#this is before Malik gets his princess song of wanting more.

[kamydrawstuffs]

The Adventures of A Tiny Thief King- "Hate At First Sight"

Might also count as a TOOMBS short, but these two don't even remember that they met before hahaha.

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[enemyoflactose]

Most of My Ryou Head Canons

He is bilingual and speaks English and Japanese fluently.

His mom is Japanese and his dad is mixed (English and Indian)

He learned how to cook from the collective help of his mom and both sets of grandparents.

Everything he makes tastes like heaven.

Sometimes, he forgets his friends can't speak English as well as him and he'll just start talking and have no one understand a single thing he says.

He hates coffee. It's disgusting and bitter and smells bad.

Whenever he can't find a figurine of a character he likes (or there just aren't that many), he makes them himself.

Ryou's favorite animal is a tapir because they're cute, and they look like bakus.

He thinks yokai and other folk spirits are incredibly interesting and loves learning about them and talking about them.

His favorite drinks included Calpico, ramune, blueberry lemonade, and vanilla tea.

He is a femboy, he's just a little embarrassed about it because he thinks his friends will make fun of him. (They won't. Except Duke)

He admires the fuck out of Kaiba and thinks he's the coolest guy to ever exist.

Despite living away from all of his family, Ryou is still spoiled with gifts and letters. It just isn't enough because he wants his family there with him, but some evil spirit scared him into moving away and never seeing his family again.

Ryou is an anime fan. His favorites include Violet Evergarden, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Black Butler, Nichijo, Disastrous Life of Saiki K, Madoka Magica, Panty and Stocking, Nanbaka, Nana, and Mob Psycho 100.

The reason Ryou's hair looks so fluffy is because he pins most of it up into layers so he can better avoid being told to cut it. When the pins are out, his hair reaches his upper thigh.

Ryou's Monster World campaign group is the other minor characters +Honda and Malik.

He's a picky eater and doesn't like things like milk, lentils, beans, most cheeses, mushy vegetables, or sea food.

If the other summoning types were available in DM, Ryou's favorite would be synchro summoning.

Animals love Ryou. He's like a Disney princess to them. However, Ryou is terrified of dogs and cockroaches. Yami Bakura makes them leave for him.

Ryou is attracted to two things: scars and muscles. This means being friends with Jonouchi, Honda, and Malik is fucking torture.

He and Duke are rivals, he just doesn't know it yet.

He loves Vocaloid! His favorite producers are Maretu, Kikuo, Pinocchio P, Deco-27, and IMO.

Ryou is genuinely just really good at art. Fantastic at making figurines, he can draw really well, and his writing is amazing.

Yami Bakura was the one that made Ryou's friends’ figurines and that's why Ryou's is in a different style. Ryou also made Zorc and Zorc's human form.

Ryou's favorite vocaloid song is UFO by Kikuo (listen to it)

He loves cats! They're his favorite pet animal.

Whenever Ryou gets asked to do something for Yami Bakura, he does it without much question. That's his friend!

He loves costume parties!

While Ryou loves the occult and learning about ghosts and spirits, he isn't much of a horror fan (unless it's Junji Ito).

Honda is Ryou's best friend.

Ryou gets sick easily, and whenever he does he becomes even more useless and airheaded. Yami Bakura usually took care of him, but After the Millennium World arc Honda started helping instead.

After Battle City, Ryou bought a shirt that Jonouchi had in order to show him support during tournament duels. (You know the shirt I'm talking about)

If Ryou has a lot of leftover food from the night before, he brings some of it to Jonouchi and Honda.

Ryou’s eyelashes are really thick, and Yami Bakura's eyelashes are longer than life itself and thin.

Ryou's loves games like Undertale, Zork, Stardew Valley, Little Miss Fortune, Fran Bow and Fire Emblem.

Ryou is smart enough to understand school and his interests, but dumb enough to not understand anything else. He has a case of stupid.

He is constantly dozing off or staring into space.

He is constantly forgetting to eat due to doing something he enjoys a little too much, or finding everything in his apartment disgusting (he buys his own food).

He likes cosplaying.

Ryou uses anti-meta or back row reliant decks. If given the opportunity though, he would use special summons reliant decks like Mayakashi or Tearlement.

His favorite monster card is Curse Necrofear.

He always tries to make friends with everyone, even if they were really mean to him at some point.

He likes pastel colors.

Sometimes, he tries to make his own Stop Motion videos. Sometimes, they look good. Sometimes, they look like ass.

Ryou harbors a special hatred towards Bandit Keith Howard.

He's very jealous of Yugi and Yami's relationship. This has led him to try and avoid them as much as he can.

He loves any game that involves Miis. Miitopia, Wii sports, Tomodachi Life, if it involves Miis he loves it.

Ryou has played every single Fire Emblem game.

Was almost diagnosed with an eating disorder, but wasn't due to the doctor “disappearing”.

Listens to Universe Cat Drowning on repeat.

If he met Astral, they'd be friends.

Zorc Necrophades was designed like that because Ryou was sick, sleep deprived, and hadn't eaten in a while. Also because horny.

He loves nicknames and pet names.

Tries to buy his friends nice gifts all the time. He is constantly told “no”.

He enjoys gardening, but only when he can plant flowering plants.

Ryou can sleep on his own just fine, but he'd sleep even better if there was another person with him. Preferably if they were holding him.

Certified monster fucker.

Forgets to drink water yet somehow cries a lot.

He lies a lot, mostly for laughs.

He does not like Dungeon Dice Monsters.

[reelwriter19]

A Better Man

Pairings: Erik Stevens X Black Reader

Warnings: Fluff, Angst, Implied smut, cursing

Word Count: 3241

“Sssshhh...Erik you have to stop yelling.” You pleaded with your husband as you struggled to get his oversized drunken frame through the front door.

Slurring every word, “Y/N, I DON’T CARE! These colonizers know who’s buildin’ this is!”

You shook your head and couldn’t help but smirk as Erik kicked his boots off and planted himself on the floor in the hallway like a toddler. It was LATE and you were exhausted, but you gave him a pass on this f**k boi behavior because his 35th birthday was in a few days and even though he’d never admit it, that number was messing with his head. So when the owner of the lounge called you personally to come pick him up at 1:45AM, you threw on a sweater, grabbed your keys and ran out the door.

Erik looked up from his stooper just in time to catch you undoing your bra in annoyance. “YES!!! My girls need to be free!”

“Wow…..goodnight Mr. Stevens.” Shaking your head as you walked away, he seemed to find his sea legs long enough to scurry after you, wrapping his arms around your middle and slowly creeping his hands up to ‘the girls’.

“Come on ma, let me hit. You know I sleep better after.”

His touch in this moment was making you weak, but as you turned your head to permit him a kiss, you were hit with a heavy dose of reality. Erik hadn’t drunk this heavily in a while, and the evidence of it was seeping through his pores and breath in the worst way. You turned to face him, now keeping him at arm's length.

“UGH...nigga let you hit?! I love you, but the last time we tried to have sex when you were this drunk, you fell asleep in me, during said process. Uh huh...nope, not tonight. The girls will be all yours tomorrow.”

The next morning you awoke to find Erik still fully clothed, knocked and snoring on the chaise lounge in your walk-in closet. He still smelled, but you were grateful for the fact that he wasn’t too drunk to remember how you felt about outside clothes on the bed. You kissed him on his forehead, got dressed and started making calls. You were throwing him a birthday party that night at the house. You had to confirm food drop offs with the caterers, pick up some balloons and grab one final gift to surprise him with the next day. His training made him really hard to surprise, but you knew he wouldn’t be expecting this.

You heard the shower turn off as you walked back into the house from your excursion. “Erik!” You hollered putting bags and what seemed like 100 balloons in a corner, making your way upstairs to the bedroom.  “Kia and Shuri will be here in a few hours to help me set up. I’m gonna need you out of here soo…”

Your words trailed off as your ebony Adonis emerged from the bathroom, towel low on his hips, scars glistening on his chest. He knew his power over you and now you were the one intoxicated. He raised an eyebrow as he slinked over to you ever so slowly, you, still frozen, allowing him access to begin undressing you without much of a fight.

“You were sayin�� somethin’?”

“Baby...I have so much to get done for the party.”

“I remember you saying that these right here were all...mine...today.” He started to pepper kisses across your chest and conveniently dropped his towel to the floor. Every task on your list quickly faded into the background. He was the soon to be birthday boy afterall. Who were you to deny him this gift?

-------

The house was filled with laughter and music. You sat on Erik’s lap with his arm wrapped snug around your waist as he and some of his boys laughed about stories from their days at MIT. You knew the majority of the people there, Erik always kept a tight circle. But there was one guy, Malik, from his days in foster care that he recently reconnected with that hadn’t made your acquaintance. He was mostly quiet throughout the night, sometimes too quiet, but you chalked that up to how he was raised. Knowing what your husband went through, bouncing from house to house, no one really caring if he lived or died, you always had a soft spot for the people he bonded with during those years, and Malik was one of them.

T’Challa walked over to the rowdy bunch in his usual stoic way, hiding something behind his back. Nakia stood next to him, beaming from ear to ear.

“Pardon me Y/N, gentlemen, but N’Jadaka, I have something that might interest you.” He revealed a black velvet cigar box with the word “Daka” embroidered on the top in gold. It was rare to shock this man, it was even more rare for T’Challa to pull a reaction from Erik that wasn’t sarcastic or flippant.

“Yooooo, T! You wild out man!”

Turning to you as Erik stood up, “Is that a good thing?”

Before you could reply, Shuri belted out a laugh from across the room and said, “Oh brotha! That’s a VERY good thing!”

Erik hugged T’Challa, which was enough to bring a tear to your eye, as the men clamoured for access to a cigar as they walked out on the balcony to light one and commemorate the occasion.

You and Nakia locked arms and laughed at the group as they ran outside as if hiding a porno tape from their mothers.

Turning to her, “Should I ask where you got those?”

“Let’s just say, they once belonged to a very bad man with many items that needed to be confiscated for...archiving. And now they have been gifted to a better man to celebrate his life and the passage of time.”

“Riiight. Well thank you, for everything. I really appreciate you guys. He’s been so down lately. I couldn’t have done this without your help. I’m gonna go get the cake ready while they’re out there.”

Walking towards the kitchen, you noticed Shuri trying to hide behind a few other guests that were deep in conversation in the dining room. Pausing, you didn’t even have to walk her way to know what she was up to.

“Shuri! Put that drink down right now!”

“Awww, Y/N come on! I thought we were cool. I just want a taste of this good American stuff.”

“Girl, your mother will kill me! Put it down and go find the candles for the cake.”

She stomped over to you and you grabbed her in a tight hug.

“You’re no fun, Y/N.”

“I love you too.”

You walked into the kitchen dancing and singing to yourself. “Tell Me” by Groove Theory was now playing through the speakers Erik insisted you guys have installed when you first brought the place. A few of the guests trickled out of the room as Erik’s friend Malik followed you in.

“Tell me if you want me to, give you all my time. I wanna make it GOOD FOR YOUUU!!!!”

You grabbed some plates and napkins from the cabinet and turned mid groove to find Malik standing a little too close. He was taller than your husband but his facial features were no comparison. Let’s be real, not many faces could compare.

“Oh my bad. I didn’t mean to scare you...I was just lookin’ for a garbage. Y’all recycle?”

“Yep, uuh, right there by the door.”

“Cool cool.” Walking over to discard his beer bottle, he turned back around and extended a hand to you. “Malik.”

Switching the plates to your left hand, you extended yours to shake his. “I know. Erik told me about you. He said you guys were like brothers growing up.”

“Yeah, that’s my dawg.” Licking his lips and taking you in a little too intensely, he continued his thought. “We always liked to share things when we were comin’ up.”

You snatched your hand back as Shuri walked in with the candles in hand, dancing to herself.

“Y/N, you have to make me a playlist of these songs for the lab!”

“I will, I promise.”

You walked towards her, grateful to your God and Bast that Shuri’s timing was so impeccable. As you handed her the other items and took the cake from the counter, Malik touched your butt and quickly left the kitchen.

Did he just grab my ASS?!

No, no, he didn’t, he couldn’t!

That nigga just grabbed by ASS!!

You stormed out of the kitchen ready to raise hell, but as soon as you did, a smiling Erik black man jogged towards you and greeted you with a kiss on the cheek.

“You good babe?”

Hands on his chest, gazing in to his bright eyes full of happiness and peace for the first time in a while, there was no way you could ruin this night.

“Yeah, yeah sweetie I’m ok. I was just looking for the candles that’s all. You ready for your cake?”

Nestling his face in your neck as he replied, leaving a wet kiss. “As long as I can have the rest of my dessert later.”

You giggled as his facial hair grazed your skin and planted a passionate kiss on his lips. You hoped that Malik was somewhere watching, being reminded of who the hell your man was and the imminent danger his life was in if he EVER decided to touch you again.

-------

“Aight aight, enough of this terrible singing...blow out the candles man!” One of Erik’s college friends yelled, causing everyone to erupt in laughter. Erik obliged and everyone cheered. He found his way right back to you, engulfing you in his embrace from behind.

“I wanna thank y’all for coming tonight, for real. To have everyone I care about in the same room celebrating me, it’s just, yeah…...I especially wanna thank my princess, my QUEEN who pulled this off without breaking a sweat. I love you, Y/N.”

Turning to face your man, you couldn’t stop cheesing, caressing his dimpled cheeks as he pecked your lips repeatedly.

“Damn, I guess this is what happens when a nigga gets old. Got me all emotional and shit! Shuri, turn that music back up!”

-------

The house had finally cleared of most guests, finally allowing you to put your fuzzy slippers on. You were saying your final goodbyes to T’Challa, Nakia, Shuri.

“Are you sure you don’t need Shuri to help you stay and clean up?” T joked as they walked towards the door.

“Haha! No it’s ok, really. There’s not much more to do. Thank you again. You really made his night.”

“It was our pleasure, Y/N.”

“Make sure you stop by before you head back to Wakanda.”

You closed the door and the newfound silence of your apartment caused you to immediately flash back to that moment in the kitchen with Malik. You had to make sure it got dealt with, but not tonight.

You walked out on the balcony to take in the night air. The life of a hostess was not easy and fatigue was hitting you like a ton of bricks. Out of nowhere, a massive hand smacked you on the butt, scaring the crap out of you. You turned to see it was Erik and not the filth who had violated your space earlier.

“Why you so jumpy girl?”

Attempting to gather yourself quickly and avoid his gaze, you brushed past him and went back into the living room. But as always, he was hot on your heels.

“I’m not E, damn! You just...I thought you were upstairs.”

“You only call me E when you’re annoyed at something or pissed at me, so what’s up?”

“Nothing ERIK, nothing. You’re just always on your sleath shit moving around this house and I wasn’t ready. I’m just tired, baby, that’s all.” Walking towards the steps, you prayed that was enough to hold him off for a bit.

“I’m gonna go change clothes. I left the cake on the counter if you want another slice. Cuz I know you want another slice.”

Whew! Home free, at least for now. You knew your nightly routine would at least give you some time away from him to think. Of course you’d tell him, eventually, but you knew Erik’s past too well to pretend that you weren’t fearful of what he’d do. You’d never be able to erase the sound of the guy's jaw breaking because he put his hands on you at the club when you first started dating. Or the time he threatened your old boss's life and family for overworking his ‘princess’ when you started having panic attacks because of your job. You weren’t at all scared of him, but you were scared of how this news would set him back.

You emerged from the bathroom, fresh faced and wearing Erik’s shirt, to find him perched on the corner of your enormous bed, cake in hand and staring at you. You playfully walked towards him planting yourself in between his legs.

“Can I have a piece?”

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’ll just go get my own.”

“I ate it all before I came upstairs.”

“You better be lying.”

He wasn’t budging and you could tell his patience was starting to wane.

“Fine! Since you refuse to drop this.” You hesitated, backing away from him, bracing yourself for impact, but quickly decided to go another route. You walked to the closet and grabbed a small gift wrapped box from where you kept your extra tampons. He joked with you once that he’d be willing to buy them for you, but after that, you were on your own.

“I made us reservations for tomorrow night. I was going to give this to you then, but you’re so impatient.”

You handed over the box with a huge smile on your face, the giddiness now starting to set in.

Erik looked down at the box and back towards you, rubbing your thigh slowly.

“Well, open, open!”

He chuckled, finding your sudden excitement amusing. “Oh I’m the impatient one?”

He finally opened the box and pulled out a black dog tag necklace with the word ‘Baba’ inscribed on one side and a fingerprint on the other. Erik stared at the necklace in awe. When he finally looked up, he had tears in his eyes, which always made you full on cry.

“Happy Birthday! I’m pregnant. This is your father's fingerprint. I had Nakia do some digging to…”

Before you could get another word out, Erik’s lips were attached to yours. He lifted you off your feet bridal style and placed you on the bed as if moving too fast would break you. Erik made love to you as if it were the first time. Covering every inch of your body with attention to make sure you knew how appreciative he was of the best gift he could have ever asked for.

-------

You laid on your husband's chest, tracing his scars while his fingers made lazy circles along your stomach.

“How long have you known?”

“A few weeks.”

“Damn, I must’ve really been out of it.”

You smiled because him admitting it meant he was finally back.

“E…” You sat up, gathering the sheet around yourself to face him.

“What’s up?”

“Is it hot in here? Wow, i’m sweating.” You jumped up suddenly wrapped in the sheet to go open the window. Now pacing…Erik sat up fully and gave you a minute to process whatever the hell you refused to spit out from earlier.

“Y/N, talk to me.”

“Ok, Erik, listen. Before I tell you anything, I want you to remember that you’re about to be a father. And before I needed you but now it’s your family that needs you. You hear the difference there? We’re a family. And I have a doctors appointment tomorrow afternoon so now that you know I want you to come so you can meet the doctor and get used to…”

In his usual sleath-like manor, Erik had hoped out of bed to stop you from pacing. Once you finally turned around, you were face to chest with him. He lightly grabbed your chin and raised an inquisitive brow. You took a deep breath and finally blurted it out! By the time you finished recounting the story, Erik’s jaw was locked and his body frozen. At this point, you were sitting on the edge of the bed because, exhaustion.

“....I didn’t say anything earlier because you were so happy. Baby I hadn’t heard your laugh in such a long time. I also know how close the two of you used to be. I’m so sorry.”

Hearing that brought your husband back out of his daze. He knelt in front of you making sure your eyes were locked with his.

“Y/N, listen to me. You have nothing to be sorry for, do you hear me? You’re my whole world..” Touching your stomach, “Tonight you’ve managed to make that world even better. That nigga violated my trust and made you feel less than in your own body, in our house...f**k no.”

Erik was eerily calm. The man you knew would’ve been dressed at the part of the story with the handshake and in front of Malik’s house with you on speaker by the time you said, “...touched by ass.”

Instead, with a kiss to your forehead, he made the choice to lay back down. “It’s all good baby, let’s get some sleep.”

