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[crecire01]

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

How a billionaire’s mediocre pump-and-dump “book” became a “bestseller”

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/15/your-new-first-name/#that-dagger-tho

I was on a book tour the day my editor called me and told me, "From now on, your middle name is 'Cory.'"

"That's weird. Why?"

"Because from now on, your first name is 'New York Times Bestselling Author.'"

That was how I found out I'd hit the NYT list for the first time. It was a huge moment – just as it has been each subsequent time it's happened. First, because of how it warmed my little ego, but second, and more importantly, because of how it affected my book and all the books afterwards.

Once your book is a Times bestseller, every bookseller in America orders enough copies to fill a front-facing display on a new release shelf or a stack on a bestseller table. They order more copies of your backlist. Foreign rights buyers at Frankfurt crowd around your international agents to bid on your book. Movie studios come calling. It's a huge deal.

My books became Times bestsellers the old-fashioned way: people bought and read them and told their friends, who bought and read them. Booksellers who enjoyed them wrote "shelf-talkers" – short reviews – and displayed them alongside the book.

That "From now on your first name is 'New York Times Bestselling Author' gag is a tradition. When @wilwheaton's memoir Still Just A Geek hit the Times list, I texted the joke to him and he texted back to say @jscalzi had already sent him the same joke (and of course, Scalzi and I have the same editor, Patrick Nielsen Hayden):

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/still-just-a-geek-wil-wheaton

But not everyone earns that first name the same way. Some people cheat.

Famously, the Church of Scientology was caught buying truckloads of L Ron Hubbard books (published by Scientology's own publishing arm) from booksellers, returning them to their warehouse, then shipping them back to the booksellers when they re-ordered the sold out titles. The tip-off came when booksellers opened cases of books and found that they already bore the store's own price-stickers:

https://www.latimes.com/local/la-scientology062890-story.html

The reason Scientology was willing to go to such great lengths wasn't merely that readers used "NYT Bestseller* to choose which books to buy. Far more important was the signal that this sent to the entire book trade, from reviewers to librarians to booksellers, who made important decisions about how many copies of the books to stock, whether to display them spine- or face out, and whether to return unsold stock or leave it on the shelf.

Publishers go to great lengths to send these messages to the trade: sending out fancy advance review copies in elaborate packaging, taking out ads in the trade magazines, featuring titles in their catalogs and sending their sales-force out to impress the publisher's enthusiasm on their accounts.

Even the advance can be a way to signal the trade: when a publisher announces that it just acquired a book for an eyebrow-raising sum, it's not trumpeting the size of its capital reserves – it's telling the trade that this book is a Big Deal that they should pay attention to.

(Of all the signals, this one may be the weakest, even if it's the most expensive for publishers to send. Take the $1.25m advance that Rupert Murdoch's Harpercollins paid to Sarah Palin for her unreadable memoir, Going Rogue. As with so many of the outsized sums Murdoch's press and papers pay to right wing politicians, the figure didn't represent a bet on the commercial prospects of the book – which tanked – but rather, a legal way to launder massive cash transfers from the far-right billionaire to a generation of politicians who now owe him some rather expensive favors.)

All of which brings me to the New York Times bestselling book Read Write Own by the billionaire VC New York Times Bestselling Author Chris Dixon. Dixon is a partner at A16Z, the venture capitalists who pumped billions into failed, scammy, cryptocurrency companies that tricked normies into converting their perfectly cromulent "fiat" money into shitcoins, allowing the investors to turn a massive profit and exit before the companies collapsed or imploded.

Read Write Own (subtitle: "Building the Next Era of the Internet") is a monumentally unconvincing hymn to the blockchain. As Molly White writes in her scathing review, the book is full of undisclosed conflicts of interest, with Dixon touting companies he has a direct personal stake in:

https://www.citationneeded.news/review-read-write-own-by-chris-dixon/

But this book's defects go beyond this kind of sleazy pump-and-dump behavior. It's also just bad. The arguments it makes for the blockchain as a way of escaping the problems of an enshittified, monopolized internet are bad arguments. White dissects each of these arguments very skillfully, and I urge you to read her review for a full list, but I'll reproduce one here to give you a taste:

After three chapters in which Dixon provides a (rather revisionistd) history of the web to date, explains the mechanics of blockchains, and goes over the types of things one might theoretically be able to do with a blockchain, we are left with "Part Four: Here and Now", then the final "Part Five: What's Next". The name of Part Four suggests that he will perhaps lay out a list of blockchain projects that are currently successfully solving real problems.

This may be why Part Four is precisely four and a half pages long. And rather than name any successful projects, Dixon instead spends his few pages excoriating the "casino" projects that he says have given crypto a bad rap,e prompting regulatory scrutiny that is making "ethical entrepreneurs … afraid to build products" in the United States.f

As White says, this is just not a good book. It doesn't contain anything to excite people who are already blockchain-poisoned crypto cultists – and it also lacks anything that will convince normies who never let Matt Damon or Spike Lee convince them to trade dollars for magic beans. It's one of those books that manages to be both paper and a paperweight.

And yet…it's a New York Times Bestseller. How did this come to pass? Here's a hint: remember how the Scientologists got L Ron Hubbard 20 consecutive #1 Bestsellers?

As Jordan Pearson writes for Motherboard, Read Write Own earned its place on the Times list because of a series of massive bulk orders from firms linked to A16Z and Dixon, which ordered between dozens and thousands of copies and gave them away to employees or just randos on Twitter:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7emkx/chris-dixon-a16z-read-write-own-nyt-bestseller

The Times recognizes this in a backhanded way, by marking Read Write Own on the list with a "dagger" (†) that indicates the shenanigans (the same dagger appeared alongside the listing for Donald Trump Jr's Triggered after the RNC spent a metric scientologyload of money – $100k – buying up cases of it):

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/books/donald-trump-jr-triggered-sales.html

There's a case for the Times not automatically ignoring bulk orders. Since 2020, I've run Kickstarters where I've pre-sold my books on behalf of my publisher, working with bookstores like Book Soup and wholesalers like Porchlight Books to backers when they go on sale. I signed and personalized 500+ books at Vroman's yesterday for backers who pre-ordered my next novel, The Bezzle:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/53531243480/

But there's a world of difference between pre-orders that hundreds or thousands of readers place that are aggregated into a single bulk order, and books that are bought by CEOs to give away to people who may not have any interest in them. For the book trade – librarians, reviewers, booksellers – the former indicates broad interest that justifies their attention. The latter just tells you that a handful of deep-pocketed manipulators want you to think there's broad interest.

I'm certain that Dixon – like me – feels a bit of pride at having "earned" a new first name. But Dixon – like me – gets something far more tangible than a bit of egoboo out of making the Times list. For me, a place on the Times list is a way to get booksellers and librarians excited about sharing my book with readers.

For Dixon, the stakes are much higher. Remember that cryptocurrency is a faith-based initiative whose mechanism is: "convince normies that shitcoins will be worth more tomorrow than they are today, and then trade them the shitcoins that cost you nothing to create for dollars that they worked hard to earn."

In other words, crypto is a bezzle, defined by John Kenneth Galbraith as "The magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it."

So long as shitcoins haven't fallen to zero, the bag-holders who've traded their "fiat" for funny money can live in the bezzle, convinced that their "investments" will recover and turn a profit. More importantly, keeping the bezzle alive preserves the possibility of luring in more normies who can infuse the system with fresh dollars to use as convincers that keep the bag-holders to keep holding that bag, rather than bailing and precipitating the zeroing out of the whole scam.

The relatively small sums that Dixon and his affiliated plutocrats spent to flood your podcasts with ads for this pointless 300-page Ponzi ad are a bargain, as are the sums they spent buying up cases of the book to give away or just stash in a storeroom. If only a few hundred retirees are convinced to convert their savings to crypto, the resulting flush of cash will make the line go up, allowing whales like Dixon and A16Z to cash out, or make more leveraged bets, or both. Crypto is a system with very few good trades, but spending chump change to earn a spot on the Times list (dagger or no) is a no-brainer.

After all, the kinds of people who buy crypto are, famously, the kinds of people who think books are stupid ("I would never read a book" -S Bankman-Fried):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/29/sam-bankman-fried-reading-effective-altruism/

There's precious little likelihood that anyone will be convinced to go long on crypto thanks to the words in this book. But the Times list has enough prestige to lure more suckers into the casino: "I'm not going to read this thing, but if it's on the list, that means other people must have read it and think it's convincing."

We are living through a golden age of scams, and crypto, which has elevated caveat emptor to a moral virtue ("not your wallet, not your coins"), is a scammer's paradise. Stein's Law tells us that "anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop," but the purpose of a bezzle isn't to keep the scam going forever – just until the scammer can cash out and blow town. The longer the bezzle goes on for, the richer the scammer gets.

Not for nothing, my next novel – which comes out on Feb 20 – is called The Bezzle. It stars Marty Hench, my hard-driving, two-fisted, high-tech forensic accountant, who finds himself unwinding a whole menagerie of scams, from a hamburger-based Ponzi scheme to rampant music royalty theft to a vast prison-tech scam that uses prisoners as the ultimate captive audience:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

Patrick Nielsen Hayden – the same editor who gave me my new first name – once told me that "publishing is the act of connecting a text with an audience." Everything a publisher does – editing, printing, warehousing, distributing – can be separated from publishing. The thing a publisher does that makes them a publisher – not a printer or a warehouser or an editing shop – is connecting books and audiences.

Seen in this light, publishing is a subset of the hard problem of advertising, religion, politics and every other endeavor that consists in part of convincing people to try out a new idea:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/04/self-publishing/

This may be the golden age of scams, but it's the dark age of publishing. Consolidation in distribution has gutted the power of the sales force to convince booksellers to stock books that the publisher believes in. Consolidation in publishing – especially Amazon, which is both a publisher and the largest retailer in the country – has stacked the deck against books looking for readers and vice-versa (Goodreads, a service founded for that purpose, is now just another tentacle on the Amazon shoggoth). The rapid enshittification of social media has clobbered the one semi-reliable channel publicists and authors had to reach readers directly.

I wrote nine books during lockdown (I write as displacement activity for anxiety) which has given me a chance to see publishing in the way that few authors can: through a sequence of rapid engagements with the system as a whole, as I publish between one and three books per year for multiple, consecutive years. From that vantagepoint, I can tell you that it's grim and getting grimmer. The slots that books that connected with readers once occupied are now increasingly occupied by the equivalent of the botshit that fills the first eight screens of your Google search results: book-shaped objects that have gamed their way to the top of the list.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/03/botshit-generative-ai-imminent-threat-democracy

I don't know what to do about this, but I have one piece of advice: if you read a book you love, tell other people about it. Tell them face-to-face. In your groupchat. On social media. Even on Goodreads. Every book is a lottery ticket, but the bezzlers are buying their tickets by the case: every time you tell someone about a book you loved (and even better, why you loved it), you buy a writer another ticket.

Meanwhile, I've got to go get ready for my book tour. I'm coming to LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Phoenix, Portland, Providence, Boston, New York City, Toronto, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Chicago, Buffalo, as well as Torino and Tartu (details soon!).

