#you also get the amazing beauty of our public television in the 80s

[cinemaocd]

Channel 3, Moscow, Documentary made by KTCA (Minneapolis/St. Paul Public Television) about intercepted/translated television from the USSR. 

[infinitegalahad]

Borhap Boys As Sugar Daddies

(reposted bc it was disappearing from the tags😭)

hey guys!! I wanna apolgoize for the disappearance, school is ✨madness✨ luv. so I've decided to try something new. But I promise I'm working on requests (and a bunch of new ideas). I love all of the borhap boys (bc they are babies🥺) so this might become a little series of head canons! no major warnings, just lots of fluff and some suggestive material. also reader is gender neutral (boy, girl, whatever you what it my dudes!) why not mix my fav trope and boys all in...one fic😳😳 anyways hope you guys enjoy!! I would love some feedback for future reference

Masterlist (requests are welcomed!)

Rami Malek-

Number one that gif of him...need I say more? 🥰

I’m sick of how ya’ll sleep on Rami!! I’m gonna give him tons of love

He would be one of the most affectionate sugar daddy’s tbh

Certainly would spoil the HECK out of you

Whether it be paying off your bills or lavish trips to Greece, Rami always has your back

You never had to pay a SINGLE PENNY when you were around him

Being with Rami, you were a changed person

Your fashion game went UPPPP

Like chanel perfume, all designer clothes, nice handbags, you NAME IT

”Rami, I’m not buying a five hundred dollar shirt from Theory.” ”What do you mean? It would look so good on you, sweetheart.”

Yes, Rami bought you the shirt

You two were at a vinyl place and you saw a limited edition queen vinyl

He buys it (and basically 10+ vinyls you love)

SO RAMI MAKES A WHOLE ASS ROOM IN HIS HOME FOR YOUR VINYLS🥺🥺

This man is omfg i loveee him❣️

Little sneak kisses to your forehead

Seeing you smile as you shop and blush at his complaints makes him so freaking happy HE LOVES YOU SO MUCH

He would take you shopping at the best stores

“I would be fine at a target, y’know” as you look around a Gucci store

Rami would snake an arm around your waist as he cooed into your ear, “My baby deserves the best, and nothing but the best

What started out as an arrangement turned into a genuine relationship

When looking for a sugarbaby, Rami was simply looking for company (and someone to spoil the heck out of)

In all truth, he was simply a lonely guy who simply wanted someone to make happy, and made himself happy in the process

Wherever you guys would go, he would always wanna hold your hand and be close to you bc he’s scared of loosing someone he’s made a connection with

And i’m totally not crying as I write this

Both of you were in dark places when you first met

Rami showed how much he truly cared about you

If you called him all upset, he would SPEED over with whatever you needed whether it be pizza or emotional support

Sitting on your couch, his arm wrapped around yours as you vented about your problems

Rami had convinced you to drop your job and come live with him because he’s a KING!!

”Angel, you’re not gonna have to worry about anymore.” ”What do you mean?”

You ended up quitting your job and moving in with him

What turned into an arrangement became an intimate relationship

The sex between you to was AMAZING

it was VERY intimate

It started off slow but would get increasingly rougher god I hate what I said

Rami would always check up and you and NEVER go past your limits

It would end with the two of you cuddling in bed

Let’s just say you never had to worry about your bills ever again😎😎

I MADE MYSELF CRY WHYYY

Gwilym Lee-

my love for this man? ENDLESS

Seriosuly gwilym lee HAVE MY CHILDERN

anyways to the pLOT

Gwilym is the sexiest and cutest man alive

The sugar daddy that will bring you EVERYWHERE HE GOES

He’s such a gentlemen

Like all relationships start, it was more of an arrangement then a relationship

Your job was to escort Gwilym at all these events as “company”

Gwilym would send a bunch of nice items and a driver to bring you to the location

”Hope you like this ❤️ xxx”   “Treat yourself! 😘xxx”

Like mister I-😳😳

Gwilym is literally such a sweet person

Whenever you were spotted with him, you would get thousands of compliemnts/questions

”You’re with Gwilym! So lucky!”

”That necklace is to kill for! Did Gwilym give it to you?”

”Teach my your ways!”

Whenever you’re at these events all these people give you evil stares

Your like👁👄👁 “is Gwilym a playboy??”

Gwilym is all like “what do you mean?? 🥺Of course not! Your the only one that matters to me right now”

He’s such a king we LOVE HIM

Spontaneous trips to France and Italy

Gwilym and you grow super close

Also your dates would range from fancy galas for Gwilym’s works or peaceful book/poetry readings

He LOVES books and always takes you to bookstores and gives his best recommendations

He literally turns into an english teacher while overanalyzing books

”The greenlight in Green Gatbsy is such a crucial symbol”

”Jane Austen is one of the best feminist writers, she was so ahead of her time!”

You wanna be annoyed but can’t

i can’t I LOVE GWILYM LEE I’M NOT SORRY

The two of you would lie in bed together

You would be slouched against his body as he stroked your hair, reading to you in that accent

As much as you love your gentlemen, you get him into the wacky world of ninety day fiance

”This looks like trash...I’m going to watch every minute of it!”

You guys order chinese food and watch this obsessviely for six hours

I know this is meant to be fluffy but why not add some 🌶

Sex with you and Gwil is like ✨fireworks✨

He would make sure you wouldn’t be able to walk the next day let’s just say😉

He would have to carry you around and kiss your head, saying “You're so adorable, poppet” or “Don’t strain your legs, Cariad!”

Also ceo of AMAZING NICKNAMES

”My anwylyd” (Welsh for dearest)

Would 100% write you romantic poems (over text and in paper)

And yes he WOULD dramatically read them to you😤😤✌🏽

He would always greet you with the most over the top nicknames like “Good morning cariad!” or “Sit there and act pretty, my beloved”

hi mr lee please make me your sugar baby

Gwilym is your sugar daddy but also your sweet, book loving man

He loves seeing you happy so in return, you make him happy💓💓

Joe Mazzello-

This one is a wildcard ladies and gays!! 😌😌

Joe definitely does not strike you as a sugar daddy

He seems more like your boyfriend than anything else

The two of you were inseparable

After dinner Joe would take you to a karaoke bar or for ice cream

After the first date you started calling him Joey

Drunken duets to cheesy 80’s romance songs

The two of you would sing your hearts out before vomiting from the copious ammouts of ice cream and vodka

With Joe it’s eithier mcdonalds or Nobu in TriBeCa

Mr.Mazello has range😌✨

This dude is the ceo of cheesy nicknames

”Yes my little lover muffin!”

”What is it cutie patootie?”

”You look amazing buttercup!”

“What’s up, hot stuff?”

In public he calls you “baby” or “lover” dw he saves you from public embarrassment 

You know that meme of will smith and his wife? That is basically you and Joe

My love for his man is infinite

Joe is super clingy

Hand holding and lots of PDA

He wants people to know that your his sugar baby😤😤💓

he will always send texts like

”miss you baby💓💗💓💗!”

”can you grab milk from the store pls??”

”SUGAR HONEY ICED TEA WHERE ARE YOU😩😩🤯🤯🤯”

”Joe, it’s been a day.”

He has so many photos of you in his camera roll

You are his lockscreen😔💓

The ceo’s of amazing instagram photos, whether it be you wearing a burger king crown at Burger King or You guys kissing on a boat with the Italian sunset on a private boat

Captions would be could “my favorite fairytale is our love story” or “yasss queen slay it!”

It’s cringey but god Joe is so adorable

A combination of a child and gentleman ALL IN ONE

All of his friends are like “you guys HAVE to be dating!’

It’s suppose to be nothing more than an arrangement right?

I mean the two of you were living with eachother and he dropped all of this other sugar babies for you

The two of you are master chefs minus the one time Joe burned mac and cheese and set the stove on fire

Also not to get smutty but the sex between you two? Like

Straight up RAMMING to sweet pillowtalk

Anyways Joe being your sugar daddy would definitely not be a bad thing at all😘

Always exchange those “I love you’s” 💕✨

Ben Hardy-

When first seeing Ben on your sugar daddy app, you were 100% intimidated

But upon meeting him, this tough dude was a PUPPY🥺❣️

On the first date he bought you flowers and gave you a hug

“Y/n, right?”

“That’s me!”

“I just wanted to say you look stunning, love.”

You were wearing jeans and literally smiled so much

You know this date was going to go VERY WELL NOW😩✌🏽✨

Instead of a fancy restaurant, Ben took you to a stroll around London

Whatever clothes you wanted? He got it

Whatever cafe you wanted to stop at? Buy all the tea/coffee and pastries you want

Hotel? Trivago

The two of you walked around the city, hand and hand as you got to know eachother

You ended up walking around the city for five hours up until midnight

You laughed and talked about thousands of things

In confusion, you had to see Ben again

As Ben walked you back to your place, you smiled at him,

”I’d like to do that again.”

”Call me when you want, y/n.”

So your “dates” became more frequent

Ben had the best ideas for dates

Dinners at small Italian places, walking around a museum, or just sitting in his place and watching mindless television

He made sure to spoil you

With gifts, literally and figurreitly

Sex was a large piece in your arrangeemnt

But it was not the only thing in your relationship

And it was!! Amazing!!

”You’re so fucking beautiful” as he would kiss your forehead and dive straight into it 🥺😳

Not only could that man be A BEAST but an absolute sweetheart

Everyday you looked forward to not only getting paid by him, but just talking to him for hours on end

He would stay up for hours just to talk to you, whether it be about your lives or anything

and that ladies and gays is a dedicated MAN

No matter what, Ben always found a way to touch you

He always had his hand on the chair behind you or your thigh

You guys would have pillowforts and nerf fun battles together

It would always end with a cuddle session

Frankie would be skeptcial but love you!!

You guys got so close that he took you on a trip to the greek islands AND PROPOSED!! LIKE!! YES!!😌😌😌

LIKE YES POP OFF MISTER BEN HARDY

[kumkaniudaku]

Media Darling

I’ve been gone a while. I’m sorry. Thanks for asking questions and sticking with me. I hope you enjoy this late tale of the Oscar’s Red Carpet. 

"Girls, I think we've done it. We've created a star." Deidra, CoCo's handpicked stylist, stepped back to join the rest of her glam squad and smiled. "You ready to see the finished product?" 

"Oh my God, I'm so nervous. Give me a second to breathe." 

Truthfully, there was no amount of breathing exercises or affirmations that could adequately douse the flame of anxiety building in Tasha's chest. She's been on plenty of red carpets, but none with the same prestige as the Oscars red carpet. She also had never been the plus one of arguably the biggest star expect to attend the award show. In roughly an hour, she would go from unknown businesswoman to most-searched person in internet forum history if she had a lash out of place. The thought was overwhelming. 

Several seconds passed until Tasha finally worked up the nerve to turn and face the floor-length mirror in front of her. She twisted and turned to examine her reflection, taking note of every sparkle on her dress and coil in her mane. 

"Am I giving Diana Ross glam or Tracee Ellis Ross doppelganger," she asked without looking away from the mirror. 

"Is either considered a bad thing?" 

A chorus of different answers sounded from the team as they all shared their opinions on the matter. 

"I see a bit of 80s influence with modern touches. The high neck and shoulder pads are just enough not to be out of my mother's closet and, paired with the cutouts in the midsection, bring a bit of class to the look." 

"And your hair! It's giving Whitney shape with Diana volume." 

"Now wait a minute, we talking 80s Whitney or mid-2000s Whitney? 'Cause you know there's a difference." 

"Shut up, Shay!" 

Tasha listened to her squad playfully argue in the background while she continued to go through her mental checklist. She had all of the makings for a great night and a few pictures if she got swept into the hype of the moment. Smiling at herself in approval, she turned to face her team. 

"This is really happening. Am I ready to be a thread on Twitter?" 

"Hopefully, they mention how good your ass looks in that dress. Who knew Miss CoCo was draggin' a wagon?" 

"I know, right! I'm learning how to twerk again. Look!" 

While Tasha turned around to demonstrate her new abilities, an unexpected visitor snuck into the room to observe the spectacle. 

"Ooop, I think we have a spectator." 

"And he is highly intrigued." 

"Wha-" A glance over her shoulder brought Tasha eye to eye with the reason she was in this predicament. "This isn't what it looks like." 

"That's too bad. I was enjoying the show." 

As the room cleared to allow the couple some privacy, Chadwick took a few long steps to close the gap between and his partner. He took her hand in his to spin her in a circle for a complete view of her ensemble. 

"Wow. I mean...woah. You look amazing." 

"Yeah? You sure it's not too much? I don't wanna have you blasted on social media." 

"If anyone can find something wrong with you tonight, I'll give them one million dollars. You're perfect." 

Chadwick smiled with his entire face, his eyes shining with sincerity. He didn't look away as he nodded toward an empty chair in the room for Tasha to take a seat. In all the time spent nervously considering every single detail that she hadn't noticed that she had yet to slip into her shoes. Once seated, she watched her man with thoughtful consideration as he took his time carefully fastening the straps of her heels. 

"Be honest with me. What should I do out there? How should I act?"

Chadwick sat in hyper-focused silence until he completed his task. When he was satisfied with his work, he looked up at her to offer a small smile. "All of this bullshit is fake." 

Tasha's mouth dropped hung open at the blunt nature of his statement before they both threw their heads back in laughter. "Well, then," she spoke as she attempted to catch her breath. "Tell me how you really feel." 

"I say it like that because I love you, and I don't want you getting caught up in this...circus." Reaching up, Chadwick gently used his hand to cup CoCo's chin. "It's a long carpet we walk on, people take pictures and ask questions, then we go and have a seat. Nothing more, nothing less. Be your beautiful self, Nippy." 

Tasha's adoration manifested into a tiny 'aww' as she leaned in to press her lips to his nose and mouth. "Thanks, babe. One last thing, though."

"Yes?" 

"Am I giving you 80s Whitney or 2000s Whitney? Shay says there's a difference." 

------------------------

The glitz and glamour of red carpet life that Tasha had imagined quickly became a cramped logistical nightmare. Her hand felt like it would break under the pressure of Chadwick's tight grip as he led her through crowds of media members and guests. At every corner, a new flash emerging from the group temporarily robbed Tasha of her vision. Every step of the way alternated between fears about her appearance and keeping up with her partner's long strides. 

When their walking finally slowed, she found herself in front of a long row of cameramen and women practically screaming for her attention. 

"Over here! Smile!" 

"Can we get a smile over here!?" 

"Chadwick, is this your new girlfriend?" 

CoCo's brain had begun to turn every word into white noise as she stood for the onslaught of pictures until she heard the last question above the rest. In a knee jerk reaction, she turned to the photographer and made a face. 

"Girlfriend? I don't know this man. I'm here for Lupita." 

In jest, she lightly pushed Chadwick away to pose for solo pictures. Her exaggerated movements drew attention from everyone in the area, taking some of the focus from more recognizable entertainers beside her. 

From the corner of her eye, Tasha caught the image of Chadwick's eyebrows knitted as he struggled to find an angle that would capture her entire body. When he found the perfect position, knees bent and leaning slightly backward; his eyes flickered up to catch a glimpse of her smiling back at him. Though the moment was brief to them, cameras in every direction captured their loving gazes. 

By the time they were away from the step and repeat and nearing the crowd of journalists, low rumbles of the mystery woman with the big hair were preceding their arrival. 

Stepping onto the E! podium, Tasha felt a surge of pride as she stood back and watched her man navigate yet another interview. 

"It's a big night for you and the Black Panther cast. What's it like being on this carpet with everyone knowing that next year, you could be walking away with some major hardware?" 

"Ah, man, it's amazing. The energy here is great and it feels good to see meaningful work be recognized. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we hope we can be recognized when it's our turn." 

While Chadwick answered questions and dished out Wakandan salutes for what felt like the 100th time, Tasha busied herself with scrolling through various social media applications. Her absent-minded scroll on the Instagram explore page came to an abrupt halt when she spotted an admittedly flattering photo of her backside. 

