#alice cooper has looked 50 all his life

[midnightcowg1r1]

alice cooper, elvira & rob zombie

#alice cooper has looked 50 all his life??? #alice cooper #elvira #rob zombie #white zombie #alternative #pls rob is so fine

[revchainsaw]

The Crow (1994)

Alright Cult of Cult. Do I really need to introduce this one? Let's get all 90s and gothy and maybe brace ourselves for a bit of cringe, but like in a fun way. It's the Holy Grail of Hot Topic, 1994's the Crow Starring Brandon Lee.

Sermon

Apparently before the auto industry totally crashed Detroit was already a total fucked to death pile of burning shit, or at least that's what the crow would have you believe. Sorry Bruce Campbell, and other people from Detroit, but mostly Bruce Campbell. According to the Crow the city of Detroit is the kind of place where gangs of warlock anarchist arsonists will bomb buildings, and murder and rape whoever they feel like and then walk around bragging about it the next day with absolutely zero consequences. Funny then that if Detroit was so bad they had to go to film this movie in Wilmington North Carolina which is definitely a fucked to death pile of burning shit. I can say that, I'm from there and I got the fuck out. My brother is going to kill me if he ever reads this. (It's okay, these are all jokes people). Did you know they also filmed the Super Mario Bros movie there ... also cuz they needed a really shitty looking distopia. Moving on ...

The ludicrous criminality of the Crow's Detroit is particularly on display on Halloween. In Detroit (apparently) Halloween is known as Devils Night and it's legitimately just a night of pure lawlessness and chaos and kids aren't even safe to get candy, except later when we do see trick or treaters. Eric Draven, hunky goth rocker who sort of looks like he could be Bruce Lee's Kid and his fiance are murdered by a gang of vicious criminals. One year hence, Eric is resurrected by a mystical crow (that is actually a Raven), to exact his revenge on the gang that murdered him.

He paints his face like sad Alice Cooper and refuses to listen to Joy Division, just covers. He murders Tin Tin (a knife guy) just for his long gothy duster, he murders Fun Boy and forcibly ejects heroine from her arms and tells her "Go be a good mom now" which actually works. (have I told you about our Lord and Savior Sting? He gave me the strength to get off drugs), he blows T Bird up dick first, and then comes for Skab? Scraap? Scooby? in a meeting of all of Detroits villains and just about kills them all.

He is supported by the most 90s little girl to have ever graced the screen, and I am here for it, and Officer Albrecht, who's played by Ernie Hudson but I like to call him Zeddemore: The Most Underrated Ghostbuster. The leader of the bad guys, who I cannot beleive wasn't played by Brad Dourif or Tom Waits, is pretty interested in the occult. He keeps his witchy girlfriend around and she makes him fun dishes like smoked eyeballs, and her main use is that she knows that the Crow is the Crows weakness. They set Tony Fucking Todd on the bird, and I guess you just have to hurt the bird and not kill it, and Eric loses his healing factor and other macabre undead powers.

The Crow, Jimmy the Raven, pecks out Dr. Girlfriends eyeballs, I honestly forget how Tony Todd gets offed, and Top Dollar gets Gargoyled (that is impaled on a gargoyle). Funnily enough that is more Gargoyle related impaling on screen then in the actual movie Gargoyle: Wings of Darkness where a Gargoyle is supposed to have impaled a guy.

The Benediction

Best Feature: Injustice League

In the Crow we have not only a set of super memorable villains but they are played by the bad guy all stars. John Polito as the most lowly of the bad guys as a kind of sleazy pawn shop owner who buys ill gotten gains. Tony Todd, who's size is really on display here, the freaking Candy Man is in this movie. T Bird is the head of Top Dollars goons and is played by David Patrick Kelly, you might know as the "Warriors Come Out and Play!!" bottle guy from the Warriors, or as Jimmy Horne from Twin Peaks, and of course Top Dollar himself is played by Michael Wincott. Wincott is not a particularly celebrated actor but has played villains effectively in Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, and Dead Man.

Best Set Piece: Detroit Style Hot Dogs

The Set design of the Crow is perhaps one of it's most fantastic features. It's very moody and ethereal. It's just real enough to not take you out of the film, but fantastic enough to set mood and theme above realism. From Eric Draven's apartment, to the church where the final battle occurs they are all fantastic. I think that's why I really wanted to shine the spot light on a very minor set piece that would get nary a mention but just as effectively represents the qualities I was just talking about and that is the Maxi Doggs Hot Dog Stand, where a lot of the films exposition for audience surrogates takes place.

Worst Effect: Freeze Frame

At a few points in the movie the film makers made a strange decision to do these freeze frame transitions. I only noticed it twice in the movie where it was particularly stupid. I'm sure the film makers at the time thought it was a moody and atmospheric choice that highlighted the suffering that Eric Draven was going through, but it didn't age well. If you don't have the sensibilities of a goth girl from 1994 then it's very very hard not to laugh at just how self involved the movie is about it's super sadness.

Worst Feature: Tragic Accident

Solely based on the film itself, it is that very gothic and dated sensibility that hurts the Crow. The little sarcastic dance he does when he flees the police, quoting Edgar Allen Poe, and bowing to Albrecht. These affected behaviors that I'm sure seemed snarky and right on to the target audience only serve to make Eric Draven seem like an unbearable neck beard edgelord and not the troubled dark soul he's supposed to be. I'm sure at the time it seemed unique and gothy but that shit went out of style for good reason, people could see through it. It's a shame that the Crow himself was some of the cringiest parts of this movie now that I'm seeing it as an adult and not a 13 year old middle class boy with no real problems.

This however is not the low point of the movie. It's not news now and if you're reading some dudes review of The Crow on Tumblr then you probably already know the story. The worst thing about The Crow is that Brandon Lee was horrifically killed on set while filming this movie due to some negligible prop malfunctions. A series of unfortunate events that lead to the actor spending 6 hours in surgery fighting for his life before eventually passing. It was not a quick or painless death and it's really impossible to watch the movie without an appreciation for the fact that this kind of fun dark adventure was going to be a vehicle for Brandon Lee's career wound up taking his life. He was 28. I really wish I could have just bitched about the goofy goth stuff and moved on, but that's not the world we live in.

Best Effect: The Gargoyling

Maybe I should have called this best kill. But I'm not sure which it is. The slaying of Top Dollar at the Climax of the film was just super effective. The pointed wings impaling his chest and that horn coming out of his mouth, it was morbid and excellent and just fit the tone of the movie perfectly. I mean how many other movies can you say Cause of Death: Impaled on a Gargoyle.

Best Bird: The Raven

I tried very hard to look up the name of the bird that primarily performed in this movie and could not find anything. There was a Raven once upon a time called Jimmy the Raven, but that was in the 50s and I don't think birds live that long. There was a team of Ravens performing as the crow, they were chosen over crows for their larger size, and more imposing silhouettes. I just think it's so wonderful to see these often maligned birds get a chance to show off their talents. Corvids of all kinds are incredibly intelligent creatures. Im a sucker for animals, if you haven't already figured that out. I really liked seeing the ravens hit their marks, particularly the one whos job it was to drop the wedding ring into Sarah's hand at the end of the film. You can see that greedy little bastard do his trick and then look of camera at his trainer like "treat please!". It's very cute.

Best Actor: Top Dollar Performance

I'd love to take this opportunity to just put praise upon Brandon Lee, he truly gave everything for this role, but unfortunately with what was put to film we actually have very few character moments with Eric Draven. Stuff happens to him, and he does killings and fights. There's definitely some personality, but I felt like I walked away knowing almost nothing about who Eric Draven was. He was clearly a good dude but that and a few hobbies and a relationship and you don't really have a character yet. He's unfortunately not given a lot of acting to do, instead just relegated to stunts and action sequences. That were notably cool.

The bad guys in the Crow have a lot more character and among this who's who of character actors, Michael Wincott takes the cake. Hell he was standing next to Candyman himself, Tony Todd and still stealing the scenes.

Best Character: A Few Good Apples

Is the best character in The Crow really going to be the cop? The commissioner Gordon stand in? yeah, it is. Not to be political, but I don't like cops, but I guess in a world with magical birds and eyeball smoking I can suspend my disbelief and let Ernie Hudson be #1 cop dad. His character is really the heart of the film, since all Eric can do is brood and fight, we have to care about someone in this movie.

Best Sequence: Halloween Party

The best sequence of the movie is of course the scene where Eric Draven busts in on the Devil's Night party planning commission. I think Top Dollar brought Scrappy Doo there just so he could lure out the crow, knowing the baddest assholes in all of Detroit would be gathered it was likely that somebody was going to kill the beast, or if they couldn't at least Top Dollar could get a feel for his enemy. It's a bullet flying action sequence with a ton of weight. I can't put my finger on this all to common weightless third act problem that big budget super hero and action flicks have nowadays, but whatever that issue is, the Crow does not have that issue. From this point on the Climax feels earned and I am invested. For that reason, The Crow is honestly better in spite of its awkwardness, than many of the super hero movies out today.

Worst Sequence: My Guitar Gently Weeps

Speaking of brooding or fighting. The best sequence was fighting, the worst is brooding. I get that Eric was in a band or something, but didn't he have shit to do. It seemed like it was a cool idea for a shot, but for like a whole seen, watching somebody play an 80s guitar solo, that stood out so brazenly from the choices of music in the rest of the movie was extra corny. It felt like someone's( dad trying to relate to their kid. Oh you like Music. The Dresden Dolls eh? Oh man, then you're going to love Slash's Snake Pit!

Summary

The Crow is dated. It is iconic but I wonder how many of the people that hang that poster on the wall have watched that movie since they were kids. It's interesting how what i've liked and disliked about this film have changed so much sense I was a kid. It's a cheeseball fiesta. If you have matured at all beyond thinking that being sad is the same as being deep then you're going to like it a little less than you did when you were younger, but it is still solid. There's not much to hate on. I'd watch it over and over again. I was really afraid it would not hold up at all, but returning to The Crow was a completely positive experience.

Overall Grade: B

#The Crow #1994 #90s #94 #B #Grade B #Superhero #action #goth #hero #adventure #crime #undead #eric draven #draven #raven #bird #90s superhero #emo #brandon lee #lee #hudson #ernie hudson #todd #tony todd #(b)

[rebel-without-cause-x]

The Secret

Part 6

Jax Teller x OC

Series master list // master list for Jax

SUMMARY: Everyone has secrets to some extent. But what happens when you have kept an enormous secret for 6 years? Harleigh Winston spent her whole life around SAMCRO, in fact she was born into the club. But after her heart gets broken she runs from Charming and the club keeping the biggest secret she had ever had.

"I don't know what to do ope, she's completely shut me out" Jax sighed "she just drops amber off and that's it"

"Come bro you know how she is" Ope smiled "just give her time okay, now come on we got church"

As the all piled into the room Jax couldn't focus.

"We need more ways of legit earning especially with ATF up our arses" clay said.

The room was silent.

"Come one someone must have an idea, we've got nothing since caracara burnt down" Jax sighed.

"I might have something" ope grinned as he walked out the room "gimme a minute"

After a couple of minutes Opie found you sat in the sun with Amber.

"I need a favour sis" he grinned.

"When don't you need my help" you laughed rolling your eyes.

"Do you still have your tattooing license?" He asked as you followed him into the chapel with Amber heading straight to Jax.

"Yeah I do, why?" You asked pulling your sunglasses onto the top of your head as you stopped at the doors of the chapel.

"Wanna open up your own shop? We need legit ways of earning with ATF up our ass" he sighed.

"Why not, I mean I'm struggling to get a job at moment" you nodded as he opened the doors to the chapel.

"I have a way of earning and it involves this one" Opie grinned "we set up a tattoo studio, Leigh is still a licensed tattooist so it makes sense"

"Yeah I like that" Jax smiled "I mean your stuff is amazing"

"It could work, but the cut needs to be 70/30" Clay said. "We get 70 percent of your profit"

"Pffft you wish, Opie I appreciate you tryna help out but I'm not being ripped off" you glared at clay.

You and Clay never saw eye to eye and probably never will.

"Look I know it's to help the club out but it's gotta be 50/50 or it's not happening" you said noticing Jax smirk as you stood up to Clay. "At the end of the day it's just gonna be the SAMCRO name against it, it gonna be my talent that will make it successful. So I will let you boys discuss me and amber have things to do"

"We looking at houses momma" she grinned and I could feel Jax stare at me.

"Yes baby we are" you nodded taking her hand.

"Can we get one with a pool" she giggled.

"A pool is a bit out our price range baby" you laughed shaking your head, knowing full well Jax will be wanting to know why you hadn't mentioned this to him.

The truth is, it was just too hard living in his house, you had enough money in savings to be able to get a place now you was actually staying in charming. It was just the right time to give him the house back.

After a couple of hours of house hunting you finally found one you fell in love with, I needed some work but you didn't care it was perfect. As you finished putting the offer in for the house you felt your phone vibrate in your back pocket.

New message: Shithead 💩

Need you back at TM, finalise the shop, Clay agreed to 50/50 👍🏼

"Come on baby, we gotta head back momma needs to do something" you smiled picking Amber up taking her back to the car.

"Why aren't you and daddy talking?" She asked as I climbed into the drivers seat.

"It's complicated baby" you said looking over you shoulder at her.

"Do you love daddy?" She asked taking you by surprise.

"Yes baby I do love daddy" you sighed.

You had no idea where these questions had come from but even she had noticed you was shutting Jax out.

Driving down the road you was lost in thought.

"Momma turn it up I like this song" Amber giggled as Alice Cooper started playing making you laugh, she had definitely picked up on you music taste no doubt about it

"I hear you calling and it's needles and pins. I wanna hurt you just to hear you screaming my name. Don't want to touch you but you're under my skin. I wanna kiss you but your lips are venomous poison. You're poison, running through my veins" you sung at the top on your lungs as you sped down the road with Amber dancing in the back seat.

Soon enough you was pulling into TM with the music blasting.

"I wanna love you but I better not touch. I wanna hold you, but my senses tell me to stop. I wanna kiss you but I want it too much. I wanna taste you but your lips are venomous poison. Yeah, well I don't want to break these chains. Poison Runnin' deep inside my veins. Burnin' deep inside my brain" you sung parking through car knowing full well Jax could hear the music.

"Well you asked how she was" Opie sighed as the music stopped and car doors slammed "she's so torn between listening to her heart or brain"

"Uncle ope" Amber shouted running at him making him smile as he picked her up and swung her round.

"Thanks for coming back sis" Opie smiled kissing the top of your head "also see your music taste hasn't changed"

"Can't beat the classics" you smiled.

"Momma is right" Amber laughed making Opie arch his eyebrow at you

"Hey gotta teach her young that there is nothing wrong with classic rock" you shrugged "now can we get this finalised so I can go"

"You can't shut him out forever you know" Opie said placing Amber on the ground.

"Go over to grandpa baby, momma will be out soon" you smiled at her before she ran over to dad. "I know I can't but I need to protect my heart"

"You know you two will end up back together one day" he laughed as you headed inside.

"Yeah I know and it scares the shit outta me Ope" you sighed

#jackson teller x reader #jax teller x oc #jax teller fanfiction #jax x reader #jax teller one shot #jax teller imagine #jax teller x reader #jax teller #soa imagine #soa x reader #sons of anarchy one shot #sons of anarchy x reader #sons of anarchy imagine #sons of anarchy #sons of anarchy x oc

[curejunereblogs]

An Extensive List of Phantom Thieves (怪盗)

but first the criteria:

The boundaries for what makes a thief a phantom and whether it's different from a gentleman thief are wobbly

We can't really just allow everyone who calls themselves "kaitou" to qualify, because there's Kaitou Sai from Nogami Neiro who is a serial killer which is A Very Bad Thing. most good examples of thieves have a "no kill" rule

If we set that they have to steal for Good Reasons, we cut off Kaitou Joker, who is very much a phantom thief, so we have to allow "thrill of the chase" as a valid-ish reason for stealing. no bonus points though, it just not instant disqualification

I found that "sends a calling card" is a good rule to stick to so I trimmed my original surprisingly long list based on whether I know for sure they send announcements or cards or letters or such. If you don't say "come and get me" to your target, you're pragmatic, a realist and also a coward

Which led me to a conclusion that to be a proper phantom thief, the main thing you should be after is the spotlight. You have to steal the show. Otherwise you're just a thief, maybe a gentleman, but not a phantom. Contrary to the name, you have to be seen. Good phantom thieves have a give-and-take relationship with their audience - they take the treasure, and give back a performance or some other form of entertainment (or purpose in life in some cases).

