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atamascolily · 5 years ago

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lily liveblogs “terminator 2: judgement day” for the first time

Nothing says "Christmas season" like watching bloody action movies! Well, there is "Die Hard," but I'm watching Terminator 2: Judgement Day, aka "James Cameron Was Mad He Didn't Put Those Ten Minutes of Subplot He Filmed Into the Theatrical Cut of the First Terminator, So He Made An Entire Movie About It Instead Because He Could”.

Ok, so I have the "Extreme Edition", whatever that means. The menu options for the DVD include "Sensory Control" (for subtitle options) and "Jump Into Timeline". Every now and then a super-creepy T-2 metallic head drops into frame to remind you to press play. I'm loving this.

Cars in L.A. traffic. Children laughing on a playground in the '90s. Cut to the Apocalyptic Nightmare Future with the busted cars and skeletons for drivers. Everything's STILL IN PLACE the way it was when Judgement Day happened. Oooh, yeah, just cut to the wrecked playground with a pile of human skulls, in case we didn't get the memo.

(for the record, I'm pretty sure nuclear winter would actually NOT WORK LIKE THIS, but it looks cool, and James Cameron seems to be really good at this kind of parallels between present and future, so I'm rolling with it.)

Sarah Connor narrates the introductory spiel, and we're treated to basically the same opening as T1, except much higher budget everything. Lots of laser beams and explosions and fireballs, plus scary metal Terminators roaming around that the last movie did NOT have the budget for. (plus the audiences have already seen that in T1, so it's okay to show them in the intro, since I assume an EVEN SCARIER TERMINATOR FINAL FORM is coming).

We're only 3 minutes into the movie and the filmmakers have already spent like a tenth of their total budget on SFX and twice the total costs of the first movie.

It occurs to me as Sarah is narrating, who is she narrating to? Just us, or some other characters? I strongly suspect we'll see some other characters when this film finally cuts to her.

How does Sarah know about a second strike? Didn't we establish in the last movie that there was only one Terminator that went through the portal before the humans got to it?? Are they retconning that now?

Instead of '80s synth and logo during the credits, we get a more symphonic treatment of the main theme, plus THE PLAYGROUND ON FIRE because SYMBOLISM for the destruction of CHILDHOOD INNOCENCE, amirite?? And then we cut to the SCARY METALLIC RED-EYED TERMINATOR SKELETON IN FLAMES because THAT is the defining image of this francise, the one that James Cameron had NIGHTMARES about that he decided to give to EVERYBODY ELSE by making these films.

I just realized how much the Terminator head in that shot looks like a human skull, THAT'S SO INTENTIONAL AAAAAH.

Cut to a truck driving off without its cargo, trash on the ground. Sparks fly, a wind picks up, it's night, we've been here before... This time the budget is higher, so we actually get to SEE the sphere instead of people just kind of appearing... and it carves a hole in one of the trucks. This ALSO didn't happen in T1. Nudity is still mandatory, though. It's still Arnold. You can tell it's an upgraded model Terminator based on his computer system menus. He still beats up tattooed punks to steal their clothes, only instead of stoned punks, these are long-haired motorcycle dudes in some sort of pool bar.

Oh, wow, there are a lot of people in this bar. A woman with a cigarette and a nose ring is checking the Terminator out. This is going to go well. Country music blares on the soundtrack.

He's looking for the dude with the best motorcycle. Tells him to give him his stuff. This is just like the first movie, but different. The dude is unimpressed, though why I'm not sure, because the Terminator is super-intense, and super-buff.

But the motorcycle dude blows smoke in his face--the T2 model scan says "carcinogen vapors", which is a) hilarious, and b) SO DIFFERENT FROM THE "EVERYBODY IS ALWAYS SMOKING EVERYWHERE" vibe of 1984--a sign of the evolving social norms. Then the motorcycle dude grinds his cigar into the Terminator's bare skin... and of course there's no reaction.

One dude goes through a window onto the front window of what may well be his car(?). The original dude goes flying into the kitchen and lands on a stove, which is horrific, but also karmic payback. Another gets stabbed with his own knife. I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, CAMERON. Burned guy tries to pull a gun on the Terminator, but surrenders his keys and his clothes without a fight. Terminator goes outside in record time, because the dude he tossed on the car window is still there.

The bartender comes out with a gun, fires a shot into the air, and tells the Terminator to get off the bike. This is going to end poorly for him, especially since "Bad to the Bone" is playing in the background. Terminator takes both the gun and the guy's shades while the dude just watches, incredulously. YOU GOT LUCKY YOU'RE NOT HIS TARGET/MISSION, pal.

(also: this movie is such an obvious social commentary about how being armed really doesn't help you against a real threat, American fantasies to the contrary)

Cut to more blowing trash, more buildings, more trucks, a police car, electricity. The future is calling! (Oh good, this person's either going to be chased by the police OR Take their stuff.)

Dramatic hole in the fence from the future sphere thing. Yeah, this definitely wasn't a thing in the first movie, but it does look cool in this shot! Yep, there goes the policeman!

New dude's first order of business is to look up John Connor's name in the computer in the police car. Apparently, John Connor has a criminal record - trespassing, shoplifting, disturbing the peace, vandalism. He doesn't live with Sarah... he's got a guardian, and the address is in the computer.

Cut to the suburbs. It's wholesome, white-bread America. His foster mother yells at him. John is a teenage motorcycle punk, but in a clean, wholesome way. His friend has very '90s hair, though.

John's friend thinks that his foster mom is a "dick," but frankly, I see no evidence why we should hate her thus far. Her husband comes out to tell John to clean his room, but he and his little friend are already zipping away on their motorcycle, and the little friend is holding a miniature boombox, and it's so '90s, I have to pause so I can laugh for a while. Also, this rebelliousness is what's going to save his life when the Terminator comes for him. I guess the foster parents are framed as nagging assholes so we don't care so much when they die??

(also, what do you want to bet Sarah taught John to ride a motorcycle??)

John Connor is a little dick who thinks he's so clever, and he doesn't have to do anything because these aren't his real parents. His foster dad smokes, and doesn't say anything, probably because he's already made it clear to his wife that room cleaning is not high on his priority list. Fuck him.

Sarah's doing pull-ups in her cell. THOSE ARM MUSCLES, OH MY GOD. She's 29 years old. SUCH A CHANGE from the waitress with the '80s hair from the first film. Everything's so white, it's a state psychiatric ward for women. Men in suits discussing Sarah's case.

THIS IS WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO KYLE IF THE TERMINATOR HADN'T BUSTED THE POLICE STATION. *sob*

Is Silbermann - the psychiatrist who examined Kyle in T1 still around? He left the police station right before the Terminator's attack, so I assume he lived... what does he make of Sarah's case? Does he ever follow up? I wonder what's going through his head.

I like how we don't see Sarah's face until she turns to face the doctors. I like how wild and unhinged she looks, how feral. She's changed so much in what, ten years? Thirteen? I think it's 1997, just before Judgement Day, but idk if that's been confirmed yet. Thirteen looks about right for John Connor, so I'm going with that.

Oh, god IT IS DR. SILBERMANN, THAT ASSHOLE!!! How does he explain how both Sarah AND Kyle have schizophrenia, when Sarah was perfectly normal before? And he *know* someone was murdering other Sarah Connors and seemed to be gunning for her, so why...? Was he really that much of an asshole not to suspect that *something* was going on, and Sarah wasn't crazy??

Also, I love "How's the knee?" because she totally hurt him, and I love her. I love how calm she sounds, like she's the one in control not them, because she can hurt them more than they can hurt her.

Sarah stares at the female doctors, and I realize now that Silbermann is doing a tour of the facility LIKE IT'S A ZOO, and... yeah, wow, he really is an asshole. He's the one with delusions, who can't see outside his own sheltered bubble...

I wonder what would happen if Sarah could talk to one of the female doctors? If they could make a connection? Maybe they would believe her. God knows Silbermann isn't going to listen to anyone who doesn't already agree with him.

God, the orderlies are sadist assholes. I fucking hate them. That shot of Sarah lying crumpled on the floor is so beautiful because everything is angelic pristine white and sunny, and so horrifying.

The police dude shows up at John's foster parents' house. We're supposed to think he's good because he's not Arnold, but this person has no facial expressions and he's too calm - compare with Kyle's frantic fumblings. This is not somebody from the human resistance of T1, at least not without some serious retconning. He's too poised and professional, too adept at the 1990s, whereas Kyle Reese had the social skills of a feral racoon and wore pants he stole from a homeless man. Totally different vibe going here.

The knock on the door sequence is so parallel to the original Terminator going to the first Sarah Connor's house in T1... same suburban paradise... and you can get anything when you're a clean-shaven, short-haired white cop, can't you??

Cut to: '90s tech. John and his little friend hacking an ATM. God. Their clothes, their hair, the ATM... everything is peak early '90s, and I can't handle it. We learn that Sarah Connor taught her son how to hack, because of course she does.

John keeps the photo of Sarah in his backpack, awwww. John is so not impressed by his mother, calls her crazy because she took the war to Cyberdyne and WENT BACK AND TRIED TO BLOW UP THE COMPUTER FACTORY AGAIN AFTER KYLE DIED!! (and her son was born)

Q: what did she do with John while she did that? Was he outside waiting for her somewhere? How did the police find him??

It doesn't matter who your parents are, EVERY teenager thinks their parents are "total losers". John has a chip on his shoulder a mile wide. His little punk friend thinks Sarah is so cool, and he doesn't know any of this, so I guess they're not THAT good friends??? Since it's John's motorcycle, John's driving, and John's stolen money, I guess the little unnamed punk friend is only hanging out with John because John is so much cooler than him, and needs someone to exposit to??

That shot of a drugged Sarah slumped over her knees on her bed in the shaft of sunlight, with her hair combed is SO BEAUTIFUL, too bad she's a drugged shadow of her usual self...

OH MY GOD, MICHAEL BIEHN IS IN THIS MOVIE, AND HE COMES TO HER, AND HE'S WEARING HIS TRENCH COAT AND TELLING HER SHE HAS TO WAKE UP OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG MY SHIPPER HEART asfhgfkgkfdgjkfdlgf *incoherent screaming* I need a thousand GIF sets of this scene PRONTO.

Kyle: "Where's our son???"

god, Sarah's EYES when she says they took him from her

Kyle is so earnest, so desperate, so much less bedraggled than he ever was in T1... god, he's even wearing that stupid gown under his trench coat that he got in the police station in T1, that detail wrecks me, oh my god, oh my god, this scene is so beautiful, I just want an entire movie of THIS, oh my god...

Sarah is begging Kyle for help, and he grabs her shoulders and tells her she's strong, stronger than she ever thought she could be, LIKE HE'S ALWAYS DONE, OH MY GOD, beautiful cinnamon roll, too good for this world, I love him.

AHHHHHHHHHHH, and then he says "On your feet, soldier!" which is what she said to HIM right before he DIED, and he forces her UP and they EMBRACE and she's sobbing into his shoulder and he hells her he loves her and he always will, and HKGKSFJALFNDBJNJN

I am a melting pile of shipper goo right now, this shot of them in the sunlight is so fucking beautiful, James Cameron HOW DARE YOU THIS IS EVERYTHING I WANTED IN A MOVIE EXCEPT THAT KYLE IS STILL DEAD, DAMN IT, YOU DIDN'T RETCON THAT.

He says he'll always be with her... and he is, because he's a voice in her head, a memory.... ahhhhhhhh my heart...

And he tells her "The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves," which is what SHE SAID TO HIM, oh my GODDDDDDDD.

And they hug and kiss and I could watch a whole movie about this, and then she slumps back and she's alone in her cell in a shaft of sunlight and I just want to cry. whhhhhyyyyy do you have to hurt me this way, why, why why why why whyyyyyy?

Oh wait, he's at the door to the cell, and it's open, telling her there's not much time... and walking away, and she goes out to follow him as he's walking down the hall and everything's so eerily perfect white and shiny and beautiful and SURREAL, fuck, I am so HERE FOR THIS!