Before she could take a peek at the photo's caption, her ears picked up on what sounded like a repeated request for her attention. 

"I'm sorry, what was that? I was too busy telling my mama that I'm famous for washing the dishes when I visit now."

"Oh yeah? What'd she say," Michael Strahan inquired, his eyes twinkling with his signature smile spread across his face. 

"Mmmm, I don't know if I can say that on national television." 

"I guess it's a good thing we've gone to commercial then."

As the group shared a laugh, Chadwick used the distraction to pull Tasha's body closer to his. They shared a quick glance that said more than words ever could before attempting to tune into the conversation. Quick pleasantries and a request to enter the theater cut Michael's questioning short and sent the pair into the frenzy of bodies flooding to their seats. 

For hours, Tasha sat in unbearable boredom. She knew that a room stuffed with Hollywood's elite drooling over asinine accomplishments wouldn't be the time of her life, but she expected to enjoy a performance or two at the very least. Instead, she spent most of her time whispering comments to Chadwick and praying someone would walk by with a champagne flute so that she could drink her way out of her misery. 

At some point between the 50th commercial break and someone she didn't recognize giving a long-winded speech onstage, Tasha took to her phone for some form of happiness. Bright red notification icons lit up the screen across several apps leading CoCo to believe that someone had died or Beyonce had dropped an album. Scrambling, she chose to open Twitter for answers to the mayhem. 

To her surprise, her face was the first image at the top of the newsfeed. 

"Oh shit." 

Her quiet mumbling caught Chadwick's attention, and he leaned over to get a better look at what had grabbed her attention. As she frantically scrolled through the app, the screen became littered with images of her face with various expressions and commentary. 

"You know, I caught that look while I was up there, but I didn't wanna believe you would be actin' up like that in public." 

CoCo paused to shoot her partner a look before her eyes darted back to the screen. "It's okay, girl, we all look at him like this. That look when you know about to tear ya man up when he's done talking. Get you somebody that looks at Chadwick Boseman the way his girlfriend does." 

"Oh, I like this one," Chadwick laughed as he pointed to a tweet that caught his attention. "If she don't look at me like this, I don't want it. That's good advice." At Tasha's expense, Chadwick fell into a fit of hushed laughter until he noticed that he was alone in his amusement. "Oh, c'mon, it's not that bad. Laugh a little!" 

"I'd like to see you laugh when your debut to social media is people meme' ing your lusty lip bite. What am I supposed to do?" 

Leaning in, Chadwick placed a quick kiss on CoCo's cheek and smiled, "Enjoy the show. You'll be fine." 

If the anxiety of knowing the whole world had witnessed her inappropriate behavior in real-time, the array of notifications continuing to build across her phone had nearly induced full-blown panic. Responses ranging from requests to follow her accounts to an article on the '10 Most Important Things to Know About Chadwick Boseman's Oscars Date' kept Tasha on edge until the lights in the theater lit up the room to signal the end of the event. 

Her assumption that her usually predictable man would attempt to dart out of the crowd as soon as possible could not have been further from the truth. Instead, CoCo's pleas to exit the building and ditch the afterparty were, leaving her to awkwardly stand and grin behind Chadwick as she tried to decide who was silently judging her during each interaction. 

"You're Tasha, right?" 

Initially, Tasha was relatively content with playing the background but, the voice calling her name was far too familiar to ignore. 

"I'm sorry. Wait. Did Regina the King just call my name?" 

"Only if you're Tasha," she laughed. "Heard a lot about you in the last few minutes." 

"Hopefully, about how you can kinda see a six-pack forming in this dress and nothing about weird faces on social media." 

"Ya know, I think it was a little of both." The awkward nature of the moment seemed to fade away by the second, only leaving room for shared laughter amongst the trio. 

"Damn, I fucked up. I'm sorry, baby," CoCo apologized through laughter. 

"Oh girl, you have done everything but fucked up. You're a damn meme. You got white people doing E! features on your Red Carpet look." 

Tasha's mouth opened to speak, but no words came out while she watched Regina be escorted away with her eyes wide as saucers. As Chadwick wrapped up a side conversation, he noticed the look on his girlfriend's face. 

"Are you-" 

"Is it hot in here to you? I can't breathe." 

"Co. Focus on me. What's the matter?" 

"I need fresh air. We have to go!" 

Together, they made a beeline for the nearest exit in search of their vehicle for the night. While feeling the cool breeze of the Los Angeles night air began the process of soothing her frazzled nerves, the loud chatter and flashes of light that greeted them as they rounded a corner sent Tasha back into a small spiral. 

"Is it true that you two are secretly married?" 

"Are you pregnant?" 

"Tell us about the fight between you and his ex!" 

The ridiculous nature of the questions climbed in frequency and intensity as the pair used long strides to reach their destination. 

When Chadwick swung open the door for CoCo to enter the backseat, a reporter shouted over the crowd, "How does it feel to be on every major best-dressed list tonight? Designers are begging to style you." 

"Say what?" With one leg already in the car, Tasha turned her body toward the crowd. "Who wants to style me?"

"Christian Siriano posted pieces he thinks you would look great in on his Instagram. Rihanna wants you in Fenty." 

Chadwick could sense her shift in energy and allowed a smile to creep across his face, one that Tasha caught from the corner of her eye before mirroring the expression. 

Tasha took a quick second to toss her clutch into the waiting SUV before taking a step forward and smiling. 

"Well," she started, fluffing her hair and smoothing the front of her dress. "I guess we better give them some full-body shots to work with." 

------------

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[sunnysynthsunshine]

8th Comedy Monologue

(note: this monologue has some serious parts in between the joke/reference parts)

“Hey, comrades how are you?”

“Good, Bad a bit of both? understandable”

So a lot has happened, the Brits happened and Numberjacks and Moomins are the memes of the month ”

Now, I’m not that into “modern Pop music” so the Brits wouldn’t really be my thing, Jack Whitehall was hosting and I have to say…...his jokes were staler than breakfast toast

I like Jack’s work but boi he has his cringy moments and this was one of them, I,  I, can’t

But I’m not the one to talk about cringe, as I have had many cringy moments in my life, sometimes I’ve muddled up words saying things like “shut your noses” and sounding so overexcited I sound like a parrot

But that wasn’t all, as part of the photography class I go to me and my classmates had to go to hazel bank, it’s a nice seaside park sort of place, I’ve been there twice so far and I’ve enjoyed my times there,but the day before our first visit I was so tired that when I was trying to tell one of my mates about the visit, I couldn’t word my words right and I ended up saying……

“We’re going to the bank”

“Yup, Why I did that I have no clue, there would be no point to us visiting a bank anyway, there’s a big difference between the place you get money from and the place where you see a lot more dogs than you find places to take photos.”

“Seriously”

“Now a lot of things have changed since we last chatted, I’ve realised a lot of my material references old tv shows and films that some of my audience wouldn’t recognize,Derry Girls ended its 2nd season,I saw the stage version of Rocky Horror,I performed at a MicNight for one of my pals,Umbrella Academy premiered and I started watching Grace and Frankie which is like an American Abfab but with Jane Fonda

Hannah Montana was my childhood as it was for many others, we have Miley, the Jonas Brothers and Not Drake and Josh

now we just have to wait in the horizons for a

*Big Time Rush reunion*

Derry Girls was amazing, Congrats to Lisa McGee, Nicola Coughlan and all the people that bring the show to life

Even some of my American friends have tuned into it, from Dougal McGuire freaking out over the gang trying to flush hash filled scones down the toliet,the Take that episode and the masterpiece that was the formal episode with the Carrie tribute Rocky Horror was a mixed experience, the performances and crowd interactions were class, but I got wine spilt over me and I had to wait for ages for the train to take me and my mum home.

Now, MicNight that was something

It was for the birthday of one of my mates,Susi, I was just sitting around listening to indie bands and catching up with old pals for most of it,but another pal of mine was there, an online friend of mine who is now also an offline friend, my dear comrade Connor, he was such a nice bloke and then..my big break arrived I got to perform one of my poems, my Freddie mercury tribute and it got a round of applause,that was an iconic moment for me, although as I was finishing my reading I did have to remind them I wasn’t finished, it was like 12 pages long, what a good day, ...then times weren’t so good.

I was being a complete moron,I had to think about some things, days past and I’ve learned some things, I shouldn’t act like an expert on topics I barely know anything about...  

Now let me tell you just remember to be yourself, honestly, there’s nothing better you can be than your true self.

Now,...back to what I was talking about previously…

Oh yeah

Robert Sheehan

As a former emo kid, I loved My Chemical Romance, even though I had gotten into them after they had already spilt, Danger Days is better than welcome to the black parade and Gerard Way was and is one of my inspirations

Recently, one of his comics got turned into a Netflix series, Umbrella Academy and I know what your thinking

Robert Sheehan is amazing at playing Klaus...and your 100% right

There was also that Motley Crue movie and boi I have some tea about that

the term it's Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll is quite a gross term now

when you consider groupie culture, excess and all the other bad things some  "rock stars" did offstage

Bad things that would sometimes involve those of which who are underage

YES, LIKE JIMMY PAGE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT HIM, THE FILTHY NONCE

The Music industry is a dangerous and very problematic place

*inhale*/*exhale*

Ok let’s get back to some good news

Um Bad News are better than Motley Crue, and the cursed Black hole of the universe has finally been revealed to the world and Pluto has a new sibling 

but the space scientists think

 it needs a more suitable name than 225088 2007or10, 

welcome to the world, I learned that Boy George is part Irish and…

Now I’m on Easter break

A bit of advice

if someone is stressed out about an event and all the planning and transportation takes longer than usual 

Don't add another negative thing onto that because you'll make them explode

So I visited someone, a mate of mine, Susi again, I met her when I did the performing Arts course, amazing person but all of my mates are amazing anyway

This event was just a fun hang out day, with some of her mates who I hadn’t met before that day, they ended up being amazing too, I gave Susi the easter egg and we talked about lots of things, Motley Crue drama, the musical Jesus Christ Superstar….and a certain actor.

Oh, what was his name again?

Colin Crigson? No, “Mr Mayo?  Nah that can’t be it

“Mile?,Meal?, Maple?,....*clears throat*

Ah Ha! I know now you know the bloke I’m talking about

Rik Mayall,

Yes, him

Basically, I was giving them a history lesson on “the guy who played Drop Dead Fred” and why he was such a icon”

and it was great, I showed them pictures and we watched his appearances in the rocky horror sequel and I just loved telling them about him,

He was and is an icon for many reasons

He innovated British comedy, He was a very talented actor who worked in Film, Television, Music and Advertising, he was a proud feminist who was for Equal Pay, in the 80s he was in a public information film educating people about how to use condoms as part of the First Aids discussion programme.

he has inspired and performed for the following…Simon Pegg, Charlie Brooker, Mark Hamill, Jack Nicholson, Robin Williams, The writers of It's Always in Philidelphia, James Buckley, Noel Fielding and myself.

The day was a day to be remembered, and then what happened after that?

While I was posting my rik pics on twitter, I ended up posting a photo from Rik’s university days, the photo was of uni Rik with his mates, it was a black and white 1970s photo and he had on his big vampire esque gown with his semi-long blonde hair and a big smile

what did one of my internet mates say?

“You look just like him in this photo it’s weird”

*blinks*

“Why thank you, whether that’s a compliment or fact is up to you”

But honestly, that felt so good

To be compared to a icon like that is just such a nice thing to hear

*snorts a laugh*

I guess I’m the people's poet of the 21st century

I am going to live the best life that I can if you want to lead a full and complete life you have to be free. Freedom is paramount, your future is as bright as you make it...

It’s about the connection, not the destination, Spread Kindness

Some of those mantras are his and a few of those mantras are my own

Maybe...just Maybe times will get better, we can work together, we can make our planet beautiful again, for your all my best friends, the best friends I’ve ever had.

[mycommonplacesblog]

Western Feminism and Hijabs

Throughout this class we have taken a closer look at different types of gender inequality and women's issues. Within these parameters we also explored different sub-themes with one of them being ethnocentrism and feminism. But the one theme we talked about that I really wanted to focus on is ethnocentrism with a focus more on Western views towards Muslim countries and religious practices done by Muslim women. These ethnocentric views towards Middle Eastern countries, religions, and cultures comes from a lack of knowledge or an unwillingness to learn about their culture. Many Western mindsets believe that our way of life is better and therefore others should convert to our way instead of us learning and respecting theirs. The lack of knowledge has fueled not only a fear but a savior complex in Western culture towards Eastern culture and religions, especially the Islamic religion and predominantly Islamic countries. This fear is spread through misinformation and negative media coverage. In Dalia Mogahed’s TED talk she discusses how in a study it was found that over 80% of news about Islam or Muslims is negative. As a nation that is glued to televisions and has strong bias towards specific news outlets it is startling that most of the information we are receiving about Islamic culture is negative. This negative narrative towards Middle Eastern countries and Muslims started around 9/11. Life for American’s as we knew it changed that day, and with that change came a new hostility towards Muslims. Most Americans do not have a solid understanding of Islam, only knowing what they have heard from the news or others, and therefore view some of the religious practices as oppressive or extreme. One of the common arguments of oppression brought up by Western societies is that women who practice Islam tend to wear hijabs, niqabs, or burqas. They claim that it is oppressive for them to have to cover up and they blame religion and misogyny for this. But in all reality it is the woman's choice, many practicing Muslims do not wear any kind of facial covering at all. It is their choice how they practice their religion and how they follow the Quran.

These views and conversations started happening more openly after 9/11. As Dalia Mogahed said in her TED talk “...somebody else's actions turned me from a citizen to a suspect, Muslims were now viewed as terrorists just because of their beliefs and hijabs made them a more recognizable target. Racism against Muslims was not something that was new, but now it was being televised and was becoming a common view among Americans. Muslim’s were being ripped out of Mosques, harassed and beaten on the streets all because of their shared religion with a group of terrorists who radicalized it. Now how does this hate towards Islam turn towards a hatred for the hijab? Well in the obvious way hijabs are an outward way to show and practice Islam but in another way some people view it as oppressive. They can not seem to wrap their minds around the idea that a woman could make that choice herself to cover up, to hide her hair, face, and or body with a garment. It is obvious that men would take issue with this just in the same way they take issue with women who do not wear enough clothes for their liking. In my opinion non- Islamic mens views on hijabs are deeply rooted in ethnocentrism, the fact that women in hijabs are not dressed like typical Western women and also in misogyny because they believe the woman's body is for their pleasure and gaze. The biggest shock to me came with who truly has an issue with hijabs. 

It is “feminist” who seem to have the biggest issue with women wearing hijabs and who view it as the most oppressive. I put feminist in quoations because in my own opinion you can not want equal treatment and rights for women if you yourself are degrading them. To me it is very degrading to tell a woman they are oppressed when they are doing something out of their own free will. Feminism is about celebrating being a woman, fighting for the rights we all deserve, and protecting our fellow women. It is impossible to say you are fighting for the rights of women when in tandem you are disregarding their own choice. I do not see wearing a hijab as a women's issue but rather the response from others as the issue. In writing this reflection I re-read a few of the articles from this semester course load and noticed that in almost every TED talk or article about Muslim women they discussed how it was female friends or self proclaimed feminist who questioned their decision to wear a covering the most. But this is where ethnocentrism and feminism meet in this issue. Western women and Western feminist call these practices oppressive because to them it is. Wearing hijabs or burqas is not something that is common in America or Europe and therefore is already viewed as “wrong” or “bad”. Add to that the fact that it is women who wear it and it becomes a feminist issue. It becomes a case of “I can save you” not “let me understand why you do it and support you”. I used a meme in my commonplace book to show this whole savior complex women in Western societies have adopted. In the image you can see a woman in a burqa while a white woman tries to rip it off while saying “Hang in there, we will free you” while the woman desperately tries to keep it on. This is a perfect example of the overall idea that it is lack of knowledge that fuels this conversation. In our Persuell annotations assignment for Lila Abu Lughod’s Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving, my fellow classmate Sarah Jones made a compelling comment saying “To instantly assume a veil is a sign of oppression is being negligent to 1) learning the real reason behind why a women wears one and 2) the actual struggles that are being fought and not heard because of the "western obsession" about the veil”. This comment really stuck with me as it not only strengthened my own beliefs but also wrapped together all we had been learning from not only Lughod but all the other amazing Muslim women voices whose work we had been listening to and reading all term. This comment also made me think about the fact that it might not even be about the hijab but more so converting everyone to look and think like them. The hijab may be a symbol of difference from them, one they do not accept. Being a true feminist is fighting for what is truly right for women and to do that you have to be educated on what is actually needed.