The following compilation doesn't include: books, hentai, eroge, BL, things where i couldn't translate the title into English, the ones that don't send calling cards(as far as i know) and in general a bunch of media i most definitely missed

Phantom Thief Hall of Fame:

- Kaito Kid(1987), Kaitou Saint Tail(1994) and Kaitou Joker(2007) are all brilliant examples of the genre, and if you don't know any of them, they all have a bunch of passionate fans each and they can all be googled really easily

- Joker and his gang from Persona 5(2017); i'm consiously placing him in the second/fourth place because even though he's really cool, very popular and is The phantom thief to a lot of people unfamiliar with the genre... he doesn't have a tophat (his persona is not enough)

- ... I'll just mention that Lupin the 3rd(1967) exists and go on

- and of course, Lupin III and about a quarter of all phantom thieves are in some way based on Arsène Lupin(1905) by Maurice Leblanc

- ex. there was a french-canadian cartoon about Lupin called Night Hood(1996)

- Cat's Eye(1981), cited as an inspiration for Saint Tail, is about a trio of sisters who steal stuff in order to get closer to their dad and it's epic

- Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne(1997), like Saint Tail, doubles as a magical girl series and is about magical stealing and the clothing is eastern and the manga swerves into weird territory in the end but it features one of the precious few phantom thief & phantom thief romances

- King of Bandits Jing(1995), while doesn't have the aesthetic, has the weirdness, the charm, the calling card (i think) and is generally cool enough to steal his place on the list whether he’s a phantom or not

- The Acrobat/Man of Twenty Faces(1990), also known as Akira Ijyuin; charming child somehow without most of the problems the CLAMP protagonists tend to suffer from

- Phantom R the titular Rhythm Thief(2012), a great example of a dancer show-off, has a dog

- The Black Rose from Ashita no Nadja(2003) is a tuxedo mask-esque character

- Kaitou Kiramekiman(2000) is a cool retrofuturistic-looking duo trying to save the world in a show that is tragically more about their police counterparts Doing Absolutely Nothing because the villains tend to be more popular in that franchise

- Pacricon(1999) takes place in a world where money has been cancelled(?), has a hella cool calling card

- Shadow Lady(1995)... well, there's a lot of fanservice - like, a lot, and it's tiring and i warned you - but there's also some genuinely funny twists like cancelling her heist on live tv just because she didn't feel like doing it. it also got very unceremoniously axed

- Kaitou Alexandrite(2006) owns/co-owns/frequents a bordel so there's some nsfw to be seen on occasion but it's tolerable and could be described as tasteful i guess. she stole someone's voice once. it also features one of the best identity reveals

- Chat Noir from Granblue Fantasy(2014) is a fighting unit; he has a "calling card" skill and i think that's beautiful

- Phantom Skye from Harvest Moon DS Cute(2005), a not-very-secret character, is an absolute cheese but it loops right back into being charming

- Kaito Rousseau(2006) for Nintendo DS, where a tiny thief boy is horrible at going unnoticed unless he disguises his face as whatever you draw on your ds screen

- Mask DeMasque from Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations(2004) is a thing?

- Sly Cooper(2002) is known as Kaitou Sly Cooper in Japan so he fits the bill

- PxP(2006), short manga about a girl thief in high school

- Sweet Kaitou Vanilla Moon(2010), pastry-themed phantom thief? hell yeah!

- Kaitou Reinya(2010), a short comedy that is not to be taken seriously but you might get a few chuckles from it and i don't regret giving it a second chance (warning: cartoonish animal abuse)

- Cat's Eye(s)(2010), a remake of the original tale of three sisters with different PoVs

- Kaitou Jack from Nishikida Keibu wa Dorobou ga Osuki(2013); it's a gag manga about a cute phantom thief boy and an old man detective that acts like a schoolgirl around that boy. ... I'm only mentioning it here because I like Jack's costume and "i'm-SO-done-with-this" faces and it's mostly intended to be funny. mostly.

- Kaitou Okami-Zoku Shonen(2013), a oneshot about a werewolf who eats people's hearts (metaphorically! through kisses) but is really stylish about it. Think P5 protagonist but alone and a werewolf

- Phantom Thief F's Scenario(2013) is a vocaloid song about a diamond heist on a luxury liner

- Kaitou Le Vin(2014) is about six people stealing wines and it's epic but they can't shut up about wine for one second

- Gaitou Alice(2015) is about a guy looking like Kaito Kuroba going into people's hearts to steal stuff before P5 made it cool. Features amazing artwork but kinda gross stuff closer to the end so it's kind of understandable why it got axed but it has a kind of weird charm to it

- Mystic Thief X from a mobile dating game Miss Detective's Undercover(2017) (i'm scraping for phantom thief content) is honestly excellent at his job. he might only be showing off for one person but damn it's romantic af and i love him

- Kaitou Shounen Jokers(2017) is a sequel to Kaitou Joker, and is directly about the previous protag's kid going to a phantom thief school (i have no hard evidence he sends calling cards but if he doesn’t take after dad i’m-)

- Kaitou Saint Tail girls!(2018), a sequel to Saint Tail, is very cute and has two new Saint Tails working together! i wish i knew more about it

- Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger(2018), live-action series that is a must-watch for anyone who loves phantom thieves because it's a masterpiece of a tv show; besides the three thieves it also features the best police officers in the genre (it kind of has to since they're protagonists too but boy does it deliver)

- Secret x Warrior Phantomirage(2019) is also a live action and it's all about girls stealing enchanted hearts! i actually don't know if they send cards but it feels right placing them after lupinrangers and they're definitely show-stealers

- Kilroy(2018) is a western comic about a guy who broke an unconventional mirror and has to do unconventional repairs

- Kaitou Kamaitachi(2018) has a cute reporter boy and a lot of butterflies

- Destined Memories(2019) is another mobile dating game, there are thieves (called the Crows) in victorian england and they send notices and it's way better at being a phantom thief story than an actual phantom thief story by this company that i'll maybe mention later if i get to compiling a list of thieves that don't send cards

- I really want to put Majo Kaitou Lip☆s(2019) in this category, I want her to send calling cards, but there's like two chapters out so there's still time. The artwork for this series is GORGEOUS and the idol imagery is amazing and i love it so much I just want her to be popular

i might've ignored some phantoms you may have heard about, but 50% i've checked and they don't send calling cards. If they do, additions are welcome!

#怪盗 #phantom thieves #kaitou #phantom thief #kaito #mysterious thief #phantom thief tag team #stuff i'm passionate about

[momoception]

º 50 Questions for your Sim º

I saw it from @northernlightz​ so thank you for the tag 😂

Since Crescent is my favorite sim EVER, I wanted to make this about her ♥

1: How old is your sim? She's 80 y.o. 

2. When is your sim’s birthday? November 22nd

3. What is your sim’s zodiac sign? Sagittarius

4. What is your sim’s ethnicity? She is a converted vampire, but she was born as a witch ♥

5. Does your sim have any nicknames? She doesn't. She really likes her name so she ask people to not put her any nickname

6. Do they have a job? If so what is it? She is a freelancer programmer

7. Where does your sim live? In a huge castle-like house in Windenburg

8.Who does your sim live with? With her husband, Caleb Vatore, three of her five children, Mikhail, Margrette and Lyssander, AND THE CUTEST DOG EVER, Sparky!! ♥♥♥♥ Also the ghost of her dead cat, Bastet, who’s always looking at Margrette for some reason.

9. What environment did your sims grow up in (strict, loving, cold etc.)? Weird (?) I mean, she was born as a witch, her mom is also a witch and she saw her father’s death so... yeah (?) when that happened they move out to Forgotten Hollow so it was kinda dark too, but always full of love.

10. What are your sim’s favorite food? She can’t eat human food :( but she used to love hot dogs

11. What is your sim’s favorite drink? Blood (?)

12. If they have one what is your sim’s favorite color? Wine red

13. Does your sim believe in any clichés (like love at first sight, etc)? Maybe some of them, like yeah, love at first sight, karma...

14. What is your sim’s sexuality? Straight

15. What is your sim’s gender identity? Female 

16. Is your sim type a or type b? I didn’t get this one 😂

17. Is your sim introverted or extroverted? When she was teenager she was very very shy, also because her classmates always made fun of her scar. But after meeting Caleb and Devon (her best friend) she gained that confidence and with the years Crescent is someone totally different from her teen years, she loves to talk to strangers, even dead ones.

18. What is your sims favorite woohoo position? She just like to do it in the coffin (?)

19. Is your sim a pet person? If so what is their favorite animal? She’s actually a dog lover, right now she owns a Bull Terrier called Sparky, he’s old now and she used to have a sphyx cat, Bastet, she died of old age and her ghost is rounding the house. But she screams everytime she sees a dog.

20. Does your sim have a best friend? Yes, Devon (Parker) Cooper. They know each other since teenage, but now Devon is an elder, and Crescent is really sad about that.

21. What is/was your sim’s favorite school subject? History, she has a really good memory. .

22. Is/was your sim a high, mid or low achiever in school? She was a high. She was a perfect A student ♥

23. Are they planning to go or have they already been to college? If so, what would be or what was their major? Crescent did not go to college because after her 20th birthday she moved out to Strangerville to solve the mystery ♥

24. What are your sims political beliefs (if they have them)? None

25. What is one thing your sims wants to do before they die? Well, she can’t die (?) but it would be leave her children with great power and wisdom, especially the girls since they are also witches.

26. Does your sim have a favorite TV show (cable) and/or movie? She doesn’t watch a lot of TV

27. Is your sim a Netflix viewer? If so what are their top 3 shows. Yes! She loves Lucifer, OITNB and Grimm (she hated the end)

28. Does your sim like books? If so what’s their favorite one? She reads a lot since a kid. Her favorite books are and always will be Henry Puffer’s

29. Does your sim enjoy video games, if so what is their favorite one and do they play on PC or console? Her favorite is Alice Madness Returns, but she plays on PC because she hates console controls

30. What is your sim’s personal style? Dark most of the time, but she also enjoys pastel colors, she uses them in summer.

31. Does your sim have a lucky charm? Yes, the Vatore family ring

32. Is your sim religious? No

33. What kind of music does your sim listen to and who is their favorite artist? She actually enjoys pop, and she’s a good dancer!!

34. Is your sim a festive person? If so what’s their favorite holiday? Y.E.S. She loves EVERY SINGLE HOLIDAY, she’s so happy when is Christmas or Easter. But her favorite is Halloween!! ♥

35. What is your sim’s favorite type of weather? She loves autumn weather, not too cold and not too hot, and is always windy ♥♥

36. Does your sim prefer to start fights or finish them? Finish them, and if it’s possible ignore them... but sometimes.

37. Does your sim have a dream job? She wanted to be actress as a kid, she even went to acting club, but then she realised it was just a dumb dream

38. Does your sim have any siblings? She has a half-brother, younger than her. His name is Andrew and he was born after Crescent’s mother, Victoria, got married again.

39. Does your sim get along with their family? She loves her whole family more than anything in life and death. She actually wants her mother and brother to move up with her.

40 What is your sims favorite hobby? Cooking and programming. She’s really good at it ♥

41. What does your sim look for in a romantic partner? She’s already married, but she fell in love with Caleb because he was always a good and supportive friend, he help her when she moved to Forgotten Hollow with her mom, he always protected them from the not-so-friendly vampires, even if he knew about her linage, her always appreciated Crescent even with her scar. (Even so, Crescent rejected his first marry proposal)

42. What is a secret about your sim? She killed Caleb’s first wife 😵

43. What is a wish your sim has? See her children all grown up into grand master vampires, powerful witches and very human-like people. Also she wants to renew her vows with Caleb ♥

44. What is a flaw your sim has?  She’s a sadic

45. How do others generally perceive your sim? Like a strong woman that you better be careful with, strong personality, and low patience. Also a fierce mom and wife, that can do anything if it’s for her family. Like a matron (?)

46. Does your sim have a greatest achievement? If so what is it? Bring her dead mother to life

47. If they have one, what is your sim’s greatest regret? Give her first daughter, Dandelion, a better education and more attention than any other of her children.

48. Does your sim have a favorite emoji? 🙄

49. Does your sim use simstagram? If so what’s their @? She doesn’t have one

50. What is the last text your sim sent (and who did they text)? “Look Margrette, if that console is not turned off right now I'll take it away from you. Is that clear?”

#tag game #Crescent Vatore-Wydham #Vatore-Wydham Legacy #The Wydham Witches #about my sim #ts4 vampires #the sims 4

[floggingink]

bitch I bet you thought I’d forgotten about Riverdale, “Chapter Thirty-Seven: Fortune and Men’s Eyes”

I absolutely agree with Archie’s wild careening off the side of the road of justice to plead guilty to a crime he “may as well have” committed. I couldn’t believe Archie was so preposterously on the money about himself: “I didn’t kill anyone, but I could have.” GOOD, ARCHIE. I love Juvie Archie. better than Fascist Archie!!!!

I didn’t google “prison powder” to see if that shit’s soap or for lice or what but y’all’ll fill me in on that won’t you

“Leopold and Loeb” is just the level of allusory on-brand naming hubris I demand

“Captain Golightly” doesn’t seem to be a reference to anything other than a brutal dichotomy between whimsy and a dictatorial prison state

you know they hit us up with that Pop’s lighting not even at Pop’s! I never met a window I didn’t want to have bathe me in God’s light!

Sixth period is Intro to Film: the cross stitch quote on the warden’s wall, which I assume dude’s wife made for him because he and she adhere to traditional gender roles, is of course from Sonnet 29, referenced in the title to a play and 70’s movie very much about sexual slavery in prison (Archie has not seen it)

Day One at Juvie Coif: very good, uplifted, touchable but held fast

they really did the line-up of the Hot Dads of Riverdale right there: Tom seems to be eating pancakes and bacon, and FP is wearing a scarf like a headband but like a necklace

Fred’s flannel is an interesting mix of colors like, for a flannel, and Veronica appears to be wearing subtle yellow eyeshadow to go with her waitress dress

when were we going to hear about the three perjuring thugs? who corroborated Archie’s false confession???? cold

“Shadow County” is the third county in “Riverdale State”

The Blossom spawn: Dr. Patel seems to be the Cooper family GP with specialities in both obstetrics and neurology; Betty is still wearing her hospital bracelet

I never noticed the teensy blackboard under Alice’s kitchen cabinets; the Coopers are truly peak bourgeois chic

Polly’s itty bitty lace headband is good and the Farm has done wonders for her and Alice’s accessory game

Betty’s body language at “Uh...because I saw you and mom throw the twins on a fucking fire” is very funny (Betty has not told a joke yet)

Dilton Doiley is a canonically great dancer: RIP!!!!!!

I want to get out of the way that for some reason Jughead looks really good throughout this episode. I can’t explain why, maybe it’s because he’s finally wearing plaid again, but he looks good. if you thought he looked good in the first place, he’s back

is Betty wearing her Carrie: the Musical outfit?

last week I misheard Dilton and thought he said “Cardinal King,” and I was like, What? and then it got even better

Places Bughead are Fucking: the Blue & Gold office

Archie > Dawson: God bless Archie but he does try to be personable with Mad Dog right away, unleashing one of his legendary “bros.” how old were you when you realized you couldn’t do a pull-up? I’ve never done a pull-up in my goddamn life and certainly not to a vinyl of a piano sonata

Mad Dog (I just wrote “God,” because I guess he’s that beautiful) has approximately 100 cigarettes, which he certainly does not smoke, so he is hoarding them for some grand purpose?

when Mad Dog turned around I swear I saw muscles I didn’t know the human body possessed. I’m talking fresh-out-of-the-science-tube Steve Rogers

Fwoopy hair is the best hair: Mad Dog’s impeccably maintained fade

The 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie was a masterpiece: Josie has the right attitude about LBJ and Vietnam, except I think JFK got us into Vietnam, but then the Gulf of Tonkin was LBJ. I don’t want to google the Vietnam War. look, McNamara is a war criminal

Cheryl’s sheaths: I wish I had the energy to coordinate my bras with the rest of my aesthetic like Josie, in a leopard print, and Cheryl, in red lace. I will say I have recently discovered unlined bras and they have changed me for the better

do you think Archie + varsity football + theater extracurriculars = Cheryl + student body president + 4.0 GPA + theater extracurriculars?

Serpent with the General-style opthalmic frames and low-rise Chucks intrigues me

Joaquin does Archie so bad!!!!!!! even after he got the fucking tattoo, damn!

Sexy, aesthetic Southside: Joaquin’s eyes are so crystal clear that I don’t think they have a color of their own. he’s wearing the optional grey shirt, so they look grey; if he wore the optional navy shirt (I can’t yet tell a difference in status) they would look blue

oh god, what is that Ghoulie doing at the fucking fence? is he slicing his fingertips for fun? what the fuck, the Ghoulies are so fucking bizarre

Archie calls Joaquin “bro” which means he is fucking serious

we all need to take a moment to ourselves to truly absorb the skull of Dr. Curdle’s son, who is also a corrupt coroner (his name tag says “Dr. Curdle Jr”). of the three most alien skulls so far, this is the most take-abacking (I HAVE seen every episode and my calculations are sound)

he’s really gonna let Dilton (RIP!!!!!) have his arm hang down off the table like that, in this, his final repose? cold

the almost ironic intonation of “signs….of stress….” as he pulls the sheet down is amazingly 50’s horror movie

“Runic, I’d say.”

mmmmmmmmmm Fresh-Aid! I listened to the Jonestown tape in an episode of Last Podcast and was well disturbed!!!!!

you tell me why Jughead is using the camera he used in the pilot instead of like, his phone camera: because Jughead?

because Jughead

Places Bughead are Fucking: coroner’s Office

I want one of these L & L shirts. I would prefer the navy version with the little sleeves

excuse me but one of these Ghoulies has an absolute 2008 sidebang

I’m writing a scene where it’s gay.: “DON’T TOUCH HIS FACE”

Veronica’s flower sweater

BEN BUTTON

Betty’s 70’s-collared Piet Mondrian shirt is super cute, although a white-backed women’s shirt with that thin Forever 21 fabric always fucks you if you have to wear a bra

the actress who plays Evelyn Evernever is named Zoé de Grand Maison and honestly I don’t know who has the better name

DOES KEVIN STILL WANT TO LOSE HIS VIRGINITY BY HALLOWEEN

if homecoming is in September or October, the schedule should be roughly 1) Archie gets out of juvie, followed by 2) Kevin loses his virginity with Moose

Gay.: Kevin’s kiss is VERY good and quite bold! for a hallway, and Moose’s twangy hair is nice

at my high school, everyone just said “rot-see” for ROTC, so surely these hip kids wouldn’t go around saying R-R-O-T-C like that, UNREALISTIC, RIVERDALE

the extremely tall gothy Vixen is even taller than the extremely tall Ghoulie and I would like to take her to homecoming

Summer + Blair = Veronica: “You’re acting like trash, and I don’t want to get a citation.”

what the hell does student body president even do? to the extent I can even recall our student body president, whose name I believe was Lauren, I think she read the afternoon announcements

Ben WAS the kid Kevin ordered that hot dog from during the James Dean closing night! (I’m not double-checking)

Ben WAS the kid Miss Grundy was ~grooming~ when she got merked!

