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ladyhistorypod · 4 years

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Episode 4: Let’s Ms. Behave

Sources:

Charlotte Corday

The British Museum

Brooklyn Museum

Find A Grave

History Channel

UCL Art Museum

Encyclopedia Womannica (Podcast)

The Blonding of Charlotte Corday

Giulia Tofana

Wut. (Podcast)

History Collection

Historical Post

Medium

Mike Dash

Virginia Hill

The Mob Museum

Encyclopedia of Chicago

Alabama

Further reading/watching: The Damned Don’t Cry (1950 film), Bugsy's Baby: The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill (eye roll from Alana), Virginia Hill (1974 film)

Click below for a full transcript of the episode!

Lexi: A brief warning about the following episode of Lady History: this episode contains sensitive topics, such as suicide and murder. If you or someone you know needs help, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. To learn more, visit suicidepreventionhotline.org

Alana: I think my therapist is listening to our podcast.

Haley: Wait what really?

Alana: Yeah. Because I was looking at like our dem– like our listenership and it said a bunch of people in Arlington and I don't know that many people in Arlington. I know like my mom's... my parents’ like family friend from… my dad like went to high school with them and then they introduced my parents and we call her my Arlington mom and so I was like oh maybe it's her but that's too many people to just be her and I think my therapist lives in Arlington and I told her about this so shout out Dr. Sterman.

Haley: I would love–

Alana: If you’re listening.

Haley: –Your next session she's like ‘by the way I don't listen to your podcast’ even though... and just like out herself from… not super listening but also listening we just had…

Alana: I might bring it up. I'm seeing her on Tuesday, virtually obviously, but I’m seeing her on Tuesday.

Haley: ‘Just wondering, do you listen to my podcast?’

Alana: Well I'm going to talk about how like ‘oh I started my podcast and it's doing this this and this for my mental health’ and then be like… just see if she says she’s listening.

Haley: I feel like she wouldn’t though. I feel like she wouldn’t just to…

Alana: I don’t know if she would.

Lexi: Does that cross the like professional boundary?

Haley: Yeah…

Alana: Is that a HIPAA violation?

Lexi: Is it though? It’s only a podcast

Haley: Well none of us are in the medical field.

Lexi: No. We are not.

Alana: Let us know.

Haley: So we can’t have a definitive answer. But I can see someone–

Lexi: Hey if you're in the medical field or are a certified therapist please email us at [email protected] and let us know if listening to your patient’s podcast violates HIPAA.

(Alana laughing)

Lexi: Thank you. You can also email other stuff there. Don't, don't– you don't have to be a doctor to email us.

Alana: No. I also I have a– because you can do asks on Tumblr, and I have our ask page for the Tumblr– Lady History pod dot tumblr dot com– I have… you can suggest a lady.

Lexi: Please, suggest ladies.

Haley: I would love that.

Lexi: Please suggest ladies to us at Lady History pod dot tumblr dot com.

Alana: You can also DM us, and as previously mentioned if you DM the Instagram that's Lexi and if you DM the Twitter that's me and they're both at LadyHistoryPod. We're gonna plug that again at the end so it's just a constant cycle.

Haley: No one can slide into my DMs. I'll just use one of… if you want to slide into my DMs, use like, the Twitter and just be like this is for Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots and they’ll know it’s for me.

Lexi: Okay if you DM or email any of the accounts, if you need the message to go to Haley, please use that name only. Any messages directed to Haley will not be given to her.

Alana: We’ll be like ‘who’s Haley?’

Lexi: So go back–

Haley: I don’t even know what I said. I forgot.

Lexi: No, so go back–

Alana: Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots and I will never forget it.

Lexi: Just go back, listen to that however many times you need to to get it in your brain, and then use that when you address Haley in any of your communication to our general inbox.

Alana: Hang on, my light went away because I have to go change Haley’s contact info in my phone.

(Lexi and Alana laughing)

Haley: I really hate if like I am interviewed for a job and they’re like… ‘so… Twinklebear McPuss-n-Boots…

(Lexi laughing)

Alana: It was Sprinklebear

Lexi: You didn’t even get it right. She can’t even–

Alana: Sprinkle… Sprinklebear…

(Lexi laughing)

Haley: I used to have a crush on Puss-n-Boots when Shrek first came out.

[INTRO MUSIC]

Alana: Hello and welcome to Lady History, the good, the bad, and the ugly ladies you missed in history class. I’m the next best thing to being in the same room as Lexi. Lexi, what's the name of your favorite plant?

Lexi: My favorite plant is probably a pothos. Just really cute, a cute plant, a good plant, grows well, grows well in my climate, has not failed me, has not died, so that is why I love the pothos.

Alana: And also in the virtual studio is Haley. Haley, how’s the weather?

Haley: It's quite gloomy. I am in San Francisco so we're still dealing with the wildfires. But I think it's just Karl the fog today.

Alana: Karl the fog?

Haley: Yeah the San Francisco like fog that just like looms over this bay area is called Karl. He even has a Twitter, a whole kids’ picture book. Karl the fog.

Alana: That's giving me An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green vibes.

Haley: And also, oh, the SF MOMA… the new building of it is Karl the fog. It doesn't– it looks kind of like a… like an old time steam iron, like on an ironing board. But it's like meant to be Karl the fog. Or like blend in. Karl just mushes his way through San Francisco.

Alana: Oh my god that's incredible.

Haley: Yes.

Alana: And I'm Alana and I theme my canvas tote bags based on event.

Lexi Nice. Solid.

Alana: Thank you.

Haley: So can I tickle your tastebuds with a fun fact?

Lexi: Oh… oh, tickle away.

Alana (whispering): Tickle your tastebuds…

Speaker 1: This is either going to be like the best thing I've ever created because like– let me just give you a side note: I thought of this joke while taking shower and was cracking up for ten minutes.

(Alana laughing)

Haley: It's either– it's probably gonna flop. But, with this fun fact– it’s kind of setting the mood for our crime theme and it's about the guillotine and the family of the guillotine, Dr. Joseph– I think his name’s like Ignace? It looks like Ignatio, but it’s like Ignace Guillotin– was so horrified that like their family member invented such like a horrible thing, and if you don't know what the guillotine is, it is basically a big sharp knife that comes down from a pulley, will slice your head off, used in many executions– that they appeal to the French government to change the name and the French government just took it to a step higher and was like no we won't change the name but we will make it one of like the official ways of executing people. more s– to the point that the last execution was like in the 1970s. And this is like across Europe and at least for France it was in 1977. So this is where it gets to my cringy joke because I've used this before. If you want a sick burn while your parents are talking about their childhood and they grew up in like the 60s, 70s, you can just go ‘Pft, the land and time of the guillotine. Such heathens.’ And I like this more than the… the burn that goes like ‘when the dinosaurs roamed’ because dinos just like didn't live when humans lived and it always made me so mad where it’s like I learned that the dinosaurs were born millions of years ago but we have this like iconic just… execution machine that was used for so so long and no one realizes that this was just used until the 70s as a humane way of execution, which like I won't even get into that whole argument. There's so much of a rabbit hole of whether the like guillotine was humane or not. But it's just– it's almost funnier because like it did happen this was an ironic like ‘oh you’re so old you’re like a dinosaur’ this is like ‘you were born when the guillotine was used!’

Alana: Because that's like a burn but it's also true.

Lexi: Yeah. That's the worst kind of burn, I– I mean the best kind of burn because it hurts the worst.

Haley: I once said it to my dad because he was like talking about something when he was like younger and I was like the guillotine just looked at me and was like ‘excuse me?’ I was like ‘you lived during the time of the guillotine, heathen.’ And he was like ‘well…”

Alana: It's true!

Haley: Because he was like ‘no that's like the Middle Ages’ and I was like ‘let me school you on some facts. And that actually is a great segue into my first gal.

Alana: Alright, let's go Haley.

Haley: Uh, so my gal, like Artemisia, we have another one with her own movie. It's an unfortunate movie because I couldn't find it anywhere, but who am I talking about… Charlotte Corday. And other names include… side note, I don’t speak French, I speak Spanish. Please don’t come after me, with my horrible horrible French pronunciations, I had my boyfriend, who speaks some French, pronounce them to me… probably didn't remember anything that he said to me. Her other names are Corday d’Armont, Marie-Anne Charlotte, and now her like more modern name is Charlotte Corday the Assassin. So I love Charlotte as a topic, because other podcasts, like crime, history, women's studies, have covered her to an extent. Like I– you'll see in the show notes I like I've even used her– thanks, Encyclopedia Womannica. But on the other hand, not many people know about her. And they don't even know like her influence with the French Revolution because I've been in like many discussions about like history of crime or what like– the world history that we had to take, and I asked like about her and my even like my history teachers like ‘I don't know who that is’ and everyone just gave me that blank face and it's like wait a minute, this is weird, why isn't this covered. So of course, I'm going to cover it. And let's crack this case wide open before we do a deep dive and go over just like some historical background and some of the people be talking about because I don't want you guys to be lost in this whole mumbo jumbo. So Charlotte was a Girondin sympathizer– again, my French is not good– she came from a family of impoverished aristocrats from a little town outside of Paris, France. And as a noble family she was given the opportunity to go to a formal education, but really this formal education came because her mother and one of her sisters died. And her father was just so grief-stricken and also just couldn't handle the now need to raise two daughters, so he sent them to a Roman Catholic convent so they could get a formal education. During this formal education of hers, she learned about French politics, history of France, and was able to mold her own theories and just ideas about the world around her. Thus, she became a French moderate Republican party member during 1791 and 1793 and this is during the French Revolution.

Alana: I'm guessing that moderate Republican back then doesn't mean the same thing that moderate Republican means now.

Haley: No, not at all. I'll explain more. So that's– this is exactly why I wanted to do our whole kind of let's see the players let's name some names and let's go over some history because just looking at her based on just the woman it's very hard to understand why she's one, seen as a hero; two, seen as a murderous assassin which both are correct in a way.

Lexi: I mean, goals. No I’m just kidding. I’m not condoning murder.

Haley: No so that's basically where she's at in the scope of where she grew up and what role she’ll play in the French Revolution, or what side she was on. And she's also mainly known for murdering Jordian Jean-Paul Marat, and he was on the other side he was Jordian so she was very opposed to his ideals. So again like Alana said is this kind of like what our U. S. politics is like? No, this isn't the Republican Party. However we have two extreme sides and people on one extreme, people on another extreme. That is very much similar. And he was an outspoken leader of the French Revolution to the point where he was the founder of a popular journal, deputy of Paris to the convention, opposed legislation that would hurt the other side, empower him and to Charlotte and other Girondan followers. So now that we cover the big picture ideas and we know the players and we know how extreme both these sides are, let's do our deep dive. She was committed to fighting the Girondist side of the revolution, posing the radical Jacobin faction. So this was right before the Reign of Terror, and why I mention this is because all her actions were to stop a civil war; and the Reign of Terror was a part of the French Revolution that kind of like started the first French Republic and culminated in a series of massacres and like many many public executions. So this is what she tried to stop from happening in French society. However, her whole story and what role she played in the revolution actually caused the Reign of Terror. So that's why for me as– in high school was like why aren't we talking about her and now we're gonna talk about her now. So, we come to the point where our victim Marat was continuing his train of like bloodshed, and was responsible for utter catastrophe, and putting a lot of lives in danger of like the French– like the French people were just terrified of him, to an extent. And that’s why Charlotte just hated him. He was seen as definitely one of the leaders of this one extreme side that had to be taken out. So that's exactly what she kind of planned to do. And she was not in Paris, she was still in another city outside of Paris, France. So, Charlotte stabbed him while he was taking a bath; and that's really the punch line of like her whole story. If you do like a quick Google search you'll get a lot of stuff for her and even in some textbooks that I tried to look at it was just like Charlotte Corday assassin… stabbed Marat in the heart. Really, she stabbed him in a planned assassin while he was taking a bath. I'm gonna just go through the accounts of this whole story because they're not really pieced together in one area and I'm going to piece them together now so you can understand why he was like in a bathtub, why she stabbed him, and so on. Because this just sounds so strange and it's really strange to see this as your history. So the planned assassin started because she wanted, like I said, to stop from a civil war happening in France, and she truly believed that to do this you have to kill one of the leaders; and also to an extent make the other side seem strong in that way. Like if you kill one of the leaders, you prove that the other side is just as strong or stronger. So she originally planned to kill him at a Bastille Day parade to make a huge show of it and this was on July 14th 1793. Unfortunately, or fortunately for her plans in a sense the event was just like it either didn't happen or it became apparent that Marat was not going to be at that public event. So she quickly had to say okay what else can I do, how can… what will be the next step to kill him. On July 13th, so the day before this event was supposed to happen, she was able to get a meet and greet with him or just gain access to him by saying and promising to betray her political side and give some insider secrets– like name names, basically become a traitor. And Marat was like cool you're definitely high up in the Girondin side of it, let you like, come into our area, we’ll hold– like we’ll basically keep you hostage, in a sense, like that's the feel I got… like Marat was also like come to our side because if anything happens you'll be on our turf; and she did. She was like cool, great. You don't know I'm gonna kill you, you think I'm gonna come and like give you all my secrets and then you'll protect me in a way. So Marat was having this meeting in the bathtub, but this was a very normal occurrence for him because he had a terrible skin disease or infection that he would just be in the bath all the time, like the water soothed him. So he was just very vulnerable, but that was his normal state– like nothing was wrong with him taking a meeting in the tub… so like she could be alone with him. It would be more weird if they were just walking around in the streets together. And instead of having this whole conversation that Charlotte said she would, she took this knife out of her bodice that she was just like hiding there and stabbed him in the chest.

Haley: He died almost immediately; and she actually waited for the police to come. She did not run away– she waited and confessed, essentially. She was proud of what she did, she wanted this assassination like the public assassin– assassination to still have some sort of effect on the public to show that her side did it to the other side, she is responsible for ma–Marat, and she did it as this political leader, in a sense. So at the trial, she allegedly proclaimed ‘I killed one man to save a hundred thousand’ and she kept reiterating that this was in fact a planned assassination, this wasn't out of passion. She took some thought, even wrote down like accounts and like had this whole… I saw like some people called it a journal or like statement– different written statements basically on her thoughts of an upcoming civil war and what she thought she was doing to help prevent that. She was also able, before the trial she was able to write down like write a letter and write her thoughts, feelings, concerns to her father. So her father was still alive and was able to get this kinda like last testimony of hers. And of course during this trial because she did essentially plead guilty… she was ordered to be executed via guillotine just four days after the murder; so July 17th 1793. And another quote from a lawyer from all this whole trial came from I think this was a man named Vergniaud, but I couldn't find this quote as in from like a reputable source as yes this was him, so could have been just another lawyer and not this guy. However, someone as a witness to this whole trial on this whole ordeal said ‘She is leading us to our death, but she is showing us how to die’ and it was because he, as a lawyer, saw this whole thing, saw her whole plan, and knew okay this is going to become a massive shit show. Like this won't end well. She is not preventing a civil war; she actually just started a whole other battle. However, she is showing us how to die with dignity, and showing how to like own up to the actions and just just die. Essentially die because a lot of people through the Reign of Terror did die. So you thought I'd be done– and I know this is gonna be my longest but this is such a great great story– because now we get into her overall death legacy, and we do know a lot of things, unlike Amelia Earhart where we just don't know what happened to her after death. A lot of this we still have artifacts and evidence of. She overall became this French savior, like the savior of French society in her circle. Months after her death, there are just so many portraits of her in different scenarios; short hair, long hair– like I needed to go back and make sure these were the same Charlotte Corday and if there could have been multiple Charlotte's just to make sure that these images looked so vastly different. And it was because people wanted to show that she was just this holy woman and ladies now weren't the ones who are supposed to be stuck in the kitchen with raising the kids. They had the power to do something in life and in society, but they also had a spin on it, so like– like I said, she was seen as a savior, this holy woman, goddess… like they even used her Christian name so Marie-Anne Charlotte, which she– to my knowledge, and to my research didn't necessarily go by that name. But there are definitely images of that name and her with very fair skin, white, brunette hair, looking very womanly and accentuating her womanly features. So that really pissed off the other side. Like all Marat’s supporters, they were absolutely flabbergasted that she was getting such a reputation. They thought this can't be happening; she just murdered one of our political leaders, and she was executed for it, why is everyone trying to kind of put this holy cap on her. And yes, that worked to an extent, like their outcry, because like yes she did murder someone. But it didn't help enough, and there were women in French society who did try to distance themselves from her and just for ideas of what women should be like. But, Charlotte did such a good job at like the legend of her as a woman, even before she died, that it didn't matter. Like I read an article about whether she had blonde hair or chestnut brown hair from a 2004 academic article; like this is still being discussed. And she had a part of her reputation– like she knew that whether it started a civil war or not she needed to form her own reputation. And there's even accounts that she witnessed the paintings and drawings of her that would be published and printed post-execution, and she gave comments. She was like no no no no, make me look more like a schoolgirl; or like make me more with curly hair. I don't really know the specifics but it was documented that she would give kind of suggestions on how she would look like. So while she did it, she tried so hard to like make herself look like this holy woman, and yes it did work. Marat, when he died, one of his very close friends, Jacques-Louis David painted the classic portrait or classic image, not portrait The Death of Marat, which is capturing the scene of his death and that is still considered like a classic image and the classic picture from– especially from the French Revolution. So I don't– I don't want to go as far as saying either Charlotte's portrayed as this holy one or this heinous, murderous, like scoundrel because both of them have lasted to this point in history that no one can make up their mind whether this was like a good thing that happened or a bad thing that happened. And I don’t even– I don’t even want to put out like in the universe whether we should have the discussion; if we should say like yes or no. I just wanna give you the facts and let you kind of like decide but that is Charlotte Corday.

Lexi: She is very interesting.

Alana: Yeah that's real cool. That's fun. That was a good transition for… from the guillotine to…

Lexi: Yes, good choice.

Alana: Charlotte Corday. I’m glad we let you go first.

Lexi: Alana hit us. Hit us with it. Don't hit us please don't hit me.

