#vintage dutch jazz

[soapkaars]

It’s a vintage Dutch Swing kind of day so I’ll just post a few nice ones from The Ramblers and Louis Davids

[valenciamidknight]

“Act Natural”, 2024.

Original collage by me.

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Een Brief uit het Verleden, c. 1933. by Halloween HJB Via Flickr: Dutch advertising poster for the 1933 film "Only Yesterday"

[pinescent-and-gingerbread]

˗ˏˋ Arthur Morgan Modern!AU Headcanons ´ˎ˗

To answer this ask from the lovely @crystalofmoon19 , I got to think a bit more deeply about what a modern!AU Arthur could be. This absolutely stunning Arthur pic is from @arthurmorgan-vp!

JOB ´ˎ˗

Has a job that means a lot to him and is totally dedicated when doing it.

Arthur flourishes when helping others. I saw a Chartur fanart that portrayed him as a nurse and god I love this idea. He's emotionally VERY tough, making him efficient even in difficult and stressful times when a patient's life is in his hands. He's also a practical person who needs to have a concrete, manual aspect in his work. On top of that, we have the whole "service to society" aspect.

Police officer could also fit this dynamic. (I know it's pretty ironic considering he's a criminal in the canon but it's one of these jobs where he could put his strength into action to help others).

Also, without the need to survive and do criminal acts, with a caring family who could push him in the right ways, he also could have a job in arts. Arthur canonically is a curious and inventive person, he draws every little thing he finds interesting around him and cares for places, characters and events most people wouldn’t. I could picture him as an illustrator/concept artist. Or tattoo artist too? Why not.

HOBBIES ´ˎ˗

Sooooo artsy.

If he works at the hospital, he needs to have a sketchbook to just write and draw like in the canon. With other mediums being way more accessible nowadays, I think he could also paint and even sculpt from time to time.

Art helps him to get dark thoughts out of his head and focus on something when life gets hard.

However, if he already works in an artsy field, I think he would need to get up and move after a whole day sitting and would love to just go jogging, hiking, and taking long walks in nature. A combat sport could also do the work, as Arthur has an important code of honor: a discipline like Judo or Wrestling could help him get all his pent-up energy out while respecting his opponent; boxing could work too.

100% have a Polaroid and takes pictures of good times and his close ones every chance he gets. His bedroom/apartment is full of objects that carry an emotional value to him.

MODERN THINGS HE LIKES ´ˎ˗

Barbecues.

Would wear the ugliest apron and cap while doing them btw. And doesn't see what the problem is.

Classical rock music and vinyl. Thinking about Led Zepplin, The Stones, The Doors. Vintage music all the way. Has a secret soft spot for Lady Gaga though. Don't tell John. And (not-so) hot take, it's Hosea who introduces him to his old blues and rock records (Dutch prefers Jazz music.)

Camping and long hiking trips. Trekking when he feels really adventurous.

Going to the cinema. (100% eats salty popcorn and messes with John during the film if it's a family outing.)

In modern days Arthur would have been born in 1988. This means he was a '90s kid: he fondly remembers VHS tapes, baggy jeans, his old PlayStation One, maybe watching the first episodes of Pokémon, too. He's canonically such a nostalgic.

Would 100% make his own mix on cassette tapes btw

Flannels. I picture him with comfy rather than fancy clothes. He would also have a big leather jacket or vintage bomber for winter. And a leather bag like this one where important work papers are mixed with random trinkets found on his hikes.

RANDOM LITTLE FACTS ´ˎ˗

Arthur is so messy (I mean look at his tent). His car (Hosea's old one) is also a complete mess, cups, leftovers from meals, CDs, work stuff and random objects cover every possible inch of it.

Talking about it, looooves to drive. Totally do it with one hand on the wheel. And with good music ofc. (He would put his other hand on your thigh)

Has a dog. Or wants one deeply. A big one. And he definitely wants a lot of animals once he has a bigger house with you.

I said he could be a tattoo artist. I think he would have a tattoo, of an animal. Of course, we as a fandom thinks of the deer, but it has to be something meaningful to him. Maybe the animal who inspires him the most, or one they have seen in the wild with John during a walk in the woods.

Arthur is not a good cook. Buys a lot of food telling himself this time, he will succeed at making this damn dish. Biggest mess ever, ingredients everywhere on the floor, the walls, his body and hair. Pure chaos. Everything burns. Kitchen ends up on fire. Uses the internet as last hope, tries to watch as many tutorials as possible but it doesn't help+his phone ends up covered in egg white, flour, and wet ingredients. Throws away the food and gives up, orders a pizza.

Repeat previous paragraph every time he wants to try a new dish he saw somewhere.

(The phone is okay because he has the strongest and largest phone case ever. The kind of enormous one made to protect phones in building zones, for his hikes. It's pitch black.)

Overall I'd say a Modern!AU Arthur would probably be a bit happier even though still very nostalgic and melancholic at times (without the constant need to run away and kill people, his mental health would be much better.)

Important disclaimer: these are my personal thoughts, they could totally be shitty, I'm not at all claiming this is the absolute truth about him. A character is always subject to a personal interpretation, therefore anyone could picture him differently! Btw, I would love to hear your thoughts about it!

Thanks for reading! I hope you liked my silly little ideas.

I'm thinking about doing a part.2 where we could dive into his habits, his relationships with family, friends and s/o and other little fun facts. Let me know if I should! -Pine 🌱

[lamaisongaga]

FASHION CREDITS: JAZZ & PIANO SHOW 4.0 PART II

Due to the first part being a tad too long, here is the second part of the fourth leg of Lady Gaga's Jazz & Piano residency stage looks styled by Tom Eerebout and Sandra Amador!

For June 30th, Lady Gaga brought out her bespoke Adrián Manceras silver crystal and intricate chain fringe mini dress which she debuted in Vegas back in February!

She‘s donning the white showgirl-inspired headdress with turkey feathers and Swarovski crystals by Arturo Rios!

Of course, she can't miss out on her custom pair of Laruicci crystal statement earrings...

...and her favorite Jimmy Choo metallic silver Anouk stiletto pumps.

The same night, Lady Gaga left tongues wagging as she entered the stage in a bespoke Michael Costello fuchsia pleated cape gown with bejeweled neck and matching belt.

One of her headpieces is the Astrea black crinoline birdcage mask with bow on top (£1,500) by London-based Turkish milliner Merve Bayindir.

The penultimate show, which took place on July 5th, saw Lady Gaga taking over the stage in a custom Michael Costello x Mother Plucker Feather Company red crystallized and plummeted V-neck silk caftan with bejeweled waist.

It was topped off with a custom Haus of Gaga red crystal-embellished domed headband.

My favorite look of the night was this dreamy turquoise-colored total sequin on tulle column dress from Alberta Ferretti's Resort 2024 collection which the Haus of Gaga customized by adding plush black velvet puff sleeves.

This look was completed with the Carrie Jenkinson Millinery Spring/Summer 2024 Valencia exploding feather fascinator (£579),…

...silver-tone mixed crystal flower linear drop earrings by I.N.C. International Concepts exclusively sold at Macy’s,...

… and the Cornelia James Melissa opera-length black velvet gloves (£160).

So grateful to finally introduce designer Pamella Roland to you!

Gaga chose her Pre-Fall 2024 silver sequined tulle cape gown with starburst embroidery ($5,995) which she got customized with grey ostrich feathers at the hem.

Roland’s Pre-Fall 2024 collection is a mesmerizing homage to "the timeless allure of Dutch floral still life paintings of the 17th century by such masters as Jan Bruegal the Elder & Rachel Ruysch. This season transforms into a canvas where light, shadow, and perspective dance harmoniously, echoing the captivating essence of those masterpieces. Pre-Fall’s, asymmetrical compositions and an enigmatic mood weave their way into the collection’s silhouettes, unveiling sculptural gowns adorned with cascading ruffles and sleeves that evoke the opulent abundance found in floral arrangements."

Her vintage 1993 Jose & Maria Barrera crystal necklace completed the look.

[willietheweeper]

Cover of a vintage Dutch crime novel.

Translation:

THE JAZZ BAND FROM HELL

[weirdlandtv]

Covers of vintage Dutch crime/thriller/mystery/horror novels. Now, I happen to be Dutch so I’ll translate the titles.

De jazzband van den duivel (THE DEVIL’S JAZZ BAND). What a magnificent title.

Het teeken van den dood (THE SIGN OF DEATH).

De doode hand (THE DEAD HAND).

Slangeneiland (SNAKE ISLAND) and Duel der maskers (DUEL OF THE MASKS).

De dood heeft lange benen (DEATH HAS LONG LEGS). Well, so do I.

All these and more, many more, can be found HERE.

[notetomyblackself]

Note to (my black) self

Who am I? And what makes me the way I am? How do I perceive myself and how does the world perceive me? How do I act accordingly as a black female? “Black girls that live and are being educated in a predominantly white environment experience hinder in their overall wellbeing and sense of identity” (Ricardo, 2015).  

Growing up as a black Eritrean female in the Netherlands, I am perceived as a black Eritrean woman by white Dutch people, but my fellow Eritrean people see me as white washed. They never specifically told me why they think that, but if I had to fill that in myself I think that it’s because of the way I dress, act and talk. I suppose it’s because of the fact that I’m a little different from them. Urban dictionary explains being white washed as the following: A derogatory term used to describe a minority who has assimilated with western society. The "White washed" person does not necessarily abandon his/her own culture, but instead embrace others beside his/her own. By calling me whitewashed the person in question is implying that I’m not meeting my ethnic stereotype. People are products of their environment. So unless I’m surrounded by my heritage growing up, I’m more likely to become a product of where I am and who I’m with. I speak and understand the Eritrean language and I am also proud of where I come from, but I have also assimilated into my surroundings in the Western society.