Ben’s mom is such a boring white mom lady that she’s wearing a denim button-down with but a single flower appliqué

YOU KNOW I LOVED THAT BLAIR WITCH TWIG BABY

Officer Henderson WAS the cop who found the “HL” briefcase at the dead Serpent’s hotel room!

I looked into what starting a chapter of the Innocence Project entails for a “couple of minutes.” I assume Veronica is going to go with option one: nonprofit organization, “independently incorporated” with “its own governing board” and fundraising, as I would doubt Riverdale has a local law school or much of a public defender’s office, you know what I’m saying?

What damn high school in America: Veronica is wearing some high-waisted black slacks and quite the polka dot top, which may in fact simply be a bustier. I imagine Principal Weatherbee has battled so many times over the years with Cheryl, who is constantly toeing the line of what a 16-year-old can legally wear, that he has since given up entirely

Jughead crawling over the back of the couch and dangling the totem baby is such a throwback to Jughead crawling over the back of the diner booth and eating the whipped cream cherry that now they are simply teasing me with the grandeur of times gone by, like an Andy Williams Christmas song thrown up on 101.9 KINK

Ethel has on some sort of wicked pin but it’s not in focus!

Betty’s top is very cute, structured

everyone has their own “Yeah, I guess” face at “Dilton Doiley [RIP!!!!!!!] has a secret bunker in the woods?”

Jughead cooly threatens Ethel with quote-unquote telling the police; this of course calls back to Jughead threatening Dilton (RIP!!!!!) in the third episode with Sheriff Keller, but let me ask you this: if Betty & Jughead DID take Ethel to the sheriff, would Sheriff Minetta give a flying fuck? doesn’t he answer directly to Hiram on all things Jughead at this point? could Betty and Jughead POSSIBLY still imagine the cops will heed anything they bring them?

Sheriff Minetta: Jughead Jones now seems to be under the impression that a band of Riverdale High juniors are in an underground RPG cult that has led to a double-suicide

Hiram: Thank God

something about Jughead’s teensy Yes’m head nod is just enough like a chivalrous bow that I have thus taken the time to note how cute it is

Day Two Juvie Coif: visibly succumbing to stress, but with dignity; starting to feather

I don’t know anything about sneakers but I like Mad Dog’s hightops

the cinematography in Archie’s cell is great. I especially like the panning around Archie when he’s not even moving, just listening to Mad Dog talking about, “The moment you set foot in here,” etc.

Mädchen Amick, MÄDCHEN AMICK: FP AND ALICE BOOOOOIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!! missing is the implied scene where Alice called FP to “get over here” so they can “talk to our kids” “together”

50 Shades of Betty: Betty tries hard to communicate with only her left eyebrow, fails

am I imagining a callback to Alice assuming Jughead was the one who railroaded Betty into looking at Jason Blossom? Alice’s stance on Jughead is too exhausting to track

Alice is certainly wearing a sheer floral peasant blouse she would NOT have worn the previous two seasons, SUSPICIOUS

Places Bughead are Not Fucking: Betty’s room

Gay?!: Archie’s incredulous delight at Reggie having helped picked out his RHS-themed sneakers; the Bulldogs are all about that #threestripelife

Veronica was rich: “FRESH KICKS”

Moose is apparently a “straight beast,” if you will

one of these Serpents is holding two playing cards, just chilling and holding two playing cards. I hope his prison name is like SNAKE EYES or THE JOKER

that Ghoulie dude is so striking and elongated, I swear to God he looks like John Travolta in Grease. that undercut, the well-oiled curls on top? can he be Josie’s fall fling?

God bless jingle-jangle: can you DROP OUT of fourth grade? doesn’t the state come for you, what the fuck?

I unironically love Archie’s plan. I fucking love it

“YOU’VE NEVER KNOWN THE EPIC HIGHS AND LOWS”—ARCHIE—YOU’RE A FUCKING SAVANT

I’m looking for other good haircuts in the background. one dude has a solid Wakanda-era Bucky Barnes and there’re slicked up curls aplenty. this juvie is like a candy box

you know this bitch loves a rack focus, especially onto prison wardens

Please protect Betty: “It’s chamomile, Betty. Calm down.”

FREAKISHLY good micromoment of Alice just like wiping away an eyelash or something

aloud, with witnesses, I said “This is like when they first held hands, am I right?” and then Betty said the “kind of reminds me of when we first started dating,” just to prove to you I HAVE seen every episode

Betty calmly checking in with Jughead re: Satan’s Reindeer

he’s most certainly Ethel on stilts (I’m very bad at predicting), but I love the Gargoyle King. he’s just the right mix of she-puts-you-in-the-corner and herky-jerky T-Rex, plus she put paint on him or whatever, in case somebody put a flashlight beam on him? Ethel fucking Muggs or whoever

love the sexy noir diner lighting and I will die loving it

Jughead eats: a toothpick

Day Three Juvie Coif: back at it, flush with victory; firm and wavy

Cheryl’s a chaos angel from hell: I do wish Cheryl were not so permanently a good guy. I wish she wanted to be Student Body President, all of a sudden, so badly that she was trying to keep Archie in juvie so he could never reclaim his throne, like if she were Scar

Kevin’s magenta polo has a subtle wave print

I hope the RROTC is somehow rotting from the inside, like the Adventure Scouts or Aquaholics

The female gaze: Archie’s cranking out push-ups and Mad Dog is doing tricep dips to warm up, for the game and “other business,” respectively. sometimes I like to do tricep dips too, usually for forty-five seconds while I’m waiting for the microwave to reheat my Kraft Thick N’ Creamy

Archie’s “What the hell are you to him?” is maybe his most astute query into something not being right that doesn’t include his remarkable quickness on the uptake of Jughead at the end of season one (I HAVE seen every episode)

These students are legally children: what the fuck did Mad Dog do that he’s been sentenced to like 25 years in prison? he’s a minor for God’s sake. get on this, Veronica

Places Bughead are Fucking: the fucking woods

catch me hightailing it the fuck out of there when Betty and Jughead do anything that even remotely resembles opening a circular hatch to ANYTHING out in a fucking forest clearing and peering down inside. BYE BITCHES YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN!!!!!

someone in the writer’s room at even only one point said the phrase “like in True Detective” while unspooling this yarn

Fifth period is AP English: I have to take Jughead’s word for it that there’re any bunkers in any Philip K. Dick novel

I am STILL salty that the Swords & Serpents thing IS NOT THE SAME THING as THIS RPG and that it was wholly abandoned. I can’t believe we’re not doing Jughead being sucked into the RPG cult and Betty have to haul him out SIMULTANEOUSLY with her mother being sucked into the postpartum cult and having to haul HER out

“He’s also featured prominently on this copper coin.”

y’all can just buy cyanide like that, in that glass growler? it has a “reliable prescription” sticker on it, WTF?

“Drink from the correct cup and ascend to the kingdom” is definitely ripped from one of the tracks on that Avenged Sevenfold album I bought at Borders freshman year

Jughead doubts it: “OR SOMETHING EVEN MORE INSIDIOUS”

I fucking knew that Adventure Scout was gonna be under that fucking cot but it still scared the crap out of me because The Haunting of Hill House exhausted my reserves

I’m going to come out and say that I’ve never cared for Charmed and I’m not watching the reboot. however I am exceedingly ready for Sabrina

“Princess Etheline”

guys, I found the “Jailhouse Rock” dance charming, especially the implication that the boys started the game up again in the middle to like, show off for the girls. am I getting soft in my old age?

Josie’s VERY bright blue eyeshadow

Cheryl’s hair: Cheryl had to have been influenced by the trend started pre-2012 in So You Think You Can Dance wherein dancers with very long hair just leave it down

Hiram…..Archie’s in jail. what else do you want? like, he’s IN JUVIE

am I out of my fucking mind or is Hiram wearing a pin that is PSYCHOTICALLY close to being the Hydra hydra?

Archie overtaking the first few guards with those slow-mo crosses until they finally beat him down by their sheer numbers was basically a scene from Spartacus: War of the Damned

Betty’s bug print is cute while being, subconsciously, slightly unsettling; this is true for Betty as a whole

Ethel’s mustard yellow cotton cardigan has some sort of flower print on its back? COOL

I would like to extend a hearty “fuck off with that for fucking me” to whoever blocked out seizing-Ethel whipping her arm up like that with her jacked hand JUST LIKE IN HEREDITARY. FUCK OFF!, and I mean it

“Damn good coffee”: Evelyn has just the sort of niche superpower I wish I could have: to fuck with other people’s social interactions from a casual remove

Jughead is remarkably polite with 911, much calmer than with the desk nurse after Fangs got shot (I HAVE seen every episode)

(Hereditary was much better than Hill House)

Best costume bit: Monica Posh is hot

Every triangle has three corners, every triangle has three sides: Kevin wants that dick SO BADLY that he has JOINED THE ARMY (or whatever)

how did Pop’s lighting manage to glide all the way over to L&L?

Day Four Juvie Coif: slept on but still truckin’

Archie can only be fucking imagining what is about to happen to him (Archie has definitely seen Fight Club, and Jughead had to explain how it was satire)

Certified pedigree: LEGENDARY SQUAD OF PARENTS!!!!!! Hermione’s getting the band back together à la It

Penelope Blossom has gone full Victorian goth in that floor-length lace Chicago black widow number

“At the mere mention of ‘blue lips,’” Jughead wrote, “a shiver frissoned around the room.”

you can tell Alice is in a hippie cult because not only is she wearing crystals but she has stopped wearing eye makeup (I could never be in this sort of cult because if I don’t smear kohl all over them I look like I have tiny eyes; I am sensitive about this)

I’ve seen Brick like thirty times: the reveal of Ben in the window, bathed in the blue glow of Pop’s diner, was like, ~chills~

“You’ll fly too” is of course also It, which, FUCK OFF

NEXT WEEK: I could be very fucking wrong about this but FP has a tattoo on his left pec that may very well be of a jellybean

#riverdale #tropes #commentary #i say

[tisthenightofthewitch]

With Ghost, can the devil’s music finally become a family affair?

Cardinal Copia has a lot to prove. He doesn’t have the blood of a pope, but as the newest bandleader for Satanic rockers Ghost, he’s got youth and “sexual charisma,” according to the clergy. The church needs that: all of Copia’s predecessors are dead. Papas Emeritus I, II and III were assassinated and embalmed earlier this year. The snappy-dressing, jukebox-carrying cardinal’s their only hope.

Until the next album. You can watch the playfully dark succession story unfold on YouTube, used this time to hype Prequelle, Ghost’s fourth LP.

Behind each newly appointed skull-faced preacher is actually the same guy. A fan of history, heavy metal and the 1980s, Tobias Forge is Ghost, the next in a lineage of Grammy-winning rock bands who wear costumes and sing about the devil. Backed by masked musicians called Nameless Ghouls, and the oldest of the fictional popes, the saxophonist Papa Nihil, Ghost makes a tour stop at the Community Center Theater on November 15.

Can the band please the clergy, or at least Sacramentans who grew up on Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper and Judas Priest? Because that’s exactly who this music is for.

Listen to Prequelle’s “Dance Macabre,” an arena rock love anthem sewn as a dark party for the dead, and you’ll see what I mean: It’s a nostalgia trip to that bygone marriage of glam and horror, with reverb-heavy drums, triumphant keys, layered vocal melodies, power-metal riffs and a wanting guitar solo. And similar to bands like Iron Maiden, Ghost pulls from history for contemporary commentary: The song “Rats” retells the Black Plague, so in this case the 14th century. Wonder who they’re calling out?

After a 2015 Grammy win for Best Metal Performance, Ghost is making a name for itself as torchbearers for a classic kind of heavy music. SN&R spoke with the frontman about the apocalypse in Prequelle, creating satanic music that’s inviting to everyone, and Forge’s love for his brother, who died in 2010, on the same day Forge uploaded Ghost’s first EP on Myspace and became an overnight sensation:

Are you a big history buff?

I’m not a historian. I’m interested in history. It’s a lot of ground to cover if you look at it from a worldwide basis, but try me.

There are a lot of historical parallels being drawn right now. To the Cold War. To World War I and II. What’s Prequelle about, and how are you pulling from history here?

The main concept is mortality … Acknowledging the fact that you can persevere so far, but as far we know, you’re likely to succumb to some sort of ending. … And I think from an apocalyptic perspective … that has been preached and prophesized many, many times. Civilizations have come and gone. And new ones arose at the expense of others. … It’s easy to think of humanity as very complicated, but at the end of the day, it’s very simple. We’re not that smart. We move in groups. And we tend to do the same things over and over again.

Are you responding to any recent historical cycles you’ve observed?

Well, politically, in terms of the Cold War, there’s a lot of things … You have a little bit of Watergating here, you have a little bit of the crisis of the mid 1900s going on. We still have huge countries against each other. I’m talking about Russia and America, and me as a European, we’re sort of sitting in between, which is not very different than how it was in the ’50s … But from a worldwide perspective, I also think that there are enough people in the world who don’t want it all to go away permanently … I want to believe that we will be able to look back on this 50 years from now as one of those weird points in history when things were a little bit rocky. But then 50 years from now, there will be something else.

How do you see your role, being a popular musician playing apocalyptic music?

I am an entertainer. I am here to make you feel potentially a little bit better about the world, and in your every day-to-day life. … I guess a lot of the entertainment I’m into, especially when It comes to rock, has some sort of social take, commenting on the contemporary state of the world, especially in the ’60s, the ’70s … But I don’t have higher hopes than that in terms of Ghost’s relevance to what is going on. I don’t think we’re changing a whole lot. But I think we can probably be a little bit of a band aid for anyone who likes Ghost and what we and we’re doing. Hopefully [we] can be a pillow to squeeze if the times feel rough.

In the ’80s, artists like Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne were known for incorporating Satanic themes, and upsetting Christians. But that was 40 years ago. Are there any ways that you’re music has offended people, that surprised you?

I think that I have been personally more subjected to people who have said the opposite. Just coming from a traditionally more conservative background, and then being surprised that they are oddly in favor of what Ghost is doing. Maybe not 100 percent from a philosophical point of view, whatever that means, but it still resonates in a positive way among people who would traditionally not like “satanic rock music.” … I have theories about it, but I don’t know, maybe it’s just the fact that heavy metal in the 1980s was way more of a household thing, and the gap between generations was bigger at that point, so you’d have the 15 to 25-year-old teenagers in 1980 or 1985. Their parents would have been 40 or 50 at that point, and were potentially of a different breed than most of the 40 year olds, 50 year olds, 60 year olds today. … But it all depends on how you present yourself as a spokesperson for a band like this. I’m not here to shock people who are not willing to be shocked, if that makes sense. I’m not here to throw a grenade into the god-fearing home, trying to rip your family apart … I want them to come to the show and have fun and feel good about themselves, and want to live their lives … not to commit suicide or go kill someone. I want people to be happy and embrace life. … I can imagine Rob Halford [of Judas Priest] having never said anything unlike what I just said, nor Ozzy Osbourne.

Are you a Satanist?

From a strictly Christian point of view, if that means believing in a physical, half man, half-ram living in the underground, no, I don’t believe there is such a thing. I’m not the opposite either. … And you know, I’m sure in the eyes of the beholder, if I was put in front of true god-fearing bible thumpers, I would probably be regarded as a Satanist … just because I’m not a god-fearing bible thumper. But the concept of Satanism has many, many forms … In the last 50 years now, ever since [Anton] LaVey and pop-cultural Satanism, when that rose in the latter of the part of ’60s with the Church of Satan, and Black Sabbath and Black Widow and Coven and that sort of hippie Satanism, which at the end of the day, heavy metal, black metal, all that is based upon that cultural Satanism. … I grew up with that. … So from that point of view, I would definitely say that culturally, I am definitely, for lack of better way of putting it, I’m a devil-liking kind of guy. But … I wouldn’t sacrifice a baby to a half-ram that I believe to be living in the underground. … And I would never ever encourage anyone to do that.

Oh good. In an interview with Revolver magazine, you likened Ghost to procreating with rock history. What has Ghost meant to you?

Obviously, it’s meant the world … Not only am I myself depending on it, but I have two kids depending on it. I have a wife who’s depending on it. I have around 30 people around me living on this. So obviously it has a great feel of significance for me … It’s very much reliving a lot of the things that I did as a kid, when I dressed up as KISS and Alice Cooper, and watched horror films. It’s very much reconnecting with a lot of the things I grew up with. It’s very childish. In a regurgitating kind of way.

Is that what you meant by “procreating?”