Alana: I won’t hit you. Okay so I will be talking about Giulia Tofana. Um.. Ooooh Haley's face, I'm so excited. I feel like– I hope I do this justice. Oh no. She is Giulia but it’s spelled G-I-U because she's Italian. Okay. So. I like to give credit as we've seen in the past like where I have first found out about my stories. And so I first found out about Ms. Tofana– I should I should call her Giulia not Ms. Tofana because there’s another Tofana, her mother’s name is also Tofana. I heard about this for the first time on Wut. W-U-T which is another great edutainment podcast by women. I'm gonna promo them without needing a sponsorship or a collab because women supporting women. So if you like us, go check them out. That was fun. They're not specifically women's history they're just kind of fun facts in general so not as niche as us but still pretty cool. And then I heard about that podcast from my friend Jesse on Twitter… I think we're friends I don't know I think we're friends… so shout out to Jesse. So Giulia Tofana, G-I-U because she's Italian, lived in the seventeenth century. Exact dates are kind of weird because she was a woman and not highborn. Best guess she was born in Palermo in Sicily. Her mother was executed for poisoning her father, possibly because he was abusive. This is a thing– like a running theme that we’ll see it later. Also later, Giulia's husband died mysteriously, probably also poisoned, probably also abusive. So she moved to Rome at some point in the 1630s-ish, probably, as a widow with her daughter to sell cosmetics and be apothecaries and poison people. Dun dun dun…

Alana: So women in the seventeenth century have so many options. They can be sex workers, they can be essentially auctioned off to almost always abuse of older men and then later if their husbands died become respected widows. Those are your options. So many! So many options! What– how are you going to pick, so many things.

Lexi: The amount of choices is staggering.

Alana: Paralyzed by choice, really. My sources call these women ‘aspiring windows’ as if they are gold diggers and not battered women with no escape. I love– I love that like my running theme is criticizing my sources. That's my thing. Giulia crafted essentially her own poison. Created her own poison, or what by all accounts… she was the one who came up with this. Between like her and her mother and her daughter they came up with this poison called aqua tofana, named after her. It's a combination of arsenic and belladonna and lead, which are things that are already in cosmetics at the time but not quite lethal, still have problems, but not lethal unless they're ingested. And so having these things on a vanity looks totally normal. And so Giulia, as someone who experienced abuse, who had watched her mother get executed for defending herself, essentially… I am not condoning murder, and I know it's never good to say something at the beginning of a sentence like ‘I'm not condoning murder’ and then doing ‘but’... I feel like… there are no options.

Lexi: Self defense.

Alana: Self defense.

Lexi: And it seems very clear– again, we don't know the whole situation but it seems very clear that she was in a bad situation.

Alana: A bad situation. Yeah

Lexi: We are not the judge, jury, or the executioner so we can't say.

Alana: So she, having probably been abused and having watched her mother probably been abused and watched her mother get executed for essentially defending herself… she's going to help these other women get out of their marriages in such a way that it can't be traced. Because this poisoning with this mixture of belladonna and arsenic and lead, it takes really long for someone to die. Really long is like two to three days, but it also looks like natural causes or another illness which always happened in the 1600s. People got sick and died and that was just normal. And it gave these men time to get their affairs in order and to confess their sins and in a very Catholic area at a very Catholic time you like automatically got into heaven as long as you confessed your sins. So since these people had time to confess their sins, our murderess wouldn't have to feel so guilty that she was condemning her husband to hell even though he was probably hurting her. It only takes four to six drops to kill someone, depending on their size and all of that other stuff. And another side fact, side fun fact: Mozart, who nobody knows how Mozart died, Mozart wholeheartedly believed that he was poisoned with aqua tofana, but nobody knows. I feel so good that Haley is just nodding fervently. I feel like I'm doing a good job. Thank you for that.

Haley: I've awkwardly read so much on arsenic poisoning. Just so much so, but yes you are correct. There are probably just so many people who died of arsenic poison in the 1600s because autopsies weren’t like what we have today where you can do a toxicology, so so many people would seem like they were getting ill, because a lot of the times it just looks like a common cold or flu-like symptoms, they just weren't feeling good. But then they would die so now people do toxicology because it's a thirty year old man with no pre-existing conditions. But when you're talking about it in the 1600s it's like ‘oh they got sick we don't have modern medicine to help out.’

Alana: Nobody knows what's happening, essentially. It's like ‘oh no another person got sick.’ So Giulia Tofana sold this with her daughter and some employees at this family business, essentially, which is a weird way to think about it– that the family business is murder. They operated like this for about fifty years, for decades. And… at least the estimated number is something like six hundred plus people died because she sold their wives poison. But she got caught, and legend has it– and there are so many foggy details but this seems way too specific so I think like somebody exaggerated but, one of her clients who had bought the aqua tofana to poison her husband had poisoned a bowl of soup but decided, ‘no, I can’t. I can’t kill someone’ and dramatically knocked it out of his hand. And that's where I am thinking this… somebody exaggerated. Somebody made this up because that's way too specific. But she stopped her husband from eating the soup and confessed her crimes and turned in Giulia Tofana and her daughter and their three employees at the business. And all of them were executed. Under torture, of course, it's the seventeenth century, she turned on a bunch of her clients as well. So a bunch of her clients were also executed. Some of them were not executed, because they claimed that they didn't know that it was poison and it was just ‘oh no, I spilled some of my lotion in my husband’s soup… Oops. Oopsie poopsies I’m only like fourteen I don't know any better.’ I made myself laugh with that one I’m sorry. But those people were spared. So there is something to… was Giulia a hero, was she a murderess, could both of those things be true…

Lexi: Was she an anti-hero?

Alana: She's kind of an anti-hero. I think that's what we’re going for.

Haley: I like that, I like anti-hero.

Alana: I think– I also think like–

Lexi: Like a Robin Hood, but murder.

Alana: Batman, but murder. Does Batman kill people?

Lexi: Robin Hood stole things, he didn't kill anyone. This is like the Robin Hood of murdering people.

Alana: Sure.

Lexi: It's like murder the rich, give to the wife?

Alana: Vigilante!

Lexi: I don't know. Vigilante murder, yeah.

Haley: So far we’re on the track of like ‘our criminals are good, question mark?’

(Alana laughing)

Lexi: Mine was definitely a criminal, but we'll get in that.

Alana: Well, I am done. So, Lexi let’s get into that.

Lexi: What a segue! Okay. So my lady, though definitely also had a lot of background trauma as it seems that a lot of these ladies had definitely did crime. So we'll just jump in. Have you guys ever heard of the queen of the mob?

Haley: Yes. I'm so excited that you're doing this one.

Alana: Maybe. You'll have to tell me her name.

Lexi: Okay.

Haley: This is truly like my favorite episodes so far, and I like hate when people like get really into criminals like some people, like for Jeffrey Dahmer, people love him, think he's like the most beautiful man, same with Ted Bundy, and that's not where my head is at.

Lexi: That’s creepy.

Haley: I have a true fascination with the history of crime, death, medicine, and how our society perceives it now. When I say I love these people or I love these stories that is not where I'm going.

Lexi: You're not doing the whole crime fandom crush thing.

Haley: No.

Alana: I have seen people get like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer's signatures tattooed on themselves.

Lexi: That’s creepy.

Haley: Yeah

Lexi: And I don't condone that.

Alana: No we don't like that.

Lexi: But you can be interested in crime especially because as someone who has taken courses in the forensic realm… and who likes bones, and likes that kind of thing, I think you can be interested in the human phenomenon.

Alana: As academics.

Haley: That’s where we’re at for me.

Alana: Not as fanatics.

Lexi: Yes, yes.

Haley: I was listening to like you guys speak and kind of like going back in my head like oh, I seem like such a psycho when I’m like ‘I love Charlotte’ like she is just a fascinating human.

(Alana laughing)

Lexi: Well now we’ve clarified which is good.

Haley: She assassinated someone. And assassinations aren’t swell.

Lexi: But like when you think about like what is interesting on TV, or like what is interesting in our fiction, it's because humans have a general interest. So–

Haley: I wanna write a whole paper on that. Just truly that whole concept.

Lexi: So the queen of the mob, Virginia Hill. You can learn about her at the Mob Museum, people are really really fascinated with her and her story is really interesting. And she was born on August 26, 1916 in a place called Lipscomb, Alabama. I might have said that wrong, you know general– general reminder I say things wrong sometimes. She was born on her father's horse farm. Her father was abusive and he actually beat her and her siblings when they were children and one day she got really fed up with him attacking her and her little siblings so she hit him with a hot skillet in self defense. At the age of fourteen, Virginia married a man named George and three years later the couple moved to Chicago. When they got there she dumped him because you realize the world is a lot bigger than her hometown in Alabama, and so seventeen year old Virginia wanted to start her life anew. At the time, the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, which is a World's Fair style event, and it was conceived to bring hope in the wake of the Great Depression that was happening. So Virginia took a job dancing, like as a shimmy dancer, so she had a really unique–

Alana: What– what does shimmy dancer mean? Like a go-go dancer? Like a str– like what?

Lexi: I think you dance shimmy like you shake back and forth and you wear tassels, I believe.

Alana: Dream job.

Lexi: But someone feel free to correct me.

Haley: Yeah, I was thinking one of those 1920s cigarette girls.

Lexi: Yeah that could probably be it because this is a similar era.

Haley: Like they would have like the thing that went over them holding a plate platter like tray that they would just like walk around, dance around, and you can buy stuff from them.

Lexi: Yeah. It could possibly be akin to that. When the fair ended, Virginia became a waitress at one of Al Capone's old haunts the San Carlo Italian Village, which is a restaurant not a town. I had to Google that. Though Capone was at that time in prison, he went to prison in 1931, the community of criminals that he had built was still thriving, and it was– it was in this role as a waitress serving tables of America’s mobsters that Virginia met the man who would change her life. His name was Joe Epstein. He was an accountant and bookkeeper for Capone's crime family, and he took a liking to Virginia’s style, and that doesn't mean like her physical attractiveness… she had a certain style of a way that she talked to the mobsters, and she seemed to really have like a no-nonsense kind of ability to deal with the mobsters, which is really unique in a girl so young. So he felt he could trust her, and he took her on as a money launderer for his racketeering. She laundered the money by placing large bets on horses in Chicago's racetracks. She later moved into betting scams which is basically when she learned how from Joe to collect bets on fixed boxing matches. So the matches will be predetermined, but she would encourage people to bet the losing side. Virginia didn't just launder money. Joe taught her how to dress and act like a rich woman, and used her to cross state lines with stolen furs, jewels, and other items, because of course no one would suspect a nice, rich lady of stealing things and crossing state lines with them. The craziest part is that this all happened before Virginia even turned twenty. So by the age of twenty she was wearing really wealthy clothes, working really wealthy circles, and basically was a part of the mob. Over time, Hill became a trusted cash carrier, money launderer, and information gatherer for Joe and the rest of Capone's crew. She had many rich boyfriends and often used these relationships to benefit her mob family. In one instance she dated an oil tycoon named Major Riddle. No, you cannot make up this name, and yes, I wrote in my script to pause for insane laughter but no one is laughing. I think his name is hilarious.

Haley: I think that’s the best name ever.

Alana: We're on meat. We're on mute. Lexi that's why we're not laughing you didn't... they won’t be able to see the face that I made.

Lexi: Yeah. That's true. I forgot. Well anyway she dated this oil tycoon Mr. Riddle and she convinced him to give her money for investments that were like completely fake and she took that money back to her boy Joe. And Hill used her womanly charm, and by that I mean she seduced men. And through these methods she was able to obtain valuable information for her mob bros. Joe encourage Virginia to move out east to build connections between Chicago and New York crime syndicates. In New York, she laundered money and met many more men including a Mexican night club dancer named excuse my pronunciation, if this is wrong, Miguelito Valdez. At some point Virginia marriedValdez to help him maintain his residence in the United States. And then Virginia, at the same time as this marriage, had an on and off affair with Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel who is a really famous leader in organized crime.The pair is well known to have real chemistry so this wasn't just considered to be a case of her seducing someone. They think that she genuinely liked him And unfortunately at the time Bugsy was married to another woman. In 1940, he was sent to jail on a murder charge. While Bugsy was in jail, Virginia tricked Valdez into signing divorce papers. And it was all very “90 day fiance” of her if you ask me. It is unclear if it was through her marriage or not but at some point Virginia had become very fluent in Spanish. She used her newfound language skills to begin trafficking drugs particularly heroin from Mexico to Chicago. In the 1940s, she attempted to start a career acting in Hollywood while transferring cash from New York to Chicago to LA. Meanwhile, Bugsy was setting up his new crime life in Las Vegas which he believed was the new up and coming resort destination for Americans and in hindsight he was probably right. He wanted Virginia to join him and she did but mainly only to spy on his activities and report back to her other mob leaders like Joe. Unfortunately, Bugsy’s biggest dreams were dashed when his resort project the “Flamingo” failed. He had drowned too much money into elabore improvements to the resort and lost cash when lucky winners struck it big in his casino. In a desperate attempt to save the business, he closed the casino and reopened the Flamingo as a hotel only, which sadly was unsuccessful, because we all know how Vegas went. Hill received orders to leave Las Vegas, so she did. 12 days later, someone shot Bugsy dead in their home. In 1950, Virginia went to a ski resort in Idaho, which I didn’t know you could ski in Idaho, but apparently you can. And she fell in love with an instructor named Hans Hauser. Again, very “90 Day Fiance” of her. Though she was still laundering money and Hauser was not a criminal, he still wanted to marry her. The couple eloped and had a son named Peter. Later that year, Virginia was subpoenaed to appear in a trial on organized crime which would be shown on National TV. She arrived like a star, dressed from head to toe in expensive clothing and jewelry. As a witness, she served her crime family well, evading details and giving vague, basic answers to in depth questions. She used creative lies to explain away all the cash she had laundered, explaining how she had bet money on horses to win her initial cash. She also insisted that most of her wealth came from gifts of suitors, or as we would probably call them today her sugar daddies. Now quick side note- this kinda gives me vibes of the musical Chicago and that song about the main character’s testimony, where she basically used her charm and virtue as a woman to get out of murder. “Well I can’t help it sir, I am just so beautiful men flock to me and give me free things.” On the stand, Virinigia denied that her male friends and lovers were racketeers. When the investigators caught her in her lies, she simply denied knowledge of the nature of their work. “But I never knew anything about their business” she would say. She denied her ability to have any financial knowledge, you know, because she was a lady, and ladies don’t do money things.

Alana: Ladies don’t money.

Lexi: Ladies never money.

Alana: Women be shopping but women don’t be money.

Haley: I love the comparison, like this whole story cuz this is so much like Charlotte. Both of these ladies are trying to be like, “Oh women do this, this is how women look, look how beautiful we are.

Lexi: That’s the vibe. That’s the vibe she was going for. The investigators were still suspicious, it did not work. Because, you know, it was about to be the sixties I mean it was the fifties but was about to be the sixties and so women were going to be liberated. As Virginia left the trial, she cursed out the press and she punched a reporter in the face. Then as she got her car she told reporters she hoped an atomic bomb would be dropped on them, which I think is a timely thing to say. This was right after World War II. That- That’s a big insult. That’s really mean. Virginia and Hans then realized that they needed to leave America so they moved to Europe. The IRS was still on Virginia's tail and she knew she could not return to the States ever again. She met up with her old boyfriends and colleagues while they were in Europe and it was clear she still received money from her life's consistent characters like Joe. In the nineteen sixties Virginia and her family settled in Austria and her mental health rapidly declined.

Viriginia had suffered with her mental health through most of her adult life, getting hooked on sleeping pills and almost dying from a sleeping pill overdose on at least one occasion. Her life was turbulent, her trauma was intense, and she survived at least three separate suicide attempts. On cold, winter’s day, March 24th, 1966, in Austria, Virginia took her own life. Pedestrians taking a walk along the water found her body, laying in the snow, along with a note stating the reason for her death, “I am tired of life”. Her husband Hans also took his own life, passing in 1974. Their son Peter, who would go on to become an American soldier and veterean of the Vietnam War, died in a car accident 20 years later. The family is buried together, in Salzburg, Austria. To this day, some crime enthusiasts believe Virginia may have been murdered, force fed pills as a method to hide a murder as suicide of someone with a history of mental illness. Though her apparent struggles with her mental health throughout her life really suggest this theory is unlikely. I think Virginia can teach us a lot, for starters I think the importance of mental health help is something her legacy can teach us. Virginia had a horrible childhood and instead of getting help she needed, she was married off and eventually she was convinced to do crime. She spent a lot of her life struggling, and it's possible some for mental health issues stem from that early trauma. I think Virginia can teach us a lot, for starters I think the importance of mental health help is something her legacy can teach us. Virginia had a horrible childhood, and instead of getting the help she needed, she was married off. She spent a lot of her life struggling, and it is possible some of her mental health issues stemmed from that early trauma. I think Virginia also teaches us that it took more than men to make the Mobs of early and mid century America function. Virginia was often called the mistress of the mob, but that’s not fair- she wasn’t a mistress of the mob, she was a member of the mob. Women, both those whose stories are recorded and those whose stories were forgotten, played central roles in organized crime. So maybe next time you think about famous figures like Al Capone, think of the women like Virginia Hill who supported the crimes too. And that’s why we cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of women’s history, because there are so many stories that go untold.

Alana: That was so beautiful.

Haley: That was mind blowing.

Lexi: Thank you! I am gonna leave in you guys calling it beautiful too!

Alana: That was incredible.

Lexi: I really thought about that really hard.

Alana: Holy shit!

Haley: I truly love that like all our stories had a moral like that the ending for Alana was also just like you have to face that you're a killer that's a no no and like Lexi here with mental health and then me being like it's not all black and white you’re both bad people!

Alana: Nuance and context is like my mantra these days.

Lexi: That’s academics.

Haley: Yes.

Alana: Nuance and context as academics.

Lexi As people who studied at a university. Oh my.

Alana: I have a bachelor's degree.

Lexi: Mhmm. Is this podcast just proof to your parents that you got a bachelor's degree?

Alana: No, they paid for it.

Lexi: They know.

Alana: They know.

Lexi: They suffered.

(Alana laughing)

Lexi: You can find this podcast on Twitter and Instagram at LadyHistoryPod. Our show notes and a transcript of this episode will be on lady history pod dot tumblr dot com. If you like the show, leave us a review or tell your friends, and if you don’t like the show, keep it to yourself.

Alana: Our logo is by Alexia Ibarra you can find her on Instagram and Twitter at LexiBDraws. Our theme music is by me, Garageband, and Amelia Earhart. Lexi is doing the editing. You will not see us, and we will not see you, but you will hear us, next time on Lady History.

[OUTRO MUSIC]

Haley: Next week on Lady History: we're going to be in the kitchen cooking up some great stories about famous women chefs and cooks alike.

Alana: WHERE WE BELONG.

Lexi: In the kitchen.

Alana: /s.

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violetbeachpod · 5 years

Text

1x02 / incorporeal girlfriend

CHARLOTTE:

Hello Violet Beach! Charlotte Cranor-Liu here to keep informing the general public–or, the not-general not-public–about how terrible everything is!

So! Let’s talk.

I’m Char, I’m sixteen, junior at the Corielli Academy For Creative Youths, and your new best friend. Unless, like, we’ve already met, in which case, you already know what I think of you.

