#that she was introducing americas next top model to me in college

[curiouschild]

Dance Moms is the only reality tv I have continued to watch after choosing it for myself.

I am… very drawn in

[thekotaroo]

Profiles of Pride: June 21st! 🏳️‍🌈Peppermint🏳️‍🌈

Peppermint, or Miss Peppermint, is an American actress, singer, songwriter, television personality, drag queen, and activist from New York City. She is best known from the nightlife scene and, in 2017, as the runner-up on the ninth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. In 2018 Peppermint made her debut in The Go-Go’s-inspired musical Head Over Heels as Pythio, becoming Broadway’s first out trans woman to originate a lead role. She does not use her birth name, and asks that publications not deadname her.

Peppermint started performing as a child in youth theatre, playing roles at Opera Delaware, Delaware Children’s Theatre, and The Brandywiners Community Theatre. She continued performing at Wilmington High School where she was also on the cheerleading team.

Peppermint moved to New York City to study musical theatre at AMDA. While in college she got a job at the nightclub Tunnel’s Kurfew parties, ultimately becoming a fixture in New York City nightlife. She started recording music in 2005 for Jonny McGovern’s mixtape Jonny McGovern Presents: This is NYC, Bitch! The East Village Mixtape. She contributed the song “Servin’ It Up”, which was produced by Adam Joseph. The song was later released as Peppermint’s debut single in 2006.

Peppermint was featured in the web series Queens of Drag: NYC by gay.com in 2010. The series featured fellow New York drag queens Bianca Del Rio, Dallas DuBois, Hedda Lettuce, Lady Bunny, Mimi Imfurst, and Sherry Vine. She also appeared as a drag-version of Tyra Banks on America’s Next Top Model Cycle 14, Episode 5: “Smile and Pose” introducing a drag-theme runway challenge at Lucky Chengs in New York City.

Peppermint talked about being trans publicly for the first time on an episode of The Daily Show called “The Trans Panic Epidemic” in April 2016.

On February 2, 2017, Peppermint was announced as one of the fourteen contestants on the ninth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Though other transgender women have competed on RuPaul’s Drag Race, she was the first to have come out prior to the show airing, having come out in 2012.

She won the Roast Challenge in episode 8. She placed in the bottom two in two challenges, lip-synching to Madonna’s “Music” and the Village People’s “Macho Man”, winning both. Her performances earned her the favorable nickname “Lip Sync Assassin”. Ultimately, she finished in second place after winner Sasha Velour, after they both lip-synced to Whitney Houston’s “It’s Not Right but It’s Okay”.

Peppermint’s debut studio album Hardcore Glamour was self-released in 2009 and preceded by the singles “Servin’ It Up” and “Thought Ya Knew”. In 2011, Sherry Vine and Peppermint released a parody of the Lady Gaga and Beyoncé song “Telephone” titled “Make Me Moan”. Following the viral success of the music video, Peppermint later released other parody songs, including a parody of Azealia Banks’ song “212”, titled “21/12”. Her song “If I Steal Your Boyfriend” was used in the 2011 film Eating Out 5: The Open Weekend.

On April 3, 2017, Peppermint released a six-track EP of remixes of various songs she had released up to that point, including the single “Dolla in My Titty”. Her second studio album Black Pepper was released in June of the same year. A three-song EP with producer Cazwell called Blend was released in 2018. In 2019, Peppermint appeared on fellow Drag Race alum Trinity The Tuck’s single “I Call Shade”, which charted at number 13 on the Billboard Comedy Digital Tracks chart.

On February 11, 2020, it was announced that Peppermint was working on a new album, and the lead single “What You’re Looking For” was released on February 14, 2020. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight on August 28, 2020, Peppermint stated that the album would in fact be a trilogy of EPs, and that a full studio album was previously planned for a May 2020 release, but was delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first of these EPs, A Girl Like Me: Letters to My Lovers, will be released on October 16, 2020, with the lead single “Best Sex” being released on October 2. Of the project, she said “it really does focus on my life – who I am as a trans woman – and everything that’s happening right now [with] Black Lives Matter, Black Trans Lives Matter and a lot of the issues that we are dealing with socially.” She also confirmed that the project would feature collaborations with Laith Ashley, Jerome Bell, Daniel Shevlin of Well-Strung, Matt Katz-Bohen of Blondie, Corey Tut and Adam Joseph.

The EP garnered Peppermint a nomination for Outstanding Music Artist at the 2021 GLAAD Media Awards.

Peppermint made her Broadway debut in The Go-Go’s-inspired musical Head Over Heels using the songs of The Go-Go’s. The plot of the show is somewhat based on The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia written by Sir Philip Sidney in the 16th century. The show began previews in June 2018 and officially opened July 2018, at the Hudson Theatre; playing the role of Pythio, Peppermint became the first trans woman to originate a principal role on Broadway.

Peppermint has had appearances on Pose and Saturday Night Live, and in October 2019 played the role of Pastor Olivia, “the [transgender] leader of an LGBTQ-friendly congregation”, in a two-episode arc of God Friended Me.

From 2019-2020, she co-hosted It’s a Mess podcast with Cazwell.

Peppermint is a co-founder of Black Queer Town Hall along with Bob The Drag Queen. The inaugural event featured speakers such as Laverne Cox and Angela Davis and raised over $270,000 for The Okra Project.

On June 2, 2021, Peppermint was announced as a cast member of OUTtv’s Call Me Mother, where her and fellow “Drag Mothers” Crystal and Barbada adopt and mentor up-and-coming drag talent over an 8-week journey as they compete to win the title of “First Child Of Drag” and a $50,000 prize package. In the show, Peppermint will be representing the House of Dulcet.

[elliotisms]

hey :D this is my pyrric task 001 :D

NAME/ALIAS: kris 

ANY NICKNAMES?: um.... stupid bitch? nFHFFHF just kidding idk u can make some for me :D

TIMEZONE: ok im in mountain time rn but normally central!

PRONOUNS: she/her

WHAT’S YOUR ZODIAC SIGN?: aries sun, pisces moon, sag rising

MBTI?: enfj

FAVORITE FICTIONAL CHARACTER(S)?: samwise gamgee, will byers, dani ardor, amy march, allison argent, stiles stilinski, fleabag..., so many yall.... so many

ANY FAVORITE SHOWS?: stranger things, fleabag, teen wolf, great british bake off, outer banks (it’s my local trait dont judge me), new girl, america’s next top model (at the moment ..... dont judge)

FAVORITE MOVIES?: the lord of the rings movies (yes, all 6), booksmart, and midsommar

FAVORITE VIDEO GAME?: i can really fuck it up on mario kart wii and i just got sims 3 and its so fun

FAVORITE MUSIC ARTIST, ALBUM, OR SONG?: i’ll give u multiple.. taylor swift (judge me i DARE you), tae impala, ariana grande, dua lipa, dominic fike, megan thee stallion, 70s/80s music

FAVORITE BOOK?: it by stephen king

DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?: yes!! one cat and a dog!!!

IF YOU COULD TRAVEL ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD YOU GO?: new zealand 

WOULD YOU RATHER FIGHT ONE HORSE SIZED DUCK OR 10 DUCK SIZED HORSES?: 10 duck sized horses because fuck a duck

FMK ( BARRY BEE BENSON, SHREK, OR THE ONCELER ):  fuck barry, marry onceler, kill shrek because fuck a shrek

ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO LINK? THINK YOUR PINTEREST, MAIN, W/E: my main is here and my pinterest is here

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN RPING FOR?: 6 years ..... EYE.. also fun fact nick’s mun introduced me to rp and we r best friends irl <3 @trcmors​

DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE TYPES OF CONNECTIONS? ( THINK FRIENDS, ENEMIES, ETC. ): unlikely friends, enemies for no real reason, slow burn, partners in crime, and ofc best friends to lovers <3

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE RP EVENTS?: not picky but parties! or like school events

DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE RP TASKS?:  questionnaires, pinterest boards, moodboards, and playlists

ARE YOU OKAY WITH THE MAIN CONTACTING YOU IN THE FUTURE FOR RP PLOTS? WE WON’T DO ANYTHING WITHOUT RUNNING IT PAST YOU FIRST: yessssss go for it

ANYTHING ELSE?: 

im a senior in college and i. gradyate in 1 year im scared lol but pls forgive my shhitty activity bc its. the end of the smester and im a perfectionist hehe 

im 20 and im gay ... who wanna kiss zjfhfffhfgJHFFJJFJ just kidding im so excited to be here! let me know if u wanna see my cat <3 or my dog <3 also my discord is: edgeofstars#0148

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Clara Lou Sheridan (February 21, 1915 – January 21, 1967), known professionally as Ann Sheridan, was an American actress and singer. She worked regularly from 1934 until her death, first in film and later in television. Notable roles include San Quentin (1937) with Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart, Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) with James Cagney and Bogart, They Drive by Night (1940) with George Raft and Bogart, The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) with Monty Woolley, Kings Row (1942) with Ronald Reagan, Nora Prentiss (1947), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949) with Cary Grant.

Born in Denton, Texas, on February 21, 1915, Clara Lou Sheridan was the daughter of G.W. Sheridan and Lula Stewart Warren Sheridan. According to Sheridan, her father was a great-great-nephew of Civil War Union general Philip Sheridan. She had a sister, Pauline.

She was active in dramatics at Denton High School and at North Texas State Teachers College. She also sang with the college's stage band.

In 1932, she was a student at North Texas State Teachers College when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a Paramount film, The Search for Beauty. She left college to pursue a career in Hollywood.

After making her film debut in 1934, at 19, in Search for Beauty, she played uncredited bit parts in Paramount films for the next two years, starting at $75 a week (equivalent to $1,400 in 2019).

She can be glimpsed in Bolero (1934), Come On Marines! (1934) (billed as "Clara Lou Sheridan"), Murder at the Vanities (1934), Shoot the Works (1934), Kiss and Make-Up (1934), The Notorious Sophie Lang (1934), College Rhythm (1934) (directed by Norman Taurog whom Sheridan admired), Ladies Should Listen (1934), You Belong to Me (1934), Wagon Wheels (1934), The Lemon Drop Kid (1934), Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934), Ready for Love (1934), Limehouse Blues (1934), and One Hour Late (1934).

Sheridan worked with Paramount's drama coach Nina Mouise and performed plays on the lot with fellow contractees, including The Milky Way and The Pursuit of Happiness. When she did The Milky Way, she played a character called Ann and the Paramount front office decided to change her name to "Ann".

Sheridan had a part in Behold My Wife! (1934), which she got at the behest of director Mitchell Leisen, who was a friend. She had two good scenes, one in which her character had to commit suicide. Sheridan attributed Paramount's keeping her for two years to this role.

She followed it with Enter Madame (1935), Home on the Range (1935), and Rumba (1935).

Sheridan's first lead came in Car 99 (1935) with Fred MacMurray. She was in Rocky Mountain Mystery (1935), a Randolph Scott Western. "No acting, it was just playing the lead, that's all", she later said.

She then appeared in Mississippi (1935) with Bing Crosby and W. C. Fields, The Glass Key (1935) with George Raft, and (having one line) The Crusades (1935) with Loretta Young. Paramount lent her out to Talisman, a small production company, to makeThe Red Blood of Courage (1935) with Kermit Maynard. After this, Paramount declined to take up her option.

Sheridan did one film at Universal, Fighting Youth (1935), and then signed a contract with Warner Bros. in 1936.

Sheridan's career prospects began to improve. Her early films for Warner Bros. included Sing Me a Love Song (1936); Black Legion (1937) with Humphrey Bogart; The Great O'Malley (1937) with Pat O'Brien and Bogart, her first real break; San Quentin (1937), with O'Brien and Bogart, singing for the first time in a film; and Wine, Women and Horses (1937) with Barton MacLane.

Sheridan moved into B picture leads: The Footloose Heiress (1937); Alcatraz Island (1937) with John Litel; and She Loved a Fireman (1937) with Dick Foran for director John Farrow. She was a lead in The Patient in Room 18 (1937) and its sequel Mystery House (1938). Sheridan was in Little Miss Thoroughbred (1938) with Litel for Farrow and supported Dick Powell in Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938).

Universal borrowed her for a support role in Letter of Introduction (1938) at the behest of director John M. Stahl. For Farrow, she was in Broadway Musketeers (1938), a remake of Three on a Match (1932).

Sheridan's notices in Letter of Introduction impressed Warner Bros. executives. "Oomph" was described as "a certain indefinable something that commands male interest." and she began to get roles in A pictures, starting with Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), wherein she played James Cagney's love interest; Bogart, O'Brien and the Dead End Kids had supporting roles. The film was a big hit and critically acclaimed.

Sheridan was reunited with the Dead End Kids in They Made Me a Criminal (1938) starring John Garfield. She was third-billed in the Western Dodge City (1939), playing a saloon owner opposite Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The film was another notable success.

In March 1939, Warner Bros. announced Sheridan had been voted by a committee of 25 men as the actress with the most "oomph" in America.

She received as many as 250 marriage proposals from fans in a single week. Tagged "The Oomph Girl"—a sobriquet which she reportedly loathed —Sheridan was a popular pin-up girl in the early 1940s. (On the other hand, a February 25, 1940, news story distributed by the Associated Press reported that Sheridan no longer "bemoaned the 'oomph' tag." She continued, "But I'm sorry now. I know if it hadn't been for 'oomph' I'd probably still be in the chorus.")

Sheridan co-starred with Dick Powell in Naughty but Nice (1939) and played a wacky heiress in Winter Carnival (1939).

She was top billed in Indianapolis Speedway (1939) with O'Brien and Angels Wash Their Faces (1939) with O'Brien, the Dead End Kids and Ronald Reagan. Castle on the Hudson (1940) put her opposite Garfield and O'Brien.

Sheridan's first real starring vehicle was It All Came True (1940), a musical comedy co starring Bogart and Jeffrey Lynn. She introduced the song "Angel in Disguise".

Sheridan and Cagney were reunited in Torrid Zone (1940) with O'Brien in support. She was with George Raft, Bogart and Ida Lupino in They Drive by Night (1940), a trucking melodrama. Sheridan was back with Cagney for City for Conquest (1941) and then made Honeymoon for Three (1941), a comedy with George Brent.

Sheridan did two lighter films: Navy Blues (1941), a musical comedy, and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941), wherein she played a character modeled on Gertrude Lawrence. She then made Kings Row (1942), in which she received top billing playing opposite Ronald Reagan, Robert Cummings, and Betty Field. It was a huge success and one of Sheridan's most memorable films.

Sheridan and Reagan were reunited for Juke Girl (1942). She was in the war film Wings for the Eagle (1942) and made a comedy with Jack Benny, George Washington Slept Here (1943). She played a Norwegian resistance fighter in Edge of Darkness (1943) with Errol Flynn and was one of the many Warners stars who had cameos in Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943).

She was the heroine of a novel, Ann Sheridan and the Sign of the Sphinx, written by Kathryn Heisenfelt and published by Whitman Publishing Company in 1943. While the heroine of the story was identified as a famous actress, the stories were entirely fictitious. The story was probably written for a young teenaged audience and is reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. It is part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941 and 1947 that always featured a film actress as heroine.

Sheridan was given the lead in the musical Shine On, Harvest Moon (1944), playing Nora Bayes, opposite Dennis Morgan. She was in a comedy The Doughgirls (1944).

