#betty boop minding the baby | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gothgirlmahi · 2 years

Text

Pairing: Lee Bodecker x Reader

Summary: Lee thinks your Halloween costume is a little scandalous. He might have to punish you for it.

Warnings: spanking, fingering, unprotected sex

Word Count: 1.4K

Can definitely be read as a one shot or as part of my City Girl Saga series

————————

You had been minding your damn business.

Standing outside the diner and smoking a cigarette. Waiting for your coworker to get her things and come out so she could drive you home. You shivered a little in the frigid October air and the shawl around you wasn’t doing much to help, especially since most of your legs were exposed in your costume.

It was Halloween. You’d dressed up, thinking it would lift your spirits a bit and hopefully entertain a kid or two. It had done the job. You were fairly certain the short skirt had earned you a few extra tips, too.

You took another drag from your cigarette, wondering what was taking Ella so long. You didn’t have time to think about it further because a familiar police car was rolling down the street. It stopped in front of you and you didn’t spare a glance for its inhabitant until he rolled the window down and yelled your name.

“What in the hell are you wearing?” Lee demanded.

You did a little shimmy in your costume and Lee didn’t look amused.

“I’m Betty Boop, obviously.”

“Get in the car.”

“Aren’t you on patrol, Sheriff?”

“My shift just ended. Get in the car.”

“Nope. Ella’s taking me home.”

“The hell she is.”

You ignored him, staying put in your spot and taking another drag.

Lee put the car in park and jumped out, sparing a mildly annoyed glance at you before he was storming into the diner. You rolled your eyes. Men were so dramatic.

When he came back out, he put his arm around your bicep and tried to pull you to the car. You yanked away from him.

“I let Ella know I’m taking you home,” he said.

“I let Ella know I’m taking you home,” you mocked him, “don’t you ever shut u—“

Lee quickly yanked you over his shoulder and you gasped, hitting at his back. He pulled the passenger door open and put you inside. When he closed the door to walk back to the driver’s side, you contemplated getting out just to rile him up. You ultimately decided to stay put because you wanted to see his reaction. When he sat in the car, he sighed, looking you up and down.

“Now don’t you look pretty. What are you doing showing off all that leg to people?”

You threw your shawl off and revealed that you’d been showing off a lot more than some leg. Lee pursed his lips.

“So you take Halloween as an opportunity to just dress like a—“

“Dress like a what, Lee? I want you to say it.”

“Dress like a single woman. When you’re not. You’re my woman.”

“Oh my god.”

“You are my woman, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am, Lee. It’s just a little costume—“

“Emphasis on little—“

“Emphasis on I wasn’t done talking. If you’re so upset, just take me home already.”

Lee nodded and put the car in drive. He was white knuckling the wheel and clenching his jaw. You put your feet up on the dash and Lee’s eyes drifted to where your dress was riding up. His eyes landed on your garter and you could see him barely containing himself. The bulge in his pants was giving it all away.

He pulled you all down an empty road and stopped the car.

“This isn’t my house,” you complained. Lee nodded, before pressing a hand to your inner thigh.

“You know I’m not upset at you, right, baby?”

You nodded.

“I know.”

Lee got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side. He opened the door and before you could even question him, he was manhandling you into the backseat. He had you laying on your stomach, with his crotch pressed into your ass.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to do a cavity search on you, ma’am.”

“I don’t think you’ll find much, but you’re welcome to look, Sheriff.”

Lee pushed up your skirt and made a noise when he saw your very bare ass.

“Bad girl! Very bad fucking girl!”

He spanked you hard and you yelped. Lee pulled his crotch away from you, just enough that he could slip a finger in your slick womanhood.

“No underwear? Just who were you waiting for?”

You groaned when he pushed another finger in, attempting to push yourself closer toward his hand but Lee held your hip firmly in his free hand.

“Answer me!” he yelled out. He curled his fingers inside you, brushing past a magical little spot that had you arching your back and whimpering.

He added a third finger.

“You! I was waiting for you!” you exclaimed.

Lee pressed a kiss to your back before speeding up the pace of his fingers inside you. He kept pressing into that spot until your legs were shaking.

He took his hand off of your hip and you could hear him unbuckling his belt. The sound filled with you with excitement and relief. When Lee pulled his fingers out of you, you whimpered in disappointment. The disappointment was short lived as he was soon sliding his thick cock into you.

He pressed into you slowly until his hips met your ass. He was touching every good spot inside at the same time and if he moved just a little bit more you knew you wouldn’t last long.

“Lee, please move! I’m so close!”

“Mmm,” he said, pulling you up a bit and pressing his front against your back with one of his hands pulling down the front of your dress. He pinched lightly at your nipple before pulling out of you and slamming back in. You arched your back deeply into him and he took the opportunity to put a sloppy kiss on your lips. You opened your mouth and he bit at your lower lip before running over your tongue with his.

When he thrusted again, your eyes were rolling back. One, two, three thrusts and you were a goner. Eyes rolled back and legs shaking while you whined on his dick. Hands grabbing at the seat and his thigh while he fucked you through it.

Lee set a relentless pace so you could barely come down from your orgasm. He spanked you again. The sound of his hips slapping into the wet mess of your cunt grew louder.

“Good girl. Making a fucking mess all over me. All over the seats. Fuck, you feel good.”

You couldn’t even make a comment back. You were overstimulated and fairly certain his dick was making you see new colors. When he reached down to play with your clit, your eyes widened and you nearly screamed.

“Lee, I—oh my godohmygod. Please, it’s so—“

“Shh, baby. I know this fat cock makes you all silly. You can barely get a sentence out.” He paused and let out a groan, pushing his hips into you harder. “You’re gonna cum for me again, okay, baby doll?”

“I don’t th-think—I can’t, I can’t cum again—“ you trailed off with his insistent rubbing at your clit. Your legs buckled underneath you and Lee had to hold you up, never stopping his pace inside you or against your clit.

“Really? ‘Cause you’re fucking soaking the seat back here. And I’m getting real fucking close. So I’m gonna need you to cum again.”

You could feel your arousal rolling down your thighs and smearing against the seats. Lee changed the angle of his hips ever so slightly and it had you careening down a hill to climax.

You screamed out and heard it echo against the inside of the car. The contraction of your walls had fluid gushing out of you and Lee moaning heavily against your neck while his hips stuttered in their rhythm.

“S-so fuckingtight. Jesus, fuck!”

Lee rubbed your clit until you were shaking and pushing his hand away. Seconds later he was pulling out and you felt the warm splash of cum on your ass accompanied by Lee groaning. He rubbed the head of his dick against your ass while he wrung out every drop.

“Fuck, that was close. Almost came right inside you, baby.”

You turned to look behind you and gave Lee a little smile.

“You gonna take me home now, Sheriff?”

Lee jiggled your ass cheek before giving it a playful slap.

“Come on now, baby. What kind of gentleman would I be taking my girl home all dirty? I think I’ll have to get down there and do a little oral inspection.”

——————

Mahi’s Monster Mash

#lee bodecker x reader #the devil all the time #sebastian stan x reader

165 notes · View notes

pttwice · 7 months

Note

omgggg can we get something with baby sana & mama jeong? those pics were too cute 🥺

hi anon! :) of course!! those pictures melted my heart

no dinner for sana

|| little!sana, cg!jeongyeon ||

On late practice nights when Sana had regressed, it was nearly impossible to get the little to eat. Her body was tired and achy and although she was more than hungry, she wanted nothing except to be asleep with her mama.

Tonight for some reason, Sana seemed exceptionally fussy. Jeongyeon sat Sana down at the kitchen table and made her pancakes. They were easy enough to eat and they were one of Sana's favorites. When Jeongyeon brought the fork up to the little's mouth and she turned away, she knew it was going to be a long night.

"No wan' eat, mama!" Sana whined and impatiently bounced in her seat.

Jeongyeon knew that Sana didn't want to eat, but she also knew that if Sana didn't eat tonight then she'd be even fussier in the morning. That was the last thing she wanted to deal with.

Jeongyeon looked through the fridge for something that Sana would eat and spotted peach yogurt. It was Momo's, but she sometimes let Sana eat it if she was really hungry. If Momo noticed it was gone, Jeongyeon would just apologize and buy her some more later.

Jeongyeon sat back down across from Sana and scooped out a spoonful of the yogurt. She tried to make it fun by spinning the spoon like an airplane, but only a tiny bit ended up in Sana's mouth. The rest thankfully landed on Sana's Betty Boop bib that had her name on it. Fortunately, Sana was still clean. Unfortunately, Betty Boop now had a big glob of peach yogurt on her face.

Sana giggled when she looked down, causing a small smile to break out on Jeongyeon's face. She watched Sana giggle and dip her finger into the yogurt on her bib, humming happily when she stuck her finger in her mouth.

As Jeongyeon watched Sana, a thought popped into her head. An extra tired and giggly Sana meant that she'd be very easily distracted. Jeongyeon got up, leaving Sana alone to eat the rest of the yogurt off her bib. Jeongyeon sifted through her bag of things that fans had given her and pulled out a headband with two little hearts on it.

When Jeongyeon sat back down, Sana burst into laughter. She reached out and squeezed the two hearts on the headband and clapped happily when she felt how soft they were.

"Do you like mama's headband, sweet girl?"

Sana nodded, now fixated on the two soft hearts. She really wanted to squish them again, but her mama moved her head away. Sana made grabby hands for the hearts but Jeongyeon just shook her head. She scooped another spoonful of yogurt and held it up to Sana's mouth.

"If you finish the rest of your yogurt and eat a pancake then you can play with the hearts, pumpkin." Jeongyeon chuckled as Sana thought about her mama's offer. She still wasn't really in the mood for eating, but she really wanted those hearts.

After Sana made up her mind, she opened her mouth, quickly finishing the peach yogurt. Jeongyeon got up and tossed the cup in the trash and put the spoon in the sink. She grabbed the already torn into pancake and tore off a few pieces for Sana to work on.

Sana practically inhaled the pieces as she stared up at Jeongyeon's headband, giggling every time Jeongyeon moved her head, causing the hearts to wiggle. Sana finished the pancake pieces and her body finally realized how hungry it was. She held her hands out for more pieces which Jeongyeon gladly gave her.

By the time Sana had finished two pancakes, Jeongyeon was more than satisfied that the girl had eaten enough. Jeongyeon knew she wasn't going to be able to keep the little's attention for much longer so she quickly wiped her face and hands and picked her up, resting her on her hip.

"You're such a good girl for finishing all your food, pumpkin. You did such a good job for mama."

Sana smiled at the praise her mama was giving her and hid her face in Jeongyeon's shoulder. She giggled as Jeongyeon bounced her a bit, carefully taking off her bib.