-------

The next day you awoke to an empty bed. You got dressed quickly and headed downstairs to find Erik in the kitchen making breakfast.

“Good morning beautiful.”

This was always one of your favorite sights. You stood behind him, wrapping him in a hug while he plated the cheese eggs and breathed him in.

“It’s your birthday Erik. I should be cooking for you.”

“Please...besides your doctor called and had to push your appointment up by an hour so eat up quick! I don’t wanna be late.”

You watched him run upstairs, still wondering who the hell this new guy was and what he did with Erik “the colonizers can kiss mine” Stevens.

He came back down, keys in hand, dog tag on next to his father's ring, sneakers and glasses on. Damn you loved when he wore those glasses. That’s probably how you got pregnant in the first place.

“You ready?”

“Yeah…” You put your plate in the dishwasher and grabbed your bag, walking towards the hallway with him.

“Baby? About our conversation last night. You’re not gonna do anything crazy are you?”

“Oh, you mean Malk?”

“Yes, Erik, that’s what I'm talking about”

“It’s already handled.”

“Erik...what did you do?! Didn’t we discuss this? FAMILY. BABY. Us NEEDING you to not get locked up or worse.”

“Relax, Y/N. I didn’t do anything personally.”

You breathed a small sigh of relief, but he wasn’t quite done. “...let’s just say no one will see him anywhere, EVER...AGAIN.”

“E! You can’t just go offing people at every whim, even if you do hire someone else to take care of it for you. That’s not what I meant.”

“Baby steps, ma. Baby steps.”

[hlupdate]

Variety’s Grammy-nominated Hitmaker of the Year goes deep on the music industry, the great pause and finding his own muses.

“We’ll dance again,” Harry Styles coos, the Los Angeles sunshine peeking through his pandemic-shaggy hair just so. The singer, songwriter and actor — beloved and critically acclaimed thanks to his life-affirming year-old album, “Fine Line” — is lamenting that his Variety Hitmaker of the Year cover conversation has to be conducted over Zoom rather than in person. Even via videoconference, the Brit is effortlessly charming, as anyone who’s come within earshot of him would attest, but it quickly becomes clear that beneath that genial smile is a well-honed media strategy.

To wit: In an interview that appears a few days later announcing his investment in a new arena in his native Manchester (more on that in a bit), he repeats the refrain — “There will be a time we dance again”— referencing a much-needed return to live music and the promise of some 4,000 jobs for residents.

None of which is to suggest that Styles, 26, phones it in for interviews. Quite the opposite: He does very few, conceivably to give more of himself and not cheapen what is out there and also to use the publicity opportunity to indulge his other interests, like fashion. (Last month Styles became the first male to grace the cover of Vogue solo.) Still, it stings a little that a waltz with the former One Direction member may not come to pass on this album cycle — curse you, coronavirus.

Styles’ isolation has coincided with his maturation as an artist, a thespian and a person. With “Fine Line,” he’s proved himself a skilled lyricist with a tremendous ear for harmony and melody. In preparing for his role in Olivia Wilde’s period thriller “Don’t Worry Darling,” which is shooting outside Palm Springs, he found an outlet for expression in interpreting words on a page. And for the first time, he’s using his megaphone to speak out about social justice — inspired by the outpouring of support for Black people around the world following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May.

Styles has spent much of the past nine months at home in London, where life has slowed considerably. The time has allowed him to ponder such heady issues as his purpose on the earth. “It’s been a pause that I don’t know if I would have otherwise taken,” says Styles. “I think it’s been pretty good for me to have a kind of stop, to look and think about what it actually means to be an artist, what it means to do what we do and why we do it. I lean into moments like this — moments of uncertainty.”

In truth, while Styles has largely been keeping a low profile — his Love On Tour, due to kick off on April 15, was postponed in late March and is now scheduled to launch in February 2021 (whether it actually will remains to be seen) — his music has not. This is especially true in the U.S., where he’s notched two hit singles, “Adore You,” the second-most-played song at radio in 2020, and “Watermelon Sugar” (No. 22 on Variety’s year-end Hitmakers chart), with a third, “Golden,” already cresting the top 20 on the pop format. The massive cross-platform success of these songs means Styles has finally and decisively broken into the American market, maneuvering its web of gatekeepers to accumulate 6.2 million consumption units and rising.

Why do these particular songs resonate in 2020? Styles doesn’t have the faintest idea. While he acknowledges a “nursery rhyme” feel to “Watermelon Sugar” with its earwormy loop of a chorus, that’s about as much insight as he can offer. His longtime collaborator and friend Tom Hull, also known as the producer Kid Harpoon, offers this take: “There’s a lot of amazing things about that song, but what really stands out is the lyric. It’s not trying to hide or be clever. The simplicity of watermelon … there’s such a joy in it, [which] is a massive part of that song’s success.” Also, his kids love it. “I’ve never had a song connect with children in this way,” says Hull, whose credits include tunes by Shawn Mendes, Florence and the Machine and Calvin Harris. “I get sent videos all the time from friends of their kids singing. I have a 3-year-old and an 8-year-old, and they listen to it.”

Styles is quick to note that he doesn’t chase pop appeal when crafting songs. In fact, the times when he pondered or approved a purposeful tweak, like on his self-titled 2017 debut, still gnaw at him. “I love that album so much because it represents such a time in my life, but when I listen to it — sonically and lyrically, especially — I can hear places where I was playing it safe,” he says. “I was scared to get it wrong.”

Contemporary effects and on-trend beats hardly factor into Styles’ decision-making. He likes to focus on feelings — his own and his followers’ — and see himself on the other side of the velvet rope, an important distinction in his view. “People within [the industry] feel like they operate on a higher level of listening, and I like to make music from the point of being a fan of music,” Styles says. “Fans are the best A&R.”

This from someone who’s had free rein to pursue every musical whim, and hand in the album of his dreams in the form of “Fine Line.” Chart success makes it all the sweeter, but Styles insists that writing “for the right reasons” supersedes any commercial considerations. “There’s no part that feels, eh, icky — like it was made in the lab,” he says.

Styles has experience in this realm. As a graduate of the U.K. competition series “The X Factor,” where he and four other auditionees — Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson — were singled out by show creator and star judge Simon Cowell to conjoin as One Direction, he’s seen how the prefab pop machine works up close. The One Direction oeuvre, which counts some 42 million albums sold worldwide, includes songs written with such established hitmakers as Ryan Tedder, Savan Kotecha and Teddy Geiger. Being a studious, insatiable observer, Styles took it all in.

“I learned so much,” he says of the experience. “When we were in the band, I used to try and write with as many different people as I could. I wanted to practice — and I wrote a lot of bad shit.”

His bandmates also benefited from the pop star boot camp. The proof is in the relatively seamless solo transitions of at least three of its members — Payne, Malik and Horan in addition to Styles — each of whom has landed hit singles on charts in the U.K., the U.S. and beyond.

This departs from the typical trajectories of boy bands including New Kids on the Block and ’N Sync, which have all pro ered a star frontman. The thinking for decades was that a record company would be lucky to have one breakout solo career among the bunch.

Styles has plainly thought about this.

“When you look at the history of people coming out of bands and starting solo careers, they feel this need to apologize for being in the band. ‘Don’t worry, everyone, that wasn’t me! Now I get to do what I really want to do.’ But we loved being in the band,” he says. “I think there’s a wont to pit people against each other. And I think it’s never been about that for us. It’s about a next step in evolution. The fact that we’ve all achieved different things outside of the band says a lot about how hard we worked in it.”

Indeed, during the five-ish years that One Direction existed, Styles’ schedule involved the sort of nonstop international jet-setting that few get to see in a lifetime, never mind their teenage years. Between 2011 and 2015, One Direction’s tours pulled in north of $631 million in gross ticket sales, according to concert trade Pollstar, and the band was selling out stadiums worldwide by the time it entered its extended hiatus. Styles, too, had built up to playing arenas as a solo artist, engaging audiences with his colorful stage wear and banter and left-of-center choices for opening acts (a pre-Grammy-haul Kacey Musgraves in 2018; indie darlings King Princess and Jenny Lewis for his rescheduled 2021 run).

Stages of all sizes feel like home to Styles. He grew up in a suburb of Manchester, ground zero for some of the biggest British acts of the 1980s and ’90s, including Joy Division, New Order, the Smiths and Oasis, the latter of which broke the same year Styles was born. His parents were also music lovers. Styles’ father fed him a balanced diet of the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones and Queen, while Mum was a fan of Shania Twain, Norah Jones and Savage Garden. “They’re all great melody writers,” says Styles of the acts’ musical throughline.

Stevie Nicks, who in the past has described “Fine Line” as Styles’ “Rumours,” referencing the Fleetwood Mac 1977 classic, sees him as a kindred spirit. “Harry writes and sings his songs about real experiences that seemingly happened yesterday,” she tells Variety. “He taps into real life. He doesn’t make up stories. He tells the truth, and that is what I do. ‘Fine Line’ has been my favorite record since it came out. It is his ‘Rumours.’ I told him that in a note on December 13, 2019 before he went on stage to play the ‘Fine Line’ album at the Forum. We cried. He sang those songs like he had sung them a thousand times. That’s a great songwriter and a great performer.”

“Harry’s playing and writing is instinctual,” adds Jonathan Wilson, a friend and peer who’s advised Styles on backing and session musicians. “He understands history and where to take the torch. You can see the thread of great British performers — from Bolan to Bowie — in his music.”

Also shaping his musical DNA was Manchester itself, the site of a 23,500-seat arena, dubbed Co-op Live, for which Styles is an investor and adviser. Oak View Group, a company specializing in live entertainment and global sports that was founded by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff in 2015 (Jeffrey Azoff, Irving’s son, represents Styles at Full Stop Management), is leading the effort to construct the venue. The project gained planning approval in September and is set to open in 2023, with its arrival representing a £350 million ($455 million) investment in the city. (Worth noting: Manchester is already home to an arena — the site of a 2017 bombing outside an Ariana Grande concert — and a football stadium, where One Love Manchester, an all-star benefit show to raise money for victims of the terrorist attack, took place.)

“I went to my first shows in Manchester,” Styles says of concerts paid for with money earned delivering newspapers for a supermarket called the Co-op. “My friends and I would go in on weekends. There’s so many amazing small venues, and music is such a massive part of the city. I think Manchester deserves it. It feels like a full-circle, coming-home thing to be doing this and to be able to give any kind of input. I’m incredibly proud. Hopefully they’ll let me play there at some point.”

Though Styles has owned properties in Los Angeles, his base for the foreseeable future is London. “I feel like my relationship with L.A. has changed a lot,” he explains. “I’ve kind of accepted that I don’t have to live here anymore; for a while I felt like I was supposed to. Like it meant things were going well. This happened, then you move to L.A.! But I don’t really want to.”

Is it any wonder? Between COVID and the turmoil in the U.S. spurred by the presidential election, Styles, like some 79 million American voters, is recovering from sticker shock over the bill of goods sold to them by the concept of democracy. “In general, as people, there’s a lack of empathy,” he observes. “We found this place that’s so divisive. We just don’t listen to each other anymore. And that’s quite scary.”

That belief prompted Styles to speak out publicly in the wake of George Floyd’s death. As protests in support of Black Lives Matter took to streets all over the world, for Styles, it triggered a period of introspection, as marked by an Instagram message (liked by 2.7 million users and counting) in which he declared: “I do things every day without fear, because I am privileged, and I am privileged every day because I am white. … Being not racist is not enough, we must be anti racist. Social change is enacted when a society mobilizes. I stand in solidarity with all of those protesting. I’m donating to help post bail for arrested organizers. Look inwards, educate yourself and others. LISTEN, READ, SHARE, DONATE and VOTE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. BLACK LIVES MATTER.”

“Talking about race can be really uncomfortable for everyone,” Styles elaborates. “I had a realization that my own comfort in the conversation has nothing to do with the problem — like that’s not enough of a reason to not have a conversation. Looking back, I don’t think I’ve been outspoken enough in the past. Using that feeling has pushed me forward to being open and ready to learn. … How can I ensure from my side that in 20 years, the right things are still being done and the right people are getting the right opportunities? That it’s not a passing thing?”

His own record company — and corporate parent Sony Music Group, whose chairman, Rob Stringer, signed Styles in 2016 — has been grappling with these same questions as the industry has faced its own reckoning with race. At issue: inequality among the upper ranks (an oft-cited statistic: popular music is 80% Black, but the music business is 80% white); contracts rooted in a decades-old system that many say is set up to take advantage of artists, Black artists more unfairly than white; and the call for a return of master rights, an ownership model that is at the core of the business.

Styles acknowledges the fundamental imbalance in how a major label deal is structured — the record company takes on the financial risk while the artist is made to recoup money spent on the project before the act is considered profitable and earning royalties (typically at a 15% to 18% rate for the artist, while the label keeps and disburses the rest). “Historically, I can’t think of any industry that’s benefited more off of Black culture than music,” he says. “There are discussions that need to happen about this long history of not being paid fairly. It’s a time for listening, and hopefully, people will come out humbled, educated and willing to learn and change.”

By all accounts, Styles is a voracious reader, a movie lover and an aesthete. He stays in shape by adhering to a strict daily exercise routine. “I tried to keep up but didn’t last more than two weeks,” says Hull, Styles’ producer, with a laugh. “The discipline is terrifying.”

Of course, with the fashion world beckoning — Styles recently appeared in a film series for Gucci’s new collection that was co-directed by the fashion house’s creative director, Alessandro Michele, and Oscar winner Gus Van Sant — and a movie that’s set in the 1950s, maintaining that physique is part of the job. And he’s no stranger to visual continuity after appearing in Christopher Nolan’s epic “Dunkirk” and having to return to set for reshoots; his hair, which needed to be cut back to its circa 1940 form, is a constant topic of conversation among fans. This time, it’s the ink that poses a challenge. By Styles’ tally, he’s up to 60 tattoos, which require an hour in the makeup chair to cover up. “It’s the only time I really regret getting tattooed,” he says.

He shows no regret, however, when it comes to stylistic choices overall, and takes pride in his gender-agnostic portfolio, which includes wearing a Gucci dress on that Vogue cover— an image that incited conservative pundit Candace Owens to plead publicly to “bring back manly men.” In Styles’ view: “To not wear [something] because it’s females’ clothing, you shut out a whole world of great clothes. And I think what’s exciting about right now is you can wear what you like. It doesn’t have to be X or Y. Those lines are becoming more and more blurred.”

But acclaim, if you can believe it, is not top of mind for Styles. As far as the Grammys are concerned, Styles shrugs, “It’s never why I do anything.” His team and longtime label, however, had their hearts set on a showing at the Jan. 31 ceremony. Their investment in Styles has been substantial — not just monetarily but in carefully crafting his career in the wake of such icons as David Bowie, who released his final albums with the label. Hope at the company and in many fans’ hearts that Styles would receive an album of the year nomination did not come to pass. However, he was recognized in three categories, including best pop vocal album.

“It’s always nice to know that people like what you’re doing, but ultimately — and especially working in a subjective field — I don’t put too much weight on that stuff,” Styles says. “I think it’s important when making any kind of art to remove the ego from it.” Citing the painter Matisse, he adds: “It’s about the work that you do when you’re not expecting any applause.”

[hldailyupdate]

This Charming Man: Why We’re Wild About Harry Styles

Variety’s Grammy-nominated Hitmaker of the Year goes deep on the music industry, the great pause and finding his own muses.

“We’ll dance again,” Harry Styles coos, the Los Angeles sunshine peeking through his pandemic-shaggy hair just so. The singer, songwriter and actor — beloved and critically acclaimed thanks to his life-affirming year-old album, “Fine Line” — is lamenting that his Variety Hitmaker of the Year cover conversation has to be conducted over Zoom rather than in person. Even via videoconference, the Brit is effortlessly charming, as anyone who’s come within earshot of him would attest, but it quickly becomes clear that beneath that genial smile is a well-honed media strategy.

To wit: In an interview that appears a few days later announcing his investment in a new arena in his native Manchester (more on that in a bit), he repeats the refrain — “There will be a time we dance again”— referencing a much-needed return to live music and the promise of some 4,000 jobs for residents.

None of which is to suggest that Styles, 26, phones it in for interviews. Quite the opposite: He does very few, conceivably to give more of himself and not cheapen what is out there and also to use the publicity opportunity to indulge his other interests, like fashion. (Last month Styles became the first male to grace the cover of Vogue solo.) Still, it stings a little that a waltz with the former One Direction member may not come to pass on this album cycle — curse you, coronavirus.

Styles’ isolation has coincided with his maturation as an artist, a thespian and a person. With “Fine Line,” he’s proved himself a skilled lyricist with a tremendous ear for harmony and melody. In preparing for his role in Olivia Wilde’s period thriller “Don’t Worry Darling,” which is shooting outside Palm Springs, he found an outlet for expression in interpreting words on a page. And for the first time, he’s using his megaphone to speak out about social justice — inspired by the outpouring of support for Black people around the world following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May.

Styles has spent much of the past nine months at home in London, where life has slowed considerably. The time has allowed him to ponder such heady issues as his purpose on the earth. “It’s been a pause that I don’t know if I would have otherwise taken,” says Styles. “I think it’s been pretty good for me to have a kind of stop, to look and think about what it actually means to be an artist, what it means to do what we do and why we do it. I lean into moments like this — moments of uncertainty.”

In truth, while Styles has largely been keeping a low profile — his Love On Tour, due to kick off on April 15, was postponed in late March and is now scheduled to launch in February 2021 (whether it actually will remains to be seen) — his music has not. This is especially true in the U.S., where he’s notched two hit singles, “Adore You,” the second-most-played song at radio in 2020, and “Watermelon Sugar” (No. 22 on Variety’s year-end Hitmakers chart), with a third, “Golden,” already cresting the top 20 on the pop format. The massive cross-platform success of these songs means Styles has finally and decisively broken into the American market, maneuvering its web of gatekeepers to accumulate 6.2 million consumption units and rising.

Why do these particular songs resonate in 2020? Styles doesn’t have the faintest idea. While he acknowledges a “nursery rhyme” feel to “Watermelon Sugar” with its earwormy loop of a chorus, that’s about as much insight as he can offer. His longtime collaborator and friend Tom Hull, also known as the producer Kid Harpoon, offers this take: “There’s a lot of amazing things about that song, but what really stands out is the lyric. It’s not trying to hide or be clever. The simplicity of watermelon … there’s such a joy in it, [which] is a massive part of that song’s success.” Also, his kids love it. “I’ve never had a song connect with children in this way,” says Hull, whose credits include tunes by Shawn Mendes, Florence and the Machine and Calvin Harris. “I get sent videos all the time from friends of their kids singing. I have a 3-year-old and an 8-year-old, and they listen to it.”

Styles is quick to note that he doesn’t chase pop appeal when crafting songs. In fact, the times when he pondered or approved a purposeful tweak, like on his self-titled 2017 debut, still gnaw at him. “I love that album so much because it represents such a time in my life, but when I listen to it — sonically and lyrically, especially — I can hear places where I was playing it safe,” he says. “I was scared to get it wrong.”