Sheridan was absent from screens for over a year, touring with the USO to perform in front of the troops as far afield as China. She returned in One More Tomorrow (1946) with Morgan. She had an excellent role in the noir Nora Prentiss (1947), which was a hit. It was followed by The Unfaithful (1948), a popular remake of The Letter, and Silver River (1948), a Western melodrama with Errol Flynn.

Leo McCarey borrowed her to support Gary Cooper in Good Sam (1948). She was meant to star in Flamingo Road. She then left Warner Bros., saying: "I wasn't at all satisfied with the scripts they offered me."

Her role in I Was a Male War Bride (1949), directed by Howard Hawks and co-starring Cary Grant, was another success. In 1950, she appeared on the ABC musical television series Stop the Music.

She made Stella (1950), a comedy with Victor Mature at Fox.

In April 1949, she announced she wanted to produce Second Lady, a film based on a story by Eleanor Griffin. She was going to make Carriage Entrance at RKO. They fired her and Sheridan sued for $250,000.

Sheridan made Woman on the Run (1950), a noir, which she did produce. She wanted to make a film called Her Secret Diary.

Woman on the Run was distributed by Universal, and Sheridan signed a contract with that studio. While there, she made Steel Town (1952), Just Across the Street (1952), and Take Me to Town (1953), a comedy directed by Douglas Sirk.

Sheridan supported Glenn Ford in Appointment in Honduras (1953), directed by Jacques Tourneur. She appeared opposite Steve Cochran in Come Next Spring (1956) and was one of several stars in MGM's The Opposite Sex (1956). Her last film, The Woman and the Hunter, was shot in Africa.

She went to New York to appear in a Broadway show, but it did not make it to Broadway.

She did stage tours of Kind Sir (1958) and Odd Man In (1959), and The Time of Your Life at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. In all three shows, she acted with Scott McKay, whom she later married.

In 1962, she played the lead in "The Mavis Grant Story" on the Western series Wagon Train.

In the mid-1960s, Sheridan appeared on the NBC soap opera Another World.

Her final work was a TV series of her own, a comedy Western entitled Pistols 'n' Petticoats, which was filmed during the year before her death and was broadcast on CBS on Saturday nights. The 19th episode of the series, "Beware the Hangman", aired, as scheduled, on the same day that she died.

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Ann Sheridan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7024 Hollywood Boulevard.

Sheridan married actor Edward Norris August 16, 1936, in Ensenada, Mexico. They separated a year later and divorced in 1939. On January 5, 1942, she married fellow Warner Bros. star George Brent, who co-starred with her in Honeymoon for Three (1941). They divorced exactly one year later. Following her divorce from Brent, she had a long-term relationship with publicist Steve Hannagan, that lasted until his death in 1953. Hannagan's estate bequeathed Miss Sheridan $218,399 ($2.1 million in current dollars). On June 5, 1966, she married actor Scott McKay, who was with her when she died, six months later.

In 1966, Sheridan began starring in a new television series, a Western-themed comedy called Pistols 'n' Petticoats. She became ill during the filming and died of gastroesophageal cancer with massive liver metastases at age 51 on January 21, 1967, in Los Angeles. She was cremated and her ashes were stored at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles until they were interred in a niche in the Chapel Columbarium at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2005.

[problematicwelshman]

Michael Sheen on Good Omens, sex scenes, and why Brexit led to his break-up

28 NOVEMBER 2018 • 4:18PM

Michael Sheen may be 49, and sporting a grey beard these days, but mention Martians and the actor reverts to a breathless, giddy teenager.

It all stems back to one evening when Sheen was about 12 years old. “It was a significant moment in my life,” he tells me over coffee in a London hotel. “My cousin Hugh was babysitting, and he put on Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds.

“I remember us lying there, listening in bed in the dark. It absolutely terrified me, but I got obsessed with it. I’m worryingly into it. I know every single note, every word.”

Wayne’s 1978 rock opera has had a similar effect on countless fans, even if it prompts a bemused shrug from non-converts. Without ever topping the charts, it has slowly become one of the best-selling British albums of all time, and this Friday begins a stadium tour featuring a 35-foot fire-breathing Martian and a 3D hologram of Liam Neeson. It’s a geeky novelty, but one of epic proportions.

When Wayne asked Sheen if he would star in a new radio drama-style version for the album’s 40th anniversary, alongside Taron Egerton and Ade Edmondson, the Welsh actor “bit his hand off”. It had always been his dream. For decades, whether doing serious political dramas such as Frost/Nixon or the great roles of classical theatre – Hamlet, Henry V – the one part Sheen really wanted involved Martians saying “ulla-ulla”.

“When I was doing Caligula at the Donmar [in 2003], I was filming The Deal during the day – which was the first time I’d played Tony Blair,” he says. “I’d be so tired, to wake myself up [before the play] I would do whole sections of War of the Worlds.” He can even beatbox the sound effects, he adds proudly. “The other guys in the dressing room would all be really pissed off with me - but I was playing Caligula, so they had to put up with it.”

Enthusing about an outtake on a collectors version of the album where you can hear Richard Burton coughing, Sheen briefly slips into an impression of the late actor. It’s eerily spot-on. Burton played the role he takes in the new version, which feels apt; growing up in Port Talbot, Sheen was aware of following in his footsteps.

“Coming from the same town as him really helped,” he says. “It’s place you wouldn’t necessarily think would be very sympathetic to acting – it’s an old steel town, very working class, quite a macho place – but because of Richard Burton, and then Anthony Hopkins, there’s the sense that it’s possible [to be an actor], and people have a respect for it.

“Ultimately, though, we’re very different actors - Burton was very much a charismatic leading man, and I’m probably more of a character actor. He wasn’t known for his versatility.” Sheen, by contrast, is a chameleon, as he proved with a remarkable run of biopics from 2006-9, playing Tony Blair, David Frost, Brian Clough, Kenneth Williams and the Roman emperor Nero on screen in the space of just four years.

He concedes that he may have made a “partly conscious” decision to avoid biopics since then. “I’ve been offered quite a few I didn’t do. I did feel, for a bit, it was probably good for me to move away from it – certainly from playing Blair at least, because that’s the one I became synonymous with. I’d quite happily play real people again, but it’s hard to find good scripts and it takes a lot of homework. With some parts I’ve been offered, you might only have a few weeks to prepare for it - and you can’t do that with Clough or Kenneth Williams.”

Despite his best intentions, Sheen is playing another Blair in his next film – The Voyage of Doctor Doolittle, where he’s the nemesis of Robert Downey Jr’s animal-loving hero. “I don’t know if they did that as a joke or not,” he says. “He’s Blair Müdfly – there’s an umlaut that he is very specific about. He was at college with Doolittle, and hates him, and becomes the antagonist because of his jealousy of Doolittle. Müdfly is employed to try and stop him from finding... what he wants to find.” As the film isn’t out for 13 months, Sheen is tight-lipped about further plot details – but he hints that Müdfly is “a villain in the tradition of Terry-Thomas villains.”

It’s the latest in a series of quirky, eyebrow-raising roles. After playing a vampire in the Twilight films and a werewolf in the Underworld franchise, Sheen says he would often be asked in interviews why a “serious classical actor” was wasting his time on fantasy films.

“There’s a lot of snobbishness about genre,” he says. “I think some of the greatest writing of the 20th and 21st centuries has happened in science fiction and fantasy.” While promoting the films, he would back up that point by citing his favourite authors – Stephen King, Philip K Dick, Neil Gaiman. “Time went on, and then one day my doorbell rang and there was a big box being delivered. I opened the box up and there was a card from Neil saying ‘From one fan to another’, and all these first editions of his books.”

It was the beginning an enduring friendship, which recently became a professional partnership: Sheen stars in Gaiman’s forthcoming TV series Good Omens, based on a 1990 novel he wrote with the late Terry Pratchett. Set in the days before a biblical apocalypse, its sprawling list of characters includes an angel called Aziraphale (Sheen) and a demon called Crowley (David Tennant) who have known each other since the days of Adam and Eve.

“I wanted to play Aziraphel being sort of in love with Crowley,” says Sheen. “They’re both very bonded and connected anyway, because of the two of them having this relationship through history - but also because angels are beings of love, so it’s inevitable that he would love Crowley. It helped that loving David is very easy to do.”

What kind of love - platonic, romantic, erotic? “Oh, those are human, mortal labels!” Sheen laughs. “But that was what I thought would be interesting to play with. There’s a lot of fan fiction where Aziraphale and Crowley get a bit hot and heavy towards each other, so it’ll be interesting to see how an audience reacts to what we’ve done in bringing that to the screen.”

Steamy fan fiction aside, it’s unlikely Good Omens will match the raunch levels of his last major TV series, Masters of Sex (2013-16), a drama about the pioneering sexologists Masters and Johnson. In the wake of the last year’s #MeToo revelations, HBO has introduced “intimacy co-ordinators” for its shows - but, Sheen tells me, Masters of Sex was ahead of the curve in handling sex scenes with caution.

“It was a lot easier for myself and Lizzy [Caplan, his co-star], as we were comfortable in that set-up, because we had status in it. But for people in the background, or doing just one scene, it’s different,” he says. “It became clear very quickly that there needed to be guidelines for people who didn’t have that kind of status, who would probably not speak up. We started talking about that, and decided there need to be clear rules.”

Sex scenes, he continues, “should absolutely be treated the same way as other things where there’s a danger. If you’re doing stage-fighting, or pyrotechnics, there are rules and everyone just sticks to them. Whether it’s physical danger, or emotional, or psychological, it’s just as important.”

Despite having several film and TV parts on the horizon, Sheen says he is still in semi-retirement from acting. In 2016 he hinted that he might be quit for good to campaign against populism. “In the same way as the Nazis had to be stopped in Germany in the Thirties, this thing that is on the rise has to be stopped," he said at the time. But now things are less cut. “I have two jobs now, essentially,” he says. "Acting takes second place."

While many celebrity activists limit their politics to save-the-dolphins posturing, Sheen has been working with a range of unfashionable grassroots groups aiming to combat inequality, support small communities and fight fake news. As well as supporting Welsh credit unions, and sponsoring a women’s football team in the tiny village of Goytre, he tells me that he's been “commissioning research into alternative funding models for local journalism”.

If he returns to the stage any time soon, he says it’s likely to be in a show about “political historical socio-economic stuff, a one-man show with very low production values”. It’s clear he’s not in it for the glamour.

Sheen was inspired to become more politically active by the Brexit referendum – which also indirectly led him to break up with his partner of four years, the comedian Sarah Silverman. At the time, they were living together in the US. “We both had very similar drives, and yet to act on those drives pulled us in different directions – because she is American and I’m Welsh,” he explains.

“After the Brexit vote, and the election where Trump became president, we both felt in different ways we wanted to get more involved. That led to her doing her show I Love You America [in which Silverman interviewed people from across the political spectrum], and it led to me wanting to address the issues that I thought led some people to vote the way they did about Brexit, in the area I come from and others like it.”

They still speak lovingly of each other, which makes their decision to end a happy relationship for the sake of politics look painfully quixotic. Talking about it, Sheen sounds a little wistful, but he’s utterly certain they made the right choice. “I felt a responsibility to do something, but it did mean coming back here – which was difficult for us, because we were very important to each other. But we both acknowledge that each of us had to do what we needed to do.”

[inspired-by-the-music]

Chapter 12: Conspiracy

Ae-Young’s POV

As expected, Dad spared no expense on the engagement party. The decorations, an elegant assortment of golds and pale pinks, were arranged so to his specifications that Heechul and I were forced to sit in Dad’s study, which was off-limits to guests at parties. 

Dad glanced out at the garden. “This isn’t very traditional— waiting this long into an engagement to have an announcement party.”

“I don’t see why we have to have a party to announce anything.” Heechul tugged at his tie. “Won’t the wedding invitations be announcement enough?”

Because I grew out of liking parties a long time ago, I wanted to agree with Heechul, but I knew “This is how you’re supposed to introduce wedding guests before the actual ceremony” because Kyuhyun told me when I complained about it weeks ago. 

“Exactly!” Dad beamed at my knowledge, and I wondered if he would be happier to know that Kyuhyun taught me. “It’s networking!”

“To you, everything is networking.” Heechul rolled his eyes before focusing his attention on me. “Speaking of wedding guests, when is your Maid of Honor getting here? I really need to meet someone.”

Gagging, I prefaced, “First of all, I would never let my friend hook up with you,” and after dodging Heechul’s attempts to strike me, I finished, “Besides, I don’t have a Maid of Honor—”

“Wait—” Heechul stopped chasing me around Dad’s study. “I get that you don’t have, like, any friends, but don’t you think you need a Maid of Honor?”

I shook my head. “Nope. But if you’re offering, you have a few months to grow your hair out, and I have this dress—”

“Heechul will not be wearing drag to your wedding, Ae-Young,” Dad asserted without looking up from the guest list he was reading at his desk. And when the doorbell rang seconds later, he sent me to answer it, saying, “I have a feeling that’s your fiancé.”

Frowning at being rejected as the Maid of Honor, Heechul teased, “Who else would show up to a party an hour early?”

I acknowledged, “You’re here early—”

“But not to hang out with you—” Heechul flicked my forehead. “I’m only here for my allowance.”

Sending a hand up smooth where he hit me, I raced toward the door before Dad could scold us for bickering. 

Maybe because it was the first time I had seen him since he told me about his ex-girlfriend, but definitely because the days had been dull while he was away, I threw my arms around him. The moment wasn’t long enough to be fully appreciated. I released him almost immediately because Dad and Heechul were probably (definitely) watching. 

“I—” I was petrified by his smile. “Sorry— hi.”

“I don’t mind—” he assured. “Hi.”

And as he stood there looking like happiness personified, wearing that suit and his hair brushed out of his face, I didn’t imagine that he would ever disappoint me.

It would be foolish to ignore the role my brother played in the night’s downward spiral. He waited until Kyuhyun, prompted by my growling stomach, went to get food to approach our quiet corner where we fled to escape exhausting small talk after greeting every guest. 

My mood soured before Heechul said anything. The moment I made eye contact with the man at his side, I cursed aloud. 

“Hey, watch your mouth,” Key barked, grabbing me as I tried to walk away. “What would your husband—”

Heechul corrected, “Fiancé—”

“Right.” Key nodded and started again, “What would your fiancé think if he overheard such foul language?”

If he was expecting an apology, he didn’t get one. I crossed my arms over my chest and asked, “What are you doing here?” although no answer would satisfy me. 

“Heechul invited me.” Popping a cheese cube into his mouth, Key shrugged before his eyebrows dipped into a puzzled expression. “Wow— wait a minute so I can get this straight.” He began counting aloud, “First, you didn’t tell me that you were leaving my apartment and I had to look all over the city for you and text your idiot brother before calling the cops because you wouldn’t answer your damn phone—”

“Hey!” Heechul gawked at him,  but Key didn’t mind him. 

“Then, you didn’t tell me you were engaged— like we haven’t known each other for years, you’re just leaving me out of this shit; then I only got invited to your party because of your idiot brother—”

“HEY!”

Key’s voice rose.“And now you’re mad that I’m here? After all the trouble I go through for you?”

Unsure of how to respond to Key’s list, I ignored him and focused instead on glaring at Heechul. “I told you that we—” I broke to gesture between myself and Key— “are fighting—”

“But it’s one of your little friendship spats,” Heechul said. He linked his hands before him and swayed like an innocent child. “Do you really want to exclude your best—”

Key interjected, “And only!”

