#the amount of fan content we have this tour is SO insane and obviously their shots will be incredibly hq but like. it's stuff we've seen | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

saranghater · 5 years ago

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boyfriend!seokjin au

genre: fluff

word count: 919

a/n: that’s right im BACK!! also is it really an au if it’s basically seokjin still being an idol except he’s dating you (+ also in this scenario you are multilingual)

dating an idol is hard, but dating an idol who’s in a group as insanely popular as BTS is even harder

prior to dating seokjin, you were a bit of an army

by “a bit”, i mean that you had a fan account with quite a number of online friends

but you’ve also been an army long enough to know that you don’t need to dedicate your whole life to them, and you can enjoy it privately or with some online friends

in true namjoon fashion, you picked up korean from consuming korean content, some self studying and even a class or two in your spare time

when you get the opportunity to temporarily move to korea for work, you take it up without hesitation, because why the hell not?

funnily enough, you meet seokjin by coincidence, because you’re both always at the same café

you notice it’s seokjin sitting in the corner of the café almost instantly, but you keep that information to yourself because it’s nice enough seeing him in person on a weekly basis (even if it’s from afar)

your interactions build up over the course of three months, beginning with borrowing chargers from each other, to noticing you’re watching the same show on netflix, to actually being friends

at some point, jin does actually ask if you know who he is, and you obviously reply yes

he exchanges contact information with you, using kakaotalk because he’s wary of sharing his number with a stranger

he officially asks you out after a couple of months of chatting and meeting up occasionally, and saying yes to him was one of the best decisions you ever made

dating seokjin is an experience unlike any other

he can be quite immature, especially because he’s always around 6 other people who are younger than he is

but in your relationship, you get to see the mature side of him, especially when you have arguments or tiffs

seokjin loves being in the domestic sphere with you

he’ll buy you matching pajamas and mugs

waking up with him is one of the best feelings, because on lazy days, you can lie in bed for awhile and enjoy being close to each other

but eventually, you’ll gravitate towards the kitchen and cook breakfast (or brunch, if it’s late enough)

seokjin has a habit of wanting your affirmation or praise when it comes to things like his cooking

“does this taste good?”

“i did a good job, didn’t i?”

initially, you’re a little unused to him being so enthusiastic about your response

but you soon start to adore the way his eyes light up, and the way he lets out a loud HA! when you praise him for a job well done

the way seokjin introduces you to the boys was,,,entertaining to say the least

“NAMJOON, YOU’VE GOT A NEW BEST FRIEND NOW. GUESS WHO CAN SPEAK ENGLISH TOO?”

why oh why did he introduce you like some sort of english tutor?

from that point on, you actually do end up helping seokjin and a few other members translate statements or helping namjoon double check some things

the other members become accustomed to your presence, especially during periods where they’re all staying in the dorms, because you’ll always pop by to drop off some home cooked food

“ramyeon is NOT healthy, and you guys really shouldn’t be eating it so much”

“but eating ramyeon is an expression of korean culture!”

you eventually have to learn how to cook korean food because all 7 of them can hardly go a day without at least one korean meal

inevitably, both your schedules become busy, especially when he’s on tour, or when your own work becomes demanding

“i finally have a free day after practicing daily, why can’t we spend the day together?”

“jin, i have work too, you know. i’ll see you when i get home.”

the fact that it feels like there’s not enough hours in a day to meet one another results in a fair amount of arguments

at some point, you both grow and learn to manage your time better, and also to appreciate the moments you get to be with each other

you’re acutely aware of the fact that you’re dating a man whose nickname is “Worldwide Handsome”, and even though seokjin never makes you feel anything but beautiful, it’s hard because it feels like you’re not good enough

this insecurity is the kind that may build up into resentment or envy, so you bring it up to him one night when you’re in bed together

“i don’t want to ruin the mood or anything, but sometimes i feel like i:m not good enough for you. like people will look at us and wonder how someone who looks like me could possibly be dating someone as attractive as you. not that anybody has said anything,,, i guess this is kind of my personal problem to deal with,,, sorry for bringing it up.”

after a short silence, jin speaks, “i feel like i’m not good enough for you sometimes. because i’m always away and busy, and you deserve more. i think you’re one of the most beautiful people on this planet, because you’re beautiful inside and out.”

that night, you both stay up to talk about your insecurities, and it changes the way you see your relationship

the two of you may have faults or insecurities, but you each push the other to become better, and that’s what makes your relationship so special

#seokjin #kim seokjin #jin #bts #bangtan boys #bts scenario #bts scenarios #jin scenario #fluff #jin imagine #bts au

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lhaze13 · 5 years ago

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Traveling While Gluten (and dairy) Free: London

This will hopefully be the start of a usual travel/food segment. Being gluten and dairy free (due to intolerances) can and has made eating while traveling a tad frustrating - to say the least. I will say, I have yet to find a place that allows me the freedom to just stumble upon food that works for me (maybe there are more places and I am just not equipped to deal with the uncertainty). It isn’t ideal to have to plan at least most meals instead of being able to do things on a whim, my plans have to be… planned. London, with scheduling, proved to be overall very gluten and dairy free friendly or accommodating, and the places we went all seemed to have knowledgeable staff. Without further ado let’s get into the restaurants.

Leggaro

This dedicated gluten free Italian restaurant was great! To start I had a taste of the Homemade Bruschetta Trio, just the cherry tomato one (although one of the others were also dairy free). It was tasty but nothing too exciting. For my actual appetizer I ordered the lamb meatballs. Best decision I made that night! Not only was it cooked perfectly but the flavors were, honestly, amazing. My father and I were addicted. I could’ve ordered a bunch of those for my meal and been more than content. For the table we ordered Pinot Blush Rosé, we went through a few bottles - I am a pretty big rosé fan. For the main course most of us ordered the Tomato Pappardelle with Bolognese. The handmade pasta was delicious! I had never had handmade gluten free pasta before so this was a delightful experience. Finished off with (unfortunately struggling to find the official name) a truffle chocolate tasting. Honestly, they were mediocre compared to the otherwise wonderful meal I had. Overall I recommend it - do yourself a favor and get the lamb meatballs!

Niche

Another dedicated gluten free facility. There is something so freeing about not having to worry about cross-contamination. Side note - as I was checking their menu for reminders on what I ordered, I realized they also have a low-fodmap menu! I will include a link to my video about my struggles with SIBO and when I was on the low-fodmap diet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJFZPWjCTDA&t=54s). Anyway, for an appetizer we ordered bruschetta which I remember being a larger portion than expected - which was fine since we were sharing; nothing crazy but was a nice start to our meal. For my main course I had the Beer-braised Short Rib. Once I read that the meat was fresh from the butcher down the street I was sold. It was so juicy and absolutely hit the spot - I could not recommend it more! Somehow I still managed to have room for dessert; fairly certain we all have a separate dessert stomach which would explain so much. I had the Dark Chocolate and Orange Ganache. LOVED IT! I’m a big orange and chocolate flavor combo fan and this did not disappoint. Other members of my family had the Tiramisu which they were not too happy with unfortunately. Otherwise, I highly recommend Niche for all your courses. Should also mention that the staff was hysterical, warm, and added to the fabulous time we had.

Indigo at One Aldwych

This one was a bit of a splurge! We went to Indigo for their afternoon tea (what would a trip to London be without afternoon tea?). Make sure to book well in advance if you have allergies as they even stipulate on their site that they can accommodate anyone with enough notice! My only real disappointment was that this afternoon tea did not come out on those tri-layer displays - obviously this is just me being nit picky in terms of aesthetic expectations. We each ordered tea - I had the Lemon Sherbet which really needed a sugar cube or two - which I added. As we sipped and enjoyed the comfort of the tea, we had time to just relax and take in each other’s company before our first course. For the savories I had the Smoked Salmon and Chive Quiche. Turned out to be a tad dry but tasty, still surprised it wasn’t crumbly without cheese or something extra to help hold it together. As a table we all agreed that the Coronation Chicken mini sandwiches were hands down best bite of food we had at this tea (we ended up ordering more of them). There was a roasted pepper sandwich , though I am failing to remember what else was in it, the one bite was all I really wanted of it. The beet wrap would have been better if they either balanced out the beets with something else or packed the wrap a bit less because all you got was a strong beet taste (and I eat beets). The Scones with Bacon and Toffee Jam were unlike anything I’d ever had - and I happily ordered another tray of them as well. Then it was time for wha we all had been waiting for, the very extravagant Charlie and The Chocolate Factory inspired sweets. The pictured treats explains for itself why we are here (for the experience). Loompaland Lemon Floss (AKA cotton candy for us simpletons) was way too lemony for my pallet and was nicer to look at than eat. I shot back the Banana and Chocolate Milkshake which didn’t taste anything like banana for me and seemed more like watered down chocolate. My family said their’s was too banana-y so I am wondering if the dairy vs dairy free versions were very different for this dessert. While I was looking forward to the Chocolate Cacao Bean Financiers they were dry and pretty flavorless. Similar in appearance to a strawberry shortcake was the Whipped Strawberry Mess which was pretty good, nothing insane and I honestly could only stomach a few bites, may have been due to the flavor being too artificial or sweet - granted, my father devoured his happily. My favorite items were the Violet Lemon Cake, which was so delicious and not too heavy but still left me content, Cream Chocolate and Orange Mousse (seems to be a sage bet for me apparently), and yet again the scones with jam, while appearing to be innocuous and not special on paper were still a delight. With all that being said - if you are looking for the tastiest meal you’ve ever had then I can’t recommend Indigo, but if you are here for the experience (as we were) then don’t shy away from the fun and enjoy the moment with those closest to you.

