#to the beauty review world just because another creator faked a beauty review

[papaiyatree]

people on tiktok r so stupid bc either they take things too seriously or don't take things seriously enough

[ava-candide]

Poldark’s Aidan Turner on playing Leonardo da Vinci

The newly married heart-throb actor learnt to paint left-handed for his new role, and he’s still daubing now, he tells Ed Potton

Aidan Turner takes on the role of Renaissance polymath Leonardo

I’m trying to work out where Aidan Turner is Zooming from. Is it London, where he moved to in 2017 after his Ross Poldark became the drooled-over king of Sunday-night television? Dublin, where he grew up, trained as an actor and returned to spend the first lockdown with his parents? Or Rome, where he shot his new series, Leonardo, in which he plays a young Leonardo da Vinci?

“None of the above!” Turner says. “I’m in Toronto.” The enigmatic charm, feline eyes and gleaming locks that he deployed so mercilessly in Poldark, The Hobbit films and Being Human are all there. “My missus is working here,” he explains, and so is he. That’s the American actress Caitlin FitzGerald, his partner of three years, whom he met when they starred in the 2018 film The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot. At first I assume the “missus” is laddish affectation but it turns out that it’s official: Turner and FitzGerald, both 37, got married in secret in Italy in August after filming finished on Leonardo. You can almost hear the sighs of disappointment ripple around the world.

Turner won’t say any more — he is famously guarded about his personal life — but he looks insanely happy in the couple’s rented apartment. FitzGerald — whose grandfather Desmond was a CIA agent and organised several plots to assassinate Fidel Castro — is shooting a series, Station Eleven, in Toronto while her husband works on another project that he’s not allowed to talk about. In their downtime they’ve been watching I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, an HBO documentary series about the Golden State Killer, and, on a lighter note, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles. They share the apartment with Charlie, an ebullient Norfolk terrier that Turner has to eject from the room halfway through our interview when he starts yapping. “I’m surprised he behaved for so long,” he says

Eight-part series Leonardo has been criticised for warping history

Like many of his fellow thesps, Turner has been doing a great deal of lockdown painting. “We have a roof garden here and the light has been really good,” he says. “I probably shouldn’t be saying this because I don’t know if the landlord knows. It’s not messy work anyway!” Unlike some of his peers — I’m looking at you, Pierce Brosnan — he has yet to unleash his daubings on the world. How would he describe his style? “I struggle to say abstract, but I haven’t quite figured out what it is yet.” Did it help with playing Leonardo? “I don’t know. If you saw my paintings, you’d assume very much not,” Turner says. He has a studied line in self-effacement, honed after years of “sexiest man on TV” questions.

Leonardo premiered in Italy last month and was watched by seven million, many of them doubtless keen to see Turner brooding in a succession of smocks. The eight-part series has been criticised for warping history, having the artist accused of murder and featuring an apparently fictional muse, Caterina da Cremona, played by Matilda De Angelis from The Undoing. Luca Bernabei, the chief executive of Lux Vide who produced the series, defended it stoutly. “Matilda De Angelis’s character did exist. She was a model Leonardo asked to paint,” he said. “We have been really careful in our research. But this is not a documentary, we are not historians and this is not a university history lecture.”

And if the history pedants are spluttering, the art pedants should be happier — the series goes to considerable lengths to make the painting look authentic. Each episode is themed around a different masterpiece, from the portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci to The Last Supper to the Mona Lisa, and the candlelit cinematography is often sumptuous. Turner’s research included a private view of a Leonardo exhibition. “I spent some time alone with the actual paintings, which was brilliant,” he says. “They’re just like high-definition photographs. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that a human had done this.”

Aidan Turner attended an artist’s boot camp before filming started

The series opens in Florence in the 1460s, with Leonardo a pupil of Verrocchio, played by the veteran Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini. Before the shoot Turner and his co-stars went on an artists’ boot camp (brush camp?) supervised by professionals. He says the hardest part was learning to paint, as Leonardo did, with his left hand. He compares it to learning to ride a horse for Poldark, which he pretended he knew how to do before going on a crash course when he got the part.

Brushwork was the same, he says. “I realised I had to get good quite quickly and look like I knew what I was doing with my left hand, which is more difficult than you would think. It’s keeping it steady — you find it just moves around a lot. Leonardo was very slow and precise — I think I got it down. After a few weeks you start picking up the brush with your left hand, it becomes natural.”

Leonardo was a vegetarian, Turner tells me, “and apparently later in life opened some sort of vegetarian restaurant”. He was also gay, something that, despite reports, the series does not shy away from. Was this Turner’s first time kissing a man on screen? He laughs. “Of all the things I was expecting you to ask next, that wasn’t one of them! In a lot of ways it was just another love scene. The fact that the gender was different — that was never a thing. No, it felt right. It didn’t feel any different at all. But yeah, to answer your question, that was the first time, which I’d never really thought of until now.”

What did feel weird, he says, were the Covid protocols. “Suddenly people are wearing masks and shields and hazmat suits. We had a big sanitisation machine as we walked in that would spray us. You take off the mask when you shoot the scene and it’s a bit strange for a second. Then you realise it’s the first time you’ve seen your co-star’s face that day. It’s not conducive to a very creative environment, for sure. But we made it work and nobody got sick.”

Turner spends a chunk of the first episode painting De Angelis, and both actors know what it’s like to be ogled. She has been asked endlessly about her naked locker-room sequence in The Undoing, just as he has been reminded of his shirtless scything scene in Poldark. Before that there was his lusted-after vampire in Being Human and his sexy dwarf in The Hobbit — branded a “dwilf” in some quarters — although that “definitely wasn’t the intention”, he says. “I think I just had less prosthetics on my face. My make-up call was 20 minutes and everyone else was sitting in the chair in the morning for three and a half hours. It wasn’t good to be around the other dwarfs in the mornings, that’s for sure.

“I get why people are interested,” he says of the ogling. “It’s just when it keeps coming up.”

We move on. According to a recent survey Cornwall has overtaken London as the most desirable place to live in Britain. Does he think Poldark played a part in that? He laughs. “Maybe we nudged a few people in the right direction. I think people forgot how beautiful that side of the world is. One of the first reviews of Poldark we read was like: ‘We can’t believe that this is our country, it looks like the south of France.’”

Could Poldark return, and would Turner be in it? If they stuck to the chronology of Winston Graham’s books they would have to leap ahead a few years. Maybe he could play an aged-up Ross Poldark in latex and fake paunch? “I don’t know if I’d be keen on the ageing-up thing,” he says. “It never really works. I don’t know whether they need to be too strict with that gap anyway. There’s the possibility someday, maybe. I enjoyed working with everybody on Poldark, from the writers right down to all the cast and crew. It really is like a family. So I’d be open to chat about it. But not for a while.”

Before that he will appear as the apostle Andrew in The Last Planet, the forthcoming biblical epic from Terrence Malick, revered creator of The Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life. Well, he doesn’t know for sure if he will appear. Actors of the calibre of Rachel Weisz, Mickey Rourke and Jessica Chastain have seen their performances in Malick films vanish during editing.

“You want what’s best for the film. And if you don’t fit into it, you don’t fit into it,” Turner says in the tone of hair-shirt devotion that actors tend to use when talking about Malick. With a cast including Ben Kingsley and Mark Rylance as Satan, the movie is meant to tell the story of Jesus through a series of parables. Turner doesn’t really have a clue, though.

“You don’t necessarily know what you’re signing up to. You’re signing up to Terrence Malick,” he says. The director has “a great way of working. Everything is around ‘where is the sun’ at this particular time. That’s our natural light and it’s all we use. So things happen fast. There’s no trailers, hair, make-up, we’re just all together. You don’t know from day to day what you’ll be doing. It’s quite renegade stuff. That’s the way I always wanted to work.”

It’s closer to the immediacy of the theatre, which is where Turner started out. The son of an electrician, Pearse, and an accountant, Eileen, he represented Ireland at ballroom dancing before falling into acting. After studying at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin he acted in plays for five years and in 2018 he returned to the stage to rave reviews in Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore in the West End. Rave being the operative word — his performance was bracingly unhinged. “I can’t wait to get back to the theatre,” he says. “That’s what we’re looking at probably next.”

Turner’s character in The Lieutenant of Inishmore was an Irish freedom fighter, but he is reluctant to talk about the prospect of Irish reunification (“So I don’t get shot when I get home,” he told one interviewer). Culture is safer ground, and his native country is going through a purple patch with Sally Rooney in literature, Fontaines DC in music and the likes of McDonagh, Jessie Buckley and Denise Gough in drama. “It tends to happen in waves,” Turner says. “Coming out of drama school, Colin Farrell was such a big thing. When these actors really make it you can feel some of their light begin to shine on the industry back home.”

Like Farrell, Turner is an international star, although it has mainly been in period roles: Poldark, Leonardo, Andrew and his breakout turn as the 19th-century poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the 2009 series Desperate Romantics. It must be something about the hair.

That could be about to change, though. Toronto often stands in for New York, which suggests that his current mystery project has a contemporary setting. Does he yearn to act in jeans? “Yeah, you’re right,” he says with a laugh. “After Leonardo, I think tights and knee-length boots are out for a while.” Many would beg him to reconsider.

[captain-ross-poldark]

Poldark’s Aidan Turner on playing Leonardo da Vinci

Ed Potton

Friday 2 April 2021

Aidan Turner takes on the role of Renaissance polymath LeonardoJUSTIN SUTCLIFFE/EYEVIN

I’m trying to work out where Aidan Turner is Zooming from. Is it London, where he moved to in 2017 after his Ross Poldark became the drooled-over king of Sunday-night television? Dublin, where he grew up, trained as an actor and returned to spend the first lockdown with his parents? Or Rome, where he shot his new series, Leonardo, in which he plays a young Leonardo da Vinci?

“None of the above!” Turner says. “I’m in Toronto.” The enigmatic charm, feline eyes and gleaming locks that he deployed so mercilessly in Poldark, The Hobbit films and Being Human are all there. “My missus is working here,” he explains, and so is he. That’s the American actress Caitlin FitzGerald, his partner of three years, whom he met when they starred in the 2018 film The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot. At first I assume the “missus” is laddish affectation but it turns out that it’s official: Turner and FitzGerald, both 37, got married in secret in Italy in August after filming finished on Leonardo. You can almost hear the sighs of disappointment ripple around the world.

Turner won’t say any more — he is famously guarded about his personal life — but he looks insanely happy in the couple’s rented apartment. FitzGerald — whose grandfather Desmond was a CIA agent and organised several plots to assassinate Fidel Castro — is shooting a series, Station Eleven, in Toronto while her husband works on another project that he’s not allowed to talk about. In their downtime they’ve been watching I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, an HBO documentary series about the Golden State Killer, and, on a lighter note, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles. They share the apartment with Charlie, an ebullient Norfolk terrier that Turner has to eject from the room halfway through our interview when he starts yapping. “I’m surprised he behaved for so long,” he says.

Eight-part series Leonardo has been criticised for warping historyPA

Like many of his fellow thesps, Turner has been doing a great deal of lockdown painting. “We have a roof garden here and the light has been really good,” he says. “I probably shouldn’t be saying this because I don’t know if the landlord knows. It’s not messy work anyway!” Unlike some of his peers — I’m looking at you, Pierce Brosnan — he has yet to unleash his daubings on the world. How would he describe his style? “I struggle to say abstract, but I haven’t quite figured out what it is yet.” Did it help with playing Leonardo? “I don’t know. If you saw my paintings, you’d assume very much not,” Turner says. He has a studied line in self-effacement, honed after years of “sexiest man on TV” questions.

Leonardo premiered in Italy last month and was watched by seven million, many of them doubtless keen to see Turner brooding in a succession of smocks. The eight-part series has been criticised for warping history, having the artist accused of murder and featuring an apparently fictional muse, Caterina da Cremona, played by Matilda De Angelis from The Undoing. Luca Bernabei, the chief executive of Lux Vide who produced the series, defended it stoutly. “Matilda De Angelis’s character did exist. She was a model Leonardo asked to paint,” he said. “We have been really careful in our research. But this is not a documentary, we are not historians and this is not a university history lecture.”

And if the history pedants are spluttering, the art pedants should be happier — the series goes to considerable lengths to make the painting look authentic. Each episode is themed around a different masterpiece, from the portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci to The Last Supper to the Mona Lisa, and the candlelit cinematography is often sumptuous. Turner’s research included a private view of a Leonardo exhibition. “I spent some time alone with the actual paintings, which was brilliant,” he says. “They’re just like high-definition photographs. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that a human had done this.”

Aidan Turner attended an artist’s boot camp before filming startedVITTORIA FENATI MORACE

The series opens in Florence in the 1460s, with Leonardo a pupil of Verrocchio, played by the veteran Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini. Before the shoot Turner and his co-stars went on an artists’ boot camp (brush camp?) supervised by professionals. He says the hardest part was learning to paint, as Leonardo did, with his left hand. He compares it to learning to ride a horse for Poldark, which he pretended he knew how to do before going on a crash course when he got the part.

Brushwork was the same, he says. “I realised I had to get good quite quickly and look like I knew what I was doing with my left hand, which is more difficult than you would think. It’s keeping it steady — you find it just moves around a lot. Leonardo was very slow and precise — I think I got it down. After a few weeks you start picking up the brush with your left hand, it becomes natural.”

Leonardo was a vegetarian, Turner tells me, “and apparently later in life opened some sort of vegetarian restaurant”. He was also gay, something that, despite reports, the series does not shy away from. Was this Turner’s first time kissing a man on screen? He laughs. “Of all the things I was expecting you to ask next, that wasn’t one of them! In a lot of ways it was just another love scene. The fact that the gender was different — that was never a thing. No, it felt right. It didn’t feel any different at all. But yeah, to answer your question, that was the first time, which I’d never really thought of until now.”

What did feel weird, he says, were the Covid protocols. “Suddenly people are wearing masks and shields and hazmat suits. We had a big sanitisation machine as we walked in that would spray us. You take off the mask when you shoot the scene and it’s a bit strange for a second. Then you realise it’s the first time you’ve seen your co-star’s face that day. It’s not conducive to a very creative environment, for sure. But we made it work and nobody got sick.”

With his wife, the American actress Caitlin FitzGeraldREX FEATURES

Turner spends a chunk of the first episode painting De Angelis, and both actors know what it’s like to be ogled. She has been asked endlessly about her naked locker-room sequence in The Undoing, just as he has been reminded of his shirtless scything scene in Poldark. Before that there was his lusted-after vampire in Being Human and his sexy dwarf in The Hobbit — branded a “dwilf” in some quarters — although that “definitely wasn’t the intention”, he says. “I think I just had less prosthetics on my face. My make-up call was 20 minutes and everyone else was sitting in the chair in the morning for three and a half hours. It wasn’t good to be around the other dwarfs in the mornings, that’s for sure.

“I get why people are interested,” he says of the ogling. “It’s just when it keeps coming up.”

