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gottiewrites · 4 months ago

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Amazon MGM Studios is developing the YA novel “The Loneliest Girl in the Universe” as a feature film.

Variety released the news today:

Amazon MGM Studios is developing the YA novel “The Loneliest Girl in the Universe” as a feature film.

Joe Roth and Jeffrey Kirschenbaum (“Anyone but You,” “Fast X,” the upcoming “Jackpot”) will produce the film alongside Katherine Langford, best known for starring in Netflix’s hit YA series “13 Reasons Why”; Seldy Gray will oversee development for Roth Kirschenbaum Films.

The project is in early development at the studio with Sarah Conradt-Kroehler writing the script, from a treatment by Gary Dauberman.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe was first published in 2017. It was nominated for the 2019 Carnegie medal, named one of Barnes & Noble’s Top 15 YA Books of 2018, and shortlisted for the STEAM Children’s Book Prize 2019.

Romy Silvers is the only surviving crew-member of a spaceship travelling to a new planet, on a mission to establish a second home for humanity. Alone in space, she is the loneliest girl in the universe until she hears about a new ship which has launched from Earth with a single passenger on board. A boy called J.

Their only communication is via email and due to the distance between them, their messages take months to transmit. And yet Romy finds herself falling in love.

But what does Romy really know about J? And what do the mysterious messages which have started arriving from Earth really mean?

Sometimes, there’s something worse than being alone…

I’ve been holding onto this secret for four long years, so I’m beyond thrilled to finally be able to share it.

The production company, Roth/Kirschenbaum, made Damsel (Milly Bobby Brown/Netflix), Anyone but You (Sydney Sweeney/Glen Powell), The School for Good and Evil (Paul Feig/Netflix), Fast X (Vin Diesel) and The Gray Man (Ryan Gosling), so Romy is in very, very good hands indeed.

A movie deal is, obviously, a dream come true. It’s not something I ever thought would happen to me. I feel lucky enough to get to keep writing new books, let alone for someone to make an adaptation of something that came out of my brain.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe is a very special story to me. I wrote it when I was 22, fresh out of a physics degree. On the surface, it was inspired by some of the physics I’d learnt about deep space travel at university, but mainly it was propelled by the complicated feelings I had about technically being an ‘adult’ while really just feeling like a naiive kid. It was about internet dating, and fandom as a form of self expression, and my complicated relationship with girlhood (as someone who no longer really identifies as a ‘girl’).

Romy is one of the most precious character I’ve ever created. I poured so much of myself into her personality; her insecurities; her flaws and strengths. So many readers respond to her vulnerability (and mine) with deep love. People have told me that they would die for Romy. That she’s their favourite fictional character of all time. That she’s helped them process so much of their own anxiety, trauma and imposter syndrome. That she’s a role model for girls who are deciding to study science at university. As a writer, it’s the biggest honour to have created someone who feels so real and important to so many people.

I can’t wait for Romy to reach a whole new audience on screen through Amazon MGM Studios. The team at R/K have a very clear vision for Romy’s story, and so much respect for her journey as a character. I’m very excited to see what they create.

I have some experience of the TV industry in UK through my work in the Heartstopper writer’s room as story consultant, but movies and Hollywood are obviously a whole new ballgame. I’m excited and nervous to learn more!

For everyone who’s been with me and Romy since 2017, I hope the The Loneliest Girl in the Universe movie lives up to all your expectations, when it launches (which might be a while off!). Thank you for sticking with me.

And for new readers, you can read the book now. It’s published in the UK, Australia, USA, and in translation in Indonesia, Brazil, Poland and Turkey.

Goodreads

Amazon UK

Waterstones

Foyles

Audible

Amazon US

“A strange, witty, compulsively unpredictable read which blows most of its new YA-suspense brethren out of the water.” – Entertainment Weekly

“Black Mirror-esque. A fantastic slow-build drama. Lauren James is a genius.” – SFX

“Gripping romantic sci-fi thriller.” – Wall Street Journal

“This slow-burning psychological thriller has a killer twist that will make you gasp.” – Bustle

And while you’re all here, a reminder that my next novel Last Seen Online is being published on August 1st. A scandal occurs within the cast of the TV show that Romy writes fanfiction about in The Loneliest Girl in the Universe.

Goodreads

Amazon UK

Waterstones

Audible

Foyles

Fill out this form to receive a signed postcard of character art for Last Seen Online - open to anyone in the UK who preorders the book before 1st August 2024.

A contemporary YA murder mystery set in sun-drenched LA, for fans of Malibu Rising, We Were Liars and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. When Delilah meets Sawyer Saffitz (son of Anya Saffitz, aka Hollywood royalty), she becomes hooked on a decade-old scandal. In her quest for the truth, Delilah uncovers blogposts written by the mysterious “gottiewrites” and is soon caught up in a world of greed, fandom conspiracy theories … and murder. And the deeper Delilah digs, the more dangerous it becomes – because someone is willing to kill to hide the truth.

- Wren x

#the loneliest girl in the universe

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the-resurrection-3d · 3 years ago

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Shipping meme 12, 21

Was seriously worried for a second that this was about the CWC stuff lmaoooooo

12. What drives you away from a ship?

That's a good question! This answer got long because I thought about LHA and saw red, so I'm putting it all under a readmore.

My immediate thought would be "that's not enemies-to-lovers, that's just being a cunt (and not even the fun kind)." A good example would be The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson, which I literally had to ragequit several years ago because all the relationship development up to that point had just been the main guy ignoring the narrator's obvious distress and repeated attempts to tell him to fuck off so that he could disrespect her boundaries, physically grab her, and then trick her into going on a first date with him. After all these years, I have no goddamn tolerance left for shitty, one-sided relationships in YA. Maybe the book got better and deconstructed his behavior later on, maybe I just missed something, I don't care to find out because YA Books Cannot Be Trusted Like That. Far as I'm concerned Wintergirls is the only book Anderson's written that's worth a damn, anyway.

And this might seem like a weird thing to be upset over considering I literally just recommended a fic where Hermione has her body and life literally torn apart by Lucius Malfoy, but I think it's important to note that Eden holds Lucius accountable and never, ever pretends the relationship could truly work.

(A quote from the epilogue: "Can you imagine Lucius and Hermione being together in the outside world? Buying a house together, having children, and getting a dog? Lucius making Hermione breakfast in bed? Arguing about the mortgage and sitting in the garden drinking tea? It would never have worked.")

It's because the narratives truly recognize the fucked-up nature of their characters that these relationships can even be interesting. Imagine Hannigram if everyone on the show just acted like murder and cannibalism were completely fine. It would certainly be funny, but not nearly as interesting. (This is also why I prefer YinxYuck over Yoop even though both involving teenage boys violating a teenage girl's consent/trust. The fact that Yin was so quick to forgive Coop but not Yuck could have been interesting, but because that double standard is seemingly not recognized by the narrative, I'm pushed into the less charitable reading that it was just a lazy, off-screen redemption to force the ship to work. Yoop is also just a far less interesting ship for a myriad of other small reasons, but I hope you see where I'm coming from here.)

This also, to a lesser degree, applies to ship fandoms-- there have been plenty of ships where I could see myself liking it, ways it could be interesting, but everyone who's already into it is just there for the fetish porn. Cool for you. But no thanks.

(Completely one-sided power dynamics are also a turn-off-- if I'm gonna be in this for the long haul, then one character needs to eventually get some level of (at least) emotional power to wield against their lover/captor, even if physically they're completely at the lover's mercy. Will manipulating both Rat Boy Whose Name I Can't Remember Right Now and Hannibal while in jail. Yin outsmarting Yuck time and again even though he's physically and magically stronger than her, to the point that he doesn't even seem to really notice that Yang's there most of the time. Stuff like that.)

While we could further dive into genre and the different levels of realism within these stories, the more important element is just the fact that Knife guy had no personality outside of harassing her. Deadass that is all he did in the book. Where's the flavor. This tastes like fucking sand.

[I should probably also note that "stuff I write content for" and "stuff I ship" can be two different things-- I wrote a Ren/Strade ficlet once, but I don't really ship it, and I think Ren's a much better character in BTD 2 explicitly because Strade's dead. When it comes to stuff like BTD or even some of my old Tordtryck stuff, it's more about inhabiting the perspective of an abuse victim rather than shipping, if that makes sense.]

21. Have you ever received hate for a ship you liked?

Directly? Technically yes, once, but it was only a young kid bringing up Ye Olde Paultryck discourse to me, and I just tried to politely explain that I wasn't interested in rehashing that drama. Because I get it! There's a lot of context that's been lost here, and if you're just a young tween getting into this show, the accusations being made against shippers are quite upsetting! But that wasn't so much hate as concern.

There's also of course the indirect "paul and pat both hate the ship," "you're shipping real people," "you're shipping a dead man's oc" kinda hate that most every shipper in the EW fandom's seen at least once.

I think I've largely avoided hate by a) being irrelevant lmao and b) most of my ships being acceptable enough within their own fandoms. (Catradora is a five-season nightmare and YinxYuck is arguably incest, but both are so popular within their respective communities that sending someone hate for them is gonna get you laughed out of the room.)

I hope that all made sense, lol. Thank you for the ask!

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justforbooks · 5 years ago

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The physicist Freeman Dyson, who has died aged 96, became famous within science for mathematical solutions so advanced that they could only be applied to complex problems of atomic theory and popular with the public for ideas so far-fetched they seemed beyond lunacy.

As a young postgraduate student, Dyson devised – while taking a Greyhound bus ride in America – the answer to a conundrum in quantum electrodynamics that had stumped giants of physics such as Richard Feynman and Hans Bethe. As an author, guru and apostle for science, Dyson also cheerfully proposed that humans might genetically engineer trees that could grow on comets, to provide new habitats for genetically altered humans.

He had already proposed the ultimate solution to the energy crisis: a sufficiently advanced civilisation would, he argued, crunch up all the unused planets and asteroids to form a giant shell around its parent star, to reflect and exploit its radiation. Science fiction writers were delighted. The first suggestion became known as the Dyson tree. The second is called the Dyson sphere.

He was born in Crowthorne, Berkshire. His father, George Dyson, was a musician and composer, and his mother, Mildred Atkey, a lawyer. The young Dyson reported that his happiest ever school holiday – from Winchester college – was spent working his way, from 6am to 10pm, through 700 problems in Piaggio’s Differential Equations. “I intended to speak the language of Einstein,” he said in his 1979 memoir Disturbing the Universe. “I was in love with mathematics and nothing else mattered.”

He graduated from Cambridge and in 1943 became a civilian scientist with RAF Bomber Command, which experienced hideous losses with each raid over Germany. Dyson and his colleagues suggested that the Lancaster bomber’s gun turrets slowed the plane, increased its burden and made it more vulnerable to German fighters: without the turrets, it might gain an extra 50mph and be much more manoeuvrable.

He was ignored. Bomber Command, he was later to write, “might have been invented by a mad scientist as an example to exhibit as clearly as possible the evil aspects of science and technology: the Lancaster, in itself a magnificent flying machine, made into a death trap for the boys who flew it. A huge organisation dedicated to the purpose of burning cities and killing people, and doing it badly.”

The young Dyson was already convinced of some moral purpose to the universe and remained a non-denominational Christian all his life.

After the second world war he went to Cornell University in New York state to begin research in physics under Bethe, one of the team at Los Alamos that fashioned the atomic bomb.

By 1947, the challenge was one of pure science: to forge an accurate theory that described how atoms and electrons behaved when they absorbed or emitted light. The broad basis of what was called quantum electrodynamics had been proposed by the British scientist Paul Dirac and other giants of physics. The next step was to calculate the precise behaviour inside an atom. Using different approaches, both Julian Schwinger and Feynman delivered convincing solutions, but their answers did not quite square with each other.

It was while crossing Nebraska by bus, reading James Joyce and the biography of Pandit Nehru, that the young Dyson saw how to resolve the work of the two men and help win them the 1965 Nobel prize: “It came bursting into my consciousness, like an explosion,” Dyson wrote. “I had no pencil and paper, but everything was so clear I did not need to write it down.”