So. Where to start? Cuz I got stories. Uh. At fight call today, I hit Andrew Meyer for real, which was pretty satisfying. Cuz he’s the worst? AJ high-fived me afterward, and actually told me where he worked? Which was super satisfying, cuz I got kicked out of the Starbucks for fighting in the alley by it? In fairness, the guy stole tips, it was–it was morally an obligation. But the assistant manager was like, “oh, but now he’ll sue us, and why did you claim to be an employee,” which, like, has she never heard of getting into character to add more feeling to a situation? He would be more likely to give it back if he thought he was stealing my money? Just—whatever. I needed a new coffee-source and now I have one.

But, anyway, AJ took me to the Bean Zone today, which, cool, I didn’t know they were even open. Neither did anyone else, though, I don’t think because it was empty. Which might also be because their coffee is kind of the worst? Still.

I kept AJ busy, though. He used his employee discount, so, I only paid, like, ten bucks total for my thirteen drinks. So. After I was properly caffeinated and his two-hour shift ended, which, I didn’t even know they did those, we started biking to his place, and he–he fell. And I got nervous, and I grabbed his arm to help him up once I was sure he was okay, and when I made contact, the–

Well, Teresa talked about this last time, but the sky went that gross purple color. And I assumed tehat–I assumed that the glow was because of us touching, so I let go, and then–I couldn’t.

And then the breeze that’s always there happened again. And we were back on the road, on our bikes, and we were pedalling. Like nothing happened.

And he said, like, uh, “Nice grip,” or something, and I nodded, because my grip’s pretty nice, and we were just, in, like, a really weirdass situation, so.

Anywho. So we went back to my place and my sister was all like, oh, wow, who’s this, your–censored rude term that disrespects AJ, who is, like, maybe my only friend–and so I yelled at her?

I mean. He’s not my only friend. I–he is.

Why can’t I say that I have other friends? Like–I’m trying to lie, right now.

Um. Okay. Cool. So.

We’ll get to that later.

But, anyway, I did scream at her, yes. Cuz she was an ass. As per ush.

So. Anyway. AJ and I went up to my room and started watching a bootleg of—y’know? If this, like, truth serum thing going on’s a thing, I’m not gonna try to name the show. Cuz it’s embarrassing. I wanted to—no. Okay.

Can’t lie! That’s—

Ugh! That’s so stupid!

Um. What else? I think I saw a ghost during photography today, but that’s just how the woods are sometimes. AJ and I broke into some asshole’s beach house back there for this week’s project, because last year the guy who owns it was a creep to me. But I think that maybe his house is haunted? Cuz there was this, like, weird mist in the living room right by the TV.

But again, that’s just how the woods are. I think. That’s not really my zone. But, of all places in this town to already be haunted? That’s, like, top thirteen spots, natch.

Also: Gregory And Janet Wilson Who Live In The Beach House Development In The Woods From May To September Every Year But Who Live In Virginia Otherwise left three spare keys under the lion statuette in their uglyass overgrown garden. So, there. Make of that what you will.

But. It’s a supernatural occurrence, or whatever you wanna call it, so I should put it on here. The ghost sighting. Not his key location. That’s–that’s just a thing that I know. Obvi.

The mist was, like–it was kind of all-consuming? Like, in that way that people are always all-consumed by beauty, but not really, because I was also having heart palpitations. Or something. Not really sure what heart palpitations are, but, uh. I was overwhelmed by the beauty but also? Very, very afraid of it. I felt like I was frozen in place, like I was being swallowed by it–

And then AJ said, “Are you okay?” and I snapped out of it. I asked him if he saw it, and he nodded, was like, “uh yeah, but, like, we could agree before entering that the woods are super haunted,” and I agreed, but, like, he didn’t seem to get the vibes that I did. Swear to god, I heard horror movie music behind me.

Uh. The Corielli board is meeting tonight, and I’m supposed to talk about the theater program, just–I don’t like talking in front of the PTA, because I don’t know any of their kids, like, logically, I should know their kids. There are maybe 200 people in the high school, and I know most of them. I know all of their faces.

But the Corielli board’s faces don’t look like anybody. Like, literally. I’ve talked at Corielli board meetings, like, seven times, and I cannot tell you what a single parent looks like.

Which might be supernatural happenings also? Nice.

[faux-excited]

Mystery! Intrigue! Cool!

[a pause, a sigh]

At least this truth-curse-or-whatever-the-hell-it-is has room for jokes. That’s, like, legitimately cool.

Um. So, I have to talk to the board tonight, and I think that’ll be—that—shit. Shit, it’s in ten minutes.

I’ll record more later.

[static, and a click. CHARLOTTE is out of breath.]

Okay, I’m back. I’m—holy shit.

So, I think the truth curse is off, but—like, obvi, I’m not gonna—I can promise that I’m not exaggerating.

So, the board. The board.

So, I think I said that they might be paranormal activity? They super are. I’m usually late, when I go to meetings? But I was on-time, and, uh, I was supposed to stay in the auditorium, but I went backstage to check on the set, but. Whatever. I was backstage. And so were they.

The board, I mean.

And they were—they were silent, in a circle, staring at each other. All of them. No one said anything, for a minute—like, I started timing a few seconds in, and it was at least seventy-seven seconds.

And one of them looked up, and just—feedback and sirens came pouring out of his mouth, like during an emergency when you’re watching TV or—

And he looked at me, blinked, and said, “Miss Cranor-Liu, you made it!” and he pushed through the circle, and nobody moved, just—and he grabbed my shoulders, and I wanted to—I wanted to hit him, to—

He just said, “The meeting’s cancelled, dear, didn’t you hear?”

I tried to take in his face, just cuz, and—nothing stood out to me.

And I tried to pull away, to hit him, to—to, like, kick him in his balls, or whatever, and my body just—it froze. And then there was that stupid purple again, and—

And I was outside. And I checked my email, and I didn’t get a cancellation notice, so—uh.

Something’s happening at Corielli. And, uh, I think—four or five of us went to Corielli, like, Teresa and Elaine def didn’t, and Benji, like—I’ve seen him on campus before, like, when I was in middle school, but also, I’m pretty sure he’s omnipresent, so. Who knows, with him. But the majority of us involved went to Corielli, so—like. That’s relevant, I think? Put it on your conspiracy board, next to the seven photos of Avril Lavigne and her dopplegangers. Use green yarn, for, like—for my sake. S’a good color for conspiracy theory boards that you never see anywhere.

I watch a lot of conspiracy theory videos, just to—to laugh at that. Also, they’re so consistent to me? So they’re very relaxing. Good to fall asleep to. Like, some folks need white noise or ASMR or whatever, but a good ol’ Andy Kaufman death hoax ten hour loop, y’know? Or, like, a Sondheim is multiple people one. It exists. You have to look hard for it, but, like, it almost convinced me that there are eighteen of him, so it’s worth it. I watched a seven-part documentary on the moon-landing thing when I was a kid, and that thing just, like—it got me so interested. I’m not crazy or anything. But this is ringing major documentary alarm bells. Maybe I can hit up some clickbait site and they can send folks over here to wrap a nice bow on this whole weird situation.

[beat]

Nobody’s gonna listen to this, like—and AJ’s the only person who’ll care, so, like, might as well talk on here.

Mae Babson the new transfer student is hot as hell. Like—I try not to have crushes, because they’re dumb, and they keep my eyes off the prize, which is to say, y’know. College. My art.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that feelings are pointless and that we’d be way better off without them, y’know? Especially when those feelings are for really dreamy girls who manage to look, like, at least 70 percent like she’s into girls, even though this is Corielli, so, like, she could be the straightest girl on earth, and also she’s weirdly nice, like—nicer than most people. And it’s kind of annoying how nice she is, like, she—she’s nice to everybody. Even to people who don’t deserve it.

But. Anyways. She’s super hot and I’m kinda sorta in love with her. Whatever. Rant over. I’ll edit that out.

So. Ghosts and mystery and intrigue. Woo.

Y’know, maybe Mae’s caught up in this mystery, actually, cuz—well, she only showed up after all that happened. Maybe she’s, like—maybe she’s a ghost. That’s the nightmare, honestly, being in love with a ghost. Like, second only to her being straight? Worst case scenario.

I could write a solid one act about being in love with a ghost and, like, protag comes to accept that she’s dead and is willing to make this work, but ghost girl’s like, “Oh, too bad, don’t like girls. Sorry, honey!” And that’s the plot twist. Sad ending. A tragicomedy for everyone.

But. Incorporeal Girlfriend and playwriting dreams aside, it is weird that she showed up, cuz—we never get new juniors, especially not midyear? So. It’s not entirely out there that she’s involved. Put her pic up next to the X-Files poster, connect ‘em with red yarn. For love symbolism.

Also, she’s like, otherworldly-ly attractive, so. That contributes to Benji’s alien theory. Also, Benji? I don’t care about your alien theory. Or that you wrote your thesis on aliens. Or that you—

Ugh. Just. The email thread is very long and you aren’t Agent David Duchovny On The X-Files I Don’t Know The Character Name But Oh Boy Do I Know Who David Duchovny Is. Also, use the goddamn group chat? Some of us don’t ever check our emails. And I know you’re gonna call me blasphemous or something for not knowing the X-Files guy’s name, which, yeah, I did that on purpose.

So, um, I was helping out the lighting designer—Ollie, the other day, because if the show looks like shit it’s my fault somehow, and they kept asking me about purple lights. I forgot about this, like—

Wait.

God, I can’t stop thinking about the board, actually. I don’t know why I didn’t say anything. I’m—I’m pretty self-aware, I would have said something. I’m me, for God’s sake, I would’ve said something half-charming and half-assholey, and then I would’ve been kicked out, and I would’ve, uh, maybe tried to pick a physical fight, and then—yeah. You know the deal. I told the Starbucks story earlier. I think—I think they somehow stopped me from saying anything, like—just like that force wouldn’t let me lie or let go of AJ’s hand or fight back—there’s always an inability to do something.

I swear, if this interferes with the show, I’ll fight God. Or whatever force is out there, like—I will press legal charges against fate or destiny or the passage of time or aliens or whatever the fuck. And also punch it.

The lighting designer stuff—that’s just me being paranoid, but the—the board, that’s real, and I’m scared as hell. I’m gonna—I’m gonna maybe do some recon, re: that, get those costume slash makeup design elective credits I’ve been trying for. I haven’t taken the class, because it’s seniors only and also because Ms. Dunkers hates me because her nephew accused me of selling him fake Rent tickets, which, I didn’t know they were fake, so, he can’t blame me, so she won’t let me in her classes anymore. She has explicitly told admin that “Miss Cranor-Liu is not to enroll in any of my electives no matter how much she complains to you.” So I asked admin, like, can I just do a bunch of independent studies, and I think they’re afraid of me? So they said yes.

Anyway.

I’m gonna sneak in on next week’s board meeting as an interested potential transfer student. Need an alias, and you know that it will be Faith Deathstrike. Which is an unfortunate last name, but a badass codename.

So. Uh. I’m signing off. Come to the show, week of February twentieth at the Corelli auditorium, and watch me get possessed by an actual ghost during my solo, or whatever. And if I get ritually sacrificed at the board meeting, now you know what led up to my disappearance! This is basically Serial, now, but in real time, right?

Anyway. Cool. Thanks. Bye.

#season one #script #charlotte

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thedenfantasyleague · 4 years

Text

The Den Weekly Fantasy Recap: Week 6

Gents,

We’re already into Week 6 of this season and a lot has happened. We’ve had to adapt, we’ve had to defend against Kurses, and we’ve had to make some name changes to spice things up. All this and we’re basically halfway from the finish line of the regular season. It’s about to get real.

Viking Quest v. 11-4-1 PVO

I’m sorry. I truly am. Dealing with some bye-week blues, I didn’t stand a chance against Dylan. Even with a 30 spot on my bench with Matty Ice (classic Falcons), I still wouldn’t have had a chance. I had three players meet their projections this week (Taylor, Moore, and Kelce) and the rest really couldn’t put up a fight. Another bye-week issue coming up but I can’t complain. I have to win. No excuses. Speaking of winning, congrats to Dylan. He came into this game tied for last place but was able to seal his second win on the season. Despite fumbling issues from Zeke, Dylan had 75+ points from three players alone: RoJo, Julio, and Kittle. Those alone beat me and the rest was just an insult. Dylan looks to continue his winning streak and create some distance between himself and the bottom.

Virginia Reel Rockets v. Team Timshel

Poor Al. Despite being our fourth higher scorer on the week, he ran into a week-leading Mike for a tough loss. Surprisingly, Al was able to score as much as he did with four (4!) players from the same team in his lineup. Unfortunately for him, only Kyler and Kirk had good enough games to get him some solid points. Mike also went with the teammate approach to his starting lineup and had nearly 70 points amongst Tannehill and Henry. Oh, and his kicker got 20 points. Mike’s team is starting to look good and getting into champion form.

Miami-Dade Matthews Band v. Kalabar’s Revenge

Yes, you are reading that correctly. In a battle of who loves Miami more (Scott and Vinny) the former went all out and changed his team name. In our lowest-scoring game of the week, Scott’s name change was in the aftermath of victory. Scott actually had only two players meet their projections Tim Patrick (who?) and Pats D. That’s it and yet he somehow pulled out the win. G had three players meet their projections but unfortunately, those were the only players he had in double figures. His biggest disappointments could be his Packers (Rodgers & Adams) who missed their projections by 23.5. They combined for 12.9 of which Rodgers had 3.8. Not great. G is going to need to shake off the bad juju before October ends because who knows what November will look like.

Wilmore Cinderella v. Fire Jarn

In the battle of bad-ballers, JP took on Rubbie, and just like basketball JP won. Again. How did JP shock the world? Well despite his RBs providing virtually nothing, he had big games from Deshaun, AJ, and Chase. Could JP return to championship-form or his destined to be Cabana Boy again? Speaking of Cabana Boy, the guy who doesn’t want to see JP as CB again gave him a victory he desperately needed. Robbie only had three players in double figures but only one of those actually met their projection on the week. Starting the wrong QB definitely didn’t help but that’s the risk of fantasy. Who is Rob this year? Is he reverting back to his old self or is getting a slow start to duplicate his solid season last year? Only time will tell.

Debbie Rowe v. The Perfect Ten

Jake knew going into this one he had a slim chance of winning. His prediction came to fruition this week as he lost by a solid thirty points to E. Jake’s bad vibes led his team to only having two players reach their projection on the week: his D and Clyde. Fun fact: Clyde is allergic to touchdowns. Another fun fact? Sure! If Jake starts Justin Jefferson and Bucs D this is a whole new conversation. Does JuJu deserve to be benched? Did he let his deep love for Rodgers blind him from playing a good D? Maybe. Maybe. E is slowly starting to look like a champion once again. He actually only had three players meet their projections: Conner, Fuller, Phins D. Luckily for him Fuller greatly surpassed his projection, and everyone really just pitched in. Are we concerned that E will win the league again and embarrass us all? Yes.

Mr. Magorium’s Mixon It Up v. Tua Days

Speaking of Miami, that team/city has been the hot topic of our league lately. In a battle of trash-talkers, Miami’s “own” won the battle of talk in a pretty convincing fashion. Gabe fell just shy of 80 points on the week and failed to have a player reach their projection on the week and his best player (Mixon it Up) scored 13.9 points. Unfortunately, he made the wrong play in leaving Swift on the bench but that still wouldn’t have been enough. Miami’s “own” had four players reach their projection including 28+ from Lamar and Kenyan and 11+ from Bears D and Raaaaaaaaandy (Vinny will get that one; Aziz, look it up). Oh, and Cooks scored 17+, a true shocker. Vinny is going to let his game do the talking and let’s hope that, for this year, his game will step up.

Week 7 Matchups

The Perfect Ten v. Viking Quest Kalabar’s Revenge v. Virginia Reel Rockets Fire Jarn v. Miami-Dade Matthews Band Tua Days v. Debbie Rowe Team Timshel v. Mr. Magorium’s Mixon It Up 11-4-1 PVO v. Wilmore Cinderella *Game of the Week*

Kurse

“Scott” - G the Medium

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theartintheblood · 6 years

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I was tagged by the wonderful @academicgangster

Rules: Tag 9 people you want to know better or just because you feel like it.

Relationship status: Single and thriving (I have very little time for my friends, and dating has never appealed to me enough to siphon off any of that already scarce resource).

Favorite color: I’m fickle in that a lot of colors appeal to me in different situations. My go-to is probably deep purple, black, and forest/hunter green.

Lipstick or chapstick: typically glossier lip balm but I wear lipstick maybe 20% of the time? (besame lipstick and the new Tom Ford Love Crime lipstick I got for christmaaasss)

Last song I listened to: Static Space Lover by Foster the People, came up on spotify. Before that, Gold on the Ceiling by The Black Keys or Buon Viaggio (Share the Love) by Cesare Cremonini.

Last movie I watched: The Fugitive (1993), I literally watched it NYE. Since NYE I haven’t seen any more movies because I’ve fallen back into a Rizzoli & Isles kick. (Fight me, @rostovs).

Top 3 TV Shows: Hannibal (to the surprise of no one), Star Trek (I’m most familiar with TOS. Catching up on Discovery now), Marvel’s Daredevil (Season 1 is maybe my favorite series about a superhero ever, rivaled only by Batman: The Animated Series in my heart).

Top 3 Characters:

Will Graham: NBC Hannibal, played by Hugh Dancy.

Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy: Played by Deforest Kelley in TOS and Karl Urban in AOS. I guess I have a thing for surly, dark-haired, southern transplants.

Lila Bard: all around badass in A Darker Shade of Magic series by V.E. Schwab.

Top 3 Bands: ehhhhhh. I’m bad at this.

- right now I’m still mainlining Saint Motel but I am by turns charmed by and annoyed by their aesthetic decisions. I love the 60s and 70s vibes but their personas can be irritating.

- Joywave

- Young the Giant

Books I’m reading: Right now I’m halfway through American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I’m almost halfway through Modern Art at the Border of Mind and Brain by Jonathan Fineberg for thesis research. Next book to read for fun will either be Andy Weir’s Artemis or a book on one of my all time heroes, SOE and OSS agent Virginia Hall.

tagging (if you want, no obligation, obviously) @cosmicnomad @everythingsheclaimed @rachel-jane-hamilton @princesschiyoh @sinnersandsapphics @zombeesknees @coquettish-murder-muffin @mixedbag @rostovs @hurricanenicki @thehayleyatwell

#about #about memes #tag memes

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doomedandstoned · 7 years

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A Walk Through The Graveyard with Dead Witches

~By Suzi Uzi~

(Doomed & Stoned Chicago)

When vocalist Virginia Monti (Psychedelic Witchcraft) and drummer Mark Greening (Electric Wizard, Ramesses, With The Dead) sparked a friendship year before last, we had a feeling that a collaboration was in the works. Our hunch was confirmed with the announcement of the fascinating new project DEAD WITCHES. Guitarist Greg Elk and bassist Carl Geary joined the crew shortly thereafter and the clock started ticking toward a debut record. Ouija is slated for release on the 10th of February 2017 via Heavy Psych Sounds, with the second single "Drawing Down The Moon" dropping over the weekend. We thought it high time to introduce the Doomed & Stoned readers to the masterminds fueling "the heaviest occult psych superbeast to see the light this year" and dispatched our newest contributor Suzi Uzi (who helms Chicago band Black Road) for a lively conversation with Virginia and Mark. At the conclusion of the interview, Suzi gives us a review of the album, so stick around! (Billy)

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Are you guys excited about releasing your new album together?

