#David Von Erich imagine

[fangirl-imagines]

Dating David Von Erich Would Include...

A/N: The Iron Claw and David have been living rent free in my brain. Also shout out to @heartbreakprincehbk for their amazing Iron Claw fics.

You are absolutely his number one fan.

Every match he or his brothers are in you can be found sitting front row cheering him on and trying your best not to wince when he goes down in the ring. Even though sometimes its only Michael or Pam giving your hand a reassuring squeeze that keeps you from rushing into the ring. 

David considers you his good luck charm, he says having you there to watch him always makes him perform better in the ring. Fritz hates it, reminding David that there's no such thing as luck and to focus on his training instead of some girl in the audience. 

Either way, David takes you everywhere with him. An out of town match? You’d better pack an overnight bag. Him and his brothers are heading to the lake? Grab your swimsuit baby, he's already on his way to pick you up. He’s working out today? He’s already on the phone asking if you want to come watch him. 

His brothers give him a hard time about it but they all are thrilled for David that he found someone as good as you. 

Being protected like crazy since you’re constantly surrounded by wrestlers that look at you like a sister.

You become especially close with Michael as the two of you spend time hanging out waiting on his brothers at matches. 

He is often the third wheel for you and David, being like a little brother to you too. You’re never too bothered by having Michael come hang around with you and David. 

David is such a family man, he loves having you around his family, seeing how naturally you fit in with them. It makes him all the more excited to have a family with you in the future. 

He’d be the sweetest dad, play wrestling with his sons, watching them grow up close like his brothers and him and teaching them everything he knows. 

Lots of late nights driving around in his truck, your legs in his lap, the windows down, singing along to the radio together at the top of your lungs. 

Your favorite dates are always like this, just the two of you doing nothing but doing it together, just enjoying the slow moments. 

The best nights are especially when he takes you down to the lake late at night, both of you winding up skinny dipping together with the only light being the moon and stars. 

Laying on the dock together afterwards, wearing his shirt, thumbing his wrist wrapped around your waist, is the first time you tell each other that you love each other. 

Playing with his long hair. Wrapping strands around your fingers, even braiding little strands of it when laying in bed together. 

 He almost never calls you by your name, David is a nickname man for sure. 

“Darin, you almost ready to go?” “There’s my baby! Did you enjoy the match?” “Michael, you seen my girl?”

Always stealing his hat, leaving the sportatorium with his arm around you and his hat safely on your head. 

Sometimes he had to wrestle it back from you, playfully showing you his moves, careful not to be too rough with you when he tosses your giggling self around, gently pinning your wrist and stealing his hat back, joking that he was gonna use the iron claw.

#david von erich #david von erich imagine #david von erich x reader #the iron claw #the iron claw imagine #von erich imagines #harris dickinson #harris dickinson x reader #zac efron #jeremy allen white #zac efron x reader #jeremy allen white x reader

[heartbreakprincehbk]

Fool For You (David Von Erich x Reader x Kerry Von Erich)

Words: 4,046

Summary: A tale old as time; an angsty love triangle. Requested by @richiejerimovichh ! Thanks for being patient hun!

“Oh, finally. Y/N’s here!” You could hear in the distance as you walked up the long Von Erich dirt driveway. You already wore a grin on your face as you heard a scuffle of shoes approaching like a pack of wild animals. 

It was hard to really explain how you found yourself as an unofficial member of the Von Erich clan. Really, it had more to do with vicinity; your parents knew Fritz and Doris and you went to the same school as all the brothers. You were at the Sportatorium for every show, like most of your old classmates, and even got a job there taking tickets after your senior year. That turned into becoming a member of the office, which turned into befriending the Von Erichs, which turned into late night burger joints and shakes and family dinners. Pretty soon, you were letting yourself into their home and getting greeted just like any other family member.

Mike had been the voice you heard, and the relief was evident all over his face; he and his brothers had been playing football and you were–hopefully–his way out.

“I’m so happy to see you.” He told you breathlessly, nearly falling into your arms. You laughed as you hugged him back, steadying him on his feet.

“This ain’t over yet, Mike.” Kevin warned, giving his brother a playful push so he could hug you in greeting next. “Dave and I ain’t done with you and Kerry yet. Hey, Y/N. Did you pick up a movie for movie night?”

“Kevin, movie night isn’t until a few more days. I’ve got time! Can’t you take it one day at a time like the rest of us?” You teased, making Mike laugh. “So, I see I’m just in time. Who’s winning?”

“Who do you think?” David was approaching quickly, a bright light in his eyes, eyes that were locked solely on you. Just the sight of him set a swarm of butterflies loose in your chest. “I sure am glad to see your pretty face. It’s a sight for sore eyes around here.” He said just before he swept you up into a hug that brought you off your feet. 

Where to start with David…and where did it end?

Kevin was like the older brother you always wanted, always keeping you dutifully on your toes and there for you with advice when you needed it. Mike was like the baby brother you always wanted, and he looked to you for the advice and comfort. It was the best of both worlds. But David…

David was just so funny and charismatic. He had a quiet assuredness to him that you always admired. So, the fact that he always seemed to have his eyes on you made your heart skip a beat. The passenger’s seat in his truck was your designated seat; he wouldn’t let anyone else have it. If ever you and his brothers went anywhere, it was unspoken that you were riding with him. He saved you a seat at the dinner table next to him, his coat was the one offered if you got chilly. 

And yet, despite all of that, despite him constantly driving you home and spending any spare chance he got in your office while you worked, that seemed to be all it was. Sure, there were lingering looks. His hand touching yours a second too long. He had drunkenly kissed your cheek an inch from your mouth one night, but any solid admittance of romantic feelings? There was none.

So were you wrong in thinking maybe there was more to it? Maybe. Did it stop you from hoping? Not a chance. And if that made you foolish, then you were the biggest fool.

“You won’t be winning for long.” Another voice brought you out of your thoughts. You glanced over David’s shoulder and finally saw Kerry, who, curiously, also only eyed you. 

“Shoot. Wanna bet, brother?” David said, almost reluctantly placing you back on the ground. Kerry approached you and gave you a tight hug, one that lingered longer than you were expecting.

“Hey, Y/N. Missed you.” He murmured softly, close to your ear. It sent a shiver up your spine.

“Hey, Kerry.” You replied, left mystified as he finally let go. The touch of his skin left yours tingling. You weren’t quite sure if you were imagining the glare on David’s features.

“Are you joining us, Y/N?” Mike asked hopefully. You managed to smile again, shaking off the last interaction. 

“No, sorry, buddy. I’m gonna help your mom set up dinner. Kev, is Pam comin’?” Kevin nodded in the affirmative. You turned to Kerry. “What about Becky?” 

Becky was Kerry’s most recent girlfriend. You had only met her once, the first time he had brought her around the family. She was beautiful, such a vibrant bubbly person that made you just want to be a better person. Kerry looked away at your question.

“Nah. We’re not together anymore.” His response was quiet. It felt like tripping into a hidden hole in the grass and you wished you hadn’t asked.

“Oh…I’m sorry to hear that.” You replied. Kerry now looked right at you, his eyes clear.

“Don’t be.” You blinked. Now, you were certain the glare on David’s face was real.

“C’mon! Less chit chat, let’s finish this game.” David interrupted gruffly. You left them to their game, chuckling a little at the exasperation on Mike’s face. 

After dinner, once you finally convinced Doris to let you do the dishes and shooed off Pam to enjoy some of Kevin’s company, you were scrubbing plates in a comfortable silence. 

“You know, it goes by faster if two people do it.” You gasped and dropped the plate you were holding into the suds and water.

“Kerry? Don’t scare me like that!” You scolded. He approached your side with a chuckle, leaning against the counter. “I’m all good, really. Don’t you and your brothers have a show to be preparing for?”

“Exactly. We’re leaving in an hour. You’re coming to watch, right?” You gave a nod. “Okay, so let’s get it done faster.” He pleaded with you with his eyes and you sighed.

“Fine. You dry. And you better be better than Mike at polishing these forks.” You warned. Kerry chuckled again.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Soon, the comfortable silence was back, this time with the addition of Kerry, his large arm touching yours as you both worked diligently. But soon, with each plate, you felt the urge to speak nearly consuming you.

“So,” you said finally after clearing your throat. “I know you said not to be, but I really am sorry about bringing up Becky. I had no idea.” You apologized. Kerry was shaking his head.

“I meant it, Y/N. No need to be sorry.”

“So, what happened? She was a really great girl.” Kerry shrugged.

“Yeah…I don’t know. As great as she was, she just wasn’t really the one.” You gave a small chuckle.

“Well, Kerry, you hardly gave her a chance. How would you know?” He paused, looking over at you.

“You just do sometimes. I didn’t feel that with her. She didn’t really like the wrestling part of everything, so it wouldn’t have worked in the long run…and…I guess I realized I was never going to be fair anyways.” You frowned.

“What do you mean?” He looked away, giving another shrug.

“I was always comparing her to someone else. And wishing I was with her instead.” 

He looked at you again, putting the plate he was drying down and turning entirely to face you. You felt your words get caught in your throat and your heart speed up nervously.

“Oh, um…well.” You sputtered out. “A lot of guys make the mistake of not taking a leap and speaking up about how they feel.”

“I know.” Kerry replied. “I’ve seen it. I don’t wanna make the same mistake.” He continued to stare at you and you could’ve sworn he was moving closer.

“Hey, darling, should I wear the red and blue jacket tonight or the black and gold–” David had entered the kitchen and stopped short at the sight of Kerry next to you. You watched his eyes narrow. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, nothing. Just helping Y/N with the dishes. She shouldn’t do all the heavy lifting.” Kerry replied. You nearly elbowed him.

“No, and she doesn’t. That’s what I’m around for. I think Y/N’s capable enough of washing dishes without you slowing her down.” David replied. 

“I really don’t mind!” You cut in, but the brothers continued to stare at each other. The tension in the air was growing thick. “It’s the least I can do for always free-loading around here.”

“It’s a little dumb of you to think a woman should wash the dishes, Dave.” Kerry challenged.

“I never said she should! I know she’s her own person and better than anyone, I know she doesn’t need anyone’s help for anything. She’s not some helpless doll, and the last thing she needs is your help.”

“Just because she doesn’t need it doesn’t mean she should always have to do it on her own.”

“I’d gladly wash the dishes for her if she asked me too, you’re putting words in my mouth! Who’s the one always making sure she gets a plate full of food first or opening the door for her? Who picks up lunch for her every day of the week while she’s working so she doesn’t have to?” David was beginning to yell, and if you weren't the subject, you would have found the entire thing ridiculously amusing. Half of you wanted to laugh at the sudden absurdity and the other half of you was mortified.

“What’s going on?” Kevin demanded as he came into the kitchen. Pam was looking knowingly between Kerry and David before shooting you a sympathetic look that made your face grow warm. “C’mon, Kerry, why don’t you have your bag? We’re gonna be late.”