If you want to get a taste of The Bezzle, here's an excerpt:

https://www.torforgeblog.com/2023/11/20/excerpt-reveal-the-bezzle-by-cory-doctorow/

And here's the audiobook, read by New York Times Bestselling Author Wil Wheaton:

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_459/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_459_-_The_Bezzle_Read_By_Wil_Wheaton.mp3

[ratlordsarah]

more word girl HCs bc this blog is going dry 💀

miss question, lady redundant woman, and Leslie have girls nights out, but they always end up where they wake up crawling out of a dumpster, wake up in a Forrest completely barefoot in 60 degree F weather swarmed by deer, makes it back to one of the three’s places, all of them drunk-crying about how much they love a dog they saw earlier, wake up with a new stray dog as a pet, or some other form of ominous nuanced way to end the night out. (You will have the time of your life)

Two brains def goes on long car rides during the summer as the sun sets, blasting 80s songs down the highway, and makes it back some time in the middle of the night (bro absolutely lives for that, he sings along with more passion than a passion fruit or something)

the girlie trio mentioned earlier, all 3 of them are abba girlies, no one can change my mind.

sometimes, the girl trio and two brains will do a mix of their activities, and they ride around and two brains is doing drifts all over the city while all 4 of them are singing whatta man by salt n pepa, at the top of their lungs

Charlie and meatloaf love doing anything involved with a disco party (they are 70s babies for life)

the show starts in august of 1999 and ends in February 2002

Toby sings along to all the Eminem songs, but can’t rap so it sounds more like a mumble

(Partly canon) miss question and Brent later get married and has a kid who is a very curious sandwich

chuck has the pack man maze burnt into his screen from playing it so much

Seymour and granny may are either half siblings, or cousins. (I gotta make them related, their chemistry would be absolutely legendary)

Seymour is OLDDD (at least in his 60s)

two brains knows how to speak mouse and because of this, he basically has the basement of his warehouse (or attic) dedicated to the rats and mice of fair city. (A majority of his friends are mice, he will hang out with some of them and genuinely forget they aren’t human)

due to the amount of trials two brains goes through each time he’s arrested, and sally botsford being the district attorney, two brains and sally actually become really good friends

two brains is actually really good at becoming genuine friends with people’s moms, it’s insane.

Timmy Tim Bo later makes a band where he’s a backup singer/ guitarist, and can do a little drums too.

Hal hardbargain and big left hand guy are both functional alcoholics

beau handsome’s parents are French, and is a victim of child acting.

lady redundant woman becomes a crazy cat lady, and adopts like 30 cats

(A lot of people I’ve seen has this hc, no idea where it originated from, but here we go) amazo guy’s name is Adam, and he definitely had a pet golden retriever

on the topic of that, I like to think he also is from lexicon, and he’s wordgirl’s biological father or uncle, and Steven’s original friendship with word girl was asked from amazo guy to try and get closer to his daughter/neice, but they all basically became the bestest of friends (and wordgirl looked up to both amazo and Steven very much)

I also feel like amazo (or Adam ) genuinely loves fighting crime, and basically is like Superman in fair city

fair city is either located in New Jersey or California

Steven’s sister is named Marcy, and his niece is named Maggie (called mags tho)

squeaky was genetically modified and his brain was basically originally fused with a psycho’s brain where it’s basically a human thinking mouse with mouse like tendencies, before Steven bought him, which is why he was on sale (for negative 200$)

The butcher would be girl dad of the year

when Steven is really angry (once in a life time) he does the Italian 🤌 thing, and he grew up in Brooklyn NY

due to him growing up in New York, two brains was certainly most pissed when 9/11 happened out of the villains

chuck grew up in Boston before his family moved to fair city about 7 years prior to the show

idk if I have previously said any of these in an earlier post, so sorry if I have lmao 💀

[meloncholy-words]

Robin: A Word That Means Run (Chapter 1: Nightwing)

Nightwing hasn't been Robin in years. He still remembers what that name means in a situation like this.

