#Venice Days 2019

[daisyblog]

Our Story

Summary: YN and Harry have known each other since 2010 when YN's brother, Louis, is put in a band with Harry and three other boys when they auditioned for The X Factor. From the very beginning, YN and Harry were always close, and as time went on feelings grew deeper. This is YN and Harry's story. Faceclaim: Maia Mitchell

YN:

YN Tomlinson An insight into YN's life.

Tattoos YN's tattoos.

Songs Songs (or parts of songs) Harry's written about YN.

Lockscreen Harry and YN's lockscreen photos over the years.

TikTok:

Name a Girl

Doorframe

Couples Quiz

2011:

Will You Go On A Date With Me? YN and Harry spend time together and their feelings start to grow. First Date YN and Harry go on their first date. Caught YN and Harry’s relationship is exposed after a photo of them kissing is leaked. Written in Louis' POV.

Caught: Pt2 How Niall, Zayn and Liam found out about Harry and YN's relationship.

2012:

Trust YN and Harry take the next step in their relationship.

Worried YN is worried after her and Harry take the next step in their relationship, and ends up talking to Anne about it.

2013:

Kiss and Make Up Harry and YN have their first argument.

Happy Birthday YN It's YN's Birthday.

YN in This Is Us YN appears in clips in One Direction: This Is Us. Story Of My Life YN appears in the Story Of My Life music video.

2014:

Team Niall YN at The Niall Horan Charity Football Match.

Where We Are YN appears in clips in Where We Are San Siro.

Late YN realises her period is late.

Mother's Love Anne and Jay can see the love Harry and YN have for each other.

Night Changes YN in Harry's part of the Night Changes music video.

2015:

Never Have I Ever Harry gets embarrassed playing a game of Never Have I Ever on The Jonathan Ross Show.

2016:

Just Hold On Harry takes care of YN.

2017:

Teddy Harry surprises YN with a new little addition to their family.

2018:

Little Break People find out that Harry and YN have broken up.

Cherry How Cherry was made.

To Be So Lonely How To Be So Lonely was made.

Adore You How Adore You was made.

2019:

Burnout Harry and Louis help YN.

Zach Sang Show Louis discusses a small part of YN and Harry's relationship on a talk show.

Spill Your Guts: Harry Styles & YN Tomlinson Harry challenges YN to a game of Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts. Friendship Test Niall Horan and YN Tomlinson Take a Friendship Test.

I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here YN is on I'm A Celeb.

2020:

Unexpected Visitor YN has an unexpected visitor.

2022:

Zane Lowe YN is mentioned in Harry’s interview with Zane Lowe.

Uncle Popstar Freddie goes to one of Harry's shows.

Capital FM Interview Harry talks about his new music, My Policeman and Don’t Worry Darling…and of course YN.

Venice Film Festival YN and Louis attend the Venice Film Festival with Harry.

2023:

Proud Sister YN is by Louis side at his London Premiere for All of Those Voices.

YN and Harry Love On Tour YN and Harry's Outfits and Instagrams during Love On Tour.

Love At Wembley Harry asks YN to marry him at Wembley.

"I'm here for your girlfriend" Harry announces he's engaged during a Wembley Show.

“Oh Harry” Anne’s reaction to ‘Keep Driving’ lyrics.

Thank You Harry and YN's Love On Tour thank you posts on their Instagram stories.

Faith In The Future Tour Snippets of YN and Harry supporting Louis on his tour.

Niece YN's reaction to having her first Niece.

Mrs Burton YN's reaction to Lottie getting engaged.

Hair YN's reaction to Harry's new hairstyle.

Pregnancy Follow YN and Harry's journey through pregnancy.

2024:

Uncle Harry Harry and YN meet Gemma’s baby.

Love Day Harry and YN celebrate their first Valentine’s Day as a married couple.

Hormones YN gets emotional listening to Louis’ interview.

Birthday Twin YN and Harry welcome their baby girl into the world.

Uncle Louis Louis meets Grace for the first time.

#harry styles x reader #harry styles #harrystyles #harry styles x y/n #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles imagines #harry styles x you #harry styles series #series #fanfic #fanfiction #imagine #one direction imagine #onedirection #one direction #harry styles masterlist #harry styles writing #harry styles series masterlist #harry styles x tomlinson!reader #louis tomlinson #liam payne #niall horan #zayn malik #1d fandom #harry 1d #harry edward styles #yn tomlinson #harry styles x yn tomlinson #masterlist

[kithtaehyung]

⬛️ WEBSITE MOCKUPS : RKIVE.ORG ⬛️

“When we went abroad, we stayed in our hotel rooms except when we were working. The only places I could go then were museums. The art galleries full of Monets or Van Goghs were always crowded, but when I visited one weekday morning and had them mostly to myself, I had a eureka moment—an artist who’d passed away 100 years ago was communicating directly with a boy from Korea. I was so envious. From then on, I began seeking out and learning about Korean painters.” — HAPPY NAMJOON DAY! ; 940912 ; CLICK FOR HQ. twt | ig 

Note: rkive and gallery walk gifs may take a bit to load, and look best on desktop. Note 2: To learn more about all of the artwork and artists showcased, click below. 

When The Year 2000 Comes (2019), by YANG HAEGUE, the avant-garde of Korean art.  “She is an accomplished and international artist. She notably represented Korea at the Venice Biennale in 2009 and participated to the prestigious dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel in 2012. In her works, which flirt with conceptual art, she explores myths and stories, that touch on the universal. She appropriates them through sculptures, installations, performances, and video.”  

From Point (1976), by LEE UFAN, Korean Zen Art. “He is a Korean artist known worldwide for his paintings depicting the mark of a brush whose color fades… Yet his practice goes far beyond that! He creates performances, sculptures and installations, which always question a certain “state of being.” He is influenced by Zen and Asian philosophy, but has also drawn heavily on Western thought. Among his favorite subjects: observing the intimate, conflicting or poetic relationship between natural and artificial elements.” 

Brushstrokes-Diagram (2015), by SONG HYUN-SOOK, Korean and Western art.  “With her, each brushstroke tells a story, a journey. She weaves links between Korean art and Western art. On the one hand, it expresses that almost meditative state of concentration that exists in the art of calligraphy. On the other hand, she uses tempera, a typically European oil painting technique, to create patterns that immerse the viewer in reality and the present moment.” 

Drawing, Charcoal on paper, 65 x 50 cm (2014) and Issu de feu Charcoal on canvas, 100 x 81 cm, (2000), by LEE BAE, the Soulages of Korean Art. “A Korean abstract artist. Like Soulages, for whom black is a color, he explores the almost infinite possibilities of black. He sinks into the abyss of darkness. Until recently, he mainly used charred materials to paint his canvases. In doing so, he offered a powerful metaphor for the cycle of life.” 

Écriture No.160523 (2016), by PARK SEO-BO, Korean abstraction. “One of the best known Korean artists. He is emblematic of the monochrome Dansaekhwa movement. A current that synthesizes the traditional Korean spirit and Western abstraction. In a way, he is very close to minimalist artists, choosing neutral tones to highlight components and fabrics.” 

Mat 61 × 81 #19-17 (2019), by SUKI SEOKYEONG KANG, contemporary art.  “Born in 1977, this Korean artist is one of the biggest names of the art market. Her work is mostly inspired by her own philosophical research and reflection on space and our place in it. She uses sculpture, installation, and performance to explore these ideas. Her works were presented, among others, in the Venice and Shanghai Biennales.” 

Untitled (1966), by CHOI WOOK-KYUNG, the outcast.  “Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) is an outcast in the history of contemporary Korean art. She is an abstract painter. But most Korean abstract painters shine in Dansaekhwa: the Korean monochrome. She, on the contrary, is mainly influenced by expressionism. Brutally, instinctively, aggressively, she throws the colors on the canvas. She seeks to immerse herself in the moment, and to create true, pure, expressive forms. Thus, it plays a capital role for the diversity of Korean abstract art.”

Thank you for your interest in these artists and this passion project! All of the website information (other than the artist bio on the Artist Spotlight page) is fictional. Happy Joonie Day 2022, and let’s continue to support him and all the fantastic Korean artists out there. 

SRC: one, two, three

#ahhhhh i hope you all enjoy some korean art history on this fine joonie day! #bts #btsgif #btsgfx #namjoon #trackofthesoul #shirleytothesea #annietrack #usersky #tuserjay #bangtanbathhouse #bangtanarmynet #*latest #*gfx #*mockups #i went for a more minimal and br*tal style than last website mockup to highlight the art and message instead #and the rkive is in the trees for namuuuu<3 #gosh your girl really did research for this huh #did i c ry while making this? yeah but don't ask why bc i'll just cry again huhuhu #cyphernet

[skepticalarrie]

hi! last year i'm not really updating on the fandom and i can't seem to find this on your blog. what's with the louis and harry and italy? they seem to be spotted there a lot and i think harry also have a house there or smth? is there something special about italy? sorry if you already explained it before.

Hi, dear. Yeah, it seems like they love Italy and don't like to waste any opportunities to be there together. I think this may have started in May 2019 when Harry went to Rome for Gucci and on the same day Louis showed up with Eleanor in Portofino for a pap walk and literally no other reason to be there.

It was so out of nowhere and such a big coincidence that even tabloids picked up and made crazy rumours about a 1D reunion. Pretty sure there is also a receipt from this time.

