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lokiondisneyplus · 4 years ago

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The wonderful Mancunian actress Wunmi Mosaku can be seen grappling with a leather-skinned monster in the horror film His House and drinking a body-swapping potion before having sex with a wizard in the HBO/Sky series Lovecraft Country. Pure hokum, right? After all, this is a woman who made her name with gritty performances on British television in Moses Jones and Luther, and who won a Bafta for playing Gloria Taylor, mother of the murdered Damilola, in Damilola, Our Loved Boy. Has moving to Los Angeles played havoc with her sense of reality?

Actually, no. His House and Lovecraft Country belong to a new generation of accomplished, provocative stories that invite us to compare the terror and violence of genre fantasy with that of the real world. They include the Emmy-winning Watchmen miniseries, which used Alan Moore’s superhero saga as a jumping-off point to explore bigotry and civil rights, and such racially charged horror movies as Us and the Oscar-winning Get Out, both directed by Jordan Peele, who is an executive producer on Lovecraft Country.

“The horror of humanity is the real horror, the things that we put people through,” says Mosaku, 34, via Zoom from Atlanta in the US. It’s hard to disagree. The most disturbing thing about His House isn’t the haunted council home assigned to her character, Rial, and her husband, Bol (Sope Dirisu), on their arrival in the UK from South Sudan. It’s what the couple endured before they got there: massacres, institutional brutality and losing their child as they cross the Mediterranean in a rubber dinghy.

Jurnee Smollett alongside Mosaku in the HBO/Sky series Lovecraft Country ALAMY

Meanwhile, the fang-filled, head-chomping bogeymen in the Fifties-set Lovecraft Country are puppy dogs compared with the racist cops, lynch-hungry rednecks and white men burning crosses on the lawn of their black Chicago neighbours.

The fantastical elements of His House have their roots in Rial and Bol’s grief, guilt and trauma. Yet Mosaku thinks that the heightened experience of watching horror, with its jump scares, musical cues and manipulative editing, is “a great vehicle” for conveying those more earthbound emotions. “It helps with empathy,” she says. “The tension, the way one’s heart beats when watching something that’s terrifying.”

In this tricksy new dramatic world we’re often not sure if the monsters are real. The events of His House, Mosaku says, “feel like they could absolutely be in their heads”. In Lovecraft Country three characters wake up the day after a horrific battle with the aforementioned fanged beasts but two of them can no longer remember it. This is a kind of gaslighting, echoing the way that black people’s testimony of mistreatment has been challenged.

Mosaku’s hardest scenes in Lovecraft Country came when her character, Ruby, drinks a potion that temporarily turns her into a white woman. This allows her to experience privilege — suddenly, strangers are deferential and policemen believe what she says. Things take a more lurid turn when she drinks the potion before having sex with a white man (actually a white woman in magical disguise — it’s complicated). At an, erm, crucial juncture, the potion wears off and her pale skin cracks and peels away.

Idris Elba with Mosaku in Luther, one of the British TV shows in which the actress made her name BBC/ALAMY

It’s an upsetting sequence, aesthetically and symbolically. “It brings up lots of crazy thoughts and rage and pain,” Mosaku says. “But I think the reality is that if any of us changed the skin that we lived in, whether it was to be someone who was disabled or Asian or LGBTQ+, the world changes how it reacts to us.

“People are threatened because of my skin [which] is weaponised against me,” Mosaku says. “My stature and the fact that I don’t conform to Western ideas of beauty with my afro and my west African gap [teeth]. I have to overcompensate, to say, ‘That isn’t me. Just because I’m 5ft 9in and black doesn’t mean that I’m threatening.’ I am a happy, joyful person. But I am not allowed to express any kind of frustration or anger, because I get boxed straight back into that thing that they always thought I was.”

Born in Nigeria, she moved with her family to Manchester when she was a year old. Her parents had been professors, but struggled to find similar work in the UK. In the end her mother started her own business and her father returned to Nigeria after the couple split up. Mosaku loved music as a girl, singing for 11 years with the Manchester Girls Choir, and she shows off her gorgeous voice in Lovecraft Country, belting out Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby in a party scene.

She doesn’t speak Yoruba, her parents’ native tongue. “It’s a real shame,” she says, telling a story from her primary school years to explain why. She is dyslexic, but at that point it was undiagnosed. “My teachers saw I was struggling with reading and writing and told my parents that they needed to stop speaking Yoruba in the house, which is crazy, because they would never have done that to a French family.” For His House she learnt Dinka, the dominant language of South Sudan, as well as being tutored in the culture of the region and hearing testimonials from refugees who had made the journey through the Sahara to north Africa and across the Mediterranean.

She was set on studying maths after school until she decided at the 11th hour that she preferred acting. Hearing that another Mancunian, Albert Finney, had gone to Rada, she applied and got in. Soon after graduating she was being directed by Rupert Goold in Rough Crossings at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith, London, and appearing in David Hare’s The Vertical Hour at the Royal Court. “Theatre is my jam,” she says. Every time she and her American husband come to the UK, “We will see a play as soon as we land. We’ll go to the Young Vic with our suitcases straight from the flight.”

After several years of yo-yoing between America and the UK, Lovecraft Country is the first time she has worked in the US for an extended period. It’s not certain whether the show will return for a second season, despite critical plaudits and ratings that compare favourably with other HBO series such as Watchmen and Succession. Either way, Mosaku seems happily ensconced in Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband, who she would rather not name.

There are strong rumours of a role in Loki, the superhero spin-off series in which Tom Hiddleston returns as the trickster god from the Marvel films, alongside Owen Wilson and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Mosaku says, with an evenness that sounds practised. Given that she’s speaking from Atlanta and that’s where they’re filming the show, it would seem a good bet.

Eventually Mosaku says she would like to move behind the camera. “Even some of my favourite films, it might be a black story, but it’s written by a white person and directed by a white person,” she says. That’s the next barrier for people of colour, and it’s starting to come down, thanks to Peele; Misha Green, the creator of Lovecraft Country; Remi Weekes, the director of His House, and the like.

Mosaku talks about the notion of double consciousness, as explored in Toni Morrison’s novels: “The way that the world will box me up before I’ve even had a chance to prove who I am. It’s exhausting. Trying to do things without having to explain or apologise is really refreshing. That’s what I love about Lovecraft and I think His House does it too. We don’t need to explain. Let’s just be.” His House is in cinemas now and on Netflix from October 30. Lovecraft Country is on Sky Atlantic, Now TV, Amazon and Google

#Wunmi Mosaku #Loki #Lovecraft Country #Luther #His House

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deadcactuswalking · 4 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 30/01/2021 (Wellerman, Fredo, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish & ROSALÍA)

I’ve never been more thankful for a song being this big – “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo spends a third week at #1, blocking “WITHOUT YOU” by The Kid LAROI at #2. Thank God. Anyway, we’ve got 10 new arrivals so let’s cut the chit-chat and start REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Rundown

Of course, after this brief rundown we always do. Thankfully, the site actually updated last week, so I can go through this as routinely as possible. For drop-outs, it’s a lot of recent new arrivals falling out either off the debut or a few weeks after – most of them being pretty crap – but we do have some notable drop-outs, like “Forever Young” by Becky Hill, “Plugged In Freestyle” by A92 and Fumez the Engineer, “pov” by Ariana Grande, “Love is a Compass” by Griff, “Tick Tock” by Clean Bandit and Mabel featuring 24kGoldn, “Lasting Lover” by Sigala and James Arthur, and finally, “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran. Now to move onto the chart proper, we do have some movement to discuss. Firstly, we have some fallers, those being “Dynamite” by BTS at #32, “positions” by Ariana Grande at #39, “Lemonade” by Internet Money and Gunna featuring Don Toliver and NAV at #41, “All I Want” by Olivia Rodrigo at #43 off of the return, “SO DONE” by The Kid LAROI at #46, “Best Friend” by Saweetie featuring Doja Cat at #47, “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus at #48, “What You Know Bout Love” by the late Pop Smoke at #51, “Wellerman” by the Longest Johns practically being replaced at #52 (We’ll discuss this more later), “See Nobody” by Wes Nelson and Hardy Caprio at #53, “Notorious” by Bugzy Malone and Chip at #55, “Looking for Me” by Paul Woodford, Diplo and Kareen Lomax at #60, “Bad Boy” by the late Juice WRLD and Young Thug unfortunately purging to #62, “WAP” by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion at #67, “Pinging (6 Figures)” by Central Cee crashing off of the debut to #72 and “Diamonds” by Sam Smith at #74, joining our two returning entries – which are just older songs getting another brief pick-up at the bottom of the charts. Those are “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong and “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper at #75 and #73 respectively, by the way. Oh, and we also have “Martin & Gina” by Polo G at #65, but I honestly can’t see that song going anywhere – and I really like it. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have any gains, however, as finally, we can see some rising hits trying to fill in the cracks, like both of Rudimental’s debuts from last week: “Be the One” with MORGAN, TIKE and Digga D is up to #58, whilst the incredibly worse single “Regardless” with RAYE is cracking into the top 40 at #40. Sigh, well, we do have some more promising gains, like... “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals at #38? “Friday” by Riton, Nightcrawlers and Musafa & Hypeman at #37 off of the debut? Okay, 2021 might end up being pretty rough, huh? Thankfully, we have a plentiful amount of new arrivals to waive any of my fears, so let’s just start with those.

NEW ARRIVALS

#70 – “Overpriced” – M Huncho

Produced by Quincy Tellem

Oh, come on! Okay, so this is M Huncho, UK trao’s answer to the late MF DOOM, except without any of the lyrical complexity, storytelling abilities, genuine wit, charming sampling and production techniques, brilliant discography... he’s pretty much just a guy whose main gimmick is the mask, and it’s on this single cover too, seemingly in a museum. This song in particular is just one of these melodic trap cuts with wavy acoustic guitars blended with synths beyond recognition, topped off with odd bass mastering and a checked-out performance from M Huncho, who spends way too much time on his verses going “doo-doo-doo-doo-doo”, before the beat switches for a verse that fades out after like 20 seconds. What’s the point of any of this, honestly? It’s not awful – the bass does kind of knock – but I really don’t understand why this is here, or why M Huncho is a big name. It’s not even as good as AJ Tracey’s trap bangers and it’s not even as funny as D-Block Europe, which I’m surprised by, considering that he had his own stupid hit with “Pee Pee” around this time last year, and that song was actually good. Also, M Huncho, what do you think your fans get from you dissing them? If you’re going to brag about your “house by the lake” and then rap about how some unnamed individual “still lives at their mum’s in a council estate”, consider that a lot of your audience will still live with their parents in council housing or be surrounded by people who do. Someone who really came from poverty should know that this is classist and disrespectful to your own demographic. Yeah, this is worthless. Why’s this guy still charting? At least Young Adz knows how to write a hook.

#65 – “New Love” – Silk City and Ellie Goulding

Produced by Silk City and Picard Brothers

Okay, so we do have some energy on the chart – or at least half of the credited acts have. Silk City is a duo of producers, those being Diplo, a true weirdo in mainstream EDM who’s honestly kind of fascinating and oftentimes a fluke genius (especially in its work in Major Lazer and Jack U with Skrillex), and Mark Ronson, one of the greatest producers of the 21st century so far, probably most known for “Uptown Funk!”. These guys did have a hit together with Dua Lipa in 2018 in the form of “Electricity”, but it’s been a while and I’m interested to see how they work with the complete non-presence that is Ellie Goulding. It’s with some level of disappointment that I say that she’s not a non-presence here, as this is otherwise a pretty neat house tune with some excellent 90s keys and a deep-house groove I think is pretty fun. The strings in the pre-chorus are great and build-up to a fantastic chorus... or at least the instrumental is fantastic, because Goulding is a waste here, mixed way too high and honestly just faltering her vocals here. She sounds awkward through multi-tracking and even worse without it, as she clearly goes for a rough swagger that cannot work with her light, almost fairy-like voice she’s relied on much of her career. The intricacies of this production are really admirable, but Goulding was clearly an afterthought. With a real diva on vocals, or honestly just a sample of a soul or diva house track, this could be excellent. As it is, I’m bored. Next.

#63 – “Typhoons” – Royal Blood

Produced by Royal Blood

Oh, okay. Well, this is a pleasant surprise. Royal Blood are an English garage rock duo that rock pretty hard, and don’t go for anything else beyond that, which to me is a breath of fresh air, and, yeah, this is good. Is it as good as their debut? Of course not, their biggest hit “Figure it Out” is still incredible, and this one goes for a more synthesized 70s feel, even accentuated by disco keys in the pre-chorus. The riffs are still here though, as that main guitar line is pretty awesome. I see this as a mix of garage rock revival bands from the 2000s like the White Stripes, as well as some stoner-adjacent bands like Queens of the Stone Age, with a more classic hard-rock groove and Mike Kerr’s signature yelp, and it works for what it is, so I’m excited for that upcoming single. Nothing’s particularly impressive here, but I’ll definitely go for this over the rest of what we have charting, so I’m not complaining. This is good, you should check these guys out, even if they tend to be a bit derivative. That tense bridge with the looming background vocals and intensifying riff is genuinely epic, by the way, even if there isn’t much more of a pay-off behind just... the chorus again, which ends up rendering as flat as a result. Regardless, it’s a good break from the norm – which for a chart week like this, I’m especially glad is here.

#61 – “Your Love (9PM)” – ATB, Topic and A75

Produced by ATB, Topic and Rudi Dittmann

German DJ ATB was showing his girlfriend his new recording studio when he got carried away with a single guitar sound and made a song out of it, “9PM (Till I Come)”, named after the time the track was finished. Later on, he took the track and added some whispered vocals from Spanish model Yolanda Riviera. This happened in 1999, by the way, when this song was released to great success in Europe, leading to a hilariously dated album cover but still a UK #1. The song is honestly kind of bad, relying on a pretty typical house groove, ugly MIDI guitars and that seductive vocal loop. Regardless, since 90s nostalgia has come way too fast, Topic has remixed the track with A75, a collaboration we’ve seen before on “Breaking Me” from last year, which sucked. To be fair, the original song is pretty empty, so I’m interested to hear A75 add some vocals... and he just sounds pained over a deep-house rip of the original. The ugly MIDI melody stays, just now it’s drowned out and even more synthesized – this is the guitar sound you liked so much? I hope she left you. Let’s move on.

