#I can’t do art cos I have no talent for it
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nsfw, actor eddie, hair and makeup artist steve, sub top
The downside of Eddie having a bunch of tattoos is that he has to sit in the makeup trailer longer than anyone else getting them covered, along with his character’s makeup.
The plus side is he gets more time with Steve.
They have this game. It started on Eddie’s first day. He was all wired up with nerves because it’s his first time in a lead role on a big production like this.
Every nightmare scenario of how he could screw up was running through his mind. He couldn’t sit still enough for Steve to give him the wavy hair and facial scars that his character has.
Eddie kept apologizing and Steve was great about it. He asked Eddie about the heart on his arm with “Wayne” across the ribbon and distracted Eddie from over-practicing his lines, busy telling Steve all about his uncle who raised him and where they’re from.
Eddie killed it on set that day, and pretty much every day since then. He loves acting, he loves fully immersing himself in the story he’s telling. This role is the biggest of his career so far, but it’s not even about that, he loves the character he’s playing, he meshes well with the director and has chemistry with his co-stars.
But Steve is his favorite part of this whole deal.
Eddie ran out of tattoos for their little game of telling Steve the story behind a different one every day. They never ran out of things to talk about though.
But Steve takes his job seriously and he’s good at it. He explained once why he likes doing this. It’s an art, getting the right look for the right character, or the right person, connecting with and taking care of whoever’s in his chair.
He explained it all while he was running his fingers through Eddie’s hair in those perfectly practiced strokes. Steve’s very good at his job, that’s why it feels so nice when he touches Eddie, even if it’s just work, because Steve cares about this. That’s why it’s easy for Eddie to be lulled into bliss when Steve’s fingers are so gentle on his scalp.
And, okay Eddie’s not made of stone, and he has eyes so he has a thing for Steve. A crush, but there’s a line there. This is work. They’re co-workers, despite how many pretty smiles and lingering looks are exchanged. Eddie won’t cross that line.
Until he does.
It’s an accident. He never would have done it on purpose.
Steve’s fingers are just so talented. Eddie’s eyes are closed, he was having another fit of nerves earlier so Steve took extra time with his hair. It put Eddie in a space so relaxed that he feels like he’s floating when Steve’s hand twists in his hair with the perfect amount of tension. It feels so intentional. The moan just slips out.
Eddie apologizes like crazy afterward, he feels terrible. Steve is a picture of professionalism, he’s charming and fun but he runs the makeup trailer like it's the navy and he takes his shit seriously and Eddie crossed a line.
But Steve just shushes him, guides him to sit back in the chair and says it’s alright.
Eddie blinks in disbelief but Steve just looks at him.
It’s a look.
A look that Eddie can’t stop thinking about for the rest of production.
It’s a look he sees again on his last day on set.
Eddie already shook everyone’s hands and said his goodbyes. He's just stopping by his trailer one last time to make sure the assistants got all his stuff cleared out.
When he opens the door, his stomach flips, finding Steve waiting inside for him.
“You wrapped filming today,” Steve says in place of a greeting. But his smile and the way his arm is languidly stretched over the back of the couch is inviting.
Something tells Eddie to lock the door before he goes over to sit next to Steve.
His gaze is even more intense up close. Eddie feels Steve’s eyes on him everywhere, like he’s just eating Eddie up.
“Yeah, I did,” Eddie says, a tad nervous.
He doesn't want to make a move he can’t take back in case he’s wrong about why Steve’s in his trailer looking at him like that. He doesn’t want to be one of those douchebag movie stars that assumes everyone wants him and he has a free pass to hit on the crew. He’s sure Steve’s had enough of that bullshit.
“We don’t work together anymore,” Steve simply states.
“I know, it sucks,” Eddie laughs a bit sad because he really is, “Sorry if it’s weird to say, but I’m gonna miss you.”
Steve’s eyes shift between Eddie’s and then down to his lips, making his heart stutter in his chest.
“No it’s a good thing,” Steve says and Eddie’s brows knit in confusion. “It means I can do this finally.”
Eddie thinks he’s watching his daydreams play out the way Steve starts leaning in.
It’s only real when Steve’s lips press softly to his.
Just once, so light, long enough for Eddie to catch on that it’s happening, then Steve pulls back before Eddie can reciprocate.
Steve chuckles faintly at the dramatic frown Eddie’s pulling.
Then Steve’s hand cups Eddie’s cheek, his thumb stroking Eddie’s face as he tells him, “We can stop there and keep it professional and say our goodbyes. Or I can climb on your lap and give you something to remember me by.”
Eddie gulps. Steve’s offer and his silky voice and his perfect touch that Eddie’s already so addicted to is such a heady mix, making it hard to form words. “Yes, climb me— I mean, option B.”
“Yeah, honey, you want that?” God, Eddie always blushed hot when Steve called him that casually in the makeup trailer, now he’s melting hearing Steve say it like this. “Well, go on and take your pants off for me.”
It happens in a syrupy warm blur. Eddie sheds his jeans and underwear like he’s told and he’s rewarded with a gorgeously naked Steve Harrington in his lap. He’s allowed to touch, only after Steve has threaded his fingers through Eddie’s hair more reverently than any time before, like something precious in his hands, and kisses Eddie deep and hard.
Then Eddie gets to nuzzle the chest hair that’s been driving him crazy peeking out of Steve’s shirt every time he leaned over. Eddie gets to touch Steve’s soft strong thighs, feeling the smatter of hair leading up to his ass that’s been driving Eddie even more insane trying not to stare at. Then he slips his fingers in and moans into Steve’s mouth when he feels the hard bulb of a plug nestled inside Steve.
Steve pulls back from the kiss, smiling and smearing his thumb over the spit on Eddie’s lips. “Yeah, I’m so ready for you, Eddie, baby, you have no idea.”
Eddie’s practically drooling watching Steve take out the plug and get a bottle of lube from between the cushions and a condom, oiling up his hand. When his fist wraps around Eddie’s cock, Eddie helplessly bucks into it, but Steve’s solid thighs pin him down. That makes his mind lust-foggy and his eyes flutter up at Steve, who bites his lip watching Eddie as he lines up to his hole.
“Mm... you know how bad I wanted you?” Steve sounds relieved as he sinks down on Eddie’s cock. “You know how bad I wanted to climb on your lap when you were sitting in my chair. You know how starry-eyed you get when you’re drifting? Just from me touching your hair, so fucking cute.”
Eddie’s just a mess of moans, Steve is so hot and tight around him. It’s too much with all the sweet praise to really comprehend that Steve knew all those times he was getting spacy.
“It’s so easy to put you down.” Steve’s breath comes harder, not letting Eddie move as he starts to roll his hips. “Such an actor, high strung all the time but that’s okay. It’s your passion. That’s sexy. Been dying to hold you down and ride you until you can’t think about anything but me, though.”
Eddie gasps out a groan when Steve tugs sharply on his hair, being right about everything that Eddie’s into so far. It’s no secret that Eddie’s intense, just a different kind of intensity in the bedroom than with his craft.
Steve seems to get it, seems to know that Eddie needs everything hard and relentless with the way he’s bouncing on Eddie’s dick. He can feel the strength in Steve’s hips, dying to feel them fucking into him too, mouth watering at the sight of his thick cock jumping with all the movement.
“You’d let me tie you down and use you, hm?” Steve asks, drawing Eddie by the hair into a biting kiss that just barely grazes the surface of what Eddie would let Steve do to him. “I know. I’d fuck you up so good if we had time, baby.”
“Steve, holy shit,” Eddie practically sobs, fingers digging into Steve’s ass.
“You close, honey?”
“Fuck, yeah.”
Steve suddenly cups his face, just a tad rough and Eddie thought— hoped for one hot moment— that Steve was going to slap him. Just the thought is enough to make him do what he's supposed to, “Can I?”
“Mh-hm just keep looking at me,” Steve strokes Eddie’s face as he circles his hips and takes Eddie deep. “Wanna see those pretty eyes when you come inside me.”
Eddie does as he’s told, his gaze falling half-shut as he lets go, spilling into the condom like he’s pumping Steve full.
It’s the hottest thing that’s ever happened to him, followed by the second hottest thing when Steve kisses his slack mouth as his warm heavy spurts of come land on Eddie’s belly.
While Eddie’s coming down, he lets Steve shift him onto the couch. He gets some tissues and then pulls Eddie to lie on his chest because of course he would, he’s Steve.
“Was that enough to remember me by when you get all big and famous?” Steve asks after a while, trailing his knuckles down Eddie’s bare arm.
Eddie looks up, seeing the first glimpse of hesitance in all of Steve’s practiced smoothness.
So Eddie leans in and assures him between pecks on his lips that slowly turn to smiles pressing together. “Nope, think we gotta do it again. And again. And again.”
#here's some sub top eddie from yours truly#also i've talked about actor eddie before but we need to talk about him more plssplss#steddie#eddie munson#steve harrington#steddie fic#steddie ficlet#steddie smut#subeddieweek#sub eddie week#famous eddie munson#hairdresser steve harrington
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What is hmbomberguy (I can’t spell) ur reblogs are making me so curious but I cannot handle getting into more content/ content drama rn.
hi! yes. so hbomberguy is one of those 2hr long video- twice a year or less youtubers. who make content exploring a topic (like plagerism on youtube, vaccines and autism, etc).
his new video talks about video essay type youtubers who steal all their writing from documentries, books, articles, etc. and makes thousands of dollars off of other peoples work.
james sommerton is the main focus of the video, but he also shows how iiluminaughtii stole from documentries (and even listed the piriting site she watched it from as a source? lol) and internet historian stole an entire article, format, visuals, and all, and got 10 million views for it (and stole so much his video got taken down) and theres this other video game guy that got hired at ign and the got fired from ign for piriting and is a homophobic right wing guy?? (details are fuzzy, this is a 4 hour video i watched once, forgive me).
um. but, the james sommerton stuff just gets crazier and crazier the way this guy just makes a ton of money by lying to his community. he ends up accidently stealing work from one of his patreon members (he stole on purpose, i assume he didnt know who he was stealing from was a patron). he asked and got thousands of dollars to mame a fake (?) film studio that has made no films, and only says theyre in preproduction for a new film every 10 months. he also, yknow, steals from queer voices, basically harming his own community for profit. and when he's called out for stealing, he either shouts homophobia or shifts the blame to his co writer, who probably knows nothing about the plagerism.
anyways. its a bit of a drama thing. but honestly its a lot about how and why we should care about the art and media we consume online, and just how many people who look like they have their life together and are making lots and lots of content, seemingly on their own or close, actually are just stealing from talented people. it heals a bit of that imposter syndrome for people that do make genuine content online, and shows the consumers what making too much too quick actually means for the content they enjoy. the get the equivalent of meat grinded facts mixed with misinformation, subtly changed quotes, and 0 sources, or a laundry list of unorganized and unlabled sources if they want to learn more.
also i like this tweet. summarizes it well for me.
um. but thats my thoughts on it. i liked it because it reminds me that people who are churning out content one-man-show style aren't making the greatest stuff. i struggle with feeling like my work takes too long. but this was a great reminder that im actually making something good (i hope!), or at least, something that is truely coming from me. so its gonna take time to do it. but it'll be worth it because it'll be coming from me. (and also good. hopefully)
also the money hbomberguy is making off this video is going to the people james stole from. so thats really nice.
