#verse | st. louis.

[fangirlandtheories]

Do you remember when we used to sing?

Eddie is away on tour while Steve is taking care of their daughter a few hours away. Too bad she can't fall asleep without her special bedtime song...

--

Steve’s brows pinched together as the cries grew in pitch and volume, almost drowning out the familiar click of ‘Hey it’s Eddie, call me back or don’t, I’m not your mother.’ from the speaker of his phone. 

He had shifted from frustrated to desperate as he glanced over at their daughter, red faced and snot nosed. Bedtime was a solid hour past due and didn’t seem to be looming any closer. 

“It’s okay, sweets, we’ll call him again.” Steve soothed as he ran a hand down the toddler’s back. 

“Daddy!!!” She screamed again, choking with the effort of her sobs, as she squeezed her eyes shut. It had been love at first sight for Eddie and Steve when they had met Rayne’s mother. She was young, just turning 20 in the fall, with curly blonde hair and big brown eyes. She was looking for someone who wanted a baby that couldn’t naturally have their own and the agent connected the dots for them. After several months, little Rayne was theirs.

“I know,” Steve muttered as he pulled up Eddie’s contact again. Eddie had taken a break from touring after the adoption of their daughter but had recently started back up. It started off pretty well, the excitement of getting to have a Dad weekend with Steve pulling her through, but now the newness was gone and all little Rayne Munson-Harrington wanted was Eddie. 

Eddie usually found weekend gigs but had found a week long slot in a club in St. Louis that promised great publicity and even better payment, so Corroded Coffin hit the road and Steve held down the fort with some help from Robin and Wayne. They were obligated to babysit, she was named after both of them afterall, and he was grateful because work had been taxing enough without adding a feisty 4 year old to the mix. 

A flu bug was sweeping it’s way through Hawkin’s Elementary and it spared no casualties in Steve’s kindergarten classroom. He spent the day trying to keep the class from putting things in their mouths and making sure everyone washed their hands, sending a child or two home after seeing the greenish pale tints of nausea pass over their faces. He knew that he’d have to deal with kids puke at some point, especially as a parent, but he’d like to avoid it at all costs. 

“Pick up your phone you ass.” He hissed through clenched teeth, rocking the inconsolable girl in his arms as he dialed again.

***

Eddie first felt the familiar jolt of vibration in his back pocket  just after the first chorus. The second time was just a few verses later. He smiled into the microphone as he continued to sing, ignoring his phone. The third time was in the bridge of the song, a particularly terrible time to take a call as Eddie’s hands were preoccupied with his guitar. The fourth time happened in the final notes of the song. The fifth during the applause. Eddie frowned as he pulled the device from his pocket, ignoring a glare from Jeff.

“Hey guys, you won’t believe this but my husband is facetiming me right now. This is like the fifth time he’s called so I’m going to answer, everybody be quiet and let’s see how long it takes him to remember that we had a later show tonight.” Eddie laughed as the audience silenced quickly. Steve’s irritated yet grateful face popped up on the screen seconds later.

“Hey love…” He crooned with a cheeky smirk.

“Your daughter is very upset with you.” Steve ignored the affectionate nickname. 

“Why is she my daughter whenever she’s mad?” Eddie rolled his eyes. “Is she alright?”

“She’s been screaming since 8:30 Eds.” Steve ran a hand through his hair and blew out an exasperated sigh. “She’s refusing to sleep until you do it, that’s why I’ve been calling.”

“Steve I’m um…” Eddie glanced nervously at the audience in front of him. “Kind of in the middle of something.”

“Yeah I wanted to be relaxing right now too but our kid needs her dad and since he’s five hours away the very least he could do is sing her the damn song so that we all can get some rest.” Steve squinted at him. “You’re being weirder than usual. Are the guys there with you?”

“Yeah the guys are definitely with me.” Eddie ignored Gareth’s snicker. “Can I call you-”

“Edward, so help me God, sing the song so that she can go to sleep.” Steve interrupted. “Look at her.” Steve turned the camera to the distraught little girl and Eddie’s heart clenched.

“Hi angel, I hear you’re a little sad.” He frowned in solidarity with her as her lip stuck out. “No, don't cry, it’s okay Ray Ray.” She howled louder, tears popping from her wet lashes. He winced as he lip quivered, his resolve wearing down to nothing. He glanced over at Gareth, leaning over to whisper to him before looking back to his phone.

“Alright fine, let’s sing it, yeah?” Eddie placated. “You’re breaking my heart Bambi.” The wide eyes and long lashes practically gifted the nickname to her. He glanced back at Gareth who gave him a thumbs up before looking at the audience. “Daddy’s band is going to help him sing it, is that okay?” Rayne whimpered as she nodded, snuggled into Steve’s arms as he held the phone in front of her.

“Wait, are you on stage right now?” Steve leaned forward. “Shit, I’m sorry babe, I didn’t mean to interrupt the performance.”

“You couldn’t interrupt if you tried.” Eddie smiled. “Isn’t that right?” Steve could hear cheers from the audience. “We love our rock and roll family here and we honor our traditions, most of all the bedtime song. Ready boys? Sing along if you know it, our most honored guest is in the audience tonight and would love to hear you guys.”

With that, Jeff  played the opening notes on the guitar while Gareth tapped out the beat with the rarely used tambourine. The bass thumped along to Eddie’s singing, and though it admittedly wasn’t their usual style, the band loved Rayne like she was their niece and they would play anything to make her happy.

“-In the misty morning fog with our hearts a-thumping” Eddie held the microphone in one hand and the phone in the other, beaming at the smile on Steve’s face. “And you, my brown eyed girl.” Rayne giggled and clapped, tears still on her cheeks but sadness having finally passed. 

***

Hours and miles away, Steve smiled as he shut the door to his daughter's bedroom, the nightlight softly glowing, as he hummed the song to himself. Tomorrow there would be a series of tweets about Eddie going soft and videos flying all around the internet, but for now, and for the first time that evening, the Munson-Harrington home was quiet.

[petervintonjr]

"As black America approaches the 21st century, our capacity or our failure to build a solid bridge . . . of works will determine whether millions of young blacks already with us or yet unborn will cross over into the new century, or fall into the abyss."

Another name you almost certainly didn't know: M. (Moses) Carl Holman, civil rights activist, writer, and poet. Born in 1919 St. Louis, Holman showed an early gift for writing, and at the age of 19 won a scriptwriting award from a popular syndicated radio program. He graduated magna cum laude from Lincoln University and went on to acquire Master's degrees from the University of Chicago and from Yale. While at Yale he published his first collection of poems, and began regularly writing articles for various newspapers and magazines on income inequity, urban poverty, literacy, and other issues important to Black Americans. In 1962 he taught English at Clark College in Atlanta, giving him a front-row seat to key events in the earliest days of the civil rights movement. As some of his students participated in sit-ins and the Freedom Rides, he found himself appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, of which he eventually became deputy director in 1966.

In 1968 Ebony magazine named Holman as one of the 100 Most Influential Black Americans. That same year Holman published what is probably his best-known work: The Baptizin', a play which won first prize in the National Community Theater Festival. In addition to multiple collections of poems, Holman also published a definitive overview of the civil rights movement in the U.S., from 1965 to 1975.

Perhaps most significantly, in 1971 Holman was named Vice President of the National Urban Coalition. This organization had re-formed in 1967 in the wake of the so-called "long, hot summer" of racial strife and injustices. During this time Holman's singular talent for delivering quiet and polite, but still powerful, speeches came to the fore and he jumpstarted a great many local housing, education, job training, and economic development programs aimed at disadvantaged Black and Hispanic communities.

In his later years Holman forcefully addressed the issue of "dual literacy" for Black children --emphasizing that such students not only needed to be well-versed not only in the fundamentals such as reading, writing, and public speaking; but also in math, science, and technology. His 1988 obituary notes that Holman "had an uncanny ability to form a coalition out of the most diverse elements, and it was often said that the key to his ability to do this was the fact that he never appeared to have an agenda for himself."

(Teachers: Need some resources to engage your students this Black History Month? I'll send you a pile of these trading cards, no cost, no obligation. Just give me a mailing address and let me know how many students in your class. No strings attached, no censorship, no secret-relaying-of-names to Abbott or DeSantis or HuckaSanders.)

[petersasteria]

Nonsense - E.P.

Pairing: Evan Peters x SabrinaCarpenter!Reader Summary: You mentioned him in your Nonsense outro. Did he listen to it? What was his reaction? How can you confront him when he's standing right in front of you at an after-party? Warning/s: none (i think), super fluff and some flirtatious banter A/N: Y/N is still Y/N in this one. The reader is just Sab in a musical way, but in terms of looks and everything, it's all you, babes <3

Words: 1055

Ever since you started your career, you’ve had the biggest crush on Evan Peters. Your paths have yet crossed, but you hoped that day would come sooner. Recently, your song ‘Nonsense’ has gone viral and for all the right reasons. It was catchy, it was flirty, and it was relatable to anyone who’s feeling this type of way for their crush or partner. Needless to say, it was a hit. When you announced your tour, all your fans were hyped up because they knew you’d be singing that song. What they didn’t know was that you’d come up with outros for specific cities you’ll be going to.