Harry went to Italy a lot of times, even during the pandemic, he they definitely has a house there. In June 2021 , when Harry finished shooting My Policeman in Venice (IIRC their last scenes were there) he stayed a few more weeks, precisely when Louis was MIA, which lead people to believe Louis also joined him and they spent a little time there together. Louis, of course, showed up with a beautiful tan and an Italian hat a few days later:

In September 2022, Harry went to Venice for the premiere of DWD the very same week Louis was there doing promo for the release of FITF. They were both incredibly busy at the time, so desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. All the blue and green is just a plus. The following week they were both also in NYC (twice in the same week, yes), they had shows on the same night. So they obviously planned things around this and went from Italy to NYC together. The timeline is great

And lastly, Harry will be done with LOT 2023 in July, in Italy. Louis will bring AFHF to Italy just a few weeks after that and he's not back on tour within a couple more weeks. Since they're both on tour they're probably going to spend a while away from each other and already planned their little annual Italian vacation. So I will not be surprised if one of them is completely MIA during this time while the other is in Italy.

#ask #that's it i guess? idk if i'm missing something #italy larry #larry in italy #always around #coincidences #timeline #sept2022 #june2021 #may2019

[avissapiens]

Jockbull Summer Week 3 Set A (26/11/23-2/12/23)

Model is Tsonghan Wu

1.

The Highest score this week is 39 in one go. I kept hitting an unfortunate timing block where I keep having push up days directly after my Chest gym sessions. In those I'd usually struggle to get to about 30. But I'd do Pause push ups to make up for the lapse. Those feel so good. Another benefit of this is the constant failure and progressive overload is exploding my chest. In 3 weeks of doing these in addition to MURDERING Push days, my pecs have grown so much. Gonna have a whole library shelf by the end of the summer.

2.

This one was a bit of a bust this week. My bro’s were out sick or busy so i couldn’t challenge them to anything. And I just didn’t have a chance to do the non-muscle comps either. No one was around. Anyone out there wanna offer themselves up as my Anime rival? Come on. Make me wanna beat you, pussies. All challengers welcome. Give me the pleasure of victory or the drive of defeat.

3.

2nd piece of clothing gone. I’m happy this one bit the dust. It’s an old one that i got in about 2019. I thought it was good cause I liked the feel of flow-y oversized clothes. But as time’s gone on I realize that this shirt actively makes me dysmorphic. The Horizontal stripes. The Monocrome washing me out. The way it hangs off my body and disguises any growth. The old discoloration reminding me of much worse times. I’m happy to throw this away. If I was more wasteful I'd fucking burn it. But some schmuck at a charity shop can have it instead.

4.

Dude’s I’m so fucking good at this accent lol. If I ever move to another country again i’m making this my default. Had so many chances to practice and show it off. A whole hour long chat with jockrs, a half hour call with my bro @jocksupremacy, A jock NPC in a game i run, Even showed it off a tiny bit on a date with this cute dude. I get such euphoria from hearing how i sound with it. Maybe i should consider Cali for my postgrad. Come for the school, stay for the Venice Beach muscle bro culture and frat parties.

5.

This show is dumb as fuck and I love it! It’s also so fucking gay and you can’t tell me there isn’t something a little fruity about all the gymbros latching onto this the way that they did.

6.

 No new Gym bros, but lots of opportunities to chat with the ones i’ve already got. Which is progress in and of itself. Adrian comes and talks and I actually had an opportunity to help him train his triceps cause he was doing cable Pushdowns so wrong. I sometimes feel a little lecherous admiring the muscle of my gym bros because it is such a strong erotic factor for me. But there’s also so much of just pure aesthetic appreciation for all the ways these men are beautiful and astonishing. The small details in every growing body. The appreciation and glory in someone’s normal appearance that you can only really appreciate in person, looking in their eyes.

#JBS #Jockbull summer #jock #bull

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

Stats from Movies 501-600

Top 10 Movies - Highest Number of Votes

Drag Me To Hell (2009) had the most votes with 1,156 votes. The Sudbury Devil (2023) had the least votes with 363 votes.

The 10 Most Watched Films by Percentage

Aliens (1989) was the most watched film with 59.5% of voters out of 785 saying they had seen it. Roadkill (2011) had the least "Yes" votes with 1.0% of voters out of 597.

The 10 Least Watched Films by Percentage

The Purge: Anarchy (2014) was the least watched film with 71.8% of voters out of 570 saying they hadn’t seen it. Awoken (2020) had the least "No" votes with13.4% of voters out of 677.

The 10 Most Known Films by Percentage

Aliens (1989) was the best known film, only 1.1% of voters out of 785 saying they’d never heard of it.

The 10 Least Known Films by Percentage

The Sudbury Devil (2023) was the least known film, 86,2% of voters out of 368 saying they’d never heard of it.

The movies part of the statistic count and their polls below the cut.

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007) Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead (2009) Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings (2011) Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines (2012) Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort (2014) Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) Ghostwatch (1992) Nekromantik (1988)

Hostel: Part II (2007) Hostel: Part III (2011) Antiviral (2012) Dead Ringers (1988) Drag Me to Hell (2009) Becky (2020) Stepfather 3 (1992) Roadkill (2011) Black Sheep (2006) Awoken (2019)

Exeter (2015) Excision (2012) Psycho Goreman (2020) V/H/S/94 (2021) The Lair of the White Worm (1988) Mad God (2021) Dash (2022) Don't Open Till Christmas (1984) C.H.U.D. (1984) Satan's Slave (1976)

Bad Taste (1987) The Deadly Spawn (1983) Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) Laid to Rest (2009) Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2 (2011) Rosemary's Baby (1968) The Midnight Meat Train (2008) Underworld (2003) The Last House on the Left (1972)

Little Shop of Horrors (1960) The Hills Have Eyes (1977) Aliens (1986) Wrong Turn (2021) A Haunting in Venice (2023) Old (2021) Cloverfield (2008) 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Cloverfield Paradox (2018) The Invitation (2022)

Saw II (2005) Saw III (2006) Saw IV (2007) Saw V (2008) Saw VI (2009) The Curse of La Llorona (2019) Saltburn (2023) Saw 3D (2010) Jigsaw (2017) Spiral (2021)

Child's Play 2 (1990) Child's Play 3 (1991) Bride of Chucky (1998) Seed of Chucky (2004) Curse of Chucky (2013) Cult of Chucky (2017) Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015) Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021) The Purge: Anarchy (2014) The Purge: Election Year (2016) The First Purge (2018) The Forever Purge (2021) Don't Breathe (2016) Don't Breathe 2 (2021) American Psycho 2 (2002) Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Day of the Dead (1985) Night of the Living Dead (1990) Diary of the Dead (2007) Survival of the Dead (2009) Happy Birthday to Me (1981) Bloody New Year (1987) Saw X (2023) Pieces (1982) The Sudbury Devil (2023) Demon (2015)

Butterfly Kisses (2018) 12 Hour Shift (2020) Bloody Birthday (1981) Def by Temptation (1990) The Hunt (2020) Godzilla (1954) The Babysitter (2017) The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020) The Silenced (2015)

#recap

[alakeeffectgirl]

cruisequarries PART TWO

PART ONE What did we get up to yesterday? 2018? Okay. I will put everything behind a spoiler cut again (there are more pictures/a video today).

Actually, let's rewind just a little, for some Fallout premiere pictures just because.

Paris, July 12th:

London, July 13th:

Seoul, July 16th (according to the designer's website, the hanbok Heather is wearing was designed as a wedding dress, mmhmm)...

I love this picture because they're making those faces at Chris. Here's the bit of Tom making Heather cry in Tokyo:

I highly recommend listening to Tom & Chris commentary track on Fallout, which starts with McQ introducing himself as the writer/director and then Tom introducing himself - as McQ's friend. After the Fallout press tour wraps up, work starts in earnest on Top Gun: Maverick, which Tom and McQ have been discussing - idly, on McQ's part - for years now. "Our relationship is one long conversation about movies," indeed.

While TGM is filming, pre-production is also happening on MI:DR, which McQ has signed on to direct. (These two are usually juggling at least two projects at a time, and really it's probably more like five projects at a time.)

In January of 2019, they're all back in LA so Tom and McQ can pick up some awards.

The McQuarries also go to a premiere and look fantastic (I love McQ's suit):

Tom and McQ go to Ukraine to scout Dead Reckoning locations later in 2019, meet President Zelenskyy, and McQ gets to put his arm around Tom for once instead of their usual other way around.

OH NO I ALMOST FORGOT - at the end of 2019, Tom took the whole McQ clan with him to Las Vegas to see Lady Gaga and ask her to write the TGM song. [cries in 'that's his family']

Production ramps up on DR - and then unfortunately, as we all know, COVID. Most of the cast and crew were in Venice when everything shut down, but Tom hadn't arrived yet.

Production resumes in Rome in October (their production struggles/trying to keep everyone employed/Tom rightfully yelling at people to follow protocols because a lot of jobs depend on them is all well documented), and then moves to Venice. Heather and the dogs are also part of this traveling band.

This isn't six feet apart, dudes...

Production breaks for the holidays, and resumes in Abi Dhabi for the airport/desert sequences, and also one of my favorite pictures of Tom and Heather, just for her expression.

Train sequence filming in Yorkshire in April of 2021, that's Heather in the blue coat:

DR production then breaks for a bit over the summer so Tom can take all his friends to Wimbledon, go to several car things, and make McQ watch football (the soccer version).

DR filming resumes in the fall/winter. Heather goes with to South Africa and they rent out what is basically an adults-only hotel (and save it from having to close!), for part of their stay. I love this picture because Gypsy looks so long-suffering:

OKAY IT'S 2022 NOW, time for the Top Gun: Maverick premiere tour to start - finally! (Do any of these people SLEEP? No. I think it's well-documented that Tom Cruise does not sleep, which is part of what makes him Tom Cruise, but also this means he calls McQ at two in the morning to talk about movies. There's a podcast somewhere where McQ says he thinks Tom might sleep "between the 2:05 email and the 2:40 email", or something along those lines.) (After getting back from South Africa, there was a bunch of test screening stuff for TGM, which is why there are those parking garage pictures. Wouldn't the movie be done, you'd think, since it was supposed to be out in 2020? COVID gave them a reason to tinker with it even more.) The San Diego premiere on the USS MIdway (all the McQs were there, but there aren't any good pictures):

Then Tom went to Mexico, and McQ went home to London for a few days before Tom returned, and they went to the Royal Windsor horse show together.