A few days later he moved – for almost all of the rest of his life – to the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, home of Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. “It was exactly a year since I had left England to learn physics from the Americans. And now here I was a year later, walking down the road to the institute on a fine September morning, to teach the great Oppenheimer how to do physics. The whole situation seemed too absurd to be credible,” Dyson wrote later.

He went on to deliver a series of papers that resolved the problems of quantum electrodynamics. He did not share in Feynman’s and Schwinger’s Nobel prize. He did not complain. “I was not inventing new physics,” he said. “I merely clarified what was already there so that others could see the larger picture.”

Dyson tackled complex problems in theoretical physics and mathematics – there is a mathematical tool called the Dyson series, and another called Dyson’s transform – and enjoyed the affection and respect of scientists everywhere. He took US citizenship, and worked on Project Orion, one of America’s oddest and most ambitious space ventures.

Orion was to be an enormous spacecraft, with a crew of 200 scientists and engineers, driven by nuclear weapons: warheads would be ejected one after another from the spaceship and detonated. This repeated pulse of blasts would generate speeds so colossal that the spacecraft could reach Mars in two weeks, and get to Saturn, explore the planet’s moons, and get back to Earth again within seven months. Modern spacecraft launched by chemical rockets can take 12 months to reach Mars, and more than seven years to reach Saturn.

The Orion project faltered under the burden of technical problems, and then was abandoned in 1965 after the partial test ban treaty that outlawed nuclear explosions in space.

Dyson was a widely read man with a gift for memorable remarks and a great talent for presenting – with calm logic and bright language – ideas for which the term “outside the envelope” could only be the most feeble understatement.

In 1960, in a paper for the journal Science, he argued that a technologically advanced civilisation would sooner or later surround its home star with reflective material to make full use of all its radiation. The extraterrestrials could do this by pulverising a planet the size of Jupiter, and spreading its fabric in a thin shell around their star, at twice the distance of the Earth from the sun. Although the starlight would be masked, the shell or sphere would inevitably warm up. So people seeking extraterrestrial intelligence should first look for a very large infrared glow somewhere in the galaxy.

In 1972 – a year before the first serious experiments in manipulating DNA – Dyson outlined, in a Birkbeck College lecture, in London, his vision of biological engineering. He predicted that scavenging microbes could be altered to harvest minerals, neutralise toxins and to clean up plastic litter and hazardous radioactive materials.

He then proposed that comets – lumps of ice and organic chemicals that periodically orbit the sun – could serve as nurseries for genetically altered trees that could grow, in the absence of gravity, to heights of hundreds of miles, and release oxygen from their roots to sustain human life. “Seen from far away, the comet will look like a small potato sprouting an immense growth of stems and foliage. When man comes to live on the comets, he will find himself returning to the arboreal existence of his ancestors,” he told a delighted audience.

He went on to predict robot explorers that could replicate themselves, and plants that would make seeds and propagate across the galaxy. Plants could grow their own greenhouses, he argued, just as turtles could grow shells and polar bears grow fur. His audience may not have believed a word, but they listened intently.

Dyson had a gift for the memorable line and a disarming honesty that admitted the possibility of error. It was, he would say, better to be wrong than to be vague, and much more fun to be contradicted than to be ignored. Dyson was by instinct and reason a pacifist, but he understood the fascination with nuclear weaponry.

He enjoyed unorthodox propositions and contrarian arguments; he maintained a certain scepticism about climate change (“the fuss about global warming is greatly exaggerated”) and he argued that a commercial free-for-all was more likely to deliver the right design for spacecraft than a government-directed effort.

He had little patience with those physicists who argued that the world was the consequence of blind chance. “The more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe must in some sense have known we were coming,” he once said.

His Cambridge mentor, the mathematician GH Hardy, had told him: “Young men should prove theorems, old men should write books.” After Disturbing the Universe, Dyson wrote a number of compelling books, including Infinite in All Directions (1988) and Imagined Worlds (1997). In 2000, he was awarded the Templeton prize – worth more than the Nobel – given annually for progress towards discoveries about spiritual realities.

He was a frequent essayist and to the end a contributor to the New York Review of Books. But he continued to think as a scientist and in 2012 entered the field of mathematical biology with a published paper on game theory in human cooperation and Darwinian evolution.

Dyson is survived by his second wife, Imme (nee Jung), whom he married in 1958, and their four daughters, Dorothy, Emily, Mia and Rebecca; by a son, George, and daughter, Esther, from his first marriage, to Verena Huber, which ended in divorce; and by a stepdaughter, Katarina, and 16 grandchildren.

• Freeman John Dyson, mathematician and physicist, born 15 December 1923; died 28 February 2020

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Freeman Dyson

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365days365movies · 4 years ago

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February 6, 2021: Romeo + Juliet (1996)

From the top!

Two households, both alike in dignity In Fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross’d lover take their life; Whose misadventured, piteous overthrows Do, with their death, bury their parents’ strife The fearful passage of the death-mark’d love, And the continuance of their parents’ rage Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage; The which, if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strike to mend.

I mean, c’mon. It’s Shakespeare, I practically had to.

Which is why it may come as a surprise to hear that I think this play is overrated, far too overexposed, and honestly stars two of the most obnoxiously immature protagonists that Shakespeare ever wrote. Which is not to say that I don’t like it, but it is to say that it isn’t my favorite. Which one is my favorite, you ask? Eh, I vacillate between a few, but I might get into it, we’ll see.

Weirdly fitting, though, since this film is directed by a director who also isn’t my favorite. Can’t say I have a definitive favorite director either, but Baz Luhrmann ain’t it. To be fair, I haven’t seen Moulin Rouge (probably should, huh?), but his turn on The Great Gatsby...wasn’t my favorite, I’ll just leave it at that.

And while we’re into it, lemme just address Romeo and Juliet adaptations on film real quick. To be completely transparent, before today...I’ve only seen one adaptation of the play: Franco Zeffirelli’s excellent 1968 turn on it, and it’s a fantastic adaptation at that. Sone of you, however, may now be realizing that, if I’ve only seen one adaptation of the play...there’s an extremely glaring omission to my film repertoire.

Yeaaaaaaaaah...we’ll get there, I promise.

But, of course, the adaptations only scratch the surface of this plays influence. See, the whole point of the rivalry between the Montagues and the Capulets is that it’s SO OLD, that nobody truly remembers why it started in the first place. Because of that, other romance films have sought to supply a reason for that rivalry.

In other words, the two protagonists destined to fall in love often come from two backgrounds, if not families, that class. And, yes, only ONE FILM that I’ve watched this month doesn’t do that. Dirty Dancing and The Notebook make their “ancient grudge” class-based; low-class vs. upper-class. Even You’ve Got Mail makes it about money, although that one’s a little more of a stretch. In any case, versions of this trope have lasted for centuries, and it’s...maybe poisoned romantic cinema? I mean, there’s a reason they all seem similar. They’re all taking from a classic. And, yeah, more of them than you’d think use this formula. I mean...

Hell, if you think about it, both of them are technically dead by the end.

Anyway, jumping right smack dab into the ‘90s, where teen heartthrob of the decade, Leo DiCaprio himself, is cast to play the titular teen boy, and sort-of popular at the time Claire Danes is cast as the titular teen girl. Put them together, and you have a hatred that will last for centuries. Because yeah, they HATED each other apparently. Let’s watch! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

...Look, here’s a quick recap of a story that EVERYBODY KNOWS.

Two families hate each other, and each has a teenage kid; a boy named Romeo and a girl named Juliet. They see each other at a party, they IMMEDIATELY get those teenage hormones a flowing and fall in love at first sight. They talk a few times, then decide to get married. Romeo’s friends say, “Dude, her family’s all dicks,” and Romeo says “naw, dude, she’s hawt,” They hook up, and they get secret-married. But, since they can’t be together in life, and since Juliet’s supposed to marry a whole other dude, Juliet runs to the priest and says, “hey, fake my death real quick?” He gives her a potion, she pretends to be dead, Romeo finds out (after one of his friends is killed by Juliet’s cousin), and runs to her side. Dude then ACTUALLY kills himself with poison, only for Juliet to wake up, see his dead body, and then kill HERSELF with a KNIFE, and then the families find out, and the Prince comes by and just says, “Goddamn, you guys are dicks. So much so that you killed your kids, congrats.” And that’s the end.

Yeah. Two hours of play and movie (nice touch, by the way, Luhrman) compressed into a paragraph. And yet...I’m still gonna recap this movie. Glutton for punishment, I guess. And with that said...

It all starts with a newscaster, speaking the lines of the Prologue in the guise of a newscast, which is...very neat, actually! That’s followed by...Pete Postlethwaite saying the whole thing over again, backed by a hell of a lot of fast cut editing.

...Oh God, it’s a Luhrmann movie. I forgot. Also, uh...really trying to stretch out that runtime to make that 2-hour mark, huh, Bazzie? I admire that you’re trying to stick to that “two hour-stage” quote from the Prologue, really I do...but you had to repeat the Prologue TWICE to do that?

As the lines flash on screen, we’re also introduced to out major players, whom I’ll just introduce as they come up. After a little montage of the movie to come, and a confirmation that the ancient grudge has broken out into a gang war on the streets of Verona Beach (clever), we jump in the car of a few Montagues: Sampson (Jaime Kennedy), Benvolio (Dash Mihok), and Gregory (Zak Orth).

At a gas station, they meet some Capulets, specifically Abra (Vincent Laresca) and a few others. After some thumb-biting, they all draw their swords. Which are guns that have sword written on them. Well, that’s just silly.

This standoff is interrupted by the arrival of another Capulet: Tybalt (John Leguizamo). This, of course, leads to a swordfight (ugh), during which all players are, just...REAL dramatic with their movements, holy shit. In the process, Sampson’s shot (or...stabbed, I dunno), and the gas station explodes.

It’s war in the streets now, as Tybalt and Benvolio are eventually intercepted by Captain Prince (Vondie Curtis-Hall), the chief of police for Verona Beach. He reads out his rage upon the heads of the families. For the Montagues, these heads are Ted (Brian Dennehy) and Caroline (Christina Pickles); and for the Capulets, they’re Fulgencio (Paul Sorvino) and Gloria (Diane Venora). Is...is the grudge taking place because one of them is named “Ted,” and the other is FUCKING “FULGENCIO”? Because that’s one hell of a dichotomy.

Captain Prince lets them all off with a warning (I mean, no, they should ALL be arrested), and Caroline and Ted question the whereabouts of their melodramatic emo son. That son is, of course, Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio), who laments poetically about how fucked up his family is.

Hanging out at a decrepit carnival (because of course he is), he’s soon found by Benvolio, and he laments on the lack of love between their two families. They bond over talk of women, and decide to secretly go to a party held by the Capulets that night to check out some girls.

Meanwhile, Fulgencio is speaking about this whole mess to Dave Paris (Paul Rudd). D...Dave? Really? We’re keepin’ fuckin’ Benvolio and Balthasar, but we had to name Paris DAVE? Guys, a little consistency with the name shit, PLEASE! Anyway, Dave (uuuuugh) is the governor’s son, and very wealthy, while also being a suitor for Fulgencio’s daughter.

That daughter is, of course, Juliet (Claire Danes), who’s being attended by her vain mother and kindly Nurse (Miriam Margoyles). As her mother’s preparing for the party, she talks up Paris as a suitor, although Juliet doesn’t seem SUPER into it. And s the Nurse tells her to “seek happy nights to happy days,” we go to Sycamore Grove, and to another party.

And this is where we meet my favorite character (everybody’s favorite character, let’s be honest): Mercutio (Harold Perrineau). Mercutio has been invited to the Capulet’s party, and invites Romeo to come along, in disguise. In the process, he gives one of the play’s most famous monologues: Queen Mab’s Speech. It’s truncated here, ad to be frank, Perrineau’s performance is a bit...over the top. But, it ends up to be fairly effective.

Also, Queen Mab is ecstasy. Yeah, that kinda dulled by enthusiasm for the whole enterprise, I ain’t gonna lie. But Romeo lies with Queen La, and they head to the Capulet’s party. And we’re about to hit PEAK LUHRMANN, people.