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The Observer Peter Capaldi
‘The government has been too terrible to make fun of’: Peter Capaldi on satire, politics and privilege
📷 ‘I’ve had to pretend to be more amenable’: Peter Capaldi wears blazer by oliverspencer.co.uk; shirt by toa.st. Photograph: Simon Emmett/The Observer
Tom Lamont Sun 14 Jan 2024 08.00 GMT
One winter morning, a Doctor Who comes calling. The Glaswegian actor Peter Capaldi lives about an hour’s walk from me and instead of us meeting in some midway café, the 65-year-old wanders over (leather booted, woolly jumpered, cloaked in a dark winter coat that sets off his pale-grey hair) to have coffee at my kitchen table. My son is off school with flu, medicating on Marvel movies and barely able to believe his luck as the actorly embodiment of an alien superhero wanders through our flat. While we’re waiting for the kettle to boil, I ask Capaldi whether he ran into any other Doctor Whos on his walk through the actorland that is suburban north London.
He grins an unguarded grin you don’t often see on screen. Capaldi became famous as the permanently angry spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the BBC comedy The Thick of It, which ran from 2005 to 2012 and, after that, between 2013 and 2017, he played the sternest, least imp-ish Doctor Who in decades. In his new Apple TV show, a police procedural called Criminal Record, which Capaldi co-produced with his wife, Elaine Collins, he stars as an ageing detective: another scowler. Now, coffee in hand, he smiles affectionately. So, did he bump into any other Doctor Whos this morning? “David [Tennant, 10th Doctor] used to live in Crouch End, near me. Matt [Smith, 11th Doctor] lives around here. Jodie [Whittaker, 13th Doctor] is nearby, Christopher [Eccleston, 9th Doctor] too, I think.” But no, no encounters with his fellow alumni this morning, Capaldi says.
📷 ‘You can’t be the cynical melancholic I naturally am’: Peter Capaldi wears coat by Mr P (mrporter.com); jumper by uniqlo.com; trousers by reiss.com; and shoes by johnlobb.com. Photograph: Simon Emmett/The Observer
“You do run into each other. You have a laugh, a gossip, you share. There aren’t a lot of people who have been in that role in the centre of that storm. Most people think the job is being on the Tardis and running around with Daleks. Which it is. That’s the fun part. But there’s a lot of other stuff you have to do, too. You’re kind of the face of the brand and the brand is very big. You can’t be the cynical melancholic I naturally am. You have to pretend to be a version of yourself that’s far more amenable.”
Is it a bit like being the Queen?
“Kind of,” he says. “You embody for a time this folk hero, this icon. I was able to comfort people in a way that would be beyond the powers of Peter. You could walk into a room and people gasped with delight. It doesn’t happen any more.”
Capaldi grew up in 1960s and 1970s Glasgow. His Italian-Scottish family lived in a tenement block. “We had nothing. We had zilch.” From a young age he exhibited signs of artistic talent, though he characterises himself, then and now, as a seven- or eight-out-of-10 at various crafts. “When I was young, I was good at drawing. My grandmother used to say that came from Italy. She felt that I was an absolute throwback to Leonardo da Vinci – her direct line to Michelangelo! It confused me because I wanted to do these other things, play music, act – which one was I supposed to do?”
📷 Great Scot: Peter Capaldi wears blazer by ralphlauren.co.uk. Photograph: Simon Emmett/The Observer
After graduating school at 18, this confused cross-artistic trajectory continued. “I tried to be an actor, but I didn’t get into drama school, so I went to art school. When I was at art school, I joined a band.” In his early 20s, Capaldi released a single as part of a group called Dreamboys; then he quit music and spent most of his 20s acting, getting small jobs in theatre and TV as well as a walk-on part opposite John Malkovich in 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons. In his 30s, he decided to concentrate on directing.
In 1993, a short film he directed, Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life, won him an Oscar, industry recognition that launched Capaldi off on a heady but doomed sojourn in America. Well caffeinated and gripping the edge of my kitchen table to tell the story, he recalls what happened when he was courted as a hot prospect by the Weinstein brothers, Bob and Harvey, then the co-presidents of Miramax and at the height of their power and influence. Capaldi spent a year working on a screenplay for them, at the end of which Bob flew him out to Manhattan to discuss casting and production. As far as Capaldi was concerned it was a formality; bottles of champagne were cooling at home.“I thought I was off and away.”
📷 Feel the heat: in The Thick of it. Photograph: Everett Collection/Alamy
Miramax sent a limo to pick him up from the airport. “I fell into conversation with the driver, lovely man, Ralph. When I got out of the car I gave him a big tip. Because I was a big shot now, you see. Then Ralph said: ‘I’ve been told to wait for you here.’” Uh oh. “Inside, all the people in the office were avoiding my eye. Bob said, ‘I’ll come straight to it, we’re not gonna do the movie, my brother Harvey says he doesn’t know how to sell it.’ He said, ‘But we love you! You’re one of the family! You’ll always have a place here!’ Needless to say, I never heard from him again. Obviously, while I was in the air they’d had a discussion and changed their minds. I was so dumbfounded as I climbed back into the limo I just laughed. I had no money, because we’d bought a little house in Crouch End, and I had no career, because I’d turned my back on acting.”
In a gesture that Capaldi has never forgotten, Ralph the limo driver tried to give him back his big tip.
As we chat, the postman rings the bell, delivering packages. Council tree surgeons are working on the road outside. My son needs water, words of comfort, possibly he just wants another good long look at Capaldi. I’ve never interviewed anyone in my own home before and the limitations of the format are becoming apparent. But Capaldi seems to respond well to the setting and its lack of frills. His adult daughter and her family have been visiting, brand new baby in tow. When I apologise for all the noise and interruptions, Capaldi says it’s nothing compared to a newborn.
📷 Fun fact: in Paddington 2. Photograph: Supplied by LMK
He and Collins were young parents themselves when his directing career fell apart. Arriving back in London from the disastrous Manhattan trip, “The initial feeling was shock. Then a pragmatic survival instinct kicked in.” Capaldi rejoined the auditioning circuit. “I was a psychiatrist in Midsomer Murders. I was a beekeeper in Poirot – AN Other Actor. Someone else would have turned down these parts first.” Collins, until that point an actor, too, decided to pivot into development and production, a career move that has worked well for her.
Artists often do their best work while they’re at their lowest, perhaps because they feel they haven’t much to lose, little to be afraid of. Sloping into a Soho audition room in the mid-2000s to meet Armando Iannucci about a new political comedy, Capaldi remembers being in a foul mood. He’d just come from an unsuccessful audition for another BBC show, “being taped like I was Vivien Leigh reading for Scarlett O’Hara”. He remained grumpy when Iannucci admitted there wasn’t yet a script for The Thick of It, they were going to try improvising instead. “I knew Armando was supposed to be a comedy genius, but at that moment I was, like, ‘Yeah? Let’s see some of your comedy genius then. Fucking show me what you’ve got, you Oxbridge twat.’ My whole attitude that day was essentially Malcolm Tucker’s, and it informed the improvisation we did.”
📷 Folk Hero: in his new series Criminal Record. Photograph: Ben Meadows/Apple
When The Thick of It debuted, Capaldi entered the sitcom pantheon overnight. Revisiting episode one, what’s glaring is how fully formed, how exquisite a character Tucker is. Alan Partridge, Samantha Jones, Frasier Crane, David Brent … these creations had to be discovered over time by their actors and writers. With Tucker it’s all there from word one, the controlled fury, the foul-mouthed eloquence, that constant convenient deployment of hypocrisy. Capaldi played the part for seven years, winning a Bafta mid-run. It led to other memorable gigs, as a news producer in 2012’s The Hour and as Count Richelieu in a 2014 adaptation of the Musketeers story. He was Mister Micawber in Iannucci’s 2019 reimagining of David Copperfield, a fun role that was bookended by two equally fun Paddington movies, released in 2014 and 2017.
Promoting these projects, Capaldi would be asked to give a view on political events of the day, as seen through the eyes of the character who made his career. What would Malcolm Tucker think of Brexit, or the pandemic response, or the premierships of Johnson or Truss? Capaldi long ago stopped answering these questions. “For one thing, I need about 10 writers, Tony Roach and Jesse Armstrong among them, to supply Malcolm’s bon mots. But more than that, I think these [recent Conservative] governments have been too terrible to make fun of. I think they’ve been incompetent and corrupt and I’m not going to make jokes to give them time off.”
📷 ‘You’re the face of the brand and the brand is very big’: playing Doctor Who. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
We talk about how weird it is that political satire should have fallen into abeyance in the 2020s – perhaps because, as Capaldi says, “things have been too bad to make fun of. Making fun normalises situations I don’t think should be normalised. The planet is burning. They’re pumping shit into the rivers. I’m not gonna be part of making jokes about that… All this highfalutin life I’ve had,” he says, of the awards parties, the film roles, the immortal runs as a sweary spin doctor and an inscrutable Doctor Who, “is because I went to art school. My parents couldn’t afford to send me. I went because the government of the day paid for me to go and I didn’t have to pay them back. There was a thrusting society then, a society that tried to improve itself. Yes, of course, it cost money. But so what? It allowed people from any kind of background to learn about Shakespeare, or Vermeer, or whatever they wanted to learn about. Why did we lose this, this belief in ourselves?”