God, this is all beautifully shot as she chases after him - and we get a good view of her amazing forearm muscles without objectifying her. The nightgown she's wearing is NOT standard institutional outfit - it looks more like lingerie than State Mental Hospital Standard Issue - but it's not especially revealing, either.

She opens the doors and she's outside and there's that playground again with all the children playing... SYMBOLISM AGAIN.... Sarah is locked out, away from the children, yelling to save them... and then fire.

And she wakes up in her cell and her hair is a mess again, so this time we know it's real -- and her outfit's changed, too, back to the tank top she was originally wearing, so I guess her outfit was part of the dream, too.

(ngl, I wasn't expecting even THIS MUCH of Michael Biehn in this movie, so I will happily take it, but stilllllllll... I WANT MORE, GODDAMN IT!!!)

(this got long, so I’m breaking it up into parts)

#Movie Reviews #terminator 2 #terminator #MY SHIPPER HEART

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iancolby · 5 years ago

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The Secret to Enjoying a Long Winter

posted by Jason Kottke

Nov 15, 2019

I grew up in Wisconsin, and have lived in Iowa, Minnesota, and New York. Except for a two-year stint in the Bay Area, I’ve experienced winter — real winter, with lots of snow, below-freezing temperatures, and little daylight — every year of my life and never had a problem with it. So I was surprised when my last two Vermont winters put me on my ass. In winter 2017-18, I was depressed, anxious, wasn’t getting out of bed in the morning, spent endless time on my phone doing nothing, and had trouble focusing on my work. And I didn’t realize what it was until the first nice spring day came, 70 and sunny, and it hit me: “holy shit, I’ve been depressed because of winter” and felt wonderful for the next 5 months, like a completely different person. Then last year I was so anxious that it would happen again that all that stuff was worse and started basically a week into fall.

Nothing helped: I tried getting outside more, spent more time with friends, got out to meet new people, travelled to warm places, took photos of VT’s beautiful winter landscapes, spent time in cities, cut back on alcohol, and prioritized sleep. Last year I skied more than ever before and enjoyed it more than I’d ever had. Didn’t matter. This stuff worked during the spring and summer but my winter malaise was seemingly impenetrable. The plan for this fall was to try a SAD lamp, therapy, maybe drugs, and lots more warm travel. But then something interesting happened.

Sometime this fall — using a combination of Stoicism, stubbornness, and a sort of magical thinking that Jason-in-his-30s would have dismissed as woo-woo bullshit — I decided that because I live in Vermont, there is nothing I can do about it being winter, so it was unhelpful for me to be upset about it. I stopped complaining about it getting cold and dark, I stopped dreading the arrival of snow. I told myself that I just wasn’t going to feel like I felt in the summer and that’s ok — winter is a time for different feelings. As Matt Thomas wrote, I stopped fighting the winter vibe and tried to go with it:

Fall is a time to write for me as well, but it also means welcoming — rather than fighting against — the shorter days, the football games, the decorative gourds. Productivity writer Nicholas Bate’s seven fall basics are more sleep, more reading, more hiking, more reflection, more soup, more movies, and more night sky. I like those too. The winter will bring with it new things, new adjustments. Hygge not hay rides. Ditto the spring. Come summer, I’ll feel less stress about stopping work early to go to a barbecue or movie because I know, come autumn, I’ll be hunkering down. More and more, I try to live in harmony with the seasons, not the clock.

Last night, I read this Fast Company piece on some research done by Kari Leibowitz about how people in near-polar climates avoid seasonal depression and it really resonated with this approach that I’d stumbled upon.

At first, she was asking “Why aren’t people here more depressed?” and if there were lessons that could be taken elsewhere. But once she was there, “I sort of realized that that was the wrong question to be asking,” she says. When she asked people “Why don’t you have seasonal depression?” the answer was “Why would we?”

It turns out that in northern Norway, “people view winter as something to be enjoyed, not something to be endured,” says Leibowitz, and that makes all the difference.

The people in the Norwegian communities Leibowitz studied, they got outside as much as they could — “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing” — spent their time indoors being cozy, came together in groups, and marveled at winter’s beauty. I’d tried all that stuff my previous two winters but what seems to have moved the needle for me this year is a shift in mindset.

As I experienced firsthand Tromsø residents’ unique relationship to winter, a serendipitous conversation with Alia Crum, assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University, inspired me to consider mindset as a factor that might influence Tromsø residents’ sunny perspective of the sunless winter. Crum defines mindsets as the “lenses through which information is perceived, organized and interpreted.” Mindsets serve as an overarching framework for our everyday experiences — and they can profoundly influence how we react in a variety of situations.

Crum’s work has shown that mindsets significantly influence both our physical and mental health in areas as diverse as exercise, stress and diet. For example, according to Crum’s research, individuals can hold the mindset that stress is either debilitating (bad for your health and performance) or enhancing (motivating and performance-boosting). The truth is that stress is both; it can cause athletes to crumble under pressure and lead CEOs to have heart attacks, but it can also sharpen focus and critical thinking, giving athletes, CEOs and the rest of us the attention and adrenaline to succeed in high-pressure situations. According to Crum’s work, instead of the mere presence of stress, it is our mindset about stress — whether or not we perceive it as a help or a hindrance — that contributes most to health, performance and psychological outcomes.

This is the woo-woo bullshit I referred to earlier, the sort of thing that always brings to my mind the advice of self-help gurus embodied by The Simpsons’ Troy McClure urging his viewers to “get confident, stupid!” Is the secret to feeling happy really just to feel happy? It sounds ridiculous, right? This is the bit of the Fast Company piece that resonated with me like a massive gong:

But overall, mindset research is increasingly finding that it doesn’t take much to shift one’s thinking. “It doesn’t have to be this huge complicated thing,” says Leibowitz. “You can just consciously try to have a positive wintertime mindset and that might be enough to induce it.”

So how has this tiny shift in mindset been working for me so far? It’s only mid-November — albeit a mid-November where it’s already been 5°F, has been mostly below freezing for the past week, and with a good 6 inches of snow on the ground — but I have been feeling not only not bad, but actually good. My early fall had some seasonally-unrelated tough moments, but I’ve experienced none of last year’s pre-winter despondency. I’m looking forward to the start of skiing, especially since my kids are so jazzed up about it. I don’t currently have any trips planned (just got back from warm & sunny Mexico and am glad to be home even though the trip was great), but I’m definitely eager to start prepping for something in January. I’ve had more time for reading, watching some interesting TV, eating rich foods, making apple pie, and working. I went for a 6-mile walk in the freezing cold with a friend and it was delightful. And I’m already looking forward to spring and summer as well. It’s comforting to know that warmer weather and longer days are waiting for me in the distance, when I can do more of what I want to do and feel more like my true self. But in the meantime, pass the cocoa and I’ll see you on the slopes.

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jesuschristlivedinamotelroom · 5 years ago

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angel; do you have a nickname? yea

awe; how old are you? 20

baby; favorite color? blue

bloop; spirit animal? cat

blossom; favorite book/movie/song?

blush; what was your stuffed animal as a child?

breeze; most precious childhood memory? i think my parents teaching me how to ride a bike.

bright; mermaids or fairies? fairies

bubbles; do you have a best friend? no

buttercup; showers or baths? baths!

butterfly; dream destination? idk what that means

buttons; are you religious or spiritual? no

calm; favorite scent? laundry and also honeysuckle

candlelight; what did you dream about last night? i was in charge of some event and i kept stressing over it? also my roommate kept coming into my room and i kept getting mad kxkddkkd

charming; have you ever been in love? no

cozy; eye/hair color? black black

cuddly; what’s your favorite time period? like. ever? honestly now is fine. although if i lived in like the 1800s would my brain be this smart if i felt less fear ghen like that era

cupcake; favorite flower/plant? jasmine is nice too

cute; what did you get on your last birthday? i bought myself perfume

cutie pie; most precious item you own? my guitar&desk&bed

cutsie; what makes you happy? sleep.

daisies; describe a moment when you felt free. every time i go to a concert? although when they shove cameras in my face i still have to perform.

daydream; how do you want to be remembered? bubbly, funny, but also wise? not vapid.

daylight; favorite album of all time? no idea

dear; zodiac sign? virgo

delightful; concerts or museums? concerts

dimples; have you ever written a letter? yes

dobby; dream job? i don’t know any more

doll; how do you like to dress? i kind of wear whatever i want. lately i have been dressing to match weather and to not have my nips out. although i shouldn’t care i do. also one of my group mates seems to be looking at my chest a lot when we speak so i can’t tell if it’s like That bad or if he is just weird.

dovey; any paranormal/magical experiences? no i mean. psychotic maybe

dreams; do you want or have any tattoos? yes

drizzle; do you believe in aliens? yes

euphoric; talk about someone you love. im sure i love my siblings. i want to provide for them both financially and emotionally but i can only stay detatched. they are the only people who have dealt with all of my years until now and one has told me she didn’t really know who i was when i was in middle school, which is kind of an interesting point of view. i am usually a bit more open to my siblings than i am my parents even though they were usually who just got the butt of my anger and angst lol. huh. interesting. basically i want to die quietly but it is impossible with family and i don’t want them to be affected as heavily as it would but honestly it’s just inevitable

fairy; do you have a pet? no

fluffy; ocean or mountain? mountain

forever; where do you feel time stop? my room

froglet; are you a good plant owner? no...

garden; how many languages do you know? 4?

gem; who are your favorite tumblrs?

giggles; what is your aesthetic of choice? ?

glittery; do you like anons? why/why not? sure

glow; list the top 5 things you like about yourself. i think a lot. i am considerate. i am able to be alone. i am funny. i am amiable.

heart; silk or lace? lace

honey; coffee or tea? how do you take it? both and it depends

hugsy; do you enjoy people watching or bird watching more? why? bird watching. people watching makes me uncomfortable

hunnybunch; what sounds help you sleep? anything really, mostly people speaking in a low voice

jewel; what’s your favorite kind of weather? sunny breezy

jiggly; what do you usually like to do on weekends? sleep and drink

joy; do you laugh loudly or giggle more? i cackle

kinky; do you blush easily? i think so

kisses; what romantic cliché do you wish for most? fwb to lovers

kitty; what’s your favorite time of the day? morning

ladybug; what’s your favorite artist to listen to when you’re sad? the 1975 yeah i know

love; what is your favorite season and why? summer bc its not real

lovey; what is your favorite flavor of macaron and ice cream? ummmm idk

magic; what are five flaws you have? i let my flaws affect my relationships. i let my flaws affect my work .. everything. i think too much. i give up too easily. i don’t know how to express myself.

moonlight; do you prefer soft pastels, warm neutrals, or cool darks? cool dark

munchkin; what do you look for in your significant other? funny and cute

paddywack; how would you describe a perfect date? idk

pebbles; how do you spend free time by yourself? lay around.

precious; what is something valuable that you learned in your life? your appearance, being beautiful, being skinny does not matter. it is impossible to achieve that arbitrary standard and it does not matter.

pretty; do you like to cook or bake more? bake

prince; how would you describe your handwriting? a mix of print and cursive

princess; do you play any instruments? if not, are there any you wish you could play? guitar

prinky; how do you relieve stress? jack off. drink.. sleep

pumpkin; what is your favourite kind of fruit/vegetable? ones that smell nice

rainbow; what was the last line of the last book you read?

roses; what is the most significant event in your life so far? probably entering college or my summers spent abroad

smile; what is one thing that has greatly affected you? rape, feminism, nihilism

shine; art or music? music

shimmer; do animals tend to like you? i think so?

smitten; do you collect anything? bracelets and socks

smoochies; how many pillows do you sleep with? right now 2

snuggle; what is your favourite candy? i don’t like candy

snuggly; do you have a camera? if so, what kind? no

sparkle; do you wear jewelry? no

spooky; sunrise or sunset? sunset

sprinkles; do you like to listen to music with headphones or no headphones? both

starlight; what was your favourite show as a child? idk

soft; describe your favourite spot in your house. my bed

soothe; digital or vinyl? digital

squeezed; who do you miss right now? my friends from last semester

sugary; what traits do you value most in friends? if i am only looking for people to hang out with and i do not care about them much as people, then they need to be able to have a (fun) conversation with me and want to hang out and do whatever i/we want. if it is a real friend then similar political alignment is sadly pretty important to me. we need to be similar in general probably, you need to understand my background.

sunshine; do you prefer for things to be practical or aesthetically pleasing? practical

sweet; do you find it easy to open up? no

sweetie; do you like kids? if so, do you ever want to have any? sure but no

thimble; is there somebody you look up to? who are they? no

toot; what is something you find unique about yourself? my chart . just kidding i think i have a philosophy that will cause a... bad revolution but i am also probably a narcissist

tootsie; what kind of friend are you? go with the flow kinda person, if you want to talk about something serious i can try. i usually match the vibe of the other person

treasure; what was something that made you smile today? videos

velvet; are you an early bird or a night owl? night owl

whiffle; if you could have a magical power, what would it be? i would be able to get any resource necessary Or i would be able to slow down time

whimsical; do you prefer doing stuff at home or going out? both

whiskers; do you usually wear makeup? halfhalf

wiggly; are you a messy or tidy person? mssy

wispy; do you like the place where you grew up? do you think you will live there when you get older?no

wobbly; have you ever wished upon a star? probably

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sidgenoheatwave-blog · 7 years ago

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Heat Wave Prompts 2018

You can write for one prompt, or multiple, or be merely inspired by them. Check out the nsfw prompts below! (Please be aware that the tumblr app may not include the read more.)