We move on. According to a recent survey Cornwall has overtaken London as the most desirable place to live in Britain. Does he think Poldark played a part in that? He laughs. “Maybe we nudged a few people in the right direction. I think people forgot how beautiful that side of the world is. One of the first reviews of Poldark we read was like: ‘We can’t believe that this is our country, it looks like the south of France.’”

Could Poldark return, and would Turner be in it? If they stuck to the chronology of Winston Graham’s books they would have to leap ahead a few years. Maybe he could play an aged-up Ross Poldark in latex and fake paunch? “I don’t know if I’d be keen on the ageing-up thing,” he says. “It never really works. I don’t know whether they need to be too strict with that gap anyway. There’s the possibility someday, maybe. I enjoyed working with everybody on Poldark, from the writers right down to all the cast and crew. It really is like a family. So I’d be open to chat about it. But not for a while.”

Turner with Eleanor Tomlinson in PoldarkMIKE HOGAN

Before that he will appear as the apostle Andrew in The Last Planet, the forthcoming biblical epic from Terrence Malick, revered creator ofThe Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life. Well, he doesn’t know for sure if he will appear. Actors of the calibre of Rachel Weisz, Mickey Rourke and Jessica Chastain have seen their performances in Malick films vanish during editing.

“You want what’s best for the film. And if you don’t fit into it, you don’t fit into it,” Turner says in the tone of hair-shirt devotion that actors tend to use when talking about Malick. With a cast including Ben Kingsley and Mark Rylance as Satan, the movie is meant to tell the story of Jesus through a series of parables. Turner doesn’t really have a clue, though.

“You don’t necessarily know what you’re signing up to. You’re signing up to Terrence Malick,” he says. The director has “a great way of working. Everything is around ‘where is the sun’ at this particular time. That’s our natural light and it’s all we use. So things happen fast. There’s no trailers, hair, make-up, we’re just all together. You don’t know from day to day what you’ll be doing. It’s quite renegade stuff. That’s the way I always wanted to work.”

It’s closer to the immediacy of the theatre, which is where Turner started out. The son of an electrician, Pearse, and an accountant, Eileen, he represented Ireland at ballroom dancing before falling into acting. After studying at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin he acted in plays for five years and in 2018 he returned to the stage to rave reviews in Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore in the West End. Rave being the operative word — his performance was bracingly unhinged. “I can’t wait to get back to the theatre,” he says. “That’s what we’re looking at probably next.”

Turner’s character in The Lieutenant of Inishmore was an Irish freedom fighter, but he is reluctant to talk about the prospect of Irish reunification (“So I don’t get shot when I get home,” he told one interviewer). Culture is safer ground, and his native country is going through a purple patch with Sally Rooney in literature, Fontaines DC in music and the likes of McDonagh, Jessie Buckley and Denise Gough in drama. “It tends to happen in waves,” Turner says. “Coming out of drama school, Colin Farrell was such a big thing. When these actors really make it you can feel some of their light begin to shine on the industry back home.”

Like Farrell, Turner is an international star, although it has mainly been in period roles: Poldark, Leonardo, Andrew and his breakout turn as the 19th-century poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the 2009 series Desperate Romantics. It must be something about the hair.

That could be about to change, though. Toronto often stands in for New York, which suggests that his current mystery project has a contemporary setting. Does he yearn to act in jeans? “Yeah, you’re right,” he says with a laugh. “After Leonardo, I think tights and knee-length boots are out for a while.” Many would beg him to reconsider.

All episodes of Leonardo will be on Amazon from April 16

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/poldarks-aidan-turner-on-playing-leonardo-da-vinci-wnmqhxqxr

[rosereview]

Favourite Webtoons Part 2

Okay so since the first part didn’t have every single one that I loved, I decided to make another part and I’m sure I’ll do more in the future. So here again are my favourite Webtoons and if you’re interested in more, here is my part 1 of the list. 

KillMax by Kennycomics & SilentMaru

KillMax has such a cool concept and beautiful visuals that I instantly loved it. Sadly it was slow going for the creators getting pages out and now they are on hiatus getting ready for season 3, but I really think it is worth the read. It was hard to remember certain things because of the large gaps between getting pages out but I reread it multiple times and that in itself was very enjoyable so I do recommend. It’s about a witch girl who gets famous on the internet which grabs the attention of witch hunters and I love the badass-ness of the main female character and also male lead as well. So if you like strong female characters, then definitely give this a read because you will not be disappointed. 

Siren’s Lament by instantmiso

This was the first completed Webtoon I’ve read and I loved it so much it’s crazy. The only problem is that I am so sad it’s done! I wish I had more because I loved the characters so much and the art style is so beautiful (like all of the Webtoons I’ve talked about so far). This story is a romance with a love triangle where somehow you are always rooting for all three of them to be together because as a group they are just absolutely adorable. The concept is that the main lead is turned into a siren but only gets half of the “curse” from the siren guy she kissed so they have to figure out why it happened that way. The whole plot was beautifully done and like I already said, all of the characters are so likeable and all of their relationships are adorable but still complex, so I highly recommend. 

To Love Your Enemy by Jungyoon & Taegeon

This one I recently started and it is very cute and fun to read. I don’t think it’s my favourite Webtoon ever, but it updates twice a week which is wonderful, and the beginning for me was very solid. It’s also a romance with the trope of fake relationship + hate to love, and I think that was my favourite part— the two characters falling in love with each other. But now that the story has progressed so much I don’t really know how I feel about the whole romance aspect of it. I think now it’s just that I’m anxious for the characters because (SPOILER, although it’s a romance so not really a spoiler because we all know what happens) they are together and I want them to stay together. Once romances get to the point of the two leads getting together, the next big storylines and plot points are the drama of them trying to stay together and that’s a little nerve racking further in this Webtoon. But I still do enjoy it very much. Also forgot to say what it’s about, but it’s about a girl that worked in a pyramid scheme (I think) finally gets out of it and goes to university where a guy there knows who she is and hates her for what she’s done, but then she starts a rumor that they’re together and it goes from there. 

Men of the Harem by Alphatart & Yeongbin

Another one that I started recently and which doesn’t actually have a lot of pages out is Men of the Harem, which I am loving so much! This one was recently started so a lot of the story foundation is still being made and the real drama hasn’t started yet, but the potential for this story is very promising. It’s a fantasy that has our lead becoming the Emperor for her kingdom and she surprises everyone by wanting to create a harem of men instead of being a normal female emperor and having only one male consort. Honestly I just love that concept in and of itself and the story so far has been delivering in the best way possible. I love that we have a strong female ruler that breaks the rules of being the stereotypical girl and makes the power move of having her own harem. So if you’re into that then you’ll love this Webtoon.

The Advanced Player of the Tutorial Tower by Bangguseok Gimssi & Omagam

This one was also started recently so there aren't many pages out but it is really good so far. It’s about our modern world being overrun by monsters and people have to start fighting them to stay alive. But there is also this tower that randomly selects people to complete it where they either die or defeat all the monsters inside alive and become monster fighters/hunters in the real world to protect the normal citizens. There is a lot more to it than that but that’s the bare bones, and the main character was put into the tower when it first appeared and completed it but was never let out until 12 years later, so he’s now the most powerful monster hunter guy in the world. I love having a main character that is all powerful because I always love seeing the bad guys underestimate them and then get destroyed because they’re so cocky. So if you like action (and I think this is actually the only non-romance Webtoon on either of my lists) then you’ll love this one. 

The Remarried Empress by Alphatart & Sumpul

Another strong female lead in a patriarchal fantasy setting with romance and drama created by the same creator as Men of the Harem. This one updates twice a week and is so good it’s crazy! The main character is the Empress of this kingdom because she had an arranged marriage with the Emperor, but they were always good friends growing up so it’s supposed to be all good. But then dummy Emperor dude goes out and gets himself a stupid mistress who ruins everyone’s day and who has an agenda of her own. This one does get you really angry at certain characters but you also fall in love with the lead so much it’s worth it. Also her new love interest is absolutely great, so read it for that reason too! But yeah, if you like fantasy, fantasy politics, drama, romance, and magic then check this one out. 

Unholy Blood by Lina Im & Jeonghyeon Kim

The last one I want to mention is this one, Unholy Blood, which is a vampire Webtoon that is such well developed plot/world building-wise that I think it’s worth it just for that reason. The main character lives in a world where there is a vampire disease that is running wild in the form of crazy vampires turning humans and killing them on the streets. Because of that the world lives in fear with a curfew and the police are doing all they can to destroy the vampires, but they have their claws in every part of society. The main character has some traumatic stuff happen to her which makes her have to go find all these evil vampires responsible and kill them. It’s very action packed with a tiny bit of romance later on, but like I mentioned already, it’s the whole world, concept, and plot that makes me love it coupled with awesome badass characters as well. 

The concludes my second list of recommendations and favourite Webtoons. I hope some of these interest people and make them want to read them or just get on the Webtoon app and check out some other stuff because these creators really deserve the support. 

Until next time!

~Rose Reviews

[writtenwhalien]

content creator year in review ✨

tagged by @cutechim 💕

first creation and most recent creation of 2020: first ever work was the ‘Best Friends’ series - a PJM idiot best friends to lovers / college AU. I re-read it the other day and noticed there’s a lot of silly mistakes but, I was brand new to writing and I still hold it dear to my heart. 🥺 most recent is ‘baby fever’ - dad!Jimin wants another baby... it was super fun to write

one of your favorite creations from 2020: um, this is too hard. But right now, it’s the ‘Give Me Love’ series because of all the hard work I’ve been putting into it 🥴 but I also do like the story and the way it’s developing.

a creation you’re really proud of: umm, probably ‘i never stopped loving you’ (both parts). It was for a request I received and initially I was really struggling to come up with an idea, but one idea sparked in my head and then it all flowed from there! + Give Me Love lol.

a creation that took you forever: so far, it’s the ‘Give Me Love’ series. After writing the best friends college AU, I realised I really wanted to write a fratboy/fuckboy Jimin, with a lil bit of a fuckgirl reader spoiler alert? But it’s been really hard writing it sometimes, and it’s taken me longer but we’re getting there! 😅

a creation from 2020 that received the most notes: well it was ‘make up for it’, until two days ago when I posted ‘baby fever’ and it received almost as many notes as the former, in less time! I’m also proud of the latter, it was my first time doing an impreg kink lol :) I’ve realised heavy smut works get a lot more attention.

a creation you think deserved more notes: um, probably the  ‘Best Friends’ series. However, I am grateful for every like and reblog and that series was the first I ever posted, so I get why it doesn’t get much attention.

a new fandom you joined and a creation you made for it: none :)

a creation you made that breaks your heart: well I’m a sucker for fluff and I can’t bring myself to write sad endings, but ‘i never stopped loving you’ does things to my heart when I read it. Also ‘Amoris et Decorare (hogwarts AU)’ - oc’s past actually makes me upset, but ofc she gets happiness with Jimin 🥰

a ‘simple’ creation that you really love: this fluffy sweet jimin/oc drabble - ‘drunken confessions/i’m so crazy in love with you’ + also this ‘platonic ‘95 liner drabble ft. Yoongi’ (there’s no reason I chose Yoongi in particular, it was random, and Jimin and Taehyung were requested).

a creation that was inspired by another one: uh, I don’t think I have any...?

a favorite creation created by someone else: askdhjkdsj there’s too many, but here’s some that I remember! (These are MUST READS) (also I have SO MANY fics on my reading list, and I promise they’re not all Jimin 😭)

Series first...

→ ‘oh, what a world’ by @cutechim formerly @/taestybae: this series is so sweet and the gradual build up of romance between the characters keeps you on your toes (I literally binge read the series!). The gradual change in OC’s emotions, from moving on from her best friend as she finds something more with Jimin in their supposedly fake relationship, but oh the ANGST when they’re pining for each other... this story is worth the read and will literally make you feel all the feels! as well as the drabbles ugh, husband/dad Jimin has my heart was swelling! And Jimin and Taehyung make AMAZING twins - the humor in their relationship is the best. 

→ ‘Raise the Barre’ by @kpopfanfictrash: this story is a whole rollercoaster of emotions. I binge read until Chapter 6, and then I had to wait for the weekly updates :( but they were honestly the highlight of my week. First off, Jimin as a dancer/ballerina is just peak Jimin, and I LOVE to see it. The author pays incredible attention to every interaction and all the details of dance make the story so much better. Jimin and OC have a beautiful development from enemies to friends to lovers, and there’s such an intricate characterization of the main character with the other struggles she faces. And the epilogue is my absolute fave - I’m pretty sure I’ve thought about it everyday since. Oh, and there’s the regular reminders that Jimin has an  a m a z i n g  ass ;)

→ ‘The Bird Cage’ by @untaemedqueen: This is one of the first fics I read, before I even made a tumblr account two months ago, but gosh is this story fantastic. Firstly, the romance... mafia Jimin being in love is just something else and he’s written so well in this - I love how he is adamant to give OC what she wants as well as being firm with her when he insists on keeping her safe. & what really stands out for me is the plot behind the romance (and how OC is linked to it). The ideas aren’t just random, but they actually all web together and it’s such a good story, I’m super excited to read the sequel!!

→ ‘Fractured’ by @ot7always: (Yoongi fic) okay, this series is in progress, and we haven’t seen much romance yet, but honestly, the way OC’s feelings are detailed in this, it’s just incredible. You really get to know how she’s feeling with her situation and I am so excited to get to read more. And we are slowly seeing how she cares for Yoongi a lot.  

Okay, some oneshots/drabbles...

→ ‘What You Deserve’ by @jiminniethemarshmallow: okay, this is another one of the first fics I read (and it’s because of this fic that I came up with my own PJM BF2L series). It’s a twoshot, and it really has the sweetest characterization of Jimin. Literally it’s so fluffy and it makes my heart feel so warm. My favourite part is when he’s talking to her when he thinks she’s sleeping, and in the second part, when he’s outside the door waiting for OC to let him in askasdjk all the feels.

→ ‘Go Go’ by @inkjam-moon: this fic is so sweet. I absolutely love how Jimin just wants to care for OC but she isn’t so accepting because he’s richer than her. It’s the small things like when he cheered for her during graduation, and the flowers, ugh. & then how we really wants her to work with him because he loves her, it’s just so sweet!

→ ‘quiet kisses’ by @rookiegukie: this drabble is incredible. I literally love it so much. Jimin having stepped up as a father figure for OC’s son, loving him as his own as well as the love he has for OC. And the smut! Gosh it’s so soft and sweet, yet sexy and steamy. It’s literally everything. 

→  ‘30 minutes’ by @ironicarmy: okay, everything about this drabble is so steamy and sweet. I absolutely love the “hey/hey/you know I love you right?” right before the smut, IT’S ADORABLE. Please read it if you haven’t. 