Contemporary effects and on-trend beats hardly factor into Styles’ decision-making. He likes to focus on feelings — his own and his followers’ — and see himself on the other side of the velvet rope, an important distinction in his view. “People within [the industry] feel like they operate on a higher level of listening, and I like to make music from the point of being a fan of music,” Styles says. “Fans are the best A&R.”

This from someone who’s had free rein to pursue every musical whim, and hand in the album of his dreams in the form of “Fine Line.” Chart success makes it all the sweeter, but Styles insists that writing “for the right reasons” supersedes any commercial considerations. “There’s no part that feels, eh, icky — like it was made in the lab,” he says.

Styles has experience in this realm. As a graduate of the U.K. competition series “The X Factor,” where he and four other auditionees — Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson — were singled out by show creator and star judge Simon Cowell to conjoin as One Direction, he’s seen how the prefab pop machine works up close. The One Direction oeuvre, which counts some 42 million albums sold worldwide, includes songs written with such established hitmakers as Ryan Tedder, Savan Kotecha and Teddy Geiger. Being a studious, insatiable observer, Styles took it all in.

“I learned so much,” he says of the experience. “When we were in the band, I used to try and write with as many different people as I could. I wanted to practice — and I wrote a lot of bad shit.”

His bandmates also benefited from the pop star boot camp. The proof is in the relatively seamless solo transitions of at least three of its members — Payne, Malik and Horan in addition to Styles — each of whom has landed hit singles on charts in the U.K., the U.S. and beyond.

This departs from the typical trajectories of boy bands including New Kids on the Block and ’N Sync, which have all pro ered a star frontman. The thinking for decades was that a record company would be lucky to have one breakout solo career among the bunch.

Styles has plainly thought about this.

“When you look at the history of people coming out of bands and starting solo careers, they feel this need to apologize for being in the band. ‘Don’t worry, everyone, that wasn’t me! Now I get to do what I really want to do.’ But we loved being in the band,” he says. “I think there’s a wont to pit people against each other. And I think it’s never been about that for us. It’s about a next step in evolution. The fact that we’ve all achieved different things outside of the band says a lot about how hard we worked in it.”

Indeed, during the five-ish years that One Direction existed, Styles’ schedule involved the sort of nonstop international jet-setting that few get to see in a lifetime, never mind their teenage years. Between 2011 and 2015, One Direction’s tours pulled in north of $631 million in gross ticket sales, according to concert trade Pollstar, and the band was selling out stadiums worldwide by the time it entered its extended hiatus. Styles, too, had built up to playing arenas as a solo artist, engaging audiences with his colorful stage wear and banter and left-of-center choices for opening acts (a pre-Grammy-haul Kacey Musgraves in 2018; indie darlings King Princess and Jenny Lewis for his rescheduled 2021 run).

Stages of all sizes feel like home to Styles. He grew up in a suburb of Manchester, ground zero for some of the biggest British acts of the 1980s and ’90s, including Joy Division, New Order, the Smiths and Oasis, the latter of which broke the same year Styles was born. His parents were also music lovers. Styles’ father fed him a balanced diet of the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones and Queen, while Mum was a fan of Shania Twain, Norah Jones and Savage Garden. “They’re all great melody writers,” says Styles of the acts’ musical throughline.

Stevie Nicks, who in the past has described “Fine Line” as Styles’ “Rumours,” referencing the Fleetwood Mac 1977 classic, sees him as a kindred spirit. “Harry writes and sings his songs about real experiences that seemingly happened yesterday,” she tells Variety. “He taps into real life. He doesn’t make up stories. He tells the truth, and that is what I do. ‘Fine Line’ has been my favorite record since it came out. It is his ‘Rumours.’ I told him that in a note on December 13, 2019 before he went on stage to play the ‘Fine Line’ album at the Forum. We cried. He sang those songs like he had sung them a thousand times. That’s a great songwriter and a great performer.”

“Harry’s playing and writing is instinctual,” adds Jonathan Wilson, a friend and peer who’s advised Styles on backing and session musicians. “He understands history and where to take the torch. You can see the thread of great British performers — from Bolan to Bowie — in his music.”

Also shaping his musical DNA was Manchester itself, the site of a 23,500-seat arena, dubbed Co-op Live, for which Styles is an investor and adviser. Oak View Group, a company specializing in live entertainment and global sports that was founded by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff in 2015 (Jeffrey Azoff, Irving’s son, represents Styles at Full Stop Management), is leading the effort to construct the venue. The project gained planning approval in September and is set to open in 2023, with its arrival representing a £350 million ($455 million) investment in the city. (Worth noting: Manchester is already home to an arena — the site of a 2017 bombing outside an Ariana Grande concert — and a football stadium, where One Love Manchester, an all-star benefit show to raise money for victims of the terrorist attack, took place.)

“I went to my first shows in Manchester,” Styles says of concerts paid for with money earned delivering newspapers for a supermarket called the Co-op. “My friends and I would go in on weekends. There’s so many amazing small venues, and music is such a massive part of the city. I think Manchester deserves it. It feels like a full-circle, coming-home thing to be doing this and to be able to give any kind of input. I’m incredibly proud. Hopefully they’ll let me play there at some point.”

Though Styles has owned properties in Los Angeles, his base for the foreseeable future is London. “I feel like my relationship with L.A. has changed a lot,” he explains. “I’ve kind of accepted that I don’t have to live here anymore; for a while I felt like I was supposed to. Like it meant things were going well. This happened, then you move to L.A.! But I don’t really want to.”

Is it any wonder? Between COVID and the turmoil in the U.S. spurred by the presidential election, Styles, like some 79 million American voters, is recovering from sticker shock over the bill of goods sold to them by the concept of democracy. “In general, as people, there’s a lack of empathy,” he observes. “We found this place that’s so divisive. We just don’t listen to each other anymore. And that’s quite scary.”

That belief prompted Styles to speak out publicly in the wake of George Floyd’s death. As protests in support of Black Lives Matter took to streets all over the world, for Styles, it triggered a period of introspection, as marked by an Instagram message (liked by 2.7 million users and counting) in which he declared: “I do things every day without fear, because I am privileged, and I am privileged every day because I am white. … Being not racist is not enough, we must be anti racist. Social change is enacted when a society mobilizes. I stand in solidarity with all of those protesting. I’m donating to help post bail for arrested organizers. Look inwards, educate yourself and others. LISTEN, READ, SHARE, DONATE and VOTE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. BLACK LIVES MATTER.”

“Talking about race can be really uncomfortable for everyone,” Styles elaborates. “I had a realization that my own comfort in the conversation has nothing to do with the problem — like that’s not enough of a reason to not have a conversation. Looking back, I don’t think I’ve been outspoken enough in the past. Using that feeling has pushed me forward to being open and ready to learn. … How can I ensure from my side that in 20 years, the right things are still being done and the right people are getting the right opportunities? That it’s not a passing thing?”

His own record company — and corporate parent Sony Music Group, whose chairman, Rob Stringer, signed Styles in 2016 — has been grappling with these same questions as the industry has faced its own reckoning with race. At issue: inequality among the upper ranks (an oft-cited statistic: popular music is 80% Black, but the music business is 80% white); contracts rooted in a decades-old system that many say is set up to take advantage of artists, Black artists more unfairly than white; and the call for a return of master rights, an ownership model that is at the core of the business.

Styles acknowledges the fundamental imbalance in how a major label deal is structured — the record company takes on the financial risk while the artist is made to recoup money spent on the project before the act is considered profitable and earning royalties (typically at a 15% to 18% rate for the artist, while the label keeps and disburses the rest). “Historically, I can’t think of any industry that’s benefited more off of Black culture than music,” he says. “There are discussions that need to happen about this long history of not being paid fairly. It’s a time for listening, and hopefully, people will come out humbled, educated and willing to learn and change.”

By all accounts, Styles is a voracious reader, a movie lover and an aesthete. He stays in shape by adhering to a strict daily exercise routine. “I tried to keep up but didn’t last more than two weeks,” says Hull, Styles’ producer, with a laugh. “The discipline is terrifying.”

Of course, with the fashion world beckoning — Styles recently appeared in a film series for Gucci’s new collection that was co-directed by the fashion house’s creative director, Alessandro Michele, and Oscar winner Gus Van Sant — and a movie that’s set in the 1950s, maintaining that physique is part of the job. And he’s no stranger to visual continuity after appearing in Christopher Nolan’s epic “Dunkirk” and having to return to set for reshoots; his hair, which needed to be cut back to its circa 1940 form, is a constant topic of conversation among fans. This time, it’s the ink that poses a challenge. By Styles’ tally, he’s up to 60 tattoos, which require an hour in the makeup chair to cover up. “It’s the only time I really regret getting tattooed,” he says.

He shows no regret, however, when it comes to stylistic choices overall, and takes pride in his gender-agnostic portfolio, which includes wearing a Gucci dress on that Vogue cover— an image that incited conservative pundit Candace Owens to plead publicly to “bring back manly men.” In Styles’ view: “To not wear [something] because it’s females’ clothing, you shut out a whole world of great clothes. And I think what’s exciting about right now is you can wear what you like. It doesn’t have to be X or Y. Those lines are becoming more and more blurred.”

But acclaim, if you can believe it, is not top of mind for Styles. As far as the Grammys are concerned, Styles shrugs, “It’s never why I do anything.” His team and longtime label, however, had their hearts set on a showing at the Jan. 31 ceremony. Their investment in Styles has been substantial — not just monetarily but in carefully crafting his career in the wake of such icons as David Bowie, who released his final albums with the label. Hope at the company and in many fans’ hearts that Styles would receive an album of the year nomination did not come to pass. However, he was recognized in three categories, including best pop vocal album.

“It’s always nice to know that people like what you’re doing, but ultimately — and especially working in a subjective field — I don’t put too much weight on that stuff,” Styles says. “I think it’s important when making any kind of art to remove the ego from it.” Citing the painter Matisse, he adds: “It’s about the work that you do when you’re not expecting any applause.”

Harry for Variety. (2 December 2020)

[kathyprior4200]

Who is Dr. Facilier?

Why am I envisioning writing a book about Dr. Facilier?

 I’m a long time fanfiction writer (I officially started posting online in 2016) with a passion for doing writing as a fun hobby. I’ll never get famous from doing my work, but if some people enjoy it, then that’s all that matters. I might never finish said book, but you bet your bayou blues I’m willing to try. There are several reasons why I suddenly feel the spark after so many years.

After watching The Princess and the Frog (2009) for the nth time, it really got me thinking about the New Orleans culture and other potential sides to the characters. Dr. Facilier was a great villain people loved to hate...he was willing to harm those around him just to get the green. We all know how he lived and how he got dragged into the Guinee, the voodoo land of the dead. This earned him a high ranking on the Disney villain list, though he still remains criminally underrated in comparison to other villains.

 When I listened to the Bayou Boogie soundtrack, several songs stood out: “Shadow Man,” “Do What I Wanna Do,” and “Love is a Magical Mystery.” As you may have guessed, all three songs are sung by Keith David, the voice of Dr. Facilier, but only ”Friends On The Other Side” was the catchy song he sang in the film. “Shadow Man” described the character’s suave sneaky ways of leading people astray. Like the shadows, he follows you around and you don’t even know it. “Do What I Wanna Do” depicts how Dr. Facilier manipulates people with false promises and the fact that he enjoys being a deceiver. He only wants what’s best for himself, the concerns of others don’t matter to him. In “Love Is A Magical Mystery,” love is more complex than any spell or potion. Although the song describes Dr. Facilier tricking people into knowing all about love, it may also refer to a lost love in his past.

 But who is Dr. Facilier anyway? Never mind that we don’t know his first name.

 In Princess and the Frog, Dr. Facilier mentions being a descendent of royalty through his mother (which implies that she may have been a Voodoo Queen. He might even be related to Marie Laveau.) He is African American with French origins. We don’t know whether Dr. Facilier was born in New Orleans or if he immigrated from elsewhere with his family. But there are a few things we do know. He practices both Hoodoo and Voodoo. Dr. Facilier had a poor upbringing, being surrounded by poverty and racism. Over time, he grew envious of the rich who either mistreated him or ignored him. The resentment toward mostly whites and the upper class led to his desire to take over New Orleans. Despite Dr. Facilier’s skill at manipulating and scheming people, he still didn’t make enough money to sustain himself…more than likely, he wanted to live a luxurious life. Life simply was not fair. To achieve his goals further, he needed help…from the other side.

 Another thing we know is that Dr. Facilier encountered a group of dark Loa and formed an alliance with them, granting himself the ability to perform black magic. Loa are the spirits of Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo. They are intermediaries between humanity and the supreme creator Bondye. The Rada, Petro and Ghede Loa are three types of Loa nations. Dr. Facilier’s design is inspired by the Ghede Loa of the dead, Baron Samedi. The Loa aren’t necessarily “good” or “evil” but the Petro Loa are more aggressive and warlike. It is likely that Dr. Facilier made deals with Baron Samedi, Petro Loa Met Kalfu, and Papa Legba, Loa of the Crossroads. In the film, the Loa are inaccurately portrayed as evil Tiki heads served by living Voodoo dolls and shadow monsters. (Let’s assume that Met Kalfu allowed darker spirits to “cross over” into the living world, the beings “personifying” as Loa.) Dr. Facilier relies on them to use his magic, but if he doesn’t pay them with souls from New Orleans, they would take his instead.

 Dr. Facilier is portrayed very differently in other TV shows and novels as well. However, they don’t reveal anything about his past. In the case of the TV shows, he is not depicted as the same kind of villain.

 In the popular ABC’s Once Upon a Time series, Dr. Facilier is played by Daniel Francis in the Greenbacks episode. Tiana visits him and asks him to help her find a price. Facilier makes her think that a fraud named Robert is the prince. He ends up stealing a ruby from a medal and reviving Prince Naveen before teleporting him away. Regina, the Evil Queen, is his love interest. In Disney Descendants, he has two daughters: Freddie (Descendants Wicked World) and Celia. In Descendants: Isle of the Lost, Dr. Facilier appears as a headmaster of Dragon Hall, a school for the next generation of villains. Dr. Facilier appears as a less diabolical side villain to support the respective story arcs of the shows.

 Vera Strange’s middle school novel “Chilled: Fiends On the Other Side” does an exceptional job in depicting Dr. Facilier’s sinister nature when his plan results in him becoming a militia in an alternate universe. (Tiana appears in her new restaurant from the end of the Disney film after Dr. Facilier’s official death.) The book centers on an African American boy, Jamal, who is jealous of his popular twin brother Malik. Jamal receives a skull necklace that warns him of danger. Dr. Facilier meets Jamal and offers him a chance to be popular. When Jamal refuses, the Shadow Man hunts him down and pesters him with cards and his own shadow. Dr. Facilier demands the necklace back, but Jamal steals his brother’s treasured trumpet and offers it in exchange. Although Jamal becomes popular, his brother becomes a shadow. Dr. Facilier eventually threatens Malik’s life, tricking Jamal into giving him the necklace. The two brothers become shadows, who are forgotten by their parents before they fade away.

 Regarding Disney villain backstory films, Maleficent appeared in 2014, the sequel in 2019 and Cruella is set to appear later in 2021. If Disney enjoys exploring live-action remakes, then it should be no surprise that Dr. Facilier (and other villains) should get their own backstories as well. In addition, Disney is set to include cast member training at the Princess and the Frog Splash Mountain re-theme at Disneyland Resort and Disneyworld Resort. A backstory for this villain could promote this project and many others.

 There are several noteworthy authors that have inspired me to delve deeper into the dark man’s past. The Disney “Twisted Tale” anthology is a collection of “what-if” tales that serve as spin offs to classic Disney films. The authors are Liz Braswell, Jen Calonita, and Elizabeth Lim, who have made ten books thus far. The titles of the books follow a pattern of being the name of a song: for example, “Once Upon a Dream” from Cinderella or “Reflection” from Mulan. The future Princess and the Frog inspired book will no doubt bear the title, “Almost There.” It’ll likely center around Tiana trying to earn her dream job of owning a restaurant, but with an evil Dr. Facilier attempting to manipulate her. “What if Tiana made a deal with Dr. Facilier?” Now that would be an interesting storyline!

 Moreover, there are a series of books by author Serena Valentino that explore the backstories of Disney villains. She has written stories with extraordinary female protagonists. Thus, the author’s main focus is on the female Disney villains, with the Beast being the only male. Villains like Jafar, Hades, Gaston, and, of course the Shadow Man, don’t have their stories…yet. It is unknown if or when Dr. Facilier will get his own live-action film. Most of the fanfictions I have read are mostly focused on either Dr. Facilier in the TV shows or Dr. Facilier being in a relationship with Naveen or Tiana. (Dr. Facilier is in his 40’s while Tiana is in her late teens). No current backstory novel for a memorable Disney villain…something would have to be done!

 The other part of how I got my inspiration comes from a unique adult musical web series that started on YouTube. There is a memorable villain who at first glance, appears to be a rip-off of Dr. Facilier. Behind the dancing demeanor, however, lies a diabolical demon every bit as charming and sly as Dr. Facilier. (Though the man could easily give Dr. Facilier nightmares) The man is Alastor from VivziePop’s 2019 web series Hazbin Hotel.

  Alastor and Dr. Facilier share much in common. Both are from New Orleans in the 1900s and can do dark voodoo magic (complete with canes and top hats). They have French origins; Alastor is Creole. Both faced discrimination and racism, later doing evil acts to try and achieve their goals. They are both deal-makers and love to dance, sing and play instruments. Both have their own shadow minions as well. Yet, there are major differences too. While Dr. Facilier was evil in his life, he certainly was not a radio host and serial killer who later became a demon in Hell. I’ve made a dozen fan made stories for the demonic deer man, including a partially completed novel. Indeed, both my story ideas about their lives are sometimes intertwined. If Dr. Facilier’s sinister younger counterpart gets to be an instant icon, why not him?

 So what would be the title of my book? “Shadow Man” of course!