Kinks:

Dirty talk, or they are otherwise very loud.

Sexting/nudes

Dirty talk, sexting, really turning the other on until they can't take it and jump the other. Optional: semi-public sex

Public sex in general, the more shameless the better.

Fucking in public/trying not to be obvious

Shower sex. Optional: exhibition

Exhibitionists at a high rise

Sid fingers Geno in public

Locker room sex

Car Sex, with a high chance of being caught.

Voyeurism - Geno catching Sidney masturbating

Sex toys. Who has them? Who wants to use them?

Butt plugs, teasing with them, wearing all day, between sex "sessions"

Anal beads

Using a remote vibrator

Toys, toys are good. Not a gang-bang, as such, but fingers in a mouth, a dildo or vibrator for penetration, a mouth on a dick; all of those at once, until it's just overwhelming and perfect and maybe it feels as if more than two people were involved -- they weren't -- because of how wrecked they are when it's done.

Sid wants to get tied up, but he's not sure how to ask for it.

Hockey tape bondage

Handjob while recipient is handcuffed to a bed or a chair.

Figging and discipline with a dominant Sid, please and thank you.

Spanking

Sid spanking Geno

Pressing on bruises, maybe on accident first, and hearing a gasp.

Edging and oversensitivity

Angry wall sex

Competitive orgasms.

Neck touching

Body worship by either Geno or Sidney

Sid's giant dick

Sid has a big dick and Geno’s really, really into it

More monster dongs, more monster-fucking

Slits! -- cloaca with maybe a retractable dick. You know. Normal fish fucking stuff

Monster transformation and doin’ it with weird genitalia

Tentacles

Scenting/marking/animal trait!possessiveness

Alpha/Beta/Omega:

Geno getting double knotted (by two Sids? by a dildo? you decide)

Female alpha/male omega

Alpha!Sid/Omega!Geno, mpreg

Inconvenient knotting

Omega/omega

Mpreg - Sid and Geno decide to make a baby.

Oviposition

Eggpreg

Lactation

Someone’s got really sensitive nipples.

Medical fetish with Dr. Sid and patient!Geno. Be as dirty as you want.

Bathing/washing kink. Sex optional but intimacy would be wonderful.

One of them naked, the other fully clothed.

Hockey garters and jockstraps (it can be Sid’s jock if you wanna get REAL nasty)

Reward blow jobs

Intercrural/intergluteal.

Someone is secretly a virgin (preferably Geno). The deflowering can be tender or filthy.

“Just the tip.”

Anal penetration for the first time. Just fingering, or full on penis penetration.

Hair-trigger and multiple orgasms.

Coming in pants.

Pet names and rough sex.

Daddy!Sid/Geno

Detailed instructions for fucking. (Either just the two of them or with others.)

Cock warming.

Consensual somnophilia

Object penetration. Things that are phallic but not a penis. ...popsicle? Hockey stick? Hairbrush handle? Fucking video game controller? Anything.

Sex and magic. Does magic make it better? Unpredictable?

Sex pollen.

Genderswap / Rule 63

Scenarios:

Sid learning Russian dirty talk and Geno just about dies.

Geno exploits Sid's language kink by not speaking English in bed.

Sidney loving on his handsome russian husband- bottom Sidney

Wedding night/honeymoon, having deliberately not had sex for [length of time] beforehand to make it extra special.

Fucking in every room of the house. Christening a new home?

Geno is moving back to Russia; emotional goodbye sex.

Life-affirming sex with tears.

With the Cup.

A bye-week romp -- assuming they can agree on a compromise between snowy mountains and sunny beaches -- in which it doesn't really matter where they are because they never really leave bed.

Sidney enjoying his first time getting rimmed.

Geno discovers his prostate + Sid doesn't like anal = fucking machine

Sid ties Geno up and leaves a remote controlled vibe in him while he goes out and runs errands. Geno comes untouched while Sid is out, prompting him to use a cock cage next time.

Sid and Geno aren't dating, as such. But sometimes Sid needs to get laid. And he and G are really good friends who trust each other. They have their regular dinners and hang out a lot as friends. And sometimes Sid asks G to spend a day/night/weekend with him, and they actually make "friends with benefits" work. (It could evolve into more after hockey is done. But there's no real pining happening in the meantime, because they're both really happy with what they have. The sex is amazing and the friendship is easy.)

An actual heatwave in Pittsburgh and Sid has all the fans. And a generator for ice-based drinks. Russian vodka in his freezer. Lots of beads of sweat for multiple reasons in this one.

Sex on the ice. Gear: Optional

Sid likes to use Geno for stress relief.

Fucking after one of them gets a hat trick.

We know Sid’s superstitious. Geno fucks him bare before a game, and after that Sid needs a creampie until his point streak’s over. Alternately, he has to give Geno a creampie.

Sid has FANTASIES about other players and Geno does his best to roleplay, but he's not the best actor.

Geno leaves one of his Pens hoodies at Sid's -- maybe forgetting to pick it up from the "coat" pile on his way out the door after a team gathering. When he comes back the next day to retrieve it, he walks in on Sid -- so distracted that he didn't hear the gate alert or the door open -- getting off on his couch with his face buried in G's hoodie. (Or maybe wearing it -- and nothing else -- though he arguably then could claim he mistook it for his own.) (If the timing is right, maybe Sid is so far gone that seeing Geno doesn't instantly send him rushing to cover up but actually pushes him over the edge.)

Sid has a repressed daddy kink until he blurts it out in bed and it turns out Geno is super into it.

Sid masturbates to hockey highlights. Mainly Geno's 'best of' videos on YouTube. Then just aroused by anything Geno does or says. Awkward locker room times ensue.

Someone goes on Sid’s phone and see the many nudes of Geno he has saved, or alternatively Sid taking pics of Geno.

Sid and Geno have had a FWB situation since their first season together as Pens. Neither of them has ever wanted more than what they have, and they’re both happy. No one suspects anything. It’s good. Then their third Cup party is at Sid’s instead of Mario’s, the champagne and liquor are flowing, and someone untrustworthy with a camera catches Sid and Geno in Sid’s bedroom. Cue the media storm.

Geno picks up a girl/guy early in the season (ignoring real life relationships no infidelity please), and they give him their number. At the same time Sid finally gets a new phone, also a new number. They get mixed up. Que heavy flirting and maybe even some dick pics.

Summers are tough when you live on different continents but thank God for Skype and jerk sessions.

Geno facetimes Sid over summer break, horny and frustrated because jackin’ it hasn’t been enough for him. SKYPE SEX ensues, Sid, folding his laundry at home, talks him through it and then jerks off for him on camera after Geno’s come.

They make a sex tape to watch over the summer.

Phone sex when only one is called up for the All-Star Game.

Sid and Geno are best friends that talk about everything including sex. Or, well, about everything except the fact that they are in love with each other/secretly pining after on another). One day, Geno talks about the wonders of the prostate and prostate milking. Sid, never having been with a guy before (another reason he is hesitant to tell Geno about his feelings) is intrigued/has never done it before and decides to try it. Cue lots of frustration as Sid can't figure it out. Geno, tired of hearing about Sid's failures, decides to lend a helping hand.

Friends to lovers: their first time together.

One of them walks in on the other one jerking off.

Nevernude Sid is suddenly naked all the time and is distracting to poor Geno.

Sid does a Sports nude shoot and Geno has FEELINGS about it.

Naked distraction in the locker room after a game while the other is trying to give an interview.

Sid walks around his house naked a lot. Geno uses his spare key when he thought Sid was out of town ONCE and all hell breaks loose. Good hell. Very sexy hell obviously.

Geno finds a Fleshlight at Sid's house.

Sid just wants to rub off on Geno. All. The. Time.

Sid likes big dicks. There’s a practical reason for this... his ass is so big and basically a solid chunk of muscle, most guys can’t get deep enough to hit the good spots. But Geno’s dick though, it’s just the perfect size to scratch his itch very nicely.

Vancouver Games hook-ups

This tweet [Overheard phone conversation: "And you had sex how many times? Hmm. Yeah, that's not technically a bromance."]

Teammates hooking up at a gay club but neither initially knowing the other liked guys or were at the club.

It’s not cheating if you join in.

Training the rookies together. For sex things!

Sid and Anna overwhelming Geno.

Sid/Geno, Ovi/Nicky, groupsex. Geno and Ovi share Sid and Nicky with one another, watch Sid and Nicky play with one another, and fuck the hell out of the both of them. Bonus for Geno holding Sid down while Ovi fucks him, or vice versa with Ovi holding Nicky down for Geno.

The teammates in the next hotel room won't shut up, so Geno starts making Sid moan.

Sid comes on Geno’s face in a bar bathroom during an ill-advised one-time tipsy hook-up but he can’t stop thinking about it afterward and it EATS AT HIM until they fuck again. Geno’s eyes closed and his mouth open, waiting for it?? Good stuff.

Geno getting rimmed on the bench during a game.

At the movies.

Someone gets rawed in a barn.

Straight-faced shenanigans on the plane. // The one where they fuck on the plane.

Fucking during an interview.

Long-time neighbors putting on shows for each other and finally, finally hooking up. Begging the other to come over via whiteboard.

Geno loves getting Sid horny and hard in public when Sid can't do anything about it.

Quickie in the men’s room at the NHL Awards (or the All Star Red Carpet Day)-- Sid gets Geno into a stall and tugs down Geno’s pants and eats him out until he cries.

They're out to the team but Geno gets off on hiding: secret closet sex that has the team rolling their eyes like why do we have to be a part of their fucking foreplay.

Exhibitionists at a six corner building facing oncoming traffic. Very specific, but I drive by a building on a six corner and can’t help but imagine.

I like the idea of public sex far more than I like the reality of it. And the appeal is not in the possibility of getting caught (really, that's the horrifying part) but in the fact that they just need each other so much in the moment that they can't wait (don't want to wait) until they get home. So something in which there's no real chance of them being caught, even if there's a party with the entire team going on in the next room.

BDSM + Dom/Sub AU:

Geno and Sid are in a Dom/sub relationship. Geno is a huge fan of public sex, but since Sid worries so much about the press, Geno keeps the public displays to the locker room. The guys get treated to seeing Sid on his knees blowing Geno in the locker room, or Geno fucking him in the shower, or Sid riding Geno in his stall.

In which both are doms or both are subs.