Look, I’m lame, I’ve never really done drugs, ecstasy included...but it FEELS like I’ve taken something now. And Romeo’s now trying to sober-up a bit. He dunks his head into a sink in the bathroom, and looks at a tropical aquarium that’s in there. And through that aquarium...

However, Juliet’s quickly spirited away by Nurse, and brought to dance with Dave. Romeo, meanwhile, gives his “Did my heart love till now” speech, and DOESN’T SAY THAT SHE DOTH TEACH THE TORCHES TO BURN BRIGHT??? Seriously, the beginning of that speech is completely deleted. That line, in and of itself, should’ve been left in.

Anyway, Romeo and Juliet speak, and the teenagers kiss...a lot. And yeah, they do kiss in this scene in the ply, but not that much. Immediately afterwards, they discover their family alliances, and Romeo and Mercutio flee the party. Romeo heads back soon after, and, well...you know the line. But soft...

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This movie...LOVES water, huh? We see both Romeo and Juliet from underwater at separate points, they see each other for the first time through an aquarium, they’re making out in a pool right now. I mean, I’m sure there’s some symbolism to that, but I’m not sure what it is yet.

Anyway, the two starcross’d lover come just short of crossing stars, and they IMMEDIATELY get engaged to marry.

After a bit of ‘90s music whiplash, we meet Father Laurence (Pete Postlethwaite), a botany-loving priest, and soon-to-be ally to the young couple. Romeo asks Laurence to wed them, despite the fact that Romeo actually was in love with a woman named Rosaline. But, yeah, she’s one of the unseen casualties of this play, only sometimes making it into adaptations. As Romeo speaks to the Priest, I think this is a great time to mention that there is a FUCKTON of Jesus and Christian imagery in this movie. Water and Jesus, goddamn.

The Priest agrees, believing that a marriage between the two could bring peace to Verona Beach at last. We also get a bunch of quick edits showing various parts of the Luhrmann Shakespeare Cinematic Universe, all backed by a choir boy singing “When Doves Cry.” This is an...unusual movie.

It also seems that Tybalt has issued a challenge against Romeo, which Mercutio and Benvolio muse upon. They meet with Romeo on the beach, and as they hang around, their revelry is interrupted by the arrival of the Nurse. She gives him a warning not to fuck with Juliet’s heart, which he says that he won’t, as they’re planning on marrying. She appears to approve, but Mercutio seems not to. Definitely going with a more superficially mercurial take on the character, which fits. But that’ll be more apparent later.

Nurse goes to Juliet, and...OK, is she supposed to be Italian or Hispanic? Because I feel like I’m supposed to be mildly offended, but I don’t even know what she’s going for here. Anyway, the wedding time approaches, and the two get wed in secret. But on the beach, Tybalt has come to go after Romeo. Romeo tries to make amends, even giving up his “sword” to him, much to Mercutio’s anger. Which, uh...he’s not gonna stand for.

And, of course, Mercutio’s fatally stabbed while defending Romeo’s honor. He lays A PLAGUE O’ BOTH THEIR HOUSES, and dies. Romeo’s PISSED, and immediately goes to kill Tybalt. That leads to Romeo’s banishment, although they consummate their marriage before he takes off. Also, Juliet KNOWS that he KILLED HER COUSIN...but it’s Leo, I guess, and...hormones.

Romeo’s banished and goes to Mantua, AKA a trailer park in the middle of the desert. Juliet, meanwhile, is commanded by her father to marry Paris, although she REALLY isn’t into it now! She goes to Laurence and, yeah, threatens to kill him AND herself if he doesn’t have an idea. Hormones, man. They’ll fuck you UP.

Laurence’s solution, of course, is to have Juliet pretend to have killed herself by drinking a potion. No idea why he comes up with this idea, or has the skill to make the potion, but some questions aren’t meant to be asked or answered. He also says to that he’ll send a litter to Romeo, to let him know what the deal is.

Juliet pretends to kill herself, and it interred with her relatives. Meanwhile, Romeo’s cousin Balthasar (Jesse Bradford) comes by the desert, having just gone to Juliet’s funeral, and tells him that Juliet’s dead. And since Romeo never got the goddamn letter, he’s decided, “Well! Guess I’m gonna kill myself.”

He gets some poison, then goes to Juliet’s tomb, which is...decked in neon crosses. I mean, it looks nice, even it’s very, uh...over the top. Goddamn.

And, at this point, you know how this goes. Romeo drinks the poison and dies, Juliet wakes up JUST after, then kills herself as well, and the parents of both parties arrive to see them both dead, along with the Prince, who says “Y’ALL ARE DICKS,” and bounces.

That’s Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet. And it’s a movie. Yeah, that I’ll give you. What did I think? What rating does it get? Well...I’ll elucidate in the Review.

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fullregalia · 4 years ago

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20/20.

This year, in hindsight, was a real write-off. I had grand plans for it, and while I ushered it in in a very low-key manner since I was recovering from the flu, I’d expected things to look up. Well, you know what they say about plans (RIP, my trip to Europe). I got very, very sick in early February, and I’m not entirely sure it wasn’t COVID. Since March, the days have been a carousel of monotony: coffee, run, work, cook, yoga, existential spiral, sleep. My Own Private Year of Rest and Relaxation, if you will. Of course, life has a way of breaking through regardless; I attended protests, completed my thesis, graduated from grad school, took a couple of road trips upstate, and celebrated the accomplishments and birthdays of friends and family from a safe social distance. It was all a bit of a blur, and not ideal circumstances to re-enter the real world, or whatever this COVID-present is.

Throughout it all, in lieu of happy hours, coffee dates, and panel discussions, I’ve turned even more to culture and cuisine to fill the the negative space on my calendar where my social life once resided. However, since a global pandemic ought not to disrupt every tradition, here’s my year-end round up of what made this terrible one slightly more tolerable.

After an ascetic fall semester abstaining from TV in 2019 (save for my beloved Succession), I allowed myself to watch more as the year wore on, and especially after graduation. I caught up on some cultural blind spots by finally getting around to The Sopranos, Ramy, Search Party, and Girlfriends. I wasn’t alone in bingeing Sopranos, it absolutely lived up to the hype and then some; this Jersey Girl can’t get enough gabagool-adjacent content, pizzeria culture is my culture!

Speaking of my culture, there was also a disproportionate amount of UK and European shows in my queue. Nothing like being in social isolation and watching the horny Irish teens in Normal People brood. I’m partial to it because I share a surname with the showrunner, so I have to embrace blind loyalty even though there was, in my opinion, a Marianne problem in the casting. Speaking of charming Irish characters with limited emotional vocabularies, I belatedly discovered This Way Up a 2019 show from Aisling Bea and Sharon Horgan. And while Connell and Marianne are actually exceptional students, I found the real normal people on GBBO to bring me a bit more joy. Baking was abundantly therapeutic for me this year, and watching charming people drink loads of tea and fret over soggy bottoms was a comfort. I also discovered the Great Pottery Throw Down, and as a lifelong ceramics enthusiast, I cannot recommend it highly enough if you care about things like slips, coils, and glazing techniques. GPTD embraces wabi sabi in a way that GBBO eschews flaws in favor of perfection, and in a time of uncertainty, the former reminded me why I miss getting my hands in the mud as a coping mechanism (hence all the baking). Speaking of coping mechanisms, like everybody else with two eyes and an HBO password, I loved Michaela Cole’s I May Destroy You; though we’ve all had enough distress this year for a lifetime, watching Cole’s Arabella process her assault and search for meaning, justice, and closure was a compelling portrait of grief and purpose in the aftermath of trauma. Arabella’s creative and patient friends Kwame and Terry steal the show throughout, as they deal with their own setbacks and emotional turmoil. Where I May Destroy You provides catharsis, Ted Lasso presents British eccentricity in all its stereotypical glory. At first I was skeptical of the show’s hype on Twitter, but once I gave in it charmed me, if only for Roy Kent’s emotional trajectory and extolling the restorative powers of shortbread. For a more accurate depiction of life in London, Steve McQueen’s series Small Axe provides a visually lush and politically clear-eyed depiction of the lives of British West Indians in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Lastly, how could I get through a recap of my year in tv if I don’t mention The Crown. Normal People may have needed an intimacy coordinator, but the number of Barbours at Balmoral was the real phonographic content for me.

Turning my attention across the Channel, after the trainwreck that was Emily in Paris, I started watching a proper French show, Call My Agent! It’s truly delightful, and unlike the binge-worthy format of "ambient shows” I have been really relishing taking an hour each week to watch CMA, subtitles, cigarettes, and all.

Honorable mention: The Last Dance for its in-depth look at many notable former Chicago residents; High Fidelity for reminding me of the years in college when my brother and I would drive around listening to Beta Band; and Big Mouth.

Music

My Spotify wrapped this year was a bit odd. I don‘t think “Chromatica II into 911″ is technically a song, so it revealed other things about my listening habits this year, which turned out to remain very much stuck in the last, sonically. I listened to a lot more podcasts than new music this year, but there were some records that found their way into heavy rotation. While I listened to a lot of classics both old and new to write my thesis (Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Prokofiev, and Bach) the soundtrack to my coursework, runs, walks, and editing was more contemporary. Standouts include:

Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee, which makes me feel like I’m breathing fresh air even when I’m stuck inside all day

La Bella Vita by Niia, which was there for me when I walked past my ex on 7th avenue (twice!) and he pretended that I didn’t exist

Fetch the Bolt Cutters by THEE Fiona Apple, because Fiona, our social distancing queen, has always been my Talmud, her songs shimmering, evolving, and living with me every year

Shore by Fleet Foxes, for the long drive to the Catskills

Women in Music, Pt. III by HAIM, because these days, these days...

Musicians have been reckoning with tumult this year as much as the rest of us, and the industry has dealt with loss on all fronts. I’d be remiss not to talk about how the passing of John Prine brought his music into my life, and McCoy Tyner, who has been a companion through good and bad over the years.

Honorable mention to: græ by Moses Sumney; The Main Thing by Real Estate; on the tender spot of every calloused moment by Ambrose Akinmusire; Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers; folklore by you know who; and songs by Adrianne Lenker.

Reading

What would this overlong blob be without a list of the best things I read this year? While I left publishing temporarily, books, the news, and newsletters still took up a majority of my attention (duh and/or doomscrolling by any other name). I can’t be comprehensive, and frankly, there are already great roundups of the best longform this year out there, so this is mostly books and praising random writers.

Last year I wrote about peak newsletter. Apparently, my prediction was a bit premature as this year saw an even bigger Substack Boom. But two new newsletters in particular have delighted me: Aminatou Sow’s Crème de la Crème and Hunter Harris’ Hung Up (her ”this one line” series is true force of chaotic good on Blue Ivy’s internet). Relatedly, Sow and Ann Friedman’s Big Friendship was gifted to me by a dear friend and another bff and I are going to read it in tandem next week.

On the “Barack Obama published a 700+ page memoir, crippling the printing industry’s supply chains” front, grad school severely hamstrung my ability to read for pleasure, but I managed to get through almost 30 books this year, some old (Master and Margarita), most new-ish (Say Nothing, Nickel Boys). Four 2020 books in particular enthralled me:

Uncanny Valley: Anna Wiener’s memoir has been buzzed about since n+1 published her essay of the same name in 2016. Her ability to see, clear-eyed, the industry for both its foibles and allure captured that era when the excess and solipsism of the Valley seemed more of a cultural quirk than the harbinger of societal schism.

Transcendent Kingdom: Yaa Gyasi’s novel about faith, family, loss, and--naturally--grad school was deeply empathetic, relatable, and moving. I think this was my favorite book of the year. Following the life of a Ghanaian family that settles in Alabama, it captured the kind of emotional ennui that comes from having one foot in the belief of childhood and one foot in the bewilderment that comes from losing faith in the aftermath of tragedy.