For Capaldi, the world of acting feels narrower now, meaner in a way that seems to mirror British society at large. He thinks of his industry as one in which subtle discriminations hold sway and “gatekeepers and Aztecs still decree who shall be admitted… I think there’s a real problem. There isn’t the funding or support for young people from poorer backgrounds to get into the theatre. And indeed there aren’t the theatres.” He wonders about the teenage Anthony Hopkinses out there, talented, without the obvious means or encouragement to train in the arts. And the inverse, actors who Capaldi, in his frank and acid way, characterises as privileged duds.
📷 Shared vision: with his wife and co-producer Elaine. Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy
“This business is full of people who are not the real thing,” he says, “people I perceived to be artists ’cos they had posh accents, but who didn’t have it, they just sounded like they did.” He goes on to tell a tantalising but intentionally vague story about a major star he worked with, someone who revealed themselves through the course of an acting collaboration to be a dud hiding in plain sight. He won’t provide details (“Too easy to figure out. When everyone’s dead I’ll tell you”), but he says the experience changed him professionally, leaving him more aware of his own limitations, but grateful to have a little vinegar and grit in the mix. “There’s a kind of smoothness, a kind of confidence that comes from a good [paid-for] school. That’s what you’re struck by: they seem to know how to move through the world recognising which battle to fight, where to press their attentions. But it can make the acting smooth, which to me is tedious. I like more neurosis. More fear. More trouble, you know?”
I think this part of his skillset expressed itself well during the three-season run on Doctor Who, when Capaldi was prepared to come across as remote, a little unreachable. “I don’t set out to make the audience like me,” he says. “Because my characters don’t know an audience is there.” For me, his high point as the Doctor was an episode called Heaven’s Gate, a chronology-stretching tale written by Steven Moffatt in which the Doctor is set a sisyphean task of endurance that lasts about 50 minutes or so in screen time and several millennia in narrative terms. Capaldi didn’t play it as a hero. He wasn’t charming or boyish. In this episode especially, he was grim and patient and knackered. It was a rare occasion when the character, apparently alive for hundreds of years, seemed old.
📷 Burning bright: with John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons. Photograph: Everett Collection/Alamy
In the new TV show, Criminal Record, he explores a more mortal kind of ageing, life’s third act, its inevitable professional humblings. Capaldi plays a London DCI in his 60s, coming to the end of a career, already moonlighting as a private security contractor, intimidated by the thrust and purpose of a younger colleague at the Met played by Cush Jumbo. As Jumbo’s character grows in confidence, Capaldi’s shrinks. It is a paradox of experience he can relate to. “I find the older I get, the closer I am to who I was,” he says.
I ask him to explain.
“Like I’m returning to… ‘roots’ is the wrong word. I feel more and more like my mother and father, more and more keenly aware of the values they had.” He provides an interesting example, how he has become all thumbs around the act of tipping in restaurants: “I can be in a complete sweat about that.” He can imagine his parents, both dead now, in a similar muddle. “From the background we come from, you can have a bit of anxiety about coming across as grand. So you have to allay that by making sure you are communicating with everybody, all the time.”
Capaldi shakes his head, chuckling softly. He has finished his coffee. He’s about to put on his big coat, say goodbye to my son, and walk back through Whoville to his home and his family. Before he leaves we return to the subject of actors from privileged backgrounds. He says he feels mean, like he took unfair advantage of them in their absence. “It’s not their fault,” he says. “It’s just that there’s less and less of my lot in the arts.” And this concerns him, he continues, because “people of all backgrounds are sophisticated, are interesting, are equally prone to tragedy and joy. Any art that articulates that is a comfort. Art is the ultimate expression of you are not alone, wherever you are, whatever situation you are in. Art is about reaching out. So I think it’s wrong to allow one strata of society to have the most access.”
He nods, feeling he’s expressed himself better. I agree.
Criminal Record is streaming now on Apple TV+, with new episodes every Wednesday
Fashion editor Helen Seamons; Grooming by Kenneth Soh at The Wall Group using Eighth Day; fashion assistant Sam Deaman; photography assistants Tom Frimley and Tilly Pearson; shot at Loft Studio.
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Peter Tork and his grandmother, Catherine McGuire Straus (in photo 2 at the premiere of Head, 1968; photo by Art Zelin/Getty Images).
“One of my favorite people in the world is my ‘Grams,’ Mrs. Catherine McGuire Straus. She lives in Manhattan in the West 50’s. She calls Colgems regularly to check on our record sales, keeps an enormous scrapbook on the activities of the Monkees (favoring me a little bit, of course), and she visits all the record stores regularly to make sure that they are well stocked with Monkees singles and LP’s.” - Peter Tork, 16’s The Monkees: Here We Are (1967)
Many are no doubt familiar with Peter’s grandmother’s contributions to U.S. teen magazines. A few things that might have have fallen through the cracks of Tork and Monkees history are his grandmother’s letters to two British music magazines in 1967...
“As the grandmother of one Monkee, Peter Tork, I have received hundreds of delightful letters from British fans of the Monkees.
Recently there have been complaints that some magazines do not print pictures of Peter when they are doing a story on the Monkees. But I find Monkee pictures fairly well distributed in all the pop magazines, though Davy Jones more or less rules the roost!
Also received complaints about Peter not appearing with his co-Monkees when they were in London in February. I would assume that the working hours he has every day, seven days a week, are not conducive to his spending a vacation with one’s workers.
And I assure you Peter has a mind of his own, so he couldn’t be persuaded to join them.
He’s at last been seen and heard — ‘fine’ by his British fans. Do hope the concerts were a SMASHING success — to use a Britishism!” - Catherine McGuire Straus, Disc & Music Echo, July 15, 1967
“Having belatedly read the article by Jeremy Walsh on the Monkees, as the grandmother of one Monkee — Peter Tork — I resent it. It seems to me unnecessarily nasty and rude. His attacks on the group are peculiarly venomous, considering that the Monkees cannot have done anything to promote such anger and, in fact, are the delight of most critics. Well, there’s no use laboring the point. One can only wonder why the hostility. And why make comparisons with the Beatles. Either the Monkees are good in their own right or they’re not. There’s nothing else to consider, is there.
Incidentally Peter was marked for the academic world, where both his parents teach. He flunked out of college twice. After his sojourn in Greenwich Village and the concert tours, decided he’d head for the West Coast and Hollywood — every actor’s Mecca. Over 400 applicants auditioned for the Monkees — Peter was one of the four selected and so the Monkees were born etc. Last, but not least, the U.S.A. helped to bring fame and fortune to the Beatles and their super manager, Brian Epstein. Let the British do likewise for the Monkees.” - Sincerely yours, Catherine McG. Straus, Record Mirror, April 8, 1967
“I received hundreds of delightful letters, many of which I answered, in answer to my protest about the article on the Monkees by Jeremy Walsh. All I want is for these charming teenagers to know how grateful I am for their love and devotion to the Monkees.” - Catherine McG. Straus, Record Mirror, June 17, 1967
Here’s part of the opinion of one Jeremy Walsh, referenced by Peter’s grandmother:
“If four good-looking boys, with no talent, can top the charts — can beat the sales of real stars — then it’s all worthless.
I’m not saying they can’t play at all. I’m saying that they can’t play well. I’m also saying that their TV series, fount of 90 per cent of their disc fame, is blatantly based on the earlier Beatle films… and that they owe a lot of their disc hits to Beatle influences. I’d feel less strongly about them if only they had tried to adapt something completely new. It’s like some massive act of retaliation by the Americans, still smarting over Beatle-domination. […] The Monkee business really makes me smart. The only consolation is that it should be a short craze. Several people will make their million, then cheerfully abandon the whole project.” - Jeremy Walsh, Record Mirror, February 4, 1967
#Peter Tork#Catherine McGuire Straus#Tork quotes#1960s#60s Tork#The Monkees#Monkees#1967#1968#:)#<3#early 1960s#bearded Peter#'no talent' oh f*** off Walsh#anyway#long read#Monkees fans#Disc and Music Echo#Record Mirror#The Monkees: Here We Are#can you queue it
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Review #438: Parklife, Blur
In some ways this review is going to be like the antithesis to the one I wrote for Pulp’s Different Class. In that, this album features songs that are so important to British culture, and individually to my formative years, that I can’t ever be mad to hear them. However, unlike my ongoing and steadfast admiration for Pulp as a band, I have way more complicated feelings about Blur, and about this album in particular. Okay, so some context and education first. Blur had success in the UK with their debut album, Leisure, but had really dug themselves into a financial hole through poor management. They owed the taxman a lot of money. As such, they were essentially forced to go on a long, arduous tour of the US to promote their successful album. In theory this would be great. But it wasn’t great. They were touring tiny towns and venues that had never heard of them. The grunge scene had just exploded out of the Pacific Northwest and literally nobody Stateside had any fucks to give about Blur, British Music, or what they were doing on this tour. The band themselves have described the space and time immediately preceding the creation of Parklife as pretty bleak. Miserable. Oppressive. They felt backed into a corner, exhausted, downtrodden, underappreciated, and homesick.
Where they sort of lose me on this is where they express feeling as if they were shamed for being British and they were resistant to just create a record that adhered to the current trend of music. They returned to the UK with a concept in mind: a quintessentially British album, about British culture, that makes a statement: British music is a thing of its own, and it’s worth your time. I mean, I don’t disagree with that. I just fail to see how grunge being a popular genre at the time meant that they weren’t able to be proudly British, and proudly produce whatever music suited them. Artists make art for the art, and if someone likes it, that’s great. But they were young men at the time and I imagine egos and the lures of chart success influenced their feelings about it. You don’t get into a tabloid frenzied ongoing rift with the Gallagher brothers because you’re a really chill bunch of guys that only care about the music. There’s an irritating overtone of testosterone and national pride that has an icky vibe to it. It’s too easy for it to be co-opted. And it was! And it still is!
So let me just get the following points off my chest and then I’ll work my way through them:
1. Parklife is and was an important record in British music
2. It’s also not Blur’s strongest album by a BIG margin, but it’s managed to persist as somewhat of a defining album for them. I’m glad they shook it off, and we didn’t just get record after record of Parklife from them. That’s honestly how a lot of people would have done it and I can respect their commitment to art as a band: we’re going to do something different than what you just loved, and if you don’t like it that’s a you problem. People did like it.
