#this was originally for the 2012 month celebration

[awzominator]

Creep horror movie poster based on mummy movie poster below cut

Creep episodes are easily so good and I love him so very much tbh killer design! I find it so wild that he turned Raph into a plant that’s so messed up and is also Leo’s kid

[zenkindoflove]

Tomorrow is my one-year anniversary returning to writing fanfic. This is going to be a bit of a sappy post reflecting on the last year and celebrating some of my wins/new things I've challenged myself to do.

October 17, 2023 is when I started to write the very first chapter of Burn Forever with Me. I had finished the ACOTAR series about two weeks before and had spent those two weeks reading all the Elucien fic I could. I could feel I had a story in me, so I set out to write it in a month thinking that would be it and I would get it out of my system.

It had been a while since I had written. From 2006-2012 I wrote fanfic very regularly across a few different fandoms. Most of those stories can't be found online anymore. I took a three year hiatus from my Big Bang Theory multichapter fic at the end of 2012, and didn't finish it until 2015 when I had a burst of motivation. I didn't write again until another burst of motivation hit me (Game of Thrones ending) and wrote another one-shot in 2019.

By this point in 2023, I kind of thought my fanfic writing days were behind me. I didn't expect this new resurgence in my life that came about because of this series/this ship. I've tried so many new things writing for this fandom and pushed my writing in directions I never anticipated.

Since last year I have... -published 441,592 words. -published 20 fics (a mix of multichapter and one-shots) -completed four multichapter long fics (huge for me because I used to abandon multichapter fics all the time in my first era) -Written for several ships, including rare pairs, not just my OTP which is all I did in the past -Created many OCs, including my focal OC Alexius. Up until now I thought I was kind of hopeless when it came to writing original characters. -Wrote fanfic for three appreciation weeks -Wrote MM smut for the first time, and lots of it. I have been reading MM smut for two decades, but did not have a calling to write for a specific ship until Eris x Alexius -Co-written two fics with @crazy-ache -pushed myself in what styles of writing I tackle, including writing epistolary for the first time as well as challenging myself to write action/fight scenes which always scared me in the past -world building in general also used to scare me and now I think it feels so much more approachable as I've been filling in SJM's holes. -I think my smut writing has evolved a lot too. While I wrote smut in the past and I think I established what my writing voice/style was for smut, I have really had the opportunity to solidify it and try it in different scenes and contexts. I feel a lot more confident than I did back then.

I wanted to highlight these because I think as writers, we are often too hard on ourselves, and it helps to put into context all of the ways we've improved if we are mindful of our progress. I definitely encourage you to sit down one day and remind yourself of all the new things you've done from your starting place. Making this list really put into context all the ways I've changed as a writer in just a year.

I still have a lot more I want to do and new challenges to face in the next year. I hope if you read this, it does help to show you that you can take long breaks and even if you take a step back from writing, you will always be a writer and it'll always be a hobby you can return to and improve your skills, no matter how long its been.

[brain-usurped-by-bug]

How old is the arcade?

idk about you, but I always got the impression that the Fix-it-Felix jr cabinet wasn't original to the arcade, and was plugged in some months or years after it opened. during the movie they have a 30th anniversary party for Fix-it-Felix Jr, not for the whole arcade, which you would assume would be a bigger deal for the characters and would be hosted in a communal location like GCS. The 30th anniversary of the whole arcade is also likely something that would be celebrated by actual humans, keeping a business running for that long is no small feat. We also see gamers commenting on how realistic Fix-it-Felix Jr's animations are in the opening, presumably after it's first plugged it, which to me implies that it's a more recent addition than the games around it.

How old is the arcade then? well, in the first few seconds of this zoom out, we can see 4 other games, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Turbotime and Pac-Man.

(Listing north American release dates here:) Space invaders came out in November of 1978. Asteroids came out in November of 1979. Pac-Man came out in December of 1980. Turbotime doesn't have a stated release date as far as I can tell, but it was inspired by Rally-X, a game that came out in October of 1980.

Assuming Mr Litwack bought these 4 games at the same time, then the earliest the arcade possibly could have opened is December of 1980. I would be willing to bet it actually opened a few months later though. idk a lot about business but opening a family fun center in January doesn't sound like the best idea.

What this all means is that the meme I made last week of King Candy stylin on Turbo's grave has incorrect dates. it should have read 1980-1987. Maybe whoever made the gravestone can't count idk. (or more likely Turbo was lyin to make himself look younger because he's vain) Rip Turbo/King Candy 1980-2012 forever burning in our hearts. ❤

[saltygilmores]

(Gilmore Girls) talking points I can and will discuss for hours at any time (mostly Jess stuff though)

Saw someone do this on Instagram and thought I'd do it too.

Dean is An Abomination and his own parents tried to abandon him on the side of the road (he made his way back somehow, crafty son of a bitch) Lorelai is a terrible horrible no good immature person, a gignatic hypocrite, a bad mother, and she dismisses and often encourages Dean’s abuse towards Rory How Lorelai married into Jess' family and now there SHOULD BE a cloud of shame hanging over her head that she treated her nephew like shit for no reason for years and now she has to look him in the eye at every holiday and family gathering for the rest of time, but she has no shame. Aunt Lorelai remember when I was 17 you said I should die in a fire and you'd rather save your shoes? Anyway, Pass the turkey. How much does Rory tell Jess about what Lorelai says about him behind his back Lorelai and Dean's affair (The DALA)

Justice for Lindsay Lister Nearly any Pre and Post Stars Hollow Jess Headcanon (That Usually Do Not Involve Rory) (his entire childhood, his entire adulthood, his ho life, his success as a popular author, Jess as a brother to Doula, life in Philadelphia, stories with his Truncheon buddies, Jess as a mediocre drug dealer in NYC #heytawd), Jess traveling cross country (love that one so much I made an absolutely massive Spotify playlist to accompany it), did he ever go to college? Among the carousel of rotating Mom's Boyfriends and Stepfathers did he ever have a few good ones in the mix? Liz likely didn't have a car and would never care to teach him, so who taught him how to drive?

If Jess had such a terrible childhood did Luke ever try to intervene? How much did he know? How much did he see Jess as a kid? Was Jess ever in foster care? Liz Danes...just Liz Danes. Could probably discuss this trainwreck and the people in her orbit until i was blue in the face. I have thoughts. Headcanon: Jess has had sex with any other similarly-aged existing character on the show besides Rory at some point (this would be in the future, during his Ho Years.. I don't really find any joy in the thought of him cheating on Rory) Where do Rory and Jess go on the dates that are (infrequently) implied they have Why does Luke always bring up how severely he underpays Jess for working a the diner? How often does Jess wait on Rory and Lorelai's table? Do they actually tip him, ever? Shane, Shane’s murder The date of Jess' birthday (it's late August or early September, babes. I'm unflinching on this but willing to hear all sides)

The origin of Jess’ unusual name How do Jess and Rory celebrate birthday and holidays together (within the OG series timeline)? If they actually do? Does Jess actually want to celebrate his birthday or Christmas? What gifts do they buy each other? The prom that never was Rory loses her virginity to a stupid butthead but doesn't put out for Jess for like 8 months and frequently teases him while the poor thing doesn’t even have the privacy to jack it once in a while to a Maxim magazine (but also, did they or did they not come fairly close off screen at some point, when and where?) gurl you interrupted a steamy makeout session so you could run home and talk to your mom! You talk to your mom every second of every day! And before that, you run away after your first real make out sesh so you could go talk to Dean! You are beyond help. What is up with that "We haven't seen each other in four years" comment between Jess and Rory in AYITL? What the hell happened in 2012? What is the day to day life in Stars Hollow High like between Jess, Dean, Lane, Lindsay without Rory around? Do Dean and Jess have any classes together? Where do they sit in the cafeteria? How come Lane and Dean never told Rory that Jess was skipping school? Especially when Dean has an incentive to spill the tea (getting Jess in trouble) and Lane is a hopeless gossip and there's no effing way she could keep something like that from Rory for that long

What is The Subsect actually about

What would it be like if Jess went to Chilton with Rory? How would he even get in (I really have to stretch the limits of my imagination but I have a few weak theories)

Madelyn and Louise (they’re awesome)

The friendships that could have been between Jess and Paris or Jess and Lane

How Rory is too dopey to see that Paris is in love with her

How disaster follows every female character who loses their virginity (even when in the confines of marriage)

The child bride epidemic on this show

Dave Ryglaski is mediocre. Alex is under rated and it’s a shame the Male Gilmore Girls Character California Wormhole probably sucked him in like Dave was, never to be seen again.