The strange thing about me being labeled white washed, is that society is not surprised when a white person likes a group of different things. I will illustrate this with an example. At the beginning of high school, people always had a reason to make fun of me. If it wasn't about my ethnicity or race, it would be about the way I dressed or my interests. That did not stop me from doing what I liked. I always wanted to try new things out and I wouldn't limit myself to one thing. I wore a lot of vintage clothes and would always go to vintage kilo sales to buy some gems. People assumed that I bought these clothes, because I was poor and made fun of it. They said that I dressed like a grandpa. I also did not limit myself when it came to music. I like to listen to hip-hop, jazz, reggae, soul and afro music, but also to indie, hard rock, techno and house. When I tell people that I listen to hip-hop, jazz or other typical “black” music, nobody is surprised, while this does happen when I tell them that one of my favourite artists is an indie rock band. But is it strange that people are surprised by this? The remarkable thing about this is that when one of my white friends likes so many different things within a certain subject (like music for example), people are not surprised. Back to the definition of what it means to be white washed. In this case, I am indeed not neglecting my own culture as stated in the definition according to Urban dictionary, but I am also embracing something that is characterised as "white culture". This makes me whitewashed according to the definition of the word. This is not the case when it happens to be the other way around, because there is no such thing as being black washed, and quite often white people are even being praised when they are interested in things that are not necessarily part of "white culture" (in this case, music). This is because black culture sells when white people hijack it (Mier, 2020).

I think that this phenomenon has to do with the fact that being white is not seen as something unusual in the western world. Whiteness is not acknowledged as a racialized/ethnicized positioning at all. Whiteness is generally seen as so ordinary, so lacking in characteristics, so normal, so devoid of meaning (Wekker, 2016). Being black, on the other hand, is something that is seen as different on it’s own. It’s a large part of your identity, if you do not meet a certain standard that is created for you, it all becomes a little too complex to comprehend.

I also noticed that there are different kinds of black, just like there are different kinds of white , if you observe people with different ethnicities and history. Slavery is not part of Eritrean history but we did have a colonialism history. Eritrea was colonized by Italy in 1882. When black people talk about their slavery history I feel like I can’t relate to them, but with certain parts I do. I have experienced that as a black person there are differences, but you get treated the same nonetheless. 

For example: Sinterklaas - a Dutch tradition that is celebrated on the 5th of December - and his ‘lovely help’ black pete. When December arrives not one black person can escape from all the racism and terror that that month brings with it. Black pete is a product from slavery/colonialism and it has everything to do with racism. It’s racist because black pete is literally white people dressing up by painting their skin black, wearing an afro wig, putting on some lipstick/earrings, acting goofy and serving Sinterklaas (the white man). I personally hated the fact that I would get ridiculed for my hair and skin color as a little black girl due to this holiday. I always got to hear that I could be black pete without actually dressing up or painting myself. I would always laugh it off, because I did not feel comfortable confronting those people. It’s even harder to say it when it’s a big group of white people containing no persons of color at all. I don’t have a history with slavery within my culture, but I still experience the racism that comes with the holiday. That's what I mean by that there are different kinds of black, but black people (in the western world) share the same disadvantages.

Through dating I also found myself uncomfortable or changing/deblackening myself. Remaining silent or laughing it off when I could’ve said something. I have mostly dated white men in the past.The thing is: I don't have a specific type, or at least I like to think that I don’t attach too much value to skin color and ethnicity, because for a reason most of the guys that I have dated so far are white. I came to terms that me being mostly attracted to white men has to do with the cultural archive as Gloria Wekker describes in White innocence. How dutch people - including me - look at the world and therefore also what we find (sexually) attractive has everything to with the cultural archive (Wekker, 2016). I don’t have a lot of criteria when it comes to dating, but I find political views and norms and values the most important thing. As a left oriented person I could never date someone who is very far right orientated, that just clashes with my beliefs. To avoid this kind of inconvenience, I often ask someone's political affiliation on the first date. This also happened with the last guy that I have dated. I immediately asked him what party he voted for in the last elections and he voted for a central party. While answering that question he also asked me in a ludicrous way, if I asked the question because I wanted to make sure that he did not vote for a far right party. And that was exactly the reason why I asked. Time passed after that first date and I heard him saying the N- word*. I asked him afterwards in what context he used that word - in a more private setting -  and he felt attacked. He asked me why I asked that and said that he didn't feel like having this discussion. He was always surrounded by black people growing up and meant no harm. That was the moment that I needed to end it but I did not. On the third date, we went to watch the programme First dates together. A friend of his and a girl I knew happened to go on a date with each other. The girl in question told her date that she could not date a right orientated person. This led into me and my date having a conversation and I again stated that I felt the same way. He told me that he thought that I was narrow-minded, discriminating and that he might even vote for FVD (far right) or BIJ1 (radical left) himself one day. I said that I thought that was odd because they were two extreme opposites of each other and that I couldn't date someone who didn't have the same values as I did. Even if you only vote for the FVD because you agree with one point and disagree with the rest. I like to think that he was very much not aware of his white privilege, because he considered voting for a far right party without taking the racism, classism, misogyny etc of that party into account. I obviously told him that I didn't want to see him again after that. 

I always tell myself that because of these experiences I would like to end with a person of color and in the best case scenario: a black man, because a white man will never really understand me anyway and the other way around, but you can’t control who you are attracted to. The best thing that I can do in this instance is being open to and lucky enough to date a (white) person who doesn’t understand, but is willing to put in work and trying to understand. The fact that I dated a few white men also made people think even more that I was white washed. Even though I mostly dated white men I also dated men from other races including black men but that didn't matter. Black women who engage in relationships with white men encounter Black community norms that question their commitment to Blackness (Collins, 2021). So it doesn't matter how much I act on my blackness and the things that being black brings with it, because who I date also defines how committed I am to blackness.

The thing is that I have a ‘very strong’ opinion on politics - as said by people who don’t feel the same - but I keep finding myself in these situations where I feel like I’m assimilating my opinion, because of the discomfort that these situations bring along. These values are very important to me but it feels like I can’t speak out on them, because white people will see me as the angry black woman or person again. Even though I’m not even stating something unusual. The angry black woman is a social control mechanism that is employed to punish black women who violate the societal norms that encourage them to be passive, servile, non-threatening, and unseen (Pilgrim, 2008). So in situations like these I refrain myself from expressing my feelings in order to distance myself from the angry black woman stereotype. Oppressed groups are frequently placed in the situation of being listened to only if we frame our ideas in the language that is familiar to and comfortable for a dominant group (Collins, 2021). Me and all the black people are allowed to be part of the club, you’re allowed to be ‘dutch’, as long as you behave, share exciting recipes, smile a lot, don’t talk about racism, happily go along with everything, and pretend it’s all fun and cozy (Nzume, 2017). Nzume in “Hallo witte mensen” written in 2017 has argued that it’s always about how we, black people should change or adapt ourselves and rarely about what white people can change about themselves it was so refreshing to read this book written for white people about what they can do for us black people, but we need to be realistic. Rome was not built in one day and we - society - have a lot of work to do in the Netherlands or the western society in general, but the only thing that I can do as a black woman in the meantime is to figure out how to deal with these problems. I’m already doing this by sharing and gaining as much knowledge as possible. By sharing things on social media, talking with friends or even strangers. By talking to people I understood that I’m not the only person that has to deal with these things. I have been thinking about starting a podcast with a dear friend of mine to talk about these things, to let other person’s of color who struggle with this know that they are not alone. Writing this essay gave me more insights and motivation to start with that. Society is slowly changing and becoming more accepting, but maybe not as fast as me and many others would like.

All these events often make me feel like I don’t know where to belong, but I am coming to terms with the fact that you can not in fact answer the question “who am I?”,  with one answer. When asking this question one answer is not enough to encapsulate the multiplicities of our spirits and the many selves we embody. We are all multidimensional beings and that’s what makes us so special. So it’s okay for me to be black and to do, like and say the things that I want, without fitting in a narrative that was made for me. I can create my own narrative.

Sources: APA

Collins, P. (2021). Black Feminist Thought, Thirtieth Anniversary Edition. Routledge.

Mier, T. (2020a, juni 10). The Afterword: White people take everything from Black culture but the burden. Daily Trojan. Geraadpleegd op 5 december 2021, van https://dailytrojan.com/2020/06/09/the-afterword-white-people-take-everything-from-black-culture-but-the-burden/

Mier, T. (2020b, juni 10). The Afterword: White people take everything from Black culture but the burden. Daily Trojan. Geraadpleegd op 6 december 2021, van https://dailytrojan.com/2020/06/09/the-afterword-white-people-take-everything-from-black-culture-but-the-burden/

Nzume, A. (2017). Hallo witte mensen (1ste editie). Amsterdam University Press.

Ricardo, J. L. (2015). The only one : exploring identity development in Black adolescent girls who are both educated and raised in White spaces (Thesis). https://scholarworks.smith.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1766&context=theses

The Sapphire Caricature - Anti-black Imagery - Jim Crow Museum - Ferris State University. (2008). Ferris State University. Geraadpleegd op 6 december 2021, van https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/antiblack/sapphire.htm

Wekker, G. (2016). White Innocence. Amsterdam University Press.

[rare-posters]

Spyker-Auto's. ca. 1920. Pieter Vanderhem.

19 5/8 x 27 3/8 in./50 x 69.5 cm

Vanderhem, who started out as a caricaturist, captures a slice-of-life portrait of a young, wealthy post-war couple and their touring-car. The lovely wife chats with the innkeeper, while hubby coolly lights a smoke, as the chauffeur pulls up. The suitcase bears stickers for the Grand Hotel, Marseille and the Hotel Metropol, Lyon, among others. The Spyker Brothers became, in 1898, the first Dutch car-makers, but this ad comes toward their last hurrah; the company folded in 1926.

Click here for more information.

[markodragic]

do you have any hcs on what sort of music the gang would enjoy? you don’t need to list all of them of course but just if you have ideas

I’m sorry it took ages to answer this ask but I decided to do the whole gang JHKHKJK ✨ also this is set in a modern AU so that I have more genres to work with!

• dutch: he strikes me as an obnoxious elitist jazz fan. the type that will not shut up about how vinyl is superior.

• arthur: he likes acoustic folk stuff. he can and will cry on public transport listening to sufjan stevens.

• john: he only listens to speedcore and one (1) linkin park album.

• hosea: like all cool old men, he listens to 70s prog rock. he always has good album recommendations.

• sadie: she’s a big fan of death metal, industrial, and anything that sounds like a total racket. may or may not unironically listen to death grips.