  References

https://insidethemagic.net/2020/11/dr-facilier-live-action-rwb1/

 https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Dr._Facilier

 https://www.serenavalentino.com/

[elliepassmore]

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin review

4/5 stars Recommended for people who like: fantasy, dual POVs, court intrigue, machinations, magic This is a bit of a curious book. The concept is a good one, though parts of the book felt familiar from other books/tropes, and overall I thought the characters were pretty good. However, it started off fairly slow and I think the first 100 or so pages probably could've been cut or condensed, since it's really those two chapters before we hit page 101 where the book begins. Starting with the plot...I actually rather enjoyed this aspect of the book and liked following Malik and Karina around as they tried to get done what they both needed. The mystery and the reveals were interesting, and the twist(s) Brown put in there actually surprised me, which is refreshing. I do think the plot got somewhat muddled/overshadowed by some of the other things going on in the story and I think there were times when the additional things, such as descriptions or events, could've been toned down a little to make room for the plot point. As mentioned, aspects of the plot and book felt very familiar from other novels and tropes, and with the rest of the book coming across fairly strong, it did leave parts of the book feeling flat. The setting too was something I greatly enjoyed about the book. While at times it could be difficult to get a solid picture of the characters' surroundings, Brown utilized imagery well and created a rich backdrop for most of the book. I thought the Azure Garden was delightful, as was the Queen's Garden, and Karina vs. Malik's descriptions of the Dancing Seal were hilarious. The necropolis scene was also a good one because Brown pulled the readers right in to this beautiful city alongside Malik and Karina, only to turn it on its head multiple times. I think that stretch of the book might be one of my favorites, honestly, with the scenery, revelations, character interactions, etc. As for the characters themselves, Karina was mostly interesting. She's a princess who feels trapped (shocker) and after her mother's assassination is desperately trying to live up to her late mother's and sister's legacies. I did like how she just kind of did her own thing and figured out how to get shit done. It was also nice to see her admit to having made mistakes and understanding why the council may not trust her, especially since I feel that a lot of YA books have the protagonist thinking everyone should trust/believe them because xyz reasons. I get why she doesn't listen to her council, they're very clearly trying to push her out, but I do wish she had another adult there she could talk to just to work things out, because our girl does not make the best decisions. On top of that, she is very much written as a character that wants to break the world apart. Which is fun! And cool!...but not when you're whiny when you do it. If you want to break the world, then break it, don't throw a fit and complain about how hard things are while you're shattering things. There were also times when she could be a downright bitch. Some of it I understand, but like with Aminata or Farid? That was just uncalled for. Malik was an interesting character because he isn't exactly what one would call an obvious hero. He's gentle and kind, but as he himself mentions (as well as a couple other characters) he isn't the strongest or fastest, and he doesn't exactly have strategy or combat skills. However, he's clever and has other tricks up his sleeve that he can use, and his loyalty and dedication to his family is admirable (though problematic at times). Malik also gets panic attacks, which is something you pretty much never see in books, and I thought Brown wrote those scenes very realistically. It's hard to say whether I like Malik better than Karina, since on one hand Malik has a lot of active scenes where Karina doesn't, and on the other he also narrates with a lot of indecision and uncertainty, whereas Karina is almost always sure of herself. Their relationship was...weird, to say the least. They barely know each other, both were aiming to kill the other and they barely know anything about each other, yet they think they're in love? I suppose almost dying with someone and sharing vulnerable things about one another can bring people closer, but it's another instance where a YA couple knows each other for a week and BAM, true love. For the side characters, Afua was very entertaining and I hope we get to see more of her. She's got so much energy and sass and acts, as I'm sure, how a lot of 11-year-olds act, she just has the added benefit of having magic. I honestly think she might be my favorite side character. Tunde was also another favorite of mine and good god did he get the short end of the stick. He was such a sweet character and didn't really begrudge anyone anything. I do wish Tunde and Karina were supposed to be endgame since I feel like they fit together so much better than Karina and Malik, but oh well. Nadia was also a pretty cute character, though we don't see a ton of her. Aminata and Dedele, likewise, seem like characters I could like if they're given more page time. Leila was written more complexly than the other side-characters, I feel, since she clearly loves her family and feels more in control when she has the knowledge of what to do, but on the other hand she can also be awful to Malik. It'll be interesting to see where her character goes in the next book and how she reacts to the situations that will no doubt arise. Farid is...uh...interesting. He seems like he cares about Ziran and the Alahari family, like he wants to help Karina, but at the same time he's 100% obsessed with a girl that's been dead for a decade and doesn't seem to mind who he might hurt with that obsession, so...make of that what you will. Overall I think the book is pretty good. The scenery and imagery was really great throughout, though I feel that the background could at times overpower what was going on in the scene. I enjoyed most of the characters, though both Karina and Malik could get annoying at times. I'll probably read the second one when it comes out, just to see what happens, but I also think the book could be read fine as a standalone.

[supastareden]

Inside the Sadness Plaguing K-Pop

by NATALIE FINN | Thu., Mar. 29, 2018 3:07 PM [X]

Nothing cheers you up, lifts you up, brings you life quite like pop music. Even when it's Harry Styles or Adeleor Sam Smith or BTS achingly belting their despair into that cold, lonely night...songs that make you feel all the feelings are still songs that are taking you to new heights. There's nothing quite like a tune that hurts so good.

As we wallow, so do we celebrate.

In South Korea, the genre is known as K-Pop—a catchy moniker established in the 1990s that's starting to catch fire around the globe—and all the hallmarks of the superstars of the Western world are present and accounted for: Charismatic boy bands, polished pop princesses, infectious chart-topping singles, carefully crafted images and tender-aged men and women who've inspired a level of fanaticism reserved for...well, almost no one besides pop stars these days.

Music is the universal language, after all.

But for the second time in four months, the K-pop world is in mourning, this time following the sudden death on March 25 of 100% singer Seo Minwoo. He was 33.

The actor and boyband heartthrob reportedly suffered cardiac arrest; an official cause of death has not yet been announced.

TOP Media founder Andy Lee, the singer turned K-pop impresario who's behind the groups 100%, Teen Top, Shinhwa and UP10TION, expressed his condolences in a statement online, calling Seo a leader known for his tenderness and sincerity.

While American audiences may still be largely in the dark when it comes to the ins and outs of K-pop and its artists, our mainstream exposure fairly limited to PSY's "Gangnam Style" and, more recently, the emergence of BTS on the world stage, fans took to social media to share exactly what Seo meant to them.

"Seo Minwoo is my life mentor. He gave up everything for 100% and perfection. Words are not enough to describe how great of a person he is. How lovely, caring and talented he is. Seo Minwoo, my king... I love you," wrote Haya on Twitter.

She continued, "Seo Minwoo gave up is acting career for 100%. Fought Top Media over and over again (f*ck you tm) to keep 100% together. Everything he did he put his absolute everything in. He openly supported LGBTQ, did vlives often to talk with perfection about their concerns."

Haya's current pinned tweet is from Dec. 24, 2015: "If 100% were a religion, I'd build them a church and dedicate my whole life and soul to them."

While that's a lot, it's indicative of the level of devotion that some K-pop stars have awoken in their fans.

A number of people tweeted that upcoming "selca days"—specific days each month on which fans post selfies with their favorite idols—should be canceled out of respect for Minwoo. 100%'s fandom is called Perfection.

And SHINee World knows what they're going through.

On Dec. 18, 2017, SHINee singer Kim Jong-hyun (known as Jonghyun) committed suicide, baffling fans and even fellow K-pop stars who figured the 27-year-old was on top of the world.

"It was so shocking, because we had seen him so often at events," BTS' RM told Billboard last month. He was so successful."

"My Poet My Artist My Jonghyun I miss you," tweeted w today. In fact, there are so many newly posted photos and video clips of the young man on Twitter that, aside from the occasional mournful missive like this one, you'd be forgiven for not knowing that he's gone.

The account Jonghyun On This Day is also doing its part to keep his memory alive.

But Jonghyun's death—authorities found charred coal briquettes in a frying pan on the stove, which produced carbon monoxide—obviously rattled the music world at large on multiple levels. In addition to the personal loss felt alike by loved ones and fans who felt they knew him, mental health is not an issue that tends to get much media attention in South Korea—or in Asia overall.

"To the South Korean government: Let #Jonghyun be the light in death that he was in life," tweeted Xavier on Dec. 18. "Recognize that suicide is an epidemic in South Korea and takes strides to ending the negative stigmas around mental health and to combat this issue. Don't let Jonghyun be another statistic."

A fan started a Change.org petition demanding that entertainment companies set up mental health support systems for their artists. More than 430,000 people have signed.

After some discussion, his family agreed to make public the suicide note the singer and songwriter, who made his solo debut in 2015 with the well-received album Base, left behind. His friend and Dear Cloud singer Jang Hee-yeon, known as Nine9, posted it on her Instagram. She said she'd obtained the note two weeks before Jonghyun's death and was asked to publish it if he "disappeared from the world."

"I'm broken from the inside," the note read. "The depression that has slowly eaten away at me has finally consumed me, and I couldn't beat it."

It concluded, "The life of fame was not for me. They say it's hard to bump up against the world and become famous. Why did I choose this life? It's a funny thing. It's a miracle that I lasted this long...

"What else is there to say? Just tell me I did well. Tell me that this is enough. Tell me I worked hard. Even if you can't smile, please don't blame me as you send me off. Well done. You've really worked hard. Goodbye."

In a sign that Jonghyun's death could help bring about positive change in the way mental health and depression are publicly discussed, the circumstances of his death continue to be a topic of conversation—one that Seo Minwoo's passing, no matter what the cause, only brings to mind all over again.

Just today a fan tweeted, "Nine said on the last interview Jonghyun once told her that she brings comfort to him. She noticed his condition got worse after blue night and when he gave her the letter she told his family right away, tried to save him, to prevent the worst from happening...

"I really believe everyone around him knew about his condition and tried their best to help him. that's why it hurts so much, that even though he got help he still wanted to leave."

In an interview with Billboard last month, members of BTS said that they wanted to keep the discussion about mental health going.

"I really want to say that everyone in the world is lonely and everyone is sad," Suga, 25, said, "and if we know that everyone is suffering and lonely, I hope we can create an environment where we can ask for help, and say things are hard when they're hard, and say that we miss someone when we miss them."

Bucking national mores and the pressure to be upbeat or put up an artificially glossy front all the time, Jonghyun, who also hosted the long-running music radio program Blue Night, had spoken out publicly about his battle with depression—much like young American stars such as Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Zayn Malikand Keshahave been widely applauded for doing these days.

His last Blue Night broadcast was in March 2017 after three years behind the mic. He admitted to Esquire Korea that he didn't like traveling and considered himself a homebody—and the close confines of a radio studio, just him alone with some music, had been a perfect fit.

"It may be that I came running to radio in order to escape," he reflected to the magazine, per an English translation. "I don't really like going outside. And I don't really like having to meet a lot of people. I'm also afraid of trying new things. The radio now felt like my own personal space. It had become an escape hatch for me to greet new things without feeling awkward."

Jonghyun, who cited personal matters as the reason he was leaving the radio show, said it had become important to him to share his metaphorical scars with the world.

"I'm fundamentally a pessimistic person," he said. "Ever since I was little I showed a lot of depressive feelings, and it's the same in the present. But I don't think I can keep living my life sustaining those depressive feelings forever. You might be able to go through the early-to-mid-part of your life with that kind of melancholy. But if you want to grow, you can only survive if you throw those feelings away.

"Unless you want to get trapped within yourself and die, you have to grow no matter how much it hurts—but if you stop because you're afraid, in the end it's inevitable that you'd remain in an immature state of mind. I chose the path to transform myself. To reveal myself to the public. To attempt to make my thoughts understood. I have to make people aware that this is the kind of person I am, and I can only be on the defensive if I know that they know."

The translator noted that she avoided using the word "depression," because Jonghyun didn't use what amounted to that word specifically. Even in talking about it, those feelings of sadness remained a beast with no name.

When Jonghyun died, his SHINee band mates and members of the group Super Junior (both groups under the S.M. Entertainment umbrella), all clad in black, carried his coffin from Asan Medical Center in Seoul to a waiting vehicle. His sister headed the procession, carrying a photo of her late brother.

The funeral was private, for friends and family only, but hundreds of people lined up to see the coffin leave the hospital.

A statement from S.M. Entertainment read in part (according to Rolling Stone), "The deep sorrow cannot be compared to ones of his family who had to let go of their loving son and brother but the employees and artists of SM Entertainment, also in deep shock and sorrow, are offering condolences. Jonghyun was the best artist who loved music more than anyone and always worked hard for his performance. We ask you to refrain from making rumors or assumptions based on reports in respect of his family who are in deep sorrow from the sudden news. As his family wished, his funeral will be carried out in the quietest manner with his family members and co-workers."

But Jonghyun's death was hardly the first time the punishing pace of the K-pop machine had come under fire.

In addition to being expected to tour and crank out albums, sometimes in multiple languages (SHINee had also recorded in Japanese), the artists often appear on a never-ending stream of competition TV series in addition to doing talk shows, photo shoots and public appearances to keep the fans both sated and hungry for more.

But despite the seeming glut of artists and groups to remember (there are so manyselca days), truly breaking through as a star remains an elusive concept—and standing out in South Korea's youth-obsessed culture can feel like an insurmountable challenge.

And then there's the appearance factor. "If a girl has a bad face and a good body, the problem can be fixed with plastic surgery," Kim Min-seok, a former trainer with YG Entertainment (considered along with S.M. and JYP as the "Big Three" agencies), told Broadly. in 2016.

Moreover, the litany of groups also tend to be carefully managed, meticulously packaged pop confections, with a management company pulling the strings behind the scenes. Those who hope to make it big are expected to dedicate their lives to that goal, and that's basically what signing a contract entails.

In January 2015, NBC News cited a survey of South Korean pre-teens: When asked about career aspirations, 21 percent said they wanted to be K-pop stars.

"I am thinking only one thing—our song keeps being played," 20-year-old Sowon, a member of the girl group GFriend, which had an international hit at the time with their debut single "Glass Bead," told NBC News. "I hope to perform anywhere, anytime, even if I can't sleep or I am tired."

On Feb. 24, 2015, aspiring K-pop star Ahn So Jin died after falling 10 stories from an apartment building, with police concluding that her death was a suicide. The 22-year-old had made a splash the previous year after making it to the finals of The Kara Project—a competition show held to find girl group Kara a new member after two girls had left.

"It has to be this, or nothing," Sojin said on the show's premiere. "I can't miss this." She had been a K-pop trainee with Kara manager DSP Media for five years but her contract had reportedly ended the month before her death.

Kara disbanded for good in January 2016.

ng Ha-Jin, a 23-year-old university student who had once been a trainee with S.M. Entertainment after winning a talent competition, told NBC News in 2015 that she wasn't allowed to have a cell phone while in the program and the competition to earn a coveted slot in an actual girl group was fierce—and stressful.

"The most difficult part in fact was when I saw myself and felt like I didn't grow up," she said.

The loss of individuality isn't limited to K-pop, either.

In 2013, Minami Minegishi of Japan's AKB48—a group with over 100 rotating members who appear in different configurations at different events—shaved her head and tearfully apologized in a video confession after she spent the night with her boyfriend, an apparent infraction of a no-dating rule.

"I don't believe just doing this means I can be forgiven for what I did, but the first thing I thought was that I don't want to quit AKB48," Minegishi said, according to the BBC. AKB48's manager said Minegishi, an original member of the group when it formed in 2005, had been demoted to trainee status.

Her fans, more appalled by the self-flagellation than anything else, rallied around her, insisting she not be punished for just wanting to live her life.

In 2015, the BBC reported that members of Japanese boy band SMAP somberly dressed in black and publicly apologized on their weekly show SMAPxSMAP after they attempted to leave their longtime agency Johnny & Associates.

The K-pop scene doesn't sound quite so rigid these days, with managers and producers perhaps not wanting to alienate coveted Western audiences with oppressive behavioral strictures, but it still demands a level of old-fashioned poise and accommodation from its artists.

"If you go to the agency, every young trainee will give you a very polite bow and there are notices with the company rules on the wall to remind them how to behave," K-pop industry expert Mark Russell told the BBC in 2016.

In June 2014, Taeyeon of Girls Generation and Baekhyun of boy band EXO apologized to their respective fan bases for the "disappointment, anger, hatred, frustration, and dejection" they presumably felt when they found out that Taeyeon and Baekhyun were dating (a coupling that would seemingly send their fans over the moon, Jelena-style).

Last June, T.O.P. of the group Big Bang was hospitalized for several days after overdosing on prescription medication, the incident occurring a day after he was charged with smoking marijuana—a crime punishable by up to five years in prison in South Korea. According to Today Online, when he was caught smoking in October 2016, he issued a handwritten apology letter stating, "I deserve punishment for hurting the (BIGBANG) members, agency, public, fans and family. I'll regret this for tens of thousands of years."

T.O.P. was found guilty and received a suspended 10-month prison sentence because the judge determined that, although he had admitted his guilt and "disappointed his family and fans," he seemed sufficiently remorseful.

"I'm truly sorry that I disappointed my fans and the public," the 29-year-old, whose real name is Choi Seung-Hyun, told reporters after his sentencing last summer. I will do my best to make a fresh start and not to make such a mistake again with what I've learned from this lesson,"

In August, management company WM Entertainment announced that JinE of Oh My Girl was taking a break from the group while she sought treatment for anorexia, stating, "We will wholeheartedly support JinE while she rests and receives treatment. We apologize once more for bringing this sudden news to fans and ask that you continue to show Oh My Girl unchanging love and interest." JinE's permanent exit from the group was announced in October.

It's impossible not to note a hint of concern over past K-pop tragedy and the pitfalls of fame in this otherwise cheerful birthday greeting sent today (already March 30 in South Korea) to Cha Eunwoo, or Eunwoo, of the six-member boy band Astro.

"Mr. Cha Eunwoo Happy birthday to our sweet and sparkling fluff. AROHA are so lucky to have you," wrote Ashlyn Akiko (who changed her handle to #happychaeunwooday for the occasion). "Stay happy and healthy."

[noiseartists]

HOIRONG, talented post-indie noise bringers from India

Noise manipulators, from the Indian sub-continent, HOIRONG is a brainchild of frontman/guitarist - Kamal Singh. “The fat and ugly stepsister of pop music” is how they describe their music, and their latest album, Cow Gives Milk, is one of the best releases of 2019 from India that delivers an interesting mix of cleverly crafted Noise, Shoegaze, Punk and everything in between.

Basically you alternate between Madness and Pure Joy in beautifully crafted songs. Be ready to be entertained, enjoyed and surprised.

Here are a few example to listen to, illustrating the band’s variety of sounds and influences:

Note that they are part of Noise Artists Indian Shoegaze, Noise & Dream Pop volume 1 with other great bands We invite you in this piece to discover their music, who they are (interview, as whacky as their music can be), where to find their music and more information on the band.

THE BAND

The current line-up is:

Kamal

Akhil

Akshat

THE MUSICAL WORK

HOIRONG diverse musical work to date is as follows:

Cow Gives Milk (April 2019)

Mwah, LP, (May 2016)

The Old Newz, EP, (April 2015)

Dandaniya Apradh, LP, (August 2014)

Nursery Lies, LP, (2014)

A Hoirong Christmas (2013)

The Resurrection Of The Princess Of Woe And Her Vampire Hound Posse, LP, (March 2013)

Singles:

If I Slit Your Throat Would Your Blood Turn To Doves That Fly Out From Your Neck And Leave Me In Complete Awe, Nov 2014

23/24 (Dennis Rodman Tribute), Nov 2014

Under Section 87, 2014

Covers:

I Swear (All For One), March 2015

Lakhan (From The Movie - Ram Lakhan), July 2015

1979 (Smashing Pumpkins), June 2018

Titanium (David Guetta), 2013

Aaja Meri Gaadi Mein Betja (Baba Sehgal, Anu Malik), 2013

2 Become 1 (Spice Girls), 2014

Enter Sandman (Metallica), 2014

Smile (Unknown Artist), 2014

THE INTERVIEW

What is your music about?