When you arrived at St. Louis, Missouri, you were excited to perform. You’ve been there a few times and your fans from there have always been energetic and lively. When it was time to sing ‘Nonsense’, everyone cheered when they heard the intro. You were singing and dancing around and as you were nearing the end of the song, all your fans pulled out their phones and started filming. You smiled as you sang the outro:

This song catchier than chicken pox is

I bet your house is where my other sock is 

Woke up this morning thought I’d write a pop hit

How quickly can you take your clothes off pop quiz

Everyone cheered before your improv outro. You chuckled a little before singing:

You guys are like family, not strangers

The crowd here in St. Louis are all lovers

My crush is from here, hello Evan Peters

As soon as everyone heard ‘Evan Peters’, your fans lost it. It immediately went viral. All your friends knew about your undying love for Evan Peters and they weren’t shocked when you confessed your love for him via concert. You, however, didn’t think much of it. After all, he’s such a big, big star. He also doesn’t have social media, so you were pretty confident that videos of you singing that verse won’t reach him.

But boy were you wrong. So wrong.

Somehow someone sent Evan the video and he found it entertaining and flattering. He thought it was the end of it, but of course he was asked about it at red carpet events and interviews. Every time he was asked about it, he’d always give a hearty laugh or a bright smile, and he’d say, “I find it flattering that I’m still qualified to be someone’s crush. It’s really cute and endearing.”

“Do you think there’s a chance for you and Y/N to date?” The interviewer would ask. He’d chuckle, shrug it off, and say something generic like, “Maybe.” or “Who knows, y’know? We never know what the future holds.”

Both of you went on with your careers until you finally met the man of your dreams at one event’s after party. You saw each other from afar and waved to each other. You took a deep breath and asked the bartender for another shot before taking it for liquid courage to approach your crush. Luckily for you, Evan was already on his way towards you. You turned around and were surprised to come face to face with him. He gave you a cute dimpled smile and said, “Hey, you’re Y/N Y/L/N, right? I recently learned that the verse you mentioned me in was actually improv. I’m very flattered.”

“Aww! It’s something I like to do in every city I’m in. When I realized I was performing in your hometown, I immediately changed the last line.” You said to him before flashing him a big smile.

“Oh, that’s so cool! Can I hear the original before the change?” He asked nicely.

“Oh, sure! It’s supposed to go: ‘you guys are like family, not strangers, the crowd here in St. Louis are all lovers, I don’t mind what they all say, fuck them haters’.” You sang to him.

“Hey, that’s good too! I’m obviously biased now that I’ve heard the one with my name in it.” Evan cheekily said.

You didn’t know what came over you (probably the alcohol in your system), but you had this sudden burst of flirting energy. You smiled at him flirtatiously and said, “I can always put your name in every outro I do.”

He caught on and raised an eyebrow, “Really?”

“Yeah, but you have to earn it.”

“How?” Evan asked with a cheeky grin. You were surprised at your back and forth flirting, but you liked it too much to stop.

“Well, we have to date, of course.” You said to him, smiling. He nodded with a bright smile before saying, “I mean I’d ask you out, but I’d have to hear another improv outro to convince me.”

“Is that so? Lucky for you, I’m a genius when it comes to that.” You grinned. You thought for a bit and sang:

This song catchier than chicken pox is

I bet your house is where my other sock is

Woke up this morning thought I’d write a pop hit

How quickly can you take your clothes off pop quiz

We are at the Oscars after party

I can be so flirty and so classy

If you date me I can show you dirty”

He looked impressed and gave you a dimpled grin and an applause. “That was amazing! So, when are you free?”

Your eyes widened. To be honest, you didn’t think he’d actually ask you out. You thought it was just playful flirting. Little did you know you already got his heart and attention. You intrigued him and he wanted more.

“Well, I’m free this week. I’ll go back on tour next week.” You told him as he nodded. He grabbed his phone to check the calendar and asked, “Does Thursday at 8pm sound good?” You frantically nodded and he chuckled at your reaction.

“Alright, Thursday it is, then. Can I ask one favor?”

“Anything for you, handsome.” You winked, making him blush.

“That outro you did… Can you sing it live on tour? I kinda wanna hear you sing about wanting me in front of a crowd.” Evan smirked. This man will be the death of you.

“Like I said, anything for you, handsome.” You grinned, exchanged numbers, and parted ways, not wanting anyone to bring attention to the both of you… not yet, at least.

----

A/N: There'll be part 2 dw ;) hope y'all enjoyed this as much as I did writing it hihi

[apopcornkernel]

i dont know if there's even a ppop presence on tumblr but i do also want to promote ALAMAT, a 6-member idol boy group from the Philippines. Its members comprise of Taneo, Mo, Jao, Tomas, R-ji, and Alas. They debuted in 2021, and their creative direction centers on championing the Filipino identity and culture through their music.

sorry that ^ was a copypaste but it's a very useful and concise copypaste LOL but onto my own promo:

(note: also most of these videos have english subs!!)

(extra note bc this issue always pops up whenever locals encounter alamat: mo is always wearing black hairstyes bc he is blasian and not bc he is appropriating from black culture hdfjhdf)

KASMALA, the inverted Tagalog word for "strong" (malakas), is the MV that really did numbers on social media iirc. The video direction focused on the "human zoo" in the St. Louis' World Fair of 1904 (which included Filipinos specifically Igorots), and a general theme of anti-Filipino racism by white people (who are represented as ominous figures literally dressed in all white)

personal opinion: the music video is great but i personally think they have better songs, music-wise. and i'm going to give you an example of that by introducing you to my ALL-TIME FAVORITE ALAMAT SONG!!!

ILY ILY, a transliteration of "Ili-Ili Tulog Anay", incorporates the melody and lyrics of the Ilonggo lullaby it derives its title from. The MV and lyrics both work together to portray the experience of being an OFW/having an OFW parent. OFWs, or overseas Filipino workers, refer to Filipinos who go abroad in search of jobs that have better pay, so that they can remit money back to their families in the Philippines.

personal opinion: this is their best song THIS IS THEIR BEST SONG EVER OF ALL TIME and lyca gairanod is such a perfect singer for this. her ethereal crooning really gave me chills the first time i heard it UGH

DAYANG, the term for the wife of a Datu, is one of their most earworming songs ever. It's a gorgeous love song and what I would recommend to newbies if they want to get into alamat <3

personal opinion: The MV is kinda ass because it's just a super long extended ad for DITO PH (in terms of story and also bc they really missed out on doing a vid that drew more on culture esp bc dayang is a historical noble title and they used tausug words and designs for the graphics an the dance itself already incorporated pangasik dance which is also from the tausug people LIKEEE?? they've always promoted other cultures of the philippines i know they can do it but because of CAPITALISM--). But the song bangs so severely, as a pop enjoyer this is peak pop for me.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT DAGUNDONG

DAGUNDONG, a song basically recounting the colonial history of the Philippines from Spain to America, is just so fucking good you should watch/listen to it rn. There's EN subs don't worry you won't miss out on the context. This is colonial rage it's so satisfying I still remember where I was when they dropped this.

personal opinion: FOREVER OBSESSED WITH HOW THEY SAY "dahil puso mandirigma di papakutsa di papapugon" you guys have no idea how much i sing that line to myself sooo satisfying. Instant earworm this song i swear.

OK ONE LAST one last and i'm done. okay.

MAHARANI, a Sanskrit term for the wife of a Maharaja (translated as "great queen"), heavily features singkil, a Maranao dance which uses bamboo poles like tinikling does. The song also uses SEAsian instruments like kanun, gamelan, and gangsa. Also BINI's Jhoanna plays one of the main characters here!!!

personal opinion: this is their most pop-sounding song, which i think is slightly carried by the video i'm sorryyy. it's catchy though!! and i looove the part somewhere halfway where alas starts his verse, singing it in a more spoken-word way

___

okay 5 songs is. probably enough. this post is already kinda long shdfjskdff but yeah. pls check them out if you can hehe <3

also ppop idols are just really funny. there's no concept of an idol image so they just tweet shit. alamat jao gave out his genshin UID after a fan tweeted about having co-oped with him in genshin, and then after that he started answering questions with the hashtag "#canceljao" making a lot of magiliws (alamat fans) confused, and then he posted a classic iphone notes apology like this 😭

i'll do a bini version after this my girls deserve more international hype. they occupy a more girlcrush pop genre but they're just as chaotic as alamat if not even more 😭 there are entire THREADS on twitter of them just being hilarious jdhfkshgf i love them so much

thanks for reading <3

[mariacallous]

Partial list of the books that Helene Hanff ordered from Marks & Co. and mentioned in 84, Charing Cross Road (alphabetical order):

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice, (1813)

Arkwright, Francis trans. Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon

Belloc, Hillaire. Essays.

Catullus – Loeb Classics

Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales translated by Hill, published by Longmans 1934)

Delafield, E. M., Diary of a Provincial Lady

Dobson, Austen ed. The Sir Roger De Coverley Papers

Donne, John Sermons

Elizabethan Poetry

Grahame, Kenneth, The Wind in the Willows

Greek New Testament

Grolier Bible

Hazlitt, William. Selected Essays Of William Hazlitt 1778 To 1830, Nonesuch Press edition.