“Yeah! Do you really want to exclude your best and only friend because somebody called somebody else flaky?”

My pulse quickened at the insult. “I’m not flaky! I didn’t have time to watch America’s Next Top Model because I was looking for a job! And—”

Even in the moment, I knew that Heechul was right, but I was too infuriated that he went behind my back to bring Key and rehearsed some kind of tag-team roast to behave rationally. 

A gentle hand tapped on my shoulder before I could scold Heechul. Whirling away from Key’s and Heechul’s frightened figures, I prepared to instead berate whoever was touching me. 

But I couldn’t greet him with anything other than a gasp and a hug. “Oh my God! Leeteuk!” It had been years since we crossed paths. When we parted ways, I never expected that I would see him again, so asking him, “Why are you here?” made the night feel like the bright conclusion to an otherwise chaotic dream. 

“Hi, Ae-Young.” He tightened his embrace around me and deepened his smile to flaunt his dimples. “Heechul brought me to meet his sister and her fiancé. Why are you here?”

“Oh, well—” I looked at my brother pointedly and explained, “I’m Heechul’s little sister.”

“And I’m her fiancé.”

When I turned to look at Kyuhyun, he stood with drooping shoulders, not holding the dinner he set off to retrieve from the dining room. What’s wrong? I desperately wanted to know, but I couldn’t ask in front of everybody. 

Slinking out of Leeteuk’s arms, I smiled at Kyuhyun. “Yeah, this is my fiancé, Kyuhyun. And Kyuhyun, this is Key—” Key waved politely— “And this is Leeteuk.” 

Although visibly shaken by the sudden introductions, Leeteuk bowed, and Kyuhyun quietly returned the gesture. 

Others might not have guessed that Kyuhyun was upset, but others hadn’t spent as many days with him as I did. Something was pulling down on that corner of his mouth again, and I couldn’t imagine what it was. 

“Okay, so I know Key because Ae-Young shared a bed with him through college,” Heechul said before turning to Kyuhyun. “Do you know Key?”

I glared at Heechul for phrasing that in the worst way imaginable. Caught between Kyuhyun’s and Leteuk’s surprised, jaw-dropped stares, I explained, “Key let me stay in his apartment for one week—”

“And I made her sleep on the couch,” Key finished. He shot me a supportive glance. He might have come with Heechul against my wishes, but it was because he wanted to be included in my life, not because he was involved in this conspiracy to humiliate me. “I wouldn’t share my bed with anyone. Especially not with—”

“But how do you know Leeteuk, Ae-Young?” Heechul shifted his weight into one leg and told Kyuhyun, “He’s kind of a celebrity—”

Sensing how I shrank under Kyuhyun’s panicking confused stare, Leeteuk interrupted Heechul to say, “We met in one of her photography classes. I volunteered to be her model for an assignment—”

Key quickly summarized, “She took his pictures.”

Kyuhyun spoke up for the first time since introducing himself to ask, eyes shifting between me and Leeteuk, “What kind of pictures?”

And it wasn’t until Heechul cackled, Key failed to suppress his chuckle, and Leeteuk stiffened next to me that I understood what Kyuhyun was asking. 

Is he serious right now? My confusion was quickly engulfed by anger. I hadn’t imagined that it was possible to be mad at Kyuhyun, but I was so livid— I didn’t think about what to say before fussing, “Not that I object to depicting the beauty of the human body in art—”

Perpetually unsure of when to shut the hell up, Heechul urged, “Speak plainly, Ae-Young. You’re talking like some ancient novel.”

I balled my hands into fists and yelled so loudly everyone probably heard, “It was a school project! I didn’t see Leeteuk missing any articles of clothing. I’ve never even seen any—”

Heechul started laughing and clapping his hands like a seal before I could finish my sentence. Leeteuk’s face burned crimson. Kyuhyun— although I could barely force myself to look at him— was clenching his jaw and staring down at the floor. 

Key begged, “Stop it right there, Ae-Young, I don’t want to hear about what you’ve seen,” in an attempt to lighten the mood, but the damage was done. 

Heechul laughed harder, and I too focused my gaze on the floor as scalding angered embarrassed tears pooled in my eyes. It was better, I decided, to act on my angered feelings instead of the embarrassed ones. “If you excuse me, I’ll go get my dinner that somebody forgot before I say something I regret.”

Of course, I had to trip as I tried to run away. Had Leeteuk not secured me around the waist, I would have face-planted onto my father’s polished marble floors. I grumbled my thanks and, the second Leeteuk steadied me, I ran upstairs where party guests were forbidden to go. 

[blackkudos]

Ananda Lewis

Ananda Lewis (born March 21, 1973) is an American television personality, model and social activist. She was an MTV veejay from the late 1990s until 2001, when she left the network to host her own broadcast syndicated television talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show.

Biography

Early life

Lewis was born on March 21, 1973, in Los Angeles, California. She is of African American and Native American descent, specifically of the Creek and Blackfoot tribes. Her name means "bliss" in Sanskrit. Lewis's mother worked as an account manager for Pacific Bell, and her father as a computer-animation specialist. Her sister, Lakshmi, is a physician. Lewis's parents divorced when Ananda was two years old, and her mother moved with her daughters to San Diego, California, to be near her own mother. Her mother took an extended trip to Europe to escape the pain of her failed marriage, leaving Ananda and Lakshmi with their grandmother. During her absence, which lasted less than a year, Lewis felt abandoned. She states:

It was like she nurtured me and carried me in her womb and then completely left."

Lewis often fought with her mother while growing up and rarely saw her father, who had remarried. Lewis and her grandmother also frequently "locked horns" while she was growing up.

Lewis struggled with a speech impediment, stuttering until she was eight years old. In grade school she earned a reputation for outspokenness; her comments provoked her teachers' ire or, less often, their amusement. In 1981 Lewis entered herself in the Little Miss San Diego Contest, a beauty pageant, and won. During the talent portion of the competition, Lewis performed a dance routine, which she had choreographed herself, to Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney's ballad "Ebony and Ivory." After her win, Lewis attracted the attention of a talent agent and began working in local theater productions and on television. In fourth grade she enrolled at the San Diego School of Creative and Performance Arts (SCPA), a public magnet school, where she remained for nine years. At the age of thirteen, Lewis began volunteering as a tutor and counselor at a Head Start facility. Lewis was inspired by the work and decided to become a teacher or a psychologist, with the goal of helping young people. However, Lewis's family urged her to follow a more lucrative career path specifically law. She majored in history at Howard University, in Washington, D.C., from which she graduated, cum laude, in 1995.

Personal life

Lewis has credited her mother, grandmother, and sister for providing her with a positive, supportive environment. By her own account, as she grew older she felt increasingly upset by her parents' divorce. In adulthood, Lewis has healed her rifts with both parents. Lewis was a good friend of singer and actress Aaliyah before her accidental death. She has six godchildren. In 2011, Lewis gave birth to a boy, her first child. She currently resides in the San Fernando Valley.

Career

Early career

Throughout college Lewis had volunteered as a mentor with the group Youth at Risk and at the Youth Leadership Institute. She was considering attending graduate school to pursue a master's degree in education when she learned that auditions were going to be held for the job of on-screen host of BET's Teen Summit. She states that the children she was working with that summer were the main ones pushing her to go to the auditions. She states:

The kids said, "You better go audition for that show. You don't have a job, and this job is almost over."

Lewis's audition would be a success and she became the host of Teen Summit. For three seasons she discussed serious issues affecting teenagers for a television audience of several million. The show's topical, debate-driven format enabled Lewis to follow her passion for helping young people, and use her skills she had acquired at the performing-arts school in San Diego. Lewis is known for having the courage to openly discuss taboo subjects without flinching. Her executives knew that this kind of gumption was the right stuff for a live show host," In 1996, on an installment of the show entitled "It Takes a Village," Lewis interviewed then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, whose book with that title had been published earlier in the year. Also in 1996 Teen Summit was nominated for a CableACE Award, and the next year the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) presented Lewis with an Image Award for her work on Black Entertainment Television (BET). Soon afterward the cable network MTV offered Lewis a position as a program host and video jockey. The thought of leaving Teen Summit was painful for her; indeed, several sources quoted her as recalling that she "cried for three weeks" while pondering her choices. In opting to move to MTV, the deciding factor was the possibility of greatly increasing the size of her viewing audience and, therefore, her potential for influencing America's youth.

Lewis hosted and VJed a variety of shows includingTotal Request Live, a daily top ten video-countdown show, and Hot Zone, which offered both music videos and Lewis's interviews of musicians and others. On one notable installment of The Hot Zone, she berated the rapper Q-Tip about the number of scantily clad dancers in one of his videos. In a reference to Lewis's broadcasting savvy, Bob Kusbit, MTV's senior vice president for production, told Douglas Century for the New York Times on November 21, 1999, "In the past our talent was sometimes just pretty people who could read cue cards. But when we brought Ananda to MTV, we decided we were going to do a lot more live television." MTV also called upon Lewis to host other, topical programs, including two MTV forums on violence in schools, which aired after the Columbine High School massacre and several memorial tributes for the singer Aaliyah, who perished in a plane crash in 2001. In 2001 Lewis earned another NAACP Image Award, for her hosting of the MTV special True Life: I Am Driving While Black.

In 1998, Lewis made headlines while at MTV when she announced, that she intended to remain abstinent for at least six months. She states:

I made the decision for selfish reasons, but I'm going public here because I realized I might be able to help other girls, too. I know the kind of drama that being sexually active brings to your life. I felt that if it was good for me to take a break, it might be good for other young girls, too. You see, I think I would be a whole different person if I hadn't had sex so early. Everybody was saying, "Do it!" but nobody ever said, "You don't have to do it". I think hearing that would have made a huge difference in my life.

Also during that period Lewis became a familiar presence at celebrity-attended events in and around New York City. "If you don't recognize the name Ananda Lewis, it may be because you're older than 23, or not a hip-hop star, or not a regular supplicant in the land of the velvet ropes," Century wrote at the height of Lewis's fame. "In the last year, Ms. Lewis has emerged as the hip-hop generation's reigning 'It Girl,' meaning she is not just an MTV personality but a woman whose looks and attitudes have made her perpetually in demand."

Later career

In 2000 People included Lewis on its list of the world's "50 Most Beautiful People." In 2001, Lewis decided to leave MTV in order to start her own talk show. The Ananda Lewis Show debuted on September 10, 2001, after much advance press in which Lewis was compared to Oprah Winfrey, the wildly popular talk-show host long considered to be one of the most powerful women of African American descent in television. Lewis continued to do special presentations for MTV after her show had begun. Lewis's series, which was syndicated by King World Productions, targeted women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four by addressing such issues as domestic violence and breast cancer; it was billed as an alternative to the sensationalism and provocative offerings of Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake, whose talk shows were then dominating daytime ratings. Lewis's show aired on some WB and NBC stations before being canceled after one season. Her show's producers stated: "We started on a Monday and then there was the World Trade Center bombing the next day, and everything has become a mess since then," Roger King, the chairman and CEO of King World Productions and CBS Enterprises. Lewis then worked briefly for BET.

In 2004 Lewis became the chief correspondent on celebrity subjects for the nationally syndicated, nightly entertainment program The Insider, a spin-off of the popular Entertainment Tonight. In the spring of 2005, she interviewed Paris Hilton, Dylan Ryder, Don Cheadle and Ryan Phillippe (two of the stars of Paul Haggis's ensemble film Crash), and actress Dyan Cannon. Lewis herself has made guest appearances on several sitcoms.

In 2004 Ms. Lewis also appeared on the ABC network's reality show called Celebrity Mole: Yucatán. This reality series won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement for Enhanced Television.

An avid animal lover, Lewis has served as co-host of the A&E television-network show America's Top Dog and as a spokesperson for the Humane Society. She has been known to frequently introduce her two pet chihuahuas to interviewers. She has also been a spokesperson for Reading Is Fundamental, a nonprofit literacy group.

[sabraeal]

Hi! Could you write a modern fanfic of Izana and Haki? Maybe you should write a side story to “Give and take a Little More” In the fanfic, there was a line where it said “[Haki] was sixteen and saw a college boy flip his floppy hair and talk to her father like he was a child.” I want to see how that meeting with Izana might have gone with for Haki.

Wide Florida Bay | Next

Her father has outdone himself, Haki has to admit, even if he is an asshole.

She’s been attending these galas since she was thirteen; too young by most standards, but all the men who spoke to her that night – including those who said they hated children, including fathers of her classmates, which, to her surprise, was a much larger overlap than she would have believed – had told her she was her mother’s daughter. She had thought that meant she was mature, that she had the bearing and poise of her hopelessly elegant mother.

Makiri hadn’t let that misconception stand for long. It means you look sixteen, he told her, and they don’t feel bad for looking at you.

In any case, she can see the expense Father put into this: the antique chandelier, made with real diamonds; the fountains of wine and chocolate; the entirely over-the-top ice sculpture centerpiece of two dolphins twisted into infinity – all of it says elegance but also conspicuous consumption, which is what all of these seem to really be about, even if the ticket price ostensibly goes to charity. It will be the event on everyone’s lips, until someone else throws a bigger one, and then her father’s will be forgotten, little more than a vague memory in an endless crush of parties.

Haki frowns, fiddling with the clasp on her clutch. She didn’t used to think like this, not really. Even days ago she’d been excited to be here, to see what all her friends would wear – they had, of course, shown each other pictures, but dresses looked different on models than they did in real life – to talk about what they’ve been doing since school let out for the summer. She had spent all of last night watching the season finales for both One Tree Hill and The O.C., making sure she had scrutinized every detail so she would be ready for today –

But she hadn’t watched The Hills. She’d meant to, it was supposed to be the culmination of all of her TV watching, but – things happened.

And now instead of talking about how awkward it must be for Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush now that Lucas and Brooke are a thing again, she’s thinking about how everything here is – is fake. How all of it is just something Daddy threw money at to be perfect, without even taking an actual interest.

She doesn’t want to think about why that bothers her so much, why that feels personal now, tonight of all nights.

She sneaks a glance over her shoulder, watching Makiri with a bunch of other guys his age, corporate heirs just like him, and – and he looks miserable, caged. I don’t belong here, he’d said, meaning every word. I don’t want to be this person.

You’re my son, this is who you are. Daddy has never been wrong a day in his life. I made you this way.

Her hands slicked over the satin of her gown. I made you this way.

They had picked this dress out together after he had told her which designers to choose from, after she had narrowed down her selection to just a handful of options. She had curled up on his office couch, laying printouts across the glass coffee table, and they had debated the merits of each one, of what it would bring to her reputation, her image. He’d asked her, as she’d shown him similar styles from celebrities her age to prove that one gowns was age appropriate, if she had considered going into fashion design, whether that might be where her business interests would lie when she graduated in two years.

She’d been excited then, she couldn’t wait to tell all her friends the next time she saw them, that he’d mentioned his industry contacts, maybe even an internship, but now –

I made you this way. 

Things are different now.

“Haki.”

A touch at her shoulder draws her back into the moment, Tomomi’s dark, earnest eyes waiting for her. “Haki, are you all right?”

