going to score. Or, conversely, when the Leafs have cut the other team open and they’re bleeding all over the place, Willy isn’t going to do much. this means he is both “the only one who scores in the playoffs” and also “never there when they’re winning” which means ppl suspect he’s being carried or something. he’s not. also i suspect he might be a little bit gay but that’s not really my business

Mitch: babygirl of the year 8 years running. I am one of thee premier marner defenders like people hate him for NO REASON. only time ive been mad at my father in the past several years is the other day when i yelled at him for being Wrong About Mitchell but let’s not get into mitchydaddyissues because we can be here for hours about that. he is a creature of light he is Kind On Purpose but also he’s definitely got so much to work through in therapy it’s hard to define. also kind of dumb irl, but hockeywise just absolutely gobsmackingly intelligent. Has the ability to create chances out of nothing i am thinking of so many moments rn but most specifically the oilers game this year where they were down 3-1 and then he just stole it and MAGICKED the leafs into like. 3 goals in 5 minutes and they ended up running away with it. gorgeous. also he is one of the most decorated Winners in ohl history his conn smythe era is almost upon us and i believe this thoroughly

Auston: ALSO SEXY and im NOT embarrassed abt it. Gonna be real theres so many marner scholars out there and i consider myself a trendbreaker. Im a matthews scholar. He’s a virgo you don’t understand him like i (also a virgo) do; he’s meticulous and nerdy and completely blank in his understanding of things he does not care about; he’s whiny and petulant and completely ruthless -- to him there is only the place now, and the goal, and the clear line he needs to draw between point a and point b. he likes things to be Pretty he is fastidious and in that gray area between genre aware and completely oblivious; maybe he is choosing not to take notice of it. he also looks really gay. like are u flagging on purpose mr mustache and earrings

FAVOURITE MOMENT

Willy: overtime winner willy… he is unlike the other leafs stylistically in that he is absolutely fantastic at controlled zone entries AND he has straight-line speed that they. don’t. so this makes him naturally very talented at finding that open space you often get in 3v3 ot and sniping it on the breakaway. i think my fav in this recent years was the one against the blues… he just BURNS tarasenko and forehand-backhands binnington completely effortlessly so sexily. Also him straight up telling steve dangle he couldn’t read

Mitch: POINT STREAK NIGHT. Technically he set the record against tampa in tampa but he TIED the record in toronto against the sharks… it was 2-1 leafs and the sharks had the net empty and mitch was out there and he PASSED on the empty net and we were all like MITCH WHY TAKE THIS FOR URSELF and then the guy he passed to missed. And then he got it back and took the empty net himself and the cheering was so loud and long they had 2 pause the game a lil bit… this was in the recent aftermath of borje salming’s passing and they had the patch on their shoulders, and they were in the actually nice RRs, and mitch was CRYING and i was CRYING and i am STILL CRYING… he means so much to the leafs he WILL be one of the Great Leafs by the time his career is over no leaf will ever wear 16 again after him i love him so much!!! Thats a formative hockey memory

Auston: that time he ate the post and got really really bitchy about it to the press w his swollen lip

IDEA FOR STORY

Willy: now willy is just so cheerily and sexily oblivious it’s honestly kind of hard to maincharacter-ize him. Like he’s just kind of :) chilling. i WOULD like to see a meaningless sitcom episode type beat of him trying to wrangle all of the Swedes to some sort of dinner or something, and shenanigans ensue.

Mitch: the urge to tragic-protagonistize him versus him just being a cheery little motor who’s doing his BEST. i dont know what my mitch niche is he’s really just the emotional heart of it all and im not a very emotional person it is hard 4 me. he’s our main sadman’s bestie <3

Auston: now AUSTON i can write about forever. go read scheherazade etc but in the meantime i think he deserves some begrudging romance. he doesn’t WANT to fall in sappy gay love he’s not sappy he’s not gay and he’s not lovey he wants to WIN CUP but sometimes… WIN CUP comes with bonus SAPPY GAY BOYFRIEND. Also he deserves some erotic tension to knock him off that high horse he’s got a bit. get a leetle bit humiliated. Etc

UNPOPULAR OPINION

Willy: this is really only unpopular among leafs uncles on twitter etc but he is not lazy or emotionally uninvolved at all? He’s literally just coolheaded. U value perseverance and grit but when u get that from a blonde guy who doesn’t hit u don’t value it. that’s genuine xenophobia methinks

Mitch: i don’t get gay vibes from him he’s just real friendly and sweet and pretty. like yeah he definitely messed around w his teammates in juniors but it’s giving more like. experimentation and the results of the experiment were heterosexuality. Bi girl’s straight boyfriend vibes

Auston: coming from my place of Auston Scholarship again i disagree with a lot of the way he’s portrayed in fic… not all of it obvi but i think there’s a certain amount of Big Sexy Latino Guy must therefore be dom top/all this like. anger and feistiness and aggression and stuff when he pretty clearly is not any of that. like he’s never started a fight and tries to stay away from that… in fact his 1 nhl fight (matthews v stamkos, this playoffs) was him clearing up sticks from an earlier shoving match and then stammer going for him to try and draw mutual fighting majors. it’s kinda skeevy and just makes me like. Roll my eyes and leave when he starts getting possessive because he’s. Not really that possessive he likes to share he likes 2 have his guys and likes for all of his guys to like each other… he is having threesomes with bunts and freddie come next season i prommy, not pitting them against each other

FAV RELATIONSHIP

Willy: i think his half-mentorship half-romance with rasmus sandin is really inchresting… also just his general social standing among The Swedes as both one of the country’s best active players AND as a legacy boy

