#The New York Pops 2016 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sionisjaune · 6 months

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hello i am here for toxic brocedes :)

Post Met Gala 2016, Lewis/Nico with a hint of Lewis/Miles, 1.2k

In the end, Lewis can’t bear to go to the afterparty. He can’t imagine cramming himself into a booth, nodding his head to the glitzy thump of American dance pop, and watching Miles dance and drink and flirt like he didn’t just alter the course of Lewis’s life. So he takes a car back to the Manhattan apartment—drives it himself, even, silent behind the wheel—and sits in the underground parking garage with the engine still running until the worst of the emotion drains out of him. If he was always going to leave alone, it was better that he left on his own terms.

He shuts off the car, ducks out and orients himself towards the elevator. It must have started raining when he was inside the Met, and now it’s all seeped underground, dripping from the concrete ceiling and pooling in the potholes on the garage’s asphalt. The heels of his loafers click and echo. He steps inside the elevator when it arrives.

His apartment is a swanky two-bedroom on the ninth floor that Nicole picked out for him when he was sufficiently big-time to require a base in New York. He still remembers clutching her to his side in this exact elevator while she teetered in her heels, drunk and cold after a night out. That was years ago. He blinks, realizing he hasn’t yet selected his floor. The elevator lurches into motion a moment later, and Lewis’s stomach clenches.

He’s still seeing Miles in his mind’s eye when the elevator opens on his floor. The fucking striped suit. The bleach blonde fucking hair. Miles was seated next to Rihanna, which meant it was impossible for Lewis to make any kind of impression. He blows out a tense breath, halfway down the hallway to his door. As if Miles would want him that way.

Lewis twists the key in the lock, and nudges the door open with his shoulder, expecting the dim stillness of his empty apartment. Orange light spills into the hallway when the door opens instead.

Lewis squints against the light. His head is pounding like the hangover is already kicking in.

“You look rough,” says Nico.

Lewis blinks rapidly, as though shaking a nightmare, but it really is Nico. The shape of him resolves, hunched over a bottle of rum at Lewis’s kitchen island. His blonde hair is too short to flop in his face like it used to. Lewis shuts the door behind himself and kicks his shoes in the vague direction of the closet.

“What are you doing here,” says Lewis. His voice is deadpan and gravelly. Like a smoker, or someone who doesn’t care.

“I saw you on TV,” says Nico, lifting his glass and swirling it around. There are only a few millimetres left, and the bottle is half empty. “You’re… really doing it.” He raises the glass to his lips, but doesn’t drink. “You’re growing out of me.”

Fuck it, Lewis thinks, tossing his keys on the island and sliding into a seat across from Nico. He gestures for the glass, and Nico tops it up obligingly and slides it over. When Lewis drinks, he knows he’s tasting Nico’s saliva on the rim.

“Another one,” says Lewis. Nico tips another few fingers of rum in the glass and Lewis tosses it back. The last time he and Nico were this civil in such close proximity was the beginning of 2013, before Nico was married.

“What are you drinking to?” says Nico, watching Lewis sip on his third glass, cheek resting in his palm, blue eyes limpid underneath the pendant lights.

Lewis sucks down another bitter sip. “I met someone,” he says.

Nico raises an eyebrow. Lewis doesn’t know what reaction he was expecting.

“He’s a fencer,” says Lewis. “Tall, blonde, stylish.”

“And where is he now?” says Nico, glancing around theatrically. It doesn’t have the intended effect, probably because Nico is completely wasted.

“Probably fucking Rihanna,” says Lewis. “Fuck.” He presses his face into his hand. His cheeks are numb. Nico snorts across the island, wiggling the glass out of Lewis’s lax grip and pouring himself another drink.

“I know something that will make us both feel better,” says Nico.

Lewis unburies his face from his hand and fixes Nico with a serious look. He’s only here because Lewis gave him a key when he was still sleeping around on Nicole, and because he saw Lewis on TV and booked a flight to New York, apparently. Nico’s lips are wrapped around the rim of the glass, where Lewis’s just were. He doesn’t look like he’s expecting much.

“No thanks,” says Lewis.

Nico shrugs. “Fair enough. I’ll try again in the morning.”

“How do you figure?” says Lewis.

“I don’t think either of us want to sleep alone tonight,” Nico hazards.

“And what if you’re wrong?” says Lewis. He wants another drink, but he’s still got another twenty minutes before his last few catch up with him. He might end the night kneeling over the toilet bowl. It’s a good thing Nico’s here after all.

“Feel free to send me packing,” says Nico. “I don’t think you’re going to, though.”

Lewis presses his fingertips into the granite countertop. He watches the flesh under his nails turn white. “You’re really fucking irritating, you know,” says Lewis.

“I know,” says Nico, tilting his head.

“You fucking did this to yourself,” says Lewis, gesturing. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing with his hands, other than showing that he’s angry. “You stranded yourself at my apartment because you wanted to test me like this.”

“Test you?” says Nico.

“Yeah,” says Lewis. He can hear himself slurring. It’s remarkable that Nico is still speaking so elegantly. “You want to measure how much I want you.”

Nico snorts. “I’m getting the sense that it’s less than you used to. I fucking miss wanting you, though. I’m sorry your fencer is straight.”

“Yeah,” says Lewis, choking on a little laugh. He misses it too. There’s a hole in him where his feelings for Nico used to be. It’s like the black spot that you see when you stare at a lightbulb for too long, when the rods and cones in your retinas get so excited they burn out. “Come on,” he says, sliding out of his seat.

Nico trails after him, towards the bedrooms in the back of the apartment. “I told you you weren’t going to,” he says.

“Shut up,” Lewis tells him. When he reaches the bathroom, he digs a spare toothbrush out of the mirror cabinet and hands it to Nico. “Wait your turn,” he says.

Nico makes a funny face at that, but he backs out of the bathroom and leaves Lewis to fumble drunkenly around the bathroom for his cleanser and his toothpaste. He finishes up after an indeterminate age, mouth thick with the taste of rum and spearmint, like the foul aftermath of a mojito, and pads out of the bathroom, head spinning.

Nico is sitting on the foot of the bed clutching his spare toothbrush when Lewis enters the bedroom. “I’m finished,” says Lewis, lamely. He strips his shirt off and tosses it at the laundry bin. Nico disappears into the bathroom. Lewis tries to conjure Miles, if only to torture himself, but his thoroughly intoxicated imagination can’t manage it. At least something worked. He slides into bed between cold sheets and buries his head in the pillow. A few minutes later, Nico joins him, tenting the sheets at Lewis’s back.

“Goodnight, Lewis,” says Nico.

Lewis shuts his eyes and carefully doesn’t think about what the fuck he’ll do tomorrow morning when he wakes up sober with Nico in his bed.

“Goodnight,” Lewis croaks, willing sleep towards him.

#i am sincerely interested to hear thoughts on the lewis/nico lewis/miles overlap! i'm trying to catch lewis in the transitional phase #where brocedes is well and truly ending but lewis hasn't yet become the person that could date a man other than nico #i wrote this #brocedes #lewis/miles

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justinsentertainmentcorner · 3 months

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CBS News:

Award-winning journalist Charles Osgood, who anchored "CBS Sunday Morning" for 22 years and was host of the long-running radio program "The Osgood File," died Tuesday at home in New Jersey. He was 91. The cause of death was dementia, his family said. Osgood, a gifted news writer, poet and author, spent 45 years at CBS News before retiring in September 2016. Osgood began anchoring "CBS Sunday Morning" in 1994. During his run on the show it reached its highest ratings levels in three decades, and three times earned the Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Morning Program.

[...]

Often referred to as CBS News' poet-in-residence, Osgood was called "one of the last great broadcast writers" by Charles Kuralt, whom Osgood succeeded as host of the Sunday morning magazine program in 1994. But he did more than carry on a great American oral tradition; he could also play piano, organ, banjo, violin, and was an accomplished composer and lyricist who could also sing along. He employed his many talents inside and outside CBS, sometimes performing with professional orchestras such as The New York Pops, The Boston Pops and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

"To say there's no one like Charles Osgood is an understatement," said "Sunday Morning" executive producer Rand Morrison. "He embodied the heart and soul of 'Sunday Morning.' His signature bow tie, his poetry … just his presence was special for the audience, and for those of us who worked with him. At the piano, Charlie put our lives to music. Truly, he was one of a kind – in every sense." Veteran broadcaster Jane Pauley, who succeeded Osgood as host of "Sunday Morning" in 2016, said, "Watching him at work was a masterclass in communicating. I'll still think to myself, 'How would Charlie say it?', trying to capture the elusive warmth and intelligence of his voice and delivery. I expect I'll go on trying. He was one of the best broadcast stylists and one of the last. His style was so natural and unaffected it communicated his authenticity. He connected with people. Watching him on TV, or listening on the radio, as I did for years, was to feel like you knew him, and he knew you. He brought a unique sensibility, curiosity and his trademark whimsy to 'Sunday Morning,' and it endures."

Former CBS Sunday Morning host Charles Osgood passed away at 91.

#Charles Osgood #Obituaries #CBS #CBS Sunday Morning #Television #Broadcast News Media #The Osgood File

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fellow-travelers-fic-recs · 2 months

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Fellow Travelers Fic Recs | Current WIPs: Feb 2024

Active WIPs with most recent updates posted in the past month featuring time travel, road trips, fake dating and some rare pairs. Happy reading!

✨ Be sure to show the authors some love and appreciation with kudos and comments on the fics you enjoyed!

*Authors: if your tumblr (or other socials) isn’t linked, and you'd like it to be, let me know and I'll be happy to add it. Or, if you are linked, and you'd rather not be, please contact me and I will remove it.

✍️ A Disaster, Beyond Measure by drabbleswabbles* [NR, 1K, 1/?] Hawkins Fuller is a campaign manager with a PR disaster on his hands. The solution involves pretending to date none other than Timothy Laughlin.

Featuring: unrealistic portrayals of the life and job of a campaign manager for the sake of the fake dating trope.

✍️ Manhattan by @morulezopelforever | OpelForever [E, 17K, 17/?] This story is based on Tim's brief romance with Father Gallagher when he was still a student at a Jesuit university in New York, a few years before he met Hawk in Washington. I believe that this little tale of a lost first love broke down any boundary that might have stopped Hawk from starting a courtship with Tim.

Part 1 of The Violet and the Rose

✍️ Too old to play (and too young to mess around) by @bejeweledmp3 | ninav [M, 15K, 2/5] Kimberly Fuller goes on a two-week vacation to San Francisco, in which she: drinks excessive amounts of tea, gets betrayed, cries more than she should, eats donuts, and seeks out truth with the help of a man she only knows from a presentation card; not necessarily in that order. But mostly, she finds her father in every least expected place. And learns to make her peace with what that means.

✍️ I Sing the Body Electric by telescape8* [M, 17K, 7/?] Modern AU. It all starts on Election Night 2016. Tim falls hard. Hawk falls harder.

✍️ Sands of Time (Turn Backwards) by @brouill3r | brouiller [NR, 10K, 4/?] 1987 Hawkins Fuller is full of regrets for the life he's lived, though Tim once told him he regrets nothing. Hawk so wishes he could say the same. In the still night air of a hotel room, clutching a cracked paperweight to his chest like it's carved of the finest gold, Hawk gets his wish. Or, a time-travel fix-it fic that nobody asked for.

✍️ What Happens in Washington by Adidastommo* [E, 7K, 4/?] Hawk knew better than to begin an affair with someone who worked with him, let alone someone who worked for him. It was beyond risky. But, when the recent college graduate Tim Laughlin begins working as his assistant, Hawk starts to challenge his better judgment.