Jeongyeon walked into Sana's bedroom and picked out a change of clothes, handing Sana the headband before she laid her down on the bed. Thanks to the quick distraction, Sana was easy to change. In record time, she was in a pull up and a fuzzy pair of pajamas.

Jeongyeon picked Sana up again and laid down in her bed with her. Sana was still mesmerized with the heart headband as a small yawn escaped her. She tucked her head into her mama's neck and rubbed her hand along the soft material of the hearts.

"Do you like the fuzzy hearts, sweet girl?" Jeongyeon smiled as Sana tiredly nodded. She held them up to her mama's face and clumsily rubbed them against her mama's cheek.

Jeongyeon chuckled and wrapped her arms around her baby. "Thank you, pumpkin. Those are very soft." Sana just hummed and pulled the headband back down. She rubbed the hearts against her own face before yawning again and turning in Jeongyeon's arms.

Jeongyeon rubbed small circles into Sana's back, rocking her back and forth until she saw her grip on the headband start to loosen. Jeongyeon gently pulled the headband out of Sana's hands, replacing it with her stuffed polar bear.

Within a few minutes, Sana fell asleep, her breathing finally evened out. Jeongyeon sighed in relief and gently removed herself from the little's grasp. She turned the overhead light off and flipped the night light on before placing a gentle kiss on Sana's forehead.

Sana's tummy was full and so was her heart.

#twice agere #twice fanfic #twice fic #little!sana #caregiver!jeongyeon #sfw #sfw interaction only #sfw agere

19 notes · View notes

duck-caake · 7 months

Text

🦷 🦷 🦷 🦷

he/him Il 22 || regressor + cg || disabled

requests open!!! (list below!)

just a corpse paint wearing little guy that finds way too much comfort in animatronics, arcades, and pizza places.

please keep in mind this is a sfw coping blog for childhood trauma. however if it still bothers you that i reblogged something please just message and ill remove it.

icon by @chocoperrito

dni banner by me :)

🦷 🦷 🦷 🦷

blog cw// horror movies (mild- usually no bl00d, i just have a lot of slasher/horror comfort characters), 420 ments, cursing, food, food talk (positive only, ARFID kiddo), stims, gifs (no flashing lights), illness talk (unresolved digestive issues, occasional tagged emeto ment)

this is a side blog! i follow back from @ la***-b*******m

fictional cgs/sibs/little guys

peppino spaghetti (dad), fake peppino (cg) || glamrock freddy (dad), freddy fazbear (baby sitter/sib), mike schmidt (dad), the daycare attendants (baby sitter), all bonnies (baby sitter/sib), and my springtrap/william afton hcoc (dad) || jason voorhees (little guy), tommy (little guy), brahms heelshire (little guy) || two-bit matthews (little guy)

comfort media

five nights at freddy’s, pizza tower, tmnt, sonic, tf2, spongebob, animal crossing, teen titans, wolverine, deadpool, spiderman, superman, minecraft, edward sissorhands, corpse bride, alice in wonderland, the rock-afire explosion, chuck e cheese, the simpsons, blues clues, bluey, dr. seuss, rainbow brite, classic horror (20’s-60s), horror movies in general, betty boop

interests

comics, coloring, horror movies, videogames, cartoons, plushies/build-a-bear, animatronics/robotics

req masterlist

(check out my #🍕 :: portfolio)

- fake peppino from pizza tower outfit ✔️

- flip! donna from res evil 8 stimboard ✔️

- care bears outfit board ✔️

- fake peppino is a eldritch caregiver ✔️

- fake peppino dni banner ✔️

- the wrath from dbd agere flags X . X . X ✔️

- fake peppino from pizza tower flip headcanons ✔️

- bandit from bluey is an age regressor/playmate ✔️

- nightmare bonnie (fnaf4) cg icon ✔️

- bucky and steve (marvel) cg headcanons • • • LOADING

- nightmare bonnie (fnaf world) agere outfit

- green goblin from spiderman/marvel agere outfit

not requests:

- cg! peppino spaghetti from pizza tower mood board

- mario and luigi from the mario bros movie mood board

- mario bros outfit board

- peppino spaghetti from pizza tower outfit board

- bingo from bluey outfit board

- socks from bluey outfit board

- pizza tower fun farm level outfit board

- amanda young from saw is a caregiver

- peppino from pizza tower is a caregiver

- beef tobin from the great north is a caregiver

- bowser from mario bros is an age regressor/caregiver

- mario from the mario bros is a older sibling cg

- luigi from the mario bros is a age regressor

- pavel borsch from vodka! tower is a caregiver

- springtrap from fnaf is a caregiver

- the conductor from the polar express is a caregiver

- jason voorhees is an age regressor

feel free to request stuff on the “not a req” section to bump it up to next in the queue!

🌈 ☀️ 🌈 ☀️ 🌈 ☀️ 🌈

#🍕:: portfolio #woof.req #pinned post #pet regression #pet dreaming #petre #pet re #sfw petre #age dreaming #age dre #agedre #sfw agedre #sfw interaction only #non community agere #dont sexualize my regression

19 notes · View notes

wawamouse · 1 month

Text

OZ Rewatch 3: s3e07: Secret Identities

Okay well, I’ll just say ahead of time that this is probably (maybe) going to deteriorate once again in quality (I can barely type when I’m sober so add alcohol and I’m FUCKED looool

Plotlines:

Keller continues to fuck with Sister Pete, standing her up

Alvarez finally meets face to face with Rivera

Sister Pete confronts Keller about him manipulating her and tells Mukada she is leaving the convent

Glynn tries to interrogate the Latinos abut the drugs

Carlo’s sister tries to see him. McManus gives the note from her to Carlo to Lopresti who throws it away

Hughes being a bitch. Elbows Diane in the face. Glynn finally tells Hughs what happened.

Dianne kisses McManus as some kind of power play against Claire

Nappa finishes his true crime book and is killed by Nat

Adebisi gets Wangler to accuse McManus of sexual harassment

Shirley asks to see McManus and ask about methods of death; Shirley averts the death penalty by being pregos

Boxing lead up: Cyril out of control ! He’s fighting Jaz; Aebisi wants to align with the Muslims, make it a race thing

Khan v Cramer; Khan wins

Toby and Said!! Keller does not like

Said is humbled, tells Khan

Toby forgives Keller but no homo lol so Keller wants to kill Said (BOO); Tobias apologises to Schillinger like a stupid person; FIGHT!! Weewoo weewoo

Sister: Is this a hallucination... Oh thank God.

Sister: Oh, i thought he was dead. I’m so used to people just appearing like that in this show.

Sister: Why wouldn’t you be able to have a kid? He’s only blind. It’s not like she wouldn’t be able to see the kid. I feel like she’s making this harder on him than it has to be… [schoolmate]’s dad was blind and he had two kids, remember? I don’t get this.

Sister: No, he saved his cajones.

Sister: (as Chris) That’s why I’m manipulating you

Sister: yeah, let’s just give it to the guys who are definitely going to throw it away. (Lopresti throws away the note) Sister: Thank youuu. Did exactly what I said he was going to.

He would so get into conspiracy theories. Or true crime podcasts.

Sister: (as Glynn) Because I’ve been getting it on with the priest. Me: You’re still on that?! Sister: Because he doth protest too much!

Sister: She’s going to say that now but when she’s actually there, she’s gonna be like “this sucks, I change my mind”

Sister: THAT’S "Little Anthony"?!

To be honest there wasn’t much commentary this episode because Sisters was smacked halfway in lol and she gets real quiet. I feel like the episode flew by though. Felt shorter than most, and maybe it is, at 56 minutes.

Final Thoughts:

Sister: This episode felt kinda short. That one part where he touched the boob… no thank you. That one lady (Tina) did not need to be there. Like she needed to go eat a bagel or something, like she was making it worse. Me: Who’s your favorite character right now? Sister: Mr. Nappa Cabbage. So sad… We even bought a Nappa cabbage right now but I haven’t even eaten it Me: Miguel? Sister: He’s not even in this episode… Me: He talked to Eugene. Sister: Which was a waste of time. It was so stupid. [Rant about Tina] Me: What do you think about what’s going to happen? Sister: With what? The baby? Me: Next episode is the last episode. Sister: They’re just gonna redo the coup. Replay the glory of season 1. Someone’s going to get maimed, but I don’t think it’ll be those three guys (Toby, Said, Keller) ‘cause they just got got this episode. Me: Well they still have the boxing matches. Sister: I don’t like those. I’m just there for the fashion. Seeing what the gays wore. No good hair, though. I think the one gay in the leather (Fiona) should’ve had Betty Boop hair…

Stray Thoughts

Kinda amazing that Pancamo crushed that floppy disk in one hand

Keller was looking at a website about high school GED equivalencies, suggesting that he doesn’t have one

No Chico this episode. Big L.. Woulda loved to see him doing the Que routine lol

#text #oz hbo #oz rewatch

3 notes · View notes

bettysuperstore · 1 year

Text

Betty Boop: An Everlasting Era of Charm

Walt Disney is the first name that comes to mind when considering animation. However, another man helped establish the field and challenged Walt for first place. For 20 years, Max Fleischer and his studio created a variety of cutting-edge, well-liked animated shorts. Live action and animation were combined in the "Out of the Inkwell" series starring Koko the Clown. He popularized the "follow the bouncing ball" gimmick with his song "Song Car-Tunes." Additionally, the Fleischer Studio created Popeye and Betty Boop, two cartoon icons from the 1930s.

Betty Boop, the creation of animator Max Fleischer, is, above all, a pioneer in the representation of the female character with her pin-up body and baby face that appeals to all generations. Not only is she attractive, but she is also free, enjoys herself, and works. She is self-reliant. Betty Boop is a pilot, just like Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. She ran for president and won right after women gained the right to vote.

Even the cartoon's soundtrack, which features a scat-inspired "boop-oop-a-doop" and music performed by black jazz musicians like Cab Calloway or Louis Armstrong and projected in front of a white audience, is subversive. Something like this has never been seen before on the screen! Additionally, Betty and Popeye continue to delight new generations thanks to television. So much so that items featuring Betty Boop, like the Betty Boop towels, are highly prized in the collectibles industry!

Why Buy Collectibles Like The Betty Boop Towels?

Fans of cartoons, movies, comic strips, and television shows have long enjoyed collecting memorabilia. For many fans, collecting memorabilia from these forms of entertainment is a fun, thrilling, and frequently lucrative hobby. Even after a show or character no longer piques one's interest, a collection may be sold to raise money for the newest mystery or to supplement one's finances. The Betty Boop collection and the ease of customization that is now offered in its merchandise, like Betty Boop towels, is one such memorabilia that has captured the hearts of many to date.

While many Betty Boop collectibles, such as plates, mouse pads, signs, music boxes, and cookie jars, have proven to be worthwhile, the Betty Boop towels and figurines are the most popular variations. We hypothesize that Betty Boop towels and figurines have become so popular and collectible because they show Betty in all her three-dimensional splendor and are easily customizable per your taste.