I don’t even care about her storyline: April as a character is so incredibly annoying I can’t watch any scene she is in.

Jason DiggerStjmes is so uninteresting and his chemistry with Lorelai is so weak and the insurance storylines are so fucking insipid I have to skip all of those scenes too.

The only characters who emerged from season 6 with any sort of diginity intact were Jess and Paul Anka.

[therealalexhera]

Musings on: Walker Creek

Walker Creek is a project I haven't thought about in a while. Well, that's not true. It's a project that I haven't consciously thought about in a while, but it sure does cross my mind more often than you'd expect. And today is its fourth anniversary, so I feel like taking a trip down memory lane.

I grew up with the Slenderverse. I don't think that's really new information for anyone who keeps up with my work -- but I believe it was 2011 or 2012 when I first stumbled upon Marble Hornets and Slenderman, and fell in love with found footage, immersive storytelling, and horror (my only prior exposure to horror had been the original Alien and 'Blink' from Doctor Who). Marble Hornets and EverymanHYBRID were what pushed me into filmmaking and especially into ARGs from a young age. I proceeded to spend years wanting to make an ARG, until finally, mid-pandemic in October of 2020, I decided that there was no time like the present, and I spent basically all day every day for the following 14 months working on the project. What started out as, let's be real, a very Local58/Gemini Home Entertainment inspired analog horror series, turned into a sprawling transmedia horror project. 100 episodes, 7 websites, and a feature film finale later, in November 2021, I finally finished it. Walker Creek isn't a Slenderverse series, technically, but it's not just an analog horror series either. Nowadays, when I look back at its style and its inspirations... I know it's basically a Slenderverse series in every way except the presence of Slenderman. But one of the things I like about it is that it is also an analog horror series. It is also a web ARG harkening back to many of my favorites from the 2000s and early 2010s. Like most of my projects, I spent a few years observing what other artists were doing, and then synthesized everything I liked about it into a project of my own.

My feelings about it are complicated sometimes, though. On one hand, Walker Creek is a project I feel incredibly proud of; a project that is so vast I can't even comprehend how I accomplished it with so few resources. A project that gave me my first and second feature films, two online friends, a space to experiment as an artist and find my voice as a storyteller for the first time, and a foothold in the ARG & indie film space. Walker Creek was never 'popular', but I can't say it was anything other than a success; I grew an audience from nothing (by self-promoting as 'adamtheargguy' on Reddit - yes I'll finally admit that was me), gathered a dedicated base of players for the ARG elements, and genuinely impacted people. One of the most stunning aspects of that project to me was how much Walker Creek mattered to the diehard ~10 players who kept up with it 24/7, investing themselves in the story, making friends with the characters, making memes of me and my friends from the videos, and even moderating a Discord server (which, occasionally, still has people who send messages every once in a while). Inversely, it's also wild to think about how much that community mattered to me while it was running. There's a reason I came back to do a little mini anniversary sequel ARG in October 2022 (though nobody really knows about it!) and it wasn't because Walker Creek needed a story continuation; it was to celebrate the community. Walker Creek was a story and a playerbase for me to interact with, but it was also a social outlet. I think, for as much 'roleplaying' there was in the character accounts, there was a lot of the real me in there too. And as mentioned above, I am still friends with two of the people from that community; one of my most recent reminders of Walker Creek was one of them asking to name a character of theirs after a character in Walker Creek. And beyond that, Walker Creek spun off in so many other directions too. I have a Trailhead research post on the Night Mind Index about Walker Creek, and a video on his channel about that post (and even though I hoped for it for the entire duration of the project, NightMind never covered the series... but from my perspective now, I think being spotlighted in his Trailhead research project is actually way cooler). Also Nexpo watched the series and Wendigoon said he was going to make a video about the series and then just... didn't? LOL. God, I haven't thought about those things in ages. It's funny how big all of it felt at the time, and how inconsequential it seems in retrospect. It hasn't even been that long. I mean, I still remember the day that Walker Creek gave me probably the most important development in my career - in late November 2021, when I was invited into a Discord server with a bunch of major ARG creators because of the 'Making Of' documentary I made about the series. It was the moment where I finally felt like I was part of the ARG creator community. Without all of that, I might never have made The History of Analog Horror, or Slenderverse: A Documentary Film Series, or What I Remember, or my other unannounced projects. That's why Walker Creek still got a reference in the Slenderverse doc series, and in my upcoming feature. It's a core part of my journey as a creator, of the development of my skills as a filmmaker, and even of my knowledge base as an ARG historian/researcher.

And yet at the same time -- the 'other hand' I've been trying to get to for the last paragraph: I feel a dissonance with Walker Creek. A feeling of dread sinks in every time someone tells me that they watched Walker Creek, or the 'Making of' documentary that accompanied it. From time to time, I go back and rewatch bits of my old projects just for fun, but I never rewatch any of Walker Creek or the documentary about it. Hell, there's a part of me that thinks I might not even going to publish this blog post when I get to the end of writing it. I'm here because there's a part of me that doesn't want to forget it, yet another, stronger part has an intense aversion to revisiting it. There is so much that I would cringe at, yes, but beyond that, there are so many of my personal feelings bleeding through and so much to be reminded of regarding what was happening behind the scenes with all the former friends I made that project with.

It's shocking, in a way, how distant it feels to me despite how recently it concluded, a mere three years ago. In the intervening time, I've made so much more material, grown so much as a filmmaker, and have gone through so many seismic shifts in my life and my perspective as both an artist and as a human being. Like let's be real, I still thought I was cis when I made that series! But more than that, I've now gone from an amateur with almost zero experience to an indie filmmaker funding my own films and building a career, now with eight features under my belt (six released, two in post production). It's quite literally a different era of my life -- and it's not like that's something that's hard to conceptualize; I even said something almost identical at the end of the 'Making Of' doc... but it doesn't always feel like the end of an era when you're in it. Chapters in real life don't start and end cleanly like in a book. There's bleed. And so, as much as Walker Creek 'ended' in November 2021, it didn't feel like it was over in those next few months, when I was adjusting to no longer living in that imagined world every single day. It didn't feel like it was over when I made The History of Analog Horror, since I was literally using Walker Creek & its companion doc as a foundation to get resources and as the basis for exploring my own inspirations. I guess in retrospect, that doc was a bit of a personal sendoff for Walker Creek -- a full circle moment where I got to finally bridge my work and the work of those that inspired me into a single project. I was able to get some distance from it with that, but even then... it didn't feel completely over in December 2022 when I was writing scripts for a spiritual successor ARG taking place in the same world. It didn't feel completely over in February 2023 when I did an interview for the Ludic Society and, unexpectedly, half of the interview was about Walker Creek.