Although I have a few memes on my tumblr depicting the ethnocentric feminism practiced in Western feminism I tried to aim my tumblr posts at the power in the hijab. It is important to switch your own personal opinion and appreciate that it is the woman's choice. One video I posted shows a women's soccer team circle and shield an opponent from the public as she fixes her hijab after it was shifted during the game. The other players did not even think twice before gathering around her, even though they did not wear hijabs and maybe were not Muslim they still respected her choice and knew that it was important for her hijab to cover her hair fully. That is what being a true feminism is about, you support women even if you do not share a common choice while also fighting for their right to that choice. The rest are aimed at showing the power Muslim women feel from wearing the hijab. That is what other women should be focused on, celebrating the beauty in them deciding to wear these covers and supporting their decisions. This is the biggest thing I have taken away from this class. I have taken away the knowledge about other cultures and other women's issues and have been able to use it to be a better fighter for women's rights. I have taken away that there is such beauty in other cultures and the beauty in the female spirit and everything women have endured to get to the place we are. That being said, there is still so much work to do and the only way to make progress is through understanding and education, two things I gained through this class.    

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/technology/entertainment/vows-the-writer-anne-lamott-gets-to-the-happily-ever-after-part/

Vows: The Writer Anne Lamott Gets to the Happily-Ever-After Part

The writer Anne Lamott recently sat in the living room of her Fairfax, Calif., house, wearing her signature dreadlocks, a loose cotton shirt and baggy jeans (skinny jeans are definitely not her style). At 65, she was about to get married for the first time.

When asked why she stayed single so long, she replied that she was shy and introverted and hated leaving the house, particularly for parties.

“If I go to a party, I become a Roz Chast character with my arms hanging at my sides and I feel like I’m developing a tic,” said Ms. Lamott, who has published 18 memoirs and novels, many about being a recovering alcoholic, single mother, incessant worrier and late-in-life churchgoer.

Yet in recent years, she found herself admitting to friends and fans (otherwise known as “Annieholics”) that a good marriage was the one thing she wanted but had not achieved. So she joined OurTime, a matchmaking site for people over 50, and forced herself to go on dates and make small talk. “Then, I saw this really handsome, soulful guy on OurTime and he was like me,” she said. “He was hard-core left wing, an intellectual, spiritual seeker.”

His name was Neal Allen, and she contacted him in August 2016. He promptly wrote back: “You rejected me already!”

He reminded her that they had exchanged messages on the site a few months earlier, but she had stopped communicating with him after learning he was allergic to cats (she sleeps with hers, which could also explain why she hadn’t found a partner sooner). Mr. Allen, 63, had left his job as a vice president for marketing at the McKesson Corporation in San Francisco to become a writer. He lived alone in a house in the woods in Lagunitas, Calif., and he had a wide range of interests that included Plato, bluegrass music, the New Testament and Vipassana meditation. He sounded much cooler than she remembered. “I said, ‘Take me back! Take me back!’” she said.

On Aug. 30, 2016, they met for coffee at the Two Bird Cafe in San Geronimo, halfway between their homes. “My first impression was that he was so handsome and I loved his nose,” she said.” We were just jamming. Life, God, books, movies. Life, God, books, movies.”

Mr. Allen, who was divorced twice and has four children, loved her “casual prettiness, “trippy dreads,” “kissable lips” and willingness to tell him everything, absolutely everything, about herself. “That kind of openness, it was like being sucked into a spider web,” he said.

The coffee date was followed, she said, by a “period of not only being in love but being sickeningly in love, it being like a mental illness.”

They spent every day together. They had long, heart-to-heart talks on her secondhand couch about things like how to approach death more mindfully or mistakes they’d made in the past as parents and as lovers. They took daily walks, either on the many trails that cover Mount Tamalpais, or up and down the aisles of Good Earth, a health food emporium in Fairfax, where they invariably bought too much chocolate. He said the only downside of falling in love with Ms. Lamott was that he gained 17 pounds in the first six months.

In some ways, they are opposites. She is afraid of almost everything, whereas he’s afraid of almost nothing. “It never occurs to me that anything will go wrong,” he said. Whenever she got overly anxious about a deadline, or climate change, or whether that shaking sensation was an earthquake, Mr. Allen made a cheese omelet for her. “Neal cooks, he cleans and yet he’s still a man’s man,” said Annette Lopez-Lamott, Ms. Lamott’s sister-in-law. “He respects women and that was very important to Annie who’s very power to the people, women’s rights.”

Crucially, Mr. Neal said, they got each other’s jokes “95 to 98 percent” of the time. “I have never, ever spent time with somebody as funny, as brilliantly funny,” he said. “Living with Annie is like being in a comedy sketch.”

Seven months after their first date, they bought a dilapidated house on a narrow, hidden lane in Fairfax. Now renovated, the house is airy and uncluttered inside, like a sentence with all the extra words removed. Ms. Lamott has her first new couch (all the others have been hand-me-downs) where she and Mr. Allen spend their evenings watching the news on television, dissecting the news, eating dinner and bingeing on dark Scandinavian movies, which they both love. “The level of brown bear-like comfort we find in each other is just amazing,” she said.

There’s also a renovated barn behind the house where her son, Sam Lamott, 29, and grandson, Jax Lamott, 9, live part time. When asked if everyone gets along, Ms. Lamott said, “It’s kind of like a wedding where there are all these disparate elements and you just hope there’s enough love and compromise that everything will work out fine, and most of the time it does.”

On Aug. 30, 2018, exactly two years after their first date, Mr. Allen pressed the pause button while they watching the United States Open and proposed.

They were married April 13 at Deer Park Villa, an events space near their house, in a redwood grove with Christmas lights swooping between the trees. The 150 guests were asked to “dress happily” and the Grateful Dead song, “Ripple,” played through speakers as the wedding party, ranging in ages from 9 to 80-plus, entered the grove in no particular order and at no particular pace. There was the sense that anybody could have joined them if they wanted to.

The tall bridegroom towered over everyone, looking somewhat like a basketball player in a black suit, while the bride wore a calf-length white dress she bought on eBay, Mary Jane shoes and a furry white cardigan.

The ceremony reflected the couple’s idiosyncratic patchwork of spiritual and political interests. The officiant, the Rev. William Rankin, an Episcopal minister and a founder of the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance, read a passage from the benediction at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, pushing for racial equality, global peace and turning tractors into tanks. Jack Kornfield, a Buddhist meditation teacher, presented the couple with his version of a “ring,” a Tibetan singing bowl and a wooden mallet. He suggested they tap the bowl and listen to its ring whenever they had a “How did I get into this feeling?” mood as husband and wife.

The Rev. Tom Weston, a Jesuit priest, also stood with the couple. He didn’t speak much, but he did exude a kind of fatherly benevolence, as he does in some of the bride’s memoirs.

Sam Lamott, the man of honor, read an E.E. Cummings poem; and Marina Allen, a daughter of the groom, sang “Let Me,” a sweet, quirky love song she wrote for the couple.

The bride and bridegroom each took out a piece of paper, and their reading glasses, and recited the vows they had written. Hers were neither writerly nor weighty. She just made a few simple observations like, “Your love has given me permission to be softer, wilder and more real.” His were also spare, mere brush strokes of promises and intentions. “I’d very much like to continue our exploration of love indefinitely,” he said politely, as if he were asking her to dance. The couple have a light touch with everything, especially each other. Out in public, friends said, she’ll just barely hold on to his belt loop, or his sleeve.

They left the grove to the Van Morrison song, “Into the Mystic.” Meg Lundstrom, a longtime friend of the bridegroom, said afterward, “I’ve been telling my friends that the smartest person I know is marrying the kindest person I know but I don’t know which is which.”

Everyone gathered inside the “villa,” a rustic house next to the grove, for dinner at long tables that were decorated with pink paper runners and colorful leis. It looked like a child’s birthday party.

Laura Neely catered the dinner, along with her staff of mostly middle-age women who called themselves “the old gangster catering crew.” Ms. Neely said she particularly admired Ms. Lamott for not leaping into marriage, until now. “Getting married now is the best thing ever because that’s for sure going to be your toe-tag husband,” she said.

Now that Ms. Lamott has found her lifelong partner, does she have any advice for those who might still be looking? “If you’re paying attention and making your own life as beautiful and rich and fun as it can be, you might just attract someone who’s doing the same thing,” she said. “You can give up on tracking someone down with your butterfly net.”

A natural cheerleader, especially for underdogs, she also posted this on her Facebook page: “Never give up, no matter how things look or how long they take. Don’t quit before the miracle.”

[mfmagazine]

Mat Fraser

Article by Lauren Weigle

A quick chat with the amazing Mat Fraser. If you don’t know him, read this then LOOK HIM UP.

What advice do you have for up-and-coming artists with disabilities who aspire to succeed in the entertainment industry?

Be prepared for NO, but keep going until they give in.  Be better at what you do than your non-disabled counterparts and you might just get seen as almost as good.  Fuck the system, but if you ain’t mainstream success, to some extent you have to behave as if you love it.  Don’t use your disability to get away with lack of talent, bad behavior, mistakes, and other human attributes.  But, by all means, use it to perform, make yourself more interesting, and recognize the duality of being different in as positive a way as you can manage.  It will help.

Can you provide us with a little background on your life prior to becoming a performance artist?

Normal school; got expelled for too much sex, drugs, and rock and roll; 16 years professional rock drummer in bands like Living In Texas, Joyride, and The Grateful Dub.  Then I got my disability consciousness and became a performance artist, actor, writer, poet etc.

As a triple threat rock musician, performance artist, and actor, which of the three are you most passionate about and why?

Well, all of them...but I guess portraying disabled characters that reject the tired clichés of “Hollyweird”, showing us to be the full gambit of possibilities that we are. That gives me a thrill.

You also have passions for martial arts, writing poetry, and radio.  Can you elaborate on these hobbies for us?  Also, do you have any additional interests that you enjoy?

Well none of them are hobbies.  I am a martial artist which is a way of life. Radio, I do professionally for the BBC, and I still occasionally write poetry, but I prefer scripts these days. One day I’d like to write a whole play in modern verse.

For 15 years you were a drummer for several rock bands.  Would you mind telling me about your experiences with these groups?

Sex, drugs, rock and roll, occasional groupies, and more drugs.  I had a great time in Living In Texas, signed to EMI France, and was on day-time TV.  We had a big LP, spent lots of money, and then were dropped by the label.  We toured a lot in 80’s in Europe, then 90’s in Europe, and Sweden until we settled in a speed metal band/dub reggae band in Brixton, London.  Happy, simple days of maximum partying.

That sounds insane!  What are your personal opinions about touring and have you given any thought to performing with a band again in the future?

I would love to.  In fact, I’m trying to put together a Cramps/Velvet Underground tribute band, made up of freaks and tattooed girls, called The Spazms.  Touring has its own rhythm, and once seasoned in it, you can learn to really enjoy its fun...lack of sleep, good food etc.  These are the down sides, but still worth it all.

Well, after those crazy and successful days as a drummer, you expanded your musical stylings to rap and speaking poetry, recording several albums.  Tell us more.

I wanted to SPEAK to people, tell them how shit I thought everything was, and communicate my disability in society angst to the world.  It never occurred to me how ludicrous that was:  a white, middle-class, disabled, old rapper from Britain.  I liked what I did though, and did 2 LP’s full of my vitriol and rhythms.

Well, aside from your talents as a musician, you have a few fun projects you are involved with right now including hosting at The Slipper Room, various burlesque shows throughout Manhattan, and the Coney Island sideshow.  Could you give us some more details about these events?

Well, I regularly host the Slipper Room shows now.  I get on with their house style and like to bring my mutated sideshow humor to bear on the bare.  The sideshow itself is a great place to hone your performance skills and find out who and what you are as a disabled performer.  I love working there and hope to be able to do a lot of next year’s summer season.  That also goes for the occasional flash style performances I’ve been involved in, in NYC.  I love the openness of possibility there.

In addition to these shows, you have Beauty and the Beast coming up, in which you are accompanied by Julie Atlas Muz.  Can you describe the show and your performances to first-time audiences for us?

It’s between theatre and Live Art, it’s a child-like story for adults, it’s the ultimate romance, and it’s quite nude, but not rude. It makes people cry, cheer, and standing ovate.  An hour long, we interpret the classic story to inhabit the Oedipal transfer and the equation of mutation as beastly, to find true love only can be free when one is free of all trappings of so-called “prisonesque” normality.

How do you handle mistakes during a public performance?

Treat it as a lesson, be focused enough to not let it happen again, but don’t kill myself with remorse.

Was creative performance always an aspiration for you?  

It’s my life, indeed.  I am stared at 24/7 in my life. To be able to control the nature of that attention is a wonderful gift, catharsis, therapy.  But, most of all, it is power, the power to transform people’s minds and ideas, to help them open up into more knowing beings, and to enjoy life.  I get all that and loads more by being a performer; so of course, it is the only way for me to go.  The alternative is being unable to change the misconceptions and prejudices about disabled people, which I have no interest in or time for.

What kind of parts do you prefer to play in terms of your roles or gigs as an actor?

Anything at all, but I love it when it has nothing to do with my disability...however I also love it when it’s integral.  These days I enjoy comedy and character roles.

Well, since we’ve been talking about your disability…being born with phocomelia, can you provide us with a little background on how life for you differs from those who have been born without this syndrome?  And, can you briefly describe phocomelia for those who are unaware?

It means seal-like limbs, which is fairly descriptive because our limbs do look a bit like flippers of seals, especially in X ray format...you can see the bone structure is flipper like...The differences I have encountered growing up are less about how I manage to dress and wipe my ass etc., but more about the social stigma of being extremely physically different and the negative assumptions/reactions you get from the general masses. Most of the time they are lovely, but not always. Dealing with that and processing how to manage it all while remaining sane and functional has been what growing up was all about for me.  

How has living with phocomelia affected your being a drummer and performance artist?

As a drummer, merely physically, in that I had to literally reconfigure the drums’ positions in order to play them well.  As a performing artist, they have been my inspiration, my reason for becoming a performer, so living with them has been a joy.

Now, how about a few random questions?  Can you tell us a bit about the most memorable film or television production in which you have participated or acted?

My film “Unarmed But Dangerous” was incredible.  It cast me as the action hero, “Bruce Willis with flippers”, as it says on the back of the DVD. Really violent, underground sicko, British gangster film…I loved it.  Then, the big TV series came out in the U.K., “Cast Offs”, because I have a big part and get to play a really complex character.  And, because it is seminal in that all 6 main characters are disabled and moreover all played by disabled actors…Never happened before.  

To you, the word “success” is defined as what?

Fiscally independent sanity, smothered in universal love.

Any last words?

Get me a drink!

[atravelersseoul]

Flight and First day in Seoul

6.24.17~6.26.17

Our flight to Toronto left Columbus around 10:30. It was a fairly small flight, seating no more than 50 people. It was a pretty fast and easy flight, which was lucky because the bathroom was broken on that plane, so that could have been disastrous.

We got into Toronto and the airport may have looked small from the outside but the inside was very big, fancy and artsy; they had mini art galleries and shopping boutiques; there was a coach store and a Victoria secret store. Our connecting flight to Seoul was delayed by about 25 minutes so we all decided to get some snacks and whatnot since we were all hangry.

