#wedding films in chicago

[dsweddingstudio]

[trashworldblog]

bappy mf groundhog day lets gooo

[nerdanel01]

Emmrook at the Opera

In honor of Sylvia confirming Emmrich’s occasionally into a “bold Orlesian opera” (one of the most exciting things to ever happen to me), I wanted to put together this little post on resources for anyone who might be curious about the genre, or want to incorporate it into their fic writing.

It’s going to be a little USA-heavy because I do, unfortunately, live in the land of hamburgers and assault rifles, but the silver lining is that I also live in the country that created this:

The Metropolitan Opera House in NYC has to be one of the largest opera houses in the world, at least partially because of the fact that it was built much more recently than many of the old ones. When it’s full, it fits over four thousand people in it. I once took a tour of the backstage with one of my best friends who told me, partially in jest, “Wow, I’ve never seen you look at your boyfriend the way you’re looking at this building.” I broke up with that boyfriend like a year later, but the Met is my love for life. I love the red velvet on the walls and the seats. I love the giant Marc Chagall paintings. I love the sputnik chandelier. I love the peeling gilt gold on the ceilings, which I often have a perfect view of from my seats in the nosebleeds. The Met is my boo. 

Onto the resources!

If you just want to watch a movie that FEATURES opera but is not specifically an opera:

Moonstruck - Cher tries to invite her fiance’s brother (Nicholas Cage) to her wedding. Can you imagine what happens to Cher and Nicholas Cage next. Features the both of them on a date at the Met Opera (my beloved!) and excerpts from La Boheme. One of my all time fave movies, I identify deeply with Cher’s grandfather in the film. 

Falling for Figaro is a pretty cute romcom about a finance chick who quits her job to pursue her dream of becoming a soprano. 

And listen like the singing in Phantom of the Opera (2004) is. Not great. (I’m sorry Gerard Butler, I loved you when I was twelve.) But the opening sequence of the rolling camera pulls through the opera house as the overture plays will haunt me for the rest of my life. 

If you’ve never seen an opera before, and want to watch one (either online or in person), I recommend starting with one of these:

La Boheme - One of the most popular operas, period. Also, it’s literally RENT. Beat for beat, from ‘will you light my candle’ to ‘la vie boheme,’ it’s RENT, just sung in Italian and set in Paris. (Spoilers, the ending in the opera is more tragic.)

L’Elisir D’Amore - If you like Agnes and Emmrich because you enjoy watching two idiots who are obviously in love with each other pine for each other, this is a good one. Very sweet. One of my faves.

The Barber of Seville - I think this one is very approachable if you think of it as a comic version of Sweeney Todd, if Sweeney had no tragic backstory and Jamie was a young noble. It’s a romance, shenanigans are had, and Largo al Factotum is one of the biggest bops of all time. 

My personal favorites also include Akhaten, La Fille Du Regiment, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Turandot, but your mileage may vary with these—Akhnaten is very contemporary, productions of Turandot sometimes feature some pretty heckin’ yikes orientalism. 

If you want to listen to opera music:

WQXR is NYC’s Classical Music Station. In addition to their regular classical music stream (which is also very good) they have a separate stream of just opera music called Operavore. (I also love New Sounds, but the streams vary wildly and its definitely an acquired taste.)

The Met broadcasts a series of live Sunday radio transmissions every year starting in the spring, available online and also via WQXR.

The Chicago Lyric Opera has a bunch of their live streams archived online.

I have also made a playlist where I’ll be adding all the songs featured in my Emmrook fics. :)

If you want to watch an opera stream online:

OperaVision

There’s this incredible list from OperaWire

But there’s also this site, where you can find pretty much anything

The Met also has it’s own paid streaming service, which is SPENSIVE on the subscription model, but if there’s something you really want to see and can’t find elsewhere, they allow you to rent single titles for $4.99 each.

I do strongly recommend, if you have any interest at all and have the opportunity, to go see an opera in person. For me it makes such a difference to be there in person, and it’s not as expensive as you might think! Plus, since opera is a dying art and opera houses are desperate for new audiences (at least, in America) there are usually a number of discounted ticket programs. (Again, the list below is super USA centric, I’m so sorry—and of those below, I’ve only been to the Met myself.)

The Metropolitan Opera is the biggest opera company in the US in terms of literally the number of operas they put on a year. Other than a brief break in February, the opera is pretty much in session 5 nights a week, from October through the end of May. 

Family Circle. I love the family circle. I’ve spent so much time in the Family Circle. The acoustics ARE genuinely better up here than they are in other parts of the house, and depending on the opera, tickets in the Family Circle typically go between $26-45 dollars each.

Rush Tickets are available every day online—these are usually seats in the orchestra. I can’t remember exactly but I think these are always $25. 

If you’re feeling ~opulent and looking for a very special date night, the Met also runs a program called Fridays Under 40. It’s a special priced Orchestra ticket for people under 40. Many of the dates also include little parties where they usually have photo booths, charcuterie, etc., and opportunities to meet some of the cast.

The Detroit Opera offers student rush tickets, although it looks like you have to be at the box office in person to get them. 

The Chicago Lyric Opera has discounts for students and 50% off rush tickets.

The San Francisco Opera has a great offer for first-time opera attendees who live in the Bay Area - $20 for two great seats

The L.A. Opera also offers student rush discount tickets, and $30 tickets for attendees under 30 years of age.

I am not aware of any discounts for the Santa Fe Opera but it looks so cool and it’s on my bucket list to go one day <3

Dallas Opera offers student discounts and discounts for attendees 21-45 (although it looks like they’re aksing for a membership fee for the 21-45 program—boooo Dallas Opera)

Not super clear on the specifics, but Houston Grand Opera also offers some kind of Under 40 discount on select performances

Opera Philadelphia, which recently appointed my all-time-favorite opera singer Anthony Roth Constanzo as their director, offers $10 rush tickets and student discounts

Tips for your first time at the opera, if you do go:

A thing I did not know before I started going to the opera is that even though they are sung in foreign languages, there are almost always subtitles. At the Met, these are transmitted to the chair back in front of you and available in a variety of other languages. Other houses often project the titles above or at the side of the stage.

If you don’t want to read and listen at the same time, synopses are almost always available in your program or ahead of time.

The food and drink is expensive and almost always not worth it. When I go to the Met with my friends, I regularly bring in alcohol minis as well as little cheese/meat/fruit plates in tupperware in my purse. We eat these outside the theater at intermission. No one has every batted an eye at me. (Mileage may vary at other theaters.)

I know opera has a Reputation, and I definitely was a little worried at first that I would look out of place and people would be snide to me. I have never found this to be the case. The only reason someone will be an asshole to you is if you have your phone out or are talking during the performance—don’t do that. Keep it in your pocket until intermission and silence your notifications. 

Crawl into my dms to talk to me about opera at any time, I will happily yap your ear off

[esther-dot]

MODERN AUs

tis the damn season 5k by @wildflower-daydreamer

Every year, Sansa comes back to her small hometown of Winterfell for Christmas. And each year, she and Jon fall into their old routine for her short stay. This year would be no different. Okay, maybe a little different. Inspired by the song 'tis the damn season by Taylor Swift. corresponding gif

Mistletoe Merriment 4k by @geekprincess26

Theon Greyjoy loves kissing pretty girls, so naturally he loves breaking out the mistletoe and spiked punch every year at the Starks' annual Christmas party. And every year, the girl he kissed the prior year shows up with an awesome new boyfriend - every girl except for Sansa Stark, who ends up with slimy, pathetic gits. Theon will have to go to ridiculous lengths, not to mention risk the legendary wrath of Jon Snow, in order to get Sansa the boyfriend she deserves. But he'll do it, because Theon Greyjoy is a loyal friend - and he'll never let a stupid sprig of mistletoe get the better of him.