A/N: I'm not going to apologize for any inaccuracies in lore and characterization. If canon can fuck off and do whatever they please than I can too. I'll try staying as close to what I know as canon as possible but also I do what I want lmao.

~~~

Chapter Warnings: Explosions, minor gun violence(no one gets shot but there are guns), canon typical violence(nothing graphic/explicit! it's just there), swearing, Scarecrow's fear toxin (though the effects of it happen off screen), mentions of past violence, mentions of injury(stitches, concussion, etc.). No permanent injury or death occurs! Let me know if I should add more warnings!

AO3 | Chapter List

The case was simple: Scarecrow was shipping out vials of fear toxin to buyers from other cities. There were five buyers; one from New York City, Washington DC, Brooklyn, Metropolis, and Blüdhaven. All that they had to do was intercept the sales, arrest the buyers, and run tests on the toxin to check if it was a new strain. It usually wasn't, but it never hurt to check. If it was, that would mean that Scarecrow was planning something big.

The issue was that all sales were happening on the same night, and all in different parts of Gotham, with not enough vigilantes to handle all of them.

Red Hood was investigating a new business of dealers near his territory, trying to gauge how much of a threat they were so he could take them out. They were experienced, and growing fast; if he didn't nip it as fast as he could, it might grow out of control and start becoming an issue.

Spoiler and Black Bat had had a recent run in with Killer Croc, and were both benched due to injuries. Steph had a sprained ankle, and many stitches all along her arms and back. Cass had a dislocated shoulder and concussion, as well as many stitches along her legs and torso. Both were lucky to have not gotten worse.

Signal, despite insisting that he should go, was out of commission. He'd already worked well into the night shifts the previous three nights due to several kidnapping situations that happened too close together to not be connected, but ended up just being very coincidental. That, plus his need to keep his grades up, had him pretty sleep deprived. While not usually an issue, a fourth night out later than he should've been would've only made it worse, and fear toxin with sleep deprivation was one of their absolutely nots.

That left only Batman, Robin, Red Robin, and Nightwing to deal with busting the sales. Four vigilantes to deal with five sales in five separate locations within the city. No problem, could be done very easily.

Nightwing had gotten the sale in Fashion District. The information that Oracle had been able to dig up lead him to an alley behind a two-story boutique. An unusual meeting place, but better than some abandoned warehouse. That was just becoming cliche at this point.

He was perched on a rooftop above, blending into the dark, clouded sky. It wasn't as efficient as the shadows, but he had been yet to be spotted. A car was already waiting, three guys twiddling their feet as they waited. The buyers, undoubtedly. Nightwing sat studying them from above.

Their car was a black SUV, covered in family stickers. Likely to be more inconspicuous, but could've been from one of their moms. Criminals were just like that sometimes. Two of the men were obviously well built, their frames on the bulky side. The third wasn't quite so built, but he seemed relaxed as they leaned back against the metal frame of the car, so he wasn't just some lackey dragged along. Likely a getaway driver, maybe the leader of this operation.

After around 15 minutes of sitting around, a van pulled up to the entrance of the alley. The driver stayed inside, while the the passenger and a few men from the back hopped out. The gimmicks of their outfits told Nightwing that they were Scarecrow's men. One of them was carrying a briefcase, which he identified as the goods.

The three guys snapped to alert, the leaner man taking charge. That clued into him being the leader. They met each other half way, a conversation springing from hushed voices. Nightwing strained to hear what they were saying, but that wasn't the important thing. What he needed to do was stop the sale from happening.

He monitored the men for a bit longer, listening to them speak. They were haggling, probably. If they sale went through, than he would need to apprehend all of them. If it didn't, he'd only need to deal with Scarecrow's men. The others would be their own cities problem.

"My sale fell through," came Red Robin's voice crackling through the comm in his ear. "Moving in now."

Below him, the leader gestured back toward the car. One of the bulky men moved towards it, opening the back and pulling out a small duffel bag. He handed the bag over, and Nightwing shifted to get a better look at the bag that was being opened.

Yep, that was cash.

"My sale is going through," Nightwing said into his mic, hushed. "Moving in."

Before the trade off could happen, Nightwing slipped off the ledge of the roof quietly. He angled himself slightly, making sure that when he landed it was on the lean man's shoulders, sending him shooting down to the ground under the weight. The man under him grunted as he hit the ground, letting out a wheeze. He wasn't unconscious, but he made no move to get up. Probably due to the pain of being slammed into an alley's concrete floor from roughly 180 pounds from above.

"Gentlemen," he chirped in greeting, electrifying the ends of his escrima sticks before flipping of the man under him towards the other two. The men reached towards their waistbands, likely reaching for a gun, but it mattered little when the electricity pressed hard above their collarbones. They spasmed, muscles stiffening under the shock, before collapsing as he pulled back.

Scarecrow's men gasped, followed by shouts and the sounds of feet scuttling away. Nightwing grabbed the lean man's collar, tossing him towards the other two. He dropped a bead in between them that exploded, wrapping cord around their limbs and tying them together.

"I'll be back for you!~" he called in a sing song voice, spinning around to watch the henchmen loading into the van. He pulled one of his sticks up, letting the hidden grapple inside of it shoot into the side of the building. The van roared to life, and Nightwing used the momentum of his lines tension to propel forward, landing on the roof as the wheels screeched against the road.

"Sale went through, moving in," came Robin, and from the sounds of exertion coating his voice, he was a little late on that callout.

The van wiggled underneath Nightwing's grip, trying to shake him off. Nightwing acquiesced, his hands gripping the edge of the top as he forced his legs down and through the windows of the back doors.

Several more shouts filled the air, and Nightwing was quick to silence them. He was also careful to not shatter the fear toxin that had been dropped on the floor in the struggle. The passenger in the front whipped around, and Nightwing was distantly aware of the glint of metal pointing towards him, but he snapped the wrist pointing the gun at him before he even recognized it as a gun.

The henchmen yelped in pain, and then did it again when his head was slammed into the dashboard. Nightwing hopped over the seats, landing on top of the unconscious body, his feet resting in the lap of the driver. In his hands, a stick came to life with more electricity.

"You gonna pull over?" he asked, smile in his voice as he waved the shocked-up end at the other. The henchmen let out a small whimper, leaning away from the weapon. Nightwing almost felt bad for him as he screeched off to the side, obeying.

When all of the henchmen were tied up, and Nightwing had doubled back to make sure the almost-buyers hadn't managed to escape, he notified the police before sitting back on a roof, basking in his victory.

"All involved are apprehended and waiting for police custody, and the toxin has been secured," Nightwing said, stretching out from where he was sat. The men didn't put up much of a fight, but the few blows the did land would probably bruise in the morning. Probably. This was a surprisingly easy run. "Reports?"

"Scarecrow's men are being tied up now," Red Robin replied, his voice soft after the fight. "Toxin secured"

"All involved apprehended," came Batman, who hadn't given the status earlier, the asshole. "Toxin secured."

"You never notified us you were moving in," Nightwing said helpfully. Not that it mattered too much; he was Batman, he'd be fine. "I'll start moving into the last sale now. Send me the location, O." Then, after a beat, "Robin, status?"

There was a brief stutter of silence. Nightwing hardly noticed it as he crossed from building to building, careful not to break anything. Hardly.

"Robin?"

"All involved apprehended," came the shaky voice of Robin. Uh oh, not good. "Toxin secured, one... one vial broken."

Shit.

"Try staying calm, I'll head your way," Nightwing said, spinning on his heel to where Robin handled his sale in the Narrows. It was on the opposite side of Gotham, but he'd be damned if he didn't do anything to-

"Actually," cut in Oracle's voice, "You should get over to Diamond for that last sale. You're the closest, and if all other sales are finished by now, that one might be close to done, or already finished. Red's the closest to Robin, he can go."

Red gave an affirming hum into his mic. "On my way, hang tight Robin. ETA like... 12 minutes."

Robin didn't respond, which made Dick's heart stop, but he turned back to his original path. His family was reliable, and they'd be fine. Stopping this sale was important, and he wasn't even close enough to object.

"I'll go with Nightwing," Batman said, voice gruff and focused as usual. "If they're wrapping up, and he gets there too late, I can keep speed with the batmobile."

"Acknowledged," Nightwing acknowledged as he soared over the gaps between buildings. "ETA 5 minutes."

Those five minutes were rather silent, only filled with his heavy breathing and grunts and he hopped and rolled around and off the rooftops. The vials in the briefcase he had pressed against his ribs clanked together ominously, but there was not breaking glass yet. He hoped there wouldn't be.

This time, the place of sale was some old, rundown warehouse. Nightwing gently set down the briefcase on the roof, dropping through a shattered skylight and moving like a spider in the rafters. There was arguing below him, loud and... not quite angry. No, it was frustrated, and building up to anger.

"I'm just saying, that seems like a high price to pay for something we don't even know works." The accent suggested Blüdhaven. Good, these were his own criminals then. He could handle that just fine.

Nightwing slipped around the rafters a little more until he had a clear view of everyone. He took a quick headcount. Five of Scarecrow's men, and he thought he saw another van outside, so probably more in total. Seven men stood before them, and Nightwing thought he recognized them from a gang who caused a lot of problems for him. It was hard to tell in the dark. This warehouse was so run down that there wasn't even any lighting in here.

"Twelve counted inside, likely more spotted outside," he said into his mic, his voice kept low and even as the men continued to argue. "The outcome of this is probably gonna be a big fight, so have your rebreather on just in case."

Nightwing slipped his own rebreather over his mouth, fastening it tight behind his head.

"Understood. I'm pulling up now."

The arguing below softened, and Nightwing was struggling to hear what was being said again. He did notice the exchange of bags, though.

"Good, the sale just went through. You're just in time."

Once more, Nightwing dropped from the sky like a missile. This time, he focused on the henchmen, as the gang men had the fear toxin. He had to be careful to not break them open. Even if he had his rebreather on, fear toxin wasn't fun to deal with.

These henchmen put up a bit more of a fight. Not good enough, of course. The metal pipe to the back of his head was, though.

Four of the five of Scarecrow's men were down, and what knocked him off his feet was a metal pipe. Damn. He tucked and rolled with the blow, bouncing up on his hands and knocking the weapon away with a kick. He was back on his feet, escrima sticks in both hands and poised to fight when a shadow descended upon the others.

The fighting only increased with a new player in the ring, but it was easier this time. Batman wrestled the briefcase of vials out of the gang's hands, tossing it on the floor behind him and out of the crossfire. The final henchmen had been forgotten in favor of the others. By the time another four men were down, Nightwing had realized that it was a mistake.

A click of metal made Nightwing whip around, arms raised and ready to either take or deal some serious blows. What he saw, instead, was a grenade mid air, heading fast towards him. It bounced off the ground, nestling against the briefcases handle.

Nightwing's muscles tensed, crouching low and fast, the hold on his weapons loosening. He needed to grab the briefcase. If the toxin blew, everyone without a rebreather would be affected. Dealing with a large number of criminals was hard; dealing with a large number of criminals who were terrified out of their minds and fighting like caged animals was hell.

His eyes flicked over to the grenade, and he hesitated. That wasn't good. You never hesitated on the field like this. But he knew those grenades. Most had plenty of seconds of fuse in them, for optimal range. If a grenade blew up too quickly after it was thrown, you'd get caught in the crossfire. But these ones, the one that had been thrown his way and was nestled against too many vials of fear toxin, was very short fused. The best way to take out a bat was to surprise them. That was very hard to do.

Using a weapon with no guarantee of survivability for the user was a good way to do it.

Nightwing wouldn't have time to move, not anymore. Maybe if he'd jumped at first, he could've gotten far enough away. But he was crouched down low, leaning toward the thing rigged to explode in at most two seconds, one hand reaching forward. His mind processed, vaguely, that he should run. Maybe he could run still, maybe, but would his body catch up to his thought process? Probably not. It hadn't even registered he was in danger yet.

Shit. He was going to die, huh? Or at the very least get badly injured. He was going to maybe die because he was too slow to recognize danger and his body was even slower to respond to his mind's commands and-

"Robin!"

His body moved before his mind caught up this time. He didn't know why. He hadn't been Robin in, what, 8 years? 9? But he new that name. He new that tone. He'd heard them both countless times over the years. And when they were paired together like this, when his veins were full of adrenaline and his stomach felt like a pit of ice, it meant run.

So he did. His legs pushed up, and his hips turned so fast he might've gotten whiplash, and his arms reached out until they found something firm and dark and safe. There was the flutter of a cape, and then there were strong arms around him, grabbing so tightly that the skin and bone underneath them ached.

There was an explosion. He didn't feel it. He could hear the sound of it, the gunpowder igniting and swelling into a cloud of fire. He could hear shouts and shrieks around him, groans and yells and maybe something breaking. He could feel his side grinding against something he recognized as the floor, but it felt distant.

He could feel his face pressed into a chest, coated in a thick material that had repelled knives, bullets, and wandering hands and fingers that traced the bat design on it after he had saved someone that he would gag about later in the back of the batmobile because he was too small to ride shotgun.

