#walter mendoza

[heartblobs]

July, 1890

🎶She's the sunshine of Paradise Alley Ev'ry Sunday down to her home we go, All the boys and all the girls they love her so, Always jolly, heart that is true I know, She is the Sunshine of Paradise Alley🎶

Evaline and Walter were deeply infatuated with one another. When all of the housework was over and done with, the young couple would dance to their hearts' content well into the night, happy to have one another as their dance partner.

Then the two would whisper sweet nothings to each other, acting like bashful teenagers sneaking around their parents. Evaline loved the gentle way his hands would hold her, the way his eyes never faltered from her gaze whenever she spoke. She especially enjoyed when her husband would whisper close into her ear, "Eres el cielo mismo, mi amor." You are heaven itself. It ran chills down her spine and flutters throughout her heart every time. How lucky she was to have such a romantic for a husband, she thought to herself.

🕰️ / 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 / 𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑡

(Also special thanks to @aheathen-conceivably & @surely-sims for inspiring me with the songs linked with their posts! I listen to every song y’all link to 🥰)

[reddstardust]

HFTH sketches PT 1/?

Can you guess who my favorite character is? 🤭

♡reblogs are very appreciated♡

🚫DON'T REPOST MY ART WITHOUT PERMISSION/CREDIT🚫

[suchsunshinescribbles]

[7 November // 24-25 November // 6 December 2022] A return to cyberpunk with some character sheets for OCs set in the Ghostrunner universe. Nico gets a V2 revamp since a bit of time has passed between her initial drafts and the other four that were completed in rapid succession, and I wanted to be consistent with format. 

[soberaniasar]

[randomrichards]

THE SPACE RACE

The long, hard journey

To put black men into space

A hard won battle

[graphicpolicy]

Preview: Noir is the New Black Presents: Watson & Holmes Vol. 1

Noir is the New Black Presents: Watson & Holmes Vol. 1 preview. Harlem, Now. A missing girl case brings together the most famous dynamic duo in the world for the first time! #comics #comicbooks

[mlobsters]

supernatural s8e20 pac-man fever (w. robbie thompson)

(same sam, same. every day)

okay. OKAY. this is very reminiscent of the ghost ship xfiles episode. the music in one scene in the hallways was used in the crow too so i did a little post about it here but it's one of the best (maybe the best???) sequences in the entire series and so i had to include it in its entirety here and now (eternal crush on gillian anderson started in the early 90s and she's such a doll in the 40s getup)

supernatural s8e20 (night hop by benny carter) / the x-files s6e3 triangle (hot liquorice by dick walter)

mitch pileggi aka skinner aka not-so-good-grandpa also briefly appears in the xfiles clip :)

same vibes. (hannibal s1e9 trou nomand)

DEAN In the neighborhood? How the hell does she know where we are? SAM Uh, well, she doesn't. Not exactly, at least. It says she tracked our cells to a twenty mile radius, then the signal went out. Huh. This place must be in some kinda, like, Bermuda Triangle.

lol

sweetness ♥️

CHARLIE Well, after you guys left, I dug into all things monsters. I'm a wee bit obsessive. If "wee bit" means completely. I also found this series of books, by a Carver Edlund? [SAM and DEAN exchange awkward looks] Did those books really happen? CHARLIE (cont'd) Wow. That is some meta madness. [to DEAN] Thanks for saving the world and stuff. [to SAM] Sorry you have zero luck with the ladies.

the awkwardness of this situation if you think about it for more than a second is off the charts

CHARLIE What about, uh, Castiel? He seems helpful, and dreamy.

not the word choice i'd expect but okay

DEAN He's MIA, with a tablet of his own, doing God knows what. I mean, to be honest this whole thing is... I mean, Sam's a tough son of a bitch, but... Cas is saying that these trials are messing with him in ways that even he can't heal. CHARLIE If it's any consolation, having read your history, there is pretty much nothing the Winchesters can't do if they work together.

pretty sure i said "that's nice" out loud

CHARLIE Must be nice, having a brother, someone to always watch your back.

not that their thing is on any scale of normal. also *squints* whatcha gettin at here, show. are we adopting charlie?

DEAN Nuh-uh. Back on the horse, kiddo, come on.

operation adopt-a-sister engaged

same, charlie, same.

hey, it's jason mendoza from the good place! didn't recognize his face with the hair being up but his voice immediately rang the bell

the good place s1e8 most improved player - manny jacinto as jason mendoza

DEAN I know you wanna help, I do, but— SAM Dean, you cannot take care of the both of us. I need to be out here. Play through the pain, right? DEAN Come on man, don't quote me to me.

but dean taking care of you is kind of a non-negotiable you know that

CHARLIE So the boys said they noticed something on the body's arm before it covered them in years of future therapy. Said it looked like a blue handprint. DEAN Sounds like something you should read about. In a book. At home. SAM I'm not leaving until we find out whatever is doing this. DEAN Whatever. [stalks off] CHARLIE You guys fight like an old married couple.

JUST LET ME TAKE CARE OF YOU 😡🔪

CHARLIE Alright, well, breakthrough means snack time to me, and I wanna just stretch my legs. I will pick us up some grub, and unlike you, Sam, I will not forget the pie.

sweetness x100

isn't it nice to have someone else they can be affectionate with and there's no need to worry about ~romantic tension~

none of the emotional trauma of the previous episode, some very solid heartwarming moments, not too many cringe inducing moments of embarrassment. i'll take it, robbie

[mattmurdocksthighs]

MEET MY OCs

FROM CAMP HALF BLOOD [OC MASTERLIST]

NAME: andromeda 'andy' stevie mendoza LOVE INTEREST: jake mason GODLY PARENT: hecate POWERS: mystiokinesis, mist control, umbrakinesis, magic FACECLAIM: olivia rodrigo STATUS: dead

NAME: blake newton LOVE INTEREST: reyna ramirez arellano, vera alvarez (oc) GODLY PARENT: hephaestus POWERS: mechanics, technokinesis FACECLAIM: erana james

NAME: lydia leto king LOVE INTEREST: zoë nightshade, connor stoll GODLY PARENT: apollo POWERS: precognition, archery, vitakinesis FACECLAIM: lilia buckingham

NAME: ezra finley LOVE INTEREST: jason grace GODLY PARENT: demeter POWERS: chlorokinesis, geokinesis FACECLAIM: william franklyn-miller

NAME: millie spencer LOVE INTEREST: GODLY PARENT: hades AFFILIATION: hunters of artemis POWERS: necromancy, phonikinesis, umbrakinesis / eternal youth, archery, enhanced physical prowess, zoolingualism FACECLAIM: malina weissman

NAME: christopher 'kit' andrews LOVE INTEREST: milo river (oc) GODLY PARENT: ares POWERS: telumkinesis, enhanced physical prowess, enhanced war strategies, fighting skills FACECLAIM: caleb mclaughlin

NAME: milo river LOVE INTEREST: kit andrews (oc) GODLY PARENT: aphrodite POWERS: amokinesis, charm speak, french fluency FACECLAIM: maxwell acee donovan

NAME: marnie dianna lincoln LOVE INTEREST: piper mclean GODLY PARENT: hebe POWERS: FACECLAIM: ella purnell