Hobson’s

For a truly tasty and fried meal I highly recommend checking out Hobson’s Fish & Chips. I had the fried cod while my family members all had the haddock. All of the fish came out nice and flaky, cooked perfectly, and were healthy portions. To add to the fried indulgence my sister and I split an order of fries and onion rings! I don’t know the last time I had onion rings before this, needless to say I was in heaven. The batter was addicting and everything was still somehow flavored individually and did not feel like the batter overpowered the meal, but was a nice compliment. I was so full by the end of it that I had to take a decent amount of the fries and onion rings home to finish, they were a pretty nice snack the following day.

Bella Italia

Bella Italia was not planned like the other meals and was found by googling gluten free restaurant options in the area, glad it worked out for what we needed but of all the meals we had it was the least exciting and was more like checking a box than being noteworthy. For some reason I ordered Sicilian Olives as a “while you wait” (almost like a bread basket substitute)- there were way too many for one individual to have, even an olive connoisseur would have felt an olive overload. Then, instead of having a full meal I only found myself hungry enough for a starter. The adult in me then ordered Sweet & Sour Chick Wings which hit the spot and were exactly what I had been craving. So while this was by no means the most extravagant meal we had if you are in a pinch and need to find a place that can accommodate allergies then check out Bella Italia, it’s a chain so you should also luck out in finding a location near you as well (making it the most convenient of the ones on this list).

Beyond Bread

Unlike the other items on this list we did not sit down to eat here and just picked up food options for breakfast and to make sandwiches for days where we were out for a while (I.e. our 11 hour bus tour). However, it is important to note that it is a dedicated gluten free bakery! I had their blueberry and chocolate muffins most mornings and we purchased a few giant rolls of sourdough bread for the longer days. I was happy with everything I ate from there, my only regret is not having purchased more things to try!

#food #travel #london #resturants #allergies #gluten free #dairy free #lhaze #blog

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reylo-solo · 6 years ago

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Reylo neighbors

I had way too much fun writing this and I DEFINITELY got carried away, lol. Thanks for the prompt!

Read it on AO3.

➳ Say It With Roses

The house at 515 ParkwoodCrescent was built in the early 1950’s. It had a beautiful widow’s walk and anenclosed porch, picture windows, a cobblestone walkway, and a lovely fenced-inbackyard, perfect for parties. It had also been vacant for two and a half years.

Every morning when Ben Solo wokeup, he would take his cup of coffee and drag his feet over to his living room,where he would gaze sternly out the bay window and his eyes would always roamover the weathered ‘For Sale’ sign next door to his house. He would think tohimself, For Christ’s sake, is the placehaunted or something? He had seen any number of people get a tour inside bythe realtor over the last two and a half years, and not a single one had madean offer on it. They always left smiling, but it never amounted to a damnedthing.

Thecompany that oversaw the management of the lot consistently forgot to mow thelawn, and Ben consistently had to phone and complain to remind them. It drovehim insane. The picketed half-fence his property shared with that house waspristine on his end, but was peeling and hideous on the other side.

BenSolo was a perfectionist. He liked things to be just as he wanted them to be,no more, no less. He liked things to be kept tidy. 515 Parkwood Crescent hadnot been tidy in almost three years. So obviously, this was a big point ofcontention for him.

Untilone fateful morning when Ben’s alarm roused him from his deep slumber at 7:30.He all but fell out of bed, stretched, and put his comfortable sheepskin suede slipperson to walk downstairs to the kitchen. This time when he looked out his window,something was different. The ‘For Sale’ sign had changed. Now, it boldlyproclaimed ‘SOLD’.

“Holyshit,” Ben cursed under his breath, “it’s finally happening.”

Nowcame the anxious wait. Who had bought it? Was it a family? A single person,like himself? Would they be lazy, or proactive? Would they keep their lawn niceand orderly? Would they have children? God forbid they had a dog, whoever it was. Dogs always chewedup gardens, and Ben had a lovely row of prize roses along his side of the fencethat he would sure like to keep planted in the soil.

Therest of May went by quickly, with no signs of life next door. But Ben knew howthis worked. They would get possession on the 1st of June, and afterthat he would know who his new neighbour(s) would be.

Hehad grown oddly used to having no one living on that side of his house. Forinstance, he had enjoyed walking about naked with the blinds on that side open,because no one could see him, especially when he was upstairs in his room withits window that faced the vacant house. It would suck not to be able to do thatanymore, but if it meant the fence would get painted he supposed he should begrateful.

June1st came and went. There were no moving trucks that day, but Ben didspot an old Volkswagen car parked out front and some lights on inside thehouse. He wondered if he shouldn’t go over and say hello, but then heremembered that Mrs. Graham, who lived on the other side of his house, had donethat when he had first moved in, and he still kind-of resented her for it. No, he thought. I’d better give them a few days to get situated first.

By June 2nd, the moving trucks werethere. He saw them in the morning when he was going to work, and spotted some movingcompany workers laboriously hauling a heavy-looking leather loveseat into thehouse. But still no sign of the occupant(s).

Hedidn’t have to wait much longer, however. When he came home from work at 6:00on the dot, grabbed his briefcase from the backseat, and began heading up hiswalkway, he was surprised to hear excitable yipping getting closer and closerto him. When he looked down he saw a small blur of white and brown.

“You’vegot to be kidding me,” he grumbled under his breath. “A fucking dog.”

Indeed,the rambunctious little pup, with the brown spot on its rump and the streaks ofrust colour in its ears, was jumping up at Ben’s legs, stubby little tailwagging in pure euphoria. Ben looked down at the dog with unbridled distaste.

“Bo! Oh my god, I’m so sorry!”

Ben’shead snapped up at the sound of a human – female – voice. A petite brunette waslaunching herself off the porch of 515 Parkwood Crescent, rushing down thecobblestone walkway, crossing over into Ben’s yard, and scooping the pup upinto her arms. Ben was stunned into paralyzed silence.

Shewas young, not far into her 20’s, with lively eyes and a sun-kissed, bronzecomplexion. Wherever she had come from, it had been warm there. Freckles weresplashed across the bridge of her nose, a few dabbled along her cheekbones. Hersmile was 10,000-watt; so bright and intoxicating in nature. She had her hairpulled up in a bun and she wore a ragged old tank-top and camo cut-offs. Shehad a touch of periwinkle paint smeared across her left shoulder and dirt underher fingernails. She extended a hand to Ben.

“Hi,I’m your new neighbour, Rey.”

Benswallowed, surprised at just how dry his throat felt. He shook her hand firmly.

“Myname’s Ben. Nice to meet you, and your, uh, dog.” He said the last word with justthe right amount of sour inflection.

Reyblushed lightly. Ben could feel his own face warming significantly.

“Yeah,again, I’m sorry. He slipped out right when I opened the door. He really likesmeeting new people.”

“Howcute.” Ben muttered.

Thetwo spoke for a short while. Rey told Ben all the minor details he couldpossibly want to know. She had grown up in London as an orphan, and had justfinished travelling the world with a photography scholarship. Apparently shewas world-renowned, but Ben had never heard of her. She was doing a lot ofrenovation work to the house and couldn’t wait to “put down roots here”. Benhad been as cordial as he possibly could be. In truth he didn’t mind listeningto her speak. Her accented voice was intoxicating. But eventually her spellbroke when little Bo took to barking at a biker riding down the street,squirming in his owner’s toned arms.

“Ah,you’ll have to excuse me. I need to get him back inside before his little heartjust can’t take the excitement anymore. It was really lovely to meet you,though. I hope we can talk again soon over the fence someday!”

