#best of NYC July 2022

[thisislizheather]

July Jiffs 2022

The beginning of August is basically the best time of year because it ushers in the anticipation for autumn and the holidays. Am I reaching? The anticipation of something is almost as sweet as the actual arrival of whatever it is you’re waiting for.

In any case, here’s what went down last month!

You can find my favourite tweets of the month over here and here.

I wrote about the first leg of my summer trip to London, England.

I went to the American Dream mall in New Jersey with my friend Diana, so thankfully I never have to go again! It’s really just a spectacle, and not in a good way. Why would you ever need a mall to have indoor skiing available? Isn’t the best part of skiing the scenery that surrounds the hills? Am I crazy? Regardless, the mall is terrible. It’s way too big, there are countless empty storefronts (because of the ludicrous rent, I’m assuming) and the furniture is gaudy as hell. Absolutely no reason to go again.

Above Photo: Even she is thinking, “Why are we here and what is this.”

Above Photo: Beautiful Diana sitting amongst the idea that money does not equal taste.

Above Photo: “Take me home.”

I went to Brighton Beach for the first time with my great friend Paul (who just moved back to NY) and what a fine beach it was. Not as filthy as Coney Island, but almost as nice as Rockaway. I can’t really put into words how incredible it is that he moved back here, so just know that this fact is the highlight of my summer.

Above Photo: Paul! In New York!

Speaking of Paul, his perfect husband Richard made us a meal one night using ground beef from Stoudemire Farms (which I’ve always wanted to try) and it was spectacular. Must remember to buy it the next time I’m at the Union Square market on a Friday.

I also went to Bar Marseille with Diana and the food was great! It’s right near Rockaway, so I wasn’t expecting a lot from a beachside place but I’d definitely go back. The steak sandwich was perfect.

It only took 18 months, but the dog volunteering that Baby Dog and I used to do is finally back! It was cancelled in February 2020 for obvious reasons and just started up again this month. It’s organized through New York Cares and it happens once a month on the Upper West Side. Essentially, you bring your dog to the auditorium of an elderly care center and any residents who love dogs come down to play with them for an hour. We do it each month and the more dogs that come the better, so I should really post about it more on Instagram. Yeah, I’ll get on that. (The next one is scheduled for August 10th, email me for more information if you’re interested.)

Above Photo: Can you tell how excited she is?

Since it’s Restaurant Week, Irene and I went to The Grid restaurant at the Great Jones Distillery mainly because I was intensely craving good halibut. And yes, the food was good but it’s extremely overrated. I’m sorry but no restaurant ever should charge for basic bread and butter. It’s offensive. The service was good, but you can just tell people weren’t trained very well. And for a place so new and beautiful, you’d expect a lot more.

I saw Mr. Saturday Night on Broadway and all that I can say is wow. A perfect show and a beautiful theatre. Can every single comedian in this town go see it immediately before it closes next month? It’s wildly good. I’ve never felt more seen than I did in this song sung by a comedian’s wife.

Above Photo: Mr. Saturday Night on Broadway, July 2022

The only time I like to drink rose is in the summer (I’m pretty original, I know) and I think I found the best tasting one of life.

Above Photo: Ruby Red Rose with Grapefruit

I’ve started making garlic butter almost once a week now and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop? It’s so superior to every other thing inside my fridge. Sure you could buy garlic butter, but it tastes infinitely better if you make it yourself, I promise.

Above Photo: Homemade garlic butter

I made this lamb bolognese from Antoni Porowski and I think it’s even better than the Alison Roman one that I love so much (it might be because I bought the coriander seeds whole and then ground them up in my spice grinder? The flavour of that individual spice is so crazy good, I had no idea). Obviously one is a fast lamb recipe and one is a leisurely one, so I’ll continue to keep both in my rotation. But you absolutely have to make the three hour one at least once to see what I’m talking about. Especially since Costco sells ground lamb now.

Above Photo: Antoni Porowski’s heavenly lamb bolognese

I  went to the  Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn for the first time and what a perfect theatre. Love that they have a beautiful bar attached (House of Wax).

Some Things I Watched:

I really had low expectations, but I went to see Marcel The Shell With Shoes On and it was beyond sweet.

Indecent Proposal is on HBO right now so I watched it for the first time and loved it.

I saw The Thomas Crown Affair and it’s such a party. I love this kind of 90s movie. Perfect in every way.

I watched the first episode of Loot and it really just wasn’t for me.

Of course I saw the whole first season of The Bear and it’s as good as everyone says it is. With the exception of the sister, I don’t know if she’s just written badly as a character or the actress is just wretched. Either way, it’s the worst part of a great show. Episode seven is clearly the best one. (Also, I badly want to make this recipe now.)

I also saw the whole first season of The Summer I Turned Pretty and this really scratched my summer/teen itch. Perfect summer show.

I saw the Victoria’s Secret documentary and oh my god, I might have to stop shopping at Bath & Body Works now.

I started the new season of Only Murders In The Building and other than the inclusion of Amy Schumer, it’s been good so far.

I also watched Porky’s and Screwballs for some reason?? Obviously I hated both? I think I was just so desperate for an old teen movie that I haven’t seen.

After those two disasters I have no other choice but to cleanse my palette and rewatch Clueless.

Above Photo: My absolute favourite Cher outfit

I’ve been there a few times, but I think it’s time to declare how much I officially hate Astoria Park. The RFK bridge above makes it way too loud, the jet skis in the water blast the worst music, the grass has more brown patches than any other park in the city, the train is at least a 15 minute walk away, there are zero food or water vendors anywhere. WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS PARK? God, it’s awful.

I made these cheesy poblano corn enchiladas and they were really good. In hindsight I should’ve added some shredded chicken or something to them to make them slightly heartier.

Above Photo: Cheesy poblano corn enchiladas

I finally went to see the Amityville house and even though they changed the eerie window frames, it’s definitely still creepy. One thing I wasn’t expecting? How nice that town is! It’s like some big secret, I think. Would totally live there.

Above Photo: The house from The Amityville Horror, July 2022

I made my favourite strawberry crumble coffee cake and it’s always a winner. Pro tip: use cake flour for the cake part and use regular flour for the crumble topping to really make it perfect.

Above Photo: Strawberry crumble coffee cake

I ate the July-only-special Emmy cheeseburger dumplings from Mimi Cheng’s and they were good but not as good as the first time I had the last year. Am I evolving past cheeseburger dumplings…? God I hope not.

Above Photo: Emmy Burger Dumplings (Emmy cheeseburger dumplings in collaboration with Pizza Loves Emily/Emmy Squared, dry-aged beef, aged white cheddar, crushed pretzels, caramelized onions, and Emmy Sauce) Pan-fried only. (8 pieces) $17.25

Incase you care, August is the only month you can apply for SNL tickets so get on that, if you so desire.

Also, if you’re going to the CNE in Toronto next month, you can get free tickets for kids under 13 if you fill out this form.

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: I’ll continue to mark things off of my summer list, I can’t wait to see my friend Dusty’s movie that’s being screened at the MoMA next week, and I can’t wait to take a few more little summer trips (stay tuned).

Above Photo: Summer bitches

If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can see what went down in June over here.

#summer monthly post #July 2022 #this is liz heather #Liz Heather #july jiffs #july monthly #best of NYC #best of NYC July 2022 #NYC #things to do NYC #things to do NYC 2022 #tomato season #summer #summer things to do NYC #summer things to watch #summer TV #summer movies #teen summer

[astranva]

Please explain the timeline for pe!

Following October of 2022, keep an open, flexible mind to the dates and time. Here’s Chris and pe!reader’s relationship timeline.

2011

Chris first publicly spoke about having pe!reader as his celebrity crush during the NYC comic con.

2012

July - pe!reader starts filming The Spectacular Now alongside Miles Teller as the two leads.

August - pe!reader and Miles Teller are spotted on a date.

October - pe!reader and Miles are official.

2013

February - pe!reader and Miles Teller go public.

October - pe!reader and Miles’ first anniversary.

2014

March - pe!reader and Chris meet for the first time at Vanity Fair’s Oscar afterparty.

September - pe!reader and Miles break up.

November 28th - pe!reader and Chris meet again in private Interstellar release-celebratory party hosted by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan and hang out the entire night together. They exchange phone numbers.

November 30th - pe!reader and Chris go out for coffee.

December 5th - pe!reader and Chris go undercover to the movies to watch Wild.

December 7th - • Chris invites pe!reader over to cook for her, burns the meal and gets her her favorite takeout after googling it. • pe!reader and Chris were about to kiss but she stopped so they can take it slow.

December 24th - pe!reader and Chris are papped together.

December 27th - They have their own late christmas celebration at pe!reader’s New York apartment with Dakota Johnson, Jennifer Garner & Ben Affleck, Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds, pe!reader’s best 3 best friends from theatre; Jia, Sophia, and Raymond.

2015

January - Chris realizes that he has strong feelings for pe!reader.

February - pe!reader realizes that she has strong feelings for Chris but chooses not to act on them because she wants to take more time to know him and be friends.

February 22nd - Chris and pe!reader are talked about when they greet with cheek kisses at the Oscars.

March - They frequently meet at each other’s houses as to not get papped.

April - Chris is busy with Avengers: Age of Ultron’s release.

May - First kiss and first date.

June - pe!reader is busy with Inside Out’s release.

July - They reunite with more dates and get papped once.

August - pe!reader meets Scott, and decides to stop going on talk shows and interviews unless it’s movie press.

September 21st - Chris and pe!reader make it official before she goes to Australia to start filming Hacksaw Ridge.

October - Chris watches pe!reader’s SNL monologue from the audience but it’s kept lowkey.

November - pe!reader and Chris decide to go public and are papped:

December - Hacksaw Ridge wraps up. pe!reader hosts a bigger Christmas party where people fawn over them as a couple.

December 31st - pe!reader and Chris spend the New Year’s together.

2016

January - pe!reader and Chris go to the Bahamas for a secret one-week getaway.

February - pe!reader and Chris make their red carpet debut as a couple at the Oscars & she meets the rest of the Evans’ family.

March - Chris meets pe!reader’s family, gets interrogated by her 7-year-old sister, Madelyn, but they welcome him.

April - Chris and pe!reader’s stepdad, Marshall, are papped golfing.

May - pe!reader decides to direct Lady Bird. Captain America: Civil War premieres. They make their Met Gala red carpet debut as a couple.

June - pe!reader hosts a huge surprise birthday party for Chris, and also celebrates CACW with him. They go all the way. She starts filming Mother!

July - pe!reader is papped having breakfast with Chris’ mom, Lisa.

August - Mother! wraps up. filming Lady Bird starts, Chris is papped visiting pe!reader on set and stays for one week in Sacramento with her.