Kamal: Living, Love, Laughter and Food

Akshat: Living, Love, Laughter, Food and Suicide

Tell us about the artists you have worked with.

Kamal: They are very good and it was a pleasure to work with each and every one of them.

We look forward to crossing paths once again in this lifetime.

Having said that, there are some people we have never worked with and never ever, ever…. like EVER want to work with them. We also have very bad things to say about them.

Akshat: Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell, that Masterchef guy, and many others. We like to work with Hoirong’s.

Where are you from? Where are you living now?

Kamal: India, We live in different cities…but we could say that we are based in Delhi/Bangalore

Akshat: What Kamal said, But additionally, seems like Akhil lives on twitter since we barely hear from him other than his tweets.

Akhil: We are a dysfunctional group where, half the time, we have no idea what the others are up to. But we get together (digitally) every few months when it’s time to work on music or release something.

What did you study?

Kamal: Quite a few things that I now realise I completely wasted my time on. That does not mean in any way that I had or have better things to do. Not at all. Not one millisecond of that thought even crosses my mind but maybe it did and I am in denial because I am mentioning it and in some way defending it. If it was not true why would I even be saying it.

Akshat: The art of following pursuits which will probably amount to nothing or very little at all

Akhil: Kamal is trying to say in a roundabout way that he studied music therapy. Akshat dropped out of engineering college I think. I studied English literature and journalism for some reason.

Kamal: No, I’m not. I was talking about school and the many things I tried to study and tormented myself.

What is your day job at present if any?

Kamal: Music Therapy

Akshat: New media Artist / FIlmmaker

Akhil: Writer/journalist.

Do you dream to live from your music or is it a passion you do not want to spend your full time on?

Kamal: This is definitely a trick question. My answer is … None of the above…. and …. Music is a dream and time is life. And to freely misquote Steve Vai “Passion is Warfare”

Akshat: No I don’t dream to live

Akhil: Never. Have you heard our music?

You have a great history. Could you tell us more on how the band came to be and its history really?

Kamal: The band came as a surprise. Hoirong began out of the intention of never being a band. It’s just misery to be a band and totally unproductive and completely useless. Why would anyone want to be in a band??? Everything I’ve just said here is a lie. This is just total reverse psychology to myself and everyone who has stood with us through the thick and thin that life has offered us. I would like to apologise on behalf of the band for all our mistakes and for the utter irresponsibility we have carried ourselves with. We have disappointed you and therefore, we hang our heads in shame and self disgust.

Akshat: I was and am a fan of Kamal’s writing before joining the band. One day he asked me out for a date, and I was like “Really”, and he was like “Really” and I was like “Damn, this is a dream come true”, and he was like “Give me 3 Rohypnol” to the chemist. Things are a little blurry after that, but safe to say nothing was the same ever since.

Akhil: Short answer: Kamal started it off as a solo thing to put out his music and Akshat and I barged our way into it and insisted he play with us.

Could you tell me how the band meet and decided to do music together?

Kamal: Mostly we just text each other. Recently we started sending each other voice messages on whatsapp.

Akshat: We usually try not to communicate unless absolutely necessary.

Akhil: Same as above.

Can you tell me the inspiration behind your band? You can detect the influences of noise and punk rock. You took these influences to make your own music, your own sound, which is not easy. Could you tell more?

Kamal: Yes, this is true. We might have done this without realising. By the way, the Air Jordans on Snapdeal, I am told, are fake.

Akshat: The 80’s No-wave movement, the 90’s garage and alternative movements, and basically every sound made by people dressed as bums.

Akhil: All the pretentious art movements of the last many decades.

Kamal: Wow! That’s a lot of putting together. We might have outdone ourselves.

Can you tell us about some of your favourite bands, the music you listen now, some you may want to bring the attention from the reader to?

Kamal: I like the music of Space Behind the Yellow Room and my new favourite band is Lo! Peninsula. Yes, both the bands paid me to say that and yes, I am the promoter for both the bands and so I just take every chance I get to plug them? Yeah!! we plug them both as hard as we can. Plug it to ya! Its plugged in!!!

Having said that, both these band would sound terrible unplugged.

Akshat: Indian bands I love are Lifafa, The Superfuzz, and HOIRONG.

You should definitely listen to HOIRONG. They are better than the other two I mentioned.

Akhil: Hoirong and Carly Rae Jepsen.

Was there a vision of sorts or did you know what you wanted to do when you started up?

Kamal: Yes. It was very clear - don’t waste my time. I did not mean that you are wasting my time. I meant that I and we as some sort of band should not waste time. Please believe me.

Akshat: Yeah there was a vision. It was meant to be like the opening 20 minutes of ‘Almost Famous’, but ended up being more like the ending 10 minutes of ‘The Shining’

Akhil: Just playing music.

Do you have any other musical side projects apart from this band?

Kamal: Yes, we have a few.

Akhil: We’re all always doing something or the other musically. Most of it is shit.

Could you tell me more on the band composition? Do you have plans to add new members, or is there possible departure scheduled from existing band members?

Kamal: Yes, we plan to add band members because there has always been a possibility that Akhil actually finally leaves us and joins a very famous world music fusion band. Well!.... good for him and good for them.

Akshat: I really hope Akhil stops holding us back after this album and quits. Akhil i hope you are reading this.

Akhil: We might get rid of the drummer.

Can you tell us more how you came to have the band’s name?

Kamal: It suited us so well, we had no way to talk ourselves out of it.

Who writes the song and the music and how do you get to the final song? Is it a community process, do you have leaders in composing or arranging music?

I, Kamal, the control freak Dictator won’t let anyone do anything.

Akshat: Supreme Leader and Commander in grief, Kamalala writes the frame, and then together we create the painting which eventually makes people eyes and ears bleed.

Akhil: Kamal writes all the songs (because we let him) and then we work on them - sometimes together, usually individually.

Do you listen to the advice of your band mates? What would you do if they said a song was shit but you liked it?

Kamal: Best way to deal with these situations is not to answer phone calls, ignore text messages and never make the mistake of opening whatsapp messages, you know what I mean? because if you do then the blue double fake nike logos change colour and... that’s that then.

Akshat: Never. I am the best and know better than everyone else in this band. +1 to what Kamal said

Akhil: No.

Was it kind of intimidating going to record knowing people might not be engaging with the songs in terms of hooks and such and trying to deliver an engaging sound on record?

Kamal: Oh! No! not at all. We are very confident and self assured as individuals. We have very high self-worth and self-esteem.

Akshat: Every night while finishing my daily bottle of scotch, I think, nay hope, that people will get our music, but know that it is too ahead of its time, and that they will never, and then I cry myself to sleep. Every night.

Akhil: No, I think we’ve gotten past those insecurities for the most part.

Talking about the lyrics: who write them? Is there a common thread in them, a theme? Who chose the songs’ name?

Who else…. that Dictator control freak.

Do you labor over your lyrics? Is that something that comes easy?

Kamal: Not at all. I wouldn’t say it was easy…. I think it comes fairly easily. Like… not too bad types. Yeah, medium speed and medium pace.

Do you have a message that you want to get across in your music? If so, what are some of the messages you want to spread?

Kamal: Yes we do. Love, Beauty, Peace, Child Labour, E-waste and Save the Forest and also Save the Tiger.

Did your listening habits changed over the years and does it affect what you write?

Kamal: Yes, We have gotten more impatient and maybe that has made us very idiotic as people too. I don't think we'll make it very far if we don't do something about it soon.

Akshat: Yes listening habits have changed. Earlier there was lesser access, but more meaning. Now there’s infinite access, but far lesser meaning, there’s an overpopulation of content and that is diluting the value and timelessness of art. but that’s just me. It affects how one thinks, feels and of course writes music. I think there is more pressure now than ever to write meaningful music and not contribute to the pile of crap already out there.

Akhil: My listening habits change every few months but I think we all will continue to like punk and the dirty guitar rock that informs Hoirong often.

How is your recognition going worldwide? Is it growing? Are you happy with it?

Kamal: It’s terrible. No we are the opposite of Happy. We are turning into a bunch of jealous crocodiles.

Akshat: We are world famous in India

Is it easy to find producers and studios where you live for indie-rock?

Kamal: Yeah, but none of them want to work with us. We keep asking for discounts and tell them we will pay them when we become famous or from the gigs we play but we never do and now they know all this too well to make fools of themselves anymore. I totally get it. No offense meant and none taken.

Your recorded sound is very good, which is not easy. Did you engineer the sound yourself, or did you have a sound engineer with you? If yes could you tell us more about him/her?

Kamal: No one wants to work with us. Viraj Mohan took bait once along with Keshav Dhar but now they know all our tricks.

Akhil: Not that he needs any more flattery, but the new record - as with a lot of the old ones - has been produced by Kamal on his Acer desktop.

Was it a community work to try to have the best sounding music possible or mainly driven by the sound engineer or by the band?

Kamal: Ok. Now you’re just trying to rub it in no?

Can you tell us how the recording process was?

Kamal: Terrible. Boring and very very tiring.

Akhil: For me, it was just recording hundreds of guitar parts to the songs at home and waiting for the mixes to see what made it and how the songs changed shape.

Could you let us know some important technical tricks you learnt during the process that could help other musicians not as experienced?

Kamal: Making Akhil play his parts and not recording him.

Akhil: He’s talking shit.

How did the recording work differ over time?

Kamal: We started paying more attention to the complaints we were receiving. This decision has led to purchasing a new sound card and a couple of headphones along with a laptop charger.

Akshat: We are very democratic and heard the public and acted upon it. One of the main issues people had with our music was Akhil’s crap guitar playing. So now, in this new album, we have basically buried his parts waaaaaaayyyyy in the back of the mix so that they are there but not there.

Akhil: Why is the drummer answering music related questions? Learn to play a real instrument first.

Is the recording material yours when you are out of a studio or do you borrow/rent it?

Kamal: No, no. We own everything we have.

Akshat: We mostly just burn the evidence after. That’s why no two albums of ours sound the same.

Akhil: I bought a brand new soundcard just to record my parts for this album.

Any interesting anecdotes on some recording session you would like to share?

Kamal: No, not really.

Did getting the live experience across on record create any pressure for yourselves in the recording process?

Kamal; No, the other method is severely pressurising, demotivating and very very emotionally destructive.

Akhil: If anything, Hoirong’s live sound (if we ever play live) tends to be very different from how we are on record.

Instruments: Are you mainly a Fender band?

Kamal: We don’t own any fenders but having said that we have seen some of them here and there *ahem* *cough* *cough* *hint* *hint*

Akshat: Dude there is a drummer in this band as well, what the fuck? Couldn’t you have mentioned a drum brand just for courtesy? That’s it, my interview is over.

*throws rock star tantrum and stops answering questions*

Akhil: Fender sucks. I am a left-handed guitar player and I play a PureSalem. I originally wanted a Fender Jazzmaster. But while the righty version was some $700, the EXACT SAME GUITAR left-handed would have cost me $3500 as well as import duties and a waiting period through the custom shop.

Kamal: Ooooo so much to talk about suddenly. “PureSalem”

Do you have one favorite instrument or do you change often?

Kamal: I change often.

Tell us what you are looking when trying to achieve your sounds? Do you experiment a lot or have a clear idea of what you want?

Kamal: Both.

Who is the more knowledgeable with pedals? You use them a lot, to great effect.

Kamal: Akshat is the expert.

PS - I just realised that pedals could mean 5 different things.

He could be the expert in selling drugs.

He could be an expert bicycle guy.

He could be an expert in guitar effects.

He could be an expert in hi hat and kick drum pedals.

He could be an expert race car driver.

See...Now… we will never know the correct answer.

Akshat: Kamal knows me so well.

How many concerts a year would you do on average and what would be the size of the venue?

Kamal: Last year we did one concert. The size of the venue was good. The stage was small so one of us had to stand off stage. It was difficult to concentrate on the gig trying to make sure our bandmate was not feeling out of place.

Akhil: it wasn’t last year, it was 2016.

Kamal: Oh!

Would you mind sharing some good anecdotes from your concerts/touring?

Kamal: Not enough experience to share any anecdotes.

Akshat: Kamal lies. He has a knack of getting into fights with people, which Akshat tries to diffuse, and then he gets angry at Akshat and beats the shit out of him. This has happened at 2 different festivals with people of 2 different nationalities.

Kamal : Akshat????

What are some places around the world that you hope to take your band? Do you have any plans at present to tour in other countries?

Kamal: Yes, we hope to be able to play in at least one more country apart from India.

Is there any reason in particular that you want to go to these places? Is there something about the music scene in those places that makes you want to go there?

Kamal: No reason really.

THE SCENE

Is it easy for an Indian indie bands to be known internationally? Do you have any example?

Kamal: Maybe it is. We hope it is.

Akshat: Not really. No one really cares about Indian bands not singing in Hindi since its not exotic enough.

Has the scene changed since you began, and if so how?

Kamal: Yes, the cover bands have come back. Yay!

Akshat: Yes, when we started there was a live band scene in India, quite a nice one at that. Then the Dj’s and EDM took over and now we don’t have that many live bands and a scene as such. But such is life , and thats a trend everywhere. Not hating, just stating.

Akhil: Not hating just stating lol.

Could you tell us a bit more about your record label and your relationship with it?

Kamal: We have no relationship with any record label.

How did the funding worked for the LP? Did you invest a lot yourself? Was your label supportive in that respect?

Kamal: No, no one supported us. We have no funding and we don’t really invest in ourselves. We learned the hard way. The only reason we are still around is because we believe in ourselves and would not give up no matter what.

Akshat: lol, what funding?

Where does the majority of the money go when you’re paying your own way?

Kamal: The funny part is there actually is no money that comes or goes anywhere when you are paying your own way. The money is just over, finished!

Akshat: lol, what money?

Do you make a decent revenue from your music or is it still very much a hobby?

Kamal: Not at all, we make a killing.

Akshat: Lol, What revenue?

How do you sell your recordings (shops, online, …)?

Kamal: Please Akshat, please surprise me by saying. “Lol, what shops?, Lol, what online?”

Akshat: Shops selling physical music in this digital age? Lol, … (stops himself)

Kamal: Rolls eyes dramatically.

Akshat: Rolls eyes back with double drama.

Akhil: Bandcamp is great. Other than that, we’re now on all the major streaming services, so we expect to make around $0.00006 for every thousand plays.

When is the next album due?

Kamal: Very soon. Akshat: With Akhil, probably in 2 years. Without Akhil, Yesterday

Akhil: Once we figure out our drummer scene.

Any other project (ie movies soundtrack, …) or plans.

Kamal: Yes, A collaboration with traditional Manipuri folk music.

Akshat: I’ve been writing some music independently, and with another band called Mag Phos so more music there

Akhil Sood: I write aimless music at home under the name Free Drone. I recently got a Chinese four-string guitar called a xuian (sp?) so maybe something with that.

Do you plan to continue music for a long time or are you tired of it?

Kamal: Both, I am tired of it but I plan to continue making music for a long time.

Akshat: It’s like that first girlfriend you had, whom you truly fell in love with but are also horrible together. You know you are bad for each other, because it’s all so volatile, but that’s also what keeps bringing you back to it. But it’s also like you’ve both become middle aged now, and are kinda like friends with benefits. How long that is going to last, well we’ll find out.

Kamal: Middle aged?

Akshat: Yeah, middle aged.

Kamal: Ok.

Akhil: Same answer as Kamal.

Anything else you want the reader to know?

Kamal: This interview is very long. Don’t hesitate taking a piss break or having a snack in between, do some stretches, a couple of push ups, watch some tele and then come back.

A good music video to watch

Watch the video of Oppurtunity on youtube.

Where to find your work? Where can people buy you music

Ok Listen, Bandcamp, Spotify and Itunes.

Provide some bands from your country, that would be worthwhile listening.

Space Behind the Yellow Room, Lo! Peninsula, MC Kaur

Anyone you like to thank?

We want to thank ourselves for hanging in there.

Follow HOIRONG here:

Facebook

Twitter

Youtube

[zayntoxicateme]

June 18, 2018 

We managed to catch up with the quietly enigmatic singer.

Read "How Do You Explain Zayn?"

Zayn, the one-named man who found himself reborn after leaving One Direction, is now on GQ's cover. In his shoot with Sebastian Mader, Zayn channels Tyler Durden and Leo DiCaprio's Romeo. And the wildly enigmatic singer also let down his guard, briefly, in talking to writer Carrie Battan about his relationship with Gigi Hadid, the self indulgence of being a "star," and his crafty use of the paparazzi for his own devices—a story you can read here (full story is below; the link will take you to the GQ website)

How Do You Explain Zayn?

By

Carrie Battan

Photographs by

Sebastian Mader

The 25-year-old British singer is deeply, maddeningly, almost trolling-ly enigmatic. And that cultivated mystery—along with his disdain for the standard rules of superstardom—is probably what puts him on the short list for COOLEST HUMAN ALIVE. On a recent Friday night, though, he dropped his guard and spilled his guts.

There are exactly two places in New York on a Friday night where Zayn Malik can smoke Marlboro Lights as liberally and openly as he pleases, unencumbered by gawkers or the city's increasingly draconian anti-smoking laws. The first is Zayn Malik's SoHo apartment, where he spends the majority of his time, zoning out, reading books, listening to music, and "partaking in the herb," as he says. The second is the Mary A. Whalen, a 172-foot-long restored-tanker-ship-turned-nonprofit-hangout-spot that is docked off the shore of Red Hook, Brooklyn. The ship is closed for business after 6 P.M., but tonight its leader, a hardy blonde ship preservationist named Carolina, has agreed to keep it open late to accommodate us. No crowds, a few plastic chairs, and a gently lilting surface that is basically a giant ashtray.

There is just one problem: The temperature on deck is decreasing rapidly with the setting sun, and Zayn—the 25-year-old former British-boy-band member, current solo pop-ish star, and all-around inscrutable avatar of contemporary celebrity—has arrived with nothing on his person but a lighter, a backpack, and an iPhone. No jacket on his rail-thin five-ten frame—just a pair of charcoal skinny jeans, a distressed Pink Floyd T-shirt, a bright pink beanie that obscures his new flower skull tattoo (or "tah-oo," as Zayn pronounces it). He looks so modernly cool, blending a hip-hop swagger with a punk-rock edge, that he should receive a cut from Urban Outfitters every time someone makes a purchase. He is the only man whose Disney-princess-long eyelashes seem to bolster his machismo rather than diminish it. Nobody this dreamy has ever bothered to check the weather to see if he should grab a jacket before leaving the house. Through chattering teeth, he rejects multiple offers of blankets. "It's all good," he insists, burping faintly after taking a swig of his Peroni. "I'm cool."