“You know the red is my favorite.” You said to David after Kerry left up the stairs. He looked a little abashed now that it was just the two of you, fiddling with his fingers and avoiding your eyes.

“Look, Y/N, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean I think it’s your place to do the dishes or something. That was really stupid of me to say, I didn't mean–”

“I know.” You reassured him. He glanced up at you and his mouth opened to say more. You held your breath, waiting to see, but he closed it again.

“I should get my stuff.” He muttered, heading up the stairs. You sighed a little, looking around the little kitchen, aghast. 

***

At the Sportatorium, you took your seat in the front in between Mike and Pam. 

“Everything okay?” Pam asked you. You were jumpy and flinched when she touched your arm. 

“Huh? Oh. Uh…I think so.” You sighed. “I hope so.” You tacked on under your breath. Soon, the main event was on and the brothers were making their way to the ring for a six-man tag match. 

Kevin passed first, giving you a nod and a quick kiss to Pam. Then David, who gave you his yellow rose and a kiss to the top of the head, his red jacket matching your cheeks. But when Kerry came, you weren’t expecting him to stop and wrap his arms around you in a hug, nor were you expecting the kiss to your cheek. You didn't even feel the glares from all the women surrounding you; the only thing you could focus on what the way David had frozen and was now staring in outrage at Kerry.

“Uh oh,” you heard Mike mutter beside you, voicing your thoughts out loud. Suddenly, David took a step towards Kerry and shoved his chest.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? You think I don’t know what you’re doing?” You heard him yell, and noticed a few fans giving the brothers confused looks. Kerry swatted David’s hand away before giving him a shove back.

“Stop it!” You hissed at them, to no avail. It was as if you suddenly weren’t even there. Thankfully, Kevin had turned back and given both of them stern slaps to the shoulder before stepping between them. 

“Cut it out right now, we have a match to do.” You heard him scolding parentally, not before sending an exasperated look in your direction. You felt yourself shrinking lower. 

“Oh god…this is my fault.” You mumbled to yourself, burying your face in your hands and sinking down in your seat. 

“Oh, honey, this is not your fault.” Pam told you quickly, rubbing your shoulders comfortingly. “This is just two grown men acting like silly little boys.”

“Yeah, it’s not your fault they’re acting like kids.” Mike added helpfully, looking desperate to cheer you up. “You can’t blame yourself just because Kerry likes you too.”

“Too?!” you exclaimed. “What are you talking about?” Mike looked genuinely bewildered and Pam once again looked sympathetic. “When did this even happen, how?”

“Oh, honey.” She merely repeated, shaking her head. Your head was spinning.

“Pretty sure Dave knows about Kerry too, but he’s been pretending he doesn’t notice because it’s not really a secret that he likes you." Mike started to try to explain, but you were barely keeping up. "So he’s expecting Kerry to back off because you know, brothers and everything but—"

“If he didn’t know before, which he did, he does now.” Pam said, her eyes watching as David and Kerry appeared to continue arguing from where they stood on the ring apron with Kevin in the ring.

“First of all, David’s never even asked me out.” You replied finally.

“That’s what I said!” Mike seemed to defend himself. “But he just says he’s waiting for the right time. We think he’s kinda nervous you do actually like Kerry. Do you?” You blinked several times again.

“Oh my god…these boys.” You sighed, burying your head again.

You continued to watch the match unfold through squinted eyes that were further blocked with your hands, nervous that at any point David and Kerry were going to start swinging on each other instead of their opponents. Pam had her arm looped through yours, a helpful anchor keeping you from floating away. Thankfully, they seemed to be fine, and only you, Pam, and Mike were aware of the coldness between Kerry and David. As soon as Kevin got the pin, Kerry left the ring, ignoring fans all the way to the dressing room. David wasn’t far behind him, leaving Kevin to slap fans hands and sign autographs. 

“I’ve got to fix this.” You said, to yourself more than anyone else. Mike and Pam were on your heels, but you all stopped short at the sound of two voices thundering inside the dressing room. You winced.

“Mike, please go in there and grab Kerry for me.” You begged. Mike’s eyes widened. 

“So it is Kerry?”

“Michael, please! Before they do something!” He snapped out of it and dutifully ducked into the room. You cringed as the yelling only picked up, ten times worse. There was a clattering sound of something metal hitting something.

“I can’t tell if you’re the best thing that happened to this family…or the worst.” You jumped at the sound of Kevin’s voice behind you and groaned at his words. Thankfully, he seemed to have a half humorous grin on his face. Pam hit his shoulder lightly, shaking her head in disapproval.

“This is not her fault!” She insisted. Kevin shook his head.

“No, I know. Took everything in me to keep them from going at each other in the ring.” He muttered, looking towards the dressing room with a grimace. You groaned.

“Kev…I’m not trying to do this! The last thing I want is to get between them. I don’t want to be the reason they hate each other; if that’s the case, I’ll remove myself from this situation.”

“Hey! No one wants you to leave.” Kevin said. “We love each other to death. That just means sometimes we fight too. But we always work it out. Dave and Kerry are just gonna have to accept whatever decision you make. And they’ll have to respect it.” You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. Kerry came out of the dressing room at the moment. The second he left, the door slammed shut behind him, presumably David’s doing.

“After I talk with Kerry, can you make sure you stick around waiting in the parking lot?” You lowered your voice to Pam and Kevin. You knew instantly Pam understood. Kevin opened his mouth in question, but she pressed a finger to his lips.

“We got it.” She assured you, and gave your arm a squeeze. As they walked away, Kerry approached. It was just the two of you in the dingy backstage hallway.

“Hey,” Kerry said lightly, a small smile on his face. “Mike said you wanted to see me.” 

“I did…” you said, before you sighed. “Listen, Kerry…I…” you looked from the smile on his face to your shoes and the scuffs on the ground next to them. You traced circles around the marks with the toe of your shoe.

“Let me stop you for one second, Y/N.” Kerry said. You frowned a little. 

“But, Kerry—“

“Just listen, please. Y/N…I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’t. All those girls out there on the way to the ring, it’s like they’re not there. All I see is your face. I dreamt about you the other night. We were together in a house of our own, just making breakfast. I mean, I know we’ve been friends for a while and everything but…I really care about you. It’s just what I meant, about Becky. I couldn’t see it working out no matter how much I tried, but with you…” You bit your lip, still unable to look up, knowing the scuffs on the floor were going to be committed to your memory forever. “Y/N?” You felt his fingers tilt your chin up gently and looked into his side eyes, like a beautiful sunny day. You allowed yourself for a second to jump into them, imagining what that path could bring. The breakfast he had mentioned, the house. Knowing every time you stepped out with him, he was the envy of every woman around you. The passion that he carried for everything and every goal would now also be geared towards you and loving you so completely and fully. 

And it still didn’t feel right. Because you could see it all; the picturesque home, a loving embrace, maybe even a family of your own…but Kerry wasn’t the person in your dream. 

“Kerry, I’m sorry. I don’t feel that way for you.” You whispered. “I’m sorry. I’ll always care for you as a person, but I can’t be your person.” He stared back unwaveringly, and to his credit, he nodded his head and stepped back.

“I understand that. I’m…sorry if I ruined any of the kindness you have in your heart towards me, or made you uncomfortable, I just thought that…” he sighed and straightened up again. “I should be honest. I’ll work real hard to make everything right again, alright?”

“It’s okay, Kerry. Consider this conversation forgotten.” He grinned a little.

“I do feel a little stupid now, though.” He admitted, making you laugh. “I should have known it was always David.” Just at his name alone, those familiar butterflies rushed back. You smiled.

“I really need to see him. Kevin and Pam should be waiting out back for you and Mike. I need to talk to David.” Kerry nodded, and you knocked on the dressing room door. Mike’s face appeared, looking eager for some kind of update.

“I need to talk to David.” You told him. He looked over your head to where Kerry was waiting. “Alone.”

“Oh…uh. Right.” Mike replied, still looking confused, but quickly leaving the room to join Kerry. You walked in and shut the door behind you before taking in the surroundings. There was a chair laying on the floor next to the wall, seemingly laying there after being thrown if the dent in the wall was any clue. David was sitting in another chair, one hand pressed to his mouth and the other wrapped around his midsection. He was staring at the floor, one leg shaking.

“Hey…” you murmured, not taking a step. There was a long pause.

“Y/N, you really don’t have to do this.” He said finally. “I don’t need a little pep talk, or for you to tell me how great I am but just not the right one or something. I’m a big boy, I’ll be just fine with your decision.” You frowned.

“David…”

“Really.” He said, looking up at you. “I mean, it’s Kerry for crying out loud. I get it, alright? I mean, I’ve seen every day how girls look at him. He’s great. I’m not mad, I promise. I’ll be happy for you both.”

“David, wait, seriously—“

“No, I don’t want you trying to make me feel better, Y/N.” He stood suddenly as if he couldn’t contain himself in the chair any longer. “It’s really my own fault anyways. You’re one helluva lady, you know that? Every day, I just look at you and I can’t believe you’re real. And in front of me, just sorta breathing the same air as me. I just can’t get enough of you, and I should have done something about it sooner, but I’ll admit I was scared, alright? Because you’re way out of my league, but I should have made it known. I should have told you time and time again every second how I felt, I should have treated you like it. But I just want you to be happy. I swear it. And at the end of the day, if it’s with my own brother, then that’s fine. I know he’ll take care of you.” Despite his words, you could see the unhappiness burning in his eyes. You couldn’t help but admire every word coming from his mouth, you couldn’t help but stare at his mouth, desperate to shut him up with a kiss. 

“Are you finished?” You asked. His face frowned and you couldn’t help but chuckle. “Now, what on earth did Mike tell you?” David’s frown deepened.

“That you needed to talk to Kerry.”

“Okay. Is that all?” He frowned even further.

“He just started consoling me and telling me it ain’t your fault, which I never said it was—I would never blame you. Then some, you know, run of the mill peppy speech about fish in the sea…” At this point, you gave an outright laugh. “Oh, now you’re laughing at me?”

“You and Mike really should learn not to jump to conclusions so quickly. Didn’t your father ever tell you about making assumptions?” David’s face melted slowly from confusion to a hopeful wide eyed wonder. 

“…What are you saying?”

“I love Kerry, but not like that. Not like…how I’ve always felt about you.” 

David crossed the room within the blink of an eye and suddenly hoisted you into the air, his face buried against your neck, his arms encasing you against him.

“Oh, Y/N…oh man. You had me losing my mind.” He admitted, voice muffled against your skin. “You mean it?” He asked, leaning back to check your expression.

“Do you?” You demanded cheekily. “On second thought, maybe you should listen to Mike more. I’m still waiting for you to ask me out, David Von Erich.” David's head tilted back in laughter. 