Furthermore, any collectible is worth whatever a willing buyer will pay a willing seller in an arms-length transaction. Still, when passionate collectors are involved, emotion invariably enters the equation. The simplest and fastest way to find out how much your Betty Boop towels and figurines are worth is to simply log into your eBay account and perform a "completed items" search for Betty Boop towels and figurines.

#betty boop towels #bettysuperstore

8 notes · View notes

animaniacsartmuseum · 1 year

Text

General Tags, a-h

#aged down or #younger- Art where characters are shown to be younger than their usual, canon age. Character-specific: #young yakko, #young wakko, #young dot

#aged up- Art where characters are depicted as being older than their usual, canon ages. Character-specific: #older yakko, #older wakko, #older dot, etc.

#alternate clothing- Art where characters wear clothing that differs from their usual, canon outfits. Can be anything from a small subtle change, like Wakko wearing his hat forwards instead of backwards, to total outfit changes.

#alternate universe or #au- Art featuring Animaniacs characters in an alternate setting than the canon Animaniacs universe, usually consisting of multiple different posts from the same artist all taking place in the same alternate universe.

#animaniacs- Not really sure what use this tag has, it just felt right to tag posts with it.

#ask- Post that was originally an ask, where the author posts art in response to an ask, or fulfills a request from an ask. Art from pure ask accounts is not usually reblogged here, unless it's of an exceptionally high quality. (That art is wonderful and just as valuable as the art posted here, but there is a high volume of it, it can often require a bit of outside context to understand, and it's already relatively easy to find and access, so it doesn't really fit what I'm trying to highlight here. I may change my mind in the future. If you want to see art from those accounts, it is easy to go to their page and simply scroll through it.)

#angst- Art that's angsty, that contains characters seeming worried, upset, anxious with the world, or just generally upset

#animated- Art that is animated in some form. Could be a gif or a video, and could be anything from a few frames to a full fluid animation.

#animatic- Animation where characters are drawn acting out an underlying track from another source. For example, a character singing a song that's not from Animaniacs, or characters being shown acting out a non-Animaniacs movie scene with audio from the original movie.

#anime- Art where characters are drawn in an anime style, or shown interacting with anime characters/concepts

#animeniacs- Art featuring the anime versions of the Warner siblings from reboot season 1. Character-specific: #anime yakko, #anime wakko, #anime dot

#arson- Art featuring people or objects on fire, or a fire deliberately started by a character

#baby- Art featuring baby versions of characters. Character-specific: #baby dot, #baby pesto, #baby squit, #baby bobby

#brinky or #pinky x brain- Art featuring a romantic relationship between Pinky and The Brain

#christmas- Art featuring Christmas imagery, themes, or stories

#clothes swap- Art where a character wears the clothes of another character

#clowns- Art featuring clowns or characters drawn as clowns, usually in relation to Wakko's fear of clowns

#comic- Art that tells a story through multiple panels. Does not necessarily have to have multiple pages. Generally, art must have more than three panels to be tagged as a comic, though I'm not entirely consistent with this and consider it on a case-by-case basis. All "comic-type" stories are tagged with "#story", regardless of the number of panels or how comic-like it is. Comics that have multiple pages over multiple posts will be tagged with a single, unique, common tag, usually the title of the comic if it has one.

#crossover- Art that features non-Animaniacs characters. Art will usually also be tagged with specific tags about the crossed-over property and characters, so a post with Disney characters would be tagged "#disney" and a post with Mickey Mouse would be tagged "#mickey mouse". Common crossovers: #disney, #looney tunes, #bendy and the ink machine, #sam and max, #tiny toons, #betty boop

#crying- Art where a character is shown to be crying (usually requires the direct presence of tears). Does not necessarily have to be a genuine, sad cry.

#cute warners- Art featuring the Warners in their cute/chibi style from reboot season 1. Character-specific: #cute yakko, #cute wakko, #cute dot, #cute pinky, #cute brain

#dancing- Art where characters dance

#dialogue- Art where characters talk to other characters. Does not count art where the character is talking to the audience or just saying something to no one in specific

#different age- Art where characters are shown at a different age than their usual, canon ages

#dog wakko- Art where Wakko acts like a dog or exhibits dog-like traits

#drug use- Art where characters are shown using drugs, including legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco

#edit- Art that partially consists of an edit, for example, art of a character being inserted into a meme, screenshot, or real-life location that was not drawn by the artist. Pure edits, where no part of the image is an original drawing by the artist, are not posted here.

#family- Art about family themes. Usually applied to art where the Warners have a family besides each other, or talk about such things.

#family kiss- Art featuring a character kissing someone from their family, in a non-romantic way.

#fancy pants wakko- Art showing Wakko in his fancy pants

#front-facing hat wakko- Art where Wakko wears his hat forwards instead of backwards

#gag bag- Art featuring Wakko's gag bag

#ghost of christmas future/present/past- Art featuring the Warners specifically in their A Christmas Carol forms from the original show: #ghost of christmas future, #ghost of christmas present, #ghost of christmas past

#gif- Animation in the form of a gif (not a video, plays automatically, loops, doesn't have sound)

#gloveless- Art showing a character that usually wears gloves without gloves

#god warners- Art featuring the Warners as Olympian gods from reboot season 1

#hand drawn- Art that is drawn traditionally on paper in the real world. It is sometimes hard to tell with my untrained eye whether art is digital or hand drawn when the image is zoomed into the paper, so this tag is admittedly not very accurate or thorough.

#hatless wakko- Art that shows Wakko without his hat, even if only briefly

#horror- Art meant to be scary or art containing horror themes

#hug- Art where a character hugs another, can be platonic or romantic

#human- Art that depicts normally non-human characters as humans. Character-specific: #human warners, #human pinky and the brain, #human goodfeathers

#hypoglycemia- Art about hypoglycemia, pretty much all related to Wakko

Tags i-z

3 notes · View notes

badooney7 · 5 months

Text

Media I Consumed in 2023

Everything currently available of:

The Book of Boba Fett

Yellowjackets

Seasons:

The Mandalorian, season 3

Rick and Morty, seasons 1-4

Family Guy, seasons 1-3

Futurama, seasons 1-3

What We Do In the Shadows, seasons 1-3

Miscellaneous episodes:

Betty Boop

Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2023

Movies

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

The Exterminating Angel

Noh Masks: The Spirit of Noh Theatre

History of the World: Part 1

Spaceballs

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Barbie

Theatre

Hadestown

A Great Many Things & The Melting Mind

Funny Girl

Moulin Rouge

Finite Podcasts

Archive 81, season 1

Books

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe (short story)

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (short story)

about half of It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

Audiobooks

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen

Concerts

Cake

The Eagles with Steely Dan

Prerecorded/Streamed Performances

Cabaret

Candlenights 2023

Standup Specials

John Mulaney: Baby J

Jenny Slate: Stage Fright

Music Videos That Were Enough of a Production to Be Worth Mentioning

Broken Peach - The Night of the Halloween Specials

Thriller

Smooth Criminal

#media lists #2023

1 note · View note

cherry-interlude · 3 years

Text

Lana Del Rey Unreleased Ranked (1)

This is a re-ranking of Lana's unreleased songs, after making a first a few years ago. This is all my opinion, which I don't mind anyone disagreeing with but don't come for me for it - honestly, I like every song, despite any criticism, and this ranking is very vague. It's based on objective and subjective opinion.

This is the first of five posts, beginning with my least favourite.

Bentley

Just Lana’s unfinished acoustic, Bentley is strangely haunting. From the eeriness of her isolated vocals, the lack of a finished tune and the suicidal lyrics, this track is something that I don’t find easy to listen to. It’s fascinating and clearly had a direction but it doesn’t come across as anything but music from a horror movie.

Crooked Cop

Another unfinished acoustic track with instrumental thrown in, this song is so incomplete that it’s hard to decipher my feelings for it. Lana has the right kind of panache and aptitude for this track to be good but it’s too much of an unknown.

Daddy’s Girl

It’s simply a demo for Be My Daddy and doesn’t have the pizazz of Pussycat Kittycat (another demo), but of course Lana owns daddy kinks and potentially-incredible rough demos all the same.

Greenwich

A low-key, relaxed track that just sort of exists; it isn’t anything particularly amazing. It’s better as something to shove on in the background than listen to with deliberate consciousness.

Ghetto Baby

Ghetto Baby is a song that was picked up by another artist and it does sound like it isn’t Lana’s. It’s gaudy enough but doesn’t do enough to keep me from skipping, despite the familiar, recycled themes and garish flair.

Live Forever

It just doesn’t strike me in any way. Lana has plenty of pop unreleased songs but this doesn’t compare to a lot of them. The fun clapping beat and the mainstream-feel doesn’t do anything for me, though objectively it is a standard decent track.

Jesus Is My Boyfriend

It’s like a nightmarish, religious tribute to Lana’s saviour – the eerie vocals and lack of music make it uncomfortable to listen to. Lana takes some interesting direction with her repeating lyrics and throwing in how Jesus finds her “smashing” and “comes to her in the night”. Perhaps edging on blasphemous but Lana likes to include her religion her way in several tracks.

Wolf T-Shirt

Lana plays around with this song in its early stages, honouring a man in a wolf t-shirt like an indirect reference to the big bad wolf of her other unreleased song. The track gets better as the chorus hits, a little slice of melodious seduction Lana could turn into a hit.

Midnite Dancer Girlfriend

A very rough demo, Midnite Dancer Girlfriend definitely has promise. Lana’s vocals are captivating, her lyrics – though unfinished – sparkle with vivaciousness as she takes the stripper role on again. Aside from the poor quality, I do get enjoyment out of the pieces of the song in terms of sound and vibe (kind of creepy stripper?).

Betty Boop Boop

Unfinished as it is, it’s incredibly unnerving. The harsh instrumentals following the gentle “boop boop boopy doop”, the weird electronic sounds and Lana’s delicate voice make this a weird mish-mash of sound. The outro of pure sound is brutal but I can’t help humming along and wondering what this song would have been had it been complete.

I Learned How To Make Love From The Movies

Lana’s click-happy acapella demo is a very rough demo for what would surely be a catchy, tongue-in-cheek little song.

My Song 57

Lana has fun on this directionless, incomplete track, her voice high and sugary. A few times her voice takes the kind of schoolgirl, thumb-on-nose showing off which adds to the youthful feel of a lot of her unreleased music.

Scarface

Don’t get me wrong, I love this song – it's a definite guilty pleasure – but it is damn awful. Yes, it’s a very unpolished demo, but it comes across as cringey as much as it’s fun. Lana whispers and growls her insults, pants sensually as if mid gunfight and samples Scarface (the film) multiple times. I enjoy listening to it when I’m in the mood but I can’t help but be amused and intrigued what the song could have been.