Mark: Yeah, totally.

Virginia: I think we are excited -- and it was really unexpected, because we didn't plan anything. We didn't plan to do an album or even really to do a band, so it's cool.

When did you guys form Dead Witches?

Mark: I don't know...

Virginia: Basically what happened was, he wanted to do something new because of his past experiences with bands and stuff like that. He wanted to do something really personal -- and he is still doing Ramesses -- but obviously he wanted to do something new. He kept saying, "Oh, we need to jam. We need to do something together," but I wasn't really a fan of Electric Wizard, unfortunately. When I met him, I didn't even know how he played! So when we actually jammed together, I was like, "Oh, you're actually really good!" He was like, "Uh, yeah..." and I really didn't know that! Back in Italy, I decided to write a couple of songs in Italy with a computer and a couple of friends, and I sent them back to Mark. Apparently he liked it, and that's when everything really started... isn't it?

Mark: Well, yeah, I just heard some of the demos that Virginia did and we just sort of decided to give it a go. I thought of some local lads I knew that would probably want to have a jam and do a band. We just sort of set to do it for a bit of fun, really, and we thought, "Yeah, this is sounding quite good." Then we obviously got in touch with Gabriele about putting out an album and, yeah, that's just sort of what happened.

Is this Gabriele Fiori?

Virginia: That's him! He is everywhere, isn't he?

Mark: Yeah, Heavy Psych Sounds.

Virginia: I thank Gabriele for coming from a country that's not really that into doom music, and not very into stoner music, either. I think Gabriele did amazing stuff with his label. It's grown up so much during these years. It is the best label in Italy and we are really happy to be with Heavy Psych.

Mark: Yeah, I mean we had a few different offers from record labels, but a lot of them were just going to be a bit too heavy and a bit too much of a commitment. We just sort of wanted to do this album and have a bit of fun with it, really, and not be locked down to "You need to do this" or "You need to do that."

Who originally had the idea for the band?

Virginia: I think the idea came from Mark, because he is a drummer and can write songs, but he just didn't have a guitar back then. So Mark wanted to do the band and I was the one who was more skeptical about it. The music was so much different compared to Psychedelic Witchcraft. I did the demos and wrote a few songs here and there, because I had been in his flat and was inspired. When he was at work, I was here alone listening to his music, being with the exorcist doll, and going to the graveyard down the street. I was just into his sort of inspiration and his sort of vibe, so I think the songs really reflect Mark's ideas a lot. Also, Mark came up with the name of the band. If I have to be fair, yeah, we did it together, but it's your inspiration, I think in my opinion.

Mark: Yeah, I guess so. (laughs)

Is it fun to experiment with new musical styles as you both influence one another's sound?

Virginia: I think during the years you always develop and you always grow as a singer or as a musician, so I really respect bands that stay current with their sounds. But then, on the other hand, it's even good to grow, change, and experiment with new things. That's what happened to me on my side, because for me it was totally new music. For him, he was actually doing his stuff, which feels like his sort of thing.

Mark: Well, yeah, I've always done sort of doom type of music, all a bit sort of doom and gloom. In the past I have wanted to do other styles of music, but I've always stuck to doom. I think if I did something a bit different, I'm not sure how people would take to it, to be honest. I've done other things in the past, sort of trying to do like '60s garage bands, because I'm really influenced by late '60s music and heavy psychedelic stuff, as well. It's quite strange, really, because I've never really listened to a massive great deal of doom. I mean, I've got my favorite doom bands, but I listen to a lot of stuff you probably wouldn't think I listen to.

Virginia: That's what inspired me most about him. He doesn't listen to heavy stuff. You like some stuff that I like, like psychedelic stuff and other things from the 70s. But then when it comes to the drumming and it comes to the music, he has his own interpretation, which I think makes everything a bit more winning. He's not actually trying to rip off anybody. He's just being himself and that was the most inspiring thing to me. It just comes naturally. That was great for me, and I think that really reflects the fact of heavy, but original. You can clearly feel the vibe we want to transmit from the songs.

Mark: I mean a lot of doom music sounds similar anyway, really. Some of the riffs and tempos of the songs and stuff. It's just a lot of other bands sound like any other band.

Virginia: Yeah, you know, it's sounding like a copy of the copy of the copy of somebody else. I don't say this in a mean way, don't get me wrong. I respect most of the bands that are out there, but as a musician I would say that I really like people that have their own inspiration and they have something to say. I think art is that: having something to say. Maybe you're not completely original, but you can feel it when there is honesty behind the music. I think that's what we are trying to say.

As I listened to your album and wrote out my review, one major feeling throughout was literally walking to, through, and then into a graveyard.

Virginia: I am very happy that you feel that. Me and Mark are kind of weirdos, like a sort of Addam's family. We like to go to the graveyard. We would go there at night. I like to play with Ouija boards. One of the songs on the album, "Ouija," I wrote during a séance with the Ouija board. I think the album themes really reflect that.

There are a lot of occult themes. Was this part of the feeling you had in mind while mixing the vocals, to "bury" them in the mix?

Virginia: Mark really helped. He played the organ, the keyboard. He was also there mixing my voice. We made sure it wasn't over the top.

Mark: We wanted the vocals to sort of sit a bit in the mix. We didn't want it to be too up-front, otherwise when you're listening all you would sort of be able to hear is the vocals. So we wanted the vocals to be more like an instrument.

Virginia: That is why chose to go with Heavy Psych. Gabriele let us go into the recording studio and do whatever we wanted to do. We didn't have any pressure from a manager or from another person saying to make the sound more polished or a certain way. We were actually free and that's amazing to have from a record label, I think.

Mark: Yeah, the studio where we recorded, Chuckalumba Studio with John, was the same I had worked in a few times with John on some Electric Wizard LPs. John knew what we were sort of after, the way we wanted to record, and the sound we were going for really. He was really great to help us out and mix it.

Virginia: It was literally a work of the whole band. We all sat down together and knew what sound we wanted.

Mark: The mixing was quite easy, really. We all knew what we wanted and just got on and did it. Sometimes mixing albums in the past become a complete nightmare.

Virginia: We were in there for four days in a row. This studio is super cool. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. There is no phone connection, no internet connection, just in the woods. We were there just doing the music. We recorded on tape, so nothing was digital. It was just one take and that's it. It was really a cool experience. Mark was used to that, because he'd been there before, but I never recorded on tape with vintage stuff and for me it was amazing.

Was that stressful to record on tape?

Virginia: A bit!

Mark: The only thing with recording on tape is there's no chopping. I mean, you can, but I don't know how you would do that. We just sort of have to get it right and just play it, and there you go. I prefer that way of recording. You get the best sound and a more vintage feel to everything.

Virginia: We obviously had our moments of difficulty, especially because I am not the easiest person to work with. I am a perfectionist and unfortunately have no filter. If something was bad, I was like, "This is shit! We have to do it again!" They were very patient to work with me -- very, very patient. He's a sweetheart, but I am really the bitch of the situation. At the end of the day it was a lot of fun.

Did the label have a hand in helping you to produce your album or was this more of a self-produced project?

Virginia: Gabriele said to just go into the studio and make the album. We did it all ourselves, we paid for it ourselves. Mark actually paid most of it. It was just us.

Mark: Gabriele was so laid back about stuff. He signed us really on just hearing one demo, I think. He was just really into it. He basically said we could do what we want with the record and send him a track while in the studio, just so he could hear how it was sounding. We sent him one song and he thought it sounded great. He just let us get on with it, really, with no pressure.

Virginia: It was a lot of fun. We were very professional in the studio. (laughs) When it came my turn to do the vocals, they left me alone and were drinking. On the last song, I was a bit drunk on the album, actually!

Mark: Very, very professional!

Do you guys have any plans to do gigs or tour at all in the future?

Mark: We haven't done any shows yet, it's early days really. I'm getting on a bit now, so I don't want to be doing too many long tours or anything like that. It would be nice to play a few festivals and maybe a short tour. It would be nice to do a few shows here and there. I'd definitely like to record a second album, as well.

Virginia: I don't think we will ever go on a big three-month tour, but we are looking forward to doing that.

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Track-by-Track:

A Review of Ouija by Dead Witches

From the moment the "Intro" track starts, anticipation ensues. You hear sounds of a storm. Rain drops heavily fall as thunder rumbles, leading way to the heavy bass played by Carl Geary. A church organ creeps in and creates a spooky feeling. Suddenly, it's as if you're heading toward a graveyard or some ominous place where spirits await. The guitar, played by the late Greg Elk, has an amazing tone that creates a harmonious sensation with the organ, as well as big chord power. Vocalist Virginia Monti’s distorted echoes are intriguing throughout the album.

Track two: "Dead" has a straightforward groove, accented by solid drums and that always-present and recognizable ride cymbal, played by Mark Greening, that carries us through the whole song. The beginning guitar riff reminds us we’re listening to a band with members who have spent years honing their sound, and know exactly what they want. The vocals are like an evil, twisted taunt. Buried within the mix, clearly Dead Witches is producing their own take on something we have all grown to love. The guitar and bass create the perfect fuzzy feeling for Virginia's powerful, over-driven vocals. The song ends just as strong as it began.

Track three: "Drawing Down The Moon" is heavy! Virginia sounds possessed and wanting revenge. Her voice growls over giant guitar chords and fuzz-laden bass. "Sacrifice the blood" echoes throughout the song. This album truly feels as though this trip through the graveyard already took a wrong turn, in the best sort of way. The drums really showcase the quality of the recording and mixing of Ouija. This song has a great tempo that picks up near the end and gets you pumped for the next track.

Track four: "Ouija" slows down the chaos just a bit, with a demonic and psychedelic groove feeling. Vocal verses give way to bluesy and trippy guitar leads, effectively executed with simplicity. This song is like a carnival ride, going slow and sludgey, then suddenly picking up, only to slow right back down. The musicianship for each member shines throughout this track. Having a deadly, repeating vocal hook ensures this song will definitely be stuck in your head!

Track five: "Mind Funeral" had one of my favorite vocal melodies. It pairs perfectly with the guitar and bass to sound even more evil. This band has really found a way to capture darkness, celebrating a "funeral of the mind." The lyrics get stuck in your head and keep you coming back to listen again and again. The main riff slays, creating its own story –- as if you’re running from some invisible, ominous pursuer, perhaps Dead Witches or "the spirits that haunt your soul"?

Track six: "A World Of Darkness" starts with only Mark's super solid drums for a few measures. The guitar and bass join in for the final track of the album. After a spooky old movie quote, the riffs begin as heavy as ever. Virginia gives us the realization of just how hopeless it is, and there is "no way back" from this graveyard trip. The vocal melody is beautiful, yet tortured. The fuzz and cymbal crashes ring out and the song picks back up with drums to continue the spell of the Dead Witches. This song has many great drum parts to really display Mark's versatility. The album ends, leaving you wanting more.

Overall, Ouija has everything you would hope for in a great doom album. The occult themes are prevalent in every song, as well as the bleak and dark side of life and death. Virginia simply wrote about what she was feeling at that point, based on the things she had been exposed to and interested her. "I spent a lot of time in Mark's flat alone. I would walk to the graveyard near his place and take pictures, and get inspiration... Dead Witches is really a lot of Mark's ideas and influence."

I think we can expect great things from this band. The psychedelic elements and influences of each member of Dead Witches gleam through and come together in this album. Pairing great pals with seasoned musicians from already established, amazing acts, this band was already doomed to succeed right from the start. The members’ experience shows in the sense of urgency put forth to record, produce, and release this album, despite challenges. Recorded with John Chuckalumba at Chuckalumba Studios in the U.K., the band had creative freedom with Ouija and allowed their passion into the music, without worrying about a record label creating boundaries. Although Mark mentioned he has "always done doom music, but never listened to a massive great deal of doom," this album is one for the doom record books.

Ouija is scheduled for release on February 10th via Heavy Psych Sounds.

Get it here.

#D&S Interviews #D&S Reviews #Dead Witches #Doom #Metal #Occult Rock #Horror #Mark Greening #Virginia Monti #Heavy Psych Sounds #Suzi Uzi #HeavyBest17 #Doomed & Stoned

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machinehead · 7 years

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THE MILLION WOMAN MARCH

The Million Woman March

Yesterday morning I got up at 5:30AM to take the 90 minute drive to California’s (aka: Dumbfuckistan’s) capitol city of Sacramento and join my dad, and two cousins Alice and Virginia, and their daughters in The Million Woman March. It was just one of the over-600 sister-marches to the main march in Washington DC, happening around America and the world to protest the incoming president, and he and his cabinet’s disturbing 1930’s-era ideology regarding women’s rights, women’s livelihood, women’s protection from rape and domestic abuse, and a womens’ choice to have birth control and safe, legal abortions.

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Sister marches happened in Melbourne, London, Belgium, hell the even had a small march in Antartica! Spurred on by both Alice and Virginia, whom I credit with organizing our trip, my dad and I met up at a Target nearby to caravan to the march which started at a park. I brought my camera along primarily to document in both photographs and video this journey they were embarking on. It was my first-ever march against, well, anything, so I felt it would absurd to document something about me. But both my dad and cousins have been participating marches since the 70’s.

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My dad, who is a military veteran that served 3 years in the army between Korea and Vietnam, got out of the army, took a long, hard look at what was going on, and, appalled by what he saw, decided to grow his hair, start smoking pot, and march against the Vietnam war. He marched for civil rights, he marched for women’s rights in the 80’s. He just turned 80 years old last week, and told me there was no way he was missing this march. My cousin’s all growing up in some of the roughest parts of 70’s-era Oakland, would join him on these sometimes-violent marches, and have continued to do so well into their 50’s, and now bring their daughters along. Their youngest brother (my cousin) Ronnie is gay and they’ve participated in gay rights marches as well. It made me wonder if my other gay cousins were marching as well? Cause really, doesn’t everyone have a gay cousin or three?

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5 years ago my cousin Virginia was stuck down with Guillian Barré Syndrome, and rare and horrible syndrome whereby within a 48 hour period, she went from being completely healthy, to having flu like symptoms, to not being able to get out of bed, to being completely paralyzed from the neck down. That paralyzation lasted for well over a year. And while she has recovered enough to walk and live a somewhat normal life, she still can’t really walk only 1,000 feet or so before needing a break. Not that she’d ever let that stop her.

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She has to be one of the most positive people I’ve ever known, a teacher of disabled students who in a strange, ironic twist has become disabled herself… man, watching her load out her wheelchair to participate in a mile long march, was no small bit of inspiration. I sat there thinking what a wuss I was was for himmin’ and hawin’ the night before about getting up early, asking myself “should I just got to the march in Oakland that’s way closer?”. Here was a woman who couldn’t walk a thousand feet, who drove an hour from Stockton, determined to stand up (by sitting down) for what she believed.

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"REFUSE, RESIST"

I wouldn’t say it was a party atmosphere, but the vibe was upbeat and peaceful, with a cross-section of people from most walks of life. 3 generations of women in the form of grandma’s, mothers, and daughters was the largest group, fathers and daughters, fathers and sons. Men were the 2nd largest group standing in solidarity with wives, and sisters, and girlfriends. Veterans For Peace, Millennials For Peace, a huge swath of the Sacto/Nor-Cal LGBT community there, and numerous “movements” empowering women with names like “Nasty Women” and “Pussy Power”. Some carried subtle signs like “this *kitty symbol* bites back” while other women just didn’t give a fuck, with “this pussy bites back”, and “don’t tread on my pussy”. I thought it was it was symbolic that much like black people before them, they had taken a word used to denigrate them, and turned it around to make it their rallying cry.

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We gathered at the park where close to 5,000 had already arrived, and over the next hour the numbers continued to multiply. It seemed like every man there was carrying a sign as well, “I’m with her” (with 20 arrows pointing to the women around them), “Dissent is not un-American”, “Another straight man for gay rights”, and I even saw a nod to Sepultura with a “Refuse Resist” sign. With that said though, at least in Sacramento, there was a disappointing lack of 20 to 40 year old metal-heads of any sort. Other than that one sign I didn’t see a single metal t-shirt or metal back-patch. Maybe they were incognito, maybe they felt hopeless/ depressed and didn’t feel like marching would make a difference, or maybe (judging by the enormous amount of hate I received from previous journals/songs), most rock and metal fan’s support Trump and think this is bullshit. But it seemed like every other conceivable walk of life was in attendance, 20-something-millennial’s, business people, hippies, straight women, gay women, gay men, long-haired skater dudes, hip hop fans, and an incredible array of older folks in the 60 to 80 year old range. Black, White, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern.

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We marched alongside the thousands of people lining the streets, while a drum core played nearby. The women’s groups all yelled various chants like “What do we want? Women’s rights! When do we want it? NOW!”. My dad, cousins and I pushed Virginia’s wheelchair through the raucous crowd and we eventually arrived at the capitol building. Local Police, (used to many Free Speech events), were supportive to all in the march, and deserve a special shout out for directing everything in organized, timely, even welcoming manner. Funneling into the main square in front of the capitol building, it was much more obvious how huge the march actually was. At the end of it, a large LED screen showed video of the crowd, with a PA that was blasting out hip hip, dance music and dubstep, (rock music was noticeably absent, though frankly unsurprising since it no longer dominates popular culture like it once did).

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"pre-existing condition"

Speaking to the crowd, the mayor pointed out that there were 20,000 people, and after taking far too long thanking the various representatives for showing up (too which the crowd began to grumble) the mayor surprised everyone and gave a scathing indictment of our president over his “grab ‘em by the pussy” comments. At least in the limited capacity I’ve paid to politicians I’ve never heard an elected official speak so harshly. The audience “boo-ed” as expected, and there were times when it all felt like he was “playing-to-the-crowd” a bit, but as other less exciting, less well-spoken and downright boring speakers, came up, you kinda saw what it takes to get someone to put their phones down and have 20,000 folks pay attention. After a couple hours of good to bad speeches a lady came up, and began speaking. She represented the Women’s Janitor of California and as she slowly began talking about the uncomfortable subject matter in her speech, it became very clear she was a powerful speaker.