• charles: he’s an ambient music kind of guy. he’s into boards of canada and aphex twin, and he also likes lo-fi hiphop stuff, j-dilla beats etc.

• sean: he only listens to terrible gamer dubstep. and the dropkick murphys.

• lenny: he likes weird nerd musicians like lemon demon and tally hall. anything that’s particularly creative and unusual is his jam.

• javier: he says his music taste is totally highbrow, but his itunes library is lowkey full of boyband music.

• strauss: exclusively listens to grimes (this one’s for u eva)

• mary-beth: she just loves cheesy pop music honestly. in her opinion if you can’t bop to it then what’s the point.

• swanson: he’s into 90s downtempo electronica stuff like underworld and moby. just chill music that he can zone out to.

• tilly: she’s a big fan of future funk stuff like night tempo. she likes the fun vintage feel of the genre.

• karen: she vibes with punk rock, especially classic mid-70s punk rock, because it appeals to her defiant nature. also she’s discovered that playing it too loud will annoy susan which is a bonus.

• abigail: she likes big band swing music - she always listens to music while she works so she prefers something high-energy and catchy to keep her motivated.

• molly: she enjoys artsy indie stuff like mitski and florence + the machine. anything that’s super cathartic basically.

• susan: she’s a wine aunt so she just loves ABBA and the whole disco genre in general.

• trelawny: he is an absolute hoe for musical theatre. don’t pass him the aux cord because he’ll just play the entire phantom of the opera soundtrack.

• kieran: he mostly listens to emotive indie music like the mountain goats, mother mother and any other band that you can have a crisis to at 4am.

• pearson: “hey kiddo let me show you this cool band from back in my day that you’ve probably never even heard of” *plays an ac/dc song*

• uncle: carameldansen (10 hour loop, bass boosted)

[dustedmagazine]

Derek Taylor 2020: We’re Still Here

That’s about the best that can be said for a year that pulled out nearly every stop in a surging sea change to calamity, adversity and tragedy. The number of people lost to a pandemic that now stands steadfast as a monument to the true meaning of American Exceptionalism as the epitome of empathy-eradicating self-interest is enough to negate even the noblest efforts at laughing to keep from crying. Musicians and music persisted though, even in a severely altered performance landscape of shuttered venues and virtual concerts.  And recorded offerings new and archival remained plentiful. 

When so much about the present feels like a sprint backwards, societally, environmentally and across multiple other measures, music reliably endures as a means for finding both meaning and footing in the world. What follows are 20 capsule vignettes describing selections from the sea of albums circulated this year that kept me afloat, followed by 25 more in list form that did the same. Thank you for reading and thanks for sticking with us.

Paul Desmond — The Complete 1975 Toronto Recordings (Mosaic)

Given the magnitude of hardship this year’s wrought on living musicians, it may appear a bit perverse to lead this list with a dead one. Even so, this immersive set’s become an old reliable when it comes to achieving aurally-sourced solace. Desmond, the arch and affluent altoist, leaning into a Canadian club residency with ace sidemen while making good on his gentleman’s agreement with absent Dave Brubeck to abstain from piano accompaniment. The leader’s lady-killer instincts are assiduously evident in the amorously-oriented song choices as his dulcet, tranquilizing tone seduces and delights, night after night.

Chris Dingman — Peace (Inner Arts)

An intensely personal project where abundancy of content arose not out of ambition but rather necessity and is made all the more affecting for it. Dingman designed and played the nearly six hours of solo vibraphone music on this set for his hospice-sequestered father with sole purpose of providing comfort and calm. Reflection after his parent’s passing moved him to release it into the world with the hope that it could do the same for others. Intention accomplished.

 Joe McPhee — Black Is the Color (Corbett vs. Dempsey)

It’s been a distressing year for nearly everyone, but particularly for McPhee, who lost his brother Charlie to illness. Even amidst ongoing emotional tumult, his fecundity felt undiminished. AC/DC on the British OtoROKU label offers another entry with the English organ trio Decoy. Of Things Beyond Thule, Vol. 2 is a smashing CD sequel to its vinyl predecessor with Dave Rempis, Tomeka Reid, Brandon Lopez and Paal Nilssen-Love comprising the super group. A reissue of the seminal She Knows… with Scandinavian power trio The Thing on the Ezz-thetics label and Black is the Color compiling early concert material in surprisingly sharp fidelity from the Corbett vs. Dempsey imprint cover the archival end of things.

 Sonny Rollins — Rollins in Holland (Resonance)

The Saxophone Colossus holding court with Dutch compatriots in 1967. Most conspicuous is daredevil drummer Han Bennink, who even at this early stage straddles swing to European Free Jazz from behind his kit. Rollins shifts between comparatively pithy studio salvos and effusive concert excursions that once again cement his supremacy in the strenuous realm of long form improvisation. Seven decades as a musician makes for a bank vault-sized cache of bootlegs, but this one, refurbished and authorized remains something special.

 Stephen Riley — Friday the 13th (Steeplechase)

Like McPhee, Riley’s a perennial resident of my pantheon. This date realized a long-standing wish to hear him in the company of cornetist Kirk Knuffke backed by the freeing simplicity of bass and drums. Both men have aerated, instantly recognizable tones and pliancy in phrasing that provides practically endless possibilities in tandem. Riley’s also instrumental as featured guest on Pierre Dørge’s Bluu Afroo, a slightly preemptive Ruby Anniversary celebration of guitarist’s multinational New Jungle Orchestra.

 Sam Rivers — Ricochet & Braids (No Business)

The auspicious launch of a Sam Rivers archival series last year was among the Lithuanian No Business label’s greatest achievements. Two more seminal entries came down the pike in 2020: Ricochet featuring Dave Holland and Barry Altschul of particularly fine vintage, and Braids spotlighting another pivotal Rivers ensemble in Hamburg with low brass wizard Joe Daley. There are four more to go, which should target the end of 2022 for the series’ completion.

 James Brandon Lewis — Live at Willisau & Molecular (Intakt)

Lewis is the type of compelling artist tapped for accolades like Down Beat’s Rising Star award, despite having been active as an accomplished improviser for over a decade. Delayed exposure is common collateral to a career path in improvised music though, and the saxophonist hasn’t let slow-to-cotton critics slow him down a bit. A deal inked with the Swiss Intakt imprint has so far yielded Live at Willsau, which finds him in fiery duo with Chad Taylor, and Molecular, a studio venture with an all-star quartet that will hopefully become a working band again in 2021.

 Susan Alcorn — Pedernal (Relative Pitch)

Pedal steel may feel like a nascent voice in improvised music, but in actuality Susan Alcorn and her peers have been plying it as a viable vehicle for some time. While Pedernal is somewhat perplexingly her first album as clear-cut leader, impediments to an earlier debut seem inconsequential given the ample amount of thought and design evident in the end product. Strings wielded by Michael Formanek, Mary Halvorson and Mark Feldman weave with the wide gamut of Alcorn’s aqueous sonorities across intricate pieces further stamped by Ryan Sawyer’s peripatetic drums. The results are at once daring and distinguished.

 John Scofield — Swallow Tales (ECM)

ECM has an enviably accomplished record when it comes to matching the austerity and formality of its sound design to artists’ objectives. Case in point this stark, but not standoffish trio set that’s as much (electric) bassist Steve Swallow’s offspring as it is Scofield’s. Drummer Stewart is the third point in the triangle, but he sagely defers to his elders, leaving them to a dance of differently gauged strings that expertly balances motion and space.

 Corbett vs. Dempsey

John Corbett is emblematic of that rare breed of music monomaniac who balances obsessiveness with altruistic generosity. He’s personally responsible for bringing dozens of rare and classic recordings back into circulation, first through the fondly remembered Unheard Music Series and more recently via the CvD concern. This year, another stack was added to that sum with Milford Graves & Don Pullen’s The Complete Yale Concert 1966 (including the rarified Nommo), Alexander von Schlippenbach’s Three Nails Left, Tetterettet by the ICP Tentet, Peter Kowald’s self-titled FMP debut as a leader and the madcap New Acoustic Swing Duo from Willem Breuker and Han Bennink as standouts.

 Whit Boyd Combo — Party Girls & Dracula (the Dirty Old Man) (Modern Harmonic)

Vintage skin flick soundtracks have rarely if ever received an even-handed shake in terms of relative artistic merits. Tarred with the same smut brush as the visuals they were constructed to accompany, they’re routinely viewed as just as disposable. The Whit Boyd Combo doesn’t exactly dispel this dictum, but it does lay down some funky and at times refreshingly fractious freewheeling horns over organ, bass, and drums driven beats on this late-60s session tape excavated by the folks at Modern Harmonic. The companion Dracula (the Dirty Old Man) isn’t quite on par, but it’s still a solid vessel for competently crafted fossilized grooves.  

 Robbie Basho — Songs of the Avatars (Tompkins Square)

Real Gone Music whet the appetite earlier this year with the release of Songs of the Great Mystery, a “lost session” from Basho’s tenure at the Vanguard label. Songs of the Avatars ups the ante substantially by granting outsider access to a six-hour survey of the dearly departed fingerstyle guitarist’s personal tape trove. The aural riches are ample and include Basho exploring familiar proclivities (Indian, Native American and Japanese interpolations) alongside unexpected new ones (ballet and cantata) with passion and conviction to burn along the way.

 Jimi Hendrix — Live in Maui (Experience Hendrix)

Posthumous Hendrix is a seemingly inexhaustible resource as each year repackaged and repurposed treasures are released into the marketplace. Fortunately, familial heirs are the ones doing the sowing and this lavish set documenting musical and extra-musical particulars of the icon’s reluctant conscription into cosmic hippie scam does right by him. Given the windswept conditions near the Haleakala Crater it’s a minor miracle that he, Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell mesh as well as they do, and while the footage included can be frustrating in its fragmentary presentation, it’s still a thrill to see and hear them jamming in amiable and ebullient form.