When the Grinch Met the Redhead 1k by @yenstarkofrivia

the one where Sansa likes to sing Christmas songs at 3am and Jon is a miserable Grinch

merry and bright 27k by @cellsshapedlikestars

ex-child star Sansa Stark is in desperate need of money and takes a role in a Hallmark Christmas movie, filming in the mountain resort town of Wintertown, Vermont. There, Fire Chief Jon Snow is on set to oversee safety regulations. Sansa hates Christmas and she hates small towns, but a casual fling with a rugged local fireman might be just what she needs.

four 5k by @cellsshapedlikestars (I've reread this fic many times)

She had never put Jon and Christmas together, but now she thinks she'll never be able to separate them. or, four Christmases, three midnight excursions, two angry siblings, and one boy at the center of it all

Be My +1 47k by @vivilove-jonsa

Seven months after she attended a wedding with her brother's work colleague (and gave him a tipsy, unrequited kiss when he walked her to the door), Sansa Stark finds herself in the unenviable situation of desperately needing a date for her prep school reunion at a ski resort which will also be attended by her ex-boyfriend/boss's son, Harry Hardyng and her Former-BFF/Frenemy, Margaery Tyrell.

The Best Christmas Present (Is You) 3k @foreverreadingbeautifulbooks

Every year the Starks and honorary Starks spent the week of Christmas in the most northern of the lodges they owned. No guests were allowed to visit the lodge during that week and it was the one time a year where no one in their family was allowed to work. Everyone hung out, played in the snow, skied, baked, ate lots of food, and simply enjoyed being together. It was refreshing to spend so much time with her family since she felt like she’d barely seen them this last year. But, if Sansa was honest, after five days of hanging out with them nonstop, she’d been looking forward to spending a little bit of time by herself. Every year on Christmas Eve, while her mom and dad picked out the tree, Bran would play chess with their neighbor’s son, Lyanna - who was notorious for buying gifts at the last minute - went shopping, Arya and the rest of the boys would challenge each other to skiing contests, and Sansa would take that opportunity to have her own private holiday celebration indoors. She would warm up some hot chocolate, turn up her Christmas playlist, and snuggle down in some blankets to wrap all of her Christmas presents. But not this year. This year she was stuck with Jon Snow and his broken ankle.

the perfect gift for christmas for me would be 5k

“Be my boyfriend,” Sansa says. Jon's eyebrows raise, and she amends, “My fake boyfriend." or, Sansa, Jon, and fake dating for the winter holidays.

Christmas Carriage Ride 1.5k

Jon Snow has grown tired of his holiday job driving a horse-drawn carriage around the streets of Chicago. Then Sansa shows up, and Jon sees the city through new eyes

#LockedinLovers 8k by @amymel86

the one where Sansa and Jon are locked in a big ol' department store over Christmas because of a convenient snow storm

The Nightmare Before Christmas 3k by @ladysalvatore3

Sansa Stark was far from being perfect; she occasionally forgot to put the lid back on the toothpaste, she was constantly arriving late to places, she didn’t know how to change a tire or had any idea of what path her life was going to take, but there were three things that Sansa was absolutely sure about. She loved to write. Christmas was the best holiday ever. She hated Jon Snow.

'Tis the Damn Season 4k by @justhereforfandomandfriends

Four times Jon doesn’t ask Sansa to stay, and the one time he does. Sansa Stark was sneaking out of her childhood bedroom to sleep in Jon Snow's bed. If you'd told teenage Sansa, she'd have laughed in scorn (but she’d have flushed too). Twenty-nine year old Sansa was almost used to it. By now, it was practically a tradition, and there was nothing Sansa loved more than holiday traditions. corresponding moodboard

when the snow falls and the white wind blows 10k

Sansa Stark and Jon Snow had never been particularly close, but since her brother died and the two moved to the same city they have been spending more time together. Sansa tells herself Jon sees her as the little girl who lived in the house beside his. Jon tells himself Sansa sees him as nothing more than her brother's best friend. But when the two are snowed in on the way back home for Christmas, their thoughts change.

Shamelessly Un-christmas 3k by @jade-masquerade

After Jon denied her a kiss under the mistletoe last Christmas, Sansa tries to make amends.

A Tale of Two Christmases 2k by @jade-masquerade

A Christmas gift mix-up involving a special sweater brings Sansa and Jon together. corresponding fanart by @grrmartin

all i want for christmas is you...to tell everyone we're together 2k by @ben-barnes-is-my-husband

It's Christmas and all Jon wants is for he and Sansa to be public with their relationship.

Who's coming to you tonight? 1k by @kissed-by-circe

“So you want me, me and no one else, to dress up as Nikolaus and bring wee-“ his mind scrambles as he tries to remember the boy’s name, because Arya only uses pet names for him, and he doubts that her sister named her child Woolfling, Dr Snuggles, or Baby-Bear, “wee… Ar- Artos some candy, and tell him that he’s been naughty?” Arya forces Jon to play Nikolaus for her lil nephew, and somehow forgets to mention that singlemom!Sansa is really really hot

Lights 7k by @charmtion

Two years ago, Arya turned up on Jon and Sansa’s doorstep and left after a single, soul-aching conversation. Now they are gathered back together for a Stark family Christmas, where old wounds and new secrets threaten to collide.

Door to Door Delivery 2k by @hilarychuff

A drabble inspired by my While You Were Sleeping (1995). Jon walks Sansa home during a Chicago winter.

The Spirit of Christmas Gifset by @aureliacamargo

All I Want for Christmas Jonsa vid by @aerishe

FOLGERSCEST INSPIRED

(yes, that commercial prompted Jonsa content which makes me laugh so it gets a special shout-out!)

Perks of the Queen 5k by @intothecest

After years in his exile in the Night's Watch, Jon Snow finally answers a summons to Winterfell from his sister, Queen in the North, just in time for a festival. Gifts are exchanged, long-simmering feelings percolate up, and, oh yes, coffee has come to Westeros.

The Best Part of Waking Up 5k @jillypups

After a long stint up in Alaska doing manly things, Jon Snow comes back to the Stark family home where he spent nearly all of his childhood, where he called the Stark kids brother and sister. But things change after a few years go by.

Gifset by @cindy-clawford

OTHER

Light in the Darkest Days of the Year Little Women AU/historical AU 9k by @sibyldisobedience

Winterfell was a handsome old house of modest proportions, that had once seen better days. Its green shutters and gables had faded to a dull grey. Its stone walls could use a new coat of whitewash. And its family, the Starks, had once been counted amongst the most distinguished in Wintertown — a small, sleepy hamlet, just north of the bustling port city of White Harbour, where it was as likely to snow in the summer as not. But despite this dreary description, Winterfell was the happiest little home in the neighbourhood.  Even on the darkest, coldest days of winter, the little grey house radiated warmth and light from its frosted-over windows, like a beacon. 

Fairy Lights and Mistletoe 3k Hogwarts AU, by @maybetwice

Sansa has every intention of going to the Yule Ball with Jon, even though he isn't sure why.

Shine Your Light on Me 2k canon verse @thatgirlnevershutsup

Let's celebrate a Northern holiday with Sansa and Jon! Think about a Hallmark Christmas movie set in Westeros, and you're on the right track.

A Stark Solstice 1.5k canon verse @ritzintherabbithole

It’s only fitting, she thought, that fresh snow should blanket the land around Winterfell today of all days. It is pristine, virgin white snow, seemingly pure, but Sansa know knows the kind of monsters that hide in the cold and her time spent in King’s Landing cured her of any instinct to trust appearances.