Vanishing Half: Similarly to Transcendent Kingdom, Brit Bennett’s novel about siblings who are separated; it’s also about the ways that colorism can be internalized and the ways chosen family can (and cannot) replace your real kin. It was a compassionate story that captured the pain of abuse and abandonment in two pages in a way that Hanya Yanagihara couldn’t do in 720.

Dessert Person: Ok, so this is a cookbook, but it’s a good read, and the recipes are approachable and delicious. After all the BA Test Kitchen chaos this summer, it’s nice we didn’t have to cancel Claire. Make the thrice baked rye cookies!!!! You will thank me later.

Honorable mention goes to: Leave The World Behind for hitting the Severance/Station Eleven dystopian apocalypse novel sweet spot; Exciting Times for reminding me why I liked Sally Rooney; and Summer by Ali Smith, which wasn’t the strongest of the seasonal quartet, but was a series I enjoyed for two years.

Podcasts

I’m saving my most enthusiastic section for last: ever since 2018, I’ve been listening to an embarrassing amount of podcasts. Moving into a studio apartment will do that to you, as will grad school, add a pandemic to that equation and there’s a lot of time to fill with what has sort of become white noise to me (or, in one case, nice white parents noise). In addition to the shows that I’ve written about before (Still Processing, Popcast, Who? Weekly, and Why is This Happening?), these are the shows I started listening to this year that fueled my parasocial fire:

You’re Wrong About: If you like history, hate patriarchy, and are a millennial, you’ll love Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes’ deep dives into the most notable stories of the past few decades (think Enron and Princess Diana) and also some other cultural flashpoints that briefly but memorably shaped the national discourse (think Terri Schiavo, Elian González, and the Duke Lacrosse rape case).

Home Cooking: This mini series started (and ended) during the pandemic. As someone who stress baked her way through the past nine months, Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway’s show is filled with warmth, banter, and useful advice. Home Cooking has been a reassuring companion in the kitchen, and even though it will be a time capsule once we’re all vaccinated and close talking again, it’s still worth a listen for tips and inspiration while we’re hunkered down for the time being.

How Long Gone: I don’t really know how to explain this other than saying that media twitter broke my brain and enjoying Chris Black and Jason Stewart’s ridiculous banter is the price I pay for it.

Blank Check: Blank Check is like the GBBO of podcasts--Griffin Newman and David Sims’ enthusiasm for and encyclopedic knowledge of film, combined with their hilarious guests and inevitable cultural tangents is always a welcome distraction. Exploring a different film from a director’s oeuvre each week over the course of months, the podcast delves into careers and creative decisions with the passion of completists who want to honor the filmmaking process even when the finished products end up falling short. The Nancy Meyers and Norah Ephron series were favorites because I’d seen most of the movies, but I also have been enjoying the Robert Zemeckis episodes they’re doing right now. The possibility of Soderbergh comes up often (The Big Picture just did a nice episode about/with him), and I’d love to hear them talk about his movies or Spike Lee (or, obviously, Martin Scorsese).

Odds & Ends

If you’re still reading this, you’re a real one, so let’s get into the fun stuff. This was a horrible way to start a new decade, but at least we ended our long national nightmare. We got an excellent dumb twitter meme. I obviously made banana bread, got into home made nut butters, and baked an obscene amount of granola as I try to manifest a future where I own a Subaru Outback. Amanda Mull answered every question I had about Why [Insert Quarantine Trend] Happens. My brother started an organization that is working to eliminate food insecurity in LA. Discovering the Down Dog app allowed me to stay moderately sane, despite busting both of my knees in separate stupid falls on the criminally messed up sidewalks and streets of Philadelphia. I can’t stop burning these candles. Jim Carrey confused us all. We have a Jewish Second Gentleman! Grub Street Diets continued to spark joy. Dolly Parton remains America’s Sweetheart (and possible vaccine savior). And, last, but certainly not least: no one still knows how to pronounce X Æ A-12 Boucher-Musk.

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mirkwoodshewolf · 5 years ago

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Confessing the truth to the rest; Queen x teen reader

*Author’s note*

Okay gang so here is the first filer chap. of my Rock Angel series. This oneshot takes place right after Protective Taylor which you can read on the link for the title. I hope you all enjoy this little filer and I hope to have the next chapter up sometime soon as soon as I’m done with school and finally graduate. It maybe another filer chapter where reader meets Jack’s family over their first Christmas not only with each other but as a couple.

Anyways so if I had to express any warnings it’d be mentions of abuse (just mentioned not really detailed but it’s mostly verbal and a bit physical but not on the reader), parent deaths, graveyards/cemetery, angst, FLUFF.

Taglist:

@psychosupernatural

@plethora-of-things

@ixchel-9275

@waddles03

@platawnic

@queendeakyy

@onebigfangirlworld

@mr-badguymercury

@naturalswifty89

@kairosfreddie

@starswin

@dj-lowkey

@isabella-bby

@labessieisallama

@geek-and-proud

@5sos-wdw

@bohemiansweede

______________________________________________________

It was almost a week since I had told Roger the truth about my parent’s death and what my real homelife was like before I got the internship with the guys. And I was so fortunate that he kept the secret like he promised, if ever the other three wanted to bring the conversation back to what happened a week ago, Roger would redirect the question back to a song they needed to work on or just tell them straight forward to drop it.

I was currently finishing up some of Miami’s papers that needed his attention and was about to head on up to his office to give them to him, when I felt Roger wrap his arms around me from behind in a hug.

“Hey Rog.” I said.

“Hello lovie.” I felt him kiss the back of my head. I turned towards him and he rubbed my arms up and down. “I’m sorry about the interrogation earlier, I tried to get Brian to drop it—”

“It’s okay. Though couldn’t you have gone a little less protective?”

“Hey. No one tries to interrogate my girl but me.”

“Oh and why must it be you that can only do that?”

“Well isn’t it obvious? You’re an official Taylor. And if my sister can be interrogated by me, than so can you.” As he said the last part of his ‘royal decree’ he gently bopped my nose with his index finger. I smiled up at him and he grinned down at me.

It was then I also began to notice that Roger had that solemn look in his eyes. The look that just showed he was hiding a heartbreaking secret.

“And……I know what it’s like.”

“What do you mean?” he sighed and said.

“Come with me.”

“But I—I need to get these papers up to Miami before he flips.” He took them and called for another assistant to come and take care of it. Before I could protest, he took my hand and guided me over towards the wreck room and we went inside a pantry closet. “Uhh Rog, why did you bring me to a pantry closet?”

“Sorry, it’s the one place I knew where we’d be private when I tell you this. Because—not even the boys know about this. Not Deacy, not Brian or even Freddie.”

“Roger what is it you’re scaring me.” I asked worriedly. He took a deep breath in before exhaling out.

“I know—what it’s like. To be on the opposite end of—an abusive family figure.” No, not him.

“You—you mean you were……”

“My old man was—strict. About everything. What he wanted in life, how the house should be done, how his children should behave and act. He was more like a drill sergeant than a father. Most of it was directed at my mum. Mostly verbal stuff like your aunt and uncle did to you. But get a drink in him and he—” I immediately hugged him.

God never, ever, ever, ever did I think in a million years that the Roger Taylor, drummer of Queen, Mr. Too beautiful to be a man, was just like me.

A victim of domestic abuse.

“I’m so sorry Roger I—I don’t know what to say.”

“There’s nothing you can say lovie. But I do appreciate the gesture.” He said as he hugged me back and squeezed me as emphasis on what gesture he meant. “Once my mum filed for divorce I knew we were finally free of his control. Back then I—thought I was the only one who went through shit like this. That something had to be wrong with me for this abuse to happen to my family. But then meeting you, and Prenter forcing you to see our expressions as he told us your family secret……..”

“For years I’ve been trying to turn myself into their puppet. To perform the way they wanted me to. But even when I thought I succeeded, I didn’t succeed by their standards. I felt so alone after my parents died, they never once comforted me after it happened. In fact my aunt said she was glad to hear that her sister died, said it would teach her a lesson.”

“Who the fuck says that to a child?” he snapped.

“I wish I knew Roger. It was hell living with them. And when they kicked me out after I told them what I really wanted to pursue in college I—I thought from then on in I would be alone.”

“Well you’re not. Because you’ve got me. And Freddie, Brian, Deacy, Miami, our wives. You’re now family to us (y/n). From the day you walked in those doors and we saw you playing the piano, you became family to us.”

“Thank you Roger. You guys—are my family too.” He smiled and he leaned his forehead against mine and gave my nose a gentle kiss which made me smile wider.

After having our special little talk, Roger and I walked out and that’s when I said.

“Hey Rog.”

“Hmm?”

“Since you guys are now technically done with the album, do—do you think you and the rest of the guys could come meet me at my place?”

“I’m sure we could. What’s the occasion love?” he asked.

“I think it’s time they knew. But I—I also wanna show you guys…..where they’re buried.” Roger’s eyes widened softly and he said.

“(Y/n)…..love you don’t have to—”

“I want to Roger. I—I need to get this off my chest once and for all. I mean it’d be unfair for just you to know the real truth and let the other three be kept in the dark. Especially if Paul tries to blab about it again in front of them.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

“I am Rog. Promise you’ll back me up in case things get—you know.” He smiled and wrapped an arm around my neck pulling me close.

“Of course lovie. We’re family.”

“Thanks Roger.” I said with a soft smile. He nodded to me and pressed a kiss on top of my head.

“What time shall we come over?”

“Probably 8-9am. It’ll be a 2 hour drive so the sooner we leave, the less likely we’ll be stuck in traffic on the way there.”

“I get it, autumn traffic is a bitch.” So after that, we headed back towards the recording room and I helped the boys finish up the rest of their album and soon the day ended there.

The next morning, I was eating some cheese on toast when I heard the doorbell ring right at 8:30. I took a few more bites and headed over to the door to see Brian at the door.

“Hope we didn’t catch you at a bad time.”

“No, just finishing up breakfast.” I said as I took the toast out of my mouth.

“Well we can come back when it’s convenient for you love, you know we don’t have a problem with that.”

“No, no, no it’s fine. Like I said I’m almost done. Give me about five minutes okay?” he nodded and I asked him if he wanted to come in and he accepted the offer. While I went back to the kitchen to clear off my plate, I saw Brian in the foyer looking at all the pictures of me, Adam and a few of our friends.

“You know I never really did ask you (y/n), what exactly are you studying in University?”

“Mostly songwriting and music accompaniment. I wanted to get a better understanding of what it took to make a song and how to choose the perfect accompaniment based on the song you’re writing.” I answered as my plate was finally clear and I ran it under the tap in the dishwasher. “And what of you Bri? I mean I know you were a scientist of some sort.”

“Astrophysics actually.” He corrected me.

“Oh right sorry. Now didn’t Freddie once say in an interview that your thesis was on stardust or something?”

“Interplanetary stardust. I wanted to prove whether the motion of dust was responsible for zodiacal light.” Damn. No wonder why he’s the clever one and always wins at the Scrabble games while on the tours or on breaks during rehearsals.

“Impressive. Guess that makes you the clever one out of the other four then?”

“Yeah I suppose it does yeah.” He teasingly bragged which made me roll my eyes and giggle as I put my dish in the dishwasher with the other dirty dishes.

“Okay, now let me make a quick note to Adam.” I took one of the post-it notes and quickly wrote down where I would be for most of the day. And to remind him that it was his turn to start the dishwasher and take out the garbage and to NOT. FORGET. IT this time. “Okay that’s it. Shall we head out?”

“Ladies first madam.” He said gesturing to the door. I playfully curtsied and the two of us walked out of my apartment. I locked it up and we walked down the steps and across the short walkway till we reached the car. I sat in the back with Freddie and Roger while Deacy was at the wheel and Brian sat in the passenger seat.

“So (y/n), where to now?”

“Glenfield, Leicester.” It was at that point I saw Deacy look at me through the rearview mirror.

“Glenfield? Why there?”

“Well that’s—where I was born.”

“Unbelievable.” He muttered.

“Why’s that?”

“Because it’s just 20 minutes from where I was born and raised. Oadby.”

“Really?” I asked amazed.

“Well my darlings it seems as if you both were meant to meet each other. Two Leicestershire siblings coming together at last.” Freddie proclaimed dramatically.