 Joe Maneri, Udi Hrant & Friends — The Cleopatra Record (Canary)

Details on this one could easily serve as grist for a credible short film screenplay with perhaps Jim Jarmusch directing. Brooklyn, 1963: A group of marginalized ethnic musicians relegated to playing wedding gigs gets conscripted for an afternoon recording session. The cheaply packaged and provincially distributed results are destined for the anonymity of dime store cut out bins. Except that the band includes two geniuses: Joe Maneri, who would go on to become a master microtonal improviser/composer and Udi Hrant Kenkulian, one of most revered modern doyens of the Turkish oud. Available over at Bandcamp for a pittance.

 Ayalew Mesfin — Good Aderegechegn, Che Belew and Tewedije Limut (Now Again)

Adding up Buda Musique’s 30-volume Ethiopiques series and a host of other more modest enterprises, it’s obvious that there’s never been more access to vintage Ethiopian music than now. This trilogy of discs from the Now Again label covering vocalist/keyboardist/bandleader Ayalew Mesfin’s catalog restores one of the last untapped reservoirs to circulation. Tight horns, choppy, fuzz and wah-wah drenched guitars and chugging bass fuel dance floor burners while Mesfin’s pipes work memorable magic on a string of melancholic, melismatic ballads.

 Kent & Modern Records Blues into the 60s, Vol. 1 & 2 (Ace)

Ace’s appellation as a music label of enviable reach and import has never been an erroneous assignation. This pair of compilations investigates the urban, but far from urbane, blues scene surrounding Los Angeles as documented by the Kent label in the 1960s. Comparatively longer-in-tooth legends like T-Bone Walker and Big Jay McNeely jockey with younger, fame hungry artists like Larry Davis and Little Joe Blue in negotiating a West Coast argot that’s heavy on electricity channeled through guitars and organs. McNeely’s ripping “Blues in G Minor” is one of several snarling sonic wolves in non-descript sheep’s titling.

 V/A — A Stranger I May Be: Savoy Gospel 1954-1986 (Honest Jons)

This astutely-sequenced set stands out in the particularly plentiful playing field of this year’s gospel reissues. The mighty Savoy label started out as a jazz venture before branching out into other African American musical idioms. The compilers at Honest Jons parse the program chronologically across three-discs and leave the heavy-lifting of context and artists biography to a lengthy essay. Choirs, ensembles, bands, and moonlighting R&B singers all make appearances directing their talents to devotional and invocational celebrations of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

 Sun Ra

One of the highlight roundtables at Dusted this year was a Listening Post ruminating on the Sun Ra Arkesta with and sans Ra on the occasion of the band’s new release Swirling. I got to play the (hopefully uncharacteristic) part of curmudgeon in those exchanges principally because while I respect the ensemble’s longevity absent their lodestar leader, there’s still an explicit void extant that tends to eclipse my actual interest. The Ra reissue docket for 2020, which included excellent editions of Celestial Love and A Fireside Chat with Lucifer from Modern Harmonic, When Angels Speak of Love on Cosmic Myth, Heliocentric Worlds, Vols. 1 and 2 from Ezz-thetics, and Strut’s Egypt 1971, which collects Dark Myth Equation Visitation, Nidhamu and Horizon alongside a bevy of contemporaneous unreleased recordings, only bolstered the bias. 

 Fresh Sound Records

Still the standard for thoughtfully and lavishly curated jazz reissues, Barcelona-based Fresh Sound kept commensurately prolific pace throughout the year. Gary Peacock - The Beginnings surveys the recently deceased bassist’s early work as a versatile California-stationed sideman. Remembering does similar service to rare concert recordings by Belgian guitarist Rene Thomas while The Complete 1961 Milano Sessions offers truth in advertising by compiling woodwind savant Buddy Collette’s sojourn on Italian shores with (mostly) indigenous sidemen.

 V/A — Sumer is Icumenin (Grapefruit)

An overdue sequel to Dust on the Nettles (2015), which apparently commands on princely sums on Discogs these days, this set encompasses 4+ hours of cherry-picked vintage British freak folk. Second helpings from stalwarts of the style such as Comus, Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention join Albion offerings from obscurants like Vulcan’s Hammer, Mr. Fox and Oberon in celebrating the weird crossroads of ancient Britannic and 1960s counterculture influences. The cant is more to The Wicker Man side of the spectrum with Magnet’s bucolic canticle “Corn Rigs” the ringer in that regard.

Twenty-five more in mostly stochastic order:

Aruán Ortiz - Inside Rhythmic Falls (Intakt)

Brandon Seabrook/Cooper-Moore/Gerald Cleaver — Exultations (Astral Spirits)

Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley — Birdland, Neuberg 2011 (Fundacja Sluchaj)

Horace Tapscott w/ the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra — Ancestral Echoes: The Covina Sessions, 1976 (Dark Tree)

Damon Smith — Whatever is Not Stone is Light (Balance Point Acoustics)

Frank Lowe & Rashied Ali — Duo Exchange: Complete Sessions (Survival)

Dudu Pukwana — and the “Spears” (Matsuli Music)

Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl — Artlessly Falling (Firehouse 12)

Burton Greene — Peace Beyond Conflict (Birdwatcher)

Albert Ayler — Trio 1964: Prophecy Revisited (Ezz-thetics)

JD Allen — Toys/Die Dreaming (Savant)

Charles Mingus — At Bremen 1964 and 1975 (Sunnyside)

The Warriors of the Wonderful Sound — Soundpath (Clean Feed)

Kidd Jordan/Joel Futterman/Alvin Fielder — Spirits (Silkheart)

Roland Haynes — 2nd Wave (Black Jazz)

Quin Kirchner — The Shadows and the Light (Astral Spirits)

Thelonious Monk — Palo Alto (Universal/Impulse)

Black Unity Trio — Al-Fatihah (Salaam Records/Gotta Groove)

Gary Smulyan — Our Contrafacts (Steeplechase)

Joni Mitchell — Archives Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967 (Rhino)

Elder Charles Beck — Your Man of Faith (Gospel Friend)

Sarhabil Ahmed — King of Sudanese Jazz (Habibi Funk)

V/A – The Right to Rock: The Mexicano and Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll Rebellion 1955-1963, Episodio Uno (Bear Family)

V/A – Hillbillies in Hell: Country Music’s Tormented Testament (1952-1974) ~ Revelations (The Omni Recording Corporation)

V/A — The Harry Smith B-Sides (Dust to Digital)

[edengarden]

hi! may i please have a regular haikyuu matchup? i’m a straight female and i’m a scorpio with personality type istp! for appearance, i’m about 5’7 last time i checked, i have brown eyes and brown hair. i have a red scar above my eyebrow but i can typically cover it up with my hair and it looks like todoroki’s scar but misplaced haha! i have an athletic build since i’m a competitive figure skater!

i’ll start with flaws since that’s easier >.< :

i have narcolepsy which is a big pain. it really affects me and my everyday life. so, typically i’m really tired and it’s hard for me to sleep at night so i’m a big night owl to the max. but when i’m energized, i’m like energized energized! i’ve been told i’m intimidating, and that it seems as though i don’t like to show emotion. i really don’t like to show my more negative emotions, i don’t want others to see me as weak and look down upon me. i’m a super impulsive person and don’t nessecarily think when i’m in a panic which a lot of times end me up in bad situations. i’m quiet which i don’t think it’s bad, but i’m not afraid to speak my mind and call someone out when needed. i’m stubborn and hate hate hate asking others for help. i judge a lot and i’m a really selective person, so if we are friends, then that means something. i hate unorganized spaces and i don’t like giving my opinion. if i don’t like something i will go out of my way to avoid it and just ignore whatever it is whether it’s schoolwork or a person, i could care less. i just really don’t care about things either way life will go on and i just have to live with it, i could care less.

now for a more positive go:

i’m a super fun person! like i said, when i’m energized i’m energized! when i’m most awake is at night typically so that’s when i do lots of things! i can do a hella good scooby doo impression like scarily good. my favorite thing to do is go to get slurpees at 7/11 when it’s 4 am because the employees are too tired to yell at me for getting two flavors. favorite song is womanizer by britany spears and i love to scream it at the top of my lungs to feel like a baddie b. i’m very loyal and keep my friends super close, because if i trust them then that is saying something. i’m super independent which can be a good and bad thing, i try to do everything efficiently and alone. i’m a perfectionist which is also probably a bad thing agh. i really like monster energy drinks and when i just straight up don’t sleep catch me surviving off of pure willpower with a monster in hand. i try to make the most of my life while i can, because i know if i die it might as well be in a badass way so i’m pretty adventurous! my passion in this world is figure skating and i’m a national champion! i love to surf and i love to snowboard. i’m a huge reader and i even work at a local bookstore! you can catch me with a book usually and i love anything to do with true crime, marine biology, and linguistics. i love anime and it makes me all happy and cozy to sit up in a. corner on a saturday morning and binge watch one piece with my chai tea. i also love christmas, especially the song mele kalikimaka i could sing it year round! my favorite thing in the entire world is plants eeeee!! i love plants so much i could go on for hours about them, i have many plants and my favorite one is a monstera a close friend gave me and ahh i love them! though, runner ups behind are chai tea and candles! i play the viola and i have a love hate relationship with the instrument. my favorite songs are lucy in the sky with diamonds and just like heaven but i also love classical music like clair de lune and danse macabre. my favorite bands are queen, nirvana, abba, billie holiday, and fleetwood mac! i’m a sucker for anything vintage and from the 40’s or 70’s. i have a dark academia type aesthetic i guess and love dressing of the sort.

hmm fun facts:

i’m from the netherlands and i love love love snow and any sort of rainy weather

i can speak 9 different languages and learning languages is one of my favorite things i find them so fascinating, (dutch, english, spanish, french, japanese, portugese, russian, german, and swedish! i’m trying to learn italian !!

my favorite book or manga i guess, is anything by junji ito

i can dislocate my fingers and relocate them

i love ferrets! i used to volunteer at my local shelter all the time.

i love horror movies as well the movie sleeping beauty it always makes me happy

i love wrapping presents

the way i got my scar was by once hitting my head on a coat rack because i was way too confident i was dreaming and that my head would just go right through, i wasn’t dreaming.

i’ve been kicked out of a walmart for laughing at a bag of marshmallows when i was way too tired and i probably looked like a maniac to be fair

these aren’t very fun facts bleh

my favorite color is either orange or navy blue and white

i’m rambling now and itend to ramble when i write i’m so sorry, thank you so much for your time and have a good day !!!