The floor under him stopped moving, and the screams had cut off. He peaked an eye open, looking up at the roof of the warehouse. There was a face there, with a chiseled jaw and scars that were small enough they could only be seen up close. There was black material that only covered the top half of that face. Above them was a thick substance in the air. Fear toxin, he registered after a few moments.

Slowly, the two bodies pulled apart. A hand was under his arm, guiding him up to stand. A survey of the area showed no deaths. Everyone unprotected had at least been far enough to only have been blown back. No missing limbs, no cuts, no burns. Just a few bruises.

"Are you guys okay?" Oracle asked, a hint of panic in her voice. "Cameras showed a bright light go off inside, and your vitals are off."

"All good, Oracle," said Batman, still surveying the scene. "There was a little explosion. No one seems seriously injured. Everyone else is unconscious, though, and there's toxin in the air." He didn't mention calling for his Robin.

"Good news about that!" Red Robin chimed. "It's not a new strain, which means we have antidotes on standby. Also, Robin's doing alright."

"Hn, good. We'll tie up loose ends here and head out. See you at the cave."

There was a round of sign-offs, and the two in the warehouse began rounding up the unconscious thugs. Toxin seeped out of the skylight above. The henchman that threw the grenade was nowhere to be seen, likely having fled during the chaos.

"I left my case of toxin up on the roof," Nightwing said when everyone had been restrained. He didn't mention the name either.

Batman let out a hum of acknowledgment. "I'll be waiting for you in the batmobile to head back to the cave." The flutter of a cape - one that had protected him - let him know that his dad was gone.

Nightwing climbed his way up to the roof once more, slow and deliberate. His body ached a bit more, now that he'd taken more hits and had been thrown across the floor. Being thrown by an explosion wasn't fun, 0/10, would not do it again.

Despite that, there was a smile plastered on his face.

Dick kinda liked being Robin again.

[beautifullache]

🦄The Sims 4🦄

👠Shoe Career👢

💕EARLY RELEASE 7.12.2024💕

Journeys

PTO 3 days off

Journeys is a teen retail leader with an emphasis on footwear and unique specialty items including apparel, backpacks, hats and accessories. With more than 800 stores in all 50 US states, Puerto Rico and Canada, Journeys offers the most popular brands that cater to the teen lifestyle such as Converse, Vans, Dr Martens, UGG, Adidas, Timberland, Birkenstock, Crocs and Hey Dude. Through strategic artistic partnerships, event sponsorships, exclusive content, creative collaborations with musicians, and a focus on giving back to the community through charitable events and volunteer programs— Journeys has become more than just a retailer, but a universal part of teen and youth culture. The in-store Journeys experience features an energetic environment, friendly, passionate staff, and an inclusive atmosphere where self-expression is not just accepted – but encouraged and embraced. Journeys is an attitude you can wear.

Sales Associate

Sales Lead

Assistant Store Manager

Store Manager

District Manager in Training

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

Hibbett Sports

PTO 3 days off

Hibbett, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a leading athletic-inspired fashion retailer with nearly 1,100 Hibbett and City Gear specialty stores, located in 35 states nationwide. Hibbett has a rich history of serving customers for more than 75 years with convenient locations, superior personalized customer service and access to coveted footwear, apparel and accessories from top brands like Nike, Jordan, and adidas. Consumers can browse styles, find new releases, shop looks and make purchases through our best-in-class omni-channel platform. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @hibbettsports and @citygear. At Hibbett I City Gear, we make it easy for you to have an edge up on the competition when it comes to your style. Whether it’s the brands we keep on our shelves or the people who work in our stores, we are here to help you reach your next level of play. You’ll get the latest products first and exclusive items that are harder to find. If you want to put your game in the right hands, you’ve come to the right place at Hibbett I City Gear. With names like Nike, Jordan, Adidas, The North Face, and Costa, we bring fashion and footwear together for you and your game. Whether you’re shopping for yourself or the whole team, at Hibbett I City Gear we have you covered from toe to head.

Sales Associate

Store Ops Projects Specialist

District Sales Manager

Manager in Training

Senior Internal Audit Analyst

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

Foot Locker

PTO 3 days off

Foot Locker, Inc. leads the celebration of sneaker and youth culture around the globe through a portfolio of brands including Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, atmos, and WSS. With approximately 2,700 retail stores in 29 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, as well as websites and mobile apps, the Company's purpose is to inspire and empower youth culture around the world, by fueling a shared passion for self-expression and creating unrivaled experiences at the heart of the global sneaker community. Foot Locker, Inc. has its corporate headquarters in New York. At Foot Locker, Inc., our purpose is to inspire and empower youth culture through our family of brands by fueling a shared passion for self-expression and creating unrivaled experiences at the heart of the sport and sneaker communities.

Cashier

Sales Associate

Stock Associate

Warehouse Housekeeper

Sales Lead

Equipment Operator

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

Finish Line

PTO 3 days off

Finish Line is an American retail chain that sells athletic shoes and related apparel and accessories. The company operates 660 stores in 47 states, mostly in enclosed shopping malls, as well as Finish Line-branded athletic shoe departments in more than 450 Macy's stores.

Associate

Stock Associate

Store Management

In-Store Merchandiser

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

Champs Sports

PTO 3 days off

Champs Sports is one of the largest, athletic sports-specialty retailers in North America. We bring to the table an arsenal of the finest, freshest athletic apparel, footwear and accessories you’ll find anywhere. We believe that through our brands and our knowledgeable sales associates, we can claim the high ground as the authority on Game, and we’re here to help you up your own personal Game.

Cashier

Sales Associate

Sales Lead/Key Holder

Assistant Manager

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

DOWNLOAD NOW

[fuckyeswednesday13]

Good Mourning Wednesday‼️

Excited to announce the WEDNESDAY 13-

“There’s No Such Things As Monsters North American 2025 Tour” with special guests:

@stitchedupheart

@deadrabbitsens,

I Ya Toya

Artist presale begins Wednesday November 6 with passcode “W13”, and general sale starts Friday, November 8 at 10:00 AM EDT-VIPs on sale through the Venues. Get a VIP and tix-Not available:Los Angeles -Las Vegas

03/14/25: Las Vegas, NV @ Count’s Vamp’d

03/15/25: Los Angeles, CA @ The Whisky

03/16/25: Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone

03/18/25: Portland, OR @ Bossanova Ballroom

03/19/25: Seattle, WA @ El Corazon

03/21/25: Roseville, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post

03/22/25: Pomona, CA @ Glass House

03/23/25: San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick

03/25/25: Mesa, AZ @ The Nile Theater

03/26/25: Albuquerque, NM @ Launch Pad

03/28/25: San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger

03/29/25: Dallas, TX @ Trees

03/30/25: Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live

04/01/25: Birmingham, AL @ Saturn

04/02/25: Knoxville, TN @ Open Chord

04/04/25: Atlanta, GA @ The Loft @ Centerstage

04/05/25: Raleigh, NC @ Chapel Of Bones

04/06/25: Greenville, SC @ Radio Room

04/08/25: Baltimore, MD @ Zen West

04/09/25: Leesburg, VA @ Tally Ho

04/10/25: Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom

04/12/25: Hampton Beach, NH @ Wallys

04/13/25: Montreal, QC @ Foufounes Electrique

04/15/25: Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace

04/16/25: Buffalo, NY @ Rec Room

04/18/25: New York, NY @ The Gramercy

04/19/25: Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman Theater

04/20/25: Lititz, PA @ Mickey’s Black Box

04/22/25: Pittsburgh, PA @ Crafthouse

04/23/25: Cleveland, OH @ Mercury

04/25/25: Columbus, OH @ The Kings Of Clubs

04/26/25: Flint, MI @ Machine Shop

04/27/25: Cadillac, MI @ Venue Event Center

04/29/25: Joliet, IL @ The Forge

04/30/25: Madison, WI @ The Annex

05/02/25: Denver, CO @ Oriental Theater

05/03/25: Colorado Springs, CO @ Black Sheep

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Sir Vival, the two-piece safety Hudson

Sir Vival, Walter Jerome's Hudson-based concept for the ultimate safety car, last moved under its own power sometime around when he showed the car at the New York World's Fair in 1964 or 1965. Since then, it's been split apart, reassembled, shuffled all over eastern Massachusetts, and remained hidden more or less in plain sight, but nobody's made an attempt to get it running again. That'll change now that longtime owner Ed Moore of Bellingham Auto Sales has sold Sir Vival to Jeff Lane of the Lane Motor Museum.

"It'll be the perfect fit," Lane said. "I've been pestering him about it for a while."

Moore, as we reported in November, has decided to close the doors at Bellingham, which he considers the last active Hudson dealership in the world, and has been either selling off his inventory of cars and parts or transferring portions of his lifelong collection to his house nearby.

In 1958, Worcester-based Walter Jerome decided it was about time somebody built a car designed primarily for safety and not for looks or speed. Rapidly increasing numbers of highway deaths - especially in the postwar period - led many to call for greater automotive safety as early as 1947, but the response from Detroit was tepid at best throughout the Fifties. Ford made a few gestures at improving automotive safety, including funding a study on safety cars at Cornell, but it largely fell to independents and individuals to build cars with safety features designed into the vehicle.

Jerome decided to start with a step-down Hudson - which he bought from Bellingham - and split it into two sections "to anticipate the possibility of collision from any angle." Similar to Bela Barenyi's idea for the crumple zone, Jerome intended the front section, mounted via a hinge to the rear section, to absorb a collision rather than deflect one, noting that the rigidity of typical cars was what led to injuries and deaths in collisions. To each of the two sections, Jerome added steel bumpers that acted, in his words, like a second frame, and rubber bumpers around the steel designed to redirect all but direct collisions. Yes, he built a full-size bumper car.

He didn't stop there. The driver controlled the car from a turret-mounted central driver's seat surrounded by a "full circle" windshield for greater visibility. (According to Jerome's literature, the windshield itself rotated past stationary windshield wipers as part of Jerome's quest for maximum driver visibility.) The exterior is fitted with high-visibility marker and signal lamps; the parallelogram doors are designed not to pop open in a crash; and the interior features seat belts, padding, and even a rollbar.

"It is all too obvious that Detroit has no plans to come up with anything really new," Jerome wrote. "Their 1964 cars are already on the drawing boards and spring from the same rigid frames. I hold that human life is important, far more important than Detroit's worry about the cost of retooling to produce an automobile which will save human lives. Adoption of the flexible Sir Vival design would make rigid vehicles obsolete and create a new market, almost immediately, for 65 million vehicles."

Moore and his family assisted Jerome over the years with Sir Vival, including one episode Moore recalls in which he went to Worcester to retrieve the vehicle from the fourth floor of a warehouse, where Jerome had stored it in two pieces, so it could be reassembled and transported to Jerome's house on Cape Cod. After Jerome's death in the early 1970s, the Moores took possession of Sir Vival and brought it back to Bellingham. While Moore had hoped Sir Vival would have gone to Eldon Hostetler's Hudson museum, it turned out fortuitous that he didn't donate it to Hostetler, given that the museum was closed and liquidated in 2018. Sir Vival has thus primarily sat in its pride of place in Bellingham Auto Sales's garage ever since.

"It needs gone right through," Moore said. "It's not really something I want to take home and just let it sit there. Jeff, he's the guy who'd really appreciate it. He'll build it and do it right."

Lane said he's only seen Sir Vival once in person, when he spent an entire day up at Bellingham Auto Parts four or five years ago. "I recall it as not terrible, but also not in great condition," he said. "It's not like it's been outside for 40 years, rusting away." While he won't have a more definitive plan about what to do with Sir Vival until he picks it up later this month, he said he wants to go through it mechanically without restoring the entire car, if possible.

"I'd say the closest it comes to any other vehicle in the (Lane Motor Museum's) collection is the Dymaxion," Lane said. "It's a really interesting story but it's really been pretty much hidden away from the general public."

Moore, for his part, said he'll continue selling Hudsons from his home garage even after the Bellingham Auto Sales property becomes a warehouse. "I still have my new and used car licenses," he said. "I know I can't keep them all, but I've tried."

UPDATE (6.January 2023): The Lane has started restoration on Sir Vival, according to a Facebook post from the museum. "Sir Vival has been separated into two pieces, and the automotive archaeology begins!"

[hometoursandotherstuff]

The 1909 Canal Greenwich Condominium building is the former Tetley Tea Company Warehouse. (I wonder if it still smells of tea.) It's now divided into 8 condos in the Greenwich Village area of New York City and one unit is for sale. It has 2bds, 3ba, & is $4.4M + an absurd $2,556mo. HOA fee.

This is a 1st fl. unit, so these are the the big frosted windows we saw out front. I wonder if those security doors are functional.

Not only is this place gigantic, but it has 3 levels. What I like about it is that it's very old industrial chic. Look at the ceilings.

Look at the original factory floor. Gee, that's a lot of floor to clean.

Just look at the size of this place. It gets so cold in NYC in the winter (I live 20 min. away, so I know) how in the world can you even heat this place, let alone afford to?

I would suppose that if you didn't have all those bulbs on the ceiling, it would be very dark. I don't see many lamps, but lights must have to be on all day.

Look at how far back the dining room is. I would need a speaker system to call people to meals.

The kitchen is very cool. Love the exposed brick. The stainless steel appliances are very hi-end. I wonder if the island is even included, b/c it's on wheels.

There's a powder room and an original door. Look at the tiny sink- wash one hand at a time.

The primary bedroom & bath are in a loft and I'm disappointed that there are no walls, just curtains. A curtain separates the bedroom from a sitting area.

There's a nice exposed brick wall up here.

The bathroom has some high tub. Even the step is high.

The 2nd bedroom is in the basement. Not so sure I like that.

The en-suite bathroom. I wonder if there's a light in that shower, it looks a little dark.

It has an electric sauna. As much as I love industrial lofts, I would pass on this one. (Not that I could buy it, anyway.)

[mariacallous]