“I must say though (y/n), for someone who was born there, you don’t quite have Deacy’s accent.”

“Well believe it or not lads. While I was there no one else spoke like me.” Deacy stated as he began to drive off.

“Yeah you’re a special case, but we love you anyways Deacy.” I said reaching over and kissed him on the cheek and patted his shoulder.

As we drove onwards, Roger was twirling his drumsticks while making up a random drumbeat. Freddie was working on a new sketch, I was listening to my Walkman which was playing a mixtape one of my friend’s made for me and the song that was playing now was Rubberband man, and Bri was doing a crossword puzzle.

“So darling why make us go all the way to Glenfield?” asked Freddie as he looked at me. I removed my right headphone aside asked.

“What was that Fred?”

“I asked why are we heading all the way to Glenfield?”

“Well I—uhh…..Just thought you’d all kinda like to see where I grew up.”

“I wouldn’t mind that. Maybe we could even meet your parents.” Stated Brian. At that point I saw the glare behind Roger’s shades but before he could do anything, I stopped him and I said.

“Possibly. I just—hope you guys are ready.”

“Any parent who could raise such a clever, intelligent and strong young woman must be equally strong and determined. I’ve actually been waiting for the day to meet the lovely darlings.” Freddie said as he softly nudged my arm.

“Yeah.” I said solemnly. I felt Roger take my hand and I looked up at him. He lifted my hand up and kissed my palm and pressed it to his chest over his heart. From that point the conversations died down after that, probably from either sensing my depressing mood, or fearing the angered look in Roger’s eyes that hid but they could feel behind his shades.

After over 2 hours of driving, we finally arrived at my childhood hometown. The place I hoped that I would never see again ever since my aunt and uncle kicked me out of the house.

“Okay so, where exactly do you want to go first?” asked Deacy.

“Can we drop by the flower shop? Go down this street and at the third stoplight, take a right.” I told him the directions and Deacy willingly followed. Once we reached the stoplight and Deacy made the right, I told him to go straight till we reached Lennon Dr. to the left, then another right until finally we reached Ms. Viola’s flower shop and bouquet.

“Any reason why we’re here first love?” asked Brian.

“All will be explained soon enough. For now just stay in the car. I’ll take care of everything here.” Roger then opened his door and got out first before helping me out and then hopping right back inside the car. I walked towards the shop and took a deep breath in before exhaling out and finally entering the flower shop.

And boy it hadn’t changed a bit. Various of flowers and plants hung and were displayed everywhere. Bags of fertilized soil were packed up in the corner of the shop inside some containment shelves. And there at the front desk with her now long graying hair was Ms. Viola’s.

“How can I help—(y/n)? Little (y/n) (l/n)?”

“Hey Ms. Viola, long time no see huh?”

“Oh honey come over here and give us a kiss.” I walked over to her and she gave me a big hug and a kiss. “Oh you’ve gotten so big since I last saw you, how have you been?”

“I’ve been—okay. I’m sorry I hadn’t visited the shop lately.”

“I know honey, Mr. Issacs told me what your uncle and aunt did. I never did trust them, but never did I think they’d do something like that to you.”

“Yeah well they’re radical thinkers, only want the most money and to be the perfections of high society.” I bluntly stated.

“So—the usual arrangements?”

“Yeah.” She nodded and then prepped my usual bouquet of yellow carnations and lilies. “The usual payment?”

“Actually, this one’s on me.”

“No I—I couldn’t do that to you.”

“(Y/n) it’s been years since I’ve seen your face in this town. Please take the offer and think nothing else of it. Next time you come around, you can pay me then.” I softly smiled and said.

“Thank you.” I nodded goodbye to her and she waved bye to me as I left the shop. Freddie opened the door for me and I came inside.

“Oh darling yellow carnations. What’s the occasion?” asked Freddie as he took one of the carnations out of the bouquet and admired it.

“Head back the same way we came but instead take the left at the second light. And head on down to Hoover St.” I simply said. Deacy nodded and proceeded to drive on ahead. About 10 minutes later we finally arrived at our destination.

GLENFIELD PUBLIC CEMETARY.

“Uhh (y/n)?” Brian started.

“Brian don’t.” Roger snapped firmly. He then opened his door once again and helped me out of the car. Deacy shut off the engine and soon the rest of the guys followed and I led them inside the cemetery.

We walked along the cobbled stone path further and further passing grave after grave till finally I saw the two familiar graves standing side by side each other pass the old willow tree. I walked up first wiped the leaves away from the tombstones that had my parent’s named engraved in plaques. Then I set the lilies down by my mother’s grave and the yellow carnations on top of my father’s.

“(Y/n) darling, are—are you okay?” Freddie asked concernedly.

“The real reason why I brought you guys all the way here is so that I could tell you the real truth about the girl you’ve allowed in your circle.” I stood up and walked behind the two gravestones and said. “Queen, This was my mum (m/n) (l/n) and my dad (f/n) (m/n) (l/n). They both died in a car accident one rainy night on April 16th, 1970.”

At that confession, all but Roger were stunned and I saw that familiar look of sympathy shining through their eyes.

“(Y/n) I—I’m so sorry. Had I know that—” Brian said.

“But you didn’t. So there’s nothing you need to apologize for Bri. I—didn’t want any of you guys to know where I came from. What my life has been like, but now—after what happened last week I’m ready.” At that point Roger came towards me and took my hand in his and gave it a gentle and comforting squeeze.

“You mean the incident with Paul?” asked Deacy.

“Yes. What I’m sure roger probably expressed his anger about towards Paul, it—it was true.”

“So—”

“Guys let her fully explain. Don’t interrupt her, it’s hard enough to let her relive it as it is.” Roger spoke defensively.

“It’s okay Roger. No need to get hissy with them.” I assured him as I stroked the back of his hand with my thumb trying to relieve him of his anger. “My parents were—the kindest, most strong people I ever knew. They loved music so much that they themselves tried to make it big. But all they could afford was pub gigs and small gigs at hospitals or openings. When they had me they—kept up their work but of course it didn’t always pay the bills, so they had to work real jobs at either a coffee shop, restaurant or the library. Well…..when I was 8 years old, they went for a drive to their first official gig they hadn’t had in years since I was probably 4-5 years old. It…..was pouring down so hard they could barely see the road and they…..didn’t make it to the hospital to be saved. They were pronounced DOA.”

I took a shaky breath in as I tried to keep the tears at bay until I got through everything.

“After the funeral, I was taken into the custody of my aunt Johanna, my mum’s older sister, and uncle Graham. And they—were the absolute worst people to ever walk the planet. Every day was a living hell. They verbally abused me, told me that I was worthless and that I would never amount to anything. Even when I thought I had succeeded like graduating secondary school with a 3.50 average, they still saw me as a failure because I didn’t graduate as Valedictorian or get a straight up 4.00 with the highest level of my grade. But the worst thing was when I told them what I planned on studying at University……I……they kicked me out.”

“They what?!” all three of them chorused out.

“When I said I wanted to study music, they were beyond pissed. We fought for hours and hours on end till it was dark. Then next thing I knew, my uncle packed all my things and tossed them out before he and aunt Johanna both said ‘get out of our lives you witless bitch! And never do we want to see your face again!’. So I—bought myself a ticket and came all the way up to London and struggled to find a housing. I had no support from them throughout my first year of university. But then again I never wanted their help even if they offered. But for nine years I struggled with depression and self-confidence because of everything they’ve said to me for over a decade of living with them.”

I don’t know when exactly it must’ve started, but I felt tears dripping down my face. I wiped them away from my face and held in a sob. That was until I felt Roger bring me close to him, I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried myself into his chest.

“Then last week Paul had to reopen those wounds when he went through her files and somehow got her aunt’s and uncle’s phone number and told them about this internship.” Roger explained as he rubbed my arm comfortingly.

“That son of a—” Brian started out with a huff.

“Next time I see him I’ll wrangle his neck with my bass strap.” Threatened Deacy.

“Darling we are so sorry. I’ll talk to Paul about it tomorrow when we get back into the studio.”

“It’s alright guys.” I sniffled.

“Are you sure love?” asked Deacy.

“Yes.” I then gently got out of Roger’s embrace and wiped my tears away and took a few deep breaths. “But can I ask something of you four?”

“Yeah. Name it poppet.” Said Brian.

“For years not only did I have to deal with the abuse from my aunt and uncle, I also had to deal with my friends and random strangers giving me sympathy. Everywhere I went, they always went ‘oh there’s poor (y/n). Treat her specially, poor dear lost her parents she did’. After a while I got sick of it. That’s why I didn’t want you guys to know because I refused to be given sympathy when they don’t know how I feel. So please guys, if any of you fuss about me or look at me differently, or worse of all give me more sympathy then you’re just wasting your time. Because all I want to do is help you guys make your music with the time I have for this internship.”

They nodded in agreement.

“Done.” Freddie said.

“And—even though you said you don’t want to be given sympathy, can we—still give you a hug?” asked Roger. I smiled and said.

“From you guys? Anytime.” And it was then the guys came up to me and had me in the middle of a group hug.

Being surrounded by warmth, love and support from 4 rock gods was something I never thought I would happen to me, but I’m honored they were and are willing to give me the support and love I needed.

Feeling their hands gently ruffle or pat my head, rub my shoulder and back, and feeling the occasional kiss or two.

“I love you guys.” I said as I smiled and a tear of happiness fell from the corner of my eye.

“We love you too (y/n). You’ve become more than an intern or helper to us, you’re family now. And we always protect our family.” Brian said. I looked up at him and said.

“You mean that?”

“If you’d like to be a part of it, we won’t question it. Even after the internship is over, we’ll still need you.”

“Brian I—nothing would make me even happier.” He pressed his forehead against mine, nuzzling our noses together in a gentle Eskimo kiss.

After being in the group hug for what felt like forever I was then surprised to see Freddie kneel down before my parent’s grave and he said.

“(F/n), (M/n), my darlings, you don’t have to worry about your little girl anymore.”

“You’ve done your best to watch over her, but now you both no longer need to worry. Because now we’re here.” Roger continued for Freddie as he now knelt down beside him, specifically kneeling before my father’s grave.

“You both raised an incredible daughter. And I know you both must be very, very, very proud of the woman she’s become.” Said Deacy as he knelt on the other side of Freddie. Then Brian knelt beside Deacy and he finished.

“You both can rest easy now. We can look after your daughter, if you’ll allow us. She’s—” he looked right up at me and softly smiled as he took my hand in his. “She’s become more to Queen than we could possibly imagine. You both have fussed over her long enough, allow us to continue that in your stand.”

I smiled and shook my head as the tears once again fell down my face. I then knelt down between the two guitarists of Queen and as they both rubbed my back comfortingly, I choked out.

“I’m okay now mum and dad……You can trust these boys. They may seem crazy but—I love them. You both can rest in peace knowing I’ll be okay.” The soft autumn wind blew through our hairs gently and I know it sounds crazy but I swear I thought I heard my mum and dad’s whispers along the wind saying.

Thank you Queen.

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clarasimone · 5 years ago

Text

Iain Glen nailing Hamlet (1991)

In 1991, after winning the Evening Standard Film Award for Best Actor, Iain Glen gave his soulful all, not on the stage in London, no, not yet, though really he could have, but at the Old Vic in Bristol, donning the persona of the Dane, Hamlet. He won the Special Commendation Ian Charleson Award* for his performance and yet it appears we will never see but stills from this production as no video recording was made, not even by and for the company. The University of Bristol has the archives of the production: the playbook, the programme and black and white stills. The V&A archives have the administrative papers. In our day and age, this sad evanescent corporeal sate of affairs is unimaginable. The memory of the play, of this performance fading away? We rebel against the very thought. We brandish our cell phones and swear we shall unearth and pirate its memory, somehow, somewhere. Even if we have to hypnotize patrons or pull out the very hearts of those who saw Iain Glen on stage, those few, those happy few, to read into their very memory and pulsating membrane just how brilliant he was. Because he was, he was. That’s what they’ll all tell you...