“Oh, me?” She hangs her brightest smile on her lips. “Yes, I was just looking at the dolphins. Daddy hadn’t mentioned he was going to have them, and ice sculpture is so fascinating.”

“Ice sculpture, huh?” Andalusia raises her eyebrows, mouth set in a knowing smirk. “I think I know what this is about.”

With actual surprise, Haki blurts out, “What?”

“What do you mean?” Cristal asked, eyes darting nervously between them.

Now that the attention is on her, or at least, where she wants it, Andalusia’s smirk widens into a grin. “I think Haki is looking for someone.”

Cristal cranes her neck trying to pick out someone important enough to get excited about. “Who?”

“Why, the ice prince himself,” Andalusia drawls, “Izana Wisteria.”

The name has the desired effect.

“Izana Wisteria?” Tomomi asks, jaw slack. “He’s supposed to be here?”

Andalusia shrugs. “That’s what my Daddy says.”

“Is it true?” Cristal bounces on her toes, her searching getting more frantic. “Is he here?”

Haki bites down on a sigh. A few months ago, the only thing they talked about who was getting Hilary Duff to sing at their birthday, and now – now it was which Jonas they think they could get to go to prom, or whether Jesse McCartney was single now, whether that mattered because Zac Efron was both single and hotter, or, well, anything about Izana Wisteria. Ever since he had that article in Seventeen, talking about what the youngest (almost) CEO in America liked in a girlfriend, he’s been the topic of speculation in every single one of their conversations.

She thought it had been pretty apparent from the tabloids: legs a mile long and a career where she’s only known by an animal name. Giselle. Paloma. Raven. Capybara.

Haki nearly spits out her drink at that one. “I haven’t seen him yet, but Daddy said he would. He apparently was already going to be down here to visit Haruto, and since she was planning on coming…”

She leaves it on a shrug. These girls can connect the dots well enough, even if they can’t tell that the kind of girl Izana Wisteria likes isn’t down-to-earth and funny.

“Oh,” Tomomi says, blinking. “Isn’t that him over there? With your dad?”

Haki twists around, and, god, if Tomomi isn’t right – there is the ice prince himself, pale hair swept over one eye, talking to her father as if he’s an equal, as if he isn’t half his age and none of his experience. He’s much thinner than he looked in Seventeen.

“You should go talk to him,” Andalusia doesn’t whisper at all, putting a hand on her back. “Get your dad to introduce you to him.”

“But I –” don’t really care, sticks on her tongue; a good thing since she gets a sharp shove from behind.

“Bring him over here,” Andalusia tells her, tone brooking no argument. She’s the baby of her family, used to getting her way, and between Cristal and Tomomi, she usually does.

Haki doesn’t usually care one way or another, but this dress is Donna Karan. 

With a lingering look at Andalusia, Haki sashays across the floor, making sure that she can see every step she takes – right to the refreshment table. She doesn’t need to look back to know that Andalusia is two steps from blowing her lid, and she takes her dear sweet time filling one of the champagne flutes with punch, making sure she never spills a drop.

No one shoves Donna Karan.

She side-steps over to where there’s shrimp on skewers and scallops wrapped in bacon, loading up one of the small porcelain plates as she enjoys the other advantage of her stance by the snacks: she can hear every word that her father and his colleagues are saying, without having to stand by his side like an awkward puppet, waiting for its puppeteer to give it something to say.

“Of course,” her father says, wrapping up his story, “now everyone is saying that we should stop offshore drilling, just because of Katrina.”

The men around him laugh; they may all be land magnates, making their money off condos and tourism, but everyone has stocks in oil. Cars will never go out of style, honey, he tells her, and she knows better to mention electric cars, or solar power, or, well anything that suggests change. If there’s one thing Axel Bergstrom knows, it’s what to do with his money.

“That seems like good business.”

Haki swings her head around, and – yes, Izana Wisteria had said that. That her father was wrong.

Her father is known for his wide smiles, and this one freezes on his face, a rictus grin. “Funny you should say that, boy. I thought you Wisterias had your money all tied up in that business.”

“We did,” Izana says simply, with a shrug that says he changes stocks like some men change their shirts. “Or rather, my father did. He was a bit of a relic about these things. Didn’t have good foresight about what would be the next big thing. Completely passed up on Google, and look where they are now!”

He tosses his head, flicking his floppy hair so he can see out both eyes. “I sold all of them and invested in tech. Clean energy, Apple, Amazon – have you heard of something called Tesla? They make electric cars. Exciting stuff. You see, gentlemen,” he smiles like he has a secret, “while you men are invested in the past, I’m investing in the future.”

“Well, we’ll see how that works out for you,” her father says, with that subtle condescension he’s so good at. “It’s good to take risks, but you have to have a solid grounding in reality.”

“I know you don’t really know me, Axel.” There’s no stress on the name, but she sees the way her father stiffens, his surprise at how someone as young as him isn’t even intimidated in the slightest. Izana places a hand on his shoulder. “But I don’t take risks. I play to win. If you would excuse me.”

He slips away from her father, disappearing into the glittering crowd, and –

Oh, she’s – flushed. That’s…odd.

An arm, long and slender, slips past her to pick up a plate. “Nice party,” Izana Wisteria tells her, very, very tall beside her, with very nice eyes, and he –

He winks.

“Eep!” she yelps, turning right on her heel and bee-lining for the hall.

Once Haki turns a corner, safe, she takes a breath, covers her face, and screams.

It’s fine, it’s fine. He doesn’t know who she is, and they – they will never have a reason to interact again, besides maybe being polite at parties. There’s no need to feel embarrassed.

Izana Wisteria might be cute, but he’ll never mean anything to her.

[kicksaddictny]

Jess Sims Officially Becomes Part of the Jordan Brand Family

According to NIKE

Jess Sims, a top Peloton instructor, in-game host for the New York Liberty and the newest ESPN College Game Day host, has joined the Jordan Brand family.

Jordan Brand and Jess Sims share a commitment to pushing the boundaries of sport while energizing the next generation of athletes. Sims’ career—from working with Teach for America to helping millions of people reach their fitness aims—has focused on using sport to create change and reach new audiences.

“Jordan Brand has been in my life since my dad first introduced me to the sport of basketball and the GOAT that is Michael Jordan, and now it's fully integrated in my fitness, lifestyle and professional worlds,” says Sims. “Amplifying women, particularly women in sports, has been a huge passion and mission of mine. Together with Jordan Brand, I will continue to empower women to take up space—to not be afraid of our physical strength.”

Together, Jordan Brand and Sims aim to drive education around the importance of the mind-body connection and amplify the voices of women through transformative storytelling. Sims’ new role with College Game Day provides a unique opportunity to ignite cultural conversations beyond the field of play. 

The high visibility of in-game sports hosts creates the ability to use the power of personal expression to bridge the intersections between fashion and sport by fusing independent fashion with a performance environment. Jordan Brand believes there is an opportunity to lead with purpose and amplify the voices of women, specifically creatives and fashion designers, through partnerships with athletes like Sims.

“We are elated to welcome Jess into the Jordan Family. She is more than a Peloton trainer. She is an athlete, an educator and a role model for young girls and woman all over the globe. Her authenticity to sport, passion for purpose and grit to break into new spaces speak to her embodiment of ‘Jordan DNA’ and the values this Brand is built upon. And we are honored to celebrate and partner with Jess as she continues to expand beyond the fitness world,” says Jasmine Jordan, Jordan Brand Women’s Sports Marketing.

[antmfunny]

2. Where Did They Find These White Girls?

A lot of reality shows only cast a handful of non-white contestants, and those limited spots often go to "the bitch" or "the villain" archetypes, so credit to Top Model for going against the grain. In this cycle, it's people of color who make up the majority of the cast, and it's the white girls who come off the most crazy and unlikable. That's progress, maybe!  

For example, there's Liberty, who's from a super white and conservative small town in Idaho. Despite acknowledging she has a lot to learn about the world and politics, she has no problem spouting her uninformed views. I'm really curious to know what was going on in her pretty little head when she asks several women of color if they think there might be pros to having Donald Trump as president in the upcoming years. Spoiler: The black women do not. Second spoiler: The black women are correct.

Undeterred, Liberty outs herself as being pro-Trump because of his business experience. She expects that he will provide "some career opportunities" and improve the economy "a little bit." Yeah, that doesn't seem nearly worth the trade off for having an unstable, incompetent, and corrupt bigot at the helm.

Also, she's essentially telling these fellow models that having a president who views them as subhuman is acceptable if the economy improves. Let's be clear, Liberty, that there's only one wealthy, egomaniacal reality show host who is providing you with a career opportunity right now and it's not the president - it's Tyra Banks!

Then we've got the white girl who's a little too comfortable claiming she's down with brown-skinned people. As Maggie explains to the panel, she grew up in lily white Maine until she went to college in Oakland, which is a lot more diverse. She now goes by the nickname "White Homegirl" since she glommed on to black culture as soon as she was introduced to it.

Oh boy. I don't doubt that some people of color jokingly called Maggie "white homegirl" in college, but if any of those people were really her friend, they would have told her not to embrace that monicker, as she looks completely foolish. Good for her for branching out, but she hasn't been "stripped" of her whiteness. I mean, with that dumb red hat, she still looks like your typical white hipster girl to me.

Finally, we have Liz, who is a mess and a half. She trips on her way into the room, which Tyra seems to love since it makes Liz "memorable," though she does inquire how inebriated Liz is. Liz insists she's sober.

Flashback to Tyra doing the same thing:

That's not to say LIz is sober sober like Tyra since she asks the judges to get drinks with her when the process is all over. Law still suspects she has a flask hiding in her cleavage. Nevertheless, he wants to create a brand just so she can be the face of it.

That's THIS face, mind you. Who wouldn't want to buy what she's selling?

Before the photoshoot, Liz compares herself to both Alice in Wonderland and Courtney Love, which would imply she's mixing psychedelics and downers. Her sobriety is further questioned during the photoshoot when Drew actually has to tell Liz, "Do some where you look beautiful instead of just drunk." She survives the next cut anyway.

Then, at the fashion show, Liz stomps like this, practically stumbling into the audience:

For whatever reason, Law still loves it. She survives the cut after that, as well.

But not before stirring up some confusing drama where she cries at Khrystyana about… well, Liz doesn't even know what the point of her own rambling is, to be honest. That still doesn't stop from her from whining and even getting mad when Khrystyana tries to wrap up the conversation. "You're not letting me finish!" is a fine thing to say to someone who interrupts you, but if you haven't made a coherent point in several minutes, what are you trying to finish even?

"I'm just telling you my feelings," Liz says, and later adds, "I just, like, I just want you to know that, like, I just feel, like, really, like, crappy, you know?" I could die happy if I never heard the pejorative "snowflake" again, but there is something super off-putting about someone who thinks she has the right to hold another person hostage so she can babble about her vague insecurities. Every feeling you have doesn't need to be shared… and perhaps shouldn't when you can't even articulate it!

Bless Khrystyana for being maybe the one example of a non-crazy white person this cycle. She says that Liz seems to be under the impression that she confide in her because she thinks that they're "really close friends," but Khrystyana doesn't know why Liz would feel that way.

She cutely shrugs it off, but we're going to need to Furonda to more bluntly express Khrystyana's point of view:

If Liz were actually Khrystyana’s friend, she wouldn’t dare pull her into a sure-to-be-on-TV moment while she has cream all over her face.

One night in, and the whole house already sees Liz for the basket case that she is. If this is Liz sober, I'd hate to see how ridiculously she'd act on drugs.

5 Funniest Moments of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 24 Episode 1

[thekotaroo]

Profiles of Pride: June 16th! 🏳️‍🌈Peppermint🏳️‍🌈

Peppermint, or Miss Peppermint, is an American actress, singer, songwriter, television personality, drag queen, and activist from New York City. She is best known from the nightlife scene and, in 2017, as the runner-up on the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. In 2018 Peppermint made her debut in The Go-Go's-inspired musical Head Over Heels as Pythio, becoming Broadway's first out trans woman to originate a lead role. She does not use her birth name, and asks that publications not deadname her.

Peppermint started performing as a child in youth theatre, playing roles at Opera Delaware, Delaware Children's Theatre, and The Brandywiners Community Theatre. She continued performing at Wilmington High School where she was also on the cheerleading team.

Peppermint moved to New York City to study musical theatre at AMDA. While in college she got a job at the nightclub Tunnel's Kurfew parties, ultimately becoming a fixture in New York City nightlife. She started recording music in 2005 for Jonny McGovern's mixtape Jonny McGovern Presents: This is NYC, Bitch! The East Village Mixtape. She contributed the song "Servin' It Up", which was produced by Adam Joseph. The song was later released as Peppermint's debut single in 2006.

Peppermint was featured in the web series Queens of Drag: NYC by gay.com in 2010. The series featured fellow New York drag queens Bianca Del Rio, Dallas DuBois, Hedda Lettuce, Lady Bunny, Mimi Imfurst, and Sherry Vine. She also appeared as a drag-version of Tyra Banks on America's Next Top Model Cycle 14, Episode 5: "Smile and Pose" introducing a drag-theme runway challenge at Lucky Chengs in New York City.

Peppermint talked about being trans publicly for the first time on an episode of The Daily Show called "The Trans Panic Epidemic" in April 2016.

On February 2, 2017, Peppermint was announced as one of the fourteen contestants on the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Though other transgender women have competed on RuPaul's Drag Race, she was the first to have come out prior to the show airing, having come out in 2012.

She won the Roast Challenge in episode 8. She placed in the bottom two in two challenges, lip-synching to Madonna's "Music" and the Village People's "Macho Man", winning both. Her performances earned her the favorable nickname "Lip Sync Assassin". Ultimately, she finished in second place after winner Sasha Velour, after they both lip-synced to Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right but It's Okay".

Peppermint's debut studio album Hardcore Glamour was self-released in 2009 and preceded by the singles "Servin' It Up" and "Thought Ya Knew". In 2011, Sherry Vine and Peppermint released a parody of the Lady Gaga and Beyoncé song "Telephone" titled "Make Me Moan". Following the viral success of the music video, Peppermint later released other parody songs, including a parody of Azealia Banks' song "212", titled "21/12". Her song "If I Steal Your Boyfriend" was used in the 2011 film Eating Out 5: The Open Weekend.

On April 3, 2017, Peppermint released a six-track EP of remixes of various songs she had released up to that point, including the single "Dolla in My Titty". Her second studio album Black Pepper was released in June of the same year. A three-song EP with producer Cazwell called Blend was released in 2018. In 2019, Peppermint appeared on fellow Drag Race alum Trinity The Tuck's single "I Call Shade", which charted at number 13 on the Billboard Comedy Digital Tracks chart.

On February 11, 2020, it was announced that Peppermint was working on a new album, and the lead single "What You're Looking For" was released on February 14, 2020. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight on August 28, 2020, Peppermint stated that the album would in fact be a trilogy of EPs, and that a full studio album was previously planned for a May 2020 release, but was delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first of these EPs, A Girl Like Me: Letters to My Lovers, will be released on October 16, 2020, with the lead single "Best Sex" being released on October 2. Of the project, she said "it really does focus on my life -- who I am as a trans woman -- and everything that's happening right now [with] Black Lives Matter, Black Trans Lives Matter and a lot of the issues that we are dealing with socially." She also confirmed that the project would feature collaborations with Laith Ashley, Jerome Bell, Daniel Shevlin of Well-Strung, Matt Katz-Bohen of Blondie, Corey Tut and Adam Joseph.