A midwinter night's dream 2k canon verse

After the Long Night, Sansa fears winter more than ever. How will her new born daughter survive a winter that might last for years? But magic is gone from Westeros, and soon it becomes clear that every season only lasts for a few moons. Though winters are still brutal, there is always an end in sight. And every year on the darkest day of them all, the Starks in Winterfell have a feast.

Festive Jonsa Edit

Christmas Is Here Gifset and Merry Christmas Gifset by @tiny-little-bird

PRE CANON - WESTERN - FAIRYTALE - REGENCY - LITTLE WOMEN - SEASON SIX - ANNE OF GREEN GABLES - THE GIRL IN GREY - FREE CITIES - FAIRYTALE PART II - POLITICAL MARRIAGE - SALTY TEENS - POST CANON - RICKON LIVES - JON X ALAYNE

[lightofraye]

All About E

More self-torture. I don’t know why I do this.

Oh wait.

Yes I do.

It’s because the person I’m writing about is being praised and supported when she shouldn’t be. Shall we begin?

-

Elta Danneel Graul was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, and raised in the small town of Eunice. Her father, Edward, is a practicing ophthalmologist, and her mother, Deborah, is an interior designer. She was named after her great-grandmother. Legally her name is still Elta, but she professionally and personally goes by Danneel. Supposedly she was given the middle name, Danneel, after a street in New Orleans.

She moved to Los Angeles because, according to her, she knew she wanted to live in California. She moved there and lucked out with modeling. How did she luck out? Her now-ex-boyfriend, Riley Smith. His mother was a modeling agent in Chicago. She flew home with him for Thanksgiving and his mother made the phone call with the agency.

(How did Elta afford to live in Los Angeles without much work? Her parents paid her way, so she basically lived in an apartment on her own, didn’t share with anyone, and got to be lazy.)

Supposedly Riley’s mother also helped Elta with a nose job and breast implants (the first time around).

Elta liked to claim she worked and supported herself, but her beginning modeling jobs didn’t pay very well. She also didn’t get nearly as much work, so her parents supported her.

Elta proceeded to segue into television with the help of Riley to do auditions. She had a few guest spots on MadTV, Amanda Bynes’ What I Like About You. Then she had the audition with One Life To Live.

Because One Life To Live was filmed in New York, Elta had to move there. Again… her parents helped, because a starting actress on a soap did not pay well. She also had bit parts in Love House.

Eventually One Life To Live ended and Elta got guest spots on One Tree Hill, Joey, JAG, Charmed. Supposedly it was because she did well in auditions, but those rumors of her doing the casting couch with Mark Schwan persist.

After One Tree Hill, she had more guest spots on How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, and other shows.

She appeared in a few small roles in movies as well.

Supposedly, Elta is skilled in gymnastics, can sing and play piano.

Given how badly she moved as Rachel in One Tree Hill, I call false in the gymnastics claim. We’ve heard her sing—she can’t sing, period. Never seen her play the piano.

There have been claims that she has a degree in beat-poetry from University of Louisiana. She is not listed as an alumni and the timing does not work. I also call false that.

Elta has tried to create a jewelry line with Limbo Jewelry to create a line called Link. Near as I can tell, that jewelry line has never sold out and has not sold well. Supposedly it was meant as a benefit for Creative Action, an Austin-based charity aimed at foster youth-development projects. It has barely raised much, only $30,000.

Elta has four tattoos. A matching tattoo with Hilarie, which says “Mischief”, that she got at Hilarie’s wedding. A shark tattoo on her butt. An arrow on her left arm in honor of her children, and some kind of “robe-woman” who resembles a muse on her right arm.

She photographed for Maxim’s “Hot 100” list several times.

Supposedly, she is still friends with Hilarie Burton Morgan and Bevin Price.

She claimed she fell in love with Jensen during filming of Ten Inch Hero. They apparently drove back and forth, car pooled, really, to and from set and struck up a deeper conversation. Jensen once claimed he gave her a note that said “Not now, someday” as by that time, Elta was engaged to Riley Smith, Jensen’s friend.

Evidently, she didn’t even tell Riley what happened. She just packed up her things and moved out from their shared apartment, no break-up talk, nothing. Riley is now very happy she did that, given the crappy way she broke up with him. The best thing he got out of that relationship, he once claimed, was the guitar he was gifted with.

Jensen kept mum on the relationship for a long while. He had dated Joanna Krupa at one point, and Tania Saulnier. He was rumored, at one point, to have been with LeAnn Rimes (she herself said that was false) and Jessica Simpson (never been mentioned).

His revelation that he was dating came as a surprise—and almost no one knew who she was. When his engagement was announced on JustJared, no one knew he was dating or still dating her. The timing of said engagement had always been suspicious, given it was practically a week after Jared proposed to Genevieve.

Jensen claimed later that Elta gave him an ultimatum and that she hadn’t known he was going to propose.

I believe it was because seeing Jared get engaged meant the gay rumors would focus solely on him and he didn’t want to deal with that. Plus, suspected he had to “settle down”, so Elta was his “Okay, I guess she’ll do” girl. Not the girl of his dreams.

She likely tailored herself to what he wanted as she knew him for years prior to that.

Not to mention a rather quick engagement to wedding (six months; most usually do a year! Perhaps because Jared’s was set and they wanted to compete—or rather, Elta did).

Oh, Elta’s career kept puttering along. Some attempts were made, and all failed. No, I don’t think it’s because she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom either. Her career just didn’t take off; she’s a horrible actress with a childish voice that is clearly faked.

Her most recent role was a ‘gift’ from Hilarie. A pity gift.

And honestly, she’s not even a stay-at-home mom. She has nannies, a housekeepr, a gardener, possibly more help than most single parents or stay-at-home parents have. She’s unrelatable. She’s achieved nothing beyond being Jensen Ackles’ wife.

I’d pity her, if it weren’t obvious Jensen is scared of her. (He’s said: “I’m not suicidal, I’m getting out of her way”; called her “Scary Spice”; has stated more than once that he defers to her because he has to; said their marriage works better when they’re apart.)

[scottlava]

GREAT GREAT SHOWDOWNS HUNT: Day 8

We have made it to the LAST DAY of the HUNT! What a wonderful time we have been enjoying! Thank you for hunting with me!! RISE OF THE GREAT SHOWDOWNS comes down today, but everything will still be online in the Gallery 1988 shop! LET’S HUNT!

1. Chicago, USA - This young woman had a rough birthday.  She’s a bridesmaid at a wild wedding and leaves the church to see her heart throb crush waiting there for her. Where did they film this beautiful moment? HINT: It maaay be around back in the garden.

UPDATE: This one has been found!

2. Cannon Beach, USA - These buddies are on a search for pirate treasure. They ride their bikes up a hill to gaze upon some rocks and a hideout. Where do they line up all of this stuff with their doubloon?

What is happening: I will post some little paintings of characters from popular film scenes from March 9th through 16th. These paintings shall be placed into envelopes and hidden somewhere at the locations in which these scenes were filmed. This could happen in your town!

The first person to find these paintings shall keep them as a gift from me! I only ask that you post a picture of the found painting in your possession, so I can congratulate you in front of the world. Post it on twitter or instagram or email me. LET THE HUNT COMMENCE!

[she-walked-away]

Do you have any theories to share with the class? I remember the Huntington's theory you had came true!

I have A LOT OF THOUGHTS and thankfully @thisbuildinghasfeelings indulges them and helps me map them out.