3. Parklife also paved the way for an obnoxious marketing/PR ploy from the music industry surrounding British Indie/Rock artists, that created a ridiculous craze and wave that was surfed by bands ranging from incredible and deserving, to absolute dogshit. Ladies and gentleman, I give you: Britpop. If you were there you know what it was like, and you understand all the nuance and resentment surrounding it as a “genre”. We’ll get into this more later. In hindsight it all worked out okay and we live in a world where – at least to my knowledge – you can appreciate and criticize both Oasis and Blur for their talents and their fuck ups without it representing some massive class and cultural divide. This was absolutely not always the case and it was, for some reason, a really big deal, and it mattered to everyone, a lot. Blur or Oasis? I was 7 turning 8 years old at the height of this manufactured-turned-real rivalry, and it genuinely caused me stress. As a child! I loved them both. But I felt forced to choose. I chose Blur. I understand how ridiculous it sounds, but I wish I could go back in time and refuse to choose. It mattered, and it also really didn’t. They don’t sound similar enough to compare or compete? So why did we have to? But WE DID. It was on the news. It was the biggest thing going on at the time. It dominated the papers. Bookies were taking bets on who would be #1 between the two of them. Blur won that battle with Country House. I don’t think anybody won the war. I think everybody got bored, gave up, and went home.
So Blur kicked off Britpop with their return from this grinding US tour and they made a full blown concept album about being British. And it was good. But all of a sudden there was just this… Overwhelming influx of bands who were banking their success solely on this “being British”, thing. It had a look, it had a sound, it had a style, it had a location. The same thing happened with the Indie wave in the early/mid-2000s. It’s so annoying to me though. You end up just having to sift through a whole bunch of fucking garbage to find the stuff that is legit, and would be legit with or without the “scene”. Parklife is legit. It’s just responsible for the aftermath and onslaught of bullshit. Is that their fault? No, but they definitely participated in it all for a bit. There was a lot of great music that technically fell under the Britpop genre, but essentially looking back most of it isn’t Britpop – because that was just made up. It was just good music from various genres, and they all happened to be British artists. That’s not the same thing. It was just a music industry scheme and boy howdy did everyone buy-in.
The song Parklife, is pretty genius, still. Damon Albarn, unable to commit to the concept with a cockney accent, enlisted well-known British actor, Phil Daniels (of Quadrophenia fame) to deliver the lyrics. This was both creative and super novel. People went pretty nuts about it. They still do. It’s got the same pull as Common People. If you want to see an entire nation lose their shit over a song – you might stick on Parklife. It’s just deeply entrenched into the fabric of British culture and it’s as if it was from the moment it was released. It just is. I actually saw Parklife live at Reading Festival when I was 16 or 17, and they brought Phil Daniels out. The most memorable thing about the whole thing, was that Damon Albarn fell off the stage. I guess the most surprising thing about the wider record, is that you expect it to be more of Parklife the song. And it actually isn’t. It’s just a Blur record, and a not bad one at that.
It's just so weird how a regular album took on this entire life of its own, turned into a cultural phenomenon, and produced this era of music that for better or worse is part of history now. Some of the subsequent singles from subsequent albums honestly seem like they were more “Britpop” than a lot of the tracks on Parklife. Maybe they were running with it for sometime to bank on its success, but ultimately they grew tired of it too and changed directions. I’m glad.
I guess the other thing about Blur, is the individuals its made up of. They’ve been indie darlings forever. Graham Coxon was a nerdy little weirdo, he left and came back. I think Britpop almost killed him if I’m being honest. Damon Albarn was a pretty-faced front man and has gone on to produce some absolutely insane albums for other artists and with other bands. He’s got something, that’s for sure, but it’s not always good. Some ego and misogyny always sort of leaks out and it would make my life easier to enjoy his creative output if he just kept his mouth shut. He seems to have a problem playing nice with successful women and insists on tearing them down publicly, only to be forced to admit that he hasn’t actually worked with them, met them, talked to them, or even listened to the music that he is loudly criticizing. That’s fucking annoying, but, is also par for the course regarding male opinions being inexplicably important and accepted even absent of any actual valid perspective or input. Damon, you have a lot of great things to say with your music. That doesn’t mean you have to say something, about everything, all the time.
Alex James, floppy-haired and handsome bassist, for a time was the biggest darling of them all – attracting praise for being so quirky and unique by establishing a cheese farm. Over the years, I have come to suspect he’s really just hidden in plain sight and really what you get with him is a basic man, with basic opinions, who loves some attention. I can’t ever really quite put my finger on it with him but there’s something deeply off putting about his whole persona. I’ll just say it. Whatever image he puts out and however quirky and cool he makes himself out to be: he’s just a fucking Tory, man. With that comes everything else: classism, racism, misogyny and fucking over everyone worse off than you, so long as you get yours. But hey everyone, who cares right? He makes cheese! Isn’t that so weird and kooky? He’s gotta be a cool guy! It was this exact fucking line of thinking that allowed Boris Johnson to take advantage of the comedy panel show circuit for years and years and years, elevating his reputation among liberal young voters. Everyone thought Boris was a funny joke, so let’s vote for him! He goes from MP, to London Mayor, to high-ranking cabinet member, to the fucking PRIME MINISTER. And it wasn’t a funny joke then, was it? So let’s pay attention to the things people actually say and do, and not just the music that they make and the cheese they produce. The other guy in the band, whose name I can literally never remember – Dave Rowntree – he’s just the drummer, who brought nothing to the band visually, and was just sort of along for the ride. Seems like a nice enough guy, it’s just that nobody cares.
If you’re interested in making more sense of this review, I will recommend that you turn your attention to Netflix series This Is Pop which does a pretty decent overall rundown of Blur, Oasis, and the Britpop era. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good, and I appreciate that it gives a voice to the women in that music scene at the time, who were treated like shit and had to deal with all of the masculine national pride shit that came along with it all. It’s pretty clear from listening to them: Oasis, literally didn’t give a shit – about anything – and that was pretty hilarious. Blur, despite being genuine talent with good music to offer, bought into the hype and acted like a bunch of pricks publicly. They were all pricks, it’s just some of them were more authentically pricks than others. Ha.
I guess all I can say is this: I love Blur, and I hate Blur. I don’t know that I’m inclined to agree with Parklife’s inclusion in the Rolling Stone Top 500, but I can also appreciate that I’m talking from the inside and the majority of listeners didn’t also absorb the cultural moment as it was happening. If you happened to be there, you know it was all kind of nonsense. It’s kind of wild watching documentaries or reading write-ups of a particular time in music that you were actually present for in real-time. Like how I imagine people who were at Woodstock, or when Bob Dylan went electric, or the original British Invasion of America with the Beatles. It was a whole thing, and if you were there, you remember.
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Writer Asks
Thanks for the tag @myfavouritelunatic and @thrillofhope and @pursuitseternal and @demonscantgothere ❤️
1) How many works on AO3?
17
2) what’s your AO3 word count?
889,221
3) What fandoms do you write for?
Rings of Power and the Silmarillion at the moment
Some Star Wars Second Trilogy fics before that
4) what are your top 5 fics by kudos?
I could be your King - (1,217) WIP, Saurondriel, Rings of Power AU, 160k, Rated E
I Found You - (233) WIP, Gingerrose, Star Wars ST Cottagecore AU, 66k, Rated E
A mirror so dark and enchanting - (212), Gingerrose, Reylo, Star Wars ST, Fix-It AU, 20k, Rated E
Burn - (176), Saurondriel, Silmarillon, Years of the Trees AU, 14k, Rated E, Part 3 of a Series
The Chieftain’s daughter - (162), Gingerrose, Star Wars ST AU, 16k, Rated M
5) Do you respond to comments?
Yes! I cherish every single one and always respond, even if it might take longer than planned.
6) What fic did you write with the angstiest ending?
I am unable to do really unhappy or tragic endings...even if I sometimes like to read them... Does not mean there is not a lot of angst in my fics. But they always end on a hopeful or happy note. The most angsty is probably Incinerate, my Melkor/Varda romance. But I am writing a sequel that will have a happy ending for them so not sure it counts.
7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?
The Fuel to the fire series leaves Artanis and Mairon at a happy point at their relationship after part three of the series... there will be more to come though (and more drama 😂). All my finished Gingerrose fics have HEA’s as well.
8) do you get hate on fics?
Yes once. I wrote a Gingerrose DubCon story (well tagged) that got me my first and only hate comment.
9) do you write smut? If so, what kind?
YES! 😂 very varied. Sometimes more poetic, sometimes more kinky... I do have some T rated fics as well though. I am a sucker for tension, so expect a lot of build up.
10) crossovers?
Not so far.
11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Thankfully not.
12) have you had a fic translated?
No, don’t think so.
13) have you ever co-written a fic?
No, not officially, but I love brainstorming with my buddies Marimo and @pursuitseternal And I do a fluffy one-shot series with the wonderful Eastwynds set in the Incinerate Varda/Melkor verse.
And the insanely talented @marimosalad has done art based on scenes from my stories.
14) What’s your all time favorite ship?
SOOOO hard. But ...probably Zutara and Dramione because those ships brought me to fanfiction.
Honestly every I obsessed about every ETL ship known to mankind at some point. I love crack pairings as well though.
And honestly just the dark guy falling for a strong woman who brings him to his knees 😉
😂 I searched Sauron/Galadriel after the Hobbit movies...Feel so vindicated this turned from crack to canon!
15) what’s a Wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
All of my Gingerrose WIPs I fear. I just kind of fell out of love with the ship.
16) what are your writing strengths?
Descriptions. I am told very often my stories feel very epic and cinematic in scope.
I also love doing different POVs and giving each a distinct voice and feel.
17) what are your writing weaknesses?
Mmh, I am not a native speaker so I feel my dialogue could be smoother sometimes.
18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?
Yes, but sparingly. I do hate it myself if I have to scroll somewhere to know what is said.
19) First fandom you wrote for?
Fanfiction.net days... lost the account though... perhaps better that way 😂
20) Favorite fic you’ve ever written?
I could be your King is my grande epic and I love it to pieces. I am so excited to see it to its end even if I think it will be a year or two more.
That said Incinerate snuck its way into my heart... I hated Melkor before writing from his POV and now I can’t get enough from the dynamic with Varda and Manwë. This is also the one fic that gives me ideas for a original story I might write one day...
Tagging @coraleethroughthelookingglass@scriberated @eowyn7023 @klynnvakarian @jhalya @rebelrebelwrites @nenyabusiness
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Sicktember Day 1: Hopelessly Bad At Self Care
Fandom: Ace Attorney
Characters: Mia Fey, Phoenix Wright
Notes: I realized I have been slacking! How could I have gone so long without creating Mia Fey content when I have not seen a single crumb elsewhere? Much like Larry and Gregory, I must bake my own crumbs again. In this entry, we see the early days of Fey & Co. Law Offices, so early, in fact, that Mia refuses to take a single day off when she’s just starting to get the firm off the ground. (This is pretty short and I'm a little bit rusty, but hey, we gotta start somewhere, right?)