September - • pe!reader and Chris celebrate their 1st anniversary. • First big fight. • pe!reader and Chris are papped on her NY apartment’s balcony

• pe!reader sues the photographer and their agency for violating her privacy and photographing a private property.

October - • Lady Bird wraps up, Chris hosts a celebratory party for pe!reader and the entire cast and crew. • pe!reader and Chris go on a 5-day trip to the Amalfi Coast. • pe!reader starts therapy after her role as Mother in Mother! took a toll on her mental health.

November - pe!reader moves in with Chris at his house in Boston.

December - Chris moves in with pe!reader at her NY apartment.

2017

January - • pe!reader rescues her, then, kitten, Pam and is hers and Chris’ first shared pet. • pe!reader visits Chris on Infinity War set, meets the entire cast

February - Pregnancy scare!

April - Chris adopts Dodger and he becomes their second shared pet.

September - • Second anniversary! • pe!reader wins Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in The Handmaid’s Tale, briefly and vaguely mentions Chris in her speech.

November - Chris buys an engagement ring and tells his mom only about it.

December - pe!reader and Chris buy a house together in Italy.

2018

January - pe!reader and Chris go together to the Golden Globes. Lady Bird wins Best Motion Picture. pe!reader gives an emotional speech and thanks Chris in it.

February - Chris takes pe!reader to Disneyland in Paris for Valentine’s day.

March - • Chris is busy with Infinity War press. • pe!reader launches her skin care brand, Bare.

April - pe!reader joins Chris for the first time as his plus one for the Infinity War movie premiere despite that she doesn’t go to other movie premieres.

May - • pe!reader sets her LA house on sale. • Chris and pe!reader buy a new house in LA together. • pe!reader buys a private island at the Bahamas. • pe!reader and Chris attend Prince Harry & Meghan’s royal wedding together.

June - Chris proposes and she says yes! They celebrate all month with family and friends.

September 21st - Third anniversary!

2019

February - pe!reader becomes an EGOT winner after winning a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album (Including Poetry, Audiobooks & Storytelling) for being the official narrator of the book, Circe.

March - • pe!reader hosts a big anniversary party for Bare. • Chris celebrates her on his own and buys her a 1967 Cadillac De Ville convertible car.

April - pe!reader joins Chris as his plus one again at the Endgame premiere and is papped crying emotionally because of Chris’ journey in Marvel coming to an end.

May - pe!reader buys Chris a yacht with ‘Property of Christopher Evans, with love, Y/N Y/L/N-Evans’ engraved on it. They’re papped.

June - They get married in Italy! They spend their honeymoon in Seychelles then went to Greece.

September - • Fourth anniversary! • They buy their farmhouse.

2020

September 21st: Fifth anniversary!

2021

March: pe!reader wins her fourth Golden Globe for Best Actress for Promising Young Woman.

April: • pe!reader receives her third Oscar for Best Actress for Promising Young Woman and thanks Chris so adorably in her speech. • They start trying for a baby!

September: • Sixth anniversary! • pe!reader wins her third Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in The Handmaid’s Tale.

November: pe!reader and Chris get a false-positive pregnancy test because of her fertility medications.

2022

January: • pe!reader is pregnant! • They tell their families two weeks later.

February: They tell their close friends.

June: Chris announces the pregnancy on his Instagram when she’s 6 months pregnant.

July: pe!reader joins Chris for The Gray Man LA premiere and gets seen pregnant in an event for the first time.

September 14th: River Jude Evans is born. pe!reader announces a hiatus.

October: They move to stay at their farmhouse away from all the noise to raise River there for a year.

From that time forward, time truly is an illusion. Pe!reader and Chris will have 3 more kids and unless I write about this fic until 2028, I advise you read this fic with a grain of salt. Thanks for reading!

#planet evans #planet evans universe #pe timeline #timeline #pe blurb #chris evans x reader

[this-daydream-is-dangerous-13]

Daylight MV by Harry Styles - why was it not the unreleased Two Ghosts MV 2.0? A timeline.

This video, released on July 19, 2023, is jam packed with Blondie and Haylor references. I think it was almost the sister project to the never released Two Ghosts MV…until it wasn’t. And I have an idea as to why.

Don’t believe me that it’s Haylor AF? Go read this amazing summary by @womanexile at whose request I am writing this timeline.

As we know, Harry was filming the video on and around May 10 and 11, 2022, based in articles and pap/drone photos from the time, like this Daily Mail article:

Let’s review the timeline:

April 22, 2022 - Harry performs at Coachella weekend 2 in Indio, CA.

April 26, 2022 - OW is onstage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas when she is served custody papers. H is not there.

But where is H? According to the article - circus training!

Late April/early May - Harry starts training in Kent, England with family-owned Sanctus Circus.

From the article:

“A source told [the publication]: Harry has spent weeks being taught circus skills for this video — he wanted it to be a real spectacle.

'It is probably his most expensive video yet because as well as all the rehearsals, it was a huge set with loads of extras and really extravagant costumes'.

The source revealed to the publication that the singer pushed himself to the limit in order to perform the stunts. Adding: 'It's been a real undertaking and the finished product will prove why he's one of the biggest pop stars in the world.' “

So late April - May 11 - circus stuff. Which is part time and on-and-off, I imagine. Then filming. And this was an UNDERTAKING that would have required a lot of planning.

He even arranged to have live animals, as outlined here in an article with the horse and parrot handlers:

Some take aways:

- he was supposed to the riding *the WHITE horse*. And when that didn’t work, he ensured the white horse remained in the shot.

- they only had a short time to teach him with the animals, but he listened and did exactly what they said.

- the legendary Styles charm extends to grumpy parrots named Poppleguy. “He's a little bit picky and he went straight on Harry Styles' shoulder, the sign of a good vibe," [his owner] said.”

Who can resist this man?!

But he HAS to know that he’ll get questions about the song title, since it shares a name with a song by Blondie. And he gets photographed making this video - articles about it start appearing May 12, 2022.

So what does he do next? Creates a smoke screen! Good thing two of his best friends—Ben Winston and James Corden—run a late night show known for outrageous bits with musicians. And he has a long history of doing crazy things with them, so no one will bat an eye.

He heads off to NYC for Harry’s House promo and ONO, but first — he has a DUPLICATE video to shoot.

And it’s hilarious, watching him shock and delight a quartet of Brooklyn residents and their friends:

And look at the clapperboard to date it:

Bottom right - MAY 17/22.

The next morning, May 18, he is on air with Howard Stern who immediately brings up Blondie (look at H’s usual TS grin!!). And watch him evade:

“You’re reading too much into it…I know you’d like me to tell you ‘you’re spot on’ but…yeah, you’re not.”

But you know who thinks Howard actually is Spot On? Harry’s Mom!!

The Late Late Daylight video airs on May 26/27, 2022 (depending on your time zone). And here is Anne’s IG story when she watches it:

And then - Harry keeps the circus video in his pocket. For FIFTEEN MONTHS. And makes and releases other videos.

There’s background speculation that the still images captured (Birdrry) might be for a Daydreaming or Grapejuice or other video, despite the bird. After all - we already have a Daylight MV!

And then, on July 18th, 2023 at his penultimate HSLOT concert in Lisbon, Harry has the bird image shown on the screen as he finishes singing Daylight.

After the concert, we learn that the video will drop in July 19th at 5pm UK, 12 pm Eastern.

And while the As It Was video promo stated: “It’s just us”, this one proclaims “It’s just a video, just for you.”

Which naturally leads us to this parallel:

And it is followed by the 10-minute 2nd encore piano ballad at the final HSLOT concert on July 22, introduced in Italian by saying “I wrote this for you, just for tonight.”

**My theory - its release is another in a long line of grand gestures designed to remind and assure Blondie of his ongoing, perpetual love and devotion.**

[bcacstuff]

KE's friend Bennet Jordan commented on his post that Dashy isn't Sam's best friend so... They've seen each other while in NY

Sigh.. I actually was contemplating, do I post this or not... 🙄

I mean, I really don't want to turn my blog into some kind of 'samsplaining' in another way, decoding the 'bizarro' (thank you Anon for that word) of a blogger that turns each little breadcrumb into some kind of evidence explaining it her way....

First for the ones that don't go to this blog and have no idea what this is about. Bennet Jordan posted on IG a slide of pics with a dog, most likely Dashy, KE's dog. They were in NYC as well, as KE is working on a project with his fiancée Emily Chen. KE left a comment on his post, he answered and later on his answer was deleted

Anyway, I don't think they're 'back together', they never were actually together. At the most we have a suspicion KE was on that roadtrip last summer and perhaps in LV with S.

If that comment is about the Sam we know, and that's already a big if, but let's assume it was, then it's a bit odd to say Dashy isn't Sam's best friend and the 💀 ... now that doesn't look to me KE and S are in a loving relationship, now does it?

I also do not think they met up in NYC, even though they were there at the same time. We know S had quite a busy schedule, and we also know he went out for diner with friend Paul D (the chef). So the little spare time he had... well you can figure. And on top of that KE was working with Emily on a project.

But I took a little deeper look under the surface. I mean, the easiest thing to say is 'oh, look, they must have met... together...' 🙄

If you look a bit farther, and scroll his and his fiancées IG, you find out that curiously enough the couple did a roadtrip together last summer, they even announced their engagement during that trip. Oh... wait, who was doing a road trip last summer again....????

right.... and no the dog didn't like him much, he's hiding in plain sight behind the table, head down, tail down... 🙈 But the whole gear including hat and T-shirt from Jackson Hole Wyoming...

So let's check out timeline from last summer. His last pic in the UK was posted on July 23 with the bucket hat. The next pic shows him at Zion NP posted on August 1st. The cowboy pics were posted on August 11th, clearly latergram as he was already back in LA after 48 hours in LV, of which the JL concert on August 6. Anyway, you can check the timeline I referred to above.

Now what about Emily & Bennett. Now Emily posts this on the 20th on June (2022). The 'our' in her post is her and Bennett

Interesting roadtrip, especially some of the places... 🤔

KE leaves a comment on that post

Note, the date stamp is CEST = 9 hours ahead of PT. So her comment is on the same day as Emily's post.

Bennett also comments on that post, answering a friend who gave him a tip

Again interesting, last minute including Zion to Jackson Hole... 🤔 🤔

She and Bennett then post a video about custom hats they had made, and they announce their engagement in the next posts. KE leaves a comment on Emily's post about it. (Aug 2nd). Though the engagement actually took place a bit earlier, as Bennett already posts with the hat earlier on (July 16) with the hat. And that's also when they had the pics made for their engagement post. (the photographer leaving a telling comment).