Pussycat Kittycat

The mashup of Be My Daddy and Delicious serves as a coy, sugary pop song that works better as the songs it becomes.

Delicious

I still find this song hilarious - years later, Lana’s harsh ”they’re disgusting, I’m delicious”, pouting baby voice and gangsta-girl lingo are overkill in Delicious. It’s something she’s tried before but there’s something about this song that makes me imagine it just must be satire. Of course, I enjoy the song and sing along but it is impossible to take seriously.

Making Out

It isn’t a bad song by any means (though the ultra-autotune version is just confusing) but it just doesn’t feel like Lana. The lyrics certainly match up to her vibe, but it just feels like something from another singer. It’s still a decent song, if not a bit limp compared to the rest of her sparkier efforts.

Daytona Meth

This is a mash-up of plenty of Lana’s fleshed-out tracks, with the feel of Heavy Hitter, references to Every Man Gets His Wish and the instrumental of Party Girl. It’s unfinished, thus a bit messy, and feels like it’s trying to do too much, but as I’ve said plenty of times, even Lana’s ‘worst’ has charms to it.

So Legit

This diss track is not the expected badass rap but instead a gentle and sneering acoustic song, with strange vocals that lift and drag where they please. You can feel the confusion in Lana’s voice, the offence that someone she thought highly of could sell-out and be so poor now in her eyes. It’s catchy and tongue in cheek but not her best in terms of song (though the insults sting).

Baby Blue Love

Unsettling as Lana practically shouts her choruses, Baby Blue Love recalls corrupt youth and choir singers looking for trouble as she riffs on her past as a boarding schoolgirl who liked to run around with guys not good for her (Boarding School and This Is What Makes Us Girls as examples). The whole feel of the song isn’t rollicking fun or nostalgic but instead uneasy, the music beneath sinister. The song isn’t finished but it would be interesting to hear these sorts of lyrics instead paired with a strange instrumental rather than pop fun.

Heart-Shaped Chevrolet

In this demo, Lana lists off her typical Lana-isms (7-Eleven, Jersey Shore, heart-shaped sunglasses) but it isn’t anything different to what we’ve heard before lyrically. With the early On Our Way lyrics thrown in, it’s mainly a song that led to various other tracks with a bit of flair and smirk to her tone.

Match Made In Heaven

Lana feels a world away from her albums in this song, gone more gangta than Nancy Sinatra (from her own self-description). Autotuned and reminding of her tracks like Playground and Delicious, Lana does much better when she isn’t trying so hard to be a bad girl.

Come When You Call Me

A weirdly uncomfortable song, Come When You Call Me has issues with sound (thanks to the lower quality making it far too loud) and the lyrics are barely heard beneath the music. It is a jazzy, bright song that has you bopping but it’s easily lost in the rest of her work and sounds too overproduced. Stripped back is where it might stand a chance being even better.

Methamphetamines

Old Money’s demo, Methamphetamines has the same aesthetically pleasing feel but instead of old, rich Americana, Lana takes us back to the Lizzy Grant days of cheap thrills like pink flamingos and Coney Island. It isn’t as mature as Lana’s later output but it clearly shows how many of her unreleased, incomplete works are a stepping stone to greater things.

Coca Colla

This soft track is essentially a demo to Television Heaven, not too imaginative as it has recycled lyrics but still pretty with some fresh lyrics thrown in. Sweet and perfect to develop a fleshed out song on.

Roll With Me

Literally just a dance track (which, aside from singing “I know, baby” and “on the radio”, is a lyric), Lana has fun with this earworm that was made for moving rather than thinking. It doesn’t do anything special but it’s not too bad for a song that repeats its lyrics throughout.

Joshy and I

Like her other guitar-driven songs, there’s something raw about Joshy and I in that it’s pure Lana in her foundation stages of crafting a song. With a random exclamation of “so pretty!” thrown in, Lana is clearly trying something new in this song. It doesn’t sound like a bad song by any means but it’s too far back in the process of the drawing board to reach higher on the list.

Party Girl

It’s a quick, short track but it puts a fun spin on Us Against The World’s lyrics by making them more upbeat and fun alongside Lana’s near-rap verses. It isn’t complete, still messy and with imperfect backing track, but it’s charming enough.

Bad Boy

Going from a sweet rap to clunkily sampling Clair De Lune, it’s certainly imaginative but doesn’t really work well overall. Lana tries her best to match her chorus to Debussy and ends up with an endearing tribute to bad boys.

You and Me

It has a strange feel that I can never really sit with. You and Me is quite dreamy but quite vapid, not really saying or doing anything as it gently drifts along lightly, no weight to it. With a little bit more to it, it could improve greatly.

Me and My Boyfriend

Lana and The Rich Whores are quite a good combination, Lana getting a bit dirtier and hard-edged in her delivery, yet the lyrics for this song still remain firmly honouring Elvis and Marilyn imitations with not much else to say.

Run Motorcycle

Lana mopes about sobriety and fame, dreaming of escape as she contemplates what she will do if she doesn’t have fun. It’s the bare basics of a song but with the rain in the background (likely accidental but still adding to the feel), Lana lets her emotions guide her like the motorcycle running her thoughts away.

Maha Maha

Lana absolutely seduces with her voice, playing the character of a near-supernatural temptress with a backdrop of, in her words, ‘Bollywood Hawaii’ (the demo name). The choruses are very jarring to the much smoother verses, but this track has a way of hooking me in, from the multi-lingual lyrics to the warning tone of her voice.

#lana del rey #lana del rey songs #lana del rey unreleased #cherry-interlude

23 notes · View notes

allthingsfern · 3 years

Text

Finally took some pictures, as life goes on

On Saturday, 01-16-21, a little after 2:30 pm, I happened to see the title of an article about how US state capitol buildings were being protected by temporary fences and other barriers and by police and military forces in case of armed terrorist attacks by US white supremacist terrorists and other right wing extremists, attacks against US democracy similar to the insurgency at the US Capitol on 01-06-21.

Davis, CA, where I live, is a small, liberal, middle class college town that is about 12 miles from Sacramento, the state capital city of California. The California State Capitol building is about 15 miles from Davis. Every so often I rent a car 9or sometimes take the train) to go and take photos around there, plus there are great restaurants in Sacramento, close to the capitol building, and even Mike’s Camera, where I bought my 2 Sonys and where I buy most of my camera gear, is close to the capitol.

Anyway, I rented a car and drove to the capitol, getting there at around 3:30 pm. It was mostly deserted, except for small groups of soldiers and/or police officers and the usual joggers, tourists taking smartphone photos of the scene and selfies, residents of the area walking their dogs. Oh, and a surprise bunch of folks I will talk about later. And there were police and military vehicles.

The whole scene, for me, was disturbing, because it took me back to post-1959 Havana and the military presence visible throughout because of ongoing contra-Castro sabotage and the fear, starting in mid to late 1960, of a US led invasion. Many regular citizens were often dressed in military uniforms while they did volunteer security checks and stood watch, prepared for any attacks. My dad, who supported the new regime until April 16, 1961, the day Castro declared his nascent administration “comunista y socialista,” coincidentally the day before the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Both my parents supported the Castro government until that day.

I also recall seeing anti-aircraft guns along El Malecon, Havana’s renowned “broad esplanade, roadway, and seawall that stretches for 8 km along the coast in Havana, Cuba, from the mouth of Havana Harbor in Old Havana, along the north side of the Centro Habana neighborhood and the Vedado neighborhood, ending at the mouth of the Almendares River.“ (Source) And after the “French freighter La Coubre exploded in the harbour of Havana, Cuba, on 4 March 1960,” I recall my parents taking us on a small wooden water taxi to see what was left. BTW, the explosion occurred “while it was unloading 76 tons of grenades and munitions. Casualties may have been as high as 100, and many more were injured. Fidel Castro charged it was an act of sabotage on the part of the United States, which denied any involvement.” (Source) 1960 and 1961 was a period of constant fear, every so often hearing explosions at a distance, seeing the armed presence of military alertness, all the while having to hide the fact that my sister and I were leaving the country; my parents and newborn sister were able to get out in 1962. And then, once in the US, there was the 8 months of separation, the total disavowal by our pro-Castro family in Cuba, the fear that my parents and baby sister might not be allowed to leave, and soon after my parents and sister arrived, there came the October Missile Crisis.

On Saturday 01-16-21, all of that kept popping up, physically making me hyper aware, stirring up my little Cuban refugee anxieties and my childhood struggle to make sense out of what made no sense. Yet, that all my past pain and confusion and fear also grounded me in a faith of knowing I was going to be okay, the small groups of soldiers and/or police officers and the usual joggers, tourists taking smartphone photos of the scene and selfies, residents of the area walking their dogs were all going to be okay, the whole thing, the whole country, all of us were going to be okay.

So, I walked around. I asked the first small group of soldiers I saw if it was okay to take pictures of them and the surrounding area and they said it was okay, that I was only the second person to ask, which they appreciated, but most people just took pictures or video of whatever. They were very polite and seemed relieved to have a moment of civil conversation. And yes, I also thanked them for being in the front lines. And I walked around.

I think I got a couple of good photos of people being people, but I was especially blown away by the one group that, I guess, was a big a family, with parents, kids, cousins, aunts, uncles, all dressed in formal wear, posing in front of a young woman, also all dressed up, who was taking their photos with a nice setup that included a tripod. I guess the photos were for a wedding or a quinceañera. They were on the steps of a government building across the street form the capitol building. And what blew my mind was that to their right were 3 soldiers, standing guard, fully armed and ready, while they also watched the photo shoot. See, the capitol and its surrounding gardens and buildings are often used for backdrops for graduation, quinceañera, wedding, and family portraits.

My stormy emotions and painful memories were calmed by that family, by the usual joggers, tourists taking smartphone photos of the scene and selfies, residents of the area walking their dogs, all being people, And yes, by the very polite soldiers. And the beauty of the capitol and its gardens and buildings also soothed my anxiety. All those people in that lovely place reminded that life goes on. See, even during the violence and uncertainty of my childhood, life went on. My parents went to work. I went to school, played games, my family got together, we went to the beach, had fun. I watched One Step Beyond and Flash Gordon and Rosita Fornes and Betty Boop and Perry Mason and Pepe Biondi on our little B&W TV set. While the 1959 Revolution and the contra-Castro aftermath raged on, we went to the movies, had fun.

Life went one.

Really, kinda like now, during the COVID19 pandemic and political and social upheaval.

Life goes on.

24 notes · View notes

atlafan · 4 years

Text

Take it Slow - Part Eighty-Three

a/n: okay this is my first shot at a harry:y/n fic, and it will be multiple parts. y/n had a bad experience with an ex over a year ago, and finally accepts her coworker and good friend Niall’s invitation to go on a blind date with his friend Harry.