Mitch: 1634 :]

Auston: now im going 2 contradict myself… 1634 are of course platonic/hockey soulmates but i do love his dynamic with Others. The 1634 + machuk dramatic love triangle is v compelling… he did have this fun little Mutual Bastardy relationship with bunts… 9734 is very. Something. and i think the mattdrai girlies who love some regional rivalry high draftee mutual loathing would really enjoy some good good auston/ras dahlin now that machuk is too busy being happily married to sasha barkov

FAV HEADCANON

Willy: he is the oldest boy of six children so he has DEFINITELY done some child wrangling in the past… some oldest brother shenanigans… i think he’s probably great with kids and just with calming down and bossing around those that are younger/obviously less experienced and worldly than him

Mitch: thought the percy jackson books were dense academic texts but obviously really likes greek mythology. so . lied about having read percy jackson (he has not but he says he has)

Auston: paints his toenails

[cleoselene]

All The Concerts!

my mom wrote down every concert she's ever been to and it's a LOT, like in the triple digits

and it got me thinking if I could name every concert I've ever been to? I am fearful I might forget some tho my MS memory sucks but here goes:

New Kids on the Block

Boyz II Men/MC Hammer

Tori Amos (x7)

Switchblade Symphony

KMFDM with Nivek Ogre

VNV Nation (x2)

Air Supply (x2)

Terri Clark (lol I hated country when my family dragged me to this one, I was in my peak Snob Goth era)

Garth Brooks (happened much later when I had learned to embrace country)

Peter Cetera

Sarah McLachlan

The Editors

Radiohead (i hated this hahah, it was so fucking boring like their music. My friend bought the tickets and I had hoped seeing them live would make it click. It did not. I was bored and cold because it was raining in Seattle)

Coldplay (was so much better than Radiohead, seethe snobby indie rock fans)

Regina Spektor

The Decemberists (literally the worst concert I've ever seen. Again I did not buy the tickets but my friend who liked going to indie rock shows always bought two tickets in hopes of getting a date and I was her backup if she didn't. To be clear even though this and Radiohead sucked, I did have a great time with my friend both times)

Cake

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic

Puscifer

Barry Manilow

ummm now I'm drawing a blank but I KNOW I've been to more shows and the stupid brain damage is making me forget. I've always been to see a fuck ton of tribute bands at this supper club, and tbh they were almost all really good. The Pink Floyd one especially. Also lol in middle school once this club I was in had a band come perform and they were like... a hair metal Christian band that took mainstream rock songs like "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi and changed the lyrics to like... "LIVING 'CAUSE I PRAAYYYY" and it was fucking hilarious. It's driving me crazy tho because I know there are more actual real concerts I am forgetting -_-

so i guess if you count all the artists I saw multiple times, it comes to... *maths* 28 concerts? Which tbh does not feel like nearly enough.

on the bucket list:

Vienna Teng

Brandi Carlile

Portishead (lol this will never happen but a girl can dream)

Beyoncé

Taylor Swift

TOOL

A Perfect Circle

The Amazing Devil (which is somehow even less likely than Portishead)

SO I'LL MAKE THIS A MEME. Tell me which concerts you've been to, and tell me which concerts you feel like you MUST see before you die. @deathinthesun @an-ivy-covered-summer @swiftzeldas @sylvieons and whoever else wants to do it~

I did get Taylor tickets last year HOWEVER they were... beyond atrocious, the seats. Like, upper upper deck, BEHIND the stage with like no visibility, not even of the screens, because again: BEHIND. I had like three people trying to get tickets that day and 2/3 of us failed but my friend succeeded and she was like "do you want me to buy these? they're upper deck" and I was like yeah yeah that's okay! We can look at the screens! And then I saw the "OBSTRUCTED VISIBILITY" thing and looked at the layout and I was like...kind of devastated, honestly? It's really hard for me to do an outing like that physically, it was outdoors in April (which translates to HOT in Florida) and I just didn't see myself able to endure 5 or 6 hours at minimum in the heat without like, passing out and dying. Not to mention I'm still really scared of being in a large space with that many people because my disease-modifying drug destroys most of my immune system. I ended up selling them, and... buying my vinyl collection lol. Taylor got a lot of that money again because I bought a lot of her records. I'm kind of bummed that maybe I missed my chance forever, but again, I don't think I could have physically swung it. Plus, of the three nights she did Tampa, the show I was supposed to go to had meh surprise songs while the other 2 nights had AMAZING ones, so I know I would have been salty about that too. ONE DAY THO.

[heylabodega]

The year that I was 32 I was happy. The year that I was 32 I was so happy that it made me nervous, I was so happy with my friends and my job and my art and my home and my hair that it circled back around to anxiety that I might lose any piece of it or things might (will, eventually) change. I continued my streak of making new friends, of learning new things, of getting new jobs, of being proud of myself.

The year that I was 32, my aunt and I became the only two women in our family to know what it's like to be 32 and childless, I texted her wonderingly and triumphantly. The year I was 32 I think I finally parented myself up to standard level, loved myself and forgave myself and protected myself enough for the 1.25 parents I didn't have.

The year that I was 32 flew by and I was so happy to be getting older. I felt the weight of the years not as a burden but as a foundation. I felt my understanding of myself deepen, as I felt my relationships deepen with their layers of time, with the sheer amount of happenings and words exchanged and things seen. I was sometimes still, but rarely, self-conscious about being older than my coworkers. The year that I was 32 I loved my coworkers so much, I wanted to tell them about things and hear their thoughts and get their opinions and soak up their expertise and their beautiful, beautiful self assurance.