Bensmiled stiffly, eyeing Bo with a healthy amount of wariness. “I’m sure wewill.”

Thetwo parted ways. After that their contact was minimal for a couple of weeks.Ben was busy with work and was out of the house six days out of the week (onthe seventh he stayed in his man cave watching terrible movies on Netflix inhis pyjamas, smoking one premium joint at around 5 p.m. – his special secrettradition to thank himself for getting through the week without killinganyone). Rey, on the other hand, clearly remained busy on her renovations. Benwould see lights on in the house into the wee hours of the morning, and if hewent outside on his deck and listened closely, he could hear muted hammeringnoises and soft, echoing music playing from somewhere inside the house. Hecan’t say he wasn’t curious about what she was doing in there. The interior ofthe house was beautiful wood and tile, with a stone fireplace, and crown moulding. It was a mid-centuryantique-lover’s dream. Surely shewasn’t making the mistake of trying to modernizeit?

Theymet once more in the evening on a Tuesday, when Ben was on his knees along thefence line, pruning his roses. Rey walked by with a heavy-looking camera bagslung over her shoulder and a binder full of papers in her arm. She gave himthat dazzling smile of hers, which made his heart actually skip a beat, on herway by.

“Evening!”she chirped. “Your roses are absolutely lovely. I’d love to have a garden likeyours someday!”

Hesmiled back, somewhat awkwardly. Ben’s smile was usually quite crooked innature; kind-of goofy-looking but in a charming way, like when a dog ‘smiles’.

“Thanks…”he replied belatedly.

Shewas clearly in a hurry. She unloaded her burdens into the backseat of her carand drove off somewhere. Ben went back to work, the look of her smiling faceburned in his brain for the rest of the night.

Reyhad barely been living next-door for a month when The Incident happened. Oh, it was a doozy, in more ways than one.

Benwoke up that morning and sauntered to the kitchen in his slippers and plaidflannel pyjama pants. His hair was a chaotic mess – he had tossed and turned alot in the night; June was turning out to be a hot month, and the fan in hisbedroom couldn’t keep up with the heat. He was just barely awake. He nearly forgotto put a fresh K-cup of breakfast blend into his Keurig. That would have beendisgusting.

Crisisavoided and with a fresh, aromatic mug of hot coffee in his hand, he wanderedover to his window. The sun had just come up, and the morning sky was streakedwith pink and yellow. A rose gold palette of natural beauty. Speaking ofroses…what was wrong with his roses?!

Heblinked and rubbed his eyes, forcing himself to wake up completely. Rich, darkdirt was scattered across his freshly-trimmed lawn, interlaced with shreddedrose petals, leaves, and a couple whole stems, dug out from their home in thesoil. And there, in the midst of it all, was a little white dog butt with abrown spot along the back.

“Areyou fucking shitting me right now?!”Ben bellowed. His coffee was instantly set down and forgotten about.

Bo,having heard Ben’s outburst from the garden, lifted his dirt-stained face up,floppy puppy ears perked towards the noise. When Ben emerged shortly after,still bare-chested in his slippers and PJ pants, with a look of dark fury onhis face, Bo froze in terror, completely unsure of what to do or where to go.

WhenBen got close, Bo suddenly rolled onto his belly, short little tail tucked inshame as much as it could be. Ben bent down and picked the dog up by the scruffof its neck. Bo couldn’t even meet Ben’s eyes.

“Whatthe hell, dog?” Ben snarled. “I can’tfucking believe this shit. It is 7:30 in the goddamn morning, and you’re goingto hurl this crap in my face? I don’t fucking think so…”

Heswiftly moved down his walkway and over into Rey’s yard, carrying the dog allthe way, tucked at his side. His slippers didn’t really make a veryintimidating sound effect as he stomped up the stairs and across the porch toher front door – which she had painted bright red for some fucking reason. Bright red. Fuck. How original. Ben’sknuckles rapped hard on the painted door.

Noanswer. The lights were off inside, but her car was most certainly parked outfront. Nope. No. He was going to get mad at somebody, goddamn it. The dogdidn’t count.

Hepressed the doorbell repeatedly and kicked at the door until finally, finally, she emerged, one eye shut tothe brightness of the morning, hair falling out of its messy bun, wrapped in anold threadbare robe that was much too big on her.

“Whatis going on…?” she mumbled, slowly registering the very angry half-naked manwith a very nice chest she was now facing. “Bo?”

“Yourfucking dog tore up my roses,” Ben growled, holding the dog up so she could seehis face, smeared with the evidence of his crime. “And I have to beg thequestion: what the hell was he doing in my yard at 7:30 in the morning?”

Reyblinked, colour quickly fading from her face. There it is, Ben thought poisonously. There’s that ‘oh, shit’ look I wanted to see.

“I-Iswear I don’t know…there’s a doggy-door out to the backyard. He must havegotten through the fence somehow, I—”

“Well.That fucking sucks, doesn’t it?” Ben spat. “Meanwhile my garden is destroyedbecause you think it’s fine to let him go out without a leash any damn time hewants!”

Rey’sexpression instantly soured. Her eyes narrowed and her chin stuck out.

“Ican assure you he won’t do it again,” she chewed out bitterly.

“Oh,you’re damned right he won’t,” Ben argued. “Because he’s not going to be letout without a leash until he gets his little digging habit under control,right?”

“Howdare you tell me how to take care of my dog?” Rey snarled, taking Bo roughlyfrom Ben’s arms and setting him down at her feet. Bo whined, blatantlyuncomfortable with the situation he had created.

“Wellclearly someone has to!”

“Whydon’t you piss off? Why do you even grow roses? What kind of soft-side bullshitis that?!”

“Whatare you fucking talking about? I’m not allowed to grow fucking roses in my own damn yard?”

“I’mnot allowed to let my dog go outsidein my own damn yard?!”

“Listen,I’ve been here a lot longer than you—”

“Oh,yeah? It shows!” Rey gestured to her facial area, even tugging down on onecheek, clearly suggesting dark circles and eye wrinkles.

“Ohdoes it?!” Ben yelled.

“Yeah,it does!”

Theirbanter was ended by the sound of Mr. Johnson shouting from a couple housesdown, reminding them both of the lovely, peaceful neighbourhood they calledhome:

“Shut the fuck up!”

Theyboth stopped, chests heaving, angry eyes never leaving the other’s face. It wasat this point Ben realized that, oh – Rey sleeps naked.

Thethreadbare robe she had so thoughtfully put on before answering the door washardly cinched at her waist, creating a very deep-V neckline that showed Ben alot more than he had been expecting to see. It only made it more eye-catchingwhen she crossed her arms like that.

Hecouldn’t help the sudden flush in his face. He was the first to break theirstaring contest, and he wasn’t proud of it. Rey had only a second to appreciateher victory before she too realized why she’d won. With a soft gasp she hastilytugged the collar of her robe closed. Now she was vibrantly blushing too, andshe also looked like she wanted to slap him, which in all actuality she hadevery right to do. But she didn’t, and in the moment she couldn’t quiteunderstand why.

“Keepyour dog on your side of the fence,” Ben grumbled. Most of his fire had diedout by now. He jabbed an accusatory hand at her side of the fence in questionas he descended the porch steps. “And for fuck’s sake, would it kill you topaint it?”

Thetwo carefully avoided one another for the next week, always checking out thewindow before daring to go outside. Ben watered his garden in the morning, Reymowed her lawn in the evening. Bo didn’t escape again. He didn’t even bark. Bensaw Rey out painting her side of the fence one day, but he didn’t dare go outand say anything about it. And it went on like this for a whole, painfully longweek. Until the first fault in the ice cracked to life.

Itwas a Saturday morning. Rey was always gone on a run on Saturday mornings, andBen left for work at 9:00. This morning though, when he opened his door at8:57, he had to pause in the threshold. For there, right outside his door andawfully close to the toe of his shoe, was a small potted rose bush,freshly-grown and healthy, with one small, deep-red bloom on top.

Mystified,Ben picked it up. Amidst the leaves and (this was no doubt done on purpose)thorns, there was a small piece of folded-up paper. Fine stationary, made ofsoft natural paper, and written on the outside of the fold in fine, flowyscript, was his name.

Muchto the (likely) chagrin of the sender, he only received one particularly nastyprick on his ring finger when he reached in to grab it. He sucked on this as hebrought the plant inside and set it down, before opening the letter addressedto him.