Still, Carolina avails us of the ship's warmer galley. "I might have a cigarette first?" Zayn asks, as though he needs permission, gesturing toward the other side of the ship. Over there is his assistant Taryn, a young woman with French-braided pigtails that make her look more like a high school soccer player than someone designated to manage the everyday logistics of a notoriously slippery superstar's life. She is the custodian of his pack, doling out individual cigarettes to Zayn periodically.

But Carolina assures us Zayn will not have to stay outside to smoke his cigarette. She'll let us smoke belowdecks on the condition that Zayn provide her one of his Marlboros and permission to snap a photograph. She promises she won't post it until after the story runs. "Uh…yeah?" Zayn replies, sounding sincerely surprised that he is the one who has to answer a question that was directed at him.

A steely detachment from life's mundane logistical concerns is part of almost every celebrity's existence, but it is the core of Zayn's being. This character trait has ruinous potential, but it also means he gets to live his life exactly how he pleases. And it means that he doesn't have to express a single word or hint of desire in order for the conditions around him to re-arrange to his liking and comfort. There's a hapless Peter Pan quality to it that makes it tough to hold against him.

We settle around the table in the '70s-style kitchen on the boat. It's 15 degrees warmer down here and private. Zayn instantly appears relieved, his shoulders unclenching and his brow de-furrowing. He stops shivering. He is in a womb-like space, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, and he seems palpably and unexpectedly happy. "Thanks," he says quietly and earnestly in Carolina's direction as she seals off the door behind us. "Couple of times I tried to quit. But I just like smoking cigs. Simple as that."

There is a major conundrum in Zayn's life, which is that he may be constitutionally incapable of being a star. He tells me so almost immediately. "I don't work well in group situations, with loads of people staring at me. And when you say 'star'…everyone wants you to be this kind of character that owns a room or is overly arrogant or confident. I'm not that guy," he says. "So I don't want to be a star." Zayn seems to aspire to the soul of Prince, or some cult '90s skate-punk figure, but is trapped in the trajectory of a Justin Timberlake.

A decade ago, someone like Zayn would not have become the Chosen Member of a band like One Direction. The Chosen Member is the boy-band graduate whose solo career evolves and hurdles into grown-up relevance, ultimately overshadowing the band's legacy. Until recently, you could spot a Chosen Member from a mile away—he was unequivocally the best dancer and the one the most girls wanted to bring home to their parents. But Zayn never fit the mold of a Chosen Member. From the day One Direction formed, on the U.K. show The X Factor in 2010, he was cast as the smoldering background foil to the eager-to-please Harry Styles and Liam Payne. His energy and his dance moves were muted. He presented as the quiet, disillusioned one.

But in the past five years or so, it has become acceptable—necessary, even—for a young pop star to show some edge. Thanks to the social-media-fueled, ever intensifying quest for authenticity, real or feigned, we no longer expect our most famous musicians to be toothless and virginal robots. Now we demand that they show a certain degree of lustiness, instability, anti-heroism. The Weeknd scored a No. 1 hit with an elaborately coded song about a cocaine binge—and then followed it up with another No. 1 hit, this one explicitly referencing a cocaine binge. Lana Del Rey's entire aesthetic revolves around a kind of narcotized death wish. And Taylor Swift spent her last album desperately trying to persuade us that she really is villainous. Even Disney's babiest-faced of pop princesses, Selena Gomez, is getting mileage out of her demons, playing a Girl, Interrupted–style heroine and rocking a hospital bracelet in a music video. Face tattoos are basically required for entry onto the Billboard Hot 100 these days. Squeaky-clean is no more.

And yet even for the most tortured-seeming of these artists, there is still a fierce expectation that they play the game. Mild drug habits or mental illnesses are perfectly acceptable, so long as someone is willing to write catchy songs about those tendencies and then later gussy them up for arena audiences and gamely field jokes from talk-show hosts. Even Justin Bieber, the poster child for our current era of troubled pop stars, is always just one phone call with his pastor away from being able to quiet his demons and pop-and-lock on demand.

Zayn seems like a perfect avatar for this new generation of bruised pop heartthrobs, but he's the only one of his cohorts who can back it up with a sincerely jaded disposition and an unpredictable way of being. He is the only one who is staunchly unwilling to play the game. You will not find Zayn cheesing with a random group of famous people for someone's Instagram story at Coachella, nor will you find Zayn learning the latest viral dance move with Ellen DeGeneres. When he released his solo debut, Mind of Mine, two years ago, he opted out of touring altogether, surely pissing off a bunch of emotionally and financially invested parties. And although he promises to be more public-facing this time around—he insists he will tour—he's still removed from the album-cycle content churn. He says the creators of Atlanta have reached out to him to appear on the show—a dream opportunity for anyone in the music industry at this moment—but persnickety Zayn is still mulling the potential. "If the part's right, I'd be really into it," he says. Even the "behind-the-scenes" video that accompanied his new single fails to actually take anyone "behind the scenes"—it's just the song playing over some B-roll. "I guess the cameraman didn't get too much footage," Zayn says on the boat. "I might have been running away from him a bit."

When I ask him why he failed to show up at the Met Gala a couple days earlier, he almost chokes on his cigarette smoke as he exhales. He went to the Met Gala once, in 2016, and that experience symbolized everything he detests about being a famous person—and the litany of coercion and artifice that someone in his position experiences.

"I did go, but I didn't go there to be like, 'Yo, take me serious,' " he remembers. "I was taking the piss! I went there as my favorite Mortal Kombat character, Jax."

He continues: "The Met Gala is not necessarily anything that I ever knew about or was about. But my [former] stylist…would say to me, 'This is really good for you to do.' And no matter how strong you are mentally, you can always be swayed to do certain things. Now, it's not something I would go to. I'd rather be sitting at my house, doing something productive, than dressing up in really expensive clothes and being photographed on a red carpet.… To do the self-indulgent Look at me, I'm amazing thing on the red carpet, it's not me."

Here Zayn catches himself, probably realizing this might register as a diss of Gigi Hadid, the 23-year-old supermodel he's been in an on-again, off-again relationship with for two years. The supermodel who very much seemed to enjoy dressing up in really expensive clothes and being photographed on the red carpet days earlier.

"I get it, and I understand that people gain enjoyment from it," he says. I ask if he followed along with the coverage from his couch. "No, no," he says, and pauses. "Gi stole the night, though. The stained glass on her dress. Everyone else just put a cross on."

When I ask Zayn if he has any confidants in the industry, he shakes his head vigorously. "No," he says. "I don't ever want to cross wires with other people too much. I just want to see the world through my eyes."

Zayn grew up with three sisters ("I was outnumbered," he says) and is still surrounded by women, ensuring that there's a high level of exasperated but fond maternal energy swirling at all times. Blood relatives and the Hadids—particularly Gigi's mother, Yolanda, who seems to have taken on a Kris Jenner–ian role in his life—make up much of his inner circle today. ("We get on. She's really fucking cool. She's a Capricorn. She's the same star sign as me.") He recently parted ways with his high-profile manager. His best friend is a younger cousin.

"I'm not [in] the mix," he says. "I'm outside the mix."

This kind of stubborn non-participation,  of course, is a reaction to the years Zayn spent being in a mix that was not to his liking. When he was a kid, growing up in the northern working-class city of Bradford, singing was just one part of an aimless but all-consuming creative impulse. He never thought he was much of a singer, until one day the choir leader at his performing-arts school praised his voice and suggested that he try out for Britain's premier vocal-competition show. Zayn's mom had to drag him from his bed at 4 A.M. to attend the audition, where he broke from the typical pop fare with a rendition of Mario's "Let Me Love You."

After his X Factor audition, there was an exchange (never aired) in which head judge Simon Cowell probed baby Zayn. " 'You know, with all these online platforms, why haven't you ever put out anything prior to this?' " Zayn remembers Cowell asking him. Zayn seemed the type, after all: a soft-spoken and artistically gifted teen who liked to sing alone in his bedroom and tinkered with rudimentary song-recording equipment. "I didn't necessarily think my stuff would be seen amongst the millions of people who put their stuff online. So I went with X Factor at that age," he says now. Like any fickle teenager, Zayn "just did it for fun, to see what would happen."

The day that Zayn auditioned, he was among many aspiring solo artists rejected by the judges. But five of the young singers were cobbled together as a boy band in a later segment. Thus was born One Direction and a rabid fandom that British people love to compare to Beatlemania. A craze so fierce and massive that it generated global synchronized flash mobs and fan-fiction authors who've reportedly scored six-figure book deals. In an instant, Zayn was thrust into a star-making boot camp, fast-tracked to an uncontrollable type of notoriety without being given the opportunity to consider alternatives.

It's no secret that Zayn didn't love One Direction's sound or his bandmates. "My vision didn't necessarily always go with what was going on within the band," he says. There was something so earnest, so wholesomely dweeby, about the whole thing. It wasn't cool, and Zayn didn't particularly enjoy being dragged around the world to look like an epic dork during the prime of his youth.

When he split off, in 2015, Zayn finally got to do all the things he hadn't been able to in One Direction: dye his hair, grow his beard, sing about sex. But he was also introduced to a fresh army of puppeteers trying to guide him, and he felt disoriented, adrift. The only way to ground himself was to resist the pull of anyone's expectations and answer only to Zayn. He'd spent five years taking direction and had become allergic to it.

There are plenty of clichéd expressions about how toxic and stifling freedom can be, and Zayn experienced many of them when he went solo. "I didn't really, like, make any friends from the band. I just didn't do it. It's not something that I'm afraid to say. I definitely have issues trusting people," he says. When he was living in Los Angeles, aimless, he fell in with a crowd of industry people: "Producers, musicians, tailors, stylists, managers. Them kind of things," he says. "It got too crazy. I just got too much into the party scene. Just going out all the time. And I was too distracted." So he left L.A. permanently and moved to New York earlier this year as a way to bring himself back down to earth.

Running a bit further, he recently bought a farm in rural Pennsylvania on the advice of Yolanda Hadid, who also has a farm there. The farm? "Cool." The state of Pennsylvania? "Cool." If you haven't picked up on it for yourself yet, Zayn loves the word "cool"; he loves it so much that he uses it more than 43 times over the course of our conversation. And now that Zayn likes to go to his farm and visit the Hadids, he and Gigi even have a horse together, named Cool. He's just getting things going on the farm, but already there are crops of cherries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. He likes to ride his ATVs. Sometimes he and Gigi will go at the same time, and she'll ride a horse, like Cool, while he watches.

Zayn has a habit of speaking in a conditioned state of detachment, responding in friendly but anodyne one-liners. Still, even someone who willfully projects this kind of cool two-dimensionalism can get irked from being flattened all the time by those around him. I catch myself flattening him, even when he's right in front of me. When I bring up the deceased Lil Peep, with whom he shared a manager, I say that it's a shame they never met—they seem like kindred spirits who could have made a great song together, or at least bonded over tattoos.

Zayn begins to laugh. "I'm not just going to be friends [with people] because we've both got tattoos. Loads of people come up to me and they're like, 'Yo, I got tattoos, you got tattoos. Let's be friends.' And I'm like… 'We're not just going to be friends because we've both got tattoos.'

"There's a bit more depth to me than that," he says, admonishing me.

One topic that will draw out this aforementioned depth is, unexpectedly, America. Despite the fact that he is living in a country under a leader that is exceptionally hostile to immigrants, the fantasy of America as a come-one, come-all melting pot is alive and well in Zayn's mind. He says he'd vote for Oprah if she ran for office because he likes her "ideologies about the world" and she's a "badass businesswoman."

"The UK is like, Fuck you, you're successful. That's not a nice attitude to have," he says. "You come to America, you're a bit shocked at first: Are these people being genuine? Are they really interested in me? Do they want to have a conversation? But they do! And that's a really nice thing. And I feel like it's misrepresented across the globe. For the kind of country it is, because everybody supports, no matter what color, what gender, what sexuality, what class—none of that matters here. People genuinely want to know you for who you are. And that's how America should be represented across the world."

Watch Now:Zayn Rocks Summer’s Best Swerves

Maybe you should run for office, I say.

"Maybe. It'd be cool. I feel like it's a beautiful place. [Because of the current political climate,] people are expressing how they really feel about where they come from and their heritage and their backgrounds. They're all mixed. To be American, you are mixed.

"So that's how I feel about it—it's a beautiful place, and it's a beautiful time to be alive."

Another unlikely topic that will break Zayn out of his default conversational mode and get him talking in jolting, paragraphs-long monologues: the paparazzi. The paparazzi who have been trailing him for years and, recently, every time he sets foot near Gigi's NoHo apartment, feeding the endless tabloid speculation about the state of their relationship. The paps used to piss Zayn off, until he realized their utility.

"That's my promo," he says. "I come outside, they take photos." He gets to quietly remind people that he exists—and gets photographed looking like the second coming of Johnny Depp, leaving the apartment of one of the most gorgeous women in the world—without doing a thing. "They stay outside and do all the work!" he says. "You can get pissed off about it and be like, 'Yo, this is a hindrance on my life.' Or you can use it for your own benefit and be like, 'Well, if they're going to take the photos, then let them.' You've gotta earn your dollar, and I've gotta earn mine."

Which is to say that just because Zayn loathes the cornball industry churn doesn't mean he needs to surrender his relevance. Zayn represents an era in which underground cool and mass-market, Calabasian-style popularity have collapsed into one another. He operates on a plane where celebrity is predicated chiefly on relevance and intrigue, and Zayn—with his equally illustrious girlfriend, his brooding glare, and his following of millions—has about as much relevance and intrigue as anybody. He is both a casualty and a beneficiary of this uniquely modern form of celebrity. In running from his stardom, he's only fueling it.

I suppose now is the time to dispense with the rest of the intel I gleaned from Zayn about his relationship with Gigi Hadid, which was a less sensitive subject than I had anticipated. The two met at the end of 2015 at a party—which "pah-y," Zayn will not disclose, but suffice it to say it was a "cool pah-y"—and just days later, Zayn learned she'd broken up with Joe Jonas. He reached out to her and asked her to dinner at the Bowery Hotel. And thus was born a couple that will go down in history as one of the most iconic and Zeitgeisty pairings of all time, a couple whose images I will show my grandchildren to prove that the world was better in my day. All of the gossip about their relationship being an opportunistic setup by their respective management is bullshit, Zayn says: "If a relationship is for your career, you can fucking walk out the door. No way. See you later."

Despite the dramatic announcement of their split a couple of months ago, Zayn and Gigi are very much still close, as evidenced by myriad photos of him leaving her apartment or kissing her on the street. Zayn speaks about Gigi in a purely misty-eyed, worshipful tone that telegraphs he may be atoning for something. "I'm really thankful that I met her," he says. He uses the term "we" in the present tense quite a bit: "We go to the farm." "We have horses." The time he actually rode a horse with Gigi, he says, "I looked like a complete idiot and she looked like a complete professional.… We're still really good friends, and we're still in contact," he says. "No bad blood." He laughs. "…Taylor Swift.

"We're adults. We don't need to put a label on it, make it something for people's expectations." To hear Zayn tell it, Gigi is the hyper-organized, clear-headed, and positive counterweight to his disposition, which can dip into a vacant or negative state. She helped him reset his attitude when he was releasing his first solo album, partying too hard. "I had a very negative outlook on things. That might have been adolescence or testosterone or whatever the fuck was running through my body at the time," he says. "She's helped me to look at things from a positive angle."

As Zayn heads into his new album cycle, Gigi has been a font of support and organizational heft. He says she's especially good with dates, which I mishear as "good with debts."

She's good with debts? You're in debt?

"No, no. Dates. She doesn't handle my finances yet," he says. "We'll get to that eventually."

When Zayn Malik went solo, he dropped his last name. The mononymic "Zayn" took on a potency and directness that enabled him to break free from the chains of boy-band drudgery and lameness. Zayn: It's a single syllable that conjures a vaporous sexuality and a moodiness that blurs the line between contemplative and blank. You can imagine the black-and-white commercial for L'Eau de Zayn.

In the years since he dropped his last name, the word "Zayn" has also become, to insiders, an equally potent verb. To "Zayn" means to be within someone's reach one moment and then completely disappear the next without any explanation. Poof! To be "Zayned" is to witness a French exit so aggressive that it almost has a supernatural quality. I know this because it happened to me.

We emerged from the ship's galley, and as I prepared to launch into more conversation, he asked Carolina where he could find the toilets. She pointed him toward a porta-potty on dry land, and Taryn wordlessly followed behind him, obviously accustomed to this ritual. Before I could get my bearings, he was zipping off into the parking lot adjacent to the tanker, no doubt scurrying home to his fortress of solitude and cigarette smoke in SoHo. I'd been Zayned.

We were supposed to hang out the following week, and I patiently waited for him to reach out. But I knew that he never would. And much as I'd like to be the exception to the Laws of Zayn's Nature, I get it. Who among us has never fantasized about blowing off pesky professional obligations we deem useless? Zayn—driven by a spirit that is part self-destruction, part self-preservation, part youthful punk contrarianism—actually has the balls to live that fantasy. It's self-absorbed, immature, and unprofessional. I'd be offended if I didn't think it was so fucking cool.

Carrie Battan is a staff writer for 'The New Yorker' and a contributor to 'GQ'.

An abridged version of this story appeared in the July 2018 issue.

[fvirytcle-blog]

hey everyone !! below is all you need to know about cherry but first let me introduce myself !! my name is crow, full-time college student, and i live in the est timezone. i listen to a bunch of gorillaz, the killers, p!atd, and occasionally zayn malik and k-pop ( exo being the main but i’m generally multi-fandom af ) when i’m on the train. i’m currently learning french but it’s super hard cause i tend to not do the homework ;; anyway, read about the ditsy princess below !!

basics ; 

full name : cherry won. cher is one of her nicknames !!

age : twenty-two.

sexuality + status : bisexual + single.

occupation : fashion designer assistant.

biography ;

cherry is super sheltered as her family is well-off. her grandmother was a famous actress back in south korea and some of her grandkids continued that legacy, her mom being one of them. her father, on the other hand, is a indie film director that fell in love with her mom when he filmed one of the greatest films in her discography yet called “cool temperature.”

cherry was a bit slow in class but she knew creativity is where she’s best suited. she’d participate in her school as a costume designer for musicals and plays. she got so good at designing that she felt that it was meant for her and decided to pursue it.

because she’s sheltered, she doesn’t realize how bad the world could really be. in her own little world, she's the it-girl and the one to talk to for cheering up. no one really takes her seriously though and for good reason. she could be superficial and has high-standards for herself and loved-ones. she makes her life like a living fairytale but, deep down, she knows it’s not.

she barely passed her classes in high school that she went through a stage of depression before getting back on her feet for college. during that period, however, she’d make dresses that were intricate and put-together for fun.

in college, she finally pursued her love for designing. the dresses she designed back in that depressive period, she put it to good use by presenting her designs in her university’s fashion show for charity. shorty, she was recruited by a fashion designer who saw the show and offered cherry an internship for his company.

after finishing college, she continued working in the designer’s company as his assistant. in hopes of making it on her own, she’s currently planning her it-item in her off-days.

trivia ;

could quote anything disney. their songs, their script, and even their live-action movies. disney fanatic !!

has a pet bunny called roro whom she loves and puts costumes in. may or may not exploit him for insta likes. best buds with zoe’s cat nacho !!

has a thing for romcoms and teen heartthrobs from the 80′s.

tries to incorporate pink in her wardrobe. can’t live without pink.

that friend that’s always fashionably late but shows up with something you like so you can’t really be mad at her.

moved to montreal when she was nine, was living in seoul beforehand. used to go to lotte world every year for her birthday.

rarely sees her parents because of their busy schedule. also the fact that she dorm’d for school in toronto and recently decided to reside there in a shared complex.

additional ;

i’ll prob add more stuff here and there as i continue to use cherry !! (:

feel free to hmu if you want to plot ofc !! you will not regurt i can assure you that !!