✍️ Sempiternal by winstarkasm* [NR, 7K, 5/20] Sempiternal : eternal and unchanging; everlasting “I will find you, openly choose you, love you without conditions, and be the person you deserve.” - Hawkins Zebadiah Fuller

✍️ We’ll be on the road like jack kerouac by @jesterlesbian | captainquint [M, 2K, 1/5] He tried to think of what Tim would do or say. The man who had only spoken to his son a handful of times over one weekend in 1968, but had seemed to understand him far better than Hawk ever had. The business card felt like it was burning a hole in his pocket. An idea burst to life in Hawk’s mind. This was an emergency if he’d ever seen one. “What would you say to coming with me to San Francisco?”

Or, Hawk and Jackson go on a cross-country road trip to San Francisco.

✍️ Beautiful Things by @carrotcakecrumble | LuxLox [M, 1K, 1/4] -- I turn away from the radio I’d just been tuning, there’s a crackle and pop on the wave, but Miller’s ‘Over the rainbow’ is just about spattering through in tune. Kenny says something about how he loves this one. It could be the first time he’s hearing it, for all I know. He falls in love with everything. – A multi-chapter fic following a young Hawk and Kenny throughout their relationship, from beginning to end.

✍️ Send Back the World by Anonymous [NR, 2K, 1/?] There is nothing so bitter as regret. And nothing so sweet as a second chance.

Or, Hawk gets yet another chance to fuck it up again.

#ftficrecs #fellow travelers fic recs #ftfics wips #works in progress #fellow travelers fics #fellow travelers #ftfics collections #ftfics feb24

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1863-project · 8 months

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Okay, was thinking about it and I remembered a lot of you were very young or not even alive for this, so:

When 9/11 happened I was 12 and had just started 7th grade. I grew up in a suburb of New York City. 12 people from my town died, including a firefighter whose son was in my younger brother's CCD group.

Things changed SO fast. Practically overnight. Suddenly, we were all hypervigilant, and after the immediate response of assistance from around the world, the prejudice was oozing from nearly everywhere. In northern New Jersey, we had and still have a large west (Middle East) and south Asian population. They were hit the hardest.

People freaked out just because a mosque was going to be built in lower Manhattan within several blocks of Ground Zero at one point. It was ridiculous and the Islamophobia was so fucking awful and infuriating. It still is. It didn't go away. For the most part, New Yorkers are usually good to each other because there's literally someone from everywhere here, but this was legitimately terrifying. People would even attack Sikhs - who weren't Muslim, Sikhism is its own thing - because they saw the turbans and made a decision based on racism (i.e. bin Laden had a turban so these people must be like him).

The "patriotism" was miserable. "Freedom fries" happened because people were mad that France didn't want to go into Iraq with Bush in 2003. We all thought it was stupid then too.

The Chicks (formerly known as the Dixie Chicks) got blackballed because they came out against said war. They were one of the biggest country acts in the world at the time. In general, country music went through a massive tonal shift post-9/11 and became far more "patriotic" and conservative. Johnny Cash wouldn't have recognized it.

The Flash movies that inevitably popped up satirizing politics were...something. You can find most of them archived on YouTube these days. But that was how the internet tended to cope back then.

The shift from happiness to paranoia was so fucking fast. I went from a world where my biggest concern was pre-ordering the GameCube to being worried about politics and death all the time. All the news showed was footage of people dying for weeks. Politicians started using the footage in commercials. You just had to keep reliving the trauma of it over and over again. I stopped watching the news.

It was, looking back on it, a huge galvanizing point for the American right. Politicians started using 9/11 to justify so many things. This was where I began to see as a young teenager that you could use people's prejudices to get a grip on power and get what you wanted. I didn't like it.

People started drawing memorial art almost immediately. The phenomenon of memorial art being done decades later with cartoon characters still persists on deviantART to this day, but when it started, it was mostly people doing vent art because it's really upsetting to be a kid and see death on that scale on the news.

It took me 15 years to go back to the site after 9/11. I'd been as a kid in 1997 and I went up in the South Tower with my family. I didn't set foot there again until 2016, 15 years after the attacks. I found the name of the firefighter whose son was in my brother's CCD class. It was surreal.

This chapter of American history arguably closed for many people in 2011, when bin Laden was killed in a raid. I remember watching the Mets play the Phillies that night. Daniel Murphy, who I'd named a cat after two years earlier, was at bat, and suddenly the crowd started chanting "USA." I used my Blackberry to check the news and that was how I found out. I was a senior in college, about to graduate. I don't even remember how I felt, just that the way I found out was so fucking weird.

It was a really stressful, bizarre climate to grow up in. In the time between my 12th and my 22nd birthday, I saw my entire world get turned upside down overnight, massive waves of prejudice, unnecessary wars that killed even more innocent people, literal war crimes (tw: rape, murder, prisoner torture, every other bad thing you can think of under the sun), and the rise of false patriotism and nationalism, which you can still see the right wing harnessing today.

If you're going to mock something here, mock the false patriotism. Mock "Freedom Fries." Mock George W. Bush. Just...don't mock the actual moments where people died. Too many innocent people died from the attacks themselves, the Islamophobia afterwards, and the wars that followed. That shit isn't funny.

#history

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tarasmithshifts · 3 months

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𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃 & 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐑

ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴍᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴅʀ: my name is tara smith, but i'm known as 'azrael'. in 2016 with my friends, kitty and jj formed a band we called 'utopia' and we started on youtube and soundcloud by doing covers, and when we got more popular, we made our first original song. it was called "SOS" (yup it's this one from ABBA but let's pretend yk) and it went viral on soundcloud and very popular on youtube. we got recognision, and it opened the door to music industry.

ᴍʏ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱ ɪɴ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴅʀ: kitty (lily buckley), jj (jack hart), billie eilish, willow smith, conan grey, harry styles and a lot of more!

ꜱ/ᴏ: billie eilish

ᴅɪꜱᴄᴏɢʀᴀᴘʜʏ: we debuted with an ep called "CANNIBAL" as we watched "the show"Hannibal" while writing and it was a huge inspo for this ep. it was also a success, we went on small tour in venues. first in america, then in europe.

⍣ �� we went super popular after we released our first single from our first album called "LOST IN OUR PAST" (2019). it was a huge success. album was full of 70s beats, vocals, etc. we were nominated for multiple awards and won all of them. we became one of the most successful artist of the year, and later even in decade. Our tour sold out in few minutes, and so that's how we did our first world tour. we performed at grammys, the biggest festivals like coachella etc. we won grammys for best album, best group, best group performance, best single & song of the year. we weren't ready for this kind of success, critics after all called this album a "renaissance of 70s music" we became pioneers of group music then, we mixed modern pop, 70s & 80s. we did covers of old songs, and on our tour performed with multiple artists, like tears for fears, fleetwood mac (which was crazy!!!!). at the time me and kitty got together.

⍣ ೋ after the success, we had multiple fights in the band, but we were still making music together. I started to make solo music, but only for fun. we got to work with conan grey, and we made a song "killing me" (yupp also this one but let's pretend!!!) in 2021 our bands needed to split up, as jj decided to left.

⍣ ೋ it was a huge case, fans protested, wanted to know what happened, but we decided to stay quiet. everything was clear, jj wanted something else from life. he started to work as a "ghost writer"

⍣ ೋ after band has split up, i called my managment that i want to release solo music. i didn't want to give up on music because of this situation. week after official announcement from band, i posted info about my first single of my solo album "GLOBAL DRUGS"

it was a huge success, i didn't think that i would go on world tour and sing in stadiums again. i brought kitty with me.

some of fans favourites

⍣ ೋ in december 2022 after i finished tour and came back to u.s., my agent called me that he wants to meet me and kitty. we met 2 days later in new york, in a studio we recorded first ep as "utopia". when we came in, first thing we saw was jj talking to some people in the studio. well, we were so back.

⍣ ೋ in march 2023 out of nowhere we dropped our second album called "WE ARE STILL HERE" and people went CRAZYYY. we had no idea how this album is gonna shake the whole internet and critics. it was completely new - it was jazz, 70s, soul, r&b. something that people claimed we didn't fit. but here we are :)))

⍣ ೋ in may 2023 i attended my first ever met gala, and there, in an interview i confirmed that this was the last project of ‘utopia’ for now. i said “we disappeared out of nowhere and left you all without any information. this is something like a goodbye, but we do not confirm that it will last forever. it depends on our feelings.” i also confirmed that i will release music as solo artist and that kitty will join me as a drummer

⍣ ೋ in may 2023 a week after met gala, i showed the world my summer tour, and except the festivals of course, there were 4 stadium concerts, “bonus” ones, only in europe. Paris, Barcelona, Berlin and final one in London. that’s the time when me and kitty broke up, after, as media called it “London accident”. (there will be another post about it, but basically kitty got herself into alcohol and drugs, and during the London show for almost 2 hours we couldn’t find her, and when my team finally found her, she was completely not contacting with the world around her, and it was not the first time.she couldn’t perform and i didn’t want to cancel the show)

⍣ ೋ in september 2023 i started dating harry styles, but only to january 2024 - we realised that we would love be each other besties than lovers 🤭 (bc in this dr he is a little younger and one direction split up later than in cr, his album “Fine Line” was released in 2024, and “Harry’s House” in late 2025)

⍣ ೋ in january 2024 i confirmed my second solo album, that will release 15/03 🫶

⍣ ೋ after release of this album, me and billie were spotted in public, spreading dating rumours, which we confirmed some months later

"ᴏɴᴄᴇ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ, ᴜᴛᴏᴘɪᴀ" - pinterest board

#reality shifting #shifting #desired reality #shifting community #quantum jumping #reality shifter #shifting realities #fame dr #actress #celebrities

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tomorrowusa · 2 months

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In 2016 we had But Her Emails. In 2024 we have Biden Is Too Old. The sources of these two lines haven't changed: the flailing GOP with an assist by bothsiderist news media.

Yes, it's the same old distraction technique to draw attention away from the leader of the Republican Party who is an adjudicated sex offender who just lost a gigantic lawsuit based on his past use of fraud.

It's time to push back and aggressively. And successful messaging is repetitious messaging – get used to repeating things if you wish to cut through the noise.

But the main thing is not to freak out and to play offense instead of being defensive. For example: Why are so few people on our side bringing up Trump's unhealthy lifestyle? Drinking 12 Diet Cokes® a day and copious chomping of double cheeseburgers wouldn't be recommended for somebody half his age. And what kind of drugs is he being prescribed?