I guess so, I’m not involving myself as a child in that, so don’t go incestuous or weird here. (Laughs.) I’m definitely wallowing in my past. I’m very much a typical kid who grew up in the ’80s. Just because I had a brother who was older than I … I got a lot of teenage culture from him at an early age. I’m definitely wallowing in that. If I would meet myself in 1985, you can compare the things I’m interested in, and not a whole lot has happened, really. I’m searching to recreate myself as a five-year-old with my brother. That feels important.

NewsReview.com

#The Band Ghost #Tobias Forge #Tobias Interview #Ghost Band #Cardinal Copia

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

NITA STRAUSS: ‘THERE ARE NO APOLOGIES FOR BEING FEMALE IN HEAVY METAL’

Nita Strauss was the latest guest on Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio program. The Alice Cooper guitarist just released Controlled Chaos, her debut record as a solo artist. The album, which is entirely instrumental, was backed by a remarkably successful Kickstarter campaign, which Strauss talks about below.

In the interview, the guitarist also explains how Alice Cooper members past and present are like a massive family and what she learned about touring as a solo artist compared to the big production of the legendary shock rocker.

Let's talk about Alice Cooper for a second. Over the years, Alice Cooper has had so many world-class guitarists in his band, yourself included. What's the camaraderie of that fraternity like whenever any of your paths cross?

Oh it's amazing, I just played on Kane Roberts' solo record. Ryan [Roxie], of course, has been in the band on and off since 1996 and still plays with Alice now. Tommy [Henriksen] has also played guitar with Alice for years. Damon Johnson comes to a lot of shows, Kerri Kelly comes to see us play.

We just did a tour in the U.K. — I guess it was almost two years ago now — with the original Alice Cooper band. It's just a family. The great thing about the Alice Cooper camp is that its a true family and there's definitely a reason why he's had such a long and successful career spanning over 50 years. You don't get that far by not keeping good people around you.

Controlled Chaos was funded by a Kickstarter campaign that generated over 600 percent more funding than your goal, which is so great. What did that level of support allow you to do differently than you had planned?

It was incredible, especially with the first ever solo release you never know what to expect. When we put the goal up, we put a very very modest of the goal of $20,000 which would really just have covered the recording of the album in the studio and mixing and mastering and some small promotion. I wasn't planning on hiring an expensive publicist or anything. Just some promotion and maybe being able to pay some musicians to do some shows with me.

When I put up the Kickstarter I was just praying. I just hoped people were interested and maybe people would want to hear me play Alice Cooper songs and maybe people would really want to hear me play Iron Maiden songs.

[I assessed] how much of my own money can I afford to put in if we don't get it and so I pressed "Go" on Kickstarter and I posted about it and within two hours we had gotten the goal and we doubled it by the end of that day and we tripled it by the end of the next day and that's when everybody started to sit up and take notice.

I was getting emails from Kickstarter saying, "Wow," and [from] people in the industry. That goes to show you all this talk about the scene being dead is a bunch of lies because if you are making a good product — if people know that you are there to make something great and make an awesome product for them to enjoy people will want to be a part of it and I think we proved that.

You're very respected as a guitarist. You're also often qualified as a "female guitarist." How has that benefited you in terms of being motivated to play beyond unfair expectations based on gender?

I love the way you phrased that because I get asked this question a lot but never quite this way and the way you phrased it was really nice. How has it motivated you to push past rather than how has it hurt you or harmed you and I love that you put it like that because that is how I feel about it.

There's no sense crying over the hand you're dealt in life but it may be a little bit harder to get taken seriously as a female in this business and I'm sure I don't need to tell you about that but as long as you look at it as, "How can this be a great thing," it is a great thing.

There are no apologies for being a female in heavy metal and especially not in 2019. I just played at the Whisky and landed a sold out headline show there. I remember playing there when I was 15-16 years old and there were no other girls in bands. There was nobody really to look up to and it was really odd to be the girl in the band.

Now it's not weird anymore - it's not odd anymore and the biggest motivator for me is continuing to show the world that it's just not weird to be a girl and play an instrument. You can be in the band, you can go buy your own guitar strings at Guitar Center, you can go and do everything the boys can do and you're not the oddity anymore.

You're out on tour supporting your new album. What's your biggest adaptation going from a very orchestrated stage production like Alice Cooper to a purely musical performance?

It's definitely been a huge learning experience putting together my own tour. We are a very small team over here at Team Nita and putting together a tour and personnel and hiring techs and crew managers and finding tour buses and sourcing merch — all this kind of stuff it is hard to really think about — how much goes into a tour — until you have to start to plan a tour.

It definitely gave me a huge amount more respect for the people who plan it on a level like Alice's because I see how much goes into it. I think 95 percent of fans have no idea how much goes into planning a tour they'll just say, "Hey, how come you never come play in Boise? How come you never come to play in the city?"

The reality is it's because it's difficult for us to get there. Every band wants to play in every city. We all do. Everybody listening out there, we all want to play for you guys we all want to come to see you but putting a tour together logistically is expensive and difficult. It definitely gave me a huge amount of more respect than I already had for the amazing people that put huge tours together like Alice Cooper and KISS and Motley Crue and the incredible arena tours.

Nita, Ibanez started manufacturing a Nita Strauss signature series guitar, which is cool. Congratulations. What design functionality elements makes it your guitar?

Two different things, design and functionality and I'll touch on both briefly.

The casual fan will notice the design first because if you look at my guitar, the Ibanez JIVA — the guitar looks like me. It's black and blonde, kind of sleek and not overly flashy but sort of quietly stylish, if that's even how you can describe yourself.

I wanted to make a guitar that fit my personality and a lot of people go, "Why didn't you do pink? Why didn't you do this? Or that?" Have you ever seen me play a pink guitar? [laughs] I do have one but it's playing a pink guitar isn't really my thing. I wanted to do something that was uniquely me and having a black to natural maple finish where you can see the wood grain through. I wanted to make it look just sleek and classy and neutral.

With the functionality of the guitar, everything from the woods to the pickups to the neck shape — everything was designed by me, meticulously and personally.

When a lot of people have asked me, "Did you just slap your name on a guitar they already made?" The answer is absolutely not. I chose every single detail of it - the African mahogany body, quilted maple top, the ebony fretboard, the purple heart and maple neck. Everything about it was what I chose to be what I felt was the best combination of woods for the best sounds.

I designed the pickups, the pickups are my signature pickups — DiMarzio Pandemonium — the whole thing just really worked cohesively to be the perfect guitar for the way I play and for the way I think a lot of others play as well.

#Nita Strauss #2019 interviews

[dreamingbrownie]

Tagging games #6

I’ve been tagged by @fandom-glazed​ again, thank you! Tagging @bloodtroth​ if you haven’t already done this Music asks! FAVORITES 1. what are your favorite bands? Unheilig, Staubkind, Lord of the Lost, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Saltatio Mortis, Blutengel... A lot of german gothic-rock bands with scandinavian symphonic metal in the mix. 2. what are your favorite singers? Der Graf (the Count) of Unheilig, Floor Jansen of Nightwish, Louis of Staubkind, Sharon den Adel of Within Temptation, Scarlet Dorn... You see the pattern. xD 3. what are your favorite albums? Imaginaerum by Nightwish. Always, always, always. The old Unheilig albums Moderne Zeiten and Puppenspiel, Alles was ich bin by Staubkind, Resist by Within Temptation which just came out, but also The Unforgiving from a decade or so ago. Within Temptation were my entire early youth. 4. what are your favorite songs? That’s a mean question, it depends on the type of day and what I’m shipping the most at the moment. I adore The enemy by Oh Fyo, Cinderella by Scarlet Dorn has a special place in my heart, Große Freiheit by Unheilig will make me cry forever and always. 5. what do you think the best popular song of the year is so far? I’ve absolutely no idea of chart music. Pop music isn’t my tea. 6. which genres of music do you tend to like the best? Symphonic metal, gothic rock, hard rock, industrial, alternative in general... Heavy ballads can be really cool too. 7. what is the best concert you’ve ever been to? Staubkind, Cologne, 9.9.2016, Warm-Up for the big farewell concert of Unheilig the next day. Man, I was so done afterwards. Beautiful, wonderful, cried my eyes out, spoke with some of the bandmembers to thank them for everything, got to know people, stayed a friend’s of mine... I’ll never forget those days in September 2016. 8. song of the year? Morningstar by Blutengel. 9. album of the year? Un:Gott by Blutengel. xD 10. what are the best songs your parents have gotten you into? Alice Cooper’s Poison, Nothing else matters by Metallica... 80s rock. 11. how did you first find out about your favorite band/singer? Unheilig got huge in Germany in 2012, just through the radio I think. I found Lord of the Lost through their (then) label which had been the same as Staubkind still have, Within Temptation I discovered through Rhia Eisblume when I was 13 (deep, deep gothic sub-culture)...   12. when/where do you first remember having heard your favorite song? No idea anymore, honestly. I don’t have A Favourite Song, there’s just too uch wonderful music out there. 13. about how many times have you listened to your favorite song? Again, no single favourite, but as music is my life and I seldom stop listening to it, I’ve stopped counting. 14. if someone asks you what music they should check out, what are your go-to recommendations? Lord of the Lost, Nightwish, all of Tuomas Holopainen’s and Chris Harms’ side projects, Scarlet Dorn, Black Briar, 30 seconds to mars, Falloutboy, Panic at the disco... The list is kind of endless.

NOSTALGIA 15. what songs give you the most nostalgia? Nearly everything from Eisblume, Mother Earth, the solemn hour, Stand my ground, Pale, Angels and Memories from Within Temptation, Perfect Girl by Kim Wilde... 16. what kinds of music were you raised on? 80s rock on my fathers side, classical music on my mother’s, Mozart mostly. 17. what are your favorite songs that have ever been popular? Honestly, everything old from Nena, tbh, Hurricane by 30 seconds to mars 18. who were your favorite musicians as a kid? Rhia Eisblume, Sharon den Adel from Within Temptation, Nena. 19. how did you feel about music as a kid? I liked it, I guess, and listened to it a lot, especially as I grew up with classical music, but the emotional connections came in my early teens. 20. what was your first concert? If you haven’t been to one, what do you want your first concert to be? Schloss Salem (southern Germany), Unheilig, 24.7.2013.

PERFORMANCE 21. how do live performances, whether they’re from your friends or professionals, tend to make you feel? Like heaven on earth, another place entirely, something more, something greater than myself. Concerts have kept me up for the past six years emotionally and made me feel alive again during my depression. They’re endlessly important to me. Not many a year, but three or four over the course of a year. 22. singing in the shower or singing in the car? Neither 23. if you were to become a musician, what kind of musician would you be? Piano player. 24. if you could pick one instrument to learn how to play, what would it be? As I had to stop playing the piano at age 14 because I was supposed to do more for school, that. I miss it so much. 25. what is your singing voice like? what singers do you remind yourself of? I’m tld that I’ve got a good singing voice and I do love it, I’ve been in choir for five years and played on stage in two musicals during that time. 26. have you ever been involved in any music programs? which ones and for how long? The two aforementioned musicals Stagefever and Alice in Wonderland, choir, a singing contest in early grammar school. 27. which instruments do you know how to play? what’s your skill level? Uuuuh basically none 28. if you took music lessons as a kid, are you glad you did? if not, do you wish you had? Yes, Im glad I took piano lessons and I would have been much more stable mentally if that wouldnt have been taken from me as a ventile from school hell.

SOUNDTRACKS 29. How do you feel about video game soundtracks? Love them. They’re absolutely amazing these days. 30. What soundtracks do you enjoy listening to the most? Pirates of the Caribbean, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts, The Hobbit... 31. Which soundtracks do you think are objectively the best (or what are some that you think deserve appreciation)? Everything from Hans Zimmer, honestly. And the Game of Thrones score is simply amazing too. 32. How do you feel about musicals? Awesome! I’ve seen Tarzan, Aladdin, The Lion King and Kalif Stork (a turkish fairy tale) and loved all of them. 33. Do you have any favorite composers, including classical ones? Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Wagner (don’t come at me, he’s heavy but sometimes I need Tristan and Isolde), Hans Zimmer, Ramin Djawadi. 34. Are there any soundtracks or kinds of soundtracks that you just can’t stand? Can’t think of any right now. I don’t like dubstep and rap, other than that, orchestra music is just amazing. 35. What are your favorite songs/soundtracks from movies? See 30.

LYRICS 36. what are some songs whose lyrics you relate to? Basically everything Staubkind ever did. 37. pick a song and analyse its lyrics. Star Sky by Two steps from hell. Here we are riding the sky Painting the night with sun. You and I mirrors of light twin flames of fire lit in aother time and space I knew your name I knew your face your love and grace Past and present now embrace Worlds collide in inner space Unstoppable the song we play Burn the page for me I cannot erase the time of sleep I cannot be loved so set me free I cannot deliver your love Or caress your soul so turn that page for me I cannot embrace the touch that you give I cannot find solice in your words I cannot deliver you your love or caress your soul Age to age I feel the call Memory of future dreams You and I, riding the sky Keeping the fire bright From another time and placeI know your name I know your face Your touch and grace All of time can not erase What our hearts remember stays Forever on a song we play Burn the page for me I cannot erase the time of sleep I cannot be loved so set me free I cannot deliver your love Or caress your soul so turn that page for me I cannot embrace the touch that you give I cannot find solice in your words I cannot deliver you your love or caress your soul. Okay, one word: GRINDELDORE! There’s a shipping video with young Albus and Gellert to that song too, absolutely brilliant. 38. which songs do you think have the best lyrics? The ones written from the heart, personal stories from the person writing the song, probably (please) the singer. 39. what are some songs whose lyrics you think most people just don’t get? The old Unhelig songs. The lyrics are very complicated and full of metaphors. 40. are there any musicians whose lyrics you particularly tend to like? Alligatoah, a german rap-singer.I adore his lyrics (critical of society in general) but the music isn’t my tea at all. 41. do you prefer songs that have good melodies or songs that have good lyrics? I need to love the music in order to like the song at all, nice lyrics just top it off.

CHALLENGES 42. name five songs you like that were released in the 90s. I’ve no idea of 90s music. 80s a bit, but 90s... uuuh nope. 43. name five songs you like that were released at least 50 years ago. Classical stuff, then. Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Mozart’s Kleine Nachtmusik, Vivaldi’s spring, Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Händel’s Sarabande. 44. write a parody of at least a verse of any song you’d like. 45. name 5 songs you can’t stand. Despacito, The Lemon Tree, Blurred Lines, literally any rap song ever, Bach’s Passion of John. 46. look at your country’s song charts, listen to the first unfamiliar song you can find, and share your opinion on it. Uuuuh nope, nope, nope, nopedinope, go away, nope and nope again. Literally the only name I know is Ariana Grande and I don’t care about her, the rest is totally unfamiliar to me aaand not my tea at all. Sorry guys, if you like pop music, go for it all the way, it’s just not for me. 47. turn a song lyric into a pickup line. Come with me, I’ll come with you, La Bomba Come for me, I’ll come for you, La Bomba... #LotL 48. name the last 5 songs you listened to. Star Sky by Two teps from hell, We were divine by Lord of the Lost, I love the way you say my name, I’m Armageddon and Cinderella by Scarlet Dorn, La Bomba by Lord of the Lost right now.

RANDOM 49. what are your favorite album covers? Thornstar by Lord of the Lost is just wow, Chris Harms and his wife drew that and Un:Gott by Blutengel looks slightly similiar, I like both a lot. 50. any cover versions that you think are better than the original? Literally anything by Sam Tsui. 51. how often do you listen to music? Always. Except for university and sleeping and going out with friends, of course. 52. do you collect vinyls? if so, what have been your best finds? Nope. 53. if you could meet any musician you’d like, who would it be? Der Graf from Unheilig, he has retired two year ago and stopped doing autograph sessions in 2010 because he always served all his fans or none as he didn’t want to prioritise people. I respect him so incredibly much and I’d love to talk to him. 54. how do you feel about classical music? Love it, makes me nostalgic and calms me down, I study to classical music. 55. would you ever want to have a career in music? Nope. 56. if you had a stage name, what would it be? Uuuuh Alexandra something? No idea. 57. on a scale of 1 to 10, how important is music to you? 11? 58. how do you feel about rap music? Nopedinopenope 59. what do you think the best “era” for music was? The 80s must have been pretty rad, but nowadays, there’s also the possibility for everyone to find something they love. 60. how has music affected you as a person? It has changed my life forever, holds me up in difficult times, soothes my nerves, makes me breathe when nothing else is helping anymore. And I’ve got to know so many people through bands who are now dear friends of mine, I’d never in a lifetime miss that.  

#tagging games #tagging games part 6 #music asks

[itwasanangryinch]

3...2...1... Happy New Year!!

For the first (?) time, I’m actually going to make and complete a New Years meme, because fuck it, I had a good year. I’m also going to put much shorter answers for last year since I had wanted to do this then, but then... didn’t.

Favourite new (to me) band: Against Me!     5 favourite songs:

The Ocean

White Crosses

True Trans Soul Rebel

I Was a Teenage Anarchist

Norse Truth

I’ve known about Against Me! since lead singer Laura Jane Grace since she came out as trans in 2012 with her Rolling Stone profile, but I hadn’t heard any of their songs until a couple of years ago. This year was the first year I really got into her music (both here and with The Devouring Mothers) after reading her biography Tranny while on vacation in Melbourne.