“You got it, darling, I’m not wastin’ a second more. How about this Friday?” 

“That’s movie night; Kev’s not gonna be too happy with that.” You replied, giggling. David laughed again, and the both of you seemed dizzied in relief and euphoria, gripping each other tightly with the hands and yet, weak at the knees.

“Well, Kev’s just gonna have to deal with it. We’ll do movie night another night.” David said, placing you back on the ground and kissing the top of your head. Finally, finally, everything felt right.

#iron claw imagine #david von erich imagine

[creature-wizard]

Is the spiritual person a conspiracy theorist? A list of red flags

They talk about a shadowy group of people supposedly manipulating everything behind the scenes. They might refer to them by terms such as globalists, bankers, international bankers, secret rulers of the world, the elite, the cabal, Kabbalists, Talmudists, satanists, satanic pedophiles, pedophiles, generational satanists, satanic bloodlines, the Illuminati, the Babylonian Brotherhood, lizard people, Reptilians, Orions, regressives, regressive entities, Khazarians, Marxists, cultural Marxists, or leftists. Sometimes, very rarely, they'll just come right out and say "Jews."

They claim that the conspiracy has been working to conceal historical and spiritual truths from humanity.

They claim that the conspiracy uses stuff like food, entertainment, and medicine to control the masses. For example, "additives in food suppress our psychic abilities" or "Hollywood films contain subliminal messages" or "COVID vaccines were actually created to alter your DNA to make you more docile."

Also, claims that the conspiracy controls people via spiritual or technological implants, 5G, or alter programming, with or without explicit mention of Project Monarch (a conspiracy theory promoted by far right cranks such as Mark Philips and Fritz Springmeier, who used hypnosis to respectively convince Cathy O'Brien and Cisco Wheeler that they'd been put under mind control by a global satanic conspiracy).

They claim that this conspiracy is controlling the media, has fingers in every institution they disagree with, and is generally behind everything they disagree with. (EG, the conspiracy created the Catholic Church; that other New Ager they disagree with is actually controlled opposition, etc.)

They claim that the conspiracy is trying to keep people in fear.

They claim that the conspiracy harvests something from people. Blood and adrenochrome are common ones. Loosh is somewhat less common. Expect to see something else pop up eventually.

They claim that the conspiracy practices genetic engineering; EG, creating animal/human hybrids, using vaccines to genetically sever people's connection to God, etc.

They claim that true spiritual wisdom can be traced back to places like Atlantis, Lemuria, or Mu.

They claim that world governments have secretly been in contact with extraterrestrials for years.

They appeal to known frauds and cranks, including but not limited to Erich Von Daniken, Zechariah Sitchin, David Icke, David Wilcock, Graham Hancock, Jaime Maussan, Bob Lazar, Steven Greer, Richard C. Hoagland, Fritz Springmeier, and Drunvalo Melchizedek.

Appeals to forged documents, including but not limited to the alleged diary of Admiral Richard Byrd, The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean, and The Urantia Book.

Appeals to channeled information, such as that provided by Edgar Cayce, Carla Rueckert, or George Van Tassel.

"But all of this has to come from somewhere, doesn't it?"

Oh, it all comes from somewhere, all right, but the where isn't what most people imagine.

A lot of the stuff above is just a modern spin on the content of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a Russian hoax created to justify violence against Russian Jews. The Protocols itself was plagiarized from a political satire and incorporated a lot of the post-French Revolution conspiracy theories about Freemasons and Jews being behind the French Revolution. I wrote a summary of the conspiracy tropes found in The Protocols over here.

The stuff about Satanic sacrifices and the consumption of blood, adrenochrome, loosh, or whatever are simply just variations on blood libel, an antisemitic conspiracy theory that claims Jews practice ritual cannibalism. Blood libel can be traced back to ancient Greece. (With the Greek version, I really can't help but notice the similarity to modern urban legends of gangsters kidnapping random people for initiation rituals.)

Many of these tropes can also be linked back to the early modern witch hunts. It was believed that witches sacrificed babies to Satan, practiced cannibalism, and put people under mind control by way of diabolical magic. It was also believed that some witches didn't even know they were witches; they'd go off to attend the Devil's Sabbath at night and come back in the morning without remembering a thing. In the late 20th century, this witch hunter's canard would be reinvented as the alter programming conspiracy theory when media such as the 1973 book Sibyl and its 1976 television adaptation put DID (note: the woman who inspired Sibyl did not have DID) into the public consciousness. For a more complete list of witch panic and blood libel tropes, I wrote a list over here.

Lemuria was a hypothetical landmass proposed to explain the presence of lemur fossils in Madagascar and India while being absent in continental Africa and the rest of Asia, because if lemurs evolved naturally, they wouldn't be in two separate places with no connection to each other. The discovery that India and Madagascar were once connected not only made the hypothesis obsolete, it precludes the existence of Lemuria.

The whole notion of Mu began with a horrendous mistranslation of the Troano manuscript. A man named Augustus Le Plongeon would link the mistranslation with the story of Atlantis, and use it to claim that Atlantis actually existed in the Americas. (For Plongeon, Mu and Atlantis were one and the same.) And then other people (like James Churchward) got their hands on the whole Mu thing, and put their own spins on it, and the rest is history.

Le Plongeon's ideas influence modern Atlantis mythology today; EG, the idea that it was in the Americas. Another guy who helped shape the modern Atlantis myth was Ignatius L. Donnelly, an American politician. Dude claimed that Atlanteans spread their oh-so-superior culture far and wide. He also claimed that Atlantis was the home of the Aryan people, because of course he did.

The idea that all of the world's wisdom can be traced back to Thoth/Hermes goes back to Hermeticism, a product of Greco-Egyptian syncretism. Hermeticism produced a fascinating body of mythology and an interesting way to consider the divine and its role in shaping human history, but that doesn't mean it was right. And the Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean is a modern text that has fuck-all to do with ancient Hermeticism and more to do with HP Lovecraft.

This idea that the conspiracy uses pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines for evil also has roots in Nazi Germany. The Nazi government, wanting to reserve real medicine for their soldiers, told the general populace that said medicine was the product of evil Jewish science and prescribed alternative healing modalities instead. (Said alternative healing modalities did not particularly work.) It also echoes the old conspiracy theories about Jews spreading the Black Death by poisoning wells.

The idea that the conspiracy uses genetic manipulation to create subhuman beings or sever humanity from the divine is a permutation of the Nazi conspiracy theory that Jews are trying to destroy the white race through race mixing. The idea of evil reptilian DNA goes back to the ancient serpent seed doctrine, which is indeed old, but no less pure hateful nonsense for it.

"But there's got to be somebody up to something rotten out there!"

Oh sure. But these people aren't skulking around in the shadows. They're acting pretty openly.

The Heritage Foundation has been working to push this country into Christofascism since the early 1970's. They're the ones responsible for the rise of the Moral Majority and the election of Ronald Reagan. They're also the ones behind Project 2025, which intends to bring us deeper into Christofascism. (Among many other horrible things, they intend to outlaw trans people as "pornographic.")

The Seven Mountains Mandate is another movement pushing for Christofascism. They intend to seize the "seven spheres" of society, which include education, religion, family, business, government/military, arts/entertainment, and media.

There's also the ghoulish American Evangelicals who support Israel because they think that current events are going to bring about the Second Coming of Jesus and cement the formation of a global Christofascist empire. Don't let their apparent support of Jews fool you - they believe that the good Jews will become Christians and the bad ones will go to hell.

All of these people are working toward monstrously horrific goals, but none of them are part of an ancient megaconspiracy. In fact, these are the kinds of people pushing the myth of the ancient megaconspiracy. From the witch hunts to Nazi Germany to the American Evangelical movement, if history has taught us anything, the people pushing the conspiracy theories are always the bad guys.

#conspiracy theories #conspiracy theory #conspiracism #conspirituality #conspiracy theorists #conspiracy theorist #spirituality #spiritual community #red flag #red flags #spiritual red flags #spiritual red flag #atlantis #lemuria #antisemitism #witch hunts #history #pseudohistory #religion #witchblr #paganblr #occultblr #discernment

[introvertguide]

Influential Directors of the Silent Film Era

Upon hearing that I am a fan of silent era film, people will ask if I have a favorite actor or movie from the time period. However, when I am asked about my favorites from other fans of silent film, it tends to involve my favorite director. This is because silent film actors had to over gesticulate and performed in an unrealistic way and could not use their tone or words to convey emotion. The directors also did not have a way to review as they shot and would have to use editing skills and strategic cover shots to make sure that everything was done properly and come out the way they imagined it. It was up to the director to be creative and they were forced to be innovative and create ways to convey their vision. Luckily for many average or poor directors of the time, audiences were easily impressed. However, today's more demanding and sophisticated audiences can look back at some of the genius behind the films of silent era Hollywood.

Alice Guy-Blache: Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913) and The Fairy of the Cabbages (1896)

Art director of the film studio The Solax Company, the largest pre-Hollywood movie studio, and camera operator for the France based Gaumont Studio headed up by Louis Lemiere, this woman was a director before any kind of gender expectations were even established. She was a pioneer of the use of audio recordings in conjunction with images and the first filmmaker to systematically develop narrative filming. Guy-Blanche didn't just record an image but used editing and juxtaposition to reveal a story behind the moving pictures. In 1914, when Hollywood studios hired almost exclusively upper class white men as directors, she famously said that there was nothing involved in the staging of a movie that a woman could not do just as easily as a man.

Charlie Chaplin: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1923), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940)

It is unfortunate that many people today think of Chaplin as silly or for screwball comedy when, in fact, he was a great satirist of the time. He created his comedy through the eyes of the lower economic class that suffered indignities over which they had no control. He traversed the world as his "Tramp" character who found his fortune by being amiable and lucky. The idea that a good attitude and a turn of luck could result in happiness was all that many Americans had during the World Wars and the Great Depression. He played the part of the sad clown and he was eventually kicked out of the country for poking fun at American society. Today he is beloved for his work, but he was more infamous than famous during a large part of his life.

Buster Keaton: Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), and The Cameraman (1928).

That man that performed the most dangerous of stunts with a deadpan expression, Buster Keaton was a great actor, athlete, stuntman, writer, producer, and director. It is amazing that you could get so much emotion out of a silent actor who does not emote, but Keaton managed to do it. He was also never afraid to go big, often putting his own well being at risk to capture a good shot. Not as well known for his cinematography or editing as many of the other directors of the time, he instead captured performances that were amazing no matter how they were filmed. Famous stunts include the side of a house falling down around him, standing on the front of a moving train, sitting on the side rail of a moving train, and grabbing on to a speeding car with one hand to hitch a ride. If you like films by Jackie Chan, know that he models his films after the work of Buster Keaton: high action and high comedy.