I think the biggest theory I have is Carlos has a new job- but I have like 2-3 theories on what it is and why. They've been hinting at a career change for him for like 3 seasons at this point. Do I think it will stick? idk

I think my main theory is that Carlos is working dispatch or something along the lines of that. I know it seems kind of random, but if Carlos isn't going to be police anymore- he will most likely still be in a first responding position because that's just how the 911 verse works. The thing that kind of helps me with this theory is that Rafa talked about it being something different than he has ever done before and I think anything Texas Ranger-y is too similar to what he's done before with police and the detective stuff.

Also the angst hoe in me wants Carlos to be on dispatch and hear TK get injured (as told he gets injured at the Chicago con) and be able to do nothing about it because he's not there. Also- more grace and carlos scenes PLEASE!

Second theory is that he's working undercover on Gabriel's murder case- which ALSO fits being different than anything Rafa's done before. We do know that figuring out what happened to him is supposed to be apart of the season, as told by a cameo from earlier this year and that Carlos has a five episode arc- which I'm assuming and i know you're not supposed to, is about that. My supporting theory about that is kind of what Jen's ( @strandnreyes) V-day fic was about. Like Carlos is living somewhere away from TK- but I'm kind of theorizing that they meet up every episode or 2 to check in with each other and have *steamy* scenes. Kind of fits with Brian talking about how relationships kind of turn on a head and imagine they act like they're apart through the first episode and we see them reunite at the end happily in love but carlos undercover!

This also culminates to Carlos either seeing or hearing about TK getting hurt and he cannot react. I want the ANGST. The evidence for this one other than just speculating is I have a theory that the party at the loft where they were all nice and fancy in the Cameo vid is a "welcome back" Carlos party and TK makes a spectacle of putting Carlos' wedding ring back on him because they're THAT cheesy in love. (the easy answer was that he wasn't wearing it yet before they film but i'm taking it a step further).

I think these are the main ones I have now just for carlos and tarlos, so I'll be curious if they pan out! Basically if they're making TK get injured again- they better indulge my angst whore ways and have Carlos be unable to do anything about it and see him internally or externally freak out because Rafa is so good at that and it's just *different* now that they're husbands.

[mariacallous]

The famed architect Louis Kahn made little effort to live Jewishly in his life, yet throughout the 20th century he designed synagogues and famous Holocaust memorials across the country. 

The Hungarian Jewish designer Marcel Breuer, educated at the Bauhaus school, was forced to renounce his Judaism while he lived in Germany. Later he wowed Americans with his striking brutalist designs — until the tides shifted, and his buildings became some of the nation’s most reviled.

Neither Kahn nor Breuer are mentioned by name in the new movie “The Brutalist,” which follows a Holocaust survivor and acclaimed architect as he attempts to complete a monumental structure in suburban Philadelphia. Yet the movie tells their story, as well as that of other prominent Jewish architects and designers of the 20th century, many of whose biographical details informed the journey of the movie’s fictional hero, László Tóth, played by Adrien Brody.

The film’s 36-year-old director, Brady Corbet, says he drew heavily from Kahn, Breuer and other Jewish designers in crafting his story. Yet he claims he didn’t set out to make a Jewish movie, just one about architecture.

“The film could take place at any time and be about someone from anywhere,” Corbet told a crowd at the Chicago International Film Festival following a screening of the film in October, when an audience member asked him specifically about the movie’s Jewish content. “Because the characters are Eastern European Jews, it was important for us to get the details right.”

Corbet, who co-wrote the screenplay with his partner Mona Fastvold, said he was fascinated by brutalism in particular — a popular, yet polarizing, mid-century architectural movement that prioritizes large, rough surfaces and raw concrete exposure. 

Why brutalism? Because governments all over the world have ordered such buildings destroyed soon after taking power; the buildings were, to him, an effective metaphor for unwanted groups of people who had once gained some degree of societal prominence. In short, he said, “so many people hated it.” 

But hardly anyone is hating “The Brutalist.” The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival this fall, where it won the best director prize — considered a runner-up to the prestigious Golden Lion award. Recently it also scored the best film and best actor awards from the New York and Chicago film critics groups, and racked up a stack of Golden Globe nominations. Hollywood trades expect the film to be a top Oscar contender, especially Brody, who performs much of his dialogue in Hungarian and whose accolades come two decades after the Jewish actor won an Oscar for portraying another artistic Holocaust survivor in “The Pianist.”

The accolades are notable for several reasons. The film has an epic, three-and-a-half-hour runtime, including an intermission — the kind of length that, while befitting the scope and theme of a story about an uncompromising artist, could turn theatergoers off. (The title card that appears onscreen during the intermission is a photo of László’s wedding in prewar Hungary, with a smiling, happy Jewish family posing under their synagogue door’s Hebrew lettering, presented as documentation to help bring his surviving family over to the United States.)

It also might be difficult to find a theater that’s playing it in the manner Corbet intends the film to be seen: To evoke the time period, he shot it on VistaVision, a now-dead film format known for a giant field of vision and hyper-detailed focus, and has encouraged viewers to seek out the small number of theaters equipped to show the movie on 35mm or 70mm prints.

Then there’s the subject matter itself, which, during a time of immense fear and uncertainty for Jewish Americans, unapologetically tackles the Holocaust; antisemitism; the hazards Jews faced emigrating to the United States; Jews being pushed out of elite society across the globe; and debates about the early years of Zionism. Early in the film, László learns that a Jewish cousin has tried to remake himself as a gentile; later, after a series of setbacks in America, one of his family members encourages him to move to Israel.

(The film joins a deep crop of Jewish-interest movies this awards season, including Jesse Eisenberg’s Holocaust dramedy “A Real Pain”; “September 5,” a controversial docudrama about the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes; “The Order,” a fact-based thriller about the 1984 murder of a Jewish radio host by white nationalists; and the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.”)

After initially agreeing to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency interview, a representative for A24, the film’s distributor, canceled planned conversations with Corbet, Fastvold and several members of the film’s production team the day before it was scheduled. A24 was unable to accommodate requests to reschedule the interviews in time. 

But in Chicago promoting the film two months earlier, Corbet — a former actor whose directorial debut, “The Childhood of a Leader,” was a parable of Hitler’s early years — told the sold-out crowd what drew him to the subject matter.

“I was sort of fascinated by the way that people, communities, tend to perceive anything which is unfamiliar to them,” he said, referencing both “a new building that’s been erected in a different style” and “a new member of their community that has different traditions, different heritage, different skin color.” 

When the Nazis took power, he pointed out, they shut down the Bauhaus design school in Germany, where the ideas behind brutalism originated and where many prominent Jewish architects — including, in the movie, László — were taught. 

The changing tides against brutalism took place as Jewish American architects frequently found themselves drawing on the memory of the Holocaust in their postwar work, according to the 2011 history book “Building After Auschwitz: Jewish Architecture and the Memory of the Holocaust,” by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld.

But the film isn’t only about the Holocaust. László, his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and their niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy), both before and after reuniting in America, must also come to terms with what it means to be Jewish in their adopted country. 

Their new home seems rife with antisemitism, even when it has a nice facade — as in their wealthy industrialist benefactor, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), who hires László to construct a community center (complete with church) and at least outwardly seems to admire and befriend him. But there’s a sinister side to Harrison and his family, one that comes out in drips and drabs (“We tolerate you,” his son sneers, out of earshot) before the mask falls away completely in the film’s appropriately brutal third act.