NAME: damon vaughn LOVE INTEREST: travis stoll GODLY PARENT: dionysus POWERS: chlorokinesis, ability to cure + cause madness FACECLAIM: joe keery

NAME: cassandra 'cassie' todd LOVE INTEREST: GODLY PARENT: hermes POWERS: enhanced speed, audiokinesis, enhanced theft abilities FACECLAIM: xochitl gomez

NAME: evan reeves LOVE INTEREST: GODLY PARENT: hypnos POWERS: hypnokinesis FACECLAIM: noah jupe

NAME: nina walters LOVE INTEREST: GODLY PARENT: nemesis POWERS: control over body/spiritual balance, can curse bad luck FACECLAIM: sadie sink

NAME: nicholas larson LOVE INTEREST: leo valdez GODLY PARENT: nike POWERS: enhanced physical prowess, can manifest angel wings, ability to use any weapon, can curse someone to lose FACECLAIM: louis partridge

NAME: vera alvarez LOVE INTEREST: blake newton (oc) GODLY PARENT: tyche POWERS: luck manipulation, natural gambler FACECLAIM: isabela merced

NAME: livia zhou LOVE INTEREST: luke castellan, helios GODLY PARENT: hera POWERS: FACECLAIM: lola tung

[ultimateheadcanontournament]

Ultimate Headcanon Tournament

Here is the full bracket! I did the best I could to make it a proper bracket! Good luck to all of the participants!

Genderqueer Manifred von Karma (Ace Attorney) vs Gay trans man Ao Ohtori (I am Magicami)

Narrator Chara (Undertale) vs Trans male Yentl (Yentl the Yeshiva Boy)

Trans Danny Fenton (Danny Phantom) vs Captain John Hart has multiple mothers (Torchwood)

Trans Guy Gardener (DC Comics) vs Aroace Kaladin (Stormlight Archive)

Steve Rogers/Captain America likes men (Marvel Comics) vs Fletcher took Tanner’s folder when Andrew wasn’t looking (Whiplash)

Trans male Zelda/Sheik (The Legend of Zelda) vs Aroace autistic Mira (Sekko Boys)

Aroace Hunter (The Owl House) vs Dyslexic Wallabee/Numbah 4 (Codename: Kids Next Door)

ADHD Todd Chavez (BoJack Horseman) vs Trans girl Plum Puddin' (Strawberry Shortcake)

Phone Guy survived (Five Nights at Freddy's) vs Grayromantic Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows)

Transmasc MK (Lego Monkie Kid) vs Autistic Mark Grayson (Invincible)

Autistic Elle Woods (Legally Blonde) vs Mafia Town was called Mustache Town (A Hat in Time)

Bennett has eczema on his hands (Genshin Impact) vs Autistic Tobias (Animorphs)

Autistic N (Pokémon) vs Ben Tennyson forgot to remake his other cousin (Ben 10)

Mario and Peach hold no ill will towards Bowser (Super Mario) vs Autistic Reagan Ridley (Inside Job)

Autistic Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender) vs Affogato Cookie is part snake (Cookie Run: Kingdom)

Autistic Adora (She-Ra) vs Hank Schrader forgave Walter White before Jack Welker killed him (Breaking Bad)

Kylo Ren's full name is Ben Chewbacca Alderaan Organa Solo (Staar Wars) vs Commander Shepherd is a terrible driver (Mass Effect)

ADHD Dave (Homestuck) vs Trans male Kurapika (Hunter x Hunter)

Transfem Larry Daley (Night at the Museum) vs Trans male Mafuyu Asahina (Project Sekai)

Autistic Gregory Eddie (Abbott Elementary) vs Autistic Eddie Kaspbrak (IT)

Trans Dipper Pines (Gravity Falls) vs Autistic hyperverbal Cecil Gershwin Palmer (Welcome to Night Vale)

Juggalo Remus Sanders (Sanders Sides) vs Aroace Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece)

Autistic Izuku Midoriya (My Hero Academia) vs Autistic Keith Kogane (Voltron)

Shrek came up with his name on the spot when Donkey asked him (Shrek) vs Autistic trans man Elliott (Stardew Valley)

Autistic Peridot (Steven Universe) vs Kathryn Janeway is aroaspec, Captain Chakotay is twospirit, and they are in a QPR (Star Trek)

Nonbinary Lake (Infinity Train) vs Jason Mendoza has the highest emotional intelligence of all the characters (The Good Place)

Transfem Big Macintosh/Orchard Blossom (My Little Pony) vs Monika was following a script until she deleted herself (Doki Doki Literature Club)

Autistic trans lesbian Samus Aran (Metroid) vs Firestar and Sandstorm are queerplatonic mutual beards (Warriors)

Autistic Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon) vs Trans Kakashi Hatake (Naruto)

Transfem Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) vs Kermit caused 9/11 (Muppets)

Diabetic Sniper (Team Fortress 2) vs Gay Jousuke Higashikata (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

Trans woman Cinderella (Cinderella) vs Aroace Alphonse Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

[heartblobs]

June 26th, 1889

𝓓𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝓕𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻,

I write this letter to you not knowing if you will even read the words. Today, much to your displeasure, I was married to Walter Mendoza. The ceremony was small, held in Brindleton Bay's single church, with only Walter's family in attendance. My side of the pews were much too empty and all I had were the ghosts of my memory to imagine you and Irving sitting there.

I know you must feel upset with me for having taken Mother’s wedding dress. However, this is all I have left of her, especially after running away with Walter. I needed her there with me on my wedding day, if not in the spirit of you then with the feeling of myself wrapped up in her arms. I like to think she would've cried upon seeing me all draped in white. I suppose you would've too.

I now go on to live my life as a wife. Walter has bought a plot of land with an old farmhouse, along with the chickens that came along with the property. He plans to support us as a commercial fisherman, given that Brindleton Bay is a fishing town. I trade a life in the city of New Crest for a much humbler one here. And I must admit Father that I am rather excited for it all. I yearn to work my flimsy hands into strong, defined hands that can nature her children with pride. Though I will forever be grateful for the lavish life you had given me, I suspect I will enjoy this next journey much more.

Please, if you are not too angry with me, I beg you to write back. To give me news of yourself and my brother, to give me your blessing in my new marriage. I do not ask for money or anything of the sort. I just wish for your support, as always.

𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓,

𝑬𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑴𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒛𝒂

🕰️ / 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒: 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑙 / 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 / 𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑡

[lovelybishop]

Character/Fandom List

(Updated February 5th, 2023)

*I DO NOT WRITE FOR CELEBRITIES.

*Strikethrough means currently not accepting requests for said character/fandom

*If you see a character that is not listed, please ask! I’m sure I write for that character, I just forgot to put it on this very long list!