Warnings: fluff

Masterpost (all previous parts can be found in the masterpost)

You wake up to Harry’s crushing weight on you. You had no idea how you could have possible ended up like this since you thought you fell asleep on him. Your eyes slowly open, and you’re met with the headache you figured you’d have. You look around and see everyone else still fast asleep. Harry rolls over and you feel the air come back to your lungs. You were cozy and didn’t feel like getting up just yet so you decide to spoon Harry for a bit.

Eventually you all sit up and try to come back to life. Harry sits up and smiles at you.

“Happy birthday, angel.” He says into your ear and kisses your cheek.

Before you can say thank you, Rachel and Sarah dog pile on you and scream happy birthday. You giggle and playfully tell them to get off you.

“We’re gonna make pancakes for breakfast.” Rachel says.

“And mimosas. Need new alcohol to flush out the old.”

“Good idea.” You smile.

They go into the kitchen while the rest of you clean up the living room. You go upstairs just to brush your teeth and wash your face. You didn’t feel like getting dressed yet. Harry did the same. You both plop on the couch while you wait for breakfast to be made. He throws his arm around you and you snuggle in close.

“So, that was your ex at the bar last night?” Harry’s face goes pale.

“Surprised you remember.”

“I was fucked up, but I certainly wouldn’t forget threatening someone.”

“That was pretty cool.” Niall says.

“That was the girl you saw before me though?”

“You make it sound like I was with her and then with you right away. It was like three years ago.” He groans. “I have no idea why she got so mad either.”

Sarah comes over with a plate of pancakes, topped with plenty of butter and a little syrup, just how you like it.

“I’m so spoiled, thank you.”

“You’re the baby of the group, you deserve to be a little spoiled.”

She laughs and sits with Niall with their breakfast. Rachel and Mariah sit down as well. Rachel hands Harry the banana he requested for his own breakfast.

“Seems like it must have been a bad break up if she was so aggravated to be running into you.” Mariah says.

“There wasn’t much to break, honestly.”

“Harry.” You look at him. “You were with that girl for seven months, come on.”

“Wasn’t in love, didn’t see it goin’ in that direction, and she thought it was more than it was. Remember, I told you I ended it when she wanted a key to my place? Didn’t want it with her.” He shrugs and bites into his banana. “Clearly she found someone else, good for her.”

“She said you only liked being called by your name.”

“I did, at the time. Pet names would have just led her on more.” Everyone’s looking at him. “I…was not a very nice person back then, okay? Can we drop it?”

You place a hand on his knee and give him a little squeeze.

“I thought she was going to wet herself when you got in her face.” Rachel laughs. “I love when you get feisty.”

“She was disrespecting my man! What could I do?” You shrug and finish up your pancakes. “That was so yummy, thanks guys.”

“What time do we need to be at the ferry?” Harry asks Sarah.

“In like an hour and a half. It won’t take long to get there, but we should all probably get dressed.”

You all go upstairs to get dressed. Harry watches you take a pair of spandex shorts out, along with a pair of shorts to wear over them, ones you would wear to the gym. You pull out a sports bra, and a tank top you would also wear to the gym. You look up at him.

“We’re gonna be doing a lot of walking, might get sweaty.”

Harry nods, and picks out a pair of shorts a graphic t. You flip your hair over and put it up into a messy bun. Your phone goes off after you get dressed and your face lights up.

“Hello?” You put the phone on speaker so he can hear your Nannie sing happy birthday to you. Your eyes fill with happy tears. You take it off speaker once she’s done. “Thank you.” You giggle.

“How are you, baby?”

“I’m great!”

“What are you up to?”

“I’m at the Cape with all my friends, and Harry. We’re going to the Vineyard in a bit.”

“Oh how nice! Good weather?”

“Mhm, it’s been beautiful all weekend so far. We got lucky.”

“Oh, I’m so glad honey. Well, I’ll let you get back to it. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

“Thanks Nannie, I love you.”

“I love you too, precious.”

You hang up and smile.

“That was really cute.” Harry says.

“She’s done it forever.” He kisses you on to top of your head and you both head downstairs.

You all pile into Sarah’s car, and Niall drives to the ferry. You get on and take pictures with your friends. You all find places to sit, and Harry puts his arm around you. When you get off you walk around for a while. There was a neighborhood with all of these brightly colored homes, and later you come to the house with all of the Betty Boop stuff out front. You and your friends all pose like her and Harry takes your pictures. Him and Niall pose too, causing you all to laugh.

None of you wanted to eat too heavily since you’d be going out to eat later, but you had to stop into the ice cream shop that seemed to have a million flavors. Plus, sitting for a bit didn’t sound like a bad idea. You get cookies and cream in a dish with some whip cream. Harry gets a strawberry cone. You all sit down outside the ice cream shop.

“How about a walk on the beach after?” Mariah asks.

“Great idea.” Niall says. “Work off this heavy ice cream.”

It was super hot out, and all the ice cream was melting quickly. That’s why you opted out of getting a cone. You look over to see Harry trying to lick at his ice cream so it doesn’t make a mess, but a little drips onto his hand. You giggle and lean down to lick it off him. He raises both his eyebrows.

“Should have grabbed more napkins.” You say with a smile. “Thought I’d improvise.”

“Like where your head’s at.” He chuckles.

All of your friends had seen you and Harry interact plenty of times, but never for this long of a stretch. This was almost a trial weekend for Sarah and Rachel. Rachel had told Sarah about the deeper conversation her and Harry had when painting. Sarah knew Harry wanted to marry you. Your friends were very over protective, and this was a great way to just really make sure he was right for you.

Your phone blows up with texts from friends and family wishing you a happy birthday. Sarah and Rachel had posted cute things on Instagram earlier in the day. Even Harry made a post, using some pictures you didn’t even know he had. It made you tear up when you first looked at it.

When you’re all done with your ice cream, you all make your way to the beach. You all carry your shoes so you can walk along the water.

“Sarah, what time do we have to check out tomorrow? Will we be able to go to the beach in the morning?” You ask.

“Yeah! We don’t have to be out until like 1PM, so plenty of time.”

“Perfect! I’d like to get a little more sun in before we have to leave.”

“Agreed.”

You all agree it’s been a great day, but you’re exhausted and wouldn’t mind just chilling out before going out to dinner later, so you make your way back to the ferry. Harry stands off to the side with you as you make your way back to the main land. You have an arm around his waist and he has one around your shoulders.

“Quick get a picture of them.” Rachel says.

Niall takes his phone out and snaps a couple of pictures of you two looking off. Harry tilts your chin up to look at him and he puckers his lips. You smile up at him and kiss him. Niall gets a shot of that too. You all hang out in the living room for a bit, just watching some TV. You were sitting up against the arm rest of the couch with Harry laying at your side, his head in the crook of your neck. Your baby was tired. You stroke your hand through his hair as you hear his soft snores. Sarah takes your picture with him and you giggle quietly.

“So, we’re gonna go to that seafood place you really like, and then we’ll come back here to do cake and gifts and stuff.” Sarah explains to you as she flips through a magazine.

“Sounds good, I hope you guys didn’t go too crazy with gifts, this has been gift enough.”

“No, just some small things like we usually do.” She smiles and looks at Harry. “How can he sleep like that? Niall and I have to sleep butt to butt to be comfortable.” She laughs.

“Hey, you make it sound like we don’t cuddle at all.” He says with a frown, putting a hand on her thigh.

“No! We cuddle all the time, but we never sleep like that.” She points at Harry who is absolutely passed out.

“He’s always been like this.” You look down at him and smile. “Sometimes I wake up and he’s all the way on top of me. If I’m not sleeping next to him, like if he’s napping he sleeps with his arms crossed. I think he likes having something to hold onto.”

“It’s true, if he fell asleep on the couch in school he’d either be cross armed or spooning one of the cushions.” Niall laughs. “When we were campin’-“

“Niall, I swear to god.” Harry groans against your neck.

“Ohhh, I love when there’s something Harry doesn’t wanna share.” Mariah says. “Go on Niall.”

“It was really funny. Harry and Lou had to share a tent because Lou didn’t have one, so-“

“Niall.” Harry turns over onto his back and sits up slightly. “Here I am havin’ a nice nap, and you have to go and bring up campin’?”

“I’m gonna end up embarrassin’ myself just as much.” He laughs.

“Please, I need to hear this.” You say. “What happened?”

“I woke up cuddling Louis both mornings.” Harry says. “And both mornings, Niall came into the tent and joined us, so there.” You and the girls all look at each other with soft faces.

“That is the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.” Sarah says.

“Yeah, we cuddle all the time.” Rachel says. “Nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“You’re such a snugly sleeper Harry, it’s cute.” You poke one of his dimples. “I personally really like it, it makes me feel safe.” He looks up at you and smiles.

Later you all go upstairs and get ready for dinner. You pick out a flowy yellow sundress, and put your hair up into a high pony. You pull some pieces out like always to frame your face, and you put a little makeup on.

“You look so pretty.” Harry practically squeals. You giggle as he kisses your cheek.

You step back to look at him. He has a pair of tan capri-style pants on with a pair of loafers, and a salmon pink silk shirt.

“So do you.” You smile, and grab his hand to go down the stairs.

You all weren’t sure if you’d be drinking a lot, but you’d be drinking nonetheless at dinner, so you uber to the restaurant. You’re seated at a nice size round table when you get there. Harry was off speaking to one of the waiter’s quick, but you didn’t notice. He sits down next to you, and Niall is on your other side.

You all order your drinks and a few apps for the table before deciding on what you actually want.

“What are yeh thinkin’, sweetheart?” Harry asks you.

“I’m dying for a lobster roll to be honest.”

“Then you should have it.” He smiles. “Think I’m gonna get this veggie burger, it’s an avocado aioli, sounds good.”

You pick at the calamari that’s on the table when the waiter comes back over to take your dinner orders. You all talk about how you’re dreading to going back to reality soon.

“This seriously has been the best trip. As much as I miss Buster, it was so nice to get away.”

“You act like you weren’t just in London like three weeks ago.” Rachel laughs.

“Yeah, I suppose that sounded stupid.” You laugh, taking a sip of your drink. “But that wasn’t a beach getaway.”

“Very true.”

“And we only have to go back to reality for like a week and half until we’re off to Ireland.” Niall says, squeezing Sarah’s hand.

“I’m so excited, what a perfect thing to do before school starts back up.”

“God, I’m not looking forward to getting into a hot and stuffy classroom that smells like old paint.” Rachel laughs. “Although, I have missed my students a little.”

“Same, I can’t wait to meet my new kids.”

“My next class starts in September, this’ll be my fourth one. It’s already flying by, thank god.” The waiter brings all the food over and you lick your lips before diving into the lobster. “Mm, oh my god, now I remember why I liked it here so much last time. This is a damn good lobster roll.”