[A]ll of the #BidenTooOld coverage is about as new and revelatory as #ButHerEmails. If nothing else, it proves that a scandal holding that the president forgets things is always going to go down smoother than a scandal in which a special counsel flagrantly violated a long-standing Justice Department practice and protocol not to “criticize uncharged conduct.” As Sullivan was quick to point out, CNN and the New York Times and every U.S. corporate media entity and its cousin jumped onto the bandwagon. [ ... ] Perhaps one way to navigate yourself through this seemingly insoluble morass would be to ask yourself why Biden, who is stipulated #Old, has managed to helm the most successful presidency in modern history. Booming economy, eye-popping jobs reports, first gun violence reduction bill in decades, $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan plus COVID relief, Inflation Reduction Act, infrastructure prioritized, judges seated. Pick your metric—there have been a lot of wins. And the reason this old man who sometimes forgets things like dates has gotten all this done? He has, for the most part, surrounded himself with experts, genuine scientists, respected economists, and effective governmental actors and advisers. Governance is not an action film. There is no minute-to-minute psychodrama involving someone in a tight black T-shirt mincing along the outdoor ledge of a skyscraper, ninja-kicking his lonely way down to the stairwell, where he karate-chops the well-armed baddies and then commando crawls his way into an empty vault with the glass chest where the nuclear reactor sits. No. Despite our fascination with the Great Man theory of American lawmaking, the presidency is an office that largely turns on superb staffing, visionary planning, deft political negotiation, and artful execution. Joe Biden doesn’t actually have to remember every single detail himself—he has to use his judgment to employ and empower a large contingent of skilled experts to execute upon their agreed-upon vision. If you are unconvinced, the best evidence that we keep falling for Great Man fantasy propaganda is the unmitigated failure of the first Donald Trump presidency. Here we had a self-described loner literally trumpeting his I-alone-can-fix-it worldview, all embodied in Great Man megalomania. He managed to accomplish virtually nothing: Almost none of his promises for single-handed economic revitalization, world domination, or intrepid urban crime-solving panned out. His great dreams were either strangled in infancy by staffers or halted by courts. And whether you believe that this happened because Donald Trump surrounded himself with incompetent yes men or steely adults in the room, both versions serve to offer proof of concept: Donald Trump accomplished close to nothing because the people around him were either too inept to put his vision into practice or too skillful at blocking him to allow him to put his vision into practice. Put another way, if you or anyone you know finds themselves reacting to the Biden Is Old revelations with the thought that, sure, Donald Trump is a 91-indictments-richer, adjudicated sexual abuser, defamer, liar, violator of national security, self-enriching, fascist-boosting insurrectionist, but it’s OK because he will surround himself with people who might check those impulses—well, doesn’t it rather intuitively make more sense to instead vote for the highly effective, internationally respected, but yes, sometimes forgetty guy who is surrounded by people with day planners?

A president is a lot closer to being a CEO than a superhero. And when it does come to being businesslike, Trump has declared bankruptcy six times – approximately six more times than Biden. Trump's business "skills" lean heavily towards fraud, deceit, and bullying.

The real reason we all keep falling for Great Man horse race stories is because they are good for fueling fantasies of all-powerful big daddy presidents who control every tiny aspect of governance in their tiny wee hands. If that is your jam, well, it would make sense to vote for the only candidate who believes in the same dream. If it’s not, the question is reducible to rather simple stakes: Do you want the Big Daddy who surrounds himself with sycophants and nutters and people with shared last names, or the one who surrounds himself with competence and expertise? This doesn’t seem, on balance, like a really tricky call. Do we prefer presidents who can backflip and ninja-kick their way to total world dominion? Perhaps. To my knowledge, nobody ever made a Tom Cruise movie about listening and learning and compromising. But if you still believe governance to be a sober and serious enterprise, vote like the alternative is chilling, because it is.

Trump flatters himself as a "stable genius". But it is Biden who brought stable governance back to the US. Being a constantly ranting gasbag is not an indicator of competence.

Very little attention is being paid to psychological age. Trump is just 42 months chronologically younger than Biden, but Trump acts like a toddler who is not yet 42 months old.

Parents with kids who were constantly having temper tantrums and being frequently disruptive would consider taking those kids to a child psychologist. Being a disruptive narcissist in his late 70s does not make Trump seem youthful but instead more like a case study for arrested development as a toddler.

#but her emails!#the age issue #joe biden #maturity #donald trump #trump's temper tantrums #trump's immaturity #trump's narcissism #trump's artrested development #trump's unknown prescription drugs #trump is an adjudicated sex offender #trump is mentally unfit to be president #vote blue no matter who #election 2024

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datshitrandom · 1 year

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Darren Criss + Piano🎹

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the-conversation-pod · 3 months

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The VIIB Awards 2024: Immortal Technique!

Continuing with Part 3 of 5 of the Very Important Internet BL Awards, we are handing out our awards for everyone behind the scenes!

We will be awarding our Best OST Song, Best Music, Best Production, Best Writing, and Best Direction.

Join us today and for the rest of the week as we continue tomorrow with Top Tings. Tell us your winners in the notes!

Timestamps

The timestamps will now correspond with chapters on Spotify for easier navigation.

00:00 - Welcome 01:23 - Introduction 02:34 - Interlude: Making a movie, Eddie Mannix style - Hail, Caesar! (2016) 03:57 - Best OST Song 10:03 - Best Music 16:35 - Best Production 22:13 - Best Writing 27:17 - Best Direction 34:19 - Outro

The Conversation Transcripts!

Thanks to the continued efforts of @ginnymoonbeam as transcriber, and @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader, we are able to bring you transcripts of the episodes.

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00:00 - Welcome

NiNi

Welcome to The Conversation About BL, aka The Brown Liquor Podcast.

Ben

And there it is. I’m Ben.

NiNi

I’m NiNi.

Ben

And we’re you’re drunk Caribbean uncle and auntie here sitting on the porch in the rocking chairs.

NiNi

Four times a year we pop in to talk about what’s going on in the BL world.

Ben

We shoot the shit about stories and all the drama going into them. I review from a queer media lens.

NiNi

And I review from a romance and drama lens.

Ben

So if you like cracked-out takes and really intense emotional analysis…

NiNi

If you like talking about artistry, industry, and the discourse…

Ben

And if you generally just love simping…

NiNi

There is a lot of simping on this podcast…

Ben

We are the show for you!

[fanfare sound]

01:23 - Introduction

Ben

And we're back.

Today on part three of the VIIB Awards we will be awarding Immortal Technique, focusing on all of the production and other support roles that are not the people who are crying, or laughing, or screaming on our screens all the time.

NiNi, please review for the audience the categories we have and our processes.

NiNi

This is usually our favorite episode all year because we get to talk about all the behind the scenes stuff and all the behind the scenes people that make the shows truly great that just give them that extra dazzle and pizzazz that really sells us on the stories.

This is where we talk about, as Ben said, different aspects of production, we talk a little bit about writing and direction. We usually start out talking about music, and then we move into the rest of production, and we swing by writing—one of my favorite things, and then we usually end up on direction. So I think that's the trajectory we're gonna take.

02:34 - Interlude: Making a movie, Eddie Mannix style - Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Baird Whitlock

“…I mean, we may tell ourselves that we're creating something of artistic value or there's some sort of spiritual dimension to the picture business. But, what it really is, is this fat cat, Nick Skank, out in New York, running this factory, serving up these lollipops to the—what they used to call the bread and circuses for the…”

Eddie Mannix

[grabs Baird and slaps him] “Now, you listen to me, buster. Nick Skank and the Studio have been good to you and to everyone else who works here. If I ever hear you bad mouthing Mr. Skank again, it'll be the last thing you say before I have you tossed in jail for colluding in your own abduction.”

Baird Whitlock

“Eddie, I wouldn't, I would never do that!”

Eddie Mannix

[slaps Baird some more] “Shut up! You're gonna go out there and you're going to finish "Hail Caesar!" You're gonna give that speech at the feet of the penitent thief and you're gonna believe every word you say.”

[slaps Baird some more]

Eddie Mannix

“You're going to do it because you're an actor and that's what you do. Just like the director does what he does and the writer and the script girl and the guy who claps the slate. You're gonna do it because the picture has worth! And you have worth if you serve the picture and you're never gonna forget that again.”

Baird Whitlock

“I won't forget, Eddie.”

Eddie Mannix

“Damn right, you won't. Not as long as I run this dump.”

[Baird walks away]

“There, go out there and be a star.”

03:57 - Best OST Song

NiNi

We always start with music ‘cause as Ben reminded me in our little warm up, I care a lot more about this than he does. [laugh]

Ben

I would just award Boy Sompob every year like, “ooh, did Boy make a song? An award for my favorite boy!” [NiNi laughs] And he did this year. Twice!

NiNi

It wasn't even on my radar, bestie. I'm so sorry.

Ben

And he produced Nunew Chawarin, who we awarded last year.

NiNi

Boy Sompob is a staple and a legend. Unfortunately, he is not on our list this year.

Ben

He's on my list always. Don't worry, bestie.

NiNi

So Ben and I have very different musical tastes and as Ben would have mentioned to you guys, I think last year, I am very sensitive to music because I can hear pretty much close to perfect pitch. And it is physically painful for me when music is not good. So when I tell you that a song is good or that the music in a show is good, know that it is being filtered through that particular lens.

Our first award of the night is going to go to Best OST Song. This award is given for the song as recorded, so how the song is composed, how it's produced, and how it's performed. Whether the style of the song matches the show, how the song is used within the show, and honestly whether I will listen to the song every time or whether I'm going to fast forward it.

I will let Ben kick us off with the runner up for Best OST Song. Ben, what did you have on the list here?

Ben

The runner up for Best Original Soundtrack is ‘Plumeria’ from I Feel You Linger In The Air. [applause sound] performed by Cocktail, music by Thitiwat Rongthong and Ohm Cocktail, lyrics by Sichen Li, arranged by Korn Mahadamrongkul, Thitiwat Rongthong, and Cocktail.

‘Plumeria’ in I Feel You Linger In The Air has this really beautiful string component to it that I really enjoy. Of all of the songs we heard this year, it was the one I felt put me in the right mood as I was going into the show every week and I think about the song sometimes more than I do a lot of the songs that we've heard this year.

NiNi

It's a beautiful song, the orchestration is incredibly impressive. I am a person who loves to hear real instruments. I also love some electronic music, but there's something about real instruments and deep orchestration that puts me in a certain mental and emotional place and ‘Plumeria’ is a really beautiful song. Just thinking about it now I'm visualizing the elements within the story of I Feel You Linger In The Air. It's a very effective song for setting mood, like Ben said. So ‘Plumeria’ is our runner up.

The winner for Best OST Song is actually going to Japan this year, to ‘Futatabi’ from The End of the World With You [fanfare sound] performed by HIROBA and Otsuka Ai, music and lyrics by Otsuka Ai and Mizuno Yoshiki, arranged by Tsutaya Koichi.

I love the Immortal Technique episode because we just get to read out lists and lists of names of people who you have probably never heard of, but are really running shit.

Ben

If any of them or their friends or family hear this episode, I apologize if we butchered your names.

NiNi

I am doing my very best with Japanese pronunciation. I am trying extremely hard. I want to get it right. ‘Futatabi’ is the song that plays at the end of every episode of The End of the World With You. It penetrated my consciousness from the very beginning, but the episode where it really, really connected is the episode that ends with all of our heroes screaming at the meteor to go away. They want to live. There is something about it playing over that scene that just sends it into the stratosphere for me, and ever since that moment, every time I hear that song, it just makes me think of that sentiment, that “I want to live” sentiment. It has so much hope to it, so much desperate hope, so much absolute refusal to give up, and it's just a beautiful song.

So, Best OST Song goes to ‘Futatabi’ from The End of the World With You.

Ben

I'm really glad you talked about how you felt emotionally about that song because I just finished showing a friend the Pornographer series, which was made by a lot of the same people who made The End of the World With You. And I feel kind of the same way about the OST for that show as I do about The End of the World With You. There is a similar emotional component to it where the weight pressing down on you is so heavy, but you really don't want to give up and I feel like that team is really good at capturing that.

NiNi

The End of the World With You is a great, fantastic show and if you guys haven't watched it, you can go back to, I believe our spring series, listen to us talk about. Catch the show. We think it's incredible, and you'll get to hear ‘Futatabi’ in context and hopefully you'll agree with me.

10:03 - Best Music

NiNi

We're moving on from Best OST Song to Best Music. The Best Music award covers all the music that is used in a show, so the scoring, the music supervision, music editing, and use of music in the show.

Ben's going to come again here with the runner up for Best Music.