I’m sorry my dog toreup your roses, and I’m sorry I didn’t apologize in the moment. I should have.You were right to be angry. Bo feels really, really bad, and so do I. Just soyou know. I bought this at the Farmer’s Market and I thought you could maybeplant it and start fresh. If you don’t want to that’s fine. I understand yourroses were “one of a kind”. I hope you’ll keep this little guy alive, anyway,even if you don’t forgive us. – Rey & Bo (your apologetic neighbours)

Benwould be lying if he said the note didn’t make him smile a little bit. He setit fold-down atop his piano, and admired the little rose bush. Its leaves werea vibrant, lush green, and it was covered in buds. He flicked a leaf andwatched it tremble. He grinned. It would do just fine in his garden.

Hekept coming back to that little rose bush all day long. At work he’d catchhimself doodling, something he rarely did anymore, little sketches of roses inthe margins and bright, dimpled smiles. The plant was a sign of surrender;asking for a truce. Would he give in? Well, yes, he would. It hadn’t taken himlong to come to that conclusion. In all honesty, over the duration of the weekhis anger had faded. Once he had cleaned up his garden he noticed that thedamage wasn’t as extensive as he thought. He could forgive it, he supposed.

Buthow could he let her know it? It just didn’t feel right to him to go over toher house and offer her a plate of store-bought cookies, because lord knows hecouldn’t bake them himself. It felt fake, derivative, and cheesy. “Hey, it’sall water off a duck’s back! Here’s some Pillsbury crap on a plate!”

Itwas 3:36 in the afternoon when the idea struck him. The Grand Gesture. The wayhe was going to let Rey know all was forgiven. He had been inspired bysomething she had said the other day; her words floated back to him as though comingout of the ether of a dream. And suddenly he couldn’t wait to get home. Ofcourse, he’d have to make a couple stops along the way, pick up some suppliesand the like. He planned it out to the last detail, effectively wasting thelast hour and a half of work. And when it was finally time to leave, his deskchair had barely stopped spinning before he had left the building.

Heknew that starting at 5:00, he had only two hours before Rey would be home forthe night after she stopped at the gym (in the short time she had been livingnext door, he had quickly taken note of her daily activities). He could pullthis off in an hour and a half, if he was quick and had no interruptions. Hehauled everything over to Rey’s front lawn and set to work.

Thankfully,the universe was smiling upon him for once and everything went smoothly. He hadsuccessfully started a garden for Rey, in front of her large picture window inthe front yard. He had carefully transplanted a shoot of his own prize roses,right in the centre, with a colourful array of flora and grasses all around. Tohim it looked magnificent, but a nagging voice in the back of his head keptasking ‘Would she even notice it?’

When all was said and done, hiswatch told him it was 6:51. She would be home soon. He took this opportunity toplant his new rose bush in the spot where Bo had dug up the last one. He wasjust packing the dirt around the base of the plant when he heard her car pullup. He held his breath.

Her car door shut. He heard herunlatch the front gate and re-latch it behind her. Then came the soft shufflingsound of her shoes walking up the cobblestone pathway…and then all soundsstopped with a sudden, loud gasp.

Ben peeked precariously over thetop of the fence. She was standing halfway up the walk with her jaw slack, staringwide-eyed at the beautiful arrangement that had seemingly appeared in front of her house. She slowly walked up to it and bentdown to examine the flowers closer. Ben couldn’t see, but when she saw theroses, she grinned because she recognized them instantly.

At this point, Ben realized heprobably looked like a total jackass, crouched and watching her from across thefence. So he stood up, brushed the dirt from the worn-out knees of his jeans,and cleared his throat.

“You’re forgiven, in case itwasn’t clear,” he said. “Bo, too.”

She stood up straight and turnedto look at him, that one-of-a-kind smile glowing like the moon in the sky.

“You did this?” she askedquietly, her voice laden with emotion.

Ben nodded. “I didn’t know howelse to say it…and I remembered you telling me you wanted a garden like mine,so I figured I’d help get you started.”

“I love it,” she confessed. “It’sbeautiful, and it smells amazing.”

“Well, good. I’m glad.”

Rey sighed, shifting her weightto her left foot. She gave him an apologetic look.

“I guess we’ve been lousyneighbours, huh?” she asked.

“Uh, when the guy down thestreet has to tell us to shut the fuck up, I’m going to say yes, we have been,”Ben answered.

Rey chuckled. “Woops.”

“Woops.” Ben agreed with acrooked smile.

Rey smiled back at him somewhatbashfully, fiddling with the wire of her headphones.

“Would you like to come inside?”she asked quietly. “I think we could both use a drink, maybe. And…I’d like toget to know you better, if that’s okay.”

Ben’s eyes widened. He had beenexpecting a hearty thank-you, maybe some joyful tears, but not an invitationinside – into her life. Before hisbrain could even formulate an answer, he was nodding his head yes and hoppingover the fence.

“Careful,” Rey cautionedplayfully, “I just painted that.”

Ben smirked. “I know, it looksgood.”

“Thanks.”

As he climbed the steps of herporch for the second time in his life, he found himself in a very apologeticmood. Heat burned high in his face, turning the tips of his ears a deep pink.

“Oh, um…I also want to apologizefor, uh…well, the night of The Incident,I…I promise I wasn’t staring,” he mumbled, “at you.”

Rey smiled warmly, and Ben didn’tmiss the way her eyes jumped down his body and back up again in one quick,scanning motion.

“That’s okay,” she confessed asa sly grin spread across her face. “I just hope you don’t mind that I was.”

Ben didn’t know what to say tothat, so he just grinned like an idiot and followed her inside without a secondthought. She had freshly-baked cookies on her countertop and no Pillsburycontainer in sight.

#reylo #my fic #reylo prompt #reylo fanfic #kylo x rey #reylo au #BEN LOVES A PRIZE ROSE #REY IS A WHOLE PRIZE GARDEN 2 HIM #CHANGE MY MIND #if you liked it let me know!!

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imaginaryculturepress-blog · 7 years ago

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In which we launch the first-ever Tales from the Pit story/review, and Why Even Try Launch “More Than”.

Hi, hello, and welcome!

My name is Skyler and the story I'm about to tell you shall include approximately twenty thousand words of insignificant information that's definitely not aimed at increasing my website traffic. ... Definitely not... ...Anyway... I'm trying to make this a regular type of post, as with all things on this blog; a sort of "concert story", if you will. It’ll mainly include photographer-orientated content such as issues that occurred whilst shooting, though I’ll attempt to add as much crowd and band information as possible. Perhaps now that I've gained the idea, I ought to start shooting a few things around the venue and whatnot to add to these posts. Maybe train stations and car rides with a Tumblr-esque theme, stray dogs and freeways at peak hour, and whatever else is deemed suitable. I needed a name for this segment, though, something memorable and preferably a reference of sorts. So I did what any Five Finger Death Punch fan would do and turned to their extensive catalogue of music to find something even remotely similar to my requirements. And then I realised: they have a live album called Purgatory: Tales from the Pit. I didn't feel "Purgatory" was the best heading, but "Tales from the Pit" had a nice ring to it. Shorten it to TFTP and you've really got something. Sort of. So I suppose we should restart this. Hi, hello, and welcome to Tales from the Pit! *Include all the above nonsense that did nothing more than waste your time and increase my Google search rankings. * ... Let's cut to the chase, shall we? T'was the Wednesday before the With Con show when I found myself at a fish and chips shop, surrounded by drunk dudes and dogs. There were VBs on a table and a pregnant American Bulldog wagging its tail, making me question all my life decisions. Why was I at this place? Why am I a concert photographer? Why does nobody tour in Perth? What is the impact of the dog’s pregnancy on the Australian economy? Etcetera. I had one show coming up, the aforementioned one, this Saturday at Red Lighting Paradise (HQ). Plus a potential Placebo show at Perth Arena. (It later turned out that the Placebo pass was all mine. It also turned out that the concert was cancelled. Read more on that here.) But besides that, I was free and bored out of my mind. That’s the thing about concert photography; you’re either working until your brain explodes - shooting, emailing, arguing with the Internet, editing - or sitting around sending press requests. Or blogging. (School disclaimer: yes, I also study… …when I’ve no editing to work on…) And considering that in the last six months I’ve only covered nine shows and almost Placebo, that’s a lot of wasted – sorry, school-orientated - time. (Update: another show happened last Friday, Homebrand's "Shelf" launch show.) I soon returned home to a stable wifi connection to find a photographer’s favourite message: “Would you be able to cover our launch show this Friday? Sorry for the late notice!” T’was from one of my favourite local acts, Why Even Try, known for their (positively) insane sets and marvellous music. Supporting them were Grey States, Shedhead, and Crown Loser, three bands I hadn’t previously photographed but was extremely excited for. The late notice didn’t bother me, though I was left trying to back out of prior arrangements. Before long, we’d confirmed the shooting arrangements and everyone resumed with the launch show preparations: set list confirmations, instrument things that I’ve no clue about ‘cause my job is to just click a camera button, etcetera. The only problem I seemed to have (aka that my parents seemed to have) was the two-shows-in-a-row ordeal. The closest I’d gotten to this was in June, with the Boris the Blade Warpath Weekender on the 3rd and SOTA Festival two days later. Not to mention that those shows were back when I had lower self-expectations and everyone was used to waiting up to a week for photos. Nowadays, it was show day on Friday and photos by Sunday at the latest. But two shows in a row? Having to go from prep to travel to shooting to travel to sleep to editing to prep to travel to shooting to travel to sleep to editing again? Whilst suffering from an extremely annoying cold that left me coughing with every breath? This would be interesting. Friday came soon enough. T'was my first day back at school after a week of feeling sick as all hell, and the amount of work I received was definitely more than what was taught. "Test next Monday!", "This is due, erm... today!", "This is worth twenty percent of your overall mark!", "Don't forget your bibliography!", the list could go on forever. Concentrating on all those tasks was nearly impossible. There were two shows coming up and I still felt like crap. I made a mental note of everything I had to do. Prep gear, charge batteries, ensure the lenses are clean, pack, DON'T FORGET THE MEMORY CARDS, bring earplugs, and, of course, clear enough space on my laptop to load the couple thousand photos. (Photographer rant: why do laptops have such limited space and why do raw images take up so much of it?! And why aren't the affordable hard drives Mac-compatible?!) The evening rolled around rather quickly. Before I knew it, I was outside HQ, wondering why, exactly, there was a razor blade on a picnic table. As always, there were young children around with their parents, skateboarding, scootering, and just generally being really freaken loud. The weather was nice, though. T'was that perfect winter-going-onto-spring style that you usually found around there. And everybody knew each other. Well, most people did, whilst I just stalked everyone online. (Oh sue me.) Soon enough, we found ourselves inside the venue and deciphering gear. The latest edition to my kit, a beautiful 85mm f1.8 Nikkor, was my go-to lens, and I anticipated it to perform similarly to how it did at the Ambleside show. Mounted on my entry-level DSLR, the Nikon D3400, I thought I had the best setup ever. Key word: thought. The lights dimmed shortly after, and Crown Loser - aka James and Co. - were onstage, facing a crowd of fans - aka friends - and a lens that was failing to focus - aka my heavily praised 85mm f1.8 Nikkor.