Below, those pics and testimonies....

*(The Charleson Awards were established in memory of Ian Charleson, who died at 40 from Aids while playing Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989)

- Iain Glen is a rampaging prince, quixotic, technically sound, tense as a coiled spring, funny. ‘To be, or not to be’ results from throwing himself against the white walls, an air of trembling unpredictability is beautifully conveyed throughout. ‘Oh, what a rogue and peasants slave’ is blindingly powerful. My life is drawn in angrily modern post Gielgud Hamlets: David Warner, Nicol Williams, Visotsky, Jonathon Price. Iain Glen is equal to them. He keeps good company. THE OBSERVER, Michael Coveney

- Paul Unwin’s riveting production reminded me more strongly than any I have ever seen that the Danish Court is riddled with secrecy. Politics is a form of hide and seek: everyone stealthily watches everyone else. Iain Glen’s Hamlet is a melancholic in the clinical sense: his impeccable breeding and essential good nature keep in check what might be an approaching breakdown. His vitriolic humour acts as a safety valve for a nagging instability, his boyish charm is deployed to placate and deceive a hostile and watchful world. Glen brings out Hamlet’s fatal self absorption: the way he cannot help observing himself and putting a moral price tag on every action and failure. He is a doomed boy. And his chill but touching calm at the end is that of a man who has finally understood the secrets behind the closed doors. The Sunday Times, John Peter

- This is an excellent production of Hamlet from the Bristol Old Vic. The director Paul Unwin and his designer Bunnie Christie have set the play in turn of the century Europe. Elsinore is a palace of claustrophobically white walls and numerous doors. All this is handled with a light touch, without drawing attention away from the play. Our first encounter with Hamlet shows him bottled up with rage and grief. Glen gives a gripping performance. The self-dramatising side of the character is tapped to the full by this talented actor. The Spectator, Christopher Edwards

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

The following though is my favorite review/article because it situates Iain Glen’s creation is time, in the spectrum of all renowned Hamlets.

How will Cumberbatch, TV’s Sherlock, solve the great mystery of Hamlet? by Michael Coveney - Aug 17, 2015

In 1987, three years before he died, the critic and venerable Shakespearean JC Trewin published a book of personal experience and reminiscence: Five and Eighty Hamlets. I’m thinking of supplying a second volume, under my own name, called Six and Fifty Hamlets, for that will be my total once Benedict Cumberbatch has opened at the Barbican.

There’s a JC and MC overlap of about 15 years: Trewin was a big fan of Derek Jacobi’s logical and graceful prince in 1977 and ended with less enthusiastic remarks about “the probing intelligence” of Michael Pennington in 1980 (both Jacobi and Pennington were 37 when they played the role; Cumberbatch is 39) and emotional pitch and distraction of Roger Rees in 1984 (post-Nickleby, Rees was 40, but an electric eel and ever-youthful).

I started as a reviewer in 1972 with three Hamlets on the trot: the outrageous Charles Marowitz collage, which treats Hamlet as a creep and Ophelia as a demented tart, and makes exemplary, equally unattractive polar opposites of Laertes and Fortinbras; a noble, stately Keith Michell (with a frantic Polonius by Ron Moody) at the Bankside Globe, Sam Wanamaker’s early draft of the Shakespearean replica; and a 90-minute gymnastic exercise performed by a cast of eight in identical chain mail and black breeches at the Arts Theatre.

This gives an idea of how alterable and adaptable Hamlet has been, and continues to be. There are contestable readings between the Folios, any number of possible cuts, and there is no end of choice in emphasis. Trewin once wrote a programme note for a student production directed by Jonathan Miller in which he said that the first scene on the battlements (“Who’s there?”) was the most exciting in world drama; the scene was cut.

And as Steven Berkoff pointed out in his appropriately immodestly titled book I Am Hamlet (1989), Hamlet doesn’t exist in the way Macbeth, or Coriolanus, exists; when you play Hamlet, he becomes you, not the other way round. Hamlet, said Hazlitt, is as real as our own thoughts.

Which is why my three favourite Hamlets are all so different from each other, and attractive because of the personality of the actor who’s provided the mould for the Hamlet jelly: my first, pre-critical-days Hamlet, David Warner (1965) at the Royal Shakespeare Company, was a lank and indolently charismatic student in a long red scarf, exact contemporary of David Halliwell’s Malcolm Scrawdyke, and two years before students were literally revolting in Paris and London; then Alan Cumming (1993) with English Touring Theatre, notably quick, mercurial and very funny, with a detachable doublet and hose, black Lycra pants and bovver boots, definitely (then) the glass of fashion, a graceful gender-bender like Brett Anderson of indie band Suede; and, at last, Michael Sheen (2011) at the Young Vic, a vivid and overreaching fantasist in a psychiatric institution (“Denmark’s a prison”), where every actor “plays” his part.

These three actors – Warner, Cumming, Sheen – occupy what might be termed the radical, alternative tradition of Hamlets, whereas the authoritative, graceful nobility of Jacobi belongs to the Forbes Robertson/John Gielgud line of high-ranking top drawer ‘star’ turns, a dying species and last represented, sourly but magnificently, by Ralph Fiennes (1995) in the gilded popular palace of the Hackney Empire. Fiennes, like Cumberbatch, has the sort of voice you might expect a non-radical, traditional Hamlet to possess.

But if you listen to Gielgud on tape, you soon realise he wasn’t ‘old school’ at all. He must have been as modern, at the time, as Noel Coward. Gielgud is never ‘intoned’ or overtly posh, he’s quicksilver, supple, intellectually alert. I saw him deliver the “Oh what a rogue and peasant slave” soliloquy on the night the National left the Old Vic (February 28, 1976); he had played the role more than 500 times, and not for 37 years, but it was as fresh, brilliant and compelling as if he had been making it up on the spot.

Ben Kingsley, too, in 1975, was a fiercely intelligent Royal Shakespeare Company Hamlet, and I saw much of that physical and mental power in David Tennant’s, also for the RSC in 2008, with an added pinch of mischief and irony. There’s another tradition, too, of angry Hamlets: Nicol Williamson in 1969, a scowling, ferocious demon; Jonathan Pryce at the Royal Court in 1980, possessed by the ghost of his father and spewing his lines, too, before finding Yorick’s skull in a cabinet of bones, an ossuary of Osrics; and a sourpuss Christopher Ecclestone (2002), spiritually constipated, moody as a moose with a migraine, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

One Hamlet who had a little of all these different attributes – funny, quixotic, powerful, unhappy, clever and genuinely heroic – was Iain Glen (1991) at the Bristol Old Vic, and I can imagine Cumberbatch developing along similar lines. He, like so many modern Hamlets, is pushing 40 – as was Jude Law (2009), hoary-voiced in the West End – yet when Trevor Nunn cast Ben Whishaw (2004) straight from RADA, aged 23, petulant and precocious, at the Old Vic, he looked like a 16-year-old, and too young for what he was saying. It’s like the reverse of King Lear, where you have to be younger to play older with any truth or vigour.

Michael Billington’s top Hamlet remains Michael Redgrave, aged 50, in 1958, as he recounts in his brilliant new book, The 101 Greatest Plays (seven of the 101 are by Shakespeare); Hamlet, he says, more than any other play, alters according to time as well as place.

So, Yuri Lyubimov’s great Cold War Hamlet, the prince played by the dissident poet Vladimir Visotsky, was primarily about surveillance, the action played on either side of an endlessly moving hessian and woollen wall. And in Belgrade in 1980, shortly after the death of Tito, the play became a statement of anxiety about the succession.

There’s a mystery to Hamlet that not even Sherlock Holmes could solve, though Cumberbatch will no doubt try his darndest – even if he finds his Watson at the Barbican (Leo Bill is playing Horatio) more of a hindrance than a help; there are, after all, more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in his friend’s philosophy.

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

Oh! Did I say that we were never going to see Iain Glen in the skin of the great Dane? Tsk. How silly of me. Meet IG’s Hamlet in Tom Stoppard’s postmodern theatrical whimsy ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, shot the year before the Bristol play.

Though almost surreal and most often funny as the film follows the Pulp Fiction-like misadventures of two forgettable Shakespearian characters, crossing paths with other more or less fortunate characters, their time with Hamlet makes us privy to the Dane as we never quite see him in the Bard’s play... but for one memorable scene, in which Iain Glen absolutely nails it, emoting the famous “To be or not to be” which you see tortures his soul, brings tears to his eyes and contorts his mouth; the moment made all the more memorable by the fact that it is a silent scene. You never hear him utter the famous line, but you see the words leave his lips and feel them mark your soul.

I’m kinda telling myself that it’s 1991 and I’m sitting in the Old Vic, in Bristol, not London. Not yet.

#Iain Glen #hamlet

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tsarinatorment · 4 years ago

Note

For the fanfic questions, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, and 45?

1. What was the first fandom you got involved in?

Naruto, back when I was a teenager and my friends showed me this crazy thing online (I now know way more about it than said friends, who I don’t think ever finished the series).

3. What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

No offence to any other fandoms, but my current one - Thunderbirds - is absolutely fantastic. It’s reasonably small, but everyone seems to be friends with everyone and things that in other fandoms would have resulted in a full out war are just accepted as ‘your headcanon? cool’.

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in.

So nowadays I’m not much of a romantic shipper - platonic is way more my jam - but there are few:

Bleach - Yylfordt/Apacci D.Gray-Man - Alan/Kanda Detective Conan - Heiji/Kazuha Marchen Awakens Romance - Nanashi/Dorothy Naruto - Suigetsu/Karin Team Fortress 2 - Scout/Miss Pauling

One Piece and Thunderbirds are probably what I’m best known for at the moment but I’m here for nakamaship/family stuff, not romance!

10. Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

Many! Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Fullmetal Alchemist, BBC Merlin to name a few. I’ve technically written for LotR but that was only the one drabble series so not sure that counts.

15. [Current Fandom] Is there an obscure ship which you love?

Shipping in general is not really my thing in TAG, so I wouldn’t say so, no. I only ship canon ships so none of them are really ‘obscure’.

If we’re talking platonic ship, John&Ned. I’m working on introducing that to the fandom with some success :D

21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?

Wrote? I honestly couldn’t say. The first one I posted is a multichap called “Unwanted” for Naruto, which is kinda cringey and I don’t recommend people read that now. I was 15.

28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

Oh boy. Well, the fic that does have fanart from a couple of fantastic readers who I adore and will always adore is my One Piece fanfic Tales From The Heart - one is an image of Penguin and Shachi interacting which was inspired by Tales in general, while the other is a scene with Law, Penguin and Shachi all piled in on Penguin’s bunk, asleep.

I couldn’t say what would inspire people in particular. I’ve been inspired to doodle from my own fics - got a few from Tales myself, a scrappy unfinished thing from Wax and Feathers (Thunderbirds), and working on a hopefully not so scrappy scene from Riding The Dragon (also Thunderbirds), but muses work in weird and whacky ways and any and all fanart is always welcome and squealed over.

36. What’s your favourite genre to write?

Hurt/Comfort! I enjoy my angst, but I also like happy endings so I normally patch characters together again after I break them. Sometimes I play around in the fluff pit, but those tend to be random scenes rather than plot-based.

45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

Nope, not going there. There are many absolutely fantastic fics and I have no way of quantifying them against each other to say which is my overall favourite. I’ve been reading fics since 2009 and in some fandoms have read almost every fanfiction available for the fandom on FFN/AO3. I wouldn’t know where to start, honestly.

That said, purely because I first read it, what, ten years ago, still remember it clearly now and refound it a month or so ago, I will name ThunderaTiger’s While The Ring Went South. (Lord of the Rings)

#scribeofred #ask me #fanfiction

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butternutsims · 5 years ago

Photo

Ooooo, I got a bunch of asks for the “hi, I’m not from the US” ask set and the questions and answers are under the cut!

I’m going to answer these in order of questions, thank you to @simvilae, @confusedpasta, @myfawnwy, @renlishsims and those sneaky nonnys ;)

Oh and if anyone isn’t sure where I am from, it’s Australia!

4. favourite dish specific for your country?