Ben

Ohh it's I Feel You Linger In The Air again. [applause sound] Congratulations to the team at Banana Sound Studio. You all were fantastic. I often feel like the mixing on Thai shows is too loud and I often feel like the musical choices can be really distracting. Even in this show, it's a little too loud for my taste, but there's a fullness and a richness to the way all of the sounds and music are really used that I don't find it distracting. I think it fits the overall tonality of the show, because this is the big swoony romance show of the year, and it's okay for things to be a little bit bigger.

I think I Feel You Linger In The Air is an excellent example of Thai music used really well in a very Thai production and I really wanna note how much I really enjoyed the use of traditional Thai music in a Thai historical show.

NiNi

I have to concur, the music all over I Feel You Linger In The Air and the way it was used were really fantastic, really helped sell the emotional weight of the story and particularly the decisions of where to use music and where to use silence, which I think is equally important. Great runner up.

The winner—and Ben’s going to shade me about this, because last year I told him that just because something's a musical, it doesn't automatically win Best Music—and I will maintain that. The winner of Best Music doesn't just win it this year because it's a musical, but because of how they use the music.

And the winner of Best Music this year is My School President. [fanfare sound] Composer Tong Atthaphol Rujiraprawat and Okomo P, music supervisor. The way that the music is used inMy School President, the way that it's constructed, where they use originals, where they use covers, where they use diegetic music, where they use non-diegetic music. For those who are not familiar with these terms, diegetic music is music that is occurring within the context of the story. So this is music that can be heard by the characters, basically, while non-diegetic music is not heard by the characters, so that's usually musical overlays, soundtracks, things like that.

My School President uses both. It uses original songs, it uses covers. It has very interesting scoring, I thought, aside from the jukebox musical feel of it and the jukebox musical elements themselves were also phenomenally used, I think. Basically somebody put a lot of effort into making the musical make sense as a story emotionally and through the characters. More than just making the music entertaining, it turned the music itself into a story. ‘Cause if you go through the songs in order of when they appear in the show, that trajectory, that path is also telling a story. I think that this was so well done. That is why it wins the Best Music of the year.

Ben

And now, audience, if you can imagine NiNi sitting in a brightly lit room. And suddenly the lights dim. [NiNi laughs] A moment of shade.

How dare you? [laughs] You shat on my favorite little musical from last year. You didn't even watch it!

NiNi

I did not. I started watching it—

Ben

You scoffed!

NiNi

—and I still intend to finish. I never scoffed. How dare you? [Ben laughs] I even said, I even said that the episodes that I did watch it I thoroughly enjoyed the music. I just haven't finished it yet.

Ben

I love that show.

NiNi

I'm not accepting that shade because I have never shaded Rainbow Prince. I liked Rainbow Prince. I just have not had time to finish it. I loved the music that I heard so far from Rainbow Prince. I did not shade it.

Ben

All right, back to the serious. I really enjoyed the music of My School President. I had a lot of fun with it. NiNi and I ended up selecting different songs that really stuck with us, but I really liked Let Me Tell You, that was still my favorite one. That one gets me, I think the most of all of the songs they did in that little show, a lot of fun.

NiNi

For me, my favorite song is the Palmy cover. It's the first song that they sing.

Ben

Unfortunately for them, I am a fan of Palmy, and while it was very cute to see these teenagers sing Palmy, they are not Palmy.

NiNi

Of course they're not Palmy. But that's the point. It's a cover.

Ben

It was fun. It was an okay cover.

NiNi

I especially like that when they do do the covers, so the Chinzhilla band in My School President, they call themselves a Brit pop band, which, mmm, debatable. However, all of the cover songs sound exactly like a high school band that thinks they're singing Brit Pop would sound, which I thought was really clever arranging and composing of the songs. I was definitely impressed that the song sounded like a high school garage band.

Ben

When I did relent to awarding My School President, it was because the music felt properly tuned to the characters themselves, and I thought that that was clever.

NiNi

It's well done, man. It really is well done. I don't think I've seen a use of music like that in BL, and hopefully it's not the last time we see a use of music like that, whether it's in a musical or not.

16:35 - Best Production

NiNi

Moving on from music, we're now moving into the rest of production. The Best Production award. This is the award for basically all the world building stuff. So this is production design and art direction, set design, costuming, hair, makeup, sound design, coloring—the aesthetic specificity. Basically all the things that contribute to what I like to call the vibe of the story.

The runner up for Best Production is If It's With You [applause sound] from Japan, the production house is MBS, the production designer is Sasuke Yamamoto, and the art director is Satoshi Nonogaki.

I love Japanese production and what I love about Japanese production is particularly Japanese set design. Japanese locations and sets I think are so well done, and they tell you so much about the characters and the environment that it's happening in. I always talk about how I love on screen, looking at a Japanese apartment, because a Japanese apartment is so specific, not just to Japan, but also to the characters. You learn so much about characters in a Japanese production just by looking at the environments they're being placed in.

When it comes to If It's With You, you get a sense from Amane's house what his life is like. You get a sense from Ryuji's house, ‘cause Ryuji lost his dad and he is working a lot to help his family. There's a little bit of a chaos to his house, but then there's the corner where his dad's shrine is, and that is perfectly maintained. It is clean and organized and everything. I love the production design on If It's With You.

Ben

If you're coming from American television and you primarily watch Thai BL, you're going to be paying way too much attention to faces when you watch Japanese media. And if you are only watching the faces of Japanese actors, you are likely missing 60% of the show. Space itself is such an important component in the way the Japanese construct their stories.

I talked about this in other episodes about how they very much believe in the foreground, middle ground, background, all having different elements of active storytelling. If It's With You is probably one of the better examples of this phenomenon this year, primarily because it's so short. MBS was able to spend their money in a really effective way. There's so much to observe in the way their hair is styled, the clothing, the lighting in the scene. Someone wrote about the way the light is used in the confession scene Amani has when he runs away.

You have to pay attention to more than just dialogue and the expression of strong emotion on an actor's face when you're going to watch Japanese media, or generally any media from a country other than your own, because you have to start learning that culture's film language. If It's With You it's a great one to go watch again if you've already watched it to look at these other elements: what the set design, what the costuming, what the hair and makeup, what the lighting, is trying to communicate to you along the way.

NiNi

We didn't really talk about the hair and makeup, particularly on Amane. I thought it was incredibly clever because Amane is kind of portraying this happy go lucky free spirit, and everything about the way his hair is styled, the way he dresses, it's all in service of him putting that face out to the outside. But he is masking. He is a sad boy masking as happy.

Ben

Ha! My favorite type of gay!

NiNi

Let's move on to the winner of the Best Production category.

Ben

Best Production this year again goes to a Thai team. It goes to Dee Hup House, production designer Takanta Kultrakarn and art director Le Phong Phu On for I Feel You Linger in the Air.

[fanfare sound]

I Feel You Linger in the Air, in totality, creates this beautiful vision of what Thailand looked like outside of Bangkok a century ago, and tries to imagine how those people might have used the spaces they existed in and moved around them. And there are a lot of really beautiful details, down to the type of cutlery that's used, the way they use the plates. Obviously, the costuming they wear, but even how they have people sit and move around, the way they create the illusion of space with their locations.

It's a really excellent piece on every level. It's so rich, and you can feel so much environmental storytelling going on with the location itself. And then there's interesting interplay with the house and the past and the present. It is just so excellently done. It is probably the most visceral show that we got to watch this year. The world that they create feels so believable that you almost feel like you could touch it.

It's really hard to do that. It is not easy. Congratulations to Dee Hup House, because goddamn.

NiNi

They put their foot in that, no lie.

22:13 - Best Writing

NiNi

Moving on to my main bitch: Best Writing. [laughs] When we're talking about the writing in the story, we're talking about the idea behind the story and setting up the characters; the story itself – that's the structure and the plot and character development. We're talking about screenplay, and then we're talking about script, dialogue, cadence, character voice. All these elements come into the best writing.

Ben

We actually had, like, a little spat [laughs] over awarding this category.

NiNi

Just a little one, not a big one. We ultimately agreed on who the top two were, but we couldn't agree on who was going to be the runner up and who was going to be the winner.

Ben

[laughs] I'll let you talk about the runner up.

NiNi

The runner up for Best Writing is La Pluie [applause sound] written by Fluke Teerapat Lohanan and Tanachot Prapasri. La Pluie is one of the best two, obviously, written stories of the entire year. There is no flab to that story. That story is written intensely. The way that they build out the world and the characters, the way that they set up the premise, the words that are put in the characters’ mouths, the way that the characters are developed, the fact that it allows characters to be wrong without being villains.

In terms of not just fiction, but genre fiction, which is incredibly hard to write, it is incredibly difficult to write genre fiction that does not feel…made-up. Of course, all fiction is made-up, but genre fiction there has to be an element of believability to it. You have to sell the idea in such a way that it feels real. It feels like something that could happen. The way that La Pluie sets up its world in the writing, the concept of this rain deafness phenomenon feels like a real thing that could happen in the world.

So you've set up the genre fiction side of it, and then onto that you add basically a retooling of the entire idea of romantic fiction. It's so cleverly done. It's like they looked at—and this is very clear, I mean it's even in the show—it's like they looked at Nora Roberts romance and said, “We're gonna take this to the next level. We're gonna show you what this would play out like if we did it in the real world, and then we're going to subvert that. We're going to twist it. We're going to turn it on its head. But it's still gonna be recognizable as romance.” It is some of the cleanest, deftest writing that I've seen in a while.

Ben

La Pluie is one of the best written shows of the year because you can refer to specific episodes, start talking about a couple of details, and the audience will be right back there. La Pluie has less than 15 seconds of recap going into each of their episodes. That's how strong the writing is in that show. Each episode is covering specific ground that they don't really need to do much other than remind you with a couple of shots where we left off, and you can go, “Oh, okay, yeah,” and we're right back in it.

I don't want to gush about La Pluie too much. I have much to say about La Pluie. I will not go on at length here.

The winner for Best Writing of this year goes to MAME, May Orawan Vichayawannakul for Wedding Plan. [fanfare sound] I was not expecting to be awarding MAME this year.

NiNi

Nobody was, bestie.

Ben

But I wanted to award Wedding Plan because I think MAME did a good job deconstructing and playing around with the types of dynamics she likes to put with her characters, and then telling a genuinely queer story within the structures of BL. I think that that is an incredibly impressive feat. It can't be overstated how complete Wedding Plan feels as a work. I have no lingering questions about the cast of characters in the show. This show was not being greedy with the audience's attention and hoping to milk us for more after the fact. They just sat down and told a really compelling story about what it means to try and work your way out of the closet in the least destructive way possible. Excellent job.

27:17 - Best Direction

NiNi

This is the Best Direction award. This is awarded for overall vision, filmmaking style, and visual impact, so photography, cinematography, shot selection, editing, directing, actor movement and expressions. These are all the elements that go into the best direction criteria.

Our runner up goes to Ishibashi Yuho, who directed Our Dining Table and Tokyo in April is…

[applause sound]

So the directing team here is Ishibashi Yuho, who is the main director on Our Dining Table. They directed along with Iizuka Kashou and Kamimura Naho, the DP or cinematographer is Hayasaka Shin. The editor is Takahashi Masakazu. On Tokyo in April is… Ishibashi Yuho, directed with Honda Daisuke and Kishida Masayoshi. The DP is Kato Taishi. The editor is Ohashi Masakazu.

Japanese direction is so specific. It comes from a very theatrical tradition, and sometimes I find that a little hard to digest depending on the strength of the actors, but generally I tend to like it. The theatricality to the direction, the fact that the set is seen sort of as a stage, and the actors enter and exit and move around in the space. It requires an understanding and awareness of space, both on the part of the actors and definitely on the part of the director because what you then put in front of the camera, because the camera, it moves, yes. But when you're talking about Japanese direction, camera is largely static, and everything else is moving within the frame.