This dynamic, in which the Jewish characters try to parse whether the pleasantries they exchange with their non-Jewish benefactors are undergirded by antisemitism, will be familiar to many Jews navigating public spaces in the present day. And it also has a real-world parallel in comments made by some of the film’s cast. Pearce has become one of Hollywood’s most outspoken pro-Palestinian advocates since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, and recently told Vanity Fair, “I’ve had someone say to me, ‘Let’s not forget what Hollywood is made up of. Be careful.'” (He declined to clarify his remarks when asked by the magazine.)

For Corbet, this uncomfortable relationship between the characters was more universal. 

“If anyone is being totally transparent about the relationship they have with someone that they feel beholden to, you’re never on equal footing,” he said in Chicago. “If you want it for the good of your project, you sometimes have to dabble in moral and ethical situations which are not your own … I know many of you have probably been in that situation: like to keep a job, you have to laugh at your bigoted boss’s jokes. It’s a complicated dynamic.” 

He also said that László, who is spotted a few times in synagogue in the movie, isn’t a particularly religious Jew. “I don’t know very many devoutly religious artists,” Corbet mused. “It’s almost like they don’t have space for it. It requires a level of obsession which doesn’t create a lot of space for anything else in one’s life.”

Yet the film itself certainly makes space for different shades of Judaism, right up until its epilogue — which contains a twist, packed into a few quick lines of dialogue, that seeks to explain so much of László’s life’s work. A small gesture hidden inside something big — that, for Corbet, is his film’s subject in a nutshell.

“These monuments all over the world, Chicago, Lithuania, New York, Israel, you name it, they’re so radical. They’re so extreme,” he said. “And I identify with that way of working. I, too, like extremes. I like minimalism. I like maximalism. And for me, brutalism is both.”

[dustedmagazine]

K-the-I??? & Kenny Segal — Genuine Dexterity (Backwoodz Studioz)

It was a pleasant surprise when the announcement came through that Billy Woods’ Backwoodz Studioz had a late-year release in store from Kiki Ceac and Kenny Segal. Anyone paying attention to hip-hop in the last 10 years well knows Segal’s name, most likely via Woods’ acclaimed Hiding Places and Maps. But anyone paying attention to hip-hop in the last 20 years will recognize Ceac’s peculiar K-the-I??? nom de plume from releases on Mush, Ninjatune and Big Dada. Memories are short in the rap game, though, so if anything, Genuine Dexterity serves as a welcome reintroduction to one of the finer artists working downstream from Def Jux’s late-1990s breakout.

Like others in the Backwoodz orbit, K-the-I??? has weathered the whims of hip-hop taste making over a timeline that’s taken him from Cambridge, Mass to L.A. to Chicago to Berlin and back again. He took a mid-2010s sabbatical from music altogether. As he noted in an illuminating interview with Caltrops Press over the summer, his writing has gone from paper and pen to freestyles on a phone that then get printed out so he can read them clearly from behind the mic. He’s a fan of Broadcast and Mach-Hommy alike. This is a dude who knows what it means to be older, wiser, more focused, less provincial.

It shows in the rhymes and rhythms of Genuine Dexterity. “Ionosphere” sets the album in motion as it will continue, and it’s clear right from the off that K has not come to play around — these rhymes are razor-sharp. One thing that’s always impressed me dating back to my first brush with him on 2006’s Broken Love Letter is the clarity of his vocal delivery for such high speeds of tongue-twisting spitting. If anything, what it conveys is a sense of engagement, that K is locked all the way in; you can get him rifling through his verses before pulling up the reins to make sure you notice how easily he says his mission statement: “I bet I can touch the sky so easily / even if you don’t believe in me.” Features from formidable emcees like ShrapKnel, Open Mike Eagle and Fatboi Sharif do nothing to deter this attentiveness.

For his own part, Segal aids and abets with some of his better recent beats. While K’s tearing the mic apart alongside both Woods and Armand Hammer compatriot Elucid on “Spellcasted Television,” Segal lays down a beat to match with scrawling guitar that weds spacey synths and claustrophobically dirty percussion; it recalls nothing so much as the best El-P productions. Vinyl crackle lines the sax-wailing, vibraphone-inflected “Warhammer.” More jazz sampling, this time featuring a busy bassline and more horns, hit on “Crushed Heavenly.” Rubber-band oscillations straight out of a 1950s sci-fi film drive the verses of “Season of the Sickness” before the bass weight hits for the chorus. A bubblingly bucolic, RJD2-esque downtempo tone colors “Immediate Imminent Immunity.” Together with K and company tying it all together, the album works as one despite its occasionally surprising sonic ventures.

There’s a loose union of antediluvian hip-hop vets out there — Run the Jewels, the Backwoodz crew, Open Mike, Roc Marciano, Shabazz Palaces, you know these names — that in recent years have found a modicum of fame while maintaining a respectable semblance of artistic integrity. With Genuine Dexterity, it’s safe to add K-the-I??? to that list. The game, as it turns out, needed him.

Patrick Masterson

[darklydeliciousdesires]

London Will Burn - Chapter Twelve.

Look at me go! I updated on time for once, haha! Happy Friday, besties. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend <3

Previous chapters - One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven

Tag list - In the comments, please DM to be added/removed

Words - 4,180

Warnings - 18+ content throughout. Minors DNI.

“Sorry mate! Christ, the traffic was absolute murder! They’ve completely closed off the bloody main road outside my offices and... Oh, hot waiters. Hello!” 

In times of tension, Rin knew she could always trust in her old friend Carly for a little light relief, literally veering off mid-sentence to appreciate the appearance of the wait staff there at San Carlo, where they were meeting for a long overdue catchup dinner.  

With their beloved Rashida now living over in Chicago, it was just the two of them, their friendship fully re-bonded since Rin’s return from Africa. Not that geographical distance had diminished the love or closeness between the two lifelong friends whatsoever.  

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s fucking mayhem out there! Come here, give me a smooch,” Rin assured her, kissing her cheek as they embraced. “I only got here on time because I was in Chelsea for a meeting this afternoon.” Carly took her seat, thanking Rin when she dutifully poured her a glass of wine. “Anyway, why are you eyeing up waiters? Not loved up with twat waffles, still?” 

No, it was fair to say that Rin had never really liked Carly’s long-term boyfriend, Mathias. Not after their visit to Kenya, when he’s gotten absolutely smashed, resulting in him thinking he could square up to Sokoro, a decision that had landed him in a world of regret. Being dangled by his ankles over the top of the stairs within the lodge by the pissed off Kenyan until he’d apologised had sobered him up nicely, though. 

“You will be pleased to hear that the man known only as twat waffles to you is no longer in my life. Yeeted him about four weeks ago. I’ll say it, you were right.”  

Rin beamed. “I always am.” Well, not always. The events of the previous week were still burning in her gut, being shamed in the way she had been by Sean and his superior powers of deduction. “No but honestly, honey. I’m glad because you can do so much better than him!” 

“In this instance, you are correct. I can and I will, with that waiter over there with the blonde hair if I have my way.” She paused, raising her glass in his direction. He was at the table in seconds. 

“Good evening, ladies. Are we ready to order?” 

Oh, he was so sweet, absolutely none the wiser to the fact there was a bona fide man eater about to chomp down upon him. “Not yet, love. I was just appreciating the fact that you happen to be the most gorgeous man within the restaurant, so cheers to you.” 

He pinked at the cheeks, nodding while attempting to bite back his grin. “Well, when you need me, feel free to appreciate me again.”  

Rin chuckled, shaking her head. “We'll take some focaccia and olives to nibble while we decide, please.” 

He made a quick note on his iPad, smiling widely. “Certainly.” Scampering away, Rin fixed her friend with a look of pure mirth. 

“You’re terrible, Muriel.” 