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She spoke about women and rape. In unflinching terms she detailed the alarming amount of rapes that happens in the late-night, janitorial business which is primarily made up of immigrant women most of whom don’t speak english. She spoke in simple, graphic detail to the 1000’s of people there in attendance abut these victims, of her own horrifying rape in a bathroom at the hands of a superintendent, who upon seeing her arrive said, “finally, they sent a nice piece of ass to clean up around here”. As her voice raised, often trembling with emotion, you could hear a pin drop as the marchers went silent. She spoke of how she was able to report her rape to the police as she spoke some english, but that often times despite interpreters at stations, most of the women she represents, just get too scared and don’t file charges. She spoke of her frustration with getting the Union on board to help, telling her “it wasn’t a union issue, it was a workplace issue”. She fought the workplace, who told her “it was a union issue, not a workplace issue”. And she spoke of how eventually the union decided to back her, and make it a top priority to fight for the women they represent.

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For a good 15 minutes I stood there in rapt attention. Many in the audience were crying listening to this brave and powerful woman, I myself could barely hold tears back. Soon emotions flooded me of my own experiences being molested. As anyone who has followed the band, I spoke/sang semi-openly about what happened me when I was 5 years old, as with the song “Five” off of 1999’s The Burning Red. Hearing her opened a wound deep inside me, and despite nearly 20 years of therapy that I’ve gone through (which has helped me greatly) the act of listening to this woman’s courage in front of some many hit me like a punch to the gut. It made me think about me own complicated relationship with women. Having joined a band when I was 17, mainly for the love of music, but like the late-great Lemmy always said, “you join a band to get laid, and anyone who tells you different is a liar”. And it’s true.

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I couldn’t really get laid in much of any capacity til I was in a band. I had no game, no pick lines, I was too introverted and clumsy to approach girls. Hell, every girl I’ve ever been with has approached me! But after being in a band for a while I became a bit of a Lothario. I was single, or single-ish, but I always felt lucky when girls approached me. Fuck, I was just stoked to have girls talking to me, let alone wanting to have sex with me! And again, more of Lemmy’s words stuck with me all these years later. The Motorhead frontman and legendary ladies-man always said, “you never kiss-n-tell, you respect the women your with, it’s a privilege to be with them, even if it’s just for one night, it’s a privilege”. And he was right.

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I remembered being a 20-year old punk trying to brag/exaggerate to my cousin’s how many girls I’d been with, at a get together at my Grandma’s house. To my shock, my Grandma overheard me, and just FLIPPED OUT on me! “You think your sooooo cool, don’t you Meho? Sleeping with all these women? Your grandfather over there used to cheat on me all the time, treat them like shit, treat me like shit, is that the kind of man you’re going to be!!??”

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My grandfather sat there speechless. I stood there speechless. Those words cut like a knife.

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And while I was single for several years after that, I always remembered what she said.

You treat women with respect. “No” means “no”. And really, who wants to have sex with someone who isn’t into it anyway? It takes all the enjoyment out of it. For me, it’s a turn off. It brought up my previous relationships, when I was a dysfunctional 20-somthing year old, addicted to speed. My girlfriends at the time getting pregnant, we were both completely unfit to have kids or be parents, both strung-out on crank and pills as we were. I’m so glad we had the option to have a safe and legal abortion. Shit, we had 4 abortions.

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picture All this was going through my head listening to this woman speak in front of thousands of people.

I thought of my wife, and her horrible experiences growing up, alcoholic/heroin junkie father, chaotic homelife) but I also it reminded me of how lucky I am to have her in my life. Genevra and I just celebrated 25 years together. Not married, but together.

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I’d be lying if I said it was all roses, and I have no idea how it’s lasted this long. Most of it has been harder then anyone could imagine, there’s been more arguing then good times, and the days of wild sex on the hood of a car in the street at 2 AM while drunk are loooooong gone. It’s not uncommon to go for 2 months without it if were not getting along. Sometimes the only thing holding us together is the kids. Sometimes all that holds to together are our routines and the fact that we’re good team. Sometimes were not even friends. Love can turn to “like” real quick after all that time. But when it’s good, it’s so good. She is the strongest person I know. I wouldn’t be the man I am today without her in my life. I wouldn’t have the respect I have for women today without her. As I listened to this amazing woman finish up her incredibly emotional speech, I sat there with my mouth quivering holding back tears. A young lady walked by holding a sign that said, “rape survivor… and were not going back to the good ol’ days”. That was it. I broke. Tears poured.

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My manager and Trump supporter asked me why I was going to march, “not sure what protesting is gonna do, what are you hoping to accomplish”. At the time I didn’t really even have an answer. At the beginning of the march, my cousin asked me the same thing, “why are you here Robert?”. I didn’t really know… And still don’t know if I know. But something about that moment, was what I didn’t know I needed.

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Maybe it’s because I’ve felt completely numb and disengaged to whats going on lately. I haven’t been able to write a journal for months, and I’ve been on a 3 month social media detox. Like most folks, I found myself too addicted that little hit of dopamine we get every time seeing the number of likes or comments. Putting up yet another selfie to the world? WHY? Every time I went to post something I just thought, “what the fuck for!?” Who fucking cares. This is not important. I’ve gotten all your emails and comments about writing more Journals, thanks. Lots of “I need your journals, they help me make sense of the world,” and while I appreciate that… I can’t even make sense of the world right now, let alone help YOU make sense of it. None of what’s going on makes sense, none of it is normal, in my 49 years on earth I’ve never seen anything like it. What’s going on is insanity, and like the advice a good buddy gave me during the whole Anselmo/nazi/death threats fiasco, “You just gotta plant your truth and stand by it. Go ahead, let ‘em call you a hypocrite, let ‘em try and find some 20 year old quote or a picture to "catch you”… so they can say “gotcha!” and “prove” that your an asshole.” And he was right. You live long enough, and you’ll be an asshole. I’ve been one plenty of times. Had to apologize for it plenty of times. Just be grateful you haven’t lived your life in the public eye for the last 30 years, had most of your privacy stripped away for the last 30 years… because we ALL act like an asshole. Why was I there yesterday? To feel again.

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Yesterday made me engage again, forced me out of my self-imposed exile. I’m re-engaging to The General Journals, reengaging to social media, but not in the same way. I’ll do Journals, I’ll post on Instagram/Twitter occasionally, but I need boundaries, and I need it mean something. The march felt good to know that there were a lot of people that felt the same way. To know that America isn’t full of “American carnage”, but American belief. That there are A LOT of pissed off people out there who disagree with (amongst many other things) those who use and abuse their fame to “grab ‘em by the pussy”. And while I can’t speak for the dead, I’m pretty damn sure Lemmy would have been appalled by that sentiment. Women are fucking pissed. This ain’t the 50’s anymore. As one sign read, "Bitches don’t fuck around nowadays”. Standing with those women and men, reminded me of how short I have left on this earth. I’ll be 50 this year. What have I got… maybe 20 years left? I’m in a mid-tier-level metal band, not one of the biggest, not one of the smallest, and while certainly one of the greatest, we will be forgotten just like so many of the bands of yore. In the end, history won’t remember Machine Head. History will remember The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Springsteen, maybe AC/DC, probably Metallica. And then 3 or 4 rappers (Snoop, Jay, Wayne, Em). Some country, some pop (Taylor, Beyonce, Drake). And that’s it. How many Classical composers have been forgotten? Hell, recorded music only dates back 70 years, it’ll will end soon too. It already is. We’re all going to be forgotten, much sooner than anyone would like to think. And we should be. The past is an anchor. I spoke to an 80 year old woman who remembers what it was like when women couldn’t vote. She thanked the protests and marches of the women suffragettes in the 1930’s, that allowed her and other (white) women to finally able to vote. Black women came much later. Think about that…? A woman couldn’t vote, only men could. That’s why I marched. Because no change happens without action. And while I may be forgotten soon, I was a tiny part of the largest protest in American history. And that change will far outlast the music I’ve made. Like the sign read: “Power To The Pussy”.

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juju61268-blog · 7 years

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Planes, Trains, and Automobiles to the Women’s March on Washington By, Julie M. Casey

It’s 10:00 a.m. on Friday, January 20th, yes Inauguration Day. After a two and a half hour car ride north from my hometown of Bloomington, Illinois, I am currently sitting at a terminal in O'Hare Airport in Chicago waiting for a flight to take me onto Washington, D.C. I am not going to the inauguration or any of its other celebratory events, rather my purpose for this trip is to attend the Women’s March on Washington tomorrow. A Civil Rights protest which took me less than two seconds upon hearing the announcement of its birth to arrive to the decision of attending. My plans were immediately put in motion without a moment’s hesitation. In less than an hour I had called my friend Betty Romero who lives in Virginia to tell her “We are going!”. Then proceeded to put in my time off and booked my flight. I’ve not felt so sure about the importance of something regarding my gender in a very long time. In the weeks leading up this historical event I was constantly being struck day after day with the reality of women’s Civil Rights literally being plucked from our very wombs one by one. Did they not think we were taking notice? Had they banked on us just standing in our kitchens, presumably barefoot and pregnant, as they began tossing the Constitution with all of its amendments in the GOP’s conveniently hidden paper shredder? The very thought of a group of men making decisions about my body was almost as painful as the labor leading up to the births of both of my daughters over twenty-plus years ago. These rights that I had somehow comfortably taken for granted were now in clear and present danger of literally being aborted. I’m a bit tired today because I was unable to sleep last night. Not because of fear of the what ifs regarding tomorrow’s protest, no, I couldn’t sleep because of the excitement and pride in knowing so many women from all around the country and beyond coming together as one to say “No, we will not allow this!”. My hero Gloria Steinem once said “Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That’s their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood.” Indeed, her words are the premise for this march. Finally, Saturday, January 21st has arrived! Betty and I along with her daughter Lily and best friend Bisma are taking the Metro out of the Franconia-Springfield station into the Capitol . The sea of people is massive. Thousands and thousands waiting in line to go into D.C.. Lots of pink hats, signs, and best of all positive energy amongst this crowd. Happily surprised to see so many men joining in on this history in the making! And the children, the very reason we need to be taking a stand now so it’s not completely destroyed for them. It is an anxious wait, but an incredibly enriching one. My friends and I are meeting people from all over this beautiful country. One remarkable lady stood out, Carol Saft from Manhattan, New York. She is here with a group from We Make America. Carol is a retired teacher and artist. After sharing our reasons for marching, and exchanging our Facebook information so we can keep in contact, Carol brings all four of us these beautiful hand-painted cardboard torches to carry in the march. Finally after a nearly three hour wait we have boarded. Looking like sardines packed in a tin can, everyone is still in an almost euphoric positive vibe. A family of proud Trump supporters from Arkansas are tucked inside the car overflowing with marchers. The mutual respect between us is refreshing. The obvious question of “Why Trump?” was asked, their answer was simply “We are just a hard-working family of farmers and don’t want to lose what we have.” No one argued their reasoning, I think the majority of us want the best for this country, but some choose to focus on specific issues while others, including myself are eyeing the bigger picture. So understandably we are going to have different opinions. We’ve arrived at our destination. We begin to make our way to the designated route. To say the sheer magnitude of the number of participants is mind-blowing is an understatement. After a year of feeling increasingly frightened for our future, I am suddenly overcome with this intense sense of hope. That feeling seems to be mutually shared amongst this crowd of a half million beautiful human beings of every creed and color, from babies to a woman in a wheelchair holding a sign on her lap that exclaimed today is her 100th birthday, Attempting to break out of our shells, our small group timidly tried to start a chant, we began to laugh and I joked “No one is listening to me!”, suddenly a young girl, I’m guessing about seven, turned around clinging tightly onto her handmade sign and looking me right in the eye says “I’m listening.”. A prophetic moment to say the least. Two words spoken from a child’s lips had more meaning than an entire year of rhetoric from a 70 year old man who is now the leader of this country. Will today make a difference? I whole-heartedly believe so! Will we be met with strong resistance? Absolutely, but we are ready for battle! Do we need to “Make America Great Again”? No, we are already great, we just need to make America whole again!

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alanjguitar · 4 years

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The Best Electric Guitars For Playing in Church

When you play praise and worship music, you want to sound your best and give your all to elevating the congregation in joyous celebration.

You want to be able to stay grounded in the holy moment without worrying about your tone and tuning and your cramping hands.

You don’t need a multi-thousand dollar guitar to keep up with the rest of your rocking praise band, but it’s important that you have a reliable axe that isn’t going to slip out of tune mid-song or be so uncomfortable to play that you’re praying for salvation by the start of the second verse.

Our Recommendation

For under $500, my favorite guitar in this category is the Fender Offset Series Mustang, offering a Strat/Tele fusion tone in a vintage style body, nothing too flashy but all you need for clean, crisp chords and silky smooth solos. It trumps the Epiphone SG Special, whose strong tonal characteristics are somewhat diminished by the unreliability of the Epiphone electronics.

Overall, the number one contender on this list is the PRS SE Custom 24, in which its solid maple/mahogany construction, dual humbuckers, and sturdy tremolo are capable of a huge range of tonal variations, from soft and sweet rhythms to incredible sustain-filled solo work.

Whatever your budget, here you can find an ideal choice of the best electric guitar for worship and all other areas of your life that demand pristine performances.

The 7 Top-Rated Electric Guitars for Worship Music – Overview

#7 Epiphone SG Special

youtube

3.5/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Mahogany

Neck – Mahogany

Fingerboard – Indian Laurel

Electronics – 650R Humbucker neck pickup and 700T Humbucker T bridge pickup

Pros

Affordable SG model based on the Gibson original

Punchy tones for powerful performances

SlimTaper “D” neck profile for speedy riffage

Cons

Ground wire can become loose with major bumps and bangs

All mahogany muddiness inhibits crisp chords

Review

Although this is the lowest ranked guitar on this list, I’ve seen the Epiphone SG Special in the hands of several worship band guitarists, from my own church band in high school years, to my friend’s current praise band in a West Virginia megachurch, to worship services at Christian rock festivals and live-streamed praise music across the U.S.

I first fell in love with SG models after seeing School of Rock, and since then it’s remained one of my favorite electric guitars. It’s not so much something you want to use to highlight your group’s rhythm section, but when utilized correctly, in can add an immense amount of oomph and power to your band’s pre-chorus buildups.

Outside its rhythm capabilities, the SG Special is a great guitar for high end licks, with the top frets never singing shrill but rather soaring in like the precision strike of a skydiving raptor. Want to learn to get the most out of this guitar by soloing like a pro? Check out our how-to solo guide here.

The main drawback of all Epiphone electric guitars is the hastily configured electronics; a lot of the time they just don’t hold up, leaving you with the issue of crackles and pops when you turn the tone knobs, and at worst totally disabling your pickups. It’s not a problem without a fix, but you’ll need to factor in the need for electronics repairs to the overall cost of this guitar.

Nonetheless, if you’re a player on a tight budget, the Epiphone SG Special is one of the best options available to get you rocking without draining your savings.

#6 Ibanez S 521

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4/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Meranti

Neck – Maple

Fingerboard – Jatoba

Electronics – Dual Quantum humbuckers

Pros

Super fast, thin Wizard III neck

Light meranti body reduces player fatigue

Quantum humbuckers emphasize bass response, pumping up the low and mid range tones

Cons

Nontraditional body and fingerboard woods

Susceptible to feedback due to light body construction

Lacks tone controls for separate pickups

Review

Ibanez has been one of my favorite brands since I started playing guitar, in part because I’m a huge Steve Vai fan, but mostly because their guitars are just so fast and fun to play.

The Ibanez S521 is versatile enough to perform in nearly every genre, but for worship music specifically you’ll be delighted with its treble heavy rhythm capabilities. With a bit of chorus effect on a clean tone, open chords on the S521 sing like a choir of angels.

Unless you’re in a really unusually rockish praise band, you probably won’t be doing a ton of shredding, but if the opportunity does arise, there’s no better neck to rage away on than those made Ibanez. The Wizard III neck on the S521 is sleek, slim, super fast design made with sturdy maple, great for quick riffs or comfortable chord work in any genre.

Without being too biased, I’ll mention that I like my guitars a bit on the heavier side — something to do with the denser wood imbuing a sense of higher quality. In this regard, I’m not a huge fan of the light meranti body of this Ibanez. But if you’re a smaller-framed guitarist or just someone who doesn’t want several kilos of wood weighing down your shoulders for hours at a time, you’ll find the S521 light enough to reduce fatigue yet solid enough to feel like a perfectly reliable axe. You can learn to further reduce playing fatigue with these handy tips.

#5 Squier Classic Vibe ’70s Telecaster Thinline

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4.5/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Soft Maple

Neck – Maple

Fingerboard – Maple

Electronics – Dual Fender Wide Rang Humbuckers

Pros

Semi hollow maple body delivers beautiful full-bodied chords

All maple construction for crisp rhythms and funky leads

Dual humbuckers for crunch when you need it

Cons

Cheap tuning machines that can cause tuning slippage

Desperately needs a setup

Review

In the Under $500 range, it was hard choosing the number one spot between this Telecaster Thinline and the guitar that ultimately claimed the win. To be fair, it was really a tie.

The Squier Classic Vibe ’70s Telecaster Thinline is an amazing guitar for worship music, especially if your role in the group is the main rhythm guitarist. Its semi-hollow body sings out chords with perfect clarity and depth, sounding almost more like an extra bright acoustic than an electric guitar.

Whether your group focuses on mellow tunes or upbeat praise pop, the all maple Thinline Tele shines with a prominent voice in all playing styles. Based on Fender’s vintage 1972 Thinline model, Squier keeps it real with the lightweight body, dual humbuckers for added sonic depth, and retro style headstock and bridge. You can read about the interesting history and evolution of the Telecaster in this article by Fender.

This guitar is great for any genre ranging from totally clean sonnets to slightly dirty punk praise and has a pretty solid sound from the low to high end.

My only complaint is with the tuning machines, which can really use an upgrade. However, they’re not necessarily a deal-breaker, and if you’re feeling up to the task, changing them out yourself can add an important and useful repair skill to your guitarist toolbox.

#4 Fender Offset Series Mustang

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4.5/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Alder

Neck – Maple

Fingerboard – Maple

Electronics – Dual Mustang single coil pickups

Pros

Crisp leads and fat rhythms in a solidly constructed rocker

Comfortable “C”-shaped neck profile for hours of fatigue-free playing

Fender Mustang single coil pickups for true sonic superiority

Cons

A bit on the heavy side for smaller players

Unusual offset body shape might be unattractive for more conventional guitarists

Review

Fender’s Mustangs are maybe more well-known as bass guitars, but that doesn’t keep the Offset Mustang electric from being one of the finest instruments you can find for under $500.

Your congregation will find nothing to bemoan in its classic Fender tone, which in the Offset Mustang falls beautifully in the middle between a Strat and Telecaster sound.

The only guitar under $500 on this list without humbucker pickups, this Fender Offset Mustang is perfect for clean rhythm work and joyful lead riffs. Its solid alder body keeps it feedback free and reduces the buzz you’d expect to encounter from dual single-coils.