Love it or hate it, you have to admit Temu had a banger year. Launched in late 2022, the Chinese-owned ecommerce site, known for selling a vast array of astonishingly affordable goods, took only two years to become a household name in the US. Over the past 12 months, it has topped download charts, surpassing other viral apps like ChatGPT and Threads, and now operates in dozens of countries around the world. Even its biggest rival, Amazon, recently introduced a Temu clone called Amazon Haul that closely resembles the original, both in terms of its logistics supply chain and user interface.

Temu is projected to earn more than $50 billion in total sales this year, according to analysts from AB Bernstein and Tech Buzz China, potentially tripling its 2023 figure. Temu’s website now gets nearly 700 million visits worldwide every month, and Apple recently revealed it was the most downloaded app of 2024 on iPhones in the US.

Temu has now fully replaced Wish, an earlier bargain online shopping site, in the cultural lexicon as the signifier of knockoffs or budget-friendly alternatives. The winner of the recent Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in New York City, for example, calls himself “Temu-thée Chalamet.” Tens of millions of ordinary people have tried out the app, many of whom learned about it through one of Temu’s seemingly unavoidable and relentless advertising campaigns. At this point, your grandma is probably obsessed with Temu, too.

“My friends and family members who didn't know what it was in 2023 do now,” says Moira Weigel, an assistant professor at Harvard University who studies transnational online marketplaces. “Random relatives who know that I study China or ecommerce will say, ‘Oh, you must know all about Temu,’ in a way that didn’t happen a year ago.”

Weigel says that Temu has done a few things right, including identifying the correct suppliers in China, targeting appropriate customer segments, and finding an inexpensive way to ship products from one to the other. That allowed the shopping platform to defy early analyst predictions that it would quickly burn through its cash reserves and flame out.

Temu, which is owned by PDD, one of the biggest ecommerce giants in China, is moving and pivoting at a speed that its Western counterparts can’t really grasp, says Juozas Kaziukėnas, founder of the ecommerce intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse. “When you look at a company like Temu, it's going a thousand miles an hour,” he says.

Kaziukėnas believes the most important thing Temu did this year was quickly switch its focus away from shipping small packages through air cargo and start building local inventory supply chains in the US and other countries. “This year, it started with 100 percent of goods coming from China; now in the US, 50 percent of them are coming from local warehouses. For Western marketplaces, these types of changes would have taken years,” Kaziukėnas says.

Still, Temu does not have a shortage of looming challenges. In the US, the Biden administration is eager to dismantle a tariff exemption rule that critics say unfairly benefits Temu before it leaves the White House. In Europe, Temu is under formal investigation for allegedly selling illegal products and getting users addicted to its app. The company is also often criticized around the world for its negative environmental impact, labor practices, and alleged misuse of user data, including allegations from researchers in the US that the app poses a national security risk.

Whether Temu can overcome these hurdles will depend on how fast the company can adjust its supply chain and pivot away from the most troublesome aspects of how it operates—before regulators take action. “What Temu was, is, and what Temu will be in the future are perhaps different things,” Kaziukėnas says.

From $1 Deals to Dupes

Temu made its name by promoting dirt-cheap deals that are often too good to believe, like $5 purses and $2 wireless headphones. It spent millions promoting the tagline “shop like a billionaire” in a series of Super Bowl advertisements, and that’s indeed what the app used to feel like: Identical or very similar products cost only a fraction of what they did on Amazon or Walmart, and it was hard to resist the temptation of adding a dozen more things to your shopping cart when they each were less than $1.

Temu managed to pull it off because it exploited a few areas of untapped potential, says Weigel. On the buyer side, it targeted price-conscious shoppers living in a time of high inflation. On the seller side, it scouted out Chinese factories that needed to keep their production lines running, but had no idea how to enter overseas markets. To connect them, Temu figured out it could take advantage of the so-called de minimis rule to send items affordably through air cargo directly to customers’ doorsteps. The provision allows people to send packages to the US duty-free as long as the goods inside are worth less than $800.

Because this business model is based on shipping everything from China and doesn’t require much local inventory, it’s very easy to replicate in different markets. As of December 2024, Temu’s website shows that it’s available in 86 countries, while Amazon, having been in business for three decades, operates in only 22. “In recent history, like the past 10 to 15 years, the first place people were interested in selling is the US and Europe, because they're large markets, prices can be higher, and so on,” says Weigel, who traveled to China this year to interview vendors selling on Amazon and Temu. “Now, there is increasing interest among these small-to-medium-size Chinese businesses in expanding in Africa, Southeast Asia, and also Central Asia … Multiple people talk to me about how young and rapidly growing the population in Africa is.”

But that doesn’t mean Temu is totally different from Amazon. In fact, the company has begun borrowing a number of tactics from the US ecommerce giant. In March, Temu reportedly started working with local warehousing companies in the US and allowing vendors on the platform to store their own US inventory instead of shipping directly from China. This is essentially what Amazon has been doing for years with its Chinese-based marketplace sellers, a strategy that allows it to deliver orders in as little as a single day. And now, these locally shipped products account for nearly half of Temu’s sales in the US, according to The Information.

What this means is that many of the products Temu sells are no longer exempt from American import duties, significantly reducing the price advantage that Temu used to have. But the strategy allows Temu to ship physically larger items to US warehouses through ocean freight before putting them up for sale, and then, the products can be delivered faster to customers, who previously often needed to wait a week or more for their packages to arrive.

That is why consumers are increasingly buying things like couches or other furniture on Temu, and also why sometimes prices on the site end up not being much lower than on Amazon or other online retailers. “I think it's pretty clear that Temu is becoming a more expensive offering,” says Kaziukėnas. “I talked to someone at Temu months ago, and they said that they're repositioning Temu from cheap to affordable.”

Higher prices can help recoup some of the financial losses that Temu incurred in its earlier days when it was primarily focused on expansion, but it could also create an identity crisis for the platform. If it doesn’t have shocking $1 deals, then what does Temu really stand for? How can it compete with Amazon and Walmart when the other two are often perceived as more reliable, both in terms of shipping speed and product quality? “I think that’s a problem for Temu already, that it doesn't really have a strong brand to consumers,” Kaziukėnas says.

Lingerings Risks—and Rewards

The days might be numbered for the de minimis exemption. The White House announced in September that it would crack down on “abuse” of the provision, citing a sleuth of reasons ranging from intellectual property violations to fentanyl smuggling. It’s not clear yet how exactly the regulation might change—lawmakers may get rid of it completely or lower the price threshold—but a fix could be finalized before president-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.

If it happens soon, the change will no doubt make it harder for Temu to remain competitive, but it’s not going to eliminate it from the field. So much of the conversation in Washington this year has revolved around restricting de minimis to contain Temu, Kaziukėnas says, but the platform has already taken significant steps to reduce its dependence on it. Its ability to ship under de minimis and handle everything from inventory to pricing used to be the main selling points Temu used to lure Chinese suppliers, but now, it’s doing a 180 to address the risks—and the strategy seems to be working. “The regulators are still only now trying to figure out what to do. And by the time they have figured out what they actually need to do, these retailers will be something different,” Kaziukėnas says, referring to Temu and competitors like Shein that rely on de minimis.

Of course, there are other risks that the company needs to address. What TikTok is going through right now—the app could be blocked in the US as soon as next month—should serve as a cautionary tale for Temu, as the latter is already receiving similar scrutiny from lawmakers over its Chinese ownership and data protection practices.

The possibility of being blocked in the US is real for Temu, but Weigel points out that there’s less of a political urgency to act on an ecommerce platform than a social media one that has elicited concerns about things like artificial intelligence and disinformation. “​​While there is a bipartisan consensus that people are concerned with the implications of China's tech rise, the incentives to police Temu are lower than TikTok,” she says. The Chinese ecommerce vendors she has spoken to don’t seem very concerned either. “These people are very nimble and flexible. My sense was that it was a thing people were curious about, but not something they were afraid about,” Weigel says.

After all, Temu’s aggressive expansion into other markets gives them plenty of alternative places to find customers if things get really ugly between the US and China. On a recent trip to Shenzhen, Weigel says she met a woman who heads a cross-border ecommerce industry association. One of the first things she told Weigel: “We don’t necessarily make the American and the European markets our top priority.”

[wumblr]

have you guys ever tried to sell things? commerce nation every weekend my neighbor sets up the most involved racks of clothes and tent canopy yardsale i've never seen anyone attend and on every corner there are popup mountain of junk sales everything must go and it's like who even buys a lawnmower from the empty lot across from the perpetual mixed use five above one condo construction down the street from the bridge that's been closed all year? how are they even getting any foot traffic in that location location location? i don't know

take a box of books to half price but they open an hour late on weekends for some reason so you buy a coffee but the drive thru's full and you need (ground) coffee anyway so in you go and there goes $20. the pickled garlic at menards has in fact been on your grocery list for over a month and aldi is right there so now you've got half-frozen raw chicken too, and while-u-wait you check the one shelf that houses the $6 books you sold last time and at this point you don't even remember what all of them were but they've got 5 priced for $53, a "whopping" $15 for the youtuber who turned into a transphobe, probably by virtue of unfortunate research practices in order to pick up her video production turnaround, because it was hardcover, and $9 for the second book in paperback by the new york times bestselling harvard professor who went out of style because all her theories turned out to be undetectable at experimental regimes

and despite the capital outlay required to buy community college textbooks at the outset, they're able to make you an offer of a "whopping" $2, apologizing for it while they say it out loud, because it was obviously the wrong place to sell textbooks and you knew that. and resignedly you're like well it is an everything must go sale but i know i can do better for this one and you pull out kroenke database processing 14th edition even though it's realistically less useful than mcconnell code complete, because you found the receipt when you unshelved it and it was $200. not a price you paid because it was a certification -- to which you're considering setting fire -- that was paid by a federal program

and it's like what are we even really doing here. commerce nation but unless you have the capital outlay to establish a network of bricks and mortars, where you can just ship books in between each, anytime anyone at your convenience in the commerce nation asks for one of them (they've got brazilian portuguese in mississippi), you're not going to get a fair price for resale without patience and possibly a warehouse lease. deck stacked against the consumer at every turn, buck sure does stop here by which i mean the end user is buried in a mountain of junk they can't resell. anyway they had lauryn hill so i think all told it cost me $53 to get $2 back. but it's fine. i paid credit

[thelensofyashunews]

Cochise announces headlining WHY ALWAYS ME? World Tour kicking off in February

Fresh off the release of his fourth studio album WHY ALWAYS ME?, Florida rap star Cochise has just announced his forthcoming headlining World Tour – kicking off in February, 2025. Presale tickets will be on sale starting at 12:00pm EST on 11/20 (PW: WHYALWAYSME), while general on sale tickets go live starting at 10:00am Local Time on 11/22 (ticket link here). Taking Houston rapper TisaKorean on the road with him as an opener, Cochise will be embarking throughout North America during the tour's first leg, ending in his home-state of Florida on 3/30, before linking up with buzzing UK rapper Len for the majority of the European leg – concluding in Poland on 5/6. The recently-released WHY ALWAYS ME? arrived in October backed by a string of singles that included "GOOGLE ME", “YOSHIMITSU” (40M+ Streams), and the Aminé-assisted "NASTY". Boasting other features from Veeze and Anycia, WHY ALWAYS ME? served as a championship album celebrating a new era for Cochise — marking his first LP since 2022's THE INSPECTION and his appearance on the 2022 XXL Freshman cover. With production from BYNX (Drake, Travis Scott), Supah Mario (Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert), CHASETHEMONEY (J. Cole, Juice WRLD), and Lex Luger (Kanye West, Chief Keef), WHY ALWAYS ME? is a nebula of intergalactic opulence, melting into Cochise's hypnotizing vocals and sky-diving delivery.

Hailing from Palm Bay, Florida, Cochise is known for a kaleidoscopic sound that blends elements of Jamaican dancehall, hip-hop, and trap with animated lyricism punctuated by deep-cut references to anime, sports, and pop culture. Hailed for his high-flying vocal acrobatics and hazy, ethereal production, he exploded onto the scene with his 2021 major label debut Benbow Crescent, which featured the RIAA Certified Gold hit track “Hatchback” (400M Streams). Cochise has since sold out a solo headlining world tour and collaborated with the likes of Lil Yachty, Chief Keef, Denzel Curry, Juicy J, Teezo Touchdown, Lil B, and more.

HEADLINING WHY ALWAYS ME? WORLD TOUR KICKING OFF IN FEBRUARY – TICKETS ON SALE 11/22 TICKETS

ARTIST PRE-SALE ON SALE 11/20 @ 12:00PM EST (PASSWORD: WHYALWAYSME) PRE-SALE