#59 – “My Head & My Heart” – Ava Max

Produced by Jonas Blue, Earwulf and Cirkut

Speaking of being bored, here’s pop singer Ava Max, with a new lead single from the deluxe edition of her debut studio album, Heaven & Hell. This one’s produced by Jonas Blue, which, alongside a redundant “Jonas Blue remix”, is probably why it’s charting. What’s sad is it’s not really very good, as the vocals are over-processed over fake hand-claps and clipping mixes that make those plastic synths sound even worse. Admittedly, I like the rubbery future bass-esque bass line here, but that’s really as far as my appreciation for this goes, as the writing is non-existent, and Ava Max is barely here. It’s honestly really similar to “New Love”, except this one’s not even as interesting as that track, going for an exhaustingly tired house-pop style that while she is a natural fit for, it does make the 2000s synth-pop she started with sound inspired in comparison. Oh, and the “Jonas Blue remix” is practically a glorified bass-boost that makes this sound even uglier, so, yeah, skip this.

#42 – “Apricots” – Bicep

Produced by Bicep

Bicep is a Northern Irish electronic duo from Belfast, and this is an instrumental from their most recent album, Isles, which clearly must have stood out enough for it to debut at #42. I can understand why too, as that sample from Hugh Tracey’s African music recordings, particularly the vocal sample used, is really infectious and interesting. I don’t think everything surrounding it is enough to really make it less annoying, as it running through nearly the entirety of a four-minute track makes this sample lose its lustre too quickly. It runs its course far before the song has the chance to build up into a house track, with that sample crushing everything that isn’t the percussion in the mix anyway. The keys are really cool, and I can’t fault the strings and ambiance that keeps the song building up for as long as it does. It also takes a sample from a Bulgarian folk choir, which they paralleled to the Celtic folk they grew up hearing, and honestly, this is just a cool blending of global music rather than an actually good song, ending with me respecting this more than actually enjoying it. The synths by the end sound fantastic as does the Bulgarian chanting, but it doesn’t really have a great climax or drop to make the build-up worth it, defaulting to a generic house groove by the end that fades out before it can have any real impact. So, yeah, this isn’t bad, but feels like a waste of some really great ideas. I guess I can say that “Northern Irish remix of an English ethnomusicologist’s recordings of African music that also samples a Bulgarian folk tune” isn’t quite as much of a developed idea as “Kazakh remix of an American rapper of Guyanese descent’s trap song in a Brazilian house style released on a Russian record label”.

#35 – “Lo Vas A Olvidar” – Billie Eilish and ROSALÍA

Produced by FINNEAS

It’s not often that songs in non-English languages chart in the UK. Whilst in the US, Latin music is such a force that it’ll launch hits for many Spanish-speaking artists, this isn’t the case in decidedly smaller Britain, where a still multicultural society tends to produce art that is always in English. To be fair, we don’t have a place like Puerto Rico, and the few songs I’ve talked about this year that have been in a different language... well, basically the one song I can remember off the top of my head, was in a Nigerian Creole language. So, why’s a Spanish song by Spanish artist ROSALÍA charting so high? Well, it’s also a Billie Eilish song, and it’s also from the HBO teen drama Euphoria. Yeah, a teen drama makes a lot of sense for Eilish to soundtrack. This has been teased since 2019, and is actually ROSALÍA’s first song to chart here in the UK, so is it any good? Well, yeah, actually, it is. Both Eilish and ROSALÍA have excellent whispery tones that complement FINNEAS’ muted, ambient production perfectly, and their harmonisation sounds great, with both singing in Spanish here for the most part. That chorus is pretty janky, though, and I don’t really see the point in the Auto-Tuned interludes, even if they both sound great playing off of each other with a lot of tuning in the outro. This is pretty minimal and dare I say awkward, kind of eerie, so I don’t see it sticking around, but as a longing break-up track, they both sell it well. Next.

#28 – “Skin” – Sabrina Carpenter

Produced by Ryan McMahon

Joshua Bassett’s response flopped immensely, meaning that now it’s Sabrina Carpenter’s time to shine, because if it’s anything she gets out of this Disney love triangle, it’s a hit song, and people clearly want to hear more from the women than they do from Josh. Telling. Now I’m not one to follow Disney teen drama because this is all a marketing gimmick. I mean, the songs dropped every Friday so anyone who can’t see through this is either blind or... a child, and considering the audience, that second one is more likely, which is fine. Popular music is, ultimately, in the hands of teenagers and record executives, and all of these break-up response diss track... things, tend to feed into both hands, whilst also giving these talented young actors a bigger break. This is Carpenter’s first charting hit in the UK, after all. The song is decidedly worse than “drivers license” though, and by a lot, as the mixing here isn’t even competent, as Carpenter’s voice clips through these ugly pianos, worsened by how her voice does not sound great here at all, as she struggles through that terrible chorus. She may say that this isn’t a response to Rodrigo, but given the lyrics and how quickly this rushed release was put out, are we really supposed to believe that? The percussion here is gross as well, drowned in bad reverb that makes this just sound grey and dull. The strings building up to a climax are barely there, and when they are, they sound like they’re elevating a really garbage performance from Carpenter, who can barely keep up. This is supposed to be a ballad yet it sounds so stiff and controlled, meaning that Carpenter trying to let loose on the vocals makes this awkward and painful. I’m sorry, but this is really bad, and I hope it doesn’t stick around. Thankfully, I don’t see that happening.

#20 – “Back to Basics” – Fredo

Produced by Dave

Lil Chocolate Frog’s got a new record out this week that I’ve yet to hear, and this is the lead single, produced by his long-time friend and collaborator, Dave – who’s awesome. I’ve typically been less kind to his mate Fredo but honestly, his ever so slightly off-kilter style has grown on me too, and this song is a pretty good introduction to that. It’s one verse over rattling trap hi-hats and a really eerie vocal sample, and Fredo flows casually and smoothly over the beat, in his typical careless, just barely there style, which works well over a pretty subtle beat like this. Fredo’s lyrics are pretty interesting here too, as amidst flexing and gun-play, he has some pretty funny lines, although far from Dave’s wordplay, rather relying on fun one-liners where he says he’s “kind of Christian”, doing revision on drug trafficking, will run for mayor, and because of how much of the gang violence is sadly amongst ethnic minorities, he himself is racially profiling his “opps”. One line near the end of the track actually made me laugh, when he says he counts up twenties while eating porridge. It’s not funny on paper, sure, but the delivery is gold. He shows more character here than he has since “Funky Friday”, also with Dave, so I’m pretty excited to hear this record, which Dave actually executively produced. It’s also got the late Pop Smoke on a track with Young Adz, so at least I’ll let out more of those laughs. This lead single is pretty good though, and I can see it going top 10 next week with the album boost.

#3 – “Wellerman – Sea Shanty” (220 KID x Billen Ted Remix) – Nathan Evans

Produced by Saltwaves, Billen Ted and 220 KID

Last week, the sea shanty “Wellerman” charted as a cover by the Longest Johns. It’s a fine acapella cover, and this version, by Nathan Evans, was originally similarly acapella, except for the tap of a table as percussion to keep time. This version got even more viral on British TikTok, and if I recall correctly, he quit his job to be signed by Polydor, which is pretty scummy on Polydor’s part. I mean, you know this guy won’t have any more hits. Regardless, this version debuted at #3 thanks to a remix by DJs 220 KID and Billen Ted, three English producers. According to their Spotify duo, Billen Ted used to be a death metal band of all things but then transitioned into writing for dance-pop tunes, and have worked with 220 KID, even if this is technically only their second single. This remix is actually pretty cool to be honest, as it takes the original track and adds some needed energy, mostly through this generic 90s house beat and some admittedly really nice pianos. It’s nothing special, and I would usually criticise something this generic, but the song’s not even two minutes and it’s a pretty inoffensive remix that genuinely adds to the original song through that brilliant flip of the original hook melody in the drop, so I can’t complain. This won’t last, but I’m not mad that it’s here.

Conclusion

I’m actually somewhat pleased with this chart week, which I wasn’t expecting initially, as you can probably tell from my above cynicism. Regardless, we’ve got some variety here (though I don’t see much of it sticking) and I’ll give Best of the Week to Royal Blood for “Typhoons”, with a tied Honourable Mention for “Back to Basics” by Fredo, and, God damn it, “Wellerman” by Nathan Evans and remixed by 220 KID and Billen Ted. Shut up, it’s fun! Worst of the Week will probably go to Sabrina Carpenter’s “Skin”, with a Dishonourable Mention for the complete lack of effort that is M Huncho’s “Overpriced”, just being mildly offensive if anything. Here’s our top 10:

For next week, I mean, a girl can hope for some Weezer, but it’s more likely that we’ll be met with a Fredo album bomb and some scattered efforts from that middling Lil Durk deluxe edition. For now though, you can follow me @cactusinthebank for more ramblings and thanks for reading. I’ll see you next week.

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lovelyharrystories · 5 years ago

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Falling is the easy part (single!mom) - Chapter one

AN: I am not from the UK and I vaguely know how the school system works but there may be mistakes in the accuracy of the whole history. Please excuse me for it! And I hope you enjoy!

__________________

Harry walked out of his car and sighed. He’s really here. He hadn’t been inside this building since he left for the X Factor 8 years ago. Hadn’t seen a lot of these people in those 8 years and to be honest he didn’t miss them.

Harry had always kept in touch with his closest friends. Inviting them to see his show or just hanging out if he was in town.

But now he is here, outside his old school building for the yearly class reunion. He had never been to the class reunion because he was always busy. But with a just finished world tour and some time on his hands his friend Jake had literally begged him to show up.

“C’mon mate, don’t you want to know what became of the rest of us?” Jake had asked over the phone two weeks ago.

“I do but I know what became of my friends. I kept in touch with the people I care about.” Harry said.

“I would really like you to come. The reunion is really nice. And free alcohol, who doesn’t like that?”

Harry had rolled his eyes at that comment. Free alcohol, it was like they were still 17/18 years old. But he knew Jake wasn’t about to let this reunion go. So, for his own sake he said, “Okay, I’ll be there.”

Jake was about to protest but then realised his friend had agreed. “Wait? It was that simple? I was expecting to give you a whole speech.”

“Honestly that is why I agreed. Wasn’t about to listen to a hundred reasons you came up with for me to go.” Harry had said and that’s how he is now here.

Jake had just texted him saying he will be there in five minutes so Harry decided to wait for him. He was kind of nervous to walk into the doors of his old school. This may seem weird to people that he can perform for thousands of people without worrying but walking inside his old school is making him sweat.

Maybe he was just nervous about how people are going to react when they see him. When he normally visits Holmes Chapel, he stays at his moms and goes to his friends houses but never really just walks around. He likes staying at his mom’s, the house familiar and always smelling like home.

He hears another car pull up on the parking lot and Harry looks up from his phone. He sees that it is indeed Jake’s car and he walks over to where Jake parked.

“Hey mate, you waited for me?” Jake asked when he walked out.

“I just got here too.” Harry said and he have Jake a hug.

“Great, let’s go have a fun night.” Jake said and leaded the way towards the school’s entrance.

He opened the school doors and Harry immediately notices that the walls have been repainted. They are no longer a dusty grey but are now a clean white with different coloured classroom doors. There were little flags hanging on the ceiling with a banner that said, ‘WELCOME CLASS OF 2010!” He had to hold back an eye roll. He thought of the whole decoration as childish in comparison to the parties he is used to going to.

Jake seemed to notice Harry’s distaste of the decoration and gave his friend a pat on the shoulder. “Cheer up, mate! This is a school reunion, not an Oscar after party.”

Harry gave Jake a warning glare. Jake knew how much Harry hated his fame thrown in his face. He knows he is privileged and gets to do things and go to places most people never get to do/go but that doesn’t mean it gives them the right to judge him for it.

“I was only joking. What is wrong with you?” Jake asked, not understanding why his friend is being so negative towards the whole idea.

“Nothing, just not in the mood to answer questions.” Harry said. It was true, he wasn’t excited to have people come up to him and be interested in him when they never were before he was famous. It has happened to many times to count that people only befriend him for his fame and money.

Jake gave Harry a pat on the back and they arrived at the gym where the whole reunion would take place. When they rounded the corner, he could see a familiar face and he couldn’t help the groan from leaving his lips. Harry’s reaction made Jake laugh.

At the entrance of the gym there was standing Kelly. Kelly was president of the student council, she loved organising events during the school year and always seemed so happy and cheerful to be in school. This was something that used to annoy Harry, she just seemed fake and not to forget she loved to gossip. But, she was also the ‘hottest’ girl in school, being her boyfriend was a privilege. Harry had to say that he did have a moment with her during one of the many events she planned. He was considered a king when he told his friends he had just snogged Kelly around the corner of the school building. They were never an item, Harry didn’t like Kelly and Kelly never seemed to really show interest in Harry either, except for that one night.

“Oh, did I forget to mention that it is Kelly who organises this evening every year.” Jake said with humor in his voice, knowing how much Harry ‘loved’ Kelly.

“Yeah, it did seem to have slipped your mind.” Harry said, trying to find an easy way out of this but it was already too late. Kelly had spotted the two man walking into her direction.

“Jake!” She said with too much enthusiasm.

“Hi, Kelly. How are you?” Jake said and kissed her on both cheeks.

“Oh, you know, busy but very happy.” She said and Harry rolled his eyes, can this woman be any faker?

“And my god Harry, look at you.” She said and wrapped her small arms around him. Harry awkwardly wrapped his arms around her.

“You must be very excited to see everybody back.” Kelly said. Harry forced a fake smile on his face and nodded his head.

“Well, please have a drink and join the rest. I hope you will both have a lovely evening.” Kelly said when she spotted other guests arriving.

When Kelly left it seemed like Harry could breathe again.

“Well as you can see Kelly is still Kelly. She’s now an event planner.” Jake said.

“What a shock.” Harry said sarcastically which made Jake laugh. They had spotted some of his old friends and Harry seemed to relax knowing that they were here too. After greeting everybody, they all started talking about work and their partners. Harry had joined for a while but seemed to lose interest in the conversation fast. He looked around the room and saw different people he remembered vaguely and some he has never seen before.