*If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

—

DC Extended Universe

Suicide Squad (2016) / The Suicide Squad (2021)

Abner Krill/Polka-Dot Man, Christopher Smith/Peacemaker, Cleo Cazo/Ratcatcher 2, Floyd Lawton/Deadshot, Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, Robert Dubois/Bloodsport

Birds Of Prey

Dinah Lance/Black Canary, Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn, Helena Bertinelli/The Huntress, Roman Sionis/Black Mask

Fear Street Trilogy

Cindy Berman, Deena Johnson, Heather Watkins. Christine “Ziggy” Berman*,Kate Schmidt, Nick Goode*, Ruby Lane, Samantha Fraser, Simon, Tommy Slater

*Please specify which actor

The Last of Us (HBO)

Joel Miller, Tess Servopoulos

The Good Place

Chidi Anagonye, Eleanor Shellstrop, Janet, Jason Mendoza, Michael, Tahani Al-Jamil

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Movies

Ajak, Alexei/The Red Gurdian, America Chavez, Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, Christine Palmer, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Darcy Lewis, Doctor Stange Variants, Drax the Destroyer, Druig, Gamora, Gilgamesh, Hela, Hope van Dyne/The Wasp, Ikaris, James “Bucky” Barnes/The Winter Soldier, James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine, Jane Foster, Jimmy Woo, Katy, Kingo, Lady Sif, Loki, Makkari, Mantis, Maria Hill, May Parker, Melina, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Nebula, Nick Fury, Peggy Carter, Peter Parker Variants, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Phastos, Phil Coulson, Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver, Sam Wilson/The Falcon/Captain America, Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Sersi, Shang-Chi, Sharon Carter, Sprite, Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Thena, Thor, Tony Stark/Iron Man, T’Challa/Black Panther, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Valkyrie, Virginia “Pepper” Potts, Vision, Wanda Maximoff Variants, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, Wong, Xialing, Yelena Belova

Disney+ Series

*This list is for characters who have not appeared in any movie (with the exception of Captain Carter.)

Agatha Harkness, Bruno Carrelli, Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, Joaquin Torres, Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye, Layla El-Faouly/Scarlet Scarab, Madisynn King, Mallory Book, Marc Spector, Mary MacPherran/Titania, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Maya Lopez, Mobius, Monica Rambeau, Nikki Ramos, Peggy Carter/Captain Carter, Ralph Bogner/”Pietro” Maximoff, Star-Lord T’Challa, Steve Grant, Strange Supreme, Sylvie, Taweret

Agents Of Sheild Series

Melinda May, Grant Ward, Daisy “Skye” Johnson/Quake, Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons, Lance Hunter, Bobbi Morse, Alphonso “Mack” Mackenzie, Lincoln Campbell, Elena “Yo-Yo” Rodriguez, Deke Shaw

Netflix Series

*I plan on watching all Marvel Netflix Series. Though Because Matt Murdok was in No Way Home and She-Hulk, I still will write for him.

Spider-Verses

The Amazing Spider-Man

Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker/Spider-Man

Into the Spider-Verse

Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman, Miles Morales/Spider-Man, Olivia Octavius/Doctor Octopus, Peter B. Parker/Spider-Man

X-Men

Alex Summers/Havok, Bobby Drake/Iceman, Charles Xavier/Professor X*,Ellie Phimister/Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Erik Legnsherr/Magneto*,Hank McCoy/Beast*,James “Logan” Howlett/Wolverine, Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix*,Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler*,Marie D’Ancanto/Rogue, Nathan Sumers/Cable, Neena Thurman/Domino, Ororo Monroe/Storm*,Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver, Psylocke*,Raven Darkholme/Mystique*,Scott Summers/Cyclops*,Wade Wilson/Deadpool, Warren Worthington III/Angel*

*Please specify which actor.

Free Guy

Guy, Millie Ruck, Walter “Keys” McKey

The Office

Jim Halpert, Pam Beesly

Wednesday

Ajax Petropolus, Biance Barclay, Enid Sinclair, Gomez Addams*,Larissa Weems, Marilyn Thornhill/Laurel Gates. Morticia Addams*,Tyler Galpin, Wednesday Addams, Xavier Thorpe, Yoko Tanaka

*Please specify which actor.

Star Wars

Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, Bix Caleen, Bo-Katan Kryze, Boba Fett, Captain Phasma, Cassian Andor, Cobb Wanth, Din Djarin/The Mandalorian, Fennec Shand, Finn, General Hux, Han Solo, Jyn Erso, Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padme Amidala, Poe Dameron, Princess/General Leia Organa, Qi’ra, Reva Sevander/Third Sister, Rey, Rose Tico, Zorii Bliss

Stranger Things

Dustin Henderson, Eddie Munson, Eleven Hopper, Jim Hopper, Jonathan Byers, Joyce Byers, Lucas Sinclair, Max Mayfield, Michael Wheeler, Nancy Wheeler, Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington, Will Byers

*I do not write for Billy Hargrove

[its-tea-time-darling]

MID YEAR BOOK FREAKOUT TAG

thanks for the tag @myladyofmercy 💜

1. Best book you've read so far in 2024

die schwester - joy fielding

2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2024

i don't think i read a sequel

3. New release you haven't read yet but want to

die entflammten - simone meier

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

"the pairing by casey mcquiston" < omg new casey mcquiston book incoming???????

5. Biggest disappointment

cleopatra and frankenstein - coco mellors

it wasn't fully a disappointment, in fact i liked big parts of it and many of the characters, but where the story ends for one specific character left a sour taste in my mouth.

spoiler below

somehow everyone gets their happy ending except the one queer character. i tried to search the book and critiques of it up but i didn't see this mentioned anywhere and that's just... idk it's very strange. nearly all of the characters struggle with some sort of addiction, but they all overcome them, except the queer characters who is introduced to meth by one of her lovers and disappears in misery, might be dead by the end of the book, we don't know. like. that's icky. and if anyone who's more knowledgeable on the book scene knows why no one ever brings that up i'd be interested to hear about it.

6. Biggest surprise

-

7. Favourite new author (debut or new to you)

-

8. Newest fictional crush

-

9. Newest favourite character

idk about 'favorite' but i liked one of the side characters in cleopatra and frankenstein a lot but i forget his name 😂

10. Book that made you cry

sanctuary by paola mendoza

11. Book that made you happy

most books i read do bc i like reading, otherwise id put them away 😊

12. Favourite book to film adaptation that you've seen this year

don't think i've seen any

13. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received)

die insel der tausend leuchttürme - walter moers

14. What books do you need to read by the end of the year

the new casey mcquiston book!!! now that i know there is one 😊

15. How many new books have you read so far

no idea i don't keep track

tagging @thominho-incorrectquotes @astralpenguin @itsthemxze

[gonzalo-obes]

IMAGENES Y DATOS INTERESANTES DEL DIA 12 DE ABRIL DE 2024

Día Internacional de los Niños de la Calle, Día Internacional de los Vuelos Espaciales Tripulados, Día Internacional de las Personas con Extremidades Diferentes, Año Internacional de los Camélidos.

San Julio I.