I think now though -- and part of the reason I'm writing this post -- is it does feel over. I don't know when that happened. I wish I knew what that exact moment was. But I just know that now, after my identity and life has changed so much, and after spending two years on the Slenderverse series, while simultaneously spending the past year working on my found footage feature, and now working on a new doc series and another feature screenplay, there's so much distance between me and Walker Creek. And yet, as I said, I don't want to fully let it go. My found footage feature has a reference to it, as will my next screenplay, as will the webseries I'm working on (Grimoire), as will my next doc series, probably. It's a weird feeling and Walker Creek feels weird to think about, but I'm so glad it happened. Its DNA is present in every project I do, because I wouldn't have been set on my current path without it. Even if its now only in indirect ways, pretty much everything I do has built off of Walker Creek in some way. Even my email signoff, 'kind regards', comes from a character in Walker Creek. And in the end, I think all of this is why I'm not really able to shake Walker Creek, even if it feels over, or distant, or dissonant to my current self. And one day, maybe I'll be able to revisit it properly.

One final note: today is the 4th anniversary of the series, but in-universe, yesterday, October 23rd, was the 'Harvest Festival' (chosen because it's the same date as the bombs dropping in the Fallout universe). So... happy (late) Harvest Festival to anyone still hanging around from that era who remembers why the Harvest Festival is important. And for one final deep cut reference... long live Yvrisil.

Kind Regards,

Alex Hera

[mariacallous]

This article contains descriptions of sex trafficking and abuse. Discretion is advised.

For years, nonconsensual deepfake pornography has been used to harass, silence, shame, and abuse women. Celebrities and influencers have their faces implanted into existing adult videos; men have used the technology to place “friends” into explicit videos; and boys have allegedly created “nude” images of their female classmates. However, among the ever growing harassment and abuse, deepfake creators have now, arguably, hit a new low: using videos of sex trafficking victims as the basis of the nonconsensual videos.

Over the past two months, an account on the largest deepfake sexual abuse website has posted 12 celebrity videos that are based on footage from GirlsDoPorn, a now-defunct sex trafficking operation that the US Department of Justice says its operators used to conspire and commit sex trafficking through “force, fraud, and coercion,” tricking five women—and allegedly hundreds more— into making sex videos that were subsequently posted online.

The dozen videos—which ran up to 21 minutes long and racked up tens of thousands of views before they were taken down following WIRED’s inquiry—used footage originally posted to the GirlsDoPorn website and had celebrity faces added using artificial intelligence. It appears that a startup’s face-swapping tool may have been abused to transform the videos into deepfakes, according to watermarks on the footage.

As deepfake technology has become increasingly capable of creating realistic imagery and easier to use, hundreds of websites and apps designed to create or host deepfake sexual abuse have appeared. Laws to limit the use of these tools and protect those targeted are lagging, even as the malicious use of AI has evolved to not just create new victims but to revictimize survivors.

From 2012 to 2019, the DOJ says, the creators of GirlsDoPorn worked by recruiting young women, using ads posted on Craigslist, for what they claimed were clothed modeling photo shoots. When the women responded, they were told the ads were for pornographic videos, and they were pressured into taking part, according to various lawsuits and survivor testimonies.

The individuals behind the scheme, according to the DOJ, told the women the videos would only be sold on DVDs outside of the United States and the footage would not be posted to the internet. Instead, they then posted short videoclips to online platforms, such as Pornhub, and full-length versions to their GirlsDoPorn website. The videos have circulated online since.

Multiple legal proceedings against the creators of GirlsDoPorn, people affiliated with the website, and Pornhub's parent company are ongoing or have been completed—with criminal charges being issued against several GirlsDoPorn organizers in October 2019.

Since then, 22 survivors have been awarded nearly $13 million in damages, and 402 victims were given copyright ownership of videos featuring them, making it easier to scrub them from the web. At the end of 2023, Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo Holdings, agreed to pay damages to women impacted by the sharing of the GirlsDoPorn videos.

Among those charged, Ruben Andre Garcia, a GirlsDoPorn producer and recruiter, was sentenced to 20 years in prison; Matthew Isaac Wolfe, who admitted to having a “wide range of responsibilities” at GirlsDoPorn, according to the DOJ, was sentenced to 14 years; cameraman Theodore Wilfred Gyi was sentenced to four years; and GirlsDoPorn bookkeeper Valorie Moser pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and is awaiting sentencing. Finally, in March this year, the alleged GirlsDoPorn mastermind, Michael Pratt, was extradited from Spain to the US to face charges linked to the operation. He has pleaded not guilty. In total, those involved in GirlsDoPorn have been ordered to pay more than $35 million in restitution.

Brian Holm, a managing attorney at the Holm Law Group and a longtime civil attorney for GirlsDoPorn survivors, confirmed that the videos posted to the deepfake sexual abuse website were originally from GirlsDoPorn. These include, Holm says, survivors who have been involved in the legal cases against GirlsDoPorn or against Pornhub.

“It’s a real double whammy for trafficking victims to see their videos used like this,” says Holm, adding that the videos are the tip of the iceberg. “From what I’ve seen on that site, I think there's 10 times the amount you sent me that I’ve seen on there.”

The 12 videos posted by the account seen by WIRED have received up to 15,000 views each, and several have a ‘girlsdoporn.com’ watermark on the footage. The account that posted the videos has a version of “GirlsDoPorn” as its username and included the sex trafficking site in the title of the videos.

WIRED is not naming the deepfake abuse website due to its role in spreading abusive content or the celebrities featured in the videos. The website is the largest website of its kind—hosting tens of thousands of videos and receiving millions of visitors. In April, the website blocked visitors from the UK after lawmakers in the country announced plans to make it a criminal offense to create nonconsensual explicit deepfakes.

“These creators of sexually explicit deepfakes have no regard whatsoever for the women and girls who are victims of sex trafficking and now being further abused through this deepfake sexual abuse,” says Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University, who works to counter image-based abuse.

“This website is actively choosing to share recordings of actual sexual assaults,” McGlynn says. “These are heinous acts, deliberately and knowingly causing life-shattering and life-threatening harms. The drive for profit, for fueling the trade in nonconsensual porn, knows no bounds. This shows a contempt for the rights of women and girls.”

Neither the account posting the deepfake GirlsDoPorn videos nor the site’s anonymous administrator’s replied to questions from WIRED.

At the end of March, another user on the website asked whether the GirlsDoPorn footage was allowed, saying it made them “feel sick.” They suggested some people may not know the history of GirlsDoPorn but pointed out: “This … one user clearly does tho, with branding themselves with a rape website.” A moderator replied saying they were not going to remove the videos but said if there was a “list” of videos confirmed to include sex trafficking victims they would notify the website’s administrators to take them down.

As well as the GirlsDoPorn watermark, the 12 videos hosted on the deepfake website also have a watermark of US company Akool, which offers generative AI services, including a “face-swapping” tool, to marketing professionals.

Jiajun Lu, the founder and CEO of Akool, says the company’s terms of service prohibit copyright violations, sexual and violent content, and it frequently bans accounts. “They are strictly forbidden on our platform, and we have multiple approaches to prevent it from happening, and more solutions are coming up soon,” he says. “We changed our watermarks a few months ago, and these videos might not come from our website.”

The CEO says that the company is working on new safety tools as it increases the security of its website: For instance, it is considering verifying the identity of people trying to use its face-swapping tool using face recognition, and initially the team is building more prominent warning notices about prohibited use cases.

Since 2016, Charles DeBarber, director of operations at technology firm Phoenix AI, has been undertaking the arduous task of discovering and trying to remove content from GirlsDoPorn that has been posted online. As part of Phoenix AI, this work—including building tools to automate online searches and using face recognition—has helped to remove around 60 GirlsDoPorn survivors’ footage from the web, DeBarber says.