After about an hour and a half we boarded the connecting flight to Seoul and the take off preparations/safety instructions were very interesting; they were repeated in about 5 languages: English and french because we were in Canada, and then Korean, Chinese and Japanese because we were flying into Seoul. i can’t really remember, but there might have been Spanish too, for some reason. For about the first few hours we were very excited about the flight: the food, the mini television screens that had everything you could want on them. We all watched a movie together but towards the end of that one I was starting to doze off every now and then. During that movie we got our first meal which was a dinner. It was surprisingly very good, especially for being airplane food. The main part was rice with marinated beef, cabbage and lettuce. There was also a salad, bread, and a brownie.

 At this point it already felt like it had been forever since we had been on the plane even though it had only been roughly 3 hours, so I decided to try and get some sleep even though we had all been playing on staying up so that we could been on the time zone when we got there. It was not a very deep or comfortable sleep but I did what I could. When I woke up I looked through some more movies and shows and found some episodes of the middle so I watched all of those. I then found an episode of fairly odd parents and watched that. With nothing much else to do I watched the latest bourne movie. Somewhere in the middle of that we got a small snack that had a mini sandwich, pretzels, some type of cracker/cookie, and I ended up getting some coffee to help me stay up. I finished the bourne movie and finally picked a Korean movie to watch. Id heard that it was really good so I decided to watch it…I ended up crying at the end, it was sooo sad…even though it was in the comedy section. towards the last few hours of the flight we got a breakfast and that was even better than the dinner. We got an omelet with sausage and potatoes and a spinach sauce. There was also a fruit cup and bread.

The descent and landing was a bit rough; there was a lot of turbulence, probably the most I have ever felt. There were a few times that you could actually feel the plane drop for a second or two and you could feel your stomach drop. It was almost like we were on a roller coaster. The landing itself went pretty smoothly though.

After we landed we had about 3 hours until the shuttle bus left to take us to the dorms so we exchanged currency, got some food and other little things we needed to do. at that point we were all just so exhausted and wanted to get back and sleep as soon as possible. once we got on the shuttle we had about an hour drive from Incheon airport back to the dorms which are about half an hour outside the very middle of Seoul. The drive there was very interesting, the way people drive here is insane, especially the bus drivers. People just weave in and out, and change lanes so fast and seemingly without a care. When we got to around the campus the driver had no idea where our specific building was or where to drop us off so he just stopped the bus in the middle of the road to call someone and ask where to go…that was very mind boggling. When we eventually figured out where to go, walking to the building was a whole other adventure in itself. I don’t think there is a flat piece of ground anywhere in this city, so we had to lug our bags up and down multiple hills to get to the dorm. On one very steep hill one girl accidentally let go of her bag and it went flying down the street and almost took someone out. that gave me so much second hand embarrassment, it’ll last me enough for a lifetime.

We got to the dorm around 10pm and had to do some stuff for check in and whatnot. Once we got to the rooms we realized there were several things that we were all missing, so we all went down to the convenience store that is right around the corner. Let me tell you, the convenience stores in America have nothing on the ones here, they are amazing. They literally have everything you could need and everything is so cheap. They have an entire section just dedicated to different types of ramen and they even have a ramen making station, complete with a microwave. They know what they're doing here. One big thing was that none of the rooms had toilet paper so we bought two giant packs to share with pretty much the entire hallway, but we have not really given them to anyone yet so I currently have about 15 rolls of toilet paper sitting under my desk.

Once we got everything we headed back to the rooms because everyone was pretty tired. I ended up just taking a shower and then going to sleep. Another thing that is awesome is the shower. The whole bathroom itself is pretty much the shower; the floor in the bathroom is about an inch or two below the floor in the rest of the room, and there is a drain in the shower but also in the middle of the floor outside of the shower door. That way, it doesn’t matter if you get water everywhere…it stays in the bathroom and drains.

Waking up the next day was kinda hard because we had to meet the program staff outside the building at 8am sharp to head to our orientation at the program office in the city. The trek there was the first time we were all going to be taking public transportation to the city, and the transit system here is very intimidating at first. In the Seoul metropolitan area, I believe there is a total of 18 subway lines and I don’t even want to think about the buses. Despite it being scary, the transit system is sooo nice and it works so well, so much better than in the US. To ride the subway and buses you have to buy a card, called a “T-Money” card. You basically just load money onto that card every now and then to scan and pay at the stations. Whats really nice is that if you need to take the bus after the subway, it doesn’t charge you for the bus if you get on it within 30 minutes of getting off the subway.

So getting to the office wasn’t too hard but it was really frustrating. The third party program that we went through that brought us to Korea University had a total of 66 students in it. taking 66 american students on the subway is very complicated and very headache inducing. Especially when a lot of these students are heavily reinforcing the stereotype of loud obnoxious Americans by being so loud to the point of being disrespectful. But we mad it there in one piece without being scolded so I guess that’s a mission accomplished. From the subway we had to walk quite a ways to get to the building and it was scorching hot. From what I recall it was around 85 degrees with 80% humidity: I was literally dripping sweat. While we were all dying of heat, there were so many people that we saw walking that were in pants or long sleeves that looked perfectly fine, not a drop of sweat on them.

Once we got to the building they told us that the office was on the 11th floor, which was somewhat shocking. That is one very cool thing about the city, everything is just stacked on top of each other. Since Korea itself does not have a lot of land, (apparently the entire country is smaller than Minnesota), things are built upwards instead of outwards. The building however only had one elevator and only took like 6 people at a time, so at some point we just decided to take the stairs, which was a bad idea. By the time we got to the top, I felt very American. I was sweating buckets, breathing like I’d run a marathon and it made me realize how long it’s been since I last exercised.

The orientation itself wasn’t too interesting, just going over stuff we needed to know about classes and safety and whatnot, and it lasted way too long. After we got done, they took us to Gwanghwamun market that was nearby for lunch. We didn’t have a lot of time so we found a little place to just stop by and get some food at. We got some ddeokboki which is spicy rice cake and I got naengmyun which is a buckwheat noodle soup. It took longer than expected so we had to leave before we could finish all the food so we felt pretty bad, but we were gonna be late if we didn’t.

after lunch we headed to Gwanghwamun square that is a big plaza in the middle of an eight lane highway that leads up to Gyeongbok Palace. In the square, there are two statues, one of Admiral Yi Sun Shin and one of King Sejong, who invented hangul, the written alphabet during the Joseon dynasty. Across from the square in the main gate of Gyeongbok palace, which was the royal palace of the Joseon dynasty and was built in 1395. It was really just incredible to see this beautiful old palace right in the middle of the city among huge modern buildings. Inside the palace it was amazing to see a lot people in hanbok, which is the traditional Korean dress. It seemed like a lot of people, especially couples go there to take pictures in their hanboks. The architecture was absolutely breathtaking and it was hard to take in how big the whole place was. It really made me wonder about what it would have been like when it was built and what life was like inside of it. everything about it was just so beautiful and incredible, it was so amazing to be able to walk around and experience it.

one funny thing was we actually met someone from ohio while we were walking around. We wanted to take a group picture next to one of the buildings and the person we asked to take our picture was from here. He was actually a part of the broadway tour that was performing the musical Chicago in seoul, so that was just very interesting to meet someone coincidentally like that.

After touring the palace, we went to a shop that rented out hanboks and had sessions for people to try them on and take pictures. It was definitely a new and interesting experience, but it was towards the end of the day so we all were tired and sweaty and probably smelled really bad. but after we finished there, we were done with group activities so they just released us into the city to do whatever and then find our own way back. Amanda has a friend who lives in seoul and owns a brewery/restraurant so we headed to one of his restaurants in Hyundai Mall for dinner around 6. I ordered some chicken and ended up getting what seemed like 2 whole chickens, I think there was around 20 wings, so I definitely did not finish them all. While we were eating we saw a mini stand that was serving drinks in lightbulbs. It was the cutest thing and we simply could not pass it up. It was called “Bulb Smoothie” and for some reason that just cracked us up. The guy working the stand was very cute and charming so that made it even better hehe. We ended up staying until the mall closed at 9 and then made the long ride back to the dorms and pretty much knocked out as soon as we got in our rooms. We had early morning the next day for another orientation so we all wanted some good sleep.

I think i’ll save the next day for a different post so this one doesn’t turn into a novel, although it’s already pretty long by now. So if you made it this far, all the way to the end I applaud you.

-Bea

[aion-rsa]

The Teleprompter Interview: Andy Nyman ‘The First Poster I Ever Had On My Wall Was Joanna Lumley’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

 “It’s a classic ghost story with one of the best filmed jumps ever,” sums up Andy Nyman of Herbert Wise’s 1989 TV movie of The Woman in Black, “It properly delivers, and it properly delivers in a fantastically old fashioned way. It’s a proper ghost story at Christmas.” He’s not wrong. Now restored and released on Blu-ray with a load of new extras, the movie is still incredibly effective. Nyman has recorded a new commentary for the film along with fellow horror experts Kim Newman and Mark Gatiss. Nyman has a personal connection to the film too – it was his very first TV role, playing legal clerk Jackie, opposite Stephen Mackintosh as his sidekick. 30 years on and coming back to do the commentary was a joy, he explains.

“Oh, look, I honestly love it all so much,” he beams. “I never take anything for granted.” Nyman and Gatiss have known each other for years. “The first words Mark ever said to me were, ‘Have you seen the new Chaplain? He eats his boots, Mr Kidd!'” laughs Nyman, doing an impression of a line he delivers in the film. “It’s amazing that The Woman In Black was the first thing we ever talked about. He was a fan of it.”

Nyman recorded the commentary on lockdown, “It was just amazing to see how beautiful it looks. The restoration is amazing,” he says. “Also, just that slow burn power – it just takes its time bit by bit and creeps up on you. And how profoundly bleak the ending is. Christmas Eve, holy shit. You’re going out like that.”  

Adapted by Nigel Neale from Susan Hill’s celebrated novel, the story follows young lawyer Arthur Kidd (Adrian Rawlins) who is hired to settle the estate of a reclusive widow who has passed away, but out at the remote Eel Marsh Manor Kidd experiences strange goings on that drive him half mad, including the apparition of the titular woman in black.

Nyman says it’s reminiscent of public information films in the 70s. “There’s something very unforgiving. I think that’s one of the things that’s incredibly British about the sensibility of The Woman in Black, in all its incarnations. Susan Hill’s story, the play version, this first incarnation of it, is there’s a sort of quiet misery that is so British,” explains Nyman.

British storytelling is important to Nyman, whose hit play, and later movie, Ghost Stories is steeped in a similar Britishness.

“It’s easy to forget we’re a little island where it rains 80% of the time. That’s part of who we are,” he says.

We can expect to see more of that once production starts up again – Nyman and writing partner Jeremy Dyson have written their next play and film already. He’s closed-lipped about the details but both are genre, “and born of our sensibilities and some of the things we’ve touched on in Ghost Stories that we wanted to explore a little bit more,” he says. 

Nyman reveals the shows that shaped him…

Is there a TV show that inspired your career?

Well, not inspired my career necessarily, but Thriller when I was a kid, the Brian Clemens’ series, had a profound effect on me. It terrified me. There was one episode in particular that truly, truly terrified me. I was probably seven and the babysitter was around, and my sister was like, “Let’s watch it, it will be fine.” I got as far as the titles, there was a little two-minute pre-sequence and then the titles, and the music, holy shit, it’s so disturbing. So that really terrified me, and laid dormant for years until I started digging into horror again and re-found that series. 

Hammer House of Horror was another thing that when I was at school everyone would talk about. I used to love it. I had these books all about horror films and stuff, but I just could not watch them. But those two were ones that really played a big part growing up in just feeling like there was a subversive world that I didn’t want to go near, but I wanted to go near. It was both things at once. 

How could I not have said Doctor Who? Those Jon Pertwee Doctor Whos, oh my god. Again, you’re toying with that fear, it’s like probing the fire, so I really liked that when I was growing up. 

Who or what was your first TV love?

You mean in terms of like, “Oh my god I’m in love with them.” 

It’s up to you. You can answer it that way. 

Joanna Lumley. 

In which show?

New Avengers.  The first poster I ever had on my wall was Joanna Lumley in that. It was the three of them, it was Steed, her and Gareth Hunt. Terrible. But she was the only one I cared about. I wasn’t even aware of “I fancy her.” It was just like, “Who is that? Amazing.” Also, the fact she did karate, just fantastic.

When did you last cry watching television?

Oh I’ll cry at anything. It won’t be long ago. All right, two nights ago, you know what I cried at? I re-watched Rambo: Last Blood. 

I was in floods at the end of it, at the pictures. I cried again watching it the other night, because number one, I loved it. I know it’s got its flaws, but I loved it and I love him. Watching that end montage sequence just brought back … It’s a character and an actor who has been with you for 30 years, and it’s my dad. I mean, my dad wasn’t John Rambo, but the first video we ever rented was First Blood. It’s like emotionally intertwined with it. So the question should be, when did you last not-cry at something?

What was the last TV show you recommended to a friend?

Unorthodox, which we just finished. But we watch loads, recommend loads. I’m really enjoying Perry Mason at the moment, I recommended that to someone today. There’s brilliant TV out there. I’m halfway, two-thirds of the way filming Unforgotten. I’m one of the guest leads in the new series of that, which I’d never seen until I got offered the job and then watched it. It’s amazing. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, it’s all on Netflix. It’s phenomenal. It’s the thing with Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar, the cold case thing. It’s British, the casts are always brilliant, it’s brilliantly written and acted. Just fantastic. So I think it’s a golden period for TV. TV has changed. 

Which TV theme song do you know all the words to?

That’s a really hard question, because I bet if one started now, I’d be able to sing it. There’s loads I know, but most of them are from my … So the first one that comes to mind is Record Breakers. [Sings] “If you’re the tallest, the smallest …” The next one that comes to mind is Minder. [Sings] “I could be so good for you.” I love a TV theme. I’ve got albums of them up here, Great TV Themes. I love them. That’s one of the things I really miss about streaming as well, skip the titles and all that. I love a good theme, I want a good TV theme. 

Which TV show would you bring back from the dead if you could?

Maybe Thriller, Brian Clemens is a bit of an unsung hero. The stuff that he wrote and created is just amazing. Those scripts are so good. It’s very dated now, but some of the plotting and stuff, and the writing is just great. 

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had making television?

Probably Dead Set. It came at the most amazing time. My dad had literally just died, they postponed the shoot for me. God bless them. All you hear about are the stories of producers being awful and this and that, they were just amazing. So we had a week, I’m Jewish, so we had the shiva period, the week of mourning for my dad. Finished that on a Sunday night, Monday morning I was being chased by Davina. It was Charlie Brooker’s first drama, an amazing script, Yann Demange’s brilliant direction. It had this ragged energy to it. Then to get my head ripped off, to have all that blood and guts. I’ve been blessed, I’ve had a wonderful varied brilliant career. I cherish them all, but that was definitely a highlight. 

Andy Nyman in Dead Set

Which TV show do you wish more people would watch?

I’m laughing, because I’m going to say Dickinson’s Real Deal. I don’t know, there’s just so much material out there, isn’t there? So much material. Do you know what? There was this stupid reality show that we loved called Hardcore Pawn, P-A-W-N. Oh, my god. I think it’s set in Detroit. We absolutely loved that show. I miss that, I wish they still showed that. Dumb answer, but …

Register your interest in the standard Blu-ray edition of The Woman in Black coming soon from Network.

The post The Teleprompter Interview: Andy Nyman ‘The First Poster I Ever Had On My Wall Was Joanna Lumley’ appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2R25MCa

[womenofcolor15]

MOM BOSS ENERGY: Tia Mowry Says She Doesn’t Have Time For Post-Baby Body Shamers, Shares Update On ‘Sister, Sister’ & ‘The Game’ Reboots + Tamron Hall Covers 'Parents' Mag

Coifed queens Tia Mowry Hardrict and Tamron Hall serve up all the mom boss energy on daytime television. Body shamers can kiss Tia’s behind and Tamron is taking over the magazine circuit. More inside…

Tia Mowry Hardrict just embarked on a new hair journey after chopping off her tresses recently!