The year that I was 32 Daniel and I went back to doing trivia, and I was relieved that he wasn't angry with me. I recognized a softening in him that I recognize in so many of us, the softening of experiences not turning out the way you thought they would, the new understanding.

The year that I was 32 I finally got to babysit Remy, got to shepherd him safely from daycare to sleep sack, check on him three times to make sure he was breathing in his crib, pull him into my lap when he hit his head and coo I know I know I know it doesn't feel good when we hit our head.

The year that I was 32 I kept getting both more and less forgiving. The understanding of how hard we're all trying, of how many things happen in a life; but likewise the how hard we're all trying and sometimes it's not enough, how many things happen in a life and sometimes they're someone's fault.

The year that I was 32 I didn't buy any makeup except some mascara refills. The year that I was 32 I got so beautiful again. I'm sorry to say it, but it bears acknowledging. I saw it in the mirror and I could see it in other people's faces sometimes, but unlike when I was younger, it felt like mine and not the world's. I got more sure of my artistic opinions, felt they were valid, felt like 'I didn't think it achieved its objectives' coming from me was a valuable critique.

The year that I was 32 I spent my going to Paris money on a studio space. I went to the ER again. I slept and slept and slept. I went to Scotland, the most beautiful place in the world that rearranged my insides in a way I may never be fully able to describe. I went to LA for two weeks and fell even more in love with Marie and Solomon and their life. I went to Tampa for 24 hours, i went to Portland for a week, I went to Delaware for a weekend, I went, still, back and forth between DC and New York so many times that I thought I'd go crazy.

The year that I was 32 I almost never cried, except occasionally when a TV show got me, when George Bailey was the richest man in Bedford Falls, when we listened to Let's Get Married by The Proclaimers in the car in the Columbia River Gorge and my mom was driving and my brother was in the backseat and we would see my sister soon and hike up to the waterfall where my grandpa's ashes are scattered. I couldn't stop smiling though, walking around Greenpoint in the sunset, smiling smiling smiling until sometimes I also cried.

The year that I was 32 I was so proud and so happy that I hoped I'd run into people I hadn't seen in years on the street so they could ask me what I'd been up to and I could tell them, beaming, the happiness coming through my every pore. I didn't run into anyone I hadn't seen in years. The year that I was 32 I was still myself, so so much, over and over, every day, and I began to really accept that.

[justforbooks]

Frank Stella

One of the most influential US abstract artists who started out as a minimalist but constantly reinvented his work

In February 2015, a pair of enormous stars, one in polished aluminium and the other unvarnished teak, appeared in the courtyard of the Royal Academy in London. These were by the American artist and honorary Academician Frank Stella, who has died aged 87.

For all their differences, the two stars were part of a single work called, with deadpan literalness, Inflated Star and Wooden Star. Given their size – each measured 7 metres in all dimensions – it seemed unlikely that these could have anything to hide. In 1966, in a dig at the mystical airs of abstract expressionism, Stella famously said: “What you see is what you see.”

It became the battle cry of a then newly emergent style known as minimalism – and also seemed to fit Inflated Star and Wooden Star to a T.

And yet Stella’s work raised many more questions than it answered. His stars were welded together by a tubular metal armature, as they were by their title. They seemed to be in orbit around each other, although which exerted gravitational pull on which was impossible to say.

Visually as materially, they were very different from each other. Inflated Star was plumped-up and cushiony, polished to a Jeff Koonsy high gloss; Wooden Star seemed austere and skeletal. It was impossible to read one without reference to the other, and yet the frame of that reference – before / after, older / newer, stronger / weaker – was left entirely to the viewer to decide.

Beyond this again was the question of puns. Both sets of Stella’s grandparents had arrived in the US as Sicilian immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. His parents, Frank Sr, a gynaecologist, and Constance (nee Santonelli), an artist turned housewife, spoke Italian to each other at home. Stella is Italian for “star”.

Stella’s engagement with the star form began early, and in two dimensions. By 1963, on a residency at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, he was making paintings on star-shaped canvases, such as Port Tampa City. These were joined by prints such as the 1967 Star of Persia series. In one form or another, Stella’s many hundreds of stars are to be found in galleries, plazas and sculpture parks all over the world. He remained testily insistent that the form was not his nominative calling card, and pointed out that the only person he knew who did not own a Stella star was himself.

Fame came to him early. The oldest of three children, Stella was born in Malden, an affluent suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, and was sent by his ambitious parents to Phillips Academy, Andover, a local equivalent of Eton and alma mater to both Presidents Bush. The art lessons he had there were the only ones he would receive. After graduating with a BA in history from Princeton in 1958, he moved to New York, where he rented a loft in West Broadway and earned his keep as a house painter.

In this he had been trained by his father, who, despite working a 60-hour week, insisted on doing painting jobs around the house with the help of his son. Stella’s early Copper Paintings (1961) used the barnacle-repellent gunk with which he had caulked his father’s sloop the summer before. Another series, begun in the same year, was named Benjamin Moore after the well-known brand of house paint in which they were made. Andy Warhol bought an entire set of the works from new, beginning his own Campbell’s Soup series shortly after.

Stella was no pop artist, however. He used household paints and brushes not to satirise popular culture but because they were familiar to him. “The first time I saw a Pollock,” he said in a 2000 interview with the NPR radio network, “I knew straightaway how it was done.”