Nevertheless Bennett posts a video of the start of their road trip and the truck they hired on 26 July

Anyway, later on he posts some more photo dumps of the trip. And, it's not waterproof evidence and all, but it's just quite the coincidence these people were on sort of the same road trip. Don't think they went the whole trip together (I do hope not for them, lol) but chances they met at some point or perhaps even travelled part of it together... well, it's an option. And to me, that could be where this comment about Dashy not being the best friend of Sam could come from... provided it was 'that' Sam he was talking about.

Anyway, as always. Not here to prove anything, and I value you readers as wise as you are. So all up to you to make up your mind about it, or just say... well, who cares, water under the bridge already for a long time 😉

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Okay, everyone, it’s here. Nish Kumar’s 2022 show Your Power, Your Control, on TV for everyone to see. If there’s anyone who wants to see it and can’t, send me a message or a non-anonymous ask and I’ll send you a link. Anyone, really. I really, really want everyone to watch this, and I am happy to share with absolutely everyone. I say this because I know what the culture’s like on this site, how people think “Oh I don’t know, I haven’t talked to that person before, I can’t just message them out of nowhere, it would be weird.” It won’t be. Even if I’ve never interacted with you before and we’re not mutuals or anything, if you want a link, ask. I want to spread this. Though if you live in the UK and are able to, you should watch this through official channels (Sky and Now TV) so he’ll get whatever support he’ll get from viewcount.

I saw this show twice last year. Once in mid-May in New York City, and once in late July in Montreal. When I booked tickets for his show in NYC, I didn’t know he was going to take the show to Just For Laughs in Montreal. If I had know that, I wouldn’t have booked the NYC tickets, because NYC is an 8.5-hour drive away, and requires crossing a national border, while Montreal is two hours away and in the same country as me. However, I’m glad I bought those tickets before I knew. Because the NYC show was amazing, and it was worth seeing twice. I hated the NYC trip, overall. My dad and I spent all day Saturday driving there, then slept on my brother’s uncomfortable couch (he was briefly living there at the time, so at least we didn’t have to pay for accommodation, which was nice), then spent all day Sunday driving back. I’d never been to that city before, and I didn’t like it, with its crowds and its skyrocketed COVID rates but no one was wearing masks, and its general atmosphere that I just hated. I hated every moment of the trip during which I was not in a room with Nish Kumar. And the whole thing was still worth it. And then of course I saw it again in Montreal. That’s how good a show it was.

The show changed a bit in the couple of months between the two I saw. The most notable being that in NYC, he complained about comedians who use their platform to be a dick to minorities, and then shouted: “Fuck you Dave Chappelle, fuck you Ricky Gervais!” In Montreal, he did the same routine, but this time ended it with: “Fuck you Dave Chapelle, fuck you Ricky Gervais, fuck you Jimmy Carr!” I am a bit curious to see if he leaves all those names in on the filmed version, particularly the last one as he was hanging out with Jimmy Carr on Katherine Ryan’s couch for her Backstage TV show not too long before this, it might fuck that up a bit.

The shows were mostly the same though, you don’t tend to take a show from England to NYC unless you’ve got your material pretty well worked out. The Montreal one did have some references to the fact that an Off Menu episode was recorded live at that same festival earlier that afternoon, and most of his audience had been there (I hadn’t been – I’d considered it because I like Ed Gamble and James Acaster, but the ticket price wasn’t worth it for a podcast I don’t listen to). He made a bunch of jokes about Ed and James, and then after some particularly harsh making fun of them, he added, “Obviously I’m just kidding, I love those guys, they’re my friends. I meant what I said about Gervais and Carr, though.”

Oh, there was something else that happened in Montreal but not in NYC. In Montreal, he was doing the part of the show where he explains that online abuse happens to everyone in the public eye, but it gets worse the more levels you are away from what’s thought of as the “default”. Then he started listing levels of “default”: white, straight, male, heterosexual, able-bodied, etc.

As he did so, I became very aware of my best friend, who was sitting next to me. I had dragged my best friend to Montreal with me, because I loved the show so much and I wanted him to see it too. He, however, is not into stand-up comedy. He’s not into any of this sort of thing at all. I’ve known him for 20 years, I met him because we were teammates in high school, and then after high school we took over as coaches, and we’ve now run a wrestling team together for many years. He is a 35-year-old (now 36) white straight guy who’s been an athlete all his life, and he looks it. He’s really cool for a jock, I swear. He’s a nice guy, he’s a feminist, he’s worked with me for many years to try to fight against the fucked up culture in sport. But he doesn’t, you know, look it. He looks like a jock. And he is a jock. He did not look like he belonged in a Nish Kumar gig. I didn’t realize how much he’d not fit in until we actually go there, and we sat in the front row of the 128-seat room, and everyone else looked like an artsy nerd, and I guess I looked like whatever in-between thing I am, and my best friend looked like a guy who should be in a sports bar and not in a Nish Kumar gig.

Anyway, when Nish Kumar started listing all the definitions of default, I felt slightly awkward, because my best friend is all those things. Now, I want to be clear, because Nis Kumar gets accused of this all the time and it’s fucking horrible when people say that shit: he was not deliberately making the rich straight white men in the room uncomfortable. He wasn’t saying “Fuck those people for being the default”. He was saying “It’s a fact that those people being the default mean, all else equal, they’ll get less online abuse than a visible minority for doing the same shit.” When I saw I felt a bit awkward, I mean that in a sort of affectionate way, when you’re sort of affectionately “called out” by a part of a comedy show, not that Nish Kumar was genuinely making his room an unsafe space for rich white men. Nish Kumar does not hate rich white men! Some of his best friends are Ed Gamble.

But I knew it was already a bit awkward for my friend, so when Nish started listing “straight, white, able-bodied, heterosexual…”, I put a hand on my friend’s shoulder, in a kind of reassuring way. Nish Kumar saw me do this, and stopped talking to laugh. Nish Kumar. Nish Kumar laughed, because of something I did, with the trademark wild infectious Nish Kumar laugh. Then he asked me, “Do you know that guy?” I said yes, and he said oh good, because it had looked like I might be just taking a guess about what he’s like based on his appearance. And that interaction with Nish Kumar is in the top ten coolest fucking things that’s ever happened to me.

So those are my personal stories from seeing that show. I know what it was like in May 2022, and I know it was like in July 2022, and I’m very curious as to what it was like in October 2022, which is when it was filmed. Both times I saw it, it ended with an extended routine about how fucked up it is that Britain worships some old lady (queen) and some special song (national anthem) and the big towel (flag). After that routine, he says, wouldn’t it be weird if she died while I was on stage? When people ask you where you were when the queen died, you’d have to say you were in a theatre, listening to a comedian be, if anything, too respectful about her.

…So even though I’ve seen the show twice, I’m guessing there will be at least a bit of stuff I haven’t heard before in the filmed version, because he’ll have to have rewritten that by October. There was also some stuff early in the show about Boris Johnson that was pretty current to when I saw it, I guess that’ll be different in October too. I’m looking forward to seeing that.

This post has been my preamble before I watch the long-awaited actual special. Just a place to record my thoughts going into it. I’m going to actually watch it now, and see how it compares to my memory of it. My memory of it is of one that did perfectly what I love in comedy – cover important personal stuff and cover important political stuff and tie the two together. Any show that does all three well, while also being funny, immediately becomes a favourite of mine (for another show that does that well, see Ahir Shah’s Ends, which just won the Edinburgh award and I’m very pleased about that). And God, it was fucking funny. Nish Kumar started the energy high, and I remember that both times I kept expecting him to at least start to run out of steam, and he never did. Never slowed down for a moment. Shouted at the crowd at a million words a minute, like he couldn’t wait to tell us everything he had to say, because it mattered and because it was worth saying and because it was funny enough to merit the time and space. I remember losing my breath laughing over and over and over, both times. I am prepared for the fact that some of that came from the atmosphere in the room and it won’t hit quite as hard through a screen. But still, it’s brilliant material, everyone needs to watch it. Like I said, message me for a link. I am here to spread the good news of Nish Kumar.

Also, happy birthday, Nish. It's a good day for comedy.

[kmp78]

« She's absolutely loving that wifey role. 🥰 »

So cute.

I have a few questions.

JL and VK separated in 2021, is that it ? So VK found a new boyfriend and got engaged in 2 years ? It's fast. How does she met him ?

Who put an end to history? JL or VK

The timeline goes like this:

April/May 2021: VK and break up. 💔

June-July-August: both spend the summer moping around in NYC and Miami 😣

End of August: VK leaves the US for the 1st time in 1.5 years (due to Covid obvs) and moves in with her sis in Cannes/St. Tropez.

Their reunion after 2 years apart was quite emotional... 😭🤗

September-October: VK continues bunking with Yan and Olivier, and vacays/works all over Europe. 🇪🇺

Olivier as we know is a pro-equestrian, and VK spends some time with horsies as well. 🐴

And this is the part where the story gets a little bit murkier: we don't know exactly where and when VK and Dims' paths crossed, but best guesses are either at these horsey circles (since Dims is/was a keen horseman as well), or at one of the high society shindigs these folks attend in Paris etc. 🤷🏼‍♀️

In any case, the 1st sign of Dims on VK's socials came when they were caught snuggling in Miami in November 2021. 😏

Then of course they spent that following New Years yachting and canoodling in the Caribbean with their new group (while JL was also in the neighborhood having a real good time with his cheap replacements... 🫣).

During 2022 VK and Dims continued to date, until in October (on what I strongly suspect to have been their 1st year anniversary!) Dims whisked her off to Italy and popped The Question. 💍

JL in the meantime was... well, feeling it. 😐

So no, it wasn't fast at all. It was a perfectly normal development of a relationship. 🤷🏼‍♀️

VK spent several months reeling after the breakup from April/May to Sept/Oct, and I don't see anything weird in how and when she found a new (and better) man. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[bisexualamy]

Transition Update #61

Wow! Hi!! I'm back. I haven't done one of these in a few years, but largely that's been because the longer you transition, the less you're transitioning so much as just, living your life as your gender.

I've gained a bunch of new followers since I was regularly posting transition updates, so here are the basics to get everyone up to speed:

I've been on T since August 2016 (about 6 years) and I had top surgery in July 2017 (about 5 years ago). I also have a page on my blog that will route you to everything transition related I've posted, and I'm always happy to answer questions to the best of my ability.

Like with most of my other transition updates this is for my followers only. I'm going to make this post unrebloggable and put any personal info under cut, so please respect that.

Ok!! So what's the headline? I'm getting more surgeries. I have a hysto scheduled for next month. I've been doing this process since August but held off posting because I wanted to aggregate everything at the end. Hopefully this will help clear up some misconceptions about transmasculine surgeries and transition, since I definitely had a bunch before I started. I'm not a doctor. Please get medical advice from your doctors.