Cecil B. Demille: The Cheat (1915), Male and Female (1919), and The Ten Commandments (1923)

Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry, Demille was the first director to make a real box office hit. He is likely best known for making The Ten Commandments in 1923 and then remaking it again in 1956. If not that, he was also known for his scandalous dramas that depicted women in the nude. This was pre-Code silent film so the rules about what could be shown had not been established. Demille made 30 large production successful films in the silent era and was the most famous director of the time which gave him a lot of freedom. His trademarks were Roman orgies, battles with large wild animals, and large bath scenes. His films are not what most modern film watchers think of when they are considering silent films. That famous quote from the movie Sunset Boulevard in 1950 in which the fading silent actress says "All right, Mr. Demille. I'm ready for my close-up," is referring to this director.

D.W. Griffith: Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916)

Griffith started making films in 1908 and put out just about everything that he recorded. He made 482 films between 1908 and 1914, although most of these were shorts. His most famous film today is absolutely Birth of a Nation and it is one of the most outlandishly racist films of the time. The depiction of black Americans as evil and the Klu Klux Klan as heroes who are protecting the nation didn't even really go over well at that time. Some believe that his follow up the next year called Intolerance was an apology, but the film actually addresses religious and class intolerance and avoids the topic of racism. At the time, Griffith films were known for the massive sets and casts of thousands of extras, but today he is known for his racist social commentary.

Sergei Eisenstein: Battleship Potemkin (1925)

This eccentric Russian director was a pioneer of film theory and the use of montage to show the passage of time. His reputation at the time would probably be similar to Tim Burton or maybe David Lynch. He had a very specific strange style that made his films different from any others. The film Battleship Potemkin is considered to be one of the best movies of all time as rated by Sight and Sound, and generally considered as a great experimental film that found fame in Hollywood as well as Russia.

F.W. Murnau: Nosferatu (1922), Faust (1926), and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

I think that most people would know the bald-headed long-nailed vampire Nosferatu that was a silent era phenomena. It was so iconic that the German film studio that produced the movie was sued by the estate of Bram Stoker and had to close. Faust was his last big budget German film and has an iconic shot of the demon Mephisto raining plague down on a town that was the inspiration for the Demon Mountain in Fantasia (1940). Also, Sunrise is considered one of the best movies of all time by the AFI and by Sight and Sound as well as my favorite silent film. Fun facts: 1) more of Murnau's films have been lost then are still watchable and 2) he died in a car wreck at only 40 when he hired a car to drive up the California coast and the driver was only 14.

Erich von Stroheim: Greed (1924)

Maker of very strange German Expressionist films, Stroheim films are often listed as Horror or Mystery even though he considered himself a dramatic film maker. His most famous movie Greed was supposed to be amazing with an 8 hour run time but it was cut drastically to the point that it makes no sense and was both critically and publicly panned when an extremely abridged version was released in the U.S. Over half the film was lost and a complete version no longer exists. Besides this film, Stroheim was even better known for being the butler in the film Sunset Boulevard as a former director who retired to be with an aging silent film star. He also made a movie called Between Two Women (1937) that told the story of a female burn victim that was inspired by the story of his wife being burned in an explosion in a shop on the actual Sunset Boulevard.

Victor Fleming: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone With the Wind (1939)

Although not known for his silent films, Fleming did get his start during the silent era. He was a cinematographer for D.W. Griffith and then Fleming directed his first film in 1919. Most of his silent films were swashbuckling action movies with Douglas Fairbanks or formulaic westerns. He is the only director to have two films on the AFI top 10 and they happened to have come out the same year.

Hal Roach: Lonesome Luke films starring Harold Lloyd, Our Gang shorts, Laurel and Hardy shorts, and Of Mice and Men (1939)

It is not really fair to put Hal Roach in the silent era directors because he was influential at the time but he had a 75 year career. He was a producer and film studio head and even had a studio named after himself. His biggest contribution to the silent era was his production of Harold Lloyd short comedies and he continued to produce films in the early talkies including Laurel and Hardy shorts, Our Gang shorts, and Wil Rogers films. Roach was the inspiration for the film Sullivan's Travels, in which a famous director who only did frivolous comedies goes out into the world to find inspiration to find a serious drama. Roach did direct a single serious drama, Of Mice and Men, but it came out in 1939 and was buried underneath the works of Victor Fleming. The wealthy cigar smoking studio head that many people think of when they picture a film studio suit is based on this guy. The man would not quit and stayed in the business into his 90s and lived to the ripe old age of 100.

#directors #silent films #old Hollywood #1920s #introvert #introverts #influential

[wrestlingwithhistory]

Kerry Von Erich’s Best Kept Secret

As part of a wrestling dynasty, Kerry Von Erich witnessed both the ups and downs of performing as a professional wrestler in the 1980’s. To winning championships and seeing the world, to seeing family members lose their life before their time, the Von Erich story really is both a tragic and fascinating one. By the time that he committed suicide on February 18th, 1993, he had already been keeping a secret that shocked the wrestling world when it became public knowledge years later.

Kerry Von Erich was born in Niagara Falls, New York on February 3rd, 1960. His father Fritz Von Erich (Jack Barton Adkisson) was a wrestler/promoter who was known best for his time spent an evil German tag team along with Waldo Von Erich. Kerry was the 4th of 6 brothers. His oldest brother Jack Barton jr died aged 6 years in 1959 after an accidental electrocution and drowning, but the Von Erich family wasn’t to know that this would be the start of bad times for the family.

For Kerry, he made his debut on May 7th, 1978 aged 18 in a contest against Buddy Rose. He wrestled in his father’s promotion Big Time Wrestling which was a territory for NWA Texas during the time. Kerry gained a lot of success and within the first 2 years of his career, he picked up several Texas and American Tag Team titles before Fritz changed the name of the company to WCCW.

By 1980, Kerry was regularly featuring for World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW). Though still associated by the family name, he would be given the nickname ‘The Modern-Day Warrior’, which was taken from his entrance music ‘Tom Sawyer’ by Rush. He continued to grow as a performer and was soon given an opportunity to challenge for a singles title. On Dec 28th, 1980 he won his first NWA American heavyweight title against Gino Hernandez after the title had been vacated. He held this title 9 times during his career with WCCW with his final reign being in 1988.

Kerry’s biggest career highlight came on May 6th, 1984 when he defeated Ric Flair to become NWA World Heavyweight Champion. This moment, although defining for Kerry, was also bittersweet as the event was a memorial held at Texas Stadium for his brother David who had passed away while on tour in Japan aged 25. 45,000 people attended the David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions. He lost the belt back to Flair just 18 days later at a show in Yokosuka, Japan.

In the media, The Von Erichs were treated like royalty, especially in their native Texas where they were worshipped by thousands of adoring fans. However, the truth was that many of the brothers were caught up in scandals involving petty crimes and drugs on a regular basis but were dealt with swiftly as not to cause disruption to the Von Erich name or WCCW.

On June 4th, 1986 Kerry Von Erich was involved in a motorcycle accident which nearly ended his life. He sustained a dislocated shoulder and severe damage to his right leg. Though there are many versions of what happened, it is believed that Kerry tried to prematurely walk on the foot so shortly after surgery that the doctors were forced to amputate. It was been speculated that the reason Kerry tried to walk on the foot was because he was dosed up on painkillers and not realising the severity of the damage to his foot, got up to walk across the room for a cheeseburger. This story has been debunked several times but still shows itself whenever Kerry Von Erich is talked about.

After months of rehabilitation, Kerry returned to wrestling with the use of a prosthesis, keeping a secret not only from his fans but also to his fellow wrestlers. He would go as far as to shower with his boots on to maintain the illusion but with all the recovery and deception, Kerry also became addicted to painkillers which led onto other drug related issues.

These issues would lead Kerry into lots of trouble with Police, of his notable charges he was given probation for the first crime, but the second was likely to involve jail time for the Texan however, the day before the proceedings he took his own life with a single gunshot to the heart.

What is fascinating about the period of time from when he became an amputee, he went on to sign for the then WWF in 1990, just 2 years after losing his right leg. He was repackaged as The Texas Tornado and won the Intercontinental Championship against Mr. Perfect in 1990’s Summerslam before losing it back to him a few months later.

He was only with WWF for roughly 2 years, renewing a feud with the recently joined Ric Flair but then becoming less utilised as time progressed. This time also tied into the breakdown of his marriage and resulting divorce. Though he performed for the WWF a few more months during 1992, his time with the company ended in August 1992.

After leaving the WWF, Von Erich returned back to Texas and continued to turn out for promotions within the territory, holding the USWF Texas Heavyweight championship as his last title. His last match was February 12th, 1993.

Back in the 80’s when Kerry lost his foot, I could imagine that there would have been a large amount of stigma about an athlete performing at the highest level but with a disability. I believe that if that was today, knowing how much the curtain of professional wrestling has been pulled back over the last 20 years, Von Erich would be a role model for people living with disabilities, but back then with the Kayfabe lifestyle that the wrestlers would have to adopt to maintain the credibility of the industry, I could see how such an admission would have not only damaged the industry but also the legitimacy of the wrestlers in the pre-internet age.

#wwe #von erichs #wrestling #history

[chiseler]

Mitchell Leisen: How’s About It?

Mitchell Leisen was a major American film director. He belongs in the first rank, not the second tier, where he has often been placed by those who value the scripts he was given by Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett more than what he actually did with those scripts. Leisen’s name was usually written in sloping cursive in his opening credits, and that set the mood for what he had to offer. His was a gentle style, a deliberately unobtrusive style, smooth and gliding, attentive to nuances, visual and emotional.

Leisen made a point of nearly always moving the camera only when it is following a character who is moving right along with it, and the edits in his movies are as invisible as possible. He made three films that are undisputed classics: Easy Living (1937), written by Sturges, Midnight (1939), written by Wilder and Brackett, and Remember the Night (1939), written by Sturges. All three of these classic Leisen movies are partly about pretending to be something you’re not in order to move up or over into another social atmosphere or class and take on a new identity, and this theme is something that always interested Leisen particularly.

He got his start making costumes and dressing sets for Cecil B. DeMille, and he also made costumes for Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. That training shows through in his later work, that sense of fantasy and beauty for its own sake. Leisen had a fetish for absolute authenticity when he did period pictures, and he took this fetish to nearly Erich Von Stroheim lengths if he had the money to spend. Remember the peacock headdress that he designed for Gloria Swanson in DeMille’s Male and Female (1919), or the sexy harem pants he put on Fairbanks for The Thief of Bagdad (1924), or the barely-there garments he designed for Claudette Colbert in The Sign of the Cross (1932) and you can get a first sense of Leisen’s aesthetic: hopeful, fantastical, erotic. And he was a pretender himself on some of these early movies because he was very skillful at making sets and crowd scenes look more opulent than they actually were given some of the budgets he had to work with.