The mom-of-two made a stop on the “Tamron Hall Show” to show off her cropped coif in a pink A.L.C. dress and Gianvito Rossi heels. And she also wanted to deliver a message to the post-baby body shamers. The “Sister, Sister” alum is reclaiming her time when it comes to folks opinions about HER body. The 41-year-old actress has said before “snapping back” has not been a goal for her. She’s doing it HER way and she’s doing it on HER time.

In an Instagram post, Tia shared a picture of herself in a body suit with the caption, “Checking in. #17months post pregnant. I did it my way and in my time. Many women feel the need to #snapback right away after they deliver. That was never the goal for me. I was called #fat during my #pregnancy and I was called #fat after my #pregnancy. Why do we do this to each other? Instead of #love one another other? I will never understand that. I intentionally documented my journey and became vulnerable to show #women that it’s okay to go at your own pace, it is okay to love yourself no matter where you are in your journey,” she wrote.

Online trolls have weirdly bashed Tia over her weight, but she shared how she got through it. Basically, she doesn’t have time for that ish! She's too busy being an amazing mother, wife, sister and daughter.

“I really feel that it’s a shame that people just tend to bully women, especially after they’ve brought a beautiful child into this world,” Tia told Tamon.

“Women are vulnerable after they have their baby, you're going through hormonal changes emotionally -- postpartum depression...and then you have people not being kind about the weight that you’ve gained – that you’re supposed to gain - after having a baby. I think I’m so passionate about it because I understand what bullying does to the psyche...I have no time for it!”

"The Game" actress said being a working mother isn't easy, but it has definitely changed her for the good. While motherhood has had an impact on her life, she reminded women that we also have to make sure we carve out time to nurture the other relationships we have with others.

“It’s okay to not be perfect. It’s not easy being a mom and a working mom..I feel like motherhood has definitely changed me. Now that I have two amazing beautiful children and now that I'm a mother I just learned how to appreciate the small things and the little things in life...I think it’s very important that when you are in a union or a marriage and you have children that you keep that relationship strong. My husband and I have date nights once a week, even if it’s at home.”

Cute.

          View this post on Instagram

                  #nyc you were amazing!! Thanks so much for always making a girl feel welcomed! BTS- @tamronhall @tamronhallshow #lady in #pink #naturalhair #shorthair

A post shared by TiaMowry (@tiamowry) on Feb 5, 2020 at 3:56am PST

  Tia also detailed her passion to become the ultimate #MomBoss, saying she just wants to “rule the world” and her motivation behind her supplement line and the importance of self-care saying:

“Life is short. I want women to meditate on this statement that self care isn't selfish. I know a lot of women that when they have children or just women in general we tend to just focus on everybody else, but how can you be the best CEO, entrepreneur, the best mom, sister if you don't take care of yourself?"

In this era of reboots, fans have been wondering if "Sister, Sister" and "The Game" will be making a return to television. So, what's tea, sis?

“So many people are asking this question," Tia said. "We tried to do it, but some rights and stuff kind of got in the way. It makes me sad and also we even tried to reboot 'The Game' and now that’s not happening. Reboots are just not in my DNA I guess!”

Well, there's that.

Peep the clip below:

Tamron Hall covers the March 2020 issue of Parents magazine with her adorable 9-month-old son Moses!

Holding back tears, Tamron spoke with Parents magazine editor-in-chief Julia Edelstein on the vision of the issue and the importance to showcase “mom boss energy” and detailed the honor she feels to be featured on the cover sharing,

“There are some things in your life you never expect. I never expected to be on the cover of a magazine for Parents...it is very surreal...I look at that picture and I know that was my destiny to be with that kid [Moses] and to share this story of not giving up if you want to become a parent in whatever form that is.”

          View this post on Instagram

                  It’s been hard to keep this a secret since December... but here it is! Thank you @parents magazine... watch the full reveal on today’s @tamronhallshow!! And check out more through the link in bio... #mamaandmoses #tamfam #parents #momboss

A post shared by Tamron Hall (@tamronhall) on Feb 5, 2020 at 7:01am PST

  For the cover story, the mom boss took the publication through a day in her working mom life as a first-time mom, a new wife (after marrying Primary Wave's Head of Music Talent Management Steven Greener) and a new daytime talk show host.

"Hall goes to bed too late and wakes up too early. She drinks more coffee than she’d care to admit and eats dinner alone with her husband less often than she’d like. At work, she spends rare free moments on her phone, checking Moses via baby cam and ordering diapers online. “I don’t mind Instagram, with all its filters, as long as we also get real and say, ‘Do you know how many pictures I took before I posted this one?’ ” says Hall. “If we all just rip off our masks and say, ‘Damn it, this is hard,’ we can release the pressure we unnecessarily endure. We’re all just doing the best we can.”"

          View this post on Instagram

                  “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it” -#lenahorne. Whether you are a parent, hoping to be a parent, I’m cool not being a parent, or a powerful loving Mentor ... whatever your lane, it belongs to you not “them”. #dream #faith #claimyourpower @parents #mamaandmoses. @ericniemand @johnnywright220 @tenelleveira -The Glammers

A post shared by Tamron Hall (@tamronhall) on Feb 5, 2020 at 11:25am PST

  We learned, Tamron is like most moms when it comes to juggling so many hats.

"This idea that momhood means uncute is so not true. Yes, I’ve had days when I’ve walked around disoriented in milk-stained leggings. But I’ve also had disorienting days as a working woman supporting myself in a competitive field driven by patriarchal rules. I just didn't have milk stains then."

You can go through a full day with Moses' mama here.

Go behind-the-scenes of the magazine shoot below:

          View this post on Instagram

                  Here's a peek behind the scenes of our March cover shoot with talk show host #TamronHall and her 9-month-old son, Moses! Tap the #linkinbio to find out what a typical day in her working-mom life looks like. #mombossenergy : @taomeitao

A post shared by Parents (@parents) on Feb 5, 2020 at 9:18am PST

            View this post on Instagram

                  Thank you #tamfam for the LOVE. Here’s a little behind the scenes of our cover shoot. Mama make me smile lol. @parents March Cover #mamaandmoses @tamronhallshow. Get your copy now! #parents Also see more behind the scenes @parents social and website!!!

A post shared by Tamron Hall (@tamronhall) on Feb 5, 2020 at 9:21am PST

  Adorbs!

    Photos: ABC/Lorenzo Bevilaqua and Lou Rocco

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/02/06/mom-boss-energy-tia-mowry-says-she-doesn%E2%80%99t-have-time-for-post-baby-body-shamers-shares-up

[blkwidowsweb]

A Conversation with Chosen Few Festival Guest DJ, Lori Branch

Lora Branch (aka DJ Lori Branch), is a Chicago native with over 34 years of experience as a local artist, DJ and public health advocate. Lori has been featured in the film, The Unusual Suspects: Once Upon a Time in House Music, and has the honor and distinction of being the first female DJ in Chicago’s historic Dance/House music scene. 

Lora has held DJ residences in numerous Chicago venues and has co-produced music for several independent film and television projects. She is also the writer and creator of several public health training videos and public services announcements, the award winning series Kevin’s Room and the recently released documentary 40th: The History of Roberts Temple. Lora is also a co-host the Northwestern University (WNUR) radio program Street Beat in connection with the Chicago Dance Music Archive Project. In 2014 she was inducted into the Chosen Few’s House Music Hall of Fame named for the legendary Frankie Knuckles. 

In 2019, Lora was selected as one of the guest DJs for this year’s Chosen Few Festival and Picnic. As part of my Chosen Few Festival Blog Series, I had a chance to chat with Lora about her career, her work as an advocate and playing this year’s festival.

Black Widow:  What was your introduction to house music and what made you want to become a DJ?

Lori Branch:  I attended Lindbloom High School and that was around the time Disco and Dance Music existed in places like the Warehouse and Paradise Garage.  It was before we called it “House Music”.  I was hanging around a bunch of closeted gay guys that encouraged me to come to the Warehouse to hear some music.  They said this was where it happened! We went and it was magic just like people describe.  It was just one of those places where you experienced something you’ve never felt before.  It was all the right things at the right time. My friends and I formed a social club, called “Vertigo”. Vertigo was just one of the many social clubs/crews that were around at the time.  There was the “Rude Boys”, “The Doctors”, “The Chosen Few”, etc. There were tons of them and they would throw parties for high schoolers, typically from certain high schools, like Lindbloom, Whitney Young, Hyde Park, Kenwood and a few Catholic Schools.  Those were schools that drew similar crowds. Vertigo was part of that.  In the summer of 1980, I joined the crew as a DJ.   My friend, Craig Loftis and I actually learned how to DJ together.   We learned from Jose (Louie) Gomez.  He showed us the ropes. We bought equipment from the money we made from parties and it kind of just grew from there.  I DJ’d with them and was starting to branch out on my own.

Black Widow:  I assume you had to learn how to shop for music as well?

Lori Branch:  Oh of course! You had to! There was no downloading, you had to get your own or borrow it.  It was limited amounts of the music, so it was imperative that you spent quite a bit of time in the record stores looking for music.  We would go to Imports, Gramaphone, The Wax Traxed and Used Record Store on the west side…we would go to different places looking for music. We wanted to collect what we heard at the Warehouse.   There was a bridge between what was happening at the Warehouse and what was happening at the teen parties.   DJs would go to the Warehouse, listen and then go find that music and bring it and play it at the teen parties.

Black Widow:  What was it about the art of Dj'ing that drew you to the craft?

Lori Branch:  I always had an interest in it. I would play “DJ” at home.  I have a huge family and my brother is a musician and we would play “DJ” at home quite a bit.   I have a deep affection for dance music.  It just touches my spirit in a way that I hadn’t experienced before going to the Warehouse.  I knew I wanted to do this.  I was inspired by Eric Bradshaw who told me I should do this. He said you should be our DJ, there are no other girls doing this.

Black Widow:  How do you feel when you hear the term “Lady DJ” or “Female DJ”?

Lori Branch:  It’s a double edged sword.  There are advantages and disadvantages.  I don’t mind it and I don’t correct people when they say things like, “You’re my favorite Lady DJ or Female DJ”.  I take it as a compliment but I do feel like it’s a characterization. It’s like calling you a “Black Writer” or a “Black Female Writer”… you’re a Writer, you know?   It is as if you are at the kids table of DJs but thankfully it’s changed a lot over the years.  I understand why some embrace and honestly, I think I had some advantages because of it.

Black Widow:  Really? How So?

Lori Branch:   Wayne Williams would always say to me, we got to get you out there.  He was the first to say, let’s do a Female battle of the DJs.  There were other guys who were so supportive of me as a DJ. Being a woman who was respected for her craft by some of the guys, helped me…

Black Widow:  …it set you apart?

Lori Branch:  Yes very much so.  I still look at flyers now and see 10 DJs and not one of them is a woman and I’m like really? You can’t have one lady DJ?  Especially now, we have so many amazing female DJs all over the world, there’s no reason  to have 10 DJs on a party and not one is a woman.  That makes no sense to me.

Black Widow:  How does your work as a HIV/Aids Advocate intersect with your work as a DJ?

Lori Branch:  My entire professional career has been focused on social justice and public health so to have that intersect with my DJ career is fantastic. I’ve always tried to figure out ways to be creative when delivering messages. I’m an artist so I’m always thinking of how I bring that to every element of my life.  I’ve found that I can do that in many different ways. One of my other loves is visual production.  I’ve done a lot of public service announcements, movies and documentaries and I collaborate and insert house music in those settings.  It’s also a platform to cross pollinate. I can talk about how devastating HIV has been especially within the artistic community.  When I’m DJ'ing, I try to find ways to intersect as well, like my radio show on WNUR. We talk about social justice and how illness impacts our communities.  We talk about a lot of things.

Black Widow:  Coming up in a time when not much was known about HIV/Aids had to be extremely impactful.

Lori Branch:  We lost so many people. Honestly, I’ve lost almost all of my close friends from that period. Out of 10 guys that I was close with 8 of them are no longer here.  These were the faces you would see if you were watching a house music documentary. There were so many young, beautiful people just gone.  They were a central part of this culture.  They are the reason we have this culture. It was a lot of loss but it empowered me and others to keep going and to keep fighting.

Black Widow:  You have a documentary about a young gay man named “Kevin’s Room”.  Can you tell me more about your motivation behind creating that?

Lori Branch:  This was a series on WCIU and UPN. It was a film series that focused on a group of black gay men dealing with life.  I wanted to give form to a community that had been flatly characterized for so long.  That diminishing of their humanity helps contribute to so many conditions.  If I feel invisible or diminished, If I don’t’ have a sense of who I am, if I don’t have anyone to affirm me and if I don’t see examples of that, then why would I think I’m worth anything?   You have these huge rates of depression and suicide and one way to combat that is to create images and to have presence. That documentary and some of my other work is my attempt to do just that.  It was a 1st during that time to see fully flushed out characters of black gay men living, loving and having families and such with the stereotypes. Most recently, I’ve completed a documentary on my family’s church where they had Emmett Till’s funeral. 

Black Widow:  Your career has spanned decades. What do you think are the keys to having success and longevity in this scene?

Lori Branch:  You cannot take yourself too seriously!  You have to be kind to people. That’s going to give you a lot of opportunities, sometimes more than you can handle.  I get more opportunities than I’m able to fulfill and I’d like to think that is because of the relationships I’ve cultivated over my career.   You should be generous, nonjudgmental and avoid burning bridges. We have to be thoughtful about how we embrace one another and that goes a long way.  I also took a break for a while in the late 80s to finish college and that helped too.  When I came back I had a new energy. It doesn’t hurt to take a break every now and then, to refocus and refresh. 

Black Widow:  I remember speaking with Jamie 3:26 and he said, “Just be cool”! [laughter]

Lori Branch: That’s really it.  If you look on social media, the ones who are “just cool”, who are supportive and loving, they are very busy.

Black Widow: Too busy for the nonsense!

Lori Branch:  Exactly! [Laughter]

Black Widow: So how do you feel about playing this year at the Chosen Few Festival and Picnic?

Lori Branch:  I’m super excited! I was thrilled to get the invitation to play this year.  I’ve done parties before around the picnic and I DJ’d the picnic 10 years ago but it’s so much bigger now.  I always love the opportunity to be on a stage with all of the people I’ve come up with. It always feels like a homecoming or reunion.  How can you not be excited about that?  It’s a lot of fun!

Black Widow:  I’m so looking forward to hearing your play at the Festival and look forward to seeing you!

Lori Branch: Thank you so much! See you at the Picnic!

Until Next Time, see you on a dance floor!

-Black Widow

Definitely catch Lora’s set at this year’s Chosen Few Festival and Picnic on July 6th.  You can catch Chosen Few Founder & President, Wayne Williams and House Legend, Robert Williams on Lora’s show, July 10th at 10pm on WNUR 89.5 and WNUR.org.  Learn more about Lora and her upcoming projects at www.LoraBranch.com

[emmashappylittleworld]

“This is Manchester, we do things differently here.” Tony Wilson

If you have no idea what 80 days of summer is all about, then where have you been!? Don’t worry you can catch up here. But basically for 80 days, I am going to make sure I do something every single day that makes the most of summer, some things will be new some won’t. This challenge is to show that life is really made for living, no excuses, no wasting days! Just happiness every single day!

Days 45 and 46 were my birthday weekend and the weekend I turned the big 34!  It was also the Bee in the City weekend.

“A colony of giant Bee sculptures is winging its way to the streets of Manchester this summer…

Wild in Art and Manchester City Council are bringing all of Manchester’s communities together for Bee in the City, one of the most spectacular public art events the city has ever seen. Over 100 Bees are waiting to be discovered on this free, family-fun trail, taking in the city’s landmarks and undiscovered gems. Each Bee has been designed by a different artist and celebrates the unique buzz of Manchester, from its industrial heritage to its vibrant music scene”

The bees will be in Manchester until the 23rd of September, you can find out more here.