The black paintings that he began in 1959 remain among his most famous, canvases such as Die Fahne Hoch!, in the Whitney Museum of American Art, powerful in part because of the domesticity of their darkness. Built up of parallel bands of black household enamel separated by narrow strips of raw canvas, they are popularly known as “pinstripe” paintings; a mode that Stella would use into the 1970s. So instantly successful were these early works that their 23-year-old maker was included in the show Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1959, alongside Jasper Johns and Ellsworth Kelly. In 1970, at 33, he became the youngest artist ever to be given a MoMA retrospective.

Stella’s early insistence that a painting was “a flat surface with paint on it – nothing more” seemed reductive, but it gave him a set of rules to battle with. An early way around the self-imposed strictures of his own form of minimalism was the production of shaped canvases – stars, and so-called “notched” paintings such as Newstead Abbey (1960), in which nicks cut from all four sides of a vertical canvas generate a rhythm of lines that suggest a rhombus in the middle of them. The feeling is of a flattened ziggurat, as though Stella’s two dimensional work might at any moment spring into three dimensions.

That was more or less what happened in the mid-80s. For the ensuing decade, Stella made works such as La Scienza della Fiacca (4x) (1984) that responded in a broad way to the novel Moby Dick. Where the black and pinstripe paintings had worked with and against their own insistent flatness, Stella’s paintings of the 80s and 90s suddenly broke free of the wall, pushing outwards in curls and swoops of moulded fibreglass and aluminium, often dappled with paint. (“They’re surfaces to paint on,” he said of the new works at the time. “So it’s still all about painting.”) It was a short step from there to sculptures such as the stars that appeared in the courtyard of Burlington House in 2015.

If this seemed like a shift from minimalism to maximalism, change was itself part of Stella’s story. Also in the mid-80s, the cigar-chomping artist had become fascinated by the idea of turning smoke rings into sculptures.

Over the next 20 years, these slowly morphed, as smoke rings will, into works with names such as Atalanta and Hippomenes (2017), some wall-based and some made for the floor. As with his stars, Stella’s intention seemed to be to see how far he could push representation before it disappeared in a puff of abstraction.

Change also meant his work moving back and forth between media, dimensions and decades. When the World Trade Center was destroyed in September 2001, the large diptych paintings by Stella that had hung in the lobby of one of the buildings went with it. In 2021, they were replaced in the plaza of the rebuilt WTC by the sculpture Jasper’s Split Star, named after his friend Johns. This was both an entirely new work and one whose roots went back 60 years, to the painting Jasper’s Dilemma (1962-63).

By the 21st century, Stella was unquestionably one of the grand old men of American art. In 2009, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. In 2023, Delta, one of his earliest black paintings, went on sale at Art Basel Miami with a price tag of $45m.

Stella married the art historian and critic Barbara Rose in 1961. They had two children, Rachel and Michael, and divorced in 1969. He had a daughter, Laura, from a relationship with Shirley De Lemos Wyse. With the paediatrician Harriet McGurk, whom he married in 1973, Stella had two sons, Peter and Patrick. She and all five children, and five grandchildren, survive him.

🔔 Frank Philip Stella, artist, born 12 May 1936; died 4 May 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[tangerisms]

hiii I'm charlie (*・ω・)ﾉ

im a queer latino artist from south florida who has unfortunately been afflicted with hockey special interest

my tags : my art | my edits | my gifs | yapping

main teams : penguins | panthers | wild

( more tierlist info under the cut)

soulbonded :

panthers : my home team , my soulmate , my horrible terrible wives. I love them an unreasonable amount and want to stack them all in a pile and cuddle them

penguins : my day one team , my beloved cringefail flightless birds . I learned about hockey one day and got sucked into the whirlpool that is the pittsburgh penguins . send help .

some blorbos :

wild : my favorite weird gays . originally my west coast playoff team bc they had Flower , I unfortunately fell in love with their antics and general unhinged silliness . they may be a misery team but they're MY misery team .

avalanche : originally endeared because of sid/nate antics , unfortunately fell in love with erik johnson and gabe landeskog . and cale makar . and alexandar georgiev . please take care of dewey for me

red wings : u guys got alex lyon from the cats so I obviously had to follow him . also the russian five make me insane . I heart u sergei fedorov.

hurricanes : originally in the "you irritate me" tier , they have since been bumped up because of pyotr kochetkov , andrei svechnikov , and seth jarvis . and ... guh ... jake guentzel . sob.

kraken : many former pens but also a handful of unrelated sillies . I love u brian dumolin and kailer yamamoto . I love you turbo . I love you goalie tandem . etc etc . I hate you vince dunn .

canucks : very silly vibes , glad 2 have seen them go so far in the playoffs . I have velcroed myself to quinn hughes , thatcher demko , and conor garland

following for my friends :

sharks : I have two besties who are sharks fans and I feel really bad for you guys . u deserve better n I hope you get get well soon

stars : also besties with stars fan , u guys have some sillies like robo and seguin . I miss you joe pavelski :( vibes are fun and silly though

devils : this ones a little vaguer , I dont really follow but I'll listen along to what friends have to yap about them . interesting vibes

indifferent :

I really don't have much to say about these teams except I heart you juuse saaros , I miss you carey price , and I hope the ducks go back to teal and purple colors

you irritate me but you have silly guys :

bruins : this is self explanatory , however goalies . and sometimes marchand . and obviously patrice bergeron . I will admit there are fun vibes you just annoy me sometimes sorry

rangers : I hate you trouba I dislike you rempe and I have personal beef with the fans who were acting like dicks in amerant . mika and shesty you will forever have my heart though . and henrik . duh

throwing you off a cliff :

vegas : horrible vibes all around , I will forever hold a grudge for taking Flower and the finals last year . I donnot like you at all . this excludes robin lehner . love you panda

lightning : no good vibes from me . also rivalry . tampa as a whole gives me unsettling vibes I hate visting there

KYS :

bl*ckh*wks : literally die I hate this team and franchise so much . I don't care about anything or anyone in here , this is a strongly anti hawks blog . fuck this team and franchise

oilers: I used to like these guys , even had some respect for them. however fuck hiring bowman , fuck evander kane , fuck corey perry, and fuck everyone in their dipshit team

rest in piss:

coyotes : im so sorry babygirl you deserved better . I'll miss you so much kachina jerseys .