Tal día como hoy en el año 1981

Se lanza desde Cabo Cañaveral, en Houston (EE.UU.), la primera nave espacial reutilizable de la historia: el trasbordador Columbia. La misión, con el astronauta John Young como piloto, durará 54 horas. (Hace 43 años)

1961

En la URSS, actual Rusia, y a las 9:07 hora de Moscú, despega de la base de Baikonur a bordo de la cápsula espacial "Vostok I", Yuri Gagarin, de 27 años que se convierte en el primer hombre en orbitar nuestro planeta en un vuelo de 108 minutos de duración cuya órbita le lleva a una distancia entre 180 y 327 kilómetros de la superficie terrestre. (Hace 63 años)

1954

La banda de rock de "Bill Haley and the Comets", que acaban de cambiar de sello discográfico, en su primera sesión para Decca Records, acompañados por Danny Cedrone a la guitarra eléctrica y Billy Gussak a la batería, graban "Rock Around the Clock", el mayor éxito de Haley y una de las canciones más importantes de la historia del rock and roll, a pesar de que inicialmente tendrá un éxito comercial moderado. (Hace 70 años)

1931

Las elecciones municipales en España dan la victoria a los republicanos, lo que traerá el advenimiento de la II República dos días más tarde y la salida del país del rey Alfonso XIII con el fin de evitar una guerra civil. (Hace 93 años)

1919

En Weimar, Alemania, se funda la Staatliche Bauhaus, o simplemente Bauhaus, escuela de arquitectura, diseño, artesanía y arte fundada por el arquitecto socialista Walter Gropius, con la idea de la necesaria reforma de las enseñanzas artísticas como base para una consiguiente transformación de la sociedad burguesa. En 1933 será cerrada por las autoridades prusianas en manos del Partido Nazi. En sus dos décadas, dejará un importante legado a las futuras generaciones arquitectónicas. (Hace 105 años)

1861

El inicio de la guerra civil norteamericana viene marcado por un disparo de cañón y el consiguiente asalto confederado a la guarnición del fuerte Sumter en Charleston (Carolina del Sur) en este fatídico día. (Hace 163 años)

1633

La Inquisición inicia el proceso de herejía contra el astrónomo Galileo Galilei, que concluirá con la condena a prisión perpetua, pese a la renuncia de Galileo a defenderse y a su retractación formal. La pena será suavizada en cierta medida, al permitírsele que la cumpla en su casa de recreo cercana a la villa de Arcetri, en las proximidades del convento donde, en 1616 y con el nombre de sor Maria Celeste, había ingresado su hija más querida, Virginia, que fallecerá al año siguiente creyéndose hereje, al dudar de la inmovilidad de la Tierra. (Hace 391 años)

1609

España reconoce la independencia de los Países Bajos, tras la tregua firmada en Amberes el pasado día 9. (Hace 415 años)

1557

En este lunes de semana santa, sobre las ruinas de Tomebamba localizadas en un paraje estratégico y con abundantes recursos naturales, el explorador y conquistador español Gil Ramírez Dávalos, en compañía de un grupo de españoles, funda una ciudad con el nombre de "Santa Ana de los cuatro ríos de Cuenca" (actual Cuenca, en Ecuador) en honor a la ciudad española de Cuenca, lugar de origen del Virrey de Lima, Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza. (Hace 467 años)

1204

Alexius V, último emperador griego de una Bizancio unida y que ha dirigido la defensa de Constantinopla con gran valentía, huye de la ciudad al ver la situación desesperada por el sitio a que la está sometiendo la Cuarta Cruzada, que este mismo día conquistará la ciudad. (Hace 820 años)

238

En las afueras de la ciudad de Cartago (actual Túnez) tiene lugar la Batalla de Cartago en la que Gordiano I y su hijo Gordiano II, que se han revelado contra el emperador Maximino el Tracio autoproclamándose cooemperadores, pierden al mando de un ejército poco preparado, contra las fuerzas de la legión III Augusta, leales a Maximino. Gordiano II muere en la batalla y su padre Gordiano I, al enterarse, es tanta la pena que siente que se suicida ahorcándose con su cinturón. (Hace 1786 años)

[tlatland]

«En aquella época era otro mundo. Eso eran los 60 y 70: era otro mundo, otro futuro… teníamos futuro… La Argentina tenía una importancia editorial en el campo del español. Era otro mundo: una mezcla densa entre vanguardia, política, vanguardias literarias, guerrilla, lacanismo, teorizaciones, althusserismo… que era un pensamiento abstracto que no tenía nada que ver con lo que pasaba… pero no importa, así éramos, éramos así». | Josefina Ludmer

«Corría el año 1975. Donde debe leerse que estábamos en un período terrorífico». | Edgardo Russo

«Literal era una manera de pensar distinta. La repercusión que tuvo en ese momento no fue la que tiene ahora. Fue rescatada a posteriori». | Horacio García

«Recuerdo sí el efecto de hallazgo que me produjo conocer el nombre. El nombre Literal me pareció un muy buen nombre de combate para ese momento ». | Oscar Steimberg

«Me pregunto cómo leía yo antes». | María Moreno

«Queríamos defender la autonomía de la literatura frente a todo lo que estaba pasando en la Argentina de entonces. En realidad nosotros estábamos más unidos por lo que negábamos que por lo que afirmábamos: sabíamos lo que no queríamos ». | Germán García

«Yo no estaba en Literal. Yo hacía junto con Germán García, Literal». | Osvaldo Lamborghini

«No creo que haya discurso que no sea asimilable, aunque creo que hay discursos que ofrecen más resistencia que otros y Literal es uno de ellos». | Luis Gusmán

«¿Qué va a pasar con la literatura? ¿Qué va a pasar con el canon en general? Una discusión sobre el valor, si armar un corpus es ya dar valor o no». | Tamara Kamenszain

«Ahora, cuando se cumplen cincuenta años de los inicios de Literal, y de la primera edición de El frasquito, la aparición conjunta de este libro de Mendoza y de una nueva edición de la novela breve de Luis Gusmán, con un nuevo prólogo de Leonora Djament, relanza el interrogante. ¿Qué vamos a buscar cada vez que volvemos a esos años dorados de lo que Jorge Panesi llamó “el injerto teoría-ficción” y Graciela Montaldo resumió en una fórmula casi matemática (“Literatura + Teoría = Revolución”)?» | Diego Peller [Revista Ñ]

«Juan J. Mendoza tiene la idea de que la literatura avanza por intuiciones o iluminaciones momentáneas, a lo Walter Benjamin. Iluminaciones que enseguida se ven otra vez recubiertas por la trivialidad cotidiana, el hype de todos los días, la novedad perpetua de la industria cultural. Y que, por lo tanto, hay que ejercer una especie de arqueología para recuperar su contemporaneidad, su aquí y ahora, pero usando otros términos para que sean los mismos: ese es el sentido de las nociones como la de escrituras past_ o teoría de la emulsión, acaso algunas de las nociones con las que construye su obra.» | Marcelo Topuzian

«El libro de Juan José Mendoza se inscribe en una de las áreas temáticas de nuestro Instituto, la teoría y la crítica literaria, y ofrece una contribución de valía al conocimiento de la historia de las revistas literarias argentinas del siglo XX, pero también a algunas francesas, como Tel Quel, Documents, L´Homme, Revue Francaise de la Antropologie que contextualizan el surgimiento de distintas publicaciones argentinas de los años 70.» | Guiomar Ciapuscio

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[whileiamdying]

As Much As I Can, As Black As I Am: The Queer History of Grace Jones

In this career overview, Barry Walters details how one of the most transgressive stars of the 1980s, Grace Jones, gave voice to the oppressed while offering a bold example of what it means to be free.

Grace Jones is perched on a ledge above the dancefloor of New York’s 12 West, the state-of-the-art, members-only gay disco, about to take the stage for one of her first performances. The year is 1977, and no one is prepared for what’s about to hit them.

Tom Moulton, father of the dance mix and Jones’ early producer, describes the scene: “All of a sudden the spotlight hits her. She starts singing ‘I Need a Man’, and the place goes crazy. After she finishes, she goes, ‘I don't know about you, honey, but I need a fucking man!’ Talk about a room-worker. Whatever it takes. She was so determined.”