→  ‘delicate hours’ by @mercurygguk: another soft sweet drabble, it’s literally so fluffy, and it’s one of those sweet feel good reads. 

some of your favorite content creators from the year: so many- to everyone above and to the following creators, I love your works, you’re amazing!! 💘💘 @a-violet-suga-kookie @ppersonna @bangtanfancamp @parkmuse @chans-euphoria @zibermuda @lavishedinjimin @bloomsuga @hoseoksyn @silverlightqueen @btssmutgalore @kimnjss @sehunpeachy @njssi @baehyukng @jiminssthetic @sugaxjpg @kooksies-stories-and-tales @byeoltoyuki @stutterfly @chemicalpink @onherwings @softlyjiminie @jjiimin @blu-joons @gyukult @cupofteaguk @wintertae

tagging: everyone from above, if you want to do it! 😋💖

[strangelyokay]

Anime Review: Dororo

!Spoiler Alert! !Spoiler Alert! !Spoiler Alert! !Spoiler Alert! !Spoiler Alert! !Spoiler Alert!

Summary:

The world is ravaged by war, disease, and famine, an ambition man wants to rule and is willing to do anything to create and maintain a prospering kingdom. His greed drives him to cast out Buddha and put his faith in the twelve demons. The demons will deliver him his wish, but it will cost him his soul and one thing equal to the price. Sometime later his first son is born, his wife adores her son, but the midwives are horrified, the newborn has no limbs, no face, no skin, no senses, the demons have devoured his humanity. The newborn should have died, but a Buddha statue sacrifices his head to let the baby keep his and he stays alive.

The man laughs in joy, now he is sure that his wish will come true, he asks a midwife to drown the newborn, and tells his wife she will have another son and they will rule, she cries for her baby.

The midwife takes the baby, but has sympathy for the child, she believes the child has the will to live and wants to do so. So, she places the newborn in an abandon boat, it drifts, and he is found by a man scared from war, who builds fake human limbs. The child grows up not feeling anything, fighting monsters, until the man discovers that the child regains his body parts by killing the demons that took his limbs. So, the boy sets out to regain his humanity.

First initial thoughts:

So, when I started this anime I was prepared for a sad series, I mean the summary isn't really lighthearted, but also the anime was drawn in a style typical for a depressing anime. Dark and grim were my assumptions, but I thought the story could provide an adventure and bring satisfying satisfaction to the viewer. Also, sometimes sad series deliver a good story, even when the endings are anything but happily ever after. Keep in mind I hate sad endings, still I will be the first to say a story is good, even if the ending was sad, even if I'll never watch it again.

The series had 24 episodes in total, that is actually a great number since the summary made it sound like it would take longer to wrap up. Usually when anime's have 13 episodes, and the topics are complicated, the story never gets a completed ending. So 24 is a good number for a typical adventure series.

Review:

So, in my opinion the story was good, not completely great and not as satisfying as one would hope, but still good. What I mean by that is that the story will keep you entertain and even deliver some deep moments, but the story will stop short of a meaningful impact.

The series was about Hyakkimaru the child born without his humanity, but the series was titled after Dororo, Hyakkimaru companion. After a couple of episodes, it is clear why the creators decided this, since Hyakkimaru is basically a doll, Dororo is the viewer’s guide through the adventure. Hayakkimaru, can't talk, feel, hear, and can only see souls in different colors in his blinded state, this strange sight is the only source Hyakkimaru has to distinguish monsters from humans. Without Dororo, the viewers would be observing a young man without any personality killing monsters, hoping to get all his body parts back and blindly maneuvering through the world.

The series wasn't as complicated after a couple of episodes, a pattern of killing monsters was established and the companions would travel from village to village, meeting new people, and sharing new experiences. Honestly it reminded me a little of the anime Inyuasha, but without the funny comedy or the hints of romance. The story did have some comedic moments, but it wasn’t nearly enough to outweigh the seriousness of the situation the characters were constantly in. Every so often Dororo past would come up, of course it was sad, but her past would hint at a brighter future. The problem with those hints is that it is expected they will lead somewhere, and even though the story ends with the impression that it does, it is very vague.

After half of the story was over, we are introduced to the problematic situation in Hyakkimaru obtaining all his body parts. By achieving his goal, he will kill the land that his father has traded him for. That means the people of that land will suffer, through war and famine all over again. This anime really harps on how terrible the state of the land is, I mean it is so often brought up, that if for a second you think, “I’ll forget it” nope you won’t. Hyakkimaru never, struggles with the decision to keep going, Dororo is actually the one that tries to stop him a couple of times, for fear of losing him. This is around the time I started to question whether he should get his parts back, I mean I still rooted for Hyakkimaru, especially after we are introduced to the rest of his family. It’s just that up to that point he was basically complete, and through the story we meet many unfortunate people, that a part of me thought is it worth it? However, the part of me that wanted to see his justice play out gave in more and so I was glad he continued.

Now the reason I think this anime was great was because you wanted to keep watching, you wanted the resolution to the story and some happiness to the characters. The problems were in the small details, they were inconsistent, and often overlooked, and they were a necessity to the story. Maybe they needed more episodes, but the story seemed rushed towards the end and when we finally got to the conclusion, the ending was not satisfying. Also, they emphasis the trails of living and the beauty of continuing to live despite everything. Still there’s a point where some characters can survive, but choose death, making no attempt to survive. I mean that is like the main point of this series. I think maybe the last episode was the one that might have made the anime a little bit of a downer. I like the anime, personally I would rate it three stars out of five.

Comment down below!

[theliteraryflower]

I Hope You Get This Message

By Farah Naz Rishi

Rate:5/5

Synopsis:

News stations across the country are reporting mysterious messages that Earth has been receiving from a planet—Alma—claiming to be its creator. If they’re being interpreted correctly, in seven days Alma will hit the kill switch on their “colony” Earth.

True or not, for teenagers Jesse Hewitt, Cate Collins, and Adeem Khan, the prospect of this ticking time bomb will change their lives forever.

Jesse, who has been dealt one bad blow after another, wonders if it even matters what happens to the world. Cate, on the other hand, is desperate to use this time to find the father she never met. And Adeem, who hasn’t spoken to his estranged sister in years, must find out if he has it in him to forgive her for leaving.

With only a week to face their truths and right their wrongs, Jesse, Cate, and Adeem’s paths collide as their worlds are pulled apart.

Review:

What would you do if you knew you have a week left to live? After receiving this exact message the world goes to shit and three teenagers have to deal with their baggage before the end arrives. This book was so much more than I expected. I was expecting three class mates to be thrown together to survive but in reality it was about three souls that intertwined out of coincidence. I do not want to spoil alot of it because it is such an amazing story that should be experienced. So with that said... this was so beautifully written. I love how the story was about the characters and what is going on around them but it also gives us a look into what the Aliens are doing and thinking. There are also good bye messages from people that rounds out the worries and expectations of the minor characters of the story. Jesse was a beautifully flawed character (who is gay but doesn't follow any gay tropes). Cate who is a broken girl trying to hold everything together. Adeem (my true love) a lost boy who just wants his family together again. All of these characters experience the highs and lows of a society losing their shit when faced with something unknown (similar to our current situation). Where due to fear thousands are doing things that maybe they wouldn't usually do or trying to help only to get taken advantage of. There are also those who are selling fake hope for a quick buck. In the end it was destiny for Cate, Adeem and Jesse to meet and be together on the last day in Roswell, New Mexico. And though they couldn't all have the conclusions they wanted it was beautiful. This book did have an open ending but I felt that the story actually benefited from it. It leaves us to create the tragedy or happily ever after for our characters. I would love a sequel to this story, just because. But the story ended in such a way that I feel comforted by it. On top of this it had amazing poc representation and LGBTQ representation. This was another Owlcrate book and it had a different cover that I loved. The hard cover of the book I got also had a message on it in binary which kinda leads me to believe that there wasn't a happy ending but again you would need to read it to understand. All in all this was an amazing book.

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Dino Watches Anime (Oct 26)

Recently Completed!

Tokyo Godfathers

Score: 10/10

There’s a reason why I gave this such a rare high rating. When I was watching it, I was internally like, “*excitement noises* I have not been this excited over an anime in such a long time, let alone for an anime movie. EVERYONE SHUT UP SO I CAN WATCH THIS EVEN IF I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY’RE SAYING.”

It’s not often that you come across really good movies, let alone masterpieces like this movie. The art is so good, the story made me feel like it was Christmas in October, and the characters really made me connect. 

I know the subtitles used a whole lot of gay slurs and things like that, but Hana (the trans character in this tale) is treated well if we get past that huge hurdle. She truly owns up to herself. She doesn’t care what she’s called. She gets mad at people who misgender her. She gets mad if she’s forced to go to a men’s facility. She wants people to call her “an old hag” rather than “an old coot”. She just wants to be a mother even if she isn’t “biologically a woman” who can bear children. So when she comes across this kid, she thinks, “I will finally be a mother!” These are issues that real people face. These are issues that cisgendered people take for granted.

Madhouse really knocked it out of the park. Satoshi Kon is one of the biggest creators and directors in anime history. He’s known for horror and psychological works like Perfect Blue, Paprika, and Millennium Actress. I never expected him to be this good at making a movie that could move my soul like this. The characters were so far from perfect, yet I wanted the best for each of them. The way it handled everything was masterful. The dialogue worked so well and was witty, the voice actors (despite the main three not being in anything else for the most part) were so good at giving life to their characters, and the art blew me away in 2019 even though this was released in 2003. The only thing I didn’t quite like as much was the score during some parts of the movie, but it was subjectively good and just wasn’t to my taste (the Noragami soundtrack wasn’t a fav of mine either). 

Just... watch the movie. If you can watch it around Christmas. It’s good for you.

Saiunkoku Monogatari

Score: 7.4/10 

Yes, I binge-watched all 39 episodes in two days, what’s it to ya?! In reality, I just boosted the speed of the video.

Me throughout this show: Why do you all have triangle heads? What’s with that?

Okay, it’s the art style, and a lot of shoujo anime go with the concept that it looks good. Once you get over the art hurdle making me believe this was created in the early 2000s despite it being 3 years younger than Tokyo Godfathers, this turns out to be a really nice show. I just can’t believe they’re BOTH from Madhouse. 

Remember Snow White with the Red Hair? Remember Akatsuki no Yona? If you liked those shows, you’re going to like this one... except it relies more on the political plot. It’s mostly about a woman wanting to pursue her dreams of being a politician in a male-dominated world. She’s entasked with helping this mess of a king to get his act together, and as much as I can try to prove that it’s surprisingly progressive (given the art and genre), I think that’d be spoiling it a little. The only character that actually bothered me was the prince who was voiced by Tomokazu Seki who honestly was a bit annoying and sounded so fake for me. However, this anime made me appreciate Hikaru Midorikawa’s voice as well as Houko Kuwashima who I’ve only heard voicing dead moms and only a few good characters here and there. Seriously, both of their voices are great. Toshiyuki Morikawa sounds good too, but we already knew that. I don’t like the OP or ED (or a whole lot of the music), but that’s the case for a lot of these 2005-era anime. Just like a lot of the anime on MAL, I do think this is an underrated show, but it does have its pitfalls if you’re just craving for a quick shoujo without any politics.

Full Metal Panic: Second Raid

Score: 7/10

I binge-watched this entire season while my parents were out for dinner and something else. It only took me a couple of hours because I boosted the speed.

I wanted to get a gif specifically from this season, so this one will have to do. So much wasted potential will this character (who’s one of two twins). I know they were trying to play the whole “twincest” thing, but I’m personally not a fan. They provided some cool fight scenes even at a certain cringe cost. The fact that Kyoto Animation animated this bumped the art from a 3 to an 8. It’s crazy how much the quality jumped after a new studio took over. Unfortunately, they didn’t take care of the next season. I know the main ship in the series is pretty clear, but this season made it closer to canon (too bad it took around 13 years to make the next season).

Kara no Kyoukai (movies: 5, 6, 7)

Score:  Part Five: 7.5/10 Part Six: 5.8/10 Part Seven: 8.2/10

Not gonna lie, I watched the first four movies over a year ago and retained nothing. I had to read the Wikia to assist me and to begin with, I watched this to get into the “Type-Moon” universe (which consists of this and the Fate nonsense stuff), Yuki Kajiura’s score, and Maaya Sakamoto and Kenichi Suzumura voicing a couple. The score would probably change if I’d watched them regularly, but I digress because I watched movies 5-7 in one afternoon. Ufotable was pretty good at animating this and the voice acting worked really well. Yuki Kajiura’s music didn’t hit well at first when I was first watching the first few movies over a year ago because it wasn’t what I envisioned the score being, but once you get into the mood and mindset, it adds so much to the story. Although, I still really didn’t like part six. I thought it was a complete flop because I just want to get rid of anyone who believes i*cest is an okay thing. This isn’t Alabama. Go home. Not else to say here because this took so much commitment that I doubt anyone would watch it.

Paranoia Agent

Score: 8.6/10

With spoopy month coming to a close (already?!) I watched this anime earlier this month, but I forgot to write about it. That’s partly because there’s so much to unpack here. This was a thriller, psychological, horror anime by Satoshi Kon. That’s right, the first anime above was also done with him in the director’s seat. This anime was smart. There’s a reason why Robin Williams likes it! It was scary in the best of ways. It revealed a part of society that we see all the time but don’t talk about (especially in Japanese society where emotions are better kept concealed). Just the opening alone made me feel uneasy. The OP and ED were simplistic yet worked. I binge-watched the whole series because it was that gripping. 

It was a little confusing at times, but that’s also because that’s just a common thing with horror anime. That suspense keeps us going. It keeps us on the edge of our seats. Who’s going to be the next victim of Shounen Bat? Episode 8 came out of nowhere for me, and I liked it. There were several scenes that sent shivers down my spine in the best way possible. It isn’t always “scary”, but it gives suspense.

Aoi Bungaku

This one is going to be reviewed a little differently. Since it has specific arcs, I’m going to review them as such!

Ningen Shikkaku: 8.2/10

We start off with a bang. Osamu Dazai was a man of suffering. This story really shows that. In this story, we see a man who’s desperate to know what makes him human. We see this through the eyes of a fictional character, but I personally view this as a semi-autobiography.

The art was chilling. The voice acting from Masato Sakai was surprisingly good. A lot of the time, voice acting from live-action actors just aren’t that great. Every time you think this character will get back on his feet, he falls deeper and deeper. It truly did make me wonder what made me human.

Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita: 3.9/10

That moment when the only thing that saves this arc is Nana Mizuki’s singing. Seriously, her jazz songs were awesome. Can’t say that about the rest. I mean, the art is good, but it’s Madhouse so most of their stuff is already good. The story wasn’t that original. Mind you, this was probably during a period where foreign influence was strong, and I haven’t read the original story, but... this is basically Salome (the opera) with some differences. Both have a crazy woman with a fixation over lifeless decapitated heads. Both have men that are captivated with her beauty so they give her what she wants because of that reason alone, they both murder religious people (monk/shrine maiden and a prophet), and both eventually realize that women can be crazy when they demand a lifeless head because you know, that’s just a red flag. Above all, it suffers from tonal shifts. You can’t have a woman turning moe then demand you bring her another head to play with. You can’t have Masato Sakai playing another main character that doesn’t fit him! Seriously, he doesn’t have the voice of a brute and just couldn’t do it. Overall, this arc was a mess, and I’m glad it was one of the shorter ones.