The Offset Mustang was originally introduced as a short-scale beginners guitar, but over the years has come to be known as a great instrument for anyone looking for crisp tones with a comfortable playing range.

There are no major problems with this guitar at all. It’s surprisingly affordable, and can suit your needs as a guitarist both in your church performances and anywhere else the music takes you.

#3 Fender Deluxe Roadhouse Stratocaster

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4/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Alder

Neck – Maple

Fingerboard – Maple

Electronics – 3x Vintage Noiseless Single-Coil Strat pickups

Pros

3 single coil pickups with

Super versatile tone controls including 6-way rotary switch with onboard preamp

Stable-tuning tremolo bridge for funky bends and squeals

Cons

Synthetic bone nut decreases sonic performance

Review

You might be thinking, “Geez, another Fender?” I almost am too, but for the best electric guitars for worship music they’re truly hard to beat.

That’s because Fender’s have long been known for their brightness and clarity and amazing rhythm attributes. Fender has long been one of the leading guitar manufacturers, and when you get above the $500 price point, you really start to see the scope of their quality.

The Deluxe Roadhouse Stratocaster is one of the most tonally versatile guitars I’ve seen. You can play this electric through the cheapest most basic amp and still be amazed by the range of tones you can get just with a flick of a switch and a turn of a knob.

There are three single coil pickups in the Deluxe Roadhouse, which might leave you worried about undue buzz during quieter moments. But, with the special Vintage Noiseless Fender design, they stay quiet even when you’re silently waiting through a bassline to kick in to the mix with your part.

It’s a great guitar all around, ready to rock out with clean to distorted rhythms or tear through the noise with high-vibe leads.

#2 Epiphone Les Paul Standard PlusTop Pro

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4.5/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Mahogany with AAA Flame Maple Top

Neck – Mahogany

Fingerboard – Pau Ferro

Electronics – ProBucker-2 humbucker in the neck position and ProBucker-3 humbucker in the bridge position

Pros

Coil-tapping feature for versatile tones

True-to-form Gibson LP remake

Beautiful Flame Maple top

Cons

Tone can be a bit muddy

Review

This is one of my favorite guitars period. There aren’t many electrics available at such an affordable price with even a fraction of the quality of the Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus Top Pro.

It barely breaks the under $500 price range, being the lowest-priced guitar in our under $1000 category, but it’s a top contender for the best guitar on this entire list.

For worship music, you’ll love the rhythms you can crank out with this Epi LP’s emphasis on the low and mid-ranges. It might not be the best guitar for bright poppy progressions due to mahogany’s inherent muddy warmth, but it fits well in the mix of any size praise group.

The coil tapping mechanism gives you a huge amount of control over your tone, essentially allowing you to turn your dual humbuckers into single coil pickups, which can help if you need to bring your brightness up a bit.

If this guitar has grabbed your attention like it did mine, you can take a look at our in-depth review of the Epiphone Les Paul Standard PlusTop Pro here.

#1 PRS SE Custom 24

youtube

5/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Mahogany with Beveled Maple and Flame Maple Top

Neck – Maple

Fingerboard – Rosewood

Electronics – PRS 85/15 “S” dual humbuckers

Pros

An affordable entry from PRS — top quality at a relatively low price

Wide-thin neck profile for chord gripping power

High quality humbucking pickups with push/pull tone control and 3-way selector switch

Cons

None!

Review

Paul Reed Smith guitars don’t get a lot of mention on our site, though they certainly deserve the top-rank in a lot of reviews, with an impressive list of artists who favor the brand.

This Custom 24 is from PRS’s more affordable SE line, a high quality range of models at a price that won’t leave you wallowing in debt.

The PRS SE Custom 24 can do everything, from crystal-clear rhythmic opens, to crunchy distorted power chords, to soaring solo melodies, all with a tuning-stable tremolo bar for added fun.

It’s a super solid guitar, and you can feel the quality the moment it hits your hands. The neck is wide enough for strong chording but slim enough through the curve for lighting fast solos.

With the 3-way selector switch and tone controls for both pickups, you can adjust your voice to fit anywhere your prasie band needs you, whether that’s adding subtle bass power to clean progressions or kicking into overdrive for the bridge that brings it all home.

I can’t find a single problem with this guitar, and if it fits in your budget, I’ve got to recommend it for the best electric guitar for worship you can get your hands on.

The Final Word

As I always say, you’ve got to search within your means for the best guitar for your needs, and I’ve tried to make this list fairly wide-ranging in terms of price while maintaining a standard of quality fit for live performances.

Any of these guitars will be fine for your worship music as long as you play from the heart, no matter if you choose the lowest priced Epiphone or the built-for-pros PRS.

Stay true to yourself and your faith and your congregation will be happy to have you on stage.

Blessings to you and your music!

The post The Best Electric Guitars For Playing in Church appeared first on Beginnerguitar.

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biofunmy · 5 years

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36 Hours in Indianapolis – The New York Times

Naptown. India-No-Place. My hometown had a lot of nicknames when I was growing up there in the ’80s and ’90s, few of them charitable. Even more generous ones, like “Crossroads of America,” seemed to say that Indianapolis was a place one merely passed through. But things have changed since then. These days, I’m playing catch-up each time I return home, overwhelmed by the new restaurants, galleries, venues and boutiques bringing youth and energy to its streets. A new public transportation system called the Red Line, opened in September, connects the mid-size city’s most vital cultural areas, making it easier and safer than ever to bounce from one hip dive or farm-to-table restaurant to the next. And for all the new places to eat, browse or catch a show, Indy stays true to its Midwestern roots: short on pretension, heavy on pork and still, for the most part, incomprehensibly cheap.

Friday

1) 3 p.m. Museums of all kinds

The Indiana Central Canal was dug in the 1830s as a way to transport goods, but was never completed. Today, the downtown portion is flanked with museums and parks as it makes its way toward the White River. Start at the Eiteljorg Museum just a few blocks west of Monument Circle. Dedicated to the American West, it is brimming with a world-class Native American art and artifacts collection, including works by contemporary artists like the painter Kay WalkingStick and the multimedia artist Joe Feddersen. For sports fans, a pleasant stroll along the canal, past the Indiana State Museum, leads to the N.C.A.A. Hall of Champions, which showcases talent in all 24 N.C.A.A. sports. And this month, the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, dedicated to the city’s favorite literary son, is scheduled to reopen in its new location on Indiana Avenue, just a few blocks north of the Eiteljorg. Included in the collection are his drawings and an array of rejection letters, including one from The Atlantic Monthly that said his account of the Allied bombing of Dresden, Germany, during World War II wasn’t “compelling enough” to publish.

2) 6 p.m. Moonshine and shrimp cocktail

Opened in 2013, the Alexander hotel was developed as a joint venture with the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Art-themed hotels weren’t new, but the collaboration set it apart, as did the collection. Its crown jewel, however, may be the bar, Plat 99, designed by the Cuban-born artist Jorge Pardo, hung with 99 colorful, hand-molded acrylic lamps. The menu includes pick-me-ups like a latte made with doughnut milk for $6 (that’s milk in which doughnuts have been soaked) and a cocktail made with two kinds of local moonshine for $12. From there, grab a bar seat at nearby St. Elmo Steak House, which most locals agree is the city’s best steakhouse, dating to 1902. Stay for a dry-aged rib-eye, or just do what I did: Pop by for a dirty martini and its rightfully famous shrimp cocktail ($15.95). The sauce is made daily and not for the faint of heart: It’s at least three-quarters horseradish, edible with a fork.

3) 8 p.m. Dinner …

Just southeast is the hottest area in town, Fountain Square and the adjacent Fletcher Place neighborhood, where many restaurants have opened in the past decade, some of them quite good. Bluebeard, a James Beard Award semifinalist, is one of the best in town, with an ever-changing menu of locally sourced New American cuisine. Small plates might include chicken liver pate with pepperoncinis and candied pepitas ($14), while a regional staple like the pork chop comes with European accents like grilled focaccia, gremolata and smoked Coppa ($46). Looking for something more low-key? Iaria’s has been dishing out traditional Italian food in a family-style setting a few blocks away since 1933. Fill up on a huge plate of traditional spaghetti and meatballs for about $14, or fettuccine with spicy clam sauce for $21.

4) 10 p.m. … And a show

After dinner, head to one of the many music and entertainment venues clustered in Fountain Square. Hi-Fi and Radio Radio are intimate spaces for local and smaller national musical acts — mostly indie, folk, rock and hip-hop. Pioneer is the place for experimental, jazz, hip-hop, electronic music and late-night themed dance parties. The White Rabbit Cabaret hosts small musical acts, comedy, storytelling nights and rowdy burlesque shows. Nightcap? Stop by the deco-styled Brass Ring Lounge to mingle with the beautiful and tattooed.

Saturday

5) 10 a.m. Midwest heavy

A few years ago, Bon Appétit published a lengthy article in which the writer wondered “whether this city can hit all those Brooklyn notes and still feel distinctively like Indianapolis.” The answer was mostly “yes,” thanks in part to Milktooth, in Fletcher Place. Its strength lies partly in its razor-sharp focus: A self-confidently downscale, daytime-only joint, it goes all-in on heavy, classic fare in ways that feel new. The Dutch baby pancake comes with ham or shiitake mushrooms and Swiss cheese, cranberry mostarda and grapes ($14). The grilled cheese is made with cranberry walnut bread and black truffle honey, topped with a duck egg ($17).

6) 11 a.m. Vintage everything

I always hit the vintage stores back home because unlike in New York, that perfectly faded ’70s concert tee hasn’t been marked up to 10 times what it’s worth. Burn off that sourdough brioche doughnut from Milktooth by walking down Virginia Avenue to Vintage Vogue and its neighbor Zodiac Vintage, which specializes in vintage designer clothing, band T-shirts and American work wear. On the same block is Square Cat Vinyl, which has old records, but also a lot of new ones, along with a bar that serves coffee and beer. The neighborhood owes its vintage soul largely to the restored Fountain Square Theater building, first opened in 1928, which hosts swing dance nights and has two duckpin bowling alleys. (The 1930s-style alley on the fourth-floor, Action Duckpin Bowl, costs $40 an hour per lane.) For the uninitiated, the sport involves balls that can be palmed (no holes), like a cross between regular bowling and Skee-Ball. Like those sports, it can also involve beer.

7) 1 p.m. A deeply Hoosier sandwich

The closest thing Indiana has to a state food is the pork tenderloin sandwich: a tenderloin medallion, pounded until it is as broad and flat as an Indiana cornfield, then breaded and deep-fried. In its most authentic form, it’s a comedic sandwich: The meat can run 8 to 12 inches wide but is often served on a regular-size bun, meaning you can’t actually eat it with your hands. Hoosiers have strong and varied opinions about who does it best, but the tenderloin at Aristocrat, just south of the Broad Ripple neighborhood (in the area commonly referred to as South Broad Ripple), a wood-paneled pub and restaurant established in 1933, always ranks among the city’s best ($11.55). Aristocrat also offers a grilled, non-breaded (sacrilegious) version for (slightly) more health-conscious customers.

8) 3 p.m. Art and gardens

Head west to the elaborate grounds of the former Eli Lilly estate, home to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The whole complex was inexplicably rebranded Newfields, but the art and botanic gardens are as world-class as ever (personal favorites include the extensive Asian art section and works by J.M.W. Turner and James Turrell), and the seasonal beer garden is delightful in warmer months. Across the canal is a 100-acre nature and sculpture park; like Storm King Art Center in upstate New York, it is especially lovely when the leaves are turning each fall. (The park is free; all-access admission to the museum and gardens is $18.)

9) 6 p.m. Broad Ripple ramble

Broad Ripple has had many identities over the decades — these days, it’s where the clubbing and sports-bar crowd parties on weekends — but the neighborhood never completely lost its bohemian roots, as evidenced by its many vintage stores, cafes, brew pubs and locally owned restaurants — my favorite being Public Greens, a cafeteria with a healthy, locally sourced menu (when I went, it included a strawberry salad with kohlrabi for $6 and a blackened trout bowl with quinoa, veggies and ranch dressing for $16) that donates 100 percent of its profits to charity. While you’re in Broad Ripple, stop by the Monon Coffee Co. for coffee or one of many teas — pu-erh ginger, sencha fukujya, blue jasmine with pea flower. (Full disclosure: I used to sling lattes there.) The area is also home to my two favorite Indianapolis record stores, both of which host in-store concerts: Indy CD & Vinyl, on the main strip, and Luna Music, just south on College Avenue. The Monon Trail, a wooded walking and biking trail paved over an old railway line, is just a few blocks out of the way and the nicest way to wander south before sundown.

10) 9 p.m. Beer, burgers, Benny Goodman

Across the street from Luna, make time for drinks at the Red Key Tavern, a quiet haunt for local artists and literary types since 1933. The secret to its conversation-friendly vibe is the rules, including no loud swearing and no standing at the bar. It doesn’t hurt that the drinks are unpretentious and cheap (a Manhattan with a maraschino cherry is $5.25; bottles of Miller Hi-Life are $3.25), the antique jukebox is loaded with Big Band 45s, and the cheeseburger ($5.50) is regularly voted best in town. (The kitchen closes at 10 p.m.)

Sunday

11) 10 a.m. Brunch insanity

“You can kind of, like, do stuff in Indianapolis, and it’s cheap enough where you can get away with whatever.” So sayeth Chef Chris Benedyk, of the appropriately named Love Handle on Massachusetts Avenue, the heart of the local gay scene and another bustling strip for restaurants, bars and boutique shopping. At Love Handle, that means getting away with putting things in your breakfast that confuse the brain but somehow make sense to the mouth. The fluid menu may offer fried oysters with your grits ($9). Waffles may come with braised beef tongue and a duck egg ($13). And if biscuits and gravy weren’t rich enough per usual, here they might include butternut squash and pork belly ($15.25).

12) Noon. Local goods

On the same block, stroll over to Homespun: Modern Handmade, which sells work by more than 400 artists and artisans, about half from Indiana. A few doors down, Boomerang Boutique also spotlights local designers, emphasizing diversity and women’s clothing and accessories. But it’s afternoon now, so head over to the tasting room at Sun King Brewery to sample the roughly 25 beers on tap. An in-house lunch counter run by Goose the Market, an upscale local deli that smokes and cures its own meats, has you covered if you get hungry again.

Lodging

Many hotels have art, but the art at the 209-room Alexander — made by local, national and international artists — is installed museum-style, with identifying wall texts. The downtown location puts you right in the city’s heart and close to Fountain Square, and the bar, designed by the MacArthur “genius grant” winner Jorge Pardo, is one of Indy’s most fashionable spots come nightfall (333 South Delaware Street; thealexander.com; doubles from $159).

A block from trendy Massachusetts Avenue, the six-room Nestle Inn offers a cozy bed-and-breakfast-style experience in a 19th-century building. The inn emphasizes its modernity: self check-in, private bathrooms and, instead of serving breakfast on-site, the inn provides breakfast vouchers for partnering Massachusetts Avenue restaurants. It also offers chef-led cooking classes Friday through Sunday. (637 North East Street; nestleindy.com, doubles from $159.)

Once you leave the clubs and sports bars of Broad Ripple Avenue, the surrounding neighborhoods are full of eclectic cottages, ranch homes and bungalows on quiet streets lined with old trees. The swath just east of College Avenue, roughly between 56th and 49th Streets, is great for Airbnbs, with entire bungalows starting around $60. Wooded jogging trails and dozens of bars and restaurants are within walking distance.

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musicdeejaysorceress · 5 years

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Nostalgia Music Playlist Also on Youtube Updated Writings Added By Wednesday October 30 2019

Nostalgia Music Playlist Also on Youtube

First off, I want to thank all who have taken the time to view all of my online content including these music playlists, the following is some of the songs from the Nostalgia Music Playlist that I initially started approximately 9 months ago, one of the multiple reasons why I am sharing this music playlist is because I have had the good fortune of unexpectedly discovering that this is one of my more highly viewed music playlists and to intuitively help remind me that it is ok to share some of my music interests provided I do so in a wise and intuitively thought process with additional thanks to those who look at my online writings. I intend to share more of the songs from this playlist within 49 to 70 hours andor sooner from now.

Wednesday October 30, 2019 by 1119pm-I listened to my creative intuition to add previous youtube comments that I have previously written to a multiple number of the songs, I continue to appreciate all who view these writings, though I admit that I must allow the option to be open-ended if I prefer to post written comments to the remaining songs andor to just let it be currently the way it is. I say this with much happiness in my heart, it is just that I must give myself enough time to carefully ponder on this because there are a multiple number of other areas/goals that I must also focus/set to accomplish in my personal andor professional life. Regardless of what I eventually decide, it has been one of my multiple passions to share this nostalgia music playlist and to get a glimpse from other youtube commenters on how diverse music genres of songs can be universal-listened to multiple people from various backgrounds, almost in a music can be a beneficial uniter, an uplifting channel/vehicle for unity.

Nostalgia Music Playlist

Side Travis

Youtube comment from approximately 9 months ago

Side by Travis is another song that I first heard around the early 2000s when I was first stationed in Yokosuka Japan, definitely by the summer 2003 andor earlier timeframe via I think what was a Brit Awards cd collection. I now intuitively and fully understand the meaning of this meaningful song that is Side by Travis. I truthfully wish that I could have intuitively and logically realized the message and deeper meaning of this song when I first heard it when I was around 22 years old. However, better late than never and I prefer to be discreet when I first figured out the full meaning of Side by Travis especially since I am in the process of learning to embody the message and meaning of this song as I reluctantly admit to still being a work in progress/construction in progress when it comes to this.

Addicted Saving Abel

Pain Three Days Grace

Come Go With Me Expose

Your Wildest Dreams Moody Blues

I Can See Clearly Now Jimmy Cliff

Gold Spandau Ballet

Stellify Ian Brown

Heart & Soul T’Pau

Follow You Follow Me Genesis

Wings Little Mix

Youre Still The One Shania Twain

Clumsy Fergie

Belinda Carlisle I Get Wea

Dolphins Cry Live

Express Yourself Madonna

Caught Up In You 38 Special

Addicted Saving Abel

Secret Rendezvous Karyn White

If You Only Knew Shinedown

I Feel The Earth Move Martika

Circle In The Sand Belinda Carlisle

Desire U2

Orinoco Flow Enya

In Your Eyes Kylie Minogue

Sensitized Kylie Minogue

Trying Not To Love You Nickelback

Therapy Armin Van Buuren James Newman

Lovesong The Cure

C’Mon and Get My Love D-Mob feat. Cathy Dennis

Do You Know Angel City

Touch Me Angel City

I Wanna Be Bad Willa Ford

Va Va Voom Nicki Minaj

I’m So Into You SWV

Slide In GoldFrap

Meet Me Halfway Black Eyed Peas

Scream & Shout will.i.am

Burnin For You Blue Oyster Cult

Dr. Feelgood Motley Crue

The Perfect Drug Nine Inch Nails

Latch Disclosure feat. Sam Smith

Crush Dave Matthews Band

Raindrops (Encore Une Fois Pt. II) Extended Mix by Sash! Feat. Stunt youtube comment from approximately 2 months ago

I must properly credit and admit that a version of this Raindrops song from the Trance Party Vol. 6 that I enjoyed listening to multiple times (before heading to where I worked in Norfolk Virginia) around the 2008 timeframe is one of the reasons that indirectly influenced why I enjoy this youtube version of Raindrops (Encore Une Fois Pt. II) to this day. I was living quite a carefree and a little bit of a freespirited life during this time yet one of the reasons why I first enjoyed this distinctive song even then and even to this day relates to the exciting adventurous vibe energy to this song.