His eyes were roaming the room when they landed on the back of a girl. She wasn’t as dressed up as most of the woman here with dresses and high heels. No, she was wearing a blouse with flowers on and a skirt, some boots and her hair pulled up in a ponytail. She standing with a group of girls which he remembered to be Kelly’s group, but doesn’t seem to remember her.

Jake had noticed his friend was looking at the woman with confusion clear in his face. He walked towards Harry and said, “You don’t remember YN?”

YN, the name did ring a bell. And it was then that he remembered. You were a friend of Kelly’s but you were always a bit the odd one out of that group. That was not something negative, not at all. Kelly and her friends were always dressed up, make-up, hair done and you just kept it simple and natural. Harry had always thought you were a pretty girl, but he had never really talked to you. You always seemed to be more reserved than the rest.

“Yes, I do now. Just didn’t realise it was her from the back.” Harry said and took another sip from his drink.

“Why don’t you go say hi?” Jake asked and Harry tensed.

“Sure, let me go up to her like ‘Hi, we never talked in school but how are you?’ Yeah, that seems like a good idea.” Harry said.

“Are you scared? Is The Harry Styles scared to go up to a girl?” Jake teased and Harry rolled his eyes at his friend. It wasn’t that he was scared, he really just didn’t know how to start a conversation with you.

Harry saw a group of girls leaving you and Kelly to grab something to eat and Jake saw this as an invitation to introduce you. He almost literally dragged Harry over to you and Kelly.

“Kelly, I just saw that we are out of bears. You want me to help you carry them?” Jake asked. Smooth Harry thought.

“Oh, Hi YN. How are you?” Jake asked and you smiled at him. Harry wondered since when you and Jake knew each other and he felt a little bit jealous. Jake was an amazing flirt and could make almost every girl fall for him with his boyish smile and his charms. Jake may be a bit of a lady’s man but was never disrespectful.

“I am great. How are you?” You asked him and your voice was the sweetest sound Harry had ever heard. It was soft yet not to quiet and you had a small genuine smile on your face.

“Good too, but I am going to help Kelly. But my friend Harry here will keep you company ‘till we are back.” Jake said before running off after Kelly but not before giving Harry a wink.

If it wasn’t for you standing there, he would have yelled ‘Asshole!’ at Jake but he didn’t want to make the situation more awkward than it was.

“Hi Harry, I didn’t know you were coming tonight.” You said now looking at him, the small smile still on your face. Your smile seemed to be contagious because Harry felt his own mouth turn into a smile.

“Yeah, I have some time of and Jake asked me if I wanted to come.” Harry said.

“How are you? I know we never really talked during school, but you made quite the name for yourself. Congratulations by the way.” You said and Harry felt his heart warm at your comment. You didn’t ask him what it was like being famous or who he knew in the business. No, you congratulated him and it felt amazing to have somebody say it so genuinely.

“I am fine. And thank you. I know, I don’t know why we never talked really.” Harry Said.

“Well, I am not really the most social person around so I may be at fault here for that.” You said with a small laugh. Harry smiled wider at your comment.

“Oh well, the past is in the past anyway. How are you actually? What do you do?”

“I am great. I am actually an English teacher here.” You said and it didn’t really surprise Harry. You looked like you would be a good teacher. The type of teacher who tells her subject with passion and enthusiasm.

“Oh wow, that’s great. English always was one of my favorite subjects.” Harry said and he flinched a bit at his poor attempt to flirt with you. Either you didn’t notice this or were just too kind to not mention it, because you didn’t address the comment and started talking about something else.

You talked about your job and some funny stories about what had happened in class before. He talked about his tour and his favorite places in the world. You seemed to be very excited to hear about these places, you told him you would love to travel but just didn’t have the time to do so.

You both had been talking for a while now because all of a sudden Harry felt a hand on his back.

“I am heading home. I’ll see you tomorrow?” Jake asked and Harry looked at his phone to see the time. He must have been talking with you for about two hours now.

“Um, yeah sure.” Harry said still a bit confused at how fast the time went. Jake had noticed his friends state and couldn’t help but smile at it. Jake left with a wink and a typical Jake comment, “Be safe kids!”

“Wow, time all of a sudden went fast didn’t it.” You said and Harry noticed you were about to say goodbye at your tone.

“Yeah, it did. Do you have to leave?” He asked because he saw you didn’t want to say it. You seemed like the type of person who wouldn’t want to be the first one to stop a conversation.

you gave him a guilty smile and said, “I do, I am really sorry but maybe I’ll see you around.” You said.

Harry felt disappointed that he didn’t get to talk to you anymore but he understood. It was now 12pm on a Thursday night, you probably had work tomorrow. Or maybe you just didn’t like his company and finally found a way out of talking to him. He swiftly got rid of that thought because you seemed to genuine to hold a conversation with someone that long that you don’t like.

“I hope so.” Harry said and you gave him a hug goodbye. Harry could feel a funny feeling in his belly when he felt your arms wrap around him.

“See you around.” You said and walked off. You turned around once more to give him a wave and Harry couldn’t help the smile on his face. He waved back and made a promise to himself that he would make sure they saw each other again.

#Harry Styles #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fanfic #Harry Styles Fan Fiction #harry styles one shot #harry styles au memes #harry styles blurb #harry styles imagine #harry styles imagines #harry styles fluff #harry styles blurbs #falling is the easy part #singlemomseries

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covid19updater · 5 years ago

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COVID19 UPDATES 03/27/2020

Livestream of FDNY radio traffic for a taste of the battle being fought: LINK

WRAPPING UP WEEK 2 OF FULLTIME TELEWORK, THIS CAPTURES THE NEW NORMAL:

RUMINT (PA): Hospital INTEL (eastern PA). Currently on 14 day quarantine from work in the ER. Hospitals running out of everything. Don't go outside. Getting bad out there.

US: U.S. coronavirus cases: - New York: 37,738 (385 deaths) - New Jersey: 6,876 (81 deaths) - California: 3,718 (78 deaths) - Michigan: 2,856 (60 deaths) - Washington: 2,580 (132 deaths) - Illinois: 2,538 (26 deaths) - Massachusetts: 2,417 (25 deaths) - Louisiana: 2,305 (83 deaths)

France: BREAKING - A teenager has died from #COVID19 for the first time in France - the 16-year-old patient died in the Paris region, confirmed the French Health Minister.

NYC: NEW: Five hundred more cops called in sick Thursday — leaving NYPD without 11 percent of its officers who patrol the city streets as the coronavirus continues to disrupt staffing in the department, The Post has learned.

Georgia: Georgia's worst-hit hospital fills 3 ICU units with 'critically ill' coronavirus patients. LINK

RUMINT (Massachusetts): Update on my family member. Started showing symptoms on Monday.He took a turn for the worse today started having severe coughing fits and his temp jumped to 103. His wife called the hospital, they assigned her a number when his number is up an ambulance will pick him up. Took about 20 to 30 mins before an ambulance came to get him. His wife is also symptomatic they have been married for just over 60 years. It's a sad day. This is where we are now in MA.You have to wait in line at home before they come and get you. This is going to get so much worse.

Michigan: Michigan 2856 cases 60 deaths

World: With Few Willing to Fly, Airliners Are Transforming Into Cargo Planes LINK

US: Potential impact of idiotic Spring Breakers. LINK

World: Covid-19: Up to 10% of recovered patients test positive later, say Wuhan doctors LINK

RUMINT: Nurse here, boots on the ground checking in: Seeing a lot of patients come in for rule out of course. The sickies who are looking septic and need respiratory support (from NC to high flow to vent) are often young--ive seen 20s-50s. A few have "poop colored" sputum...not rusty, but brown. I've had a truly shitty day as a few on my team (that covers the entire hospital including ER, ICU and COVID unit) arent being as diligent and are putting myself and others at risk. They think I'm being over anxious and micromanaging. Suit yourself...but since 98% of patients whether covid, rule out or not have barking coughs and need oxygen...I'm not taking chances. Its disheartening and I came this close to either flipping out or walking out. And yes, PPE shortage is real as hell and too scary. Our hospital system actually approved a pattern for cloth masks to be sewn. We are encouraged to seek out our own respirators/N95s as the current supply will only go so far and only last so many uses.

Iran: Iranian media reports nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 1,000 sickened by ingesting toxic methanol across the Islamic Republic out of the false belief it kills the new coronavirus - AP

UK: The Government has written to all local authorities in England asking them to house all people sleeping rough,those in hostels and night shelters by the weekend in a bid to protect people during the covid-19 outbreak

Spain: Spain Returns 1st Faulty Batch Test Kits To China As They Failed To Work; Spanish Association Of Microbiologists (Seimc) Warned That The Testing Kits In This Batch Performed With An Accuracy Level Of Under 30%

UK: Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested positive for Covid 19

Spain: SPAIN'S HEALTH EMERGENCY CHIEF SAYS 9,444 HEALTH WORKERS TESTED POSITIVE TO CORONAVIRUS

Italy: HEAD OF ITALY'S NATIONAL HEALTH COUNCIL SAYS ON THE BASIS OF THE DATA IT IS INEVITABLE THAT ITALY'S LOCKDOWN MUST BE EXTENDED BEYOND CURRENT APRIL 3 DATE

Massachusetts: 8 Boston Police Officers have tested positive for Corona Virus. LINK

UK: UK HEALTH SECRETARY HANCOCK TESTS POSITIVE - SELF ISOLATING AT HOME, SYMPTOMS MILD

RUMINT (New York): My cousin is a nurse in New York, she texted me this. I haven’t personally taken care of any covid patients yet thank god but I’m being transferred to a covid unit on Monday which I’m not looking forward to.. more worried about my family than myself, I don’t want to infect anyone when I get home. But what you see on the news is real, lots of people being ventilated, it’s so sad/scary and the hospitals don’t even have enough masks/ protective gear for us it’s so terrible; can’t wait for this to all be over!! New York is truly a mess we pretty much are on lock down.

RUMINT (Mississippi): Good morning! Sipping my coffee getting ready to go to work. Got word last night that due to low census, they are CUTTING nurses in the ER by 4. I cannot tell you how this is going to crush the morale of the already stressed out nurses I work with. I no longer feel guilty about leaving. That place is going to kill people with their incompetence. They cite "budget" reasons. Um, you've already budgeted for the minimal staffing for the year, which is 12 nurses a shift, so that shit doesn't fly with me. One day the people will come back with a vengeance and the nurses will be the one's to suffer, not management. Fuckers. The non-emergent people have heeded the warning to stay away from the ER unless you are having a CVA, MI, Bleeding or have a bone showing. The drop in census is about 50 pts a day which is not that much to me, but the suits think it's significant. That's 2 pts an HOUR. It goes to show the bullshit that usually packs the waiting rooms. Maybe people will realize they can live without running to the ER for stupid stuff that they can treat at home, but I digress. We've had 6 deaths in Mississippi so far. Since we've started testing our cases have steadily gone up. Scary for this sparsely populated state, but I kept telling them it was coming. Nobody seemed to listen or care until it was on their doorstep.

Connecticut: UConn Health doctor arrested after allegedly coughing on medical employees intentionally LINK

NYC: The NYPD has lost their 1st member of their department from the corona virus.

World: Two sailors aboard another aircraft carrier, Japan-based USS Ronald Reagan, have tested positive for Covid-19: U.S. officials The naval base outside Tokyo where Reagan is currently pier-side has now been put on lockdown through the weekend.

Italy: Italy Cases +5959 in last 24 hrs. Deaths +919 in last 24 hrs.

NYC: From listening to the FDNY radio traffic livestream (link at top of today’s post) since 6am this morning, I have personally heard a LOT of calls go out for respiratory distress that have then been upgraded to CPR in progress. Not good.

World: WHO'S TEDROS SAYS A VACCINE IS AT LEAST 12-18 MONTHS AWAY #CoronavirusOutbreak

NY: #NewYork to build eight temporary hospitals to meet an expected surge in #coronavirus patients: @NYGovCuomo

California: California Governor Gavin Newsom: "We project that roughly 56 percent of our population -- 25.5 million people -- will be infected with the virus over an eight-week period."

UK: BREAKING: Birmingham Airport (#UK) confirmed as temporary mortuary site to house 1,500 bodies in #coronavirus pandemic.

US/World: #BREAKING: 4 dead aboard Holland America Zaandam. Ship is currently off the coast of Panama and intends to dock at Port Everglades next week. There are reports from Panama that the Zaandam has been denied crossing the Panama Canal. That could be why it appears to be holding right now.

Michigan: Mental breakdown of crying ICU nurse from Michigan hospital after 13 hour shift. War zone conditions. LINK

Italy: The list of doctors who died for Covid-19 from north to south Italy is growing hour by hour. The total reached 51 deaths, learns from the Federation of doctors' orders.

China: China Shuts Down All Cinemas, Again

NYC: More than 500 members of the NYPD have now contracted the coronavirus, a spokesman said.- 486 uniformed officers - 71 civilians employees. The number of cops out sick was not immediately known.

NYC: DELIVERY TRUCKS REFUSING TO ENTER NEW YORK CITY ON CORONAVIRUS FEARS: MSNBC

New Jersey: Lakewood Police, where the most #coronavirus cases are in Ocean County, break up another wedding, @OCPONJ files charge as state & @NewJerseyOAG get serious about large gatherings.

Texas: Woman describes sister’s battle with COVID19. LINK

Texas: 36% of hospitalized patients require admission to the ICU, Dallas County officials say

California: It’s incredible and eerie at the same time. A MASH unit being set up by the Air @CalGuard; at the Santa Clara Convention Center. This is for the expected surge of #COVID19 next week. 250 beds for those discharged by hospital but still ordered to isolate. LINK

France: LATEST DEATH TOLL IN FRANCE FROM CORONAVIRUS STANDS AT 1,995 DEATHS (VS 1,696) - PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIAL

World: Holland America says 53 guests and 85 crew have flue like symptoms on the Zaandam.There are 4 doctors and 4 nurses onboard. The 4 guests who passed away were older, the cruise line says. The cruise left Buenos Aires on March 7th. No one has been off the ship since March 14th.