THEN EVERYONE WENT TO CANNES. Sorry I have just a shitty screencap with a watermark here but alas tumblr only lets you put one video per post. Tom and McQ stopped to get their picture taken en route to the actual photocall and Tom made Heather come back and be in the pictures with them. There is video here.

Cannes, of course, was amazing. I have garbage homemade gifs but they're too big for tumblr (also they're garbage) but all the Cannes red carpet footage is available on YouTube, here and here. (Worth it for Heather, tbh.)

They went straight from Cannes - on Tom's helicopter - back to London for the Royal premiere. Where the McQuarries looked amazing and McQ wore his McQ shoes.

And the after party, because heaven forbid they not all ride in the same car:

And then the McQuarries got a slight break, while Tom went to do more TGM press. But he was back in London by the end of June, and they went on what can only be described as a string of dates. First, they went to the Rolling Stones concert at Hyde Park.

McQ was on Tom's other side, but he's only visible in video (the Daily Mail might be garbage but they do come through with the media).

Then Tom and Heather went to The Eagles show at Hyde Park:

And they all went to see Adele - also at Hyde Park. (The woman in the pink sweater is Tom's CAA agent Maha Dakhil Jackson - I found the picture where you can see Heather over Tom's shoulder.)

Then for Tom's birthday, they went to the F1 British Grand Prix (with some other TGM folks, but they aren't three steps behind Tom like the McQuarries are).

Oh no, we're not done. Tom takes Heather to Wimbledon, where she holds his sunglasses (not visible in this picture).

McQ did not go with, as he was recording a Light the Fuse podcast - which he surprise-dialled in a bunch of DR folks - and his final surprise was Tom. Who was still at Wimbledon with Heather. McQ calls Heather to get Tom, and Heather plays dumb and is like, "oh I don't know where he is, did you try calling him?" and Chris says he already told the podcast guys that they were together. So Tom does his segment from the car he's in with Heather, and his part is only supposed to be like ten minutes but he talks for about forty-five and this includes telling the world they basically all live together. Then they went out to dinner!

And the next day they all went to Wimbledon with Maha and her husband.

I'm stopping here because this is already SO LONG and 2023 is going to be wild just by itself! PART THREE

#cruisequarries

[glittergroovy]

Post Directory: Lana Del Rey

demo: "Sirens" (2005)

Drive By (For K) / Next To Me / A Star For Nick / My Momma / Bad Disease / Out With A Bang / Dear Elliot / Try Tonight / Peace (All You Need) / I'm Indebted To You (How Do You Know Me So Well?) / Pretty Baby / Aviation / Move / Junkie Pride / Birds Of A Feather

album: "A.K.A. Lizzy Grant" (2010)

Kill Kill / Queen Of The Gas Station / Oh Say Can You See / Gramma / For K Part 2 (Rahab) / Jump / Mermaid Motel / Raise Me Up (Mississippi South) / Pawn Shop Blues / Brite Lites / Put Me In A Movie / Smarty / Yayo

album: "Born To Die" (2012)

Born To Die / Off To The Races / Blue Jeans / Video Games / Diet Mountain Dew / National Anthem / Dark Paradise / Radio / Carmen / Million Dollar Man / Summertime Sadness / This Is What Makes Us Girls / Without You / Lolita / Lucky Ones

album: Paradise

Ride / American / Cola / Body Electric / Blue Velvet / Gods & Monsters / Yayo / Bel Air / Burning Desire

album: "Ultraviolence" (2014)

Cruel World / Ultraviolence / Shades Of Cool / Brooklyn Baby / West Coast / Sad Girl / Pretty When You Cry / Money Power Glory / Fucked My Way Up To The Top / Old Money / The Other Woman / Black Beauty / Guns And Roses / Florida Kilos / Is This Happiness / Flipside

album: "Honeymoon" (2015)

Honeymoon / Music To Watch Boys To / Terrence Loves You / God Knows I Tried / High By The Beach / Freak / Art Deco / Burnt Norton (Interlude) / Religion / Salvatore / The Blackest Day / 24 / Swan Song / Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

album: "Lust For Life" (2017)

Love / Lust For Life / 13 Beaches / Cherry / White Mustang / Summer Bummer / Groupie Love / In My Feelings / Coachella / God Bless America / When The World Was At War / Beautiful People Beautiful Problems / Tomorrow Never Came / Heroin / Change / Get Free

album: "Norman Fucking Rockwell!" (2019)

Norman Fucking Rockwell / Mariners Apartment Complex / Venice Bitch / Fuck It I Love You / Doin' Time / Love Song / Cinnamon Girl / How To Disappear / California / The Next Best American Record / The Greatest / Bartender / Happiness Is A Butterfly / Hope Is A Dangerous Thing

album: "Chemtrails Over The Country Club" (2021)

White Dress / Chemtrails Over The Country Club / Tulsa Jesus Freak / Let Me Love You Like A Woman / Wild At Heart / Dark But Just A Game / Not All Who Wander Are Lost / Yosemite / Breaking Up Slowly / Dance Till We Die / For Free

SEE HERE for directory of her Unreleased songs

SEE HERE for MORE RECENT ALBUMS

Limited to 100 links per post 🙄

#directory #tag directory #lana del rey #long post #because I have SO many lana posts #album: sirens #album: a.k.a. lizzy grant #album: born to die #album: ultraviolence #album: honeymoon #album: lust for life #album: norman fucking rockwell! #album: chemtrails over the country club #album: blue banisters #album: did you know that there's a tunnel under ocean blvd #lana unreleased #IT WONT LET ME ADD A READ MORE SRRY

[bellafemme]

Billboard interview.

Why Lana Del Rey Is Opening Up About Her Family on ‘Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’

There is, in fact, a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard. Though a few online spectators suspected the tunnel, which inspired the name of Lana Del Rey’s album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, out March 24, might be located in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Del Rey recently revealed that the underground tunnel is actually in Long Beach, Calif. — not far from Los Angeles, where Del Rey has lived for the last six years.

The singer-songwriter’s use of SoCal iconography has been a cornerstone of her songwriting for over a decade, from Born To Die’s (2012) depictions to old Hollywood glamor to Norman Fucking Rockwell’s (2019) allusions to Venice Beach. While it’s present on her new project as well, Del Rey admits she is not quite as focused on “world building” as she once was, and instead is “living from the neck up,” focusing her craft on more lyrically driven and intimate songwriting.

Del Rey’s Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd discusses unrevealed details and stories about her “family of origin,” especially in songs like “Fingertips,” which she says “tells everything about everyone from day one.” Just weeks before its release, Del Rey – who is Billboard’s 2023 Women in Music Visionary honoree — talks about creating the album in her living room, and why she is ready to talk about her family.

How did your new album begin to take shape?

Mike Hermosa, who produced the majority of the songs on this album, would come over to my house, and I would hear him in my living room playing piano. He’s not even a musician full time. He’s a DP, a cameraman. I would hear him play, and I’d be like “can I record that?” or I’d sneakily record something. Eventually I asked if he could just keep playing, and I could sing. Then, every Sunday when he wasn’t working, he would just kind of noodle around, and I would sing. That’s how we wrote the first song: “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.” I knew right away that I really, really liked it. I enjoyed how casual writing with Mike was. He didn’t have a dog in the race. He wasn’t interested in anything beyond just playing. It’s fun that the entire album didn’t feel like we were making one until the end when Jack Antonoff came in and was like “I really like this. Can I put something on top of this?” When Jack comes in, you know you’re making a real record.

Do you feel this casual approach to songwriting was able to open you up creatively?

This process was almost like automatic singing. I just knew exactly every word to sing for everything he played because the chords were perfectly arranged. I think my overall feeling when writing this album was just, “wow, I got lucky.” Also, I realized that, even when I’m seeking so many other things in my life, music really seeks me. It’s like a little bird following me around. Somehow when I didn’t want to make music, I was presented with the best collaborators I’ve met. I just had them in my living room. I realized music is the one thing that constantly shows up for me, even when I’m looking for something else.

Since you were singing so automatically, as you put it, did you go back and edit, or did you leave it as is?

There was a lot of editing, because it was mostly a stream of consciousness, but every now and then I’ll have a complete song come to me fully formed. The song “Fingertips” I created in one sitting, voice memoed it, and sent it to [the producer and composer] Drew Erickson. He came back to me the next day with a full orchestra. Again, I just felt so lucky: lucky for the songs, lucky for these producers, lucky for the project.

You have Jack Antonoff coming back on this record. He’s worked on so many major albums in the last five years, including two of your own (Norman Fucking Rockwell and Chemtrails Over the Country Club). As someone who has worked with him so often, what’s his secret? Why does everyone want to work with him?

He can play anything on any instrument. He can fit the right instruments and melodies to any idea you’ve had. I think he plays something like 16 instruments. For us, it’s definitely very collaborative. I think probably out of any projects he’s worked on, he would say I give him the most direction. It’s funny because I recently heard all of his records he made from when he was in high school, and I still hear so much of what he’s done on Taylor [Swift]’s new record from that high school record. He’s just prolific. It’s absolutely wild to watch. That’s why it’s so fun because you really get to create any sound with him. He’s also a girl’s guy. He gets it!

He’s also a featured artist on the album too. How did that come about?