OH MY GOSH CLAIR DE LUNE IS THE MOST ROMANTIC SONG ON THIS EARTH?? Shit makes me cry.

Omg you’re such a mood too

I’m matching you up with Akaashi!

Especially with the negative traits that you’ve highlighted, I think he’d be a great option for you! Akaashi’s a trustworthy individual; I think he has an aura that just screams “trustworthy”, and we KNOW he’s a loyal mf. He’s a bit worried about SOME of your habits, but he would understand that you can’t exactly control your narcolepsy. Will he search it up to see if there’s anything he can do for you? Yes, absolutely. But he won’t outright help you; he’ll only start doing that (wordlessly) when he notices that you don’t reach out for help.

Oh my gosh, your dynamic is so amazing?? Akaashi being calm and collected and you being an absolute gremlin. I love it. At the beginning you’re just like “hey look what I can do” and you freakin dislocate a finger and boy freaks out, but after two years he just goes “nice baby I’m proud :)” and really, he IS proud. And he’ll tell you often. He also never misses a skating event; he’ll make sure to clear his schedule for them. Akaashi really enjoys the sport, it’s really beautiful to him. He thinks it’s an art.

You two are such an Intellectual Couple though?? With you practically being a linguist and him in literature? Big respect, people see you and they have to fight back the urge to bow. Y’all are royalty, and that’s that.

ALSO AOSKSJDHS THE THOUGHT OF YOU TWO SETTLED DOWN ON THE COUCH WITH FACE MASKS AND WINE WATCHING TRUE CRIME SHOWS IS SO FUNNY YET SO ACCURATE THESE ARE YOUR FAVOURITE DATES

Songs!!

- Jazz Suite No. 2: VI. Waltz II, Dmitri Shostakovich (do not question me; Akaashi wants to learn the waltz for this song)

- I’ll Follow the Sun, The Beatles

- Moondance, Van Morrison

- Win, David Bowie

[relationships-access]

Save Your Relationship With A Romantic Getaway

If the cliche familiarity breeds contempt is starting to take shape in your relationship then you might want to try a quick and easy relationship fixer. Get you and you significant other to go to a romantic getaway that will surely get you in the mood for some much needed quality time. Here are some great romantic getaway hotspots that you and your honey can hightail to even for just the weekend.

1. Jersey Shore, New Jersey

New Jersey, highly known for its Beachy Glitz, is the place to go for couples who love to go clubbing all night long while spending their days in luxurious long sanded beaches. Down and out couples will get a chance to enjoy and relax themselves and hopefully even bond with the various great beaches and fast-paced casino action. A recent addition to the many wonderful attractions in Jersey Shore is the Vegas-worthy Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa whose presence has surely livened up the whole Jersey Shore area. A quick insider tip from Jersey Shore is that bands from the ’80s have always been headlining the shows at Atlantic City, try checking out Ticket master on what’s available during your visit there.

2. Lake Tahoe, California

For nature tripping couples, a great weekend getaway will be in Lake Tahoe in California wherein you will surely get to experience nature’s best. From the most pristine lake that you will ever see in your whole life to the most picturesque mountains, nature loving couples will surely get a kick out of this whole romantic getaway. Also, when you start looking for other Lake Tahoe attractions, you can start going around this adorable little town or enjoy a bit of gambling at their fantastic casinos. The hippest resort in Lake Tahoe is the Mammoth Mountain especially in the fall wherein you will surely feel like having the place all to yourselves since the skiers who frequent Lake Tahoe would not be arriving ’til winter.

3. Monetelago Village, Nevada

Considered to be too cool for Las Vegas, Monetelago Village in Nevada is actually only 17 miles from the world famous Strip. But unlike Vegas, the atmosphere here in Montelago Village is a lot more laid-back and completely the opposite of the fast-paced scene that you will find in Las Vegas. This romantic getaway hotspot is filled with relaxation that will surely get you in the mood for some loving. From various spas, to boutique shopping, even cobblestone streets as well as jazz on the lake performances and romantic yacht rides, there a lot of romance filled activities that you and your honey can enjoy in this romantic getaway. If you opt to take this romantic getaway, you can either stay in a condo or in a casita (a little villa) that is actually a whole lot more affordable than renting out a condo. Great food, views as well as wine flights await you and your significant other at the Sunset and Vines restaurant

4. Central, Pennsylvania

Here, you can find a place great for some rural romance for your romantic getaway wherein you can head off to Hershey, Pennsylvania wherein you can book a room for your romantic getaway at the historic Hotel Hershey. You and your loved one can enjoy various chocolate-themed body treatments at the newly renovated spa at the Hotel Hershey as well as cocoa-infused entrees at the Hotel Hershey’s restaurant. You can also relive you childhood at this romantic getaway by taking fun rides at the Hershey park. An insider trip for those who are thinking of going on a romantic getaway at Central, Pennsylvania, you can take a highly interesting trip to Dutch Country that is home of Pennsylvania’s Amish community and is only a 30-minute drive away from Hotel Hershey.

5. Saugatuck, Michigan

For a coastal cool romantic getaway, head off to Saugatuck, Michigan wherein you can find nestled on the shores of Lake Michigan as well as the Kalamazoo River this great romantic getaway resort town. This is exactly the perfect place wherein the two of you can just mellow down for a couple of days to enjoy the vintage char of this charming little resort town. From an unusual collection of galleries to various restaurants and shops as well as the top-rated beaches in the United States there is really a lot of things that you can do in Saugatuck during your romantic getaway here. Also, Saugatuck, Michigan is considered as the Bed and Breakfast Capital of the Midwest so expect some good old homey hospitality from the locals. A good time to stop by Saugatuck is during the month of October wherein you and your loved one can have a few brewskis during Octoberfest.

[bvggcds]

&&. ( jane sutherland  ) was just spotted in amsterdam. rumor has it ( she ) is/are a ( 126 | appears 27 ) year old ( vampire ) who resembles ( nathalie emmanuel ). ( she ) has/have been said to be ( tenacious & joyful ) but also quite ( vengeful & vain ).with all the chaos surrounding the magical underworld, ( she ) has/have chosen to align with ( vampires/dark alliance ). ( she ) is/are currently serving as ( jazz singer ). hopefully the city doesn’t devour them whole.

tl;dr: Made-Vampire born in New Orleans. Murdered her own father for being a piece of shit. Traveled. Loves jazz. Raphael’s submissive. Been with him for like 15 years.

page

Jane was born in New Orleans on June 03, 1895. She was the illegitimate daughter of a prominent Louisanna politician and his maid. Jane’s mother, Anita, was fired and left to take care of her child on her own. Jane’s childhood was a relatively happy one despite this. Her mother was a kind woman who loved her daughter and taught her to help others even when they had very little. A lesson Jane keeps close to her heart to this day.

However, Jane’s mother died during the New Orleans Yellow Fever outbreak in 1905, and despite preferring to stay with friends and neighbors who would have taken good care of her, Jane was placed on her father’s, John Sutherland, doorstep. He didn’t feel he could turn her away, it would only make the issue more scandalous.

Jane’s life at the Sutherland’s was…miserable. Her half-siblings either ignored her or taunted her, and Mrs. Sutherland saw her as a burden and symbol of her unhappy marriage. At 16, Jane ran away and used the one skill she did have that even the Sutherlands couldn’t deny. The girl could sing.

Jane made money singing in the clubs around New Orleans and enjoyed the beginning of the jazz scene and the art and culture of New Orleans. The end of World War I brought economic booms, and the Roaring 20s became. Jane loved it. She loved the lavishness of it. The seduction of it all. Glitter and gold and the sound of trumpets.

In 1922, Jane met a man in the dark corner of a club, and while she kissed him in that dark corner, she felt something sharp prick her neck. The next thing Jane remembers is waking up in a strange apartment, and she was hungry.

If the seduction of jazz and the scene surrounding it enticed Jane, vampirism was that 10 fold. She loved the power of it. Power was something she had never had before, and now she at all it. After learning the ropes a little and made friends with the local vampire community, she started to think about her father.

Jane had felt this anger and need to pay back before, but becoming a vampire heightened it. Like the bloodlust had a focus now. Instead of being frightened by the darkness inside of her, Jane leaned into it. One night she returned to her father’s house and murdered him in his bed. The rest of the family stayed alive, the terror was payment enough for Jane. She had the power now.

Jane took John’s money and his last name, like inheritance and a trophy. With the money, she started to travel. First, she went to Harlem, having heard about the music, art, literature, and politics coming out of the borough. Then she traveled to Paris and Berlin, enjoying the nightlife and excesses in each city. All the time, marketing herself as a jazz singer.

She left Europe as war broke out and moved to Los Angelos. She wanted to be where the excitement was. For most of the 20th century, she lived between LA, New Orleans, and New York.

With the dawn of the 21st century, Jane went back to Europe and settled in Amsterdam to be near the Vampire Court. There she met and was hired by Raphael Crossborne to be his submissive and help with Baby. She adored the little girl, and her heart ached for Raphael. At some point, Jane just became a fixture of their lives. She is Raphael’s confidante and often his eye and ears. Jane doesn’t jealous of his other partners. She knows her value to him and that he keeps her around for more than sex.

Jane still sings, taking gigs around the city and often sings at The Red Ruby and sometimes Inferno if the need arises.

Kinks: Breathplay, orgasm denial, dubcon, roleplay, biting, exhibitionism 

Headcanons:

Once met Bille Holliday and about died

Will hiss at you if you piss her off

Is known by name is all the vintage shops in town

Speaks English, French, Dutch, some German

Is known to talk to herself

She also speaks to Antillean Creole (her grandparents were immigrants from the Lesser Antilles) and some Louisiana Creole, but she rarely uses them

A bit of a brat. Will demand attention

Wanted Connections

Her sire (she doesn’t know them) A few other lovers she sometimes sees Friends Exes A rival for Raphael’s attention!!!!!!