The EP garnered Peppermint a nomination for Outstanding Music Artist at the 2021 GLAAD Media Awards.

Peppermint made her Broadway debut in The Go-Go's-inspired musical Head Over Heels using the songs of The Go-Go's. The plot of the show is somewhat based on The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia written by Sir Philip Sidney in the 16th century. The show began previews in June 2018 and officially opened July 2018, at the Hudson Theatre; playing the role of Pythio, Peppermint became the first trans woman to originate a principal role on Broadway.

Peppermint has had appearances on Pose and Saturday Night Live, and in October 2019 played the role of Pastor Olivia, "the [transgender] leader of an LGBTQ-friendly congregation", in a two-episode arc of God Friended Me.

From 2019-2020, she co-hosted It's a Mess podcast with Cazwell.

Peppermint is a co-founder of Black Queer Town Hall along with Bob The Drag Queen. The inaugural event featured speakers such as Laverne Cox and Angela Davis and raised over $270,000 for The Okra Project.

On June 2, 2021, Peppermint was announced as a cast member of OUTtv's Call Me Mother, where her and fellow "Drag Mothers" Crystal and Barbada adopt and mentor up-and-coming drag talent over an 8-week journey as they compete to win the title of “First Child Of Drag” and a $50,000 prize package. In the show, Peppermint will be representing the House of Dulcet.

[yogaposesfortwo]

Meet the Next Generation of Yoga Changemakers

These young yogis—representing Gen Z—are changing the planet through peace, love, and compassion. Many are quick to tsk-tsk “kids these days” for nonstop smartphoning and a self-centered attitude. But this most-diverse generation, with nontraditional views on everything from identity to power structures, is more conscientious than you would possibly think—and that’s very true for these five up-and-coming yoga teachers (most of whom started practicing before they hit double digits). prepare to be inspired.

Tabay Atkins: Showing us the way to follow your dharma, because the country's youngest yoga teacher

By Meghan Rabbitt

Tabay Atkins Age: 14 Lives in Maui, Hawaii My yoga model is my mom, because she beat cancer. My biggest accomplishment thus far is graduating highschool at age 14. My favorite teaching moment was once I led a yoga class with Tao Porchon-Lynch, the oldest living yoga teacher. She told me, “Keep doing what you’re doing, and stay faithful you.” In the year 2030, I’ll be teaching, traveling the planet , and sharing my love of yoga and veganism with as many of us as I can. Yoga is for everybody . Yoga isn’t about stepping into the “best” pose. I wish more yogis would realize the amazing benefits of a plant-based diet. The promise I make to myself a day is to be the simplest version of myself that I are often . It was a complete fluke that six-year-old Tabay Atkins found himself with a stack of coloring books within the corner of a San Clemente, California yoga studio. His mom, Sahel Anvarinejad, had just finished treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and showed up there for what she thought was a tea date with Carolyn Long, a lover of a lover who’d sent countless texts and emails with supportive and galvanizing messages during her cancer treatment. Long had asked Anvarinejad to satisfy her at her studio without exactly clarifying that they’d be doing quite having tea. “I had only been cancer-free for 2 weeks, and once I walked into the studio that night, i used to be so skeptical of yoga,” says Anvarinejad. “I wanted to run out. But something told me to remain .” Long had a plan—albeit a rather sneaky one. What were the probabilities that Anvarinejad would suggest meeting on the precise day and time that her studio’s yoga teacher training was starting? Didn’t that mean she was meant to hitch the training—to find out how yoga could be a neighborhood of her post-cancer healing journey? Anvarinejad felt resistant. She’d never even done yoga before, and now she was getting to join an educator training? But Long was persistent. So, Anvarinejad signed up—if a touch reluctantly. Before the second class, she tried to bail because she didn’t have childcare for her young son. “Bring him!” Long told her emphatically. Which is how Atkins ended up in yoga class thereupon stack of coloring books. Except Atkins did more watching than coloring that day. The next, serving as a prop helper for the trainees, he delivered bolsters and blocks to their mats as required . Then, Atkins started trying a number of the postures from the sidelines, too. “A few days every week , i might practice with my mom,” says Atkins, now 14. “She’d inquire from me to remind her the way to do the poses, and that i would show her. a tremendous transition happened from the start to the top of my mom’s training—there was this super-change in her. Before yoga, she’d been sad and scared then low on energy and mobility due to the intensive chemo. After the yoga training, she was happy again—back to her old self, but better.” While most second graders might simply be psyched to possess their mom back to normal, Atkins wanted more: He wanted to urge certified to show , too. “I wanted to assist people the way yoga helped my mom,” he says. “There were numerous people within the single bed next to her who didn’t even realize yoga. i assumed if I could share this amazing practice, others could find an equivalent quite healing and happiness, too.” A Teacher is Born During her training, Anvarinejad often considered how grateful she was that her son was being introduced to yoga—and what proportion she could’ve used the practice when she was a toddler . due to all of the strain kids face at college , with friends, and reception , she decided that the right thanks to get her teaching legs under her would be to volunteer at her son’s school. She taught during gym classes and after school, and shortly parents started posing for private lessons and summer yoga camps for his or her children. Within a year, Anvarinejad opened the primary kids’ yoga studio in Orange County—and Atkins was right by her side, a self-proclaimed “helper” at age eight. “My mom started getting various certificates to concentrate on kids’ yoga—like the way to teach kids on the spectrum, teaching tweens and teenagers , and even restorative yoga—and I joined her for all of these ,” Atkins says. He was seven when he got his first yoga certificate, to show autistic kids, and a couple of years later, he found himself helping his mom lead a category at a faculty for autistic children in San Francisco . The principal warned Atkins that the youngsters he was close to teach were susceptible to violence and shouldn’t make physical contact with him or each other . But when Atkins started chatting with his peers, they were calm and captivated. When he led the scholars through a partner exercise—and they happily leaned on one another as they held Tree Pose—the principal and therefore the teachers within the room started crying. “They couldn’t believe what was happening,” Atkins says. “But I did. I thought, This just goes to point out you all how capable they really are.” After that experience, Atkins was officially sold on teaching yoga; it had been another pivotal moment that propelled him forward on his teaching journey. When he was 10, he completed a 16-day, 200-hour yoga teacher training and officially became the youngest yoga teacher in America. During Atkins’s training, it had been Anvarinejad’s address sit within the corner of the studio and fetch props and snacks for the scholars . “It was amazing to observe Tabay undergo the teacher training experience himself, then much fun watching him surprise everyone—including his teacher!—with his knowledge of the practice and true interest in learning more,” she says. Immediately after he graduated, Atkins started teaching at the studio his mom owned, and offering donation-based classes, with all proceeds getting to organizations that support kids with cancer. How to accept No Regrets Every morning, Atkins wakes up and does a brief flow together with his mom—typically some Sun Salutations and a couple of favorite poses, like Tree Pose and Crow Pose. They each name what they’re grateful for, too—a practice Atkins credits with reminding him of the transformative power of yoga and therefore the honor in sharing its benefits with others. “It’s so amazing to ascertain students walk into my classes looking exhausted and leave feeling energized and more alive,” he says. “But what I’ve realized is that it’s one thing to share the practice and another to measure it.” Enter his commitment to eating vegan—a concrete way he says he puts the principle of ahimsa (nonviolence) into practice. It’s a method Atkins says he lives his favorite mantra: Think good thoughts, speak kind words, feel love, be love, and provides love. “In this world immediately , we all got to do more of this,” he says. “There’s not enough love going around.” But if you recognize where to seem for love—and stay hospitable the moments when it'd spontaneously appear—you’ll find it, Atkins says. To wit: the kismet that was his mom—and him—finding yoga. Atkins says he often cares how life may need unfolded differently had his mom not suggested she meet Long just when yoga teacher training was starting. He considers how different her path post-cancer may need looked and the way the course of his childhood likely would have taken very different turns. “It’s all proof that everything happens—or doesn’t happen—for a reason,” Atkins says. “By living with this mindset, I won’t regret anything.” That’s to not say Atkins is watching life unfold because it will; he’s pursuing opportunities to spread the facility of yoga far and wide. “I think the longer term is so bright for my generation,” he says. “We’re educating ourselves and our parents. We’re walking our own paths and doing things differently. We’re trying to shake things up by coming together to speak about things like how our choices affect our surroundings .” “I see yoga helping us still do that in even bigger and better ways—and I’m so grateful to be a neighborhood of it.”

Ashley Domingo: Using Technology to Create Yoga Experiences for Gamers

By Bria Tavakoli

Ashley Domingo Age: 23 Lives in Portland, Oregon My yoga model is my teacher Rosie Acosta. She is that the most real person i do know , but at an equivalent time, the foremost mystical. My biggest accomplishment thus far is completing my 500-hour training and teaching within the space where I first started my journey. My favorite teaching moment was when an in depth friend told me she experienced an emotional release in one among the primary classes I taught. In the year 2030, I’ll be creatively fulfilled and ready to help my loved ones with whatever they have . Yoga is being here, now. Yoga isn’t only about embodying love and light; it's the acceptance of the opposites also . I wish more yogis would realize you don’t need to be the entire shebang—vegan, wearing Alo leggings on Instagram, drinking a smoothie for breakfast every morning—to be a “yogi.” If you've got a body and you'll breathe, you'll be a yogi. The promise I make to myself a day is what I call No Zero Days: a day I do something to maneuver toward being the person i would like to be. Some days I’ll move a mile, some days I’ll move an in. . Some days I’ll have time to try to to a 90-minute practice; some days i'd just roll in the hay my legs up the wall for a couple of minutes as my asana practice for the day. It doesn’t matter how big the move—as long as it’s not a zero. Ashley Domingo skipped college in favor of yoga teacher training and real-world job experience. Today, she’s creating a virtual yoga program for gamers that suffer from stress, anxiety, and depression. Growing up, Ashley Domingo was an honest student and an ingenious free agent with a love of crystals and tarot cards. As an adolescent weary of the criticism she was receiving from her hip-hop dance teachers, she started exploring yoga on her own through YouTube and other apps. That was the straightforward part. The not-so-easy part was choosing to forgo college, despite good grades and sky-high family expectations. “My mom was salutatorian of her highschool and went back to the Philippines to offer an interview about the importance of education,” says Domingo, who teaches yoga at her office and informally to friends. So embarking on yoga teacher training rather than attending a university was certainly off brand for her family, with whom her relationship was tumultuous. She felt sort of a disappointment to her parents, she says, who didn’t understand what she wanted to try to to together with her life. Five years later, she credits yoga with helping create a shift in perspectives—both hers and her family’s. Love initially Savasana At 19, Domingo took a full-time job working in insurance, where she started taking weekly beginner yoga classes at her office. “After that first Savasana, i used to be hooked,” she says. So she began to seek out a studio where she could explore her curiosity and deepen her practice. One teacher, she recalls, read poetry aloud at the top of her class. “It felt so safe and open,” says Domingo. “It was so different from the fear and judgment I faced in dance class.” it had been that warm feeling of acceptance that nudged her to become an educator . “I wanted to make that environment, because I knew what proportion it had been helping me with courage and clearing self-doubt.” She went on to try to to just that. After completing her 200-hour training in 2018, she began teaching the exact same class where she’d once found such comfort and relief from workday stress. Top of Her Game Last year, news of a high-profile player’s suicide rocked the web video-gaming community, during which Domingo had been a participant since 2010. (A 2017 review of fifty observational studies published within the Journal of Health Psychology found that depression and anxiety were particularly prominent among gamers.) Domingo recognized that her online peers needed “the tools to recollect their self-worth and value outside of the persona they show online,” she says. In response, she’s creating a month-long virtual yoga and meditation program for gamers, complete with meditations, asana, and instructional videos on topics starting from the importance of rest to how yoga can improve focus. She hopes to launch the series, dubbed “Bringing Peace to the Keyboard Warrior,” this year. “I know tons of my friends are very hard on themselves, and that i can give them more tools—and guide them through some exercises which will help. patiently ,” she adds, “You can do belongings you didn’t know you'll .” And she’s speaking from experience. At last, she says, “I desire I’m within the right place, and that i trust that.”

Maris Degener: Setting an example for how to work through anxiety, depression, and eating disorders