So! First big news is that I'm getting a hysterectomy. This is something I've wanted for a while that I put off getting for a few reasons. I was concerned about safety during peak COVID, I was concerned about the possibility of not having natural estrogen production, and, as always, I had that little bit of what if I'm not really trans? fear that most trans people have when they make a big decision. But this past summer, abortion rights were overturned in the United States, and my menstrual cycle came back for the first time in 5 years. These two things were very distressing for me; it was the worst dysphoria I've felt in years. That was ultimately the catalyst for me finally going ahead with my hysto.

I'm doing this as part of a larger process for potentially having bottom surgery. It's taken me a long time to admit that I want bottom surgery because of how much fearmongering and misinfo there is about transmasculine bottom surgery, but my care team has already done some great work dispelling certain myths for me. Ultimately, I may decide to only get the hysterectomy. It depends on a few outstanding variables I'm going to go over in my bottom surgery consultation, which is also next month. I'm not going to get into those details here; that's for another post once I make that choice.

Because I like these posts to be resources as well as journals, here's the timeline I've completed so far regarding my surgical process. I live in New York City and am having surgery locally, so please bear that in mind. I'm not going to name any doctors, surgeons, or surgery centers publicly, because of the increased danger around trans surgery centers and for my own privacy. If you live in the area or are considering pursuing gender affirming surgery in NYC, please message me privately and I can give you more details.

Timeline:

08/2022 - I met with a social worker to go over the entire surgical process, to ensure two things. First, that what I was expecting from surgery was in line with the actual surgical results, and second, that I had an adequate support team during surgery recovery. If I lacked that local support, the surgical center would've set me up in a post-surgery rehab center to make sure I got adequate post-op care.

09/2022 - I had two evals from the surgery center: one physical health, and one mental health. The physical eval was to make sure that my body was healthy enough to survive surgery. They took some blood and went over my medical history. Unfortunately, I don't have any additional insight about what limitations would be placed on fat or disabled patients. I'm not skinny, but I'm straight sized and my weight was never brought up as an issue during eval. The mental health eval was again, to make sure that what I wanted out of surgery was in line with the results. The psychiatrist assured me that this wasn't to "prove" my transness, but to get the info they needed so they could write me a mental health letter of support. This is because my health insurance needs that kind of documentation in order to cover the procedures. We're still waiting on insurance approvals, but they needed a letter from both a physical and mental health provider, for both the hysto and the bottom surgery (4 total).

11/2022 - I had my hysto consult. This is a different surgeon than the surgeon who will potentially be doing bottom surgery. We went over my wants from surgery, how much time I could take off work, what the general timeline would be for recovery, etc. I decided to do my surgery in 3 phases: hysto first, then two subsequent bottom surgeries. While the hysto and phase 1 could be combined, since I can take medical leave next month, it was ultimately the safer choice to spread them out. The surgeon also set me up with an appt with a fertility clinic, since I had questions about my potential fertility. I went to the clinic later in November.

12/2022 - Date scheduled for early January 2023.

Myths:

There were a few myths dispelled for me throughout this process that I want to share:

Myth #1: You have to remove your ovaries if you're getting a hysto with the intent to have bottom surgery. This is not true! If your ovaries are causing you dysphoria and you're younger than middle age, you do not necessarily need to remove them. My surgeon actually encouraged me to keep my ovaries, since their existence doesn't actively cause me dysphoria. Her suggestion was for two reasons:

If for some reason I lost access to my T, my ovaries could kick in as a natural source of hormone production, albeit the wrong hormone.

If I ever wanted to have bio kids in the future (via a surrogate), I could keep my ovaries as egg banks and harvest the eggs for later use.

I was under the impression that it was a significant cancer risk to leave your ovaries in post-hysto. This is apparently not true. If your family doesn't have a history of breast or ovarian cancer, the cancer risk won't likely present until middle age. You can also check your ovaries via external ultrasound even after you have bottom surgery. My surgeon suggested that, if I wasn't sure if I wanted to remove my ovaries, that I should leave them in and take them out in 10-20 years, when I was past the age where I could harvest eggs, and the only things my ovaries could do at that point were to turn cancerous. You can also do an oophorectomy (ovary removal) post bottom surgery! The surgeon is laparoscopic, meaning it's done via your belly button. It will not affect your bottom surgery results.

Ultimately, I decided to remove my uterus, cervix, and tubes, but keep my ovaries for now.

Myth 2: Testosterone increases your risk of ovarian cancer. This is also false! Like my surgeon said, if you have no family history of ovarian or breast cancer, this is (generally) not a concern until middle age. T places your eggs in "stasis" (see below) which makes it difficult for them to grow tumors.

Myth #3: Having a hysto means that you're dependent on your T for the rest of your life. If you keep your ovaries, you will have natural "backup" estrogen production. Even if you remove your ovaries (either during the hysto or later in life), and then lose access to your T, you won't die. This was something I was convinced of. Apparently, you'll basically just go through menopause, though some of the effects of T will revert.

Myth #4: Testosterone renders you infertile. This is not necessarily true. While testosterone does atrophy your ovaries, the doctors told me it's more accurate to say your ovaries are in "stasis" and could restart if you stopped taking T. This does not mean you could carry a baby to term. T is toxic to fetuses, and even if you are fertile and become pregnant, the fetus will not survive if you're taking your T.

When I went to the fertility clinic, they did an external ultrasound and took some blood, and determined that I am still fertile, and I could harvest my eggs if I wanted to use them down the line. I ultimately decided to keep my ovaries and wait on this, because the process will not be covered by insurance and is presently too expensive for me.

My meeting with the fertility clinic was very insightful, but ultimately every person is different. A few things I learned that may or may not be applicable for others:

while we don't really have data about how T affects long term egg viability, there is evidence of successful egg retrieval for guys that have been on T as long as 10 years

while it's easier to get viable eggs if you go off your T during the process (about two months) you don't necessarily have to (this varies person to person)

while it's easier to retrieve eggs pre-bottom surgery and/or if you still have your original opening, it is also possible to retrieve eggs abdominally if you no longer have that opening

if you've already had a hysto and you go off your T to do egg retrieval, you will not have a menstrual cycle because you no longer have a uterus

Ultimately, I'm really grateful to be supported throughout this process by amazing friends, family, and a smart, kind surgical team. I hope this post is informational! I'm happy to answer any additional questions.

Most importantly, I'm so excited to get this procedure!! My menstrual cycle was my #1 source of dysphoria, and even before I was trans I knew I was never going to be pregnant. That concept alone really upsets me. While it may seem odd to others that a hysto can be gender affirming, it's really, really is for me. I've felt so long like I'm carrying around these organs that I not only don't need, but feel like time bombs in my body. The idea that I could get pregnant despite my best efforts to avoid it made me incredibly anxious and dysphoric. Soon, that will never be a concern again, and I'm so, so excited about that.

#transition stuff

[allnightlongzine]

The Eternal March of the Black Parade

Twenty years after their debut album and more than a decade after the critics dismissed them, My Chemical Romance stands as one of the greatest rock bands of the 21st century. How did we end up here?

Rob Harvilla | Jul 26, 2022 | theringer.com

Illustration by Brent Schoonover

My Chemical Romance is touring again, Paramore and Jimmy Eat World are headlining a major festival this fall, and there’s a skinny, tattooed white dude with a guitar dominating the charts. In case you haven’t heard, emo is back, baby! In honor of its return to prominence—plus the 20th anniversary of the first MCR album—The Ringer is following Emo Wendy’s lead and tapping into that nostalgia. Welcome to Emo Week, where we’ll explore the scene’s roots, its evolution to the modern-day Fifth Wave, and some of the ephemera around the genre. Grab your Telecasters and Manic Panic and join us in the Black Parade.

Our story starts in New York City on September 11, 2001. It just does. Suspend your disbelief; respect his audacity. But is it really so hard to believe, and is it really so audacious, that Gerard Way—then a 24-year-old New Jersey native, NYC art school graduate, and creatively stifled Cartoon Network intern—would choose that awful, vulnerable, crushingly human moment to reimagine himself as something immortal, someone superheroic? “That felt like the end of the world,” he told Newsweek in 2019. “It felt like the apocalypse. I was surrounded by hundreds of people on a dock on the Hudson River, and we watched the buildings go down, and there was this wave of human anguish that I’ve never felt before. Since then, I’ve continued to think about what we would do at the end of the world if we knew we only had a little time left.”

Standing on that dock, what Gerard decided he would do was channel his shock and grief and newfound sense of immediacy into the ultimate rock-star origin story. “Something just clicked in my head that morning,” he told Spin magazine in 2005. “I literally said to myself, ‘Fuck art. I’ve gotta get out of the basement. I’ve gotta see the world. I’ve gotta make a difference!’” So he hooked up with a drummer friend from high school named Matt Pelissier (the first of several drummers, alas) and wrote an anguished, furious, and yet startlingly tender pop-punk song called “Skylines and Turnstiles.” It starts like this.

You’re not in this alone Let me break this awkward silence Let me go, go on record Be the first to say I’m sorry Hear me out

Gerard sang and played guitar, though he struggled to do both at once. (It’s harder than it looks.) Slowly, he found other bandmates: Ray Toro and Frank Iero on guitars, plus his own younger brother Mikey Way on bass. Thanks to his gig working at Barnes & Noble, Mikey also contributed a band name: My Chemical Romance, an improvement on the title of an Irvine Welsh book. The band signed with a tiny label called Eyeball Records and released, on July 23, 2002, their debut album, called I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, produced by New Jersey punk deity and Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly, who’d already mastered the dark art of combining the rawest possible materials into something impossibly gargantuan.

This broken city sky Like butane on my skin Stolen from my eyes Hello angel, tell me Where are you? Tell me where we go from here

“Skylines and Turnstiles” is not, by a long shot, the highlight of MCR’s least-great album. The raw materials are there, of course: the scabrous and shimmering guitars, the breathless downhill-sprint propulsion, the throat-shredding screams to bolster the chorus and punctuate Gerard’s unguarded and brutal horror-flick lyricism. But your first song is never your best. Here, the one called “Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us” is better. And the one called “Vampires Will Never Hurt You,” and the one called “Demolition Lovers,” and the one called “Drowning Lessons,” and even the one called “Cubicles.” But as an opening salvo, as the gritty first panel in a dense and ludicrously ambitious comic-book-punk saga, as an achingly sincere attempt to break the awkward silence and roll back the wave of human anguish, as a macabre but heartfelt attempt at genuine connection, Gerard Way’s first song got him where he needed to go, which was firmly on the road to leading everyone where they needed to go.