[mrsrcbinscn]

Franny Sor Framagucci Robinson Character Sheet 

Dear Mom and Dad, I'll send money, I'm so rich that it ain't funny It oughtta be more than enough to get you through - (x)

Archetype — The Creator 

Birthday — January 17, 1980

Zodiac Sign — Capricorn

MBTI — ENFJ-A (The Protagonist — 93% Extroverted, 56% Intuitive, 60% Feeling, 60% Judging, 83% Assertive)

Enneagram — Type 3w2 — The Charmer

Temperament — Sanguine 

Hogwarts House — Slytherin Primary, Hufflepuff Primary model, Gryffindor Secondary

Moral Alignment —  Lawful Good

Primary Vice — Pride

Primary Virtue — Charity or Diligence 

Element — Air

Song —  A Better Son/Daughter by Rilo Kiley

Overview:

Government name  —  Darareaksmey Francine Sor Framagucci Robinson Name  —  Franny Robinson/Franny Sor Robinson Mother — Sophea “Sophie” Sor

Father — Adrien Framagucci (stepfather, legally adopted her), Peter Boyd (biological father)

Mother’s Occupation — Restaurant owner 

Father’s Occupation — Construction worker

Family Finances — grew up in poverty, insanely wealthy now

Birth Order — Youngest

Brothers — stepbrothers Gaston and Art Framagucci (mother legally adopted them, if you say ‘step’ Franny will kill you), claims no others but has biological half brothers from Peter Boyd; John-Curtis “JC”  Boyd, Timothy “Timmy” Boyd

Sisters — claims none, but has biological half sisters by Peter Boyd; Sarah Boyd, Stacy Boyd, Shyann Boyd 

Other Close Family — spreadsheet

Best Friend — Daniel Maitland, Molly Vaughn (deceased)

Other Friends — Lora Lopez, Serghei Anton, Delia Weiss, Vanessa Pham, others

Enemies — most men on principle 

Home Life During Childhood — It was a good childhood. Working the restaurant was normal to Franny so she didn’t realize it was abnormal at first. Her parents tried not to let the kids realize how poor they actually were. 

Town or City Name(s) — Payne Lake, Georgia

Any Sports or Clubs — In high school she was in drama, show choir, orchestra, National Honor Society, and on the quiz bowl team

Favorite Toy or Game — Franny honestly loved hide and seek well into her teenage years because she was small enough to fit it the weirdest places to hide, and in the 80s and 90s in a small town in Georgia there wasn’t much to do so her friend group played Extreme Hide and Seek. Everyone wears all black like some kind of cult. Turn off all the lights in the house. Go crazy. 

Schooling — K-12 in Payne Lake, Georgia ; B.A.s. in Musical Theatre Performance and Jazz Studies at NYU; M.A. in Jazz Studies at Pride U

Favorite Subject — Anything that wasn’t math or chemistry 

Popular or Loner — Popular, has always been magnetic 

Important Experiences or Events — Her first time on stage, getting enough scholarship money to justify going to NYU, quickly growing to love the nerd she hit up to buy her waffles and never letting him go, the accident that changed her life, marrying Cornelius Robinson, finding the magic singing frogs, adopting Wilbur, discovering the severity of her fertility issues in 2008, 

Nationality — American-Cambodian (born American, given Cambodian citizenship in 2019)

Culture — Franny identifies most strongly with Cambodian, followed by broadly Southeast Asian sometimes with Buddhist attached, and that’s tied with ‘Rural Southern (USA)’ sometimes with POC attached. Franny feels pretty detached from “American Culture” in general. She more closely would identify with Southern USA culture in general than with general American with no modifiers. She also feels a little detached from Asian American culture in general because even though she grew up right outside of Atlanta and is familiar with Atlanta, she didn’t grow up in one of the big hubs of Asian American culture like LA, San Francisco, or NYC. White American and Black American culture surrounded her, and the Asian cultures surrounding her were immigrant or first-gen cultures that hadn’t really developed an American flavor yet. Franny understood more about Vietnamese and Thai culture than she did about general Asian American culture for a long time, because immigrants straight from Southeast Asia were the only Asians she grew up around. And she grew up in the 80s and 90s where Asian representation was yellowface and Long Duk Dong. She didn’t meet any Asian Americans who didn’t speak or at least understand their heritage language until college. And the experience of POC as a whole in the South is very different to the experience of a white person, so sometimes Franny feel disconnected from her white southern neighbors and more closely relates to black or non-white Latinx southerners in ways she doesn’t relate to white southerners, or Asian Americans from LA or NYC. 

Religion and beliefs — Buddhist

Languages spoken— Khmer, English, Vietnamese, French, Italian, (less fluently) Portuguese, Spanish, (can understand some) Thai, Lao, (impressive tourist) German, Dutch

Physical Appearance

Face Claim —  Elodie Yung

Complexion — Tanned skin, pale brown 

Hair Colour — Black

Eye Colour — Brown

Height — 5’5

Tattoos — Yes, a few. Wilbur’s adoption date over her heart, most notably

Piercings — Lobe, upper lobe, tragus, helix, and cartilage on both ears, and an anti-tragus on her left ear. And a nose piercing she got in college

Common Hairstyle — typically keeps her hair long and done nicely but she cuts it and donates it from time to time so will also rock short hair

Clothing Style — vintage-inspired but not proper vintage

Mannerisms — Biting the pads of her thumbs, gesturing wildly, narrating her actions sometimes in song, if she’s looking for scissors she walks through the house making a scissors motion with her fingers

Usual Expression — she’s got resting bitch face 

Health

Overall (do they get sick easily)? — No, her immune system is the real MVP and when she does get sick she’s like ‘I’m dYING’

Physical Ailments —  Infertility 

Neurological Conditions — Depression, Cyclothymia (rapid cycles of depressive and hypomanic episodes)

Allergies —  none 

Grooming Habits — Typically rinses her body daily, uses soap on the armpits daily, but proper washes her body every other day. Washes her hair every two or three days as needed, but if she was extra sweaty that day it gets washed. Waxes leg hair and eyebrows. 

Sleeping Habits — she generally gets a decent amount of sleep but it isn’t usually all at once. She’s a champion power-napper, and if she has three days cleared she’ll often sleep mainly all at once except have like a 2-3 hour period of wakefulness and productivity and then go back to sleep for two more hours, then take an hour nap later in the day.  

Eating Habits —  She’s a grazer. She doesn’t usually sit down and eat three times a day she’ll sneak like five small meals a day

Exercise Habits —   works out at least three days a week somewhat because she’s really sensitive to when people comment on her body so she’s afraid to give people a reason to say a negative comment. Like. She’s body positive, big supporter of you don’t gotta be skinny to be beautiful or healthy. But when people say things like “oh Franny you got a little jiggle in those thighs” it’s never said like a good or neutral thing. She had a lot of body image issues throughout high school and college, and came dangerously close to developing an eating disorder freshman year at NYU but kind of logicked herself from the ledge  

Emotional Stability — generally emotionally stable, like for someone with her mental illnesses she does great 

Body Temperature — runs hot 

Sociability — A social butterfly

Addictions — None; did abuse adderall in college but when she quit cold turkey she didn’t like. Suffer cravings. She wasn’t addicted, but she did abuse it to the point she realized “oh I need to...stop”

Drug Use — occasional use of drugs to make her trip, like acid, shrooms, but this is very rare, she doesn’t do it at home, usually if she’s on the road with other musicians or has gone to LA or NYC or London for a few days to have a songwriting session, the group will sometimes partake. Even then not every time. Used to experiment with drugs more in college, but still it was never...a TON. 

Alcohol Use — More than occasional less than frequent

Your Character’s Character: 

Bad Habits — swearing, next to no filter, temper when it comes to perceived injustices, tends to overload herself 

Good Habits — Keeps a detailed planner, is a maniac about drinking lots of water, is vocal about her needs and boundaries 

Best Characteristic — her warmth! She really is friendly and easy to get along with and wants to be nice. But she will not be walked over and will not allow her kind, marshmallow husband to be walked over so she will flip a switch to protect herself or her boys. 

Worst Characteristic — unforgiving

Worst Memory — it’s a tie between her experience with sexual assault, and the time her biological father’s wife found out Franny was his biological child, and came into her mother’s restaurant when she was visiting with her pretty new HUSBAND, and Nancy Boyd proceeded to beat up Franny and her mother

Best Memory — Adopting Wilbur! It WAS marrying Cornelius but sorry Neil it’s her baby boy now

Proud of — Her husband, she is so proud to be Cornelius Robinson’s wife. She proud to be her mother’s daughter. And she’s proud of her accomplishments in music and philanthropy 

Embarrassed by — Nothing, she’s great

Driving Style — Oh, aggressive. She’s an offensive driver. Cusses. 

Strong Points —  she doesn’t quit, she’s the walk through hell and keep going type of person

Temperament — generally she’s pretty even-tempered. It’s easy to set her off in an instant though if you’re being racist, sexist - any type of shitty person tbh, or being shitty toward her husband or son, but for the most part she’s pretty chill. She deff has crazy bitch energy just under the surface though and you can tell

Attitude — Franny’s not particularly bitchy, but you know, she can be

Weakness — can’t do basic math, very overly self-critical, perfectionist

Fears — Something happening to Wilbur tbh. That’s her greatest fear, losing her son. 

Phobias — Franny does not throw up. She refuses. She will literally feel nauseous and horrible all day to avoid puking. It makes her so anxious, she will nOT. 

Secrets — None really? Like she doesn’t blab her life story to everyone but Cornelius knows everything about her. She has no secrets from her husband. 