When you consider it, concert photography is rather simple: you choose a subject, have your lens focus on it, press the button on the camera, and spend thirteen hours trying to save the image the next day. But when said lens cannot focus on said subject, you my friend are fucked. Because, no matter what fancy Tumblr aesthetic you were "going for", a blurry photo is a blurry photo, and a blurry photo is shit. So I could've taken a thousand fuzzy images and made them greyscale before trying to convince the band that it was "supposed" to look like that, but I wasn't about to. I knew they'd see right through it - even my grandmother would. The problem was, I hadn't realised my lens issue automatically. It wasn't until half way through CL's set that I finally noticed that the pixels were blending into a blurry mosh pit. (That made no sense but anyway...) Was my lens dusty? Dirty? Fucked? Had my friends pulled some crude joke on me at school? Oh, that's right - I don't have friends! (I'm joking, I've around three...ish.) (I also don't usually take my gear to school.)

So I had to go clean it. Except that didn't help. Nothing helped. I messed with my ISO and threw manual mode into a frenzy. Maybe it had something to do with the fogginess? That sometimes happens. The venue either uses smoke machines to create better light illusions (which are useless if you're employing green and red lighting anyway) or has a large number of people in a small space sweating like crazy. , it created fog and wouldn't be helpful. Of course, said fog would disappear soon enough, but that's the thing: fog wasn't the problem. So what was the issue? I was fucked if I knew! I continued changing my settings and attempting new angles. I made more trips to my equipment and I wouldn't blame anyone in the audience for wanting to kill me for that, because let's face it: nobody appreciates the idiot who keeps interrupting your viewing pleasure every five minutes due to lens issues. Or angles. Or memory cards. Or batteries. Or - you get the point. It was a frantic set. I managed to get a minuscule nine photos out of the entire thing, which was disappointing but better than nothing. The band was amazing, of course. I don't know a lot about music (besides how to photograph and headbang to it) but they did really freaken well, delivering a dynamic, memorable set. I'd say something even more generic such as "the crowd seemed to enjoy themselves immesely" but if you know that crowd, and if you're reading this then you probably do, they're not exactly fussed as long as they can jump around and yell random crap. (Which, quite frankly, is the best type of audience.)

As they were playing their final song, Dion said, in the way he always does, "SHEDHEAD FUCKING SUCK!" And who was up next? You guessed it - Shedhead.

With my ineffectual lens still ineffectual, the band took to the stage, delivering a magnificent set that had the whole crowd headbanging and screaming inside jokes.

I decided to swap my gear at some point during their set, as evident in the photos. For comparison, here's a shot of their (extremely talented) (I need new adjectives) lead singer and guitarist, Alex, taken with the 85mm:

And from roughly the same angle with a 35mm:

There's obviously quite a difference, as you'd expect. It's always of great appreciation to have various lens sizes, for sometimes you're after full stage shots or landscape full-body shots and other times you want close ups, but unfortunately I didn't have that pleasure for the majority of this show.

I'm not about to lie: it pissed me off. It truly did. You've probably realised that by now. Here I was, being expected to take (relatively) professional(ish) photos, depending on this bloody combination of glass and plastic Nikon dare call a lens, and it was completely failing me. (Did I mention that it was an excess of $500? Yup.)

Now, I know that most of you photographers out there will be scoffing at me, tired of my complaining and thinking something along the lines of, "It's not about the gear you have, but how you use it." Well, that's a valid claim. It is. But this usually comes from someone who either shoots with multiple lenses, or some smart ass who doesn't even do photography. You have to go based on what the bands are after, what they typically end up posting. You send them twenty-something photos, and they'll use a couple for profile photos and some for their social media. And which ones are used for social media? Predominantly closeups.

So, if the band you're shooting for is (potentially indirectly) after zoom-ins and your 85mm is broken, you my friend, are, as previously stated, fucked. And there's absolutely nothing you can do about it for the rest of the show except sit around and weep or take out your old 35mm.

But hang on, Sky! Don't you have a 50mm?

I wished I did. (Note: I purchased one soon after this gig. Like, the next day. I'll get to that in my next post on the With Con show; it was quite the drama.)

So stuck in those photographical Down Days I remained. (See what I did there? No? Go educate yourselves here.) The band continued playing adroitly, and before I became accustomed to shooting with the 35mm again, their set was over.

Halfway through.

During the intermission, I came up with a game plan: shoot the first song or two with the 85mm and hope to capture a useable image, then swap over to the 35mm.

Grey States (who I always thought were Greystates) were soon up, and I was faced with a new issue: someone - a band member's father, most likely - was Skyping a relative to show them the entire set. Whilst in the photographer spot. (Is it just me or is there an unspoken rule at HQ regarding the corner where the stage and pit meet? Like, that lil' gap? Isn't that for photographers? And, if it's a really popular band, for extreme fans as an addition to the front row? Photographers, what're your takes on this? Aren't we supposed to get stuck in that section?)

And I get it; a former member of Green Day was performing. But move out of the fucking way! If you want evidence of the set, you've got these professional(ish)(not really) photos to display. Send them to those relatives. Do what you want with them (just offer a bit of credit for ya gal here). Skype later, yeah? I was probably in the way the entire time regardless. (Side note: I can imagine that relative just saying something along the lines of, "Ko je ona budala što uvjek stoji ispred kamere? Ošni ju, jebo ju konj!" Assuming they're Bosnian. Which they most likely aren't.)

Just stay out of Sheldon Cooper's spot.

As for the band, well, damn. They delivered an incredible set, incorporating magnificent instrumentals and musical creativity. (Has anyone realised just how little I know about music and musical terminology? It's rather ironic. Comment some new words that you usually use to describe music.)

Why Even Try were soon playing, and by this point I was through with my 85mm. It wouldn't focus, it wouldn't photograph, it wouldn't function the way it was supposed to. So the 35mm it was. Back to getting ultra close to people, apologising waaaay too much, doing what I'd do anyway and taking shots from the stage, suffering, etcetera. All whilst listening to a riveting set and trying not to dance.