Horace – Loeb Classics

Hunt, Leigh. Essays.

Johnson, Samuel, On Shakespeare, 1908, Intro by Walter Raleigh

Jonson, Ben. Timber

Lamb, Charles. Essays of Elia, (1823).

Landor, Walter Savage. Vol II of The Works and Life of Walter Savage Landor (1876) – Imaginary Conversations

Latin Anglican New Testament

Latin Vulgate Bible / Latin Vulgate New Testament

Latin Vulgate Dictionary

Leonard, R. M. ed. The Book-Lover's Anthology, (1911)

Newman, John Henry. Discourses on the Scope and Nature of University Education. Addressed to the Catholics of Dublin – "The Idea of a University" (1852 and 1858)

Pepys, Samuel. Pepys Diary – 4 Volume Braybrook ed. (1926, revised ed.)

Plato's Four Socratic Dialogues, 1903

Quiller-Couch, Arthur, The Oxford Book Of English Verse

Quiller-Couch, Arthur, The Pilgrim's Way

Quiller-Couch, Arthur, Oxford Book of English Prose

Sappho – Loeb Classics

St. John, Christopher Ed. Ellen Terry and Bernard Shaw : A Correspondence / The Shaw – Terry Letters : A Romantic Correspondence

Sterne, Laurence, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, (1759)

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Virginibus Puerisque

de Tocqueville, Alexis Journey to America (1831–1832)

Wyatt, Thomas. Poems of Thomas Wyatt

Walton, Izaak and Charles Cotton. The Compleat Angler. (John Major's 2nd ed., 1824)

Walton, Izaak. The Lives of – John Donne – Sir Henry Wotton – Richard Hooker – George Herbert & Robert Sanderson

Woolf, Virginia, The Common Reader, 1932.

[amenvs3000w25]

Blog 7: Nature and Music

My first thought seeing the topic this week as nature and music before even reading through this week’s material, was “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. I could quote the entire song for its lyrics about the beauty of nature, however, my favourite is “I see skies of blue, and clouds of white, the bright blessed day, the dark sacred night.” This verse makes me want to wake up early, watch the sunrise, and listen to birds chirp on a hot summer morning. I think we can all agree that the song makes you feel something and it’s usually a good feeling. 

After reading through the course material, I realized I got ahead of myself and did the post backward, however, I am going to stick with it. I started thinking about how natural sounds within nature make their song and that importance in Indigenous culture that is discussed in this week’s material. Music is used to reflect their relationship with nature and communicate with the fallen. Their music consists of both natural sounds wind, water, and animals, along with sounds from their traditional musical instruments like flutes and drums. 

I am from Cornwall, Ontario, which is on traditional Mohawk land with a reservation. In high school, our history teacher took us to the reserve to witness a pow-wow as our current topic in class was Indigenous schools and Canadian Indigenous history. The day consisted of watching dances, listening to traditional songs being sung, and touring the tables of information and cultural gifts. I can’t thank my teacher enough for the field trip because it really took history off the paper for me. The motto of the Akwesasne Powwow is “Where the best drummers, dancers and artisans of the region come together”, and that really was the truth. 

Recognizing the value of Indigenous perspectives as interpreters helps us expand our understand traditional knowledge, rather than what we already know. We should be embracing storytelling, music, and Indigenous learning to make environmental education more immersive and meaningful rather than seeing nature as something to study from a distance.

In terms of nature in music, I can definitely agree with the prompt that music is associated with hot summer days around a campfire or on a road trip. My favourite music to listen to while hiking, camping, or just sitting outside watching the currents on the lake, is “The Lumineers”. Pretty much any of their songs from “The Lumineers” and “Cleopatra” album are on repeat in the summer! Their folky-rock vibe with the guitar and piano sound really just makes me think of walking through a forest with a huge backpack while wearing ugly hiking shoes. This post is really making me miss summer and I would love to hear how you guys connect nature and music!

Nature is full of natural sounds like crunching leaves, waves crashing onto rocks, birds chirping in the morning, and crickets chirping at night. It is so fascinating to me how different areas and landscapes have their own soundtrack. I’m sure sometimes we don’t even realize but no matter where you are, nature is playing a song designed perfectly for what you are looking at. Really makes me want to stop and look around more often.

Here is a link to the Lumineers Spotify {I'm sure you already listen to them (: https://open.spotify.com/artist/16oZKvXb6WkQlVAjwo2Wbg?si=PEtgG8EkRnSTbnEGz_a3Kg

The link for the Akwesasne Mohawk Powwow

[scotianostra]

On September 5th 1750, the poet Robert Fergusson was born in the Canongate in Edinburgh.

Most of you will not have heard of Robert Fergusson, he suffered from ill health, physical and mental, during his short life, he passed away in barbarous conditions in Edinburgh's notorious Bedlam.

Doctor Andrew Duncan, the name might be familiar to those from Edinburgh, on finding Fergusson before being admitted to the "hospital" described him as being in a "state of furious insanity" he saw no choice but to have Fergusson taken to the city's Bedlam madhouse.Conditions at the Bedlam, which was attached to the Edinburgh Charity Workhouse behind modern-day Teviot Place, were notoriously awful. Patients were treated as inmates, locked in cold stone-flagged cells, with only straw for bedding.

Fergusson may have only lived for 24 years, the last of which was traumatic, but those short years not only inspired Scotland’s best-known bard Robert Burns and the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, it also paved the way for better treatment of people with mental health conditions thanks to the aforementioned Dr Duncan.

Robert Fergusson was born of Aberdeenshire parents in Cap-and-Feather Close, in Edinburgh’s Old Town, on 5 September, 1750. The street has since disappeared, having been demolished during Fergusson’s lifetime to make way for the North Bridge, many of you will have walked over where Cap-and-Feather Close, it is said to have been where the junction at the Tron Church is, the road that now takes you over North Bridge towards Princes Street.

After primary education in Edinburgh, Fergusson entered the city’s High School in 1758, attaining a bursary to attend the Grammar School in Dundee in 1762. Two years later, he enrolled in St. Andrews University. As a student, Fergusson became infamous for his pranks, having once come close to expulsion. Despite this riotous reputation, the poet’s education stayed with him, he moved back to Edinburgh to support his mother, after the death of his father.

He got a job as a copyist for the Commissary Office main concern was, of course, poetry, and on 7 February, 1771 he anonymously published the first of a trio of pastorals in Ruddiman’s Weekly Magazine. Originally he wrote in English but by 1772 he had started to use the Scottish dialect in the standard Habbie verse form - a form which would later be copied and made famous by Robert Burns, indeed this style is now called the Burns stanza, perhaps it should be The Fergusson Stanza?

Fergusson’s own muse was Allan Ramsay and, like the be-turbaned Ramsey, followed a bit of a bohemian lifestyle in Edinburgh, which was then at the height of an intellectual and cultural tumult as the nerve centre of the Scottish Enlightenment. He wrote a total of fifty poems in Scottish English and thirty-three in the Scots language, but it is for his remarkable exploits in the latter genre that he should be acknowledged and acclaimed. His poetic subject matter paints vivid accounts of the life and characters of ‘Auld Reekie’ and drunken encounters with the notorious Edinburgh City Guard of Captain Porteous, the ‘Black Banditti’ of ‘The Daft Days’.

Fergusson began to suffer from depression in 1773, biographers have described his condition as ‘religious melancholia’, but regardless of whether or not that was the case, he gave up his job, stopped writing, withdrew completely from his riotous social life, and spent his time reading the Bible. He had heard about an Irish poet, John Cunningham, who had died in an asylum in Newcastle. That inspired 'Poem to the Memory of John Cunningham', and Fergusson became terribly afraid that the same thing was going to happen to him. Tragically, his dark prediction came true. In August, 1774, Fergusson fell down a flight of stairs and received a bad head injury, after which he was deemed ‘insensible’. His friend, the good doctor Andrew Duncan, had no choice but to admit him to Darien House "hospital", Bedlam, where after a matter of weeks, he suddenly died. He had only just turned 24.

I return to the fact that Burns was a fan and after Fergusson’s death Burns wrote of him, “my elder brother in misfortune, by far my elder brother in the muse.”

Fergusson was buried in an unmarked plot in The Canongate Kirkyard. On visiting Edinburgh in 1787, Burns paid for a headstone over his long-neglected grave, commemorating Fergusson as ‘Scotia’s Poet. I have taken many friends to visit Fergusson's last resting place over the years, mainly down to my late mother's love of Burns, but also because I love showing people around my home town.

The picture shows the statue of Robert Fergusson outside the Canongate Church, if passing go pay your respects to the man, who inspired Rabbie Burns, who, under different circumstances might have been lauded as our National Bard, if you like a wee whisky perhaps raise a glass tonight on what might have been "Fergusson's Night"

This few lines are from The Daft Days, by Fergusson, you will get the drift of Edinburgh being a comforting, hospitable place where they aren't afraid of a drink, which is a s true today as it was in 1772 when they were written.

Auld Reikie! thou’rt the canty hole,

A bield for many caldrife soul,

Wha snugly at thine ingle loll,

Baith warm and couth,

While round they gar the bicker roll

To weet their mouth.