[1dimagineclub]

Dirty Zayn Imagine

🚫  WARNING 18+ PLZ 🚫

** SIDE NOTE: (Y/S/N) = Your Stage Name, (Y/R/N) = Your Real Name, (Y/H/C) = Your hair color  **

“Practice” 

“Ladies and gentleman now coming to the stage, the one you all came to see, the princess of club Envy, the lovely, bootiful (Y/S/N)!”

As DJ Maxx made my introduction, I took the time to take a much needed deep breath to calm my nerves. No matter of the countless times I’ve been on this very stage, I still was a nervous reck beforehand.

I could hear a roar of applause and whistling as the slow and heavily bass song thumped throughout the club. I danced my way out from behind the sparkling curtain, swaying my hips to the beat sexually.

As the music played, I started to relax and let the music have it’s way with me as always. I danced across the stage making sure to put on the best show that I could. Working the crowd on both sides, only briefly stopping to let people put money inside the string of my thong or to tease a little.

I worked the pole with my best moves as I knew he was watching. Usually I wouldn’t put in this much work for anyone but for some reason I felt like I had something to prove. To show him I was in fact the real deal.

I spotted them as soon as they walked through the door and sat in their “special VIP” both. The section that was roped off for nothing but either big time celebrities or big paying customers. It was their 4th time here in two months.

When Big Mike first made the announcement of them coming no one really believed him. Seriously, One Direction coming to a strip club?! And one based in New Orleans at that was almost unbelievable. They just seemed too innocent to be seen in such a place.

But I guess when they heard about Club Envy being one of the “it” places to be, they had to come through. We have had plenty of big names stop by at any time of the week at that. Every flavor of woman you could think of we probably have her. We were the best of the best.

I didn’t really know much about the boys at first, except that they were extremely popular, talented and had millions of young girls in love with them. Barely knowing their names but definitely recognizing the five gorgeous faces. Hell how could anyone not when they are practically everywhere!

The amount of girls that lined up to be the boys’ personal dancers weren’t all that surprising. Quite a few were just money hungry hoes or hoes period. Thankfully Big Mike let the boys hand pick exactly who they wanted a private dance from if they chose to have one.

And what do you know? I got chosen by none other than Mr. Zayn Malik.

To say I was beyond nervous would be an understatement. Finding out he paid ten thousand to get a dance from me was just crazy. I wasn’t sure what to expect but what I got would forever put a smile on my face.

The first time seeing him up close, in person made my heart beat frantically. He was so fuckin beautiful it was almost sickening. The way his eyes followed my every movement had goosebumps forming all over me. He watched me like I was his prey and I loved it.

When he touched me it was like breathing for the first time. No words were ever spoken between us, our eyes did the talking. It was like that every time we came into contact with one another.

I was disappointed when I got news they left soon after my performance. I was really looking forward to seeing him, touching him again.

“Don’t look so down (Y/R/N), he bought you a little something before he left, it’s at your station.” My friend Mya voiced as I walked towards the dressing rooms. She was the only person that knew what went down between Zayn and I. As she herself had a special thing for Liam.

I quickly made my way towards my makeup station to see red and white bouquet of roses and two tickets along with backstage passes to their concert tomorrow night.

A smiled formed on my face but quickly vanished. How would he even recognize me considering I wore a mask here at the club?

I couldn’t help but feel slightly awkward at the concert. All around me were screaming girls belting out the lyrics to song after song while jumping or dancing wildly. I was surrounded in the very middle of the craziness, trying my best not to get pushed over and stumped on.

I felt so outta place because I only know maybe 2 songs done by them that I actually knew. Hell even Mya knew more than I did!

All throughout the concert I couldn’t help but notice Zayn the most. It was as if my eyes would only leave him for a few seconds before landing on him once again. I noticed him constantly scanning the floor audience and I knew it was because of me.

The moment our eyes connected I just knew he instantly recognized me. Maybe my mask didn’t hide much of my face as I thought.

I could feel the pool heat inside my panties just that quick. No other man has ever made me feel this way, let alone one I knew nothing about.

But I couldn’t help but just feel like me and Zayn had some type of connection that was beyond what either of us could explain.

All throughout the concert, he’d stare at me shortly before focusing back on the music and the thousands of screaming fans. I couldn’t lie, I actually enjoyed myself. Their music and performance was pretty epic.

When the final song ended and the boys saying their goodbye, I found myself being pulled off to the side by Mya.

“It’s best we get to the backstage entrance, it’ll be swamped in minutes!” She yelled holding my hand and navigating through the crowd with ease before she found our destination. I wasn’t all that surprised to find the backstage doors already crowded, these girls were determined I tell you.

I can only imagine what the outside back entrance is looking like.

We waited maybe 20 minutes before seeing three huge bouncers step out blocking the doorway, one holding a clipboard.

“Please, only those that have exclusive backstage passes are allowed to enter! The rest of you will just have to either leave or make your way to back of the arena!” His voiced boomed making me jump slightly. Slowly the once big crowd started to disperse.

As he began to call out the passes numbers one by one, I started to become excited and scared at once. When we were called we had to wait patiently inside until he was done. I noticed I wasn’t the only one with the same reaction. I mean these girls have been waiting for god knows how long for this moment to finally meet the boys.

Before long the double doors closed behind us as the bouncers stood in front of us. “You all will follow me to the break room where the boys will be waiting. Ask whatever you may like, take pictures and get anything you want signed. But please be respectful!” He warned us then looked down at his chart.“Except pass number 883478, Michael will escort you elsewhere.”

I looked down at my pass and saw it was my number that was named.

But why just mines though? Did I do anything wrong?

I turned to Mya only to see her wink at me as she followed the rest of the group. Clearly she knew something I didn’t.

“If you’ll follow me this way miss.” Michael instructed leading me down another hall that was less busier than the other. “And don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. Apparently Zayn has made a special request for you.” He said as we came to a stop at a door with Zayn’s name on it. Pushing it opened I stepped slowly inside the room to find it empty.

“He’ll be here in a few, just relax and make yourself comfortable.” Michael suggested before closing the door leaving me to my thoughts.

I sighed loudly as I looked around his dressing room. It was a pretty decent size decked out with a nice refreshment table, a huge flat screen tv and gaming system, an L shaped comfortable looking couch, a desk/hair station and two racks of clothing and shoes to the side. Instantly I found myself running my small fingers over his clothing.

God they even had that same intoxicating smell of him. I looked around to see if I was still alone just in case before taking one of his jackets and slipping it on. It was slightly big and way longer than I thought but had me feeling so good and warm. I couldn’t help but take a sniff of the familiar scent I’m slowly becoming addicted too.

“You should keep it, looks good on you” a voice said scaring me as I whipped around holding my chest. His soft laugh filled the silent room as he took in my shocked face.

“Jesus! You scared the hell out of me, don’t do that!” I whispered yelled at him with a fierce look.

He threw his hands up in mock surrender, “Sorry…but I can’t promise that I won’t be tempted to do it again.” He finished winking at me with a smirk on his gorgeous face.

The room went silent again as my nerves began to take over. I was alone, in the same room as Zayn Malik! I just wasn’t sure what I was suppose to do and he could tell because I looked everywhere but at him.

I didn’t even hear his footsteps as I looked up to see him standing right in front of me. Those brilliant brown eyes staring directly at me. My breathing hitched as his hands sculpted my face slowly. My eyes closed as his soft lips made contact with my own.

My body became warm all over as if a fire deep within me was lit. I grabbed a hold of his strong biceps gripping them tightly as our kiss deepened. Somehow his tongue found it’s way into my mouth causing me to moan out in delight.

Unfortunately it had to end because I needed to breathe.

“God, you have no idea how long I’ve waited to do that” he spoke, his voice slightly raspy, “It was perfect.” He said before pecking my lips again and stepping back.

“How di-” I suddenly tried to blabber out but was cut off.

“Did I know it was you?” He asked for crossing his arms across his chest, making his toned muscles even more defined.

I nodded, afraid to speak.

“How could I not? From the glow of your beautiful skin” I watched as his hands removed his jacket from my shoulders. He silently asked for permission to take off my hoodie and of course I compiled. His big hands slid slowly up my exposed arms once it was off. Chills immediately ran down my spine.

“The flow of your (Y/H/C) hair” he spoke softly while running his hands through it, tugging it slightly making me moan lowly. A smile graced his face at the response. “This magnificent body of yours that I can’t wait to explore,” he said as his fingers made it’s way down my body gripping my ass firmly pulling me closely to him. “But more importantly, your eyes, they told me everything I needed to know.”

“From the very moment I laid eyes on you at the club I wanted you, both physically and emotionally.” He confused leading me towards the couch. “The very first time touching you was like heaven to me. Then and there I knew you were special.”

I was shocked and flattered at the same time. Happy to know he felt exactly how I did.

But I knew we could never be. We both come from completely two different worlds. He was this big time pop star that was loved by millions and me? Well I was a highly paid stripper who danced just to pay for college and make ends meet. I was nothing special. Zayn deserved way better than me and I knew it.

He must’ve caught the look on my face as he spoke. “I don’t care about your profession, (Y/N). I’ll still want you the same.” He said with such determination I had no choice but to believe him. I didn’t bother asking how he knew my real name, I was too busy gushing over the fact he still wanted me.

“But what if people found out? People will judge you for even having association with me” I said now picturing the fucked up things the media would put out about us both. And his fans? I can only imagine how’d they feel about us, me importantly.

Apart of me knew it’d be highly unlikely for anyone to find out that I stripped. My masks always concealed my identity, no one at the club knew who I was except Big Mike and my best friend, Mya.

But the what if possibilities just wouldn’t leave my brain.

“Even if they did, let them talk. I know you do what you do for a good reason and I also know you’re a genuine person. You wouldn’t be there if you had a choice.” He looked at me with so much care making my weariness die down slowly. I was thankfully that he wasn’t judgemental like most people are nowadays.

“But I’ve been told before by guys who said similar things Zayn, they always hurt me badly in the end,” I confessed. As much as I wanted him, I needed to be sure this wasn’t a game. I refuse to become a fool again.

He grabbed my chin tilting my head up to look at him. “Those guys were nothing but practice (Y/N), all of them. Just like you been putting in extra work for me and only me. Everything happens for a reason baby. You deserve nothing but the best and I plan to give it to you, trust me.”

“Let me show you just how happy you can be and become mine?” I looked at him, truly looking at him. I tried to see any fault in his words but I couldn’t. He was being truthful and honest, I’d be stupid to deny him a chance.

“Of course I’ll be yours” I said happily, pulling him in for a kiss putting as much as passion I could into it. He kissed me in such a way that had my panties soaked and toes curling. I sighed as he laid me down, settling in between my legs perfectly.

I moaned into the kiss as I felt his hands go under my shirt, playing with my stomach, slowly making his way to my waiting breast. His soft lips kissed down my jaw and stopped on my neck. He skillfully licked and sucked my spot as I racked my nails down his back. I quickly snatched his shirt off and traced his tattoos as his mouth and hands did wonders.

When he grabbed a hold of my breasts I moaned out loudly at the feeling. He pushed up shirt until my red lacey bra showed. Snapping the front hooks loose, he took one into mouth and sucked hard making my nails dig into his back. Switching over the other to give it just as much attention to the first, I was sure my pussy was practically leaking by now.

“P-please….” Whimpering lowly, hoping he understood what I wanted. He chuckled continuing to tease me, knowing exactly what he was doing. “Zaynnnn, please, please, please..” I practically begged running my fingers through his hair.

Finally one of his hands snaked it’s way down to my aching core. “Shit, so wet for me baby” He groaned out just as his finger rubbed my clit slowly. I hissed loudly at the friction. I knew I wouldn’t last long, the attention my body was receiving from him was becoming too much.

He must’ve knew my body better than I did. Knowing exactly where to kiss, lick and suck as two fingers plunged deep inside me slow at first. “So tight… I can’t wait to be inside you” he said while speeding up, attaching his lips back on my neck and one hand squeezing my breast. I was quickly becoming a mess under him.

The only sounds heard throughout the room was my loud moaning, Zayn’s dirty words whispering in my ear and his fingers slamming into my wet core.

I was so close. I could feel my pussy clamping around his fingers making him go even faster. “Zaynnn…I-III…so c-clo..” I was cut off by him biting down onto my neck and hitting my g-spot over and over. I lost it.

I screamed out so loudly that I was sure anyone in the hallway could hear me. He watched my face closely as I trembled after my intense orgasm and smiled triumphantly.

“You are so beautiful baby,” he said as he kissed me roughly. Pulling his fingers out, he looked down to see just how wet I truly was before licking all traces of me off of them. “Mmm and taste so sweet.” Just as he was about to kiss me again, a loud knock came from the door following a deep voice.

“5 minutes!” Michael yelled.

I think my face grew hot, I knew he heard everything.

Quickly putting myself together and straightening out my hair, I stood up and watched as Zayn grabbed his phone.

“Save your number, I’ll be calling you to say goodnight.” I typed in my number and handed him back his phone. He dialed my number to give me his. “I honestly hoped this night wouldn’t end, I wanted to show you a few more things.” He kissed me one more time before pulling me towards the door.

“When will I see you again?” I asked as my arms wrapped around his neck.

“Three days, I plan to fly you out to London to spend time with me, it’ll be much needed.” Pecking my lips once more he opened the door and there stood Michael waiting patiently. “There’s a limo out back that’ll take you home, text me as soon as you’re situated, alright?” I nodded my head and hugged him once more before letting go. “Wait!” He yelled suddenly stopping me in my place.

I watched him disappear into his dressing room before coming back with his letterman jacket I had on earlier. “Can’t have my girlfriend leaving without something of mines.” I grabbed the jacket and kissed him one last time and turned to leave.

Now I’d have his scent with me all the time. When I was seated safely inside the limo, I texted Zayn. The smile I had on my face just would not leave.

I was officially Zayn Malik’s girlfriend!

[cassinixii]

Title: Morena: Audition Published: May 13, 2017 | 12:27am Description:

☾♔; Dragon and Devil Audition Template A TEMPLATE A

::Things to check before auditioning:: Rules + How To: https://goo.gl/188C0h BÃ thory Rules: https://goo.gl/vwKdK6 Roles: https://goo.gl/wuuynA

---x---

Your Name: Telperion Username: @/cassinixii

Role Being Auditioned for: Morena

Other roles you're interested in: (can be however many you want, but ranked in order of most to least preferred please) The Impaler Prince, Rusalka, the Zorja

---x---

OC Name: Morena Rothenstern (she's had a couple aliases over the ages, but has gone back to using Morena. Rothenstern has a different reason though) Age: a couple centuries. maybe 1000 years. long enough that she can't remember, nor does she care to Nationality: Russian probably. Definitely an Eastern Slav, but again, so long ago, she can't remember. She was around before Kievan Rus. Occupation: none (unless you count immortal witch god)

Personality: (can be jot notes, like -, or +/-, or paragraphs) Manipulative + Obsessive + Intelligent + Sarcastic + Aggressive + Disobedient + Solitary + Brooding + Loyal + Passionate + Cruel + Wise +

Powers: a lot, kinda rushing through this now to meet the deadline, but basically her powers are a cross of Nimueh, Morgause, and Merlin. I'll elaborate properly if I get her, but I'm including the power over life and death thing, just need to adapt it to slavic-ness.

Talents and/or Skills: - piano - sword fighting - an insanely long list of languages

Likes: - strong women who could potentially kick her kabouse - silly words like kabouse - precious gems like emeralds and diamonds

Dislikes: - the darkness of human nature - betrayers/double-crossers - coffee

Bio/Background: Morena can't remember when she was born, even if she was born, whether she had parents or siblings, none of that. Her earliest memory is of watching the sun rise over an icy plain with Dažbog. Morena has lived through entire civilizations, and was endlessly fascinated by humans repeating the same mistakes over and over, though she became exhausted around the 20th century, having seen the same atrocities repeated over and over with more intensity and cruelty.

She's cultivated many aliases over the centuries, as well as the reputations of the various aliases. In the 16-17th centuries she went by the name "Desislava" and held a reputation for being a dark witch and a deer, which drew the attention of Elizabeth Bathory's keepers and she sealed the countess into the earth beneath the castle in which she committed her crimes. It was during the Victorian era that she first came into contact with the order and joined them following the disappearance of one Jack the Ripper, and has assisted in maintaining the order of the supernatural world.

Song you think most exemplifies your character (can be soundtrack or a vocal track): Space by Slavko Kalezić Also (and don't judge me) I don't wanna live forever by Taylor Swift and Zayn Malik (yes the movie is total utter awfulness, but it's a good song)  Traits they value in other people: - intelligence - determination - nobility of character, not literal noble blood  What do they fear?: eternity, she doesn't want to live forever, it'd be terribly boring, and she'd either have to live in isolation or continue to watch everyone she comes to love die. She's also worried about forgetting and losing more memories.

What or whom do they cherish/treasure?: - "Figchen" aka Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, and later, Екатерина II Великая, Catherine II of Russia aka Catherine the Great - herself  Other: N/A

Preferred Faceclaim: Alicia Vikander Why you think they are suited to the role/your character: because she's a truly fantastic actress, whether it be Caroline-Matilda of Great Britain, the AI Ava or Lara Croft, Alicia can play it all with a fantastic ability to draw us all in.

Back-up Faceclaim: Noémie Schmidt Why you think they are suited to the role/your character: eh, just cause Henriette is bae. ... To the max.

Bonus: why do you think the group is titled Dragon and Devil? Correct answers will receive 15 bonus points (I will keep track of them in OneNote, but won't reveal the answer until phase one auditions end. It's not too difficult, but may require a tiny bit of googling). Dracul means both Dragon and Devil? A reference to Vlad II, who was known as Vlad the Dragon, and his son Vlad III, known as the Vlad the Devil? Or something like that, maybe a reference to some super obscure anime?