Runner up: Miss Guy and the Toilet Boys, seen for the first time at Wigstock 2.Ho

2017′s answer: Ataru Nakamura, the very, very talented trans performer who played Yitzhak to JCM’s Hedwig in Japan (and because of the staging, also played Hedwig for the non-singing part of the script.)

Favourite new (to me) city: Melbourne, Australia.

If you had asked me last year, my answer would have been Tokyo, Japan and this year’s is my favourite for much the same reasons: Melbourne is very easy to get around, very fun to walk around, and I got to see the wonderful John Cameron Mitchell perform there.

Melbourne is absolutely beautiful with so many shops to explore and a free (within the few square blocks I mostly kept to) public transport system.

Runner up: Sydney, Australia. Very similar to Melbourne and might have been the favourite if I had been able to stay there longer, but.... schedules.

2017′s answer: Toyko, Japan. For the reasons listed above. I could actually see myself moving to Tokyo at some point. Not right now, but possibly eventually.

Favourite concert: John Cameron Mitchell: The Origin of Love, Brisbane

This year I have seen this concert seven times in addition to one very abridged show in Portland, Oregon to go along with a double header of Hedwig and How to Talk to Girls at Parties.

On this particular date, the band gelled really well; John was in a great mood, great energy; the crowd was incredible..... Everything just... Worked. (Even tho this was the concert I had the least amount of interaction with John afterwards, lol.)

Definitely looking forward to seeing where John takes the performances for his upcoming stateside tour and at a later, yet to be announced, time in Japan.

Runner ups: (aside from the rest of the OoL tour), Rocky Horror with Mason Alexander Park, Taboo 15 (with Mason), Alice Cooper, and Wigstock 2.Ho where I finally got to see NPH performing as Hedwig.

2017′s answer: Hedwig and the Angry Inch: October 14th, evening. Tokyo, Japan.

In my estimation, this was the best of all of the Hedwig concerts. By this point, everyone had performed this in front of an audience twice before and the show from beginning to end gelled really well. Again, there was an incredible energy between the band and the two lead performers and the audiences for all of the Japan shows were great. From beginning to end, this one was the best.

From about the Tommy monologue til the end, the final Tokyo show (Oct. 15th) was the best because there was this crackling, alive, angry energy that had an almost dangerous feeling to Exquisite Corpse and was the only show (surprisingly!!) where I cried at the delivery of my favourite line “Then love the front of me.” On that show, with the exception of Exquisite Corpse, I cried from that line til John started the encore song, ‘The End of Love’ and I had only stopped there because I had completely forgotten he was doing an encore song.

Favourite movie: Black Panther

I’ve been waiting literal years for this movie to be made and there was not one thing to be disappointed in in its final rendering in my opinion. I realize that unlike a large portion of the audience, this movie was very much not reflective of my experiences and at no point would I claim to be represented by it as anything other than a nerd and a comic book fan.

Being a fan of the Black Panther for years has meant having tone deaf comic lines, sidelined animated stories, and much less content, merch, and even cartoon adaptation than some of his paler counterparts. So to see a film that was technically and narratively perfect being rendered so beautifully and taking the box office for many, many weeks was a wonderful way to start this year.

Runners up: Deadpool 2, Bad Samaratian, and does How to Talk to Girls at Parties even count for this year if I saw it last year in Japan??

2017′s answer: a strong tie between Transpotting 2 and HtTtGaP. T2 because it was so much better than I could have ever hoped it to be. It married themes and footage from the first film perfectly to the characters’ lives 20 years on. It gave me hope for an eventual Hedwig sequel in terms of quality because based on interviews, they share a similar tone in terms of ageing characters. Plus Danny Boyle’s cinematography was truly beautiful with the use of shadows, call-backs, foreshadowing.... A true equal to the most iconic of Scottish films.

HtTtGaP because well.... John Cameron Mitchell’s direction mixed with an alien invasion set against punk rock and the Queen’s jubilee? How could I not love it? To me, it’s a strong second to Hedwig in terms of quality and netted my absolute favourite review via the BBC (‘This is one of the worst films ever made’, trust me Beeb reviewer, if that were true, cinema would be a far more enjoyable art form.)

Favourite vacation: Australia

Long story short: I met my favourite actor five times. It’s very rare in this life that you can actually tell an artist who influenced your life in a very meaningful way just how much their art and they as a person mean to you. This year, after seeing JCM perform live eight times and on video, no lie, thousands of times, I had the chance to actually do this. And unlike how I was worried about for the past three years, I wasn’t actually nervous to talk to him at all. Part of that is that he is a very easy person to feel at ease with, very comforting presence.... And part of it was that during the first Australian show I went to where I’m dressed as the very first Squeezebox Hedwig, John lay on top of me as part of the final number. How could I be scared to talk to him after that introduction??

Runners up: going to see Taboo 15 in New York with my best friend and touring the David Bowie Is exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum (March), going to see Wigstock with Risa. Technically, I ditched work to be able to go, but.... 10/10, I would do it again. I saw a lot of amazing performers for the first time, had a chance to chat with Mason again, and saw the tour de force that is Neil Patrick Harris as Hedwig and Lena Hall as Yitzhak.

Hopefully next year, the Hedwig section will be able to be longer. (Or maybe Yitz will perform by himself. Or multiple Hedwigs. Or just the entire Hedwig script delivered at the end of a seven hour drag festival pre-show.)

2017′s answer: Hedwig in Japan. Not only did I get to meet my friend @miyacantdecide for the first time in person, I was able to see the wonder that is JCM as Hedwig live. Even when he’s not delivering the script, his presence as Hedwig is truly something else. And having seen him perform as himself (but in a version of her makeup) this year, I can honestly say that She has a completely different stage presence to Him and how incredible of an actor to be able to deliver such radically different interpretations of the same material and songs??

Outside of Hedwig, I can honestly say that I came back from Japan a changed person. Better in so many ways than I was a year previous. Almost completely made whole again after past traumas (and completed a year later on a different trip.)

2017′s runner up: seeing RENT 20 live. I had a blast hanging out with my mother most of the days and the RENT 20 cast? Holy shit. What talents. Cried from ‘I’ll Cover You (Reprise)’ til the end of ‘Finale B’. Just goes to show: it doesn’t matter if the show’s set in December and it’s hot As Fuck outside if you have a talented cast bundled up in sweaters for 75% of the script.

Favourite album: Golden by Kylie

Not only does pop’s most talented princess talk about her recent breakup with Joshua Sause (sp?), there’s themes of her ageing as this year our princess turned 50. While I agree with reviewers that this isn’t her best musically or vocally, I find myself replaying this one over and over on my stereo and headphones more than almost any other album this year. Favourite song: a toss up between Shelby ‘68 and Low Blow.

2017′s answer: Pollinator by Blondie. It had been two years since the release of 2014′s Ghost of Download, but unlike Ghost’s offerings that went largely unnoticed by me at the time, every single from Pollinator got me more and more hyped not only because of the excellent music evident on songs such as Fun, Long Time, and Doom or Destiny, but collaborations with artists such as Raja (on the video for Fun) and Joan Jett (the aforementioned Doom or Destiny), the honey-thick entrancing song Fragments, and the wonderful Love Line.

This year has been weirder, queerer, and more wonderful than any year yet on record. I’ve been to a number of technically-but-not-really drag shows, revisited some of my favourite artists in concert, met two of my favourite Hedwigs, and saw four total Heds perform.... I’ve read and learned more about the queer experience that not only deepened my understanding of my larger community, but of my own experiences and how they fit within the community. I’ve become more confident being out to coworkers and customers at my job....

I had the pleasure of meeting two of my close friends @hedwig-in-a-jukebox and @fdelopera in person (with plans to meet up again early-2019) as well as making some new friends.

Here’s to an even better 2019! Onwards and upwards.

#about me #new years meme #((let's see if I remember to complete this before it posts)) #((cos I'm writing this when the year's not even 75% of the way done!))

[blueandgoldoffice]

Okay - so Serpent Juggie and Good-Girl Betty is a commonly requested trope that we’ve answered before - but it never hurts to revisit a favourite.

We hope you enjoy this list, @lilireinhvrt @m0onlightkiss @riverdalebugheadlove @randompersonmeee and @jugpea - and everyone else who likes this trope! 

<3 Jandy

Firstly. We have a tag here:

Jughead: Serpent

And here are a few additional Serpent!Juggie fics:

Serpent Kiss by @crashhale (10/10)

Word Count: 58,215 / Rating: M

Summary:  Betty Cooper is a college student, sheltered her whole life and craving to be something more than just the average girl next door. Jughead Jones is the leader of the Southside Serpents, closed off with wounds he doesn’t let anyone see. After a one-night stand, by circumstance they meet again, forever changed as they embark on a relationship. Can this pairing ever work?

Southside High by @noorakardemmomesaetre (8/8)

Word Count: 18,745 / Rating: M

Summary: Due to the start of Riverdale High’s complex renovations, the school is shut down for one year and all Riverdale High students are forced to attend Southside High.In an effort to integrate at her new school, Betty goes to a meeting for the Red and Black and meets the Serpent Prince, Jughead Jones.AU: Jughead Jones is a Southside High student and, therefore, doesn’t know any of the regular Riverdale High students.

Up Close and Personal by @wordsonpages1 (4/4)

Word Count: 14,999 / Rating: M

Summary: One of his hands was curled into a fist, pressing against the metal just above her shoulder, while his other one was splayed out on the delicate skin of her throat, his grip strong enough to send trickles of fear running through her blood, but not tight enough to choke her. His dark features were twisted in a snarl and his breaths were coming out in pants. His body was pressed up against hers and the space between them was non-existent.Betty couldn’t breathe for an entirely different reason now. They had never been this close before.

At the least could we be friends? by @jugandbettsdetectiveagency (2/3)

WIP / Rating: Not Rated

Summary:  A chance encounter between a Riverdale High cheerleader and a recently transferred Southside Serpent gets off to an uncertain start. Throw in a charity Valentine’s Compatibility Test, a stubbornly defiant ‘couple’, and a drunken confession and you’ve got yourself a story.

Tempting Fate by @kaylaarann (48/50)

WIP / Rating: E

Summary:  Betty is being held captive by the Ghoulies, only to have an unconscious man she's never met thrown in with her, Jughead. After helping each other escape, things will only get more interesting as the Southside Serpent and High school cheerleading journalist get to know each other better, much better. 

Friends With Benefits by @juggieheadcoopers (4/4)

Word Count: 11,017 / Rating: G

Summary:  AU: Jughead never went to Riverdale High and never became friends with Betty and the gang the way they were supposed to. Archie, Jughead, and Betty were close in middle school, but once they parted ways and Jughead followed in his father’s footsteps of becoming a Serpent, their friendship was never the same. But when his relationship with Betty reaches a new level, it poses an even greater threat to all of their friendships in ways that no one is ready for.

Moonlight Mile by @mistressofmalplaquet (3/3)

Word Count: 7,815 / Rating: T

Summary:  When Jughead returned to Riverdale High with a bad attitude and a leather jacket, he was swarmed by girls. If only there was someone he knew who could help him out of such a dreadful predicament...

Where The Wild Roses Grow by @believe-that-you-can-my-friend (1/1)

Word Count: 12,185 / Rating: E

Summary:  When Jughead becomes an active member of the Southside Serpents, him and Betty are starting to grow further and further apart, as the boiling volcano of Riverdale's Civil War is threatening to erupt in full force. Can a heart to heart with Alice Cooper and an old Serpent jacket give Betty and Jughead the hope they both need?

heaven in hiding by @thatfangirlingfreak (1/1)

Word Count: 2,927 / Rating: E

Summary:  Jughead Jones finds the white light in a small bathroom, against a white sink, looking at Betty Cooper–who was only covered by thin white lace.

The Ring Leaders by Marigold77 (3/6)

WIP / Rating: M

Summary:  Betty is an intense swimmer and she has multiple secrets from nearly everyone. Jughead is the son of a serpent leader and slowly falls for the pretty girl who dares to swim across Sweetwater River.

Simmer by @lazydaizies (12/12)

Word Count: 84,745 / Rating: M

Summary:  They say it was fate that crossed the paths of the brooding biker gang banger and the naïve sassy ray of sunshine, but whatever the force was that brought them together, everyone said Riverdale changed the day that Jughead Jones met Betty Cooper. Some say she turned the bad boy into a puddle of kittens and others say he turned the sweet good girl into a fierce sexy tigress, while each of them would argue that the other was already those things. Whatever the case may be, those that were able to observe it all go down said it was an amusing tale to watch unfold. Because from day one, it was a tale of lust, loyalty, confusion and hilarity, with love just beneath the surface waiting on a slow simmer…

the winged beast by @onceuponamirror (15/18)

WIP / Rating: T

Summary: This is how the world ends, she thinks. Not with a bang but a motorcycle.

There are loads more... but these will get you started. 

Definitely check out the tag.

#bughead #bughead fic rec #jughead: serpent #genre: au

[mydarlingfilm]

TIME DOESN’T HEAL

This is going to be a very long post and I would love to read it over and over again. It was painful and timeless at the same time. This conversation is hold between an Rolling stone and Pk.

In her first-ever in-depth interview, Michael Jackson's daughter discusses her father's pain and finding peace after addiction and heartache

Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson is staring at a famous corpse. "That's Marilyn Monroe," she whispers, facing a wall covered with gruesome autopsy photos. "And that's JFK. You can't even find these online." On a Thursday afternoon in late November, Paris is making her way through the Museum of Death, a cramped maze of formaldehyde-scented horrors on Hollywood Boulevard. It's not uncommon for visitors, confronted with decapitation photos, snuff films and serial-killer memorabilia, to faint, vomit or both. But Paris, not far removed from the emo and goth phases of her earlier teens, seems to find it all somehow soothing. This is her ninth visit. "It's awesome," she had said on the way over. "They have a real electric chair and a real head!"

Paris Jackson turned 18 last April, and moment by moment, can come across as much older or much younger, having lived a life that's veered between sheltered and agonizingly exposed. She is a pure child of the 21st century, with her mashed-up hippie-punk fashion sense (today she's wearing a tie-dye button-down, jeggings and Converse high-tops) and boundary-free musical tastes (she's decorated her sneakers with lyrics by Mötley Crüe and Arctic Monkeys; is obsessed with Alice Cooper – she calls him "bae" – and the singer-songwriter Butch Walker; loves Nirvana and Justin Bieber too). But she is, even more so, her father's child. "Basically, as a person, she is who my dad is," says her older brother, Prince Michael Jackson. "The only thing that's different would be her age and her gender." Paris is similar to Michael, he adds, "in all of her strengths, and almost all of her weaknesses as well. She's very passionate. She is very emotional to the point where she can let emotion cloud her judgment." 

Paris has, with impressive speed, acquired more than 50 tattoos, sneaking in the first few while underage. Nine of them are devoted to Michael Jackson, who died when she was 11 years old, sending her, Prince and their youngest brother, Blanket, spiraling out of what had been – as they perceived it – a cloistered, near-idyllic little world. "They always say, 'Time heals,'" she says. "But it really doesn't. You just get used to it. I live life with the mentality of 'OK, I lost the only thing that has ever been important to me.' So going forward, anything bad that happens can't be nearly as bad as what happened before. So I can handle it." Michael still visits her in her dreams, she says: "I feel him with me all the time."

Michael, who saw himself as Peter Pan, liked to call his only daughter Tinker Bell. She has FAITH, TRUST AND PIXIE DUST inked near her clavicle. She has an image from the cover of Dangerous on her forearm, the Bad logo on her hand, and the words QUEEN OF MY HEART – in her dad's handwriting, from a letter he wrote her – on her inner left wrist. "He's brought me nothing but joy," she says. "So why not have constant reminders of joy?" 

She fixes her huge blue-green eyes on each of the museum's attractions without flinching, until she comes to a section of taxidermied pets. "I don't really like this room," she says, wrinkling her nose. "I draw the line with animals. I can't do it. This breaks my heart." She recently rescued a hyperactive pit-bull-mix puppy, Koa, who has an uneasy coexistence with Kenya, a snuggly Labrador her dad brought home a decade ago.

Paris describes herself as "desensitized" to even the most graphic reminders of human mortality. In June 2013, drowning in depression and a drug addiction, she tried to kill herself at age 15, slashing her wrist and downing 20 Motrin pills. "It was just self-hatred," she says, "low self-esteem, thinking that I couldn't do anything right, not thinking I was worthy of living anymore." She had been self-harming, cutting herself, managing to conceal it from her family. Some of her tattoos now cover the scars, as well as what she says are track marks from drug use. Before that, she had already attempted suicide "multiple times," she says, with an incongruous laugh. "It was just once that it became public." The hospital had a "three-strike rule," she recalls, and, after that last attempt, insisted she attend a residential therapy program.

Home-schooled before her father's death, Paris had agreed to attend a private school starting in seventh grade. She didn't fit in – at all – and started hanging out with the only kids who accepted her, "a lot of older people doing a lot of crazy things," she says. "I was doing a lot of things that 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds shouldn't do. I tried to grow up too fast, and I wasn't really that nice of a person." She also faced cyberbullying, and still struggles with cruel online comments. "The whole freedom-of-speech thing is great," she says. "But I don't think that our Founding Fathers predicted social media when they created all of these amendments and stuff." 

There was another trauma that she's never mentioned in public. When she was 14, a much older "complete stranger" sexually assaulted her, she says. "I don't wanna give too many details. But it was not a good experience at all, and it was really hard for me, and, at the time, I didn't tell anybody."