I was done with the album, and he came in for a couple days. We sat there, and I said, “let’s just play the piano.” I can make a song out of anything Jack plays. That’s actually how Norman got started too. He just plays and I just sing. He started playing something and then I was thinking about his fiancée [Margaret Qualley] who I just can’t live without! I love her. I started singing “he met Margaret on a rooftop / she was wearing white / and he was like / ‘I might be in trouble.’” I asked him what he thought we should say in the second verse because with him and Margaret it was a “when you know you know” situation. He had the idea to sing about what you should do when you don’t know. He started singing, and I told him he should just sing it on the record. It was really fun.

What overall themes did you try to capture in this record?

Family of origin is the overall theme. I think with Blue Banisters I wanted to capture this idea too, but I flew it under the radar. I was trying to address some criticisms that I had heard said after Chemtrials… mostly that people don’t know much about me. I didn’t promote that theme of Blue Banisters at all intentionally. In this album, I got to really finish my thoughts and get super specific, which I was not comfortable with completely before… I do list my grandpa, my brother, my dad, my Uncle Dave. In the song “Fingertips,” I sing “Charlie stop smoking / Caroline will you be with me / will the baby be alright? / Will I have one of mine?” I think I was able to open up about this because Mike was so casual to work with. All in my living room. It allowed for that. “Fingertips” tells everything about everyone from day one until now.

Are you nervous about being so forthcoming about your family in this record?

I was. I was so uncomfortable. Then, by the grace of God, I felt completely unburdened.

Your father, Rob Grant, is releasing an album on Decca Records on June 9, and you’ll be featured on two songs. Has he always been musical?

My dad has always played piano and he sang when he was younger with my uncle who’s a traveling organ player for Emmylou Harris and Buddy Guy. They wrote country records back in the day. I don’t know how and when it came to him. But I think he just decided he wanted to record it. And [my manager] played it for Decca Records, and they loved it. I’m not talkative when it comes to myself, but you will learn so much about me in hearing him. It gives so much context to the family.

How Lana Del Rey Became ‘Completely Unburdened’ For Her Most Personal Material Yet

Lana Del Rey practices "automatic singing." Using the improvisational songwriting technique, she lets her voice carry over accompaniments, not commandeering where her words or melodies take her, accepting all ideas she has in the moment and editing them later. Lately, her voice has led her home, back to memories of her childhood in Lake Placid, N.Y., and to ruminations on relationships with her family and the divergent paths they’ve taken. That subject underpins her upcoming ninth album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (out March 24). Del Rey, 37, says she hesitantly began to unpack this subject matter with her previous album, Blue Banisters — but now, she’s ready to dig deeper. “At first I was so uncomfortable,” she says of the more personal material. “Then, by the grace of God, I just felt completely unburdened.” As a singer-songwriter, this year’s Visionary honoree has embodied that word for over a decade. Her 2012 major-label debut, Born To Die, made her a star and defined music’s Tumblr era, as a young Del Rey toyed with both the romantic and the darker sides of the American dream. Her “world building,” as she calls it now, for her early work created a collage of beautiful and disparate images, pairing hip-hop aesthetics with references to the Kennedy family, Elvis Presley with John Wayne, and old Hollywood glamour with biker gang grit.

Since then, Del Rey has pushed musical boundaries — seamlessly peppering an album with features from Stevie Nicks to Playboi Carti (2017’s Lust for Life), reworking a Sublime cover into a contemporary Billboard Hot 100 hit (2019’s “Doin’ Time”), for instance — while achieving both critical acclaim and commercial success. She has earned six Grammy nominations and holds the record for most No. 1s on Billboard’s Alternative Albums chart. And somehow, each week, it seems a new song from her vast catalog gains traction on TikTok. (“West Coast” and “How To Disappear” are two recent breakouts.) Younger artists often cite her as an inspiration — including Billie Eilish, whom Del Rey now calls “my girl. It makes me feel comforted that music is going in such a good direction.”

Since 2019, you’ve released four albums. Is it fair to say you have more creative energy than ever?

I think it might look like that! It’s funny because I keep telling people, “I haven’t worked in three years,” but really I just haven’t done shows in three years. As soon as I start getting ready for a show, that’s when it feels like work.

How has your process changed since Born To Die came out?

Eleven years ago I wanted it to be so good. Now, I just sing exactly what I’m thinking. I’m thinking a little less big and bombastic. Maybe at some point I can have fun creating a world again, but right now, I would say there’s no world building. This music is about thought processing. It’s very, very wordy. I’m definitely living from the neck up.

Can you remember what it felt like creatively when you were just starting out?

I think back to the beginning, being in New York. I would just go to a little deli by Grand Central and all you had to do to sit at the table for hours was buy a black coffee. I remember thinking, “I’m doing it. I’m living it.” It was all very thrilling. I was so psyched back then.

You recently featured on Taylor Swift’s “Snow on the Beach.” What was collaborating with her like?

Well, first of all, I had no idea I was the only feature [on that song]. Had I known, I would have sung the entire second verse like she wanted. My job as a feature on a big artist’s album is to make sure I help add to the production of the song, so I was more focused on the production. She was very adamant that she wanted me to be on the album, and I really liked that song. I thought it was nice to be able to bridge that world, since Jack [Antonoff] and I work together and so do Jack and Taylor.

Who do you consider to be a visionary?

Joan Baez. I sang with her recently. She gave me a challenge: She said, “Go down a little road and look for a left turn and find my house [in Northern California]. If you find it and can play ‘Diamonds and Rust’s’ high harmony, I’ll come to Berkeley with you and sing.” So my sister and I rented a car and searched for the house. I was very nervous. I don’t play guitar that well, but I learned the first three chords and sat across from her, [and when] we stopped playing, she was like, “Great, I’ll see you at Berkeley.” And another visionary to me is Cat Power. I had heard that she would run offstage when she wasn’t feeling it or just turn her back to the [audience] and keep playing. That’s when I knew I could probably do this.

#lana del rey

[roundtabletea]

Day in the Life of Launcelot

Similar to Guenevere’s day in the life post, we are again going to ask you to imagine a character as a modern day influencer--but this time it’s her lover, Launcelot Du Lake!

Hey guys… Launcelot here. Guenevere told me to get on here and give you a narration of a day in my life. So let’s look at the clips. Oh! Here I am after I’ve awoken in the morning, attending mass in the chapel like the great knight I am. I go here before I even eat breakfast. 

Let's move onto the next clip... Here I am dropping Guenevere off with King Arthur after mass. Guys, I'm only doing this because she's my patron, not because I love her or anything. Stop saying I do, guys.

Ok... anyways... This is me in the middle of a tournament. This was our midday break because at this point we had been fighting for hours. Obviously I'm the guy in the blue, as I never go to a tournament undisguised. It takes the drama out of it. And as an influencer I can't live without the drama.

Speaking of disguises. Here’s a picture of me dressed up as a pilgrim to scare Guenevere. No other reason. Why would there be another reason?

And finally… Here I am at the end of the day taking a nap under a tree. For some reason some queens stumbled upon me and seemed super interested. But, of course I ignored them as I’m loyal to Guenevere. Wait, what was that. My bad....

Image sources:

First painting: Launcelot at the Chapel, 1902 CE Book of Romance, Published by Amy G, 2019

Second painting: Launcelot brings Guenevere to Arthur, E1902 CE Book of Romance, Published by Amy G, 2019

Third painting: Illustration p.38 of the Boys King Arthur, Sir Thomas Mallory and edited by Sidney Lanier, 1922

Fourth painting: Illustration from Skylocks version of  Merchant of Venice Act II Scene 5, Shakespeare and edited by Peter Simon and Robert Smirke, 1795

Fifth painting: How Four Queens Found Launcelot Sleeping, Aubrey Beardsley, 2014

#king arthur #arthur pendragon #guenevere #gawain #lancelot #lancelot du lac #round table #medieval literature #day in the life #influencers #queen #books and reading #books #books & libraries #bookstagram #reading #currently reading #booklr #bookworm

[wordsfromgoose]

~Venice, 2019

One day I'll be as peaceful as this man, living at my own pace doing my own thing.

#mine #photography #personal #quote #my photos #photooftheday #photographer #lightroom #picture #places #Italy

[gracefullou]

of course Larry is totally bullshit but a correction for your anon....Harry has never been seen hanging out with the creator of euphoria, or had any connection with him at all. and there's no evidence that he approved the scene either so I don't know why people made this up and then say this as fact just to get mad about it like...why waste the time?

Why do you guys love to play stupid 😭. Hrry has never been seen with the creator of Euphoria and has no connection with him at all 😭. Yes, he was seen with that producer in 2019 shortly before or after the episode (i forgot exactly) this is the pic i'm talking about. That producer reposted (can't find the og pic but Hrry was wearing the exact same thing and it's clearly from 2019) it to defend Hrry when he said that he doesn't only date women, people just assume or something like that in that RS article ( he's right, how dare people think he's dating the director of his still unreleased movie at the time when they were on a yacht and he was eating her face with his ass crack for all to see 😭 people should know it's just another day for him at work it seems 🤷🏽‍♀️)

Btw, this man is a Hrry worshipper. He even praised that ugly film when he saw it at the Venice film festival. And look how excited Hrry was to see him (but he's so mad about the Euphoria thing he didn't know 😡)

Even when that producer announced the episode he said with an assist from Hrry THE Styles. He's clearly a fan

And ignoring all this, do you really they think would do the a*zofs dirty like that 😭 they would never. They did this to Louis bc he has no power behind him but that man basically has the whole music industry (and more) backing him up

And, let's suppose he didn't know before. Why didn't he say anything when Louis denied it? And was called a liar for it (still is) by larries. Why does he never take a stand? Always leaving the burden on other (powerless) people's shoulders to deal with a mess that also involved him. At the very best and with a lot of suspension of disbelief, he's a spineless coward. And if you use your brain and stop playing coy, it's very obvious. He/ his team wanted him to gain LGBTQ woke points during pride month for his album promo, used Larry for that, didn't care about telling his ex-bandmate. The fact that this is insulting to Louis is just a lovely bonus to him🤷🏽‍♀️

#now leave me alone #if you don't want to believe it #it's on you #go with your stupidity else where 😘

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

So yeah... That totally unnecessary Nelson Peltz proxy fight saga of current-day Disney is finally over.