Ben

You’re not really watching Japanese media until you start noticing that they're slowly zooming in on a character and that as a character is slowly excluded from the frame, they are not part of the current emotional beat that we're on.

NiNi

You're right, when the camera does move, it doesn't tend to be moving across the shot, but sort of in and out. So maybe the camera is zooming, or maybe there's some kind of dolly movement happening, but the dolly movement is going for depth into the scene rather than moving across the scene.

It is so fascinating, and I think that Ishibashi Yuho is sort of a master of it. Thinking about the direction at Our Dining Table, the way that she shoots the Ueda house. How you get an understanding of the space inside the Ueda house without the camera moving around very much, but where the camera is placed becomes important, and what the camera focuses in on becomes important. And then how those shots are pulled together become important.

Ben

I really hope we get to see her doing some more stuff in genre because I like where her priorities are. Not only is she really good at running a set and creating projects that are really easy to grok and connect to, she seems to care about the way gay men are presented in her work, and I really appreciate that.

NiNi

Congratulations to our runner up.

Ben, why don't you tell us who our winner is?

Ben

The winner for Best Direction this year goes to Baek Inu and Werner DuPlessis for The Eighth Sense. [fanfare sound] Director of Photography Yang Gyunsang, edited by Werner DuPlessis.

This project was a Korean and German team up, and it was unlike much of what we had watched from Korean BL in the last couple of years. They very much leaned into, like a—what’s the German term for their coming of age films?

NiNi

Bildungsroman.

Ben

It feels a whole lot like that, but it also feels like a moody Park Chan-wook film [laughs] the whole time, too. It was really fascinating watching these guys blend their styles together, and bring out these really strong performances and a lot of unknowns. There's a lot—like, I'm just sitting here. I'm thinking about the frenetic filming of episode 6. I'm thinking about the way they filmed Jae Won losing it and running to sock Tae Hyung, the way they used the framing of perspective when Ji Hyun sees whatever that nasty girl’s name was [laughs] kissing Jae Won in front of the bar. It's really good.

NiNi

I concur, it is really good, and the filmmaking...I mean, some of the things that they were able to do. I think there was an entire second unit that just handled the surfing scenes. And those scenes are truly impressive, the way that the water work was shot, it mimicked the sense of being on the waves—that feeling of never being entirely stable and occasionally getting knocked over. And it still captured the beauty of being in the sea.

And then, like you said, some of the frenetic filmmaking around Jae Won's mental state, and how that episode that you got so pissed [laughs] with everybody else about, about them saying that it wasn't real, but it felt dreamlike for a reason because Jae Won was probably, like, tits up out his mind on some kind of drugs, maybe, so it feels surreal. The way that the episode after the accident, when they come back to school and you don't know what exactly happened, and the whole thing is sort of tinged in this subdued, almost monochrome coloring until you find out what happens. And then the color slowly starts coming back to the show.

It's very, very well executed from a direction perspective, the way that the camera moves, the way that the actors are directed, the way that the show is edited together, just every aspect of the visual filmmaking. The overall vision for the show is coherent, it's cohesive, it's comprehensive, and it's damn good.

Best Direction 2023 VIIB award goes to The Eighth Sense. Baek Inu and Werner DuPlessis.

34:19 - Outro

NiNi

We have come to the end of our Immortal Technique VIIB Award segment. Next up tomorrow, if I have edited this correctly—always the caveat—we will be looking at our Top Tings. All of the top tops, the highest highs, of the BL for 2023.

So until then, we out. Say “bye” to the people, Ben.

Ben

Peace.

#podcast #lgbtq #the viib awards #thai bl #bl series #winter series #japanese bl #korean bl #the conversation #ben and nini's conversations #Spotify

29 notes · View notes

envieuu · 4 months

Text

୧ ও THE MEMBERS OF ENVIE ଓ ৴

TW. ABUSIVE PARENTS

JANG MIJOO was born on February 20, 2000, in MOKPO, SOUTH KOREA to a religious family. She was raised with both her religion and school life as her top two priorities. However, during her childhood, she'd grown a love for singing. She would sing all the time, to the point the people around her would get annoyed of it. Though they couldn't deny that she had a beautiful voice. This is when her parents decided to make use of her talents by putting her in their services choir. Due to this, Mijoo and her family quickly became notable members of their church.

Although she enjoyed singing with her church, Mijoo saw something bigger for herself. She saw herself becoming a name that people would recognize. This was when she realized that she wanted to become a gospel singer. At the age of 13, Mijoo uploaded her very first video to YouTube of her singing a rendition of one of her favorite gospel songs. This would become a frequent for the young girl as she would go on to post multiple covers at least every two weeks.

Gradually, she would see a rise in views that would eventually lead to her discovery by HONEYMOON AVE Productions at the age of 16 years old. Mijoo went on to sign a contract with them and would gear up for a solo debut only a year later. She would release a few songs before going practically radio silent until 2020 when her contract was bought by FLEURY RECORDS. Following her new exclusive contract, Mijoo began her training with the Envie lineup and continued to debut as the group's MAIN VOCALIST

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ THE BASICS

FULL NAME. Jang Mijoo

BIRTHDATE. February 20, 2000

ZODIAC. Pisces

BIRTHPLACE. Mokpo, South Korea

HOMETOWN. Mokpo, South Korea

ETHNICITY. Korean

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ CAREER

OCCUPATION. Idol

GROUP. Envie

POSITION. Main Vocal

YEARS ACTIVE. 2016 - present

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ PHYSIQUE

HEIGHT. 5'3" (161cm)

FACECLAIM. Kim Jiwoo

BODY MODIFICATIONS. Standard Lobe Piercings

YING JIALI, formerly known as POPPY, was born on June 7, 2000, in Huangzhou, China, but moved to NEW YORK, where she resided in QUEENS. She was raised in a household with her two sisters--one older, one younger--by her cook mother and her father who worked an office job. Her childhood wouldn't be described as ideal by anyone, as her father was abusive to her, her siblings, and her mother alike. Even though she would stay quiet and to herself in the house, she would receive majority of his lashings.

Even in the strife, Jiali found her passion. She was in love with dancing and would use it as an escape from her challenging domesticity situation. With an idea of how she could get away from her father, she snuck out on several occasions to auditions for dance teams. Somewhere along the lines, Jiali found out about K-Pop and was inspired by senior groups like GIRLS' GENERATION and FLOE&HAIL. This is when she would stumble upon advertising for global auditions at FLEURY RECORDS, which excited her because it happened to be the agency that housed the group mentioned prior. She would sneak out once again and audition for the label and luckily was accepted.

In one night, she would quickly leave her family behind, writing notes specifically for her sisters and mother. She vowed to provide for them once she makes it where she wants to be in life. She began training with Fleury and was even sent to participate in the 2018 survival show PRODUCE 48 as POPPY where she would ultimately rank #18, unfortunately not making it into the lineup. Although disappointed, this would later work out in her favor when she would be able to debut as Envie's MAIN DANCER, LEAD RAPPER, and SUB-VOCAL.

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ THE BASICS

FULL NAME. Ying Jiali

ENGLISH NAME. Briella Ying

BIRTHDATE. June 7, 2000

ZODIAC. Gemini

BIRTHPLACE. Huangzhou, China

HOMETOWN. New York City, New York

ETHNICITY. Chinese

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ CAREER

OCCUPATION. Idol,

GROUP. Envie

POSITION. Main Dancer, Lead Rapper, Sub-Vocal

YEARS ACTIVE. 2018, 2021 - present

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ PHYSIQUE

HEIGHT. 5'7" (170cm)

FACECLAIM. Shen Xiaoting

BODY MODIFICATIONS. Standard Lobe Piercings, Upper Left Arm Tattoo, Tragus Piercings

LEE KIYEON was born on July 1, 2001 in SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA to an orthodontist father and psychiatrist mother. It's safe to say that she was raised in a wealthy household, her upbringing never being one in struggle of finance and bathing in luxurious items. From the time she was 4 years old, she pursued a serious career in ballet. Her mother, in spite of being a psychiatrist proved to take a serious mental toll on her daughter as she seemed to live vicariously through Kiyeon. She was unhealthily attached to her life and often pressured her in her ballet career. Though at her prestigious studio a lot of her peers despised her, and the competition was dire, Kiyeon's own mother probably served as her biggest enemy.

Somewhere along the lines, she was deemed something close to a prodigy by her instructors and peers alike. She would go on to score lead roles in a large sum of the institution's productions, but this wouldn't come without heavy competition between her and one of her friends at the company that would last for years and be a detrimental to her psyche. Either way, because of her performance quality, she would be scouted by a talent agent at Fleury and become a favorite among the trainees. After training with the ensemble, she would debut as Envie's beloved MAIN VOCALIST, LEAD DANCER, and VISUAL.

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ THE BASICS

FULL NAME. Lee Kiyeon

BIRTHDATE. July 1, 2001

ZODIAC. Cancer

BIRTHPLACE. Seoul, South Korea

HOMETOWN. Seoul, South Korea

ETHNICITY. Korean

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ CAREER

OCCUPATION. Idol, Ballerina

GROUP. Envie

POSITION. Main Vocal, Lead Dancer, Visual

YEARS ACTIVE. 2005 - 2018, 2021 - present

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ PHYSIQUE

HEIGHT. 5'6" (167cm)

FACECLAIM. Kim Minjeong

BODY MODIFICATIONS. Standard Lobe Piercings, Upper Right Arm Tattoo

KANNIKA SHINAWATRA, professionally known as YANA or YANA SHINAWATRA, was born on September 13, 2002, in CHIANGMAI, THAILAND to an acupuncturist father and an actress mother. From a very young age, Yana knew what she wanted to be: a star. She looked up to her mother as a little girl who was a popular actress in Thailand and often wished to be adored just like her mother. Yana began getting recognized once she got a little older and was often casted for small roles as a child actress for advertisements and tv series. However, acting wasn't really a passion for Yana. It was performing that inspired her most.

Talent agents recognized Yana's natural star power and often tried to scout her for multiple opportunities. But there was one thing that stood in the way of her dream, her mother. Her mother found her charisma and talent cute when she was younger but seemingly started to sabotage her own daughter. She would purposely ruin her chances to claim fame and get big. Yana's mother felt as though because she was getting older and receiving less attention, her daughter was beginning to steal all of her limelight. Her jealousy caused much conflict between the two, many extreme arguments conspiring almost every day within the household.

This led to Yana finding a manager of her own instead of her mother playing the role. Due to this, she was given the chance to seek labels that would be able to house her best. She would then audition for Fleury and ultimately be accepted, where she would begin her training with Envie, eventually debuting as the charming MAIN RAPPER, LEAD DANCER, LEAD VOCAL, and MAKNAE.