Her assessment had Carly in hysterics, reciting their favourite line from the nineteen nineties cult classic film, Muriel’s wedding. They’d always said it to one another when there was mischief afoot. “I am, this much is true. So, how’s everything? How’s work, and my beautiful goddaughter?” 

“Tiger is perfect, as usual. As for work... hm.”  

Inclining her head, she took a sip of wine and thanking the waiter when he brought over the required pre-dinner nibbles. She winked again and of course, he blushed furiously. “Oh? I sense a story there. Does it have anything to do with her dad? How’s all of that going, by the way?” Of course, Carly had been made privy to it all. She’d known right from the start, after all.  

She ground her teeth before forcing a somewhat terse smile to her face. “I gave him a black eye last week.”  

Some things truly never changed, Carly making a motion with her hand that she should elaborate. “The tea requires spilling, Miss C.” 

And so, Rin did. She spared certain details over her work (although of course, Carly well knew she was a hardened criminal, Rin never gave away enough that could implicate her at any point in the future, just in case) but managed to sum it all up in a way that gave the story without all of the nuanced ins and outs of it.  

“Right, so he potentially saved you from making a big mistake with the Per...” she began, eyes scanning around before leaning in close to whisper, “the PM, shall we say, and you gave him hell for it?”  

“He embarrassed me in front of my associates, and took great pleasure in doing so,” she spoke, picking up another small cube of focaccia and dunking it into the balsamic vinegar bowl. “I don’t take kindly to that.” 

A taste of one’s own medicine was always the bitterest, Carly couldn’t help but note. “Yet you do exactly the same with him at any given opportunity.”  

Rin frowned. “I’m sorry, who’s side are you on here, exactly?” 

“Yours, always yours, love,” she was quick to interject, “but sweet, from what you’ve told me about him, if you bite at him, he’ll do exactly the same back. You two, you’re much too similar for your own good. Something I believe you once said about you both, didn’t you?” 

The focaccia was chewed upon with mild fury. “He doesn’t deserve to ever have one over on me. Not after what he did. I want him to suffer. His punishment will be prolonged, mark my words.” 

God, she was so hardheaded, especially when it came to Sean. Carly looked a little pensive, picking up her wine. “Do you want to know what I think about that? The complete, unfiltered truth?” 

Her lips thinned, eventually nodding. “I suppose an outside perspective couldn’t hurt.”  

“Okay.” She took a breath and another sip of Sauvignon Blanc for courage, placing her glass back down again softly.  

“You’ve already punished him enough, Rin. You deprived him of a relationship with his daughter for six years, and you came back and took an empire he was planning to preside over out from under him, and then made him effectively run his own company for you, on your terms. Trust me, from what you’ve told me about Sean, you’ve hit him twice where it hurts with big strikes. Family and business are what means everything to him, and you hold all the power over both. Prolonging that, well, as far as I can see, mate, all that does is cause problems for you.” 

“How?” 

“Your business deals should be running smoothly, and if you continue to hold him in contempt, they simply won’t. Risky really, when taken into consideration just what you do. Then of course, for Tiger. In fact, mostly for Tiger. Trying to repeatedly cut her father down for a mistake he made seven years ago will only hurt you and her in the end. Has he ever offered you an apology for his actions?” 

She lifted her chin, remembering it, when he told her of his lament. “He has. I have to give him that.” 

Carly reached for her arm, squeezing softly. “Well, then. There you go. You have to stop figuratively yeeting him right in the gonads for it at point or another, or behaving like this is only lowering you to his level, or former level, I don’t know. I can’t speak for him, but I can speak for your character. You’re better than this.” 

If anyone was going to give her the truth, it was Carly. It was a truth she did need to hear, too, before the battleground that was her relationship – or lack thereof – with the father of her child became even bloodier than it already was. “Why are you bloody laughing? I’m trying to talk seriously for once in my flippin’ life! You could at least appreciate my attempt to be sage!” 

“I am,” Rin chuckled, covering her hand with hers where it still rested upon her arm. “It’s just you still can’t help but be funny through it. Yeeting him in the gonads, oh god.” She descended there, laughing richly, even wiping a few tears from her eyes, it had entertained her so much.  

“And at the fucking risk of getting my head bitten off, well, maybe it’s because you still lust after what’s hanging directly above the gonads that you’re getting yourself so bent out of shape over him.” 

Immediately, she sat a little more upright, her laughter stalled. “Order me the burrata salad to start and then the salmon penne. I’m going for a cigarette.” 

“Avoidance tactics,” Carly chimed as Rin rose from her seat, discreetly offering her middle finger in salute.  

“Bugger off.” 

“Filthy habit,” she further teased, Rin mouthing that she was a knob, her clearly entertained friend giggling as she picked up her wine. “This could all be so much simpler for you if you weren’t so much like your dad.” she muttered, sipping the buttery smooth Sauvignon while looking down at the menu to make her choice.  

They had a lovely night together, parting ways at just gone 10pm, Carly heading home and Rin calling a car to do the same. After stopping at a Tesco Express to purchase a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black, though, home was not where she ended up.  

Sean was coming to the end of a five-mile treadmill run when the buzzer sounded through his penthouse, slowing the machine to walk before climbing off, his bare chest glistening with sweat. 

“Yes?” he spoke into the intercom, seeing the woman upon the screen turn to reveal her face to the front entrance camera.  

“Can we talk?” 

She had a nerve, turning up out of the blue at 10:35pm. “That depends on whether I’m going to get lambasted all over again for trying to do the fucking right thing, Catherine.” 

“You aren’t. Promise.” She knew she needed to give a little, Carly’s words hitting home with her a little. He buzzed her in, Rin moving to the lift, hitting the button for the penthouse. As it glided in ascent, she spoke sternly to herself, her internal monologue advising that she needed to keep calm and talk things through with him, apologise for her pride getting in the way the week before, that she was doing this for the greater good of business continuing to run smoothy, and for her daughter to have a father in her life. One who truly did want to be there.  

All of her steely composure flew straight out the window when he opened the door to her, though, when her eyes nearly fell out of her head for seeing him there, shirtless and gleaming with sweat, his navy joggers so low slung she could almost see his... 

“Well, don’t you look resplendent in Dolce and Gabbana,” he spoke, raising an eyebrow.  

She cocked her head, swallowing hard. “How did you know this is D&G?” 

He took a moment, his eyes roaming her slender curves. “I have an eye for quality.” The scent of her perfume wafted under his nose, spellbinding, those orchid notes reminding him how it felt to have his senses flooded by it, his eyes meeting hers.  

Her body moved, yet her feet planted, her mouth agape as her chest and cheeks flushed, overcome by the sight of him like that, her throat drying. No. Not now. She willed her brain to take the reins away from the jockey that was her desire, steer her right, but she failed. It was too strong, charging away down a path she swore never to encroach upon again, moving in a second to press her mouth to his, his arms immediately locking around her as he kissed her back with all the heat of a thousand suns.  

Now they were in trouble.  

Flattened against the door, he pinned her there as they gave in to the torrent, his hands smoothing over her body, reaching to ruck her dress up around her waist, both panting furiously as their tongues rolled in an erotic dance, Sean grasping her thong and tearing it from her in one swift yank. It sent a flood to where she ached for him, her legs wrapping around him as he lifted her, pulling his joggers down just enough to free his cock and plunge it into her fully. 

Lord, how she’d missed the feel of being split wide around him, kissing him in utter frenzy. It was mindless, feral sex, their need for one another rampant and unhinged, her body banging against the thick, black door as he fucked out every single wave of desire, longing and, if he was honest, utter contempt he held for her, his fingers dug in hard beneath her thighs.  