The chief was late. Newly appointed apprentice Phoenix Wright felt his stomach sink upon noticing the silence of the office contrasting with the time on the clock saying the work day had started. Even with it only being his first week working under Ms. Fey, he just could not picture her as the type to be late to work.
After a heavy, worried sigh, Phoenix pulled out his studying materials from the suitcase his father had given him as a gift for starting his new career. Were heirlooms gifts? He didn’t have enough time to truly ponder the question, given he was soon interrupted.
"Hnggkk! … choo. Hihgg!! … choo."
A pair of sneezes that both stifled themselves midway before finally releasing. It was a special sort, a talent almost. Phoenix would never admit it, but he admired what he could only call audible art. He shook his head to fight off any chance of his mind wandering anywhere that wasn’t related to work.
“Bless you, chief.” He forced the words out. “If you were trying to sneak up on me, I guess that didn’t work out.”
“No, no,” Mia shook her head and sniffled. “Just overslept. Don’t know how,” she paused to muffle some coughs with her elbow, “since I’ve been really good at getting up early after renting out the office. Can’t afford to waste any time away from here; not yet, at least.”
Phoenix looked up from his papers and couldn’t help but frown when he saw just how exhausted his mentor looked this morning.
“When have you been going to bed?”
“Well, you leave at six, and I stay here for…” Mia counted on her fingers, “six more hours.”
“What!?” Phoenix quickly scrambled to regain the little composure he had. "No wonder you got sick…"
“Sick? No, not at all! I’m not sick.”
“Is that so?”
Phoenix stared Mia down, expecting her to concede, even if that had never worked before.
“Yeah. I’m just… stressed.”
“That’s just another reason you’d need to take a break!” Phoenix exclaimed, then quickly muttered an apology for the volume. “Sick, stressed, or at least tired; all point to you needing to get some rest, chief.” He sighed. “Come on, seriously, is there really anything going on that can’t wait until you’re feeling at a hundred percent?”
“Well, *snf* what if a client comes in?” Mia pulled a tissue from the box on Phoenix’s desk and dabbed her nose with it. If she was planning on sticking around, she probably needed to take note to reimburse her assistant for lord knows how many she would use – not that she would admit to that when pushing for any excuse to make the most of the new office.
“The office has been dead quiet all week. All I’ve had to do is study, and all you’ve had to do is watch me study.”
“That’s not true. I’ve helped you study, too.”
Phoenix sighed and pondered a potential compromise.
“Look, I know I’m just your apprentice and this is probably none of my business, but you really do seem to be in bad shape.” He couldn’t help but notice the tissue pressed under Mia’s nose was overstaying its welcome and handed her a fresh one to take its place. “If you really want to stick around, I think it might be a good idea to get some rest on the office couch. You let me sleep there a couple times during some late night cramming; it’s pretty comfortable, actually.”
“I don’t know…”
“Please, chief.” Phoenix was practically begging at this point. “I don’t want my first trial to be defending myself from charges of negligence if you overwork yourself.”
A laugh unexpectedly erupted from Mia, followed by a fit of coughing.
“Okay, okay.” Mia sighed and let herself fall onto the couch across Phoenix’s desk. “Drama queen.”
“How’d you know I do theatre?” Phoenix teased.
“You tell me all the time. Heck, whenever you get sick, it’s usually during your technology week thing.”
“Tech week, and–” Phoenix slowly formed a smirk, “that emphasis on ‘you,’ er, well, me. Does that mean…”
“Yeah, I know I’m sick,” Mia groaned, “just don’t rub it in. I’m gonna get some rest and you’re gonna go back to studying.”
“You don’t want me to get you anything? We have that electric kettle in the back for tea…”
“Phoenix,” Mia started sternly, easily seeing the attempt at stalling, but quickly softened up. “Tea would be great, actually.”
“Already on it, chief.”
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24 Days of CHRISMAS: Day 7
Content info: slice of life, bang chan x fem!reader, corporate!chan, corporate!reader, talking on the phone for hours, getting along, growing feels
Word count: 1160
Warnings: just a comforting read
5pm.
It’s a Wednesday afternoon, almost evening, and you’re still working on a work presentation you are due to hold via Zoom on Friday. You are on the creative team, working for a record company, and the newest designs for upcoming album releases need to be confirmed by your superiors. While you always love the creative aspect of the task – designing the lyrics booklets, discussing colour schemes and the likes – it is the presentation aspect you dread. Nothing quite like potentially having your work torn apart by your superiors in front of your teammates. Especially since one of them, Chan, has been your secret crush for a few months now. He works in music production, so you don’t actually interact that much, but seeing him in the office is enough to make your heart flutter. His caramel-coloured hair, his large hands, his dimpled smile, his Australian accent… There’s nothing that’s not to love about your co-worker.
You shake your head. The designs are solid, no, stunning, and if they don’t love them, it is not a reflection of you as an individual.
Your phone rings just then, the standard iPhone ringtone sounding in your ears via your Bluetooth earphones. You check the display and almost drop the phone. It’s Chan!
You wait for a few beats. You can’t just answer, can you?
You decide that you are a grown ass professional woman who can pick up her phone when an acquaintance from work calls. “Hello?”
“Hi, YN, it’s Chan. I hope it’s okay to call you? Am I disturbing you?” His deep voice resonates through the earphones, giving you little butterflies.
“No, it’s fine. What’s up?” you ask, trying to sound smooth and nonchalant and sexy at the same time, but still probably coming off as a bit awkward.
You can hear him sigh through the line. “I had a meeting with the boss today and it SUCKED. And I thought, you know, you can relate. Since it’s your turn on Friday.”
You get up, walk over to your comfy reading chair and curl up. “Tell me.”
5:15 pm.
“He said WHAT?” You sit up straighter in your chair, shocked by Chan’s retelling of what seems to have been a disastrous meeting. “Your mixing was-“
“-the worst he’s ever heard, yup,” Chan confirms again, his voice a mixture of gloomy and amused. “The fucking nerve of him. I am so fucking talented.”
“You are!” you quickly confirm, maybe too quicky? Chan is silent for a beat. “Thanks,” he says, his voice soft. “That means a lot from someone who creates wonderful art for the music we make.”
It’s your turn to blush, but you’re not having any of it. “So, what happened then?”
5:45pm.
“When I joined, JYP wasn’t in charge yet,” Chan recounts, and you can hear him doing something in the background, maybe fixing himself something to drink. “We had this other director. I think he was even worse, though.” He seems to be taking a sip of something. “Where did you work before? You joined last February, right?”
Huh. So… he HAS been paying attention to you? Interesting. “I did. I was in advertising before, but I kind of felt like… I don’t know, letting capitalism win or something?” Chan chuckles at that. “Not that we’re not making money here – you know what I mean, right?”
“Yeah,” he agrees softly. “I do.”
6:20pm.
“I cannot believe that THAT was your first live concert,” you laugh, simultaneously ordering some sushi, because you can’t really be bothered to start cooking and in truth, you don’t want to stop talking to Chan. “NICKELBACK?! That’s hella embarrassing, Christopher.” About half an hour ago, Chan told you his full name, and there is no going back now.
There are some whiny noises coming through the phone. “Oh, come on,” he complains. “I was young and got the ticket as a gift, okay? No need to be mean, YNnie!” Maybe you imagine both of you pausing for a second at the nickname, but it feels natural, as if he’s done it a hundred times. “Plus, I bet you went to see some cheesy one hit wonder act in 2008 or something.”
You snort with laughter, and normally you would feel self-conscious about the unflattering noise, but it's not like that with Chan. It's easy, like breathing, like smiling. Thinking about that, you continue shutting your laptop and lying down on your couch. “That’s one secret I’ll never tell,” you say in your best Gossip Girl voice.
Chan grumbles, then asks: “Did you just lie down?”
“I did.”
He seems to hesitate. “I’m not keeping you from anything, am I? Or… Anyone?”
You huff a little laugh. “No, just me, trying to procrastinate finishing that stupid presentation.”
“I see. I should let you get back to that, right?”
You sit up so fast your head is spinning a little bit. “No, please, Chan,” you almost beg, “If you go now, I need to work.”
His giggle is positively endearing. “Okay then, I’ll tell you the story of my first meeting with JYP…”
7pm.
The doorbell rings. Your sushi! “Hold on,” you tell Chan as you jog over to the door to let in the driver and receive your takeout.
“What did you order?” Chan asks as you get back to him. “You were so polite to that guy, YNnie, that’s kind of cute.”
You blush, busying yourself with preparing a plate and chopsticks. “Maki and sushi. Treat yourself, am I right?”
Your co-worker agrees. “Is this the moment where you let me go?”
You shrug before remembering he can’t see that. “I mean. Do you want to keep me company over the phone while I eat?”
Chan ponders that. “My pizza should arrive any minute. How about we take a bathroom break and I call you right back?”
You smile to yourself. “It’s a date,” you say before you can help yourself.
Chan is silent for a second. “It isn’t. But it could be. In person. If you wanted. Like… How about Friday night?”
You can’t believe this is happening. Your mouth is agape with shock, and you hurry to answer. “Sure. I’d love that.” Oh no, maybe love is too strong a word? “I mean, I’d like that. You know what I mean.”
“I do.”
You are both silent for a moment in which you realise that you are going on a date with Christopher Chan Bang in 48 hours. Also, those silences between you - how are they so comfortable? It's amazing.
“And you’re still going to call me back in a few minutes?”
“I am,” he confirms. “We have a date to plan.”
You smile to yourself. “I guess we do.”
“So,” he says.
“So,” you agree.
“I’ll call you right back,” he promises, before the line goes dead.
And while you dance around your living room in excitement, he keeps his promise – and it will be the first of many.