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ THE BASICS

FULL NAME. Kannika Shinawatra

BIRTHDATE. September 13, 2002

ZODIAC. Virgo

BIRTHPLACE. Chiangmai, Thailand

HOMETOWN. Chiangmai, Thailand

ETHNICITY. Thai

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ CAREER

OCCUPATION. Idol

GROUP. Envie

POSITION. Main Rapper, Lead Dancer, Lead Vocal, Maknae

YEARS ACTIVE. 2021 - present

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ PHYSIQUE

HEIGHT. 5'4" (166cm)

FACECLAIM. Anatchaya Suputtipong

BODY MODIFICATIONS. Standard Lobe Piercings, Lower Back Tattoo, Outer Conch Piercings, Right Helix Piercing, Upper Lobe Piercings

21 notes · View notes

cdaae · 7 months

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Why Am I Like This- Phantom Collector Edition

I’m a completionist and an obsessive so I need all the different versions of a thing so here’s a list of where I’m at right now. I wish I could say that I was anywhere near done but there’s always more phantom stuff to collect

Books

Gaston Leroux x51(This includes all 6 English translations, 8 different languages, and three levels of French)

Gaston Leroux signed by Broadway Cast

The Underground’s of the Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Bathtub

Night of the Phantom

Embrace the Night

Lessons from the Phantom of the Opera

Song of a Maiden

Madrigal

Phantom

Unmasqued

Phantom of Manhattan

Ruinsong

Roseblood

Beyond the Masque

Chanson de L’Ange

Sing Me Forgotten

The Angel of the Opera

The Phoenix of the Opera

The Phantom’s Opera

The Phantom of Paris

The Phantom’s Apprentice

Where Dreams Descend

The Phantom Cat of the Opera

Phantom Pop Up Book

George Perry’s Complete Phantom of the Opera

Phantoms of the Opera

The Trap Door Maker

Phantom Graphic Novel x2

The Phantom Cooks

2004 Companion

Geronimo Stilton

Thea Stilton

My Phantom

Phantoms in the Night

Phantom of Pemberly

Phantom of the Auditorium

Behind the Phantom’s Mask

The Phantom Returns

Phantom erotica

Book cassette

Souvenir edition OLC

Emoji of the opera

Phantom 2020

Phantom Phantasia

Songbird

The Phantom’s Lullaby

Phantom of the Little Russian Theatre

Masked Love

Treasures of Egypt

Victory

Venetian Romance

Susannah’s Secret

The Man in the Shadows

Love in the Spotlight

Let the Dream Begin

A Phantom’s Promise

Destiny’s Curse

Phantom by David Bischoff

Mini Leroux

L’Opera de Paris

Paris National Opera

Palais Garnier

Peeping Duck Gang

Out of the Darness

L’Opera De Paris Coulisses etc secrets du Garnier

Claude Rains Book

Movies/CDs/Media

Lon Chaney

Claude Rains x2

Herbert Lom x2

Phantom of Hollywood

Schell

Robert Englund

Charles Dance

David Staller

Julian Sands

2004 x17 (English x2, French x3 Germanx2, Greek, Spanish, Italian, limited(English and German), deluxe, and Ultimate, Special, Collectors(English and French)

Angel of Music

25th Anniversary

Love Never Dies

A Monster in Paris

Phantom of the Grindhouse

Anthony Mann

Phantom of the Theatre

Unmasking the Masterpiece

Love on Safari

Faust

1987 Cartoon(dvd & VHS)

Mystery Legends Phantom Game x2

2004 digital press kit(English and French)

OLC (cassette & CD)

CDs x59

Phantom of the Paradise Record

OLC small record(wywsha&motn)

Long box cd

Long box 2004

2004 VHS

Movie/book set

Long box OLC cassettes

Karaoke cassettes

Highlight cassettes

Robert Englund VHS

For Your Consideration 2004

Book casettes

Stage Fright

Props/Signed/Similar

Love Never Dies audience gift notebook

1992 tour Auction book prop

Jerry Mitchell signed LND after party invite

Phantoms Note from BWay x2

Don Juan Music from BWay x1 1/2

Ticket to 25th Anniversary Party

Majestic Theatre Phantom Barricade Cover

Photo cards, signed x16

Signed LOBs x2

Robert Englund autograph

Laird Mackintosh autograph

BWay 29th anniversary cast gift beanie

KAV’s dressing gown shoes

Manager’s BWay newspaper prop x4

Cast board name placards x3(2 BWay one Vegas)

Reopening cookies x2

London 35th anniversary rose petals and card

Il Muto page boy stockings

OBC cast member costume gloves

Printed cast member email

Cast made calendars 2006 and 2007

Full cast signed poster with Hugh

Signed trading card

Signed Michael Crawford Face mask

Signed Crawford Article

Signed 35 Poster

Signed Mask

Scrap of Christine’s wedding dress

Scrap of phantoms suit

10th anniversary invite

Opera glasses cast gift

Magazines

24/7 Magazine featuring Crivello

NYC City Guide 2014 & 2016

TODAY featuring Vegas

What’s On Vegas

Time Out New York

German LND

Theater Week 1988

In Theater 1998

Casino Player Magazine

Fate Magazine

Broadway Spotlight

Other

Megstine notebook

Mugs x7

Cups x5

Water Bottle

Ornaments x5

Phantom harmonica

Red death figure

Lon Chaney figure

Phantom Nutcracker

Phantom and Christine Barbies

Tote bag x4

Phantom creamer tops, complete set

Postcards x6

LOBs x2

Magnet x5

Stickers x12

Phantom Cat sticker set

Chibi phantom sticker set

Angel patch

Greeting cards x2

Posters x5

Art print

Calendar

Ramin based doll

Phantom doll + Ayesha

Snerik

Pen

Mardi Gras coin

Felt Raoul and Erik

Francœur bean

Small hand painted canvas

25th Anniversary limited edition boxed set

Canada gift bag

Mexico phone card

Japanese train card x2

Trading card

Lon Chaney money

Lon Chaney stamp

Pencil

Phone case

Gift bag

Japanese posters x6

Herbert Lom ad stamp

Complete LND London draft script

Blanket

Operetta

34th Anniversary blank playbill sticker sheets

Goosebumps pen

Goosebumps magnet

Goosebumps stickers x9

Bendyfigs phantom

German postcard

Angel of Music coffee

Where Dreams Descend popcorn holder

Raoul and Christine art print

Large paper bag

1994 calendar

Ireland phone card

Movie screening invite

German something?

Frame

Vegas key card

Angel of music bear

Tea towels x2

Mask sticker

Blockbuster card

Phantom press invite

Mini 2004 scrapbook

Playing cards

Assorted Japanese 2004 film memorabilia(10 pieces)

2004 film poster and booklet

1999 ticket info

2023 newspaper clippings

Gingerbread ornament

Aussie keychain

Phantom/Christine blanket

2011 wall calendar

2012 wall calendar

2013 wall calendar

Angel ornament

Universal Erik doll

Sarah/Steve Ad

1993 calendar

2004 Mylar

1995 calendar

Italy confetti

Crawford ornament

Halloween figure

Matchbox

Soap?

Heart frame

Jewelry

Pins x11

Charm bracelet

Necklace x2

Key chains x14

Replica Ring

Hair bow x2

Think of Me hair clips

Jewelry pouch

Music Boxes

Square black jewelry music box

Il Muto

Limited Edition boat scene

Boat Scene

Phantom and Christine wedding

Porcelain signs x2

Limited edition mirror scene

Mirror scene

Mirror

Limited edition MotN

Red Death

Throne water globe

Music water globe

Phantom w/ stick water globe

Rooftop water globe

Russian egg(?)

Mirror scene water globe

Phantom w/ stick

Phantom in throne

Monkey music box

Limited edition Jack in the box

Boat scene water globe(broken globe)

Russian egg (?? Missing top)

Small music box(no music)

Universal Phantom and Christine

Phantom and Christine with Marni

Opera House

Phantom Automata

Madame Alexander Christine Doll

Broken Mirror

Erik and Christine porcelain figure

Music pedestal

Clothing

Socks

Glow in the dark boxers

Night shirt

Phantom BWay x2

Sydney Harbour shirt

Christine dressing gown VTC

Peacock dress

US tour grey shirt

Christmas Sweatshirt

Toronto shirt

Candy of the Opera

1988 mask shirt

Phantom of the Opry shirt

New York shirt

Mask sweatshirt

Ghost Red Death Shirt

35th anniversary shirt

Italy shirt

Programs/Playbills/ETC

Loose understudy slips x14

Ticket stubs x11

Newspaper clippings

Mini flyers x6

Flyers x40

Ken Hill souvenir program

2004 film souvenir program

ALW souvenir programs x49

BWAY playbills x63

Signed playbills x12

Tour playbills x20

London programs x18

YK phantom playbill

World tour playbill

Melbourne playbill

Robert Englund film souvenir program

Italy program

Sweden program

Music Books

ALW piano x3(easy, intermediate, expert)

2004 film

YK phantom

LND London

I can honestly say this may not even be everything because sometimes I forget to add new acquisitions to the list. If there’s anything on the list you wanna see pics of, I’m happy to share!

#phantom of the opera #personal #phantom #the phantom of the opera

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foxes-that-run · 5 months

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2016 Haylor Timeline

Timeline Tag, or years 2011, […], 2015, […] and 2024.

1 January - Yachtgate with Kendall, OOTW video released with Haylor references galore, including HS on her wrist. 12 Jan - CH and TS seen for for last time till March.

6 January - Harry posted photo of rain on a window. On 6 January 2015 Taylor posted Clear Blue Water" which may have been the day they last broke up.

14 January - rather than dine alone with CH TS encourages 14 year old fan sit with them

17 January - Taylor didn't acknowledge Calvin's birthday. Taylor is in New York

18 January - Tabloid gossip that Taylor is jealous of the yacht, she had been liking angsty Tumblr posts about Harry. Out of the Woods official release Taylor back in LA

21 January - Harry celebrates 22nd Birthday in London, early, with Nick Grimshaw, stylist spends the night in his house. Kendall flies LA to Paris…. if she and Harry were dating she would have flown a day early and been at his London birthday party??

23 January - Taylor releases New Romantics. Kendall and Harry at Jeff's birthday roast. Kendall is wearing a Big o' Fur (Pop tart??) and leaves alone.

24 January - Harry celebrates his 22nd birthday in LA, also early with Glenn (Jeff's wife) and presumably others.

26 January - 58th Grammys, Taylor performed Out of the Woods, Harry posted photo of woods.

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27 January - Harry signs with Jeff Azoff, also in LA. timeline

29 January - Taylor posted ““So how do you spend your time now that the tour is over?”” with video with Meredith, I love it.

1 February - Harry unseen on birthday, tweets "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22."

3 February Harry looked fine AF in this Hawaiian shirt

11 February - Kanye releases Famous - it's snake time.

15 February - Harry at Clive Davis party

16 February - Taylor wins the Grammy Album of the Year for 1989. Calvin was at an after-party in a t-shirt. In Miss Americana (21 mins in) she says 'I remember thinking afterwards, Oh my god, that was all you wanted. You get to the mountaintop and you look around and Oh god, what now? I didn't have a partner I climbed it with, I didn't have anyone I could relate to, I had my mom, but I wondered shouldn't I have someone I could call right now? Harry in LA

20 February - Harry records 'Sweet Creature' in LA. In the Album show at the Troubadour (21:40) Harry introduced 'Sweet Creature' saying it was the first song written in the studio a couple of weeks after his birthday. He was photographed in the studio 20 February.

21-29 February - CH starts Ole, it references Harry and Hendall The video (screen shots in the top line above) is about a guy who neglects his GF, the lyrics of the song are about a girl who cheats on her BF but goes on trips. The lyrics include "lowkey" aka 'Loki' and refer to the trip they take 2 weeks later - so he worked on it more. Kanye releases Famous

26 February - Taylor out in LA

28 February - Taylor looks amazing at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party alone. Harry tweets 'you can shake an apple off a tree ' (Elvis Presley Stuck on You lyric)..... 0_0 and posted a colour photo to IG of a scrabble game thanking for voting for Brits. HS IG has been b&w since OOTW, but this was in screaming colour! ❤️

3 March - Harry tweets Norah Jones Come Away with me lyrics "The yellow grass grows knee high."

7 March - CH and TS 1 anniversary TS thin and uncomfortable.

10 March - Harry in London, gets parking ticket.

13 - 15 March Taylor and Calvin Bikini photos in the Bahamas. A 5 hour flight, 3 nights, 4 swimsuits. Rumour they flew separately. Complete with swan inflatable for added shade. :/

16 March - KK posts TS where’s the drop. Blind Calvin hooked up with someone.

25 March - Taylor back in LA and Harry also back in LA same day, LA on the 6th, 11 April & 20 April (kid harpoons birthday).