Regrets — Not adopting more children when she and Cornelius got married knowing they both wanted a big family; ever meeting up with her biological father 

Feels Vulnerable When — She cries in front of people. Franny hates doing it. She’d rather die tbh

Pet Peeves — when people are rude to wait staff 

Conflicts — She sometimes feels a surge of resentment for her husband during her depressive episodes because she kind of feels like she’s pulled most of the weight in their marriage from Day 1 as far as running the home, and feels like although he purported to also want a big family he never even offered to take HIS turn pulling back from work so they could adopt a second child when it became clear it wasn’t gonna happen for them biologically, but then Franny hates herself for that because Cornelius is the kindest, most loving, most wonderful husband and father and she feels so privileged to call herself his wife and...yeah they just need to have a long talk about it tbh

Motivation — to be the best at everything she does; to force space for herself where she and people like her have previously been excluded, to be so great that you can’t ignore her

Short Term Goals and Hopes — have a baby, but she’s 40 now and knows its not gonna happen 

Long Term Goals and Hopes —she’s...kinda done everything she ever set out to do other than have lots of children

Sexuality — Bisexual, leans toward women, but had more experience with men because compulsory heterosexuality in the US in the 90s and early 2000s, and genuinely fell in love with a man are has been with just him for twenty years now

Exercise Routine  — Doesn’t spend much time on cardio because she gets enough cardio walking around town and Pride U. Mainly works on her core, legs, and strength training so if a man tries to grab her she can kick his ass

Day or Night Person — Would be nocturnal if she could be

Introvert or Extrovert — Extrovert

Optimist or Pessimist — She’s naturally pretty cynical but she’s worked for like twenty-five years to have a more optimistic outlook on things. It’s 50/50 now I’d say 

Likes and Styles:

Music — there isn’t really a genre she doesn’t like - like her initial fame was in jazz, but she has an equal affection for jazz and bluegrass/classic country/folk music. She also is in an indie band, Seoul Hanoi’d. And like rap music - usually old school Atlanta rap, but she likes Kendrick Lamar and some other current rappers.

Books — She likes to read or listen to audiobooks about pretty much any subject except music and musicians.

Foods — Cambodian food!!

Drinks — She likes sweet tea, aaaand her alcohol of choice is Anything

Animals — Possums :3 She wants a pet possum so bad, she follows pet possums on instagram and cries at their cute posts

Sports — She played tennis in high school, that’s the extent of her sports knowledge

Social Issues — all of them. Climate change, racial justice, intersectional feminism, VACCINATE ALL THE CHILDREN UNLESS THEY MEDICALLY CANNOT BE, de-mining, Green New Deal, punch Nazis, hey maybe don’t put children in cages, Myanmar can you please not do that genocide you’re doing that would be swell, poor people deserve access to healthcare and education, housing-first approach to homelessness, the good stuff 

Favorite Saying — “Hoes mad”, usually said dismissively when she receives a death threat after a political tweet, or after a racist one for just being an Asian woman in the public eye

Clothing — Franny prefers skirts, dresses, and jumpsuits/rompers to shirt + trousers

Jewelry — She never takes off her wedding ring. She’s married af

TV Shows — Schitt’s Creek, Kim’s Convenience, a lot of Canadian TV she really thinks is funny

Movies — She’s a big nerd that loves a good documentary or otherwise educational movie

Greatest Want — More children, including one biological child because her mother always talked about pregnancy and childbirth like it was the most humbling and empowering experience she’d ever had, and Franny wants that. But she’s 40 and knows she won’t have that. 

Greatest Need — a baby lmao

Where and How Does Your Character Live Now:

Home — In a big-ass house in the wealthiest part of town, maybe even the biggest house 

Household furnishings — Not overdecorated. A lot of people live there, but Franny’s very much the lady of the house, and even more so than her husband is the head of the household. She’s not a dictator, like her mother-in-law and other relatives have added their touches to the home decor, but it is very much Franny’s Home with notes of the others. She’s very particular about her kitchen, but is very flexible with the rest of the common spaces. 

Most Cherished Possession — Family photographs of her mother and her family before the Khmer Rouge. Franny bears a striking resemblance to her Aunt Kesor, who was the older sister her mother had idolized, but who died during the Khmer Rouge years. Franny only knows of the resemblance from photographs.

Neighborhood — The rich people part of town 

Town or City Name — Swynlake, England

Details of Town or City — lol

Married Before — Cornelius is her first and only husband and unless he cheats on her she’s never ever leaving that man

Significant Other Before — nobody important 

Children — Wilbur Robinson, wants/wanted more

Relationship with Family — Close! Both to her in-laws, biological maternal family, and stepfamily

Car — 2020 Nissan Qashqai

Career — Singer, song-writer, musician, composer, musical actress, actress, university music professor

Dream Career — Musical actress

Dream Life — Married to Cornelius, with lots of kids, living her best life

Love Life — Happily married to the love of her life, her sunshine, the jelly to her fish, Cornelius Robinson

Talents or Skills — music, cooking, acting

Intelligence Level — High? Like she can’t do basic math but everything else. She’s a musical genius, is good with languages, and is pretty perceptive

Finances — Loaded

Your Character’s Life Before Your Story:

Past Careers — restaurant worker, event staff

Past Lovers — nobody worth mentioning 

Biggest Mistakes — “I don’t make mistakes”

Biggest Achievements — Grammys, induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, being the first Cambodian person to win a Grammy, International Bluegrass Music Association awards, ASCAP awards, and being awarded the national medal of the arts by Barack Obama in 2015 

[another-blog-bites-the-dust]

Queen of hearts.

Summary: Being tied to the mob was hard...loving someone who was on a side you were fighting against made it even harder.

Warnings: Drinking, lil bit of mature themes, swearing, mentions of drugs, blood, implied murder, violence.

A/N: Okay so a kinda modern day set fic- a mix of old and new. It's a mob!AU and I got the idea from @borhap-socials and I was totally in love with this concept!! Brian and reader are the very definition of star-crossed lovers in this mini-series I'm doing 😫 will they be together in the end??? Maybe! Maybe NOT! 😏😩 I hope y'all enjoy! 💖

Part 1.

—–———

You were barely paying attention to what your father was saying and he noticed. He snapped his fingers in front of your face and you flinched, giving him all your attention. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes! What you always say! Be safe, be vigilant, be logical, blah, blah, blah, and all that jazz!" You made the motion with your hands "Can I go now? Only Mary will be wondering where I am and it is her birthday party after all."

He sighed and rolled his eyes "Fine, but if you feel like anything is off- come home."

"I will." You reassured him with a smile. He had been on edge for the past few weeks. "I'll try and be home before midnight." You gave him a hug and went to pull away but he held you and pat your back. He would never admit it but you knew he was scared. Scared that you'd end up like one of those people he trusted and had lost- that someone would find you in a ditch or floating in the Thames. "I'll be fine."

"I just worry..." he pulled back with a small smile. "As I've always done." He sighed "You're the only one I have left." Your eyes flickered down to your feet, you were supposed to be upbeat and excited about going to the party at Mary's, but now you felt deflated. He didn't mention your mother, but you knew he was talking about her. She was in a car accident years ago, it was the only time you had ever seen your father cry.

He was notorious, he had a reputation. He was one of London's most fiercest mob bosses. You hated that you were automatically tied to it because of him and being his only child, he expected you to eventually take over someday- there was a great weight resting on your shoulders. The past few weeks had been tough for him, a rival family had upped their threats, taking down people linked to your fathers businesses and that only made him retaliate much more forcefully- you were wondering if the city had run out of body bags yet.

You could cut the tension looming over London with a knife.

He said that he hoped you'd have a good night just before you left the house, the guards outside all gave you a small, friendly smile as you made your way to your car. You got in and irritatingly sighed seeing the time on your watch- you were already late. You sped to Mary's house and hoped that she would be too busy interacting with other guests to notice your lack of presence.

Brian sighed into his- much needed- whisky. It had been a long day for him. He had listen to his father drone on with how successful they were becoming. Brian didn't see killing people as something to celebrate but when you were in the business, it was something to pop a bottle of champagne open over. Growing up with a mob boss as a father meant Brian was already automatically in it- he didn't have a choice. In fact, he was sure the second his mother announced she was pregnant with him, he was inducted into the 'family business'.

"There's a drop tomorrow, Bri. We'll be at yours at seven." Roger spoke in a hushed tone. Brian sighed again and took a sip of his drink. There was better things he could be doing on a Thursday evening than waiting for Roger, Freddie and John to come over and then intercept a drugs drop on his fathers behalf. Brian halfhearted hummed and Roger narrowed his eyes "I thought you said that you wanted to come to this bloody party earlier this morning but your acting like someone has cut your balls off." Brian sent Roger a glare "What's the matter with you?"

'What's the matter with me?' Brian mentally replied. 'I've just watched a man get shot less than an hour ago, scrapped my hands with a nail brush until they were red-raw trying to get the dried blood out of my skin and then toss on clothes and come to a party. The mood to party had certainly disappeared after all that bullshit.' Brian shook his head "Nothing."

Roger looked completely unconvinced but decided not to press him. Brian barely knew the woman who's birthday it was, he just knew she meant a lot to Freddie and at this stage in his life, Brian was just happy to get out the house and focus on something else for a few hours. John was tearing up the dance floor and Freddie was chatting away with the birthday girl. Roger left to get them both another drink, leaving Brian with his thoughts again as he downed the last of his drink. When his eyes looked up, he choked slightly. His jaw dropped seeing the most beautiful thing he had ever laid his eyes on walk through the front door.

Mary gasped and tapped Freddie excitedly when she caught a glimpse of you. "Y/N! Oh Y/N!" She squeaked, running over to you and pressed a kiss on each cheek before you engulfed each other in a hug. You could smell rosé perfuming her lips. She pulled back and raised her eyebrows "You're late!"

You playfully rolled your eyes with a cheeky smile "It just took me so long to haul up this huge bag up the stairs!" You pretended to peek in it "It's a gift for some girl because it's her birthday...I think she's 84?" You joked and she playfully shoved your shoulder while giggling. "Happy birthday, lovely!" You handed her the bag.

"You've perked up a bit," Roger observed aloud as he handed Brian a glass and placed his empty one on the table beside them. "What's got you so smiley?"

Brian didn't even notice he was smiling, he had been doing so as soon as you walked in- grinning even wider seeing your interaction with Mary. "Look at that girl," he motioned towards you. "Fuck- she's stunning!"

Roger followed Brian's line of vision and lowly whistled "That ass!" Brian nudged Roger and sent him a disapproving look. Roger scoffed "Oh come on, Bri. I've known you for years- you're an ass man. I bet that's one of the first things you saw."

"I actually saw her gorgeous face first...then focused on her smile...then her eyes..." his voice was getting dreamier by the second before he sighed with realisation. "Then her ass." He uttered and Roger let out a bark of laughter, clapping his friends shoulder. They stiffened slightly hearing a scream coming from the direction you were standing in. The flat was small and all ten people that were in it looked around to you and Mary who was clutching a dress with tears in her eyes.