As told to Meghan Rabbitt

Maris Degener Age: 21 Lives in Santa Cruz, California My yoga model is Susanna Barkataki, for her commitment to using yoga’s teachings as a vessel for social change. My biggest accomplishment thus far is saying “yes” to recovering from my disorder . My favorite teaching moment is whenever I desire I’ve created a secure container for college kids to be their own teachers. In the year 2030, I’ll be doing the simplest I can with what I’ve learned so far . Yoga is unity. Yoga isn’t a contest . I wish more people would realize that this practice may be a thanks to hook up with healing and compassion, to not “fix” you or cause you to feel unworthy. My Favorite Mantra I can do hard things. Words of wisdom I live by “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” —Dr. Luther King, Jr. The promise I make to myself a day Try your best and roll in the hay pityingly . I’d been out of the hospital for just a couple of days, on bed rest reception , but still skeptical of why I’d needed to be hospitalized within the first place. i used to be 13 years old, and albeit the doctors and nurses showed me my weak vitals on the machines surrounding my bed during my three-week stay, I still couldn’t grasp how sick I was—how much damage I’d done to my body by not eating. So, after I’d been discharged, despite my strict bed-rest orders, i made a decision to try to to a pushup. I wanted to prove i used to be strong. I climbed out of my bed and came to my knees on the carpet beside my night table. How hard could this be? i assumed . I slowly placed my hands on the bottom beneath my shoulders and inched my feet back to urge into Plank Pose. I dropped to my knees, immediately realizing I couldn’t support my very own weight in Plank, including lower myself to the bottom then lift myself copy . therein moment, it clicked: mental disease isn’t an attention-seeking game; it’s a matter of life and death. I knew I had hurt myself, and it had been time on behalf of me to heal. Hello, Yoga? It’s Me, Maris When I was within the hospital, the doctors and nurses told me how important it might be on behalf of me to urge my strength back without strenuous exercise. Yoga was a logical choice, and once I noticed a replacement studio had opened near my hometown—and they were hosting free classes on Sunday mornings—I asked my mom if I could provides it a try. I got there embarrassingly early and ended up lecture Jenni Wendell, the studio owner and therefore the teacher that morning, before class. I’ll always remember how seen I felt by Jenni, which definitely took the sting off how absolutely overwhelmed I felt before and through that first-class . i used to be getting back in-tuned with my body and learning what it had been wish to be present. There was tons happening , like trying to maneuver into the varied postures and learn the various Sanskrit words. i used to be lost within the chaos of it all, except for the primary time in my life, I didn’t feel overwhelmed by that fact. Yoga gave me permission to not have it all found out . And Jenni met me exactly where i used to be . There was such a lot to find out and no finishing line . There was no competition or prompt for comparison. I realize now how lucky i used to be to fall under a studio where these beautiful tenets of yoga were emphasized. After that first-class , Jenni gifted me a yoga mat. it had been her way of creating sure I knew that my presence really mattered. Jenni cared if I came back—and not just during a business sense but during a way that felt to me like this person genuinely cared that I showed up. What i do know now's that when you’re handling depression and anxiety—and I grappled with both, starting at such a young age—you don’t believe that folks care if you’re around. the very fact that Jenni, a stranger, was caring on behalf of me felt revolutionary. Let the Healing Begin I desire my hospitalization and first chapter of my anorexia recovery were focused on the physical, which mostly involved ensuring i used to be eating enough calories and getting back to a healthy weight. once I found yoga, I wasn’t during a precarious place with my health. Still, that first yoga class was really challenging. In some ways , yoga felt sort of a clean slate , which was so nice after what I’d been through. I became a faithful student, getting to multiple classes every week , and after a couple of months, I got employment at the studio’s front desk. One day, Jenni told me she was performing on producing the studio’s yoga teacher training, and she or he offered me a scholarship to hitch . i used to be in awe of the practice and my teachers, but i assumed Jenni was crazy—I thought there was no way someone my age could teach yoga. Jenni described that she was designing the training to be more sort of a study group, where we’d study the philosophy of yoga and the way to integrate it into our lives, additionally to the way to teach. Now, I see that Jenni wanted me to hitch the training to assist me integrate yoga into my life beyond the 75 minutes i used to be thereon mat she’d given me. When I taught my first-class therein training, Jenni said she’d never seen me look so joyful. Something changed in me; all I wanted to try to to was expire what had been given to me. My teachers emphasized that the work of the yoga teacher is to expire what you’re learning, which suggests the simplest teachers are the simplest students. This gave me permission to be a vessel for the practice to return through; the way my teachers instilled that sort of humility in me cleared the way for my voice to emerge. I reflected on the teachers who’d had the foremost impact on my journey. The common thread? Their willingness to be vulnerable with me. They were human—always willing to return to my level and say something like, “Oh, I’ve experienced that, too.” They held space on behalf of me and didn’t attempt to “fix” me. And in being their authentic, beautiful selves, they inspired me to try to to an equivalent . My Story—on the large Screen When a filmmaker from my hometown who knew about my struggle with anorexia approached me about being during a documentary she wanted to form about eating disorders, all I saw were red flags. I’ve seen numerous films about eating disorders and are disappointed and unnecessarily triggered by them. Most of the documentaries romanticize skinny bodies. Some would go away me feeling like there was no hope for full recovery. Worse, many actually served as a guidebook to fuel my disease. (That woman ate only X amount of calories? I should eat less.) “Yoga Helped Me Remember Who I Am—and Dream about Who i would like to Be” I shared all of this with the filmmaker, and she or he really listened to my points and promised me that we’d create something different. I told her I didn’t want to speak about my weight or diet or show any pictures from the time i used to be sick. I wanted to urge to something deeper—with attention on my catalyst for healing, which was finding my practice. i assumed of my yoga teachers’ vulnerability—and the strength that shone through because of it—and I aimed to point out up with an equivalent quite truth they’ve always showed me. In i'm Maris, we mention my journey, yes. But what we actually tried to try to to is urge people to seek out their thing—the thing that speaks to their version of healing. When I hear from people who’ve watched the film, what seems to possess resonated the foremost is that the power of vulnerability. I feel closest to people when they’re vulnerable with me first. In making this documentary, I need to be that friend—the one who exposes in order that others can, too. And if I even have given even one person permission to share their story or reflect on their own experience, I desire the gift is mine. You never know what your journey—or even just your presence—might mean to someone.

Maryam Abdul: Teaching yoga and being a doula has helped her heal her community

Maryam Abdul Age: 23 Lives in l. a. , California My yoga model is @Yogi_Goddess Phyllicia Bonanno on Instagram. She’s an unapologetically black yogi who shows that there's representation within the community for black women doing this practice. My biggest accomplishment thus far is preparing and launching private yoga and birth doula businesses. My favorite teaching moment is when my students or friends say they feel better, more open, and calmer from the yoga. In the year 2030, I’ll be hosting yoga retreats, opening a yoga and wellness studio and a birth center within the Watts/South Central LA community—plus a juice bar. i would like such things to be accessible to members of my community. Yoga is your own journey together with your body and mind. Yoga isn’t alleged to only be this super-beautiful, on-the-beach, Handstands-and-splits practice. I wish more yogis would realize we've the liberty to be as creative with our yoga as we would like to be, and that we can explore more parts of ourselves. Be very gentle with yourself therein exploration. We don’t got to be hard on ourselves. Just a couple of years ago, Maryam Abdul was a sophomore in college, feeling disconnected, depressed, and anxious. “I had no sense of purpose. I felt lost and confused. Like I didn’t belong,” she says. What led her to become a significant yoga student was the motivation to reclaim her body after a sexual assault: “I lost myself— i used to be a shadow. I didn’t have anything to rest on , because I had let everything that was good on behalf of me go.” That included elements of her Islamic faith, which she says paved the way for her to eventually find yoga. Almost four years after the assault that rocked her foundation, Abdul is rooted during a solid, clear sense of purpose and mission: to help underserved communities, specifically the South Central l. a. neighborhood of Watts where she grew up— an area she calls a food desert with few outlets for yoga and wellness activities. Last year, at age 23, Abdul began training to become a yoga teacher and a doula almost simultaneously. almost like midwives, doulas provide mental, physical, and emotional support to mothers during pregnancy, delivery, and even miscarriages, and help their clients navigate a health care system that disproportionately fails black women. Abdul’s passion and curiosity had led her to review the medical industry’s early-20th-century effort to regulate , pathologize, and institutionalize black midwives—which has negatively affected birth complications among black mothers. Armed with this information, she enrolled during a local doula educational program . “We see an enormous disparity in black maternal death and infant deathrate ,” she says. “Meanwhile, stress is literally killing black mothers. i exploit yoga and meditation with my doula clients to cultivate peace and calm—with an intention to combat the statistics. i would like my people to measure , and live well. And that’s why I do what I do.” —BT

Natalie Asatryan: Bringing yoga to kids so she can change the world

Age: 15 Lives in l. a. , California My yoga model is 101-year-old Tao Porchon-Lynch, who proves yoga are often practiced at any age. My biggest accomplishment thus far is raising money for charities by teaching donation-based yoga classes. My favorite teaching moment was once I led my high school’s eleven through a yoga class. -In the year 2030, I’ll be a yoga teacher, student of yoga, and doing whatever I can to form the planet a far better place. Yoga is that the unity of the mind, body, and soul. It’s an indoor and external experience at an equivalent time. Yoga isn’t about striving to be perfect. I wish more people would realize how important it's to share yoga with the younger generation, because it might make humanity better. My favorite mantra is Om, because the buzzing of the “m” is that the eternal sound of God that lives within you in every breath. How cool is that? Words of wisdom I live by Be kind—but also courageous. The promise I make to myself a day I’m getting to do my best with what I’m given today, and whatever else happens, happens. Natalie Asatryan was five years old when she learned the way to really breathe. She was in her first yoga class—at an area studio crammed with other kindergarteners—and the teacher told them to imagine that they were hot-air balloons and had to light a fireplace in their hearts and breathe deeply so as to fly. “Then, when we’d lay in Savasana, the teacher would tell us to be as loose as noodles, and if our muscles weren’t tense when she picked up our legs and gave them a wiggle, we’d get a sticker,” says Asatryan, now 15. “My Generation goes to Run the planet Soon. The More folks Who Do Yoga, the Better” At age 12, Asatryan would continue to become the youngest girl to become a 200-hour certified yoga teacher. How did that happen? We asked her to offer us the backstory. Author: Yoga Journal Staff Source: https://www.yogajournal.com/teach/meet-the-next-generation-of-yoga-changemakers Discover more info about Yoga Poses for Two People here: Yoga Poses for Two Read the full article

[myregalhair]

My Regal Hair Presents: Has Mac Met Their Match With This New Beauty Guru? LovenGood Lips

Black girl magic has been sprinkling her pink glitter all over the beauty industry. Social media outlets like Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and even Facebook have allowed black women entrepreneurs to stand tall on these platforms and push their products to consumers who are almost always in search of the next best thing! I was so graciously granted the opportunity to be introduced to one of those noisemakers who is making her way to the top with her gorgeous Matte lipsticks and gorgeous long-lasting lip gloss that she prides on being vegan and cruelty free Yes! No animals were harmed when making these products. Mary Martin Founder of “Lovengood Lips” shared her brand with me that of which was born back in early 2017. Mary has worked and continuously works diligently to make dreams a reality. I placed an order super anxious and excited as Mary has done an amazing job with her branding her website and social media outlets are adorned with gorgeous women of various skin complexions wearing different gorgeous shades of lipsticks! I ordered Escape which is a beautiful deep matte plum color, Love Jones a beautiful bright red and not for the faint at heart and my favorite thus far a bonus that Mary gifted me, Wanderlust a gloss with a lovely tint that’s perfect when you’re going for a more subtle look!  

With Mary residing in Virginia I was unable to sit down over lattes but she was so cooperative in providing My Regal with the inside scoop on things!

CEO Mary Martin States:  

“I fell in love with cosmetics at an early age. As a child, I remember doing Karaoke with my cousins for our family gatherings and I’d be the only one dripping lip gloss. I had the scented $.99 roll on tubes to the premium, thick MAC lip glass in the squeeze tube with the round top. I was a Make-Up Artist for AbstraKt Entertainment in college and did anything from everyday glam to themed full face production. I graduated Virginia State University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Marketing and business came natural to me I had never run my own but always gave advice and business assistance to my entrepreneur friends and knew it was time to take the leap. I wanted to start a line of cosmetics that were affordable, nontoxic, and domestic. I was intrigued by the affordability of one of my favorite (at the time) brand lip- product and business model and wanted to do the same but offer better quality. Women want to feel and look beautiful but often time stray away from colors and products that they’re unfamiliar with. As a small business, this was the most exciting part because I get to introduce women to new colors, pushing them beyond their comfort and getting them to tap into that inner confidence. That’s what Lovengood Lips is about; bold colors and products that evoke confidence and sensuality for women of all shades”

I asked Mary a few questions about her goals and how she feels social media has played a role in the success of her brand.

How large of a role has social media played in your exposure and sales?

“Social Media has played a significant role in exposure but I believe word of mouth has been the driving factor of my consistent sales growth. I look at each post as my time to share something new with our customers, I get so excited when I see people in our Lippies”

What are some of the organizations that have benefited from your generous donations?

Lovengood Lips is a Lip Cosmetic Line that caters to the everyday woman and gives back to our community and beyond. Since we’ve launched we’ve donated to families in need of school supply assistance, teachers to assist them with classroom supplies and decorations for the students, Lupus Foundation of America- DC/MD/VA, Susan G. Komen – Tidewater, and a mom-- who was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer and we’re looking for organizations and non-profits to assist in 2018.

Where do you see Lovengood Lips in five years?

I see Lovengood Lips as a house hold name. In addition to the website, I have a team of five lip consultants who host in home lip parties and sell our products on a commission basis. My two-year goal is to grow that team in 5 states to expand and reach women all over, one lip at a time!

Mary is well on her way to reaching all of her goals! My Regal Beauty gives her FIVE Stars and look forward to seeing how her brand flourishes over the next five years!

Mary Can be reached on the following social media outlets:

@lovengoodlips

www.lovegoodlips.com

Stay Fearless

xoxo

LC

[bothsidesnow-plog]

Lovers in Auschwitz, Reunited 72 Years Later. He Had One Question.

Was she the reason he was alive today? 

By Keren Blankfeld Published Dec. 8, 2019Updated Dec. 9, 2019

The first time he spoke to her, in 1943, by the Auschwitz crematory, David Wisnia realized that Helen Spitzer was no regular inmate. Zippi, as she was known, was clean, always neat. She wore a jacket and smelled good. They were introduced by a fellow inmate, at her request.

Her presence was unusual in itself: a woman outside the women’s quarters, speaking with a male prisoner. Before Mr. Wisnia knew it, they were alone, all the prisoners around them gone. This wasn’t a coincidence, he later realized. They made a plan to meet again in a week.

On their set date, Mr. Wisnia went as planned to meet at the barracks between crematories 4 and 5. He climbed on top of a makeshift ladder made up of packages of prisoners’ clothing. Ms. Spitzer had arranged it, a space amid hundreds of piles, just large enough to fit the two of them. Mr. Wisnia was 17 years old; she was 25.

“I had no knowledge of what, when, where,” Mr. Wisnia recently reminisced at age 93. “She taught me everything.”

They were both Jewish inmates in Auschwitz, both privileged prisoners. Mr. Wisnia, initially forced to collect the bodies of prisoners who committed suicide, had been chosen to entertain his Nazi captors when they discovered he was a talented singer.

Ms. Spitzer held the more high-powered position: She was the camp’s graphic designer. They became lovers, meeting in their nook at a prescribed time about once a month. After the initial fears of knowing they were putting their lives in danger, they began to look forward to their dates. Mr. Wisnia felt special. “She chose me,” he recalled.

They didn’t talk much. When they did, they told each other brief snippets of their past. Mr. Wisnia had an opera-loving father who’d inspired his singing, and who’d perished with the rest of his family at the Warsaw ghetto. Ms. Spitzer, who also loved music — she played the piano and the mandolin — taught Mr. Wisnia a Hungarian song. Below the boxes of clothing, fellow prisoners stood guard, prepared to warn them if an SS officer was approaching.

For a few months, they managed to be each other’s escape, but they knew these visits wouldn’t last. Around them, death was everywhere. Still, the lovers planned a life together, a future outside of Auschwitz. They knew they would be separated, but they had a plan, after the fighting was done, to reunite.

It took them 72 years.

On a recent afternoon this fall, Mr. Wisnia sat in his house of 67 years in his adopted hometown in Levittown, Pa., looking through old photographs. Still a passionate singer, Mr. Wisnia spent decades as a cantor at the local congregation. Now, about once a month, he gives speeches where he tells war stories, usually to students and sometimes at libraries or congregations.

“There are few people left who know the details,” he said.

In January, Mr. Wisnia plans to fly with his family to Auschwitz, where he has been invited to sing at the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. He expects to recognize only one fellow survivor there. The last big anniversary, five years ago, which he attended, included about 300 Holocaust survivors. The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany estimates that only 2,000 survivors of Auschwitz are alive today.

As the Holocaust fades from public memory and anti-Semitism is once again on the rise, Mr. Wisnia finds himself speaking about his past with more urgency. This is quite a turn for a man who spent most of his adult life trying not to look back. Mr. Wisnia’s oldest son learned only as a teenager that his father wasn’t born in America. (His father worked hard to lose his European accent.)

Mr. Wisnia’s children and grandchildren coaxed him to talk about his past. Gradually, he opened up. Once he started sharing his story, others convinced him to speak publicly. In 2015, he published a memoir, “One Voice, Two Lives: From Auschwitz Prisoner to 101st Airborne Trooper.” That was when his family first learned about his Auschwitz girlfriend. He referred to Ms. Spitzer under a pseudonym, Rose. Their reunion, as it turns out, hadn’t gone quite as planned. By the time he and Ms. Spitzer met again, they both had already married other people.

“How do you share such a story with your family?” Mr. Wisnia wondered.

Ms. Spitzer was among the first Jewish women to arrive in Auschwitz in March of 1942. She came from Slovakia, where she attended a technical college and said she was the first woman in the region to finish an apprenticeship as a graphic artist. In Auschwitz, she arrived with 2,000 unmarried women.