“Not only does it open wounds of survivors already, but it's making new survivors and making new victims,” DeBarber, who has worked with GirlsDoPorn survivors for years, says of the deepfakes. The deepfake abuse website, DeBarber says, doesn’t take anything down when requests are made to it, and it is hosted by a company registered in the Seychelles.

Since deepfake sexual abuse videos appeared more than half a decade ago, those targeted by them have struggled to get them removed from the web, and US lawmakers have been slow to regulate or criminalize the abusive behavior. In many instances, including in wider cases of image-based abuse, people trying to remove abusive content from the web have had to resort to complaints made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. According to DeBarber, it’s not enough.

“Our laws are written in a way that protects intellectual property but not survivors, and it’s very demeaning for a lot of our survivors,” he says. “These are people that were treated like a commodity, and now we have to use intellectual property law to get it down.”

[pixxelcatt]

whoops almost forgot-

Its my tmnt iteration’s birthday!! (Wooo!!)

So I thought to celebrate, I’ll share some early designs and stuff of my turtles :)

Starting out, the first ever drawings of them (old art warning lol)

They are so ugly………….. imo Donnie is the most ugly- gladly he’s one of my favorites now 😭 it just took soooo long to figure out how to draw him right

For bit, Raph was the oldest! But I decided later it’d be much more fun for him to be the second youngest, and have Leo and Donnie be the eldest “twins” (they like to say that, but their birthdays are a month apart at least, with Leo’s being first)

This drawing marks the idea of the tmnt comics are etc being canon in their universe! I’m honestly surprised i haven’t seen anyone else with this idea, not to say I’m safe from being completely original lol- but as you can see, they’re big fans lol, and so are their human parents. speaking of, there’s their mom!

I dunno if I ever mentioned it, but they specifically grew up watching tmnt 2012 :) (and obviously everything afterwards) tho they were familiar with the ninja turtles a little already (how could they not be), watching that show freakin blew their tiny little minds like BWOOSH-

Also I just really like that swimming pool bath doodle lol

Oh yeah. These guys are Impostor Syndrome characters too

I guess I kinda forgot about that whole entire piece of the plot- whoops

[vintage1981]

Dark Shadows Remembrance Weekend - July 5 & 6, 2024

Dark Shadows reunion with original cast members David Selby, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Nancy Barrett, Jerry Lacy, Roger Davis, James Storm and Lisa Richards

Plans are now complete for a very special Dark Shadows Remembrance Weekend to celebrate the life of Lara Parker, who played Angelique, and pay tribute to the 100th birthday of Jonathan Frid, who played Barnabas Collins. This rare and very special occasion reunites original Dark Shadows cast members to celebrate the lives of beloved colleagues Lara Parker and Jonathan Frid and meet devoted fans of the 1960s Gothic TV series that “kids ran home from school to watch!”

To be held at the Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, July 5th, Dark Shadows cast members, including David Selby, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Nancy Barrett, Jerry Lacy, Roger Davis, James Storm and Lisa Richards, will be celebrating Lara Parker, who passed away last October at age 84.

July 6th, Dark Shadows cast members will celebrate Jonathan Frid’s centenary with a lunch, entertainment, autographs and collector gift bags. Eventbrite tickets: $60, inclusive.

Hotel accommodations at special rates: Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel PH: (888) 236-2437

To receive special Dark Shadows discount Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel sleeping room rates, call the Marriott reservation line 1-800 or book via the following link before June 13 at https://bit.ly/3PZu92v. A complimentary hotel shuttle from the Hollywood Burbank Airport (aka the Bob Hope Airport) to the nearby Marriott Hotel is available. Dark Shadows attendees receive discounted parking at the hotel.

Dark Shadows was an American gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport, Maine, where a series of supernatural occurrences take place.

Dark Shadows became popular when vampire Barnabas Collins played by actor Jonathan Frid was introduced ten months into its run. It would also feature ghosts, werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel, and a parallel universe. A small troupe of actors each played many roles; as actors came and went, some characters were played by more than one actor. The show was distinguished by its melodramatic performances, atmospheric set designs, unusual storylines, numerous plot twists, adventurous music score, broad range of characters, and heroic adventures. Dark Shadows developed a large teenage audience and a dedicated cult following. By 1969, it had become ABC’s highest-rated daytime series with viewership in the millions!

The original network run of the show amassed 1,225 episodes. The success of the series spawned a media franchise that has included two feature films (House of Dark Shadows in 1970 and Night of Dark Shadows in 1971), a 1991 TV remake, a 2012 film reboot directed by Tim Burton, and numerous spin-off novels and comics. Kathryn Leigh Scott has narrated all 27 vintage Dark Shadows novels by Marilyn Ross for Oasis Audiobooks, available on Amazon.com.

Press inquiries:

Billy James Glass Onyon PR +1 828-350-8158 glassonyonpr@gmail.com

[foxes-that-run]

Sad Beautiful Tragic: "When you were on the train"

I started this at the end of a post about trains I will post shortly, but it is too detailed. So here from the back of my brain:

Taylor wrote Sad Beautiful Tragic on a tour bus and that the original Red was the demo that was first recorded:

On October 4 2011 she tweeted:

"Leaving Little Rock, headed to New Orleans. Writing a song on a moving bus."

She also said:

“Sad Beautiful Tragic” is really close to my heart. I remember it was after a show and I was on the bus thinking about this relationship that ended months and months before. The feeling wasn’t sadness and anger or those things anymore. It was wistful loss. And so I just got my guitar and I hit on the fact that I was thinking in terms of rhyming; I rhymed magic with tragic, changed a few things and ended it with what a sad beautiful tragic love affair. I wanted to tell the story in terms of a cloudy recollection of what went wrong. It’s kind of the murky gray, looking back on something you can’t change or get back.

On 2 May 2011 (5 months beforehand) Jake going to a single date of the Mumford and Sons Railroad Revival tour, the band (not Jake, he was there for the weekend) travelled on a train.

Which if that floats your boat, read no further.

This doesn't sit well with me because of All Too Well. ATW was a hard song for Taylor to write, it took months. (The "F the Patriarchy Keychain on the ground" to "What we had a beautiful magic love there" 2 month pipeline is not one I buy.)

She was editing ATW as late as March 2011, then Jake goes to a concert with a band that caught a train (not him) and she writes something as loving as Sad Beautiful Tragic, a song she still plays sparingly and kept the demo of because it was raw?

I wonder if the 'months and months later' is because this song is about a relationship that was not known, or specifically would not be known at that time.

So come to my rabbit hole, it's nice, we're all mad here

SBT was the first song that made me look more at 2011, because of this in the Cardigan BTS:

"Sad, beautiful, tragic. Like a photo album" These are the same words Taylor used talking about 'the guy' (singular) most of Red is about (unlike Jake who did not listen to the album)

Why Harry then?

In the 2011 timeline Harry and Taylor were in the same city a number of times that year and it is more plausible they met. Particularly in March Taylor played the mash up of Harry's audition song and Fearless in Paris on a date he was missing, they then both played the O2 in the same week. In July Hary was missing when Taylor had the Temper Trap Arm Lyrics he later tattoo's same song.

On 14 September One Direction go to the GQ Awards, where Harry saw and reportedly flirted with Emma Watson and Pixie Lott and in an interview after Louis says:

"Definitely without a question say Harry, like Harry, no matter how long is known her, or who she is he will go up to her, like if it's a celebrity, like at the GQ Awards, [Niall adds "Like Pixie Lott] he will go up and sing their song and dance. It's like 100% Harold Styles." Harry then changes the conversation to silly names, Louis brings up GQ again and Harry mouths "Stop going' on about it" (9:50).

On 28 September, 2011 the band are in New York to film Gotta Be You, which includes.... a train. And also the set on which Harry met EO, the girl he kissed in NZ in April 2012. Speaking of, after that Taylor wrote Babe with a member of the band Train, who Harry covered in his x-Factor audition.