Honestly though, the guys were a prime example of why the Western Australian music scene isn't dead yet; their performance was dexterous and exuberant, making for a convivial night that may or may not have resulted in some pretty cool photos (if I do say so myself). "More Than" is definitely worth checking out, just as all their songs are. All the bands' Facebook links will be listed later on in this post, so leave them a like and listen to their music.

And that was that.

MUSIC SUMMARY:

Crown Loser: incredible/5

Shedhead: fuck yes/5

Grey States: outstanding/5

Why Even Try: 69/5

PHOTOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY:

Lenses: kill me now/5

Camera: for the price I paid, I'm not allowed to complain/5

Lighting: if I had the money I would change the venue's entire lighting setup/5

Editing: time consuming/5

My sanity: nonexistent/5

These aren't real ratings? Well... it's not exactly a "real", "generic", "stereotypical" music blog; one moment we'll be discussing shows, the next we'll be reviewing records and considering the environmental impacts of veganism and how minimalism influences tour life. All whilst poorly referencing lyrics and incorporating weird metaphors and Shakespearean terminology. I don't understand it either.

So that was Friday. Up next: Saturday.

No shit, Sky.

Also up next: the With Con show. On the aforementioned Saturday.

Stay tuned.

Until then, go listen to all the bands mentioned in this post. Find their Facebook links here:

Why Even Try

Grey States

Shedhead

Crown Loser

Live long and headbang, xx-Skyler Slate

#bands #livemusic #gig #concert #review #concertphotography

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altrecordreviews · 7 years ago

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“In retrospect, I should have had the absinthe…” Eleanor Goodman Talks The Reality of Metal Journalism

Photo via Twitter

Print journalism isn’t what it was - just take one look at NME. However, there are still plenty of music journalists who still strongly believe in the power of print, and no one knows this quite like Metal Hammer’s deputy editor Eleanor Goodman. Here’s what she has to say on how to deal with the ins and outs of journalism and why lawyers are always good to have around just in case you need to write about bestiality.

How did you get into music journalism?

I was studying for a degree in English Literature at Sheffield University when I won a Metal Hammer music journalism competition for my live review of a masked Australian grindcore band called The Berserker. As a nu metal fan, I wasn’t familiar with them, but I was desperate to write for the magazine! The gig certainly opened my eyes to metal’s depths. At a careers event soon after, I met Lianne Steinberg, who was an editor at The Manchester Evening News’ entertainment magazine, City Life. She was encouraging and gave me paid work writing music previews and reviews. I also wrote for local Sheffield magazine Sandman, BBC South Yorkshire online, the university newspaper and a bunch of music webzines. After my degree, I moved to London for a postgrad diploma in magazine journalism at City University. I got a permanent job working on business magazines while freelancing for Rock Sound, and then worked full-time for Bizarre, Kerrang! and Metal Hammer, where I’m currently deputy editor. I commission the features section and curate the monthly covermount CD.

When you first started, how did you avoid getting star-struck when interviewing your favourite bands?

Rather than being star-struck, I struggled with insecurity at first, as I felt much younger than the people I was interviewing, not to mention the other PRs and music industry folk, who seemed like an impenetrable clique. But I found people were generally friendly and happy to chat about themselves. I was nervous the first time I interviewed Marilyn Manson, because I’d always liked his music and heard he could be difficult. I turned down his offer of absinthe in case I got drunk and messed up the interview, but he turned out to be on form and quick-witted. In retrospect, I should have had the absinthe.

Did you receive much guidance when you first started writing for bigger publications? Do you think it would have been beneficial in retrospect?

I got guidance on my writing during my postgraduate course, which was beneficial – I can still hear my tutors’ voices in my head to this day – though I only really learned through practice. At Bizarre magazine I started as Chief Sub Editor, and had a great editor called David McComb, who taught me a lot about magazine craft. Alongside managing the workflow of the magazine, I ended up editing the features, books and music sections. By working in teams and across different brands, I learned a lot about tone and audience, which had a positive impact on my writing.

What’s the most frustrating part of your job?

Working within constraints. There are always constraints such as getting access to bands, working within budgets and completing pieces to deadlines. Nothing’s ever certain in magazines, either – you could plan a perfect feature, but it could fall apart due to any of the above, or unforeseen circumstances, so you have to be able to change and adapt plans during the course of each issue. Having said that, constraints can force you to innovate and to really narrow down your focus, so they’re not always bad.

What’s the most rewarding?

Seeing an idea come together. Reading a great interview, accompanied by brilliant photos, and looking at how they work together on the design of the pages. It’s always a team effort that involves multiple people behind the scenes as well as in front. It’s also awesome when readers message or comment positively about our content. We’ve had good feedback on our features tackling serious issues such as depression in the music industry, as well as a lot of excitement and insane memes off the back of our recent Ghost cover shoot, which featured the singer of the Swedish band holding the severed head of the ‘old’ one. They have a dedicated fanbase, so it means a lot that we’ve struck a chord. The Metal Hammer Golden Gods is always a great night, too - we honour the biggest names in our world, and it’s surreal to see everyone chatting backstage.

What has been the main problem you’ve come across working for a print magazine?

The decline of print media and the rise of celebrity online. When I started working in print magazines in the early 2000s, the decline in readership had already begun, but mainstream outlets weren’t taking online journalism seriously enough. That lack of early investment has made it more difficult for big brands to catch up, and everyone is still figuring out how to make money online. People have become accustomed to getting content for free, and the sheer number of outlets means there’s a lot of ‘noise’ around artists – especially tours and releases – even if there’s not necessarily a substantial amount of content. Some artists also promote themselves on social media. This means there’s a danger readers will tire of hearing about certain artists before they’ve picked up the magazine. Part of the solution comes back to innovation – what can we do that competitors can’t? And curation – how can we sift through the noise and bring the best in metal to our readers? Our recent covers are good examples of this. Ahead of Judas Priest releasing Firepower, we brought singer Rob Halford together with Tony Iommi for an exclusive photoshoot and chat. Before the Metal Hammer-sponsored Trivium tour in April, we ran a cover featuring them and tour mates Code Orange, Power Trip and Venom Prison – all newer bands we’re keen to give a platform to.

Are journalism ethics and law just as important in music journalism as they are within “regular” journalism?

Absolutely. Music journalism is regular journalism. You’re often talking to people about their personal lives and influences, and sometimes covering wide-ranging social, cultural and political issues, so you have an ethical responsibility to be honest, fair and accurate. The same goes for law – and on a purely commercial level, getting sued can be disastrous for a publication.

Have you/a publication you’ve written for ever encountered any of these issues first hand?

The weirdest scenario was when I was Production Editor at Bizarre magazine, and we ran a feature about a woman in Portugal who had sex with dogs for adult films. Bestiality is illegal in the UK, so I worked with a lawyer to make sure the copy was ‘safe’ and didn’t include any instructions about how to do it, or any names of the people we talked to, so readers theoretically couldn’t track down the material. When the issue came out, the makers of the movies threatened us because we didn’t include their names; they were angry they hadn’t got as much publicity as they’d hoped. We didn’t see that coming! Most magazines I’ve worked for have had access to a lawyer, which means I’ve been able to run any difficult queries or quotes by them. Music-wise, Kerrang! had an incident in 2007, before I joined, where they had to pay £40,000 libel damages over a claim a tour manager pleasured himself in a dressing room. He argued that it lowered his reputation and harmed his chances of getting work.

As a deputy editor, do you have any specific rules or requirements that you ask of your writers?

We’re looking for experience, enthusiasm, creativity, an understanding of metal and Metal Hammer’s audience, and an ability to work to a brief and hit deadlines. Obviously, music is a sociable industry with a lot of late nights, but we also expect people to be professional when representing the brand.

What advice would you give to aspiring music journalists and editors?

Get as much experience as possible, always say yes to opportunities, and ask lots of questions. The more you read, write and edit, the better you’ll become. And don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone and cover new and unfamiliar things – you never know where it might lead you.

Follow Eleanor on Twitter @eleanorgoodman

#metal hammer #Q&A #interview #music journalism #print journalism #eleanor goodman #kerrang!#team rock #marilyn manson #code orange #black sabbath #metal

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thekillerssluts · 7 years ago

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Arcade Fire’s Win Butler Responds to Criticism of the Band’s Much-Maligned, ‘Misunderstood’ Everything Now Rollout

Ever since Arcade Fire roared out of Montreal in 2004 with the release of its instant-classic debut album, Funeral, the band has built a critically and popularly successful career as purveyors of emotionally earnest, musically galvanizing rock. So it struck some observers as a little discordant when, in advance of its recent Everything Now album, the band undertook a decidedly un-earnest prerelease campaign, flooding the internet for a brief time with, among other things, satirical music criticism, bogus marketing tie-ins, and fake-news stories.