At first, she was assigned grueling demolition work at the sub-camp, Birkenau. She was malnourished and perpetually ill with typhus, malaria and diarrhea. She persisted as a laborer until a chimney collapsed on her, injuring her back. Through her connections, her ability to speak German, her graphic design skills and sheer luck, Ms. Spitzer secured an office job.

Her initial assignments included mixing red powder paint with varnish to draw a vertical stripe on female prisoners’ uniforms. Eventually, she started registering all female arrivals in camp, she said in 1946 testimony documented by the psychologist David Boder, who recorded the first interviews with survivors after the war.

By the time Ms. Spitzer met Mr. Wisnia, she was working from a shared office. Together with another Jewish woman, she was responsible for organizing Nazi paperwork. She made monthly charts of the camp’s labor force.

As Ms. Spitzer’s responsibilities grew, she was free to move around within parts of the camp and sometimes was allowed excursions outside. She showered regularly and didn’t have to wear an armband. She used her extensive knowledge of the grounds to build a 3-D model of the camp. Ms. Spitzer’s privileges were such that she managed to correspond with her only surviving brother in Slovakia through coded postcards.

Yet Ms. Spitzer was never a Nazi collaborator or a kapo, an inmate assigned to oversee other prisoners. Instead, she used her position to help inmates and allies. She used her design skills to manipulate paperwork and reassign prisoners to different job assignments and barracks. She had access to official camp reports, which she shared with various resistance groups, according to Konrad Kwiet, a professor at the University of Sydney.

Dr. Kwiet interviewed Ms. Spitzer for an essay published in the book “Approaching an Auschwitz Survivor.” In the book, edited by Jürgen Matthäus, director of applied research at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Ms. Spitzer was interviewed by five different historians, each chronicling her life from a different perspective.

“It’s certainly not surprising to me that people in Zippi’s position would have lovers and they would try to use their influence to save people,” said Atina Grossmann, a professor at the Cooper Union in New York, who interviewed Ms. Spitzer for the book.

“For everybody you saved, you were condemning someone else,” Dr. Grossmann said. “You had to be very precise, and that’s how you kept the Germans at bay.”

Mr. Wisnia was assigned to the “corpse unit” when he arrived. His job was to collect bodies of prisoners who’d flung themselves against the electric fence surrounding the camp. He dragged those corpses to a barrack, where they were hauled off by trucks.

Within months word got around that Mr. Wisnia was a gifted singer. He started singing regularly to Nazi guards and was assigned a new job at a building the SS called the Sauna. He disinfected the clothing of new arrivals with the same Zyklon B pellets used to murder prisoners in the gas chamber.

Ms. Spitzer, who’d noticed Mr. Wisnia at the Sauna, began making special visits. Once they’d established contact, she paid off inmates with food to keep watch for 30 minutes to an hour each time they met.

Their relationship lasted several months. One afternoon in 1944 they realized it would probably be their final climb up to their nook. The Nazis were transporting the last of the camp prisoners on death marches and destroying evidence of their crimes.

As crematories were demolished, there were whispers within the camp that the Soviets were advancing. The war might end soon. Mr. Wisnia and Ms. Spitzer had survived Auschwitz for more than two years while most prisoners never made it past a few months. In Auschwitz alone, 1.1 million people were murdered.

During their last rendezvous they made a plan. They would meet in Warsaw when the war was over, at a community center. It was a promise.

Mr. Wisnia left before Ms. Spitzer on one of the last transports out of Auschwitz. He was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp in December 1944. Soon after, during a death march from Dachau, he happened upon a hand shovel. He struck an SS guard and ran. The next day, while hiding in a barn, he heard what he thought were Soviet troops approaching. He ran to the tanks and hoped for the best. It turned out to be Americans.

He couldn’t believe his good fortune. Since he was 10 years old, Mr. Wisnia had dreamed of singing opera in New York. Before the war, he’d written a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt requesting a visa so he could study music in America. His mother’s two sisters had emigrated to the Bronx in the 1930s, and he’d memorized their address. Throughout his ordeal in Auschwitz, that address had become a sort of prayer for him, a guidepost.

Now, faced with soldiers from the 101st Airborne, he was beyond relieved. The troops adopted him after hearing his tale, told in fragments of the little English he spoke, some German, Yiddish and Polish. They fed him Spam, he said, gave him a uniform, handed him a machine gun and taught him to use it. Europe would be his past, he decided. “I didn’t want anything to do with anything European,” he said. “I became 110 percent American.”

In his capacity with the American Army, Mr. Wisnia became “Little Davey,” an interpreter and civilian aide. Now he got to interrogate the Germans and confiscate their weapons. Now he took prisoners of war.

“Our boys were not so nice to the SS,” Mr. Wisnia said.

His unit trekked south to Austria, liberating towns along the way. The troops protected Mr. Wisnia, and he in turn transformed himself into an American. By the end of the war, they made it to Hitler’s mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden. Here, they helped themselves to Hitler’s wine and myriad treasures. Mr. Wisnia took a Walther gun, a Baldur camera and a semiautomatic pistol.

Even though, as a Pole, he never could become a full-fledged G.I., Mr. Wisnia performed numerous jobs after the war with the American Army. He worked at the Army Post Exchange, which provided basic supplies to soldiers. He also sometimes drove to the displaced persons camp in the city of Feldafing to deliver supplies. Once he’d joined the Americans, his plan to meet Zippi in Warsaw was no longer even a consideration. America was his future.

Ms. Spitzer was among the last to leave the camp alive. She was sent to the women’s camp at Ravensbrück and a sub-camp in Malchow before being evacuated in a death march. She and a friend escaped the march by removing the red stripe she had painted on their uniforms, allowing them to blend with the local population that was fleeing.

As the Red Army advanced and the Nazis surrendered, Ms. Spitzer made her way to her childhood home in Bratislava, Slovakia. Her parents and siblings were gone, save for one brother, who’d just gotten married. She decided to leave him unburdened to start his new life.

According to Dr. Grossmann, the historian, Ms. Spitzer’s account of her journey immediately after the war was deliberately vague. She alluded to smuggling Jews across borders through the Bricha, an underground movement that helped refugees move illegally across Eastern Europe and into Palestine.

Millions of survivors were displaced, and Europe was teeming with displaced persons camps. Some 500 such camps materialized in Germany. Amid the chaos, Ms. Spitzer made it to the first all-Jewish displaced persons camp in the American zone of occupied Germany, which in the spring of 1945 housed at least 4,000 survivors. It was called Feldafing, the same camp that Mr. Wisnia would deliver supplies to.

The odds they would be in the same place were remarkable. “I would drive over there to Feldafing, but I had no idea she was there,” Mr. Wisnia said.

Soon after she arrived in Feldafing in September of 1945, Ms. Spitzer married Erwin Tichauer, the camp’s acting police chief and a United Nations security officer, roles that allowed him to work closely with the American military. Once again, Ms. Spitzer, now known as Ms. Tichauer, was in a privileged position. Although they, too, were displaced persons, the Tichauers lived outside the camp.

Ms. Tichauer, then 27, was among the oldest of the survivors in Feldafing. Because of her husband’s position, she told Dr. Grossmann, she was considered “top management” at the camp. As such, she distributed food among the refugees, particularly the booming population of pregnant women. In the fall of 1945, she accompanied her husband when Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gen. George S. Patton came for a tour of the camp.

Ms. Tichauer and her husband devoted years of their lives to humanitarian causes. They went on missions through the United Nations to Peru and Bolivia and Indonesia. In between, Dr. Tichauer taught bioengineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

Throughout their travels, Ms. Tichauer continued to learn new languages and use her design skills to help populations in need, particularly pregnant women and new mothers. Her existence was not defined by her experience as a Holocaust survivor, said Dr. Matthäus. “She had a much richer life,” he said. “There was a lot that she achieved with her husband.”

Eventually, the Tichauers moved to America, first to Austin, Tex., and then in 1967 they settled in New York, where Dr. Tichauer became a bioengineering professor at New York University. In their apartment, surrounded by books about the Holocaust, Ms. Tichauer spoke regularly with historians. She never gave speeches and said she despised the concept of the Holocaust as a business. The historians she entrusted with her story became part of her family. Dr. Kwiet, who called her from Australia every Friday, saw Ms. Tichauer as a mother figure.

“Her duty was not to be a professional survivor,” said Dr. Grossmann. “Her job was to be the historian’s historian. She was committed to this very sober, almost technical rendition of what happened.”

Yet throughout the many hours she devoted to detailing the horrors of Auschwitz to a number of historians, Ms. Tichauer never once mentioned Mr. Wisnia.

Sometime after the war ended, Mr. Wisnia heard from a former Auschwitz inmate that Ms. Tichauer was alive. By then he was deeply enmeshed with the American Army, based in Versailles, France, where he waited until he could finally emigrate to the United States.

When his aunt and uncle picked him up at the port in Hoboken in February 1946, they couldn’t believe the 19-year-old in a G.I. uniform was the little David they last saw in Warsaw.

In a rush to make up for lost time, Mr. Wisnia plunged into New York City life, going to dances and parties. He rode the subway from his aunt’s house in the Bronx to anywhere around Manhattan. He answered an ad in a local paper and got a job selling encyclopedias.

In 1947, at a wedding, he met his future wife, Hope. Five years later, the couple moved to Philadelphia. He became a vice president of sales for Wonderland of Knowledge Corporation, the encyclopedia company, until his career as a cantor took off.

Years after he’d settled down with his wife in Levittown, a friend of the lovers told Mr. Wisnia that Zippi was in New York City. Mr. Wisnia, who had told his wife about his former girlfriend, thought this would be an opportunity to reconnect, and he could finally ask how he had managed to survive Auschwitz.

Their friend arranged a meeting. Mr. Wisnia drove the two hours from Levittown to Manhattan and waited at a hotel lobby across from Central Park.

“She never showed up,” said Mr. Wisnia. “I found out after that she decided it wouldn’t be smart. She was married; she had a husband.”

Over the years, Mr. Wisnia kept tabs on Ms. Tichauer through their mutual friend. Meanwhile, his family grew — he had four children and six grandchildren. In 2016 Mr. Wisnia decided to try again to reach out to Zippi. He’d shared the story with his family. His son, who was now a rabbi at a Reform synagogue in Princeton, N.J., initiated contact for him. Finally, she agreed to a visit.

In August 2016, Mr. Wisnia took two of his grandchildren with him to the reunion with Ms. Tichauer. He was silent during most of the car ride from Levittown to Manhattan. He didn’t know what to expect. It had been 72 years since he’d last seen his former girlfriend. He’d heard she was in poor health but knew very little about her life. He suspected she’d helped to keep him alive and wanted to know if this was true.

When Mr. Wisnia and his grandchildren arrived at her apartment in the East 30s, they found Ms. Tichauer lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by shelves filled with books. She had been alone since her husband died in 1996, and they’d never had any children. Over the years, bed-bound, she’d gone increasingly blind and deaf. She had an aide looking after her, and the telephone had become her lifeline to the world.

At first, she didn’t recognize him. Then Mr. Wisnia leaned in close.

“Her eyes went wide, almost like life came back to her,” said Mr. Wisnia’s grandson Avi Wisnia, 37. “It took us all aback.”

Suddenly there was a flow of words between Mr. Wisnia and Ms. Tichauer, all in their adopted English tongue.

“She said to me in front of my grandchildren, she said, ‘Did you tell your wife what we did?’” Mr. Wisnia remembered, chuckling, shaking his head. “I said, ‘Zippi!’”

Mr. Wisnia talked about his children, his time in the American Army. Ms. Tichauer spoke about her humanitarian work after the war and her husband. She marveled at Mr. Wisnia’s perfect English. “My God,” she said. “I never thought that we would see each other again — and in New York.”

The reunion lasted about two hours. He finally had to ask: Did she have something to do with the fact that he’d managed to survive in Auschwitz all that time?

She held up her hand to display five fingers. Her voice was loud, her Slovakian accent deep. “I saved you five times from bad shipment,” she said.

“I knew she would do that,” said Mr. Wisnia to his grandchildren. “It’s absolutely amazing. Amazing.”

There was more. “I was waiting for you,” Ms. Tichauer said. Mr. Wisnia was astonished. After she escaped the death march, she had waited for him in Warsaw. She’d followed the plan. But he never came.

She had loved him, she told him quietly. He had loved her, too, he said.

Mr. Wisnia and Ms. Tichauer never saw each other again. She died last year at age 100. On their last afternoon together, before Mr. Wisnia left her apartment, she asked him to sing to her. He took her hand and sang her the Hungarian song she taught him in Auschwitz. He wanted to show her that he remembered the words.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/08/nyregion/auschwitz-love-story.html?smid=3D=

[alexllove-blog]

Although it rained the night before, it’s done little to cool the air. Even at 9am, the sun is already blazing down. The thermometer shows 39 degrees Celsius and is poised to climb further. It’s Easter, so the schools are closed, and there’s a snaking queue at the ticket counter of Ramoji Film City (RFC), on the southeastern edge of Hyderabad, in the Indian state of Telangana.

The set of popular Telugu mythological TV series Sri Bhagavatam

Sprawled across 810 hectares, RFC features in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest film studio complex in the world, specialising in Telugu-language cinema. It’s widely visited by movie buffs from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the two southern Indian states that share Telugu as their main language. If that sounds niche, Telugu is in fact one of the 22 major languages in India, ranked third in the country by number of native speakers. Moreover, according to US-based publication Ethnologue, it’s also the 12th-most spoken language in the world, with 82 million speakers.

Introducing Tollywood

It makes sense then that, as well as being a working film studios, RFC is one of the most popular tourist attractions in India, welcoming around 1.5 million domestic and international tourists each year. On any average day, the studios see a footfall of 2,500 visitors. During last year’s summer holidays, it topped 16,000 in a single day. The crowds come for a chance to wander through the sets of their favourite films and shows, with secret hopes of catching famous actors at work.

Models of trains and vintage cars from the props department

Also known as Tollywood, this strand of Indian cinema dedicated to producing movies in Telugu may not be as well-known internationally as Bollywood, but a handful of its past deliveries have seen it go toe-to-toe with its Mumbai-based cousin, in terms of budgets and box office numbers. A recent example is 2017’s Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, the second of two period films that follow a young villager who discovers his royal heritage and saves his fictional kingdom in medieval India.

“Entertainment is the only mantra in Telugu films; they spend lavishly on costumes, sets, special effects, action scenes and musical scores”

This lavish production, shot entirely at RFC, cost INR2.5 billion (S$49 million) to shoot and went on to capture worldwide attention. A dubbed version was the highest-grossing Hindi movie of all time. Also made available in Tamil, Malayalam, Japanese, Russian and Chinese, the film grossed INR18.1 billion (S$353 million) at the box office worldwide. Buoyed by its success, there have been a series of even more ambitious Telugu productions in the works, including one titled RRR, from Baahubali director SS Rajamouli. Another action movie, this time set in pre-Independence India, the film will cost INR4 billion (S$78 million) and is set for release next year. Sci-fi action thriller Saaho, featuring Baahubali star Prabhas, is coming to cinemas on 15 August this year and cost more than INR3 billion (S$58.5 million) to make. Needless to say, both films were shot at RFC.

Remnants of the Baahubali set

A cinematic visit

Beyond the ticket counter and after a brief security check, I join the visitors to get into a bright red, vintage-style, hop-on-hop-off coach that will take us around the complex. Each coach seats about 25 visitors and includes a guide who points out the different landmarks where iconic scenes of popular films were shot.