On the day Taylor wrote Sad Beautiful Tragic, 4 October 2011, 1D was at a 'Bring 1D to me' even in Munich they are asked about celebrity dreamgirls Louis has a dig at Harry and points out a love bite on Harry's neck.

The show before Taylor was thought to write SBT her arm lyrics were "It’s easy saying nothing when there’s nothing to say” an apparent reference to the interviews where Harry was trying to hide something.

And so my theory of Sad Beautiful Tragic was there was a Haylor flirtation that didn't get very far, because, well boybander. But it inspired this song and they continued that flirtation.

[steelbluehome]

FandomWire

Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson Returning to Marvel Studio to Dub The Avengers is More Special Than Many Fans Realize

This effort is not just another feather in Marvel’s cap; it is a soaring eagle, taking flight for a significant noble cause.

Written by: Siddhika

Reviewed by: Sayantan

PUBLISHED JULY 6, 2024, 6:42 AM

SUMMARY

The Avengers, including Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson, have reunited for a special collaboration.

The collaboration, which took 15 months, showcases the power of cultural preservation and linguistic reclamation.

The team has dubbed their highly acclaimed film in the Lakota language.

At a time when superheroes leap from the comic book pages onto the big screen, forging unbreakable connections with fans of all ages, who could’ve imagined that bringing together the original dynamic cast of The Avengers would be anything less than a smash-hit blockbuster revelation? 

Yet, here we are, witnessing a spectacle that’s more heartwarming than any on-screen showdown—Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson are returning to Marvel Studios to dub The Avengers in the Lakota language, proving that the real superpower lies in cultural preservation & linguistic reclamation.

Garnering insights from the latest scoop & considering the meticulous labor that took 15 months, with 62 dedicated Lakota-Dakota language speakers collaborating alongside Hollywood’s finest, this dub is far more than just a special feature. 

Behind-the-Scenes: The Avengers Reassemble for Lakota Recording

In a move that would leave fans saying “Holy cow!” Marvel Studio has given us something truly special – a new dub of The Avengers in the Lakota language. And what’s even more amazing is that the original cast members, including Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr., have returned to reprise their roles. It’s like a superhero reunion straight out of our wildest dreams.

The Avengers Are Getting Assembled Again; After Robert Downey Jr., Another MCU Star Wishes to Make His MCU Return in Avengers Movie

The noble initiative of Grey Willow Music Studios & Production has brought together a constellation of stars such as Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, and Mark Ruffalo, to name a few, for a phenomenal project: dubbing the entire Joss Whedon’s 2012 flick in the historically rich Lakota language. 

With the collaborative spirit of over 62 Lakota-Dakota language speakers, cultural essence didn’t just mimic the original; it imbued it with an authenticity that resonates deeply within the Native community (see X). But how did a casual joke become a visionary endeavor, you ask? Well, Ruffalo is actually credited with starting the project (via ICT News Org).

Watching the latest Marvel video is fascinating, not only because Chris Evans, Downey Jr., and the others are revisiting their characters in a new language, but also due to their efforts that have gone into ensuring that their performances are authentic to the Lakota voice. In a clip, Ray Taken Alive, an executive producer and Lakota translator, said: 

"Our ancestors, they were punished for speaking our language. So, our language, it went kind of underground. It was spoken in bedrooms when the matrons were not there at boarding schools. It was spoken in dark rooms where nobody could hear them but it was still spoken."

That being said, this project is a celebration of language and culture.

Mark Ruffalo’s Contribution in Bringing Back The Avengers

When the idea of a Lakota-dubbed version of The Avengers first came up by the Grey Willow Music sound production crew as a joke, little did they know that it would soon become a reality. With the help of Mark Ruffalo, the dream of creating a version of The Avengers that was truly “By Natives, For Natives” was brought to life. According to ICT News Org, the company’s (Grey Willow) President and founder, Lawrence Archambault said:

"Mark Ruffalo was a huge help in introducing us to Disney-Marvel Studios. When we started talking, we said we wanted everything — our language recordings, translations and our actors – to be ‘By Natives, For Natives.’ That’s our motto."

The Avengers in Lakota on Disney+ has been a hard work of love for many individuals and organizations, including Dallas Nelson, Archambault, Ray Taken Alive, Grey Willow Studios. Their dedication has culminated in a project that will not only entertain audiences but also showcase the rich cultural heritage of the Lakota people.

So, grab your popcorn and gather your friends – this is a Marvel moment like no other. The Avengers are back, and this time, they’re speaking in a language that has waited too long to be heard.

The Avengers’ Lakota language dub is now available on Disney+.

[jules-has-notes]

Aca Top 10: Disney Heroes — VoicePlay music video

Disney animated movies are probably best known for their music, and almost all of them have a showstopping tune for their main characters. Singing or listening to those songs can feel empowering. So, sit back, relax, and spend a few minutes being inspired and entertained by these goofballs.

Details:

title: Aca Top 10 — Disney Heroes (feat. J.None)

original songs / performers: "Go the Distance" by Roger Bart as Hercules in Hercules (1997); [0:37] "When Will My Life Begin?" by Mandy Moore as Rapunzel in Tangled (2010); [0:55] "You'll Be In My Heart" by Glenn Close as Kala & Phil Collins as the narrator in Tarzan (1999); [1:24] "One Jump Ahead" by Brad Kane as Aladdin in Aladdin (1992); [1:44] "Colors of the Wind" by Judy Kuhn as Pocahontas in Pocahantas (1995); [2:06] "Reflection" by Lea Salonga as Fa Mulan in Mulan (1998); [2:33] "Part of Your World" by Jodi Benson as Ariel in The Little Mermaid (1989); [3:00] "How Far I'll Go" by Auliʻi Cravalho as Moana in Moana (2016); [3:23] "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" by Jason Weaver as Simba, Rowan Atkinson as Zazu, & Laura Williams as Nala in The Lion King (1994); [3:40] "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel as Elsa in Frozen (2013)

written by: "Go the Distance" by Alan Menken & David Zippel; "When Will My Life Begin?" by Alan Menken & Glenn Slater; "You'll Be In My Heart" by Phil Collins; "One Jump Ahead" by Alan Menken & Tim Rice; "Colors of the Wind" by Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz; "Reflection" by Matthew Wilder & David Zippel; "Part of Your World" by Alan Menken & Howard Ashman; "How Far I'll Go" by Lin-Manuel Miranda; "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" by Elton John & Tim Rice; "Let It Go" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 21 September 2017

My favorite bits:

J.None's clear, hopeful tone on "Go the Distance"

the rhythm section being confused as to where they're supposed to be looking before their parts begin

Eli shrugging off his own muscles compared to Earl and J 💪

Layne's little finger wiggle from the beginning of "You'll Be In My Heart" being redirected at Geoff

the crunchy harmonies on the ♫ "Whoa-o-o-oa, number seven" ♫ transition

Layne's scampering percussion riff in "One Jump Ahead"

Geoff looking over at Layne while singing ♫ "why he grins" ♫, and Layne shrugging

J's flirty little wave to the camera during "Reflection"

Eli and J following the lyrics for ♫ "jumping, dancing" ♫

that lovely bell chord on ♫ "street street stree-ee-ee-eet" ♫

the back row dramatically looking left and right as they sing the words

everyone's befuddlement at Geoff taking the lead on the beginning of "Let It Go" ("That's not your song, bass man.")

Earl's adorable power pose at the end

Trivia:

○ VoicePlay had recorded and/or performed several of these songs previously:

"How Far I'll Go" was in their "Moana medley" video just one month before.

"I Just Can't Wait To Be King" was included in The King Returns medley on their 2012 album "Once Upon an Ever After". It was also part of the "aca-Disney" mashup they created for the Disney On Broadway 20th anniversary celebration.