Kokoro: 7.6/10

This looked like a masterpiece compared to the last arc. I haven’t read Kokoro, but this made me go, “Huh, I don’t remember this happening.” That’s because they chose a certain part of the book (near the end apparently) and just went off that and created its own anime-original episode. Despite that, it was pretty good! There were some screaming discrepancies which did hurt its impression (because it made it feel out of place to the point where even I, as an uneducated anime viewer, could clearly see).

(I think this is from Kokoro but I might be wrong)

Hashire, Melos!: 8.9/10

Would you look at that? It’s the best arc of the series. Hashire, Melos was great. It had me going from beginning to end, and it’s the only arc that doesn’t have Masato Sakai playing the lead character. The art, the pacing, the storytelling, the story, the sound, the voice acting, and the art direction complemented each other so well. It made me far more interested in the original. 

The Spider’s Thread: 6.6/10

If you look really close, you’ll notice that the creator of Bleach took over character design for this! It was okay. I found that it was a little cliche and lacklustre. Mamo is around so much that you probably have to do more than that to keep my attention, and this had the art going for it too. It just wasn’t that interesting. A heartless murderer is sent to hell after being executed. Moral of the story: Don’t be an asshole. Alright. Nice. I do understand that Ryuunosuke Akutagawa was one of the main establishers of the whole “Japanese Short Story” thing, but after seeing it so many times, I just didn’t get that same chill.

Hell Screen: 6.9/10 

Another Akutagawa short story! This one had far more of an impact because this one hit closer to Akutagawa’s heart. Knowing the history of this piece of writing, you can see his desperation to stay relevant and true to his craft. It’s about a painter who wants to paint the town but finds out the city isn’t the bright light he sees in his mind. Everything goes ablaze. The art for this is stunning. I probably would’ve enjoyed this story more if it was placed in the middle of the series run rather than being the last story. 

Recently Started

Africa no Salaryman

The animation for this is terrible. There is no way around it. However, at least it’s funny. Still, close to being on the chopping block. It has the papa lion who’s played by Akio Ohtsuka, the straight-man middle lizard played by Kenjirou Tsuda, and the scumbag toucan played by Hiro Shimono. Yes, they all play Hero Academia villains. The jokes are pretty good for me.

Given

Oh, would you look at that? It’s a music anime. *inhales* Music anime is a double-edged sword for me. I like having music interpreted and portrayed through one of my favourite mediums, but I don’t like them playing off music as some sort of easy gimmick and a joke. It’s like a shonen montage. “Let’s just have this guy train for two minutes and become a demigod”. But when you put an instrument into someone’s hand and demand the same, it sends me to another plane of angriness.  So far, the romance is kind of cute... but Mafuyu kind of annoys me since his role in the BL dynamic is so clear just by his voice. Same with Uchida. You can only play so many thugs a season. Kyou? Good. Chika? Good. This guy? Good, but don’t do them all back-to-back! I don’t like the BL dynamic being so basic. However, my mind can be changed if done right.

Shinsekai Yori

Very interesting premise, their eyes are cute, and I’m a sucker for these so I’m gonna stick with it.

[writeyourownlifestory]

Love Someone -- Hardzello fanfic

First, I just want to say that this is completely due to Joe and Ben being good sports and giving us amazing fan service on Instagram. Well aware it’s all fake, but who doesn’t want to have some boys loving boys fun? 

This is technically rated M so read on your own accord. 

In the fic: BoRhap doesn’t exist. Ben is a model. Joe is a writer. They met the rest of the guys through Rami, an actor who befriended them both. 

Can also be read here. 

Please reblog/review/enjoy. 

They were friends through other friends, nothing more. If they hadn’t met when they did, their paths probably never would have crossed. It was at a party. A rather boring one, to be completely honest. Ben had been invited and while he always enjoyed a good get together, didn’t exactly feel much like partying as of late. Not for any particular reason. Modeling was going well. He landed another Vogue issue. Versace was in talks currently, but anything could happen with them.

He had spoken to his agent, hoping to branch out into other things. Commercials. Movies. Real acting really but for now, solid pictures for magazines and billboards were his thing. He didn’t mind too much. The money was good. And he was happy.

Sort of.

He went to the party for . . . who knows why really. Maybe because he wanted to do something. Get out of the loft. He wasn’t hungry or tired. Just bored. So he went.

And there he was, a grown man in a bear costume, singing Prince. No, it wasn’t a costume, but rather one of those onesie type outfits. Ben didn’t get the appeal, but then again he figured they weren’t exactly marketed towards him. More for children and those who were children at heart.

At first Ben thought the man was drunk out of his mind. He was singing wildly. Almost animated. So dramatic and ridiculous, but when it came to an end and everyone cheered him on, the man thanked everyone and walked off the makeshift stage, completely sober.

That was when he first met him. Joseph Mazzello. Joe, as he went by. He was a writer. He hoped to be a director one day, but for now, he wrote. Nothing in particular. Show episodes. Music videos. He wasn’t famous, but then again, nobody at the party was.

Closest was the one throwing the party. Rami made it big on the silver screen though you’d never really know it. He met Ben in London during fashion week. Rami had been invited by his girlfriend, who did the show with Ben.

They didn’t have much in common, but Rami was a relaxing soul and made Ben feel welcome whenever he was in the states. He was there currently for some shoots. Three months and then he was back to London for his next show.

Rami did all he could to make him feel welcome. Invited him around town, introduced him to different people. He even when to set once, meeting the cast and crew. Ben wasn’t a jealous person, but even he couldn’t help to feel envious while he watched Rami work.

Ben was theatrically trained, as many who grow up in England were when they made the decision to act. He never got a break or call back, but thanks to his good looks he was able to make a living with one type of camera.

He had made some other friends. Other Europeans like himself that were stuck in the states trying to make a living, and other Americans that did what they could to survive in their current climate.

Joe was one of them, though he didn’t know if they’d be considered friends. Allen, he could go out and grab dinner with. Gwilym, he’d get a beer and watch the game. Rami, well they could do practically anything, but Joe . . . he was an odd duck.

They were so different. Polar opposites, to be exact.

Ben was more casual, keeping everything inside. He didn’t get very emotional or really even invested into much. If something didn’t work out, then he’d move on and focus on something else. If he went for an audition and he didn’t get a callback, then he’d get over it and put his attention onto his next modeling gig.

If someone didn’t like Joe’s script then he would spend the entire week cursing their name and swearing he’d steal away their firstborn son. He screamed a lot, actually. It was quite worrisome at first, but Rami assured Ben that it was just part of Joe’s personality. He was very dramatic, always had something going on in his mind.

Rumor had it he kept a typewriter in his car, but Ben never got around to ask. Or see for himself.

They didn’t hang out on their own. They just didn’t. Not that they didn’t want to. Ben at first though Joe hated him, but each and every time they came together, Joe would smile and greet him as kindly as ever.

He guessed they were both too busy for the other. Always having something else more important to do than to make time for the other. Ben didn’t mind much. He was, after all, a busy man. A working man.

Dolce and Gabbana got him for their newest perfume. It was something to celebrate. And when Rami offered to throw him a party, Ben didn’t fight it.

They partied a lot in California. Far more than they did in London. Rami’s birthday. And then Gwilym’s. And then Ben landing the perfume and then Lucy’s surprise party. So much to celebrate.

Allen had gotten married and Ben arrived in a dark tux and shining shoes. Joe was there, without a date much to his surprise. He had also come solo, as well as Gwilym. Rami came with Lucy, which was to be expected.

Everybody danced and cheered on the loving couple, though Ben found himself growing far colder than expected. His own relationships hadn’t been ideal and while he wasn’t jealous, seeing a friend go on and get married while he was still stuck in the same place effected Ben in a way he hadn’t expected.

He said nothing, like always. What was the point of getting emotionally involved in something he couldn’t change? He didn’t have time for a girlfriend right now. He had auditions to focus on.

Two tv shows and movie. One for an upcoming SyFy channel show. Another was a guest spot on some sitcom where he would be playing the eye candy for one of the main girls to flirt with for an episode. And the movie . . . he had no idea. He hadn’t read the script yet but he knew he was going to be playing some hot stud.

If he got the part, that was.

But he didn’t. He had gone to all three and got two callbacks, but in the end, none of them worked out.

Less than two months left in America and then he could return home. Dolce and Gabbana’s campaign went well and seeing his face all over, in different stores and ads, it was exciting, but he wanted more.

He told his agent to find him something good. Allow him to show his growth.

He said he would try his best.

He found a particular salience knowing he wasn’t the only one suffering. One night at Gwilym’s loft, Joe let it slip that his script had been shut down by six different studios. It was a painful blow. One that no one knew what to do with. Gwilym could only pat his shoulder and tell him to keep going. Rami promised to show the script to the show creator, in hopes of having it passed along to the right people.

And Ben just kept drinking. He knew the pain and suffering of being passed on. On being told not to quit his day job. American beer was absolute garbage, but he would drink it after every missed opportunity. And a lot of them had come along as of late.

He suffered in silence and he preferred it that way.

He suffered still, watching all his friends move on without him. Gwilym got a show back in England and left shortly after telling everybody. Allen moved back to Ireland though not before spilling the beans that his own show would be doing a film. They were bringing the whole cast back and seemed like the entire world was losing their mind over it.

And Rami . . . the only thing better than finding out he would be playing a literal legend in an upcoming biopic was getting engaged.

You would think a semi-famous Hollywood couple would want to have a big wedding, but alas, they chose to keep it small and secret. Only friends and family were invited and the wedding itself took just three weeks after the engagement was announced. Allen and Gwilym flew in for the event, but they were staying. They had their own lives to return to.

And Ben would be flying back too. Just four weeks from this point.

Everybody was having a good time. Rami’s family. Lucy’s. Friends from Rami’s show and Lucy’s events. Ben knew a handful of people, though nobody really spoke to him. A few ladies asked him to dance, but he declined. They were models. Gorgeous, but he passed. He didn’t want to deal with a headache in the morning. So he stuck with his drink and standing off in the corner.

Joe was standing there too, though his expression was far more somber than Ben’s. The American wore his heart on his sleeve and while it was a stupid thing, he commended Joe for even showing up.

Lucy was a natural beauty, that wasn’t hard to see. She had the personality of an angel and the way she and Joe would get along was just electric. She and Rami belonged together, but there was no surprise in seeing how utterly shattered Joe was once they tied the knot.

“Do you want to go somewhere?” Ben asked him, deciding to the kind thin and remove the poor bastard from the event. They hadn’t even served cake yet and they were literally dressed to the nines, but that didn’t matter.

Joe agreed and they went out to the back of the venue. It was closed off. No other guest would dare leave but neither seemed to care. They ate together and drank, sulking in their sorrows.

“I’m happy for them,” Joe confessed.

And Ben believed him. Lifting his hand, he placed it on Joe’s shoulder, squeezing it tightly. “She’s a great girl. But there are a lot of great girls in LA.” He reassured him.

Joe turned his head to face him, a look of confusion sprayed across his face. “Okay?” He asked bluntly.

“Loving another man’s girl . . . it’s hard, I take it. You will be all right, mate.”

Joe moved slowly then, his brow arching. After a long moment, it seemed the words and their meaning finally clicked. Suddenly, he began laughing. It was humorous, but also bitter. Lifeless really.

“I don’t . . . not Lucy. It’s not that.” Joe told him. “It’s not Her.” He added carefully.

Ben, utterly stumped for a moment, blinked at his words. Clearing his throat, he adjusted his sitting. It was a new world and California brought on several new things. Not like gay people didn’t exist to Ben. For fuck sake, he was a male model, he had met dozens of them, but that didn’t mean he could just assume who felt what for which person.

“Well, . . . loving a woman’s guy isn’t very easy either?” He offered helplessly.

Joe scoffed, pushing off the bench they had been occupying. He placed his right hand on his lip as he swiftly began to pace to and through. “Not him either.” He expressed sharply. “It’s just . . . all this!”

“This?”

“Allen is married. Gwilym is off living his room in Europe. Rami — in two years from now, he will be an Oscar-nominated actor — married to a gorgeous model who will probably be pregnant with their first child. And me? I can’t get a single studio to look at my script. Not one.”

“Ah.”

“I’m not jealous,” Joe swore. Both hands on his hips, his head pointed down. “I’m just tired of waiting for it to be my turn, you know?”

Ben bobbed his head, his hand tightening over his bottle. He understood exactly what Joe felt. He knew he should have been grateful for the chances he had been given at this point, but that didn’t change the fact that he longed for more. To be more than just the pretty face.

For more scripts where he played somebody other than the hot stud or objection of someone's affections. He wanted a script with meaning, with depth.

Standing to his feet, he crossed a few yards where Joe was standing and sulking and placed his hands on his shoulder’s. “You are a good writer.” He told him, looking at him directly in the eye. “And you’re going to make an amazing film one day. You — Joe Mazzello — will be the Oscar-nominated person. Writer. Director. Whichever.”

Joe laughed again, turning his head away. Ben shook his shoulders, making him look his way. “Laugh all you want, but it’s true. You will do great things, Joe.”

There was a quiet moment between them. Their eyes locked and a feeling of excitement mixed with fantasy-filled the air. Ben had never thought of himself very highly, despite the things people had said. Yet he refused to believe that Joe was anything less than amazing.

They weren’t the best of friends, but Ben believed in him, the same way he believed in Rami and Allen and Gwilym and even Lucy. He knew his friends were talented and he downright refused to allow one of them to think less of themselves.

Even if he couldn’t think highly of himself.

“And you, Ben Hardy,” Joe replied back, his hands lifting up to cup his face. He held him still, his head tilted forward so their foreheads were touching. It was an intimate gesture, one Ben had never expected from any of his friends. “You are going be one hell of a movie star,”

That got Ben laughing. A kind, playful chuckle, escaping his lips. Joe mimicked the sound until they were both standing there, holding onto one another, smiling and laughing at their respected statements.

It was a ridiculous sight, Ben was sure of it. Two grown them, wrapping up in one another. The only thing that could make it wilder was if they closed the gap between them, which is exactly what Joe did.

In an instant, their smiles were gone, wiped away when Joe pressed his lips to Ben’s. It wasn’t excessively wild or spontaneous, but it caught Ben off regardless. He remained still, his eyes shut as Joe’s thumb ran across his cheek gently.

When Joe pulled away, Ben opened his eyes, finding the other man staring back at him. His expression was anxious as he waited for Ben to make a move. There were only two expected of him. To push him away or assault him for daring to make such an advance towards him. Or two, accept what happened and move on from it.

Ben chose the latter, closing the gap once again so they could make the proper adjustments. Ben’s hand slid around the back of Joe’s neck, adjusting him so his head was slightly tilted upwards. Joe’s hands made their way skyward and meshed into Ben’s blond hair.

Ben’s second hand traveled down and bunched at the back of Joe’s suit jacket. He pulled him in tightly, their bodies pressed together with only their suits keeping them apart.