---x--- Tag the mod: @/drownedinmoonlight-polyvore Tag 5+: (optional, but greatly appreciated) Group Link: http://goo.gl/qQKaj4

[atruththatyoudeny]

Monthly Reads | April 2017

❤ THANK YOU TO ALL WRITERS FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND FOR SHARING YOUR STORIES! ❤ Special mention⭐ & Top 5 + 10 more stories under the cut: ⭐ 1000 Feelings For Which There Are No Names Prompt Challenge ⭐

This is a prompt challenge @suddenclarityharry had the inspiration for after reading some of the feelings described in the book 1000 Feelings For Which There Are No Names. Participants pick a random number between 1 and 1000 and have to use the feeling described to write a short fic in a week’s time! Authors: a-writerwrites, letsjustsee, becomeawendybird, londonfoginacup, icanhazzalou, allwaswell16, phd-mama, flamboyantommo, jaerie, iflovewereall, all-these-larrythings Week One  | Week Two | Week Three - posted tomorrow!

The Afterlife Fic (The Best I Ever Had in My Entire Life... Or Death)  

by LovingCup | Afterlife | 490k AU- After dying in an accident, Louis Tomlinson arrives in the Afterlife. Not Heaven and not Hell, Louis finds himself in Judgment City UK: a pristine city where the food and entertainment are divine and the newly departed must undergo a Review of their life on Earth to determine if they have lived a life worthy of advancement in the universe, or if they must be returned to Earth to be born again in a new body. On his first full day in the Afterlife, Louis meets Harry Styles, and the two have an instant connection. Over the course of their Reviews, they fall in love and begin to find that even though they didn't know each other on Earth, they are nonetheless linked to one another in perfect ways. Both are hoping to move ahead in the universe together, but they are challenged with the threat of separation if one or both of them is sent back to Earth to be born again.

It Comes and Goes in Waves/It Always Does

by roaroftheninth | World War II | post war | 50k “He says that he’s grateful for that ending, because he always wanted to imagine it like that and you were always a better storyteller than he was. But that’s not the ending that should be published, because it’s not the truth.” Summary: It is 1953; Louis makes that nine years since they won the war (eight if you count the Americans, which he never does). His first novel, a best-seller set during wartime, is due for a sequel - but Louis doesn't want to face the ending.

Run away home

by hattalove for 1D Big Bang: Round Four | friends to lovers | horse racing | slow burn | injury recovery| 106k Louis stands, in the middle of a clearing with his hands in his pockets, and stares. This boy—God, this gorgeous, gorgeous boy. He seems so clumsy, confused at the best of times, but there’s a wisdom about him as he speaks, a maturity that belies his age. Louis is hopelessly, wildly attracted to him. or, louis is a successful jockey down on his luck, struggling to get his life back on track after an injury. harry has a horse, a house fit for a prince, and a broken heart. it takes them a while to figure out that they need each other.

Wholehearted

by TheMagicWord | famous/non famous | Coming Out | implied/referenced homophobia | 77k AU. When superstar singer and winner of The Voice Louis Tomlinson tweets “Nothing worse than waking up with no milk for a cuppa !! Gutted” he doesn’t expect someone to bring him some. And he really doesn’t expect that someone to have bright green eyes, long curly hair, and (fucking) dimples.

Safe And Sound (You'll Always Be)

by Rearviewdreamer | Famous/Non Famous | Bodyguard!Harry | 58k When a failed case and a guilty conscience leaves Harry more than a little lost, his boss presents him with a new, less taxing assignment to help him cope. An escape from all the madness is just what Harry needs to get his life back on track. It's just too bad his new client has a grin like the devil, a pair of electric eyes that Harry simply can't get over, and no intention whatsoever of letting him catch a break.

'Till I Tasted You

by kiwikero for HL Famous/Not Famous Fic Exchange | Famous/Non Famous | 15k Louis is Harry Styles' biggest fan. It doesn't matter that Harry is famous for being a food blogger and Louis can't cook to save his life. At least, until Harry offers to give Louis a cooking lesson. Then it matters just a teensy bit.

Life Was A Song, You Came Along

by rainbowninja167 | 37k It's embarrassing how long it takes Louis to recognize his own song. Niall had sung it as a bright, hopeful love song, and that’s honestly how Louis had always assumed it should sound. But this new voice, slow and rough, stripped of any backing instrument, has infused the lyrics with just the tumultuous mix of fear and defiance that Louis can remember so clearly from the night he wrote them. It’s not a comfortable thing, to feel like someone is singing all your secrets back to you. Louis is a songwriter trapped in a lie that could ruin his best friend's career. Harry owns a record store, distrusts everyone in the music industry on principle, but loves Niall Horan's newest album. A modern retelling of Singin' in the Rain.

Moments Of Memories

by momentofclarity | Reunited AU | Fate & Destiny| 17k And that’s when his heart stops. It stops only to a second later flutter like the wings of a hummingbird against his ribcage. The noise of the crowd melts into an intangible buzzing in his ears. He stares at the picture and he knows he should question the reason for why his body has suddenly gone haywire, but he doesn’t. Because he knows those eyes, would recognize them anywhere, and now they are staring back at him from a picture on a wall. Reunited AU. Harry Styles met Louis Tomlinson at the age of 6. At the age of 23 he lost him. What happens when he meets him again 36 years later?

Love Me Like You Do

by lululawrence | friends to lovers | fake/pretend relationship | 4k “Yeah, but is working in a field completely unrelated to what I’m educated in and what I want to do really paying my dues? And Lou, I’m 28. I’m 28 working a job I don’t enjoy, still living with my best friend, minutes from my mom’s house.” “You’re saying that living with me isn’t the best part of your life right now, fucker,” Louis complained, poking Harry in the ribs where he knew he was sensitive. Harry squeaked and moved his arm to protect his side before apologizing. “I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just…” Harry sighed. “I feel like I’m just treading water and I have been for ages now. I’m glad I have a job that covers what I need it to, and I’m incredibly lucky to have you with me as well, but like…” Louis waited, but the silence wasn’t filled. Or the one where it's time for Harry's ten year reunion and Louis being his fake boyfriend for the night changes things more than they expected.

More Than Anything

by LycorisLife | soulmates | fashion design | model!Harry| 13k Being able to see through the eyes of your soulmate may seem like a dream come true to many, but reality proves a little more complicated. For two young boys it's all they could ever wish for but as time passes by they come to realise that there's no pain quite the same as longing to have someone who just isn’t there.

In the Clear

by aclosetlarryshipper | fairy tale | royalty | violence | 80k After Princess Gemma and her fiance Niall are captured by the witch from across the land, Harry and Louis are forced on a journey together to save them. Featuring Lumberjack Liam, Magical Zayn, unsolicited tattoos, and untangling the past. Also known as The Larrietale.

What's Stopping You?

by kikikryslee | roommates | friends to lovers | 14k That shirt was what held his attention again. How many other guys had the same shirt that H and Harry had, and – wait. H… Harry. Harry did yoga. So did H. They both had the same shirt, and had both gotten home ten minutes ago and were cooking dinner. No way. Louis looked at the picture again, and stared more closely at H’s lips. They were pink and pouty, with the lower lip a bit plumper than the top, just like Harry. And H had brown, curly hair that reached his shoulders, just like Harry. Louis looked over at Harry, who was putting his hair back up into a bun as the kitchen was most likely getting warmer. “Holy shit,” Louis whispered. Have I been flirting with my own roommate all this time? --- Or, the one where Harry wants to get over his crush on Louis, so he makes a Grindr account to find someone new. Of course, Louis messages him, not realizing H's real identity. It only takes a few days for them to figure it out.

Even Angels Have Their Demons

by AFangirlFantasy | Angel/Demon AU | forbidden love | enemies to lovers | 50k Louis is appointed the role of Guardian Angel, and his first mission is a boy named Zayn Malik. Unfortunately, it seems that a certain Demon has gotten to him first. Or... an Angel/Demon AU where Angel Louis hates Demon Harry, but somewhere along the way that stops being so true.

The Edge of the Stars

by casuallyhl | Reality TV | 17k Louis laughed. “You think you can convince some random guy to want to go out with me?” “Oh baby,” Jay chuckled. “I can convince all of the UK to want to go out with you.” Or, a Meet the Parents AU where Harry is the man of Louis’ dreams, and it’s up to Jay to convince him to date her son.

Like The Wings Of Butterflies

by sweetly_disposed | circus AU | 15k "Tell you what, why don't you come by sometime, when there's no practise on? I'll teach you how to fly." Or, Harry, Zayn, Liam and Niall are trapeze artists, and Louis has a love for the circus.

[dazzledbybooks]

The first in an fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess and a desperate refugee find themselves on a collision course to murder each other despite their growing attraction. For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom. But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition. When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death? Links: Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49629448-a-song-of-wraiths-and-ruin Amazon: https://amzn.to/3bb61Do B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-song-of-wraiths-and-ruin-roseanne-a-brown/1134858719?ean=9780062891495 iTunes: https://books.apple.com/book/a-song-of-wraiths-ruin/id1478613303 Bookdepository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Song-Wraiths-Ruin-Roseanne-Brown/9780062891495?ref=grid-view&qid=1587062543544&sr=1-1 Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-song-of-wraiths-and-ruin-1 Google Books: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Roseanne_A_Brown_A_Song_of_Wraiths_and_Ruin?id=AQAAAEBs_nG-DM Excerpt: https://aerbook.com/books/A_Song_of_Wraiths_and_Ruin-261829.html?social=1&retail=1&emailcap=0 Review: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown is the first book in a new young adult fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore. I was so excited to dive into this book. I have been looking forward to it for months. This book takes a bit to get into at first because there is just so much world building and introduction to the characters and their lives in the beginning. I really liked every second of it. The folklore behind this story is amazing. I really found myself wanting to know more. I think the gods and creatures are very interesting and I look forward to reading the sequel. Let's talk about love. I feel like the "love" or "relationship" between Malik and Karina came across very insta-love. I really wish it had more depth to it. Don't get me wrong I think they would be great together, I just wish we had a bit more of a build up vs jumping right into that relationship. Let me also say that romance doesn't play a huge part in this book. I am not too worried about it either. When it came to the magic system, I do with is was explained a bit more. We get so much explanation of the characters and the world that I felt like the magic system was a bit lacking. It wasn't explained to the reader why magic wasn't common and it wasn't explained why some people randomly get magic. I definitely feel like the magic system is lacking and it leaves the reader with a lot of questions. \ Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I will be participating in a reread starting June 12 with a group of people. Why would I want to read a book I just finished? Sometimes when I liked an ARC so much, I like to reread a finished copy to see if anything changed. Other times, I just really want to reread the book. I look forward to diving into this book again ASAP. Definitely check out A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. Pre-order Campaign: Link to the pre-order submission form: bit.ly/ASOWARCampaign A pre-order/order from any retailer or a request to your local library will get you: * A bookmark! * 2 character cards featuring Karina and Malik! * A limited edition signed bookplate * An exclusive digital fairy tale from the A SONG OF WRAITHS AND RUIN world! An order from indie bookstore Books With a Past will get you: * A bookmark! * 2 character cards featuring Karina and Malik! * A limited edition signed bookplate * An exclusive digital fairy tale from the A SONG OF WRAITHS AND RUIN world! * A handwritten note and personalization from the author! Rules: * You must submit proof of purchase/library request. Screenshots and photos of receipts are fine. * Only orders and library requests dated through June 30, 2020 are eligible * Only orders made through Books With a Past (https://ift.tt/3dLSqUg) will receive the note and personalization. * All swag will be sent out on a rolling basis starting June 2nd * Entrants under the age of 18 must obtain parent/guardian permission before entering About the Author: Roseanne “Rosie” A. Brown was born in Kumasi, Ghana and immigrated to the wild jungles of central Maryland as a child. Writing was her first love, and she knew from a young age that she wanted to use the power of writing—creative and otherwise—to connect the different cultures she called home. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor’s in Journalism and was also a teaching assistant for the school’s Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House program. Her journalistic work has been featured by Voice of America among other outlets. On the publishing side of things, she has worked as an editorial intern at Entangled Publishing. Rosie was a 2017 Pitch Wars mentee and 2018 Pitch Wars mentor. Never content to stay in any one place for too long, Rosie currently teaches in Japan, where in her free time she can usually be found exploring the local mountains, explaining memes to her students, or thinking about Star Wars. Links: Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18395190.Roseanne_A_Brown Website: https://roseanneabrown.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosiesrambles Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosiesrambles/?hl=en Giveaway: Prize: Win an ASOWAR bookplate, bookmark, two trading cards, and access to the exclusive short story (INT) Starts: June 2nd 2020 Ends: June 16th 2020 a Rafflecopter giveaway Tour Schedule: http://fantasticflyingbookclub.blogspot.com/2020/04/tour-schedule-song-of-wraiths-and-ruin.html June 2nd The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club - Welcome Post June 3rd BookCrushin - Story Behind The Cover + Instagram Moonlight Rendezvous - Review + Favourite Quotes A Dream Within A Dream - Review Small Stained Pages - Review + Playlist + Favourite Quotes Vee Reading - Review Lit lemon books - Review + Favourite Quotes June 4th The Paperback Voyager - Review Colby Wilkens - Review Kait Rose - Review + Favourite Quotes Belle's Archive - Review + Video Interview Sage Shelves - Review SeizeThePage - Review + Playlist Paws and Paperbacks - Review June 5th Bookish Looks - Tell Your Story in GIFs Write, Read, Repeat - Review Books.Bags.Burgers - Review + Favourite Quotes Sometimes Leelynn Reads - Review + Dream Cast Black Bookwyrm Reads - Review Enthralled Bookworm - Review + Mood Board by blogger June 6th A Court of Coffee and Books - Review + Favourite Quotes Utopia State of Mind - Review Morgan Vega - Review + Favourite Quotes Tea.Books.Magic - Review + Instagram Caitsbooks - Review + Favourite Quotes + Mood Board by blogger Books and Ladders - Review June 7th Kait Plus Books - Character Interview Hooked on Bookz - Review + Favourite QuotesBiblioJoJo - Review The Layaway Dragon - Review + Favourite Quotes In Between Book Pages - Review + Favourite Quotes Empty Kingdom - Review + Favourite Quotes + Mood Board by blogger June 8th A Gingerly Review - Mood Board bforbookslut - Review L.M. Durand - Review + Mood Board by blogger Dazzled by Books - ReviewConfessions of a YA Reader - Review + Favourite Quotes The Reading Corner for All - Review

http://www.dazzledbybooks.com/2020/06/a-song-of-wraiths-and-ruin-blog-tour.html

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Grammys 2018: Six stories you need to know, including Carrie Fisher's nomination

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Grammys 2018: Six stories you need to know, including Carrie Fisher's nomination

Image copyright Getty Images

Jay Z and Kendrick Lamar are the main contenders for the 60th annual Grammy Awards, leading a crop of nominations that is heavy on hip-hop and R&B but has left mainstream pop stars like Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga out of the running for the major prizes.

The awards will be announced at New York’s Madison Square Garden on 28 January 2018, and will be screened on 4 Music the following evening.

Here are six of the stories highlighted by this year’s nominees.

Carrie Fisher gets a nomination

Image copyright Reuters

Eleven months after her death, Carrie Fisher gets a posthumous Grammy nomination in the spoken word category for a wry, self-aware reading of her autobiography The Princess Diarist.

The book also features Fisher’s daughter Billie Lourd, who narrates her mother’s diary entries from the 1970s, which mostly concern her relationship with Harrison Ford.

Elsewhere, the Grammys give posthumous nominations to Leonard Cohen, Linkin Park’s Chester Beningfield and Chris Cornell.

Hip-hop and R&B rule the roost

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Kendrick Lamar has received multiple Grammy nominations

It was becoming embarrassing. In the last 20 years, only two black artists have won the Grammys main prize, album of the year. Two years ago, Beck controversially beat Beyonce’s ground-breaking, self-titled video album to the title. Then, last year, Adele did it again.

Adele seemed embarrassed by the accolade, and spoke for many Grammy-watchers when she said her rival deserved it more, describing Lemonade as “monumental… beautiful and soul-baring”.

Following that, Canadian superstar Drake withdrew his album, More Life, from consideration for the Grammy Awards; echoing Frank Ocean, who withheld his 2016 album Blonde, citing the ceremony’s “cultural bias”.

It all amounted to a wake-up call and, this year, the main categories are dominated by rap and R&B.

Jay Z and Kendrick Lamar’s multiple nominations were expected; but the recognition for Bruno Mars’s 24K Magic and Childish Gambino’s brilliant, psychedelic P-Funk album Awaken, My Love were both surprises.

The latter, in particular, seems responsible for pushing aside Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide); which many Grammy observers assumed was a shoo-in for album of the year.

Image copyright PA

Image caption Ed Sheeran was the surprise of the day receiving no nominations in the main categories

But the story goes deeper than the main awards categories – the top nine most-nominated people at the 2018 Grammys are non-white performers.

Neil Portnow, chief executive of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, which runs the Grammys, called the mix of nominees “a really terrific reflection of the voting membership of the academy”.

It’s a pivotal moment; and you have to hope that those voters don’t fumble the ball by giving album of the year to Lorde’s Melodrama, the only pop record on the shortlist.

Kesha seals her comeback

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Kesha’s first incarnation as a heavily autotuned wildchild pop diva was roundly ignored by Grammy voters. But following accusations of abuse against her producer, Dr Luke, the singer produced a potent and cathartic album, Rainbow, channelling all of her personal drama into the best music of her career.

She’s rewarded with a nomination for best pop vocal album; and she must be a favourite for best pop performance for the remarkable high note she hits four minutes into the gospel ballad, Praying.

Non appetit for Katy Perry

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Katy Perry has yet to win a Grammy – something arch rival Taylor Swift alluded to in the vicious video for her single Look What You Made Me Do. However each of her albums had received a nomination. Until now.

Her misfiring fourth album, Witness, fails to garner any recognition from the Recording Academy, despite Perry launching the project with a spirited performance of Chained To The Rhythm at the Grammy ceremony earlier this year.

She’s not the only pop artist to be overlooked. Harry Styles’ debut album is absent from the shortlist, despite the fact it produced two big hits and was coaxed into life by 2016 Grammy producer of the year Jeff Bhasker.

Is rock redundant? Has country come a cropper?

Image copyright Reuters

Rock and country – in fact, all songs played on a guitar – are notable by their absence this year.

Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age failed to break out of their genre categories despite delivering strong albums; while crossover act Imagine Dragons, whose singles Thunder and Believer have been a major presence on the US charts, are consigned to the pop ghetto.

And while the Grammys traditionally recognise one country artist in the album of the year category, even Sam Hunt – whose album Body Like a Back Road, which spent 25 weeks at number one – failed to make the cut.

Taylor Swift will have to wait for next year

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Taylor Swift’s Reputation is the biggest-selling album of the year in the US, but it was released after the Grammys’ cut-off point, so she won’t be a big presence at the 2018 ceremony.

The star had hoped to secure nominations by releasing two singles before the deadline, but neither Look What You Made Me Do nor Ready For It impressed the 13,000-strong Grammy panel.

However, the star does receive recognition for writing Little Big Town’s single Better Man, which is up for best country song; and for her duet with One Direction’s Zayn Malik, I Don’t Want To Live Forever, which is featured on the Fifty Shades soundtrack.

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