To understand the impact of this moment, one must understand a bit of history. Just a few years earlier, it had been illegal for two men to so much as dance together in New York City. With the exception of maybe hairdressers and artists, queer people risked unemployment if they merely hinted at their orientation outside the confines of gay bars and clubs, and it was in these discos that the seeds of liberation were sown. At 12 West, gay people could grasp the power of their collectivity and understand what it meant to be free.

That night, Grace Jones sang “I Need a Man” just like a man might—tough and lusty, she was a woman who was not just singing to them, but also for them, as them. She was as queer as a relatively straight person could get. Her image celebrated blackness and subverted gender norms; she presented something we had never seen before in pop performance—a woman who was lithe, sexy, and hyperfeminine while also exuding a ribald, butch swagger. In ’79, Ebony got her je ne sais quoi exactly right: “Grace Jones is a question mark followed by an exclamation point.”

Even now, her transgressive charisma remains bold. She still feels outré.

In 1960, a 12-year-old Beverly Grace Jones moved from Spanish Town, Jamaica, to Syracuse, New York, with her family. She didn’t have many friends; a high school report card described her as “socially sick.” Halfway through her studies at Syracuse University, she impulsively abandoned school to work on a play in Philadelphia. The Pentecostal preacher’s daughter realized there was no going home after that, and she moved to New York City in 1975 to fulfill her dream of becoming a star.

At first, Jones modeled for the Wilhelmina Agency while doubling as a go-go dancer under the pseudonym Grace Mendoza. “Even though the agency kept me pretty busy, I auditioned for every play and film I could find,” she told The Baltimore Afro American in 1985. “But they all wanted a black American sound, and I just didn’t have it. Finally, I got tired of trotting around and took myself to Paris.”

In France, her blackness set her apart from other models, and Jones landed covers of Stern, Pravda, and Vogue. Within a few months, she recorded a few singles; one was sent to Cy and Eileen Berlin, an enterprising husband-and-wife team who later managed Tom Cruise. Jones flew back to NYC with her roommate, actress Jessica Lange, and met with the Berlins. Impressed by her exuberance, star quality, and willingness, they signed on to manage her. “I thought of her as family,” says Eileen Berlin. “My son had gone to college, so I gave her his room.”

At the time, Tom Moulton’s pioneering club-specific mixes were blowing up both discos and R&B radio, and the Berlins begged him to produce their new client. Moulton and Jones’ partnership began with the double-sided ’76 single, “Sorry” / “That’s the Trouble”, and their next collaboration, “I Need a Man”, quickly rose to the top of Billboard’s disco chart the following year. Hoping to capitalize on Jones’ burgeoning fame, the Berlins approached Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who signed her in short order. Given the combination of Blackwell’s status as an international reggae ambassador and Jones’ Jamaican roots, Cy Berlin anticipated a good fit. He didn’t know how right he would be.

Although Moulton and Jones made three albums together in three years—’77’s Portfolio, ’78’s Fame, and ’79’s Muse—the two former-models often clashed: “I always teased her about sounding like Bela Lugosi,” recalls the disco godfather. “I stood next to her while she was singing because I got so sick of hitting the talkback button [in the control room]. The moment she'd go off, I'd stop her. I was hard on her, but no matter how much I pushed her, she would take it and push herself.”

Portfolio’s continuous first side featured Broadway tunes set to string-intensive bluster arranged by the Salsoul Orchestra’s Vince Montana and performed by members of MFSB, a cohesive pool of studio musicians who played on nearly every Philadelphia-originated soul hit of the ’70s. But against the plush effortlessness, Jones sounded strained; the weight of Moulton’s hand was audible and uncomfortable to hear.

However, the LP’s second side dished out a masterstroke in Jones’ take on Édith Piaf’s “La Vie En Rose”, a version of which Moulton previously recorded with forgotten ’70s singer Teresa Wiater. Jones had gotten her hands on an acetate pressing of Waiter’s unreleased recording, which was wowing the 12 West crowd, and she lobbied Moulton to let her have it, baiting him that it would be a sure hit for the two: “I’m big in France.” The same rawness and struggle that worked against Jones on Portfolio’s Broadway arias conveyed the absolute heartbreak of “La Vie En Rose”.

On Jones’ second album, Fame, Moulton bolstered the French connection: Most songs were written by Jack Robinson and Jacques Pépino (credited as James Bolden, but elsewhere known as disco singer David Christie). Once again Moulton contrasted Philly soul’s lush romanticism with Jones’ confident, almost stentorian vocals. This time around, though, that combination gelled throughout because the material was made for her. Jones dedicated the album “with love” to her then-partner, Jean-Paul Goude, a Parisian multimedia artist who collaborated with her on the creation of subsequent album jackets, photos, videos, and stage shows. (Goude is also the father of her only child and author of a book that details their relationship, Jungle Fever.)

While the follow up, Muse, didn’t yield as many memorable songs, it did feature another nonstop A-side that moved from sin to salvation via stormy arrangements by Iceland’s Thor Baldursson, whose keyboards and charts lit up Giorgio Moroder and Boney M songs alike. It also brandished a killer floor-filler with “On Your Knees”. Laced with sadistic intent by D.C. LaRue, a cult disco act whose world-weary, gay-coded “Cathedrals” presaged Pet Shop Boys, and former Sugarloaf frontman Jerry Corbetta, the most soulful of Jones’ disco singles also pointed toward her future. The philharmonic instrumentation oozed luxury, but the swagger of the lyric and the toughness of her vocal suggested rock’n’roll dissent waiting to be unleashed.

I grew up in Rochester, New York, 90 miles from where a teenaged Grace Jones daydreamed about her grand ambitions in Syracuse. I was a fan of a local band called New Math, whose frontman did promo for Island and passed me a copy of Fame—the first piece of my disco vinyl collection. Later that week, I watched Jones on “The Midnight Special”, where she performed “Below the Belt”. She took the stage clad in a satin boxing robe, her hands taped for a fight. Halfway through, she pulled a brawny muscleman from the crowd, pretended to knock him out, and then stood with a foot planted on his chest, all while crooning, “Gotta take my chance/ Gotta go the distance.” She then did a victory dance as fake snow fell in celebration of Christmas (and perhaps—this being 1979—cocaine). I was hooked.

That jaw-dropping TV appearance prompted a discussion with my high school drama teacher. He bragged that his brother had once met Jones at a Manhattan roller rink, where, instead of offering him a business card, she gave him a plastic whip with her name emblazoned on it. I knew at that moment that I belonged in Grace Jones’ New York, that suburban life would kill me the same way it had killed my alcoholic father. A year later, I arrived. 

Jones’ “On Your Knees” was the last single I bought before leaving Rochester and it was one of the first songs I heard on the local disco station in New York City. Subway cars plastered with graffiti bore nearly inscrutable codes I was hungry to crack, for danger preyed upon the ignorant: Each weekend brought stories of fellow students who had been mugged. I remember protesters disrupting the filming of William Friedkin’s Cruising, which retold the real-life story of a fugitive who had lured men out of gay bars to bed and then killed them. In that anything-goes, pre-AIDS era at the tail end of the ‘70s, pleasure and danger were quite literally bedfellows.