It sizzled through her, each sparking pulse, tiny fireworks set to burn within her blood, crying out as he filled her again and again, his teeth at her neck scintillating, hanging onto him for dear life. It felt like he was attempting to fuck her right through the door, the pace barbaric, smouldering, everything she needed and had craved in the years they’d been parted.  

It shimmered through them both, the crest of an almighty wave they rode until it crashed, washing over them entirely, Rin feeling completely mindless as she swam to the surface of her pleasure, desire glimmering down her spine. That was the moment her brain engaged, her breathless body pinned by his, their tightened muscles slackening as the divinity ebbed away. 

Oh, god. Damn him. Damn him for being so fucking irresistible.  

He was the first to speak, finally sobering from his orgasm enough to form words. “Please don’t tell me we’ve just possibly given Tiger a sibling.” 

“We haven’t,” she panted, “IUD.” 

“Oh, thank Christ.” He finally looked at her, withdrawing and placing her down, his mouth twitching a little. “So, you wanted to talk?” 

“I did,” she confirmed, rearranging her dress, looking away. Easily, she could have throttled herself for her actions, hiding her face in her hands for a moment, dying a little. “For fucks sake! We’re such a mess.”  

He raised an eyebrow, pulling his joggers and boxers back up again. “That we are, Catherine.” He paused, watching her run her hands over her hair, still looking desperately uncomfortable. “We could become less messy, though. Perhaps if we ceased the urge to needle at one another quite so much as we do.”  

“Are you truly admitting to the fact that you do?” she asked, Sean feeling his blood flicker in annoyance. 

“I am, yes. Because somebody who continues to fucking punish me for the mistakes of my past bloody deserves it. Know that for my part, it is only in retaliation,” he told her, walking over to his kitchen, Butch there in his bed, absolutely none the wiser to her arrival and subsequent pounding against the front door.  

She pulled the bottle from her bag, nodding towards him. “It’s because you enjoy the fight, Sean. Don’t pretend that isn’t how it is.”  

God. The Woman was insufferable. He turned to her, his nostrils flaring. “Stop it. If I can put my ego aside here and admit my transgressions, then so can you. You know full well you hold your power over me like a fucking sword of Damocles, in both business and with Tiger whenever the opportunity arises. Now, admit that, or get the fuck out. I’m going for a shower; I suggest you take the time I’m gone to consider that. Glasses are above the sink cupboard.” 

She knew she had to, he was right, but god, it wasn’t easy. They were both just too similar, too – to use an analogy she herself had many times before – cut from the exact same cloth. Except this time, deep down Rin knew that Sean was right, and she loathed him for it all the more.  

Life would be made exponentially easier for her if she simply ceased her desire to punish him, to realise that Carly was right. She had struck back against him more than evenly. The playing field was entirely equal once more.  

Just last week she’d heard Ed Dumani offer peace towards Sean, and regardless of the fact he hadn’t been ready to accept, she knew that a clean slate was exactly what had to happen between her and the father of her child, so that ultimately that precious little girl didn’t suffer because of her parent’s rampant toxicity.  

“I almost expected you to have done a runner.” His words pulled her from her thoughts, a freshly showered Sean entering the kitchen again, going to the cupboard himself to retrieve the glasses she’d been preoccupied from fetching. “I perhaps couldn’t blame you if you had.”  

He poured two large measures, Rin thanking him as he slid hers across the black marble worktop, knocking it back in one. He followed suit. “Come on, it’s fucking cold in here and the lounge is warm.” They walked back out again, Butch still sleeping on with a series of deep snores, taking a seat upon the long, L shaped grey sofa, Sean refilling their glasses. “So, what did you come here with the intention of saying?” 

Taking a breath, she closed her eyes for a second, seeing Tiger there in her mind’s eye. It forced her to take a lasso to her pride and give it several tethering yanks. “I want to apologise for my part in us continuing to have friction. It isn’t conducive to us healthily co-parenting Tiger, no matter how much I dislike you at times. I need to be better for my daughter.”  

He snorted softly, sipping his drink. “At times? Catherine, you despise me near enough constantly.”  

“Do you truly blame me for that?”  

“Yes, I fucking do when you’ve had seven bloody years to get over it!” he spoke tersely. “I apologised to you, and it was sincere. I regret what I did to you, every fucking day I regret it, but god above, woman! You have to take your fucking boot off my bloody neck at some point.” She looked accepting of his words, albeit that acceptance bitter, Sean continuing in her silence. “I lost everything, went through hell after my father died, attempted to claw it back only to have you take it all again and only give it on your terms. Terms I have complied with.” 

“But Sean...” 

“No, for fucks sake, there isn’t a fucking but here! Stop fucking punishing me. If you want me to cease resenting you, then you have to stop making me sorry for something I already regret! I am doing everything in my power to prove worthiness, to prove most importantly that I can and will be a fit father for Tiger, but as soon as you perceive me to have any kind of upper hand, you fucking use her against me, like you did with the Persians!” 

Her ire ramped in an instant. “You fucking enjoyed that, making me look small!” 

“I didn’t want Bahram Forouhandeh to fucking kill you! I was looking out for you, you ignorant, insufferable woman!” His eyes were wide, exasperated as he scoffed, sinking his whiskey. “And yes, maybe I did derive a little joy from cutting you down, but bloody hell, Rin! Like you don’t do exactly the same to me at every fucking opportunity!” 

“I just apologised, and you’re throwing it at me all over again!” 

“Because you need to have it thrown at you all over a-bloody-gain to recognise what you’re doing to me!” He took a moment, his heart jackrabbiting in his chest, trying to calm down from the anger that had all too sharply risen. “Your father was exactly the same. On his terms or not at all. You? You’re better than that, and I am one of the very few people in your life who not only sees that, but isn’t too afraid of you to tell you either.” 

Neither was Carly, and it wasn’t lost on her, how his statements more or less matched those of her oldest friend. She’d always taken pride in the fact people likened her to her father, but truly never dawned in her until right then that perhaps it wasn’t always a complimentary likeness.  

Bolting back her drink, she took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Sean.” They were words that did not come easily, feeling bitter, like ashes in her mouth.  

Standing, he picked up the bottle, moving to seat himself at her side, topping up her empty glass. “Finally. Now I only have to await a little sincerity in your actions going forward, and maybe my fucking blood pressure might lower a tad.” 

Lifting the glass to her lips, she took a sip, nodding. “What would like first, then, for me to show this sincerity?” 

“A blowjob wouldn’t go amiss.” He expected the light slap he received to the chest. “Well, you did ask.” 

“And you just shagged the shit out of me against the front door not ten minutes ago!” 

He smirked, his eyebrows twitching. “I never claimed not to he insatiable.” 

Rolling her eyes, she rested her head back against the comfy sofa, biting her lip. He certainly never had, as a mere few minutes against the door had reminded her, should she have forgotten. “No, you definitely didn’t. I’m still not putting your cock in my mouth, though.” 

“Spoil sport.” The conversation moved away from their dalliance into the verboten, talking instead about of work and life, and then of Tiger when they were over half a bottle into the whiskey.  

“I know I say how perfect she is, the bias of being her mum, and she’s always so well-mannered when we meet up with you,” Rin began, her words peppered by giggles. 

“Apart from when we took her on the Harry Potter tour and she had a meltdown mid-way round,” he interrupted with, remembering the squealing well.  

“Yes, apart from that.” She paused again, looking pained. “You fucking have a habit of doing this to me, interrupting and making me forget what I was about to say!” 

He snickered, flicking the side of her glass. “No, darling. That’s called alcohol.”  

“Anyway, as I was saying…” 

“As you were saying.” 

God, how he knew how to wind her up, even when he was being playful rather than deliberately devious. “Be quiet, or I’ll black your other eye.” 