And after seeing what we saw Can we still reclaim our innocence? And if the world needs something better Let’s give them one more reason, now

It’s the rousing, heartbreaking vocal harmony on the words the world needs something better that shows you what Gerard and his vampiric cohort is really about. Look beyond the eyeliner, the hair dye, the ghostly pallor, the extra-macabre marching band outfits, the wholesale mall-goth hijacking of this band’s whole look, its whole ethos. Don’t flinch at the lyrics no matter how gnarly and nihilistic they seem to get; don’t get too wrapped up in the surreal sensationalism of their flames-and-chaos music videos. Buy the album tie-in comic book or don’t. Just never forget that the closer we get to the end of the world, the tighter Gerard Way means to hold us, to make however much time we have left just that much more bearable.

I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love just celebrated its 20th birthday, and inspired some very excellent anniversary pieces despite being, well, MCR’s least-great album. Their next record was a gleaming and snarling major-label-debut colossus that crowned the fellas as Warped Tour royalty; the record after that was a hilariously overblown rock-opera funeral march and consensus masterpiece that now stands among the greatest emo albums ever born, any era, any wave; the record after that is my personal favorite. Then MCR broke up in 2013, to appropriately operatic dismay, going out as close to On Top as a youngish rock band possibly can.

There was no explicit tabloid-roiling catalyst, no real drama, except no drama is not exactly this band’s vibe. Gerard’s farewell letter, posted to Twitter three days after the news broke and titled A Vigil, On Birds and Glass, is my personal favorite Rock Band Breakup Explanation Letter, any subgenre, any era, precisely because it captures this band’s precise and fantastic combination of galactically overwrought and unabashedly intimate.

We were spectacular. Every show I knew this, every show I felt it with or without external confirmation. There were some clunkers, sometimes our secondhand gear broke, sometimes I had no voice- we were still great. It is this belief that made us who we were, but also many other things, all of them vital- And all of the things that made us great were the very things that were going to end us- Fiction. Friction. Creation. Destruction. Opposition. Aggression. Ambition. Heart. Hate. Courage. Spite. Beauty. Desperation. LOVE. Fear. Glamour. Weakness. Hope. Fatalism.

And then he expands on the fatalism part as a way of explaining why, exactly, this band broke up after only 11 years and four albums.

That last one is very important. My Chemical Romance had, built within its core, a fail-safe. A doomsday device, should certain events occur or cease occurring, would detonate. I shared knowledge of this “flaw” within weeks of its inception. Personally, I embraced it because, again, it made us perfect. A perfect machine, beautiful, yet self aware of its system. Under directive to terminate before it becomes compromised. To protect the idea- at all costs. This probably sounds like something ripped from the pages of a four-color comic book, and that’s the point. No compromise. No surrender. No fucking shit. To me that’s rock and roll. And I believe in rock and roll.

He goes on at great length. It’s wild, it’s lovely, it’s absurd, it’s genuinely moving. The fellas found stuff to keep them busy post-breakup, and Gerard most prominently, of course: the solo album, the ongoing and relentlessly off-kilter Netflix series based on his comic book. And then, inevitably, MCR reunited—tentatively in late 2019, and full-throatedly here in 2022, headlining giant festivals and packing arenas as what certainly feels like the first rock-band reunion that anybody’s actually given a shit about in years. Put it this way: If you are a remotely young person who, like Way himself, still believes in rock and roll, My Chemical Romance is very likely why, and it’s worth ruminating on how, exactly, this profoundly strange and desperately necessary band has inspired such belief. Anybody who listened to I Brought You My Bullets in 2002 couldn’t have predicted any of this. But the guys who made it did.

Emo is back, baby! In honor of its return to prominence—plus the 20th anniversary of the first MCR album—we’re diving deep into all things emo.

Grab your Telecasters and Manic Panic and join us for Emo Week.

The most striking song on I Brought You My Bullets—the most Gerard song, the most MCR song, The Most in general—is called “Early Sunsets Over Monroeville.” It begins as a woozy but deceptively gentle waltz but darkens by ominous degrees, and soon Gerard is wailing the line “If I had the guts / To put this to your head,” and maybe you worry for a second that this is the 200,000th uncouth and unnervingly violent post-breakup emo song. And then you find out that Monroeville is in Pennsylvania, and parts of George Romero’s 1978 zombie-flick classic Dawn of the Dead were shot there, and oh, wow, suddenly you realize this is actually a very grim, very romantic song about an inconsolable man realizing he has to kill his no-longer-human wife:

And there’s no room in this hell There’s no room in the next And our memories defeat us And I’ll end this duress

Not the best song, but the most. My Chemical Romance would get truly dangerous, and truly great, when their best and their most intertwined. They signed to a major label; all the coolest kids do. Deal with it. Deal with this, while you’re at it.

“You like D&D, Audrey Hepburn, Fangoria, Harry Houdini, and croquet,” Ray Toro informs Gerard Way at the onset of “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” one of several monster singles from their 2004 Reprise Records debut, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. “You can’t swim, you can’t dance, and you don’t know karate. Face it: You’re never gonna make it.” Cue the high-school-outcast histrionics, the cuddly arena-punk viciousness, Gerard’s destabilizing magnetism as he practically screams in your face, the vintage airbrushed-van metalhead radness of Ray’s guitar solo, and, before the final bone-crushing chorus, a truly bonkers Gerard buildup/breakdown for the ages:

But you really need to listen to me Because I’m telling you the truth I mean this I’m okay (Trust me)

And, boom. There are days when this is the best song ever written. And there are other days when it’s not even the best song on Three Cheers: “Helena” has a majestic Mötley Crüe meets the Misfits chorus, the power chords ascending a stairway to hell, an infinite legion of demons pumping their fists along to every word: So long and good night / So long and good night. Or maybe the power-ballad pyrotechnics of “The Ghost of You” do it for you, the classic quiet-verse-loud-chorus dynamics, Gerard’s unapologetic controlled-screaming melodrama (“At the top of my lungs in my arms / SHE DIES”), the extra-luxe video that recreates D-Day down to the puking soldiers landing on the beach. Tell me these guys aren’t spectacular, and not driven by friction, ambition, LOVE, glamour, and fatalism.

By 2005 MCR are headlining the good ol’ Warped Tour alongside Fall Out Boy, and early-2000s third-wave emo—undaunted in its embrace of pop-punk, of the mall, of teenagers both actual and perpetual—has its very own Queen, and/or Led Zeppelin, and/or Pink Floyd. Suspend your disbelief; respect their audacity. “The main thing that we’ve always wanted to do was to save people’s lives,” Gerard informed the magazine Alternative Press in 2004. “That sounds Mother Teresa–ish and outlandish, but it really does happen. It does make a huge difference. We’ve seen it in action.”

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, by the way, is a semi-derailed concept album involving two lovers, a man and a woman, who both seemingly die in a gunfight: The man goes to hell, is informed by the Devil that the woman is still alive, and agrees to kill 1,000 evil men in exchange for the chance to reunite with her. I say semi-derailed because during the writing process Gerard and Mikey’s beloved grandmother died—“Helena” is about her—and Gerard considered scrapping the whole thing. “When that happened, I was like, ‘Fuck. Oh, God. How am I going to deal with this story? Does it even matter anymore? Is it just fucking pretentious? Is it bullshit?’” he told Alternative Press. “And then I came to grips with it and said, ‘Fuck it. I’m going to write the songs that I want.’” Even the song called “You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison” has a certain funereal poignancy to it.

Even for a band already operating at this scale in terms of both ungodly rock-star bombast and naked emotional intimacy—Gerard has gotten increasingly forthright in interviews about his struggles with mental health and substance misuse in this era—My Chemical Romance’s third and biggest and most extravagantly beloved album, 2006’s The Black Parade, struck like a thunderbolt from a clear blue sky. There is an awful lot to absorb here; the marching-band outfits are as good a place to start as any.

The Black Parade is a classic leveling-up record, the fairly conventional tale of a young, ferocious rock band hitting its commercial peak (the album debuted at no. 2 on the Billboard album chart, behind a Hannah Montana soundtrack) with the help of some new big-shot collaborators. It was produced by Rob Cavallo, who probably also produced your favorite Green Day album; the screaming-and-fire video for “Famous Last Words” was directed by Samuel Bayer, who also directed your favorite Nirvana video. (I’m just assuming your favorite Nirvana video is “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”) Several members of the band got severely injured while shooting this, by the way, and somehow you can just tell.

The Black Parade is also an unprecedented and not-at-all-conventional narrative flex credibly described by The New York Times as “a stricken tour de force about coming of age in the post-9/11 era.” It’s a not-at-all-derailed concept album about a man (“The Patient”) dying of cancer while wracked by fear and regret; Gerard decided to add to the verisimilitude by cutting his hair short and dying it a stark silver. (“I wanted to appear white and deathlike and gaunt and sick-looking,” he cheerfully told the NYT.) Liza Minnelli (“I love those guys”) drops by to portray a grieving mother; musically, the klezmer parts somehow hit harder than the heavy metal parts. Influences range from David Bowie to KISS to the Beatles; there is also, as the marching-band uniforms might suggest, a marching band. The scale of this, in every sense, is nearly overwhelming, so if you’re new to it all maybe start out by just putting the caustically hilarious goth-blues anthem “Teenagers” on repeat for six hours.

They said, “All teenagers scare the livin’ shit out of me” They could care less as long as someone’ll bleed So darken your clothes, or strike a violent pose Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me

Even five years ago, this record was an easy fan favorite but not necessarily an agreed-upon, era-defining masterwork. “The Black Parade, though well-reviewed at the time, hasn’t accrued the same reputation as other classic albums,” the critic Jeremy Gordon wrote in 2016 in a 10th-anniversary piece for Spin. “It was almost entirely ignored in lists of the best albums of the ’00s run by tastemakers and canon-formers like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Billboard, Paste, Complex, NME, and, yes, Spin.” By this record’s 20th anniversary, however, it might be universally hailed as the pop-punk Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: In 2020, when Rolling Stone unveiled its updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, there was The Black Parade at no. 361, not quite as good as Funkadelic’s One Nation Under a Groove, but just a little better than Luther Vandross’s Never Too Much.

You could argue that rock critics ruin everything. You could regard The Black Parade’s steady ascent on lists like this as proof that something essential—a life-affirming secret shared only between MCR and their Day One fans—is being lost. As a Late Pass–holder myself, out of respect/trepidation, I have decided not to argue that the band’s fourth and last album, 2010’s Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, is actually their best album, even though I love it profoundly for both the reliable audacity of its concept (now MCR are Mad Max–esque rebels battling an evil corporation in postapocalyptic California, with the Gerard-penned comic book to prove it) and the chaotic scope of the songs themselves. Get acclimated by putting the song “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” on repeat this time.

Danger Days probably includes one too many songs that blatantly reach for Coldplay-style arena-rock uplifting grandeur, but what I will say is that this record’s final attempt at volcanic sentimentality, “The Kids From Yesterday,” totally works, and the album ends with an extra-caustic and extra-hilarious trashing punk tirade called “Vampire Money,” in which Gerard politely declines to contribute a song to the soundtrack of a Twilight movie.