He took the reins from nominal director Stuart Walker for two films that proved his range: Tonight Is Ours (1933), a high comedy that begins with a sexy masked ball, and The Eagle and the Hawk (1933), as grim and concentrated an anti-war film as you will find from this era. Leisen next graduated to prestige pictures like Cradle Song (1933) and Death Takes a Holiday (1934), with its high-flown Maxwell Anderson script. Leisen was fond of Death Takes a Holiday all his life, and he even wanted to re-make it in the late 1940s, but it has not held up as well as some of his lesser-known pictures from the 1930s.

After Murder at the Vanities (1934), a backstage movie with some odd musical numbers, Leisen took flight with three pictures that demonstrated the full scope of his talent. What makes a really great director, a major director? The ability to take a poor script, like the one Leisen was given for Behold My Wife! (1934), and make it into something that moves like a dream and seems inevitable. While you watch Behold My Wife!, there is a double consciousness of how outlandish and slapdash the plot and dialogue are and how Leisen transcends this through pacing, framing, and staging, so that there is always something to delight the eye. Leisen movies generally have a difficult-to-describe kind of creamy look, as if every person and table and chair were covered in the same sort of protective satin sheen.

He used a similarly fast, super-controlled pace for Four Hours to Kill! (1935), another backstage movie where Leisen himself plays the orchestra leader but you never see the numbers on stage. A kind of musical proto-noir, this movie depends on Richard Barthelmess, who is playing a criminal waiting to be taken to jail, and Leisen is alert to Barthelmess’s needs and sensitive to his big scene, where his character talks about his unhappy past. And then Leisen was given a script (by Norman Krasna) and two stars, Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray, that were particularly congenial to his style, and the result was his first classic, Hands Across the Table (1935), a rather anguished comedy about love and the urge for security. Leisen had mastered form, and now he mastered the content that interested him, good-bad people navigating their own wants and desires and what they will do for them. For Leisen, mixed emotions are really the only emotions possible.

In all of his most characteristic films, Leisen’s characters are at a crisis point and need to decide to take a chance and see what they can get away with to become another version of themselves. There is lots of comedy in a situation like this, of course, but Leisen always hints at the dark underside of pretending. There is an American urge in these pictures that says, “What I say I am is what I am,” and that urge is usually naïve (think of early Joan Crawford heroines). Leisen looks at this urge from a height of sophistication, almost always warmly and tenderly, but sometimes he lets a really grim insight slip through. Think of Carole Lombard’s anti-social asides in Hands Across the Table, or that harrowing scene where Barbara Stanwyck goes home to her grudge-holding and cruelly puritanical mother in Remember the Night and you will feel the hurt that animates Leisen’s search for a created world of his own.

In many ways, the 1930s were Leisen’s best creative period, where he turned out beautifully balanced and finished entertainments like 13 Hours by Air (1936). He was a romantic who had a special way of visually enfolding the lovers in his movies that is almost Frank Borzage-like, and he glorifies very different women in what must be the best close-ups of their careers: look at some of the close-ups of the melancholy Sylvia Sidney in Behold My Wife! and then look at the close-ups of the wised-up Joan Bennett in 13 Hours by Air and see how Leisen gives them the same glamorizing treatment without ever losing what makes them so individual. Even pure assignments like Artists and Models Abroad (1938) glow with a kind of dreamlike assurance, as if to say, “Why shouldn’t a comedy look beautiful?”

And when Leisen had a meatier script, like Swing High, Swing Low (1937), which also starred Lombard and MacMurray, he was capable of virtuoso work that blended comedy and drama so seamlessly that it’s difficult to tell where one leaves off and the other begins. He did some Sturges-like slapstick for Easy Living, including the famous automat scene where the windows fly open and everybody grabs at the food, which was his idea. But for Remember the Night, Leisen pared down the Sturges script, cutting unnecessary scenes and verbose dialogue until he had what he wanted, a portrait of a hard-boiled woman who starts to long for the warmth of a “why not?” idealized mid-West home. Remember the Night is probably Leisen’s finest film, and a peak in his career, a comedy-drama or a dramatic comedy all whipped together until the consistency is exquisite and just right.

After the very sensitive Hold Back the Dawn (1941), a Wilder-Brackett script about a hard-boiled male gigolo (Charles Boyer) pretending to love a sheltered, repressed girl (Olivia de Havilland) until his feelings actually become genuine, Leisen’s career settled in for a few years to minor comedies, as if wartime austerity had affected his budgets, his scripts, and his imagination. In 1944, he did two movies in color, Lady in the Dark and Frenchman’s Creek, one anti-feminist and one feminist, and both rather nightmarishly disconnected and self-indulgent.

Leisen was going through a crisis in his personal life by the mid-1940s, and it showed in his work. He was mainly gay, but he didn’t want to be, and so he had married a fledgling opera singer (“a horror” according to the sharp-tongued Ray Milland) and he was carrying on a tortured affair with costumer Natalie Visart while also pursuing men. Leisen’s loyal secretary Eleanor Broder told David Chierichetti, the author of the definitive Leisen book, Mitchell Leisen: Hollywood Director, that her boss tried taking hormone shots at one point because he thought they might eradicate his homosexuality, but of course that didn’t work. Leisen lived with the pilot Eddie Anderson in the late 1930s, and Anderson left him for Shirley Ross, the actress who talk-sings “Thanks for the Memory” with Bob Hope in The Big Broadcast of 1938, an unusually sentimental scene within his work that Leisen insisted on. When that picture finished, he had a heart attack, and his health was never quite the same afterwards.

In the 1940s, after Visart had gotten pregnant with his child and lost it, Leisen took up with the dancer Billy Daniels, and his unhappiness grew. Daniels dances in what has to be Leisen’s worst feature, Masquerade in Mexico (1945), a semi-remake of Midnight that is so distracted and poorly timed that it would seem to give credence to Billy Wilder’s many complaints about Leisen over the years in interviews; if you were to watch Masquerade in Mexico right after Midnight, it would seem like a mark against Leisen as an artist in his own right rather than a servant of superior scripts where he could get them. Daniels is actually the only thing this movie has going for it: he’s an exciting dancer, and an intriguing screen presence, sexy, petulant, a little dangerous. Many in Leisen’s inner circle disliked Daniels, but maybe Masquerade in Mexico might work if it could just be Daniels dancing as Leisen watches.

The blandness of the décor in something like Suddenly It’s Spring (1947) is a real comedown from his Art Deco 1930s pictures, but Leisen rallied in this period with some of his best and most personal films, starting with Kitty (1945), a sumptuous Gainsborough period piece with all the trimmings and a Pygmalion subject that activates all of Leisen’s interest in pretending and “passing” as something you are not. Best of all from this time is Song of Surrender (1949), an uncommonly severe movie about a New England girl named Abigail (Wanda Hendrix) who finds a way out of her repressive environment by listening to music. What Abigail feels in Song of Surrender is surely what Leisen himself must have often felt as a young man growing up in the mid-West at the turn of the last century, and so this picture, which he said he didn’t much like, is his secret movie, his confession movie. It’s a great film, daringly stark and stripped-down, and it is as unerringly paced and controlled as all of his best 1930s work; there are moments when it feels like a precursor to Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993) in its insistence on the will power needed for a woman to find aesthetic and sexual fulfillment.

Leisen did an intriguing noir with Stanwyck called No Man of Her Own (1950) and an overlooked, charming adaptation of J. M. Barrie called Darling, How Could You! (1951), which is filled with longing for family life that Leisen certainly knows is a fantasy like any of his others. (How poignant it is when Joan Fontaine says in that movie that if her children are going to love her they mustn’t “think me over first.”) He spent twenty years working at Paramount Studios, and he was a creature of the studio system; when the studio system went, so did he, but not before one more diverting small musical, The Girl Most Likely (1958), which was the last feature made at RKO. “When the studio decided we no longer needed a certain department, it was shut down and if we needed something after that, we had to make do ourselves,” Leisen said. “It was really eerie.”

Ill-health and an unwarranted reputation for spending too much money kept Leisen mainly working for TV in his last years, so that he was back to low budgets and bringing in his own furniture to dress his sets. He had been fired from Bedevilled (1955) for hitting on one of the straight actors he was working with (the actor complained to MGM), and this put another shadow over his reputation. He had made Fred MacMurray’s career, but when he tried to get work as a director on MacMurray’s hit TV show My Three Sons, it was no go. “He sent me a telegram asking for the job,” MacMurray said. “He was, well, you know, a homosexual and he had gotten into some trouble on a picture he was making in Europe. With the three young boys we had working on the show, I just didn’t think it was right. So I never answered the telegram.”

It was his women who stayed loyal to Leisen in his final years, both his secretary Broder (who was a lesbian), and his old lover Natalie Visart, who had never really gotten over her love for him and came to stay with him toward the end (Visart’s son Peter was killed in a gay-bashing in the 1970s). Leisen’s responses to David Chierichetti’s questions in their interview book are unfailingly candid, insightful, and juicy, but his standing has never ascended to the level of that of Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder, even though his visual style was far more developed than theirs, and his point of view arguably more sophisticated and certainly more kind-hearted. He was a romantic with an edge of disquiet, and this made for matchlessly rich pictures, pulsing with hope and with pain.

Leisen knew about all aspects of picture making, and he has the requisite number of classics for entrance to the pantheon, plus a whole slew of other pictures of interest. He made Remember the Night and Song of Surrender. He made Midnight and Kitty. And he made Easy Living and Darling, How Could You! Those are all heights, and from different periods, and they prove the consistency of his inventiveness and the distinctiveness of his talent. His creativity came out of personal unhappiness on the one hand and unprecedented creative license and support under the old Hollywood studio system on the other. We will not see that particular combination again.

by Dan Callahan

[douxreviews]

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989) Review

"Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever."

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is one of the biggest flops in cinema history. Its failure is something that still haunts director Terry Gilliam to this day. But is the film itself actually bad?

Let's find out.

[Warning: This review contains spoilers]

Written by Gilliam and his Brazil co-writer Charles McKeown (who also plays Adolphus) and loosely based on the book Baron Munchhausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia by Rudolf Erich Raspe (itself based on the tall tales told by Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen, a German nobleman who fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1735–1739), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was the third and final entry in Gilliam's Trilogy of Imagination, which also included Time Bandits and Brazil. According to the man himself, all three were about the "craziness of our awkwardly ordered society" and the desire to escape it through imagination at different stages in life: a child in Time Bandits, a man in his thirties in Brazil, and finally an elderly man in this film.

Not surprisingly for a Terry Gilliam film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen suffered through a notoriously troubled production which saw the film's already hefty budget skyrocket (although Gilliam denies it ever went anywhere near the reported $46 million). Sarah Polley, who was only 9-years-old when she played the Baron's unwanted sidekick Sally, found the entire ordeal deeply traumatising while Eric Idle, Gilliam's friend and fellow Python, described the whole experience as "fucking madness" and that one should only see Terry Gilliam films, not actually star in them.