~Day 8~
#Author Hare: My crush called me earlier and I wish it had gone like this so I wrote this lol delulu girl at it again amirite#author tortoise: ITS SO FLUFFY IM GONNA DIIIIIE#bang chan fluff#bang chan fanfic#bang chan drabble#24 days of chrismas#bang chan x yn#bang chan x reader#author hare#author hare x her work crush
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driver's license: A Music Retrospective
2021 was the year. We were still knee deep in the global pandemic and needed some drama to entertain ourselves. Then it came. A newcomer to the music industry, Olivia Rodrigo, dropped her first single (outside of her work in the Disney show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (yes, that’s the real name of the show)) and it was called driver’s license. It immediately resonated with people, especially teenage girls, and her talent was evident in the track. However, people wanted to know, as they always do, who this emotional song was about.
So the people dug through the mud to find him. And find him they did. This person was Joshua Bassett, Olivia’s co-star in HSMTMTS (I’m not writing that full name again). And who was “the blonde girl” Rodrigo sang about? None other than Sabrina Carpenter, who was seen close and personal with Joshua. This is the simple run down of the characters in this piece.
Since it all started with driver’s license, we will start with Olivia’s music. Most of SOUR is about her relationship (and her break up) with Joshua. Some songs really work for me and others not so much. I’m not one for the ballads and “sad girl music”. But some of Olivia’s vocals and harmonies, combined with the simple and direct lyrics, make great sad music. In retrospect, I do like GUTS better than SOUR, but it’s pretty solid for a debut. It is noticeable through her lyricism that Joshua really hurt Olivia, whether he meant to or not.
Next we will examine Sabrina’s responses, plural, because one was more successful than the other. I must say I’ve been a fan of Sabrina since Girl Meets World (another Disney show and, yes, a spin-off of Boy Meets World) and her music really is more my style. So musically, I will be biased to her. However, her first response to this drama was to release Skin, a not so polished song that feels like a diss track against Olivia, including the line “maybe blonde was the only rhyme” (referring to the “blonde girl” lyric in driver’s license). As I stated before, it’s clear Olivia was really hurt by Joshua and Sabrina’s relationship, so releasing a song where you brag about having the man on your arm instead of her doesn’t seem like a smart move. Fortunately everyone forgot about that release and she was able to create her album emails i can’t send and her new response to the drama. And I say “response to the drama” and not to Olivia, because the song this time is much more focused on the aftermath of driver’s license. because i liked a boy is a really well constructed and, more importantly, well thought out song, where Sabrina unleashes her frustrations with what happened to her because of Olivia’s song. Death threats were sent to her and Olivia did nothing to stop them, while Joshua appealed to the goodness of Olivia’s fans. Sabrina’s only crime was, as she sings in the chorus, liking a boy. And she also reveals that “when everything went down, we’d already broken up”. Sabrina’s side results in a near flawless pop album (where not all of the songs are about Joshua) and it’s better than SOUR in my opinion, but it’s almost like she’s been doing it longer than Olivia.
Joshua’s side was the latest I arrived at and, to be honest, I’m glad I did. Let the ladies get their versions out before I analyse the man’s in the situation. When I did research on this topic (because I didn’t know what songs to listen to on Joshua’s part), the song Lie Lie Lie showed up the most. It feels like a slap to Olivia’s face. It’s evident that Olivia was pouring her heart out into her art and Lie Lie Lie just downplays it all. Then, I listened to the rest of Joshua’s discography and found some other songs that could apply to the situation, though I’m not sure they are about Olivia. Only A Matter of Time is also about how this person is lying about a certain situation (“you twisted your words like a knife”) that could be applied to Olivia’s album. Crisis is a more inward look into the drama, claiming Joshua also suffered from this whole affair. The lyrics seem to implicate Olivia’s album and attitude after the release of her music, with lines like: “If you get to tell your truth, so do I”, ”Messing with my life as a career move” and “You sensationalise, keep fanning the flames for the headlines''. And finally, the song SHE SAID HE SAID SHE SAID refers back to the drama, the rumours around the couple and Sabrina and how it’s all “he said she said” and we’ll never know exactly what happened with these three. Musically, Joshua’s side is the weakest, in my opinion, and he doesn’t have the lyricism and production that the girls have. It’s not my type of music, even less than Olivia’s, this style of “sad boy music” is getting tiresome to me.
To finalize this analysis, I want to say that I don’t hate any part involved and if anything good came of this, it was the amazing music. Go stream all of the sides and decide for yourself who “won” this drama, or just enjoy all sides equally. I can’t tell you what to do, I’m not your mother.
#essay#writing#essay writing#creative writing#olivia rodrigo#sabrina carpenter#joshua bassett#driver's license#music#music review#song review
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can you make jaskier sad pls can you torture that bard fuckboy
A/N: I can, I have, and I shall again. I assume this was a fic prompt, but if not, congratulations on your Free Upgrade!
Jaskier’s only true talent in life was luck: luck to be born the son of a noble, to have money and no responsibilities, which let him explore his art; luck to be assigned great mentors at Oxenfurt; luck to be chosen over Valdo Marx to perform at a royal function; luck to get kicked out of that same function and chased off, only to end up in Posada, a new and incredible muse practically hurling itself at him like so much stale bread. It was certainly luck over skill that let him survive tagging along behind Geralt. Luck had brought him fame (and infamy), fans, and most importantly, you.
But all swords have two edges, or so he had always heard. Geralt abandoned him on a mountaintop. Without the Witcher, his fans vanished in droves and he was left pinching for pennies (long since cut off by the parents who wanted him to come home and be a proper viscount). His songs picked up a bit as he wrote from bitter pain, but only enough to get him work in small inns, and invitations to co-teach a class or two.
And now…now luck had truly turned against him.
“Jaskier,” you sighed, hand reaching up to caress his cheek briefly, fingers trembling. “Please, my…friend. Your face isn’t one made for tears. And you knew this would happen someday…”
“No I did not!” he insisted, stepping away, your touch feeling like it burned him. “I thought…” his voice caught and he wondered what he had thought.
That you would wait for him? That your love was stronger than any time or distance or practicality? That he would always be able to cash in on Geralt’s exploits and eventually make enough money to properly court you?
“I love you…” the words sounded pathetic to his own ears, almost a question, and he regretted them instantly when you flinched.
“I…can’t Jaskier. I’m getting married.”
“So? I have had married lovers before. We don’t have to give us up just because you’re obligated to–”
“It’s not obligation. He is a good man, from a good family. And I care for him.”
“You care for him?”
“I do.”
“You love him?”
“I will come to.” You tried to turn away from Jaskier, but he caught you by the shoulder to keep you facing him.
“Will you?”
“I must. And I will not betray his kindness, or his trust.”
“What are you saying?”
“Must I make it plainer?” he could hear the way your heart cracked, and felt his own groan under the strain.
“Please, don’t do this. We can run away together. I have some money, and a post at Oxenfurt. We can be together.”
“No. We can’t. It is a lovely dream. But it’s time to wake up, Julian.”
The use of his given name was the nail in his coffin. He stepped back as if struck, turned and ran.
Luck was his only true talent in life, but even true talent can fade.
#Jaskier x Reader#angst#infidelity tw#(mentioned)#The Witcher fic#flash fiction#Tragedy Thursday#I forgot that I gave myself a 200 word limit on the original post. so I went to 500. and still made it only 1 under#whoops
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Since I’m officially done with the main guides to Stray Kids, I figured I’d do a couple fun guides, just for, well, fun. I wanted to start off with the dynamics between the boys. I’ve already talked about the three main rachas (3Racha, Danceracha, Vocalracha), but I thought it would be fun to talk a little about each friendship. (If you want to see even more about them, I’m going to have a playlist related to each post, and I currently have an ongoing dynamics series going on!) (There is 28 different pairings in this group, so they have to be broken up into multiple posts, lmao)
This post contains the following dynamics: Bang Chan and Hyunjin; Bang Chan and Seungmin; Lee Know and Hyunjin; Changbin and I.N.; Han and Seungmin; Han and I.N.; and Felix and Seungmin.
*Sort of a disclaimer: Each pairing will have a little nickname/identifier attached to them. Most of them come from stays themselves, whether directly or indirectly, but some of them I kind of had to create on my own. They may not be super creative, but it is what it is, lmao
Bang Chan and Hyunjin - ‘the creators’
the nickname is based off a part of their conversation during their 2kr episode where they talk about loving to create and put something out there. (look, i said the nicknames probably wouldn’t be super creative, lol)
and they really do. chan with his music, hyunjin with his art. all the boys clearly love what they do, and are very passionate about it, but it’s so intertwined with who chan and hyunjin are, it’s beautiful to watch them grow and be so good at what they love (again, these could be a similar sentiment for most of the other boys, if not all, but im just talking about these two, lol)
hyunjin has stated that chan taught him how to be sexy, which is just so funny to me.
chan thinks hyunjin is adorable and dotes on him, and while hyunjin acts annoyed, he probably doesn’t mind it as much. you’ll see that dynamic with a lot of the pairings.
chan is co-vice president of the ‘everyone loves hyunjin’ club. felix is the other vice president. honestly, everyone in this group loves each other, but they are so vocal about their love for hyunjin that its crazy
there’s a mutual respect here, you can tell that these two thinks highly of the others skills and talents
i’m going to be honest, i love these two, i do. but there isn’t a ton to say about them? it’s not a bad thing, they clearly love each other. they just don’t have a reoccurring thing. they’re more lowkey, if that makes sense
Pairing name: Hyunchan
Their 2 Kids Room episode
Random video compilation on Youtube (so with this duo, it’s surprisingly difficult to find videos on them. and this video seems to be more ‘shipping’ leaning, which i was trying to avoid. but it’s the best i could find of them for now)
Bang Chan and Seungmin - ‘wolf and puppy’
again, not all the nicknames are going to be super creative. this one is just about the fact that there skzoo characters are a wolf and a puppy, respectively
seungmin can’t seem to go one single day without roasting and teasing chan, mainly about his age (however, as mentioned before, chan has stated he doesn’t mind the teasing, and if he did, he would say something and it would stop)
but chan also can’t seem to go a single day without cuddling up to seungmin in some way
very recently, seungmin indicated that chan drives him nuts the most in the group, and that checks out, lmao
despite that kind of back and forth, it’s very obvious these two have a deep respect for each other. they’ve talked about knowing each others limits and while they tease and mess with each other, they’ve learned when to stop or what lines not to cross
in their 2 kids room episode, they talk about an incident where chan cried in front of seungmin and it’s kind of laughed off a bit, and thinking about it kinda makes me sad for chan, but i also love it. because it highlights how seungmin is a source of comfort for a lot of the boys, even if he doesn’t seem like it. he didn’t even do anything in that incident, he talks about just letting chan cry, but he knew that that is exactly what chan wanted, and i think he’s smart like that, knowing what members need.