(Come on!) When you wanna be a movie star (Come on!) Play the game and take the band real far (Come on!) Play it right and drive a Volvo car Pick a fight at an airport bar The kids don’t care if you’re alright, honey Pills don’t help, but it sure is funny Give me give me some of that vampire money, come on!

“Originally, what we did was take goth and put it with punk and turn it into something dangerous and sexy,” Gerard explained to the NME. “Back then nobody in the normal punk world was wearing black clothes and eyeliner. We did it because we had one mission: to polarize, to irritate, to contaminate. But then that image gets romanticized and then it gets commoditized.”

This is all delightfully but decidedly rude: There’s an excellent argument that the Twilight universe is every bit as vital and inclusive and life-affirming as any of the rock bands it attempted to romanticize and/or commoditize. But I will laugh at the line Pick a fight at an airport bar forever.

As for MCR’s breakup, and the failsafe doomsday device that triggered it, within a few years Gerard was opening up about it: In 2014 he told the NME that he’d relapsed into alcoholism after Danger Days, and worried that his daughter would grow up without a father; the choice, he concluded, was “Break the band or break me.”

The band first reunited for a single show in 2019 in Los Angeles: “That was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had playing on stage with My Chemical Romance, for sure,” Gerard told the NME, adding that “to me, the new version of My Chemical Romance and the way I want to go about it is exercising less control.” (The NME loves this guy.) The band’s festival-headliner status now is in part a reflection of pop-punk’s bizarrely ascending reputation in the past five years as both a commercial and critical proposition, from Olivia Rodrigo to Machine Gun Kelly to Juice WRLD. But however many sonic and stylistic precedents there might be, there has never been a rock band quite this courageous, spiteful, beautiful, desperate, glamorous, hopeful.

I believe Gerard when he says that this band’s original mission was “to polarize, to irritate, to contaminate,” but that was never their only mission. MCR was born in an apocalypse, and designed to help us all survive it. Us meaning actual teenagers, not critics, but we caught on eventually. We are all bandwagoners on the Black Parade now. Meanwhile, the apocalypse is closer than ever, but at least we can all huddle together in the glow. 

#the ringer #outside #swarm

[greensparty]

Album Reviews: Chris Shiflett / Duff McKagan / The Rolling Stones

This week I got to review new solo albums from members of two of my favorite bands as well as the newest album from one of my favorite legendary bands!

Chris Shiflett Lost at Sea

album cover

Guitarist Chris Shiflett has to be the hardest working man in music. When I say hardest-working musician, I mean it: In addition to his “day job” as the guitarist for Foo Fighters, he is the host of the Walking the Floor podcast, just started a vodcast Shred with Shifty and he is an accomplished solo artist as well. Although he has been with Foo Fighters since 1999, Shiflett has roots in the punk world from his work with No Use for a Name and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Since joining FF, he has also explored side projects including Jackson United and The Dead Peasants. His 2017 album West Coast Town had some solid tunes and the title track made my Best Songs of 2017 list. In 2019 he released Hard Lessons (read my review here) and I included it on my Best Albums of 2019 list. With his solo albums he has explored his passion for country, but rock finds its way in quite often. In July 2018, I was lucky enough to see Shiflett do an intimate acoustic concert at City Winery in Boston (read my concert review here) only a night before he played Fenway Park with Foo Fighters (both shows tied for my #1 Concert of 2018). Seeing both shows in one weekend was super exciting to see his musical range of bringing it at a stadium rock show as well as a smaller club show. Now only a few months after Foo Fighters' newest album But Here We Are and I saw them at Boston Calling, Shiflett is releasing his newest solo album Lost at Sea on Blue Elan Records this week.

me with Chris Shiflett at his City Winery Boston show on 7/20/2018 (I met him previously at the band's in-store at HMV in NYC on 11/1/1999 shortly after he joined)

It goes without saying, he knows his stuff with guitar. These side and solo projects show him letting loose in ways he can't with Foo Fighters (they have done acoustic songs but not country). I'm by no means the biggest country fan, but I can certainly appreciate the genre when it's really good and Shiflett truly has a passion for old school country. He recorded the album in Nashville with superstar producer Jaren Johnston. But as always, his rock side comes out in doses here and there. There's also a sense of humor that comes out on these songs too. I'm looking forward to seeing Foo Fighters at Fenway Park next Summer and I can only hope that Shiflett slips in an acoustic show of these Lost at Sea songs the night before, similar to what he did in 2018.

For info on Lost at Sea

3.5 out of 5 stars

Duff McKagan Lighthouse

album cover

I've always found Duff McKagan to be an interesting musical figure in that he’s always had one foot into the alt-rock world from his Seattle roots in the 80s pre-dating the grunge explosion and one foot in the metal world from the L.A. Sunset scene with Guns N' Roses in the 80s. When he was only a teen in the early 80s he played in numerous Seattle bands including The Fastbacks and The Living (read my 2021 profile of the band when they reissued their album). When he moved to L.A. he began playing bass and eventually joined GNR, becoming one of the biggest bands on the planet from the late 80s to the early 90s. Duff even sang lead vocals on "So Fine" on Use Your Illusion II (read my review of the 2022 Use Your Illusion box set). I was lucky enough to see them in Sept. 1992 when they co-headlined Foxborough Stadium with Metallica. What a show that was! He has also played in a number of super groups, but he's no stranger to alt-rock: he has played with members of Jane's Addiction, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, and many many more. For a profile of McKagan check out the 2016 documentary It’s So Easy and Other Lies (read my interview with the doc director Christopher Duddy here). In addition to GNR, Neurotic Outsiders, Velvet Revolver and too many to fit into this space, Duff has also released a few solo albums since 1993. This week sees the release of his third official solo album Lighthouse (4th if you count the unreleased 1999 album Beautiful Disease).

With this new solo album, he recorded it in his Seattle home studio. Since Duff has a ton of musician friends, there are some notable appearances including GNR bandmate Slash, Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell, and Iggy Pop. I wouldn't say the album is bad by any means, but there's nothing that really jumps out the way that 2019's "Tenderness" (off the album of that same name) did. It's cool that Duff is evolving as a songwriter, singer and all around musician, but I wished it would have more face-melters. But this is a grower, where each time you listen you notice more and it gets better. Ask me for my rating a few months from now and it might be higher!

For info on Duff McKagan

3 out of 5 stars

The Rolling Stones Hackney Diamonds

album cover

This marks a historic achievement in the history of this blog! You see, I've had the pleasure of reviewing reissues, live and compilation albums from The Rolling Stones, including Live at El Mocambo, A Bigger Bang: Live on Copacabana Beach, Steel Wheels Live, On Air, Beggars Banquet, Their Satanic Majesties Request, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, Let It Bleed, Goats Head Soup and Tattoo You. But this marks the very first time I've gotten to review a new studio album from The Stones. Their 26th U.S. studio album Hackney Diamonds drops today. It is their first album since 2016's Blue and Lonesome (which I named my #4 Album of 2016). That blues covers album was their best since the 70s IMHO. But if we're talking original albums written by the Glimmer Twins of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, this is their first original album since 2005's A Bigger Bang. But it also marks their first album since the 2021 death of longtime drummer Charlie Watts, who actually recorded two songs for this album before he died (sessions began in 2019).

In a way it's kind of fitting that I reviewed all three albums in one review this week. Chris Shiflett and Foo Fighters have opened for The Rolling Stones and the band backed up Mick Jagger when he was on SNL in 2012. Duff McKagan and Guns N' Roses opened for The Rolling Stones in 1989. But I digress. In addition to the bond of Jagger, Richards, and Ronnie Wood, there's the tracks that Charlie Watts plays on as well as his touring replacement Steve Jordan (Stones fans know him for his work with Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos) and bassist Darryl Jones, who has been touring with the band since 1993. There's guest appearances from Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, Sir Paul McCartney (Sir Paul and Jagger have had a playful rivalry in the press over the years, but there's nothing but respect both have for each other), and most impressive of all is an appearance from former Stones bassist Bill Wyman, who left the band in 1992. There are some serious bangers on this album! My goodness - something has lit a fire under them to make an album this good when all members are in their 70s or 80s. Co-producer Andrew Watt (who produced Eddie Vedder's excellent solo album Earthling) also co-wrote a few songs with Jagger and Richards. There is a chance I'm just blown away by a new Stones album that is better than expected and in a few years I won't be as blown away, but I will say this: I stand by Blue and Lonesome being their best album since the 70s, but if we're talking original studio albums, this is their best album since 1981's Tattoo You. It's like a full circle album of the band re-visiting blues, hard rock, disco and R&B. The guest stars definitely are a treat, but it's that sense of a band 60+ years into their career making a rocker of an album reminding fans what we loved about them to begin with. Amen!

For info on Hackney Diamonds

4.5 out of 5 stars

#chris shiflett #duff mckagan #the rolling stones #album reviews #foo fighters #guns n roses #mick jagger #keith richards #ronnie wood #paul mccartney #elton john #stevie wonder #lady gaga #andrew watt #music nerd

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Ties Between FTWD, TWB and the Maggie/Negan Spinoff?

@galadrieljones:

I saw the ask about the Maggie/Negan spin-off and I do agree, it feels like a mystery. With Hershel being abducted, I find it interesting that we have that information but literally nothing else. It makes me think they want us to connect it to what’s currently going on in Fear.

Will it be airing at the same time as Fear?

If so I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to set something up in terms of tensions between them. I’m trying to remember if there are any characters connected to Manhattan. We only know that the WB endlings have a faction in NY state, but not NYC.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Interesting! I hadn’t thought of connecting the Maggie spin-off directly to Fear, but that’s a great point! 👍🏻

I’ve thought about TWB too, as I said in the Ask. Even tho it’s NY state vs. NYC, so still think it’s a small enough area that the character paths could cross. And too much of a coincidence to think they’re not setting something up there.

After all, if Morgan could randomly stumble onto Daryl and Aaron in S5, who happened to know the exact guy he was looking for, no reason Maggie and Negan couldn’t encounter Iris and Elton. 😉 Here’s hoping! 🙏🏻

@wdway:

It's so funny guys because I've been thinking about this for the last few days and then this morning I read your ask, @twdmusicboxmystery, about TWD:DC Maggie/Negan's spin-off and plan on bring it up to you guys but other things got in the way. So this evening when I checked my phone I got excited when I saw that you guys had started to discuss it.

Surprise, surprise I have a few thoughts on the subject. The initial thing that I've been thinking about is the order in which tptb are airing the spin-offs. Earlier this week Fears final season part A air date has been moved until May 14 with 6 instead of 8 episodes which put the last episode in the first block ending on June 18th.