[saleintothe90s]

478. 93 things about 1993, part 3

(part 2)

(Newsweek, November 1, 1993)

12. David Williams' $125,000 baby

(source)

David couldn't make his plane to the game anyway due to the weather even if he tried:

While Debi was in labor, David was on the delivery room phone with coaches and team officials. Time was running out to catch that last flight and the conversation wasn't pretty.

"It was hard on her at the time ... She could hear them screaming over the phone at me,'' David said. "Finally the doctor just yanked the phone plug, took the phone off the wall and said 'We're not taking any more calls.' ''

Scot didn't arrive until almost 6:25 p.m. and, by then, it was too late for Williams to catch the 6:54 p.m. flight from either airport.

"Even if I had left the second after he was born, I still never would have made that plane,'' he said. "It was nerve-wracking for me. I'd never been through anything like that. It was tough.''

He said teammates Mike Munchak and Bruce Matthews tried to arrange a private plane through a third party, but when David left the hospital around 11:30 p.m., he hadn't heard back.

"I had been up with Deb since 4 o'clock that morning and going through that emotional roller coaster of getting screamed at and yelled at by coaches and general manager as I'm in the delivery room,'' he said. "My wife's giving birth and I'm getting screamed at. Man, it isn't supposed to feel like this.'' 1

13. Randy Jackson is kidnapped in Columbia

14. Sales of saxophones rise cuz of Bill 

15. New Yorker "kiss" cover

The artist of the cover was Art Spiegelman, the author/illustrator of the Maus series of graphic novels:

“This metaphoric embrace is my Valentine’s card to New York, a wish for the reconciliation of seemingly unbridgeable differences in the form of a symbolic kiss,” he wrote. “I’m also painfully aware that the calamities facing black communities in New York cannot be kissed away. But once a year, perhaps, it’s permissible, even if just for a moment, to close one’s eyes, see beyond the tragic complexities of modern life, and imagine that it might really be true that ‘all you need is love.’” 2

16. Bill Clinton was supposed to be in the Cheers finale?

I thought that this was some sort of rumor that was sent via faxes in offices, and then it branched into water cooler rumor, but NO. Bill really wanted to be in the finale of Cheers (which I bring up here). Unfortunately, when it came to shoot the finale in April, Bill couldn't make it due to Hillary's dad being in poor health, and an upcoming meeting with Boris Yeltsin. 3

I wonder why Bill didn't make a cameo during the last episode of Frasier to make up for it? I mean, he wasn't doing anything in 2004.

17. Neptune, Florida Kmart pipe bomb (December 30th)

Remember when we had to worry about random bombings in the early 90s?

The perp wouldn't be found until June of 1994:

"I think this guy just wanted to blow things up"

He got ten years!

Hauser, Melanie. ‘25 Years Later, Ex-Oiler David Williams and Son Reflect on “Babygate” Firestorm’. Houston Chronicle, 15 October 2018. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-sports-nation/texans/article/25-years-later-ex-Oiler-David-Williams-and-son-13308250.php. https://archive.is/DjIfp

Finnegan, Leah. ‘“New Yorker” Covers? Watercolor Me Unimpressed’. The Outline. Accessed 21 April 2023. https://theoutline.com/post/1541/the-new-yorker-covers-are-bad.

Tampa Bay Times. “President Must Skip Final "Cheers’.” April 1, 1993. https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1993/04/01/president-must-skip-final-cheers/.

[intriguingpeoplebyangelafloyd]

AARON CARTER

AARON CARTER

1987-2022

            Aaron Carter was born in Tampa, Florida, US to parents who managed a retirement home. He had four siblings, a brother Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys) and three sisters and two half-siblings.

            Carter was a music artist who became famous in the 1990s and released his first album in 1997, aged 9. Carter released five albums and had numerous hit songs including, ‘I Want Candy’ and appeared on Dancing with the Stars. In 2021, he was to perform in Las Vegas but was denied because he refused to get the Covid vaccination.

            As a teenager, Carter dated Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan. Carter said he was bisexual in 2017, however had only had relationships with women. In 2021, he had a son with his partner.

            Carter’s parents controlled his earnings until he turned 18, when he came of age he only had $2 million, but believed he should have had $20 million in his account. In 2005, Carter discovered that he owed $4 million in tax during his youth and filed bankruptcy. With the finances he earned as a minor, his parents bought 15 houses and 30 cars; but he didn’t get any of the money when his parents sold the properties. Carter settled the tax debt in 2014. From 2019, he was living in Lancaster, California and set up an OnlyFans account in 2020 to make money and charged $50-$100 per nude photo.

            In 2019, Carter alleged that his sister had allegedly abused him from when he was 10 to 13. He also accused Nick of abusing him. Two of his siblings proceeded to get a restraining order against Carter after Carter allegedly made threats to Nick’s pregnant wife.