Pairing name: Chanseung
Their 2 Kids Room episode
Random video compilation on Youtube
Lee Know and Hyunjin - “the lovers right now”
this was another dynamic i misread when i first got into the group
because at first glance, it seems like they are more antagonistic towards each other ...well, not that extreme, just...there’s a lot of clips of hyunjin messing with lee know and lee know threatening him with the air fryer or tissues
in reality, it becomes pretty obvious they are very close
i think, either them or one of the other members, even stated that they have deep conversations all the time
it’s like i said, lee know is soft with each of the younger members, but in different ways. the way he treats hyunjin is not the way he is with felix or seungmin or han. all the members do this, but he’s very good at knowing how to be with each member and what they can take. he’s a little meaner with hyunjin, but its clear that hyunjin can handle that
but i also think that, kind of like seungmin and lee know (there are coming up, i swear), these two are closer and softer when we don’t see it.
nickname is from their 2 kids room episode. one of the boys said they could be considered the ‘lovers right now’
hyunjin is a regular victim of lee ‘the butthunter’ know. like...a lot.
in the same recent video where seungmin pointed out chan as driving him nuts the most, lee know indicated hyunjin drives him nuts the most, and lol, again that checks out
Pairing name: Hyunho
Their 2 Kids Room episode
Random video compilation on Youtube
Changbin and I.N. - ‘binnie and innie’
i apologize for that nickname, i honestly couldn’t come up with anything for them. i thought it was cute that their nicknames rhymed so that’s the best i could do, lol
i wish i had a lot more to say about these two, but they are a lot more lowkey in the group. they don’t have a specific thing, if that makes sense. not that they aren’t close, i just think it’s more off camera than on.
i’ve seen people joke about how i.n. is the maknae of the group, but that changbin is the ‘fake maknae’ because of how he acts, and that’s kind of funny
i.n. seems to make changbin laugh a lot, i love that. and changbin has stated that he actively tries to make i.n. laugh
the members have talked about how both of them are very cute, but are also strong and determined
just from my observations, i think these two are underrated dancers in the group
Pairing name:Changjeong or Jeongbin (i’ve seen both used pretty equally)
Their 2 Kids Room episode
Random video compilation on youtube (another one where finding videos of these two is difficult, because they are more lowkey)
Han and Seungmin - “vocalracha, part 2″
referring to them as vocalracha part 2 because they have multiple covers/songs together, and their voices go so beautifully together
i only realized recently that these two seem to be a pretty popular duo. i hadn’t noticed it at first, but i see it more now. they are also so much closer than i realized? i did their dynamics post awhile back and stated that i didn’t think they were as close as some of the other duos, but i take that back, because now i see it more and more everyday, lol.
i think that han absolutely adores seungmin. in fact, i recently saw a twitter thread of han talking about, on multiple occasions, as talked about how seungmin would be the best boyfriend/husband and why he thinks that, lmao
i feel like these two probably make each other laugh so much, it’s just seems like they do
seungmin has stated that he’s learned a lot from han and is very grateful for him, while han has stated he’s envious of how strong-minded seungmin is
Pairing name: Hanseung or Seungsung, I’m not really sure.
Their 2 Kids Room episode
Random video compilation on Youtube (finding videos for some of these is difficult, lol. this one is shorter and older, but it’s not bad.)
Han and I.N. - ‘the ‘i’ll kiss you before i die’ duo’
there’s a story that comes from han where he claims that i.n. kissed him in their pre-debut days, but i.n. claims he doesn’t remember this
but during their 2 kids room episode, he told han he would kiss him once before he died, lmao
these two are so cuddly at concerts, especially during some of the past maniac tour stops. it’s really adorable, honestly
honestly, han is just very flirty with i.n. all the time, lmao
han made it a point to state that he doesn’t see i.n. as a brother but a close friend. i’m not sure why the distinction matters, but it seemed important to him, lol
despite that, the other members have stated that han subconsciously looks after i.n., it’s very sweet.
there’s not enough of these two singing together, honestly. we have a ton of seungmin and han duets, i want a han and i.n. duet
Pairing name: Jeongsung (?)
Their 2 Kids Room episode
Random video compilation on Youtube (okay, this one is different. i couldn’t find a single compilation video of these two. so the link is just for a vlive they did not that long ago.)
Felix and Seungmin - “cat and dog”
nickname is in reference to how seungmin acts like a puppy and felix acts like a cat.
have done a few cooking vlives together, and there are so adorable and hilarious. they make mistakes and make a mess and it’s just the cutest. i don’t think they’ve done one in a long time, unfortunately, but here’s hoping they do one again eventually
an unexpected duo. it’s hard to explain, but they just seem like they wouldn’t be quite as close, at least in relation to the rest of the group, but i think they are really close? i think the three youngest are just pretty close overall, honestly
i’m not sure if i’m reading this right, but it almost seems like seungmin is a little protective over felix at times. not super often, but there have been moments. it’s cute
and of course, felix clearly adores seungmin. felix is like that with a lot of the other members, lol
once again, not a duo that i have a lot to say about, other than they are adorable
Pairing name: Seunglix
Their 2 Kids Room episode
Random video compilation on Youtube
#Stray Kids#skz guide#hyunchan#chanseung#hyunho#changjeong#seungsung#jeongsung#seunglix#skz thoughts#this isn't my best#lol#a lot of this dynamics are more lowkey#and there's less about them
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Brian Jacques’s birthday is June 15! He is no longer with us, but we can still honor his life.
June is a wonderful month in this part of the world–the final remnants of spring meld into the warmth of summer. Flowers are blooming and baby birds are making their final flights from their nests. And on June 15, 1939, Redwall author Brian Jacques was born.
Brian passed away on a cold and rainy day in February of 2011–fitting weather for a city that had lost an icon. In February, I always remember his passing and feel such a somber reverence for the man who gave us a world of courage and peace. If he was still with us, he’d be turning 83 this year.
In June, his memory is brighter: this is the time to remember his life. Not just his creation of Redwall, but everything about the adventure driven, family focused, and multi-talented man who made such an impact on his hometown of Liverpool–and the world. His life could arguably have been more action packed than his own stories.
For many years, @dibbunsagainstbedtime has hosted fundraisers in the month of June in Brian’s memory. She isn’t able to run the fundraiser this year, so I’ve taken over. I appreciate everything she’s done in his memory in the past, and I hope to do well in continuing her tradition. If Redwall taught us anything, it is how to be good and do good to the world around us, and I hope this will aid in that cause.
I know we are all drawn to different causes, and pockets are tight coming out of a pandemic and facing a chaotic job market, inflation, and potentially worse. As such, I’m not fundraising in the traditional sense. I want to raise awareness for the causes below, all located in Liverpool.
If you decide to donate after seeing this post, I ask that you name Brian Jacques somewhere in your dedication. If you can’t or don’t want to donate but would like to spread the word, please share!
If you want me to share some results towards the end of this month, you can let me know if you want to be credited, who you supported, and how much you donated. Any part of that info can be anonymous if you’d like as well.
Royal School for the Blind
Historically, @dibbunsagainstbedtime fundraised for the Royal School for the Blind in Liverpool. This school has a special place in Brian’s history, and specifically in the history of Redwall. Brian used to read stories to the children when making his routine stops as a truck driver, and he found he didn’t like the books he was reading. As a result, he wrote Redwall for the children there. It was discovered, published, and the rest is history.
The Royal School for the Blind is currently only taking donations by bank transfer and check. I know that process would take more time than a standard website donation, but this is one of the best places for the Redwall fandom to donate in Brian’s memory if you’re comfortable with the options.
Everyman Playhouse
Alan Durband, who was once Brian’s teacher and later discovered Redwall and was pivotal in its publication, co-founded Merseyside’s Everyman Theatre in 1964. Brian later joined this theatre as a resident playwright. Everyman Theatre merged with another company, Playhouse, in 2000–hence the name change! Supporting this cause assists in ongoing representation of the arts that were an important part of Brian’s life.
North Liverpool Food Bank
Food banks offer resources to individuals with food insecurities. Coming from a fandom with such an emphasis on food–and knowing Brian himself grew up with food insecurities–this is an excellent charity to contribute to.
The Open Door Center
This charity provides mental health support to young people through music, technology, training, and volunteering. These services are for anyone aged 15-30.
The Whitechapel Centre
The leading charity in Liverpool for the homeless and those struggling to maintain housing. We can’t open our gates to everyone, but we can help provide services to those who can.
Remember:
If you are unable to donate to any of these causes for any reason, I want you to know that you are valid. Being good and doing good isn’t rooted in money: it’s rooted in action, and changing the world for good doesn’t have to be large, well-organized movements. Just being a warm smile, friendly shoulder, or listening ear brings some of that Redwall peace to the world and is an honor to Brian’s life.
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Connie Clarke
Basics
Full Name: Connie Clarke
Nickname(s): Coco, Con
Age: 16 in Season 1 of Stranger Things
Sexual Orientation: Lesbian
Appearance
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Skin Tone: Fair
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Brown
Hairstyle: Ponytail, accessories with different colored/patterned scrunchies
Makeup: Subtle but she does like doing it, it's like painting
Build: Slim, does a lot of dancing
Height: 5' 8" (She is a few millimeters taller than her brother)
Style: Dresses in bold colors and jeans. Every day the club meets though, she will wear her Hellfire shirt
Personality
General Personality Traits: Humorous, Passionate, Happy
Strengths: Creative, Determined, Overloads her schedule
Flaws: Anxious, Overthinking, Overloads her schedule
Habits and Mannerisms: Whenever she isn't busy she is working on either reading or memorizing a script/song/dance; She hums under her breath while she's working; On the rare occasion that she struggles to remember something, she taps her pointer and middle fingers on her forehead until she does
Secrets: She's GAY; Surprising many people (but not her father or brother) she does not hide the fact that she's a member of Hellfire
Regrets: She wishes she could get herself a girlfriend but that is difficult for obvious reasons
Skills/Talents: She's a talented actor, singer and dancer, occasionally using that acting ability during DND and for lying in certain situations; Memorization; Recreational watercolor painting; Organization
Likes: Drama Club, DND, Fiction novels
Dislikes: Snakes, Hazing, Glitter
Sense of Humor: Puns for certain
Guilty Pleasure: Belting songs in the car on the way to school
Defining Moment: TBD
Relationships
Friends: Hellfire Club, The Party and Co.