The critical response to the campaign was not kind, and the album, too, was met with some of the toughest reviews of the band’s career. Front man Win Butler has suggested that skeptical critics — of both the promotional high jinks and the album itself — may be missing the point. For the first time in its career, a band with an undeniable gift for connection seems, both intentionally and not, to have crossed a lot of wires. Speaking from the tour bus on the way to a concert in Boston, Butler explained the thinking behind the Everything Now campaign, and his reaction to what he sees as the confusion surrounding the album.

I’ve seen you refer to the Everything Now campaign as an “experiment.” So what was the purpose of that experiment? And now from the vantage point of seeing the album out in the world for a few weeks, do you think the experiment was successful? A big question for us was “How do you release a record post–Donald Trump?” Since we were making a record called Everything Now, and it would be coming out after that election, it felt like a real moment to try and address subjects like fake news and how the media works. The other part of it is that when you make a record in this modern context, it instantly gets refracted in the media. There’s all this side content, this trail that follows everything. So we thought that maybe we’d just make all that content, as opposed to just making the art. That stuff was going to get made anyway, so why not make it ourselves?

Those are sort of more practical explanations. What ideas and theories were you testing? It’s a little bit like when you go to the doctor and they put dye in your bloodstream — we just wanted to see where fake-news articles about the band would go. The media is built for clicks now, and we were trying to see firsthand how it all works. I feel like I now understand on a much deeper level why Trump got elected. Negativity is what travels. So we learned more about how the internet functions, and how it’s an insane feedback loop. It’s like, we just played a show in London that was one of the best shows we’ve ever played there. It was honestly so fucking exciting. And at the show we sold a T-shirt where we put an ironic Everything Now logo on top of Kylie Jenner’s face. It was visually punk as hell. We knew doing that would get a lot of press pickup but every single news outlet in the world covered it. Somehow there’s a story in that, but there’s not really a story in Band Is Really Amazing at Music and Plays a Live Show and People Cry Because It’s So Beautiful. So it was really interesting to us to see what got picked up about Arcade Fire. That idea plays into what we were doing as well: We were providing the ammunition for people who wanted to write negative things about the band: Here you go! Here’s something to be outraged about!

Is it possible, just on a personal level, that you give too much emotional weight to negative coverage of the band? What you just said about providing ammunition makes it seem like Everything Now was being released with a preemptive feeling of defensiveness. But I think it’s fair to say that, on balance, Arcade Fire have been hugely successful with critics and audiences. I understand that criticism. The success we’ve had is one in a million. But there’s an overall level of meanness online — I think it was worth pointing out the disingenuousness of that stuff. I remember when Lana Del Rey played Saturday Night Live. Say what you will about her, but she’s a real fucking artist, and the media reaction to that performance was like people were trying to ruin her career. Did they really want to ruin this person? Or did that stance play better online? Like I said, so much of it seems very disingenuous. And I’m not just talking shit about music journalists now. I know how lucky the band has been. But publications are tightening their belts and people have to churn out more stuff, and the media landscape has changed — it’s turned into a fucking meat grinder. The Everything Now campaign was happening in the context of all that and coming out of an election where we essentially elected Mussolini as president of the United States. It would’ve been hard for us to just be like, “So this is our new record!” I wouldn’t know how to not try and address what’s going on in the world.

Did the marketing campaign negatively color how people heard the new music? I don’t know. I think some things were misunderstood. From my perspective, the album is musically one of the best things we’ve ever done. It’s also one of the most earnest. People have called it a cynical record, but I don’t think any honest attempt to listen to the music really supports that reading. So it’s hard for me to square that with the negative reception —which hasn’t been the case in Europe, where they took the campaign much differently. Obviously the French are not going to have as much of a problem understanding a meta news campaign; you don’t have to explain any of this to a French journalist. Everything we’ve done has been pretty obvious if you read past the headlines of the stories, which is something else we’ve learned people don’t really do. The other reality of it, for me, is that fans are enjoying the album and listening to it. So again, it’s hard to square what’s been written about Everything Now with my experience of Everything Now.

I can’t imagine there was a lot of backslapping and handshaking after you guys saw that fake-news stories you put out were picked up as real. Has it been at all emotionally satisfying to test your idea that the media is broken? It wasn’t triumphant, but these aren’t exactly triumphant times. We’re not in a particularly feel-good mood. It’s extremely dire and extremely dark right now. When things are this shitty, sometimes nihilism is a good response. It’s like the punk-rock movement in the U.K.— the Sex Pistols cursing on TV. It’s not overtly political, but in the context of the politics of those times, it’s just “fuck this fucking shit.” We weren’t excited about making people feel weird. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a valid thing to do.

It seems like you have a clear sense of your intentions for the Everything Now campaign. Does other people’s being less clear suggest that maybe the band’s execution wasn’t as sharp as it could’ve been? Or that maybe the tone was coming off more snide than you’d hoped? Maybe there was a certain amount of naïveté on our behalf about how things would be received. I guess at the very core of it, we were hoping that, at least among our fans, we could contribute to a conversation about thinking about what you read, not taking things at face value, critical thinking. Maybe certain parts of that got away from us.

Like what? The thing that really got away from us in the most fascinating way was when we played a show in Brooklyn. There was this kind of big story about how we demanded there be a dress code, which was completely false and was something that could’ve been corroborated by a simple phone call or email to our publicist. But instead of that, there was this sea of outrage: “How dare they do this!” There was even an article written in Canada slagging the band about the dress code after it was clear that we had nothing to do with any dress code. A journalist writing about something after it was proven fake was not something we’d anticipated happening. But I can’t say I was surprised, because that’s where the culture’s at now. Fake news becomes something that real news has to respond to. It’s totally insane. From my perspective though, the Everything Now fake-news campaign lasted about a week and a half, and let a lot of people know that there was a new Arcade Fire album coming out. So I’m not really sweating a lot of this.

Does the response to the campaign — and what I imagine was the difficulty of putting it together — make you at all want to go the Radiohead route and basically just let the music do all the talking from now on? We only did something like five interviews for Reflektor. This is by far the longest interview I’ve given for this album.

Maybe you didn’t give a lot of interviews for Reflektor, but you promoted it with a special on network TV. The band wasn’t exactly shy about letting people know it had an album out. But the thing is, it’s bad to me when a record comes out and people are like, “Oh my god the new Radiohead record! Yes!” — then it’s gone the next day. It might as well not have existed. Remember when Radiohead played the MTV Beach House for Pablo Honey? You watch that video and you can tell the band was in hell. That was some stupid-ass shit, but you know what? That’s where I learned about Radiohead. They suffered through that, but they did it because they wanted people to hear their music. Before OK Computer, they toured the U.S. opening for Alanis Morrissette — most British bands weren’t doing stuff like that, but Radiohead wanted Americans to know about their music. Now, 20 years later, they’re still here. We want people to hear our music too. I don’t think we’d go out and open for Taylor Swift, but we want people to hear our music, too.

Would you have done anything differently with the rollout? Or put another way, has any of the critical feedback you’ve gotten rang true? Any criticism anybody else has had of the band — I’ve already had my own way, way harsher criticisms. Honestly, we’re talking about two weeks in the lifespan of this album. You listen to some of the albums Leonard Cohen made in the ’80s, and they have cheesiest-sounding keyboards, but those are such essential records. They’ve stood the test of time. If the songs are good enough and interesting enough, the music lasts. Time will tell if Everything Now holds up — everything else is ephemeral. And if ultimately the biggest regret of my career is that some people think maybe we made a misstep with an album rollout, I can certainly live with that.

#Arcade Fire #Win Butler #interview #Everything Now

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usernamefiaren-blog · 8 years ago

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Exclusive artists?

Before you start reading this, I would like you to know that I haven’t done extensive research into this topic. This is just my personal view or opinion about this. This piece is in no way academic, it’s merely a way of starting a discussion by mentioning my own views on this.

Let’s think back 10-30 years ago. Everyone knew who Michael Jackson, Madonna, The Beatles, AC/DC, Van Halen and Mötley Crüe were. Each of these were massive global super stars in their own genre. Each genre had a few artists that most people will know and who are still able to sell out arena’s after 20-30 years, because their music still appeals to the masses. Except for the ones who passed away obviously, sorry MJ. So who are the global super stars of the past decade? Justin Bieber? Well, yes but he only appeals to young girls. One Direction or 5 Seconds of Summer? Same story. Then what about Drake or Jay-Z? That is getting closer, but again they appeal to a certain type of demographic and lifestyle. So which artists exist in modern day Great-Britain that everyone agrees on?