Geno and Sid are in a serious Dom/sub relationship. Geno likes to share what's his sometimes. Sitting in his stall, his fingers curled in Sid's collar, he keeps Sid on his knees and lets some of the other guys fuck Sid's mouth. Maybe as a reward for playing well or being the stars of the game. Sid's reward for being such a good boy is Geno fucking him in his stall in front of everyone.

Geno wants nothing more than to serve Sid, but Sid's not great at being served.

Geno gets lovingly tied up and rawed until he cries.

Kink discovery.

Geno’s really into breathplay which he discovers when Sid accidentally chokes him during oral; they experiment with it together to their intense mutual satisfaction.

Geno is really into the idea of nipple rings but he doesn’t want to get his done so Sid buys nipple clamps and they have a good time.

Geno got a Gordie Howe hat trick against Philly, so Sid agrees to be tied up in bed

Geno is really into the idea of nipple rings but he doesn’t want to get his done so Sid buys nipple clamps and they have a good time.

Magical AU where people can't really feel sensations fully until they meet their soul mates. Sid and Geno suddenly discover they can feel everything but haven't told anyone or each other! They just want to be in the bliss of all the new sensations for as long as they can. Once they figure it out they can't stop touching each other any and everywhere!

It's a good ole classic body swap! How will they manage? How guilty do they feel being able to explore each other's bodies? How do they find out about it? When one is walking a little funny because he went a little too hard with that extra large dildo??? Gosh! do they have to sleep with each other or something to break this spell??

Sex rituals: it’s midwinter and they have to fuck in the snow and jizz on the ground for spring to come. This can be a fantasy AU or just a magical realism in the NHL type thing. (Or maybe it’s at center ice in order to ensure a fruitful season or postseason. Whether it’s their own magic/ritual or something Strongly Encouraged by management is up to you.)

Sid is a monster or alien and his saliva and various juices get humans a little bit high. Geno discovers this and likes Sid to jack off onto him when he’s had a rough game. Maybe he likes to rub it into his skin and let it dry there like a wild animal and showers it off later when it’s all itchy. This is weird to Sid but he likes coming on Geno’s ass and upturned face and it makes Geno happy so like whatever.

Sid got cursed as a teen and his dick is surrounded by a mess of tentacles and normally it's glamoured and looks/feels normal but he Really Wants To Fuck Geno With All That

One of them is a mermaid with all kinds of exciting fish bits -- the other gently fingers his gills while they fuck

Vampire sex somehow

Vampire Sid making Geno his human, fucking him while biting him.

Sid goes with Geno to Russia for the lockout but they’re WEREWOLVES and Sid fucks Geno raw, filling him with cum, and bites him very aggressively so everybody knows that Geno might be playing for this team For Now but he belongs to Sid’s pack.

Werewolf AU with wolves taking mates and mating outside in the forest.

Werewolf AU pack bonding sex when Geno joins the Penguin pack

Werewolf AU Geno and Sid hooking up during the Olympics - a time when they aren’t pack. Maybe they are mates, maybe their instincts are messed up and sex becomes rough and almost like a fight.

Alpha/Beta/Omega:

Geno goes into heat for the first time upon arrival in Pittsburgh, Alpha!Sid accidentally bonds with him.

The thought of Geno/being around Geno always has gets Sid super wet. Like, it gets everywhere. Luckily, you can't smell it, or else it would be super embarrassing for Sid to be around him...especially since they are not together. Sid goes to extreme lengths to make sure no one around him figures out exactly the effect Geno has on him...until one day, Geno accidentally walks in on Sid fantasizing about Geno while getting off. What happens next....

Omega Sidney and Alpha Geno - alpha chasing omega trope

Alpha!Sid is a late bloomer, and after his third or fourth season with the Pens, he returns and scents omega!Geno for the first time.

Omega!Sid and alpha!Geno, with full consent and a really relaxing few days of tv and sex and laughs, but also a lot of submissive, fake innocent sid wanting a big strong alpha to protect him

Scent marking without realising it, and scent marking on purpose

Heat sex! With geno presenting late as an alpha and experienced omega sid

Alpha!Sid in pre-rut and Geno enjoying every second of it (mostly making him wait)

Knotting in Geno’s heat nest

Sid catches Geno stealing his nasty sweaty clothes to jerk off into

Geno goes into heat on the plane for a road trip and it hits him hard and fast and he’s MISERABLE and every alpha on the team is Uncomfortably Worked Up and concerned about it because it’s their instinct to help him somehow. Sid eventually crams him into one of the little lavatories and fucks him with his legs spread, bent over at the waist and braced behind the toilet. Everyone can hear them despite the ambient plane noises because neither of them can be remotely quiet. Nobody minds. With Geno a little settled and smelling like Sid’s sweat and jizz, everybody’s pinged instincts relax. (Whether or not their boners do the same is debatable.)

Mpreg - sex for the first time after the baby's born

One tries to get the other pregnant but they’re not having immediate success so they have to fuck a LOT.

Genderswap au! Geno pretending to knock Sid up. Or vice versa.

Genderswap Geno shaving Sid’s legs, his hands on her thighs and Sid watching him bite his lip in concentration.

Age difference + daddy kink: rookie Geno and captain Sid. Geno likes to be taken care of. He earns everything he gets, but if he likes to lay his face in Sid’s lap and jerk off while Sid praises him in a steady stream of english he can only kind of understand? WHO CAN BLAME HIM?? Geno is exceedingly smug about the entire arrangement.

Captain!Geno gets rookie!Sid as a reward

A Rookie's Welcome to Pittsburgh (Sid bangs Geno who speaks like 3 words of English)

On the street proposition/cash for sex

Client!Geno and rentboy!Sid // Escort Geno

Seducing the new neighbor

Masseuse AU. Sid rubs Geno down. // Masseuse/P.T.

Knight Sid carrying Geno off to ravish him

Regency or Historical AU. Sid fucks Geno in some back room while a ball is going on.

Regency - repressed touching, etc.

Inspired by the verse “save a horse, ride a cowboy”. Sid learns that horse back riding is really good for quad development and hip flexibility, but their insurance prohibits such a dangerous activity. Luckily, horses aren’t the only thing you can ride.

Fishing trip: camping outdoor sex with blankets and campfire (bears optional)

Prime Minister and pretty aide finally getting together à la love actually (make it above board, please).

Guy you’re hooking up with is a porn star and he prefers banging you above all others. Say no to angst, please.

Getting more than an autograph from your favourite star.

Getting a monthly pass from their significant others. No angst, please.

Geno likes to wear perfume sometimes (think Flowerbomb by Vikor and Rolf, maybe Bloom by Gucci), and Sidney likes the scent of Evgeni’s skin.

Single Dads: Sid fucks Geno in the kitchen over the counter in the few minutes they have in an empty house. It’s fast and dirty and maybe Geno pushes the fruit bowl onto the floor on accident he can’t HELP IT and also he does not care because he’s getting dicked SO! GOOD! by his kid’s hot hockey coach and he feels slutty about it but not in a bad way just in a “he’s so deep inside me I feel like I’m gagging on it” way that he’ll think about in the shower tomorrow morning. The children do not feature.

Ancient Greece gymnasium/olympics AU/competence kink - nude, oiled up from head to toe, wrestling. (If it's just an exhibition match cause they're at the same gym maybe they oiled each other up, part of the whole ritual of it?). They WRESTLE and it’s slick and slippery and they're so well matched and really into just how good the other is that afterward they bone down.

#heat wave main #thank you all for contributing!#this is ten pages on google docs #you might want to take notes #edit: fixed some things!

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disappearingground · 5 years ago

Text

Jenny Lewis Escapes the Void

Pitchfork March 21, 2019

After a turbulent childhood and two decades of brilliantly vulnerable songs, the L.A. idol has finally arrived at something like happiness.

By Jenn Pelly

Jenny Lewis and I are in her brown Volvo, idling outside her childhood home. On a Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, we are two blocks from Van Nuys Middle School, where Lewis once sang “Killing Me Softly” in a talent show and got suspended for flashing a peace sign in a class photo (it was mistaken for a gang symbol). We are walking distance from what used to be a Sam Goody record store on Van Nuys Boulevard, where Lewis once bought a life-changing tape of De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, stoking her obsession with magnetic wordplay, as well as her first Bright Eyes CD, Fevers and Mirrors, which she quickly shared with the three men in her burgeoning indie band, Rilo Kiley, in the early 2000s.

We are not far from the bar where Lewis’ older sister, Leslie, sings in a cover band every Saturday, following in the tradition of their parents, who sang covers in a Las Vegas lounge act called Love’s Way in the 1970s. And that strip-mall pub is just across from the movie theater where Lewis and her mother once conspired to steal a cardboard cutout of Lewis’ 13-year-old self—a souvenir from when, as one of the busiest child actors of her generation, she starred alongside Fred Savage in the 1989 video game flick The Wizard.

Lewis left the Valley alone when she was 16 and vowed to never go back. “That was my number one goal: just to get out,” she tells me now, at 43. But on the occasion of her fourth solo record, On the Line, I asked for a tour of her past life, and here we are—Lewis in a royal blue jumpsuit, with electric blue sneakers and eyeliner to match; me, staring up at the rainbow of buttons fastened to the sun visor of her passenger seat, a collage that includes Bob Dylan, a peace sign, and a hot-orange sad face.

From the driver’s seat, behind her oversized shades, Lewis mentions the Bob Marley blacklight poster that once hung in her Van Nuys bedroom, and I imagine the scores of teenage bedroom walls that have made space for her own iconic image through the years. Lewis’ catalog of cleverly morbid, storytelling songs with Rilo Kiley and the Watson Twins ushered a generation of young listeners through suburban ennui and personal becoming—like a wise older sister we could visit on our iPods, offering an example of how to do something smart and cool with your sadness and your solitude.

In the mid-2000s, Lewis was like an indie rock Joni Mitchell for the soul-bearing Livejournal era, or an emo Dylan, the poet laureate of AIM away messages. Words—some cryptic, some elegant, some brutally, achingly direct—burst from the edges of her diaristic songs, with a dash of Didion-esque deadpan for good measure. It’s no surprise that Lewis’ earliest bedroom recordings were just Casio beats and what she describes as “raps.” Lewis was the first feminine voice I ever encountered leading a band outside the mainstream, with a sound that initially befuddled my ears because it was, in that overwhelmingly male indie era, so rare: a woman’s plainspoken voice.

Cruising around L.A. together, my mind maps the California of her lyrics. What does it mean for the palm trees to “bow their heads”? What becomes of the cheating, California-bound man in Rilo Kiley’s filmic “Does He Love You”—the soulful rave-up where Lewis belted the heroic mantra, “I am flawed if I’m not free!”? But my most pressing question, the one I must ask Lewis: Is California still “a recipe for a black hole,” as she sang on 2001’s “Pictures of Success”? “I guess it’s all the void,” she tells me straight. “It’s not really geographical. That’s what you find out on your adventures. It doesn’t really matter where you go. You accompany yourself there.”

The main destination of our Van Nuys excursion is the small ranch home of Lewis’ youth—or rather, homes, as there are two, practically adjacent. It’s a little complicated, I learn, as are many things with Lewis’ upbringing.

Lewis was born in Vegas on Elvis Presley’s birthday. In 1976, her parents and sister were living out of suitcases on the road, playing Carpenters and Sonny and Cher songs at casinos like the Sands, the Mint, and the Tropicana. “My mom was so pregnant but she would not miss a show,” recalls Leslie, who was 8 at the time. “Jenny would be kicking her on stage, and I remember seeing my mom flinch. I think that was Jenny saying, ‘Let me out, I want to sing!’”

Soon after Lewis was born, her parents divorced, and her father, Eddie Gordon, left the family and continued his career as one of the world’s leading harmonica virtuosos. Lewis’ mother, Linda, moved back to her native Los Angeles, working three jobs to rebuild a life with her daughters. At 2-and-a-half years old, Lewis was discovered by the powerful Hollywood agent Iris Burton (a young Drew Barrymore and the Olsen Twins were among her clients) after the toddler spontaneously wandered over to her table in a restaurant.