You all enjoy your meals and more drinks. When you think the night couldn’t get better, you start to hear the restaurant’s birthday song, and your mouth falls open. All your friends were filming you and you smile and laugh as you’re sung to by everyone. You had no idea when someone had the time to bring your cake to the restaurant ahead of time, but you didn’t question it. It was beautiful.

“Thank you everyone!”

One of the waiters leaves a knife at the table, and Harry cuts the came for everyone.

“This was all Harry’s idea, but the way.” Sarah says and you smile at him as he takes a bite of cake.

“Thank you sweetie, this was so nice.”

“He had the cake made at this really nice bakery too.” Rachel says.

“It was all the two of you would let me control out of this whole weekend, I had to do something big.”

You all enjoy the cake and pack up the leftovers. You uber back to the house and your friends have you sit on the couch while they all grab their gifts for you.

“You guys really didn’t have to do anything more for me, honestly.”

“Oh stop it.” Rachel hands you a drink and you smile. “Of course we did.”

Sarah hands you her gift first.

“I’ve been working on this for months so I hope you like it.”

You tear open the wrapping paper and gasp when you see the homemade scarf she knitted.

“Oh my god, I love it! This is beautiful! I love the patterns.”

“I know you can’t wear it for a while, obviously, but you wore so many this winter, I thought I could add to your collection.”

“Thank you so much, I can’t wait to…hold on.” You wrap the scarf around your neck. “Well?”

“It’s perfect!” You hug your friend and giggle.

Rachel hands you a big, and you dig into it. You laugh immediately, and pull out the t-shirt she got you.

“You can only wear that for a year.”

It was a white t-shirt with a picture of that episode of Spongebob, and the caption says, “I thought of something better than being 24…25!”

“I got it off Etsy, I just couldn’t resist.”

“I love it! I’m gonna wear it all the time, this is hilarious, Rach.” You slip it on over your dress and scarf. “I’m really feeling this vibe.”

Mariah hands you a card.

“It’s just a gift card…” She blushes.

“Thank you so much!” You open it up and smile at the card. “I’m glad we’ve become such good friends too. Wouldn’t want anyone else as my boyfriend’s work-wife.” You both laugh.

Niall looks at you and hands you his gift. You smile and unwrap it. You had no idea what it could be. You tear open the wrapping paper, the same Sarah used so she must know what he got you. You gasp and look at him in shock.

“You got me a Stranger Things version of monopoly?”

“For the next game night.”

“I love it! Thank you.” You hug him.

“Okay, Harry, your turn.” Sarah says to him and he sits next to you.

“I had a tough time with this. I’ve gotten yeh earrings, a chain, and even that watch.” Your heart starts to race. The only other piece of jewelry he could possibly give you was a ring. Was he going to propose in front of your closest friends? How sweet! “And we already went to the concert, but I still wanted to get you a little something.” He slips a card out from his back pocket and hands it to you. You open it up and see an itinerary for a round trip ticket. You look up at him confused.

“Another trip?”

“Not for you…you were really sad that your Nan couldn’t come up for our house warmin’, even though you had gotten to see her in Aruba…and you always talk about how much you miss havin’ her around for your Jewish holidays, so I’m flyin’ her up for the New Year in September. And she’s goin’ to stay with us so you don’t have to share any of your time with her, cause I know you hate that.”

Tears well up in your eyes, and you start sobbing. You covers your eyes with your hands. Harry isn’t sure what to do, and neither is anyone else.

“That is…” You say in a high pitched voice between your tears. “The sweetest things anyone’s ever done for me.” You lunge on top of him to hug him. He chuckles and rubs your back. “I love you, thank you so much.” You kiss him.

“You’re welcome, happy birthday.”

You look at everyone and wipe your tears away.

“Thank you all so much, this all means so much to me. I’m so lucky to have all of you.” You all share a group hug.

You had thought to use the fire-pit tonight, but it was drizzling outside, so you all opt for getting cozy in pj’s, drinks, and another movie. You went to call your Nannie again to tell her how good she was at being sneaky. You talked with your mom for a few minutes too so she could wish you a happy birthday. Your siblings had all texted you during the day.

You were all hanging out and just being cozy, and you loved it. Sarah had made frozen margaritas, your favorite. You also dove into a much needed second piece of cake.

“So we’ll go to the beach for a bit in the mornin’?” Niall asks.

“Yeah, if it’s not still raining.” Sarah says. “Then we can come back and pack everything up. The kitchen is all cleaned up, and the air bnb people said they would send a service in to clean out the fridge and what not. We don’t even need to make the beds up.”

“Love when they make things so convenient.” Rachel says. “Harry, don’t you use air bnb for your flat in London?”

“Yeah, my sister is the cleanin’ crew though.” He laughs. “We just tell the people to strip the bed and take out all their trash. She’ll do some of the easier things, but will hire a maid if she thinks the mess is too much for her to take care of.”

You all decide to watch I Love You, Man, another one of your favorites, before going to bed. There were a few times you laughed so hard you cried.

“It’s just the way he says Jobin, it kills me.” You wipe some tears away.

“Nice that both of your boyfriends are in this movie together.” Harry jokes.

“I regret ever telling you I liked them.” You shake your head.

“Honestly, as gay as I am, I would fuck Paul Rudd.” Rachel says and you all burst out laughing. “I mean, look at him!”

“That’s what I’m saying! And look at baby Andy, he still had the curls! Oh my god, next movie night we have to watch Hot Rod, please, we have to.”

“Yes! I haven’t watched that in years.” Sarah says.

When the movie ends you all go up to bed. You couldn’t wait to just wrap your arms around Harry. He lays his head on your chest.

“I love you so much, thank you for everything.” You kiss the top of his head.

“I love you too, you’re more than welcome.”

“How did you even pull all that off?”

“Asked your mum for her phone number. It was a bitch gettin’ her to let me buy the plane ticket, she started yellin’ at me, but I yelled back, I stood my ground. She started laughin’ and gave in. She was really excited.”

“It’ll be so great, she and I can make her brisket together. We used to have the New Year at my house growing up, it was so much fun.”

“I’m glad I could do this for you then.”

“My boss is gonna think I don’t like working anymore with how much time off I’ve been taking. I’ll definitely take a few days while Nannie’s here.”

“You won’t need too much, just Friday and Monday.” You hum your response.

Harry had another reason for wanting your grandmother there around that time…but that would be revealed to you later.

#take it slow #harry styles #harry styles fic #harry styles imagine #harry styles x reader #harry styles y/n #harry styles x y/n #harry styles fluff #harry styles fluff fic #harry styles smut #harry styles smut fic #hope you like!

206 notes · View notes

bbi-bbi · 3 years

Text

MAMAMOO reacting to you getting bullied + the type of friend they are!

Hwasa -

��She is definitely more of the confident type, so if she needs something to be done, she’ll do it without question.〇

“Ello, baby bird! What’s happening?” She answered your call eagerly, a smile in her voice. “D-did I interrupt something..?” You answer timidly, being able to feel how tense Hyejin got when you spoke up. You were a normally loud person and would answer with something funny, yet dumb like “Nothing much bitch, just got my belly button pierced with Ms. Shin’s ear” or something of that nature. “Hmm, you didn’t interrupt anything. Well, nothing interesting anyway.. Byul’s being gay, as usual. What’s wrong, hun?” She asked, the protectiveness clear in her voice. “J-Jimin, she..” You trailed off, a hiccuping sniffle erupting out of your throat. “Say no more birdie, I got it covered.” Hyejin said before hanging up. 10 minutes later, you got a notification that *hwasa_mariahmarya* posted something on Mamagram. It was a nude and *Jiminangeloface* was tagged with the caption “don’t come for my friends unless you want someone to come for that stinky ass of yours. love ya.”

Wheein -

〇It goes without saying that Wheein is a crackhead. A beautiful, sweet, crackhead〇

“Yo, who’s crying? Wheein yelled as she walked into the ladies bathroom, sitting on one of the sinks in there. You abruptly tried to stop your wailing, now fully aware someone was in here. “Come on, don’t be shy. I don’t bite unless you’re into that kinda stuff.” Wheein paused, now hearing silence. “Alright, if you don’t come out I will get Mr. Johnson to shart on your face. He’d do it for 20 dollars, a hotdog and some company. So I think it’s best for you to jus-” You barge out of the stall, mascara running, puffy eyes, and a quivering lip. “Y/n, what the fuck? You coulda just said it was you! bythewaymrjohnsonhasdiabetesandhadtotaketherestofthemonthoffsoyeah. Why are you crying? Don’t tell me it was those Betty Boop Beyonce wannabes. Don’t tell me they tried to pick on you. You, my good ma’am, are one of the best people here! Don’t pay them any mind, they don’t deserve it. They’re just mad because their developer didn’t put them in rice yet, it will be okay, sweetheart. Now, let’s skip the next period and go get some mcflurries! You down? Of course you are.”

Moonbyul -

〇She is the biggest girl crush ever. She’d definitely be picking up at least ten numbers just by walking to her mailbox〇

Moonbyul walked into the class, late again as she refused to wear a skirt and had to report to the principal’s office. Update, she still had on pants. She walked to the back to sit by you, sending you a smile and frowning once she seen your head down. ‘Must be a headache’ She thought, rubbing your back, pausing once she felt you taking a shaky breath. She removed her hand and took out her notebook, ripping a small piece of paper and writing “U okay? If not, give me a one word reason why not” on it, passing it over to you. You looked up and rubbed your eyes, huffing quietly and nodding your head over at Jimin’s tablemates and herself, giggling every once in a while and looking back at you. Moonbyul immediately understood, changing her seats to quickly sit by them, in which they squealed and quickly began talking to Moonbyul about irrelevant stuff, which sh shut down. “Yeah, no. I refuse to waste my time with you.. you disgusting irresponsible. You’re wasting Y/n’s time by being assholes. Keep it to yourself.”

Solar -

〇mommy materia- wait no, i mean she is the type to baby her friends, as a mother figure〇

“I hope you reflect on your insolent behavior.”

^^that should be enough

#mamamoo #mamamoo solar #mamamoo moonbyul #mamamoo wheein #mamamoo hwasa #yongsun #moonbyul #wheein #hwasa #ahn hyejin #jung wheein #yi moonbyul #kim yongsun

8 notes · View notes

tailah-haderson-gilbert · 3 years

Text

Short Writing Exercise 1

Hey guys!! My challenge I did inspired me to take a writing class at uni and I don’t regret it at all. I love this class. Anyway this is one of my class writing exercises.

Now I haven’t edited it yet, and I haven’t submitted it either.

Though any feedback would be great. Thanks all!

The small child ran to the first cage, seeing the one she wanted to call her own. The mother hurrying to catch up to her young daughter could only hope this wasn’t going to be difficult. The cage of three pups jumping up matched the girl's excitement, bringing a smile to the mothers face.