WHY ALWAYS ME? Tour – North America Dates: 02/13 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts 02/14 – New York City, NY – Irving Plaza 02/15 – Washington, DC – Union Stage 02/17 – Boston, MA – The Sinclair 02/19 – Montreal, QC – Le Studio TD 02/20 – Toronto, ON – The Axis Club 02/22 – Detroit, MI – El Club 02/23 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop 02/25 – Columbus, OH – Skully's 02/28 – Chicago, IL – Avondale Music Hall 03/01 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line 03/03 – Denver, CO – Marquis Theater 03/06 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile 03/07 – Portland, OR – Star Theater 03/09 – Sacramento, CA – Harlow's 03/11 – San Fransisco, CA – The Independent 03/13 – Las Vegas, NV – The Beverly Theater 03/14 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent Theater 03/15 – San Diego, CA – SOMA 03/16 – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory 03/18 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom 03/22 – Austin, TX – Mohawk 03/23 – Dallas, TX – Studio at the Factory 03/25 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live Midtown 03/28 – Atlanta, GA – Center Stage 03/29 – Orlando, FL – Beacham 03/30 – St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live

WHY ALWAYS ME? Tour – Europe Dates: 04/19 – Dublin, IE – Green Room 04/20 – Manchester, UK – Club Academy 04/21 – Glasgow, UK – SWG3 Warehouse 04/23 – London, UK – Scala 04/25 – Brussels, BE – Botanique – Grand Salon 04/26 – Paris, FR – Trabendo 04/27 – Cologne, DE – Luxor 04/29 – Zurich, CH – Dynamo 05/02 – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso Tolhuistuin 05/04 – Prague, CZ – Futurum 05/05 – Berlin, DE – Hole44 05/06 – Warsaw, PL – Hydrozagadka

[omegaremix]

May 28, 2022.

The opportunity to attend Sacred Bones’ 15th anniversary presented itself pretty quickly. Tickets were released for sale four weeks before the show and I grabbed them right away. I missed out on both Sacred Bones’ 10th shows because of nine months of stay-at-home recovery and now their 15th was a chance to redeem myself.

The build-up was getting heavier as the show drew closer. I had anxiety like never before waiting to attend a New York City show. The 28th came and it started on a dim, greyscale note. Long Island had a string of wet days with Saturday no exception. Rain arrived at the Central Islip station before I had with no telling when it’d stop - if it did. Halfway from my home station to Woodside did the storm subside to nothing.

By the time I transferred from the 7 line to the Q39 bus had the clouds open up to welcome in the blinding basking sun and matching sweltering humidity. The Q39 raced, whipped, and turned wide all throughout Sunnyside and ultimately Maspeth to drop me off in a dense neighborhood of hazy, white 75*F temperatures. I’m in the middle of an unfamiliar yet dense neighborhood. I walk a few blocks into a suspiciously silent area of shackled-up factories, closed warehouses, and shipping centers closed for the weekend; all by myself not knowing or worrying about any rogues waiting in the wings to start trouble. I drew closer to the new activity of open businesses, moving vehicles, and the pedestrians walking through the gauntlet to the Knockdown Center.

Nothing that I could ever imagine would conjure up a would-be dream-state that would become a magical reality.

I was in New York City (Queens) associated with preferably some of the best people in attendance. Surreal dreams I’ve always had now become a reality. The way showgoers sat outside the Knockout Center felt like I was on another college campus. People sitting on the floor silently observing Constant Smiles play as the rays peeked through during sundown. A hypnotized crowd witnessing Anika and Spellling’s mesmerizing performances. A super-colorful closing set by Black Marble, and a sit-down lecture about time - at a music festival? Whether Sacred Bones gamed it themselves or by sheer coincidence, this event had some unusual moments that made for a truly unforgettable experience.

The next day’s opening shift was in the back of my mind; more apparent as midnight approached. Regrettably, I leave the Knockdown Center a little earlier than desired and hitched a ride to Woodmere’s train home and guarantee six hours of sleep. I’m stunned. Bedazzled. My mind is processing the last five hours of what just happened. I’m organizing and interpreting the swirl of feelings, the sights, the colors, the sounds, the crowd, and the happenstance of everything that unfolded as I wait for the rail’s arrival. I take a seat facing direction to the Jamaica stop where I had only one minute to race and take the double-decker train’s upper-lever seat for the rest of the way home.

Spring is over. Summer has officially started.

Offset, The: Spectacles: “Colour”

Smile, The: “You Will…”

Aeges: “Who Are You”

Black Dresses: “Angel Hair”

Iguana Moonlight: “V”

Antonio Sanchez feat. Nine Inch Nails: “I Think We’re Past That Now”

Better Living: “Kid”

Ritualz: “Reintegration”

Feels Fine: “Washed Out Blue”

Doc Hammer: “Commanche”

Kaputt!: “Highlight!”

Grimes: “Shimigami Eyes”

Muslimgauze: “Qom” (edit)

Jade Hairpins: “Mary Magazine”

Totally Unicorn: “Filmed Before A Dead Audience”

Dead When I Found Her: “Dry Bed”

Beauty Pill: “At A Loss”

Savak: No Blues…”

Kaputt!: “Parsonage Square”

JK Flesh: “Urge”

Luca: “Undertow…”

Pink Siifu: “Wayans Brothers”

Alchemist: “Broken Bottles”

Henry Mancini: “Men’s Room Rock”

Principe Valiente: …

Smirk: “Irrelevant Man”

A Number Of Names: “Sharevari”

Daniel Johnston: “In A Lifetime”

100 Proof: Aged In Soul…

Kaputt!: “Accordion”

Kae Tempest: “Salt…”

[annikavelde]

{.751.}

.:ANATOMY:. Head: LeLutka - Ceylon Body: Ebody - Reborn Hair: Yomi - Amaris *NEW* @ SABBATH Bangs: Foxy - Storm Bangs Tongue: The Deadboy - Morus Tongue Lip Piercings: Yomi - Dahlia Piercings *NEW* @ The Warehouse Sale

.:CLOTHING:. Glasses: SEKA - Double Cross Shade past RARE Collar: Random Matter - Xen Collar Chains: Random Matter - Zakei Choke Chain Outfit: RENIE - Blair Crop Top & Bodysuit *NEW* @ Equal10 Garters: Minuit - Cameron Harness *NEW* @ SABBATH Stockings: Aloe - Essential Stockings Beer: Flaks - Black Cat Beer

.:SCENE:. Background: PALETO - New York Pose: SAPA - 257 *NEW* @ The Warehouse Sale

[ausetkmt]

Eternal Soul

On the heels of her best-selling debut, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, fifteen-year-old Aaliyah was rocked by a sex scandal that would have crushed a lesser talent. But breaking ties with her label and former producer and paramour R. Kelly afforded the teenage singer to create a new musical life for herself. She joined forces with production/songwriting duo Timbaland and Missy Elliott, who crafted a set of funky and futuristic soul tracks that took audiences and stale R&B radio by storm. Aaliyah showed strength and resilience—and effortless cool—and went on to garner multiplatinum sales, becoming a huge star. But her comeback was short-lived. At twenty-two, just as she released her third album and started an acting career, Aaliyah lost her life in a plane crash. However, icons never die, and her musical legacy endures.

published online Wednesday, December 9, 2020 Originally published in Issue 59, Summer 2014 By Michael A. Gonzales

It was the last weekend before Labor Day 2001, and the sidewalks of New York City were brimming with Saturday-night folks looking for fun. While a decade before the Meatpacking District was literally just that—with refrigerated trucks parked in front of dingy warehouses and the cobblestone streets sticky with animal blood—by the new millennium, those same blocks had transformed into a chic section of town overflowing with boutiques, restaurants, and clubs blasting the songs of summer that included P. Diddy’s Black-rock single “Bad Boy for Life” and Destiny’s Child’s pop-tart anthem “Bootylicious.” 

As I was passing one trendy spot, pop sensation Aaliyah’s latest single, “We Need a Resolution,” blared from the speakers. With a voice that was shy and sexy, the mesmerizing track was the first from her self-titled third album, released a month before. Produced by frequent collaborator Timbaland—whose signature cyberfunk explorations into sound put an electrifying mojo on Black radio in the mid-’90s beginning with Aaliyah’s sophomore album, 1996’s One in a Million—her cool, broken-hearted soprano blended perfectly with the heat generated from his funky, futurist machine dreams. 

Like Rachael, the emotional android in Blade Runner, Aaliyah became a cyborg chanteuse, a digital diva for a new generation of soul children. With the music being stuck in a rut of stylistic nostalgia and neo-soul mania, One in a Million made R&B’s potential feel limitless again, as it pulled listeners into the future. 

Coming a year before Björk’s equally brilliant 1995 album Post, Aaliyah’s debut, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, came from a teenage girl from the D who brought the rhythmic weirdness first. 

In 1995, Aaliyah Dana Haughton met Timbaland when she was sixteen after leaving her first label, Jive Records, amid much controversy of an illicit marriage to her then twenty-seven-year-old producer R. Kelly, who’d written most of the material on Age. Although both sides denied the allegations, a marriage license was later published in Vibe magazine. 

While the “pied piper of R&B”—as Kelly proclaimed himself—had gained much fame since the release of his multiplatinum 12 Play album in late 1993, and was given a pass by the press and his fans, Aaliyah was portrayed as a Lolita seductress. When her picture was shown at the 1995 Soul Train Awards (she wasn’t in attendance), audience members booed. 

Years later, allegations of Kelly’s alleged sexual misconduct continue to overshadow his music, including an infamous golden-shower sex tape, a housekeeper who sued him for sexual harassment, and rumors of millions doled out to settle “dozens” of “harrowing lawsuits” brought by scores of underage girls the musician reportedly sexually abused.

Although Age was a platinum-seller for Jive, the label allowed Aaliyah to be released from her contract. Her management company, Blackground, owned and operated by her mother’s brother, Barry Hankerson, who also managed R. Kelly, signed her with Atlantic Records. At the urging of Atlantic vice-president of A&R Craig Kallman (who in 2014 is the label’s chairman), Tim (aka Timbaland) flew to Aaliyah’s hometown of Detroit, Michigan, with fellow producer, songwriter, arranger, and rapper Missy Elliott.

Initially, Aaliyah’s second album was supposed to be helmed by the jiggy prince of production Puff Daddy (P. Diddy) and his trademarked, sample-heavy touch with the Hitmen team (Chucky Thompson, Deric Angelettie, Ron Lawrence, Stevie J., and others), but it never happened. 

“I went to Puff’s studio in Trinidad for a week,” Aaliyah said in 1996. “We started working together, but we couldn’t finish the songs on time. I had to leave, because I had to go to Atlanta to record with Jermaine Dupri.” 

Setting up shop in Detroit at Vanguard Studios, which was owned and operated by producer/guitarist Michael J. Powell, who’d overseen Aaliyah’s demo material when she was twelve, Tim and Missy went to work. “The first song we recorded was the title track [‘One in a Million’],” Timbaland told me in 1999. “From our first session, I was blown away by how talented she was.” While Missy later claimed that “If Your Girl Only Knew” was the song recorded during their first session, what remains undisputed was the closeness the trio felt during that time. 

The Black noise duo christened the beautiful Brooklyn-born, Detroit-reared singer “Baby Girl,” and they became inseparable. Staying at Vanguard for a week, the three of them later flew, according to Missy Elliot, on “a little, little plane,” to Pyramid Studios in Ithaca, New York, to finish their work. The end results were the six groundbreaking tracks and two interludes from her second disc, One in a Million. 

Legendary engineer Jimmy Douglass (who worked on countless Atlantic R&B classics) connected with them in Ithaca. “Aaliyah was coming off such a big debut,” he says, “so it would’ve been all right for her to be bratty, but she wasn’t. She was such a nice human being. Aaliyah was very quiet, but when she sang, she sounded great. I was impressed.”

In July 1996, a month before One in a Million was released, I interviewed Aaliyah at the Sea Grill, a restaurant at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Having first met her two years before, I realized that Aaliyah was always a sweetheart, yet very guarded. After a sex scandal that might’ve squashed a lesser talent, she was obviously resilient. She answered questions thoroughly but tried not to disclose too much about R. Kelly or the alleged marriage. 

“I faced the adversity,” Aaliyah said. “I could’ve broken down, I could’ve gone and hid in the closet and said, ‘I’m not going to do this anymore.’ But I love singing, and I wasn’t going to let that mess stop me. I got a lot of support from my fans and that inspired me to put that behind me, be a stronger person, and put my all into making One in a Million.” 

Sitting next to her equally beautiful mother, Aaliyah was radiant, coy, and confident as she talked about Tim and Missy’s production skills. “At first, Tim and Missy were skeptical if I would like their work, but I thought it was tight, just ridiculous,” she said. “Their sound was different and unique, and that’s what appealed to me. 

“Before we got together, I talked to them on the phone and told them what I wanted. I said, ‘You guys know I have a street image, but there is a sexiness to it, and I want my songs to complement that’; I told them that before I even met them. Once I said that, I didn’t have to say anything else. Everything they brought me was the bomb.”

Besides Tim and Missy, she also worked with producers Kay Gee (Naughty by Nature), Daryl Simmons (L.A. Reid and Babyface), and Vincent Herbert (Toni Braxton), who laced her dope remake of Marvin Gaye’s classic “Got to Give It Up,” which featured a smooth Slick Rick rap. Aaliyah explained how the remake came about: “I wanted some real party songs, so when my uncle played me that [original track], I thought of how I could make it different. Slick Rick [who’d been in jail] was on work release at the time, so Vincent got him on the song. 

“I don’t know how Marvin Gaye fans will react, but I hope they like it,” she continued. “I always think it’s a great compliment when people remake songs. I hope one day after I’m not here that people will cover my songs.”
Aaliyah’s uncle and manager Barry Hankerson was the person most responsible for making his niece a star. “Barry was bringing Aaliyah to the studio to record when she was twelve years old,” remembers producer and Vanguard owner Michael J. Powell via telephone from his home in Detroit. “At the time, Barry was trying to get Aaliyah a deal with MCA, and he came to me to make her demos.” 

Powell was a Chicago native whose studio, Vanguard, was a place that made sophisticated soul. Best known for the lush retro-nuevo production on Anita Baker’s incredible Rapture album in 1986, Powell has also worked with Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, and Gladys Knight, who was married to Barry Hankerson from 1974 to 1978. “As a producer, Michael is a very patient person with great ears,” says Bill Banfield, composer and professor at the Berklee College of Music. A friend of Powell’s, he has also recorded with him. “Vanguard was the second generation of Motown with a live band, polished arrangements, and Detroit soul.” 

Powell, who is still working in Detroit, recalls working with the singer back before her debut: “That was the time before Aaliyah went to work with R. Kelly, and she sang in a full, powerful voice that was like Whitney Houston’s. We recorded a few covers—‘The Greatest Love of All,’ ‘Over the Rainbow,’ and ‘My Funny Valentine,’ which she had sung on Star Search. She could handle big ballads, and she had great range. I have heard her do things the public have never heard. She was a natural.”