[jazzstandardspoll]

Descriptions & Propaganda

Mack the Knife (Original title: "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer")

Composed by Kurt Weill , with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht (English lyrics by Marc Blitzstein )

Notable versions: Louis Armstrong (x), Ella Fiztgerald (x), Bobby Darin (x)

Propaganda:

Originally a last-minute addition to the German opera "Die Dreigroschenoper", it was translated into English in 1954 by Marc Blitzstein (it was translated beforehand in 1933, but that run of the opera was unsuccessful, and the 1954 translation is the base for most modern recordings). The following year, Louis Armstrong recorded a version of it in a swing style, and soon after Bobby Darin released (arguably) the most popular recording of the song, solidifying the murder-ballad as a jazz standard.

Additional neat little bit of information (cw mention of rape and arson): The 1954 translation is censored from the German version, as it removes the verses detailing rape and arson, and adds a verse naming several victims of Macheath. Lotte Lenya was the original star of the opera, and is mentioned by name in Louis Armstrong's recording during this additional verse.

St. James' Infirmary

Traditional

Notable versions: Louis Armstrong (x), Cab Calloway (x), Artie Shaw (x)

Propaganda:

i love how this song starts as a lament and then switches on a dime to such a cool, proud, almost bragging defiance of death. and of course that trumpet!! that trombone!!

imo this song exemplifies the rich tapestry of popular music and the links between the jazz standards, the blues, and the english, irish, and appalachian folk traditions. people sort of fight over whether this song is influenced by the unfortunate rake/rakes progress/young trooper cut down in his prime/etc., (musicologist a. l. lloyd’s theory) or not- there’s a whole book about it, “i went down to the st. james infirmary” by robert harwood.

but none of that really matters. if you love the blues and you love folk music this song is like a familiar hug, full of the themes and motifs you recognize but maybe can’t quite pin down. the mysterious origins are part of the fun. extra propaganda: if you know/love/have ever listened to “blind willie mctell” by bob dylan, this song is the father.

i like the way this one sounds but i also think it's historically/anthropologically pretty cool... it's part of the lineage of "the unfortunate rake" which also spawned popular folk songs like "streets of laredo" and possibly "house of the rising sun" (debated among experts but possible), but this one unlike those others was taken up by jazz artists starting in the 1920s and eventually came to be regarded as a jazz standard. fascinating stuff!

[newx-menfan]

NYX #7 Review

*Spoilers!*

The issue starts with Synch returning to NY….

Synch arrives at the warehouse the NYX’s are currently inhabiting (told you guys- the pages in the preview were going to be the first few pages of this book!) and is apparently PISSED that Prodigy has set up basically a mutant center (feels like a HUGE overreaction…but whatevs…)

Synch is bugging because David’s powers essentially don’t have weaknesses like Synch’s does (Synch retains memories of the people he “synced” with) and feels that David isn’t considering how he’s endangering everyone. (If Empath really ISN’T brainwashing them…. I’m going to be a bit pissed because frankly this plot point is stupid and came literally out of nowhere, with zero buildup!) 

Synch basically has the same feelings Scott did about freeing Xavier in “Raid on Graymalkin”- that optimists like Xavier and David are slanting it so only one kind of mutant revolution can come out of “mutants vs humans” dilemma.

Meanwhile Bilal has been radicalized (who saw THAT coming! 😜), has taken? stolen? a glider, and attacks Ms Marvel; not realizing that it’s his cousin. (Feel like Goblin or someone needs to get those things copyrighted…are gliders like “ghost guns” in the Marvel-verse??? 🤪)

The writers DECIDE this plot is the better one to focus on…because this is basically more or less, now a “stealth Ms. Marvel solo”…

While Ms Marvel is fighting her cousin, Synch accuses David of being an egotist (true!) and they beat the shit out of each other. (Ironically “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell” came on my Spotify while reading this very moment 🤭)

AGAIN, the Hellion criticism comes up- Synch is undoubtedly one of THE MOST powerful mutants- I get there’s not a lot to “synch” to, but it makes zero sense for him to lose this easily to Prodigy.

Where I could UNDERSTAND the argument that Hellion’s ego compromised him… Synch isn’t Julian and doesn’t have his inflated levels of pride.

Dante cheers Prodigy on while he beats the shit out of Synch and Synch FINALLY syncs to Prodigy’s powers, while talking about his death…. (All of Laura’s ex’s have major trauma, I guess…)

Ms Marvel captures Bilal and he goes on this “purity” rant and that he will die for his cause (reeeaallllyyyy stretching the Islamic extremist stereotypes there, Marvel!😬)

Apparently Bilal was scanning Kamala to gather information for the truthseekers, but the data collected was incomplete.

Prodigy….somehow convinces Synch to see his way and stay…? (Really? That’s the climax?)

The issue ends with Kamala crying about her cousin (who never even APPEARED in previous Ms. Marvel issues or was mentioned 🙄)

Review:

This issue…wasn’t BAD. The problem WITH this book consistently IS that it has great ideas and great MOMENTS…but the overall EXECUTION is disappointing.

David and Everett BEING on opposite sides/viewpoints makes sense. Everett grew up in St. Louis, on the poorer economic scale- where David grew up in a middle class home in Chicago. Despite both being mutants and black- they have VERY different lived experiences, along with the similarity of experiencing trauma and death while with the X-Men.

Can I just say, that I really HATE how this era has written Synch 😒- no one can get his character right. Everett ISN’T an asshole. He literally WANTED to help impoverished communities in Gen X and was the “nice guy” of his team. This is just character assassination. 🙄

It’s not that I couldn’t believe Prodigy and Synch would have different ideologies- but this plot point feels so ham fisted and under developed.

It’s sad because I think this COULD have been an interesting examination into how Hellion and Prodigy, returning back to their fight in issue #4, are more similar than they will admit- both live and die by their ego and sense of morality.

The Bilal stuff is just pointless and poorly handled- I really DON’T understand why they dropped the quiet council/Hellion for…angry, extremist cousin? Who will ultimately be totally forgotten in the Ms Marvel books after NYX is cut? (Sorry but I don’t believe NYX will miss the chopping block at this point)

The ending was lackluster- there’s nothing in David’s speech that would convince Everett to GO WITH Prodigy’s way of advocacy… but a more believable ending would have required taking their time with the story and NOT doing the dumb Bilal plot point (same problem issue #4 had 🙄)

Again- I think the worst part about NYX is HOW MUCH I want to like it. It 100% had potential! But the final product is just always pretty unsatisfactory and surface level writing.

It’s not “X-Force” levels of snoozefest or even “X-Factor” levels of cringe… the SAD thing with NYX IS that it does HAVE its high points…only it’s followed by some really mediocre moments and endings.

What I will never truly understand is- WHY DOES Marvel CONSTANTLY DO THIS- they feature the NXM to help prop up whatever “character of the week” they’re promoting at the moment… and fans always feel unhappy because it’s NOT what they want….

Why not JUST do a straight NXM book, at this point??

They’re done this with Kid Omega…Eyeboy…Glob…Ms Marvel…X23…Baby Cable…ect

And NONE of it (except maybe Laura!) has ever been successful.

Just GIVE us a FUCKING team NXM book already!!

Theories:

I KNOW that I am going to HATE issue #8 guys…

The fact that it’s an event tie-in, guarantees that I am going to be 100% disappointed. (You are all going to have to hear my rant about why I hate comic book events! 😝)

Bilal is OBVIOUSLY going to try and murder Krakellion and somehow Kamala will hog the spotlight, while Laura is basically wallpaper 😒

Oh have the tables turned, I guess…

I guess on the bright side, considering how this issue went…they’ll at least be a couple diamonds in a pile of otherwise coal storytelling…😕

We will get one panel of Laura and Hellion, and the rest of the book will be Bilal drama 😜

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … November 17

Andrea Doria as Neptune 

1503 – Agnolo Bronzino (d.1572) was one of the leading painters of the Florentine School in mid-sixteenth-century Italy. He eventually became court painter to Cosimo de Medici. Born in Monticelli in 1503, Bronzino studied with mannerist painter and portraitist Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1557).

Most scholars conclude, based on a series of sonnets Bronzino wrote upon Pontormo's death, that the two men enjoyed a more intimate relationship than that of master and pupil. Later in his life, in 1552, Bronzino also adopted one of his own pupils, Alessandro Allori (1535-1607), as his son. In sixteenth-century Florence, this type of arrangement often signaled a sexual relationship between two men; an older man adopting his younger lover was quite common. The two artists lived together until Bronzino's death in 1572.

Famous mainly for his portraits, Bronzino also painted biblical and mythological scenes, designed tapestries and frescos, and composed poetry. While some of Bronzino's poetry consists of rather conventional lyric verse, as well as the sonnets upon Pontormo's death, he also wrote a considerable body of burlesque verse. Often obscene and erotic, burlesque verse circulated among Florentine intellectual and aristocratic circles, whose members would have detected obscure allusions and subtexts beneath the bawdy wordplay. Bronzino's burlesque poetry is distinguished by its large number of homoerotic references and allusions.