Aimee is my biggest blogger fan and my biggest fan in life full stop. Forever sending me links for places o visit and things to do for my blog and to make sure I have a life outside work. She is also the one person who looks after my health even more so than myself. Forever telling me off about how much I do, what I eat and how much I sleep she really is the best friend you could have. To start my birthday celebrations we headed to Manchester to celebrate the start of the Bee in the city events (an instagrammers dream) to celebrate my birthday and to drink lots of delicious cocktails and for some tipsy shopping.

She also bagged us some tickets to see the hives on top of the printworks. Who the hell knew there were beehives on top of the printworks! After getting trapped in a lift for 10 minutes we finally made it to the roof, unfortunately, the roof area is closed off so no views (gutting I know). We had a little talk for 30 minutes and discovered they actually sell the honey f=taht is made up there. It has made me realise what the hell goes on, on the rooftops of Manchester!

Rock N Roll

“This Bee is covered in spiky-looking musical soundwaves which create a feeling of chaos and sudden change. The flight paths of bees may look equally random to us but bees are actually great navigators, constantly finding the most efficient routes to take. We reckon that everybody will set their ‘flight paths’ to Liam Gallagher’s cool Bee, featuring his signature and his Rock n Roll insignia.”

The Bee of Hope, Community & Respect.

“This bee features the design ideas of students Laiba Qureshi, Laiba Asif, Emma Whittaker, Hadia Arain, Lukhman Miah and Salman Khan. The cogs and binary patterns pay homage to Oldham’s industry and the flames feature in the school’s emblem, The Torch of Knowledge and Skills. They also symbolise reflections on the Manchester Arena attack. Ariana Grande’s lyrics are on the wings and 22 flowers represent those who lost their lives. The message from the Radclyffe students is ultimately one of hope, and the belief that love, community and respect for all will rise from the ashes.”

By far the prettiest and most meaningful of all the bees.

Manchester has always been in my favourite city in the UK and possibly one of my favourite cities in the world. It holds so many memories for me from childhood, love, breakups and just general life. I have literally been visiting Manchester weekly for the last 20 years and have never gotten bored of it, I am still finding new places and rediscovering old places. There are places in the city that I always return to and places that are now off limits as they are too painful. I feel like my whole life has been built around this beautiful city.

Bee a rainbow!

“This Bee is a symbol of hope perched upon a sky of dreams. In her bright rainbow hues, she celebrates the diverse worker bees of Manchester. She is a cheerful explorer, always looking for her next adventure. Her energetic colours and whimsical character will inspire happiness and hope in all who meet her.”

Cheeky little cocktail stop, well it is my birthday, after all, would be rude not too!

Hilda Bugden

“Lee – a Liverpool art teacher and illustrator – has taken his inspiration from Manchester’s most iconic street, with a design based on one of its most famous characters (someone who was always buzzing about!). The art celebrates strong Northern women that we can all relate to, whether it is family members or some of the residents of television’s favourite street.”

Rubee

“This Bee is inspired by the famed and fabled gemstone – ruby. Asides from its bright colour, it is a desirable gem due to its hardness, durability, lustre and rarity. Rubee has been ‘transformed’ and shows how the worker bee, one of the best known symbols of Manchester, is precious to the hearts of Mancunians. The design is depicted as a geometric pattern.”

This is Manchester!

“Taking inspiration from Manchester, the design celebrates the cityscape under a rainbow bee: silver eyes reflect those who look at it and the surroundings of the sculpture (and nod towards the Manchester nightlife!). The rainbow references an inclusive and welcoming city and its communities, whilst the skyline’s iconic buildings connect today with the Gothic architecture of the past.”

Can we just take a moment to talk about this dress, I got it a couple of weeks ago from Primark for the bargain price of £15, could possibly be my new favourite dree although the sizing isn’t great on it so I had to get a large size but still, how pretty is it! I am very tempted to go buy a second one for when this one dies a clothes death!

The Birds and the Bees

“Manchester is a warm and welcoming city and people from all over the world have made it their home. This witty Bee, disguised as a bird, celebrates the fact that peregrine falcons have also decided to make Manchester city centre their home. The falcon’s feathers and markings inspired all the patterns and colours that are featured.”

Colourfull Manchester Skyline Bee

“Originally from Kenya, Meha is now based in Manchester. Her colourful, illustrative Bee takes inspiration from Manchester’s ever-changing skyline. It tells a story about the bustling city and the worker ‘bees’ that have shaped it, and incorporates aspects of the city’s architecture, music scene, street art, sporting background, sculptures and industrial past, along with the individuals that make the city.”

I promise no more bees, I could literally share them all with you, they are all so beautiful and such a fun way to celebrate Manchester. But I don’t want to ruin it for you, I highly recommend a trip to Manchester to do the Bee Trail. There is an app you can download and add all the bee codes too. Each code unlocks something including free drinks and discounts off food.

Is there a more perfect food on this earth than ice cream!

One last drink before a bit of shopping and heading home, the day was utterly perfect and an amazing way to celebrate my birthday with my babe Aimee. I am a lucky little ducky and luckily I woke up on my birthday without a hangover, total win!

Day 46: 

Was my actual birthday and a day I decided to keep private. Over the weekend my family received some bad news that will change all our lives so we decided to have a day all together as a family and share as much love as possible. Although the news wasn’t great we are all staying positive and decided that celebrating my birthday was the best thing to do. It is extremely rare that our whole family gets together, in fact, I can’t remember the last time we did. Every year I duck out of Christmas day so it literally could have been years. The day was lovely I got lots of cuddles off this little one and to be honest it was nice to take a break from my phone. It is safe to say already that year 34 is going to be the best one yet, I have lots of adventures planned and ready to start a new chapter. I remember saying in December that I wanted 2018 to be the year that didn’t have any change in (i needed a break from all the changes). Well, that’s not gone to plan, maybe 2019 will be that year!

    80 DAYS OF SUMMER – DAY 45 & 46 “This is Manchester, we do things differently here.” Tony Wilson If you have no idea what 80 days of summer is all about, then where have you been!?

[josephkitchen0]

Battery Hen Rescue with the British Hen Welfare Trust

By Susie Kearley – While your backyard chickens probably enjoy a pampered life of luxury, some commercially farmed chickens have a more difficult life. The hen rescue initiative finds chickens new homes with space and freedoms they’ve never known before, so they can enjoy comfort and happiness for the rest of their lives.

In England, the British Hen Welfare Trust was set up in 2005 to give factory-farmed hens a second chance, helping them find loving new homes at the end of their commercial lives. The Trust also educates people about hen welfare, encouraging support for free-range chickens and a better life for hens.

In the past 12 years, the Trust has rehomed 600,000 commercial hens, destined for slaughter. The charity’s founder, Jane Howorth, was moved by a television documentary she saw in the 1970s about the conditions in which hens were kept. It planted the seed of an idea for a hen rescue and the educational work that she does today.

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“I was 19 years old when I saw the program.” she explains, “I’m sorry to say at that point I was more interested in finding a handsome boyfriend, moving out from my parent’s home, and getting a job. At this stage I’d not actually seen or stroked a caged hen; had I done so, I’m pretty sure it would not have taken me so long to get on the case. The two main triggers for founding the charity were the loss of my parents, nine months apart in 2001, at a relatively young age; there is nothing like the loss of loved ones to sharpen the focus and make you realize that life is short. I wanted to do something much more meaningful with my life from that moment.”

Jane worked out a plan to rehome factory-farmed hens and save them from slaughter. She opened the hen rescue to give as many chickens as she could, a better life while educating consumers and still supporting the British egg industry.

Daisy

Welfare Standards

Why support the industry? Jane explains: “From the moment the charity was founded, The British Hen Welfare Trust has been a staunch supporter of the British egg industry. It’s preferable to see consumers purchasing eggs laid in Britain, which has some of the best welfare conditions in the world, rather than imported eggs from other countries where welfare controls are not as stringent. Battery farms were banned in the UK in 2012 and replaced by colony cages, in which up to 80 birds can live together. These cages offer improved conditions to battery cages, as they provide some enrichment such as nest boxes and scratch pads. However, these hens still do not see the light of day, nor do they get to dust and sunbathe as free range hens do, which is why the charity is working toward a day when all laying hens are kept in small flocks, free range, or organic farming systems.

“We are not in conflict with the industry. Change lies with consumers — the less demand there is for cheap eggs, the fewer hens will be kept in cages.”

Chickens on TV!

The British Hen Welfare Trust appeared on TV in 2008 and the publicity generated a surge in interest, with more volunteers stepping up to help. Jane explains, “The TV documentary, hosted by TV chef Jamie Oliver, was called ‘Jamie’s Fowl Dinners’. It was a one-off program which focused on intensive poultry farming. At the time, I was running the charity from my house, with only two phone lines. Once the show had aired, my phone started ringing non-stop with people wanting to volunteer for the charity and re-home hens. We received 4,000 calls in a single week!”

The charity grew and was able to undertake more hen rescues and rehome more hens. Then in 2010, another TV show resulted in another surge of hen adoptions and public support. The BBC television program, called ‘The Private Life of Chickens’ was presented by well-known farmer and television presenter, Jimmy Doherty. It looked at the behavior and psychology of chickens, revealing that the birds are not as daft as people thought!

Jane says, “When I appeared in ‘The Private Life of Chickens’, this raised the charity’s profile even further. A few years later, I took the step of securing a permanent office and moving charity operations away from home. The show went a huge way toward helping people realize what intelligent, sentient animals chickens are. Both Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty went on to become patrons of the charity.”

In 2015, the British Hen Welfare Trust was the British Veterinary Nursing Association’s official charity of the year. Then in 2016, Jane received an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List. This recognized the value of her charitable work.

Romany and Tuppy – Photo by Cindy Calvert.

Changing Consumer Behavior

So what advice do they give to consumers? Jane says, “The Trust’s slogan is ‘for a free-range future’ and, since its inception, we’ve always emphasized the importance of buying British organic or free-range eggs to ensure the hens that laid them had the best welfare conditions possible. However, this is the easy part; it is less well-known that a large percentage of caged eggs are hidden within processed foods such as cakes, quiches, pasta, and even red wine. Therefore, the charity encourages shoppers to read food ingredients lists carefully if they want to ensure that only free-range eggs were used in the products they are buying. The general rule is that, unless it is stated in the ingredients list that free-range eggs were used, then it is most likely the eggs were from caged hens. Worse still, much of the egg used in processed food comes in powdered form and is imported from countries where welfare conditions for laying hens are considered less important.

“Increased consumer awareness has led to big names switching policy to free-range eggs, such as Hellmann’s® who started using free range eggs in their mayonnaise. Policy changes such as these have improved the quality of life for tens of thousands of hens. This is consumer clout at its most powerful.

Photo by Tracie Emerson.

“Over the years, the Trust has continuously campaigned for retailers and supermarkets to make the switch to free range eggs. We have targeted big name brands such as Aldi, Mr. Kipling, and more recently, McVitie’s. One organization could never solely take credit for encouraging such huge corporations to change tack, but the British Hen Welfare Trust has undoubtedly played a big part in changing hearts and minds.

“Another great example of change within the industry is the percentage of free range egg sales making up just 34% of market share in 2004 compared to 62% in 2017. It’s clear that attitudes are changing, but there is still much more work to be done before we see a day when all laying hens are free ranging.”

Rose, Fern, Heather, Daisy, Bluebell, Iris, Marigold, and Lily – Photo by Christie Painter.

Working with Vets

With some hens being kept as pets, and individuals raising chickens for eggs, the Trust has also become involved in training for veterinary surgeons, which has led to better diagnosis and treatments for backyard hens. Jane explains, “The main problem was, and still is to a degree, a lack of knowledge when it comes to treating backyard poultry. Vets will have been taught during their training how to diagnose and treat poultry on a commercial scale, but often struggle when presented with a pet hen. We have a map showing hen-friendly vets all over the country, and there’s a course vets can take provided by Chicken Vet, to gain additional knowledge about common problems. The situation is improving all the time and the charity is currently working with a British university to provide additional training to vets.”

Rehoming Hens

The hens usually arrive at their new home with few feathers, looking shabby and frightened, and turn into beautifully feathered confident chickens, who love life. Prunella, Sibyl, Henrietta, and Gertrude are one example of four happy hens! They were adopted by Debbie Morris-Kirby in Cornwall in 2015, and some might say it’s a match made in heaven. Debbie says, “The hens are so happy in their new environment, with different adventures each day. We have enjoyed watching them progress from shy and nervous creatures into confident, beautiful girls, with amazing personalities. They love any form of interaction with us humans. We can’t imagine life without them now. Thank you to the hen rescue Trust for all the fun we have had with our new extended family.”

Debbie Morris Kirby with Prunella hen.

Lucia chicken in her new home with her new doggy friend.

Some people keep their adopted hens as therapy chickens because they can lift your mood! What about roosters? Click here to read about rooster rescue!

For more information on the hen rescue initiative go to British Hen Welfare Trust: www.bhwt.org.uk.

  Battery Hen Rescue with the British Hen Welfare Trust was originally posted by All About Chickens

[raystart]

Luca Barcellona: Take Your Pleasure Seriously

On a tiny screen in the palm of your hand, an ink-stained hand wielding a white paintbrush slips and darts across a bright red page. It leaves its trace like a figure skater on ice; the shapes look abstract – a thin curve here, a thick line there – but the hand moves with deliberate, authoritative grace. After four and a half hypnotic minutes of this dance, there’s the much anticipated reveal: “Take Your Pleasure Seriously” the strokes demand.

This is the ethos of Italian calligrapher and graphic designer Luca Barcellona, the craftsman to whom the hand in this video belongs. Barcellona, 39, is regularly hailed as one of the world’s greatest working calligraphers. Combining his monkish commitment to the craft with an inventive, youthful sensibility, Barcellona’s contemporary interpretation of hand lettering has coincided with a major resurgence of calligraphy in visual culture. Eager for a humanizing touch, the current proponents of the lettering craze are infatuated with process: Videos of artists in action permeate the web, and no design conference is complete without time marked by the slow production of a handmade typographic mural.

Barcellona recognized, and perhaps even helped inspire, this early on in his career, organizing live shows in clubs in Milan in the early 2000s, later going on to do similar events for galleries, museums, and globally renowned brands. In 2009, he faithfully reproduced a large-scale 1569 globe with quill and natural inks for the National Museum of Zurich, and in 2010, he produced his own T-shirt line, a brand he dubbed “Luca Barcellona Gold Series.” His script now adorns everything form Absolut Vodka bottles to Carhartt sweatshirts, and his signature, tightly packed compositions, often dense webs of Fraktur script, spell out phrases by the German poet Bertolt Brecht.

  In the beginning, Barcellona began lettering by skipping class to tag subway trains and graffiti under bridges. After graduating from high school, where he’d taken classes in graphic design, Barcellona enrolled in night courses and took a job at a music store. Using his time off to patiently practice calligraphy, he soon started taking on small commissions from the hip-hop scene.

Demand for his work grew, as did his encyclopedic knowledge of classic scripts, until one day he swapped the quill for a spray can, rendering the age-old letters he’d mastered with the tool of his teenage years. This pivotal moment defined what would become his trademark: gothic and classic lettering that elegantly and energetically incorporates the influence of graffiti and street art. He didn’t so much slip into the past as find calligraphy a present form.

  Your 2012 monograph has just been released in paperback, and, as with the first edition, it’s got this fiery front cover. You’ve written out the name of the title in a very elegant hand, but then the composition is punctuated by a black ink dot that almost looks like a bullet hole. What’s the significance of this?

To explain, I need to start with the story of why I decided to make the book in the first place. I had all this stuff in my drawers and on my hard drive, stuff that I’d amounted over 10 years of working. I myself had studied calligraphy by looking at books – I love books—so I knew that was the format that all the stuff I’d collected would take. It wasn’t just a marketing thing for me; it was about closing the circle. I realized, though, that I couldn’t choose the work myself. When a designer speaks about their old work, you’ll notice that they will always say, “But that’s an old piece. That’s old. Look at what I’m doing right now.”