Ohio: Citing @ClevelandClinic, @GovMikeDeWine says pandemic will "kick in much harder" in about 2 weeks, & peak may not come until mid-May. State will likely have to triple its hospital capacity.

RUMINT (Rhode Island): Some backwoods intel that the National Guard is on the RI-CT border on RT 95 stopping cars from NY and NJ from entering RI

NYC: NBC News: Right now the FDNY has approximately 170 calls holding, which means that if you don't have a serious medical issue you may be waiting awhile for an ambulance.

Turkey: BREAKING - Turkey’s President is about to give a national address about #COVID19 following two rapid acceleration days taking the coronavirus case count past 5,000. Rumors of a shutdown.

California: #BREAKING: In less than a week, LA County has more than tripled in its number of confirmed cases, according to Los Angeles County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer.

Ohio: (@GovMikeDeWine) If you don't believe that we could see 10,000 new cases a day -- We've tried to describe what the science tells us. Hospitals looking at the modeling and say that this is coming. It's here.The evidence indicates that cases will double every six days. This is a train that is moving. It starts slowly, but it will start moving faster and faster and faster.

NY: COMMANDING GENERAL OF U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS SAYS PLANS ON HAVING 2,900 ROOMS READY FOR NON-CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS IN JAVITS CENTER NEW YORK BY MONDAY

World: Coronavirus damages the heart after attacking the lungs, new study reveals LINK

California: "It's difficult for me to imagine that it won't happen here," says @MayorOfLA Eric Garcetti who predicts we're six to 12 days behind NYC in terms of #COVID19 cases. @KNX1070

South Carolina: SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES THAT ANYONE ENTERING THE STATE FROM NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, CONNECTICUT AND NEW ORLEANS WILL BE QUARANTINED FOR 14 DAYS - WMBF

Massachusetts: Boston to open a First a Responders only Covid-19 testing site at Suffolk Downs. LINK

China: Fighting erupts at Chinese bridge between Hubei, Jiangxi provinces. LINK

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child-of-diaspora · 5 years ago

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Feels Like Summer

I was asked to record a DJ mix of summery Drum & Bass months ago. I’ve only just got around to putting it together even though UK summer is almost over. After finishing recording I decided to dedicate it to my grandad. It’s the first one I’ve done since his passing. It’s also the first time I've done one using my new DJ mixer. I purchased it during the period my grandad was in and out of hospital due to the cancer progressing.

Before he was diagnosed I’d lost a lot of my passion for DJing. It wasn't until the awful news that I rediscovered it again. I forgot how mindful it can be when you step up to a pair of turntables and tune out the rest of the world. While mixing music all you need to think about is how the next mix is going to sound and what record to play after that.

With my new found interest in DJing I wanted to buy a new mixer. It’d been over 10 years since I’d changed my equipment. My previous mixer was an Allen & Heath Xone 62. An amazing bit of kit which served me well, but a little outdated due to technology moving on. I ended up purchasing the Rane 72. Symbolically the purchase meant a lot to me.

What’s funny is even though my grandad disliked my music he always helped facilitate my DJ setup in the tiny box bedroom I lived in my Mum’s council house. He once went as far to build me a custom wardrobe so I could fit a DJ stand for my equipment. That’s the type of guy he was. Always willing to help someone.

It’s coming up to a year since he passed. The theme of this mix fits with how I feel currently. Last summer, despite seeing some of the best weather the UK has had in recent years, I was going through one of the hardest things I’ve experienced in my life. This summer I'm in a better place mentally and have spent more time enjoying it with family (I have a nephew now, he’s a little dude!) and friends. My partner and I even have a holiday planned in a couple of weeks.

Whilst I’m here reflecting on this I’d like to take some time to thank everyone for helping me get through this past year or so. To my friends, even if you feel you’ve not done anything to help, just been available for company has. My brother and his partner, you two are amazing and remind me what it’s like to have close family rather than the dysfunctional one we have. I’d also like to give a special thank you to my partner. I know none of this has been easy on you, but you managed to put my feelings first and provide the emotional support I needed to help me heal.

Anyway. Enough of the sappy stuff. Hope you enjoy the mix.

Tracklist

01. Missing - Chasing The Dragon 02. Dkay & DJ Lee - Interlinked 03. FearBace - Stillness 04. T.R.A.C. - The Making Of (feat. Atlantic Connection) 05. Seba - My Love 06. Need For Mirrors - Strings & Things 07. Siege MC & Hiraeth - Overdue 08. Kaos - Chopped Up 09. Danny Wheeler - On Love 10. Satl - Let Me Be The One (Alibi Remix) 11. Villem, Mcleod & Heidi Vogel - The Sea (BCee Remix) 12. DRS & Skeptical - Forget All This 13. Velocity & MC Fats - Hide & Seek 14. Surreal - Checkmate 15. Dawn Wall - Rain God 16. Carlito & Addiction - Spinner 17. Mr Joseph - Untouchable Funk 18. Hugh Hardie - Negomi 19. Mutated Forms - Avoid & Ignore 20. Technimatic - Let It Fall 21. Nausika - Dominion VIP 22. Champion Sound - Bridges 23. Chase & Status - Bubble (feat. New Kidz) 24. Stunna - Roots 25. Furney - Shakka 26. Madcap - Chant 27. Break - Conversations (feat. Cleveland Watkiss & MC Fats) 28. Bungle - Northern Dub 29. Childish Gambino - Feels Like Summer (McLeod's Bootleg) 30. A.K.A & Greekboy - Something Like This 31. Re-Adjust - Backflash 32. Fracture - Give Me Love (feat. Fox) 33. The Untouchables - Bad Hats 34. Simplification - Analogy 35. L-Side - Mistadobalina (D&B Re-Edit) 36. Sl8r & Rms - Ruff Neck Cru 37. Visuals - One A Day 38. Kings Of The Rollers - Round Here (feat. Redders) 39. Unglued - Born In '94 (feat. MC Conrad) 40. Clipz - Down 4 41. Nectax - Paradox 42. Polaris - Receiver 43. I Wannabe - Phormula Acid 44. Spirit - Interval

#music #cancer #drum & bass #summer

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peckhampeculiar · 7 years ago

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Brilliant Benny

Benedict O’Looney has had a profound impact on Peckham by painstakingly restoring some of its most treasured buildings. The work has taken him on many amazing adventures, including posing as a nightclubber to climb the Jones & Higgins clock tower

Words: Luke G Williams; Photo: Orlando Gili

Architect, historian and former punk musician Benedict O’Looney (Benny to his friends) is something of a Peckham legend.

I caught up with him one Friday afternoon recently for an interview with a difference, as he took me on a tour of some of the local projects he has been involved in since establishing his eponymous architecture firm in 2004.

From his work on Peckham Rye Station and the Jones & Higgins clock tower to Choumert Grove mosque, Khan’s Bargain and many sites in between, few have done as much to ensure that Peckham’s architecture retains a link to its rich and fascinating past as he has.

Oozing passion, bonhomie and schoolboyish enthusiasm throughout our two-hour meeting, Benny arrives on his somewhat rickety bicycle, clutching a set of keys that allow entry into some of the previously hidden and forgotten areas of Peckham Rye Station which he has helped liberate and transform.

“I’ll have lived here in Peckham for 20 years in September,” he tells me as he parks his bike at the foot of a magnificent staircase in the station that he’s restoring and sweeps up grandly to the old waiting room on the second floor.

“The story begins here,” he says. “One of the contributions I’ve made to the area has been to try and open up this building. It was massively bricked up in the 1960s at the time of the Beeching cuts and the nadir of interest in Victorian architecture.”

The iron and stone staircase, which is located in the station’s south wing, was completely hidden from view, along with the enormous old waiting room where we’re now standing, which today is visible through the green door on platform three.

The stairs now link directly to the waiting room thanks to a new connecting staircase on the first floor, meaning the vast space can finally be accessed without having to go through the station itself. The waiting room floor has also been repaired.

“We managed to connect the building with quite an important Victorian architect called Charles Henry Driver,” Benny explains. “That gave an extra nudge to English Heritage to list it.

“The project started with seed money from Southwark Council and then an excellent pledge from the Railway Heritage Trust. Then Network Rail thankfully came in with the greatest share.”

Benny’s philosophy is simple and stems from a steadfast belief in the power of art, architecture and history to coexist and complement each other for the public good. “I define myself by the work I do, by the architecture,” he explains emphatically.

“We’re trying to learn from the past and be inspired it. The driver for me is to work on arty buildings and to bring art into everyday life. Life needs to be joyous and architecture is such a great medium for doing joyous. That’s what turns me on massively.”

Much of Benny’s work can be defined as “conservation architecture”. “The regular approach to conservation architecture is that you make it clear where the new and the old are,” he says. “[At Peckham Rye Station] we wanted – from a tactile perspective – to keep things the same.

“Our work here is much inspired by a fantastic Italian architect called Carlo Scarpa, who is well known for his exquisite interventions into ancient renaissance palazzos. He was a Venetian architect, working in Venice and Verona. The Castelvecchio was one of his great projects.”

In addition to the staircase and waiting room, 23 windows and doors in the station building have been mended and the long-forgotten Art Deco toilets located in the north wing (which will soon be occupied by new restaurant the Coal Rooms) have been magnificently restored.

Although Benny is clearly a major driving force in these projects, he is modest and unassuming enough to emphasise the collaborative and community aspects of the work that he does.

Indeed, throughout our interview he regularly reels off long lists of names and organisations – including the Peckham Society and Peckham Vision – who he collaborates with closely, and frequently tips his hat to his “chums” and the “local folk” who he works alongside.

“One of my favourite things about doing architecture in Peckham is getting to know the local crew,” he emphasises. “The stair [at Peckham Rye Station] has been made by Tara, a well-known local steel fabricator.

“It’s co-designed with a wonderful engineer called Structure Workshop from Walworth, so happily this job has seen a lot of local action. It’s not quite finished yet but it’s based around the idea of telling the story and the narrative as much as possible of this old building.”

As well as helping shape the local landscape of Peckham, Benny has become part of the fabric of the area himself over the last two decades, although his journey to south London has taken in a few fascinating twists and turns along the way.

Born in 1965 in Fulham to a “generous, gentle, sometime English teacher” father and an “art historian” mother, Benny moved to Brighton aged six after his mum went to work at the Brighton museum.

“Then came quite a dramatic change,” he says. “We went to live in a big provincial city in the United States called Wilmington in Delaware. My stepfather was the curator of the local art museum, while my mum worked for the Philadelphia museum decorative arts department.

“I was pretty hopeless at being an American kid – I was singularly unable to play football and baseball. I found my identity after about four years as a punk rocker in the late 70s. At that point I was old enough to move up to New York City where my [biological] father had thankfully moved – back to where he was born.

“I used to work in a punk clothing shop on Saturday mornings and go and see some amazing music and have corrals with my punk chums who were typically pretty smart New York City middle class kids, whose parents were artists – quite a cool crew. At this point I thought, ‘Oh my God, my life is going to be music’ – which it totally was for quite some time.”

However, while studying at Hunter College on the promptings of his stepfather (who “was like, come on, get your act together”), Benny had an epiphany.

“The key threshold, if you were to point to one thing, was that Hunter had a good grad programme where they would take the sophomores and the juniors to Rome for a month with a very dashing art history teacher and a drawing teacher. They would take us to these various sites, tell us about them and then we’d spend the afternoon drawing.

“I thought, ‘Wow, this is fun, how about this?’ I used to go pounding around the streets of Rome looking at amazing things and sketching them. At that point the focus moved from music to architecture. On my return I started drawing New York City with vigour. I had also [by then] realised how hard it was going to be to be a jazz bass player in New York City.

“I didn’t get into architecture school the first time I wanted to go, but then I reapplied two years later with a great stack of townscape drawings typically done from the rooftops of skyscrapers in midtown.

“I used to deliver packages for this architecture firm and I found that all of the old super skyscrapers you could get to the roof of. I spent one particular summer doing panoramas from up there and put together a fairly powerful portfolio which got me into Yale and Harvard. I went to Yale because there was a good art school there and I had a great time.”

Since graduating from Yale in 1992 and returning to the UK, Benny has lectured and taught widely. He worked for Grimshaw Architects and Alsop Architects before setting up his own practice, which operates from the ground floor of his Peckham home and works on new builds as well as conservation architecture.

“Some mates of mine were moving to Peckham and it was cheap,” he says when I ask why he moved here. “It was the last part of town where you could get a terraced three-bedroom house for 80 grand or something like that.

“Now, of course, we have all these transport links. We didn’t then, but if you cycle – and I’m nuts about cycling – that doesn’t matter. That’s probably also why the houses were cheaper here.

“My father died and left me enough money for a deposit on a house so I bought a house in the north part of Peckham and thought, ‘OK, I’m going to live here for a spell, let’s get to know the local folk.’ So I joined the Peckham Society and met some really interesting people, people who transformed my life in all sorts of different ways.”

One of the Peckham Society’s great achievements in recent years has been the establishment of a conservation area, which incorporates Peckham High Street, Rye Lane and Peckham Hill Street.

“The only way to protect these buildings was to create a conservation area,” Benny says. “We had a long campaign of about seven years and we finally got there. The idea is to celebrate the local scene and try to make some sense of it to ensure that modern Peckham still retains some of its best historic buildings.

“We all have different skills that we can bring. As an enthusiast for architecture, that was something I could bring to the local crew and share with friends and wider folk. That has metamorphosed into these little projects around here.

“One of the wonderful things in our shared life in south London is the way that you can have a career and fashion a life within a framework of initially voluntary stuff – so now I run a busy but small practice in the north part of Peckham.

“All of the work we’ve got you could argue stemmed from working here on the railway station, because it helped me get to know the locals and the local politicians. I’ve got a lot to thank my comrades in the Peckham Society for.

“I’ve enjoyed it of course. The work that we are trying to do is all about celebrating what’s already here basically, and to make sure that all of this hype about Peckham, which is great, doesn’t involve the loss of our local history. We keep moving on with our research – there’s always more to learn and more stories to tell.”