When they pulled apart, they were smiling again. Foolishly so. Giddy even. Joe stepped away, licking his lips as he looked out towards the night sky. “I um. I gotta get to my room.” He gestured toward the hotel they were standing in front of.

Ben bobbed his head and watched him go. He stayed outside a moment longer before heading inside as well. He booked a room for no real reason. He had a loft to get home to, but this was where his friends were. Rami and Gwilym and Allen and Joe. They were all at the hotel to celebrate a wonderful event. So he was there too.

Shortly after returning to his room, Ben had a knock on the door. Joe was standing there in front of him. Gone was his jacket and his shirt had a few buttons undone. Like he had started to undress but stopped halfway through.

“I um. I don’t actually have anything witty or even sexy to say as to why I’m here.” He confessed to Ben.

The blond watched him, moving to lean against the opening of the door. “Aren’t you a writer?” He commented.

Ben rolled his eyes, his shoulders falling as he let out a heavy sigh. “Oh shut up!” He muttered before pushing him inside the room, their lips falling together once more.

Ben had never been with another man before, but from what he gathered, it was more or less the same as being with a woman the physical part. There was sitting and touching. Whispers of sweet words and harsh curses.

He didn’t have lube and figured spit would be fine. It wasn’t, but Joe knew that. He came prepared. A tiny, travel sized bottle fell from his pocket along with a condom. Ben had his own, just in case. Always better to be prepared and whatnot.

There was no thinking or worrying. Just kisses and caresses and lots of fucking. He topped, though that was Joe’s decision. He found a rhythm that fit them both, with his hips thrusting into Joe’s while Joe’s hand work on his own throbbing member. Eventually, he found himself wanting more and he pushed Joe’s hand away and worked on him the same way he would work on himself.

He felt bad for whoever cleaned the sheets and made a mental note to leave a decent tip.

When the finished, he was spent and content. Joe didn’t leave when it was finished and Ben found that he didn’t want him to. They sat together, wrapped up in the scratchy hotel blanket, their heads resting on the barely fluffed pillows.

How the bloody fuck was this a five-star hotel?

They fell asleep together, nestled closely until morning. Ben left first, having had made plans with Gwilym the following morning. He dressed and left the room. He didn’t kiss him goodbye or make him, but he tucked him in and let him sleep.

When he had breakfast with his friend, Ben didn’t tell him about what happened last night. Informing Gwilym that just mere hours ago his cock was thrusting in and out of Joe’s ass wasn’t exactly something they should be discussing over eggs and avocado toast.

When he got home, he found his phone had died and he put it on the charger. After it regained some life, he saw he had a text message from a number he didn’t know.

It didn’t take much thinking to figure out who it was from.

Brunch tomorrow.

Ben already knew he was free tomorrow and found he had no reason not to go. He didn’t have to and part of him thought about skipping it. Making an excuse but what else would he do? Just sit alone, at home. No dog or cat or goldfish to keep him company.

He agreed and Joe told him where to go. When he arrived, Joe was already there. Looking so casual and in his element. He wasn’t a gorgeous man, not like Ben himself. Average looking, but the best kind. Approachable. Ben wasn’t approachable and he knew that. Sometimes it was a blessing. Sometimes it was a curse.

“I think brunch is my favorite meal. Breakfast and lunch. You can’t lose.” Joe told him once they had settled in.

Ben just stared at him, bewildered yet oddly enchanted by his statement.

They looked through the menu, eventually settling on what they wanted. Ben shifted in his seat and didn’t say much. Joe talked mostly, about this and that. Ben found himself listening to it all, adding his own comments here and there.

It wasn’t until the check came that Ben realized what this potentially was. He froze suddenly, unsure of what to actually do. Joe must have sensed something and gave a small snort. “We can split it, you know.” He told him, waving his wallet up. “Or do you not have American currency?”

Ben shook his head, amused rather than annoyed. “Wanker.” He muttered, tossing down his own money.

They walked out together, shoulder to shoulder. Joe was still walking when they got to the corner and as they approached where Ben had parked, the blond found himself thinking of a subject he hadn’t thought of at all since their time together.

“I’m not gay.” He told Joe bluntly.

It was a strange statement to make, after having only had sex with the man just days ago, but it was truthful all the same.

The other male paused, taking in the words. And then he shrugged and continued walking. “Okay.” He told him, crossing the road carefully. Leaving Ben behind as he did.

Ben watched him go, finally snapping from his trance so he could turn the corner and go to his car.

He didn’t speak to Joe for another few days after that. Not because he didn’t want to, but for once in his life, he found himself somewhat busy. Normally he would make excuses for his schedule, but this time around he actually had things going on.

Finalizing on the loft, making sure it was in mint condition when he left. The last thing he needed was to be billed for something that he had broke without realizing it. He was going through his things, deciding what he wanted to bring back to London and what he should leave behind. He made a small box of things he wanted to give his friends, but aside from that, he was rather clueless.

He found the number in his phone, still unsaved with just three messages from it. He decided to be an old school and call the man. He came over within the hour and was absolutely baffled by the mess that Ben was living in.

He tried to explain himself, insist that he was normally a very tidy person and it was just the situation that was causing his home to be more cluttered than usual. Joe didn’t push and instead took it in stride, helping him on what he should keep and what he should donate.

“Like that Netflix special. What sparks joy, Ben? What does not spark joy?” Joe reached forward, grabbing a random item. “Joy? Happiness?”

“That's literally an apron,” Ben replied, feeling no spark towards the item.

“Do you use it often?”

Ben shook his head. “Free swag from a layout I did. Men dressed in provocative clothing.”

“How fun.” Joe tossed it to the right.

He decided anything going to the right was to be given to charity, while anything on the left got to stay. They went back and forth, finding things that sparked joy and things that did not spark joy. He came up with a few things he wanted to bring along with him, like little trinkets he had picked up while being in the states. His plan was to send them prior to him leaving and have his family hold onto them until he got settled in.

Most things that weren’t going back with him were clothing and anything too large to keep. Art pieces he bought to spice up the loft, outfits he rarely he worn. There was a small sculpture he was giving to Rami. Several books he planned on giving to Gwilym, which he will leave with Rami to give to the man when he returned from his work. He had already given Allen a small collection of random things he knew the Irish man could appreciate.

Now all that was left were the old films he had bought during his time here. Ben was an old soul, though he didn’t show it often. His agent had gifted him with a projector and a couple of hard printed movie reels. He said it was the best way to experience a film, by watching how it was originally meant to be seen.

Ben had yet to try it out, but he got himself a few different choices to watch on the makeshift screen. To be completely honest he didn’t know how to set the thing up, but Joe was more than capable. The man practically spazzed out overseeing it all and promptly dropped what he was holding so he could put it together for them.

Ben watched, amused and surprisingly charmed by how bloody giddy the man was at watching an old movie.

Joe chose Singin in the Rain. Apparently, it was one of the best musicals of all time, or so he carefully informed Ben once it was set up. Ben didn’t keep much more than beer and protein shakes in his fridge, having gotten rather used to Postmates over time, so they ordered in.

Joe paid without question, ordering their meals on Grubhub. Within half an hour, they were settled on the couch, watching the film play out in the dark. It was different, to say the least. And sometimes Ben liked different.

Joe spoke every now and then, dropping a truth bomb about how hard Debbie Reynold’s had to work while also putting up with Gene Kelly. The man was a genius, there was no denying that but he was also a hardass perfectionist.

Joe sympathized with him, believing that you can’t always be nice when it comes to art. Ben thought of all the photographers that had yelled and called him obscene names when he didn’t do the right pose or give the right look.

The movie played on and the men ate their food and drank their beer. Ben had a couple bottles of liquor he was still figuring out what to do with. He was down to three weeks and he had about six different bottles to go around. All of which were rare, expensive, and unique in their own rights. He thought about downing them in the final days he was there, but his liver quivered at the thought. And then he thought of giving them away but his wallet screamed in anguish.

When the movie ended and the food was finished and the beer was gone, the two just sat there on the couch. Ben hit the button, stopping the projector, leaving them in the dark. Neither made a move to get up and turn the lights on. Instead of choosing to embrace the shadows from the window that the moon brought in.

“Think you’ll miss LA?” Joe asked him quietly.

Ben knew it was an easy question. Of course, he’d miss it. Part of him wondered why he was even bothering to leave when London didn’t exactly offer him anything new or spectacular. He guessed it was due to not having anything here to hang onto. No steady career. All his friends were doing their own thing. Ben didn’t want to just sit by and wait for something to happen.

He would go back to London and see what was waiting for him. Wouldn’t be the first time and probably wouldn’t even be the last.

“It has its perks.” He answered, his voice heavy yet certain.

Joe turned his head, allowing their eyes to lock. Ben wasn’t lying when he said Joe was average looking, though in the low light and the shadows of the outside world coming through, he found that average was looking pretty good.

“What will you miss the most?” Joe asked.

Ben thought about it. What would he miss about this place? Maybe the weather. London could be so wet and dreary. LA had rain too, but the sun shined more often than not and there more so many trees. Ben forgot what it was like being on the beaches and watching the warm rays, sitting under a palm tree.

LA was like a dream that Ben knew was a dream, but he still didn’t want to wake from it.

“A lot of things,” He admitted, holding the man’s glance. Ben, whose arm had been wrapped around the back of the couch, lifted slowly, moving towards where Joe’s head was resting. He traced his fingers carefully along the dark locks of Joe’s hair, just barely touching.

Joe smiled, his eyes fluttering closed. “Three weeks?” He mentioned aloud.

Ben hummed. Three weeks and then he’d be gone. Who knew when he would return. Maybe a week later. Maybe never. All depended on what fate had planned for him.

“Three weeks.” Joe mimicked. “Twenty-one days.” Ben offered.

“Good number.”

Ben hummed again, moving in to close the gap between them. He didn’t remember if Joe’s lips had always been so soft, but he didn’t bother to dwell on it. Joe’s hand came up to cup his face, his thumb doing that wonderful thing it did, tracing along his skin slowly. He tasted like cheap beer and American cuisine, a strange combination for Ben to take a liking too.

They sat there in the dark, on his couch, kissing and touching like they had all the time in the world. There was no point to rush this out. Ben had nowhere to be as of right now and Joe . . . well, he was here. He could leave any time he needed to, but he didn’t. He stayed and continued their relaxed makeup session long into the night.

They had sex again, but not right away. They undressed there in the sitting room, taking the time to map one another out. Joe’s fingers ran along every hard bump and rugged ridge of Ben’s sculpted body and Ben’s lips outlined every curse and mark along Joe’s.

He had women comment on his looks a time or two. Give his unneeded compliments about how he was created by how and he was so fucking hot. Joe didn’t bother to do that. He would talk — Joe couldn’t stay quiet for long, that much was obvious, but it would never be about Ben himself.

About the moment, what they were doing. Even little things that had nothing to do with the fact that Ben’s hand was currently wrapped around his cock, pumping it rhythmically. Any normal person would find it annoying, but Ben found it endearing. He didn’t know if it was due to nerves or that was just who Joe was as a person, but he liked it.

And the only reason he brought their lips together to shut him up was that he liked that too. Joe was a good kisser. Fantastic. Ben wondered if they had been teens together in London, awkward and new to sex and such if they would have been snugging buddies. Ben wondered if he would have given him a chance back then. Back when he was young and stupid and new.

They didn’t have sex in his bed, not right away anyway. Once again Joe had shown up with a pocket-size bottle of lube, something Ben thought about questioning him for but instead chose to just hold on for dear life as Joe began to slowly ride him into oblivion. He held onto him, his fingers marking up his the skin of his back, ass, and hips.

Ben came inside him (well in the condom inside of him) and Joe finished between them both, making them both wet and sticky rather quickly. They shared a shower and while some lazy kisses were shared nothing more happened there.

Joe prepared to leave but Ben stopped him. It was late and dark. He had never been to Joe’s apartment, so he had no idea how far it was but nobody should have to drive in the middle of the night.

Ben may not be the most social person, but he never kicked a partner out when it was over. If they wanted to leave, then by God, go right ahead, but the option to stay was always there. Joe agreed and they retreated to Ben’s bedroom. Where the mattress was firm and the pillows were soft. The blanket wasn’t scratchy and he didn’t need to worry about some maid who had to clean the sheets.

The bed was decently sized and they both had enough room to lay on their own sides, but they met in the middle. Ben’s head found its way onto Joe’s chest, while Joe’s hand found its way into Ben’s, their fingers intertwined. Ben hummed softly, some song he used to sing back when he was young. There were no real lyrics. Just a nice melody. It lulled them both to sleep.

When morning came, they were still pressed together. Ben once again made the first move, though he thought it over properly. He had condoms in the draw, but no lube. It wasn’t normally something he had to worry about but found perhaps now it was time to invest.

Moving carefully through the sheets, Ben ducked underneath and found what he was looking for. They had both pulled their boxes on, just to be polite, and it was easy to see Joe’s outline through the gray cotton material. Ben had never done this before but knew what he liked for himself and used that incentive.

Pulling down the waistband, he freed Joe from his hold and got to work. One part hand, one part mouth, he went back and forth on the man, finding himself smirking against his cock when he heard Joe wake. When he pulled the sheets back, Ben looked up to him like a greedy child with his hand in the cookie jar (and not like a grown man with his mouth wrapped around the tip of a cock).

Joe cursed softly, a sound that was so strange for such a precious man, and his hand found its way to Ben’s head. He started out careful enough, petting him gently. As he began to speed up the movements, Joe began pulling at the shiny locks, tugging on him in earnest.

Joe finished within a few minutes. He pulled back slightly, allowing him to cum over his mouth and chest. Joe found himself laughing at the sight, not the least bit sorry for the mess he made. In his defense, Ben caused it after all.

Ben laughed along with him and gave the man a small kiss on the stomach before pushing up. It called for another shower and this time around, they did more than mere kisses. Under the hot spray and heavy stem, Joe pushed Ben up against the wall, kissing him deeply as he had worked on his untouched cock. A little thank you for the morning blow job.

They didn’t have sex there, but it sure felt like it. A hand job had never been so intense and Ben felt like he was seeing bloody stars when he finished. His heart was beating out of his chest and as they washed each other off, he found he didn’t want to stop touching Joe.

Ben was only slightly bitter when Joe left later that day. There was no reason to stay anymore. The loft had been properly cleaned and organized. Joe promised to help him donate everything when the time came and Ben was sure to make good on that.

When he left, Ben sat down on the couch that they had only christened hours ago and looked to his calendar.

Twenty days left and counting.

[jerometbean]

Mighteee Review [~STOP] Why I Don’t Recommend It?

Mighteee Review – 

Creates Tidal Waves Of Viral Traffic! Mighteee Is The Powerful Viral Traffic Software That Sends Floods Of Hyper Targeted Traffic To Any Site You Please, At The Push Of A Button.