Cosimo I de' Medici as St. Sebastian

There is an undeniable homoerotic subtext to several of Bronzino's famous portraits, including Andrea Doria as Neptune (ca 1545) and Cosimo I de' Medici as St. Sebastian (ca 1538-1540).

In both his writing and painting, Bronzino contributes significant insights into same-sex desire and relationships in sixteenth-century Florentine society.

1851 – Major Lord Henry Arthur Somerset (d.1926) was the third son of the 8th Duke of Beaufort and his wife, the former Lady Georgiana Curzon. He was head of the stables of the future King Edward VII (then Prince of Wales) and a Major in the Royal Horse Guards.

He was linked with the Cleveland Street scandal, wherein he was identified and named by several male prostitutes as a customer of their services. He was interviewed by police on 7 August 1889; although the record of the interview has not survived, it resulted in a report being made by the Attorney-General, Solicitor-General and Director of Prosecutions urging that proceedings should be taken against him under section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. A piece of paper was pasted over Somerset's name in the report, as it was deemed so sensitive.

However, the Director was told that the Home Secretary wished him to take no action for the moment. The police obtained a further statement implicating Somerset, while Somerset arranged for his solicitor to act in the defence of the boys arrested over the scandal. After the police saw him for a second time on 22 August, Somerset obtained leave from his regiment and permission to go abroad.

Lord Arthur went to Homburg, although he returned to England. When tipped off in September that charges were imminent, he fled to France to avoid them. From there he travelled through Constantinople, Budapest, Vienna, and then back to France, where he settled and died in 1926, aged 74.

1854 – Louis-Hubert Lyautey (d.1934) was a French Army general and colonial administrator. After serving in Indochina and Madagascar, he became the first French Resident-General in Morocco from 1912 to 1925. Early in 1917 he served briefly as Minister of War. From 1921 he was a Marshal of France. He was dubbed the Maker of Morocco and the French empire builder, and in 1931 made the cover of Time.

Lyautey was born in Nancy, capital of Lorraine. His father was a prosperous engineer, his grandfather a highly decorated Napoleonic general. His mother was a Norman aristocrat, and Lyautey inherited many of her assumptions: monarchism, patriotism, Catholicism and belief in the moral and political importance of the elite.

As Resident-General of Morocco from 1912 he was publicly deferential to the sultan and told his men not to treat the Moroccans as a conquered people. It was he who governed Morocco for the French, developed its economy, extended its borders, and pacified native resistance. During WWI, even with diminished troops, Lyautey maintained an iron rule over this French protectorate.

During his administration, inadvertently, perhaps, Morocco became a place of refuge for homosexuals from all over Europe who came to sample the delights of the native population. Lyautey is one of the many real life homosexuals who people Roger Peyrefitte’s novel, The Exile of Capri.

1887 – Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC (d.1976). Often referred to as "Monty", he was an Anglo-Irish British Army officer who successfully commanded Allied forces at the Battle of El Alamein, a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign during World War II, and troops under his command played a major role in the expulsion of Axis forces from North Africa. He was later a prominent commander in Italy and North-West Europe, where he was in command of all Allied ground forces during Operation Overlord until after the Battle of Normandy.

After retirement the outspoken views of the best known general of the Second World War became public and his reputation suffered. He supported apartheid and Chinese communism under Mao Zedong, and spoke against the legalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, arguing that the Sexual Offences Act 1967 was a "charter for buggery" and that "this sort of thing may be tolerated by the French, but we're British - thank God."

However, several of Montgomery's biographers, including Chalfont (who found something "disturbingly equivocal" in "his relations with boys and young men" and Nigel Hamilton have suggested that he may himself have been a repressed homosexual, that he had a "predilection for the company of young men" and enjoyed platonic love affairs; in the late 1940s he conducted an affectionate friendship with a 12-year-old Swiss boy. One biographer called the friendship "bizarre" although not "improper" and a sign of "pitiful loneliness."

1889 – The New York Times published a report on the "Cleveland Street Scandal," a case involving a house of male prostitutes and members of British nobility.

The Cleveland Street scandal occurred when a homosexual male brothel in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, London, was discovered by police. At the time, sexual acts between men were illegal in Britain, and the brothel's clients faced possible prosecution and certain social ostracism if discovered. It was rumoured that one of the brothel's clients was Prince Albert Victor, who was the eldest son of the Prince of Wales and second-in-line to the British throne. The government was accused of covering up the scandal to protect the names of any aristocratic patrons.

One of the clients, Lord Arthur Somerset, was an equerry to the Prince of Wales. He and the brothel keeper, Charles Hammond, managed to flee abroad before a prosecution could be brought. The male prostitutes, who also worked as telegraph messenger boys for the Post Office, were given light sentences and no clients were prosecuted. After Henry James FitzRoy, Earl of Euston, was named in the press as a client, he successfully sued for libel. The British press never named Prince Albert Victor, and there is no evidence he ever visited the brothel, but his inclusion in the rumours has coloured biographers' perceptions of him since.

The scandal fuelled the attitude that male homosexuality was an aristocratic vice that corrupted lower-class youths. Such perceptions were still prevalent in 1895 when the Marquess of Queensberry accused Oscar Wilde of being an active homosexual. Wilde sued Queensberry for libel but his case collapsed. He was arrested, found guilty of indecency, and condemned to two years' hard labour.

1925 – Rock Hudson (d.1985) was a popular American film and television actor, noted for his stunning looks and most remembered as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s. Hudson was voted Star of the Year, Favorite Leading Man, or any number of similar titles by countless movie magazines, and was unquestionably one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of the time. He completed nearly seventy motion pictures and starred in several television productions during a career that spanned over three decades.

Hudson was born Leroy Harold Scherer Jr. in Winnetka, Illinois, the son of a telephone operator, and an auto mechanic who abandoned the family during the depths of the Great Depression, in the early 1930s. His mother remarried and his stepfather adopted him, changing his last name to Fitzgerald.

After graduating from high school, he served in the Philippines as an aircraft mechanic for the Navy during WW II. In 1946 he moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and applied to the University of Southern California's dramatics program, but was rejected due to poor grades. Among a number of odd jobs, he worked as a truck driver for a couple of years to support himself, longing to be an actor but with no success in breaking into the movies. A fortunate meeting with powerful - and gay - Hollywood talent scout Henry Willson in 1948 got Hudson his start in the business - and Willson renamed him "Rock Hudson."

Neither a gifted nor a natural actor, he was neverthless blessed with enormous charm and with time proved to have a flair for comedy and was capable of strong and memorable performances in drama. He was coached in acting, singing, dancing, fencing and horsebackriding, and he began to feature in film magazines where he was promoted on the basis of his good looks. Success and recognition came in 1954 with Magnificent Obsession in which Hudson plays a bad boy who is redeemed. The film received rave reviews, with Modern Screen Magazine citing Hudson as the most popular actor of the year.

Hudson's popularity soared in George Stevens' Giant, based on Edna Ferber's novel. Co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, and as a result of their powerful performances both Hudson and Dean were nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars.

Following Richard Brook's notable Something of Value in 1957 and a moving performance in Charles Vidor's A Farewell to Arms, based on Ernest Hemingway's novel, Hudson sailed through the 1960s on a cloud of romantic comedies. He portrayed humorous characters in Pillow Talk, the first of several profitable co-starring gigs with Doris Day; followed by Come September; Send Me No Flowers; Man's Favourite Sport, with Paula Prentiss, and Strange Bedfellows, with Gina Lollobrigida.

His popularity on the big screen diminished in the 1970s. He performed in a 13-city US tour of the musical Camelot. He was quite successful on television starring in a number of made-for-TV movies. His most successful series was McMillan and Wife opposite Susan Saint James from 1971 to 1977.

Following years of heavy drinking and smoking, by the early 1980s, Hudson began having health problems. Heart bypass surgery sidelined Hudson and his then-new TV show, The Devlin Connection, for a year; the show suffered for the delay and was cancelled not long after it returned to the airwaves. He recovered from the surgery, but a couple of years later Hudson's health had visibly deteriorated again, prompting different rumours.

In 1984 and 1985 Hudson landed a recurring role in Dynasty. While his inability to memorise dialogue was the stuff of legend, now he was exhibiting all the signs of a man in serious trouble. The need for cue cards was one thing, but when his speech began to deteriorate, everybody knew the least of Hudson's problems was simple forgetfulness. The word cancer was tossed around, but the phrase 'gay cancer' was not mentioned- not, at least, by those who had something to lose. Not yet.

While Hudson's career was blooming, he was struggling to keep his personal life out of the headlines, although the Hollywood media was complicit in concealing his homosexuality from the general public. Throughout his career, he epitomised an ideal of wholesome manliness, and in 1955 he wed Willson's secretary at the time, Phyllis Gates, and the news was made known by all the major gossip magazines. The union lasted three years. Gates filed for divorce in April 1958, charging mental cruelty; Hudson did not contest the divorce. Loyal friends and the now-unimaginable support of the media kept Hudson successfully in the closet to all but those 'in the know' until the 1980s.