But as bad as the production was, Gilliam has argued that it wasn't the complete horror show it was made out to be. Most of the negative stories were the result of studio politics with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen becoming the unfortunate victim of a regime change at Columbia Pictures that saw Dawn Steel replace David Puttnam as CEO. Steel wasn't interested in making a success of any of the films started by her predecessor and gave the film a limited released (only 117 prints according to Gilliam) with almost no promotion. To the surprise of no one, the film tanked, making only $8 million, with the blame for the film's failure pinned solely on the director.

Like so many box office failures, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen gained the reputation of being something of a turkey in the years following its release. This was rather unfair since The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is in no way a bad film. I don't think it is some misunderstood masterpiece, and it is unquestionably the weakest instalment of Gilliam's Imagination Trilogy, but as a standalone piece of fantasy cinema, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is actually really rather pretty good.

The film opens in an unnamed European town, currently under siege by the Ottomans, sometime in the late 18th century (a Wednesday to be exact). It is the Age of Reason, a time of logic and rational thought, here personified by the town's mayor, and the closest thing this film has to a villain, Horatio Jackson (Jonathan Pryce). This is a man who wants to run a nice orderly war and has soldiers executed for being too extraordinarily brave because it sets a bad example. As the town is bombarded by canons, a group of actors put on a play about the life and adventures of that notorious teller of tall tales, Baron Munchausen (John Neville). Just as the second act is getting underway who should appeared in the audience but the real Baron himself. Now horribly old and longing for the sweet embrace of death, the Baron is none too happy with how he is being portrayed and proceeds to tell everyone how it really happened.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is the kind of lavish, fantastical adventure film that studios don't really make any more. Hell, even at the time it was released, 30 years ago today, it was the kind of lavish, fantastical adventure film that studios don't really make any more. It's the ideal film for such a creative filmmaker as Terry Gilliam. Like the Baron, he also delights in telling tall tales with little care for how realistic they are or how much sense they make. This is his greatest strength as a director as well as his biggest weakness. Gilliam is one of cinema's great visualists, possessing imagination that few can match, but at the same time he's maybe not one of its best storytellers. Many of his films have a rambling, episodic quality to the film and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is no different.

There is some semblance of a plot about the Baron finding his old servants in order to save the town and defeating the Turks, but it's really just an excuse for sending the Baron and Sally from one fantastical world to the next and for the director to let his creatively run wild. With no one to hold him back, Gilliam indulged himself to the fullest with this film, embracing the Baron’s far fetched flights of fancy with absolute relish. From the clockwork lunacy of the moon to the heavenly grandeur of Vulcan and Venus' ballroom, the whole thing is a feast for the senses (well, two of them at least).

The cast is something of a mixed bag. Neville is wonderful as Baron, bringing the right mix of charm, theatricality and matter of fact-ness to one of literature's most absurd creations. I love that Oliver Reed plays the god Vulcan like a Northern factory boss, forever at war with his disgruntled workers, while Robin Williams (who went uncredited and unpaid) is at his most manic as the King of the Moon. It's a shame, though, that the film never seems bothered about doing anything remotely interesting with any of its female characters, a problem shared by almost all of Gilliam's films. Polley is saddled with a character who seems to do nothing but nag and complain, Uma Thurman (as the goddess Venus) is just there to be admired by everyone, while the rest have nothing better to do than swoon over the inexplicably irresistible Baron.

Time Bandits and Brazil were both notable for having pretty dour endings. Gilliam famously had to fight tooth and nail to get Brazil released without the studio's preferred "happy ever after" ending. For a bit it looked as if The Adventures of Baron Munchausen would continue this trend. After saving the town by driving away the Sultan's army, the Baron is assassinated by Jackson, allowing the Grim Reaper to finally get his boney hands on the man who has eluded him all throughout the film. But just as he is being given a hero's burial, we jump right back to the theatre and discover that this has all just been another one of the Baron's outrageous stories, and not even the first one in which he died. None of it really happened. Except that it did, because the Turks were defeated and the town saved. Which make no sense, but then it wouldn't really be a Baron Munchausen story if it made any sense. And so Gilliam ends this unofficial trilogy on a more uplifting and triumphant note, showing us that while imagination can offer one person salvation in the darkest of times, an imagination shared, through stores, can help save others as well.

Notes and Quotes

--Yes, that is Sting as the solider who gets executed for being too extraordinary. He landed the role because he was Gilliam's neighbour at the time.

--Where does the Baron get all those fresh roses he keeps handing out to all the beautiful ladies he meets?

--It was a brilliant move on Gilliam's part to cast Pryce, the daydreaming hero of Brazil, as this film's bureaucratic villain.

--To the surprise of no one, Oliver Reed spent most of his time on set getting drunk and trying to seduce the teenage Uma Thurman. This was actually her first acting role, but because of the numerous production delays she made two other films before this one was even released.

--As bad as the making of this film was, it still sounds like a absolute picnic compared to the making of The Abyss, that other big budget box office failure of 1989.

Sultan: "Have you any famous last words?" Baron Munchausen: "Not yet." Sultan: "'Not yet?' Is that famous?"

Baron Munchausen: "Abandon ship!" Berthold: "I think the ship's abandoning us."

Horatio Jackson: We can't start escaping at a time like this. What would future generations think of us?

Baron Munchausen: "Go away! I'm trying to die!" Sally: "Why?" Baron Munchausen: "Because I'm tired of the world and the world is evidently tired of me." Sally: "But why? Why?" Baron Munchausen: "Why, why, why! Because it's all logic and reason now. Science, progress, laws of hydraulics, laws of social dynamics, laws of this, that, and the other. No place for three-legged cyclops in the South Seas. No place for cucumber trees and oceans of wine. No place for me."

King of the Moon: "My kingdom for a handkerchief!"

Baron Munchausen: "Everyone who had a talent for it lived happily ever after."

Baron Munchausen: "I'm Baron Munchausen!" Berthold: "That sounds nasty. Is it contagious?"

Three out of four tall tales.

Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011

#The Adventures of Baron Munchausen #Terry Gilliam #John Neville #Sarah Polley #Eric Idle #Jonathan Pryce #Oliver Reed #Uma Thurman #Robin Williams #Doux Reviews #Movie Reviews

[brittanyyoungblog]

100+ Love Quotes for Him to Let Him Know You Care

No matter how old your relationship is it can always benefit from some simple words of affirmation. But while feelings come naturally, it’s not always the case for words. If you’re having trouble finding the words to express how you feel to your man, don’t worry—we found them for you.

Here are some of our favorite love quotes for him to let the man in your life know how important he is to you.

1. “My heart is and always will be yours.”–Jane Austen

2. “If I had to choose between breathing and loving you I would use my last breath to tell you I love you.”–DeAnna Anderson

3. “The scariest thing about distance is you don’t know if they’ll miss you or forget about you.”–Nicholas Sparks

4. “I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone.”–J.R.R. Tolkien

5. “I love you as one loves certain dark things, secretly, bet`ween the shadow and the soul.”–Pablo Neruda

6. “Promise me you’ll never forget me because if I thought you would, I’d never leave.”–A.A. Milne

7. “Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.”–Emily Dickinson

8. “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” –Friedrich Nietzsche

9. “Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.”–Khalil Gibran

10. “All love shifts and changes. I don’t know if you can be wholeheartedly in love all the time.”– Julie Andrews

11. “Love is energy of life.”–Robert Browning

12. “Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.”–James A. Baldwin

13. “Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.”–Samuel Johnson

14. “Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”–Robert Frost

15. “If you wish to be loved, show more of your faults than your virtues.”–Edward G. Bulwer–Lytton

16. “Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.”–John Lennon

17. “The inner reality of love can be recognized only by love.”–Hans Urs von Balthasar

18. “Love, having no geography, knows no boundaries.”–Truman Capote

19. “Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”–Zora Neale Hurston

20. “We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.”–Orson Welles

21. “The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love.”–Hubert H. Humphrey

22. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”–William Shakespeare

23. “Nobody can predict the future. You just have to give your all to the relationship you’re in and do your best to take care of your partner, communicate and give them every last drop of love you have. I think one of the most important things in a relationship is caring for your significant other through good times and bad.”–Nick Cannon

24. “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”– Mignon McLaughlin

25. “One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”–Paulo Coelho

26. “Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.”–Helen Keller

27. “Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone–we find it with another.”–Thomas Merton

28. “Unconditional love really exists in each of us. It is part of our deep inner being. It is not so much an active emotion as a state of being. It’s not ‘I love you’ for this or that reason, not ‘I love you if you love me.’ It’s love for no reason, love without an object.”–Ram Dass

29. “The heart asks, and love answers”–Amelius

30. “True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.”–Sadhu Vaswani

31. “The garden of love is green without limit and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy. Love is beyond either condition: without spring, without autumn, it is always fresh.”–Rumi

32. “We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.”–Tom Robbins

33. “Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.”–Mother Teresa

34. “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”–Alfred Lord Tennyson

35. “Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.”–Oscar Wilde

36. “Life is a game and true love is a trophy.”–Rufus Wainwright

37. “Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.” –Ann Landers

38. “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”–Marc Anthony

39. “Love is a really scary thing, and you never know what’s going to happen. It’s one of the most beautiful things in life, but it’s one of the most terrifying. It’s worth the fear because you have more knowledge, experience, you learn from people, and you have memories.”–Ariana Grande

40. “Love is flower like; Friendship is like a sheltering tree.”–Samuel Taylor Coleridge

41. “I believe in true love, and I believe in happy endings.”–Christie Brinkley

42. “Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.”–Friedrich Nietzsche

43. “No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible.”–George Chakiris

44. “:True love doesn’t come to you it has to be inside you.”–Julia Roberts

45. “Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness, of hatred, of jealousy, and, most easily of all, the gate of fear.”–Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

46. “Love planted a rose, and the world turned sweet.”–Katharine Lee Bates

47. “True love cannot be found where it does not exist, nor can it be denied where it does.”– Torquato Tasso

48. “Love consists in giving without getting in return; in giving what is not owed, what is not due the other. That’s why true love is never based, as associations for utility or pleasure are, on a fair exchange.”–Mortimer Adler

49. “Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.”–Rabindranath Tagore

50. “I love you more than my own skin.”–Frida Kahlo

51. “What I love most about this crazy life is the adventure of it.”–Juliette Binoche

52. “True love bears all, endures all and triumphs.”–Dada Vaswani

53. “True love is no game of the faint–hearted and the weak. It is born of strength and understanding.”–Meher Baba

54. “Two things you will never have to chase: true friends & true love.”–Mandy Hale

55. “In love there are two things—bodies and words.”–Joyce Carol Oates

56. “Only true love can fuel the hard work that awaits you.”–Tom Freston

57. “True love that lasts forever yes, I do believe in it. My parents have been married for 40 years and my grandparents were married for 70 years. I come from a long line of true loves.”–Zooey Deschanel