In the Comicbook article announcing the change date it said that Maggie/Negan spin-off TWD:DC would follow Fear in June. Since they're making a big deal about the spinoffs I can't imagine they would air Maggie and Negan's beginning episode on the same night as the last block episode of Fear so that means it would start the following Sunday on June 25th. 6 episodes would mean it would finish on July 30th.

San Diego Comic-Con this year is July the 20th through the 23rd. I tried to find some dates for panels but it only said that TWD's last Comic-Con was July of 2022.

Initially this surprised me because I cannot believe after all these years and what a big deal Comic-Con has always been that The Walking Dead Universe would not be represented. Then I realized that it is in how you ask the question and in fact the TWD original show from the comic did end and had its last Comic-Con in 2022 but since I didn't quite know how to phrase the panel question with all the different spin-offs. I don't know how they would group it together because I cannot imagine them passing up such a huge opportunity to promote the TWD universe spinoffs.

I'm going to speculate that this might be one of the reasons they push the dates back so that since Dead City will not finish its run until the 30th of July then they can still promote it during Comic-Con along with Fear and the other upcoming spinoffs.

From here on this truly is speculation but I don't believe that they would want to come back with Fear Part B directly after Dead City. That would only be a 6 week break.

We also know that the Daryl Dixon spin-off will air in 2023 so my best guess is Fear series final 6 episodes will air beginning September 3rd and end October 6th or start back on September 10th and end on October 15th.

Here's the thing I got excited about is looking at the dates. If Fear ends on the 15th that would mean that the Daryl Dixon spin-off will begin on October 22! That right 10/22!!!

Is it just me or does that date seem like a likelihood and a meaningful one? With the number 22 showing up in s5e8 Coda on a police car

and then later on a door in s1 of TWB, on the sailboat with Michonne and Virgil in s10e13 What We Become and in s11e21 Outpost, on another door in s11e23 Family in the scene where Daryl is carrying Judith who has been shot a replay of Coda.

It just seems like too much of a possible coincidence that they would not use that date for Daryl spinoff.

The other thing that I wanted to mention to you guys I do think there could be a possibility of Maggie and Negan's spin-off tying in with TWB since both spin-off's are set in NY state. It's just that I'm getting more of a vibe that Fear will give us something that will make sense or tie into the storyline of Herschel's kidnapping. We last saw Morgan and Madison searching for Morgan's daughter because she had been kidnapped. It just seems like too much of a lead in for Maggie and Negan's search for Herschel imo.

The other thing is and this is something I would love for us to discuss in more detail is how they left Al and her partner Isobel. They left the audience with the fact that they were in the Smoky Mountains and we know that Maggie was in the Knoxville area which is near the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. There again it seems to be a natural lead in to the people who are targeting Maggie.

Just a few more things for thought.

One more 22 that I forgot to add to the above list. Series episode 22 was s3e3 Walk With Me. The episode where we find out that Merle and Andrea are still alive.

@galadrieljones:

I love all the date speculation. I really enjoy thinking about how these disparate pieces are going to come together in small but potent ways. I feel strongly too that what we learn in Fear must inform Maggie and Negan’s search for Hershel. There’s no way that what’s happening with Morgan isn’t on a crash course for what’s about to happen to Hershel.

The thing about Madison’s return is, that even tho I don’t love her character, her role is pretty compelling. All this stuff with kidnapped kids, and how it subtly informs situations, barely hinted at the flagship, it makes me excited for how it connects to Beth, as the nanny, the caretaker.

The episode Inmates always comes to mind, how her only goal is to find the children. At the end of Too Far Gone, the reason she isn’t on the bus and ends up with Daryl in the first place is because she bravely went back for the kids. It’s her first true heroic attempt, even as she is not successful.

It’s part of why I always compare her to the Biblical Rachel, who was the farmer Laban’s youngest daughter, beautiful, and who struggled to have her own children but who was a great maternal protector of her ppl. It really makes the Jacob/Daryl and Leah in disguise thing sing for me.

I mean Rick is the most important character in the franchise and Beth took care of his children. She was like part of his family. She was a quietly important character.

Also, I’m glad you brought up Al and Isobel. Remember too how Denis from WB told a story about his partner early on when he was a soldier in the CRM going awol in the Smokies. I remember doing the math on the coordinates for Isobel’s cabin and determining that it was only about 30mi from Knoxville.

This makes the Smokies a legit mention in all three shows. Maggie pinpoints her time in Knoxville to a couple summers ago, which could be a nod to the time difference with Fear.

I am purely speculating that possibly Al and Isobel were in hiding in Maggie’s community, which was then targeted by the CRM, as you suggested. We’ve also speculated that possibly Georgie has a CRM bounty on her head, or is some sort of CRM escapee. We know from WB that the CRM uses walkers to end their threats.

If this is the case, Maggie would just think a horde moved through. She wouldn’t know it was the CRM. It would just seem like things keep going wrong. Maybe Al and Isobel stay with them and move from place to place with them. Maybe they don’t even realize it’s the CRM at first, until whatever happened before Meridian. Then they take off. Maggie never mentions Al or Isobel, but we know she lost a lot of ppl. She might just assume they’re dead. Or maybe they went with Georgie out west.

This is why I feel we may see the Reapers again. Why they gave us that purposeful zoom into Michael Turner’s face. Maybe the Reapers were bounty hunters for the CRM for a time. Per the timeline it’s feasible that Leah was with Daryl when Knoxville went down, which is why she goes easier on her in some ways.

Remember too there’s this weird tension with Maggie and Michael Turner. He is the guy wearing the super classic reaper mask. He has it in for her specifically and follows her into the mall.

There’s tons of focus on him as the guy who throws his scythe at her at the end of that bizarre opening sequence in Hunted. Maybe (and this is huge speculation lol) he will reappear at some point, in a flashback, or in Fear as pertaining to Al and Isobel, and that’s why they were so certain to show us a close-up of his face in Rendition.

I spent a long time trying to find out who the actor is who plays Michael Turner and I could never find anything. Wonder why!

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Love all the discussion, Ladies! One thing I think TD has always been really good at is figuring out the logic of how/why tptb would do a thing. I honestly think that's why we're right so often. After all the stuff about kids being taken, how could Dead City NOT be about that, you know? And I think all your logic above is on point. 👍

@wdway:

The long ramble that I did about the possible air dates for Fear and Daryl Dixon spin-off I feel should be combined with what I wrote you @twdmusicboxmystery, in a comment for an "ask" posted the other day about my theory of why they bumped Rick and Michonne's spin-off until 2024.

A large part of the general audience doesn't seem to be able to make connections of how these spin-off's will all tie together to lead into a bigger story of a war with the CRM. I get why a lot of people cannot see this coming because for whatever reason they have not watched Fear since Morgan moved over to that series to slowly lay out over several seasons the storyline of the introduction of the CRM in the TWD Universe.

Even though The World Beyond was billed as a closer look into the CRM many viewers couldn't get pass the storyline featuring 4 inexperienced teenagers on a quest to New York to the Civic Republic Scientific Research community. They had little patience for the teenagers and what on the surface didn't seem to relate to the faster more action packed original TWD series.

My belief is that all of the spin-off's will eventually merge together into a new non-comic book based series. TWD Part 2 or TWD the Last Act. Whatever they decide to call it it'll be a continuation of the story after the end of the comic era with many of the characters from the original series that are not included in the upcoming spin-off's.

From Facebook:

Here's my theory about them pushing the Rick and Michonne spin off until '24.

First I agree what you said about wanting to focus the big story for 2023 being the Daryl/Beth storyline. The word epic has been thrown around a lot for both spin-off's so I don't think they want to put them necessarily back to back. I believe they want to establish or keep that fall Walking Dead series air timeline. You have people who have come so accustomed to having TWD during October and November and it is not a wise move to leave it open to movies or something random and people get used to looking at other networks during that time period.

Here's the real reason I think R/M spin-off has been moved to next year. The R/M spin-off should be able to finish their filming by late spring so they will have time to edit it and then it will air probably in February of "24 when TWD would normally have their second half of their season.

So they would be keeping their fall and winter TWD programming format. And this is where I think the long range plan is being set in place coming the fall of '24 we will have the spin offs coming together for the new series with the return of of many of others characters that are still at the CW/AZ.

I think a lot of the actors will have a nice break from after their spinoffs are done and the new series comes together. They can go and do their individual other jobs and still come back for a new revamped TWD that will have all the beloved characters that are still alive and will not have to work from the comic book. The things that people were so weary of having new characters without enough air time to care about them will no longer be an issue. I'm sure it will be a good size cast but not overly so. Filming for the new revamped TWD series would probably start next spring of 2024 and air that fall.

@galadrieljones:

All really good points, @wdway. It’s so easy to forget how much of the CRM undercurrent has been just outright missed by the GA. Even I initially dismissed WB till you all suggested I should watch it. It’s not the type of show I would normally watch, but I wanted to watch it just to understand the foundation of what was going on. So like are there ppl who saw that Rick coda and were just completely confused, or…?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

[noahxstjames]

𝐍𝐎𝐀𝐇 𝐒𝐓. 𝐉𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒

full name: Noah “Saint” St. James

gender & pronouns: Cisman & he/his

age & date of birth: 28 July 13, 1994

where do they live: Downtown

time living in lockwood springs: 14 years

occupation: NHL Player (Medical Leave) + Part time snowboard instructor

positive traits: athletic, deliberate, suave

negative traits: caustic, competitive,  inconsiderate, self-absorbed,

face claim: Jacob Elordi

inspo: pinterest

twin to: @hazelstjames / cousin to: @frankie-ackerman & @ezraackerman

FULL BIO HERE

OVERVIEW 

(death tw, murder tw, grief tw, anger tw, bullying tw)

Grew up to tech mogul parents who were killed when he was 12.

He and his sister went to live their grandma but between grief and old age she died within 2 years.

Sad times bad times mad times, Noah and his sister are relocated to an estranged aunt on their mom’s side in Lockwood Springs, living with cousins Frankie and Ezra, though Frankie was already off by the time they moved in. 

Now 14, he starts HS and is a bit of a bully as he deals with grief and change 

Vvv athletic, it makes him popular and he plays a bunch of sports before rediscovering his passion for ice hockey (he’d played as a kid in ny)

Goes to Minnesota for college/hockey before getting into the NHL

in 2018 his ex gf @lily-dupont​ is involved in a scandal and bad press rubs off on him/he doesn’t get resigned

gets signed 6 months later and keeps on his best behavior until an injury keeps him from the 2022/2023 season.

back in lockwood and on the mend, doing ots of pt and part time snowboard instructor (volunteer) 

HEADCANONS

The St. James’ company went public in 2017, with Noah and his sister having large shares

In HS he did football, swim team and ice hockey before switching to ice hockey as his focus but he also ended up spending a lot of time climbing and enjoys speed climbing.