Other projects Benny has been involved in include the completion of the Choumert Grove mosque, which was built in the 1990s and left unfinished for a decade. He created a new barrel-vaulted prayer hall on the roof and completed the unfinished minarets.

Among his many ongoing schemes is his work at Khan’s Bargain, a Rye Lane institution run by Akbar Khan and his family. It occupies a building that previously housed another great Peckham department store – Holdron’s.

Benny and Akbar have taken down the false ceiling to reveal an enormous curved Art Deco roof above, complete with 1,000 painstakingly restored glass lenses that have allowed light to come flooding into the shop for the first time in years.

“Through Peckham Vision I got to know Akbar,” Benny explains. “We saw some old drawings that showed there was an amazing Art Deco roof there, so we said, ‘Come on Akbar – we’ve got to see this roof!’

“We had seen some photographs of what it was like back in the 1930s. It’s the pièce de résistance – it’s amazing. We got on a big ladder, removed some tiles and were like, ‘Woah!’ One of the things we keep finding wherever we go is that the history of Peckham’s buildings is still here – it’s just been covered up.”

Another iconic project, completed in 2015, saw Benny and his colleagues restore the clock tower at the old Jones & Higgins department store building at 1 Rye Lane. The timepiece began proclaiming the hours and minutes again for the first time in 35 years.

The project saw Benny display admirable determination to sneak up to the clock tower during a secret recce when the building was occupied by Ezekiel nightclub. It’s an anecdote that aptly summarises his commitment to unveiling and restoring Peckham’s historic past.

“I posed as a nightclubber,” he laughs. “I noticed it was free to get in before 11 o’clock. I was in the basement with this pounding music, slipped by [the bouncers] and went up the central staircase to find it strewn with rubbish bags. Eventually I got to the top – I was determined to see if the clock was still in there.

“All these pigeons dived on me – I found my way up to the loft and didn’t find a clock but the hands were still there. It was an essential recce to get that project going. All of this stuff involves getting covered in dust basically.”

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norafinds · 8 years ago

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ATWWV - Laila Shalimar

Third post of the Around The World With Vintage and I cannot be more excited for you to read this. Today I would like to introduce you to the Australian-Pakistani pin up Midcentury Mermaid aka Laila Shalimar. I was really excited when I discovered Laila as she is definitely the perfect person to feature on this series. I started this series because I wanted to talk to vintage wearers about culture, nationalities, and identities. Laila has the most fascinating stories growing up in Pakistan and moving to Australia at 16. I thought it would great for me (and you) to learn about Pakistan and its history. I asked her about the Westernised Pakistan that I've seen in vintage photographs as well as her views on being a Desi woman and a pin up girl.

Hi Laila, tell us a little bit about you!

My name is Laila Shalimar. I am a twenty something tattooed pinup of colour from Western Australia. When I am not working one of my two reception jobs, you can find me in the library of Edith Cowan University where I am a student of Criminology and Counter Terrorism. I am passionate about writing and the art of storytelling. Being able to speak 2 languages other than English, linguistics have always been a source of comfort for me. The written word has been a source of solace during some of the most isolating and vulnerable moments of my life and I am grateful to be able to share my experiences with others through the power of writing. I have had some of my pieces published by magazines such as Adore Pinup Magazine, Retro Vintage Review, Damsel Magazine, Dircksey and I hope to continue writing for as long as my mind will let me tell stories.

What is your racial and cultural background?

Because I don’t have an Anglo Australian accent, I often get people asking me where I am “really from”. This is usually after a long and embarrassing guessing game where every country but Pakistan is thrown in as a possibility. I dread these kind of interactions because it makes me feel like my accent, name and appearance prevents me from being considered “Aussie” and also because I never know how people will react to my “identity story”. For one thing, I never know whether they are asking about my ethnicity/race or where I have lived before I moved to Australia. First and foremost, I consider myself a Desi Australian. I was born in Peshawar, Pakistan to a Muslim Pashtun father and a mother of mixed Indo European ancestry. I grew up between Karachi, Islamabad, and Peshawar. I have also lived in the UK and briefly in some parts of Europe. Because I went to an English Grammar school for most my life and was practically raised on American cable, I have a very American sounding accent. I moved to Australia with my family in 2013 and have lived here ever since. Because I was sixteen at the time, I never managed to pick up an Australian accent.

People make the mistake of assuming that “Pakistani” is a racial or ethnic identity when it is merely a nationality. Pakistan is a small country that only came into existence in 1947. Prior to that it was part of the Indian subcontinent and fell under the British Raj. My father’s generation was the first generation to be born in Pakistan. My grandparents were born in British India as it was called. Pakistan hosts a multitude of races and ethnicities much like Australia does and many of us refer to ourselves as Desi or “of the motherland/subcontinent”. I like to think of myself as a Desi Australian because I have a very mixed ethnic background, most of which can be traced to the Indian subcontinent. I value all these beautiful aspects of my ethnicity and often wonder what stories lie hidden in my genes. In my appearance I see a kaleidoscope- as time progresses and my features change, I cannot help but wonder about the ancestors in the obscured and missing branches of my family tree.

First prime minister and first lady of Pakistan during their US visit. The two have been credited for the Pakistan Movement that gained the country its independence. Photo by unknown, provided by US Department of State as part of the album "Visit of his Excellency Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, to the United States of America, May 3 to May 26, 1950." (Missouri Digital Heritage) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Tell us about your family and your childhood

My mother was 25 when she had me. She had only been married to my father for a year and they lived in a teeny tiny little studio apartment in Peshawar in a “not so desirable” part of town. My mother said she spent a lot of her pregnancy reading and eating tropical fruits. The day I made my entry into the world, she had been reading Valley of the Dolls and eating pomegranates and rock melon. It was a scorching 39 degrees and they had no air conditioning in their apartment. I was born on the 12th of June 1987, in the middle of a heatwave, in a small maternity home at 3pm in the afternoon. My parents did not know they were expecting a daughter and in a society that valued a male heir so strongly, my birth went largely unnoticed outside my immediate family. I was given an old Persian name that I wish I could share with your readership because it has the most delicate sound when pronounced correctly. I was raised in a household full of books, laughter, kitchen table science experiments and the concept of a Ubiquitous but loving God who didn’t care whether I prayed to him in the customary Arabic or my mother tongue of Pashto. I was raised to ask questions and my parent’s ensured they always answered truthfully and to the best of their knowledge.

I was soon joined by two siblings, a brother and a sister and we lived a pretty happy and carefree life amidst the political turmoil of Pakistan’s 90s. I grew up worshipping The Spice Girls, swooning over Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys, having slumber parties with my schoolmates where we watched movies like Clueless and Never been kissed over and over while painting our toenails bright blue. Summer vacations were spent finding inventive ways to stay cool during ”load-shedding” (where an entire suburb loses power for a week at a time), trips to the British Council Library in Islamabad to borrow books like Matilda and the BFG, eating gola ghanda (local shaved ices) with the other neighbourhood kids and going on long road trips to see our grandparents in Peshawar. And in the background of my childhood and early teens governments were sworn in, governments were kicked out. Each party made promises it would not or could not keep before being replaced in some kind of political ousting. Sometimes there would be Union strikes that would result in school being called off for a few days and we would grow bored and restless indoors waiting to get back to our schoolyard and our friends. Pakistan in the 90s was the best bits of the west and the east tossed together like Chaat Masala on fries, coca cola with Naan Kebab, and Friday prayers after the Power Puff Girls marathon. Had I known what was to follow in the years to come, I would have committed more to memory.

I feel like my life can neatly be divided into two parts: pre and post 9/11. The collapse of the Twin Towers on September 11th and the so called “War on Terror” that followed had a major impact on the world I lived in. While Pakistan has by no means known peace and tranquility in its short existence thanks to our politicians, our military and our religious right, this time the instability was coming from politicians in an office more than 12,000 KM away from us. In war, they say, it is children that become the first casualties of damage physical and spiritual. The thing that will haunt me for the rest of my life are the tired eyes of small Afghan children attempting to sleep in strange doorsteps on freezing winter mornings. It was October when they first started piling into Peshawar, children no older than 5 or 6 unaccompanied by parents in the back of trucks huddling together like chickens roosting. The local hospitals were full of children with injuries from shellings, shrapnel embedded in limbs that often needed amputation, sometimes with very little anaesthetic. Often times the littlest ones would perish due to chest infections left unattended. Our country did not have the finances nor the infrastructure to take on the sheer volume of refugees that were making their way across the Khyber Pass once more. Aid arrived from the UN at a snail’s pace and the US happily wrote off these people as “collateral damage” forgetting that they were the children and family of the men and women who fought the Russians for them in the 80s.

My mother and grandmothers helped where they could by organising “khairaat” (charity food) but there was never enough food to stave off hunger just as there would never be enough comfort for children displaced in the middle of the night. I remember hearing a doctor ask an Afghan boy of maybe six what he wanted to be when he grew up in an attempt to distract him from the tetanus shot he was about to receive. The boy with big fat tears rolling down his cheek replied that he wanted to be “a grown up” and look after his mother who was still “back home”. Things like these hurt to think about even a decade later. I was 15 then but when I look back I feel as if I was watching the world with old eyes. I feel younger now than I did then somehow. Perhaps it is because I am now watching the same things happen from far away, on a television set that I have the luxury to switch off. Some nights I think about that boy and his mother, and other children I saw on my way to my grandmother’s house or our in Baara Market. I can switch off the Tv but the human mind refuses to co operate in the same way.

How did your family decide to move to Australia? How was the experience like for all of you?

Shortly after my 15th birthday I fell into a deep and unshakeable depression. It manifested itself in very violent and angry behaviour. I got into numerous physical fights, refused to hand in assignments and spent most of my time in the school library reading instead of attending classes. I remember thinking of the futility of education when it was likely that we would all end up dead at the flick of a button. What was the point of calculus, social studies and human biology in the event of an all out World War like they kept talking about on TV when I went home every evening sulking, writing terribly morose journal entries in my diary and crying myself to sleep. I could not eat because of constant anxiety and made several attempts to end my own life when it got out of hand. My parent’s sensed that the environment I was in was causing me great distress. They were also extremely worried about the political circumstances in Pakistan and what it meant for my father’s job and our futures. My parents had applied for American, Canadian, Dutch and Australian visas. The interview processes were often followed by months of silence and then rejection letters. In January 2003, I was 6 months shy of my 16th birthday, due to sit my O level exams and had completely stopped attending school altogether. My parents were frantic. What future was there for a woman in Pakistan especially if she didn’t even have a basic high school graduation? They tried over and over to talk to me about my poor performance at school and my lacklustre behaviour at home but to no avail. I was not living, merely surviving day to day, waiting for something to drop on my house or hurt someone I loved. It was an awful time for me.

On the 11th of March 2004 at 2pm in the afternoon, I was at home with my father who was reading a newspaper in the living room. I remember every detail of this day because that was the day the mailman brought the one envelope that changed the rest of my life. I cannot remember if it was from the Australian Embassy or whether it was from my father’s colleague who had ties to the embassy but I remember him opening the envelope, reading its contents several times before looking like he was going to throw up. “As of tomorrow” he said “I want you to start considering options for your future. Australia is a very competitive country with very intelligent people and you’re going to need to be on top of your class to go to their Universities”. That was it. We were moving to Australia. My family had been granted a 5 year multiple visa and with it came the option of residency and citizenship. The only catch was that we had to be in Australia by the 5th of May. We had little under 2 months to move across continents and start a new life.

With a suitcase and a backpack each, we said our final goodbyes to family and relatives at Peshawar Airport. One of my father’s work colleagues accompanied us to the terminal gates. They had been friends since college. I heard from my mother several years later that he had been assassinated. Rumour was that someone from a rival political party had decided to take a hit out on him to ensure a district election win. The more I think about things like this, the more I take comfort in the workings of Australia’s political and legal system. It is by no means perfect but the safety it offers those of us who are lucky enough to yield it is comforting.

Does your love of vintage stem from your cultural background?

There is a Pashtun saying that our home comes alive in our stories. That is to say our histories and therefore our cultural identity provides us with a sense of belonging or home and this really resonates with me. My family moved to Australia on such short notice, with such little time on our hands that there was never any closure. We barely brought anything with us to the new country to remember it by. I never got to say goodbye properly to my life, my family or friends. I was under the impression that our move was temporary and that I would one day return to my life as I left it. Nearly 14 years have passed and I have not visited “home”. I have lost grandparents, schoolmates, and relatives. Shops, restaurants and parks I went to as a child have been reduced to rubble or ruin. People have moved on. The Pakistan I felt safe in, the Pakistan I grew up in is like a little figurine in a snow globe, a place frozen in time, in a little bubble of reminiscence. There is no reclaiming it nor will I be able to return to those carefree and happy times.

We have seen numerous articles about how Westernised Pakistan was before the 1980s. Is there a lot of vintage now in Pakistan? Do people hold on to those memorabilia or were they destroyed?

One of my favourite pieces of furniture back home was a chest of drawers that my mother had as a teenager in the 1970s. The drawers were part of an old deco set that my maternal grandparents were given as a wedding gift. In the topmost drawer, underneath some very “groovy” 60s lining paper was a little peace symbol, “Janis Joplin forever” and my mother’s initials. When I inherited the bedroom set at 13, my mother showed me this little bit of graffiti and said “When I was a teenager, i wrote this in the drawer to piss your grandmother off”. I was equal parts mesmerised and weirded out. My mother was once a teenager who liked scribbling on furniture to make her mother angry. When I recounted this story in my year 12 drama class, my classmates attempted to discredit me. In their minds it was impossible to believe that a teenager that lived in 1970s Pakistan had ever heard of Janis Joplin. The Pakistan they had heard of in pre social media 2003 was the one overrun by the Taliban and women in blue burqas. It was hard for them to comprehend the Pakistan my parents grew up in.

My father fondly recounts stories of his American Hippie friends whom he met in Peshawar restaurants en route to Kabul. They had been traveling from India and wanted to visit the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan. Pakistan was an important destination on what was called the "hippie trail" – an overland route taken by young western backpackers between 1967 and 1979 that ran from Turkey, across Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, usually ending in Nepal. Numerous low-budget hotels and a thriving tourist industry sprang up (in Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi) to accommodate these travellers. The hippie trail began eroding after the 1977 military coup in Pakistan, the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and the beginning of the Afghan civil war (in 1979).