58. “Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.”–Bertrand Russell

59. “We loved with a love that was more than love.”–Edgar Allan Poe

60. “Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.”–Antoine de Saint–Exupery

61. “We are most alive when we’re in love.”–John Updike

62. “Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.”–Ursula K. Le Guin

63. “Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.”–Plato

64. “Love has no age, no limit; and no death.”–John Galsworthy

65. “True love–that is, deep, abiding love that is impervious to emotional whims or fancy–is a choice. It’s a constant commitment to a person regardless of the present circumstances.”–Mark Manson

66. “True love bears all, endures all and triumphs!”–Dada Vaswani

67. “There is no remedy for love but to love more.”–Henry David Thoreau

68. “Love in its essence is spiritual fire.”–Lucius Annaeus Seneca

69. “Love cures people–both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.”–Karl A. Menninger

70. “Love is the power to see similarity in the dissimilar.”–Theodor Adorno

71. “Love is space and time measured by the heart.”–Marcel Proust

72. “If it is your time, love will track you down like a cruise missile.”–Lynda Barry

73. “The highest function of love is that it makes the loved one a unique and irreplaceable being.”–Tom Robbins

74. “True love, especially first love, can be so tumultuous and passionate that it feels like a violent journey.” –Holliday Grainger

75. “The romantic love we feel toward the opposite sex is probably one extra help from God to bring you together, but that’s it. All the rest of it, the true love, is the test.” –Joan Chen

76. “It is only with true love and compassion that we can begin to mend what is broken in the world. It is these two blessed things that can begin to heal all broken hearts.” –Steve Maraboli

77. “True love is quiescent, except in the nascent moments of true humility.” –Bryant H. McGill

78. “Love is love’s reward.”–John Dryden

79. “Love is metaphysical gravity.”–R. Buckminster Fuller

80. “I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.”– Marilyn Monroe

81. “True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked.” –Erich Segal

82. “Love is my religion–I could die for it.”– John Keats

83. “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mind are the same.” –Emily Brontë

84. “Love is a better teacher than duty.” – Albert Einstein

85. “Love can be unselfish, in the sense of being benevolent and generous, without being selfless.”– Mortimer Adler

86. “Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.” – Voltaire

87.  “Love, having no geography, knows no boundaries.” – Truman Capote

88.  “Love is the ultimate expression of the will to live.” – Tom Wolfe

89. “Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.”–Lao Tzu

90. “Love has no errors, for all errors are the want for love.”– William Law

91. “Being in love is the only transcendent experience.”–Armistead Maupin

92. “Choose your love, Love your choice.”–Thomas S. Monson

93. “They say true love only comes around once and you have to hold out and be strong until then. I have been waiting. I have been searching. I am a man under the moon, walking the streets of earth until dawn. There’s got to be someone for me. It’s not too much to ask. Just someone to be with. Someone to love. Someone to give everything to. Someone.” –Henry Rollins

94. “So you do believe in true love? she whispered. I took a deep breath, I think I have to, I said, blinking back tears. Without it, we’re all going nowhere.” –Juliet Marillier

95. “Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”–Robert Frost

96. “Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.”–Marcus Tullius Cicero

97. “Love is a game that two can play and both win.”–Eva Gabor

98. “There isn’t any formula or method. You learn to love by loving–by paying attention and doing what one thereby discovers has to be done.”–Aldous Huxley

99. “You have half our gifts. I the other. Together we make a whole. Together we are much more powerful.”–Joss Stirling

100. “Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep–burning and unquenchable.”–Bruce Lee

101. “Love is but the discovery of ourselves in another, and the delight in the recognition.”– Alexander Smith

102. “I can’t promise you forever, because that’s not long enough.”–Jason Dorsey

103. “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.”–Robert Munsch

The post 100+ Love Quotes for Him to Let Him Know You Care appeared first on The Date Mix.

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[writingbeautifully]

A Collection of My Favorite Quotes by Lesley Patterson

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

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"Never cut what you can untie." - Joseph Joubert

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"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." -Henry Thoreau

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"A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere." - Joyce A. Myers

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"Believe you can and you're halfway there." - Theodore Roosevelt

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"Change your thoughts and you change your world." -Norman V. Peale

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"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." - Rabindranath Tagore

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"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." - Robert Louis Stevenson

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"Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven." - Henry Beecher

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"Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul." - Thomas Merton

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"For a gallant spirit, there can never be defeat." - Wallis Simpson

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"Give light and people will find the way." - Ella Baker

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"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul." - Henry Ward Beecher

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"Great hopes make great men." - Thomas Fuller

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"Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself." - Suzanne Somers

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"Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul." - Democritus

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"How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!" - John Muir

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"Mankind is made great or little by its own will." - Friedrich Schiller

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"Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success." - Swami Sivananda

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"The best way out is always through." - Robert Frost

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"The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises." - Leo Buscaglia

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"The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money." - Thomas Jefferson

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"The power of imagination makes us infinite." - John Muir

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." - Edith Wharton

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"Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself." - Plato

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"Think with your whole body." - Taisen Deshimaru

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"There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness." - Han Suyin

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"We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone." - Ronald Reagan

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"What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?" - Robert H. Schuller

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"You change your life by changing your heart." - Max Lucado

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"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start." - Nido Qubein

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"A people free to choose will always choose peace." - Ronald Reagan

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"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." - Mohandas Gandhi

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"I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

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"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." - Mother Teresa

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"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." - Thomas Carlyle

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"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." - Buddha

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"You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection." - Buddha

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"Every man dies. Not every man really lives." - William Wallace

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"I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches." - Alice Roosevelt Longworth

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"It is not length of life, but depth of life." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war." - John F. Kennedy

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"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself." - Harvey Fierstein

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'The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." - Henry David Thoreau

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"The purpose of life is a life of purpose." - Robert Byrne

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"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." - Mark Twain

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"Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." - Carl Jung

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"There is no coming to consciousness without pain." - Carl Jung

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"Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own." - Carl Jung

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"While there's life, there's hope." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

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"Your life is what your thoughts make it." - Marcus Aurelius

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"It is madness for sheep to talk peace with a wolf." - Thomas Fuller

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"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it." - Eleanor Roosevelt

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"Nobody can bring you peace but yourself." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"One cannot subdue a man by holding back his hands. Lasting peace comes not from force." - David Borenstein

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"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it." - Thomas Jefferson

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"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew." - John Greenleaf Whittier

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"Peace is its own reward." - Mohandas Gandhi

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"Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time." - Lyndon B. Johnson

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"Peace is liberty in tranquillity." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

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"Peace is rarely denied to the peaceful." - Friedrich Schiller

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"Peace is when the time doesn't matter as it passes by." - Maria Schell

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"Power to the peaceful!" - Michael Franti

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"The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace." - Carlos Santana

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"The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves." - William Hazlitt

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"You cannot find peace by avoiding life." - Virginia Woolf

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"You don't have to have fought in a war to love peace." - Geraldine Ferraro

"A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea." - Honore de Balzac

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"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives." - C. S. Lewis

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"At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet." - Plato

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"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage." - Lao Tzu

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"Can miles truly separate you from friends... If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there?" - Richard Bach

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"Come live in my heart, and pay no rent." - Samuel Lover

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"Do all things with love." - Og Mandino

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"Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law. Love is the law, love as thou wilt." - Aleister Crowley & his Wife

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"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul." - Judy Garland

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"I believe in the compelling power of love. I do not understand it. I believe it to be the most fragrant blossom of all this thorny existence." - Theodore Dreiser

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"I can live without money, but I cannot live without love." - Judy Garland

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"I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love." - Daphne Rae

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"I like not only to be loved but also to be told I am loved." - George Eliot

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"If you could only love enough, you could be the most powerful person in the world." - Emmet Fox

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"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you." - A. A. Milne

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"If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I." - Michel de Montaigne

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"If you want to be loved, be lovable." - Ovid

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"Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'" - Erich Fromm

"In love, the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two." - Erich Fromm

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"Love conquers all." - Virgil

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"Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other." - Rainer Maria Rilke

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"Love does not dominate; it cultivates." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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"Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible - it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could." - Barbara de Angelis

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"Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs." - William Shakespeare

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"Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love." - Leo Buscaglia

"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit." - Peter Ustinov

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"Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired." - Robert Frost

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"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." - Aristotle

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"Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop." - H. L. Mencken

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"Love is my religion - I could die for it." - John Keats

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#Quotes #MyFavoriteQuotes #InspiringQuotes #InsightfulQuotes #QuotesCollection #TrueQuotes #QuoteablyQuoted #QuotesForLife #Life #Advice #Tips #Wisdom #WritingBeautifully #WritingBeautifully.com #TheWritingBeautifullyBlog #WritingBeautifullyBlog #TheOfficialAuthorLadyOpaque #LadyOpaque #LesleyPatterson #LesleyMPatterson #LesleyMichellePatterson #Author #Poet #Writer #Poetry

[heartbreakprincehbk]

Headcanon: Dating David Von Erich

Requested by @unforgettble420 !

To be completely honest, Kerry was always my favorite BUT honestly David is replacing him because he’s complete husband material. That man is a Cancer so you know he cares deeply about a family, taking the role as a provider seriously, responsible and protective and sentimental, etc. 

He would have first spotted you at one of the WCCW shows in the crowd and been distracted during his whole match. Kevin would have to yell at him to get his head in the game, and Kerry would catch on that you were the reason he was distracted after one too many looks in your direction.

After the show, Kerry and Kevin encouraged David to approach you in the parking lot. They both realized David wasn’t normally like this. He wasn’t nervous, but he did his best to shoo his brothers away to not ruin the moment. Little did he know, Kerry and Kevin were watching from around the corner of the Sportatorium.

He would be casual and calm as he approached and wasn’t afraid to compliment you in front of your friends.

“Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt anything, but I just had to tell you I think you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

Not only were your friends impressed, but you were already smitten.

You would both keep talking, and he would eventually ask you out. You weren’t expecting much, maybe dinner or a movie, but he brought you to his family’s house where they had acres of land full of beautiful big trees. He had a picnic set up for the both of you, and was eager to get to know you.

Things would progress between the two of you pretty quickly, because David isn’t really the type for games or wasting his or anyone else’s time. He would know immediately that you were the one for him, and it would get serious pretty quickly.

He would ask your opinion on things like kids, what your goals and dreams were, if you minded him wrestling and traveling. He would be willing to make compromises, such as taking you with him on the road when you were able, and making up for the times he had scheduled matches. 

If you didn’t know wrestling or weren’t so familiar with it, David would teach you about it patiently, explaining the in’s and out’s, the characters, the training. He would always be amused when you worried over him getting hurt, but secretly, he would be thrilled that someone really cared about his well-being.

David would show you a new way of life, taking you to the lake with his brothers, riding with the windows down in his truck, tending to his horses with him. In turn, you softened him a bit with all the neck rubs and scalp massages. He wasn’t used to someone taking such care to buy him new socks to replace the ones with holes, or soft blankets on the bed.