This is a clear cut winner, it’s the meat pie, we make it really different from anywhere else in the world. And they are so much better fresh than the frozen ones. Vegemite is second, I don’t eat it on the regular but I don’t mind it.

5. favourite song in your native language?

I’m gonna be super technical here, I am a native English speaker, however the aboriginal people were here first and they are native to this land, so my fave song from an aboriginal artist is ‘Mr La Di Da’ by Baker Boy which he raps in English and Yolŋu Matha. Super fun song.

Most of my fave music is from Aussie artists also. We have the best music, hands down.

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

HAHA. ok I’m gonna be stereotypical. G’day (hello), mate (friend.. or not, depending on the mood and how aggressive you’re feeling, you can “mate” angrily) and arvo (afternoon, most people say it without thinking, for example, ‘Let's go down to the shops this arvo’)

Actually a lot of words we shorten and just add an ‘o’ to the end of it, and that’s our slang in a nutshell.

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?

Yeah, when travelling, it’s either UK, New Zealander or South African. Always.

11. favourite native writer/poet?

ooooooo, good one! Mem Fox is probably the one that sticks out in my mind, her kids books are just amazing, mostly based around Australian native animals, but she wrote a book a few years ago called ‘I’m Australian Too’, which explains how different cultures are part of Australia to kids!

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

Superstitions I can’t think of any, all the ones I can think of are Italian because part of my family immigrated from there. Traditions.. maybe grabbing a Bunnings sausage every time you go there because they are the best?

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

Our most famous Australian shows are Home & Away and Neighbours.. so the answer is no, most of it is trash. Some movies are okay.

15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?

G’DAY MATE, HOW ABOUT I CHUCK ANOTHER SHRIMP ON THE BAAAAAAAARRRRRRBIE!!!

If you say this in the mirror 3 times on Australia Day, the ghost of Paul Hogan is said to appear behind you... Oh wait, that’s a superstition I guess!?

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with?

I hate when people have asked me if I ride a kangaroo around. I try telling them it’s only when my car is at the mechanics but they still think it’s my main mode of transportation.

The thing about the deadly animals.. all true.

17. are you interested in your country’s history?

Yeah! We learn about it all in school, at least the English side of it, and to a point the Aboriginal side. I find the Aboriginal history much more rich and important to learn about.

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language? .

My English is okie dokie. I would love to learn some Aboriginal. I am also very horrible at languages, it was never my strong suit.

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

Oooof... this is a tough question.

We are super resilient people, we don’t give up, we go out and do something about it. And we are not silent.

What I hate are the people that are the opposite of this. They point their fingers and take advantage of situations, or they are silent and let things just happen. These are for the most part Boomers and politicians

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?

BEER.

Not Fosters!! We actually don’t drink Fosters here.. ever. Fosters is an exported beer from here for everyone else to enjoy.

We make good craft beers, and good wines too!

25. would you like to come from another place, be born in another country?

For me personally, I was born here for a reason so there’s no changing that.

HOWEVER, I am part Canadian, I am a dual citizen so my heart belongs there too and that would be my other choice of place to be born. But I am first and foremost an Australian.

#butternutsims replies #oooo this was fun

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wvstxdtlmxs · 5 years ago

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NATHAN & BRIANNA ;

Dear Nathan,

I kind of wanted to start this out with 'Dear dearest dear', just because I thought it would be funny and you might get a laugh out of it, but it also sounds ridiculous in my head. One too many 'dear's if you ask me.

You're technically my first pen pal, which is kind of weird, right? Then again, you're also the first boy I've ever loved, so I guess you're my first for a lot of things. First pen pal, first love, first real boyfriend (as long as you don't count Paul Rollins in 5th grade. Don't worry, it only lasted one day, so he's got nothing on you), first date, first boy I took home to meet my mom. You're my first everything, Nate.

Okay, so, I kind of lied. I actually had a pen pal at some point during elementary school. My teacher wanted us to learn to write better, so she assigned us pen pals, but it was just within class. We went home, wrote a letter to our pen pal, came to school the next day, left it in their little cubby, then went over and got the one that was left for us. I don't remember much about it except that my pen pal really needed to learn how to write better. It was like reading scribble. Absolutely terrible.

Since it was such a terrible experience, I'm counting you as my first pen pal. So, we're back to you being my first everything and that's exactly how I want it.

I started reading Animal Farm the other day. Yes, we read it for high school, so why in the hell would I be reading it again? 1) I am really that bored. 2) I really liked it, even though I remember it being totally messed up. 3) I did that thing where I closed my eyes and picked the first thing I pointed to. Honestly, I'm pretty sure that's how I make half of my decision at this point.

I don't want to make this too long and have you pulled away so you can't read it, and I don't want to bore you while you're having loads of fun sitting in the middle of a desert. You know, the government saying information is 'classified' doesn't make them sound cool, it just makes them sound douchey.

Mom wanted me to say hi and let you know that she's thinking about you. I stopped in to see her yesterday and I think she might have forgot you were gone. The woman sent me home with enough food for 20 people. I moved out and she's still cooking like I didn't. I think she just makes so much because she knows how much you like her cooking.

If you can't write back right away, I understand. Just write something back when you can, okay? Let me know you're fine.

I love you so much and I miss you every second. You have no idea how much I miss you.

-Bri xx

#( brianna. )#( w. nathan. )

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britishchick09 · 5 years ago

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ranking all the beatles songs i’ve listened to (so far...)

today marks a month since i made the beatles book, which is when i started to become a fan. now that i’m a crazy beatlemaniac, i’ve been listening to the boys a lot. i’ve heard 35 (technically 34) songs in full, so here’s my ranking of them! :D

35. i am the walrus

scary (sitting on a corn flake sounds nice tho)

34. drive my car

i like the beep beep

33. a day in the life

an okay song with a trippy part that i’m not a fan of

32. day tripper

i’ve heard this since i was little and i was like ‘wait THE BEATLES WROTE THIS OMG’ the tambourine is good and it’s okay

31. come together

a good song with trippy lyrics

30. ob la di ob la da album version

it’s okay. i’m not a fan of the loud ‘BRAH’ and that weird laughing near the end (who even was the ‘thank you’ lady?)

29. twist and shout

it’s a great song (i prefer the one from ed sullivan), but i can’t help but feel bad for john. i can tell he’s really forcing his sore af voice. poor guy! :(

28. revolution

i love the spark it has and it’s like YAS QUEEN LET’S HAVE A REVOLUTION BBY! :D i could do without the shredding guitar in the right channel tho

27. get back

this is another ‘THE BEATLES WROTE THIS OMG’ song. i love the az reference (although it’s crazy tuscon) and it’s a nice mellow tune

26. yellow submarine

what a fun song! :D

25. something

a sweet song with the best music video! :D (and it’s peepo approved)

24. blackbird

this is such a pretty and peaceful song ;)

23. hey jude

this is a relaxing song with a sweet story behind it and a great music video. i don’t really like how the ‘na na naaa’ part drags out and makes the song long af

22. hello goodbye

this was the very first beatles song i heard even though it was from those 2008 target commercials. it’s nostalgic and catchy! :D

21. please please me

a very nice song that has a nice harmonica :)

20. your mother should know

a pleasant song with a great dance number

19. all you need is love

i really like the strings and john’s ‘ALL TOGETHER NOW! in the background’ it would be a great song to sway to at a concert

18. i wanna hold your hand

a classic song with lots of energy

17. eight days a week

this is the 'newest’ song that i’ve heard so far. it’s a swinging tune! :D

16. help

a great song that gives me strong elsa vibes

15. act naturally

this technically isn’t a beatles song, but i’m counting it since ringo sang it with them. it’s a catchy song that fits him well! :D

14. in my life

this is yet another ‘THE BEATLES WROTE THIS OMG’ song. it’s so pleasant! :D

13. a hard day’s night

it has lots of energy and works so well for beatlemaniac chase scenes

12. all together now

this one was surprising since i never thought they’d write a kids song! i love the song’s simplicity and it’s a great bop

11. she loves you

a loud, energetic and fun song. yeah yeah yeah to this one! :D

10. can’t buy me love

it’s a dance-able tune with a great message :)

9. hold me tight

i really like the second half of the song. paul may be out of key, but it works!

8. your bird can sing

this has a lovely melody and i love the giggling take :D

7. please mr. postman

i really like how the backup vocals sound like a girl group and john’s voice coupled with the claps make it so great! :D

6. with a little help from my friends

this song is wonderful (not sure about the high part tho) and it’s always awesome to hear ringo sing! i love the story of the others standing around ringo to support him. it adds to the song in such a sweet way :)

5. octopuses’ garden

my boy ringo gets his own song and it’s awesome!!!!! george was so supportive of it and that’s really heartwarming. this has big spongebob vibes and it’s easy to be transported to the ocean (or bikini bottom). this is such a fun song! :D

4. i saw her standing there

this song is so catchy and upbeat. it’s really dance-able and has so much energy to it! it has strong new dream vibes and that’s a big reason why i love it so much. you can��t go wrong with them, especially when paired with the beatles! :D

3. do you want to know a secret

this song reminds me of snow white and finding out that it was based on john’s mum singing i’m wishing to him is the cutest thing ever! george’s voice was a bit funny at first, but i really liked it and he did a great job. this is an adorably sweet and simple song. :)

2. here comes the sun

this is such a happy and uplifting song that gives so much hope. it reminds me of the ending of frozen, when the ice truly did melt and it has been years since happiness had shone. i love the guitar solo near the end. george does a little voice crack on ‘it’s been years since it’s been here’ in take 9 and i love that! D

and my number 1 favorite beatles song is...

1. ob la di ob la da anthology 3 demo

this technically isn’t a separate song, but i’m counting it as such. this was the only beatles song i had on my ipod for a few years and the first one i listened to as a true fan. i love how it’s quieter than the album version, but still energetic. i love paul’s vocals, john going ‘yes sah take one for the united jumbo band!’ and ‘ob la di ob la da brother!’ are fun bits, the guitar is great, the little ‘la la la la la’s are cute and the beatboxing & saxophone is awesome. it’s the same song as 27, but it feels so different. it’s fresh, without tension and stoned john, it feels lighter, it’s... more alive i guess? the fact that i used it for my animation makes it truly special and it easily takes the top spot. no matter how many beatles songs i listen to, it’ll always be number one ♥

#beatles rankings #wowza this is a lot #it was fun to listen and rank them :D #35-32 is eh 31-27 is sorta like 26-16 is like 15-7 is really like 6-2 is love and 1 is REALLY LOVE ♥#enjoy ;)

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namjoonlooks · 6 years ago

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Hi! Thanks for creating quality Namjoon-centric content. It has been one of my sources of happiness. :) Also, you said that you know things abt the connections between The Beatles and BTS. I hope you wouldn't mind sharing what you know because, although I listen to The Beatles' songs, I am not that familiar with their era and achievements. Thank you!

i’m glad to make you happy! :D

OOF it’s a lot orz so let’s settle in (i’ll try to limit their history to what i think is relevant to bts lmao)

so, very similar beginnings: both groups have a love of american (esp Black) music and while both clearly didn’t fully understand it, they did genuinely appreciate it and both grew out of their misplaced imitations (at different rates and different cultural climates ofc)

both did the underground grind! Namjoon in Hongdae and Hoseok on the streets of Gwangju etc; the early Beatles (Paul, John, George and some other people-they met Ringo there) did it in Hamburg. they also had to fit a handful of boys into one tiny room so they got very in each others business very quickly lmao

LennonMcCartney ..... is a whole thing unto itself woof it’s a Lot but the importance of that connection can not be overstated alright but they are responsible for most of the musical output and nearly all creative decisions much like a certain rapline ;) thankfully I think the current boys have a whole lot less Issues and ya know talk to each other but anyway...

both went to label/studios that risked it to believe in these boys because they were just that talented. they have all been afforded an unusual amount of creative freedom which is evident in the music they write. George Martin-their main producer- let them do what they want but also lent his musical expertise where they might be lacking

the music is highly personal and highly personalized. you can tell who wrote what, their personalities were very out in the open. they did general songs about love etc. but also pushed the boundary in talking about politics, the state of society, and truly out there subjects. nothing was off the table!