My father delighted in telling me stories of discos and cinemas in Kabul and how he and his cousins would go on weekend trips to buy the latest in American style fashion from the markets there. I have seen photos of my mum in smart embroidered Kaftans wearing ridiculously wide bell bottom trousers topped off with big round sunnies. Like many teenage Pakistani girls of her time, my mother’s fashion choices were influenced by the 1974 box-office hit Miss Hippie. A cautionary tale of sorts, the film depicted the "effect hippie lifestyle and fashion were having on Pakistani youth" but ironically this movie seemed to draw more and more youngsters into the hippie fashion scene. When my parents and my relatives talk on skype its not long before the conversation turns to “the good ol days in Pakistan” and if I had not seen the photos with my own eyes I too would have thought they were lying to me. Live music, great food, lots of booze and dancing were the hallmarks of the scene in cities like Karachi and Lahore. Sadly, a lot of the amazing venues and attractions they spoke so lovingly about were closed down by Military Dictator Zia Ul Haq’s government in April 1977.

[Hippie trail into Aghanistan] - By Karte: NordNordWest, Lizenz: Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, Link

Is there any Pakistani vintage piece that you covet?

There are 3 pieces that I hold very dear to me that I managed to bring with me from Pakistan. The first is a pair of gold earrings my grandmother wore at one of her wedding events in the 50s. My mother wore the very same earrings to her engagement party in 1985 and I wore them as part of my day wear for Miss Pinup Australia 2016. The second is a pair of italian leather shoes my grandmother pestered my grandfather to buy her from Bata Shoes in the late 60s. The number of times they have been cobbled and resoled is incredible! I still wear them in photo shoots from time to time. The last and most important piece to me is my grandmothers rosary. My grandfather had bought her the rosary when he went to Mecca to pay pilgrimage in the early 60s. They are made of a strange kind of early plastic that glows in the dark. My grandmother would constantly be clicking the beads of the rosary, passing each through her nimble calloused fingers, reading short passages from the Quraan. She was hardly ever seen without them. The last time I saw her, she was sitting in front of an old gas heater all misty eyed with her rosary in her hand. When I sat next to her tying my shoelaces, she looked at me and said “i want you to borrow this rosary from me for now but remember to bring it back with you from Australia”. My grandmother passed away two years ago. The rosary has been on my night stand for 14 years, i never got a chance to return it to her.

Are there many Desi women in the vintage scene?

I think there have always been a number of us interested in vintage in some form of the other but the problem has always been exposure to our history and one another. With the advent of social media platforms such as instagram and facebook, we have started becoming more visible. It has become easy to find treasure troves of images, articles and videos from the bygone days showcasing our unique cultures. I know of several vintage loving Desi women that I met on autonomous Women of Colour spaces but wouldn’t have otherwise met because they are self conscious of how they look in vintage. The fact that the presentation of vintage culture and pin up culture is so euro and anglocentric makes a lot of pinups of colour, particularly darker skinned and more ethnic looking pinups feel too self conscious to put themselves out on social media. They often feel like they are “doing it wrong”. Our features and even our vintage ethnic fashion don’t readily fall into the already pre ordained and celebrated vintage or pinup look. An example of this is how coveted pale and almost snowy white skin is in the vintage community. Darker skinned Desi women are already maligned in their own communities for their complexions, and yet are indirectly made to feel unwanted and unattractive in their beloved subculture as well. It is harder for Desi pinups to gain visibility and popularity on social media because history has never placed us in a position to be thought about or considered desirable or conventionally attractive.

Do you find it difficult to be a Desi woman in the pin up industry? Do you think people are surprised that Desi women can and want to be sexy?

I remember when I raised the issue of the lack of diversity in Pinup and vintage publications in Adore Pinup Magazine last year. There was a slough of accusations thrown at myself and the magazine. I was labelled everything from a “reverse racist”, to “a toxic negative nancy”, to a “jealous and ungrateful pinup” all for that one article that discussed the need for change in the Australian vintage scene and the global pinup industry. Apparently, if you are a Desi woman, or a woman of colour, you are expected to be grateful for the one or two token pinups of colour a magazine publishes a year. God forbid you raise hell over the lack of diversity you see in the vintage scene or if you attempt to claim an autonomous online space to celebrate women like yourself. I was lucky that the editor of Adore Pinup Magazine, Brianna Blackheart, addressed the issues I discussed in the article publicly on all of Adore’s social media platforms and backed me up in my arguments. I don’t think I would have continued writing about these issues without her support so early on in my writing.

As far as creating Desi and PoC representation in vintage and pinup goes, the conservative desis in the community feel that I am too racy, too vocal and too sexual to “appropriately” represent Desi femininity while the conservative non PoC feel that I am trying to create a “racial divide” by working on projects such as Pinups of Colour that exclusively celebrates racially and ethnically diverse pinup communities. There is no winning! I feel like people want women like myself to pick a very narrow and carefully constructed box and sit in it very quietly. Every now and then a nice whitewashed hand will come in and either grab my ethnic outfits to be appropriated and if I am VERY good and quiet I will be paraded around like a ventriloquist's dummy parroting phrases that implying (non existent) diversity in the scene. I am sorry but I cannot do that. I refuse to shrink myself to make other people feel comfortable by helping to maintain a status quo and it is just as well as I find it impossible to follow guidelines in order to fit into these boxes anyway!

Staff and students of St Patrick's Teachers' Training College, Karachi, 1956. You can see that for some time during the 1950s-1970s Pakistan strongly adopted Western fashion and culture - Source - Wikimedia Commons.

How did you start wearing vintage? Have you been back since? How do you think you will be accepted there with your tattoos and your look?

I will be honest, I spent my teenage years riddled with insecurity and self doubt because I was one of the few ethnic Desi girls in my predominantly white high school. I stuck out like a sore thumb and at a time where there was a growing mistrust of people from Muslim countries, I was either isolated by my peers or ostracised by them. Vintage clothing gave me a way to feel comfortable with a body that at times felt like a battlefield. As a new migrant whose parents didn’t have much of an income, op-shopping was equal parts necessity and thrill! Much like vintage fashion, tattoos have helped me embrace my body. I wouldn’t say all my tattoos have stories behind them but a vast majority of them were inspired by moments in my life where I felt something move me to my core. I view my body as a passport and see each tattoo as a little stamp for moments in my journey, from my darkest moments to the happier ones.

Tattooing in the Indian subcontinent is not unheard of but it isn’t as common as it is in Australia. This is partly due to conservative culture in countries with little separation between church and state. Tribal facial tattoos were common among the early pagan Pashtuns, however, my ethnic group gave up these customs upon the advent of Arab Islam in the 12th century. While some tribal women in Pakistan’s far north still practise stick and poke facial tattooing, a manual method involving charcoal pigment being inserted into the skin using hand fashioned bone needles, tattooing as a Pashtun art form is almost non existent these days. When our tattooing history is brought up in conversations nowadays, our people refer to that period in our history as the “dark ages” and dismiss the practise as uncivilised. As I haven’t visited Pakistan since starting my body modification journey, I really don’t know how people would react to my body art or style of dressing. I suppose it would be no different to how tattooed ladies got treated in the 20s and 30s in America or Australia!

What is the one thing you want people to know about you?

I am one of those people who is passionate about social justice issues, particularly issues pertaining to the representation and rights of people of colour. Sometimes this passion is severely misread as spiteful. I am angry. Of course! How can you not be angry in this day and age when women, especially women of colour, receive the short end of the stick? My anger derives from hurt, from isolation and from the yearning to have my identity recognised as valid. It is frustrating to be denied representation in the subcultures I love. It is disappointing to be overlooked on the basis of appearance. It is heartbreaking to be denied a space in my own ethnic and cultural group because I defy convention. I am angry but I am not doing it to be spiteful. I am doing it because nice women seldom make history. There are some people who have the luxury to stand by idly and watch the world plummet into darkness. I do not have this luxury. It’s not in my nature nor is it in my favour to do so. Besides, I would much rather be a cactus than a wallflower any day.

#norafinds #around the world with vintage #atwwv #interview #series #blog #pakistan #pakistani #australian #australia #pin up #midcentury mermaid #laila shalimar

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nature420world · 4 years ago

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Dope Nostalgic Pictures & Content

Who doesn’t like to feel nostalgic? Nostalgic content can put life into perspective. Seeing how people lived many years ago helps us to better understand today’s world. This post will be full of nostalgic content. We are going to highlight nostalgic pictures, old games from the 70s, best old shows, and just cool nostalgic content. Nostalgic content can make us think of cooler times, either from your childhood or your college days. We hope this page brings back a few good memories.

What is something old that you own that makes you feel nostalgic when you see it? Comment Below

Old Games From The 70s

We all remember our favorite toys from our childhood. But what about people who grew up in the 70s. What type of games did they play and would we have found them to be entertaining. We are going to take a look at a few games that helped kids in the 70s keep away the boredom.

Atari was the public first introduction to a gaming system. Atari allowed users to play various games. Multiplayer games made this a great game to play with friends or family.

The pet rock showed us that no matter the product if marketed right, it has the potential to make millions. The pet rock owner was able to convince society that a rock could become a household pet. The public agreed the pet rock would eventually end up in almost every household in America. Kids actually would take care of there rocks as if it were an actual pet. Not sure with I pads and tablet today’s kids would probably throw it in the Tash. But it does sound like a way simpler time, especially if a rock could entertain you.

The Rubik’s cube got its start In the 70s and become one of the hardest puzzles to solve. The goal of a Rubik’s cube is simple, just match the colors up to show on one side. Sounds simple the problem is this is almost impossible for the average person. Turns out only a small percentage of people can mentally process steps needed to solve the puzzle. This did not stop the public fascination with Rubik’s cubes. Most kids in the 70s either received one as a gift or tried to solve a friend’s cube at one point.

Have you ever tried to solve a rubric cube, if so how did it go? Comment Below

Connect four is a game that came out In 1974. The concept is simple you just match 4 colors in a row. Connect four would go off to become one of the most popular games of the 70s. Today connect four can still be found in many stores and homes today. Connect four is an example of how something simple can pass the test of time.

Do you currently own a connect four board? comment Below

Television has become a staple of entertainment for people. Televisions production and quality have come far in a short amount of time. But what were the best old shows back n the day. Here is a list of shows that probably entertained you or your parents.

Best Old Shows You Have to Watch

I Love Lucy is a show that was ahead of its time and groundbreaking airing from 1951 to 1957. I love Lucy would set the standard for how T.V. shows are tapped. By becoming the first show to feature a live audience. This helped to further engage audiences at home. Turns out I Love Lucy audiences laughs would go off to become the most used laugh tracks In television. I Love Lucy became the most genuine audience response, In television history. Few shows today can capture that essence.

What is your favorite I Love Lucy episode?

Little Rascals is a classic movie that everyone has seen at least once. But Did you know that the Little Rascals was a T.V. show that aired in 1955. The show highlighted the dynamic relationships and connection among young children. The series tackled circumstances and obstacles young people might face. There are currently a few movie adaptations of this classic show.

No Problems is a British show that aired between 1983-1985. No problems helped to open doors by becoming the first black show, to air in the UK. No Problems was a comedy set in a council house in London. The focus of showcasing young Jamaicans living and surviving in London.

Webster is a show about a young black boy, who loses both parents in a car accident. His father’s teammate ends up adopting him. This show is about the dynamics of a non-conventional family. Webster addressed issues that any family could face, alongside serious topics. Webster aired between 1984-1989.

There are a lot of old shows that kept people entertained. What shows do you think we should have mentioned? Comment Below

A Few Cool Old Facts, You Might Don’t Know

We all have heard the term the British are coming. turns out research has discovered that this never actually happened. The entire operation was a stealth mission so any noise would be risky. So needlessly to say I don’t think anyone was yelling.

In 300 B.C turkeys were worshipped liked gods, by the Mayan people. Turkeys would become domesticated and have roles within religious structures. This bird was looked at with admiration and prestige. Symbols of turkeys can be found in Mayan iconography and archeology. Make you think, why don’t we know this & why do we eat them for holidays now?

Did you know that at one point the Olympic games gave medals for artwork and designs? I think they should bring this back, there are a lot of cool artists that deserve their recognition.

In 1908 a woman in New York was arrested for striking a match against a building and lighting a cigarette. At the time women were not allowed to smoke in public places in New York. The women would end up going to court and given a $5 fine. Soon after this incident, New York decided to no longer enforce this law.

Looking at old artwork gives you a glimpse into the imaginations of people, that lived years ago. Art-work has become a way for people to express many emotions and ideas. Art can show us societal structures, life obstacles, beauty, and much more.

Now let’s take a look at a few cool pieces and tell us what do these pieces convey to you? Comment Below

Old artwork Nostalgic Pictures

Cartoons have a way of bringing out the child in most of us. Cartoons can relax and comfort the viewer. Cartoons has become a staple of childhood. There are a lot of cool old Cartoons that helped create the industry you see today. We are going to take a look at cool old cartoons, that helped to set the standards for production quality and content.

Rocky and Bullwinkle aired from 1959-1964. Rocky and Bullwinkle are known for producing quality content with good humor and puns, alongside cultural and topical satire. They were able to appeal to both kids and adults. Helping to grow popularity. Currently, there are a few film adaptations of this classic show.

Scooby-Doo has become a show that has gone on to entertain generations of kids. Airing in 1969 this is one of few shows from back n the day still airing today. Scooby-Doo was about a group of teenagers getting together and solving various mysteries. Usually involving supposedly supernatural characters.

Charlie Brown first started as a comic strip in your local newspaper. Charlie Brown would go off to become one of the most iconic children cartoons ever. The show first aired in 1948 with a focus on humorously tackling everyday life issues.

We hope you enjoyed this blast from the past. Nostalgic Pictures & Content

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Natures gift Unlocked Nostalgic Pictures

Cool Nostalgic Pictures & Old Games From The 70s

Dope Nostalgic Pictures & Content Who doesn’t like to feel nostalgic? Nostalgic content can put life into perspective.

Cool Nostalgic Pictures & Old Games From The 70s Dope Nostalgic Pictures & Content Who doesn’t like to feel nostalgic? Nostalgic content can put life into perspective.