Macho, close-cropped clones ruled the city’s mega-discos, but I hadn’t escaped my small suburb just to conform, so I sought out unconventional spaces like Hurrah’s, the Mudd Club, and Danceteria, where dub, reggae and post-punk alternated with chilly synth pop and radical funk. All those genres would mingle and mutate in Jones’ next incarnation.

When Muse fizzled in the clubs and on the charts, Chris Blackwell took over as Jones’ producer. “I wanted to treat her not as a model, but to involve her as a musician,” he recalls. “Tom Moulton had been recording the instrumentation and then having Grace come in later, but I wanted her to feel as though she were a member of a band, and record her the way bands used to make albums, with the singer and the players doing their thing all at once.”

Blackwell’s approach united two things he knew well: Caribbean ease and British audacity. “I wanted a rhythmic reggae bottom, aggressive rock guitar, atmospheric keyboards in the middle, and Grace on top,” he says. To get all that, he assembled a sextet of studio ringers at his Nassau studio, Compass Point. The soon-to-be signature sound of the Compass Point All-Stars went on to animate hits by the Tom Tom Club, Robert Palmer, Joe Cocker, Gwen Guthrie, and others.

The sessions began with an unlikely remake of the Normal’s “Warm Leatherette”. Jones’ version preserved the original’s deadpan vocal delivery and minimal melody but dropped the tempo to a saunter, twisted the rhythm into a sharp funk, and sashayed with offhand earnestness, as if sexual intercourse while dying from vehicular collision was just another kink worth trying. The sessions moved with disarming speed and ease: “If Grace or the group hadn’t nailed a song by the third take,” Blackwell recounts, “it was dropped and they’d move to the next number.”

Keyboardist Wally Badarou attests to Jones’ active role in the recordings: “Grace was there even during most instrumental overdubbing sessions. She was a part of the sound and the spirit that came out almost from nowhere. We all knew we were in for something quite experimental.”

Soon they had amassed enough material for 1980’s Warm Leatherette and the beginnings of a follow-up LP that would become 1981’s Nightclubbing. Upon its release, Leatherette failed to charm either radio audiences or most dance clubs; it was too authentically reggae for the New Wave crowd, too slow for disco. But by the following year, both New York radio and the club scene had grown eclectic. Primed by kindred punk-funk blasts like Yoko Ono’s “Walking on Thin Ice” as well as Taana Gardner’s “Heartbeat”, a far more open-minded dance music world was ready to re-embrace Jones and her new sound.

Nightclubbing provided Jones with newfound popularity on both sides of the Atlantic. European audiences appreciated “I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango)”, a vocal reimagining of Argentine tango master Ástor Piazzolla’s 1974 instrumental “Libertango”. For that track, co-writer Barry Reynolds penned lyrics about a Parisian stalker, and Badarou provided a haunting introductory riff. Jones’ lyrics were a rebuttal, en francais, penned with the help of Blackwell’s girlfriend, actor Nathalie Delon: “What are you looking for? Hoping to find love? Who do you think you are? You hate your life.”

In America, Jones’ R&B breakthrough came via an instrumental recorded by drummer Sly Dunbar during the Warm Leatherette sessions. The track first leaked out as “Peanut Butter” on the B-side of kiddie reggae crooner Junior Tucker’s “The Kick (Rock On)”, but, eager to make it hers, Grace co-wrote new lyrics equating cars with carnality. “Pull Up to the Bumper” pushed that metaphor towards lewd entendre: “Grease it, spray it/ Let me lubricate it,” she drawled. A summertime smash, “Bumper” became one of the last thoroughly sexual jams before a new virus began to complicate that kind of fun.

The sessions for 1982’s Living My Life marked a culmination of the synchronicity between Jones and the All-Stars. “Blackwell felt the band was so good it deserved to be doing its own material,” Badarou remembers. As a result, the album was made up entirely of originals, save for a cover of Melvin Van Peebles’ “The Apple Stretching”. Each song began with Jones’ lyrics, from which Reynolds wrote the music to fit. Recorded in the wake of her breakup with Jean-Paul Goude, the album found Jones getting deeper and more rigorously percussive: The percolating lead track, “My Jamaican Guy”, has been sampled by acts from La Roux to LL Cool J. The title track was eventually left off the album but it showcased just how personal the work was for Jones, a world away from the show tunes and entendres. “You kill me for living my life,” she sang. “As much as I can, as black as I am.”

By 1982, AIDS and Reaganomics were striking down Jones’ core audience, and the freedoms of the previous decade shifted to contractions. MTV arrived, and the New Wave dance sounds it championed—sonic stepchildren of Jones including Eurythmics, Culture Club, and Duran Duran—launched a second English invasion on the charts. Jones’ singular appearance and meticulously crafted presentation made her a natural fit for the burgeoning music video medium, especially in its early, experimental days.

She asserted herself as an astute visual artist with her 1982 VHS release, A One Man Show. Directed by Goude and nominated in ’84 for the first Best Long Form Music Video Grammy, it combined still photography, concert footage, and video clips to distill the pair’s simultaneously sensational and intimate collaborations into a heated, unbroken montage. Jones donned pointedly geometric designs that accentuated her angles while clad in screaming Pop-Art colors that flashed and flattered. Goude’s art direction came alive through Jones, who glared at the camera as if possessed; she was imposing, alien, almighty—it’s not surprising that she would soon be stealing scenes in films like Conan the Destroyer and A View to a Kill.

What came after One Man and the Compass Point trilogy would have to top them, which is precisely what “Slave to the Rhythm” did. Bruce Woolley, co-writer of the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star”, wrote the song on spec for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but helped to re-draft it for Jones. Producer Trevor Horn was brought in, and a nine-month studio odyssey ensued, allegedly costing Island $385,000—a fortune for a singer who had never scaled the U.S. pop charts. (The exorbitant single was offset by padding its accompanying album with eight different versions of the track in attempt to break even.)

“I remember a huge amount of experimentation with early digital techniques—the Synclavier, Sony digital tape spliced with sticky tape, and the Fairlight,” Woolley recalls. “We recorded a new version every four weeks, with Horn and Blackwell in search of the perfect track.” Between her acting roles, Jones returned to the studio month after month to update her vocals on the latest arrangements. “Slave to the Rhythm” was finally released in October 1985, and one would be hard-pressed to argue that all the laborious studio work and astronomical expenditures weren’t justified: Horn’s production work was ornate and opulent, lurid and symphonic. The spell cast by a larger-than-life black woman singing both metaphorically and directly about slavery was profound; the lyrics coaxed infinite interpretations. The Face—England’s authority on all things hip—declared “Slave” the single of 1985, and Jones appeared on the magazine’s January ’86 cover painted in whiteface. From the pure gloss of its ambition to the obsessiveness of its lyric, “Slave” is the ’80s.

Her ultimate hit in much of the world, “Slave” underscored how Jones’ incandescence and charisma made her bigger than her sales figures might indicate. MTV virtually ignored the track’s Goude-directed video; even when framed by Horn’s familiar transatlantic brilliance, Jones was, for them, still too black, too strong. Nevertheless, she got over elsewhere on the sheer magnitude of her presence. With the help of Hollywood and some crazy commercials for Citroën, Honda Scooters, and Sun Country Wine Coolers, she became more massive than ever.