            In 2003, aged 15; Carter attended a party and afterwards slept at Michael Jacksons home. Jackson let Carter sleep in a cot next to his bed. Tired after the party, he fell asleep and then woke up and saw Jackson in white underwear at the foot of his bed. Carter believed he was sleepwalking, and told him to ‘Go back to bed’ and Jackson said, ‘OK’ and went back to bed. He also said he smoked marijuana with Jackson. When Jackson was arrested on molestation charges, Carter was interviewed and told police that Jackson never touched him inappropriately. However he wrote that Jackson did do something a ‘little bit inappropriate’ but didn’t go into detail, but later stated it wasn’t sexual. He described Jackson as ‘a really good guy, as far as I know, a really good guy.’

            In 2022, Carter died at his home aged 34. His housekeeper found his lifeless body in the bathtub; he died from accidental drowning; after using prescription drugs. In 2023, his mother released photos of the bath and bathroom where he died (photos are on Google), she believes that his death could have been the result of murder as he was getting threats at the time.

#aaroncarter #michaeljackson

[morticiafattymshasabeard]

Physical Stores you can Buy Gothic Goods in, by Morticia Fattyms

Okay you Spooks,

Let me just state that you should always wear what feels comfortable *on you* and looks good *to you*. To be Goth isn't the clothes you wear, strictly speaking, and there isn't a Defined Look. Have FUN with yourself! If you think you look good and you feel good like that, that's all that matters.

Gothic Aesthetic and Fashion is colloquially referred to as "Goth" all of the time. Goth is a term used to describe some songs, and has many musical genres that find their audience under the name of "goths". Anyone with Google-Fu understands that sometimes the simplest tag is the most effective for reaching a larger audience. To keep our wonderful community of Artists and Creators thriving, growing, and easier to navigate, I'm saying Goth, Gothic, and Alternative interchangeably or where appropriate. 

The loaded question,

"What makes something Goth?/Why do Goths like these things?" (Surprise, it's actually 2 questions!)

   There isn't a predisposed rule about Bats, Bauhaus, and Halloween being Goth, we just happen to like them as individual people and found people that ALSO liked them. Its a surprisingly, almost singular circle, Venn Diagram. That being said, we do tend to appreciate a lot of the same design elements, and can thus comfortably find items we enjoy by engaging with the use of word "goth". We enjoy symbolism, creative use of colors, and recycling older designs to create  newer ones. We definitely take inspiration from thousands of sources, like Victorian fashion, fetish gear, and Punk's DIY attitude. Your look should be personal to you, inspired by the things you love to engage with, and feels comfortable for you to enjoy wearing while dancing. 

That said, not everything I list in my endeavors to support the growth of our community will be strictly gothic, because there isn't a defined look to being Goth. I hope you'll still check it out, and, if you like it, support it! 

It's pretty easy to find "Gothic style" online, but do you really trust that "gothic mall online" drop shipper? Are you on a budget and shopping fast fashion apps that send clothes you end up not liking? It's okay if that's what you do, it really is. There is something to admire about the convenience and lack of social anxiety we enjoy from Online shopping. However, I want to talk about Physical Stores.

While my favorite store, Anarchists Closet, has closed, my love for that shop, it's amazing owner, and the community it brought together, is undying. Anarchist's was loudly inclusive of it's customer base, was active in the community through events, ticket sales, and fashion shows, and ensured we'd see our favorite pieces at events again and again. Their Mission was always clear: We Dress Everyone!  The world needs more Anarchist's Closets, and I'm going to Find them! 

Here's a few stores you can stomp your stacks into and play dress up in for an hour or two. Please, buy something from them. Hell, get a gift card for your friend you thought of in there if you can't find anything for yourself. The Community needs these stores to thrive so that more can be inspired to start up! Be inspired to start your own wildly unique and wonderful Alternative store for us to explore! 

This is Definitely NOT a COMPLETE list. (In fact, I got overwhelmed writing this and took forever to publish haha)

Email Gothic.info.666@gmail.com when you find places! World Wide Accepted! Please include a full street address with business' name!

Clothing Shops

Coven Dark Boutique- 63B Wharf St, Salem, Massachusetts 01970

Die with Your Boots On - 9 Church St, Salem, Massachusetts

Gothic Renaissance NYC- 110 4th Ave, New York ,New York, 10003

The House of Goth- 19014 Gulf Freeway Friendswood, Texas 77546

The Ossuary -77 Wharf Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970

Ravens and Rockers- 14815 N. Florida Ave. Tampa, Florida

Rumors - 3 locations: Virginia & North Carolina 

Spark Pretty- 333 East 9th Street New York, New York 10003

Subculture Corsets & Clothing (BY APPT ONLY)-2604 Powers Avenue Jacksonville, Florida 

Witch Bitch Thrift -105 Whitney Ave New Haven, Connecticut

Home Decor and More 

Cemetery Pulp- 3950 E Sunset Rd, Suite 106 Las Vegas, Nevada 89120

Hail Dark Aesthetics- 2410 Gallatin Ave. Nashville, Tennessee 37206

Hail Records & Oddities- 720 Main Street Covington, Kentucky 41011

Hidden South -7124 Saint Claude Avenue Arabi, Louisiana 70032

The Weeping Glass- 746 East Warrington Ave Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15210

I want to end this on a small love note to a new found source of community for me: 

Alternative Markets.

We have to keep them going, to keep the Community going.