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deadcactuswalking · 6 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 16th June 2019

Top 10

For the fifth week since its debut, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber’s “I Don’t Care” stays at the #1 spot, not to be dethroned anytime soon... except Drake and Taylor Swift, as well as Sheeran’s other song down the charts, are all viable contenders so we’ll see how that goes.

Meanwhile, “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X is also pretty steady at number-two.

“Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi isn’t moving either at number-three.

Speaking of not moving at all, “Vossi Bop” by Stormzy is also at number-four from last week.

Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” hasn’t moved from its space at number-five; seriously, whilst there a lot fo debuts this week, looking at the first half of this top 10 you’d be confused to why I’d consider it busy or even interesting.

We have got some traction with something in the top 10, however, with “Hold Me While You Wait” by Lewis Capaldi unfortunately being boosted up a single spot to number-six.

The release of the posthumous album TIM has lead the late Avicii’s “SOS” featuring Aloe Blacc up one spot to number-seven.

We actually have a top 10 debut this week, however, with “No Guidance” featuring Drake by... Chris Brown. Fantastic, we need more of him on the charts at number-eight. This is Brown’s 35th (!) Top 40 hit in the UK and 16th Top 10, and Drake’s forty-fricking-seventh UK Top 40 hit, which is insane, and only 17th Top 10 like Brown. Whether that’s due to general quality and talent or just latching onto what can be a hit and launching it into success by pure star-power without quality control or a need to think twice is up to your interpretation.

Ed Sheeran’s “Cross Me” featuring Chance the Rapper and PNB Rock is surprisingly stable at number-nine, although the UK Singles Chart says on the mid-week that this could be making a run for #1.

Oh, and Jax Jones and Martin Solveig’s “All Day and Night” featuring Madison Beer is up a spot to #10. That EUROPA collaborative album still isn’t out yet, though.

Climbers

Sigala and Becky Hill’s “Wish You Well” makes a sudden boost up nine spaces to the top 20 at #15, becoming Sigala’s eighth Top 20 and Hill’s fourth. On the topic of EDM, MEDUZA and Goodboys’ “Piece of Your Heart” is “up” 11 spaces according to BBC’s awfully-made first-draft page they upload instead of a legitimate rundown of the top 40, but it’s actually had its streaming cut and is down 11 spaces from last week. “One Touch” by Jess Glynne and Jax Jones is up seven spots to #23, “Easier” by 5 Seconds of Summer is up seven to #27, as is “3 Nights” by Dominic Fike at #31, and “Sixteen” by Ellie Goulding is up six to #29, but it gets more interesting in the fallers.

Fallers

We see the aftermath of Skepta’s album bomb last week, with “What Do You Mean?” featuring J Hus also moving “up” 11 spaces down to #25, and “Greaze Mode” featuring Nafe Smallz down 10 spaces to #28. “OT Bop” by NSG is also down six spaces to #32, while otherwise not very notable, Miley Cyrus’ “Mother’s Daughter” is “diwn” two spots to #33. How professional. “Falling Like the Stars” by James Arthur and “Carry On” by Kygo and Rita Ora are down nine and six spaces respectively to #34 and #35. “Location” by Dave featuring Burna Boy has interestingly survived on the Top 40 despite streaming cuts as hip-hop doesn’t often do, down 24 spaces to #36, and yeah, that’s all.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

Moving to an unofficial chart-watching site for this one because clearly the BBC can’t be trusted, after its debut, last week “Bruises” by Lewis Capaldi is out from #16. I’m pretty sure this is due to streaming cuts as well because it’s charted for 12 weeks outside the Top 40 and is an old song, so maybe it just went recurrent and dropped off so... “Grace” could return to #12. I know exactly what is happening and it’s kind of hilarious – Lewis Capaldi’s album is doing so well that the highest-performing songs are always on the chart, but since that can only be three, “Grace” and “Bruises” have been trading places for the last three weeks in the top 20. I think “Bruises” won’t be returning here though, because “Grace” has a lot more longevity although it has already peaked. We have a couple really sad drop-outs actually, as these are songs I pretty much loved that I feel are exiting prematurely, as “Summer Days” by Martin Garrix, Macklemore and Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy is out from #40 and “EARFQUAKE” by Tyler, the Creator featuring Playboi Carti and Charlie Wilson is out from #37. “Talk” by Khalid out from #28 also hurts but that’s due to streaming cuts and it was in the top 10 for God knows how long so I’m fine with this. There are a LOT of drop-outs actually, wow, mostly from hits in the Spring that are making space for Summer hits, like “So Am I” by Ava Max from #35, “Fashion Week” by Steel Banglez, AJ Tracey (We’ll be seeing more of him) and MoStack from #33, “Keisha & Becky” by Russ splash and Tion Wayne from #19, “What I Like About You” by Jonas Blue and Theresa Rex from #23, “Bullet from a Gun” by Skepta from #32 after the album’s hype died down and “Here with Me” by Marshmello and CHRVCHES from #20, all making way for... “Sucker” by Jonas Brothers to return at #40. That wasn’t worth it.

ALBUM BOMB

STACKO – MoStack

Yeah, I didn’t expect this but I should have been, I didn’t think MoStack was this big to have an album bomb, with two songs debuting in the Top 40 thanks to the release of his debut album debuting at #3 on the Albums Chart, entitled STACKO. I think I just under-estimated his success because I’ve never liked him to be honest, but his debut from last week, “Shine Girl” featuring Stormzy has grown on me quite a bit and I feel I quite like it now, so I guess my opinion reflects the public since it’s up two spaces to #13, surpassing Katy Perry. MoStack also has two debuts in the Top 40, one of which I’ve already heard because it had Dave on it and I love Dave so I had to check it out. The track listing for this album is basically a who’s who of the best guys from the British hip-hop roster, with Dave, J Hus, Stormzy and Fredo all making guest appearances, and I guess we should start with the lowest debut from the album...

#39 – “I’m the One” – MoStack featuring Fredo

Produced by Hazard and Steel Banglez

This is technically a “MoStack x Fredo” song but I don’t care, and it’s Stacko here’s fifth UK Top 40 hit, as well as Fredo’s fourth. You may recognise the name Fredo from chocolate confectionary in the shape of amphibians or his #1 hit with Dave, “Funky Friday”, from last year, which has grown on me a lot from my lukewarm initial review and it’d be pretty high on my list of the best UK hits from 2018. Despite this, Fredo is kind of boring? A lot of his work doesn’t rub off on me at all or just ends up being rather decent instead of being all that interesting despite it often showing a lot of skill and I liked his album Third Avenue quite enough. I doubt I’ll see more in Fredo when paired with MoStack, though, but this beat is something. I love the mellow keys with a distant vocal sample that’s eerie enough to contrast the funky, groovy keys that remind me pretty explicitly of the Wii Shop Channel... because of course, it does. The trap beat kicks in and the percussion drowns out all of the funk or groove it used to have and the shrill synths that come in during the verses where Fredo and Stacko trade bars are off-beat, I’m pretty sure. The content is the same as any other UK rap song, with Fredo being blunt and much more charismatic and intimidating than MoStack could try being, with his nasal voice and much less of the Auto-Tune but a lot more of his irritating inflections, repeating nonsense words in an accent that’s obviously put on in his second verse. Yeah, this could have been something as well, as the outro is pretty moody, pretty atmospheric especially with the lo-fi piano but I’m not a fan of the performances or even the percussion here. It’s mixed okay, I suppose, although I’d argue there’s not enough bass as there should be and that the rattling percussion is louder than everything else. As it is, like the best of MoStack’s music, it’s barely serviceable.

#19 – “Stinking Rich” – MoStack featuring Dave and J Hus

Produced by Ill Blu

When I first heard this, I remember actually being pretty disappointed, as Dave and MoStack have really impressed me with the song “No Words” back in 2017, which was one of my favourites of that year. This is Stacko’s seventh Top 40 hit, Dave’s eleventh and J Hus’s seventh, as well as Hus’ fourth Top 20, Dave’s eighth and MoStack’s fourth, and it really didn’t click with me at all, and it still hasn’t. MoStack is best playing to his strength, I feel, which is often just singing on Afroswing beats, to be honest and whilst I’m not that big of a fan of those songs they appeal to somebody, but I feel he’s clueless completely on hard trap beats. “Stinking Rich” is a massive example of that, as while this beat is okay, with gliding pianos typical of this genre playing pretty smoothly over a boring trap beat that reminds me very much so of “Options” by NSG, MoStack is... charismatic, I guess. He starts his verse off with, well...

All I want is more life and... more vagina

The way he delivers this is hilariously awful, and I’m finding a lot of UK hip-hop delivery to be similarly pretty comically blunt, but otherwise he’s just boring and often kind of pathetic. While I enjoy his break from the verse to croon his “Bang, bang” ad-libs, it’s clearly thrown him off as afterwards, he gets a lot louder and more angry and that leads to him being completely drowned out by the beat and the mixing means his furiously-delivered lines about council houses falls on deaf ears, and he’s slightly off-beat at times, or at least his flow is sloppily switched pretty frequently. I don’t know who’s singing the chorus, but whoever came up with the line “What’s your perfume? I said I’m stinking, stinking rich” is either a genius or a cornball, probably both, but with its overdone delivery it really sounds like a joke that falls flat in a stand-up routine, instead of a casual bragging punchline like it should have been. I don’t like to say this, but Dave’s verse just kind of sucks? His content is generic, and his wordplay, while at least being there in comparison to MoStack’s plain statements, is really freaking janky and while the rhyme scheme is impressive, rhyming “bust down” with itself and talking about how now he bought his girl a purse, these girls want to PURSue him doesn’t reflect well on his verse. I wouldn’t say it’s phoned in entirely, but when compared to J Hus’ verse, which is incredible especially with the way the beat builds up and elevates as his content starts with pretty mundane girl talk and ending with violent imagery about police and breaking a woman’s privates with his trigger-finger, which is disgusting in every possible way, before the chorus comes back for one last time, and you realise that J Hus probably should have put his verse on a better beat and a much better song. I like the trumpets at the end, I guess, but yeah, I had a lot to say about this song for some reason but that’s because I’ve had a lot of time to think about it, even though in the end it’s just mediocre. That’s all for the album bomb, and yikes, I don’t think I’ll be checking this album out at all, and I thought I’d give it a better chance, especially considering the features but I’ve heard them all now and I don’t think Stacko can handle that many solo tracks. I like “Shine Girl” though, that song’s pretty cute.

NEW ARRIVALS

#30 – “Strike a Pose” – Young T & Bugsey featuring Aitch

Produced by Toddla T

Young T & Bugsey are a British rap duo because I can’t escape that genre today (I’d only be complaining if it were the dull and samey variation, and trust me it is), and Aitch is some other dude. I’ve heard Young T & Bugsey on the charts before when they had that song “Ay Caramba” with Fredo, funnily enough, but otherwise they haven’t really had much chart impact. This is Aitch’s first hit too, I don’t even know who he is and I’m relatively in tune with British hip hop, even if I don’t like a lot of it. First of all, this song’s wavering 808 groove that starts the song is really funky and smooth, and its abrupt drop into Afroswing/dancehall-infused production with a couple buzzing synths creating some beautiful melodies in the background, sounding very 80s, is very effective because of how intimidating and menacing the song ends up sounding despite the singer’s smooth, double-tracked falsetto and the content being just about a woman dancing... Maybe this doesn’t actually work, but I don’t really care, because it’s only barely about a woman to be honest, as it’s mostly braggadocio from Young T & Bugsey, who have really charismatic voices, flowing quickly on the beat which they ride and really fit on to be honest, especially Bugsey’s more nasal tones. The chorus is incredibly catchy and while this doesn’t sound like it’s going to be big, I think I love this to be honest. The second verse sounds like he’s grinning for the whole time, and while the content is pretty disgusting and objectifying as always, it’s not like it’s being glamorised, I mean, can you hear this beat? It’s pretty dark and eerie, so I don’t think this is a celebration of the culture at all, with those pounding kicks and hypnotic 808s making this a lot more depressing than it sounds. This is a really interesting take on the faux-dancehall faux-grime fusion genre (That MIGHT be called Afroswing?) I see a lot on the charts, and is actually pretty good. This doesn’t exactly sound like a hit, though, but time will tell.

#26 – “Ladbroke Grove” – AJ Tracey

Produced by Conducta

I can’t seem to get a break, can I? This song has been bubbling below the Top 40 for a while, and has just now moved up to the Top 40, becoming AJ Tracey’s fifth hit in this region, thanks to its release as a single and a remix with Novelist. Now, Tracey is okay, and has never really given me all that much of an awful impression, although I have to admit he is kind of the poster child of a genre and style I’m not a fan of, even though I took a fondness to his performance on the awful “Fashion Week” and I liked “Butterflies” back when that debuted, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to me if I ended up liking this new song, and, well, I love it, I’m sorry. This is a perfect throwback to the urban dance music sounds of the 2000s, and I’ve heard a lot of deserved high praise for the song. It’s a genre called UK garage, specifically, which is closely related to grime, and that pitch-shifted, chopped-up Jorja Smith sample is inspired, despite perhaps sounding somewhat lazy. AJ Tracey is perfect over this beat, though, and instead of focusing on flexing or even women (Well...) he goes for a simple “DJ rock the set I rock the mic” topic that would be typical of MC’s who rap over music of this genre. The flow is rapid and fun over a bouncy instrumental, and to put it bluntly it’s an absolute tune. None of Tracey’s songs I’ve heard are the same genre, and I appreciate that, but honestly can he just stick to this? His verses are hooks in themselves, and are repeated incessantly because it’s UK garage and made for the clubs, and if they weren’t catchy I would be trashing it but this is so fun. His final verse, is especially powerful as it reflects what the chorus has been droning on about all this time, not specifically the topic but the tonal juxtaposition between her longing vocals and the beat, by mentioning cop cars and making it evident that this music is a form of expression against discrimination as dance music was and will be for people of colour... It’s not that deep, it just bangs. The remix is okay, as well, but yeah I’m impressed, Tracey. I’d like him to do more of this traditional, somewhat throwback UK garage and grime stuff like this and especially “Horror Flick” – that song’s even better, I really dig it and it feels oddly nostalgic.