Family: Scott Clarke (Father), Kenny Clarke (Twin Brother)
Enemies: Creatures from the Upside Down, The Hawkins High Basketball Team
Lovers: Robin Buckley (eventually)
Relationship Status: Single and horribly aware of why
Reputation: A walking inconsistency, she's a nice girl with a lot of talent but she does hang out with those freaks in the Hellfire Club. She's also super cute but every time she's been asked out by a guy, she always says no?
Miscellaneous
Current Residence: Hawkins, Indiana
Collections: Playbills and Posters from Hawkins High performances; Watercolor sketchbooks; Musical albums; Character sheets
Accent: Midwestern
Voice: Sweet and unapologetic
Signature Quote: "Sorry, I can't. I've got rehearsal/Hellfire/homework/to help my dad grade papers/etc."
Song: TBD
Backstory
Connie has always been a bit odd to other people simply because she never really found a group and stuck with it. Connie has always had a lot of different interests and did not compromise her engagement in any of them despite what anyone said. Her enthusiasm for whatever it was she was doing at the time however, was infectious to the others around and, unlike her brother, Connie never really had trouble making friends.
Over time, her interests narrowed to a few select arts and DND. Though interested in science, it never was her most favorite thing. That didn't have a strain on her relationship with her father, he understands that curiosity comes in all forms for all subjects, just because hers is different does not make any difference. His daughter is incredibly smart and creative and he is proud of her every single day.
When the Clarke twins got to high school, Connie always makes sure that she invites her brother to join her in whatever she does but more often than not, he insisted on sticking to the technical side of things.
Connie, despite some of her "quirks", does gain the attention of several boys her age over the course of her high school career but she always says no. Some less than kind peers of hers make several comments about her and the boys of Hellfire but she shuts them down many times. She's witty enough to get bullies off her back.
It took her a long time to figure out why she's never been interested in boys and once she did, she kept it to herself, not even telling her twin or father about it. It's just a difficult situation for her that she's still trying to figure out how to navigate.
#connie clarke#robin buckley x oc#robin buckley x reader#stranger things x oc#stranger things x reader#stranger things oc#stranger things#hawkins indiana oc#st oc#my oc stuff#oc notes#kenny and connie clarke
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Peter Tork with his brothers, Chris and Nick.
(Photo 1) “It shows Peter, when he was 14, with his arms around his brothers Chris (four years) and Nick (twelve), in the living room of Wynward Hill Farm in Williamantic, Conn. ('The Thread Capitol of America'!). Peter was a freshman at Wyndham High School when this picture was taken.” - Catherine McGuire Straus, 16 Magazine, December 1967
(Photo 2) Taken by their sister, Anne.
(Photo 3) Peter’s yearbook photo, E.O. Smith School, Class of 1959
“When I was in junior high school, I was a punk. I wanted people to love and admire me for my gentle wit, my talented music-making and my beauty of personality. Instead I was loathsome and irritating and quarrelsome and I didn’t know why people didn’t like me. But I began to think and meditate on it. Meditation is the only way the personality can be improved, and gradually I began to work things out and better myself. I like to give someone as many ‘different sheets of music paper’ as I can — behave differently toward him each time I see him. That is the only way someone can know what the real me is like. You can’t know the real me by only talking to me. I believe that you can tell more about people by the way they looking walking away from you than you can by what they say. In the highest sense, I think a human life is art, that art includes all expression. The way I play a guitar expresses something, and the way I scratch my thigh expresses something. I think my guitar music is good; that is where I haven’t made any compromises. I think it really expresses me. And it’s going to be better. Our new Colgems album is a terrific thing.
Everything you do is an accumulation of everything you have done in your life. If each action could be fully understood, it would explain everything about you. That is the ideal. In everything is its opposite. If you curse with great violence, there’s a tiny spot in which your gentleness appears, and if you say, ‘I love you,’ with great tenderness and passion, there is also an indication of hostility and anger.” - Peter Tork, Seventeen, August 1967
“Windham resident Terry LaVoie said she and Tork went to Windham High School together and were, eventually, members of the first graduating class at E.O. Smith High School in 1959.
She said she has known him since seventh-grade.
‘He was a lot of fun,’ LaVoie said, referring to him as a ‘class clown’ who loved to do small pranks.
She recalled attending Tork’s 13th birthday party and she was the only girl there, other than his sister, Anne Thorkelson.
LaVoie said his mother gave her a potholder to embroider as a party favor and she had it for many years, though it eventually wore out.
She saw him perform at the old Shaboo Inn in Mansfield, which John co-owned with David Foster and others, as well as at The Monkees 30th reunion show at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford.
‘To me, he was still just a person,��� LaVoie said, noting she got a VIP pass and talked to him backstage at the Oakdale show.
Tork gave back to various local charities over the years, including performing in a Battle of the Bands benefit show for E.O. Smith, a benefit for Joshua’s Trust in Ashford in October 2010 and a fundraiser at the Willimantic Elks Club in April 2010 for Bailey’s Garden in Lebanon.” - The Chronicle, February 22, 2019
In connection with this topic, Peter's advice to a high school student in 1969.
#Peter Tork#Nick Thorkelson#Chris Thorkelson#Tork quotes#50s Tork#long read#1960s#60s Tork#90s Tork#00s Tork#10s Tork#<3#transcribing interviews with Peter makes me want to reach back in time and give him a hug#1956#1967#1959#Seventeen Magazine#can you queue it
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Ten First Lines Game
thanks @lanaserra for the inspo! I saw your post doing this untagged and yes good excellent plan :D it's such a fun idea!
Rules: post the first sentence of your last ten fics. If you haven’t written ten fics, share as many first-sentences as you have.
1. The beach is a slaughter.
this is how you loop the time war, Edge of Tomorrow (2014), William Cage & Rita Vrataski
2. Huaisang shifts restlessly on the couch, unable to find a comfortable position.
I can’t sleep until I feel your touch, MDZS/CQL, Lán Xīchén/Niè Huáisāng
3. Mic looked around the party, a little bit shocked at the size of the crowd.
the softest hard core, Flan, Flan/Lavalier "Mic" Microphone
4. “Oh good, you’re up.”
hidden in the chaos, The Batman (2022), (no ship)
5. “I don’t think that rat likes you, man.”
the drippings from the ceiling, The Batman (2022), Batman & Bats, includes bonus podfic!
6. Yoongi is tired.
you're the one who called me, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS, Min Yoongi | Suga/Park Jimin, includes bonus podfic!
7. Venom carries them all the way back to their flat without letting Eddie breathe for a single second.
Lay All Your Love On Me, Venom (Marvel Movies), Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
8. It’s karaoke night in their favourite bar and, for the first time since Eddie introduced Venom to karaoke, the desire to sing is absent.
symbiote, Venom (Marvel Movies), Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote, includes bonus podfic!
9. ART had been suspiciously quiet as we watched Forsaken Emerald Army V, one of the shows it had downloaded from the university.
altered parameters, The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, Asshole Research Transport/Murderbot
10. It was supposed to be a joke.
the mortifying ordeal of liking Harrow, The Locked Tomb Series | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir, Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus
I decided to keep this list to fic only, as first lines have a different purpose + meaning in filk and I didn't write most of the pods I've recorded. I love that this list takes me from 2022 yuletide to 2021 yuletide, with a couple Voiceteam stops along the way. it feels like a very me list with eight different fandoms represented; plus three of the ten works were written for audio (links also include the podfics)! there's also a lot of crack, and only some of it treated seriously.
special shout out to works 7 & 8 on this list! I wrote #8, it was recorded (and sung!) by the fabulously talented @carboncopies and @outlikethat, which then inspired #7, and I got to co-write that 😁
I'd love to know which lines here resonate with other people. I'm not sure that any of them draw me in, per se, but all of them immediately evoke the mood of the fic for me... and now I want to do this exercise again for the first 10 fics I wrote to see if those still have the power to do that! maybe someday...
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15 Questions to get to know me better!
tagged by @intothedysphoria Thanks a plenty, bestie! <3
Were you named after anyone? Ah, I really don’t think so? I just have a very southerny type name and EJ is one of my nicknames lol
When was the last time you cried? Earlier this morning from a bad dream
Do you have kids? This is a hard question for me to answer.. I’ll just say that there are three little angels that I could have known if things were different </3 😇
Do you use sarcasm? Only if I’m angry really. I don’t see a point for it in my speech personally because it always seems really mean when I try it
What is the first thing you notice about someone? However they notice me tbh. I use a cane, I stim in public, and I dress like it’s the 80s. My first impressions usually depend on if people look at me strangely or are rude.
What is your eye color? A light kind of brown with green circles!
Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings! I can’t do scary movies bc of paranoia reasons (final destination literally, not even exaggerating, traumatized me) so I tend to watch kids media, which always has happy stories at the end!
Any special talents? Hmm I’m really, really good at Mario party minigames. Also I’m ambidextrous. Nothing else about me is really special per se.
Where were you born? In the basement of my childhood home.
Do you have any pets? I have one dog named Benny but we call her Boo Boo or Boo Boo Keys!! I also have three or four porch cats at my parents house that technically belong to our neighbor. Oh and my irl friend has called me the honorary godparent of her three cats!
What sports do you play/have played? None! I have fibromyalgia which basically means I have really low energy and my joints are bad and I’m usually in pain just from existing. The most exercise I can do that won’t wipe me out is pilates. As a kid I wasn’t diagnosed but I had these symptoms that made it impossible to do any sports. That and at my school special-ed kids like me weren’t allowed on sports teams. Even once I was put in coed in highschool I was only allowed to wear a uniform and sit on the sidelines so it wasn’t worth it.
How tall are you? 5’6” and a half! For the longest time I had no idea but I’ve been at the doctors like every other day recently so I have to know it lol.
Favorite subject at school? Art! It’s the only subject where I never struggled haha. My memory problems can’t sabotage my paintings!!
Dream job? Puppet builder! I don’t really consider myself a puppeteer anymore because performing isn’t really my interest so much as building is now that I’ve had a class on it! I love building tiny marionette clothes and sewing and painting and gluing stuff! It’s very therapeutic
tagging my other bestie @eddie-munsons-guitar86 and any one of my followers who would like to play too!!
#tag game!#not fandom related#about me!#tw miscarriage#tw ableism mention#some of these got a bit deep but this was fun <3#sorry for not tagging more folks I’m kinda burnt out today and this took a lot of energy to write out
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