"Vintage Valentino! The dress! This..this is it!" She yelled and you widely grinned. She had pointed it out in a magazine ages ago when they did a piece on vintage fashion and she fell in love with it- banged on about it for what felt like decades. You found it about bought it for her. One of the limited perks of having your father do what he does. "This is too much!" She gasped.

"No! No!" You smiled and kissed her cheek "Worth it for you. I adore you, I love you, my best friend in the whole world- you're like a sister to me. Nothing would be ever too much for you. Happy birthday." You squeezed her arm and she almost burst into tears. "Try it on! Let me see it on you!" You stopped her before she left to go into her room "Actually, show me tomorrow. I'll come over and we can go shopping and afterwards we can have a fashion show and binge on wine and junk food while listening to cheesy songs!"

Mary smiled so wide that it almost hurt, her eyes all sparkly from tears. "I honestly think you're my soulmate!" She chuckled. "Thank you, thank you so much!" She pulled you in for another hug and then went to place the dress in her room.

You decided to get yourself a drink, you knew she'd spend at least another ten minutes in her room admiring the thing. You walked up to where the bar was and noticed a tall man with curly hair looking at you. You coyly grinned and took a small detour to talk to him. "Hi there," you greeted. It was only when you got closer that you noticed the man with blonde hair standing next to him.

"H-hi!" Brian managed to croak out before taking a large gulp of his drink.

"Hey," Roger nodded his head and outstretched his hand "Roger- or just Rog. This is Brian, or Bri if you can't be bothered saying his full name." Roger joked and you laughed. Brian couldn't help but smile at the sound...despite being annoyed by Roger's comment.

"Nice to meet you Roger, you too Brian." You shook their hands. "I'm Y/N and I'm about to get myself one of those," you pointed towards their glasses "If you'll excu-"

"Here." Brian cut you off, swiftly grabbing Roger's untouched glass out of his hands and pushing it into yours. He didn't want you to leave just yet. The blonde shot Brian a deadly glare and uttered a string of curses under his breath as he left to get himself another drink. Your eyes followed an annoyed Roger for a moment before looking back at Brian who's lips were curved into a smile that reached his mesmerising eyes.

"Thanks," you chuckled out, your teeth sinking into your bottom lip. "How do you know Mary? You work with her?"

Brian swallowed hard "Uh, no...I'm here with Freddie. She was kind enough to let us come- Roger, our other friend John and myself." No, he didn't work with her because he worked mainly in disposal of bodies and not Biba.

"Sounds like Mary," you softly smiled to yourself. "She's very kind. I've been her friend since I've been born!" You smirked- she brought a sense of normality to your life. "The amount of trouble we've been in together, I tell you!"

Brian- finding a bit of confidence that was probably more Dutch courage from the drink- bit down on his lip and leaned in little so you could hear his low voice over the music. "You seem too good to be bad."

You blinked, an almost unknown tingling surge flowing through your veins hearing him say that in such a dark tone. You challenged back, a little bit of shameless flirting would do no harm. "You'll just have to hang around and see how troublesome I can be, Brian..." you purred his name and sipped away at the whisky in Roger's glass. Brian balled his fists a little seeing your tongue dart out ever so slightly before your lips touched the glass. His fingernails digging into his palm relieved barely any tension. You grinned while taking a better look of Brian, your head cocking to the side ever so slightly. "You have nice eyes." You could happily see yourself floating in them, somewhere in between the stars they held.

They looked like little galaxies- endless and infinite.

Brian felt his heart skip a beat and he melted a little at your sweet, sincere tone. "They aren't as half as nice as yours...your eyes are beautiful." He whispered and you felt your cheeks flush. "You're beautiful." You bashfully turned away but he turned you around to face him again, keeping one hand on your arm. "Even more so when you do that..." he gently bobbed your cheeks and nose with his finger. "It's cute seeing you blush and get all flustered."

"No!" You groaned with a grin "Surely not!"

Brian rested his head against the wall and looked at you like you were a field of sunflowers in summer. "It's true." You mirrored his moves slightly and leaned against the wall, a small- yet what felt like a canyon-like gaping- distance between you both.

You stayed in the same spot with him talking for hours about everything and anything that came to mind- and flirting when the chance cropped up. Between the sweet, subtle brushing of your hands together and the occasional gentle, playful nudge, you both felt yourself more naturally and effortlessly drawn to each other. You had a lot in common and what you didn't, you found the subjects you were both alien to, interesting. "Maybe you should take me to the museum and tell me all about it." You suggested after he was talking about a piece of art. Brian blinked in shock.

"L-like a date?" He quietly asked.

A small flicker of confusion and worry flashed over both your faces. Neither of you had ever held a steady relationship before and had only been on a date or two outside of being very briefly with other people. Being linked to the 'business' made it ridiculously difficult to find anyone and build a relationship with them. Maybe it was time to change that.

"Sure," any hint of brief panic had gone. "Yeah, a date. Why not?" You shrugged a shoulder with a half grin.

Brian flashed you a smile, showcasing his pearly whites "Then it's a date. I can meet you on Monday outside the Tate around two?" You happily agreed to that- it wouldn't be too hard to slip away from home on your own to the museum for a few hours in the middle of a Monday afternoon. He then noticed you mindlessly tapping your foot. "Do you want to dance?" He asked and you shyly nodded. Brian took your empty glass and placed it down with his. You walked into any space you could find in Mary's small living room that was now being used as a makeshift dance floor. The limited space meant you were extremely close to Brian- not like either of you were complaining. His hand found your waist while your hips swayed, you shuffled forward and-almost intentionally- swayed them against Brian's.

You felt his grip tighten on you a little and he bit back a small groan feeling you grind against him. Your hands went to the back of his neck and you hummed the song that was blaring through the speakers before leaning forward to speak in Brian's ear. "Your hair is so curly...I love it." You tugged it ever so slightly and heard him whine in delight. You devilishly smirked, his arms snaked completely around your waist and he was slowly dragging you off the 'dance floor' to the empty hall. "Do you like that?" You pulled it again and Brian couldn't help but groan.

He pinned you against the wall, his body pressed against yours and his hands roaming wherever they desired. You contently sighed feeling his hands brushing over your neck, he pulled you forward slightly and you both spent a few antagonising moments just looking at each other with half-hooded eyes, noses brushing against one another's. "You really are so beautiful," he whispered and placed an innocent, whisky laced kiss to your lips before pulling back barely an inch. You cupped his cheek and pulled his face forward to close the distance again. You both coaxed a moan from one another's throats as you began to deepen the kiss, Brian's tongue softly brushed over your bottom lip making you involuntary part your lips just enough for him to slip it into your mouth and clash with your tongue.

Your hands clutched at Brian's jacket and his tightened around your waist as the kiss became more passionate. You gasped feeling his lips leave yours and reposition themselves on your neck, gently kissing and sucking away before he sunk his teeth into your flesh, drawing a broken yelp from your mouth. That would need covering with concealer in the morning. Your fingers were twisting in his hair and he groaned against your skin feeling your fingernails softly rake his scalp before you both swiftly broke apart hearing a throat clearing.

"Was wondering where you went," Roger said with a shit-eating smirk on his face at the end of the hall.

You and Brian fixed yourselves a little, completely flustered while wiping away the saliva from your mouths and smoothing out the creases on your clothes. You then noticed the time and gasped a little. "Oh god, I have to get going. It's almost midnight."

Brian ignored Roger's presence for a moment "Thanks for a great night...Cinderella." He joked and you giggled. You asked him for his phone and you added your number with a little red heart emoji at the end of your name.

'Y/N ♥️'

He watched you doing it with a hazy smile on his face. He was completely and utterly enamoured with you.

He gave you another kiss "Goodnight, Brian." You leaned in and whispered in his ear "Text me or give me a call if you want to talk. Can't wait for our date." You pulled back and winked. Brian bit down on his lip and placed his hand to the small of your back, pulling you in again for yet another kiss before releasing you- he was already addicted to those lips of yours. He knew he'd have withdrawal over the next few days. With bright red cheeks, you pat Brian's chest and then also bid Roger goodnight as you passed him.

You headed off to wish Mary happy birthday again and to say goodbye. Roger slowly approached Brian who was giddily grinninglike an idiot. "Well don't mind me," Roger held up his hands. "You two seemed to have hit it off."

"God, she's everything I've ever wanted, Rog." Brian dreamily sighed "Smart, funny, and her kisses- Christ almighty." He bit his balled fist and screwed his eyes shut.

Roger raised a brow at Brian before moving his eyes down. "I can tell..." Brian lightly shoved him, muttering a string of curses as he turned his back tried to sort himself out to make it look like he didn't have a boner.

"Oh bugger off," Brian grumbled and they walked back through to the living area. "Got a date with her on Monday," a smile returned to his face. Roger was genuinely happy for him- he always wanted to see his friend find someone special. "We talked for ages. She's really amazing, Rog."

"So you keep saying, mate!" Roger chuckled "I hope it goes well between the two of you." They stayed another little while at the party, Brian's mind constantly occupied by you.

•••

You quietly stepped though the front door a little passed midnight. "Y/N?" You walked into the living room and found your father looking over some paperwork "How was your night? Did Mary like her gift?"

"Yeah," you nodded "She loved it! I had a good night- a great one!" You sillily smiled at the thought of Brian. He was making you all giddy. You decided not to to tell your dad about him. "I'm going to get some sleep, night dad."

"Goodnight! I'm glad you had a nice time!" He called out as you hurried up the stairs with a stupidly large smile on your face.

'Unknown: It's Brian...is it Monday yet? X'

You smiled and text him back before saving his number. You were wanting the same thing he wanted.

'Y/N♥️: I'm afraid not. I wish it was though! I had a great time with you tonight...I can't wait to see you again. X'

Brian read you text over and over, eventually placing his phone to his chest and longingly sighing and wishing that the days would fly by. The two of you were rather smitten with each other.

But little did you or Brian know was that your two families were violently feuding.

And now you were both standing in the middle of it.

———————–————

•Part Two•

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