David would love knowing you were taking time and care to make your house a home, and in turn he would always provide everything you ever needed; there was never anything you ever wanted because David made sure you had it. 

You mention you would like to learn how to ride a horse one time? David would get you your own and explain why he picked the breed and teach you himself. You mention you would like to paint? There would be an easel, paint, and different sized canvases in the spare room. You’re a little extra chilly when winter comes around? There’s a new fur coat in your closet. You like reading? He would literally build you your own bookcase. 

He trusts you entirely; as soon as he gets paid from wrestling, the money goes straight into your hands. 

He would take your wishes into account, but David was eager to have a family of his own. If that wasn’t something you wanted, he was prepared to be the best uncle to his brother’s kids and have them over often.

You were that couple that everyone thought had been together for 20 years; it was as if you had known each other your entire lives. David knew you better than himself. He knew all your moods, every look on your face, every answer to every woe. 

Naturally, all of his brothers were extremely supportive. 

Kevin, being the oldest and already starting to establish his own family, was very grateful and appreciative that David found someone so perfect for him and made him so happy. He would do a lot to make sure you felt comfortable within their family, always asking how you were doing, what you’ve been up to.

Kerry would treat you like the sister he never had. He would keep you company while you watched David wrestle, ask your opinion on everything from how his hair looked to how his own match went. He would also tease you, but never maliciously. 

Mike really adores you. He would gravitate to your side during family occasions, he would show you songs he had been working on first, and was always eager to talk about music with you. He nearly cried when you got him a new record player for Christmas.

Chris took a while to warm up to you, but pretty soon, he was your biggest fan. He would always be at your side asking you to help him build a puzzle he was working on, or asking you and David if he could tag along. You basically adopted him together, always taking him with you when you went to get lunch or see a movie. 

Doris normally held the belief that no one would ever be good enough for her sons, but then she met you. After watching the joy on David’s face around you, and how apparent it was that you genuinely cared for him and got along with everyone else, her mind changed almost immediately. She would love to chat with you about your future plans with David, and it would soon turn into lazy Sunday afternoons, you and Doris drinking tea on the porch while she painted–after your encouragement.

Fritz was less than thrilled when he found out another one of his sons was in a serious relationship, believing that it would damage the fanbase David and his brothers had established, but David wasn’t budging. As a result, he and his dad got into many arguments.

“She’s just like every other woman out there; they’re just interested in your money and want someone to take care of them!” “I’m not gonna let you talk about her like that. Unlike you, I want to take care of someone!” 

David didn���t let his father sway his feelings. He proposed barely a year after you started dating, taking you for a horse ride around his ranch and out towards the pond where he had flowers waiting for you and the ring in his pocket. 

Doris and his brothers were overjoyed; of course they were all excited and thrilled. Doris couldn’t wait to plan everything with you. Fritz finally came around, admitting you weren’t a bad person at all and realizing the relationship was more serious than he had thought. 

Your wedding was quite a huge deal, with the whole ordeal being mentioned on World Class on TV, with snippets being shown from the wedding. You had flowers from fans being delivered the entire month. 

David was sure to never leave your side the entire night of your wedding. It was important to him to start the marriage off with the most important thing–being together.

#david von erich #von erich imagine #david von erich imagine #iron claw #david von erich headcanon #von erich hc

[heartbreakprincehbk]

Hey y’all!

I’ve got one Kerry request that I’m working on this weekend. Thanks for all the support!

If anyone else has any Von Erich requests send them my way!

Love y’all ❤️

#iron claw #iron claw imagine #kerry von erich #david von erich #von erich imagine #Kevin Von Erich

[heartbreakprincehbk]

When the Lights Go Down (David Von Erich x Reader)

Pairing: Reader x David Von Erich (fluff)

Words: 1,498

A/N: Inspired by conversations with @wisconsinwhirlwind about how David Von Erich is absolute husband material. I’m not too sure about this??? But tbh just trying to distract myself from life and indulge in my fluffy daydreams.

The dust was beginning to settle once again in the Dallas Sporatorium, after it had been rocked by the Von Erichs battling their bitter nemesis, the Freebirds. You stayed seated at your spot in the front row while many others began to patiently file out, recalling with vigor the exciting events of the evening and speculating what was next for the Von Erichs after their latest victory. The children who walked past you had that deliriously worn-out happiness on their faces, not unlike the expression one had after visiting an amusement park or having a day at the beach. Many of them were probably going to fall asleep during the car ride home after cheering so fervently for their heroes, still clutching their autographed programs.

This was everyone’s least favorite part of the evening, when the spectacle ended and real life took priority once more. Not you. This, when the concession stands closed and the Sportatorium lights went down, was your favorite part. This was your time to get reunited with him.

You finally stood to your feet when he came back into view, still red-faced from his match with a towel around his neck. He was being trailed by his two brothers and turned to reply to one of them right when you flew into his arms, uncaring of how hot and sweaty his body was.

“Oh—!” David grunted in surprise, but caught you easily and instinctively. He already had a smile on his face when he turned back to find your eyes. “There’s my baby,” he announced loudly to everyone in the vicinity before he lifted you up into the air by your waist to seemingly for no other reason than to admire you. Kevin and Kerry scoffed at him, but wore tender smiles for you; the love you got to experience from David extended from his brothers to you as they became yours.

David lowered you back down to the ground and immediately wrapped his strong arms around your waist to hug you properly. He had to bend down lower to allow you to wrap your arms around his neck in return, and once you were there, he straightened up again, walking with you wrapped securely in his embrace.

Only you could hear the way he sighed against the crook of your neck, his body relaxing now that you were with him again. You knew it was true because you were experiencing it too. His touch against your skin was the feeling of coming home and crossing over that threshold, leaving your shoes on the welcome mat and forgetting all your worries. He was home.

Your fingers grasped onto the familiar curling tendrils of his hair, damp but still keeping their shape. No one could pull you away from him if they tried; his hugs were always airtight. And yet, there was never any discomfort in that. He made you feel protected and loved with every embrace, his actions promising you reassurance.

“You did great tonight!” You murmured close to his ear and kissed his cheek, unable to help yourself. You felt his face pulling underneath your lips as he smiled. “That double clothesline you did was incredible; the crowd went nuts.”

“Thanks, darlin’.” He told you as he leaned on the apron of the ring, still keeping his hands firmly on your hips as you stood in front of him. Kevin pulled himself up onto the apron and Kerry leaned beside Dave, content with resting against his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah—what about the rest of us?” Kevin teased. “It was a tag match after-all.”

“I did a lotta heavy lifting in that match...” Kerry agreed.

“Eh...” you teased them, making them scoff at you and David laugh. “That may be true, but Dave got the pin.” You said, looking proudly at David and already puckering your lips expectantly as he leaned down to kiss you. Kerry and Kevin promptly began complaining, only to be interrupted by another man’s voice.

“Er, David? We have that, uh, interview scheduled now, if you have a moment, please.” You pulled away quickly from David, already mortified at the sight of Bill Mercer, accompanied by a cameraman. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said, smiling slightly at the two of you.

“Oh! I’m so sorry—here, I’ll get out of the way.” You apologized quickly, trying to scurry after Kerry and Kevin as they left. David seemed to have other plans as he grabbed onto your wrist and quickly pulled you right back to his side.

“No, you ain’t gotta go nowhere.” He said firmly.

“But you’re doing an interview for TV; I shouldn’t be here.” You protested, still trying to wriggle away from him. It was understood by Fritz and his sons that none of them could flaunt the fact that they were married so as not to damage the relationship they had with their fanbase. It wasn’t as though you hadn’t daydreamed of something exactly like this happening, but the idea of upsetting your father-in-law wasn’t on your to-do list.

“Hey, listen,” David cupped your face with his large hands, holding you steady and making you look him in the eye. “I love you, alright? And if I want to do my interview with you by my side, then that’s what I’m gonna do. Or, they don’t have to have their interview.” David turned now to look at Bill as if daring him to disagree.

“You’ll hear no objection from me.” Bill replied. You took a breath to steady yourself and David kissed the top of your head before putting his arm over your shoulders. Bill moved in closer and gave a nod to the cameraman.

“Standing here with me now is David Von Erich, and,” Bill paused, turning and sending you a warm look. “A special person, who is of most importance to David.” At Bill’s words, David’s arm around your shoulder now felt like a neon sign. Suddenly, it was very hot in the Sportatorium; it felt as though your skin was crawling under scrutiny. You struggled to look at the camera, knowing exactly just how many people would be tuning in and wondering just who this person standing so very close to David was. You knew they were all going to be making up their own assertions of you, from your looks to your every mannerism, to what you said and what you didn’t say. The thought of it made you duck your head shyly.

“That’s right, Bill. This here is the love of my life, Y/N. Y/N Von Erich, as a matter of fact.” You lifted your gaze quickly in surprise at David’s blunt words and he smiled comfortingly at you as soon as your eyes met. “I can hardly remember what life was like before we met, let alone imagine where I’d be without Y/N.” Your fear melted away as David spoke confidently, looking not only straight into the camera, but at you, with the same look in his eyes that he would give his titles. Reverence and pride.

“You two are certainly something special. Y/N, how does it feel being out in the crowd cheering on your husband?” Bill extended his microphone out to you, and you felt as though your knees were gonna give out.

“Uh, well, Bill, it definitely brings me a lot of joy whenever I get to watch David do just about anything.” David chuckled a little. Behind your back, you felt his hand slip down and playfully slap your butt, unbeknownst to the camera. He smirked a little at your sharp inhale. “I-I um, wherever he is, wherever he goes in life, I’ll always be right beside him, cheering him on.” You leaned into him, nudging his hip slightly with yours. He laughed again.

Bill and David talked briefly about the scheduled bout for next week’s show, all the while, David kept you close to him, his arm now wrapped innocently around your waist. Bill thanked the two of you for your time, giving you both a warm farewell.

“Your dads gonna be angry, you know that, don’t you?” You hissed at him once the two of you were alone. David waved a hand dismissively.

“Oh, let him fuss all he wants. I never take this ring off no matter where I go—it ain’t no secret that I’m all yours. I’m tired of keeping it hush hush. You’re something that oughta be shown off.” You could feel your cheeks growing hot at his words and it must have been a very obvious sight; David immediately began grinning and lightly pinched your cheek.

“Yes, well, if a crazy fan murders me before a show next week...” you mumbled, swatting his hand away and grabbing it instead to hold.

“They’ll have to get though me first.” He laced his fingers with yours, his hand all but swallowing yours in his grip. “Now c’mon, I got the next week off and I know exactly how I wanna spend it.”

#tada! i hope yall like this #i tried to use gender neutral terms #hes just so big and just ugh THATS a hubby if i ever saw one #david von erich #David Von Erich imagine #Von Erich imagine