"When Will My Life Begin" was in their condensed Tangled performance at the 2015 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.

"Let It Go" was part of their "Wow! Vol. 1" medley during the 2015 Sing-Off tour. Layne also snuck it into one memorable rendition of "Road Trip".

○ A couple of these songs were revisited in later videos:

"Part of Your World" was, of course, included in their "Little Mermaid medley" with Rachel Potter in 2020.

They recorded a full version of "Go the Distance" with EJ Cardona in 2021.

○ Eli's incredible riff and declaration of "Xtina for life!" at the end of the "Reflection" excerpt are in reference to the pop version of the song that Christina Aguilera recorded for the movie's end credits.

○ J.None had sung "You'll Be In My Heart" as part of his audition process to perform at Disney World in 2013. He was cast as Nakawa in the Festival of the Lion King live show.

○ The YouTube description includes a parody verse for "Reflection" — "Whooooooo is that Earl I see… / Staring straight at Eli? / When will my REFLECTION show / Jellied ham and RICE!!? / Yummmmmmmmm… "

○ The guys are all wearing graphic t-shirts featuring characters from the movies included in the countdown:

J.None — Hercules flexing his biceps, surrounded by a circle of text reading, "Don't act like you're not impressed"

Earl — Pua the pig from Moana with the inscription "I'm no bacon"

Eli — Ariel and Sebastian in a circular frame with "Little Mermaid" in jagged heavy metal style lettering across the top

Geoff — Genie from Aladdin with a microphone in hand and a blue neon sign reading "Applause" emerging from his shoulders

Layne — Mufasa's face from The Lion King with the word "king" in black letters across the top

○ This is the first in a mini-series within their "Aca Top 10" series, that was followed by countdowns for "Disney Sidekicks" and "Disney Villains" over the next year and a half.

[heather123fan-blog]

Day 4: Wednesday, 10th July — Favorite non-royal woman (or group of women if there isn’t one specific woman):

Saint Hildegard of Bingen (September 16, 1098 – September 17, 1179)

Abbess, artist, author, composer, mystic, pharmacist, poet, preacher, theologian—where to begin in describing this remarkable woman?

Born into a noble family, she was instructed for ten years by the holy woman Blessed Jutta. When Hildegard was 18, she became a Benedictine nun at the Monastery of Saint Disibodenberg. Ordered by her confessor to write down the visions that she had received since the age of three, Hildegard took ten years to write her Scivias (Know the Ways). Pope Eugene III read it, and in 1147, encouraged her to continue writing. Her Book of the Merits of Life and Book of Divine Works followed. She wrote over 300 letters to people who sought her advice; she also composed short works on medicine and physiology, and sought advice from contemporaries such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

Hildegard’s visions caused her to see humans as “living sparks” of God’s love, coming from God as daylight comes from the sun. Sin destroyed the original harmony of creation; Christ’s redeeming death and resurrection opened up new possibilities. Virtuous living reduces the estrangement from God and others that sin causes.

Like all mystics, Hildegard saw the harmony of God’s creation and the place of women and men in that. This unity was not apparent to many of her contemporaries.

Hildegard was no stranger to controversy. The monks near her original foundation protested vigorously when she moved her monastery to Bingen, overlooking the Rhine River. She confronted Emperor Frederick Barbarossa for supporting at least three antipopes. Hildegard challenged the Cathars, who rejected the Catholic Church claiming to follow a more pure Christianity.

Between 1152 and 1162, Hildegard often preached in the Rhineland. Her monastery was placed under interdict because she had permitted the burial of a young man who had been excommunicated. She insisted that he had been reconciled with the Church and had received its sacraments before dying. Hildegard protested bitterly when the local bishop forbade the celebration of or reception of the Eucharist at the Bingen monastery, a sanction that was lifted only a few months before her death.

In 2012, Hildegard was canonized and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. Her liturgical feast is celebrated on September 17.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974 - Japanese Edition 2012 R&B / Doo Wop / Soul / Rock & Roll / Funk / Jazz / Blues / Pop

Alright, well, I had originally planned for this post to dovetail quite nicely with the end of Black History Month, but when you get a virus, it has a way of setting things back a bit. But then again, Black History should obviously be celebrated in every month, so either way, without further ado, here's a massive end to my foray into the history of Atlantic Records: a deeply comprehensive recounting of its first 27 years in the record business called Atlantic Rhythm & Blues: 1947-1974.

Now, maybe because of how this label is currently constituted, you think of Atlantic as being among the amorphous blob of major record labels whose fingers are seemingly in the pies of every popular genre, and the quality of the output is barely distinguishable from its other competitors. Like, who cares who's on Atlantic these days, right? A major label is a major label is a major label. They all basically feel indistinguishable from one another at this point, don't they?

But here's what you may not know about Atlantic in particular. For about two decades, until they started signing rock bands like Led Zeppelin, they were almost exclusively dedicated to nothing but secular, black-made music. And that's originally how they ended up making a name for themselves, as an independent label for black musicians that actually had a reputation for usually compensating their artists fairly.

So in 1985, the first iteration of Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974 hit the shelves. It consisted of a whopping *186 songs*, chronologically spread across 14 separate records or 7 cassettes. And then in '91, it was reissued on CD in an 8-disc set, with an extra 17 songs mixed within.

But this edition that I have for you all today is a much, much rarer one that was issued exclusively in Japan in 2012. And what it consists of is the same eight discs from the 1991 reissue, plus two more, which have songs on it that were handpicked by Japan's own super selector, Keishi Suzuki, who ends up supplying 52 more songs—a lot of them rarities—bringing the total amount of tracks within the release to a grand total of *255*! 😯

Now, obviously, that is a whole lot of music, and I'm not gonna write an ungodly amount of paragraphs to cover it all, but regarding the first discs in this box set, what I'll say is this: these are must-listens for any old school r&b/soul/doo wop novice or junkie out there. These CDs do a wonderful job of allowing you to take a bird's eye view of this label that managed to develop itself into an indefatigable powerhouse for popular black music. From its earliest days of jazzy and jump-bluesy instrumentals, to its deeper endeavors into soul, you can trace this label's contours and get a feel for just how eminent its entire existence has been upon the history of popular music writ large. From its first star Ruth Brown—who helped earn the label its clever, Yankee Stadium-inspired nickname of 'The House That Ruth Built'—to Ray Charles, to The Drifters, to Otis Redding, to Wilson Pickett, and to the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin; it's all in those first 8 discs.

But those final two Keishi Suzuki-curated CDs are the ones I'm here to write about especially today, because a whole bunch of these total obscurities are, really, absolutely phenomenal.

Like, maybe you're familiar with 60s soul-man Don Covay, who had a solid number of Billboard Hot 100 and R&B chart hits in his career, and also penned Aretha Franklin's own mega hit, "Chain of Fools." But did you know that Covay actually started out under the name of 'Pretty Boy' and performed with a raucous Little Richard-esque rock & roll flair? Suzuki provides "Bip Bop Bip" here, an energetic tune with scratchy, throaty shouts, mashing hi-hats, and an electrifying saxophone solo. And it was actually produced by Little Richard himself!

Then there's Lawrence & The Arabians (what a fucking name, man), a short-lived all-white group, who in 1967 released the outstanding "I'll Try Harder," a fully uptempo and poppy piece of horn-heavy blue-eyed soul that sounds partially cut from some type of Motown cloth. Delightful gem right there.

And lastly, we have Peggy Scott, a pretty well-known southern soul and R&B entity in her own right who managed to make the American top 40 thrice in the late 60s. But after she stopped charting, Scott ended up releasing just one single on Atlantic—through their Atco sublabel—and in 1972, on that single's B-side, she showed that she could still more than hack it with the fantastic "One Night Is All I Need," on which her voice is striking all throughout, but is especially so whenever she goes for that gravelly passion 😌.