Is This Love Whitesnake youtube comment from approximately 2 months ago

I feel very lucky to have heard this dazzling romantic rock song Is This Love by Whitesnake by the time I was between 8 to 11 years old either by local radio andor television. I also started to enjoy Is This Love by Whitesnake so much more by the July 2011 timeframe because it was contained on a music collection titled American Anthems that I unexpectedly discovered through the Amazon UK website.

Rock You Like A Hurricane Scorpions youtube comment from 2 months ago

To think I was somewhere around 13 to 15 years old when I unintentionally heard this push the envelope yet amusing classic rock song that is Rock You Like a Hurricane by the Scorpions via local radio. Obviously, I enjoy the album version of Rock You Like a Hurricane, however I feel that this live version of Rock You Like a Hurricane also does the album version justice.

No One Like You Scorpions youtube comment from 2 months ago

I am lucky to have been exposed to multiple brilliant classic rock songs via online and radio. This song No One Like You by the Scorpions is a refreshing/one of a kind song that I first heard around by the time I was between 13 to 16 years old via local radio, and I started to unexpectedly enjoy much more by the late 2010/early 2011 timeframe.

Miss You The Rolling Stones youtube comment from 2 months ago

I truly wish that I could easily recall the very first time in my life that I first heard I Miss You by The Rolling Stones. However, I am so glad in a pleasant way to have surprisingly heard this well made classic rock song via a local metropolitan Washington D.C. radio station less than a year ago.

Wicked Game Chris Isaak

Peaceful Easy Feeling Eagles youtube comment from 2 months ago

There are a multiple number of songs that I enjoy by the Eagles with I confess some of the songs such as Witchy Woman, One of These Nights, Take It Easy and Life In The Fast Lane being among some of those songs. However, something about this Peaceful Easy Feeling classic rock tune by the Eagles made an indelible mark on my soul when I first heard this song via local radio by the time I was between my mid 20s to late 20s. The calming and yet optimistic vocals and music also do it for me with this entertaining classic rock song.

Candyman Christina Aguilera youtube comment from 2 months ago

There was a catchy commercial that I spotted sometime around the 2007 to 2009 timeframe featured the Candyman song by Christina Aguilera which helped me become aware of this daring song. I admit that the music video to the Candyman song also gives this Christina Aguilera song a quirky and compelling music story quality/vibe.

I Begin To Wonder Danni Minogue

Full Service New Kids On the Block youtube comment from 2 months ago

I confess that I got into this Full Service song by the New Kids On The Block by the summer 2011 timeframe some time after purchasing the Block music collection by New Kids on the Block by the February 2011 timeframe. Additionally, I find the metaphor of the auto/car imagery to describe what they intend to do do for their love interest/intended human target in this song very novel/distinctive.

Rendez-Vu Basement Jaxx youtube comment from 2 months ago

I have to credit first hearing this Rendez-vu song by Basement Jaxx from a Brit Awards music collection by the 2002 timeframe (I just wish that I could remember which one). The romantic vocals and the futuristic music create a one of a kind electronic/club/dance tune/melody.

When the Lights Go Out Five youtube comment from 2 months ago

I admit that I am previously familiar with this illicit music pleasure song that is When The Lights Go Out by Five because I had heard this song via a local radio station when I was around 17/18 years old. The 90s dance, club and hip-hop music melding coupled with the bold vocals and lyrics definitely make this song an entertaining nostalgic 90s song.

Bubblin Blue feat. L.A.D.E

Voodoo Adam Lambert youtube comment from 2 months ago

I confess that this soulful and passionate song that is Voodoo by Adam Lambert first penetrated my music soul when I first heard it by the October 2011 timeframe. Something about the shining vocals and radiant music makes me think of a musical story about someone who has left such a powerful mark on the singer's soul to where their love for that person metaphorically influences the person to be totally wrapped around the finger of the person who they are bewitched by (in love with).

My Kinda Party Jason Aldean youtube comment from 2 months ago

I admit that I happen to unexpectedly find out about a music collection by Jason Aldean online around summer 2011 that contained the My Kinda Party song (definitely by the August 2011 timeframe). For whatever reason, this catchy country song played in my mind today.

If You Only Knew Shinedown

Practice What You Preach Barry White

Possum Kingdom The Toadies

Owner of A Lonely Heart Yes

Lovesong The Cure

Live version of The Lovesong by The Cure via the New Wave & Rock 80’s Memories-It was an easy decision for me to take a chance on listening to a live version of The Cure’s classic Lovesong because I have enjoyed this creative and moving song for multiple years now, and first hearing it inside a store around the time I was 8 or 9 years old. I understand that others may interpret this song in different ways though I have always taken this song to be about a person telling another that they are always going to be in love with the person regardless of what they may do or say andor how long they may be in that person’s life, basically a positive song about enduring love, either way I find this song to be very meaningful.

Last Nine Inch Nails

Only When I Sleep The Corrs

Soothe My Soul Depeche Mode youtube comment from 2 months ago

Depeche Mode - Soothe My Soul (Official Music Video) Soothe My Soul-I’m fortunate to have had a chance to purchase the music collection that contained this song in 2013 and I reluctantly admit that certain circumstances came up to where I started to hear and enjoy this song more in the 2017 timeframe the more that I would hear this song via my iheartradio account . This group sounds just as good live, I have been to a Depeche Mode concert in 2013 and in 2017 and both times the live performances were even better than I imagined and I have to credit my husband for influencing me to like this group in the first place because he introduced me to a good mix of their music around the year when we first met (we met in August 2002).

2 Hearts Kylie Minogue youtube comment from one month ago

2 Hearts by Kylie Minogue-My angelic husband actually introduced me to a great deal of her music around the 2003 timeframe and I started to listen to Kylie Minogue much more after we got married in 2004. X was one of the first music collections that I wanted to buy via my own free will though my husband was again being very sweet by purchasing me the X music collection that this sensual and well crafted song that 2 Hearts is on. I admit that I started to enjoy this song around the autumn 2007 timeframe when I first heard it online.

Things Can Only Get Better Howard Jones

Pocketful of Sunshine Natasha Bedingfield

No One Is To Blame Howard Jones

All I Wanna Do Danni Minogue

Mr. Saxobeat Alexandra Stan youtube comment from 1 month ago

Thank goodness for one of the Future Trance cds (Germany music import) introducing me to Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan around the summer 2011 timeframe.

Sex Type Thing Stone Temple Pilots youtube comment from 1 month ago

Sex Type Thing by Stone Temple Pilots-I confess that this song first seeped into my mind when I first heard this song as a 90s teenager via radio andor television (sometime between the time I was between 14 to 17 years old). For whatever reason, I admit that this song crept back into my memory when I heard it again around the autumn 2009 timeframe when I saw a Stone Temple Pilots greatest hits cd at an Orlando Florida library (this particular library was a few miles from the University of Central Florida campus). Anyhow, the more I think of it the woman in that music video definitely plays whatever role she was given very well though for some reason her dress makes me think of a Cinderella vibe.

Wicked Garden Stone Temple Pilots

Red Light Go Mea Fisher youtube comment from 1 month ago

I’m both so grateful and feeling happy/joyful that youtube has the image for the Femmes Fatales The 12 Leading Ladies of Electronica music collection because that music collection is where I first heard the electrifying and seductive Red Light Go song by Mea Fisher around the autumn 2008 timeframe and one of my earliest memories of hearing and enjoying this song was when this song was playing in a car that I had and drove in to work around this timeframe (I had purchased the music collection from some music store inside MacArthur Center mall in Norfolk Virginia by the autumn 2008 timeframe and the mp3 music collection from Amazon multiple years later). Anyhow, the vocals and music to this Red Light Go song by Mea Fisher are very memorable despite this song being definitely different from being a super cheerful type of electronic/club song.

I’ll Make You Feel Good K7 youtube comment from 1 month ago

Regarding K7 I'll Make You Feel Good song-I first heard this bold and innovative song during my teenage years during local radio and for whatever unexpected reason I got into this song again by around the 2008 timeframe when I was residing in Norfolk Virginia.

Right Round Flo Rida feat. Kesha

I Like It Rough by Lady Gaga-I confess that this is an illicit pleasure song that I first heard by around the 2008 timeframe through a zune music player that I use to have. Additionally, Lady Gaga’s music was played via local radio in Norfolk Virginia (where my husband and I were residing in during that timeframe) and via online, hearing through these channels Lady Gaga’s music indirectly influenced me to give more of her songs a listen

Cold Crossfade

Waiting For You Layla comment from 1 month ago

This youtube music video for Waiting For You by Layla via the Femmes Fatales the 12 Leading Ladies of Electronica deserve more views. i first heard this bold and club like song around the autumn 2008 timeframe when hearing this song after buying the Femmes Fatales cd collection from the MacArthur Center mall in Norfolk Virginia, I enjoyed the collection so much that it was an easy decision for me to purchase the mp3 music collection from Amazon multiple years later.

Sunlight In The Rain Kelli Ali youtube comment from 1 month ago

I remember this beautiful song Sunlight In The Rain by Kelli Ali from around the 2005 to 2007 timeframe because my angelic husband had us listening to a chillout music compilation and this gem of a song was one of the songs on this collection. I am happy/overjoyed that this gorgeous song is also available on youtube.

Siria Endless Summer

I Surrender Kate Ryan via the song version similar to the youtube poster image of Trance Volume 2 youtube comment from 1 month ago

This music version of I Surrender by Kate Ryan is similar to a version of the song that I heard via a Best of Dance 2008 music collection by the December 2008/January 2009 timeframe. I am thrilled/excited to find the version of this song on this youtube music channel.

Deeper Fragma

Burning Love Katie Jewels

Rush Rush Full Length version Paula Abdul youtube comment from 1 month ago

I’m so glad that this full length version is currently available on youtube the chemistry between Paula Abdul and Keanu Reeves is sizzling. I unexpectedly found this full length youtube video version of Rush Rush by Paula Abdul though I am lucky to have first heard this song in the early 90s via television andor radio by the time I was somewhere between 11 to 14 years old, the music, video, and the vocals for this song are enthralling.

Feeling Hypnotized Blackliquid Remix Colette youtube comment from 1 month ago

This song Feelin Hypnotized by Colette is far from the most cheerful song, yet there is something about this song I find very magnetic nearly 11 years after I first heard this unique song (autumn 2008 in Norfolk Virginia). I’m thrilled to find Hypnotized by Colette on this youtube channel via the Femmes Fatales The 12 Leading Ladies of Electronic because it was the Femmes Fatales collection was where I first heard this song.

Sweet Dreams La Bouche

Little Bird Annie Lennox

Beyond The Invisible Enigma

Lovergirl Teena Marie youtube comment from 1 week ago

It is definitely beyond rhyme and reason why this classic song that is Lovergirl by Teena Marie is on my mind tonight. There are a multiple number of fun to read comments on this page in regards to this song all I can add is that probably in the case of multiple music listeners on this page I first unexpectedly heard this song via local radio as a teenager and then I started to enjoy the song much more after hearing it on a local California radio station in my 20s. Fast forward by around the December 10, 2010 and via circumstances that are better for me to be discreet about, I started to enjoy this song again more frequently. Though I must say after hearing Teena Marie's powerful vocals in this Lovergirl song that the music coupled with her vocals showcase a dynamo vocal/music powerhouse with this song.

See You Again Miley Cyrus youtube comment from 1 week ago

I find See You Again by Miley Cyrus to be very fun and pleasant to listen to even after multiple years after first hearing this catchy song. One of my earliest memories of when I happen to have unexpectedly heard this song was around the late 2007/early 2008 timeframe when I heard this song play on a local Florida radio station in a car that I had at the time (My husband and I were stationed on the Mayport Naval base through the navy around this timeframe).

Take My Breath Away Berlin

Gimme Some Love Gina G youtube comment from 1 week ago

I'm thrilled to see this exciting dance/club song and the image cover for the song that is Gimme Some Love by Gina G here on youtube for two major reasons, one because I saw an mp3 version of thissong available for purchase online and only realized this after seeing this image and 2 this song brings back happy memories of when I first heard this song in my early 20s from a dance music collection that I had purchased multiple years ago when I was in Japan, even my amazing husband was singing part of this song the first time I started to play it on youtube tonight.

Self Control Laura Branigan youtube comment from 1 week ago

I feel very lucky to have first heard Self Control by Laura Branigan when I was around 7 andor 8 years old (1987/1988 timeframe) via local radio, this unique song penetrated my soul the first time I heard it as a very young girl and multiple years later I still enjoy listening to this elegant song and I'm so glad the the music video is available to watch online because even the music video has a distinctive storytelling quality to it that enhances what appears to be a sleeptime dream in this music video for the song Self Control by Laura Branigan

I See Right Through To You DJ Encore

Something Kinda Ooooh Girls Aloud

Only When I Lose Myself Depeche Mode

Promiscuous Girl Nelly Furtado Timbaland

Turn Me On David Guetta Nicki Minaj youtube comment from 7 months ago

Turn Me On David Guetta Nicki Minaj-As with many others, this daring song penetrated my soul when I first listened to the music collection that this distinctive song was on around what was either the July 2011 andor August 2011 timeframe.

Love Affair Kylie Minogue

Love Affair by Kylie Minogue-I have to credit my heavenly husband for indirectly influencing one of the multiple reasons why I still enjoy a multiple number of her songs multiple years later (because he had introduced me to more of her music in the early 2000s. For whatever reason, I noticed and listened more often to this vivid song more frequently after the April 2011 timeframe, this was around the same month that I enjoyed the good fortune of being able to attend one of her concerts. One of the reasons why this song stays in my mind multiple years later is because of the daring energy of the song.

Fever Madonna

Fever by Madonna-I started to more frequently listen to this song by the early 2000s when I was stationed in Yokosuka Japan (through the U.S. Navy) and her music relates to multiple happy memories during my time there including the connection with this smoldering and memorable song.

Circle In The Sand Belinda Carlisle

Circle in the Sand Belinda Carlisle-I am very lucky to have actually heard this song by the time I was 7 years old on local radio around the time I had heard her Heaven on Earth song. I then started to get into this song much more after the late 2007 timeframe after purchasing one of her greatest hit music collections that contained this Circle in the Sand song. One of the reasons why I enjoy this remarkable song is because this song makes me think of a connection to a destiny andor mystical type of situation that appears to be implied in a creative way with this song.

Work Freemasons Radio Edit Kelly Rowland

Work (Freemasons Radio Edit) by Kelly Rowland, I confess that I actually became aware of this exhilarating club song after hearing this song via a UK music import of the Now 69 music collection that I purchased by the 2008 timeframe.

Chocolate Kylie Minogue

Chocolate by Kylie Minogue-I’m fortunate to have seen a music video to Chocolate by Kylie Minogue online by around the January 2004 to June 2004 timeframe and I have enjoyed this captivating song every since.

my husband is the one who played a major influence in why I started to listen to the music of Kylie Minogue more often starting around the timeframe of 2002/2003. This song Chocolate by Kylie Minogue is a masterpiece of a song that I remember first hearing by early 2004 when I was 23 years old and living in California. This song also reminds me in a blissful way of my husband who helps encourage me to be more than just the best wife I can be yet also a woman who is in the process of learning to be more in touch with my intuition, self confident, and resilient.

Dangerous cascada

Dangerous by Cascada-I luckily heard this song by the 2011/2012 timeframe via one of her music collections. The music story of how one person can have such a strong effect on the heart despite being very “dangerous” makes for enthralling music.

Wildest Dreams Taylor Swift

I am lucky to be previously familiar with Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift because I had purchased her 1989 music collection by around the December 2014 timeframe. This creative song leaves it open-ended in a clever way why the romantic partnership was meant to be temporary from the start because at the beginning of the song the lyrics suggest/implied that the music/song narrator already saw the temporary vibe of the love affair even before it began though it leaves it open why this was known ahead of time. However the lyrics no one has to know what we do definitely seems to hint at some taboo, controversial andor forbidden partnership with some rebel person type of character maybe/possibly similar to in Taylor Swift’s Ready For It song from her Reputation music collection.

High On Life DJ Encore

High On Lifeby DJ Encore-A beautiful dance song that appears to be about being around someone who has a healing andor creative inspiring effect on someone’s spirit. I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to obtain the music collection containing this during when I was in my 20s.

Falling Into You Celine Dion

Whine Up Kat De Luna feat. Elephant Man

Like A Prayer Madonna

Like a Prayer by Madonna-I am blessed to have originally heard this moving/meaningful love song by around the 1989/1990 timeframe though I admit to only intuitively being at least somewhat aware of some of the meanings of the Like A Prayer song after the 2016 timeframe for some. A dynamic song about how being in love with someone can be almost like a powerful spiritual experience.

Number 1 Goldfrapp youtube comment from 11 months ago

I like the electro and club vibe energy in this song Number 1 by Goldfrapp. I luckily first heard this song around the 2005/2006 via online.

Feel Your Love Kim Sozzi

Feel Your Love by Kim Sozzi-I am very lucky to have first heard this original dance/club love song that is Feel Your Love by around the March 2011 to July 2011 timeframe. Even multiple years after enjoying it I still have yet to make out the full meaning of this song, I am wondering if this song symbolizes either expectedly andor reuniting with someone after a long time span- 5 years andor longer-and pretty much telling them that you are ready to start anew with forgiveness. Regardless of the Feel Your Love meaning, the vocals are astonishing and the music and the music video have a vibrant energy even with the element of the night time lights in the music video.

Gods & Monsters Lana Del Rey

Gods and Monsters by Lana Del Rey-This is a music gem that I have to admit that I am previously familiar with after first hearing it via Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die Paradise Edition by around the November 2012 timeframe. Her soulful vocals and passionate energy in this song creatively transform Gods and Monsters into a song that could appear to have multiple meanings because of the abstract yet make a music listener think type of lyrics.

Youtube comment from 7 months ago

Gods and Monsters Lana Del Rey-I admit that I became familiar with this song after the November 2012 timeframe when I purchased her Born to Die Paradise music collection. Still years later, I confess that I find the push the envelope vocals and daring indie dance music fun to listen to with Gods and Monsters by Lana Del Rey.