After her last suicide attempt, she spent sophomore year and half of junior year at a therapeutic school in Utah. "It was great for me," she says. "I'm a completely different person." Before, she says with a small smile, "I was crazy. I was actually crazy. I was going through a lot of, like, teen angst. And I was also dealing with my depression and my anxiety without any help." Her father, she says, also struggled with depression, and she was prescribed the same antidepressants he once took, though she's no longer on any psych meds.

Now sober and happier than she's ever been, with menthol cigarettes her main remaining vice, Paris moved out of her grandma Katherine's house shortly after her 18th birthday, heading to the old Jackson family estate. She spends nearly every minute of each day with her boyfriend, Michael Snoddy, a 26-year-old drummer – he plays with the percussion ensemble Street Drum Corps – and Virginia native whose dyed mohawk, tattoos and perpetually sagging pants don't obscure boy-band looks and a puppy-dog sweetness. "I never met anyone before who made me feel the way music makes me feel," says Paris. When they met, he had an ill-considered, now-covered Confederate flag tattoo that raised understandable doubts among the Jacksons. "But the more I actually got to know him," says Prince, "he's a really cool guy."

Paris took a quick stab at community college after graduating high school – a year early – in 2015, but wasn't feeling it. She is an heir to a mammoth fortune – the Michael Jackson Family Trust is likely worth more than $1 billion, with disbursements to the kids in stages. But she wants to earn her own money, and now that she's a legal adult, to embrace her other inheritance: celebrity.

And in the end, as the charismatic, beautiful daughter of one of the most famous men who ever lived, what choice did she have? She is, for now, a model, an actress, a work in progress. She can, when she feels like it, exhibit a regal poise that's almost intimidating, while remaining chill enough to become pals with her giant-goateed tattoo artist. She has impeccable manners – you might guess that she was raised well. She so charmed producer-director Lee Daniels in a recent meeting that he's begun talking to her manager about a role for her on his Fox show, Star . She plays a few instruments, writes and sings songs (she performs a couple for me on acoustic guitar, and they show promise, though they're more Laura Marling than MJ), but isn't sure if she'll ever pursue a recording contract.

Modeling, in particular, comes naturally, and she finds it therapeutic. "I've had self-esteem issues for a really, really long time," says Paris, who understands her dad's plastic-surgery choices after watching online trolls dissect her appearance since she was 12. "Plenty of people think I'm ugly, and plenty of people don't. But there's a moment when I'm modeling where I forget about my self-esteem issues and focus on what the photographer's telling me – and I feel pretty. And in that sense, it's selfish."

But mostly, she shares her father's heal-the-world impulses ("I'm really scared for the Great Barrier Reef," she says. "It's, like, dying. This whole planet is. Poor Earth, man"), and sees fame as a means to draw attention to favored causes. "I was born with this platform," she says. "Am I gonna waste it and hide away? Or am I going to make it bigger and use it for more important things?"

Her dad wouldn't have minded. "If you wanna be bigger than me, you can," he'd tell her. "If you don't want to be at all, you can. But I just want you to be happy."

At the moment, Paris lives in the private studio where her dad demoed "Beat It." The Tudor-style main house in the now-empty Jackson family compound in the LA neighborhood of Encino – purchased by Joe Jackson in 1971 with some of the Jackson 5's first Motown royalties, and rebuilt by Michael in the Eighties – is under renovation. But the studio, built by Michael in a brick building across the courtyard, happens to be roughly the size of a decent Manhattan apartment, with its own kitchen and bathroom. Paris has turned it into a vibe-y, cozy dorm room. 

Traces of her father are everywhere, most unmistakably in the artwork he commissioned. Outside the studio is a framed picture, done in a Disney-like style, of a cartoon castle on a hilltop with a caricatured Michael in the foreground, a small blond boy embracing him.It's captioned "Of Children, Castles & Kings." Inside is a mural taking up an entire wall, with another cartoon Michael in the corner, holding a green book titled The Secret of Life and looking down from a window at blooming flowers – at the center of each bloom is a cartoon face of a red-cheeked little girl.

Above an adjacent garage is a mini-museum Michael created as a surprise gift for his family, with the walls and even ceilings covered with photos from their history. Michael used to rehearse dance moves in that room; now Paris' boyfriend has his drum kit set up there.

We head out to a nearby sushi restaurant, and Paris starts to describe life in Neverland. She spent her first seven years in her dad's 2,700-acre fantasy world, with its own amusement park, zoo and movie theater. ("Everything I never got to do as a kid," Michael called it.) During that time, she didn't know that her father's name was Michael, let alone have any grasp of his fame. "I just thought his name was Dad, Daddy," she says. "We didn't really know who he was. But he was our world. And we were his world." (Paris declared last year's Captain Fantastic , where Viggo Mortensen plays an eccentric dad who tries to create a utopian hideaway for his kids, her "favorite movie ever.")

We couldn't just go on the rides whenever we wanted to," she recalls, walking on a dark roadside near the Encino compound. She likes to stride along the lane divider, too close to the cars – it drives her boyfriend crazy, and I don't much like it either. "We actually had a pretty normal life. Like, we had school every single day, and we had to be good. And if we were good, every other weekend or so, we could choose whether we were gonna go to the movie theater or see the animals or whatever. But if you were on bad behavior, then you wouldn't get to go do all those things." 

In his 2011 memoir, Michael's brother Jermaine called him "an example of what fatherhood should be. He instilled in them the love Mother gave us, and he provided the kind of emotional fathering that our father, through no fault of his own, could not. Michael was father and mother rolled into one."

Michael gave the kids the option of going to regular school. They declined. "When you're at home," says Paris, "your dad, who you love more than anything, will occasionally come in, in the middle of class, and it's like, 'Cool, no more class for the day. We're gonna go hang out with Dad.' We were like, 'We don't need friends. We've got you and Disney Channel!'" She was, she acknowledges, "a really weird kid."

Her dad taught her how to cook, soul food, mostly. "He was a kick-ass cook," she says. "His fried chicken is the best in the world. He taught me how to make sweet potato pie." Paris is baking four pies, plus gumbo, for grandma Katherine's Thanksgiving – which actually takes place the day before the holiday, in deference to Katherine's Jehovah's Witness beliefs.

Michael schooled Paris on every conceivable genre of music. "My dad worked with Van Halen, so I got into Van Halen," she says."He worked with Slash, so I got into Guns N' Roses. He introduced me to Tchaikovsky and Debussy, Earth, Wind and Fire, the Temptations, Tupac, Run-DMC."

"His number-one focus for us," says Paris, "besides loving us, was education. And he wasn't like, 'Oh, yeah, mighty Columbus came to this land!' He was like, 'No. He fucking slaughtered the natives.'" Would he really phrase it that way? "He did have kind of a potty mouth. He cussed like a sailor." But he was also "very shy."

Paris and Prince are quite aware of public doubts about their parentage (the youngest brother, Blanket, with his darker skin, is the subject of less speculation). Paris' mom is Debbie Rowe, a nurse Michael met while she was working for his dermatologist, the late Arnold Klein. They had what sounds like an unconventional three-year marriage, during which, Rowe once testified, they never shared a home. Michael said that Rowe wanted to have his children "as a present" to him. (Rowe said that Paris got her name from the location of her conception.) Klein, her employer, was one of several men – including the actor Mark Lester, who played the title role in the 1968 movie Oliver! – who suggested that they could be Paris' actual biological father.

Over popcorn shrimp and a Clean Mean Salmon Roll, Paris agrees to address this issue for what she says will be the only time. She could opt for an easy, logical answer, could point out that it doesn't matter, that either way, Michael Jackson was her father. That's what her brother – who describes himself as "more objective" than Paris – seems to suggest. "Every time someone asks me that," Prince says, "I ask, 'What's the point? What difference does it make?' Specifically to someone who's not involved in my life. How does that affect your life? It doesn't change mine."

But Paris is certain that Michael Jackson was her biological dad. She believes it with a fervency that is both touching and, in the moment, utterly convincing. "He is my father," she says, making fierce eye contact. "He will always be my father. He never wasn't, and he never will not be. People that knew him really well say they see him in me, that it's almost scary.

"I consider myself black," she says, adding later that her dad "would look me in the eyes and he'd point his finger at me and he'd be like, 'You're black. Be proud of your roots.' And I'd be like, 'OK, he's my dad, why would he lie to me?' So I just believe what he told me. 'Cause, to my knowledge, he's never lied to me.

"Most people that don't know me call me white," Paris concedes. "I've got light skin and, especially since I've had my hair blond, I look like I was born in Finland or something." She points out that it's far from unheard of for mixed-race kids to look like her – accurately noting that her complexion and eye color are similar to the TV actor Wentworth Miller's, who has a black dad and a white mom.

At first, she had no relationship with Rowe. "When I was really, really young, my mom didn't exist," Paris recalls. Eventually, she realized "a man can't birth a child" – and when she was 10 or so, she asked Prince, "We gotta have a mom, right?" So she asked her dad. "And he's like, 'Yeah.' And I was like, 'What's her name?' And he's just like, 'Debbie.' And I was like, 'OK, well, I know the name.'" After her father's death, she started researching her mom online, and they got together when Paris was 13.

In the wake of her treatment in Utah, Paris decided to reach out again to Rowe. "She needed a mother figure," says Prince, who declines to comment on his own relationship, or lack thereof, with Rowe. (Paris' manager declined to make Rowe available for an interview, and Rowe did not respond to our request for comment.) "I've had a lot of mother figures," Paris counters, citing her grandmother and nannies, among others, "but by the time my mom came into my life, it wasn't a 'mommy' thing. It's more of an adult relationship." Paris sees herself in Rowe, who just completed a course of chemo in a fight against breast cancer: "We're both very stubborn."

Paris Jackson was around nine years old when she realized that much of the world didn't see her father the way she did. "My dad would cry to me at night," she says, sitting at the counter of a New York coffee shop in mid-December, cradling a tiny spoon in her hand. She starts to cry too. "Picture your parent crying to you about the world hating him for something he didn't do. And for me, he was the only thing that mattered. To see my entire world in pain, I started to hate the world because of what they were doing to him. I'm like, 'How can people be so mean?'" She pauses. "Sorry, I'm getting emotional." 

Paris and Prince have no doubts that their father was innocent of the multiple child-molestation allegations against him, that the man they knew was the real Michael. Again, they are persuasive – if they could go door-to-door talking about it, they could sway the world."Nobody but my brothers and I experienced him reading A Light in the Attic to us at night before we went to bed," says Paris."Nobody experienced him being a father to them. And if they did, the entire perception of him would be completely and forever changed." I gently suggest that what Michael said to her on those nights was a lot to put on a nine-year-old. "He did not bullshit us," she replies. "You try to give kids the best childhood possible. But you also have to prepare them for the shitty world."

Michael's 2005 molestation trial ended in an acquittal, but it shattered his reputation and altered the course of his family's lives. He decided to leave Neverland for good. They spent the next four years traveling the world, spending long stretches of time in the Irish countryside, in Bahrain, in Las Vegas. Paris didn't mind – it was exciting, and home was where her dad was.

By 2009, Michael was preparing for an ambitious slate of comeback performances at London's O2 Arena. "He kind of hyped it up to us," recalls Paris. "He was like, 'Yeah, we're gonna live in London for a year.' We were super-excited – we already had a house out there we were gonna live in." But Paris remembers his "exhaustion" as rehearsals began. "I'd tell him, 'Let's take a nap,'" she says."Because he looked tired. We'd be in school, meaning downstairs in the living room, and we'd see dust falling from the ceiling and hear stomping sounds because he was rehearsing upstairs."

Paris has a lingering distaste for AEG Live, the promoters behind the planned This Is It tour – her family lost a wrongful-death suit against them, with the jury accepting AEG's argument that Michael was responsible for his own death. "AEG Live does not treat their performers right," she alleges. "They drain them dry and work them to death." (A rep for AEG declined comment.) She describes seeing Justin Bieber on a recent tour and being "scared" for him. "He was tired, going through the motions. I looked at my ticket, saw AEG Live, and I thought back to how my dad was exhausted all the time but couldn't sleep."

[thelozzaview]

Ok time 2 get serious

On my website I am copying and pasting from there to here to tell you what's been happening with me for the few weeks I haven't been active:Sorry it’s been a while since I last posted anything but let’s just say its been quite an ordeal for us Marchbank’s. Some friends and family know about it and the year we have had hasn’t been easy for any of us. I have been effected by it like we all have since anyone that we know that has heard about it. I have a hole in my heart from losing my grandpa a while ago now but still recent and raw for all of us. I have been crying on and off now but since it happened everyday including the lead up to Saturday because it happened on Saturday sometime in January I have been messed up ever since even as messed to go to a psychologist it is helping but I have yet to heal i might have more to struggle with in life that’s coming for me I have my dance work starting up again soon. I might get more effected then by it but also have to keep dancing without having a grandpa to turn to tell him I am still dancing it will be the hardest time but somehow I want to convey the pain and hurt I’m feeling into the work I am working on also someone else wants to work with me and we are building something together something to do with TRUST which I am really looking forward to. I also have had my birthday and now I am 27 years old now and that's another sad moment in time because I didn't get a hug and a present from him and he won't be around to do so in the years to come in life we had to bury his ashes net to his wife my grandma Gwendolyn "Benny" Frearson now they can soar together today another week starts Monday. Today I have done my morning routine that should include a workout which I did at home because let's just say my chocolate/ screaming for any food at all stage of being a girl "oh the joy" housework and hanging out with my family and looking after mum lazing around the house and cooking tuna patties with mum then went home to lash out on food I was screaming for because I hadn't had any food since lunch had a nap then had a lot more food including dinner had Indian didn't really like the chickpeas at all so all i had was chicken and nutrigrain bar watching ANT Farm oh yeah I have a new obsession "new artist" but this one is actress/singer China Anne McClain she has acted in a number of movies Tv Shows:

ANT Farm which I am still re watching,

Descendants: Wicked World

JONAS

Tyler Perry House of Payne,

Sing Your Face Off

Paynes

Veggie tales

K-Love Superstars

Black Lightning which I am currently still re-watchingI have been listening on repeat and watching on repeat every Disney Tv show on Disney + and soundtrack she is featured in. I have been learning and mastering Young Guns for singing lesson including the rap from The Messenger but I'm convinced its Gabriel McClain her brother rapping in the song. Another highlight popped in my mail just now that me and Talitha someone I met while working together in our first Dance Film Workshop we clicked right away and knew that we are the friends that we are now our own family she invited me to a open rehearsal at the beach a while ago Annette came with me and now wanting to work together it's meant to be so I really hope we get it i would be like jumping up and down inside out when we both find out. The time now is 5:39 and just having my dried out grapes for afternoon tea now and when it's 6pm dinner time until 6:50 I'm going to have the rest of my dried out fruit, spinach and an apple not a solid meal but it might knock my weight down let's see mum told me in her serious tone about how worried she is about my weight and how I was at risk of diabetes a long time ago with my hyperthyroid problem and will have to inject myself into oblivion in the present day to manage everything along with the life stresses along with my loss of my grandfather is weighing down on me mentally, emotionally and physically which has my weight gone flying up again I'm not this person. I'm the kind of person who would have a say and say NO and be good like how I used to be fit and vigour and ready for anything not the girl who is down and depressed with the loss of her grandfather I guess I will just have to sit with it until I get there in the end and be that person again and I will forget that girl ever existed throw her to the sharks but for now just enjoying and basking in the limelight of life waiting for a job to come along because Mum and I are applying and finding more work for me to keep me busier in the days of the weeks so my life is more balanced to not rely on people to hangout with me everyday which I am still doing now until then. So I had my dinner apple and microwaved spinach then went to dance Alice picked me up I had fun she then took me home after car partying to Descendants 2 soundtrack CD I got for my birthday came home and drank water until 9:45 now watching ANT Farm thinking of going to bed now thoughI might as well do that now because I am yawning next week I will update next Monday for my readers. Yesterday I had a day to myself i have been through my period so to start off the day was shower, morning workout, grocery shop afternoon sleep to guided nap meditation on Spotify then after singing lesson at mine because Z has lost her voice from pushing too hard at her gig on Tuesday night and has 2 gigs this weekend.