Thank goodness. Peltz seemed like he was acting on behalf of former Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, another guy who is bad news bears to say the least. Peltz just looked like another old man who plays to the crowd that loves to call everything "woke". While it doesn't take rocket science to figure out that The Walt Disney Company is having some trouble across various divisions, their solution wasn't even a solution. Nothing remotely near that.

Interestingly, Disney finally released their first *new* theatrical movie this year, a $30m prequel to THE OMEN that got solid reviews but struggled on opening weekend for whatever reason. It's looking to perform more like last year's new EXORCIST movie than 2018 HALLOWEEN (both films directed by David Gordon Green), I guess not all horror legacy sequels (lega-sequels) are destined to make coin. No matter, $30m isn't steep, it should make it back eventually if not in theaters. It's a 20th Century Studios movie, so it's no big deal really.

Weirdly, POOR THINGS is one of their few box office successes released over the past 12 or so months, outside of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and - by a hair - ELEMENTAL. 20th kinda came to the rescue there, too: A HAUNTING IN VENICE doubled its budget, THE BOOGEYMAN did pretty good.

All I know is, Disney's probably never going to relive 2019 again... And I feel like they keep trying to make that year happen again... But it won't, because that was a case of the planets freakin' aligning...

I extend that to the 2010s in general, honestly, but I'll focus on 2019...

That year saw the billion-dollar releases of - in order: CAPTAIN MARVEL, AVENGERS: ENDGAME, ALADDIN, TOY STORY 4, THE LION KING, FROZEN II, and THE RISE OF SKYWALKER... They got a moderate success out of the MALEFICENT sequel that year, too, while the live-action DUMBO didn't recoup its - ironically - massive budget. (The original 1941 DUMBO was a low-budget picture belted out during the war.) Some 20th titles came out that year, too, most of them not doing great, like the X-Men movie DARK PHOENIX and Blue Sky's penultimate SPIES IN DISGUISE (I call it penultimate because I consider NIMONA a partial Blue Sky movie, their swan song).

Even then, that was a year to die for. But that's the rub... ENDGAME was the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's whole Infinity Saga. 11 years in the making, it's astounding it was able to have juice for that long! Yes, yes, I know, SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME was the *actual* end of Phase 3... That functions more like an epilogue, while ENDGAME was the big finale event everyone waited for... and of course, CAPTAIN MARVEL benefited greatly from being the movie that preceded ENDGAME. By less than two months... TOY STORY 4 was locked to be big, because TOY STORY 3 made a billion nine years earlier. ALADDIN and THE LION KING were remakes of some of Disney's biggest animated movies, and FROZEN II was a sequel to another one of Disney's biggest animated movies. RISE OF SKYWALKER ended the entire Skywalker Saga... And ending the main story of one of the biggest franchises- You get the idea!

Suffice to say, Disney's not going to have that year again. They'd have to acquire like another 2-3 franchises, and release their finales all during the same year in addition to two other favorites. The MCU isn't the must-see event with each and every film anymore post-ENDGAME, Star Wars' future is probably in serialized shows still, the remake well has run dry and all the biggest Disney animated movies were pretty much covered (SNOW WHITE - from the one that started everything - is on its way, but I see that performing more similarly to DUMBO and not LITTLE MERMAID), and... Well, animated movies that aren't sequels are more of a gamble nowadays.

But it seems like in 2025 and 2026, Disney's looking to keep trying this usual platter of movies that would've been a killer line-up in 2017. Not today. That's how I felt about their offering last year, too.

It's a lot of reliance on the brands. New Star Wars sounds like box office gold, right? Well, two new Star Wars movies in 2026 after all those movies Disney did from 2015-2019 in addition to what seems like a ton of Disney+ shows... And Grogu was super-popular back when he first appeared in THE MANDALORIAN back in 2019... Yeah, like, who knows how those will do... In addition to all the Marvel movies planned, not all of them are gonna get everyone packing the auditoriums - as we saw with QUANTUMANIA and THE MARVELS. (And on the Warner Bros./DC end, SHAZAM! 2 and BLUE BEETLE, even AQUAMAN 2 didn't make half of what the first one made, THE FLASH fell sharply after its opening.)

And then you have the animated sequels, which seem like safe bets. Disney only missed with Pixar's LIGHTYEAR, which was a spin-off that went a totally different direction that seemed to have alienated the audiences that made all the TOY STORY movies the big hits that they were. TOY STORY 5 likely does way better than that, but I expect it to be a box office come down from the last two. It would have to have a real banger story, I feel, to get people to keep coming. I think MOANA 2, ZOOTOPIA 2, and FROZEN III - all from Disney Animation - are locked to at least open big. If they're very unsatisfactory movies to the public - like STRANGE WORLD and WISH were, then they have weak legs... And smackdab between this sequel-frenzy is one original Pixar movie: Space adventure ELIO.... Which got delayed, supposedly because it was a big mess and it needed another year and a half to be reconfigured. Not that that really means anything, but it's sure to balloon its probably already-big budget. ELEMENTAL had to climb and climb to somewhat eke out a profit, ELIO might have even more trouble as an original movie. It's also not known what Pixar's other 2026 movie is opposite TOY STORY 5, though I suspect it is another original, which will make it stick out as well. WDAS' original movies seem missing in action at the moment.

20th Century Studios and Searchlight continue to have the interesting stuff, which I think will last longer than more Marvel and Star Wars movies. Both studios really did become a replacement for Disney's former adult movie label Touchstone, didn't they? And they too have their franchise biggies, more for Disney, with the likes of PLANET OF THE APES and ALIEN... Whose new installments come out this year and are sure to do okay. Plus, more AVATAR... And yet those franchise don't feel - to me - as overdone as Star Wars and the MCU. It's been 7 years since the last APES and ALIEN movies, weirdly enough (WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES and ALIEN: COVENANT), and AVATAR took a long break before returning with a cluster sequels all reasonably spaced out from one another. PREDATOR/PREY looks to keep going. I also wonder if future KINGSMAN movies are still in play.

Again, it's the little stuff that matters, because wells always run dry... And I think that's Disney's problem at the moment, ditto them playing things way too safe in other areas... I've said that before, but they - specifically on the "Walt Disney Pictures" end - need to just let loose and let a filmmaker just make something dynamic and cool and new. Something that takes the audience completely by surprise, not just another "Disney movie". Something like PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN or WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. And make more smaller movies, too, and not relegate them to streaming. Little movies like THE PRINCESS DIARIES, HOLES, etc. We're in that scene in RATATOUILLE again where the patrons of Gusteau's ask if there's anything *new* on the menu...

The time is now, Disney. With a new head of your live-action division, let's see what you've got. We're past calendar years locked and loaded with 8 tentpole movies...

[burlveneer-music]

Thandi Ntuli with Carlos Niño - Rainbow Revisited

Liner Notes by Thandi Ntuli: I travelled to Los Angeles and the USA for the first time in 2019. Although I had not met Carlos in person, we connected via Instagram where he saw a video of me playing a piano motif (titled ��The One’ in this sequence) that he really liked and expressed a wish to record. This was around 2017. We tried a few times to get me over to Los Angeles, but the timing was always off. Through a performance organised by a creative collective called The Nonsemble at The Ford Theatre we finally got the opportunity to meet, play together and subsequently go into studio to record some improvisations as he guided the recording process. Having been aware of some of his work – in particular his collaborative projects as Carlos Niño & Friends, as well as with his friend and long-time collaborator, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson – I knew that, with Carlos as producer, the artistic direction of the album would likely take me to a place I’d never considered going. A fact that had me both curious and terrified (as one tends to be when stepping into the unknown) Lol! Initially keen to record the song that he had seen/heard me play on Instagram, our performance a few days before the session drew him to the song Rainbow off my sophomore album, Exiled (2018). On that zen-like California afternoon in Andy Kravitz’s cozy studio in Venice Beach, he encouraged me to play around with various iterations of Rainbow. “Try it this way”, “How about adding that?”, “Can you breathe into the mic?”, “What if you focus on the last section?”, and many other explorations that eventually went through a few cuts, edits, yays and nays to become this body of work. Rainbow Revisited was birthed through that session, another session a couple of days later, and a series of many small synchronicities that led up to that moment. A particularly special moment for me was when he invited me to play something from home, which lent itself to me recording a song originally written by my grandfather that we often sing when at family gatherings. The song is called Nomayoyo. So much has happened since that session in late 2019. Many changes in our personal and collective universes. Losses and gains, births and transitions into the next life, Mother Nature’s ever-constant cycles reminding me that through all the chaos there remains, just beneath, this perfect order in Her ebb and flow. And most importantly, reminding me to feel for Her and to listen. She speaks! If Rainbow in my initial birthing of it, expressed a discontent with what we have accepted as freedom in South Africa and, possibly, around the world, I’d like to think that Rainbow Revisited is some kind of a response. Where the idea of ‘the rainbow nation’, with all the baggage it carried, had hijacked the innocence and mystical nature of a rainbow, I now reclaim its meaning through going back, going inward, healing, and rebuilding with the hope of a less heart-breaking and more fulfilling tomorrow. Lihlanzekile!  Thandi Ntuli: Piano, Synthesizer, Tongo, Voice Carlos Niño: Cymbals, Percussion, Plants Recorded by Andy Kravitz at Studio 4 West, Venice Beach, California, August 2019. Cover Art by Shabaka Hutchings. Graphic Design and Layout by Craig Hansen.