You want to be growing, getting to another level, constantly developing, instead of being in stasis and getting comfortable doing the same thing over and over again.

LB Exactly. So I asked my friend, the graphic designer Massimo Pitis, to art direct and design the book for me – he and his team at WIRED Italia have just won Best Magazine of the Year at the 2017 Society of Publication Design awards. So I said, “Massimo, this is all my work. You have a different eye from mine, a different critical eye, so please choose what I should include.”

And the cover?

I created the initial hand lettering for the book jacket and he said, “If you leave it like that, it looks like a calligraphy book from 80 years ago. Add an ink drop.” That drop would represent my past in graffiti. It was about dirty hands and dirty clothes. Massimo said, “It’s the symbol of imperfection that we want.”

What about the slogan “Take Your Pleasure Seriously?” What does that mean to you?

At first I was thinking of calling the book Man of Letters, but it was too much of a pun. I had just read a book on Charles and Ray Eames and I’d seen the sentence there. I admire their work a lot. They were married, so living, playing, and working together, and in every picture they seemed happy, having fun while blurring work and life. To take your pleasure seriously means, okay, you have a passion, but it’s a serious one. Calligraphers have to have passion. But it’s also a job, and there are many elements that you won’t enjoy doing. You have clients. You have deadlines. You’re probably not inspired by the work every time, but you need jobs, work, income, as a craftsman. And you take that seriously.

How much of a blur is there between work and life for you?

I don’t have anything about calligraphy at home. I have comics, books on photography and architecture, a lot of vinyl. But nothing actually about calligraphy. Yet calligraphy is always on my mind. Every time I watch a movie, I see the titles. When I drink a bottle of wine, I see the packaging. I look at the letters.

So there’s a spatial divide between work (your income) and life, but no divide between your craft (you as calligrapher) and life?

Exactly. My studio is not in my house. I have to be able to say, “That’s the job, and this is life.” I don’t want to be a maniac either…You know what I mean.

There are typo maniacs, typo nerds, and that’s not who I want to be.

You just spoke about noticing the letters of everything around you. When did you first start noticing type?

When I was a kid, five or six years old. I used to play a game with my mother. We’d be in the car and she’d ask me to read the signs. I started to notice that every sign was different, and I began to ask, “Who did that?” My mother couldn’t give me the answer. I thought, “That’s what I want to do.”

Then when you got a bit older, you got into graffiti.

When I was 14. I started taking graphic design classes at high school. I started doing tags like so many others in the early 90’s. When you’re a teenager, you’re obsessed by shocking people, so I was creating letters to amaze others. Then I discovered calligraphy in graphic design class, and I said, “This is something serious. I have to go back to the beginning, study the ancient forms, Roman capitals, italic, etc.” I started doing serious calligraphy. Later, once I had the tools and had mastered the classics, I would start to mix it up a bit and combine what I’d learned with graffiti.

You were teaching yourself about calligraphy?

At the beginning, most people are self-taught. But that’s a huge mistake. I studied Italic with one teacher in a workshop and I realized this: Calligraphy is something that gets passed down by masters. It has to be handed down, from a master to a student, until that student becomes a master. It’s about sharing knowledge, not keeping your tricks and secrets to yourself. That’s the beauty of crafts, not just calligraphy. I know musicians and karate masters who say the same.

When you started studying, everything was analog, and by the time you finished, design schools were using computers. How did this affect you?

I knew that I wanted to draw. I wanted to take pencils, markers, and brushes. As a graphic designer, I worked with type and layout settings on the computer. But as a calligrapher, I wanted to get my hands dirty.

You started posting videos of your craft very early on. How did that start?

When I uploaded my first video, there was nothing to compare it with. I had only seen videos of calligraphers from the 60’s and there were very few of those. We now look at videos on our phones all the time, but in 2002, it wasn’t like that. I made a couple of videos that got a lot of views, and other people started doing the same; everyone was copying one another and getting inspired by one another.

Now there are so many calligraphy videos online. They’re hypnotizing to watch; some get thousands and thousands of views. What do you think about it?

There’s a problem when people only get their information from the internet. It’s like television in the 80’s and 90’s: What’s not on the web, for many, doesn’t exist. This means that people completely ignore the fact that there are older generations of calligraphers and a long, ancient history of the craft. They’re all focused on the young people on social networks that put their stuff online, but a lot of the quality is very, very low. The numbers are impressive, and it’s good from the perspective of allowing people who might not know anything about calligraphy to begin to appreciate it.

As a calligrapher, you have to know what you are doing, though. You have to know that you are a speck in the history of the craft. I am nobody in the history of calligraphy. Compare what I do to the work of the 15th century and you’ll see what I mean – that stuff is amazing; it’s incredible. What I can do is mix things up a bit, add to the history by using contemporary tools. I try to make calligraphy that has a bit of current reality. I’ve done it with live projections and used 3-D software.

It’s about using those new tools, but with the ancient gestures. You have to know it to be able to do it. The untrained eye can’t tell what’s authentic and what’s not. If you don’t know the history, then you might believe that the guy who puts up a video on Instagram is the best calligrapher in the world, just because someone in the comment section says so.

Whether the videos are amateur or not, why do you think people love seeing the act of calligraphy rather than just a piece of calligraphy in its finished form?

That’s simple. For the last 15 years, we’ve become accustomed to the idea that writing is just pushing buttons. Pushing keys. Yet handwriting has been one of the major inventions of human history. After 15 years of tech, we are losing it.

So the process of watching the process of calligraphy is an antidote?

Yes. I’m not saying we should write our emails in Gothic, with a nib and pot of ink. When I was trying to take calligraphy classes in the 90’s, design schools were trying to eliminate it. They were saying, Who needs lettering today? Now I’m teaching workshops on calligraphy all the time in Italy.

How does technology feature into your day-to-day practice, though? It’s not all quill and ink, and, as you say, you use old gestures and combine them with new tools.

Software can be great for simulating, like how you can put a drop of watercolor on the page and it’ll bleed in a beautiful way. But digital tools that simulate something analog only make sense if you can do the real thing. If you’ve never used real watercolor, how can you really understand its simulation? It’s like virtual sex. You can experiment with virtual sex, but if you don’t know the real thing, you’re missing out.

We’ve talked about your career path and sense of design, but not the words and messages you illustrate. You’ve quoted George Orwell. You’ve written out messages of support for things like the 2011 earthquake in Japan. What do you look for when you’re thinking about quotes or slogans to write out?

There are two options when you look for a message. The first is you can find nice, pretty sentences that people are going to like. The second is you can write something that you really feel and believe. Maybe a quote from a book, or a song you love. For me, it must be the second option; it must be something that has helped me in my life.

With the Orwell composition, the quote found me. I walked into an international bookstore and the spine of Why I Write, Orwell’s essay about political language, was sticking right out from the shelf. I didn’t search for it. I believe in serendipity.

For the Japan illustration, I saw the heartbreak after the earthquake; I had close friends there. I decided to design a T-shirt to raise money for relief. I wrote the slogan with a Japanese brush, very quickly, to denote emergency. There aren’t any classic decorations; it’s fast and urgent. You must find the right way to illustrate your message.

Because of its urgency, it’s very readable. That’s not your usual tact though, especially for personal work. Often you write out words not only in an archaic script that’s difficult for modern eyes to decipher, but you pack the letters very close together, making the composition even more tricky to unpick and read. For your political messages, this has interesting implications because the viewer has to focus and spends a lot of time with the message. And that time might mean that the message sinks in. What are the other benefits of illegibility?

Legibility can be your enemy because it means you have to add space, and you lose the beauty of a compact design. Density is one of my obsessions. Sometimes I just draw the alphabet or a series of capital letters because I don’t want people to read what’s written. I want them to enjoy the shapes, the gestures. Sometimes people ask me, “What did you write there?” and I answer “Nothing.” I always love that.

Creating a piece of calligraphy, especially these dense ones that take a lot of concentration, and mastering the craft as a whole, is of course exhausting. It takes a lot of patience. It can take three years of continual practice to perfect just one classic script. How do you deal with the everyday physical toll?

I should.

You don’t?

I try to. Like right now, my back is aching; there’s a lot of tension built up. It’s a very physical practice, and to do it, you have to know your body. If you want to write something with a small nib copperplate but you’re pissed off, stressed, or you drank too much coffee, you’ll shake and won’t be able to do it. It takes calm. You have to physically prepare.

When I hear this, it conjures the stereotypical image of the master calligrapher, hunched over scrolls with reams of paper and inky fingers, painstakingly illuminating characters. You do this of course, but you’re also a jack-of-all-trades in other ways. You’re an entrepreneur, because you help run a publishing company, Lazy Dog Press, that brought out your monograph. You organize exhibitions. You’ve run your T-shirt label. You’re not always bent over your desk.

Calligraphy is my discipline, but with this discipline I can do many things. I’ve done performances with piano players and karate masters. I’ve done restoration work, and I’ve worked in advertising, doing crazy hand lettering to sell a car. I’ve made clothing designs for Nike. Recently, I’ve been combining my love of record collecting with calligraphy. If you specialize in one field and there is an interest in it, then it’s great. When that interest slows down, it’s more of a problem. Yet I do believe that if you’re passionate about something, then people will be interested. That’s why I write “Take Your Pleasure Seriously.” People can tell whether what you do is true, whether you’re sincere.

[webmuch]

15 Famous Duos Of Stylish Fathers With Their Children

Celebrity fathers these days are not only the most talented people we know but their offsprings are not very far behind. The famous duos of these dads and their kids who make gorgeous and stylish pairs are something you don’t want to miss out on. It is always cool to have a famous dad but we love how their children have turned into these self-made and independent individuals, giving us major father daughter and father-son goals.

Our fathers give us so much and this is our time to give something back to them and shower them with love. Many of these famous duos of fathers and their kids show how they have been an inspiration for each other. Since we love fashion and style so much most of the famous duos we are going to talk about today have had their hand in the fashion industry too. Many of the fathers have been inspired by their own kids to create a fashion line or vice versa. This Father’s Day, we have curated the top 15 famous duos of all times and can’t get over how fashionable they are.

15 Famous Duos Of Stylish Fathers With Their Children

David and Harper Beckham

Harper is just five years old and she is one of the most adorable celebrity kids that we will ever come across. David Beckham has previously revealed that he shares a close bond with his only daughter because of which he is stricter with his sons, getting him in trouble with his wife Victoria Beckham. Well, being brought up with three brothers does make you special. Recently, Harper also gifted a handmade Easter basket to daddy. That is one famous duo that is hard to resist.

Check out what his beautiful wife and her mother has been up to this year: Victoria Beckham Target Collaboration 2017 Is Very Posh

Barack and Malia Obama

America’s most famous duo has to be this one. Social media keeps updating us about the time that Former President Barack Obama spends with daughter Malia Obama. Malia is 18 years old and is currently studying at Harvard University which is one of the best universities in the world. Barack Obama is known to share a very close bond with his daughter. It has been amazing to see his daughters grow up into these beautiful young and stylish women.

Barack is one super fun dad as well as a protective one at the same time and recently since he has been taking a lot of vacations we are loving his style. His famous leather jacket look went so viral we are sure Malia was very impressed with her father them. It’s always heartwarming to see pictures of one of the most famous duos when it comes to father and daughters, they will always be our favourite. Michelle Obama is quite the stylish one herself look back at all her best dresses here.

Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus

This one is a crazy and powerful father-daughter duo. On one hand, there is Billy, who is a country star and on the other side, his daughter who is a singing sensation. The famous duo was also seen together in the popular teen Disney show called Hannah Montana in which they played the role of father and daughter. Miley shared that she can tell anything to her dad which shows the cool and friendly relationship that they share. According to Miley, the famous duo forget that they even work together once they enter their home, all they do is hang out together. Do you share such a cool bond with your father?

Paul and Stella McCartney

Not many are aware that the famous designer Stella McCartney is the daughter of one of the most famous men and a former member of Beatles Sir James Paul McCartney. He has written and sang a few of the most classic songs in American music history, whereas Stella is a world famous English fashion designer and a mother of three children. Britain is fortunate enough to have one of the most respected famous duos where they are an inspiration to many. Stella McCartney’s famous wooden platform shoes have become her signature product from her collection.

Jerry and Ben Stiller

The saying ‘Like father like son’ is perfectly suitable for this famous duo. Gerald Isaac “Jerry” Stiller is an 88-year-old American comedian and actor, who is remembered for his remarkable contribution to American showbiz. Ben followed his father’s footsteps to become a comedian, actor, and filmmaker. They have even shared screen space together in movies like Zoolander and The Heartbreak Kid, showcasing their wonderful chemistry onscreen. We love the moment the two of them walk down so many red carpet events together looking dashing as ever.

Martin and Charlie Sheen

Martin first became famous for his roles in The Subject Of Roses and Badlands. He has also been an Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner many times. The 74-year-old actor has also had his share of widely remembered television series The West Wing. Charlie, his 49-year-old son, has pretty much contributed in the same industries. The famous duo has also worked together in movies like Free Money, The Fourth Wise Man, A Letter From Death Row and many more.

Charlie Sheen’s HIV diagnosis brought him a lot closer to his famous father and this is what Charlie Sheen had to say about it – “I don’t want to say it’s specifically changed our relationship but something happened with he and I. We are such better friends than we’ve ever been.”

Kanye and North West

North West is just four years old and she is already one of the most famous celebrity kids. The Kanye-North famous duo is another one such father-daughter combination which we can never get enough of. Due to famous parents, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West we get to see several moments of the family spending time together. We have their updates from their cuddly times, outfit twinning, to their play times. It is simply endearing to see them bond so well. North West has inspired several designers to create a new fashion line including her own parents who recently launched their new brand, http://ift.tt/2pOXIIr. Thanks to daddy and his Yeezy’s we get to see cute little Yeezy’s for children on North all the time, isn’t she lucky?

Donald and Ivanka Trump

This famous duo not only shares a relationship at the personal front but also in the professional sphere. Apart from being the 45th President of United States and Ivanka’s father, Donald Trump is also her boss. We don’t know whether she’s lucky to have his money and power, although, Ivanka has done great by herself by becoming a successful business woman. She is a socialite and has also worked for the Trump Organisation since 2005. Ivanka owns a whole lifestyle collection of fragrance, footwear, handbags, and outerwear where we know the father and US President came to her rescue when she faced problems selling her products. It’s not been easy for her to enter the fashion industry but her father is standing behind her like a pillar at all times.

Jay-Z and Blue Ivy

Daughter of famous singers Jay-Z and Beyonce, Blue Ivy is merely five years old and she has been ruling Instagram with 109K followers already. Well, being a star kid has its own perks. Beyonce recently shared a lot of never-seen-before pictures of Jay Z with Blue Ivy from their eighth wedding anniversary at the Grand Canyon in 2016. The delightful chemistry of the famous duo melted our hearts to the core. Jay-Z and Blue Ivy have been seen wearing matching clothes a number of times and it’s just too cute. Even though Beyonce is behind Ivy Park who has been inspired by her daughter we couldn’t resist to mention it.

Learn more about Ivy Park

Tom and Colin Hanks

Tom Hanks and Colin Hanks cannot go unnoticed when we talk about famous duos in the showbiz world. Perfectly following his father’s footsteps, Colin has made it big just like Tom. Tom, who is a 59-year-old veteran Hollywood actor, is the formula for a successful film for any director. Colin is one of Tom’s four children who has made a mark in the industry by his work, making his father proud. This famous duo not only works in the same industry but also look alike.

Will and Jaden Smith

Will Smith is one of the most versatile actors of Hollywood and we are fortunate enough to have his son in the same business. In the year 2006, the famous duo was first seen together in the film The Pursuit of Happiness from which the 17-year-old Jaden Smith began his career in movies. The two came together again in the year 2013, in the movie After Earth. The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008), The Karate Kid (2010) are some of Jaden’s hit movies. He is also a rapper, a dancer, and an ideal son and is also part of the fashion industry with MSFTSrepublic.