According to the 1986 biography Rock Hudson: His Story by Hudson and Sara Davidson, Hudson was good friends with American novelist Armistead Maupin, and Hudson's lovers included: Jack Coates (born 1944); Hollywood publicist Tom Clark (1933-1995), who also later published a memoir about Hudson, Rock Hudson: Friend of Mine; and Marc Christian, who later won a palimony suit against the Hudson estate. In addition, Darwin Porter's book, Brando Unzipped (2006) claims that Hudson had an affair with Brando. Hudson was also a close friend of Burt Lancaster, who was reportedly bisexual, and Lancaster's FBI file suggested the two stars had attended Gay parties in Hollywood together.

An urban legend states that Hudson married Jim Nabors in the 1970s. In fact the two were never more than friends. According to Hudson, the legend originated with a group of "middle-aged homosexuals who live in Huntington Beach" who sent out joke invitations for their annual get-together. One year, the group invited its members to witness "the marriage of Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors", at which Hudson would take the surname of Nabors's most famous character, Gomer Pyle, becoming "Rock Pyle". Those who failed to get the joke spread the rumor. As a result, Nabors and Hudson never spoke to each other again.

In 1985, Hudson joined his old friend Doris Day for the launch of her new cable show, Doris Day's Best Friends. His shockingly gaunt appearance, and his nearly-incoherent speech, was so shocking that it was broadcast again all over the national news shows that night and for weeks to come. Doris Day herself stared at him throughout their appearance together.

Hudson was diagnosed with HIV on June 5, 1984, but when the signs of illness became apparent, his publicity staff and doctors told the public that he had liver cancer. It was not until July 25, 1985, while in Paris for treatment, that Hudson issued a press release announcing that he was dying of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. This had an enormous impact as he was the not only the first major celebrity to come out with the disease but because most of his army of fans still had no idea that Rock Hudson was gay.

Shortly before his death Hudson stated, 'I am not happy that I am sick. I am not happy that I have AIDS. But if that is helping others, I can at least know that my own misfortune has had some positive worth.' Hudson's death is said to have pushed his long time friend and then Republican President Ronald Reagan to change his tune on efforts to fight and publicise the epidemic. Rock Hudson's death from AIDS was a highly significant and tragic milestone in bringing the disease to a wider public consciousness.

Rock Hudson was cremated and his ashes buried at sea.

1960 – RuPaul Charles, best known as simply RuPaul, is an American actor, drag queen, model, author, and singer-songwriter, who first became widely known in the 1990s when he appeared in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. Previously, he was a fixture on the Atlanta and New York City club scenes during the 1980s and early 90s. RuPaul has on occasion performed as a man in a number of roles, usually billed as RuPaul Charles. RuPaul is noted among famous drag queens for his indifference towards the gender-specific pronouns used to address him—both "he" and "she" have been deemed acceptable. "You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don't care! Just as long as you call me." He hosted a short-running talk show on VH1, and currently hosts reality television shows called RuPaul's Drag Race and RuPaul's Drag U.

RuPaul was born in San Diego, California. His name was given to him by his mother, a Louisiana native. The Ru came from roux, an ingredient used in gumbo. RuPaul struggled as a musician and filmmaker in Atlanta, Georgia during the 1980s. He participated in underground cinema, helping create the low-budget film Starrbooty, and an album by the same name. In Atlanta, RuPaul often performed at the Celebrity Club (managed by Larry Tee) as a bar dancer or with his band, Wee Wee Pole, which included the late Todd Butler.

In the early 1990s, RuPaul worked the Georgia club scene and was known by his full birth name. Initially participating in genderfuck-style performances, RuPaul performed solo and in collaboration with other bands at several New York nightclubs, most notably the Pyramid Club. He appeared for many years at the annual Wigstock drag festival and appeared in the documentary Wigstock: The Movie. In the '90s, RuPaul was known in the UK for his appearances on the Channel 4 series Manhattan Cable, a weekly series produced by World of Wonder and presented by American Laurie Pike about New York's wild and wacky public-access television system.

RuPaul is credited with the statement "We're born naked, and the rest is all drag."

Rock Hudson - A Personal Encounter:

By Ted

Back in 1966, on my way to Canada, I had a brief brush with Rock Hudson.

I came to North America by ship from Fremantle, Australia, via the far east, and on the leg from Japan to North America, my friends and I, all travelling second-class, met up with a wealthy American travelling in first class. My friends were a couple of lesbian Australian nurses, and Joe, my cabin-mate, a straight Swiss guy. We were all about 25 at the time. The wealthy American, Lloyd, was a short chubby guy in his sixties. In retrospect, I think he looked a lot like Artie Johnson. He was very ostentatious, and seemed to have a never-ending wardrobe of clothes and of jewellry— neck-chains, rings, bracelets, and watches. He claimed to be a millionaire, and Pat Boone's boyfriend. The very idea was rather shocking to us small-town folk. The way he told it, he had been to Japan for Pat Boone's tour there, but Lloyd hated flying, so was travelling by ship instead while Pat flew home. At the time, Pat Boone was separated from his wife, and had not yet become "born again."

The reason Lloyd was associating with us obvious, though unstated — my cabin-mate Joe was a hottie! He was also absolutely straight, but Lloyd hoped to change that. He would buy us drinks to get us to leave him alone with Joe. He even gave the girls some expensive jewellry to get rid of them. He never really got anywhere with Joe, however.

Anyway, our landfall was in San Pedro, south of Los Angeles, before sailing north to San Francisco and Vancouver. When the American - from L.A. - was leaving ship, he invited us the a "welcome-home" party the next night. He said he would send a car for us. We never really thought he would do it, but the next evening we got a message from the purser's office that a car would be waiting for us at the foot of the gangplank at 8:00 that night. Sure enough, there was not just a car, but a limosine waiting for us. Imagine four young people from the boonies riding in a limousine into one of the poshest areas of Los Angeles (I'm not sure if it was Beverly Hills, or Hollywood Hills, but it was very posh and in the hills on the outskirts of LA)!

I'm not really sure who the "welcome home" was for — Lloyd or Pat Boone. If it was for Boone, he never showed at the party, at least while we were there. Nor was I sure just whose home it was held at. All I remember was that it was a huge ranch-style with an immense patio and pool at the rear. It was around this pool that the party was being held, on a warm, late-June evening. I got the impression that the house was not Lloyd's, although he treated it as if it were. I think it actually belonged to Robert Wagner or Natalie Wood, both of whom were present, although they were not married to each other at the time. They were actually between marriages to each other.

Lloyd greeted us then left the girls and I at the pool to fend for ourselves, while he hustled Joe off to the interior of the house - probably to a bedroom. There were maybe 60 people at the party when we arrived around nine pm. Most of them were males, mostly has-been movie or tv actors or wanna-be's and agents. I really don't remember most of them. I do recall Mickey Rooney being present. I remember him as a nasty little man who was absolutely rude to almost everyone, even though people were trying their hardest to be nice to him, because his estranged wife had been murdered earlier that year. It completely destoyed my pleasant memories of him as Andy Hardy on The Hardy Family radio show of my childhood.

Most of the guests were rather condescending to us small-town hicks with out "adorable accents." I remember Peter Graves (who had starred in a Australian TV "western" a few years before) being particularly snide - maybe because his Aussie western was a major flop.

This was where I had my brief brush with Rock Hudson. He arrived later than us, and made his way round the pool saying hi to everyone, including the girls and I. Unlike many of the guests he was really pleasant to us. After chatting to us for a couple of minutes he moved on, with another tall, fairly good-looking man in tow. One of the other guests told us that the second man was Rock Hudson's boyfriend. He mentioned the man's name, but I didn't recognize the name then, and don't remember it now. It may have been Jim Nabors, but I really don't know.

Around eleven pm, the party got nasty when a fight broke out. I don't know who started it or what it was about, but I know it somehow involved Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner. Someone ended up in the pool fully-dressed. Someone else got a bloody nose. A table of glasses got smashed, and so did a sliding glass door, and someone got badly cut. An ambulance was called and so were the police.

At about the same time, Joe and Lloyd emerged from the house, both looking rather pissed off. Lloyd rather brusquely informed the four of us: "The police are on the way. You'd better go!" He promptly left us standing there, having made no offer of a ride back to the ship or anything. We made our way to the front of the house, rather obviously at a loss. Someone who was leaving at that time offered us a ride back to Los Angeles, which we gladly accepted, because a taxi back to the ship would have been beyond our means, and a couple of squad cars were just arriving.

So, our night of glamour turned into a long wait at the seedy downtown L.A. bus depot, a long ride back to San Pedro on the last bus of the night, and a long walk from the San Pedro drop-off to the ship, past all the little late-night bars with drunk chicanos whistling at the girls – and me and Joe.

Joe never did talk about what happened with Lloyd, but from Lloyd's reaction I presume Lloyd never managed to get into Joe's pants — but then, neither did I, and I spent 9 weeks, on and off ship, trying!

[speakeasyaoi]

Mitzi May x F!Reader

> Requested by anonymous | Mitzi makes me question my sexuality sometimes I won't even lie- I love her. She needs more recognition. She's wife material

PROMPT: N/A

After the fallout of her marriage with Atlas, Mitzi is a little desperate to find some way to fill that hole he left in her heart. Though she tries to cling on to the fleeting memory of her ex-husband to the best of her ability, finding someone new to take his place is a necessity for her to eventually move on, a necessity which you end up fulfilling. By the time you meet her, and even when you start a relationship with her, she's still rather attached to her previous marriage, in both big and small ways, but over time she'll gradually grow more open to her new relationship and start to move on from her previous ones.