#Bandcamp #Thandi Ntuli #Carlos Niño #piano #south africa #jazz #international anthem #female vocal #spiritual jazz #2023

[mejo-shygirl]

Dear RJPDS,

Hi! Syempre dyan ko naman talaga sisimulan yung letter ko. :p kidding aside, anw. Kamusta ka na? Hope you’re always okay. Actually, ‘di ko alam pa’no ko sisimulan or kung pa’no ko ilalathala ang mga gusto kong sabihin sa pamamagitan ng pagsulat ng liham. (Wow ang lalim, sasali ba ko sa buwan ng wika? Lol) So, nevertheless, sisimulan ko na. siguro, magkukwento na lang ako..

Tbh, unang meet ko pa lang sayo. Attracted na ko wala ng explain-explain. Alam mo naman na kung bakit kasi maka-ilang beses ko na din sinabi sayo yan noon, pero sige, for the sake of this letter, susulat ko ulit. :p xd Kasi nga, LONG HAIR ka, lakas maka-attract sakin ng long hair guys talaga, pero yung attractiveness ko sayo, kakaiba. Like, kakaiba kung pano ko i-appreciate yung iba.. ganun. Pero umpisa palang ‘to ah. Hahaha.

Tapos, ayun na. Lumaon na yung mga araw na medyo nakakasama na kita hahaha, nakakailang talaga sa umpisa eno? Haha ewan ko ba.. naalala ko na naman yung araw na first time na nga lang natin mag-iinteract sa isa’t isa.. putek nay an, na-talkshit pa kita, kahit kasi sabihin nating kalimutan na natin yun, hindi talaga kaya.. alam mo kung bakit? Kasi dun nagsimula lahat e hahahaha. First ever memory ko yun with you e. Funny, right?

Naalala ko pa nga, eto din yung mga time nakakachat na kita e, tandang-tanda ko pa yung sinabi mo nung panahon na yun. ‘Di ko alam kung nanttrip ka ba o ano e, kasi nabanggit ko sayo na lahat sila mga nahingian ko ng hug ikaw lang hindi. Aba, may patampo pa ang Lolo mo R, sabi mo ba naman sakin. “Alam ko namang mas trip mo sila.” pero tignan mo ngayon, trip pa din ba tong nararamdaman ko na to?

Naalala mo din ba yung time na dapat di mo ako isasabay kasi nagugutom ka? Haha. Pinasa ako sa iba hmp! Pero ano ka ba, nung araw naman na yun. ‘di naman ako nagmamadaling umuwi. Bukod sa malapit lang naman ako and wala naman akong importanteng gagawin haha, and I don’t mind din naman. Kaya I insisted na samahan ka, ang cute non kasi kung anu anong kwento yung nakkwento ko haha. Kaso nga lang unang time pala na nakasabay kita sa pagccommute, pangit pala ng topic natin non. Xd di ko na yun sasama dito, kasi ikaw ang bida dito. Ayos ba yun? 😉

This day (mybad, di ko na maalala yung exact date).. dito na talaga nagsimula lahat. Hehe, naalala mo yung time na niloloko kita hahaha. Sabi ko, “pakain ka naman!” haha, gulat nga ako e. nag-go ka agad e. ^^ tapos sa Popeyes to e, yung time na ‘to, the moment na pagpasok natin sa sasakyan mo. Dun ko naramdaman na.. “shemz, kakaiba na ‘tong pakiramdam na ‘to..” dun ko na naramdaman na gusto kita, hahaha. Tamang soundtrip pa nga tayo e, huling kantang pinatugtog pa nga non fave all time song ko e [Do I Wanna Know- Arctic Monkeys♥]. Alam mo ba, buti na lang napigilan ko yung sarili ko nung oras na yun, dapat kasi talaga dun palang. Ikikiss sana kita e hahaha. Buti na lang at napigil lol.

Nov. 30, 2019 ~

So yun na, hanggang sa lumabas na ulit tayo. Hehe, sorry ah, eto lang talaga tinago kong pic mo e nung nag-Venice tayo. First time kasi natin lumabas non ng weekends haha. Kaya dapat yung ganon para sakin tinetreasure yung ganon. Cute cute mo talaga, R. :> Naalala ko pa, eto yung isa sa mga kilig moment ko e.. yung time na nahagip ng mata ko yung booksale na shop hahahahaha e kaso nabalaan ng apala kita noh, na once makakita ako ng something related sa books, hatakin mo na ako agad. ‘di ko naman expect na ganun mo ko hahatakin hahahaha. Umakbay ka sakin palayo ng booksale. T^T Goodbye books. T^T pero alam mo ba, sobrang pula ng mukha ko non, buti na lang madilim na kaya ‘di na masyadong kita hehe. :p

Jan. 12, 2020 & Feb. 15, 2020 ~

Pagsamahin ko na yung 2 date ha? Eto yung dates ng staycation natin hahaha walang pictures kasi ikaw e. Ayaw mo talaga akong kasama sa picture e. Panget ba ko ha? 🙁 Kaya ayaw mo? :< wala tuloy ditong picture mo hahahaha. Pero ayun nga, sa mga panahon na to, sobra sobrang kilig ko kasi akalain mo yun, pumayag ka sa mga pag ganyan ko hehe. Wala lang, masaya lang sa pakiramdam, ikaw ba, do you feel the same way like I did?

Sa dami daming ganap sa buhay natin sa loob ng isang taon.. Lumalim ng lumalim hanggang sa di ko na napigilan sarili ko.

Aug. 24, 2020 ~

Eto na yung time na nagconfess ako sayo through chat, gusto ko lang malaman mo na sa sobrang kaba ko, umiiyak ako habang nagttype non, kasi di ko alam kung anong irreact mo e, kung aayawan mo ba ko, kung gugustuhin mo din ba ko as in wala akong idea kasi di ka naman ka-vocal sa feelings mo e. Luckily, di ka naman umiwas. Hehe. Pero tbh, natatakot ako na baka one day, marealize mo na.. Ang lahat ng iyon, mauuwi lang pala sa thank you hehe.

Sobrang haba na neto, R. Wala akong hinihinging kapalit sa lahat ng ginagawa ko, gusto ko lang naman din malaman mo na gustung-gusto talaga kita. I know it’s kinda awkward na ako yung ganto pero pasensya ka na. Tao lang naman din ako, nakakaramdam ng emosyon. Fyi, di din naman ako nagmamadali kung ano yung mga magiging desisyon mo at kung ano yung magiging hakbang netong pinaggagawa ko, basta one thing for sure. Ayun lang talaga and I don’t easily give up except na lang kung talagang sayo na mismo manggagaling yun. Sana basahin mo to hehe. If ever naman na mabasa mo, thank you. If ever na hindi, thank you pa din. Basta, maraming salamat, nawa’y dumami pa ang memories natin together. More galas, kain, roadtrip, ‘silay’ at kung anu ano pa to come. Always remember din na, “I’ll be here, even if you don’t want me no more”. Daisuki desu. (I like you! ♥) Ayun lang nman hehe.

Disclaimer: Alam kong kinikilig kayo sa sulat ko, pero sa totoo lang, nawalan akong chance to do this letter, wala e, sobrang busy sa work at ayun nga.. Dito sa susunod na mababasa n'yong letter, heto na yung mga rason, para malaman nyo na din kung anong nangyare:

Hi RJPDS,

Kumusta? Matagal na din tayong hindi nag-usap, mula nung madami na kong nasagap na mga balita? Don't worry, 'di ko naman ginawa 'tong letter na 'to para mapabalik pa ang lahat, gusto ko lang din na maglabas ng sama ng loob.. pati gusto ko lang malaman mo na.. minahal talaga, nang alam kong walang kasiguraduhan, pinipilit kita nung mga time na yon, baket? Kasi medyo napapatagal na ata, 'di pa ba enough ang 1-2 years para magbigay ng 'assurance'? Oh well, baka para lang naman sakin yon, alam mo ba... wala naman din talaga akong balak magtanong about sa mga nalalaman ko, pero kung siguro 'di ko ginawa yon, patuloy pa din yang mali mong gawain... Naalala ko pa yung mga date (not exact, pero itatala ko dito yung mga taon.) na ngayon ay itatala ko rito:

Dec. 2020

Eto yung time na nanghingi ako ng favor sayo na umangkas, pero tinanggihan mo, rason mo sakin? "ayaw ko ng issue", kahit san ka lumingon at kahit anong gawin mong pagmamalinis, magkakaron at magkakaron ka pa din ng issue, kahit saan meron yan, di yan mawawala, alam mo ba nung time na yon, nagtampo ako sayo non, pano kasi, IKAW na lang talaga last resort ko non, nakahiram naman na ko ng helmet non, tapos tumanggi ka pa, masakit sakin yon, dinamdam ko yun, kaya magmula non, 'di na ko nanghingi ng pabor sayo na isabay ako pag-uwi kahit along the way lang naman tayo.

Dec. 8, 2020

Etong time naman na 'to, magkasama tayo neto, 'di ko maintindihan kung baket ganon yung panaginip ko, sabi mo sa panaginip ko, "ibblock kita ah?", tapos pinilit kong gumising non. Sabay sinilayan ko ang maamo mong mukha, ginising pa nga kita non e, tinanong pa kita kung gising ka like 5-10 mins. ago, e halata namang tulog na tulog ka... kaya triny kong balewalain yung panaginip na yon.. pero hindi e, dinadala ko yung hanggang sa kasalukuyan e..