So the next best thing for me to do which was chat to her for like a 2 message chat with her around 5:40pm which was fun watched Maleficent but thought I was watching the second one which I haven't watched in a while since I came back from a holiday with the family which I will do on Thursday night and I had my singing practice and loz parties which are always fun had cheese n mac for dinner dare iced mocha, bread as my ANT Farm viewings and chips/ smoothie for my movie watching snacks which was enjoyable when it was time I went to bed and woke up to Thursday which is today.

started today with shower, smoothie to kickstart my tastebuds and breakfast then by 9am had Zumba which was fun then Annette came to pick me up to have some fun with me which we did we drove home together got changed and caught the bus to Chamberlain coffee shop because I might be working there if i get the job that is mum is finding work for me now I have been home quite a bit we finally got onto Bernie and I am working with her during the month of April which is exciting so need the rest before working long hours plus

Talitha who I met when Bernie and I joined Dance Film Workshop were hoping to work together around that time also and we are working with the idea of Trust and we have some footage to work off together which we are excited to get going so things are turning the right direction for me in that front did some last minute shopping and now home to recover had my afternoon nap that wasn't long at all because mum and I have some errands to do together and an afternoon tea together with Susan who is going back home so mum will find out the details for that until I can re-cooperate until then

So i went to Susan's and had a bit of cake and some water and talk and hangout with Anna and watched the football and mum had to go out tonight so we left at 5pm and now the time is 6:18 just showered washed my hair and everything else what stays in the shower stays in the shower now about to unwind and have a lozza party once again

Gem and I finally agreed on going to Dawesville tomorrow night and coming back on Saturday so I can still have my parties so its a win win situation for both of us were both really looking forward to hanging out with each other again she told me herself my phone is playing with me it keeps turning on and off again and it wont let me go on it in bed like I usually do i know that will keep dad happy because I'm not really supposed to have screen time then

I want to go to Alvin to get it fixed with Phoebe so i can keep using my phone because I don't just use it for entertainment I also need it for its own functions to call my family ever night and morning to help me to start and end day I am charging my phone to hope for it to work again ore night so far not success but I will keep my eye out through the night and morning until i call my parents again but enjoying my Disney + party. I will go to bed soon though

[nuvya]

Michael Jackson: The Human Being Behind The Superstar By Paris Jackson

Paris Jackson: Life After Neverland (Rolling Stone Interview )

In her first-ever in-depth interview, Michael Jackson's daughter discusses her father's pain and finding peace after addiction and heartache

Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson is staring at a famous corpse. "That's Marilyn Monroe," she whispers, facing a wall covered with gruesome autopsy photos. "And that's JFK. You can't even find these online." On a Thursday afternoon in late November, Paris is making her way through the Museum of Death, a cramped maze of formaldehyde-scented horrors on Hollywood Boulevard. It's not uncommon for visitors, confronted with decapitation photos, snuff films and serial-killer memorabilia, to faint, vomit or both. But Paris, not far removed from the emo and goth phases of her earlier teens, seems to find it all somehow soothing. This is her ninth visit. "It's awesome," she had said on the way over. "They have a real electric chair and a real head!"

Paris Jackson turned 18 last April, and moment by moment, can come across as much older or much younger, having lived a life that's veered between sheltered and agonizingly exposed. She is a pure child of the 21st century, with her mashed-up hippie-punk fashion sense (today she's wearing a tie-dye button-down, jeggings and Converse high-tops) and boundary-free musical tastes (she's decorated her sneakers with lyrics by Mötley Crüe and Arctic Monkeys; is obsessed with Alice Cooper – she calls him "bae" – and the singer-songwriter Butch Walker; loves Nirvana and Justin Bieber too). But she is, even more so, her father's child. "Basically, as a person, she is who my dad is," says her older brother, Prince Michael Jackson. "The only thing that's different would be her age and her gender." Paris is similar to Michael, he adds, "in all of her strengths, and almost all of her weaknesses as well. She's very passionate. She is very emotional to the point where she can let emotion cloud her judgment."

Paris has, with impressive speed, acquired more than 50 tattoos, sneaking in the first few while underage. Nine of them are devoted to Michael Jackson, who died when she was 11 years old, sending her, Prince and their youngest brother, Blanket, spiraling out of what had been – as they perceived it – a cloistered, near-idyllic little world. "They always say, 'Time heals,'" she says. "But it really doesn't. You just get used to it. I live life with the mentality of 'OK, I lost the only thing that has ever been important to me.' So going forward, anything bad that happens can't be nearly as bad as what happened before. So I can handle it." Michael still visits her in her dreams, she says: "I feel him with me all the time."

Michael, who saw himself as Peter Pan, liked to call his only daughter Tinker Bell. She has FAITH, TRUST AND PIXIE DUST inked near her clavicle. She has an image from the cover of Dangerous on her forearm, the Bad logo on her hand, and the words QUEEN OF MY HEART – in her dad's handwriting, from a letter he wrote her – on her inner left wrist. "He's brought me nothing but joy," she says. "So why not have constant reminders of joy?" 

She also has tattoos honoring John Lennon, David Bowie and her dad's sometime rival Prince – plus Van Halen and, on her inner lip, the word MÖTLEY (her boyfriend has CRÜE in the same spot). On her right wrist is a rope-and-jade bracelet that Michael bought in Africa. He was wearing it when he died, and Paris' nanny retrieved it for her. "It still smells like him," Paris says.

She fixes her huge blue-green eyes on each of the museum's attractions without flinching, until she comes to a section of taxidermied pets. "I don't really like this room," she says, wrinkling her nose. "I draw the line with animals. I can't do it. This breaks my heart." She recently rescued a hyperactive pit-bull-mix puppy, Koa, who has an uneasy coexistence with Kenya, a snuggly Labrador her dad brought home a decade ago.

Paris describes herself as "desensitized" to even the most graphic reminders of human mortality. In June 2013, drowning in depression and a drug addiction, she tried to kill herself at age 15, slashing her wrist and downing 20 Motrin pills. "It was just self-hatred," she says, "low self-esteem, thinking that I couldn't do anything right, not thinking I was worthy of living anymore." She had been self-harming, cutting herself, managing to conceal it from her family. Some of her tattoos now cover the scars, as well as what she says are track marks from drug use. Before that, she had already attempted suicide "multiple times," she says, with an incongruous laugh. "It was just once that it became public." The hospital had a "three-strike rule," she recalls, and, after that last attempt, insisted she attend a residential therapy program.

Home-schooled before her father's death, Paris had agreed to attend a private school starting in seventh grade. She didn't fit in – at all – and started hanging out with the only kids who accepted her, "a lot of older people doing a lot of crazy things," she says. "I was doing a lot of things that 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds shouldn't do. I tried to grow up too fast, and I wasn't really that nice of a person." She also faced cyberbullying, and still struggles with cruel online comments. "The whole freedom-of-speech thing is great," she says. "But I don't think that our Founding Fathers predicted social media when they created all of these amendments and stuff."

There was another trauma that she's never mentioned in public. When she was 14, a much older "complete stranger" sexually assaulted her, she says. "I don't wanna give too many details. But it was not a good experience at all, and it was really hard for me, and, at the time, I didn't tell anybody."

After her last suicide attempt, she spent sophomore year and half of junior year at a therapeutic school in Utah. "It was great for me," she says. "I'm a completely different person." Before, she says with a small smile, "I was crazy. I was actually crazy. I was going through a lot of, like, teen angst. And I was also dealing with my depression and my anxiety without any help." Her father, she says, also struggled with depression, and she was prescribed the same antidepressants he once took, though she's no longer on any psych meds.

Now sober and happier than she's ever been, with menthol cigarettes her main remaining vice, Paris moved out of her grandma Katherine's house shortly after her 18th birthday, heading to the old Jackson family estate. She spends nearly every minute of each day with her boyfriend, Michael Snoddy, a 26-year-old drummer – he plays with the percussion ensemble Street Drum Corps – and Virginia native whose dyed mohawk, tattoos and perpetually sagging pants don't obscure boy-band looks and a puppy-dog sweetness. "I never met anyone before who made me feel the way music makes me feel," says Paris. When they met, he had an ill-considered, now-covered Confederate flag tattoo that raised understandable doubts among the Jacksons. "But the more I actually got to know him," says Prince, "he's a really cool guy."

Paris took a quick stab at community college after graduating high school – a year early – in 2015, but wasn't feeling it. She is an heir to a mammoth fortune – the Michael Jackson Family Trust is likely worth more than $1 billion, with disbursements to the kids in stages. But she wants to earn her own money, and now that she's a legal adult, to embrace her other inheritance: celebrity.

And in the end, as the charismatic, beautiful daughter of one of the most famous men who ever lived, what choice did she have? She is, for now, a model, an actress, a work in progress. She can, when she feels like it, exhibit a regal poise that's almost intimidating, while remaining chill enough to become pals with her giant-goateed tattoo artist. She has impeccable manners – you might guess that she was raised well. She so charmed producer-director Lee Daniels in a recent meeting that he's begun talking to her manager about a role for her on his Fox show, Star . She plays a few instruments, writes and sings songs (she performs a couple for me on acoustic guitar, and they show promise, though they're more Laura Marling than MJ), but isn't sure if she'll ever pursue a recording contract.

Modeling, in particular, comes naturally, and she finds it therapeutic. "I've had self-esteem issues for a really, really long time," says Paris, who understands her dad's plastic-surgery choices after watching online trolls dissect her appearance since she was 12. "Plenty of people think I'm ugly, and plenty of people don't. But there's a moment when I'm modeling where I forget about my self-esteem issues and focus on what the photographer's telling me – and I feel pretty. And in that sense, it's selfish."

But mostly, she shares her father's heal-the-world impulses ("I'm really scared for the Great Barrier Reef," she says. "It's, like, dying. This whole planet is. Poor Earth, man"), and sees fame as a means to draw attention to favored causes. "I was born with this platform," she says. "Am I gonna waste it and hide away? Or am I going to make it bigger and use it for more important things?"

Her dad wouldn't have minded. "If you wanna be bigger than me, you can," he'd tell her. "If you don't want to be at all, you can. But I just want you to be happy."

At the moment, Paris lives in the private studio where her dad demoed "Beat It." The Tudor-style main house in the now-empty Jackson family compound in the LA neighborhood of Encino – purchased by Joe Jackson in 1971 with some of the Jackson 5's first Motown royalties, and rebuilt by Michael in the Eighties – is under renovation. But the studio, built by Michael in a brick building across the courtyard, happens to be roughly the size of a decent Manhattan apartment, with its own kitchen and bathroom. Paris has turned it into a vibe-y, cozy dorm room.

Traces of her father are everywhere, most unmistakably in the artwork he commissioned. Outside the studio is a framed picture, done in a Disney-like style, of a cartoon castle on a hilltop with a caricatured Michael in the foreground, a small blond boy embracing him.It's captioned "Of Children, Castles & Kings." Inside is a mural taking up an entire wall, with another cartoon Michael in the corner, holding a green book titled The Secret of Life and looking down from a window at blooming flowers – at the center of each bloom is a cartoon face of a red-cheeked little girl.

Paris' chosen decor is somewhat different. There is a picture of Kurt Cobain in the bathroom, a Smashing Pumpkins poster on the wall, a laptop with Against Me! and NeverEnding Story stickers, psychedelic paisley wall hangings, lots of fake candles. Vinyl records (Alice Cooper, the Rolling Stones) serve as wall decorations. In the kitchen, sitting casually on a counter, is a framed platinum record, inscribed to Michael by Quincy Jones ("I found it in the attic," Paris shrugs).

Above an adjacent garage is a mini-museum Michael created as a surprise gift for his family, with the walls and even ceilings covered with photos from their history. Michael used to rehearse dance moves in that room; now Paris' boyfriend has his drum kit set up there.

We head out to a nearby sushi restaurant, and Paris starts to describe life in Neverland. She spent her first seven years in her dad's 2,700-acre fantasy world, with its own amusement park, zoo and movie theater. ("Everything I never got to do as a kid," Michael called it.) During that time, she didn't know that her father's name was Michael, let alone have any grasp of his fame. "I just thought his name was Dad, Daddy," she says. "We didn't really know who he was. But he was our world. And we were his world." (Paris declared last year's Captain Fantastic , where Viggo Mortensen plays an eccentric dad who tries to create a utopian hideaway for his kids, her "favorite movie ever.")

"We couldn't just go on the rides whenever we wanted to," she recalls, walking on a dark roadside near the Encino compound. She likes to stride along the lane divider, too close to the cars – it drives her boyfriend crazy, and I don't much like it either. "We actually had a pretty normal life. Like, we had school every single day, and we had to be good. And if we were good, every other weekend or so, we could choose whether we were gonna go to the movie theater or see the animals or whatever. But if you were on bad behavior, then you wouldn't get to go do all those things." 

In his 2011 memoir, Michael's brother Jermaine called him "an example of what fatherhood should be. He instilled in them the love Mother gave us, and he provided the kind of emotional fathering that our father, through no fault of his own, could not. Michael was father and mother rolled into one."

Michael gave the kids the option of going to regular school. They declined. "When you're at home," says Paris, "your dad, who you love more than anything, will occasionally come in, in the middle of class, and it's like, 'Cool, no more class for the day. We're gonna go hang out with Dad.' We were like, 'We don't need friends. We've got you and Disney Channel!'" She was, she acknowledges, "a really weird kid."

Her dad taught her how to cook, soul food, mostly. "He was a kick-ass cook," she says. "His fried chicken is the best in the world. He taught me how to make sweet potato pie." Paris is baking four pies, plus gumbo, for grandma Katherine's Thanksgiving – which actually takes place the day before the holiday, in deference to Katherine's Jehovah's Witness beliefs.

Michael schooled Paris on every conceivable genre of music. "My dad worked with Van Halen, so I got into Van Halen," she says."He worked with Slash, so I got into Guns N' Roses. He introduced me to Tchaikovsky and Debussy, Earth, Wind and Fire, the Temptations, Tupac, Run-DMC."

She says Michael emphasized tolerance. "My dad raised me in a very open-minded house," she says. "I was eight years old, in love with this female on the cover of a magazine. Instead of yelling at me, like most homophobic parents, he was making fun of me, like, 'Oh, you got yourself a girlfriend.'

"His number-one focus for us," says Paris, "besides loving us, was education. And he wasn't like, 'Oh, yeah, mighty Columbus came to this land!' He was like, 'No. He fucking slaughtered the natives.'" Would he really phrase it that way? "He did have kind of a potty mouth. He cussed like a sailor." But he was also "very shy."

Paris and Prince are quite aware of public doubts about their parentage (the youngest brother, Blanket, with his darker skin, is the subject of less speculation). Paris' mom is Debbie Rowe, a nurse Michael met while she was working for his dermatologist, the late Arnold Klein. They had what sounds like an unconventional three-year marriage, during which, Rowe once testified, they never shared a home. Michael said that Rowe wanted to have his children "as a present" to him. (Rowe said that Paris got her name from the location of her conception.) Klein, her employer, was one of several men – including the actor Mark Lester, who played the title role in the 1968 movie Oliver! – who suggested that they could be Paris' actual biological father.

Over popcorn shrimp and a Clean Mean Salmon Roll, Paris agrees to address this issue for what she says will be the only time. She could opt for an easy, logical answer, could point out that it doesn't matter, that either way, Michael Jackson was her father. That's what her brother – who describes himself as "more objective" than Paris – seems to suggest. "Every time someone asks me that," Prince says, "I ask, 'What's the point? What difference does it make?' Specifically to someone who's not involved in my life. How does that affect your life? It doesn't change mine."

But Paris is certain that Michael Jackson was her biological dad. She believes it with a fervency that is both touching and, in the moment, utterly convincing. "He is my father," she says, making fierce eye contact. "He will always be my father. He never wasn't, and he never will not be. People that knew him really well say they see him in me, that it's almost scary.

"I consider myself black," she says, adding later that her dad "would look me in the eyes and he'd point his finger at me and he'd be like, 'You're black. Be proud of your roots.' And I'd be like, 'OK, he's my dad, why would he lie to me?' So I just believe what he told me. 'Cause, to my knowledge, he's never lied to me.

"Most people that don't know me call me white," Paris concedes. "I've got light skin and, especially since I've had my hair blond, I look like I was born in Finland or something." She points out that it's far from unheard of for mixed-race kids to look like her – accurately noting that her complexion and eye color are similar to the TV actor Wentworth Miller's, who has a black dad and a white mom.

At first, she had no relationship with Rowe. "When I was really, really young, my mom didn't exist," Paris recalls. Eventually, she realized "a man can't birth a child" – and when she was 10 or so, she asked Prince, "We gotta have a mom, right?" So she asked her dad. "And he's like, 'Yeah.' And I was like, 'What's her name?' And he's just like, 'Debbie.' And I was like, 'OK, well, I know the name.'" After her father's death, she started researching her mom online, and they got together when Paris was 13.

In the wake of her treatment in Utah, Paris decided to reach out again to Rowe. "She needed a mother figure," says Prince, who declines to comment on his own relationship, or lack thereof, with Rowe. (Paris' manager declined to make Rowe available for an interview, and Rowe did not respond to our request for comment.) "I've had a lot of mother figures," Paris counters, citing her grandmother and nannies, among others, "but by the time my mom came into my life, it wasn't a 'mommy' thing. It's more of an adult relationship." Paris sees herself in Rowe, who just completed a course of chemo in a fight against breast cancer: "We're both very stubborn."

Paris isn't sure how Michael felt about Rowe, but says Rowe was "in love" with her dad. She's also sure that Michael loved Lisa Marie Presley, whom he divorced two years before Paris' birth: "In the music video 'You Are Not Alone,' I can see how he looked at her, and he was totally whipped," she says with a fond laugh.

Paris Jackson was around nine years old when she realized that much of the world didn't see her father the way she did. "My dad would cry to me at night," she says, sitting at the counter of a New York coffee shop in mid-December, cradling a tiny spoon in her hand. She starts to cry too. "Picture your parent crying to you about the world hating him for something he didn't do. And for me, he was the only thing that mattered. To see my entire world in pain, I started to hate the world because of what they were doing to him. I'm like, 'How can people be so mean?'" She pauses. "Sorry, I'm getting emotional."

Paris and Prince have no doubts that their father was innocent of the multiple child-molestation allegations against him, that the man they knew was the real Michael. Again, they are persuasive – if they could go door-to-door talking about it, they could sway the world."Nobody but my brothers and I experienced him reading A Light in the Attic to us at night before we went to bed," says Paris."Nobody experienced him being a father to them. And if they did, the entire perception of him would be completely and forever changed." I gently suggest that what Michael said to her on those nights was a lot to put on a nine-year-old. "He did not bullshit us," she replies. "You try to give kids the best childhood possible. But you also have to prepare them for the shitty world."