3 April -Taylor and Calvin attended the iHeart Radio Awards, arrive separately. He looked bored, didn’t thank her. Made a face when Taylor thanked him, she didn’t every time. Calvin on his phone during her last acceptance speech. Rumors they are having trouble. Harry in LA he bought a fan’s family dinner the night before. Harry papped buying fuel in LA.

8 April Blind Taylor and Calvin talk-fighting on paper walk. Harry seen shopping with Kid Harpoon and Kendall, “watch KUWK May 1st”

12 April - Bleachella, Taylor at Coachella with bleached hair and a 'This Is What You Came For' jacket. CH performed. She also released that Drake Apple ad. KK there

16 April - Taylor vogue cover

22 April - Harry Tweet's "it's not the Ribbons in your Hair" Cars Just what I needed lyrics about not minding anything because a person is who they needed.

April 29 - this is what you came for:

28 April - Taylor is Bewjelled at Gigi Hadid's 21st birthday . Harry is not photographed there, but is also in L.A. the next day

29 April - This Is What You Came For is released. Taylor was an uncredited writer and has backing vocals. CH later throws shade about her not promo-ing it. Later blind that TIWYCF is about person Taylor cheating with. Calvin has an interview with Nick Grimshaw (!) in his house, where he says John Newman was there last week (Ole), talks about how John Newman has a great track coming, that the guide vocal (Taylor's) could not get better then he heard Rhianna's and it was much better:

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30 April - Calvin goes on radio and (at 2:30) says Taylor is on a break, they haven't spoken about a collab.

In August the video has a similar hawaiian shirt but in red, he posts to his instagram photos of him wearing one like Harry's

They then marked this day - in 2017 Harry marks the anniversary of this by getting papped in that same shirt! hahahaha

In 2018 - Calvin Harris later tweets that he grew a beard to get a Grammy

October 2022 - High Infidelity released, it opens with 'lock broken, slur spoken' and includes 'Do you really want to know where I was April 29th? Do I really have to chart the constellations in his eyes?

1 May - Taylor has dinner at Anna Wintour's house with Tom Hiddleston and James Corden!

2 May - Taylor at met gala, TS meets Joe, Hiddleswift starts.

5 May - Erskine Records,

7 May - Harry, back in London, cuts off his hair - farewell LHH. 'Only a few songs' were recorded for his Debut before Dunkirk. Taylor posts photo of herself at Met Gala with "we never go out of style"

17 May - Harry’s friend Matt Irving’s funeral.

May - 1D purchased its f to j shares back off the band and they sold director titles, each was paid £14m. They still receive royalties. Harry stopped using his twitter, PR tweets since

20 May - Taylor and Calvin seen together for the last time in a carpark. Blind that implies Calvin did something “I give the "relationship" another week […] what happened last night is going to open a whole bunch of boxes.”

22 May - Calvin in car accident, Taylor doesn’t go to hospital. Blinds implying drugs involved, but police report says no drugs and Calvin a passenger. He has a cut to the face in an SUV, other car a beetle with teenagers with pelvic features, the other car hit CHs

23 May - July Harry shoots Dunkirk, in France on radio he said he just slept when not filming and did not make music.

2 June - CH and TS breakup confirmed on Twitter

13 June - Taylor rents house in Cornelia Street

14 June - Taylor first seen with Tom Hiddleston.

16 June - tabloid gossip that Calvin Harris sent a music exec a dick pick was break up reason

23 June - both Harry and Taylor are in London. Calvin admits Taylor controlled break up media

2 July - Harry signed a solo contract for $80m, with Columbia

4 July - the last 4th July party, (until 1989-esk gathering in 2023) with I heart TS hiddleswift exploits. Harry was in London.

13 July - taylorswiftisoverparty hashtag trending CH was messy as hell on Twitter, TMZ reports taylor wrote TWYCF, the notes are now corrected. Joe in London

18 July - Kim K posts that she has a recording of Snake convo. Harry was quick to provide supportive comments.

21 July - Kendall posts "tea time" with photo Taylor later copies in LAWYMMD video. Also likes anti-swift posts.

24 August - Hiddleswift officially over, Tom has talked to media. Taylor wears this yellow outfit in New York which Calvin copied in the ole video.

25 August - Harry seen in LA, first time he has been seen for 16 days. Wears a similar shirt to Ole. End of Dunkirk shooting.

29 August - Taylor Lover Journal "this summer is the apocalypse" Nashville. Taylor still in NY

2 September - Kendall and Harry at Nobu in LA, Dunkirk wraps. Harry not seen for another 15 days after.

3 September - Harry buys LA House. He listed it for sale in May 2017 and in 2019 sold it at a loss.

5 September - Harry has dinner with Kendall

19 September - Taylor writes a lot of Reputation. Taylor flies to NY and attends Max Martin & Shellback studio. (The Swift Life video) Works on Gorgeous, I Did Something Bad, Delicate & King Of My Heart. Joe in London at Burberry show.

22 September - Hendall over, Harry hasn't been seen for 15 days.

25 September - Harry posts 3 white squares to IG

28 September - Taylor was with Cara Delevingne and Joe was in London.

29 September Harry’s another man mix tape with HS1 inspiration/ clues and Haylor love songs. Capital FM runs an article "DJs Are Just As Baller As Multi-Millionaire Rappers & Here's The Proof" and use a photo of Calvin copying Harry's St Laurent shirt!

4 October - Joe Alwyn in London, last seen 2 weeks earlier also in London. First time they are actually in same place since May. Lover Journal 3 January says they had been dating 3 months so that lines up. Their anniversary was never 28 September.

6 October - Harry in London, last seen 5 September in LA.

12 October - Taylor and Joe attend Kings of Leon show. In this video, Joe enters The Bowery with another blonde at (0:43) Taylor enters at 1:24. Joe in NY for 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' Premiere.

15 October - Rumour that Harry was seen at the airport in Jamaica. He stayed there for 2 months writing HS1. (the funny thing about that is that the rumor was true and the 'insider' tumblr said it wasn't.)

21 October - Someday is released. "Someday maybe when we're old and gray, We could be in love once more. Till then I won't give my love away, Darling, I'm forever only yours".

22 October - Taylor plays a very Haylor setlist at US Grand Prix and also performs TIWYCF

October - November Harry records his debut in Jamaica. He meets Mitch - see behind the album.This photo from Jan 2017 in an LA studio. Worse version of Famous leaked.

24 October - Taylor at Drakes Birthday with a golden tattoo (dress) with Karlie Kloss

3 November - Harry seen back in LA at Kendall birthday and concert next day. Joe in Taipei Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.

5 November - Harry seen at Meghan Trainor's surprise party

6 November - Karlie and Taylor at Lordes birthday, this is the last time she is seen hanging out with KK. On 8 November Trump elected, KKs husband is connected.

11 November - Taylor goes to Joe's movie screening, he's not named in press about it.

19 November - Reputation magazine "how do you feel about having a song written about you" photo

5 - 30 November - Harry seen in LA. At 30 mins into Harry Styles: Behind the Album Harry says they had had a week in a 'total hole.' "I can't write songs" he said in the first time in a long time I had actually done something and then came back to the studio and wrote Carolina, which was the last song on the album. He's wearing the same blue hawaiian St Laurent Shirt while recording it.

10 December - "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" released with Zayn, there are HS looking figures and outfits like the 2015 VS show

13 December - Karlie Kloss posts a throw back photo of Taylor for her birthday, years later stories emerge that they had a falling out over Karlie throwing a party at Taylor’s NY apartment which TS refers to in LAWYMMD.

28 December - there is an unconfirmed sighting of Harry and Taylor (Lover journal indicates Taylor in London. Harry seen in Liverpool (the next day) and soon after Taylor gave Austin a record signed by a friend of Harry's

31 December - Photos of Taylor and Joe getting ready thought to be taken this day. Later only 7 photos leak in 2020. Harry in Holmes Chapel on NYE

Continue in 2017

#haylor #Youtube #haylor timeline #april 29 #taylor swift #2017

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droughtofapathy · 5 months

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The Gilded Age's Broadway Divas: Aurora Fane (Kelli O'Hara)

Beloved by all, Aurora Fane enjoys a powerful position in Mrs. Astor's New York. Having suitably recovered from impending financial ruin last season, this season, Aurora has done some ill-fated matchmaking, worn some fantastic hats, and provided beautiful window dressing to scenes where she just sits there and looks pretty.

One of Broadway's (few) leading sopranos, Kelli O'Hara is a dying breed. As trends shift towards a more pop/rock sound, and classical musical theatre becomes a thing of the past, Kelli nevertheless finds her niche. A seven-time Tony nominee, Kelli has won Best Leading Actress in a Musical for the 2015 revival of The King and I. You'll recall another Gilded Age Diva who won for that same role some years prior. A proshot of the NT Live production can be found online. It is a gorgeous shoot, even if I take issue with that show as a whole.

She has also been nominated for Kiss Me, Kate (2019), The Bridges of Madison County (2014), and The Light in the Piazza (2005). Ironically, though Aurora Fane supports The Academy, Kelli is a classically trained opera singer who has appeared on the Met Opera stage three times, and will play Laura Brown in an encore run of The Hours this spring. (See my breakdown post over costumes here.)

However, prior to her opera appearance, Kelli will be starring in the new Broadway musical Days of Wine and Roses for a limited 16-week run, opening on January 28th. Kelli has been nominated for every role she has played since 2005, and this will almost certainly be no different. Booked and busy.

#1: "Shall We Dance?" The King and I (2015)

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Kelli's voice is otherworldly angelic. That much we already know very well. The King and I opened in 2015 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center, the third musical Kelli has starred in at that venue. The Beaumont is, of course, right next to The Met Opera, and the only Broadway theater outside the theatre district in Midtown.

As Anna Leonowens, Kelli travels to Siam to teach the children and wives of the king how to speak English. Orientalism aside, the show is a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the score is divine in Kelli's mouth. Fun fact: Kelli's replacement was Marin Mazzie in one of her last onstage roles. Marin was the Passion co-star and dear friend to Donna Murphy, our Mrs. Astor.

This video is from the 2015 Tony performance and showcases the incredible quick change Kelli makes between singing "Getting to Know You" and "Shall We Dance?" aided by a team of unbelievable dressers. It is a marvel to witness. As is Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli's co-star who recently performed in the Encores! production of Light in the Piazza.

#2: "What More Do I Need?" Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration (2020)

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In 2020, despite a global pandemic, the theatre community still found a way to honor Stephen Sondheim's milestone 90th birthday with an online concert. Kelli performed a song from Saturday Night, Sondheim's first professional musical that was slated for Broadway in 1955, but was scrapped. It only got its New York premiere in 2000. This particular number is a cabaret favorite, and Kelli is an absolute delight with just a camera and digital accompaniment.

Fun fact: it wasn't until this particular performance that I truly started to appreciate the wonder that is Kelli O'Hara. I had previously seen her in concert just that March, and loved her, of course, but I have a complex relationships with sopranos. I now recognize that I love mature sopranos, but it's the ingenues I can't listen to without wincing.

#3: "They Don't Let You In the Opera" (2016)

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Lest we think Kelli is limited in her range and style, this song was written especially for her to showcase her vast talent and comedic timing. Kelli, an Oklahoma farmgirl, isn't the sort of person you'd expect to be both classically trained and country literate.