Year 2021

'Di ko alam, basta nung panahon naman na 'to, wala naman akong ibang magagawa kundi intindihan ka, kasi ganon kita kamahal. Huling pagsasama natin neto, February 5, 2021 pa. Mula nun, tumumal na, hanggang sa nalaman ko na lang sayo na na-hospital pala si Meme (mama) mo, diyan naman sa part na yan, wala akong right magreklamo, kasi nga kahit naman ako e, ganyan din gagawin ko nung time na yon, uunahin ko talaga ang pamilya ko over anything, saludo ako saiyo 'ron.

Hanggang sa feeling ko naman getting well na si Meme mo, at nanghihingi ako ng time sayo, kahit simpleng labas lang naman or something, pero ang dami mo laging dahilan, rason... basta pagdating sakin. Tapos, malalaman ko na nakakasama ka naman sa mga gala nila, tulad ng rides ganon. Inaamin kong nakakatampo sa part na yan, like bakit kapag sila ambilis mong gawing libre yung oras mo, pero pagdating sakin, ganto ganyan.. pinilit naman kitang intindihin e, kaso nakakarami ka na e..

I think this time, it's around August, Sept or October, 'di ko na matandaan, pero we had an argument that time to the point na sinabi ko sayo na nagtatampo ako, pero ikaw naman di mo alam gagawin hahaha ewan ko ba tapos nabanggit ko din sayo na baket kapag ako nanghihingi ng oras, lagi kang may rason.. and the worst thing I said, "alam mo nakakasakit ka na..", and this time, dito mo naopen yung about sa 'pahinga' na yan, pero nung time na yan, 'di ako pumayag, baket? "Yang mga pahinga na yan, 'di na yan bumabalik."

Hanggang sa dumating na ang December.. dito sa panahon na 'to, we're going good(?) but unti unti ko nang nararamdaman ang coldness mo, actually, nagsimula kong maramdaman yon? March pa. Triny ko naman to make up with you, sakin ka na nga nagkulang pero tignan mo sa pagmamahal na meron ako para sayo... ginagawa ko ang lahat, para lang masalba sa kung ano mang meron tayo.. ganon ka kasi kahalaga sakin. Dito sa month na 'to nagkaron ng time sakin, isipin mo ah? Mula Feb, ngayong December lang nagkaron, inintindi ko na sige, busy ka. Ganyan, pero nagtataka ako, baket ngayon lang?

January 2022

Natapos ang 2021, eto din yung birthmonth ko! Hehe. At.. eto din ang time na ang kulet lang kasi binigyan mo ko ng regalo, binigyan mo pa nga ako ng panyo non e hahaha. 'Di ko din alam baket panyo? Binati mo pa nga ako nung birthday ko e, but I feel, you're not the same R I met before.. hahaha, I felt.. hurt.

Gang sa umabot na tayo ng February 2022, dito mo na talaga inopen yung “pahinga” na yan. Potrages na pahinga yan. iyak ako nang iyak that time kasi pakiramdam ko. Ubos na ubos na ko. Nauubos na ko kakainvest sayo tapos ikaw yung mapapagod? Hahahaha tanggala naman, R. Ayos ng trip mo ah? Umiiyak ka rin that time. Ano yun? Bakit? Gang sa sinambit mo na “mahal din naman kita.” Pero alam mo yung nararamdaman ko after non? Meron talaga mali. Like napakalaking mali.

March 2022

Eto na, hulihan time. Hahhahahahha this time, nagulat ako.. binigla mo naman ako hehe. Nung time na to, nangangamusta lang naman ako sayo. Gang sa tumatawag yung number mo sakin, nagtataka ako kasi di ka naman talaga pala-tawag. Sinagot ko. Pero babae yung sumagot. “Can yoy please stop?” yung huling sambit sabay baba ng phone. Ayos ah? Napagtitripan ba ko ng tadhana? Hahahahaha. Pero okay lang. I chose to believe in you naman hahaha. Kaso wala e. Big fat ass liar~

Thank you na lang sa memories, I’ll keep them forever, will never forget those times na naging okay ang pakikitungo mo sakin. Kaso nga lang, alin nga ba don ang totoo? O simula palang ay gago ka na rin tulad ng mga nakilala ko? You even said na mahal mo ko. May paiyak-iyak ka pa ha? Ano yon? Para convincing hahaha. Out of guilt kaya mo yan nasabi. Ayaw mo makasakit? Pero no ginawa mo? Ganon pa rin. Pinatagal at pinalala mo lang sitwasyon. Bitch ass mofo hehe.

So ayun nga, ang moral lesson ko lang dito ay wag na wag tayong magsesettle for less and it’s not bad to ask assurance, kapag di nabigyan. Girl. Protect your heart and LEAVE.AS.FAST.AS.YOU.CAN. Tinatamad na kong ituloy tong letter na to and dito ko na rin tutuldukan ang sinulat kong lagda.

nagmahal pero 'di pinili,

mejo-shygirl now signing off.

#angcrushkongshyboi #r #crush #pinaasa #nasaktan #okay lang naman #gwenchana #rjpds #signing off

[cantquitu]

Why ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ chose Palm Springs as the setting for its hedonistic mystery world

BY GLENN WHIPP, ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST, AUG. 29, 2022 9 AM PT

Olivia Wilde remembers driving to Palm Springs for the first time 20 years ago, taking in the Midcentury Modern architecture, the palm trees, the lush golf courses and the flowing fountains, a verdant city plopped in the middle of a desert. Every time the native New Yorker looked out the window, the same thought ran through her head: “If we settled Mars, this is what it would look like.”

“It felt like the ultimate expression of man’s dominance and power,” Wilde says over the phone, taking a walk around New York. “It’s so beautiful, but it’s also a really strange place. If not for all the creature comforts that man has created, you would die very quickly out here. And it’s the desert, so it’s spooky. I recall thinking that someday we have to make a horror movie out there.”

That day has arrived with “Don’t Worry Darling,” opening in theaters Sept. 23 after world premiering next week at the Venice Film Festival, a psychological thriller about a couple (Florence Pugh and Harry Styles) living in a utopian desert community called the Victory Project. It’s a place where men leave in the mornings in their vintage Corvettes and Pontiacs for mysterious jobs while the women stay home, make the beds, scrub the bathtubs and cook up a pot roast for dinner. The ethos, in the words of the community’s leader, Frank (Chris Pine), is all about mining “pure, unbridled potential.” That and hedonism. The women must keep the liquor cabinets fully stocked too.

As the song goes, “It’s the good life” — if you’re one of the men nuzzling your submissive wife over a bacon and eggs breakfast. Otherwise, to use another line from the same Sinatra song, “You hide all the sadness you feel.” The tension between the colony’s seductive glamour and the level of control it imposes on the women who live there (imagine the most draconian HOA and you get the idea) gradually becomes exposed as Pugh’s character begins to question her surroundings over the course of the film’s two-hour running time.

There was a moment when “Don’t Worry Darling” might not have happened in Palm Springs. Wilde, writer Katie Silberman and production designer Katie Byron, the trio who collaborated on Wilde’s directorial debut, the acclaimed 2019 teen comedy “Booksmart,” had embarked on an early road trip to the desert to start scouting locations. It was July 2020, hotter than hell and the beginning of the pandemic, which made the Victory Project’s life of revolving dinner parties feel like a complete fantasy. Taking in all the butterfly rooflines of communities like Canyon View Estates, they were certain they had found the movie’s setting.

But because of COVID, Wilde says, “very reasonable powers that be” suggested moving the production to New Zealand to save money. Wilde understood the logic but resisted, believing that, on a subconscious level, Palm Springs connected to what she calls the “patriarchal masculinity” that was essential to the story she was telling.

“For me, New Zealand is this ecological gem that’s evidence of nature’s power,” Wilde says, “and feels connected to Mother Nature and femininity. I think if I made a sequel about the matriarchy, New Zealand would be a reasonable place to go because it’s a place where you go to be humbled by nature. That’s the opposite of what the character Frank wants. He wants people to feel that nature is humbled in their presence, that man has molded nature to his will.”

The location for Frank’s home was vitally important, and Wilde lucked out in securing the Kaufmann Desert House, a marvel of Modernism, a home made from glass, steel and Utah stone, epitomizing the indoor-outdoor Southern California lifestyle aesthetic. The home, built in 1946 to the designs of Richard Neutra, has been immortalized in photographs, including Slim Aarons’ “Poolside Gossip,” a shot that, coincidentally, Wilde had pinned to her wall while she was developing “Don’t Worry Darling.”

“To have that image on the wall and then be able to crawl inside it felt like that scene in ‘Mary Poppins’ when they jump into the chalk drawings on the sidewalk,” Wilde says.

The movie makes use of a couple of other Palm Springs landmarks, the City Hall and the Visitors Center, both designed by renowned architect Albert Frey. But for another key location, the building that stands in as the Victory Project’s mysterious headquarters (employees only!), the film’s location manager, Chris Baugh, ventured a couple of hours north to the Mojave Desert community of Newberry Springs. There, atop a 150-foot cinder cone, sits a building known as the Volcano House, a saucer-like structure that appears to have materialized from another planet or dimension.

“We got shivers down our spines when we first saw it,” Byron says. Adds cinematographer Matthew Libatique: “It just feels like it melts into the landscape. It’s a trek to get out there, but when everyone saw it, they knew: This is it. This is what the Victory Project’s headquarters would look like.”