#22 – “Shockwave” – Liam Gallagher

Produced by Greg Kurstin – Peaked at #1 in Scotland

In stark contrast, here’s everyone’s favourite “fat man in an anorak” (Noel’s words, not mine) Liam Gallagher, with his fifth UK Top 40 hit as a solo artist after the break-up from Oasis and later on Beady Eye. Now, Noel and Liam’s constant fall-outs and back-to-back disses have been victim to media ogling for decades now, but there’s one point I feel isn’t touched upon enough in terms of their solo work, and it’s that they both have essential components in each other that they now completely lack, and will forever sound like wasted potential. Liam has the very distinctive vocals and his aggressive attitude was often reflected in that powerful and often desperate, distant performance. Noel, on the other hand, could write coherent hit singles and can’t hold a note to save his life. Do you see where I’m going with this? In terms of solo work, Liam’s is what I prefer more often than not because he has more personality than Noel and his high-flying birds or whatever, although both of their discographies are hit-and-miss and honestly compiling it all would make the worst Oasis album, and that’s saying something considering their 2000s output. Is this new song any good then? Well, I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s definitely uninteresting. Liam sounds restrained, which is something I never want to hear him sounding like considering he’s at his best when he’s giving it his all. In fact, I hear some Auto-Tune on his incredibly safe vocal performance. In fact, everything here is safe, the guitar riffs are oddly familiar, the droning bass sounds like it’s an FL Studio loop, the drums are monotonous and the way the chorus “transitions” into the verses is janky and abrupt, once again showing how Liam’s songwriting isn’t great. The chorus isn’t even catchy and honestly, this has no grit or much passion at all. I’ve always preferred Blur, so maybe that’s my issue but even me, a Damon Albarn fangirl, could appreciate the best of Oasis back in their day, but no, this is really mediocre and kind of boring. Sorry.

#20 – “Heaven” – Avicii featuring uncredited vocals from Chris Martin of Coldplay

Produced by Avicii – Peaked at #2 in Sweden

I really hate this chorus, I absolutely despise it. It reeks, and honestly the fact that it was released is really despicable. I don’t hate posthumous music on principle, if it’s finished or the estate and/or person before their death has given the thumbs-up, it’s really none of my business, but when the music released is awful or has a severe case of tonal dissonance that is perfectly tuned and twisted to make it a hit song, that’s when it breaks me. This is from the late Tim Bergling’s “new” album TIM and all profits are going to charity, which is something I can congratulate it for mostly because I’m about to defend XXXTENTACION’s post-murder releases. When X spoke of death, it was never an extended metaphor in an otherwise lyrically upbeat track, it was very bluntly about death and was often on a melancholy, piano or guitar-lead ballad or bassy distorted SoundCloud trap beats. Whilst the profits didn’t go to charity and the painful attempt at fanservice by using the dumb stylisations he used in the song titles is evident of how the label cared more about preserving X’s quirky image and making him out to be a martyr to his fans than actually releasing finished, worthwhile music, at least the lyrical content wasn’t re-purposed. The twinkly lead synths are precious but then we get into the inspired EDM that sounds a lot like Avicii’s older stuff, and is actually pretty good. Then we get the uncredited Chris Martin feature, who also provides some guitar somewhere. Then he sings the hook in his typical lower register, “I think I just died and went to Heaven”... this song is about love. This song is not about Avicii’s death or him coming to a realisation of his own fading morality. This song is just about being in love with someone and having that initial spark in the relationship, but it’s obviously being marketed as the new hit single by getting the biggest guest star on the album, making it easily the most accessible track on the record and maybe I’m nitpicking, but the fact that it’s uncredited sucks too. Did Chris Martin not want to put his name on this cash-grab? I don’t blame him or Coldplay if that’s how he was going to be credited, because this is just a re-hash of drops I’ve heard from Avicii before with that infuriating, morally reprehensible chorus. This and “SOS” really reek of re-appropriating lyrical content to make it seem like it’s some kind of prophecy, but no, it isn’t, really. The fact that it’s Heaven as well, because we all know that he committed suicide using a broken WINE bottle and suffered severe alcohol- and drug-related addictions, meaning that no matter how good a person he could have been, he probably wouldn’t have gone to Heaven in the first place, if we’re theorising it existed. This is dreadful, and I’ve lost respect for everyone involved in this album, but in the end, it’s a cash-grab that’s for charity, so what am I to complain? Am I an awful person for thinking this is a morally unrighteous statement since its profits are going to a charity we should probably have a lot of faith in? God, and I thought Lil Dicky’s charity single was a can of worms. I’m not going to cover this on my end-of-year worst list because it is, once again, a can of worms, but this rubs me the wrong way, to say the least.

#18 – “Mad Love” – Mabel

Produced by Steve Mac

Yup, we’re not done. After ranting about MoStack’s album bomb and the immoral Avicii/Coldplay collaboration, as well as going on nostalgia-induced rambles about AJ Tracey’s UK garage throwback, we still have to cover two more songs out of our collection of eight, one of which is by Chris Brown. Delightful. Thankfully, I can skip past most of these songs since I don’t have much to say. This is the latest of about four lead singles from Mabel’s new album – by that I mean she’s released a mixtape, a deluxe re-issue of her mixtape and a Jax Jones feature that will all probably end up on the album, which will definitely have an album bomb since she only has one single on the charts right now. This is her sixth Top 40/20 hit, and for what it is, it’s pretty decent. I first heard it on 4Music (Yes, I know what you’re thinking, but I have to do my, ahem, research on UK pop music) and it hasn’t clicked with me yet enough to consider it any good, but it’s definitely not bad. The 80s synth melody is simple and cute, somewhat 80s-like, but the painfully fake finger-snaps accentuating Mabel which are too loud in the mix, as are Mabel’s vocals to be honest, as she and her pitch-shifted counterpart are clipping into the synths when the chorus comes in at times. The lyrical content is just some primal, “I like you, let’s have sex” in a similarly self-centred way to how Young T & Bugsey are asking for it, but instead of sounding menacing, this is just a burst of joy, and the fact that the main hook is essentially a nonsense phrase just makes this all the more fun. Is it great? No, as I’ve said before the mixing is pretty bad and I’m not over-the-moon about his incredibly repetitious nature, but her vocals are well-delivered and the production is pretty bouncy, and that’s all you can really ask from a pop tune like this.

Oh, did you know Mabel is Neneh Cherry’s daughter? That surprised me too when I first saw it, but does explain her rise to fame.

#8 – “No Guidance” – Chris Brown featuring Drake

Produced by Vinylz, J-Louis, Noah “40” Shebib and Teddy Walton – Peaked at #7 in Canada and #9 in the US

Can I just skip this one entirely? I’ve done a lot this episode, I don’t need to finish it off with Chris Brown and Drake. There’ll be more of each in the coming weeks as well, just give me this one, guys. It’s their first single together in a while and their first since Drake squashed the beef late last year that started as early as 2012 over Rihanna and honestly I don’t think she wants either of them so I’m glad both of them have quit trying. A couple glass bottles were thrown, I don’t know, I don’t care. I try not to follow anything Chris Brown does because he just makes me angry more often than he shows any true talent. For what it’s worth, the song’s okay, I love the distant, drowned-out vocal sample with all the cloudy synths around it and 90s R&B soundfont that has been a lot more prominent in recent years. Drake sounds great, and sure, it’s pandering but it’s what Drake does, and has done for a while. His performance is good, but not as notable as how they build up Chris Brown like a space rocket coming down to Earth, but he has this phaser effect that really weakens his impact and Drake tries to put him to a halt with a subdued “Ayy” before he even lands. Brown actually doesn’t sound bad wailing on this, he kind of sounds like Kanye at times? This is way too long, though, I assume these guys wanted it to be 4:20 for the novelty but after the half-way mark not much is worthwhile other than the kind of empty but still pretty heated rap verse from Drake, with falsetto ad-libs, pounding 808s and hilarious use of Chris Brown vocal samples as a shrill, gliding synth. This isn’t bad, which is surprising considering it’s Chris Brown featuring Drake, but it’s not even close to good either. Just passable.

Conclusion

I’d feel awful giving the Worst of the Week to a dead man... so it’s going to Coldplay for “Heaven”, with Dishonourable Mention unfortunately going to Liam Gallagher for “Shockwave”, yeah, MoStack is saved by Fredo and J Hus here from getting any mention in this conclusion. Best of the Week should be obvious, it’s going to “Ladbroke Grove” by AJ Tracey but an Honourable Mention should be going to, to my surprise, Young T, Bugsey and Aitch for “Strike a Pose”. For more pop music ramblings follow my Twitter @cactusinthebank and I’ll see you next week!

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margothuxley · 5 years ago

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This and That

Hi Everyone,

A new day - after 3 am. I'm up because my knee is bothering me. Just another thing to endure, haha. But thank God I'm able to hobble around the house. I am on pain meds which dent the pain somewhat. I'm trying to distract myself from the pain. I wish I could wish it off but it's here and sometimes it gets worse and other times its very painful. Yesterday was bad because I'd gone out with the family to run errands. I was so pained that getting out of the car was a tremendous effort. I had the pups with me which made things more complicated. The smaller dog was so eager to get out of the car and I had to organise myself so I could at least hang on to his leash and then get my things out of the car with me as well. It was a miracle I got to the door and got things into the house. Fortunately, it got accomplished.

I made spaghetti ala Ameritriciana, which is an homage to those in Ameritricia in Italy who died in that awful earthquake a few years ago. I went online to look up the recipe which consists of pork and spaghetti with sauce that was made from tomatoes. I usually make it with whole canned tomatoes and tomato sauce and paste then with a large dollop of red pepper flakes. So very tasty and it definitely filled up my belly well. I really enjoy making this recipe. I've always liked spaghetti and I know people who are into slimming don't care for it because of the carbs but I'm not good on keto type of diets.

I tried that keto diet and well, did not lose more than seven pounds and I had some issues that made me quit it. I went to a clinic in town that specialised on this sort of diet and when I told the nurse about how I wasn't losing a lot of weight (I was down to about 20 g of carbs by then) she gave me a Rx for metformin. This is a med that diabetics take to control their sugar in the blood. I took a dose and then I suffered a great back pain.

I called the nurse and told her of this and she insisted I go to the ER and have them test me for a heart problem. That day wasn't a good day to go to anywhere as they predicted a blizzard. I wasn't about to get stuck in the ER and so I said no I'll not go. She threatened me implying that this was not a good idea. I said forget it and hung up.

I discontinued metformin and decided to forget the whole keto diet thing. I think it was too much fat and not a healthy thing to forsake carbs. Our bodies need to have carbs and it's because they get used up when we do normal activities and even if we only walked a mile a day it wouldn't be great to be on a low sugar going on in your bloodstream.

I've learned from school (I took Pharmacology in graduate school) that the brain feeds on the glucose it has from the bloodstream so being foggy-minded is not a good sign. I do not have any idea why the back pain happened but it was a transient problem.

I'm on a more stable diet and I take carbs and have a healthy smoothie and eat enough for each meal. So I don't know what my weight is right now. I had a fitbit scale that I used before but my fitbit has bit the dust and I don't wish to spend on another one again. I've already gone through two fitbits. I merely go with how I feel and if I can have some carbs, a bit of a vegetable in the diet, and protein then I'm ok.

I've not written a lot lately but I'm starting a new novel called The Bridge. It's about a young woman who works in a research laboratory in Paris. She's going through depression because of a lost love who left her (not quite sure how) and that was what has been making her sad even though on the outside she's doing ok.

I'm really interested in writing this novel mostly because it's a bit close to my heart and I've had the experience of lost love, and many of you I'm sure had something like that in your lives.

I'm trying to get some free time to write. Now I'm also trying to get up to speed with sending out flyers and newsletters to talk about my work and other things that I find interesting.

I've started a nonprofit company that is aimed at helping the poor families or individuals, mostly brought to their knees financially due to the COVID issue and from other problems like Acts of God (hurricanes), terror attacks and times of war. I'm also hoping that this nonprofit will help the homeless to get free cell phones so that they can keep in touch with places where they could get help on their own, like jobs or paying bills, or finding a place to live more permanently than the usual places that are established to house the homeless.

I'm working on getting the nonprofit a tax status and so that's a big job in itself but it's a challenge and I'm hoping this will come to be achieved.

I've put in my name to see about standing for a Council Seat in my city and see how I could be helping as an advocate for the seniors who are on a fixed income, to see how they could be heard because I think they're not able to get their problems to the right people who could help them. There are other places in town like Area IV which is devoted to helping people in cases, for example, finding someone to come and help the elderly who are sick and in need of some care at home.

I researched Area IV a while ago when I worried over my Dad and how it might be if he were laid low by an illness or whatever and to see how I could possibly find someone who could see to his care while I was working full time. The people in Area IV were very helpful and sent over a thick packet of information. There were several volunteer organisations that were listed and these would come in handy to call if anything drastic were to happen to my Dad.

I hope that you would do your part in finding out how best to care for those who are less fortunate. We are all lucky to have our jobs and our homes, our workplaces and the social stuff we do. I hope that in your readings you can find good ideas about keeping your families healthy and watch out for whatever might be ailing them or even causing then problems.

I know there are times we get impatient with our elderly parents or other relatives because they get a bit testy or impatient themselves for the fact they can't do things on their own. So we must always try to find a good way to talk to them and draw them out of their sad feelings.

I think we all need to take care of our parents while they are still alive. We derive our own selves from them, after all. We need to keep them in our prayers. We also need to take care of our children and keep them safe.

With all that's going on with COVID, we ought to think of better ways to educate them out of the schoolroom. I don't have kids myself but if I did, I'd homeschool them. It's a popular method of educating children. In fact, the UK, France and I think other parts of Europe have homeschooling. There's website or two about homeschooling. One of the people at my church homeschools her kids and they get packages every term or so with new books to teach their kids. It's also a way to bond with your kids and to keep them occupied. It doesn't take a PhD to homeschool your kids and those websites surely have tips on how to homeschool if you're new at it.

I am sure we all want to remember Algebra but it will come to you when the time comes!

I hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy. Life is precious and we must always try to live healthy and well,

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