Kelli, who has been typecast as refined and often repressed characters who go through harrowing emotional experiences, much like Aurora Fane, is more than capable of bringing a rollicking comedy to the mix.

This number is a favorite in Kelli's concert repertoire. There isn't much more to say, except that you need to witness its hilarity for yourself.

#4: “Heaven? Somebody else’s heaven?” The Hours (2023)

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Speaking of opera, here is an excerpt from a scene in Act II where Laura Brown has fled to a hotel room to contemplate some very serious courses of action. Kelli, alongside soprano Renee Fleming and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, makes up a trio of phenomenal women in Kevin Putts' adaptation of the book and movie.

The Met Opera theatre seats nearly 4,000 people across six levels. The performers do not use body mics or amplification of any kind, but rather rely on intense vocal training to be heard across the theater. For this reason, alongside the vastly different vocal techniques and styles, musical theatre actors rarely cross over into opera, and vice versa. Notable exceptions include Renee Fleming, Kelli's Light in the Piazza co-star Victoria Clark, and Mary Beth Peil, who made her musical theatre debut in The King and I as yet another Miss Anna, hers in 1985.

#5: "So in Love," Kiss Me, Kate (2019)

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Starring in yet another Golden Age musical revival, Kelli brings a different take on Lilli Vanessi, a glamorous movie star in a turbulent relationship. Kelli's vocal talent, of course, speaks for itself. For Kelli, this role was a tribute to her dear friend, the late Marin Mazzie, who had passed away some months before the show opened. Marin, who replaced Kelli in The King and I, had played this same role in the 1999 Broadway revival to great acclaim. In her first entrance of the show, Kelli wore a costume that featured the very same hat Marin wore in her show.

Though this video is beloved, my personal favorite rendition can be heard below. It was taken at a concert Kelli put on at the 92Y in New York last February. In it, Kelli sings for and to Marin, and the entire theatre wept.

Bonus: "Back to Before," Ragtime Reunion Concert (2023)

The role of Mother was originally workshopped by Donna Murphy in Toronto in the early 90s, but she left to do King and I, which worked out well for her. In came dear friend Marin Mazzie, who originated the role on Broadway, and established a precedent no other has been able to top. Also in that cast? Audra McDonald as Sarah, for which she won a Tony, of course.

In 2023, after years of pandemic-related delays, they staged a one-night reunion concert of this special show. And who better to take on Marin's iconic role than Kelli O'Hara? Listen to her "Back to Before" here, and then do yourself a favor and run, don't walk, to listen to Marin's.

#the gilded age #aurora fane #kelli o'hara #met opera #sondheim #ragtime #marin mazzie #kiss me kate #the hours #the king and i

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fuckyeslilkim · 8 months

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Rapper Lil' Kim Has Had A Profound Impact On Fashion Over The Years

hen Lil’ Kim made her debut with the 1996 album Hard Core, she utterly and completely changed the rap game. A protege of Notorious B.I.G., and the sole female member of his hip-hop group Junior M.A.F.I.A., Lil’ Kim, aka Kimberly Denise Jones, had a flow that was raw and gritty, with raunchy, sexually liberating lyrics that made critics clutch their pearls. Hard Core went on to become certified double platinum by the RIAA, cementing the then-22-year-old as a bona fide hip-hop god. But it wasn’t just Lil’ Kim’s lyrical prowess that set her apart from her contemporaries that came before her. Her sense of style also made her a trailblazer, solidifying her as a pop culture fashion icon.

While other women rappers like Queen Latifah, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Da Brat favored more androgynous clothing, like oversize T-shirts and baggy jeans, Lil’ Kim’s outfits were ultra-feminine, bold, risqué, and revealing — as provocative and outrageous as her songs. She wore teeny-tiny bikinis, see-through silhouettes, candy-colored wigs, and equally vibrant fur coats. She also helped popularize ’90s and noughties logomania, a trend in which designer branding is made overtly obvious on one’s clothing and accessories (the antithesis to “quiet luxury”). In Kim’s case, logomania also applied to hairstyles, as she famously wore wigs with Chanel’s double “C” logo and Versace’s Greek key motif. (The move made sense for someone who frequently name-dropped designers in her lyrics). Aside from head-to-toe designer monograms, Kim has worn a sparkly catsuit made with 965,000 crystals, embellished headpieces with matching thongs, and a gray, floor-length chinchilla coat (which she modeled next to mob daughter Victoria Gotti in the video for 2003’s “Came Back for You”). The list goes on.

“She was bringing something new that we hadn’t really seen before,” says Elizabeth Way, fashion historian and associate curator at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). “For so long, female rappers had been kind of marginalized and really tried to fit in with their male counterparts, especially with their style. Lil’ Kim rejected that and embraced her femininity in both her style and her lyrics.” Marissa Pelly, stylist for the rapper Ice Spice, shares a similar sentiment, pointing out how the industry made female musicians feel like they couldn’t boldly embrace their sexuality while simultaneously being perceived as “chic” or “luxury” — as if the two concepts could not co-exist. “Now when I see female artists owning their sexuality, while also being muses for some of fashion’s most elite houses, I think of — and I thank — Lil’ Kim.”

Behind every celebrity style icon is a brilliant stylist; a wizard behind the velvet curtain, so to speak. For Lil’ Kim, it was Misa Hylton. One cannot discuss Kim’s vestiary tours de force without mentioning the industry legend by her side, who had already been masterminding looks for Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Jodeci, and her then-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs. But theirs was a match made in fashion heaven; the two women felt an immediate kinship. “I think that Kim and I were magical together and when you have that type of synergy only greatness can come forth. We were thinking outside of the box and unapologetically taking risks. People gravitate to that type of authentic and creative energy,” Hylton told Dazed in 2018.

The two women set the bar high high from the beginning with a legendary look the promotional poster for Hard Core, Kim’s debut album: a leopard print bikini and a sheer, marabou-trimmed duster. The one-piece was designed by Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field, who owned a store in New York City from 1996 until 2016. It was known to be a hot shopping spot for fellow performers like Debbie Harry, Lady Gaga, and Kim’s friend and frequent collaborator Missy Elliott. Hylton and Kim frequented Field’s boutique almost daily. In the years — and decades — that followed, both the look, and Kim’s signature squatting pose, would be replicated by the likes of Teyana Taylor, Nicki Minaj, GloRilla, and countless others.

Hylton and Kim also went all out for the “Crush on You” music video, directed by Lance Rivera. Inspired by the The Wiz’s color-changing Emerald City disco dance sequence, the video featured the star in monochromatic technicolor outfits and matching wigs — and instantly catapulted her to mainstream MTV fame. “When you think of the blueprint for most female musicians’ styles today, you think the designer logos; the iced-out, statement jewelry; and different styles of wigs — that was all her,” explains stylist Estelle Aporongao. “Kim’s DNA runs through the contemporary fashion industry’s veins.”

In 1998, Kim donned a bejeweled caged headpiece and matching arm sleeves to the 1998 Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, which felt like the ultimate statement. But the rapper topped herself yet again a year later when she attended the MTV Video Music Awards in a purple wig and lilac-colored, sequined jumpsuit, complete with a single purple pasty that garnered an unforgettable reaction from Diana Ross. The moment would become the stuff of award show legend.

That same year, Kim covered Interview magazine’s November issue wearing only a Louis Vuitton headgear and LV logos painted all over her body, a moment described as a “cultural reset” by celebrity stylist Audrey Brianne, who works with Chris Tucker and Tyler Posey. “At the time, it was a fresh idea no other star had rocked quite so boldly. If people weren’t already paying attention to Lil’ Kim by then, they were now,” she says.

To be clear, Lil’ Kim was interested in fashion long before she dressed in colorful furs. “Her high school friends recounted how she would spend her allowance on clothes and had Gucci before they even knew what it was,” explains Nygel Simons, a stylist and archivist, noting that the artist also worked at Bloomingdale’s prior to rapping full time. “It really shines through when an artist genuinely loves fashion.” Nowadays, it’s not out of the ordinary for a designer to dress hip-hop artists for red carpets or sit them front row at Fashion Week, but in the 1990s, that relationship didn’t really exist. Lil’ Kim had a je ne sais quoi that both attracted and inspired designers like Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Betsey Johnson, John Galliano, and Donatella Versace, who would dress her for her 1999 Met Gala debut.

Way long before Barbiecore would become a part of the cultural zeitgeist, Lil’ Kim sported a pink, full-length mink coat with a studded pink bra, matching hot pants, and pink snakeskin boots for the “Rock Style”-themed Met Gala. “Donatella is my girl. We’ve loved each other from the moment we first saw each other,” Kim told Vogue in 2020. “At the Met, you’re a designer’s muse, [and] she loved the fact that I have fun in her clothes.”

Lil’ Kim has also walked the runway for designers including Baby Phat, The Blonds, and VFiles. But her closest friendship is with fashion designer Marc Jacobs, whom she calls her “bestie” and who has played a significant role in her life and career. Jacobs dressed Kim for her court appearances and subsequently became her prison pen pal when she served a one-year sentence for lying to protect friends involved in a 2001 shootout. Kim sent Jacobs the Bratz doll coloring pages she painted, which he then had framed and hung in his house. Jacobs is also writing the foreword for her forthcoming memoir, The Queen Bee.

“These were interesting and important alliances for her during the early 2000s because it further legitimized the message to her fans and the public that her empire and reach extended well beyond music,” says stylist Alison Brooks, who works with television personality and hairstylist Jonathan Van Ness. “I believe it was a turning point, not so subtly signaling to other artists to bling themselves out in designer looks with confidence and embrace their curves with body positivity before body positivity became a thing.”

When it comes to her own work, Pelly says she’s strongly influenced by Lil’ Kim. “I love how effortlessly she would combine her own fun custom pieces with luxury ones, while also demonstrating a great deal of high-end fashion knowledge.” Pelly says she had this approach in mind while styling Ice Spice for the “Barbie World” music video, pairing a custom Chanel-inspired, Christian Cowan tweed set with a Barbiecore bra by Laser Kitten, custom Emilio Pucci, and pieces from the Gaultier archives. “It’s that duality that’s so inspiring to me and creates the most interesting, well-rounded looks every time.” She also drew ideas from Kim’s 2003 “Summer Jam” performance, in which she wears SS03 Jean Paul Gaultier script belts around her waist and chest. “I love when artists love the same brands I do... I tracked down the same belts for Ice’s Paper Magazine cover back in April as a nod to the OG style icon.”

It’s difficult to imagine what would have happened if Lil’ Kim hadn’t paved the way for women in hip-hop to take fashion risks. Cardi B might not have worn archival Mugler to the 2019 Grammy Awards, and who knows if Megan Thee Stallion would have modeled for Calvin Klein. Then there’s the countless Kim homages artists have paid over the years: Beyoncé replicated several of Kim’s famous looks for Halloween 2017; Rihanna has cited the rapper’s penchant for experimenting with different looks as a major influence on her own fashion sense; and Miley Cyrus dressed in Kim’s MTV VMAs look for Halloween back in 2013, purple pasty and all. It’s for reasons like these that stylists like Simons believe Lil’ Kim deserves official acknowledgement for her legacy, particularly from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. (For years, fans have been calling on the CFDA to honor Kim with its annual Fashion Icon award.)

One thing’s for sure: You’d be hard-pressed to find another hip-hop fashion icon with the same enduring legacy. “Lil’ Kim is the blueprint,” says Simons. “Whenever you think you’re being presented with something new, if you search hard enough, you’ll find that Kim has already done it at some point.”

#lil kim #lil' kim #rap #queen of rap #rapper #fashion #fashion icon #cfda #hiphop #female rap #female rapper #queen bee #naomi campbell #hip hop

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