Introduction

Imagine if every month you could break up a little bit of that. Steady streams of targeted visitors that want to buy or promote what you sell…

Thanks to the mightee, now everything is possible for you and you can start a deal with their special pre-launch pricing today. But you must now proceed to a much higher price model every month, so don’t wait another second for yourself to check it up.

This is already done by all big companies. Here is your opportunity to take advantage of it for quick free traffic.

Mighteee Review – What Exactly Is Mighteee?

Mightee is a powerful new software that uses online competitions and viral sharing to activate cached human behaviors, that virtually forces them to act, like to comment, like, share and otherwise spread your sites, and as more and more people begin to see these likes, comments, and shares, it sets a maze of viral traffic in motion and otherwise.

What is beautiful is that it’s not just an idea that someone has cooked out of the blue and has decided to run around to see if it works. No, Mighteee’s science and real-world results are proven.

In fact, the same formula used for the visits to its respective websites by MEN’S HEALTH, LEGO, DOMINO’S PIZZA, DC, LAYS and much more fortune 500 companies are used.

Mighteee Review – Overview

Product NameMighteeeProduct CreatorMosh BariLaunch Date & Time[2020-Nov-28] @ 09:00 EDTPrice$19 One-timeBonusNo Better BonusRefund Period30-DaysOfficial Sitewww.mighteee.comProduct TypeViral Traffic SoftwareSkillAll LevelsMy RecommendationHighly Recommended

Mighteee Review – My Overall Rating

4.3 Total Score

Not Good!

Your brand new mighteee software lets you design, create, and launch as many new viral contests as you wish. You simply choose exit, photo, or sweepstakes and the point and click wizard will have your contest live in mere minutes and if launching one contest could quickly make you a potential $1470, imagine how much more you could make if you launched 4 contests per month, or 8 contests per month. Or even more! Your income would skyrocket and that still doesn’t account for all the extra income you could generate by mailing that ever growing opt-in list of yours. Mighteee is engineered to be super intuitive and push button easy to use, so building, deploying, and launching your contests can take you just minutes.

QUALITY

5

FEATURES

7.5

EASY TO USE

7.5

SOFTWARE UPDATES

5.5

SUPPORT

7

User Rating: 1 (1 votes)

How Does Mighteee Work?

Step #1: Sign into the mightee admin area – go to your panel – this intuitive member area makes creating a viral traffic explosion with a few quick clicks super simple.

Step #2: Select a viral contest type: choose exit, photo or sweepstake, and start building your own traffic to attract a viral contest in just several minutes. Pick one of 3 professionally-designed contest types.

Step #3: Publish your contests and get on with traffic: watch your traffic counter-explosive, these contests are designed by human behavioural science and you are surprised that they force people to take the actions they want.

Photo Contest

Sweepstakes:

Optin Popups:

The Features Of Mighteee

This is a software system that builds, deploys and tracks all for you.

Mightee makes it very easy to create viral competitions that trigger human behaviour and cause traffic, leadership and sales floods regardless of your experience.

The first Viral Contest template is the exit attempt to scroll and retrieve potential traffic and sales stealthily before you leave. This is a viral loop which makes more traffic possible.

Would you like to know the easiest way to get there? It is by keeping the visitors on your pages and by making use of their will to share and win.

This strong method allows you to convert the saved traffic into additional traffic by allowing visitors to share your site with other targeted prospects.

This virtually unavoidable loop allows you to generate more clicks and automatically maximise your profits.

Photo contests are a quick and easy way to generate massive waves of viral traffic because it takes advantage of the desire of people to share their images.

In minutes you can create hot viral competitions in which thousands, tens of thousand and hundreds of thousands of visitors to any page you like with these professionally designed sweepstakes contest templates.

Their Pricing and Upgrade Details

Mighteee: The FE Offer

Choice of 1 license per site ($17) or 3 licenses for 3 different sites ($27)

OTO-1 Gold Upgrade ($67 One-time)

Built-in 30-day automatic sequencing templates that are uploaded into the software, customers can edit your emails to anything they want.

OTO-2 Platinum Upgrade ($47 One-time)

Members can create templates on three different niches (Making money online, Relationships, Health) Only one site per niche. With the OTO 1 upgrade or integrate with their own AR 3, they can build lists of these different niches.

OTO-3 Titanium Upgrade ($67 One-time)

Members unlock unlimited sites for integrations

OTO-4 Done For You Upgrade ($127 One-time)

Contests are pre-created Members just need to log in, pick their favorite funnel and run the contests

OTO-5 Reseller Agency License ($97 One-time)

For your agency website, customers will make a difference. You simply have to change the logo and name of the company, and a few more information to build the website of the agency.

Who “Mighteee” Is Designed For?

Beginner and newbie marketers

People looking for their 1st successes

People tired of the 9 to 5 grind

People trying to go full time online

People that want traffic for their sites

People that just want something that works

Frequently Asked Questions About Mighteee

Is there training? Yes Yes Yes. Authors offer comprehensive video training, step-by-step, on all aspects of creating and initiating new viral competitions.

Are technology skills or skills needed? No No. Mightee is a simple intuitive button and we have extensive stellar support and video training that helps you with questions.

Is there training? Yes Yes Yes. We offer comprehensive video training, step-by-step, on all aspects of creating and initiating new viral competitions.

Are technology skills or skills needed? No No. Mightee is a simple intuitive button and we have extensive stellar support and video training that helps you with questions.

Is there training? Yes Yes Yes. We offer comprehensive video training, step-by-step, on all aspects of creating and initiating new viral competitions.

Are technology skills or skills needed? No No. Mightee is a simple intuitive button and we have extensive stellar support and video training that helps you with questions.

Mighteee Review – The Pros and Cons

Pros

3 point and click viral elements

Beginner friendly system

Professionally crafted contest templates

Robust data reporting and analysis

Lead and winner tracking

Better customer support

Cons

This is not a long term business model

It can be effective as long as you drive enough traffic to your Mighteee quiz or funnels

The price is very cheap and one-time. So I can’t guarantee you the regular updates and support

The Reason Why I Don’t Recommend Mighteee

Their sales page contains a lot of fake income proofs. They are not really made using this Mighteee system.

The creator of Mighteee system (Mosh Bari) is an established online marketer who create sell digital products on WarriorPlus.

From my understanding he should have at least 50,000+ email subscribers in his list. So making these kinds of money is possible to him.

Even you can also generate the same amount of money with Mighteee system. But you need to put a lot of work. It’s not a push button system.

Also, Mighteee is not a sustainable system. It may be abandoned by the creator because of the one-time pricing. The system may miss out the updates and support from the creator.

So I highly recommend you not to invest in this system. Instead, try this proven method  to generate 6-figure income with 100% free traffic.

source https://spsreviews.com/mighteee-review/ from SPS Reviews https://spsreviewscom1.blogspot.com/2020/11/mighteee-review-stop-why-i-dont.html

[awesomelephuoclocblog-blog]

Pixamattic Review – Unique Visual Content For You Instantly To Get Buyers!

https://lephuocloc.com/pixamattic-review/

Pixamattic Review – Unique Visual Content For You Instantly To Get Buyers!

Pixamattic Review

Astoundingly quick, 1-CLICK EDITING, PUBLISHING and POSTING

Considering, individuals for the most part develop their social clans with tremendous proportions of posts each day with the end motivation driving getting free traffic. In any case, where on earth would they have the alternative to get astonishing blueprints and pictures to present on their records on pull in sweethearts? On the off chance that you think they make their posts genuinely, do whatever it takes not to be right. It's the prompted AI advancement that stimulates them dispose of the truly irksome work. It will spare you bunches of time.

When in doubt, there is as of not long ago another way that different specialists typically suggest: repost other staggering pictures A.K.A serve content. By therefore, we pull content from hot zones to our records, which gives off an impression of being an unbelievable technique, eh? Moreover, this curation work is unquestionably not hard to the point that you would lean toward not to perceive reality that posting others' stuff is deserting your property continually! I comprehend this reality strikes you hard at any rate fundamentally scroll Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any site and focus on the detail.

Have you seen influencers, bloggers, enormous names and sharp patrons are less enhancement off their pages by others' substance? They put resources into the A.I. advancement that causes them with interfacing with their gathering, posting so much substance, so quick, each second of the day? It's exceptional.

You don't require an enormous number of laborers or let your rivals appear for you commonly. With Pixamattic, the starting late discharged AI based substance maker, you can disengage all the cutoff points and draw in swarm missing a lot of exertion.

Discover all the all the all the more fascinating genuine factors about this instrument concerning the going with bits of this outline.

Pixamattic-Review

What Is Pixamattic?

Pixamattic is the world's top tier Artificial Intelligent creator and electronic life computerization programming that changes how you make, scatter, post and offer amazing quality, proficient level visuals, in a flash.

This sharp programming will enable non-coordinators with high changing over and particularly astonishing substance snappier than at later. Wavering and eye getting visual substance will be gotten ready for you and your image typically, so you can draw in, partner with and convert your leads into deals and paying clients!

Pixamattic-1

Meet The Creator – Mo Latif et al

Mo Latif is the striking name who if all else fails works with Brettgram to pass on top reactions for advertisers.

With over 2 decades working in the business, these individuals are top specialists that individuals appreciate. This stand-out name Mo Latif has starting late directed different leaderboards, which as such gets him a notoriety for knowing the game best.

A piece of his things are JV Madness, Flickstr, Clipmagix and some more. This time, you can lay your trust on Pixamattic because of the killing highlights appeared in the going with part. We should keep on finding.

Thing Rating27Pixamattic-Logo

Name: Pixamattic

Portrayal: Pixamattic is the world's five star Artificial Intelligent coordinator and online frameworks organization computerization programming that changes how you make, pass on, post and offer stunning quality, competent level visuals, quickly.

Offer worth: 27

Money: USD

Working System: All Systems

Application Category: Software

Producer: Mo Latif et al

[ More ]

Outline

This magnificent programming will engage non-producers with high changing over and altogether captivating substance snappier than at later. Vacillating and eye getting visual substance will be normal for you and your image regularly, so you can pull in, interface with and convert your leads into deals and paying clients!

Pixamattic Review – Feature Details

A.I. Visual Creator

Clear, persistently controlled, fake wise improvement makes it 100% novice especially orchestrated.

Point-n-Click fundamental with What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get supervisor that makes your eye finding astonishing visual substance just by embeddings your substance.

Astonishing, able level structures at the snaps of your mouse without learning HTML, coding or portrayals plan. (ZERO earlier information or structure aptitudes required.)

Pixamattic-Review-1

Extraordinarily Beautiful Visuals

Make plans that are so staggering they're ideal for direct courses of action.

Select an incomprehensible photograph, join some substance, blend in some breathtaking embellishments, and you'll be in stunningness of what you made right away.

Start with a sensible canvas in the occasion that you're a creating Da Vinci, or utilize the AI fashioner to make for you.

Pixamattic-Review-2

Robotized Social Presence

In 1 snap, induce your favorable position pulling, deals making visuals in seconds across easygoing relationship with zero exertion.

Course in a split second so your guests are speedily pulled in to what you bring to the table.

Motorized organizing a long time of posts sporadically at the ideal time that interfaces with your gathering at the correct second.

Pixamattic-Review-3

Boundless Visual Campaigns

Pixamattic associates with you to spread and award boundless and exquisite visual messages the way where your client need, today.

You can have your first notable crusade orchestrated and getting you new leads and courses of action in only 60 seconds… working for you on autopilot at the snap of a catch in a comparative number of specialty markets you need.

It's adjusted to give you the most indispensable partner with visual substance to PROFIT from!

NOTE: Pixamattic isn't only for web arranging. Download your stunning plans and use them any place on the web.

Pixamattic-Review-4

Incomprehensible Products and Services

You can sell iPads, cameras, toys, games, books, make-up, creating or golf things. You can even sell electronic things and associations too.

Got more than a certain something or in different distinguishing strengths? Make an effort not to worry over it.

Pixamattic will convey unlimited designs for your business so you can rapidly use the intensity of easygoing relationship for FREE traffic in 1 snap.

Selling with visual substance has never been simpler.

Pixamattic-Review-5

Boundless Customization and Combinations

You can fortify your introduction and reach with various structures, impossible covering and game-plan blends to get various plans of individuals who revolve around various sorts of mediums.

With 1 snap you can fuse layers, change the edge, foundation, crop, resize, disguising, content style, size and inside and out all the additionally making eye-getting, brilliant visual substance to give your gathering the look and feel they need

You can begin with no arranging, fuse your own blueprints, pictures or photographs and send guests to any things and association, on the web or isolates. Principal. Productive. Electronic life Ready!

Pixamattic-Review-6

Set-N-Forget Automation

Make your visual substance once and a brief timeframe later set your Pixamattic point of reference to auto-post or run on plans sans hands, to benefit by incalculable clients worldwide at the snap of a catch.

This opens the conductors to FREE normal and viral traffic that works for you on complete autopilot 24 hours reliably, 7 days out of consistently.

Everything is great without depending upon outsider gadgets so in one spot you can contact your gathering all over, for the length of the day, dependably honestly inside the dashboard.

Pixamattic-Review-7

Free Clicks, Leads and Sales

Pixamattic is streamlined with worked in social sharing. Expansion clients and your favorable circumstances with FREE well known traffic from the BIGGEST social affiliations like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Each post in this way gather your backlinks so you bounce on Google's web searcher for basically legitimately FREE traffic.

You can correspondingly engage your guests to 1-click-share your structures so your business hovers around the web 100% free.

Pixamattic-Review-8

100% Hands-Free Viral Traffic

Immediately sway PROVEN and endeavored obviously pre-composed shrewd arrangements to sell your advanced or physical things speedier with 1 snap sharing to all basic easygoing systems for FREE traffic.

Get seen by countless individuals and send them to any site of your decision.

Much more out and out, you can likewise MONETIZE by others sharing your visuals to BOOST your compass to get you more salary.

https://lephuocloc.com/pixamattic-review/

https://lephuocloc.com/

[musefulstranger]

5x09 review-One Fettered Slave

I can’t believe we’ve come to this point.

One episode before the final epilogue and it feels so surreal-i can’t even begin to imagine  how it must’ve been for the people that have sticked to this show for 4 years.

Ep 9 was what i imagined it to be: quick paced, action packed and extremely emotional.

I was scared about the analogy between the Helena moments and the general mythology arc cause they had to show a lot of things- especially after Siobhan’s death- but they balanced it well.

let’s analyze the different thematics:

The Funeral

Siobhan’s funeral  started with Sarah speaking . In an episode that is focused on another character i think the writers did a good choice not showing Sarah’s vulnerability.

She’s suddenly the pillar of the family and eveyone is expecting directions from her. She has to be the strong one there’s no other way. Her grief and feelings are not her priority right now  so she won’t break down. Not in front of Kira, not in front of everyone.

Sarah’s grown so much.This moment says it all

what am i supposed to do?

she can’t afford losing her child as well. She’s the reason she’s keeping it together after all. So she stays with her and comforts her. Something Ms S had done all those years when Sarah was absent.

I also adored the symbolism of her wearing her mother’s jacket.