Our coach makes its first stop at Eureka, a huge courtyard that acts as the entry area into five major attractions. Designed to mimic with white marbled floors, lavish staircases and landscaped gardens, the threshold to this cinematic town hints at what lies ahead.

Princess Street is one of the many urban city sets in RFC

Despite Telugu cinema’s long history dating back to its first silent feature film in 1921, it was only in the early 1990s that the Telugu Film Industry (TFI) completely shifted base to Hyderabad, as major Telugu producers started setting up their own sets and studios in the state capital. RFC was founded in 1996 by film mogul and producer Cherukuri Ramoji Rao.

Recognising the need for an infrastructure of pre-designed sets and ambience, Rao shaped RFC while at the peak of his career “to provide comprehensive filmmaking facilities under one roof,” explains RFC vice president AV Rao. “The tourism potential was only realised in later years when people expressed a desire to have a glimpse of where their favourite films were made.”

Entrance to the five live shows in RFC

According to Rao, over 2,600 films in various languages have been shot at RFC so far. There are around 50 shooting floors, the largest being the size of two football fields. RFC also has dedicated departments for set construction, props, craft services and camera and lighting rental.

Back at Eureka, I find shade under a flowering bougainvillea, as traditional Rajasthani music floods the open compound and early visitors fill in. At 9.45am, the music switches to a more energetic number as two wooden plank-doors leading to the Central Court start to ancient Indian forts and palaces, complete swing open and a group of dancers dressed in golden costumes and ornate jewellery appear to draw in the mass of visitors.

A hop-on-hop-off coach takes you around the film city

“Which way is Fundustan?” A hassled parent with two young children in tow breaks the calm that descends after the music stops. Our guide, a burly man in his forties, directs them towards the themed children’s play area, where thrilling rides and fascinating games await. Adjacent to it is Borasura, a spine-chilling walk-through designed as a magician’s workshop.

Globalising entertainment

Largely devoted to mainstream filmmaking with a wide commercial appeal, Tollywood has in recent years shed its regional character, delivering colossal productions that are dubbed in multiple languages worldwide. “Entertainment is the only mantra in Telugu films. They spend lavishly on costumes, sets, special effects, action scenes and musical scores,” enthuses Himavati Kurup, a college student from Coimbatore and my fellow passenger in the RFC coach. “And we love watching them.”

Setting up a scene at a pre-designed railway station set

Another college student and amateur filmmaker Venu Nagaraju, who is also on the tour makes another interesting observation. “In most Telugu films, you will see a surprising storyline,” he says. “We, the Telugu people, love fantasy and horror and will lap up any film that gives us these. And if the story is not strong enough to hold your attention, the costumes and sets will definitely do it.”

As we chat, our coach passes by a replica of the Hawa Mahal, the pink palace in Jaipur, a doorway of Fatehpur Sikri – the Mughal city just outside Agra – before driving past rolling, landscaped fields. My fellow passengers raise a cheer whenever our guide names the popular Bollywood and Tollywood films – such as Dilwale (2015) or Mirchi (2013) – that were shot at the locations we pass.

A visitor walks past part of the Baahubali set

The coach pulls to a stop near North City, where permanent sets resemble a suburban neighbourhood in a north Indian town, with multi-storied buildings featuring adorned columns, arched doorways, winding corridors and wooden carvings. A film is being shot inside one of the palatial houses and some of us try to sneak in, only to be pulled back by our guide.

“When a location is rented out for a movie, the producers take over and arrange for props to further dress up the scene. The area then belongs to the producer and we are not supposed to trespass,” he explains.

Guests enjoying a Rajasthani dance performance

As such, visitors are unlikely to witness a film being shot. However, some guests do get lucky and chance upon film stars. R Lakshmana Rao, a Hyderabad businessman on his third RFC visit, shares how he met Bollywood superstar Salman Khan here two years ago. “He was awesome and very humble, and took pictures with us.”

Just down the street are façades of rural village homes that can be found in South India, and around a corner, a street dressed up to look like a generic urban thoroughfare in Europe or the US. Our guide quips: “This is the only place in the world where you can travel from a North Indian city to a South Indian city by crossing a street, and to Europe or America without a passport.”

At these permanent railway sets, the hoardings, letterings and billboards can easily be changed to match the film

The bus halts next at the indoor sets of Sri Bhagavatam, a popular mythological Telugu television series from 2013, based on the life and deeds of Lord Krishna. Diagonally opposite this fantastical set is the façade of a tiny airport, with a huge parking lot. Our guide reveals that the fight scenes from the 2015 Shah Rukh Khan romantic action film Dilwale was shot here.

“This is the only place in the world where you can travel from a North Indian city to a South Indian city by crossing a street, and to Europe or America without a passport.”

“I am here to see the sets of Baahubali,” 75-year-old Manorama Nair from Kochi tells me, pausing for breath as she braves the noon sun while her granddaughters run up the staircases to reach the famous throne. “Baahubali was a great entertainer, and I am curious to know how they made the film. I have read almost every article written about the movie.”

The massive wooden entrance that leads to Central Court

It’s almost past 1pm and I am ravenous. Over the buffet spread at Superstar, one of the most luxurious restaurants in RFC, I reflect on the meaning Telegu cinema holds for its fans. Telugu viewers hold their films and their film personalities in high regard. I think back to the words of Anna Kowalski, a young Polish tourist I met on the coach earlier today. She and her partner were struck by their fellow riders. “We will take back with us the exuberance and craziness of the people here, and how they relate to films as well as they relate to life.”

Indeed cinema here is not just entertainment; it’s a way of life. It’s the high emotion, the grandness of life as it appears in Telugu cinema that pulls people into its fold – and why a visit to RFC is such a draw.

SEE ALSO: Taste of summer: India’s love for mangoes

This article was originally published in the June 2019 issue of Silkwinds magazine

The post On set in Hyderabad at the largest film studio in the world appeared first on SilverKris.

[wildseedculturalgroup]

New Music from Black Magic Woman Santigold

Santigold’s latest work has me diggin’ through the proverbial crates. February 26, 2016 she released her third solo album, 99¢, which quickly sent me to Joan Armatrading and from there Grace Jones. Such is the ‘mind life’ of a DJ - we look back to better understand the now.

In the retrospective glance, I found a thread—a shared dance on the lines that connect UK new wave to roots reggae, and Caribbean punk—musical elements of the Black Atlantic coupled with rhythmic traces of migration. I understand Santigold and her place in music to be somewhat of an anomaly, but only when juxtaposed against pop artists who shine bright under the light of America’s marketable musical mediocrity. This is why I can’t bring myself to categorize her sound as alternative. In my world, pop culture doesn’t set the standard for what's normal, regardless of mass appeal and the conditioning of the public it requires. 

I was introduced to Santi White through her involvement with the artist Res. The album How I Do made it big on the low with only one breakthrough song: “They-Say Vision.” The song reached #37 on Billboard’s Dance Chart. There were no platinum sales or regular radio play for any other track.

It was an album that lived on the edge of the underground, but managed to make its way through the speakers of music heads across America and beyond. Res held her own as a vocalist and felt at home in the delivery and phrasing of the lyrics. How I Do, in all of its  soul cult classic glory was an important not-to-be-slept-on collaboration. Santi White was the executive producer and co-writer for the project and my learning of that information was colored by incredulity, like word? Well who is Santi White? And what’s this I hear about her romantic connection to Mos Def? There were rumors, ones I never felt compelled to confirm or deny, but upon falling in love with the album, I, like a number of listeners, squinted my eyes, the way that people do to increase their hearing, to understand the meaning behind the track Golden Boy. Was this a sonic calling out of Mos Def the celebrity versus Yasiin Bey the personal jerk? If nothing else, I felt humanized by his ‘complexity’ and impressed by Santi White’s emotional honesty. If the rumors were true, I appreciated Res’ performative role as a representative for the perils and pleasure of black love.

And would they love you if they knew all the things we know We've got these images We need them to be true Not ready to believe we're no more insecure than you

--Golden Boys

 I kept my ear to the streets of Santi’s musical movement, waiting for the release of her first solo album. When she finally dropped Santogold in 2008, I knew she had staying power and exciting force behind her creative process. The album made its mark, introducing us to the experimental nu-dub sounds of producer Diplo and pulling off that hard to achieve mature blend of electronic music and the one drop—accentuated by an unexpected black woman’s new wave voice floating between and on top.

Santi was born and raised in Philly and I’m quite sure that her ear caught wind of the regional rhythm that city is known for. Not only was she within listening range of the Philadelphia Soul sound and the masterful ministers of dance floor activism (Gamble and Huff), she grew up alongside the burgeoning Soulquarian movement, a ?uestlove led crew heralded as the founders of the annoyingly misnamed neo-soul music.

To be clear, Santi is a formally trained musician. She took her Philly soul education to one of the nation’s most prestigious music schools, Wesleyan University, and double majored in African-American Studies and music. I can feel how sonic cultural knowledge and intellectual curiosity show up in the vocal arrangement, drum patterns, and lyrics in her music. I’m equally moved by the fact that she dropped out of college to become an A&R rep for Epic Records—a proper nod to her anti-establishment punk roots. 

Between 2003-05 she worked with Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jennifer, placing herself in direct conversation with Black punk (pre Afropunk) royalty. Santi was the founding member and lead singer for the Philly based punk band Stiffed and she and Jennifer co-produced the band’s two albums.

This is a big deal! Black girls have existed on the margins of punk music/culture for years and we can trace Santi’s footprints to NYC’s and Philly’s underground early 2000s punk and post punk scene through her work with this band. Both Stiffed albums,  Sex Sells (2003) and Burned Again (2005), are now part of a Black punk archives, excavate at will.

It was on the east coast punk scene where she was courted by London based independent label Lizard King Records. This wouldn’t be the first time that the UK, while poking their heads into American underground culture, would find some of our brightest; see N’dea Davenport, Jhelisa, Carleen Anderson and early Detroit Techno pioneers for proof. The UK soul scene (Soul II Soul, Massive Attack, D’influence, etc.), drew influences from diasporic Caribbean riddims, continental African polyrhythms, and Black American funk. Santi fits well within this tradition—this transnational artist community. By 2006, she was offered a solo contract by Lizard King and was pushed even further along her path.

When we talk about Black Magic Women, a phrase first introduced to me through the music of Santana, I geek out thinking about the many worlds from whence this specific brand of sparkle can be found. 99¢ is exciting not only because it’s a well produced arrangement of captivating songs that speak to a range of emotions and human experiences, but also, as reactionary as it may seem, important because it challenges the limited engagement of Black women as brilliant musical creatures. That phenomenon of erasure leaves the American collective imagination about black women’s relationship to the creation of music, dull at best.

Fortunately, social media, the people’s platform, has given us so much access to unpopular Black magic women with hidden, but righteous art, ideas and intentionally developed talent. For decades we’ve been using independent media platforms as a vehicle to resist erasure, and as a tool to dismantle static ideas about beauty, gender and politics that echo out our voices as cultural producers.

Consistent with indie culture, a tradition where Santi is steeped, her latest album 99¢ is complete with interactive videos. The album cover boasts a pink background and has the artist shrink wrapped amidst a few of her favorite things, including: multiple keyboards, a pair of golden clogs, a disco ball, and a license plate with her name spelled out from Brazil. With a little homework I discovered that the license plate is a souvenir from her performance at the 2012 Back2Black Festival in Brazil, which implies that her album cover is, again, akin to a living archive. She also performed during the week of the album’s release at Jack’s 99 Cents store in NYC, a decision that seems directly related to the DIY approach found in the early hip-hop economic model. 

Santi White is functioning at capacity in an underworld, a world that must be sought out and unearthed. An underworld without super video budgets, automatic radio play,  a world where concerts' ticket prices will not exceed that of a car note.

Let's explore this further. I’d like to challenge you to think of Santi as a variation of Beyoncé, or better yet, think of them as variations of each other. While the two are read as polar opposites, it’s only because we’re not given much of an opportunity to interface with the large number of multifaceted Black women who make music. I would argue that both women stand in their craft with high levels of artistic integrity and did so for at least a decade before being ‘discovered’. Both women have a clear commitment to the mastery of technical skills. And while the distinction between the two are worth investigation, I’m moved by their collective drive and clear that the evolutionary aspect of their respective practices, the fine tuning of every part of the project, is largely ignored because they are Black women. People get real stingy when assigning the title genius to these particular bodies, and too generous in framing their work as naturally good versus ruthlessly perfected.

Collectively, Bey and Santigold’s work share impact - different scales of impact, but recognizable impact. That said, Beyoncé doesn’t have to be the standard against which all Black women are measured. I am very aware of her hyper-exposure, but the comparison between the two felt like an outlandish and therefore exciting way to think about how even the most visible Black women are unseen.

In 2012, a few years had passed since I’d heard from Santigold. This was after her first solo release, and I felt good that she didn’t rush into her next album. I’m not moved by the push to ride the buzz of first album success. I’d rather artists be given the space to carefully craft an album. I’m a student of the school of Sade, who averaged a new album every two-four years. In true Capricorn fashion Sade made us wait 8 years between between Love Deluxe and Lover’s Rock, then nearly another decade between Lover’s Rock and Soldier of Love. And I say yes! Let it marinate, experience life, take your time, do it right. By the time Santi’s “Master of my Make Believe” dropped March 1 of 2012, I felt good and ready, with just a slight bit of anxiety about her return. The wait between albums creates intimacy between you and the artist, it’s so precious. And the second album was indeed a demonstration of artistic investment.

So is the third - I like all but 1.5 songs on the 99¢ album. The half comes from a song on which I love her verse and the music on a track (“Who Be Lovin Me”), but that features a less talented emcee, iLoveMakonnen. To be fair to her, I have a low tolerance for guest rappers in general, most times it feels like a music industry ploy to expand the market. The other song I struggled with is the first single from the album, “Can’t Get Enough of Myself,” a necessary anthem for young people and people in general who are listening, but it left me wanting more or, to be honest, had me worried that she was abandoning her soulful punk core for some chart friendly shit. I wasn’t having it. After falling in love with the rest of the album I was able to engage the opening track from a distance and I plan to introduce it to my pre-teen niece, but I will probably forever start the album from the second track and dive head first into the dopeness of every other song on the project.

Santigold is an artist who comes from a lineage of fierce, independent, business savvy, cutting edge, socially conscious women who find a way to produce and not be (publicly) swallowed up by the by-products of success. Her presence in the music industry is no small thing, and when you check her ghostwriting credentials you’ll see she’s written for so many of your favorite people (Lili Allen, Ashlee Simpson and Blaqstarr to name a few). I’m a witness to her maturation, her growing global presence, and her interdisciplinary approach to the arts. Santigold embodies voices of the unsung.

She’s on tour now and I had the opportunity to see her Black excellence live at the Hollywood Paladium last week. But I have to admit, I was thrown off by the sea of white millenials that made up the majority of concert goers. They were there in force, mouthing her lyrics verbatim, dancing a step behind the beat, and representing the fact that she lacks the support of Black radio and the embrace of Black youth. It became more clear that Santi is one of those artists who is vulnerable to the belief that hers is not Black music, but from my gatekeeping position as an authority (DJ), my work here is to place her where she belongs, squarely between the tradition and the future of Black music.