Whatever you want to call yourself, an Alternative, or Punk Rock Flea Market, Faire, or Festival is where you want to go to find the people hand-making intricate, meaningful, and life saving products. To be clear: you would be the life saver in this situation, where you buy something from a creator, offsetting the cost of the booth rental and travel costs that can really cut into budgets. Many people have conditions that make working regular jobs difficult, vending at markets are often a good source of income for them. Additionally, they're a fantastic opportunity to find a new favorite Local Band to support as well! Whoa! That's a 2 for One, Pal! Score! 

     Many are free, or have free parking but charge entry. I do suggest taking enough cash for your daily purchases, just in case there's bad signal in the area, a Food truck can't take digital payments, or you decide to buy a local band a drink.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you find any local physical shops I should add to future blog posts.

 Also, let me know about events happening near you! Gothic. Info. 666 is building a network of event promotion for the Goth/Alternative communities, and we'd love to have your help! 

We'll be posting submission guidelines soon! 

[kolajmag]

FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY

Reclaiming Her Voice

Tampa, Florida, USA. Odeta Xheka is an artist, writer, poet, and debuting picture book creator. Her story parallels the highs and lows that countless women artists face as they negotiate the demands of daily pressures of the family with the aspiration to make ambitious art. As a woman, fated to be narrated rather than be the narrator, she makes art to reclaim her voice. Art is the antithesis of speechlessness! MORE

*****************************

Kolaj Magazine, a full color, print magazine, exists to show how the world of collage is rich, layered, and thick with complexity. By remixing history and culture, collage artists forge new thinking. To understand collage is to reshape one's thinking of art history and redefine the canon of visual culture that informs the present.

SUBSCRIBE | CURRENT ISSUE | GET A COPY

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[imisssparkling1989]

Taylor Swift - The Era's Tour - Tampa Day 2

Picture it- cotton candy colored sunset skies, with 60,000+ best friends singing the bridge to cruel summer together. What a night to remember! My mom, aka my best friend since 1989, was my plus one and we had such a great time and made so many memories. We've had a few really hard years, between losing her sister (my aunt) and my grandparents it's just been so empty in our lives. My mom was the oldest of four siblings and grew up fast. She's worked all her life, and raised my brother and I all on her own. My brother and I spent most of our childhood being raised by my aunt and grandparent's while my mom was working long hours. My grandparents went through various types of cancers and ultimately passed from cancer. My aunts passing was unexpected due to a surgery complication. At times, it feels like my mom, brother and I had to grow up so quickly. During the start of the pandemic in 2020, my grandmother decided to stop Chemo and asked us to let her pass at home peacefully with us by her side. At this point, I had already lost my aunt and grandfather and was really struggling in all aspects of my life. I was stuck in a lifeless corporate America job for 10 years and felt like I had no time to enjoy the "now" or the people I love. My grandmother's last words to me were "I wish I could have seen you find your person. I wish I could have seen you get married." I never felt she had an old school mentality and just wanted me to get married. In fact, she was the complete opposite. She didn't want me to be stuck working for "The Man" and that I was deserving of love and a life worth living. Shortly after my grandmother passed away, @taylorswift released her #Folklore and #Evermore albums. My mom surprised me with the vinyl for Folklore and I was so so excited to listen to it. I setup my room for a total folklore vibe, two pups in hand, and as always my iced oat milk latte in a candle lit room. Dropped the needle onto the vinyl and for the very first time in forever I felt human again. @taylorswift #Folklore album gave me the space to dream, feel, and gave me hope. I don't know how else to describe what I felt that night into words. I guess, the only way I can describe what it felt like was when you're in the ocean... it's not night time but it's kind of dark out... and a wave crashes on you... and you're under the water nervous but you finally reach the surface and gasp for air and realize it's okay, it's not that bad, you're going to be okay...and you swim back to the shore and just sit on the beach looking back at the monster that almost got you, but didn't. You're okay now. You're going to make it. That's what listening to @taylorswift #Folklore album felt like. Soon after, #Evermore was released and it honestly just sent me to the edge listening to #Marjorie lol. I was so thankful @taylorswift wrote that song and was vulnerable enough as an artist and as a person to share a song that was written for her grandmother. I've noticed grief is really hard to talk about. People have opinions on how you should grieve. It's such a personal journey... and I have honestly been struggling with my grief since June 1, 2020 after losing my grandmother. So fast forward to two weeks ago, after already experiencing #TheErasTour with my mom in April, I decided to quit my corporate America job (after 10 years!). I have no job lined up, but something changed me that night at the concert. Taylor's music, her fans, her writing/lyrics, her view on making the world better, giving back to so many, and all her positive energy she injects into this world gave me so much hope that night. I want a better life. I need a better life. And really.... this is a long winded open thank you letter to @taylorswift @taylornation . As a fellow 1989 baby, thank you for giving me a reason to create a new tumblr (it's been a minute lol) and pour my feelings and heart out to strangers again... it's been a long time coming...

[year3000magazine]

10 Rappers You Should Know Right Now on Spotify, Youtube , Apple, & Tiktok

Finesse2Tymes, StreetMoney Boochie, AR The Mermaid, Slimeroni, and Diddy DaDon are among the artists on our radar — they should be on your radar, too.

Finesse2Tymes

Hometown: Memphis, TN

Finesse2Tymes began his career more than a decade ago as a member of Memphis Greatest Underrated, a rap group formed in the early 2010s alongside Moneybagg Yo and Blac Youngsta. Over the last decade, prison stints slowed down his momentum: after building a groundswell of local support in the few years prior, he was sentenced to five years in federal prison on a firearm charge in 2018. Upon his release this past summer, he hit the ground running, releasing a string of singles leading up to his 90 Days project in December. On “Finesse Duh P” he brings his world-weary delivery to his relationships, rapping in his gravelly tone over bluesy piano runs.