Michael's 2005 molestation trial ended in an acquittal, but it shattered his reputation and altered the course of his family's lives. He decided to leave Neverland for good. They spent the next four years traveling the world, spending long stretches of time in the Irish countryside, in Bahrain, in Las Vegas. Paris didn't mind – it was exciting, and home was where her dad was.

By 2009, Michael was preparing for an ambitious slate of comeback performances at London's O2 Arena. "He kind of hyped it up to us," recalls Paris. "He was like, 'Yeah, we're gonna live in London for a year.' We were super-excited – we already had a house out there we were gonna live in." But Paris remembers his "exhaustion" as rehearsals began. "I'd tell him, 'Let's take a nap,'" she says."Because he looked tired. We'd be in school, meaning downstairs in the living room, and we'd see dust falling from the ceiling and hear stomping sounds because he was rehearsing upstairs."

Paris has a lingering distaste for AEG Live, the promoters behind the planned This Is It tour – her family lost a wrongful-death suit against them, with the jury accepting AEG's argument that Michael was responsible for his own death. "AEG Live does not treat their performers right," she alleges. "They drain them dry and work them to death." (A rep for AEG declined comment.) She describes seeing Justin Bieber on a recent tour and being "scared" for him. "He was tired, going through the motions. I looked at my ticket, saw AEG Live, and I thought back to how my dad was exhausted all the time but couldn't sleep."

Paris blames Dr. Conrad Murray – who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in her father's death – for the dependency on the anesthetic drug propofol that led to it. She calls him "the 'doctor,'" with satirical air quotes. But she has darker suspicions about her father's death. "He would drop hints about people being out to get him," she says. "And at some point he was like, 'They're gonna kill me one day.'" (Lisa Marie Presley told Oprah Winfrey of a similar conversation with Michael, who expressed fears that unnamed parties were targeting him to get at his half of the Sony/ATV music-publishing catalog, worth hundreds of millions.)

Paris is convinced that her dad was, somehow, murdered. "Absolutely," she says. "Because it's obvious. All arrows point to that. It sounds like a total conspiracy theory and it sounds like bullshit, but all real fans and everybody in the family knows it. It was a setup. It was bullshit."

But who would have wanted Michael Jackson dead? Paris pauses for several seconds, maybe considering a specific answer, but just says, "A lot of people." Paris wants revenge, or at least justice. "Of course," she says, eyes glowing. "I definitely do, but it's a chess game. And I am trying to play the chess game the right way. And that's all I can say about that right now."

Michael had his kids wear masks in public, a protective move Paris considered "stupid" but later came to understand. So it made all the more of an impression when a brave little girl spontaneously stepped to the microphone at her dad's televised memorial service, on July 7th, 2009. "Ever since I was born," she said, "Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine, and I just wanted to say I love him so much."

She was 11 years old, but she knew what she was doing. "I knew afterward there was gonna be plenty of shit-talking," Paris says, "plenty of people questioning him and how he raised us. That was the first time I ever publicly defended him, and it definitely won't be the last." For Prince, his younger sister showed in that moment that she had "more strength than any of us."

The day after her trip to the Museum of Death, Paris, Michael Snoddy and Tom Hamilton, her model-handsome, man-bunned 31-year-old manager, head over to Venice Beach. We stroll the boardwalk, and Snoddy recalls a brief stint as a street performer here when he first moved to LA, drumming on buckets. "It wasn't bad," he says. "I averaged out to a hundred bucks a day."

Paris has her hair extensions in a ponytail. She's wearing sunglasses with circular lenses, a green plaid shirt over leggings, and a Rasta-rainbow backpack. Her mood is darker today. She's not talking much, and clinging tight to Snoddy, who's in a Willie Nelson tee with the sleeves cut off.

We head toward the canals, lined with ultramodern houses that Paris doesn't like. "They're too harsh and bougie," she says. "It doesn't scream, 'Hey, come for dinner!'" She's delighted to spot a group of ducks. "Hello, friends!" she shouts. "Come play with us!"Among them are what appear to be an avian couple in love, paddling through the shallow water in close formation. Paris sighs and squeezes Snoddy's hand. "Goals," she says. "Hashtag 'goals.'"

Her spirits are lifting, and we walk back toward the beach to watch the sunset. Paris and Snoddy hop on a concrete barrier facing the orange-pink spectacle. It's a peaceful moment, until a middle-aged woman in neon jogging clothes and knee-length socks walks over.She grins at the couple as she presses a button on some kind of tiny stereo strapped to her waist, unleashing a dated-sounding trance song. Paris laughs and turns to her boyfriend. As the sun disappears, they start to dance.

From being a kick-ass cook to a strict dad, here are the 5 things we learned about the King of Pop from Paris Jackson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0kjc3VEwFM

#paris jackson #michael jackson #rolling stone magazine #childhood #prince jackson #the jacksons #blanket jackson #captain fantastic #jackson 5 #moonwalker #fatherhood

[kentonramsey]

Team Repeller Annotates Their Instagram Mood Boards for Fall

Peeking at a person’s Instagram saved folder… what a rush. And if, while peeking, you also get an idea for something to wear in the near future? Like, to the laundromat or a pumpkin patch or something? Real value there! Below, Team MR shares the images they’ve been tapping, saving, and filing away with abandon.

“Maternity Leave Realness”

By Tiffany Wilkinson, Creative Director

The algorithm definitely knows I’m about to give birth—every other ad I get is for a nursing bra! I have a board of cool mums saved, and one of baby-related things. This board is a little mix of everything. As summer comes to an end I’m thinking about being cozy at home with a new baby. There are some noodles I want to eat from @meerasodha, the breast-feeding chair of my dreams from @claudehome, a shot of Alice Cooper and his family by Terry O’Neill, and, of course, some “back-to-school” looks.

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Some NEW products are available online :~)

A post shared by ✿ 𝕱𝖑𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙 ✿ (@florist.newyork) on Sep 3, 2020 at 2:33pm PDT

Fall still feels like back-to-school time to me, and this tote by Florist is the book bag of my dreams.

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Some Previous Fashion Week Looks

Which One Is Your Fave?

A post shared by NNENNA (@nnennaechem) on Aug 2, 2020 at 3:29am PDT

If the jeans plan fails (which is totally possible) Nnennna Echem’s loose dress and sneakers combo is going to be my go-to fall look.

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Going to the market. I’m flat out of Aperol, y’all!! #kammpants

A post shared by Jesse Kamm (@jessekamm) on Aug 28, 2020 at 10:53am PDT

Being pregnant, I’ve really missed wearing pants. The idea of fastening anything rigid around my waist has become totally alien and novelty to me. Once the baby comes, I’m excited to have that nice tucked-in feeling again. These jeans are at the top of my wish list.

“Skressed, Nostalgic, and Black”

By Mikaela Clark, Creative Production Manager

I named my fall saved folder “Art,” which at times is frustratingly broad, but it has also widened the scope of what I consider art to be, which I enjoy! I’ve got a few painting videos saved there, a ton of vintage photographs (especially of black people/families) from the 40s, 50s, or 70s, and a couple wild cards, like a post of a close friend juxtaposed with a really good poem about black manhood.

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“I had to succeed. I would never stop trying, never. A violinist had his violin, a painter his palette. All I had was myself. I was the instrument that I must care for.” Josephine Baker, performing here in 1955. #JosephineBaker #vintageblackglamour

A post shared by Vintage Black Glamour (@vintageblackglamour) on Jun 3, 2020 at 8:43pm PDT

The pearl, the gem, THE Josephine Baker! She is larger than life and that 1950s fast vibrato-style of singing is so nostalgic and dreamy. I watch this video once a week and already have plans to recreate this look for the Halloween Parties that won’t be happening.

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#DorothyDandridge & #HarryBelafonte photographed for the 1954 film “#CarmenJones”

A post shared by Urban Throwbacks (@urbanthrowbacks) on Apr 1, 2020 at 4:50pm PDT

This is a still of Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte in the movie Carmen Jones. I’ve never seen the film, but the images of two fine people serving the perfect blend of class and eroticism halted my scrolling. And it is pretty self-explanatory as far as how it relates to my fall mood….

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BOOKED + BUSY

A post shared by Sharifa Murdock (@sharifasays) on Feb 19, 2020 at 12:00pm PST

Let’s be real, this has been my mood since March when the world shut down. For a while, I had a flow for keeping up with friends while we’re forced to be apart, but lately I’ve been feeling like this photo, hooked up to every device I own and in constant conversation. I guess my fall mood is to adopt some of Dijonay’s enthusiasm for this new normal, because I love my friends… but my eyes hurt.

“Print-Set Confusion”

By Beth Sacca, Visuals Editor

Everything I save always ends up accidentally looking good together, which is great for my eyeballs. Right now everything is definitely taking a turn towards warmer clothing and how to layer. The funnier imagery is what my mood will lean toward as were all forced to return inside for the cold months ahead. I keep style and photography boards separate. And I have different folders for different styles—I have an entire folder dedicated to pattern smashing and how to style completely different patterns into one overall look, for example. If you separate your folders into complex systems, you may also be the type of person who doesn’t like to have their main entree and sides touching. And yes… that IS ME.

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Holding on to our resolutions

A post shared by BROTHER VELLIES (@brothervellies) on Jan 16, 2020 at 11:31am PST

I’ve been in love with these Brother Vellies boots since the beginning of time and feel like a window shopper who will never pull the plug. I plan to gaze at them until they hopefully one day go on sale.

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FALL / WINTER ‘20 – THE WORLD’S BOROUGH. @aimeleondore

A post shared by Aimé Leon Dore (@aimeleondore) on Aug 24, 2020 at 5:59am PDT

The day this video campaign dropped it flooded my feed. Everyone I know fell in love. Aime Leon Dore is the ultimate fall statement (also forever statement) and I may be convinced Teddy Santis is the smartest guy in fashion right now. I love that the brand is unisex and uses real people as models. Their new campaign The World’s Borough is setting the right example for the rest of the fashion world to follow.

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Saturday morning

annonce

A post shared by Anna Sarlvit (@annasarlvit) on Aug 29, 2020 at 2:26am PDT

Anna Sarlvit is one of the cute instagrammers of Copenhagen that have populated my instagram feed. I’m obsessed with the colors she surrounds herself with and her ability to transform her new apartment into a relaxing, colorful dream home. Will I move to Copenhagen because of this girl’s instagram? Probably, one day! This outfit in particular I love—it’s a set that also has matching boots (drool) (realize drooling) (quickly wipe away drool).

“Punch of (Cozy) Color”

By Elizabeth Tamkin, Market Editor and Strategist

Since the start of quarantine, I’ve been using my Instagram saved folder for most of my market research. No in-person market appointments means I’m discovering new brands virtually now. You’ll notice a lot of soft colors and pastels, which, until looking at this as a full grid, I didn’t realize I was gravitating toward. I guess those are the colors that make me feel good right now.

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snap and collar trousers at @cafe_forgot online shop dyed and painted 14 oz cotton hny

A post shared by merritt meacham (@meerriitt) on May 14, 2020 at 10:10am PDT

I plan to use these Merritt Meacham pants in for an upcoming shoot and wanted to keep a mental note (aka Instagram flag) so I don’t forget about them. They have the coolest side snaps and are unisex.

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The one and only @modedamour wearing our Strapless knit top

#SourceUnknown #SUwomen

A post shared by Multi-brand Concept Store (@sourceunknown.store) on Aug 30, 2020 at 11:50am PDT

This photo of a knit set and blazer from Source Unknown Store’s Instagram is some inspiration of how I can use some of my summer wear as cozy items at home this fall. When styling, I like to mix textures and materials from different brands and I appreciate the pairing of this wide-ribbed corset top with these cashmere shorts.

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soft pink

A post shared by AMAKA (@amaka.hamelijnck) on Apr 11, 2020 at 2:47am PDT

I love how Amaka styled her jeans tucked into tube socks here. I plan to adapt it for my joggers at home.

“Preppy Androgynous Banana”

By Amalie MacGowan, Social Media Manager

This saved folder, titled “Chic,” is curated with my outfit and home saves because, tbh, my giant saved folder is a mix of stuff I want to post to the Man Repeller instagram (no spoilers!) and dumb memes and pictures of cats doing the splits. I have a handful of saved folders. I honestly wish I were more organized. There’s “Art,” there’s “Eats,” “Chic,” “Man Repeller Sh*t” and “Lol,” but most of the time I just dump into the “All Posts” folder with abandon. For those who know me, this tracks.

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Put your feet up in style, just like @harryhas. Tap to shop Larson Weejuns on GHBass.com. #KeepyourBASSathome #WeejunsByMe

A post shared by G.H. Bass & Co. (@ghbass) on Jul 11, 2020 at 7:00am PDT

This is like the Wicked Witch of the East, but Grandpa style. The perfect fall color palette exists and it’s right here. That navy blue? That forest green? That rich mahogany? All I need is a smoking jacket and no smokes because that’s not my vibe!

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just love this place so much

A post shared by jess chen (@__jesschen__) on Jul 27, 2020 at 12:28pm PDT

This is a tattoo artist I follow named Jess Chen and usually I love her tat work, but this image of her peaceful, unfussy home made me produce an audible gasp. As I attempt to build my new home (it’s new! it’s my own!) I hope to take some of the minimal/maximal cues from this image.

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Always a pleasure to work with friends but these were an especially great couple of days as far as 2020 goes. Lots of love to the whole @aimeleondore fam there’s too many of you too tag BUT U KNO WHO U R AND OF COURSE @teddysantis and @harrisonboyce KILLED IT

@donovan_greenn @stephaniecamcam @dajiajay @milipineirocorna styled by me for @aimeleondore FW20

A post shared by Juliana Salazar (@julianasalazar) on Aug 31, 2020 at 5:50am PDT

I love this entire Aimé Léon Doré campaign with my whole heart. The looks are styled to perfection and pretty much exactly—exactly—what I would like my closet to look like.

“Textural Terra Cotta”

By Marisa Lifschutz, Business and Communications Strategist

This board is chock full of moments that resonate with me on a soul level, which includes a mix of interior, culinary, and style groupings. For fall, I’m drawn to imagery with different textures and layers that contribute to a cohesive look. I love to mix different patterns and colors in my own personal style, but saved folders provide the perfect opportunity to group fall inspiration in a more consistent tone. I like the saved feature but rarely look back on my saved posts. I prefer to think of myself as Cam Jansen when saving photos, taking a mental photographic *click* when hitting save and then storing said post in the depths of my brain rather than returning to the folder.

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Yesterday Sonya and I Was baking chocolate loaf cake with chunks of acidic-sweet @huntedandgathered chocolate from Peru and toasted sesame ** thanks for the recipe @stephannieliu

A post shared by FREDERIK BILLE BRAHE (@frederikbillebrahe) on Sep 7, 2020 at 4:35pm PDT

This chocolate loaf has everything I want served up for fall with seeded textures galore. I would love to first bake this loaf and delight in smelling chocolate wafting through the air, and then translate the loaf to a look with sesame and brown layers.

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Fucking wonderful day aye

A post shared by Nina Cornelia Marker (@ninamarker) on Jan 19, 2020 at 4:51am PST

I’m quick to save Nina Marker’s style and have this photo at the ready for a perfectly cohesive dose of fall 2020. Worn leather and a gray sweatshirt sounds like my ideal autumnal outfit recipe, and I can’t help but covet a secondhand shearling Chanel for fall elevation station.

3.

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Los cubiertos de la Mari

A post shared by blancapcr (@blancapcr) on Sep 1, 2020 at 8:29am PDT

This flatware set provides the ultimate autumn color wheel: chocolate and bone mixed with deep vermillion and a few pastels for good measure. I’ve been really into flatware in general and gather a lot of inspiration from secondhand sets in unexpected and satisfying color combinations.

“Relaxed, Creative, and Self-Serving”

By Lorenza Centi, Art Director

My Instagram saved folders are a beast. They’re a massive mix of everything and anything. I started trying to create folders but soon realized that was hopeless. 

My fall board is a mixed bag. I’m hoping to focus on self-care and getting back to being more creative. Funky fashion inspo, dog memes, and Alex Chung’s cute barrette clips with great brows, are all things I hope will imprint into my fall experience. 

1.

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@outsidersdivision

A post shared by David Méndez Alonso (@davidmendezalonso) on Dec 20, 2019 at 12:45am PST

This post from artist and designer David Mendez Alonzo has definitely graced my Instagram saved folder before and I happened upon his page at random this week and reupped on the inspo!

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“MONSTER SHOES” 𝗫𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗭𝗛𝗢𝗨 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟴𝗔𝗪 𝗙𝗢𝗢𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗔𝗥 Via @xanderzhou

A post shared by expo156 (@expo156) on Aug 17, 2020 at 8:27am PDT

These leather monster shoes by Xander Zhou caught my attention immediately as spooky vibes start to creep into my feed for Halloween; these are the perfect mix of luxury shoe for a monster mash wedding. 

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The Claudia pants are back

A post shared by paloma wool (@palomawool) on Sep 2, 2020 at 12:41pm PDT

Patterned pants from Paloma Wool have been a staple IG trend for the last year and this post finally made me buy a pair.

Now, can we see your boards in the comments?!

The post Team Repeller Annotates Their Instagram Mood Boards for Fall appeared first on Repeller.

Team Repeller Annotates Their Instagram Mood Boards for Fall published first on https://normaltimepiecesshop.tumblr.com/ Team Repeller Annotates Their Instagram Mood Boards for Fall published first on https://mariakistler.tumblr.com/