And these final two discs in this set have more underappreciated stunners on them too, but we're done here. This is such an excellent release that I shelled out a pretty pretty penny for, and I'm ultimately glad I did, because while the easier-to-find editions of this thing are cheaper and deeply satisfying themselves, nothing beats the thrill of being exposed to underheard gems that not very many other people know about. And in that regard, Keishi Suzuki knocked his task way out of the park.

A magnificent album, both for its extensive chronologizing of one of the most important labels in the history of popular music, as well as its extra 50+ songs that get some much needed light shone upon them too.

Highlights:

CD1:

Ruth Brown - "So Long" Joe Morris - "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere" Ruth Brown - "Tear Drops From My Eyes" Joe Turner - "The Chill Is On" Joe Turner - "Sweet Sixteen" Willis Jackson - "Gator's Groove"

CD2:

Ruth Brown - "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean" Ruth Brown - "Wild Wild Young Men" Ray Charles - "Mess Around" Joe Turner - "Honey Hush" LaVern Baker - "Soul On Fire" Professor Longhair - "Tipitina" The Drifters - 'White Christmas" The Drifters - "Whatcha Gonna Do" Joe Turner - "Shake, Rattle and Roll" Tommy Ridgley - "Jam Up" Al Hibbler - "After the Lights Go Down Low" Ray Charles - "I Got a Woman" Ray Charles - "Greenbacks"

CD3:

Ray Charles - "A Fool for You" Ray Charles - "This Little Girl of Mine" The Robins - "Smokey Joe's Cafe" The Drifters - "Ruby Baby" The Cookies - "In Paradise" Ray Charles - "Drown In My Own Tears" The Coasters - "Down In Mexico" Ray Charles - "Lonely Avenue" Clyde McPhatter - "Without Love" Chuck Willis - "C.C. Rider"

CD4:

Chuck Willis - "Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes" The Coasters - "Yakety Yak" Ray Charles - "Night Time Is the Right Time" The Coasters - "Charlie Brown" Ray Charles - "What'd I Say" The Drifters - "There Goes My Baby" Ray Charles - "Let the Good Times Roll" The Coasters - "Poison Ivy" Ben E. King - "Stand by Me" LaVern Baker - "Saved"

CD5:

The Mar-Keys - "Last Night" The Falcons - "I Found a Love" Ben E. King - "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)" Booker T. & The MG's - "Green Onions" Doris Troy - "Just One Look" Esther Phillips - "Release Me" The Drifters - "Under the Boardwalk"

CD6:

Otis Redding - "I've Been Loving You Too Long" Wilson Pickett - "In the Midnight Hour" Otis Redding - "Respect" Percy Sledge - "When a Man Loves a Woman" Wilson Pickett - "634-5789" Sam & Dave - "Hold On, I'm Coming" The Capitols - "Cool Jerk" Wilson Pickett - "Land of 1000 Dances" Eddie Floyd - "Knock On Wood" Otis Redding - "Try a Little Tenderness" Wilson Pickett - "Mustang Sally" Sam & Dave - "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby" Arthur Conley - "Sweet Soul Music" Aretha Franklin - "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You" Aretha Franklin - "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" Otis & Carla - "Tramp" Wilson Pickett - "Funky Broadway" Booker T. & The MG's - "Hip-Hug-Her" Sam & Dave - "Soul Man"

CD7:

Aretha Franklin - "Respect" Aretha Franklin - "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" The Bar-Kays - "Soul Finger" Aretha Franklin - "Baby, I Love You" Aretha Franklin - "Chain of Fools" Wilson Pickett - "I'm in Love" King Curtis - "Memphis Soul Stew" Aretha Franklin - "(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone" Otis Redding - "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" Archie Bell & The Drells - "Tighten Up" Clarence Carter - "Slip Away" Aretha Franklin - "Think" Clarence Carter - "Too Weak to Fight" Donny Hathaway - "The Ghetto" Tyrone Davis - "Turn Back the Hands of Time" Les McCann & Eddie Harris - "Compared to What" Aretha Franklin - "Call Me"

CD8:

Aretha Franklin - "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)" King Floyd - "Groove Me" Clarence Carter - "Patches" Wilson Pickett - "Don't Knock My Love" The Beginning of the End - "Funky Nassau (Parts 1 & 2)" Persuaders - "Thin Line Between Love and Hate" Aretha Franklin - "Rock Steady" Aretha Franklin - "Day Dreaming" Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway - "You've Got a Friend" Betty Wright - "Clean Up Woman" The Spinners - "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" Roberta Flack - "Killing Me Softly With His Song" Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway - "Where Is the Love" The Spinners - "I'll Be Around" Roberta Flack - "Feel Like Makin' Love" The Spinners - "One of a Kind (Love Affair)" Blue Magic - "Sideshow" The Spinners - "Mighty Love"

apparently you can have too many hyperlinks in a post...will include the rest in a reblog...

[rabbitcruiser]

National Strawberries and Cream Day

Add the perfect mix of sweet and creamy to your celebrations this National Strawberries and Cream Day, which is held each year on May 21. Fresh strawberries and cream is a great treat to indulge in on a hot day. Plus, as these lovely red berries are in season in May, it is also National Strawberry Month.

History of National Strawberries and Cream Day

Strawberries have been traced back to the Roman Empire. Ancient Romans believed this fruit alleviated symptoms of melancholy, fainting, inflammation, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, bad breath, attacks of gout, as well as diseases of the blood, liver, and spleen. However, food historians think the Greeks knew about strawberries even before this.

The fruit was also a symbol of wealth and luxury in Victorian England. As they were a perishable food, strawberries were only available in season, increasing their demand. After evolving into a luxury, they began to be served during afternoon tea among the wealthy.

History also tells the tale of how this fruit’s harvest and availability coincided with the Wimbledon tournaments, which is as much about strawberries and cream as it is about tennis. While we still don’t know exactly how this dessert became such an integral part of Wimbledon, some sources credit King George V as the one who introduced this delicious treat to the tennis tournament. Some believe the seasonality and popularity of these red berries played a part in it becoming Wimbledon’s snack of choice.

As for how this quintessentially British dish came to be, stories of its origin say Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a close confidant to King Henry VIII, was the brains behind it. King Henry VIII’s court fed approximately 600 hungry lords and ladies twice a day. The chef there came up with the idea to pair sweet strawberries and clotted cream together in a dessert that did not require cooking, and voila, a delicious treat was born! Another version of this story says Cardinal Wolsey mixed these two ingredients at a royal banquet, and whatever the royals ate instantly became fashionable. It was even customary for newlyweds to eat strawberries and cream for their wedding breakfast!

National Strawberries and Cream Day timeline

1509 The First Time this Dish was Served

According to rumor, strawberries and cream are first served together by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey at a banquet during Henry VIII's reign.

1550 Its Popularity is Going Strong

Tudor traveler Andrew Boorde publishes an ode to this dish, saying, “Rawe crayme undecocted, eaten with strawberyes or hurtes (whortleberry, bilberry) is a rurall mannes blanket. I have knowen such blankettes hath put men in jeoperdy of theyr lyves.”

Late 18th century First Cultivated Garden Strawberry

What we now call the 'garden strawberry' is first cultivated in this period, in Brittany, France.

1877 Offered at the First Wimbledon Tournament

200 spectators at Wimbledon court are offered strawberries and cream.

2012 Tesco Launches a New Sandwich

British retail company Tesco launches a strawberry and clotted cream sandwich, made of slices of berries between two cream-layered pieces of white poppy seed bread, with a dollop of strawberry jam — this is no longer on the market.