The Dolphins Cry Live

Possum Kingdom The Toadies

Come On Barry White

How Deep Is Your Love Bee Gees youtube comment from 2 weeks ago

I have my amazing husband to thank for indirectly influencing me to love this one of a kind song that is How Deep is Your Love by Bee Gees, he recently was singing this song out of the blue when I was already in a happy mood, I find this song to be very beautiful even if I am still trying to intuitively and logically determine if this song is from the male perspective, and yes I do show my sweet and handsome husband how much he means to me multiple times because I intuitively understand that there are multiple other women who also would be happy to do the same though that is something for another post.

Do It Nelly Furtado

Ooh Ooh Baby Britney Spears

Break The Ice Britney Spears

Cyclone Baby Bash T-Pain

Like A Drug Kylie Minogue youtube comment from 8 months ago

My creative intuition/intuitive heart is influencing me to honor my husband with this love/dance song that is Like a Drug by Kylie Minogue. I truthfully purchased the music collection by Kylie Minogue in late 2007 featuring this song and I got into this Like A Drug song more by the 2008 timeframe when I was residing in Norfolk Virginia. Fortunately my husband is encouraging me of listening to her music to this day since he was significant in influencing me to enjoy more of her music when after we first met in 2002.

Fascination Alphabeat

Pumpkin Soup Kate Nash

Take Control DJ Bobo

Come On Get Higher Matt Nathanson

Live Your Life T.I. Rihanna

Heartbeat Madonna

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auburnfamilynews · 5 years

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Can Auburn close the 2019 class strong?

Tomorrow, another wild recruiting ride will come to an end. While the early signing period has removed some of the drama of the traditional signing day, it does appear that Auburn is set to have a very non boring day tomorrow. As of today, Auburn sits ranked #12 in the country and #6 in the SEC by 247 Composite. However, their player average is actually 6th in country at 91.34. That average would also be the highest in Malzahn’s tenure.

My understanding is Auburn is looking to sign 25 commits this class though they might have room for 1-2 more. Currently, they hold 19 commitments (if including graduate transfer Jay Jay Wilson) with 15 having already signed. That means, Auburn is hoping to land 6 new commitments Wednesday which could mean a very busy and happy day for the Tigers. It could also mean there are more holes than expected still left to fill and some serious disappointment. As of today, I believe it will be more of the former but the latter isn’t impossible.

So with that backdrop, I’m going to take one last stab at predicting where Auburn’s top remaining targets land tomorrow. If you want to see my earlier predictions check out my take two weeks ago and what I thought last week. Quashon Fuller and John Rhys Plumlee will not be in this week’s edition. Fuller released a top 3 that did not include Auburn last week and Plumlee committed to Ole Miss last night.

5* WR George Pickens | 6’4” | 190 lbs | Hoover, AL | Auburn Commit

Announcing: 1:30 PM CT

Top Teams: Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Tennessee

Pickens took his final official visit this past weekend, traveling up to Knoxville, TN. He left the Volunteer staff thinking the same thing LSU and UGA did after their visits - a flip very well might happen. But on his way home, Pickens made a bit of a detour and stopped by Auburn’s campus one last time before signing day. Barring a late shock, I fully expect Pickens to sign with the Tigers Wednesday as he’s always said he would do.

Prediction: Auburn (99%)

4* DL Charles Moore | 6’4” | 268 lbs | Louisville, MS

Announcing: TBA

Top Teams: Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State

This has been a wacky recruitment to say the least over this past week. A long time Mississippi State commit, Moore reopened things in early January and took official visits to Florida, Florida State and LSU. Both the Gators and Noles thought they had made huge moves after those visits only for them to be eliminated just a few days later. The word was that Mississippi State had been eliminated as well only for them to send basically the whole staff to his house the Thursday before his final OV to LSU in an effort to convince him to visit Starkville instead. It didn’t work, Moore showed up in Baton Rouge but reports are that LSU staff got a “weird vibe” from Moore. However, on the way home, he ended up stopping in Starkville that evening to watch the Super Bowl with the Mississippi State coaching staff. Throughout all this insanity, Auburn has supposedly maintained confidence he will pick the Tigers. I have 0 idea what he decides to do and there are rumors he might not even sign tomorrow. So I’m going to stick with my Auburn prediction only because I don’t see the clear other choice at the moment but I’ve dropped my confidence to a complete guess. This will be the top storyline to follow tomorrow and it could end in a shocker for somebody.

Prediction: Auburn (1%)

4* RB Mark-Antony Richards | 6’1” | 195 lbs | West Palm Beach, FL

Announcing: 11:15 AM CT

Top Teams: Auburn, Florida, Georgia

The Dawgs and Gators made strong pushes but Auburn has been there from the beginning for Richards saying the same thing over and over again, “come to the Plains and play running back.” That consistency and those long term relationships will likely pay off. I believe Richards will be a Tiger tomorrow.

Prediction: Auburn (90%)

4* CB Maurice Hampton | 6’0” | 205 lbs | Memphis, TN | LSU Commit

Announcing: 9:30 AM CT

Top Teams: Auburn, LSU

Hampton did not make the trip that AuburnSports.com reported he might take to the Plains this past weekend. From the sound of things, it appears he’s told both staffs his final decision will be to stick with LSU. AU made a push but it wasn’t strong enough to overcome a multi year commitment to the Bayou Bengals.

Prediction: LSU (99%)

4* RB Jamious Griffin | 5’10” | 205 lbs | Rome, GA

Announcing: 8:00 AM CT

Top Teams: Auburn, Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State

Last week, I thought Florida State might make a strong late push and dropped my confidence down to 5% in anticipation of that official visit. Griffin never made it to Tallahassee. With Auburn feeling really good about Richards and Griffin not visiting FSU, it appears Geoff Collins is set to make a big splash signing tomorrow.

Prediction: Georgia Tech (99%)

3* DB Jammie Robinson | 5’11” | 200 lbs | Leesburg, GA

Announcing: 1 PM CT

Top Teams: Auburn, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee

With news that Hampton was sticking with LSU, Auburn reportedly sent most of the coaching staff to visit Robinson last week in a last ditch effort to change his mind. It was probably too late. Will Muschamp and Travaris Robinson have been all over this recruitment from the beginning and the Gamecocks are probably going to land a phenomenal DB tomorrow.

Prediction: South Carolina (99%)

3* OT Wisdom Asaboro | 6’8” | 280 lbs | Matthews, NC

Announcing: 7:00 AM CT

Top Teams: Auburn, North Carolina, Oregon, Penn State, Virginia

It appears Auburn was too late to the party for Asaboro (a recurring theme in Auburn’s OL recruiting....) and will not land that coveted official visit after signing day. Instead, it’s believed that Asaboro will sign with the Tar Heels tomorrow.

Prediction: North Carolina (99%)

3* DL Jamond Gordon | 6’4” | 268 lbs | Meridian, MS

Announcing: TBA

Top Teams: Auburn, Ole Miss

No one seems to know what’s going on in this recruitment. I’m going to say he lands at Ole Miss because Auburn beats them for LeDarrius Cox. But if the Tigers miss on Charles Moore, maybe they send a Letter of Intent to Gordon if he wants back on board. I wouldn’t be shocked if he signed with neither tomorrow.

Prediction: Ole Miss (1%)

3* OG Kamaar Bell | 6’3” | 320 lbs | Moultrie, GA

Announcing: 12:00 PM CT

Top Teams: Auburn, Florida State, Louisville

There appears to be a lot more confidence in Auburn’s camp for Bell than I realized last week. FSU is undoubtedly a threat but they were late to the party. Auburn has been after Bell for some time, he’s close to many of Auburn’s signees and he’s sees a path to early playing time. I think the Tigers snag the talented lineman tomorrow.

Prediction: Auburn (50%)

3* DT LeDarrius Cox | 6’5 | 300 lbs | Mobile, AL | Tennessee Commit

Announcing: 8:30 AM CT

Top Teams: Auburn, Ole Miss, Tennessee

I don’t know if this is a slam dunk just yet because not much is coming out on this recruitment. But there seems to be some serious confidence in a number of places that Auburn has pulled ahead in this recruitment and will pull off the flip tomorrow. The least likely scenario as of now appears to be Cox sticking with Tennessee. I think Auburn beats Ole Miss out for the talented instate defender.

Prediction: Auburn (70%)

3* OT Ira Henry | 6’5” | 320 lbs | St. Louis, MO

Announcing: 2:00 PM CT

Top Teams: Auburn, Florida State

Henry released a top 4 but this is a two team race. Both sides appear to have confidence but it seems Auburn folks are banking hard on the fact that Henry and Bell will play together at next level. With there being confidence AU will land Bell, it makes sense then to think they will get Henry as well. But I’m not as sold on that being the case and it really does appear that FSU has made a huge push for Henry. Remember, this is his “dream offer” and FSU can promise the chance to challenge for a starting spot as a true freshman. I hope I’m wrong but I get the feeling this recruitment is going to go against the Tigers.

Prediction: Florida State (15%)

3* LB Octavius Brothers | 6’2 | 210 lbs | Southwest Brevard County, FL

Announcing: 2:45 PM CT

Top Teams: Auburn, North Carolina

In the fall, Auburn got the feeling they were gonna fail to flip some major linebacker targets and started hunting for new talent. They found a real gem in Brothers and have made him a priority ever since. He appears set to join Owen Pappoe and Kameron Brown in a very interesting but solid linebacker class.

Prediction: Auburn (99%)

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wineanddinosaur · 5 years

Text

What We Miss When We Celebrate D.C.’s Revitalized Drinks and Restaurant Culture

“Always changing” is how Anita, a patron at Ben’s Next Door, recently described the bar’s frozen cocktail selection. Hoping for a raspberry slushie, she instead got strawberry lemonade.

Change in any city is inevitable, but it’s especially apparent in local bars, and in a city where four- and eight-year presidential terms determine the “vibe.” Washington, D.C.’s emergence as a food and drink destination is just a decade or so old, and it continues to evolve in tandem with the city itself.

According to the National Restaurant Association, restaurants are a driving force of the District economy, with 2,457 eating and drinking locations reaching $4.4 billion in sales in 2018. D.C. restaurant and food service employment is expected to grow from 8 percent in 2019 to more than 14 percent in 2029, adding 4,000 jobs.

“D.C. has always had one of the most innovative, compelling food and drink scenes, but it’s expanding and finally getting recognized,” Derek Brown, president of Drink Company, which owns and operates Columbia Room, an award-winning cocktail bar, and PUB, a rotating pop-up bar, tells VinePair.

While there is a lot to celebrate, it’s important to remember new openings also indicate casualties of the city’s constant development. Ben’s Chili Bowl, a 1958 landmark opened by Trinidadian American Mahaboob Ben Ali and his wife Virginia Ali, has seen the city change tremendously throughout its tenure. Ben’s, located on U Street NW between 12th and 13th Streets, a.k.a. Ben’s Chili Bowl Way, is now steps from newly arrived national chains like Shake Shack and Peet’s Coffee on the 14th Street corridor.

Ben’s Chili Bowl has held down its landmark location for more than 60 years. Credit: Cat Wolinski

Ben’s has been far from stagnant: It opened Ben’s Next Door in 2008, and Ben’s Upstairs, on H Street, in 2015. Its “legendary half-smoke and fresh homemade chili” is now available at Reagan National Airport, Nats Park, and at two locations in Maryland.

Its impact on the city is undeniable. In 2016, Andre McCain opened HalfSmoke, a “sausage-centric millennial playground,” complete with “popsicles served inside Margaritas [and] a free photo booth,” in Shaw. HalfSmoke is part of a major uptick in bars, restaurants, and real estate developments throughout the city. Many locals attribute the revitalization of the dining and bar scenes to the Obama administration, from 2008 to 2016.

“The D.C. food and beverage scene has really exploded since Obama took office,” Julie Verratti, co-owner of Denizens Brewing Co., tells VinePair. “Obama really brought in a lot of young people, enthusiastic Gen X-ers, older and younger millennials. That sort of band of people born in the late ’70s through early ’90s going out and being social and supporting locally owned, independent businesses, especially food and beverage businesses, is a huge thing for us.”

With the current administration, she says, “It’s a different group of folks that are here now.”

Washington, D.C.’s reputation as a food and drink destination began to change around 2007. Restaurants such as Bad Saint, Little Serow, Toki Underground, and the newer Maydan brought fresh energy to the dining scene, earning it national accolades.

Many attribute the District’s bar and restaurant resurgence to the Obama years. Credit: Cat Wolinski

Bars were changing, too. Where “Bacardi Coke or Malibu Sprite, or terrible High Balls with tons of Maraschino cherries” once dominated drink orders, the “hotel bar scene” transitioned into creative cocktails with fresh juices, Chantal Tseng, bartender at Petworth Citizen’s Reading Room and 20-year D.C. service industry vet, tells VinePair. “That was such a big deal for this city,” she says.

Pop-up bars and collaborations “opened and widened the drinking scene and eating scene,” Tseng continues, with now-famous restaurants like Rose’s Luxury getting their starts in rotating kitchens. “It’s a whole other avenue that lets so many more people really get their ideas to fruition,” Tseng says.

Reading Room and other highly anticipated bars like the Dabney, Primrose, and Columbia Room slowly, then quickly transformed D.C. drinks.

“Chefs here and bar owners here really work together to lift each other up,” Laura Hayes, food editor at Washington City Paper, tells VinePair. “But that’s starting to change a little bit.”

After the initial restaurant renaissance, out-of-town empires followed, and the up-and-comers of the pre-2010 era started being priced out of their neighborhoods.

“Chains and groups firmly shut local business owners out of storefront opportunities because the skyrocketing real estate prices are only affordable to those entities with deep pockets,” Dr. Sunyatta Amen, owner of Calabash Tea & Tonic, a holistic tea room, vegan eatery, and multiple “Best of D.C.” award winner, tells VinePair in an email. “This inflation of real estate carries over into the residential market as well, making living in a city untenable for the average person.”

The Meatball Shop, a multi-location restaurant based in New York City, is one of many to open a D.C. outpost in recent years. Credit: Cat Wolinski

In April 2014, Peet’s Coffee began plans to open 23 locations in the District. The following March, Trader Joe’s launched a location at 14th and U Street NW.

Then came trendy NYC outposts, like The Smith, which opened in Penn Quarter in February 2017, and on U Street in May 2018. Brooklyn Winery debuted District Winery in August 2017. The Meatball Shop, a sandwich counter with six NYC locations, opened its first-ever outpost on D.C.’s 14th Street in October 2018. In June 2018, David Chang’s Momofuku Milk Bar opened on 15th Street, around the corner from Trader Joe’s.

And as Hayes recently reported, “New York-based wine bar chainlet Vin Sur Vingt Wine Bar [will] replace Drafting Table [at] 1529 14th St. NW” sometime in 2020.

For Verratti, opening Denizens in Silver Spring, about a mile and a half from the D.C. border, was something of a homecoming. “I lived here my whole childhood,” she says. She later lived in the Boston and NYC areas, and returned to D.C. for law school in 2007. In July 2014, Verratti opened Denizens with her wife Emily Bruno and brother-in-law Jeff Ramirez. The trio recently opened a second location in Maryland’s Riverdale Park neighborhood on Memorial Day weekend.

“As someone who grew up here, [moved] away for six or seven years and [came] back as an adult… there was definitely a stark difference,” Verratti says. Fourteenth Street, once known for sex work, now posts “rents over $100 a square foot,” she says. “Local mom-and-pop restaurants and bars can’t afford that rent.”

“One of the things that I do love about D.C. is that you can get any type of cuisine here,” Verratti continues. “As we like to call it down here, the DMV — District, Maryland, Virginia — we are sort of an area of immigrants. There’s a huge variety and a lot of diversity in terms of cuisines and the different types of food and beverages you can have. That being said, the food and beverage business is highly capital intensive, and unfortunately when it comes to access to capital, if you are anything other than a white, straight man, your ability to get the capital you need to open your business just goes down.”

Calabash Tea & Tonic’s inclusive atmosphere and witch-brewed teas make it a popular destination for D.C. residents. Credit: Cat Wolinski

Some are breaking the mold. HalfSmoke, on Seventh Street, “is really catering to the Howard University crowd,” Verratti says of its proximity to and popularity among students of the acclaimed historically black university. Restaurant founder McCain formerly worked in investment banking and real estate development, and was able to raise $2 million in investment to open his restaurant.

“As far as I’m concerned, a key measure of success is to have the employees that work with us and the people in the community around us better off than before we came,” McCain told Washington Business Journal in 2016. “I’m really trying to grow HalfSmoke into a great company, not just another restaurant.”

Kwame Onwuachi, a Food & Wine 2019 Best New Chef and James Beard Rising Star Winner Executive Chef, opened fine dining restaurant Kith/Kin in October 2017. Dishes draw inspiration from Onwuachi’s heritage, which spans Nigerian, Jamaican, West African, and Caribbean, and restaurant experience in New Orleans and New York.

Of course, a business can be new and still serve its community, and its owners don’t need to be local to cater to their residents.

“We have a very, very diverse crowd [at Denizens], and part of that is because the community that we’re in is extremely diverse,” Verratti says. This includes race, gender, age, ethnicity, immigration status, and disability status, she says.

This has a lot to do with proximity, but Verratti says she and her co-founders are also “very proactive about that,” using the brewery’s two levels and beer garden to host a wide range of events. (It also doesn’t hurt that Verratti is immediate past chair and a current member of the Brewers Association Diversity Committee.)

One weekend at the brewery, Verratti says, “[We] had this cannabis open house happening in the downstairs taproom, upstairs was an agnostic Bible study, and then the very next day, upstairs was a 1-year-old’s birthday and downstairs was a drag show. We try to do the things that folks in our community want to participate in.”

Denizens Brewing Co. in Silver Springs draws a diverse crowd, according to co-founder Julie Verratti. Credit: Denizens Brewing Co. / facebook.com

Hayes believes D.C. is still a “locally obsessed dining scene.”

Marvin, a Marvin-Gaye-inspired restaurant on 14th Street specializing in cuisines from Belgium and the American South, organizes community events like a grilled cheese social that draws a diverse crowd.

In Silver Spring, Verratti says, “we have the largest population of Ethiopian people other than the country of Ethiopia. Within a mile radius of my house, there are over 20 different Ethiopian restaurants… which I love, because I love Ethiopian food.”

Additionally, black-owned businesses like Ben’s, Calabash, and HalfSmoke are recognized by grassroots efforts such as DMV Black Restaurant Week.

Despite gentrification and the displacement of many businesses and residents, D.C.’s diverse dining culture persists. In the District as in other cities, Amen says, “local and independent eateries provide a window into culture.” You just have to look.

The article What We Miss When We Celebrate D.C.’s Revitalized Drinks and Restaurant Culture appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/washington-dc-drinks/