“You bloody won’t,” he warned, “look at it, still purple.” It was, too, just a smidgen marking the skin violet around the socket.  

“As I was saying, she isn’t the perfect, Tiger. She’s going through a phase of saying things she definitely shouldn’t at the moment. She called the window cleaner a dickhead the other day because he appeared suddenly and startled her.” 

Predictably, Sean cracked up hard. “The profanity apple has not fallen far from the tree, I see.” 

She laughed, cringing a little. “No, it certainly hasn’t. That child had bionic hearing, and stealth mode. I never know when she’s going to sneak up on me and overhear my vulgar mouth. Bastard shoes was another recent one, when she couldn’t get her little Timberland boots on because she hadn’t loosened the laces. Sokoro nearly pissed himself laughing at her.”  

“When do you plan on telling her who I am?” he then asked, Rin feeling a little pit inside for the question, no matter how gently delivered.  

“Soon, I think. Before our next meeting. She needs to know.”  

He smiled. “Good plan.”  

What was also a good plan to them that night was working their way through the rest of the Johnnie Walker, Rin feeling the effects strongly, not having much memory of the night. Upon waking the following morning, she certainly had no remembrance over how she’d ended up in Sean’s bed, her sober, slightly hungover self feeling a little flicker of panic. 

They hadn’t... nope. Her underwear was still on, she felt after checking, her shuffling around stirring the body at her side.  

“Morning,” he yawned, propping himself up. “I hope you don’t mind, but if you’d slept on the sofa you’d have only awoken to Butch trying to sit on your head, so I brought you in here.”  

“You have more than one bedroom though, no?”  

He might have been half asleep, but he heard the tease in her tones clearly. “I do, but the beds aren’t made up and I was too pissed to wrestle with a fucking duvet cover, so yes. Here you are.” 

The warmth of him, the bright of his blue eyes, the scent of his skin. No. Not again. 

“Here I am.” She looked down for a second, feeling a hand reach beneath her chin, Sean shifting closer, his heart quickening as she looked up from beneath her long, full eyelashes at him.  

That time, he was the instigator of the kiss they fell into, his body moving to cover hers. 

Now they were in trouble. 

[graceandfamily]

January 8, 1956. Chicago (IL): Film actress Grace Kelly, who will wed Prince Rainier III of Monaco when she finishes some film commitments on the coast, strikes several informal poses during a press conference. Photographers took special interest in the two rings given by the Prince. On the traditional third finger, left hand, she wears the engagement ring, and on the right hand, she wears an heirloom of the Prince´s family.

[writerswho]

I have two ideas:

Enid finds a tape on Weems' bookshelf, and she has no idea what a VHS is since she was born the year the DVDs sent the tapes to the coffin, curious, she asks Wednesday to arrange a way for them to watch it, and it's Zorro, Weds sends a picture to Gomez and in five seconds Weems breaks down their door very dramatic taking Weds by the shoulders and saying that she doesn't know what evil she released into the world and saying that she cursed all their souls, the next day Gomez and Morticia show up at school and then chaos.

Going through some lost stuff in the mansion attic, Weds finds a box full of copies of Chicago and curious she picks it up to watch with Enid, as soon as she puts it on, Morticia comes out of the shadows to say that there is no way they can watch that film, which causes a lot of trouble, because Weds doesn't take no for an answer, she lets it be and borrows Enid's mobile phone and buys a copy of it for them to watch in Nevermore, since the first song with Zeta-Jones rolling around on stage Weds makes it very clear that Enid can never, ever, talk about this film out loud. For more chaos, the whole gang is watching the film with them. 

[carrie11]

Open House Chicago

Fourth Presbyterian Church

This masterpiece was designed by Ralph Adams Cram, a champion of the Gothic Revival style. It is the second-oldest building north of the river on Michigan Avenue; only the Water Tower and Pumping Station are older. The Tudor-style parish buildings were designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw. The sanctuary was used to film the wedding ceremony in the movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding.”

[backgroundnoisewithaview]

As ever, tagged by the wonderful @novemberhush (over on my other account)

Last song - Work by Rihanna.

Last book - Good Morning, Midnight. For university. I can't say I enjoyed it, it felt like watching a car crash you can't help but look away from but I had no choice because I have to write an essay about it.

Last show - Chicago Med. I'm running out of free episodes to watch and I have to say with the way my fave is being treated, I'm not too bothered about continuing.

Last movie - I don't think I've seen a film since uni started up. This might be my CFS brain playing silly buggers. If i've mentioned watching a movie recently, I genuinely can't remember. But I think it was Stargate back in September.

Last thing I looked up/googled - name generator. Please say a warm welcome to a new OC for a fic I might never finish, Samuel Stewart.

Looking forward to - Finishing this damn degree, my friend's wedding before Christmas, my other friend's wedding after Christmas, and sleeping.

I'm going to tag @paulmescalsnose, @astrophysicist-guitar-god, @chaoskiro and @plainxte but nobody is *ahem* under pressure to do this if they don't want to.

[blogger360ncislarules]

Earlier this month, Brant Daugherty and Tammin Sursok had a Pretty Little Liars reunion in Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas movie Trivia at St. Nick’s. PLL alum Ian Harding has become a Hallmark mainstay, too, currently starring in Hallmark+’s Holidazed — and he tells PEOPLE his own Pretty Little Liars reunion moment on the network is “bound to happen.”

“I love a good overlap,” Harding says. “I’d love to work with Troian [Bellisario] or Shay [Mitchell] again, and obviously Lucy [Hale]. There's so much of a fan base there. I think it's got to be very specific, but a holiday rom-com with Lucy Hale? That'd be amazing!”

Since Pretty Little Liars wrapped in 2017, Harding shared the screen again with Torrey DeVitto — who played Spencer’s (Bellisario) big sister Melissa — in seasons 4 and 5 of Chicago Med. “She's become such a good friend of mine,” Harding says. “I was just at her wedding.”

Harding says fans never forget his PLL past, though, as he still gets recognized as high school teacher Ezra Fitz, who has a romance with student Aria Montgomery (Hale).

“I'm grateful that the rabid fan base has grown up a little bit,” he says. “A lot of times it's just the casual glance where somebody recognizes me, or they'll just come up and say like, ‘Hey, I was a big fan of that show.’ And they shake your hand and then you keep walking.”

Thanks to streaming, Pretty Little Liars has found new fans, too.

“It's still out there,” Harding says of the show. “You get new fans, but they're 12 years old and you're like, ‘We wrapped when you were five, how does that work?’”

Sometimes passersby can’t quite place how they know Harding. “That happens once out of, I'd say, every three times,’” he says. “Somebody will say, ‘Hey, you're that local news anchor,’ or something. Sometimes I roll with it, and sometimes I don't.”

Later this month, Harding will star opposite Lindsay Lohan in Netflix’s Our Little Secret, a holiday film in which two siblings discover their significant others dated when they all spend Christmas together. Harding feels that both Netflix and Hallmark’s holiday programming has “a lot of heart.”

“They're two sides to the same coin and I've been so lucky because I've been able to play in both,” the father of one says. “They both try and stick to the heart of what Christmas movies are, which is about connection and family. There's a romance to it, while also acknowledging there's a certain amount of anxiety that comes from dealing with family, and the only way to really address that is with humor and, in some cases, wine.”

For Harding, getting to work on both Hallmark and Netflix holiday projects feels like the ultimate Christmas present.

“I feel truly beyond grateful that this is my job, that I am paid to pretend to have Christmas surrounded by beautiful and funny people,” he says. “I hope that I get to keep doing it.”