Has tattoos of his parents death date and his grandmas

Great at pop culture reference – you definitely want him on your team at trivia night 

Friends call him Saint and in hs all his unofficial player gear said Saint 

CONNECTIONS

NYC childhood friends he stayed in contact with

NYC childhood friends he lost contact with

People he bullied in HS (circa 2008 – 2012)

Old football teammates / swim teammates / hockey teammates / rock climbing friends

Someone with an unrequited HS crush on him

Unexpected friendship from HS that lasted (since he’s a jerky jock ya know)

Hookups / One Night Stands (he’s bi so come one come all)

#intro.

[butterflyrry]

Just a heads up, I‘m sending this to multiple blogs/people because I need an honest opinion and honestly also need people telling me that I‘m crazy!

So, I‘m heading to a concert this weekend. And I‘m scared a bit. Well, scared is the wrong word, but I‘m a bit uneasy and need someone to encourage me to look past the following and just enjoy myself.

Okay, so in the past year (since March 2022) EVERY time I went to a concert (to other artists than Harry) I could not fully enjoy it because he decided to clown and some major shit went down! See the following receipts:

-March 30th -> Harry’s house leak +track list leak

-April 30th -> H papped w Jeff in Cali on that walk in midst of 🐙 getting „served“

-July 3th -> H +🐙 clowning around Copenhagen (released later bc of incident)

-July 13th -> LNT mv released

-August 16th -> clowning in Canada

-September 23th+24th ->DWD premiere drama NYC & that NYC pap walk 🤮& clowning around Bedford

-October 29th -> H papped @gym LA +clowning @ his concert that night

So either I‘m having the worst luck when it comes to this or some higher power wanna piss me off to no end!

Oh honey. The Holivia era was flat out stupid so I think it was probably just a set of unfortunate coincidences. Forget about clownrry for one night and have the best time!

[ladyanthropology]

July 18th, 2022

Today was a HOT day! A heatwave hit the UK and London's temperature hit a record breaking 40 degrees Celsius (that's about 104 degrees Fahrenheit)!! With no AC, it was a day to stay inside and not go on the even hotter buses and Tubes (the Tubes also had to move much slower due to no cooling system and warned people about a possible accident happening due to the heat, no thank you!), so that's what I did.

I stayed inside, caught up on some homework and posts and got ready for my final week.

Reflection 8:

Things I will miss in/about London:

--- I will miss the transport system - it was easy to use and understand! --- I will miss the beauty of the city - I loved the blend of old and new, how the modern buildings were built right on top of and even into old buildings and how old buildings got turned into gardens and such. --- I will miss the feeling of the city - I never felt unsafe or uneasy in London (I know it has crimes and such, but I never felt like I was in danger) compared to my hometown Fayetteville or current residence in Greenville - I avoid at all times to be out at night in those cities.

Things I will NOT miss in/about London:

--- I will not miss the no AC - simple, I know, but during a heatwave? Needed! --- I will not miss the traffic - London has traffic that is a mix between NYC and Greenville but more Greenville. Less cars on the road but more stupid drivers. NYC has cars constantly bumper to bumper, but it works, London just has Greenville drivers on the other side of the road - no one paying attention, speeding, small incidents that could be handled by the drivers but turn into major accidents. --- I will not miss the rude cashiers I've had to deal with - the ones at the "tourist" spots were nice but the more local places weren't like the Co-op and Boots. I have never been to London before, so I don't know how much of all this contactless payment was here beforehand, but in every grocery type store (Co-op, Boots, Sainsbury, etc.) there is a non-cashier way to pay and no cashier. This sucks when I, someone who hates talking to people and inconveniencing them, need to call a worker over to help me check out since I have to sign for all my purchases (apparently that's an "American" thing, I even got asked once if America even has contactless ways to pay, yes lady but in America we don't need to sign for everything because our banks don't think every swipe is FRAUD!!) and they either acted like I was an inconvenience to downright rushing me out of the store. As someone whose jobs were all about customer service... I just hated this. It irked me so much, it was because of interactions like this I rarely did grocery shopping and rationed my stuff out - I didn't want to feel like crap when I was just buying a few pints of milk. Not everywhere was like this but it still made me apprehensive when I went to pay for my things everywhere (at least the Harley-Davidson guy was nice, both times! He even remembered me! Harley-Davidson workers are some of the best and you can fight me on that)

================================================

“You can't trust other people. If it's important, you have to do it yourself.”

“Things blossom in their time. They bud and bloom, blossom and fade. Everything in its time.”

“People want to forget the impossible. It makes their world safer.”

“It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean.”

#london #studyabroad #education #nothing day #heatwave #so very hot #no AC #leaving soon

[blogagri723]

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[bllsbailey]

Trump Goes From Court to Campaign, Blames Bragg For NYC Crime

Former President Donald Trump headed straight from the courtroom to the campaign trail in New York City on Tuesday, accusing the Democrat who is prosecuting him for an increase in violent crime in the Big Apple.

"It's Alvin Bragg's fault," Trump said outside the Sanaa bodega in Harlem, referring to the Manhattan district attorney who has indicted him on 34 counts regarding allegations of falsifying business records to cover an alleged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

"Alvin Bragg does nothing," said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for November's election. "He goes after guys like Trump, who did nothing wrong. Violent criminals, murderers. There are hundreds of murders all over the city. [Prosecutors] know who they are, and they don't pick them up. They go after Trump."

Police data showed crime in New York City dropped 0.77% in 2023 compared to 2022, but it is 33.7% higher than it was in 2019, when bail reform instituted by Bragg led to more criminals being released on the streets, the New York Post reported.

Jury selection for Trump's trial began Monday and seven of the group of 12 jurors and six alternates have been selected.

Bodegas are small convenience stores typically located in lower-income neighborhoods, and many operate 24 hours. Trump's campaign claims the city has failed to uphold public safety for its 13,000 bodegas because of budget cuts to the police force, which it said is on track by 2025 to fall to its lowest numbers since the 1990s.

The one Trump visited Tuesday, at the invitation of the city's Bodega and Small Business Group, is where Jose Alba, a 61-year-old clerk at the time, stabbed to death Austin Simon, 35, who was trying to assault him, on July 1, 2022.

But Alba was arrested for second-degree murder and locked up for days at Rikers Island until his bail was lowered to $250,000. On July 19, 2022, Bragg dropped the charges against Alba, and Alba then filed a federal lawsuit in September against the city for racial discrimination, wrongful prosecution and for jailing him at Rikers Island.

"I respect [the bodega association] and they respect me," Trump said. "They want law and order, and they have a lot of crime, tremendous crime where their stores are being robbed."

A larger picture might be at play here. With growing support among Black and Hispanic voters, Trump said his campaign is making a big play to win New York state, which no Republican presidential candidate has done since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

"We're going to give New York a very good shot for the presidency," Trump said. "We think we should be able to do it."

Trump cited the performance of Republican Lee Zeldin in the 2022 gubernatorial race. Zeldin lost by 6.4 percentage points, the best performance by a GOP candidate since George Pataki won in 2002.

"We're going to come in and No. 1, you have to stop crime and we're going to let the police do their job," Trump said. "They have to be given back their authority. They have to be able to do their job and we're going to come into New York. We're making a big play for New York. Other cities too but this city, I love this city, and it's gone so bad in the last three years, four years, and we're going to straighten New York out."

Michael Katz ✉

Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

#Youtube

[calmatejoto]

I’m in a weird but temporary place in my life. I’m at a low, not rock bottom, per se, but a low.

I can either drown and disappear completely or say, fuck it and thrive. I never would have guessed that this is what entering my 30’s would have looked like.

My sis, my best friend since birth, resents me. She’s been thriving in a new way and has entered a new chapter in her life and I know, she hates that I’m still sticking around her because she feels like she’s still having to take care of me. I thought that the two of us, moving in with my cousin, in my mom’s hometown, would of helped bring us close again but it’s really done the opposite.

Besides that, my relatives here, are back on their bullshit. The same bullshit we experienced growing up, where they’d ignore us and not invite us places, despite having had heart-to-hearts back in 2022, when one of our uncle’s passed.

Fast forward to last weekend, my mom came to visit and it was, weirdly, the most therapeutic visit. I’ve never had a conversation like that, where I felt like I was talking with a parental figure and not someone trying to keep up with me and my sister. We both talked and it was like therapy. I didn’t realize how alone I’ve been and no longer having that outlet with my sister, where we can talk with each other about everything, has really been awful. I’ve realized that I’ve been trying to convince myself that, that relationship is still active but it’s not. Finally accepting that, through the release of talking with our mom, has been so liberating.

On top of that, she’s adamant about me moving back home to LA. She was insistent; telling me to just go. That I wouldn’t be able to accomplish what I want to do and need to do, out here in Ventura. That I would thrive and that she knows I would. She even suggested I get a dinky job somewhere back home, to just have money coming in, and that knowing me, I’d only stay a month before I’d force myself to find something better and in my field. I couldn’t help but stare and slowly smile because for the first time since July, I’ve been seen and heard.

Being able to vocalize how miserable I’ve been, was so liberating. It was healing. I haven’t felt this positive about what my future in a minute. Perhaps, since we first moved out and my parents moved out of state, back in the Fall of 2021.

I have a potential job lined up. It’s very promising and quite frankly, exciting. If all things go accordingly, I’ll be able to work back home, stay with my aunt during the week, and return to Ventura on my days off to do whatever I need to do for my work week ahead. To see how quickly this company was to reach out to me, has been very validating. I have a background in working with fashion designers and talent, mainly singers and musicians, and in trying to talk to my sister and relatives about wanting to get back into that line of work, has only fallen onto deaf ears. I’ve just learned to keep quiet bc there’s no point in talking about that with people who aren’t even in that field.

My friends back home have also been very supportive and are also adamant about me moving back. It also doesn’t go past me that I keep making new friends back home, whenever I’m back visiting. It’s crazy how loud the universe is about me going back.

But I’m ready to be selfish again, to put my needs and dreams first.

The last time I felt this way was back in 2014. And the synchronicities with 2014 have been quite potent, it’s crazy. That was a year in my life where I was thriving and doing everything I ever wanted to do. I was freshly single, working with one of my favorite London designers, traveling to NYC, alone, for the first time. Being able to buy everything I wanted and needed, with no worries. It was a very liberating time and I think it’s time for another 2014. This time, in a new way.

It’s humorous to look back at how even during the midst of the pandemic, I was thriving with my small business but something’s got to give because I’m tired of this maudlin career I’ve been stuck in. I’m ready for my time in the sun again. I don’t like having to thrive out of spite because that’s something I’ve had to do my whole life but this time, I actually want to.

I wanna rub it in their faces.

#karl’s late night musings