The triumph associated with the community’s name appears to be confined, as the film’s trailer hints, to a small slice of the population. And yet, Wilde says, it’s easy to be seduced by iconography of the midcentury, Rat Pack era, which is why she hoped to keep “Don’t Worry Darling” from being didactic in its depiction of its patriarchal world.

“There’s a recklessness to the debauchery that feels almost aspirational to us today,” Wilde says, “Because it feels like a world without consequence. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find it really compelling and alluring. I didn’t want to make a preachy feminist parable that depicts men as villains. I think the film is about our collective complicity in this futuristic infrastructure that objectifies women.

“And what I found so interesting was the complicity in myself,” she continues. “That feeling of, ‘Oh, I’m all about new-wave feminism and smash the patriarchy.’ But here I am loving this era — and you can use the Rat Pack as an example of it — that was really horrendous for women. That tension between knowing something’s wrong but still being very seduced by it is where the movie sits. I want the audience to be tugged back and forth between those emotions.”

#don't worry darling #Olivia Wilde #palm springs #LA Times

[studioahead]

Curator Spotlight: Natasha Boas

We’re ringing in the new year with a firecracker: one of our most hilarious, crazy features ever, an interview with Natasha Boas, whose sparkling wit is matched only by her taste in literature and chairs. You’ll have to read below to understand, but we’ll say now that this is a woman who was once Jacques Derrida's student and sat on his kitchen chairs in his apartment in Paris. A conversation with Boas, an independent scholar and curator (and thinker), had us traipsing all over the noosphere and our own backyard in San Francisco, where she became our tour guide to the hidden currents of a city we thought we knew well.

Studio AHEAD: In your home you have several towers of precariously stacked books. We’re going to name a few and would like you tell us the perfect chair/sofa/magic carpet on which to read them:

La honte (Annie Ernaux)

Natasha Boas: I have always been a huge fan of Ernaux’s and have read everything she has written in French, and then in 2022 she received the Nobel Prize in Literature so her novels are finally more available in English. La honte is about the shame a young woman experiences about her childhood and the woman she becomes. It’s autofiction, one of my favorite genres. I think I would suggest reading La honte on any Madame Récamier daybed—perhaps specifically on my antique nineteenth-century French iron folding bed. I grew up with it as my childhood bed and it has tiny wheels—when we once had an earthquake in San Francisco in the 1970s, I remember waking up having rolled across by bedroom from the garden corner to my fireplace.

SA: Specters of Marx (Jacques Derrida)

NB: For Derrida, the spirit or “ghost” of Marx was even more relevant after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This essay was the plenary address of "Whither Marxism?," a conference on the future of Marxism held at the University of California, Riverside in 1993. Derrida was my professor in Paris and a very modest man who would have wanted us to read his book on a simple kitchen chair—perhaps a Charlotte Perriand Bausch chair from the 50s that came secondhand with his humble apartment—where the caning is damaged and used and it is broken and somewhat imbalanced.

SA: Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (Sigmund Freud)

NB: This book contains the iconic essay in which Freud reveals his famous Oedipal theory among other things. It should be read in your mother’s lap—haha! No, it should be read on Freud’s divan couch of course! It may be the most famous couch in history and can be admired in Freud’s study in London at The Freud Museum at 20 Maresfield Gardens in the Hampstead neighborhood. The term “on the couch” became the euphemism for what psychiatrists do because of this very couch shaped like a chaise long with a Persian rug laid over it. Of course, I contributed to a fundraiser launched in 2013 to help reupholster the legendary couch. It seemed very important to me at the time.

SA: Leonora Carrington: The Story of the Last Egg (Leonora Carrington)

NB: This book is the accompanying catalogue to Gallery Wendi Norris’s 2019 exhibition of the same name in New York City. In addition to the show, the gallery hosted a two-day symposium on Carrington. It began with a dramatic reading of Leonora's play, titled Opus Siniestrus: The Story of the Last Egg, which in many ways predicts the dystopian situation of women’s reproductive rights today. My talk “The Leonora Carrington Effect: What We Can Learn from Leonora Carrington Today” became an essay for the book.

These ideas on the relevance of Carrington today resonated a year later at the Venice Biennale “Milk of Dreams” with its focus on Carrington and other historic Surrealist women artists. I wrote my dissertation years ago on this seminal modernist movement in art, which continues to influence my work. Currently, I have curated the exhibition on the post-Surrealist Gertrud Parker: The Possible at Marin MOCA, which includes Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, Alice Rahon and other influential Surrealist women. It is up through March 31 and I highly recommend a visit. It also features the famous Dynaton artists Luchita Hurtado, Wolfgang Paalen, and Gordon Onslow Ford, who convened in Inverness in west Marin County last century.

I think I would read The Story of the Egg on the bed that the Surrealist artist Max Ernst made for his wife, the artist Dorothea Tanning. It is said that she hated the bed and hid it out of view in the basement of their Provence house, but it is currently being shown on the top floor at a small regional Max Ernst museum in Seillans, near my family house in the Var, Cote d’Azur region. It’s a bizarre six-post structure with a mirror, green metal leaves, a faux brown fur bedspread and several circular paintings attached to it—but seems like the perfect bed for lounging on to read this provocative book.

SA: You are an expert on countercultures and in particular the Mission School. Is there anything you have learned from them—whether related to art or not—that you apply to how you interact, live in, go about San Francisco? This is of course a movement whose members reimagined what was around them.

NB: Yes, I have always been drawn to countercultures, alternative art movements, and under-recognized artists. What drew me to the Mission School artists was that it was an “affective” community—one based on shared sensitivities, a shared neighborhood, and friendships. Graffiti, studio painting and the San Francisco Art Institute were touch points for the group. In many ways I see this group of artists as a continuation of another SFAI group, the Rat Bastards Protective Association with Jay deFeo, Bruce and Jean Conner, Manuel Neri, and others. In fact, Ruby Neri, Manuel’s daughter, who was raised in Inverness and educated at SFAI, literally connects the two movements. I learned that there can be a correlation between street art and studio practice through her, Barry McGee, Alicia McCarthy, Chris Johanson, and Margaret Kilgallen.

These artists were not precious, they used simple materials often culled from garbage found in the city and they always included their friends’ work in their exhibitions, and they still do. That is very much the “Bay Way” of making art. It has influenced my way of curating too. I am not afraid of the heteroclitic or telling new stories. I just curated a show this fall: “Old Friends/New Friends” at Creativity Explored, which is a studio that supports neurodiverse artists or what we used to refer to in art history as “outsider artists” and the expanded Mission school artist community.

I grew up in SF in the 1970s. I even lived at the now defunct radical artist colony The Farm founded by the conceptual artist Bonnie Ora Sherk under what was then Army Street overpass and now Cesar Chavez. I worked at the Café Trieste in North Beach as a barista and served the likes of Allen Ginsburg. I read my poetry at City Lights Book Store and saw the Dead Kennedys perform at The Mabuhay Gardens. We were around when Harvey Milk was assassinated and when SFMOMA was on the fourth floor of the War Memorial Veterans building on Van Ness Avenue. This group of Mission School artists are my generation. We vibe on the same San Francisco history.

SA: I am curious as to what happens in your curation when you bring institutional outsiders inside the institution. Perhaps nothing happens. Perhaps it changes everything. Perhaps it ruins everything.

NB: In my experience—magic happens. But I have always taken risks—like bringing a trailer, which I bought with the Indigenous artist Brad Kahlhamer at an Arizona swap meet for a hundred dollars, into a museum gallery to create a nomadic studio space. We had to fumigate the trailer to make it museum compliant and we built out a proscenium so we could also use it as a stage for local Native performances. The exhibition was appropriately entitled SWAP MEET and played on all the valences of cultural exchange.

SA: You speak so much about San Francisco’s history, and so much has changed, that I wonder if counterculture is still possible in this city? 

NB: Yes—it is always possible especially in our city with its cyclical history of boom and bust! There is always some kind of counterculture operating. We just need to ask “which culture is counterculture countering?” and then we can identify it. And we should always be brave enough to counter culture through the sub, the underground, the transversal. I just participated in a show at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris called The Termite Bites and it looked at artists who are practicing—literally and figuratively—below ground.

SA: We always ask the person interviewed how they came to California. We’ll pose this question to you with a twist. How did you come to California? And can you trace the history of how one piece of artwork that you own came into your possession here in California?

NB: My family came to SF from France in the late 1960s as part of a larger movement of young people seeking alternative lifestyles and new ideas—I was raised in a vibrant multicultural city and went to a French lycée and roamed freely around town on Muni. Later, I moved east for college and then lived and worked as a curator and professor in New York and Paris for over 20 years, when I returned back to the Bay to raise my family.

Most of my collection is from artists I have worked closely with over the years in all three places—either gifted or swapped. I am particularly attached to an Etel Adnan (1925-2021) Mount Tamalpais artwork I have from my time working with her in Paris. Adnan—who was born in Beirut, Lebanon, died in Paris, and lived an important part of her life with her life companion, the artist Simone Fattal in Sausalito—is a transnational link for me between my two homes and two cultures—in her case three cultures. Her poems and drawings in the book Journey to Mount Tamalpais speak to me the most; it has been re-edited recently by my friend Omar Berrada.

SA: Lastly, in the spirit of Guy Debord and the Situationists, if you were doing a dérive-style walk around San Francisco, where might it take you?

NB: My dérive would always lead me back to the Lyon street steps at Broadway. My friend Marc Zegans just published a book of poems about this important passage way in the city. Our SF was more of a village, pre-tech booms. I grew up and went to high school in Presidio Heights. It was very sleepy. We lived on those steps as teens, overlooking the bridge. We had our first kisses there, smoked our first joints, played the guitar, the city was ours.

Photos by Ekaterina Izmestieva

#Natasha Boas #studioahead #northern california