National Strawberries and Cream Day FAQs

Is there a National Strawberry Day?

Each year, on February 27, America celebrates National Strawberry Day.

What months are strawberries in season?

As it is grown in varied locations around the world, strawberries are said to be in season from January to November.

Are strawberries hybrid?

A strawberry is actually a multiple fruit that is many tiny individual fruits embedded into one. Cultivated strawberries, which are hybrids of two parent species, can adapt to different weather and growth conditions.

What is National Strawberry Ice Cream Day?

National Strawberry Ice Cream Day is celebrated on January 15, to pay tribute to one of the choicest flavors of ice cream.

How To Celebrate National Strawberries and Cream Day

Make it, of course!

Read up on the history

Learn the different ways strawberries can be used

Cook a special strawberry and cream dessert your way. Eat it for breakfast, lunch, or even tea. If you want to mix things up further, you can add a little granola for texture, drizzle some chocolate sauce on top, flavor your whipped cream with amaretto liqueur, or even sprinkle some brown sugar on top. You can even channel your inner chef and create a trifle with alternating layers of strawberry, cream, and sweet pastry.

This day gives us a great chance to learn more about the strawberry and how this tempting treat came to be. Reading about the stories that (maybe) led to the creation of this dish, we see how cuisines from around the world can eliminate boundaries and borders.

Preserves! Jams! And much more … this one fruit can be turned into many versatile dishes to satisfy every sweet craving you ever had. Save some for celebrating National Strawberries and Cream Day, while the rest can be used in multiple different ways, as per your needs (or the demands of your taste buds).

5 Fun Facts About Strawberries

The only fruit with seeds on the outside

They herald the spring

They give your workout a little boost

They help your teeth look good too!

They are all over the world

A single strawberry has around 200 seeds, and each one has the genetic potential to become a new variety — that’s why breeders can develop so many varieties.

Strawberries ring in the spring season — in a way, they are the first fruit to ripen during this season.

Strawberries are rich in nitrates, and a study shows people who ate such foods before exercising burned 100 more calories than those who did not.

The fruity acids in these berries help remove stains, which can help whiten your teeth.

These berries are grown around the world and boast more than 600 variants.

Why We Love National Strawberries and Cream Day

Ode to the versatile fruit

This day promotes in-season eating

It makes us happy

We use this day as another excuse to worship this summer fruit. Refreshingly sweet (and sometimes a teeny bit tart), strawberries mixed with clotted and sour cream are a match made in heaven. We would happily celebrate every day as Strawberries and Cream Day if we could. Not only do they tickle our taste buds, but strawberries also bring us so many health benefits. From boosting immunity to increasing HDL (good cholesterol) and lowering blood pressure, strawberries provide us with an array of health benefits.

This day is celebrated in a month when these berries are in season, promoting sustainability and better consumer habits. Not only is in-season produce better for your health — a strawberry grown in May tastes much richer than one artificially ripened in another season — it also helps fulfill your body's needs as per the season's requirements. Plus, buying local is great for the environment, too. Think of how much fuel emissions you are reducing when you buy food that did not have to travel very far to get to you!

Popping these sweet and sometimes tart red fruits into our mouths is tantamount to a taste of happiness. Really! Strawberries are very rich in vitamin C, which is responsible for the production of endorphins in our brain, the hormone that makes you feel happy.

Source

[sanneke94]

It is time for a special announcement: I will host another advent calendar this year! I know that advent calendars are to count down to Christmas, but due to some trouble with my account at the beginning of the month we are starting a little bit later. For this year I have retextures of 24 hairs that I will share from December 8th until December 31st. So a count down to the end of the year, which is also a special occasion to celebrate!

I really enjoyed my advent calendars in 2012 and 2013 and I hope you did as well! When I selected the hairs for 2013 I had too many hairs that I liked so I already made a list of hairs for a next advent calendar in 2014, but I never found the time to make one. That list resurfaced this summer and I had such happy feelings for the previous advent calendars that I decided to make a new one. I did change some of the hairs that I originally selected so that there are more options for men this year. These are all older meshes by Newsea and I am aware that most of them have been retextured before. I still hope you will find some hairs that you have not seen before or some retextures that you like for your game? Or maybe you are new to the Sims 2 and have not seen these hairs before? Or maybe you have forgotten about those meshes and you use them again after seeing them in this advent calendar? Anyway, I hope you will all have a wonderfull December! Happy simming!

[whyshedisappeared]

How do you stand this website being so evil and ignorant and blind to reality? Every day I feel like I block dozens of people, and I've lost a ton of followers (not that they're really a loss, antisemites and terrorism supporters gtfo, BUT the depressing part is having to know that many mutuals and followers were antisemitic and full of hate all along). It feels hopeless and I want to delete.

thb I feel like im screaming into a void. the only people who interact with my posts about the war are Israelis and Jewish. and even they only like them and don't reblog.

I feel like im just surviving one hour at a time.

as to your original question, first of all I filtered the tags free pal*stine and pal*stine. i don't know how long you've been here, but I've had this account since 2012. I've been here during protective edge, during the almost war in 2021. I'm honestly used to the feeling of being isolated and called a monster because I don't want to die. I've had more than one person I thought were my friend essentially ask me to justify my right to live and when I didn't beg them to believe me that I'm not a monster and I actually support hamas and blah blah blah they blocked me. I lost over 200 followers, I blocked even more.

I see people wishing soldiers death knowing that my little brother is in the south, keeping people safe, having to lay on the ground more times than I would like to think while missiles shoot over his head. to the point that while on the phone with him there were missiles launched, he saw the trajectory and said "oh there's an alert in tel aviv" and 10 seconds later we saw tel aviv in the alarm list.

I'm going to my 6th funeral tomorrow, where two girls from my choir who lost their dad. I went to a funeral of a 23 yo childhood friend who was killed in kfar aza. another of a 25yo big brother of another childhood friend who was killed in gaza. to one of a 23 yo old guy who was with my brother in the volleyball team and my brother couldn't go so we went for him. to one of a 23 yo girl who went to the party and helped my brother for years with his bagruyot. to the funeral of an honorary uncle whose sister and her husband were murdered (to the point their limbs had to be gathers and they could only be identified with dna) while protecting their 21, 19, 16 yo kids safe. their kids lied in their parents' blood for 10 hours under the bed waiting to be rescued.

if people refuse to believe us, if they believe hamas are justified in their actions, I don't want anything to do with them. I'm ashamed of ever thinking they were nice people I wanted to interact with. I don't want them on my dash, or my blog, or anywhere near me.

I post so much about the war to force people to see the truth. and I will never be quiet about it. the youngest child kidnapped is no longer 9 months old, he's 10 months old. how can a baby be an occupiar? support an apartheid? support genocide? forget the fact that it isn't the truth. how can a 3 year old be a bad person? she's 3. if you can justify hamas' actions, I don't want anything to do with you.

I sometimes go to specific tags if I need to escape a little and I'm seeing a little too much about the war. I don't always have it in me to go and block and deal with it. and to be honest, I found who my real friends are and i learned about some new people who see the truth and it's great to know who the people I can trust are.

unfortunately the truth of being an Israeli jew is having hypocrits wish you happy Hanukkah and then when it actually matters, when your life is on the line (literally) wish for your death and celebrate it. the joys of being so detached from here that you don't even realise these are real people living through the most extreme life or death situation and you have the luxury of giving people lectures as if you know anything because you read a cute little 3 word comics on Instagram so now you consider yourself an expert.

all of this is to say, moderation is key. fuck nazis and I wish everyone who support hamas a miserable, sad (and long) life. use this as an opportunity to learn who your real friends are and fuck the rest of them. they aren't worth your time and effort, when all they wish for is your death.