And on that note, Atlas's recent passing makes her take steps in her relationship with you much slower than she would in other situations. As much as she yearns to be close to you, it's a long while before she's able to shake off all that lingering guilt that comes with finding someone new in her life.

Mitzi feels the need to be a bit secretive about the fact that she's dating another woman--her business is already in shambles as it is, rumors and gossip about Lackadaisy's newfound owner being a sapphist* will only make her financial situation worse--but despite that, she's more than willing to be with you out in public in ways that aren't as blatantly romantic. She keeps you on her arm like a piece of eye candy, taking you out to the shops or to brunch or just walking around St. Louis and seeing the sights. Once she's warmed up to you, you're practically inseparable.

She loves dancing with you. She's more keen on more tender dances, like slow dancing, but in all honesty she's more interested in the intimacy of it then she is in following any silly rules or steps. She thinks it's rather endearing if you're a bit clumsy or not well versed in dancing, and guides you through it to the best of her ability.

In private, she's significantly more flirty and romantic than she'd be in the presence of a crowd, practically smothering you. She finds it entertaining to come up behind you and wrap her arms around your waist, kissing along your neck without warning to watch your reaction and leaving a trail of lipstick stains along your skin.

Despite it being a rather unintelligent business decision, she likes to treat you to the Lackadaisy bar on the house. ("On the house" being on Wick's tab. Not that he'd notice.) Her ideal date is something along the lines of spending a night alone with you and a bottle of fine alcohol, and once that's said and done, you're probably going to have to nurse her through her hangover in the coming morning. ...On the bright side, it only serves to make her even more infatuated with you.

After a long, tiring day at work, Mitzi likes to unwind by setting you down in her lap as she brushes and/or braids out your hair. It's a quiet ritual for her to just take a bit of a break every once in a while. She also enjoys doing your makeup for you and dolling you up in the morning.

Mitzi is a very praising partner by nature, and while words aren't her main love language, she's more than generous when it comes to petnames and compliments. She'll frequently call you 'sweetheart', 'dear', or 'honey', likely paired with a chaste kiss on your cheek or jawline.

She cherishes every little gift and bit of your attention you give her, and holds it very close to her heart. If you give her a peice of jewelery, she wears it practically daily (think of Atlas's pearl necklace), and if it's something else, say a practical item or article of clothing, she makes sure to use it at every opportunity she can. While she loves to be spoiled, smaller, more personal things warm her heart.

Other notes: *Sapphist in this case is historically accurate terminology for a women who likes other women- sapphic, queer or bisexual would be a more modern term of the same meaning. Or maybe it isn't that historically accurate. I don't really know

[thatslayer]

Always and Forever. That was the promise made, and yet the Mikaelsons have gone their separate ways. Klaus is rumored to have remained in New Orleans, but he so rarely leaves The Abattoir that no one knows for certain. The city thrives under the heavy hand of Marcel Gerard, and all is humming along smoothly until the ground starts to rumble beneath St. Anne's church. A new mouth of hell bubbling up power like a beacon, attracting vampires, demons and the forces of darkness.

Immortal Beloved is a casual panfandom group verse and discord server spanning The Vampire Diaries, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Teen Wolf, Supernatural (other like-fandoms welcome) and is vaguely set in the first two-ish seasons of The Originals. Plot-heavy group. Accepting canons and OCs are welcome and encouraged to join! Note: OCs must not have pre-established relationships with canon characters without prior discussion. Group is friendly and supportive! Contact @thatslayer or @phdinrage for info, or just add faithlehane on discord!

THE CAST

The Originals/The Vampire Diaries

Klaus Mikaelson ; @thisbloodlust Elijah Mikaelson ; @enduringlystoic Rebekah Mikaelson ; Discord Muse Kol Mikaelson ; @worthbeinggoodfor Finn Mikaelson ; @astormymind Stefan Salvatore ; @destroyedbyguilt Damon Salvatore ; @damonstevedore Bonnie Bennett ; @littlebennettbitch Katherine Pierce ; @bourbonandheels Marcel Gerard ; @onegativeandtequila Davina Claire ; ---looking--- Hayley Marshall-Kenner ; Discord Muse Jackson Kenner ; Discord Muse Kai Parker ; @sociopathicryanreynolds

Aya Al-Rashid ; Discord Muse

Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel

Buffy Summers ; @insufferablemonsters Angel ; @shanshu Faith Lehane ; @thatslayer Willow Rosenberg ; Discord Muse Xander Harris ; @strangeandoffputting Rupert Giles ; Pending Spike ; Discord Muse Whistler ; Discord Muse

Teen Wolf

N/A

Supernatural

Dean Winchester ; @pulledfromhell Sam Winchester ; @samattheend Rowena MacLeod ; Discord Muse

Grave Encounters

Lance Preston ; @demcnsinmymind

Percy Jackson

Lou Ellen Blackstone ; @nosestealer

Interview with a Vampire (AMC)

Lestat de Lioncourt ; Discord Muse Louis de Pointe du Lac ; Discord Muse

The OCs

Maria Gonzales (Vampire Slayer) ; Discord Muse Robin Clark (Human) ; Discord Muse Jedi Collins (Witch) ; @jedicollins Chase Preciado (Werewolf) ; Discord Muse Gael Morrow (Psychic Medium); @misfitpuzzlepieces Irina Rybar (Feral Revenant) ; @misfitpuzzlepieces

[justforbooks]

Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955). He wrote several screenplays, including The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman is considered one of the best American plays of the 20th century.

Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. During this time, he received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, he received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, the Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.

Miller's writing career spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, he was considered one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to him, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect. Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. Per his express wish, it is the only theater in the world that bears his name.

Miller's letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979. In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech. In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, Arthur Miller: Writer. Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him. In the 2022 Netflix film Blonde, Miller was portrayed by Adrien Brody.

Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive, totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.

Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement". In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946", using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.

In 1999, the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.

Works

Stage plays

No Villain (1936)

They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)

Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)

The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)

The Great Disobedience (1938)

Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)

The Golden Years (1940)

The Half-Bridge (1943)

The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)

All My Sons (1947)

Death of a Salesman (1949)

An Enemy of the People (1950, adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)

The Crucible (1953)

A View from the Bridge (1955)

A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)

After the Fall (1964)

Incident at Vichy (1964)

The Price (1968)

The Reason Why (1970)

Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)

The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)

Up from Paradise (1974)

The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)

The American Clock (1980)

Playing for Time (television play, 1980)

Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)

Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)

I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)

Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)

I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)

Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)

The Last Yankee (1993)

Broken Glass (1994)

Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)

Resurrection Blues (2002)

Finishing the Picture (2004)

Radio plays

The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1940)

Joel Chandler Harris (1941)

The Battle of the Ovens (1942)

Thunder from the Mountains (1942)

I Was Married in Bataan (1942)

That They May Win (1943)

Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)

Bernardine (1944)

I Love You (1944)

Grandpa and the Statue (1944)

The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)

The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)

The Story of Gus (1947)

Screenplays

The Hook (1947)

All My Sons (1948)

Let's Make Love (1960)

The Misfits (1961)

Death of a Salesman (1985)

Everybody Wins (1990)

The Crucible (1996)

Assorted fiction

Focus (novel, 1945)

"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)

I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)

"Homely Girl: A Life" (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)

Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include "The Bare Manuscript", "Beavers", "The Performance", and "Bulldog")

Non-fiction

Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.

In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.

In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.

Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists during Mao Zedong's regime.

Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes directing a Chinese cast in an American play.

Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987). Miller's autobiography.

On Politics and the Art of Acting, Viking 2001 an 85-page essay about the thespian skills in American politics, comparing FDR, JFK, Reagan, Clinton.

Collections

Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016

Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006).

Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[jules-has-notes]

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas — VoicePlay music video

The holiday season can evoke some complicated emotions, especially when we can't be with the people we love. But expressing those feelings can still be beautiful. When VoicePlay turned this melancholy ballad into a gentle doo-wop tune, they had no way of knowing how much its sentiments would be needed in the coming year.

Details:

title: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

original performer: Judy Garland as Esther Smith in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

written by: Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 1 December 2019

My favorite bits:

those lovely, warm opening chords

J.None's smooth timbre on the first verse

Geoff holding down the bulk of the rhythm duties with his bass line

the lush backing harmonies with Layne in the mix

Eli's bright tone and agile riffing on the second verse

the syncopation of the echoed ♫ "merry little" ♫

the quick cannon on ♫ "make the Yuletide gay" ♫

Earl's clear, ringing melody in the bridge

the little smile J and Eli exchange during ♫ "golden days" ♫

everyone glancing over at Geoff as he sings ♫ "we'll always be together" ♫

that gorgeous descending bell chord starting from Earl's ♫ "highest bough" ♫

the moment of peaceful silence before they jump back in

J's freedom on those ad libbed riffs and runs

the richness of sound in that final chord, complete with Geoff's rumbling subharmonic underneath

the end of the captions asking, "You ever type the word now so much it stops looking like a real word?" 🤣 (Semantic satiation is the technical term for that, if you were wondering.)