Sarah taking responsibility, lifting the weights of this family

also congrats for letting Tatiana without make up in her  portrayal of Sarah (or rather the “no make up” makeup ya know) cause it made her emotional chaos more humane… her eyes said it all..

also about her breaking down- i believe we’re gonna see her grieve the way she’s supposed to after everything is finally over. Last episode is Sarah centric so it totally fits to have her moment in the epilogue.

What i didn’t like from the funeral scene was the singing at the beginning, which i found anticlimactic..it would be much better if we could just hear Sara and Felix speaking with no other sound in the background..

Also the fact that 4 days after S’s death they could walk and talk in a house that is a murder scene was totally unrealistic..Police had to be all over the place investigating and all…

Unless Art handled the situation in a way..but still a plot hole is a plot hole

Team working together

Cosima,Felix, Art, Hellwizard, Scott, Rachel ok what a pleasant suprise to see everyone working together. I loved the fact that supporting actors got the chance to actually help the ledas and be useful. Each one helped in their own field.

Cosima helped with the Dyad information and Scotty-Hell with the security system (even if it was kinda weak to hack the security system with such convienience-i’m bypassing that lol)

Even Rachel helped!! Rachel!!! My only complaint was Alison’s minimum participation in this but i get that given the circumstances her involvement  would be extremely difficult

Should i talk about Art??

Cause everything

screams

SACRIFICE

and all this time i ‘ve been crazy rambling about how his chances of surving are veeeery  low…. ep 9 built his exodus cause the final episode will be Leda/Sarah Centric…so be prepared guys…

i get Ebro’s schedule..i trully do..and i was fine with Sardinia..i was fine with Geneva as well cause there was a reason behind it plotwise but we’ve come to the point where there isn’t even an explanation about this…

they didn’t clarify the reason she left… cause it doesn’t make sense when Siobhan’s funeral was 4 days after the gallery party…there wasn’t a reason good enough to justify her absence that’s why the writers didn’t give one…they prefered to let the fans decide which reason was good enough…let’s be real though that was sloppy..and as much as i love orphan black i’m gonna point out  it’s weakening points as well.

Coady+ Mark

So Mark died absolutely clueless…his death matched Ira’s death, both manipulated by their creators, hoping for a cure that never existed in the first place.Too bad that there wasn’t any building up to bring tension and to make us care about those characters… so this scene felt kinda flat at least for me…i believe the reason behind this was cause ob writers didn’t want to make Coady a grey character…. well i for once celebrated her death after this scene

wait it is confirmed that Coady is dead right? I mean Helena beat the shit out of her so it would be  impossible to zombie out ?? or should i be worried??

PT + Rachel!Sarah

oh god PT without his wig is like a bulb with ears lmao

anyway so i loved these 2 together…this is the first time Sarah meets John am i right?

also congrats to the props team and the level of detail they use in each scene…i liked that Sarah didn’t wear the same patch Rachel wears…

a++ to the dialogue about PT perving out on Rachel because in that way Sarah put herself on Rachel’s shoes and actually saw for the first time how they were monitoring her sister and what actually means complete lack of privacy…

also both Susan and PT seem to have a perplexed image as to what a father/mother figure looks like

you don’t fuck your ‘son’/ or watch you ‘daughter’ masturbate and then call them “son/daughter” lol

but it gave me pleasure that Rachel never actually called PT “father” and that’s how Sarah got exposed..

the moment she cut him with the knife i was like “yaaaas finish him lol”

HELENA

FLASHBACKS

omg??

don’t get me wrong the kid was very good/ super talented and all

but how could they do this???

i mean it was SO.FUCKING.OBVIOUS that this isn’t the face of a leda clone you couldn’t concentrate on anything else!

at least i couldn’t! Especially when 2 episodes before they used canonically Cynthia!

i mean

??????

it defies logic?? there’s no excuse??

they could have dubbed the ukranian parts i don’t care if little Cynthia couldn’t play that good that was so wrong in so many levels… it had the “Spongebob takes a bath in the sea” logic lol

and it was really such a shame cause the flashbacks were so amazing..

first of all i loved the whole “pleasures of the flesh are unacceptable in a religious environment” thematic cause it adresses real social issues like the austerity and fake puritanism of social institutions.

the reason behind Helena’s bleached hair was a nice touch even though little Helena should also have some  burn marks after this…we got to know why she has those pink shades under her eyes as well so that was good..

as far as to why her hair is still blonde after all this time…well i choose to patch this plot hole by believing that Helena did this to herself again and again..she bleached/dyed them as a sign of punishment, self harm  and guilt cause that was the way she was raised- a mouthpiece and killing machine of others..

the art department did a brilliant job with the dollhouse and the correlation between Helena’s fixation with dolls back in her Rachel assassination attempt

Tomas took her and hide her the fact  that she’s a copy..she grew up in the illusion that she was special..that she was the original..in fact Rachel and Helena fantasized about the same thing and it is so fascinating to see how they are 2 different sides of the same coin…

Most Heartbreaking moment

Oh god this moment…

what kind of mother could you possibly make?

jesus Tatiana each time you give more and more, i haven’t seen an actor as committed and devoted as you are, you deserve all the praise girl woah

Coady found Helena’s weakness and it is not how she smells, looks or talks…it’s about her capacity of giving a future more bright and beautiful to her children than the one her younger self  had to endure…

and at the end of the day she’s willing to take the bait..  it’s either freedom or death…exactly like Rachel..there’s no middle ground..she won’t leave her children become experiments so that’s why i find super important that we finally get a Rachel Helena scene…there’s a high probability Rachel won’t make it in the finale so at least lets have a last glorious scene with the 3 of them as they try to escape…or so i hope…

THE TWINS

YEEEEEESSSSS

all this crazy rambling about this being a Sarah-Helena season finally came true! Everything came full circle and this moment was SO important like you guys don’t understand…

Sarah finally made up for Helena..she gave her her blood to keep her alive…she put each and everyone of her friends and family searching for her, she made her a priority- drowning her grief -cause she couldn’t lose another one..especially Helena.

And now she will help her give birth..she will be there for her, protect her, give her life even..even tho after the obspoilers fiasco my theory now is that Art is gonna save Sarah…because it is super symbolic .. it would be his second chance and his redemption after losing Beth.. now he’s gonna do it right. Idk it is so foreshadowing… i wonder what Rachel’s role is gonna be..i sure hope she’s the one that’s gonna kill PT but who knows at this point.

Ep 9 set the mood for a very powerful ob series finale..Helena’s inner world was raw and pure and it’s going to  parallel  Sarah’s  final  gut-wrenching episode.The twins are going to set the epilogue and i trully hope their journey will be as magical and  satisfying as this show was  for all of us.

[thats-not-buddies]

Your Work is Derivative [February 2017]

Books

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet So. This book. It's one of those odd ones that I picked up by chance before the flood of recommendations came in. I saw it in someone's instagram post the day after I borrowed it. I believe it was in my unnecessary library haul last month. "A Long Way" (or "Planet" or "ALWTASAP" or "LWSAP" or "Small Angry Planet", I have no idea how to abbreviate it) is an adventure story by Becky Chambers set in space, very much like Firefly except less with less gore and more diversity.

I do mean diversity of all kinds. It is heavily implied although not outright stated that only one of the humanoid cast of characters is actually white, and beyond that, a lot of them aren't even vaguely human. Unlike Sci-Fi shows that are limited by having human actors, a good number of the crew on the Wayfarer aren't even humanoid. Additional to that, multiple sexualities are featured as well as genuinely different cultures, as alien as they might be (pun intended). The review on the front of my copy stated "a joy to read and joyously written" and I have to agree. There's plenty of action and drama in this story, and it's riveting, but at no point are you overwhelmed by the tension or angry at the characters. It works, and the people (whether they're 'people' or not) are good, kind and you love to get to know them, even if you don't love them all. I have successfully given almost nothing about the plot away, but the title gives you a good clue. It is a long (long long long) way, to a small angry planet. Becky Chambers' biography states that she is the child of two very smart cookies, and that is evident in her writing, that even the fake things sound true and scientific. I adored it and almost want to pick it up and read it again. I can't, however, as my dad took it as soon as I finished it.

Audiobooks

The Art of Asking

I've reviewed the Art of Asking in my Goodreads and I don't think I have much more to say. While I've previously read the book and loved it, this time around I listened to the audiobook, which I remember being up for some awards. It was an excellently crafted audiobook, and I don't think that's something you can say often. Amanda Palmer reads it, as you might expect, and she intersperses the narrative with ukulele themes and the occasional full-length track to help provide context to a story. These are not always her songs though, but sometimes those of other artist friends. I noticed some critics called her work contradictory, and yes, if you were trying to read The Art of Asking as a guide to getting everything you've ever wanted, you're not going to be successful. Life is contradictory. What worked for her in some instances didn't work in others, but the point is that she tried, and she wants you to try too. My favourite section of the book was about crowdfunding and the most obvious but truly important lesson to be taken from that is

you can't crowdfund without a crowd

. Lots of people seem to think asking the internet for help is like getting free money. It's not, because at its core, you aren't asking the internet. You're asking your audience. These are your friends, family, fans, people you have already had to work for years with which to build relationships. It's a lesson worth keeping in mind. Another key factor was the difference between asking and begging. When you ask for something, you approach it with the attitude that the other person can say no, and that's okay. You're begging when you manipulate or demand that the other person help, or act out when they decline. Begging is an act of desperation, and that is sometimes and sadly required, but asking is an act of collaboration and optimism. Too many times I've seen people asking for things, only to get angry when they aren't immediately granted their wishes. At that point, it stops being asking. This book, or audiobook, makes you think about things, and I highly recommend it. 

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) Felicia Day's book has made me remember mortifying facts about my life on the internet that I wish had never existed. It's great. As she talks about her WoW addiction, her forum poetry about games from her youth, and the awkward meet ups with teens from her community, I began to recall the cringe-worthy moments of my past that I had firmly hidden away. No, I will not tell you about them. I think what I like best about Felicia is that she didn't suddenly skyrocket to anything. She didn't become an overnight cult hit and she didn't even figure out what she was doing straight away. She studied the violin and math at college, before going on to become a struggling actor, and then a web creator. I love that, because it's non-linear, and the best stories of success don't follow a straight line. Also, she procrastinates like crazy and I identify with that. I wrote this on February 6th, I'm sharing it on March 1st.

Online Wonders

Check Please.

Has anyone NOT discovered Ngozi's Check Please yet? It's a comic found on tumblr, about college hockey players, who are smart, funny, loud feminists. And some of them are gay. It took me a long time to get around to checking it out, so long in fact that I missed the SECOND Kickstarter for the series by about two months. I'm still upset about this fact because I could have gotten myself a Samwell jersey (and to support the series, I am so excited to support art where I can this year). Check Please has one main star, and he has my heart, little Bits, Eric (Bitty) Bittle. He's a sweet Southern boy who bakes, and plays hockey and eventually comes to live in the Haus with his team. I was stupid for a long time and didn't get around to throwing myself head first into this series and now I'm so glad I have. I have read everything released up to this point and I got so excited I even ordered the two sketch zines, which arrived yesterday, Huddle Vol 1 & 2. They're so beautiful. I'm also now supporting the creator Patreon, and I've been lucky enough to have their livestreams coincide with my free time on several occasions. Gosh I love the series. Not just for Bitty and his pining and baking and beautiful happy relationships, but for the supporting characters who are all interesting enough to be the leads in their own stories. There's Ransom and Holster, two best friends who unless you ship them, show that two straight guys don't have to be awkward about loving one another and showing affection. There's Lardo, the team's manager, a tiny lady who is more of a boss than the rest of the team put together AND she's an artist, and the last character I want to mention today is Shitty. That's right. Shitty. Shitty Knight is a moustachioed lothario, except he's not. He's the one you ask when it comes to law, feminism and kegsters, and people come out to him a lot. It's a thing. He's just that safe and weird and great. But not as great as Bitty. I love Bitty. And Jack. I've somehow avoided mentioning Jack but I've rambled enough. For now. You should check out Check Please, the patreon, and Ngozi.

Unnecessary Library Haul

I borrowed and promptly returned the soundtrack to the Pokemon movie after two days. What a past blast and so on. This soundtrack was so very nineties, with N*Sync, Britney, Christina, and even Aaron Carter. It was a hoot. I was surprised that there were songs I haven't heard since I last had a copy of the soundtrack (on CASETTE) and yet I had their lyrics memorised. Vacations where I wanna be, party on the beach where the fun is free... ohhh come on try to catch me, ohhh catch me if you can, ohhh catch meeee, if you can! Have some fun with the funk, turn up the bass and pop the trunk! - I swear Aaron Carter did not have a licence back when he was singing about the sound system in his car. 

Games

Fantasy Life (3DS)

After getting way into Stardew Valley again, I, in turn, got WAY into Fantasy Life once more. Fantasy Life is a 3DS game by the people who brought you the Professor Layton puzzle series. This is like that in almost no ways, except for the quirky characters you come across. Fantasy Life is a life simulation game (spoiler) that allows you to take on multiple 'lives' within your game. These are essentially skillsets. You can, for example, start a Life as a woodcutter, chopping down trees and... chopping down more trees, and then decide to use that wood by starting another Life (like changing your hat, really) as a Carpenter. There are three types of Lives in the game, combat lives (mercenary, hunter, paladin, etc.), gatherer lives (woodcutter, miner, angler), and artisan lives (carpenter, blacksmith, cook, alchemist). These lives all have different goals and skills and getting all the achievements can be so consuming that you forget to follow the main storyline, which is cute, wordy, and run by a talking butterfly. It's a great game, and if you'd like a better overview of it, my favourite review that got me into the game in the first place is Mischa Crossing's Rave video on youtube. [Picture below from mischacrossing.com]

Poochy and Yoshi’s Woolly World As a present to myself I recently pre-ordered Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World. The original WiiU game, just titled Yoshi's Woolly World, is such a sweet game. It's a Yoshi platform game but made of yarn. One of the main things I look for in games are bright happy colours, and this delivers, as does the new version for 3DS. There isn't a big change between the platforms, in fact they are basically the same game, except the new version has more integration with amiibos (my set came with Poochy and pink yarn Yoshi, they're so cute!), and more Poochy. I'm not a big fan of the weird dog with a tongue enlargement, but I like that the game is now portable so I can play a level whenever I feel like it. Probably still going to play in the same room as my WiiU though. Whatever. There's a whole convenience thing at play here. I've been playing the game for two days now and it's as cute as I thought. By using the poochy yarn amiibo you can complete gold rush runs and specific poochy levels. You can also access new designs (wool patterns) for it and save it to your amiibo so that you can play with, for example, bumble bee poochy.

[misterrietveld]

Reading List 2016

Me Before You (127,360 words)

A great, emotional read. Absolutely loved the protagonist and the story. Super heartfelt and I got really attached to the characters. After finishing it, I remember being on a book high for days; I hit up my friend who read it and we discussed the characters and ending and just how sad we were. I told my boss about the book and got so excited when she told me she bought a copy and started reading it, too. We would talk about it during work/office hours. My sister also stole my copy to read and has yet to return it. 