When Lewis was 5, she was already supporting Leslie and their mom with her commercial and TV acting, and they bought their humble first home, the one we’re visiting. “But we always used to dream about the house on the corner,” Lewis says, slowly circling the block, “so then my mom bought that house, too.” It’s two doors down, looks pretty similar—why dream of it? “Because it was right there,” Lewis says, “and it was nicer than the one we had!” (A 1992 L.A. Times headline dubbed Lewis “A Teen-Age Actress With 3 Mortgages”—she owned a townhouse in North Hollywood by then as well—calling her “the youngest member of the United Homeowners Association.”) “I know it’s confusing,” Lewis says. “This is part of the simulation; this is craziness. Why did we also want that house?” She erupts into a cackle. “None of this makes any fucking sense.”

In life as in her songs, Lewis is a consummate storyteller, mindful of how tiny details make a great tale. In the car, for instance, she tells me about the time she played Lucille Ball’s granddaughter on the notoriously bad 1986 sitcom “Life With Lucy.” It was the last show Lucy ever starred in, and it was canceled before the first season even finished. The mood was blue, but a wrap party was still planned, and Lewis’ mother convinced Lucy to have the gathering at their little house in Van Nuys. “So Lucy rolled up with her two dogs,” Lewis remembers. “She walked in the front door, looked around, and said, ‘What a dump!’”

Lewis’ mother typically attracted fascinating characters to the house—like the producers of the TV special “Circus of the Stars,” who trained Lewis in trapeze; or “Fantasy Island” star Hervé Villechaize, who came over for a scammy “Pyramid Party”; or The Exorcist writer William Peter Blatty. One year on Halloween, at the recommendation of the family’s illusionist friend—who, according to Leslie, levitated Jenny in their house—her mother invited over Ghostbusters star Dan Aykroyd’s brother Peter, who was himself a real-life ghost buster. Peter planned to “check out the levels” of the house.

Intrigued by the Lewis’ paranormal investigation, the local news showed up. Back then, Lewis was hanging out with fellow child actors Sarah Gilbert, Toby Maguire, and Leonardo DiCaprio—who also came through to scope things out. Recalling the ghost-busting scene, Lewis says, “They came over and set up their vague, infrared equipment and they captured some sort of reading coming down the hallway and going into my childhood bedroom.”

I ask Lewis if the ghostbusters’ findings felt accurate. “Well, totally,” she says. “Something was going on. We always had weird vibes in the house. Very dark vibes.”

In person, Lewis’ temperament is one of constant cheer. She radiates positivity, takes bong rips in her kitchen, says “dope” and “vibe” often. This sunny disposition is occasionally punctuated by looks of deep, welling concern for others—as if she is on the brink of tears for humanity. Still, she calls herself a “total skeptic,” and tells me that show business trained her, early on, to master the art of getting along. “I didn’t ever wanna be one of the dicks on set—like in a family situation, where one person can really fuck up Thanksgiving,” she says, before veering into more existential territory. “We all know we’re careening towards the end of humanity. I just wanna do my work and hang out with my people.”

It’s only later, while sipping Modelos at the dining room table of her quaint ranch house in the hills of Studio City, that Lewis reveals the source of her childhood home’s “dark vibes” was her mother’s lifelong heroin addiction. “It is painful to go back there,” Lewis tells me. “I get a weird feeling. I don’t know if the ghostbusters could have detected it, but there was some kind of energy that was not conducive to survival. So when I left, I left.”

“My mom was an addict my entire life, and it was a fucking rollercoaster,” she continues. “It lent itself to some amazing situations, but it was manic as fuck, and there were drugs constantly. It’s a lifestyle, and it’s a community to grow up around. I feel grateful for having been witness to some pretty outrageous human behavior from a young age. Nothing really shocks me.”

Leslie attests to their complicated home environment, and recalls “stepping over people trying to find my books to go to school.” She became a mother figure to Jenny, taking her little sister to school on her bicycle and making sure she did her homework. Leslie was just a teenager when she put it together that their mother was pushing Jenny’s acting money into buying drugs and, ultimately, selling them. “It was a terrible realization for both Jenny and I to have,” Leslie says. “I give our mom a lot of credit for being resourceful prior to that. We probably wouldn’t be talking to you today if she hadn’t been so inventive and so diligent. But it escalated.”

When Jenny quit acting in her early 20s, Leslie wasn’t surprised. “I remember her finally having the burden lifted off her shoulders, that she didn’t need to support our mom anymore, and she didn’t need to be told what to do anymore—she was free,” Leslie says. “Her agents were calling me, asking ‘What the hell’s going on? We’re booking her in all this stuff.’ It was a big deal for her to walk away. But she had to do it. I think she didn’t want to be saying other people’s words anymore.” Leslie recalls the bubbly dialogue Lewis would have to recite on screen and adds, “That’s just not where she was at in her life.”

Focusing on her own words, Lewis arrived instead at death, disease, loneliness, deflated dreams. Rilo Kiley’s 2002 breakthrough The Execution of All Things opens with a hushed monologue from Lewis about the melting ground. On the title track, she sings genially of a will to “murder what matters to you most and move on to your neighbors and kids.” Disguised by twee album art, Rilo Kiley created an indie rock uncanny valley, a sweet-sung pop moroseness of Morrissey-like proportions.

The centerpiece of Execution is a gritted-teeth fight song called “A Better Son/Daughter.” It bursts from a music-box twinkle to a monumental marching-band wallop, from a depressed paralysis to refurbished self-worth, from “your mother […] calling you insane and high, swearing it’s different this time” to “not giving in to the cries and wails of the Valley below.” In the past, Lewis has rarely discussed how her own biography fits into her songs, but the sense of hard-earned triumph and conviction powering this particular song is unequivocal. When I ask what might have inspired its climax—“But the lows are so extreme/That the good seems fucking cheap”—she simply remarks, “I mean everything I say.”

In 2006, Lewis wrote the fablistic title ballad of her solo masterpiece, Rabbit Fur Coat, to convey the feeling of her story—a mother waitressing on welfare in the Valley, the promise of a working child, a fortune that fades—if not the concrete details, which, she says, don’t really matter. But the haunting “Rabbit Fur Coat” laid her mythology bare. “I became a hundred-thousand-dollar kid/When I was old enough to realize/Wiped the dust from my mother’s eyes,” Lewis sings, the last line quivering into a moment of piercing a capella. “Is all this for that rabbit fur coat?”

I ask Lewis where she thinks her optimism comes from, and she just says “survival.” This summarizes an equation of emotional resilience that more women than not are tasked with solving young. “Jenny has basically been on her own her entire life,” says her best friend, the musician Morgan Nagler. “She’s the definition of buoyant.”

It’s hard to imagine rock in 2019 without Lewis’ radical honesty, without her hyper-lyrical mix of the sweet and the sinister. “In the early 2000s, the really big indie artists were Bright Eyes and Death Cab for Cutie, and Jenny was one of the only women fronting that kind of music,” says Katie Crutchfield, aka Waxahatchee. “But in the next generation after that in indie music, there are so many women. How could she not have been a huge part of that?”

Crutchfield, now an indie figurehead in her own right, says no songwriter has directly influenced her more than Lewis. When she was still a 20-year-old punk living in Alabama, Crutchfield got the cover of The Execution of All Things tattooed prominently on her arm. Lewis’ odd, poppy, poetic songs had a musicality she hadn’t found in punk, but they still spoke to her as an outcast.

Seeing Rilo Kiley play for the first time—at a Birmingham venue she would go on to play herself—was a watershed moment. Crutchfield and her two sisters stood front row center, sang every word, and cried. “It was so huge to see a woman on stage holding a guitar, being powerful but still very feminine,” Crutchfield says. “That was my first foray into seeing that as a possibility for myself.” She recalls the exact outfit Lewis wore that night: red leather skirt, knee socks, T-shirt tucked in, and “a belt that was like a ruler—something you would see on a teacher.”

When Eva Hendricks, singer of sugarrushing New York pop-rock band Charly Bliss, was still in high school, she would spend days writing Lewis’ lyrics in her notebooks over and over, becoming attuned to the virtues of unsparing openness in songwriting. “Listening to that music unlocked something I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to understand about myself,” says Hendricks, who also appreciated how Lewis never downplayed her femininity. She distinctly recalls going to a Lewis record signing around 2014’s The Voyager: “I waited in line and when it got to be my turn, the only thing I could think to say was, ‘I can’t believe that your voice is coming out of a real human being.’”

Harmony Tividad, of Girlpool, was 12 the first time she heard Rilo Kiley, and calls Execution’s “The Good That Won’t Come Out” one of her favorite songs of all time. “That song is more like a diary entry, and vulnerable in this way that feels like a secret,” Tividad says. The unvarnished album opener peaks with Lewis speak-singing, “You say I choose sadness, that it never once has chosen me/Maybe you’re right.”

“I was a really emotional, awkward young person and felt kind of socially trapped,” Tividad, now 23, reflects. “I was a freak. And that song is about exploring all of this stuff inside of yourself that you can’t really show people. It’s about isolation, which I have felt a lot. This music was a soundtrack to that recalibration of personhood. It was very integral in me developing a sense of self.”

Lewis has resided in the quiet show-biz neighborhood of Studio City—which she refers to as “Stud City”—for 11 years. She mentions that her current home is still, technically, located in the Valley, and shoots me a conspiratorial look: “Don’t tell anyone.” There are retro-looking landlines all around the house (cell service is poor), and eye-catching vintage Christmas bulbs strung in the kitchen window. The house was previously owned by the late Disney animator Art Stevens, who worked on Fantasia and Peter Pan. Standing amid dozens of plants in the little green room at the heart of her home, sipping a coconut La Croix, Lewis enthuses about Mort Garson’s obscure 1976 electronic record, called Mother Earth’s Plantasia. The whole place has an air of magic.

Its infrastructure has been unchanged for decades, which stuck out to a location scout for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Charles Manson film, who knocked on the door one day and asked to take some photos. He did not return, but his business card is on Lewis’ refrigerator, alongside one from legendary songwriter Van Dyke Parks, and a Bob Dylan backstage pass. The fridge is mostly covered with hospital stickers from when Lewis was visiting her mom, who died of cancer in 2017, and inspired her new song “Little White Dove.”

The other big change in Lewis’ life was the dissolution of her 12-year relationship with singer-songwriter Jonathan Rice—after which, to shake up the energy of the house, Lewis’ friend and photographer Autumn de Wilde painted the walls of her bedroom a striking shade of rose. Directly outside the door is a life-size photo of her best friend Morgan, and the window of her bedroom, spanning the right wall, looks out to a built-in pool. The sill holds carefully arranged objects: ruby slippers, her passport, a candle, a plethora of sunglasses, and a violet notebook labeled “Lewis homework for On the Line.”

Talking with Lewis, the despairing elephant in the room is Ryan Adams, who played on the album. Two weeks before we meet, Adams was accused of sexual misconduct and emotional manipulation from musician Phoebe Bridgers, his ex-wife Mandy Moore, and others, including a woman who was allegedly 14 at the time, prompting a criminal investigation by the FBI. “The allegations are so serious and shocking and really fucked up, and I was so sad on so many levels when I heard,” Lewis tells me. “I hate that he’s on this album, but you can’t rewrite how things went. We started the record together two years ago, and he worked on it—we were in the studio for five days. Then he pretty much bounced, and I had to finish the album by myself.”

“This is part of my lifelong catalog,” Lewis continues. “The album is an extension of that thing that started back at my mom’s house—I had to save myself and my music, and get away from the toxicity. Ultimately, it’s me and my songs. I began in my bedroom with a tape recorder, and it was like my own fantasy world. I’ve taken all these weird turns in my life—with mostly men, sometimes women—but I feel like I’m finally back to that place, which is autonomy.”