Trivia:

Earl professed on Twitter that this is his favorite holiday song.

The guys had previously recorded a version of this song for "The December EP", a three-song free download that 4:2:Five released during the 2011 holiday season. Those tracks featured their friend Ryan Simpson from Tigerweather in the baritone spot, since it was created in the window between Ryan Reed leaving the group and Tony Wakim joining.

After Tony became a permanent member, they re-recorded all three songs from the EP with him for their 2012 holiday album "Peppermint Winter". The other two songs, "Deck the Halls" and "Here Comes Santa Claus", have often been included in their setlists for holiday concerts and their three-year residency in Mickey's Very Merry Chistmas Party at Disney World.

This video was filmed at a local event venue called Gallery J, which is frequently used for weddings.

According to Geoff in the YouTube premiere chat, their cozy wardrobe was a bit unnecessary on the 72℉ autumn day. Luckily, most buildings in Florida have air conditioning, so they could at least get a taste of artificial winter weather.

During their warm-up rehearsal at the location, they indulged in J.None's favorite part of the process, the intentionally bad take, which they later released on social media as a teaser for the full behind-the-scenes video on Patreon.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by VoicePlay (@thevoiceplay)

[amphibious-thing]

So lets talk about Franklin. Overall I liked it. But it wasn't particularly historically accurate. This is hardly an issue that's unique to Franklin, it's an issue with the genre in general. It's impossible to take people's real lives, with all their complexity, and compress them into a entertaining, well paced TV show while also being completely historically accurate. Things inevitably get left out, timelines get muddled, a dash of creative license can get out of hand all to quickly. Straight off the bat Franklin lets us know it's not too concerned with historical accuracy by just completely leaving Silas Deane out.

That considered I liked it. I really enjoyed Romain Brau's performance. The moment when everyone is laughing at d'Eon in the theatre and it cuts to a close up of her face, you can see her pain, but also her resolve, her strength.

We see this strength again in the conversation between her and Franklin.

However. They got her name wrong. I know pretty much everyone deadnames d'Eon but really?!? It doesn't make sense in the narrative at all. D'Eon is being introduced as a woman why would her deadname be used in this scenario. Just in case you haven't heard me say it a thousand times, d'Eon's name was Charlotte-Geneviève-Louise-Auguste-André-Timothée d’Eon de Beaumont, or Geneviève d'Eon for short.

The timeline also seems confused. In one scene Temple makes a bet on d'Eon's sex but historically these bets had pretty much stopped after d'Eon was declared a woman in both England and France. There had been a lot of speculation over her sex in the past but by the time she returned to France there seemed to be an answer; d'Eon was a woman who had disguised herself as a man. While there were certainly people who made fun of d'Eon, they made fun of her under the belief that she, to put it bluntly, had a vagina. In Franklin the jokes made at her expense rely on the insinuation that she had a penis and the satirical cartoon of d'Eon and Franklin having sex depicts her with a penis.

Historically there were rumors that d'Eon and Franklin were lovers but these rumors were based on the widely held belief that d'Eon was a woman. And woman was understood in a very cisnormative way.

The pamphlet History of a French Louse (published in French and later translated into English) follows the story of a louse who finds himself on d'Eon. The louse describes d'Eon as "a woman whose manners were so absurd, so masculine, and unsuitable to her sex". The louse is still residing on d’Eon when she goes to dine at Franklin’s place:

My heroine [d’Eon] left her seat to place herself close to the master of the house [Franklin], to whom she sung some verses of her own composing, which I should not have thought excellent but for that circumstance; however they were greatly applauded. I plainly observed his excellency express his gratitude to his Apollo by an ardent kiss, but without quitting his spectacles; at the same time he whispered in her ear, Shall it be this evening, my goddess?

While the pamphlet acknowledges that d'Eon had "appeared in the habit of a man, and wore the cross of St. Louis" it states that "she was a woman". Certainly History of a French Louse is mocking d'Eon and Franklin but the author clearly believed that d'Eon was woman.

Oh also they misgendered her in the credits!

[handeaux]

In 1905, Cincinnati Vainly Hoped To Double Its Population In Just Five Years

Talk about optimism! In 1905, the Cincinnati Post ran a contest looking for ideas on how Cincinnati could increase its population to 600,000 in time for the 1910 census, only five years hence.

Although Cincinnati was still a growing city – no census marked a decrease in our city’s population until 1960 – any notion that the population might top half a million, much less 600,000 was beyond ambitious. It was flat-out crazy. Still, the progressive Cincinnati Post [16 November 1905] persisted, announcing monetary prizes for the best ideas on how to achieve a population explosion in a few short years.

“If someone should start a 600,000 club in Cincinnati, it would become the biggest organization in the world. This is evident in the fact that every one in Cincinnati, and nearly every one in Southern Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia, would join it. Not only are the people of Cincinnati interested for the greater city, but those outside the city also.”

In the event that folks needed a little incentive beyond civic pride, the Post offered monetary rewards for the best ideas on how to increase the city’s population to 600,000 by 1910. First prize was $50, second prize was $25 and five third prizes of $5 rounded out the awards. From November 1905 into mid-January 1906, the Post published ideas as they arrived and interviewed city dignitaries about the ingenuity of the contest.

Among the celebrities interviewed about the initiative was Joseph B. Foraker, former governor of Ohio and current U.S. Senator from Ohio. He told the Post [15 November 1905]:

“Keep building skyscrapers. One can scarcely realize the great change that has come to the city. Why, from my window they are jumping up until the city is looking like an oil field. They are filled, too, just as rapidly as they are built. Make room for the people, and they will come along.”

Compared to some of the other ideas submitted to the Post, Senator Foraker’s suggestion was rather tame.

J. Louis Bunn, a house painter, suggested rerouting the Ohio River from Coney Island to Sedamsville southward into Kentucky, so that Covington, Newport, Bellevue and Dayton would be transplanted to Ohio and therefore become part of Cincinnati.

Frank Boies, a shoe-cutter, was convinced that closing all saloons on Sunday would do the trick.

Harry Dilg, an express delivery driver, lobbied for more championship prize fights being hosted by Cincinnati.

A contestant who signed his entry “Stranger” made a list of obstacles to Cincinnati’s growth. Would Cincinnati ever achieve 600,000 population? According to “Stranger”:

“Not as long as the Traction Company is not compelled to give the people better service. Not as long as the sweeping of any old rubbish, especially paper, off the sidewalk and into the street is allowed. Not as long as property-owners or their agents are indifferent to the appearance of property that has become vacant. Not as long as corporations are not compelled to think of others as well as themselves. The worst case of this kind will be found in the so-called ‘waiting room’ at the foot of Art Hill, sometimes called the Lock-st. Incline. W. Kesley Schoepf [president of the Traction Company] would not think of using it as a garage for his automobile, yet he expects patrons to ‘wait’ in there until one of his 5-cent carriages that you are compelled to stand up in half the time comes along.”

No newspaper contest, of course, would be complete without an entry from an adorable schoolgirl. The Post [28 December 1905] prominently blazoned the ideas of 13-year-old Gladys Schultz of Linwood, who wrote her contribution in verse:

“Annex all the villages in Hamilton County; Give all small manufactories a bounty. Exempt from taxation all chattels; Help the businessman fight some of his battles. Tax real estate all it will stand – The banker can lend a helping hand. Fill the Mill Creek Valley above high-water mark. Build factories thereon with space for a park. An underground railway, with a boulevard top, Our unsightly canal will make a beautiful spot. A union depot for all railroads to come in, Will bring 600,000 by 1910!”

The Post encouraged contestants to submit multiple entries and John Miller, a harness maker, complied by compiling 36 ideas into a single entry. Mr. Miller [11 December 1905] covered quite a bit of territory with his suggestions, ranging from the mundane . . .

“22. For Cincinnati to send a letter of thanks to President Roosevelt and Secretary Taft for the good they did in the last election.”

. . . to the idealistic.:

“36. Abolish capital punishment.”

Along the way, Mr. Miller lobbied for more monuments, an eight-hour work day, honest elections, free schoolbooks in the public schools, more parks along the riverfront and better service at the city hospital.

The winner of the big $50 prize was Marion L. Pernice Jr., assistant advertising manager of the Fay & Egan Company, manufacturers of woodworking machinery. His suggestion boiled down to essentially one word: Advertise! Pernice suggested that all goods manufactured in Cincinnati be labeled “From Cincinnati” and that only goods manufactured in Cincinnati be eligible for that slogan. All suburban manufacturers would lobby for annexation to Cincinnati to carry that prestigious mark.

Alas, the contest did not achieve its stated goal. Cincinnati’s population in 1905, approximately 340,000, reached only 364,000 in 1910. Evan worse, the census of 1910 marked the first time since 1830 that Cincinnati was not ranked among the largest 10 cities in the United States. It would be 1950 before Cincinnati achieved 500,000 residents and 60 years of population decline followed until an uptick in the 2020 census.

And yet, no serious discussion about re-channeling the Ohio River.