“I like conflicts,” she told Playboy in 1985. “I love competition. I like discovering things for myself. It’s a childlike characteristic, actually. But that gives you a certain amount of power, and people are intimidated by that.” 

By the following year, with Goude and Blackwell out of the picture, Jones wanted more involvement in her debut album for EMI subsidiary Manhattan Records, 1986’s Inside Story. Taking EMI A&R head Bruce Garfield’s direction to “imagine a leaf being blown through the streets of New York, twisting and turning in the sunshine” as a starting point, Jones and Woolley wrote every song together, then joined multi-platinum Svengali Nile Rodgers in New York to transform their demos. This mutually flattering union yielded her last R&B radio victory, “I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect for You)”. Indicting white-collar criminals and Hollywood liars, Inside Story revealed the singer’s observant, socially conscious side, while the jagged arrangements meshed Rodgers’ ricocheting, jazz-schooled guitar with Woolley’s smart pop. It is a singer/songwriter record you can dance to.

She followed it with 1989’s Bulletproof Heart, which yielded one resplendent club triumph, “Love on Top of Love”, courtesy of David Cole & Robert Clivillés, a house remix/production duo who later scored with C+C Music Factory. Jones co-wrote and co-produced most of the album with her new husband, Chris Stanley, whose output fell far below her avant standards; the two soon divorced. Having tried harder, thought broader, and crossed more boundaries than most of her contemporaries, this dance-floor renegade closed out the decade boxed in and coasting.

By the late ’80s, I had moved to San Francisco; AIDS was decimating the gay community. One night in 1993, I finally got my chance to see Jones perform at a local gay nightclub and took my friend Brian, whose partner Mark was too sick to join us. Jones’ lived up to her reputation for diva behavior and didn’t take the stage until well after midnight. At first she stuck to her hits, including that year’s house excursion “Sex Drive”. But it soon became apparent that she didn’t need the spectacular filigree of her Goude years. The special effect was her smile: It just wouldn’t stop, and soon it became contagious. She didn’t back away from the elephant in the room: She dedicated one song to artist and AIDS casualty Keith Haring, who had used her body for a canvas on the occasion of her legendary 1985 Paradise Garage performance.

That night’s show was remarkable for the simple fact that Jones just kept on going, granting one encore request after another, waiting patiently while the sound man scoured backing tapes to find the fans’ offbeat choices. When Jones got to such minor numbers as “Crush”, it became clear that she didn’t want to leave. She was giving as much of herself as she could to the beleaguered troops, knowing full well that many wouldn’t live long enough to see her again. A few months after that show, I inherited Mark’s cherished copy of Goude and Jones’ art book Jungle Fever after he and Brian died within weeks of each other. 

Jones’ lust for life that night represented not just resilience to repression, but also a way of fighting back that sent a message: We, who are thought less than, shall burn brighter than our oppressors. That was why she was so beloved—because she led the way, even when we couldn’t proceed. Along with the lesbians and lucky survivors who nursed our fallen, Jones had borne witness to what Reagan, Bush, and most of the country willfully ignored; she knew the toll of it all. 

Throughout the ’90s, rumors of new albums surfaced; Blackwell recorded several sessions, so did Tricky. Even Moulton buried the hatchet for a 1997 house remake of Candi Staton’s “Victim”, but Island nixed its release on conceptual grounds: They thought Grace Jones couldn’t be a victim of anything.

In 2008, Jones unexpectedly reemerged with Hurricane, her first record in 19 years. She brought back Woolley and the Compass Point All-Stars while adding contributors like Emmy-winning composers Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, who worked with her for a month in their home on the the gospel-shaded canticle “Williams’ Blood”. “Prince has a presence and everybody in the room goes, ‘Whoa,’” Melvoin attests from first-hand knowledge—she and Coleman were key members of his Purple Rain–era backing band, the Revolution. “When Grace walks into the room, it’s more subtle, but it has the same effect. You just go, ‘My God, she’s taken up all of the space with that personality.’”

Hurricane mirrored that kaleidoscope. Unlike commonplace pop and rock luminaries who took extended vacations, Jones came back more polished and unpredictable than ever. With her trenchant track “Corporate Cannibal”, she even protested capitalist dehumanization by embodying it via grinding, insidious metal. But while her image as a constantly morphing, couture-clad hellion persists, the 67-year-old iconoclast stays true to herself. After all these years and so many disciples, there’s still no one like her. 

While gathering up my Grace Jones memories, I was reminded of what Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon once said about entertainers. This was 25 years ago, so my memory may have altered her words, but it went something like this: We pay to bask in the confidence of our most beloved performers so that we may learn to similarly love ourselves. Grace did that for me, for her audience, for anyone who has ever been too queer, too black, too female, or too freaky for the world around them. Grace Jones is liberation.

As a companion to Barry Walters’ Grace Jones piece, various Pitchfork contributors highlight some of the artist’s finest moments in music, film, and talk-show badassery:

The “Russell Harty” Incident 

In 1981, Grace Jones pummelled British talk show host Russell Harty on his own BBC show. Harty always sat among the guests on his early evening gabfest, and on this particular night he chose to focus his attention on the men to his right, leaving Jones, seated alone to his left, out of much of the conversation. The scene plays out with a frustrated Jones admonishing Harty: “If you turn your back to me one more minute.” Harty dismisses her, wagging a finger before turning away. Jones then clips him on the neck and lands one, two, three more hits in quick succession before slapping him on the head. The confused audience applauds—was this planned? Is this funny? Is it art?

This was my introduction to Grace Jones: elegantly beating the hell out of a man who won't take her seriously, her black body and everything it knows asserting itself for the good of fed up women everywhere. —Sara Bivigou

“Use Me”

Grace Jones’ version of Bill Withers’ “Use Me” is exactly what a cover song should be: It honors the strengths of the original while restructuring it, truly taking possession of it as if it were her own work. While Withers’ original is full of human pain and love, Jones’ version–produced by Sly and Robbie for Nightclubbing–turns on one robotic heel into S&M, all sex, all strength. The distinctly American, organic funk of the original is refashioned as electro-Caribbean minimalism, letting Jones’ voice be as powerful as Withers’. When issued from Jones’ lips, “use me up” becomes a challenge: a love song for power bottoms everywhere. —Jes Sklonik

Vamp 

Grace Jones fascinated me at a young age (seeing her as a kid while watching Conan the Destroyer with my dad both scared and excited me), but I didn’t become obsessed with her until seeing the movie Vamp at a sleepover in 1986. In the film, Jones plays Queen Katrina, a wicked vampiress running a strip club somewhere in Kansas (naturally). She makes her first on-screen appearance nude, save for a red bob wig and full body paint, doing a seductive dance that is as bizarre as it is weirdly erotic. At the time I didn’t really know much about her music (I was 11 years old and lived on a farm) nor could I appreciate that her body paint and the chair upon which she writhes were done by Keith Haring. The film is glorious ‘80s trash of the highest order, but Jones manages to transform the whole thing into high art by virtue of simply being there and, even though she’s playing the undead, sort of just being herself—beautiful, artful, exotic, and frighteningly wild. —T. Cole Rachel

“Breakdown”