The girl had said she wanted a white puppy, so they were on a quest to find a white female pup. And as fate may have it there was a white puppy in this cage, as well as it’s siblings, one brown and one black. So the mother looked closer at the sign on the front of the cage

*Two puppies have been sold. Please speak to the workers for more information*

*2 male, 1 female*

The mother sighed, of course this day couldn’t be easy, what were the chances that the only available dog was the white one and it was female? Her daughter was obsessed with the tiny white pup already, trying to pat it through the cage while it’s siblings pushed the poor thing out of the way.

She could already see the upset look on her daughter's face when they couldn’t have this exact dog, were they even going to get to look around at the other pups at the pound? Who knows how her daughter will be after finding she can’t have the small bundle as her own. This isn’t good, she needs to distract her with more puppies, with ones that will be available and quickly before the attachment grows stronger! The mother reaches out for her small daughter's hand to move her away but the child won’t budge, eyes locked with the white furball.

“Honey..” The mother spoke, softly but with authority

“I think this one already has a home, we need to keep looking” She was waiting for a meltdown from the girl but didn’t get quite what she was expecting

“But mummy this IS Betty, THIS is my doggy” The force and determination in the girl's voice just made this moment that much harder, she had already given her heart to the dog and now she had to rip it away.

“NO!” The young girl started to shake her head rapidly, getting louder this time

“THIS IS BETTY BOOP!!! THIS IS MY DOGGY!! I DON’T WANT ANOTHER ONE I WANT HER!” And she pointed at the white dog just sitting there in the back of the cage as the two others fought. Her small outburst had brought the attention of a worker nearby and she caught the end of her declaration.

“Is it the white one you are looking at?” The young man asked kindly, The mother was going to be hearing about this dog they couldn’t have for days.

“Yes, but it says 2 of them have been sold so I'm assuming that it is one of the sold one?” She could see her daughter shaking her head out of the corner of her eye.

“No ma’am, She is the only one that hasn’t been sold yet, her brothers were snapped up quite quickly. I’m glad she is going to have a home” He turned to the girl as he said the last part and somehow her smile got even bigger.

“See mumma, I told you that that is Betty” she sternly told her mother as she pulled on her coat jaket.

“Already have a name huh? Well it suits her perfectly”

“Yes we came here with a purpose. My daughter wanted a white dog like the character Betty Boop, So you can assume what her name is” The mother laughed along with the worker as her daughter tried to play with her pup through its brothers.

Great. They now own a puppy.

This is based on a real memory of how I got my precious pup a little over 14 years ago. (I got her as an early Christmas present when I was 5 1/2, She lived till almost 14. My sweet angel Betty) So could y’all be nice please if it’s about her, you can destroy my writing, that I don’t mind, just not my baby.

#memory #dog #puppy #writing exercise #uni work

4 notes · View notes

chiseler · 3 years

Text

Ginger Rogers: Curse of the Working Class

A natural-born mimic, ham, tease, hard worker, stoic follower and out-of-reach babe, Ginger Rogers has proven one of the most difficult to define of all the 1930s Hollywood stars. At her best she was a synonym for fun and high spirits while also conveying a dignified and skeptical kind of resistance to other people, and these contradictory impulses made her one of the most special and ambiguous performers of her time. Rogers excelled in her first seven musicals with Fred Astaire and in several of her comedy vehicles and even in some of the programmers she churned out in the early 1930s. She was beloved, and rightly so.

In Stage Door (1937), Rogers gives one of the most distinctive, most suggestive, and most perfectly judged performances of the period, molding every one of her bone-dry, wisecracking line readings (and what lines she has in that movie!) into something pleasurable, something unexpected, even something profound, delivering them all with her guarded, in-transit sort of face.

I’ve seen Stage Door probably more times than I’ve seen any other movie, but I always notice something new in it, some new line, some new angle. As a kid, I didn’t really understand the source of Rogers’s misgivings here, which is the same source that animates her outrageously and inventively bitchy yet somehow tender and worldly fights with Linda (Gail Patrick), her high-falutin’ former roommate. Linda is the mistress of Anthony Powell (Adolphe Menjou), a powerful Broadway producer. When Powell sees Rogers’s Jean Maitland rehearsing a dance routine, his little weasel eyes light up with lust. He thinks she’s just playing hard to get when she makes her habitual mordant jokes at him, but she is really just trying to delay the inevitable. She wants no part of sleeping with a man for his money not because she thinks it’s morally wrong, per se, but because she’s basically too tired-out to go through those motions.

Jean is so disenchanted that the disenchantment seems to be leading her to some kind of drastic change. She talks herself into going out with Powell but gets out of sleeping with him by getting, or pretending to get, disruptively yet vaguely drunk. Jean gets drunk the way she does everything else, at some very unusual kind of steady and wary behavioral half-mast. She cracks wise as a matter of course, but she sleeps with a doll and she plays a ukulele. These cute details don’t seem to fit her character, but they do express the divided character of the woman who was playing her.

Jean stumbles home from Powell’s penthouse to her new roommate Terry (Katharine Hepburn), a rich girl with airily la-di-da attitudes about life and the theater. Hepburn had not endeared herself to Rogers with her much-repeated remark about Rogers’s partnership with Astaire: “He gives her class and she gives him sex.” The competitive rivalry between Hepburn’s upper-class pretension and Rogers’s low-burning common sense is the heart of their conflict in Stage Door, and this conflict and mutual dislike reads as pure chemistry on screen, just as it did for Rogers with Astaire.

There is such chemistry between Jean and Terry that Stage Door has always been a kind of closeted lesbian classic just waiting to burst into full-on Sapphic love. Terry has no love interest and shows zero interest in acquiring one, while Jean looks more than ready to give up on poor, unreliable young men and rich, sexually demanding older men like Powell. Jean and Terry, in fact, are perfect for each other and wind up with each other, and in the last scene Rogers reaches a kind of epiphany as she reacts to their friend Judy (Lucille Ball) leaving New York to get married. “At least she’ll have a couple of kids to keep her company in her old age, and what’ll we have?” she asks. “Some broken-down memories and an old scrapbook that nobody’ll look at.”

I first saw Stage Door when I was eight years old. Now that I’m well into adulthood, these last few lines that Rogers tosses off with such face-the-facts casualness have the force of revelation, as if she has finally washed up on the shores of some final philosophy. They predict the real lives of both Hepburn and Rogers (though some people still do want to leaf through those particular scrapbooks) and Terry and Jean, and everybody else for whom the easy way and the conventional way of living will never fit or will never be acceptable.

Rogers was capable of that tough-minded and frank and bleak attitude on screen, but in life and in general she was actually, and alarmingly, one of the most clueless of stars, never quite knowing what it was that people liked about her. Starting as early 1938, the year she made Vivacious Lady and Carefree, something peculiar started to happen to Rogers. After years of the most unlikely and enormous success in her Astaire films, where she was up to any dance challenge he gave her and where her timing in both musical and comic and dramatic scenes was magically sharp, her timing started to go horribly awry. Rogers began to be afflicted by self-consciousness, miscalculation, cutesiness, self-infatuated archness and flashes of deep-rooted mean-mindedness. She slipped back into her best controlled star mode in several films after that year, but she started to deteriorate more and more by the mid-1940s, almost as if someone had put a curse on her.

Rogers was born Virginia McMath in Independence, Missouri in 1911. Her formidable mother Lela Rogers was a writer for silent films and a journalist, and she was seemingly joined at the hip to her daughter. It was Rogers who wanted a career as an actress, and Lela resisted this at first, but when Ginger won a Charleston contest Mama Lela knew which way the wind was blowing. She poured all of her own considerable energy and ambition into making Ginger a star and keeping her one (that first name supposedly came about because a cousin couldn’t pronounce the name Virginia).

At the height of her stardom, when Rogers was sent the script of The Hard Way (1943), she wonderingly said, “This is the story of my life,” and turned it down. In that movie, Ida Lupino works like a demon to get her malleable kid sister (Joan Leslie) into show business, and the comparison is not flattering to Lela, who made a fool of herself testifying before HUAC as an expert on Communist infiltration of Hollywood, citing particularly the time when Rogers had to say Dalton Trumbo’s line, “Share and share alike, that’s democracy” in Tender Comrade (1943). Lela herself actually turns up playing Ginger’s mother in Billy Wilder’s The Major and the Minor (1942), and she’s a rather low-key presence, but she talks and moves like a woman who has power and feels no need to make any outward show of it.

In that Wilder movie, Rogers spends most of her time pretending to be a twelve-year old, and this uneasy reversion to little-girlhood was one of her most troubling fallback modes. She had made her first successes on stage with “baby talk monologues” written by Lela, and her early style, as seen in films like Young Man of Manhattan (1930) and Honor Among Lovers (1931), was very much a hold-over from the 1920s, a Betty Boop baby vamp persona that was more suited to cameo roles than to leads (Claudette Colbert, the star of Young Man of Manhattan, gently mocks these baby affectations after meeting Rogers’s character).

She churned out lots of low-budget programmers in 1932, and in 1933 she made ten films. In two of those, 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933, Rogers nearly steals the show in fairly small parts. As Anytime Annie, a notoriously obliging chorus girl in 42nd Street, Rogers is first seen wearing a monocle and affecting a grand manner accent, and this was the first sign of her aptitude for two-faced disguise. As Manuel Puig once said of Ann-Margret, Rogers is anything but reassuring.

She’s close to surreal in her gold-coin outfit singing “We’re in the Money” with pig Latin verse in Gold Diggers of 1933, looking directly into the camera and not flinching as it travels all the way up to her face. Rogers gobbled up attention like that, and she had what it took, but she needed something or someone to stabilize her. When she strips down to her slip and stockings and gyrates in Professional Sweetheart (1933), an outraged Norman Foster spanks and then punches her, the first in an increasingly ominous series of punishments that would shadow her later career.

In the very horny Pre-Code musical Flying Down to Rio (1933), her first film with Astaire, Rogers is a hot mama, singing and swaying to “Music Makes Me” in a vagina power dress that even Marilyn Monroe might have rejected as too overt. When they dance “The Carioca,” Astaire starts out holding his head slightly away from Rogers, as if she might be diseased, but by the end their electric chemistry has fully kicked in.

Astaire had spent his youth dancing with his sister Adele and didn’t want to get stuck with another steady partner. Rogers had her eye on dramatic parts, announcing to an incredulous press that she wanted to play Joan of Arc. She was an ambitious and competitive person, and she knew that she was not even close to Astaire’s Olympian league as a dancer. But that’s part of the magic of their series of films, in which Rogers improves as a dancer bit by bit until she is fully capable of following his every step.