Though On the Line features an impressive array of players—Beck, Rolling Stones producer Don Was, Dylan drummer Jim Keltner, literally Ringo Starr—the album marks the first time Lewis has penned an album of songs solo, without co-writers, since Rabbit Fur Coat. “I’m not fully myself when I’m co-writing,” Lewis admits, describing a directness to the songs she’s penned with men, like Rilo Kiley’s “Portions for Foxes,” as opposed to songs she’s written alone, like “Silver Lining.” “With the songs I’ve co-written, it’s almost as if there’s a trimming of the emotional, rambling, poetic hysteria, which is where I live when I’m writing by myself,” Lewis says. “I don’t think of songs structurally. It’s a feeling, and I’m chasing the feeling.”

The cover of On the Line is a close-up of Lewis’ chest in an ornate blue gown. She chose the snapshot intuitively, from a pile of Polaroids taken by de Wilde, and only later recognized it as a deep homage to her mom, who once dressed similarly in Vegas and had an identical mole between her breasts. “Over the years I’ve become more comfortable in my skin,” Lewis says. “It’s funny to feel good in your skin when it’s not quite as tight as it used to be.”

With her voice sounding more refined than ever, On the Line finds Lewis singing about getting head in a black Corvette, feeling “wicked,” and—on the devastatingly delicate “Taffy”—sending nudes to a lover she knows will leave. “There’s a lot of fantasy in my songs,” Lewis tells me. “Sadly, I don’t get that much action. I should have gotten more.” She says she has always written about sex as “character projection,” but when she did so on Rilo Kiley’s final album, 2007’s Under the Black Light, it polarized fans. Lewis recalls one journalist who made a flow chart claiming to correlate the declining quality of the band’s music and the shrinking size of her hot pants. “It was so puritanical,” she says. But as the borders between the underground, mainstream, and genre have broken down, the artists who Lewis inspired are continuing to make space for more expansive expressions of sexuality.

The new record’s sound is warm and sleek, and when Lewis says she listened primarily to Kanye’s recent work while mixing it, I recall yet another wacky tale she shared with me at her house: Once, circa 2008, Lewis chanced upon Kanye at an airport. He played her a cut from 808s and Heartbreaks, and she played him her sprawling psych-rock triptych “The Next Messiah.”

Listening to On the Line, I find myself fixated on “Wasted Youth,” which uses a jaunty piano arrangement to deliver its neatly bleak refrain: “I wasted my youth on a poppy.” Lewis then slyly draws a line from the drugs to our numbing daily realities. When she sings, “Everybody knows we’re in trouble/Doo doo doo doo doo/Candy Crush,” I can feel my phone festering in my palm.

“I feel like that song is more about Candy Crush than heroin, if that’s even fucking possible,” Lewis says. “That’s the fuckin’ end: Candy Crush. It’s terrifying. I feel like my brain has been taken over by one of those weird fungi that grow out of the head of an ant in the rainforest. It’s like we’re spracked out on our Instagrams. It makes me feel like shit even talking about it.”

By the bridge, however, Lewis offers a blunt jolt of hope: “We’re all here, then we’re gone/Do something while your heart is thumping!” That’s a surprisingly heartening sentiment from a songwriter who has referred to herself as “a walking corpse,” who once made a springy emo anthem entitled “Jenny, You’re Barely Alive.”

“I’m in my 40s and something has shifted,” she says, when I ask what she does these days to help herself through. “Maybe you’re more aware of your own mortality, and have the balls to walk away from things, and be untethered, and do the reflection and the hard work—getting your ass out of bed and walking a couple miles, going to the gym, talking to a therapist.”

Lewis says her relationships with her female friends have deepened profoundly in recent years. “Maybe this is what we’re picking up on: the collective consciousness,” she says. “Women are talking to one another more. Reaching out to my girlfriends has helped me through these lessons that keep coming up. It’s the same lesson, where I’m like, ‘How am I in this situation with this fucking person that’s crazy… again? Why am I here and why have I stayed this long?’ And then my girlfriends are there to go: ‘Get the fuck out of there!’” (She is clear that this is not about her relationship with Rice, but rather about other romantic and working partnerships.)

I tell Lewis that these get-me-out predicaments remind me of her own song, “Godspeed,” from 2008’s Acid Tongue, which I had been revisiting quite a bit lately—a golden-hour piano ballad from one woman to another, a paean to “keep the lighthouse in sight,” to get “up and out of his house,” because “no man should treat you like he do.” “I wrote that for my friend,” Lewis says. “But maybe I wrote it for myself now.”

By the end of my time at Lewis’ house, the sun has set and we’re sitting in near total darkness, save for the neon pink glow of one of her many landlines. “You have to make a choice to be happy, or try to be,” Lewis insists. “Sometimes that involves moving away from people that you love, or that hurt you, or that are toxic. You have to find your bliss in life, right?”

I almost can’t believe that the same woman who provided me with my personal millennial-burnout anthems is asking me about unfettered joy—the artist who wrote the lyrics “I do this thing where I think I’m real sick, but I won’t go to the doctor to find out about it” and “I’m a modern girl but I fold in half so easily when I put myself in the picture of success” and “It must be nice to finish when you’re dead.” But I nod; it’s true.

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mitchbeck · 5 years ago

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CANTLON'S CORNER: WOLF PACK OPEN FOR BUSINESS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - It's clearly the first days of school time for the Hartford Wolf Pack as the team's brand new head coach, Kris Knoblauch, is trying to find his "sea legs" as much as his roster of 32 had a strong, two-hour practice on Monday. As they prepare for their first exhibition game Wednesday night in Danbury against the Springfield Thunderbirds, Knoblauch was very non-committal as he goes forward day-to-day. “This is my first head coaching job at the AHL, of course, I‘ve had time in juniors, but this is a completely different setup. The Rangers gotta be at 23 (roster permitted under the CBA) so I think a day-at-a-time right now. I can’t think too far ahead right now. I’m really happy with the teamwork so far, and we had some solid play in Traverse City. It was my first look at the team, and we had some very strong play, so it was a good first step.” Personally, for the Knoblauchs, getting settled in has been a whirlwind. “We got here in mid-August. Three days later, the kids (age 11 and 9) are starting school. Then, I’m off to Traverse City for a week. I come back, get things set up at home, and with the team, its been an awful lot of work, but we're excited to be here,” said Knoblauch. Coordinating practices is not as simple as just throwing pucks out there and putting the nets on their magnets. Despite a large number of players, Knoblauch has felt the longer practices (two hours) will help the acclimation process for coaches and players alike. "The ice has been pretty good and held up well. We set-up our structures and foundations,” Knoblauch, who had a lot of three-on-three drills for "Red Squad" (mostly veterans), "Blue Squad" and navy colored jersey squads accenting twenty feet and in around the end on offense and defensive side of things. Getting to know the players beyond scouting file is Task Management 101. “I know some of the guys, but a lot I have to learn and the process is day-to-day. Having an assistant like David Cunniff is gonna be important for me to lean on because he has been in the AHL seven or eight years. It’s the support system the Rangers have set-up. It’s gonna make my job easier on and off the ice.” One veteran player on defense, an extremely contested position in Hartford and with the parent Rangers, was free agent, off-season, signing Jeff LoVerde. “I can see right away why he was the LA organization all those years as a valuable part of their team in Ontario. He really conducts himself very well and had jumped in to help the younger players and I think he’s gonna be a very important asset back there." Clearly, goaltending is a position of major organizational interest. Ex-Pack, Alexander Georgiev, is presently penciled in as Henrik Lundqvist’s backup. Russia's highly touted rookie with plenty of KHL experience, Igor Shesterkin, has a serious stack of bricks of his shoulder pads with the very high expectations that have been five years in the making. Former UCONN netminder, Adam Huska, has had a strong camp for the Rangers. ‘We'll have two goalies battling, we have a third (Tom McCollum) here as well, and they all want to be playing, and all three will be in the mix. We're going to have some strong competitors in net. There are so many variables and possibilities that will be there both of them have played well." Knoblauch was non-committal as to who will start in net tomorrow or if there will be games split between rookies Francois Brassard and Jake Kumsky, a Union College grad who already had a deal with Ft. Wayne (ECHL) and who's in training camp on a PTO. Up-front, one player who has stood out from Traverse City to the early stages of this training camp, has been Lewis-Zertet Gossage, a Kent Prep grad, who has had a strong five-game audition at the end of last season. “He has stood out right in rookie camp. He came in in great shape and his speed with his size is quite good. It gives him an advantage among a variety of factors of course that go into (evaluation).” The backline has an abundance of players and contracts and will be a position where some players could be on the outside looking in. “We have a real mixture here of guys from some still unsigned, to some who are, and some young guys coming up who have shown their skills and also players still with New York. There are a lot of moving pieces here. One of the other good things is we have Gord Murphy, who we're very fortunate to have, and he will be a very important part of working with our defense and the group we put together.” A few players of note are back in camp ready to tackle a new season, and the changes since John Davidson, the team's new President, has taken over and the wholesale new coaching staff both in style and quantity has been unmistakable. “It's kinda hard to define. There is clearly a more upbeat feel this year and it’s really all brand new. I’m still adjusting to it, so it's all-new for me," forward Gabriel Fontaine, who was just sent down and entering his third and final season of his original entry-level deal, said. He was a defensive center his first year and battled for more ice time. He got quality offensive shifts including powerplay time, but Fontaine, after a summer spent back home in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and after this camp, which he stayed at longer, is aware of his role from the outset. “I’m gonna take any tools they send my way and put it in my bag and continue to work toward getting to the NHL. It’s a pretty big change here. It's just gonna get bigger and faster and be part of the leadership group here in Hartford. Clearly, a different vibe here, it’s hard to describe right now.” Fontaine is fully embracing a defensive role as he readies to embark on his third pro season. “The Rangers want me to concentrate more on becoming a reliable center defensively, take (important) faceoffs and that’s gonna help me make that jump to the NHL. I won’t be a first line guy on the powerplay,” Fontaine said with a laugh. "Everybody wants points on the powerplay. This is gonna be my path to the NHL.” The other player is the sunny, smiling, Ty Ronning. He spent some of his off-season in Phoenix seeing his one-year-old nephew and training back home in Vancouver. “New coaching staff, I’m a little older. I'll be 22 next month. A virtual graybeard. I'm really excited and I realize its a big year here. Expectations are big, I got two years left on my contract, so it’s a big year,” remarked Ronning. Speed has been his calling card in juniors. Ronning felt he needed more improvement. “I worked on getting my three strides quicker. I’m a small guy, and if I can gain more space in the offensive zone, or coming off the wall in the defensive zone, I can be faster to the puck. I think I will have more success because the speed and decision making here is so much quicker than juniors and in Maine. Bad decisions often wind up in the back of the net,” Ronning said. His summer training partner was his father, Cliff Ronning, who tallied NHL goals and the maturation of Ronning is really underway. “I learned to listen to him more this summer than in past years. Just trying to be more mature rather talking back. When you're younger, you tend to not listen. He has 20 years of (NHL) experience. He helped me in working on my shooting and learned a lot about my release and nuances of scoring and I learned a lot about him.” Another key to Ronning’s career development was the late legendary, Pat Quinn, who was a giant in the hockey business as a player, coach, GM and franchise owner at every level. “He was a grandfather figure to me. He drafted when he was the owner of the Vancouver Giants. He was very open-minded. If you could play he wanted you. He wasn’t like you play, but you're too small. He believed in me. I really can’t state enough how important that was at the time in my life…just tremendous,” Ronning, who has a small tat near his left bicep in his Quinn's honor, said. Maybe the luck of the Mighty Quinn will help him in his second pro season. NOTES: The team kept their collective focus and discipline when the building alarm system test went off during practice. Phil DiGuiseppe was assigned by the Rangers. but has to clear waivers first. Sean Day was among five assigned to Hartford and Knoblauch was awaiting what his medical status as he is recovering from off-season hip surgery. He has been a red no-contact jersey since training camp began. “I think he is close, but his medical clearance will come from New York and I expect it sooner rather than later." The other players included Connor Brickley, Tim Gettinger, Nick Jones, and Dawson Leedahl. Knoblauch confirmed Finnish defenseman, Tarmo Reunaren, is heading back to play for Lukko Rauma (Finland-FEL). “He got better in Traverse City and he played well in New York. He’s 21 and its numbers right now the organization has a lot of defensemen and he has a European option. He will be getting quality playing time. He has a future here because he showed he can play there are just so many spaces.” Over the weekend training camp, tryout rearguard, 6’4, Mason Geertsen (Colorado Eagles last year) was last season was sent to Hartford, Joey Keane, Patrick Newell, Ryan Dmowski and Jake Elmer. One of the training camp invitees includes former Springfield Falcon, Bryan Lerg, who played in Switzerland last season with HC Ambri Piotta who spent time working with Elmer doing pass, catch, and shooting drills. Some other players of note assigned to the AHL or camps include; Ex-Pack’s Cole Schneider (Milwaukee), Chris Bigras (Lehigh Valley), Mike Paliotta (Binghamton), Brandon Halverson (Toronto), Chris Mueller (Syracuse), Adam Tambellini (Stockton), Rob O’Gara (San Antonio), Hubert Labrie (Belleville), John Albert (Manitoba), Ryan Haggerty, Dustin Tokarski (Wilkes Barre/Scranton), and Brian Gibbons (Charlotte). Ex-Sound Tigers, J.F. Berube (Lehigh Valley), Griffin Reinhart (Belleville), Mitch Gilliam (Toronto), and Matt Donovan (Milwaukee) CT Connections Karl El-Mir from UCONN (Toronto), Alex Lyon of Yale, and David Drake of UCONN (Lehigh Valley), Brogan Rafferty of QU (Utica), Jordan Samuels-Thomas (West Hartford/QU) Stockton, Chad Krys (Ridgefield) Rockford, Tommy Cross Simsbury/Westminster Prep) Springfield, Craig Martin (QU) Toronto, Luke Shiplo (QU) Bakersfield, Sam Anas (QU) Iowa, Ross Colton (Taft) Syracuse, Callum Booth (Salisbury Prep) Charlotte, and Wiley Sherman (Greenwich/Hotchkiss Prep) Providence . Sons/nephews of Whalers; Cole Cassels (Belleville), Cayden Primeau (Laval), Jake Leschyshyn (Chicago), Hayden Verbeek (Laval), Henrik Samuelsson (San Diego) and Mark Kastelic (Belleville). Sons of New Haven Nighthawks/Senators/Beast/ Knights; Mathieu Olivier (Milwaukee), Mike Mersch (Texas) and Drake Rymsha (Ontario). New NCAA signees Cody Milam (Michigan St.-Big 10) Laval, Billy Christopoulos (Air Force Academy NCAA –Independent) Hershey, Jacob Jackson (Michigan Tech-WCHA) San Jose, Hayden Hawkey (Providence College-HE) Stockton Joe Wegeworth (Notre Dame-Big 10) Colorado and Carl Hesler (Dartmouth College-ECACHL) Rochester. Now that makes 216 Division I collegians have signed pro deals and 286 collegians total have signed North American and European pro deals. Ex-Pack Ty Conklin was named volunteer goalie coach for the University of New Hampshire Wildcats (HE). Taylor Raddyysh, the older brother of the Wolf Pack’s Darren Raddyysh, was assigned to Syracuse by Tampa Bay. Big win by building operator Spectra in securing US vs. Canada in a women's hockey battle coming on December 14th at the XL Center. The two top women's programs in the world will be a marquee event to be apart of and attend. Read the full article