the Beatles literally with no exaggeration changed the state of modern music. they did their rock n roll in the early 60s (which was still to a higher quality than most) but they experimented earnestly- the peak of which was Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band- which ushered in this new era of what now sounds like the 60s to us. not all on their own ofc, their music worked in tandem with the avant garde movement happening at the time, but they really did have a huge role in moving the music industry forward. besides that they and their staffed altered the technical aspects of recording music. Tomorrow Never Knows was the first pop song to ever use a backwards track and Ken Townsend working on a Beatles song (at John’s behest) figured out automatic double tracking- that’s huge!!! artists literally had to sing over themselves to double before then. i’m getting off topic oml but yes changed the entire music industry, as we’re seeing again today with BTS. maybe not so much with technicals but in proving what a foreign-language band can do in the largest music market?? absolute global chart domination?? lifting up an entire country’s music industry?? it’s massive, you can see evidence of the entertainment changing because BTS impact is real

this turned into an analysis rather than a history lesson whoops sorry if that wasn’t what you were looking for! i have a Lot of Feelings, just lemme know if it was something else you wanted to know alskdjf

here have this comparison of paul and joon wearing the same outfit to compensate:

thanks for sticking with me 😘

#yall are gonna have to deal w me unloading alright it's been pent up #answered #Anonymous

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basalcrayon · 5 years ago

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Bohemian Rhapsody : Queen’s Crowning Moment

31st October 1975 not an unusual date it was a halloween as usual , but 4 misfits calling themselves “Queen” unbeknownst to the impact they are going to change the world of music forever released their first single of arguably one of the greatest albums of all time

The album ? A Night At The Opera

The Song? Bohemian Rhapsody

Often considered as the greatest song of all time and personally it is

To the average person in 2020 a song stretching 6mins may or may no be an issue now that we have songs like Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” And Camel’s “Lady Fantasy” ( Who in my humble opinion are still one of the most underrated bands of all time seconded for me only by The Knophler Brothers Dire Straits )

Now back to the topic in 1975 labels like EMI thought that 6 minutes is stupid and I quote Roger Taylor OBE

They said it was too long and wouldn’t work.We thought “Well we could cut it , but it wouldn’t make any sense” It doesn’t make any sense now and it would make even less sense then you would miss all the different moods of the song .So we said no it’ll either fly or it won’t

But this was more than just a song it was the baby of Mr Mercury

In 2002 Brian May OBE said this

“He ( Freddie ) knew exactly what he was doing ….. we just helped him bring it to life”

But using his charm & lot of friendship Freddie did what Freddie does best ( except music that is ) with the help of his friend and Capital Radio DJ Kenny Everett .Queen released the song on Capital Radio and over the weekend Kenny got requests and played the song over 14 times! ( Now that’s a lot for a Halloween weekend ) countless of people lined up outside record stores on the following Monday to buy the record only to be disappointed by EMI & Elektra as the record hadn’t officially released yet.

But how does a 6min song have such an impact?

This might get technical so sit back and play A Night At The Opera!

Let’s take a deciphering look.Here We Go!

As I already quoted beforehand Bohemian Rhapsody was Freddie Mercury’s brainchild and I’m pretty sure Freddie had it all deciphered already and as Brian has said in the past Freddie had it all written on pieces of paper

From the start to finish Freddie had it all he wrote the ballad the piano and even Brian’s legendary solo & one of the most defining rock riffs of all time

Now A bit about the composition

Bohemian Rhapsody is all a song can hope for with a ballad , a amazing guitar solo , opera ( that people actually understood no hard feeling though ) & one of the greatest rock riffs

Now going Part by Part

A Capella – (0:00 – 0:49)

The five part harmony that opens up with iconic “ Is This The Real Life Or Is This Just Fantasy “ a Capella which comprises of more than 3 overlays of only Freddie contrary to what people think that it was all 4 members opening

At roughly 0:21 the grand piano makes it entrance as one of the defining moments of rock music with the story’s narrator ( which we will take a closer look at later ) introducing himself as “ just a poor boy “ who requires no sympathy and is easily come & gone while being little high little low

This leads us into the ballad

Ballad – ( 0:49 – 2:37 )

John Deacon starts with his bass and Freddie starts with the piano & “Mama Just Killed A Man” after Freddie does this twice his vocals sort of change & evolve turning into someone who is confessing something .

Roughly at 1:19 Roger Taylor’s Drums kick in after the first stanza the piano repeats with Freddie starting with the second verse being a stronger & more vocal story of the narrator with Freddie emphasising killing off the verse with arguably the most iconic line of Music ( At least for me )

“ I Sometimes I Wish I Had Never Been Born At All “

Kick In Brian May

Guitar Solo (2:37–3:05)

Brian May plays a very progressive solo in the key of E flat

At 3:03 he cuts off the solo on An A note signalling the start of operatic section

Opera ( 3:05 – 4:07 )

Iconic , Legendary , Defining , Great , Controversial are just a few words that come to mind about this section .This section comprised of over 180 overdubs ( cant imagine people like Cardi B doing that !?)

Brian doing the lower part

Freddie with the power & symbolicalness of his vocal strength in the middle

Roger doing the higher notes ( cause he was the only one who could’ve made the dogs hear him )

With lyrics like Scarmouche , Galileo & Fandago

Producer Roy Thomas Baker Once Said –

Everytime Freddie came up with a new Galileo I ordered a new piece of tape

On Came The Hard Rock Part

Hard Rock ( 4:07–4:54 )

At 4:07 Brian May played one of the most symbolic rock riffs of all time ( also written by Mr Mercury ) Three Guitar riffs are played ended by Freddie back on his piano after his vocal outrage ends

Outro ( 4:54 – 5:55 )

After the iconicness of the riff ends Mercury plays multiple ascending octaves on his piano ( The same piano used by by Paul McCartney of The Beatles to record “Hey Jude”)

The narrator ends the story by saying nothing really matters to him

This is followed by anyway the wind blows & Roger hitting a gong

Isn’t Musical Masterpiece An Understatement!?

Now lets move onto the most difficult part of this song

What do these lyrics actually mean !!!?

Nobody can surely know now that Freddie is gone but I’m pretty sure we won’t have known even he was there ( which I wish everyday )

Going Part by Part

Intro

Disclaimer – This is my interpretation of the song and is by no means correct

“Is this the real life or is this just fantasy?

Caught in a landslide

No escape from reality

Open your eyes and see”

The narrator starts of by a kind of cry by saying is this the real life ? Is this what we have made the world , Is this what everyone needs to go through

Exclaiming about the cruel & harshness of the world

He continues by saying he’s caught In a landslide which I think is the personification of the modern society how it’s just going in a downward spiral with nobody doing about it leaving no one with any way to get out of this

He ends it by saying open your eyes and see what is happening it’s time for change

“Look up to the skies and see

I’m just a poor boy , I need no sympathy

Because I’m easy come , easy go .Little high , little low

Any way the wind blows ( doesn’t really matter to me )”

The narrator goes on in his story by saying that it’s high time that people look up to the sky and think what life actually is about but he continues on by saying how he’s just a poor boy who needs no sympathy and how nobody really cares what he’s saying and how any way the wind blows or how the world functions anymore no longer matters to him

Verse -

“Mama Just Killed A Man , Put A Gun Against His Head , Pulled My Trigger Now He’s Dead

Mama Life Had Just Begun , But Now I’ve Gone And Thrown It All Away

Mama oooo Didn’t Mean To Make You Cry , If I’m Not Back Again This Time Tomorrow Carry On

As If Nothing Really Matters”

Now we enter the narrator’s back story

I’m going to follow one idea here that how the young narrator killed his former self who cared about this world

The narrator starts by confessing to his mother how he’s killed the former self everyone had loved how the world forced him to put a gun on his head and pull the trigger resulting in the death of his persona who cared

He goes on further by saying how his life had just begun he had just started exploring his existence but before he could the cruelness & harsh nature of the world forced him into this and how he has thrown it all away

This stanza tells us that we have a young narrator maybe in his teens

The Narrator continues apolitically to his mother that he’s sorry he didn’t mean to make her cry by killing his past self & that if his old self isn’t back this time tomorrow carry on as if nothing ever happened

“Too Late My Time Has Come , Sends Shivers Down My Spine Body’s Aching All The Time

Goodbye Everybody I’ve Got To Go , Gotta Leave You All Behind & Face The Truth

Mama Oooo ( Anyway The Wind Blows )

I Sometime Wish I’d Never Been Born At All”

Now that the day has gone by and the narrator’s old self hasn’t been revived he finally comes to realise what he’s done how he’s committed persona suicide and how the thought of that sends chill down his body

He says his final goodbye to presumably his family that his old persona is dead and it’s time for him to leave and go on a new journey finishing off by telling his mother how it would’ve been better if he had never been born

This ends the verse

Guitar solo –

Even though it’s a solo Freddie tried his best to show the narrator’s emotions by writing Brian’s solo trying to make the guitar create a sort of cry as ( assuming the narrator plays guitar ) is the best way for the narrator to show the world how he really feels

Opera -

“The operatic part for me is sort of a trial of the narrator’s old self

I See A Little Sillhouetto Of A Man

Scaramouch , Scaramouch Will You Do The Fandango

Thunderbolts & Lightning Very Very Frightening

Galileo Galileo Figaro Magnifico”

This part is the trial of the narrator’s older self as the newer self sees whatever remains off the past as a silhouette .He sees scaramouch as a person representing society and fandango as the way it functions and kind off makes fun of how the society forces everyone to do everything their way

“Thunderbolts & Lightning are glimmers of change & hope and how it’s frightening to change something

I’m Just A Poor Boy Nobody Loves Me , He’s Just A Poor Boy From A Poor Family

He’s Just A Poor Boy From A Poor Family , Spare Him His Life From This Monstrosity

Easy Come Easy Go Will You Let Me Go

Bismillah No We Will Not Let You Go ( Let Him Go )

Bismillah We Will Not Let You Go ( Let Him Go )

Bismillah We Will Not Let You Go ( Let Me Go )

We Will Not Let You Go

No No No No No No

Oh Mama Mia , Mama Mia

Beelzebub Has A Devil Put Aside For Me !,For Me !”

In this part the newer self is fighting with the world to avoid reviving the older self how he’s a poor boy all alone nobody loving him and all alone to fight he’s pleading to god ( personified as Bismillah ) to let him go from the grasps of society and how god is telling him to fight for himself and at the end he realises the fight has just begun by saying mama mia as a form of fear and how beelzebub has kept a devil specifically for him due to the way he fought

Hard Rock –

“So You Think You Can Stone Me And Spit In My Eye

So You Think You Can Love Me & Leave Me To Die

Oh Baby , Can’t Do This To Me Baby !

Just Gotta Get Out , Just Gotta Get Right Outta Here”

In the supposed climax of the story the narrator finally decides to fight back by saying how does the society think that they can ruin him without any form of backlash expected , how everyone used to love his past self but the second he turned they left him alone

He ends this part by saying that it’s high time now he isn’t going to let anyone do this and he’s only waiting to get out of here to take his revenge

Outro -

“Ooh Yeah , Ooh Yeah Nothing Really Matters To Me

Nothing Really Matters To Me

Anyone Can See Nothing Really Matters To Me

Anyway The Wind Blows”

The story ends with the narrator having won his battle against the world all alone and how he’s all alone and nothing matters anymore

Conclusion

There maybe a million other interpretations this might’ve been Freddie’s coming out song where he says he killed his old heterosexual self and it’s time for him to live freely as a homosexual

Maybe this is about Freddie & all other members lives struggles or maybe something else

But 1 Thing Is Forever Sure

On 31st October 1975 Queen released something unmatchable and generational

Bohemian Rhapsody Is , Will & Forever Will Be One Of The Greatest Songs Of All Time

By -

Basal Crayon

#music #queen #Freddie Merucry #Brian May #Roger Taylor #John Deacon #Rock #rock music #Lyrics #Meaning

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