One of Aaliyah’s first professional gigs was singing with her aunt Gladys Knight in Las Vegas. “We performed at Bally’s five nights a week with a little break in between,” Aaliyah said in 1994. “Singer David Peaston [whom Hankerson also managed] opened the show, and then Gladys would bring me out to sing ‘Home’ with her, and then we did ‘Believe in Yourself.’ I loved it; for me, it was like being on tour.” 

In 1996, while Aaliyah cited “One in a Million” as her favorite song, the label chose to release “If Your Girl Only Knew” as the first single. However, having debuted in 1994 with the more traditional soul stylings of R. Kelly writing and producing Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, not everyone was pleased with the singer’s new direction. 

That album broke ground with its experimental tempos and drum programming and hip-hop soul songwriting. Jason King

“Me and Tim were so excited, because this was the first production we were doing outside of DeVante’s camp,” Missy explained. In addition to Jodeci and their famed producer DeVante Swing, the aforementioned camp of young upstarts included Sista (Missy’s rap quartet), Ginuwine, Magoo, Playa, and Tweet. “We were only supposed to do one record, but Craig [Kallman] kept asking us for one more; but, when they played [the singles] ‘If Your Girl Only Knew’ and ‘One in a Million’ for radio programmers, they were afraid to embrace it. They said the beats were too different and it wouldn’t fit in with their playlist. They wanted something that sounded like Puffy.” 

Still, when a few braver souls started playing the record, it just took off. “That album broke ground with its experimental tempos and drum programming and hip-hop soul songwriting,” says Jason King, cultural critic, musician, and the director of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.

By 2001, Aaliyah released a handful of Timbaland-produced, soundtrack-supported singles that pushed the experimental sound even further—including the Grammy-nominated scorchers “Are You That Somebody?” from 1998’s Dr. Dolittle and “Try Again” from her costarring vehicle Romeo Must Die in 2000. As pop critic Kelefa Sanneh wrote in 2001 in the New York Times, “ ‘Try Again’ helped smuggle the innovative techniques of electronic dance music onto the pop charts, establishing Aaliyah as pop’s most futuristic star.”

The lyrics of both songs were penned by former Playa member Static Major, who also wrote “We Need a Resolution.” Like Missy and Timbaland, the songwriter was once a protégé of Jodeci producer DeVante Swing. Engineer Jimmy Douglass, who has worked side by side with Timbaland on every production since the early days, says of the late songwriter, who died in 2008 from myasthenia gravis: “Static was like a brother to Tim, and he knew exactly how to write to Tim’s music. The first record they did together was Ginuwine’s ‘Pony,’ and that led to their [musical] history.

“We recorded ‘Are You That Somebody?’ at Capitol Records’ studio in Los Angeles,” Douglass recalls, “and it was a soup-to-nuts session, which means we did the entire song in one session. Wrote it, tracked it, and mixed it from 11:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m.; the next to last thing we added was the sound of the baby, and the very last time was Tim saying, ‘Dirty South.’ It was a union studio, so they weren’t used to working overnight; we were trying to finish that song as quick as possible.”

Douglass also engineered the “Try Again” sessions, which began with Static writing a song that was inspirational. Recorded in New York City at Sound on Sound Studios, “Try Again,” as Douglass recalls, “was originally written to inspire young people, but Barry [Hankerson] heard it and told them, ‘It’s got to be about love.’ The melody and hook were the same, so Static changed the lyrics and it became a love song.” 

In addition, Aaliyah had begun an acting career that was taking off. Cast in the Joel Silver–produced kung-fu crime flick Romeo Must Die as well as the Anne Rice vampire thriller Queen of the Damned and the Matrix sequels, Aaliyah hadn’t released a full-length album in the five years. “I wanted to take a break after One in a Million to just relax, think about how I wanted to approach the next album,” she told journalist Elon Johnson that April. “Then, when I was ready to start back up, Romeo happened, and so I had to take another break and do that film and then do the soundtrack, then promote it. The break turned into a longer break than I anticipated.”

Back in the Meatpacking District that August night in 2001, I gathered with friends at the then-popular club APT where DJ Chairman Mao spun old-school hip-hop and soul as high-heeled girls sipped crimson-colored cosmopolitans. 

Two hours later, a strange vibe could be felt in the wood-paneled room as folks began looking strangely at their Blackberries, pagers, and cell phones. Standing beside me, a female friend suddenly blurted, “Oh my God, it says here that Aaliyah died in a plane crash.” Seconds later, along with other women in the room, she began to weep. 

The accident occurred when she and her team were returning to Miami, Florida, from the Bahamas, where she shot the video for “Rock the Boat,” the third single from Aaliyah, her third album finally released in 2001. Their small twin-engine Cessna plane was several hundred pounds overweight and crashed after takeoff, exploding on impact. The pilot was found to have had cocaine and alcohol in his system and had falsified data in order to receive his FAA license.

At the age of twenty-two, Aaliyah Dana Haughton became the latest pop star to enter that rock-and-soul heaven that the Righteous Brothers sang about so many years before. Glancing around at the crying females, most no older than Aaliyah herself, it became obvious to me that she was much more than a star���she was one of them. 

Harlem resident and former Jive Records executive Jeff Sledge, who had known the songstress since she was a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl, had returned from the movies with his fiancée when he heard the news. “It was supposed to be hip-hop night on Hot 97, but they were playing a mix of Aaliyah songs instead,” he recalls thirteen years later. “And then [DJ] Red Alert announced that she had died. I was stunned.” 

Of course, he wasn’t the only one. For days, the world mourned the young star with television specials, radio interviews with her contemporaries and friends, and a candlelight vigil in front of her alma mater, the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts. Furthermore, her stunning movie-star features were plastered on the covers of newspapers and magazines. 

Although she had the looks of a femme fatale, she was a sweet girl who’d been forced to grow up much too fast and died too young. However, as we all know, icons never die, because the images are forever. In her short lifetime, Aaliyah must’ve had her picture taken a million times, made countless videos, and created music that is still relevant to fans as well as to fellow pop idols Beyoncé, Drake, Chris Brown, Rihanna, and others. 

“There are so many artists trying to re-create the Aaliyah vibe in their music,” says singer Courtney Noelle, who was in seventh grade when the Black pop princess died. Growing up on the East Side of Pittsburgh, Noelle made up dances to “One in a Million” while watching the video constantly. “Aaliyah was so relatable and cool; she wasn’t over-sexualized, so we didn’t worry about Mom disapproving,” Noelle continues. “She sang, danced, and acted, but she did it all so effortlessly. She was just so beautiful and graceful.” 

While One in a Million was a landmark, the adolescent wonderfulness of Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number is often overlooked when Aaliyah’s small canon of work is examined. Of course, as Jason King points out, “Age has been marred by their troubling marriage and the [statutory] rape/pedophilia allegations that would come later. I don’t think we can now hear Age, particularly given the title, without taking the issue of teenage rape into account. So when I’m listening to Age, I’m struggling to try to listen to it out of context, but mostly I’m hearing R. Kelly as an alleged predator presenting to us his sonic and musical vision of how he wanted Aaliyah to exist in the commercial marketplace.” 

Still, for me, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number connects with many memories of the ’90s soul years that gave us debuts from Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, D’Angelo, Faith Evans, Maxwell, Erykah Badu, and the era’s most successful singer, writer, and producer, Robert Sylvester Kelly.

In 1991, R. Kelly and Public Announcement signed to Jive Records a few years before Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys took them mainstream. Better known for being the home of top-tier hip-hop acts A Tribe Called Quest, Boogie Down Productions, Schoolly D, and E-40, the Jive label was put into the business of soul by the success of Kelly’s post–New Jack Swing sound on Born into the 90’s and 12 Play.

“Barry Hankerson had been talking about his niece Aaliyah since she was twelve, but [label owner Clive Calder] thought she was too young,” says A&R man Jeff Sledge, who began working at the label in 1992. “When she turned fourteen, Clive agreed, but only under the condition that R. Kelly produced the whole album. Musically, it just made sense.”

For Robert Kelly, 1993 was a hell of a year. A bittersweet twelve months that included a substantial development in his R&B sound, the death of his beloved mother, Joanne, and the success of his album 12 Play, which was praised by critics and fans alike. It was also the year he began working on the material that would eventually become Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number. 

Although R. Kelly attempted to uphold his Chi-Town swagger after the death of his mother, the man was a mental mess. There were bizarre reports of the singer locking himself in hotel bathrooms during press days, blowing off Rolling Stone photo shoots, and sleeping in the closet. “His mother was the sweetest lady,” Jeff Sledge says. “When she died, he had a nervous breakdown. During that time, he was also making Age, so Aaliyah was always around to comfort him. After his mother’s passing, all he felt he had left in life was his music and working with Aaliyah.” 

R. Kelly’s love for music began when he was a fifteen-year-old student at Chicago’s Kenwood Academy where he encountered famed music instructor Lena McLin. The niece of gospel innovator Thomas A. Dorsey, she taught her students opera, gospel, jazz, and soul. As a child growing up during the Depression, she lived with Reverend Dorsey and played in church. While other girls wanted dolls, Lena McLin wanted sheet music. 

McLin taught R. Kelly everything she knew about the keyboards, pushing him by anointing her student “the next Stevie Wonder.” Encouraging the poor lanky boy from the South Side to put down his basketball and sit at the piano, she started him writing songs as well as teaching him discipline. “He didn’t have much,” McLin explained to me in 1995 in a Chinese restaurant in the Hyde Park section of Chicago. “He came from a terrible ghetto and sometimes wouldn’t have the clothes the other kids had, but I had a vision of what he was going to be. The Lord told me he was a genius, and I wouldn’t take no for an answer.” 

So, what exactly is a genius? “A genius lives in the present day, has studied the past, and preconceived the future,” explained McLin. “Robert’s mission is to bring back the real essence, the real creativity, the real soul to the music.” Although Robert dropped out of Kenwood when he was seventeen, he already had five hundred completed songs in his portfolio, according to McLin. “Well, I don’t think it was five hundred, but it was a lot,” R. Kelly told me in 1995 while mastering his third album at the Chicago Recording Company (CRC). Founded in 1975, it is billed as the largest studio in the Midwest. The studio became R. Kelly’s main sound factory in the early years. 

For R. Kelly, the state-of-the-art room became the rhythmic cathedral where he would expand on the musical legacy of Windy City soul—his city where the Chi-Lites once doo-wopped on street corners, Leroy Hutson made gangster-lean tracks for Curtom, and a young rapper named Common was recording his Resurrection album somewhere across town. 

“Miss McLin started me writing every day,” Kelly said. “I’d write a song and she’d tell me it was the most beautiful song she’d ever heard. She also started me messin’ around with the piano. I just wanted to make her happy.” Growing up in the notorious Ida B. Wells Homes, Kelly found those streets a lot more dangerous than the days of Cooley High. 

“I had a lot of ups and downs, lots of lessons, and trials and tribulations,” Kelly said. Avoiding the gangs, he spent much time at a neighbor Willie Pearl’s house playing her keyboards. One of the first songs he wrote, “Orphanage,” was inspired by a television program. Singing in L stations throughout the city, he waited for strangers to drop change in his chitlin bucket. 

Kelly was discovered by house-music pioneer and former Trax Records employee DJ Wayne Williams. After seeing him perform original material at a friend’s barbecue, Williams had to convince his new bosses at Jive Records to sign him: “I was constantly telling them that R. Kelly was the shit, but it took Barry Weiss, the president of the label, coming to Chicago, before they finally said yes. Jive had full confidence in him and gave R. Kelly creative freedom.” While Kelly’s debut, Born into the 90’s, sounded as though it was jacked wholesale from the Teddy Riley/Aaron Hall school of Harlem boogie, by the time 12 Play came out in 1993, the brother had perfected a baby-makin’ style on tracks “Bump N’ Grind,” “Your Body’s Callin’,” and the epic erotica of “It Seems Like You’re Ready.” 

Additionally, the album’s more danceable tracks, “Summer Bunnies” and “I Like the Crotch on You,” showed his dance-floor diversity. Still, whether the tempo, Kelly’s lyrics were often sexually explicit, filled with lustful references and obvious double entendres. “He grabbed the brass ring by stepping fully into the role of hypersexual super-stud,” Jason King says. “That’s an archetype in Black music that stretches very far back and that Isaac Hayes took to new heights in the early 1970s. Songs on 12 Play were very much musical analogues of the celebration of Black, freaky, and carnal culture in the 1990s.” 

Soon afterwards, Kelly began applying his newly developed, smoothed-out, seductive sounds to singles for Hi-Five (“Quality Time”) and Changing Faces (“G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T.”), and was more than ready to tackle a full-album project for his manager’s niece. “With the flair and energy he puts into his music, we can feel it,” McLin said. “Even when working on songs for others, he touches all the talent he comes in contact with; Robert’s mission is to bring soul music back.” Inspired by an extensive list of vocalists, musicians, and producers including Quincy Jones, Donny Hathaway, Curtis Mayfield, and Tyrone Davis, he turned himself into an R&B auteur on the Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number project. 

R. Kelly was determined to become a one-man Holland-Dozier-Holland with a splash of Phil Spector eccentricity to keep things interesting. “Age was solely an R. Kelly production intended to not only introduce us to Aaliyah, but to show off R. Kelly’s polymath awesomeness,” says King. “It’s hip-hop soul in the way that Mary J. Blige, Xscape, and SWV fused those genres. But, Aaliyah embodied the hip-hop soul merger in a different way. She had the sweet, soothing, and slightly reserved soprano more associated with Diana Ross, Minnie Riperton, or Janet Jackson. I don’t think any producer understood what contemporary R&B audiences wanted to hear and pushed them further in the 1990s more than R. Kelly.”