Everyone from Suzi Quatro to the Replacements have covered Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1976 slowburner “Breakdown”, but Grace Jones’ take is the version most worth discussing. Given a sauntering, reggae reconstruction, Jones’ rendering is shaded by a subtle gradation of vocal inflections that give the song a searing potency: She is sturdy and commanding one second and mournful the next, the song’s titular collapse filtered through a distinctly Jonesian lens of fortifying self-sufficiency. Even Petty recognized that quality about Jones, writing a killer kiss-off of a third verse to cap her interpretation: “It’s OK if you must go/ I’ll understand if you don’t/ You say goodbye right now/ I’ll still survive somehow/ Why should we let this drag on?” In Jones’ more-than-capable hands, a bluesy classic is transformed into a clarion call, summoning strength from the depths of its vulnerability. —Eric Torres

“Warm Leatherette”

Grace Jones' cover of the Normal's “Warm Leatherette” is one of her more bizarre interpretations. The original song, based on J.G. Ballard’s dystopian novel Crash, was a cold proto-industrial track riffing on the flattening of human affect due to post-modern technology. In Jones' hands, the song becomes a sassy tribute to the pleasures of ultraviolence, queering the original text from a self-serious and mega-ironic love poem into a campy exploration of black female sexual identity. By subverting the tropes of white, male, anglo sci-fi, Jones turned the Ballardian porno-nightmare into a celebration of perversion via the intersection of technology and sexuality. —Eric Shorey

“Pull Up to the Bumper”

Grace Jones pioneered the way for Shamir, Stromae, and countless other dance mavericks of today—not just with her bewitching candor but through her use of androgynous innuendo. “Pull Up to the Bumper” was initially banned in the United States for suggestive lyrics—“Pull up to my bumper baby/ In your long black limousine”—that were revolutionary because they were smart, risky, and intriguingly gender inclusive, just like Jones herself. By combining Studio 54’s pulsing drums and chic new-wave licks with the kaleidoscope of Andy Warhol’s playhouse (Jones was a regular in both scenes), “Bumper” became a crucial track for American dance music while pushing boundaries of raw sexuality. —Molly Beauchemin

[ulkaralakbarova]

A group of American soldiers stationed in Iraq at the end of the Gulf War find a map they believe will take them to a huge cache of stolen Kuwaiti gold hidden near their base, and they embark on a secret mission that’s destined to change everything. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Archie Gates: George Clooney Troy Barlow: Mark Wahlberg Chief Elgin: Ice Cube Conrad Vig: Spike Jonze Amir Abdullah: Cliff Curtis Adriana Cruz: Nora Dunn Walter Wogaman: Jamie Kennedy Captain Said: Saïd Taghmaoui Colonel Horn: Mykelti Williamson Captain Van Meter: Holt McCallany Cathy Daitch: Judy Greer Teebaux: Christopher Lohr Paco: Jon Sklaroff Debbie Barlow, Troy’s Wife: Liz Stauber Amir’s Wife: Marsha Horan Amir’s Daughter: Alia Shawkat Hairdressing Twin #2: Ghanem Algarawi Hairdressing Twin #1: Jabir Algarawi Western Dressed Village Woman: Bonnie Afsary Traditional Village Woman: Jacqueline Abi-Ad Deserter Leader: Fadil Al-Badri Kaied: Qaid Al-Nomani Iraqi Tank Major: Sayed Badreya Iraqi Troop Carrier Major: Magdi Rashwan Iraqi First Kill Soldier: Ali Afshar Berm Soldier / Truck Driver: Tank Jones Berm Soldier: Patrick O’Neal Jones Berm Soldier: Shawn Pilot Berm Soldier: Brett Bassett Cuts Troy’s Cuff Soldier: Jim Gaffigan Camp Soldier / Truck Driver: Al Whiting Camp Soldier / Truck Driver: Brian Patterson Camp Soldier: Scott Dillon Camp Soldier: Kwesi Okai Hazel Camp Soldier: Joseph Romanov Camp Soldier: Christopher B. Duncan Camp Soldier: Randy W. McCoy Camp Soldier: Mark Rhodes Camp Soldier: Scott Pearce Civil Affairs Company Clerk: Gary Parker Saudi Translator: Haidar Alatowa Iraqi Soldier with Map: Salah Salea Dead Iraqi Soldier: Doug Jones Iraqi Civilian Mother with Baby: Farinaz Farrokh Lying Iraqi – Bunker #1: Omar ‘Freefly’ Alhegelan Friendly Iraqi – Bunker #1: Hassan Allawati Pleading Civilian Woman: Sara Aziz Iraqi Civilian Man: A. Halim Mostafa Storeroom Captain – Bunker #2: Al Mustafa Iraqi Interrogation Sergeant: Anthony Batarse Iraqi Rifle Loader #1 – Bunker #2: Mohamad Al-Jalahma Iraqi Rifle Loader #2 – Bunker #2: Mohammed Sharafi Storeroom Guard – Bunker #2: Hillel Michael Shamam Iraqi Radio Operator: Joey Naber Black Robe Leader: Basim Ridha Iraqi Republican Guard Lieutenant – Oasis Bunker: Peter Macdissi Iraqi Republican Guard Sergeant – Oasis Bunker: Tony Shawkat Iraqi Republican Guard Sergeant – Oasis Bunker: Joseph Abi-Ad Troy’s Interrogation Guard – Oasis Bunker: Fahd Al-Ujaimy Troy’s Interrogation Guard – Oasis Bunker: Derick Qaqish Troy’s Republican Guard – Oasis Bunker: Hassan Bach-Agha Troy’s Republican Guard – Oasis Bunker: Fadi Sitto Deserter #1: Ali Alkindi Deserter #2: Abdullah Al-Dawalem Deserter #3: Rick Mendoza Republican Guard on Roof – Oasis Bunker: Jassim Al-Khazraji Fleeing Republican Guard – Oasis Bunker: Haider Alkindi Fleeing Republican Guard – Oasis Bunker: Kalid Mustafa Fleeing Republican Guard – Oasis Bunker: Ghazwyn Ramlawi Fleeing Republican Guard – Oasis Bunker: Raad Thomasian Fleeing Republican Guard – Oasis Bunker: Wessam Saleh Fleeing Republican Guard / Sniper – Oasis Bunker: Jay Giannone Fleeing Republican Guard / Sniper – Oasis Bunker: Sam Hassan Action Star: Brian Bosworth Iraqi Child: Donte Delila Iraqi Child: Dylan Brown Helicopter Pilot (uncredited): Rick Shuster Film Crew: Screenplay: David O. Russell Executive Producer: Bruce Berman Producer: Charles Roven Director of Photography: Newton Thomas Sigel Original Music Composer: Carter Burwell Production Design: Catherine Hardwicke Editor: Robert K. Lambert Set Decoration: Gene Serdena Costume Design: Kym Barrett Costume Supervisor: Bob Morgan Producer: Edward McDonnell Art Direction: Jann K. Engel Art Direction: Derek R. Hill Casting: Mary Vernieu Producer: Paul Junger Witt Casting: Anne McCarthy Makeup Artist: Adam Brandy Construction Coordinator: Lars Petersen Steadicam Operator: Larry McConkey Dialogue Editor: Donald L. Warner Jr. Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Michael Herbick Makeup Artist: Donald Mowat Chief Lighting Technician: Terry Hall Key Grip: David L. Me...