Ella Enchanted (52,994 words)

An oldie! I read this back in middle school and I remember being in love with it. I would check it out of the library multiple times if just to read my favorite parts. So yeah, I figured I would get a copy for myself and read it again. Still a fun read. 

Rebel Genius (81,775 words)

Written by Michael Dante DiMartino, one of the creators of ATLA and LOK. It has illustrations! I’m such a kid, I know. I really liked this. It has such an interesting plot and universe. Reading it definitely reminded me of the vibe I got from watching ATLA. I like art so I thought some of the things the book discussed were educational to me, too. The author’s note in the book talked about how the Renaissance and major artists inspired this world so I’m excited about how this story will further use that material and play out in the later books.

Six of Crows (135,275 words)

I actually saw this book’s sequel (Crooked Kingdom) while looking up Rebel Genius. But I didn’t have any interest in reading it until I saw a mutual on Tumblr reblogging stuff about it. Though I’ve never spoken to them, I tend to trust their taste so I looked it up and lo and behold I got hooked! Honestly though, I wasn’t that sold on the point man of this series, Kaz Brekker. I thought he was too arrogant, too suave, too good at everything to be a captivating character. I was definitely way more interested in the other characters. It was annoying sometimes to end a chapter in one character’s perspective when I was getting so invested in them to switch to another’s perspective, but then have the whole process would repeat with every chapter because I can’t get enough of them! When I got to the end, I remember being very relieved that it was 7pm because it was early enough that I could still head out to the nearest store and buy the sequel. 

Crooked Kingdom (173,600 words)

This is the sequel to Six of Crows. This is where I get WRECKED. All that shit I said about Kaz Brekker in Six of Crows? THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW. This is such a great followup to the first book. I don’t even know where to begin. The characters have such amazing development and I’ve enjoyed all of their paths, including Kaz. Where I was hesitant with him before, I started rooting for him so bad by the end of the book. I had read a few light spoilers from an interview the author had about Crooked Kingdom, so I remember being distracted with things that could happen while I was reading it, and when stuff actually happened, my heart broke! Be warned, this book is heartbreaking! But not in the cheesy way. Anyway, I cried.

The Raven Boys (128,960 words)

The Dream Thieves (112,019 words)

Lily Blue, Blue Lily (91,700 words)

The Raven King (138,880 words)

I’m just going to do a collective review of this series, The Raven Cycle. I’m gonna be honest, I kind of sped-read through this series. The goal to find Glendower, baddies, and magic(?)/psychic concepts didn’t really interest me. I was thrown for a loop most of the time. What I did like were the relationships between the main characters. They felt really honest; despite everyone’s really glaring flaws and sometimes harmful opinions, they continue to choose and stick by each other. That is a great concept. I support this concept. Some parts made me laugh out loud. There were a lot of great parts that I marked and highlighted. I do want to get a chance to reread this series. I felt rushed/impatient at the time I was reading it, so I know I missed a few things. And maybe I’ll better appreciate the plot a second time around.

Gone Girl (145,719 words)

I started this book back in early 2015. But school got in the way so I stopped somewhere 70-90 pages in. I had been waiting to finish it before I watched the movie. And yes! It is awesome! I kind of wished I just watched the movie first anyway because I didn’t really like it after reading the book. But that’s always to be expected, right? But wow I was mindblown with the plot. I already expected some of it (because its been years and I can’t avoid spoilers for that long); my favorite part has to be when you realize the twist and you get her real side and story, and she explains the fake diary entries. Like damn, commitment! I went back and reread all the diary entries. Pretty damn good.

Looking for Alaska (64,033 words/2 = 32,000 words)

I kind of hated this book. Sorry. I only got halfway through (maybe less) before I gave up and looked up a summary online. I didn’t like the main character at all; I thought he was pretentious, whiny, a coward, and a few other things. But I guess that’s the point? It could also have something to do with how all the books I’ve read so far have been books with multiple perspectives, so this book being in first-person from a single character might’ve been too much for me. I don’t know, I felt bad not liking this book. I’ve read John Green’s other books (was in love with TFIOS, fairly liked Paper Towns and Abundance of Katherines), and a friend told me Looking for Alaska was her favorite so maybe my expectations were too high? Maybe I would’ve liked it a few years ago? But in reality, I don’t plan on picking up this book again. 

Carry On (??? words)

Fun read! I enjoyed the characters and their alternating perspectives. I laughed a lot but it was another book I sped-read through. Wasn’t that interested plot-wise.

The Night Circus (120,937 words)

Wistful is the word I would use to describe this book. I really liked this! The writing style, the magic, the imagery, the characters, everything! I thought the characters were all so well-introduced and even through limited appearances, you get the essence of the character. I love that the author gives you a lot of detail on some things but also gives lets the reader come up with the wonders of the circus, too. A testament to how much I enjoy a book is looking up reviews for said book. I like seeing other people vocalizing their thoughts and opinions and see how similar it is to mine. I was shocked though when I read reviews on Amazon. “Flat, 1D,” etc. I can understand where they would get that impression, but at the same time, I ask: Do you have no imagination to fill in the gaps yourself? More than lengthy descriptions of setting and attire, I think the author does a great job of telling us how one character makes another feel. That sounds cheesy, but honestly, I read this and I feel warm and captivated by the characters, not only because of what they evoke to me but also what they mean to the other characters. Through their interactions, you can see how these characters have come to trust each other, care about each other, and really just regard each other. Which is pretty impressive when you’re dealing with a circus full of characters, from performers, to investors, to clockmakers, to a whole community of circus fanatics, to a lonely farm boy. Definitely a book I would keep picking up.

Beautiful Darkness

A comic by Kerascoët and Fabien Vehlmann, not the other fantasy novel. This was a very interesting read. Dark and disturbing. It reminds me of The Lord of the Flies in terms of its plot of self-civilization and how bad everything goes when you suck at governing. It’s a really strange tale. I discussed it with a friend after and we just had a lot of theories on what was left unsaid (because a lot of things are left unsaid). I’m left mostly confused so I go to readers’ reviews for their opinions and views on the story, and there, I got a better idea of how the comic criticizes shallow offers of help, which I thought was really interesting because no one ever expects severe consequences to come from it. But the comic really explores that culture along with the repercussions of self-interest.

Approx. 1.5 million words. So! That’s what I’ve read in 2016. That on top of a lot of fanfiction. Should I try to beat myself in 2017? Haha, I don’t know if I can; this was a really good year for me in terms of reading.

[tidethreads]

A Paparazzo Explains How Staged Celebrity Photos Really Work

This article is from 2016 but it’s still very relevant since it seems to me many people don’t know how this works. Full article under the cut.

When The Sun released photos of Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston kissing(or "snogging"), the question on everyone's mind was, Was this staged? (Also, Tom Hiddleston? Really?) To get a better understanding of how the shady world of pap setups work, Cosmopolitan.com spoke to the New York City paparazzo and creator of Stupid Famous People, Justin Steffman:

Do you think the Taylor and Tom pics are staged? Why or why not?

Taylor Swift is a celebrity that won't walk outside without perfect makeup and great fashion, and she smiles at every paparazzi to make sure they all get beautiful pictures. There is an unspoken deal between Swift and paparazzi, and her bodyguards make it clear. If we act professionally and listen to their instructions, then she will give it up and everyone gets what they want. We get nice pictures, and she looks great in the magazines. She takes an entirely different approach to paparazzi than most celebrities do. It's all about business for her. Every time she steps outside is a new opportunity for her to look good in the magazines. Certain celebrities, like Taylor, not only accept that paparazzi are a part of the business, but they actually go out of their way to use us as a tool for publicity.

My first instinct when seeing the pictures of Taylor and Tom is that they are definitely staged. But I'm friends with the paparazzo who is credited with those images and he is one of the best in the business when it comes to capturing sneaky pictures. Taylor loves to have control, and I'm sure she absolutely hates that someone was able to catch her sharing an intimate moment with her new love interest. But like I said...if it's a huge news story, you always have to wonder, don't you?

Why would a celebrity ever set up and stage photos?

The biggest reason is money. But they also release photos because they want to have control of their own image.

Many set-up photos include a paid product endorsement, where a photo agency works as a middleman between a celebrity and a company who has a product to sell. It could be the latest cell phone that was just released, or a food or beauty product, or something as simple as them being seen shopping at a certain retail outlet. Certain photo agencies specialize in these types of fake paparazzi photos. They usually try to make the photos look natural and candid, but in reality, the celebrity and the photographer are working together. It's a paid photo shoot and the celebrity gets a big check. The readers of tabloid magazines and blogs have no idea!

Control is another big reason for staging photos. There are certain celebs who hate being photographed by paparazzi and they will do anything to avoid it. When your image is such an important part of your career, the last thing they want is to be photographed looking badly. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are a good example of a celebrity couple who hates paparazzi, but you will see nice photos of them released on a regular basis. Those photos are totally set up. When they see paparazzi in real life, they put their heads down and hide their faces—unless they are promoting something.

Another example is when there is high demand for a certain photo. When Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin's daughter Apple was first born, they worked directly with an infamous paparazzi photographer in New York. Together, they staged the first baby photos and made them look like candid pictures, then they sold the shots to a major magazine. The pictures were rumored to sell for upward of a million dollars. The paparazzi got a cut, and they took the rest.

Kim Kardashian is the biggest example of a celebrity who releases fake paparazzi photos. Kim has a personal paparazzi who she texts regularly. This man flies around the world, going wherever she asks him to be, and they work together to produce the latest fake paparazzi pictures of her. She reviews every image before they start selling them to magazines. If they shoot on a beach, these images are heavily Photoshopped and she chooses her favorites to sell.

How frequently does this happen?

Very often. I can't remember the last time I flipped through a tabloid or browsed a gossip blog without seeing set-up shots in the mix.

How much would a staged pic like the Taylor "first official BF/GF pics" get?

Enough to put a down payment on a very nice house. Most paparazzi have heard rumors that the first shots of Taylor Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal looking cozy together on a sidewalk in Brooklyn were staged. They were shot with a long lens from a great distance, and the photographer had to put time into the job. But many people believe that his tip came from inside Taylor's own camp.

Have you ever staged pics? Explain how it works.

The most interesting celebrity I've ever worked with directly to do staged pictures was Amanda Bynes during her very public mental breakdown. She asked me to meet her at an IHOP restaurant in Harlem, of all places, and the first staged shots with her happened on the sidewalk outside. She talked a lot about how the magazines always published photos of her looking ugly and how she wanted to look beautiful. After the shoot, she deleted all of the pictures she disliked and I sent the other ones out to the magazines. A few days later, she was having a small party and wanted to do another staged shoot. Those images ended up on the cover of a tabloid as well, but it backfired when they ran them alongside a very negative (although honest) story about her unhealthy lifestyle at the time.

What are telltale signs of a staged shot?

Most of the staged shots look silly and are very obvious to a trained eye. If it's a huge news story, you always have to wonder, don't you?

[coeychewcd]

“The Designer as author”- by Michael Rock

Figure 1: Michael Rock

Michael Rock has published an article called “The designer as Author” in 1996. The article is majorly discussed about authorship, which has been changed in different ways especially in the field of design.

In the article, Michael Rock explores the concept of authorship that it has been difficult for the designers as they are most likely associated more with communication through design than presenting the real facts and message. Moreover, Rock continues explains the observation by Michel Foucault that the bond between the author and text has changed over the centuries. In the past, authorship had never been viewed as an important substance. However, the situation had changed. The connection between author and text was concerned and handle with care.

Michael Rock also includes evidences by Barthes that in Paris 1968, it is the year of students participated to joined workers on the barricades in a general strike and this kind of social revolution had interested the Western world. Unfortunately, it caused authority to lose its power in the form of the author in favor of the reader – i.e. the masses. The author also mentioned that the character of the author helps in taking control over creative activity and it is very practical element of high art. It also helps in building their reputation and status when they control well with their work. I believe that a person with a characteristic is highly possible that they will perform well as they understand themselves and confident on what they wanted to achieve in present and future. It is interesting that the author includes with a few examples to shows that authorship plays an important part in letting people who is the one that started with the creative works or projects. Thus, I think authorship helps in preventing people in faking works with an authorship and it is better to let people to practice in citing or ask permission to the author to work in similar projects.

On the other hand, Rock includes an exhibition entitled “ Designer as Author: Voices and Visions”. The purpose of began with this exhibition is to show graphic designers who are engaged in work that are basically presenting themselves which is more individual. Likewise, Michael Rock endures that authored design are most likely holds higher and stronger purpose that leads to more personal and creative.

The author also includes studies from Foucalt that the author is the one that provides individual sources and researches. Therefore, the author got the rights to stop reader to take advantages from the author. In my opinion, it is true that most people take benefits without authorizing the author or the designer. I also believe that designers also take the advantages of people’s work as an inspiration to further their work and it should explain to people where and who is the one that started with the project. Furthermore, to improve graphic authorship is to extravagant our historical frame. This helps in being seen as progressive and an involvement to the improvement of progressing design in the present and future.

From this article, I believe that authorship is definitely significant to any projects. It doesn’t matter if it is in design or writing because it involved in every works. It is unfair that people take advantages and did not credit author’s hard work in producing their projects.

I’ve chosen 2 examples to show existence designer that successfully being an author for their projects/work even though the author already listed a few of examples in the article.

Figure 2: Travis Knight (https://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/17/entertainment/travis-knight-creator/index.html)

One of my favorite animator is Travis Knight. He has worked and mainly producing stop-motion animation. His most successful stop-motion animation called Kubo and the two strings. He has presented his personal style and interest into a film with the help of his colleagues. Although I did not watch all of his stop-motion animation, Kubo and the two strings is very beautiful and amazing stop-motion animation. To produce this film, he had sculptured the scene, characters, characters’ expression, and more. He had become an author towards his work and also the idea of the story. Here is the video of Kubo and the two strings behind the scene.

Figure 3: Kubo and the two strings (Source: https://fee.org/articles/the-vendetta-against-love-a-review-of-kubo-and-two-strings/)

Figure 4: Kubo and the two strings (Source: https://geektyrant.com/news/breathtaking-trailer-for-laikas-samurai-film-kubo-and-the-two-strings )

Video: Kubo and the two strings behind the scene

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHyTYL1Z1aM

Another designer that I would like to introduce is Levi Jaya, an Indonesian graphic designer. He is an ordinary graphic designer that loves to illustrate. He was my classmate when I am studying in BA. He loves illustration alot and he posted his art work mostly on instagram. As you can see his illustration may look simple but he included with a lot of details on the character. I like how he illustrate character with his design style and nobody can mock his artwork. He had made himself as an author to his design work. 

Figure 5: Levi Jaya instagram

Figure 6: Levi Jaya instagram

Figure 7: Levi Jaya instagram

Figure 8: Levi Jaya instagram

Question: 

1. Why people did not authorise their designer/author and just used it as their project?

2. Do you think we should charge people when they steal people’s work by not authorising them?