In the summer of 1993, with Aaliyah on break from the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts, she spent her entire vacation holed up inside the CRC. “The first song we recorded was ‘Old School,’ which I loved, because it had an Isley Brothers flair,” Aaliyah said. “That song didn’t take long to do, maybe two days. At first, I had to get comfortable, but I had been around Robert, so it was cool. Both Robert and I are perfectionists, and if you listen to the music, there is a lot of passion in it.”

Like Batman, one of his favorite comic book characters, R. Kelly worked best at night. “Most people are asleep, so it’s just the moon, the stars, the quiet, and the music.” Subsequently, the nights spent with the underage singer led to Kelly’s first accusations of statutory rape when an alleged affair began between them. Although there was a twelve-year age difference, the affair supposedly led to marriage, which paved the way for scandal and an annulment. While R. Kelly and Aaliyah always denied these accusations, the man who wrote the title track to Age tellingly said, “I write from everyday experiences and what moves me; that, to me, is a true writer. I love all forms of music. Everything that comes into my mind and hits my heart, I write it and record it. I love songs that mean something, and have some kind of truthfulness to them.”

Photographer Terrence A. Reese (aka Tar), who shot the album covers for 12 Play and Age, recalls that during the shoot “Aaliyah relied on Robert to teach her. He was like Berry Gordy to her Diana Ross. The following day was her fifteenth birthday, and she was also going to film the ‘Back & Forth’ video, so they were working on the dances and styling. You could see the attraction between R. Kelly and her.”

Turning back the hands of time to Good Friday, 1994, I was on a flight from New York City to Detroit to interview Aaliyah. Hired by Jive Records publicist Lesley Pitts, who was also my girlfriend, I was assigned to write the budding singer’s bio. Having worked with TLC and Toni Braxton on their debuts, Lesley was excited about the teenager’s pop potential.

Aaliyah’s first single, “Back & Forth,” was already being played on the radio and video channels. Unlike the broken-glass balladry of Mary J. Blige, which was hard as the Yonkers ghetto she hailed from, Aaliyah’s voice had a soft strength that reminded me of the Black pop women (Dionne Warwick, Marilyn McCoo, and Barbara McNair) I’d grown up listening to in the ’70s.

For weeks, Lesley had been bragging that this new kid was going to be large; after hearing a few tracks, including “At Your Best (You Are Love),” her lovely cover of the Isley Brothers’ ballad, I was hooked. “I like to groove to artists like Parliament or the Isley Brothers, because that was when music was really real,” Aaliyah said later that day. “I just think the Isley Brothers are so unique.” 

After my jet landed in the Motor City, I took a short cab ride to the Sheraton Hotel and within minutes was sitting in the dining room with Aaliyah, her mother Diane, and Lesley. Dressed casually in jeans and sneakers, Aaliyah wore her shades, but soon took them off as she became more comfortable with me. “When I was younger, I used to go around the house singing with my mother,” Aaliyah said, her voice poised and proper. 

Coming from a middle-class family, she was a product of nice schools and an artistic yearning that was encouraged with classes. “I’m a big fan of Johnny Mathis, so I used to sing ‘Chances Are’ with my mom. Luther Vandross was another favorite. I was so drawn to singing, because I could get away from everything, and I just loved it.” 

Uncle Barry first introduced Aaliyah to R. Kelly when she was twelve. “He was just completing Born into the 90’s, and I sang for him,” she smiled, her voice lightening. “I sang for him, and he liked what he heard. Still, we didn’t start working on the album until a few years later.” 

Arriving first in January of ’93, when there was snow on the ground, Aaliyah returned in the summer, and their relationship clicked in the studio. “We vibed off of one another, and that’s how the songs was built,” she said. “He would vibe with me on what the lyrics should be. He’d tell me what to sing, and I’d sing it. That’s how the whole album was done. We put in a lot of hours; as far as the music, we’d be in there all night making sure it was perfect. There were times when I was tired, but I knew I had to push on if I wanted to come off.” 

When the two weren’t recording, they’d be in the studio watching horror movies. “Silence of the Lambs was my favorite,” she said. “The studio can be hectic, so sometimes we went to McDonald’s.” 

While some of the Kelly’s double entendres could be embarrassing, Aaliyah defended “Back & Forth,” a song whose title hints of sex. “It’s not a song about love or whatever; it’s about going to a party and having fun. I have songs about love, crushes, or whatever, but that song is about dancing. This album is about teens and what they go through.” One of the more forward crush records was the sensually upbeat “No One Knows How to Love Me Quite Like You Do.” Aaliyah smiled when I asked about it and said, “Every girl looks for that one person who is going to love them right. That song is saying, when it comes down to it, I like how you satisfy me.”

Months before Age was released on May 24, 1994, the stylish Millicent Shelton–directed clip for “Back & Forth” was shot at Aaliyah’s performing arts school in Detroit, where teens were recruited to be in various scenes. “That was my first video, but Millicent made me comfortable.” Between takes, she listened to the music of Tupac, Wu-Tang, and Gang Starr. “They all rap on an intellectual level.”

In the studio, she was a sponge who later spoke about her aspirations to produce and write: “When we were recording ‘Down With the Clique,’ I watched how Robert [Kelly] laid the drums and everything. He taught me to play the piano a bit, and I’m also trying to learn the mixing board, though it looks complicated. The studio is my first love.”

After wrapping the interview, Lesley and I went upstairs to our hotel room. Once inside, I turned to her and bluntly stated, “I know this sounds crazy, but I get the feeling R. Kelly is sleeping with that girl.” 

Looking at me as though I was losing my mind, Lesley was appalled. “Why would you say something like that?”

“It’s just a feeling I get.”

“Well, it’s not true, so don’t say that,” she scolded, more protective publicist than loving girlfriend. Of course, a few months later, the entire sordid story became yet another tale in the Babylon that is the music industry that eats its young. 

In 2013, journalist Jim DeRogatis, who broke the R. Kelly sex scandal in 2002, told the Village Voice, “I had Aaliyah’s mother cry on my shoulder and say her daughter’s life was ruined. Aaliyah’s life was never the same after that.”

Six days after the disaster that ended Aaliyah’s life as well as the lives of the pilot and seven members of her team, I sat in my Brooklyn apartment watching footage from Aaliyah’s funeral on Entertainment Tonight. There were images of the white horse-drawn carriage that carried her casket from Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel to St. Ignatius Loyola Church on East Eighty-Third Street in Manhattan.

After the funeral, in front of thousands of fans, twenty-two doves representing the years of her life were released in front of the church as her mother Diane, father Michael, older brother Rashad, Uncle Barry, and fiancé Damon Dash cried. The only person missing, for obvious reasons, was R. Kelly.

Six years before—just a year removed from his notorious split with Aaliyah—R. Kelly sat inside his studio at CRC telling me about producing for other artists, including Michael Jackson (“You Are Not Alone”) and Kelly Price (“Friend of Mine”). “I have many styles,” he said. “I’m more than just the 12 Play guy. I don’t write one kind of thing.”

Looking at him closely, I asked, “If there was just one person you could work with right now, who would it be?” Without hesitation, he held his head high and shamelessly answered, “Aaliyah.”

[laure-stephens]

— BASICS

Name: Laure Stephens (nee Rothschild) Age / D.O.B.: 47 / March 3, 1976 Gender, Pronouns & Sexuality: Cis woman, she/her, lesbian Hometown: New York City, New York Affiliation: Syndicate Job position: Director of Sotheby’s Auction House / Smuggler Education: Fine Arts from NYU, PhD in art history from Columbia (thesis on 18th century European antiquities) Relationship status: In an open marriage Children: None Positive traits: Creative, effervescent, gregarious, warm-hearted, disarming Negative traits: Secretive, calculating, Machiavellian, arrogant, spiteful

— BIOGRAPHY

The eldest daughter from a family who has been connected with the fine arts scene for generations. Her father, several aunts and uncles, and many more cousins hold various roles within the industry, from collectors to curators to restorers. Not joining the family business was never an option for Laure, but she never contemplated the idea to begin with, far too enamored with her cushy lifestyle to ever give it up.

Initially started out as an an artist herself, often working with oil paints or charcoal, though she never turned it into a career. These days she solely has personal pieces in her studio, and the occasional gift to friends. Instead, Laure turned her attention to the business of art, how each piece exchanged hands and moved from museums to private collections. The wealthy have always used art as a means of displaying their opulence and it’s a well that never runs dry.

She gets her start at Sotheby’s, the famed London auction house that has relocated to the city. Her connections land her a prized role as an associate, putting her in direct contact with priceless artifacts and their owners. She deploys every tactic she’s ever been taught to build connections and become an integral part of the business. There’s not a single part of the auction process, from procurement to sale, that she doesn’t understand.

Laure meets her wife Kiri while they are in grad school, she for her PhD in European antiquities history and her wife in pharmaceutical chemistry. It is a match of opposites, but Laure is a woman who goes after what she wants. They are married on her family’s property upstate, and Laure finds a lifeline outside of her family and their stringent expectations.

She is 31 when she first learns of her family’s ties to The Syndicate, when one of her cousins becomes a loose end in one of their business deals. He was in charge of moving product between New York and Europe, and a mistake cost him his life. Laure steps forward to redeem the Rothschild name within the organization, offering her position at the auction house as a new method for the gang to launder stolen items. Millions of dollars worth of product are legally moved through their warehouses each day. What’s a couple million more?

She doesn’t tell Kiri about the new development at her work and doesn’t see the need to. She is family, but she’s not family. Laure knows the consequences for telling the Syndicate’s secrets, and she has no desire to get her wife involved with the darker parts of her world. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.

At 47, she acts as the main Rothschild contact with the Syndicate, a recent promotion after the death of her father. She takes care to keep her hands as clean as the fake records she keeps, and her family's reputation grants her a bit of that flexibility. There are others within her family who are also involved in the organization but if something goes wrong, it's Laure's neck on the line.

— WANTED CONNECTIONS / PLOTS

FELLOW SYNDIES - What it says on the tin. Laure has been a part of the Syndicate for nearly 20 years, though she tends to stay on the shinier side of things. Her role is one of enterprise, putting on a good show so no one questions the darker underbelly of the organization. She’d probably work closest with the forgers, though anyone can ask for her smuggling services.

1% - Laure is born and raised as part of the 1% and it shows. She has connections out the ass, and if people haven’t heard of her, they’ve definitely heard of her family. There will likely be history, positive or negative, whether it’s directly between muses or indirect between their families.

ARTIST PROTEGE - A young, promising artist who could use a leg up in the world. Laure looks out on the world as it exists and mostly doesn’t see anything wrong with it. The strong (read: wealthy) at the top, and everyone else falling in line underneath. However, she does find it a shame that art itself has become so disrespected in the world by the general populace, and if there were to be an especially talented artist that catches her eye, she wouldn’t be opposed to helping them find some opportunities (0/1)

FLIRTATIONSHIPS/HOOKUPS - Laure and her wife are in an open marriage, which means she’s not opposed to finding new playthings every once in a while. The one rule is that they never take their fun back to their shared home. She also makes it extremely clear that there is no possibility of anything more happening, and any attempt to approach that topic will lead to Laure ending all contact.

OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS - Up until this point, Laure has been able to get away with not actually doing anything particularly bloody for the Syndicate. She is not one for assassinations or brutal retaliations, and it's obvious that she is not trained in any way. Maybe something can happen that requires that to change.

EVERYONE ELSE - If your muse doesn't fall into any of the categories above, it doesn't mean that Laure won't interact with them. Just be prepared for her to embody that one Ryan Gosling gif from Crazy Stupid Love unless you can interest her in some way.

[dreamwatch]

WIP Weekend!

Thank you for tagging me @farahsamboolents I think you get as excited as I do to get tagged in these! 🤣

‡ Rules ‡

In a reblog (or new post w/ rules attached), post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to post!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can’t share from (for example, an event fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. If you tag me in your post, I will send you an ask request!

‡ WIPs ‡

Prison Fic

Untitled Eddie & Dustin

Eddie & Steve 90s

Eddie recovery fic

From Eddie & Steve 90s. This was supposed to be a one shot, cutesy fic about the guys meeting up in the 90s and Steve irritating Eddie with a song. It’s gone somewhere completely different, and I need to be cautious because I have 2 much longer fics on the boil and I don’t need another when I write so slowly. That said, let’s see where the boys take me.

****

Eddie had lived on his own most of his time since moving away from Hawkins, with a couple of notable exceptions. And honestly? He didn’t mind it. As a kid he’d always imagined being in some huge apartment with the Corroded Coffin boys, or some New York warehouse style set up with loads of musicians. Parties every night. Drugs and booze flowing freely. People coming and going all day and all night. And Eddie, like a king on a throne, sitting in the middle of it all, lord of all he surveys. 

What he surveyed these days was an almost brand new BarcaLounger that he found at a garage sale for an absolute steal, a pile of unread books that was growing by the week, and Jeremy, his cat. The only drugs on the premises were prescription, the thought of people traipsing through his home made him recoil, and the stereo was kept at a sensible level after 10pm. He was fine with it, more or less. 

****

Oki doki, do I tag, do I tag? Ok, let’s do this. As usual, no pressure to participate, this is a gentle boop on the nose of a couple of people I think are working on things right now, so write a couple of lines if you get booped, and don’t worry about sharing. @cchapsticck @devilyouwere @hbyrde36 @rindecision

I find these tag games really motivating, and if you do too and would like the prompt every week please let me know.