Anil and Harshvardhan Kapoor

When it comes to talking about famous duos in the Bollywood industry we are crushing over the latest hottest duo there is of Anil and Harshvardham Kapoor. Anil started working in movies in the 80s and his legacy is going strong by his son Harshvardhan who made his Bollywood debut in 2016 by movie Mirzya. This sexy duo is now seen sizzling on the famous GQ’s latest cover wearing similar shirts, jeans, and shoes, proving us that good looks run in the family. Not only are they twinning their outfits but also their beards, looking absolutely on point. Sonam Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor who are the biggest fashion stars in India would be proud of the men in their family for sure.

Johnny and Lily Rose Depp

We didn’t really know much about Lily Rose until the last two to three years when she rose to fame by starting her career in modelling and acting. She is the daughter of one of the most famous and versatile actors that Hollywood is blessed with i.e., Johnny Depp. Although the famous duo hasn’t been spotted a lot in public. Johnny, who is a Golden Globe Award winner, is a protective father. On numerous occasions, he has quoted how he worries for his daughter to get into the same business as him.

Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie

Jonathan Vincent Voight is an American actor and winner of one Academy Award, having been nominated for four. Having won four Golden Globe Awards as well, he has not had a very good relationship with his daughter Angelina. The Salt actress didn’t forgive her father for leaving her mother. But better late than never, after having so many ups and downs, this famous duo now has an amicable relationship. Despite their differences for so many years, we are happy that the two of them sorted out their problems and have been seen together so many times.

Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan

Another one of those famous duos from Bollywood is of the tall and handsome Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan. This duo is an all time favourite. Abhishek might not have been able to fill his father’s shoes when it comes to movies, but these two surely look the most dashing together. Abhishek made his debut in Bollywood in the year 2000 in Refugee but unfortunately, couldn’t live up to people’s expectations. Being the child of India’s best actor does come with a lot of responsibilities as well. Abhishek might not have made a mark in the industry individually but this famous duo has created wonders together in movies like Bunty Aur Babli, Paa, Sarkar and many more.

Out of these 15 famous duos which pair is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below and we wish all these fashionable fathers Happy Father’s Day

If you are still wondering what to get your old man this year and need some quick ideas, check out our ultimate father’s day gift guide on Posherry.

The post 15 Famous Duos Of Stylish Fathers With Their Children appeared first on Posherry.

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The British public loves a good police show. Here are some of the best!

The TV police procedural has been a stalwart of British television since Dixon of Dock Green first walked the beat in 1955.  The genre has evolved and developed over the years, but the British TV bobby has never been too far from our hearts as we have tuned in en mass to watch their adventures.

With the recent death of Inspector Morse author Colin Dexter, and the highly anticipated 4th series of the amazing Line of Duty starting later today, Snooty Ushers Dave and James have put their heads together to make a list of our favourite British TV cop shows.  The only rule was that it had to be about actual British police (so no Sherlock, Cracker, or any of those amateur sleuth shows). So, in no particular order, let us begin

Just missing out: New Tricks, The Fall, Ripper Street, Between The Lines, Rebus (with Ken Stott, not John Hannah),  Maigret (because it is French!), A Touch of Cloth

Line of Duty (BBC, 2012-)

Dave: What better place to start than with the original inspiration for this list, the brilliant Line of Duty.  The show focuses on AC-12, a special team of elite officers who investigate the police. While this echoes the similarly themed Between The Lines from the 90s, it stands on its own as one of the best British police procedural dramas.  About to enter its 4th season, each series focuses on a different, but interconnected case, fronted by a high profile British actor.  The AC-12 team recur throughout.  It is grounded firmly in reality and it so brilliantly written, intricately plotted and tightly directed that something as simple as 3 people sitting in a room having a conversation can deliver such incredible tension.  The cast to deserve so much credit, the AC-12 officers led by Irish stalwart Adrian Dunbar’s damaged every-man Superintendent, Martin Compston is instantly relatable as the terrier like DS Steve Arnott (although I do take issue with him not using his Scottish accent), but it is Vicky McClure as DC Kate Flemming who is the real star.  The 3 series so far have weaved such a tight web of intrigue and tension that I wouldn’t dare revel any plot points here, I would just implore you all to catch up before the new series starts.  If you need another reason, Keeley Hawes, in Series 2, gives one of the most devastating, intense and down right brilliant performances in recent memory.

James: This is a show that proves that British TV can match anything from around the world. It’s also my favourite ongoing British show of any genre. One mistake seemingly ruins a promising young police officer’s career, and he is shunted to the AC-12 (“Internal Affairs” if we were in America), in an attempt to push him out of the force. But instead, DS Arnott truly finds his niche, as does the show itself. There are loads of police shows with conflicted and morally ambiguous lead characters, but Line Of Duty focuses almost entirely on their feet of clay, yet never falls into witch-hunt territory. Lennie James, Keeley Hawes, and Daniel Mays have given three different performances as heroic cops who come under AC-12’s gaze, and the three series so far have all taken different paths, never covering the same ground. And the interrogation room scenes are the high point of the show as weeks, sometimes years worth of story lines are brought together. A truly great show.

Life on Mars (BBC, 2006-07)

Dave:  If Line of Duty is grounded in reality, this is something different all together.  Sam Tyler (John Simm) is a DCI working in Manchester.  When he is involved in a car accident, he wakes up in 1975.  He is still a cop, but a rank lower and finds himself working for the oafish DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister).  This just worked on every level.  The ambiguity surrounding Sam’s predicament kept us guessing.  Is he dead? crazy? In a coma? Or has he actually traveled back in time?  The world of modern policing contrast with the good old days of the 70s made for some thrilling moments and some genuinely funny moments too, with the chemistry between Simm’s straight laced, lateral thinking, by the book cooper and Glenister’s blunt instrument works a treat.  The ambiguity continued after the conclusion of the series, with the story continuing on the 80s set sequel series Ashes To Ashes, which saw Gene Hunt move to London and paired with a female detective (Keeley Hawes).  While never hitting the heights of Life On Mars, it ran for 3 seasons and gave us a satisfyingly heart-breaking conclusion.  This will be forever remembered for giving us immortal and unforgettable DCI Gene Hunt.

James: Whether it was their intention from the very beginning or not, the makers of Life On Mars got to cherry pick all of the best bits out of 70s cop shows. We got a modern piece of television – Sam Tyler struggling with the nature of his reality and Gene Hunt getting into car chases and punching criminals. And as someone who lived in Manchester it was great to see how they shot around the city to get that Seventies feel.

Also, the third series of Ashes To Ashes also deserves a mention, as Daniel Mays (who featured in Line Of Duty as well) gave a fantastic performance that shepherded the whole saga to a great conclusion.

Snooty Usher TV Trivia Fact #711 – The American version of Life On Mars (with Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt) ended after one season, and being years away from wrapping their own version, the original writers gave their US counterparts free reign, and they came up with a doozy. Both the “modern day” and 1970’s realities were both just a simulation to keep astronauts minds active on a mission to Mars, and a glitch had causes Sam’s program to jump from one simulation to another.

Snooty Usher TV Trivia Fact #712 – There are currently Czech and Russian versions running in those countries that take their Sam Tyler character back to Soviet-era police, giving another level to the show.

Inspector Morse/Lewis (ITV, 1987-2015)

Dave: Based on the novels of Colin Dexter, Inspector Morse ran for 33 episodes across 13 years, becoming one of the nations favourite detectives.  He was the epitome of the gentleman detective, a middle class bachelor with middle class interests, he drove a classic Jaguar, listens to opera and has a fondness for real ale, this was contrast in his relationship with his partner DS Lewis, a working class family man from the North East.  Set in the beautiful city of Oxford, with the various colleges and classic architecture used as a stunning back drop.  Now, the term national treasure is banded about a little too often for my tastes, but is there a better way to describe John Thaw?  His gruff nature embodies Morse with an every-man quality that masks his vast intellect.  Kevin Whately’s Lewis is perfect foil as his put upon Sergeant.  Their relationship is central to the show’s success and longevity.  The series ended in 2000, when Morse collapse and died of a heart attack, his legacy would live on however when in 2006, when Kevin Whatley’s Lewis would return.

Robbie Lewis is now a Detective Inspector, he is widowed and his kids are grown. Paired with a new DS, James Hathaway played by Lawrence Fox.  Hathaway is a chain-smoking, emotionally detached intellectual. Lewis is Colombo like, in as much as his scruffy appearance and the fact that is not an Oxford man, means he is constantly under estimated by the high brow university community.  While he relies of Hathaway’s classic education at times, he is more than a match for Oxfords criminal element.  Lewis and Hathaway’s chemistry would rival but not quite eclipse that of Morse and Lewis, but was the driving force behind this shows success, it was baffling when after 7 series and a natural conclusion, they brought the show back for 2 more years, changing the dynamic of the leads and for the first time in nearly 30 years, the show began oustay its welcome.

The conclusion of Lewis was not the end for the franchise.  In 2011, ITV turned back the clock with the prequel series Endeavour.  Set in 1965, it focuses on Morse’s early years as a DC.  Shaun Evans does a great job of honouring Thaw and giving us a believable young Morse and Roger Allam adds a touch of class as Morse’s noble DI, Fred Thursday.

James: Morse is a national treasure. It really is the gold standard that all detective shows are aiming for. The character work between Morse and Lewis was brilliant, and they knew when to inject some levity and humour into what was a serious drama. Decades before Sherlock, theses were basically films that were shown on ITV, and we got thirty three of them. Although Lewis is slightly in its predecessors shadow, it featured a nice change of dynamic with the two leads, and in a nice touch of symmetry, there were also thirty three episodes of Lewis.

I would echo Dave to say that Endeavour really does uphold the quality of the shows that came before it. There’s the same sheen of quality, and Shaun Evans portrays Morse’s traits without simply mimicking John Thaw.

Snooty Usher TV Trivia Fact #713 – Inspector Morse author Colin Dexter made a cameo in all but three of the Morse episodes.

Snooty Usher TV Trivia Fact #714 – In the pilot episode of Endeavour, Morse questions a newspaper editor.  The editor asks if they have met, as he seems familiar to her.  The editor is played by John Thaw’s daughter Abigail. She recurs throughout the series

Luther (BBC, 2010-16)

James: Neil Cross wrote for Spooks and Doctor Who before being Luther, and his writing deserves a lot of credit. He has created a conflicted detective haunted by his past, and set him in a harsh, yet real-feeling London. However, in this could be the set up for almost any detective show – Idris Elba makes Luther into a great piece of work. His performance really nails the complex character, making him sympathetic but still hard as nails. He will make a great next Bond… or Doctor Who!

The show also stands out by giving Luther a full-on nemesis. Ruth Wilson play Alice Morgan, a character who comes in and out of the show. Cross has always said Luther is inspired by Sherlock Holmes and Columbo, and by giving the detective his own Moriaty, Luther raises the bar again.

I truly hope that we get more episodes of Luther. The most recent series was only two episodes, and surely it would be possible to squeeze another couple into Elba’s (and Cross’) increasingly busy schedule. Perhaps just even a one-off to finally wrap up the series, although the end of the third series seemed to do that quite well – coat and all – before it was brought back. Maybe Netflx or Amazon Prime could throw enough money at it to get another go around.

Taggart (STV 1983-2010)

Dave:  Now, I am a Scotsman who has lived in England for the better part of 10 years and this show has a lot to answer for.  The amount of times I have been asked to utter the phrase “Thurs bin a murder”, well let’s just say it is more than once.

Set in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Taggart was and remains the UK’s longest running TV police series.  The show survived the death of its title character, when the great Mark McManus died in 1994.

Jim Taggart, was a gruff no nonsense Glaswegian, with little time for sensitivity.  The show was just so brilliantly Glaswegian, the best part of watching this growing up was trying to spot the locations where it was filmed.  The show declined in quality following McManus’s death, relying on the more gruesome elements to attract viewers, (I recall one episode where 6 people were murdered, too much!!).  Those early years though gave us something so intrinsically Scottish that DCI Jim Taggart will forever be one of my all time favourite TV cops.

Heartbeat (ITV, 1992-2010)

James: Trips to Aidenfield were a staple of Sunday nights when I was growing up. It started out with Nick Berry was Nick Rowan, a London police officer who moves to North Yorkshire with his wife , Dr Kate Rowan (Niamh Cusack). The two of them have to deal with small town life, as well as some pretty hard hitting storylines. Bill Maynard’s turn as lovable rogue Greengrass provided the  light relief, and the policing team of Ventress, Bradley, and Blakeston were always welcome.

Later series broadened the focus from a single lead character when Rowan transferred to the Mounties in Canada after Berry decided to leave. Jason Durr came in as Mike Bradley, and it became more of an ensemble show, with the storylines moving into the more usual Sunday night territory that. But those early shows left and indelible mark on this Snooty Usher.

Messiah (BBC, 2001-2008)

Dave:  The first series of Messiah was one of those shows that just blew me away.  It was dark, it was scary, it was gruesome.  Ken Stott is DCI Red Metcalfe, he and his team are faced with series of brutal killings.  As they delve deeper, they find that someone is killing people, mimicking how Jesus’s apostles died. Now, I am a sucker for serial killers with a religious motive and this is one of the finest examples of it.

Red and his team returned for 3 more series and new cast taking over in 2008 for a further 1 series, with Marc Warren taking over from Stott in the lead.  While they were suitably gruesome, it never quite hit the heights of this ground breaking first case.

James: My sister and I used to buy cheap books from charity shops when we went on holiday. One of these books was about a series of gruesome murders that wove religious themes into plot. We talked about how it would make a great film or TV show – and when we got home we found out that it did! Ken Stott was just perfect as the detective trying to get to the bottom of these horrific crimes. He played the role like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, like he constantly had a splitting headache. The supporting characters were excellently cast as well.

A Touch of Frost (ITV, 1992-2010)

Dave: I love Del Boy Trotter as much as anyone, but for me at least, this is David Jason’s finest hour.  The gruff, empathetic Detective Edward ‘Jack’ Frost.  Based on the novels of R.D Wingfield, A Touch of Frost was a firm favourite in the McKee household.  This is set in the fictional town of Denton, in the south midlands and while they are completely different, it is difficult not to compare Frost with ITV other long running Detective series Inspector Morse.

Frost never had an established DS like Lewis, working with a series of different sidekicks which really worked.  The humour in the show came from Frost’s interactions with his boss Superintendent Norman “Horn Rimmed Harry” Mullett.

James: A Touch of Frost was great. David Jason knew just how much comedy business to put into his performance. I think everyone was surprised just how good he was in the more serious role, and I remember trying to find out if Denton FC was a real football team.

Prime Suspect (ITV, 1991-2006)

Dave: While I enjoyed the early episodes of Prime Suspect, I was never a massive fan of it, mainly down to the fact that I don’t really like writer Lynda La Plante’s work.

Having said that, the quality of this show and the performance of Helen Mirren demands attention.  Ground breaking and harrowing at times, this gave us a really believable, flawed female lead. Tennison has been oft imitated and never, to date, bettered.

The Bill (ITV, 1984-2010)

Dave: And finally, no list of police shows would be complete without this long running series.  Set in the fictional Sun Hill Police station, this gave us a load of memorable characters. Remember PC Reg Hollis? WPC June Ackland? DCI Frank Burnside? The list goes on.  It lost something for me when it changed from the 30 minute episode format, but I still hold many fond memories of this show

James: I love shows that are truly episodic. Whether it is the monster of the week episodes of shows like Buffy or The X-Files, or the half an hour episodes of The Bill that were on every Tuesday and Thursday. The ongoing tales from Sun Hill lost something when it went to an hour long, but those early episodes will last a long time in my memory.

Until next time, thanks for reading. Stay gold Ponyboy, stay gold, and catch ya later on down the trail.

10 Of The Best British Cop Shows The British public loves a good police show. Here are some of the best!