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maggiedsadventures-blog · 8 years ago

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5.10.17, Lucerne (Luzern)

Finally, a nice, warm, sunny day! We saw that the weather was going to be nice today, so we got up early to do some things in Salzburg that we had been saving for a day like today. We went to the castle fortress that overlooks the whole city and surrounding countryside. What a view! It was totally worth waiting until we had good weather and clear skies to go see it. The castle itself is interesting enough - built in the 11th century, it's expanded over the years. We saw everything from ancient furniture to torture tools. But the view! I can't get enough of these mountains. It was so special to actually be up in a mountain - and literally IN a mountain - yesterday, but to see the whole mountain range on the horizon... It was incredible. It was just like in the movies (yup, we watched the Sound of Music!) but better. We even got the nicest family photo of all us that we've had in years! Okay, now that I'm not exhausted, I can actually think clearly and write about our journey yesterday. Like I said in my earlier post, it was another cool rainy day. I had read about the ice caves online, and vaguely knew that the ice cave was in an actual mountain. Although I knew that, I guess I had never really sat to think about the scale of it all. The rest of my family was on board for an adventure, but Pat admitted that he hadn't actually realized that the ice cave would be within a mountain. As we were driving, it was grey skies and clouds that covered most of the mountains and landscape as we were driving in. We could just make out the shapes of the hills and mountains, like looming giants just beyond your sight. It was beautiful and eerie in its own way. As we get closer to the mountain itself and the mountain ranges, we start to have better visibility. The mountain itself is HUGE. None of us except for Dad, who went to college in Utah, are familiar with mountains, so we were all really excited. The countryside surrounding the mountain is worth noting, too. So much lush greenery, rolling hills, and quaint Swiss chalets. Like something from a postcard! The entrance to the ice cave was a deep hole in the side of the cliff. Dad's has a lot of pain in one of his calves, so he decided to sit this one out and wait for us at the restaurant. But don't feel too bad - he had a fantastic view of the valleys and mountains below, and was able to sketch and drink Austrian beer on an Austrian mountain while he waited for us! There were about eight other people in our group (not including me, Mom, and Pat). Our tour guide would speak in German first, then English. He warned us that we would be walking a kilometer into the mountain, and that there would be about 700 steps - both up, and down - the equivalent of climbing a high-rise building. He said that during the off-season he usually does this tour (and all the climbing) 2-4 times a day; an in the height of the tourist season, can do up to 7! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, and were given gas lamps to light our way. He used magnesium flares to light the path ahead, and it definitely cave the tour a really authentic vibe. It was so dark inside the cave, and cold! He had warned us that it would be freezing temperatures, and we had prepared as best we could. At the end of it though, Patrick and I couldn't feel our toes! I had never realized ice could be so beautiful. The tour guide said this was one of the largest ice caves in the world. The ice formations ranged from swells of ice, to jagged stalagmites and stalactites, even to huge blocks, one that even used to be called 'The Elephant'! Our guide explained that the ice formations are ever growing, so it doesn't look much like an elephant before, but did in the early 1900s when the cave was first becoming a popular tourist destination. At times the ice was over 20 meters thick. Sometimes we had to duck to avoid hitting our heads on the sparkling ceiling (our guide explained that the ceiling was glittering because it was still so cold in the cave that the ice was still freezing over; but in the summer, the thin ice will melt!). And other times, our feeble lights couldn't even reach the top of the cave. It was truly awe-inspiring. And the ice was colorful, too! What rock we could see was both gray and orange, a product from iron in the stone rusting. And the ice!!! We saw black ice, orange from the rust of the stone, and even aqua blue. It was just... Incredible. Our walk up through the cave was exhausting, and our guide said that the cave went on for another 40 kilometers! Crazy. After our tour of the caves, we met up with Dad. We took the gondola back down, and really got to enjoy our walk down the path, along the side of the mountain. One of the best parts is that it's the off season right now, and we were the only ones on the path. We had the mountains to ourselves! Of course Dad and Pat threw rocks, and we would all listen for several seconds until the rocks hit on the distant ground below. I wish I could engrave every detail into my mind. But Pat said something interesting - since you can't remember everything you see, you should hold on to how you feel. I've never felt like I was in the presence of something so... No adjective seems good enough to describe it! I guess that will be my feeling I have to remember. And of course, having an amazing afternoon with my family, too! We got back to Salzburg, and then that evening we met up with some Braceland cousins who happened to be in the city while we were! It was so nice to see them. Then we packed up and headed out for a 6 hour drive to Lucerne this morning! And what a drive that was! Dad's such a champ for driving the whole time. We drove out through the Austrian mountains and hills. The ice and snow at the top really gives them some definition. And it was a perfectly clear day too, so we could see for miles and miles! A couple hours outside of Lucerne, we drove by the Alps. We just stared outside our windows the whole time. It's amazing to look out your car window and see the whole right side filled with snow-topped mountains, as far as you can see. Switzerland is SO beautiful. So many blue lakes and green hills! And while we were driving, we saw an actual waterfall falling off the side of a cliff, into the clear waters of a lake below. I mean, really??? How incredible is that? We didn't know too much about Luzern before coming here. I've heard good things about it, and had figured that it would be a good place for us to end our trip. Not to mention it's about halfway between Bern (where I'lll be going next), and Zurich, where Mom, Dad, and Pat are going to go this weekend. Like Geneva, it has an incredibly clear and blue lake, but surrounded by huge jagged mountains. And they're so close! We went out to dinner at night, and pretty much just stared at the scenery the whole time. Then the sun set, and cast a pink hue over the mountains. Pat and I went to take pictures, and saw the full moon rising over the mountain tops. I mean, could things even be more perfect?! Oh, wait, there were like 20 beautiful white swans floating in the lake - so yeah, pretty much perfect! Sorry this is such a long post. There was just so much to write about what we've seen and done, and I know I haven't done it justice. I plan to post pictures tomorrow, which have definitely captured more accurately what I've been trying to describe! Tomorrow is our last full day together. Then I set out for Bern, and the rest of the family goes to Zurich for the night, before Patrick heads out to France via Italy. Mom and Dad are flying home to Boston from Zurich, and while I'll definitely miss them, I'm looking forward to traveling by myself for the first time! I know it will be stressful to navigate and explore new cities on my own, but I'm up for the challenge! Here's to new adventures!

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sentrava · 6 years ago

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Beyond Savannah’s Historic District: Activities for Every Travel Taste

Earlier this month, we headed back to Savannah for three nights, something that’s becoming a bit of an annual tradition. It’s hard to believe that I’d never been to this romantic Southern city until my late 20s—and now I’ve visited five times in the past six years. And while eating and drinking are typically the top of our list when traveling to this coastal Georgia enclave, there are plenty of activities in Savannah that don’t actually include five meals a day (though, no judgment here if that’s your preferred travel style!).

I’ve been asked by many how long one needs to fully soak up Savannah’s charm. With more and more flight options available—Allegiant recently introduced a seasonal direct flight from Nashville to Savannah that we hopped aboard—it’s easier than ever to jet down for a long weekend. And if three days is all you have, then by God, get yourself to Savannah. But if you have a full week, even better—there’s so much to do that you’ll never grow bored, and over the past 20 years, the city has evolved into a bona-fide vacation destination worthy of much more than a mere weekend. Bunk in a vacation rental on Tybee or make your base in downtown Savannah; either way, you can’t go wrong.

I’ve done Savannah in just about every way you could: with my husband, with friends, on a bachelorette party, you name it. My trips have ranged from do-all-the-touristy-things-on-River-Street to only-go-to-the-insider-spots-with-locals. And while you could easily spend an entire five-day visit exploring the Historic District by foot—despite being just a square mile, it’s chock-pack with restaurants and bars, museums and historic homes—I encourage you to get outside of it, at least for a day.

Here are seven ways to incorporate various neighborhoods of the city and beyond.

For the Fitness Buff: A Class at Savannah Cirque

You know I’m always up for anything acrobatic. I think the fact that I wanted to be a gymnast growing up but was neither short enough—I hit 5’5″ in elementary school and wound up gaining another two inches in height later on—or flexible enough to do so led me to fall in love with aerial arts and AcroYoga as an adult. So when my local friend Susan told me that Savannah’s first circus center opened a year ago, I knew how we’d be spending our first morning in town.