If I think about a global super star I don’t think about someone in a certain genre. I think about artists that have been able to sell out arena tour after arena tour, because of their music. Not because of their live show with pyrotechnics or flying objects. In my opinion you cannot call someone a global super star unless they can check these next three things:

- Their album sales are insane and one song stays in the UK charts for multiple weeks

- They don’t have to use fancy technology and background dancers to make their show interesting

- Everyone knows at least one song of the artist, whether you know the artist or not

So if we look at these three points two artists spring to mind; Ed Sheeran and Adele. So why are they so successful? Ed Sheeran’s last album entered the UK charts in full, the first 16 songs on the charts was the entire Ed Sheeran Divide album. Adele has spent 53 weeks in the top 10 of the UK charts of which 8 weeks at number one. They both don’t have any fancy extra’s to their shows. Adele makes jokes on stage and Ed Sheeran is just a bloke with a guitar. So what makes them so special?

I think to answer this question we need to look at the amount of singles and albums they have released. Starting in 2008 until now Adele has released 4 albums. 19, 21, Live at the Royal Albert Hall and 25. That is 4 albums, one of which a live album, in nearly a decade. So now we know that she hasn’t released that much music. What about Ed Sheeran? Starting from 2011 with his first album + after that came x and just a few months ago he released . So again that is 3 albums in 6 years. Drake has also released 4 albums starting in 2010, but he has also released 2 compilation albums, 5 mixtapes and a playlist. So in the 7 years that drake has been releasing music he has provided his fans with way more content than Adele and Ed Sheeran have.

When it comes to live performances Ed Sheeran has been away since December 2015 until he just started his new tour. So I think the popularity of these two artist has got something to do with the exclusiveness of their music. They have only on average released one album every 2 years and their tours haven’t been hyped up as much as those of Justin Bieber or One Direction. In my personal opinion I think that most people are so hyped up for Adele and Ed Sheeran’s new music and their tours because they don’t tend to have the highest amount of media coverage and they don’t release a new single every year. I think the exclusiveness of their music makes people feel like they are part of something special, something that may well be a once-in-a-lifetime-thing, even though we all know it isn’t. In other entertainment forms we can see the same thing going on with the exact same effect. If we look at TV we see that the Sherlock series gets a lot of views, because there’s only one season every two years and that season is only 3, 90 minute episodes long. When it comes to films, I predict J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is going to do the same. She has planned to release 5 films, but the next one is not to be released until 2018, even though the first one was released in 2016.

I think it makes people feel special to be part of something ‘’exclusive’’ and that is my reasoning behind the success of Adele and Ed Sheeran.

Again, this is just my way of thinking, if you feel differently about it feel free to leave a note with your own reasoning. I have only used the UK charts as reference for this piece and that is where I based most of my judgements on.

I don’t know if I’m going to continue my series with artists or that I’m going to write more stuff like this, but I guess you’ll find out next week.

#JustinBieber #Drake #Adele #EdSheeran #Divide #onedirection

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eckshecks · 5 years ago

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Ex Hex’s Mary Timony on Enlarging the Group’s Sound By Jordan LawrenceOct 22, 2019 Updated 1 hr ago Facebook Twitter Email Facebook Twitter Email Print Save Ex Hex Ex Hex

Michael Lavine Washington, D.C.’s Ex Hex could have rested on the appeal of fantastic players tearing through dirty garage rock that frolics on the dividing line between precision and abandon. But five years after the exceedingly well-titled debut Rips, the group shows it’s not content to keep trotting out the same formula. This year’s It’s Real is bigger and fuller, alive with electric harmonies from voices and guitars, echoing with the bigness of multiple eras of arena rock while maintaining its built-for-a-rock club edge.

Free Times caught up with guitarist and singer Mary Timony to talk about Ex Hex’s growth. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Free Times: The new album’s definitely cleaner and more dynamic than Rips. Tell me about your ambition for the record.

Mary Timony: We wanted the record to sound really huge. The first record was pretty garage rock. On this record, we were going for more of a production style that was less blown out and more clear and bigger. It took us a while to get it going because we toured an insane amount on the first record. Because the record did pretty well and we just kept getting all these offers. We went to Europe literally like five times, which is insane.

Was it about trying to do something you can’t do on stage?

We wanted to be able to replicate it. Betsy [Wright], she’s really a guitar player. She was kind of filling in on bass on the first record. A lot of the record was recorded with her playing guitar, so we’re like, ‘Well, obviously, we need to have her playing guitar and get a bass player.’ And so now we’re playing with Michelle Mae, who’s a musician from Makeup. And that has been awesome. It’s been great to be a four-piece.

How does it change things, being a four-piece?

It’s really fun to have two guitars because there’s so much you can do. The band can sound much bigger or just as stripped-down if you want or way bigger. It just gives us so many more possibilities for sounds and parts to play. Playing as a three-piece is good in its own ways, but it definitely presents more of a challenge because there’s not a lot of room. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s basically like nobody can stop. You have a lot more jobs. But when there’s four, the guitars can kind of take a break, or they can play at a harmony. There’s just way more to work with.

You recently released the title track for It’s Real as a separate single. Why did you end up holding it but naming the album after it?

It was a song that we hadn’t finished recording by the time that the record needed to be done. It was one of the things where we just thought about it too much so we had to take a little break and then we had it and we listened again and decided it was awesome and we just finished it up. It was just sitting on the backburner, I guess.

I thought it was kind of cool to have it come from a song that wasn’t on the record. In a way, that song is also the most collaborative of anything we’ve ever done. So I like that part of it. It’s really a mix of me and Betsy. She wrote most of the melodies, and I wrote most of the lyrics, and we’ve never collaborated that crossed before. Usually, it’s like one person writes a song and everybody else helps arrange it. That one we really, I guess, wrote together, in a way. It’s mostly her song, but then I contributed a bunch of lyrics and melody ideas.

I’ve read that Def Leppard had an influence on the record. Tell me about that.

The main idea was just really like Mutt Lange’s production style. Because the way his stereo was recorded is pretty crazy. It’s just like super complex, and there’s like a million, million tracks. It’s not straight-ahead. It’s not just some microphones in the room. It’s very complicated.

We’re trying to copy it, but we soon found out that was impossible. Because you need like a million dollars to be able to copy that, and also be really good at production and have good gear. So we just sort of did our own version of that sound on a few songs.

One thing I like about the record is that it’s not all one genre or style. We have certain things that do sound like throwbacks, but then there’s other songs. It’s not all just one thing. It’s a little bit more mixed up.

From your time in the cult favorite Helium to Ex Hex, your work is well-known to a certain segment of indie rock fans. Is that in your head as you make music these days?

No, that’s not in my head at all. I’m just trying to make records because I like to do it. All of us in the band are the same way. It’s not like you get into this to make a million dollars. You just get into doing it because it’s fun and creative and you connect with people. Believe me, it’s not an easy thing to do with your life, at all, by any means. At this point, I’ve been doing it longer than some people, because most people just aren’t as crazy as me, I guess. I just keep going. I don’t know.

It’s not like this band is at a level where people are that aware or that many people are dying to hear our next record. We’re just trying to make it work.

What: Jam Room Music Festival

Where: Hampton and Main streets, Columbia

When: Saturday, Oct. 26, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

Price: Free

More: jamroommusicfestival.com

Ex Hex plays the Palmetto Brewing Co. Stage on Hampton Street at 6:45 p.m.

Facebook Twitter Email Print Save +5Columbia’s Female-Dominated Jam Room Music Festival Is Well-Timed Columbia’s Female-Dominated Jam Room Music Festival Is Well-Timed Phill Blair admits that the most striking aspect of this week’s Jam Room Music Festival wasn’t intentional. At least, not at first.

MORE INFORMATION +3Jam Room Music Festival 2019 Schedule Jam Room Music Festival 2019 Schedule The Whig Stage

Now with two new bands, Katharine Whalen’s days after Squirrel Nut Zippers are full Tags Ex Hex Live Music Columbia Jam Room Music Festival Jordan Lawrence Jordan Lawrence Managing Editor for Free Times

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femkebekker-blog · 7 years ago

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Artists: Supermarkets own brand, or exclusive limited edition top brand?

- Their album sales are insane and one song stays in the UK charts for multiple weeks

- They don’t have to use fancy technology and background dancers to make their show interesting

- Everyone knows at least one song of the artist, whether you know the artist or not

I think it makes people feel special to be part of something ‘’exclusive’’ and that is my reasoning behind the success of Adele and Ed Sheeran.

0 notes