Astaire objected that no one would believe Rogers as an English girl in The Gay Divorcee (1934), and surely no one could mistake her for English, but this part gave her the reserve that she intriguingly used and toyed with for her best years as a star. Like most first sexual experiences between two people, their first real romantic dance together in that film, “Night and Day,” is both exciting and a little awkward. In their follow-up Roberta (1935), Rogers looks tense during their slow “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” routine, but she comes wonderfully alive when they casually tap to “Hard to Handle,” their first really great dance together.

She was always at her best in the lively comic numbers, where her wacky energy seems to warm Astaire, but she worked hard at the dramatic routines, so that when they do “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” in Follow the Fleet (1936), Rogers has somehow ascended up to Astaire’s level as a dancer. It must have taken nearly super-human will, but she did it, and audiences saw and felt her progress, and they loved it because it meant that anything was possible if you worked hard enough, even dancing like or with Fred Astaire.

Astaire didn’t like her feather dress for the “Cheek to Cheek” dance in Top Hat (1935), and you can see why he didn’t: it’s a little tacky. Costumer Walter Plunkett said Rogers always wanted to “add a crepe paper orchid or a string of beads or some goddamned feathered thing. She just never could resist little improvements.” But her feather dress in Top Hat does move beautifully when she dances, even if we do see some of the feathers floating away from them, as if she’s molting.

A more characteristic and winning image of her comes in the way she hikes up her skirt in the “Pick Yourself Up” number in Swing Time, which has a deeply charming kind of put-on nonchalance, or in the soldier-like way she executes a series of brutally exacting turns at the end of the “Never Gonna Dance” finale toward the end of that movie (while she shot this scene, her feet started to bleed in her shoes). One of the real pleasures of American moviegoing is watching Rogers as Astaire sings a love song to her: she would listen so intently, with barely any change of expression, but with such sensitive receptivity behind her eyes and in the set of her mouth.

People like to wonder if Astaire and Rogers hated each other. Maybe there were moments when they did, but mainly they just resented being tied together as a team, and those misgivings are part of what give their partnership and their best dances such impact, such crackle. Rogers reported in her autobiography that Astaire had taken her out on dates in New York when they were both working in theater, and at the end of one such date he gave her “a kiss that would never have passed the Hays Office Code!” But when they worked together in films, Astaire was married to a woman he adored, and he was a distant taskmaster in the killer rehearsal sessions for their dance routines. His friends, cultivated when he played on stage in London in the 1920s, were the English gentry. Rogers was not his cup of tea, and he made that known to her in subtle ways. She said either, and he said eye-ther, and they wanted to call the whole thing off, but no one else ever did.

In the many years after their partnership ended, they were still stuck with each other, and they both still resented that. Rogers would sometimes make friendly overtures to Astaire, and he would politely but firmly put her off, and this led to hurt feelings for her, so much so that she didn’t even go to his American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony. Film scholar Joseph McBride helped to put together that evening, and when I asked him about it, he remembered Astaire saying, “I suppose we’ll have to have Ginger,” in an irritated voice. When she didn’t come to the ceremony, it seemed like sour grapes on her part, but it had been made clear to Rogers that Astaire only wanted the bare minimum to do with her, and so she withdrew. It would do well to remember, of course, just how obnoxious Rogers could be. If you want to feel the full force of that, just look at any number of the films she made from 1944 to 1964 and you’ll see one garishly misplayed, mistimed performance after another, including the last one she did with Astaire, The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), where her dramatic aspirations were mocked and then the mockery was unintentionally confirmed when she did a goggle-eyed recreation of Sarah Bernhardt reciting the Marseillaise.

So what happened to Rogers? Why did she lose all of the qualities that had made her a star right after her stardom was confirmed? Many writers have tried to explain it. Analyzing Astaire and Rogers in The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book (1972), Arlene Croce says, “She’s an American classic, just as he is: common clay that we prize above exotic marble. The difference between them is that he knew it and she didn’t. Rogers always wanted to be something more. Probably no other major star has so severely tried the loyalty of her public by constantly changing her appearance and her style.” In his book Romantic Comedy (1987), James Harvey writes, “Can there be any other major star who was so variable, even from film to film, as she was?”

Harvey blames George Stevens, who directed maybe the finest Astaire/Rogers film, Swing Time (1936). He sees a softening of her character in the straight scenes in Swing Time, but the rot really sets in with Vivacious Lady, a romantic comedy that has all the elements for success but perversely ruins them with its taffy-pull pacing, its willful lack of coordination, its leaning on jags and cutesiness and bizarre sequences like the fight scene between Rogers and a rival that devolves into a series of unmoving tableaus broken only by a coy laugh from Rogers, as if Stevens wanted to turn her into Frank McHugh. In the same year, in Carefree with Astaire, Rogers exhibits such unpleasant sadism when her character is under hypnosis that it feels like a revelation of some inner nastiness that had always been prudently hidden from view.

The damage was reversed in Bachelor Mother (1939), a working girl comedy that has no right to be as charming as it is, where Rogers added a kind of moony dreaminess to her repertoire of personas. She then made two films for Stage Door director Gregory La Cava, 5th Avenue Girl (1939) and Primrose Path (1940). In her second La Cava film, Rogers is so deadpan that it reads as a lack of basic vitality, a first in her career; it’s as if La Cava is unearthing the suicidal or even homicidal side of Jean Maitland. “People annoy me,” she says in that movie, and boy does she mean it. In Stage Door, when Powell tells Jean he wants to put her name in big electric lights, she says, “Gotta be big enough to keep people away.” La Cava is the director who understood Rogers the most, discerning something anti-social and solitary behind her sunny audience-pleasing looks and manner. In Primrose Path, he cast her as a teenager who breaks away from her family before she joins their prostitution racket, and her work in that movie is stark, clean, unsentimental.

Rogers won an Oscar for Kitty Foyle (1940), and many have dated her decline from that point, even if she is modestly touching in what is a modest working girl soap opera. She was close to unbearable in Tom, Dick and Harry (1941), where director Garson Kanin seems to dote on every moment of her self-indulgent performance as a dumb and narcissistic telephone operator who must choose between three suitors. Something about playing dumb here makes Rogers’s style seem laborious and throws her timing all out of whack, yet the following year, in Roxie Hart (1942), she certainly gets her laughs with her broad playing of a very dumb murderess who lives for publicity and likes to do the Black Bottom for reporters. In her segment in Tales of Manhattan (1942), you want to say to her, “OK, you can have all that hair on the top of your head or you can have all that hair fanning over your back, but you can’t have both, Ginger.”

Leo McCarey’s Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) did her no favors, but most writers agree that the real coup de grâce in her career was Lady in the Dark (1944), a Technicolor movie of the psychoanalytical stage musical that had starred Gertrude Lawrence. Rogers insisted on playing it, and she was at loggerheads with director Mitchell Leisen and Paramount studio chief Buddy DeSylva, who vengefully cut most of the Kurt Weill songs from the film. All in all, the mercifully little-seen Lady in the Dark looks now almost as if it had been made in a spirit of deliberate sabotage. It is has to be the most nastily misogynist of any major studio production of this time, constantly hammering home the idea that Rogers’s Liza Elliott is an unnatural woman unhealthily attached to her work, and her leading man Ray Milland warrants particular scorn here for the gleefulness he brings to the scenes where he humiliates Rogers’s character. In the one extended musical number Rogers has, “The Saga of Jenny,” she doesn’t seem to have been given any choreography or direction and she can barely move in the outfit Leisen designed for her. “After Lady in the Dark there was nothing left of the Rogers character,” wrote Croce. “She died on the analyst’s couch.”

Rogers’s career proceeded only through sheer determination on her part (and on Lela’s part). She floundered in an updated remake of Grand Hotel (1932) called Week-end at the Waldorf (1945), and the next twenty years of her career were a real trial for her fans from the 1930s. Howard Hawks’s Monkey Business (1952) was supposed to be about scientist Cary Grant reverting to childhood when he drinks an elixir of youth, but Rogers insisted that she “wanted to do the kid thing too,” and so she ripped into scene after scene of coarse-grained youthful impersonation, the wise child of her early ‘30s character bearing rotten and poisonously un-watchable fruit. Cast as a hardened gangster’s moll in Phil Karlson’s Tight Spot (1955), Rogers is so heavy-handed and slow and cutesey with her dialogue that the effect is ghastly. If I were to make a simple diagnosis of her problems in the last half of her film career, I’d say that she caught a bad case of George Stevens-itis and never got over it (she had an affair with the married director during Vivacious Lady, which had Lela up in arms).

When she worked with a fine and sensitive director, as she did with Frank Borzage for Magnificent Doll (1946) and with Edmund Goulding for Teenage Rebel (1956), Rogers was still capable of restrained and acceptable if somewhat colorless work. But hateful things kept happening to her. In something like Storm Warning (1951), where she does battle with the Ku Klux Klan while also doing a transposed version of A Streetcar Named Desire, it seemed as if someone behind the scenes wanted to see Rogers punished. When Steve Cochran attacks her in Storm Warning, the scene is so prolonged that finally it is Rogers being humiliated and hurt, not the character she is playing.

Rogers went through five husbands, including the pacifistic and beautiful Lew Ayres, and most of them lasted for a couple of years, but Lela was her real partner for life. The last husband, William Marshall, got her to play a madam in a dire film shot in Jamaica, variously known as The Confession and Quick, Let’s Get Married (1964), and after that low point she made only Harlow (1965), where she was intriguingly cast as Jean Harlow’s mother, before retaining her star status in long-running stage stints in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway and Mame in London. After that came a little TV and nightclub work, where she ended most of her songs with a corny wink to the audience. A Christian Scientist like her beloved or at least inescapable mother, Rogers refused medical treatment after having a stroke, and she was ill for several years before dying in 1995.

The last forty-five or so years of Rogers’s long career basically ran on fumes of good will from her first twelve years in movies, and particularly those Fred Astaire musicals that she preferred to forget. Like many actors, Rogers had no real center or base that was really her, and this lack of center meant that she was able to in effect be something she wasn’t with Astaire, and transcendently so, but it also meant that bad habits and instincts were ready to rush in and overwhelm her when her guard was down.

“May I rescue you?” Astaire asks her in Top Hat, to which she snaps, “No, I prefer being in distress.” The Astaire/Rogers films are so romantic because part of her resistance is that she is suspicious of romance, and maybe she doesn’t believe in it at all. That lack of belief was what made her so sexy beyond her God-given but worked-on perfect figure (“Women weren’t born with silk stockings on, you know,” she says in Follow the Fleet). Look at how cool and unreachable she is when Fred is singing his heart out to her during “Never Gonna Dance” in Swing Time. She preached that God is Love and soda fountains were forever, but in her best work with Astaire and in Stage Door, she let darker and more movingly yearning things cloud her almost cartoonishly pretty brow, and those things are what should define her and what should be remembered.

by Dan Callahan

#Dan Callahan #The Chiseler #Ginger Rogers

6 notes · View notes