Savannah Cirque is the brainchild of fitness professional Sabrina Madsen, who spent much of her life as a gymnast and now competes in international pole competitions. This is not your average circus studio; there are a ton of classes on offer. I thought we were going to be joining your standard aerial yoga flow class (read: gentle stretching with the assist of the hammock), but nope: We elevated it a level by taking aerial dance. And SVV may or may not have known what he was getting into, but he was a good sport nonetheless! Not only was it a great workout—I was sweating buckets by the end and my thighs were sore for days—but it was a whole lot of fun. SVV, Susan and I giggled our way through the 60-minute workout. This would be a really fun activity for a Savannah bachelorette party or any girls’ getaway (or hey, with your husband like I did!). If aerial dance isn’t your thing, Savannah Cirque also has classes in lyra, aerial hoop, trapeze, pole fitness and hand-balancing.

For the Beer Drinker: An Afternoon in Starland District

I first visited the Starland District on my inaugural visit to Savannah as it boasts one of the city’s most famed residents: Back in the Day Bakery. But now, the Starland District has earned its name as it’s blossomed into a neighborhood popular for its artist shops, great eats and, most importantly, brewery newcomer. Two Tides Brewing Co. was started by the ocean-loving couple James and Liz Massey after some critical laws changed in the state of Georgia in 2017 that allowed direct sales to customers. This brewery occupies the top floor of a grand old house and specializes in small-batch beers—with plenty of sours on tap, much to SVV’s and my delight.

Bonus: There’s an eye-catching mural of bees located on the back of the building in the parking lot and a stunning interior mural that wraps around the space by Alexandria Hall. Savannah has another excellent brewery, Service Brewing Co., that I’ll be talking about in the next post for all of you brewery-hoppers out there.

For the Historian: A Walking Tour

Genteel & Bard came about when broadcast journalist T.C. Michaels lost his radio show, an unfortunate outcome of the media industry’s unstable nature this past decade and one that plenty of my friends and colleagues have seen, too. Instead of letting the news get them down, he and his wife Brenna took that experience and spun it into Savannah’s most interactive tour company, peppered with personality and Southern grace and accentuated with a top-notch audio integration by way of earbuds that connect to T.C.’s microphone and iPad (I even stopped for a bathroom break and could hear him in my ears a block away!).

The result is a laid-back and immersive dive into the culture and history of a quintessential city in the American lexicon. I’ve taken plenty of Savannah tours and this was my favorite so far; the audio effects—music, readings and more—really enhanced the experience. And I take my time with photography, so I love that I could wander around and snap while T.C. talked without feeling rude or missing out on any clutch details.

For the Beach Bum: A Day at Tybee Island

It took me until my fourth visit to Savannah to venture out to Tybee Island, which is just bonkers given that it’s less than a half-hour’s drive from downtown. On this visit, we were met with cloudy skies much of the time, which just meant, apart from the surfers and fishermen, that we had the beach relatively to ourselves.

Tybee has gorgeous tracts of unblemished sand, marshes filled with wildlife, and a lovely lighthouse that dates to the 1700s and was also the site of a major turning point in coastal defense during the Civil War, with the bombardment by Union troops of nearby Fort Pulaski introducing the rifled cannon to the world of warfare.

Filled with brightly painted cottages, bed and breakfasts, hotels and some camping/RV spots, the island town has plenty of options by way of lodging, and there’s nary a chain in site. It’s truly the bohemian vibe that Millennial and DINK travelers like us crave, while also well-suited for families of all sizes.

For the House Nerds: Architectural Tour of Savannah

The very last of the original 13 colonies, Georgia was founded at the height of the Enlightenment and during a period of rapid expansion of the European powers into the New World. Named after King George II, the province was established under the leadership of an English general named James Edward Oglethorpe for the British crown in the early 1730s as both a bulwark against the French and Spanish and, originally, in Oglethorpe’s vision, a place for the poor, jailed debtors and others in London to get a new start.

It was an idealistic place from the beginning, and featured, among other paternalistic decisions, a ban on slaves and rum, a rarity for the nascent colonies. The town plan for Savannah, the first settlement in Georgia, conceived a series of geometrically laid out wards, with a central square anchoring each one together. Twenty-two of these squares remain in the city and lend this moss draped town a unique flavor of urban design that’s often heralded as the benchmark for smart social planning.

Jonathan Stalcup, a 2004 alum of SCAD, the premier design school of the south, runs an impressively thorough 90-minute Architectural Savannah tour that breaks all of this down and opens your eyes to the system that Oglethorpe had in mind. Jonathan’s historical knowledge of these buildings makes this tour riveting.

For the Nature Lover: Isle of Hope

Looking for your postcard-perfect coastal Georgia scene? It’s right there on the Isle of Hope. Our friend Susan, a local, took us here on our spring visit last year, and it remains one of the prettier places I’ve seen in an area widely known for its natural beauty.

While the peninsula (not actually an island) largely comprises residences, the Isle of Hope Marina is worth a visit; on a warm, sunny day, plan on nabbing a table outside at the Wyld dock bar and enjoying the weather—and the view. Note: Wormsloe Historic Site Isle is also close by.

For the Designer at Heart: Visit SCAD

SCAD—or Savannah College of Art and Design—is responsible for infusing the city with the creative energy that pulses throughout it. So many architects, designers and entrepreneurs are products of the private university, which was founded just 40 years ago, and its buildings, numbering upward of 70, are now scattered throughout the Historic District. You’ll see them just walking around, but worth visiting is the campus store ShopSCAD with its collection of original art for sale, as well as Poetter Hall in which it is housed.

Another fun place to wander inside if you merely want to ogle some impressive art is the Mansion on Forsyth Park, now owned by Marriott. This 1888 building was once a funeral home—so I’m dead certain ghosts reside within!—and opened as a hotel in 2005. Even if you aren’t a guest or a patron, you can enter the restaurant side at 700 Drayton and climb the stairs to see the whimsical paintings and other fun accents that give this famous spot some color.

Looking for more Savannah travel ideas? Start here:

Your Ultimate Weekend in Savannah

Eating and Drinking Our Way Through Savannah

Planning a Bachelorette Weekend in Savannah

Shopping Till You Drop in Savannah

The Inside Scoop on Savannah’s Famed Ice Cream Shop

A History of the Girl Scouts in Savannah

This post was produced in partnership with Visit Savannah. All opinions are our own.

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Beyond Savannah’s Historic District: Activities for Every Travel Taste published first on https://medium.com/@OCEANDREAMCHARTERS

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soundofawesomeblog · 8 years ago

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It’s finally warm outside and you want some new music to reflect how you’re just going to pretend you have no responsibilities? Let Sound of Awesome suggest you a couple of new, sweet, sun-soaked indie jams to slip between the inescapable blockbusters that will plague the airwaves around you all summer long.

Summer officially starts on June 21st on this side of the Equator but it’s already fair to say that this year’s official summer song is going to be Despacito. Not that we would explicitly want that, but the track is well on its way to remain at the top of the charts for at least a few more weeks, and to remain inescapable until the school year starts over again.

But this does not mean that you have to listen to Despacito all season long if you don’t want to. If you care enough to keep your phone, laptop, iPod, etc. with you for these warm months, you can easily shape the soundtrack to your summer with some really great sounds. Sure, you could just throw some charts-generated playlists on Spotify and listen to DJ Khaled and his friends, but you’re going to hear those tunes anyway, so why try to add some variety to your sun-soaked days? With Kendrick Lamar, Future, Lil Uzi Vert and Post Malone all charting in the top 10 as well, we thought we could give you a break of hip-hop to some less chart-friendly indie pop.

With this in mind, Sound of Awesome is ready to deliver you some neat indie suggestions of contenders to be our (and, why not, your) Song of the Summer™ in 2017. As usual, you may scroll down to find a Spotify playlist with all of the tracks.

FAZERDAZE - LUCKY GIRL

As a New Zealand native, Amelia Murray is actually heading into Winter, but this doesn’t stop her from releasing some incredibly warm music. The greatest highlight of her first album Morningside, Lucky Girl is as twee of a track as possible with its sweet melody, jangly guitars, and a mountain of reverb.

THE DRUMS - BLOOD UNDER MY BELT

Mother Nature was still throwing snow like a bitch up North when this single was released, but very few bands sound like summer like The Drums. After getting maybe a little lost for one album or two, the New York band seems ready to get back on top of the blogosphere game with the help of lead single Blood Under My Belt. What sounds like a 3:46 long hook showcases the reasons why we loved the band in the first place, as it just might be the most fun this band has sounded since cult classic Let’s Go Surfing.

CHARLY BLISS - GLITTER

It’s really hard to pick just one track from Charly Bliss’ delicious début for this list. Really, you could just play Guppy in its entirety on loop and have a kickass summer. If there may only be one winner though, Glitter earns our vote. Informed by punk pop and indie, the song is yet another vehicle for Eva Hendricks’ cotton candy voice, which is sweet enough to balance the rather sour lyrics.

TOPS - PETALS

Montréal-based TOPS is a band that always sounds like nostalgia, hipster sunglasses and sunny afternoons, all at once. Petals, the lead single to the band’s first album in three years, seems tailor-made to appear in a commercial for a new grapefruit-flavor beer or to play in the background of some fancy sangria binge-drinking. Smooth, classy and groovy, Petals is yet another standout track from the band, one that will hook you on first listen.

ALVVAYS - IN UNDERTOW

Marry Me, Archie would’ve definitely made this list three years ago. And here is Alvvays again, scoring another summer grand slam with In Undertow. This time, the guitars come in shoegaze-like waves while Molly Rankin deals her breakup in an apparently much more graceful way than her partner.

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - CALL THE POLICE

Sure, it had only been seven years since their last album, but for a moment, the idea of a new LCD Soundsystem record felt like a utopia. But here we are, in 2017, with two new singles that somehow manage to reach the highs of 2007 LCD Soundsystem. Of the two, Call the Police is easily the most anthemic and urgent, even with its (glorious) seven-minute runtime. An indie blogger’s wet dream, the song proves James Murphy can still kick some essential music for the kids, even as he’s leaning in the latter part of his 40’s.

HAIM - WANT YOU BACK

Haim is the quintessential summer band, so it was fitting that the three sisters would release as hot as lead single Want You Back early in May, as the temperature started to rise. The track is everything you wished for in their comeback and a little more. You’ve got killer harmonies and back vocals, emotional verses, a funky slapped bass line and a hook big enough to fit at least half of California in it. The fact that the song is charting in the UK but not in the States is yet another proof that America isn’t ready to be great again just yet.

SLOWDIVE - DON’T KNOW WHY

Slowdive was one of indie’s finest bands in the 90’s and with the release of its fourth album in May, the band has more to ride than just nostalgia. As a matter of fact, Slowdive might be one of the best albums of the year so far period. While the two singles released before the disc were outstanding on their own, the album ended up giving even more high-quality tracks. Don’t Know Why, in particular, provides an upbeat urgency that feels new to the shoegaze heroes, giving a new energy to both the band’s catalog and your late night bicycle rides.

COLOUR OF SPRING - LOVE

Speaking of shoegaze, it’s cool to see that new dreamy, fuzzy bands are bursting up onto the scene in this sea of old heads. Not that there’s anything wrong with the recent reunions of Slowdive, Ride, Lush or even My Bloody Valentine, but to be able to hear a band like Leeds’ own Colour of Spring bringing its own flavor into the mix is a real treat. The band’s latest single Love plays with your emotions as it alternates between quiet and smooth to loud and smooth, like a velvet rollercoaster. If you plan on getting high this summer, this is the song you want playing in the background.

SHIT GIRLFRIEND - MUMMY’S BOY

For some people, a typical summer evening implies going to a bar terrace to drink a beer or two before heading home. For other, the vibe implies cracking open a few many cold ones with the girls in the back of a church parking lot and smash some shit. If you are more of the latter category, Mummy’s Boy should be queued on your playlist. Just long enough to cover your entire shotgunning of a beer, the noisy rock number is the most fun you will have without taking your clothes off.

#Sound of Awesome #List #Fazerdaze #The Drums #Charly Bliss #Tops #Alvvays #LCD Soundsystem #Haim #Slowdive #Colour Of Spring #Shit Girlfriend #Summer songs #Indie #2017 #Playlist #Lists #Music #Estelle

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