Streetmoney Boochie

Hometown: Atlanta, GA

Our first time seeing Boochie was 2016 with Bankroll fresh on “Walked In”, then with Nefew & Trouble “Soulja rags that went viral for bringing tanks to the apartments in Atlanta

A.R. The Mermaid

Hometown: Memphis, TN

Memphis TN has been consistently dominating air waves for a minute now, but these days it seems the stakes just keep escalating.  “Let A Hoe Play’ is undeniable! Her notoriety is rapidly going up as listeners grab hold of the latest drop. Even Drake has decided AR The Mermaid is a force to be reckoned with, recently dropping a follow on Instagram.

Trench Babys ENT

Hometown: Tampa, FL

Can’t lie the trench baby's Went In On This. self explanatory.

Slimeroni

Hometown: Memphis, TN

Slim, gorgeous and multi-talented, Miss Slimeroni is a female rapper hailing from Memphis, Tennessee!

Joining the company of veterans like Yo Gotti, Moneybagg Yo, the late Young Dolph, the newest female sensation Glorilla, and many other greats, Slimeroni oozes on the scene as an up-and-coming force to be reckoned with.

Diddy DaDon

Hometown: Detroit, MI

For an artist so young, Diddy DADON has several lifetimes of experience behind him. His songs are filled with dense imagery and careful details conveyed in a measured cadence that exudes a hunger and intensity that far exceeds his age.

FreshDuzIt

Hometown: Indianapolis, IN

Spend an hour or two in a Indiana rap YouTube hole and you'll end up hearing a lot of songs that sound the same. FreshDuzIt on the other hand, tends to stand out. He's incredibly consistent (he's dropped 4 projects alone in 2022) featuring hits with the biggest stars in rap.

Sexyy Red

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

Sexyy Redd has been our radar since her and Summer Walker teamed up for there "Sense dat God gave you" visual.

Kookie

Hometown: Detroit, MI

For a rapper with some of the hardest, most gore-fixated bars, Kookei has a laughably “soft” name. The Detroit native, whose sweets-invoking nom de plume was inspired by a childhood stint as a bake-sale maven, raps in a hushed, almost jokey tone, which makes his grim lyrics — about pissing on the opposition’s graves, when not outright blowing off their heads — sound both seductive and scary. Inspired by the carnage-heavy one-liners of early Eminem, Kookei decided, two years ago, to turn himself into a rapper. After posting a few loosies on YouTube, he released Psychopath, his excellent debut — boasting 20 macabre but mellifluous songs — earlier this year. You don’t have to have a cast-iron stomach to digest it: Psychopath is fun, provocative, and wildly inventive. “A lot of stuff you can’t take serious. You gotta laugh at that shit,” he says. “That’s just me. And I be high as hell.”

Luh Tyler

Hometown: Tallahassee 

I must say that majority of my favorite artists out right now are rising out of Florida. 16-year-old buzzing artist Luh Tyler is my latest obsession, and I can’t stop listening to his music. Just a few months ago, one of my friends texted me his single “Law & Order,” and wrote sign him now.

[independentartistbuzz]

Indie 5-0 with D Truth The Professional from Displace: Holiday Edition

The Tampa, Florida-based band Displace is a saxophone and electric violin-driven funk fusion ensemble known for their energetic performances, improvisational prowess, and wildly diverse sonic palette. The Floridian four-piece effectively utilizes their extensive training in a variety of musical backgrounds to produce a truly eclectic blend of infectious pop melodies, complex jazz progressions, and danceable funk grooves.

Their bassist, D Truth the Professional is the Chicago-born hip-hop music artist/producer who uses his wide variety of influences to create unique, true-to-self music. With experience playing music in jazz, funk, gospel and rock bands, singing in concert choirs, and freestyle rapping with friends around the Chicagoland area, D Truth delivers sincere, diverse music.

We got to speak with D Truth the Professional about his favorite holiday traditions, favorite holiday music, and upcoming projects.

So, let’s dive in:

What is your favorite holiday song and why?

Christmas Time Is Here, Instrumental Version Many Christmases as a young boy, I would go to my granny's house and watch A Charlie Brown Christmas on VHS. Such a short and sweet movie, really made me think about the reason for the season as a child. As an adult, Christmas does not hit the same; this song always brings me back to the time when I did get presents, when we did decorate the house, when it snowed in Chicago (I don't see much snow these days when I go back in visit). The vocal version is kinda meh because that children's choir is very, very out of tune; I still love that version though. But I'll take just the instrumental trio over it for sure.

What were the traditions around the holidays in your house growing up?

Eh, none really other than Christmas dinner where my Granny Doris would make mac and cheese that I devoured without fail.

If you could record your dream holiday duet with anyone dead or alive what would it be?

I would love to duet Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer with DMX. One of the best version of that song; I think it would be next level with some D Truth magic behind it. RIP DMX. What is the first holiday track you ever learned?

Pretty sure “Joy To The World” was in my intro piano book as a wee youngin. Alfred's Adult Piano, Book One, Lesson One. Learned it in 1st grade.

What are you currently working on? What can you tell us about it?

Our upcoming 4th album, Necessity, got a grunge inspired band I'm recording with, no name on it yet. And a Silk Sonic tribute band.